Polish immigrants in Rockville found work and lodging, but desired to retain their national and religious identity where they could worship God according to the national traditions and in the Polish language. It is significant that, before the first St. Joseph Church was built, there existed already religious organizations, e.g., the Rosary Society. The needs of Polish Catholics in Rockville were served by the priests who traveled to Rockville from New Britain or Hartford. To that end they desired to build their own church under direction of the Catholic Bishop of Hartford.

The first meeting to construct the church was held on October 21, 1901 in the Links Hall on the Village Street. Mr. Joseph Grous was elected president of the new organization. This was also the meeting at which the first draft of the Constitution was proposed and the decision was made to begin collection of the money for a new church under patronage of Saint Joseph. There were monthly meetings of this organization. On October 27, 1903, a parcel of the land was purchased from the Hockanum Mills for $1,000.00. After the purchase of the land, the organization had only $64.97.

In 1903 the monthly meetings continued. At the first meeting of that year, the constitution was approved and Mr. Stanislaus Ciechowski was elected the president. He led the organization for one year. Adam Kozlowski served until the new parish was established in 1905.

As the money was collected, a petition to establish a new Polish parish under patronage of Saint Joseph was sent to Rt. Rev. Michael Tierney, the Bishop of Hartford. Bishop Tierney was sympathetic, but, at that time there was no Polish priest who could be assigned as the pastor of Saint Joseph Parish, Rockville. Instead, Father Lozowski would travel every Sunday from Hartford to celebrate the Mass for the faithful at Saint Joseph. People had to wait until the priest would be available. People were patient and hopeful. Collection of funds continued for the new purchase of the new parcel of land at the corner of West and Union Streets from Clarence Bradfish.

On April 26, 1905, Bishop Michael Tierney created a new parish in Rockville, the ninth Polish Catholic Parish in the Diocese of Hartford. Father Charles Wotypka, former assistant at Sacred Heart Parish in New Britain, became the first pastor of the parish.

Father Charles Wotypka was born in Prague of a Czech father and a Polish mother. He was ordained to priesthood in Grand Rapids, Michigan on August 25, 1889. After a priestly ministry in his diocese, he came to New Britain in 1905 to work with Monsignor Lucjan Bojnowski.

Father Wotypka's first priority in Rockville was to build a new church. Meantime, the Sacred Heart Church, a mission of Saint Bernard Church, was used for the Mass and services. The first Mass at St. Joseph Church was celebrated on April 30, 1905, the Sunday after Easter. In the afternoon, at the meeting of the parish, Father Wotypka announced his nomination as the first pastor of Saint Joseph.

The Parish Committee was dissolved and the finances of the parish ($95.94 and debt of $4,400.00 after purchase of the land and home) were transferred to the new pastor. Then Father Wotypka began a membership drive for the parish. The first year 132 families and 129 single persons (678 people) joined the parish. Catholics living in Vernon, Broad Brook, South Manchester and Tolland chose to be members of Saint Joseph Parish.

After purchase of the land, it was time to begin construction of the church. Parishioners decided to take a bank loan of $14,700.00 with 4.5% interest. Generosity of the parishioners, social events and fund drives helped to defray the cost of the construction. More affluent parishioners helped with additional personal loans. In May 1905, Father Wotypka signed the contract with IcIntyre Construction Company to build the church. The church was blessed on October 29, 1905 by Bishop Michael Tierney. This church would serve the parish for more than fifty years.

The new pastor did not have good health and had to be away from the parish. Other priests substituted for him. On April 30, 1908, Father Charles Wotypka was admitted to the Springfield Hospital where he died on August 28, 1908 and was buried at Saint Mary Cemetery in New Britain, CT.

The second pastor of Saint Joseph Parish was Father Joseph Culkowski. He was born in Poland and emigrated with his parents to the United States. The family settled in Buffalo, New York. Father Culkowski was educated by Felician Sisters at Saint Stanislaus School and received his philosophical and theological studies at Saints Cyril and Methodius College and Seminary in Orchard Lake, Michigan. He was ordained for the Hartford Diocese on July 2, 1899.
After serving in a few parishes as an assistant, he was made a pastor of Saint Stanislaus Church in Meriden. On May 1, 1908, he was made a pastor of Saint Joseph in Rockville. Unfortunately, poor health did not allow him to be in the parish long. He died in Buffalo, N.Y. on August 29, 1909 and was buried at the Polish cemetery. In February of 1909 Father Soltysek was made an administrator of the parish during the illness of Father Sulkowski.

