• Saint Bernard's Churchyard
• Saint Bernard's Churchyard Grave Locations
• Saint Bernard's Cemetery Grave Locations
• Saint Bernard's Catholic Church Cemetery

There are two physical cemeteries associated with the old Saint Bernard's Church which is now called Our Lady of Mercy Church. The smaller is located on the church grounds on Fifth Street in Easton and the larger on West St. Joseph Street in South Easton.

The smaller is called Saint Bernard's Churchyard. The larger is two virtual cemeteries. The western part is called Saint Bernard's Roman Catholic Cemetery where the names are generally Irish, and the smaller eastern part is called (Old) Saint Joseph's Catholic Church Cemetery where the names are generally German. Saint Bernard's Churchyard and Saint Bernard's Roman Catholic Cemetery together form the church cemetery before Gethsemane was opened around 1900. (Old) Saint Joseph's Catholic Church Cemetery is the cemetery for Saint Joseph's Catholic Church which was next to the South Easton cemeteries.

Catholicity has always been both a fact and a factor in Northampton County. This is true of the earliest days, as the county was originally constituted in 1752, and of today when it is delimited by the latest partition, that of 1843. For while it was yet a part of Bucks County, and as early as 1737, Catholics were living within the confines of Northampton County.

It is recorded in the Bucks County legal records that Thomas and Richard Penn sold 500 acres of land at the eastern base of Haycock Mountain, Bucks County, contiguous to the present Northampton County lines, to Nicholas, Thomas, and Edward McCarthy, whose Catholic descendants still are a credit to the Church both in Bucks and Northampton Counties.

These early Catholic settlers came to these parts with the influx of southern Irish mentioned by Logan in his report to Gov. Loud. An old deed in possession of Henry Mc Carthy, shows that under warrants dated March 11, 1737, land was also conveyed to Edward McCarthy, April 19, 1738, described as bounded by land of Thomas McCarthy et al. A tombstone in St. John Baptist's cemetery at Haycock bears witness that Nicholas McCarthy, there buried, died in 1750 at the age of 80 and his wife in 1754 at the age of 70. Henry McCarthy, mentioned above, is the great great grandson of the pioneer Edward McCarthy. There is also a record of a deed made out to Felix McGee August 2, 1745. It was in the home of these McCarthys and of their descendants that Catholic services were conducted in earlier times and thither Catholics of the lower sections of Northampton county repaired to hear Mass and receive the sacraments till missions and stations were founded throughout Northampton county by the missioners from Goshenhoppen, in Berks County, subsequent to 1752 when Northampton County came into being. Up to 1829, when St. Bernard's churchyard and burial grounds at Easton were procured by Rev. John FitzPatrick, Catholics brought their dead to Haycock for interment. There the earlier colonists of the lower end of Northampton county rest in the Lord, in ground donated by the McCarthys for church and burial purposes.

It is well established that no body of Irish emigrants (or other nationals for that matter) ever left Europe without its Catholic representative or group. Accordingly those groups chronicled as. exclusively Scotch-Irish Presbyterians, who located in Bath, Bangor, Mount Bethel and other interior towns of Northampton County, all had a few Catholics with every contingent; they did not all remain faithful, due to lack of religious facilities, and the absence of spiritual guides and to other causes that are wont to influence weak human nature; however, the majority did persevere. Of those who did not, many converts have in the meantime been received from among their descendants, for a "drop of blood goes far". That the Catholic pioneers who came into Pennsylvania were men of ability is attested by such non-Catholics as William Penn and Parsons, the surveyor of the town of Easton, Northampton county. Penn describes John Gray, alias Tatham, as a " scholar," and as " ye Catholic gentleman," while Parsons calls Paul Miller, the Easton innkeeper, " the most prudent, understanding man in Easton, whether English or Dutch."

The early schoolmasters in Allentown and other Northampton county towns, in earlier times, were Irish refugees whose only crime in the land they fled was that they attempted to impart an education to the youth of their native land, which under the English Penal code was treason. Whatever education was procured by the youth of Northampton county in earlier times was secured through these refugees who were furnished with only primitive equipment.

The early Catholic pioneers were patriotic, peaceful and progressive; yet they were deliberately snubbed, frequently maligned and at best tolerated. " There was," writes Weaver, " great opposition to the Catholics in early times." He himself dismisses the subject of the Catholicity of Easton with this comment and the mere mention that, " in 1836 they became strong enough to build a church in Easton." Heller, in his Historic Easton from the Window of a Trolly Car, is just as silent; but he explained to the writer that Catholics themselves were to blame, as they took no steps to compel the chronicling of their doings. It must be recalled, however, that in earlier times the Penal Code was in force, and to be a " professed and open Catholic," like Paul Miller, for instance, meant discrimination; and Catholics naturally did not stand in the limelight; and their observances were, of necessity, under cover, and they themselves were forced into retirement.

The first Catholic born and baptized in these parts was John McCarthy, while Northampton county was still a part of Bucks. He was the son of Edward McCarthy, to whom Thomas and Richard Penn sold land in Haycock, March 11 I737 - He was baptized at Haycock, May 27, 1742, ten years before the new county of Northampton was carved out of Bucks. The baptismal record appears in the register preserved at the Blessed Sacrament Church, Goshenhoppen, now Bally, Berks county, from which place all northeastern Pennsylvania was cared for spiritually by Rev. Theodore Schneider, S.J., from 1741 until his death in 1764; here may be found the birth and baptismal records of all Catholics born within the confines of Northampton county, and baptized up to 1828. In that year priests from Milton came, and in 1833 all Northampton, then including the present Monroe and Carbon counties, was constituted one parish with Bucks; and all subsequent records were kept at St. John the Baptist's Church, at Haycock, Bucks County. St. Bernard's, Easton, was dedicated in 1836, and private records were kept by priests serving it and the county. As separate parishes were organized, new sets of records were of course opened. Those preserved at St. Bernard's, Easton, date back to 1847, but those from March, 1888, to January, 1893, are missing entirely. The Goshenhoppen record is entitled by Father Schneider, " A Book of Those Baptized, Married and Buried at Philadelphia, Maxetani, Magunshi and Tupelhuken, Begun, A.D. 1741."

From Father Schneider's Register we learn that Magunshi and Maxetani were among the first Catholic settlements in these parts (they are now in Lehigh county). We read elsewhere that, " Magunshi and Maxetani are in the most populated section in Northampton county, they are now in the new St. Catherine of Siena Parish, West Allentown - hence we are not surprised to find the following petition addressed by the Catholics of that section to Lieut.-Gov. John Penn, September 25, 1767, for permission and a license to collect money towards the building of a church at Northampton Town, near Allentown, where the material for its erection was already provided :

1767 A. D. Petitions of Roman Catholics of Northampton County to the Hon. John Penn., Esq.,

Lt.-Gov. of the Province of Pa.

The Petitions of the Congregation of Roman Catholics of the town of Northampton and other places adjacent, Humbly showeth : That your petitioners are about to build a church for worship in the Town of Northampton, and have already provided material for putting the design in execution. But we fear the inability of your petitioners is likely to render their good intentions fruitless, unless they are at liberty to ask assistance from charitable and piously disposed people. They therefore humbly entreat your honor to grant them a license for the said purpose; whereby they may have the peaceful and quiet enjoyment of their religion according to the laws of the province, and reap the Benefit of those privileges granted them by your honor's Benevolent ancestors. And your petitioners as in Duty bound, will ever pray for your Honor's and Family's Welfare"

