USA > Maryland > A Century of Growth [electronic resource] or, the history of the Church in Western Maryland > Part 6
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little beauty, harmony or symmetry in the edifice, as planned by Father Brown, although the location is ideal.
Father Brown is well remembered as a strong, muscular, able-bodied man, full of aggressive and enterprising devotion. He was cheerful in disposition, brusque in manner and speech. He was pastor of Mt. Savage during the Civil War, and was free and fearless in expressing his views in opposition to negro slavery, although he did not agree with the Abo- litionists, who would free the slave before preparing him for freedom. He is said to have had very settled convictions also on the question of corporal REV. RICHARD BROWN. punishment for children, and frequently had recourse to it in the catechism classes. " If you flog a boy," he would say, "he studies his lesson; if you incite him to study by ambition or emulation, he hates those who get ahead of him." He was very well liked by the people, and quite successful as an administrator. Father Brown's successor was the Rev. Jeremiah Hen- dricks, who arrived in Mt. Savage, July, 1868.
Father Hendricks entered St. Charles' College, as a resident of Ellicott City, September 8, 1857. He
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graduated, holding an honorable place in his class, in June, 1863. He entered St. Mary's Seminary, of Baltimore, the following September, and, after a suc- cessful seminary course, was ordained priest by Rt. Rev. Bishop Whelan, of Wheeling, W. Va., in the year 1867. Father Hendricks came to Mt. Savage very soon after his ordination, and at once began to improve the church pro- perty. He had probably more æsthetic tastes than his predecessor, and en- deavored to bring about a better balancing of the several parts of the church by elevating and giving a different slant to the roof. He also planned and erected, at the lower corner, in front of the church, a heavy square tower, which added wonder- REV. JEREMIAH HENDRICKS. fully to the general appear- ance. The grounds around the parish buildings he beautified until they easily surpassed, by artistic land- scape gardening, any other spot in Mt. Savage. October 5, 1873, the new church was dedicated by His Grace, Archbishop Bayley.
Father Hendricks is remembered as an humble, plain, kind-hearted-in fact, almost soft-hearted- priest. He was so open and frank that all sides of his character shone through a sort of unconscious
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self-revelation, and all sides of his disposition were priestly. He was not a brilliant man, neither was he a strong man; but he was so kind a man and so devout a priest that his memory will continue to live after brighter and stronger men are forgotten. He died from pulmonary consumption, July 27, 1875, and his remains rest within the shadow of St. Pat- rick's Church. A very neat marble monument has been erected to his memory by the Mt. Savage people, to whose welfare he had consecrated his best energies, and to whose keeping his memory is entrusted as a sacred legacy.
In September, 1875, the Rev. Patrick Francis ()'Con- nor became pastor of St. Patrick's. Father O'Connor had been ordained priest for the missions of Louisiana. Before the Civil War he had seen rough service in the poverty-stricken missions among the Southern negroes. During the war he acted as chaplain to the army for a short time. On account of failing health and a feeling of general discontent in his too Southern surroundings, he made application to Arch- bishop Spalding to be received as a diocesan priest of Baltimore. With the consent of the Most Rev. Arch- bishop of New Orleans, Archbishop Spalding adopted him. Father O'Connor and the Archbishop had been friends when the latter was Bishop of Louisville, Kentucky, and as soon as the Archbishop was in- stalled in the See of Baltimore, the good priest deter- mined to use his former friendship as a reason to be affiliated with the Maryland missions.
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Father O'Connor served for a short time as assistant to the late Monsignor McColgan at St. Peter's Church, Baltimore. Afterwards he was given charge of mis- sions in Harford County; from there he came to Mt. Savage. During his long pastorate he built the Mt. Savage hall, which has since been remodelled and transformed into a first-class parochial school-house. He made many changes in the church property, con- spicuous among which are the new church-tower and the frescoeing of the interior of the church. The new tower can hardly be thought an improvement. The end to be attained in constructing it was strength and stability to bear a heavy bell. This end, of course, was reached, but the tower is ill-proportioned and ungraceful, and certainly adds nothing to the beauty of the church.
