Concerning Mary Ann

In the middle of the nineteenth century, a small band of Irish immigrants made their way to Monroe County Iowa, where the hills and trees reminded them of Ireland. They broke the land, made their homes, and built a church -- a cathedral in the wilderness which stands today in the hamlet of Georgetown, Iowa. In 1950, Father Leo Ward wrote the story of the Irish community of Georgetown, centering the tale around a child born in 1860 as the church was being built -- Mary Ann Murray.