THE LIBRARY OF THE 
 
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 THE COLLECTION OF 
 
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 PRESENTED BY 
 
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DIVERSITY OF N.C. AT CHAPEL HILL 
 
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THE MEMOIRS OF 
 MONSIGNOR WILLIAM FRANCIS O'BRIEN 
 
Nihil Ob stat: 
 
 George E. Lynch 
 
 Censor Librorum 
 
 Imprimatur. 
 
 * Vincent S. Waters, D.D. 
 Bishop of Raleigh 
 
 August 1958 
 
 In making any of the statements contained in this 
 volume the Avriter does not presume to judge any 
 matters that should be decided by the authority of 
 the Apostolic See. 
 
 \jj r**,. h. /viw 
 
THE MEMORS 
 
 = 
 
 MONSIGNOR 
 
 WILLIAM 
 FRANCIS 
 O'BRIEN 
 
 DURHAM, NORTH CAROLINA 
 
 1958 
 
First Printing, November 1958 
 Limited to 1000 copies of which this is 
 Copy No. _._1£5_ 
 
 PRINTED AND BOUND IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA BY THE 
 CHRISTIAN PRINTING COMPANY, DURHAM, NORTH CAROLINA 
 
v3 
 CO 
 
 D ED I C A T I N 
 
 These "Memoirs" are dedicated to the 
 
 Most Reverend Bishop Vincent Stanislaus Waters, D.D. 
 Bishop of Raleigh, North Carolina, 
 
 who is devoted to the Apostolate of pro- 
 moting, training, and fostering vocations 
 of young men to be missionary priests, 
 "other Christs" for the conversion of 
 North Carolina. 
 
r»* 
 
PREFACE 
 
 A few months after the Co-founders of the Maryknoll American 
 Foreign Missionary Society, Bishop James Anthony Walsh of the 
 Archdiocese of Boston and Thomas Frederick Price of the Vicariate 
 of North Carolina, received the hearty approval and papal blessing 
 of Pius X, for the establishment of the American Foreign Missionary 
 Society, I made a visit to the Maryknoll Founders' headquarters, 
 then temporarily located in Hawthorne, New York. On the occasion 
 of that visit. Father Price, who was my elder associate on the non- 
 Catholic North Carolina missions, lost no time in inviting me to 
 speak to the first class, made up of Maryknoll students from 
 several states, as future prospective missionaries of foreign lands. 
 The future Bishop Ford, a martyr in China, was a member of that 
 class. In my informal talk, to that interesting and distinguished 
 class, I emphasized the peculiar fact that the missionary of non- 
 Catholics in North Carolina seldom realized any results of his 
 work. In his comments, Father Price said to the class that it was 
 a fact that a North Carolina missionary seldom realized, humanly 
 speaking, any immediate results of his activity, but that I had 
 realized some results, but not too much, as I had established a 
 school. After the class time was over, one of the students came 
 to me and said: "Father, China for me." "Yes, you know I am 
 naturally interested in your desire to be a missionary in China, 
 but would you mind telling me the basic reason, humanly speaking, 
 why you wish to go to China?" Without hesitation, he said: "Father 
 1 wish to go to China to see some results in my work." A second 
 student came to me and said: "Father, I do not see why we have 
 to go to China when there are such places as you have described, 
 in the United States." In other words, the conclusion can be 
 drawn that sacrificing mission work is needed in the whole universal 
 vineyard of Christ in the wide-world. As ideal missions exist for 
 zealous and sacrificing priests, abroad, so there are ideal missions 
 existing for zealous and sacrificing priests at home. Missionary 
 work is missionary work, whether in foreign lands or home lands. 
 "The harvest is ripe, but the laborers are few, pray ye, the Lord 
 of the harvest that He sends laborers into His Vineyard," whether 
 in foreign lands or at our very doors. 
 
 Bishop John England was consecrated as the first Bishop of 
 Charleston, South Carolina, in 1820. One of the students, who 
 had finished his Classical, philosophical, and theological studies 
 
10 The Memoirs of 
 
 in the Seminary, in the days of Bishop England, who had known 
 Bishop England and had heard him preach and lecture, was Dr. 
 Jeremiah O'Connell, the author of "Catholicity in the Carolinas 
 and Georgia." I have seen and heard Dr. O'Connell tell of his 
 missionary experiences in the Carolinas five years before he died 
 in 1894, at Belmont Abbey, the first year I was a student as a 
 Seminarian there. For this reason, I feel and know that I am a 
 link with the historic past; and as a laborer in the former Vicariate, 
 and now the diocese of Raleigh, I would like to be filled with 
 deep gratitude to God for His sustaining me in this life for over 
 these past sixty years as a priest. When 1 came into the state about 
 the first of May, 1888, I was fifteen years of age, and at that time 
 the Vicariate of North Carolina was under the jurisdiction of 
 Bishop Henry P. Northrup, the Bishop of the Mother See of 
 Charleston, South Carolina. Bishop Haid was consecrated as 
 Titular Bishop of Messene, Vicar Apostolic of North Carolina 
 and Abbot-Ordinary of Belmont Abbey, North Carolina, in July 
 1888. 
 
 Having been born in Washington, D. C, I have now been 
 living in North Carolina for over seventy years, as the state of my 
 choice, as a citizen and especially as a citizen of Durham, North 
 Carolina, known widely as the "Friendly City," for fifty-one years. 
 
 May 5, 1958 — Feast of St. Pius V who instituted the Feast of 
 Our Lady of Victory which has been changed to the Feast of the 
 Most Holy Rosary and is celebrated on October 7th. 
 
 Msgr. Wm. F. O'Brien 
 
 Pastor Emeritus of the Church of the Immaculate Conception 
 Durham, N. C. 
 
William Francis O'Brien 1 1 
 
 MEMOIRS OF RIGHT REVEREND 
 MONSIGNOR WILLIAM FRANCIS O'BRIEN 
 
 In his book, published in I860, on the "Memoir of the O'Briens," 
 Mr. John Donohue has ably traced the O'Brien family from a very 
 early period in Irish history. Passing over his interesting lineage 
 of the O'Brien family from the early centuries, I begin briefly, if 
 not somewhat abruptly, the ancient lineage of the family from the 
 eleventh century, when Brian Boroimhe, the king and warrior 
 lived, who was and is the common ancestor of the O'Briens. It 
 was from his time that the letter was put before the B in the 
 name, so that his descendants would be known as the sons of the 
 Brian or Brien family. 
 
 There are many branches of the O'Brien family. There are the 
 County Tipperary O'Briens, the County Clare, the County Wex- 
 ford, the County Limerick and other counties in Ireland; and in 
 addition, there are the O'Briens of Aran Islands, the Spanish, the 
 French and the Dutch O'Briens. Not forgetting the thousands upon 
 thousands of the Brian Boroimhe descendants in Ireland and 
 other lands, I am, naturally, interested in the O'Brien family of 
 Tipperary County, as that is the home of my ancestry, ft is an 
 historical fact that Brian Boroimhe made Tipperary County his 
 headquarters in successfully driving the Danes out of Ireland and 
 it is an historical fact that he built one of his circular fortresses in 
 the ancient town of Cahir, Tipperary County, Ireland, the home 
 of my grandmother, Catherine O'Brien, and the ancestral home 
 of my father. Speaking to the great scholar and orator, Archbishop 
 Ryan of Philadelphia, of happy memory, over fifty years ago, who 
 was born in Thurles, Tipperary County, f made it known that my 
 ancestors were born in Cahir, Tipperary. "Oh," he said, "the 
 town of Cahir was the home of the Kings." 
 
 It is interesting to read what John Burke had to say of the 
 O'Briens lineage: "The house of Massini, Ursini, Frougipani, Co- 
 lona, etc., at Rome, anteceding perhaps any in France, Spain and 
 Germany; but after strict investigation and poising the facts fairly, 
 in the balance of historical criticism, few of the Continental nobility 
 will be found to be superior in origin, if parallel, to the O'Briens 
 whose progenitors were sovereign princes on the arrival of the Eng- 
 lish in 1172. No epoch," continues Mr. Burke, "is better attested 
 than the reign of Brian Boroimhe, the conqueror of the Danes in 
 the decisive battle of Clontarf on the 23rd of April in 1014. The 
 monarch was coeval with Hugo Capet which without further retro- 
 gression would place his descendants in a coincident line with the 
 
12 The Memoirs of 
 
 royal houses of Europe of the greatest antiquity — even with the 
 Bourbons, incontestably the oldest of all. Brian's posterity nu- 
 merously and unquestionably exist as do the representatives of the 
 other Irish princes whose claims are as demonstrable by reference 
 to authenticated testimony as any historical event of the era." 
 
 Brian Boroimhe is said to have been a very religious man. It 
 is said of him, by historians, that on the eve of the battle of Clon- 
 tarf, he said to his army, "What proves to be providential in our 
 favor is, that we shall take full revenge of the enemy for his con- 
 stant acts of treachery and the profanation of so many churches, the 
 Friday in Holy Week on which Jesus Christ suffered an ignominious 
 death for our redemption, Who will undoubtedly be present with us, 
 as a just avenger of His holy religion and laws." With these last 
 words, he showed them his crucifix, which he held in his left hand 
 and sword in his right, indicating thereby, that he was willing to 
 sacrifice his life in the assertion of so just, so honorable a cause. 
 
 About the year 1 120, one of the sons of Brian built and founded 
 St. Peter's Abbey at Ratisbon, Germany. Another son founded Holy 
 Cross Abbey near Thurles, Tipperary County, in 1182. In the 
 twelfth century, other sons built cities, castles and royal seats, such 
 as Cahir Castle, the ancient seat of the Lords Cahir of Cahir. 
 
 My grandfather, John Murphy, left Ireland with six of his 
 sons, as master stonemasons in 1833, to work on the high buildings 
 in New York, after a devastating fire there in that city. My father, 
 being the youngest of seven sons, was left with his mother at home 
 in Cahir, as he was only three years of age. Living with his mother 
 until he was sixteen years of age, while his father and older 
 brothers were living in America, he took his mother's name, O'Brien. 
 He was known as Joseph O'Brien. It was not too uncommon, in 
 Ireland, for children to be given the names of both parents, such 
 as Murray-Fitzgerald, Murphy-O'Brien or O'Brien-Murphy. 
 
 My father, Joseph O'Brien, was born in the ancient town of 
 Cahir, Tipperary County, Ireland, on the 7th of October, the 
 Feast of the Holy Rosary, in the year 1830. He often spoke of his 
 mother in endearing and loving terms and how she was cared for 
 by an ample supply of money sent to her from America, by his 
 father. I was told by a cousin of my father, Captain Larry O'Brien, 
 a Civil War veteran, who was in the contracting business in New 
 Haven, Connecticut, in 1899, that my grandfather and his father 
 left New York, in 1855, and built St. John's church in New Haven 
 and then went to Meridan, Connecticut, and built the Meridan 
 House. It was customary for contractors in the North, in the 
 early 60's, during the wintery weather, to go South in the interest 
 of their business. My grandfather went to Savannah, Georgia, 
 
William Francis O'Brien 13 
 
 during- a winter about the year 18(i0 and died there during the 
 War Between the States in the Confederate Army, and another son 
 or brother of my father, called to see my father in Washington, 
 D. C, to arrange to go and settle in Lexington, Kentucky. Passing 
 through Lexington, Kentucky, on the train from Arkansas to North 
 Carolina, in 1888, he learned that my father's brother was living 
 there, but unfortunately I have never seen him or any of his family 
 as he did not write of his whereabouts since he took up residence 
 there. 
 
 My father left Ireland for England when he was sixteen years of 
 age. He was his mother's last and only son at home. I can never 
 forget the impression he made on my mind, when he described 
 for the first time the leave-taking from his beloved mother who 
 he was never to see again in this life. Scenes like this were common 
 in Ireland in 1847, and in the famine years that followed. Many 
 of the sons of Eire were chosen at this time of heart-break, loneli- 
 ness, and intense mental suffering, to come to America to carry the 
 light of Faith, and keep the light of Faith burning in the land of 
 freedom and wonderful opportunity. As a group, they had a 
 mission, and the mission, under God, was carried out. Had the 
 cross of the famine years not happened in Ireland, thousands ol 
 sons, as priests, would not have stood before the Altar in the past 
 and thousands woidd not be standing before the Altar today. 
 Praise be to God, Who has designed in His all-wise and foreseeing 
 providence that: Ireland was to be and is today a nation on Calvary! 
 
 The centuries of the traditions of the O'Briens, who have done 
 so much for the perpetuation of the Church in Ireland, is kept 
 up by their sons and close kindred in the United States. According 
 to the statistics in the Catholic Directory, published by Kennedy 
 and Sons in New York City, the O'Briens, Kellys, Murphys and 
 Kennedys lead all the rest of the names of the priests of Celtic 
 origin of the thousands listed in the roster of the United States. 
 There are about three hundred and fifty names of the Murphys, 
 two hundred and fifty names of the O'Briens, about two hundred 
 fifty Kellys and more than a hundred Kennedys. The O'Briens, 
 Murphys and Kennedys are closely related in Cahir, Ireland. 
 
 My father left England for New York in 1853. He did not 
 choose to work on the high buildings in New York with his older 
 brothers; instead, he walked from New York City to Paterson, 
 New Jersey, with only fifty cents in his pocket, where he enlisted in 
 the L T nited States Army. His love as a young cavalry soldier in the 
 English Army was the urge that decided him to become a cavalry 
 man in the United States Army, before the Custer massacre and 
 
14 The Memoirs of 
 
 six years before the War Between the States broke out. He fought 
 through the War and was wounded in the battle of Gettysburg. 
 After the War, he was an employee in the War Department. 
 
 My mother, Mary Conway, was born in Cahirciveen, County 
 Kerry, Ireland, in 1838. Looking up the old Kerry records in 
 Cahirciveen, on a visit there in 1932, I found authoritative mention 
 that King James I, as far back as 1587, gave over to the Conways 
 the castle of Killarghan, situated about four miles north of Cahir- 
 civeen. In the family history, Elizabeth Conway is given as the great 
 grandmother of Daniel O'Connell, the national Liberator. The 
 Cahirciveen people revere the memory of Michael Conway, the 
 brother of my mother, for being instrumental in saving the lives 
 of many of his townsmen, in his stubborn and effective opposition 
 to English rule. The families of the Conways and O'Connells are 
 interrelated in Cahirciveen. A cousin of Daniel O'Connell by name 
 and direct descendant of the great Irish orator and national Li- 
 berator, considered it an honor to take me to all points of interest 
 in the beautiful and historic old town. 
 
 At the present time there is a beautiful Presentation Convent 
 built over the spot where my mother was born. One of the nuns 
 told me that she loved Michael Conway when she was a child be- 
 cause he picked her up and put her on his lap. Another nun took 
 me into the room where my mother went to school and then 
 hastened to take me to the grave of the Rev. Superior, a cousin of 
 Bishop Egan of Kerry, who taught my mother. And still another 
 nun spoke of the reception that Daniel O'Connell gave them when 
 they opened their Convent in the city. One of the arts the Presen- 
 tation Sisters taught their pupils in Ireland, was all kinds of fancy 
 needlework. My mother was proficient in this art. Coming to New 
 York in the early 60's, she lived with her older sister, Hannah, who 
 conducted a fashionable modiste shop. She was soon capable of 
 managing the shop with her sister. One of the dependable and 
 loyal patrons was Mrs. Stanton, the wife of the Secretary of War 
 in the Lincoln administration. Mrs. Stanton persuaded my mother 
 to go to Washington with her to keep her wardrobe in quality and 
 finish as the state of her position in society required. As my 
 father's duty was to contact Secretary Stanton daily as a member 
 of the War Department, it was there that he fortunately met my 
 mother. A few months after the first acquaintance of my father and 
 mother, they were married in old St. Matthews Church in Wash- 
 ington, D. C, in 1866, by Dr. White. The two outstanding priests 
 recognized by the clergy at that time for their learning in the 
 South, were Dr. White of Washington and Baltimore and Dr. Cor- 
 coran of Charleston, S. C. 
 
William Francis O'Brien 15 
 
 I was born on Capital Hill opposite the present Congressional 
 Library, October 18, 1872 — the Feast of St. Luke, the Evangelist. 
 The buildings on that street have long since been torn down to 
 make way for the present buildings now there. In 1873, my father 
 was transferred by the Government from Washington to Baltimore. 
 In 187(> niv mother died in Baltimore, and the Requiem Mass was 
 said at St. Joseph's Passionist Monastery on the old Frederick Road 
 and her body was interred in Bonnie Brae Cemetery, now called 
 the Cathedral Cemetery. 1 well remember her general appearance 
 and was inconsolable at the time of her death, as a devoted child 
 naturally would be. Shortly after my ordination in 1898, I visited 
 the Passionist Monastery in Baltimore and an old Brother, who 
 remembered my mother, told me how I missed my mother and that 
 I wept for a long time. 1 paid visits to her grave a number of times. 
 I felt an urge to visit her grave during the year of my Golden 
 Jubilee, 1918, and also on the 12th of September, the Feast of the 
 Holy Name of Mary, 1951. My last visit was in 1955, on the return 
 from a pilgrimage to St. Anne-de-Beaupre. As long as our merciful 
 God gives me strength to travel, 1 will make visits to her grave when 
 the opportunities present themselves. 
 