Father O'Connor was an odd character; metaphori- cally speaking, he had a strange facility for provoking the world to throw stones at him. He was one of those men who seem to be in the world for the special purpose of differing on every conceivable sub- ject from their fellow-men. From the digging of a ditch to the composition of a book of mystic theology, he was probably the most fault finding critic in Alle- gany County; and yet, in a sense, he was neither a pessimist nor grumbler. He had a power of seeing every weed in a flower-garden, where the ordinary observer would see only the flowers. He had certain ideals, and whatever failed to measure up to his ideals was wrong. When this eccentricity was once under-
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stood, Father O'Connor was understood, and at once . became a delightful companion. In his own home, no priest could be more princely. He was fond of company, and when two or three of his brother priests would honor him with a social call, they could always anticipate a dinner assuming the pro- portions of a gigantic meat show. After dinner he would occasionally take down his flute to entertain his company. This was the highest compliment he could pay to his guests. Father Edward Brennan once ventured the slightly sarcastic remark that "Father O'Connor got a great deal of amusement but not much music out of his flute." The old gentle- man was slightly pained by what the kind-hearted Dean intended as a good-natured remark. He, how- ever, dissembled his resentment for the moment; but when the Very Rev. Dean, who was in the habit of enlivening conversation by humorous anecdotes, un- consciously repeated one of his often-told jokes, Father O'Connor remarked, with an air of triumph, that "he wondered to see a man have so good a memory as to repeat the same story without omitting a single circumstance, and yet not remember that he had told it to the same persons the day before."
Father O'Connor was, in a sense, a man of learning. He spoke fluently French and Spanish, was thoroughly familiar with all the gems of English literature, and his own English style was classical; but the perfect finish of his style could be seen only in his corre- spondence. It would be unfair to judge Father O'Con-
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nor's English by his controversial letters, many of which have been published, because they generally show too much bitterness; and sometimes, in the full fury of his exasperation, his style was nothing less than cyclonic. Again, it would be unfair to judge him by his spoken sermons, for he suffered from an impediment in his speech which gave a nasal sound to his words, and thus ren- dered it difficult for his auditors to appreciate the full beauty of his language. Of clear, vigorous, idiomatic English, Father O'Connor was an uncommon master. He was also deeply read in history, both ancient and modern, sacred and profane.
Father O'Connor's remin- iscences of sunny and cloudy days spent among the
REV. PATRICK FRANCIS O'CONNOR.
orange blossoms and negroes of Louisiana were at once fascinating and thought- provoking. He claimed that the Maryland negroes are not the true type of Southern negro; they are the Southern negro as spoiled by contact with the white
man.
He was vigorous in denouncing the notion
that the negro race can be evangelized by mission- aries of negro blood, claiming that colored priests, and even colored catechists, will not be respected by their own race, but that the Church can christianize
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every black man in America, when apostolic white priests are found willing to go right down among the negroes and labor and sacrifice themselves as Father Damien sacrificed himself among the Molo- kai lepers.
It is true that Father O'Connor was an eccentric character, but he was a sturdy, fearless. faithful priest ; a very sincere man, who spoke out what he thought without troubling himself whether men liked it or not. Like most strong characters, he made many friends and many enemies. He was a man whom everyone could respect, but comparatively few could love.
For months before his death Father O'Connor gave evidence that his strong constitution was literally worn out; he accordingly prepared for the great journey with his characteristic energy. He received the last Sacraments of the Church the day before his death. Father Clark, of Frostburg, visited him on Sunday afternoon and found him anticipating matins and lauds for the following day, the dawn of which found him cold in death.
" He smiles as he's tranquilly gliding Far away from a difficult past ; He has done his full share of rough riding, And welcomes smooth sailing at last."
He died in Mt. Savage, April 30, 1894, and the people whom he had faithfully served laid the re- mains of the lion-like O'Connor by the side of the lamb-like Hendricks. "Par nobile fratrum."
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During the summer months following Father O'Con- nor's death, Mt. Savage was attended by the Rev. Capuchin Fathers of Cumberland. A very successful mission was given by the Redemptorist Fathers during the Capuchin administration.
