USA > Maryland > A Century of Growth [electronic resource] or, the history of the Church in Western Maryland > Part 7
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" There was little Tom Simms in the front seat, Whose face was withstanding a drouth ; And jolly Jack Gibbs just behind him, With a rainy new moon for a mouth. There were anxious young novices drilling Their spelling books into their brain, Loud puffing each half-whispered letter Like an engine just starting its train."
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THE COAL MINERS.
There is probably no class of workmen in the State, who live better than the miners. The average family can live comfortably on six hundred dollars a year, provided that they own their home, and that the father is temperate and industrious. The system under which the families receive medical attention is in the circum- stances an excellent one. Every man, or as the miners say, "every full turn," pays one dollar a month to a physician. This dollar is usually, though not neces- sarily, deducted from their wages. First class, atten- tive, sober physicians reside in the mining towns. They are not financially connected with the mining companies; no favoritism is shown to any physician ; the men being free to take their own choice. The system of remuneration is considered economic for both patients and physicians, the latter usually furnishing all the medicines required, thus obviating the necessity of many druggists.
Fuel is naturally very cheap; the principal expense being for the hauling from the mines. Here the poor man in the mining regions has a decided advantage over his poor brother in the city, where fuel becomes an item of great expense.
Where taste is found, the miners' homes are neatly and comfortably furnished, adorned with pictures, some- times really artistic. In Catholic homes, at least, one or two sacred pictures can be seen.
As practically all the parishes are now blest with parochial schools, where the rising generation have every opportunity to study the fine arts, vocal and
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instrumental music has become a common pastime in the home, and grand pianos are among the furnishings of many a dwelling. Reading aloud to the children in the family circle is also a practice in home life. This is both an entertaining and instructive pastime, where conditions favor it. It is, of course, a quiet enjoyment, but a real enjoyment nevertheless.
The miners' families are blessed with an unusual share of affection, kindness and happiness in their home life.
" Do you hear that laugh with its manly tones, And the joyous ring of the baby voice ?
'Tis the father who gathers his little ones, The nurse and her brother-and all rejoice! Yes, human nature is much the same, When you go to the heart and count its beats ;
The poor man is proud of his home's good name As the richest man on the city streets."
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ST. MICHAEL'S CHURCH.
ARTICLE VI.
ST. MICHAEL'S CHURCH, FROSTBURG.
Frostburg is the most elevated and most charming city of Allegany County.
Approaching from the east, the tourist will notice his train leaving the valley further and further below and rising with every movement to a higher and grander prospect. At an immense distance beneath can be seen what resembles miniature trees; and the whitewashed houses, in the little town of Allegany below, grow smaller and more indistinct, until they appear like toy cottages; whilst above, almost touch- ing the clouds, shines out brilliantly the golden cross of St. Michael's Church.
Frostburg is situated on a plateau at an altitude of nearly two thousand feet above sea level; the climate is invigorating ; the scenery, wild and grand.
It has the solid air of a well built little city, with many brick edifices, substantially constructed on the most modern and improved plans.
Its seven thousand inhabitants have a municipal government, modern waterworks, electric lights, street car lines in contemplation ; and other up-to-date con- veniences, which show the enterprising and intelligent spirit of its people.
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Frostburg is known by the descriptive name of "The City on the Hill."
At present, prosperity depends on the coal mines; in former times Frostburg was a national pike town. The name comes from the old Frost family, who were exten- sive land owners towards the beginning of this century.
Meshack Frost, whose monument is erected in the Frostburg churchyard, may be considered the father and founder of Frostburg. William Frost, who is now nearing his eightieth year, claims to be the first white man born there.
On account of its location, being the very summit of the mountains, Frostburg naturally became a busy station, or "resting place," on the old National Pike.
It seems clear that the town, though small, was prosperous even before the era of coal-mining. It is historically certain that the first mine opened in the Frostburg coal region was on the old Eckhart property, on the National Road, about one mile below Frost. burg. The coal was used to supply the smitheries along the road, and tradition says that there was one blacksmith to nearly every mile.
