USA > New Jersey > The Catholic Church in New Jersey > Part 17
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and most costly in the town. The windows were generously do- nated by individual members, as may be seen by the inscriptions they bear. The grand sanctuary window was the gift of the St. Mary's Benevolent Society, and the beautiful one in the front of the church is the generous offering of the Hibernia Temperance Society.
After the dedication of the new church the children were the object of Father Leonard's zeal and solicitude. To procure for them a good sound Christian education was his constant thought. He established the Convent of Mercy in the old pastoral residence, having obtained a colony of sisters from the mother house, Mount St. Mary's, Manchester, N. H. Since the advent of the sisters a marked change has taken place in the children. The schools are well attended.
In September, 1876, Father Leonard was promoted to the im- portant parish of St. John's, in the city of Newark. He took his departure from Bordentown, October 25th, 1876, amidst the tears of his people, and was succeeded by the Rev. P. F. Connolly.
For twenty-one years, the longest period of any pastor in Bor- dentown, Rev. P. F. Connolly proved a most zealous shepherd. In 1897 he was promoted to the much larger parish of Phillips- burg. During his lengthy pastorate in Bordentown, the beautiful convent of St. Joseph's, for the Order of the Sisters of Mercy, was erected, and also the equally substantial and modern parochial school and hall. In 1886 Father Connolly's silver jubilee as a priest was celebrated in a befitting manner. On that memorable occa- sion the Rt. Rev. Bishop McFaul, many priests, including Rev. William Cantwell, of Monmouth County, the orator of the day, the entire congregation of St. Mary's Church, together with the most respected citizens of the various denominations in the city, united in testifying their appreciation of a true servant of God, and an edifying citizen. The best years of Father Connolly's life were devoted to his flock in Bordentown, where he has left an indelible impression of his faithfulness to his holy vocation. The number of converts he made, while remarkably large, will probably never be exactly known.
In September, 1897, Rev. R. E. Burke, now at Princeton, suc- ceeded Father Connolly. The former's stay was brief-only four months.
In January, 1898, Rev. D. J. Duggan, of Salem, became pastor of St. Mary's Church, and is now in control of the parish and its mission at Florence, four miles distant.
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RIGHT REV. JAMES A. M'FAUL, D.D. Second Bishop of Trenton.
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The congregation of St. Mary's Church, Bordentown, now numbers about fourteen hundred souls. In the latter years of Father Connolly a curate was appointed to the parish, and one has been supplied ever since.
That King Joseph, brother of Napoleon I., spent a number of years on his vast estate in Bordentown, while an exile in this country, is a matter of history. He had his own private chapel. When he returned to France the ex-king presented the rich vest- ments and chalice used in the chapel to the Catholics of Bor- dentown. The chalice was left in trust forever, three Catholic laymen receiving the deed, which still exists. The vestments were long since worn out. The chalice is now in the possession of St. Mary's Church. Another relic of the first stages of Catho- licity in Bordentown is a quaint old bureau in the possession of the children of John Flynn. For years this piece of furniture was used as an altar, when the holy sacrifice was offered in private houses.
St. Mary's Church, Salem, N. J.
WE can imagine the heartfelt rejoicing of that little band of Catholics who were here for a time without Mass, when they heard that a priest from Philadelphia would visit Salem. The Rev. William O'Hara, D.D., for many years pastor of St. Patrick's Church, Phila- delphia, and later on Bishop of Scranton, was the first priest to celebrate Mass in Salem. He held the first services early on the morn- ing of St. Patrick's Day, March 17th, 1847, in the house of Matthew McBride, corner of Broad and Second streets.
The Rev. Dr. O'Hara made visits to Salem at reg- GEIGER'S HOUSE, NEAR SALEM. The beacon light of Catholicity in South Jersey, p. 52. ular intervals, and held services alternately at the homes of Matthew McBride and Patrick McDonald on West Broad Street. The little band of worshippers gradually increased, and it soon became neces-
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sary to procure more spacious accommodations for holding divine services. Samuel Ward, a Protestant gentleman, kindly donated the use of the hall over his blacksmith shop, on the corner of Broad and Griffith streets, where services were held until the church was erected. In May, 1848, the Rev. E. S. Q. Wal- dron was appointed by Rt. Rev. Bishop Kenrick, of Phila- delphia, to attend Salem and other missions in South Jersey. With zeal and energy Father Waldron devoted himself to his laborious missionary work, FIRST CHURCH IN SALEM. going from place to place, say- ing Mass in public halls and private houses, instructing the chil- dren, and preaching to the small bands of Catholics in the places he visited. Toward the close of the year 1848 the good missionary and his faithful people in Salem deemed it advisable to secure ground for a church. In those years wages were low, farm labor- ers receiving but six and eight dollars a month, and living-out girls seventy cents and a dollar a week.
