History of the County of Westmoreland, Pennsylvania, with Biographical Sketches of Many of its Pioneers and Prominent Men, Part 67

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aforesaid Expenses and Legacies in to be paid lg my Executer bereta after Damed out of the money I have in the Bank of Philadelphia. Item, all my Horses, Cows and all other Farming Utenelle to be left ca the Place I now live on for the wee thereof untill Christian Andris year chall expire, thes to be sold and the money arising theretres to bo op- propriated to the payment of said Chra, and Wife. And if the ofereceld articles should amount to more than will pay the aforesaid came the ro- malning to be applyed by my executors to the Payment of the Place. Item, I give and Bequeath all my books Clothing and furniture and all the residue of my Personal estate that chall nut otherwise be disposed of to James Pennaac in trust and for the wee of the Poor Roman Cache- Lick Priest that does or shall live at the Chapel on Coumowagge. Item I Give & Bequeath all my Real Estate, vis., my Place on which I new Live Called Sportuman Hall, and one other Tract of Land on Legalhenne Creek Called "O Neal's Victory" with their appartenances to a Roman Catholick Priest that shall succeed me in this said place to be installed to him and to his successore in trust, and so left by him who sball succeed mo to his successor and to in trust for the mees berein mentioned in muoces- don forever. And the said Priest for the time being chall strictly and faithfully may four Masses each and every year forever, viz, one for the Soul of the Reverend Theodores Browers on the day of his death in cash and every year forever, and three others the following days in each year as aforesaid at the request of the Reverend Theodore Browers, & further- more it is my Will that the Priest for the time being chall transmit Che land to left him in trust as aforesaid to his successor clear of all incum- brance as aforesaid. And I Do Nominate Constitute & appolot Christian Buffner & Henry Coons Executors to this my last Will and testament.

R. Mr. Theodore Brouwers M [cool]- R. Mr. John Baptist Cause

Signed Sealed Published Pronounced and Declared by the mold Theo- dore Browers to be his last Will and testament this twenty-fourth day of October in the year of our Lord one thousand seven hundred and ninety. In presence of us Christian Andris, William MoGes.

Westmoreland County, m. Be it remembered that on the fifth day of November came Personally before me Wm. Maghee D. R. for muld County of Westmoreland, the R. Mr. John Baptist Canes and Christian Andris and being solemnly sworn agreeably to Law mith they were present and saw the Revd. Mr. Theodoras Browers, the Testator within named diga seal Pronounce & declare the within Instrument of Writing as his lost Will and testament, that at the time of his so doing he was of sound mind memory and understanding to the best of their judgments. I agree to the above being personally Present.

W. Magheo. James Hamilton, Enq., Bog.

The case is at December term, 1796, Common Pless, and is captioned thus :

The Lessee of the Executors, &c., of Theodoras Browers, Dec'd, m. Franciscus Fromm, Tenant.

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of this separation the Unity township colony still remained the largest of all the settlements, and Rev. "Peter Heilbron having been appointed pastor of Sports- man's Hall, in the fall of 1799, had under his charge in November of the same year seventy-five commu- nicants.1

Besides the route mentioned as taken by the first settlers of Westmoreland there was another, followed by some immigrants leaving Conewago, tending south- east to Shade Gap, and turning again into the first route near Hollidaysburg, and thence leading to Unity township, in Westmoreland, or branching off to Lo- retto, in Cambria County, where they knew there were Catholic Churches.

Some immigrants naturally inclined to mountainous habitations directed their steps to the eastern Alle- gheny range. The most of these immigrants came from Maryland by way of Bedford, along the eastern slope crossed by the first route. Almost all the col- onists of Bedford, Harman Bottom, Loretto, and vicinity came by that way. Loretto especially at- tracted the attention of immigrants on account of her renowned and illustrious apostle, Dr. Demetrius Au- gustine Gallitzin.

