USA > Pennsylvania > Adams County > Conewago in Adams County > Conewago : a collection of Catholic local history : gathered from the fields of Catholic missionary labor within our reach. > Part 22
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If I have dwelt long upon the Catholic history of the Norsemen in what are now the New England States, it was because I supposed the subject would be equally novel and interesting. Nor can I leave it without stating that the form of government in Iceland, Greenlaud and Vin- land was republican from the foundation of the respective colonies till the year 1621 when they became dependencies of the crown of Norway. There was, therefore, a little Catholic republie on this continent seven hundred, perhaps eight hundred years ago. Referring to these early republics, Malte-Brun remarks: "The genius of liberty and of poetry brought into action the brightest powers of the human mind at the ends of the habitable earth."-From Rev. F. W. Clarke's Centennial Discourse.
From a Lecture of Rev. E. A. McGurk, of Loyola College, Baltimore .- From this very place we can almost touch the soil on which the Jesuit Fathers stepped from the Ark and Dove. They came in the company of honorable men, weary of the struggles for conscience sake. Governmental intolerance of their peculiar tenets drove the Quakers to Pennsylvania, the Episcopalians to Virginia, the Puritans to Plymouth and the Catholics to Maryland. The circle ot freedom which all of them but one drew around them was only large enough to inelose them- selves. The banner of but one ship proclaimed universal tolerance, and that was the ship which brought the Cathoiles to Maryland.
To Sir George Calvert were our Catholic ancestors indebted for this. Until 1624 he was a Protestant. His conversion involved great personal sacrifices. Ile held the high and lucrative office of secretary of state under James ]. To continue to hold office was to share in the iniqui- tous laws which persecuted his Catholic fellow-citizens, and that he could not do. He led in per- son a colony to Newfoundland, but its soil was too sterile. He sailed southward, but failed in his attempt to associate with the Episcopalians of Virginia. They wanted freedom, but it was only freedom for themselves, not for Catholics, and they would have exacted an oath from him which would have degraded him below the slaves on their plantations. He returned to England and obtained a liberal grant under which his son Leonard planted the colony of freemen in Maryland. The gallant little ship left England November 22, 1633. The colony was numerically Protestant, but politically, socially and religiously Roman Catholic. The expedition consisted of Leonard Calvert as Governor, Jerome Hawley and Capt. Thos. Cornwallys, assistants, with 20 gentlemen, and 200 mechanies, laboring men, servants and others. The superior of the three Jesuir priests of the party was Father Andrew White, the apostle of Maryland. At the outset they placed their ships under the protection of God, committing their success to the keeping of the blessed St. Ignatius and the guardian Angel of Maryland. All denominations respect the influence of their ministers, but a Catholic's need of a priest is founded ou a deeper faith in his holier usefulness. He has power to say thy sins are forgiven thee. He leaves the land of statery temples, but bears authority to offer the victim of mercy on altars rude as the unchiseled rocks. The two most no- table personages who gazed on the new land were Leonard Calvert and Andrew White. There the missionary felt his prayer and chants might mingle with the songs of birds and his words flow free as the rivers that poured their waters into the ocean. None knew better than Father White what havoe of faith tyranny had made. A site for a city was chosen, and St. Mary's the name given to it. But in days when traveling through a county was like a journey across a continent, it had to be abandoned for a place more accessible as a capital to the interior of the colony Annapolis, its successor, though it has never grown to be a giant, is not without its title to fan1?
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The author of old Maryland Manors says "it was at Annapolis that soft crabs, terrapin and can- vas-back ducks obtained their renown as the greatest delicacies of the world." He quotes from a French traveler of the last century : "In that inconsiderable town at the month of the Severn at least three-fourths of the houses may be styled elegant and grand. The State House is a very beautiful building-I think the most-of any I have seen in America. Female luxury exceeds what is known in France. A French hair-dresser is a man of importance among them, and it is said a certain dame here hires one of that craft at one thousand crowns a year."