 In 1883, my father was sent by the Government from Baltimore 
 to Arkansas, where I went for the first time to a Public School. 
 There were only about fifty Catholics in town at that time. Priests 
 of the Passionist Congregation from St. Louis, Missouri, and New 
 Orleans, La., came to the mission once a month. I often walked 
 three miles to the Church. All my associates in that town were non- 
 Catholics and were absolutely ignorant of the teachings of the 
 Church. The whole environment was Protestant. In 1888, my father 
 was transferred to New Bern, North Carolina. There were only 
 about seventy-five or eighty Catholics in New Bern at that time. 
 Socially, they seemed to have a common bond between them. I 
 felt at home among them and was reminded of the Catholics of 
 Baltimore, of my earlier association. When my father was trans- 
 ferred from Baltimore to Fayetteville, Arkansas, he left my two 
 sisters in Baltimore at school while my brother Joseph and I went 
 to be with him in Arkansas. When he was transferred to New Bern, 
 my two sisters, Catherine Agnes and Mary Loretta, came from 
 Baltimore to New Bern to make up our household. The oldest 
 of the four children married a Mr. Williams of Washington, D. C. 
 She lived with me for twenty-one years until her recent death at 
 the age of ninety-one. The second child, Joseph, died in New Bern 
 at the age of twenty-one, in 1890. The writer of these memoirs was 
 the third child and is in his eighty-fifth year. The fourth child, 
 
16 The Memoirs of 
 
 Mary Loretta, kept house for me in Fayetteville, North Carolina. 
 She died during Holy Week in 1900 at the age of twenty-four, and is 
 buried in Fayetteville, North Carolina. 
 
 When Bishop John England was appointed the first bishop of 
 Charleston, South Carolina, in 1820, North Carolina, South Car- 
 olina and Georgia were included in the extensive diocese of 
 Charleston. Dr. Guilday, in his history of the life of John England, 
 writes, that in the year 1821, "New Bern, North Carolina, the 
 home of Judge William Gaston, was a center of refinement and 
 elegance. It was here that the Governor resided in 1821, and the 
 little town was free from the curse and rigid Puritanism of other 
 communities of the Province." In the book of the Register of 
 Catholic Marriages, kept in St. Paul's Rectory, it is recorded that 
 Bishop England, in February 1832, officiated at the marriage cere- 
 mony between Judge Mathias Manly and Hannah A. Gaston, the 
 daughter of Judge William Gaston. The children of Judge Manly 
 and Hannah Gaston, whom I have seen and spoken to, were well 
 past middle age in 1888. They were highly cultured and respected 
 in the community. The one member of the family I came in contact 
 with was the Honorable Mathias Manly, Jr., who was Mayor of 
 the city. The little congregation of about seventy-five members in 
 all, including children and infants, looked up to the Manly family 
 with respect, admiration and laudable pride as leading members of 
 their Faith and who had the love of their Church at heart. It was 
 natural that the members of the little congregation, from time 
 to time in their conversations would speak about incidents in the 
 lives of Judge Gaston and the Manly family. The spirit of Judge 
 Gaston, as a distinguished Catholic citizen, one of the founders, 
 and most generous contributor to the Church was discernable as a 
 wholesome Catholic influence on the little congregation in 1888, 
 when I came to live in New Bern between the years of 1888 and 
 1892. 
 
 It was in 1888 when I first saw Father Price. He was not yet 
 ordained two years. I was fifteen years old at the time. My first 
 impression of him was that he was a very amiable, quiet, gentle 
 and holy man. He was devoted to the missions which he attended 
 regularly within three hundred square miles, with New Bern as 
 headquarters. Whenever he would make a visit to a family outside 
 the city limits or make a sick call, he always said the rosary with 
 the Catholic boy driving him in the buggy belonging to the boy's 
 parents. I recall very well driving him around the city to locate 
 a place for a colored school. I can never forget a sermon he 
 preached one Sunday morning on sanctifying grace. To me, he 
 
William Francis O'Brien 17 
 
 was the perfect embodiment of sanctifying grace. I never lost the 
 exalted opinion I had of him up to the last time I saw him, which 
 was about the year 1917 when his whole thought was to lead the 
 first band of Maryknoll missionaries to China. There was some 
 question among clergymen about the wisdom of Father Price going 
 to China, due to his age. Knowing this, Father Price made a mani- 
 festation to Cardinal Hayes, as Maryknoll's Seminary was in the 
 Cardinal's New York Diocese. After listening intently and im- 
 perturbably to Father Price, the Cardinal said to him, "Father 
 Price, I think you ought to go to China, having the burning 
 thoughts you have to go." 
 
 Although I had a deep reverence for the solid virtue and 
 beautiful life that Father Price lived, yet humanly speaking, I was 
 drawn by the "Chords of Adam" to his assistant, Father Charles 
 E. Burns, a native of Milford, Connecticut. Father Burns seemed 
 to have given himself wholly to the colored people of the city. He 
 seemed to have taken a personal interest in me and lost no time 
 in persuading my father to send me to Belmont College, as a 
 prospective candidate for the priesthood. While the thought came 
 to me very early as a little boy to be a priest, yet I thought now, 
 at the age of sixteen, it was well nigh impossible. Yet Father Burns 
 seemed to believe 1 had a vocation to the priesthood. "Would you 
 like to be a priest?" he asked. Having in mind the long years of 
 study and did I have sufficient talent and sufficient grace, when I 
 was thinking of searching for a job posed for me a question. "Well," 
 I replied, "if 1 thought 1 would make a successful priest, I would 
 be glad to be one." "You know, Will, you cannot be a priest in 
 weeks, months or even a few years. It takes persistent plodding." 
 "You see my father, and if the necessary arrangements can be made, 
 I will go to Belmont and make a trial." In the fall of 1889 Father 
 Julius, the Director of the College, gave a retreat to the students. 
 I was not preparing to make the retreat and was not too busy study- 
 ing as a student. My mind was on athletics. I was a strong mus- 
 cular boy at sixteen and could successfully hold out a fifty-pound 
 cannon ball, with some effort. I was not vicious, nor in any sense 
 in opposition to anything that was spiritually or morally good; but I 
 doubted if the good priest would do me any good owing to the 
 state of my soul, as I was shy and not without shame in thought. 
 Oh! but the good priest did get me. He hit me like lightning. To 
 me it was heavenly grace given by the mercy of Cod. All my shyness 
 and shame were no more. I could hardly wait patiently for the 
 hour to come to make a general confession to him. From that time 
 I had a desire to become a priest in the Vicariate of North Carolina. 
 
18 The Memoirs of 
 
 Father Burns generally kept a congenial boy with him and 
 supported him as a companion. He loved a good horse. His uncle 
 in Milford, Connecticut, kept blooded race horses in his livery 
 stable and gave one to Father Burns, named Shamrock, who had 
 won several races on the Kentucky race tracks. It was a delight 
 to ride with Father Burns behind his famous steed, Shamrock. 
 Father Burns died in my early priesthood while going on a sick call 
 during a blizzard in a Western diocese. If there is one conviction in 
 my soul, it is the sacred truth of Our Lord, when He reminds the 
 candidates preparing for the priesthood, "that you have not chosen 
 Me, but that I have chosen you, that you go forth and bring forth 
 fruit and that your fruit shall remain." I fully realize that I have 
 not chosen God first, but that He has chosen me as a priest. 
 
William Francis O'Brien 19 
 
 CHAPTER II 
 
 In September 1889, I was received and welcomed as a student 
 to St. Mary's College, Belmont, North Carolina, by Father Julius, 
 the Director of the College. I cannot say that I made the closest 
 application to my studies in my college years. Often, during the 
 study periods in my commercial and classical studies, I read a 
 number of books. Among them were the works of Washington 
 Irving, read preferably for his graceful and easy style and for his 
 love for Spanish chivalry. I was interested in the early struggles and 
 sacrifices of the pioneer missionary priests in the state. I read 
 Dr. Jeremiah O'Connell's "History of Catholicity in the Carolinas 
 and Georgia." I was looked upon by fellow-students as a good 
 athlete rather than a studious individual, though I did receive 
 distinction in elocution and composition. 
 
 In 1892 my father was transferred by the government from 
 New Bern to Staunton, Virginia, where I spent seven summer vaca- 
 tion months, but continued as a student and a seminarian at Bel- 
 mont. The two families that I well remember in Staunton, sixty-five 
 years ago and who afterwards moved to Raleigh, N. C, were the 
 Fallon and Whooley families. Rosalie Whooley, who I knew as a 
 little girl in Staunton, married Frank Fallon who started the Fallon 
 Florist business in Raleigh. The Fallons gave the property to the 
 Church on which the school, church, convent and rectory, dedicated 
 to Our Lady of Lourdes is built. Mrs. Fallon is now living in Our 
 Lady of Lourdes parish in Raleigh. 
 
 During my last year in college, in the spring of 1894, I well 
 remember an event that made a lasting impression on me. It was 
 the coming of Cardinal Gibbons from Baltimore, to dedicate the 
 new Cathedral Abbey Church. I had seen him, as a little boy in 
 Baltimore before he was created Cardinal in 1886, and my mind was 
 filled with pleasant thoughts of seeing the Archbishop, now a 
 Cardinal, who confirmed me in Baltimore before I left the city for 
 Fayetteville, Arkansas, in 1885. A great number of the Baltimore 
 clergy came with him. There were also Bishops and Abbots from 
 other diocese and monasteries as Avell as most all the clergy from 
 South Carolina, and all the clergy from the Vicariate of North 
 Carolina. The festive occasion has seldom been equaled, if at any 
 time, in North Carolina even to this day as an impressive and 
 brilliant array of Bishops, Abbots, Prelates and Priests gathered 
 together in the Sanctuary during the solemn Pontifical High Mass. 
 It was awe-inspiring especially to the students from non-Catholic 
 areas. The liturgical splendor and grandeur of the church cere- 
 monies was a privilege to them, in the struggle to keep and to 
 
20 The Memoirs of 
 
 practice their religion, amidst an atmosphere foreign and adverse 
 to the profession of their holy faith. Naturally it was a joy to me, 
 who had last seen the Cardinal when a little boy but now in my 
 twenty-one and six months of age, in the year 1894 when the Car- 
 dinal was sixty years of age, walking lightly, with a natural air of 
 dignity, surrounded by bishops, mitered abbots, prelates and 
 priests, to the altar rail, bowing to the right and left before the 
 breathless, admiring, expectant and vast Congregation. It was like 
 a scene of splendor of the gathering of the hierachy in a grand 
 Cathedral, of an important event, of the historical past. The voice 
 of the Cardinal was like the sound of a silver bell. The sermon 
 was full of unction, simple and inspiring, and filled with apostolic 
 thought. It was a masterpiece, elegant in expression and delivered 
 with distinct enunciation. I well remember the Cardinal referring 
 to the massive buildings that were built in the land he remembered 
 as a wilderness in years past when he was vicar-apostolic in North 
 Carolina. Yet as much as he admired the buildings of the monas- 
 tery, the abbey cathedral and the college, he emphasized that they 
 were but material, merely brick and mortar and subject to decay. 
 What we really need today, were men and women, apostolic men 
 and women to go forth to instruct the ignorant, bringing Christian 
 culture and true civilization to them in the vast field, ripe for the 
 harvest, "now sitting in the shadow of death." 
 
 When I entered the Seminary in 1894, Bishop Haid took a 
 special interest in my philosophical and theological studies. In 
 after years he recognized an editorial in Father Price's Truth. Maga- 
 zine, published at Nazareth, as a theological case written out by 
 me during one of his years as Professor of Moral Theology. Dr. 
 Felix, prior of the monastery, was my professor in Dogmatic 
 Theology. Coming to the class, in my last year as a seminarian, on 
 the 25th of March, the Feast of the Annunciation of the Blessed 
 Virgin, he suddenly said, sincerely and deliberately out loud before 
 the class, "Domine O'Brien, I congratulate you on your first step to 
 the priesthood." 1 had received all the Minor Orders early that 
 morning in the Bishop's Chapel. It is generally customary for 
 seminarians to receive the Minor Orders two years before Ordi- 
 nation, but as I was the lone Seminarian, I did not receive the 
 Minor and Major Orders until the last year. I was ordained sub- 
 deacon on June 10th; deacon, June 1 1th, and priesthood, June 12th, 
 1898. There were four of us ordained together, the clerics of the 
 Benedictine Order and myself, as a secular priest. I was the first 
 priest sent out, as a student at Belmont Abbey, who went through 
 the College, starting in their Commercial, through their Classical, 
 then through their Seminary and to the Priesthood. I remember the 
 
William Francis O'Brien 21 
 
 good Bishop saying, to the Congregation from the Altar in the 
 Cathedral Abbey Church at the Ordination service, "that he could 
 foresee the sacrifice and privation that a priest would have in the 
 Vicariate of North Carolina, owing to the few and widely scattered 
 Catholics, and of necessity the struggle against poverty owing to the 
 situation as it is in the Vicariate." If a young priest dreamed <>l 
 getting a salary at that time, he would have been a misfit in the 
 Vicariate. Of necessity to be happy, his only choice would be that 
 he was thankful to God that he was chosen to be a missionary priest. 
 
 When I came to the state in 1888, there were only 2500 Catholics. 
 In the year of my Ordination, there 3800 Catholics and only five 
 secular priests laboring in the state. They were Father Thomas 
 Frederick Price, missionary; Father Christopher Dennan, pastor at 
 Wilmington; Father Peter Marion of Asheville; Father Patrick 
 Quinn, pastor of Newton Grove and Goldsboro; and Father Thomas 
 Griffin, of Raleigh. Father Price, the oldest ordained of the other 
 four priests, was twelve years my senior, who made up the sixth 
 priest of the Vicariate. These five brother priests have long since 
 gone to their reward. On June 12th, 1957, I will have labored in 
 the Vicariate and Diocese of Raleigh, fifty-nine years. 
 
 My first appointment in 1898 was to be assistant at St. Paul's 
 white church and pastor of St. Joseph's colored church in New 
 Bern. Father Edward Myer, a priest of the Order of St. Benedict, 
 was pastor of St. Paul's Church that year. I knew Father Edward 
 when he was a cleric at Belmont and when he succeeded Father 
 Julius as Director of the Dramatic Society of St. Mary's College. 
 It was the first time, if not the only time, that a Religious and 
 Secular priest worked together in the Vicariate. 
 
 St. Joseph's Church was started by Father Charles E. Burns not 
 long after I had arrived in New Bern as a boy of fifteen years. On 
 leaving for Belmont, Father Burns asked me if I was ordained 
 would I take care of the colored church in New Bern. My reply 
 was, if the Bishop appointed me to take care of the colored con- 
 gregation, I would gladly do so. And singularly enough, Bishop 
 Haid did appoint me to take care of that very Congregation even 
 though Father Burns in after-years died in a Western diocese. The 
 land on which St. Joseph's Church was first built was given by 
 Congressman O'Hara and Thomas McCarthy. Mr. McCarthy was 
 the father of a former Mayor of the City and was a schoolmate of 
 mine. Congressman O'Hara was a former colored official of the 
 Freedom's Bureau in Washington. He was born in the Virgin 
 Islands and was elected to Congress shortly after the War Between 
 the States. My father knew him in Washington and renewed his 
 acquaintance with him when he came to New Bern. Congressman 
 
22 The Memoirs of 
 
 O'Hara, whom I knew as a boy, died shortly before I came to New 
 Bern as pastor of St. Joseph's Church. His widow, Mrs. O'Hara, 
 taught the colored children in school and I would leave St. Paul's 
 white church every morning during the week to teach them ca- 
 techism. Mr. and Mrs. O'Hara's son become a lawyer, and organized 
 the first colored Catholic League in the state, to bring to their 
 brethren who were not baptized Catholics the knowledge of our 
 holy Faith. During my pastorate of St. Joseph's the pastor of St. 
 Paul's Church became seriously sick and was taken to a hospital in 
 Richmond, and in consequence it fell to my lot, that in addition 
 to my work at St. Joseph's I became the acting Pastor of St. Paul's 
 Church. 
 
 When I was in the seminary at Belmont, I read a most interest- 
 ing account of three little girls who built St. Ann's Church at 
 Edenton, N. C, in 1858. I was immediately possessed with a longing 
 tc go on that mission. In the fall of 1898, I took a boat on the old 
 Clyde Line for Edenton. I invested all the money I had in a return 
 trip expecting to get lodging, meals and three or four dollars from 
 the few Catholics there. It so happened that a violent storm arose 
 on the Albemarle and Pamlico Sounds and for safety, the Captain 
 ordered all the cargo thrown overboard. After a terrific night on 
 the waters, the passengers were landed at Elizabeth City, early in 
 the morning. Having my Mass kit, I wanted to say Mass but did not 
 knoAv or hear of any Catholics living in Elizabeth City. After 
 many inquiries, I was told that an old lady by the name of Mrs. 
 Richardson, living over a store, was a Catholic. Finding the place 
 after considerable walking, I opened the ground floor door leading 
 into a dark hall and up a dark stairway, when suddenly I heard a 
 loud and very reverent voice say at the top of the stairway, "Come 
 in, Reverend Father." Oh! what a contrast was the feeling that 
 possessed my soul to the cold and indifferent attitude on the out- 
 side as I hastened up the stairway. I felt as if I could cut the 
 atmosphere with a knife, created by that woman's voice. What was 
 my surprise to find a venerable and highly cultured woman on 
 crutches, receiving me and giving me a soulful warm greeting, while 
 leading me into her room. After a few words were spoken about 
 our trip overnight, I spoke of the interesting account I had read of 
 three little girls building a church in Edenton in 1858, and what 
 a joy and real pleasure it was giving me to go there. Listening to 
 me with rapt attention, she asked me very casually, with very 
 uncommon interest where I had read that interesting account of 
 the building of the church in Edenton in 1858. I replied, "In the 
 Catholic Standard & Times of Pliiladelphia. It was also printed in 
 the Catholic Mirror of Baltimore." She then said, "Did you ever 
 
William Francis O'Brien 23 
 
 meet the authoress of that account of the building of the Edenton 
 Church?" When 1 replied that 1 had not, "Well," she said, "the 
 authoress sits hefore you, and I was one of the little girls." 
 