The century closes with the Rev. Edward A. Wil- liams in charge of St. Patrick's Church. Father Wil- liams was born in Ireland. He had partially mastered the classics before coming to America. September 3, 1878, he entered St. Charles' College, and graduated, with a certificate of distinction, in June, 1881. He was ordained priest by His Eminence, James Cardinal Gibbons, at the Christmas ordinations, 1886, after a successful course of philosophy and theology in St. Mary's Seminary, Baltimore. He had labored in the capacity of assistant pastor at St. Leo's Church, Balti- more, and St. Matthew's, Washington, before coming to Western Maryland. He was appointed pastor of Mt. Savage in September, 1894. Father Williams is a worthy successor to the good men who went before him. Being an advocate of parochial school education, he established a parish school, under the care of the good Ursuline Sisters of Louisville, Ken- tucky. These good nuns remained in Mt. Savage until June, 1899, when they were recalled to their own diocese. Their vacated place has been ably filled by the School Sisters of Notre Dame.
Father Williams has so enlarged, improved and embellished the church property that his parish stands among the best equipped of Western Mary-
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land. He is a gentleman of culture and refinement, possessing a natural dignity which commands respect, and an urbanity of manner, which attracts by its kindli- ness. As administrator of a parish he happily strikes the golden rule of Horace; " Suaviter in modo fortiter in re;" or, as Longfellow has freely translated it,
"Gently but firmly that all may feel, The velvet scabbard holds a sword of steel."
At the beginning of this article we hinted at "what Mt. Savage has done for the archdiocese of Baltimore;" our sketch, however, would be too incomplete if we failed to mention in particular some of her priestly sons. Of all the brilliant sons of Mt. Savage; whose talents have helped to adorn and make glorious the American Church of the nineteenth century, probably none is dearer to her than the Rt. Rev. Monsignor O'Connor, pastor of Clarksburg, W. Va., and Vicar- General of the diocese of Wheeling. He alone of the older priests ordained from Mt. Savage remains to see the century close. Father Malloy passed away as the century began to incline towards evening; and Fathers Gaitley and Brennan left us as its evening shadows began to fall.
Daniel O'Connor entered St. Charles' College' from Mt. Savage, November 14, 1848. He graduated six years later and was ordained priest by Rt. Rev. Bishop Whelan in 1856. He has spent his life in cultivating the spiritual vineyard of West Virginia.
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His missionary career has been successful and stain- less. His self-sacrificing zeal and untarnished reputa- tion have made him a priestly model; his youthful disposition and kindly manner have made him univer- sally popular with all classes; his ability and prudence have made him a safe consultor to all the Bishops of Wheeling; his priestly merit has been recently honored by Leo XIII., who has elevated Mt. Savage's most honored son to the exalted position of "Domestic Prelate to the Sovereign Pontiff." Early in the morning of the twentieth century, Monsignor O'Connor will, Deo volente, celebrate the golden jubilee of his priesthood. It requires no prophetic eye to foresee that that will naturally be a joyous day for Clarksburg and Mt. Savage; for the diocese of Wheeling and the arch- diocese of Baltimore
Rev. Lawrence Malloy was also ordained from Mt. Savage. We are indebted to his brother, Mr. Thomas Malloy, for the facts following :- Father Malloy was born in Ireland in 1835. He was brought to this country by his parents while yet in his infancy ; New York City was his home until the year 1843, when his parents came to Mt. Savage. Young Malloy was sanc- tuary boy during the pastorate of Father Charles Brennan, the first resident pastor of Mt. Savage. A vocation to the priesthood was noticed in the young man, and, accordingly, he entered St. Charles College, May 7, 1850. He was elevated to the holy priesthood at St. Mary's Seminary, by Archbishop Kenrick, June 18, 1859. His first mission was Port Deposit, Md.,
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where he remained for four years; he was afterwards assistant at St. John's Church, Baltimore. He next became pastor of Woodberry, where he built a fine church and pastoral residence. His last appointment was to the rectorship of St. Pius' Church, Baltimore. This latter parish he organized, and erected the church and pastoral residence. His work was hard and con- tinuous, and his health gradually gave way under the strain. He died July 25, 1885, universally revered and lamented. At his own request his remains were buried in the cemetery at Mt. Savage. "Eternal rest grant to him, O Lord, and let perpetual light shine upon him."
Rev. John T. Gaitley ! Clarum et venerabile nomen ! Everyone knows that Father Gaitley, that most priestly priest, the lover of the poor, and the defender of the weak, was an illustrious son of Mt. Savage.
