1. The Beginning: An Amazing Coincidence 2. Adriaen Van der Donck Park Dedication 3. The Year 1848 4. Why Two Names? 5. Thomas Clapp Cornell 6. Yonkers and the Saw Mill River 7. An Educated Guess about Our Two Names 8. The First Pastors 1848 - 1856 9. The First Parishioners 10. Pastorate of Fr. Edward Lynch 1856-1865 the Pivotal Years 11. Yonkers, the Irish and the Civil War 12. Post Civil War Years 13. Pastorate of Fr. Charles Slevin 1865-1878 14. Sons of Erin 15. Daughters of Erin 16. Pastorate of Msgr. Charles R. Corley 1877-1914 17. The Great Controversy within American Catholicism and its Effect 18. The Ministry of Sisters of Charity 19. Pastorate of Fr. Charles Murphy 1914-1933 20. Christian Brothers at St. Mary’s School (1871-1968) 21. The Depression Years: Pastorate of John Dyer 22. Pastorate of Arthur Avard: 1936-1952 23. Pastorate if Rev. Msgr. Richard M. Fitzgerald (1953-1967)

1. The Beginning: An Amazing Coincidence

On the first day of my pastorate on Feb. 1, 1987, I took a look at our first Baptismal Book. (Our first recorded baptism was in December of 1847). I was intrigued to find that many of the first baptisms were performed by Jesuit priests with French names: Jouin, Daubresse, Doucet, Bienvenue. The pastor was Irish, Fr. John Ryan, which was expected in a congregation that was almost all Irish. But why were French priests here? The short answer is that they were from St. John's College (now Fordham University) and they were mostly French because Archbishop Hughes wanted Jesuits from the Province of France not the American Province to teach at St. John's. Why? The longer answer involves Hughes's prickly relationship with the Jesuits and why the Jesuits left our parish after only three years.

A few years later my curiosity got the better of me. I traced past the history of the French Jesuits in New York. There I came across a most remarkable historical coincidence. In 1643 St. Isaac Jogues was rescued (by ransom) from a Mohawk tribe partly through the help of Adriaen Van der Donck. In Russell Shorto's "Island in the Center of the World" Adriaen is described as "a forgotten American, a maverick, liberal- minded lawyer whose brilliant gamesmanship, commitment to individual freedom and exuberant love of his new country would have lasting impact on the history of this nation."He had met Jogues earlier and found that they had mutual interests in the "flora and fauna" of the New World and in the customs of the Native Americans. Jogues was placed in "house arrest" in New Amsterdam by his Dutch Protestant rescuers until they could put him on a ship back to Europe. In New Amsterdam at the same time was Thomas Cornell, a landowner from the Bronx, who was in town for the wedding of his daughter. The direct descendant of Cornell was the leading lay founder of our parish, Thomas Cornell. Adriaen Van der Donck became the owner of a large tract of land which became known as History Of Our Church Page 1

"Yonkers" named after his nickname "Yonkeers" (young gentleman). He is probably buried in Van Cortland Park (once part of Yonkers). Jogues, who after a perilous journey, make it back to France, only to return to the New World to be martyred and eventually become a canonized saint. Two hundred years later (including the suppression of the Jesuit Order by the Pope from 1773 -1814) members of the same French Jesuit Provincial Order as Jogues (now including Canada) were now founding the parish of St. Mary's that included all the land of Yonkers. That's pretty amazing. Isn't it?

2. Adriaen Van der Donck Park Dedication. (Scheduled to be given on September 8, 2012 but postponed because of a “tornado watch”)

Who is Adriaen Van der Donck?

My interest in Adraien Van der Donck began twenty-five years ago when I became pastor of St. Mary's Church on South Broadway. After reviewing the names of our first baptisms in 1848 I became intrigued by the first priests who administered the baptisms. They were Jesuits, (no surprise - they came from what is now Fordham University) but why were they from the Province of France and Canada and not America? This led me to a history of the Jesuits in this part of the New World and to the French Fr. Isaac Jogues. In 1643, with the encouragement of the Dutch settlers, Jogues had escaped from a Mohawk tribe and, while awaiting his eventual release by ransom, he met a man named Adraien Van der Donck. They shared information about the customs of the Native Americans and were very interested in the animal and plant life of the area ("the flora and fauna.") I soon learned that this was the man after whom Yonkers was named. He has a fascinating story and it is worth remembering. l must also mention that thirteen years later in this same area Kateri Tekakwitha, who will be canonized a saint in Rome next month, was born of a Mohawk father and Huron mother.

Adraien Van der Donck was a young man of twenty three who came to New Netherlands in 1641 to work for the Patroon, Kilean van Rensselear, a rich diamond merchant, on his land near present day Albany. He worked as a "Shout" a combination of Sheriff and District Attorney. As a graduate of the law school at the University of Leiden, he was the most educated man in New Netherlands and probably overqualified for his work. He soon disagreed with his absentee Lord of the Manor and with the system set up by the Dutch West Indian Company. The Patroon System was not attracting enough settlers nor did the Dutch West Indian Company understand how important strategically the settlement of New Amsterdam was going to be for world trade. He was also stymied in his efforts to obtain land for himself. His contract as Shout was not renewed when his term expired in 1644.

What was New Netherlands? It was a large area that included what is today's states of Delaware, New Jersey and New York. Only half of the settlers were ethnically Dutch. Many settlers were Walloons, French Huguenots, German, Scandinavians, and English from New England. Among the latter were the families of Anne Hutchinson and Thomas Cornell. Thomas Clapp Cornell, who was one of the founders of my church and after whom our new public school is named, was a direct descendent of this Thomas Cornell. The Dutch tended to be merchants and traders, not farmers. New Amsterdam was described in 1843 as settlement with a population of 800 with eighteen different languages. Trade with the local Native Americans, especially for animal skins, was lucrative for both sides.

An opportunity for Van der Donck arose when he was asked by the Director General of New Netherlands, Wilhem Keift, to help mediate an end to an ill advised bloody war against the local Native Americans. Called the Keift's War (1643-1645), it was a disaster. Hundreds of Native Americans and European settlers were killed, including Anne Hutchinson and her family (after which the Hutchinson River Parkway is named.) As the bloody war stretched into its third year Keift knew van der Donck had good relations with Native Americans and asked him to join him to end the war. With the help of gifts of wampum provided by Van der Donck, Kieft did achieve peace. As a result, in July of 1845, he was rewarded by the Dutch West India Co. with a very large land grant of 24,000 acres. This included all of the present City of Yonkers plus today's Riverdale, Kingsbridge, van Cortland Park and Moshoulu. It was initially called Colen Donck, then Jonkeers Colen Donck-

History Of Our Church Page 2

"Jonkeers or Yonkeers" is a Dutch honorific title meaning something like" a young gentlemen of property." Eventually with the English conquest of the New Netherland the name was shortened to Yonkers and Adraien Van der Donck faded into history until now.

It must be said that Van der Donck was very respectful of the claims of the Native Americans and made treaties that were accepted by both sides. It is difficult today to pinpoint who these tribes were. The Mohicans were situated to the north of Yonkers and the Mohawk settlements were across the Hudson River near today’s Albany. The mural by Hass on the southwest corner of Riverdale Avenue and Main Street names many possible tribes. There is some thought today that most fell under the confederation of the Lenapi. At any rate where we stand today was certainly the settlement site of one of the tribes and where Van der Donck set up his first saw and grist mills.

Married in 1645 to Mary Doughty, daughter of an English minister, he probably never lived here. He may have lived near Spuyten Duyvil or in today's Van Cortlandt Park but we are not sure. This river, once called the Nepperhan (meaning "Rapid Waters") by the Native Americans, eventually was renamed the Saw Mill River.

End of story? Not by a long shot! Much of this later history was buried in the archives in Albany unable to be translated because no one knew the "Old Dutch" language. Thanks to Charles Gehring who was able to translate these documents and to Russel Shorto' book "The Island in the Middle of the World" published in 2004, we now know a lot more about Van der Donck. He has been transformed from a footnote in history to an important historical figure.

In 1847 the ineffectual Keift was replaced by Peter Stuyvesant who proved to be a dominant, almost dictatorial leader. The Dutch colonists argued against Stuyvesant and wanted a more democratic local government. Eventually Stuyvesant agreed to the creation of a permanent advisory board, called the Board of Nine. Van der Donck was selected by the other eight as the "President of the Commonality" in 1648. Within days the Board of Nine declared itself independent of the Dutch West India Company. Stuyvesant accused Van der Donck of treason and threw him in jail. He was eventually released and representing the Board of Nine he was allowed to go to the Netherlands to present their case. He brought with him the now famous "Remonstrances" which was a list of meticulous grievances against the Dutch West India Company. It basically asked for more individual rights, economic freedom and a local municipal government like those in the Netherlands. "The Remonstrances" was more than likely written by Van der Donck. Some say that it had a direct influence on our own Bill of Rights.

Let’s pause for a second to look at the lager historical picture. France is extending its American territories as far west as Michigan. Sweden has set up a colony on lands along the Delaware River. New England is bursting with new settlers and they are encroaching on Dutch lands in Connecticut and Long Island. England itself is in the middle of a Civil War lead by Oliver Cromwell which ends in 1649 with beheading of their king, Charles II. Cromwell is also devastating Ireland driving Catholics off the fertile lands with his infamous order: "To Hell or to Connaught."

What is happening in the Netherlands? It is their Golden Age. No wonder they had a hard time convincing families to leave for the wilderness of the New World! After sixty years of struggle they had achieved their independence from Spain. With a population of only two million it had become the greatest maritime power in the world. It was the only Republic among the monarchies of Europe. Although its religion was Dutch Calvinist, it was known for its religious tolerance (up to a point). It excelled in art, science, literature and philosophy. It was the time of Rembrandt and Vermeer. Descartes and John Grotius had taught at the University of Leiden where Van der Donck had studied law. No doubt it had influenced his political thought.

Arriving in the Netherland in 1849 he had to wait two years for a judgment from the Estates General. His wife soon joined him. While in the Netherlands he again attended the University of Leiden where he achieved another degree in law. He published "The "Remonstrances" and "A Description of New Netherland." The latter, written by Van der Donck, is a beautiful, if slightly romantic, description of New Netherlands. It became very popular and enticed a growing number of

History Of Our Church Page 3 people to emigrate, including Van der Donck's parents. Undoubtedly some settled here in Colen Donck. He also published an important map of New Netherlands, called the Jansson- Visscher map. It would remain the definite map of the region for a hundred years and was responsible for many of our places retaining their Dutch names.

In 1652 The Estates General ruled in favor of Van der Donck ordering the establishment of a municipal government and the recall of Peter Stuyvesant. Certainly Van der Donck would be a leading candidate for the new leader of New Netherlands.

Then disaster struck. On May 24, 1652 the first Anglo- Dutch War (1652-54) broke out. England and the Netherlands were rivals for the worldwide maritime trade. The Dutch wanted free enterprise. The English wanted a monopoly on all trade to England. There would be three more of these wars- all basically fought at sea.

The Netherlands now needed the arms, ships and supplies of the Dutch West India Co. Peter Stuyvesant was now seen as a better leader for a war. Not only was the previous decision in favor of Van der Donck rescinded but also he was forbidden to return home. Pledging to retire from public life, he was allowed to return in May 1653. Once in New Netherlands, Stuyvesant exacted his revenge by forbidding him from practicing as a lawyer. Van der Donck now disappears from history. He probably died in 1655. Speculation has him being killed by Native Americans in the so- called "Peach Wars" but there have been a lot of questions about his death. It would make a good detective story. Although his last years were tragic, he should be remembered as an enthusiastic lover and promoter of America. He was an activist and writer whose ideas probably found their way into our own Bill of Rights.

Nine years later English ships sailed into the harbor of New Amsterdam and it was the beginning of the end of Dutch rule in New Netherlands. With the signing of the Treaty of Breda the Dutch traded New Amsterdam for Surinam, which at the time was a much more profitable enterprise. New Amsterdam was renamed New York. The name of "Yonkeers Colen Donck" was shortened to" Yonkers." Van der Donck's property was inherited by his wife, Mary Doughty. She transferred the property to her brother who, in 1672, sold it to three or four buyers. Most of the land of Yonkers was bought by Frederic Philipsen whose family built Philipse Manor located today just across the street. But that is another story in the history of Yonkers.

With the day lighting of the Nepaperhan River we honor the Native Americans who lived for centuries at this very location. With the naming of this beautiful park, Adriaen Van der Donck should now claim his rightful and honored place in the history of Yonkers and America.

3. The Year 1848

In 1848 revolutions ripped through Europe. Beginning in Sicily they spread to Paris and then throughout Europe: Milan, Venice, Naples, Vienna, Prague, Budapest, Krakow, Munich and Berlin. As Metternich said "When Paris sneezes all of Europe catches a cold (One can't help seeing similarities in the uprisings throughout the Arab world today. Leaders of today's revolts even use the same evocative description, “The Springtime of Hope." And is not Cairo like Paris?). The goals were constitutional government and democracy. It was a violent and tumultuous time. The people of Yonkers were well aware of the revolutions. Their sympathies are apparent. They named one of the new streets in Yonkers after the poet- revolutionary and, for a few months in 1848, the President of the new Republic of France, Alphonse de Lamartine. In the short run the revolutions of 1848 failed but they sowed the seeds that eventually bore fruit in many capitals of Europe.

One place that the seeds did not take root was in Rome and in the Papal States (which were about a third of today's Italy). Pope Pius IX, although initially attracted to some of the liberal ideas to reform the Papal States, turned against the reformers after the assassination of his secretary of State, Count Pellegrino Rossi, on November 15, 1848 by radicals. Pope Pius IX, leader of Catholic Church, closed its windows to anything that smacked of "modernity." This had significant consequences

History Of Our Church Page 4 for the Catholic Church in a democratic America. The problem came to a head in the "Americanist" controversaries in the 1880's and 1890's, which in turn, affected St. Mary's bid to become the cathedral of a new diocese.

In 1848 the Treaty of Guadalupe formally ended the Mexican- American War. Today's California and most of the Southwest was ceded to the U.S.A. During the war some Irish Catholics in the army of the U.S.A. deserted to the Mexican side. One of the reasons was the refusal of the American government to allow Catholic chaplains in the army. Most were captured after the war and executed. This fed the suspicions of those who maintained that the allegiance of Catholics was more to their religion (Mexico was Catholic) and to the Pope than to the U.S.A.

Deep ethnic and class resentments seethed through the population. Between 1847 and 1851, 850,000 Irish entered the port of New York City. The arrival of so many Irish Catholics, many sick and emaciated, frightened people. In an age "not given to sensitivity" the many penny newspapers vied for attention with the most outrageous stories. In 1847 one of the leading ministers of a leading Presbyterian Church proclaimed: "If I had the power I would erect a gallows at every landing place in the City of New York and suspend every cursed Irishman as soon as he steps on shore."

The question of loyalty remained until the Civil War when thousands of Irish fought and died (on both sides) for their country. Buried in St. Mary's cemetery (opened in 1855) are 137 Civil War veterans. When the draft riots broke out in July of 1863 in New York City and in parts of Westchester, many feared Irish Catholics of Yonkers would join. They did not.

In partial response to this hostile and Protestant environment, the Catholic school system grew. In 1852, St. Mary's opened its own school. The Sisters of Charity came to teach in 1857 . The LaSalle Christian Brothers came in 1861. The first four founding Brothers from France 1848.

In July of 1848 the Seneca Fall Convention was held in upstate New York. It is considered the beginning of the woman's movement in America. Lucretia Mott, one of the main speakers, was the aunt of Thomas Cornell who helped found the parish of St. Mary's.

Gold was discovered in California in 1848.

4. Why Two Names?

Thomas Cornell, one of the lay founders of St. Mary’s, was the city’s engineer for laying out the streets of Yonkers. When Judge William W. Woodworth, a former Congressman, along with Josiah Rich and James Scrymser, donated the land for the building of St. Mary’s Church in the summer of 1848, Cornell changed the name of the street from South Street to St. Mary’s. This was the agreed upon name of the church at this particular time.

However, when the first pastor, Fr. John Ryan, S.J., from Fordham (then called St. John’s College) signed the canonical papers to formally establish the parish, “he wished the church dedicated to the Blessed Virgin Mary conceived without sin and it is hence called either Church of the Immaculate Conception or St. Mary’s at pleasure.”

Is our church the first church in the United States to be named “THE IMMACULATE CONCEPTION?”