 It was customary for a number of families in eastern Carolina, 
 hefore the War Between the States, to send their daughters to the 
 convent schools in and near Baltimore. The three girls, all of 
 whom 1 met in their venerable years, became converts while at- 
 tending the convent schools. One was a daughter of Judge Moore. 
 Mrs. Richardson described to me how she approached the priest 
 who came from Norfolk, to let her, her sister, and Miss Moore build 
 a church in Edenton. The good priest advised them to forget the 
 idea of building a church, that they were recent converts, did not 
 have the money and he could not get the large amount of money 
 necessary to build a church anywhere. The young girls, in their 
 zeal and determination, could not take a negative answer nor 
 could they be discouraged in what they believed to be pleasing to 
 Cod. As they were well educated and cultured, one of them taught 
 music, another translated a small volume of Pius VII, and the 
 other did crochet work. As Mrs. Richardson was the leader, she 
 went to Baltimore and made a general confession to Archbishop 
 Kendrick. She then asked for his permission to collect in Baltimore. 
 In response, the great Archbishop said to her, "Go, my little apostle 
 and put the insults in your pocketbook as well as the money." She 
 succeeded in collecting a considerable amount of money which 
 was swelled to an attractive figure with the additional contributions 
 of the other two apostolic girls of the band of three, who worked 
 from their home center. When the priest came on his regular 
 scheduled time to Edenton, he was both agreeably surprised and 
 edified, but he added into a word of caution, "I will permit you to 
 build, provided you stop the work when the money gives out." 
 Mrs. Richardson described to me how the girls would sit down 
 among the shavings on Saturday evenings and hoping and praying 
 that a few checks woidd come in the mail on Monday morning as 
 they had written to all the dignitaries in the United States and 
 Europe. And checks were received gratefully till the church was 
 completed. Mrs. Richardson's father gave the land on which the 
 church was built. On the day of the dedication, the church was 
 filled to capacity and hundreds of non-Catholics of all persuasion 
 were on the outside of the church. The Bishop of Charleston did 
 not bring a holy water vessel to be used in blessing the church inside 
 and out. in the place of which he used a little green twig. At the 
 time of the Communion, the three girls went up to receive Holy 
 
24 The Memoirs of 
 
 Communion, and as they knelt at the Communion rail, a beautiful 
 white dove flew in the window and made three evolutions around 
 and flew out again. 
 
 After I had said Mass in a vacant room about a block away 
 from Mrs. Richardson's two-room apartment, the question came up 
 where I would stay as I could not arrange to leave Elizabeth City 
 for Edenton until the next day, and I was without funds. The good 
 lady, after the Mass, gave me a dollar and told me to go to a certain 
 small hotel and told me to be sure that I came to see her before I 
 left the city, ft was in the days of the oil lamps and wood stoves. 
 The help saw that I had plenty of oil for my lamp and plenty of 
 Avood for my stove and in addition, I had three good square meals. 
 When I prepared to check out, I asked the old Confederate gentle- 
 man who owned the hotel, what were the charges. He replied that 
 he did not believe in charging ministers for meals and that he was 
 only going to charge me a dollar, adding that he had a daughter 
 working in the kitchen who a month or so ago, visited a Catholic 
 friend in New Bern and while there she went to the church with 
 her friend and saw me in the church. Hastening to the humble 
 home of Mrs. Richardson, the leader of the three little girls who 
 built St. Ann's Church in Edenton, asked me as soon as I was in 
 her presence, "Father, what did they charge you at the hotel?" I 
 quickly answered, "Do you know that the venerable old gentle- 
 man, the proprietor of the hotel, only charged me a dollar." Rais- 
 ing her hands in a reverent attitude, she said, "Thanks be to the 
 Sacred Heart, it was the only dollar I had, and I asked the Sacred 
 Heart that you would only be charged a dollar." "Well," I said, 
 "God certainly answered your prayer." The good lady wrote a 
 little spiritual book called "Spiritual Crumbs," and a rather heavy 
 work of her life, I was told, but I have never seen the book. She 
 sent me a beautiful Christmas poem. She died shortly after I left 
 New Bern for other Missions, in Brooklyn, N. Y. 
 
 In the fall of 1898 there was only one Catholic in Elizabeth 
 City, the venerable Mrs. Richardson. Now, in 1957, there are two 
 flourishing Churches and two Schools. Several years after I left 
 New Bern, I overheard two or three younger priests inquiring about 
 when was the first Mass said in Elizabeth City. It may be that 
 some pioneer priest, in passing, may have said Mass there; it may 
 be, too, that Father Price said Mass there and most likely did, but 
 one fact is certain to me, that I said Mass in Elizabeth City in the 
 fall of 1898 when there was only one Catholic living there at that 
 time. 
 
William Francis O'Brien 25 
 
 In the month of February, 1899, I received a sudden call from 
 Staunton, Virginia, to come to the bedside of my dying lather. 
 I arrived in Staunton with my younger sister, Mary Loretta O'Brien 
 who was on a visit to me, the day before my father died. The 
 venerable Father McCarthy, one of the older priests of the diocese 
 of Richmond, gave my father the last Sacraments of the Church. 
 My father was in the Federal Army and as a well-mannered Irish- 
 man, he had no prejudice against any people in the United States, 
 North, South, East, or West. Whenever the sons of the Confederate 
 veterans turned out in any local parade, he always marched with 
 them and would relate to them his experiences in battles with the 
 Indians in the Rocky Mountains, ten years before the War Between 
 the States. At that time, too, patriots of the North and the South, 
 who loved our united Country that was baptized in battle by true 
 soldiers who were ready to die for their convictions. One of the 
 ideals of a patriotic, liberal and urbane Virginia gentleman, was 
 a Mr. Patterson, the Commander of the Confederate Post at 
 Staunton. As a warm friend of my father, he said in an official way 
 to the members of his Post, "Comrades, let us go out and bury com- 
 rade O'Brien." I said the Requiem Mass for the repose of my 
 father's soul in St. Francis Church and was thrilled by the presence 
 of the Confederate veterans and their sons at the Mass. I feel proud 
 that I lived in Staunton for seven years and that I had the privilege 
 to say my first Mass in the city at the Church of St. Francis. 
 
 While in Staunton, I received a letter from my bishop of North 
 Carolina, transferring me from New Bern to Fayetteville, N. C. I 
 arrived in Fayetteville in the early part of March, 1899. My young- 
 er sister, Mary Loretta, came to live with me in Fayetteville; and 
 my oldest sister, Catherine Agnes, as a good bread winner, went to 
 Washington, D. O, the city of her birth, and there was married to 
 a Mr. Williams. Fayetteville was headquarters of some twenty 
 Missions extending to Wilmington and from Wilmington to Wades- 
 boro and also from Wilmington to Florence, South Carolina, and 
 thence from Florence to Fayetteville. The priest did not have 
 any jurisdiction in South Carolina, but he had to go into Florence 
 to work a few Stations leading towards Florence and then from 
 Florence, to work a few Stations leading to Fayetteville, N. C. I 
 gave two Sundays to Fayetteville and two Sundays to the Missions 
 as well as the week days. On one occasion Mr. Maloney, the 
 father of Mr. Joseph, who is now a very successful businessman in 
 Fayetteville and who was my altar-boy, came to see me in Durham 
 and in greeting me, suddenly said to his friends who were present, 
 "There is the onlv man who could fill our Church." "Hold now, 
 
26 The Memoirs of 
 
 my good friend," I replied, "that compliment, while appreciated, 
 I think requires some interpretation. I certainly could fill it when- 
 ever I had a burial and when I would have an extra service in the 
 Church, for the colored people, on Sunday afternoon." "Well," he 
 persisted, "you could certainly fill it in some way." During my 
 pastorate in Fayetteville, my younger sister, who kept house for 
 me, died in April 1900, at the old Highsmith and Maris hospital 
 that has long since burned down. Father Price gave her the last 
 sacraments and said the High Requiem Mass for the repose of her 
 soid. She is buried in Fayetteville. 
 
 In the month of October 1899, Bishop Leo Haid, O.S.B., made 
 a visitation to a few Stations on my extensive Mission and asked 
 me to write them up. The following written account of them was 
 published in the Baltimore Catholic Mirror in November 1899. 
 
 THE CATHOLIC MIRROR* 
 
 Vol. L — No. 46 
 
 Official Organ of the 
 Archdiocese of Baltimore. 
 
 Baltimore, Saturday, Nov. 18, 1899. 
 Growth of the Church 
 
 Bishop Haid at Fayetteville, on his Visitation — More Liberal 
 Spirit Now Shown by Non-Catholics — Encouraging Outlook 
 
 The following interesting account which in part follows, of the 
 condition and prospects of the Church in North Carolina and of 
 characteristic scenes, incidents and narrative of that missionary 
 country, was sent us through the kindness of Father Price, editor of 
 The Truth, the well-known monthly publication for Catholics and 
 non-Catholics: 
 
 The little flock of Fayetteville was busily engaged preparing for 
 the Bishop's coming. The Bishop had promised to pay them a 
 visit, and they wished to give him a good reception. A short time 
 before his arrival a few of the more energetic of the devoted little 
 band offered their services to thoroughly clean and dust the quaint 
 old church and to tastefully arrange and decorate the dear old 
 altar. This delighted the missionary and soon the church Avas astir 
 with the bustle and activity of faithful and cheerful workers. 
 
 * Bishop Leo Haid suggested to Father O'Brien that he prepare a write-up 
 covering the growth of the Church in Fayetteville, and send it to Father Price 
 for publication in his magazine "THE TRUTH". Father Price, not having 
 sufficient space in his magazine, sent it to the Baltimore "CATHOLIC 
 MIRROR". 
 
William Francis O'Brien 27 
 
 Conspicuous among the rest was a venerable lady of eighty 
 winters. She assisted at the holy sacrifice in this dear old church 
 for nearly sixty years. It was her place of divine worship since the 
 early forties. She was the organist in this church when its congrega- 
 tion was a prosperous one. In better days she was very generous 
 in its support and in the beautifying and adorning of its sanctuary. 
 Her home was the home lor priests; within her hospitable doors the 
 missionary always found a warm welcome. No wonder, then, that 
 the humblest work within those hallowed walls endeared to her by 
 holy association of long years should be a work of love to her; 
 no wonder that the decoration of the altar she decorated nearly 
 sixty years ago should be a duty at once so sacred and so holy; no 
 wonder that all its surrounding should be so dear, so fraught with 
 charms and so lovely to her. 
 
 It is a pleasure to hear her tell the history of the oldest church 
 in the state. "When Wilmington, Raleigh and Cheraw," she says, 
 "were missions, Fayetteville had a parish priest." She often recounts 
 to the missionary happy incidents she loves of those good and great 
 men who have gone before us, and unconsciously reminds him of 
 how much they labored and what they used to do for the greater 
 honor and glory of God in the Carolinas. 
 
 A Charlestonian by birth, she came to Fayetteville in 1840 and 
 took up her residence here. In response to an inquiry of how long 
 the old church was standing, she said: "I came here from Charles- 
 ton in the year 1840, and the building was as you see it, with but 
 little change. The church and property was given by a near rela- 
 tive of mine, a Mr. Kelly, in 1836." 
 
 Following her into the front room of the cosy little rectory, 
 she pointed to an old oil painting of the benefactor. Mr. Kelly was 
 a good old Irish gentleman, a good supporter and a warm friend 
 of the clergy. He loved the grand old faith, and died as he had 
 lived, in the sweet odor of his virtues. 
 
 Brought up under the shadow of Charleston Cathedral, where 
 the illustrious Bishop England so often preached, the good lady 
 drank in his golden wisdom as it fell from his eloquent lips, which 
 fully accounts for the godly principles she still retains. "The 
 Angelus is rung here, Father, for the conversion of Fayetteville." 
 Hers is, indeed, a warm and lively faith. When the little black boy 
 is tardy in the belfry her voice is heard in reproof for his negligence. 
 The Angelus is rung in but few places in the State. Would to God 
 that this good old Catholic custom were introduced in all our 
 churches. The people of Fayetteville have been accustomed to the 
 ringing of the Angelus for the last sixty years. It has a wholesome 
 
28 The Memoirs of 
 
 and distinctly Catholic influence upon them. Very often remarks 
 are overheard among them of the Angelus rung in the belfry of old 
 St. Patrick's appealing to them with so much soulful feeling. Indeed, 
 the institution is a lovely one, and calculated to bring about much 
 good, especially in non-Catholic surroundings. 
 
 But let us hasten to welcome our good Bishop. On Saturday, 
 the priest and Catholic sheriff met his Lordship as he came through 
 the car, greeted him heartily, relieved him of his baggage, seated 
 him in the handsomest vehicle in the city and drove him through 
 the main avenue to the old church. There the Catholics came to 
 kiss the episcopal ring and give honor to him who is the chief 
 representative of the grand old Apostolic and Catholic faith in 
 North Carolina. 
 
 Sunday was a bright, clear day in Fayetteville. A little altar 
 boy was up bright and early waiting in the church to confess to the 
 priest and serve the Bishop's Mass. Already, children lighthearted 
 and happy eight miles away were driving through the piney country 
 to the old church. The procession formed at the rectory at eleven 
 o'clock, marched slowly to the front of the church, and up the 
 center aisle to the altar. Candidates for confirmation, altar boys, 
 the priest and the Bishop composed the procession. The beautifully 
 decorated altar, together with the altar boys, the priest and the 
 Bishop kneeling to the sanctuary made a very impressive and 
 strikingly grave picture. The simple procession, though common 
 in our great cathedrals, was something unusual in the dear old 
 church of Fayetteville and as such the impression left of its simple 
 grandeur will be long remembered and appreciated by the little 
 congregation of old St. Patrick's. 
 
 After the divine Celebration the Bishop preached a very earnest 
 and impressive sermon on the gospel of the Sunday to a goodly 
 number of Fayetteville's most intelligent people. He then made a 
 few appropriate remarks on the sacrament of confirmation, and 
 then administered the sacrament to a class of ten boys, three of 
 whom were converts, one being received into the church that very 
 morning. At the evening services the Bishop preached a logical, 
 forcible, and very impressive discourse on "The Catholic and 
 Protestant rule of faith compared." This sermon had a decidedly 
 good effect upon a good many of the more earnest ones. The body 
 of the church and the galleries were crowded with intelligent and 
 very attentive non-Catholics. 
 
 During the Bishop's evening sermon the organist was suddenly 
 stricken down with paralysis. The priest was quietly notified and as 
 quietly hastened to his side; seeing that he was conscious and 
 receiving assurances of his recovery, the priest spoke a few words of 
 
William Francis O'Brien 29 
 
 encouragement and promised to be with him alter Benediction. 
 There was no disturbance in the congregation, as the people were 
 in total ignorance of the occurrence. As the priest was giving Bene- 
 diction the professor received a third stroke, the priest was again 
 called, and this time finding him unconscious gave him conditional 
 absolution. In this condition he was carried to the rectory, followed 
 bv a little band of sympathetic Catholics. Slowly regaining con- 
 sciousness, he confessed his sins and while most of the members 
 of the little congregation were kneeling around the genial old 
 gentleman pouring forth their soids in prayer for his recovery, 
 the priest administered Extreme Unction. After the reception of 
 this sacrament it was noticed to the surprise and joy of all that 
 he rapidly regained his strength. The good old gentleman's heart 
 was gratitude itself; before leaving for his home he insisted upon 
 kissing "my dear Bishop's ring," thus showing to the last that he 
 could not forget under any circumstances that childlike faith and 
 reverence for God's anointed instilled into his heart in that love- 
 ly little "green isle across the sea." 
 
 This gentleman, who was so profuse in his protestations to 
 honor "my dear Bishop" before his arrival, is a gentleman of the 
 old school, of six and seventy years and a universally acknowledged 
 master of music. He has given sacred concerts in almost every 
 leading city of the world, crossing the ocean no less than eighteen 
 times to fill engagements in Paris, Venice, London and other Euro- 
 pean cities. An old scrap-book in his possession will tell his history. 
 It is filled with clippings from the leading papers in the United 
 States, printed in the 40's, 50's, 60's and 70's in praise of this 
 musical genius. In his advanced age he still retains a little of the 
 mellowy sweetness of the rich baritone voice which one proved a 
 fortune to him. For a good number of years he was the organist 
 lor Archbishop Hughes of New York, and was therefore well and 
 ably fitted bv knowledge and by experience to train the little 
 Fayetteville choir. The music was of such a high order, the words 
 so well pronounced, and the parts so well sung as to merit a well- 
 deserved compliment from the Bishop, and the old gentleman felt 
 rewarded for his services. 
 
 Fayetteville is a lovely old town. The people are, as a general 
 rule, social, intelligent, thrifty and law abiding. They have great 
 respect for the priest, and withal have a disposition to be fair- 
 minded. Much of that old prejudice which seems to be the il- 
 ligitimate inheritance of the old towns in North Carolina is fast 
 disappearing and giving way to a better feeling and more reason- 
 able view of the rights and claims of good "old Mother Church." 
 A happy disposition to study the doctrines of the old Church of 
 
30 The Memoirs of 
 
 their forefathers is slowly but surely taking possession of many of 
 her best people. In confirmation of the truth of what I say I cite 
 a letter written by a non-Catholic of Fayetteville and printed in the 
 Raleigh Post and in the Wilmington Messenger: "Right Rev. Lee 
 Haid, Bishop of the Roman Catholic Church in North Carolina, 
 conducted very impressive services at St. Patrick's Church on Sunday 
 morning and evening, with discourses marked by great ability and 
 theological erudition. There were ten additions to the membership 
 of the congregation — only a continuance of the growth of that 
 religious denomination in the community for some time back, and 
 the writer predicts that in the not very distant future the church 
 will have a priest permanently stationed here." 
 
 "Before the Avar — in the 40's and 50's the Roman Catholics were 
 relatively quite strong in Fayetteville, and were then, as they are 
 now, among the town's most respected people. Charles and Patrick 
 Montague, both families of the Monaghans, the Kellys and the 
 Poorys gave of their ample means, devoted their energies and il- 
 lustrated their faith in their devotion to the church." 
 
 This augurs well, indeed, for Fayetteville, the spirit is indeed 
 gratifying. It discovers their kindly attitude towards the grand 
 old Church of their ancestors, and proves that the example of the 
 godly, as our Good Master taught, will bring forth good fruit in 
 His own good time. The "ten additions" of which the gentleman 
 speaks composed our little confirmation class, three of whom, as 
 I stated above, were converts, one being received into the Church 
 that very morning. 
 
 "The growth of the Church in this community for some time 
 back," together with his prediction that Fayetteville "will have a 
 parish priest in the not very distant future," so admirably expressed 
 in his letter is indeed encouraging. May God grant his prediction. 
 May God prosper the little congregation; may God bless the little 
 city with a fruitful harvest of chosen souls for His greater glory and 
 honor is the earnest prayer of the missionary. 
 
 On Monday the Bishop accompanied by the priest was driven 
 four miles through a luxuriant and charming country to "Today," 
 a plantation owned by Colonel Wharton Green, a southern gentle- 
 man of the old school, a gallant old soldier of the confederacy, a 
 politician, able lawyer, and ex-congressman. "Today" has the 
 reputation of being the finest vineyard on this side of California. 
 The Bishop was delightfully entertained here, the Colonel and the 
 Bishop exchanging views on civil, political and national questions 
 of the day and finally entering upon a very interesting chat on 
 agriculture. The Colonel has a great knowledge of farming; besides 
 being especially interested in his own plantation he served on the 
 
William Francis O'Brien 31 
 
 committee of Agriculture in Congress. The Bishop also has an 
 unusual amount of agrarian knowledge in his mental storehouse. 
 The Bishop's farm in Belmont is in good condition and in his com- 
 munity he is considered almost an authority on farming. In this 
 he is true to the traditions of his order, the great Benedictine Order, 
 which after preaching the Gospel of Peace, and refining the man- 
 ners of the barbarous borders of Europe in the sixth and seventh 
 centuries, taught them to till the soil and thus bring forth fruit 
 from mother earth in greater abundance. As of old wherever the 
 great order founds a monastery she is sure to make the surroundings 
 one of the garden spots of the world. The colonel took great 
 pleasure in telling the Bishop that he received the blessing of 
 Pius IX in the streets of Rome and remarked that the man who 
 bore his countenance coidd not be otherwise than a godly man. 
 Before leaving, the Colonel and his charming household insisted 
 upon giving the Bishop a musical entertainment of a street scene 
 in 177(). through the Gramaphone. "Yankee Doodle," by the band, 
 the cries of the people and the cheers for General Washington were 
 really remarkable and were greatly enjoyed. 
 
 Leaving Fayetteville on Monday evening we were on our way 
 to Hub, now called Boardman, N. C, via Florence, S. C. We stop- 
 ped over night in Florence and were highly entertained by the 
 Kuker family. Tuesday about half after twelve we found ourselves 
 in Boardman. 
 
 Boardman has one of the largest if not the largest lumber mill 
 in the south and carries on quite an extensive lumbering trade. The 
 few Catholics there are mostly employed as skilled hands in the mill 
 and are highly respected. The public school is taught by a Catholic 
 lady from South Carolina and will soon have a Catholic assistant. 
 Owing to the small number of Catholics the priest is obliged to 
 say mass, give instructions and teach catechism in a private house. 
 It seems as though non-Catholics as a general rule feel a delicacy in 
 attending Catholic services in private houses; before services a 
 goodly number of respectable people requested to be admitted 
 and were gladly welcomed to all of our services. 
 
 The Bishop spoke touchingly to the little gathering on the 
 goodness and mercy of God, on the great sacrament which was 
 about to be administered by a lawful successor of the apostles in 
 that little room in North Carolina and then confirmed a class 
 of three. On one occasion a native who had been brought up on 
 a farm far away from the villages, who had never seen a priest 
 and who knew absolutely nothing whatever about the church 
 accompanied the children to Sunday School. The priest invited 
 her to come to evening services; going to her mistress she remarked 
 
32 The Memoirs of 
 
 that she would like to go to church because "That priest," told her 
 to do so. The next Sunday she agreeably surprised the Sunday 
 School teacher by coming and telling the teacher that the priest 
 said she was a member of the class and what was a greater surprise 
 she knew her lesson and now since she has seen and heard the 
 Bishop she has a greater desire to study her catechism. 
 
 Alter giving confirmation the Bishop preached on the "One 
 True Church" to a large crowd in a hall where the non-Catholics 
 usually hold services. The sentence "Accountable to God" was 
 printed in large letters on the wall, and the Bishop took advantage 
 of this after referring to it and spoke of that one great responsibility 
 which his hearers owed to God in the salvation of their immortal 
 soids. In concluding he invited them to hear the priest whenever 
 he came among them; exhorted them to consider well what he had 
 said and to study the doctrines of the grand old faith their fore- 
 fathers loved so well before the unfortunate division of the one 
 great Christian family. 
 
 We were up half after four on Wednesday morning in order 
 to give them time for the Bishop to read mass and to catch the 
 six o'clock train for Wilmington via Fair Bluff. To get to Fair 
 Bluff we were obliged to take a log train running through a twelve 
 mile swamp. The superintendent, a clever gentleman owning a big 
 interest in the firm, came to pay his respects to the clergy and to 
 offer the services of his private cars to take them to the Bluff. Ar- 
 riving at the Bluff after an enjoyable ride through the picturesque 
 swamp of jungle pines and cypresses a gentleman relieved us of our 
 baggage and we were glad enough to start on foot for the village. 
 Walking single file for some time in a pathway grown over with 
 grass and wet with dew we were obliged to cross a deep ravine over 
 a log which served as a bridge. The Bishop bravely led the way 
 followed by the priest; gaining the road, our good friend who re- 
 lieved us of our baggage offered his buggy but the Bishop preferred 
 to walk in company with the gentleman and enjoy the freshness of 
 the morning air while the priest drove on to our good friend's 
 house. There is only one Catholic man living in Fair Bluff and 
 there were only fi\e souls at mass that morning, the Bishop, our 
 good friend, two Irish pedlers who happened to be in the village 
 and who would have the Bishop and priest's blessing, and a non- 
 Catholic lady. The priest gave an instruction after mass. It may 
 sound a little out of the ordinary to some who are not accustomed 
 to missionary life to preach to four, but the fact is the missionary 
 knows that if an instruction is not given on an occasion such as 
 this a golden opportunity for doing good is lost, the missionary 
 knows that it is to his own eternal gain to give an instruction, per- 
 
William Francis O'Brien 33 
 
 haps to the eternal gain of the souls of their neighbors who arc 
 influenced by example and to the greater honor and glory of God 
 to preach to three, to two, or even to give an instruction to one. 
 We may or may not see and reap the fruit hut in Cod's own good 
 time fruit will conic. After services till train time the Bishop in- 
 terested himself by trimming a fruit tree, walking in the garden 
 and giving practical talks to our good friends on farming and how 
 to cultivate a good orchard. Eleven o'clock we took the train for 
 Wilmington and were met at the depot at 1:00 P.M. by Father 
 Dennen who took splendid care of us till Thursday, 3:45 P.M. 
 when we boarded the train for Farmer's Turnout. 
 
 Farmer's is a mere Hag station on the Wilmington and South 
 Carolina Branch of the Coast Line. It was the home ol Major 
 Reilly, a veteran of the Mexican War, of gallant and meritorious 
 conduct, an Indian fighter and a soldier of distinction in the Civil 
 War. When the Federal forces bombarded Fort Fisher the tearless 
 old Major was in command. Taken at a disadvantage and sub- 
 jected to a heavy fire from the attacking forces, the Major defended 
 the fort with unflinching courage till his ammunition was ex- 
 hausted, then taking up a gun he threw it with all his force at his 
 victors and cried, "Take the old rusty thing." We were entertained 
 here by the family of the deceased Major. 
 
 There is a neat little church at Farmer's dedicated to the honor 
 of the great St. Paul. There is also a flourishing little mission at 
 Cronley, six miles from Farmer's, on the Carolina Central Road. At 
 one time the priest succeeded in getting all the grown members to 
 their duty. A comparatively large crowd of non-Catholics gener- 
 ally assembled in the hall to listen to the priest, who hopes to have 
 a few under instructions here soon. The priest has much to be 
 grateful for to the former superintendent of Cronley mill lor the 
 flourishing condition of the mission. This gentleman, together with 
 his wife, took an unselfish interest in the Sunday School and the 
 general work of the Church and greatly aided the priest. Would 
 to God that there were many such families scattered over the vast 
 territory attended by the priest to cultivate and nourish the seed 
 sown during his monthly or occasional visits. Such noble work 
 undertaken from a motive of pure charity will certainly merit a 
 divine reward. The present superintendent of the Cronley mill I 
 am told is a good Catholic. On the occasion of the Bishop's visit 
 to Farmer's a number of the Catholics of Cronley attended the little 
 church, and among them were four of the eight candidates con- 
 firmed. The Bishop spoke to them of the reasonableness of their 
 faith, and concluded with a few warm words of encouragement. 
 
34 The Memoirs of 
 
 Our host, as did the flagman, took it for granted that the 
 freight bound for Wilmington, as it generally is, would be far be- 
 hind the scheduled time. For this reason supper was not especially 
 hurried. When seated at table engaged in pleasant conversation 
 the shrill sound of a whistle and the rumbling of an approaching 
 freight was heard. Getting up in all haste, we seized our baggage 
 and just as we gained the door the heavy freight went rolling by. 
 The flagman, running to his post, whirled his lantern, and by good 
 fortune caught the eye of the conductor who slowed down, stopped 
 and backed up his freight. Feeling somewhat easier after this 
 bit of experience we boarded the train and in response to our 
 queries the conductor good naturedly and somewhat earnestly told 
 us that his train was not signaled in time, that it was against the 
 law for him to back up, especially when a through freight was only 
 a few miles behind, which might possibly result in a collision. 
 
 Arriving in Wilmington the freight stopped at Fourth Street, 
 and rather than wait a half hour or more for it to pull into the 
 depot, we got out and walked. Going down the side track that 
 wet and dark evening, we were soon compelled to put on a double 
 quick movement in order to gain an opening in the side of a hill 
 before the shifting engine would be down upon us. The opening, 
 which proved to be a pathway leading up a big hill to the street, 
 was between a sandbank of the railroad and brick wall which 
 enclosed the tracks. The Bishop reached this pathway first, fol- 
 lowed by the priest who, trudging to get high and dry footing in 
 the pathway, stepped right into a little pool of water. Jumping out 
 he went climbing up the steep hill in darkness just as the engine 
 went by, puffing in his ear. In company with Father Dennen we 
 were driven from the depot to the rectory to rest and prepare for 
 the work of the morrow. 
 
 On Friday about ten o'clock we were in Montague, a flag station 
 about sixteen miles above Wilmington on the Cape Fear and 
 Yadkin division of the Coast Line. This is one of the most flourish- 
 ing little missions of the twenty stations, attended by the missionary. 
 It is an ideal place for a Catholic colony. There is a large tract 
 of rich and very productive land here which is not under cultiva- 
 tion, and which, with a little skill and brawn, would bring a neat 
 little return. A church to which the Right Rev. Bishop contributed 
 liberally is now in course of erection here — it will also serve as a 
 school house for the Catholics. At the dedication we look forward 
 to the coming of a large crowd of Catholics from Wilmington to 
 encourage us and to show an active interest in the growth of the 
 grand old faith they love so much. Two adults were received into 
 the Church here, and the writer thinks a few more will soon be 
 
William Francis O'Brien 35 
 
 under instruction. A lady was very desirous to know the neces- 
 sary questions to be asked in order to find out the validity or in- 
 validity of the Sacrament of Baptism that she may know how to pro- 
 ceed when her time comes to enter into the hands of Peter. A 
 young man, who came ten miles to hear the Bishop, remarked to 
 the priest after the Bishop's morning instruction: "I tell you Christ 
 did not come on earth and lay His platform for nothing." 
 
 In the evening the Bishop preached an eloquent and thought- 
 ful sermon on the religion which our Divine Savior founded as 
 contrasted with that which men try to teach. The audience, which 
 was a large one, had little or no prejudice. These good people 
 were very attentive, and were very grateful to have the Bishop 
 preach for them. There was even a place reserved for the colored 
 people. One very enthusiastic sister did not hesitate to nod approv- 
 ingly from time to time, and to whisper out occasionally that the 
 Bishop was telling the whole truth. May God bless and prosper 
 this little garden in His great vineyard. 
 
 Leaving Montague, about 6:15 P.M. we arrived in Wilmington 
 about 7:00 P.M., and again enjoyed the hospitality of the reverend 
 pastor. 
 
 The Bishop and the priest parted company at Clio, the next 
 mission. The Bishop, full of labors and good works performed on 
 the mission, was driven to Hamlet Sunday evening, October 8, to 
 take the train for Belmont, there to fill the professor's chair and to 
 teach his young theologians how to become good missionaries. The 
 priest remained in Clio until the next morning, when he took 
 the train for his happy little home at the cozy little rectory in the 
 town of Fayetteville. 
 
 The mission priest attends about twenty stations, which cover 
 a large territory. He has his house to support, his traveling ex- 
 penses to pay, his clothing to provide, the poor mission stations to 
 keep up, and to do this he is obliged to make innumberable sacri- 
 fices and can barely succeed even then. These persons, laity and 
 clergy, who could direct to him the alms donated for holy masses 
 would greatly aid him and would surely do a noble act of charity. 
 The name of this self-sacrificing priest whose missions are the poor- 
 est in that state of poor missions, North Carolina, is Father O'Brien. 
 His address is Favetteville, North Carolina. 
 
36 The Memoirs of 
 
 CHAPTER III 
 
 In the Fall of 1899, as I was making my monthly rounds on my 
 widely scattered missions, I boarded a freight train as it left in a 
 convenient time from the Mission that I had attended, to fulfill 
 my appointment at the next Mission station. The long freight 
 started suddenly and in doing so jerked the box cars in the rear, 
 especially the caboose, with such a force, that it threw me, bodily, 
 from one end of the caboose to the front, against the knob of a 
 surging door that struck me a stunning, deadly blow in the spine. 
 I was taken out of the caboose in a crippled condition. As painful 
 and as serious as it could have been, it was a blessing that the knob 
 on the door stopped my momentum, else I would have been thrown 
 out between the couplings and ground to pieces. After recuperating 
 for twenty-four hours, I skipped over one or two Mission stations 
 and worked two stations before I left for my headquarters in Fayette- 
 ville. My doctor examined me and said that there were no bones 
 bioken, yet in a day or two, I was taken with malaria fever, the 
 typhoid fever, and intermittent fevers. Father Price was thinking 
 about having me taken to St. Agnes' hospital in Baltimore, and the 
 doctor said I would not live till I got to Baltimore. I was a patient 
 in the old Highsmith & Morris Hospital for over four months and 
 was not expected to live. This hospital in Fayetteville was situated 
 not far from the old landmark Market House, which has long since 
 burned down. 
 
 About this time, Father Price founded his orphanage for boys 
 at Nazareth and was preparing to build an Apostolic House as a 
 center for priests to work among non-Catholics. The girls' orph- 
 anage was at Belmont, N. C, and in after years, the orphan girls 
 were sent to Nazareth. On Christmas Day in 1900, Bishop Haid ap- 
 pointed me to be the first chaplain of the Nazareth Orphanage. 
 Slowly regaining my strength, I was not able to get to Nazareth 
 till the 12th of February, 1901. Father Michael Irwin was or- 
 dained in June 1900, and was sent immediately as an assistant 
 to Father Price. Fathers Price and Irwin built small chapels in sev- 
 eral small Stations in Wake County and invited the non-Catholics 
 to listen to the explanations of Catholic doctrine. As Father Price 
 had to spend a good deal of time to take up collection in northern 
 cities for the support of the orphans, the successful circulation of his 
 magazine, Truth, and the building of chapels. As soon as I was able, 
 in addition to my duties as chaplain, attending my appointments at 
 the Poor House, Penitentiary and Old Soldier's Home, I assisted 
 Fathers Price and Irwin during the week to give missions to non- 
 Catholics. We had a number of converts in this work. 
 