In 1638 Father White wrote to his superior in Rome: "By the spiritual exercises of St. Igna- tins we have formed most, of the inhabitants to the practice of pietv, and the sick and dying have all been attended in spite of the distanc's of their dwellings." His labors were equally fruitful among the Indians. It is an honor of Maryland not shown by the other colonies, that from the beginning friendly relations existed between the white man and the Indians. Need it be repeated that Father White and his missionaries were Jesuits ? At that time the order was in the zenith of its glory. The superiors of the order, true to their sagacity of sending the best men to China, Japan and Paraguay, appointed for Maryland inen of great learning and ability. The history ot the Jesuits shows that the most gifted men were the best for this humble work. Xavier, Riccis, Ortega, Father White, were all men of distinction in the great schools of Europe. The first his- tory of Maryland is from his pen in Latin. Will any one wonder that the Jesuit loves Maryland ? He has hved here two centuries and a-half, and is not likely soon to move. St. Ignatius, founder of the Jesuits, was the patron of the Ark and Dove, and the State is still under his patronage. The provincial of the order gave up to the proprietary the manors of Mattapony, Immaculate Conception and St. Gregory.
The act of religious toleration of 1648 is a cherished memory. It was passed in the Assem- bly sitting in St. Mary's Citv. But what is religious toleration? The question is pertinent. because it is said the church's teachings are inconsistent with toleration. There is a right kind of toleration aud a wrong kind. The wrong kind advocates the license of believing just what a man chooses. Revelation has fixed bevond the right of man to change it to just what we shall believe. He must submit to slavery and death rather than yield up that truth. But there is a kind of toleration consistent with Catholic principles. While we hold in the abstract that unity of religion would conduce best to the best interests of man, there may be conditions of society when freedom of differing in religion is altogether necessary for the happiness and prosperity of the State. In sach conditions of society the Catholic says, I will not force you to believe as I do. I will not debar you from any position of honor or gain because you are not a Catholic. This was the character of religious toleration in Maryland; this kind of toleration is necessary for the well being of our republic. Other colonies were colonies of persecuted mon tor their religious opinions ; Maryland was a colony of persecuted Roman Catholics. It is not to the purpose to say there were Protestants on the Ark and Dove. It was emancipation of Roman Catholics that inspired the emigration from the mother country. Maryland alone-a Catholic colony- granted freedom to every man. The charter grauted to the first Lord Baltimore secured religious freedom long before the act of toleration was passed. The second Lord Baltimore (Cecilius) was most earnest in carrying out that charter. Not one case of intolerance can be cited against Leonard Calvert. "Peace to all, persecution of none," was his favorite motto. He convicted John Lewis, an ardent Catholic, for forbidding his Protestant, servants reading the Protestant Bibie, The same chapel was used at one hour for Catholte sacrifice, at another hour for Prot- estant prayers. In the memorable Assembly of 1649, while the Catholics were in the majority, the Protestants acknowledged the act of toleration was adhered to, aud passed a resolution to that effect, which was sent to England. These were glad tidings to every nation of Europe and where religious dissensions prevailed.
The lecturer argued that to attribute the toleration in Maryland to motives of self-interest in Lord Baltimore and the Catholics was to give him no nobler viewsand motives than a Yankee peddler might claim. But Lord Baltimore is safe in Protestant as in Catholic hands from such an imputation. He quoted the recent historical review of the circumstances of those times by Gen. Bradley T. Johnson in proof of the nobler claims of Lord Baltimore on the admiration of posterity, Marylanders, and all friends of liberty.
A Missionary's Death .- Rev. Judocus Francis Van Assche, S. J., departed this life Tues- day, June 26, at 12 o'clock noon, in his seventy-eighth year. On the 26th of last May he started on horseback to visit the sick, carrying with him the Blessed Sacrament. When two miles from Florissant, Mo., out on the Cross Keys Roads, he was suddenly attacked with paralysis, falling from his horse. The faithful animal stood still, seemingly waiting for him to rise and remount. He lay helpless on the ground, till a gentleman, happening to pass that way, assisted him upon his horse. Ile wished to go on to the house of the sick person, but after riding a short distance he felt that he could proceed no further, and he turned about and returned to his home at Florissant, which he reached with much difficulty. Dr. Hereford being called, found the attack to be a serious one, and to offer little hope of recovery. The patient was removed to the St. Stanaslaus Novitiate, where, despite all that the medical art and the kindness of friends could do for him, he gradually sank until he breathed his last.
