MANDAN Historical Society

Working to Preserve & Promote Mandan's Heritage since 2004

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Ag Stn Centennial

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Book: "Mantani"

The 1880s

Mandan Rodeo / Fair

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The 1890s

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1901 Pan Am Expo

1903 TR Visit to NDak

The 1910s

1910 Spring Flood

1911 Fair & Airplane Demo

1912 TR Whistle-Stop

The 1920s

Prohibition in Mandan

Mail Order Kit Homes

The 1930s

FDR Visit August 1936

The 1940s

The 1950s

1958 Lincoln Stamp FDC

Custer Drama / Trail West

The 1960s

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1st of the 21st

2010-Present

Area Landmarks

Cary Bldg - Mandan Drug

CCC Camp Chimney

Christ the King Church

Collins Av Civic Bldg

First Lutheran Church

First National Bank Bldg

First Presbyterian Church

Great Plains Academy

Great Plains Expermt Stn

Lewis & Clark Hotel

Mandan Hill

Mandan Theatre

MV Produce Warehouse

Methodist Church

NP Beanery

NP "Colonial" RR Depot

NPRR Freighthouse

NP Rail High Bridge

Roughrider Statue

St Joseph Church

WWar Memorial Bldg

Youth Correctional Center

Gone Forever

Central School

Collins Ave Courthouse

Cummins Building

Deaconess Hospital

Eielson Field

Emerson Inst/Opera House

First St Federal Building

Havana Club

Hotel Nigey

InterOcean Hotel

Liberty Memorial Bridge

Mandan Creamery & Produce

Mandan Flour Mill

Merchants Hotel

NP "Queen Anne" Depot

Original Passenger Depot

Palace Theatre

Peoples' Hotel

Rock Haven

Topic Theatre

Young's Tavern

Heritage Homes

Altnow-Smith Home

Dunlap-Harris Home

Ellis-Uden Home

Freeburg-Esser Home

Lyon-Weigel Home

McGillic Home

Olson-Brick Home

Parkins-Cooley Home

Stutsman-Wyatt Home

Swanson-Reichman Home

Welch-Ness Home

Endowment Fund

Genealogy Links

Biographies A-C

J D Allen

Franklin Anders

Richard Baron

James Bellows

George Bingenheimer

Margaret Bingenheimer

Philip Blumenthal

Elijah Boley

Frank Briggs

Leo Broderick

William Broderick

Frank Bunting

Lyman Cary

James Clark

Henry Coe

Viola Boley Coe

Daniel Collins

Elizabeth Custer

George Custer

Biographies D-L

Alice Dahners

Henry Dahners

C E V (Charles) Draper

Esther Davis

Tony Dean

Joseph Devine

Ronald Erhardt

John Forbes

Palma Fristad

Gilbert Furness

Aloysius Galowitsch

Frederic Gerard

Zalmon Gilbert

Charles Grantier

James Hanley Jr

James Hanley Sr

Mary Harris

C Edgar Haupt

Michael Lang

William Langer

Albert Lanterman

William Lanterman

Richard Longfellow

Rolland Lutz

Hiram Lyon

Biographies M-R

George Marback

Gary Miller

Lee Mohr

Margaret Naylor

John Newton

Anton Ness

John Osterhouse

George Peoples

Arthur Peterson

Nels Romer

Hoy Russell

Walton Russell

Antonie Rybnicek

Ervin Rybnicek

Hynek Rybnicek

Biographies S-Z

Margaret Schaaf

George Shafer

Benjamin Shaw

William Simpson

Anna Knox Stark

Mary Stark

Benjamin Stephenson

J O Sullivan

John Sullivan

Era Bell Thompson

Andrew E Thorberg

Ida Thorberg

C L Timmerman

George Toman

Earle Tostevin

Edwin A Tostevin Sr

Edwin D Tostevin Jr

Walter Tostevin

Felix Vinatieri

A B Welch

Levon West

Frank Wetzstein

Harry Wheeler

Philomena Yunck

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What's New

Fr. Aloysious Joseph Galowitsch, Jr. (1901-1992)

In 1955, St. Joseph's Parish in Mandan had grown to some 6,500 members, an unheard-of size for this region and an unworkable number of effective pastoral ministries. The pastor, Monsignor Aloysius Galowitsch, began to plan for a new parish and would eventually repeat his prior success by establishing Mandan’s second Catholic Parish at Christ the King.


