USA > New Jersey > Morris County > Morristown > The story of a parish : the first Catholic church in Morristown, N.J. ; its foundation and development, 1847-1892 > Part 1
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to the Pr. Father Dinny
with the Compliments
PHON
THE CHURCH OF THE ASSUMPTION, MORRISTOWN, N. J.
DX 4436 . . N42264 THE
STORY OF A PARISH
1847
THE First Catholic
Church in
Morristown, N. J.
Its Foundation
*
and
*
Development
1892
By the
Very Rev. Joseph M. Flynn, R.D.
111
Morristown, N. J.
1892
COPYRIGHT, 1892, BY JOSEPH M. FLYNN.
ST. FRANCIS XAVIE
COLLEGE LIBRARY
THE COLUMBUS PRESS, 120-122 WEST SIXTIETH STREET, NEW YORK.
TO Our predecessors in the Faith, BOTH CLERGY AND LAITY, WHO SOWED IN TEARS THAT WE MIGHT REAP IN JOY : TO
The Moble, Generous Fflock WHOSE PRAYERS, WHOSE GOOD WORKS, WHOSE GENEROSITY HAVE SUSTAINED AND CONSOLED HIM DURING THE DECADE OF HIS MINISTRY, THIS LITTLE WORK IS LOVINGLY DEDICATED BY Their Pastor.
-
CONTENTS.
CHAPTER I.
The Sowing of the Seed .- Early Trials. . . I CHAPTER II.
PAGE
The Jesuit Fathers Schneider and Farmer .- Don de Miralles .- Washington and the Irish Contingent .- Pioneer Catholics. 8
CHAPTER III.
The Mother Church, Madison .- Fathers Senez and McQuaid .- Building of the first Church .- The first Bishop of Newark. 31
CHAPTER IV.
A Resident Pastor .- The Parish School .- Father D'Arcy. . 52 CHAPTER V. .
Rev. J. Sheeran .- A new Church .- Archbishop Bayley. -Right Rev. M. A. Corrigan. 67
CHAPTER VI.
Changes and Improvements. - Death of Archbishop Bayley. CHAPTER VII. 88
A promising Life ended .- The aged Pastor's last Illness and Death .- His eventful Life .- Bishop Corrigan transferred. . 104
CHAPTER VIII.
The Rev. Joseph M. Flynn .- Right Rev. Winand M. Wigger, Bishop .- A new Bell .- The Morris Plains Mission. . 116
vi
CONTENTS.
CHAPTER IX. The Sisters of Charity .- The Young Men's Association .- PAGE St. Virgilius .- Morris Plains. . I33
CHAPTER X.
Temperance Work .- Church Bonds .- A Pastor's Reminis- cences .- Catholic Benevolent Legion. .
146
CHAPTER XI.
The new Organ .- The Condit Property .- A Child of the Parish ordained .- St. Margaret's Chapel. 156
CHAPTER XII.
The Jubilee Retreat .- A remarkable Cure .- Corner-stone of new School .- Bishop McQuaid's Address. 173
CHAPTER XIII.
Blessing of the School .- The Young Men's permanent Home. . CHAPTER XIV. · I 90
Paulist Mission .- St. Margaret's School .- Relic of St. Virgil. -A miraculous Healing .- The first American Catho- lic Congress.
·
211
CHAPTER XV.
St. Patrick's Day 1780 and 1890 .- A new Rectory .- St. Margaret's enlarged .- The Burnham-Flynn Corre- spondence.
. 229
CHAPTER XVI.
Re-dedication of St. Margaret's .- Friendly Sons of St. Pa-
trick .- The Strike .- All Souls' Hospital. 2.18
CHAPTER XVII.
Parish War Record .- Gen. Joseph W. Revere .- Children of the Parish in the Confederacy. · 270
CHAPTER XVIII.
Memorials .- Children of the Parish in the Service of the Church .- Men's Societies .- A Catholic Mayor. . . 278
APPENDIX. 288
PREFACE.
