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
Disclaimers	Disclaimer of Liability Disclaimer of Endorsement

OCR AN EARLY CATHOLIC SETTLEMENT. THE THIRD FOUNDED IN THE STATE on NEW YORK, S'1‘.JAMES or CARTHAGE. x785-18x8-1898. BY REV. THOMAS C. MIDDLETON, I). D., O. 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 178 5 a church was erected in 18r8,’l‘ 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 offici- 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 ]eE'erson, 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, Jefferson 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. ' 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 ussigned by some annalists 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 chroniclers of Jefferson county, John A. Haddock. of whom more further on, says that "to French capital and enterprise, are the inhabitants indebted for the earliest eiforts to settle the Black River country." (Page 329.) 17