USA > Maryland > A Century of Growth [electronic resource] or, the history of the Church in Western Maryland > Part 8
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" Daily the tides of life go ebbing and flowing beside them ; Thousands of throbbing hearts where theirs are at rest, and forever Thousands of aching brains where theirs no longer are busy ; Thousands of toiling hands where theirs have ceased from their labors ; Thousands of weary feet where theirs have completed their journey."
During his pastorate Father Schmitt made improve- ments to the extent of sixty thousand dollars, and when he was called to St. Joseph's Church, Washing- ton City, his parish was free from debt and his character without a stain.
In a preface to the Life of St. Francis Xavier, Father Faber speaks of "a prudence which consists in venturing nothing; a success which never fails, because it makes no attempts; a devotion which makes itself lukewarm in order to be practical; an energy which administers opiates to itself in order to enjoy the praises of placidity and moderation." There is no doubt that there are such characters as Father Faber depicts. They are amiable in a way; prudent in a negative sense.
Father Schmitt is the direct opposite of these weak characters. He is essentially a positive character ; soldierly, commanding to the extent of being almost autocratic. What impression is a strong, priestly character like this apt to make on a congregation like St. Michael's of Frostburg? "That he is every inch a man, and that he means exactly what he says."
Father Schmitt's amazing success springs mainly from his strong, positive personality. There is no doubt that he is a man of great natural ability, but
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he is more than that. He had zeal enough to pay a great price for success, daring enough to make a sacrifice, which is not popular with the Germans in general. He Americanized himself for Frostburg, but he did it in a unique manner. He did not become un-German, because he preserved what is best in his strong, German character, and added thereto what is best in the American character, thereby producing a combination character, which enabled him, with the assistance of God's grace, to teach and sanctify an almost exclusively Irish congregation. Like St. Paul, he " made himself all things to all men to gain all men to Christ."
Father Schmitt is not a man of books, and never was. The scholar in the priesthood has always been a familiar theme for academic discussion. His presence is necessary, his usefulness is obvious; but the mere scholar too frequently lacks that touch with affairs and knowledge of men which are necessary in the complicated duties at the present day of a parish priest. In the practical knowledge of his surround- ings, of the characteristic traits of the people with whom he lived, and for whose eternal salvation he labored, Father Schmitt is far above the average priest in learning. He is well informed on all the general topics of the day. He is an excellent con- versationalist, a cheerful companion, a hospitable gentle- man. As a priest, Father Schmitt probably appears at his best in singing High Mass, as he is the pos-
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sessor of a fine tenor voice, remarkable for its sweet- ness and devotion.
Of course, good taste must forbid the shattering into fragments, called analysis, of the character of a priest who is still in the midst of his usefulness, but charity will permit us to say, briefly, and we hope with propriety, that in Father Schmitt even the super- ficial observer will notice more of the disposition of the soldier of Christ than the martyr; more of the courage of Hildebrand than the sweetness of St. Francis; more of the sword of St. Paul than the visions of St. John.
His work in Allegany County is unique, and his character is unique. When the bonzes speak of the imaginary Buddhist heaven, they define it by saying " Nirvana is Nirvana," and we must end by saying " Father Schmitt is Father Schmitt."
During the foregoing administration Frostburg gave to the Church two vocations, which have happily de- veloped into two excellent priests-Rev. John J. Dillon, the present efficient and popular assistant pastor of St. John's Church, Baltimore, and Rev. John G. Beane, assistant at the Pittsburg Cathedral.
The immediate successor of Father Schmitt was the Rev. D. C. De Wulf, who remained in charge of the parish until April, 1890. Father De Wulf was well known to his Frostburg congregation before his ap- pointment as their pastor. He had been formerly pastor of Westernport, and during that time he had been a frequent visitor to "the city on the hill."
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Father De Wulf liked Frostburg, and Frostburg liked Father De Wulf. He was popular and very much respected by all classes, Catholics and non-Catholics
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alike. He was very kind to the children, and through this kindness he was soon master of all the homes in the parish. A business and pleasure trip called him to Europe during the summer of 1890. He was suc- ceeded by Rev. Stephen J. Clarke.