AM not disposed to claim any merit for the labors of this narrative of events which have marked the origin and development of the Catholic Church in Morristown, New Jersey. I have written for my parishioners, and only when I was able to snatch a few leisure moments from other duties. Sometimes at long intervals ; sometimes my pen had to be laid aside and the thread of my "Story " broken. I am aware that mine has been a difficult task. I have endeavored to put the facts truthfully and accurately, with no desire to hurt the feelings of anybody, or to reopen wounds long since healed.
My flock, I am sure, will extend even to this work that same forbearance which in the ten years of his labor among them they have so graciously
shown to their Pastor. If, perchance, these pages go beyond our parish limits I pray my critics to believe that the sole motive which prompted this ef- fort was to give expression to my gratitude to a generous, self-sacrificing flock- "to gather up the fragments, lest they perish," for the future chronicler.
THE AUTHOR.
Morristown, N. J., January 7, 1892.
vii
THE STORY OF A PARISH.
CHAPTER I.
HE study of a Parish is somewhat akin to the contemplation of a structure erected ac- cording to the strictest rules of architecture, embodying the genius of the designer, startling and pleasing all by the harmony of its parts and its adaptability for the purposes which called it into being. Symmetry, grace, and loveliness are blended in a serene repose, soothing the eye and elevating the soul, and around it play the sunbeams, the varying hues of Spring-tide and Autumn, the golden splendor of Summer, and the melancholy sadness of Winter with its high lights and shadows. How little, however, is thought of him whose fertile brain evoked the masterpiece of art, whose lofty conceptions are crystallized in the everlasting granite or spotless marble! We know that Raphael, Bra- mante, and Michelangelo threw into St. Peter's the very heart and soul of their inspiration, to erect to the living God such a temple as the eye of man had never gazed upon.
But there are other monuments which thrill no less the beholder, and the names of their crea- tors sleep in an impenetrable obscurity. The cross-
2
THE STORY OF A PARISH.
crowned fane, lifting to the highest heaven the sign of man's redemption, may tell us neither of him whose genius conceived nor of the toilers whose strong arm and cunning eye, in the burning heats of Summer, or in the chilling blasts of Winter, un- folded to the wondering crowds who daily watched their labors, step by step, inch by inch, the beauties whose finished product Time has preserved to us in many a shire of Britain; by the glistening lake and verdant vales of Erin; in sunny Italy, in fair France, and in the hallowed soil bathed by our own Potomac. To the humble laborer who dug the trenches, to the artist whose chisel carved foliage on cusp and capital, a share in our grateful mem- ory is due.
Thus we, in a later generation, survey compla- cently the stately Church ; the spacious School, per- fect in its appointments with Hall and meeting- rooms ; the graceful Rectory; the well-kept walks of the peaceful God's-acre ; but little thought we give to yonder moss-grown graves where repose the valiant Confessors who, in days gone by, kept alive and aloft the torch of faith, and, by unswerving fidelity and unflinching clinging to the Church of their fathers, made our present prosperity possi. ble. They laid the foundations deep and secure.
Theirs it was to battle with poverty, and to wrestle with bitter prejudice. Theirs it was to share the contumely of Christ, to stand forth in defence of religion and fatherland, even, at times, at the cost of blood and at the sacrifice of fortune.
3
THE LEGACY OF HATRED.
Theirs it was to bear the brunt of sneer and jibe, and to hear the ribald jest hurled at what they held most holy and sacred. Theirs it was to pro- vide for the wants of the flock of little ones, who clamored for bread and raiment ; to remember the poor old father and mother, left behind at Home in distress and desolation ; and, at the same time, build the humble chapel, devoid of art and naked of or- nament, save the Altar; and support the Soggarth who cheerfully shared their poverty and the con- tempt which bigotry and ignorance heaped upon them both. Hat in hand, with faltering step and hesitating speech, our fathers asked for work. Their broad brogue, their quaint and odd attire, gave un- limited fun and amusement, until checked by some sharp, keen retort, which while it wounded, soothed by its spontaneity and brightness.