The fourth route of immigrants into Western Penn- sylvania was that offered by the Braddock road. This route, crossing the mountains, extended from Cumber- land by way of Uniontown and Youghiogheny River to Pittsburgh. Nearly all the colonists of Armstrong and Butler Counties, the largest settlements of West- ern Pennsylvania in the beginning of this century, came that way.' Brownsville, the upper Monongahela Valley, and Jacobs Creek were also peopled by the same route, but they attained no great importance for a considerable time, Pittsburgh itself being for a long time very insignificant, and its Catholic popula- tion small. The first priest to make his appearance in that town was, in all probability, the Rev. Father Whalen, who had been sent in 1787 by Bishop Car- roll, of Baltimore, to the Catholics in Kentucky. The usual road to the West in those early days was by flat-boats down the Monongahela to Pittsburgh and thence down the Ohio.

The following fact, however, proves more conclu- sively the statistics of the Catholics in Pittsburgh in those early days. Bishop Carroll in May, 1792, ordered a young French. priest, Benedict Joseph Flaget, the future Bishop of Bardstown and Louis- ville, to take charge of the Catholics in Vincennes and its surroundings. Having come to Pittsburgh, he was on account of the high waters of the Ohio detained there six months, during which time he resided with a descendant of the French Huguenots, who had married an American Protestant lady, and was treated most respectfully by both. He said mass

daily in his benefactor's residence, instructed the few Catholics of the French tongue, and also the soldiers in Fort Pitt, the headquarters of Gen. Wayne. His charity in tending to the wants of the sick and those of the troops stricken with the pestilential malady of smallpox regardless of creed, and the apostolic zeal which he displayed when four deserters had been condemned to death, one of whom he converted to the Catholic faith, endeared him to the general, as the following evidence proves. Among those four deser- ters was a French infidel, who refused every religious admonition and service. When their last hour ar- rived the good priest accompanied his convicts to the place of execution. The condition of his unfortu- nate countryman so much moved him that he fell into a swoon, which induced the general to grant him the pardon of the impenitent. This noble missionary left Pittsburgh in November in a flat-boat for Louis- ville.“

Rev. F. Peter Heilbron paid occasional visits to Pittsburgh's few Catholics."

Rev. Dr. Demetrius Aug. Gallitzin found there in 1804 only fifteen Catholics. In October, 1808, how- ever, we find in Pittsburgh a resident priest, Rev. F. X. O'Brian, who laid the foundation of St. Patrick's Church, which appears to have been finished before the close of 1811. This is evidently concluded from the fact that Rt. Rev. Bishop Egan, of Philadelphia, visited the city in the latter part of the year 1811, when it was not entirely finished, for he gave confir- mation in a private house. This was the first visit of a bishop to Western Pennsylvania. Father F. X. O'Brian worked zealously in his mission until 1820, when he retired, as it is said, to Maryland. Before coming to Pittsburgh he resided in Brownsville, and was succeeded in Pittsburgh by Rev. Charles B. Mc- Guire.

This reverend gentleman, a native of Ireland, was born Dec. 16, 1770, at Dungannon, Tyrone County. He was a Franciscan Friar by vow, had studied at St.

" Sketches of the Life of Right Rev. B. J. Flaget, by Rev. M. J.'Spaid- ing, D.D., p. 31.

" For a number of years after the death of Father Brouwers, Oct. 29, 1790, his flock was without a shepherd. During the troubles attending the settlement of the will many families intending to join the first set- tlement about Greensburg discouraged at the religious situation there, or induced by motives of worldly advantage, scattered themselves in the. woods from Conewago along to Greensburg. Then Rev. Brosius and Father Pellentz, from the missions in the East, made a few pilgrimages to the settlers on the top of the mountains, and as far as to the families in Westmoreland. Mr. Fromm had in the mean time intruded on the estate left by Father Brouwers, while the Rev. Whalen attended to the spiritual necessities of the little flocks here, living during his short pes- torate in the greatest destitution and poverty. In 1799 the bishop of the church had the remote McGuire settlement on the top of the moun- tains, now Loretto, and Sportsman's Hall, now St. Vincent, provided for, the first by the prince-priest, Demetrius Gallitsin, and the last by Mr. Heilbron. At McGuire's the young priest had, indeed, with the assistance of his parishionera, built "a little lonely church in days of yore," and ou the Christmas eve, when the snow lay waist-deep over all the hills, the heir of a noble house as a priest sang the Gloria in Excelsis in the first mass in the first church of the congregation at Loretto .- 800 in detail Life of Rev. Gallitzin, quoted supra.