Father Gaitley studied his classics at St. Charles' College, where he was enrolled, September 6, 1852. He was ordained by Archbishop Kenrick from St. Mary's Seminary, in 1861, and appointed to a mission in Southern Maryland. It is said that the congregation lodged a complaint against him, telling the good arch- bishop that the only fault they found was that "he was too young." Archbishop Kenrick answered the delegation : "No one will complain of you, if you correct all your faults as surely as time will cure Father Gaitley's youth." Time and hard work quickly threw the fetters of age about him, and before his death, although he died young, his hair had become
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REV. JNO. J. MCDERMOTT, REV. R. C. CAMPBELL, REV. R. O'NEILL, REV. J. C. MALLON.
REV. L. MALLOY, REV. JNO. T. GAITLEY, RT. REV. MGR. O'CONNOR, V. G., V. REV. M. J. BRENNAN, REV. R. MATTINGLY,
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snowy, and his step had grown feeble. Father Gaitley spent nearly all of his life as pastor of St. Patrick's Church, Baltimore. He was a zealous fatherly priest, faithfully administering to the wants of his congrega. tion; he, nevertheless, always remembered his old home, and was looked upon as the particular counsellor and protector of the young priests of Western Mary- land. They were always welcome visitors to his house ; he was ever ready to encourage them in their work, and give them the benefit of his pastoral experience ; "and were everyone for whom he did some kind and loving service to bring a blossom to his grave, he would sleep to-night beneath a wilderness of flowers."
Rev. John J. McDermott, another priestly son of Mt. Savage, was educated at St. Charles' College and St. Mary's Seminary. He was ordained priest by Most Rev. James Gibbons, Archbishop of Baltimore, in 1883. He died soon after his ordination. Father McDermott was an amiable character, possessing all the priestly virtues; but on account of his naturally frail body his ability was not great, although his character was lofty.
Of Rev. Michael Brennan we have spoken in the history of St. Patrick's Church, Cumberland. Of the younger priests, who can look towards Mt. Savage and exclaim with the poet,
"Ab, happy hills! ah, pleasing shade ! Ah! fields beloved in vain ! Where once my careless childhood strayed, A stranger yet to pain,"
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we must mention particularly Rev. Fathers Romanus Mattingly, Richard C. Campbell, Richard O'Neill, John Dowling and Joseph C. Mallon. Of Father Mattingly's work we shall speak in the history of Garrett and Washington Counties. Father Campbell is the suc- cessful and popular pastor of Texas, Baltimore County; Father O'Neill is walking in the footsteps of Father Gaitley, at St. Patrick's Church, Baltimore; Father Dowling is assistant at St. John's Church, Baltimore ; and the kind-hearted, clear-headed Father Mallon is in charge of St. Ann's Church, Tennallytown, Washing- ton City.
" You hear that boy laughing? you think he's all fun, But the angels laugh, too, at the good he has done ; The children laugh loud as they troop to his call, And the poor man that knows him laughs loudest of all."
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ARTICLE V.
THE COAL MINERS.
Coal mining is the principal industry of Allegany County. It employs more men, puts in circulation more money, uses more agencies, blesses more homes, involves more details, and touches more interests than any other occupation. As the remaining congrega- tions to be sketched in this chapter are made up almost exclusively of coal miners and their families, it may be interesting to our readers to take a rapid glance at the miners themselves.
One of the first things to strike the visitor who comes in contact with the Western Maryland miners is the great number of nationalities represented among them. Scotch, Irish, Welsh, English, Germans, Italians, Canadians, Americans, and occasionally Hungarians, may be seen digging coal side by side. This variety would be enough of itself to make the miners an interesting class of men, because it brings a -peculiar picturesqueness into their lives, and, as the picture is always changing, it renders life among them de- lightfully free from monotony.
On the first trip to the mines in the morning, when the day begins with what is called "a five o'clock start," an observer may behold in the distance a long train of mine cars winding around the mountains.
