In the 1860's, the brick and glass industries were thriving in Glasco and several Irish and Italian immigrant families settled there, seeking a livelihood in their new homeland. These families brought with them their Catholic faith. Thes families belonged to the Parish of St. Mary of the Snow which had been founded in Saugerties in 1833. In 1864, Saugerties was annexed (as was all of Ulster County) into the Archdiocese of New York. The serving pastor, Father Powers, also transferred as an archdiocesan priest and continued to serve until his retirement in 1878. He was succeeded briefly by the Rev. John F. Lynch who was in turn succeeded by the Rev. Denis Paul O'Flynn on November 10th, 1878. Rev. O'Flynn was a native of County Cork, Ireland who was educated in Louvain in Belgium where he obtained his licentiate in Theology. In addition to the main parish church in Saugerties, Rev. O'Flynn also cared for the mission churches in the hamlets of Clove and Quarryville. On January 11th, 1886 Father ('Flynn wrote to Archbishop Michael A. Corrigan and described the work, hardships, and "great distances" necessary to care for the missions of Quarryville and Clove. He also mentioned the need for a mission in Glasco. Archbishop Corrigan concurred and, on April 1st, 1886, Quarryville and Clove became a separate mission parish under the pastoral care of Rev. Michael Haran, a resident priest at St. Mary of the Snow Church in Saugerties.

It was after the appointment of Father Haran that the first St. Joseph's Church was built in Glasco. St. Joseph's would remain a mission church of St. Mary of the Snow until 1919. At the end of the ninetheenth and into the early twentieth century, Glasco had become predomnantly settled by Italian-Americans. To better minister to the need of the faithful, another St. Mary's resident priest, Rev. Henry Newey, was assigned to the St. Joseph's Mission. Rev. Newey had been educated in Rome and was able to converse in Italian with the parishioners.

As the parish grew in the early 1900's, there was a need for a larger house of worship. The current Church of St. Joseph's, formerly a Dutch Reflormed Curch, was purchased in 1917 by Father James A. Talbot, then serving as pastor of St. Mary of the Snow Parish. Existing church records show the purchase cost was $200,000 with an additional $65,000 of repairs and renovations necessary. AS the church community continued to grow, an effort was initiated by members to have a resident priest assigned to St. Joseph's on a full-time basis. In a letter dated March 1th , 1919, a parishioner, Cosmo Reha, wrote to Archbishop Patrick Hayes requesting him to assign a priest ot St. Joseph's. An additional letter to the Archbishop was sent by Joseph Mayone to Father Leo Deneen. In July 1919, Archbishop Hayes directed the then pastor of St. Mary's, Father Joseph G. Cushman, to send a priest conversant in Italian to reside in Glasco and Father Matthew DiOrio became the first residen pastor of the parish. According to Father DiOrio's records between July 1919 and December 1919, $250.50 was collected in pew rental, $617.30 in Sunday collections and the Christmas collection was $132.50. On August 24th, 1919 Francisco Tiano received the first baptism and on October 16th, Philip Conte and Louise Resso were united in the first wedding.