Pioneer Churches in Wisconsin with Michael J. Cooney

Author event with Michael J Cooney. After a career in media production, Michael Cooney is celebrating his encore career as a photographer, teacher, writer, and book publisher.  He will discuss his book:   Pioneer Churches of Wisconsin: Exploring Our Immigrant Faith Heritage.  Presented by New Glarus Public Library.

All across Wisconsin there are small carefully preserved churches, which were built by the first immigrants to the state and maintained by dedicated individuals, families, historical societies, and cemetery associations who have a long history with the building. It is often the case that the caretaker’s great grandfather built the original church and most of their family has been married, baptized, and buried from the building. These caretakers are determined to keep the roof on the building and to honor the heritage as long as feasible.Many of these churches were the first of their respective denomination and in a number of cases the last remnant of that faith tradition. While some of these locations have national historic status, and some are recognized by their counties historical societies, many are without any formal recognition and have little or no web presence.Each church offers insight into the faith traditions of generations past, as well the role of the church in the Wisconsin immigrant experience.Since 2008, the author has visited a total of 162 locations, sometimes multiple times, in order to document their history, photograph both the exterior and interior and record each locations unique story. Pioneer Churches of Wisconsin includes 113 churches representing 32 different faith traditions located in 44 Wisconsin counties.