USA > Alabama > A Catholic history of Alabama and the Floridas Volume 1 > Part 22
USA > Florida > A Catholic history of Alabama and the Floridas Volume 1 > Part 22
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CHAPTER LIV.
EARLY in the eighteenth century, Dr. John Chas- tang, lived on the Bluff named for him and there grew up about him the colored Creole Settlement which to this day represents his family.
Chastang is situated on the Mobile River, about fourteen miles above St. Philip, on the road to St. Stephen's, once the Spanish Capital of Alabama. It has an ancient Spanish cemetery, now in ruins.
At the close of the 18th century, three brothers from France cast their " tents upon a bluff which has since borne their name, Chastang's Bluff. A large tract was granted them by the Spanish Government, on part of which now stand St. Peter's Church and cemetery. The venerable Captain, Owen Finegan, who still walks among us though in the nineties, did much towards the building and decoration of this Church.
Jean, or Dr. Chastang, married a slave; the other brothers chose white wives, all were blessed with chil- dren. The descendants of Dr. Chastang are colored Creoles now in the fourth generation. The descend- ants of the other two brothers removed to different parts of the state and to other States, and sad to relate, many of them have lost the faith. There are more than two hundred Catholics at the Bluff, all more or less related. Recently on a visit of the Bishop, Right Rev. Dr. Allen, twenty-six made their First Com-
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munion and forty-six received the Sacrament of Con- firmation, among whom was a woman of ninety.
There is a school attached to the Chastang Settle- ment (Mobile Co.) in charge of a Lay teacher. French is still spoken by the Creole Chastangs, but with a peculiar patois. The colony dates back to Dr. Chastang and his servants on the Bluff nearby. Be- fore the war, the Afro-Latin Creoles were highly re- spectable freemen, often owning slaves, as did the rich negroes themselves, and, socially, keeping aloof from the negro population. They are much the same now, save that they cannot have slaves. The official Registers distinguish three classes: White, Creole, and negroes. Bishop Peñalvert entered the Creole class as Morenos or Browns.
Like its larger neighbor, New Orleans, Mobile has many races, but on a smaller scale. The sociability and hospitality of both cities are the same. French, Spanish, and Irish, with small contributions from other nations, have been the ancestors of the Mobilians of to-day, and the English language is heard in the ancient streets and flowery suburbs. The nomen- clature of the streets throws light on the genealogy : Espejo, Esclaua, St. Emmanuel .- Conti, Dauphine, St. Louis, etc. The city tracts are mostly Spanish grants. Since the suppression of slavery there has been room for the working man in the ancient city. More than once we heard it said by those who pros- pered within our gates : " There is no better place in America for the industrious poor man than Mobile." Either in our streets or parks there is no memento of the Indian once so populous in Mobile. We have not a Chickasalogue Street or a Chocktaw Street. Naboth had a vineyard which the King coveted, and
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being the stronger he possesses it. No doubt the In- dians wept over their first home: " By the rivers of Babylon there we sat, and wept when we remembered Sion." And though a home was found for our ex- patriated Indians and some indemnification made them, they may not yet have learned to sing the song of the Lord in a strange land. " If I forget thee, O Jeru- salem, let my right hand forget its cunning." Many seem to have forgotten the true Jerusalem. And now we can but pray and hope that they may find their real friend in the Black robe, and all the blessings of which he was the instrument to them, in the wilds to which their civilized brethren have banished them.
Many of the numerous settlers in Mobile dating back to Spanish times, and much of the immigration consequent on the religious wars in Ireland in Crom- well's revolutions or rather persecutions, and the English Revolution, 1688, made its way across the Atlantic, not a few settling in Alabama.
Many of the Acadians settled in the Attakapas country about the Teche, and some in Mount Vernon, Alabama. Their sad story is immortalized in Evan- geline. The French language has remained the dominant tongue of those people. There are many of Irish descent among them who do not speak or write English. According to their Parish Register at St. Martinsville, their priests have been French, Spanish, Irish, Italian, and most of them labored in Mobile. Fort St. Stephen called after Governor Miro (Este- ban) had a church, a priest, soldiers, settlers, traders. In this Fort, McClary first hoisted the American Flag, in 1799.
