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(Ed's note: excerpts from St Thomas of Aquinas web site, Past and Present of Muskingum County, outline of the History of St Nicholas Parish and other church documents and articles. I've mixed the writings together to cover church and school history for the 1819-1870 timeframe. Joseph Resch and his family arrived in the Zanesville area around September 1833.)
The missionary efforts of the oldest Catholic church in Ohio — St. Joseph’s at Somerset, developed the Catholic Church in Zanesville. Dominican priests founded St. Joseph’s in 1818. From there, the order sent out circuit riders to cerebrate the liturgy with the small Catholic communities spread throughout the wilderness. One of those riders, Father Nicholas Young, worshipped in Zanesville every few weeks with the Catholic community, made up largely of Irish immigrants.
Father Young met with three Catholic families and celebrated Mass -- the first Mass in Zanesville -- Spring of 1819. They used a room above the Green Tree Tavern, an Inn owned by John S. Dugan and located at Fifth and Main Streets. Later that same year, Mass was celebrated in the Burnham Hotel in Putnam, then a village distinct from Zanesville. Nineteen people constituted the Catholic community in Zanesville in those early days but soon the number increased.
In November 1820, John Dugan purchased a lot with a small brick warehouse (20 x 50 feet) and converted it into a church. That Church, dedicated a few months later, was called Trinity Church or "the brick chapel," the first Catholic Church in this area. Father Young, came twice each month from Somerset to Trinity Church in Zanesville, but great feasts such as Easter presented a special problem. Father Young could not leave his larger congregation in Somerset. Consequently, Catholics from the Zanesville area would have to make the difficult trip, nearly twenty five miles each way, on horseback or by carriage on poor roads.
The situation eased in 1823 when Father Stephen Hyacinth Montgomery, a Dominican Friar, assumed his responsibilities as the first resident pastor of Trinity Church. The population in the area continued to grow and Catholics were attracted by the presence of a church. The converted brick warehouse proved too small for the growing congregation but funds for a larger church were scarce. John Dugan again showed his generosity when he purchased a lot at the corner of Fifth Street and Spruce Alley (the site of the present Saint Thomas Aquinas Church). A further donation by Mr. Dugan as well as the generosity of many other local people -- both Catholics and Protestants -- allowed Father Montgomery to begin construction of a new church of stone and brick. The cornerstone of the new structure, almost three times the size of the original warehouse-church, was laid on March 4, 1825. Bishop Edward Dominic Fenwick, O.P. (the first Bishop of Cincinnati) dedicated and named the new church in honor of Saint John the Baptist.
The church building did not completely fill the lot, so the church established a small Catholic cemetery at the rear of the plot. In 1825, Mr. Dugan and Father Young, went in Mr. Dugan's stagecoach to Maryland to meet Bishop Fenwick (who had been in Rome) to bring him back to Ohio. In Washington, Father Gabriel Richard from Detroit, then a member of Congress, joined them. On their return trip a tragic accident occurred near Cumberland, Maryland. While they were descending a mountain, the horses became unmanageable and the stagecoach overturned. Bishop Fenwick and the two priests received only minor injuries, but Mr. Dugan suffered serious injuries and died a few hours later in the arms of Bishop Fenwick on March 11, 1825. They brought his body back to Zanesville. He was the first buried in the new Catholic cemetery on the land he had purchased for the new church. His body now rests under the present Church of Saint Thomas Aquinas.
St. John the Baptist Church was used by all Catholics in the Zanesville area until 1842, at which time, the English and German-speaking Catholics separated and formed two churches.
For the first fifty years after the beginning of the American Revolution, the number of immigrants to the United States was relatively small but that situation changed drastically after 1830. The small stream of immigrants became a torrent. For example, in the decade of the 1830's about 600,000 people came to this country as immigrants. That was about 50% more than had come in the fifty years before 1830. In the next decade about three times as many came as in the 1830's. A significant number of those immigrants were Catholics. Experts estimate that of the five million people who came as immigrants before the Civil War, 40% were Irish and 30% were German. Many of these immigrants clustered in the growing cities of the East but many headed West. With the opening of the National Road through Zanesville about 1830 and the development of the steamboat travel on the Muskingum River, the population in this area increased rapidly.
