USA > Pennsylvania > Allegheny County > Pittsburgh > A history of the Catholic church in the dioceses of Pittsburg and Allegheny from its establishment to the present time > Part 21
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The congregation numbers at present no more than twenty- five families, and Mass is offered up on two Sundays in the month. What the future prospects are it is difficult to con- jecture ; certain it is they are not flattering. Should the Pitts- burg, Virginia and Charleston Railroad, now completed to Monongahela City, be extended to Brownsville, as it prob- ably soon will be, it will doubtless increase the trade and with it the population of the town.
Of the numerous missions formerly attended from Browns- ville, Waynesburg, Uniontown, and Farmington alone re- main. But besides these the pastor pays an occasional visit to certain small bodies of miners living at different places along the river.
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ST. JOHN'S CHURCH, UNIONTOWN.
ST. JOHN'S CHURCH, UNIONTOWN.
Uniontown, the county-seat of Fayette County, is situated near the foot of the western slope of the Chestnut Ridge, about twelve miles south-east of Brownsville. The town was laid ont by Henry Beeson, a Quaker from Berkeley County, Va., about the year 1767 or '69." It had in 1870 a population of 2503. But the history of the place and of the surrounding country begins from a period prior to the foun- dation of the town. The route by which General Braddock crossed from Cumberland to Fort Du Quesne in the early part of the summer of 1755 lay but a short distance north of where the town now stands. This route was, as we have seen, one of the paths by which emigrants penetrated to the West, and so favorably was it known that the Southern Pike, when laid out, followed closely the footsteps of the unfor- tunate Briton. Passing on its way through Uniontown, it added to the traffic and importance of the place.
Nothing is known with certainty of the early Catholic settlement of Uniontown, but it is probable that a few scat- tered families were found in the town and in its vicinity very early in the present century ; for Dr. Gallitzin and Father Heilbron both visited the place before the arrival of Father O'Brien at Brownsville-that is, prior to the year 1806. Since that town became a missionary centre Uniontown has always, with but little exception, been attached to it. Passing over the first half of the present century, during which time the visits of a priest were more or less frequent, according to the ex- tent of the field of his missionary labors, but never more than once in the month, we come to the year 1849. Mass was at that time celebrated once in the month on Sunday by Rev. Thos. M'Gowen, then pastor of Brownsville, and the number of Catholics, though small, was still such that it was deemed expedient to build a church for their better accommodation. Suitable lots were purchased, and in the following year the church was undertaken. It was not finished until the close of the year after, at which time Rev. John Larkin, at present
* Historical Collections, p. 340.
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FARMINGTON STATION.
of Holy Innocents' Church, New York City, was pastor. It was dedicated, under the invocation of St. John the Evangel- ist, by Rev. Father Krutil, C.SS.R., December 7th, 1851. The church is an unassuming brick structure without a steeple, and is about 50 feet in length by 25 in width, has one altar, and is finished in a simple and inexpensive style in the interior. The affairs of the congregation remained unchanged, except that it was soon deprived of the advantages of a resi- dent pastor until February 5th, 1863, when the church was blown down, or at least seriously damaged, by a storm. It was rebuilt without alteration, and again the little congrega- tion pursued the even tenor of its way.
At length the condition of the congregation was improved, but hardly for its own sake, as may be inferred from what follows. About the end of September, 1877, Rev. Ed. Bren- nan was appointed resident pastor, with the care also of Farmington and LeMont Furnace. But after remaining until May of the following year he was transferred to another field of usefulness, and the congregation reverted to the pas- tor of Brownsville. It will not exceed twenty-five families in number, and may even fall below that figure, and never was it greater than at present. Being beyond the influences that ordinarily tend to increase the Catholic population, it is probable that it will undergo little if any change for many years to come.
FARMINGTON STATION.
