Between 1642 and 1646, the first priests to visit the Hudson Valley would have been French Jesuits who during the early seventeenth century sought to bring the Catholic Faith to the semi-sedentary corn-cultivating hunter and fisher Wappinger people who were part of the Algonquin language group.  It is possible, but not reported, that before Saint Isaac Jogues and his companions were captured and martyred at Auriesville in 1646, they had passed through the territory that the English would name Dutchess County in 1683.

 The first priest documented to have visited Dutchess County was the  Jesuit, the Reverend Ferdenand (sic) Farmer (died August 17, 1786 in Philadelphia, Pa.) who had been born with the surname Steenmeyar in the south of what is today Germany.  He recorded in his journal that his missionary trip took him to Fishkill on October 5, 6, and 7 in 1781, where he baptized 14 Canadian and Acadian Catholics.  He again visited Fishkill Landing in November of 1783.  

 Although the United States had gained independence from Great Britain, the small Catholic communities in the American colonies were still under the ecclesiastical jurisdiction of the Apostolic Vicariate of the London District in England until June 1784 when Pope Pius VI established an American hierarchy with Reverend John Carroll as superior of the missions.  On November 26, 1784, the Prefecture Apostolic of the United States was erected and on November 6, 1789, the Diocese of Baltimore was created with Fr. Carrol being consecrated as Bishop.  The second Catholic Church in New York State, after Saint Peter's in Manhattan, was St. Mary's Parish in Albany, New York, founded in 1796.

 The Diocese of New York was founded in 1808 with Monsignor R. Luke Concanen, O.P. as Bishop.  At the time, there were not many Catholics.  But, immigration especially of Germans and Irish to New York led to an increase in the Catholic population. 

 In 1822, Father Laressy (died April 6, 1824), a member of the Augustinian Order, was commissioned by Bishop John Connolly (d. February 6, 1825) to establish a mission on the Hudson River.

 In 1830, Bishop John DuBois (d. December 20, 1842) commissioned Reverend Phillip O’Reilly, O.P. (d. December 7, 1854) who was stationed in Newburgh to establish parishes along the Hudson River north of Manhattan Island.   He established the Church of Our Lady of Loretto on a rock overlooking the Hudson River at Cold Spring in Putnam County in 1832.   He visited Poughkeepsie once a month.  The first Mass in Poughkeepsie was offered in the old Van Kleeck house (built in 1702) on the site of 224-226 Mill Street in Poughkeepsie in 1832 or 1833.  At the time, it was owned by George Belton, a Catholic who had arrived from Ireland in 1830 and whose great-great-great grandson is Vincent Miller director of William G. Miller Funeral Home in Poughkeepsie.  Poughkeepsie had a small group of twenty-eight Irish-born Catholic families who formed a Catholic Association to raise funds to erect a church.  On October 14, 1832 they were organized as the Congregation on the Hudson.  They were later joined by thirty-two more.  On August 8, 1835, John and Harriet Delafield deeded land on Mill Street to Bishop Dubois of the Diocese of New York on the conditions that after a period of time of fund raising a church building be commenced, that the building be completed within two years, and that said land be used for Catholic purposes in perpetuity.  This deed was recorded on May 21, 1836 and St. Peter's church, the first church in Dutchess County, would be erected on this land.

 Bishop DuBois charged Reverend Patrick Duffy (d. June 19, 1853), pastor of Our Lady of Loretto in Cold Springs with the regular spiritual care of this Congregation on the Hudson from1835 to 1837.  During this time, the Belton home became too small for the congregation.  In fact, the house was demolished in 1835 to widen the road.  Holy Mass was celebrated in a brewery near the Lower Landing at Pine Street.   Still later, the celebration of the Holy Mass moved to the Hibbasus' Hall on Market Street near Jay Street.(1)

 The church building having been completed at 95 Mill Street in Poughkeepsie, Bishop John Dubois established the Parish of Saint Peter the Apostle on November 26, 1837, consecrated the church building for worship, and named Irish-born Reverend John Maginnis (d. June 20, 1864) as first resident pastor of St. Peter Parish which included Saugerties, Kingston, and Redout (Rondout), all across the Hudson River.   Since all the current parishes of Dutchess County and parishes of Ulster County would be created from this parish, Saint Peter’s Parish is considered the "Mother Church of the Hudson Valley."   

 In 1839, Father Maginnis was transferred to St. James in Manhattan.  He was succeeded in Poughkeepsie as pastor by Reverend John N. Smith (d. February 16, 1848) who in 1840 erected a small frame church of St. Mary in the port town of Roundout (which merged with Kingston in 1872).  By 1840 St. Peter's Parish also had mission churches in Sylvan Lake and New Hamburg.   By 1841, St. Mary in Wappingers Falls became a parish independent of St. Peter's.  

