USA > New Jersey > The Catholic Church in New Jersey > Part 14
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on parole, he enjoyed full liberty within the American lines throughout the war. He wedded, in 1780, Mary, daughter of Capt. David Vanderpool, of Chatham Bridge, N. J., but left no descend- ants. It was said of him that "he was a consummate tactician, possessing the art of imparting his knowledge to others and gain- ing their confidence and affection." Many of these families were Catholics, and enjoyed the ministrations of the Rev. John S. Tis- sorant in 1805-06; but most of them joined the Episcopal com- munion, so that to-day there remain but few fragments of the old Catholic stock. Good Father Howell during his life wrote the history of the faith as he found it, and it is herewith appended.
The Rev. Isaac P. Howell, born in Philadelphia, of a Quaker father and an Irish mother, educated partly in St. Charles' College, Phila- delphia, and partly in St. John's, Fordham, was or- dained priest by Bishop Hughes, March 2d, 1843. Appointed to the pastorate of Elizabeth shortly after his ordination, he organized the parish, built its church, pas- REV. ISAAC P. HOWELL. Founder of St. Mary's, Elizabeth. toral residence and school, and died after twenty-two years of zealous and apostolic labor, August 31st, 1866, univer- sally loved and mourned.
Although the borough of Elizabeth is the oldest settlement in New Jersey, still the Catholic Church cannot boast of having made any progress within her borders until of late years. The Catholic missionary in search of the scattered sheep of the fold would pass her by, unable to discover within her limits the object of his search. In the year 1829 three Catholics were known to reside in this town, who, when their religious principles were dis- covered, were obliged to leave, as no employment would be given them. The first influx of Catholicity was caused by the construc- tion of the New Jersey Railroad in the year 1833; and by this means the inhabitants, instead of being disabused of their preju-
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dices, became scandalized at the inebriety and other vices and ex- cesses of the laborers who professed themselves to be Catholics, and thus their antipathy to religion increased. The construction of this work aroused the dormant energies of the neighborhood. An impetus was given to agricultural, manufacturing, commercial pursuits. Laborers were in demand. Necessity and interest overcame proscriptive intolerance. The proscribed race was re- ceived into employ, in the hope that it would be enlightened. Those who were weak enough to deny their faith were indulged in their excesses, and evidences that they did are unfortunately in numerous cases permanently existing; but those whose sense of rectitude withstood the tempting offer endured as long as neces- sity or interest compelled them the taunts of their persecutors, and then left their places to those whose indigence compelled them to accept any situation offered. During the time of the construc- tion of the New Jersey Railroad, and also of the Central Railroad, the sick calls were attended to by the Rev. P. Moran, then the only priest in Newark. In the year 1842 Rev. Yldephonsus Me- drano, then stationed at Staten Island, visited the few scattered Catholics in this neighborhood. He celebrated for them occasion- ally the rites of religion ; but unfortunately the only place he could procure for the purpose was a low tavern on the outskirts of the town, and his visitations were attended by the most unfavorable circumstances, not only to his own personal interest, but also to the most vital interests of religion. A few wept over the degraded condition to which religion was reduced, their most strenuous efforts to elevate it having proved ineffectual. In the fall of 1843 several of the most zealous visited the Bishop of New York, the late lamented Archbishop Hughes; he encouraged them by prom- ising them that he would send them a priest in the spring. In the spring of 1844 he ordained and sent them as pastor, Rev. Isaac P. Howell, with instructions to visit that section of the country, and report on the possibility of establishing a mission at Elizabethtown, and another at Rahway. After considerable diffi- culty a small room, in a house near the town, was procured in which to celebrate Mass. On Palm Sunday, 1844, a congregation of twenty-five assembled to greet their pastor and assist at the sacred rites of religion.
In 1832 the Protestant, the notoriously infamous anti-Catholic sheet, conducted by a cabal of Presbyterian and Dutch Reformed ministers, honored the little congregation in Elizabeth with the following notice :
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" PROGRESS OF POPERY.
" Fersey, Elizabethtown .- On the 13th of September, one hun- dred and three persons were confirmed in their idolatry; and the Mass house is about to be very much enlarged."