The village of Farmington is situated on the national turn- pike in a mountainous region twelve miles east of Uniontown. The scenery between the two places is grand beyond descrip- tion. Soon after leaving the latter place the traveller ascends the Chestnut Ridge by a tortuous route, and having reached the summit at the distance of six miles there is presented on the west and north-west a prospect extending to a distance of more than forty miles. Little Washington, though thirty-five miles off, is seen distinctly with the aid of a glass. On the top of the ridge are Fayette Springs. It was near this spot that Major Washington built Fort Necessity immediately
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GEN. BRADDOCK'S GRAVE.
after the retreat of General Braddock. Passing three miles further east, one comes to the historic spot where reposes all that is mortal of the brave but imprudent General Braddock -a place which was known in the annals of Indian warfare as the Great Meadows. Here the general was laid to rest July 13th, 1755. He was first buried in the route which bore his name, to prevent the French or Indians from discovering the spot, but about the beginning of the present century his re- mains were removed to a spot about one hundred yards north of the road. It is surrounded by about half a dozen other graves and as many small trees, dating from the beginning of the century. The grave is marked by a flagstone without any inscription, and the wild-cherry-tree that stood at the head of it is long dead, and will soon cease to point out the spot where our hero was buried .*
The few Catholics in and around the village of Farming-
*The death of Gen. Braddock being the first important event of the war between the French and English, of which the territory included in this history was the scene, it may not be uninteresting to give the following account of it from Day's " Historical Collections" (p. 335), and the more so as I do not find it stated any- where else :
"There had long existed a tradition in this region that Braddock was killed by one of his own men, and more recent developments leave little or no doubt of the fact. A recent writer in the National Intelligencer, whose authority is good on such points, says: 'When my father was moving with his family to the west, one of the Fausetts kept a public house to the eastward from and near where Uniontown now stands. This man's house we lodged in about the Ioth of October, 1781, twenty-six years and a few months after Braddock's defeat, and there it was made anything but a secret that one of the family dealt the death- blow to the British general. Thirteen years afterwards I met Thos. Fausett in Fayette County, and then, as he told me, in his seventieth year. To him I put the plain question and received the plain reply, " I did shoot him." He then went on to insist that, by doing so, he contributed to save what was left of the army. In brief, in my youth I never heard the fact either doubted or blamed that Fausett shot Braddock.'
"In spite of Braddock's silly order that the troops should not protect them- selves behind the trees, Joseph Fausett had taken such a position, when Braddock rode by in a passion and struck him down with his sword. Tom Fausett, who was but a short distance from his brother, saw the whole transaction and imme- diately drew up his rifle and shot Braddock through the lungs, partly in revenge for the outrage upon his brother and partly, as he always alleged, to get the general out of the way and thus save the remainder of the gallant band who had been sacrificed to his obstinacy and want of experience in frontier warfare."
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CONNELLSVILLE.
ton settled there most probably at the time the road was made. They are all farmers, and number no more than about fifteen families. The place has always been attached to Uniontown and attended at irregular intervals, but never more as a rule than once in the month on a week-day. No church has yet been built, nor is one likely soon to be, and there is every prospect that the future history of the place will be as monotonous as the past has been.
CHURCH OF THE IMMACULATE CONCEPTION, CONNELLSVILLE.
Connellsville is situated on the northern bank of the Yohioghenny River, fifty-eight miles south-east of Pittsburg, and took its name from Zachariah Connell, who laid out the town about the year 1790. It was incorporated as a borough in 1806, and had in 1870 a population of 1292. New Haven, on the opposite side of the river, was laid out in 1796 by Col. Isaac Meason, and had in 1870 a population of 333 .* The site of Connellsville was known in frontier history as Stewart's Crossing.
Although an old town, it did not attain to any importance until the completion of the Pittsburg and Connellsville Rail- road, now known as the Pittsburg branch of the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad, in 1862. The opening of this road gave an outlet to the coke trade, of which this is the centre and for which it has a world-wide reputation,t and in doing so increased the population and the importance of the town.
From an early day Catholic settlers found their way to this part of the country, and for more than a quarter of a century Mass was celebrated in the town or near it, at distant intervals, and generally on a week-day. At length the number of Catholics had sufficiently increased to render the building of a church and the appointment of a resident pastor neces-
* Day's Historical Collections, p. 344-
t There were in the immediate vicinity of Connellsville, according to an ac- count drawn up in the autumn of 1879, nearly 4000 coke-ovens in full blast, yield- ing 250,000 bushels or 400 car-loads per day and giving steady employment to more than 2000 men, as miners, coke-drawers, and laborers, and the trade is daily increasing.