The Spaniards built a Church wherever they settled a colony. Fathers, McKenna, Savage, Lamport, and
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White, were among the first sent thither by the King of Spain. These gentlemen were conversant with several languages, and therefore able to exercise the ministry in the languages spoken in their cosmopolitan flocks.
·
In the pre-historic days of what is said to have been the cemetery for nearly two hundred years, the aborigines annually visited the spot. It was a favorite camping place for the Indian tribes who peopled the gulf coast contiguous. They came at intervals to trade. Huge quantities of oyster shells are still found a few inches below the surface. Ridges of shell de- posits are covered with earth and overgrown with the dank vegetation of this semi-tropical region.
The old Spanish method of burial was to lay a single course of brick on the top of the ground rest the coffin upon this, and brick in: Sometimes an arch of brick was thrown over the casket. Again the brick walls were carried up to a height above the level of the coffin, and a slab of stone or marble laid on the top.
A few old tombs were in fairly good preservation and the inscriptions-some in Spanish,-could be readily deciphered. It is over thirty years since we first saw this venerable Campo Santo. Much of the brick work was in good preservation. We were told that when the tombs were built there was no brick made in the neighborhood. All had to be imported from Spain or the Islands : also that tombs had often been rifled for the brick, when wanted for building. The trees were then very beautiful, and like those of the celebrated cemetery, BONAVENTURE, near Savannah, heavily draped with silky moss.
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Within a few years, a handsome new graveyard has been laid out near the old one, which is in a state of dilapidation. Many of the bodies of the military have been removed to the National Cemetery.
Tartar Point is now the Site of the Navy Yard. It was formerly called Punta la Asta Bandera-the Point of the Flagstaff. According to a treaty between the Creeks and the Seminoles,1 represented by Mc- Gillinay, and Spain by Governor Miro, assisted by Count Arthur O'Neil, governor of West Florida, and Don Martin Navarro, Intendant General of Florida, entered into June I, at Pensacola. The relations created by that treaty seem to have been observed up to the last day of Spanish rule in Florida.1
Anent the ancient cemetery, the following odd inci- dent seems like a step from the sublime to the ridic- ulous. A good industrious milliner of Pensacola died -a loss to her thrifty husband, financially, especially. He spoke of enlivening the gloomy Campo Santo by an elaborate monument to her cherished memory. Her trade was indicated by a very large board, ob- long, painted in bright colors, and informing the pub- lic of her name and occupation. With some help, he removed this sign-board from its hinges, and tearfully carried it to the newly made grave, where he lovingly placed it at the head of her coffin. We saw him in the cemetery, apparently admiring the effect, though weeping copiously.
Visitors may still see the oak-shaded resting-place of many generations of Pensacolians, and, till recently,
1 The Seminoles are seen at Miami and other trading parts. They are straight, keen-eyed. The women and children have not degenerated. They number about four hundred. Florida has about one thousand miles of sea-coast.
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over numerous graves : " Died of yellow fever." The crumbling tombs, the mouldering head-stones, the ivy- wreathed graves of hundreds who have contributed to the up-building of the deep-water city of the Gulf, once called Santa Maria, are still to be seen.
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CHAPTER LV.
GREAT were the sufferings of the Bishops at various epochs from the Trustees. Every pastor the Bishop proposed was usually rejected. It was six years before Bishop Portier could place in the desolated church of St. Augustine, Rev. Fathers Hackett and Rampon, who were finally received as its pastors. When the civil war broke out, it soon devastated the dioceses of the South. Bishop Quinlan's heart was almost broken by the sufferings of his people. The churches of Pensacola and Warrington were burned, and several congregations were scattered.
The Federal authorities were always friendly to the priests. Some, military men and civilians were old students of the Jesuits. General Banks sent a safe conduct to college and Convent, (Grand Coteau), and threatened with court martial any one who would interfere with their persons or property. Even the terrible General Butler gave leave repeatedly to export from New Orleans anything, not contraband, for the use of the college. At the close of the war, none were left in the country but women, children, old men and negroes.