The work of raising funds begun by Dr. O'Hara was carried on by the zeal of Father Waldron. October 25th, 1848, the lot on which the church is located was purchased from George Bowen for $540. A new impetus was given to the ardent zeal of the good pastor and his devoted people by the purchase of a site for a church edifice. Work was commenced on the foundation in the year 1849, but had to be discontinued later for want of funds. Father Waldron was transferred to other fields of labor, and Salem was visited regularly by Revs. I. Amat, C.M., Jeremiah O'Dono- hue, Hugh Lane, A. Haviland, John Kelley, Very Rev. Edward I. Sourin, V.G., Revs. Roger O'Connor and A. Rossi, C.M., suc- cessively until December, 1851, when the Rt. Rev. Bishop Ken- rick of Philadelphia appointed the Rev. John McDermott as first resident pastor. Father McDermott made his home for several months with Thomas Murphy on Second Street.
March 24th, 1852, Father McDermott bought the small house and lot adjoining the church property from John N. Cooper for $1,003. The house he occupied as a rectory. The church was under roof by the middle of June, and preparations were made to have it dedicated on the 4th of July following. The dedication of the new edifice to the service of God took place Sunday, July 4th,
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1852. The Very Rev. Patrick E. Moriarty, O.S.A., of St. Au- gustine's Church, Philadelphia, officiated on the occasion, and preached an appropriate sermon. The pastor, Rev. John McDer- mott, celebrated Mass.
In December, 1853, Father McDermott purchased from Ebene- zer Dunn a small house and lot adjoining the rectory for $500. He connected the two houses by means of a hallway, and the double house served for nearly forty years as the residence of the pastors of St. Mary's. In the beginning of the year 1855 the Rev. Cornelius Cannon was appointed by the Rt. Rev. Bishop Bayley as pastor of Salem and missions, to succeed Father McDermott.
In April, 1859, the last ad- dition to the original church property was purchased from John C. Dunn for $460. The congregation had grown and the pastor purchased this last lot of ground with the inten- tion of erecting a parish school thereon. Actuated by the desire to procure religious ST. MARY'S CHURCH, SALEM. training as well as secular knowledge for the children of the parish, Father Cannon erected on the lot purchased from Mr. Dunn the front portion of the frame building on Oak Street in the year 1863. He employed lay teachers to conduct the school under his own immediate supervision. Father Cannon attended Swedesboro and Woodstown. The church in Salem was incorporated September 20th, 1864, under the title of "St. Mary's Catholic Church, Salem." In January, 1870, Father Cannon, after fifteen years of faithful service, was transferred to Jersey City, and the Rev. Secundino Pattle appointed as his successor in Salem. On the eve of 'Christmas, prior to the arrival of Father Pattle, the altar and the interior of the church were damaged by fire. In less than three months a new altar was erected and the interior of the church renovated.
In 1872 Father Pattle built a small frame church in Woods- town. In May, 1873, the Rev. Anthony Cassesse was appointed by Rt. Rev. Michael A. Corrigan, then Bishop of Newark, as first
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resident pastor of St. Joseph's Church, Swedesboro, thus relieving Father Pattle of the charge.
In June, 1876, Father Pattle was appointed pastor of St. Paul's Church, Burlington, and the Rev. James McKernan assumed charge of St. Mary's. Ill health compelled the zealous Father McKernan to resign the pastorate of St. Mary's and missions in November, 1879, to the intense regret of his devoted people. The next spiritual guide of St. Mary's was the Rev. Peter Dernis, who in his quiet and unpretentious way entered on his sacred duties, and labored with zeal and energy for the welfare of the souls en- trusted to his fatherly care. The parish school had up to his time been taught by lay teachers, Miss Mary McBride, Patrick Fitzpatrick, Mrs. Fields, James Maguire, the Misses Sarah O'Neill, Agnes Barr, Mary O'Connor, Mary Crean, and Mr. John Loftus, successively. Father Dernis made arrangements to have the Sisters take charge of the school. In 1881 three Franciscan Sisters came from Philadelphia to Salem. In October, 1886, the Rev. J. Duggan was appointed by Bishop O'Farrell to succeed Father Dernis, who was transferred to Moorestown. In the year 1894 what is known as the Mitchell property, on Oak Street, was purchased from I. Oakford Acton, for the sum of $3,200, thus placing in possession of the church the entire half block from Carpenter to Thompson streets.