John Ritter,

J. G. Knap, & others.

Under date of September 25, 1767, Justice of the Peace James Allen, John Jennings, and Lewis Kloiz recommended the granting of this petition. The John Ritter who signed this petition is probably Father John Baptist de Ritter, the Belgian missionary who succeeded Father Schneider. We have authentic documents to show that he celebrated Mass both at Allentown and Easton in 1767, 1769, and 1771, at the home of John Houcki in the latter, and at that of Francis V. Cooper in the former place. He continued to visit these places till his death in 1787, and was the missionary of the Revolutionary period of our country's history. It is well established, theref ore, that the first Catholic settlement of any consequence within the confines of Northampton county was within the district now comprised by Lehigh county and principally around Northampton Town, the present Allentown, and contiguous territory; Magunshi, Maxetani, and Hockendauqua; and the first log church built was the one mentioned in the petition, somewhere in the territory covered by the old Northampton Town of pre-Revolutionary times. We are certain that two of the original inhabitants of Easton were Catholics, Paul Miller and John Fricki. Both felt the sting of discrimination and persecution. Miller conducted a stocking weaving establishment in Easton in 1754. He was an intimate friend of Parsons, with whom he made many business deals, though " they quarreled finally and Miller moved back to Philadelphia." He lived on Northampton street near Fourth (Hamilton), and owned the site of the Central Hotel; which ground he leased to Adam Yohe for his hotel. Notwithstanding his eminent fitness, he was disqualified, solely on account of his religious belief and profession. Parsons wrote thus to Thomas Penn in reference to the school position : " It seems to me quite necessary that there should be school masters .... Paul Miller, it appears to me, in all his conduct here, is the most prudent, understanding man in Easton, whether English or Dutch, but he is a professed Roman Catholic, which is, I imagine, an insuperable objection to him." On June 16, 1752, Miller procured one of the first hotel licenses issued in the country, but the following year John Fricki met with a remonstrance and was denied a license because he was a Catholic. The following is the petition presented against Fricki: "To the Worshipped, the Justice, the Justice of the Court of General Quarter Sessions of the Peace, held at Easton, for the County of Northampton, June 17 55- The petition of divers inhabitants of said town and others humbly showeth : that your petitioners are very apprehensive, your worships have been greatly imposed upon in granting recommendation to his honor, the governor, for sundry Roman Catholics out of allegiance of his present majesty, our most gracious sovereign, for keeping public houses in this town, when those who profess the Protestant religion have been rejected; that your petitioners humbly conceive this practice may have pernicious consequences at this time, when an open rupture is now daily expected between a Roman Catholic powerful and perfidious prince and the crown of Great Britain; as the Romans have hereby a better opportunity of becoming acquainted with our designs against them and are hereby enabled better to discover those designs and render them abortive. Your petitioners therefore pray that your honors make proper inquiry into this matter and grant such redress as the circumstances may require and your petitioners will ever pray, etc" Jasper Schull, whose hotel was diagonally across from Miller and Anderson's hotel, was one of the petitioners against Fricki. In consequence of this petition, Fricki was refused the recommendation. The petition is thus endorsed : " John Fricki is not allowed a recommendation, etc., being a Roman Catholic " In spite of this discrimination against them, Miller and Fricki showed their broadness by contributing, July 30, 1755, to the combination school, and church (where they were likewise taboo), the sum of £-1 6s. each, notwithstanding that it was expressly stipulated that this school was for the education of " English Protestant youth and that it could be used by any protestant minister ."

About this time occurred the defeat of Braddock, and in 1757 came an official investigation of the number of Catholics in the province. In answer to Laud's Inquiry, Father Theodore Schneider, who had charge of all the Catholics of Northampton county, reported that there were exactly one hundred and fifty-nine of them in this county, which was as yet intact, as originally constituted in 1752. There were in reality almost double this number, for then, as now, children under twelve years of age were not considered by the civil authorities as members of the church. Of those reported, one hundred and thirty were Germans and twenty-nine were Irish, about evenly divided as to sex.

After Braddock's defeat, the country lay from 1755 to 1757 at the mercy of the Indians, and with the impending hostilities between France and Britain an alliance of the Catholics with France was greatly feared, hence they were forbidden to bear arms, but were taxed for their "exemption" (!) from service. To this fear was added the fact that many of the Indians were Catholics, having been converted by the French missionaries. Naturally the English Penal Code, which was ruthlessly enforced against them, was not calculated to make the Catholics very enthusiastic about the continuance of England's power in the new world. However, Laud's inquiry showed a gross exaggeration of the Catholic strength, and, as usual, proved the report about the storage of arms in the Catholic churches of the county and elsewhere to be a base calumny often since repeated and by some firmly believed. During the Revolution, the Germans of the country took little interest in the fight, solely because the politics of the controversy were not clear to their mind, but not one of these German or Irish Catholics nor one of the Catholic priests became a refugee or sought English protection, and none became a Tory.

As the English-speaking people in Northampton county were comparatively few in the days of the Revolution, and as English and Irish Catholics were fewer, their contribution to the fighting forces of the Continental army was necessarily small; and the Germans, irrespective of their faith, not understanding the controversy, played only a minor part in Northampton county. How different in 1861 and 191 7! In 1812 the war was practically all over before anybody in the county had a chance to join the issue.

The first Catholic priest to visit Pennsylvania was Rev. John Pierron, who in 1693 found persons thirty years old who had never received baptism. Rev. Thomas Harvey (who assumed the name of Smith to escape the Penal Code) was, before the formation of Northampton or of Bucks County, chaplain to the Catholic Governor of New York, Dongan, (the New York Highway to the West passed through Northampton county). In remotest time Catholics had to depend on the Jesuits of Bohemia Manor, Maryland, for their religious consolation. These Jesuits may have visited Northampton county, for they knew of the presence of Catholics here, while the county was yet unborn. It is recorded that they wrote to their English provincial, to implore the German provincial of the Jesuits to send them German-speaking priests for New Jersey and Pennsylvania, where they " had learned the number, condition and residence of the Catholics." These Maryland priests, then, were in touch with our Pennsylvania Catholics of these regions as early as 1740.

In 1742 our first local missionaries came and settled in Goshenhoppen, now Bally. They were Rev. William Wapler, S.J., and Rev. Theodore Schneider, S.J. The latter became the first regular visitant of these Northampton regions and of all Eastern Pennsylvania, for twenty years; and his successor, Rev. John Baptist de Ritter, for twenty-four years more. For the next fifty years the Goshenhoppen Jesuits, Revs. Peter and Charles Helbron, Rev. Paul Erntzen, Rev. Edward J. McCarthy, and Rev. Bernard Corvin, attended the Northampton county Missions. From 1828 to 1833 secular clergy from Milton, Northumberland county, over one hundred miles distant, cared for our Catholics. In July, 1833, Northampton county was made a part of the Haycock, Bucks county, parish, and was the first organized parish hereabouts. In 1836, Bishop Kenrick authorized the erection of a parish church at Easton, the first in the county . Some claim, however, that there are traditions of a chapel in Beaver Meadows in 1820. In 1837, Rev. James Maloney took up his residence as pastor, remaining in Easton till 1844.

In 1808, all the territory of the original county was included within the boundary of the Philadelphia diocese, which embraced all Pennsylvania. Divisions of the diocese occurred, but the Northampton sections remained under Philadelphia until the Scranton diocese was formed in 1868, when Wayne, Pike, and Monroe counties were cut off; but Lehigh, Carbon, and the reduced Northampton remained in the Philadelphia jurisdiction. Prior to 1808 the county was a part of the diocese of Baltimore, which embraced the entire country, and Bishop Carroll, born in this country and a patriot of the Revolution, had jurisdiction. Prior to the Revolution, the colonies were under the Catholic Vicar Apostolic of the London district. Still earlier the spiritual jurisdiction of the New World followed the flag of the country claiming possession. Successively, therefore, the bishops of Spain, France and England had American jurisdiction, gave the missionaries their faculties, sent them financial and other assistance, and received their reports of local conditions and spiritual needs and dangers.

List of civil war veterans in St. Bernard's and St. Joseph's cemeteries, Easton, Pa. In view of the complaints of the National Catholic Welfare Council that it can not secure data from the parishes concerning the Catholic dead of the World War the following list of known dead buried in Easton Catholic cemeteries should be of interest and value. It helps show the part played by Northampton County Catholics in the Civil, Spanish and World Wars.

