USA > New York > Ulster County > The history of Ulster County, New York > Part 39
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ROSENDALE.
The Rev. John N. Smith, pastor of Poughkeepsie, extended his solici- tude as far as Rosendale in 1840, and in 1841, looking after the scattered Catholics. Father Myles Maxwell, succeeding him in Poughkeepsie, in 1842, celebrated mass in Petrie's cooper shop, afterward the dwelling- house of James Lee. Of course, he continued this care of Rosendale, when he was made pastor of Rondout, and it became a separate mission.
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In 1849, in November, the Rev. Thomas Martin, O. S. D., then pastor at Rondout, celebrated mass in Rosendale at the house of Walter Delmar, and henceforth services continued to be held regularly and steps were taken to erect a church. A convenient building was opened in the summer of 1850, the first mass being said on the Feast of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary, August 15th. The priests of Rondout con- tinued the good work by frequent regular visits to Rosendale, till 1855, when it was separated from Rondout, of which the assistant, Rev. Edward Lynch, was appointed the pastor.
However, in the next year he was called to the charge of a church in Yonkers, and Rosendale had to wait till the end of 1860 for the ap- pointment of a permanent pastor, it being meanwhile looked after by the pastors of Rondout. In December, 1860, the Rev. Lawrence O'Toole, a learned priest, and a great advocate of total abstinence from intoxicants, became pastor, remaining there till November of 1864. He afterward was at Rhinecliff parish, where he established a college or academy. The Rev. Patrick Brady became pastor of Rosendale, having a fairly successful pastorate of ten years, till July, 1874, when he was transferred to Montgomery, Orange Co. His successor was the Rev. Martin O'Flaherty. He was ordained in St. Joseph's Seminary, Troy, on June 11th, 1870, and after four years at St. Cecelia's, in New York, came in July, 1874, in the full vigor of his zeal and strength, to Rosen- dale. Finding that the church was too small for the ever-increasing Catholic population, attracted by the cement quarries and by the demands of the Delaware & Hudson Canal, he erected, under the guidance of an able architect, Arthur Crooks, a spacious church on the beautiful plateau which overlooks the village of Rosendale and the Rondout valley.
It was completed in 1876, and mass was said in it for the first time on Christmas day. No finer situation could be had for the church edifice. Its picturesqueness is simply charming. The design of the church is excellent. The rectory, begun at the same time, is twenty feet away from the rear of the church. The two combined form a work of art. The cost was about $31,000. The Catholic population at the time was about 1,400. Father O'Flaherty died in 1881. He was immediately succeeded by the Rev. John J. Gleason, who added to the parish a fine school and a residence for the Sisters of Charity. He incurred a great expense by fitting up an elaborate heating apparatus for all these different
Rev. Edward J. McCue.
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buildings. Too full of the spirit of material improvements, he over- burdened the place with debt, which, owing to the decrease of the congre- gation consequent upon the precariousness of the work in the cement quarries, and the gradual falling off of work on the canal, became a great burden on the congregation and a source of such worry to the pastor that his health failed, and he was unfitted for his pastoral work for several years previous to his death, in 1894. Father Gleason left a legacy of $500 to the Kingston Hospital. Among those who aided him during his pastorate should be mentioned the Rev. Reuben Parsons, whose work in six volumes of "Studies in Church History," is a splendid monument by which he will be long remembered. Another worthy of mention is the Rev. Dr. Daniel Burke, for several months the adminis- trator of the parish. A native of New York, who made his ecclesiastical studies at the Jesuit Colleges of Innsbruck and Rome, Professor of Phi- losophy at St. Joseph's Seminary of Troy, he had shown himself an inde- fatigable worker in the parishes of the Epiphany and St. Leo in New York, as also at Highland Falls. Archbishop Corrigan began to utilize him to take difficult places, such as this at Rosendale, and then again at Wilbur. Now after services at the Church of the Good Counsel and St. Charles Borromeo's, in New York, he has undertaken the erection of two churches for Italians, one completed in Bedford Park, the other just initiated in Belmont.
Archbishop Corrigan had in 1894 detached Whiteport from Rosendale, placing it in charge of the Rev. Wm. McGill, who, being a native of Rondout, had been able at a very moderate price to raise there a fine brick church. At Father Gleason's death Whiteport was again attached to Rosendale under the charge of the Rev. Wm. M. McGill, who, how- ever, within a few months of his appointment, died suddenly on a visit to the Home of the Immaculate Virgin in New York.
