From 1825 to 1839, the colonists in DeWitt and Lavaca Counties were visited occasionally by Spanish-speaking priests from San Antonio or from Victoria.  Among the settlements in the area that began during this time was one called Brushy (now Yoakum).  John May, originally from Ireland, was granted a league of land and settled along Brushy Creek in 1833.
     Like all of the older parishes in this area, the history of St. Joseph Parish in Yoakum is closely tied to the history of St. Mary’s in Lavaca County (Brown Settlement).  In 1839 two priests from Kentucky, Rev. George Haydon and Rev. Edward Clarke, came to Texas to work with the Vincentian Fathers in the Texas missions.  Father Haydon visited the Brown Settlement, and made arrangements for Mass to be said there on a monthly basis.  About the middle of 1840, Fr. Haydon came back to Brown Settlement and brought Fr. Clarke with him.  There they began to build a log church and school.  The church was named St. Mary’s, and the priests began serving other settlements in the area.  In July, 1840 the Rev. John Mary Odin, C.M., and three other Vincentians, sailed from New Orleans to Texas, landing at Linnville on Lavaca Bay, and joining a wagon train, proceeded to Victoria.  After a short time there, the Rev. Eudaldus Estany remained there as pastor, and others continued to San Antonio.  Fr. Odin was assigned the task of reviving and reorganizing the Church in the new Republic of Texas.  He visited Brown Settlement November 20, 1840, before proceeding to Austin, the capital of the new Republic.
     There is no known record of the first time Mass was celebrated in the area of what is now Yoakum.  On January 15, 1842 Rev. John Mary Odin, who a few weeks later would become the first Bishop of Texas, visited John May at Brushy.  Although this seems to be the first recorded visit of a priest to Brushy, it is assumed that Fr. Haydon and/or Fr. Clarke had celebrated Mass in homes there earlier.  In 1847, when the Diocese of Galveston was formed, St. Mary’s was one of ten completed churches in Texas and Brushy was listed as having a Mass station.  Also, the 1847 Catholic Almanac, a listing of churches in the Vicariate of Texas and their pastors, listed Brushy and Labaco (sic) Co., attended by the Rev. Eudaldus Estany, C.M. who had come to Texas with Fr. Odin and was the pastor in Victoria.  As was common practice at the time, Mass was apparently celebrated in a home.
     In 1850, Rev. Charles Padey, a missionary of St. Mary’s organized the Catholics of Brushy to build a log church about three miles east of the present town of Yoakum.  It was used as a mission for about 19 years, and continued to be served by priests from St. Mary’s.  in 1854 a 199-acre tract of land, which included the log church, was deeded by Mary Ann May to the Bishop of Galveston.
     Rev. John A. Forest come to St. Mary’s as an assistant in 1863, and the following year became pastor.  He recognized the need for a larger church at Brushy.  In 1866 Fr. Forest and the settlers began assembling the materials for a new stone church.  In 1868 John and Sarah Mary Dunn deeded 50 acres of land to the Diocese of Galveston for the new church.  The cornerstone was laid in 1869.  The church was completed in 1876 and consecrated St. Joseph’s, but it was popularly known as “Brushy Church.”  In 1886 the railroad was built through what is now Yoakum, and the following year the City of Yoakum was incorporated.  The church continued to be served by Father Forest and other priests from St. Mary’s and Hallettsville until 1895.  Father Method Vaculik was the first full-time pastor of St. Joseph’s from 1895 to 1899.
     After the railroad was built, the center of the community moved a mile or more from Brushy to the railroad.  Fr. William Heffernan took Fr. Vaculik’s place in 1899, and during his term as pastor a half block of property nearer the center of Yoakum was purchased by the parish.  This is the property on which the present St. Joseph Church and School now stand.  An attempt was made to build a new church in 1906.  The foundation was laid and part of the walls was erected where St. Joseph School now stands.  Unfortunately, construction was stopped, apparently because parishioners did not want to abandon Brushy Church, which many of them had built with their own hands.  The same year St. Ann Mission Church near Hochheim was built, and has been served by priests from St. Joseph’s since then except from 1922 to 1932 when Fr. Charles Benes was the first and only full-time pastor of St. Ann’s.
