Ministers and Correspondents for Vacancies	Post-office and State	Presbytery	Comm.	Increase		Decrease	Baptism		Sabbath-Schools
				Profession	Certificates		Infant	Adult	Months open	Off. And Teachers	No. Of Scholars
Oliver Katz " A. I. Young Wm. R, Stevenson " “ E. Z. Thomas Wm. H.Vincent, S. C M. M. Patterson " J. N. Dick, D.D B. B. Taggart " " Josias Stevenson " S. B. McBride A. R. Rankin " D. M. Thorn C. B. Hatch	Saltsburg. " Turtle Creek. West Newton. " Negley Ligonier Parnassus. " Irwin's Station. Mount Pleasant " Gresnsburg. " Laurel Hill Murraysville. " Buena Vista. Irwin's Station.	Saltsburg,1/3 N. Alexandria 1/3 Turtle Creek West Newton, 1/3 Sewickley, 1/3 Unity Fairfield (2) Puckety, 2/3 Allegheny, 1/3 Bethel (Westmoreland) Mount Pleasant, 2/3 Scottdale, 1/3 Greensburg, 1/2 Latrobe, 1/2 Laurel Hill Murraysville 1/4 Beulah, 1/4 Buena Vista Irwin	58 55 192 126 60 150 162 138 76 115 80 38 51 85 93 77 41 100 135	.... 2 10 5 3 13 8 10 2 1 2 4 2 2 4 4 ..... 7 16	..... 3 4 4 1 5 4 ..... 8 4 4 1 7 5 ..... 3 ..... 3 14	2 6 11 1 1 8 6 20 12 4 2 8 6 12 6 4 5 ..... 14	3 2 19 6 3 15 10 3 ..... 4 5 9 3 7 2 3 2 13 3	..... 1 1 ..... ..... 3 1 1 ..... ..... ..... ..... ...... ..... 1 1 ..... 3 4	12 8 12 12 12 12 12 12 8 12 12 12 12 12 12 12 6 12 12	4 5 12 9 7 20 24 7 7 6 7 4 8 5 8 5 5 9 22	40 45 125 80 60 218 160 60 45 45 40 23 40 40 65 40 30 ..... 130
Correspondents. Joseph Ross D. Alter, M.D B. L. Calhoun, M.D John Shaw George W. Kelley Without Charge A. Young, D.D., LL.D., Professor  S. B. Stewart J. A. Scroggs-22 Licentiates, 1	Youngstown. Parnassus. " Stewart's Station. Watt's Mills. Parnassus. Paulton. Latrobe. Students, O.	Vacancies. Donegal Logan's Ferry Parnassus Stewart's Station Madison	67 63 22 131 45	3 5 ..... 5 .....	..... 8 ..... ..... .....	7 4 14 7 31	2 3 ..... 6 3	2 ..... ..... ..... .....	..... 12 12 12 12	..... 3 3 6 6	..... 20 30 50 30

ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY - 255 of the forest-trees to the straggling hearers around him in the eastern portions of the United States, the conclusion is reached without argument. But from the very nature of the Methodist system is one precluded from writing its local history, especially if that extends over any length of time, for they in early days kept no records in their churches, nor minutes such as were to be preserved and treasured. Their itinerant preachers were, generally speaking, uneducated, if not illiterate, and in this they much prided, for they openly discouraged classical education and the higher grade of colleges, and under the plan of changing their pastors it was seldom that any one pastor remained more than a very few years at one charge. But from the same and other causes may we partially come at the causes of its wonderful numerical advancement. The early church started out with the motto of John Wesley, " My parish is the world," and entered into the world filled with missionary zeal and the hope of success. Laying hold of the common people by adapting itself to their capacity and circumstances, and gathering them together and setting them at work in class-meetings, camp-meetings, revivals, and in all sorts of ways, it has reached out and gathered in a large number of all classes of people. It then preached only Christ, and it cared not when or where or how. So, too, did it give its meeting-houses for any preacher of any Christian Church in which to preach, and it is narrated that the first missionary priests on frequent occasions said mass in their meeting-houses. But nothing could abate the zeal of their early ministers, both clerical and lay. Whatever may be said of the illiteracy of its itinerants it is evident that they were peculiarly adapted to their calling, and that they labored with success. Of wages and hire they got little or nothing. They passed and repassed up and down the whole land and had no abiding-place, for they knew, with the early apostles, that if the earthly house of their tabernacle were dissolved, they had a building from God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens. From the days of the earliest settlements west of Laurel Hill the country was not without law, neither was it without the gospel. The Methodist preachers were here the very first year of their church organization; but not so early as the Presbyterians or the Baptists. This whole region into which the Methodist itinerants came was named in their ecclesiastical divisions the Redstone field. In 1784, John Cooper and Solomon Breeze stand in the minutes for. Redstone ; in 1785, Peter Moriarty, J. Fidler, Wilson Lee ; for 1786, John Smith, Robert Ayres, Enoch Matson, elder. They made their entrance at Uniontown, in the immediate neighborhood of which were many Church of England people and a few Methodists. But they had been preceded by Robert Worster, a local preacher of piety and considerable talent. The growth of this communion here is a subject of wonderment. Many of the earliest settlers of Western Pennsylvania were churchmen, zealously attached to the forms and beliefs of the Episcopal or mother-church of England. But this conservative church did not provide means for the protection' and perpetuation of congregational worship. The flocks were left without a shepherd. The Presbyterians would not give them the sacrament, or baptize their children, unless they would subscribe to the Westminster Confession, and promise to bring up their children in that faith ; the Baptists would not permit them to commune, except they would renounce their baptism and become immersed. No wonder that clear-sighted old John Wesley, seeing what was to be done, and how it was to be done, made haste " to provide," to use his own words, " for those poor sheep in the wilderness." And so the itinerant heralds, running up and down in every direction, gathered the flocks into new folds, and working with their whole heart and souls gathered bread where others would have gathered stones. They went to and fro watching, and wherever they found an open door there they entered. The footsteps of these early preachers—Worster, Cooper, and Breeze—were traced a score of years afterwards by an observant man, himself, later on, a missionary farther west, 1 from Uniontown, where the first society was raised. Their labors were followed to the Youghiogheny, near the Broad Ford, from thence down that stream to the Forks, in Westmoreland County, where a large society was early raised of men eminent for worth and piety, most of whom had been churchmen. They were thence traced along the; Monongahela into Washington County, through some of the northwestern regions of Virginia, and so on back to Uniontown, whence they started. In 1787 an annual conference was held at Uniontown in the month of July. Bishop Asbury officiated as a plain Presbyter, in gown and band, assisted by Richard Whatcoat, elder, in the same habit. Michael Lord was ordained, of whom it was said he could repeat the whole of the New Testament off the book and large portions of the Old Testament. The morning service was read as abridged by Wesley. That was the last time that priestly robes and prayer-book were seen on like occasions in those parts. In 1788 the Redstone field seems to have been divided into four circuits,—Clarksbury, Ohio, Pittsburgh, and Redstone. To this field of labor seven preachers were appointed. Under them and their assistants societies were formed farther north in Westmoreland, and particularly in Ligonier Valley. The Rev. James Quinn, 2 in his own words, speaking of his life and labors, says of these societies as they existed in the latter part of the last century,— 1 "Sketches of the Life and Labors of James Quinn, who was nearly Half a Century a Minister of the Gospel in the M. E. Church." Cincinnati, 1851. 2 Quoted supra. 256 - HISTORY OF WESTMORELAND COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA. "I now must cross over Laurel Hill and make my way into the head of Ligonier Valley. There was a small society at A. McLean's, from Shippensburg or Carlisle, and another at Enos King's, son of the old local preacher. These, however, at that time were of recent date, and the prospect not flattering. But near old Fort Ligonier was raised a large and flourishing society. Here the father of the venerable Bishop Roberts and his extensive family, although church people, fell into the ranks of Methodism. Ah, old mother missed it in not having a missionary bishop here, and some one to take care of the poor sheep in the wilderness. . . . Here, too, were the Shaws and Fishers, the latter of Quaker origin. Here, also, was the devout Cornelius Riley and his excellent wife, Abaigail, father and mother of James and Tobias Riley, of the Baltimore Conference. Little did I think at the time I received them into the church and wrote their names on the class-paper at old Brother John Roberts', brother the bishop, that I should live and be effective till the lads should become senior ministers in the mother-conference. " This society suffered much by emigration to the West, as most of the societies in the mountains did ; for when the rich lands of the West came into market, the mountaineers made a general rush, as if the bears, panthers, wolves, Indians, rattlesnakes, and fire had all broke loose upon them, and, poor things, many of them lost their religion and their lives in the scuffle. "There was another good society still farther down the valley, which met at the house of Brother Howell. Here James Talbot was a prominent and useful local preacher, and the father and mother of Brother. Stewart, of Cincinnati, with their numerous family, were prominent in the membership. Here we leave the valley, and crossing a mountain or very high hill and passing over Conemaugh River, we arrive at a pretty extensive settlement at Black Lick. Here a handful of corn had been placed in the earth by the pioneers, and a good society sprang up, which met at the house of James Wakefield. This man was a local preacher. I am told he still lives (1843). He taught me some good things, and I loved him. " We now leave the Black Lick settlement and direct our course west, and on the top of Chestnut Ridge the handful of corn had produced a good society, which met at the house of Father Wakefield, father of James. To his class belonged the venerable Martin Fate, his deeply-pious wife, three or four sons, and as many daughters. A son and grandson of this family became preachers, one local and the other itinerant." Passing on down southward through Westmoreland, he says, " There was a door opened for preaching on Jacobs Creek, among the Masons and Ragans, and a small society raised, which, however, passed off westward by emigration, leaving scarcely a vestige behind. " A few miles distant from Ragan's [Reagan's], on the Youghiogheny River, and near the foot of the mountains, they obtained a preaching-place at one Flaugherty's and Hain's, on a farm belonging to Zachariah Connell. Here a society was raised by Jacob Lurtan, and his numerous family attended and became members ; and the farm itself became the site of the town of Connellsville, and Connellsville is now the emporium of Methodism in an extensive tract of country." Such is one view, circumscribed it is true, of early Methodism in Westmoreland. We shall get another view from a different source, chiefly traditional, and still another in the extracts which we make use of, taken from the minute-book of the Greensburg Church records. Wherever these accounts differ, it will be seen they do not differ materially; and, taken together, they well enough agree to present an intelligible view of the early history of the church here. The first Methodist preaching in the county was in 1785, at " Fell's Settlement," in Rostraver township, some two miles east of the Monongahela River. Here preaching was had by itinerants sent out by the Baltimore Conference. The surrounding region was settled by Scotch-Irish, who worshiped at " Rehoboth" Presbyterian Church, built nine years previous. But the Fell and several other Maryland Methodist families had settled on the rich lands between the Youghiogheny and Monongahela Rivers, and soon the zeal of the pioneer itinerants found them and began their ministerial labors. " Fell's Meeting-House," a log structure, was built in 1785-86, and was the first Methodist Church erected west of the Alleghenies. In it the great Bishop Asbury often preached, and in the second one, afterwards built, the eloquent Bishop Bascom and other distinguished divines of the Methodist Episcopal Church expounded the word of God. The second Methodist preaching in Westmoreland County was in 1798, not far from Ligonier, at the residence of the Riley family, where was the second preaching appointment for the earliest traveling circuit riders, of whom Rev. Isaac Conway was the first here. The third place of preaching was at Mr. Stuart's, in Fairfield (some of whose descendants reside in Irwin). These two families were perhaps the earliest of the Methodists in all this region. The fourth preaching appointment was near Greensburg, about 1812, in the families of Squire Ross, the Mellons, and McCutchens. The next was at Jacobs Creek and Mount Pleasant, both in 1817. The first three circuit riders at the latter point were Revs. Jacob Dowell, Orville Wilson, and William Barnes. Shortly afterwards preaching was had at Greensburg and on the Big Sewickley,—at the former at the house of Samuel Bushfield, and at the latter at Mr. Slatterbach's dwelling. The appointments were made at Mr. Miller's, on the " Manor." All these were up to 1825, and were included in one charge, and generally by two pastors, who traveled on horseback, preaching every day in the week, and seldom reaching an appointment oftener than once in two weeks. The whole county was then ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY - 257 part of one circuit (Connellsville), and was under the Baltimore Conference. Among the first preachers was Rev. Valentine Cook, presiding elder, whose district extended from the " Virginia line" to Erie, Pa. He was born in 1765, in Monroe County, Va., and in 1788 received into the itinerancy, having his first appointment on the Calvert Circuit in Maryland. During 1792 he became engaged in a newspaper controversy, touching the leading principles of Methodism, with Rev. Samuel Porter, D.D., and with Rev. Jamison, a Scotchman, a minister of the Seceders' Church. He became presiding elder, and in 1798 was transferred to Kentucky, where he died in 1820. He was among the first Methodist preachers in the county. Among the most prominent to follow him were Revs. James Riley, Thornton Fleming, James Wilson, Henry Baker, Samuel V. Gillespie, and the venerable Samuel Wakefield. Another of the pioneer and famous local preachers was Mr. Wirsing, grandfather of Capt. Wirsing, late county treasurer. He was born in Germany, and had been a commissioned officer in the army of his fatherland, being in the dragoons. He was an educated gentleman of fine address and great powers of language. He was