USA > Maryland > A Century of Growth [electronic resource] or, the history of the Church in Western Maryland > Part 15
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" He died as he had lived," says Bishop Spalding- "a saint, and the last day was perhaps the most interesting and impressive of his whole life. Tranquilly and without a groan did he 'fall asleep in the Lord,' like an infant gently sinking to his rest."
No bishop in this country has ever been regarded as surpassing Bishop Flaget in sanctity, in the spirit of prayer, in the ardor of his devotion, his firmness, patience and constant devotion to all the duties of his state.
In 1831, the mission of Blooming Rose had grown in numbers sufficiently large to support a resident pastor, and His Grace, Archbishop Whitfield, appointed Rev. Henry Myers, who thus became the first resident priest of Garrett County. Father Myers was born at Conewago, Pa., in 1806. He was ordained priest from St. Mary's Seminary, 1831, and Blooming Rose was his first mission. He remained here five years, lead- ing the quiet life of a hidden, backwoods priest, but, nevertheless, a very happy priest. His congregation were kind and exceedingly docile, and the good priest could see the effect of his labors, and found, no doubt, great consolation in the inner consciousness of achieving something for God's glory and His children's eternal salvation.
Where, we might ask, is the ideal habitation of the studious priest ? Where should he live, in solitude or society ? Longfellow asked the question : "Where should the scholar live? In the green stillness of the country, where he can hear the heart of nature beat,
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or in the dark, gray city, where he can hear and feel the throbbing heart of man?" Each has its ad- vantages. Some priests love country life, with its solitude, its harvest fields, and all its sights and sounds; others like the city, the tumultuous stream of humanity, where they come in contact with strong human passions, throbbing hearts, great ambitions and ruined characters. Father Myers was a priest who loved the country. He was young and strong when he went to Blooming Rose. His parish embraced nearly all of Garrett County, including souls too often overlooked-those who are "not of the household of the faith." He labored earnestly to make converts to the Church. He rode around on horseback to the different farm-houses, became well acquainted with all his far and near neighbors; in this way he succeeded in adding many fervent converts to his congregation. Father Myers is still well remembered all over Gar- rett County ; the old people remember having seen him, the younger, having heard of him. Besides being a good priest, he is remembered as a devoted disciple of Isaac Walton, spending some of his time fishing for fish, but most of it fishing for men. He was also a hunter, and occasionally went out with his old flint- lock gun in search of wild turkeys, and even big game. His life was simple and contented.
"At night returning, every labor sped, He sits him down, the monarch of a shed."
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Father Myers died in Baltimore in 1872; at the time of his death he was pastor of St. Vincent's Church.
In 1836, the Rev. Bertrand S. Piot became pastor of Blooming Rose, and remained in charge until 1838, when he was transferred, by orders of Archbishop Eccleston, to Cumberland, as assistant to Father Myers, who had been Father Piot's predecessor at Bloom- ing Rose.
Father Piot was ordained priest from St. Mary's Seminary in the year 1833. He was a Frenchman by birth, a cultured gentleman, a pious and learned priest. He was very much admired during his mis- sionary career in Western Maryland, although he is remembered as a very sensitive man, nervous, and at times apt to be severe and censorious. Tradition relates that, during his pastorate at Blooming Rose, he suffered from insomnia-not on account of any inherent tendency to sleeplessness-but from the con- tinual quacking of ducks, probably too numerous in the locality, and of course too noisy, as ducks always are. Father Piot, being a just man, agreed to buy all the ducks in the vicinity, and, when he had paid the contract price, "he laconically ordered a boy to chop off their heads." He is well remembered as "the priest who made war on ducks," or "the little man who didn't like ducks."
Father Piot was fond of music, but not music of the barnyard order; the low grunt of one class of domestic animals was disagreeable to him, while the
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high bray of another class was positively unbearable. It is said that he was very fond of cats, and a rather pathetic story is told of one of his pets. Among all the proud and more or less beautiful Blooming Rose felines was an Angora, on which Father Piot is said to have lavished a great deal of affection. When the good Father was absent, the cat sat looking home- sick and dejected until his return, when the forlorn look disappeared, and the little animal at once began to purr. The people thought that the cat under- stood French, and that its homesickness disappeared as soon as it was spoken to in its own language.