Not rarely, indeed, was their going to meeting, and their attendance at evening prayer, made a con dition of their engagement. Starve they might and would ; but by any overt or implicit act deny their faith, never. With them, when it was question of faith, the motto was : Death before dishonor.
The week's toil over, came the preparation for the long and weary tramp to the nearest Church. The women donned their best gowns and put on their brightest ribbons ; the men brought out their best suits, and wore the well-polished tile; and so, off to the common meeting-place, whence with others, bent on the same duty as themselves, they
4
THE STORY OF A PARISH.
wended their way to Mass. Then the news was gone over: their trials, their loneliness for the Cha- pel, the goings on at Home, the bitter and, at times, almost intolerable persecution on the part of their masters and neighbors; and thus, with gossip and mutual sympathy, they plodded on until the goal was at hand, the Church was reached. The little bell rang from the sacristy window; all cut their stories short and hurried within. Perhaps they un- derstood little of what the good Father said in his broken English. What mattered it ?- he was a priest ; he heard their confessions, baptized their children ; offered for them the unbloody Sacrifice.
They were fortunate who had friends in the town, for comfort and food were assured, and they would not go home hungry. By no means should it be inferred that the Catholics, in those days, were lacking in hospitality; but the instinct of the Celtic heart to avoid giving trouble, forbade him to step beyond the limits he had set for himself. If his foresight had not prompted him to bring along the meagre lunch, he turned his steps homeward, and waited until his good wife had prepared the frugal meal for his very much sharpened appetite.
This is but a faint picture of what our forefathers and predecessors in the faith did so willingly for many years.
The little Church at Bottle Hill was the shrine to which the Catholics of Morristown, Mendham, New Vernon, Basking Ridge, and Boonton went for
5
A PILGRIMAGE OF DUTY.
many years. Hither they brought their children to be baptized ; and at the foot of the Altar they pledged-the stout young Irish lad and the rosy- cheeked girl-their mutual love, and thence started on life's uncertain journey together. They have almost all passed to their reward; but some few remain ; and the children of those departed remem- ber the spot consecrated by their footsteps, where they awaited the gathering of the faithful few from the neighborhood, in sunshine and rain, in Summer as well as in Winter, at Sneeden's Crossing.
In these twilight days of Catholicity none pre- sumed to the dignity and convenience of a carriage. But all afoot, men and women, young and old, walked down the now unused road, which runs par- allel with the railroad track, to Madison.
In times still more distant, the nearest Church was St. Peter's in Barclay Street, New York; and more than one child was brought by slow stage or wagon to this venerable sanctuary for baptism. Old Thomas Burns, who came here about the year 1827, often told how he and William Collins walked all the way to St. John's, Newark, to make their Eas- ter duty ; and on their arrival met the congregation coming home from Mass. In their simplicity they feared to give the venerable Patriarch, good Father Moran, the trouble of hearing their confession ; and so they started for home, just as they had left, fasting ; and, no doubt, they would have fainted by the wayside had they not met a kind-hearted
6
THE STORY OF A PARISII.
Samaritan near the Summit, who gave them a lift as far as Madison.
Tom never told without laughing heartily of his first situation in Morris Plains, and as part of the agreement was that he should attend school in Win- ter, the schoolmaster never allowed a day to go by that he had not something to say against the Pa- pists or Popery, and would glaringly fix his eyes on him, while the children shrank from him as though he were pest-stricken.
We may wonder at all this in our present en- lightenment, and may not realize the extent or depth of the hatred which prevailed against the Church and against all those who professed her doctrines ; but this bigotry was to a large extent pardonable. They and their fathers were very near to the days of the great apostasy from the Church, which in the sixteenth century robbed from her bosom thousands of her children, and poured out on the scaffold the blood of priests and laymen who would not conform with their erroneous teaching. In the light of his- tory, which we fortunately now possess, and which increases daily, we see the extent of the lying, calumny, and cunning her enemies had recourse to in the accomplishment of their ends to plunder and rob, and utterly annihilate, the Catholic Church, which stood as an impenetrable barrier to the lust- ful Henry VIII. To the vice of marital infidelity must be added extravagance and greed, and these could be gratified only by plundering and robbing
7
THE LIFE OF A LIE.
churches and monasteries, on the pretext of the wickedness and excesses of the clergy.
