Assumption of The Blessed Virgin Mary (ABVM), Strickland

827 E LaSalle Ave
Barron, WI, 54812

Contact Us

• Mass Times

• From Cameron, go east on "8" to "W".
• Turn left on "W".
• When "W" turns to the right, you must turn to the left.
• Church will be on the left about 1/4 mile.

The ABVM Cemetery is adjacent to the church on the east side. 

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In the early 1890s, Fr. Konstanty Frydrychowicz, placed an advertisement of "land for sale" in Polish newspapers of the coal mining towns of Pennsylvania. He had heard of land in northern Wisconsin with rich soil and big timber. The families that followed him to Strickland found that the land had been stripped of its timber, but with no resources to move elsewhere, they farmed the new land.

The Polish Catholic community set out to build a church. They purchased five acres of land on May 28, 1895, from Chippewa Logging Company for $1. An additional 15 acres were purchased in 1900. The original church was constructed on the land in 1896. Records show that Fr. Frydrychowicz served the community he brought to Wisconsin at least until the end of July 1897. Assumption church listed 90 families in 1920.

On Sunday, June 17, 1923, the church burned. According to the Ladysmith News, Fr. Charles Feeny of Ladysmith had celebrated 11 a.m. Mass and shortly after 1 p.m. a neighbor saw flames shooting up above the sacristy. A number of parishioners, still visiting after the services, succeeded in saving the vestments. Services were held in the Halas' Dance Hall and Saloon after the fire until the new church was built. Parishioners built a new church at a cost of $5,452.16.

Today, the old town of Strickland is long disappeared, but the church and the descendants of the Polish settlers brought over by Fr. Frydrychowicz remain. The church still remembers its Polish heritage and the parish's annual picnic brings many of its former parishioners home.

REFERENCE: Our Journey through Faith: A History of the Diocese of Superior, by Sam Lucero, 2005.

About Our Patroness and the Solemnity of Her Assumption

Click here to learn about the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary, our Strickland parish's patroness. The Solemnity of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary is August 15, and is also a Holy Day of Obligation. Solemnities, Feasts, and Memorials are days which are celebrated in commemoration of the sacred mysteries and events recorded in the history of our redemption, in memory of the Virgin Mother of Christ, or of His apostles, martyrs, and saints.