This article was written by Rev. Thomas J. Peterman and is reproduced here with his express permission. A copy may also be found on the St. Dennis Church website at http://www.stdennischurch.org/OLDBOHEMIA.htm There you can also find information on a book commemorating the 300th anniversary of Old Bohemia which has recently been released for sale.
OLD BOHEMIA, 1704-2004
by
Rev. Thomas J. Peterman
Old Bohemia is the cradle of Catholicity in the Delmarva Peninsula and the mother church of the Catholic Diocese of Wilmington. It is, therefore, of prime interest to us locally and nationally, especially for the critical role it played in the formation of the colonial American Catholic Church. In spite of fire, neglect, and occasional disarray, Old Bohemia stands proudly today as a testament to three centuries of faith.
There have been forty-two pastors of St. Francis Xavier Church, Bohemia, including the present incumbent. Twenty three of them were Jesuits, of the Order founded by Ignatius Loyola in 1534. A century later the Jesuits came to Maryland with the Calverts on The Ark and The Dove, and in 1704, Father Mansell founded the first permanent Catholic establishment on the Eastern Shore. It would remain the only Catholic Church there for the next sixty years. Besides the eight English Jesuits who first served as pastors at Bohemia, there were an Irish Augustinian, an Irish Capuchin, an Irish Diocesan, and two French Sulpicians. Then followed a French Jesuit, a Swiss Jesuit, a German Jesuit, and finally a member of the American born Jesuits. After the Jesuits left Bohemia in 1898, there have been thirteen American born Diocesan pastors.
Some of these pastors served for long periods of time. The founding pastor, Thomas Mansell, served for eight years. His successor, Thomas Hodgson, stayed for fourteen years, John Lewis for twenty-four, George King for eighteen, George Villiger for twenty-three, Charles Crowley for twenty-five, and John H. Walsh for twenty-seven years.
Seven Archbishops of Baltimore and eight Bishops of Wilmington have visited Bohemia, preached there, and up to 1908 bestowed the Sacrament of Confirmation there.
Ten priests are buried in the cemetery at Bohemia. Eight of them were Jesuit pastors, and two who were not Jesuits. The first of these was Stephen Faure a French missionary who had fled the insurrection in Saint Domingue and was the first priest to live in Wilmington, Delaware. The other was Charles Whelan, an Irish Capuchin, who founded the first Catholic Church in New York City, and who served for many years as pastor of St. Mary’s, Mill Creek, in New Castle County, Delaware.
The only educational effort made by the Jesuits at Bohemia was a classical academy, begun in 1745 and which experienced only a brief and precarious existence. The teachers were Fathers Thomas Poulton, John Digges, Richard Molyneux, and James Farrar. The only record of the academy is a tattered account book, now kept in the Georgetown University Archives, but the pages of that book contain such illustrious names as Daniel Carroll, a writer of the American Constitution, John Carroll, the first American Catholic bishop, Philemon Charles Blake, John Sayer Blake, Leonard Neale, Charles Neale, and several others. Charles Carroll of Carrollton, the only Catholic signer of the Declaration of Independence, is traditionally listed as a student at Bohemia by his biographers, though there is no documentary evidence to prove it.
Bohemia was never a large congregation, but it was important as a base for serving an extensive mission area. The Jesuits reached out from Bohemia first to Appoquinimink Forest in southwestern New Castle County, Delaware, establishing a church there as early as 1706. A collection of manuscript sermons dated as early as 1726, now preserved in the Georgetown University Archives, records locations where the sermons were given (Queenstown, Georgetown, Head of Bohemia, Taylor’s Bridge, Duck Creek, Odessa, Middletown, New Castle, and Lewes). In 1735 Father James Farrar began to log missionary journeys from Bohemia. Father John Lewis, for instance, in the same log listed some 241 missionary excursions for himself. The Jesuits visited Mill Creek in Delaware as early as 1730, and in 1772 established there the first Catholic church in Delaware. In 1733 Father Joseph Greaton established the first Catholic church in Philadelphia. Bohemia was the parent church of churches in Elkton, Galena, Mill Creek, Chesapeake City, Chestertown, and Middletown.
In 1704 the Jesuits came to Bohemia Landing in upper Cecil County. It was a trading post and near the “Delaware Path,” an artery of traffic between the Chesapeake and Delaware bays. There were a number of Catholic Irish families in the area who had been settled by Colonel George Talbot at Susquehanna Manor in the 1680s. More recently Charles Carroll the Settler had brought in many more Catholic Irish to New Munster. In 1708 the Sheriff reported the presence of 49 “papists” in Cecil County. Father Mansell had already visited these pockets of Catholic families before deciding to move to Bohemia.
