USA > Maine > The Catholic church in Maine > Part 7
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On May 12, 1812, Father Ffrench sailed for the United States from Lisbon, in time to be caught in the war with England. He did not have Dennis Ryan's good fortune; he landed at St. John, New Brunswick. Accepted by the Bishop of Quebec he was assigned a huge mission field in New Brunswick and there labored with success until he displeased Bishop Joseph- Octave Plessis and was deprived of his faculties. The cause of this rift is not clear, but Father Ffrench's outspoken opposi- tion to French bishops in America appears to have been the basic irritant. The bishop's fixed resolve to prevent Ffrench from ever exercising his priestly functions in his diocese and his heavy correspondence with other ecclesiastics on the topic of Ffrench underscores the strong national antagonisms that weakened the administration of the Church in this country at that time.
Ffrench now moved to New York (1817-1822) where the prospects of being accepted, if that had not already been ar- ranged, were promising since the new bishop of that city, John Connolly, was a Dominican and inclined to be sympathetic. Father Ffrench was accepted and was soon involved in another
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controversy and busy refuting charges that followed him from Quebec and New Brunswick. But this time he was on the bishop's side, and his opponent was Father William Taylor, another Irishman and like Ffrench a convert. The trouble was referred to Rome, and although Rome rejected the charges against Ffrench it was recommended, as the better way to end the litigation, that both priests withdraw from New York. Tay- lor went to Boston where he became the good friend of Bishop Cheverus and Ffrench could only return to St. John, New Brunswick to conduct a private school, tend a mortgaged farm with the hope of repaying that long standing debt, and write a vindication of himself to settle the score with his more recent acquaintances. The appointment of Bishop Fenwick was a turn for the better.
Indeed, the news that Fenwick was the new bishop of Bos- ton was followed by better news: that Father Taylor, Bishop Cheverus' choice to succeed him, had decided to join his friend in France and that Virgil Barber, S.J., was in the Boston diocese with Bishop Fenwick. This was a marvelous concurrence of events. Benedict Fenwick had been instrumental in bringing Virgil Barber, a conscientious and highly intelligent Vermont- born minister, and his wife into the Catholic Church and later arranging for Barber to enter the Society of Jesus and his wife to become a Visitation nun (1816-1817). And it was Father Ffrench who accompanied Virgil Barber in the summer of 1818 to Claremont and who was instrumental in converting the Bar- ber family (except the father, Daniel, who entered the Church later ) and others in this village. His work at Claremont was an example of the good this talented priest could do. He was not unknown to Bishop Fenwick, and Virgil Barber could supply the deficiencies.
Father Ffrench was accepted into the diocese of Boston, and to make sure he had an ample field for his energies the Bishop assigned him to Eastport and the care of Catholics from thence to Dover. Eastport would please the priest, since he could keep an eye on his farm in St. John for he was still
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determined to pay off that debt. But Bishop Fenwick had a better reason; he wanted a priest near the Indians of Pleasant Point as a protection against designs on their faith. And East- port was the gateway into New England for the Irish migrating to New England from the maritime provinces.
The building program did not get under way until Bishop Fenwick completed his first episcopal visitation of Maine in the summer of 1827. Fenwick brought with him some know- ledge of the Maine Catholics, garnered from the reports and correspondence in the cathedral archives and supplemented by a verbal report from Virgil Barber who had spent nearly three months (October-December) of the previous year at the two Indian reservations and the two towns near them, Eastport and Bangor. He went to Eastport first, changing boats at Portland and arriving after a disagreeable and hazardous trip due to a heavy fog. He was glad to see Father Ffrench waiting for him, and together they proceeded to Pleasant Point where he offered Mass on Sunday, July 15, with many Protestants attending. Fenwick directed his remarks to them, and later in a letter re- counting this trip he recalled that the Protestants had behaved well and that the Indians were exemplary, neither looking to the right nor the left. He adds this observation as if it was a phenomenon as pleasant as unexpected.