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CHURCH OF THE IMMACULATE CONCEPTION.
sary. In 1870 Rev. Robt. Waters, of Brownsville, began to visit it monthly on a Sunday. In the beginning of the follow ing year he was transferred thither, and, after having offered up the Holy Sacrifice for a short time in a house, he pur- chased, or had purchased for him, an old Methodist Episcopal church in January, 1871. The building, which is of rough stone, is 66 feet in length by 38 in width, without a steeple, and is an interesting relic of the past. It was built, as tra- dition informs us, before the close of the last century, and having been used for many years by the congregation, was sold, and by a somewhat unusual transformation became a foundry. Again it was abandoned till it was purchased for a church. After the interior had undergone the necessary alteration, it was dedicated, under the title of the Immaculate Conception, by the Bishop July 9th, 1871.
Fr. Waters next purchased a large lot adjoining the church, upon which he built a frame residence in the summer of 1872. In the same year he opened a school, which was continued in a temporary frame building until June, 1878, when it was closed for the present, owing to the stringency of the times.
The congregation has not increased since the outbreak of the panic, but it still counts about one hundred families, con- sisting principally of Irishmen and Americans.
Besides ministering to the congregation Father Waters also visits a number of places on the line of the railroad, the principal of which are Jamestown, four miles below Connells- ville, where he says Mass on one Sunday in the month; In- dian Creek, seven, and Ohio Pyle Falls, sixteen miles above, each of which he visits monthly on a week-day.
The condition of the congregation and its dependencies must gradually improve in the future.
ST. ALOYSIUS' CHURCH, DUNBAR.
The village of Dunbar is on the creek of the same name, on the Fayette County branch of the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad, and on the South-western Railroad, four miles south of Connellsville. It derives its name from Col. Thos. Dun- bar, who was second in command of Braddock's expedition.
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ST. ALOYSIUS' CHURCH, DUNBAR.
About three miles east of the village, on the Chestnut Ridge, is the spot where the defeated forces first halted to rest in their retreat ; and the spot is yet known as " Dunbar's Camp."
The congregation of St. Aloysius' and the village also owe their origin to the presence of a blast-furnace built there a few years ago, which naturally drew a number of laborers to the place, the greater part of whom were Irish Catholics. Mining and coke-burning have since added to their number. Mass was first celebrated by Father Waters in March, 1869, and from that time forward he visited the place once in the month on a week-day. In 1873, when the congregation had increased considerably, he began to visit it once in the month on Sunday. But the distance from Connellsville did not prevent the better disposed among the people from going there to Mass occa- sionally.
After the retirement of Rev. Thomas Fitzgerald from Meyersdale on account of failing health, Rev. Philip Brady was appointed pastor of that place in the beginning of 1874, with the additional obligation of visiting Dunbar on every alternate Sunday. As yet there was no church. But early in the summer of the same year, the size of the congregation, which now numbered about forty-five families with every prospect of an increase in the future, made the building of a church both necessary and feasible. A site was purchased which, although not the most eligible that could have been found, is still good, and work was commenced. The corner- stone was laid by the Bishop June 21st. The church was finished the following summer and was dedicated by the same prelate July 25th, under the invocation of St. Aloysius Gon- zaga. It is a brick building 75 feet in length by 35 in width, but without a steeple, and is very neat and substantial both in its external and internal appearance and finish. The grow- ing importance of the place induced Father Brady to transfer his residence thither in October, where he has since lived. He continued to visit Meyersdale until September, 1876, and has also had care of Le Mont Furnace from the time it became a missionary station, as we shall presently see.
A school-house was built, and a school was opened by a lay teacher in the summer of 1878.
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LE MONT MISSION.
The congregation has now increased to about one hundred and twenty families. Its future prospects are also flattering. Should additional iron manufactories be built, which is very probable, and for which there is every encouragement, the Catholic population of this part of the county must be aug- mented.
LE MONT FURNACE MISSION.
This mission is on the line of the railroads that connect Connellsville with Uniontown, and is four miles north of the latter. A blast-furnace was built here in 1876, which with a small trade in coke soon drew a little congregation of Catho- lics, Irishmen for the most part, to the place. This nation- ality, it would appear, is destined in the dispensations of Providence to lay the foundations of the Church nearly everywhere in the land. Father Brady, of Dunbar, began immediately to visit the place on two Sundays in the month, riding from St. Aloysius' Church between the two Masses, which he celebrated on the same day. This arrangement has since continued, with the exception of the few months from September, 1877, until May of the following year, when a priest resided at Uniontown. During that time Le Mont was, as we have seen, under the care of that missionary, but the congregation was visited in the same manner as it had been before. No church has yet been built ; but the erection of one cannot long be deferred, as the congregation already numbers perhaps sixty families. The Catholic population must in the nature of things continue to increase, and it seems probable that at no distant day there will be a resident pastor, to whom will also be entrusted the Catholics of Uniontown and Farmington. The prospects of the future growth of re- ligion in the whole northern part of Fayette are as flattering as they are in any other part of the entire diocese.
ST. JOHN THE BAPTIST'S CHURCH, SCOTTDALE.
Everson, or Fountain Mills as it was formerly called, is a little village six miles north of Connellsville, on the boundary line
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ST. JOHN S CHURCH, SCOTTDALE.
between Fayette and Westmoreland counties, and on the line of the South-western Railroad at the point where it is crossed by the Mount Pleasant branch of the Baltimore and Ohio Rail- road. But since the incorporation of Scottdale as a borough, which lies immediately across the line in Westmoreland County, the place is better known by that name. The town owes its importance to the presence of a rolling-mill and a blast-furnace lately built there. Prior to that time a small amount of mining was carried on, in which, among others, a few Catholics were engaged. From about the year 1874 Mass was celebrated in a private house by the pastor of Con- nellsville, once in the month. When the iron-works at length brought a larger number of Catholics together more frequent ministrations became necessary. To supply the wants of the people Father Waters purchased a little frame Episcopal church, 20 by 40 feet, that was offered for sale, and blessed it as a church April 23d, 1876. An assistant was then assigned to him, and Mass was celebrated in the new church every Sunday. Scottdale was erected into an independent parish in the beginning of the summer of 1878, and Rev. Thos. M'Enrue, assistant at Connellsville, was appointed resident pastor. As yet there is neither school nor pastoral residence. The congregation consists of about a hundred and twenty-five families, with very flattering prospects for the future.
Father M'Enrue was succeeded by Rev. M. A. Lambing, brother of the writer, early in July, 1879.
But the church is too small for the congregation. To remedy the evil Fr. Lambing commenced, in the fall of 1879, to build a frame church, 71 by 37 feet.
The pastor of this church also says Mass on one Sunday in the month at Bridgeport, on the Bradford and Mount Pleasant Railroad, four miles east of Scottdale. There are be- sides this place one or two other stations where Mass is cele- brated once a month on a week-day. Scottdale is perhaps the most promising place in Fayette County ; and it is not im- probable that the congregation will double its numbers before the end of two years.
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NEW BALTIMORE.
ST. JOHN THE BAPTIST'S CHURCH, NEW BALTIMORE, SOMER- SET COUNTY.
The success of Dr. Gallitzin in planting a Catholic colony at Loretto induced Rev. Thos. Heyden, of Bedford, to make a similar experiment. A Mr. Ridelmoser, a wealthy German Catholic of Baltimore, owned large tracts of land at a place known as Harman's Bottom, in Somerset County, on the eastern side of the Allegheny Mountains, about twenty-two miles west of Bedford. Here it was that Father Heyden hoped to realize his plans of an exclusively Catholic colony. In 1832 he proposed to Mr. Ridelmoser to draw Catholic settlers to his lands on condition that a church should be built and the land reserved exclusively for Catholics. That gentleman entered heartily into his plans, built a stone church, about fifty feet in length by thirty-five in width, in a simple style, and a pastoral residence, and donated 100 acres of land to the church for the support of the pastor. The church, which he furnished with vestments and plate, was dedicated, under the invocation of St. John the Baptist, January Ist, 1836. He named the place New Baltimore, but it is yet generally known by the name of Harman's Bottom. Besides this he donated 600 acres of land for the support of a Catholic school, and placed the management of it in the hands of three mem- bers of the congregation to be elected at the times and in the manner prescribed by him. It was his intention, as also that of Father Heyden, to make the new settlement a seat of learn- ing as well as of piety. No sooner were the foundations of the settlement laid than plans were formed, as we learn from an article in the Bedford Gazette, for the erection of a Catholic university. The size and style of the buildings were specified, and expectations were excited that were never to be realized. Lying, as the land does, between the Northern and Southern turnpikes, the two great thoroughfares from the east to the west, it was thought to possess every advantage. But the Pennsylvania Canal lately opened drew all travel from these roads and left New Baltimore, as we shall see, with little hope
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ST. JOHN THE BAPTIST'S CHURCH.
of future greatness. But before condemning the projectors of the university for being too sanguine, we should note the changes that we ourselves sometimes see pass over certain localities in a single decade of years.
Upon the completion of the church there were about one hundred and fifty families, and at present there are no more. The school was not opened, and the land reserved for its sup- port has been always rented out for the benefit of the pastor. But owing to the absence of minerals and the want of ready communication with the outer world, it is not so valuable as might be imagined. From the time of its completion until the appointment of a resident pastor, in 1854, the church was generally visited on one Sunday in the month by Father Heyden. During this time there was little change in the congregation from the fact that those who lived there owned land and cared not to leave it, while to persons from without it offered no inducements to settle.
In 1854 Rev. Richard Brown was appointed resident pastor and assigned one or two missions in connection with the congregation. Having remained until 1859, he was suc- ceeded by Rev. J. N. Tamchina, who after a brief space gave place to Rev. Patrick Brown. After a few years he was succeeded by Rev. Robt. Byrne, who exercised the pastoral duties for about two years. At length, in 1870, the Carmelite fathers were placed in charge of the congregation, and so it remains. They enlarged the church by the addition of about thirty feet to its length, and thus improved it was dedicated by the Bishop August 3d, 1871. Two years later they built a brick pastoral residence.
A school was opened in the old residence in the spring of 1877, but after a short time it was temporarily closed. It is the intention of the pastor to have it opened permanently as soon as possible.
The congregation numbers at present about one hundred and fifty families, all of whom speak English with the excep- tion of perhaps a dozen of the original German settlers. Its future has every prospect of being as monotonous as the past has been.
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ST. MATTHEW'S CHURCH, MEYERSDALE.
ST. MATTHEW'S CHURCH, MEYERSDALE.
Meyersdale is a village situated on the western slope of the main ridge of the Allegheny Mountains near their summit, and on the line of the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad, one hundred and twelve miles south-east of Pittsburg. The most note- worthy event in the history of the town was the difficulty it experienced in hitting upon a name. In the days of its mi- nority it was known as Meyers' Mills ; but in time it aspired to the title of Dale City. A lively discussion arose between the old and the new school which was happily adjusted by the present euphonious compromise.
A few German Catholic families located themselves in the town and surrounding country more than thirty years ago, and were visited at distant and irregular intervals either by the pastor of Bedford or by the Redemptorist fathers from Cumberland, Md. The church was undertaken about the year 1850, and when finished two years later by Rev. Joseph Gezowski, then pastor, was dedicated, most probably by Father Heyden, under the invocation of the Apostle St. Matthew, May 2d, 1852. It is a very small frame building with a little belfry. The congregation consisted at that time of eighteen families. Soon Father Gezowski was transferred to another field of labor, and the congregation was visited, generally on one Sunday in the month, from New Baltimore. This ar. rangement appears to have continued until about the year 1868, when Rev. Patrick Brown was transferred from New Baltimore to Meyersdale, with the care of the missions also that belong to it. During all this time the congregation had undergone no perceptible change, except that the Germans had become somewhat Anglicized and a few families had been added to the original number. At the close of the year 1872 Father Brown was succeeded by Rev. Thomas Fitzgerald, who in the course of the following summer built a frame pas- toral residence at a considerable distance from the church. Failing health obliged him to withdraw from the congrega- tion in the middle of December, and he retired to the home of his parents in Pittsburg, where he died of consumption April 21st, 1874, at the age of 26 years.
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