HISTORY 
 
 —OF- 
 
 St. Patrick's Church, 
 
 CARLISLE, PENNSYLVANIA. 
 
 -by- 
 REV. H. G. Ganss, Doc. Mus. 
 
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 PHILADELPHIA : 
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HISTORY OF ST. PATRICK'S CHURCH, 
 
 CARLISLE, PENNSYLVANIA. 
 
 BY REV. H. G. GANSS. 
 
 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 The divine commission, c c Go teach all nations" has been 
 one to which the Catholic Chnrch has ever been true and 
 faithful : one woven like a tissue of gold in her nineteen- 
 centuried history ; one inseparably connected with the 
 divinity of her organization and existence. After the 
 pentecostal outpouring of the Holy Spirit, she entered 
 upon her stupendous mission with marks and prerogatives 
 in which the whole human family from the uncultured 
 Lombard and Goth to the erudite Greek and Roman, dis- 
 cerned the presence of gifts which belong to the super- 
 natural order and of graces which connect her by an almost 
 visible bond with the unseen world. These gifts and 
 graces, as history records, have been her inheritance, not 
 only in apostolic ages, but are poured out as lavishly in 
 our own generation as in any that preceded it. It is by 
 this token, and not by numerical success, that we recog- 
 nize the apostolic commission. 
 
St. Paul's mission was the same when pursued and 
 stoned by the mob at Lystra, as when his disciples 
 embraced and kissed him "sorrowing that they should see 
 his face no more." 
 
 The Church never changes, is the complaint of her 
 adversaries. They might with the same truthfulness say 
 that her apostles and missionaries likewise never change, 
 from St. Stephen and St. Paul to the sainted successors 
 whose careers may be touched upon in these pages. 
 
 The missionary spirit is the outgrowth of Christianity ; 
 the missionary the lineal descendant of the apostle. In 
 reading profane history we never encounter that yearning 
 desire, unswerving zeal, tireless energy, not to mention 
 the spirit of total self-abandonment and absorption of 
 every personal motive, to bring men to a higher sphere of 
 morality or spirituality. To save one soul the missionary 
 cheerfully makes the sacrifice. The ancient philosophers, 
 no matter how enthusiastic in the advocacy of their 
 doctrines, never left the pleasant haunts of Academus or 
 the alluring pleasures of Athens, under the guidance of a 
 humane, sublime impulse to instruct the ignorant, console 
 the sorrowing, ameliorate the wretchedness of the 
 oppressed, lift up the downtrodden, or sow the seeds of 
 peace and tranquility among hostile nations. 
 
 This has been the divinely appointed mission of the 
 Church — a mission in which she has been always faithful, 
 nor has ever faltered. Her ambassadors paled before no 
 
obstacle, shrank from no danger, were disheartened by no 
 failure. — " Neither oceans nor tempests, neither the ices 
 of the pole nor the heat of the tropics can damp their zeal," 
 says Chateaubriand. They live with the Esquimaux in his 
 seal-skin cabin : they subsist on train-oil with the Green- 
 lander : they traverse the solitude with the Tartar or the 
 Iroquois : they mount the dromedary of the Arab or 
 accompany the wandering Caflir in his burning deserts, 
 * * * * Not an island, not a rock in the ocean, has 
 escaped their zeal ; and as of old, the kingdoms of the 
 earth were inadequate to the ambition of Alexander, so 
 the globe is too contracted for their charity. n * 
 
 With the first settlement of this newly discovered 
 country, actuated by the dream of wealth or the excite- 
 ment of adventure, in search of social advancement or in 
 pursuit of political ambition, fleeing from religious perse- 
 cution or fugitives from political tyranny, naturally a 
 heterogeneous element crowded our shores, f Cut from 
 the secure moorings of godly homes, untouched by 
 religious influences, unhampered by legal restraints, 
 amidst environments calculated to sound the manhood and 
 search the faith of the strongest — many souls were swerv- 
 
 * Chateaubriand— Genius of Christianity, Book IV, p. 557. 
 
 f "Tyranny and injustice peopled America with men nurtured in suffering and 
 adversity. The history of our colonization is the history of the crimes of Europe."— 
 Bancroft, VII, 14. (Throughout this Paper the Boston (1879) edition of Bancroft's 
 Work) has been used. 
 
ing in their loyalty, wandering in a state of religious 
 despondency, infected with the incipient stages of indiffer- 
 entism, that would finally culminate in unbelief and 
 apostasy. Nor is this to be wondered at, taking in view 
 the well-nigh insurmountable obstacles that awaited the 
 "papist," the barriers both legal and social that handi- 
 capped his material prosperity, and the blandishments 
 and inducements held out by worldly considerations that 
 tried his soul. 
 
 To the ministers of the true Faith, this sight aroused 
 anxiety and caused alarm. They turned their eyes to the 
 distant shores, saw the soul in peril on account of the lack 
 of spiritual sustenance, saw many unable to cope with the 
 temptations held out on the verge of apostasy, saw others 
 with their dying lips pray for the sweet consolations of 
 Holy Church which came not. The missionary spirit at 
 once grasped the situation ; its agents were true to their 
 holy vocations and apostolic traditions. They came fired 
 with burning zeal. Though they had to encounter cruel 
 and superstitious peoples ; had to enter into the midst of 
 barbarism and savagery ; had to run counter to the preju- 
 dices of jealous nationality and fierce bigotry ; though they 
 had to penetrate trackless forests, wade through mephitic 
 swamps, cross foaming torrents, ford treacherous rivers, 
 climb inaccessible mountains, face griping hunger and 
 parching thirst, — benumbing cold and exhausting heat, — 
 they came full of sweetness and charity. In face of all, 
 
we find them ever dauntless, hopeful, patient and perse- 
 vering, — with the crucifix in their hands, and the image 
 of the Crucified in their hearts. 
 
 In the annals of early American history, surely the 
 missionary will be awarded a high niche. His conquests 
 though unseen were none the less factors in the develop- 
 ment, peace and prosperity of the country. Or is not he 
 whose life is spent in the recesses of the forest, who per- 
 forms works of the loftiest heroism without applause, dies 
 a painful death without a spectator, is consigned to his 
 grave without a tear, and lies buried without an epitaph, 
 his name even not in the ken of mankind, — all to procure 
 eternal happiness to some unknown savage, — does not 
 such a one point out to us the loftiest type of humanity 
 which we are able to conceive ? 
 
 " The salvation of one soul is worth more than the con- 
 quest of an empire," says the heroic Ghamplain. It was 
 the keynote of missionary toil, prayers and martyrdom, 
 and though undertaken by foreign priests having fre- 
 quently but a most imperfect idea of the language and 
 customs of the people whose hardships they shared, and 
 from a human standpoint of calculation, totally unfitted 
 for the work before them, in the Providence of God they 
 brought about the most brilliant achievements, and laid 
 the foundation deep and strong, of that spiritual edifice 
 which now challenges the admiration of the nation. 
 Alone and unaided they had to scale an almost immovable 
 
8 
 
 breastwork of opposition under a galling fire of invective, 
 calumny and persecution. How they fulfilled their mis- 
 sion, how they accomplished their task, and the abiding 
 and permanent result of some of their labors, can be 
 gleaned from the few fragmentary and discursive pages 
 that follow. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 STATUS OF CATHOLICS IN COLONIAL TIMES. — DISABILITIES 
 OF EARLY CATHOLIC SETTLERS. 
 
 One of the most perplexing problems that confronts the 
 cursory reader of Catholic history in colonial times, is the 
 doubt, uncertainty and mystery that shrouds the original 
 settlers of its creed in this country. The scant data that 
 have been preserved and rescued, at times make the per- 
 plexity all the more impenetrable, and when the meagre 
 traditions are stripped of the glamor of romance and the 
 accretions of years, they are found at times lamentably 
 defective in historic truthfulness, and afford but the faint- 
 est clue to historical research. 
 
 In a measure this may be accounted for by the anoma- 
 lous position our co-religionists occupied. Their numerical 
 smallness ; the studied secretiveness that frequently sur- 
 rounded their movements, was more a matter of necessity 
 than choice. Again it may be explained by the poverty 
 and helplessness on the one hand, and the covert antagon- 
 
ism, if not open hostility, on the other, that dogged their 
 every footstep. An intolerant bigotry that amounted to 
 virtual ostracism kept them from the more populous 
 towns ; penal laws that in effect made them disfranchised 
 aliens, prevented their acquisition of property or barred 
 the way to civic or military preferment ; an ineradicable 
 prejudice coupled their name with disloyalty. They are 
 denounced as the creatures of a foreign potentate : decried 
 as abettors of the French ; branded as the ever helpful 
 allies of the marauding and massacring Indian ; watched 
 as fomentors of discord, sworn foes of the State. 
 
 The birth of religious toleration was typically and spe- 
 cifically the outgrowth of American ideas, and forms one 
 of the proud achievements of our national character, as 
 well as an absorbing chapter in our history. The univer- 
 sal toleration, both civil and religious, which was heralded 
 to the four quarters of the globe, and which I^ord Brougham 
 declared to be u the noblest innovation of modern times," 
 though the exclusive product of American ideas, had all 
 the same when closely studied, nothing more than a mere 
 factitious existence. In inculcating this heaven-born prin- 
 ciple, expediency did not always go hand in hand with 
 justice, nor was the law meted out with any pretence to 
 equity. Popery and treason were still universally accepted 
 as convertible terms. Theorists and philosophers in the 
 eighteenth century descanted garrulously and metaphysic- 
 ally on religious liberty, and in lurid colors portrayed the 
 
IO 
 
 evils of intolerance and persecution for conscience' sake, 
 but no approach towards such a consummation was ever 
 seriously attempted. However, it was reserved for the 
 framers of our National Constitution to formulate and 
 promulgate the fundamental principle of government, 
 that 4 ' every man should be at liberty to worship God ac- 
 cording to the dictates of his individual conscience,' 5 and 
 that a perpetual divorce between the national government 
 and every form of religious establishment should be en- 
 forced. America was the first nation to enunciate the two 
 laws of civil and religious liberty, the two greatest con- 
 tributors to modern civilization, the two most important 
 factors in the growth and prosperity of the nation, the 
 evangel that made it the home of the oppressed, the 
 asylum of the persecuted, the Utopia of poet and philoso- 
 pher. Sad, however, is the reflection that in spite of 
 vehement protests and diplomatic advocacy, it required 
 nearly two centuries to vitalize these humane laws and 
 make them embrace in their scope and comprehensiveness 
 those for whose amelioration and protection they were 
 first enacted. Nominally, religious liberty was permitted 
 in a few colonies, but summarily denied in the majority of 
 them. In all of them, however, the Catholic was spe- 
 cifically excluded from the rights and immunities of full 
 citizenship, in so far that he could not hold a civil or mili- 
 tary office without committing perjury or apostasy. With 
 some qualifications the humane intentions of beneficent 
 
II 
 
 lawgivers were thwarted and made nugatory, not only by 
 local enactments, but by an ineradicable bigotry, which 
 even legal claims could not override. What William 
 Penn, the most august and imposing figure of colonial 
 times, could not succeed in bringing to the minds and 
 hearts of the American people, a less devout man but more 
 adroit statesman, Thomas Jefferson, finally engrafted on 
 the constitution of the country. Could the former have 
 brought his conceptions of universal toleration, civil and 
 religious, to a successful termination, which, handicapped 
 as he was by local obstacles and hereditary prejudices, 
 seemed almost impossible, he would literally deserve the 
 title of u emancipator," which now an admiring and grate- 
 ful posterity can only acclaim him figuratively. 
 
 The evolution of religious toleration, from the vague 
 promises held out by pioneers in this country, to its full 
 and radiant accomplishment after nearly two centuries of 
 strife and opposition, is a story particularly interesting to 
 the Catholic. From the settlement of Virginia, in 1609, 
 down to the period of the American Revolution, a man's 
 full enjoyment or complete abridgement of his civil rights 
 was entirely dependent on his ready conformity to the 
 established religion dominant in the Province in which he 
 lived. The humane enactments of a Lord Baltimore, a 
 Roger Williams and a William Penn, on which the most 
 fulsome praise is lavished, and which even then made the 
 heart of humanity throb in admiration and pride, left no 
 
12 
 
 trace or vestige on colonial legislation. During the en- 
 tire colonial period the Catholic was almost as much an 
 alien, disfranchised and scorned, in this boasted land of 
 liberty, as he was in his native country, from which he 
 fled with a view of escaping the iron hand of persecution 
 and eluding the espionage which would tear him from his 
 altar and wean his children from the faith of their sainted 
 ancestors. As long as he remained in a state of unob- 
 served quiescence no attention and opposition was encoun- 
 tered, but as soon as he wished to verify the vaunting 
 boast that liberty was after all no empty phrase, he was 
 confronted by a clamor of protest and resentment that 
 taught him the prudential lesson that flight was at times 
 the better part of valor. 
 
 During the entire colonial period u we were essentially 
 a nation of Protestants * * * * * and took similar 
 (European) methods of maintaining and perpetuating our 
 Protestantism, excluding those who dissented from it from 
 sharing in the government and frankly adopting the 
 policy which had prevailed in England from the time of 
 Queen Elizabeth."* In other words the obnoxious and 
 inhuman penal laws were transplanted to this new country 
 and enforced with a pitiless severity, as far as civil prefer- 
 ment was concerned, only equalled by that of the 
 countries from which the refugees had fled in quest of 
 peace and liberty. 
 
 * Stille — Religious Tests in Provincial Pennsylvania , p. 10. 
 
*3 
 
 In Virginia, where the English Church was established 
 by law and sumptuously endowed, all men were obliged 
 under severe penalties, vigorously enforced, to have their 
 children baptized. Quakers and Catholics were expelled, 
 and upon returning the third tfrne were liable to capital 
 punishment. In New England no quarter or mercy was 
 ever shown to the Catholic. In 1691, a law was enacted 
 in Massachusetts abrogating the barbarous brutalities 
 perpetrated under the old theocracy, — permitting all 
 Christians the exercise of their various beliefs— -excepting, 
 of course, Roman Catholics. However, only a Congrega- 
 tionalist could be a freeman, whilst all, irrespective of 
 church affiliation, had to pay a tax to support the ministry 
 of that particular denomination. In Maine, New Hamp- 
 shire, and Connecticut the same system of intolerance was 
 religiously in vogue, and conformity to the dominant sect 
 was the pledge of civil liberty and the stepping stone to 
 official life and business emoluments. In New York, 
 Catholic priests were not permitted to set foot, and if dis- 
 covered were escorted to the state boundary, and only 
 surreptitiously, at the peril of their lives, could they bap- 
 tize or administer the consolations of holy religion. The 
 Catholic, though denied the exercise of his faith, was all 
 the same compelled to pay an annual tax toward the 
 support of Episcopal rectors, who had charge of the 
 legally constituted parishes, — a charge having a mere 
 geographical existence at times. In New Jersey, when 
 
i4 
 
 the colony was under royal authority, in 1702, with much 
 parade and display, liberty of conscience was trumpeted 
 throughout the land to attract emigrants. Papists and 
 Quakers were again specifically excluded. In Maryland* 
 the English Church was established in 1696, and its first 
 official act was to disfranchise the very Catholics and their 
 children who were the first to proclaim religion on these 
 shores in 1649. ^ n Carolina an act was passed in 1704, 
 requiring all members of the Assembly to partake of the 
 sacrament of the Lord's Supper according to the rites of 
 the Church of England. Georgia following the 
 precedents established, gave religious freedom to all sects 
 and denominations — but withheld it from the "Papists." 
 Thus we see in all the colonies, he who did not conform 
 to the established religion of the colony in which he 
 lived, whether it was Episcopalianism or Congregational- 
 ism, had his liberties not only curtailed, and his way 
 
 * " The Catholic Proprietaries in Maryland were the first to grant religious tolera- 
 tion (1666) and emigrants arrived from every clime ; and the colonial legislature 
 extended its sympathies to many nations as well as sects. From France came 
 Huguenots, from Germany, from Holland, from Sweden, from Finnland, I believe 
 from Piedmont the children of misfortune sought protection under the tolerant 
 sceptre of the Roman Catholic, "*— and fifteen years later (1681),— " Roman Catholics 
 were disfranchised in the province they had planted."! " On the soil which long 
 before I^ocke pleaded for toleration or Penn for religious freedom, a Catholic proprie- 
 tary had opened to Protestants, the Catholic inhabitants became the victim of 
 Anglican intolerance, Mass might not be said publicly. No Catholic might teach 
 the young. If the wayward child of a papist would but become an apostate, the law 
 wrested from his parents a share of their property. ***** Such were the methods 
 adopted to prevent the growth of popery."J 
 
 * Bancroft, vol. n, p. 4. f Ibid., p. 8. % Ibid., p. 212. 
 
*5 
 
 barred to civil office or military promotion, but was at the 
 same time compelled to support by irksome taxation the 
 arbitrary despotism that oppressed him, which was all the 
 more galling, cloaked as it was in the garb of religion. 
 As for the Catholic, like the negro in slavery days, he had 
 no constitutional rights that need be respected. He was 
 disfranchised and allowed to eke out an existence more 
 from motives of pity than love of justice. He could 
 neither vote nor hold office, was compelled to support a 
 creed and ministry, both of which he held in abhorrence 
 and detestation. He was the sport and victim of the most 
 contracted bigotry, which at times assumed the attitude of 
 bitter hostility and cruel persecution. 
 
 But was there not a more tolerant and friendly spirit 
 manifested in Pennsylvania towards the Catholic and dis- 
 senter ? Was not the land of Penn during the provincial 
 period heralded throughout the civilized world as the 
 classic land of religious liberty, where liberty of con- 
 science was the corner-stone of the foundation upon which 
 the commonwealth was erected? Was it a vain boast or 
 rhetorical bombast when Edmund Burke said c ( All per- 
 sons who profess to believe in one God are freely tolerated, 
 and those who believe in Jesus Christ, of whatsoever de- 
 nomination, are not excluded from employment and 
 posts ? " 
 
 It is true that in Pennsylvania an ameliorated and more 
 just condition of affairs presents itself. Dissenters and 
 
i6 
 
 11 Papists " were not burned because they were heretics^ 
 nor banished because they were schismatics. It is again 
 true, there was no established Church to be supported by 
 legal taxation, and the public exercise of religion met 
 with a charitable connivance if not tacit toleration. At 
 this period the modest St. Joseph's Chapel, in Willing's 
 Alley, Philadelphia, was used for Catholic services, and 
 there can be no doubt that " it was the only place in the 
 original thirteen States where Mass was permitted to be 
 publicly celebrated prior to the Revolution." Yet this 
 reluctant toleration was permitted more in the nature of a 
 favor than granted as<an inalienable right. All prospects 
 of the Catholic sharing in the full rights and privileges 
 of citizenship were set at naught by one insuperable bar- 
 rier — the obnoxious Test Oath. From 1693 to 1775, both 
 under the Crown and Proprietaries, no one could hold 
 office in Pennsylvania who was not obliged, as an indis- 
 pensable condition precedent, to take and subscribe to the 
 following oath, which, after swearing allegiance to the 
 reigning king or queen, goes on circumstantially to state : 
 *****■" We do solemnly promise and declare 
 that we from our hearts abhor and detest and denounce as 
 impious and heretical that damnable doctrine and position 
 that Princes excommunicated or deprived by the Pope or 
 any authority of the See of Rome may be deposed or mur- 
 dered by their subjects, or any person whatsoever. And 
 we do declare, that no foreign prince, person, prelate, 
 
*7 
 
 state or potentate hath or ought to have any power, juris- 
 diction, pre-eminence, or authority, ecclesiastical or spirit- 
 ual within the realm of England, or the dominions there- 
 unto belonging." 
 
 "And we and each of us do solemnly swear aud sincerely 
 profess and testify that in the Sacrament of the Lord's 
 Supper there is no transubstantiation of the elements of 
 bread and wine into the body &nd blood of Christ at or after 
 the consecration thereof by any person whatsoever, and 
 that the invocation or adoration of the Virgin Mary, or 
 any other Saint, and the sacrifice of the Mass, as they are 
 now used in the Church of Rome, are superstitious and 
 idolatrous."* 
 
 Of course even the most callous Catholic would shrink 
 from such an oath with horror and loathing, and though a 
 premium was placed on apostasy and thereby the avenues 
 of civil and military advancement flung wide open, — the 
 Judas-like sacrilege would never enter his mind. He 
 would prefer poverty and obscurity to dignities and 
 wealth, if such a blistering sacrilege would be the price 
 at which they were to be purchased. Another blot on 
 Pennsylvania's fair escutcheon is the fact that only Prot- 
 estants were permitted by the Provincial laws to hold 
 land for the erection of churches, schools or hospitals, nor 
 
 * Stille— Religious Tests in Provincial Pennsylvania, pp. 29-30. 
 
i8 
 
 could any foreigner be naturalized unless he was a Prot- 
 estant* 
 
 For this anomalous and inconsistent status of Catholics 
 Penn was in no way responsible. He was the sworn 
 champion of religious liberty, and this in the face of the 
 most vehement opposition. Nor did he ever swerve for a 
 moment in his advocacy of principles which he must have 
 realized would eventually prevail. His intentions were so 
 transparently pure that only the blindest bigotry im- 
 pugned them. His intuitions, in the line of conduct 
 mapped out in pursuit of liberty of conscience, seemed 
 visionary and chimerical under the trying circumstances 
 in which they were first proclaimed, but his unerring 
 faith in the justice and wisdom of his cause must have 
 foreshadowed the consummation that in the course of 
 time would eventualize. His mild but unshaken faith on 
 this subject exposed him to misconception and denuncia- 
 tion. He was stigmatized as a Papist, a Jesuit, a pupil of 
 St. Omer, an emissary of the Pope. Could Penn have 
 pursued his own mapped-out course, untrammeled by 
 trans-Atlantic influences, unhampered by the hereditary 
 prejudices of his subjects, he would have effectually 
 silenced the low mutterings of disaffection stirred up by 
 his humane conduct, and lived to see his one sublime 
 idea an accomplished fact. 
 
 * Ibid., p. 15. 
 
*9 
 
 Unhappily in the charter granted to Penn by Charles 
 II, which invested him with well nigh plenipotentiary 
 powers of government, both civil and ecclesiastical, an 
 ambuscade was laid for him in Section VII, by which 
 all laws enacted by the Provincial Assembly must receive 
 the approval of Privy Council in England, which reserved 
 for itself the right of adopting or repealing them for a 
 space of five years. 
 
 It was this veto power of the Privy Council in addition 
 to the sectarian bias that frustrated the most chivalrous, 
 wise and humane effort ever made to give to every man 
 the indefeasible right of worshipping God according to the 
 dictates of conscience, a tolerance that has since its adop- 
 tion been an exhaustless channel of spiritual grace and 
 civic virtue and patriotic strength to our country. 
 
 As we intimated above, it was not until 1776 that the 
 War of Independence gave us both civil and religious 
 liberty, and by some strange irony of fate, the first civil 
 office ever held in Pennsylvania, was held by a priest, and 
 he a Jesuit, Father Ferdinand Farmer, who by an Act of 
 Assembly reorganizing the College of Philadelphia, in 
 1779, was appointed a Trustee of the institution, — the Act 
 describing him "as the Senior Minister of the Roman . 
 Churches in Philadelphia."* 
 
 That the above assertions are borne out by historic 
 
 * Stille— Religious Ttsts in Provincial Pennsylvania, p. 39. 
 
20 
 
 evidence, we will glean from a few data gathered at 
 random to prove that the Catholics in colonial times 
 simply could not make the rapid strides in social life, 
 business prosperity, civic preferment, military achieve- 
 ment, educational advancement, as his more fortunate 
 Protestant neighbor, and this owing to adverse circum- 
 stances beyond his power of control. 
 
 " He who is known here as a Roman Catholic," says 
 Acrelius, l ( is hated as a half-devil, but he who has no 
 religion is just as much esteemed for it, as though he 
 thereby showed himself quite rational."* 
 
 The pious, humane and tolerant Penn himself was 
 coerced by so strong and aggressive a pressure against his 
 Catholic subjects, that at least ostensibly to silence the 
 rasping clamors of bigots, he was compelled to write to 
 James I,ogan, his colonial Governor, July 29, 1708, 
 " There is a complaint against your government that you 
 suffer public Mass to be said in a scandalous manner, "f 
 He subsequently recurs to the same subject: "It has 
 become a reproach to me here with the officers of the 
 crown, that you have suffered the scandal of Mass to be 
 publicly celebrated. ' 'J 
 
 The pious zeal of the holy missionaries in reclaiming 
 the Indians from heathenism and savagery to Christianity 
 
 * History of New Sweden, (Penna.), p. 352. 
 f Mem. of Hist. Soc. of Penna., vol. II., p. 294. 
 % Watson's— vl nnals of Phila. 
 
21 
 
 and civilization, — an act of heroism, that was accomplished 
 by jeopardizing their lives, is attributed to treasonable 
 designs, and at once they become objects of suspicion. 
 When Father Molyneux was acting as interpreter for the 
 Indians of the Six Nations at Lancaster during June and 
 July, 1744, the following accusation is at once formulated 
 and circulated. "It is certain that at the time of our 
 treaty with the Indians of ye Six Nations at Lancaster, 
 Father Molyneux, ye principal of our Jesuits, was with 
 them and there is grave reason to suspect that he went 
 there for no other reason than to dissuade ye Indians from 
 making peace with us. n On his return to Maryland he 
 was arrested, only to be honorably discharged with these 
 grudging words of rehabilitation, "The council called 
 Mr. Molyneux before them and after having examined 
 him privately, discharged him without any public mark 
 of resentment. n * 
 
 The first Catholic we encounter in Cumberland County 
 is under the ban. Governor Sharpe, of Maryland, in his 
 communications with Governor Hamilton, of Pennsyl- 
 vania, as early as 1750, speaks of a Mr. Campbell, who 
 lived in Shippensburg, as a dangerous man, being " a 
 Roman Catholic, and on that account likely to sympa- 
 thize with the French.' ' Though Governor Hamilton 
 replies that "there is one Francis Campbell who was said 
 
 * Maryland Memorial to the Earl of Halifax. 
 
22 
 
 to have been bred for the church among Roman Catholics, 
 but he has the character of an honest, inoffensive man, 
 and it is not likely that he concerns himself with the 
 French."* All the same, Francis Campbell was an 
 attainted man in the eyes of his neighbors, an object of 
 espionage and suspicion. 
 
 In 1754 a society was established in Philadelphia, called 
 the German Society, by such patriots and sober minded 
 citizens as Dr. Franklin, Rev. Dr. Muhlenberg, patriarch 
 of the Lutheran Church in this country, and the Rev. Dr. 
 Smith, provost of the College, with the sole object in view 
 to establish schools for the children of German settlers on 
 the frontier of the Province, where they might be taught 
 the knowledge of God, and be made loyal subjects of what 
 was termed "The Sacred Protestant Throne of Great 
 Britain," and thus be saved from u the machinations of 
 French and Popish emissaries."t 
 
 In 1754 Dan. Clause warns Governor Morris of Pennsyl- 
 vania against a certain man as a very dangerous character 
 — " for he was seen making his confession to a priest in 
 Canada. "J 
 
 In the following year, 1755, five Justices of the Peace in 
 Berks County, sent a most alarming manifesto to the 
 Governor of Pennsylvania, asking his immediate inter- 
 
 * Penna. Archives, vol. II, p. 114-115. 
 
 f Stille— Religious Tests in Provincial Pennsylvania, p. 38. 
 
 % Penna. Archives, (Old Series), vol. II, p. 176. 
 
23 
 
 vention " to enable us by some legal authority to disarm 
 or otherwise disable the Papists from doing any injury to 
 the other people who are not of their vile principles, * * * 
 for in the neighborhood of the chapel (Goshenhoppen) it is 
 reported and generally believed that thirty Indians are 
 lurking with swords and guns and cutlasses. * * * The 
 priests at Reading as well as Cussahoppen [old name of 
 Goshenhoppen] last Sunday gave notice that they could 
 not come to them again in less than nine weeks, * * * 
 whereupon some imagine that they've gone to consult 
 with our enemies at Fort Duquesne."* Although the 
 Provincial Council tries to disabuse their minds and calm 
 their fears — by telling them " that there is very little foun- 
 dation for their representation, " — and although the 
 Catholics in the entire county only numbered 88, — their 
 anxiety was hardly allayed, and the stigma on their 
 Catholic brethren certainly not effaced. 
 
 In the same year Governor Morris writes to Governor 
 Dinwiddie of Virginia concerning the helpless condition of 
 the country in the event of French invasion, that the 
 enemy " might be strengthened by the German and Irish 
 Catholics w T ho are numerous here. n f The latter is 
 evidently alarmed, though the Catholics scattered over the 
 vast territory hardly amounted to fifteen hundred, includ- 
 ing women and children, — yet he replies reassuringly 
 
 * Col. Records, vol. VI, p. 503-533. f Penna. Archives, vol. II, p. 390. 
 
24 
 
 that "in the next session they will seriously consider the 
 dangers we are in from the German Roman Catholics, and 
 make some alteration in your constitution."* 
 
 The alteration came in due time, and placed our Catho- 
 lics in a still more embarrassing, not to say distressing, 
 situation. It was the celebrated c 'Act for Regulating the 
 Militia," passed by the Provincial Council, March 29, 
 1757. The Act provides that a census be taken of all 
 persons fit for military duty, except " religious societies or 
 congregations whose tenets and principles are against 
 arms, and all Papists or reputed Papists. " It goes on to 
 state that "no Papist or reputed Papist shall be allowed or 
 admitted to give his vote or be chosen an officer of the 
 militia within any of the districts within these provinces." 
 * * * * " Every male Papist or reputed Papist, (on 
 account of his exemption from performing military duty) 
 between the age of seventeen and fifty-five years — must 
 
 pay the sum of twenty shillings."f 
 
 In the same year — 1755 — an article in an English paper, 
 reproduced in an American journal, gives a true and un- 
 varnished description of the real status of Catholics in the 
 Colonies and the feelings entertained about them. " But I 
 carefully observed," the writer goes on to state, " that no 
 Roman Catholick in our Colonies, can claim the particu- 
 lar privileges, thereby allowed to others ; and indeed no 
 
 * Penna. Archives \ vol. II, p. 423. f Penna. Archives, vol. II, p. 120. 
 
25 
 
 surer groundwork could be laid for the loss and destruc- 
 tion of our Colonies than to encourage the resort of 
 Roman Catholicks thither." * 
 
 In 1758 Christian Frederick Post, a Moravian minister, 
 in a speech made to the Indians at Logstown on the Ohio, 
 thus attacked the " papists " : " My brothers, I know you 
 have been wrongly persuaded by many wicked people, for 
 you must know there are a great many Papists in the 
 country in the French interest, who appear like gentle- 
 men and have sent many runaway Irish Papist servants 
 among you, who have put bad notions into your heads, and 
 strengthened you against your brothers, the English."f 
 Even the mind of the Red Man was to be poisoned against 
 the Catholic, who at all times was his only friend and 
 benefactor. 
 
 Wealth was hardly within reach of the (( papist," unless 
 he went to the unbroken frontier. In the cities and larger 
 towns it was not to be thought of. In 1769 John Cott- 
 ringer and Joseph Cauflfman asked for ( l An act to enable 
 them to hold lands in this province." It was summarily 
 refused because u the persons mentioned in this bill are 
 Roman Catholics." X 
 
 It was not until the convention met in Philadelphia, in 
 May, 1787, comprising among its members two Catholic 
 
 * Penna. Gazette, July 17, 1775. 
 t The Olden Time, vol. I, p. 116. 
 X Col. Records, vol. IX, p. 596. 
 
26 
 
 patriots, Thomas Fitzsimons, of Philadelphia, and Daniel 
 Carroll, of Maryland, that at the suggestion of Charles 
 Pinkney, of South Carolina, in the face of clamorous pro- 
 tests, the obnoxious religious test oath was abolished, and 
 the VI Article of the Constitution adopted, c l that no re- 
 ligious test shall ever be required as a qualification to any 
 office or public trust" Only after years of forbearing 
 patience, petty prosecution and enforced privations, all 
 the time exhibiting the most indisputable and pathetic 
 evidences of loyalty to the cause of order and freedom, 
 was this sacred right common to humanity, secured, re- 
 spected and enjoyed. 
 
 In the march of progress and prosperity, however, the 
 Catholic was far in the rear. The most productive land 
 had already been taken possession of, the remunerative 
 offices, civil or military, had long been filled, and from the 
 lowest round of the ladder, amid rebuffs, discouragements 
 and almost insuperable difficulties, with laborious toil he 
 had to climb to success. 
 
 Even now, however, living and breathing the atmos- 
 phere of liberty, the priesthood could hardly claim an im- 
 munity from persecution. The priest was still a curiosity 
 to be watched and feared, no more to be tolerated than 
 the small-pox or cholera. In our own Cumberland Valley 
 we find this anti-Catholic epidemic raging at times in a 
 most violent form, as virulent as it was in 1894. Father 
 Farmer was obliged to visit the bedsides of the sick and 
 
27 
 
 dying in the attire of a Quaker, — and in many instances 
 confine his travels to night only. From 1764, when the 
 holy Father Schneider was obliged to pay surreptitious 
 visits to his scattered flock in the disguise of a peripatetic 
 physician, his life at times in peril, to 1795, when Father 
 Brosius * was obliged to flee from our neighboring town, 
 Chambersburg, pursued by a hooting and infuriated mob, 
 and only saved himself from bodily injury by the fleetness 
 of his horse, — the brooding spirit of persecution cropped 
 out again and again. Nor can we, at the end of the nine- 
 teenth century, in the fierce light of modern progress and 
 scientific achievement, boast of an ameliorated condition 
 of affairs, as far as Carlisle is concerned. 
 
 Thus we see the incentive for Catholics to settle in the 
 States, the prospects for bettering their condition, — the 
 pleasing hope of civil liberty and the absence of religious 
 persecution, were not precisely the most encouraging and 
 alluring ; added to this the deprivation of all the consola- 
 tions of Holy Church, which only the Catholic can realize 
 and feel, we are not surprised that in spite of the enticing 
 placards posted conspicuously in villages and towns of the 
 European Continent f to inveigle Irish and Germans to 
 hasten to the new Eldorado, they failed to come in great 
 numbers until the War of Independence. 
 
 * Life of Gallitzin, by Brownson, p. 99-100. 
 f Eine Reise dutch einige der mittleren und sudlichen ver. Staaten, Dr. Schopf, p. 90, 
 Schlozer's Briefwechsel^ II, No. 40. 
 
28 
 
 Then suddenly the Catholics sprang into prominence, 
 and the gallant and invaluable services rendered by a 
 Lafayette, Kosciusko, du Portal, Pulaski, du Coudray, 
 among the French, a Colonel Moylan, Captain Jack Barry 
 — " Father of the American Navy," Colonel Doyle, Capt. 
 Michael McGuire, among the Irish, and the rank and file 
 of sturdy soldiers among the Germans, are emblazoned in 
 the history of the country and treasured in the hearts, of 
 all patriots. 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 CUMBERLAND COUNTY. — HISTORY OF THE COUNTY. — 
 CARLISLE. — FIRST SETTLERS. 
 
 Cumberland County was the sixth in chronological 
 order erected in the Province of Pennsylvania, and was in 
 territorial extent the largest. The three original counties 
 of Philadelphia, Berks and Chester, having been estab- 
 lished in 1682, Lancaster in 1729, and York in 1749. 
 Cumberland was separated from Lancaster by the action 
 of Governor James Hamilton, as will be seen from the 
 provision of the Assembly, Jan. 27, 1750 : u That all and 
 singular lands lying within the Province of Pennsylvania, 
 to the westward of the Susquehanna, and northward and 
 westward of York, be erected into a County to be called 
 Cumberland.' 5 Its southern limit was the dividing line 
 between Maryland and Pennsylvania. 
 
29 
 
 This geographical apportionment gave the county more 
 than two-thirds of the Province. Until the formation of 
 the adjoining counties of Bedford in 1771, Northumber- 
 land in 1772, Mifflin in 1789, Franklin in 1784, and Perry 
 in 1820, its history is that of the whole western half of the 
 Province of Pennsylvania. 
 
 The prominent and important part it occupies in 
 colonial history ; the thrilling scenes enacted here during 
 the Indian wars ; the patriotic share it took in the War of 
 Independence is a matter of history, and is not our prov- 
 ince to enter upon. Suffice it to say that at one time, 
 especially during the Valley Forge campaign, it was a 
 pivotal factor in the War of Independence. 
 
