Mentz

Mentz is at the intersection of Mentz and Frelsburg roads, seven miles northeast of Columbus in Colorado County. St. Roch's Catholic Church is at the crossroads. The community was settled around 1846, primarily by German Catholics from B?desheim, Hesse. Many of the early settlers were from the Diocese of Mainz. The first ones came with the Mainz Society ( see ??ADELSVEREIN ) and named the settlement Neu Mainz, a name which evolved into Mentz. The settlers built a small church in 1858 and named it after a St. Roch chapel in the vicinity of Bingen and B?desheim. From 1872 to 1916 Mentz had a Catholic school staffed by the Sisters of Divine Providence