The college which Father Portier opened in the old Ursuline Convent, New Orleans, soon had two hun- dred students. But when he became Bishop of Mobile, for lack of his powerful impulse and inspiring pres- ence, the new college dwindled away, and soon ceased
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to be. Before long many students followed him to Mobile and peopled Spring Hill College.
When a Bishop was placed in Florida, in our time, the Catholic property had been almost all swept away from the Church. The " Casa Episcopal " the house and grounds owned by the auxiliar Bishops, had been given to the Episcopalians, and the Convent of the Franciscans which gave missionaries to the Indian tribes from Albemarle Sound to Pensacola, had be- come the barracks. In 1857, Bishop Verot, became Vicar apostolic of Florida, and he announced the jubi- lee in 1858. War and disease prevailed. He endeav- ored to obtain Sisters of Mercy, and got a small colony from Providence, R. I. in the diocese of Hartford. They opened an Academy and instruction classes, April 1, 1859. He had applied for Sisters immediately after his consecration, and Mother Warde, then in Providence, gave the zealous prelate Sister Liguori Major, a convert, and three companions. These were re-inforced by two more whom the good Mother, hear- ing that their labors were ever on the increase, kindly sent to their aid. They were cordially welcomed in the ancient city, and were well pleased with the courteous people of that land of Mañana, (to-morrow) where it seems to be always evening. The soft speech and gentle apathy of the citizens contrasted with the sharp tones and stirring ways of their New England home.
Their first Convent was a small house on George's street, opposite the ancient Cathedral. In August, 1860, the foundations of a new Convent were laid. In its construction, coquina was much used-a shell conglomerate formed in the waters about the city, and accumulated in the shell heaps or mounds so common throughout Florida.
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The schools of the Sisters of Mercy were soon full, children came from the interior to be prepared for the sacraments. Special attention was given to the colored population, to whom the Bishop was greatly devoted. He valued much the zeal of the Sisters in instructing them. They soon learned to sing several hymns, and the Bishop delighted to hear them execute their favor- ite, with more vigor than beauty, in staccato move- ment :
" I am a little Catholic, And Christian is my name, And I believe in the Holy Church In every age the same ! "
The Jesuit, Father Florencia, a native of St. Augus- tine born in 1720, is credited with writing "many works of renown," among them a History of New Spain. He died in Mexico, aged seventy-five years.
During the episcopate of Bishop Moore, the ancient Cathedral of St. Augustine was burned. He traveled over a great part of Europe and America soliciting funds for the restoration of that venerable edifice, which he rebuilt.
Bishop Verot after laboring incessantly for the good of religion, died suddenly, July 16, 1876. He was buried in the old Tolemato cemetery. The old ceme- teries are not much used now. A new cemetery has been opened about two miles from the Cathedral. To this the remains of Bishop Verot will be removed with those of the late Bishop Moore. At San Lorenzo cemetery, St. Augustine, will soon be erected a mor- tuary chapel as a resting place for the departed clergy of the Diocese. It will also be a memorial to the late Bishop Moore. It will cost about fifteen thousand dollars.
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A new Catholic Colony was founded at the town of San Antonio, under the presidency of Col. Ed- mund, Danne, in Hernando, now Pasco County. The Benedictines have been sent to this colony and placed in charge of the church and schools established in it. Colored congregations, churches, and societies, have greatly increased in Florida.
Bishop Verot made a brave struggle to recover the Church properties in the hands of the Federal Govern- ment, but without success. It has been said that " the United States Government is the richest government in the world, but sometimes the slowest to pay." But this is not always so.
At Chattanooga, the Catholics for some years lab- ored to erect the church of SS. Peter and Paul, in fine Tennessee marble, much of the ornamental work being highly polished. When the work was about half done, the engineer officers of the U. S. army, demolished the Church, using the material to erect Fort Jones, for culverts, and even for macadamizing. A claim was made on the government. The authorities offered to return the broken and defaced stone. But when the matter came before Congress, a Committee reported that the church was entitled to $18,729.90 for the in- jury it had sustained.
Let us hope that justice may yet be done the rifled church of Florida.
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CHAPTER LVI.
