In 2001, the State of Ohio graciously agreed to install a Marker near the entrance of the Prayer Center Log Home to highlight the Early Catholic Missionary Settlement of the Missionaries of the Precious Blood and the Sisters of that order.

The Sisters of the Precious Blood from Dayton coordinated all the necessary information, permissions, and the Ohio Historical Society in the great additional gift to our center.

In January 1844, Rev. Francis Brunner arrived at St. Alphonsus with a band of Seminarians and Priests.

The parish had suffered without a priest for some time, and their arrival was a great day to the parish.

Their journey from Cincinnati, through Steubenville and across the rugged country to Peru was difficult.

Fr. Brunner gives a vivid account of the last part of the journey:

“These last three miles from Norwalk proved the hardest. It was nightfall and a storm was approaching. It became pitch dark, the rain was pouring down in torrents, and the wind was blowing from all sides. The road, a mere mud path without rock bottom, became so impossible that it was like forcing our way through thick mortar. We fell from one hole into another….yet we had to keep on going to finish our journey, for none of us had any desire to spend the night on the road.”

Upon arrival, a member of the parish greeted them with:

“Thanks be to God! This is a good sign that everything hereafter will take a turn for the better; for the harder the beginning, the more promising the continuance, and the more blessed the end.”