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‘Now is the time to get it’: History of the Catholic Church in Meridian, Idaho
Left: Richard Nourse sits with his mother, Rosalie, on the day of his first communion. Rosalie was the driving force behind construction of a new Catholic Church in Meridian. Right: Richard stands in front of his father’s auto parts delivery truck in Meridian. (Courtesy photos)
By Philip Janquart
ICR Editor
Richard “Dick” Nourse’s long-term memory is sharp.
Just days before his 99th birthday, he sat sifting through old records, ledgers and photographs, a collection of documents and images he keeps in a scrapbook. He paused, smiled and gently ran a forefinger across a black-and-white photograph of one of his elementary school classes, putting names to faces of people he’d known nearly nine decades earlier.
The Idaho Catholic Register recently visited Dick at the Idaho State Veterans Home in north Boise, eager to hear his story about the first Catholic church in Meridian.
“My family was there before the Catholic church was built,” he told the ICR. “In 1945, there wasn’t one.”
But in those days, there wasn’t a whole lot of anything in Meridian.
Though a small farming town, Meridian was nonetheless a growing community.
According to the U.S. Census Bureau, Meridian had 1,465 residents in 1940; an estimated 1,638 in 1945; and 1,810 in 1950, showing steady growth. The Community Planning Association of Southwest Idaho puts the current population at over 152,000, almost 95 times what it was 81 years ago.
Dick’s family had deep roots in Meridian. His father and grandfather owned farms and service stations around town, and the family once owned much of what is now downtown Meridian, according to a 2023 parishioner profile written by Megan Humkey.
For Catholics, however, one important thing was missing: a church.
In the early 1940s, families generally traveled to another community for Mass; many, according to Dick, drove to Eagle to attend Mass at St. Mary’s Catholic Mission, later renamed St. Matthew’s.
Dick remembers making that trip for his First Communion.
“Mother decided that I should make my First Communion and so they had a little Catholic church halfway up a hill in Eagle,” he recalled.
His older brother Walter drove the family car. Dick still has a photograph from that day, taken in front of his father’s repair shop.
His mother, Rosalie Nourse, believed Meridian’s Catholic families needed their own church. She decided to do something about it and set the wheels in motion.
Calling on people
In 1941, Rosalie and another Catholic woman, whom Dick calls Mrs. Chamberlain, approached Bishop Edward Kelly with a petition signed by 42 Catholic families.
The bishop indicated that construction could move forward if at least 30 Catholic families committed financial support.
The two women went to work, visiting homes and asking residents to contribute.
“I was very busy calling on people to see if they would be willing to have a church out here,” Rosalie wrote to her son Frank, who was serving in the military.
Her letter provides a glimpse at the challenges Rosalie and Mrs. Chamberlain faced.
“We have found out that there are about 45 families who are Catholics,” she wrote. “We have been promised two thousand dollars as a donation if we can raise one thousand, and so we are working very hard.”
Progress was slow, but encouraging.
“So far, we have $315.00 and many more to see yet,” she wrote.
The women also visited non-Catholics, many of whom contributed to the cause.
“Quite a few Protestants have given too,” Rosalie continued in her letter.
She named several contributors, including a woman from the tiny community of Ustick—once located along Ustick Road in Boise—whose two sons were serving in the Army.
Rosalie also encouraged Frank to help.
“Eddie sent me five dollars, and I wish you would also send five,” she urged.
Dick said some people were less than enthusiastic about the campaign and slammed their doors in the women’s faces. Still, Rosalie and Mrs. Chamberlain pressed on, keeping careful records of the money collected. Dick has the original ledger, which lists the families and other residents who helped make the church possible.
‘Now is the time to get it’
Rosalie’s determination went beyond her mission to see the church built; she saw a need to help protect the spiritual welfare of Meridian’s Catholic children.
“There are many Catholic children going to the Methodist and Mormon Church, that should be going to our church if we had one,” she said, adding that the opportunity could be lost if not acted upon. “Now is the time to get it, or we may never.”
Meanwhile, efforts were underway to make Mass available locally. Father J.J. Creegan of St. Mary’s in Eagle initially ministered to Meridian Catholics. By 1944, St. John’s Cathedral in Boise cared for the community’s 32 registered Catholic families.
On New Year’s Day 1945, Father Rowe announced that Mass could be celebrated in Meridian twice a month, provided Catholics could find a suitable place. So, they rented the American Legion Hall.
They celebrated the first Mass on Jan. 14, 1945, with about 60 people attending. Families took turns covering the $3.75 rental fee.