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In 1832, the famous poet, William Cullen Bryant, visited Frostburg, and here is what he thought of it: " From the little town of Frostburg, where I passed the night, a place lying high among the mountain ridges, where the winter comes early and lingers late, can be seen many small mining towns. The popula- tion of the mining villages does not appear to me to be of the most hopeful kind. They owe little to the school-master, and know so little of the advantages that they are not generally anxious to procure them for their children." Poor Bryant! He had ap- proached his grave "like the quarry slave at night, scourged to his dungeon," or -
" Like one who wraps the drapery of his couch About him and lies down to pleasant dreams,"
a few months before Father Clarke was ordained priest. It is a real pity that he did not live to see Frostburg at the close of the century. Could he visit St. Michael's School to-day, he would realize that he was a false prophet, and he would feel in . honor obliged to apologize to the miners for his unkind impressions of them; and to the Catholic children he might well apologize for his many falsehoods pub- lished against their religion. Poor Bryant was a naturalist in religion; he loved trees and brooks and clouds. He would go into an ecstasy at the thought of "a hundred suns reddening one poor rose," but he saw no grandeur in a God-man shedding his blood for one poor soul. Every child in St. Michael's School
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could teach religious truth to such men as William .Cullen Bryant.
The close of the century finds the Rev. Stephen J. Clarke at the helm. Father Clarke entered St. Charles' College from Havre de Grace, Md., Septem- ber 14, 1868, and graduated with high honors from his alma mater in June, 1875. At college he was dis- tinguished especially for his thorough grasp of all the English branches of the college curriculum. One of his classmates says that "in English composition he was looked upon as the most polished and versatile writer in the class." In September, 1875, he was enrolled at St. Mary's Seminary of Baltimore, where he was ordained priest by His Grace, Archbishop Gibbons, at the Christmas ordinations of 1879. His first missionary work was on the hard and scattered missions of Southern Maryland. In January, 1886, he was removed to Barton, this county: In April, 1890, he came to Frostburg. We may here remark that Father Clarke was very well contented in Barton. He liked the people, and his admiration was recip- rocated by the people; they liked him in return. Nevertheless, when commanded to "launch out into the deep and let down his nets for a draught," Father Clarke answered his ecclesiastical superior with charac- teristic docility, "At thy word I will let down the net." He did so, and he enclosed a very great multitude of fishes, and he beckoned to his companions that were in another boat, that they should "come and help him."
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If we were asked to give the most striking charac- teristic of Father Clarke in his relations to his people, we would be forced to answer, "His extraordinary devotion to the children of the parochial school." The Frostburg school is Father Clarke's creation. and its success is the result of his labor. No sooner had the mantle of Fathers Schmitt and De Wulf fallen on his shoulders than Father Clarke resolved to establish a parochial school, and he immediately set to work to carry out his resolution. The school building is large, well ventilated, and admirably adapted to its purpose. It has every up-to-date accommodation in the build- ing and furnishing.
When the plans of the school were arranged and the building well under way, Father Clarke purchased a residence, conveniently located on Main street, con- nected with the church property; this he renovated and enlarged into a comfortable convent for the good Sisters.
The first companions that came to help Father Clarke with his miraculous draught of fishes were the Ursuline Sisters, whose Mother House is in Louisville, Kentucky. On the kind invitation of the pastor, they opened the parochial school in September, 1891.
The next companion who came was the Rev. Dennis M. McCormick.
On account of the growth of the parish, His Emi- nence, Cardinal Gibbons, appointed, towards the be- ginning of 1898, as Frostburg's first assistant priest, Father McCormick. The young assistant is a Wash-
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ingtonian by birth. After attending the parochial schools of his native city, he entered St. Charles' Col- lege, of Howard County, September 13, 1887; he gradu- ated, after a very successful classical course, June, 1892. The following September he entered St. Mary's Semi- nary of Baltimore, where he studied philosophy and theology, and was ordained priest by His Eminence, Cardinal Gibbons, at the Christmas ordinations, 1897. Father McCormick is an all-around, cultured and re- fined young gentleman, endowed with all the accom- plishments required for a successful career in the priesthood. He has a rich, pleasing, baritone voice, enabling him to preach and sing well. He has made many friends during his short stay in Western Mary- land, all of whom predict for him a brilliant and suc- cessful future. In 1898, His Eminence, the Cardinal, appointed Father McCormick a member of the Board of Parochial School Examiners. He has the dis- tinction of being the youngest member of the Board.