Probably, about the year 1810, small quantities of coal were shipped, even to great distances East, but very little, if any, was sent West, as the blacksmiths procured coal at Grantsville, and many of them still used charcoal for horseshoeing.
Meshack Frost began to work his mine as early as the year 1818, but the Eckhart mine still continued for years to be the principal mine of the coal regions.
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There were Catholics living in Frostburg as early as 1812, because in that year Meshack Frost built his house on the very ground where the present St. Michael's Church stands.
For many years Eckhart and Frostburg were simply a mission of Mt. Savage, and there are still living many devout Catholics who remember having gone to Mass from Eckhart to the old church at Arnold's Settlement-long before a church at Frostburg was even dreamed of. It is certain, although few persons remember his coming, that the first priest that cele- brated Mass in what is now the Frostburg parish, was the Rev. John J. Chanche, who is remembered as having visited Eckhart in the summer of 1839. How long Father Chanche remained at Eckhart is not known, but his visit is well remembered by at least a few old people. It is possible that Father Chanche was simply a visitor, having stopped off at Eckhart while journeying over the National Pike .; but it is probable that he was spending a short vacation in the mountains. This supposition is the more tenable because Father Chanche was holding the position of president of St. Mary's College of Baltimore at the time he is said to have visited Western Maryland. It is certain also that he at least occasionally went to Frederick, where he had many friends, and where he was visiting when seized by his last illness. To reach Eckhart it was only necessary for him to continue his journey on the same road to what had already become a com- paratively well-known mountain summer resort. This
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is clear from Wm. Cullen Bryant's letters from Frost- burg in 1832. By hap-hazard we find another proof
RT. REV. JOHN J. CHANCHE, D. D.
of our assertion that the mountains of Allegany County had become a Mecca for health-seekers, at an even earlier date, in an old copy of the National Intelligencer,
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published in Washington by Gales and Seaton. It is dated September 25, 1828. The paper is principally filled with long-winded and violent articles against Andrew Jackson, but one article is free from politics ; the writer has visited the mountains of Western Mary- land, and expresses the hope that thousands will soon avail themselves of the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal to approach what he calls "an incomparable region of health and recreation."
The following sketch of Dr. Chanche is quoted from the Defenders of our Faith.
John Joseph Chanche was born October 4, 1795, in Baltimore, to which his parents had fled from the horrors of San Domingo. At the age of eleven he was placed in the college opened by the Sulpitians in that city, and soon showed that he was called to the ecclesiastical state. He received the tonsure from Archbishop Carroll when he was only fifteen. After receiving minor orders from Archbishop Neale, he was ordained by Archbishop Marechal, June 5, 1819. Hav- ing been received into the community of St. Sulpice, he was made a professor in St. Mary's College, and continued to discharge his duties, becoming in time vice-president ; and in September, 1834, on the elevation of Dr Eccleston to the episcopate, president of the college, an office for which he possessed marked quali- fications.
Dr. Chanche had been proposed for the position of coadjutor at Baltimore, at Boston, and at New York, but steadfastly declined the dignity of bishop. He
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took an important part in several of the provincial councils of Baltimore, his learning, eloquence, and thorough knowledge of all prescribed forms and cere- monies being recognized by all. When the see of Natchez was established, July 28, 1837, Rev. Dr. Chanche was named. His consecration took place on March 14, in the year 1841, Archbishop Eccleston officiating. Dr. Chanche proceeded to his diocese alone, and, landing at Natchez, began to organize a diocese in the State of Mississippi. Catholicity was in no flourishing condition, yet some of the early French settlements and missions had been planted on , its soil, and in their tragic annals were recorded the deaths of heroic men who laid down their lives while announcing the truths of the Gospel to the white settlers and the dark-hued sons of the forest.
At the First Plenary Council, in 1852, Bishop Chanche was chief promoter, and after the close of its sessions, he went to Frederick to rest awhile at the house of a friend. There he was seized with ill- ness, which baffled the skill of physicians. He lingered several days without a murmur, bearing all his suffer- ings with resignation and serenity. He died July 22, 1853. . At his own request his body was conveyed to Baltimore and interred in the Cathedral Cemetery. An able, an accomplished man, he had renounced the episcopate in Sees where the Church was organized and progressing, in order to devote his energies and life in a State where "the prospects of Catholicity were feeble indeed." Bishop Chanche, after his con-
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secration, made a number of journeys over the National Pike, going to and from his episcopal See of Natchez. As far as we have been able to make research, his name is not found in any church record of Western Maryland, but the few old people who remember him claim "that he was just the nicest priest they ever saw."
How strange and mysterious are the ways of God! Cautiously the worldly-minded man arranges his plans, and with all human prudence executes them, only to sink into his grave and be at once forgotten, while the self-sacrificing man, like Bishop Chanche, simply forgets himself into a glorious immortality.
In 1846, the Maryland Mining Company built the Eckhart Railroad to Cumberland, to make connection with the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad, which was carrying East thousands of tons of coal. With the new railroad came more workmen, greater prosperity, and these were soon followed by Frostburg's first pastor, the Rev. Michael Slattery. Many of the older people, who remember Father Slattery very well, would place his coming at an earlier date; some have said that he was in Frostburg as early as 1840. This could not be correct, because, according to the records of St. Mary's Seminary of Baltimore, where Father Slattery finished his studies, he was not ordained priest until early in the year 1844.
It is conceded by all that Father Slattery is the first priest that came to Frostburg to take regular charge of the congregation. Many other priests had
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passed through the town on the stage-coaches. It may be that some of them said Mass at private houses, but, if so, there is no record at the present time to prove it. Father Slattery's coming was not earlier than the end of 1849 or the beginning of 1850. He first offered the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass at the residence of John Porter, on Main street. Afterwards he made arrangements to purchase from "The Stage Company " the old hotel known as "Highland Hall." It is said that in prosperous times, along the old pike, between thirty and forty stages stopped daily for meals at the "Hall." But as soon as the Balti- more and Ohio Railroad was built to Wheeling, business slackened along the pike, and Father Slattery was thus enabled to buy the property at a bargain. It is said that the hotel was large enough to accom- modate three hundred guests. One wing was re- modelled and transformed into the first St. Michael's Church in Frostburg The other wing Father Slattery embellished and used as the pastoral residence. This took place in the year 1852.
For many years Father Slattery labored willingly, undergoing every hardship connected with the life of a poor, struggling, pioneer priest.
He was a good organizer, and very soon was sur- rounded by an interesting and docile congregation. He drew to Frostburg the Eckhart Catholics, who had been attending Mt. Savage; he visited what is now Vale Summit, what was then "Pompey Smash." To these we may add a few farmers, who still continued
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to cultivate the fields, notwithstanding all the allure- ments of the mines, and a small number of Catholics from Borden Shaft, and what is now "Upper Ocean." It is probable that at that time Father Slattery's con- gregation numbered between five and six hundred souls. Father O'Keefe, now editor of the Catholic Mirror, visited Frostburg about this time. According to tradition, he celebrated Mass at the house of John Porter, so we must conclude that the new church had not yet been purchased. Father O'Keefe is still re- membered by a few of the old people. Rev. Peter Lenaghan, assistant pastor of Cumberland, and Father Van Horsigh, of Washington, are among the grate- fully remembered priests who visited the parish during the pastorate of Father Slattery. It has been said that Father Slattery gave the name of St. Michael to the Frostburg church through devotion to his own namesake and patron. This is hardly correct, because it was the pious intention of the saintly Archbishop Eccleston to dedicate Western Maryland to God under the patronage of the archangels, the Frostburg church to St. Michael, Lonaconing to St. Raphael, and Barton to St. Gabriel.
Father Slattery remained in Frostburg until 1860, when he was removed to St. Joseph's Church, Balti- more. He died, universally beloved, in 1866.
He was a truly great man in the sense that he was a truly good man. He was a man of action rather than thought; but if we take the standard of our Blessed Saviour, " By their fruits ye shall know them,"
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we must pronounce his life and his work a grand success.
After Father Slattery's departure, Frostburg became for two years a mission of Mt. Savage, and was attended by Fathers Carney and Brown.
