USA > Pennsylvania > Northampton County > History of Northampton County [Pennsylvania] and the grand valley of the Lehigh, Volume I > Part 47
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guise of a physician, especially in New Jersey, where the penal laws were more stringently enforced. He paid spot cash for the land he bought of Biedler, a Mennonite, who sold to a Catholic priest to spite the brotherhood, with whom he had broken. Being an alien, he could not take personal title, but executed the deed in the name of Father Graeten, his Philadelphia superior. All title to church property in those days had to be personal on account of the penal laws. He established a mission near Allentown, at Magunshi, and celebrated Mass at the home of George Riffel, Northampton county then, now Lehigh county. His zeal and energy are shown by the fact that he laboriously transcribed two missals or Mass books for use on his missions. On July 10, 1764, Father Schneider died suddenly, in his sixty-first year, and the Northeastern Pennsylvania missions, including Northampton county, remained without a resident pastor until May 31, 1765, when Rev. John Baptist de Ritter, a Belgian, arrived in Goshenhoppen. At that time there were nineteen priests in the country; today there are twenty thousand. Father Ritter's death occurred suddenly February 3, 1787, in his seventieth year. He introduced into the county the regulation of celebrating marriage with a Nuptial Mass. An untiring worker, he slept on a pallet of straw and used his saddle for a pillow. He was buried beside Father Schneider at Goshenhoppen.
Northampton county, then containing six hundred square miles of terri- tory, was made a parish in July, 1833, when Bishop Kenrick of the Phila- delphia Diocese appointed Rev. Henry Herzog, just ordained, pastor of St. John the Baptist's Church at Haycock, Bucks county, with jurisdiction over both Bucks and Northampton counties. Monroe and Carbon counties on their organization, remained within this jurisdiction. When Father Reardon built a permanent rectory, on his appointment as pastor of St. Bernard's, Easton, in 1847, the county had been reduced to its present pro- portions of three hundred and ninety square miles; but many missions within the original county limits remained in charge of St. Bernard's, Easton, up to the end of the century.
In earlier times there were many Catholics in the regions of Northamp- ton county now forming Wayne county; in fact, some localities were so entirely Catholic that the immediate necessity for separate schools was not deemed absolute. Clark's Corners or Canaan's Corners, Damascus, Turacco and Equinunk, Honesdale, Hawley, Cherry Ridge in Wayne; Allentown, Friedensville, Bethlehem, Catasauqua in Lehigh; Nesquehoning and Mauch Chunk in Carbon; Stroudsburg, Pocono, Oakland, Tobyhanna, Coolbaugh and Goldsborough in Monroe; Janet's Hollow and Locawassen in Pike, were Northampton county missions and stations until their inclusion in the new Scranton diocese, March 3, 1868. Even after this date, Easton continued to supply missioners to both the English and German-speaking Catholics within the diocesan limits. For years Easton was the parental source of Northampton county's Catholicity, supplying both priests and nuns and money to struggling infant parishes in the county. Right Rev. Francis Patrick Kenrick, Bishop of Philadelphia, was the first prelate to visit the county. He came to Easton in 1833, 1834, 1836, 1838, 1840, 1844, 18.15, 1847 and 1850. On the first two visits he stopped in Easton at Michael
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Cavanaugh's, where he said Mass, and also conferred the sacrament of Con- firmation. On this occasion Father Francis Guth, of Holy Trinity, Phila- delphia, preached a German sermon. The Easton Catholics in 1834 rented a "certain house," said to be the present 151 South Fifth street, afterwards the residence of Fathers Maloney and Brady, and on July 2, 1834, Bishop Ken- rick celebrated Mass there and confirmed nine and gave the Holy Eucharist to fifteen. This remained the home of the Easton priests until Father Reardon, in the fall of 1847, built the present rectory at 132 South Fifth street, which was enlarged by Fathers Reardon and McGeveran, and recently much im- proved by the present pastor, Rev. John Edward McCann, who cleared all debt.
