Cordia

HISTORY

The townsite of Cordia was formed on 1 July 1920 as an offshoot of the Liebenthal Parish on fifteen acres donated by Joseph Legge, Fritz Oelkers and M. Close. It received its charter on August 5th of the same year. The church property consisted of five acres donated by Adam Jacobs. Sacred Heart Church was completed on 1 October 1921, and the first service was held there on 15 October 1921. The new edifice was dedicated by Rt. Rev. Aug. J. Schwertner, Bishop of Wichita, on 15 November 1921. A rectory was built in 1922.

The community of Cordia never really consisted of anything more than the church and the rectory. In 1922, St. Michaels Parish of LaCrosse became a mission of the Cordia church. By 1929, the Sacred Heart Parish had dwindled to the point where the Rt. Rev. August J. Schwertner, Bishop of Wichita, decided to move Rev. Fr. Hard, resident Priest in Cordia, to LaCrosse where the contregation was growing. The residents of Cordia agreed to sell their rectory to LaCrosse and it was moved there in 1929. It was used there until being dismantled in the mid-1960s.

Eventually, the Cordia congregation disbanded and in 1943 the church building was moved to LaCrosse. It served the congregation of St. Michaels Parish until being razed in the late 1970s.

Today, all that remains of Cordia is the cemetery located east of the former church site.

PRIESTS

Fr. J. J. Steines
Fr. Hard