One of the many families was the Heath family at Worsall Manor. James Paul Heath sold the original St. Xaverius plot to the Jesuits. He was founder of the town of Warwick, and cleared a 12 mile path from there to Bohemia church. Upon his death he was buried at a farm called Warren. In 1959 his remains were removed from an almost forgotten grave and reinterred at Bohemia cemetery. One of his sons became a Jesuit and spent the remainder of his life in Europe. Another son, Daniel Charles Heath lost ownership of Worsall Manor. At Buck Tavern in Summit, Delaware, in November, 1791, he engaged in an argument with Dr. William Matthews and eventually challenged him to a duel. His son, Richard Key Heath stood in for him and faced James V. Matthews, who stood in for his uncle William. James V. Matthews was killed in the duel. Father Beeston came to offer graveside prayers for him at Worsall Manor. Kitty Knight’s mother was a Matthews. Kitty is buried at Bohemia cemetery next to the grave of her uncle William. Kitty attended Mass at Bohemia and the Jesuits visited her plantation which she managed until her death at age 84. Other families whose lives were intertwined with the story of Old Bohemia were the Craddock, Brooke, Scanlan, Councell, Willson, Lee, and Mitchell families.
Most of these families earned their livelihood from farming. However, as more and more Irish immigrants poured in through the port of entry at New Castle, Delaware, increasing numbers of them found work in digging the C and D Canal, the construction of which began in 1803, under the direction of Benjamin Latrobe. By May of 1804 a crew of fifty Irish laborers was employed there. They were poorly paid and their living conditions were wretched. In October 1804 an Irish brawl at the Elkton race track resulted in one person’s death and several injured. Because of failure of funds work was discontinued in 1805 and not resumed until 1821. In 1827 as many as 2000 Irish laborers were employed in completing the canal. It opened in 1829. In the meantime, hundreds of Irish laborers found work in the development of a transpeninsular turnpike, completed in 1814. This stagecoach turnpike was the main route across the top of the peninsula until the C and D Canal opened fifteen years later. The first railroad in the eastern United States was constructed from New Castle to Frenchtown in the 1830s. By April of 1831 more than a thousand workmen, mostly Irish, were employed in its construction. At first two stagecoaches drawn on rails by horses made a daily trip, stopping a Glasgow to take on a fresh team of horses. Then came a steam locomotive fired by wood. Hundreds of people enjoyed Sunday excursions on the train, while livestock on the farms bolted in fear as they saw the iron monster approaching across the field belching sparks and smoke. This earliest railroad ran until 1843 when it was absorbed by its rival, the Philadelphia, Wilmington, and Baltimore Railroad.
In 1910 Bishop Soter Stephen Ortynsky, of the Ukrainian Order of St. Basil, purchased about seven hundred acres of land near Chesapeake City, to help his Ukrainian people settle as farmers in the area. Father Crowley welcomed them at Bohemia until their own church, St. Basil’s, was completed by the end of the First World War. Their first resident priest came to Chesapeake City in 1930.
Besides ministering to their Irish and English parishioners scattered over a wide area, the Jesuits regarded it a serious part of their service to minister to the numerous slaves on their own plantation and on the many plantations under their pastoral care. The pastors of Bohemia were charged with the management of the farm, and were dependent upon it for their livelihood. They had no other source of income except the occasional contributions of wealthier Catholics and occasional bequests in their wills. The Jesuits had agreed that there would be no offertory collection taken at Mass because of the extreme poverty of most of their parishioners. Like any typical plantation, Bohemia had its share of Black slaves to perform farm and household tasks. The practice was common in religious institutions in southern and border states until after the Civil War. The Jesuit literature on slave holdings reveal that these servants at Bohemia were wel- fed, well-housed, and well-treated. The Bohemia Daybook records the clothing and food set aside for them. In 1765, Father Hunter reported an annual income from12 slaves at Bohemia a total of 108 pounds. The first United States Census (1790) shows that at Bohemia there was one white (Father Beeston) and 49 Blacks.
In 1813 Father James Moynihan farmed 12,000 acres with the help of 29 slaves at Bohemia. Archbishop John Carroll took special steps to plan for the emancipation of slaves at Bohemia, providing before his death in 1815 for the manumission of various slaves who had served for a number of years. The Jesuit Visitator of the Maryland mission, Peter Kenny, in 1821, gave the order to the Jesuit farms in Maryland to “part with the slaves.” In that year there were fifteen Black slaves at Bohemia. By 1838, when Pope Gregory declared the African slave trade immoral, there were still a few slaves at Bohemia, largely because of conditions for release of slaves required by the Jesuit provincial, such as that families remain intact and that no slave of advanced age be let go. As late as 1860, just prior to the Emancipation Proclamation, the record shows just one slave by the name of Sam, age 31, at Bohemia. This is the last mention of slaves at Bohemia.