 The natural beauties of the Cumberland Valley, the 
 fertility of the soil, the vast woodlands, the abundant 
 streams, the ever-varying scenery, especially the summer 
 and autumnal splendors, have been enjoyed by genera- 
 tions and elicited rhapsodical pictures from the mind of 
 the poet, while even the cursory observer could not fail to 
 be charmed. Encircled by the great Appalachian moun- 
 tains, which skirt it like a natural fortification from the 
 Susquehanna to its extreme southern boundary, it has, 
 not inaptly, been compared to the sunny vale of Rasselas. 
 In prehistoric times it was the battleground of the warlike 
 Iroquois and Algonquin, celebrated in Indian legend and 
 story. Later the adventurous and exploring white man 
 entered the territory to inquire into its resources for trade. 
 
3° 
 
 In the Indian and Revolntionary wars it was the centre 
 whence issued successful expeditions for the extermina- 
 tion of the one enemy and conquest of the other. 
 
 Carlisle, the county seat, named after the town of Car- 
 lisle in England, is situated eighteen miles west of Harris- 
 burg, one hundred and eighteen from Philadelphia, and 
 one hundred and seventy-eight from Pittsburgh. Its loca- 
 tion is most admirable and picturesque, nestling as it does 
 in the very heart of the beautiful valley. The site of the 
 town was selected " because the place is convenient to the 
 new path to Allegheny, now mostly used, being at a dis- 
 tance of four miles from the gap (Croghans) in the Kit- 
 tochtiny (Blue) Mountains. * * * * the lands on both 
 sides of the Conodoguinet are thickly settled. As the 
 lands are settled it should be thought a proper situation 
 for the town." In compliance with this petition Gov. 
 James Hamilton sent a letter of instruction to Nicholas 
 Scully, Surveyor General of the Province, to lay out the 
 town. The letter is dated April ist, 1751. 
 
 FIRST SETTLERS. 
 
 The first settlements made west of the Susquehanna 
 were in the limits of what now constitutes York County, 
 by Germans, about 1725. They were shortly followed by 
 the Irish. The influx of German emigrants was so great 
 even then as to arouse considerable alarm lest eventually 
 the colony would endanger the interests, if not the exist- 
 
3 1 
 
 ence, of the English speaking colonists. The relations be- 
 tween the two nationalities were never friendly, and in 
 time became more strained. The stubborn pertinacity 
 and phlegmatic cynicism of the one, the exasperating wit 
 and innate pugnacity of the other, produced at best an 
 armed neutrality, interrupted by occasional collisions and 
 outbreaks that necessitated vigorous governmental inter- 
 position. Nor did these racial animosities abate in time 
 nor grow less in acrimony. The attitude of the Germans 
 and Irish continued so belligerent that an enforced separa- 
 tion was imperatively demanded and brought about by 
 confining the former to York and the latter to Cumberland 
 County. The racial amalgamation seemed impossible, 
 and in 1750 the Proprietaries "in consequence of the fre- 
 quent disturbances between the Germans and the Irish, 
 gave orders to their agents to sell no lands in either York 
 or Lancaster Counties to the Irish, and also to make ad- 
 vantageous offers of removal to the Irish settlers * * * * 
 to Cumberland County, which offers being liberal were 
 accepted by many. " * Both submitted to law only when 
 its majesty was invoked. In the meanwhile all seemed to 
 live in an exciting time of "luxurious outlawry." 
 
 Many, if not the majority of these settlers came with 
 roseate prospects and attenuated purses. Many were in- 
 digent to a degree that obliged their indenturing them- 
 
 * Rupp's History of Lancaster County, p. 288. 
 
3^ 
 
 selves as servants for three or four years ; many could not 
 pay the twenty shilling tax imposed on servants and had 
 to effect their lauding by stealth. Many again were liter- 
 ally inveigled by the most Eldoradean promises of con- 
 scienceless agents, who scurried through Germany and 
 Ireland and brought the unfortunate victims here only to 
 find themselves sold as bondsmen to the highest bidder. 
 These poor wretches were called " Redemptioners " ; their 
 marketable price was usually ten pounds G^io.) and the 
 term of servitude from three to four years. The Rev. G. 
 Muhlenburg, speaking of these German " Redemptioners," 
 says: u When the Germans arrive here from their ships, 
 all who cannot defray the expense of their passage from 
 their own means must sell themselves and their families, 
 enter a term of service to pay off their passage ; such per- 
 sons are called servants. After they paid their passage and 
 earned something in addition, they emigrate up the coun- 
 try and make purchases."* This passingly as a possible 
 solution why we find so many German and Irish " intrud- 
 ers" (squatters) on unpurchased Indian lands, and why 
 the names of so many Catholics, who, with the exception 
 of those in Maryland, were among the poor, cannot be 
 found in early records, such as tax lists, etc. 
 
 The early settlers in the Cumberland Valley were the 
 
 * Hallische Nachrichten, p. 54, quoted by Rupp— History of Dauphin and other Coun- 
 ties, p. 45. See likewise Schlozer's Brief wechsel, IV. no. 40 ; Reise durch einige der 
 mittl. und sudl ver. Staaten. Schopf , (Krlangen, 1788). 
 
33 
 
 Scotch-Irish Presbyterians. They came in such numbers, 
 with such resources and formed such a compact body, 
 that their ascendancy to this day, with a few qualifica- 
 tions, is as unquestioned and incontestable as it was one 
 hundred and fifty years ago. They were a persistent and 
 aggressive element, clannish and thrifty, with all the 
 native sturdiness of character, not altogether untinctured 
 by illiberalism. This more by way of characterization 
 than depreciation. For the " papists," small in number 
 and of no helpful influence, they had more the feelings of 
 secret commiseration than positive ill will. Even this 
 inherited tendency of another country and other in- 
 fluences, was mellowed and softened in time when Catho- 
 lic and Protestant stood shoulder to shoulder to battle 
 against English aggression. If sporadic attempts to fan 
 the dying embers of religious bigotry were attempted 
 from that day to the present moment of writing by a 
 ministry contracted in its views and uncharitable in its 
 utterances, the outbursts were rendered innocuous by a 
 healthy sentiment of justice and fair play among the laity. 
 The gutter- smelling harangues of u converted priests v 
 and the salacious morsels dealt out by " escaped nuns," 
 ecclesiastical ammunition of another time and country, 
 evoked nothing but feelings of silent scorn or condign 
 denunciation. Even the frantic tirades against Catholic 
 loyalty and patriotism find their amplest refutation in the 
 forty odd flags annually unfurled on Memorial Day in the 
 
34 
 
 modest little cemetery adjoining the church. A mute, 
 but none the less pathetic spectacle, are the graves of 
 these patriots ! 
 
 During the many years of the little St. Patrick's 
 church's existence, it all the same owes much to the 
 sympathetic, encouraging and helpful bounty of our non- 
 Catholic citizens, and the little congregation was never 
 chary in making its grateful acknowledgements. 
 
 The tide of emigration was so strong between the years 
 1725-1735, and with such avidity was the land taken up 
 regardless of the rights of the Indian, and with such 
 Cromwellian volubility were the Holy Scriptures quoted 
 against the " heathen,'' that the Proprietaries gave Sam- 
 uel Blunston a commission as agent, dated January 11, 
 1733-34 to grant licenses to the settlers, and to take up 
 lands west of the Susquehanna. These licenses were 
 mere permits to take up land and cultivate it, with the 
 understanding that possession and a clear title should be 
 given, when the Indians' claims had been satisfied. 
 
 The Maryland Catholics by this time came up the Sus- 
 quehanna ; the incoming vessels poured out streams of 
 emigrants. As early as 1730-31 with the Indian still 
 dwelling in their midst, and nothing but his trail to guide 
 emigrants, they pushed westward ; every available acre of 
 arable land is taken ; i ? clearings and burnings ' ' are made, 
 and the first settlements formed. The Irish and Scotch 
 settlers locate in the Kittochtiny Valley (North Valley), 
 
35 
 
 Falling Springs and many other places. In 1729 according 
 to the Pennsylvania Gazette there arrived in New Castle 
 4500 persons chiefly from Ireland ; and at Philadelphia in 
 one year 267 servants were sold to serve a term of three or 
 four years." 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 EARLY CATHOLIC SETTLERS. — THEIR THRIFT AND 
 
 PATRIOTISM. 
 
 Evidence is at hand that before 1745 a number of Irish 
 Catholic families settled, on the Tuscarora Path (Path 
 Valley) and formed the nucleus of a settlement still in 
 existence, and in which we not only find lineal descend- 
 ants of the original settlers, but a community which in 
 spite of the vicissitudes of time, the frequent depredations 
 of the Indian, the great distance from a church and the 
 sadly few visits of priests, the Catholic faith is still found 
 as firm and intact as was that of the holy ancestors who 
 planted it more than one hundred and fifty years ago. 
 This settlement not only was the one that lay further west 
 than any hitherto attempted on this side of the Alle- 
 ghanies, — but even antedates as far as documentary evi- 
 dence goes Conewago. 
 
 Conspicuous among these was Thomas Doyle, who on 
 Nov. 29, 1737, took up 530 acres of land, part of which is 
 still in possession of some of his lineal descendants. The 
 area of land he takes on a Blunston license seems to give 
 
36 
 
 color to the surmise that he must have been accompanied 
 by sufficient hands to partially cultivate it, and since he 
 had no neighbors* a settlement of some pretension had evi- 
 dently been effected. In the lapse of a few years we en- 
 counter the names of Felix Doyle, presumably a relative 
 of Thomas, Patrick O'Neill, Shields, McMullen, Logan, 
 who ail located there before 1744. 
 
 The Doyle family enjoyed considerable prominence, as 
 may be inferred not only from its landed possessions, but 
 even more from the conspicuous and patriotic part it sub- 
 sequently played in Revolutionary times. The town of 
 Doylesburg, Franklin Co. , is named after this family and 
 possesses a substantial brick church dedicated to Our 
 Blessed Lady, Refuge of Sinners, where Holy Mass is 
 offered up monthly, it being a mission attached to Cham- 
 bersburg. It scarcely admits of a doubt that this colony 
 was the first in what then constituted the extreme West of 
 Pennsylvania, f 
 
 In July 2, 1750 Richard Peters reports to Gov. James 
 Hamilton, that a number of ' 4 intruders ' ' (squatters) among 
 
 whom was Henry Gass, living on Sherman's Creek (Little 
 Juniata) six miles over the Blue Mountain (in the present 
 Perry County) had erected log cabins on Indian lands. 
 With others he was obliged to give a bond of ^500 that 
 c< he would depart and never return," his cabin being first 
 
 * History of Franklin Co.— J. F. Richards. 
 
 f For the above information the writer is indebted to Mr. F. X. Deckelinayer, 
 Chambersburg, Pa. 
 
37 
 
 burnt to the ground. He as well as Benjamin Gass were 
 Catholics, and after the dispossession settled in Falling 
 Springs. He is presumably the father of Patrick Gass, who 
 was born at that place June 12, 1771, and who was one of 
 the first white men to make an overland trip to the Pacific, 
 a detailed account of which he gave in A Journal of the 
 Voyage and Travels of a Corps of Discovery (Pittsburgh, 
 1807). See likewise The Life and Times of Patrick Gass. 
 Another Catholic pioneer of whom we have information 
 is Francis Campbell, of Shippensburg. Gov. Hamilton 
 replying to inquiries of Gov. Sharpe of Maryland about one 
 Francis Campbell whom he suspects of disloyalty " being 
 a Roman Catholic, and on that account likely to sym- 
 pathize with the French," allays his fears by replying 
 that " there is a Francis Campbell who was said to have 
 been bred for the church among the Roman Catholics, but 
 he has the character of an honest, inoffensive man, and it 
 is not likely that he concerns himself with the French."* 
 ... Of this Campbell all traces are lost, he must have 
 removed from his uncongenial surroundings, where his 
 faith was not only a stumbling block in the way of his ma- 
 terial prosperity, but exposed him to the petty annoyances 
 and wanton espionage of his neighbors, not even escaping 
 the surveillance of the chief executive of the Province. The 
 other family of Campbells in Shippensburg were then as 
 they are now strict adherents of the Presbyterian church. 
 
 * Penna. Archives, Vol. II. pp. 114-5. 
 
38 
 
 Among the earlier Catholic inhabitants of Carlisle we 
 find the Pendergrass family, who no doubt were among the 
 pioneer settlers in the borough, and whose name will be 
 found identified with almost all the larger settlements 
 west of Carlisle. In Kline's Carlisle Gazette* we ascer- 
 tain that Philip Pendergrass died Nov. 17, 1797, " in the 
 seventy-second year of his age, and was an old inhabitant 
 of this borough." This Philip Pendergrass is no doubt 
 the same, whose name is found on the list of Taxablesf in 
 1762, and who again took part in the expedition to Kit- 
 tanningj in 1756, to repulse the Indians, whose bloody 
 massacres at this time sent a thrill of alarm along the 
 entire frontier. It was of this Pendergrass family,— Gar- 
 ret Jr., who in Feb. 1770, while a resident of Raystown 
 (Bedford) purchased the ground now occupied by Alle- 
 ghany City, from the Six Nations. A copy of this quaint 
 conveyance is found in Egle's History of Pennsylvania.^ 
 This last Pendergrass was no doubt the same alluded 
 to in Gov. Hamilton's correspondence with Gov. Sharpe, 
 in which he is mentioned as being an innkeeper, thoroughly 
 reliable and capable as a guide, and with a most minute 
 knowledge of the topography of the country. || 
 
 The old Pendergrass homestead was on Pomfret street, 
 near Hanover. The house now occupied by the family, 
 opposite the rectory, was built in the last century by 
 
 * Nov. 29, 1797. f Wing—Hist. Cumb. Co , p. 61. % Ibid. p. 54. g p. 366. 
 
 1 Penna. Arch, Vol, II, p. 114. 
 
39 
 
 another Catholic family named Byrns, who intermarried 
 with the Pendergrass's. This home, still in a good state of 
 preservation, was built from logs cut and hewn on the 
 premises, it being part of a dense piece of woodland. The 
 families have both long since drifted away from their an- 
 cestral faith, and recall it only as a tradition. One of the 
 last members of whom we have any knowledge as dying 
 in the faith was Johanna Pendergrass, who departed this 
 life July 9, 1823, an ^ attached to whose death notice in the 
 Parochial Register we find these touching words : c ' Mor- 
 tua est in odore sanctitatis, pie talis et devotionis ; " — u She 
 died in the odor of sanctity, piety and devotion." No 
 doubt a most deserving eulogy. The name of James 
 Pendergrass is found as late as 1843 * n the Parochial 
 Records, but no evidence is at hand to prove that he died 
 a Catholic. 
 
 The names of John and Charles McManus are found 
 contemporaneous with the foregoing. As early as 1762 
 John McManus has a place on the list of Taxables.* 
 Charles McManus, who died on August 29, 1798, was not 
 only one of the oldest, but most progressive and successful 
 business men in the community. The large and commo- 
 dious home he erected on East Street, which still remains 
 as a monument of post-colonial massiveness, spaciousness 
 and solidity, with its marble slab conspicuously placed in 
 the second story, bearing the date of its erection, 1797, 
 
 * Wing— Nisi. Cumb. Co., p. 62. 
 
40 
 
 and the name of its builder, gives evidence not only of 
 enterprise and wealth, but cultured taste. Originally he 
 was proprietor of one of the largest distilleries in the 
 county and amassed a sufficient competence to permit him 
 to live, if not in luxury, at least in ease and comfort. 
 The avocation he followed was not then, as it is now, 
 looked upon as debasing and immoral : but then it was 
 universally adopted and countenanced as a most lucra- 
 tive business. As late as 1835 more than eighty dis- 
 tilleries paid taxes in Cumberland County alone and 
 manufactured more than a million gallons of whisky an- 
 nually. Cumberland County always had a penchant for 
 good whisky, and the consumption of ardent spirits was 
 always in proportion to the output, if reliance can be 
 placed on local tradition. After the death of Mrs. Mary 
 McManus (born 1703, died December 15, 1809), at the 
 patriarchal age of 103 years, the name becomes less 
 prominent, although that of Charles is still found on the 
 pew rent list as late as 1823. The descendants drifted to 
 Mexico and Philadelphia. The former branch of the 
 family in the course of time founded the prosperous and 
 famed banking firm of McManus & Co., an institution of 
 international reputation and the largest and most promi- 
 nent in our sister Republic. The Philadelphia family 
 likewise achieved more than ordinary success in life. 
 
 Jeremiah Sullivan and James Costello were two Catholics 
 who effected a settlement in Carlisle about 1774, and came 
 
4i 
 
 with resources and intentions to locate permanently. No 
 doubt the excitement and anxiety attending the war made 
 Philadelphia and its adjoining towns anything but an in- 
 viting place at this period. Cumberland county being on 
 the frontier afforded rare opportunities for the acquisition 
 of desirable land, which could be purchased for a mere song. 
 On March 20, 1775 * they purchased of Charles Queen 
 (Quinn) in Rye Township " a certain improvement 
 and tract of land claimed by virtue of said improve- 
 ment, and situated in the Township aforesaid, bounded 
 by land of Samuel Murray, (Little Juniata) a claim 
 of Robert Steele and others containing 100 acres, 
 more or less." Like the Cerfoumont tract, this was in the 
 present Perry County. The Declaration of Independence, 
 the success of the Continental Army, no doubt made them 
 yearn for the friends they left at Philadelphia, and in a 
 short time James Costello's departure was followed by that 
 of Sullivan. It appears in the meantime Sullivan had ac- 
 quired sole possession of the land. Perhaps knowing the des- 
 titution of the Carlisle parish, (it hardly could have escaped 
 his attention,) he concluded to leave the land to the church, 
 to form the nucleus of a small endowment which in the 
 course of time, would perhaps be of benefit to the congrega- 
 tion, as well as to its pastor. At all events Sullivan deeded 
 this property to Father Pellentzf in fee simple, to 
 hold it for the Carlisle Church. The proximity of 
 
 * Rec'd Bk. G s Vol. I, p. 288. f Oct. 24, 1785 
 
42 
 
 this land to the Cerfoumont tract — only about four miles 
 distance, gives weight to the presumption that the former 
 was likewise held by Father Pellentz. That the Sullivan 
 gift was beneficial to the church and added to its revenues, 
 we can learn from the letter of Bishop Carrol to Rev. 
 Mr. Debarth.* 
 
 Father Zocchi was the bearer of this letter to Father 
 Debarth, and his receipt is still on hand. " Received from 
 Rev. Mr. Debarth 120 dollars, for the purpose of providing 
 a part of the salary for the attending pastor of the Catholic 
 congregation of Carlisle, this day the 1st of December 
 1807." , Zocchi, Pastor of Carlisle. 
 
 The land was subsequently sold by Rev. F. X. Brosius 
 to Anthony Shattof for ^238 10 s. This occurred 
 on April 27,1802. This sum was converted into 
 bonds bearing interest and left in the custody of 
 George Metzger Esq. of Carlisle. In a letter dated 
 25th May 181 1, the latter speaks of some funds collected 
 on notes due Rev. Mr. Brosius, and explains that he paid 
 various sums to Rev. Mr, Zocchi, understands that the in- 
 terest on the money is to go to the support of the officiat- 
 ing clergyman of the u The Roman Catholic Congregation 
 of Carlisle." He holds at the time $95.00 in hand, also 
 judgement-bond $285.03 which he holds for the use of the 
 " Roman Catholic Congregation of Carlisle." 
 
 These bonds, as Mr. Metzger receipts show, were given 
 
 * Dated Washington Oct. 7, 1807. f Chateau, Rec'd. Bk. I. Q. p. I03. 
 
43 
 
 to Bishop Carrol. Among the attorneys papers we find: 
 " Received from Rev. Mr. Marshall three bonds from An- 
 thony and Michael Shatto to the Rev. F. X. Brosius, and 
 by him assigned to the Right Rev. Dr. Carrol. Each bond 
 bearing date 27 April, 1802 and conditioned for the pay- 
 ment of ,£21, each on the first day of April 1810, 1811, 
 
 1812." 
 
 Geo. Metzgkr, Atfy at Law. 
 
 How long the revenues went to the church cannot be as- 
 certained. And since there appeared to be some difficulty 
 about the title, and perhaps the trustees being more than 
 ordinarily, if not officiously solicitous, Sullivan who had 
 long since left for Philadelphia, made out an af- 
 fidavit, dated Philadelphia, Jan. 7, 1817.* 
 
 With this, ail traces of the bequest are lost, and though 
 careful search has been instituted, no information could be 
 obtained. 
 
 The Jeremiah Sullivan here alluded to is no doubt the 
 
 *" The undersigned Jeremiah Sullivan does hereby certify, that the tract of land in 
 Rye Township, Cumberland Co., Pa* was given by him aud his partner James Costello 
 towards the support of the Rev. Pastor attending the Roman Catholic Congre- 
 gation of Carlisle and by no means to be at the disposal of any trustee or layman of 
 said Congregation. The above tract having been sold by Rev. Mr. Brosius successor 
 and heir to the Rev. M. Pellentz, the money resulting from the sale of said plantation 
 ought to be laid out for the same purpose above specified in the manner the successor 
 of the Rev. Brosius at Conewago Church thinks is most to the advantage of the Rev. 
 Father of Carlisle." 
 
 Jeremiah Sullivan. 
 Acknowledged by J. S. before Alderman, 
 
 John Geyer, Philadelphia. 
 
44 
 
 one whose name occurs so frequently in the annals of St. 
 Mary's Church, Philadelphia (Records of the A, C. H. 
 Society, p. 264, etc.), whilst James Costello is identically 
 the same who in 1793 bequeathed all his property, with 
 the exception of a few private bequests to St. Mary's 
 Church, Philadelphia, among other purposes, for the main- 
 tenance of a school, to keep a supply of oil for the " lamp 
 which burns in the old Chapel in Willing' s Alley" (Rec'd. 
 A. C. H. Society, p. 390) etc. 
 
 In chronological order the Faust family comes some- 
 what later, but was more prominently and efficiently iden- 
 tified with the prosperity and vicissitudes of St. Patrick's 
 congregation, for more than fifty years, than probably any 
 other single family up to recent times. It was a family 
 in which a high order of intelligence was always coupled 
 with a fervid piety, an active zeal with an undemonstra- 
 tive charity, and a sterling faith with a most exemplary 
 conduct. The ideally Catholic life of this family has not 
 only been a heritage religiously preserved by its descend- 
 ants down to the last bearers of the honored name, but it 
 never failed to be a source of edification to their brethren in 
 the household of faith, whilst the lofty spirituality was a 
 revelation to those outside of the fold. To Jacob Faust, as 
 well as John Faller, Sr., who came several decades later, 
 the words of St. Clement, the Martyr-Pope, can most ap- 
 positely be applied, when he says : * " Who is not struck 
 
 *IEpist. Corinth. 
 
45 
 
 with beholding your lively faith : your piety full of sweet- 
 ness : your generous hospitality : the holiness which 
 reigns within your families : the serenity and innocence 
 of your conversation ?" The family must have settled here 
 shortly after the Revolutionary War, with the Lechlers, 
 no doubt related to the Philadelphia and Lancaster fami- 
 lies of the same name. Eventually they intermarried 
 with the Lechlers, though the Lechlers seemed not to pos- 
 sess the vigor and vitality of faith that characterized the 
 Fausts, for they gradually strayed from the Church, 
 though seldom affiliating with the sects. Valentine Faust, 
 a printer, died suddenly and rather mysteriously on April 
 17, 181 1. He was a son of John Faust, Sr. John Faust, 
 Jr., was married to Miss Eliza Fetter at Harrisburg, No- 
 vember 20, 1812.* Jacob Faust, who was so conspicuous a 
 factor in the growth and development of the congregation, 
 enters upon the scene of church activity about 1820, and 
 till his death was one of the great benefactors of the 
 church, and one of the most helpful allies in keeping alive 
 the faith at a period when priestly visits were of intermit- 
 tent occurrence, and urgent pressure was brought to bear 
 in weakening the faith of the small congregation. At the 
 present there survive three of his children, the Misses 
 Mary and Lizzie Faust, Carlisle, and A. J. Faust, A.M., 
 Ph.D., of Washington, D. C. 
 
 * Carlisle Gazette, November 26, 1812. 
 
4 6 
 
 The Schwartz family must likewise be enumerated 
 among the pioneer stock. One of the oldest monuments 
 in the cemetery, in fact the oldest decipherable, records 
 the death (in quaint German) of Nicholas Schwartz, who 
 died August 23, 1784, the year in which the log chapel 
 was built. The monument is a pretentious one for the 
 time in which it was erected, and is not only in a good 
 state of preservation, but will last a century or two more, 
 unless ruthlessly broken or mutilated. Tradition has it, 
 that he was a Hessian officer, captured at the Battle of 
 Brandy wine or Trenton, and brought here as a prisoner to 
 the barracks. He espoused the cause of the Revolutionary 
 party, did active and gallant service in the cause of Inde- 
 pendence, and was universally esteemed as a good citizen 
 and brave soldier. The name was subsequently angli- 
 cized to Black, and figures in the church records as late 
 as 1823. 
 
 Michael Dawson must have settled here shortly after 
 the Declaration of Independence, and in 1798 was the 
 possessor of considerable farming land in what now be- 
 longs to Perry county. He attained more than local 
 prominence as a builder and contractor and was in good 
 circumstances. James Dawson " while employed in erect- 
 ing the penitentiary or work house in the gaol-yard, was 
 suddenly killed by a falling scaffolding,* June 15, 1815. 
 
 * Carlisle Volunteer, June 22, 18 15. 
 
47 
 
 Michael Dawson was a candidate about the same time for 
 sheriff, but failed to secure the nomination by a piece of 
 political jugglery that would have done no little credit to 
 the adroit achievements of modern politics. The family 
 a few years later moved into Cambria county. Both were 
 soldiers in the war of 1812, and the former, as far as 
 known, was probably the first soldier buried with military 
 honors in our cemetery. 
 
 The absence of all church records covering this period 
 precludes all possibility of ascertaining with any degree 
 of certainty, the names of other Catholics perhaps 
 prominent in their day, who may have settled in Carlisle or 
 Cumberland county and who perhaps yielded to none in 
 zeal and generosity. Unfortunately until that historical 
 treasure trove — the Conewago Baptismal Record, and that 
 of its affiliated missions is unearthed, we must content 
 ourselves with the fragmentary data and names perpetu- 
 ated by the court records and local history. 
 
 In this connection, it would be a most fascinating study 
 to trace the vestiges of Catholic missionary labor among 
 the original owners of the land — the Indians. It is more 
 than an assumption, that the ubiquitous and irrepressible 
 Jesuit, whether of Canada or Maryland, had long since not 
 only studied Indian customs, but acquired their language, 
 and gained many a joyful spiritual conquest long before the 
 white man, with the implements of civilization,— oftener 
 those of war, drove them from their old haunts. The 
 
4 8 
 
 kindness with which the French always treated the In- 
 dians, the integrity displayed in their petty commercial 
 transactions, the respect they entertained for their national 
 customs, above all the intense eagerness and loving con- 
 descension of the Jesuits in attending their spiritual wel- 
 fare, made a lasting impression on the untutored child ot 
 the forest There can be little or no doubt, that Canadian 
 missionaries at some period or other had visited the In- 
 dian settlements, especially those bordering the Susque- 
 hanna River, where a number of Catholic Indians dwelt. 
 Moreover the interchange of tribal courtesies, and the 
 fealty owing by an immemorial custom to the chieftains, 
 makes the visits to Canada on the part of the Pennsyl- 
 vania Indians more than a mere presumption. Again 
 there is direct evidence, that the most prominent chiefs 
 in Pennsylvania in the early colonial period, were then, 
 or had been, members of the Church. 
 
 Foremost stands the imposing and heroic figure of 
 Shikellimy, the Oneida chief, one of the most august and 
 impressive characters found in colonial times, who at this 
 period resided at Shamokin (Sunbury). A man of fear- 
 less intrepidity and dauntless courage, he yet had the 
 ingenuousness of a child and the heart of a woman. His 
 transparent honesty, uniform kindness, unquestioned 
 truthfulness, and instinctive love of justice, makes him 
 stand in bold relief, as the diametric opposite of what 
 legend and history usually ascribe to his race. The 
 
49 
 
 Moravian missionaries can hardly find fitting terms to 
 convey their exalted opinion of the transcendent virtues of 
 this man, whose love of justice and truth was so great 
 11 that he was never known to violate his word or condone 
 an offense." The Colonial Records are ineffaceable 
 eulogies of Shikellimy, whose name always inspired 
 reverence and awe. According to the Moravian mission- 
 aries he was baptized in Canada by the Jesuits, and always 
 wore "an idol" on his breast, no doubt a blessed medal. 
 He died at Bethlehem, in 1748, having followed the Mora- 
 vian missionaries to that place. He was the father of the 
 eloquent Sajechtowa, better known as Logan, the Mingo 
 chief, whose famous address is known to every schoolboy. 
 Another prominent character, who figured in colonial 
 history, was Madame Margaret Montour. In early life 
 she married Roland Montour, a Seneca brave, and at his 
 death Carandawana, chief of the Oneidas. She lived 
 along the Susquehanna as early as 1727. She was a woman 
 of masculine mental and physical vigor, and ruled her 
 people with an autocratic sway, in bold contrast with that 
 of the mild Shikellimy. Her influence was of a nature, 
 that made not only traders, but even colonial governors 
 court her grace, with an assiduity and obsequiousness, halt 
 amusing, — had it not been essentially necessary. Her 
 allegiance to the English was but half-hearted, and at 
 times extremely dubious, if not suspicious, for, of French 
 extraction herself, she could not forget the kindness of 
 
5° 
 
 which she and her adopted people had been the recipients. 
 She was held in such high esteem that when her husband 
 Carandawana was killed in a war with the Catawbas, 
 Thomas Penn, then Proprietary, saw fit publicly to ex- 
 press his condolences to her. * The settlement she founded 
 was variously called Ostonwakin, " French Town," or 
 "French Margaret's Town," and was situated on the 
 area covered by the Seventh Ward (Newberry) in Williams- 
 port. When Count Zinzendorf, the Moravian missionary, 
 first called on her, thinking him a French priest, her joy 
 was great, for now she could have u her child baptized." 
 Her loyalty to her faith and to the French, both of which 
 seemed synonymous terms at this period, caused no little 
 irritation and fears to the government. Montour county, 
 and Montoursville in Lycoming county, are named after 
 Madame Montour, f 
 
 French Margaret was a niece of Madame Montour, and 
 was likewise famous in her day. She was the first pro- 
 hibitionist of whom we have any record in Pennsylvania. 
 She had prohibited the use of liquor in her little village 
 and claimed her husband, Peter Quebec, had not drunk 
 rum for six years. J In 1754 French Margaret and her 
 Mohawk husband, and two grandchildren traveling in 
 
 * Hist. West Branch. By McGinness, p. 102. 
 
 f Memorials of the Moravian Church , p 320, et seq. 
 J Hist. West Branch, p. 135, (foot note.) 
 
5i 
 
 semi-barbaric state, with an Irish groom, and six relay 
 and pack horses, emigrated to New York. 
 
 Andrew Montour, whose name is always coupled with 
 that of Conrad Weiser, is another name figuring frequently 
 and prominently in the colonial history. He was the son 
 of Madame Montour, and acted as interpreter for the Eng- 
 lish. Whether he remained steadfast in the Faith is ex- 
 tremely doubtful. In 1755, he lived on a grant of land 
 (800 acres) given him by Gov. Hamilton in 1752, ten miles 
 northwest of Carlisle, between the Conodoguinet, a creek 
 near Carlisle, and the mountain. He was naturally of a 
 roaming character, and freebooter-like sold his services to 
 the highest bidder, though the Colonial Records bear evi- 
 dence to the invaluable services he rendered the govern- 
 ment, and the extremely hazardous missions he undertook 
 in conveying despatches, etc. However, one moment we 
 hear that the French set a reward of ^100 on his head, 
 and shortly after he leads a band of warriors in capturing 
 the Gilbert family in Iyehighton. 
 
 From these random citations it will be seen that thor- 
 ough historic research in this unexplored field would yield 
 some strange and astonishing data. Some future historian, 
 with ready access to the Jesuit Relations and Canadian 
 church records, will no doubt throw light on this hazy 
 subject, and prove that before the Catholic white man set 
 foot in Pennsylvania, his Catholic brother of the house- 
 hold of Faith had already glorified God in his own simple, 
 but none the less fervent and Catholic manner. 
 
52 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 PIONEER PRIESTS — REV. JAMES PELLENTZ, SJ. — HIS 
 
 LARGE PARISH — HIS HEROIC EXPLOITS AND 
 
 ENDURING MONUMENTS. — FIRST VISITS 
 
 TO CARLISLE. 
 
 One of the most illustrious champions of our holy re- 
 ligion, a pioneeer in laying the foundations of Catholic 
 settlements, a veritable apostle in the magnitude and fruit- 
 fulness of his labors, was Rev. James Pellentz, S.J. He was 
 not only one of the forerunners of Catholicity in Pennsyl- 
 vania, leaving an honest fame and precious memory 
 wherever he set foot in his extensive wanderings, but one 
 of the actual founders of St. Patrick's Congregation. To 
 him next the Providence of God, the Cumberland Valley, 
 York and Huntington Counties, in short the whole of 
 Western Pennsylvania and Maryland owes a debt of un- 
 dying gratitude. In his unflagging zeal and consuming 
 love of souls, he stands pre-eminent as an ideal priest ; 
 in his austere virtue, inexhaustible patience, unwearied 
 charity and invincible courage, he was a typical son of 
 St. Ignatius ; in his quick apprehension and almost intui- 
 tional knowledge of the eventual growth, development 
 and prosperity of the new country, he proved himself the 
 hopeful, unerring patriot. The record of his indefatigable 
 zeal, his extensive wanderings, his childlike faith and his 
 burning charity, recalls and compares favorably with the 
 
53 
 
 brightest pages of missionary toil and achievement in this 
 country. When the history of the Catholic Church in 
 Pennsylvania shall be written from better authenticated 
 sources than the fragmentary and scattered data, which 
 necessity compels us to 
 accept now, the name of 
 Pellentz will receive its 
 due measure of recogni- 
 tion and eulogy, and hand 
 it down to coming gene- 
 rations in prayer and ben- 
 ediction. Time will only 
 add to its lustre. 
 
 Rev. James Pellentz, 
 S.J., was born January 
 19, 1727, in Germany ; 
 entered the Society of 
 Jesus in 1744, and made 
 his vows in 1756. He was 
 sent to this country from 
 England in 1 758 with Rev. 
 James Augustine Fram- 
 
 bach and two other Jesuit fathers. According to Treacy* he 
 spent ten years in Lancaster, Pa. , and a year and a half at 
 Frederick Town, Md. , before he assumed charge of Cone- 
 
 REV. JAMES PELLENTZ, S.J. 
 
 * Old Catholic Maryland, p. 177. 
 
54 
 
 wago. In all probability he was sent to Conewago and 
 from there attended Lancaster as circumstances demanded. 
 At all events, like the apostles of old he was not to confine 
 his labors to one city or community, but the scene of his 
 forty years' activity was to embrace an entire country, the 
 whole of Pennsylvania, west of Philadelphia. Never was 
 missionary more ardent in his zeal, more cheerful in his 
 sacrifices, more hopeful in trial nor courageous under perse- 
 cution, than this stranger in a strange country, speaking a 
 strange tongue. From our modern standard of measuring 
 heroism, his position seems simply to have risen to the un- 
 attainable. 
 
 Old settlers were accustomed to relate, not without a 
 glow of admiration and a heart swelling with gratitude, 
 how this holy priest traversed the whole country, pene- 
 trating every settlement and clearing, 'even crossing the 
 Alleghanies in search of the scattered Catholics, whom 
 stress of circumstances obliged to seek this enforced 
 isolation, on foot* If we bear in mind that this country 
 was still infested by the Red Man, that in territorial extent 
 the missions covered more than a hundred and thirty 
 miles, that the bridle path or Indian trail, was frequently 
 the only road that could be traveled, (the new military 
 road of 1755 was still almost impassable), that the luxury 
 of bridged streams was as yet unknown, that shelterless 
 nights and exhausting days were more the rule than the 
 
 * St. Vincenz in Penna., p. 56. 
 