 In 1842, Smith was transferred to St. James in Manhattan, again taking over from Maginnis who himself went West to minister to Irish Catholic gold prospectors in California where, in 1851, he became the first pastor of the parish of St. Patrick in the city of San Francisco.   

  Immediately, following Smith as pastor of St. Peter's was Reverend Myles Maxwell (d. August 31, 1849).  Maxwell was pastor until May 1844 when he was replaced by Reverend Joseph P. Burke who was pastor only until August of 1844. 

  Fr. Riordan was succeeded by Father Francis Caro, O.F.M., (d. 1894) in 1870. (2)  Fr. Caro had been born in 1822 on the island of Sicily in the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies.   He came to the Archdiocese of New York in 1855 already a Franciscan and ordained as a priest.  Assigned in the same year to the mission of Saint Joseph in Rossville, Staten Island, he was named its first pastor.  In 1859, he was transferred to Cold Springs and named pastor of Our Lady of Loretto with spiritual care for Catholics in Highland Falls and the Italians working in the munitions foundry at West Point.   

 Reverend Patrick F.  McSweeney, D.D. (d. February 24, 1907) was pastor from 1872 until 1877.  During his tenure he transferred the two parish schools to the management of the Board of Education of the City of Poughkeepsie.  Reading, Writing, and Arithmetic were taught by the Sisters of Charity whose salaries were paid by the City of Poughkeepsie.  After the end of the school day, they taught catechism lessons.  This became nationally known as the “Poughkeepsie Plan” and it lasted from 1872 until 1898 when the schools were returned to the parish because of dissension with some of the Board members.

The next pastor for most of the so-called Gilded Age was Reverend James Nilan from November 16, 1877 until his death at 9:33 am on Saturday, November 15, 1902 the day before his twenty-fifth anniversary as pastor.   He was born on September 27, 1838 at Castle Daly in County Galway, Ireland.  His father died when he was two.  His mother raised him praying he would receive a vocation to be a priest.  When he was fourteen, his uncle Rev. John Ryan brought him to New York and enrolled him at St. John’s College, Fordham, NY from which he graduated with honors.  He then studied for a year at St. Joseph Seminary at Fordham before being sent to finish his studies at the American College in Rome.  He was the first priest ordained from it for New York.  Among his classmates was one day Archbishop of New York, Michael Corrigan who was ordained for Newark.  They were ordained by Cardinal Patrizzi at St. John in Lateran on September 19, 1863.  He returned to New York in 1864 and was assigned to Holy Cross until 1868.  Next, he was pastor of Port Jervis where he had ten outstations.  It was in Port Jervis that the system by which the parish school was placed under the direction of the Board of Education was pioneered even before in was started in Poughkeepsie in 1872 and continued under his pastorship.  Fr. Nilan had the main altar in the Church consecrated on October 13, 1890.  He placed four paintings in the sanctuary representing “The Giving of the Keys to Saint Peter,” The Restoration of Light to Saint Paul After His Conversion,” Saint John the Beloved Disciple,” and “Saint James.”  He commissioned an Italian artist whom he had come to know in Rome to make copies of particular Stations of the Cross which he had remembered in a Vatican Chapel in Rome.  They were so important at the time, that both the Apostolic Delegate to the United States, Monsignor Satolli, and the Archbishop Michael Corrigan of New York came to dedicate the Stations.   Fluent in Italian, he was the Spiritual Director of the parish’s Italian Benevolent Society.  Fr. Nilan was sought out by peoples both Catholic and non-Catholic for his spiritual and temporal advice and promoted Catholic education.  He belonged to many civic societies.  Fr. Patrick McSweeney was the Celebrant of his Solemn Requiem Mass with Rev. Henry F. Brann as Deacon and Rev. G. Bruder as Subdeacon.   Archbishop of New York John M. Farley presided and pronounced the Absolution over the coffin.  Also present were Archbishop Ireland of St. Paul, Bishop Quigley of Buffalo, Mgr. Mooney and Mgr. Edwards of New York among others.  His funeral cortege was over a mile long.  He was buried in St. Peter's Cemetery.

It was during Fr. Nilan's pastorate that the Maryland-New York Province of the Society of Jesus purchased property in pieces over time between 1897 and 1899 along western side of Route 9 that would become a novitiate for young Jesuits known as St. Andrews.   A month after the novitiate's opening in January of 1903, one of the priests assigned there began to offer Holy Mass each week at Hudson River State Hospital.  Most of St. Andrew-on-Hudson was sold in 1970 to the Culinary Institute of America.  However, Our Lady of the Way Chapel at the southern entrance of the property and the Jesuit cemetery still belong to the Society of Jesus with a right of access and use of the chapel granted to St. Peter's Parish.   

