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MARCH 27, 1937 THE BULLETIN OF THT CATHOLIC LAYMEN’S ASSOCIATION OF GEORGIA NINE
Spartanburg Catholic History Dates to 1851
Spartanburg’s Parish Church
Present Stately . Edifice
There Was Erected in
1883, Rectory in 1909
Church of St. Paul the Apostle
Spartanburg’s N. C. C. W. Is
a Most Active Organization
,e Spartanburg Council of Cath-
_ Women was organized in 1931
_der the patronage of Our Lady of
Good Counsel. The membership has
grown from 20 in its first year, to
E roximately 35 to date, although
number fluctuates, as new fami-
enter the parish, and others
leave.
The presidents of the Council are:
Mrs. E. P. Joyce, Mrs. L. C. Dodge
(deceased!, Mrs. J. P. Siener, and
Mrs. John Love, formerly of Green
ville.
The newly elected officers for 1937
are: Mrs. Leonard Becker, Sr., presi
dent; Mis. J. T. Crowley, vice presi
dent; Mrs. Louis Riebling, secretary;
Mrs. Bernard Sumner, treasurer.
The various committees are as fol
lows: Membership. Mrs. Thomas
Armstrong; charity, Mrs. C. E. Wend-
finger; visiting, Mrs. H. C. Gerry,
E i. Frank Kaminer; publicity, Mrs.
B. Hughes; ways and means, Mrs.
mard Becker, Jr.; entertainment,
Mrs. Thomas Armstrong.
The Council has been doing an in
creasing amount of charitable work
Since its foundation in Spartanburg.
The Council has given approximately
$200 of its income for charity during
the years 1935, 1936 and the first quar
ter of 1937, in addition to various sub
stantial personal donations of mem
bers of the Council.
Spartanburg Council is affiliated
with all the various charitable organ
izations of Spartanburg, and the fol-
^ 0^ ladies are representatives on
governing boards: County Tuber
culosis Association, Mrs. Leonard
Becker, Sr.; Tuberculosis Association
| Service Committee, Mrs. J. T. Crow
ley; General Hospital Auxiliary, Mrs.
H. C. Gerry, Mrs. Leonard Becker,
Sr., and Mrs. Frank Kaminer; Spar
tanburg Baby Hospital at Saluda, N.
<X Mrs. T. W. Woodworth: Cemetery
Maintenance Board, Mrs. T. W. Wood-
worth; Board of Camp Franklin (for
Underprivileged children of county),
Mrs. Leonard Becker, Sr.; Spartan
burg County Orphanage Auxiliary,
Mrs. Leonard Becker, Sr.
The Council participated in the lo
cal Community Chest drive. The fol
lowing ' ladies were solicitors: Mrs.
3. P. Siener. Mrs. H. O. Weisgarber,
Mrs. J. T. Crowley, Mrs. J. S. O’Neill.
Under the supervision of Mrs. J. T.
Crowley, member of the service com
mittee of the Tuberculosis Associa
tion, the members of the Junior Coun-
cH, just recently organized, sold tags
end Christmas seals for the 1936 fi
nancial drives of the Tuberculosis As
sociation.
, Under the auspices of the Council
of Catholic Women, a Junior Coun
cil was organized in October, 1936, and
the following officers were elected:
President, Miss Helen Siener; vice
president, Miss Janet Wendlinger;
secretary, Miss Catherine Sumner;
treasurer, Miss Victoria Miller. For
the short time it has been organized,
it is progressing rapidly. Two mem
bers of the Council are teachers in
the Sunday School, Mrs. Cecilia D.
Smith and Mrs. Leonard Becker, Jr.
The'Council members were enroll
ed 100 per cent in study clubs in 1936,
and the following five mmebers were
group leaders: Mrs. Cecilia D. Smith,
Mrs. Leonard Becker, Jr., Mrs. T. W.
Woodworth, Mrs. Louis Snelling, Mrs.
John Love.
The following list includes some of
the donations made by the Council
during 1936 and the first quarter of
1937:
Bishop Walsh's Summer Vacation
Camps, Father Dean’s Camp, N. C. C.
W. School of Social Service, Spartan
burg Baby Hospital, Saluda, N. C.;
Camp Franklin (foodstuffs, canned
goods, clothing and furniture). Tuber
culosis Association, Red Cross, Com
munity Chest, General Hospital and
Mississippi Valley Flood Relief.
Mrs. Cecilia D. Smith, member of
Spartanburg Council, is a member of
the State Board of Diocesan Council
of Catholic Women. She holds the of
fice of corresponding secretary.
Mrs. J. P. Siener, of Spartanburg,
is the president of the Greenville
Deanery.
The Spartanburg Council sponsors
a dance once a month, the proceeds
of which go to the work of the Coun
cil. Once a month, or at less frequent
intervals, the Council sponsors a par
ty for the parish to promote closer
friendship among parishioners.