In St. Bernard's Cemeteries

James A. Anderson, James Boyle, John Boyle, John Cummiskey, Martin Dempsey, Matthew Delaney, James Dougherty, Peter Fisher, James Gallaghan, Wm. Gross, John Lynagh, Pete Langton, Andrew McLoughlin, John McCarthy, John McLaughlin, Dennis McGinley, John McMakin, James Mooney, James Miles, Thos. Morrison, W. Nightingale, John Nightingale, Ephrem N. R. Ohl, Wm. Prendergast, John Shockency, John Whelan, Wm. McLaughlin, John McGeady, Wm. Geberty, John Geberty, Peter Liner, Thos. and John Callaghan, of the Civil War; Lt. F. P. Wolf of the Spanish and John F. Gallagher of the World War are among the known dead in St. Bernard's South Easton Cemetery and Edw. C. Rafferty of the World War and Edw. Flynn of the Spanish War lie in Gethsemane Cemetery, in Palmer Township, three miles from Easton. While Lt. Austin Hanley of the Civil War lies somewhere in the West and John Brennan, Jno. B. Lynch and Corp. Edw. O'Donnell lie in Flanders Field.

In St. Joseph's Cemeteries

Johann Bauer, Anton Gier, Martin Goth, Clement Goodear, Sylvester Goodear, Joseph H. Hzrte, Franz Kies, Franz Ludwig, John Price, Franz Pfeffer, - Hairbracht, Joseph Ruse, Chas. Saylor, John Green are among the known patriot dead in St. Joseph's cemeteries. There are several unknown dead of the Civil War conflict buried in both St. Bernard's and St. Joseph's cemeteries and John Bittner, Jeremiah McGrath and James McGinley still survive.

Rev. Theodore Schneider in 1741 became our first missionary. Father Schneider procured his faculties from the Vicar Apostolic of London. He was thirty-eight years old at the time, having been born at Heidelburg, Germany, April 7, 1703, where he had been president of its university and later professor of philosophy and polemics at Liege - " a man," wrote Carroll to Rome, " of much learning and unbounded zeal .... a person of great dexterity in business, consummate prudence and undaunted magnanimity." Father Schneider records that he began his register of baptisms, marriages and burials in 1741. A school was one of his first concerns, and he erected a combination rectory, chapel and school at Goshenhoppen in February 1743. He repeated this process when he founded the mission at Haycock in May, 1743, there he celebrated Mass in the home of Thomas Garden, and later in that of Nicholas McCarthy.

He had some medical knowledge, and traveled in the guise of a physician, especially in New Jersey, where the Penal Laws were more stringently enforced. He paid spot cash for the land he bought of Biedler, a Mennonite, who sold to a Catholic priest to spite the Brotherhood, with whom he had broken. Being an alien, the priest could not take personal title, but executed the deed in the name of Father Graeten, his Philadelphia superior. All title to church property in those days had to be personal on account of the Penal Laws. He established a mission near Allentown, at Magunshi, and celebrated Mass at the home of George Riffel, Northampton county then, now Lehigh county. His zeal and energy are shown by the fact that he laboriously transcribed two missals or Mass books for use on his missions. On July 10, 1764, Father Schneider died suddenly, in his sixty-first year, and the Northeastern Pennsylvania missions, including Northampton county, remained without a resident pastor until May 31, 1765, when Rev. John Baptist de Ritter, a Belgian, arrived in Goshenhoppen. At that time there were nineteen priests in the country; today there are twenty thousand. Like his predecessor's Father Ritter' s death occurred suddenly, February 3, 1787, in his seventieth year. He introduced into the county the regulation of celebrating marriage with a Nuptial Mass. An untiring worker, he slept on a pallet of straw and used his saddle for a pillow. He was buried beside Father Schneider at Goshenhoppen.

The First Parish in Northeastern Pennsylvania Northampton County, then containing six hundred square miles of territory, was made a parish in July 1833, when Bishop Kenrick of the Philadelphia Diocese, appointed Rev. Henry Herzog, just ordained, pastor of St. John the Baptist's Church at Haycock, Bucks county, with jurisdiction over both Bucks and Northampton counties. This was the first regularly erected parish in Northeastern Pa. Monroe and Carbon counties, remained within this jurisdiction till March 3, 1868. When Father Reardon built a permanent rectory on his appointment as pastor of St. Bernard's, Easton, in 1847, the county had been reduced to its present proportions of three hundred and ninety square miles; but many Missions within the former county limits remained in charge of St. Bernard's, Easton, up to the end of the 19th century.

In earlier times there were many Catholics in the regions of Northampton county, now forming Wayne county; in fact, some localities there were so entirely Catholic that the immediate necessity for separate schools was not deemed absolute. Clark's Corners or Canaan's Corners, Damascus, Turacco, and Equinunk, Honesdale, Hawley, Cherry Ridge in Wayne; Allentown, Friedensville, Bethlehem, Catasauqua, in Lehigh; Nesquehoning, and Mauch Chunk in Carbon; Stroudsburg, Pocono, Oakland, Tobyhanna, Coolbaugh, and Gouldsborough in Monroe; Janet's Hollow, and Locawassen in Pike, were Northampton county missions and stations until their incorporation into the new Scranton diocese, March 3, 1868. Even after this date, Easton continued to supply missioners to both the English and German- speaking Catholics within and without the diocesan limits.

For years Easton was the parental source of Northampton county's Catholicity, supplying both priests and nuns and money to struggling infant parishes in the county. Right Rev. Francis Patrick Kenrick, Bishop of Philadelphia, was the first prelate to visit the county. He came to Easton in 1833, 1834, 1836, 1838, 1840, 1844, 1845, 1847, and 185O. On the first two visits he stopped in Easton at Michael Cavanaugh's home, where he said Mass, and also conferred the Sacrament of Confirmation. On this occasion Father Francis Guth, of Holy Trinity, Philadelphia, preached a German sermon. The Easton Catholics in 1834 rented a private house on 5th Street, Easton which became the residence of Fathers Maloney and Brady, and on July 2, 1834, Bishop Kenrick celebrated Mass there, and confirmed nine, and gave the Holy Eucharist to fifteen. This remained the home of the Easton priests until Father Reardon, in the fall of 1847, built the present rectory, at 132 South Fifth Street, which was enlarged by Fathers Reardon, and McGeveran, and recently improved by the present pastor, Rev. John Edward McCann, who cleared all debt off the parish and expects to have the old historic church consecrated in 1921. Other parishes were soon organized. The German Catholics of Easton and South Easton formed a separate congregation in 1851, and until 1871 their pastor ministered to the German Catholics of the Bethlehems.

The priests of St. Joseph's Church had charge of the Catholics of Lehigh, Wayne, and Monroe counties for years. The Magyars, or German Hungarians, of the town of Northampton, Pennsylvania, were, prior to 1909, under the care of the priests of East Mauch Chunk, but in that year a parish was organized and a school founded by Rev. J. P. Shimco. In 1908, a parish, and a school, having two hundred pupils, was organized at Nazareth, under the care of the Fathers of the Mission of the Sacred Heart, who also twice a month conducted a mission at Bath; where some Irish Catholics settled long before the Revolution. The bulk of the congregation, however, since the beginning of the 20th Bristol, Pa., thence by train 10 miles to Morrisville, Pa., and 50 miles by stage-coach from Trenton, N. J., to Easton, Pa. The entire trip may now be made by train in a couple of hours. (Cf. Kenrick Diary, century, are mainly Austrians. The Polish and Lithuanian people of Easton, West Easton, and Wilson Boro, on January 19, 1920, became part of the new St. Jane's parish. During the last four years, an influx of Syrians has scattered throughout the United States; a number settled in our county. Many Ruthenians, Greeks, and Ukranians, mostly of the nationality of the latter country, are located in the town of Northampton, this county, and number three hundred families; there are, however, a few in the lower end of the county, some in West Easton and Glendon, and a number in the Bethlehems. They are of the Catholic rite, and are united to Rome. "The Windish," - Jugo Slavs, and Checho Slavs, have a parish church in South Bethlehem and are scattered in individual groups throughout the county. There are about two thousand Balkanites located in that iron town, who with the Poles form one congregation. There are four large congregations of Italians in the county, though there are more of this nationality scattered in considerable groups in almost every town throughout the county. There are probably ten thousand of this nationality within the county limits. They are for the most part Catholic. Proselytizers and commercialism have separated many of them from the church.

In 1752, when the county was organized, and in 1808, when our diocese was organized, there was not one of the religious orders of Catholic Nuns in the county. There are in the county today, at least four of these orders having charge of eight schools, teaching about eight thousand children. Among these orders are the Mission Sisters of St. Francis, South Easton and Catasauqua; Mission Sisters of the Sacred-Heart, of Nazareth; Sisters of the Immaculate Heart of Mary, Easton, (schools) and Wilson, Roseto, Martin's Creek and Glendon (Sunday Schools); and the Sisters of St. Joseph, Bethlehem. With two schools and a High School in Easton, four in South Bethlehem, one in Nazareth, and one in Northampton, it is but a question of time until every parish will have its own school. The Catholic school system grew out of the education fostered and the text-books used in the public schools from before the Revolution. " Institutions," writes Shea, " endowed and supported by the State were exclusively Protestant in tone, religious exercises, and hostility to everything Catholic, . . . Text books and teacher's utterance were insulting and the loudly proclaimed liberality and religious equality were fallacious."

After the riots of 1844 in Philadelphia, Bishop Kenrick issued the following proclamation to the public, which is the platform on which the parish schools rest: " Catholics have not asked that the Bible be excluded from the public schools. They have merely desired for their children the liberty of using the Catholic Version in case the reading of the Bible be desired by controllers or directors of schools; they only desire to enjoy the benefit of the Constitution of the state of Pennsylvania, which guarantees the rights of conscience and precludes any preference of sectarian modes of worship. They ask that the school laws be carefully executed and that the religious predilection of the parents be respected .... They desire that the public schools be preserved from all sectarian influence and that education be conducted .... without any violence being offered to their religious conviction." The school authorities denying this petition of Catholics, it became necessary to provide parish schools and to urge parents not to send their children to the common or public schools, where their faith was in danger. At the fifth Diocesan Synod, held in 1855 under Bishop Kenrick, the erection of parish schools was made mandatory and their proper management was decreed.

St. Joseph's Church, South Easton, was the first parish in the county to comply with the Diocesan Canon, followed closely by Catasauqua, the Holy Infancy, Bethlehem, and eventually by St. Bernard's (in September 1909) and the other parishes of the county. However, as early as 1848, Father Reardon conducted a private school in the basement of St. Bernard's Church, and a similar School conducted by four lay teachers flourished at St. John Capistran's, South Bethlehem.

The opening of the twentieth century saw an influx of Catholics from non-English speaking countries. The pioneer Catholics of these regions were Germans and Irish and a few Scotch and English. Many of the earlier settlers lost their faith for want of missioners, and through worldly engrossment and lack of fortitude amidst neighbors who viewed their religion with suspicion and positive opposition. In more recent times, organized efforts to induce defection have been made; on this account the development of Catholic Education in Northampton county becomes daily more important, to insure real and solid Americanization.

School Foundations

It is worthy of note in connection with the schools that the father of the public school system of Pennsylvania and the father of the Philadelphia Diocese Catholic school system were respectively at one time identified with Easton - Governor Wolf who formerly owned the site which is now St. Bernard's Cemetery and Church on Fifth street, founded the public school system of Pennsylvania; and Rev. John W. Shanahan, later Bishop of Harrisburg, the father of the Philadelphia Diocesan parish schools, was once assistant to Father Reardon at St. Bernard's, and formulated the school code of the diocese of Philadelphia.

A study of Northampton county's Catholicity and development discloses some interesting statistics. Whereas in 1752, - when the county extended from Raubsville, Pennsylvania, to Sullivan and Orange counties, New York, and included territory now forming (in addition to the present Northampton county), Wayne, Lehigh, Pike, Monroe, and Carbon counties, - there was neither church, nor school, nor resident priest; and in 1757 but one hundred and fifty-nine Catholics of all nationalities, with probably an equal number of children under twelve years. There are today in Wayne county two visiting and four resident priests; ministering to five parish and eight mission churches, every Sunday celebrating a total of ten Masses. There is besides one parish school with five Catholic nuns and teachers. In Monroe county today there are two resident priests and a visiting one; celebrating on Sundays and Holy days five Masses and attending five missions. In Pike county there are likewise three missions attached to a parish church, in charge of the pastor, celebrating two Masses every Sunday and Holy day. These Wayne, Monroe and Pike county Catholics are under the jurisdiction of the Catholic Bishop of Scranton, since March 3, 1868.

In Lehigh county today there are nine churches, fifteen hundred pupils attending Catholic schools, a Catholic hospital, and thirteen priests, including two Greek Catholic churches with pastors who attend missions in Northampton county parishes. There are also three parochial schools in Lehigh County. In Carbon County, also formerly part of Northampton county, there are today thirteen churches, five missions, eighteen priests, six schools and twenty-eight teachers, twenty-five hundred parish school pupils, and thirty-five Masses, Sundays and Holy days. In Northampton county, as now constituted, there are twenty-one churches, seven missions, thirty-two hundred parish school pupils, eight parish schools, twenty-five priests, celebrating* between them forty-eight Masses every Sunday and Holy day, and sixty teaching nuns. There are at least fifty thousand Catholics within the present confines of the county. Where there were one hundred and fifty-nine Catholics all told in 1757, there are today (estimated) in the same territory two hundred and fifty-nine thousand. Where in 1752 there were no parish schools, there are today eighteen with one hundred competent teachers; and over eight thousand pupils.

Where in the beginning of the nineteenth century there was no resident pastor in the entire territory of the original county, there are today forty-seven resident pastors, eighteen in the county as it is today; thirty-three missions regularly visited, nuns in charge of the schools and Sunday schools and several high school departments, and one regional high school: The Easton Catholic High (co-educational). Where one hundred years ago Catholics rejoiced to have Mass once a month in their locality, there are offered today, every Sunday and Holy day, in the confines of the original county, at least one hundred and twenty-five Masses; and not less than sixty thousand receive Holy Communion every Sunday within the vast territory once forming the original county. Times have indeed changed!

As before stated, around Beaver Meadows were probably some of the first original Irish Catholic settlements; around Allentown, the first German ones. The earliest known record of any baptism, within any Northampton County territory, is entered in the Goshenhoppen register, under date of March 25, 1775, when Father de Ritter baptized Margaret Ulmer, 8 years old, whose stepfather was received into the church, December 26, 1775. Shea records115 that Father de Ritter also converted many others; Lutherans, Calvinists, Pietists and non-religionists. When the mine workers, and later, canal boatmen, railroad operators, engineers and surveyors, invaded the lower section of Northampton county, Easton, the Bethlehems and environs received an influx of the Irish Catholics. Father John Fitzpatrick of Milton, Northumberland county, Pennsylvania, in the course of missionary journeys to Haycock and vicinity, saw the wisdom of procuring a site for a church at the entrance to the valley of the Lehigh, and on November 30, 1829, purchased, of George Wolf, city lots number 191- 192 in Easton, a piece of ground about ninety-five feet on " Lehi " street, and three hundred and twenty-five feet on Juliana street, now Fifth street.12 Father Fitzpatrick paid $300 for this piece of ground, which was located on " Gallows Hill," later called "Catholic Hill," and was the site where capital punishment was executed on offenders against the commonwealth in earlier times. Northampton county having become a parish, Father Fitzpatrick transferred this site to Bishop Kendrick, in consideration of $200, March 24,

First Prelate to Visit the County

Before the church at Easton was built, Catholics of Easton and vicinity rented a house on South Fifth street, and here, July 2, 1834, Bishop Kenrick celebrated Mass, " in an upper room of a certain house which the faithful had hired at a yearly rental of sixty dollars in silver currency, to be used for religious services," administered Communion to fifteen people and confirmed nine.14 On August 17, 1834, Bishop Kenrick and Father Wainright celebrated Mass in the house of Michael Cavanaugh, and gave Confirmation to a small number. Rev. Francis Guth, of Holy Trinity, Philadelphia preached in German on this occasion. Bishop Kenrick dedicated St. Bernard's Catholic Church, August 21, 1836, assisted by Fathers Herzog, Carter and Wainwright, the latter the first pastor of Tamaqua, also of Mount Pleasant, Wayne county, and Pottsville and Summit Hill, Schuylkill county.

Northampton County Made a Mission to Haycock

From July 1833 to March 1837, Father Herzog continued pastor of Northampton county, with his residence at Haycock Bucks county. He was subsequently, (in March, 1837) transferred to Venango county and exercised his pastoral zeal in Warren and Erie counties; but later went to Illinois, Chicago diocese. St. Bernard's at Easton is the only Catholic church mentioned at this time in the official calendar, called the Metropolitan Magazine, as then organized in Northampton county, now much reduced through the formation of new counties cut from it.

Noted Site Finder and Church Builder

Father John Fitzpatrick, who purchased the site for St. Bernard's Church, Easton (which is the mother church of the county), deserves more than a passing notice. He purchased the site for the original Pottsville church in 1827, and doubtless while working among the one hundred or more families of two thousand people employed in such public works as coal mines, canal boats, and railroads, foresaw the future needs of the lower section of this county, the gateway to the Lehigh Valley, whither his parishioners were then migrating; with the extensions of canals and railroads to East on and other points of the Lehigh Valley. In 1832 he purchased a site at Selinsgrove, and bought land for a rectory the same year at Milton, where he resided when he transferred the Fifth street lot in Easton.

First Resident Pastor of the County

In March, 1837, Rev. James Maloney, just ordained, became pastor of Bucks and Northampton counties and took up his residence in Easton, at the rented house on Fifth street. From these headquarters, till the summer of 1844, he visited, at monthly intervals, Haycock, Bucks county; Tamaqua, Schuylkill county, Nesquehoning and Beaver Meadows, then in Northampton now in Carbon county. After his transfer in 1844, he made Tamaqua and Beaver Meadows his residence. Father Hugh Brady, his successor, was ordained June 2, 1844, and was immediately appointed to succeed Father Maloney at Easton and the Haycock Missions, Bucks county; Bethlehem, Allentown, Catasaqua, and the surrounding regions, including Phillipsburg and Lambertsville, New Jersey. During his pastorate Bishop Kenrick again visited the county, confirming forty-seven at St. Bernard's, October 22, 1844. In March, 1847, Father Brady was transferred to the Chicago diocese, and died at Milford, Iroquois county, Illinois, January 14, 1849, aged thirty-six years. Until a successor was appointed, Father Maloney, of "Beaver Meadows," again looked after the lower sections of the county. Father Maloney, at this time with his headquarters at Beaver Meadows, had charge also of St. Jerome's, Tamaqua, St. Joseph's, Summit Hill, St. Mary's, Hazelton, and, in the words of Bishop Kenrick' s diary, "Burdened with care beyond his strength, begged for at least one priest more to take charge of one of these missions." In 1852 we find him still active at Honesdale, having1 built a new church at Hawley, Wayne county, the very year he died at Honesdale, April 27, 1852.

Thirty-five Years Pastor

St. Bernard's remained about five months without a pastor following the departure of Father Hugh Brady. During this interval Bishop Kenrick officially visited it, remaining from May 13 to 17, confirming eighteen. On July 25, 1847, Rev. Thomas Reardon was ordained and immediately became pastor of Easton, arriving on his birthday in Aug. 1847 and remaining for thirty-five years. St. Bernard's absorbed his entire priestly career. Father Reardon was born near the Wild Eagle's Nest, Killarney, near the famous lakes, County Kerry, Ireland, about 1813. He entered Trinity College, Dublin, and at an early age took his degree and was graduated some years later. Overstudy brought on brain fever and forced him to discontinue a law course he had undertaken in Middle Temple, London. Travel to France failed to restore his health, and he came to America hoping to benefit by the voyage. En route he met State Senator, later Congressman, and afterwards Chancellor of New York University, John V. Pruyn, and later entered his law office at Albany, New York. On his arrival in America he visited Saratoga Springs for his health. When he had completed his law course in Pruyn's offices, through that attorney's powerful influence, young Reardon, and Papineau, a son of the Canadian Ambassador, were admitted while yet aliens, to the New York bar, by a special act of the State Legislature, when Reardon had been only nine months in America. Eventually he determined to study for the priesthood and came to the Philadelphia Seminary, and after completing the required course was ordained at the age of thirty-four years, July 25, 1847. Father Reardon was first cousin to Daniel O'Connell, the great Irish patriot, studied in his law offices and by a coincidence the site of St. Bernard's had been purchased in 1829, the year O'Connell succeeded in winning his fight for Catholic Emancipation, and Father Reardon became its pastor in 1847, the year O'Connell died.

Many Irish Catholics flocked into Glendon in 1848, following the Irish rebellion and famine, and Glendon became a thriving section during the existence of the Firmstone, Lucy and other iron furnaces. The Easton parish comprised territory within a radius of forty miles. Many places formerly visited by Father Reardon as missions are now parishes .... Allentown, Mauch Chunk, Catasauqua, Bethlehem, South Bethlehem, Pa., Phillipsiburg, Lambertville, Oxford, N. J. and many others.

There are now five parishes in Easton, nine in Allentown, three in Northampton, one in Roseto, and in Bangor, one in Nazareth, three in Catasauqua, nine in the Bethlehems, two in Mauch Chunk, besides missions in Martins Creek, Bath, West Bangor, Easton, Bangor, Wind Gap, Pen Argyl, Berlinsville, and a Sunday school at Middle Village, or Windburytown, besides several parishes and missions in New Jersey, to all of which territory Father Reardon and his predecessors had ministered. " A list of subscriptions towards the liquidation of the indebtedness of the repairs and improvements of St. Bernard's Church and the erection of the pastoral house," issued by Father Reardon in 1852, mentions Easton, South Easton, South Easton Road, Glendon, Uhlersville, Freemansburg, Bushkill, Allentown, Firmstone's Mines, Murtagh's Quarries, Cranesville, Whitehall, New Jersey furnaces, and Clinton, New Jersey, as contributors of the $3,336 subscribed. The building of the rectory in 1847 the furnishing of the church were among Father Reardon' s first acts, and cost $6,765.23.

He himself subscribed $1,000. In 1847, Father Reardon added to the church interior the present gallery; and installed a fine melodeon, which was used until 1883. In August, 1862, he further improved the interior of the church, installing stained-glass windows; the one of the Good Shepherd, donated by Father Reardon, still remains at the northeast side of the church, but the others were replaced or remodeled in 1898. He twice enlarged St. Bernard's Church, which was twice endangered by fire and in the course of improvements was almost totally destroyed by fire on April 9, 1867, through the upsetting of a charcoal furnace by a tinsmith named Stengel. On the first occasion an overturned stove damaged it. Father Reardon immediately rebuilt, and on June 14, 1868, rededicated the church. Rev. John Dunn, of St. John the Evangelist's, Philadelphia, preached at the rededication. The impaired health which interrupted his earlier studies finally occasioned Father Reardon to resign his Easton pastorate, and to seek rest in retirement amidst the " lakes and fens of his native Killarney," where he died in October 1895, at the age of eighty-two years.15 He left St. Bernard's in the fall of 1882, leaving it a cash balance of $500 in the bank to the credit of the church and a $3,000 mortgage in favor of the parish, which was fully satisfied, with accrued interest ¿ in April, 1891, and paid to Father McGeveran by the Thomas Reilly Estate.16 In Father Reardon's day, Benediction of the Blessed Sacrament, so frequently given nowadays, was a rare occasion, allowed by him in connection with the Rosary devotions on the first Sunday of the month only.

The Oldest Catholic School Foundation

While equipping the Church, Father Reardon's first thought was to provide a little school; a room under the church was devoted to this purpose in 1852, so that St. Bernard's parish school, humble though it was, is the oldest Catholic school foundation in Northampton county. The Catholic schools getting no State aid are the chief source of worry and anxiety of every pastor, but all these schools in Northampton county are modernly equipped and are efficient in every particular, and the pupils pass at once into lucrative positions after graduation, the business-world standard of efficiency.

" The Gentleman of the Lehigh Valley "

At the death of Father Reardon, in 1895 the following obituary notice appeared in the Boston Pilot : " The Irish priesthood has been deprived of a venerable and distinguished member by the death, which occurred on October 4th, of the Very Rev. Thomas Bernard Reardon, of Killarney, first cousin of Daniel O'Connell, the Liberator.