Father Maximilian Soltysek, the third pastor of the parish, was born in Naklo, Poland. He was ordained a priest in 1901. There he successfully ministered until 1904 when he came to the United States and served at Saint Stanislaus Church in New Haven and Saint Michael the Archangel Church in Derby. On March 1, 1908, Father Soltysek was appointed third pastor of our parish. He was famous for his excellent preaching.

As a pastor he emphasized catechetical work, and also the life and activities of the parish societies. During his tenure, he built a new parish school and a convent for Sisters. In November 1917, he was transferred to a larger Polish parish in Middletown, CT. Father Soltysek was an outstanding priest, remembered for his religious and patriotic zeal. He died in Enfield in 1960.

Father Leon Wierzynski was appointed the fourth pastor of Saint Joseph Parish on November 5, 1917. He was born in Boguszewice, Belorussia in 1860. He studies for the priesthood in Plock Seminary in Poland. He was ordained priest on December 17, 1887. Until 1905, the year of his arrival in the United States, he worked in the Wloclawek Diocese. After eight years in the Archdiocese of Philadelphia, he moved to the Hartford Diocese. On November 5, 1917, he was appointed by Bishop John J. Nilan as Pastor of Saint Joseph Church. He remained only one year. Most of the people in the parish came from Galicia and Pomerania and had a difficult time understanding their pastor from Belorussia. Parishioners wanted to have a pastor who spoke their language. Father Wierzynski resigned the parish and taught at Saint John Cantius in Erie, Pennsylvania, a Vincentian school. In 1921 he returned to Poland.

The vacancy was filled by Father Franciszek Wladasz. He was born in Upper Silesia. He studied in Munich, Bavaria and Freiburg in Switzerland. He was accepted into the Hartford Diocese and ordained by Bishop John Nilan on October 10, 1911. He was appointed Pastor of Saint Joseph Church on August 22, 1918.

During his time in Rockville, he paid a substantial part of parish debt and bought a new parcel of land with the intention of building a new parish church. That year the Sisters of Saint Joseph of the Third Order of St. Francis left the parish. Father Wladasz, at the advice of Bishop Nilan, invited the Felician Sisters to teach in the parish school. The Felician Sisters have continued their teaching ministry to this day. In 1922, Father was transferred to be the pastor of the Holy Name of Jesus in Stanford. He was a great patriot and loved deeply the Catholic Church. Pope John XXIII elevated him to the dignity of Papal Prelate in spring of 1959.

Father Franciszek Wladasz died in June 26, 1959. He was succeeded by Father Stefan Bartkowski. Father Bartkowski was born September 2, 1882 in Chelmce near Inowroclaw in the Archdiocese of Gniezno. He grew up during Kulturkampf, the time of forced Germanization of the Polish people in the region of Prussia. He studied at St. Froud College and at American College of Louvain University in Belgium. After his ordination, he worked in Jamaica, Long Island, and Brooklyn, New York before transferring into the Hartford Diocese. Appointed Pastor of Saint Joseph, Rockville, he was here only four years (1922-1927).

During this time, he remodeled the rectory and paid the parish debt. He worked closely with parish societies. Bishop Nilan entrusted him with the task of organizing Holy Cross Parish in New Britain. During his 34 years as a pastor of that newly formed parish he built a new church, rectory, school and convent for the Sisters of Saint Joseph of the Third Order of St. Francis. Father Bartkowski died On May 8, 1961 and is buried at Sacred Heart Cemetery next to his brother and sister. He was loved and esteemed among faithful and the clergy.

After the transfer of Father Bartkowski to New Britain, Father Zygmunt Woroniecki became the seventh Pastor of Saint Joseph Parish. He was born June 28, 1884 in Ciechocin, Diocese of Plock. At the age of 16, he emigrated to the United States and lived with his brother, an organist, at Sacred Heart Church in New Britain. When he finished his education for the priesthood at Saint Cyril and Methodius Seminary in Orchard Lake, Michigan, he was ordained a priest on June 24, 1913 by Bishop John J. Nilan. He worked in a few parishes as an assistant and in 1915 he received the appointment to be the founding pastor of the Immaculate Conception Parish in Southington. He remained at that post until 1927 when he was transferred to Saint Joseph Parish, Rockville on November 9, 1927. He remained the pastor of the parish for twenty-two years, until 1949. During his tenure as a pastor, he renovated the church and the other church buildings. He modernized the Saint Joseph Convent for the Felician Sisters. In the parish he celebrated his 25^th and 30^th anniversary of his priestly ordination. During the Second World War, under leadership of Father Woroniecki, Saint Joseph Parish was involved in helping people in occupied Polish territories.