The Rev. Thomas Cusack, ordained at St. Joseph's Seminary, Troy, on May 30th, 1885, was appointed in September, 1895, to the pastorate of Rosendale. By his energy he brought order out of financial chaos, funded and considerably reduced the debt. Archbishop Corrigan, how- ever, asked him in 1897 to head the Apostolic Band of Missionaries to give missions, including lectures to non-Catholics, throughout the diocese, especially in small country parishes. The Rev. P. Maughan came in 1897 from Tivoli to take charge of Rosendale. He had been a soldier in
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the war for the Union, and had many friends in the Grand Army. He erected, supervising the entire structure, the large hall which has become the centre of all social and dramatic gatherings of the congregation as of the township. Father Maughan was called in 1903 to New York to undertake the erection of a new church in the upper western section of the city. His successor was the Rev. Francis C. Lenes, who also came from Tivoli, but he, as his predecessor, found himself hampered by the large debt, the burden being aggravated by the slackness of work at the cement quarries. He was transferred to Montgomery, Orange County, in 1905, to be succeeded at Rosendale by the present pastor, Rev. John J. Lennon.
WEST HURLEY.
Another offshoot of St. Mary's Rondout was the parish of Stony Hollow and Flag Quarries. The last mentioned was attended in 1853 by the Rev. Eugene McGuire and Thomas Joyce, from St. Mary's, and continued to be visited at intervals. Rev. Felix Farrelly and Richard Brennan said mass in the school-house at Jockey Hill in 1860 and 1861. Stony Hollow increased rapidly in population because, as its name indi- cates, it became the centre of the bluestone quarries, and received frequent attention as early as 1860. The work, however, soon increased in Rondout to the extent that Father Farrelly deemed it wise to have Stony Hollow and Jockey Hill placed under the separate charge of the Rev. Stephen Mackin in 1865. The workmen were very generous. However, Father Mackin was called away to Ireland, and the charge of the two places was taken up again by the pastor at Rondout, the Rev. James Coyle. His indefatigable zeal prompted him to erect a small frame church at Jockey Hill, which was soon superseded by a better structure in the nearby Sawkill. He also erected St. John's Church in Stony Hollow. Father Mackin returned in October, 1870, and Father Coyle gave him a full account of all the moneys collected meanwhile, as always a detailed account of the outlay for the building of the two churches. He continued in charge till 1875, and besides the two mentioned places, had to attend to the spiritual interests of the Catholics in Bruceville, Shandaken and Phoenicia. An interesting financial report rendered by him in January, 1874, for the two preceding years, shows receipts at Stony Hollow of $5,636, and at Sawkill of $2,311, with the indebtedness reduced from $9,204 to $8,103, and from $4,000 to $3,813, respectively. The ever-
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increasing population prompted the erection of a finer and larger church on a site known as Bristol Hill, midway between Stony Hollow and West Hurley. The Rev. Eugene McKenna, who had come from Ireland in 1871, and was attached to St. Andrew's Church in New York, was appointed pastor of West Hurley in 1875. He built, in 1877, a large frame church in Allaben, near Shandaken, under the title of Our Lady of Lourdes. Yet his report of January Ist, 1881, showed that he had reduced the debt of St. John's, at West Hurley, to $5,500, and in 1890 the whole indebtedness of the parish was on St. John's Church, West Hurley, $4,000, and $200 on the cemetery which he had provided in Phoenicia in the pre- ceding year. When in 1877, he had extended his work along the Ulster and Delaware Railroad, it had been arranged that Sawkill should be cared for from St. Joseph's, Kingston. In 1890 the number of souls attached to St. John's, West Hurley, was about 700, and to the Church of Our Lady of Lourdes, at Allaben, about 200. In 1894 the Rev. Eugene McKenna was transferred to Tarrytown, and Rev. Michael Montgomery, coming from St. Columba's, New York, took his place at St. John's, West Hurley. In 1893 a small church was built at Shokan at the expense of a Mr. Wentworth, under the invocation of St. Augustine. This involved a division of the parish, and the Rev. Francis Fagan was appointed to take charge of Phoenicia, and that part of the mission extending to Pine Hill. Father Fagan ordained, in December, 1887, had been at St. Gabriel's, New York, and then at Dobb's Ferry, in control during the last illness of Father David O'Connor, the pastor. Father Fagan built a church in Pine Hill, though undergoing no little hardship at Phoenicia, having no suitable residence.