The word rapidly travelled to the village and through the surrounding country to this city that "good Father Van Assche is dead ;" and perhaps none that knew him personally, ever knew another person to whom the epithet . good" in all its meaning, could be so appropriately given- for Father Van Assche was a man of remarkable goodness, both by nature and from every availa- ble virtue. He
NEVER HAD AN ENEMY
and an unkind word was never spoken against him. He had the simplicity of a child; he was so cheerful, so kindly in his manners, so ready to serve others, and to give the peference to any one over himself, that no mau knew him that did not love him, and no one could meet him without desiring again to see him and converse with him. Every member of his congregation looked on him as a special friend, and all revered him as a wise and saintly man He was a father to the poor and those in sorrow ; and he never turned away a beggar from his door without giving some- thing, even when having little for himself ; "for," he would say to his friends, "even if the beggar be an undeserving drunkard, he must be in great need if he will come to ask a small pittance of nie." Father Van Assche realized in his whole life and condnet the ideal of a Christian pastor, made perfect beyond all ordinary men, by a charity that was unfeigned, because it knew no ex-
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ception, it refused no work, and it feared no sacrifice. His zeal was not like that of the Pharisce, fiery and intolerant; it was persuasive and gentle, making duty a pleasure, not an insupportable burden. Ile was distinguished for his practical good sense and the solidity of his judgment con- cerning all the affairs of human life ; he was observant and thoughtful; his opinions showed so much wisdom and prudence on all matters falling under his notice that his advice was sought for and most highly valued even by most learned acquaintances. It was instruction to hear him express his thoughts on public and social questions. Having spent in the United States fifty-six years of his long life, he had become attached to the country and its institutions as if he had known no other. He often said pleasantly to his young friends who were born here : " I am more of an American than you for two reasons ; one is, I am here longer than you have been ; and the other is, that I am an American by choice, while you are one by accident." He lamented the rapid growth of avarice among our citizens during late years, saying " Now the people no longer work for a living, but all are now working to become rich." He
FIRST BEGAN TO MINISTER
at the altar in 1827, now fifty years ago ; he baptized in their infancy the grand-parents of many now living in St. Louis and in St. Louis County. "Good Father Van Assche," as he was for many years styled by every one, was buried on the spot-a little mound-where repose the remains of Father De Smet, the illustrious Indian missionary, and those of Father Meurin, who died at Kas- kaskia in 1777. Fifty long years ago Father Van Assche heard the whip-p or-will's nightly song from its perch on the tall trees covering the ground beneath whose sod he will now sleep his last long sleep.
When this good and much-loved old missionary first reached St. Louis, May 30, 1823, it was then but a struggling frontier town.
Father Judocus F. Van Assche was born at St. Amand, which is on the banks of the Scheld, and is five leagues above Antwerp. His father, Judocus Van Assche, dealt in spun cotton and flax. Young Van Assche wished to be a sailor, and his father applied to a captain, known to be a good man, to receive him, but the captain whom he applied to declined to accent any more boys. The youth was sent to school at Mechlin. His playfulness caused his teacher, by not rightly estimating the innocent vivacity of a boyish nature, to request his father to recall him from school. His father declined to do so till his son was given further trial The youth soon became distinguished for his diligence in study, obedience to rules, success in his classes, and all virtues becoming his age.
In 1816, the illustrious Kentucky missionary, Father Chas. Nerinckx, went to his native coun- try, Belgium, in the interest of his various missions in the diocese of Bardstown, Ky. On his return to the United States, in 1817, he was accompanied by James Oliver Van de Velde, who joined the Jesuit Society at Georgetown College, D. C In Belgium the latter was tutor of French to young Judocus F. Van Assche, who would have accompanied him had not his youth and the lack of means rendered such a step impracticable at that time. His desire to join his friend at George- town he however kept, and he only waited for an opportunity to go to America. In 1820, Father Nerinckx again visited Belgium, and passing by way of Georgetown, he was made the bearer of a letter from Mr. Van de Velde to young Van Assche, which was delivered to the parents of the youth. Young Van Assche resolved to accompany the Rev. Mr. Nerinckx on his return to America, and revealing his intention to his schoolmate, John B. Elet, he too determined to go with the mis- sionary to America. A little after, John B. Smedts joined them in their proposed journey, and then P. J. De Smet, Fellx Verreydt, and P. J. Verhaegen also determined to join the party. In order to raise the funds necessary for the trip they disposed of their books, furniture, pawning their pianos and watches for redemption by their parents. After overcoming many difficulties they collected together on the Texal. a small island off the coast of North Holland. Near the island the ship " Columbus," on which they were to sail, rode at anchor waiting for them. They boarded and went quietly out upon the main sea. They seemed to have cast no lingering, longing looks back upon the shores which most of them were never to see again ; for their purpose was to give up all in order to devote their lives to the Indian missions of America.