the ablest and most eloquent exhorter of his day, and people came in vast numbers to hear him speak at camp-meetings, quarterly meetings, revivals, etc. Under his preaching the venerable Rev. Samuel Wakefield was converted and embraced religion, and there are yet living many old people of Israel who in their youth sought the altar of mercy under this famous exhorter's preaching. He was in the zenith of his fame in 1820, and five years later removed to near Petersburg, Somerset Co., where he died about 1835. Daniel and Conrad Pershing, brothers, were local preachers of note, and Isaac Pershing, a son of the former, still lives at Derry, at a very advanced age. Rev. James Wakefield, uncle of Rev. Samuel Wakefield, was a minister of much celebrity, and preached all over this and the adjoining counties from 1800 to about 1845. He was a man of fine attainments and a successful revivalist, and possessed a power of influencing his hearers hardly excelled in his day. The oldest Methodist preacher in the county, and with only two exceptions in the Pittsburgh Conference, is Rev. Samuel Wakefield, D.D., of Mount Pleasant. This patriarch and pioneer of his church was horn in Huntingdon County in 1799. His father, Thomas Wakefield, was a native of Ireland, and married Elizabeth Morton, who was born in Chester County. They removed in 1800 to Indiana County, where their son Samuel resided until twenty-one years of age, when he entered on the ministry. His first preaching appointment was in Fayette County (Fayette Circuit), embracing half of that county and a part of West Virginia ; his next, Somerset Circuit; his third, Connellsville Circuit, which then embraced all of this (Westmoreland) county. He was then made for four years presiding elder of the Uniontown district, which also included this county. He has been fifty-nine years in the ministry, twelve as a local preacher and forty-seven as an itinerant. He retired some two years ago from regular preaching, although he yet preaches on special occasions, such as dedications, and at funerals. There is probably no minister in America who has traveled so far on horseback, preached so many sermons, married so many couples, administered so many sacraments and baptisms, and attended so many funerals as Rev. Samuel Wakefield. About 1854, Allegheny College, in recognition of his great learning, conferred upon him the honorary degree of Doctor of Divinity. He has written largely for the religious press, and is the author of a work on " Theology," which has been introduced into the course of study for young ministers and been extensively circulated. He also served four years as presiding elder of the. Allegheny District. He was married Aug. 23, 1821, to Miss Elizabeth Hough, through which union have been born ten children,—five sons and five daughters,—all living. One of them, Rev. John F. Wakefield, is the Methodist Episcopal pastor of Latrobe station. Dr. James B. Wakefield is a physician in Mount Pleasant, and Dr. Alfred N. Wakefield a physician at Johnstown. Mr. Wakefield and his wife have lived together sixty-one years, in which time the church, to which he has in all that period been a faithful minister, has increased its numbers and strength in this county to wonderful proportions, which is largely attributable to his zeal and ability and to his ever-watchful care for its growth and promotion. APPOINTMENTS IN THE CONNELLSVILLE CIRCUIT UNTIL THE FORMATION OF THE LIGONIER CIRCUIT, 1920-34,1 Feb. 16, 1820, Connellsville* (Fayette County), Greensburg,* Mount Pleasant,* McNutt's, McCue's, Mellon's (afterward Ross'), Slatterbeck's † (sometimes written Sloderbeck), King's,*† Fisher's (near Ligonier), Hopewell, Stuart's † (Jacob, Ligonier Valley), Wakefield's (James). June 20, 1820, Adams', Armel's, Wilson's, Sheppard's,* † Sherrick's* (Jacobs Creek, not far from Scottdale), Shumard's, McAnelly's. Sept. 16, 1820, Wakefield's. Dec. 2, 1820, Harrold's. June 2, 1821, Wade's, Doty's, Bracken's (Indiana County ). Sept. 29, 1821, Trout's, Rossi’* (near Crabtree, Unity township). Dec. 8, 1821, Williams'. June 29, 1822, Miller's.* Sept. 13, 1823, Vanausdoll's, Harvey's (or Harry's) Feb. 28, 1824, Sterrett's Salt-works. 1 At the formation of the Ligonier Circuit, in the summer of 1834, the preachers on the Connellsville Circuit had served the appointments during the previous year in those congregations or stations marked with an asterisk (*). The appointments marked with a dagger († and perhaps others were thereafter included in the Ligonier Circuit. 258 - HISTORY OF WESTMORELAND COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA May 21, 1825, Funk's. November, 1825, Blairsville, McKissen's, Enfield's. April 29, 1826, Ross' Furnace* (Ligonier Valley), Galbreath's (Ligonier Valley), Palmer's (Ligonier Valley). Oct. 28, 1826, Black Lick (Indiana County). April 14, 1827, Stiffy's, Riggs'* (near Markle's Paper-Mill). Oct. 27, ____ Mardice's, or Mardus'. Dec. 27, 1828, Morrison's, Allander's. Oct. 9, 1830, Pershing's* † (John), northeast of Pleasant Unity, Unity School-house, near Pleasant Unity, Pershing's* † (Daniel). Jan. 9, 1831, McLane's,*t Boner's, Livermore, McCutcheon's* (or McCue's?). April 2, 1831, Ligonier* † (instead of Fisher's). June 11, 1831, Fairfield.* † Sept. 10, 1831, Asbury Chapel* † (perhaps instead of Hopewell). March 17, 1832, Randolph* (three and a half miles east of Greensburg). June 9, 1832, Armaugh (Indiana County). Nov. 10, 1832, Bethel* † (Pleasant Unity), Youngstown.* † Feb. 2, 1833, Tarr's,* Frick's,* Longenecker's,* Laughlinstown.* † April 20, 1833, Donegal,* † Hatfield's, Hartzel's * † (near Pleasant Unity). Oct. 12, 1833, Salem.* Jan. 18, 1834, Denniston Town* (New Alexandria). PRESENT PASTORAL CHARGES. After 1825 several new pastoral charges sprang up, and in that year all Western Pennsylvania was detached from the Baltimore and made into the Pittsburgh Conference, which embraced West Virginia, Western Pennsylvania, and part of Ohio. In 1840 the Erie Conference was made out of it, and in 1844 that of West Virginia. The following are the present preaching appointments (stations and circuits) in the county : Circleville, Jacobs Creek, Lebanon, Ligonier, Cokeville, Latrobe, Irvine, Sardis, West Newton, Rostraver, Mount Pleasant, Pleasant Unity, Donegal, New Derry, Greensburg, Manor, and Madison. Each of these is a separate pastoral charge, embracing from one to four preaching-places. To this imperfect sketch of the Methodist Church of the county may be added a few words touching the Loyalhanna camp-meeting grounds. In the summer of 1874 the East Pittsburgh District of the Methodist Episcopal Church appointed a committee to select ground on which to hold a camp-meeting. The committee selected, out of quite a number proposed, the present site now occupied, one and a half miles east of Latrobe, and this they have improved by erecting suitable buildings and accommodations. The ground was leased for twenty years, and has been laid off in lots fronting sixteen feet, and back forty feet. There are two tiers of lots around the entire camp ; on these are the cottages, and in summer temporary tents, facing towards the square devoted to religions services, or upon the avenues that pass parallel to the sides and ends of this square. The seats in front of the preacher's stand will accommodate five thousand people. When camp-meeting is in progress-it lasting usually two weeks in August of each year-the grounds and the whole town of Latrobe are crowded with people. An admission-fee is charged, and these aggregate a considerable amount. Many owners of cottages with their families reside on the grounds during the heated season. EARLY METHODISM IN GREENSBURG AND VICINITY. The following minutiae cannot but be of interest to the members of the Methodist Episcopal Church throughout the county, although it relates particularly to the establishment of the church at Greensburg, and to the history of the congregation there. For the most part of this material we are indebted to William Robinson, Esq., one of the oldest citizens of the town and members of the congregation there, who has with a due regard to the desires of posterity, and in anticipation of the interest they will take in the matter, committed his personal knowledge and his acquired information in this regard to paper. To his valuable manuscript we have had access, and the substance of it is here reproduced. Greensburg, from the time when first at all regularly supplied with Methodist preaching, received this through the Pittsburgh Circuit until Pittsburgh became a station and the Connellsville Circuit was formed, about 1811, then in connection with the latter until 1816, when Pittsburgh was thrown into a circuit again (Pittsburgh and Connellsville), until about 1819, since which there has been no such circuit as the " Pittsburgh and Connellsville." Greensburg was then in the Connellsville Circuit until 1861, when it became detached by the formation of a new circuit embracing Greensbnrg, New Alexandria, Roes', Mount Pleasant, and Pleasant Unity. The great local " public discussion of the leading points of difference between the Calvinistic and Armenian systems," by Rev. John Jamison, of the Seceder, and Rev. Valentine Cook, of the Methodist Episcopal Church, came off on Wednesday, June 12, 1793, a few miles distant from Greensburg, in some outdoor woodland, where a great number of seats had been prepared and a pulpit erected, and where when the time arrived "a vast concourse of people were in attendance," some of whom came as far as fifty miles. Tradition fixes the place at Congruity. Rev. Samuel Porter, who then had charge of the Presbyterian Church at Congruity, and who had a hand in bringing on the debate, saying " truth was suffering, and I must defend it or own it defenseless," hastened on the succeeding Sabbath, June 16, 1793, to give his " opin ion" in two discourses " On the Decrees of God, the Perseverance of the Saints, and Sinless Perfection." ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY - 259 In 1792, Samuel Bushfield and wife (formerly Miss Catharine Taylor) came from Ireland, and after stopping a while in Lancaster and Hnntingdon Counties, settled at Greensburg in 1799. They were Methodists before they came hither, and soion after they came by their efforts Methodist preaching was secured. In 1799-1800 the first class at Greensburg was formed, embracing Samuel Bushfield and wife Catharine, Jacob Kern and wife Susanna, and John Kern and wife. The early Methodist meetings at Greensburg up to 1830 were usually held at Bushfield's house. In it, too, was the " Prophet's Chamber." These places were, first, a wooden house, in part still standing on the north side of Pittsburgh Street, on the second lot west of the northwest corner of Pittsburgh and Joseph Streets, and a few yards eastward of the spring which rises about midway up Bunker Hill. The western end of the building was then a one-story kitchen. This was the birthplace, so to speak, of Methodism in Greensburg and parts adjacent. After living a year or two in the house designated, Bushfield removed to a red, weather-boarded house which stood on West Pittsburgh Street, at the foot of the street, somewhere below the present residence of Hon. E. Cowan. About 1806-8 he removed to a log house on the north side of the road, and on the west bank of the spring run which passes from Ludwick to the Williams' (or old fair-ground) farm. Nearly opposite this house, on the south side of the road, is the old log barn, which was used for preaching instead of the house " in fine summer weather." This property he owned. In 1829 he removed to a house a short distance eastward from the spring, and as he moved he carried the visible church with him. To this house the venerable writer to whom we are indebted says that at the age of eleven he accompanied his father one Sunday when preaching was expected, bnt no preacher was there. Aaron Hill then led a class. From there Bushfield in 1830 removed to the town of Greensburg, and there in 1832 he died. His wife, married at eighteen to Bushfield, died Dec. 28, 1856, in the eighty-fourth or eighty-fifth year of her age, and having been for above seventy years a member of the church. Meetings were also held at the house of Jacob Kern before he moved West in 1817. He lived on Main Street, on a lot just north of the present chnrch building. Sometimes, especially for night preaching, the court-house was used. This was before 1830, and more generally from 1830 to 1833. In 1832, Rev. Charles Cook came over from Uniontown, and held a protracted meeting here, at which a number joined the church, and after which the project of building a meeting-house was agitated. From 1830 until their first meeting-house was built class-meetings were still held in Bushfield's house and at the house of Joseph .Kern. On Feb. 2, 1833, the Quarterly Conference appointed Rev. Wesley Kinney, Samuel B. Bushfield (son of Samuel Bushfield, deceased), and George T. Ramsay a committee to make an estimate of the amount necessary to build a house of worship in the borough of Greensburg, and, if deemed expedient, to secure a suitable lot of ground for the purpose. To secure the first " Methodist Episcopal Meeting-House' in Greensburg, which was built in 1833, two members of the society subscribed each fifty dollars, other members smaller sums, some citizens gave liberally (or what might be called so at the time), and Rev. John White, preacher in charge, collected around the circuit seventy dollars. The lot was bonght of John Y. Barclay, Esq., for one hundred dollars. The first trustees were George T. Ramsay, Samuel B. Bush-I field, Aaron Hill, Daniel H. Barnes, and Joseph Kern. The agreement between these and John Hart! zell, house carpenter, for the erection of the meeting! house was dated Feb. 16, 1833, and stipulated for a brick building, forty-two feet long and thirty feet wide, one story fourteen feet in height, three windows on each side and two in each end, each of twenty-four lights of eight-by-ten glass ; one double door in centre of front end four feet wide in the clear. The building was to be completed by the 1st of the next July. It is thought the pulpit, altar, and pews were put in some time afterwards, and therefore were not covered by Hartzell's claim for the building, which was $638.85. The first seating was benches made of slabs and boards, and the first lighting was by candles in candlesticks and in sconces hung against the walls. Afterwards lard lamps were used for lighting. A debt for its erection was left on the hands of the trustees, which gave them some trouble until it was paid in 1839. The building was situated on Main Street, and adjoined the present Presbyterian Church property. It was sold by the trustees to the school directors of the Greensburg public schools in 1849. In rebuilding, pilasters and a second story were added. This building is still standing in good preservation, and is now occupied as a dwelling. Previous to the erection of the