The bishop met on this occasion a gentleman who had been giving him considerable anxiety. He was the Reverend Elijah Kellogg, a Congregational minister, who three years previously had been appointed schoolmaster of the Passamaquoddy tribe by the state government. For nearly ten years now, since Romagné had returned to France, these Indians had been with- out the needed care of a priest except for infrequent and brief visits, and the presence of a minister among them was dis- turbing. Kellogg, however, disclaimed any efforts to prosely- tize. He was, then, confounded when the bishop confronted him with an article he had written claiming that he was in fact doing missionary work among the Indians. Kellogg's answer was far from satisfactory. Indeed in the nineteenth
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century it would have been strange for a minister engaged in education to avoid evangelizing. There was no pretended wall of separation between church and state then. Mr. Kellogg remained to worry the bishop, and the bishop left Pleasant Point resolved to obtain a priest for the Indians and financial aid from the government.
Fenwick returned to Eastport where the Catholics had gath- ered to meet him. The home of a Mr. Keenan was probably the meeting place; he had emigrated from Ireland when he was only eighteen, had married and had made his home the rectory and chapel for visiting priests. His wife was eagerly awaiting the bishop, for she was a convert and now she awaited con- firmation from his hands. The bishop, in his talk to the Cath- olics, urged them to build a church. We know the names of some of the pioneer Catholics of Eastport who took the lead in building the first Catholic church in this town: Peter Gilligan, later a successful business man; the Sherlock brothers, John, Michael, James and William; John and Patrick Dee; Patrick Barry, the father of a large family which included John Barry, the first Maine native ordained for the Portland diocese. Before leaving, Fenwick received and accepted an invitation from some of the Protestants to preach to them in the Congregational church and he took this opportunity to explain the Catholic doctrine to them. He was a good preacher, New Englanders loved a good sermon, and the pulpit was still the best approach to the New England mind; such occasions also gave the Cath- olics a needed feeling of pride in their bishop.
From Eastport he went to the other Indian reservation on Indian Island, delaying at Belfast to say Mass for the few Catholics there, and then proceeding up the Penobscot. He was disturbed that these Indians were without a priest and resolved to remedy the situation as soon as possible. He re- mained with them several days, confirming eighty-nine and giving Holy Communion to one hundred and twenty.
As we have already noted, from Indian Island Bishop Fenwick went to Damariscotta and Whitefield, returning to
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Damariscotta for a conference with Edward Kavanagh and Edwin Smith with whom he discussed the idea of state aid for the Maine Indians. He then went to Portland, stopping at Wiscasset and Bath on his way, and had a talk with the gover- nor, Samuel E. Smith, about financial aid for the Indians. The bishop was not missing an opportunity to protect his friends.
The Catholics were increasing in Portland. There must have been well over two hundred Catholics there in the summer of 1827, for the bishop distributed Communion to 160 at the Mass offered on August 12. He observed, too, that there was a need for a church. For some time the Catholics had rented a room in a building in Market Square where they gathered faithfully every Sunday to say their prayers, following, no doubt, the detailed instructions Bishop Cheverus gave to groups of Cath- olics. The lay leader was John Crease, a native of Boston, who worked on the Portland newspaper. On this visit Crease in- troduced to Bishop Fenwick a young man who worked with him and with whom he had frequently discussed the Catholic faith. The young man was Josue Moody Young, of old New England stock. The next year he became a Catholic, baptized by Father Ffrench. He also became the first native of Maine to be a Catholic bishop.1
Saco was the last of the Maine towns visited. There were only a few Catholics here, but the prospects of a large mission were bright. His hopes centered around two converts, Dr. Henry B. C. Greene and Jonathan Tucker, and the expectation that an industry recently established in the town would attract Irish laborers. At the time of the bishop's visit, however, these prospects had been weakened by the unbecoming conduct of a priest. One can measure the hopes entertained by Bishop Fenwick by his decision to send early in 1827 the most recent addition to his diocesan clergy, Father Francis Boland, to Saco. Boland was, however, soon recalled. Now the bishop hurried there to see the two converts, offering Mass in Dr. Greene's home for them and the few other Catholics of the town. He
