Established in 1876 a year after the first settlers of the Czech club “Slovania” arrived near Warsaw, St. Wenceslaus Catholic Cemetery stood on land donated by Martin Slobodny, and Sunday worship was first held there around a large wooden cross. In 1877 the community built its first church across the road, a small wooden building that combined sanctuary and rectory. During the tenure of Rev. John Stephen Broz from 1890 to 1894, many Czech customs were introduced into the community and the cemetery bell was acquired. Construction of a brick church began in 1895, built by parishioner C. V. Svoboda and Andrew Gruber, proprietors of the St. Paul brickyard, and it was blessed on the feast of St. Wenceslaus, September 28, 1895. St. Wenceslaus of Warsaw was the first Catholic church in Howard County. The last mass was offered on December 21, 1949, and the church was demolished in 1964, leaving the names on the monuments as reminders of the Czech pioneers whose struggle made a future for their descendants.