55 
 
 exception, — and bearing in mind that in addition to this 
 Father Pellentz carried all the requisites for saying Holy 
 Mass, — the altar stone, missal, vestments, chalice, etc., in 
 a bundle strapped to his back, we leave the reader to draw 
 his own picture of this missionary in his holy wanderings. 
 
 Every rude hut would serve as a temple, every im- 
 provised table as an altar. The manger at Bethlehem was 
 fully as decent as many places where the Unbloody Sacri- 
 fice was offered up. 
 
 It took the first wagon that went West in 1789, drawn 
 by four horses from Hagerstown to Brownsville, more than 
 two weeks to get to its destination. The progress made 
 by a solitary traveler on foot in 1758, weighted with a 
 heavy burden and at times faint from fasting, is a picture 
 worthy of a poet's pen or painter's brush. 
 
 Pennsylvania is marked with the footprints that attest 
 his pious zeal, and dotted with landmarks that give incon- 
 testable evidence of his prudent foresight. For it must be 
 borne in mind that the whole State of Pennsylvania from 
 the Delaware to the Ohio was territorially apportioned to 
 but five priests at this time. Revs. Robert Molyneux and 
 Ferdinand Farmer (Steinmayer) were stationed at Phila- 
 delphia ; Luke Geissler, of whom we will presently hear 
 again, at Lancaster ; John B. De Ritter, at Goshenhoppen, 
 and James Pellentz at Conewago. 
 
 In his apportionment Father Pellentz had the whole of 
 Pennsylvania west of the Susquehanna as his parish. 
 
56 
 
 The magnitude of the task, the inaccessibility of the 
 settlements, the hardships and privations of travel did not 
 dampen his zeal ; for what were these difficulties com- 
 pared to the poignant sorrow of seeing souls perish for 
 want of spiritual nutriment ? The number of Catholics 
 was pitifully small ; their mode of life for obvious reasons 
 not gregarious, and consequently they were scattered 
 promiscuously if not fortuitously wherever an asylum was 
 offered from religious persecution or marauding Indians. 
 As late as 1784 the census of souls gives us this startling 
 revelation of the number of Catholics under the Propri- 
 etaries : Philadelphia and adjoining counties — one 
 thousand ; Goshenhoppen, seven hundred, and Conewago 
 and missions only five hundred. These five hundred were 
 scattered from the Susquehanna to the Ohio, the only 
 known Catholic settlements being Conewago and Path 
 Valley, — with an increasing population in Carlisle, Ship- 
 pensburg, Huntington and Bedford (Raystown). What 
 now comprises New York State had not one church, and 
 the city which then was the capital of the country, had 
 only eighteen communicants of whom three were Germans, 
 and no nationality ascribed to the others. 
 
 The following letter written by one of his companions, 
 his sacristan,* may lift the veil and give us a passing 
 glimpse of the arduous toil and sore hardships that formed 
 
 *Mainzer, Monatschrift von Geistlichen Sacken, (1785), p. 457 ; quoted by Reily in his 
 Recollections in the Life of Cardinal Gibbons^ p. 563. 
 
57 
 
 the routine life of Father Pellentz. It is an excerpt from 
 a letter written to a German magazine by Paul Mueller, 
 dated June 28th, 1785 : " Oh that the good God would be 
 merciful and send us energetic spiritual advisers,what grand 
 harvests they could make. Our good father James Pellentz, 
 who is nearly fifty years of age, and twenty- eight in this 
 country, has very much labor day and night, with sick calls, 
 confessions and sermons, especially on Sundays and Holy 
 Days, when, from six o'clock in the morning till twelve 
 and one o'clock, he hears confessions ; so that it is usually 
 from two until half past two, before the Holy Mass is over, 
 and often, with baptisms and sermons, it is after four 
 o'clock before he takes any nourishment ; and often he 
 has weak spells at the altar, and then (meaning after Mass) 
 one or two are waiting to take him on sick calls. From 
 this one can judge how many confessions he has to hear, 
 when I, who make for him all the Hosts he uses, have 
 made from March 24th until today, June 28th, 2740 small 
 hosts that he used. From this you can see what an enor- 
 mous labor for one man." 
 
 The prudent counsels and rare executive ability of the 
 good father no doubt had much to do in adjusting the 
 national animosities, and his thorough knowledge of the 
 country's topography stood him in good stead in forming 
 our coreligionists into more cohesive and compact bodies, 
 and as a nucleus to insure the perpetuation, he wisely pur- 
 chased land for churches. The Catholic once resting 
 
58 
 
 under the shadow of the cross ceases to be a nomad, fells 
 the trees, clears the land, tills the soil, erects his log cabin, 
 and establishes his home. 
 
 CHURCH OF THE SACRED HEART, CONEWAGO, PA. 
 
 In 1784 he sent Father Geissler, his assistant at the 
 time, money to purchase a house at Carlisle " to hold ser- 
 vice in," of which we shall hear more presently ; in the 
 
59 
 
 same year he secures a building at Littlestown for the first 
 church in that community ; in the same year he paid ^31 
 for a church site at Standing Stone, the present Hunting- 
 ton. In 1785 he began and finished the massive stone 
 structure, which has the enviable distinction of being the 
 first church erected in honor of the Sacred Heart in this 
 country, at Conewago. He improved the place by the 
 erection of a commodious and substantial parsonage, 
 with the necessary adjuncts indispensable at that time — a 
 capacious barn and extensive farm buildings. In 1786 he 
 was one of the main factors in the establishment of 
 Georgetown College, and was appointed one of its direct- 
 ors. In 1 791 he was one of the attendants at the First 
 Provincial Council of Baltimore, and was appointed Vicar 
 General by Bishop Carroll. He was likewise one of the 
 promoters and subscribers to the first Catholic Bible 
 published in this country in 1789, it being a reprint of 
 Bishop Challoner's revision, issued from the press of 
 Mathew Carey. 
 
 Human activity and physical endurance could not hold 
 out long under the ravages of such rigorous and incessant 
 toil ; the inadequacy of the laborers, the vast extent of 
 the vineyard, the inclemency of the weather and the cli- 
 matic changes, could not fail but undermine the most 
 rugged health and daunt the most courageous spirit. It 
 was the crying demand for more help that not only urged 
 him to make frequent appeals to Germany for priests, but 
 
6o 
 
 found him ever ready with the necessary funds to defray 
 the expenses of the wearisome and certainly not inexpen 
 sive voyage. Father Pellentz himself writes, under date 
 of Aug. 20th, 1785, in a letter forwarded to Coblentz on 
 the Rhine : u I pray you do everything in your power to 
 send me two priests to America. Since my last letter 
 affairs have gone considerably worse here, as our dear 
 Father Luke Geissler is at present so weak that we fear he 
 cannot live long. I myself have also a fever which 
 oppresses me greatly, and from ali appearances will render 
 me unable to continue my great labors that I have until 
 now undergone. * * * I have a flourishing mission 
 and from the number of those who receive the Blessed 
 Sacrament, there is no other in the whole of North 
 America which will compare with it. It is a great pity 
 that we have not more priests. They could bring back to 
 the right path many who have strayed away, since we 
 now have full religious liberty." * 
 
 In 1795 we find Father Pellentz at Port Tobacco, Md., 
 and the newly ordained Prince Demetrius Gallitzin as his 
 most capable and efficient assistant. 
 
 After forty years of arduous, but fruitful labor,- — laying 
 the foundation of Catholic faith in Pennsylvania, he went 
 to his eternal reward on Nov. 21st, 1799, dying at Cone- 
 
 * American Cath. Hist. Researches, July, 1891. Vol. VIII, p. 132. 
 
6i 
 
 wago, where his remains were interred, and where this 
 beautiful epitaph commemorates his holy career : 
 
 "REV. JACOBUS PELLENTZ SECURUS MORITUR, FECIT SE 
 
 MORTE RENASCI 
 
 NON EA MORS DICI, SED NOVA VITA POTEST 
 
 NOMEN PELLENTZ ISTE TERQUE QUATERQUE MORETUR 
 
 HOSPES! UBI JACIT HIC ET DOMUS ET DOMINI 
 
 TEMPLUM! QUODQUE SUUM FECIT ZELO PIETATE 
 
 UT POPULUM TENEAT SUB GREMIO ECCLESIAE." 
 
 (" Rev. James Pellentz dies in peace by the grace of 
 Him who by His death regenerated him. Not death, but 
 rather life should it be called. The name of Pellentz has 
 many claims to consideration. A stranger in a strange 
 land, he erected this the temple of God, and with zeal and 
 piety made it the object of his life to gather men within 
 the Church.") 
 
 It falls to few men to make and leave such a noble 
 record. His work will forever remain a monument of 
 zeal, determination and genius. His purity of life, good- 
 ness of heart, pervasive efficacy ; his discipline and labor 
 in the church ; the breadth of his knowledge, the grandeur 
 of his ideas concerning the future of the church in this 
 country, form together a combination of character- 
 istics worthy of the most glowing pages in the history of 
 missionary achievement. 
 
62 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 REV. CHARLES SEWALL, S. J., ATTENDS CARLISLE. — AT- 
 TENDS THE MISSIONS ATTACHED TO CONEWAGO. — 
 MAKES THE FIRST PURCHASE OF PROPERTY 
 FOR A CATHOLIC CHURCH IN 1779. — FIRST 
 RESIDENT PASTOR OF BALTIMORE. — 
 HIS LABORIOUS LIFE. 
 
 i 
 
 The next priest of whom we have definite and tangible 
 evidence in Carlisle, is the Rev. Charles Sewall, S. J., an 
 assistant to Father Pellentz, imbued with the same zeal, 
 inspired by the same charity and rewarded by the same re- 
 sults. No doubt the latter had taken more than a casual 
 survey of the territory that composed his parish, discerned 
 the possibilities that lay hidden in the different towns and 
 settlements, and at the proper time adopted the necessary 
 measures to effect purchases which eventually would lead 
 to the formation of parishes and construction of churches. 
 The unobtrusive and efficient manner in which the former 
 carried out the designs of his superior, the methodical 
 plan adopted in the formation of these different charges, 
 and the generosity with which they were assisted and 
 maintained, gives but another evidence of the total ab- 
 sorption of self in the apostolic work before them. In this 
 formative state of society the poverty of the faithful pre- 
 cluded all possibility of their making purchases either of 
 land or property, therefore the priest came not only with 
 
63 
 
 an open heart to minister to their spiritual wants, but with 
 an open purse to supply their material resources. The 
 first sites for churches, and the first churches were built 
 without entailing any pecuniary responsibility on the faith- 
 ful. The court dockets give ample testimony of this truth. 
 
 Where did the financial aid come from ? 
 
 The Society of Jesus was suppressed in 1773, its mem- 
 bers exiled from Catholic countries, while only Prussia 
 under Frederic the Great offered an asylum — " to preserve 
 the seed," as he facetiously writes to Voltaire, "that he 
 might at some time furnish it to those who should desire 
 to cultivate so rare a plant." 
 
 The Empress Catharine likewise invited them to Russia 
 and gave them charge of the four colleges respectively at 
 Polotsk, Vitepsk, Orcha and Dimabourg. Flattering and 
 honorable as these acts may have been, they certainly were 
 not remunerative, nor adequate to supply the individual 
 wants much less the increasing expenses of the mis- 
 sions. 
 
 It is probable, in fact strong presumptive evidence is at 
 hand, that the support of these missions was derived from 
 an endowment made by Sir John James of Heston, Mid- 
 dlesex, England. By its provision ^4000 was held by the 
 Vicar Apostolic of London, with the proviso, that forty 
 pounds be annually applied to the Catholic poor of I^ondon, 
 the balance to support the indigent missionaries in Penn- 
 sylvania. It was regarded as annexed to the church at 
 
6 4 
 
 Lancaster, and for many years gave twenty pounds an- 
 nually to four missions in Pennsylvania. Was Carlisle 
 one of these ? * 
 
 Rev. Charles Sewall, S. J. , the actual founder of the Car- 
 lisle parish was born in St. Mary's County, Maryland, July 
 4th, f 1744, on his father's estate at Mattapany on the Patux- 
 ent River. He came from good old English stock. His 
 ancestors came from England with Lord Baltimore in 
 1634, and of course were devout Catholics. 
 
 The environments of his childhood, the atmosphere of 
 piety in which he spent his boyhood, the association and 
 intercourse with the holy men who then ministered to the 
 spiritual wants of the Catholics throughout the broad 
 domains of Maryland and Pennsylvania, could not fail but 
 make a forceful and salutary impression on the mind of 
 the susceptible youth. The church of St. Nicholas ad- 
 joined his father's estate, which was but twelve or fifteen 
 miles from St. Inigo's, one of the sacred landmarks of 
 Catholicity in Maryland, — attended then as it is even now 
 by the fathers of the Society of Jesus. 
 
 It is very likely that he made his preparatory studies at 
 Bohemia Manor, a seat of learning which the Jesuits had 
 established in spite of penal laws. He entered upon his 
 collegiate course at St. Omer's in France, in 1758, when 
 
 * Am. Catk. Hist. Researches, Vol. V, No. 4. 
 
 f The Cath. Church in the U. S. De Courcy, p. 543. 
 
65 
 
 but fourteen years of age. In 1764 he entered the Society 
 of Jesus; and returned to this country with Father Augus- 
 tine Jenkins, S. J., on May 24, 1774. 
 
 His first mission was one to tax the most perfervid 
 neophyte. As we saw above, a perilous ministry if not 
 self annihilation awaited the priest in those days. To 
 traverse nearly the entire State of Maryland and Pennsyl- 
 vania on foot, on horseback or in ram-shackle stage 
 coaches in quest of the few persecuted, poverty stricken 
 Catholics was a physical ordeal of no small magnitude ; to 
 live on the charity of the poor, sharing their rude log 
 cabins and homely fare, was to this man of gentle birth 
 and cultivated tastes a labor of love, — for was not the Son 
 of God born in a stable, where there was but scant comfort, 
 and died on the cross where there was none ? Cruel arro- 
 gance, coarse insult, haughty defiance, bitter menace and 
 inextinguishable hatred confronted the missionaries at 
 almost every step;— but with uncompromising firmness, 
 with gentle speech and invincible courage they toiled and 
 prayed and persevered until the harvest for which they 
 planted the seed though unreaped and ungarnered by 
 them, was still showing promise of a golden fulness to 
 their eager views. 
 
 It was such a destiny that awaited Father Sewall when 
 he assumed his position as assistant to the saintly Pellentz 
 at Conewago. Lancaster, York, Elizabethtown, Cham- 
 bersburg, Carlisle, Huntington, Bedford, not to mention 
 
66 
 
 the widely scattered missions in Maryland, were the 
 theatre of this man's zeal. 
 
 The hardship, exposure and privation of such a life, not 
 to dwell upon the " solicitude for the churches" threatened 
 to cut short his active career, and his health caused his 
 superior no little concern and anxiety. A change of 
 climate, and a life different from that of an itinerant mis- 
 sionary was necessary. From 1782 to 1793 we find him in 
 charge of St. Peter's Church, Baltimore, Md., being the 
 first resident pastor of that city. From a letter of Father 
 Pellentz to Dr. Carroll we glean the following : " I am 
 entirely satified with Mr. Sewall' s resolution to stay in 
 Baltimore, as I always thought he would not live long 
 here, and that he would do more for God's greater glory 
 and the salvation of souls in Baltimore than here. For 
 that reason I advised him in his trouble to have patience 
 and to take courage. To the same intent I called to his 
 remembrance that Saints Ignatius and Theresa expected 
 always great success when they met with serious obstacles 
 in the beginning of a new college or monastery. The 
 hardships Mr. Sewall suffered made me think that Balti- 
 more would be a very flourishing mission. I beg of your 
 Reverence not to be uneasy for keeping Mr. Sewall from 
 me. I am fully persuaded that he is more necessary 
 where he is than here."* 
 
 * Rev. J. Pellentz to V. Rev. Dr. Carroll, Feb. 27, 1786. 
 
6 7 
 
 His career in Baltimore did not disappoint the hopes " 
 centered in him. His labors extending over ten years 
 were rewarded beyond his most sanguine expectations, and 
 the prophetic foresight of Father Pellentz as to the 
 religious possibilities that lay hidden in Baltimore more 
 than verified. 
 
 Though a man of scholarly attainments, a versatile 
 linguist, a profound theologian, a capable business man, — 
 his success as a pulpit orator seemed hardly to rise above 
 the level of respectable mediocrity.* 
 
 This was more than ordinarily disappointing to the poor 
 father, living as he did in a community where all the 
 niceties and graces of oratory had been cultivated as of 
 paramount importance by the Protestant ministry. How- 
 ever this deficiency in no way afiected his usefulness, nor 
 the impression he left on his people. A man whose aus- 
 tere, pure life, could not escape the observation of even 
 the unthinking world — was the most persuasive of sermons 
 in itself. When eventually Dr. Carroll took up his home 
 with him in 1786, and his own simple, unctuous efforts 
 were "inadvertently pitted against the transcendent elo- 
 quence of one of America's most luminous intellects and 
 most magnetic orators, the line of demarcation being more 
 conspicuous than ever was not disheartening or depressing 
 to him. Full of sweetness and charity, he still continued 
 unremitting in his holy work. 
 
 * Scharf — Chronicles of Baltimore, p. 251. 
 
68 
 
 Every enterprise to ameliorate the condition of his 
 people and further the ends of Holy Church found in him 
 a ready advocate and a gallant champion. Whether it 
 was his missionary excursions through Pennsylvania from 
 1774 to 1792, or his presence at the First Synod of Balti- 
 more in 1791, or when he acted as one of the incorporators 
 of Georgetown College in 1786, or temporarily supplied 
 Bohemia Manor in 1793, or acted as agent for the Corpora- 
 tion of Clergy in 1797, or built the church in St. Thomas 
 Manor in 1798, or was one of the first to re-enter the 
 Society of Jesus upon its restoration in 1802,* — he was 
 ever active and eager in the service of God, ever ready to 
 assume any work allotted to him. He worked on modestly 
 and unobtrusively, — one unerring and deep searching 
 Eye alone penetrating his heart and soul, seeing its secret 
 motives, reading its unpublished thoughts, divining its 
 unrevealed desires. 
 
 His health never robust was rapidly failing under the 
 strain of incessant labor, and on Feb. 25th, 1805, he 
 writes to his brother, Father Nicholas Sewall, S. J., who 
 on the restoration of the Society of Jesus entered the 
 English Province, " that for six weeks past I have been 
 confined to my room and unable to say mass, but I hope 
 to be able to officiate in the church next Sunday. " 
 Whether his pious wish was gratified we cannot ascertain. 
 
 *Bp. Carroll to Fr. Marmaduke Stone, Balto., 1805. 
 
6q 
 
 On the following tenth of November, 1805, he surrend- 
 ered his soul to God at St. Thomas Manor, where no 
 doubt he was buried. 
 
 The fact that he was assistant to Father Pellentz im- 
 plied that his parish embraced the Province of Pennsyl- 
 vania, and we can trace his career as far as Standing Stone 
 (Huntington), where he suggested the advisability of hav- 
 ing his superior purchase a place to hold service in, 
 which was actually done in 1785, when he paid Rev. Luke 
 Geissler j£$i with this object in view. There can be 
 little doubt, that like his superior he penetrated even the 
 remotest missions and settlements that were in the vast 
 territorial jurisdiction of Conewago. In doing so, like the 
 prudent and farseeing observer Father Sewall was, he 
 could not fail but detect the possibilities that lay hidden 
 in the embryonic towns, which in the Providence of God 
 might become important and populous cities, in which the 
 Church of God, might become a factor of soul-saving im- 
 portance in the promotion of virtue and holiness, and con- 
 currently, thrift and prosperity. Therefore we see that 
 unaided, though no doubt encouraged by the pioneer set- 
 tlers, he, .and especially Father Pellentz, made a careful 
 survey of the advantageous lands and eligible sites that 
 were constantly in the market, purchased them and thus 
 laid the foundation of the future parish. In many enter- 
 prising localities free sites were offered for churches, con- 
 ditioned upon an obligation to erect a church within a 
 
7° 
 
 specified time, — this evidently more to be an encourage- 
 ment to colonization than a promotive inducement to 
 morality. 
 
 Carlisle as a bustling frontier town, the centre of con- 
 siderable commercial activity, with abundant educational 
 facilities, — one of the main arteries that carried traffic 
 west, south and east, — not to mention the increasing and 
 highly progressive population, could not fail but create 
 the hope that the future had promising realizations in 
 prospect. No doubt fully impressed with these sentiments, 
 Father Sewall on the 5th Feb., 1779, on one of his periodic 
 visits, made the following purchase in Carlisle : 
 
 Deed This Indenture* made the fifth day 
 
 Robert Guthrie f p e b ruaT y i n the year of our Lord one 
 
 the younger J J 
 
 to thousand seven Hundred and seventy- 
 
 chanes sewaii nine Between Ro bert Guthrie the 
 
 younger of the town of Carlisle, of the County of Cum- 
 berland and State of Pennsylvania, joiner of the one part, 
 And Charles Sewall of Heidelburg Township of the 
 County of York and State aforesaid of the other part Wit- 
 nesseth that the said Robert Guthrie for and in Considera- 
 tion of the sum of Thirty Pounds Lawful Money of 
 Pennsylvania to him in hand paid by the said Charles 
 Sewall at or before the execution hereof the receipt and 
 payment whereof is hereby acknowledged, and the said 
 
 *Dated Feb. 5, 1779, Record Book E. p. 304. 
 
7i 
 
 Charles Sewall thereof forever acquitted and Discharged 
 by these Presents, he the said Robert Guthrie Hath 
 granted, Bargained, Sold, Released and Confirmed and by 
 these presents Doth grant and Bargain, Sell and Release 
 and Confirmed unto the said Charles Sewall and to his Heirs 
 and Assigns a Certain Messuage and L,ott of Ground Sit- 
 uate and being in the Town of Carlisle in the County of 
 Cumberland aforesaid. Bounded on the North by Pom- 
 fret Street on the East by a L,ott the Property of Robert 
 Cummins on the South by a Twenty feet alley and on the 
 West by a Lot of Robert Guthrie the Elder Containing in 
 front on the said Street Sixty feet and in Depth to the said 
 Alley two hundred and forty feet. Known in the General 
 plan of the said Town by its No 274 Together with all and 
 singular Buildings and improvements thereon and Premises 
 with the appurtenances whatsoever thereto belonging or in 
 any ways appertaining and the Reversions and Remainders 
 Rents Issues and Profits thereof and all Estate Right 
 Title Interest Property Claim Demand Whatsoever both 
 at Law and in equity of him the said Robert Guthrie of 
 in and to the same and every part thereof. To have and 
 to hold the said Messuage and L,ott of Ground hereby 
 granted and released or meant mentioned or indented so 
 to be with the appurtenances unto the said Charles Sew- 
 all his Heirs and Assigns. To the only proper use benefit 
 and Behoof of the said Charles Sewall his Heirs and 
 Assigns for ever Subject to the Quit rents due and to 
 
72 . 
 
 become Due to the chief Lord of Lords of the fee and the 
 said Robert Guthrie for himself and for his Heirs Doth 
 hereby Covenant promise grant and agree to and with the 
 said Charles Sewall his Heirs and Assigns by these pres- 
 ents that he the said Robert Guthrie and his Heirs the 
 above Mentioned and Described Messuage and Lott of 
 Ground with the appurtenances unto the said Charles 
 Sewall and his Heirs and all and every other person or 
 persons whomsoever lawfully Claiming or to Claime the 
 same or any part thereof from by or under him the said 
 Robert Guthrie and his Heirs shall and will warrant and 
 forever Defend by these Presents. In Witness whereof 
 the said parties to these Presents have hereto interchange- 
 ably set their hands and Seals the Day and year first above 
 Written. 
 
 Signed Sealed and Delivered Robert Guthrie 
 
 in the Presence of [seal.] 
 
 John Gray 
 
 Jno. Steel junr. 
 
 Received the Day of the Date of the 
 above Indenture from the above named Charles Sewall 
 the sum of Thirty Pounds Lawful Money ass'd being the 
 full Consideration therein Mentioned. Witness my hand 
 the same day and year first above written. 
 Witness present 
 
 John Gray Robert Guthrie 
 
 John Steele, Junr. [seal.] 
 
73 
 
 Cumberland County, ss. 
 
 Be it remembered that on the fifth Day of February, 
 Anno Domini 1779 Before me the Subscriber one of the 
 Justices of the Peace Assigned &c to keep &c came the 
 above named Robert Guthrie the Younger and acknowl- 
 edged the above Indenture to be his act and Deed and 
 Desired that as such the same may be recorded. Witness 
 my hand and Seal the day and year above written. 
 
 John Creigh. 
 
 Received March 5th 1779 and compared with the ori- 
 ginal. Wm. L,yon, Reed. 
 
 The location was then considered, if not a most eligible 
 one, one that at all events had some commendable feat- 
 ures, prominent among which was its cheapness. The 
 culture and wealth of the town clustered about the Public 
 Square, and scattered itself over High and Hanover 
 Streets. It was the centre of professional and commercial 
 life, the churches, the inns, the public square, were then 
 to be found as they are now, within a stone's throw of the 
 old seat of justice. However, East Street had some sub- 
 stantial if not pretty homes, which indicated not only 
 thrift and comfort, but independence, and no doubt Pom- 
 fret Street may have had possibilities from a speculative 
 point of view, very satisfactory to the investor. Moreover 
 a purchase of property for Catholic worship would possi- 
 bly have encountered some opposition should its aspirations 
 
74 
 
 have been to enter the more prominent streets. The 
 church was still looked upon with a disdain not untinged 
 with suspicion and fear. Even the prospect of a remuner- 
 ative investment may have been counterbalanced by the 
 latent bigotry, which made the Catholic more an object 
 of vigilant tolerance than that of a pure patriotism which 
 respected his rights as an equal. The second barrier in 
 the way of going up town, and perhaps the more convin- 
 cing one, was the depleted exchequer of the poverty 
 stricken missionary. 
 
 Here then, three years after the Declaration of Independ- 
 ence, ten years before the Constitution had been framed, 
 with authority still vested in the Supreme Executive Coun- 
 cil, with General Washington in command of the Conti- 
 nental forces, Benedict Arnold in command of the military 
 at Philadelphia, Lieut. General Sullivan carrying a war 
 of extermination into the country of the Six Nations, 
 Colonel Brodhead heading a most successful expedition up 
 the Susquehanna against the Muncy towns, with the coun- 
 try divided into clamorous Tories and bellicose Royalists, 
 with no national currency as yet in sight, the first foundation 
 of Catholicity, west of the Susquehanna, was laid. 
 
75 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 REV. LUKE GEISSLER, S.J., BUILDS THE FIRST LOG CHAPEL IN 
 CARLISLE, 1784. — NEED OF GERMAN PRIESTS. — PUR- 
 CHASES A HOUSE IN HUNTINGTON TO HOLD SERVICES 
 IN. — CARLISLE CHURCH THE ONLY ONE BETWEEN 
 LANCASTER AND ST. LOUIS. — REV. STANISLAUS 
 CERFOUMONT. — HIS HISTORY. — VERIFICA- 
 TION OF AN OLD TRADITION. — REV. LOUIS 
 DE BARTH. — ERECTION OF FLRST BRICK 
 CHURCH AT CARLISLE 1806. 
 
 The next priest of whom we have any authentic inform- 
 ation as being closely identified with Carlisle, and who 
 belonged to that zealous band of Catholic pioneers, whose 
 work and foresight now elicits our admiration, as it no 
 doubt earned the gratitude of their contemporaries, was 
 Father Geissler. Like the former he belonged to that 
 intrepid band of Conewago Jesuits, whose labors were as 
 incessant as their presence was ubiquitous, when souls 
 were to be saved and God glorified. To their admirable 
 tact, consistent prudence and uniform harmony which 
 guided them in their scattered labors and which permeated 
 the little society on the frontier of civilization, may be 
 ascribed much of the success and certainly the perpetuity 
 of their efforts. 
 
 Rev. Luke Geissler, was born in Germany in 1735, 
 entered the Society of Jesus in 1756, became a professed 
 
7 6 
 
 father in 1772. He landed in Philadelphia on March 26th, 
 1769. For a number of years he made his home with 
 Father Pellentz as an assistant, and from Conewago as the 
 centre missionary work radiated, reaching every known 
 Catholic settlement, even family in the Province. 
 
 At this time the urgent need of a German priest was more 
 keenly felt, — not only on account of the increased emigra- 
 tion, but in Carlisle on account of the recent accession to 
 its population by transferring many of the captured Hes- 
 sians to this frontier town. For after the capture of Tren- 
 ton Dec. 25th, 1776, a large number of these poor Hessians 
 were sent to Carlisle, and were employed in the erection 
 of the stone military barrack, a part of which are still in 
 existence. 
 
 Out of the 16,992 that were hired to England by Land- 
 grave Frederick II of Hesse Cassel, although almost all 
 Protestants, not a few Catholics were to be found, who no 
 doubt were loth to return to the life of serfdom, when such 
 glorious prospects of liberty were within reach. In Phila- 
 delphia alone more than six hundred were married,* in 
 many instances to Catholics. At all events the fact that 
 only 10,402 returned gives strong color to the presump- 
 tion that many deserted and settled down in America. 
 Out of the Carlisle prisoners no doubt many, pitied and 
 treated with great kindness by its citizens who realized the 
 
 * Records of the Am* Cath. Hist. Soc, Vol. II, p. 300. 
 
77 
 
 unwilling role they played in the War of Independence, 
 preferred to share the hopeful future and promising antici- 
 pations of this country to the certain penury and servitude 
 of a bankrupt petty German principality. Our cemetery 
 gives evidence that some of them either by birth or con- 
 version were Catholics 5 and their bodies lie interred in 
 consecrated ground. 
 
 In 1784 Father Geissler was sent to take charge of St. 
 Mary's Church, Lancaster, then known as the Mission of 
 St. John Nepomucene. It was shortly after he assumed 
 charge of this parish, that he must have built the first log 
 chapel which tradition mentions, and which was then 
 commonly known as a " Mass-house,' ' located about 
 midway between Pomfret St. and what on account of the 
 building, has ever since been known as " Chapel Alley." 
 As usual in establishing new churches the faithful were 
 not called upon for financial aid, and the money for 
 the lot on which the building was erected, as well as the 
 building itself was advanced by the missionaries. 
 
 The chapel was no doubt long in contemplation, and its 
 erection, modest, plain and ungainly though it was, — a 
 consummation ineffably sweet to the Catholic heart. Its 
 presence was an assurance that now, regular spiritual 
 ministration was in prospect, and that at least Holy Mass 
 might be celebrated in a house, which belonged to Our 
 Lord alone. Father Pellentz writes to Very Dr. Carroll 
 from Conewago under date of Oct. 1st, 1785 : u I paid Mr. 
 
78 
 
 Geissler ninety-six pounds {£. 96) for a house in Carlisle to 
 keep service in ; thirty-one pounds (^.31) for a house in 
 Standing Stone bought with Mr. Se wall's advice."* 
 
 The structure must have been of a most unpretentious 
 kind, and furnished to meet only the most pressing needs 
 of the people, the priest making his abode as usual with 
 some of the faithful. The temporary character of the 
 structure must have been very much in evidence, — for the 
 influx of Catholic emigrants, the growing prosperity of 
 the old settlers, the more tolerant attitude of Protestants, 
 and especially the increasing prominence of Carlisle, — 
 would hardly warrant these prudent clergymen to imagine 
 for a moment that the primitive structure would not be 
 soon supplanted by a more worthy edifice. No trace or 
 vestige of the old chapel remains. Only a remote tradi- 
 tion has kept alive the fact that the chapel was built of 
 logs, and that it was situated between Pomfret Street and 
 Chapel Alley. Death, emigration to the west, and loss 
 of faith, have been perhaps more potent in effacing these 
 old traditions, than the removal of the hallowed land- 
 marks themselves. 
 
 This chapel was the first Catholic house of worship erected 
 west of the Susquehanna. At the time of its completion it 
 was the only building specifically set aside for Catholic 
 worship betwee7i Lancaster, Pa. and St. Louis, Mo. In 
 
 * Rev. Jas. Pellentz to V. Rev. Dr. Carroll, Oct. ist, 1785. 
 
79 
 
 chronological order it ranks fifth in the State of Penn- 
 sylvania, outside of Philadelphia. The churches at Lan- 
 caster, Goshenhoppen, Conewago and York alone antedate 
 it. 
 
 At this time there was a crying need of priests in Phila- 
 delphia. The Catholic population since the Declaration 
 of Independence was increasing rapidly ; new settlements 
 were effected contiguous to the city ; the priests were grow- 
 ing old and feeble, unable to cope with the engrossing cares 
 and everchanging difficulties that cropped out at every stage 
 of the work. Father Molyneux and Father Farmer toiled 
 unsparingly for years, and with increasing years they felt 
 increasing infirmities, or as the former sententiously puts 
 it — " every day the labor increases and my ability de- 
 creases. " Father Geissler himself was to step into the 
 breach, though already feeling the hand of death. Father 
 Molyneux writes to Very Rev. Dr. Carroll for an assistant 
 and singles out Father Geissler.* "I hope," he writes, 
 " you will consider us and order Mr. Geissler to our assist- 
 ance if possible. It is pleasing to me, to Mr. Farmer, and 
 he himself is sensible of the necessity. For my part I 
 have no private views, the public good is all I seek." 
 
 To shirk duty or be dilatory in obeying orders in 
 emergencies of such a nature are delinquencies that can 
 seldom be laid to the charge of the priesthood, — to the 
 
 * Rev. R. Molyneux to V. Rev. Dr. Carroll. Woodstock Letters, pp. 193-94. 
 
8o 
 
 Jesuit never. Though suffering from a malady, which as 
 we saw above caused considerable anxiety to his superior, 
 Father Geissler went to Philadelphia, and with Father 
 Beeston assisted Father Molyneux. However he remained 
 only for a short time. — His illness assumed such a stage 
 that he hurried back to Conewago, where he finally suc- 
 cumbed, dying on August ioth, 1786.* 
 
 Speaking of him and Father Farmer, Shea says — " Both 
 were of that band of excellent missionaries whom the 
 Jesuit provinces in Germany had sent to America to attend 
 their countrymen, but whose labors were given unstintedly 
 to all Catholics." His twenty years of missionary work 
 displayed the tireless energy, the heroic courage, and im- 
 perturbable determination, that seemed to be the pro- 
 vidential endowment of all his colaborers. Like them, 
 his disinterested love of souls, his intrepidity in confront- 
 ing the manifold difficulties that beset his path, and his 
 triumphant assertion of divine truth " in season and out 
 of season," were the mainsprings of action, the predomi- 
 nant attributes of his character. Like them, we find him 
 identified with every religious, educational or moral enter- 
 prise that was calculated to lead men to holiness and 
 peace. Like them, his prayers were heard, his labors 
 blessed, and the glory of God promoted. 
 
 * Treacy, Old Catholic Maryland, p. 181. 
 
8i 
 
 REV. STANISLAUS CERFOUMONT. 
 
 Prominent among the missionaries who in the mean- 
 time, and early in the year 1800, did meritorious work, 
 though his name occurs with less frequency, and seems 
 less conspicuous than the preceding, was the Rev. Stanis- 
 laus Cerfoumont, who succeeded Father Geissler. His 
 personality is shrouded in considerable mystery, and the 
 avidity with which early historians took it for granted 
 that all who were connected with the Conewago mission 
 were on that account Jesuits, only added to the general 
 mystification. Conewago during the first half century of 
 Catholicity in Pennsylvania reflected and focalized Catho- 
 lic life ; it was the asylum of the emigrant priest, no 
 matter to what nationality or religious order he belonged ; 
 it was the centre from which Catholic life radiated. All 
 who came for the Pennsylvania missions, outside of Phila- 
 delphia, reported at Conewago ; from there they received 
 their instructions and credentials, and only as the accred- 
 ited agents of Conewago, did they receive the respect and 
 homage of the Catholics. 
 
 The evidence in the case of Father Cerfoumont seems to 
 preponderate on the side that he was a Franciscan, who 
 though he made his home at Conewago and died there, 
 was never a Jesuit. * This we may infer from the following 
 
 * In reply to inquiries made by the Rt. Rev. Camillus Maes, Bishop of Covington , 
 Ky., the Ballandists at Brussels state that the name of Cerfoumont is not found in 
 the official records of the Society of Jesus. 
 