During Father Montgomery's incumbency St. John's Church, at Bristol Hill, was in 1896 burned to the ground, but was soon rebuilt and en- larged. In 1897, because of Father Fagan's transfer to Whiteport, the charge of Shokan, Allaben, Phoenicia and Pine Hill devolved upon Father Montgomery. He was succeeded for a few months by Father Kean, who had been an assistant at St. Joseph's New York, but whose health failed rapidly. He died in a sanitarium in New Jersey within a year. In 1899, Rev. Charles Reid came to West Hurley. Born in New York, he had been sent to his uncle, a Bishop in Ireland, for his education. After his ordina- tion he had returned to New York and was assigned to St. Bridget's, as assistant. Within three years, by watchful assiduity, he paid off much
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of the indebtedness caused by the rebuilding of St. John's Church. His success prompted his promotion to the mission of Wappinger's Falls, in 1903, when he was succeeded by the present rector, Rev. Michael Haran. Coming from Ireland in 1873, he was ordained to the priesthood at St. Joseph's Seminary, Troy, in 1879. His first appointment was at Pawling, then at St. Joseph's, Kingston, whence he went as pastor to Quarryville in 1886, where he did good work for seventeen years. He has Shokan for a station, to be regularly attended, especially in summer.
Meanwhile in 1902, Phoenicia, with Allaben and Pine Hill, came under the jurisdiction of the La Salette Fathers, represented by Rev. M. J. Ginet, M. S. He has built in Phoenicia a splendid stone church, procured a fine rectory and beautiful cemetery. He continues to manifest his zeal in search of stray Catholics in distant hills, who had been overlooked, and had fallen away from the faith. A curious question was this year sub- mitted to arbitration under the authority of the Archbishop of New York, and the Bishop of Albany, Rev. Dr. Burtsell, and Rev. James Curtin, of Troy, being the appointed arbiters. The Grand Hotel is situated on the line dividing Ulster County, in New York Diocese, and Delaware County, in Albany Diocese. Priests from either diocese had exercised their juris- diction there without any hesitation, and the Rev. M. J. Ginet had even established, in 1904, a service for the help of the hotel. This brought out a counterclaim from the Rev. J. F. Slattery, of Stamford, Delaware County, to the exclusive control of the Grand Hotel from the ecclesiastical point of view, because the far greater part of the hotel was situated in Delaware County, and his predecessor in Stamford, Father Livingstone, as early as 1893, had prior positive possession. The arbiters, after the examination of the proper survey, maps and the hearing of statements of the former pastors of Stamford and West Hurley, recognized the claim of Albany Diocese.
ST. JOSEPH'S, KINGSTON.
St. Joseph's Parish, in Kingston, was the most important offshoot of St. Mary's, Rondout. As early as 1855 the Rev. John Madden had pur- chased a large lot of ground in Higginsville, the most westerly part of the village of Kingston, and the centre of quite a thriving business popu- lation, among whom there were many Catholics. The site was not only convenient for these, but being on the threshold of the city, by which
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Catholics from Stony Hollow and Jockey Hill were accustomed to enter it, a church there would save them on Sundays the extra walk to the lower end of the city, where St. Mary's was situated. However, Stony Hollow and Jockey Hill, by 1865, had so increased in population that they received a pastor in the person of the Rev. Stephen Mackin. This prob- ably hastened the establishment of a church in Kingston, though Father Coyle's first thought was probably to retain it as a dependency of Rondout. He came to the conclusion that the former site was not as desirable as at the time of the purchase. To satisfy the impatience of the people of Kingston he purchased for $2,600 the Young Men's Gymnasium, on the corner of Fair and Bowery Streets, which was at once turned into a church, and in which mass was said for the first time on Sunday, Sep- tember 21st, 1868, by the Rev. James Dougherty, the Rev. Dr. Edward McGlynn, being the preacher. Father Dougherty was a native of Rondout, born in 1843, had gone to St. Mary's Parochial School, then to the Christian Brothers' College in Troy, and had graduated at St. John's College, under the Jesuits, at Fordham. He made his three years' theo- logical course at St. Joseph's Seminary in Troy, and was ordained to the priesthood on December 21st, 1867. He was sent at once to St. Mary's, Rondout, to aid Father Coyle, and was at once utilized to devote special attention to the Kingston Catholics. The small chapel was so quickly overcrowded that a larger building was sought. The former Dutch Reformed Church on the corner of Wall and Main Streets had, after the building of the more imposing building opposite, been turned into a hall for lectures and amusements, and at the beginning of the Civil War into a drill room and armory. It came into the possession of General Gates and John C. Brodhead, who sold it to Father Coyle for $10,000, though it required a much greater outlay to be put into shape for a church. It is hard for us to-day to understand the excitement and agita- tion caused among the people of the staid old Dutch town at the prospect of having a Catholic Church in their very midst, especially so when it was known that a building once used for their own worship was to be occu- pied for the celebration of mass. However, the genial ways of Father Dougherty quickly dispersed the clouds of discord when it was found that the new church was a centre of earnest piety and good works.
