In October, 1876, Rev. Valentine Sommereisen took up residence in Hays City, thus becoming its first resident Catholic priest until he retired to his vineyard northeast of Hays where he lived in retirement until his death in 1897.

Besides ministering to the wants of the Catholics of Hays, he was also busy with the care of the German-Russian settlements that sprang up from 1876-1878.  In Hays he built himself a home and made plans for a little church.  He said his first Mass at Fort Hays on the First Sunday of Advent, 1876. Shortly after he arrived he purchased from Martin Allen and others Lots 1-3-7, Block 18.  This property was deeded to Rt. Rev. Louis Fink, O.S.B. Bishop of the Diocese of Leavenworth which comprised the whole State of Kansas at the time.  Fr. Sommereisen planned to build a little stone church on this property.  He had the foundation built and had acquired the windows but his dream of a stone church never materialized.

The spiritual work in western Kansas was evidently too much for one man.  A few years earlier a community of Capuchins migrating from Germany had made its headquarters in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania; and the Father Commissary, Very Rev. Hyacinth Epp, O.F.M. Cap., was intent upon extending the field of labor of the Capuchins in the United States.  The German-Russian in the settlements around Hays needed the ministrations of German speaking priests.  The Bishop therefore called upon the Capuchins and invited Fr. Hyacinth to send his friars into this part of the Lord's vineyard.  Fr. Hyacinth accepted the invitation, and although the number of his friars was small, he sent two of his most energetic men to Ellis County.

It was a beautiful day in May, 1878, when two friars, Fr. Matthew Hau and Fr. Anastasius Mueller, stepped off the train in Victoria where they set up their headquarters.  The two men had to "rough it" for some time.  The first residence of the Friars was in the home of Aloysius Dreiling.  In September of 1878, they built a residence, an annex to the stone church which was built in the same year.  Fr. Matthew took over the pastorate at Herzog (Victoria) and some of the other German-Russian settlements in the County.

Fr. Anastasius looked after Hays and the other stations along the railway to the Colorado line.  He made his first visit to Hays City on May 16, 1878 and became the first Capuchin pastor of Hays.  He arrived at the church site finding a hole which had been dug for a foundation, the windows for the church and a debt of $200.00.  The windows were sold to the parish at Herzog (Victoria) when the Maxwell brothers built their church.  In that way, he cleared the debt and was free to go ahead with his own plans.