new church building and after the sale of the first one, a small brick church, formerly used by the Presbyterians, and standing in a corner of now St. Clair Cemetery, together with the court-house, were used for preaching in. The first class met in this little church, and the second and other classes, when formed in 1834 and 1835 and thereafter, met principally at private houses until their own church was built. These private houses were those of William Gorgas, Jane McKinney, David Cook, John McGeary, William Robinson, and Hugh Arters, and besides these places, prayer-meetings and revival meetings were also held at the houses of Jacob Myers, Samuel B. Bushfield, Samuel S. Turney, Robert W. Turney, William S. Brown, and others. Meetings were held at some of these even when the first church w as in use. 260 - HISTORY OF WESTMORELAND COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA. Dec. 14 and 15, 1850, the Second Quarterly Meeting Conference for Connellsville Circuit was held in the church on the cemetery grounds. In 1849 the pastor in charge, Rev. J. G. Sansom, suggested that the meeting-house be enlarged or a new one built to accommodate the increasing congregation. The suggestion was acted upon, and in September the trustees appointed a committee of three—C. J. Kenley, William Robinson, and William A. Cook—to open a subscription and ascertain how much money could be raised for a new church building. The money raised therewith, together with that realized from the sale of their old edifice, was used in purchasing a lot and building a new church. Early in 1850 the lot on the northeast corner of Main and Second Streets was purchased from Jehu Taylor. The building was begun on this lot in 1851. The basement was completed so as to be used for worship in 1852, and the audience-room was finished the following fall, and on Nov. 25, 1852, the building was dedicated by Bishop Simpson. At a meeting of the members of the church and a few friends, held Oct. 14, 1835, the first " Methodist Sabbath-School Society of Greensburg" was organized, with Rev. David Sharp as president; Rev. Jeremiah Knox as vice-president; John W. Barr, superintendent; George T. Ramsey, assistant superintendent and treasurer ; William McKinney, secretary ; and Charles F. Kenley, librarian. In 1871 it acquired an organ for the use of the school. UNITED BRETHREN. The church of the " United Brethren in Christ" began its existence among the Germans of America soon after the middle of the eighteenth century. 1 The ecclesiastical literature of this denomination ardently proclaims that divine Providence greatly favored this people at that time by raising up ministers of the gospel filled with grace and zeal and the disposition and ability to go out among their widely-scattered population and preach in such a manner as to gather many to their standard. Prominent among those evangelists were William Otterbein, Martin Boehn, George A. Geeting, and Christian Newcomer. Those men obeying what they took to be a call from the Lord, their labors were blest of the Lord. Excellent societies were formed in many places, and congregations, after the manner of the Methodists, were established wherever they went. As the spirit of revival and reformation prevailed, their sphere of action spread more and more, so that they soon found it necessary to seek fellow-laborers to work in the fields, where the harvest was plenteous and the laborers were few. So the number of consecrated workmen was rapidly increased. 1 My thanks for assistance in this sketch are due to Rev. F. Fisher and Rev. J. C. Shearer. The number of believers multiplied, and the reformation spread through the States of Maryland, Virginia. and Pennsylvania. From the year 1766 to 1789, a period of twenty-three years, the preachers, who felt that they were " united brethren," and who were co-operating in the revival movement, met together as often as once a year, and generally at a great meeting, where in mutual and brotherly counsel they attended to such business as properly belonged to a Presbytery, a Classic, or a Conference. As the number of laborers increased, and as applications for authority to preach from those whom, as it was regarded, God bad manifestly called and qualified for the work multiplied, these informal Conferences became more necessary and important. Mr. Otterbein, being eminently qualified, usually presided, and his counsels and instructions, especially to the rising ministry, were in a high degree useful. At length, however, a formal Conference was deemed necessary ; the work had become so far extended that it became impracticable to attend to the necessary business of the church at the great meetings. Accordingly the first Conference, regularly convened, was held in Baltimore in 1789. Fourteen preachers were recognized as members. The second regular Conference was convened in 1791, in York County, Pa. Nine additional laborers were recognized, making in all twenty-three. After this period it was found necessary to hold Conferences annually, in order to more closely unite the preachers and to establish a better plan for their labors. At these Conferences the preachers who could give their whole time in traveling were assigned particular fields of labor, wherein they worked as itinerants. Others were appointed to bold revival meetings designated at the Conferences, in different sections of the country, and to devote as much of their time to the work of evangelization as circumstances would permit. At a Conference held in Maryland in the year 1800, the name " United Brethren in Christ" was adopted. Up until this period the church had passed under the name of " United Brethren," an appellation very appropriate considering that converted Mennonists, Reformed Lutherans, Tunkers, and Amish were drawn together and compressed into this one harmonious ecclesiastical organization. The additional words " in Christ" were appended to the former name in order to give distinctness as a denomination, and to avoid any legal difficulty which might arise in making deeds, wills, and other legal instruments. In the year 1815, at a General Conference, composed of representatives of the entire church organization East and West, a discipline was adopted setting forth the doctrines and rules of the church according as they were taken to be, as based on the word of God, so that harmony and peace might be preserved both in doctrine and practice as the church increased. The polity of the church is a very modified episco- ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY - 261 pacy, in which the bishops are elected quadriennially and are not ordained to a superior order, but chosen as superintendents of the church. All ecclesiastical authority is vested in a General Conference, consisting of elders elected by vote of the members of the church congregations from every Conference district. The bishops are elected by this body, and are its presiding officers. They superintend the Annual Conferences in the respective districts over which they are appointed. They officiate in ordinations, and assist in stationing the preachers, according to the itinerant plan. The conditions of membership in this church body are profession of faith in Christ and an experience of pardon of sin and peace with God. The denomination now numbers one hundred and sixty thousand members, mostly English-speaking people. In our county they comprise a generally intelligent and respectable portion of the people. The first United Brethren preachers who came to this county were Christian Newcomer, George A. Geeting, Abraham Draksel, Charles Berger, and Andrew Zeller. These ministers came on extensive missionary tours. from Eastern Pennsylvania and Maryland, visiting the county at intervals of three or four months, preaching in the houses, barns, and groves of those members of their communion who had moved from the East. Christian Newcomer, afterwards third bishop of the church, was the first to come to this county on those long preaching tours. His journal is still preserved, and shows that he visited this county and preached in it as early as 1800. He says.— "Oct. 22, 1800. From thence I came to Mr. George Mumma's, a relation of mine in Westmoreland County, and stayed for the night. 23d. This morning set off on my way very early ; fed at a public-house in Linganore [Ligonier] Valley," [this was at the old May's tavern stand, on the turnpike between Donegal and Laurel-sills]. Another extract will show the route by which these preachers traveled to this country from the East: "Nov. 8, 1803. We traveled about thirty miles over a very mountainous section of country ; preached at Mr. Guth's, near Berlin. . . . 9th. To-day we pursued our journey across Laurel Hill, where we lodged with Henry Filger, in Ligonier Valley. 10th. We held a meeting at Mr. Weible's. The word made great impression. At night we preached at Mr. Bonnett's [one mile east of Mount Pleasant], an intelligent German [but of French extraction]. Here I spoke from Heb. ii. 3. I had not spoken long before some of my hearers fell to the floor, others stood trembling and crying so loud that my voice could scarcely be heard." Six years later he writes,— "June 20, 1809. This forenoon we had meeting at Walter's ; in the afternoon I spoke at Swartz's ; lodged here for the night." [ This was near Pleasant Unity, at the hone of John Swath, grandfather of Mrs. John Gibbs and Mr. Paul 'Swartz, of Mount Pleasant.] " 21st. This day we preached in Greensburg, in the court-house ; Geeting preached in the German, myself in the English language." Six years later he writes of being at the General Conference at Mount Pleasant : "June 5th [1815]. Came to Worman's. 6th. This day the General Conference commenced at old Brother Draksel's. . . . Lodged with John Shupe" [ancestor of Mr. Oliver Shupe, of Mount Pleasant]. His visits are recorded as late as 1827, having been kept up with more or less frequency for a period of twenty-seven years. At page 313 of his printed " Journal" is the following entry : "June 22, 1827. Came to Daniel Worman's. 23d. Lodged at Bonnett's. 24th. This forenoon I preached here from Luke xxiv. 45-47." At the first General Conference held in this region, above alluded to, were present the following ministers: Revs. Abraham Mayer, Henry Kumler, John Snyder, Abraham Draksel, and Christian Berger, of the State of Pennsylvania ; Revs. — Newcomer and Jacob Baulus, of Maryland ; Revs. Christian Crum, Isaac Niswander, and H. G. Spayth, of Virginia ; and Revs. Andrew Zeller, A. Hiestand, Daniel Tryer, and George Benedum, of Ohio. Thus it will be seen that the church in this county has considerable historic interest, and the old house wherein was held this early church meeting is now a Mecca for the pilgrims of this faith. Every reasonable effort has been made to preserve it from demolition, and it has been photographed and produced in all kinds of engravings, and in print hangs on many walls. It is certainly a commendable trait of respect and veneration now that the denomination has grown rich and influential that its members should set such store by old landmarks so full of interest. The first resident United Brethren minister in the county was Rev. Abraham Draksel, or Draksell (now Truxell). He owned and lived upon the farm now occupied by David Miller, near Mount Pleasant. His grandson, Rev. J. H. Pershing, has charge of Ligonier Circuit, and resides at New Florence. Notable among the names of the pioneer ministers of the church in this county is that of Henry Spayth, who moved to Mount Pleasant and became resident pastor there about the year 1815. Besides performing the laborious pastoral work of more than half a century, he wrote a history of the church, and assisted largely in the preparation of a denominational hymn-book. Few men did more than he to shape the polity of the church during a period of thirty years, from 1815 to 1845. The first preaching-places in the county were the one designated above, near Mount Pleasant, and others at Donegal, West Newton, Madison, Greensburg, and Pleasant Unity. The first regular organizations were at Mount Pleasant, Madison, and near West Newton. Among the oldest of living preachers who labored 262 - HISTORY OF WESTMORELAND COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA. for the church in this county during the last half-century are Rev. J. L. Baker, now seventy-two, still traveling a circuit afoot, and preaching with youthful clearness and force, and Rev. William Beighel, still in charge of a Circuit and resident at Pleasant Unity. Peter Walter, of Lycippus, is the oldest member of the church in the county.. He was converted, in a religious sense, and joined the church, then in a barn near Pleasant Unity, at the age of eighteen, and has now belonged to the church as a member for seventy years. He attended the first General Conference at Mount Pleasant in 1815, and knew all the early preachers that came to this section. David Keister, an early member of Mount Pleasant, now above seventy, retains a large store of the traditional history of his church, and remembers distinctly many of the fathers. He has a complete file of the Religious Telescope, the denominational organ of the church. The early growth of the United Brethren Church was slow, owing to the fact that its early ministers were evangelists rather than organizers; hence it is a matter of complaint that, although their labors were abundant and their converts numerous, yet these fruits were often garnered by more skillful organizers of other denominations. These early preachers spoke German, and seldom preached English; hence, as the children of the families learned English at school and began to lose the use of the German, they preferred English preaching, and consequently joined other churches. There are now six pastoral charges in this county, —Mount Pleasant station, in charge of Rev. J. C. Sharer ; Westmoreland Circuit, with the venerable Rev. Isaac Potter as pastor ; Madison Circuit, Rev. J. S. Buell, pastor; Greensburg, under pastoral care of Rev. J. L. Jones ; Ligonier Circuit, Rev. J. H. Pershing pastor ; the west half of Ligonier Circuit is served by Rev. A. Davidson. These pastoral charges consist of seventeen organized churches, worshiping in fourteen meeting-houses, and having a total membership of twelve hundred and ninety-five members. THE MENNONISTS—THEIR SETTLEMENT IN THE COUNTY. The Mennonist Church is one of the fragments into which the mother-church of Rome was shivered by reforming hands in the Middle Ages, and is accordingly one of the many Protestant sects. The founder of the Mennonite—more preferably " Mennonist"—sect was Menno Simon, who was in Friesland in 1495 or '96, three years after the discovery of America by Columbus. He was contemporary with Luther, Zwinglius, Bucer, Calvin, Bullinger, and Melancthon. His doctrines were accepted by great numbers, who became persecuted, and largely dispersed into Prussia, Poland, Denmark, Holland, and Russia. In 