Information taken from
                    Assumption Parish - First 100 Years - Florian, MN 1882-1982
                                         Editor: Dolores Kostrzewski
                                         Co-Editor: Rosalia Stusynski

     "The territory that now comprises the Crookston Diocese has come under many jurisdictions, both civil and religious.
     France first claimed the territory which forms the present Crookston Diocese, although the Hudson Bay Company and the Thirteen Original Colonies had also contested for its possession.  England acquired a part of the eastern portion through a treaty until 1800, when negotiations for its restoration to France were begun.
     In 1803, Napoleon Bonaparte sold [The Louisiana Purchase], including this western part, to the United States.  Indians and a few white traders occupied the land until the later part of the nineteenth century; the Indian population at that time as 10,000.
     The Rt. Rev. Rupert Seidenbusch, O.S.B., resident at St. Cloud, headed the Vicariate Apostolic of Northern Minnesota which was established on February 12, 1837.   St. Cloud became an episcopal see (sic) in 1889.  In the same year, a new diocese was established at Duluth; it embraced what is now the Diocese of Crookston.
     On December 31, 1909, the Diocese of Crookston was established.  The Most Reverend Timothy Corbett, consecrated in 1910, became the first bishop of Crookston.
     The diocese comprises 17,210 square miles and includes the Minnesota counties of Becker, Beltrami, Clay, Clearwater, Hubbard, Kittson, Marshall, Mahnomen, Norman, Pennington, Polk, Red Lake, and Roseau."

                                                    
                                                  BISHOPS

Most Rev. Timothy Corbett, D.D.
May 19, 1910 - August 6, 1938.

Most Rev. John H. Peschges, D.D.
November 9, 1938 - October 30, 1944.
                                    
Most Rev. Francis J. Schenk, D.D.
May 24, 1945 - January 27, 1960.

Most Rev. Laurence A. Glenn, D.D.
January 27, 1960 - July 28, 1970.

Most Rev. Kenneth J. Povish, D.D.
September 29, 1970 - October 21, 1975.

Most Rev. Victor H. Balke, D.D.
September 2, 1976 - ?