 Following Fr. Nilan was the pastorate of Reverend William Livingston (d. June 2, 1927) from 1902 to 1906.   Fr. Livingston invited the growing Italian community to use the lower church for Masses offered by Rev. Angelus M. Iacobucci (d. March 30, 1955).  Italian Catholics would continue to have Mass there until Our Lady of Mount Carmel church was erected in 1910.  The first pastor of Mt. Carmel, since its founding on February 20, 1908, was Rev. Nicola Pavone who would ask the pastor of St. Peter's at the time, Monsignor Joseph Sheahan, to offer the first Mass in the newly built Mt. Carmel church after it had been consecrated by Rt. Rev. Msgr. Michael Lavelle (d. October 17, 1939).

 Reverend Monsignor Joseph Francis Sheahan, ordained on December 18, 1886 was appointed Pastor on March 24, 1906.  Msgr. Sheahan founded the Marist College Seminary in 1908 and asked the Marist Brothers to teach the upper grades of the boy's school.  In 1910, he aided in the establishment of the original Our Lady of Mount Carmel Church.  Previous to its completion, Italians worshipped at St. Peter's Church for five years.  In 1911, he founded St. Francis Hospital.  Still later he opened St. Peter’s Boys High School in 1926.  In the Cemetery, he erected vaults, a chapel, shrines, and encouraged the building of the old Celtic Cross in 1917 to honor World War I soldiers.   In civic affairs, he has the distinction of being one of five who initiated the building of the Poughkeepsie (now Mid-Hudson) Bridge, completed in 1930. 

 Msgr. Sheahan oversaw the celebration of St. Peter's Diamond Jubilee in 1912.  The church, which is now Our Lady of Mt. Carmel, was the oldest in Dutchess.  Once much smaller, it had been added to both front and back.  The old church forms the transept of the present church and had an entrance facing the river.   In anticipation of the 75th Anniversary property on Mills and Davis Streets had been purchased, and new sidewalks were put in.  Linoleum floors were put in the aisles of the church and a new carpet in the sanctuary.  The rector of St. Augustine's in the Bronx, Rev. Thomas Gregg  who had been baptized at St. Peter's in 1850, was the oldest living priest in the Archdiocese of New York and to be the celebrant of the Mass on Sunday November 24 at 11 am with John Cardinal Farley presiding after his arrival by train at 10:37 am.  Other priestly vocations produced by the parish were in attendance including, Rev. Thomas F. Owens, then priest at St. Gregory's in Manhattan, who took the role of deacon; Rev. William J. Rafter, then director of the Holy Name mission on the Bowery, who took the role of subdeacon; Rev. John J. Maher, then priest of Sts. Peter and Paul in the Bronx, who acted as Master of Ceremonies; and Rev. Francis J. Lamb, who preached.  In the evening, Solemn Vespers was celebrated by Rev. Francis X. Kelly, then of St. John's in Kingsbridge, the next oldest native born priest of the parish with Rev. James A. Talbot, then of St. Augustine's in the Bronx as deacon, and Rev. Thomas Duffy, then of Rosendale as subdeacon, and the Rev. Dr. Carroll, then junior secretary to the Cardinal as master of ceremonies.  The preacher was Rev. Edward M. Sweeny  who was an assistant at the parish for many years.

 Msgr. Sheahan died unexpectedly on November 2, 1934.  The Reverend James P. Moore was Acting Pastor from November 2 to December 24 of 1934.  The Right Reverend Monsignor Stephen Connelly, V.F., P.R. took over as pastor on Christmas Eve of 1934 and remained as such until1944, while he also served as Dean of Dutchess and Putnam Counties.  Because of the Great Depression, he was constrained to close the Boy's High School in 1936 and consolidate the two schools into St. Peter's School on Mill Street with Sister Josepha Dolores as Principal.  With Rev. Francis X. Harper and Rev. Vincent M. Brennan as assistants, he had the privilege of celebrating the 100th Anniversary of the parish in his 25th Anniversary of his priestly ordination (May 30, 1912).  On October 9, 1937, he was elevated to the rank of Monsignor by Pope Pius IX.  He also completed a restoration and renovation of the church which had been initiated by Msgr. Sheahan.  A "Triduum" was celebrated from November seventh to ninth. On Sunday, November 7 at 11:00 am, His Eminence Patrick Cardinal Hayes presided over of Pontifical Mass offered by the Most Rev. Stephen J. Donohue, D.D.  The sermon was preached by Right Rev. Msgr. Henry O'Carroll, the Dean of Orange and Rockland Counties.  One November 8, at 7:00 am Msgr. Connelly celebrated a Solemn Mass of Requiem for all deceased priests and people of the parish.  On November 9 at 7:00 am, Msgr. Connelly celebrated a Solemn Mass of Supplication as the Children's contribution to the Anniversary SUpplication.  That same day at 11:00 am, Bishop Stephen J. Donohue administered the Sacrmanet of Confirmation.