82 
 
 letter quoted by Maes in his " Life of Rev. Charles 
 Nerinckx." Speaking of Conewago, the letter goes on to 
 state : "A beautiful chapel has been erected in the 
 neighborhood by a Jesuit, (Pellentz) and in the pastoral 
 residence I found a precious library of Flemish and Dutch 
 books left by a Franciscan missionary of Liege, who had 
 resided there."* 
 
 This no doubt was Stanislaus Cerfoumont, since an old 
 tradition connects his name with large contributions to the 
 library.f Whether he subsequently joined the Society of 
 Jesus, is likewise a mooted point on which no light can be 
 thrown — though in the mind of the writer it is highly 
 improbable. 
 
 Rev. Stanislaus Cerfoumont was born in the diocese of 
 Li£ge in the year 1751. Of his career, until he came to 
 this country in 1785, little is known. Like all mission- 
 aries who entered this vineyard, he attached himself to one 
 of the larger missions in the capacity of assistant. His 
 field of activity was virtually the same as that of his holy 
 companions, whose hardships and privations he shared. 
 Traces of his itinerant career can be discovered in all the 
 outlying missions of Conewago and Lancaster. His 
 name is likewise found in Maryland and at the First 
 Synod of Baltimore. 
 
 Two incidents in his career we beg to call especial atten- 
 
 * Maes, Life of Rev. Charles Nerinckx , May 6, 1806. 
 t McSherry, Hist. St. Aloysius Churchy Littlestown, p. 64. 
 
83 
 
 tion to. The one reads like a romance, and if it goes to 
 establishing anything, it is the trustworthiness and veracity 
 of local traditions. 
 
 Shortly after the writer's ordination (1877) he was 
 assigned to Lykens, Pa., as assistant. In his parochial 
 work he was frequently summoned to Millersburg, Dauphin 
 Co., Pa. His intercourse with some of the intelligent 
 non-Catholics of that community disclosed the existence 
 of an old tradition, that at one time a priest had lived on 
 the other side of the river in Perry County, and as a con- 
 firmation of the truthfulness of the report, it was alleged 
 that some of his " sacred robes " were still, in a rather 
 tattered condition, in the supposititious priest's house. 
 There was such a delicious flavor of mystery about the 
 narrative on the one hand that almost set an immediate 
 investigation in progress, — but on the other hand there 
 was such an air of romantic improbability, that the matter 
 was left in abeyance, at least for the time being. More 
 persistent and veracious witnesses however led the writer 
 to make cursory inquiry before entering upon a search. 
 A clergyman of the diocese, in whose knowledge of dio- 
 cesan history it was thought implicit confidence could be 
 placed, dismissed the matter summarily by maintaining 
 that it was probably a vestment, " forgotten by some priest 
 while saying Mass for the Catholics employed in the con- 
 struction of canals." Our knowledge of the topography of 
 Perry County was so childishly imperfect at the time — 
 
8 4 
 
 that we never investigated whether the county had any 
 canals or railroads, or like John Ruskin's ideal country 
 was free from " these curses of modern money making 
 traffic." At the time the opinion seemed so reasonable, 
 that the matter was dropped. 
 
 In searching the court dockets of Cumberland County, 
 by the merest accident, the writer to his amazement, 
 which resolved itself into joyous gratification, discovered 
 this deed : * 
 
 " JAMES KEENEN 
 
 TO THE 
 
 REV. STANISLAUS CERFOUMONT." 
 
 It goes on to state that on the 16th August, 1798, 
 James Keenen of Juniata Township, Cumberland Co. , in 
 consideration of the sum of thirty pounds, Gold and Silver, 
 sold to Rev. Stanislaus Cerfoumont of Heidelberg Town- 
 ship, York Co., a certain plantation and tract of land in 
 Juniata Township, comprising one hundred and fifty acres 
 of land, buildings, barns, stables, etc. , etc. 
 
 This deed seems to be a complete verification of the 
 " priest " and c 4 sacred robe n tradition, both of which had 
 an actual existence, the memory and locality of which the 
 lapse of a century may have somewhat dimmed, but 
 certainly not effaced. Juniata Township was located near 
 the present village of Mifflin, Juniata County, and the 
 priest whose history was veiled in so much exasperating 
 
 Deed Book, M. p. 721. 
 
85 
 
 mystery, clearly revealed. Whether more Catholics than 
 James Keenen had settled in that locality, research fails to 
 establish. Old parishioners recall the family traditionally 
 as being related to the Very Rev. Bernard Keenan, for 
 more than fifty years pastor of St. Mary's Church, 
 Lancaster. 
 
 In spite of painstaking research here and careful inquiries 
 in Perry County, aside from the tradition, no evidence 
 could be discovered which would lead to a confirmation 
 that Father Cerfoumont at any time resided on this planta- 
 tion, or any intimation for what purpose he made the pur- 
 chase. Being a Franciscan, and it being an opportune 
 time for the founding of a settlement, both on account of 
 the cheapness of land and the increasing influx of immi- 
 grants, no doubt he had in view the nucleus of a Catholic 
 settlement, not unlike Conewago, Goshenhoppen and 
 Sportsman's Hall. The distance from the main artery of 
 trade — the turnpike — and the unproductiveness of the soil 
 not to allude to the inaccessibility of the place, may have 
 frustrated all designs in that direction. The date of the pur- 
 chase lends color to the surmise that Father Cerfoumont 
 was on one of his periodic visitations, and that James 
 Keenen, no doubt a Catholic, came to Carlisle to attend 
 Holy Mass on the Feast of the Assumption Aug. 15th, the 
 initiative taken then and the sale consummated on the 
 following day. 
 
 A strange and melancholy feature connected with this 
 
86 
 
 purchase is, that most minute search instituted and con- 
 ducted by experienced attorneys and local historians, fails 
 to establish a legal sale or transfer of this property. How- 
 ever, the work is still in prosecution and some future day 
 may shed more light on this tradition. 
 
 The other incident fraught with so many blessings to 
 our Catholic emigrants, was that Father Cerfoumont was 
 the instrument in bringing to this country a man whose 
 transparent purity of life, inexhaustible zeal, and heroic 
 devotion to duty, not to touch upon his ripe scholarship 
 and luminous intellect, made him one of the grandest 
 figures in the beginning of this century and acclaims him 
 the Apostle of Kentucky. We refer to the Rev. Charles 
 Nerinckx, the virtue and faithfulness of whose life is fully 
 recorded by Bishop Maes, in his interesting and edifying 
 biography of that apostolic priest.* 
 
 It was in a letter dated Conewago, July 20th, 1801, writ- 
 ten to his half-brother, Father Gouppi, Secretary to the 
 Bishop of I*i£ge, that Father Cerfoumont gave such a 
 vivid and pathetic recital of the missionary needs of this 
 country, that Father Nerinckx, to whose attention the 
 letter was brought, resolved at once to come over and join 
 the gallant band of intrepid priests, who did such 
 invaluable service in the early church of the United 
 States. 
 
 * Maes, Life of Rev. Charles Nerinckx. 
 
87 
 
 After nineteen years of missionary labor in America, 
 Father Cerfoumont died at Conewago, Aug. 2nd, 1804, 
 aged fifty- three years. 
 
 REV. LOUIS DE BARTH. 
 
 The death of Father Cerfoumont, left Carlisle as before 
 an affiliated mission to Conewago, only that now we find it 
 occasionally attended from Lancaster. In Carlisle affairs 
 were evidently assuming a more prosperous and encour- 
 aging aspect ; success rewarded some of our Catholic set- 
 tlers in business and public life ; religious intolerance had 
 lost much of its oldtime aggressiveness and virulence. 
 The respite was a source of gratitude and thanksgiving, 
 and the warmest expression of such a feeling was found in 
 the new church about to be erected. The log chapel had 
 not only outgrown its usefulness, but was no doubt a secret 
 cause of keeping many of the vacillating spirits from at- 
 tending divine service. With the growing population, 
 there was a corresponding growing desire to have a place 
 of worship more in consonance with the prevailing pros- 
 perity and more adapted to the service of God. The faith- 
 ful, though few, were fervent ; though composed of various 
 nationalities were united ; though still of meagre resources 
 and attenuated purses, were all the more generous and 
 self-denying. It only needed the guiding hand and con- 
 trolling spirit of a capable and zealous pastor, to bring 
 about the most sanguine realizations. 
 
88 
 
 The man providentially sent to inaugurate this work, 
 not only in Carlisle, but in all the adjacent missions, was 
 not only adapted by nature, but endowed by divine grace 
 to bring about the most marvelous results. A churchman 
 in the fullest acceptation of the word ; a shrewd, keen, 
 alert business man ; — the possessor of rare administrative 
 ability coupled with the most engaging manners. Withal 
 there was found in him singular concentration of patient 
 zeal and sweet piety, that could not fail to attract, and 
 attract only to challenge admiration and reverence. His 
 suave and courtly manners evidenced the gentleman by 
 birth, his holy and successful career the priest by the 
 grace of God. 
 
 Such was the Rev. Louis De Barth, born Nov. ist, 
 1764, at Munster, Germany. He was the second son of 
 Count Joseph de Barth and Maria Louisa de Rohmer. 
 From earliest youth he showed unmistakable predisposi- 
 tion for the priesthood, and the whole intellectual trend 
 of his earlier years seems to have been a preparatory 
 advance to it. He made his collegiate studies at Bellay 
 in Belgium, and his theological course at Strasburg, 
 where he was raised to the holy priesthood in 1790. The 
 terrors of the French Revolution, forced him, as it did 
 thousands of the nobility and priesthood, into exile. 
 Unlike many, who were awaiting the termination of the 
 saturnalia of licentiousness and blood, he did not go to 
 England, the welcome home of the refugee, — but he 
 
§9 
 
 cast his eyes about to see where a proper field of useful- 
 ness awaited the exercise of his zeal. In the fall of 1791 
 he came to America, and at once presented himself to 
 Bishop Carroll for active service. Like his eminent 
 friend and contemporary Prince Demetrius Augustine 
 Gallitzin, who dropped the princely title to assume that 
 of plebeian John Smith, until legal complications com- 
 pelled him to resume his titular rights, so Count Louis de 
 Barth, in consecrating his life to God, renounced his title 
 to nobility and was known only as plain Louis Barth. 
 
 After doing brief missionary work at Bohemia Manor, 
 Maryland, late in 1791, he was sent to Port Tobacco, 
 May 12th, 1792, and for a few years labored in that field, 
 which then comprised the lower counties in Maryland. 
 In 1795 we find him at Lancaster* where according to 
 some authorities his parish embraced the whole of Central 
 Pennsylvania, comprising 10,113 square miles, in the 
 most remote parts of which the meagre Catholic popula- 
 tion was promiscuously scattered. Lancaster, with Cone- 
 wago was now the centre from which missionary activity 
 issued. Lebanon, Elizabethtown, Milton, Little Britain, 
 Elizabeth Furnace, were some of the more prominent 
 little towns in this vast parish, not to mention the u clear- 
 ings" and minor settlements that dotted the fertile and 
 
 * Foin, in his Paper relating to Rev. Louis Barth. in Records of the Am. Cath. Hist. 
 Soc, Vol. II., p. 30. 
 
go 
 
 inviting lowlands and rich and promising mountainous 
 districts of Pennsylvania. 
 
 The accession of Father De Barth to the pastorate of 
 Lancaster signalized a new era in the history of the 
 church in Pennsylvania. A new impulse was given to 
 religious life, — a more vigorous vitality to Catholic faith. 
 The congregations already existing were annealed into a 
 a more compact and concrete, and coincidentally a more 
 energetic and assertive body ; the provisional log chapels 
 were being rapidly supplanted by substantial stone and 
 brick structures ; a more systematized mode of procedure 
 was adopted in imparting knowledge of Catholic doctrines, 
 by catechisation ; the monthly, semi-annual and annual 
 visitations to the various settlements opened the channels 
 of sacramental grace ; the contagion of schism and insub- 
 ordination, which, already showing its malign influences 
 in Philadelphia, was effectually stamped out by an exem- 
 plary life that commanded respect, by an eloquence that 
 was soul-thrilling, by heroic acts of self-denial that were 
 pathetic. With the princely Gallitzin colonizing the 
 unbroken wilds of the Alleghanies, and threading his 
 way through craggy defiles and tortuous bridlepaths, 
 living in abject poverty, — but ever a ministering angel 
 of consolation and grace to the isolated settler, — and the 
 noble De Barth exchanging his ancestral home for the log 
 cabin of the pioneer, leading a life of ceaseless toil and 
 hardship in the fertile and teeming plains adjoining the 
 
9* 
 
 Susquehanna, one of the most inspiring spectacles in the 
 church history of the State is revealed to us. In the 
 enduring work of these two apostolic men, animated by 
 the loftiest ambition, fired with the most beneficent zeal, 
 striving for the consummation of the same eternal ends, 
 we have an achievement that must not only leave its 
 impress on the ecclesiastical history of the state, but one 
 that will ever be treasured in the heart of every devout 
 Catholic. Their deeds of heroism are still a living and 
 hallowed memory ; the monuments wrought by their 
 hands still remain to attest the prudence and zeal of their 
 conduct, the holiness of their lives, and divinity of their 
 mission. 
 
 Father De Barth's eminent and commanding abilities 
 were of so transcendent a nature, that in spite of a shrink- 
 ing modesty he could not escape the attention of his 
 ecclesiastical superiors, nor shun the unwelcome applause 
 of the faithful. On January 15th, 1804, we find him in- 
 stalled as the superior of Conewago, a position that 
 attached to itself both the administration of its temporali- 
 ties and spiritualities. The selection besides being a most 
 judicious one, was one that was soon to be made memor- 
 able by results that surpassed the most sanguine expecta- 
 tions. Until now, Conewago was in charge of the Jesuit 
 Fathers, which though suppressed kept up the community 
 life and discipline as much as circumstances would war- 
 rant. His appointment was made by Bishop Carroll, him- 
 
9 2 
 
 self a Jesuit, and most of his subordinates were members 
 of the Society. Father De Barth was a secular priest. 
 That the most implicit confidence was placed in his 
 prudent foresight, transparent honesty and consummate 
 administrative skill, is amply attested by the public 
 acknowledgement recorded in the Annals of the Society of 
 Jesus, at Georgetown, D. C, which proclaims the integrity 
 and fidelity with which he acquitted himself in the dis- 
 charge of his arduous and exacting duties. 
 
 His departure from Lancaster led to great internal dis- 
 sension in that parish, which at one time assumed an 
 alarming aspect, so that in 1806 he paid a long visit to 
 the place, placated the rebellious Germans, and re-estab- 
 lished peace. 
 
 It was, whilst exercising the office of administrator at 
 Conewago, and being brought in closer touch with the 
 small missions, that the brick church was built here in 
 1806, under his supervision. 
 
 The structure was still small, about 40 x 35 feet, almost 
 painfully plain, but in any event a vast improvement on 
 the old log chapel. All the same, the undertaking was 
 one that must have taxed the scant resources of the few 
 Catholics to their utmost, for now they were called upon 
 to contribute. The structure was nondescript in style, 
 with no architectural pretensions whatsoever. The 
 monotony of the two lateral walls, about 21 feet in height, 
 was relieved by four unsymtnetrically large windows (two 
 
93 
 
 on each side). The modest front, Quaker-like in its prim 
 demureness, had a central entrance, flanked by two large 
 windows. The corner stone by some inexplicable turn of 
 affairs was placed above the central entrance, and consisted 
 of a plain solid brown sandstone, with the Latin inscription 
 neatly and correctly carved : 
 
 Portae inferi non praevalebunt adversus earn. 
 
 M.D.CCCVI 
 
 (' \ The gates of hell shall not prevail against thee. ' ') 
 
 There was no receptacle for documents, coins, etc., nor 
 any evidence, outside of the inscription to indicate that it 
 was to serve the purpose it did. Of the interior of the 
 church we have no information. No doubt it had the 
 customary plain wooden altar, plainer pews, and the his- 
 toric tenplate stove, etc., etc. 
 
 How and where the funds were secured for this building 
 is a matter of mere conjecture. Church records of that 
 period have been destroyed, and newspaper files shed no 
 light on the matter. 
 
 During these widely scattered missionary excursions 
 Father De Barth had the assistance of men, all of whom 
 left an enviable reputation for learning and piety. In 
 fact, if we view these men in the light of intellectual 
 attainments, we cannot fail to be surprised to find them in 
 the wild and arid wastes of an unbroken wilderness and 
 frontier civilization instead of filling some professorial 
 chair in a European college or university. Father F. X. 
 
94 
 
 Brosius was an eminent scientist and profound theologian. 
 In 1796 lie issued a Reply of a Roman Catholic Priest to a 
 Peace-loving Preacher of the Lutheran Church (*i6mo. 
 196 pp.) ; in 181 3, The Elements of Natural or Experi- 
 mental Philosophy, Cavallo-Brosius ; and in 1815, A New 
 and Concise Method of Finding the Latitude by double 
 Latitudes of the Sun. It was he who gave George Ticknor 
 his first instruction in German, preparatory to his going to 
 the University of Gottingen.f 
 
 The other assistant was Father Gallitzin, the Russian 
 Prince, who in joining the Church, renounced a mapped 
 out course that would have paved the way to the highest 
 distinctions of diplomatic or military life. The formidable 
 and trenchant pen he wielded, the logical grasp of mind 
 and vivid directness of style, and his thorough equipment 
 as an astute polemic, is in full evidence in his Defence of 
 Catholic Principles, his Appeal to the Protestant Public, — 
 which not only summarily effected the complete discom- 
 fiture of his opponent, but have ever since, by their lucid 
 presentation of Catholic doctrines, been of incalculable 
 service, — translated as they were into almost every modern 
 tongue. His life has formed the subject of a most inter- 
 esting and readable volume, by Miss Sara Brownson. % 
 
 The other assistants were Father Egan, who was conse- 
 
 * Finotti, Bibliographia, p. 225. 
 
 f George Ticknor's Life, Letters and Journal, vol. I, p. 11. 
 
 X Life of the Rev. D. A. Gallitzin, by Brownson. 
 
95 
 
 crated First Bishop of Philadelphia, Oct. 28th, 1810, Rev. 
 Nicholas Zocchi* and Rev. Adam Marshall. There 
 seems to be little doubt that all these alternated with their 
 superior in attending Carlisle, at intervals sometimes long, 
 sometimes short, when a sick call imperatively demanded 
 their service, etc. The query naturally obtrudes itself— 
 how could these men, with their manifold and fatiguing 
 labors, their distracting and harassing duties, with no ap- 
 preciable time for literary recreation or concentrated 
 study, — how could they find time to cultivate the graces of 
 literature, follow their bent for scientific investigation, or 
 delve in abstruse theological problems ? 
 
 In attending the missions, Father De Barth usually 
 went on horseback, and " no one was better known or more 
 beloved than Father De Barth, whose coming was always 
 hailed with delight. n In later years growing infirmities 
 probably more than improved roads, made him indulge in 
 a less exhausting, even if more dangerous and expensive 
 mode of travel. The two following letters, now published 
 for the first time, show the care and solicitude exercised 
 in the construction of the conveyance adapted to these 
 roads, which incidentally gives an insight into their unsafe 
 and perilous condition. The first letter is addressed to the 
 Rev. Mr. Byrne, pastor at Lancaster. No doubt like the 
 
 * Father Zocchi's knowledge of English was very defective. His vocabulary fail- 
 ing him one day in reciting the Litany of the B. V. M M at Carlisle, made him startle 
 his congregation by closing the litany with some hesitancy,— "moutons of God, who 
 takest away the sins of the world !*■ He died at Taneytown, Dec. 19th, 1845. 
 
9 6 
 
 deacon, in Holmes' wonderful u one-hoss shay, n many 
 annoying accidents and exasperating experiences, taught 
 him to have his conveyance u built in a logical way." It 
 was evident he knew that — 
 
 4 ' There is always somewhere a weakest spot 
 In hub, tire, felloe, in spring or thill, 
 In panel, or crossbar, or floor, or sill, 
 In screw, bolt, thoroughbrace — lurking still." 
 
 and therefore gave such circumstantial and minute in- 
 structions about this wonderful one horse gig. We produce 
 it verbatim et literatim : * 
 
 "Conewago, Dec. 16th, 1812. 
 "Rev'd. Mr. Byrne: 
 
 " Rev. & Dear Sir, 
 
 " As I expect to be in L,ittleyork 
 on Sunday the 24 of January may be I will come myseli 
 for the gig, you are so obliging as to procure for me. As 
 the double joints are said to be much better than the sin- 
 gle I give preference to the former. They may be plated 
 if you think it best. In everything do as you would for 
 yourself. As I am often riding on the side of hills, it 
 would be best to have the tyres of the wheels hollow on 
 the outside. As Mr. Brown f prefers the steel springs I 
 
 * The author is indebted to S. M. Sener, Esq., Lancaster, Pa., who holds the origi- 
 nal letters and kindly furnished the copies. 
 f Mr. Brown was an old I,ancaster carriage builder. 
 
97 
 
 am perfectly satisfied to have them so and wish them now 
 of steel. 
 
 " Rev. Mr. Neale's gig has several straps which secure 
 the body of the gig to the running parts from upsetting 
 when the gig leans on one side on hilly or bad roads. I 
 saw also that the wheels are fastened to the axle-tree by a 
 square box screwed to the axle-tree, and if I am not mis- 
 taken a pin goes thro' that box and axle-tree to keep said 
 box from unscrewing itself. 
 
 " Be so kind also to get me a small trunk suitable for a 
 single traveler, strong and well made, well covered, proof 
 against rain, and two leather straps to fasten it behind the 
 gig. The box under the seat ought to be movable and 
 furnished with a lock and key. I forgot to mention about 
 the harness. Brass I have been told is apt to break, iron 
 will rust. I was advised to have them plated. This I 
 leave to your Reverence, but have nothing done for mere 
 ornament. I have seen some carriages here and in 
 Europe whereof the steel springs were bound in with 
 a rope twisted around the springs to support them, 
 as I was told. If Mr. Brown thinks this will be of 
 service I wish it done, the more so as I must drive 
 thro* very rough roads, over roots and rocks, and am 
 obliged to go carefully and slowly in such places. I 
 could not go out of a walk for the greater part of my 
 whole ride. 
 
 " I have seen some gigs which had no iron bond along 
 
98 
 
 beneath the shafts. I think it would be best to have one 
 on each shaft to a proper length. ' ' t 
 
 4 ( I remain Revd and Dear Sir 
 
 Your Obedt & Humble servant 
 [Signed.] L,. Barth. 
 
 The other letter is addressed to Anthony Hook, one of 
 the old Lancaster Catholics and a warm friend of Father 
 De Barth. It is dated, and runs thus : 
 
 "Conewago, Feb. 24, 1813. 
 u Dear Sir : 
 
 " I fully intended to get to Lancaster tomorrow, but I 
 hear of so many accidents happening to those who attempt 
 to cross the river on the ice, that I must give up my 
 plans. I am to officiate at Littleyorke next Sunday, 
 and if there be at that time no danger in crossing I 
 will send a man and horse to take the gig. Mr. 
 Metzger in Hanover is intimately acquainted with Mr. 
 Swartz in your town. I will next Friday propose to him 
 to accept from me about $360, and give me an order upon 
 his friend Mr. Swartz, who I hope will accept it. The 
 order will be payable to Revd Mr. Byrne or to you in his 
 absence. 
 
 4 ' The balance after paying the gig is for Mrs. Michen- 
 felder and Christina. 
 
 " I don't remember if I mentioned to Mr. Byrne to pro- 
 cure a horse collar of a large size and a buckle to enlarge 
 or shorten it. The horse I intend to use in the gig is a 
 
99 
 
 stout and able animal. God grant that I may have good 
 luck with him. 
 
 i 4 From Mr. Byrne's account of the gig I am sure I 
 shall be pleased with it. I am in the greatest need of it, — 
 after a long ride and even a short one if the horse makes 
 a blunder I am obliged to keep my room. I am much 
 obliged to you for the trouble you have taken in 
 this business, and shall forever remain as I always have 
 been" " Your sincere friend and servant 
 
 \Signed.~\ L. Barth. 
 
 "To Anthony Hook. *" 
 
 The two preceding letters give us a passing glimpse of 
 the missionary equipage in the early part of the century. 
 A gig that was virtually a chapel, containing all the es- 
 sentials for divine worship, such as vestments, missal, 
 altar stone, chalice, etc., securely stowed away under lock 
 and key ; with straps securely holding the body of the 
 gig to the running gear, to keep the trundling, top-heavy 
 conveyance from tilting over on those perilous mountain 
 roads that even now endanger the most expert horse- 
 man. Anyone who has travelled the highways and by- 
 ways of the interior of the State even at the present 
 time, especially when the " vernal sun sends teeming life 
 through nature's arteries" will pardon the circumstantial 
 instructions, nor smile at fears that were anything but 
 groundless. 
 
 * Thomas Hook was another of Lancaster's pioneer Catholics. 
 
 Lore. 
 
100 
 
 On July 29th, 1814, Father De Barth was promoted, 
 by his whilom assistant, Bishop Egan, to the position of 
 Vicar General, and after his death, was appointed adminis- 
 trator of the diocese by Archbishop Carroll, to exercise 
 " all the authority of the deceased until the Holy See 
 appointed a new Bishop. ' ' 
 
 His mild sway, coupled with prudential insight, that 
 seemed a characteristic attribute of his character, averted 
 dire calamity in the diocese. The seeds of revolt had 
 been sown, and a destructive schism was imminent, — but 
 the tact, forbearance, magnanimity of the administrator, 
 averted what seemed inevitable. His judicious and bene- 
 ficent course as administrator could not fail to single him 
 out as a worthy successor to the See of Philadelphia, — and 
 though both Archbishops Marechal and Cheverus were 
 urgent in having him accept, — and though it is claimed 
 the Bull of Investiture had already reached Philadelphia, 
 he gently, but peremptorily refused to entertain the 
 
 acceptance.* 
 
 His administration, extending over three years was pro- 
 ductive of much good ; his diplomacy, mild but unyield- 
 ing, holding in check the clashing elements, that embit- 
 tered the dying moments of Bishop Egan, and were a 
 
 *" I will not accept, but will kneel down and devoutly put the bulls in the fire. 
 Then I will make out testimonials for myself signed in my real name as Vicar General 
 and give myself another name in the body of the paper, and then farewell, Monseign- 
 eur. Neither you, nor anyone else, shall ever know the corner of the globe where I 
 shall vegetate the few years left me to live."— V.Rev. I,. De Barth, to Archbishop 
 Marechal, quoted by Shea. History of the Cath, Ch. } Vol. Ill, p. 222. 
 
101 
 
 source of such grave scandal and irremediable harm in 
 the years following. 
 
 After the appointment of Bishop Conwell he retired to 
 his church at Conewago, to become again a simple country 
 missionary. In 1828, Archbishop Whitfield (Archbishop 
 Carroll died Dec. 3d, 1815) appointed him pastor of St. 
 John's German Catholic Church, Baltimore. Only when 
 the weight of years and the accumulation of infirmities, 
 gave unmistakable premonitions that his strength was in- 
 adequate to the labors of his pastorate, with unimpaired 
 mind, dauntless courage and undampened zeal, did he retire 
 to Georgetown College to await with composure and hope- 
 fulness the summons that would usher him to his eternal 
 reward. " As long as his strength permitted he never 
 allowed a day to pass without offering up Holy Mass ; and 
 when increasing feebleness took away this solace, he re- 
 ceived holy communion daily, till his holy death, which 
 occurred Sunday, Oct. 13th, 1844. He died well prepared 
 in the Lord, a good and faithful servant, in the eightieth 
 year of his age and the fifty-fourth of his priesthood." 
 
 He died attended by his brother, General Barth de 
 Walbach, and a few friends. The funeral took place on 
 the 15th Oct., and his remains were interred in the ceme- 
 tery belonging to Trinity Church, Georgetown, D. C, 
 where a plain tombstone marks the last resting place of 
 one of the most heroic types of the Catholic missionary 
 that modern history in our country can show. 
 
102 
 
 A strong personality is disclosed to us in Father de 
 Barth, where quickness of decision, concentration of pur- 
 pose and fertility of resources are most admirably blended 
 with true depth of humility, total forgetfulness of self and 
 an insatiate thirst for the salvation of souls. A person- 
 ality that combined marvelous enthusiasm with discre- 
 tion, bravery with coolness, piety without obtrusiveness, 
 zeal without presumption, — and above all an inexhaust- 
 ible charity, which no failure could dampen, no trial en- 
 danger, no disappointment extinguish. Had he accepted 
 the bishopric of Philadelphia, — the onerous responsibility 
 alone made him recoil from entertaining the idea, — per- 
 haps the scandal and schism which ensued could have 
 been averted. 
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 BISHOP CARROLL REPLIES TO REV. DR. DAVIDSON'S 
 
 ATTACKS ON THE CHURCH. — THE EDITOR REFUSES 
 
 TO PUBLISH HIS LETTER. — CHIEF JUSTICE 
 
 TANEY ATTENDS DICKINSON COLLEGE. — 
 
 TOUCHING OBITUARY NOTICE ON 
 
 ARCHBISHOP CARROLL BY A 
 
 PROTESTANT. 
 
 Although the prevailing sentiment in Carlisle was thus far 
 tolerant and never openly hostile to Catholics, occasional 
 sporadic outbursts convinced them that the right of full and 
 
103 
 
 unimpaired citizenship was accorded them rather grudg- 
 ingly by one of the dominant factors in those days — the 
 Presbyterian clergy. There may have been a few notable 
 exceptions, — but the uniform antipathy was so stern and 
 unbending that they counted for little. To them the 
 Church was still under a ban ; it was still the target at 
 which the bolts of impotent pulpit thunder, scriptural 
 prophecy and implacable denunciation was to be hurled. 
 The annual recurrence of the sermon against Popery was 
 as unfailing in making its appearance, as the annual 
 spring doses of senna as a cathartic, manna as a laxative, 
 or sulphur and molasses as a blood purifier, with which 
 our forefathers religiously dosed themselves. The clergy 
 felt, or pretended to feel that the Pope, aided by some 
 monarchic and satanic coalition, had matured plans for 
 the establishment of the Catholic Religion in America 
 and mentally they depicted the exodus of hundreds of 
 dissenting ministers, ejected from their pulpits, stripped 
 of their livings and sent to starve among the Mohawks or 
 Iroquois on the frontier. The alarm was at times changed 
 to consternation, when Catholicity effected a foothold in 
 some large community, gained a convert or established a 
 nunnery. That the children of men, brothers in Divine 
 sonship, equal in their spiritual nature, of indefeasible 
 right, independent of all earthly power in the domain of 
 conscience, each of them, even the humblest and most 
 degraded, independent in that sacred sphere, and account- 
 
104 
 
 able to God alone, were to be looked upon as equals, was 
 an abstract truth that could be philosophically entertained 
 in private, but certainly not theologically enunciated in 
 public. 
 
 But the Church which grew like an undying plant 
 under penal laws and ostracism, did not fail to thrive 
 under bigotry and intolerance. Moreover the more 
 intelligent and liberal church members, looked upon 
 these annual attacks of sectarian rabies as they did upon 
 the supposed hygienic perils of the dog days. They had 
 to come, they had to be borne, they were not only innocu- 
 ous, but mildly humorous. The mock heroic attitude of 
 irascible ministers hurling bitterest defiance at a decrepit, 
 poor, old Pope, thousands of miles away, and with gaudy 
 phrase, specious argumentation, illimitable confidence and 
 ebullient enthusiasm, proving that this tottering ecclesi- 
 astic on the verge of eternity, had sinister designs on the 
 peace and liberty of this country was so deliciously ludic- 
 rous and picturesquely grotesque, as to be looked upon as 
 a most delightful diversion from wearisome hours of 
 expounding the sacred text. It was no doubt, more 
 an inherited tendency, than a religiously grounded 
 conviction that inspired these dithyrambic diatribes. But 
 the minister had not fallen from the high estate into 
 which Puritanism had hoisted him. He was still looked 
 upon with some unorthodox reservations of course, as the 
 44 just man made perfect, the oracle of the divine will, the 
 
i05 
 
 sure guide to truth/'* and when he annually attacked 
 Popery, he was listened to with respectful awe. These 
 annual attacks, delivered in every variety of key, from the 
 filthy ribaldry of some contemporary Thersites to the dire 
 vaticination of the colonial Cassandra, all heralded the 
 approaching extinction in fire and blood of the City of 
 God, which they found as a monster sodden in black cor- 
 ruption, with whom there could be no terms in the heart 
 of a humane man. 
 
 One of the most prominent ministers at Carlisle at this 
 time, was the Rev. Dr. Robert Davidson, who was called 
 to the pastorate of the Carlisle Presbyterian Church in 1785, 
 and in addition to his pastoral charge filled the professor- 
 ship of history, chronology, geography and rhetoric, at 
 Dickinson College, under the presidency of the scholarly 
 Dr. Nisbet. The extent and profundity of his learning is 
 unknown to us, but seemingly Catholicity, or even the phil- 
 osophy of history, was a study outside the orbit of his in- 
 tellectual range, and he certainly knew as much about the 
 merits of hydrophobia as he did about Catholicity, with no 
 doubt a preponderating inclination to study the former in 
 preference to the latter. " He was disliked by the students 
 generally, and some of them took'no pains to conceal it. 
 . . . He was formal and solemn and precise, and, in 
 short was always the pedagogue in school and out of 
 
 * McM aster, Hist, of the People of the United States, Vol. I, p. 31. 
 
io6 
 
 school. . . . He had written a rhyming geography, 
 which as well as I can remember contained about fifty 
 printed pages, printed in octavo. 5 '* This geography of 
 which he was very vain, had to be memorized by the 
 students, even the acrostic on his own name.f 
 
 No one but a man of such mental calibre and theologi- 
 cal oddity, could have issued in Kline* s Carlisle Weekly 
 Gazette% the following production, whose quaint and 
 comprehensive title we reproduce in full : " The Stgns of 
 the Times : ' ? or the Overthrow of the Papal Tyranny in 
 France, the prelude of destruction to Popery and Despotis7n : 
 but of Peace to Mankind. By T Bickeno (4th Edition, 
 London) Epitomized by the Reverend Robert Davidson, 
 D.D. 
 
 The epitome extends through three weekly issues and 
 
 * Memoir of Roger Brooke Taney, LL.D., p. 42. 
 
 f Round the globe now to rove, and its surface survey, 
 Oh, youth of America, hasten away 
 i?id adieu for awhile to the toys you desire, 
 .Earth's beauties to view, and its wonders admire ; 
 Refuse not instruction, improve well your time, 
 They are happy in age who are wise in their prime. 
 
 Ztelight'd we'll pass seas, continents through, 
 And isles without number, the old and the new ; 
 Fast oceans and seas, too, shall have their due praise 
 /ncluding the rivers, the lakes and the bays 
 
 * ■* * ■*■* * % * * 
 
 " The rest," says Chief Justice Taney, whom we are quoting at the age of 77 years, 
 " has dropped from my memory" 
 
 % July 29, 1795. 
 
107 
 
 covers eleven columns of closely printed matter. It cer- 
 tainly must have made the geography class chuckle with 
 delight. It is a most quaint and ingenious literary and 
 biblical production, couched in an archaic and portentous 
 diction, in harmony with the momentous subject. Pro- 
 fusely interlarded with scriptural quotations, drawing 
 liberally on astronomical, chronological and historical 
 data to bolster up the theological manikin. The argu- 
 mentation is abstruse to nebulousness. The subject itself 
 seemed to evade all ideas of perspicacity. An evident 
 predilection obtrudes itself of delving in metaphysical 
 subtlety and obscure mysticism, rather than allow full 
 play of the searchlight of honest inquiry, or be guided by 
 the accepted canons of logic. The trend of the whole 
 scriptural interpretation, with the Beast and Dragon of 
 the Book of Revelations as a basis, — the astronomical, 
 chronological and historical data are all marshalled up in 
 serried array, to proclaim to an oppressed and yearning 
 mankind, that the year in which spiritual and civil 
 Tyranny was to have its deathknell sounded, was now 
 (1795) dawning — u yea even at the door." 
 
 At the present time the whole production would be 
 classed in the category of mild curiosities, — the lucubra- 
 tions of a theologically stunted mind, like the acrostic 
 arouse a sympathetic smile, and charitably be consigned 
 to the wastebasket. Not so in an age when the minister 
 was still the visible mouthpiece of Divine truth. No doubt 
 
io8 
 
 the production would have remained unnoticed were it 
 not for the extremely bitter and inflammable tone in 
 which it was written. Its spirit would have done no mean 
 credit to a Cotton or Hooker, — a spirit which burned the 
 Catholics at the stake, drove out the Quakers, sent Roger 
 Williams to find an asylum among the Indians, and sat in 
 judgment on the witches of Salem and Andover. 
 