During the year 1844 there was somewhat of an increase in the congregation, and a collection was commenced in the fall to purchase a lot on which to build a church. In April, 1845, the basement wall of St. Mary's of the Assumption was laid, and by the first Sunday of the next Advent a substantial brick church, fifty feet square, was sufficiently completed to accommodate the congregation, which by this time had increased to about one hun- dred. The funds for the purchase of the lot were contributed by the congregation, but those for the construction of the building were the charitable offerings of the faithful in New York, and of the different congregations in East New Jersey, and particularly from the laborers on the Morris Canal, solicited by the untiring exertions of the pastor. No sooner was the sign of our salvation erected on the new edifice than in a few years the church became too small. In the year 1847 the German portion of the congrega- tion erected an edifice for themselves, and in a short time were blessed by a pastor of their own. In the year 1851 a substantial brick school-house, two stories high, was erected alongside of St. Mary's Church.
At the outbreak of fanaticism, stirred up by the native Ameri- cans and Know-nothings, St. Mary's did not escape attention. The infuriated rabble marched toward the church with the avowed intention of sacking and destroying it. With the open Bible-the book of all books which embalms sentiments of peace and good- will toward all, and the stifling of human passion-at the head of the procession, these sons of savage hate and crass ignorance wended their way to the modest edifice which stood for the faith and for the sacrifices of the Irish Catholic. Father Howell well knew what it would mean, if in some way he could not induce the men of the congregation to absent themselves from the scene of impending conflict. He succeeded. Then to the women he en- trusted the task of defending the church. With their babes in their arms, they grouped themselves, these worthy daughters of martyred sires, in front of the main door, and awaited the oncom- ing hostile mob. In the forefront, nerving the rest to courage by
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"Come, Mary, stand aside with your child !" shouted the leader.
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her bravery, stood the wife of Captain Whelan. In her arms her infant son, who, grown to manhood, was destined to meet and overcome more subtle and more powerful foes of the Master, faced the leader, who was well known to her. "Come, Mary, stand aside with your child!" shouted the leader. "No, Sam, I will not. You cannot enter this door, but over the dead body of my child and myself!" she quietly replied. Daunted by this manifes- tation of courage, and not entirely devoid of the chivalrous spirit which at times his forefathers were wont to manifest, he hesitated for a moment. Then, turning to his fellows, he told them to go home, and, with a terrible oath, swore he would brain the first man who would lay a finger on woman or child. Father Howell's strategy was successful, and the church was saved.
In the year 1858 collections were made for the enlargement and remodelling of the church, and the erection of a pastoral resi- dence in the rear. The spring of 1862 saw the work completed, and a beautiful church, 133 by 66 feet, and a spacious rectory evince the zeal and charity of the congregation. Meanwhile, the eastern portion of the city was not idle. The Catholics at the Port determined to have their own church; and soon, under the untiring efforts of their pastor, the Rev. M. M. Wirzfeld, and the liberality of the flock, a commodious church, school, and pastoral residence arose as if by magic. In 1844 the entire population of Elizabeth was about five thousand, the Catholics about twenty- five in number; and in the year 1866 the city's population was about fifteen thousand, and the Catholics numbered about four thousand. Then within its corporate limits there were two churches and schools. Now there are eight churches with schools attached, and the fine hospital of the Xavierian Brothers.
The faithful servant of God and his people, Father Howell, after twenty-two years of zealous, fruitful labor, passed away to the blessed vision of God, universally loved and regretted, August 3Ist, 1866.
The Rev. Michael E. Kane, a native of Newark, and ordained June 24th, 1865, succeeded Father Howell, and labored in this field with lofty motive but somewhat indiscreet zeal for five years. In January, 1872, the Rev. Leo Thebaud, a native of New York City, educated at Seton Hall and the Collegio Brignole-Sale, Italy, and ordained June 13th, 1867, was promoted to the pastor- ate. He had been an assistant in St. John's, Paterson, for some years, and by his zeal and piety endeared himself to both pastor and flock. Despite a chronic malady which left him no ease from
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pain night or day, and which his unbroken cheerfulness never be- trayed, he labored with this flock with much fruit, until he was at length forced to resign, and died in the home of his sister, Madi- son, N. J., May 10th, 1893.
