St. Brendan, Elkins

St. John Bosco, Huttonsville, suppressed as a parish October 1, 2009. Now serves as a chapel.

The following Church is incorporated into St. Brendan Parish, Elkins: The territory of St. Patrick Parish, Coalton, is merged into the territory of St. Brendan Parish, Elkins, with the former Parish becoming a Mission of St. Brendan Parish effective May 20, 2018.

Early Catholic settlers in this mountain town of Randolph County were employed at maintenance shops of the West Virginia Central and Pittsburgh Railroad Company and in local coal mines and lumber mills. They were organized into a mission of St. Thomas Aquinas, Thomas, in the 1880s. A small frame church was built in 1897 and dedicated to St. Brendan on October 28, 1900. Rev. John J. Daly was the first resident pastor to a community of just under 200 members. Seven years later a school was opened and staffed by lay teachers until the Dominican Sisters of Springfield, Kentucky arrived in 1918. In 1928, a second church was built to accommodate the growing parish. It remained in use until 1999, when the present church was completed.