Father Reardon had attained the age of 93 years. He was the son of W. Stephen Reardon, of Gortroe, near Killarney and was the oldest of twelve children, of whom five were dedicated to the church. His education was begun at the People's College, Killarney, which has long since ceased to exist. He passed to the Dublin University and there took the A. B. degree. He was a distinguished linguist and was able to speak seven languages fluently. He went next to Temple Bar, London, and studied law with his cousin, Daniel O'Connell. After a short time there his health broke down and he came to America. He pursued his legal studies and, though he would not be a recognized citizen until after five years in the country, he was allowed to practice at the bar in nine months' time. After practising for some years he became the personal friend of Father James Roosevelt Bayley, afterwards Archbishop of Baltimore and of Archbishop Hughes, of New York. During the time of the Knownothing epidemic in America he was a great defender of Catholic rights, and upon occasion, owing to a speech he delivered the besiegers refrained from firing a church. From that day be determined to become a priest and was ordained by Bishop Kendrick, afterwards Archbishop of Baltimore. Some time after there was a murder in Easton, in the Philadelphia diocese, and, being a lawyer, Father Reardon was sent to investigate the matter.

He found there a miserable little church dedicated to St. Bernard, of which he was made pastor, and the day he arrived being the anniversary of his birth he set about repairing the church, which he never forgot until the day of his death. In fact, from 80 to 100 churches in the diocese have been built in the territory once served by him. On four occasions he was offered a diocese in America, but he always refused, and once he was summoned to Rome to state his reasons, but still declined to take a bishopric. Father Reardon finally returned to Ireland. While in Killarney his charity to the poor was unbounded. For the last four weeks he spent upwards of $900 in charity. For the last ten years several families depended upon him for their maintenance." The date of birth here assigned does not agree with ours, but we have reason to think we are nearer the truth, as we procured our data from the biography appearing in the History of Northampton County issued while Father Reardon was living in Easton and it was evidently approved by him and he continued a resident here for several years following this publication. After carefully posting all his accounts and records, which are still extant and very accurate and detailed, he left Easton and St. Bernard's in August 1882 but in 18 87 wrote Father McGeveran a long letter explaining the matter of the mortgage on the church cemetery property in South Easton, on the evidence of which Father McGeveran was enabled to settle the matter and to recover several hundred dollars due the parish.

Rev. John R. Dillon, Fourth Pastor

Rev. John R. Dillon, like his predecessor, associated Albany, New York, with his career. He was born in Albany, N. Y., May 5, 1850. The death of his father, John B. Dillon, a few weeks prior to his own, was the) means of hastening Father Dillon's death on Tuesday, the 8th of September 1885 when thirty-five years of age. About the time of his father's death he was convalescing at Cape May, New Jersey. Rev. Peter F. Dagget, recently ordained replaced him temporarily about June of that year. Fr. Dillon, naturally robust and vigorous, but neglecting proper precautions, became the victim of a complication of diseases. He received his early education from the Christian Brothers, at Saint Michaels, Philadelphia. At sixteen he entered Glen Riddle Preparatory Seminary: and five years later Overbrook Seminary, where he was ordained March 15, 1874. After four years of curacy at St. Charles, South Philadelphia, he was assigned in May 1878 to Pottstown, Pa., as " locum tenens," (i. e. acting pastor during the proper pastor's absence). In October 18 78 he was assigned to St. Malachy's, Philadelphia, as curate. When thirty-three years of age and nine years ordained, he was appointed, in March 1883, to be Father Reardon's successor. Rev. William K. Egan, who was Father Reardon's assistant when he resigned his parish, exchanged places with the new pastor and became assistant at St. Malachy's, Philadelphia. Singularly, both Father Dillon and Father Egan, passed into eternity the same year, in 1885; the latter January 13, the former September 8. While pastor of St. Bernard's, Father Dillon added many improvements to the church. He installed the first pipe organ ever used in the church which, while a rebuilt instrument, was of sweet tones and gave satisfactory service till replaced in 1918 by the present larger and finer instrument. "He was one of the best singers in the Archdiocese, a magnificent basso highly cultivated, an eminent vocal artist, and never chary of the gift of song." 17 " He was admired by everybody, his spirits as exuberant as his zeal." While in Easton, Father Dillon endeavored, without much success, however, to interest the young men of the parish in choir work, offering them a free musical education. On the occasion of his funeral, Friday, September ii, 1885, six thousand viewed the remains, people of several denominations, including most of the ministers of Easton, attended his obsequies. His remains were borne in public procession through the streets outside the church, to the adjoining cemetery, south of the church, and a beautiful monument was erected to his memory by the congregation of St. Bernard's. The churchyard where his remains rest became an eyesore after it was closed in 1886 and so remained till Rev. John E. McCann graded it and otherwise beautified it at parish expense of several hundred dollars for which the parishioners gratefully subscribed the reimbursement of the parish.

The Rev. John R. Dillon Monument

The Rev. John R. Dillon Monument closeup

The Rev. John R. Dillon Death Notice

The Rev. John R. Dillon Monument closer

Rev. Hugh McGlinn, Fifth Pastor

Rev. Hugh McGlinn, was appointed to succeed Father Dillon in 1885. He was born in County Tyrone, Ireland, and came to the United States quite young. Later in life, he returned to Ireland, and studied at Carlo College, where Archbishop Ryan was educated. He then entered St. Charles Seminary, Overbrook, and was ordained at the Cathedral, by Bishop Wood, June 22, 1865. Shortly afterwards, he was appointed curate at St. Ann's, Philadelphia. In August 18 87, he left Easton to become pastor of St. Mark's Bristol, and in November 1888, succeeded Rev. Maurice Walsh, V. G., as pastor of St. Paul's, Philadelphia. Here in 1891 he celebrated the silver jubilee of his ordination, and on the 22nd of August 1894 died. During his short pastorate in Easton, Father McGlinn revived and reorganized church societies and maintained the splendid parish organization of his predecessors.

On the 1 6th of August 1887, Father McGeveran became the sixth, resident, pastor of St. Bernard's, Easton. He was born at Athlone, County West Meath, Ireland, in 1848, but was brought to this country quite young and was raised in Port Clinton, Schuylkill County, Pennsylvania, where he learned telegraphy. He entered the Glen Riddle (later the 18th and Race Street) Seminary, when twenty-four years of age, and after spending some years (1868-1873), in Rome, was ordained June 7, 1873, and by a coincidence died June 7, 1915. On his return to America, he was assigned to St. Peter's, Reading, from 1875 to ^78; St. Vincent de Paul's, Minersville, 1878 to 1883; St. Paul's, Philadelphia, 1883 to 1885, as curate. In 1885, he was appointed pastor at St. Ambrose, Schuylkill Haven, with his former home of Port Clinton a mission to that parish. He left there August 16, 1887 to become pastor of St. Bernard's, continuing so till his death, in 191 5, a period of almost twenty eight years.

An Adopted Son of County

During his absence from June to September 1906, on a European tour, Rev. John Clement McGoveran, born at Altoona, November 21, 1869, and who came to Easton to live in 1871, administered the parish. Father McGoveran was graduated from the Easton High School in 1888, from Mount St. Mary's Seminary in 1892, and was ordained for the Harrisburg diocese in 1896. After singing his first Mass at old St. Bernard's, and pursuing a post graduate course at the Catholic University, Washington, D. C, he was appointed to a professorship in St. Mary's Seminary, Emmitsburg, Md., and only resigned this present year, to labor as curate, in the Harrisburg Diocese. Rev. James McGeveran, Sixth Pastor

When Father McGeveran returned from his European trip, in the fall of 1906, he received a great ovation from the people of Easton, irrespective of creed; when he observed the silver jubilee of his Easton Pastorate in 1912, a similar remarkable demonstration of affection and esteem was given by four thousand citizens of Easton at Bushkill Park, and he was presented with a substantial purse. One of his first acts when he became pastor of Easton was to care for the South Side Catholic Cemetery, belonging to St. Bernard's.