The Church of the Immaculate Conception in Yonkers has claimed this distinction. But is it true? The first problem is that our church in Yonkers has two names. The canonical and legal name today is the Immaculate Conception. However, its original name was St. Mary’s (our baptismal records begin in October of 1847 and are recorded in a book that clearly states that the parish is named St. Mary’s). Sometime in 1848, as the architectural plans for the building of a church were being reviewed, the pastor, Rev. John Ryan, a Jesuit teaching at St. John’s College, asked that a second name be added, namely the Blessed Virgin Church of the Immaculate Conception. This meeting seems to have taken plane before July of 1848 because Thomas Cornell writes in his “The Beginnings of the Catholic Church in Yonkers” that the contract for the mason work

History Of Our Church Page 5 was signed in July. Cornell should know because he was present with Archbishop Hughes and Fr. Ryan when they discussed the plans for the church. Technically (although I don’t know what the canonical rule in 1848 was on such matters as two names for a church and a parish), our parish and church can claim the name of the Immaculate Conception in 1848.

What complicates matters further is that in the dedication ceremony of the new church of the Immaculate Conception in Manhattan (now on 14th St.) on May 16, 1858, Archbishop Hughes spoke of this church as having the distinction of being the first church in the nation so named. Who was the pastor? None other than the same Fr. John Ryan who certainly would have known about his church in Yonkers. However, if my memory serves me, Hughes’s precise words were “the first church since the proclamation of the dogma of the Immaculate Conception.” Since the dogma was defined on December 8, 1854, Hughes’s statement does not contradict the Yonkers church’s claim as being the first.

However, the most valid claim to being the first is the Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception in Albany. The final judgment depends on the answer to this question. When does a church officially receive its name: the laying of the cornerstone, the dedication of the church, the first time that Mass is celebrated in the church, or the signing of an official document before any of the above takes place? Let’s look at the evidence.

Bishop Hubbard of Albany, a classmate of mine, was kind enough to respond to my historical question.

“Dear Hugh,

In answer to your query, our records indicate that the cornerstone for our Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception was laid on July 2, 1848 by Archbishop Hughes of New York and dedicated in November of 1852. Bishop McCloskey was installed as Bishop of St. Mary’s Church on November 19, 1847 making it the pro-Cathedral; until the dedication of the present Cathedral Church on November 21, 1852. I assume, therefore, that the July 1848 cornerstone laying would constitute the naming of the Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception. Fraternally, yours, Howard”

The case for our Church in Yonkers is as follows: The first Mass in the new church was celebrated on December 25, 1848. The dedication took place on November 16, 1851. We have no evidence when or if there was a laying of a cornerstone. The contract for the mason work was made in July of 1848. Did the work begin at this time? Was there a ceremonial laying of the cornerstone before any work began?

If the laying of the cornerstone is the answer, Albany has the evidence and should be considered the first (but only by a few days). If the answer is the first time the church is used for Mass or the dedication of the church, then Yonkers is the first.

To be fair, however, it must be said that our church was always called St. Mary’s until its incorporation in 1877. Even after this date, up until the present day, the popular name (although not the canonical or legal name) remains St. Mary’s.

5. Thomas Clapp Cornell

Thomas Clapp Cornell, after whom the newest Yonkers public school is named, came to Yonkers as a young man of 28 in the summer of 1847. At that time, as Cornell himself wrote almost 50 years later, “There was no Warburton Avenue … nor any Dock Street, nor any Hudson River Railroad, nor even any Yonkers as we now know Yonkers. There was but a little rural hamlet of perhaps five hundred people. There were hardly half a dozen streets or crossroads in the whole settlement.”(1)

1 Thomas C. Cornell, “Some reminiscences of the old Philipse Manor House in Yonkers and its surroundings, ”Yonkers Historical Bulletin (XXXIV:1, 1988-1989) History Of Our Church Page 6

A civil engineer, Thomas Cornell was employed at the time by the Hudson River Railroad Company and was largely responsible for the construction of the railroad line from Spuyten Duyvil to Dobbs Ferry. The railroad company’s local office -- in which he worked from August 1847 until the completion of his ten miles of track in 1850 - was located in a rented room in the Philipse Manor Hall, which was then a private home owned by Lemuel W. Wells.(2)

Born in Flushing, Long Island, on January 7, 1819, Thomas Cornell had little formal schooling. When Thomas was but a child, the family moved to a farm in the vicinity of Rochester, and it is there that his father Silas is said to have operated a little school during the winter months. According to The Yonkers Herald, this school was “the only school … Thomas ever attended.” The Herald added that the “aggregate” of Thomas’s schooling “did not exceed three years and was ended before he was twelve years old.” Despite the arduous farm work that he took on from an early age, however, the Herald assures us that Thomas “kept up his studies and was often seen spending an hour or two before breakfast, by lamplight studying Latin, Greek or mathematics.”(3)

When Silas Cornell became surveyor of the Rochester area in 1836, Thomas became his assistant. Within four years, by the time he was 21, Thomas was working for New York State on a project to enlarge the Erie Canal. In 1846, after a few years working as an engineer for the Canadian government, Thomas went to Europe. And it was there, in Lyons, France, that this scion of two staunch Quaker families was received into the Catholic Church.(4) Returning to the States, Thomas took the job with the railroad and shortly afterwards first set eyes on Yonkers. From that day in August of 1847, until December 29, 1894, when he died at the age of 75 in his home on Highland Place, Thomas Cornell would prove to be one of the greatest benefactors Yonkers has ever known.

"The main efforts of his life," the pastor of St. Mary's Church, Rev. Charles R. Corley, said at Thomas Cornell's funeral, "were for his church. He came to Yonkers when it was but a hamlet. He at once put forth efforts so the members of the Catholic faith could get together and have a house in which to worship. Father Preston, the first priest that came to Yonkers, leaned on him for support." (5)

Thomas Cornell had a hand in the founding of St. Mary's Church in 1848, of St. Joseph's Church in 1871 and of St. Peter's Church in 1894. He donated the land in Riverdale on which the original St. Margaret's Church was built. He was likewise active in the establishment of both St. Mary’s School and St. Joseph's Hospital. He served as a hospital trustee and as the hospital's treasurer.

“The archbishop asked for his assistance," Father Corley noted, "when he wished to establish the Sisters of Charity in Yonkers. It was given and Mr. Cornell has ever been their faithful friend." (During the course of the following century -- as should be well known to everyone in this city -- thousands of Yonkers children were taught by the Sisters of Charity at St. Mary’s, St. Joseph’s and St. Peter’s schools.) Indeed, Cornell accompanied Archbishop John Hughes on a tour of the Edwin Forrest estate -- now the College of Mount Saint Vincent -- when the Sisters of Charity were considering the purchase of the

2 In 1849, the Manor Hall property was purchased from Lemuel Wells by a real estate developer (yes, even then!) and the new owner, as Cornell wrote, “converted the old Manor House into a boarding house.” Cornell moved in at that time and took a single room directly over his first-floor office. Almost half a century later, he remembered how cold “that elegant room” was during his tenancy of it in the winter of 1849-1850. Ibid., 3 “Obituary – Thomas C. Cornell,” The Yonkers Herald, 29 December 1894 4 The biographical sketch of Thomas Cornell which Rev. Charles E. Allison published in his 1896 History of Yonkers – it is not, let us recall, a sketch written by Rev. Allison himself (cf. Allison’s comments on p.402) -- records this fact: "During the course of his European sojourn, Mr. Cornell was induced to abandon the religion of his ancestors ...," a formulation which may tend to suggest that Cornell was but the passive object of someone else's initiative in this matter. But Thomas Cornell himself has recorded, in his 1890 genealogical treatise on his mother's family, the Motts, how first in Montreal and then later in Europe he sought out Catholics to inquire of them about the tenets of their faith. (Cf. the Appendix to Adam and Anne Mott: Their ancestors and their descendants. The Appendix bears its own title, A suggestion of the origin of the Quakers.) 5 “Funeral of Thos. C. Cornell,” The Yonkers Herald, 2 January 1895, History Of Our Church Page 7 property in the mid-1850s. A full account of the matter, including an amusing episode involving the bishop’s reaction to Forrest’s castle, is given in Cornell's article on The Beginnings of the Roman Catholic Church in Yonkers. (6)

There are few maps of Yonkers dating from the last half of the 19th Century. But there are probably even fewer which don't bear the name of Thomas Cornell. For, as the Yonkers Statesman pointed out at the time of his death, “He did almost all the surveying and engineering of Yonkers for many years, with occasional work as architect.”7

In June 1852, Yonkers got its first newspaper, a four-page weekly called The Yonkers Herald. It was Thomas Cornell who'd convinced reporter Thomas Towndrow to begin publishing a newspaper here. Within a few years, Towndrow's associate Thomas Smith became the editor, and Smith's anti-abolitionist politics were anathema to Cornell (a Republican virtually from the founding of the party in 1856). Thomas Cornell then induced Peekskill's Matthew F. Rowe to relocate to Yonkers and to start a rival newspaper here. Rowe's The Examiner began publication in 1856. 8

Thomas Cornell was also involved in establishing several Yonkers businesses, including the Yonkers Gas Light Company, the Bank of Yonkers, the Yonkers Savings Bank, and the Yonkers and New York Fire Insurance Company. His genealogical and historical interests led him to take an active role in the Westchester County Historical Society, the New York Genealogical and Biographical Society, and the Yonkers Historical and Library Association. Let the last words on this illustrious life be Father Corley’s: "For 17 years he was my friend and I always found him a true man, a good friend and loving husband."9

The above article on Thomas Cornell was written at my request by John Favareau, the research librarian for the Yonkers Public Library at Larkin Plaza.

6 The archbishop’s sister, Mother M. Angela, was the superior of the Sisters of Charity when in 1856 the sisters were looking for a place to build a new mother house. After Cornell and Mother Angela visited the Forrest property (then within the town limits of Yonkers), Mother asked him to “[conduct] Archbishop Hughes over [the property] that he might advise her about the purchase. ‘This is the place,’ said the archbishop on seeing it, and a few minutes later, reaching the castle, he added, ‘but that must come down.’ ” Of course, the castle still stands. “Second thought, however,” Cornell wrote, “preserved it as a residence for the chaplain.” Forrest, by the way, contributed $5,000 to the sisters towards their purchase of the property. (The Beginnings of the Roman Catholic Church in Yonkers, pp.10-11 in the photocopy of this article which is kept in the Vertical Files of the Riverfront Library).

7 “Thomas Clapp Cornell,” The Yonkers Statesman, 29 December 1894 8 Helen M. McCadden, “Early newspapers in Yonkers”(Part I), Yonkers Historical Bulletin (XX, 1: Winter 1973), 9 “Funeral of Thos. C. Cornell,” The Yonkers Herald, 2 January 1895 History Of Our Church Page 8

6. Yonkers and the Saw Mill River

Almost every day I walk down to Larkin Plaza to see the progress on the daylighting of the Saw Mill River. It is quite a construction job. I can't wait to see the water flow on December 6, 2011.

When our present church was dedicated in 1892, there was an item in the paper that the millponds at Getty Square had been blown up in the middle of the night. There was a question whether the city administration had a legal right to do so. John Copcutt who owned at least one of the millponds had an injunction in the courts to prevent this but they did it anyway and everyone was happy that they did. The river had become a sewer system for "garbage, all strawbeds, dead cats and dogs, rotten ham and corned beef, manure and waste matter from the factories. It created a malador which was discernible some distance away”. (N. Y. Times. Jan. 23rd 1892).

At the time of the founding of our parish in 1848, the Saw Mill River was used as a power source for the factories that were being built in Yonkers. The river was originally called the Nepperhan River but became the Saw Mill River after Adrian Van der Donck built a Saw Mill on what is now Warburton Ave. Eventually dams were created along the river to harness the energy of the water. These dams became known as millponds. They were also used for recreational purposes. Parishioners of St. Mary's could sail on them in the summer and skate on them in the winter. Bridges were built on Warburton Ave and Broadway to cross people over the river and the millponds. They were a delightful asset to Yonkers.

Eventually as Yonkers became more industrialized, the river and especially the millponds became polluted. The population of Yonkers began to soar. In 1845 there were 2,517 residents, by 1860, 11,848, in 1890, 32,033. When the cornerstone of new St. Mary's was laid in built in 1890, there were two Catholic churches in Yonkers. In the next few years ten more churches were added. By 1920 there were 100,471 residents in Yonkers. Once the flow of Saw Mill River into the Hudson was channeled into a flume and put underground, Getty Square became the great shopping center in Southern

Westchester and our river disappeared from sight It is now noticed only when the Saw Mill River Parkway is flooded Hopefully we will enjoy again the rushing waters of our river as it meets the mighty Hudson river.

7. An Educated Guess About Our Two Names

I can’t prove this definitively but some historical evidence points to my conclusion. The key was my close reading of Fr. Schroth, S. J.’s history of Fordham University (called St. John’s in 1848). In the book it is mentioned that the Jesuits wanted to found a parish in Yonkers but Archbishop Hughes ruled against it. The Archbishop was afraid that the Jesuits would become too influential in his diocese. He had invited them to come to New York in 1846 but was constantly fighting them once they came. It was really over power and influence but it revealed itself in small petty things. Hughes allowed the Jesuits to open one parish in Manhattan but when that structure burned down he told them that they had to change the name of the church from the Holy Name of Jesus to St. Francis Xavier. According to the Jesuits, their first choice reminded Hughes too much of the great Jesuit mother church in Rome, named the Holy Name of Jesus (popularly called the “El Gesu”). Hughes thought that the Gesu was becoming more popular than St. Peter’s.

St. Mary’s was founded in 1848 (our baptismal records go back to 1847) and was initially served by Jesuits from Fordham. They wanted the new parish to be one of their own (the parish boundaries at that time were quite extensive, beginning in Kingsbridge and Riverdale and ending at north of Tarrytown). The future potential of such a vast area on the Hudson River with its stately mansions was a factor in the Jesuits’ planning. They named the church “St. Mary’s” but when they went to Hughes for formal naming the pastor added the name “Immaculate Conception” saying that either name was permissible. What I think happened was the same as in Manhattan. “St. Mary’s” was the name of the Jesuit motherhouse in Kentucky (from which the Jesuits at Fordham had originally come) and Hughes didn’t want this identification. Instead of having another public fight, the Jesuit pastor convinced him to put the both names on the document. In the meantime (we

History Of Our Church Page 9 are talking about only a year) Hughes decided that the Jesuits should not make this parish one of their own. So Fr. John Ryan, S. J. was transferred and made pastor of St. Francis Xavier in Manhattan where he built not only a church but a college building. The Jesuits wanted another priest, Fr. Larkin, to be the rector of the new college but Hughes appointed Ryan while Larkin was in Rome. Ryan was one of the few Jesuits that Hughes could get along with. Ryan remained at St. Francis Xavier until 1855 when he left the Jesuits to become a diocesan priest under Archbishop Hughes. He founded a new parish on 14th Street and named it the Immaculate Conception. He died in 1861. As an indication of his relationship with the Jesuits, he received two lines in the history of Xavier College.

St. Mary’s was without a pastor until July, 1851 when a diocesan priest Thomas Preston was appointed. Preston was famous at the time and I always wondered why Hughes sent such a prestigious person to such a small parish as St. Mary’s. Now I think I know why. But that is another story—or a continuation of this same story.

8. The First Pastors 1848 - 1856

The Jesuits’ Years 1847 – 1852

The first Pastor was Fr. John Ryan, a Jesuit from St. John’s College (today’s Fordham University). He and other Jesuits served the Catholic population along the Hudson River. They celebrated Mass in homes or buildings until the Church of St. Mary’s was opened on December 25, 1848. This, our first church (today’s Parish Hall), was built under the direction of Fr. Ryan, by Patrick C. Keeley who was to build hundreds of Catholic Churches. Fr. Ryan, born in Ireland in 1805, was a stone mason before he entered the Jesuit novitiate at St. Mary’s in Bardstown, Kentucky in 1839. He easily related to the Irish laborers who were his first parishioners and to Archbishop Hughes who was also from Ireland and a former manual laborer. He came to St. John’s in 1846 and within a year was also serving the “Jesuit Mission” of St. Mary’s. He was “in charge” until October 25, 1849 when he was appointed Pastor of the new Jesuit parish, St. Francis Xavier, and, in September of 1850, as the first President of the College of Francis Xavier on West 15th St. in Manhattan. Fr. Ryan was pastor at St. Francis Xavier until 1855 when he left the Jesuits and became incardinated into the Archdiocese of New York. He as appointed by Hughes on Oct. 25, 1855 as pastor of the new Immaculate Conception Parish on East 14th St. He died on March 22, 1861. He built three churches and one school during his three assignments. The Jesuits, (Fr. Jouin, Bienvenue, Tissot, DuBanquet, Daubresse and others) continued to celebrate the sacraments at St. Mary’s until July, 1851. Thomas Cornell in his history, “The Beginning of the Roman Catholic Church in Yonkers” describes Fr. Ryan as “a spare man, of medium height, with dark hair and complexion and a thin grave face, decidedly Hibernian in speech and appearance but with quiet suavity of the Jesuits, and if not courtly, was gracious and pleasant in manner. The writer’s relationship with him during his charge in Yonkers became so intimate and kindly that he takes pleasure in this mention of him.”

Fr. Thomas Preston 1851 – 1853

Fr. Preston became a very influential person in the Archdiocese of New York serving as Secretary, Chancellor or Vicar General under Archbishop Hughes, Archbishop McCloskey and Archbishop Corrigan. More “Roman than the Romans” he was very helpful to Archbishop Corrigan in defeating “The Americanist Movement” in the American Catholic Church. With Mother Mary Veronica he helped found the Sisters of Divine Compassion.

In 1851 when he came as pastor to St. Mary’s at the age of 27 he was well already known. Ordained an Episcopalian priest, he, with John Murray Forbes, his pastor at St. Luke’s Episcopal Church in Greenwich Village, converted to Catholicism and were ordained priests in the Catholic Church. Ordained on November 16, 1850 he was sent to St. Mary’s in the summer of 1851. In his two years and three months as pastor, he was a human dynamo. He opened up a small school house, bought land opposite the church on which the future school was built in 1860, and completed the church building (among other things it had no ceiling or pews). He celebrated Mass at Hastings, Dobbs Ferry and Tarrytown and built the Church of St. Teresa of Avila in Sleepy Hollow. Rivaling the open air tent meetings of the Protestants, he preached special missions at

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Mary’s that attracted thousands of Catholics from Westchester. He built the first rectory for the priests but before he could actually use it, he was recalled on October 20, 1853 by Archbishop Hughes to be assigned as his secretary.

Rev. John McMahon 1853 – 1854

We know nothing about this pastor except that he came in October, 1853, closed the small school (it became the residence of the sexton), left before May 10, 1954 and returned to Ireland.

Rev. Eugene Maguire 1854 – 1856

Father Maguire was born in Ireland and was ordained in St. Joseph’s Seminary at Fordham in 1847. In 1848 he was an assistant pastor at St. Raymond Church (now in the Bronx but then in Westchester) and in 1853 at St. Mary’s in Rondout. He was later an assistant to Fr. John Ryan at the Church of Immaculate Conception in 1858. From 1866 until his death in 1883 he was pastor at St. Paul’s Church on 117th St. in Manhattan.

Thanks to a gift of land by John Murtha (it was part of a farm on his summer residence) Fr. Maguire established the cemetery of St. Mary’s in 1854.

In Fr. Maguire’s time a state census reported the average attendance at the “Catholic Church in Yonkers” at 800 (estimated total Catholic population: 1200-1300). This same 1855 census of Yonkers counted a total of 7,554 residents. In 1850 it had been 4,165. Yonkers was growing and so was the Catholic population. In 1848 when plans were drawn up for St. Mary’s Church, many thought the church was too big for their needs. Soon it would be too small.

9. The First Parishioners

I have always wondered about the inner lives of our first parishioners. Since this was the time of the "Great Hunger" how many of our parishioners experienced the horror of seeing so many of their own people die excruciating deaths as they travelled across Ireland to reach the ships. Did any experience the "coffin ships?" What was it like to spend weeks at sea with 350 passengers jammed below deck( with only two toilets)? No one in St. Mary's left any memoirs. Survivors of such horrors rarely spoke of such things. Historical fiction novels, like Ken Bakers "Paradise Alley," are probably the only way that we can come close to understanding the inner damage to the souls of the survivors.

The first parishioners of our parish were 98% Irish. Some came before the famine years. Hugh Donoghue born in Ireland was married in 1834 in New York City, came to Yonkers in the 1840's, worked as a laborer, and was a founding father of St. Mary's. Hugh Dalton came during the famine years, stayed a year in New York City and arrived in Yonkers in 1851. Weakened by the voyage from Co. Waterford in Ireland, his wife died after a year in Yonkers. Both families eventually did well in Yonkers. Compared to New York City, Yonkers must have seemed like a great place to live. This was the time of the Astor Place Riots, the anarchy of the Five Points District, and the awful living conditions of the shacks in what would soon become Central Park. One commentator remarked that the people living in these hovels did not die because Death himself was afraid to cross the threshold.

In 1848, Yonkers was rapidly changing. The stagecoach ended in 1848. The railroad (built by many of our parishioners) opened in 1849. Although there were small factories along the Saw Mill River e.g.William Warner's hat factory, Prince Paddock's lumber mill, Morgan's dye factory (where our first Mass was celebrated before the church was built), the industrialization of Yonkers was about to significantly increase. Soon Yonkers would become the largest center in the world for the production of hats and carpets. Yonkers needed workers so the Irish came.

From 1850 census we learn that there were 4,160 residents in Yonkers. 18% had Irish surnames. Of the 424 Irish males, 275 were laborers. Of the 319 Irish females over the age of 14, 106 were married, 193 were listed as servants. There were

History Of Our Church Page 11 few children. A surveyor's map of 1849 (probably done by Thomas Cornell) shows all the land between Hudson St and St. Mary's St. from South Broadway to the Hudson River as empty except for a few houses on South Broadway and two buildings on St. Mary's St: our new church and the home of Hugh Donoghue. By 1870 (I couldn't find the Census of 1860), there were 18,892 residents of Yonkers. 40% had Irish surnames. There were at least 1,000 Irish female servants. There were now many marriages, many children and many houses on St. Mary's St.

In 1848 the first parishioners (including Thomas Cornell) thought the new church was too large for their needs. Fifteen years later they had to almost double the size of the church. The boundaries of the parish in 1848 included all of today's city of Yonkers plus Riverdale, Kingsbridge, Van Cortland and Moshulu and to the north up to Tarrytown. Priests from St. Mary's traveled to Hastings on the Hudson, Dobbs Ferry and Tarrytown to say Mass at least once a month on Sundays.

Our new stone altar installed on the 150th anniversary of the parish was carved from a quarry in Yonkers. It commemorates our first parishioners who did the work of digging up and breaking the stone of Yonkers (dynamite was not yet invented) to build the railroad, the factories, the homes and the foundation of the Church of St. Mary's.

The cemetery of St. Mary's opened in 1854.

10. Pastorate of Fr. Edward Lynch 1856-1865 the Pivotal Years

After eight years of four pastors and two administrators, St Mary’s was happy to see a new young pastor in February of 1856. During his pastorate of only nine years (he died on May 5, 1865) St. Mary’s was transformed, he built a new school, doubled the size of the church building, brought the Sisters of Charity and the Christian Brothers to teach in the school and guided the parish through a most difficult time, the Civil War.

His family history is interesting. His uncle, James Lynch of Country Kerry, Ireland, Enlisted in the U.S. Navy as a shipping clerk during the war of 1812. (There would always be military careers for Lynch men. It may explain why the future pastor of St Mary’s was a staunch supporter of the union army in the Civil War. One of his nephews died in the war.) Eventually he came to America and married Elizabeth Van Mullers from a prominent New York City Knickerbocker family. He was invited by Thomas McCarthy to join him at Salt Point, Salina (later called Syracuse) near the Erie Canal. He opened a store and prospered. His brother John followed in 1833. He and his wife, May Scanlon, sailed from Ireland with their six sons and one daughter, the youngest son being our Edward Lynch (born in 1829). Another son was born on the ship and a ninth son was born in USA on their farm in Dewitt, New York. Edward’s oldest brother, Cornelius, prospered in the dry goods business. Since he and his wife had no children of their own they invited Edward, now age nine, to live with them. Years later when Cornelius was very sick, he and his wife lived with the now Fr. Edward in St. Mary’s rectory. When her husband died in 1857, she remained in the rectory and helped take care of Fr. Edward until he died

At the age of fourteen, Edward met a young priest, John McCloskey (The future Cardinal of New York) who encouraged him to become a priest. After some initial objections from his family who wanted him to run their business (he had a knack for it, as is evident at St. Mary’s), he entered Holy Cross College in Worchester, Mass. And then transferred to St. John’s College at Fordham (where Jesuits were also serving at St. Mary’s). After graduation he entered the seminary, St Joseph’s, on the same campus. He was ordained a priest in 1854 by Archbishop Hughes and, after brief assignments at St. Patrick’s Cathedral and, for health reasons, at St. Mary’s in Rondout, N.Y., he was assigned as pastor to St. Mary's. He does not seem to have enjoyed good health and may have been suffering from the illness, consumption, which eventually killed him nine year later at the age of thirty-six. Archbishop Hughes called consumption, "The natural death of the Irish". We now know it to be tuberculosis.

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The first order of business for the new pastor was to build a school and find religious sisters and brothers to come and teach. An opportunity immediately presented itself when the Sisters of Charity were looking for property to build their new motherhouse.

Thomas Cornell persuaded them to look at property in Riverdale, owned by the Shakespearean actor, Edwin Forrest. This is the same Edwin Forrest who was unwittingly involved in the Astor Place riots in 1849. At least twenty-five people were killed and more than one hundred and twenty wounded. It was the first time a state militia had fired into a crown of citizens. The theater in those days was a very audience participation affair (see the movie "Gangs of New York.") audiences rooted for and against the actors. When Forrest, who was a favorite of the Irish Catholics, was replaced by an English actor, the Irish audiences were enraged and took to the streets.

Thomas Cornell knew Forrest and convinced him to sell his property to the Sisters of Charity. At the time Riverdale was part of Yonkers and therefore part of St. Mary's parish. In 1856 a meeting was arranged with Fr. Lynch, Archbishop Hughes, and Thomas Cornell (his description of the negotiations is very detailed) at the rectory of St. Mary’s. They then proceeded over to the Forrest property where they met Angela Hughes, mother superior and sister of the Archbishop. Cornell was very proud of his role in convincing all the parties involved, especially archbishop Hughes to buy the property. They bought the land in December of 1856. Within a few months, two Sisters of Charity, sisters Chrysostom and Winifred, came to teach at St. Mary’s School which at the time was a small schoolhouse with eighty- three girls. Fr. Lynch provided a carriage to bring the sisters to school every morning and returned them to their home at Mt. St. Vincent's every night. At that time there was also a boy's school in the basement of the church under the direction of Mr. Riley. There were about one hundred students.

A much larger school was built in 1860. In 1861 four La Salle Christian brothers came to teach the boys under the leadership of Brother Clementian (Peter Muth). He was twenty- one years old. Enrollment jumped to two hundred and sixty three boys in 1861 and then to two hundred and ninety- seven in 1862. The brothers taught the upper grade boys and they lived on the top floor of the new school.

In 1863 Fr. Lynch convinced his parishioners to enlarge the original church -almost doubling its capacity. As a pastor I asked myself how he ever got the money to do this. This was during the Civil War where even the building of the new St. Patrick’s Cathedral had to be stopped for lack of money. We know that Fr. Lynch collected funds by visiting the homes of his parishioners and by personally taking up a second collection at Sunday’s masses. I doubt whether this was sufficient. The only answer I could think of was his older brother’s wife who was living in the rectory at the time. She must have contributed substantially to St. Mary’s. The great crisis that faced Fr. Lynch and his 98% Irish parish was the draft riots in New York City in 1863. Many feared that they would spread to Yonkers where there was a large munitions factory on Vark St., one block away from the church. I will write about Yonkers and the Civil War in the next chapter but suffice to say that it did not reach Yonkers. I believe that Fr. Lynch was a main factor in preventing this. When President Lincoln was assassinated on April 15, 1865, Fr. Lynch was dying. As the funeral train bearing Lincoln passed Yonkers, he asked to be carried down to the station to do homage. Three weeks later Fr. Lynch died. He was buried in the family plot in Syracuse. I wish he had been buried in St. Mary’s cemetery. Then we could visit his grave and give homage to the priest who in my opinion was St. Mary’s most important pastor.

11. Yonkers, the Irish and the Civil War

Yonkers with a population estimated between 9,000 and 12,000 at the time of the Civil War had 254 enlisted men, 212 draftees and 16 dead. There are 139 veterans buried in St. Mary's cemetery (some did not live in Yonkers during the Civil War). One inscription reads "Died from wounds from the Battle of the Wilderness." One veteran, Capt. William Heermance, received the Medal of Honor for his service with the 6th New York Calvary at the battle of Chancellorsville. He is buried in Oakland Cemetery. However, Yonkers was a divided city over the war, especially the emancipation of the slaves.

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This is clearly seen in the two weekly Yonkers newspapers, the Yonkers Herald and the Yonkers Examiner. As was the custom of the time, they were very partisan. The Yonkers Statesman was Republican, the Party of Lincoln, and pro- abolitionist. The Yonkers Herald was Democratic, anti- abolitionist and anti- Lincoln. So vitriolic was its attacks on President Lincoln that charges were brought against the editor for preventing the prosecution of the war. Accused of being a Copperhead (poisonous snake against the war effort) paper, the editor, Thomas Smith, resigned. Although most of the parishioners of St. Mary's were Democrats, some, like Thomas Cornell, were Republican and Abolitionist. In the 1860 elections Lincoln won the vote in the Town of Yonkers by -three votes. In the 1864 elections, he lost the Yonkers vote by 232 votes. The second district, heavily Irish, voted overwhelmingly against Lincoln. In 1861 most people thought the war would end soon. The Irish signed up for the usual reasons: patriotism, adventure, money ($300 bonus). James Sheridan, a parishioner of St. Mary's, signed up almost immediately. Edward Mitchell, much against the wishes of his mother, left St. Mary's School and enlisted. For many who enlisted the main reason for the war was the preservation of the Union, not the abolition of slavery. Although slavery was the main cause (the South broke from the Union because with the election of Lincoln it would be blocked from extending slavery to the new territories of the United States), the rallying cry was the preservation of the Republic. As the war grinded on and the casualties mounted (a recent estimate of the casualties of war is 750,000 dead from both sides), the justification for this sacrifice became a moral one: the abolition of slavery. As more and more deaths, especially among the Irish, were being published in New York City, ("and orphans roamed the streets") opposition to the war increased, especially since its main purpose now was the abolition of slavery. Looking back it seems strange that so many Irish Catholics would be opposed to the freeing of fellow human beings from slavery. Daniel O'Connell, the "Great Emancipator" of the Irish from the English Penal Laws, wrote to the Irish Americans about their opposition to the abolition of slavery: "It was not in Ireland that you learned this cruelty. Your mother was gentle, kind, humane. How can your soul have become stained with a darkness blacker than the negro's skin." The opposition to the emancipation of the slaves by the Irish is primarily explained as an economic one. The freed African Americans would come north and take jobs from the huge number of Irish workers who were desperate for work. In fact many African Americans were hired when Irish workers went on strike for better wages. There were other factors. The Democratic Party to which most Irish belonged was against abolition. Some of the more prominent Abolitionists were upper class Protestants who despised this unruly lower class that were Irish and even worse Catholic. Catholic religious leaders were not helpful. Pope Gregory XVI finally condemned the slave trade in 1839 but not slavery itself. Archbishop John Hughes advised the government that "Catholics will fight to the death" to uphold the Union, but never for the abolition of slavery. He himself believed that slavery was legitimate. And there may be something more primal. To escape the ugly racism directed at them, they became racist themselves. For some the Irish were at the bottom of the evolutionary ladder. They were referred to as "niggers turned inside out." African Americans were sometimes called "smoked Irish." In an ideal world, the Irish, who had experienced the injustice of the Penal Laws in Ireland, would have identified with the suffering of the slaves and fought for their freedom. But it was not to be so. The Irish whose bodies and souls were almost annihilated by the Famine did not have the psychological resources nor the spiritual or political leaders to make this great leap of solidarity. This was the tinderbox that exploded in the Draft Riots in New York City on July 6, 1863. The Federal Conscription act, which was passed in March, 1863, seemed very unfair to the poor Irish. For $300 (equivalent to $5,000 today?) a person could buy his exemption. Few Irish had this kind of money. The battle of Gettysburg had just published the list of casualties. Irish casualties were high. Although we now know that this was the turning point in the war that eventually lead to the surrender of the South two years later, at the time no one even knew who won the battle. There was great fear that General Lee's army was marching on Washington D.C. Reserve troops from New York (including Yonkers) were pulled out to defend the Capitol. The Draft Riots began on July 6 as an orderly protest against the draft but soon turned into a murderous racial riot. When it was finally put down by five Union army regiments on July 16, there were at least 105 dead and thousands wounded. Among the casualties were eleven African American males who were killed and mutilated by the rioters.

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Yonkers was justly afraid that the riots would spill over into their village. Yonkers knew that it had spread into other parts outside New York City. In White Plains the house containing the lists was burned down. Telegraph offices were destroyed. Railroad tracks at the Harlem and New Haven lines were ripped up. Bands of Irish workers from the quarries in Ossining marched on the abolitionist Horace Greely's house in Chappaqua. Another crew of Irishmen from the quarries in Tuckahoe marched towards Tuckahoe. In Yonkers, rumors spread that rioters were headed for the Starrs Munitions Factory on Vark St. (between the present day Riverdale and Buena Vista Ayes.) to steal firearms and ammunition. Since the Yonkers Reserve Guard had been called Guard of 300 men and drilled in the streets. The owner of the munitions factory distributed arms to their employees and surrounded the factory. To the relief of everyone, nothing happened. There are many reasons. Many of the Irish had homes, families and jobs in Yonkers. They would have discouraged any riots. The Home Guard of Yonkers may have been too old to frighten anyone, but the hundred of armed employees at the munitions factory was certainly a deterrent. The influence of Thomas Cornell, a respected leader and founder of St. Mary's parish, cannot be discounted. However, I think that the major deterrent was the pastor of St. Mary's who knew his parishioners very well and was respected and loved. He was a supporter of the Union and would not have tolerated any riots. In a small (compared to parishes in N.Y.C.) and tightly- knit Irish parish like St. Mary's, the parish priest would have been obeyed.

