St. Denis Church (Hopewell Junction, New York)

St. Denis Church is a Roman Catholic parish church under the authority of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of New York, located in Hopewell Junction, Dutchess County, New York. It was established in 1899 as a parish; it had previously been established a mission of St. Mary in Wappingers Falls. History Background The first Priests in the Hudson Valley were French Jesuits, led by Saint Isaac Jogues, who about forty years earlier preached the Gospel to the Indians in the Mohawk Valley. It is believed that Father Jogues traveled through what later became Dutchess County before he and his companions were captured and martyred at Auriesville in 1646. Father Ferdinand Farmer reported visiting Dutchess County in October 1781. His records mention Fishkill where he baptized 14 Canadian and Acadian Catholics. He again visited the area in November 1783. The founding of the church of St. Denis on Beekman Road was connected with Daniel DeLaney. Born in County Kilkenny, Ireland in 1801, history has it that DeLaney, at some time prior to 1852, arrived in Beekman, evidently as a farm hand in the vicinity of Sylvan Lake and observed iron ore, which he recognized by virtue of having worked in an iron mine in Ireland. He purchased land around Sylvan Lake and went into iron mining. To obtain workers for his mine, DeLaney periodically traveled to New York City where he recruited Irish immigrants straight off the boat and brought them to Sylvan Lake. Soon the miners had wives and children and the colony of Catholics in Beekman started to grow. Mission church In 1858 or 1860, DeLaney donated a plot of land and, with the assistance of his miners, the first St. Denis was built on a knoll on Beekman Road just over the line in East Fishkill. St. Denis became a mission church of St. Mary's in Wappinger Falls which had itself been founded in 1845. Father George Brophy, its first resident pastor, served not only the parishioners of St. Mary's but also the workers at the "ore beds" at Sylvan Lake as well as the Catholics at Fishkill Landing. The territory served by St. Denis included all of the land East of Wappinger Falls to the Connecticut line, running from the parish of Mattewan on the South to Amenia on the North. By 1909, the parish of St. Denis had churches at Sylvan Lake, Hopewell Junction and Clove, as well as stations at Moores Mills and Poughquag. A station was likely a private home where Mass was said from time to time. In the "History of Dutchess County 1660-1909", Father William Patrick Eagen reports that in 1874 Father McSwiggan had two assistants, Rev. W.H. Murthy and Rev. Charles McMullen who served mission churches at Pawling and Dover, both of which later became full parishes. By 1983, St. Denis parish, including its mission church of St. Columba in Hopewell Junction, encompassed over 200 square miles and ranked as one of the largest parishes in the Archdiocese. The average attendance at Mass at St. Denis was 109, the average at Our Lady of Mercy at Clove was 31 and 35 at Hopewell Junction. He reported that the farmers would not drive their horses to church when the weather was inclement since there was no shelter for the "poor beasts", nor a way of keeping the conveyances dry. It appears that the sheds were built. Our Lady of Mercy Parish of St. Denis In 1899 St. Denis ceased being a mission and became a full-fledged parish. In 1935 calamity struck when "the church at Sylvan Lake", then 75 years old, caught fire. The building erected through the efforts of Daniel DeLaney was a total loss. By June 14, 1936, the new St. Denis was dedicated by Cardinal Patrick Hayes. The building cost $16,000 and has room for 300. The new church was an old English design with cast stone trim and brick walls. Newspaper accounts said that the pews came from St. Peter's in Poughkeepsie and that they were over 100 years old. They have since been replaced. Pastors 1860–1874 Fr. Denis Sheehan 1874–1877 Fr. Patrick J. Healy 1877–1884 Fr. W.J. McSwiggan 1884–1892 Fr. Charles McMullen 1892–1896 Fr. Edward J. Byrnes 1896–1901 Fr. Eugene A. Shine 1901–1903 Fr. Andrew Corsini Mearns 1903–1905 Fr. John C. McEvoy 1905–1910 Fr. William P. Egan 1910–1915 Fr. James Corridan 1915–1917 Fr. James MacDonnell 1917–1921 Fr. John P. Hines 1921–1928 Fr. Edward L. Baxter 1928–1936 Fr. Francis E. McElhinney 1936–1940 Fr. James A. Dunnigan 1940–1945 Fr. Thomas B. Brown 1945–1947 Fr. Andrew F. Carney 1948–1958 Fr. Florian G. Wermuth 1958–1959 Fr. Francis X. Harper 1959–1963 Fr. William J. Brady 1963–1968 Fr. Joseph F. Tracy 1968–1973 Fr. John J. Gannon 1973–1976 Fr. William J. McGann 1976–1989 Fr. Joseph Meehan 1989–1993 Msgr. Dominick J. Lagonegro 1993–2008 Fr. William B. Cosgrove 2008–2010 Fr. Stephen P. Norton 2010–2012 Fr. Vincent DePaul Howley 2012–2021 Fr. Robert Porpora 2021– Fr. Andrew Carrozza References External links Official website