THEY REACHED PHILADELPHIA
on Sunday, September 23, 1821, whence they proceeded at once by way of Baltimore to Georgetown.
They were received as novices and sent at once to the house of probation, at Whitemarsh ; the place was so named in commemoration of the illustrious Father White, S. J., who accompanied the first colony of English Catholics, who, leaving their country for conscience sake, settled in Maryland.
In the year 1823, Bishop Dubourg, who was bishop of Upper and Lower Louisiana, went to Georgetown to request a colony of Jesuits to be furnished him by the provincial of the Maryland province, for the evangelization of the Indians in the State of Missouri. Father Van Quicken- borne, with Messrs. Van Assche, De Smet. Verhaegen, Verreydt, Smedts, Elet and Brother de Meyer, who still survives at the good old age of eighty-four, offered themselves for the missions in the far West. They left Whitemarsh about the middle of April, 1823, went to Baltimore, where they procured wagons for their Inggage and started on their journey to Wheeling. W. Va. They went by way of Frederick, Md., Conewago, Pa., Cumberland, Md., thence across the Allegheney Mountains, reaching Wheeling after a journey of about two weeks. They were here entertained for a few days by a kind gentleman, Mr. Thompson, whose daughter subsequently became a dis- tinguished member of the Sacred Heart order. They procured two flat boats, which they lashed together, placing upon one of them a wagon, some negroes that accompanied them, their stock of provisions for the journey, etc.,-the Reverend gentlemen, with their library and various articles of Church furniture, being in the other boat. Atter a trip down the river of some twelve days, without striking incidents, they reached Louisville, where they met the Rev. Charles Nerinckx, who was there awaiting their arrival, he having a few days previous gone to Louisville to start for the "Barrens" in Perry Co., Mo. - a colony of his sisterhood, the Loretto Nuns-there to establish a school. A "Falls pilot" was engaged to get their boats safely over the falls, and in his trip down the rapids, Mr. Van Assche accompanied him. They went down the Ohio to Shawneetown, where they disembarked, and sending their baggage around to St Louis by steamboat, they journeyed across the land to the same destination.
THEY REACHED ST. LOUIS
May 30, and on the evening of the same day Father Van Quickenborne rode on horseback out to Florissant. The present novitiate farm, or at least that part of it on which the houses stand, had been donated by Bishop Dubourg to Father Van Q. and companions. They took posssession of the
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CATHOLIC LOCAL HISTORY.
place, and began at once to clear land around the dwelling in order to make a garden ; and on July 31 they began to dig the cellar for a dwelling which, in the style of that day, was a log cabin. Mr. Van Assche was ordained priest in 1827, and assumed two years later the regular charge of the congregation at the village of Florissant. The congregation had been for a year in charge of the Trappists, who gave it up in 1810, removing to Monks' Mound, on Cahokia Creek, Ill. When the monks lett Illinois in 1813, to return to Europe, Rev M. Durand, a member of their order, remained in Missouri and had charge of the congregation at Florissant for some seven years, residing a part of that time in the village ILis congregation was afterwards under the care of Rev. Mr. De Lacroix, from 1820 to 1823, during which time he built the present brick church of that place. In 1823 Mr. De Lacroix made over the church to the Jesuilt Fathers, under whose charge it has re- mained till the present time. In 1832 Father Van Assche began to reside at Florissant. He lived a couple of years at Portage des Sioux, but in 1840 he was required by his physicians to leave the place, which was subject to malarious influences, on account of the low, wet lands surrounding it. Ile returned to Florissant, and with the exception of three years' residence at St. Charles, Father Van Assche made Florrissant his home till his death. He lived 54 years of his long life in Mis- souri ; and, except for two short visits one to Cincinnati, and one to Chicago, he never in that time went beyond St Louis and st Charles' Counties Ile has now gone to the reward of a long and useful life, followed by the praises and the benisons of all that knew him. He was a man of God, who gave up native country, a home among loved ones-and all that is near and dear to the human heart, in order to make himself useful as a missionary in a strange land.
HE SET THE EXAMPLE
of a pious and blameless life ; and full of days, and full of merit, he expired calmly at about noon, on Friday. June 26, at St Stanislaus' Novitiate, Florissant, Missouri. He bore his last illness with- out one murmur or complaint, and seemingly without any pian. No one, knowing him personally, will fail giving assent to the prayer, May he rest in peace ! and may my last end be like to that of good Father Van Assche !- St. Louis Times, July, 1877.
