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 PITTSBURG

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PITTSBURG

Pittsburg, Diocese op (Pittsbfrgensis), suf- fragan of Philadelphia, in the United States of Amer- ica. It comprises the counties of Allegheny, Armstrong, Beaver, Butler, Fayette, Greene, Indiana, Lawrence, Washington, and Westmoreland in the State of Penn- sylvania, an area of 7238 square miles, the total popu- lation of which is 1,944,942 (U. S. Census, 1910). About 24.42 per cent of these are Catholics.

It is probable that the first religious services held by white men within the limits of what is now the Dio- cese of Pittsburg were conducted by a Jesuit, Father Bonnecamp, who accompanied Celeron in his explora- tion along the Allegheny and Ohio Rivers in 1749. The strategic character of the ground where the Mo- nongahela and Allegheny Rivers meet to form the Ohio pointed this place out to George Washington as a spot of future importance. He first saw "the Forks", as the place was called by the Indians, on 24 November, 1753, when engaged in bearing a letter from Robert Dinwiddle, Lieutenant-Governor of Vir- ginia, to the commander of the French forces, asserting the British claims to the territory of Western Pennsyl- vania. Both England and France regarded the Forks as a valuable military position, opening a way for ex- ploration to the west and south, and each was deter- mined to occupy it. At that time the adjacent country was occupied by various Indian tribes — the Shawnees, Delawares, Senecas — dwelUng along the Allegheny, Monongahela, and Ohio Rivers. The first place of public worship within this territory was a chapel erected by the French in the stockade of Fort Du- quesne, after Captain Contrecceur and his forces had driven Ensigns Ward and Frazier from the Fort they were constructing at the fork of the Ohio. This chapel was built at some time later than 16 April, 1754, and dedicated under the title of "The Assumption of the Blessed Virgin of the Beautiful River ". In those days and for long afterwards, the Ohio — on account of its clear water and rugged scenery — was known as the "beautiful river".

There is preserved in the archives of the city of Montreal a register of baptisms and deaths kept by the army chaplain at Fort Duquesne, from which we learn that the fii'st interment in the cemetery of the fort was that of Toussaint Boyer, who died 20 June, 1754. The first white child born on the site of the city of Pittsburg was John Daniel Norment. His godfather was the chief officer of Fort Duquesne, John Daniel Sieur Dumas. These entries are signed by "Friar Denys Baron, Recollect Priest, Chaplain". If written evidence alone were to be considered, Father Baron, and not Father Bonnecamp (mentioned above), must be regarded as the first priest to offer the Holy Sacrifice, and the first white man to perform any public act of religious worship in the territory of the diocese. The register of baptisms and interments which took place at Fort Duquesne begins 11 July, 17.53, and ends 10 October, 1756. The records before June, 1754, are from posts occupied by the French in the north-western part of Pennsylvania, now in the Diocese of Erie, before they took possession of the spot on which Fort Duquesne stood. In the register we find entries made by Friar Gabriel Amheuser and Friar Luke Collet, but they were chaplains from other French forts. Friar Denys Baron alone signs himself ' ' Chaplain ' ' of Fort Duquesne. These records testify to the baptism and burial of a number of Indians, showing that the French chaplains did not neglect their missionary duties.

The French evacuated the fort, the British army under General Forbes took possession in 1758, and the place was named Pittsburg, or Fort Pitt, after William Pitt, Prime Minister of England. For thirty or forty years the Catholic religion was almost, if not entirely, without adherents in Western Pennsylvania. Gradually, as the western part of the state was settled, the Catholics gained a foothold, but met with much

opposition in this strongly Calvinistic section. In 1784 their numbers had increased sufficiently about Pittsburg to warrant them in sending Felix Hughes to the Very Rev. John Carroll, at Baltimore, who was then superior of the clergy in the United States, asking that a priest be sent to minister to them at least once or twice a year. By this time there were seventy-five or eighty families along the Chartiers Creek, up the Monongahela Valley, and about Pittsburg. Priests were few in the country then, and the request could not be complied with. Under such conditions some of the Catholics in Western Pennsylvania became indif- ferent, abandoned their religion altogether, or neg- lected their religious duties, even when the priests came. It is probable that the first priest to pass through Western Pennsylvania and minister to the Catholics there was a Carmelite, Father Paul, who came in 1785. Another was the Rev. Charles \\'halen, a Capuchin, who remained a short time in 1787. In 1792 the Rev. Benedict Joseph Flaget, afterwards Bishop of Bardstown, remained here for some weeks. In 1793 the Revs. Baden and Barrieres came to Pitts- burg and remained from September until November. The Rev. Michael Fournier was here fourteen weeks in the winter of 1796-7.

The site on which St. Vincent's Archabbey now stands, in Unity township, Westmoreland county, was the first place where a permanent Catholic settle- ment was made in Western Pennsylvania. This was about 1787. The Rev. Theodore Browers purchased the tract of land then known as "Sportsman's Hall" in 1790, and became the finst priest of the little colony. When the Rev. Peter Heilbron came to take charge of the parish, in November, 1799, he foimd seventy- five communicants. In March, 1789, ground was pur- chased at Greensburg, where tfie Rev. John B. Causse said Mass for the first time in June, 1789. A log chapel was begun in 1790, but was never completed. The Rev. Patrick Lonergan went with a colony of Catholics from Sportsman's Hall in 1798 and, after a short stay at West Alexander, began a church at Waynesburg, Greene County, in 1799, or 1800, "which", says Archbishop Kenrick of Baltimore, writing in 1862, "was completed by me thirty years later". In the summer of 1799, the Rev. Deme- trius A. Gallitzin came to reside with a colony of Catholics at Maguire's Settlement, now known as Loretto, in Cambria Covmty, in the present Diocese of Altoona, and his mission-field included much of what ia now the Diocese of Pittsburg. These, with the churches at Sugar Creek, Armstrong County, where the Rev. Lawrence S. Phelan took up his resi- dence in 1S05, and at Pittsburg, where the Rev. William F. X. O'Brien settled in 1808, were the first centres of the Faith in Western Pennsylvania. The Franciscans, who had reared the first altar at Fort Duquesne, furnished the first missionaries to attempt permanent centres of Catholic life, and establish places of worship in Western Pennsylvania. The Revs. Theodore Browers, John B. Causse, Patrick Lonergan, Peter Heilbron, Charles B. Maguire, all belonged to one or another branch of the Order of St. Francis.

The Rev. William F. X. O'Brien, the first resident pastor of Pittsburg, was ordained at Baltimore 11 June, ISOS, came to Pittsburg in November of the same year, and took up the erection of the church which is known in history as "Old St. Patrick's". It stood at the corner of Liberty and Epiphany streets, at the head of Eleventh Street, in front of the present Union Station. The Right Rev. Michael Egan dedi- cated this church in August, 1811, and its dedication and the administration of the Sacrament of Confirma- tion mark the first visit of a bishop to this part of the state. After twelve years of labour and exposure on the missions of his extensive territory, in which there were perhaps not more than 1800 souls, Father