Aloysius Galowitsch was born July 21, 1901 at Neumarkt, Austria which is a small town near Vienna.  His father Aloysius died in 1912.  That fall, his mother Frances (Zartler) Galowitsch took her son and daughters Helen (Ganzer) and Frances (Bernini) and immigrated to Chicago.

Aloysius attended St. Philomena Grade School from 1913 to 1916.  He continued his education at College Josephinum, Co­lumbus, Ohio where he received his secondary education and theo­logical training.  A chronic illness kept him out of school for nearly four years.  He was ordained to the priesthood May 29, 1930, in Columbus, Ohio.  For health reasons, he was assigned “out west.”  On July 4 of that year he came to the Church of St. Joseph in Dickinson as assistant to Msgr. G. Aberle.

In April 1936 he was appointed pastor of Our Lady of Consolation at Alexander (McKenzie County, ND).  He took care of that parish as well as six mission churches, sometimes putting on over 30,000 miles on his car in the depths of The Great Depression.  He was named to the ND Health Planning Commission as well as heading the State's Hill-Burton Committee (which coordinated Federal spending for rural health care) from 1947-1969.  He would eventually serve as Director of Hospitals for the Catholic Diocese of Bismarck and oversaw planning and operations for Catholic hospitals in Western North Dakota.

In 1944 he was appointed pastor of St. Vincent's parish, Crown Butte.  In 1947 Bishop Ryan appointed him pastor of St. Mary's Church in New England.  In addition to 
serving as the priest for this parish, he was primary fundraiser and supervised the construction of their grade and large high school.

On April 9, 1953 His Excellency Bishop Hock appointed Father Galowitsch pastor of St. Joseph’s parish in Mandan.  The following year, he spearheaded the effort to construct the convent building located at 309 Collins Ave (today's Mandan's School District Central Administration Building.)

With the population boom due to the construction and operation of Standard Oil Company's petroleum refinery and the adjacent MDU Heskett Power Plant, the congregation at St. Joseph's grew beyond its physical facilities.  It was time for a second Catholic parish in Mandan.

A kickoff meeting was held on August 8, 1957, at which Msgr. Galowitsch asked for a day's wage per month for 30 months. Land was acquired from Dr. William Neff and Clem Albers in northwest Mandan. The architect chosen was Bernard Hillyer of Bismarck, a man who designed so many of the churches in the Diocese.
Msgr. Galowitsch had overseen an extensive building program at New England, and he repeated his success in Mandan. Christ the King was a big parish from the start, with about 500 families.  Work progressed quickly on the school. Six rooms were ready for classes in the fall of 1958. A multipurpose room was used for parish liturgy until the church was completed. The dedication of Christ the King Church took place on April 28, 1959 with both Bishop Lambert Hoch and Bishop Hilary Hacker in attendance.

Fr. Galowitsch was assigned as the church's first pastor. He remained there until his retirement on July 1, 1970. He came out of retirement in 1976 and served as pastor of St. Mary's Church, South Heart until April 1, 1981, when he re-entered retirement.

Aloysius Galowitsch was elevated by Pope Pius XII to the rank of Domestic Prelate with the title of Right Reverend Monsignor, according to Bishop Lambert A. Hoch of the Bismarck Diocese. This honor was in recognition of his outstanding service given to the church.

Msgr. Galowitsch died December 24, 1992 at St. Vincent's Nursing Home in Bismarck at the age of 91. Funeral services were held at Christ the King Church, Mandan, officiated by Bishop John F. Kinney.  He is buried in Mandan Union Cemetery.

The MHSoc's museum and office is located at 3827 30th Avenue NW; PO Box 1001; Mandan, ND 58554
Contact us at info@mandanhistory.org


Last Updated 03/28
/23    ©  2007-2023  Mandan Historical Society   All rights reserved