The parish school was discontinued and the Sisters returned to Philadelphia. After eleven years of devoted and untiring labor Father Duggan was promoted in January, 1898, by Rt. Rev. Bishop McFaul to the pastorate of St. Mary's Church, Borden- town. The Rev. William H. Lynch came from St. Mary's Cathe- dral, Trenton, as Father Duggan's successor. Father Lynch labored assiduously until October, 1900, when he was appointed to the rectorship of St. John's Church, Lambertville.
The Rev. Stephen M. Lyon, the present rector, entered on his duties October 2d, 1900. He first met his congregation Sunday, October 7th.
St. Paul's Church, Princeton.
IT has already been seen that Catholicity is no stranger in the great university town of Princeton. A seething caldron of bitter antipathies to the old Church, the armory whence Breckenridge found and hurled his deadliest shafts against the Catholic Church in his controversy with Bishop Hughes, still this old stronghold of Presbyterianism, with its diadem of beautiful homes and de-
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mesnes, with its bewitching and picturesque natural glories of hill and vale, of farm and forest, has even in its earliest days sheltered and tolerated the creed of which of yore it was the bit- terest foe. But not until the famines of 1846 and 1847 had driven the Irish cotter from his cabin and country, and landed him an immigrant in our country, where, owing to the development of railroads and canals, his labor was eagerly sought for, did the virile, fertile seed of faith begin to grow and bear fruit in this unfriendly soil. Very early in the forties did good Father Rogers journey hith- er, and in the home of James Boyle, the farmer of Gov- ernor Newell, offer the holy ST. PAUL'S CHURCH, PRINCETON. sacrifice and dispense the con- solations of religion to the little company of Catholics, working on the canal and railroad, or at service in the college or on the neighboring farms. The Rev. John Scollard was the first resident pastor, in 1850, and remained with the flock seven years. He worked with zeal and efficiency, and seemed to have the courage of his convictions. In a letter written January 3d, 1854, to Father Allaire, then chancellor of the diocese, relative to a collection for the seminary in Fordham, he writes :
"I have not taken up any such collection in 1853, and what is more, unless the Bishop exercises his full authority in the case, I will not do it in 1854 either; and that because I do not think the seminary in Fordham is what it ought to be, and hence I would not deem it just on my part to contribute to its support. My rea- sons for thinking so I am prepared to give when called upon."
The Rev. Alfred Young, in July, 1857, was the second pastor. Owing to his shrewdness the Catholics were enabled to buy the fine property of twelve acres, within the city's limits, and their non-Catholic brethren were more than amazed when they learned who had purchased the little farm. He erected upon it the
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church, which he kept scrupulously clean and neat. A fine musician, he composed hymns and taught them to the children. During his administration a mission was given by the celebrated Paulist Fathers, Hewitt and Baker, which made no little stir in the community. Owing to improper construction the first church, a stone building, partially collapsed during the mission exercises, but fortunately without serious injury. These zealous missionaries wrought good work among the townspeople, but they were the means of losing to the diocese a very capable and worthy priest. . Father Young was enamored of their work, and although Bishop Bayley long resisted his wishes, he yielded eventually, and Father Young entered the Paulist community, in which he remained an active, edifying member until God called him to his reward.
But although no longer in the flesh, Father Young will tell the story of his conversion and his first experience as pastor in Prince- ton.
Father Alfred Young was born in Bristol, England, on the 2Ist of January, 1831. In the spring of that year the family came to America, staying for a brief period in Philadelphia, whence they removed to Trenton, N. J. In 1833 they finally settled in Prince- ton. There young Alfred passed the years of his boy- hood and youth, and was des- tined in later years to become the first Catholic pastor and to say the first Mass ever celebrated within the town limits.
He had been brought up by strict Episcopalian parents in the somewhat rigid obser- vances of the evangelical branch of that sect, and par- took of the prevalent preju- dices against Catholics to such an extent that when in 1843 his brother George was received into the Church by Father Starr in New York, . REV. ALFRED YOUNG, C.S.P. it was regarded as a great blow to the whole family and became the town talk as some- thing kindred to murder or suicide. It was in that same year
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that young Alfred, then an impressionable lad of twelve, saw for the first time the celebration of the holy sacrifice of the Mass. He tells the story in an account of his conversion.