This he enclosed with a substantial iron fence, and otherwise put in good order. In 1889 he made necessary repairs and improvements to the church but on the occasion of his Sacerdotal Silver Jubilee, he made extensive alterations and enhanced the former beauty of the church by building the present alcove to the Sanctuary, inlaying its floor with mosaic, wainscoting its wall with tile, and installing three costly marble altars, the main one donated by the late James Smith, being a replica of the much admired altar in St. Charles Seminary Chapel, Overbrook. Oak pews, and birdseye-maple floor and new stained-glass windows were added, a new vestibule built and a new Sacristy entrance made at this time. The exterior was recast and the interior beautifully frescoed by Ferdinand Baraldi, a noted artist who painted on canvass the pictures of the Sacred Heart, the Holy Infancy, The Ascension, The Immaculate Conception, and The Apotheosis of St. Bernard's - all within the Sanctuary; ten Medallions, over the windows and one of St. Cecelia over the choir. Imported Stations of the Cross, and Munich stained-glass windows of the Annunciation of Mary Magdaline, St. Elizabeth of Hungary, St. Catherine of Alexandria, The Agony in the Garden, The Ecce Homo, and the Sacred Face. Father Reardon's gift window was not disturbed but the other windows were suitably altered. The opalescent window of St. Michael in the organ gallery, and those over the side entrances, were put in at this time. John M. Stewart was the architect. These improvements cost about fifteen thousand dollars. The present stairway, leading to the organ gallery was designed at the same time

The costly Mexican onyx and hammered brass Communion rail was also put in and the sacristy enlarged and a complete renewal of vestments and altar service made. Father McGeveran fully liquidated the debt thus incurred and in 1902 still further improved the church by installing a fine reed organ, which was donated by the Blessed Virgin's Sodality and he built an addition to the rectory of the third story and refectory. The parish hall was later fitted up under the church, and in 1910 new electric fixtures were installed. In 1909 the first school building was purchased from J. P. Correll for $11,000, and ten acres were procured in Palmer Township for $3,000.00 for a new burial ground.

The school was enlarged in 19 12 at an expenditure of about $7,000. Before he could cancel these new debts Father McGeveran broke down and in October 191 4 was moved to a sanitarium in Lansdale Pa., after some time in St. Agnes' Hospital, Philadelphia, under Dr. McCarthy, nerve specialist. He never returned to St. Bernard's, till his corpse was carried in the day following his death. He was buried from St. Bernard's amid a great outpouring of citizens of all denominations "because," as the Catholic Standard and Times of June 21, 1915 says, " of his kindly disposition, he was popular with 'Catholics and Protestants of Easton."

He was buried in Mt. Olive's Circle, Gethsemane Cemetery, the new burial place in the spot he had himself selected. It was his hope to live till the debts were paid and his hope was gratified as his successor had wiped out most of the debt and the new cemetery had been consecrated April 25, 191 5 by Bishop McCort. He willed $1000 of the $3000 life insurance he carried which was all he possessed of this world's goods, to the school he had founded. A1 mammoth granite cross was erected in the plot where hi si remains lie, the memorial of his grateful parishioners.

Rev. John E. McCann was appointed pastor pro tern, on his birthday November 7, 1914 and confirmed in the appointment permanently, June 12, 191 5. He has kept the Catholic Cause very much in the limelight and has secured much recognition and aroused healthy interest in things Catholic. The newspapers now prove very receptive of all information and publicity never heretofore considered necessary is given to Catholic affairs. As a tribute to his patriotism a number of citizens headed by State G. A. R. Commandant, Noah Detrick, represented him with a silk flag and standard during the Knights of Columbus War drive in 1917, which he holds among his most valuable possessions. A full account of his life and labors appeared in the local papers November 8, 191 5 on the occasion of a reception given in his honor to mark the first anniversary of his pastorate. He has acquired at a cash consideration of $8000 the adjoining property to the south of the school and had taken steps to acquire that to the north in the interests of civic betterment and education but fate decreed otherwise! He fathered the great project of Union Council, Knights of Columbus of Easton in establishing a home for themselves and ultimately a Catholic Welfare centre, - a Young Men's Catholic Association, along broad lines kindred to their War Welfare Work which has won the commendation of all Americans. He is also interested in the Boy Scout Movement as conducive to Americanization work and is vice-chairman of Easton City Scout Council and to an otherwise busy life adds active planning for the sake of Young America. It has been remarked that there is more activity at St. Bernard's in recent years than ever before in its long history of four score years. On the occasion of his 20th, anniversary of ordination he was surprised by his congregation with a reception and purse and has received many tokens of their love and esteem. The Mothers of the 191 7 Regulars in appreciation of his services donated a handsome electric cut-glass lamp for the benefit of his parish bazaar this present year and requested memorial services for the souls of the dead Catholic soldiers and sailors of St. Bernard's which they attended in a body.

Many capable assistants contributed to success of Parish. Distinction came to many. St. Bernard's first four pastorsy Herzog, Maloney, Brady and Reardon, were newly ordained when! they assumed the duties and burdens of the pastorate. Father Dillon was ordained nine years and Father McCann fifteen when the mantle fell upon them and Father McGlinn had been twenty years on the mission. None of these had ever been pastors previously. Father McGeveran was the only one of St. Bernard's pastors who had previous pastoral experience. He had been already two years pastor of St. Ambrose, Schuylkill Haven. The first three pastors never had assistants. They were young and vigorous and priests were scarce in those days and for this double reason curates were not assigned them. In consequence all died in their thirties. The first curate ever assigned to St. Bernard's and consequently to Northampton County came to Father Reardon in the person of Rev. Philip Gough, ordained by Bishop Neumann, June 11, 1852. He arrived in Easton in the spring of 1854 and remained till September. Then came Rev. Dennis O'Haran, just ordained, by Bishop Bailey, October 30, 1854. It was his first appointment and he remained till August 1856. He was in temporary charge of St. Paul's Philadelphia, in 1861 when that church was destroyed by fire November 26, 1861, during the time the Rev. Patrick F. Sheridan, the pastor was in Europe. He undertook the rebuilding and had things well under way when the pastor returned. In 1874 we find him pastor of St. Patrick's, Norristown and when the diocese was divided and Scranton made a separate See he cast his lot with the new diocese and died at Wilkes-Barre, Pa., in 1891. While Father O'Haran was in St. Bernard's Father Reardon went to Cuba for his health about 1856 and Rev. Dr. Joseph I. Balfe, D. D., was "locum tenens." Doctor Balfe was ordained in Rome, June 9, 1839 and was for some time one of the most brilliant professors of St. Charles' Seminary, Overbrook. He took care of St. Bernard's interests in the John McCauley bankruptcy case in which $900. of St. Bernard's funds were involved. McCauley had been made treasurer of the parish cemetery funds and when he became bankrupt he involved this account.

Father Balfe recovered $400 of the money by legal settlement and the parish actually lost $503.34. After that the Bishop ordered in June 1855 the local pastor personally to manage these finances, which was done till 1867 when Father Reardon was preparing to make a visit to Ireland, and Thomas Reilly of West Madison Street, South Easton, took charge and after his death in 1874, his widow, Hannah, did so. By request of Father Reardon they likewise assumed the agency for the sale of building lots into which two acres of the South Side Cemetery was converted. Father Reardon explained this transaction to Father McGeveran in a long letter which is in the parish archives. The Reillys subsequently turned over the sales money with interest $3114.20 to Father McGeveran.

Shortly after Father Reardon's return from Cuba, Rev. Lawrence A. Brennan, just ordained, (August 10, 1856) became curate and remained till appointed first resident pastor of St. Lawrence's, Catasaqua in 1858. Just before his arrival in Easton, land had been purchased in Catasaqua of Paul and Amelia Faust, on July 19, 1856. It comprised a half acre and cost $450 and was then in Allen Township. It was purchased " in behalf of the first Catholic church, and burial ground in Allen Township " (now North Catasaqua). On December 21, 1863, Bishop Neumann purchased from the same parties 42 feet additional for $110. " for a Roman Catholic Graveyard "

Father Brennan went regularly each Sunday from St. Bernard's to this mission and in 1858 located there as pastor. Father Reardon now remained alone till Rev. Peter Fģ Sullivan was ordained, February 27, 1863 but he stayed only one month in Easton. He died May 9, 1896 as pastor of St. Edward's church, Philadelphia, where Rev. Thomas McCarthy, formerly of South Bethlehem is now permanent rector and where Father Charles Vandegrift who succeeded Father McGlinn as pastor of Bristol and who donated one of the Stations of the Cross in St. Bernard's to Father McGeveran also died as pastor. In March 1863 Father Sullivan received into the church, at St. Bernard's Senator Broadhead, father of the late Judge J. Davis Broadhead. No curate came then till Rev. Philip McEnroe (who later died pastor of South Bethlehem) was ordained January 20, 1867, the year St. Bernard's was destroyed by fire. It was Father Reardon's design to visit Ireland again and the young priest was to have taken charge but the fire changed all such plans and Father McEnroe departed in June. In 1869 Father Reardon, having previously rededicated the restored church, found it possible to revisit the cherished scenes of his childhood, and Rev. Daniel Brennan, born at Carbondale, Pa., March 14, 1845, the son of a State Representative, and ordained the previous year, May 21, 1868, came from the Cathedral, and remained in Easton till November 1870. He returned to the Cathedral and was assistant there for seventeen years. He became Chancellor of the diocese under both Archbishops Wood and Ryan 1877-1885 and later pastor of the Assumption where he died July 12, 1898. He built a $60,000 church and frescoed it and paid the debt. Rev. Francis P. O'Neill, who was ordained January 28, 1866, an assistant at St. Bernard's August to October 1870, died suddenly August 8, 1882, by a singular coincidence at Saratoga, where Father Reardon first settled in America and the very year he resigned and returned to Ireland. Father O'Neill was at the time pastor of the newly organized St. James' parish, Philadelphia. He was born in Honesdale, Pa.