During this period, Zanesville saw an large influx of immigrants from Germany, some Catholic and some Protestant. Uncomfortable with the English language, these new Americans sought to worship in their native tongue -- the Catholics among them seeking the permission of the Bishop John Purcell of Cincinnati, to establish their own parish. The first meeting of German speaking Catholics was reported in the Catholic Telegraph of 1836. Bishop Purcell in company with a German speaking priest, Father Joseph Stahlschmidt, visited Zanesville on July 11. The Germans wanted their own parish where preaching and devotional exercises could be in their own language. Bishop Purcell recognized the validity of their request and six years later granted the Germans permission to establish their own parish. In essence, this marks the time when the English and German-speaking Catholics separated and formed two separate catholic churches. Both groups commenced plans and building of new churches.
The Germans dedicated their own church in honor of Saint Nicholas of Myra on December 1, 1842. The people of St. Nicholas Parish built their little gray church at the corner of Main Street and Greenwood Avenue. The church, which preceded the present St. Nicholas edifice, was built at the site of the present rectory. The original stone structure was 45 by 60 feet. Bishop Purcell assigned responsibilities of the first resident pastor to Father Joseph Gallinger on December 26, 1842. He remained here until April 4, 1847. For many years the pastors sent to St. Nicholas were men born and educated In Germany. Ties with the old country remained very strong.
The members of the first parish council were Frank Rink, John Gerspach, John Hoff and William Koss. The parish consisted of 35 families. Among the list of Germans detailed as the first families are John Albert, Michael Albert, Matthew Armbrust, Wendolin Christ, Caspar Durant, George Durant, Caspar Dietenbeck, Martin Dietenbeck, John Emmert, Caspar Heibel, John Kellar, Andrew Kimmel, John Holiman, Caspar Hackel (possibly Hagel), Jacob Hoff, Martin Hoosan, Paulas Hoffman, Michael Keiner, William Klein, Philip Lehman, Felix Long, Anton Minger, Jacob Oshe, Jacob Paul, Valentine Paul, Ignatius Roll, Martin Ruile, Joseph Rush (probably Rash), Peter Schramm, Christian Sauer, Joseph Soller, Anton Saup, and John Weidig (possibly Weigand) and Adam Voll. The parish grew rapidly and in 1861, the parishioners doubled the size of the small stone church.
The triple graphic below details the location of the original structure, located aft of the current church which is in the middle and bottom photos. By the graphic's detail, located at the head of Main Street. If you travel east (bottom photo) on the National Road (Main Street) through the center of town, you will see St. Nicholas ahead and to the left as the road swings left and northeastwards in front of the structure. Upon closer examination of the bottom photo, you can see the original structure, minus the steeple, which functions as the school gymnasium after 1898.
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As the German Catholics proceeded with the building of St. Nicholas, the English speaking congregation, mostly Irish, started building their new church, replacing St. John the Baptist. Both Catholics and Protestants contributed to the building of the new facility. A Quaker, John C. Howard, made a generous offer with regard to the new church. He spoke to Father Montgomery and offered the building stone for the new structure from land that he owned about two miles down the river. The offer was most gratefully accepted as was the gift of the plans for the new church from Patrick Keely of Brooklyn, New York. The architectural style was described as "English Gothic." The Church of Saint John was razed to make room for the new church. For the time being, services were held on the third floor of the Blocksom Building on Main Street. Most of the bodies in the small Catholic Cemetery behind Saint John's Church were moved to the new Saint Thomas Cemetery on Greenwood Avenue. Many remain interred under the present church including the body of John S. Dugan. The cornerstone of the new church was laid on March 17, 1842, and the first Mass was celebrated in the basement of the building on the following Christmas. Archbishop Purcell of Cincinnati dedicated to Saint Thomas Aquinas in 1844 and consecrated it on December 14, 1851, by . At that time Saint Thomas Aquinas Church was the only consecrated church of the Archdiocese except for the Cathedral in Cincinnati. The cost of the building was $40,000 -- a very large sum of money in 1842. The interior of the building at its opening however was very bare. Benches were used instead of pews. A parishioner, Mr. William Mattingly, donated $3,000 for furnishing the interior of the Church. A few years later Mr. Mattingly again showed his generosity in donating a bell for the church. This bell, which weighed 1200 pounds, was made in Cincinnati and cost $1,200. It continued to serve the congregation until 1928 when a crack in the bell became so serious that it was considered dangerous to continue using it. In 1843 Father Wilson became Provincial although he maintained his residence in Zanesville. Father C.P. Montgomery resumed the office of Pastor which he held until 1857. Father Bokel succeeded him but in 1859 he returned as Pastor for the third time. He died suddenly in Zanesville in 1860.
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| This is the church directory from the Zanesville 1851 Directory. Of interest is the large number of churches and also St Joseph Catholic Church (probably should be St. Thomas Aquinas). |
St John's Church and Father Wilson established the first catholic school in Zanesville in 1830 in the basement of the church. In the Spring of 1842, when the church was torn down for St. Thomas Aquinas, temporary school quarters were found across the street at the southwest corner of Sewer and Spruce alleys.
At this same time, the St. Nicholas built their first school. The school was of the Schule Lehrer type. The schoolmaster was also the church organist. The teacher-organists taught school from 1842 to 1872, at which time the Franciscan Sisters of Joliet, Illinois took on these responsibilities. These early classes were held in a small frame building located on the present school site. They replaced the original structure with a four-room brick structure in 1857. Teachers instructed students in both German and English. In 1870, the parish erected a new five room building of pressed-brick.
Our handwritten notes detail David Rash as attending school at age six, which would be 1838. More than likely, he attended St. John's School and learned the English language. He, like his brother and sisters was probably bilingual. In 1842, they probably went to St. Nicholas' School, instruction conducted in both English and German.
As for their time spent in St. Nicholas, I have no doubt concerning the Resch family's participation in the start up of the church. To many families in this timeframe, the church was a very important portion of their makeup. As you proceed through the readings in these essays, you will continually note the church is the center point of the family. In the Resch family, as they arrive in Mount Sterling, within ten years, they are again part of a movement to start another German Catholic parish. This desire to attend their own parish where preaching and devotional exercises were in their own language was critical and I've highlighted the trend in an essay titled the 'Forces of Religion'.
The map above reflects the location of the Joseph Rash Farm, St. John's (and later St. Thomas of Aquinas), and St. Nicholas of Myra Churches. As can be seen. the farm is located on Wayne Ridge Road, southeast of the city. By road, the distance to St. Nicholas is about 4 miles, and to St. John's, around a half mile further. I've also highlighted the famous National Road and the Y Bridge, crossing the Muskingum and Licking Rivers. Joseph Rash, Caspar Hagel, John Weigand and their families left Zanesville in 1853 for Illinois. Leborius, Philip and Teresa remained behind. Little is know of Philip, he married Mary Hough in 1839 in Muskingum, my notes indicate they had no children. They are detailed in the 1850 census living in Licking Township north of Zanesville. Teresa married Jesse Stockdale in Muskingum County in 1838 and they farmed in Springfield Township just to the west. They had eight children. Leborius married Barbara Mary Geisler in 1847. He farmed land just south of Joseph's farm and his family is detailed in the 1860 census. Around 1867, he moves his family to Illinois, and farms land near his half brothers and sisters, David, Joseph and Elizabeth Krupp.