1 Bev. A. A. Lambing, " History of the Dioceses of Pittsburgh and Allegheny," p. 25.

* Ibid., pp. 26-27.

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Isidore's Monastery in Rome, and bad after the com- pletion of his studies occupied a professor's chair. After his arrival in America in 1812, he resided as pastor from 1817-20 at Sportman's Hall, and then moved to Pittsburgh, where the population was in- creasing, and Father Terrence MeGirr became pastor st Sportsman's Hall. While Father McGuire had been charged with pastoral functions in Pittsburgh, he laid the foundation of St. Paul's Church, the present cathedral.

In the year 1828 or 1829 a colony of Poor Clare nuns opened a house of their order in Allegheny. With this colony of nune came Rev. Vincent Ray- macher, O.S.D., as their chaplain. He was succeeded in the fall of 1880 by Rev. A. F. Van de Wejer, of the same order, and assisted Father McGuire, who was in the course of years also assisted by Rev. An- thony Kenny. Father Patrick Rafferty was Father McGuire's assistant in 1830, in which year, about June 26th, Bishop Kenrick and Bishop Conwell passed through the town, according to the "United States Catholic Miscellany." About this time twelve hundred and fourteen persons are recorded as having ·received the sacrament of baptism during the previous ten years in that mission ; forty-three converts had been received into the Catholic Church in 1828, and twenty-seven in the year 1829. Bishop Conwell gave confirmation in St. Patrick's on Sunday, June 27, 1829. Rev. John Grady and Rev. Thomas Gegon were also among Father McGuire's assistants. His active missionary life consumed his bodily strength, and he died in 1833, without having finished his noble undertaking. Rev. John O'Reilly having been his assistant since 1831, succeeded him as pastor and finished the church.

As in Pittsburgh so in many other towns and set- tlements had churches to be built on account of the increase of the Catholic population and clergy. This increase necessarily demanded suitable government with full jurisdiction. The fifth Provincial Council of Baltimore, convoked May 14, 1848, therefore recom- mended to the Pope a division of the diocese of Phila- delphia, which had been suggested to the Pope in Jan- uary, 1886, and which now received his approval.1 The division was confirmed, and Pittsburgh was chosen to be the See of the new diocese, under the title of " Western Pennsylvania," having for its eastern boundary Bedford County. Rev. Dr. M. O'Connor, vicar-general of Pittsburgh and pastor of St. Paul's, was appointed first Bishop, and consecrated in Rome Aug. 15, 1843. He sailed for America November 12th, and arrived in Pittsburgh December 3d.' Soon after his arrival he, taking a census of his whole dio- cese, found fourteen priests, thirty-three churches, and a Catholic population of about twenty-five thousand.

1 Lives of the Deceased American Bishops, vol. i. p. 500.

" Rev. A. A. Lambing, " The Catholic Church in the Diocese of Pitts- burgh and Allegheny," pp. 57-60.

