This is the history of St. Columban parish in Chillicothe, Missouri. The first St. Columban church was built in 1858 by John Joseph Hogan, who became the first Bishop of the Diocese of Saint Joseph in 1868. The Friars Minor, who had come to the United States in 1875 fleeing the Kulturkampf in Germany, came to Chillicothe in 1878 at the invitation of Hogan. They took charge of the parish and the next year, across Trenton Street from the Academy, built the present church, designed by Franciscan Brother Adrian Wewer. In 1880 a parish elementary school, College Hall, opened.