"Hearing one day that the priest was coming from a town some sixteen miles distant to say Mass for the few scattered Catholics in our vicinity, I determined to witness the ceremony. I had learned that the priest would say the Mass at a laborer's house, some few miles distant from our town. So I stayed in my own church till the prayers were over and the minister's sermon began, and then slipped out and flew like a deer down the road and through the woods and over fences, and arrived, breathless from running, at the door of the little shanty. There was but one room into which the people crowded, and so I was obliged to stand on the wooden stoop outside the open door. I looked over the heads of the kneeling worshippers and saw the head and shoulders of the priest, who was standing before a table, on which I observed two lighted candles, three pasteboard cards, and a pasteboard crucifix nailed to the wall facing the priest. I heard only indis- tinct murmured prayers; a little bell tinkled, the people bowed their heads, and the round white Host in the priest's hands hid the crucifix on the wall from my eyes. . .. About twelve years from the day on which I saw holy Mass celebrated for the first time in that shanty I was the Catholic parish priest of my own town, and the first Mass I celebrated there was with the identical vestments the priest wore on that day, with the same little mis- sionary chalice, upon the same altar stone, and with the same paste- board altar cards before my eyes. The priest shall kiss the vest- ments before he robes himself with them. You may imagine with what reverence I pressed those old, threadbare vestments to my lips, doubly sacred in my eyes. Little did the Protestant boy know on that day of the designs of the God he loved."
Alfred advanced so rapidly under the different masters then resident in Princeton that at thirteen years of age he passed the requisite examination for entrance into the freshman class of the university. In 1848 he was graduated from Princeton, and then went to New York to study medicine. In 1852 he was graduated from the medical department of the University of New York.
On November 27th, 1850, while yet a medical student, Alfred Young was received into the Catholic Church by the V. Rev. Wil- liam Starr. He practised medicine for a year and was then sent to Paris by Bishop Bayley, of Newark, where he studied for the priesthood at the seminary of St. Sulpice. Returning to this
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country he was ordained priest in St. Patrick's Cathedral, New- ark, August 24th, 1856. In 1857 he was vice-president of Seton Hall under the presidency of Bishop McQuade, now of Rochester, N. Y., and in that same year was made rector of the church at Princeton and later at Trenton. Of his life as rector at Princeton he has left no special record save the fact that he often himself scrubbed the floor and dusted the pews of the church.
Attracted by the life and the aims of the newly founded Paul- ist community, Father Young was received as a member of the congregation in 1861. He became a missionary of great zeal and noted eloquence. He was also a musician and composed many devotional hymns. He was enthusiastic in restoring the Gre- gorian chant for the entire services of the Church. He wrote many articles in favor of this movement and delivered many lec- tures on the same subject. In 1873 he established in the Church of St. Paul the Apostle a choir of men and boys which has used the Gregorian chant in all the liturgical services ever since. He was also an urgent advocate of congregational singing.
Father Young was a writer of widely recognized ability. Be- sides many magazine articles on various religious subjects, and a series of epigrammatic poems on Scriptural texts in the Catholic World, he was the author of the "Complete Sodality Hymn Book," "Catholic Hymns and Canticles," "The Office of Ves- pers," and "Carols for a Merry Christmas and a Joyous Easter." The last work from his pen was a controversial treatise, entitled "Catholic and Protestant Countries Compared," which attracted much attention. He died April 4th, 1900.
Among the illustrious sons of old Princeton there is none who has reflected greater glory on the university than its distinguished Catholic alumnus, Judge William Gaston. Born in Newbern, N. C., September 19th, 1778, he was the son of Dr. William Gas- ton, who was brutally murdered by the Tories in the presence of his wife and children. His mother was a Catholic, and instilled the principles of religion deep in the hearts of her children.
William was the first student that entered Georgetown Col- lege. His brilliant talents and lovable character were long among the cherished traditions of Princeton University. He was grad- uated in 1796, winning the first honors of his class. His biog- rapher says of him: "Living in the midst of Protestants, who were his constant and only companions, he was never known to have faltered in his duty as a Catholic, and not in a single instance
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to have disobeyed the precepts of the Church." In his reply to Calhoun Judge Gaston once said: "Faction is a demon; faction out of power is a demon unchained; faction vested with the attri- butes of rule is a Moloch of destruction."
