Historic of St. Mary's 

On Holy Thursday, April 11, 1675, Francis Jacques Marquette offered the first parochial Mass in the Illinois Country at Utica in the presence of 5,000 Native Americans. Father Marquette and his companion Louis Joliet, took possession of this land in the name of Jesus Christ and founded the Mission of the Immaculate Conception. A monument in his honor stands in the northeast corner of the property.

That mission eventually became the Church of Saint Mary. In 1858 a small frame church was built which was destroyed by fire seventeen years later and a brick and stone church was built on the site of the former Saint Mary School.

In 1883 the Reverend Charles Xavier O'Neill was appointed the first pastor of Saint Mary's but never took up residence there. The Reverend Canon Jeremiah Moynihan was appointed the first resident pastor in 1884. The Reverend Francis J. O'Reilly succeeded Canon Moynihan in 1888 and in the same year erected the present church.