The history of Holy Trinity Pine Grove goes back to the early 1880’s when the Catholic population in the Pine Gove area had grown to the point where the decision was made to build a church. A closed Polish Church at the corners of Crooks and Baird Streets was purchased and moved by farmers with their horses and oxen to a site in Pine Grove. A dispute over where exactly the church should be erected ensued for the next two years. Unfortunately the timbers, which had not been piled properly or protected from the weather, sustained irreparable damage. Finally after a two-year stalemate Anton Nachtwey deeded three acres of land to the bishop. The church was built in 1883 and was blessed and dedicated to the Most Holy Trinity. Fr. Augustine L. Rossochowicz offered the first Mass in the Pine Grove Church bringing with him his own vestments from his parish church in Cooperstown.
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The parish is named after the Holy Martyrs of Gorcum, 19 priests and religious of Gorcum (Netherlands) who gave their lives for the Catholic faith in general, and for the truth of its eucharistic teaching and the primacy of the Roman Pontiff in particular. They were captured by the Waterbeggers on June 25, 1572 and taken to Brielle where they were interrogated by Lumey with hopes of converting them to Protestantism. They were hung during the nights of July 9 and 10, 1572 in an old monastery. The martyrs were canonized June 29, 1867.Fr. Smitting was appointed by Bishop John Henni, Milwaukee Diocese, to begin work in the Preble and upper Peninsula territory in 1858. Mass was offered in the Peter Faenger home, which stood on the southeast corner of the original cemetery. After a few years, a small log church was built just south of the present church on the original ten acres of land donated by Peter Faenger. Mass was offered one Sunday a month...
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