ALABAMA has its deserted villages. The ruins of old St. Stephen's once a formidable rival of Mobile, lie in a dense forest on the dark Tombigbee. It was once a city of several thousand souls. It had a news- paper called the Halcyon. It was settled by the French between 1697 and 1763, and was held by the Span- iards from 1763 to 1799. It became an important place, superior to Mobile. It had hotels, a bank, stores. Steamboats were built and launched there.
Now the bark of the squirrel, the hoot of the owl, the gobble of the wild turkey, are heard in its ruins. Fort St. Stephen, the highest point near the extinct capital, gives a magnificent view of Clarke Co., just across the river. The gateways of the fort are clearly marked. It was a haven of refuge from the Indians. Here white men braved the privations of the pioneers and smoked the calumet with Pushmataha, the friendly Indian chief who was wont to say: " Pushmataha love white man-the great Spirit take care of him."
The old earth-works of the fort remain. They would long since have been leveled with the earth but for the immense trees which have grown on them and held them together.
Tradition says that the original inhabitants utterly refused to allow the Name of God to be preached among them. A stranger who proposed it was driven
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from the town and told he would be decorated with tar and feathers if he again appeared within its in- hospitable precincts. With uplifted hands, he prophe- sied that the day would come when only bats and owls would dwell there.
It is surely a bad thing to be " without God in the world."
Another dead town is Blakely, on the eastern shore of the bay. Little is to be seen on the site of this former rival of Mobile, but an avenue of live oaks and a few heaps of brick. The Confederate earth-works remaining are deeply ditched and covered with a dense pine forest. The old grave-yard has many head- stones, some erect, many prostrate.
The Blakely people seem to have been Christians. The following lines are on Dr. Stoddard's head-stone :
" But all that the blast of destruction can blight, And all that can fade in the tomb, Shall spring from the grave of a brother all bright In beauty immortal to bloom."
On Mrs. Stoddard's gravestone :
" Lavinia's spirit firm and free, Triumphant o'er the last dismay Bright in its own eternity Has passed away."
There is no record of any missionary residing in those vanished towns, or even visiting them.
High up on the Alabama, near Selma, is the beau- tiful ruin of Cahaba, once the capital of Alabama, now a deserted village. One must tread the tangled weed and the riotous vine, where the myrtle, the briar, and the thistle thrive, and bend beneath the cedar and
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the walnut to reach the ruins of what were once homes of wealth and refinement.
Among the green fields, and brown stubble, and tangled roots, and open prairie, and stretches of jungle, that diversify the site of this once prosperous city, there is no trace of bell or book or cross or sanctuary. No doubt, there were sometimes Catholics in its um- brageous streets who longed for the graces and bless- ings which only the true Church can give. No doubt, dying men and women coveted the Viaticum, and the last anointing. And we may well imagine the zealous priests of the neighboring Mobile, following to the couch the faithful servant who remembered the divine words: "Is any one sick among you. Let him bring in the priests of the church," to the bedside of the dying. Or the Catholic, Indian or European, longing to be shrived of his sins, and eager to feed on the bread of the strong. Such a Catholic could easily leave for a while the godless place and satisfy the wants of his conscience in the neighboring Catholic city of Mobile.
A school was established at St. Stephen's in 1811, the teachers being brought from New Orleans. They did not, however, remain long. A member of the Medici family is reported to have said, somewhat flip- pantly : " A state cannot be governed by Pater Nos- ters." If, by Pater Nosters, he meant Religion, we would vary the dictum: " A state would be badly governed without them."
Meanwhile, the Church progressed at Mobile though at one time, besides the Bishop and the Vicar-General, there was only one other priest in Mobile. The Vicar- General at that time was Father Chalon, nephew to Bishop Portier. The domestic concerns were managed
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chiefly by old Creole servants (slaves) who also nursed the children. These were much beloved in the fam- ilies they served. An epitaph in Girod St. Cemetery, New Orleans, reads :
" Mammy, aged eighty-four; a faithful servant. She lived and died a Christian." Such servants made life easy for house-keepers everywhere.
One of the best priests that ever labored in Mobile and the founder of many works of benevolence there, was the Very Rev. James McGarahan, whose death in 1869 was hastened, if not caused, by the over- throw of The Confederacy.