In 1888 the Rev. James H. Corrigan, born in Newark, June 29th, 1844, a brother of Archbishop Corrigan, making his prepar- atory studies in Wilmington, Del., and St. Francis Xavier's, New York, graduated from Mount St. Mary's, studying theology in the American College, Rome, and at Seton Hall, and ordained at Se- ton Hall, October 20th, 1867, succeeded Father Thebaud. The circumstances of the retire- ment of the one and the pro- motion of the other were alike. Father "James," as he was lovingly called by the seminarists and students, hav- ing taught in Seton Hall, and filled successively and with credit the offices of director of the seminary, vice-presi- dent and president of the col- lege, was compelled to resign on the plea of ill health, and to seek in the active ministry relief from the worriment and anxiety of his late duties. But his disease was firmly rooted in his system and ORESTES A. BROWNSON, LL.D. baffled the skill of his phys- icians; and after two years in St. Mary's he died of heart dis- ease, November 27th, 1891. His assistant, the Rev. Eugene C. Carroll, who had been the "staff and support " of himself and his predecessor, carried out the wishes of Father Thebaud, and with the moneys generously given by him for that purpose, erected the splendid building for the young men-St. Mary's Lyceum. The Rev. Francis O'Neill, born in New Brunswick, Canada, November 27th, 1842, educated by the Sulpicians in Montreal, and ordained in St. John's, New Brunswick, February 16th, 1869, was the next pastor, and is the present incumbent. Father O'Neill labored successively as assistant in St. Peter's, Jersey City, and after as pastor of Hampton Junction, where he rebuilt St. Ann's Church, and built churches at Bethlehem, High
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Bridge, and Clinton. He was promoted to Guttenberg and Shady- side in June, 1880. As not much had been left undone by his predecessors, Father O'Neill is fulfilling his task by perfecting their work. He has beautified the church, and has lately added another church to meet the wants of the Catholics in the growing . northern part of the city.
From its earliest days Elizabeth has attracted to its borders men of education and refinement. For a long time it was the home of Orestes Augustus Brownson, LL.D., the ardent convert, unswerving champion of the faith, and docile child of the Church. Born in the Puritan atmosphere of a New England home, in Stock- bridge, Vt., September 16th, 1803, of humble parentage, devoid of the opportunities of education, by deep and earnest study he de- veloped that masterly germ which nature had given him, and be- came one of the greatest lights of the nineteenth century. He has been deservedly ranked among the bouquet of chivalrous and illustrious knights, whose lance was ever ready for the defence of religion and justice and right, when faith needed champions more than at any other period in the world's history. His name deserves to be linked with that of Görres, O'Connell, De Gerlache, Rossi, Lamoricière, Montalembert, Veuillot, Dechamps, Marshall, Ward, Garcia Moreno, Mallinkrodt, and Windhorst, whom to name is to praise, and theirs is the roll-call of that illustrious band, mainly laymen, who did more, perhaps, for the uplifting of religion than the priests and bishops of their age. His religious experience had passed through the gamut of human vagaries, from the op- pressive gloom of Presbyterianism to unbelief, and, at last, into the full light and peace of truth. At nineteen years of age he wrote of himself: "I have done my best to find the truth, to experience religion, and to lead a religious life, yet here I am with- out faith, without hope, without love. ... My life is a stream that flows out of darkness into darkness. . . . In attempting to follow the light of reason alone have I not lost faith, and plunged myself into spiritual darkness?" To the astonishment and disgust of the pseudo-intellectual world he surrendered to the convincing argu- ments of the Catholic Church, and he was baptized into its com- munion, October 20th, 1844. Ever after his towering genius was at rest, and his powerful pen was tireless in the defence of the one Catholic and Apostolic Church. But with this step, in a measure, he lost caste, and was taboo with the protæans of the then prevail- ing philosophic school. Not so, however, was he regarded by the solidly learned. A distinguished scholar and professor in Harvard
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University was travelling in England, and went to see Lord Brougham. After conversation on various subjects, Lord Brough- am said, "And what have you to tell me of Orestes A. Brown- son ?" This question took the professor somewhat by surprise; for, like others of the Boston aristocracy, he had been accustomed to look down on Brownson as a vulgar locofoco. "Why," said he, "I have not much to say of him in Boston. Indeed, I am not acquainted with him." "Then," replied Lord Brougham, "I ad- vise you to become acquainted with him in Boston as soon as you get home. Let me tell you, sir, he is one of the first thinkers and writers, not merely of America, but of the present age." The learned professor went away, it is said, somewhat abashed. Dr. Brownson died in Detroit, Mich., April 17th, 1876.