It is easy to fabricate a lie, which loses nothing by its age, but seems to wax stronger and acquire a more piquant flavor by lengthening out its days. " Lie, lie !" said one of the most bitter enemies of the Church, "always lie ; something will stick."
CHAPTER II.
T is not easy to assign the date of the arrival of the first Catholic in this favored region of New Jersey. We know that the Irish were sent to the Colonies by shiploads to be sold as slaves. This was during and after the invasion of Ireland by Cromwell, whose memory recalls deeds of blood, cruelty, and rapine.
As the first settlers in Morris County came from Connecticut, it is not unlikely that they brought with them some unfortunate son or daughter of Erin, exiled and enslaved on account of attachment to faith.
Father Schneider, S.J., was the pioneer priest in New Jersey, and probably crossed Morris County frequently. The road in those days crossed Schoo- ley's Mountain ; and through lonely forests and rugged by-paths the priest sought out the Catholic, and gave to the little household the consoling min- istration of our holy religion.
Years before the Revolutionary War a Jesuit, Father Farmer, visited this section of New Jersey, on his way to Macopin, now called Echo Lake, where there was quite a colony of Dutch Catholics engaged at the furnaces, which afterwards turned out the solid shot the Americans used so effectively against the British.
The early settlers of East Jersey had no desire to
8
9
FATHER FARMER, S.J.
harbor Catholics, and the freedom of conscience they were ready to extend to all believers in Christ, no matter how they might differ from themselves in religion, was not to include us : " No person or per- sons that profess faith in God by Jesus Christ, his only Son, shall at any time be molested, punished, disturbed, or be called in question for difference in religious opinion, etc., etc. ; provided this shall not extend to any of the Romish religion the right to exercise their manner of worship contrary to the laws and statutes of England " (Laws of East Jersey, 1698). Instructions to Lord Cornbury, on his ap- pointment as Governor in 1701, directed him to per- mit liberty of conscience to all persons except Pa- pists.
The following, written on a slip, pasted on the fly-leaf of Father Farmer's Register : You are to per- mit a Liberty of Conscience to all persons (except Papists),* was a constant admonition to the zealous priest of the dangers he was running. Hence his dress failed to indicate his clerical character, and his manner befitted the physician rather than the priest. Thus he safely passed through the Jerseys, minister- ing to the faithful wherever found without molesta- tion. To throw off all suspicion, he wrote out the Missal with his own hand, and this he carried with him on his journeys.
Father Ferdinand Steinmayer, or Farmer, as he chose to be called, was born in Suabia, Germany, * Instructions to Gov. Francis Bernard, of New Jersey, 1758.
IO
THE STORY OF A PARISH.
October 13, 1729. He became a Jesuit in 1743, and arrived in this country in 1758. His field was the entire State of New Jersey, and it is evident that he visited Morris County regularly in the Spring and Autumn from 1768 to the time of his death. He died August 17, 1786.
He is described as " of slender form and having a countenance mild, gentle, and bearing an expression almost seraphic."
During the Leisler usurpation, 1688-89, a price was set upon the head of Major Anthony Brockholes and others who were denounced as Papists. Major Brockholes was a native of Lancashire, England, a Catholic, and very wealthy. To escape persecution he came, in company with Arent Schuyler, to New Jersey, and was enabled by his large means to buy extensive tracts of land in the central part of the State as well as at Pompton. Surely so wealthy and influential a man must have had a following, and in his service there must have been other Catholics.
