About Carroll settlement and the church there. ST. MARY’S CATHOLIC CHURCH The early Catholics held service at the Carroll settlement about seven miles south of Bunker Hill on Sundays even though there was no Priest available. The first Catholic Church to serve the present territory of the Bunker Hill parish was built in 1854 on the Prairietown road.  The church was made of brick and had an adjoining cemetery.  The only traces remaining now are fragments of tombstones in the pasture along the road to Prairietown.   The building of the railroad through Bunker Hill brought a number of Catholic settlers to town.  For a while, services were held at Bunker Hill and the parish on the Prairietown Road by several priests stationed in Alton.  Finally Bunker Hill became the more important congregation, and Bishop Juncker of Alton decided to station a resident pastor here who would see to the building of a new church.  The Rev. A. B. Rinkes was appointed the first pastor of Bunker Hill in 1865.  The work progressed in the new Bunker Hill Church, named in honor of the annunciation of the Blessed Virgin Mary.  During the next fifteen years, the church was improved in several ways; a remodeled sanctuary, a new addition to the front and  a steeple was added.  In the same period, a rectory and a parish school was built.  The school functioned successfully for many years, but later, so many families moved from the town it was impossible to continue.