 It was the incendiary character of the epitome, with its 
 uncalled for aspersions on the Catholics of this country, 
 who were just beginning to show signs of life and activity 
 after the removal of the disabilities and proscription 
 which so effectually hampered their careers, that inspired 
 Bishop Carroll to whom the article was referred to issue 
 the subjoined letter. The letter without entering into a 
 categorical refutation of the whimsical ebullition, points 
 out the undercurrent of bigotry and persecution which 
 lies concealed in the whole document, — and which was 
 liable to injure the cause of Catholicity and liberty. The 
 letter is addressed 
 
 "To the Editor of the Carlisle Gazette.* 
 
 u Iviving at a great distance I have seldom an oppor- 
 tunity of reading your paper^ but I chanced this day to 
 meet with that of Aug. 5th in which you communicate 
 to the public your idea of a free press, and inform them 
 of the rules by which you propose to conduct it. Every 
 
 * Am. Cath. Hist. Researches, Vol. xi, p. 133. 
 
ioq 
 
 one who regards the peace of society must approve your 
 determination, but should not your rules extend farther 
 than to the protection of individuals? Should a public 
 paper, supported by public patronage and destined for 
 the purpose of political information become the vehicle 
 of abuse against any religious society, living under the 
 protection of our common constitution and laws ? Should 
 this Society, through the medium of the Gazette of Car- 
 lisle, be devoted to the execration of their fellow Chris- 
 tians ? While with a praiseworthy spirit of Indepen- 
 dence and philanthropy, you refuse to prostitute your 
 press to the injury of a single individual : and should you 
 not have refused to print in the same paper extracts from 
 a work of the most rancorous fanaticism, the only pur- 
 pose of which can be to raise up hostile hatred and 
 violent animosities against a numerous body of Christians 
 as dutiful to the laws and inoffensive to their fellow 
 citizens as any in the United States. Who Bickeno was, 
 or who the R. Rob. Davidson D.D. is, I know not ; but I 
 want no other evidence than the extracts in your Gazette, 
 to be convinced of the wild and ignorant fanaticism of 
 the former. As to the Dr. of Divinity, I am tempted 
 even on this serious subject to smile at his theological 
 acquirements, who can submit to employ his leisure in 
 epitomizing such a miserable production as Bickeno' s, 
 and give a new dress ' to the tale revived, the lie so oft 
 overthrown. ' I can hardly think him serious. 
 
no 
 
 u But to return to yourself, Mr. Editor, after having 
 disseminated seeds of violent hatred against Roman Cath- 
 olics, as forming the very kingdom of antichrist ; could 
 you in justice refuse them the rights of defence, and even 
 of retaliation against their adversaries if they insisted on 
 it ? If they were to offer for publication writings tending 
 to prove that Luther and Calvin, and Henry the 8th, 
 and Archbishop Cranmer, and John Knox began to spread 
 the reign of antichrist, and that their followers support 
 it until this day, and share their guilt ; (and I assure you 
 that this may be done with much better arguments than 
 those of Duumvirs Bickno and his epitomizer) would you 
 admit those writings as fit for insertion in your Gazette ? 
 In my opinion you would not ; and whatever you might 
 now resolve to do, after having sent forth the predictions 
 of prophet Bickno and left yourself no fair plea for re- 
 jecting a free examination of them ; I am persuaded, that 
 you would have reprobated (?) and with great propriety, 
 similar inflammatory pieces, on the Catholic side of the 
 question. I expect however the insertion of this as a 
 necessary animadversion on the author, or authors of 
 those injurious extracts given in your paper; and shall 
 estimate your fair dealing and impartiality by your readi- 
 ness in complying with a reasonable and just request." 
 
 " Aug. ii, 1795." [Signed.] " Catholicus." 
 
 The reply was never published. The motive that 
 
Ill 
 
 prompted its suppression was more the fear of arousing 
 animadversive consequences, than the plea of rejecting it 
 on the score of inutility. Had the letter been written 
 in the year 1895 instead of 1795, it could not be more 
 opportune and apposite, nor reflect the wanton disregard 
 of all fairness and decency — a century ago — not even as 
 virulent as it has been of late, when the Catholic was the 
 butt of the foulest and most venomous attacks, and when 
 sheets literally reeking with filth and obscenity, were 
 scattered broadcast throughout the country, and smug- 
 gled into the homes of pure women and innocent girls. 
 This under the cloak of religion ! 
 
 The editor of the Gazette, though not a most con- 
 scientious Christian, (for in searching the files of his 
 journal, we detect advertisements calling attention to 
 the printing office having on stock Tom Paine's " Age of 
 Reason' ' side by side with the latest theological tract 
 vindicating the " Divinity of Christ,") had not the cour- 
 age to print the Bishop's letter, and had recourse to the 
 following transparent evasion. * 
 
 "The Editor acknowledges the receipt of the piece 
 signed Catholicus. He can assure the writer, that the 
 extracts from a pamphlet entitled the l Signs of the Times ' 
 were not intended to give any offence to any society of 
 Christians whatever ; but merely to inform such as might 
 
 * Kline's Carlisle Weekly Gazette, Sept. 12, 1795. 
 
112 
 
 be curious to inquire into the prophetic parts of Scrip- 
 ture, what are the sentiments of some writers of the 
 present day, respecting the fall of civil and religious 
 tyranny in the Old World ; and what aspect the revo- 
 lutions that have lately happened may have towards that 
 event. The Epitomizer made a few extracts for his own 
 use ; which being shown to some of his friends they 
 desired they might be printed. As to his own senti- 
 ments of the work, how far it agrees with the most 
 approved commentators, and in what parts it may be 
 exceptionable, he has said nothing. He will neither sup- 
 port nor condemn it through the medium of a newspaper, 
 having done nothing more than faithfully made a few 
 extracts from a work which the public is already in 
 possession of ; as he would make extracts from any book 
 whatever, which he might think curious and deserving 
 attention, — as the piece is far from being in the style of 
 argumentation, the Editor begs to be excused from pub- 
 lishing it." 
 
 Roger Brooke Taney. 
 
 At the same time that The Signs of the Times was 
 luridly appearing on the religious horizon of Carlisle, 
 probably a very interested party in the discussion was a 
 Catholic young man who was pursuing his studies at 
 Dickinson College and would graduate in a few weeks. 
 The young student was descended from an old Catholic 
 
"3 
 
 Maryland stock, whose history was almost coincident with 
 that of Lord Baltimore's arrival on these shores, and some 
 of whose ancestors were not only gentlemen of means, 
 but persons of literary culture, having made their studies 
 in St. Omers and Bruges, both names, familiar to the 
 reader. As a young lad of fifteen years he was sent to 
 Dickinson College in 1792. The reason Dickinson 
 College was chosen in preference to any other, especially 
 a Catholic institution, was primarily, because two young 
 neighbors were attending it at the time, and secondarily 
 its president, Dr. Nisbet, had almost international fame 
 for varied and extensive learning. He gives us a circum- 
 stantial narrative of his adventurous trip from Baltimore 
 to Carlisle, how an unfavorable wind kept the schooner, 
 on which he embarked on^the Patuxent River, laden with 
 merchandise and produce, nearly a week from port. Since 
 there was no stage between the two points, they had to 
 wait until a wagon returning to Carlisle took them and 
 their trunks. After trundling two weeks on the roads of 
 which we can form but a faint conception, they arrived 
 safely in Carlisle. Here he remained until 1795, — and 
 during this time went home but twice on vacation, and on 
 both occasions walking on foot, accomplishing the feat 
 in two days. The estimated distance is eighty-five miles. 
 Whilst here he was a great favorite with Dr. Nisbet, in 
 whose home he was an ever- welcome guest, and whose 
 kindness he always recalled with emotion, affection and 
 
ii4 
 
 gratitude. His talents already displayed themselves in a 
 manner -not only to merit the praise of his teachers, the 
 admiration of his classmates, but presaged a future that 
 could not fail to be successful, if not brilliant. 
 
 He graduated on October 7, 1795, receiving the degree 
 of Bachelor of Arts. Being elected by his fellow students 
 as valedictorian on commencement day he addressed a 
 vast concourse in the Presbyterian Church " with a brief 
 account of the utility of Seminaries of learning."* 
 
 It is not pur province to trace the unprecedented strides 
 this young man made to success ; how by a succession of 
 brilliant achievements he rose to the most distinguished 
 honors in the nation ; what an important part he played 
 in shaping its destinies ; and how he attained the highest 
 eminence barring that of President, and that in spite of 
 factional animosities and political persecution and aboli- 
 tionist execration the name of Roger Brooke Taney f will 
 always remain one of the most honored in the history of 
 American jurisprudence and patriotism. An honor to his 
 country and to his Church. 
 
 His devotion to his Church was that of the most devout 
 and uncompromising Catholic. " Most thankful am I, that 
 the reading, reflection, studies and experience of a long 
 life have strengthened and confirmed my faith in the 
 
 * Carlisle Gazette. Oct. 9, 1795. 
 
 f Born March 17, 1777.— Appointed Chief Justice, March 15, 1836. Died Oct. 12, 1864, 
 aged 87 years. 
 
H5 
 
 Catholic Church, which has never ceased to teach her 
 children how they should live and how they should 
 die."* 
 
 His humility was as profound as his faith, and was ex- 
 ercised in even the most solemn as well as trivial circum- 
 stances of his life. " Often have I seen him stand at the 
 outer door leading to the confessional, in a crowd of peni- 
 tents, the majority colored, waiting his turn for admission. 
 I proposed to introduce him by another door to my con- 
 fessional, but he would not accept of any deviation from 
 the established custom, "f 
 
 At the time of young Taney's sojourn in Carlisle, Dick- 
 inson College was a small structure of four rooms, located 
 in Liberty Alley,— immediately back of Bedford street, 
 (in the rear of the present Cumberland Fire Co. Engine 
 House,) and was consequently only a few hundred yards 
 from the chapel. His attendance there whenever the 
 presence of a priest gathered together the small congrega- 
 tion in the modest log chapel, is more than a matter of 
 mere surmise, since in addition to his strong and vital 
 faith, which was the inspiration of his holy life, he 
 certainly must have had a personal acquaintance with 
 some of the Maryland missionaries, who at this time 
 visited Carlisle. 
 
 * Memoir of Roger B. Taney. LL.B., p. 475. 
 t Memoir of Roger B. Taney, LL.D., p. 476. 
 
n6 
 Death of Archbishop Carroll. 
 
 It was during the pastoral administration of Father 
 De Barth that Archbishop John Carroll was called to his 
 heavenly reward, Dec. 3, 1815. The sad news filled the 
 hearts of the faithful with the most poignant grief, — and 
 all Americans irrespective of political or church affilia- 
 tion seemed to realize that in his death the Church had 
 lost one of its most powerful champions and the Republic 
 one of its most loyal sons. His zeal and sincerity both as 
 an ecclesiastic and citizen seemed to have made his death 
 one that all lamented, — for it was only now, that the full 
 sense of loss dawned upon the mind of all lovers of virtue 
 and liberty. Always foremost in the assertion and main- 
 tenance of the heritage of liberty handed down to us, he 
 yet joined a childlike piety and an ascetic mode of life, 
 that elicited the veneration of all who came in contact 
 with him. That this influence did not confine itself to 
 his immediate circle of acquaintances or local environ- 
 ment, is manifest from the eloquent and touching eulogy 
 which appeared in the Carlisle Volunteer, (Dec. 19, 1815,) 
 and which bears evidence of being written by a non- 
 Catholic. It is a great pleasure to reproduce the obituary 
 in its entirety, viz. : 
 
II? 
 
 u Died at Baltimore on the 3d inst. in the 80th year of his 
 age, the right reverend Doctor John Carroll, Arch 
 Bishop, of Baltimore. 
 
 11 The closing solemnities with which the body of the 
 late Arch-Bishop Carroll, was entombed on Tuesday, 
 brought together a greater crowd than we have ever wit- 
 nessed on a similar occasion. The great, and the rich, 
 and the poor, and the lowly, assembled to pay the last 
 tribute of respect to the memory of this good and illustri- 
 ous prelate. The Chapel which has been so long cherished 
 by his fostering care, was crowded at an early hour, and 
 the multitude who assembled without, seemed rather to 
 indicate that some great public ceremony was to be per- 
 formed, than some national calamity to be deplored The 
 corpse of the venerable Archbishop which had lain in 
 state, since the preceding Sunday was now enclosed in the 
 coffin, surmounted by his mitre and pastoral crozier, and 
 surrounded by those emblems which unite the fancy with 
 the heart in solemn devotion. After the celebration of 
 High Mass, the procession moved through Saratoga and 
 Franklin streets, to the Chapel of the Seminary; which 
 was designated as the place of interment. — We have 
 
n8 
 
 never witnessed a funeral procession, where so many of 
 eminent respectability and standing among us, followed 
 the train of mourners. — Distinctions of rank, of wealth, 
 of religious opinion were laid aside, in the great testimony 
 of respect to the memory of the man. — Besides the numer- 
 ous crowd who filled the streets, the windows were thronged 
 with spectators. — The funeral service for the dead was per- 
 formed at the Chapel of the Seminary ; and the mind 
 already penetrated with regret and deepest sorrow, felt 
 the effect of these religious ceremonies, which performed 
 in the same manner, and chaunted in the same language 
 and tone of voice through succeeding ages bring together 
 the remotest periods of 1600 years, and present to the 
 mind, some faint image of eternal duration. — The deep 
 tones of the organ and the solemn chaunt of the choristers 
 seemed to the excited feeling, not to belong to this world, 
 but to be the welcome of good spirits, who had gone before, 
 and now solemnly saluted him, who descended through the 
 tomb to the bar of eternal justice, to receive the reward 
 apportioned to a good and faithful servant. 
 
 " According to the particular disposition of every one, 
 have we heard the venerable Arch-Bishop praised and 
 lamented — the extent of this knowledge and the enlarge- 
 ment of his mind, fastened upon the men of liberal science. 
 The liberality of his character and his christian charity 
 endeared him to his Protestant brethren, with whom he 
 dwelt in brotherly love. He was a patriot and loved his 
 
ii9 
 
 native land ; nor should Americans forget that his exer- 
 tions and benedictions, as a man and as a christian prelate, 
 were given to the cause and the independence of his 
 country. His manners were mild, impressive, and 
 urbane. The various stores of knowledge came from his 
 lips with uncommon classical grace and richness, which 
 he gained from a perfect acquaintance with ancient 
 languages and literature. His charities were only bounded 
 by his means, and they fell around him like the dews of 
 Heaven, gentle and unseen. To those who stood not in 
 need of the comforts of life, he administered the consola- 
 tion of his counsel ; and the weight of his character and 
 reputation for erudition and profound good sense, gave an 
 authority to his advice, which the proudest scarcely dared 
 to disregard. The veil of mourning that hid the tears of 
 the afflicted, covered many a heart not of his own particu- 
 lar flock, which felt that it lost an inestimable friend. 
 The character of Arch-Bishop Carroll seemed indeed to be 
 filled up with wonderful care. Educated at St. Omer's, 
 he was early disciplined in the exercises of the mind, and 
 deeply versed in classic love. Becoming at Liege attached 
 to the Society of Jesus, he acquired that spirit of action, — 
 that profound knowledge of the human heart,- — that ad- 
 mirable fitness for the affairs of the world, which for 200 
 years distinguished their order and spread its power to the 
 remotest countries. When the glories of the Jesuits were 
 extinguished with the society itself, he travelled over 
 
120 
 
 Europe as the friend arid instructor of an English noble- 
 man. Then he viewed the manners of different nations — 
 saw the courts of kings, and meetings of philosophers, and 
 added the liberality of a true philosopher and, the accom- 
 plishments of a gentleman, to the apostolic dignity of his 
 calling. — Temptation drew forth the purity of his virtue 
 and like Shadrach he walked erect in the flames. He 
 early marked the rise of the baleful meteor of French 
 Philosophy, and mourned when he saw the " pestilences 
 shook from its horrid hair," invade his native land. But 
 he gathered his spiritual children under his wings, and 
 protected them in security ; and he was permitted to live 
 to see a different spirit prevail to witness a great revival 
 of religion, and in the abundant prosperity of his particu- 
 lar church, to reap the harvest of his toil and labor of his 
 life. When he was called to receive the reward of his 
 many virtues, the excellence of his character shone out 
 with fresher lustre, as he gradually set like the sun in 
 mellowed splendor — Death, as if fearfully, attacked him 
 with slow and cautious approaches. The paralysis, and 
 consequent mortification of the lower extremities was 
 complete, before his icy touch, ventured to chill the 
 heart ; — and even until the last moment, the noble facul- 
 ties of the mind retained their pristine vigor. He enquired 
 if a conveyance was prepared to take away his sister and 
 weeping connections ; told them the scene was about to 
 close, and requested them to take rest and nourishment. 
 
121 
 
 His countenance retained in death the benignant expres- 
 sion of life. His piety grew warmer as life closed, and 
 the glow of religious hope was elevated almost to en- 
 thusiasm. i Sir,' he said to an eminent Protestant divine, 
 who observed that his hopes were now fixed on another 
 world : c Sir, my hopes have always been fixed on the cross 
 of Christ.' Yet, humility tempered his confidence, and 
 while a numerous circle surrounding his bed of death, 
 were transported with veneration at the moral sublimity 
 of his last moments, and his joyous expectations of a speedy 
 release, he called to his friend and associate to read for 
 him the ' Miserere mei Deus — Have mercy on me, O L,ord ' — 
 Reversing the wish of Vespasian, he desired, were it prac- 
 ticable, to be placed on the floor, that he might expire in 
 the posture of deepest humility, as a christian martyr, and 
 an humble suppliant to an interceding Saviour. How do 
 the boasted glories of philosophy fade before the death of 
 such a man ! Socrates died with a cheerless and unknown 
 futurity before him — Cato's indignant soul spurned the 
 yoke of imperial Caesar, and Seneca opened his veins and 
 calmly discoursed of philosophy as life ebbed with the 
 purple tide, — but it was not theirs to know the hope of the 
 christian, which springs from a life of virtue and a pious 
 soul, and which changes the tomb into the triumphal 
 arch, through which the pilgrim passes into joyful 
 eternity.' ' 
 
 \Signed.~] " E." 
 
122 
 
 CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 REV. PETER HELBRON, A PIONEER PRIEST OF WESTERN 
 PENNSYLVANIA DIES ON HIS WAY HOME AT CARLISLE. 
 — HIS ASTONISHING JOURNEYS IN THE DISCHARGE 
 OF HIS DUTIES. — IN HIS WILL HE BE- 
 QUEATHES ALL HIS PROPERTY TO ST. 
 PATRICK'S CONGREGATION. — PUR- 
 CHASE OF OHE BLAINE LOTS 
 FOR A RECTORY BY 
 THOMAS HAGAN. 
 
 It was during the pastorate of Father De Barth, that one 
 of the old pioneer missionaries, while on his way to Phila- 
 delphia in search of medical aid breathed his last in the 
 home of Thomas Hagan, in Carlisle. 
 
 But few biographical data are available concerning this 
 man, but those few stamp him as a fit companion for men 
 like a Gallitzin, Barth and Brosius. Discomfort and hard- 
 ship, the restrictions of a language whose unfamiliarity nar- 
 rowed his career and circumscribed his influence, not even 
 the realization that he was affected with an acute disease, 
 which he, not unskilled in the practise of medicine, knew 
 fully well would cause his death, — deterred him from 
 performing missionary work which even in the light of 
 modern traveling facilities, would seem simply stupendous. 
 The ready acquiescence and unruffled cheerfulness with 
 which he accepted the most toilsome and obnoxious mis- 
 
123 
 
 sions, with but one dominant thought in view — the Glory 
 of God and the salvation of souls, reveals to us the priest 
 according to the heart of God. His sojourn in any mission 
 was too brief to affix to it the impress of his individuality, 
 — but his unobtrusive and unsparing labors were none the 
 less meritorious in the sight of heaven and salutary to the 
 souls entrusted to his care. 
 
 The antecedents of Rev. Peter Helbron, before his 
 arrival in America are involved in considerable mystery. 
 No doubt of German extraction, he must have known of 
 the dearth of priests in this country and volunteered to 
 join the self exiled heroes, who were accomplishing such 
 noble work. The first record we have of him is that 
 " Rev. Petrus Hulbrun and the Rev. John Bapt. Hulbrun,* 
 arrived in Pennsylvania on board the ship Dorothea, 
 master, from Rotterdam, Oct. 14th, 1787." He was at 
 once appointed to Goshenhoppen, Berks Co. — for in the 
 will of the Rev. John Lewis, f made in April, 1788, Elk- 
 ton Cecil Co., Md. — he bequeathes all his property to Rev. 
 Robert Molyneux, including " all my estate in Hereford 
 township, save that in the tenure of R. J. Baptist De Ritter, 
 now of Rev. Peter Helbron, Berks county.' ' 
 
 On Aug. 19th, 1 791, we find him installed as the second 
 pastor of the church of the Holy Trinity, Philadelphia, 
 where he succeeded his brother John Charles, who returned 
 
 * Penna. Archives, (II Series,) Vol. XVII, p. 532. 
 f Records of the Am. Cath. Hist y Soc, Vol. I, p. 158. 
 
I2 4 
 
 to Europe in 1791. He was of course elected to the posi- 
 tion by the Trustees of the church, — but since Bishop 
 Carroll cheerfully gave his approbation to the selection, 
 the impending storm which proved so harmful to the 
 prestige, and mischievous to the development of Catho- 
 licity, was temporarily checked. The Philadelphia recol- 
 lections represent him as a man of culture and refinement ; 
 punctiliously neat and precise in his priestly attire and 
 duties ; with a dignified and commanding presence ; sitting 
 his horse with a military grace and repose that formed an 
 unfailing source of admiration to his flock, and perhaps 
 was not untinctured with a little pardonable vanity on the 
 part of the rider. This accomplishment, which tradition 
 recalls in the Alleghanies as well as Philadelphia, is 
 easily accounted for by the fact that Father Helbron had 
 done military duty in Prussia before his elevation to the 
 priesthood. 
 
 The scandalous and disastrous conflict of the Trustees 
 of Trinity Church with ecclesiastical authority began on 
 Nov. 16th, 1796, when in defiance of episcopal authority 
 and in flagitious violation of its own laws, the Trustees 
 elected Rev. John Nepomucen Goetz as its pastor. This 
 contumacious act, not only displaced Father Helbron, 
 caused Bishop Carroll an endless amount of mortification 
 and sorrow, disrupted the precarious unity, then the only 
 hope of Catholic success, but laid the seeds for that calam- 
 itous epoch — the Hoganite schism. The congregation 
 
125 
 
 was divided into two embittered factions, — for the encounter 
 was more than a mere ecclesiastical passage at arms. 
 Father Helbron with the loyal Catholics retired to St. 
 Joseph's Church ; — Goetz, the Trustees and seceders took 
 possession of Trinity Church. Goetz, though formally 
 excommunicated, was still upheld and supported by the 
 Trustees. This melancholy condition of affairs existed 
 until 1802 when Father Elling and the Trustees made 
 their submission to the Bishop of Baltimore. During these 
 three years Father Helbron was at St. Joseph's until the 
 fall of 1799 when he was appointed pastor of Sportsman's 
 Hall, Westmoreland County, the present large Benedictine 
 Abbey, St Vincent's, and mother house of the order 
 in America. He took possession on November 17th. 
 The scandalous misconduct of his predecessor here 
 also had not only spiritually played havoc with faith, 
 but criminally alienated the church property, which 
 only after wearisome and expensive litigation came 
 into rightful possession again. After spending the holidays 
 with his little congregation, saying mass in a stuffy little 
 room of his log house, he returned to Philadelphia for a 
 brief visit. The following entry in the mutilated church 
 records of Carlisle, in Father Helbron's own hand, written 
 in German, gives evidence of the methodical exactness for 
 which he was always conspicuous. " On the 14th day of 
 May, 1800, R. Petrus Helbron returned to his place sports- 
 manhal, in Westmoreland." 
 
126 
 
 From this we can date the beginning of his career on 
 the other side of the Alleghanies. Familiarized with his 
 new charge he at once set about to build a home for him- 
 self, — a log house 28 X 26 feet, to which the congregation, 
 now thoroughly enthusiastic did the best it could, by 
 attaching a rude shed to the house, to answer as a chapel, 
 until favorable circumstances would permit the erection of 
 a more worthy habitation for our Lord. There was a super- 
 fluous abundance of wood, nor were joyous hearts and 
 willing hands wanting to hasten the completion of this 
 primitive temple,— but there was a deterrent absence of 
 
 nails. They were an expensive commodity in those 
 
 days, doubly so in the wild and primeval Alleghanies. 
 But this did not balk the enthusiasim of our fervid Cath- 
 olics. One of their number, Henry Kuhn, took his horse 
 and saddle-bags, and came east over the mountains to 
 raise sufficient funds to purchase nails. No doubt could 
 the old list of contributors be discovered, more than one 
 Carlisle name would be found on it, — for Carlisle was then 
 the commerical emporium west of Philadelphia and 
 Lancaster, and actually had a brick Catholic Church — 
 a marvel in those days. 
 
 In 1810, the first church proper was built. A log struc- 
 ture of course, with the cathedral — like proportions of 40 
 X 27 feet. It had the luxury of a pine floor, but still 
 remained unplastered. 
 
 From Sportsman's Hall Father Helbron made those 
 
127 
 
 astonishing and lengthy excursions which would seem to 
 us improbable, if not impossible, did we not know that he 
 was an expert horseman, and did not his military nicety 
 of detail, record every visit. In October, 1803 — he visited 
 " all stations beyond the Alleghany and Monongahela. 
 On Oct. 22nd, he was in Buffalo N. Y. and records 
 no less than thirty-eight baptisms in one day. In Sep- 
 tember, 1805, he again visited Buffalo and forty-one 
 baptisms find an entry in the Registers, for the 26th, 
 28th, and 30th of that month. April 26th, 1812 we 
 again find him there baptizing fifteen persons on the same 
 day." 
 
 In the same year (1805) " he visited five counties bap- 
 tizing ninety children, and even then, writing from Pitts- 
 burg, he said he would visit Washington, Roundstone, and 
 York River before he returned home."* 
 
 During all this time Dr. Helbron, as he was familiarly 
 called was on the most intimate and brotherly terms with 
 Father Gallitzin, his neighbor. Their mutual inter- 
 change of visits was frequent, and at times prolonged into 
 days and weeks. We can readily imagine the intercourse 
 of these holy souls, their minds fired with zeal, their hearts 
 aglow with love of God and man, their every action a 
 mute but prayerful adoration of the Providence of God, 
 which had sent them into these uninhabitable surround- 
 
 * Shea, Life of Archbishop Carroll, p. 451. 
 
128 
 
 ings as embassadors of His Word and dispensers of His 
 mysteries. Like the Fathers of the Desert, who only 
 broke their perpetual silence, when issuing from their 
 solitude to pay occasional visits to each other, the moments 
 of which were consecrated to the discourse of holy things, 
 animating each other with intensified ardor, so these patri- 
 archs of our holy Faith sought each other to find solace in 
 their tribulation, counsel in their perplexities, mutual 
 inspiration in their discouragements. This was done 
 not so much as an incentive for mental diversion, as 
 to extend, the scope of their usefulness, increase the 
 ardor of their zeal, and promote the glory of God. 
 Such visits could only accentuate their holy mission, 
 and redouble their efforts to reclaim and preserve the 
 widely scattered flock of Christ entrusted to their care. 
 
 His advanced age, debilitated body, and above all the 
 fatal malady — a tumor on his neck, which once before 
 baffled the surgeon's knife, were now giving unmistakable 
 indications that he could not enjoy a much more extended 
 lease of life. He never received, nor for that matter 
 accepted or expected a salary, but supported his frugal 
 wants from a small patrimony attached to the parish, and 
 the profits accruing from its farm. His patrimony had 
 undergone an ominous shrinkage, his experiments as a 
 farmer were destined to lamentable failure, — the malig- 
 nant tumor was threatening a fatal issue. In this dire ex- 
 tremity, his congregation raised a handsome subscription 
 
129 
 
 for him to go east and seek more capable medical skill 
 since local physicians could do nothing for him. He left 
 for Philadelphia — a journey of 280 miles to consult some 
 specialist. The operation was performed — but was soon 
 followed by fatal results, of which no doubt he had pre- 
 monitory symptoms. His heart yearned for his old moun- 
 tain home, for his abandoned and expectant flock, — and 
 the effort to spend his declining days in their midst was 
 gallantly made. Divine Providence, however, shaped 
 matters differently. 
 
 On his return trip his condition became so alarm- 
 ing that he could not proceed further than Carlisle. 
 Here, no doubt, he had formed some acquaintance 
 during his former visits to Philadelphia. He found a 
 warm welcome and an affectionate care in the home of 
 Thomas Hagan and his wife Mary. Their home was 
 then on East High (now Main) Street, where the 
 Henderson block now is. Here they kept a store. His 
 sickness was of brief duration, and he died here, April 
 24th, 1816. 
 
 In his dying moments, he made a will in which he 
 bequeathed all his estate real and personal to Mary Hagan 
 in trust for the Catholic Congregation at Carlisle. Why 
 this was done to the exclusion of Sportsman's Hall remains 
 inexplicable. The following is the will.* 
 
 * Recorded in Will Book H, , p. 390. 
 
13° 
 
 " I, Peter Helbrune being of sound and disposing mind 
 and memory, blessed be got for the same, and being duly 
 sensible of the short continuance of this mortal life do make 
 this my last will and testament in manner and form follow- 
 ing to wit : I give and device all my estate real and personal 
 unto Mary Hagan, wife of Thomas Hagan to hold to her 
 heirs and assigns (in trust) for the use of the Catholic 
 Church in the Borough {of Carlisle)* for ever after first 
 deducting all expenses that she may be at in attending me 
 in my last illness and the expenses of my funeral : the 
 money owing me from my estate to be applied to the said 
 Church in such a way as the trustees of said Church 
 shall think proper, and do hereby nominate consti- 
 tute and appoint Thomas Hagan of the borough of Car- 
 lisle to be sole executor of this my last said will and 
 testament. 
 
 " Interlineations made before signing 
 
 " Signed sealed and 
 proclaimed to be the 
 
 said will and testament His 
 
 of Peter Helbron, this [Signed]. " Peter + Helbrone " 
 day of 22nd April 1816 Mark 
 
 in the presence of 
 
 John A. Black, 
 
 W. Ramsey ! ' 
 
 * Words in Italics were interlined. 
 
13* 
 
 He was buried in the immediate rear of the old church, 
 and when the annex was built in 1823, ^ covered both it 
 and other graves which surrounded it. No tombstone 
 marked his last resting place, and the spot that contained 
 his remains, was left undisturbed when the present church 
 was built in 1893. The s P ot * s immediately opposite the 
 statue of St. Patrick, under the communion railing. 
 
 Though a man of scrupulous nicety and punctilious 
 method in the discharge of his priestly duties, the result of 
 thorough ecclesiastical training, as much as an outgrowth 
 of his military career, in financial affairs, as well as farm- 
 ing he displa5'ed an inaptitude and simplicity that w r ould 
 be droll, were in not that it caused him much anxiety in 
 life, and resulted in litigation after his death. He seemed 
 to lack all powers of adaptability to conform to the customs 
 and language of his adopted country. European methods, 
 especially those in vogue in thrifty and frugal Germany, 
 w r ere utterly impracticable in this country with its un- 
 broken forests and virgin soil. His ignorance of the 
 English language, which he took little or no pains to 
 acquire, lead him to many misunderstandings, and involved 
 him in unpleasant collisions with those with whom he had 
 commercial transactions. A giant in the service of God — 
 he was a child in the business activities of life. This was 
 especially conspicuous in the singular, not to say eccen- 
 tric manner in which he managed his farm. An inventory 
 of his estate at the time of his death shows that he had no 
 
132 
 
 less than five horses, seven head of cattle, besides a large 
 number of sheep, hogs and calves. All told, he had thirty 
 animals that not only needed feed and stabling and care in 
 winter, but which even under the most favorable circum- 
 stances would be a drain on his cash account, not to allude 
 to the inadequate, even expensive shifts he was reduced to 
 keep them alive. The consequence was, that frequent and 
 protracted absences from home obliged him to trust to the 
 capacity and integrity of others, which in the one case 
 was misplaced, and in the other repeatedly abused, and 
 naturally debts were incurred which he could not pay. 
 
 An inventory of his estate reveals the fact that it was 
 appraised at $1414.19, of this he carried $104.11 on his 
 person at the time of his death. Claims came from all 
 directions, as they invariably do in such cases. One 
 on a note endorsed by Gen. James O'Hara, of Pittsburg, 
 amounted to $311.82. The balance found by the Orphans 
 Court for distribution amounted to but $325.58^. This 
 was handed to the executor Thomas Hagan. What dis- 
 position was made of this balance cannot be ascertained, 
 although the writer recalls reading somewhere that Father 
 Dwen in a letter to Bishop Conwell claimed that it was 
 appropriated as the testator directed. Of this there can be 
 no doubt, since both Hagan and his wife were persons of 
 sturdy honesty, and most zealous Catholics besides. 
 
 The final disposition of the legacy, can perhaps be 
 accounted for by a purchase Thomas Hagan made, a year 
 
133 
 
 after Father Helbron's death, by which the lot and stone 
 house adjoining the church was acquired, and which is 
 now occupied by the Rectory. On April 16, 1817,* he 
 purchased from Ephraim Blaine, the grandfather of the 
 Hon. James G. Blaine, a lot 60 ft. front and 260 ft. in 
 length, with a stone house on it, for the sum of $800.00. 
 Ephraim Blaine was Commissary General in the Revolu- 
 tionary army, and a man of means and influence. The 
 object in view, in making this purchase was obviously to 
 hold it for the church until such a time when it could be 
 purchased. The whole transaction reflects great credit 
 on the sagacity and foresight of Mr. Hagan. He held it 
 until 1820, when on May 20th, f he and his wife trans- 
 ferred it to the Rev. Francis O'Neill " Treasurer of the 
 Jesuit Society and to his successors in office in trust for 
 the use of the Roman Catholic Congregation in the 
 Borough of Carlisle." The consideration was the same 
 as that of the first purchase $800. 
 
 From this it would seem that Mr. Hagan employed the 
 $325.00, balance of Father Helbron's legacy, in this pur- 
 chase, the balance being raised either by the congregation, 
 or the munificence of the Conewago Jesuits. The house 
 was an old stone affair, with a large vegetable garden 
 attached, which was usually rented and the proceeds 
 devoted to assist in paying the pastor his nameless salary. 
 
 * Recorded in Deed Book DD, p* 23. Dated April 7, 1817. 
 
 f Recorded in Deed Book EE, Vol. I, p. 550. Dated May 2% 182s. 
 
134 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 
 REV. GEORGE D. HOGAN, FIRST RESIDENT PASTOR. — 
 THE EXPOSURE OF REV. WILLIAM HOGAN, THE SCHIS- 
 MATIC. — INTERESTING CORRESPONDENCE BE- 
 TWEEN FATHER HOGAN AND BISHOP CON- 
 WELL. — ISAAC BROWN PARKER, ESQ., 
 SENDS ON AN AFFIDAVIT. — FATHER 
 HOGAN AND CHIEF JUSTICE GIBSON. 
 
 The increasing Catholic population, the formation of 
 new settlements, the dearth of priests and the growing 
 infirmities of those engaged in the vast and laborious 
 field, made it paramount to see that capable, efficient and 
 zealous men would come forward to step into the depleted 
 ranks. The dire need of priests, both German and Eng- 
 lish-speaking, grew daily more apparent, and only became 
 more accentuated in view of the stream of immigration 
 pouring its thousands on our shores. Appeals were made 
 to Ireland and Germany, and were responded to most 
 readily by a self-sacrificing body of men, who were fully 
 impressed with the magnitude of the task that confronted 
 them, but had barely an idea of the hardships and priva- 
 tions that would have to be endured. The consequence 
 was that many a brave heart sank and fiery zeal dam- 
 pened — when the extreme poverty, the small numerical 
 strength, the vast distances separating the missions, the 
 heterogeneous nationalities constituting the parishes, the 
 
135 
 
 repellant attitude of sectarian bigotry — were viewed for 
 the first time face to face — and the abstract idea became a 
 stunning reality. The Jesuits, inured to a life of depriva- 
 tion and poverty — bore the ordeal heroically, even cheer- 
 fully — but many of the secular priests unconsciously 
 recoiled from a work, which they had not unreasonably 
 concluded would shorten their lives and perhaps be pro- 
 ductive of little appreciable good in the end. 
 