He at first took up his residence in a small house on the corner of Wall and Pearl Streets, till about 1874, he secured the lot at the rear of the
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church, on which he built a convenient rectory. During the nigh twenty years of his pastorate, no one could be more welcome even among the non-Catholics than he. The new church was dedicated to the service of God by Archbishop McCloskey, on Sunday, July 26th, 1869. The frame building on the Bowery was turned into a school-house. When, about 1877, the pastor of Stony Hollow or West Hurley, extended care to the newly built church of Allaben, near Shandaken, an arrangement was made by which Jockey Hill, or Sawkill, was made dependent upon St. Joseph's Church. In 1884, Father Dougherty undertook the erection of a church in Wilbur, which was for several years attended from St. Joseph's, till it was erected into a separate mission in 1887. In 1886, the Rev. James Dougherty was appointed at the Diocesan Synod, as the repre- sentative of the parishes outside of New York, one of the six members of the first diocesan board of consultors which was established in accord with the decrees of the Third Plenary Council of Baltimore. Their duty is to assist by their advice the Archbishop in the administration of the diocese. He was also appointed by Archbishop Corrigan his vicar-forane, or dean, for the counties of Ulster and Sullivan, and also Chairman of the Board of School Examiners, selected at this same synod for these counties. In March, 1888, he was transferred to St. Monica's Church in New York City, and in 1902 became permanent rector of St. Gabriel's Church, where he died on January Ist, 1906, Archbishop Farley pontifi- cating at his funeral on January 4th. His lifelong friend, Monsignor Mooney, Vicar-General, preached the eulogy. His remains were brought to Kingston, where a funeral service was held in St. Joseph's Church, filled to its utmost capacity by the most distinguished citizens of the city. Very Rev. Dr. Burtsell preached on the occasion, and the interment was made in St. Mary's Cemetery, Kingston. He had been succeeded in St. Joseph's by the Rev. Edward J. Conroy, who while administering the parish successfully for three years, yet found the work of the out-mission of Jockey Hill irksome, and was therefore transferred to St. Mary's, Poughkeepsie, where he had to face an enormous debt, the burden of which shortened his days.
The Rev. Edwin M. Sweeny, in May, 1891, took hold at St. Joseph's, Kingston, with great energy, and by his assiduous work did much to improve its appearance, while at the same time securing a decrease of the debt. He in 1893 was appointed Vicar-Forane, or Dean of Ulster and
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Sullivan Counties. His administration was successful, both from the material and the spiritual standpoints; he in turn was transferred to New York as pastor of the Church of the Ascension, where he, too, found a very large debt, which he quickly reduced, and obtained proof of his influence with his new people by their co-operation in improvements on a large scale. The Rev. Edward McCue, who had been Father Conroy's assistant in 1889-90, at St. Joseph's, and then had gone to New Brighton, S. I., and afterwards as assistant of Bishop Farley, at St. Gabriel's, New York, now returned in October, 1901, to Kingston to begin an active career as pastor of St. Joseph's. At once he undertook a complete renovation of the rectory, and then put in new marble altars in the church, with fine interior decorations of the whole building. His congregation co- operated with his untiring activity and aided him in his new projects, whilst he did not fail to meet the past indebtedness. His latest successful work was to secure, at the moderate sum of $10,000, the substantial mansion, formerly owned by Judge Alton B. Parker, for a convent of the Sisters of Charity, and a parochial school, on the corner of Pearl and Clinton Avenue, opposite the Kingston Academy. The former school has been turned into a parish hall. With these outward or material signs of improvement, the spiritual advancement of the congregation has kept pace through the good work of those who have had charge of St. Joseph's Church. Father McCue, at the mission given in his church in 1905, by the Diocesan Apostolic Band of Missionaries gave the opportunity to the non-Catholics to obtain a thorough knowledge of the teachings and prac- tices of the Catholic Church, through the series of lectures which the missionaries gave during the week after they had given a two weeks' mission directly intended for the Catholics of the Parish.
WILBUR.