     Father John Sheehan succeeded Fr. Heffernan in 1908.  By personal persuasion he was able to convince the parishioners that the Brushy Church was no longer able to serve the needs of the fast-growing town.  By 1910, Yoakum had a population of more than 4,600, which was about 1,000 more than that of Victoria the same year.  The present St. Joseph Church was built in 1912.  The Brushy Church was abandoned and was being used as a hay barn when the roof and other wooden parts were destroyed by fire in 1932.  Remains of the walls can still be seen behind St. Joseph Cemetery just off FM 318.
     In 1927, three men representing the Spanish-speaking community in Yoakum formed a committee with the purpose of starting a parish or mission for the Spanish-speaking community in Yoakum.  They purchased an abandoned Assembly of God church building and lot on the corner of Capital and W. Gonzales Streets.  It became Santa Ana Church, and was served as a mission of Our Lady of Guadalupe Church, Cuero by Spanish-speaking Dominican Fathers in Cuero.  They served Santa Ana Mission until 1949 or 1950, when Santa Ana became a mission of St. Joseph Parish.  Rev. Carlos Quintana, an assistant at St. Joseph Parish, was placed in charge of Santa Ana Mission at that time.  In April 1967, Santa Ana mission was closed and the congregation was merged with St. Joseph Parish.
     Education has been an important part of the history of St. Joseph Parish.  Soon after the building of Brushy Church in 1876, a log school was built at the east side of the church with a room reserved for the use of the visiting priest.  Although it was a private school, it was the only school in the community, so it was attended by all children in the vicinity who sought an education.  This school served until after the railroad was built in 1887 and the town of Yoakum was laid out.  In 1889, a school was built on property given to St. Joseph Church (where the Episcopal Church now stands, across the street from Yoakum Heritage Museum), but a couple of years later it was moved back to the log building next to Brushy Church.  The log building later burned, destroying all parish records prior to 1895.
     In 1895, a new school was started by Sisters of the Incarnate Word sent from Hallettsville on ten acres of land near the Brushy Church.  In 1900 they bought two lots in the block on which the church and school now stand, and had the school building dismantled and moved there.  Around 1908 the sisters of Yoakum united with the sisters of Nazareth Academy in Victoria.  But because of financial difficulties in conducting the school, the sisters withdrew in 1911.
     In 1912, the Sisters of Divine Providence took over the school.  Construction on the present three-story school building began in 1926, and it was completed in 1929.  In 1928, arrangements were made to operate the school on a parochial basis, although the Sisters of Divine Providence continued to staff it.  Unfortunately, within the next four years after the completion of construction came the stock market crash, the closing of the railroad shops in Yoakum, and the failure of two of the banks in Yoakum.  The parish was left with a huge debt, which was not paid off until 18 years later.  Through what can be described to be a series of minor miracles the school has remained open until this day, although the high school grades were closed in 1970.
     In the year 2000 parishioners around St. Ann Parish began a restoration project centered on repairing the church building that had fallen into disuse.  By the 100^th Anniversary of St. Ann Church in 2006, Mass was again being celebrated at St. Ann and within a few years a weekly Mass was restored.
     Many priests have served St. Joseph Parish as pastors or as assistant pastors.  Among the most distinguished was the Rev. John a. Forest, who was pastor of St. Mary’s, Smothers Creek and then later Sacred Heart in Hallettsville.  In 1895, he became the third bishop of the Diocese of San Antonio.  Rev. Charles Grahmann served as an assistant from 1957 to 1962.  Rev. Peter Esterka, who was born in Moravia, Europe, served as an assistant pastor in St. Joseph Parish in 1964, and on September 11, 1999 was ordained an auxiliary bishop in the Diocese of Brno, Moravia, Czech Republic.  The Most Rev. Hugo Gerbermann, who had served as a Maryknoll Missionary Bishop in Guatemala, served as pastor of St. Joseph Parish for awhile after poor health forced him to retire from missionary activity.  Although many parishes have had the privilege of having a former pastor or assistant become a bishop, not many have had a bishop as their resident pastor.