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DECEMBER 25, 1954.
THE BULLETIN OF THE CATHOLIC LAYMEN’S ASSOCIATION OF GEORGIA
FIFTEEN
1782, he resumed his duties as
Governor. The year following, at
the age of 36, only nine years
after he had come to the state,
he died at his estate, Tvaquin,
named after the family home in
Ireland.
Savannah's First Panish
(Copprighl, 1954)
In 1798, Father le Merrier mov
ed his headquarters from Locust
Grove to Savannah, where he said
Mass in the home of Pierre Jos
eph Mirault, a former officer of
the Army of France. He worked
tirelessly, ministering to the 200
Catholics in the city, journeying
the 135 miles to Augusta and the
nearly 200 miles to Locust Grove,
and long though lesser distrances
to the little groups of Catholic
along the coast as far as St.
Mary’s; he also visited Charleston
occasionally.
In 1799, the Episcopalians, Meth
odists and Lutherans were ap
plying to- the Mayor and City
Council of Savannah for lots on
which to build churches; Father le
Merrier added his petition, and it
was granted May 30, 1799. In
those days, immediately after the
adaption of the Constitution of
the United States and its Bill of
Rights, when the framers of these
immortal, documents were still
among the law-makers of the
nation, it must be presumed that
legislating bodies knew what the
Constitution, meant; they knew
nothing about any “wall of se
paration between Church and
State” preventing government as
sistance to religion.
Savannah's First Church
Exactly one^year later. May 30,
1800, the cornerstone of Savan
nah’s first church dedicated to
St. John the Baptist, was laid
March 22, 1801. The first cere
mony recorded in the church af
ter the dedication Mass was the
baptism of two Negro children,
slaves of Colonel Gordon and
Lewis Nicholas Allard. The parish
was incorporated in 1801 by the
Georgia State Legislature; the in
corporators were Don Emmanuel
Ringel, Thomas Dollaghan, Tho
mas Callaghan, John Shaw, Fran
cis Roma, Bartholomew Coquilion
and John Mocquet Montalet. John
Dillon and Thomas Dechenaux
signed as witnesses parish, docu
ments of this period which are
still in existance. John Dillon
read prayers at Savannah fu
nerals when Father le Merrier
and his successorrs were absent
on missionary visits to the coast
or interior missions. It was dur
ing this period that the first
church at Locust Grove was built,
a log cabin structure, succeeded
by a frame edifice in 1821.
Father le Mercier was pastor at
when he went to Charleston. The
only . other priest mentioned in
this period is Father Pierre B'a-
bade, a member of the Society of
St. Suipice, who escaped from
France to Spain during the Revo
lution, going from Spain to Cuba.
He hoped to start a school there,
but the Spanish authorities, sus
picious of French influence, plac
ed so many obstacles in his way
that he resolved to join his con
freres at St. Mary’s Seminary in
Baltimore. He stopped off in
Savannah in December, 1799, of
fered Mass December 6 at the
house' of Pierre Joseph Mirault
and, according to the parish rec
ords, officiated at the baptism
of two Negro slaves of Gabriel
Yvonnet. In Baltimore he was
spiritual director of Mother Sa-
ton’s School and taught French
at what is now 123 Montgomery
Street, Father le Mercier officiat
ing; the edifice was dedicated
and Spanish at St. Mary’s Col
lege. In 1820 he returned to
France; he died in 1846 in his
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T. J. KEARNS
Cjt'eetincjt
■ARNS
RELIABLE FINANCE COMPANY I
A Home Owned Company for Augusta People
2 Johnson Building
Augusta, Georgia
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F rom
i T. EARL SETTLE
Tax Commissioner, Fulton County
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Chairman, Georgia State Highway Board
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PHOENIX OIL COIPANY
Established 1919
FUEL OIL—PETROLEUM
Manufacturers -- Compounders —
Marketers -- Chemicals --
Sanitary Products
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625 Fifth Street
Augusta, Ga.
Phone 2-5321 M
native city of Lyon.
Augusta And Locust Grove
Father Felix McCarthy, about
whom little is known, was pastor
in Savannah for a shoi’t time in
16's; Fattier le Mercier return
ed temporarily in 180,5. Records
were signed by him in Savan
nah March 19 of that year; eight
entries dated June 5 list him as
officiating at baptisms and marri
ages in Augusta. There were 23
similar entries at Locust Grove
June 29. In Charleston he suc
ceeded Father Felix Gallagher,
who had trouble with the con
gregation as a result of the trus
tees system then common in
parishes. Father le Mercier in
turn had difficulty with the sup
porters of Father Gallagher, who
continued to spend much time
there.