12. Post Civil War Years

 John McCloskey is now Archbishop of New York. Archbishop Hughes had died on January 3, 1864.  The Thirteen Amendment of the Constitution, abolishing slavery as a legal institution in the United States is passed by Congress in January of 1865. It is ratified by two thirds of the States on December 18, 1865.  General Lee surrenders at Appomattox Court House on Palm Sunday, April 9 1865 -in effect- ending the Civil War.  President Abraham Lincoln is assassinated on Good Friday April 14, 1865.  Fr. Thomas Lynch, pastor of St. Mary's Church, dies on May 5, 1865.  Fr. Charles Slevin becomes the new pastor of St. Mary's.

In trying to understand these years in the history of St. Mary’s, I looked at what was happening in the wider world of the American nation and the international world of the Roman Catholic Church.

The movie “Lincoln” (a great movie) demonstrated the political genius of Abraham Lincoln in abolishing slavery and the legitimate concerns of many about the future of the freed slaves. It seems only a Lincoln could have made Reconstruction a success. His successor, Andrew Johnson (1864-18668), one of our worst Presidents, was unable or unwilling to further the goals of Reconstruction. Ulysses Grant (1868-1876) tried his best to help the freed slaves and integrate them into Southern society. “States rights,” the violence of the Ku Klux Klan and the enactment of the Black Codes defeated his goals. The North, tired of the troubles of the freed slaves in the south, removed federal troops from the South in 1877. This was the result of the Great Compromise of 1877 that elected Rutherford Hayes by one electoral Vote. Samuel Tilden, who lost the Presidency by one vote, retired to his estate in Yonkers (today’s Untermeyer Park). The South then degenerated into an apartheid society which was to last almost a hundred years. Did this affect the parishioners of St. Mary’s? I doubt it. Although some Irish in Yonkers were doing well because of investments in real estate and the “dry goods business,” most were struggling. African Americans were seen as competitors for jobs.

The negative effects of the Civil War could be seen in the many disabled veterans who now came to Yonkers. They were part of nation wide “Tramp Problem” i.e veterans who either could not get jobs or were incapable of working. Today we recognize this as “Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder”. Then they were called “undesirables or tramps.” Yonkers had its fair

History Of Our Church Page 15 share. Many of them were Irish Catholics. They were either contained (the homeless initially slept in police station) or imprisoned by the Yonkers Police force which was now mostly Irish. John Mangin, Yonkers first Chief of Police, was a parishioner of St. Mary’s. The “Battle of the Glen,” in 1870 (described well by George Rutledge in a recent edition of the “Yonkers Historian”) was a fight between the Yonkers police and at least a hundred men, mostly Irish, who were fueled by alcohol.

What was happening in the Catholic Church? Pope Pius IX turned against modern society issuing the embarrassing “Syllabus of Errors” in 1864. In 1870 he lost most of the Papal States to the new nation of Italy and retreated to a small piece of land we now call Vatican City. Pope Pius IX called the bishops of the world to assemble for the first Vatican Council. On July 18, 1870, with great pressure from the Pope, they declared that Pope was infallible when proclaiming dogmas “Ex Cathedra” i.e. from the Chair of Peter. It further isolated Pius IX from the non-Catholic world. However, Catholics rallied to his cause. The support for the Pope was evident in St. Mary’s where Brother Clementian of St. Mary’s School organized a special marching band, called the Pio Nono Cadet Corps. Imitating the Pio Nono Corps in Rome, they dressed in red Zuoave uniforms, and marched proudly in the St. Patrick’s Day Parades in Yonkers.

Having proved their loyalty to the nation in the Civil War, Catholics were becoming more acceptable. Catholics in Yonkers never experienced the fierce anti-Catholicism that had existed in other places. I attribute this to the influence of Thomas Cornell who was a social equal to the Protestant elite of Yonkers; also to the fact that most of the workers in their factories were Catholics. “The Herald Statesman” could be very harsh against Catholic Irish but it seemed to be fueled less by anti- Catholic feeling than by the fact that the Irish belonged to the Democratic Party. Newspapers in those days were very partisan. The “Yonkers Gazette” was controlled by the Democratic Party; “The Herald Statesman by the Republican Party. When southern Yonkers (Riverdale, Highbridge, Van Cortland, Moshulu) chose to join New York City in 1872, the Republican Party did not protest too much because these sections were Democratic. The rest of Yonkers chose not to join New York City and incorporated legally as a “City” in 1872.

The north was invigorated by the war. Its industry surged ahead creating great, especially for the few. So it was for Yonkers. Factories, like Otis elevator and the Carpet Factory, were among the largest in the nation. Before the war the rich build their homes on Locust Hill Avenue. Now they built beautiful mansions along the Hudson River, e.g. the Trevor Mansion (which still exists as the Hudson River Museum). The Magnificent Warburton Baptist Church was built in 1869 by the Colgate Family on land donated by the Trevor family (it was demolished in 1971). The accumulation of wealth by a few based on the low wages of the workers would eventually create tensions, anger and even violence. Yonkers would not be exempt.

13. Pastorate of Fr. Charles Slevin 1865-1878

Fr. Charles Slevin was appointed pastor on May 5, 1865. Born in 1826 in Fintona, Co. Tyrone, Ireland he was ordained a priest at St. Johns’ college at Fordham in 1857. He served at St. Bridget’s Parish in Manhattan and then in Dover Plains. Dover Plains was a difficult assignment because he had to serve the needs of Catholics spread over a large area. He contracted some sort of disease that stayed with him all his life. The life span of priests at the time was only thirty-seven years.

Unfortunately, the most information you read about pastors is what they built. In his first few years he was very active. In 1866 he installed a white marble altar and tabernacle in the church. The next year he had five frescos painted on the walls behind the main alter by the Italian artist, Francisco Augero. He rebuilt the organ gallery and installed a new organ. He also had a paid choir. In 1868 and 1869 he built a new kitchen in the rectory and he doubled the size of the rectory. The additional rooms in the rectory enabled him to attract a succession of assistant priests, most notably Alfred Lings in 1867

History Of Our Church Page 16 and Andrew O’Reilly in 1874. Lings left in 1871 to found the second Catholic parish in Yonkers, St. Joseph. O’Reilly stayed until 1903, still an assistant, not a pastor.

Fr. Selvin’s health deteriorated and he had to leave the parish at various times to recuperate. Although canonically still the pastor, he had been replaced by Fr. Charles Corley in June of 1877. He died on July 18, 1878. In his last years he made the controversial decision to close the Boy’s School in November of 1877. The official reason was the lack of money to pay the Brother’s salary. It was reopened in November of 1876. One can only speculate that if the real reason was financial two events were major contributing factors. First, the creation of a second parish in Yonkers had to have lessened the Sunday collections. Secondly, in 1873, there was fierce financial recession in the nation. Millions of dollars were lost. It affected not only the rich but the ordinary worker.

During Fr. Slevin’s pastorate, in 1868, the Sisters of Charity opened up the Academy of St. Aloysius on the four acre Vark Estate next to church and rectory. It was a boarding school for boys from the growing Catholic middle class. The former home of the Vark Family was greatly expanded. It also became the residence of the Sisters who taught at St. Mary’s school. This is the present site of St. Joseph’s Hospital and the Convent of Mary the Queen.

14. Sons of Erin

Edward J. Mitchell

Edward was born in Rutland, Vt. on July 10, 1849. A year later the family moved to Cabondale, Penn. His family moved from place to place until it finally settled in 1856 in Yonkers. He attended the public schools and then St. Mary's School up to 1859 when he was went to work for a grocery store and then Eagle Hat Factory. Why did he leave school at such an early age? No doubt to help support his family-he was the oldest of seven children. In 1861 his father enlisted in the Union army. With seven children why did he do this? Most likely for the bonus money and probably he thought, as did everyone else, that the war would end quickly. His father returned in 1863 and his mother died in Jan. 1864.He tried to enlist three times but his father prevented it until May 10, 1864 (one month shy of fifteen years old). Although the official age for enlistment was eighteen at the beginning of the war, they allowed younger men to enlist as the war dragged on.. The total number of enlisted men in the Union Army was 2,700,000. 100,000 were fifteen or under.

After the war ended he returned home. In May 1866 he joined the Fenian Movement and enlisted in the Irish Army for seven years. Building on their experience fighting in the Civil War some Fenians went back to Ireland to begin an armed revolution. In February of 1866 they were captured by the British and were tried for treason- a capital offense. However they claimed citizenship in the United States and, through the intervention of the American government, they were allowed to return to the United States. Edward Mitchell was not involved in this adventure but he was in another one closer to home: the attempted invasion of Canada. The Fenians planned to capture part of Canada and trade it for the freedom of Ireland. Edward was sent to Malone, N.Y, where some thousand men were prepared to march into Canada. On June 1, 1866, 1,000 armed Fenians crossed the Niagara River near Buffalo into Canada. The next day they were defeated in the battle of Ridgeway. The USS Michigan blocked any reinforcements. General Sweeny was arrested in Malone, New York, and all the men, including Edward Mitchell, were discharged and sent home. This attempted invasion of Canada was not as crazy as it sounds today. Some prominent Americans thought that it was only a matter of time before Canadians voted to join the United States. Remember also that Edward had just turned seventeen.

The independence of Ireland continued to be a constant goal for many Irish. In Yonkers the Irish formed the Montgomery Club which met regularly for many years. Its name was a cover for the Clan-na- Gael, a secret society whose aim was the

History Of Our Church Page 17 overthrow of the British government. Tom Flynn's "St. Patrick's Day and the Irish Community in Yonkers 1857-2003" is a gold mine of information about attempts to aid Irish freedom. It was a constant problem for the American bishops (most of whom were Irish) and would remain so up until a few years ago.

Edward returned home and went to work for Otis Brothers until 1874. He then joined the Protection Fire Department and where he eventually became its secretary, foreman and engineer. In 1872 he married Mary McGovern in St. Mary's Church. She died in 1887 leaving one daughter, Mary Mitchell. He became an Alderman representing the Democratic Party for six years serving as Chairman of the Board in 1883.

One of his proudest achievements was the planning and building of the public dock at the foot of New Main St .In Allison's "History of Yonkers" his contributions to Yonkers are extensively recounted.

John Wallace

I can easily imagine John Wallace sitting down with his children telling fantastic and thrilling stories about his life. His telling didn't need any embellishments because his life was truly remarkable. He was born in 1838 in Co. Galway in Ireland and lived there during the Famine years. As a teenager he joined the British army because, as he put it, "I broke one of their laws and to avoid going to prison I joined the British army." He served in the disastrous Crimean War of 1853-56 where Russian fought against the forces of France, Ottoman Turks and England. There were hundreds of thousands casualties on both sides. Florence Nightingale began her nursing service here. Alfred Loyd Tennyson wrote his famous "The Charge of the Light Brigade" about its brutality and insane heroism. Then he was assigned to India where he witnessed the execution of the Indian Sepoys. They were Indian soldiers who revolted against their English army commanders because they had heard that the bullets they would soon use had been dipped in pig or cow grease. This would be a violation of both the Hindus and Muslim religious laws. Of course it was about something more substantial. Today India calls this uprising the "First War of Independence”, not the" Mutiny of the Sepoys." In revenge for the killing of English women and children, some of the Sepoys were tied to the front of cannons and blown apart. Great Britain then took direct control of India (it had been administered under the British East India Co.) and continued to expand its Empire throughout the world. John was then assigned to Canada probably as part of the 20,000 troops rushed to Canada in the Trent Affair. In November 1861, a British steamer, named the Trent, was boarded by a Union officer on the San Jacinto. He seized two Southerners who were on their way to represent the Confederacy in France and Great Britain. This could have been considered an act of war by the British. To show their seriousness, they strengthened their army. Fortunately cooler heads prevailed and war was averted. Finishing his service in Canada John was discharged in 1864. He then joined the Army of the Republic on July 13, 1864 “because the bonus money was very attractive.” His service record includes this description: “Age 26, hazel eyes, height 5'6 ¾, ruddy complexion. Regiment 14 U.S. Infantry 2Ild Battalion. Co. C. transferred to 23 U.S Infantry. Co D. Rank Sgt.” After the Civil War he completed his three years serving in the Indian Wars in the West.

He came to Yonkers in 1874 with his wife and four children and opened up a shoe business (he had learned the cobbler's trade in the British army). When his first wife died, he wrote to his home town in Ireland for a wife. When she died after three months of marriage, he married her sister, Catherine Lane. Catherine bore him two more children, one of whom died in infancy in 1883. All surviving children attended St. Mary's School. His shoe store prospered in Yonkers. He became a trustee of St. Mary's Church where he was instrumental in buying the land for the second St. Mary's Church. He did not live to see the church built. In 1890 he died at the age of fifty two after catching pneumonia ice skating on the Hudson River.

His family married into the Dalton family. His grandsons became prominent lawyers in Yonkers, very much involved in the Democratic Party, one becoming a judge. His granddaughter, Agnetta became a school teacher and eventually principal of School 12. His oldest son, John, sold the family business to his in- laws, the Daltons, and became a turf accountant. He was seen at all the area racetracks, including Empire City in Yonkers, seated in an elevated chair taking bets. Family legend has

History Of Our Church Page 18 him attending the early Mass at St. Mary's with a rooster under his coat. After fulfilling his Sunday obligation, he would then go the local cockfight on School St.

15. Daughters of Erin

One of the difficulties in writing a history of a parish is the lack of women’s name in the documents except in baptism and marriage records. This is true of other historical books e.g. Charles Allison’s “History of Yonkers.” Yet we know that women are the heart and soul of any parish.

“Broom, loom to Schoolroom” is a way of expressing the upper social mobility of Irish women. The type of work that Irish women did in Yonkers followed the pattern of Irish women throughout America. The first generation preferred to work as domestic servants. They did not like factory work. However, as the number of factories increased in Yonkers, out of economic necessity, they put aside their initial disdain. The records of St. Mary’s School show clearly that many young girls left school to work in factories. By the second and third generation, some became teachers, owned their own homes, and invested in real estate.

In the time frame of our history, many of the Irish women in Yonkers worked as servants. I am indebted to Hasia R. Diner’s “Erin’s Daughters in America” for the historical background of the following.

Servant

In the Passenger list of the ship Elsinore, which set sail on April, 15, 1849 from Liverpool, England, carrying Luke and Catherine Dalton to Yonkers, the occupation listed for all Irish women was “servant”. In the 1850 Federal Census of the Town of Yonkers, there were 319 Irish females over the age of 14, 106 were married and 193 were listed as “servants.” In the Census of 1870 when the Irish population of Yonkers grown to 7,000 (40%of Yonkers) with many families with large numbers of children, there were at least 1,000 Irish servants. Most middle class households in Yonkers in 1870 had one or two servants and some, like the Trevors, had eight to ten. For over 100 years, millions of Irish women began their new lives in America as servants. To many other women, native born and foreign, domestic service was undesirable and demeaning. Irish women enthusiastically embraced this kind of work. Why?

A good place to begin to understand this phenomenon is to look at the consequences of the Great Irish Hunger (or Famine) that devastated Ireland in the 1840’s. Before this disaster the Irish population had grown enormously to eight million in a seventy five year period, unlike anything in Europe at the time. Among the poor because there was no prospect for a secure economic future, the Irish married very young and had many children. As children came of age, parents would continually divide their land creating smaller and smaller plots of land. Families were able to live off less than one fourth of an acre of land because of the nutritious potato. When the potato blight struck, it not only doomed a million to death and sent another two million into exile but it changed the social and cultural patterns of Ireland.

Under the new law of single inheritance, land was now passed down only to the oldest son. Men married much later in life, women often waited until they were in their forties to marry and bear children. Celibacy became an acceptable way of life. The sexes became more segregated. Excess children, especially daughters, for whom

History Of Our Church Page 19 resources were limited, had no future, especially in rural Ireland. Before many females emigrated only with their families, now single females emigrating became the norm.

Irish women had no problem in accepting domestic service. Because it paid well and it did not go against their new cultural values. Native born American though such jobs were below their station in life. Many foreign born women did not want this kind of work because if clashed with their cultural values e.g. Italian women were used to living under the watchful eye of a father or brother; there was never an excess of Italian females in the United States so that almost all Italian women married and at an early.

