By 1879, he had built up his little congregation where they could help along to complete the little church projected by Fr. Sommereisen.  It was rather an unpretentious frame building forty-two feet long and twenty-two feet wide.  A little room behind the sanctuary served as home for the priest.  Like Fr. Matteo de Bassi, the founder of the Capuchin Reform, Fr. Anastasius shared his adobe with a flock of pigeons.

The little frame church had the distinction of being the first church of any kind in Hays City that was used exclusively for divine service.  It was placed under the patronage of St. Joseph, the Foster-Father of Christ.  Services were conducted as regularly as possible for Fr. Anastasius.  His records show that during the first two years he spent in Hays, he had twelve baptisms, one wedding and one funeral.  In November, 1880, Fr. Anastasius purchased two acres of land from K. H. Lebold and Fannie Lebold to be used as a cemetery. 

In August, 1879, two Sisters of St. Agnes, Sister Agatha and Aurea, came to Herzog (Victoria) from Fond du Lac, Wisconsin, to open a parochial school.  The following year these same two sisters were asked to come to Hays during summer vacation to help Fr. Anastasius prepare the First Communion class.  They came to Hays, August 15, 1880.  Sister Aurea took sick soon after and died on September 7, 1880.  She is buried in St. Joseph's Cemetery, Hays.  On September 15, 1880, Sister Prudentiana arrived to help in Fr. Anastasius' religion school.  The Sisters rented a house in town and used the church for a classroom.  They divided their time between Herzog (Victoria) and Hays.

The parish was growing, and the little frame church was entirely too small.  It had been the dream of the pastor and people to erect a stone church that would be an honor to God and in keeping with the architecture of the town.  The members of the parish had grown a little in wealth so they began in 1884 to haul stones from the quarries along the Smoky Hill River.