St. Rose of Lima Catholic Church, located immediately north of Hickory Corners, has its inception in the settlement in that vicinity of a few German Catholic families, between 1845 and 1860, who were principally engaged in mining coal.  Among the earliest of these were Martin Scholl, Nicholas and Peter Rommelfangen, Michael and Matthias Schumacher, Clemens Dach, Nicholas and John Kahl, Matthew Koch and Michael Knapp.  Rev. Andrew Skopez is believed to have been the first priest who held services in the settlement, celebrating mass at the house of Martin Scholl prior to 1850. He was followed in succession by Revs. J. Reiser, J. J. Gallagher, Andrew Schweiger and Joseph Gobbels, resident pastors of the Greenville congregation, who occasionally visited Sharon and the German settlement at Hickory Corners, and held services in private houses. The Redemptorist Fathers, of Pittsburgh, also occasionally visited this settlement between 1850 and 1860. In 1850 Rev. F. J. Hartmann began his visits, and the following year commenced erecting the present frame church, which he completed in 1861.  He, however, held services in it in 1860, and the church was dedicated under the name of St. Rose of Lima. A half acre of land was donated by Clemens Dach, as a site for church and cemetery, and Father Skopez afterward purchased of Mr. Dach an additional acre. Soon after the church was completed Father Hartmann took up his permanent residence in a part of the building, but subsequently erected a dwelling-house adjoining the same. He remained the pastor of St. Rose until August, 1870, and during this period built up a large and flourishing congregation, but the decline of the coal business in that locality finally necessitated the removal elsewhere of a large number of its members. Rev. Andrew