Below is the OCR text representation for this newspapers page.

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-