ST. MICHAELS & ST. JOSEPH CATHOLIC SCHOOLS It would have been difficult anywhere to find schools with a higher academic standing than the two area Catholic Schools. The St. Michaels School at St. Florian, was established the year following the arrival of the German immigrants during the early 1870's. Miss Annie Mertz was its first teacher. These educational facilities at St. Florian now house a private institution known as the Riverhill School. The St. Joseph School in Florence as held in a two room frame building as early as 1902. The modern brick school was erected in 1948. Excerpt of "A Walk Through The Past"