Diocese Of Fairbanks
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Marshall is a Central Yup'ik Eskimo village located on the northern right bank of the lower Yukon River and had been a substantial settlement in the 1880's. Gold was discovered in a nearby creek in 1913 with the subsequent influx of stampeders already in the country since the time of the Klondike Gold Rush of 1898.
Catholic baptisms were performed by visiting priests at Marshall at the turn of the 20th century. Marshall never had a resident priest but had been visited regularly by missionaries from Pilot Station and Mountain Village.
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The first chapel at Marshall was built in 1930 and dedicated to the "Mother of God." It was finished and blessed in 1945.
Since 1966 the Catholic community of Marshall has been served by priests out of Saint Mary's, Mountain Village and Bethel. A new church was built and dedicated to the Immaculate Heart of Mary on December 5, 1997.
Marshall has the distinction of being the first village In the Diocese of Fairbanks where a Deacon was ordained. He is Alvin Owletuck who was ordained on February 8, 1975 by Bishop Robert Whelan, S.J.
Jesuit priests, James Poole, Robert Corrigal, Michael Kaniecki, Eugene Delmore, James Sebesta, Edward Flint, Charles Peterson, and Paul Cochran, and diocesan priest Fr. John Hinsvarck, were some of the clergymen appointed to serve the Catholics at Marshall.
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