1683 a number of Mennonist families came to America and settled in and about Germantown (now Philadelphia), and at subsequent times other bodies of. them came and located near the original settlement. In 1736 five hundred settled in Lancaster County, and from this region they gradually dispersed into various States. In the last part of the eighteenth century the first Mennonist families settled in Westmoreland County, and as years rolled by its settlement received several additions from the Eastern hives. With an eye to plenty and prosperity, the Mennonist pioneers settled in East Huntingdon township, one of the most beautiful and fertile sections of the county, at the same time one rich in minerals. In the same valley, but across Jacobs Creek and in Fayette County, another settlement of Mennonists came. To this settlement came principally Lancaster County families, while to West Overton came generally families from Bucks County. Among the subscribers to " The Christian Confession of Faith," published at Philadelphia in 1727, occur the surnames Kolb, Ziegler, Gorgas, Conerads, Hirchi, Bear, Bowman, Langenecker, Beghtly. These surnames are to be found in Westmoreland, with such phonetic changes as point unmistakably to their derivation from the former. Thus Kolb has become Culp and Gulp ; Ziegler, Zigler ; Conerad, Coonrad ; Hirchi, Harshey and Hershey ; Langenecker, Longnecker. In other documents occur the surnames Oberholtzer, now Oberholt ; Kendigs, now Kintig; Miller, Funk, Bowman still the same in this county- In the original list of subscribers to this Confession of Faith, " done and finished in our united churches in the city of Dortrecht, 21st April, A.D. 1632," occur the surnames Jacobs, Willisemsen, now Williamson; Winkelmans, now Winkleman ; Zimmerman, now the same, or translated into Carpenter ; Shoomaker, now Shoe-, Shu- and Shoonmaker ; Moyers, now the same, or Meyer, Meyers; Koenig, now King; Bom, now Baum ; Claeson, now Clawson; Petersen, now Peterson ; Segerts, now about the same; Haus, now pronounced Houtz ; op de Graff, now Updegraff Thus the connection is shown between the Westmoreland Mennonists of the latter half of the nineteenth century and the Dortrecht, Utrecht, Leyden, Rotterdam, and Amsterdam Mennonists of more than two hundred years ago. In this county the sect is on the decline. At one time their communicants were here numbered by hundreds, while now there are less than forty, and not one of these under the age of forty. The Mennonist Church is in East Huntingdon township (which chapter see for its history), about midway in a line running north and south between West Overton and Bethany, and about midway in a line running east and west between Mount Pleasant and Reagantown. Its last minister was John Overholt, who resided on the eastern flank of the hilly range that farther north in the county is the well-defined Randolph or Dry Ridge. Since their settlement here the Mennonists ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY - 263 have been distinguished for their moral worth, thrift, industry, and intelligence, and no portion of the county excels the part originally settled by them and still almost entirely owned and occupied by their numerons and forehanded descendants. BAPTIST CHURCH. The Salem Baptist Church, located near West Newton, is the oldest of this faith in Westmoreland County. 1 There are not more than three in the western part of the State that antedate it, and it may be there is but one. It was constituted nineteen years before the First Baptist Church in Pittsburgh. Unfortunately the records of its constitution, if there were ever any kept, have been lost. Yet the history that antedates its constitution, and for some years after, was kept in the attentive memory of Brother J. P. Weddell. Richard Pritchard, his grandfather, was a member of the Presbyterian Church, but from his study of the Scriptures was convinced that his baptism was not apostolic. The only Baptist Church that he could attend was in Washington County. Henry Speers was their pastor, and baptized him into the fellowship of that church. His wife soon after obeyed in the same ordinance. Soon after this Elder Speers began to preach in their house occasionally, on the farm now owned by Thomas Ray, where Elders Beatty and Corbley also preached. These meetings were held in memory by Father J. P. Weddell, who a short time since died. The first persons baptized in that place were Joseph Budd and wife, and Nathaniel Hayden and wife, with some others whose names are forgotten. The old meeting-house was built on the same spot where the present one now stands. It was built in the year 1792, and continued to be their place of worship until their present house was erected in the year 1842. Among the early ministers were Lucy, Fry, and Phillips, and Elder Stone, pioneer preachers of Western Pennsylvania. Dr. James Estep preached to this church in his youth, in his prime, and even in his old age. He was their first regular pastor. He served them as a supply and pastor for almost half a century. William Shadrach, D.D., when but a boy, with his youthfnl eloquence led many to connect themselves with this church, some of whom are still members of the church. Revs. Rockefeller, George I. Miles, and Dr. William Penny, earnest ministers of the church, have gone to their rest, and their labors do follow them. The latter of these was baptized and received into the fellowship of this church. For thirty years previous to the great revival under the preaching of Rev. Isaac Wynn, in 1841, was a dark page in the history of this chnrch. They bad no pastor and no preaching, 1 From "Minutes of the Pittsburgh Baptist Association for 1871." except when some traveling minister came among them. James Estep, generally once or twice a year, came and administered the sacrament. The members were few, but they were firm and true. They never ceased holding their prayer-meetings, and, like those of old, " They feared the Lord, and spake often one to another." At the latter part of this period there was a revival, which resulted in the conversion of over fifty persons, who were added to the church. After Rev. Isaac Wynn closed his labors with the church, Rev. E. T. Brown took charge; then succeeded Revs. Milton Sutton, R. R. Sutton, and J. K. Cramer, the latter of whom preached for them over twelve years. After he left the church was without a pastor for several years. Revs. A_ N. Dye and S. Washington each supplied them about six months. Rev. Daniel Webster was their pastor from June, 1869, till January, 1871. Rev. Aaron Wilson, their present pastor, entered upon his labors about April 1st. The Elizabeth, McKeesport, Mars Hill, and Olive Branch were organized chiefly from the Salem Church. The parsonage was built by Rev. A. Wilson. Rev. A. Wilson closed his pastorate in April, 1873. Rev. W. T. Hughes entered upon pastorate in May, 1873. During his pastorate a branch was organized in West Newton, and a house built. Rev. W. T. Hughes closed his pastorate, May, 1875. Rev. J. J. Leightburn became pastor November, 1875. He resigned in 1880. Now without a pastor, have a good church property and parsonage, worth $8000. 1882, Pastor,____ _____; Deacons, Nelson Weddell, Nathan M. Grew, J. M. Montgomery ; Clerk, J. M. Montgomery. Sunday-school of thirty. MOUNT PLEASANT BAPTIST CHURCH. Organized November, 1828. Rev. William Shadrach the first pastor, and only surviving constituent member. W. Shadrach ordained same year, and Abram Shallenberger ordained first deacon in February, 1829. The next deacon was Jonathan Neumeyer. Both of these deacons have had sons ordained deacons of the same church. Rev. Leroy Stephens resigned in 1879, having served the church about seven years, being the longest pastorate in the history of the church. Rev. N. L. Reynolds began his pastorate in 1880, and is still in charge of the church. Few churches have had a more peaceful and prosperons career for the last eighteen or twenty years. It was through the members of this church and their efforts that the institute was located at Mount Pleasant, and they have given a liberal portion of the funds which have made it what it is. MOUNT PLEASANT INSTITUTE The Baptists purchased the old Mount Pleasant College in 1870, and opened what is now known as the " Western Pennsylvania Classical and Scientific 264 - HISTORY OF WESTMORELAND COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA. Institute" in September, 1873, under A. K. Bell, D.D., as president, and J. Jones, A.M., principal. The growth has been gradual but constant. Beginning with forty-six the first year, it has now reached one hundred and fifty, nearly all regular students. The institute is equaled by very few intermediate schools in its full courses of study. There is a three-years' course to prepare for college, besides a three-years' scientific and a four-years' literary course. There are now eight teachers besides the various lecturers. The property consists of a fine three-acre campus on one of the highest spots in the community, and covered with a beautiful grove of forest-'trees, in full view of Chestnut Ridge. There are two large brick buildings, the one used as a ladies' dormitory building having cost twenty thousand dollars. The graduates of the school are beginning to occupy positions of influence, and are giving evidence of the thorough work the school has done. DONEGAL BAPTIST CHURCH. The Baptist Church at Donegal was constituted June 14, 1834. The following are the names of the members : John R. Lohr, John Robison, Sr., John Robison, Jr., Samuel White (afterward removed to Iowa), Catharine Robison, Agnes Lohr, Margaret White, Julian Robison, Mary Lohr, Eleanor Shadrach, Catharine Lohr, Mary Lohr (the younger), Lydia Weimer, Mary Berg, Eleanor Keslar. All these, with the exception of John R. Lohr, Samuel White, and Eleanor Keslar, are now dead. The church was organized by the Revs. John P. Rockefeller and Levi Griffith, on the date above given, at which time the Rev. Rockefeller was chosen pastor, John R. Lohr, deacon, and John Robison, church clerk. It remained under the care of this pastor until April 1, 1835, when he resigned. On the 18th of that month Rev. Levi Griffith was chosen pastor, and he remained in charge until the 1st of March, 1837, when he was succeeded by Rev. Rockefeller, who was again pastor till March 31, 1838. He was then followed by these in their order : Rev. Milton Sutton, till Feb. 20, 1841 ; Rev. Garret R. Patton, from July 10, 1841, till 19th December, 1843 ; Rev. Caleb Russell, till March 7, 1846 ; Rev. Albert G. Eberhart, till March 20, 1847 ; Rev. W. W. Hickman, till April 20, 1850; Rev. John Parker, from Aug. 17, 1850, till March 13, 1852; Rev. J. K. Cramer, till Dec. 19, 1857; Rev. John Scott, till June 18, 1859; Rev. John Williams, from April 1, 1860, till April 1, 1861 ; Rev. 0. P. Hargrave, from June 18, 1862, till December, 1863 ; Rev. James R. Brown, from May 5, 1866, till May 5, 1867 ; Rev. N. B. Crichfield, from July 12, 1867, till Aug. 19, 1871'; Rev. Z. C. Rush, from Sept. 10, 1871, till June 19, 1875 ; Rev. David Williams, for six months thereafter; Rev. W. T. Galloway, preached for six months in 1877 as supply ; Rev. W. S. Wood, for six months in 1878 as supply, and six months in 1869 as pastor ; Rev. John C. Skinner, for three months from November, 1829, as supply ; Rev. G. D. Knox, for six months in 1880 as supply ; Rev. W. T. Galloway, pastor in 1881, from April 1st till September 1st ; and Rev. W. W. Robison, from September, 1881, as supply, who is now their pastor for one year. The deacons of the Donegal Baptist Church, with the dates of their ordination, are as follows: John R. Lohr, June 14, 1834; Samuel White, March 14, 1835; John Robinson, Sr., March 2, 1838; William Fligor, June 17, 1854; Rice Boyd, June 30, 1870. MARS HILL CHURCH. Organized in 1839. Resulted from special services held by Rev. Milton Sutton, then pastor at McKeesport, but residing in Connellsville. Passing by the place now known as Mars Hill, he was requested to hold services in the school-house by an aged lady of the Baptist faith by the name of Mrs. Tilbrook, the mother of John and Thomas Tilbrook, both now deceased, but well known in this county. Rev. Mr. Sutton assented, and continued to stop and preach on Friday P.M., at two o'clock, and in the evenings. As a result a number of person were baptized, and on Oct. 31, 1840, the church was recognized by Council. The following names appear as connected with this early history : Mrs. Tilbrook, John Tilbrook and wife Anna, Thomas Copeland and wife (father and mother of B. and J. Copeland, merchants of Irwin), John Dinsmore and wife (parents of J. McCoy Dinsmore, of Irwin), John Kearns and wife, Jacob Grennewalt and wife, Henry Grennewalt and wife (Col. Jacob Grennewalt's father and mother), Abram Leatherman and wife (sister of David Tinsman), Mrs. Col. Bigham Copeland, Mrs. Emily Grennewalt (mother of Capt. Grennewalt, Twenty-eighth Regiment Pennsylvania Volunteers), Matthew Linn and wife (parents of James Linn, McKeesport). A number of others might be named. The first candidates for baptism were Mrs. Diana Kearns, Miss Polly McQuade ; the first pastor, Rev. Milton Sutton; deacons, Jacob Grennewalt, John Tilbrook. The first house (a Union Church building) was erected in 1841 at a cost of some fifteen hundred dollars. The ground for building and cemetery purposes was donated by John Tilbrook. The pastors of the church since its organization have been Revs. Milton Sutton, R. R. Sutton, J. P. Rockefeller, Gabriel Lanham, O. P. Hargrave (eight years). Daniel Webster (three years), R. C. Morgan (one year), O. P. Hargrave (nine years). The last, O. P. Hargrave, has been pastor for seventeen yeah in June, 1882, an interval of five years intervening between 1868 and 1873. The present church building was erected in 1875, and dedicated May 28, 1876. Sermon by Rev. J. K- Cramer, assisted by Rev. J. J. Lightburn. The official members in 1882 are as follows : Pastor, Rev. 0. P. Hargrave ; Deacons, John Fretz, Daniel ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY - 265 Grennewalt ; Church Clerk, John Ogg ; Trustees, Nathan Fullerton, Christian Fretz, Capt. Caleb Grennewalt, Dr. James Penny, Samuel Grennewalt ; Sunday-school Superintendent, Alexander Wiley. Value of chnrch property, $4000; membership, 1881,85 ; average yearly expenditures, $500 ; Sabbath-school members, 60. The history of the church has been similar to most organizations. In 1868 it numbered 153 members ; to-day 85. While weaker numerically, it is stronger financially. The Irwin, Greensburg, and Coulterville Baptist Churches were in part formed from this church. The early association of this church was with the Monongahela Association. IRWIN BAPTIST CHURCH. Organized in 1872. Recognized by Council Dec. 10, 1872. Received into the Association (Pittsburgh) June, 1873, reporting sixty members. Rev. R. C. Morgan, pastor; I. D. Evans, clerk; J. M. Dinsmore, J. G. Steiner, deacons. Dedicated honse of worship October, 1874. Rev. R. C. Morgan resigned May, 1876. Rev. J. W. Evans became pastor Dec. 1, 1876; resigned November, 1878. Rev. G. D. Knox became pastor May, 1878, and resigned Jan. 26, 1879. Financial embarrassment, and house sold for debt in 1879. Rev. J. Gemple served as supply for a few months, closing his labors January, 1880. During his ministry the church changed its name to the Shafton Baptist Church. Rev. H. Jeffreys became pastor in March, 1881, and still remains in charge. J. J. Jones, deacon ; J. Mountain, clerk. Membership last report, 68. The Second Baptist Church of Irwin was organized in 1879, and recognized by Council Aug. 14, 1879, with 30 members. Rev. G. W. Baker preached as a supply for a few months, closing his labors April, 1880. The church now is without a pastor. First Baptist Church membership : 1873, 60; 1874, 114; 1875, 169; 1876, 198; 1877, 163; 1878, 107; 1879, 53. Value of church property when sold, 1879, $5000. A Sunday-school with an average attendance of 150 pupils was kept up for several years. Benevolent contributions and home-work :

