Newspaper Page Text
4
THE BULLETIN OF THE CATHOLIC LAYMEN’S ASSOCIATION OF GEORGIA
November 2 1 st, was the address by Mrs. W. W. Battey,
Sr., of Augusta. Her wonderful earnestness and the
brilliancy of her thought, as well as the loftiness of
her theme, thrilled all, both men and women. The
State officers unhesitatingly declare that they were
fortunate in securing her for the Wilkes County meet
ing. Washington holds the record in Association
subscriptions, for the seventeen adult Catholics last
year subscribed nearly $1,300.00 for the work. And
the thriving little city is also remarkable for the
good-will that prevails among citizens of all creeds.
Even the Catholics who are so generally despised
in most places are there held in high regard. This
is mighty pleasant to record, but it could hardly be
otherwise, for the Washington Catholics would stand
well anywhere. They are mighty fine folks.
Following the talks by State President Rice and
the chairman of the publicity department, Mr.
George A. Poche and Mrs. L. A. Fortson were named
president and vice-president, respectively, while Dr.
J. P. Toomey is secretary-treasurer.
HISTORICAL SKETCHES OF THE PARISH OF
ST. JOHN THE BAPTIST, OF SAVANNAH
BY VERY. REV. JOSEPH D. MITCHELL, V. G.
Savannah and Augusta are the two oldest Catholic
settlements in our State which remain to the present
day. The colony of Locust Grove, a few miles from
Sharon, is usually styled the “cradle of Catholicity in
Georgia. This claim is true so far as its being the
first organized parish is concerned. But the first in
dividual Catholics who came to Georgia settled in
Savannah and Augusta; and Savannah, being the sea-
po:t town, may rightly claim that from the beginning,
as now, the Catholic religion radiated from this place
as its center throughout the other parts of the State.
Locust Grove was settled shortly after the Revo
lutionary War by a few Catholic families from Mary
land. The oldest records we have from this place
go back to 1 794. The records of the parish of St.
John the Baptist in Savannah begin with the year
1796; but there is evidence that a little Catholic col
ony existed in this city for several years before, and
its people were attended from time to time by a
priest from Baltimore or Charleston.
It is quite true that Georgia was the last of the
thirteen English colonies, and that its charter pro
hibited Catholics as citizens. Yet in spite of this
there are evidences that Catholics were here from
the beginning, and there is history attached to the
first Savannah parish as interesting and as full of
romance as that of any part of the country. It is my
purpose to gather together what facts there are and
put them in such form that they may be preserved by
future generations. Many of the characters who
helped in the founding of the Church in Savannah
are not only deserving of remembrance, but their
lives will be an inspiration for others to emulate and
follow.
The Early Spanish Missions.
The first Catholics in Georgia, so far as any records
show, were the Spaniards. Our ordinary school his
tories, generally written from a New England Puritan
standpoint, either gloss over their exploits, or else
paint them in colors of cruelty and avarice. It may
be that many of these early settlers and explorers
were guided by ambition and desire for riches and
worldly fame; but they were often accompanied by
holy men of God, whose only purpose and desire in
braving the dangers of the forest was the bringing
of the Light of Faith to the savage Indian tribes. The
early story of the Floridas and Carolinas and the
points along the Gulf is one of intrepid zeal for the
faith, strong religious fervor, and heroic martyrdom.
Georgia was the scene of the first Christian baptism
on record in the New World, when, in the ill-fated
expedition of De Soto, two Indian neophytes were
baptized and received into the Church at a point
about the center of this State, near where the city
of Macon is now located. Along the eastern coast,
from St. Augustine to the Carolinas, military posts
were established, and from these as headquarters,
Spanish Dominican and Franciscan Friars labored
among the Indian tribes and brought many to the
knowledge of the Christ. Between the years 1650
and 1 705, as nearly as we can guess from the meagre
records preserved, Franciscan missions extended from
St. Augustine in Florida to the mouth of the Savan
nah River. These were for a time in a flourishing
condition, until the encroachments of the English
from Virginia and the Carolinas, and their repeated
attacks upon the Spanish towns and villages, caused
them to be broken up and abandoned. Under Gov
ernor James Moor?, of South Carolina, a cruel, big
oted and ambitious man, the pagan Indian tribes
were aroused to attack and put to the sword or tom
ahawk all who offered any resistance. The Indian
missions were ruined, the converts scattered, and the
early missionaries either killed or taken prisoners or
left to wander in the forests and find their way back
to the Florida settlements as best they could. This
was from 1701 to 1706.
So far as Savannah is concerned, the city at that
time had no existence. The territory of Georgia,
lying as it did between the Carolinas and Florida, was
claimed by both Spanish and English. After many
years of dispute and conflict, it was finally ceded to
the English in the early period of the eighteenth
century, and in 1732, General Oglethorpe obtained
from King George II a charter for the foundation of
a new English colony, ostensibly as a refuge for op
pressed debtors, but also, in the minds of the British
councillors, to form a “buffer state” in order to pro-