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Sacred Heart Church |
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The first Catholic residents of Sharon were Henry and William Crosthwaite, natives of Ireland, who came to the village from the vicinity of Pittsburgh in 1851; Charles O'Hare and family, who arrived in Sharon in 1854; |
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Sign above the door on South Irvine Street.
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40 S. Irvine St. at State Street, Sharon |
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Sacred Heart Catholic Church
- - During the building of the Pittsburgh & Erie Canal a large
number of Catholics were employed on that public work, and missionary
priests made periodical trips along the line of the canal to hold
services and minister to the spiritual wants of the members of that
faith. Sharon being one of the principal points on the route, was
also one of the places where mass was occasionally celebrated. It
was, however, some years after this period before the town possessed any
Catholic settlers, though several German families of that faith located
east of Sharon, around Hickory Corners, in the decade between 1845 and
1855, while other Catholic families, both Irish and German, settled in
the vicinity of the blast furnaces erected in the Shenango Valley during
the same decade. For a few years those settlers were compelled to
attend services at the pioneer Catholic mission north of Mercer, then
known as the "Irish Settlement," or go without the
consolations of their religion. But prior to 1850 Rev.
Andrew Skopez, who died in the fall of 1887, began his visits to
the German settlement at Hickory Corners, and held services in the
houses of members, usually at Martin Scholl's. He was followed in succession
by Revs. J. Reiser, J.J. Gallagher, Andrew
Schweiger and Joseph Goebels.
