The first settlers were German Roman Catholic farmers. They migrated to the area beginning in 1837 under the leadership of the Jesuit missionary Father Nicholas Steinbacher. Together they built the first Church of the Immaculate Conception in 1838. The current stone church building was erected in 1860. The parish also established a cemetery and Catholic school soon after the settlement of Bastress. Immaculate Conception parish and school stand today as a reminder of the German Catholic heritage of the residents of Bastress Township.