Because of this lack of competition (Irish women feared only African American women as competitors), under the law of supply and demand, the wages for servants were very attractive. Living in other people’s homes presented no problem because they were used to a segregated female world. Since they could marry late in life of not at all, they were able to save money. They could send some of their savings to their home to their family in Ireland, pay for the ship fare for brothers and sisters, contribute (which they did substantially) to the local Catholic church, buy real estate of save for their future family.

Irish women were impervious to the cruel stereotypes of Bridget and Nora or “Biddy the Kitchen Canary” because they laughed all the way to the bank (often Emigrants Savings Bank). If they were faulted by their employees because they could not cook, they were also highly sought after because they were known for their chaste lives, seemingly uncorrupted by sexual temptation. This was not a small thing in a time when husbands often preyed upon young servant girls.

16. Pastorate of Msgr. Charles R. Corley 1877-1914

GROWTH OF YONKERS AND THE CATHOLIC CHURCH

IN 1876, Sitting Bull and the Sioux defeated General Custer at Little Big Horn. In 1877 Samuel Tilden, former Governor of New York, retired to Yonkers (Untermeyer Estate) after losing the Presidency to Rutherford Hayes by a special electoral decision, called the Great Compromise. In 1878 Pope Leo XIII succeeded Pius IX. A year later Edison invented the first practical incandescent light bulb.

In 1877, Fr. Charles Corley came to St. Mary's at the age of twenty-nine. Although he did not officially become pastor until the former pastor, Fr. Slevin, died in 1878, he always dated his pastorate from 1877. The nation was undergoing vast changes. It was the age both of the cowboy and of steel and steam. invention followed invention. The Industrial Revolution was reaching its peak and with it came the urbanization of America and a vast increase immigrant labor.

Yonkers was in an excellent position to take advantage of these opportunities. As early as 1649 Yonkers had used the energies of the Nepperhan and Hudson Rivers to build the first saw mills. Other industries came in the early

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19th century: hats (1829), carpets (1846), rubber works (1852), elevators (1854) sugar refining (1862). The beautiful mansions that still exist today were built by men who made their fortune at this time: the Copcutt Mansion (the present rectory of St. Casimir's), the ninety-nine room Greystone (built by the hat manufacturer, John Waring, later the Untermeyer Estate) and the Trevor Mansion (now part of the Hudson River Museum).

Inventors found a home in Yonkers. The elevated railroad system, first used by New York City, was invented and created by Yonkers men. Otis, Smith, Eichemeyer, Hedley, and Armstrong head the list of distinguished inventors.

The need for cheap labor for the factories in Yonkers brought many immigrants to Yonkers. After the Irish, Scotch, and Germans, came the Poles, Jews, Italians, Russians and other Central and Eastern Europeans. They came and settled in their own distinct ethnic geographical communities. The population of Yonkers soared: 17,000 in 1872; 50,000 in 1909 and 100,000 in 1932.

At the time the new St. Mary's was being built, Yonkers was undergoing unprecedented growth. The dams in the center of the city were torn down and commerce began to thrive. The Getty Square Branch of the Hudson Railroad opened in 1887. St. Joseph's Hospital opened in 1890. The first electric trolley car on Riverdale began in 1892. Other Catholic parishes were being established: Sacred Heart (1891), St. Nicholas of Myra (1892), Most Holy Trinity (1894), St. Peter's (1894), St. Michael's (1895), St. Casimir's (1899), St. Anthony's (1900). By 1914 six more parishes and six schools had been created out of the original St. Mary's boundaries.

The defining characteristic of St. Mary's at this time was that it was an Irish parish. Records of baptisms, weddings and school attendance show that it was at least 90% Irish with the remainder German or Scotch. The parish was founded in 1848 at the same time that the potato famine hit Ireland. This disaster killed perhaps a million people and sent millions into exile. The first generation, the Irish born, had a very difficult time. They were mostly peasants with little training and few resources.

The Irish encountered additional difficulties because they were the first large non-Protestant group to enter the U.S.A. The fact that they settled in cities added to the fear and apprehension on the part of many Americans. Their loyalty was clear in the Civil War but the prejudice, although lessened, still existed. Their strengths were their religion, the ability to speak English and their political skills.

By the time the new church of St. Mary's was built, the Irish were beginning to dominate the Yonkers political system. The alumni of St. Mary's Boy's School included many of the most powerful political figures in Yonkers.

Since the Irish were mostly working class, they were often involved in the formation of the new labor unions, especially the Knights of Labor. In 1887 Cardinal Gibbons of Baltimore, who was in Rome to receive the red hat, made a special plea to the Pope to prevent the condemnation of trade unions. To Rome these organizations looked too much like the secret societies of Europe that had been enemies of the Catholic Church.

In Yonkers in 1885 the Knights of Labor organized a group of men and women at the Alexander Smith Carpet Mill where 3,000 workers were employed. The owner fired the union leaders and the workers went on strike. When three of the women organizers, Ellen Tracy, Lizzie Wilson and Mary Carey, were jailed, thousands rallied throughout Yonkers in support. Management gave in, wages were increased and working conditions improved. It

History Of Our Church Page 21 was a great victory for the union and the three women became celebrities. However, by 1890, the union was voted out because of troubles within the Knights of Labor and Smith's better treatment of the workers. But these nonviolent demonstrations were a major factor in convincing the American bishops that labor unions were a positive movement. In 1891 Pope Leo XIII in his historic encyclical "Rerum Novarum" gave the blessings of the Catholic Church to the formation of unions.

Many of the Irish kept a keen interest in their homeland and were often involved in the struggle to free Ireland from England. This was the time of the so-called "land war" (1879-82), the greatest mass movement of modern Ireland up to that time, and the rise and fall of the great Irish leader, Charles Stewart Parnell.

"Rum, Romanism and Rebellion" was the slogan used against the Democratic Party in the 1880's but it was obviously aimed at the Irish.

Because they were often in competition with other ethnic and racial groups who were brought in by employers to work for lower wages, the Irish could be intolerant. However, in many ways, the Irish, as the first "different" immigrant group, took the first blows of American prejudice and fought back, easing the way for future immigrants. That prejudice still existed is clear by the rise in 1894 of the anti-Catholic American Protective Association, claiming a million members. In addition to the Irish they were now attacking the "beaten races": the Greek, the Pole, the Serb, the Hungarian and the Italian.

Irish priests, by their sheer numbers, dominated the American Catholic Church.

Although St. Mary's was predominantly Irish there were other ethnic groups as well, especially Germans and Scots. Fr. Albert A. Lings, born in 1844 in Baden (soon to be part of the new Germany), had been an associate at St. Mary's from 1857 until he became pastor of the second Catholic Church of Yonkers, St. Joseph's, in 1871. Two German names appear as donors of the stained glass windows: Blatzheim and Imhoff. St. Boniface the Apostle to Germany, was chosen as one of the figures in the smaller stained glass windows.

The Germans, fleeing the Revolutions of 1848 and Bismarck's attack on Catholics in the newly formed Germany, came to America at the same time as the Irish but with greater resources and better education. Since their numbers were never great in Yonkers, they do not seem to have been involved in the controversy, called Cahenslyism, which in 1891 arose in many German parishes in the Midwest. Under the slogan "Language Saves the Faith," these German parishes resisted strongly any attempt to weaken their attachment to German language and culture. They especially resented the domination of the Catholic hierarchy by the Irish.

The Germans in Yonkers must have found St. Mary's parish hospitable because their numbers continued to grow well into the 1920's. Perhaps it was Fr. Corley who made them feel at home. We know he visited Germany in 1891 to buy the stained glass windows for the new church.

The names of all the other donors on the windows are Irish. The stained glass windows also give us an insight into how the parish was organized through the lay societies, e.g., Sodality of the Immaculate Heart, League of the Sacred Heart, Rosary Society, Holy Name Society, Children of Mary. Although not on the windows, we know

History Of Our Church Page 22 there were many kinds of Temperance Societies in the parish. These societies and devotional confraternities defined a Catholic parish at this time.

The parish was not only the religious and educational center but the social center as well. Drama groups often put on shows to entertain the community. Youngsters met, often married one another, and joined the adult clubs or societies. It was a place where new immigrants could feel at home and learn the new American ways. Despite the fears of men like Thomas Jefferson, these parishes became great centers of assimilation into American life.

The school was the crowning glory of St. Mary's parish. The affection of the parishioners towards the Sisters of Charity can be seen in the dedication of the new St. Joseph's altar to Sr. Mary Magdalena White. She had been principal at the school since 1878 and had died in 1890. Sr. Agnes Loyola, the principal in 1892, served at St. Mary's for forty-two years. The Sisters of Charity taught all the girls and the younger boys up to the fourth grade.

The Christian Brothers were especially respected by parents. Discipline and a quality education were equally desired for their sons. Although there were only eight grades, many of those who graduated were fifteen and sixteen years old. The school grew from 375 when Corley arrived in 1877 to 1,300 in 1903. Classroom size at times was over seventy students but graduating classes never seemed to be over forty. Apparently many, out of economic necessity, left school to go to work. Since families could not afford to keep their children out of the job market, few sent their children to high school. Tuition was free but there were fees for books.

The reputation of St. Mary's School was so high that many had to be turned down for admission. The following is taken from a church bulletin in 1907: "The pressure for admission is great and it was found necessary to refuse many. Italians and Poles were not accepted as they have churches of their own and should provide for their own children. St. Mary's school is supported by St. Mary's Church and children of the church must be provided for first." What was really being said? At first it looks like discrimination was being practiced against the Italians and Poles but another interpretation is quite possible.

The relationship with St. Casimir's, a Polish national parish (one that serves the Polish people wherever they may live), throws some light on the question.

Founded as a parish in 1899, the pastor lived at St. Mary's and said Mass in Polish in St. Mary's Chapel until a church was built in 1902. The school opened in 1906 and was staffed by the Sisters of the Resurrection in 1907. Rather than being discriminatory against the Poles, the above statement may have come at the urging of the pastor, Father Dworzak, so that Polish children would come to his new school. Although there were two associates, Frs. Andrew O'Reilly (1874-1908) and John Fullam (1898-1912), who remained at St. Mary's for many years, there is no doubt that the dominant person was the pastor of St. Mary's, Fr. Charles Corley. Intensely loyal to their priests, the Irish expected their pastors to act like "Lords of the Manor" and they often did. Extended vacations in Europe and the Holy Land were concluded with the school children lining St. Mary's Street welcoming the returning pastor. Every anniversary of his priesthood was celebrated with great dinners and gifts. That Fr. Corley was wise enough to use these occasions to raise money for the parish (altar: 1896, organ: 1906, bells: 1911) was an indication of his shrewd administrative abilities.

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In 1904 Fr. Corley suffered an illness that would remain with him until his death in 1914. He was an irremovable pastor which gave him the right to have a voice in the choosing of the Bishop. In 1908 he received an honorary doctorate from Manhattan College and became a Monsignor in 1911. Mrs. Magilton, daughter of one of the Duffy brothers, stone masons who helped build the new church, remembers Fr. Corley coming to visit her house for tea. Her mother used to iron the cassocks for the priests. She remembered him as a "very lovely man." She believed that her oldest sister was the second person baptized in the new church (actually the tenth).

Fr. Corley spoke in Protestant churches and was well respected by the Protestant clergy. He and Dr. Cole, pastor of the First Reformed Church on South Broadway, were friends. Both were pastors in Yonkers for many years and both built Richardsonian Romanesque churches around the same time. While St. Mary's would last to see its 100th anniversary, the First Reformed Church would be sold and turned into the Strand Theater.

17. The Great Controversy Within American Catholicism, and its Effect Upon the New St. Mary’s Church

WHEN "THE WHITE MANTLE" OF ROMANESQUE CHURCHES was being spread across Europe in the eleventh and twelfth centuries, the Roman Catholic Church dominated society. Later as the structures of feudal society began to change, the Catholic Church often found itself in opposition to the new forces of modernity. This struggle reached a tragic climax in the French Revolution. In a destructive rage, this most Catholic of all nations desecrated or destroyed many of its own great church buildings, including the great Romanesque monastery at Cluny. This bitter struggle continued into the nineteenth century. It was a most difficult time for the Catholic Church as it dug in its heels and fought the changes of "Modernity."

The United States was a new nation founded on the principles of modernity. Into this new world came Roman Catholics. It was inevitable that tensions would arise. Thomas Jefferson considered the Catholic Church the most hopelessly "un-American" institution in the land. How could such an authoritarian religion live in a democratic society? How could Roman Catholics assimilate into this new society?

There were Catholics who thought that the Church should and must adapt to this new situation. If it did it would alleviate the suspicions of men like Jefferson and make Catholicism an attractive option for Americans. Catholicism should enter into dialogue, challenge and, if necessary, adapt to the new democratic society. If it meant changing the non-essentials of Catholicism, then so be it. The problem was how to distinguish the essentials from the non-essentials.

On the other side were those who were reluctant to change anything lest the whole structure crumble. To them Catholicism had such a distinct vision of God, self and the world that any change would distort its mission. Rather than change, Catholicism should simply invite others to join. The Trustee Controversy of the early nineteenth century, in which parishioners wanted to chose their own pastors, was an example of the turmoil caused by trying to change the system.

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The time of Fr. Corley's pastorate was an especially volatile period for American Catholicism. There were few who would embrace all the positions of either the "Conservative" or "Liberal" side because the issues were so many and intricate: The Temporal Power of the Papacy (Papal States), Separation of Church and State, Elections within the Church, Latin, a separate Catholic School System, National Parishes, Ecumenism, Religious Liberty were some of the issues.

Of particular ferocity was the fight between Fr. Francis McGlynn, pastor of St. Stephen's Church in Manhattan and his Archbishop, Michael Augustine Corrigan. Students together in Rome, they disagreed on almost every subject. In 1886 when the very popular McGlynn promoted Henry George for the Mayor of New York City, Corrigan removed him from his pastorate. Later he suspended him from his priestly duties and finally excommunicated him from the Church. McGlynn would eventually be reinstated and given a parish upstate but the bitterness of the struggle would linger for a long time.

These controversies involved some of the most prominent bishops of the time. The leaders of the conservative side were Archbishop Corrigan and Bishop McQuaid. On the liberal side were Bishops Ireland and Keane and perhaps even -Cardinal Gibbons. In the early 1890's it looked like Rome, represented by the Papal Delegate, Archbishop Satolli, favored the more liberal side. However, by the end of the 1890's, Rome decided in favor of the Conservatives.

The controversy left no one untouched including the liberal faculty of St. Joseph's Seminary in Yonkers. A liberal intellectual journal, The New York Review (1906-1909), was discontinued and most of the faculty was transferred. Among them was a very bright diocesan priest, Fr. Francis X. Duffy. He would later become famous as the chaplain of the fighting 69th Regiment in World War I.

These disputes were known to everyone because they were the headlines of all the newspapers of the time. I believe that these controversies had a direct impact on St. Mary's new church. It is my hypothesis-that Fr. Charles Corley designed the new church with the expressed intention of making it worthy to become the Cathedral Church of a new diocese.

It did not happen because of these great controversies raging within American Catholicism. When Fr. Charles Corley spoke at the Dedication Ceremonies of the new St. Mary's Church on November 13, 1892 he had to be justly proud of his achievements. As a young priest of 29, he had become pastor of a church that was in financial difficulty. The year before, the Christian Brothers had left St. Mary's School. When Fr. Corley arrived they asked him for their back pay.

In hindsight we can now see that when the young Corley arrived, Yonkers was about to enter a time of prosperity and growth. The new pastor, however, made all the right moves. He convinced the Christian Brothers to return in 1878, greatly enlarged the school in 1885, helped in the building of St. Joseph's Hospital and then built this large beautiful church.

He had only one other goal. His ambition now was no less than to make St. Mary's the Cathedral of a new diocese. Since there is only one Cathedral (cathedral: chair or seat of the ordinary) in each diocese, one can only assume that Fr. Corley would be the new Ordinary Bishop.

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Because the correspondence, diaries and architectural plans of the church have long since disappeared, it is impossible to conclusively prove this. However, although the evidence is circumstantial, I think a very good case can be made that this was indeed Fr. Corley's intention.

In 1890 it was known that Archbishop Corrigan wanted to create a new diocese to lessen his administrative duties. He was finally persuaded not to create one because, in the context of the controversies within American Catholicism at the time, a new diocese might be interpreted as a rebuke from Rome. In 1895, when he was finally given an auxiliary bishop, John Farley, to help with his growing archdiocese, the idea of a new diocese was abandoned. However, in the time frame when St. Mary's was being planned and built, Archbishop Corrigan had to be considering Yonkers and St. Mary's as a center for the new diocese.

Whether Corrigan spoke about this to Corley or Corley decided on his own to persuade Corrigan, Corley made certain decisions in the construction of the church that he hoped would promote St. Mary's as the new Cathedral.

One was the placing of the high pulpit on the right side of the church (then called the Epistle Side). Although this is not unusual in some countries, it is rare in the United States. The only other church with the pulpit originally on the right side in the Archdiocese of New York is St. Patrick's Cathedral.

The second is the selection of St. Augustine and St. Charles Borromeo to be placed alongside one another in the large stained glass windows in the northeast corner. They might seem out of place. However, we know from the Sisters of Charity that Charles Corley identified with Charles Borromeo. The mystery of the choice of St. Augustine is cleared up when we realize that Archbishop Michael Corrigan's middle name was Augustine. The emphasis in the painting of Augustine is not on his theologian's status but rather, clothed in elaborate robes, it is on his episcopacy. Might not these twin figures be Archbishop Corrigan and Bishop Corley of the new diocese?

An additional clue lies in the substructure of the church. There, amidst all the solid foundation stones, lie three brick rounded arches. They seem totally out of place until one realizes that they may have been intended to be the niches where the tombs of the future bishops were to be placed.

Finally, I think the choice of Romanesque was a statement that Corley was aligning himself with Corrigan and the other conservatives of the day against the liberals. Romanesque recalled the time when Catholicism not only rescued a destroyed Europe but built a new society. The massive ground-hugging stability sent a message that change and adaptation, if they were to come, should come slowly. If Corrigan was considering Corley for the episcopacy, his conservative credentials would be clear.

The argument is further advanced by the fact that the two leading conservative bishops of the day were present at the Dedication. Archbishop Corrigan as Ordinary would, of course, be expected to be there but why was Bishop McQuaid not only present but delivering the main sermon?

The only other well known Conservative not present was Msgr. Thomas Preston. He had died the year before. He certainly would have been there because St. Mary's was his first pastorate. A convert from Episcopalianism, he had come to St. Mary's in 1851, built the first rectory (now the Catholic Center) and the first one room schoolhouse. In 1853 he became Archbishop Hughes' secretary and then Vicar General under Cardinal McCloskey and Archbishop Corrigan. He was very unyielding in the fight against McGlynn and other liberal priests. The fact that he presided at the laying of the cornerstone of the new St. Mary's in 1890 clearly establishes that he kept in touch with St. Mary's.

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It must have been with mixed feelings that Archbishop Corrigan returned to St. Mary's on June 6, 1896 to celebrate Fr. Corley's 25th anniversary of his priesthood and to dedicate the magnificent new altar and tower clock. Amidst all the rejoicing, he and Fr. Corley now knew that there would be no new diocese, no Cathedral for St. Mary's and no Bishop Corley.

If he could have looked into the future, it would have been some consolation for Fr. Corley to know that his young associate at the time, Fr. Thomas Cusack, would become a lifelong friend and achieve the position that had eluded him. When Msgr. Charles Corley died in the rectory in 1914, Bishop Thomas Cusack was at his bedside.

Newspapers reported that his funeral cortege was the largest in the history of Yonkers.

18. The Ministry of Sisters of Charity

The Sisters of Charity taught at St. Mary’s School from 1857 to its closing in 2011. From 1857 to 1899, while teaching in the school, they resided at Mt. St Vincent or St. Aloysius Academy for Boys (located where St. Joseph’s Hospital now stands). When the priests moved into the new rectory in 1899, the Sisters renovated the building to accommodate twelve sisters (Census of 1900). They enlarged the building in 1914. Some Sisters lived in the convent but worked in St. Joseph’s Hospital. The convent closed in 2004.

One way to comprehend the contribution of these nuns is to list their names and years of service. As I reflect on the large numbers at St. Mary’s, I realize what a tremendous debt of gratitude that our parish and the American Catholic Church owe to these women. They taught and governed schools, hospitals, orphanages, etc., at a time when our Catholic people might have been overwhelmed and fractured by forces beyond their control. We live now in a different world. Religious orders no longer attract the numbers that they once did nor probably will they ever again. But for the time period in which these nuns taught and lived in our parish, they were magnificent. We should never forget then.

Listed below are the names and years of service of the Sisters of Charity who taught in our school or lived in the convent.

Sister who lived / worked at St. Mary's

1 Sister Mary Vincenza Allen 1922 -1925 2 Sister Maria Anne Alles (Patricia) 1974-1977 3 Sister Mary Angelica Barrington ** 1871-1878 4 Sister Mary Benedict 1995-1996

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5 Sister Maria Monica Brady 1889-1892 6 Sister Marita Agatha Brennan 1958-1959 7 Sister Mary Bibianna Byrne 1889-1913 8 Sister Mariam Elizabeth Canty 1916-1924 9 Sister Teresa Angela Carberry 1874-1876 10 Sister Mary Gonzaga Carmody 1881-1887 11 Sister Mary Leonora Casey No Dates 12 Sister Mary Alice Cassidy 1898-1903 13 Sister Mary Chrysostom Clancy ** 1857-1865 14 Sister Mary Brogis Clarry 1880-1881 15 Sister Mary Alpheus Coffey 1881-1883 16 Sister Loretta Mary Coffey 1962-1964 17 Sister Lucy Agnes Colby 1872-1873 18 Sister Catherine Carmita Condon 1959-1969 19 Sister Mary Anita Connolly 1904-1927 20 Sister Mary Leonilla Conway 1894-1895 21 Sister Cecilia Agnes Creighton 1883-1884 22 Sister Mary Myra Cross ** 1921-1928 23 Sister Miriam Annina Crowe 1911-1913 24 Sister Mary Colette Courtney (Theresa) 1959-1960 25 Sister Marian Ann Coyle ** 1976-1982 26 Sister Mary Martina Curran 1875-1877 27 Sister Louise Carmela Daly ** 1933-1935 28 Sister Xavier Mary Dawson ** 1935-1940 29 Sister Mary Almida Dempsey 1878-1881 30 Sister Mary Blanche Devlin 1868-1869 31 Sister Maria Eileen Dickenson 1959-1962 32 Sister Rose Felix Dixon 1925-1936 33 Sister Donna Dodge 1974-1976 34 Sister Marie Noeline Dooley' 1900-1906 35 Sister Rose Maureen Dormer 1970-1973 36 Sister Mary Euphemia Dougherty 1869- 37 Sister Louise Rosaire Doyle 1897-1899 38 Sister Anastasia Marie Doyle ** 1958-1959 39 Sister Regina Magdalen Eastwood 1895-1900 40 Sister Mary Anncilla Egan 1958-1961 41 Sister Maria Priscilla Egan 1933-1940 42 Sister Ann Marie Falloon 1982-1986 43 Sister Rose Loreto Finn 1966-1967 44 Sister Agnes Loyola Fitzgerald ** 1899-1911 45 Sister Loretta Margaret Fitzsimmons 1914-1920 46 Sister Winifred Flood 1945-1954 47 Sister Rrita Winifred Ford 1894-1930

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48 Sister Vincent Dolores Fosket 1932-1939 49 Sister Marie Agatha Gfearon 1968-1971 50 Sister Mary Roberta Geary 1872-1874 51 Sister Florence Miriam Gilloon 1927-1931 52 Sister Linda Giuli 1970-1977 53 Sister Stella Joseph Glaeser 1918-1930 54 Sister Mary Emeline Goggins 1923-1932 55 Sister Regina Catherine Gorga 1941-1942 56 Sister Agnes Gonzaga Grady 1875-1877 57 Sister Mary Louisita Grant 1873-1875 58 Sister Kahleen Gregg 1995-1997 59 Sister Mariana John Griffin 1967-1968 60 Sister Mary Eleanora Halloran 1970-1971 61 Sister Laboure Hart 1973-1977 62 Sister Carmela Vincent Harnett 1900-1926 63 Sister Vincent Miriam Healy 1936-1938 64 Sister Joseph Clare Hodgkinson ????-1916 65 Sister Marie Raymond Hogan 1931-1932 66 Sister Mary Serene Hogan 1885-1890 67 Sister Miriam Leonard Howeiler ** 1937-1943 1963 -1972 ** 68 Sister Loretto Josephine Hoy 1916-1921 69 Sister Cornelius Marie Hoynes 1954-1955 70 Sister Mary Henrietta Humphrey 1913-1916 71 Sister Margaret Mary Alacoque Johnson 1921-1923 72 Sister Agnes Marilda Kane ** 1895-1896 73 Sister Narua Barbara Kane 1958-1962 74 Sister Edwardine Kane 1925-1932 75 Sister Mary Angela Keating ** 1889-1890 76 Sister Staniaus Marie Kelly 1898-1901 77 Sister Teresa Kelly (Marilda John) 1962-1966 78 Sister Liguori Kelly 1891-1923 79 Sister Mary Winifred Kenney 1857-1868 80 Sister Francis Genevieve Kenny 1931-1936 81 Sister Mary Stella Kenny 1869-1870 82 Sister Genevieve Mary Keresy 1911-1919 83 Sister Maureen Charles Knox 1957-1964 Left 84 Sister Francis Mercedes Konowski 1940-1945 85 Sister Antonio Concepta Kraus 1900-1928 86 Sister Ann Marie Lagan ** 1978-1996 87 Sister Mary Louisita Langton 1972-1977 88 Sister Miriam Celestine Larkin 1903-1904 89 Sister Anna Marian Lascell 1954-1956 90 Sister Maria Angela Layden 1946-1947

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91 Sister Mary Albert Lilly 1941-1946 1958-1959 92 Sister Muriiel Long 1989-1998 93 Sister Theresa D. Luciano 1971-1976 1989 -1991 94 Sister Miriam Alice Lynch 1947-1959 95 Sister Mary Theodora Lynch 1921-1922 96 Sister Mary Germana Lynch 1881-1888 97 Sister Winifrey Lyons ** 1982-1985 98 Sister Loretta Stephen McBride 1942-1958 99 Sister Agnes Stanislaus McCarthy 1928-1929 100 Sister Maria Frances McCarville 1907-1911 101 Sister Agnes Clotilde McCauley 1885-1888 102 Sister Mary Benita McCool 1869-1870 103 Sister Mary Frederica McDonald 1874-1881 104 Sister Vincent Dolorita McFadden 1932-1959 105 Sister Mary Esperanza Mclnerney 1881-1889 106 Sister Maria Magdalena McKenna 1894-1899 107 Sister Maria MagdalenMckenna 1902-1913 108 Sister Agnes Bernard McKeon 1985-1931 109 Sister Nancy McNamara 1971-1977 110 Sister Mary Ellen McNamee 1875-1877 111 Sister Maria Rosealba McNeil 1899-1901 112 Sister Martha Vincent McQuaid 1885-1902 113 Sister Gabriel Maria McWilliams 1909-1911 114 Sister Marietta Joseph Mackin 1997-2001 115 Sister Maureen Margaret Mackin 1951-1952 116 Sister Martha Magdalen Magee 1893-1898 117 Sister Regina Frances Maher (Eileen) 1936-1941 118 Sister Mary Irmina Mahon 1917-1920 119 Sister Mary Arsenia Manning 1884-1888 120 Sister Maureen Ann Martin 1956-1957 121 Sister Marie Graziella Masterson ** 1920-1921 122 Sister Mary Constance Mayer ** 1946-1947 1959 -1963 123 Sister Mary Vivina Meehan 1890-1895 124 Sister Mary Isadore Miller 1896-1897 125 Sister Marie Albert Molony (Veronica) 1943-1950 126 Sister Mary Euphrasia Mulcahy 1931-1936 127 Sister Ann Dolores Mulvey 1966-1994 128 Sister Mona Mulvy 1933-1940 129 Sister Loretta Cecilia Murphy 1931-1936 130 Sister Margaret Mary Murphy 1961-1963 131 Sister Mary Luke Murray 1960-1961 132 Sister Mary Stella Murray 1917-1918 133 Sister Mary Adolphus Nanry ** 1890-1899

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134 Sister Ann Cecilia Nealis ** 1865-1871 135 Sister Mary Eugenia Nelligan 1870-1875 136 Sister Marita Paul Neylan ** 1952-1958 137 Sister Mary Anne O'Brien 1936-1947 138 Sister Corona Rosita O'Connell 1906-1929 139 Sister Mary Aquila O'Connor 1885-1888 140 Sister Elizabeth Mary O'Connor 1947-1954 141 Sister Siste Mary Leonora O'Connor 1937-1960 142 Sister Miriam Patrick O'Connor (Theresa) 1963-1966 143 Sister Rose Francis O'Gara 1892-1893 144 Sister Agnes Francis O'Hara 1927-1931 145 Sister Mary Clare O'Neill 1952-1955 146 Sister Mary Augusta O'Toole 1952-1963 147 Sister Paul Miriam Owen (Ethel) 1945-1951 148 Sister Mary Evariloda Quigley 1868-1872 149 Sister Mary Leonia Quinlan 1899-1908 1915 -1916 150 Sister Mary Redempta Quinlan 1931-1933 151 Sister Marie Cecile Quinn 1893-1895 152 Sister Margare Maria Rafter ** 1928-1932 153 Sister Maria Rhoda Reed 1964-2002 154 Sister Ignatius Rosaire Regan 1928-1930 155 Sister Mary Maurice Reilly 1866-1871 156 Sister Winifred Reilly 1974-1976 157 Sister Christopher Maria Reynolds 1956-1958 158 Sister Maria Stephen Richardson 1930-1933 1956 -1958 159 Sister Marie Syra Rooney 1929-1945 160 Sister Mary Richard Rowley 1947-1956 161 Sister Marie Laura Ruckel 1978-2000 162 Sister Carmela Mercedes Ruskarmf 1911-1912 163 Sister Miriam de Sales 1912-1917 1946 -1952 ** 164 Sister Corona Rosaire Scales 1961-1967 165 Sister Genevieve Mary Scalfani 1934-1938 166 Sister Maria Cornelius Schuck 1961-1967 167 Sister Mary Bennett Shanley 1923-1931 168 Sister Mary Josita Sharkey 1868-1870 169 Sister Margaret Carmita Sheehan 1903-1907 170 Sister Loretta Regina Sheridan 1913-1914 171 Sister Gertrude Slevin 1930-1932 172 Sister Mary Adele Smith 1935-1942 173 Sister Carmita Vincent Smyth 1914-1918 174 Sister Marie Louise Spillane 1937-1938 175 Sister Marie Xavier St. Clair 1891-1892 176 Sister Mary Gaudentia Sullivan 1888-1890

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177 Sister Maria John Sullivan 1942-1946 178 Sister Mary Kathleen Sullivan 1964-1972 179 Sister Patrick Regina Sullivan 1946-1954 180 Sister Mary Ambrosia Sweeney 1861-1862 181 Sister Ann Aloysia Tierney 1887-1891 182 Sister Regina Mercedes Tierney 1899-1900 183 Sister Teresa Stella Tolster 1908-1909 184 Sister Mary Anilda Turner 1918-1924 185 Sister Mary Baptista Verden 1881-1883 186 Sister Joseph Aloysia Wallace 1908-1910 187 Sister Ann Marie Walsh 1976-2001 188 Sister Catherine Walsh 1987-2000 189 Sister Regina de Paul Watkins 1928-1934 1950 -1952 190 Sister Mary Jude Watson 1950-1956 191 Sister William Marie Whalen (Margaret) 1941-1946 192 Sister Maria Magdalena White ** 1878-1889 193 Sister Mary Angela Woods 1883-1890 194 Sister Gertrude Maureen Zagarella 1967-1970

19. Pastorate of Fr. Charles Murphy 1914-1933

How do you write a history with almost no documents? Whatever documents might have existed have disappeared. One gets the impression that someone without any sense of history got annoyed with all the papers and threw them all out. We don't even have the architectural plans for the new church. The biography of Fr. Murphy, included in the journal celebrating the 150th anniversary of the church in 1948, consists of three sentences-even though his pastorate was nineteen years. "He improved the old Church building, now used as an auditorium, by putting on a new front and adding a small hall and three small meeting rooms. He also had the Church redecorated and painted for the first time since it was built. He died, after an illness of several months, in October 1933"

Those nineteen years included two Popes (Benedict XV 1914-1923, Pius IX 1922-1939), two Archbishops of New York (John Cardinal Farley 1902-1918, Patrick Cardinal Hayes 1922-1939),World War I (1914-¬1918), Influenza which claimed 20 million lives worldwide (1918) Woman's suffrage (1920), Prohibition (1920-1933), Irish Independence (1922), Al Smith's attempt to become the first Catholic President of the United States (1928) and the Great Depression (1929- 193?)

His obituary in the Catholic News tells us that he died at the age of sixty-six, on September 26, 1933. He was born in New York City of Irish parents on June 6, 1867. He attended Fordham University. After one year in law school he decided to become a priest. He entered St. Joseph's Seminary, then located in Troy, N.Y. and was ordained a priest by Bishop Gabriele in the Cathedral of Albany on June 251892. His first assignment was as assistant at Blessed Sacrament on W. 72 St in Manhattan where he served for sixteen years. In 1908 he became pastor of St. John's in Goshen. On November of 1914 he became a "permanent rector" of our parish. He had a younger brother, John, who was also a priest who eventually became pastor of St. Bernard's in White Plains. In the eulogy at his funeral Mass he was described as "a modest and retiring man."

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There are only two historical documents on file in our archives. A third document is from the Archives of the Archdiocese of New York.

1. Baptism Records of St. Mary's Baptisms records show that the ethnic makeup of the parish was beginning to change, but not drastically. Irish surnames declined from 95% to 80% Irish during Fr. Murphy's pastorate. This reflected the tremendous ncrease in the population of Yonkers, especially of immigrants from Eastern Europe and Italy. The population of Yonkers was estimated to be 75,000 in 1917 and 100,000 in 1923.The Irish were moving on "to the suburbs of Yonkers to be replaced” in the territory of the parish of St. Mary's by Eastern and Southern European esp. Jews, Italians, Polish, Slovaks, Ukrainians, Russians, and Hungarians and Lithuanians. Many of the Catholic ethnic groups used St. Mary's Chapel until they created their own churches. Some who lived near St. Mary's became lifelong parishioners. St. Mary's School was oftentimes the great attraction. 2. An official certificate verifying that "the Parish of the Immaculate Conception contributed $28,000 to the New York Catholic War fund Campaign conducted in the Archdiocese of New York, March 17 to 25, 1918". World War I was a horrible and probably unnecessary war. The total number of casualties on both sides was ten million. The Allies listed six million dead. It settled very little. But America emerged as a world power. The war began in September of 1914 and hostilities ended on November 11, 1918. The entry of the United States in 1917 turned the tide of war but at a terrible price. 116, 516 Americans died- half in battle -half by disease. 204,002 were wounded. In the battle of the Argonne Forest in the fall of 1918, 26,277 Americans died.

The mobilization by the United States was amazing. 4,272, 521 persons were drafted or enlisted. Over 2,000,000 were transported across the Atlantic Ocean. The United States amazed the world with its ability to produce men and machines. As the Japanese would remark twenty three years later: "We have awakened a sleeping giant."

In Yonkers it is estimated that almost 7,000 men and women of Yonkers served in one capacity or other. The population of Yonkers was 75,000 at the beginning of the war. 50% of the population was estimated as Catholics. The war memorial at the foot of City Hall on South Broadway lists almost 200 Yonkers residents who died during the war. There were many other casualties who came home suffering, especially from the effects of poisonous mustard gas.

Some churches kept exact figures. St Joseph's Catholic Church reported that 450 men had been in the military service, 15 had died and six received wounds. Our pastor, Charles Murphy, as seems to be his custom, kept no records He was quoted as saying: "We kept no record of our various activities during the war. We just jumped in and did our best and forgot about it."

Fortunately we have records from the Crescent Club of Yonkers. The Crescent Club was originally organized from the membership of St. Mary's Parochial School by Brother Augustus who was the Christian Brother principal of the Boys School. At the outbreak of the war, there were 143 members of which 122 "joined the colors." During the war years the club was maintained by its Ladies Auxiliary. The records show that two members died in the war, one of gas and the other of influenza. Seven were casualties - usually from gas. One lost his hearing from the explosion of the bombs. Eight men received medals.

The Catholic Church became very involved in fundraising for the soldiers. A Catholic War Fund Drive" to improve conditions in military camps in the United States and in overseas service for the benefit of soldiers and sailors of all creeds was held in March of 1918." The quota for Yonkers was $82,800. The quota for each parish was listed in the newspapers: St. Mary's: $17,500; St. Joseph's: $15,000; Sacred Heart, Monastery: $9,000; Holy Eucharist: $7,000; St. Denis: $6,500, Our Lady of the Rosary $5,500; St. Peter's: $5,000; St Casmir’s : $5,000; St. Bartholomew’s :3,000; Most Holy Trinity:

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$2,500; St. Anthony's: $2,.000; Our Lady of Mt Carme: $1,500:; St. Nicholas of Myra:$1,500;St.John the Baptist: $1,000, St. Michael's: $800.

The actual total raised by St. Mary's was $22,800 the equivalent in dollars today is $377,000.. It is an extraordinary amount of money for St. Mary's. Part may be explained by the fact that perhaps 25% or more of the total sum was donated by non- Catholic. Many of these donors had businesses in and around Getty Square - which were included in the territorial boundaries of parish of St. Mary's. The results throughout New York State were also astonishing. The goal set was $2,500,000. The amount raised was $4,862,424. Part of the key to its success was this was the fact that this was the first really professional fundraising drive by the Catholic Church. Index lists of parishioners were provided by every pastor and volunteers were sent to each residence soliciting funds. It was also a way of countering the accusations of anti-Catholic organizations that the Irish would not fight to defend England and the Germans would not fight against their own people.

3. A letter to the Chancery Office from Fr. Murphy (found in a footnote in Fr. Shelley's wonderful history of the Slovaks Catholics in Yonkers.) Charles Murphy to Thomas Carroll, the diocesan Chancellor of the Archdiocese of New York (August 16, 1929.) The Chancellor had asked on what authority he had designated such generous territorial boundaries for his parish.

Fr. Murphy replied: "I have no authority other than what fairness would dictate. I honestly tried, when appointed here, of making inquiries of the diocesan authorities to find out what the exact limits were. No information was afforded me other than a general statement that there were no limits in Yonkers....My neighbors, were, however, more helpful in the matter than the diocesan authorities. They gave me limits with a vengeance- limits which would reduce St. Mary's to about five hundred adults. As I could not accept their ridiculous claims, when the "Status Animarum Report" called for parish limits, I was forced to give limits such as included the bulk of people of the people regularly attending Sunday Mass."

"His neighbors" were pastors of nearby parishes. Territorial boundaries of parishes were (and to some extent still are) very important. You could not choose your own parish. You had to go to the parish whose geographical boundaries included where you lived. The only exceptions were "national parishes" which were set up to accommodate people who could not speak English e.g. St. Casmir (Polish), Most Holy Trinity (Slavic), Mt Carmel(Italian) etc. In 1920 in Yonkers there were eight territorial parishes and seven national parishes. National parishes presented their own difficulties as Fr. Shelley's book demonstrates.

The main source of the dispute was over the creation of the parish of Holy Eucharist, a territorial parish set up at the foot of Nodine Hill just a few blocks east of St. Mary's. It siphoned off many of the parishioners of St. Mary’s. Fr. Murphy's boundaries extended the territory of his parish by at least two blocks on the east, south and north. In this regard I am in complete sympathy with Fr. Murphy. When I became pastor in 1987 I couldn't believe how small the boundaries of St. Mary’s are e.g. St. Peter's is two and half times the size of our parish. Fr. Murphy did not win this battle. How necessary was the creation of Holy Eucharist parish? The answer may be in the fact that the parish ceased to exist in the 1950's. The population of Yonkers was booming when the parish of Holy Eucharist was created. it was easy to overestimate future numbers. Federal anti- immigration laws were passed in the mid 1920's that would greatly limit the number of Catholics from eastern and southern Europe.

A foot note. If Fr. Murphy "feisty" (Fr. Shelley's word) letter to the authorities is any indication of his temperament there may have been good reasons to destroy any other writings. I am beginning to like Fr. Murphy.

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20. Christian Brothers at St. Mary’s School : 1871-1968

The De La Salle Christian Brothers came to the United States in 1845 from France. In the 1861, Brother Clementian, with three assistants, became the Principal of the Boys Department of the new St. Mary’s School. The new school building consisted of two main floors, an attic and a basement. The residence of the Brothers was in the attic. There were 135 girls and 150 boys. The Brothers taught the boys in the upper grades (fifth to eight). The Sisters of Charity and lay teachers taught the girls and the younger boys in lower grades. We have no photos before the 1880’s. There are no photos of the Sisters of Charity because their rules of the Order prohibited it.

The first photo in our archives was taken in 1887. The boys were older than today’s eighth graders. Section 1 of the class of 1887 probably took advanced course preparing them for “college.” Our present division of eighth years of elementary school, four of high school and four years of college had not yet been mandated by the State of New York. Francis X. Donoghue, the youngest son of one of the lay founders of the parish, was born 1856 and was one of the first students in the Boys School. After graduation he attended the Jesuit’s Francis Xavier College on 15th St in Manhattan. Xavier College was the early favorite of these advanced boys because the first pastor of St. Mary’s, John Ryan S.J. was its President. It also was easily accessible because of the new railroad along the Hudson River. After graduating from Xavier in 1875 he studied law in a law office in Manhattan and was admitted to practice in 1878. He became the first Catholic City Judge in Yonkers in 1892. He remained in public office for many years. He was a prominent member of the St. Mary’s Alumni Association whose members were influential in the political life of Yonkers.

Enrollment in the school shows the financial difficulties of the parents of the students. There were as many as a hundred students in the first year but often less than fifteen graduating. Students, especially the girls left after the sixth grade to work in the carpet, hat and silk factories in Yonkers to help support their families.

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By the 1880’s the school was filled to capacity. In 1882 there were 370 girls for a total of 683. Fr. Corley, pastor (1877-1914), wanted to build a new school on the former property of Aaron Vark. Now owned by Sisters of Charity. When their boarding school for boys, St Aloysius Academy. Located on the same land, burnt down on New Year’s Day in 1887, the Sisters decided to use the property for a hospital, St. Joseph’s. Revising his plans, Fr Corley greatly enlarged and renovated the old school. It gircould now accommodate over a thousand students. The Brothers eventually moved into their own building in 1901 just to the west of the former church, now the Parish Hall. Below is a photo of this new school. It is taken many years later but it is the only we have of the entire building. The photo shows the new church build in 1892.

We do not have the names of all the Christian Brothers who taught at St. Mary’s but we do have the names of the principals. Their term of office was usually three years but some stayed only a year. Brother Augutus Pius, pictured in the photo, was the exception. He was principal for fifteen years (1899-1914). It was said of him that he was the backbone of the school and the Church. As Msgr. Charles Corley’s plan for creating Immaculate / St. Mary’s a Cathedral of a new diocese faded, so did the prominence of the parish. He suffered a minor stroke at the beginning of the century and was never quite the same. The parishes of St. Joseph (1871), and Sacred Heart (1991) seen to have the energy and vitality that once was St. Mary’s – except for the school. It thrived during this time.

The photo reveals a pivotal year, 1914. Msgr. Charles Corley, after thirty seven years as pastor, would be dead in a few months. St Mary’s convent was enlarged. World War I was about to start. Fr. Augustus, after fifteen years as principal, was leaving. The world was changing. But, thanks to Brother Augustus, the school was ready for the challengers ahead.

Fr. Murphy has been pastor since 1914. Brother Clementian of Jesus is principal. “Clementan seems to be a popular name. Three of our principals have taken this name (in honor of the first principal?). The other two brothers in the photo are Brother Ivan Ibar and Brother Ambrose of Mary who taught the two eighth grade classes. One had 25 students, the other had 22. But there are over 70 students in the photo. Some students seem much older than others. Was there a ninth grade? Or a number of students who needed another year to pass the final exams? At one time the principal taught a class – now its is recorded he doesn’t. Did these older boys get the principal’s attention? The records of the school state that there were three other classes. A seventh grade class of 51 taught by Brother Ambrose. A sixth grade class of 50 taught by Brother Amedy John and a fifth grade class of 57, taught by Brother Bernard John.

One of the earlier job description for a Brother is “cuisinier.” What is that? I just looked it up on the internet. It is French for a male chef or cook. Eventually they had a layperson doing the cooking. We even have a photo of one of these cooks whose name was Mrs. Minnie O’Leary.

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Parents throughout Yonkers sent their boys to St. Mary’s because the Brothers gave them discipline, a good education and plenty of sports to absorb their energies. Here is a list of the winners of the Yonkers CYO Schoolboy Race from 1908 to 1972.

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1948 was the 100th anniversary of the parish of the Immaculate Conception / St. Mary’s. Among the many special activities was a visit by leaders of the Christian Brothers (Pictured here). Fr. Avard is now the pastor (1936-1953). The Catholic Church was enjoying its triumphal years. She had carved out her own separate world of schools, hospitals, social activities, athletics, etc. Even Hollywood was glorifying this Catholic world. Of the many movies of this era about Catholics, (“Boystown”, “Song of Bernadette”. “Joan of Arc”. “Going my Way”.) None was more popular than “The Bells of St. Mary’s, starring Bing Crosby as the parish priest and Ingrid Bergman as the nun. You can imagine how the students of St. Mary are identified with this movie. The theme song in the movie became the anthem of their school and parish. Even today the “Bells of St. Mary’s” is played at the end of the funeral Mass for all the former graduates of the school and any parishioner whose family requests it.

I chose these next two photos because they show the joy and confidence of the Christian Brothers in the 1950’s. They reflected the mood of the Catholic Church. During the 1950’s the Catholic population grew by 44% while the number of children in the parochial schools grew by 66%. In 1950 the number of priests was 43,000. Although I don’t have the exact figures for the Christian Brothers, I am sure their numbers were as high. The De La Salle Brothers taught in the high school of my home parish in the Bronx, St. Nicholas of Tolentine. My best friend, Tommy Reilly, entered the Novitiate in Barry town N.Y. after the eighth grade. I decided to become a priest and entered Cathedral College. My freshman high school class at Cathedral College in 1953 numbered 116.

Looking back I just remembered that the Brothers, whose residence was beside my apartment building on Andrew Ave., got me to help out in their garden. Is that where my love of Gardens began?

For the first time we have an official photo of the sisters of Charity with the Christian Brothers and other members of the staff at the school. Included are the parish assistants, Fr. Doyle and Pucci, and the pastor, Msgr. Fitzgerald. Msgr. Richard M. Fitzgeralde became pastor in 1953 and would retire in 1967. He had ambitious plans for a new school. Little did anyone realize that by the time the new school was built the Christian Brothers would withdraw from the School.

The official reason was the dwindling number of Christian Brothers. It was a valid reason. Vocations were not as numerous as before and there was steady stream of Brothers leaving the order.

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That still doesn’t explain why St. Mary’s Boys School, founded in 1861, and about to build a new school building, was chosen. I think it had something to do with the tense relationship between the Brothers and Msgr. Fitzgerald. Our photo shows the last graduating class under the Christian Brothers. Brother Robert McCann was the last principal. He tried to persuade his superiors to reverse their position but it was too late.

Included is a photo showing the shock and anger of the parents to the withdrawal of the Brothers.

The school continued under the leadership of the Sisters of Charity for the next twenty-eight years.

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21. The Depression Years: Pastorate of Fr. John Dyer

The Great Depression began with the stock market crash on "Black Tuesday" in October, 1929. It lasted until the end of the 1930's and had a profound effect on the American people. In !933 newly elected President Franklin Roosevelt began the New Deal which had lasting consequences for the people of Yonkers, not least of which were Social Security, Federal and State subsidized public housing projects and Labor's right to organize. The radio became an essential part of every home.

A month after the death of Fr. Murphy, Fr. John Dyer was named pastor on Nov.23, 1933. He had been ordained in St. Patrick's Cathedral in 1901 and was pastor of St. John Evangelist in Pawling since 1919. He served at St. Mary's for less than three years. Citing illness as the cause, he voluntarily resigned as pastor in the summer of 1936. He returned to his previous assignment in Pauling and remained there until his death in 1951 at the age of seventy five. It may not be fair to speculate but the burden of administrating a large parish in Yonkers in the middle of the Depression was probably too much for him.

What did he have to face? Decrease in Baptisms: 139 in 1929, 72 in 1933. Church door collections: $12, 090 in 1923, $ 7,870 in 1934. Church savings in Yonkers banks lost 70%of their value. The school was in need of repair. The population in Yonkers increased only 5.9%in the 1930's after decades of significant growth. 1910-1910: 66.5% 1910 -1920: 25% 1920- 1930: 34%.

Newspapers reported the following statistic s in September of 1932. 20%of the population needed public aid. 5,340 families were on the charity rolls. Dependent on City Charity 4,200 families; Receiving aid from Catholic Charities (Minnie Costello was the county agent at the time: 125 families, Salvation Army: 325, Jewish Relief: 50. Homeless in the Armory North Broadway: 90 men. The number of people waiting on line to receive food supplies at the supply station at Washington Stand Jefferson St. was so great in 1934 that the station was moved to a larger facility: a warehouse at the National Sugar Refining Company at 45 Buena Vista. Ave.

Despite all this Fr. Dyer managed to find enough resources to install steel staircases and concrete floors in the school, making the school fireproof. He may have had no choice- there was a fire in the school in 1934.The church and rectory were also rewired. Again he may have had no choice after witnessing a horrific explosion in February of 1934 that was caused by faulty electrical wiring in front of the Proctor's Theatre at South Broadway and Prospect. Patrick Whalen, a motorcycle policeman and Michael Gruber, a taxicab driver, were both killed trying to rescue a trapped girl.

He also witnessed the end of Prohibition in 1933 that had made Yonkers famous with its many attempts to escape the law. One of today's parishioners, Vincent Nowak. Remembers his grandmother brewing her own beer and selling it from her home. The best true story was the system of hoses that followed besides the sewer system of Yonkers. The local State Cereal and Beverage Company was a front for the Underhill's Brewery. The Brewery made real but illegal beer at night and delivered its products through this underground system to various collection points throughout the city.

