On the south side of St. Rte. 274, near where it meets U.S. 127, stand a small church with a large steeple. This is the parish church of St. Aloysius of Carthagena, Ohio. The history of St. Aloysius is tied very closely with that of St. Charles Seminary. This area was bought by an Augustus Wattles in 1835 to develop a settlement and training school for recently freed slaves from the South. With money from the estate of Samuel Emlen estate, the Emlen Institute was established. On March 14, 1861, as Americans went to war over the slavery issue, the Precious Blood Society acquired the Emlen Institute and renamed it the St. Charles Borromeo Theological Seminary. With the establishment of the Seminary, some of the Catholic settlers of German descent started buying farms near the Seminary. They attended services in the Seminary Chapel, and this is what became St. Aloysius parish. By 1865, 16 families met to organize a parish. In 1875 it was decided to build a new parish church. The Precious Blood Society donated one and a half acres of the northwest corner of their land for the structure.
  The new church was dedicated on June 30, 1878. In 1903, an apse and two sacristies were added at the rear of the church, with a basement under these additions.
  St. Aloysius Parish today numbers about 100 families. St. Aloysius shares a pastor with St. Francis, Cranberry Prairie.