The Catholic increase was proportionate in the Northwest. The first permanent settlements wery made in 1795, under the patronage of the " Pennsyl- vanis Population Company," which was organised in March, 1796. The pioneer settlers repaired the old military roads cut by the French along the shore of Lake Erie, and from Erie to Fort Le Bouf, while new roads were opened by the agents of the Population Company. In 1806 the Erie and Waterford Turnpike Company was organized, and four years later the road leading from Lake Erie to the Allegheny River at Waterford, a distance of fifteen miles, was com- pleted. These roads connected the lakes on the north with the Ohio River at Pittsburgh, and favored im- migration in no small degree. After the departure of the French troops from Fort Le Boeuf in 1759, the country remained in the exclusive possession of the Indians until 1767, when a Moravian missionary, Rev. David Zeisberger, from Wyalusing, penetrated the dense forests of the Northwest, and preached the gospel to the natives. In the following year other missionaries from Bethlehem joining Father Zeis- berger, formed a settlement on the banks of the Al- legheny. But a war breaking out in April, 1770, among the Indians so endangered their lives that, abandoning their village and huts, they passed down the river in boats, and entering Beaver Creek founded upon its banks a new settlement, which they called Friedenstadt (signifying a town of peace).'

The Northwest becoming by degrees accessible was soon the scene of an almost boundless speculative furor on account of its petroleum springs, which, attracting also the Catholic population, caused settlements to be founded, churches erected, and the number of Cath- olics increased, and their clergy to be greatly in- creased. The missionary territory having become too large, Right Rev. Dr. M. O'Connor handed in a po- tition to Rome for the division of the diocese of " Western Pennsylvania," and for the erection of a new diocese, having Erie City as its Episcopal See. The petition was granted in 1858. The counties of Erie, Crawford, Mercer, Venango, Forest, Clarion, Jefferson, Clearfield, Cameron, Elk, Mckean, Potter, and Warren composed its diocesan district, and Right Rev. O'Connor was transferred by his own request to that See in the year 1858, but was returned to his former See by Rome, at the request of the clergy of the Pittsburgh diocese, in the following year, 1854. Rev. J. M. Young, pastor of Lancaster, Ohio, who had been appointed for the See of Pittsburgh, became his successor in the Erie diocese, and was consecrated April 23, 1854.

Right Rev. J. M. Young was a native of Shapleigh, Me., born Oct. 29, 1808, of old New England stock. He became a convert to the Catholic religion while pursuing the avocation of a printer. His zeal, sin- cere piety, and consistency as a Catholic when em-

" Sypher's School History of Pennsylvania, pp. 228 to 234.

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ployed in the Catholic Telegraph office in Cincinnati induced Bishop J. B. Purcell to exhort him to study for the church, and upon the completion of his studies to confer upon him holy orders. He worked zealously for many years in and about Lancaster, Ohio, until he was called to the See of Erie, where he died sud- denly, Sept. 28, 1866, in his episcopal residence.1

He was succeeded by Rt. Rev. Tobias Mullen, for- merly vicar-general of the diocese of Pittsburgh, who was consecrated Aug. 2, 1868. The Erie diocese counts at present 84 parishes, 11 chapels, and 81 sta- tions where mass is occasionally said. The total amount of the Catholic population numbers 45,000.'

Having viewed the rapid progress of Catholicity in Northwestern Pennsylvania, we return to that part of Western Pennsylvania constituting the diocese of Pittsburgh. The progress of Catholicity here is even greater. That the Rt. Rev. M. O'Connor was ever active in the administration of his diocese is attested by his many labors, and his indomitable will and lofty spirit are particularly evinced by that superb structure known as St. Paul's Cathedral in Pittsburgh, whose grandeur shall mirror to the future the nobility of the man. Cares and anxieties having brought on a soften- ing of the brain, Pope Pius IX. was induced to ac- cept his resignation in May, 1860. After his recovery he entered the Society of Jesus, and died Oct. 18, 1872, at Woodstock, Md., a model of humility and piety. He was born Sept. 27, 1810, near the city of Cork, Ireland. His classical education he received at Queenstown, and his sacred studies he completed at the Propaganda in Rome, where he was appointed after his ordination to the priesthood, June 1, 1833, Professor of Sacred Scriptures and Vice-Rector of the Irish College. Having spent some years in Ireland, he came to America in 1839 to assist Bishop Kenrick, of Philadelphia, in educating young men for the holy ministry at St. Charles Borromeo College, of which he was president until he was appointed vicar-general, and soon after Bishop, of Western Pennsylvania. He was succeeded by Rt. Rev. Michael Domenec, D.D., a native of Spain, and of the Lazarist Order, who was consecrated Dec. 9, 1860. Known for his energy, zeal, charity, and politeness, he was esteemed by all. Finding the yoke of the diocese of Pittsburgh too heavy, he requested the Holy See to divide the di- ocese and create the new See of Allegheny, comprising that part of Allegheny County north of the Allegheny River, together with the counties of Butler, Armstrong, Indiana, Westmoreland, Cambria, Blair, Huntingdon, and Bedford. This request was granted, and the new diocese confirmed Jan. 11, 1876. He was appointed by Pope Pius IX. first Bishop of that See, whilst Rt. Rev. J. Tuigg, D.D., for many years a zealous missionary in Altoona, succeeded him to the See of Pittsburgh, comprising that part of Allegheny County