William Francis O'Brien 37 
 
 After my arrival at Nazareth, owing to my weakened condition, 
 I was not able to perform a chaplain's duties. I had several spells of 
 sickness and one was a serious case of abdominal trouble. The 
 doctor was very much concerned about me. The children were called 
 to the chapel to pray for me. Thanks be to God, I was relieved 
 while the children were praying for me in the Chapel. God, in His 
 merciful compassion, heard their prayers. 
 
 It was Father Price's great desire, that in the providence of God, 
 congenial men would associate with him and naturally further his 
 apostleship under his leadership in his zeal and sacrifice for the 
 conversion of North Carolina. Realizing that now two other priests 
 were living together with him, sharing his spirit of poverty and 
 wholly in sympathy with his apostolic labors, he saw the necessity of 
 cooperating in spirit to the moral willingness of his assistants to 
 mutually -work together for the glory of God and the salvation of 
 souls, to hold them together, legally, by the establishing of an 
 Apostolate Company, -without capital. The incorporators of the 
 Apostolate Company -were the Rev. Thomas F. Price, Rev. Michael 
 Irwin and Rev. William F. O'Brien, all of Nazareth, N. C. There 
 was also a Board of Trustees consisting of Fathers Price, Irwin and 
 O'Brien, and three laymen: Joseph F. Farrell, Raleigh; William T. 
 O'Brien, Durham; and Robert M. Douglas, Justice of the Supreme 
 Court, Greensboro. The president of the Board of Trustees, ipso 
 facto, was Rt. Rev. Leo Haid, O.S.B. D.D., Vicar Apostolic of North 
 Carolina and Abbot of St. Mary's Monastery, Belmont. 
 
 It is singular that while the Bishop's name was given as the 
 president of the Board of Trustees, yet his name or signature was 
 not on the legal document that was drawn up, of the Apostolate 
 Company. I feel that I should state here and now, while I -was 
 deeply attracted to Fathers Price and Irwin, f did make it known 
 to them that I could not see how the Apostolate Company would 
 be a success without the Bishop's signature upon it, even though 
 I coidd not say that Father Price was not urged on by a divine 
 directive, but that f had no proof of it at the time. At a meeting 
 with Bishop Haid, Father Price and myself with reference to 
 Nazareth, the Bishop in deep thought, raised his hand to his head 
 as if to smooth back his hair from his forehead and said, "Father 
 Price, I am a practical man, I do not have any spiritual light from 
 above that priests should band together in community life." I 
 presumably added that we did not know the Will of God in regard 
 to the directory of Nazareth. Father Price, it seemed evident to me, 
 felt that he was urged on by a divine directive. I was not opposed to 
 Father Price, rather, I was willing to co-operate with him in any 
 formation at Nazareth, as God willed, if the Bishop did not call 
 
38 The Memoirs of 
 
 me to work elsewhere in the Vicariate. In fact, Father Price pro- 
 posed to Father Irwin and myself that he would write to the Bishop 
 and state that as priests at Nazareth, we would work anywhere in 
 the state that he wished. Father Irwin and myself said that we did 
 not see the necessity of a letter of that kind to the Bishop because 
 we knew that the Bishop could send us to any particular place he 
 wished to send us in the state. 
 
 While sitting on the porch of the old frame building of the 
 boys' orphanage, convalescing, I often admired the field on the 
 other side of the road as an ideal place for a permanent orphanage. 
 The field was purchased by a gentleman in Raleigh while Father 
 Price was on a collecting tour. On his return, I informed him of it. 
 Fortunately, after an interview with the gentleman, Father Price was 
 able to re-buy and come into possession of it. About a year later, 
 the Church of the Holy Name of Jesus and the Apostolic Home, 
 dedicated to the Queen of the Apostles, was erected on the ideally 
 located and beautiful lot. At this time there were a number of 
 apostolic bands forming in a number of dioceses. These apostolic 
 men would meet in conventions from time to time to listen to 
 papers read by appointment from all sections of the country. Father 
 Price was a good penman as his father was before him, he being 
 editor of the old Wilmington Journal from 1848 to 1872. The let- 
 ters of the missionaries were very interesting and were published 
 in their missionary journal, but to me, Father Price's writings 
 seemed especially appealing and very good. It may be because of 
 the local flavor that was especially appealing to me. These letters 
 were read far and wide and they attracted young men from Pennsyl- 
 vania, New York, Connecticut and Ohio, to apply to enroll as mis- 
 sionary students in the North Carolina Apostolate. In addition to 
 two teachers, Father Price and Father Irwin gave extra time to 
 clerical instruction to about twenty students. They were being well 
 trained in spiritual exercises. Father O'Rourke, the Jesuit Master 
 of Novices, took them through the thirty day exercises of St. Ignatius. 
 The students made up an excellent Choir. I was on hand every 
 Sunday to sing the High Mass in the church while Fathers Price 
 and Irwin would officiate at a station for non-Catholics in Wake 
 County. 
 
 In the year 1905, it seemed that all the missions were moving 
 along smoothly, with a promise of zealous future priests to labor 
 in North Carolina. Suddenly, out of nowhere, a mysterious fire 
 broke out and razed the Apostolic House to the ground. Two 
 boys, who were not students, dropped from the fourth story hoping 
 to land on a mattress that was placed on the ground. One was 
 seriously injured and died in a few hours, the other was badly 
 
William Francis O'Brien 39 
 
 crippled and died two or three years later. One of the students 
 who was also an athlete, Thomas Wallace, dropped from a fourth 
 floor onto a mattress, suffering some painful temporary injuries to 
 his feet. The rest of the students got out of the burning building 
 like a rush of trained men. f was in another side of the burning 
 building and was compelled to hang by my hands from a win- 
 dow sill on the third floor and to drop to the ground. I cannot 
 say that I lost consciousness as I recollect trying to come to. I did 
 think my neck was broken and that I was helpless, lying on my 
 back. As the stunning blow that I received on my back eased 
 somewhat, I realized that someone was standing over me, and with 
 his assistance I helped myself up. This person was John Cassidy of 
 Philadelphia, who afterwards became a Benedictine priest and 
 labored in the Richmond diocese. He has long since gone to his 
 reward. 
 
 I was taken to the infirmary at the Boys' frame building orphan- 
 age, under the care of the Sisters of Mercy. The doctor came to 
 see me, stared at me a few moments and shook his head. He had 
 told the Sisters, after I came from Fayetteville, that 1 would not be 
 able to do any work as my body was worn out on the Missions. 
 Then a good Sister, who nursed me when I first arrived at Nazareth, 
 asked me how I felt. I replied, "that I would be up and out of bed 
 in four or five days." This brought forth a hearty laugh from the 
 good, patient Sister, as she knew that the least wind would blow 
 me over. "Sister," I said, "I will tell you a secret, if you will not 
 tell anybody. You know I was knocked down on a train on the 
 Fayetteville Mission, and received a strong blow on my spine, and 
 as a result my body did not function correctly; now in dropping 
 down out of that burning building from the third floor, I received 
 a whale of a crack on my back and my body was knocked straight 
 again." My prediction was correct; I was up talking to the orphan 
 boys five days later. 
 
 About the year 1903, 1 was recalled by Bishop Haid to take up 
 again the work on the Fayetteville Missions, as Father Peter Marion 
 was seriously ill in Asheville and his brother, Patrick who was or- 
 dained to relieve me in Fayetteville, was called to take up his 
 brother's work. I worked the Fayetteville mission for nine months 
 and at the end of that time I was not too well, so 1 wrote to my 
 Bishop that I surely would have a case of nervous prostration if 1 
 continued on the Fayetteville mission in poor health. 1 left for 
 Nazareth and again took up my work there as Chaplain. The 
 Bishop recalled Father Patrick from Asheville to renew his first 
 appointment to the Fayetteville missions. In 1904, Father Wherty 
 of the Goldsboro mission was not too well, and the Bishop again 
 
40 The Memoirs of 
 
 took me from the duties of Chaplain at Nazareth, to take Father 
 Wherty's place on the Goldsboro mission. The first two churches 
 that Father Price built were the Immaculate Conception Church at 
 Halifax and St. Mary's at Goldsboro. During the several months 
 that I worked on the Goldsboro mission, the mother Church of 
 these missions, St. Mary's, which the congregation loved and was 
 so devoted to, did not have a statue of the Blessed Virgin. I im- 
 mediately got busy and arranged to get a beautiful statue of the 
 Blessed Virgin for the Church. Father Price and Father Irwin 
 came from Nazareth with the orphans and Sisters, together with 
 parishioners from Rocky Mount and other stations to celebrate a 
 festival of Mary and to crown the statue, representing Mary, as the 
 Queen of May. Father Price preached a beautiful sermon on the 
 Blessed Virgin. It was like a homecoming day to the Catholics of 
 Goldsboro. The majority of the little congregation were born in 
 Goldsboro, and they were glad to have Father Price with them on 
 that festive day of May, as Father Price was a special client of Mary. 
 He had built the church and was, to them, the Tarheel of Tar- 
 heels. 
 
 At the end of six or seven months I approached my Bishop and 
 said, "The priest does not have a house to live in on the Golds- 
 boro mission and if he has any converts to instruct, the only place 
 he can invite them to is a little sacristy and if arrangements cannot 
 be made before time with two of three families who would kindly 
 receive the priest, of necessity he would have to go to the hotel, 
 and the hotel is no place for the priest to go." The Bishop replied, 
 "How much would be required to get a convenient place? Would 
 a thousand dollars do?" I answered that I thought that sum would 
 do. The Bishop then told me that Father Wherty was now well 
 enough to take up his work where he left off and as I loved to be 
 a member of the community at Nazareth, I was glad to return there. 
 
 In addition to my work at Nazareth as Chaplain, I instructed 
 two groins of persons in one class at the penitentiary at Raleigh 
 every Saturday who voluntarily attended. A white group and a 
 colored group. They were all non-Catholics. After my class in- 
 struction, I always paid a visit to the Infirmary and on one of my 
 weekly Saturday visits there, I was told of a colored man there who 
 was near death. His body did not function and he was unconscious. 
 Looking into his face, I recognized him as one who had attended 
 my class. Turning to the sick prisoners, who were present and who 
 may have been robbers or murderers, I said I was going to baptize 
 the sick man conditionally, explaining to them that I did not know 
 if he wished to be baptized, or whether he was baptized or not; 
 and that this baptism, even if he did not want to be baptized, would 
 
William Francis O'Brien 41 
 
 not do him any harm. But for the reason that he attended my class, 
 1 was going to give him the benefit of the doubt. That ibis was 
 a serious matter, eternal salvation of liis soul might be at stake. 
 God, our Teacher, says Himself, "Unless a man is born of water 
 and the Holy Ghost, he will not enter into the kingdom of heaven." 
 1 baptized him, conditionally, and anointed him, conditionally. 
 Alter 1 anointed him my eyes were riveted on the remaining prayers 
 in the ritual and when finished, 1 did not look at the sick man 
 again, hut looked at the prisoners in general. Feeling or sensing 
 a thick atmosphere of doubt and even opposition, 1 waved to them 
 all and said. "Goodbye now, I will see you next Saturday," and was 
 really glad to be outside the door. The following Saturday, on my 
 visit to the infirmary, all the prisoners were looking at me in a silent, 
 even a reverential awe. I said to them, "Why are you looking at me 
 with such a peculiar stare?" "Why," they answered, "aren't you the 
 man that raised the man who was so seriously sick, up out of his 
 bed?" I instantly sensed that the effects of the Sacrament in this 
 case were completely effective, as God had willed. "No," I replied, 
 "I did not raise that man out of his bed. Mere man does not have 
 this power. God did that. Didn't I tell you, the scripture says: 
 '11' any man is sick among you, call in the Priest ol the Church, 
 and the prayers of the faith shall save the sick man, and if he be 
 in sin, his sins shall be forgiven him, and if God so wills, he will 
 raise him up, bodily'." Still, i did not see the man get up out ol 
 bed. About nine clays after this happened, the man got out of 
 prison and made a bee-line to see me. I was taking the Pastor's 
 place for a few days in the old frame Catholic Church in Raleigh. 
 Seeing him coming towards me, I said to him, "Tell me what hap- 
 pened?" "Boss, don't you know?" "No, I do not." "Well, 1 came 
 to and saw you standing; over me readina; out of the Bible." Well, 
 I did not have a Bible in my hand but 1 had a prayer-book with 
 Bible prayers in it. "1 did not see you come to as I was looking 
 at the fellow sick prisoners and after saying goodbye to them, I 
 went out." The man got up alter 1 left the room. 
 
 In my close association with Father Price at Nazareth, 1 became 
 fully aware not only of his intense desire to sacrifice himself for 
 the conversion of his native state, but also of his burning desire 
 to offer himself voluntarily to work on the foreign missions. 1 
 recall him saying to me at one time, "Billy, suppose you knew 
 that they needed priests to work as missionaries in the Philippines 
 — would you voluntarily offer to go there?" I said to him that I 
 was going to stick to North Carolina to the end. He knew of 
 Father Walsh's attraction to the Foreign Missions from reading 
 "The Field Afar," of which Father Walsh was the editor. Father 
 
42 The Memoirs of 
 
 Walsh also knew of Father Price's attraction and love for the For- 
 eign Missions. They met for the first time at the Eucharistic Con- 
 gress in Montreal, Canada. I was in Buffalo at the time collecting 
 for a school in Durham, N. C, and joining Father Price and Father 
 Irwin there in 1910. Then in Montreal, Father Walsh and Father 
 Price planned and mentally laid the Foundation of the Foreign 
 Mission Society. It met with the hearty approbation of Cardinal 
 Gibbons, the Archbishops and Bishops of the United States. It was 
 the will of the American hierarchy that these two kindred souls 
 should go to Rome and get the official approbation of the Holy 
 Father for the founding of the American Society for the Foreign 
 Missions. The Holy Father, Pius X, gave his hearty approval of 
 the American Foreign Mission Society and his special blessing to 
 the two founders. 
 
 The formation, development and growth of the new American 
 Foreign Mission Society naturally would require the better part 
 of the time and intent of the two founders. Yet Father Price could 
 not forget his first love, his apostolic foundation for the conversion 
 of souls in his native state. He had hoped to give three weeks of 
 his time to the apostolic foundation of Maryknoll and one week to 
 his foundation at Nazareth. His bishop, Bishop Haid, O.S.B., told 
 him to give one week to Maryknoll and three weeks to Nazareth, 
 and if he would give three weeks to Maryknoll, he would appoint 
 another priest to take charge of Nazareth. Father Price well knew 
 that it would be a sacrifice of a lifetime if he would choose to give 
 the major part of the time to the development and formation of 
 the Maryknoll foundation with Father Walsh, yet he felt that with- 
 in his conscience he was doing the Will of God in choosing the 
 work of Maryknoll as he would be in a position to work for the 
 greater honor and glory of God, in His world-wide Kingdom. In 
 the new regime of Nazareth, Father Price did not feel that he was 
 welcome, at the monument which was his, in virtue of his long 
 years of labor, sacrifice and prayer. He brought the great merit 
 of his cross and self-sacrifice, in leaving Nazareth, to the inception 
 and development of Maryknoll, that has now become the greatest 
 world-wide propagation Society in the Church. Making a visit to 
 him at Maryknoll, I remarked to him that the orphanage which 
 he founded was being supported but the apostolic work connected 
 with it has ceased. His reply to me was, "Billy, I am out of that 
 now and have left all to Almighty God to work out all things there 
 according to His Holy Will." 
 
 A short time after Father Price had led the first band of young 
 priests to China from Maryknoll, I asked Father Irwin to go with 
 me to see Cardinal Gibbons in Baltimore, in reference to Nazareth. 
 
William Francis O'Brien 43 
 
 Father Irwin did not go, but he assured me that he admired me 
 in going to see the Cardinal. While I was speaking to his Emi- 
 nence, Cardinal Gibbons, he said to me in an advisedly and fatherly 
 way, "I would not oppose my bishop." 1 assured him that the 
 thought of opposing my bishop did not enter my mind and that 
 I came to see him for information and guidance. "What, your 
 Eminence, if there was a possibility of apostolic mission work con- 
 tinuing at Nazareth, as a center?" "In that case get the signature 
 of your bishop," he replied. Immediately and clearly, I divined the 
 situation. For a proper solution, it would be wise to see my bishop 
 which I hastened to do, after I left the Cardinal's residence. Bishop 
 Haid, shortly after his consecration in 1888, urged my father to 
 send me to Belmont. When I was in the seminary, I served the 
 Bishop's Mass in the private Chapel with Thomas Oistreich, who 
 afterwards became Father Thomas, O.S.B., and studied at Rome 
 becoming a distinguished professor and scholar. Bishop Haid was 
 also my professor in moral theology and ordained me. In my con- 
 versation with him, the question of his signature not being on the 
 property of Nazareth came up. He stated clearly that his signature, 
 as bishop, was not on the property purchased at Nazareth. I said 
 to him, "Bishop, I think it would be a good move to put your 
 signature on the existing document now, and come out into the 
 state, and all the priests would rally around you." He replied that 
 he was too old for that and would keep Nazareth intact as it is. 
 After the death of Father Price in China, the bishop called me to 
 meet him in Raleigh, with Father Wood, who he had appointed 
 to be superintendent of the Nazareth orphanage. Father Irwin was 
 not at the meeting. At the meeting, Nazareth was turned over to 
 the Vicariate. This was not done legally. The thought of challeng- 
 ing the procedure, in the absence of any possible procedure at the 
 present moment or in the future, did not enter our minds, as the 
 present moral motivating thoughts of all concerned, were in unison 
 for the general good of the administration of the Vicariate. 
 
 About two weeks after the Apostolic House, dedicated to the 
 Queen of the Apostles at Nazareth was destroyed by a mysterious 
 fire in the fall of 1905, I began mentally to perceive, and finally 
 was convinced that Father Price was providentially chosen by God 
 to be instrumental, to do a special work in His Church. My con- 
 viction stemmed from the following memorable event. Of the de- 
 structive building only the outer brick walls remained standing, 
 and Father Price did not lose any time in calling the young stu- 
 dents to assist him in constructing what may be termed a battering 
 ram, made up of a large, long log, to be propelled to and fro on 
 wheels, to hit the walls with a concentrated force from a safety 
 
44 The Memoirs of 
 
 point of their own planning. It became evident to me that Father 
 Price's unusual activity in this form was to make it possible to 
 note the whereabouts of the cornerstone among the debris. After 
 this surprising and herculean job was completed, which I had been 
 watching from across the road on the porch of the old frame or- 
 phanage house, Father Price came to me and said, "The corner- 
 stone of the building is over there." I instantly thought why didn't 
 he pick it up. He was there and knew where it was, and was better 
 able to get it than I was, as I was not physically perfect in body as 
 yet, after my jump from the third-story window. However, after a 
 few moments I was on my way over there, looked over the debris 
 and returned, and told him that I could not find it. Father Price 
 went over the second time and said to me, "The cornerstone is 
 surely there," because he had seen it. I then made a more thorough 
 search and found it. Opening the box, placed in the cornerstone, 
 I found a letter he had written, dated April 21, 1902. I did not 
 tell him that I had opened the box and found the letter he had 
 written and put in the box before he blessed it, nor did he ask me 
 about it in all the days, months and years he lived till he died in 
 China on September 12, 1919, the Feast of the Holy Name of Mary. 
 I still have this letter in my possession. Father Price was in charge 
 of Nazareth until 1911, the year he left to give his full time to 
 Maryknoll. I was appointed by my bishop to be pastor of Durham, 
 North Carolina, in 1907. In 1921, I wrote a brief outline of Father 
 Price's life for the magazine, Field Afar, which was published in 
 Boston and edited by Father Walsh, later Bishop Walsh. In my 
 letter on Father Price's life, I quoted in full the letter that he 
 wrote on April 21, 1902, and placed in the cornerstone of the build- 
 ing that was destroyed by fire in the Fall of 1905. The letter on 
 Father Price's life and in which is his letter that he had put in the 
 cornerstone, is quoted as follows: 
 
 FATHER THOMAS F. PRICE 
 
 By Msgr. William F. O'Brien 
 (From THE FIELD AFAR— June. 1921) 
 
 "The ancestors of Thomas Frederick Price were among the early 
 emigrants from England who settled in North Carolina. The home 
 of the family, on the maternal side was near Bath, the oldest town 
 in the state. A member of the family was an officer in the War of 
 the Revolution. The mother of Fr. Price was a Miss Clara Bond, a 
 fervent convert to our Holy Faith. The Bonds and Prices are old 
 and respected families living in the eastern part of North Carolina. 
 
William Francis O'Brien 15 
 
 "Mr. Price, the lather of Rev. Thomas Price, edited a newspaper 
 in Washington, N. C, and subsequently became the well-known and 
 able editor of the old reliable Wilmington Journal, at Wilmington, 
 N. C, from 1848 to 1872. Ibis paper, with its conscientious and 
 conservative editor and loyal co-workers, answered the purpose of an 
 institution to its interested and large patronage. Alter Mr. Price 
 severed his connection with the paper, the mutual and sympathetic 
 good-will between the editor and the people lagged, interest in the 
 paper was gradually lost, and the publication ceased. 
 
 "Miss Bond, before her marriage to Mr. Price, had moved to 
 Washington on the Pamlico River, a few miles above Bath. There 
 she resided with friends, the family ol Dr. Gallagher, one of the two 
 or three devout Catholic families then living in the little city. Dr. 
 Gallagher was a local physician who had moved some years before 
 this time from Philadelphia to Washington. It was the thoroughly 
 Catholic and edifying life of this family that first attracted Miss 
 Clara Bond to our Holy Faith. 
 
 "After her marriage to Mr. Price in Washington, the devoted 
 couple moved to Wilmington, and there Mrs. Price, very soon after 
 her arrival, was received into the Catholic Church. Mr. Price also 
 became a Catholic, but not until a short time before he died. God 
 blessed this couple with seven or eight children, two of whom be- 
 came religious in the Community of Our Lady of Mercy, founded 
 by Bishop England, the first Bishop of Charleston, S. C. One of 
 these two religious, Sister Mary Catherine, is still living at the 
 Motherhouse in Belmont, N. C. She is one of the oldest members 
 of the Community, well known for her zeal and great willingness 
 to work for God's poor. 
 
 "Mrs. Price was by nature always very grateful. Not forgetting 
 the first impressions she had received from the edifying lives of 
 Dr. Thomas Frederick Gallagher and his devoted wife, she named 
 one of her children in memory of the doctor, and this child was the 
 future missioner of North Carolina and of China. The conscien- 
 tious physician had preached the Faith by practically leading the 
 life of an apostle in the midst of thousands of our separated 
 brethren, when the profession of faith by a Catholic gentleman in 
 a public position meant not only the loss of much desirable patron- 
 age, but also social ostracism. 
 
 "Mrs. Price is remembered in Wilmington as a very modest, 
 saintly, and charitable woman. The venerable Msgr. Mackin, of 
 St. Paul's Church, Washington, D. C, recalls that on one oc- 
 casion, as a young sailor boy, he landed in Wilmington and, seek- 
 
46 The Memoirs of 
 
 ing the Catholic Church, entered it to pray. While kneeling he 
 noticed a very reverent and gracious lady fixing the altar. This 
 lady, he afterwards learned, was Mrs. Price. 
 
 "Thomas Frederick Price never forgot the early training he 
 received from his excellent mother. In the ages of faith, saintly 
 mothers, even before they were married, prayed and promised that 
 if God ever blessed them with offspring and their offspring were 
 acceptable to Him, they would only too gladly consecrate them to 
 God. Who can doubt that the sacrifices and prayers of this noble 
 mother obtained from God the Vocation vouchsafed to her son? 
 
 "The saintly Fr. Mark Gross, whose good works and charities to 
 God's poor are still remembered by the faithful and tried Catholics 
 scattered over the Carolina missions, one day asked young Price 
 if he intended studying for the priesthood. 'Yes, Father,' was the 
 immediate reply. 'Thomas,' said the holy and zealous missioner, 
 'you should now say daily five Our Fathers and Hail Marys to 
 become a good priest.' To this the boy replied, in the innocence 
 that bespoke the wholesome personal influence of the reverent and 
 saintly mother, that he had been saying the five Our Fathers and 
 five Hail Marys for a long time to become a good priest. 
 
 "Devotion to the Immaculate Conception seemed to be the 
 characteristic of all Fr. Price's labors in North Carolina. As a boy, 
 I remember well the first years of Fr. Price's priesthood. Having 
 headquarters at New Bern, he covered a mission territory of three 
 hundred square miles. It was during his charge at New Bern, that 
 he built the Immaculate Conception Church in Halifax, and Saint 
 Mary's Church in Goldsboro. 
 
 "Holding a Fair at Goldsboro for the purpose of making a pay- 
 ment on the Church, reports were circulated that our separated 
 brethren would not patronize it. This would mean a greater debt 
 without any local means of raising sufficient funds, owing to the 
 comparatively few Catholics. Notwithstanding this discouraging 
 outlook, Fr. Gross wrote Fr. Price from Charlotte, foretelling that 
 his Fair would be a great success, which in reality it proved to be. 
 
 "The virtues characteristic of Fr. Price as a missioner in North 
 Carolina were humility, chastity, and apostolic zeal. He often used 
 a stone for a pillow at night, and on rising chastised his body by 
 inflicting stripes on himself with a lash; and his penance was sweet- 
 ened by his childlike devotion to the Blessed Virgin, and his pa- 
 ternal consideration for others. 
 
 "The impression left upon the writer more vivid and lasting 
 than others of his austere and beautiful life, was his regular hour 
 for meditation and prayer. Rising as early as when a seminarian, 
 he was methodical in his meditation, his office, his particular exam- 
 
William Francis O'Brien 47 
 
 en, his spiritual reading, as also in his rosary and in reading the 
 Little Office of the Blessed Virgin. This spirit of prayer, combined 
 with the activities ol a missionary, convinced the writer that Fr. 
 Price was a much loved servant of God, ever ready to make any 
 sacrifice, however hard to flesh and blood, so long as it was the 
 will of God. I venture to say that this impression of a happy com- 
 bination of the contemplative and active life deeply impressed 
 other priests working with Fr. Price on the Carolina missions, as 
 it did a goodly number of ecclesiastical students who labored dining 
 their holidays under his guidance and are now priests in the arch- 
 diocese of Baltimore, New York, and elsewhere. 
 
 "Anyone associated with Fr. Price in life can never forget him. 
 As long as a pious, self-sacrificing, and studious priesthood is 
 cherished in North Carolina, his memory will not be forgotten. 
 Already pious souls are putting the works of God dear to their 
 hearts under his patronage. The childlike confidence and faith 
 among the faithful is not lightly to be despised, and who will run 
 the risk of discouraging them in that feeling of confidence that is 
 a source of spiritual consolation to their souls? 
 
 "The culminating work of Fr. Price's twenty-five years of labor 
 in North Carolina was his foundation at Nazareth of a Priests' 
 Apostolate and Orphanage. At one period Fr. Price was hesitating 
 between entering the Society of Jesus or working for the conversion 
 of his native state. The advice of the Jesuit Master of Novices was 
 to stay at his apostolate, and this decision meant a command to him. 
 He would give his whole soul and entire self to labor for his 
 separated brethren. 
 
 "When Rt. Rev. Bishop Haid judged it advisable to obtain a 
 headquarters, a beautiful hill, ideally located three miles west of 
 Raleigh, the capitol of the state, was purchased. The name of 
 Nazareth was given to this tract of three hundred acres, after the 
 Government had established a Post Office there. Nazareth was 
 dedicated and founded on a bright, fair and beautiful October 
 morning in 1899, on the Feast of the Most Holy Rosary. The 
 magazine Truth, now published in Brooklyn, N. Y., saw its begin- 
 ning at Nazareth in the fertile mind of Fr. Price. With the aid of two 
 associate priests, Fr. Price for a number of years sowed the seeds 
 of our Holy Faith in a great number of souls in towns, hamlets, and 
 in the country districts for miles around Nazareth as a center. A 
 number of converts were the result of this work. The seed sown is 
 not lost. The people still inquire to this day lor these men who 
 preached the Gospel among them; and they long for their return. 
 A strong characteristic in Fr. Price was the determination to per- 
 severe in a work once begun; yet he was ever ready in mind and 
 
48 The Memoirs of 
 
 soul to give it up if convinced that it was God's Holy Will that he 
 should do so. This is clearly manifested in a letter written by Fr. 
 Price seventeen years ago, with no expectation that it would appear 
 again in his generation. In 1905 a destructive fire broke out at 
 Nazareth and razed the Priests' House to the ground. A few days 
 after, Fr. Price told the writer that the corner-stone was in the 
 debris, and requested him to get it. Finding the copper metal box 
 exposed and loose in the cornerstone, I opened it and found a letter 
 written in Fr. Price's own hand. The letter, which I kept, explains 
 the reason for Nazareth's existence, and at the same time shows Fr. 
 Price's utter abondonment to the designs of Almighty God and his 
 resignation in the event of a seeming human failure. The letter 
 follows: 
 
 This stone has been blessed by the Rev. Thomas F. Price, 
 on April 21, 1902. The Rt. Rev. Leo Haid, O.S.B., D.D., was 
 to have blessed it yesterday when blessing the cornerstone of 
 the church, but omitted it through fatigue. All the children 
 of the orphanage, thirty-two in number, participated, singing 
 hymns, etc., as well as Frs. O'Brien, Irwin and Thomas Staple- 
 ton. This building begins the manifestation of a design for 
 a religious order which has been held through many years of 
 toil, sacrifice and prayer. If God blesses it to success (and may 
 it fail if the Divine Majesty so desires) , it will cover every 
 diocese of the globe. This building is consecrated to the 
 Queen of the Apostles in consequence of a vow made by the 
 writer to our loved Blessed Mother that, if it comes to suc- 
 cess, it would be hers — named after her. May Jesus, the 
 sweetest love of our hearts, be praised, adored, and blessed 
 forever! May our loved Mother be praised and blessed 
 forever! — T. F. Price. 
 
 "The Apostolate has not been made perpetual, but the experi- 
 ence and rich traditions of the days of the Apostolate's existence still 
 remain. The Orphanage founded by Fr. Price is now flourishing. 
 The Church of the Holy Name of Jesus, which he built, is in good 
 condition. The present rector of the church and the superior of 
 Nazareth, Rev. George A. Woods, felt urged to come to North 
 Carolina and work in the interest of Fr. Price's apostolic founda- 
 tion. It was Fr. Price who sent Fr. Woods to the Belmont Seminary 
 as an ecclesiastic student, and who, in consequence of this step 
 under God, like a good angel prepared the way for the ordination 
 of Fr. Woods. In addition, Fr. Price left the future means of support 
 of his foundation at Nazareth: 'The Orphan Boys' Magazine' and 
 
William Francis O'Brien 49 
 
 'Devotions to St. Anthony.' The writer recalls getting out the 
 matter for the first issue of 'The Orphan Boy' and starting the 
 first novena to St. Anthony under Fr. Price's direction. 
 
 "To the eternal credit o! Fr. George A. Woods and his brother, 
 Fr. Matthew Woods, not an orphan is refused admittance, nor a 
 stone left unturned, nor an hour wasted in their work to feed and 
 care for, by their personal labor, more than a hundred little child- 
 ren. They work with their hands as well as their minds. All at 
 Nazareth must 'root, hog, or die,' as there is no revenue to be had 
 in the state where churches are few and where the comparatively 
 few Catholics are heavily taxed to support their own local churches, 
 pastors, schools, and other good works. The appeal for aid must 
 of necessity be made to charitable Catholics outside the state. 
 
 "If a man is to be judged by lasting and imperishable work, ac- 
 complished often in solitude and in apostolic desolation of soul, in 
 poverty-stricken field, then few laborers, if any, in the Carolina 
 missions surpassed Fr. Price in permanent fruits of holiness of life 
 and in enduring apostolic work. 'By their fruits you shall know 
 them.' 
 
 "The same characteristic devotion to the Immaculate Mother, 
 and the same spirit of self-abandonment to Almighty God, mani- 
 fested in the life of Fr. Price in North Carolina were also clearly 
 evident in his work as co-founder, with Fr. Walsh, of the American 
 Foreign Mission Seminary at Maryknoll. The various sisterhoods 
 can testify to his interest in getting the present and future genera- 
 tions of Catholics in the United States, through the children in the 
 school, to realize more the illimitable and celestial beauties of The 
 Immaculate Mother through the study of Bernadette of Lourdes, 
 whose simple life was but a reflection of the Immaculate Conception, 
 the chosen patroness of the United States. 
 
 "We venture to predict that the future historian, in writing of 
 the first missioners who went to China from Maryknoll, will record 
 the spirit of self-sacrificing zeal manifested by the vanguard of 
 Maryknollers; and this, in no small measure, will be due to the 
 personal offering of an elder and more experienced brother, Fr. 
 Price, who, if he was not a martyr in reality, was one in desire. 
 
 "While Fr. Price was laboring in China, he did not, nor could 
 he, forget his old associates and the land of his first love, which 
 he left so filled with his apostolic labors. Under date of Inly 27, 
 1919, he writes: 
 
 MY' DEAR FATHER: — I have been intending to write 
 to you ever since I came out here, but you know how that 
 is when you have so many things pressing on you. Since we 
 came here, more than two thousand pagans have given in 
 
50 The Memoirs of 
 
 their names for instruction. Our work here promises to be 
 quite successful and I trust you will pray that it may be so. 
 We feel greatly our dependence on God, for we can do little 
 or nothing ourselves; the circumstances force this truth on us. 
 In a short time I expect to get out a monthly letter to be sent 
 to my friends to let them know all about the work and I will 
 not fail to send you a copy. Remember me to the sisters and 
 all who have not forgotten me. Tell them that I pray for 
 them and trust they will pray for me. Again and again, dear 
 Billy, may God and our Immaculate Mother bless you to the 
 fullest! Pray for me. 
 
 "The letter from which I have taken a few extracts, was received 
 just three days before Fr. Price died. God called him to rest from 
 his labors. He has found his life with God, for having lost it with 
 God. His good works follow him. We feel that he is nearer to us 
 than ever. He is a part of ourselves. He is like an angel who goes 
 before us to prepare our way. If our work in the past or in the 
 future can be designated as apostolic it is because it was and will 
 be inseparable from his personal holiness of life and the spirit 
 of the enduring reality of his labors, sensed around and about us. 
 
 "In conclusion, there is one prominent virtue, dear to Our Lord 
 and to His Blessed Mother, that I do not wish to omit, and which 
 is, to those who knew Fr. Price, synonymous with his life and name. 
 It appeals to the heart. To us it is a proof that he felt he was 
 following God's holy will at all times in whatever field he labored. 
 It is his love of holy poverty. This was exemplified in his life, and 
 to us it crowns him as one of God's own. The Church in North 
 Carolina shares not a little in the merits of a humble man who 
 sought not his own ease and comfort, but only the interest of his 
 Master, Who 'had no place to lay His head'." 
 
 A few years after Father Price died in China, Bishop Walsh 
 made a visit to Durham to see me, in order to get as much informa- 
 tion about Father Price as possible concerning his apostolic labors 
 in North Carolina. On that visit, he gave me the history of why 
 Father Price wore the ring of Bernadette, the confidante of the 
 Blessed Virgin. Sometime before he and Father Price had an ap- 
 pointment to see St. Pius X to get his approval of the American 
 Foreign Mission Society, Father Price spent a considerable amount 
 of time, in deej:> devotion, at the Shrine of Lourdes. He even got 
 acquainted with Bernadette's brother and slept in the same room 
 with him. He also made a visit to the convent at Namur, where 
 Bernadette lived as a nun, and prayed long at her tomb. The 
 Reverend Mother Superior at the convent, was deeply impressed 
 with his apparently serafic devotion to the saintly confidante of the 
 
William Francis O'Brien 51 
 
 Blessed Virgin, Bernadette. In truth, to her own satisfaction, she 
 was convinced that there was a mystical union between Father 
 Price and Bernadette. For this reason, she gave Father Price the 
 ring that Bernadette wore as a nun which was a symbol of her 
 espousels to Mary's Son. 1 have seen a rubber band on the finger 
 of Father Price which he wore to cover the ring. Father Price, after 
 this time, when writing his signature signed himself as Bernadette 
 Price and willed that his body be buried near the tomb of Berna- 
 dette at Namur, France. 
 
 After Father Walsh and Father Price had received the approval 
 of the Maryknoll Foundation, by Pope St. Pius X, they returned 
 to Maryknoll with grateful hearts, and only a little time was sup- 
 posed to pass before they were speaking of the great Papal blessing 
 and approval of Pius X on their new Foundation, to their students. 
 A few days after the joy of that first meeting of the Founders and 
 students, Father Price, in speaking to them in a classroom, spoke 
 of the gift of Bernadette's ring from the Reverend Superior of the 
 Convent in Namur, France, when suddenly one of the students 
 said, "Father Price, how do you know you have a right to wear that 
 ring?" This question struck Father Price as a bolt coming out of 
 the blue. Knowing Father Price, I can understand how any student 
 would put a question to him of that nature, as all students were 
 put at ease in his presence. His gentle disposition seemed to inspire 
 confidence and invite questions even of a confidential nature. For 
 his own satisfaction and the satisfaction of the Maryknoll student, 
 Fr. Price consulted with Fr. Walsh, who in turn referred the ques- 
 tion to Rome. The answer to Fr. Walsh's communication was that 
 Fr. Price should not wear the ring. The letter from Rome came at 
 the time when Fr. Walsh and Fr. Price were in a state of rejoicing, 
 even spiritual rejoicing, as all Maryknoll was preparing to be led 
 by Father Price as the first missionaries to enter China, so much 
 so, that Father Walsh could not even get a thought out of his mind 
 to tell Father Price the contents of that letter he had received from 
 Rome. The co-founders and young missionaries still in spirit in 
 the third heaven, Father Price left in good faith wearing the ring 
 of Bernadette and he continued to wear it until his death, as he was 
 not told otherwise. He died on September 12, 1919, the Feast of 
 the Holy Name of Mary, wearing in good faith the ring of Berna- 
 dette the confidante of the Blessed Virgin, and with whom there 
 was a possible mystical union. 
 
 When Father Price died, the Reverend Mother of the convent 
 of Namur was disappointed because the bishop of China, in the 
 province when Father Price died, did not send his body to Namur 
 but the bishop did send his heart to Namur and his body to Mary- 
 knoll where it is now interred in the same tomb with the body of 
 Bishop Walsh, as co-founder of Maryknoll. 
 
52 The Memoirs of 
 
 In 1955 I made a visit to a cousin, Father Thomas Adams, of 
 the Capuchin Order, pastor of the Church of St. Charles Borremeo 
 in St. Louis, Mo., and while there I visited the Maryknoll novitiate 
 for Sisters at Valley Park, only a few miles outside of the limits of 
 the City of St. Louis. The Sisters had never seen Father Price and 
 wanted to hear all they could about his life. After I had spoken 
 at the Mass, the Reverend Superior came to me and related how 
 she was stationed at Maryknoll when Father Price's body arrived. It 
 was raining in torrents, but as the body arrived on the grounds, 
 the sun came out and shone brilliantly and peace and calm per- 
 vaded the surroundings. Shortly after I arrived home from St. 
 Louis, I received a letter from a candidate at the novitiate in Valley 
 Park who is a convert and was a doctor high on the staff of doctors 
 at Duke University in Durham in which she wrote that when I 
 spoke of the letter taken from the cornerstone of the Apostolic 
 House at Nazareth, written by Father Price, a peculiar feeling came 
 over her and she felt that some day the Maryknollers would have 
 an important place in North Carolina in honor of Father Price. 
 
 At the urging of Cardinal O'Connell, when he and Father Price 
 were students together in Baltimore, Father Price revealed to him 
 that the Blessed Virgin appeared to him when he was shipwrecked 
 off the coast of Wilmington when he was coming to the Seminary. 
 In the letter he put in the cornerstone that he naturally thought 
 would not be found, perhaps in centuries, he writes of a vow he 
 made to the Blessed Virgin to establish a missionary Order to cover 
 all the diocese of the world and to be named after her and may it 
 fail if the Divine Majesty so desires. The construction of the build- 
 ing at Nazareth, the association of priests and students who co- 
 operated with him at Nazareth, in his toil, labor and sacrifice of 
 twenty-five years, was to him the first manifestation of a design of 
 God's Holy Will in North Carolina. Yet, the venture to establish 
 a missionary Order in North Carolina did not succeed but he was 
 not disheartened, as he had written, "may it fail if the Divine Ma- 
 jesty so desires." The crucifixion of Christ was not a failure, nor 
 was the cross that Father Price took up for Mary's sake a failure. 
 His merits of struggling against poverty and affliction was an invalu- 
 able experience as a co-founder of Maryknoll. The Maryknollers 
 are indeed serving to fill every diocese of the globe as veterans of 
 Maryknollers practically claim today. They labor in China, Japan, 
 Philippines, South America and in the home missions of our own 
 beloved country. The foundation of the society of Maryknoll was 
 the first united effort made by the Catholic Church in the United 
 States and this American Foreign Mission Society was founded by 
 Bishop Walsh and Father Price. 
 
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 The First Church of the Immaculate Conception 
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William Francis O'Brien 55 
 
 CHAPTER IV 
 
 When Bishop Haid appointed me, in September 1907, as the first 
 resident pastor in Durham, I had been chaplain of the Nazareth 
 orphanage that Father Price founded for seven years with the ex- 
 ception of seven months in 1903, when I went to relieve Father 
 Patrick Marrin in Fayetteville, and about three months on the 
 Goldsboro mission in 1905, to take the place of Father VVherty 
 during his indisposition. 
 
 There were a number of Missions attached to Durham in 1907. 
 They included Henderson, Norlina, Littleton, Roanoke Rapids, 
 Halifax, Weldon, Crowell's Cross Roads, Penitentiary Farm, Scot- 
 land Neck and Enfield. I said Mass in Durham three Sundays in 
 the month and the fourth Sunday and the days of the week I would 
 give to the Missions, and when there were five Sundays in the 
 month I would devote that Sunday and the days of the week to the 
 Missions. 
 
 As I believe I have a moderate flair for history, several of these 
 missions claimed my special interest, as they have had an historical 
 setting of devoted pioneers and apostolic workers who were blessed 
 in their descendants in having vocations to the sisterhoods. In 
 Scotland Neck, there was a church built there, before the War 
 Between the States. I have stood on the ruins of the church, in 
 the fall of 1907. James Farrell, who had a brother, nephew and niece 
 in Raleigh who were among the devoted workers of the struggling 
 church there in the 70's and 80's, built the church in Scotland Neck 
 before there was a Vicar-Apostolic residing in North Carolina. The 
 property on which the church was built was deeded to Georgetown 
 University though none of the officials of the University knew of 
 the existence of such a deed. The value of the small lot on which 
 the church was built, however, was worth a little more than nil 
 and in time was plowed over by a local farmer. Nearby were two 
 or three graves where the children of James Farrell were buried. 
 The widow of James Farrell taught school in Scotland Neck, and 
 with her daughter, entered the Community of the Visitation, in 
 Baltimore. They were known as Sister Mary de Sales and Sister 
 Mary Augustine. A number of the pupils who were taught and in- 
 structed by these two devoted Sisters, followed them to the Visita- 
 tion Convent and finished their education there. 
 
 Another Mission I was always glad to visit was the little Im- 
 maculate Conception Church in Halifax, the first church built by 
 Father Price. The lady in charge of the church in Halifax in 1907, 
 was Mrs. McMahon, a niece of James Farrell of Scotland Neck and 
 the grandmother of Miss Nannie Gary who attended the church 
 
56 The Memoirs of 
 
 there and looked after the needs of the priests in their monthly 
 visits for a number of years. She still attends the little church across 
 the yard from her home that her grandparents attended and which 
 she has known from childhood, save now she attends and is present 
 at the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass in the little church, full of sweet 
 memories of the past, and by necessity, physically present in a wheel- 
 chair. Mrs. McMahon, who was so devoted to the cares of the church 
 and its needs, would speak of cherished memories she had, of devoted 
 and zealous missionaries who came to Halifax in the past and of their 
 pleasant experiences in the neighborhood. She remembered the 
 clays when Bishop Gibbons was Vicar-Apostolic of North Carolina 
 and who became the Archbishop of Baltimore and Cardinal Priest 
 of Holy Church. When Father Price was a young priest he used 
 to confide in her as a mother, telling her how he had intended to 
 see Bishop Haid and speak about the establishment of a Missionary 
 center and the formation of a band of missionary priests for the 
 conversion of their native state, North Carolina. Mr. James Farrell, 
 of Scotland Neck, was the brother of Miss Gary's great-grandfather, 
 Michael Farrell, whose tomb I often visited in Halifax. One of 
 Michael Farrell's daughters, a Miss McGuire, lived in Littleton 
 during her married life. She had a daughter who became a Ursiline 
 nun in Columbia, South Carolina, and was elected the Reverend 
 Mother Superior of the Community. She was known as Mother 
 Clare Agnes. As I was interested very much in the Farrell family 
 and in the growth of Catholicity in North Carolina from its infancy, 
 I made several visits to Columbia to see Mother Clare Agnes. 
 Mother Clare Agnes was the first cousin of Miss Nannie Gary's 
 mother. The late wife of Mr. Dan Edwards, a former mayor of 
 Durham, was the great-niece of Mother Clare Agnes. 
 
 A family I generally looked forward to attending, was the Fitz- 
 patrick family, living at Crowell's Cross Roads, about nine miles 
 from Halifax. This family was very loyal and had a deep love 
 for the church. In the several towns in comparatively close prox- 
 imity to their house, they were highly respected, and were influ- 
 ential with the social leaders of their several communities. In all 
 dealings with their non-Catholic neighbors, they were motivated 
 consciously or unconsciously by their deep faith. While many of 
 their non-Catholic friends were sincere in their beliefs, their belief 
 in the sincere attachment of the Fitzpatrick family to their faith 
 was not to be questioned. The Fitzpatricks were natives of Balti- 
 more, and had purchased about one thousand acres of good farming 
 land at Crowell's Cross Roads. Tradition has it that the name of 
 Crowell was given the Cross Roads there, in memory of the army of 
 General Cornwallis passing through on his way to Yorktown, Vir- 
 
William Francis O'Brien 57 
 
 ginia. Mr. Fitzpatrick was associated with a business firm in Balti- 
 more and was tor a time a local magistrate in his district in which 
 Crowell's Cross Roads was located. Mrs. Fitzpatrick was a convert 
 of a socially prominent Baltimore family. Of the five children, 
 three are living, Sudie, James and Marie. The eldest, Miss Sudie 
 Fitzpatrick, has inherited the business acumen of her lather and 
 the energy of her mother. In addition to managing her large pro- 
 ductive farm, she is active in welfare and social affairs. She is past 
 ex-president of the Red Cross in Halifax County, and enjoys the 
 respect and esteem of a large group of friends and acquaintances. 
 
 When the Fitzpatrick family first settled in Crowell's, they at- 
 tended Mass in Halifax. Shortly after, however, the priest in 
 charge of the Halifax mission, visited and said Mass in their house. 
 A few years later several missions were added to the north and 
 west of Durham; Msgr. Arthur Freeman, as pastor of Goldsboro 
 and Msgr. John Manly as his assistant, took care of the Halifax 
 mission. During those years, when the Halifax missions were at- 
 tended from Goldsboro, or shortly after, the Fitzpatricks built a 
 little church within a stone's throw from their house so Mass coidd 
 be said in it and as it was generally the custom of large landowners 
 in rural districts in North Carolina, they selected a special plot of 
 ground which they used as the family burial ground and in which 
 Mr. and Mrs. Fitzpatrick and several of their children are buried. 
 
 Miss Sudie Fitzpatrick now attends Mass in Scotland Neck, 
 about twelve miles distant from Crowell's. For a long time there 
 was only one Catholic family living in Scotland Neck in the early 
 nineteenth century, the Dunn family. The grandmother was a Bos- 
 tonian of refinement and her daughter, Mrs. Dunn, lived in Peters- 
 burg, Va., for a few years and then moved to Scotland Neck. The 
 priest was always welcomed into her home. Her house was a house 
 for priests. Mrs. Dunn was blessed with several children. Six of 
 her children were very much devoted to the church and one daugh- 
 ter attended St. Mary's Fpiscopal School in Raleigh, and after 
 graduation married the mayor of Scotland Neck. 
 
 The mission at Penitentiary Farm, near Tilley, N. O, was a 
 mission of which I have fond recollections. The official in charge 
 was Captain Rhemn, of New Bern. He was an Episcopalian as was 
 his charming wife who was also from New Bern. They knew my 
 father, who lived in New Bern for four years, and they always 
 gave me a heartfelt welcome and could not do too much for me 
 in arranging to have the two or three Catholic parishioners that 
 were there, attend the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass, and to see that 
 I was served with hot coffee after Mass. Captain Rhemn, in appear- 
 ance resembled Gen. Robert E. Lee about to perfection. The re- 
 
58 The Memoirs of 
 
 semblance was so remarkable, not only in my own judgment, but 
 of all his acquaintances and of all who met him for the first time. 
 There was the same dignity in his person and character, the same 
 facial expression, the same contour and height. It is true, I have 
 never seen Gen. Robert E. Lee in the flesh, as did many other of 
 his acquaintances, but they have seen, as well as I, the photographs 
 of Gen. Lee. His wife was a Miss Bryan related to the present 
 family of Bryans in New Bern. There are many Bryans in the 
 eastern part of North Carolina, and who are almost wholly de- 
 scendents of Captain William O'Brien, who settled in Edenton, 
 N. C, after the fall of Limerick, in Ireland, to the English. William 
 Jennings Bryan of Omaha, Nebraska, who was a brilliant orator 
 and a candidate for the Presidency about three times, was a de- 
 scendant of Captain William O'Brien, and who said himself, that 
 his grand ancestor settled in Edenton in 1691, after the fall of 
 Limerick. 
 
 I have very pleasant recollections of the town of Enfield, on the 
 Atlantic Coast Line. Mrs. Britt, a fervent convert, who lived there 
 was blessed with a number of devoted children who always looked 
 forward to the visits made to their home by the priest. Mrs. Britt 
 often spoke of the visits that Bishop Gibbons and Father Gross 
 made in the past to Enfield and vicinity, and remarked that she 
 had rather see Father Price than the President of the United 
 States. In preparation to get sizable crowds of non-Catholics to 
 attend the town hall, where I would preach in the evening, I would 
 personally place placards in the stores, to announce the hour of 
 prayer and evening preaching. Two converts, Mr. and Mrs. W. A. 
 Browne, who came from Georgia and settled in Enfield, when I 
 visited there, are now living in Rocky Mount. A daughter of Mrs. 
 Britt, now Mrs. Lewis, is also living in Rocky Mount. 
 