During the administration of Father Clarke, aside from the building of the school and the purchasing and renovation of the convent, many notable improve- ments and repairs have been made in the church itself; among them the most striking are the new pews and the frescoing of the inside of the church.
The Dominican Fathers preached a well-attended and fruitful mission in Frostburg during the present administration.
In June, 1899, the Ursuline Sisters, whose school work was so successful and satisfactory to Father
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Clarke and the congregation, were recalled by their ecclesiastical superior to take charge of growing schools in "the blue grass " valley of Kentucky. In the fol- lowing September, the school Sisters of Notre Dame came to the mountains to take up the work laid down by the good Ursulines.
The best eulogy on Father Clarke's life is his work. He fearlessly launched out into the deep at the word of his ecclesiastical superior. His nets enclosed a great multitude; he has shown good judgment in select- ing partners to help him in landing his prize; and the century closes with Jesus still "teaching the mul- titude from the ship," and St. Michael, the faithful guardian angel of the voyage. .
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ARTICLE VII.
ST. MARY'S CHURCH, LONACONING.
Lonaconing is very appropriately named "the city in the valley." It lies in the southwestern part of the county, about half way between Westernport and Frostburg, and eighteen miles by air line from Cum- berland.
The population of. the city is between seven and eight thousand souls, nearly fifteen hundred of whom . are Catholics. Lonaconing is the centre of the coal fields; it nestles in a picturesque glen, with two parallel mountain ridges towering one thousand feet on either side. The original name was "Lonacona," an Indian word, meaning "where many waters meet."
As early as 1725, an old log-mill, probably the first building along the George's Creek, was erected near what is now the little town of Moscow. It was swept away in 1823. Seventy-five years ago, the whole val- ley, from Moscow to Douglas avenue, Lonaconing, was one unbroken forest. The first white settlers were the Groves and Tottens, from New Jersey, and the Broadwaters and Duckworths, from Virginia. In No- vember, 1810, heavy and continued rains caused the mountain streams to swell into raging rivers, which stripped the earth from the valley's side, leaving a "bare mountain of coal." The farmers mined it with
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mattocks, and sent some of it to Winchester by way of Westernport. This was probably the first coal shipped from the mining regions of Western Mary- land. Later, real and systematic efforts to develop the Lonaconing coal fields were made by the George's Creek Coal and Iron Company. It seems clear that there were no Catholics living in Lonaconing prior to 1835. About that time, or it may be later, a young German farmer, named Lewis Hezzel, accompanied by his wife and young family, settled in the valley. He was soon followed by Henry Knapp, another German immigrant. These two devout Catholics are rightly . considered the pioneers of Catholicity in Lonaconing. As early as 1840 missionary priests began to pay occasional visits to the few scattered Catholics of this wilderness. These visits must necessarily have been few, on account of the difficulty of access to this almost unknown locality.
When we remember that the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad reached Cumberland from the East only in the autumn of 1842, and that it practically rested there until 1853, we may form an idea of the hard- ships undergone by the pioneer priests of the George's Creek region.
Lonaconing Catholics owe much to the sons of St. Alphonsus. These saintly and zealous priests first gathered the few scattered Catholics in this valley, organized them into a congregation, and from the year 1840 to 1866, attended occasionally or regularly the mission. In those days the stage-coach was the
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ordinary means of conveyance. From Cumberland to Frostburg the Rev. Fathers travelled in the stage over the old National Turnpike; from Frostburg to Lonaconing, in the saddle. We learn from the mis- cellaneous writings of Mr. Jacob Brown, a Cumber- land lawyer, that "coach-riding was a very pleasant mode of travelling over the mountains during the summer season, but the very reverse in the winter. Think of a stage-load of men and women in the mountains, with the snow two or three feet deep, thermometer registering many degrees below zero, and no fire nearer than the next changing place. The ordinary speed was about six or seven miles an hour."
