Villanova Digital Library - An early Catholic settlement: the third founded in the state of New York, St. James of Carthage, 1785-1818-1898. Records of the American Catholic Historical Society of Philadelphia. Volume X. Pages 17-77.

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Full Title	An early Catholic settlement: the third founded in the state of New York, St. James of Carthage, 1785-1818-1898. Records of the American Catholic Historical Society of Philadelphia. Volume X. Pages 17-77.
Author	Middleton, Thomas C. (Thomas Cooke), 1842-1923.
Date Added	11 January 2014
Language	English
Publish Date	1899
Publisher	Philadelphia : American Catholic Historical Society of Philadelphia
Source	Catholica ACHS
Topic	Catholic Church > New York (State) > Carthage > History.
About	More Details Permanent Link

OCR AN EARLY CATHOLIC SETTLEMENT. THE ‘rump Founmcn in THE Sun: on Nnw Yon, ST. JAMES or CARTHAGE. I785-I818-I398. BY REV. THOMAS C. MIDDLETON, D. D., 0. S. A. The story of Carthage mission is the story of the second Catholic congregation organized west of the Hudson River, where with settlers since 1785 a church was erected in 18:8,‘ the Albany church, whose corner-stone was laid on September 13, 1797, being the first. Less than a hundred years ago the whole territory along the northern boundary of New York, though nominally and oEci- ally American under the laws and government of the United States, was yet almost wholly French by political influence, settlement and language. The county of Jeierson, wherein stands Carthage, with which this paper is mainly concerned, was first settled by French, many of them from Canada, and in the last century inhabited perhaps exclusively by them.1‘ In 1805, March 28, by an Act of Assembly of the state of New‘ York, Jeferson county, (so- named in memory of the statesman, Thomas ]eiferson,) was carved out of part of Oneida county, whence sprang also the counties of Lewis, Franklin and St. Lawrence. ' t The names of some of these earlier settlers-“ squatters," we might fairly style them-in the district now known as Jeiferson county, were Pierre Penet, Simon Desjardines. "The date of the foundation of the Catholic church at Carthage assigned by nine annallsts to the year " 1819," we judge should be set one year earlier, as in the text’. for reasons that will appear further on. 1‘ one "of the chronicle:-s of Jeferaon county, John A. Haddock, of whom more further on, aaya that " to French capital and enterprine,are the inhabitants indebted for the earliest eforts to settle the Black River country.” (Page 329.) I7