north of the Ohio and south of the Ohio and Alle- gheny Rivers, together with Lawrence, Beaver, Wash- ington, Greene, Fayette, and Somerset Counties. Rt. Rev. J. Tuigg was consecrated March 19, 1876. A lawsuit between the two dioceses on account of the financial administration of Rt. Rev. Bishop M. Dom- enec broke the latter's heart. He died at Tarragona, Spain, Jan. 5, 1878.

That Rt. Rev. Monseigneur was born of wealthy parents in the city of Ruez, near Tarragona, in the northeast of Spain, in 1816. He received his classical education at Madrid, and at a college in the southern part of France, whither he retired on account of the Carlist war. His sacred studies he pursued partly in Paris, where he formed the acquaintance of the Lazarists, whom he afterwards joined, and partly at Barrens Seminary, Missouri. He came to America Oct. 15, 1837, with Rev. J. Timon, Visitor-General of the Congregation, and arrived at Barrens, in Missouri, Feb. 10, 1888. Here he finished his studies, and was raised to the dignity of the priesthood June 29, 1889. Two years later he was sent to Cape Girardeau, where he built a college in 1842. Having returned to the seminary at Barrens, and having been employed in missionary life till 1845, he was with some other Lazarists sent to take charge of the diocesan semi- nary of Philadelphia. After this he became an active missionary in Nicetown and Germantown, in which latter place he erected a handsome church, when he was called to the See of Pittsburgh, where he worked zealously for eighteen years. The unfortunate law- suit, which ended in his favor at Rome in January, 1882, under the plea of his Vicar-General,, Father J. Hickey, perfected the reunion of the Allegheny and Pittsburgh dioceses, which took place Aug. 3, 1877. The two now form a Catholic population of 125,000, 130 churches, and 44 chapels. Pittsburgh alone, with 22 churches, has a Catholic population of 49,015.

Westmoreland County, the seat of Catholicity in former times, has now become almost the least. The parishes, with the number of Catholics in it, are the following : Chestnut Ridge, 65; Florence, 60; Greens- burg, 350; Irwintown, 950; Latrobe, 700; Ligonier, 15; New Derry, 350 ; Penn Station, 150; Suter's Station, 412; and Sportsman's Hall, now St. Vincent, 750.

St. Vincent, the parent of all the churches in West- moreland County, Suter's Station alone excepted, is, compared with many others, in the minority as to numbers, but in regard to predominant prerogatives superior to all, as the meaning of its very name ("one being victorious") sufficiently indicates. It adopted that name from the Patron Saint of the church, which Rev. A. Stillinger, from the beginning of November, 1829, the successor to Rev. F. McGirr, erected. Its dimensions were 87 by 51}, and though begun in 1833, was not completed until July 19, 1835, on which day it was blessed by Rt. Rev. Bishop Kenrick. Old age prevented the zealous Father Stillinger from per- forming his pastoral functions in so extensive a dis-

1 New History of the Catholic Church, etc., by John Gilmary Shea. " Sadlier's Directory, 1882.

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trict, and he was therefore transferred at his own re- quest to Blairsville by Rt. Rev. M. O'Connor, Bishop of Pittsburgh, in 1845. His successor at &t. Vincent was Rev. F. Gallagher, who transferred the parish in the fall of 1846 to Rev. D. Boniface Wimmer, O.S.B., now mitred Abbot and President of the Americo-Casi- nensian Benedictine Congregation. This Rt. Rev. and Most Illustrious Prelate made St. Vincent the field of his energetic labors, the success of which the follow- ing pages will show.