Among the most illustrious Redemptorist Fathers who visited Lonaconing during this period must be mentioned Rev. John Nepomucene Neumann. This holy priest was afterwards elevated to the episcopate, governed successfully the large and flourishing diocese of Philadelphia, from 1852 to 1860, died in the odor of sanctity; and strenuous efforts are now being made for the canonization of the venerable missionary.
Father Neumann visited Lonaconing in the year 1843. As yet the congregation had not begun to think of building a church. The people assembled to hear Mass at a private residence, known then and now as the "stone house." This very modest looking home of religion is situated in "Knapp's Meadow." The location is cheerful and picturesque. The build- ing itself, once substantial and beautiful, now shows indications of age and dilapidation.
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Towards the beginning of 1850, the Rev. Thaddeus Anwander, C. SS. R., began to visit Lonaconing. He
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is remembered by a few senior members of the con- gregation as "a priest both cross and cranky, but self-sacrificing in the performance of his priestly duties." He was a very young priest when he came
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to Lonaconing. He died November 1, 1893, at the Church of the Sacred Heart. Baltimore. Towards the end of his life Father Anwander became almost blind ; nevertheless, he remained faithful to his duties as confessor almost to his last breath. On the eve of All Saints he remained in the confessional up to a very late hour. Worn out with the day's labors, he retired to rest; and when the Brother went to call him in the morning, he discovered that the good old priest had passed into the serenity of that cloudless life wherein dwells eternal peace,
The next priest who administered to the spiritual wants of the congregation is Rev. A. Van de Braak, C. SS. R. This holy priest, who seems to have been an exceedingly zealous and scholarly gentleman, was deputed by Archbishop Kenrick, of Baltimore, to visit the George's Creek mining region and "report the condition of the Catholic settlers." He made a pro- tracted visit to Lonaconing, examining the situation thoroughly. He made a house to house visitation
among the Catholics, taught catechism and adminis- tered the Sacraments. Father Van de Braak found hundreds of souls needing careful attention. The re- sult of his visitation was the determination on his part and the part of the congregation to build a church, the "location to be such that all the coal . miners might, without too much inconvenience, attend it." The church records give the names of seventeen infants and six adults baptized by Father Van de Braak.
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Towards the beginning of 1855, Father Brandstatter, C. SS. R., a priest of Sts. Peter and Paul's Church, Cumberland, began to visit regularly the George's · Creek mining region. According to the church record, he baptized five infants and two adults. There is only one person in the parish who remembers Father Brandstatter, and all the information obtainable from him is " that he was very fond of talking to children ; all the children liked him." Nearly two generations have passed away since his time in Lonaconing, and with these generations passed away every picture of his personality. Some of the oldest members of Sts. Peter and Paul's parish, Cumberland, still kindly re- member him, and speak of "Father Brandstatter as a priest very highly gifted, intellectually and morally."
It is worthy of note that at this time the little con- gregation was almost exclusively German. The Rosary was recited in the German language, and instructions were given by the priests in the same tongue.
During the year 1858 ten baptisms are recorded by Fathers Hergenraether and Joeckel, the latter of whom, in a note written on the margin of the bap- tismal register, states that probably the other baptisms are recorded elsewhere, but adds, "An sit alius catalogus baptizatorum, nescio."
During all these years the sick calls were very faithfully attended by the Rev. Redemptorist Fathers of Cumberland, and the pioneers of the parish, when in a reminiscent mood, give very edifying narratives of the many hardships willingly undergone by the
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saintly sons of St. Alphonsus in their efforts to reach the sick and the dying. It seems clear, from the traditions among the people, that very few Catholics died without the consolations of religion.
About this time, Father Michael Slattery, of Frost- burg, began to pay occasional visits to Lonaconing. The little congregation had begun to lose its German character; ten or twelve Irish families had immi- grated to the valley to work at the blast furnace, and others were employed in mining coal.
