FIRSTS
Before
we conclude this history of our parish we wish to record for the
future, and as a point of interest to our present-day parishioners, the
names in our parochial registers.
The
date of the first baptismal records is August 11, 1850, and four
children were on that day incorporated into the Mystical Body of
Christ: John Gallagher,
child of Patrick Gallagher
and Rebecca Livermore,
a non-Catholic, with godparents: John
Smyth and Elizabeth
Gallagher; John Keating,
child of John Keating
and Helen Desmond with
Patrick McGrath
and Catherine Garr as
god-parents; Catherine Sowers,
child of Leonard Sowers
and Margaret Ludwich,
a non-Catholic, with godparents: Peter
Labouvie and Catherine
Kirch; Rachel Marie
McCoy, child of John
McCoy and Catherine
Kech with godparents: Patrick
Doyle and Anna Collins.
The
first to pledge themselves to each other in the Holy Sacrament of
Matrimony were James Keenan
and Hannah Gillespie. Miss Gillespie
was a convert and had been baptized and received into the Church just
prior to her marriage on the same day, September 8, 1850. Witnesses to
this first-recorded marriage were: William
Dunlavey and Mary
Doherty.
The
first body to be interred in Saint Michael’s original cemetery plot of
which we have a record, was that of William
Doyle who died on March 20th and was buried March 21, 1856.
Both
the baptismal and marriage records listed above were signed by Father M. J. Mitchell. The
record of death and burial was signed by Father
Arthur McConnell.
This,
then is the history of Saint Michael’s Parish and of its Mission, Saint
Bridget’s of Jamestown. Further research may well reveal other
interesting highlights and facts of our existence as a parish. If so,
someone will, we are sure, include them in some future anniversary
brochure.
From the 100th anniversary booklet on
the church, 1950.
Submitted by Linda
Doyle-Genik.
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