Father Piot faithfully administered to the spiritual needs of his scattered congregation. During his pas- torate, the people began to settle in what is now the Johnstown district; as a consequence, he spent much of his time at what afterwards became the Flatwoods mission. He practically attended both missions until 1840, when he was moved to Ellicott's Mills.
Father Piot was strictly opposed to negro slavery, and he deplored and censured the rapidity with which it was spreading in Garrett County. He was zealous in instructing the slaves in his parish, and always exceedingly kind in his treatment of them. On one occasion, he was pained at the heartlessness mani- fested by a Garrett County farmer, who wished to get possession of a saddle horse owned by Father Piot. The farmer coldly informed the good priest that he had "an able-bodied negro not addicted to running away," which he would gladly trade for the
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good priest's horse. Father Piot reprimanded the slave-driver with appropriate indignation.
He was also an ardent temperance advocate, and often preached strong sermons against the excessive use of "apple jack," the most prevalent intoxicating drink then in use in Western Maryland. When Father Matthew, the apostle of temperance, visited America, Father Piot entertained him at Ellicott City, and accompanied him to Washington, where the great priest received high honors. The facts are about as follows :
On an urgent invitation, Father Matthew, whose renown as a temperance advocate had spread through- out Europe and America, in 1849 sailed for the United States. Arriving in New York on July 2, he was presented with an address by the Common Council. He afterward traveled through the principal cities of the Union, everywhere receiving a cordial welcome, and giving the pledge to thousands of citizens of all creeds.
One of the most important events of Father Matthew's American tour was his impressive reception in the Capitol by the nation's representatives. He arrived in Washington December 18, 1849, and immediately there was a motion made in the House of Repre- sentatives to admit him to the floor. It was carried unanimously, and Father Matthew made the most of his opportunity to advance the great cause he had at heart. In the United States Senate, Mr. Walker, of Wisconsin, proposed the following resolution :
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"Resolved, That Rev. Theobald Matthew be allowed a seat within the Bar of the United States Senate during the period of his sojourn in Washington."
The resolution was carried by thirty-three to eighteen, the dissenters being Southerners, who were offended by Father Matthew's pronouncements in Ireland against negro slavery.
Thus the great Irish apostle of temperance was accorded an honor never granted to a foreigner up to that time except Lafayette. On December 20, Presi- dent Fillmore entertained Father Matthew at a great dinner, to which were invited fifty prominent Americans. Father Piot was one of the prominent ecclesiastics invited by President Fillmore to dine with Father Matthew.
Perhaps Father Piot is the best remembered of all the pioneer priests of Maryland; at any rate, he is remembered by all the present generation of priests who studied their classics at St. Charles' College. Towards the end of his life he resigned his pastorate of Ellicott City into the hands of a younger and stronger man, and retired to the college to prepare himself in solitude and silence for death. The last years of his life were spent in retreat, occupying his time in prayer and meditation. To the two hundred students who, day after day, noticed the emaciated, little old priest, with a few straggling white hairs, sunken eyes, and wasted frame, slowly moving from the chapel to his room, or quietly walking in sunny weather on the upper portico, there was the same appearance of mys-
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tery that we feel when brought in contact with relics of the past. Every one wondered and felt curious enough to inquire who is the old man that moves along as noise- lessly as Hamlet's ghost ? Where did he come from ? Where did he work in the dim and dreamy past ? As the spring days of 1882 were lengthening to summer, the word was passed from one student to another that poor old Father Piot was dying. At spiritual reading one bright Sunday evening the prayers of the commu- nity were asked for the good old .priest, who had that afternoon received the last rites of the Church. Before receiving Holy Viaticum, Father Piot, with that humil- ity which characterizes true sanctity, asked pardon for all the scandal he had given to the professors and stu- dents during his sojourn at the college, and requested all to ask for him the grace of perseverance. There was scarcely a dry eye among the little band of priests kneeling by his bedside. The Very Rev. Father Den- nis, president of the college, administered Holy Viati- cum, and then the Sacrament of extreme Unction. He anointed the tired old feet, which nearly fifty years before had gone on many a long journey to prepare for death the dying; he anointed the old shrunken hands, so often lifted in fervent prayer ; and the poor old eyes, so often dazzled by the midnight lightning flash on the mountains. And last of all, he repeated that sweet prayer of the ritual : "Depart, Christian soul, in the name of God, the Father, who created thee; in the sweet name of Jesus Christ, His Son, who redeemed thee ; in the name of God, the Holy Ghost, who sanctified
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thee; and may thy habitation be in peace and thy abode in Sion, and may the angels receive thee at thy coming."