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On observing more closely, he notices that the cars are filled with hundreds of men, all carrying, in their tight-fitting little caps, mining lamps, trimmed and burning. Very near the mouth of the mine he hears the measured tread of dozens of heavy horses and mules, accompanied by their drivers, all about to begin their day's work among the black diamonds away down beneath the surface of the earth. Should the observer happen to be near enough to notice the clean, white, morning faces of the men, and especially should he be blessed with the power of reading charac- ter in the countenance, his first impression would be that the miners are a jolly, good-natured crowd of intelligent men; and the impression would quickly become a settled conviction if he heard, ringing out from a manly voice on the crisp, morning air :
" Oh, it's ill to loose the bands that God decreed to bind, Still will we be the children of the heather and the wind ; Far away from home, oh, it's still for you and me That the broom is blooming bonnie in the North Countrie."
It has been said, with some semblance of truth, "that a man in these days belongs to a variety of countries, but the old land is still the true love-the others are but pleasant infidelities; and somewhere, deep down in the heart, something yearns for the old land and the old kindly people."
The sound of the Scotch melody has hardly died away when the visitor's ears are greeted by a very different sentiment :
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"There's not a true-born Irishman, wherever he may be, But loves that little Emerald that sparkles by the sea. May the sun of bright prosperity shine peaceful and serene, And bring better days to Erin, where the grass grows green !"
Every one sings what he likes best; and the miners being an intelligent and fair- minded class of men, one nationality or one song is appreciated about as justly as another. All are, as a general rule, good Americans, and while old-time ties still hold many of them by affectionate remembrance, the "government of the people, by the people, and for the people," has a very warm place in their hearts. The sameness of occupa- tion, the hard times through which they have passed, as well as a uniformity of personal interests make the miners universally sympathetic towards one another ; and, when all constraint is cast aside, and they meet on a footing of equality, as poor men, working hard to support themselves and their little ones so near and dear to them, they are kind, considerate and " all around jolly good fellows." Much of their spare time at home is devoted to reading. The majority of them are well informed on the ordinary topics of the day; and a great many are well read in general history. When they meet together in public places, they discuss public matters, such as politics, labor organizations, tariff, and in particular tariff on coal. They are quite argumenta- tive, and very quick in bringing forward reasons to prove their assertions. As nearly all the miners belong to mutual aid organizations and fraternal beneficial associations, in which they have frequent opportunities
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to express their views, they acquire a surprising facility in public speaking. The knowledge possessed by them is generally accurate; their ideas are clear, and their expressions often lucid. This is probably to be attri- buted to the fact that they possess only a few books of their own, and the mining region has never been cursed by free circulating libraries of fiction and sickly sentimentality. Accordingly, unlimited indulgence in books of the light and ephemeral kind has not dissi- pated their minds, and their reading shows nothing of the superficial, skipping, skimming character. so much deplored, of those who try to read too many books. The Catholic families generally possess a few Catholic books, among which is always found a copy of "The Faith of our Fathers."
Large families are the general rule; seven children may be considered about the average. The young men habitually follow coal mining, the occupation of their fathers. The boys leave school at the age of fourteen or fifteen years, at which time they are supposed to be entitled to a "half-turn" in the mine. The ambition of the miner's boy generally tends towards the mine; and few ever give up mining to work at any other occupation. The miners' children, are, as a rule, strong and healthy; often handsome, with features as perfect as a Grecian statue. In school they are apt and docile pupils ; and when they have succeeded in overcoming an innate bashfulness, they are quick in learning and innocently free from that sad preco-
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ciousness sometimes lamented in more worldly-minded children :
" The little hands too skilful and the child mind choked with weeds, The daughter's heart grown wilful, and the father's heart that bleeds."
The girls, especially the younger ones, when in school are characterized by a remarkable timidity; the boys have all the characteristics of the ordinary mountain boy. Among them may be found all classes, wild boys, wily boys, rash boys, impulsive boys, kind boys, good boys, clever boys. They are very fond of out-door sports, the more violent games generally being the favorites. Indeed, it would be very hard to exaggerate the pleasure they find in a hotly contested game of baseball or football. When we unite this love of violent exercise with the universal prevalence of coal dust in all the mining towns, the ordinary school-boy arises before our imagination with a coal mine color even before he has procured his coveted "half-turn :" and Carrolton's grotesque description, would come very near accuracy in painting the ordinary school-room on a warm May afternoon :
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