1913

The Sacred Heart church at Navina was built at a cost of $1,600.00. The Catholic Extension Society donated $300.00 and the rest was raised by parishioners. The church was all paid for before it was dedicated on March 23, 1914 by Bishop Meerschaert. The estimated value of the Navina property in 1918 was $2,000.00.

1918

On May 9th, Father J. B. Dudek said his first Mass after ordination at St. John's. He had come to Oklahoma as a child in 1894 and was a convert to Catholicism at the age of 15. He had been a music professor at the Edmond Normal School and a deputy parole officer at the state penitentiary in McAlester before he went to the seminary. His parents lived in Edmond and he was the first priest to be ordained from the parish of St. John's. Father Dudek was a scholarly prolific writer who was appointed chancelor of the diocese in 1925, a post that he held for 30 years.

After World War I, anti-Catholic bigotry reached its highest level in Oklahoma. The Ku Klux Klan had an estimated active state membership of 70,000. There were three anti-Catholic newspapers with statewide circulations and a number of popular anti-Catholic lecturers. Job discrimination against Catholics was evident and there were threats against parochial schools.

1924

Bishop Meerschaert died and Francis Clement Kelley was installed as the second bishop of Oklahoma. He did much to raise the cloud of suspicion against Catholics even though he too was a foreigner from Canada. At this time, the diocese had grown from 500 to 50,000 Catholics. It had 76 parishes with resident pastors, 87 mission churches without a resident priest, and 29 stations without a church or priest.

Father W. J. Stephenson was appointed pastor of St. John the Baptist parish, following the unprecedented 15 year term of Father Dannis. Father Stephenson was born in England, was ordained in 1915, and came to Oklahoma from a teaching post near Chicago. He served a few months at Edmond, a year at Durant, and then worked for a short time as assistant editor of the diocesan newspaper. Before becoming a priest, he had served in the army and he was noted for his military bearing.

1925

Succeeding Father Stephenson, and remaining for a year, was Father C. Arthur MacLeod, a Redemptorist priest from Boston who spoke with a definite accent. Some people described him as being aristocratic and aloof. A new addition to the church and major repairs to the rectory were made under his direction at a cost of $1,564.47. While he was pastor, Mass began to be said every Sunday of the month. Plus, Lockridge had Mass on the first and third Sundays and Navina had it on the second and fourth Sundays. Mass times alternated between 8:30 am and 10:30 am.

1926

Father Philip Hartmann followed Father MacLeod. Father Hartmann was born on June 20, 1861 in Iserfeld, Westphalia, Germany. He was ordained a priest of the Precious Blood Order by Bishop Elder in Cincinnati, Ohio on February 28, 1890. Father Hartmann died on May 20, 1928. 

1928

Father James W. O'Keefe, the first native Oklahoman to be ordained a priest, was named pastor of St. John's. He was a Benedictine who left the order and became secularized in 1924. He has been described as a poet, a musician, and a teacher. One of his hobbies was making wine which he did in the rectory. When the bishop transferred him, he worried about his wine that was fermenting. He ended up leaving it with one of the parish families.

At this time, the estimated value of the church property in Edmond was $10,000.00, with the church valued at $6,000.00 and the rectory at $4,000.00.

1929

Father James McNamee was named pastor of St. John's. He was born in Ireland and was ordained in 1925. He was one of the first two priests ordained by Bishop Kelley. Father McNamee was an intellectual who sometimes talked over people's heads. He changed a lot of things including the physical plants at both Lockridge and Edmond. At Lockridge he renovated the church, cut the belfry tower down, and shortened it. He made a personal gift to St. Patrick's of a 102 year old church bell and the Stations of the Cross.