In 1862 Father Charles O'Reilly came to take charge. He was pastor during the war. He is re- membered in Frostburg as "a little man, very fond of riding big horses."
Rev. John Cronin, C. SS. R., who was one of Frost- burg's altar boys during Father O'Reilly's pastorate, has a fund of interesting reminiscences of this eccentric character. Among others, he tells that there was a disturbance in the town, and Father O'Reilly, mis- taking the noise for a general riot or uprising of the Know-Nothing party to assassinate him, and feeling no particular inclination for the palm of martyrdom at that time, rang the church-bell at midnight, called all the Irish miners out of the Eckhart mine, and, when the multitude was assembled, Father O'Reilly made a speech, relating the real or imaginary indig- nities to which he had been subjected, detailed his reasons for believing that Frostburg was a rebel town, and clinched his arguments by saying : "Apologize, ye rebels, or I shall call Col. Mulligan from New Creek to lay your homes in ashes before sunset."
The truth is that Col. Mulligan was at the very time encamped at New Creek, and, moreover, he was a friend of Father O'Reilly; and had the suspicion been proved that Frostburg was in sympathy with the
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Confederacy, it would have required little persuasion to cause Mulligan's Irish Brigade to act. The prob- ability is, however, that Father O'Reilly's grievances were only imaginary, or, at most, that he had been insulted by some irresponsible ruffian. The mayor of the town apologized and all passed away without disturbance.
Father O'Reilly was undoubtedly an odd man, but when we have said this against him, we have said all. The lightning flash at midnight often revealed "the eccentric little man on his big horse," the inexorable scolder, journeying over the rough mountain roads, bearing to the sick and dying the meek, gentle Jesus, " who will not break the bruised reed nor quench the smoking flax."
The Redemptorist Fathers of the Cumberland mon- astery took charge of Frostburg in 1864. The most affectionately remembered of these good priests are Fathers Wirth and Gross. Tradition says that Father Wirth was a very large man, robust and kindly; a re- markable walker. He often walked from Cumberland to Frostburg, and, after saying Mass and taking dinner, he was ready to walk back; but in spite of his athletic tendencies, one competent observer has been bold enough to assert "that from the holding of a pen to the handling of a horse, he was the clumsiest priest in the county."
After Father Wirth, Father William H. Gross attended Frostburg. He is remembered as the em- bodiment of the ideal priest. In truth, it is no ex-
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aggeration to say that if we can trust impressions made by Father Gross on the Catholics of his day in Allegany County, we may describe this popular young Redemptorist, in the parlance of the printer, "as a treatise on ecclesiastical perfection in one volume beautifully bound."
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Father Gross afterwards became Bishop of Savannah, Georgia. His diocese was devastated by an epidemic of yellow fever during the summer of 1878. The Rt. Rev. Bishop was thus obliged to undertake "a begging tour" among his friends the following autumn. On this occasion he paid a visit to Frostburg, and was enthusiastically welcomed by his old parishioners. In a lecture delivered for the benefit of the fever sufferers, December 15, 1878, Bishop Gross spoke as follows :
"How sad a Christmas is coming! When fires are sparkling and merry-making is on the grand rounds, and all will be bright and buoyant throughout the world, the thought will steal over us, like the memory of a dreadful dream, 'Where is the other ?' Calmly, until the resurrection, reposing in the silent land of sleepers. If Christmas could only be veiled away, we might forget that there are dear, tiny little stockings never again to hang around the chimney corners, and that there are, in far-off Southern homes, thousands of sorrowing, bleeding, broken hearts, beating, like muffled drums, the dead march over blighted hopes, shattered affections and falling tears."
The man who could speak like that could not help being loved.
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In October, 1866, the Rev. Lewis A. Morgan was appointed resident pastor of St. Michael's Church. He remained in charge until August, 1868. Father Morgan was a convert to the Church. Shortly after
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REV. LEWIS A. MORGAN.
his conversion he entered St. Charles' College, where he spent one year. He then entered St. Mary's Seminary of Baltimore, was ordained priest by Arch- bishop Spalding in 1866, and came to Frostburg almost immediately after his ordination.
