St. Bernard Church, located in Snake Run, Indiana, gives this small town a piece of extremely interesting history. The church has its own cemetery, commonly known as Snake Run Cemetery, and it is now home to around 70 gravestones. In the early 1870s, the town of Obertsville was founded near Gibson County, and this later developed into the town of Snake Run. Within five years of Obertsville’s founding, a few Catholic families decided to build a small log cabin and have it serve as a school building. A priest from Princeton, Indiana occasionally came and said mass at the school, and in 1877 the building was transformed into an official church. The new church was dedicated to St. Bernard, who was a very popular and in-demand holy man in the 1110s. His feast day is August 20, 1153. At St. Bernard Church, mass was celebrated in German until 1915. Another German custom was that men and women would sit on opposite sides of the church, so a family was not able to share a pew, as they would today. The rent for each pew was $3.50. 1878 was a big year for St. Bernard parish. A stable was built with slots to hold each family’s mule or wagon, and the lots in the cemetery were divided and sold for $7 each. Three main pastors presided at St. Bernard in the 1870s: Rev. Alexander Koesters, Rev. George Widerin, and Rev. Bernard Kintrup. In 1886, Father Peter Hommes built the rectory for the church, and became the first residential priest. Many pastors came and went throughout the 1800s, and in the early 1900s multiple mens and womens societies were formed within the congregation. In 1909 statues of St. Agnes, St. Aloysius, St. Stephen, and St. Theresa were built for the side altars in the church. Two new expensive bells, one small and one large, were blessed and added to the bell tower in 1910. Around this time there were about 50 families that belonged to the parish, and 30 children that were still taught in the school. In the 1920s, many personal donations were made including candelabras, a chalice, candlesticks, more statues, and monetary contributions towards church debt. On October 10, 1938 the electric lights were turned on. In the next few years, electricity ran wild throughout the church, powering things like a blower in the organ, restrooms, and general lighting in the church and rectory. Extensive remodeling of the interior church went on during the 1960s, including new marble benches, new doors, ramps, a furnace, and a new organ. During the 1970s, the parish community really came together and bonded through basketball leagues, parish cookouts, and other annual events. St. Bernard Church continues to thrive today, providing a phenomenal place to gather and worship for Catholic citizens of Snake Run and its surrounding areas.viding a phenomenal place to gather and worship for Catholic citizens of Snake Run and its surrounding areas.