Other parishes were soon organized. The German Catholics of Easton and South Easton formed a separate congregation in 1851, and until 1871 their pastor ministered to the German Catholics of the Bethlehems. The priests of St. Joseph's Church had charge of the Catholics of Lehigh, Wayne and Monroe counties for years. The Magyars, or German Hungarians, of Northampton, Pennsylvania, were, prior to 1909, under the care of priests of the East Mauch Chunk Church, but in that year a parish was organized and a school founded by Rev. J. P. Shimco. In 1908 a Catholic parish and a school having two hundred pupils was organized at Nazareth under the charge of the Fathers of the Mission of the Sacred Heart, who also twice a month conducted a mission at Bath ; where some Irish Catholics settled long before the Revolution. The bulk of the congregation, however, since the beginning of the new century, are mainly Austrians. The Polish people of Easton, West Easton, and Northampton were organized into parishes in 1914. During the last forty years an influx of Syrians has scattered throughout the United States. The majority of the Greeks, Ruthenians, and Ukaranians, mostly of the nationality of the latter country, in the county, are located in Northampton, Pennsylvania, and number three hundred families; there are, however, a few in the lower end of the county, some in West Easton and Glendon, and a number in Bethlehem. They are of the Catholic rite, and they are united to Rome. The "Windish," Jugo- Slavs and Czecho-Slavs have a parish church in South Bethlehem and are scattered in individual groups throughout the county. There are about two thousand Balkanites located in that iron town, who with the Poles form one congregation. There are four large congregations of Italians in the county, though there are more of this nationality scattered in considerable groups in almost every town throughout the county. There are probably ten thousand of this nationality within the county limits. They are for the most part Catholic. Proselytizers and commercialism has separated many of them from the church.
In 1752, when the county was organized, and in 1808, when a diocese was organized, there was not one of the religious orders of Catholic Nuns in the county. There are in the county today at least four of these orders of nuns having charge of eight schools, teaching about eight thousand children. Among these orders are the Mission Sisters of St. Francis, of Easton and Cata- saqua; Mission Sisters of the Sacred Heart, of Nazareth; Sisters of the Immaculate Heart of Mary, of Easton and Roseto (Sunday school) ; and the Sisters of St. Joseph, of Bethlehem. With two schools in Easton, four in South Bethlehem, one in Nazareth, and one in Northampton, it is but a
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question of time until every parish will have its own school. The desir- ability of school separation grew out of the education fostered and the com- mon text-books used in the public schools from the Revolution. "Institu- tions," writes Shea, "endowed and supported by the State were exclusively Protestant in tone, religious exercises, and hostility to everything Catholic, text books and teachers' utterance were insulting, and the loudly proclaimed liberality and religious equality were fallacious."
After the riots of 1844 in Philadelphia, Bishop Kenrick issued the following proclamation to the public, which is the platform on which the parish schools rest: "Catholics have not asked that the Bible he excluded from the public schools. They have merely desired for their children the liberty of using the Catholic version in case the reading of the Bible be de- sired by controllers or directors of schools; they only desire to enjoy the benefit of the Constitution of the State of Pennsylvania, which guarantees the rights of conscience and precludes any preference of sectarian modes of worship. They ask that the school laws be faithfully executed and that the religious predilection of the parents be respected. They desire that the public schools be preserved from all sectarian influence and that education be conducted without any violence being offered to their religious conviction." The school authorities denying this petition of Cath- olics, it became necessary to provide parish schools and to urge parents not to send their children to the common or public schools, if their faith was in danger. At the fifth Diocesan Synod held in 1855 under Bishop Kenrick, the erection of parish schools was made mandatory and their proper man- agement was decreed. St. Joseph's Church, South Easton, was the first parish in the county to comply with the Diocesan Canon, followed closely by Catasaqua, the Holy Infancy, Bethlehem, and eventually by St. Ber- nard's, in September, 1909, and the other parishes of the county. However, as early as 1848, Father Reardon conducted a private school in the base- ment of St. Bernard's Church, and a similar school conducted by four lay teachers was conducted at St. John Capistran's, South Bethlehem.