The recondite historian, John Gilmary Shea, who more than any other knows the spots hallowed by the Missionaries of other days, in a letter to the writer says: "Father Farmer notes a baptism at the Wall-kill, which the Philadelphia wiseacres translated Wall Street. The Rev. Francis Beeston was at Mount Hope and Hibernia in October, 1787 ; at Charlottenburg October 21, 1788, and at Mount Hope May 3, 1789. The Rev. C. Vincent Keating
II
THE CATHOLIC CONTINGENT.
paid a visit to Mount Hope April 30, 1792. The Rev. L. Graessl was at Charlottenburg on April 25, 1793 ; and on September 19, of the same year, he married, at the same place, John Philip Seeholster to Julia Vinyard. Father Graessl, elected coadjutor to Bishop Carroll, died before he was consecrated while attending the yellow-fever patients in Phila- delphia."
Three days after the battle of Princeton, January 7, 1777, Washington with his troops arrived in Mor- ristown, and took up his headquarters at the old Arnold Tavern, now the site of the Arnold building, on the west side of the Park .* With him as aide was General Stephen Moylan, brother of the Catho- lic Bishop of Cork.
Other Catholics among Washington's Generals who resided here at times between 1777 and 1779 were, La Fayette, Du Coudray, M. A. Roche de Fermoy, Kosciusko, De la Neuville, Armand, and Duportail.
In the army was a large contingent of Catholic Irishmen, raised by Captain Thomas Fitzsimmons of Philadelphia, and enrolled in the Pennsylvania Line. Beyond the Hills, on the Wicke farm, reposes the dust of many a poor fellow carried off by the small- pox, which raged fiercely for a time among the almost starved and ill-clad patriots.
On April 19, 1779, Don Juan de Miralles, a Span- ish agent, arrived in camp, accompanied by the Che-
* Now standing in the Collis tract, Mt. Kemble Avenue, and known as the Colonial building, and purchased by the Catholics for a hospital.
12
THE STORY OF A PARISH.
valier de la Luzerne, Minister of France, and was almost immediately stricken down with pulmonary trouble, which ended fatally on the 28th. The Chap- lain of the French Ambassador, the Rev. Seraphin Bandol, hurried on from Philadelphia and adminis- tered the last Sacraments to the dying Spaniard in the Ford house, now Washington's Headquarters.
An inaccurate and misleading account of the ob- sequies appeared in the Morristown Banner, 1889, to which the Very Rev. Dean Flynn made reply. As the statement contains a brief historical review of all the facts, it has been thought well to embody it.
COUNT DE MIRALLES.
Eds. Banner :
I have just read Mr. Pumpelly's pen-picture of Don Juan de Miralles' brief stay, death, and fune- ral in Morristown. Such sketches are sure to excite interest and are, at the same time, calculated to in- vest with a new charm our pretty city, rich in natu- ral beauty and in historic memory.
A few inaccuracies, however, mar Mr. Pumpelly's communication. Don Juan de Miralles was not an envoy, but "an unofficial agent of the Spanish Gov- ernment, and was introduced in this way, that he might obtain a knowledge of the affairs of the United States, and communicate it to the Ministers of the Spanish Court. Spain was not yet ready to take an open and decided part; nor, indeed, was she ever ready to regard the American people as
13
DEATH OF DON DE MIRALLES.
an independent nation till circumstances made it an imperious necessity." (Am. Cath. Hist. Researches, vol. vi. No. 2, p. 62 ; Washington's Writings, vol. vi. p. 187.)
Luzerne, moreover, wrote to Vergennes that Mi- ralles confessed to him that he had no instructions from the Spanish Court; that his correspondence was with the Governor of Havana ; that the Spanish Ministry had signified their general approbation of his conduct down to the end of August last ; that he had received word from M. Galvez that he would be appointed Minister to the United States when the King should think proper to send one. (MS. Letter from Luzerne to Vergennes, March I 3, 1780.)