Father Slattery did not celebrate Mass at the "stone house," but chose instead the residence of some Irish family in the town. Father Brown, and also Father Carney, of Mt. Savage, paid an occasional visit to the parish. The home of Mr. John Ryan began to be the abode of the visiting priest, and his front parlor became the parish chapel
In 1859, the foundation was laid for St. Mary's Church. Dr. Atkinson, the superintendent of the George's Creek Coal Company, was very active in assisting the visiting clergymen in the erection of the church.
To Dr. Atkinson attaches all the blame of the church's location. The lot was donated by the George's Creek Coal Company. Three sites were suggested, any one of which would have been far more con- venient to the congregation than the one chosen.
After the foundation of the church had been laid, the parish was in the anomalous position of enjoying two sets of pastors, the Redemptorist Fathers con-
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tinued to say Mass at the "stone house," and the dio- cesan priests occasionally paid a visit and celebrated the Holy Sacrifice in Lonaconing proper.
During the years 1860 and 1861, the parish was attended by Rev. J. F. Bradley, of the Congregation of the Most Holy Redeemer. According to tradition, he was familiarly known among the people by the irreverent sobriquet, "the Irish Dutchman." This nickname had its reason in the fact that he was the only Redemptorist visiting Lonaconing who was not German, and the Rev. Fathers of Sts. Peter and Paul's monastery of Cumberland have always been known through Western Maryland as the "German Fathers."
Father Bradley was a fair type of the Irish priest of a quarter of a century ago-zealous, active, in earnest almost to pugnacity. He was a member of the Church militant in more ways than one. He fol- lowed literally the advice of St. Paul to Timothy, " Reprove, entreat, rebuke." A favorite expression of his in preaching was: "Good God! I don't know what's going to become of you people !"
Father Bradley preached the first panegyric de- livered in Lonaconing on St. Patrick, apostle of Ireland. Tradition says that he was a "powerful preacher." The church records of his time give the names of seven adults baptized and twenty-six infants. Father Brad- ley was drowned near Annapolis, July 9, 1866.
The year 1862 finds Rev. Bernard Arant, C. SS. R., in charge of the Lonaconing congregation. From
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Father Arant's notes we obtain the very interesting information that the Most Rev. Archbishop Eccleston piously desired to dedicate Western Maryland to the Archangels. The church of Lonaconing was to be known as St. Raphael's Church ; Frostburg, St. Michael's Church, and Barton, St. Gabriel's Church. This seems to have been also the wish of the good Redemptorist Fathers. Concerning the time and circumstances during which the name of the parish was changed from St. Raphael's to St. Mary's of the Annunciation, we are totally in darkness, and have not yet been able to gather any information.
Father Arant's notes further inform us that during his pastorate in the mining regions money was plentiful and everyone was at work. As a consequence of their prosperity, the congregation became more and more dissatisfied with the inconveniences of attending Mass at the "stone house." They began to clamor for the immediate completion of the church. Committees were appointed to hurry the work ; collectors were selected to solicit donations; enthusiasm ran high.
For the sake of clearness, we must here interrupt our narrative to explain the cause of the above- mentioned prosperity. It had long been known that the mountains along the George's Creek were under- laid with rich seams of bituminous coal; there re- mained, however, much uncertainty concerning both the area of the coal lands and the width of the seams; even after the " big veins" had been dis- covered, there was much doubt in the minds of many 10
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as to their extent and usefulness. The first opening was made at Old Lonaconing, in connection with a blast furnace, about 1840. Above the arch of the old, dilapidated furnace there still remains a stone, inscribed, "G. C. C. and I. Co., No. 1, 1837." From this we infer that, in 1837, the building of the furnace was begun, but the mine was not opened until nearly three years later. We learn, from Brown's miscel- laneous writings, that it is only a little over a hun- dred years since "stone coal " was first discovered in this county. Its first use was to supersede char- coal. Up to this time charcoal had been used en- tirely by blacksmiths, and was expensive, though it served its purpose well. It is still used in small and delicate works, where a high degree of heat is required.
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