Rev. John J. Reiland, born May 9, 1868, in Luxembourg, was the pastor of Sacred Heart Church in Parkston, Hutchinson County. His family emigrated to Wabasha County, Minnesota, in 1869. After studying at St. Francis Seminary in Wisconsin and the Propaganda College in Rome, he was ordained at the Gregorian University on October 28, 1891. Father Reiland served in White Lake and Aberdeen before taking charge of Sacred Heart Church in Parkston in 1897. Under his leadership, a new church building was constructed, and the parish included a parochial school managed by the Sisters of St. Joseph.
Rev. John J. Reiland, an able and earnest young representative of the priesthood of the great mother church, is installed in charge of the congregation of Sacred Heart Church in Parkston, Hutchinson County. The parish organization was effected in 1891, and through the zealous efforts of the pastor and people, the fine new church building will have been completed by the time this history is issued from the press.
Father Reiland is a native of Luxembourg, Europe, where he was born on the 9th of May, 1868, being a son of John and Ann Mary (Bartholome) Reiland. They bade adieu to home and native land in 1869 and emigrated to the United States, locating in Wabasha County, Minnesota, as pioneers of that section, where they still maintain their home. The subject of this tribute has thus passed practically his entire life in America, having been about one year of age at the time of his parents’ removal to the new world. After receiving his rudimentary educational discipline in the parochial schools, he passed six years in St. Francis Seminary, at St. Francis, Wisconsin. In pursuit of his definite plans of preparing himself for the priesthood of the church, he went to the city of Rome, where for four years he was a student in the Propaganda College, being ordained to the priesthood at the Gregorian University, on the 28th of October, 1891.
After his return to America, he came to South Dakota and was pastor at White Lake for one and one-half years, then being in charge of the parish of Sacred Heart Church at Aberdeen for the ensuing four years. At the expiration of this period, he came to Parkston as pastor of the parish of Sacred Heart Church, over which he has remained in charge for the past six years. He has infused zeal and devotion into the spiritual and temporal affairs of the church, gaining the affection and cooperation of his people and the respect and confidence of all who know him. He has shown in all the relations of life his earnest consecration to his holy calling. Father Reiland may well look with satisfaction on the work he has accomplished here, and the new and attractive church edifice will stand as a monument to his earnest labors, indefatigable energy, and his devotion to the service of the divine Master. In connection with the church, there is a parochial school in charge of the Sisters of St. Joseph (Concordia, Kansas), with an attendance of one hundred and twenty children.
Source: Robinson, Doane, History of South Dakota: together with mention of Citizens of South Dakota, [Logansport? IN] : B. F. Bowen, 1904.