Father Gallitzin Comes to the McGuire Settlement
During the year 1796 Mrs. John Burgoon, a non-Catholic, having become sick with what she feared to be a fatal illness and desiring, through the grace of God to die within the fold of the Catholic Church, asked for a priest to prepare her for death and Mrs. Luke McGuire, whose maiden name was O'Hara, and another lady, set out on horseback through the wilderness to Conewago, 130 miles distant, to ask a priest to come to the settlement on this mission of mercy. A priest then known as the Reverend Mr. Smith, now revered as Father Gallitzin, returned with them, received the sick woman into the Church; but she did not then die, but lived for many years afterwards. "Father Smith" made several visits to the settlement and being impressed with the sublime solitude of the place with its dense forests of lofty pines, its fertile soil and pure water deemed it a suitable place to locate a Catholic colony to get people of his faith away from the temptations and dangers of towns and cities, asked permission from his ecclesiastical superior, Rt. Rev. John Carroll, first Bishop and afterwards first Archbishop of Baltimore and the entire United States, for permission to locate in this settlement, and in answer to his request, the good Bishop, ever his firm friend, after stating that he had intended to give him a more important mission, granted the desired permission; and about the middle of July, 1799, the future Apostle of the Alleghenies, arrived at the McGuire settlement and availing himself of the bequest of the late Captain Michael McGuire of 400 acres of land for the use of the Church, immediately commenced the erection of the church of pine logs, chunked and daubed, with a roof of pine shingles, 25 by 40 feet in dimensions, and everything having been completed, the little church decorated with festoons of evergreens, it was on Christmas morning, 1799, the last year but one of the eighteenth century, blessed by the pastor under the protection and patronage of Blessed Michael the Archangel and under the title of St. Michael's, the parish still exists although for some years it was called St. Mary's, but its really only canonical name was restored to it by the late Very Rev. Father E. A. Bush, when pastor of the parish.
[Page 17 - History of Parish of 5t. Augustine, St. Augustine, Pa.]
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Still yet another account told by J. Tuigg
written by "The Rev. Morgan M. Sheedy, in "The Pittsburgh Observer"
(I am uncertain the origins of this text, so if you happen to be familiar with the story, or know its' origins, please drop me an email. Thank you!)
Prince Gallitzin's First Visit to the Allegheny Mountains
On the spring of the year 1795 Doctor Gallitzin, then called the Rev. Mr. Smith, received the first convert to Catholicity on the Allegheny Mountains and under the following circumstances:
"In the year 1770 Susanne Barlow, born of Methodist parents, was married by Rev. Mr. Mulhall to John Burgoon, a Catholic, somewhere near Elk Ridge, MD, Susanne's birthplace. After marriage they lived up to the year 1794 at Pipe Creek, now Adams County, PA. In the spring of the following year, Susanne took sick and expressed a wish to be received into the church. Ath the time, Conewago, Adams county, was the nearest point at which a priest resided; and as there were no railroads or any other public thoroughfares it was very difficult to get a person who would venture on the journey. At last, John Walshe, who was married to old Captain Michael McGuire's sister, volunteered to go for the priest. Walshe went direct to Emmitsburg, then the home of Dr. Gallitzin. When Walshe arrived at Emmittsburg, Dr. Gallitzin had left for Baltimore. Walshe followed him thither, but before he reached Baltimore, the Rev. Mr. Smith had left for some other point. Walshe still followed him and at last found him at West Chester, Chester County, PA. Together they started for the Allegheny mountains and reached John Burgoon's late at night just four weeks from the day that Walshe had started on his errand of charity. Often during the four weeks did Mrs. Burgoon seem to be at the point of death, and it was more than once thought by her friends that humanly speaking she could not live an hour; yet she herself always said she could not die until she should see a priest. Such was the anxiety of her friends that John SStorm started on the last day of the four weeks to see if he could find any tidings of the messenger or the priest. Late in the evening of the same day he met both at ... gap, now near the foot of plane No. 10 on the old portage road. Thence he escorted them by daylight as far as Peter McGuire's and as it became very dark they had to go on from McGuire's by a torchlight made of hickory bark and carried by John Storm. That very night Mrs. Burgoon seemed a great deal worse but was perfectly collected and, without any possibility of having any intimation of the fact, she told her oldest son, Joe, to go out and let down the bars, for the priest was coming in. Joe, to satisfy her, went out, and sure enough, there was the priest, accompanied by John Walshe and Peter McGuire. Moreover, Mrs. Burgoon told her oldest daughter, Betsy [Elizabeth Burgoon Cherry], to prepare to take the priest's cloak on his arrival. Dr. Gallitzin lost no time but prepared Mrs. Burgoon for death as quickly as possible; and there was no time to be lost, for soon after, during the same night, she died fortified by the rites of the church.
"At that time old Captain McGuire had willed a peice of ground for a Catholic church, and this, together with the fact that twelve Catholic families resided in the neighborhood, induced Dr. Gallitzin to establish a Catholic colony on the mountains; and this was the beginning of Catholicity on the Alleghenies, now so flourishing with the works of God.
"The foregoing account, concludes Father Tuigg, 'was given me by Mrs. Jacob Sherry [This probably refers to Honoria Burgoon Cherry], a daughter of Mrs. Burgoon, so that I can vouch for its authenticity.'"
J. Tuigg, Pastor of St. John's Church.