Father Piot's funeral took place from the chapel of St. Charles' College, thence to Ellicott City, where his remains were buried. An unusual circumstance of the funeral was the attendance of nearly two hundred young students, all candidates for the holy priesthood. The procession moved slowly down the old National Pike; when it reached the little stone bridge the students separated into two lines on either side of the road, whilst the clergy and remains of Father Piot moved on. As the students turned their faces homeward, the thought flashed into the minds of many : "This is the parting between the old and young priesthood of America."
Father Piot's life was a great success; his whole priesthood was laborious and hidden from the eyes of the world ; this may account to some extent for the high degree of sanctity which he attained. He was never in a position requiring brilliant display of talents ; never- theless, he was blessed with mental and moral endow- ments of no ordinary degree. It has been well said, " that there is the same kind of similarity between virtue shaded by private life and shining forth in a public one, as there is between a candle carried aloft in the open air and one enclosed in a lantern; in the former place it gives more light, but in the latter it is in less danger of being blown out."
From 1841 to 1845 the mission was honored by an occasional visit from Rev. Leonard Obermeyer, of St.
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Patrick's Church, Cumberland; but after Mt. Savage was separated from the Cumberland mission, Blooming Rose became an outlying station, attended by Rev. Charles Brennan, of Mt. Savage. It was during his pastorate that the Blooming Rose began to wither. The people commenced to move away. The railroad craze had taken possession of the young men, many of whom abandoned their farms and took employment with the contractors, who were grading the bed of the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad. Others went west, or .as they at the time expressed it, "went out back." Towards the middle of the century only a few Catholics remained at the old mission; the Catholics were going, the mission was dying. The little church, which nearly a century ago was made sacred by the Holy Sacrifice, is to-day only a reminiscence. Many a winter it stood snow-cov- ered and neglected; it decayed and disappeared at last. The old people died; the children grew up, and have long ago ceased from play. The grave-yard alone remains, but its sacred stillness has for years been broken by the hum of industry, rumble of car wheels, and the shriek of the locomotive.
" When science from creation's face Enchantment's veil withdraws, What lovely visions yield their place To cold material laws!"
Towards the end of 1850 Blooming Rose was dead; but the dying Queen had given birth to two Kings-St. Peter's Church, of Oakland, and St. James', of Johnstown.
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ARTICLE II.
ST. PETER'S CHURCH, OAKLAND.
Oakland, the county seat of Garrett County, is situ- ated on the summit of the most charming plateau of the Allegany Mountains. The town is located nearly three thousand feet above the level of the sea, and is, conse- quently, a splendid stage for grand displays in winter of the storm-king's power. The atmosphere, however, even in winter, is pure, dry, healthy and invigorating ; and in summer, the town is nothing less than an earthly paradise. The scenery is of the most varied and im- posing character, in places attaining to grandeur almost sublime. The mountains slope gently, the rivulets flow peacefully, presenting a scene so restful and free from gloom as to recall to mind the charming lines of that gentle singer, Mrs. Hemans :
"See'st thou my home? 'Tis where yon woods are waving, In their dark richness to the summer air ;
Where yon blue stream, a thousand flower-banks laving, Leads down the hill a vein of light,-'tis there! 'Midst those green wilds how many a fount lies gleaming, Fringed with the violet, colored with the skies ! My boyhood's haunt, through days of summer dreaming, Under young leaves that shook with melodies. My home! the spirit of its love is breathing In every wind that plays across my track ;
From its white walls the very tendrils wreathing, Seem with soft links to draw the wanderer back."