The Benedictine Order was founded by St. Benedict, of Nursia, an Italian, who was born in the year 480. To this order, as is well known to the students of his- tory, the Christianization and consequently the civili- zation of the largest part of Europe, and especially of England, is due. This fact of itself is sufficient to give us an idea of the debt of gratitude which the world owes to the Benedictine Order. But for it the treasures of science and literature of classic Greece and Latium were lost to us, and it is not easy to see how even the Bible itself could well have been pre- served had not the monks of St. Benedict taken care to multiply it by manuscripts. Facts as these must necessarily correct many mistaken views about monk- ish ignorance and superstition. Many of the flourish- ing towns and cities of Europe have grown simply from the foundation of a Benedictine monastery, around which people would settle and form a civic commu- nity. The spread of Benedictine monasticism thus became a most vital element, as said, in civilizing the nations of Europe. We may add that these monas- teries, in times of darkness, superinduced by the flood of heathen nations pouring into Europe from Asia during centuries, were the rallying-points of Chris- ti inity, the bulwarks of civilization, the refuge of piety and learning. But especially is it worthy of remark that the influence of Benedictine monasticism was the most potent factor in bringing about a gradual release of the populace from the bonds of slavery.

RT. REV. ABBOT BONIFACE WIMMER, O.S.B. ST. VINCENT'S ABBEY AND COLLEGE.

This Rt. Rev. Prelate was born Jan. 14, 1809, in Thalmassing, a town near Ratisbon, in Bavaria, and received in baptism the name of Sebastian, being the Benjamin of a large family by two different mothers. Displaying bright talents in early boyhood his parents sent him to a high school in Ratisbon to receive a clas- sicil education. After having finished his course of eight academical years with great success, he went to the university in Munich in the fall of 1827 to study jurisprudence. During his philosophical course, how- ever, he changed his mind, and at the close of the year abandoned the law for theology, and was raised to the priesthood on the 1st of August, 1831.

Having been employed for a year after his ordina- tion at Altoetting, in the diocese of Passau, perform- ing pastoral duties, he entered the Benedictine mon-

astery " Metten," in Bavaria, and there received the habit of the order and the name, in religion, of Boai- face. Four young priests followed his example, among whom were Gregory de Scherr, the lately deceased Archbishop of Munich, and Rupert Loies, Abbos of Scheyern, in Bavaria, who has also passed away. After having taken his religious rows, Dec. 29, 1883, he was appointed assistant priest in a town called Edenstetten, near the Abbey Metten, till Octo- ber, 1885. From October, 1835, till June, 1886, be was employed as professor of St. Stephen's Gymana- sium, in Augsburg, when one of the Benedictine fathers of the Abbey Metten dying suddenly, and as their number was still small, he was recalled from the Gymnasium in Augsburg and once more instated the assistant in the town of Edenstetten. But his stay was brief. He was next appointed pastor of Ste- phansposching, in Bavaria, where he remained two years. Scheyern was reopened about this time, and he was sent there as procurator, and in September, 1840, was promoted to a professorship in the Louis Gymnasium, Munich, to which the aristocratic in- stitute of Mr. Holland was attached. To this was added the office of prefect of discipline, and in the absence of the rector he became his representative.

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History of the County of Westmoreland, Pennsylvania, with Biographical Sketches of Many of its Pioneers and Prominent Men, Part 67

Author: George Dallas Albert, editor Publication date: Publisher: Number of Pages:

Author: George Dallas Albert, editor
Publication date:
Publisher:
Number of Pages: