ST. ANDREW (1918)

John Wray, a foreman on the nearby I.P. Olive ranch, gave his name to the town platted in 1886. As the seat of Yuma County, Wray has become a high plains hub noted for its cattle ranches, wheat farms, and prairie chicken preserves.

James J. Hickey, pastor at St. Augustine's in Brighton, rode the Burlington railroad to Wray for the first Catholic service. The Wray Public School, the nearby Eckley section house, and the residences of Andrew Hoy and Edward O'Donnell were used as mission stops.

The Lincoln Land Company, which developed many eastern Colorado railroad towns, donated a church site on the east side of Wray at the base of Flirtation Point. Hoy, a prominent town banker, started a building fund, promising to double the contribution of the next highest contributor. In his honor, the church was named for his patron saint. A carpenter-contractor named Moohat donated his labor in designing and building the twenty-four-by-twenty-four-foot frame church dedicated in 1891 by Bishop Matz.

A small rectory was completed in 1892 for Francis X. Schrafel, the first resident pastor. A year later, he was followed by John Brinker, who guided the small Wray congregation, as well as many outlying mission stations, through the drought and depression of the 1890s. During these crises, Wray once again became a mission, attended from Brighton, Fort Morgan, or Akron. A twelve-by-twenty-four-foot sacristy was added to the church in 1914 during a $410 remodeling, which included replacing the old coal stove with a basement furnace. During the 1926-1932 resident pastorate of James T. Cotter, the congregation spent approximately $6,500 on expanding and enhancing the church. The little stick cross on front was replaced by a bell tower and the frame altar by a fine marble one.

The next pastor, Joseph A. Korb, stayed in Wray as its priest for thirty-seven years. When a fire destroyed the 1891 church, Father Korb moved his flock into a new church at the corner of Dexter and West 5th. Dedicated on October 12, 1939, by Bishop Vehr, the new structure was stuccoed cinderblock with a red tile roof, attractively trimmed in Spanish-southwestern style.

Father Korb retired in 1969, after celebrating the golden jubilee of his priesthood, but continued to make his home in Wray as pastor emeritus until his death in 1976. John Barone, pastor from 1981 to 1986, impressed parishioners with his loving attention to the elderly, to shut-ins and to children, all of whom he seemed to know by name. Father Barone also reroofed and repainted the church, mowed the large lawn, and minded the landscaping. St. Andrew's, blessed with caring pastors and a vigilant congregation that had grown to 110 families by the 1980s, has not only survived, but thrived.