In the mid 1800’s there were few settlers in the Richmond, Michigan area and there were no Catholic Churches.  What few Catholic folks that lived here were attended to in spiritual matters by the priests that resided in St. Clair, New Baltimore or Mt. Clemens.  Because of the distances to these towns and the time it would take for the priest to travel out to the “wilderness”, the people in this area did not have the opportunity to see a priest very often.  The rare visit of a priest could not be announced because in that day there was no way practical to do that, the priest would just show up and  celebrate Mass.  Whoever happened to be present would receive the Eucharist.  Because of this there were many Catholics that seldom (if ever) had the chance to see a priest. 

        By the early 1870's what would eventually become the St. Augustine parish was ministered to by three missionaries in Macomb County; Lawrence Kilroy, Aloysius Lambert, and Benedict Gery, without whom there would have been no way for these early settlers to have deepened their faith or celebrated Mass.  Those in the north part of the region attended the church in Columbus Township, and those in the south part attended the churches in Anchorville and New Baltimore.  Father Kilroy later retired to Columbus where he served until he went on to be with the Lord.  He is buried in St. Philip Neri Cemetery in Columbus, MI. 
 
     In the late 1870’s, Mary McCarthy opened her home in Lenox Township to the priest and laity of the area so the people and priests could enjoy the presence of the Lord in the sacraments on a more frequent schedule. By so doing, the priests could use the rail transportation and maintain a schedule of Masses for the people in New Haven, Richmond-Lenox, Columbus, and Smiths Creek.  This continued for a number of years.
 
    The Mission of St. Augustine was established in July 1880.  It was placed in the care of Rev. Schenkelberg of Anchorville.  In a report to the Archdiocese of Detroit in 1890, Fr. Schenkelburg stated that he only visited St. Augustine once a month - on the 15th.  While under his care, a community project in Richmond-Lenox was undertaken to construct a church building.  The ground was purchased and donations were raised.     A number of non-Catholic citizens, recognizing the value of the church and contributed generous sums. The foundation of the old wooden church was laid in 1887 and dedicated in the same year by Rt. Rev. Foley, Bishop of Detroit.  This frame church, dedicated to St. Augustine was constructed on the same property as our present church. The parishioners were greatful that they were able to construct the complete church at a cost of $5,000, and were able to do so without borrowing any money.  All of the money and materials were donated as the church was being built.
 
    In 1892 Bishop Foley, the Catholic ordinary of the diocese of Detroit, sent a resident priest to St Augustine and on April 21st Rev. Fr. Thomas J. Ryan of Kalamazoo was appointed.  As the numbers in our parish grew, so did the need for a larger church building.


 
    When construction on the present church was begun, St. Augustine Parish had grown to 200 families. These folks wanted to build a new church and they wanted to make sure the church was constructed from only the best materials.  They  also needed to keep the cost down.  This was a farming community and the folks here were not well-to-do.  The solution that satisfied both requirements of quality and economy - STONE!  The farmers had plenty of it; it was piled in all four corners of every farm field around.
   
    As the loads of stone arrived each day and were piled beside the construction project, a man would scurry over them, throwing some in one direction and others another way.  It was as if he were examining a pile of great treasure and actually that was exactly what he was doing.  This man, William Zuelk, was in charge of fitting all the stones together like a large jigsaw puzzle.  Dozens of families brought stones to the site of the new church, each unloading their own wagon load, but William handled each and every stone, and most several times.  He would examine them for quality, for size, and for how they would split.  Then he would place them in the proper pile.  He lived on Forest Street at the time of the construction and every morning you could see him walking slowly up the street towards his beloved piles of stones. 
 
    There was also a man in charge of preparing the grounds for the new building.  He was labeled the "Demolition Expert".  The young man did the dynamiting around the grounds.  He received many compliments for the exactness and professionalism of his work.  He had initially volunteered to help in whatever task that needed his help. He was at first taken aback when he was told that he would be in charge of dynamite.  He had never touched the stuff before!  But, our Lord can work all kinds of miracles, and did here. 

    Only one family owned a motorized vehicle at the time the church was constructed. That vehicle stayed very busy.  It was the only thing able to haul all the sand and gravel to the worksite.  However, that vehicle couldn’t make it out of the gravel pit by itself.  Each time it went down into the pit to be loaded it had to be pulled back out by a team of horses.  With all of the many donations of labor, money and material it must be noted that even the stained glass windows were all donations.  Fr. Edward Schrauder donated the cost for the window above the altar.   
        
    It needs to be remembered that the people were truly, lovingly, dedicated to this parish and the daunting project at hand. The weeks upon weeks that they spent doing back-breaking work as they gathered up the stones and brought them to the church property is indeed remarkable. In all over 1,000 loads were delivered. The workmanship that went into cutting and setting these stones over 100 years ago is still quite obvious today.  It was because of these dedicated, hard working people that we have such a beautiful church and now it is our turn to pass this beautiful building on to the next generation.  

    In 1913 it was estimated that if we paid to have the same church built it would have cost between $75,000 and $80,000. This is equivalent to $28 to $30 million in today's dollars. Every family in the parish was involved in some way, either by donations of labor, money, or material, and in many cases - all three.  
   
    The dedication of our present day St. Augustine Catholic Church took place on Thursday Dec. 11, 1913 with the morning trains bringing in many guests coming to attend the ceremonies. After the elaborate ceremony, dinner was served in the basement of the old frame church, which was eventually moved to make room for parking all the new fangled horseless carriages. Music for this dedication ceremony was furnished by the Children's Orchestra of Mt. Clemens.  

    The work of spreading the Gospel of Jesus Christ is alive and well today in Richmond Michigan, and surrounding community, because of the selfless sacrifices made by our Catholic ancestors. We owe it to them, to our children, and to our Lord to keep this fire burning within ourselves.