The opening of the twentieth century saw an influx of Catholics from non-English speaking countries. The pioneer Catholics of these regions were Germans and Irish and a few Scotch and English. Many of the earlier settlers lost their faith for want of missioners, and through worldly engross- ment and lack of fortitude amidst neighbors who viewed their religion with suspicion and positive opposition. In more recent times, organized efforts to induce defection have been made.
It is worthy of note in connection with the schools that the father of the public school system of Pennsylvania and the father of the Philadelphia Diocesan Catholic school system were respectively at one time identified with Easton- Governor Wolf, who formerly owned the site now St. Bernard's Cemetery and Church on Fifth street, founder of the public school system of Pennsylvania ; and Rev. John W. Shanahan, later Bishop of Harrisburg, the father of the Philadelphia Diocesan parish schools, who was once assistant to Father Reardon at St. Bernard's, and formulated the school code of the diocese of Philadelphia.
A study of Northampton county's Catholicity and development discloses
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some interesting statistics. Whereas in 1752, when the county extended from Raubsville, Pennsylvania, to Orange county, New York, and included territory now forming (in addition to the present Northampton county), Wayne, Lehigh, Pike, Monroe, and Carbon counties, there was neither church, nor school, nor resident priest, and in 1757 but one hundred and fifty-nine Catholics of all nationalities, with probably an equal number of children under twelve years. There are today in Wayne county two visit- ing and four resident priests; ministering to five parish and eight mission churches, every Sunday celebrating a total of ten Masses. There is besides one parish school with five Catholic nuns and teachers. In Monroe county today there are two resident priests and a visiting one; celebrating on Sundays and Holy days five Masses and attending five missions. In Pike county there are likewise three missions attached to a parish church, in charge of one pastor, celebrating two Masses each Sunday and every Holy day. These Wayne, Monroe and Pike county Catholics are today un- der the jurisdiction of the Catholic Bishop' of Scranton, since March 3, 1868. In Lehigh county today there are nine churches, fifteen hundred pupils attending Catholic schools, one Catholic hospital, thirteen priests; including two Greek Catholic churches with pastors who attend missions in North- ampton county parishes. There are also three parochial schools in Lehigh. In Carbon, also formerly part of Northampton county, there are today thir- teen churches, five missions, eighteen priests, six schools and twenty-eight teachers, twenty-five hundred parish school pupils, and thirty-five Masses, Sunday and Holy days. In Northampton county, as now constituted, there are twenty-one churches, seven missions, thirty-two hundred parish school pupils, eight parish schools, twenty-five priests, celebrating between them forty-eight Masses every Sunday and Holy day, and sixty teaching nuns. There are at least fifty thousand Catholics within the present confines of the county, and whereas there were one hundred and fifty-nine all told in 1757, there are today in the same territory two hundred and fifty-nine thou- sand. Where in 1752 there were no parish schools, there are today eigh- teen, with one hundred competent teachers ; mostly competent nuns. Where in the beginning of the nineteenth century there was no resident pastor in the entire territory of the original county, there are today sixty-nine resident pastors, twenty-eight in the county as it is today; thirty-three missions regu- larly visited, eighteen schools, one hundred competent nuns in charge of the schools and several high school departments. Where one hundred and fifty years ago Catholics rejoiced to have Mass once a month in their locality, there are offered today, every Sunday and Holy day, in the confines of the original county, at least one hundred and twenty-five Masses; and not less than sixty thousand receive Holy Communion every Sunday within the vast territory. Times have indeed changed !
As before stated, around Beaver Meadows were probably the first origi- nal Catholic settlements. When the mine workers, and later canal boatmen, railroad operators, engineers and surveyors, invaded the lower section of Northampton county, Easton, the Bethlehems and environs received an influx of Irish Catholics. Father John Fitzpatrick of Milton, Northumberland county, Pennsylvania, in the course of missionary journeys to Haycock and NORTH .- 1-24.