1872 1873 1874 1875 1876 1877 1878 1879

.............. $3,298.50 2,809.00 1,806.98 1,689.50 $2,089.00 859.37 375.62 $13,647.97

This is an average of $1949.71 in the seven years. The outlook for the future is not encouraging for either the Irwin or Shafton Baptist Churches. There is some good material in both, and they may again arise in strength. GREENSBURG BAPTIST CHURCH. Organized April 5, 1873. Recognized by Council May 13, 1873, with 33 members. Received into the Pittsburgh Association June, 1873. Rev. R. C. Mor gan, pastor ; Philip Clingerman, A. P. Smith, deacons; John Mensch, clerk. Rev. R. C. Morgan resigned pastorate April 1, 1874. Rev. O. P. Hargrave became pastor July 1, 1874, and is still in charge, 1882. Dedicated their first meeting-house Oct. 18, 1875. Dedication sermon by Rev. B. F. Woodburn, assisted by Rev. Leroy Stephens, Rev. J. K. Cramer, and Rev. J. S. Hutson. Sunday-school organized January, 1873. Has been a successful school under the superintendencies of A. P. Smith, John Mensch, and H. W. Walkinshaw, who is now in charge. Membership in 1874, 57 ; 1881, 55. Near a hundred scholars have been in attendance some years. As in 1878 there was 93 pupils, other schools have reduced this one. Officers in 1882: O. P. Hargrave, pastor; P. Clingerman, J. Mensch, D. B. Weaver, deacons ; 11. W. Walkinshaw, clerk. Church membership, 94; value of church property, $3000. There has been baptized into this church 115 persons, 86 during the present pastorate. Benevolence and home-work :

1874 1875 1876 1877 1878 1879 1880 1881

$442.25 627.13 1206.05 442.25 448.05 909.42 642.10 2154.20 $6472.16

This is an average of $809.02 for the eight years. There has been connected with this church since its organization by baptism, 115; letter, 18 ; experience, 30 ; total, 163. Only 12 by letter and 17 by experience in eight years. Not much help from abroad. NEW STANTON BAPTIST CHURCH. In 1840 the Rev. Siegfried, of Mount Pleasant, commenced to preach in New Stanton, and a Union Church edifice was built at that place the same year. In April, 1842, there was a church organized at that place numbering about 37 members. The Rev. Siegfried continued to preach here for abort two years. In 1844 the church undertook and erected a stone edifice of its own, costing two thousand dollars. The Rev. Siegfried resigned his charge about this time, and Rev. A. Eberhart was called to the pastorate, and served the church two years. The Rev. Morris then took charge of the church and served it for some time. He was followed by Rev. Richard Sutton, who served for two years. Rev. George White was pastor for some length of time. Rev. Lanham served the church for three or four years. Rev. John Williams, of Turkey Foot, was pastor for some time. The Rev. John E. Thomas preached for a period of about six years. He preached his last sermon at this place from the text, "Man goeth to his long home, and the mourners go about the streets." Since that time the Rev. George Ames has officiated. The Rev. (Forger) Jones served for pastor for two years. The Rev. Wood preached for some time, but had no discipline. He was followed by the Rev. Z. 266 - HISTORY OF WESTMORELAND COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA. C. Rush. The last regularly engaged pastor of the church was the Rev. John Knox, who resigned about five months ago (Dec. 1881). Since that time the church has had no preaching at all. The present membership is 26. Those who assisted the church in protracted efforts were such men as Dr. Estep, W. Wood, Sr., George I. and Ed. Miles, Job and Kaleb Rossel, etc. ROMAN CATHOLIC CHURCH. There was no Roman Catholic congregation in Western Pennsylvania for many years after its settlement. In the early days of our local history some few emigrants from Germany and Ireland, who still clung to the faith of their fathers, had settled in the East, but it was remarked that even the priests were foreign-born, and that few could speak in English. The rise and growth of the church in that part of the State west of the mountains is especially noticeable from the time of the construction of the great public works, such as the canals, the portage, and the railroads, when the labor was mostly done by those who had lately crossed the ocean hither. Up until this century was well advanced the little Catholic Church known as the " Hill Church"—that one which preceded the present St. Vincent's—was the Mecca of the faithful for a region of country of which the eastern portion of this county was a large but not the entire part. There are persons still living who remember when this congregation was made up of worshipers who had been gathered together from beyond Blairsville, in Indiana County, to beyond the head-waters of Indian Creek, in Fayette County. But even when so gathered together from such widely-separated distances the congregation was small. In some districts Roman Catholics were so few that each one was known in person. It is with feelings of shame that the majority of intelligent people of the present generation are apt to contemplate the prejudices of their ancestors, most of whom from the force of circumstances knew nothing of the ceremonial of the church, and little of its evangelical doctrines and history but what they got from Fox's " Book of Martyrs." Among the more liberal, however, such as had little or no bigotry, there is ample evidence to satisfy the inquirer that perhaps there was never a time in our local history when those of a kindred sentiment and who were not held in the bonds of ignorance did not meet on equal ground. The first priests were hospitably entertained at the houses of their German or their Irish Protestant friends. They ate at their tables and lodged under their roofs. 1 Two foreigners meeting had a bond of sympathy outside their religious preferences not known to native-born. Times change, and it is perhaps not worth the saying that now the ceremonies of the many Catholic Churches all over the land are sometimes as well comprehended by Protestant youth as by Catholic youth, although they may in general be more familiar to the one than to the other. To such the Miserere in its matchless eloquence increases the faith of the penitent; in the Office of the Dead the sweet memory of departed friends comes back ; to most of them it is known that in the darkness and gloom of Passion Week, through the watches of the nights which ends with that of Good Friday, the deacons chant the office of the temebrce ; and the edifices are crowded on Easter Sundays by a promiscuous crowd, who know that then is celebrated with " mass and rolling music" the memory of the risen Lord. But there was a time when the gown of a Benedictine was thought to hold the incarnate spirit of evil, when the singing of the asperges was in a language never spoken by Christian men, and when a simple countryman would as leave be bitten by a mad dog as get a dip of holy-water. The history of the Roman Catholic Church in Westmoreland County is so peculiarly connected with the history of Catholicity in Western Pennsylvania, and, indeed, in one respect, with Catholicity in the United States, that it is deserving of a more than ordinary notice at our hands. One observation alone, to a contemplative person, indicates that its annals possess much interest, for the Right Rev. Abbot Wimmer, of St. Vincent's, as known in the hierarchy of the church, was with those prelates who entered the Council Hall of the Basilica, in which met the Ecumenical Council of the Vatican. This prelate, to whom in 1869 was accorded the enviable honor and distinction of joining the procession of cardinals, patriarchs, clerical princes, and notables of the Roman Catholic and Apostolic Church throughout the whole world was the abbot of a monastery erected on a spot which in 1769 was in the midst of a great wilderness. And this monastery is certainly a place of much interest to our people, and its institution something in which they may well feel an honorable pride. CATHOLICITY IN WESTERN PENNSYLVANIA. Before giving a detailed history of Catholicity in Western Pennsylvania we find it expedient to revert to its cradle in the East, namely, to Philadelphia and its vicinity. The first traces of Catholic worship in Pennsylvania are found in the public celebration of holy mass in Philadelphia in the year 1708, based upon the following quotation from a letter of Sir William Penn, then in England, to his Colonial Governor in America, James Logan: " There is a complaint against your government that you suffer public mass in a scandalous manner. Pray send the matter of fact, for ill use of it is made against me here." 2 In a subsequent letter he adverts to the same subject, saying, " It has become a reproach to me here with the officers of the 1 The inquirer will perhaps be agreeably disappointed to discover how numerous are the family traditions among our early and most influential clam of people bearing upon this subject. 2 Memoirs of the Historical Society of Pennsylvania, voL x.; Peaa and Logan Correspondence, vol. H. p. 294. ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY - 267 crown that you have suffered the scandal of the mass to be publicly celebrated." 1 The priests celebrating the holy masses in Philadelphia, according to historical documents, could have been no other than the Franciscan Friars Minor, Poly-carp Wicksted, or James Haddock.2 The former came to America in the year 1674, and died before April, 1725, and the latter arrived in the year 1700, and died in Maryland in or before 1720. The first Catholic Church that history records in Pennsylvania was St. Joseph's, erected by the Jesuits. Eight of the zealous missionaries with their superior, Rev. F. Segura, came to America in 1570. Betrayed into the hands of hostile Indians by an Indian convert, the treacherous Don Luis, all were murdered without mercy ; but forty-six years later two other heroic fathers of the same society, Revs. Andrew White and John Altham, landed in Maryland with Lord Baltimore on March 25, 1634, and were soon followed by other self-sacrificing confreres, one of whom was Rev. Josiah Greaton, whose glorious memory is honored in history for having brought in 1730 from Maryland to the Catholics in Philadelphia the consolation of their religion. 3 The number of Catholics in Philadelphia and vicinity at this time cannot be ascertained ; but in April, 1757, they amounted to thirteen hundred and sixty-five, scattered over Chester, Philadelphia, Berks, Northampton, Bucks, Lancaster, Cumberland, and York Counties. 4 Five German Catholic families, for reasons not known, but presumably to better their worldly condition,'left these Eastern settlements in the years 1787 and 1788 for Westmoreland County, having previously arranged for the reception of occasional visits and the consolations of religion with priests from the German settlements at Goschenhoppen, Berks Co., Conewago,5 and Philadelphia. After leaving their Eastern homes they journeyed through Huntingdon County to Hollidaysburg, crossing the main ridge of 1 Watson's Annals of Philadelphia. 2 Rev. A. Lambing. The Catholic Church in the Diocese of Pittsburgh and Allegheny, p. 525. 3 The first Catholic settlement within the bounds of what is now the Northern United States was made in Maryland, March 25,1634. In 1774 Baltimore was a station, visited once a month by a priest from White-marsh, who brought with him his vestments and altar service. In 1784, Bey. John Carroll, of Maryland, was made superior of the clergy in the United States, and afterwards bishop. 4 Rev. A. Lambing, as above. In a map of "Philadelphia and Farts Adjacent" as it was in 1749, and which is hung in Independence Hall, in.the list of public hulloing. is " One Mass House." 5 The station at Conewago, northeast of Gettysburg, in York County, was among the first in Pennsylvania. It was established in 1741, and served from that time on. This was the centre of a large region, from which the priests at intervals went out to visit the pioneer families of the faithful, when they slept in the woods, made meals of cold potatoes, and said mass over the rough clapboard tables of their parishioners. Many years after, when they had no churches of their own, it was no uncommon thing for mass to be said, when the priest came, in parfaits, in the Methodist meeting-houses. (See "Life of A. D. Gallitzin," by Sarah Brownson, for material used in part of this sketch.) the Allegheny Mountains and settled in Unity township, Westmoreland Co. The following are the names of the heads of these families : John Propst, John Jung, Patrick Archbold, Simon Ruffner, Christian Ruffner, and George Ruffner. They were joined in the year 1789 by Mr. Henry Kuhn, from Goschenhoppen, Berks Co., Pa. Having settled here and there in Unity township, they went to Greensburg in March, 1789, to buy a lot on which to erect a temporary church and lay out a graveyard. The land, however, was presented to them, as they had only five shillings in cash. According to agreement, Rev. John Bpt. Causes , a missionary from Conewago, came to Greensburg in the following June to confer upon the few settlers the consolation of their religion. Finding no more suitable locality, he celebrated the mysteries of the Catholic faith in the humble residence of Mr. John Propst, lying on the Pittsburgh turnpike, ten miles east of Greensburg. This was perhaps the first celebration of holy mass west of the Alleghenies, save that at Fort Duquesne, at the confluence of the Allegheny and Monongahela Rivers, in which a French chaplain celebrated the mysteries of the Catholic religion for the soldiers of this belief in 1754. Father J. Causey's missionary territory was too extensive to allow him much rest, hence he departed on the following day. These pioneers were also visited by Rev. Peter Heilbron (or Hellbron) in 1787, pastor of Goschenhoppen and vicinity, and in 1789 pastor of St. Mary's parish in Philadelphia. While pastor at Goschenhoppen be laid, in the fall of the aforesaid year, at a place called " Sportsman's Hall," 6 in Unity township, Westmoreland Co., the foundation of the first permanent Catholic settlement, on the spot where St. Vincent's Abbey and College now stands. More Catholics soon flocked to this point on account of a Catholic priest residing there by the name of Theodore Brouwers. This reverend gentleman, a native of Holland, and a Franciscan Friar Minor, came to Philadelphia before August, 1789, and for a time enjoyed the hospitality of Rev. P. Heilbron. The parishioners, hearing that their pastor, Rev. F. Th. Brouwers, had a goodly sum of money to dispose of, tried their best to keep him among them, that the heavy debts on their church might be the sooner removed. Rev. F. Th. Brouwers, however, did not yield to their solicitations, but positively declared his intention of going and erecting a church for Catholics destitute both of means and pastor. Having heard of the poor settlers in Westmoreland County, he resolved to go thither, and before leaving Philadelphia purchased a farm of one hundred and sixty-two acres and forty-three perches in Derry township, on the eastern bank of the Loyalhanna River, designated, in the patent as " O'Neal's 6 "Sportsman's Hall" was the name of the tract of land in the patent. 