The review of the troops with all its pomp and splendor, the fireworks in the evening, were all, ac- cording to Thatcher's Journal, in honor of the Chev- alier de la Luzerne : " On the 25th the whole army was paraded under arms to afford M. de la Luzerne another opportunity of reviewing the troops; after which he was escorted a part of the way to Phila- delphia. The Spanish gentleman remained danger- ously sick of a pulmonic fever, and on the 28th he expired." (Thatcher's Journal, p. 151.)
In his letter to Don Diego José de Navarro, Governor of Cuba, Washington writes that De Miralles honored him with a visit, and " was seized on the day of his arrival with a violent bilious com- plaint, which, after nine days' continuance, put a
14
THE STORY OF A PARISH.
period to his life, notwithstanding all the efforts of the most skilful physicians we were able to pro- cure." (Washington's Writings, vol. vii. p. 27.)
" When Baron Steuben, on the 24th of April, had arranged the grand review of his battalions, to the delight of Washington, De la Luzerne and others, and that night, while the fire-works were flashing their beautiful eccentricities in the darkness, and the sounds of music and dancing were heard at O'Hara's, Don Juan de Miralles was tossing with a · deadly fever. He died April 29, 1780."
Thatcher says : " A Spanish priest performed ser- vice at the grave in the Roman Catholic form. This priest, the Rev. Seraphin Bandol, Chaplain of the French Minister, came to Morristown to minister to the sick man, and " Miralles received the last Sacra- ments with great piety and contrition." (Shea, ii. p. 178.) As the priest was Chaplain to the French Minister it is more than likely that he was French, and not Spanish.
I fail to see " the seeming incongruity of such a funeral-such show in the very midst of such grim want and suffering among our brave troops." Don de Miralles was not an American. He had no per- sonal interest in the result of the war. He came hither as a Spanish gentleman, lived here as such, and the " corpse was dressed in a rich state and ex- posed to public view as is customary in Europe." (Thatcher's Journal, p. 193.) The jewelry, diamonds, etc., had been his personal property ; and his estate
15
THE ROYALISTS AND POPERY.
was large enough to pay the doctor's fees and the expenses of " all the profusion of pomp and gran- deur." The administrators of his estate acted then as such officials do in our day-gave him a funeral suitable to his condition and means, and in accor- dance with the customs of his country.
Don de Miralles did not forget in his will those in whom he was interested. To each servant he gave a new coat. His Scotch boy Angus, held for a term of years, was to be liberated. His negro Raphael, wife and children, were to be given their freedom at the Havanna and two cavallaries of land.
The trend of the editors of Rivington's Royal Gazette and its patrons, not indeed towards the goal whither Washington and his brave army were striv- ing, but rather towards the tyranny which precipi- tated the revolt, will account in a great measure "for the rage of Congress at finding no corpse under the cloth, the body having been several days before interred at Morristown." The bugaboo of Popery was evoked then, as now, to frighten and terrify the ignorant. France had just concluded an alliance with the struggling colonies, an alliance which meant men, money, arms, and ammunition at the critical period when Congress was listless, the · colonists powerless and discouraged, and Washington himself on the point of giving up the struggle. The royalists and their supporters saw that the turning point had come. Hence their rage, and the
16
THE STORY OF A PARISH.
bitterness of their invective. A hundred years ago what horrors Papist and Popery conjured up! It was this irresistible fear that by the French alliance Popery was going to triumph here which disturbed Arnold's conscience, and which led him to the step which has branded him with eternal infamy.
Not only Congress, but all those invited, knew that it was not the funeral of Don de Miralles but a service for the repose of his soul, in the Catholic Church (St. Mary's), they were called upon to at- tend. The invitation to Dr. Benjamin Rush reads thus: " The French Minister has the honor to in- form Dr. Rush that there will be in the Catholic Church a divine service for the rest of the soul of Don Juan de Miralles at 9 o'clock in the morning." It bears the endorsement by Dr. Rush : " Received May 6, 1780, but declined attending as not com- patible with the principles of a Protestant." All honor to the candor and sincerity of this consistent Christian !
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