He did not fear to cross lances with the giant parliamentarians of that classic period-the Clays, Calhouns, Websters, Randolphs, Grosvenors, and Kings. He died in Raleigh, N. C., January 23d, 1844.
Father Young's successor was the Rev. James John Joseph O'Donnell, who came to the diocese of Newark from St. Hya- cinth, Canada; and he, in 1867, was succeeded by the Rev. Thomas R. Moran, a former member of the Order of St. Bene- dict. Born in Dublin, Father Moran was received into the dio- cese of Newark, December, 1866, and was assigned as assistant to St. John's, Paterson. Father Moran was a dignified, scholarly priest, with the loftiest conception of his sacred calling, and en- joyed the esteem of the bishops under whom he lived, and the respect of Protestant and Catholic alike. He built the rectory, convent, and school, and when he died the parish was compara- tively out of debt. He was appointed vicar-general by Bishop O'Farrell, and made by Leo XIII. a domestic prelate. He passed to his reward March 31st, 1900.
His successor is the Rev. Robert Emmet Burke. Father Burke, born in the parish of Kilmore, Ireland, June 11th, 1849, made his preparatory studies in St. Charles's College, Maryland, and was graduated from Seton Hall in the class of '72. He was ordained to holy priesthood in the seminary chapel by Bishop Cor- rigan, June 10th, 1876. He labored as an assistant in St. Mary's, Jersey City, Our Lady's, Hoboken, and was made pastor of the Church of the Sacred Heart, Mount Holly, September Ist, 1880. He has been pastor of SS. Philip and James's, Phillipsburg, where he built the church, dean of Warren County, of St. Mary's, Bor- dentown, and, during the Spanish-American War, chaplain at Fort Hancock, Sandy Hook. Here his work among the soldiers, and his care of the sick, returned from Cuba, merited the highest encomiums of the officers at the fort. By his talents and natural graces he is weil fitted for his difficult post in the university town.
St. Mary's Church, Rahway.
THE initial formation of St. Mary's parish in Rahway was begun by the Rev. I. P. Howell, then pastor of Elizabeth, about the year 1845. His work was not confined to Elizabeth and Rah-
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way, but extended on the east to Amboy, and on the south to the territory bordering on New Brunswick. His successor, the Rev. Patrick McCarthy, came in 1849 to extend, or rather concentrate, the work within closer limits. To Father Quinn, however, was given the first resident rectorship. The Rev. Thomas Quinn made his theological studies in Fordham, and was ordained priest by Bishop Hughes, June 14th, 1849. He was for a time assistant in St. John's, Paterson, and its pastor, and assigned to Perth Am-
ST. MARY'S CHURCH AND RECTORY, RAHWAY, N. J.
boy, October 9th, 1853. There he built the old frame church, and attended the adjacent missions ; but April Ist, 1854, he took up his residence in Rahway, deeming that the more important mission. Here he built the first church and school.
The older generation of Catholics still treasure his memory, and his name in Rahway, Woodbridge, and the surrounding coun- try brings with it recollections of a priest peculiarly adapted to the arduous work of the early days. He died February 5th, 1873, and he is buried in the new cemetery of the parish.
Father Quinn was succeeded by the Rev. Sebastian Smith, D.D., a man of studious habits and marked ability. His many
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works are an important contribution to the ecclesiastical literature of the present generation. The Rev. Edward McCosker was transferred to this field from Newton, where he had labored for nearly a score of years. Father McCosker, born in the parish of Drumragh, diocese of Derry, in 1828, made his preliminary studies in St. Mary's College, Wilmington, Del., and his theological studies at St. Mary's, Baltimore, where he was ordained priest by Archbishop Kenrick, June 18th, 1859. He discharged the duties of assistant in St. Peter's, New Brunswick, St. Mary's, Jersey City, and St. John's, Newark, from which he was appointed to Newton, August 12th, 1861. While in Newton he built the beau- tiful brick church and rectory, a frame church in Hackettstown, and a brick church in Franklin Furnace.
Shortly after his arrival in Rahway he displayed his wonted energy, and set about the erection of the present fine church and priest's house. But advancing years and unremitting toil made it necessary for him to obtain from Bishop Wigger an administra- tor who would relieve him of the responsibility and worriment of the pastoral office. The present incumbent, the Rev. Bernard M. Bogan, was sent to him in June, 1894. On July 10th, 1896, he retired as rector emeritus, and at present is living in St. Joseph's Hospital, Paterson.
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