I am looking for anyone who has pictures of weddings, baptisms, or any other events in St Joseph Church here in Freeport. After writing about all the symbolism in this Church building, I hope to write about the families involved in this Church Community. I hope to get information on the families who are memorialized in the windows, those who helped build this building and contributed to the artwork in the building. I also plan on putting this together in a book, but not rewriting the book Paul Fry wonderfully put together. This book will be focusing on specifically the Church building, since it will be the 150-year anniversary of this Church building.

If anyone would also have artifacts from the Church since the major renovation in 1962, I would love to have fresh pictures of them, or, if anybody wishes to bring them back, they may do so. We have retrieved so much and I thank so many people who have already given things back to this community. Thank God we have the Sacred Heart Statue back. We did receive the one tapestry that was hanging high in one of the arches towards the front. Unfortunately, the company in Madison that restores such artwork said it was beyond what they could do. Even so, it is good just to document these things.
The high altar was burnt, but somehow, we have the highest piece of it. It is about a foot-long “trefoil.” A trefoil is a symbol of the Trinity, like the three-leaf clover. The most common is the three circles joined together. All around St Joseph, you see what looks kind of like a three-leaf plant sprouting from the ground. There also used to be big crosses behind the Stations of the Cross. Those are all gone now except for one. It would be nice to see if any of the other statues are around. In pictures from a while back, it looks like there were smaller statues of the Four Gospels, a lion, an ox, an eagle, and an angel. They were probably about 18 inches in height. Any piece of the old altar rail would be great. In the altar rail were carved images of the Sacred Heart of Jesus and the Immaculate Heart of Mary. Thanks to Fr Budden, many vestments have been returned.
Does anyone have any stories of their ancestors who worked on this Church building? I would love to have nearly any story that would pertain to this building. Some people have come to me already and told stories about riding the church bells when they got to ring the bell as a child, or some ancestor who helped in building the church. Unfortunately, I have a problem with short-term memory. I would love to interview anyone who has stories about this building and your families.
There will be as many pictures as possible in this book. I hope it can serve as documentation for families who are doing family research for years to come. So my hope is that most pictures that do not have purpose in illustrating the stories written will be put in the back of the book. I would be happy to put something in as a short description or story with those pictures as well. Your family story is also the story of St Joseph Church.