268 - HISTORY OF WESTMORELAND COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA. Victory." Arriving in Greensburg and not finding a suitable residence, he boarded during winter wits. Mr. Christian Ruffner, who resided about three miles east of the town. Early in the following spring he intended to build—on his farm a residence for himself, and a chapel for the Catholics, but finding the land not very fertile and the place too distant from the settlement, he followed the advice of Mr. H. Kuhn, and bought the farm of three hundred and thirteen acres and eight perches, on April 16, 1790, known as "Sportsman's Hall." By the aid of an industrious carpenter he soon reared an humble frame bnilding of seventeen by seventeen feet, one and one-half stories high, which he henceforth inhabited. A few years after a little low log house was put up as an addition to the priest's house. Previous to this the confessional and the chapel were in the oratory of the priest who was incumbent. The new building had at first no seats but a few stools for the aged. The young and the middle-aged were required to stand, and expected to kneel npon the floor and bow their beads at the elevation. For a long time there was no stove in the building, so that in winter it is said to have been intolerably cold. 1 The hardships of a trying missionary career, however, soon wore out the zealous priest, and he died prematurely on the 29th of October. 1790, having bequeathed to his successor in the capacity of a duly authorized pastor of this Catholic settlement the properties of " O'Neal's Victory" and " Sportsman's Hall" for his maintenance. Many serious troubles and litigations have in the course of time arisen on account of the two properties, but the settlement became the parent of numerous other congregations, and was long considered a station for colonists going farther West.2 1 Life of Rev. Gallitzin. 2 The desire of Father Brouwers—his name is variously written, Browers, Brauers, and Brouwers, the first is the English form—in making this purchase was to have It become a residence for devoted priests and the headquarters of the religious, who from it would attend the surrounding missionary stations. With this object he wished to bequeath the land to his spiritual successors, with the injunction that they should say every year one matts for the repose of his soul and three for his intention, but his will was so worded by the person who drew it up that a doubt was left, whence the will fell into litigation, and after running number of years through the courts of the State, during which time the land was held and used by the regular clergy, it was finally adjudged and determined with due regard to the intention of the testator. By act of Assembly of March 7, 1827, legalizing this will, the congregation of St. Vincent's Church were made the owners in trust for the use of the pastor of this real estate and appurtenances. The will is here given verbatim: WILL OF THEADORAS BROWERS. In the name of God Amen. I, the Reverend Theodoras Browers, being weak in Body, but of sound mind, memory, and understanding, and calling to mind the mortality of my Body Do make ordain & constitute this to pe my last will and testament, viz., first I recommend my soul to God who gave it, my body to the Earth to be Buried in a decent Christian manner on the Place I now live on Called "Sportsman Hall," and a small neat stone wall to be Built around my Grave. All my Just Debts and funeral Expenses is next to be Paid. Item, I give and Bequeath to my Beloved Sister Gartrudas Brewers fifty dollars, all the Many immigrants coming from the East and wishing to settle in Western Pennsylvania followed the above-mentioned route through Huntingdon County to Hollidaysburg, but crossing the main ridge of the Allegheny Mountains, settled in the north of it, in the vicinity of Bellefonte and Huntingdon ; others found homes farther south in the vicinity of Newry, whilst a few settled on the route or near it in Sinking Valley and the contiguous region. The Catholics here were attended by Rev. F. O'Reilly, who also erected chnrches in Newry, Huntingdon, and Bellefonte. The settlement in Unity township increased in the number of its inhabitants every year, despite the contentions caused by some avaricious men on account of the two properties. These litigations induced Rev. F. Lanigan, a recent arrival in the colony in 1797, to lead a body of men of the same mind as he himself to West Alexander, Washington Co., and there to establish a branch colony ; but finding the land unsuitable for agriculture they disposed of it, and moved southeast to Waynesburg, Greene Co. In spite aforesaid Expenses and Legacies is to be paid by my Executor herein after named out of the money I have in the Bank of Philadelphia. Item, all my Homes, Cows and all other Farming Utensils to be left on the Place I now live on for the use thereof untill Christian Andris year shall expire, then to be sold and the money arising thsrefrom to be age propriated to the payment of said Chrs. and Wife. And if the aforesaid articles should amount to more than will pay the aforesaid sums the remaining to be applyed by my executors to the Payment of the Plana Item, I give and Bequeath all my books Clothing and furniture and all the residue of my Personal estate that shall not otherwise be disposed cos to James Pennanc in trust and for the use of the Poor Roman Catholick Priest that does or shall live at the Chapel on Connewaggs. Item I Give & Bequeath all my Real Estate, vas., my Piece on which I now live Called Sportsman Fall, and one other Tract of Laud on Loyalhanna Creek Called "O Neal's Victory" with their appurtenances to a Roman Catholick Priest that shell succeed me in this said place to be twilled to him and to his successors in Irust, and so left by him who shall succeed to his successor and so in trust for the uses herein mentioned In somasion forever. And the said Priest for the time being shall strictly and faithfully say four Masses each and every year forever, via one for the Soul of the Reverend Theodoras Browers on the day of his death in sack and every year forever, and three others the following days in each year as aforesaid at the request of the Reverend Theodore Brewers, & furthermore it is my Will that the Priest for the time being shall transmit the land so left him in trust u aforesaid to his successor clear of all (neat brance as aforesaid. And I Do Nominate Constitute et appoint Christian Roffner & Henry Coons Executors to this my last Will and testament. R Mr. Thsodore Brouwers M [seal] R. Mr. John Baptist Cause Signed Sealed Published Pronounced and Declared by the said Theodore Browers to be his let Will and testament this twenty-fourth day of October in the year of our Lord one thousand seven hundrd and ninety. In presence of us Christian Andris, William McGee. Westmoreland County, sr. Be it remembered that on the fifth day of November came Personally before me Wm. Maghee D. B. for said county of Westmoreland, the R. Mr. John Baptist Cause and Christian Andris and being solemnly sworn agreeably to Law smith they were present and saw the Revd. Mr. Theodoras Browers, the Testator within named sign seal Pronounce & declare the within Instrument of Writing u his last Will and testament, that at the time of his so doing hs was of sound mind memory and understanding to the best of their judgments. I ages to the above being personally Present. Wm. Maghee. James Hamilton, Esq., Reg. The case is at December term, 1798, Common Pleas, and is captionsd thus : The Lessee of the Executors, &c, of Theodoras Brower., Dec'd, w. Franciscus Fromm, Tenant. ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY - 269 of this separation the Unity township colony still remained the largest of all the settlements, and Rev. Peter Heilbron having been appointed pastor of Sportsman's Hall, in the fall of 1799, had under his charge in November of the same year seventy-five communicants. 1 Besides the route mentioned as taken by the first settlers of Westmoreland there was another, followed by some immigrants leaving Conewago, tending southeast to Shade Gap, and turning again into the first route near Hollidaysburg, and thence leading to Unity township, in Westmoreland, or branching off to Loretto, in Cambria County, where they knew there were Catholic Churches. Some immigrants naturally inclined to mountainous habitations directed their steps to the eastern Allegheny range. The most of these immigrants came from Maryland by way of Bedford, along the eastern slope crossed by the first route. Almost all the colonists of Bedford, Harman Bottom, Loretto, and vicinity came by that way. Loretto especially attracted the attention of immigrants on account of her renowned and illustrious apostle, Dr. Demetrius Augustine Gallitzin. The fourth route of immigrants into Western Pennsylvania was that offered by the Braddock road. This route, crossing the mountains, extended from Cumberland by way of Uniontown and Youghiogheny River to Pittsburgh. Nearly all the colonists of Armstrong and Butler Counties, the largest settlements of Western Pennsylvania in the beginning of this century, came that way.2 Brownsville, the upper Monongahela Valley, and Jacobs Creek were also peopled by the same route, but they attained no great importance for a considerable time, Pittsburgh itself being for a long time very insignificant, And its Catholic population small. The first priest to make his appearance in that town was, in all probability, the Rev. Father Whalen, who had been sent in 1787 by Bishop Carroll, of Baltimore, to the Catholics in Kentucky. The usual road to the West in those early days was by flat-boats down the Monongahela to Pittsburgh and thence down the Ohio. The following fact, however, proves more conclusively the statistics of the Catholics in Pittsburgh in those early days. Bishop Carroll in May, 1792, ordered a young French priest, Benedict Joseph Flaget, the future Bishop of Bardstown and Louisville, to take charge of the Catholics in Vincennes and its surroundings. Having come to Pittsburgh, he was on account of the high waters of the Ohio detained there six months, during which time he resided with a descendant of the French Huguenots, who had married an American Protestant lady, and was treated most respectfully by both. He said mass l Rev. A. A. Lambing, " History of the Dioceses of Pittsburgh and Allegheny," p. 25. 2 Ibid., pp. 25-27. - 18 - daily in his benefactor's residence, instructed the few Catholics of the French tongue, and also the soldiers in Fort Pitt, the headquarters of Gen. Wayne. His charity in tending to the wants of the sick and those of the troops stricken with the pestilential malady of smallpox regardless of creed, and the apostolic zeal which he displayed when four deserters had been condemned to death, one of whom he converted to the Catholic faith, endeared him to the general, as the following evidence proves. Among those four deserters was a French infidel, who refused every religious admonition and service. When their last hour arrived the good priest accompanied his convicts to the place of execution. The condition of his unfortunate countryman so much moved him that he fell into a swoon, which induced the general to grant him the pardon of the impenitent. This noble missionary left Pittsburgh in November in a flat-boat for Louisville. 3 Rev. F. Peter Heilbron paid occasional visits to Pittsburgh's few Catholics.4 Rev. Dr. Demetrius Aug. Gallitzin found these in 1804 only fifteen Catholics. In October, 1808, however, we find in Pittsburgh a resident priest, Rev. F. X. O'Brian, who laid the foundation of St. Patrick's Church, which appears to have been finished before the close of 1811. This is evidently concluded from the fact that Rt. Rev. Bishop Egan, of Philadelphia, visited the city in the latter part of the year 1811, when it was not entirely finished, for he gave confirmation in a private house. This was the first visit of a bishop to Western Pennsylvania. Father F. X. O'Brian worked zealously in his mission until 1820, when he retired, as it is said, to Maryland: Before coming to Pittsbnrgh he resided in Brownsville, and was succeeded in Pittsburgh by Rev. Charles B. McGuire. This reverend gentleman, a native of Ireland, was born Dec. 16, 1770, at Dungannon, Tyrone County- He was a Franciscan Friar by vow, had studied at. St. 3 Sketches of the Life of Right Rev. B. J. Flaget, by Rev. M. J Spalding, D.D., p. 31. 4 For a number of years after the death of Father Brouwers, Oct. 29, 1790, his flock was without a shepherd. During the troubles attending the settlement of the will many families intending to Join the first settlement about Greensburg discouraged at the religious situation there, or induced by motives of worldly advantage, scattered themselves in the woods from Conewago along to Greensburg. Then Rev. Brosius and Father Pellentz, from the missions in the East, made s few pilgrimages to the settlera on the top of the mountains, and as far as to the families in Westmoreland. Mr. Fromm had in the mean time intruded on the estate left by Father Brouwers, while the Rev. Whalen attended to the spiritual necessities of the little flocks here, living during his short pastorate in the greatest destitution and poverty. In 1799 the bishop of the church had the remote McGuire, settlement on the top of the mountains, now Loretto, and Sportsman's Hall, now St. Vincent, provided for, the first by the prince-priest, Demetrius Gallitzin, and the last by Mr. Heilbron. At McGuire's the young priest had, indeed, with the assistance of his parishioners, built " a little lonely church in days of yore," and on the Christmas-eve, when the snow lay waist-deep over all the hills, the heir of a noble house as a priest sang the Gloria in Excelsis in the first mass in the first church of the congregation at Loretto.