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vicinity, saw the wisdom of procuring a site for a church at the entrance of the valley of the Lehigh, and on November 30, 1829, purchased of George Wolf city lots numbers 191-192 in Easton, a piece of ground about ninety- five feet on "Lehi" street, and three hundred and twenty-five feet on Juliana street, now Fifth street. Father Fitzpatrick paid $300 for this piece of ground, which was located on "Gallows Hill," later called "Catholic Hill," and was the site where capital punishment was executed on offenders against the commonwealth in earlier times. Northampton county having become a parish, Father Fitzpatrick transferred his site to Bishop Kenrick, in con- sideration of $200, March 24, 1834.
Before the church at Easton was built, Catholics of Easton and vicinity rented a house on South Fifth street, and here July 2, 1834, Bishop Kenrick celebrated Mass, "in an upper room of a certain house which the faithful had hired at a yearly rental of sixty dollars in silver currency, to be used for religious services," admisintered Communion to fifteen people and con- firmed nine. On August 17, 1834, Bishop Kenrick and Father Wainwright celebrated Mass in the house of Michael Cavanaugh, and gave Confirma- tion to a small number. Rev. Francis Guth, of Holy Trinity, Philadelphia, preached in German on this occasion. Bishop Kenrick dedicated St. Ber- nard's Catholic Church, August 21, 1836, assisted by Fathers Herzog, Carter and Wainwright, the latter the first pastor of Tamaqua, also of Mount Pleasant. Wayne county, and Summit Hill, Schuylkill county. Until March, 1837, Father Herzog continued pastor of Northampton county, with his residence still at Haycock, Bucks county. He was subsequently, in March, 1837, transferred to Venango county and exercised his pastoral zeal in Warren and Erie coun- ties ; but later went to Illinois, Chicago diocese. St. Bernard's at Easton is the only Catholic church mentioned at this time in the official calendar, called The Metropolitan Magazine, as then organized in Northampton county.
Father John Fitzpatrick, who purchased the site for St. Bernard's Church, Easton (which was the mother church of the county), deserves more than a passing notice. He purchased the site for the Pottsville church in 1827, and doubtless while working among the one hundred or more families of two thousand people employed in such public works as coal mines, canal boats, and railroads, foresaw the future needs of the lower sections of this county, whither his parishioners were migrating; with the extensions of canals and railroads to Easton and other points of the Lehigh Valley. In 1832 he purchased a site at Selinsgrove, and bought land for a rectory the same year at Milton, where he resided when he transferred the Fifth street lot in Easton. In March, 1837, Rev. James Maloney, just ordained, became pastor of Bucks and Northampton counties and took up his residence in Easton, at the rented house on Fifth street. From these headquarters, till the summer of 1844, he visited at monthly intervals, Haycock, Bucks county; Tamaqua, Schuylkill county, Nesquehoning and Beaver Meadow, then in Northampton county, now Carbon. After his transfer in 1844, he made Beaver Meadows his resi- 1844, and was immediately appointed to succeed Father Maloney at Easton and adjacent regions. Father Hugh Brady, his successor, was ordained June 2, 1844, and immediately appointed to succeed Father Maloney at Easton and the Haycock Missions, Bucks county, Bethlehem, Allentown, Catasauqua, and
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the surrounding regions, including Phillipsburg and Lambertsville, New Jersey. During his pastorate Bishop Kenrick again visited the county, con- firming forty-seven at St. Bernard's, October 22, 1844. In March, 1847, Father Brady was transferred to the Chicago diocese, and died at Milford, Iroquois county, Illinois, January 14, 1849, age thirty-six years. Until a successor was appointed, Father Maloney, of "Beaver Meadows," again looked after the lower sections of the county. Father Maloney, at this time with his headquarters at Beaver Meadows, had charge also of St. Jerome's, Tamaqua, St. Joseph's, Summit Hill, St. Mary's, Hazelton, and, in the words of Bishop Kenrick's diary, "Burdened with care beyond his strength, begged for at least one priest more to take charge of one of these missions." In 1852 we find him still active at Honesdale, having built a new church at Hawley, Wayne county, that year. St. Bernard's remained about five months without