Of the two communities that merged to form St. Isidore Parish, the St. Louis community is older—it formed around a small nucleus of five Catholic families who had immigrated from Alsace in eastern France to Louisville in 1826. The community became a mission of Canton’s St. John the Baptist Parish, and dedicated their church to the French king, St. Louis IX. Masses were celebrated in parishioners’ homes until 1838, when a small colonial-style church was built on land donated by Henry Lautzenheiser. The community received its first resident pastor that same year.
In 1876, the parish constructed a larger Gothic church, replete with twin 125-foot towers. At around the same time, the parish also built St. Louis College—a four-room boy’s orphanage staffed by the Sisters of the Humility of Mary, which lasted until a new school was completed in 1922. The school eventually became part of the Holy Cross Academy Catholic school system, which was later incorporated into the Stark County Catholic School System, and maintains a PreK-5 program. The church was added to the National Register of Historic Places on February 22, 1979.
The Sacred Heart of Mary community was formed in 1833 in Harrisburg, with a congregation of both French and German immigrants and was tended by Saint John Neumann, who was canonized in 1977. Sacred Heart of Mary shared its pastor with St. Louis until 1845, when the community purchased acreage and built a small brick church. Due to Harrisburg’s rurality, the parish didn’t always have a resident pastor and its status changed frequently from a mission to a parish.
Sacred Heart of Mary built a school, which was dedicated on April 23, 1927, staffed by two lay teachers alongside two Sisters of Charity of Saint Augustine. The parish received additional upgrades in 1960, with the purchase of a 53-acre farm, on which the community built a social hall, a baseball field and an outdoor shrine to Mary. However, due to declining enrollment, the school was forced to close in 2009, and two years later, the parish began collaborating with St. Louis for their religious education and youth ministry programs.
In 2018, the parishes began sharing a pastor, until they were merged in 2025. The patronage of Saint Isidore was chosen by parish officials to honor the area which the community calls home, as he is the patron saint of farmers and rural communities.
Description from The March of the Eucharist, 2nd edition (2025) published by The Catholic Echo