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In 1848, there was not even one cultivated patch where Oakland now stands. On all sides extended an impenetrable wilderness; literally, a heavy and splendid oak land along the hillsides and a swampy and marshy land in the valley. When the railroad company made the survey for the road in 1848, Isaac McCarty owned all the ground on which the town now stands. In 1849, the town was laid out in lots; and the same year a house was built, to be used as a railroad depot. This house stood on the ground devastated by the destructive July fire of 1898. During the summer of 1849, Rev. . William D. Parsons, a young priest, a lover of solitude, visited Oakland on a camping-out trip, at the invitation of Isaac McCarty, whose guest he was. He is said to have spent about two weeks in the mountains; and, having come prepared to say Mass on Sundays, he thus won the distinction of offering up in the first house built in the town the first Holy Sacrifice of the Mass in what has since become the county seat of Garrett County.
Father Parsons was of English descent. He was born in Baltimore. His paternal ancestors were among the notable English families that remained faithful to the Church, some of them sealing their devotion to it with their lives. When Lord Baltimore declared his intention to found a colony in America, where religious freedom should prevail, the ancestors of Father Parsons eagerly sought the opportunity to escape the severe laws enacted in England against Catholics. They landed at St. Mary's with Lord Baltimore, and took
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a prominent part in the affairs of the new colony. When the Revolutionary war broke out, many of Father Parsons' ancestors fought bravely for the independence of the colonies, and also lent considerable financial aid to the cause. He was related to many of the leading families of the State.
At an early age, he showed an inclination for a religious life, and was entered as a student at St. Mary's Seminary, where he pursued his preparatory and theo- logical courses. Among his classmates were the late Father Coskery, who was at one time Vicar-General of the archdiocese, and Father Dolan, who for many years was pastor of St. Patrick's Church, Baltimore. Father Parsons was ordained priest at the Cathedral by Arch- bishop Eccleston on August 16, 1845. There were less than twenty priests in the whole city at that time, and each one was required to perform a large amount of clerical labor. His first appointment was as assistant priest , at St. Vincent's Church. There were seven thousand members of the congregation, with only two priests to administer to their spiritual welfare. It is during this time that, tired out with hard work, he came with his friends on his camping-out excursion to Oakland. He was afterwards appointed to a professor- ship in St. Mary's Seminary, which at that time had both secular and clerical students. There he gained a high reputation as a teacher. Many prominent Baltimoreans were his pupils, including the Hon. A. Leo Knott.
During the reign of the Know-Nothing party, when priests were the objects of riotous attacks, Father
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Parsons, to the great alarm of friends, fearlessly walked the streets at all hours of the night, and on one occasion forced his way through a crowd of " Plug Uglies " to exercise his right of suffrage. It is said that on another occasion a member of the above organization proposed to attack the brave priest, but he was promptly reprimanded by a leader, who said: "Surely we cannot molest a man whose ancestors were among the first settlers of the State, and whose relatives fought in almost every battle for American independence, and spent thousands of dollars to secure liberty for their country." The rebuke was accepted by the crowd, and Father Parsons was allowed to pass on his way to vote unmolested.
In 1859, he became chaplain of Mt. De Sales Academy, on the suburbs of Baltimore now, but then located amidst a dense forest. He became deeply interested in the institution, and incessantly labored for its welfare. Here he spent the remainder of his life as chaplain of the institution. He died December 23, 1899. Shortly before his death, Father Parsons was found seated in his study, looking out of a window, which affords a beautiful view of the sur- rounding country. In the far distance, the blue waters of the Chesapeake could be seen, here and there dotted with the white-winged messengers of commerce. Father Parsons then bore marks of having been a remarkably handsome man in his younger days. There were a few gray hairs on his head, but he had still a bright and kindly countenance. The .
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old man's eyes filled with tears when reference was made to the then approaching anniversary, his golden jubilee. "Why should there be any public celebra- tion of my anniversary?" he said. "I am only a lonely old man, who has chosen an obscure field of labor as a minister of God. For the past forty-three years I have known or seen little of the outside world. I would be a stranger in the city of my birth ; all my old friends are dead. All the priests who were ordained when I was have passed away; all of the members of my immediate family, too, are gone."
