Early Years The history of St. Peter Church and Catholicism in Jefferson City are forever linked and can be traced back to just ten years after the founding of the capital city. Fr. Felix L. Verreydt, S.J. said the first recorded Mass in the City in 1831 in the home of Bernard Upschulte, then located on the corner of High and Mulberry Streets, now located behind the Cole County Historical Museum. Seven years later, Fr. Ferdinand Helias, S.J., pastor at Westphalia, at the request of the visiting Rt. Rev. Joseph Rosati, C.M., first bishop of St. Louis, organized the local Catholics into a community and said Mass in private homes until a site could be selected for a church. (Interestingly enough those "private homes" were less than 10 in number as records show a total of nine Catholic families registered in 1838!)
The first site was the old first state capitol building, now the home of the Governor's Mansion. A petition was presented to the General Assembly to allow local Catholics to purchase the building as the first church. The governor and the Senate approved, but the measure failed the House by four votes. The first Catholic Church in Jefferson City was then constructed in 1843 & 44 under Father Helias, on the present site of St. Peter School. The wooden structure was named in honor of St. Ignatius Loyola, the founder of the Jesuits.
The Jesuits soon turned the care of the new mission over to Archbishop Peter R. Kenrick, St. Louis, and in 1846 the Archbishop named Fr. James S. Murphy the first resident pastor. When Fr. Murphy dedicated the new church, he named it in honor of St. Peter, the Prince of the Apostles and the patron saint of his Archbishop. St. Peter Catholic Church became the 59th parish of the St. Louis archdiocese. The young church served the community well for 12 years until the growth of the Catholic population forced Fr. william Walsh, the fourth pastor, to construct the second St. Peter church structure on the corner of Broadway and High Streets. It was built of brick and dedicated in 1856.
The History of the Diocese of St. Louis, in speaking of St. Peter Parish, Jefferson City, states: "In 1838 there were nine families; in 1855 there were forty," (page 360). The fledgling parish was indeed growing. Four years later, Fr. Henry Van der Sanden, arrived as the first in a long line of assistant pastors. The brick church served its function until 1881 when Msgr. Otto Joseph Stanislaus Hoog, the seventh pastor, had it razed to make way for the present church.