In October, 1936, the Council, in ac
cordance with the expressed desire
of the Rev. Linus Verhelst, O.F.M.,
of Paterson, N. J., temporary admin
istrator of the parish, sponsored the
organization of an altar society,, to
have charge of the church linens, and
the arrangement of the altar for ser
vices. The dues go into a fund to re
plenish linens and to ’buy flowers.
Every lady of the Council is a mem
ber of the Altar Society, and the
president, of the Council functions as
president of the Altar Society. Mrs.
Cecilia Youngblood is treasurer of the
Altar Society.
As there are no extremely destitute
families in the parish, charitable work
within the confines of the parish is
negligible, but the Council sponsors
annually an Easter Egg Hunt, a
Christmas tree, and a Hallowe’en par-
C0LUMBIA, S. C., GROUP
ELECTS MRS. SWYGERT
(Special to The Bulletin)
COLUMBIA, S. C. — Society of St.
Francis de Sales held a meeting in
February in St. Francis Hall. The So
ciety has enjoyed a year of consider
able activity under the leadership of
Mrs. John Swygert, whose office ex
pired in January, but who was re
elected for another year. The other
officers re-elected were Mrs. P. H.
Morgan, vice-president; Mrs. W. J.
Cormack, secretary; and Mrs. George
Collins, treasurer. Many charitable
donations have been made, including
those to the Red Cross for the flood
sufferers and many for the poor and
sick. A card party was sponsored on
St. Patrick’s Day under the chair
manship of Mrs. B. B. Bellinger.
Father Mackin, pastor, gave an in
teresting talk. The first pastor of the
parish, the Rev. Father Jacques, was
a visitor in January, his first in near
ly fifteen years and he was tendered
a reception by his former parishoners.
BY FATHER FERRI
(Spartanburg Administrator)
It is extremely probable that before
the first recorded visit of a priest to
the Piedmont section of South Caro
lina, James Fields, a native of County
Cork, Ireland, had settled within the
present limits of the parish of St.
Paul the Apostle Spartanburg, S. C.
It is certain that he was here in 1851,
and the life of his
S. Elizabeth Fletcher,
Fletcher, who was bom in tnis
in 1852, almost parallels in time the
history of Catholicity in the north
western South Carolina. In 1850, the
year when the State of Georgia was
separated from the Diocese of
Charleston, and erected as the Dio
cese of Savannah with the Rt. Rev.
Francis X. Gartland as its first Bish
op, Father John Barry, who seven
years later became the second Bishop
of Savannah, visited Greenville,
where he located two Catholic fam-
headquarters. at Columbia, S ; C., the
Rev. L. P. O'Connell came into this
section, and later his brother, Father
Jeremiah J. O’Connell, author of
“The History of Catholicity in the
Carolinas and Georgia,” administered
to the small and scattered flock in
the Piedmont Territory.
FATHER FOLCHI—A resident of
this parish, Mrs. Ida Margaret Love,
widow of Mr. John Love re
calls receiving her first Communion
from the priest who next came to
shepherd the flock in this section, the
Rev. A. M. Folchi, S. J. Having ob
tained three degrees in his native
city of Rome, Italy, he entered the
Society of Jesus, making his novitiate
in Maryland,, and receiving priestly
ordination in the Cathedral of Vienna
in 1864. Father Folchi was appoint
ed professor of theology at the dis
tinguished University of Innsbruck,
in the German Tyrol, which gives
us an indication of his intellectual
attainments. His health failing, he
was dispensed from the obligation
of living in community with his
brethren of the society, and accept
ed an appointment to the South Car
olina missions from the third Bishop
of Charleston, the Rt. Rev. Patrick
N. Lynch, a distinguished alumnus
of the University of Propaganda
Rome. After many years of mis
sionary labors. Father Folchi_ re
sumed community life in 1877, joining
other members of the Society in Cali
fornia.
ty for the children of the parish. In
addition to this work, the Council dis
tributes Christmas baskets to needy
families, under advice of the Red
Cross, and local Council members, in
addition to clothing wherever re
quested. 0
The Spartanburg Council has map
ped out its program for 1937, and in
accordance Vith the wishes of Bishop
Walsh, plans to stress Catholic Ac
tion more than ever before. Mrs.
Leonard Becker. Jr., has offered to
compile a year-book for 1937, which
will contain detailed programs for va
rious meetings of the year, set dates
for parish activities, will set forth the
by-laws of the organization, and out
line the main objectives of the year,
in conformity with the aims of the
National Council of Catholic Women,
and the points stressed for Council
objectives by the Rev. Emmet Walsh,
Bishop of Charleston.
Mrs. Thomas Armstrong, as chair
man, of membership committee, is
planning an extensive campaign to
enroll every member of the parish in
the Council of Catholic Women.