Wilbur, as forming part of the city of Kingston, now merits our attention. The Rev. James Dougherty had, as early as 1884, planned to give facilities for its people to hear mass without having to make the long journey up the hill. Wilbur was a centre of fairly numerous families, attracted there by the extensive stone-cutting, which came from its being the terminus of the stone road from the bluestone quarries at West Hurley. There the stone, too, was laden on the canal boats for transporta- tion to New York and elsewhere. The corner-stone of the church was
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laid on July 17th, 1884, by Archbishop Corrigan. Its title was to be the Church of the Holy Name of Jesus. Rev. Joseph Mooney, then pastor of St. Patrick's in Newburg, gave an able address on the occasion. In spite of the rain a large number of people, Catholics and non-Catholics, were present. The site chosen was eminently picturesque and beautiful, overlooking the creek for a long distance either way. The work of building advanced so rapidly that mass could be said in it late in the fall of the same year, and its dedication took place with solemn ceremonies. It was attended as a mission from St. Joseph's until August, 1887, under the pastorate of the Rev. James Dougherty, but then Wilbur was erected into a separate mission under the care of the Rev. Wm. J. Boddy, with Eddyville as a mission. He was a convert to the Catholic Church, and had been ordained to the priesthood at St. Joseph's Seminary on December 22nd, 1876. His health was not strong, and he died at Wilbur on June 4th, 1890. He was succeeded by the Rev. Michael J. Feely, whose ill health required him to resign early in January of 1892; he is chaplain at the House of the Good Shepherd in New York. The Rev. Daniel P. Ward was appointed pastor of Wilbur in January, 1892. A native of New York, he was ordained to the priesthood in St. Joseph's Seminary, Troy, on De- cember 22nd, 1877. For a short time he was assistant at St. Columba's New York, then St. Patrick's, Newburg, and for more than ten years at St. Bridget's, New York. His pastorate continued till his death in Wilbur on January 12th, 1901. The Rev. Hugh Cullum, ordained in December, 1886, and transferred from the pastorate of Barrytown, did excellent work in his three years, both in renovating the two churches in Wilbur and Eddyville, and in reducing the debt. At present the genial Father Michael Cunniff, ordained in May, 1891, is the active pastor, as far as the decreas- ing population permits activity. Since his ordination he had been assistant at St. Monica's, New York, to the Rev. James Dougherty. On Father Cullum's transfer to Suffern, Father Cunniff received his appointment to Wilbur on June 16th, 1904. Since then he has reduced the debt on the two churches, so that now it is almost insignificant, and he has been able to renovate the rectory.
PORT EWEN, ESOPUS TOWNSHIP.
The Rev. M. C. O'Farrell, pastor of St. Mary's, Rondout, had in 1873, promoted the erection of a church in Port Ewen, for the large number of boatmen who had fixed their residence on the other side of Rondout
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Creek. The new mission was in this year separated from Rondout and placed in charge of the Rev. Michael Phelan. There were given by Father O'Farrell, as donations and collections, $3,151, for the Church of the Presentation of the Blessed Virgin, a handsome brick edifice, having a pleasant location overlooking the Hudson. It was dedicated by Archbishop McCloskey on June 14th, 1874. Father Phelan had been ordained at St. Joseph's Seminary, Troy, on June 3rd, 1871. He was afterward pastor of St. Mary's, Newburg, and at present of St. Cecilia's, New York. His successor at Port Ewen, in 1875, was the Rev. Wm. F. Brady, who had been ordained at the Troy Seminary in November, 1869. His pastorate was of two years, and he was succeeded by the Rev. Thomas O'Hanlon in 1877, though ordained only the June of the pre- ceding year at Troy. He also built and kept charge of the Church of the Sacred Heart at Eddyville. He died in 1883, and his remains were interred in front of the church in Port Ewen. His successor was the Rev. Philip Ahern, ordained at the Troy Seminary in May, 1877, who started the mission at Esopus, and about 1889, as a consequence, the Eddyville church was united to Wilbur. Father Ahern, in 1892, was sent to Cornwall, and later was Chaplain at the Home of the Good Shepherd, where he died in 1904.
Revs. Eugene Smith and Thomas, twins, successively were pastors at Port Ewen, from 1892 till 1899; both suffered from ill health, and died at Mt. Hope in Baltimore. The present pastor, the Rev. Leo C. Beaudet, is a Canadian by birth, but was ordained at the Provincial Seminary of St. Joseph at Troy, on December 17th, 1887, and was for many years assistant at St. Joseph's, in New York. The stoppage of the Hudson and Delaware Canal and other consequent industries has decreased the popu- lation of the parish considerably. Port Ewen, once thriving, has become a poor and difficult mission, yet Father Beaudet had the courage to erect a convenient hall for social gatherings.
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