Of quite a different stamp, but no less distinguished, sin- cere, and devoted, was another champion of truth, and the chronicler of the early mission- aries, John Gilmary Shea. Born in New York July 22d, 1824, on his father's side of good Celtic stock, and on his mother's of one Nicholas Upsall, who came to America in 1620 with Governor Win- JOHN GILMARY SHEA, LL.D. Historian. Died at Elizabeth, N. J. throp, Gilmary Shea united what was best of both races, and reflected in his life the virtues of both ancestries. He at an early age entered Columbia College, but was not graduated. He preferred a business career, and took a position in the office of a Spanish shipping merchant. Provi- dence seemed to shape the circumstances of his early life to prepare him for the rôle he was to fill in his ripened manhood. He acquired a thorough familiarity with the Spanish language, which in the prosecution of his historical studies was of immense advantage. His first literary effort, written when he was only fourteen years of age, merited the encomium of Bishop Hughes, and encouraged the youth to continue in this line of work. An- other step, which although it failed of his aim, but was of great service in his future career, was his novitiate during six years
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with the Jesuits. He was to be the eulogist of Brébeuf, Lalle- ment, Bressani, and the martyred Jogues; so it was fit, indeed, that he acquire the spirit and be imbued with that unction which have distinguished the sons of Loyola since their institution.
No field of history in this land that does not bear the trace of his footstep. Nothing has he touched that he has not adorned. But his, too, has been the experience of others, that the labor of the historian may win fame, but fortune is golden in other fields. His works are a complete library of Catholic effort in America, and should be read and treasured by every intelligent Catholic. His private life was that of a true Christian, serene, calm, content in success, resigned in sickness, and to his spiritual superiors docile as a child. As in life he had always striven to serve God, so in death he feared not to meet him. He passed to his reward Feb- ruary 22d, 1892. Of John Gilmary Shea it has been said: He lived well, he wrought well, and he died well.
St. Mary's Church, Hoboken.
THE early history of this congregation has been so thoroughly written by the Rev. Anthony Cauvin, that it has been considered advisable to reproduce it, even with its archaic and quaint expres- sions, as it so faithfully portrays every scene in the advancement of the faith in Hoboken and near by. As one reads this precious gleaning from the past, the heart is filled with regret that others of his compeers had not done likewise. Then we, of a distant day, would not be forced to grope and halt amid a mass of conflicting and contradictory traditions and memories.
Before the year 1836 the Catholics of Hudson and Bergen counties, from Bergen Point to Fort Lee, had no church. They were visited occasionally when sick by a priest of St. Patrick's Cathedral in New York.
In 1836 St. Peter's Church was built in Jersey City, and its pastor had charge of them. In 1841 Rev. Hugh Mohan, pastor of this church, read Mass in Hoboken once a month for nine months. In 1842 Rev. Walter J. Quarter, his successor, also read Mass in Hoboken in the month of September on the occasion of a jubilee. It was then that he appointed Mr. James Tallon to collect every month contributions from the people of Hoboken to pay the debts of St. Peter's Church of Jersey City, which he did for fifteen months.
On January 25th, 1844, Rev. Walter Quarter called the Catho-
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lics of Hoboken to a meeting in the house of Mr. Patrick McKeon, and explained to them the advantages of having a church in Hoboken, wherein the divine mysteries might be celebrated, and the rising generations instructed in their religious and moral duties. And it was resolved that the Catholics of Hoboken would unite their endeavors to build a church to be called St. Mary's; that every month they would give a subscription for that purpose. Collectors were appointed to receive these monthly sub- scriptions. Mr. James Tallon was made treasurer and Mr. Cornelius Donavan secretary. The amount collected from that day until April, 1845, was $148.24.
On the 6th of December, in 1844, Rev. John Rogers, who lived in Jersey City, came to Hoboken for the purpose of building the church, and read Mass every Sunday in the Phenix Hotel, corner of Washington and First streets, kept by a Cath- olic woman named Mrs. Sweeny. Not being success- ful, he left Hoboken on the Ist of April in 1845, having remained only four months.
REV. ANTHONY CAUVIN, Born August 23, 1810 ; died May 26, 1902. Founder of Our Lady of Grace, Hoboken.