a pastor. During this interval Bishop Kenrick officially visited it, remaining from May 13 to 17, confirming eighteen. On July 25, 1847, Rev. Thomas Reardon was ordained and immediately became pastor of Easton, remaining for thirty-five years. St. Bernard's absorbed his entire priestly career. Father Reardon was born near the Wild Eagle's Nest, in Killarney, near the famous lakes, County Kerry, Ireland, about 1813. He entered Trinity College, Dublin, and at an early age took his degree and graduated some years later. Overstudy brought on brain fever and forced him to dis- continue a law course he had undertaken in Middle Temple, London. Travel to France failed to restore his health, and he came to America hoping to benefit by the voyage. En route he met State Senator, later Congressman, and afterwards Chancellor of New York University, John V. Pruyn, and later entered his law office at Albany, New York. On his arrival in America he visited Saratoga Springs for his health. When he had completed his law course in Pruyn's offices, through his powerful influence, young Reardon, and Papineau, who was a son of the Canadian Ambassador, were admitted while yet aliens, to the New York bar, by a special act of the State Legis- lature. Eventually he determined to study for the priesthood and came to the Philadelphia Seminary, and after completing the required course was ordained at the age of thirty-four years, July 25, 1847. Father Reardon was related to Daniel O'Connell, the great Irish patriot, and by a coincidence the site of St. Bernard's had been purchased in 1829, the year O'Connell succeeded in winning his fight for Catholic emancipation, and Father Reardon became the pastor in 1847, the year O'Connell died. Many Irish Catholics flocked into Glendon in 1848, following the Irish rebellion and famine, and Glendon became a thriving section during the existence of the Firmstone, Lucy and other iron furnaces. The Easton parish comprised territory within a radius of forty miles. Many places formerly visited by Father Reardon as missions are now parishes-Allentown, Mauch Chunk, Catasauqua, Bethle- hem, South Bethlehem, Phillipsburg, Lambertville, Oxford, and many others. There are now five parishes in Easton, nine in Allentown, three in Northampton one in Roseto, one in Bangor, one in Nazareth, three in Catasauqua, nine in the Bethlehems, two in Mauch Chunk, besides missions in Martins Creek, Bath, West Bangor, Easton, Bangor, Wind Gap, Pen Argyl, Berlinsville, and a Sunday school at Middle Village, or Windburytown, besides several parishes and
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missions in New Jersey, all of which territory Father Reardon and his prede- cessors liad ministered to. "A list of subscriptions towards the liquidation of the indebtedness of the repairs and improvements of St. Bernard's Church and the erection of the pastoral house," issued by Father Reardon in 1852, mentions Easton, South Easton, South Easton Road, Glendon, Uhlersville, Freemanburg, Bushkill, Allentown, Firmstone's Mines, Murtagh's Quarries, Cranesville, Whitehall, New Jersey furnaces, and Clinton, New Jersey, as contributors of the $3,336 subscribed. The building of the rectory in 1847 and the furnishing of the church were among Father Reardon's first acts, and cost $6,765.23. He himself subscribed $1,000. In 1847, Father Reardon added to the church interior the present gallery; and installed a fine melodeon, which was used until 1883. In August, 1862, he further improved the interior of the church, installing stained glass windows; the one of the Good Shepherd, donated by Father Reardon, still remains at the northeast side of the church, but the others were replaced or remodeled in 1898. He twice enlarged St. Bernard's Church, which, in the course of improvements, was almost totally destroyed by fire on April 9, 1867, through the upsetting of a charcoal furnace by a tinsmith named Stangel. Father Reardon immediately rebuilt, and on June 14, 1868, rededicated the church. Rev. John Dunn, of St. John the Evange- lists's, Philadelphia, preached at the rededication. The impaired health which interrupted his earlier studies finally occasioned Father Reardon to resign his Easton pastorate, and to seek rest in retirement amidst the "lakes and fens of his native Killarney," where he died in 1895, at the age of eighty-two years. . He left St. Bernard's in the fall of 1882, with a cash balance of $500 in the bank to the credit of the church, and a $3,000 mortgage in favor of the parish, which was fully satisfied, with accrued interest, in