CHRIST THE KING (1933)

The Burlington railroad platted Haxtun in 1888 but not until 1907 was Mass offered in the Odd Fellows Hall by Bernard J. Froegel, pastor of St. Augustine's in Brighton and caretaker of the Phillips County missions.

In 1933, Arthur R. Kerr, pastor at Holyoke, and the fourteen Catholic households in Haxtun procured the M.H. Keating home and converted it to a church, which was dedicated to Christ the King on November 27. Pews were installed and frosted windows added.

All the while they used this little frame house, Haxtun Catholics were saving and praying for a formal church structure. For these early-day faithful, some of whom lived in sod houses while scratching a living from the dry prairie, the dream finally came true in 1949. That year, they paid $5,000 for the Lutheran Church built in the 1920s and subsequently used as a Masonic Lodge. After selling the old church for $1,000, parishioners installed $1,400 worth of furnishings in their new home. By 1952, the little parish had grown to thirty families, and the church was enlarged. At the same time, a basement parish hall was dug out. Parishioners donated much of the labor to keep the expansion expenses to $11,000. On October 8, 1952, Archbishop Vehr presided over the dedication of the rebuilt church.

Ongoing improvements included the 1963 purchase of a new electric organ and the 1985 remodeling of the basement hall during the pastorate of Terrance T. Kissel, when the upper floor was completely renovated, with improvements including cry and reconciliation rooms and a Eucharistic chapel.

"Everything was either painted, cleaned, or completely torn out and remodeled," parishioner Trilla Bornhoff noted, pointing out that the church received a new entrance and oak paneled walls. Two stained glass windows made by a local artist, Jessie Scott, highlight the oak altar and crucifix that were made by Larry Schaefer, the contractor for the remodeling project. In 1988, another of Scott's stained glass windows was installed to depict the parish's patron, Jesus Christ the King.

Gerald A. Young, pastor since 1987, wrote in 1989 of Christ the King:

Always known as a church of loving, caring and close knit families, it remains so today. Only thru much donated labor, materials and energy and many helping hands did the new church become a reality. The pride of a job well done shines thru each parish family.