The bulletin (Augusta, Ga.) 1920-1957, April 01, 1921, Image 14

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THE BULLETIN OF THE CATHOLIC LAYMEN'S ASSOCIATION OF GEORGIA 15 1915, this time going to the Buffalo Diocese. Under his administration the Cathedral debt of $1,600,000 melted away like snow under summer skies. In 1918 Bishop Dougherty became Archbishop of Philadelphia, and in his scant three years there he has formed no less than twenty-one new parishes. He has increased the annual collection for the dio cesan seminary from $100,000 to over $186,000, and made a similar favorable change in the Peter’s Pence Collection. The Holy Father is expected to assign Cardinal- elect Dougherty to the Church of St. Pancras, where in the year 1200 Peter of Aragon swore loyalty to the Church before Pope Innocent III. HISTORICAL SKETCHES OF THE PARISH OF ST. JOHN THE BAPTIST, SAVANNAH, GA. (Continued from Page 6.) to what disposition he is to make of the dead Priest’s belongings. We do not know when Father le Moine came to Savannah only that he died here in 1794. Bishop England relates that before the coming of Father le Mercier several Priests had passed through Savannah or died here; but they have left no records behind them. There was an Irish Priest named O’Reilly who came from Baltimore to Charleston on his way to the West Indies in search of health, about the year 1790 or 1791. He is known to have visited Locust Grove, and we may surmise that he stopped for a while in Augusta and Savannah also; but there is no record of such visit preserved. The Rossignols came to Savannah in 1792 with other French refugees, ar\d there were probably one or two Priests who accom panied them here; but we know of none before the time of the Abbe John le Moine, who lies buried somewhere in the old “brick cemetery” of Savannah, now known as Colonial Park. He remains, there fore, the first Priest who exercised the ministry here, of whom we have any definite record. Regarding the two witnesses to the above record, the following may be mentioned as worthy of note: Doctor Charles Parseille, as appears on the Church records, was married to Maria Joanna Emelia Tondee de Marizette. The baptism of one of their children appears on the old record book with an older child’s name as sponsor. From this and other records we learn that Doctor Parseille came from San Domingo, and was married probably after he arrived in Sa vannah. The name of “Tondee” suggests the pos sibility that Mme. Parseille was the grand-daughter of the famous Peter Tondee of Revolutionary days. The will of Peter Tondee is preserved in the records of Chatham County, in which he leaves all his prop erty to his wife, Lucy Tondee, and in the event of her death “to his own children,” to be divided “share and share alike.” This will was executed in 1775 and was probated, as appears from a marginal note, in 17 76, just after his death. It is, therefore, quite possible that the wife of Doctor Charles Parseille, witness to the first official record of the Catholic Church in Savannah, was a grand-daughter of this pioneer Catholic of the Colony and member of the Provisional Congress of Georgia at the beginning of the War of Independence. Thomas Dechenaux, the other witness to this old record, was made secretary to the board of trustees when the parish was organized, and always took an active part in Church affairs. His clear, beautiful and legible penmanship is very frequent in the pages of the old record book. He served on the City Board of Health in 1805 and 1806, and was elected Aider- man in the year 1813. He died while in office on July 23, 1814, in the 47th year of his age, and was lamented by Catholics and Protestants alike as an honorable and useful citi zen of Savannah. His death record appears on the old record book in the handwriting of Rev. Anthony Carles, rector at that time of the Church of St. John the Baptist. CLERICAL LIFE. (Continued from Page 7.) vault, otherwise I am sorry to say I will be compelled to blow out your brains.” The man had a pistol in his hand. The cashier’s wife and daughter promptly fainted, but the other lady turned around in her chair and opened a door just behind her and ran up stairs. One of the men started after her, but was promptly told there was no other way of getting out except by the Sixth Street door. As a matter of fact, there was a door, seldom used, on Market Street, and the girl went upstairs and down the corridor to the staircase leading to the door and was unchaining and unbolting the door when the noise she made was heard by the burglars and one of them ran out of the Sixth Street door, and as he came to Market Street he saw her running up the street. He went after her on a crowded street, but seeing her run into a store, hurried back to the bank to find that the cashier had not yet opened the vault. He gave the alarm and the burglars fled. In a little time fifty men were on the spot. The burglars took to flight, but were captured at midnight when they boarded a train at a way station some miles out of W. The grand jury promptly indicted them and they were tried at the ensuing term of court. They employed a very competent lawyer, who was afterwards an assistant district attorney in New York. The trial ended on a Saturday with a Verdict of guilty, and the chief justice promptly sentenced them to stand an hour in the pillory, receive twenty lashes on their bare backs and serve ten years in prison. Their counsel at once arose, and protesting against the flogging part of the sentence, appealed the case to the Federal court on the ground of the cruel and inhuman punishment. The chief justice said to him: "The court will hear this motion on next Monday morning at 10 o’clock, and forthwith adjourned the court. Before the pris oners were taken back to the jail the judge called the sheriff and told him to take the prisoners out into the jail yard and put them in the pillory and flog them at once. The sheriff did as he was told and no appeal was made. A few months after their prison sentence commenced they escaped from jail, but Frank re sumed his professional career, this time in Suffolk, Va., and was captured by the authorities. The State made a demand for Frank and as the evidence against him was rather weak, he was turned over to the of ficers from N. and brought back to prison. He had only been back a fortnight when 1 visited his cell. The cell was clean, but provided with only a bed, a chair, and a wash stand. Frank was standing as I