In May 1943, Father Woroniecki became sick and was hospitalized hospital in Hartford. During his illness, Fathers Jan Sobolewski and Eugeniusz Solga took the administration the parish. On October 10, 1949, Father Zygmunt Woroniecki died in Saint Francis Hospital. Three days later, Bishop Henry J. O'Brien presided at his funeral. He was buried according to his wishes at Polish Cemetery in Southington.

The parish observed a month of morning after losing their pastor. Parishioners, with support of Father Hyacinth Lepak, financed the monument on the grave of Father Woroniecki. Father Hyacinth Lepak, on occasion of dedication of the monument, celebrated Mass with parishioners and church societies and said "He exhausted himself for the Polish causes and his parish."

The eight pastor of Saint Joseph Parish, Father Hyacinth Lepak, was born December 23, 1905 in Buffalo, New York, as the third child of an immigrant family.
In 1906, his family moved from Buffalo to Hartford. There Father Lepak attended grammar and high school. In 1923, he began studies at Saint Thomas Seminary in Bloomfield. He studied Philosophy at Saint Cyril and Methodius Seminary in Orchard Lake, Michigan (1925-1927) and Theology at the Catholic University in Freiburg, Switzerland. He received priestly ordination from Bishop Mariusz Besson.

For the next 18 years, he served as the chaplain to Felician Sisters in Enfield and as an assistant pastor in seven parishes in the diocese. At his post of Our Lady of Czestochowa Parish in Middletown, he received the appointment to be the pastor of Saint Joseph Parish in Rockville. He began his pastoral duties on November 6, 1949.

He was a zealous priest dedicated to the Catholic and Polish national traditions. During his pastorate, with help of the parishioners, he built a new church (1958), a new convent (1968), and paid the parish debt. At Saint Joseph Church, he celebrated the 25^th anniversary of his ordination and the Golden Jubilee of the parish. Bishop Bernard J. Flanagan, Bishop of Norwich, presided on October 23, 1955, at the 50^th Church Anniversary Mass celebrated by Father Franciszek Wladasz, the fifth pastor of Saint Joseph.

Father Hyacinth Lepak's health was declining and he made the decision to retire from active administration of the parish.  He was recovering from painful surgery at Monsignor Bojnowski Manor in New Britain where he passed into eternal reward on November 1, 1978. In memory of their beloved pastor, parishioners formed Father Lipak Memorial Fund for the students of the parish school.

Father Aloysius Kisluk, assistant of the parish, became the ninth Pastor of Saint Joseph Church. Born in Bristol, Connecticut to an immigrant family on October 28, 1928 his parents moved to New Britain, where he finished his education and went to study philosophy at Saint Mary College and theology at Sts. Cyril and Methodius Seminary in Orchard Lake, Michigan. Father Kisluk was ordained a priest on May 30, 1957, at Saint Patrick Cathedral in Norwich.

After serving as an assistant in a few parishes, and as a teacher in Saint Bernard High School in Uncasville, Father Kisluk was appointed a pastor of Saint Joseph Parish on December 18, 1975. He was installed as a pastor January 4, 1976 by Bishop Daniel P. Reilly. He renovated the church and organized Diamond Jubilees of the parish and was elected the President of the Polish Priests Association in Connecticut. In 1988, Father Aloysius Kisluk was transferred to Middletown to be a pastor of Our Lady of Czestochowa Parish.

Father Joseph Hanks became tenth pastor on May 26, 1988. Father was born on February 24, 1958 in Norwich, Connecticut as a member of Saint Joseph Parish. There he finished his grammar and high school education. After studying Theology at Christ the King Seminary in East Aurora, N.Y., he was ordained a priest on May 30, 1981 by Bishop Daniel P. Reilly at St. Patrick Cathedral in Norwich.

Before coming to Rockville, he served as an assistant in Saint Mary of Czestochowa in Middletown. During his time as a pastor, he made many improvements in the parish. He successfully launched the parish Youth Program. His interest in the parish school brought an increase in student enrollment in Saint Joseph School. In his last year, he organized the Kindergarten and Pre-Kindergarten Program. Due to his dynamic personality, organizational skills and love of Catholic education, Bishop Daniel Reilly on April 18, 1994, transferred Father Joseph Hanks to Saint John Parish in Old Saybrook, with the assignment to re-open the school there which had been closed for several years.