 Monsignor Valentine Snyder became pastor in 1944.  He would be transferred to become pastor of Immaculate Conception Church at 414 East 14th Street in Manhattan in 1948 and then become pastor of Our Lady of Refuge in the Bronx in 1952 before dying on March 12, 1965.  Subsequent to him, Msgr. Michael O'Shea became pastor of St. Peter's from 1948 to 1959. 

 Monsignor Francis  Xavier Harper (d. April 28, 1986) was pastor from July 25, 1959 until October 11, 1975.  Previously, he had already been parochial vicar at St. Peter's from 1936 to 1939 and then after brief assignments at Holy Innocents in Manhattan and Lincoln Hall in Lincondale was at St. Peter's again from 1940 to 1957.   By 1960, the Italian population of the Italian national parish of Our Lady of Mount Carmel (3) with its church just down the block from St. Peter's had grown very large while there were less and less parishioners at St. Peter's.  Msgr. Harper thought it made more sense that Our Lady of Mt. Carmel should occupy St. Peter's church building.  Collaborating with the Archdiocese and Msgr. Joseph Raimondo. (d. December 30, 2006), the pastor of Our Lady of Mt. Carmel, he oversaw the relocation of St. Peter's parish to its current boundaries in August of 1965 with the help of assistants, Fr. Peter J. Cody and Fr. Daniel O'Hare.  A new sixteen room school and nearby convent for twelve sisters with its own chapel were opened on parish property at the southeast corner of Violet Avenue (Route 9G) and (West) Dorsey Avenue.  The total cost of the new school was $1,200,000. Francis Cardinal Spellman dedicated the new chapel which could accomodated 200 people and opened the school Auditorium, school, and convent on June 18, 1966.  The rectory was not built until 1975 and so the priests had to commute daily to offer Holy Mass and other sacraments in the School Chapel dedicated to Our Lady Seat of Wisdom and the Convent Chapel of Our Lady of the Blessed Sacrament.   The hope was that eventually enough money would be raised to build a church on property next to the school.   Unfortunately, various factors in the late 1960's, 1970's, and 1980's led to a decline in the parish.

 Msgr. Harper became pastor emeritus on October 11, 1975 and was succeeded by Reverend Peter J. Cody (d. February 1, 1992), originally from the Bronx, who had been ordained in 1952 and been assigned as St. Peter's parochial vicar since 1956.  His previous assignments were at Good Shepherd in Rhinebeck from 1952 to 1954 and St. Pius V in the Bronx from 1954 to 1956.  From 1977 on, Fr. Cody  was assisted by Rev. Peter Jean Vianney, Ph.D., originally from Vietnam.  Thus, St. Peter Parish had two priests named Peter!  However, among the bright spots was the parish's 150th anniversary celebrated in 1987. 

 In 1988, Fr. Cody was named pastor of St. Charles in Dover Plains and succeeded at St. Peter by Reverend Kenneth M. Loughman who was administrator then pastor until his transfer to Most Precious Blood Parish in Walden in 1994.   Fr. Loughman continued to be assisted by Fr. Vianney until the latter's transfer to Regina Caeli in Hyde Park in 1993, as well as by Deacons James R. Hayes (d. March 25, 2023), George F. Cacchione (d. November 16, 2013), and Albert J. Klein (d. February 12, 2004)  The School Prinicpal was Sr. Cecilia Dolores and the Tuesday night CCD Coordinators were Don and Judy Rielle.  The Sunday Mass Schedule included Masses at 7 am, 9 am (with young people's folk music), 10:15 am, 11:30 am, 5:30 pm and a 5 pm Saturday Vigil.  Daily Mass was at 7 am Monday to Friday and 8 am on Saturdays.  There was a Novena Mass for the Purgatorial Society and Devotion prayers of the Miraculous Medal on Tuesdays at 7:30 pm.  In the Cemetery, in 1994, a new Celtic Cross of solid granite replaced the old cross which had seriously deteriorated beyond repair, made possible through the generosity of the James J. McCann Charitable Trust with John J. Gartland and William L. Hartland Jr. as Trustees. 

Succeeding Fr. Loughman in 1994 was Reverend James Mullen.  He in turn was succeeded in 1995 by Reverend Leo Prince, who, originally ordained a priest of the Adorno Fathers in 1986 and incardinated into the Archdiocese in 1993, was named Administrator of St. Peter's in 1995 until 1997 in which year he was assigned to teach mathematics at Our Lady of Lourdes High School.  He was replaced as Administrator by Reverend James Teague who had served as parochial vicar at Holy Family in New Rochelle since 1989.