History of St. Mary's

(Excerpt from Roman and Oklahoman, by James D. White.)

Dick McLish, chairman of the Chickasaw tribe, donated the land for the church and school at Ardmore...a church was build in 1897and furnished with a main altar, pews and vestments.  The church was dedicated to Our Lady of Prompt Succor...the church was dedicated on August 28, 1898.  That same day the bishop also dedicated in Ardmore the new St. Agnes Academy for girls, served by the Sisters of Mercy and built with the financial assistance of St. Katharine Drexel.

With the completion of the church and the erection of a twO-room rectory, the congregation received its first resident pastor, Father Francis Hall.  He remained in charge for five years.  he was followed by Father Peter Wilwerding (1902--1905), and then by Father James J. Wallrapp, who would serve until 1929.  

The new church was severely tested in its early years.  IN 1906 and again in the spring of 1915, violent storms nearly destroyed the building.  Then, on September 27, 1915, a gasoline-filled tank car in the nearby rail yard exploded, blowing out several stained glass windows.  This famous disaster, which killed 51 persons, wounded another 150, and caused nearly a million dollars in property damage, became the catalyst for greatly improved safety procedures for the transport of volatile substances.

In 1950, Father Alexander Andrews, a British missionary who had worked in Burma as a translator with the 45th Infantry Division during World War II, arrived in Oklahoma seeking a respite for his health.  The parish had been raising funds for a new church, and Father Andrews oversaw its construction.  On December 8, 1951, Bishop McGuinness dedicated the new building under the title of St. Mary, Our Lady of the Rosary.  A new school soon followed, which continued until 1966.