Father Parsons related many interesting incidents of the early history of Baltimore. He said he had known all the archbishops of the diocese, with the exception of the first two. He had intimately known Charles Carroll of Carrollton, and stood near him when he laid the corner-stone of the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad. When the first horse-car was operated in Baltimore, he was among those who boarded it. Such was thought to be the advantage of a vehicle running on tracks that one horse was expected to pull as many as five could. The result was that, when the car was started, with great ceremony, the horse was unable to move a step until about two-thirds of the passengers had dismounted.
Father Parsons was a typical Maryland gentleman of the old school. As a priest, he was loved for his piety, kindness and charity; he devoted all of his private fortune to benevolent purposes. There is probably no one living in Oakland now who remem-
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bers Father Parsons' visit, but all who have visited Mt. De Sales Academy remember Father Parsons.
The Cullens and Keefes were the first Catholics to settle in the Oakland parish, the former residing near Oakland, the latter in the vicinity of Deer Park. The first death recorded is that of James Keefe, who was drowned near Deer Park, in a mountain stream, still called Keefe Creek, February 1, 1856, aged sixty years.
With the building of the Baltimore and Ohio Rail- road and the closing of the Blooming Rose Church, quite a number of Catholic families moved to Oakland, and Rev. Michael Slattery, of Frostburg, began to say Mass in the little town during the summer of 1850. Two years later, the congregation was sufficiently large to require a church, and a small, frame chapel, without steeple or bell, was erected and dedicated, under the patronage of St. Peter, June 29, 1852. It is worthy of note that the Catholics were the first denomination to build a house of worship in Oakland. Father Slattery attended his little mountain congregation regularly once a month, until his Frostburg and West- ernport congregations became so large as to demand all his time and attention. He was the organizer of the parish, and his memory is still held in bene- diction in the mountains. He was a tall-in fact, a very tall priest-thin and wiry, rugged in appearance, kindly in disposition, displaying solidity of judgment, breadth and keenness of mind, fervor, piety, and un- bounded zeal for the salvation of souls.
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Towards the latter part of Father Slattery's pastorate a great many Germans moved to the vicinity of Oak- land; these included five Shaffer families, Hessens, Finks, Helbigs, Claymeyers, Smithmans, Rasches and, later, Fleckensteins. These immigrants gave a de- cidedly German air to the congregation ; the parish was turned over to the good Redemptorist fathers of Cum- berland, and we begin to notice the names of Fathers Van de Braak and Wayrich inscribed in the church records.
In 1858 Rev. Richard Brown, of Mt. Savage, took charge of Oakland. From the inquiries which we have been able to make, we must look upon Father Brown as a kind of free lance. He was a Pittsburg priest, hold- ing faculties in the Baltimore diocese, and he used his faculties and energies to their full capacity. He went on periodic excursions through the western portion of Allegany County and the eastern portion of West Vir- ginia, teaching catechism and baptizing, but principally baptizing. He is remembered as a good-hearted, stal- wart priest, whom every one admired. Father Carney, of Mt. Savage, also visited Oakland for a while. It was only a short while, as he found that his visits were being considered raids on the domains of Father O'Reilly, of Frostburg. Father O'Reilly was a born fighter, and as soon as he became pastor of Frostburg he settled the boundary lines of the parishes, claiming for himself everything in the State west of Frostburg. Father O'Reilly held that "the pastor who is not ready and willing at all times to fight for his rights will shortly
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have no rights worth fighting for." He attended Oak- land until the summer of 1863, paying only occasional visits. The war was raging; trains running without regularity ; bridges being burned or threatened, now by one side then by the other. The men were enlisted in the home-guard militia, and the women were afraid to venture out to hear Mass. Father O'Reilly soon got ยท tired of Oakland, and, to the great consternation of his little congregation, announced one Sunday that Arch- bishop Kenrick, of Baltimore, had "turned over the parish to the Sour-Krout Redemptorists of Cumber- land." This was his farewell to Oakland.
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