—See in detail Life of Rev. Gallitzin, quoted supra. 270 - HISTORY OF WESTMORELAND COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA. Isidore's Monastery in Rome, and had after the completion of his studies occupied a professor's chair. After his arrival in America in 1812, he resided as pastor from 1817-20 at Sportman's Hall, and then moved to Pittsburgh, where the population was increasing, and Father Terrence McGirr became pastor at Sportsman's Hall. While Father McGuire had been charged with pastoral functions in Pittsburgh, he laid the foundation of St. Paul's Church, the present cathedral. In the year 1828 or 1829 a colony of Poor Clare nuns opened a house of their order in Allegheny. With this colony of nuns, came Rev. Vincent Raymacher, O.S.D., as their chaplain. He was succeeded in the fall of 1830 by Rev. A. F. Van de Wejer, of the same order, and assisted Father McGuire, who was in the course of years also assisted by Rev. Anthony Kenny. Father Patrick Rafferty was Father McGuire's assistant in 1830, in which year, about June 26th, Bishop Kenrick and Bishop Conwell passed through the town, according to the " United States Catholic Miscellany." About this time twelve hundred and fourteen persons are recorded as having received the sacrament of baptism during the previous ten years in that mission ; forty-three converts had been received into the Catholic Church in 1828, and twenty-seven in the year 1829. Bishop Conwell gave confirmation in St. Patrick's on Sunday, June 27, 1829. Rev. John Grady and Rev. Thomas Gegon were also among Father McGuire's assistants. His active missionary life consumed his bodily strength, and he died in 1833, without having finished his noble undertaking. Rev. John O'Reilly having been his assistant since 1831, succeeded him as pastor and finished the church. As in Pittsburgh so in many other towns and settlements had churches to be built on account of the increase of the Catholic population and clergy. This increase necessarily demanded suitable government with full jurisdiction. The fifth Provincial Council of Baltimore, convoked May 14, 1843, therefore recommended to the Pope a division of the diocese of Philadelphia, which had been suggested to the Pope in January, 1836, and which now received his approval.' The division was confirmed, and Pittsburgh was chosen to be the See of the new diocese, under the title of " Western Pennsylvania," having for its eastern boundary Bedford County. Rev. Dr. M. O'Connor, vicar-general of Pittsburgh and pastor of St. Paul's, was appointed first Bishop, and consecrated in Rome Aug. 15, 1843. He sailed for America November 12th, and arrived in Pittsburgh December 3d.2 Soon after his arrival he, taking a census of his whole diocese, found fourteen priests, thirty-three, churches, and a Catholic population of about twenty-five thousand. 1 Lives of the Deceased American Bishops, vol. i. p. 500. 2 Rev. A. A. Lambing, " The Catholic Church in the Diocese of Pittsburgh and Allegheny," pp. 57-60. The Catholic increase was proportionate in the Northwest. The first permanent settlements were made in 1795, under the patronage of the " Pennsylvania Population Company," which was organized in March, 1793. The pioneer settlers repaired the old military roads cut by the French along the shore of Lake Erie, and from Erie to Fort Le Boeuf, while new roads were opened by the agents of the Population Company. In 1805 the Erie and Waterford Turnpike Company was organized, and four years later the road leading from Lake Erie to the Allegheny River at Waterford, a distance of fifteen miles, was completed. These roads connected the lakes on the north with the Ohio River at Pittsburgh, and favored immigration in no small degree. After the departure of the French troops from Fort Le Boeuf in 1759, the country remained in the exclusive possession of the Indians until 1767, when a Moravian missionary, Rev. David Zeisberger, from Wyalusing, penetrated the dense forests of the Northwest, and preached the gospel to the natives. In the following year other missionaries from Bethlehem joining Father Zeisberger, formed a settlement on the banks of the Allegheny. But a war breaking out in April, 1770, among the Indians so endangered their lives that, abandoning their village and huts, they passed down the river in boats, and entering Beaver Creek founded upon its banks a new settlement, which they called Friedenstadt (signifying a town of peace). The Northwest becoming by degrees accessible was soon the scene of an almost boundless speculative furor on account of its petroleum springs, which, attracting also the Catholic population, caused settlements to be founded, churches erected, and the number of Catholics increased, and their clergy to be greatly increased. The missionary territory having become too large, Right Rev. Dr. M. O'Connor handed in a petition to Rome for the division of the diocese of " Western Pennsylvania," and for the erection of a new diocese, having Erie City as its Episcopal See. The petition was granted in 1853. The counties of Erie, Crawford, Mercer, Venango, Forest, Clarion, Jefferson, Clearfield, Cameron, Elk, McKean, Potter, and Warren composed its diocesan district, and Right Rev. O'Connor was transferred by his own request to that See in the year 1853, but was returned to his former See by Rome, at the request of the clergy of the Pittsburgh diocese, in the following year, 1854. Rev. J. M. Young, pastor of Lancaster, Ohio, who had been appointed for the See of Pittsburgh, became his successor in the Erie diocese, and was consecrated April 23, 1854. Right Rev. J. M. Young was a native of Shapleigh, Me., born Oct. 29, 1808, of old New England stock. He became a convert to the Catholic religion while pursuing the avocation of a printer. His zeal, sincere piety, and consistency as a Catholic when em- 3 Sypher's School History of Pennsylvania, pp. 228 to 234. ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY - 271 ployed in the Catholic Telegraph office in Cincinnati induced Bishop J. B. Purcell to exhort him to study for the church, and upon the completion of his studies to confer upon him holy orders. He worked zealously for many years in and about Lancaster, Ohio, until he was called to the See of Erie, where he died suddenly, Sept. 28, 1866, in his episcopal residence. 1 He was succeeded by Rt. Rev. Tobias Mullen, formerly vicar-general of the diocese of Pittsburgh, who was consecrated Aug. 2, 1868. The Erie diocese counts at present 84 parishes, 11 chapels, and 31 stations where mass is occasionally said. The total amount of the Catholic population numbers 45,000. 2 Having viewed the rapid progress of Catholicity in Northwestern Pennsylvania, we return to that part of Western Pennsylvania constituting the diocese of Pittsburgh. The progress of Catholicity here is even greater. That the Rt. Rev. M. O'Connor was ever active in the administration of his diocese is attested by his many labors, and his indomitable will and lofty spirit are particularly evinced by that superb structure known as St. Paul's Cathedral in Pittsburgh, whose grandeur shall mirror to the future the nobility of the man. Cares and anxieties having brought on a softening of the brain, Pope Pius IX. was induced to accept his resignation in May, 1860. After his recovery he entered the Society of Jesus, and died Oct. 18, 1872, at Woodstock, Md., a model of humility and piety. He was born Sept. 27, 1810, near the city of Cork, Ireland. His classical education he received at Queenstown, and his sacred studies he completed at the Propaganda in Rome, where he was appointed after his ordination to the priesthood, June 1, 1833, Professor of Sacred Scriptures and Vice-Rector of the Irish College. Having spent some years in Ireland, he came to America in 1839 to assist Bishop Kenrick, of Philadelphia, in educating young men for the holy ministry at St. Charles Borromeo College, of which he was president until he was appointed vicar-general, and soon after Bishop, of Western Pennsylvania. He was succeeded by Rt. Rev. Michael Domenec, D.D., a native of Spain, and of the Lazarist Order, who was consecrated Dec. 9, 1860. Known for his energy, zeal, charity, and politeness, he was esteemed by all. Finding the yoke of the diocese of Pittsburgh too heavy, he requested the Holy See to divide the diocese and create the new See of Allegheny, comprising that part of Allegheny County north of the Allegheny River, together with the counties of Butler, Armstrong, Indiana, Westmoreland, Cambria, Blair, Huntingdon, and Bedford. This request was granted, and the new diocese confirmed Jan. 11, 1876. He was appointed by Pope Pius IX. first Bishop of that See, whilst Rt. Rev. J. Tuigg, D.D., for many years a zealous missionary in Altoona, succeeded him to the See of Pittsburgh, comprising that part of Allegheny County l New History of the Catholic Church, etc., by John Gilmary Shea. 2 Sadlier's Directory, 1882. north of the Ohio and south of the Ohio and Allegheny Rivers, together with Lawrence, Beaver, Washington, Greene, Fayette, and Somerset Counties. Rt. Rev. J. Tuigg was consecrated March 19, 1876. A lawsuit between the two dioceses on account of the financial administration of Rt. Rev. Bishop M. Domenec broke the latter's heart. He died at Tarragona, Spain, Jan. 5, 1878. That Rt. Rev. Monseigneur was born of wealthy parents in the city of Ruez, near Tarragona, in the northeast of Spain, in 1816. He received his classical education at Madrid, and at a college in the southern part of France, whither he retired on account of the Carlist war. His sacred studies he pursued partly in Paris, where he formed the acquaintance of the Lazarists, whom he afterwards joined, and partly at Barrens Seminary, Missouri. He came to America Oct. 15, 1837, with Rev. J. Timon, Visitor-General of the Congregation, and arrived at Barrens, in Missouri, Feb. 10, 1838. Here he finished his studies, and was raised to the dignity of the priesthood June 29, 1839. Two years later he was sent to Cape Girardeau, where he built a college in 1842. Having returned to the seminary at Barrens, and having been employed in missionary life till 1845, he was with some other Lazarists sent to take charge of the diocesan seminary of Philadelphia. After this he became an active missionary in Nicetown and Germantown, in which latter place he erected a handsome church, when he was called to the See of Pittsburgh, where he worked zealonsly for eighteen years. The unfortunate lawsuit, which ended in his. favor at Rome in January, 1882, under the plea of his Vicar-General, Father J. Hickey, perfected the reunion of the Allegheny and Pittsburgh dioceses, which took place. Aug. 3, 1877. The two now form a Catholic population of 125,000, 130 churches, and 44 chapels. Pittsburgh alone, with 22 churches, has a Catholic population of 49,015. Westmoreland County, the seat of Catholicity in former times, has now become almost the least. The parishes, with the number of Catholics in it, are the following: Chestnut Ridge, 65; Florence, 60; Greensburg, 350; Irwintown, 950; Latrobe, 700; Ligonier, 15; New Derry, 350 ; Penn Station, 150 ; Suter's Station, 412; and Sportsman's Hall, now St. Vincent, 750. St. Vincent, the parent of all the churches in Westmoreland County, Suter's Station alone excepted, is, compared with many others, in the minority as to numbers, but in regard to predominant prerogatives superior to all, as the meaning of its very name ("one being victorious") sufficiently indicates. It adopted that name from the Patron Saint of the church, which Rev. A. Stillinger, from the beginning of November, 1829, the successor to Rev. F. McGirr, erected. Its dimensions were 87 by 51½, and though begun in 1833, was not completed until July 19, 1835, on which day it was blessed by Rt. Rev. Bishop Kenrick. Old age prevented the zealous Father Stillinger from performing his pastoral functions in so extensive a dis- 272 - HISTORY OF WESTMORELAND COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA. trict, and he was therefore transferred at his own request to Blairsville by Rt. Rev. M. O'Connor, Bishop of Pittsburgh, in 1845. His successor at St. Vincent was Rev. F. Gallagher, who transferred the parish in the fall of 1846 to Rev. D. Boniface Wimmer, O.S.B., now mitred Abbot and President of the Americo-Casinensian Benedictine Congregation. This Rt. Rev. and Most Illustrious Prelate made St. Vincent the field of his energetic labors, the success of which the following pages will show. The Benedictine Order was founded by St. Benedict, of Nursia, an Italian, who was born in the year 480. To this order, as is well known to the students of history, the Christianization and consequently the civilization of the largest part of Europe, and especially of England, is due. This fact of itself is sufficient to give us an idea of the debt of gratitude which the world owes to the Benedictine Order. But for it the treasures of science and literature of classic Greece and Latium were lost to us, and it is not easy to see how even the Bible itself could well have been preserved had not the monks of St. Benedict taken care to multiply it by manuscripts. Facts as these must necessarily correct many mistaken views about monkish ignorance and superstition. Many of the flourishing towns and cities of Europe have grown simply from the foundation of a Benedictine monastery, around which people would settle and form a civic community. The spread of Benedictine monasticism thus became a most vital element, as said, in civilizing the nations of Europe. We may add that these monasteries, in times of darkness, superinduced by the flood of heathen nations pouring into Europe from Asia I during centuries, were the rallying-points of Christianity, the bulwarks of civilization, the refuge of piety and learning. But especially is it worthy of remark that the influence of Benedictine monasticism was the most potent factor in bringing about a gradual release of the populace from the bonds of slavery. RT. REV. ABBOT BONIFACE WIMMER, O.S.B. ST. VINCENT'S ABBEY AND COLLEGE. This Rt. Rev. Prelate was born Jan. 14, 1809, in Thalmassing, a town near Ratisbon, in Bavaria, and received in baptism the name of Sebastian, being the Benjamin of a large family by two different mothers. Displaying bright talents in early boyhood his parents sent him to a high school in Ratisbon to receive a classical education. After having finished his course of eight academical years with great success, he went to the university in Munich in the fall of 1827 to study jurisprudence. During his philosophical course, however, he changed his mind, and at the close of the year abandoned the law for theology, and was raised to the priesthood on the 1st of August, 1831. Having