 Unfortunately the New World had already become an 
 asylum not only for the oppressed, but for many who had 
 the choice between solitary confinment in some reforma- 
 tory institution, or precipitate flight to America, of becom- 
 ing a burden to society in some workhouse or eleemosy- 
 nary asylum, or searching for pastures new in this country 
 of the broadest liberty. Many availed themselves of the 
 latter alternative. Among the ecclesiastical recusants who 
 came to the new country there were found priests who at 
 times had been questionable ornaments of their profession, 
 and who, having exhausted the patience of their spiritual 
 superiors and being at the end of their canonical tethers, 
 sought this new country, not so much for rehabilita- 
 ting their smirched character or atoning for their flagrant 
 conduct as to have a new license and a more inviting field 
 to ply their avocation of scandal, greed, shame, and disgiace. 
 This, to the incalculable detriment of religion, the irre- 
 parable scandal to non-Catholics and the irremediable 
 ruin of souls. America became not only the dumping 
 
136 
 
 ground of undesirable immigrants, but the refuge of dis- 
 affected and recalcitrant priests. One of these, and prob- 
 bably the most mischievous and abandoned that America 
 had as yet seen, whose malign influence retarded the 
 work of the Church in Pennsylvania, for more than 
 twenty years, at a stage of her existence when a lasting 
 schism seemed both imminent and possible, was a man 
 whose name is alway inseparably connected with that of 
 the first resident pastor, (resident pastor in a measure, as 
 we shall see) of Carlisle. 
 
 A new era begins in the history of St. Patrick's Congre- 
 gation with the advent of the Rev. George Denis Hogan, 
 who was literally its first resident pastor, usually dividing 
 his time between York and Carlisle, with Conewago as 
 headquarters, if the term may be used, for the want of a 
 better. 
 
 Formerly the missionaries from Conewago attended all 
 the churches that were attached to it, by a precedent 
 sanctioned by custom or ecclesiastical authority, we are 
 unable to state. Now they seem to have been apportioned 
 off*, and allotted to the pastoral care of duly appointed 
 priests. The method had much to commend in it. It 
 relieved the priest of fatiguing journeys, brought him more 
 in touch with his congregation, to study, feel and relieve 
 their necessities, attend to their spiritual wants, and per- 
 mitted a more concentrated effort in working for the ma- 
 terial prosperity of both church and people. 
 
137 
 
 Rev. G. D. Hogan was born in Limerick, Ireland, and 
 came from a stock that gave the church a number of (some 
 of them prominent) priests. Whether he was invited by 
 V. Rev. de Barth, who was then administrator of the dio- 
 cese of Philadelphia, could not be ascertained. It was the 
 latter, however, who sent him to St. Mary's Seminary, 
 Baltimore, in 1819 to prepare for ordination. He had 
 made his studies in Maynooth College, received minor 
 orders there, a sufficient warrant that he was a man of 
 intellectual parts, if not ripe scholarship. His studies at 
 St. Mary's were brief, consisting of nothing more than an 
 immediate preparation for the holy priesthood. He 
 entered the Seminary, December 29th, 1S19 — received sub- 
 deaconship and deaconship March 20th and 21st, 1820, at 
 the hands of Archbishop Marechal in St. Peter's Church, 
 Baltimore, and was raised to the holy priesthood by the 
 same prelate on the 25th of the same month, in the chapel 
 of the Seminary. In October (15th, 182 1) he was appointed 
 to serve Carlisle and York conjointly, as pastor. 
 
 His, career here was too brief to permit a proper estimate 
 being made of his character or ability. A scholarly man, 
 he must have been, the endorsement of Maynooth places 
 him on this score, — beyond the range of a doubt or perad- 
 venture. The church records prove him to have been 
 methodical, precise and neat in the performance of his 
 parochial work. The literary remains that have been 
 handed down to us bear the stamp of a well disciplined 
 
i 3 8 
 
 mind, a ready and copious command of unimpeachable 
 English and a sturdy faith. Of a vacillating temperament, 
 disappointed in the prospects held out, physically unable to 
 perform the arduous work of the mission, and above all 
 the impending ecclesiastical cataclysm eventually caused 
 by his namesake of unsavory reputation and inglorious 
 memory, made him yearn to return to his old home. 
 Upon repeated application he received his dismissory 
 letter {exeat) to return to his native land. This he did in 
 July, 1822, ^serving less than two years on the American 
 missions. 
 
 In Carlisle he is mainly recalled by the incidents of his 
 arrest by one of his parishioners for an unpaid boarding 
 bill — which is narrated more circumstantially later ; — and 
 by the fact that he usually spent two weeks at Carlisle 
 and York alternately, thus becoming more intimately 
 acquainted with his parishioners, and leaving a proportion- 
 ately better impression on their lives and faith. 
 
 He however entered into historic prominence by his ex- 
 pose of the life and habits of his cousin, Rev. William 
 Hogan, whose malodorous reputation, scandalous career 
 and calamitous rebellion, caused the first and most disas- 
 trous schism the Church ever experienced in this country. 
 
 Rev. William Hogan was a priest of " shady " antece- 
 dents before he came to this country,— and no doubt his 
 
 * According to Bishop Newman's Diary, he died in Paris the same year ; " 
 Parts 1822." 
 
139 
 
 conduct and history was such that he considered his career 
 virtually at an end, as far as Ireland was concerned. 
 On his arrival here, he received faculties to exercise 
 priestly functions in Albany, and to be near his kins- 
 man, sought admission to the Philadelphia diocese. Not 
 having proper letters of dismissal (exeat) he was ad- 
 mitted conditionally by Father De Barth, the adminis- 
 trator. About the same time Bishop Conwell was con- 
 secrated bishop, and took possession of his new see 
 December 2, 1820. 
 
 The conduct of Rev. William Hogan was such as to 
 demand ecclesiastical censure, which was not only re- 
 sented by him, but called forth a perfect tempest of indig- 
 nation on the part of the parishioners, fanned by the in- 
 cendiary harangues of the temporary pastor of St. Mary's, 
 which he claimed to possess by canonical right. The 
 whole affair is discussed more fully in the next chapter, — 
 but it is broached here to introduce some letters exchanged 
 between the litigant parties, in which Father George 
 Hogan, while pastor of Carlisle, did yeoman work in the 
 cause of truth, and unveiled the masquerading hypocrisy 
 and perjured villainy of his cousin, in a manner that should 
 have proved fatal to all his pretensions. Eventually they 
 set the seal of falsehood, and branded as a blasphemous 
 apostate a man who like all of his stripe, run their mete- 
 oric course in the briefest space of time. In leaving the 
 Church, the anticipated secession of Catholics of course 
 
140 
 
 failed to take place ; in marrying consecutively two 
 widows, he took God's punishments into his own hands, 
 and in dying a death of despair, he but followed the foot- 
 steps of his precursor in the Apostolic college, whose 
 memory is held up to eternal execration. 
 
 Bishop Conwell was not the most approachable of men. 
 His assumption of prerogatives, not entirely of an eccle- 
 siastical nature, readily and reverently accorded in Cath- 
 olic countries, was looked upon somewhat askance in this 
 democratic atmosphere of liberty and equality. His re- 
 serve and coldness and unsympathetic demeanor, more than 
 the exercise of arbitrary or dictatorial authority, chilled if 
 it did not alienate the affections of some of his priests. At 
 a time when Catholicity was in its mere formative state, a 
 punctilious observance of all the straitlaced proprieties 
 could easily have been dispensed with, and the exercise of 
 the amenities of a more fraternal nature, been most ad- 
 vantageously cultivated. However this was more the 
 result of trans-Atlantic training, than a desire to be asser- 
 tive of his dignity or authority. 
 
 In the following letter, written whilst pastor at Carlisle, 
 as in fact all the following letters were, Father G. Hogan 
 takes the initiative in making a series of disclosures, that 
 speedily and summarily brush away all of William Hogan's 
 pretensions to piety and learning, and would have sounded 
 the death knell of his shortlived popularity, had not the 
 obstinacy of the church Trustees, under the glamor and 
 
141 
 
 thrall of the perverted priest, been blinded to all sense ot 
 christian duty. From all that can be learned of the Trus- 
 tees and William Hogan, they must have formed an ideal 
 admiration society. Never was there a body in which the 
 chief received a more effusive and perpetual flattery, and 
 repaid it by a more obsequious and elaborate condescen- 
 sion. 
 
 The correspondence, while it unravels a part of church 
 history not commonly known, — gives a most comprehen- 
 sive reflex of the arrogant priest and disgruntled Trustees. 
 It reveals William Hogan to us, as a man whose love of 
 flattery, inordinate vanity and overweening ambition not 
 only unfitted him for missionary work, but already showed 
 the unmistakable symptoms of rebellion and apostasy. 
 The letters passed between Bishop Conwell, Father 
 George, and William Hogan, will unfold the whole de- 
 plorable tale and its lamentable consequences. It will be 
 noticed that those of Father George Hogan are not only 
 written in a graceful English, — but breathe a warm piety 
 and fervent faith. 
 
 The first is addressed : — 
 " To The Right Rev. The Bishop of Philadelphia. 
 
 " Conewago, 20th of January, 1821. 
 4 4 My Lord : — 
 
 44 If mutual confidence had been established between us, 
 while I was in Philadelphia, I am inclined to believe that 
 certain matters I intended to communicate, would lead to 
 
142 
 
 some beneficial consequences. But after much anxious 
 reflection and consultation, I feel it still my painful duty 
 to advise with your lordship concerning the line of con- 
 duct I am to pursue relative to Mr. Hogan. Your lord- 
 ship may recollect that I mentioned to you, I perceived 
 last summer, certain indications in him of exceptionable 
 conduct as a clergyman. But my suspicions have been fully 
 realized, when last in Philadelphia, by an explicit avowal 
 of his sentiments. Without entering into a further detail 
 for the present, they are such as entitle me to pronounce 
 him unworthy of confidene as a Catholic priest. Of these 
 facts, however, I believe I am the sole depository. Conse- 
 quently they can be brought to bear upon your lordship's 
 proceedings only as ex post facto proofs against him. It 
 remains now to be determined by your lordship, whether 
 at all, or in what manner, a disclosure on my part would 
 serve the cause of religion. We have lived for years on 
 terms of the strictest intimacy. His friends are aware that 
 I am now in the same house with Mr. Debarth, whose 
 hasty proceedings I before censured with some asperity. 
 Appearing in these circumstances against Mr. H., they 
 will reproach me with ingratitude, with inconsistency, 
 perhaps also with interested views. Such obloquy, how- 
 ever, I disregard, only inasmuch as it may seem to give 
 some colour to their calumny, and render my depositions 
 fruitless. But if y6ur lordship be of a contrary opinion, 
 the only question that remains, is, in what manner am I 
 
H3 
 
 to proceed ? If I direct a public letter to Philadelphia, I 
 will be deprived of the opportunity and advantage of a 
 timely reply, which probably may be requisite. Besides, I 
 will be stigmatized as a mere tool, worked upon by Mr. 
 D. B. If I were to threaten Mr. H. with my intentions, 
 this intimation may enable him before the public to defeat 
 the success of my endeavors. Now, my lord, it strikes 
 me, that if I were to be confronted with two or three of 
 his leading friends, and that we be sworn to secrecy, my 
 depositions would prevail with them either to abandon 
 him, or be guided by prudent measures ; but if your lord- 
 ship views the matter in some other light, I am prepared 
 to resign my conduct relative to this melancholy business, 
 totally to your direction. I feel I am placed in a very 
 trying predicament, otherwise I would not presume to 
 obtrude any of the above suggestions upon your lord- 
 ship's consideration. It requires very little research to 
 foresee the jealousies and angry feelings my conduct is 
 likely to occasion in our families at home, whilst the 
 unthinking and malicious in the old and new world, 
 will show me little mercy. But I confidently hope that 
 the Lord whom I fear, will assist and protect me. I still 
 entertain friendly and charitable feelings towards Mr. H. 
 But my solemn duty to God, will always predominate 
 over private considerations. I have now only to add, 
 that if your lordship pleases, you may (under the veil 
 of strict secrecy) show this letter to Mr. Cummisky 
 
144 
 
 You have now only to speak, and rely on the ready compli- 
 ance of your lordship's submissive subject, 
 
 [Signed.] "G. D. Hogan, 
 
 "Near Abbottstown, Adams County, Pennsylvania." 
 " P. S. — Perhaps it may be necessary to mention, 
 that Mr. Deborth is not at all concerned in this busi- 
 ness. n 
 
 The following is an answer to the above letter, by the 
 Right Rev. Bishop Connell, which many conjectured 
 might have held out an inducement to the Rev. G. D. 
 Hogan, to make a subsequent disclosure. 
 
 " Philadelphia, January 27, 182 1. 
 " Rev. Dear Sir, 
 
 u Yours of the 20th only came to hand this day. Your 
 immediate compliance with my desire that you should 
 return to Conewago, confirmed the good opinion I had of 
 you before I saw you ; for I was previously led to believe by 
 the relation of others, that you were under the influence 
 of conscience, and had the fear of God in your heart, 
 and nothing accordingly could induce me to signify the 
 wish I had, that you should go back so suddenly, except 
 the circumstances which you knew the clergy to be in here, 
 for otherwise, I was disposed to retain you for a while at 
 least, after conferring and consulting with the Rev. Mr. 
 Barth. Considering that you were ordained for the diocese 
 of Philadelphia, and entertaining the above opinion, I 
 thought it by no means advisable to part with you, when 
 
145 
 
 state of religion required many more priests than are 
 employed on the mission here at present, and therefore 
 knowing as you do this to be the case, you cannot con- 
 sider me as dealing unfairly with you, when I refused to 
 give you an exeat, which probably on a reconsideration of 
 the matter, you might be soiry for hereafter, if I had 
 granted your request. 
 
 ( c The Rev. Mr. ilannan tells me, that if he had come 
 sooner, he could have prevented the publication of the 
 pamphlet, which Doctor Kelly thought he could have done, 
 by threatening to divulge something he knew about him. 
 If I knew the worst things possible of the gentleman in 
 question, it would ill become me to give them publicity 
 to the injury of the clerical order. I did not think proper 
 to let Mr. Cummisky know anything of your communica- 
 ation ; whatever intelligence I got of what came to your 
 knowledge, I should be sorry to reveal or act upon as long 
 as you wish it. Send me the particulars, and let me know 
 
 how you and Mr. stand. Write to me by return of 
 
 post. 
 
 " I am with affectionate regard, 
 
 i 4 Yours sincerely, 
 [Signed.'] ' ' HENRY, Bishop of Philadelphia.' 5 
 
 In answer to the above the disclosure of Hogan's in- 
 tended apostacy and the motives that lead to it are first 
 broached, in a letter to Bishop Conwell, which reads as 
 follows : 
 
I i 
 
 146 
 Conkwago, 2d February, 182 1. 
 
 44 My Lord, 
 
 44 1 feel unaffectedly grateful to your lordship for con- 
 descending to honour me with your complimentary and 
 friendly letter, and connecting your authority with its 
 divine source, shall always feel it my sacred duty to 
 endeavour to meet your lordship's approbation. Though 
 your lordship has charitably overlooked my indiscreet 
 behaviour in Philadelphia, it is no less imperative on 
 me to make what atonement lies in my power. I ap- 
 proached Philadelphia with a heavy heart from various 
 causes ; whilst subsequent apprehension, (perhaps un- 
 warrantably indulged) aggravated my feelings and dictated 
 certain irritable language, for which I now in the most 
 unqualified manner solicit your lordship's indulgent for- 
 giveness. After this digression prescribed by duty, I 
 shall now cheerfully comply with your lordship's wishes 
 in the following communication : 
 
 44 Thinking me unwilling to go to Philadelphia, Mr. 
 Hogan wrote to me, to meet him in Lancaster, which I 
 accordingly did. Aware that I was under the impression 
 of bad treatment, he imagined that a fair opportunity 
 offered of warping my religious principles ; with this view 
 he very artfully proposed to me ' to accompany him to 
 Bishop Hobart of New York, who would very eagerly re- 
 ceive us into his service, and that in a few years we might 
 be able to lay by a comfortable provision for life." At 
 
147 
 
 the very mention of such a diabolical proposal, I got quite 
 confounded, which of course interrupted the conversation. 
 But after some interval, he again urged it with the most 
 crafty ingenuity. I only answered him by insisting to 
 hear no more about it ; he then asked me ( if he went to 
 Hobart would I then visit him ; ' I replied not ; he then 
 inquired i would I speak to him,' to which I replied, I 
 might if I met him accidentally. He then observed, l I 
 was like all young priests, pious for the first two years, but 
 that he never met one, who retained any faith, and that he 
 never knew an honest man among them but one, ' men- 
 tioning his name, who by the bye was as vapid a fox as 
 himself. This antichristian calumny of course I repro- 
 bated in his presence. All this I intended to communicate 
 to your lordship when I arrived in Philadelphia ; on our 
 way he remarked, that he wanted sadly to procure L,uther's 
 works. Though I had very little doubts of what he was 
 upon, particularly after reading only a few pages of his 
 pamphlet, yet to be fully satisfied, I asked him, did he 
 since his suspension say regularly his office : to which he 
 replied not, even for some time before, and that he never 
 would . In the stage, some Protestants from Carlisle, male 
 as well as female, traveled with us, who frequently heard 
 me expatiate on the sanctified life of our clergy in general. 
 But his conduct in their presence was so gross, and so dis- 
 edifying, that I was frequently obliged to hang down my 
 head in confusion. When your lordship refused to speak 
 
148 
 
 to me in private, I imagined then it was for want of confi- 
 dence, which naturally mortified me sorely ; I came back 
 to him and asked would he accompany me to Ireland, if I 
 obtained my exeat, he replied he would. This I did with 
 a view to prevent him from apostasy ; considering that if 
 he went there, the persuasion of friends and remorse, might 
 convert him. I however assured him, unless he disavowed 
 all notions of apostasy, I would abandon him, and lie on 
 my own oars : he then said he was not serious, in alluding 
 to the apostasy alone, but in some time after declared • he 
 would not officiate as priest, he said he would (knowing 
 me not to have passage money) bear my expenses to any 
 diocese in the world, I. chose to go to. ' I have stated matters 
 in order and even verbally as they occurred, that your lord- 
 ship may judge whether I was warranted in deeming him 
 unworthy of confidence as a Catholic priest any longer, or 
 is there any reliance to be placed on his declaration in the 
 circumstances I mention, that he was not serious. For my 
 part, I solemnly declare, that I think it was expressed 
 solely with the design to moderate my evident horror of 
 the act, and I would be qualified to depose that I believe 
 he is not tinctured with one remaining ray of Catholic 
 faith. I differ in opinion in this, as well as in many other 
 things, with Mr. Hannan, that he could prevent the pub- 
 lication of the pamphlet, had he arrived in due time. I 
 am firmly persuaded (still I may be in error) that it was 
 designed as a desperate resource of conscious guilt in this 
 
i 4 9 
 
 country. I feel sincerely indebted to your lordship, for 
 your kind inquiry about my situation here. Whatever 
 may be the occasional causes of my discontent, it is my 
 sincere desire they shall not interfere with your lordship's 
 arrangements. I am content to languish in passive silence 
 here for many reasons, until your lordship can conven- 
 iently relieve me. In the dispensations of a benign Prov- 
 idence, it is meet I should suffer something for some im- 
 perfections from which I by no means claim an exemption ; 
 I am resolved not to differ with Mr. D. B. upon any prov- 
 ocation. His former kindness to me, and correct conduct 
 up to a venerable old age, ought to suppress every rising 
 emotion caused only by his natural' warmth of temper. 
 But if your lordship do still desire it, I authorize the Rev. 
 Mr. Cummiskey to show you a confidential letter I sent 
 him yesterday, which is a faithful expose of our misunder- 
 standings here. I only received your lordship's letter this 
 evening. I am preparing to start for Carlisle in the morn- 
 ing, which may account for the inaccuracies and omissions 
 that are visible in this scrawl. I have not leisure to write 
 it over, but will trust to your lordship's indulgence. I 
 have the honour to'be your lordship's obedient, obliged 
 subject, 
 
 [Signed.'] " G. D. Hogan. 
 
 " Right Rev. Dr. Conwell." 
 
 There can be little question that the work of the mis- 
 sionary territory allotted to Father Hogan was exasper- 
 
i5o 
 
 atingly extensive, and the primitive mode of travel too 
 irksome to warrant his continuing in this field, unless it 
 would prove highly detrimental to his health and thus 
 impair his future usefulness, if not check his career 
 entirely. By confining his work to the Carlisle and York 
 parishes alone, to the exclusion of the smaller missions, 
 physical recuperation on his part would go hand in hand 
 with the spiritual advancement of the two parishes, and, 
 therefore, he sent the following appeal to his Bishop : 
 
 "Conewago, 20th February, 1821. 
 
 ' 4 Content to submit to some occasional mortifications 
 here, rather than perplex your lordship in the administra- 
 tion of your diocese, is the best proof I can give that I am 
 not actuated by a vexatious spirit. Since I was ordained, 
 I have attended these congregations nearly thirty miles 
 asunder without a murmur. I now find, that consistent 
 with my health I am no longer equal to its pressure, and 
 therefore beg of your lordship in the most respectful 
 urgent manner, to exempt me from attending Little York 
 in future. I am perfectly satisfied to attend Carlisle twice 
 a month. By remaining in Carlisle from Saturday until 
 Monday week, the ride will not distress me, besides I will 
 have an opportunity of forming them to habits of piety in 
 the interim, which could scarce be expected, if I were only 
 to be among them as before, two or three days a visit. 
 
 " Last week I received the following note from 
 Mr. H.:" 
 
i5i 
 
 " Philadelphia, February nth, 1821. 
 
 " My Dear George, 
 
 " Doctor Con well is handing about a letter from you, in 
 which you mention (as he expressed it,) that I intended to 
 join Bishop Hobart. I don' t believe you have written such 
 a letter, as it would be false, or you misunderstood me. 
 Perhaps I might have said, that my persecutions might 
 almost drive any man to desperation. Write to me by re- 
 turn of post, a letter which I can show the public, saying 
 that I only said that my persecutions would drive any man 
 to desperation. I thought you were the last to injure me. 
 You know well if I wished to join Hobart, or any other 
 Protestant bishop, I might have done it long since, but I 
 shall not sacrifice my faith nor my honour. Are you too, 
 one of my persecutors ? Let me know your answer by re- 
 turn of post, and let it be what it ought to be. 
 
 \Signed.~\ " William Hogan. ' ' 
 
 " After due deliberation, I answered him in the follow- 
 ing manner : 
 
 4 l c I only received yesterday, your strange call upon me 
 to retract what I mentioned to Dr. Conwell about you. I 
 merely stated what literally occurred between us in Lan- 
 caster and afterwards, to justify me in believing you were 
 no longer impressed with the principles and sentiments of 
 a Catholic priest. If I be mistaken, no event ever occurred 
 that will afford me greater satisfaction, neither will I have 
 any hesitation in retracting (only as to his future conduct) 
 
152 
 
 my opinion even before the public, should this be made 
 certain, until then c quod scripsi scripsV It appears one of 
 your friends has mentioned that he could prevent the pub- 
 lication of your pamphlet, had he arrived in due time, by 
 threatening to disclose some of your misconduct in Ire- 
 land. This I denied in my letter to Dr. C. as far as I knew, 
 neither need you be afraid that I will ever reveal what 
 passed between us in the moment of unreserved confidence, 
 (nothing regarding his character). In writing that letter, 
 my object was to reform you, and no matter who may blame 
 me, I shall always feel the consolation of discharging a 
 conscientious duty, both as a Christian and a friend. With 
 the most sincere sympathy for your present unhappy situa- 
 tion, I am, ' &c, &c. 
 
 1 ' Before I sent off the letter, I consulted a discreet 
 friend, and kept a copy, lest he might take an unfair ad- 
 vantage of the words I used. Your lordship can easily 
 perceive my motive in replying at all, and in the manner : 
 probably if I had seen his second pamphlet I would not 
 notice his letter, which is the last I shall ever acknowledge, 
 unless a sincere conversion ensues. But (alas !) this I 
 never expect, unless the I<ord interposes in a very 
 extraordinary manner. In the infinitude of his charity, 
 may he avert the consequences to religion, which shall 
 be the fervent prayer of your lordship's obedient sub- 
 ject, 
 
 {Signed.} " G. D. Hogan. ' » 
 
153 
 
 u Personally appeared before me, one of the aldermen 
 for the city of Philadelphia, G. D. Hogan, who, on his 
 solemn oath doth declare and say, that each of three letters 
 signed G. D. Hogan, are his production, and that the facts 
 therein are substantially correct. 
 
 [Signed.'] " G. D. Hogan." 
 
 " Sworn and subscribed before me, this 24th day of 
 February, 1821. 
 
 \Signedi\ " John Douglass, Alderman.^ 
 
 Notwithstanding the above proofs of the Rev. Wm. 
 Hogan's religious prevarications, a ludicrous attempt had 
 been made by some of his friends to establish an incon- 
 sistency in the Rev. G. D. Hogan' s conduct, by advanc- 
 ing some private confidential letters ; in consequence of 
 which, the following note was addressed to J. A. Esq. : 
 " Philadelphia, 26th February, 1821. 
 "Sir, 
 
 " I never complained of your showing my private letters 
 to your friends ; but I did complain that you showed some 
 of them, and suppressed the others, which established the 
 purity of my motives, relative to the unfortunate individ- 
 ual whom you confessed to me you would abandon, if it 
 were not for his present unhappy situation, and who, in 
 retort, reproached his principal adherents as 4 a parcel of 
 rascals, employing him as tool to accomplish their own 
 end. ' The unhappy man was the cause of the bad treat- 
 ment with which I acquainted you, and which (by gloss- 
 
154 
 
 ing over dates and subsequent occurrences) you have 
 endeavoured to pervert to the abhorrence of 
 
 [Signed.] "G. D. Hogan." 
 
 U J. A. Esq." 
 
 " Lancaster, 28th February, 1821. 
 
 "About five years ago, the Rev. William Hogan, now in 
 Philadelphia, was suspended by Doctor Tuohy, R. C. 
 Bishop of Limerick. In a few days after, he wrote a note 
 to Dr. Warburton, the Episcopalian Bishop *of Limerick, 
 acquainting him that he wanted to see him upon partic- 
 ular business. Before he sent him this note, I happened to 
 see it, and asked him for what purpose he wanted to see 
 Doctor W. He replied he intended to become a Protest- 
 ant clergyman, and that he called in person before upon 
 Doctor W. but that he was not then at home. I kept the 
 above note, and gave it to my cousin Dr. P. Hogan, V. G. , 
 of the diocess of Ivimerick, who I believe holds it still in 
 possession. The Rev. P. Hogan, and another clergyman, 
 kept a strict watch upon him for about three days, lest he 
 might apostatize, until I went to Dr. Tuohy, upon his 
 visitation, to have the suspension removed. In about six 
 weeks after, the Rev. W. Hogan had some misunderstand- 
 ing with the Rev. P. Hogan, with whom he lived as coad- 
 jutor ; and in consequence of this difference, the Rev. W. 
 Hogan mentioned to me, that he would again make appli- 
 cation to Dr. Warburton for a living as Protestant minister : 
 the result of this threat was, that Dr. Tuohy and Dr. P. 
 
155 
 
 Hogan had to use extreme caution to prevent the Rev. 
 William Hogan from apostatizing then. 
 
 " I am, &c. &c. 
 [Signed.'] " G. D. Hogan. 
 
 u One of the R. C. Clergymen at Conewago Church, 
 Adams County, Pennsylvania." 
 11 Lancaster City, ss. 
 
 11 The Rev. G. D. Hogan being duly sworn according to 
 law, deposeth and saith, that the foregoing as stated is cor- 
 rectly true, to the best of his knowledge and belief ; and 
 further saith not. 
 
 [Signed.] U G. D. Hogan." 
 
 " Sworn and subscribed the ist of March, 1821, before me. 
 [Signed.] ' c Samuel Carpkntkr, Alderman. ' ' 
 
 u P. S. In reading the third pamphlet of the Rev. 
 William Hogan, I see a reiteration of his aspersions on the 
 clergy of Philadelphia, maliciously derogating from their 
 reputation as men of talents. It may not be amiss to 
 apprise the public, that the learned gentleman's (William • 
 Hogan) almost 4 miraculous ' course of theology did not 
 exceed ten months ; and that the sermon on the Festival 
 of All Saints, which he obtruded on them as his own pro- 
 duction, was given him by the Rev. Justin McNamara, of 
 Cork, with many other sermons. 
 
 [Signed^ " G. D. H." 
 
 Among the fellow-passengers alluded to in one of the 
 foregoing letters was Isaac Brown Parker, Esq., one of 
 
156 
 
 Carlisle's most prominent and opulent citizens, who though 
 a non-Catholic was always warmly identified with the 
 interests of the Catholic Church. To strike up a casual 
 acquaintance was unavoidable, if not a necessity, when we 
 take the mode of travel customary in those days into con- 
 sideration. Mr. Parker must have heard the heated dis- 
 cussion, — but since the confidential part of it was discussed 
 in Gaelic (Irish) and not intended for the fellow-travelers, 
 he may have been more charmed by the enphony of the 
 language than interested in the burning questions dis- 
 cussed. William Hogan appealed to him for a sworn state- 
 ment to rebut the evidence of his adversary and elicited the 
 following reply. 
 
 ' 4 Cumberland County, 
 Pennsylvania. 
 
 u Before the subscriber, one of the Judges of the court 
 of Common Pleas, in and for the county of Cumberland, 
 in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, personally came 
 Isaac Brown Parker of the borough of Carlisle, Esq. who 
 being duly sworn, doth depose and say as follows to wit : 
 That on or about the ioth day of January last past, this 
 deponent travelled in the public stage, from the city of 
 Lancaster to the city of Philadelphia, in company among 
 other passengers, with two gentlemen, whom this depo- 
 nent subsequently learned, were the Reverend Messrs. 
 
 * Brief Reply &c. in the possession of the Amer. Cath. Historical Society. 
 
i57 
 
 William and George Hogan. That to him both gentle- 
 men were and still are strangers ; but had in the course of 
 the last summer or fall, seen or heard the latter person 
 preach in the Roman Catholic chapel in the borough of 
 Carlisle, and from that circumstance recollected his fea- 
 tures. That the said two Reverend gentlemen on the way 
 from Lancaster to Downington, occupied the front seat of 
 the carriage, and this deponent sat upon the next adjoin- 
 ing seat, fronting them. That during the morning's ride 
 in the dark, the conversation of those gentlemen was 
 entirely confined to themselves, and was, as this deponent 
 is impressed with belief, carried on in the Irish language, 
 " This deponent is unable to state what the particular 
 subject or topick of their conversation was ; but after 
 daylight and breakfast, the intercourse and conversation 
 with the other passengers on the part of the Reverend 
 William Hogan, became more general and social, and this 
 deponent, from attending to his observations, and deport- 
 ment, formed an impression favourable to him as a gentle- 
 man and a scholar of sound erudition ; and frequently took 
 the liberty of replying to his remarks, and extending the 
 conversation. That in no part of the journey, within the 
 knowledge and observation of this deponent, was the con- 
 duct, or conversation of the Reverend William Hogan in 
 any manner unbecoming the character of a gentleman, a 
 Christian, or a teacher of the Catholic faith ; but on the 
 contrary was polite, courteous, edifying and agreeable to 
 
158 
 
 his fellow- passengers — and certainly at no time during 
 the journey did it occur to this deponent, that any dis- 
 pleasure was evinced, or any remonstrance, by any of the 
 passengers, against the deportment or conversation of the 
 said Reverend gentleman. This deponent further states, 
 in justice to both gentlemen,* that their deportment and 
 conversation was such as highly became their sacred 
 stations, and their bearings to each other, marked with 
 friendly attentions and mutual cordiality. 
 
 [Signed.'] " I. B. Parker." 
 
 "Sworn and subscribed the jyth day of March, A. D« 
 182 1, before me, 
 
 [Signed^ "James Armstrong." 
 
 * One of Hogan's abettors, and one who championed his erratic conduct with 
 considerable skill and effectiveness, was Rev. Tbaddeus J. O'Meally. His pamphlet 
 entitled " An Address Explanatory and Vindicatory," (Phila., 1824,) covering 81 closely, 
 printed pages, only widened the breach already existing between the Bishop and his 
 flock. Of course he was suspended, and persisting to officiate at St. Mary's after his 
 inhibition was excommunicated. He went to Rome to plead his cause in person. 
 Rome pointed out the error of his scandalous conduct, and insisted upon a public 
 recantation to be signed by him and published in this country. He made his submis- 
 sion, and did all he could to make amends and atone for his disobedience and rebellion- 
 andsent on the following recantation which reached Bishop Conwell at Carlisle f on 
 one of his episcopal visitations, where he had it published. We reprint it ; it runs as 
 follows :— 
 
 " DECLARATION." 
 
 " I the undersigned, Thaddeus Joseph O'Meally, priest of the diocess of L4merick» 
 in Ireland, residing for some time past in Philadelphia, North America, understanding 
 the perversity of my conduct, by joining to support the schismatical faction of certain 
 trustees of St Mary's Church, the cathedral of that city, in usurping the prerogatives 
 of a pastor of said church, in defiance of the bishop's mandate to the contrary, to the 
 great scandal of the surrounding nations, especially to that of America, and sincerely 
 
 f Dr. England's Work, Section 28, p. 201, 
 
159 
 
 This, as far as Carlisle is concerned, ends the career of 
 Father George Hogan. His last entry in the Church 
 Records is dated July 7th, 1822. According to the per- 
 sonal memorandum kept by Bishop Neumann, he secured 
 his exeat, left for France, and died in Paris the same year. 
 
 As for William Hogan and the schism he inaugurated, 
 we shall encounter its malign and deadly work in the next 
 chapter. 
 
 AN EPISODE. 
 
 FATHER HOGAN AND CHIEF JUSTICE GIBSON. 
 
 It was during the pastorate of Father Hogan, that an 
 episode occurred treasured up by tradition with mingled 
 feelings of indignation and admiration, — an instance of 
 
 lamenting my misconduct on that occasion ; and, truly penitent for the scandal 
 orignating from that source, I am now anxious to repair the evils I have committed, 
 as much as lies in my power ; for which purpose I now publicly profess and proclaim 
 to the world, that I have renounced forever the said faction, and their schismatical 
 proceedings, and that I have abdicated accordingly the usurped right of pastorship in 
 St. Mary's, conformably to the apostolical instructions contained in the brief oi His 
 Holiness, Pope Pius the Seventh, of sanctified memory, dated the 24th of August, 1822, 
 and imploring pardon and forgiveness from the Most Reverened Father in God, Henry 
 Conwell, Bishop of Philadelphia, for all the transgressions which I have committed 
 against his authority, begging at the same time from him, or from the Holy See, to be 
 absolved from the major excommunication which the bishop had inflicted on me with 
 every degree of justice on his part. And I hereby solemnly swear to abide forever by 
 the profession which I now make ; and that I shall never, upon any account whatso- 
 ever, return again into the diocess of Philadelphia , and that a perpetual monument 
 of this, my steadfast resolution and purpose may forever exist and be recorded, I have 
 subscribed my name to this declaration, anxious that it be printed, in order that the 
 knowledge ot it may be diffused and universally published to the world. 
 
 [Signed.] "Thaddetjs Joseph O'Meally. 
 
 •• Rome, 25 July, 1825." 
 
i6o 
 
 heartless brutality, on the one hand, and the most humane 
 benevolence, on the other. The sequel is almost as 
 strange as the occurrence itself. 
 
 It appears that Father Hogan, with the scant pecuniary 
 assistance derived from his church revenue, was in such 
 financial straits as to be unable to defray the expenses of 
 his boarding house account. The two weeks he usually 
 spent in Carlisle, found him lodged with a Mr. M. The 
 hospitality which every Catholic would consider the 
 highest honor to exercise, it seems was the occasion of 
 a most dastardly insult on the part of M., — -who, by the 
 way, was a man of some consequential importance in his 
 own little world — being a constable. His action gives 
 the keynote to the sincerity and stability of his faith. 
 