1 See the chapter on Maine converts for more on Young.
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still hoped that a church would soon be built there, but he evidently thought it better for Dr. Greene to move to Boston where one could be in close contact with the church and a priest. The doctor moved there later in this year and there he remained until his death in 1848.1
What Bishop Fenwick saw on this visitation persuaded him that it was time to build churches in Eastport, Portland, Saco and Dover. He told Father Ffrench to start working and the priest threw himself into the task with vigor. In the fall he was in Boston reporting to his bishop that building funds had been opened in all of the places except Saco, and he spent the next three months in and around Boston collecting funds. By the summer of 1828 the lots had been purchased and the cor- nerstone ceremonies held: in Eastport on April 29, in Dover on May 14, in Portland on June 13; before the year was over he had transferred his residence to Portland, but he was up and down the coast encouraging the builders. The three churches were sufficiently advanced before the year had passed for the celebration of Mass.2
The church in Portland was more costly than the one in Eastport. It was a brick building, at a fairly good location on the corner of State and Gray Streets where the land declines to the harbor and the wharves, and its total cost was close to $7,000, an enormous debt for the poor Catholics of this town. In an address commemorating Portland's centennial (1886) Bishop Healey paid tribute to John Fox for his courage in sell- ing the lot to the Catholics and for his generosity to the build- ing fund. Other Protestants contributed, too, and the Catholics of Boston helped out. Father Ffrench conducted four different drives there from 1828 to 1833 and collected nearly three thousand dollars for his three churches, and $1,300 of this sum, according to one source, was allotted to St. Dominic's. But
1 See the chapter on Maine converts for more on Greene.
" There is a disagreement on the year the lot for the Portland church was purchased, the construction started and services first held. Bishop James Healey, in his address commem- orating Portland's centennial, said: "Commenced in 1829, the little church, though unfin- ished, was occupied for service in 1830." The Maine Catholic Historical Magazine, VIII, 10 agrees with Healey. I have accepted the findings of Lord in The History of the Archdiocese of Boston, II, 69.
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Father Ffrench himself was Portland's best benefactor; he sold his New Brunswick farm and in place of settling his old debt in Ireland loaned three thousand to the Catholics of Portland so they could pay off their creditors.
Despite the progress made during 1828 there was a long wait before the church was completed and dedicated. Father Ffrench, compelled to watch over two other constructions miles away and to collect money in Boston, was absent from Port- land far too frequently to satisfy the Catholics and they did not hesitate to express their feelings. Bishop Fenwick, sympathiz- ing with Portland's Catholics and understanding Ffrench's need to be absent, smoothed things over by spending a month there as their pastor at the end of 1830. St. Dominic's was dedicated August 11, 1833 in a simple ceremony with two visiting priests, William Wiley and Patrick McNamee, assisting the bishop and Father Ffrench.1 There were now three hundred Catholics in the town, and considering their poverty they had good reason for being proud of their achievement.
After the ceremony Father Ffrench took another trip. But this time his Portland parishioners could not complain. He ac- companied Bishop Fenwick to Norridgewock where a desire long nourished, a monument to Father Rasle and a memoir in vindication of his life and work, was partially realized. He had been too busy to finish the memoir and it had been postponed to a later date which would permit him to include an account of the monument. The acquisition of the land for the monument had been a problem. Bishop Fenwick wanted the monument placed where the Indian chapel stood and Rasle had died, but it was now in the hands of one who would not sell if aware of its use for such a purpose. He turned to Edward Kava- nagh to negotiate the purchase and Kavanagh called on Nor- ridgewock's friendly historian, William Allen, to acquire the right piece of property. This he did for one hundred dollars. Then Allen was entrusted with the construction of the monu- ment. From the fall of 1832 until the monument was dedicated
1 The church in Dover, New Hampshire was completed first and was dedicated September 26, 1830.
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there was a frequent exchange of letters between these three men.1 The bishop gave him exact details; he wanted a monu- ment made of roughly hammered granite, a base four feet square and standing five feet, a shaft ten feet high, tapering gradually from three feet square to one foot and then sharply to a slender point that would hold a cross. He hoped Allen would be able to remain within the one hundred and fifty dollars he had available, - fifty of it raised by Kavanagh and the rest from his own purse.