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Father Morgan was dearly loved by the Frostburg people. He is described as a little below the middle height, of weak and slender frame; but the ap- pearance of feeble health, which he manifested, was neutralized by the animation of his looks, vivacious temperament and energetic movement. His dispo- sition was bright, cheerful, sunshiny. . He was fond of boys, and always ready to give them new puzzles in arithmetic. He was very devout to the Blessed Sacrament, and, like most converts, in devotion to the Blessed Virgin, he was childlike and ardent. Although intellectually a clever man, he was insensible to honors, and never dreamed of ecclesiastical distinction nor desired promotion. He knew that his frail body would soon give way, and he used his strength to spread God's truth and to secure his own salvation. He died young, but "being made perfect in a short space, he fulfilled a long time."
The eighteenth day of February, 1868, was a blessed day for Frostburg, because, on that day, her greatest pastor, the Rev. Valentine Schmitt, came to take charge of St. Michael's Church. Father Schmitt is a Bavarian by birth.
His preparatory studies for the holy priesthood he had finished in the fatherland ; philosophy and theology he studied with success in St. Mary's Seminary, Balti- more, where he was ordained priest by Archbishop Spalding in 1868. Frostburg was Father Schmitt's first pastorate; his name is irrevocably linked with the growth of the parish and the town, and in the
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Church history of Allegany County, his pastorate of eighteen years will ever remain one of the brightest chapters.
When we consider the length of Father Schmitt's pastorate, the numerous improvements which he made on the church property and the circumstances in which he worked, we cannot help being struck with amaze- ment at the sound judgment and exquisite taste always shown and the remarkable absence of mis- takes. He built the fine Gothic church of Frostburg, which is one of the many Catholic glories of the mountains. The corner-stone had been laid in Father Morgan's time, August 2, 1868, but Father Schmitt was the real architect of the church as it stands in all its beauty to-day. It is built of red brick, with a graceful steeple, towering one hundred and sixty- five feet high, crowned by a golden cross, the highest point in the most elevated city of the county. The church has- a marble altar and a musical chime of bells.
Under Father Schmitt's directions the old Highland Hall was torn down and room made for the new brick pastoral residence. In the plan of the house the same good taste and judgment that characterize every detail of the church are manifest. It is large, solid, commodious, architecturally beautiful; in a word, one of the best planned pastoral residences in the arch- diocese.
No sooner had Father Schmitt attended to the wants of the living than he turned his attention to
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the dead. Frostburg was in need of a new cemetery; he accordingly viewed the surrounding landscape, and finally purchased, as the last resting-place of Frost- burg's dead, a portion of the elevated plateau, known
REV. VALENTINE F. SCHMITT.
as McCulloh's Hill. The section is nothing less than ideal. The graveyard is conveniently located, easily approached, and has so many natural charms that little landscape gardening was needed to put it in per- fect order, and little attention is required to keep it so.
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As soon as the new cemetery had been laid off in sections, the propriety of interring therein the re- mains of the respected founders of Frostburg suggested itself to the family heirs.
Here Father Schmitt's good sense came in with a wise suggestion, which at the time was highly appre- ciated, and ever since has been praised by all classes of citizens-that instead of burying the remains in the cemetery and erecting a monument there, it would be a mark of appreciation of persons so distinguished to bury them where all Frostburg could view their graves. He accordingly selected a location for the graves and monument in front of St. Michael's beauti- ful church. Meshack Frost had been buried in the cemetery at Mt. Savage; his wife's remains had been laid to rest in old St. Michael's Cemetery.
November 20, 1877, Nathan Frost carried into effect the wish of Father Schmitt; and to-day the congrega- tion of St. Michael's, entering and leaving their house of prayer, the school children, entering and leaving school, the priests, going from the rectory to the church, or when reciting their offices in the open air, are greeted by a neat monument, of highly polished, Italian marble, erected to :
THE FOUNDERS OF FROSTBURG. 1812.
IN MEMORY OF MESHACK FROST. DIED OCT. 9, 1863, AGED 76 YEARS.
IN MEMORY OF CATHERINE FROST, DIED JULY 24, 1876, AGED 84 YEARS.
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