Perth Amboy evening news., 1923-08-27
CHURCH
MORTGAGE HERE
ST. Anthony's Catholic Church
of Port Reading Now Free
of Debt

Members of st. Anthony's Catholic
church at Port Reading are ~rejoic-
ing as the last mortgage on the $780,
| 500 church built in 1914 will be can
celled today. The burning of the
legal papers will take place in a
program to be arranged for Column
bus Day.
With the completion of this pro-
ject, another movement is to be
taken up by the pastor Of the church
Rev. C. L. Galassi, to whom credit
for building the present church is
to be given. During last month a
piece of property, consisting of 125
feet by 225 feet along side of the
present church property was pur-
chased and in the near future a pa
rochial school will be built.
The history of the Port Reading
Catholic church begins with a small
congregation attending services on
Sunday morning, August 81, 1904,
at d. B. s. hall. About a week prev
ious, Rev. Clement Carderelli, of
Perth Amboy, had been appointed
by Rev. Bishop McFaul to take
charge of the little body at that
place and had already organized the
association of Catholics under the
patronage of st. Anthony. The first
trustees of the little congregation
were l.. J.. Barrett and Carmino
Laconeta.
The small body, consisting of
about fifty Italians and about TWEEN
ty-five Irish-American families
could not support a resident
priest at that time, but through
the courtesy of John McNulty, a
prominent business man in the viii
lage, the priest was invited to make
his home at the McNulty residence.
Services continued to be held by
Rev. Carderelli for three months at
d. B. S. hall and along about De-
cember 1, 1904, John McNulty sue
structure on the Woodbridge road
for the sum of IS a month. This
was turned into a chapel and with
the assistance of Harry Smith, Sam
uel Moore and William McAndrews
of Port Reading a temporary altar
was erected and seats were built
Bernard Krouse and son, William
Krouse, also made repairs to the
new building, while Mrs. McDevitt
of Philadelp hia and Mrs. Mary Pfeif-
fer of Port Reading donated the first
altar covers.
For seven years this continued to
be the place of worship and in 1910
Rev. Carderelli was given a home in
which to live through the efforts of
Mrs. Mary Pfeiffer who collected the
needed sum. Miss Teresa O'Reilly
assisted by preparing the first collec-
ton of children for their first COM
munion.
In April of 1911 by order from
Bishop McFaul, Rev. Carderelli re-
signed his little parish and Rev.
Colombino Galassi took charge of
the Port Reading mission. Under
the new management affairs of the
church advanced rapidly, as the new
priest, realizing the increase in
membership of this parish and its
insufficient accommodations, began
raising, funds to build a permanent
church.
A bazar, as the first step toward
the new building, was arranged I'M
der the direction of Mr.. and Mrs.
William Cooper in 1913 and the pro-
Iceeds amounted to over $1,000. This
money enabled Rev. Galassi to buy
a piece of property on Woodbridge
avenue which he later sold for
$4,000, purchasing instead a plot of
ground near the corner of School
street and woodbridge venue With
$500 more added to the sum the
foundation of the church was laid.
The corner stone of the new
church was laid on Sunday, June %,
1914, while the church was dedicated
on Sunday morning, October rs in
the same year. An elaborate pro-
gram was arranged for the dedica-
ton, in which the choir of st. An
thongs church, assisted by William
Iacovanto, violinist and Mrs. j. ".
Murphy, organist, played a promi-
nent part.
Those who gave special donations
to the new building are: Mr.. and
Mrs. William Cooper, Mr.. and Mrs.
John McNulty, Mrs. ]. V. Murphy
Mr.. and Mrs. Daniel Mcdonnell, Mr..
and Mrs. Daniel Hurley, Rev. C. L.
Galassi, Mr.. and Mrs. v. Martini,
Frank Boyle, Miss Mary Hibbets,
Mrs. B. Cassidy, Pasquale D'Alesio,
Mrs. Kate Cassidy, Mr.. and Mrs. B.
Mucciariella, Mr.. and Mrs. Thomas
Quigley, Agosline Zullo, d. Gala
CHER, j. Toner, Sabatino AntoneIli
and Carmen zullo.
Mr.. and Mrs. Fessler, Mrs. Car
mela Zullo. Mr.. and Mrs. Anthony
McNulty, Mrs. Joseph Benning, Gae-
, tano Russo, Mrs. V. Nervi, Mrs. G..
Benning Mrs. William P. McGetti-
gan Mrs. Kate Cassidy. William
Eagle, Mrs. John Gleason, Mrs. Mary
Gibson. Mrs. Daniel Mcdonnell, Mrs.
Bridget Maye and Miss Anna McCor-
mick. Mr.. and Mrs. John Leimpeter
also assisted in donating to the fund
for the new church, as $500 was
added to the fund as a result of a
: bazar held under their direction.
| The last mortgage on the new
: church for $1,150 was held by the
> Perth Amboy Trust Company. When
} the new school is completed all the
: property about the church and
y school will be valued at about
$4,000.