August 23, the anniversary of Rasle's death, had been ap- pointed the day of dedication. Bishop Fenwick had planned to dedicate St. Dominic's early in August and then make a visit to Damariscotta before he went to Norridgewock to examine the land and the monument. But Father Ffrench prevented these plans; he could not arrange for the dedication of the church until August 11. This meant, Bishop Fenwick told Ed- ward Kavanagh, that his visit to St. Patrick's would have to be omitted this year, for he had "sufficient to occupy me in Port- land" for a week after dedicating the church. He hoped, however, he would see Kavanagh at Norridgewock.
The ceremony in honor of Rasle attracted a huge crowd, five thousand according to the report of the event in The Jesuit. The writer of this report denied the rumor that the Mass by Father Ffrench was interrupted by the crowd, but there was some excitement when a branch of a tree with six persons on it fell into a part of the crowd, and one suspects that there were some present who did not approve of the ceremony. It was, nevertheless, a happy day for Bishop Fenwick even though the memoir was never published.
A biography of the Jesuit missionary, however, did soon ap- pear. Rasle remained a challenge to the New England mind confronted with the compulsion to explain his death. Jared Sparks, editor of The Library of American Biography, had in- cluded him in the list of biographies and assigned the task of writing the biography to Convers Francis, a Unitarian minister
1 The letters of Kavanagh (5) and of Fenwick (6) to Allen on this monument are in the Maine Historical Society, Portland, Maine.
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of Watertown and later Harvard's professor of pulpit eloquence. It was published in 1845, the year before Bishop Fenwick's death. Although not exactly what the bishop had in mind the study did recognize the missionary's greatness. In the con- cluding pages of the biography there is a reference to the monument dedicated in 1833. Bishop Fenwick's desire that the project proceed quietly with him in the background had suc- ceeded beyond expectation. He was not given any credit for the monument. According to Francis the idea of erecting a monument, a proposal "in which Protestants as well as Cath- olics were interested," was suggested by Dr. Jonathan Sibley of Union, Maine. The project was then "taken up by Mr. William Allen, of Norridgewock, and Edward Kavanagh, the latter of whom contributed one hundred dollars towards the expense." That this tribute to Rasle was arranged by Allen to appear as the work of a prominent Protestant is indeed a tribute to the diplomatic abilities of Norridgewock's town his- torian. As long as there was a monument it did not matter to the bishop who received the credit.
Father Ffrench did not return to Portland immediately after the ceremonies. He and Father Conway, the missionary at Indian Island who had brought some of the Indians to sing at the dedication of the monument, accompanied Bishop Fenwick up the Penobscot and then the Mattawamkeag River to inspect a possible site for the farming colony he planned to establish for the Irish immigrants. No doubt the Indians provided the transportation. It was a rough trip and fruitless, for the site was rejected. The bishop and Ffrench probably parted com- pany after this rugged trip. Bishop Fenwick had to get back to Boston to prepare for his trip to Baltimore where the second Provincial Council was scheduled to begin on October 20. Father Ffrench probably visited Eastport to check on the progress of the church there.
The construction of the Eastport church had moved along slowly, although there were as many Catholics here (about 300) at this time as in Portland. But since Eastport was the
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gateway into New England many of the Catholics were only pausing on their way to other places, and trying to earn some money during the pause for their journey. A small, frame church was being constructed, fifty feet in length and thirty- two in width, about the same size as St. Patrick's in Damaris- cotta. Yet there were enough Catholics, settlers or transients, to warrant a resident priest. Indeed, it was an important post for a priest, for the newcomers needed directions; they could be told where the best prospects for Irish immigrants in New England were and where they could find a resident priest. And since Bishop Fenwick was now planning a Catholic colony in northern Maine for the Irish immigrants, the priest could direct them to this new settlement. Father Simon Walsh was assigned to Eastport in July, 1834. He did not stay very long; by March of the next year he had been transferred and was succeeded in June, 1835 by Father Francis Kiernan. Shortly after his arrival the church was finally dedicated, on July 19, 1835, more than seven years after the cornerstone ceremony. Obviously it was a very poor parish; it had been a struggle to build the church and more of a struggle to pay off the debt. Father Ffrench had allotted $500 of the Boston building fund to St. Joseph's, yet for many years after the dedication the parish still owed the carpenter who built both the church and rectory a sum of eleven hundred dollars. Yet from Eastport came the first Maine vocation to the Portland diocese: John E. Barry, born about a year after St. Joseph's was blessed.