During the next few years when
Fathers F. A. Smitz (1878-1880) and
Woolahan (1880-1882) cared for the
Catholics in this portion of the state,
the Catholic population of Spartan-
burg increased considerably with th^
advent of the families of Captain H.
A. Gwynn (father of the pastor of
St. Mary’s Church, Greenville, S. G,
and Dean of the Piedmont District,
the Rt. Rev. Msgr. A. K. Gwynn),
Mr. Simon Becker, Mr. A. C. Rudi-
sail, and Mr. Leonard Reibling.
BISHOP MONAGHAN—Not later
than a year after his appointment to
this district, the Rev. John J. Mon-
aghan was able, in 1883, to lay the
cornerstone of the Church of Saint
Paul the Apostle, a brick and stone
structure so sturdy and so ample in
size, that it has been found ade
quate to serve the needs of an ever-
increasing community to the present
day. This zealous missionary, who
was consecrated Bishop of Wilming
ton, Del., in 1897, a See which he
ruled until 1925, when ill-health
forced him to resign, never. forgot
his early charges, and after his epis
copal consecration gave the bell,
bearing the title of St. John, his pa
tron, which is still housed in the
Church tower. From 1888 to 1894
Father T. Hirschmeyer served this
area.
FATHER BUDDS—During the next
St. Leo College Prep.
School
Accredited High School
Conducted by the Benedictine
Fathers
Ideal Location
St. Leo Pasco County, Florida
six years (1894-1900) the Rev. Joseph
Dalton Budds, a priest who made an
indelible impression on all with
whom he came into contact by his
apostolic ardor, his gentle and court
ly manner, and his cheerful accept
ance of hardship, labored heroically
despite his physical frailness, to plant
and mature the Faith in towns and
mountain hamlets.
MSGR. GWYNN—After his depart
ure to Charleston, where he served
as Chancellor of the Diocese and rec
tor df the Cathedral until his death,
one man who spent his boyhood and
early manhood in Spartanburg, arid
pursued his classical studies at Wof
ford, College, a local institution, suc
ceeded to the charge of the vast
mission territory then attached to the
parish of St. Mary’s, Greenville, S. C.,
the Rt. Rev. Msgr. A. K. Gwynn,
Dean of the Piedmont District. With
in the borders of the territory as
signed to him two new churches have
developed, the Parish of St. Paul the
Apostle, of Spartanburg, and that of
St. Joseph, at Anderson.
FATHER FLEMING—As its first res
ident pastor, in 1909 came the Rev.
Bernard Fleming, a pulpit orator and
controversialist of rare ability, who
erected the parish rectory of tlje
Church of St. Paul the Apostle. After
his departure in 1911, the parish was
administered from Greenville. In 1917
a resident pastor was again appointed,
the Very Rev. N. A. Murphy, who
died later, was pastor of St. Peter’s
Church, Columbia, S. C., and dean
of the Columbia District. Dean
Murphy was succeeded by Father
J. Alexis Westbury, Father Michael
A. O’Neill, Father H. L. Spiesman,
Father T. J. McGrath, and Father
Thomas J. Mackin, who recently was
appointed pastor of the Church of
St. Francis de Sales, Columbia, S. C.
FATHER MACKIN—After Father
Mackin’s departure the parish was for
some months under the charge of the
Rev. Verhelst, O. F. M., who is now
busily engaged in organizing a new
parish at Greenville, S. C.
FATHER FERRI—The’ present in
cumbent, the Rev. Francis O. Ferri, a
native of Charleston, was appointed
administrator January 14, 1937. After
completing his primary education at
the Cathedral Grammar School in his
native city, Father Ferri was one of
the first students to be enrolled at
Bishop England High School. After
his graduation he commenced his
studies for the priesthood at St.
Charles’ College, Catonsville, Md... and
later completed his course in philoso
phy and part of his theological studies
at St. Mary’s Seminary, Baltimore, Md.,
from which he went to complete his
theological studies to the Sulpician
Seminary at the Catholic University
of America, where, in addition, he
pursued courses in educational meth
ods After obtaining his degree in
theology, Father Ferri spent his last
year of preparation for the priest
hood at Belmont Abbey.
BROTHER CANTIDIUS THOMAS,
formerly president of Manhattan Col
lege, New York, died there late in Feb
ruary. Brother Thomas also served sfs
president of the Catholic Educational
Association. !
Little Flower Camp
For girls in the Blue Ridge Mountains 12 •
miles from Asheville offers unique feature
of learning conversational French. Swim
ming, horseback riding, tennis, basket ball,
dramatics, dancing, music, arts, and crafts,
nature lore, exploring trips, all under care
ful supervision.
Address
REVEREND MOTHER
St. Genevieve-of-the-Pines
Asheville, North Carolina
DISTINGUISHED MEN
HAVE BEEN
OF CAROLINA P