been employed for a year after his ordination at Altoetting, in the diocese of Passau, performing pastoral duties, he entered the Benedictine mon astery " Metten," in Bavaria, and there received the habit of the order and the name, in religion, of Boniface. Four young priests followed his example, among whom were Gregory de Scherr, the lately deceased Archbishop of Munich, and Rupert Leine, Abbot of Scheyern, in Bavaria, who has also passed away. After having taken his religious vows, Dec. 29, 1833, he was appointed assistant priest in a town called Edenstetten, near the Abbey Metten, till Octo- ber, 1835. From October, 1835, till June, 1886, he was employed as professor of St. Stephen's Gymnasium, in Augsburg, when one of the Benedictine fathers of the Abbey Metten dying suddenly, and as their number was still small, he was recalled from the Gymnasium in Augsburg and once more instated the assistant in the town of Edenstetten. But his stay was brief. He was next appointed pastor of Stephansposching, in Bavaria, where he remained two years. Scheyern was reopened about this time, and he was sent there as procurator, and in September, 1840, was promoted to a professorship in the Louis Gymnasium, Munich, to which the aristocratic institute of Mr. Holland was attached. To this was added the office of prefect of discipline, and in the absence of the rector he became his representative. The number of inhabitants of North America, amounting at that time to about 20,000,000 in the different States, was continually increasing. The German immigrants clamored loudly for Catholic priests, and churches were not to be found sometimes at a less distance than thirty or forty miles. In order to cover the want of the forsaken Catholics, Rev. D. Boniface Wimmer resolved to establish a Benedictine Abbey in America for educating young men for the priesthood. In general his plan was not well received in Germany, but there were not wanting stanch and influential friends to encourage him in this noble enterprise, and to tender him material aid. The first in rank who gave his approval to this plan was King Louis I., of Bavaria, next the Papal Nuncio Morichini, Bishop Count de Reisach, and the illustrious mystic theologian Joseph Goerres. The " Louis Mission Union," organized for the propagation of faith, also promised its assistance upon the realization of the project. The matter long mooted in private circles finally reached the press, whereupon four students of theology and fifteen young men of different professions offered themselves as willing associates with the reverend gentleman in his noble undertaking. King Louis I. did not deem such self-sacrificing men unworthy of his royal favors. Example, when set by royalty, is quickly followed, and this was no exception ; so the Rev. D. Boniface Wimmer was soon furnished with all the necessaries, and left Munich for America on July 25, 1846, after having assisted at the holy sacrifice of mass, offered up for their success by Bishop Count de Reisach. From Rotterdam they embarked on the steamer " Iowa," and landed in New York Sept. 16, 1846. ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY - 273 A few days were consumed in rest and visits to friends before proceeding farther, during which time they met Rev. Henry Lemke, then pastor of Carroll-town, Cambria .Co., Pa., who, having heard from Germany of the intention of Rev. D. Boniface Timmer and his associates, had come to New York to extend them welcome. In the course of a brief conversation this reverend gentleman offered the colony his property in Carrolltown for a moderate compensation, and persuaded them to his settlement. But before entering into a bargain Rev. D. Boniface Wimmer consulted Bishop O'Connor, of Pittsburgh, and upon his advice he took charge of St. Vincent, forty miles east of the city. His first visit thither disclosed the above-mentioned church, built of brick, a pastor's residence of the same material, a little school-house, and a frail log barn. On Oct. 18, 1846, he and his companions took possession of the place. The foundation of the future monastery was laid Oct. '24th of the same year by the conferring of the religious habit on his subjects. Nineteen were to be invested, and there were only six habits. The difficulty, however, was overcome by the first invested returning to the sacristy and transferring their habits to the next in rank. The same poverty was witnessed at table, some having to wait for the dishes until their companions had taken flick repast. Unshaken courage and fervent zeal for the good cause, however, animating all elevated them above the circumstances, and none was found to regret the step he had taken. Their first care was to sow some wheat in the hurriedly cultivated soil for the next year's consnmption.. In this kind of mannal labor the Rev. D. Boniface Wimmer set a most heroic example; he felled many a proud tree, and shrank not from any hardship. Thus his stern steadfastness contributed not a little to animate and encourage the sinking spirits of some when in the next summer all means were exhausted and scarcely a spark of hope remained. But when in the direst extremity a letter came from Munich to St. Vincent, in the beginning of August, 1847, announcing the arrival of Rev. Dr. Peter Lechner, O.S.B., from Scheyern, with a purse of five thousand gulden, a donation from the " Louis Mission Union," with the further promise of a yearly contribution of two thousand gulden in case of success, fear and anxiety gave place to joy and gladness when the reverend gentleman and twenty aspirants to the Benedictine Order arrived on 17th of August at St. Vincent. The brothers, young and old alike, of that infant monastic body now set to work with redoubled energy, despite of their half-starved condition, and an unshaken trust in the providence of God was ever after their guide and stay. Their immediate, wants being now snpplied, the Rev. Superior's attention was next directed to other difficulties almost as trying to his heart. One of these was the lack of priests. He himself was obliged to administer to the wants of Catholics in Greensburg, Saltsburg, and Indiana, Pa.. the labor was too great, the time allotted too short, and the neglect of his monastic family on their account far too serious to be long endured. He therefore raised to the priesthood on the 18th of March, 1847, Martin Geyerstanger, who took the name of Charles in religion, and who had finished his ecclesiastical studies in Germany. This was the first ordination of a Benedictine in America. Rev. Dr. Peter Lechner and the young priest were now his colaborers. The latter having passed away April 22, 1881, a short sketch of his life will, we hope, not be taken amiss. Rev. F. Charles Martin Geyerstanger, born Nov. 20, 1820, at Salzburg, Austria, was of medium height and broad-shouldered, with a choleric, sanguine temperament. In his active sacerdotal career his services were truly heroic. His childlike simplicity, meekness, and affability won many friends, and zealous as he was, all looked upon him as an angel of peace. Uniform in bearing towards all, even to the unjust, selfish, and proud, he possessed a keen sense of humor and an eccentricity that brought on inconveniences which greater prudence might have avoided. A good theologian and an excellent historian, he was without an equal in sacred liturgy. The arrival of Rev. Dr. Peter Lechner with the twenty aspirants to the Benedictine Order, although encouraging, incommoded in no slight degree the young monastic family, the buildings being too small for such a number. The Rev. D. Superior therefore commenced the erection of a new one, one hundred by forty feet. The foundation was laid on the 28th of September, 1848. But as the winter had set in early and was unusually severe, the new edifice, barely under way, was provided with a temporary roof, which was so defective that some were compelled, while taking their scanty meals, to protect themselves with the umbrella against rain and snow. They often awoke in the morning covered with snow or drenched with rain. These trials, however, far from discouraging, served but to strengthen their resolution, and their self-sacrificing Rev. D. Superior as ever animated their zeal in the noble enterprise by his glorious example. Hope at length began to dawn, and its resplendent rays, penetrating the mists of a cloudy horizon, became more substantial when the Rt. Rev. Bishop O'Connor, of Pittsburgh, offered to the Rev. D. Superior the administration of Carroll-town, in Cambria County, which was gladly accepted, and the purchase of the property of Rev. H Lemke was soon consummated. In the same year, 1848, the foundation of the present Priory, of which Rev. Dr. Peter Lechner and P. Charles Geyerstanger took charge, together with the neighboring missions, was laid. Being now the only priest at home, and the adjacent Catholic settlements again falling under his charge, the Rev. D. Boniface Timmer had those ecclesiastical 274 - HISTORY OF WESTMORELAND COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA. students, who had in the mean time finished their studies under his direction, and who, having made their religious vows on April 15, 1849, raised to the priesthood, which was done on the 20th of the same month. They were, however, unequal to the demand, in consequence of which the Rev. D. Superior wrote to the Abbey of Metten, in Bavaria, for assistance, but obtained only one priest. Seeing then the necessity of a seminary on a larger scale for the education of young men aspiring to the priesthood, he, on the arrival of several German students far advanced in their studies, was the sooner enabled to obtain his object. Good prospects led him to found, in the following year (18.50), the Priory in St. Mary's, Elk Co., Pa. The news of this zealous and indefatigable laborer in the Lord's vineyard had in the mean while reached Rome, and Pope Pius IX. raised the young Benedictine colony to the rank of a monastery. This flattering recognition aroused the zeal of the Rev. D. Superior still more, and the demand for priests being now supplied, his paternal heart found another channel in which to direct his energies, namely, to supply the lack of competent Catholic teachers in the different parishes, who would instill into the tender hearts of the young good and sound moral principles. With this view he wrote to the venerable Mother Superior of the Benedictine nuns in Dryopolis (Eichstaett), Bavaria, but only three sisters responded, arriving in St. Mary's, Elk Co., Pa., July 22, 1852. They opened an academy in the same year, and taught the parochial school, and having in the course of time received many novices, now count five hundred members in fifteen convents and thirteen mission-houses located in eleven different States.1 Prosperity now flourishing thronghout the missions, the Rev. D. Boniface Wimmer undertook a journey to Rome in 1854, partly to return his humble thanks to the Sovereign Pontiff for the favors bestowed upon the young colony, and partly to exphain matters more fully, in order, if possible, to have the new monastery raised to the dignity of an Abbey, and his journey was not made in vain. His Holiness received him kindly and cheerfully granted his request; and without any voucher, previous election, or petition from his subjects conferred on him the dignity of abbot for three years, a favor in such cases seldom granted. The Pope, moreover, allowed him to propagate, with the consent of the respective Bishops, the Benedictine Order in any diocese of the Union. Thus favored and empowered he returned to America, and received from his subjects and friends a cordial reception. Such an opportunity for the propagation of his order in other dioceses was soon acted upon on the reception of a kind invitation 1 In the year 1853 the Legislature of the State incorporated the monks at St. Vincent under the title "The Benedictine Society of Westmoreland County." from the Right Rev. Dr. J. Cretin, Bishop of St. Paul, Minn. On the strength of this invitation he founded a Priory in Stearns County the same year, 1856, and named it St. Louis, in token of gratitude towards his royal benefactor, Louis I., King of Bavaria. This Priory has since through the favor of the Sovereign Pontiff been raised to the dignity of an Abbey, July 17, 1866, with the Rev. D. Rupert Seidenbush, at that time Prior in St. Vincent's Abbey, as its first Abbot, and since June 30, 1875, Bishop of Halls I. P. I., and Vicar-Apostolic of Northern Minnesota. He was succeeded by Rev. D. Alexius Edelbrock, president of St. John's College, which was attached to the Abbey. When the generous King Louis I. of Bavaria had been informed by Rt. Rev. D. Boniface Wimmer that this Abbey was named after his Majesty, he wrote, having been his regular correspondent, as several letters which are preserved in the archives of St. Vincent show, the following letter, which we shall subscribe in full : "LEOPOLKDSKRON, SALSBURG, Aug. 29,1247. "LORD ABBOT P. BONIFACE WIMMER "For the good wishes tendered me on the anniversary of my birthday, and that of the Saint whose name I bear, contained in your letter dated the 10th, I kindly thank you. I know well bow to appreciate the grateful sentiments of the Benedictines in America. It pleased me vary much to hear that the new Abbey in Minnesota bears my name. I with the best prosperity to it, to you, and to the whole Benedictine Order in America. " With profoend esteem, and devoted to you as ever, " Yours mod sincerely, LOUIS I.” Under such good auspices and wishes the Rt. Rev. Prelate steered forward on the ocean of life with expanded sails for other conquests. Another Priory wag erected in Atchison, Kan., under the directorship of Rev. Augustine Wirth, in the same year, 1856, and in time raised to the same dignity. Unforeseen difficulties, however, somewhat retarded his plans. The Rev. D. Augustine Wirth resigned his office, and was succeeded by Rev. D. Louis Fink, who was shortly after promoted to the Episcopal See of Leavenworth, Kan. His successor was Rev. D. Giles Christoph, who was in turn succeeded three years later by Rev. D. Oswald Moosmiller, under whose directorship the Priory prospered until March 23, 1876, when the Rev. Dr. Innocent Wolf, then Prior at St. Vincent, was elected its first Abbot, September 29th, and consecrated October 20th of the same year. After having accomplished so much, Rev. Boniface Wimmer next turned his attention to the South, and in the years 1876 and 1877 he purchased and established colonies in the States of Louisiana, North Carolina, Alabama, Georgia, and later, in the year 1881, at Wetaug, Pulaski, in Southern Illinois, twenty miles north of Cairo. In Georgia he erected on Skidaway Island, near Savannah, an agricultural school for colored boys under the directorship of the able Rev. D. Oswald Moosmiller, who has since built in Savannah for the negroes the Sacred Heart Church, with aCatholic school in the basement frequented by sixty col-