In 1806 Father le Mercier re
turned to Savannah for his last
visit of record; his name is found
in the parish book as officiating
at fifteen baptisms and marriages
; from April 19 to 22. He signed
himself “rector of the R.C.C. of
Charleston.” He served in Char
leston until 1811, when he left on
a trip to the West Indies. He was
never heard from again; it is
believed he was lost at sea. But
the memory of his pioneering
work is still treasured in Geor
gia.
After Father le Mercier left
Savannah for Charleston in July,
1803, the congregation seems to
have been without a pastor until
the coming of Father Anthony
Carles in December. Father—or
Abbe—Carles signed himself as
“Priest Rector pro tem” Decem
ber 18, 1803, and in subsequent
weeks, but in February 77, 1804,
he is recorded as rector.
Father Carles was another vic
tim of the French Revolution,
an exile from his native land to
San Domingo. He was a close
relative of the Marquie de Mon
talet and of Madame Cottineau,
sister of the Marquie.
He was born in Aveyron in the
Diocese of Rodez, France, in 1754.
At the outbreak of the French
Revolution he was a Canon of
Guernsey. Finding a temporary
haven in San Domingo, the in
surrection there occasioned his
going to Pennsylvania with the
group which founded in Bradford
County the colony of Asylum. He
was one of the share-holders of
the colony, which was prepared
as a refuge for Marie Antoinette.
The emigres started the construc
tion of “La Grande Maison”
to receive her, but before it was
finished, word came of her ex
ecution. Father Carles then join
ed his kinsmen in Savannah.
Bishop Carroll appointed him
pastor of the Georgia congrega
tions, and what was intended to
be a temporary sojourn lengthen
ed into a stay of sixteen years.
Father Carles made his home in
Savannah. Capt. Nicholas de Ker-
loguen Cottineau and his family
lived with him. The Cottineau
name is one of the most famous
in the early history of Georgia.
The Famous Cottineau
Captain Cottineau was born in
Nantes in 1745; he was related to
the Picot Limoelan and Cloriviers
families. When John Paul Jones,
commanding the Bon Homme
Richard on September 23, 1779,
answered the British demand for
his surrender by his defiant “I
have not begun to fight,” his ship
was accompanied by the Pallah,
commanded by Captain Cotti
neau, and the Alliance, under
Captain Pierre Landais. Battling
them were the larger Sarapis and
Countess of Scarborough. Jones
captured the Serapis just as his
own ship was about to sink; Cot
tineau seized the Countess of
Scarborough after a vigorous
fight,, for which he was com
mended by Jones and Benjamin
Franklin. Landais rendered little
or no assistance, leading Cotti
neau to suspect that he intended
to stand by until the other two
ships were about to be over
whelmed, then coming in for the
rescue and a major share of the
glory. Cottineau expressed him
self so vigorously that Landais
challenged him to a duel; Landais
inflicted on him wounds from
which he never fully recovered.
Captain Cottineau was com
manding French ships in battles
aganst the English as late as
1790; he appears to have joined
the emigres to San Domingo, go
ing to Savannah after the upris
ing of the slaves. He married
Mille. Mocquet de Montelet, sister
of the Marquis de. Montalet. He
died in 1808 in Savannah, Fath
er Carles officiating at his
funeral.
The Cottineaus had two sons,
Denis and Achille, who studied
at St. Mary’s Academy, Balti
more. In 1812 Denis was a mid
shipman on the U.S. Corvette
John Adams, cruising in the
South Atlantic. One of his ship
mates named Pierson, also from
Savannah, was in Coventry, and
young Cottineau had to join in
the policy of ignoring him. On
watch with Pierson one night, he
told him that if he would chal
lenge him to a duel, he would ac
cept; after the duel he would stand
released from Coverty. Pierson
agreed to the plan and challenged
Cottineau. They faced each other
at daybreak in a field on the
coast. Cottineau fired into the
ground. Pierson aimed at Cotti
neau and shot him through the
heart.
The Marquis de Montalet had
the remains of his generous-
hearted nephew interred in
Savannah, next to those of his
father. Hal Steed in his “Georgia:
Unfinished States,” asserts that
Pierson was “ostracized a super-
numary for life.*’ Madame Cotti
neau returned to France, re-eiiter-
ing Court life and becoming Lady
in Waiting to a sister of King
Louis XVIII. But most of the
French who came to the South
east particularly to Savannah,
Augusta, Charleston and the coast
islands, remained and have made
a contribution to the develop
ment of the region out of all pro
portion to their limited numbers.
