This was the first St. Patrick's church, built in 1867 shortly after the Civil War. Franciscan Fathers organized the Catholic inhabitants of Limestone into a congregation. However it was recorded that two priests; Fr. McKenna and Fr. McEvoy probably said Mass in this district before the Franciscans arrived, but there is no definite date assigned or remembered by the earliest inhabitants of Mass having been said here before 1861. For several years services were held in the homes of town residents Rowan or Hennissy once each month. Arrangements were made for the construction of a small frame church - St. Patrick's through the work of Fr. Anacletus; that was to be located on property donated by the Donald Smith Company in Limestone, New York. The contractor who built this first church was James Coyle from Scio, New York. This served the congregation for about 10 years when the growing number of parishioners necessitated an addition to the existing structure. The growth of the oil industry in the area brought many people to Limestone causing the little parish to grow so quickly in size that Bishop Ryan decided they needed a resident pastor. In 1878, the Diocese appointed Father George Zurcher to that position. He came in the summer of 1878 and remained until February of 1881. Prior to this St. Patrick's was serviced by circuit priests. Fr. Zurcher was responsible for building the rectory in 1878 and obtaining land for additional church purposes such as a cemetery, etc. He was succeeded by the Rev. J. A. Laffin, and Fr. J. V. McInerney each only staying a few months. Fr. H. H. Connery took over in August of 1881 and stayed at St. Patrick's until July of 1883. It was during Fr. Connery's residence that missions in Carrollton and the Vandalias were added to the parish of Limestone. He was replaced by Fr. J. D. Biden who also added a new addition to the church, enlarged the parochial residence and exchanged the cemetery land for a piece of property more conveniently situated near the town. As the years went by the church was becoming more and more dilapidated looking and the Bishop suggested that it was not a credit to the congregation. As a result Fr. Biden began work on collecting funds for the creation of a new church. Before he could make much progress in this direction he was replaced by Fr. L. A. Smith in July of 1892. In the incredibly short period of one year the new church was completed and dedicated free of debt. Fr. Smith was succeeded in September of 1898 by Fr. F. Scullin who also made improvements to the parochial residence and church itself. He also built a small church for the two missions of Chipmunk and Vandalias. It is documented that Chipmunk had Mass some years before any Catholics settled in Limestone, but it was only occasionally, when some priest came that way. Services would then be held in the home of one of the Catholic settlers. Fr. Scullin remained until 1907, when the Rev. Edward Widman took charge for 11 years. Rev. Joseph Harrington replaced Fr. Widman and served as pastor until April 20, 1923 when the Rev. J. D. Linehan took over for him.
- Much of the information used in this history of St. Patrick's church was gathered from "The History of the Diocese of Buffalo" written by Rev. Thomas Donohue D. D. and published in 1929.
| The accompanying photo is of the present day church which was built in 1893. The steeple shown was struck by lightning and never restored to the height in this picture. Members of the New Ireland settlement attended St. Patricks church from the 1860's to the 1920's. Our Cleveland Hill Advanced Placement United States History class has found St.Patrick's a very helpful research source. At St. Patrick's, we have located some death, and marriage records of the original New Ireland settlers. There is also a St. Patrick's cemetery, located in Limestone. Many burial plots of the New Ireland settlers are found there. We will include the burial monuments and stained glass windows donated by the people of New Ireland below. |  |
This is a picture of our AP class. We are posing in front of the St.Patrick statue which was located inside of the church.
On Wednesday March 17, 1909(St. Patricks Day), the statue above was dedicated to the memory of Mr. and Mrs. Michael Rowan. The statue was donated by their children. The church was decorated in a profusion of carnations, gold harps and large green shamrocks for this dedication. The statue was blessed by Rev. J.B. Sullivan and the choir, of about 500, was led by Tony Strong.
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This photo is of Fr. Biden, one of the first priests to serve St. Patrick's Church and the parishioners that lived in New Ireland. |
The following document is a list of the contributions that the parishoners of St. Patrick's Church made for the year 1894. We have indicated the families of New Ireland by placing an arrow next to their names. This would give some insight as to the economic status of each of their households for that particular year.
The pictures below are the stained glass windows located in St. Patrick's Church.(1.Spellacy,2.Townsell,3.O'Laughlin)