Rev. John Ash, ordained the same day as Father McGeveran, June 7, 1873, became that same year curate to Father Reardon and remained till January 1876. He died November 6, 1877, of consumption, at St. Francis Xavier's, Philadelphia when only 26 years old. He organized the Blessed Virgin Sodality at St. Bernard's February 2, 1874 and the St. Vincent de Paul Conference April 3, 1875 and by associating some of the ladies in this work laid the foundation of the Society of the Daughters of St. Elizabeth. Rev. Gerald Coughlin, now a domestic prelate with title of Monsignor, was ordained October 18, 1872. He was born in County Mayo, Ireland, and studied at Overbrook Seminary. He came to Father Reardon in 1877 and remained for thirteen months. In September 1878 he was made pastor of Pottstown, and four years later of St. Peter's, Reading, where he remodeled and enlarged the rectory and refurnished it at an expenditure of $5000. Seven years later he was transferred to organize a new parish in Philadelphia at Broad St. and Susquehanna Ave., and has since had the church consecrated after clearing church, school, rectory and convent of debt. He was appointed to our Lady of Mercy, October 14, 1879. Rev. Thomas Toner was an assistant at St. Bernard's from February 1876 to April 1877.

Immediately preceding Father Coughlin, Rev. James J. Timmins, who was born in Easton, and ordained July 6, 1871, was with Father Reardon from May to September 1877. He and his brother Joseph, who succeeded James as pastor of St. Michaerl, Chester, were altar boys in Easton under Father Reardon who baptised Joseph. Joseph was ordained June 22, 1896 and spent his entire career as his brother James' assistant and then as his successor in Chester, where he died in 1918 of pneumonia. James became pastor of St. Monica's, South Philadelphia, a parish organized by Rev. Owen McManus, an assistant of Father Reardon from July 1879 to May 1880. After Rev. Joseph Timmins' death, Father James returned to Chester, and is still its pastor. Rev. Thomas Shannon, ordained October 18, 1872, was curate under Father Reardon from April to May, 1880. He became later assistant at St. Ann's, pastor at Norristown, and died a few years ago as pastor of St. Francis Xavier, Philadelphia.

From November 1878 to June 1879, Rev. John W. Shanahan, who later became the first diocesan superintendent of parish schools, and later Bishop of Harrisburg, was another of Father Reardon's notable assistants. On April 7, 1 881 he was made pastor of Our Mother of Sorrows, and continued so till his transfer to Harrisburg May I, 1889, where he died February 19, 1916. He was ordained January 2, 1869, by his brother Rt. Rev. Jeremiah F. Shanahan, first Bishop of Harrisburg. Rev. Owen Mc￾ Manus, ordained June 18, 1879, instructed the writer to be an altar boy at St. Ann's, Port Richmond, Philadelphia whither he came from St. Bernard's, Easton, where he had succeeded Father Shanahan. After him came Rev. Joseph H. O'Neil first pastor of St. Francis, Philadelphia, and a brother of Rev. Francis O'Neil a former curate of Father Reardon. He was ordained February 26, 1877, and died October 3, 1902, at St. Francis de Sales. Father Reardon's last assistant and who assumed temporary charge of St. Bernard's after the retirement of Father Reardon in August, 1882 was Rev. Wm. Egan, a brother of Rev. David Egan. He was ordained June 24, 1880. Strangely enough, all his confreres ordained that same day, became associated with Northampton County as pastors, with the exception of himself and Rev. Hugh P. McGoveran who was an assistant at South Bethlehem; the others were Rev. Peter Quinn pastor of Catasaqua, Aloysius Fretz, German pastor at South Bethlehem and Rev. Bernard I. Conway pastor of St. Lawrence's Catasauqua.

With the retiring of Father Reardon to his Killarney Hills, in 1882, passed into history another prominent factor in the development of Northampton County's Catholicity in general and of Easton, its seat of government, in particular. The foundations of Catholicity had been securely laid by the foreign-born clerics on sturdy German, Dutch and Irish traditions. Well did they labor and wisely foster the discovered vocations that would make their work endure; a well educated, well trained native clergy assumed the burdens as they reluctantly laid them down. So far as we are aware, the present incumbent of the mother parish at the gateway of the Lehigh Valley, - Easton, in the first American-born pastor of Saint Bernard's, the only church of the title of the Archdiocese! So far as we can determine, the first vocation to the priesthood within the precincts of the original Northampton County was the Rev. James M. McCormick of Beaver Meadows, who died at Phoenixville, Pa., and over whom the writer got the local Sodality to erect a granite cross in St. Mary's cemetery there.

Father Reardon saw most of the English-speaking parishes under way throughout the county ere he returned to the Emerald Isle to chant his Nunc Dimittis. But the old order was changing and Mt. Libanus, Italy, Central Europe and the Balkan States were preparing to transplant their thousands into the slate and cement regions of the county; on its farms and in its buzzing industries. They spoke a strange tongue and new problems confronted the Catholics of the county. Priests came who spoke their language and soon church spires and school towers announced that the church was solving another problem and helping in the work of making new Americans.

Father McGeveran, a Roman student, was well qualified to become the patron and the patriarch of the original Italian settlers around Easton, Roseto and the Bethlehems, ably assisted by zealous curates. Successively all these curates have donned the pastor's cape and fallen heir to pastors' worries. Father McGeveran's coadjutors were Rev. Robt. Thompson, Robt. Hayes, David Munyon, Elmer Stapleton, Micha Bennett and David Leahy. When Father McCann took charge in the fall of 1914 the jurisdiction of the old mother parish had been restricted to Easton, South Easton, College Hill, Glendon Heights, West Easton, Wilson Township and parts of Palmer, Forks and Williams Townships. When the new St. Jane Frances parish was organized in the western section of the city the parish was still further limited and the number of assistants at St.

Bernard's reduced to one. Associated with Father McCann during his pastorate at the mother church of the County were Revs. Eugene Travers, Cornelius Burke, Nicholas Travo, Chas. Carmen, Thos. Colohan, James Hughes, Chas. Collum, Joseph Diamond and Edward O' Shea. Rev. Paul Sion and Rev. Anthony Yazbek and the Ruthenian priests stop at the rectory when they come to attend Syrians and Greeks.

For years the history of Catholicity in Northampton County coincided with the history of Easton, the county seat, and is largely the history of old St. Bernard's, at the gateway of the Lehigh Valley. But shortly after the coming of Father Reardon, who was widely known as "the gentleman of the Valley" because of his learning, polish and charities, new parishes began to multiply and the history of the county would be defective without a sketch of Catholic congregations of Easton, The Bethlehems, Northampton, Roseto, The Bangors, The Slate regions, North Catasaqua, Berlinsville, Martins Creek Bath, and Nazareth, all of which have contributed to make Catholicity in Northampton County both a fact and a factor.

• Penal Laws, The Catholic Encyclopedia
• A History of the Penal Laws against the Irish Catholics (Yale University)
• From Oppression to Nationalism: The Irish Penal Laws of 1695 University of Hawaii