April, 1891, and paid to Father McGeveran by the Thomas Reilly Estate. In Father Reardon's day, Benediction of the Blessed Sacrament, so frequently given nowadays, was a rare occasion, allowed by him in connection with the Rosary devotions on the first Sunday of every month only. While equipping the church, Father Reardon's first thought was to provide a little school; a room under the church was devoted to this purpose in 1852, so that St. Bernard's parish school, humble though it was, is the oldest Catholic school foundation in Northampton county. The Catholic schools getting no State aid are the chief source of worry and anxiety of every pastor, but all these schools are modernly equipped and are efficient in every particular, and the pupils pass at once into lucrative positions after graduation : the business world standard of efficiency. During Father Reardon's time, Sunday masses at St. Bernard's were, subsequent to 1866, at 8:30 and II A. M., with Vespers at 3 P.M., and weekday Masses at 6 A. M. The Easton Free Press of December 29, 1866, and January 12, 1867, makes special mention of the interior beauty of St. Bernard's, by day and by night, and mentions the building of the bell-tower. It thus describes Father Rear- don : "A gentleman of polished and courtly manners, of eminently pleasing address, possessing talents of no ordinary order. Cultivated and educated, and possessing one of those hospitable, genial, warm hearts, so seldom met with in our intercourse with the business money-making world. We hope he may have many years of usefulness before him in our midst." His memory has passed into the history of the regions so long and so faith- fully identified with his ministry.
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Rev. John R. Dillon, like his predecessor, Father Reardon, associated Albany, New York, with his career. He was born in Albany, New York, May 5, 1850. The death of his father, John B. Dillon, a few weeks prior to his own, was the means of hastening Father Dillon's death on Tuesday, the eighth of September, 1885 at 4:15 P. M., when thirty-five years of age. About the time of his father's death he was convalescing at Cape May, New Jersey, Rev. Peter F. Dagget, but recently ordained, taking his place tem- porarily. He had been naturally robust and vigorous, but, neglecting proper precautions, became the victim of a complication of diseases. Father Dillon received his early education from the Christian Brothers, at Saint Michael's, Philadelphia. At sixteen he entered Glen Riddle Preparatory Seminary, and five years later Overbrook Seminary, where he was ordained March 15, 1874. After four years curacy at St. Charles, South Philadelphia, he was assigned in May, 1878, to Pottstown, Pennsylvania, as locum tenens (i. e., acting pastor during the proper pastor's absence). In October, 1878, he was assigned to St. Malachy's, Philadelphia, as curate. When thirty-three years of age and nine years ordained, he was appointed in March, 1883, to be Father Reardon's successor. Rev. William K. Egan, who was Father Rear- don's assistant when he resigned his parish, exchanged places with the new pastor and became assistant at St. Malachy's, Philadelphia. Singularly, both Father Dillon and Father Egan passed into eternity the same year, in 1885, the latter January 13, the former September 8. While pastor of St. Ber- nard's, Father Dillon made many improvements in the church. He installed the first pipe organ ever used in the church which, while a rebuilt instru- ment, was of sweet tone and gave satisfactory service till replaced in 1918 by the present larger and finer instrument. "He was one of the best singers in the archdiocese, a magnificent basso highly cultivated, an eminent vocal artist, and never chary of the gift of the song." The Catholic Standard of September 19, 1885, pronounces this eulogy: "He was admired by every- body ; his spirits as exuberant as his zeal." While in Easton, Father Dillon endeavored, without much success however, to interest the young men of the parish in choir work, offering them a free musical education. On the occa- sion of his funeral, Friday, September 11, 1885, six thousand viewed the remains, people of several denominations, including most of the ministers of Easton, attending his obsequies. His remains were borne in public pro- cession through the streets outside the church, to the adjoining cemetery south of the church, and a beautiful monument was erected to his memory by the congregation of St. Bernard's.
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