By the end of the War Between The States, German immigration equaled the Irish influx. We find the Bohemia sacramental registers now filling with names such as Krastel, Roemer, Walderberger, Bogenschultz, Stapp, Schaefer, and Huegler. Father Villiger, pastor of Bohemia for 23 years, was conversant in German and welcomed these new immigrants, who were welcomed as excellent farmers in Cecil County.
In the late 1800s a major annual event was the Forty Hours Devotion and Parish Picnic at Bohemia. Held in mid-August it was attended by scores of Jesuits from Georgetown College and St. Joseph’s College as well as by hundreds of parishioners from Elkton, Galena, Chesapeake City, and Middletown.
In the 1920s, the C and D Canal was widened and the locks removed, resulting in the loss of local business. Ships passed through and no longer stopped over. People moved away to find other work. Peach blights over several years caused many farmers to go bankrupt and to move away. The congregation at Bohemia was diminishing.
In 1898 the Jesuits turned over the church, rectory, and cemetery at Bohemia to the Diocese of Wilmington. They continue to own some 900 acres adjoining the church and cemetery which they lease to local farmers. Three diocesan priests served as pastor of Bohemia until the parish center was moved to Middletown in 1908. Regular Sunday Mass was offered at Bohemia until 1923. A fire that started in the chimney gutted the church in January, 1912. Bishop Monaghan and Father Charles Crowley, pastor, succeeded in rebuilding the ancient shrine.
An annual Field Mass was begun by Father Crowley at Bohemia in 1927. At the time of the American depression, the diocese sold the original property purchased by Father Mansell in 1704, where the Jesuits had their plantation headquarters and their water-powered grist and saw mills, their shops, and various farm buildings. With gas rationing during the Second World War even the annual Field Mass at Bohemia was discontinued. The buildings and the cemetery fell into neglect and disarray.
In September, 1952, Frank Krastel joined Jesse T. Otley and Alfred N. Philips at a meeting with Reverend John H. Walsh to organize an effort to save Old Bohemia. This resulted in the organization of the Old Bohemia Historical Society, an inter-denominational group, which was incorporated in 1953. They held the first Old Bohemia Day on August 16, 1953. Then, with a grant of $25,000 from the Raskob Foundation, major repairs were undertaken. Jesse D. Otley was named director of restoration in 1953. Two years later the firm of Pope and Kruse was engaged to conduct an archeological dig. A report was submitted in 1956. An old brick foundation uncovered in front of the rectory (built 1825) was accepted as a remnant of the building that had served as the house-chapel-school between 1720 and 1745. The first building was a log structure, part of it set aside as a chapel. The first brick structure was built in 1720 by Father Hodgson. The present church was begun in 1792 by Father Beeston and completed in 1797 by Father Maréchal. Today the main complex includes three connected buildings.
In 1958 a historical marker was placed at Warwick. In 1960 running water and electricity were installed in the rectory building. The first annual newsletter (now a quarterly) was mailed in 1963. In 1970, seven thousand brochures and hundreds of picture postcards were printed to publicize Bohemia. In 1975 the St. Francis Xavier Shrine was listed on the National Register of Historic Places. A year later, a book on Bohemia was published by Joseph C. Cann, as part of the celebration of the U.S. Bicentennial.
Frank Krastel died in 1985, and was replaced by James Garrigan. The Visitors Center was opened in 1986. In 1992 Father Thomas Flowers was elected president of the Society. He gave many lectures to visitors and promoted the shrine as a pilgrimmage center. In 1995 the church was renovated and the cemetery expanded.
In the spring of 2002 Marji Matyniak was elected fourth president of the Society. Preparations were begun to celebrate the Tercentenary. An inaugural Farm Show was held on October 18, 2003 featuring antique farm utensils, vintage engines and tools. On October 26, 2003, Bishop Saltarelli officially opened the tercentenary with the celebration of Mass and the raising of the Tercentenary banner. On April 18, 2004, a Jesuit priest from Loyola College, Baltimore, Reverend Joseph Rossi, celebrated a special Mass and gave a talk on Bohemia’s history. On May 16, 2004, Bishop Basil Losten celebrated Ukrainian Day, commemorating the strong tie between local Ukrainian people and Bohemia. The tercentenary celebration will culminate in a Mass offered by Bishop Michael Saltarelli on October 24, 2004.
The Old Bohemia Historical Society has succeeded in restoring and perpetuating the entire complex of church, rectory, grounds, cemetery and farm museum. Up to the present moment the board and members of the Society continue to support and promote interest in this hallowed spot, and to guarantee that the beacon of St. Xavier Shrine will shine on into a bright and certain future.