In the month of May, 1848, Rev. John Kelly, who had succeeded in October, 1844, to Rev. Walter Quarter in St. Peter's Church of Jersey City, came to read Mass on Sundays once a month in Hobo- ken until October of the same year-that is, for five months. He exhorted the Catholics of Hoboken to subscribe again their monthly contributions, which had been stopped in April, 1845; which being done, their contributions from June, 1848, until April, 1849, amounted to $276.08, which after adding the $148.24 col- lected before amounted to $424.32. After paying $55.78 for rent, vestments, books, etc., the remainder, $368.54, was placed by Mr. Tallon in Chambers Street Savings Bank of New York to the credit of the church to be built in Hoboken.
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From October, 1848, until November, 1851, no Mass was read in Hoboken. In July, 1851, Rev. A. Cauvin, of Nice, in France, was appointed by the Most Rev. J. Hughes, Archbishop of New York, to take charge of the Mission of Hoboken from Five Corners, Hudson City, to Fort Lee; and was directed by him to build a church in West Hoboken first, because it was the most central part of the mission.
A Sunday-school was immediately established in the public school-house of Hoboken, Mr. James Davis, Jr., teaching the boys the catechism until the spring of 1852, when he was succeeded by Mr. James Tallon. Miss Catherine Mckeon and Miss Rosanna Davis took charge of the girls. These good persons continued to teach the catechism to the children of Hoboken every Sunday until St. Mary's Church was opened in Hoboken in July, 1855.
Church of West Hoboken.
MR. JAMES KERRIGAN, who resided in West Hoboken, gave to Archbishop Hughes a plot of ground containing about six lots, whereon the church was built during the time between the months of August and November in 1851. The church, vestry, and fence around the ground cost $3,829. The people of West Hoboken and vicinity contributed $424-of Hoboken, $114, and Rev. A. Cauvin collected in New York $1,824.75, thus making a total of $2,362.75.
On the 23d of November, 1851, the church was blessed and dedicated by Archbishop Hughes to Our Lady of Mercy, on ac- count of an oil copy of Our Lady of Mercy of Rimini sent by His Eminence, Cardinal L. Brignole, from Rome to Rev. A. Cauvin for the new church: This painting was given to the Cardinal to be sent to some foreign mission by Mr. Nicholas Paci-Ippoliti, of Rimini, who afterward by his letter of the 23d of August, 1853, to Rev. A. Cauvin, acknowledged his indebtedness to Our Lady of Mercy and to the prayers of the congregation of West Hoboken for his miraculous escape from imminent death in an explosion of powder.
In 1852 the sacrament of Confirmation was administered in the church to one hundred and twenty-six persons, half of them being adults or aged persons, by Archbishop Walsh of Halifax, Arch- bishop Hughes preaching at the High Mass.
In 1854 a house was built for the sexton in the rear of the church at a cost of $328.
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On the 3d of September, 1854, Confirmation was again admin- istered in the church to one hundred and thirteen persons by Rt. Rev. James Bayley, first Bishop of Newark and the State of New Jersey. On these two occasions Confirmation was administered to the people of both Hoboken and West Hoboken. The two places formed at that time but one parish.
On the 9th of September, 1860, the Stations of the Cross were established in the church, and it was decorated with fifteen large oil paintings. These were presented to the church by its pastor, Rev. A. Cauvin, and were on that day solemnly inaugurated with a sermon by Dr. Neligan, of New York. Toward the close of September, 1860, a mission was given in the church by Fathers Gaudentius and Anthony, Passionists from Pittsburg, and the result was a great spiritual benefit to the congregation. It was then agreed with Bishop Bayley that the Passionist Fathers would take charge of the mission of West Hoboken, and that they should always have with them a German Father for the benefit of the Germans of the locality.
In November, 1860, in expectation of the Passionist Fathers, Rev. A. Cauvin repaired the church and house, having them painted inside and out. He established a choir by opening a sing- ing school for the young persons of the congregation, and had them instructed for six months by a singing teacher. Thus when the Passionist Fathers came, they found the church painted and repaired, decorated with oil paintings and Stations of the Cross, and a choir, accompanied by a melodeon, to sing Mass and Vespers.
Mass had been sung in the church of West Hoboken from its opening on the 23d of November, 1851, until the opening of the church of Hoboken in July, 1855, on Sundays and on the principal solemnities until Christmas, 1860. It was also sung every Sunday from Christmas, 1860, until the arrival of the Passionist Fathers in April, 1861. Vespers were also sung during the Lent of 1861, and the Stations of the Cross performed every Sunday.
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