 It was a time when the u debtor's act" was in full 
 force — a relic of savage barbarism, which was enforced 
 with a pitiless inhumanity, the recollections of which 
 should make us hang our heads in shame and confusion. 
 " No crime known to the law brought so many to jails and 
 prisons as the crime of debt, and the class most likely to 
 get into debt was the most defenceless and dependent." * 
 * * * Father Hogan was not in a position to pay his 
 account. Mr. M. had recourse to the law,— and, serving the 
 writ himself, was taking the poor priest to a debtor's cell 
 
 * McMaster, Hist, of the People of the United States. Vol. /., p. 98. For a full 
 description of this law in force, see the same work. Pp. 99-100. 
 
i6i 
 
 to join the vagabonds, thieves and criminals who had 
 fallen into the clutches of the law. 
 
 The sight of a priest in the custody of the local Dog- 
 berry naturally aroused widespread attention. Street 
 gamins, corner idlers (a genus still inextinct) followed in 
 large and noisy crowds. Two gentlemen strolling leisurely 
 along Hanover street, could not fail but be attracted by 
 the large concourse of people, and upon making inquiry, 
 were told half- gleefully, half-maliciously that " they were 
 taking the Catholic priest to jail." One of them breaking 
 through the mob, which made respectful way for him, 
 his towering form receiving additional height by the 
 passion of indignation which thrilled his very being, — 
 he approached the redoubtable peacemaker, made a few 
 inquiries, ascertained the amount of indebtedness, paid it 
 then and there, and in scathing words and withering con- 
 tempt personally conducted the mortified priest from the 
 startled and disappointed mob, and sent the constable 
 slinking home like a whipped cur. The man who did 
 this, and the memory of whose deed is enshrined in the 
 hearts of all Catholics in Carlisle, was the Hon, John Ban- 
 nister Gibson, Chief Justice of Pennsylvania, one of the 
 most erudite and profound jurists, one of the most accom- 
 plished and versatile scholars of his age. Of course, the 
 relief of the priest and the gratitude of his flock was as 
 pathetic as the discomfiture of M. was crushing. 
 
 To the Catholic mind, it was more than a mere for- 
 
l62 
 
 tuitous coincidence that subsequently two of Chief Jus- 
 tice Gibson's children — Mrs. Gen. R. H. Anderson and 
 Col. George Gibson, U.S.A., became members of the 
 Church. The present beautiful marble High Altar 
 is a memorial to Col. Gibson, who, in addition to an 
 honored and brilliant military career, led a most edify- 
 ing life and died a most consoling death. A most tasteful 
 tablet of brass, a tribute from the officers of his regiment, 
 conspicuously placed in the church, attests the reverence 
 and affection they bore him in life. 
 
 Perhaps it was more than a pure accident again — that 
 when Mr. M. on his deathbed clamored for a priest — 
 though the utmost expedition was exercised in despatch- 
 ing messengers to Chambersburg and York, duty had 
 called them elsewhere, so that he died without the conso- 
 lation of Holy Church. 
 
 CHAPTER X. 
 
 FATHER DWEN ASSUMES CHARGE OF THE CONGREGATION, 
 AND CONTROLS ITS DESTINY FOR FIFTEEN YEARS. 
 HE BECOMES VERY POPULAR AND INFUSES NEW 
 LIFE INTO THE PARISH. TOUCHING OBIT- 
 UARIES FROM THE YORK AND CAR- 
 LISLE PAPERS. 
 
 Father Hogan's sojourn was too brief to leave more than 
 a mere pleasant recollection on the part of the Carlisle 
 
163 
 
 Catholics, of having had the consolation of a resident pastor 
 with all the graces and blessings that are inseparably con- 
 nected with his holy office, and on Father Hogan's part, 
 perhaps, the not too agreeable impressions formed of a 
 country that to him was undemonstrative, inhospitable, 
 and ultra- democratic. He evidently never reconciled 
 himself to the primitive mode of life, the chronic impecu- 
 niosity, the constrained intercourse, which only increased 
 the unenviable lot of physical hardship and privation that 
 was the heritage of every priest entering upon the Amer- 
 ican mission. His ministry, however, had the result of 
 forming the scattered and disintegrating congregation into 
 a more concrete and efficient body, and of reclaiming many 
 who, strangers to sacramental grace for years, and living in 
 an atmosphere impregnated with suspicion, if not hostility 
 to the Church, had lapsed into a state of mere formal ad- 
 herence, — the border land of apostasy. His successor, how- 
 ever, was a more plastic character, and adapted himself so 
 readily and completely to the new life he was obliged to 
 lead, that his career proved a most fruitful one, and even 
 after the lapse of more than half a century, his memory is 
 held in reverence and benediction. 
 
 Rev. Patrick Joseph Dwen was born at Shrowlon, Parish 
 of Athy, County Kildare, Ireland, in 1795. He made his 
 studies, both preparatory and theological, in Ireland, and 
 like Father Hogan, came here fully prepared to enter the 
 holy priesthood. He came to this country in 1821, and 
 
164 
 
 after a short probation, early in 1822, was ordained to the 
 priesthood by Bishop Conwell, being one of the first 
 aspirants that he raised to that dignity. Immediately 
 after his ordination, the departure of Father Hogan caus- 
 ing a vacancy, he was appointed to succeed him as pastor 
 of Carlisle and York. He came to Carlisle, July 20, 1822. 
 A better selection could hardly have been made. Phys- 
 ically a man of athletic build and vigorous constitution, 
 full of youthful enthusiasm and unquenchable zeal, the 
 arduous labors and wearisome journey ings of the mission 
 were a mere bagatelle to him. Endowed with magnetic 
 social qualities, always scrupulously exercised within the 
 limits of gentlemanly propriety, — bubbling over with scin- 
 tillating Hibernian wit, which never overstepped the 
 borders of priestly decorum, he was readily admitted to 
 Carlisle society, in which he was looked upon as both an 
 acquisition and an ornament. Filled with a broad charity, 
 which disarmed intolerance, silenced sectarian asperities, 
 gained the hearts of all, — he became a potent factor in 
 creating a more intelligent comprehension of the Church 
 and broadening the lines of Christian fellowship. His 
 social intercourse without obtruding the spirit of polemics 
 or controversy, — softened the erroneous and unjust im- 
 pressions harbored in the hearts of many, impressions 
 which could not have been dislodged by any other medium. 
 Without deviating one tittle from the allegiance he owed 
 his Church, or sacrificing even a shadow of the dignity due 
 
i65 
 
 his exalted calling, by his scholarly, at times half jocular 
 badinage and his agreeable, but always circumspect de- 
 portment, he gained the goodwill and hearts of all who 
 came in contact with him. It was by these suave and 
 engaging methods more than theological wranglings or 
 pulpit hot-shot, that he moulded public opinion with rare 
 tact and diplomacy, so that a most liberal, humane, chari- 
 table feeling leavened the entire religious community. 
 Carlisle's reputation at this time was not only that 
 of the centre of social life, intellectual activity, broad 
 culture, — but the most liberal and tolerant views on 
 religion. 
 
 Father Dwen at once realized that to make his work 
 effective and enduring, he would be obliged to be in close 
 communication with his people. With this object in 
 view, he had the congregations of York and Carlisle 
 detached from Conewago, and apportioned as one 
 parish. This without for a moment rupturing the 
 pleasant intercourse with the mother house, — which con- 
 tinued to feel and show unabated interest in the wel- 
 fare of its old affiliations, and gave every aid to the new 
 pastor. 
 
 It was with this object in view Father Dwen effected a 
 permanent settlement in Carlisle, and established his home 
 about a block from the church, occupying the house now 
 numbered 66 on East Pomfret St., the property then be- 
 longing to Barney Carney. Here he lived for many years. 
 
i66 
 
 His domestic arrangements at that time were presided 
 over by his sister Anastasia, who marrying James Kiernan, 
 (July 22, 1828,) was succeeded by a facetious character 
 named Biddy Logue, who following the matrimonial 
 precedent established in the modest ecclesiastical house- 
 hold — soon became the wife of a Mr. Sommerville. 
 
 Serving Carlisle and York conjointly, Father Dwen 
 usually alternated between the two places, devoting two 
 weeks to each. The presence of an active priest, with 
 attractive social qualities and no little eloquence as a 
 preacher, soon made itself felt, — and the little church 
 was uncomfortably filled on the Sundays he spent in 
 Carlisle, so that the necessity of enlarging soon became 
 an imperative duty. In 1823, as w ^l ^ e seen later, 
 the attempted enlargement began, only to end in 
 discord, disruption and litigation. By the rights vested 
 in Trustees, by the laws and customs of those days, 
 Father Dwen was powerless to act, — though an inflexible 
 determination and resolute purpose on his part to 
 bring an end to the parochial broil, — of which more 
 shall be heard,— would have been highly conducive 
 to the peace of the congregation and the authority 
 of the pastor. However, the annex to the Church was 
 finally completed and dedicated in August, 1825, by 
 Bishop Conwell, assisted by Rev. Bernard Keenan, 
 Lancaster, Pa., Father Dwen, and presumably some 
 of the Conewago fathers. 
 
i6 7 
 
 The social qualities of the new pastor, his intimate 
 associations with the more intelligent portion of non- 
 Catholics, had the result of forming a new clientage which 
 was both a friend to the pastor and an aid to the Church. 
 This was seen in 1828 when Father Dwen took an active 
 and successful part in forming the ( l Catholic Association 
 of America" in Carlisle, enlisting the lively sympathy 
 and generous cooperation of its most prominent citizens, 
 who being almost all of Irish extraction, though not 
 Catholics, were equally impelled by motives of patriotism, 
 to assist in wresting Catholic Emancipation from reluctant 
 and tyrannous England. A separate chapter details this 
 incident of local history. 
 
 After this no incident worthy of note occured in Carlisle 
 during his pastorate. The congregation under his wise ad- 
 ministration and prudent foresight, became unified and zeal- 
 ous. The rising generation for the first time received that 
 methodic instruction in Catholic doctrine and practice, that 
 could not fail to lay the foundation for its future permanency 
 and stability and make it a worthy exponent of its higher 
 life and more lofty spiritual aims. The absence of this 
 proper initiation into Catholic teachings, while it seemed 
 to affect the adult population to no appreciable extent, — 
 for with them the foundation of faith was laid deep and 
 strong, — had a most disastrous effect on the youthful por- 
 tion of the small flock. Nor should we underestimate the 
 potent influence exercised by Father Dwen on those at 
 
1 68 
 
 variance with Catholic faith. His intellectual endow- 
 ments, his executive capacity, his force of character, his 
 singleness of purpose, his unselfish devotion to his arduous 
 work, left an impression that gained the admiration of all, 
 and reflected a most flattering light on the priesthood. 
 With such a leader Catholicity could not fail to gain the 
 respect of even those whose church affiliation diverged 
 most widely from it, and at the same time the heartiest 
 recognition of its grateful children. 
 
 About the year 1830, Father Dwen changed his resi- 
 dence to York. This was no doubt rendered imperative 
 by its increasing Catholic population and the more success- 
 ful strides it had made in industrial prosperity. But his 
 attachment for Carlisle was ever strong and sincere. With 
 a regularity that knew no interruption, and a zeal that 
 showed no moderation, he paid his fortnightly visit to 
 Carlisle ; the inclemency of the weather, the execrable 
 condition of the roads, the premonitory symptoms of im- 
 paired health, could not check his ardor nor cool his sense 
 of duty. Sick calls, especially, were responded to with a 
 cheerful alacrity, though covering a territory of thirty or 
 forty miles, and more than aught else pointed out the true 
 shepherd of his flock. His management of the York 
 parish proved him to have been a man of piety and tact. 
 The congregation there had a strong contingent of Ger- 
 mans, and not being familiar with their language or cus- 
 toms, it is a matter of much surprise how he made the 
 
169 
 
 national foibles and jealousies obliterate themselves, when 
 the practice of their faith was concerned. The harmony 
 and good feeling that prevailed was as much the result of 
 the holy example he gave as that of exercising a discre- 
 tionary tact and conciliatory prudence that could not 
 fail to arouse admiration and enkindle affection. With 
 his mixed congregation united he had no difficulty in 
 making church improvements. When he enlarged his 
 church in 1832, by an addition of 15 feet, the work 
 was not only speedily accomplished, but promptly paid 
 for. 
 
 After his removal to York, he usually made his home 
 while in Carlisle with Mrs. P. Gillen, where a most moth- 
 erly hospitality awaited him, and where he always found 
 that affectionate care and gentle ministration, when the 
 ravages of sickness were undermining his rugged con- 
 stitution, that gave it the warmth and comfort of a 
 home. 
 
 Late in 1837 his health showed alarming indications of 
 enfeeblement, which, while it caused anxiety to his friends, 
 seemed to affect him very little. Unmindful of the injunc- 
 tions of his physician, disregarding the stronger evidence 
 of his malady's encroachment, he labored on with a cour- 
 age that can only be called foolhardy. With prudence on 
 his part, a cessation of his wearying journeys, and a care- 
 ful compliance with the simplest hygienic laws, he might 
 have been spared many years of usefulness and attained a 
 
170 
 
 ripe age. But with indomitable zeal there was found 
 blended in his character a dogged obstinacy, which derided 
 all fears and lent a deaf ear to all kind remonstrance. On 
 February 3d, 1838, he officiated at Carlisle for the last time 
 — and it was to be the last time that he would ever see it. 
 His condition was such that he was obliged to be relieved 
 of the work of attending Carlisle, in the hopes that by 
 confining his labors to York alone, his recuperative powers, 
 which had sustained him through a career of hardship, 
 worry, and privation, would again assert themselves as 
 they had done often before. His hopes were delusive and 
 his illness was rapidly assuming a fatal termination, which 
 finally came on February 7th, 1838. 
 
 The death was a sore blow to his people, whom he served 
 with the most fatherly care and unswerving fidelity for 
 more than fifteen years. His many virtues as a priest 
 gained him the affectionate and enduring love of his 
 flock : his manliness of character and rare social traits 
 commanded the esteem of all whom he came in contact 
 with. His early death was a heavy loss to the diocese, at 
 a time when more than ever there was a crying demand 
 for priestly ministration. To the present day, the name of 
 Father Dwen is still a hallowed memory, one that invaria- 
 bly evokes with its recollection an affectionate eulogy on the 
 part of non-Catholics, and a devout prayer on that of his 
 old flock. 
 
 He was buried under St. Patrick's Church, York, Pa., 
 
171 
 
 where a neat, but modest tombstone perpetuates his mem- 
 ory in the following inscription : 
 
 IN MEMORIAM 
 
 REV. PAJRICII J. DWEN 
 
 PASTOR ISTIUS CONGREGATIONS 
 
 MIGRAVIT AD DOMINUM VII. FEB. 
 
 ANNO SALUTIS MDCCCXXXVIII. 
 
 >ETATE SUA XLIII. 
 
 ERECTED BY THE CONGREGATION. 
 
 (In Memory of Rev. Patrick J. Dwen, Pastor of this 
 Congregation, Who went to his eternal reward Feb. 7, In 
 the Year of Grace 1838, In the 43d year of his age. Erected 
 by the Congregation.) 
 
 The following obituary notice appeared in the York 
 Gazette .•* ' c In being called on to record the death of Rev. 
 Mr. Dwen, eulogy and panegyric seem superfluous, for, as 
 the Pastor and Shepherd of his flock, his actions and deeds 
 of charity are npt written upon sand, but stand engraven 
 upon the hearts of his parishioners. Fifteen years of his 
 ecclesiastical life have been given to the people of his 
 Church in the County of York, and whether among the 
 rich or poor he was ever to be found ministering to the 
 spiritual or temporal wants of his congregation. Amia- 
 bility of deportment, polished manners, and perfect charity 
 of feeling, have ever marked him out as the friend of man, 
 as the companion of those who assented to his faith, or 
 
 * February 23d, 1838. 
 
172 
 
 of those who may have differed from him in matters of 
 religion. 
 
 " Beloved and regretted by all, he has passed from a 
 world of care and temptation and trial, and gone to that 
 haven of rest, prepared for the righteous c who shall in- 
 herit the Kingdom of God.' " 
 
 A still more touching tribute, couched in terms both 
 warm and^ eloquent, is the following, which appeared in 
 the Carlisle American Volunteer, March 29, 1838, from a 
 Protestant source, and which voiced the sentiments of non- 
 Catholics about a man whom they all learned to revere 
 and love. 
 
 " THE LATE REV. PATRICK J. DWBN. 
 
 " MESSRS. Editors : I observe by the late papers that 
 this unobtrusive man, exemplary citizen and pious divine, 
 has 4 paid the debt of nature ' and ' been gathered to his 
 fathers,' while in the meridian of life and in the midst of 
 his usefulness. For the past fifteen years he officiated as 
 the Pastor of the Roman Catholic congregations of York 
 and Carlisle, during which period he labored zealously 
 and efficiently to promote both the spiritual and temporal 
 welfare of the flocks committed to his charge. While he 
 1 pursued the even tenor of his way ' in inculcating and 
 enforcing the doctrines of that church, in which he was 
 educated and brought up, and impressing on his hearers 
 the necessity of pursuing a strictly virtuous and religious 
 
173 
 
 life, he never gave offense to his dissenting brethren by 
 assailing their different creeds or religious opinions. Un- 
 assuming in his manners, amiable in his disposition, 
 courteous in his intercourse with his fellow-citizens, and 
 his hand ever ready to extend relief to the suffering, he 
 gained the esteem not only of his own flock, but of many 
 Protestants with whom he had become acquainted, among 
 whom was the humble writer of this brief obituary notice. 
 He obeyed with alacrity the numerous calls of his congre- 
 gation, at all hours, at all places, and under all circum- 
 stances, whether through tempests or calms, to administer 
 the rites of his Church to the sick and dying. In thus 
 obeying the calls of duty, which was in strict accordance 
 with his own benevolent disposition, he but too frequently 
 exposed himself to the l pelting of the pitiless storm,' 
 and thereby contracted a disease which gradually brought 
 him from hence to another and better land. The deceased 
 was a finished scholar, and well versed in the voluminous 
 writings of the fathers and luminaries of the Church, but 
 like too many other divines, he was no pedant, and it was 
 therefore only those who were on terms of the strictest 
 friendship and intimacy with him, that could properly 
 appreciate his merits and talents. Being a native of the 
 1 Emerald Isle,' and seeing and feeling the oppression of his 
 country and countrymen, he became a naturalized citizen 
 of his adopted country as soon as circumstances would 
 permit, and upon all proper occasions exeicised the in- 
 
174 
 
 estimable right of suffrage, always supporting those whom 
 he believed to be the most meritorious and competent 
 candidates for public favor. It will no doubt be gratifying 
 to his numerous friends here, as it certainly was to me, to 
 know that his remains were attended to the silent tomb in 
 the following order, as given in the York Gazette : 
 
 The Clergy. 
 
 Body — Borne by Bight Carriers. 
 
 Mourners and Pall-Bearers. 
 
 Officers of the Borough and Strangers. 
 
 Females. 
 
 The Congregation and Citizens. 
 
 " The body arriving at the church was placed upon a 
 form covered over with white linen and having on it twelve 
 tapers. During the celebration of the Mass the coffin 
 remained open— the body was clothed with the dress of 
 the priesthood, with white vestments. Mass was celebrated 
 by the Rev. Mr. Maher, of Harrisburg, and the sermon 
 and panegyric were delivered by the Rev. Mr. Dougherty, 
 of Conewago. The discourse of Rev. Mr. Dougherty drew 
 forth tears from every eye and sighs from every bosom. 
 The panegyric was short, but it told all that could be told 
 of the virtues and merits of the deceased. He spoke elo- 
 quently of the charities and kindness of Mr. Dwen, and of 
 his humble and Christian deportment throughout life. 
 After the Mass and Gospel had been read the priests went 
 to the sacristy and laid aside their vestments and returned 
 
x 75 
 
 to perform the last offices for the dead. The obsequies 
 being over the body was deposited in a vault prepared for 
 it at the entrance into the sanctuary. The ceremonies 
 throughout were impressive and solemn. The number of 
 persons present could not have been less than two thousand 
 in and around the church. 
 
 [signed.] " Fiat Justitia." 
 
 The words of the Apostle — " Mihi mori lucrum" — u for 
 me to die is gain," would have made a most fitting epitaph 
 for Rev. P. J. Dwen. 
 
 CHAPTER XL 
 
 THE HOGAN SCHISM — ITS DISASTROUS EFFECT ON THE 
 CHURCH — THE HOGANITES HAVE THEIR BILL PASSED BY 
 THE STATE LEGISLATURE — GOV. HIESTER VETOES 
 IT — THE CARLISLE CONGREGATION TAKES AN 
 ACTIVE PART IN UPHOLDING LEGITI- 
 MATE AUTHORITY — THE " RELIGIOUS 
 QUESTION " IN POLITICS. 
 
 In a cursory way we touched upon the disorder and 
 scandal caused by the usurpation of ecclesiastical author- 
 ity on the part of the Trustees of Trinity Church, Phila- 
 delphia, in arbitrarily ousting Father Helbron and violating 
 all canonical laws by installing Goetz in his place. The 
 temporary success, then still a sad recollection in the 
 
176 • 
 
 memory of living man, and the aftermath of the soul- 
 blighting conflict — for the scandal struck hard and deep — 
 was apparently dying out, but there remained the smould- 
 ering embers of the old-timed disaffection, which only 
 needed a crafty leader to make him a veritable firebrand in 
 stirring the old rancor and animosity into a state of frenzied 
 fierceness. It was the old story of lay pretension, bolstered 
 by recalcitrant priests, autocratically dictatorial and blindly 
 obstinate, arrayed against lawful ecclesiastical authority, 
 tenacious of its prerogatives, unyielding in its maintenance 
 of them, guarding its ancient immunities as a sacred trust 
 that could not be tampered with. The brooding spirit of 
 contumacy, openly and publicly renouncing allegiance to 
 the Church, and antagonizing her authority in the spiritual 
 domain, was not the new product of a new country. 
 The battle had been waged and fought in every country 
 where Christianity sought an asylum. She never issued 
 from the conflict with trailing colors, nor would she do so 
 in this instance. Only blind fanaticism and overweening 
 vanity thought otherwise. To the Catholic they were try- 
 ing and disheartening moments, but he knew the Church 
 would issue from the conflict unscathed, purified, and her 
 prestige more assured than before. 
 
 It was at the instance of Rev. George D. Hogan, whose 
 career we have just touched upon, that his cousin, Rev. 
 William Hogan, came to this country from Iyimerick, Ire- 
 land. After settling in New York (Albany) for a short 
 
177 
 
 time, upon the urgent representations of this relative, he 
 was provisionally admitted to the Philadelphia Diocese. 
 
 Hogan was a man of conspicuously handsome person, of 
 most suave and engaging manners, with rare and charm- 
 ing conversational gifts, a ready and eloquent preacher, a 
 man who, could he have curbed a most inordinate vanity 
 and passionate ambition, would have been on the highway 
 to ecclesiastical preferment. His egotism and pride were 
 unduly encouraged and pampered by an adulatory host of 
 laymen who, whilst they admired his brilliant intellectual 
 attainments, were blind to the absence of those virtues 
 that more than aught else constitute the ideal priest.. His 
 conduct towards his Bishop, who lived in the same house 
 with him — St. Mary's being the Cathedral church — was 
 overbearing and disrespectful, though he was a mere object 
 of sufferance in the diocese. When pride and vanity gave 
 way to taunts and insults, of which his superior was the 
 object and victim, the result looked ominous. But when 
 finally he lent himself, the willing tool of the Trustees, to 
 inveigle the faithful from their allegiance and make them 
 hostile to their Bishop, and even alienate the church prop- 
 erty to hold it themselves, then the outcome could readily 
 be anticipated. The Bishop's course was prudent, tem- 
 pered with mildness and forbearance— the battle waged 
 against him, fierce, brutal, relentless. The story is too 
 lengthy and too irrelevant for the scope of this work — 
 fnrther than showing the prompt and decisive action taken 
 
178 
 
 by the Carlisle congregation in upholding legitimate 
 authority and vindicating the imperilled rights of the 
 Church. Suffice it to state, however, that the Hoganites 
 were daily drifting further and further from their Catholic 
 moorings, until the line of demarcation between rampant 
 heresy and loyal faith could no longer be distinguished. 
 The attitude of these men against lawful authority was 
 so stubbornly belligerent, so relentlessly acrimonious and 
 so ruinously disastrous to faith and morals, that Bishop 
 Conwell was at last compelled, by sheer stress of circum- 
 stances, to formally and publicly excommunicate Hogan 
 and his abettors. Undeterred, the Trustees took possession 
 of the church, drove away the Bishop, installed Hogan as 
 pastor, and by this formal secession established an indepen- 
 dent Catholic Church. New York, Norfolk, and Charles- 
 ton, had in the meantime become tainted with these schis- 
 matical tendencies, always zealously propagated by the 
 redoubtable Trustee, until it seemed the contagion would 
 permeate the greater part of the ecclesiastical body. Not 
 satisfied with this internecine strife, the courts were in- 
 voked and the legislature appealed to, to sustain the schis- 
 matics in their war of disruption. On March 20, 1823, a 
 bill was introduced, passing both houses with mysterious 
 celerity, giving a legal status to the Hoganites. Rabid 
 fanaticism and frenetic bigotry could hardly wish for more. 
 The bill was entitled u A Supplement to an act entitled, 
 An act to incorporate the members of the religious society 
 
i 7 9 
 
 of Roman Catholics belonging to the congregation of St. 
 Mary's Church, in the city of Philadelphia, passed the 
 thirteenth day of September, one thousand seven hundred 
 and eighty-eight." 
 
 The bill was more insidious in its construction than 
 sweeping in its enactments. As we saw, the church was 
 incorporated in 1788 by the legislature, and the charter of 
 incorporation provides that the officiating pastor should be 
 "duly appointed," This was the source of contention. 
 Those who petitioned for an alteration in the charter, 
 alleged that its proper construction if it did not assert the 
 right of the pew-holders of the congregation to elect their 
 pastor, as is done in other churches, was at least extremely 
 doubtful, and therefore called for the interposition of the 
 legislature to clear away the doubt, and make that certain 
 by legislative enactment which was obscure. 
 
 The church authorities, on the other hand, maintained 
 that the meaning of the words " duly appointed" was too 
 obvious to admit of even a shadow of doubt ; that it had 
 reference to the immemorial custom in the Church, unde- 
 niable and incontrovertible, which invests the appointing 
 power in the Bishop, and the obedience of the priests was 
 a matter of Church discipline which the Church never 
 deviated from. 
 
 The petitioners then took the characteristically Protes- 
 tant view, and here the animus of their action became 
 apparent, that it was contrary to the genius of our insti- 
 
i8o 
 
 tutions and diametrically opposed to our laws to admit 
 foreign jurisdiction over the property and conduct of 
 American citizens, — that the refusal would be an implied 
 recognition of papal authority in the State of Pennsylvania, 
 inasmuch as in that event the Pope would continue to 
 appoint the Bishop, and the Bishop the priest, and that 
 both would thunder their fulminations and excommunica- 
 tions against every dissenting Catholic. On the other 
 hand it was urged, that the alteration would be impolitic 
 in the extreme, — that the States of the Union were em- 
 phatically the protectors of religion, and that its constitu- 
 tion recognized the rights of conscience and universal 
 toleration ; — that by holding out this inducement with 
 others, her shores had become the refuge of the oppressed 
 and the asylum of the persecuted ; and that it would be 
 more than deliberate cruelty to allure and seduce from 
 foreign countries and then abandon to religious persecu- 
 tion the victims enticed. 
 
 Most cunningly framed, this bill would have made the 
 clergy the tools of the Trustees, — altered the charter with- 
 out the full consent of the congregation, disturbed and 
 subverted fundamental articles of faith in contravention 
 of Catholic practices. In short, it invested the Trustees 
 with plenipotentiary powers as far as the government of 
 the temporalities, appointment of pastors was concerned, 
 — and delivered the Church, a fettered and manacled vic- 
 tim, into their hands. At this date it is a matter of sur- 
 
i8i 
 
 prise how perversity and obtuseness could go to such dire- 
 ful extremes, and were it not that it is a matter of historical 
 record would stagger belief. Fortunately, Governor Joseph 
 Hiester gave the agitation a momentary quietus by his 
 strong and timely veto of March 27, 1823. 
 
 The Catholics in the State could not remain apathetic 
 with such a calamity facing the Church. Before the pas- 
 sage of the bill, petitions rained in upon the legislature, 
 and every means adopted to have it suppressed. Now that 
 the Governor of the State came to their aid and cham- 
 pioned the cause of justice and religious liberty, their 
 hearts naturally went out to him in expressions of grati- 
 tude that would seem extravagant to those unaware of the 
 consequences involved and the calamities averted, Car- 
 lisle and Lancaster were the first to grasp the situation, 
 and would not allow the occasion to pass without voicing 
 their sentiments, recording their protest, and giving utter- 
 ance to their sense of gratitude. The promptness and 
 thoroughness with which the Carlisle congregation did 
 this, gives evidence not only of an unswerving faith and 
 trusting loyalty, but at the same time of a most commend- 
 able zeal and high order of intelligence.* 
 
 * There is a lurking suspicion in the mind of the writer that the following letter 
 was drafted by Richard Dougherty, a typical Irish schoolmaster of the old school, 
 who was famous in his day as a classical scholar of a high order, a brilliant raconteur, 
 and an ambulating encyclopaedia of quaint and archaic lore. His limping walk and 
 deftness in handling the birch are still vividly remembered by his old pupils— espe- 
 cially the latter. 
 
182 
 
 In the Carlisle American Volunteer * this card appeared 
 
 i < 
 
 Catholic Question." 
 
 11 The members composing the Catholic Congregation of 
 the borough of Carlisle are earnestly requested to meet at 
 their place of worship, at two o'clock P. M., on Saturday, 
 the 12th instant, for the purpose of expressing their public 
 thanks to the Governor of the State, and the Representa- 
 tives ot the people who had the official and constitutional 
 fidelity and justice to protect the Rights of Conscience and 
 Chartered Immunities, against the contemplated violation 
 of religion, law, and the constitution of the land. 
 [Signed] Cormick McManus, ^ 
 
 Bernard Carney, V Trustees. 
 
 Walter E. Erwin, J 
 " Carlisle, April 2." 
 
 The result of the meeting is given in the Volunteer of 
 April 17th, and we will let the paper tell the rest : 
 
 "The Meeting 
 
 " Of the Catholic congregation of the borough of Carlisle, 
 after having been organized by appointing Cormick 
 
 * April 3, 1823. 
 
1 83 
 
 McManus as chairman, and Richard Dougherty and John 
 Faust as secretaries, unanimously adopted the following 
 proceedings : 
 
 u 
 
 Preamble. 
 
 u Cited by the above call, and in cheerful obedience to 
 it, the Catholic congregation of this church have met, at 
 the time and place assigned, for the grateful and meritor- 
 ious purposes therein specified, and after a deliberate inter- 
 change of opinions upon this serious and interesting sub- 
 ject, it was unanimously recommended and acquiesced in, 
 that a respectful letter of thanks be addressed to Joseph 
 Hiester, Esq., Governor of Pennsylvania, for the firm, 
 dignified, and liberal protection with which he shielded 
 The Great Constitutional Question of Religious and Char- 
 tered Rights, by his correct and comprehensive veto, upon 
 the innovating, improvident, and unconstitutional bill, 
 passed by both branches of the legislature of this State, 
 to alter the charter of St. Mary's church of the city of 
 Philadelphia — a bill sweeping into destruction at one and 
 the same time, defined and specific contracts of laws and 
 imprescriptible rights of conscience ; nor ought our grati- 
 tude and religious feelings ever cease to embalm the mem- 
 ory of those enlightened and faithful Representatives of 
 both Houses, who virtuously combatted this monstrous bill 
 in every step of its iniquitous march." 
 
1 84 
 
 "letter of thanks.' ' 
 
 To His Excellency, Joseph Hiester, Governor of Pennsyl- 
 vania : 
 
 Sir, — We all, thank God, live in a country and under 
 laws which have put the mark of Cain upon two of the 
 fell and impious instruments of the prince of darkness — 
 Bigotry and Religious Intolerance. The furious fanatic 
 may foam, and the fiery zealot rave, but their inability to 
 injure has given to Persecution its death stab, and suspends 
 it before the enlightened eye of mankind, as a hideous 
 object of indignation, derision and scorn. Eternal thanks to 
 the immortal revolutionary founders of \h\§ great Republic, 
 for such celestial and transcendant blessings ! Here too, in 
 this glorious land of religious toleration, the profligate 
 libertine and the impious latitudinarian are chained down 
 by the sublime and awful edicts of both National and State 
 constitutions, from perpetrating an indiscriminate vandal- 
 ism upon religious worship, and prostrating at their unholy 
 feet, that filial and affectionate duty which piety owes to its 
 canonical enactments. The principles, and professions, 
 and practice of the Roman Catholic Faith, are immutable — 
 universal — eternal — uniform all over the world, in every 
 practice, of both its creed and discipline, never veering to 
 the seductions or delusions of either fancy, infidelity, or 
 caprice ; it is founded even in its most minute decrees and 
 observances upon the acquiescence and allegiance, in every 
 
185 
 
 age, of its holy, revered and illustrious professors, from the 
 saint to the pilgrim, from the mitred head to the most 
 humble, illiterate secular — from the prince to the beggar. 
 A faith thus piously obedient and nobly consistent ; thus 
 fixed and exact ; thus sublimely peculiar and singular in 
 all its relations ; thus based upon Christian foundation, of 
 nearly two thousand years' standing, and constitutionally 
 protected in this Republic, to the very extent and pleni- 
 tude of its exercise, should not be mocked or insulted, by 
 any enactment of Legislative caprice, or infidel ribaldry ; 
 should not be imposed upon the reckless and heartless 
 innovation, of an unconstitutional and spoliating law, alter- 
 ing the religious rights and charter of St. Mary's Church. 
 L,et it not be said we are strangers, and no party to this 
 unfortunately agitated question. It is a Catholic question, 
 it is universal in its nature and an infringement and usur- 
 pation upon the canonical institutions and ordinances of 
 that faith, in whatever region from pole to pole, that this 
 faith is professed. Accept, then, sir, we respectfully pray you, 
 the sincere and grateful thanks of this meeting, for that 
 magnanimity and firmness, with which you extinguished, 
 by an honest and virtuous veto, the unconstitutional and 
 violent bill passed to alter the charter of St. Mary's Church. 
 And however honorably the constitution may have borne 
 you out, in the judicious exercise of that high and whole- 
 some power, with which it has wisely invested you, it 
 would be an ungenerous and illiberal apathy on our part, 
 
i86 
 
 and a frozen evidence of ntter insensibility, to view in 
 silence, the bright and saving banner which you have 
 displayed over the Security of Religious Exercise And The 
 Inviolability Of Its Chartered Rights. And it only adds 
 to the reputation of your firmness and official vigilance, 
 that you have destroyed this licentious and demoralizing 
 bill, at that important and responsible post, assigned to 
 your care/ ere it reached the formidable barriers of the 
 judiciary, where it would finally and inevitably perish 
 beneath the austere and portentous frowns of that August 
 Tribunal. 
 
 u Signed in behalf of the meeting. 
 
 CORMICK McMANUS, } 
 
 Bernard Carney, > Trustees. 
 Walter R. Erwin, J 
 
 " Resolved, That the virtuous and enlightened Repre- 
 sentatives of the Houses of the Legislature who opposed 
 the bill, altering the charter of St. Mary's Church, receive 
 the cordial thanks of this meeting for the zeal, fidelity 
 and talents with which they defended religious rights and 
 chartered compacts. 
 
 "Resolved, That the meeting disclaim all intention of 
 creating any political ferment, for party purposes, out of 
 this subject, and earnestly recommend their Catholic 
 brethren throughout the State to confer their votes, upon 
 all occasions, upon merit, morals and qualifications only, 
 
i8 7 
 
 and to be guided solely in the exercise of their suffrages by 
 patriotic views and virtuous predilections. 
 
 "Resolved, That these proceedings be published through- 
 out the State by such editors of newspapers as are friendly 
 to the cause of truth and justice. 
 
 1 { Resolved, That the Trustees of this congregation for- 
 ward these proceedings to the Governor and retain a copy 
 of them in the archives of the church. 
 
 Cormick McManus, Chairman. 
 