Savannah's Growing
Congregation
The Savannah congregation
was a growing one at the time
Father Carles became its pastor.
In 1804 he petitioned City Coun
cil for an extra lot for an en
larged church, but the appeal was
not granted on the ground that
there was none available among
the city lots already laid out. The
church was therefore extended
toward the street but it was still
crowded.
The records of the Savannah
parish have lapses reflecting the
visits Father Carles made to Au
gusta, Locust Grove and the little
groups of Catholics along the
coast. Shortly after he came to
Georgia he said Mass in Augusta
in the home of Mr. Bignon on
Broad Street, where Father le
Mercier had offered the Holy Sac
rifice. In Savannah he conducted
a school where “French and good
manners” were taught.
In 1811 Father Carles and the
trustees of the Savannah parish
renewed their petition to City
Council for a lot for a larger
church, stated that continued im
migration from France, the West
Indies and Ireland had increased
the size of the congregation. They
asserted, moreover, that since
most of the immigrants had left
for America to escape persecu
tion, they had not been able to
increase the finances of the
parish correspondingly. The
Mayor and Council respond
ed by conveying two lots facing
Elbert Square. The lots were cer
tified by Isadore Stouf, City Sur
veyor, a native of France and a
member of the parish. Funds
were not immediately available
to build a church but a rectory
was provided for the pastor. The
first church served until the com
pletion of the second Church of
St. John the Baptist in 1837.
Parallel Progress In Augusta
While the Catholic congrega
tion was growing in Savannah,
there was parallel progress in Au
gusta. In 1808, when the Sees of
New York, Philadelphia, Boston
and Bardstown were erected, Bal
timore was elevated to the dignity
of an Archdiocese; its territory
still included Georgia and the en
tire Southeast. In 1810 Archbishop
Carrol, named Father Robert
Browne, an Augustian, pastor of
Augusta and Locust Grove,, Fath
er Browne was a native of Ire
land, where he had labored be
fore coming to the United States
about 1807. The Augusta congre
gation was incorporated by an
act of the legislature December
10, 1811. The trustees of Rich
mond Academy were authorized
to convey to the parish the lots
on which the church was built
and on which the present church
now stands. The first church,
started in 1811, was blessed on
Christmas Day, 1812. In 1816 a
rectory was built.
Father Browne was a close
friend of Father Gallagher in
Charleston, and was associated
with him there before he went
to Augusta. Father Gallagher’s re
lations with the Charleston con
gregation and with Archbishop
Carroll and his successors were
very often strained. Father Gal
lagher’s difficulties became in a
large measure Father Browne’s
also. The Augusta pastor went to
Rome in 1816 in connection with
the dispute involved in the sus
pension of both priests; the dif
ficulty ws not resolved finally
until the coming of Bishop Eng
land to Charleston in 1820.
Father Browne’s successor in
Augusta was Father John Egan
who brought tragedy to the con
gregation by apostatizing and at
tempting marriage. Father Sam
uel Cooper went to Augusta in
1819, shortly after Father Egan’s
departure. Father Egan after his
apostacy had attacked the Real
Presence. There is a tradition in
Augusta, recorded by Msgr. Pe
ter Guilday in his Life of Bishop
England, that Father Cooper told
his congregation that proof would
be given the following Sunday to
refute the apostate. He then be
came terrified over his assertion
and spent the time before the fol
lowing Sunday in prayer, asking
that he be saved from the' fruits
of his rashness. At. the consecra
tion of the Mass Father Cooper
uttered a cry of astonishment; as
he elevated the Sacred Host, the
Precious Blood is said to have
run down his fingers and hands
to the corporal.
Father Cooper And
North Seton
Father Cooper was pastor when
Bishop England came to Charles
ton in 1820; he left in 182-2 to
return to Baltimore. He was a
convert and a man of means; he
was a friend of Mother Seton, and
long before he went to Georgia
he gave her the generous sum of
$8,000 for her new Order, tha
Sisters of Charity. It was Father
Cooper who influenced her selec.
tion of the Maryland site since
known as St. Joseph’s Valley in
Emmitsburg, Md. Thus is Georgia
associated with the beginnings of
the apostolic work of the heroic
American convert whose cause of
beatification has - been intro
duced. >
Meanwhile the Savannah con
gregation flourished every way
but financially. Unable to build
on the lots conveyed to the con
gregation in 1811, they were sold
in 1819 on condition that the
funds be ear-marked for a new
church whenever it was possible
to build it. In the War of 1812,
Savannahians feared that the
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