St. Joseph's Catholic Church is a historic Roman Catholic church in Wapakoneta, Ohio, United States. Built in 1910, this church is home to an active Catholic parish, and it has been declared a historic site because of its well-preserved Romanesque Revival architecture.Early parish historyOne of the first two Catholic priests in northern Ohio was John William Horstmann, a native of Osnabrück who had settled in the village of Glandorf to the north. Starting in 1832, he made monthly journeys of to Stallotown to the south. As Wapakoneta lies midway between these communities, he often visited with and celebrated Mass for its few Catholic families. After four years of these travels, he established a parish at Petersburg, approximately south of Wapakoneta.By 1839, the Catholic community in Wapakoneta had grown to the point that it could be created a separate parish, and the members built a small frame church on the southeastern corner of the intersection of Pearl and Blackhoof Streets near the city's downtown. Although no resident pastor served the parish in its earliest years, membership grew during the 1840s and 1850s, and a priest was first assigned to the church in 1857. The expenses of maintaining even a small church caused the parish to be deep in debt during its earliest years, but it prospered greatly under the pastorate of Joseph Gregory Dwenger, later Bishop of Fort Wayne. Since 1850, the parish has been served by priests from the Congregation of the Precious Blood.