The Irish standard., 1890-05-31
THE CHURCH IN NEW sYO ~.
Its Il lstory e tho EASTERN ID District y hen
N H. rsroa III NV Is 4 Part Of New = ork.z S

II
us History In tho Eastern Distriet W1r@lh
N Isroo K =. 4 Part 81 New York.
Forty three years ago, On May u,
l647, the late Bisoop Hughes laid the
cornerstone Of Faith OF Malone's Church
OF SITS. Peter and Paul in the then
townsof w Hams urg, now q suberb Of
Brooklyn, M. This anniversary re-
calls some notes Of tho early history ct
tho Catholics IN the Eastern District.
Early in tho thirties tho few Catho-
lies In WILLIAMSBURG used to CROSS the
river on Morrell's Ferry to Corlear's
Hook. New York, to hear mass in. st,
Mary's Church, then located in Sheriff
street. This was = wooden structure,
which was burned by an incendiary on
the night OF November Q, 1891. L was
the third Catholic Church started In
New York, and was little wooden sdi-
fee bought from Presbyterian oengre-
cation in April, 1926 II had the dis
tinction Of owning the frst bell hung
in a New York Catholic Church. After
the Are the loo alton Of the church was
changed to it's present site and the
Brooklynites helped to erect It..
The Right Rev. DR.. Dubois was
then Bishop of New York and the
famous Gather William Quarter, after
ward first Bishop of Chicago, was the
pastor of tho new st. Mary's. There
were several lumber yards and rope
walks and turpentine factory about
tho foot of Grand street, and these at
tracted number Of Catholic workmen.
With the farm ers from Bushwick they
soon reached total of nearly three
hundred, and Father Quarter encouraged
them to start congregation OF their
own on this side of tho river. He sent
his assistant, Father James Doughsrty,
over to attend to their spiritual wants
and the first Mass was said for them by
him in a stable that stood on tho south
side of Grand street, west Of Third.
This was in 1888.
This service from New York went On
for some time, until it was decided to
build church, and then the Rev.
James O'Donnell, of ST. Paul's. Brook
Ign, purchased four city lots on the
corner of North Eight and First streets,
and erected frame church, which was
called St. Mary's and was dedicated by
Bishop Dubois on Sunday, Juno 81, 1910.
The dedication sermon was preached by
Father O'Donnell, and a temperance
society was formed on the same day by
the Very Rev. DR.. Felix Varela tho vicar
general Of the diocese (Brooklyn wss
then part OF New York; and distin.j
guished Cuban, who had been driven to
New York from his native island by
political troubles. The limits of the
parish then were Hallstt's Cove
on the north, Myrtle avenue On
the south, the East River on
the west and Middle Village On
the east. In this same territory now
are St. Mary's, in Leonard street; ST.
Vincent de Paul's, st. Anthony's, Green
point: St. Mary's, Long Island City,
and twelve other English speaking
churches and seven for the Germon CON-
gregations. Tho location was conven7
lent for the Catholics of the Thirteenth
and Fourteenth wards, which were tho
only settled sections of WILLIAMSBURG
Father O'Donnell lived in st Paul's rec!
tory, and with his brother, the Rev
Nicholas O'Donnell, and his cousin, the
Rev. w. P. Hogan, continued to min
lister to the spiritual wants Of his peo-
pie in the village and of the neighbor-
ing districts Of Astoria, Newtown and
Flushing until 1874, when the popula-
ton of \ the village had increased to
about ten thousand and the Catholics
to five hundred, and it was deemed adj
visable to have a regular pastor ap
pointed. This was + ather Malone.