The appointment of a resident pastor at Eastport now per- mitted Father Ffrench to concentrate on Portland and the nearby towns. Unfortunately this improved situation lasted only three years. The depression of 1837 hurt Eastport's ship- building industries and the Irish were the first to suffer. An energetic pastor would have suffered the inconveniences, but they were too much for Father Kiernan ("far from energetic") and he left the parish June, 1837, accepted the charge of Catholics in Canton and Randolph for a short term and then retired from the diocese. So the care of Eastport reverted to
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Father Ffrench. It is from his reports of visits to Eastport that we know of the development of small clusters of Catholics in the towns north, west and south of Eastport. Evidently Cath- olics, looking for better opportunities during the 1837 depres- sion, moved into these towns: Pembroke, Baring, and Calais to the northwest, Lubec, Prescott, and Machias to the south, and Dennysville in the west. The presence of small groups of Catholics in these towns underscored the urgency of having a priest at Eastport who would care for them. Not until 1840, however, did a resident pastor return to St. Joseph's, and then there was a rapid succession of them (five in ten years ), until Father John Bapst, S.J., made Eastport the center of his mission activities in September, 1851.
The first of these five pastors established a friendly relation- ship between the town and the parish that was appreciated by his successors. Father John B. McMahon, who was entitled to be addressed as Doctor, nearly reached the status of town father during the brief stay of two years. The fact that he was a stout advocate of temperance was an invaluable asset, for there was no better approach to the respect of the Maine gentry at this time than support of this cause. The friendly relations established are clearly evidenced by McMahon's letter to the Eastport Sentinel when he received word from Bishop Fenwick that he had a new assignment. The pastor had used the Sentinel's columns to promote the cause of temperance, now he used it to bid the people of Eastport farewell. In a letter dated September 23, 1842 he told them that his departure was not of his choice but one he must accept; he acknowledged the many kindnesses extended to him by the "kind inhabitants of East- port, of different religious denominations;" he thanked the editor for the cooperation and space given him in the journal; he offered all his best wishes with the fond hope that "I may hear of the rising fame and prosperity of Eastport." The editor prefaced the letter with a few kind remarks. Father McMahon's going would be regretted by all, he informed his readers, for he had gained the friendship and esteem of the people during
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his two years with them by his "liberal and gentlemanly con- duct." The promoters of temperance would miss him, too, for he had been "greatly instrumental in promoting the cause in this town and vicinity." Wherever he went Father McMahon would take with him "the friendly wishes of the people of Eastport."1 One could not ask for more cordial relations be- tween town and Catholic rectory, and Eastport and Father McMahon had shown others how easily it could be done.
The depression of 1837 was also a blow to the Catholics of Portland. But the next year they suffered a harder one. Father Ffrench, whom they had learned to love, had decided to return to Ireland to settle the debt that had haunted him these many years. We are not told how he intended to satisfy his creditor, but no doubt the Catholics of this parish had paid him some, if not all, of the three thousand dollars he had loaned them. They would miss him. Years later, when Bishop Healey gave his address marking the centenary of Portland (1886) and re- called the beginnings of St. Dominic's parish and the labors of Father Ffrench in this city, Catholics and Protestants were still fondly reminiscing about him. "Even now," the Bishop said, "the aged residents of Portland delight to tell of the genial and gentle manners which made Father Ffrench a universal favor- ite, in spite of the prejudices of those days."
Ffrench had an interest in every phase of life, and usually found the time to indulge it despite his frequent trips. We find him an ardent promoter of the Emerald Isle, a weekly published in Boston. This weekly was edited and published by George Pepper, a stout and excitable defender of the Irish with con- siderable short-term experience on many Irish-American jour- nals, and Dr. John S. Bartlett, an able convert doctor with a temperament exactly the opposite of Pepper's. They had been the editors of the Boston Pilot, the successor of Bishop Fen- wick's The Jesuit, and since the end of 1834 published by Patrick Donahoe and Henry L. Devereux. For some reason the two editors broke with the two publishers and decided to
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