The pattern of parish life continued on. Sunday Masses were celebrated at 7,8,9,10,11 (High Mass) and 12:15. Pew rents were still collected quarterly. Families could reserve the same places in the pew for a particular Mass. Prices ranged depending on the popularity of the Mass All our pews in church today still have numbers, reminding us of our past.. Marriages could be arranged three weeks in advance. Baptisms were every Sunday at 4 pm and on Wednesday at 7 pm. Graves for the cemetery could be purchased at the sexton's residence at 16 St. Mary's St. There were ten church societies who met at least once a month. Together they also sponsored a Minstrel Show and Dance on October 31 and November 1, 1935 in the Parish Hall. The Dramatic Guild of St. Mary's Junior League presented a Three Act Farce Entitled "Stop Thief" on June 7, 1935. In addition to these St. Mary's School used the Hall for their own productions and athletic events. The church and its many activities were a source of great comfort and enjoyment during these Depression years.

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22. Pastorate of Arthur Avard: 1936-1952

On July 18, 1936 Fr. Arthur Avard was assigned to St. Mary's by Cardinal Hayes. He had been pastor of St. Catherine's in Blauvelt for ten and a half years. He brought to our church in Yonkers a welcome burst of enthusiasm and energy. At the 100th anniversary of the parish in 1948 it was written of him in the Anniversary Journal that he wanted to be remembered for invigorating the spiritual life of the parish. "He has encouraged the frequent reception of the Sacraments of Penance and Holy Eucharist. A Holy Hour is conducted each week as well as services in honor of Our Blessed Mother and St. Joseph. The Confraternity of Our Lady of Lourdes and the Legion of Mary have been established in the parish and the previously established groups like the Children of Mary, the Holy Name Society- Senior and Junior, the Sacred Heart Sodality have been continued and encouraged." He had a special devotion to Our Lady of Lourdes and it was he who erected the grotto in her honor in the church.

One of his first major projects was cleaning up and organizing St. Mary's Cemetery (established in 1855).He had experience with cemeteries in his previous assignment. He put the cemetery on the "lawn plan" and appointed Fr. McGrath, his assistant priest, to do the important preliminary work of map drawing and record checking. This was not an easy task because many owners of graves did not want their barrier railings and vigil candles removed. They were finally removed during World War II when the metal railings (seven tons) were donated as scrap metal for the war effort. The blackouts (aIl lights out at night) forced the removal of the vigil lights.

The great project which took many years was the channeling of the Sprain Brook that flows through the cemetery. Even today architects marvel at the stone work that created this channel and the three stone bridges across it. Probably workers employed by the W.P.A during the Depression years were used at the beginning of the project but most of the work was completed under the supervision of Mr. Lotzy Proft. Thanks to Babara Macy we have some wonderful photos of Mr. Proft and his crew at work in the cemetery. In 1946 a parcel of land, one and a half acres, across Sprain Road, was purchased. The first burial in this" New Section" was made in August, 1946. In 1952 Msgr. Avard was also involved in preliminary negotiations with New York State on how to use part of the cemetery for a new State Thruway.

Once World War II began in 1941, Yonkers and St. Mary's were fully involved in the war effort. Two of the assistant priests Frs. McGrath (twenty two years at S. Mary's) and Lawrence Gough ( three and half years) became Army chaplains. Fr. Gough was killed in a plane accident on September 11, 1942 at a training field in the United States. Fr. McGrath returned safely home after the war and became pastor of the Church of the Sacred Heart of Mary in Croton on the Hudson.

It is estimated that 20,000 of Yonkers residents served in the military during World War II. 532 died. Many of Yonkers’s manufacturing plants were transformed to serve the war effort. The Alexander Smith and Sons Carpet Factory (which sometimes employed 5,000 people) made blankets. Otis elevator manufactured munitions. In July of 1943 there was a huge explosion near this factory. Habirshaw Cable and Wire factory was involved in a secret work, called Operation Pluto that manufactured in record time the pipeline under the English Channel. This was used to transport fuel for the Normandy Invasion. Masses and Novenas e.g. Cross and Flag Novena were often said for the soldiers and their families. Names were placed on flags and placed in the Grotto of Our Lady of Lourdes 700 employees of the Habirshaw factory attended Sunday Mass in honor of fellow employees in the Armed Forces and "those who made the supreme sacrifice." Many married women worked in these factories during the war years. This experience proved to be a turning point for the changing role of women in our society.

Post World War II were great years for St. Mary's. Marriages and Baptisms rose dramatically. The Catholic Church, after years of discrimination, was celebrated by Hollywood in such films as the Bells of St. Mary's, the Song of Bernadette, Boys Town. Ordinations were sky high (40 to 50 each year). The high point for St. Mary's was the celebration of the 100th anniversary of the parish in 1948. Professional photographs of this celebration show the pageantry and confidence of the Catholic Church and St. Mary's. As a reward for his work, Fr. Avard was made a Monsignor at this celebration by Cardinal Spellman.

There is no doubt that Msgr. Avard was the driving force during these years at St. Mary's He was known also to have a temper. Cardinal O'Connor told me this story about Msgr. Avard.Fr. James Killeen was an assistant under Msgr. Avard for nine years (1942-1951.) After hearing confessions one evening the pastor lost his temper and yelled at Fr. Killen. Since this was not the first time this happened over the nine years, Fr. Killeen went out the two days later and signed up to be chaplain

History Of Our Church Page 41 in the U.S. Navy. At this time the Korean War was being fought (June 25, 1950-July 27, 1953). When Fr. Avard cooled down and apologized, it was too late. Fr. Killeen eventually became Chief of Chaplains where he met and mentored Fr. John O'Connor. Fr. Killen became a Bishop in 1976 but died two years later. Fr. John O'Connor succeeded him as the Chief of Chaplains in the U.S. Navy."So you see, Fr. Corrigan, I am where I am today because of the temper of Msgr. Avard."

In January of 1953 Msgr. Avard became pastor of his home parish, Blessed Sacrament on W.71th St in Manhattan. He died on Feb. 12, 1970 (one day after the feast of Our Lady of Lourdes) at the age of 87 and was buried, appropriately enough, in St. Mary's Cemetery

23. Pastorate of Rev. Msgr. Richard M. Fitzgerald (1953-1967)

Msgr. Richard M. Fitzgerald was born on May 23, 189 and was ordained to the priesthood on September 20, 1919. His first appointment was at St. Peter's Church in Monticello. In 1930 he was appointed to Holy Family in New Rochelle where he served for eleven years. In 1941 he became pastor of Church of the Good Shepherd in Rhinebeck. N.Y. He was appointed pastor of St. Mary's on January 29, 1953. He became a Right Rev. Monsignor in December of 1958.

Although there were weekly and monthly bulletins before his time (few were preserved), he began the weekly bulletin, "The Bells of St. Mary." which continues to the present day. These bulletins printed more information about the parish than previous bulletins. Most of these bulletins in the 1950's were preserved in our archives. After 1960 few were preserved.

To give you some idea about parish life during the 1950's, the following statistics show how busy the parish was. I will use the "1957 parish report."

Catholic population: 2,810 adults (this number might include 500 non practicing Catholics), 1,125 children. Baptisms: 236, Marriages: 57. Sick Calls: 288, Population of the school: 843.Religious education for public school students: 371.The priests were chaplains at St. Joseph's Hospital resulting in Confessions: 3,.171., Communions 52,681, Extreme Unction’s: 167, Baptisms:22. There were also ten candidates studying for the priesthood, two for the Christian Brothers and two for the Sisters of Charity.

Beside the pastor, there were three full time assistant they included at various times: Fr. Ed O'Donnell, Jim Doyle, Anthony Pucci, Benjamin Roth, John Breen, Christopher Kane and John Sullivan. They were moderators of the many parish societies of which two were most prominent: the Holy Name Society (there was also a Junior Holy Name) and the Ladies Auxiliary. As one member put it: The Ladies Auxiliary was the backbone of the parish, running card parties, dinners and cake sales to make money for the parish. They also went house to house collecting money for Catholic Charities. Other parish organizations that began during Fr. Fitzgerald's time were the Young Adults, the Ladies Skating Club and the Drama club which became the St. Mary's Stage Players. Dances were held on Saturday nights. Young men and women often met their future spouses at these gatherings.lt was, as many Catholic parishes were at that time, "a world unto itself."

Also residing in the rectory was Fr. John Harrington (1947-1961) who worked for Catholic Charities. His office was at 53 South Broadway in Getty Square. He began the outreach to the new Hispanic population. This ministry to the Hispanics was continued by Fr. Doyle. Fr. Harington also had an outreach program for those not attending Mass. He was especially proud of getting a local gang of youths called the "river rats" to come to church. Fr. Fitzgerald began the weekly envelope system. He eliminated pew rents but did not remove the designated numbers attached to each pew( they are still there today). He completely overhauled the organ He greatly improved the rectory, installed an elevator 1956, and built a new garage He was quoted as saying: "This was the priests' home and they should

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have the best because they devoted their lives to the church" He was considered a talented man, writing poetry, taping books for the blind, playing the organ. He also liked to travel returning with art objects for the church and rectory. The four evangelists that today surround the high pulpit were brought back from one of his travels. He also liked to control things. I doubt that his assistants were consulted when he installed a communication system that relayed their homilies to a speaker installed in his room. A Sunday Dialogue Mass at 10:00 a.m. began in 1955. Responses by the laity were in Latin. lt did not seem too popular at the time but it was good preparation for the more extensive liturgical changes in 1966. The 12:05 Mass was added in 1960. With the change in fasting before receiving Holy Communion (mow three hours before instead of from midnight) attendance at this Mass now numbered 300.

Services in Spanish were celebrated in the chapel by Msgr. Harrington on Saturdays. He was succeeded by Fr. Puebla, a priest from Spain, who offered Mass in Spanish in the chapel on Sundays. On Oct. 12, 1957, the bulletin included, in Spanish, information about classes to learn English These were held at the parish's "Catholic Information" (once called "Lourdes Library" by Fr. Avard) on 169 South Broadway.

The Annual Yonkers St. Patrick's Day Parade began again on March 11, 1956. The Yonkers parade, which began at St. Mary's in 1863, had ended fifty years earlier when organizers choose to march in the much larger New York City Parade. The parade began with Mass at St. Mary's. The reviewing stand was on the lawn of St. Mary's rectory. 10,000 people marched in this 1955 parade. 'In the school in 1955 there were 840 students with 18 teachers of which 10 were Sisters of Charity, and four Christian Brothers. There was no tuition for the school although parents had to contribute at least fifty cents in the Sunday collection. When there was room non- parishioners (Catholic) were allowed in the school. Thanks to donations from the Alumni Association, a cafeteria was built in the basement of the Parish Hall. Children could choose to eat hot meals at lunch. Cost was $1.50 a week. It was made clear that only the school children could use these facilities

A major, problem was the physical condition of-the school. Built in 1861 and expanded in 1885, it was an very old building. People knew that it would eventually have to be torn down and replaced with a new one. Where would the moncome to do this? St. Mary's parishioners were mostly working class people.lt was rare to have much of a surplus at the end of the year. Complicating things was the uncertain future of what was called "Downtown Yonkers.”I a brief historical background is helpful in understanding what was happening in St. Mary's at this time. The post World War II years saw a significant shift in the habits of Americans. Rising prosperity and increased educational opportunities, especially for veterans, made it possible for many Americans to own their own home. Aided by the new federal and state roadways, the automobile opened up a new accessible world to live. Parishioners of St. Mary's, especially the newly married, began to leave the parish for homes in the suburban parts of Yonkers and beyond it was the beginning of the end of Getty Square as the preferred shopping center of Yonkers Shopping malls accessible by car were now the place to shop. The Cross County Shopping opened in 1956 quickly eclipsed Getty Square. Substandard housing in the area and urban "removal" further accelerated the exodus.

The building of the New York State Highway was an example of this transformation. When it was finished in 1956 it reached from Buffalo to the Bronx, a total of 563 miles, crossing the Hudson River by means of the Tappan Zee Bridge. It made the suburbs, especially Rockland County, accessible. It also made the Cross County Center and Central Ave. in Yonkers the preferred places to shop for residents of Westchester and the Bronx. It also had a direct impact on St. Mary's History Of Our Church Page 43 cemetery. The State of New York needed its Thruway to pass through part of the cemetery. As far back as 1952 negotiations had begun to find a solution that would be acceptable to St. Mary's. It was finally agreed to exchange two acres of land on the east side of the cemetery for five acres of land next to the north side of the cemetery property ("which fronts on Sprain Road north of Curtiss Lane") . Human remains in the old part of the cemetery were carefully removed and buried with the appropriate blessings in the newly acquired land. On June 17, 1956, this new section was consecrated by Most Rev. Joseph Flannery, Auxiliary Bishop of New York. At this ceremony, attended by five priests and more than a hundred parishioners and relatives of the deceased, a former Supreme Court Justice, representing the State of New York, handed over the deed to the new property to Rev. Richard Fitzgerald. This enabled the cemetery to acquire much needed land for future burials. The last six years of Fr. Fitzgerald’s pastorate were devoted to the building of a new school This was to be his legacy to the parish and to the city of Yonkers Aware of pessimistic projections for the future of "Downtown Yonkers" he put his faith in the urban renewal projects, as exemplified in the plans for Phillips Towers., This was to be built the west of his new school Advertized as the "First middle income rental development in lower Westchester. Located on Riverdale Avenue from Prospect Street to Vark Street in the heart of downtown Yonkers " It consisted of three buildings of fifteen floors each containing 540 apartments. Parishioners of St. Mary's, especially those who had previously lived in the affected area, were given priority. Msgr. Fitzgerald wanted his new school to open at the same time as this new housing Opened in 1965, Phillipsie Towers ,a Mitchell-Lama co-operative enterprise, was a great success The new St Mary's School, would open three years later. Monsignor Fitzgerald's plan for the new school was very ambitious. He took to heart the 1957 clarion call of Thomas Dickerson, New York State's Secretary of Commerce, to "Think Big". It included 24 classrooms, a kindergarten, central service facilities and special rooms for modern education. Another building adjacent to the school would include a new auditorium gymnasium, a convent and more classrooms. The Parish Hall and the old convent would be demolished. The Bothers' residence would remain. The problem was financial. By 1965 it became clear that the parish could not raise the more than$2,300,000 needed for the project. Plans for the auditorium gymnasium and convent were eliminated. A capital fundraising campaign was started in 1965 to raise at least $250,000 to begin construction. The overall cost was now $1,300,000.00 On May 22, of 1966 this letter was sent to Msgr. Fitzgerald by John J. Maguire, Coadjutor Archbishop of New York: "In regard to Thursday's ceremonies of which your reminder was just received, I am sure that unless approval is given you to assume the financial burden of your building program, I'll not be able to participate in any groundbreaking ceremonies. Monsignor Hunt tells me he plans to discuss this with you." Ouch!

The problem was the insistence by Msgr. Fitzgerald not to reduce the number of classrooms from twenty-four to eighteen. A series of heated letters and meetings followed. In July of 1967 the pastor was still arguing his point. Ground breaking ceremonies did take place when the eighteen classrooms were finally agreed upon. There is a photo of the ceremony in our archives showing the Mayor of Yonkers, not Bishop Maguire, holding the shovel. On September 19, 1967, having reached the age of seventy-five, Cardinal Spellman thanked Msgr. Fitzgerald "for his many years of service and regrets that he will soon be leaving St. Mary's parish." I doubt that the pastor wanted to leave. Even after the fundraising campaign had raised $250,000 the debt for the parish was $570,000. A new pastor, Fr. Bernard Cunningham, was installed on November 12, 1967. Construction of the new school continued while the students went to classes in the old school.

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In May of 1968, Brother Augustine Loes, Provincial of the Brothers of the Christian Schools, informed the new pastor that the Christian Brothers, citing decreased personnel, were withdrawing from St. Mary's School Parents were shocked by the decision and immediately organized (including public protest) hoping to change the decision It didn't help that the Brothers, concentrating on staffing high schools, assigned three Brothers to join the staff at Sacred Heart High School It was quite a year for the new pastor. On July, 1968 Fr. Cunningham, citing illness, retired..A new pastor, Right Rev Aloysius Weber, arrived in July 28, 1968. The old school was torn down that summer and students began classes in September in the new school. The new school was dedicated and blessed by new Archbishop of New York. Terrence Cardinal Cooke on May 18, 1969.

As the struggle to build a new school occupied Msgr. Fitzgerald in his last six years, there were momentous events that impacted on the people of St. Mary's: Election of the first Catholic President, the Civil Rights movement, the Vietnam War and the Second Vatican Ecumenical Council. It would be fascinating to read about the reaction of the parish in the weekly bulletin, "the Bells of St. Mary." Unfortunately few copies remain in the archives and none of them deal with these topics. One thing is for sure the parish was no longer "a world unto itself"

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