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CHAPTER LVII.
THE Ursuline ladies of New Orleans frequently came in contact with governors, magistrates, and other distinguished personages. And as the tone of the correspondence is the same now as it was in the be- ginning. We will give some specimens.
Extract from an address delivered by the French prefect, Laussat, when sent, in 1803, to take posses- sion of Louisiana, to the Ursuline nuns :
" MESDAMES :- The French Government, having been informed of the need which the Colony has of you, the good which results from your labors, and the public esteem which you so justly enjoy, has decreed that you be maintained in the enjoyment of all your rights and privileges; and you may rely, MESDAMES, that I will protect you to the utmost of my power. You will assist the government in laboring for the preservation of morals, and the government will up- hold you."
To the Sister Therese de St. Xavier Farjon, Su- perioress, and to the nuns of the Order of St. Ursula, at New Orleans, 1804:
" I have received, Holy Sisters, the letter you have written, wherein you express anxiety for the property invested in your Institution by the former government of Louisiana. The principles of the Constitution and
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Government of the United States are a sure guarantee that it will be preserved to you, sacred and inviolate, and that your institution will be permitted to govern itself according to its own voluntary rules, without any interference from the civil authority.
Whatever diversity of shade may appear in the religious opinions of our fellow citizens, the charitable objects of your Institution cannot be indifferent to any; and its furtherance of the wholesome purposes of society, by training up its younger members in the way they should go, cannot fail to ensure it the pat- ronage of the government it is under. Be assured it will meet with all the protection my office can give it.
I salute you, Holy Sisters, with friendship and re- spect.
THOMAS JEFFERSON.
Washington, May 15, 1804.
Washington, April 24, 1809.
Madame: I have received your letter of the 11th of March with the sentiments due for the respect and confidence which it expresses on the part of the pious Institution which you superintend.
In a country where all rights, religious as well as civil, are protected by the laws, and guaranteed by an enlightened public opinion, the best securities exist for the tranquility and esteem of those whose labors are devoted to the conscientious pursuit of laudable objects.
Therefore it only remains to assure you that how- ever inferior to my predecessor in other merits, my dispositions are equally friendly to the task of training youth in the paths of virtue and useful knowledge,
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and that, with my thanks for the prayers for which I am indebted to the piety of your religious com- munity, I offer mine for the happiness of the members, composing it.
JAMES MADISON.
MUCH RESPECTED LADIES :-
Your memorial to the Congress of the United States, having been referred to a select Committee, of which I had the honor to be chairman, I paid to it all the attention which it merited; and I have much pleasure in informing you that a law has been passed in com- pliance with your wishes, of which I enclose a copy to your friend, Governor Clairborne.
I sincerely hope that this change may promote the interest of that Seminary over which you, with so much propriety, preside; and that, while you continue to engraft on the youthful mind the principles of virtue, industry, and useful knowledge, you may receive not only the fostering care of your country, but the pro- tection of that Divinity who is the author of all good.
Accept the assurance of my high respect and best wishes,
J. DAWSON.
Extract from Hon. H. M. Brackenridge's letter to PRESIDENT MONROE :
" The Convent in New Orleans is highly interest- ing to the old inhabitants of Louisiana, as the school where all the young ladies of the best families are educated; and I most confidently assert that it is a most valuable Institution. The importance of the In- stitution in this respect, when we take into consid-
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eration the habits and manners of the people of that country, is much greater than might at first be sup- posed. All who are acquainted with the Ladies of Louisiana, educated in this Seminary, speak in its praise; and I assure you, Sir, that a deep interest is felt in that country-among a class of people the least presuming and inobtrusive-in whatever concern this Alma Mater; and any indulgence which can be granted to them, consistently with national interests, will be received with a gratitude as sincere as it will be gen- eral.
I am, with high respect, Your most obedient servant H. M. BRACKENRIDGE.
The first American Governor, Clairborne, treated the Ursuline Religious with perfect deference. A com- edy being put on the stage in which the religious state was held up to ridicule, the Lady Abbess invoked the interference of his Excellency. A courteous letter in which the Governor expresses great regret that the feelings of these ladies should have been wounded, concludes thus :
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