 {Signed^ f ICHA * D DOUGHERTY, I SecretarieSm 
 
 John Faust, J 
 
 The open letter of the Carlisle and Lancaster congrega- 
 tions, in giving expression to that feeling which every Cath- 
 olic would have considered his bounden duty to express as a 
 just appreciation of conduct on the part of Governor Hies- 
 ter — a conduct that was more than diplomatic in being 
 simply heroic, was wantonly misconstrued, ruthlessly 
 dragged into the- political arena, and made the campaign 
 of 1823, f° r Governor, more than customarily bitter and 
 fierce. The contending parties were the Federalists and 
 Democratic-Republicans. Hiester was a candidate for re- 
 election, and aside of the dignified and brave standpoint 
 he took in vetoing the bill above alluded to, was a man of 
 brilliant attainments and unswerving honesty. His oppo- 
 nent, Schulze, though his character could not be impugned 
 — was the son of a Lutheran minister, and himself for six 
 
i88 
 
 years followed the same avocation until physical disability 
 made him exchange the clerical for a mercantile career. 
 But what aroused the antagonism and indignation of Cath- 
 olics, was his advocacy of the bill which the foregoing letter 
 so scathingly denounces. 
 
 The papers which at that time devoted nearly all their 
 available space to politics, which was discussed with a 
 vehemence and acerbity highly amusing to us of the 
 present day, took up the matter, and for several weeks the 
 " Catholic Question" was thoroughly ventilated. F. P. 
 Schwarz, who was the editor of the Sunbury Enquirer, 
 and a Catholic of very liberal tendencies, judging from his 
 editorial utterances, precipitated matters by keeping alive 
 this religio-political campaign. 
 
 As usual in such cases where the Church is dragged into 
 the heat of political discussion, — it was productive of heap- 
 ing contumely on her, and subjecting its members to an in- 
 cessant fusilade of invective,— whilst the political dema- 
 gogues carried their ends. The Hiester-Schulze campaign 
 however had aroused the Catholic mind to the iniquitous 
 proceedings of the Philadelphia Trustees, to the inadequacy 
 and danger of the entire Trustee system, and the disastrous 
 results of antagonizing the centre of Catholic unity— author- 
 ity. In bringing about this consummation the loyal faith, 
 alert watchfulness and timely intervention of the con- 
 gregations outside of Philadelphia, had not a little to 
 do, and the fact that Carlisle was one of the first if not 
 
1 89 
 
 the first to take the initiative, redounds not a little to its 
 credit. 
 
 At this date we cannot fail to take a pardonable pride in 
 having an ancestry of such sterling faith, which had the 
 grasp of mind to gauge the menacing features of the ques- 
 tion, and had the intellectual qualifications to formulate a 
 protest, the diction of which though it may appear some- 
 what stilted, — conceals a clinching logic all the same, both 
 comprehensive and irrefragable. 
 
 The Hoganite Schism in due time came to an end. After 
 eking out an adventurous and precarious existence for seven 
 years, its impotent fight ceased, not, however, before Rome 
 had on three several times condemned it, and many souls 
 had been lost. Hogan left the church, — and was visited 
 by summary punishment, swift and relentless, — he married 
 two widows, — was lost from public notice, — and died in 
 poverty and obscurity. 
 
 The unfortunate struggle is to be deplored, — but it gave 
 the deathblow to a most pernicious system. 
 
190 
 CHAPTER XII. 
 
 BUILDING OE THE CHURCH. — THE TRUSTEES COME TO COL- 
 LISION. — THE CARNEY IMBROGLIO. —NEWSPAPER CON- 
 TROVERSY.— CARNEY COLLECTS SUBSCRIPTIONS 
 AND PEW RENTS BY LAW. — HE DIES OUT OF 
 THE CHURCH. 
 
 Since the erection of the old church in 1806, Catholicity 
 had made considerable strides in ways and importance that 
 augured most auspiciously for the future. The gain was 
 not only in numerical strength, but also in social recogni- 
 tion and solid prosperity. The members were daily becom- 
 ing more imbued not only with the privileges of their 
 citizenship, but also with that impulsive American pro- 
 gressiveness — which already was a marvel to Europe. 
 Endowed by nature with a robust constitution, inured to 
 hardship from infancy, gifted with keen and sturdy honesty, 
 the emigrant of years ago was gradually becoming no in- 
 consequential factor in public life. This marked advance 
 was felt and noticed in Carlisle. Already some of our 
 prominent tradesmen and contractors were found among 
 the Catholics,— and even the poor laboring men though 
 still in a majority, in spite of the beggarly pittance they 
 earned — three to four dollars a week, — were men who en- 
 joyed the confidence and esteem of their employers. 
 
 In 1822 we find thirty-nine pew holders crowded in the 
 little church without adverting to the women, adults and 
 
I 9 I 
 
 children of the congregation. How they ever gained even 
 the merest admission, not to speak of accommodation is a 
 problem, the solution of which taxed the minds of the 
 Trustees as much then, as its contemplation puzzles us 
 now. No doubt the renting of the pews was a mere formal 
 proceeding to insure a suitable revenue, whilst the most 
 liberal, communistic ideas prevailed as to their occupancy. 
 The visits of the attending priest and his semi-monthly 
 sojourn in their midst helped not only to increase the 
 number of attendants at service, — but more than ever 
 urged the necessity of enlarged accommodation. 
 
 The first step in this direction, taken with evident hesi- 
 tancy was voiced in the following memorandum in the 
 u Church Records:'' 
 
 " Sunday, July the 21st, 1822." 
 
 " At a meeting of the members of the Roman Catholic 
 Church of Carlisle, held on this day in said church, to 
 take into consideration and adopt regulations for the Pro- 
 vision of a Clergyman, and also to elect four Trustees for 
 the ensuing year. — After the election of the Trustees, the 
 following resolution was adopted as follows : 
 
 " That two additional pews be erected in front of the 
 existing ones at the expense of the congregation, and that 
 the whole should be rented by the Trustees to the mem- 
 bers, and the proceeds, with the rent of the house belonging 
 to the Church to be given to the Revd. Mr. Dwen as his 
 yearly salary, for his services as clergyman of said church. 
 
192 
 
 c ' The Pews to consist of Twenty in number, the front 
 Pews to rent for $13. a pair, the succeeding ones to fall 1 
 dollar each, which will amount to $170., with the rent of 
 the dwelling house in addition, which will be $26. , making 
 in all the sum of $196. yearly. 
 Trustees for the year, 
 
 \_Stgned.~\ 
 
 Cormick McManus 
 Bernard Carney, 
 Wm. Cramor, 
 Walter R. Erwin." 
 The pew holders in 1822 who were to pay their rent 
 
 quarterly to the Trustees, who in turn handed it over to 
 
 Father Dwen, were the following: 
 
 Right Aisle 
 Walter R. Erwin 
 John Gillen 
 Patrick Philips 
 Patrick McGuire 
 Cormick McManus 
 John Faust 
 N. Gingly 
 Peter Black 
 Miss Inders 
 John Monks 
 Michael Dawson 
 Peter Gilmore 
 Lewis Rancilear 
 Thompson Brown 
 Patrick Smith 
 Patrick McManus 
 Charles McManus 
 Patrick McAuly 
 Richard Dougherty 
 Dominick Corny 
 Joseph Smith 
 John Higgins 
 
 Left Aisle 
 Bernard Carney 
 Francis McManus 
 Edward Higgins 
 Patrick Derson (Dawson) 
 Mr. Waters 
 Hugh McCormick 
 James Mclntire 
 Mr, Sigler 
 Mr. Cramor 
 Patrick Boyle 
 Michael Boyle 
 Edward Friel 
 Ch. Callaughan 
 John Carney 
 Ed. McLeary 
 Edward White 
 
193 
 
 The additional two pews were totally inadequate to sup- 
 ply the demand for seats, — a cry that became more 
 clamorous — the longer Father Dwen exercised his minis- 
 try in the parish. No doubt what seemed to the Trustees 
 a most formidable undertaking, was to him a crying neces- 
 sity, when he saw the crowded condition of the church 
 and had to officiate in a suffocatingly contracted little 
 room. The venture to enlarge the church was fully dis- 
 cussed during the following winter and only one of two 
 remedies seemed adequate to a proper solution, and that 
 was either a new or an enlarged Church. The latter was 
 decided upon, as the following advertising card in the 
 Carlisle paper* bears witness : — 
 
 " NOTICE" 
 
 "To Carpenters, Bricklayers and Plasterers. 
 
 " Sealed proposals will be received by the Trustees of 
 the Roman Catholic Church, Carlisle, for the erecting of 
 an additional building to the present church, of 58 ft. by 
 30, and 21 ft. high to the square. Those wishing to take 
 on the work, can see the plan of said building by call- 
 ing on 
 
 Barney Carney, >v 
 
 \Signed.~\ Cormick McManus, \ Trustees. 
 
 Walter R. Erwin, J 
 
 * American Volunteer, March 16, 1823. 
 
i 9 4 
 
 " Those intending to contract for said work will send in 
 their Proposals on the 17th of March at the hour of 10 
 o'clock in the forenoon, at the Union Hotel, where the 
 Trustees will attend for that purpose." 
 
 The work begun under such favorable circumstances was 
 not only doomed to more than a year's delay, — but was the 
 origin of what, for want of a better name, we may call the 
 Carney imbroglio. Trustees, with the onerous responsibil- 
 ities of governing the Church, like the redoubtable speci- 
 mens above alluded to, were no doubt duly impressed with 
 the importance of their office — but when it came to internal 
 friction and strife, one would think that policy would 
 prompt them, from personal if not religious motives, to 
 maintain harmony by amicably adjusting their difficulties 
 and burying their resentments, and above all to avoid the 
 scandal of making public exhibitions of their grievances 
 and misunderstandings. Unfortunately our Trustees 
 rushed into print, made their quarrels common property, 
 and most effectually, for the time being at least, put a sum- 
 mary stop to the work on the incomplete church. It took 
 nearly three years to accomplish what, with unity of action 
 under skillful guidance, could have been done in six 
 months. Not to allude to the scandal and disaster this dif- 
 ficulty caused in the congregation, it shook the confidence 
 of non-Catholic benefactors. The only feature worthy of 
 some consideration in this quarrel was that its ventilation 
 in the public prints enables the narrative of the annex 
 
195 
 
 building to be accurately given, — for the Church Records 
 give us not a scintilla of information about the affair. 
 
 The story runs that Barney Carney, one of the supplanted 
 Trustees, for at the annual election new ones had been 
 elected, was either improvident or dishonest in handling 
 the church funds. It is not our province to sift the con- 
 flicting and meagre evidence. The newly elected Trustees, 
 upon their accession, discovered the supposed discrepancy, 
 and demanded books, receipts, bills, etc., from Carney. His 
 refusal, and the fact that he was no longer a member of 
 the Board of Trustees, prompted them to issue the follow- 
 ing advertisement :* 
 
 " TAKE NOTICE. 
 
 " All persons who have subscribed money to the Trustees 
 of the Roman Catholic Church of the borough of Carlisle, 
 either here or elsewhere, are requested not to pay it to Ber- 
 nard Carney, or any person else without the authority of 
 the undersigned Trustees of said church. In testimony 
 whereof we hereunto subscribe our names, this 16th day of 
 February, 1824. 
 
 John Giixen, 
 [Signed.] Edward Hagan, y Trustees. 
 
 Peter Gilmore, 
 
 *Amerlcan Volunteer, February 19, 1824. 
 
196 
 
 Thus challenged, Carney had but two alternatives to 
 protect his impugned honesty,— either by seeking redress 
 at law, or availing himself of a public vindication in the 
 newspaper. He did the latter — and for more than 
 six consecutive issues (weekly) of the Volunteer, imme- 
 diately below the above notice, stands Carney's counter- 
 blast : 
 
 " To all that subscribed towards the erectioyi of an addi- 
 tional building to the Roman Catholic Church of 
 Carlisle : 
 
 11 The present Trustees of said church, having thought 
 proper, in an advertisement, to request said subscribers not 
 to pay me their subscriptions ; I therefore inform said sub- 
 scribers, and particularly request, that they pay no money 
 or moneys to the present Trustees, as the subscription book 
 has been transferred to me for collection. I have con- 
 tracted for the building for the sum of $1,450, and the only 
 security I have for said sum is the subscription book, the 
 monev subscribed in which I must collect mvself. I have 
 expended on said building $115.75^ more than I have col- 
 lected, which appeared on settlement, and was acknowl- 
 edged by said Trustees. I therefore protest against the pub- 
 lication made by them. I submit the statement made, 
 acknowledged and attested by Isaac Todd, Esq., and John 
 Higgins. 
 
197 
 
 "Amoui iture in favor of the Catholic Church 
 
 in Carlisle by B 
 
 Amount e led . . . #765.38 
 
 Do. received by collection . 652.70 
 
 Balance due Carney . . . 112.63 
 
 ary expenses on settlement 3. 13 j£ 
 
 1 1 
 
 1 1 
 
 a > 
 
 [Signed.-] "Edward H, 
 
 John Gil 
 
 " Attest, John Higgins, 
 Isaac Todd. 
 
 11 In addition to the above sum, I am responsible for the 
 payment of several hundred dollars. 
 
 [Signed.] "Bar::ev Carney. 
 
 " February 19, 1824. " 
 
 The struggle waxed warm, — but the congregation in- 
 clined more to sustain the Tru than to vindicate 
 Carney. The Trustees made an effort to collect some of 
 the outstanding subscriptions, but as soon as Carney had 
 an intimation of it, he had the following notice inserted 
 in the Volunteer." 
 
 * April 15, 1824. 
 
198 
 
 " NOTICE . 
 
 " All persons who have subscribed towards the erection 
 of the additional building of the Roman Catholic Church 
 of Carlisle, are requested to pay me the amount of their 
 subscriptions on Friday the 30th of April. I will attend 
 at the house of John Stockdale in the borough of Carlisle, 
 said day, from ten till twelve o'clock in the forenoon, and 
 from two till four five o'clock in the afternoon, to receive 
 payment. Those who do not comply with this request, 
 will without respect of persons, be dealt with as the law 
 directs, as I am the only person authorized to receive the 
 same." 
 
 [Signed.] " Barney Carney. 
 
 " April 14, 1824." 
 
 This was no idle threat — for Carney was both impulsive 
 and obstinate, and two days later promptly instituted suit 
 against James Boyle and Michael Dawson, in the former 
 case for a $5.00 subscription and a $3.00 order, in the 
 latter case for $1.12% pew rent and an $8.00 subscription. 
 He entered judgment, which they waived, on the plea of 
 insolvency — and he actually had them put to jail under the 
 debtors'* act. 
 
 The case appealed, the Court sustained Carney, and 
 again* affairs assumed a most alarming attitude. 
 
 * See nos. 284, 285 286, April Term, 1824, C P. Cumberland Co. 
 
i 9 9 
 
 The pacific overtures of Father Dwen, and the concilia- 
 tory action of the old Trustees, headed by the prudent 
 Cormick McManus, averted a calamity which might have 
 resulted in irreparable spiritual harm. As it was, it re- 
 tarded the work on the Church, closed the channels of 
 charity, fomented discord, and was unquestionably the 
 source of grave scandal. 
 
 As a final means of adjusting the difficulties it was con- 
 cluded to submit them to the arbitration of some disin- 
 terested persons, — and consider the adjudication final. 
 This was done by mutual consent, and an opinion un- 
 favorable to Carney handed in. Exasperated beyond en- 
 durance Carney came out with the following manifesto :* 
 
 u TO THE PUBLICK. 
 
 " It is with regret, I feel bound in vindication of myself, 
 to publish my protest against the decision or the arbitra- 
 tors in the case of myself against Cormick McManus and 
 Walter R. Erwin, former trustees of the Roman Catholic 
 Church in Carlisle, published in the Carlisle Herald and 
 Gazette. All I will say for the present is, I consider my- 
 self ungenerously and dishonorably dealt with, which I will 
 make appear to the satisfaction of the public very shortly. 
 It is true I signed an article to abide by the decision of the 
 
 * American Volunteer, June 20, 1824 
 
200 
 
 arbitrators appointed to settle the amount of moneys re- 
 ceived and paid by me, on account of the Roman Catholic 
 Church, but, there was not a word in said article nor did 
 it come before the arbitrators, that I was to give up the 
 building and receive nothing for a whole summer's attend- 
 ance and lost time. It is therefore my intention to have 
 justice done me fairly ; in doing so, the public will be the 
 better acquainted with the treatment I have received from 
 a set of fellows, who are well known for their deficiency 
 and want of common sense and decency." 
 
 [Signed.] " Barney Carney' } 
 
 " Carlisle. June 22, 1824." 
 
 Carney may have found some justification in a destruct- 
 ive agitation, which from a Catholic standpoint seems not 
 only unwarrantable, but more worthy of censuie than sym- 
 pathy. The little Catholicity he had, was unfortunately 
 superficial and feeble and proved unavailing in coping 
 with his impulsive obstinacy. Apostasy seemed the inevi- 
 table doom of the arrogant Trustee at that time, nor was 
 Carney to be an exemption. In 1825 his name no longer 
 appears on the list of pew holders, — he drifted further and 
 further from the moorings of his childhood's faith until he 
 wound up his career by refusing priestly ministrations in 
 his dying moments. He died in 1859, and lies buried in 
 the Old (Protestant) Cemetery. 
 
 Under the new Trustees, with restored confidence es- 
 
201 
 
 tablished, the work of completing the Church was pushed 
 forward as vigorously as the untoward circumstances and 
 limited financial resources would permit. The contract 
 for the annex was awarded on St. Patrick's Day, 1823, — 
 but it was not until July, 1825 that it was completed. The 
 Trustees, to keep the public informed of its transactions, 
 especially since it had been so generously helpful in con- 
 tributing to the improvements, had the event announced 
 in the paper* in this characteristic fashion : 
 
 . "TO THE PUBLIC. 
 
 "With feelings of gratitude and satisfaction we an- 
 nounce to the public that the addition of sixty feet by 
 thirty, to the Catholic Church of this borough, which was 
 commenced a considerable time back, is now finished, and 
 that the Church, hitherto entirely too small, is now suffi- 
 ciently spacious, and calculated to admit of Divine Worship 
 being performed in it, with decency and solemnity, which 
 the occasion requires. This we consider our duty to make 
 known to the public in general and to the inhabitants of 
 this borough and its vicinity, in particular ; as it is to their 
 generous contributions it is generally indebted for its pre- 
 sent prosperous state. Its representatives think the best 
 way to express their gratitude to all its benefactors is, to 
 
 * Amer. Volunteer, July 14, 1825. 
 
202 
 
 inform them that its doors shall be open to all denomina- 
 tions of Christians who may think proper, at any time, to 
 visit it, and conduct themselves while there as Christians. 
 
 " N. B. — The Pews will be rented on the 7th of August 
 next, when all those (with no exception of persons) who 
 wish to secure to themselves a right to a seat, will please 
 attend at the church.'' 
 
 Carlisle, iith July, 1825. 
 [Signed.] " Trustees." 
 
 As mentioned above, the church was dedicated in August 
 by Bishop Con well, assisted by Rev. B. Keenan, Lancaster, 
 Rev. Father Dwen, and probably some of the Conewago 
 Fathers. 
 
 CHAPTER XIII. 
 
 CARLISLE IN THE STRUGGLE FOR CATHOLIC EMANCIPA- 
 TION.— ORGANIZATION OF THE " CATHOLIC ASSOCIA- 
 TION OF IRELAND." — PROTESTANTS GENEROUS 
 AND ENTHUSIASTIC IN THE CAUSE.™ DANIEL 
 O'CONNELL PROPOSES THEM AS MEM- 
 BERS OF THE ASSOCIATION. — THE 
 CORRESPONDENCE GIVEN. 
 
 When Daniel O'Connell inaugurated his memorable fight 
 for Catholic Emancipation in 1800, — he had such an in- 
 stinctive aversion to the violent revolutionary spirit of that 
 
203 
 
 period, that his well-known saying, " he would accept of no 
 social amelioration at the cost of a single drop of blood, " 
 was looked upon as the mere utterance of a political vision- 
 ary. Yet from 1822 to 1829 there was a fierce though 
 bloodless battle waged in " old Ireland," one which tried 
 the hearts of Irishmen as much as those who fought at 
 Limerick or Fontenoy. The struggle was gallant, the 
 victory brilliant. Years of harrowing care and persistent 
 disappointment convinced O'Connell that the battle must 
 be a bloodless one, one in which the justice of the cause 
 must be brought strongly and convincingly before the heart 
 of humanity,— one that must enlist the sympathy and aid 
 of every lover of justice and liberty. In 1828 the agita- 
 tion for Catholic Emancipation reached the culminating 
 point under the persistent and well-directed labors of the 
 Catholic Association, called into life by O'Connell, with 
 ramifications throughout the civilized Christian world. 
 Ireland itself during this time was in a state of seething 
 ferment. It was in June of 1828 that O'Connell, elected 
 by an overwhelming majority to Parliament from County 
 Clare, refused to take the Test oath, which was framed to 
 exclude Catholics from office. Under his magnificent and 
 inspiring generalship Catholic Emancipation was wrung 
 from the reluctant Government. In his gigantic labors the 
 Agitator was finally so successful that the Conservatives, 
 led by such men as Sir Robert Peel and the Duke of Wel- 
 lington, conceded emancipation on February 6, 1829. 
 
204 
 
 The eyes of the world centered on Ireland during this 
 epoch-making struggle. The heart of every Irishman went 
 out to his far-off home from whence persecution and pov- 
 erty had exiled him, and now that the fruits of liberty were 
 within sight, within grasp, — he would contribute his share 
 in hastening the blessed hour. 
 
 Carlisle, as usual, was one of the first inland towns to 
 take the initiative in joining the Catholic Association, — 
 the potent factor that became an engine of so much happi- 
 ness to Ireland. It did not wait to take its cue from larger 
 cities, but, fired with the patriotism of its Irish citizens, it 
 modestly but none the less generously sent its contribution 
 to Ireland, and had the supreme satisfaction of not only re- 
 ceiving personal testimonials of appreciation from the great 
 Agitator, by himself proposing them as members of the 
 Catholic Association, but of seeing Emancipation granted. 
 In this effort it will be noticed that creed or church affilia- 
 tion are set aside, that the Catholic priest and Protestant 
 lawyer meet on the same platform of equality, and that all 
 of them contribute cheerfully to a cause so dear to their 
 hearts, — and one so characteristic of their nationality. 
 
 But we will let the newspaper files tell the interesting 
 and touching story : 
 
 In the American Volunteer* we find the subjoined notice 
 in the advertising column : 
 
 * February 27, 1828. 
 
205 
 
 " CATHOLIC EMANCIPATION. 
 
 "The citizens of Carlisle and its vicinity who may be 
 desirous of promoting the object of i The New Catholic 
 Association of Ireland/ which is composed of Christians of 
 every denomination, are requested to meet at the house of 
 James Bell, Esq., to-morrow (Friday) evening at 6 
 o'clock." 
 
 " MEETING IN CARLISLE, PA., 
 
 " Of the friends of the 'New Catholic Association of Ire- 
 land,' February 8, 1828. 
 
 4 4 In pursuance of public notice a number of persons, 
 friendly to the new Catholic Association of Ireland, assem- 
 bled on Friday evening, the 8th instant, at the hotel of Mr- 
 James Bell, in the borough of Carlisle. 
 
 u On motion, Mr. James Divin (a Protestant) was called 
 to the chair, and Rev. Patrick J. Dwen appointed secre- 
 tary. 
 
 u The meeting being thus organized, on motion of Mr. 
 John Taylor the following circular was read by the secre- 
 tary : 
 
 " ' Sir : Knowing you to be deeply interested in every- 
 thing connected with the prosperity of Ireland, we take the 
 liberty of soliciting your countenance to the 'New Catholic 
 Association of Ireland,' a sketch of whose object will be 
 seen below.' " 
 
 \_Stgned.~\ " P. Kkogh, Chairman. 
 
 "James Gowkn, Secretary." 
 
2o6 
 
 44 Philadelphia, January 4th, 1828. 
 
 44 Primary objects of the New Catholic Association ot 
 Ireland, which is composed of Christians of all denom- 
 inations, 
 
 44 1. To diffuse a liberal and enlightened system of edu- 
 cation throughout Ireland. 
 
 4 4 2. To extend Irish commerce. 
 
 44 3. To promote Irish agriculture. 
 
 44 4. To encourage the consumption of Irish manufac- 
 tures. 
 
 4 4 5. To encourage, as much as possible, a free and en- 
 lightened press, to circulate works calculated to promote 
 just principles, mutual toleration and kindness. 
 
 44 6. To preserve the purity of elections in Ireland, espe- 
 cially by supporting the forty-shilling freeholders in the 
 maintenance of their just rights. 
 
 41 7. To devise means of erecting in Ireland suitable 
 churches for the celebration of Divine Worship and to pro- 
 cure and establish burial grounds wherein the dead may 
 be interred without being liable to any species of insult or 
 contumely. 
 
207 
 
 " 8. To ascertain the number of the population of Ireland, 
 the proportion of Catholics and Protestants, and the num- 
 ber of children of each in a course of education. 
 
 " Its principal aim is Universal Emancipation. 
 
 "l^To constitute membership, one pound, Irish cur- 
 rency (according to the present rate of exchange about $5) 
 must be paid on admission. 
 
 "Any sum, however small, may nevertheless be contrib- 
 uted towards the funds of the association. 
 
 " The following gentlemen are appointed Treasurers, to 
 whom the collecting committees are to pay over the moneys 
 collected, and who are to send the same and the contribu- 
 tors' names to Ireland : General Robert Patterson, General 
 William Duncan, Silas E. Wier, William J. Duane, Joseph 
 M. Doran. 
 
 " Mr. Taylor then rose and offered the following pre- 
 amble and resolutions : 
 
 "Whereas, This meeting looks with great confidence to 
 the ' New Catholic Association of Ireland,' and believes its 
 object to be truly philanthropic and humane, and if liber- 
 ally assisted, as it should be by every lover of freedom, and 
 every comforter of the afflicted, would redound much to the 
 tranquillity and happiness of that oppressed country ; but 
 perfectly aware how unavailing will be its efforts without 
 sufficient funds to enable it to carry its patriotic views into 
 effect ; and knowing it to be, in the present state of affairs, 
 
208 
 
 totally inadequate to the accomplishment of its multifarious 
 objects, therefore, 
 
 "i. Resolved, That to encourage said association to 
 persevere in its great and laudable undertakings, a com- 
 mittee of eight persons, two for each ward in the borough, 
 be appointed to collect the names, places of residence and 
 subscriptions of those gentlemen in Carlisle and its vicin- 
 ity who may be desirous of becoming members of the asso- 
 ciation. 
 
 ( ' 2. Resolved, That a treasurer be appointed into whose 
 hands shall be paid all the money which the collecting 
 committee may receive, and whose duty it shall be to send 
 the same, as soon as possible, together with the names, 
 places of birth, and places of residence of the subscribers, 
 to the treasurer of the Association in Philadelphia, request- 
 ing them to forward the whole, together with the proceed- 
 ings of this meeting, to the Treasurer of the Association in 
 Ireland, by the first convenient opportunity. 
 
 " 3. Resolved, That these proceedings be signed by the 
 chairman and secretary, and be published in all the Carlisle 
 papers. 
 
 u The above preamble and resolutions were seconded and 
 adopted, and the following gentlemen appointed to act as 
 collecting committee : 
 
<< 
 
 209 
 
 " James Givin and Isaac B. Parker, Esq. (Protestants), 
 for the N. W. ward ; Colonel Redmond Conyngham and 
 John Taylor (Protestants), for the N. E. ward ; Dr. George 
 D. Foulke and James Underwood, for the S. W. ward ; 
 Cormick McManus (Catholic) and James Bredin (Protest- 
 ant), for the S. E. ward. 
 
 Isaac B. Parker, Esq. , was appointed treasurer. 
 It was also agreed that the collecting committee have 
 power to call a meeting of the subscribers whenever they 
 may deem expedient. 
 
 u On motion of General Robert McCoy, a subscription 
 paper was opened, and several gentlemen became members 
 of the association on the spot by complying with the con- 
 ditions, as stated in the above circular. 
 
 [Signed.'] u James Givin, Chairman. 
 
 " Patrick J. Dwkn, Secretary." 
 
 The ward committees set to work with a determination 
 to make an active and thorough canvass, and though cer- 
 tain features dwelt upon by the association did not find 
 favor in the eyes of some, still the appeal was so manly, 
 the men interested so zealous, and the object so instinc- 
 tively dear to the American heart, that the result was a 
 flattering one. Contributions under five dollars were not 
 acknowledged, and from this we can conclude that a gen- 
 erous response on the part of the poorer classes added ma- 
 terially to the success of the enterprise. It is safe to state 
 
2IO 
 
 that probably not one Catholic was unrepresented in that 
 collection. But we again will let the newspaper files* nar- 
 rate the details : 
 
 "THE CAUSE OF IRELAND. 
 
 " Ajjghinbach's Inn, Carlisle, Pknn. 
 
 "Sept. 13th, 1828. 
 
 " In pursuance of a notice a number of those who con- 
 tributed to the fund of the ' New Catholic Association,' 
 met this evening. James Givin, esq., was called to the 
 chair and Revd. P. J. Dwen appointed secretary. 
 
 " Isaac B. Parker, esq., Treasurer of the funds collected 
 in this place submitted the following statement, which 
 was unanimously adopted, and ordered to be published, 
 together with the contributors' names. 
 
 " Isaac B. Parker, in account with the contributors to 
 the l New Catholic Association of Ireland ' in Carlisle. 
 1 To cash received from subscribers from the 9th of 
 
 February till the 14th of March, 1828 . $100.00 
 " Balance due Treasurer . .25 
 
 $100.25 
 
 * American Volunteer, November 6, 1828. 
 
211 
 
 " March 17th 1828. By cash remitted to Joseph M, 
 Doran, esq. , as per receipt . . . $100.00 
 " By cash for postage ... .25 
 
 
 E.E. I. B. Parker $100.25 
 
 Sept. 18th, 1828. 
 
 11 Read and approved 13th September, 1828. 
 
 [Signed.'] " Jamks Givin, Chairman." 
 
 " Test. P. J. Dwen, Secy." 
 
 "Names of contributors copied from Dublin Weekly 
 Register" now in our possession : Rev. P. J. Dwen, Gen. 
 Rober McCoy, Isaac B. Parker, esq., James Givin, George 
 D. Foulke, M.D., Cormick McManus, Crawford Foster, 
 Jacob Faust, George Smith, Jr., Gad Day, Samuel Mc- 
 Cosky esq., David S. Forney, Robert Snodgrass, John 
 Gillen, John Clark, John Taylor, Redmond Conyngham, 
 James Kernan, (Franklin County), Richard Dougherty, 
 Hugh Gaullaugher, esq., George A. Lyon, esq., James 
 Bredin, Benjamin Stiles, Jacob Bishop, John Irwin, 
 William Irvine, esq., Jacob Hendel, esq., Seawright Ram- 
 sey, esq., George Metzger, esq., Thomas Hennessy, John 
 Philips, esq., Geo. L,eas, Andrew Carothers. 
 
 " The following correspondence, in possession of Mr. 
 John Taylor, was read by him, and ordered by the meeting 
 to be published as a part of its proceedings, viz : 
 
212 
 
 M Carlisle, March 14th, 1828. 
 
 "Dr. Sir: In conformity with instructions received 
 from Mr. Joseph M. Doran, of your city, I have the pleas- 
 ure to forward you herewith a draft for One Hundred 
 Dollars, payable to your order, contributed by the " friends 
 of the New Catholic Association of Ireland " residing in 
 Carlisle, Pennsylvania, with a request that their mite be 
 added to the funds of that benevolent and praiseworthy 
 association. You will have the goodness to acknowledge 
 the enclosed, and to inform me whether a more particular 
 designation than that herein noted, will be hereafter neces- 
 sary to be transmitted to you. I have some small hopes 
 that a farther subscription may be obtained. 
 
 " Your obedient & humble servant, 
 {Signed.] "I. B. Parker." 
 
 " Turner Camac, esq." 
 
 " Philadelphia, March 17th, 1828. 
 " Dear Sir : I am requested by Mr. Carmac to acknowl- 
 edge his receipt of your letter of the 14th inst. enclosing a 
 draft for $100, being the amount contributed by the friends 
 of the New Catholic Association of Ireland, residing in 
 Carlisle and vicinity towards the funds of that society. 
 He begs me to return to the citizens of your borough, 
 through your medium, the thanks of the friends of Ireland 
 of this city, for the ardent and substantial manner in which 
 the former have thus generously expressed their devotion 
 
213 
 
 to the interests of that unhappy country, and to assure 
 them that the money will be immediately transmitted to 
 Ireland. The description of the contributors is sufficiently 
 precise. 
 
 11 Respectfully yours, 
 [Signed.] " Joseph M. Doran." 
 
 " Isaac B. Parker, esq." 
 
 First remittance to Ireland. Copy of a letter sent to 
 Daniel O'Connell, Esq. 
 
 " Philadelphia, June 23rd, 1828. 
 
 " Dear Sir : On behalf, and by direction of the persons 
 whose names, birthplaces and residences, are mentioned 
 below, we have the honor of transmitting to you, for the 
 4 New Catholic Association of Ireland,' for all purposes 
 prohibited by law, a Bill of Exchange for i&z£. 8s. 8d. 
 upon London, payable to your order sixty days after sight, 
 dated June 23, 1828 etc., being the net amount of their 
 contributions towards its funds, after deducting expense, 
 etc. 
 
 4 i The contributors, deeply interested as they are in every- 
 thing connected with the welfare of Ireland, are convinced, 
 after an attentive observation of the progress of affairs in 
 that country for some time past, that the New Catholic 
 Association is eminently calculated to promote its prosper- 
 ity and richly merits the countenance and support, not 
 only of every Irishman, but also of every individual 
 
214 
 
 throughout the world, who desires the melioration of a 
 condition of a very large portion of his fellow-creatures. 
 Under this conviction, sir, and without intending in any 
 wise to interfere with the politics of Ireland, further than 
 these, the expression of their feelings and opinions, they 
 have made their contributions ; and there are thousands of 
 others in the United States, who are so disposed and will 
 shortly do the same. One feature — an admirable feature — 
 in the Catholic Association, has not escaped the eye of the 
 people of this country, and indeed, has induced many who 
 are not of the Roman Catholic persuasion to become its 
 contributors l that it is composed of persons of every religi- 
 ous denomination, and it is not deiigned to give benefits 
 and advantages to one sect at the expense of the rest ; but 
 is substantially, and in fact, in its object and in its views, 
 Catholic, — in the true sense of the word.' Be assured, the 
 society will have nothing to fear from its enemies, as long 
 as the liberal work shall be impressed upon its front. 
 
 11 Perhaps it may be proper to remark, that these contri- 
 butions are by no means to be regarded as emanating from 
 a body or society, they proceed from persons acting entirely 
 as individuals, without the consent or connection with 
 each other ; and ihould it not be contrary to the rules of 
 the association, it would be gratifying to them to be ad- 
 mitted members for one year, provided that no further 
 payment should be required of them. 
 
 u Permit us now in the name of the Irish and their 
 
215 
 
 descendants in the state of Pennsylvania, and for ourselves 
 to heartily thank you, and through you Shiel, and your 
 illustrious friends, for the noble stand you and they have 
 taken for the cause of persecuted Ireland. 
 
 " We remain with great respect, sir, your most obedient 
 and humble servants. 
 
 [Signed.] " Turner Carmac. 
 
 Joseph M. Doran." 
 Daniel O'Conneix, Esq , Dublin." 
 
 i i 
 
 On the 19th of July, 1828, upwards of one hundred 
 and fifteen gentlemen of Philadelphia and Carlisle (whose 
 names, birthplaces and residences were subsequently in- 
 serted in the Dublin papers) were on motion of Daniel 
 O'Connell, Esq., seconded by Sir Francis McDonnell, ad- 
 mitted members of the "Catholic Association of Ireland." 
 
 The following resolution was then unanimously adopted, 
 viz. : 
 
 " Resolved, That the thanks of the meeting be tendered 
 to Isaac B. Parker, Esq., for his faithful and punctual 
 attention to the business intrusted to his care at our 
 former meeting. 
 
 [Signed.] u James Givin, Chairman." 
 
 "P. J. Dwen, Sec'y." 
 
FACSIMILE OF MEMBERSHIP CARD OF CATHOLIC ASSOCIATION OF IRELAND. 
 
FEB 10 1902 
 
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