Miss Sally Lilly remembers having heard Father Van Quickenborne preach a very eloquent sermon at Littlestown, when passing Conewago for the West. They came from Baltimore in wagons, having servants with them. They collected blankets and other things at Conewago.
Old St. Inigo's Manor .- ST. INIGO'S, MD., January IS -There is but one spot in Mary- land which can be said to have remained in the hands of its original occupants and their legitimate successors since the planting of Lord Baltimore's colony. This spot is St. Inigo's Manor, still the property of the religious community that settled it-the Society of Jesus. Two rusty old cannon, insecurely mounted on loose piles of bricks, look out on the blue waters of the St. Mary's river as they did two centuries and a half ago; and, with the sweet-toned beil which has rung the Angelus three times a day since 1682, are the sole relics visible at the site of the manor-house of the old colonial days.
For many years there was exhibited at St. Mary's an elliptical table of English oak capable of dining thirty persons, which was brought over in the Ark, and used by the first Governor of the Province, Leonard Calvert, both as his dining and council table. Rev. Father Joseph E. Keller, late Superior of the Maryland Province of the Society of Jesus, in a letter to a friend in England some years ago said : "We have got at St. Inigo's, Maryland, the original round-table at which the first Governor and his wise men sat in council, and on which were written the laws of the Colony and the famous statute of liberty of con cience." After passing through a num- ber of hands, the table became the property of a Mr. Campbell, at whose death it was purchased Jan. 7, 1832, by Rev. Joseph Carbery, S. J., for ten dollars, and placed at St. Inigo's, where it remained until a year or so ago, when it was removed to Georgetown College. Here it is exhibited to all who care to see it, and is an object of much curiosity and interest on the part of visitors.
The cannon were fished out of the St. Mary's river, into which they had tumbled owing to the gradual washing away of St. Inigo's Fort, (built by Leonard Calvert on a point jutting out into the river from the manor lands,) by Captain Thomas Carbery, of Washington, brother of Father Carbery, in 1824. In 1841, at the suggestion of William Coad, member of the House of Delegates from St. Mary's, one of them was presented by Father Carbery to the State of Mary- land and placed in the State-house yard at Annapolis. Of the remaining three, (four in all were stated by Father Carbery to have been taken up,) one was used as a boundary mark on the manor line, and the other two were placed on the lawn at St. Inigo's, where they have since remained. It is the intention of the present superior of the mission to have them mounted on pedestals of masonry near the water side, and cieaned and renovated, so that they can be used for firing salutes. The metal has become rough and flaky from long immersion in mud and water, and their appearance is sufficient proof of their antiquity. The bell, which has graven on it. the date 1682. is suspended from a pole in front of the mission house, and its silvery tones steal over the waters three times every day to the distant tisnerman, who reverently doffs his cap and murmurs his prayers after the fashion of his forefathers generations back.
The founder of the Jesuit settlement at St. Inigo's was Rev. Thomas Copley, a father of the society, who on account of the penal laws against the Catholic ctergy appears in the records, in common with many other Jesuit fathers, by the simple designation of "esquire" or "gentie- man." Under the "Conditions of Plantation," published by Lord Baltimore in 1636, Thomas Copiey, Esq., demanded grants of land in consideration of transporting Andrew White, John Altham (Fathers White and Althamn) and others, thirty in all, to Maryland in 1633, and Mr. John Knoles and others, to the number of nineteen, in 1637. He received in all twenty-eight thou- sand five hundred acres, of which he distributed the greater part to others, reserving 8,000 for the society. The first tract taken up was St. Inigo's, situated on St. Inigo's creek and St. Mary's river, including 2,000 acres on the mainland, St. George's Island 1,000 acres, and "town land" tn and about St. Mary's city, 400 ac. es. The "town land," after remaining in the hands of the Jesuits for some time, was tinally lost to them through an error in one of the numerous convey- ances by which the prperty was transmitt-d. The second tract taken up was St. Thomas's and Cedar Point Neck, now in Charles county, near Port Tobacco. Like St. Inigo's, St. Thomas's manor is still the property of the Jesuits, as is also Newtown minor, formerly an estate of the lord proprietary, situated on the peninsula formed by Bretton's and St. Clement's bays, not far from Leonardtown.
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