According to a historical account compiled from Rosalie Nourse McNeff’s — that’s the surname of the man she married after her first husband died —notes, 14 women met at her home shortly afterward to create the Meridian Altar Society. Rosalie became president, Anna Dunten was elected vice president and Geraldine Wolfe became secretary-treasurer.
Their work became an important part of the church-building campaign. They held card parties, bingo games, cakewalks, raffles and bazaars, with proceeds going toward construction. By the end of 1945, the women had raised $1,037.63. Local businesses also contributed.
The congregation faced an unexpected problem when a fire damaged the Legion Hall. Rather than discontinue Mass, parishioners gathered at Henry and Katherine Tombrink’s home. Father Urban Schmidt celebrated Mass for the community during those early years.
Religious education was also taking shape. In June 1945, 16 children received their First Communion, and the community recorded its first baptisms that August.
A church of their own
In February 1946, after years of planning and fundraising, construction finally began, with Catholic families eagerly observing the progress made week after week.
The building, located on First Street, was named St. Frances Xavier Cabrini Catholic Mission Church.
On July 7, 1946, the same day Mother Frances Xavier Cabrini was canonized, Father Schmidt blessed the new church and celebrated its first Mass.
Bishop Kelly formally dedicated the building on Dec. 8, the feast of the Immaculate Conception. Father Nicholas Hughes celebrated Mass.
“It was a little church,” Dick recalled. The congregation worked hard to build it, and parishioners kept donating what they could to furnish it.
Among the contributions were a statue of the Sacred Heart, a crucifix, candleholders and an organ.
Rosalie recalled the church’s first Christmas in her historical notes.
“Father Rowe bought us twenty figurines for our Christmas crib and Father Hughes made the stable.”
Even after construction was completed, the women continued raising money to pay off the debt.
One fundraiser involved a cedar chest purchased by the Altar Society, which they displayed at businesses in Boise and Meridian. Raffle tickets brought in $825.
Another event featured turkeys, chickens and an eight-layer cake offered as prizes.
“We cleared $256 on the party and gave Father Rowe $1,000 to pay on the debt,” Rosalie wrote.
Dick also found himself serving the church in an unexpected way.
According to Humkey’s profile, Dick collected antiques throughout his life, including more than 3,000 Nativity sets and several pump organs.
One of them was the organ he taught himself to play after the church organist resigned. He kept playing and eventually became the official church organist.
“I started out using my two fingers, but I learned,” he said.
Dick graduated from Meridian High School and served in the U.S. Air Force during World War II. He attended Mount Angel Seminary for a time and later worked as a caseworker for the Department of Public Assistance. He also worked for Idaho Fish & Game.
His faith was crucial when his mother became ill. Dick took more than a year away from his job at Fish & Game to care for her, but in the end he never went back. He believes she experienced a heavenly vision shortly before her death.
“I wasn’t holy enough to see whatever she was seeing,” he told Humkey.
From mission to parish
Meridian continued growing, and its Catholic community eventually outgrew the church on First Street.
In 1963, the parish purchased property along Cherry Lane for a larger church.
The mission community became an independent parish in 1966, and construction of a new church and classrooms was completed in 1973.
The congregation celebrated its final Mass at St. Frances Cabrini on Thanksgiving Day 1973. According to Rosalie’s historical account, Father Thomas Halpin asked Margaret Kauphusman, one of the original Altar Society members, to extinguish the altar candles following the Mass. It marked the end of one chapter and the beginning of another.
The parish became Holy Spirit Catholic Church in 1974.
In 1998, Holy Spirit in Meridian and St. Matthew’s in Eagle merged together as Holy Apostles.
The first Mass at the new Holy Apostles Catholic Church, 6300 N. Meridian Rd., was celebrated at the Easter Vigil in 2001. Bishop Michael P. Driscoll dedicated the church on June 6 that year.
For Dick, Meridian’s Catholic community history is also his family’s history.
He has preserved his mother’s letters, the original fundraising ledger and photographs of the people who helped establish the first church.
“History has to be resurrected,” he said.
Today, family members help Dick attend Mass each week at Holy Apostles, the parish community he has attended his entire life.
Eight decades later, Rosalie’s little boy Richard still combs through his letters and photos, proud of what his mother helped accomplish.
He keeps one of those letters close, words that show his mother’s determination.
“Our Lord will bless all those that help to make a place to worship him,” she wrote. “Now is the time to get it, or we may never.”
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