 The denominational lines in Weldon, N. C, seemed to be hard 
 drawn — I spoke several times in a public hall there. I felt that I 
 had a friendly group of listeners, and a few influential friends in 
 the audience at that special meeting. However, I was made to real- 
 ize that I had one disagreeable listener in the Hall, and I would 
 like to think that he was the only one, as he made it his unpleasant 
 duty to be present at the depot when I was about to board the 
 train for Durham, to say within the hearing of all present there 
 that "he could kick himself for going out to hear that damn priest." 
 "Silence was golden," on my part at that time. "Woe is me if I 
 do not preach the gospel." We poor mortals need some prayers 
 when temptation threatens to distrub our peace of soul. 
 
 When I first attended the Halifax missions, Roanoke Rapids 
 and Rosemary, two towns were closely joined together, there was 
 
William Francis O'Brien 59 
 
 not a single Catholic in cither town. Alter I had been seeking out 
 there for a stray Catholic, who I was told was living there, and who 
 I did not succeed in locating, 1 made my way to the Weldon Depot, 
 and while standing there as a train was moving in the direction of 
 Rosemary, a member of a Catholic family that was moving from 
 Maryland to Rosemary, called out to the rest of the family 
 on the train that she saw a priest standing at the Weldon depot. 
 This was comforting to that family as I learned after a few days, 
 as they were looking forward to enjoying the blessings of their 
 religion. Not many days passed when I was under the roof of this 
 devoted and happy family of Mr. and Mrs. Fisher from Elicott City, 
 Maryland. Mr. Fisher was an expert shoemaker and lost no time 
 to open up a repair shoe shop which was needed there at that time 
 and was well patronized. The family was blessed with a number 
 of children. The eldest boy was a foreman in the mill. He soon 
 married and had the happiness of seeing his wife received into 
 the church. The other children were employed in the cotton mill. 
 On my monthly visit, the family would rise at 4:30 A.M., would go 
 to confession and receive Holy Communion at the 5:30 A.M. Mass. 
 This arrangement was made so that they could get their breakfast 
 without rushing and to be at the mill to begin work at 7:00 A.M. 
 I baptized two or three in the family. I met several members of 
 the family after they were grown up and married at a Corpus 
 Christi celebration at Nazareth, some years after I attended Rose- 
 mary. The church there has grown rapidly. A church and rectory 
 was built during the pastorate of Msgr. Peter McNerney who is now 
 the pastor of St. Mary's Church in Wilmington; has made much 
 progress during the pastorates of Fathers Denges and Tevlin. I like 
 to think that the example of Christian Faith, given by the Fisher 
 family in Rosemary, was not forgotten by Our Lord, Who has a 
 long memory, has blessed the mission that was so pleasing to Him 
 in the beginning, with good Pastors who built up the church there. 
 
 I said Mass for a number of years in Littleton, where the an- 
 cestors of the Vaughn family lived long before the days of Bishop 
 Gibbons who afterwards became Cardinal Archbishop of Balti- 
 more, wrote of the family in his memoirs. Sister Mary Clare Agnes 
 McGuire who became the Mother Superior of the Ursuline Sisters 
 in Columbia, South Carolina, was born there. I administered the 
 sacraments to a lady who traveled twenty miles to the church and 
 who was the daughter of a minister in Littleton. 
 
 On my way to Durham, returning from the missions in the north- 
 east of the State, I often stopped at Norlina to say Mass there, in 
 the Upchurch family home living there in 1907. When this family 
 moved to Durham in 1909, I baptized the mother and children; the 
 
60 The Memoirs of 
 
 father was received into the church several years later. Struggling 
 to carry on the support of a school I had started in Durham, with 
 a small number of children, paying a dollar a month for tuition, 
 I was much encouraged in the sacrifice of the children of converts, 
 in the increase of the pupils in our school. To help encourage the 
 three mission-minded Dominican Sisters from Newburg, N. Y., in 
 1909, the year the little school began in an humble one-story frame 
 building, consisting of six small rooms including the kitchen and 
 dining room which they used as a community room. I said to the 
 Sisters during the month of October when the number of children 
 registered fifteen, that you have received fifteen pupils representing 
 the fifteen decades of the rosary, to which you are so devoted. 
 
 When I first went to Henderson, there were only three families 
 living there. One of these families was the pioneer family of the 
 O'Neils. Mr. O'Neil owned and managed a furniture store in the 
 city. I was especially interested in the marriage of a Mr. Macon, a 
 descendant of Nathaniel Macon to Miss Gertrude O'Neil, a daugh- 
 ter of Mr. O'Neil. Nathaniel Macon was chairman of the House of 
 Commons in Raleigh in 1835, when Judge Gaston made his famous 
 address that won the favor of a large majority in the convention of 
 the members of the various denominations, in having the laws 
 stricken from the books proscribing Catholic citizens from holding 
 office in the State of North Carolina. 
 
 Father Lagle, the first resident priest in Henderson, acted as a 
 quasi-assistant to me in my work in Durham. As the collections 
 were meagre in Henderson, I used to send my janitor in my auto to 
 bring Father Lagle over to Durham and return, ninety miles in all, 
 to say my first Mass, so I could say my first Mass in Chapel Hill and 
 return to Durham to celebrate my second Mass. 
 
 I loved to visit the families living on the Missions, attended from 
 Durham, in the northeastern part of the state, and thought of sug- 
 gesting to my Bishop, at one time, to let me work these Missions 
 and appoint another priest to take care of Durham, but reflecting 
 on my second thought, I realized that I had started a struggling 
 school, with a few children, and it was my duty to remain in Durham 
 to work to see the school increase in numbers as the school is the 
 foundation of the permanence and growth of a parish. 
 
 As the priests increased in the state, younger priests took over 
 the Missions northeast of Durham which enabled me to have Mass 
 on all the Sundays of the month with week-day Missions at Hills- 
 boro, Efland, Mebane, Creedmoor, Oxford, Bullock and Roxboro. 
 To my Mission in Chapel Hill, f gave one of my Sunday Masses. 
 
William Francis O'Brien 61 
 
 In the application of the simple rules of logic, a Missionary 
 would stultify himself if he approved, mentally, of a system of 
 religions other than the one God established; in other words it 
 would be a mental absurdity to believe in two religions. We are 
 living in a world that is, and we must take into account, conditions, 
 circumstances and mental attitudes in mankind that is, in the age 
 in which we live. In a Missionary's experience, he is often impressed 
 by devout, good-living and prayerful people of good faith who are 
 not physical members of the true church. As an example, the 
 following illustration is one of the experiences that 1 had as a 
 Missionary: 
 
 In 1907, there were two Catholic families living in Hillsboro, 
 the native converts, Mr. and Mrs. Strange and the Parrish family. 
 Mrs. Parrish was a Miss Dunn before her marriage. She moved from 
 Baltimore to Hillsboro in the early 80's. Her husband was a 
 native of Hillsboro, a member of the Presbyterian Church and a 
 Mason. They were blessed with several children and Mr. Parrish 
 fully consented to the children being brought up in the Catholic 
 faith. About the year 1909, Mr. Parrish was taken seriously ill and 
 permitted his wife to baptize him before he died. Mrs. Parrish 
 phoned me that she had baptized her husband before he died, as I 
 was in the midst of the preparation for the Lenten services during 
 Holy Week. I phoned that I would come to her home immediately. 
 On my arrival, I was ushered into the room where the casket con- 
 taining the body of Mr. Parrish was, and to my sudden surprise I 
 saw that I was in the midst of the members of the Masonic Order 
 in full regalia and they were there to take over the buiial service. 
 Quickly thinking that it would be detrimental to Christian charity 
 to absent myself from the room, I took out my liturgial book and 
 asked a prominent Mason whom I knew to be a leader in the com- 
 munity, if it was time to begin. He replied indifferently, that he 
 supposed so. Without any hesitation, I read a psalm and a few 
 prayers appropriate to a burial service and then spoke a few words 
 to them in explanation of why I came and the reason why I had 
 said the prayers for the soul of Mr. Parrish. I was deeply impressed 
 with their evident attention and even in their reverence in listening. 
 After I had finished speaking, a violent storm broke out. In going 
 to the cemetery, I was put in a carriage, and the Masons filed out 
 of the house, two by two, in their regalia, and marched along the 
 sidewalk without umbrellas, drenched in the falling rain. Arriving 
 at the cemetery before the Masons and their friends, I blessed the 
 grave conditionally, and retired some distance behind the Masons 
 who surrounded the grave, when to my surprise, when they had 
 
62 The Memoirs of 
 
 finished, the Master Mason came to me and asked "if the Father 
 would give the blessing," which I did to all who were present. When 
 all was over, in the midst of a deep silence, a mourner came to me 
 and said, "Father, did you see that rainbow?" My answer was, 
 "No, I did not." "Why, it came near the grave, and you did not see 
 it?" "God, as you know, put the rainbow in the heavens as a sign 
 of peace, and if one wastes time here in bitter misgivings, especially 
 about religion, one may as well get off the face of the earth." 
 
 In 1907, there was an elderly couple living in Hillsboro who 
 were converts to the Faith, Mr. and Mrs. Strange. Mr. Strange 
 lived to be ninety years of age. He became a convert during the 
 War Between the States. He was influenced by the gentleness and 
 self-sacrifice of the Sisters in caring for the wounded, lying helpless 
 on the battlefield. Mrs. Strange was a Miss Floyd before her mar- 
 riage, and a relative of the numerous Floyd family of Orange 
 County, who were among the early pioneers who settled in North 
 Carolina. 
 
 More than one of the influential citizens of Hillsboro have 
 greeted me warmly since Mr. Parrish's funeral. Some years after the 
 death of Mr. Parrish, I went into an annex room of a bank building 
 in Durham for a rest, and heard a number of Hillsboro and Durham 
 citizens speaking on topics that were of universal interest to them, 
 that happened in the past. To my surprise, the subject of their 
 conversation was the funeral of Mr. Parrish. Listening intently, 
 I asked, "I wonder what became of that priest, mentioned in their 
 conversation." And no one present seemed to know. "Well, I can 
 tell you. That priest sits before you. I was the priest and have 
 very pleasant recollections of all that happened." 
 
 In my mission at Oxford, I had a devoted family to the church 
 in the Blair family. I received the father of the family, Mr. Blair, at 
 the age of seventy years and baptized and married several members 
 of the family. I had two very large funerals there, of Dr. and Mrs. 
 Cogshall. Mrs. Cooper, the wife of a prominent banker and sister 
 of an Episcopalian bishop, interested herself in getting up a choir 
 which included several ministers. A doctor, governed by prejudicial 
 traditions of the past in Oxford as he remembered them, said to me 
 that Oxford was not in need of a Catholic Church. Today there is a 
 beautiful church, a zealous pastor and a devoted congregation. 
 
 In the village of Bullock, about twelve miles north of Oxford 
 near the Virginia and North Carolina border, I can never forget 
 what to me were memorable and consoling missionary visits. A lady 
 who owned and operated a restaurant near Oxford for a number 
 of years, closed up her restaurant about the time that I first attended 
 
William Francis O'Brien 63 
 
 the mission at Oxford and moved back to Baltimore, her native city, 
 told me when leaving that she had an uncle living on a farm about 
 two miles from Bullock Station, who had not attended church in 
 forty years and that she was interested in him and regretted leaving 
 but in her meagre financial condition, she had no other choice. I 
 assured her that I would look up her uncle on my next visit. As the 
 lady's uncle was also from Baltimore, I chose the twenty-sixth of 
 September, 1908, the least of the American Martyrs, and especially, 
 as it was the thirty-second anniversary of my mother's death in 
 Baltimore and who was buried in Bonnie Brae, now called the 
 Cathedral Cemetery in Baltimore. 1 said Mass early that morning 
 in the Dominican Convent chapel in the two-story building of the 
 combination convent and school which I had prayed for, begged 
 for, and built in 1913, and which has been torn down to make room 
 for the new Immaculate Conception Church which is really beauti- 
 ful, especially the interior, to the Catholics and non-Catholics of 
 Durham. Many non-Catholics of the city say that the church is 
 the most beautiful church that they have ever been in. "Mother," 
 I opined in thought when I left for Bullock Station that morning, 
 "let me see where you are going to lead me, as I am going to search 
 for a 'lost sheep' from Baltimore, in Mary's Land, where you lived 
 and died." 
 
 Arriving by train in Oxford, I had a boy to drive me to Bullock 
 Station and then on through thickly wooded forest to a farm for 
 which we were seeking according to a description given to us. 
 Finding an old unpainted country house with no other house in 
 the near neighborhood, I inquired about the whereabouts of the 
 uncle of the lady from Baltimore. In conversation with his wife, 
 I learned that he was not at home and that he believed in a religion 
 not known by any people in that region and that she knew little 
 or nothing about his religion. 
 
 On returning to Bullock Station, I saw a bewhiskered man, 
 driving a wagon, who precisely fitted the description given me by 
 his niece. As we were driving in opposite directions, I judged that 
 we would meet at a little creek flowing in the thickly wooded forest, 
 over which we could see a few spots of the azure blue sky between 
 the tall trees. Getting out of the buggy, I approached him as he 
 stopped his wagon and said, "There is no need of introducing my- 
 self to you." Looking at me in evident surprise and even reverently, 
 he got off his wagon and said, "No, Father, you do not need to in- 
 troduce yourself to me, I have been praying for this." "Praying 
 for this?" I replied, thinking of his being outside the church for 
 forty years and being married outside the church. When I said to 
 him, "Praying for this?" it seemed to hurt him. "Why yes, Father, 
 
64 The Memoirs of 
 
 I have been praying to the Blessed Virgin ever since my first child 
 was born that all my children would be taught and brought up 
 in the Catholic faith." To my surprise, he spoke with so much 
 unction, in mentioning the Blessed Virgin, that I took off my hat 
 in the forest, under the blue canopy of heaven, and asked him 
 where he was taught to have such devotion to the Blessed Virgin. 
 He answered, "Father, when I was a little boy in Baltimore, I went 
 to a wonderful Brothers' School and a good Brother taught our 
 class, that no matter where you go and in all circumstances in life, 
 always pray to the Blessed Virgin and she will always answer your 
 prayers." Telling me of the school that he went to and to which 
 I attended, myself, I asked him if he knew several of the Brothers 
 I mentioned, he thought I had dropped from the clouds. I could 
 well appreciate and fully understand his perservering, fervent de- 
 votion to the Blessed Virgin as I can well recollect a good Xaverian 
 Brother in Baltimore putting an extreme case of the salvation of 
 a man to the class and requiring an answer. The case was: If a man 
 remained away from the church for a good number of years and 
 refused to call for a priest when dying, could he save his soul? 
 The decision of the class was that he would not save his soul. The 
 Brother then said to the class, "Yes, boys, there is one chance, and 
 this is it. We can pray to the Blessed Virgin that the heart of the 
 hardened sinner be changed." On further investigation, I found 
 that the "lost sheep" was not vicious at anytime and was really not 
 responsible for his not attending church. He was an orphan boy 
 and obtained work from an agent representing a lumber company 
 in the far northeast of the United States after he left school, and 
 there was no church or friend within a hundred miles of the camp 
 where he worked and had worked for years. He had some years 
 on his shoulders when he turned up in a primitive place in North 
 Carolina at least fifty miles from a Catholic church, was land poor, 
 did not have the convenience and the wherewith to go to church, 
 and had married a simple, native country woman. 
 
 I made several visits to his home and gave his children some 
 instruction. On my last visit to his home, I found him seriously 
 ill, and in my judgement could not live more than two or three 
 days. Realizing his condition I said to him, "John, have you spoken 
 to your wife that before you can get absolution in confession, that 
 you are obliged to have your marriage blessed?" "No, Father, I 
 have not," he replied. "Do you mind if I speak to your wife for 
 you?" For which he was glad I did. Calling his wife, I explained 
 to her his desire to confess his sins and that he could not do this 
 and get forgiveness until his marriage had been blessed. As a loving 
 wife she said, out of the fullness of her heart, that she was ready 
 
William Francis O'Brien 65 
 
 to do what John wanted her to do. As the church does not oblige 
 a priest to ask for a dispensation to a mixed marriage when a person 
 is dying, I had them both join hands and repeat their nuptial con- 
 sent from the beginning and blessed the marriage. In addition to 
 receiving absolution, I anointed him and a few days later I had 
 his burial services in a country schoolhouse about a mile and a 
 half from his home, and explained the teachings of the church to 
 the whole countryside. I intended to keep up my visits to the com- 
 munity but I received a letter from a minister letting me know 
 that I was not wanted in that community and that he could take 
 care of all of them. I met a good number of ministers and found 
 a few companionable and some who were more or less congenial, 
 and if a few may have been unpleasant, this one in all my experi- 
 ence, in his narrowness of mind, his uncharitableness, his false zeal, 
 without knowledge, was certainly an outstanding and exceptional 
 one. 
 
 The venerable foundress of the Discalced Carmelite Order tells 
 us that when her father died when she was a child, she took St. 
 Joseph, the foster father of Jesus and patron of the universal 
 church, as her father and that she never remembered asking him, 
 through his powerful intercession, for a favor that was not granted. 
 Like many souls whose earthly mothers were called out of this 
 world in their childhood have chosen Mary, the Mother of Jesus, 
 for their heavenly mother. In an association of ideas, with this 
 thought, I asked my earthly mother to lead me to a "lost sheep" 
 on her birthday, I could have well applied to our heavenly mother, 
 Mary, to lead me to a "lost sheep," as my own earthly mother was 
 called out of life before I had reached my fourth year, especially 
 a "lost sheep" that had such a fervent devotion to her. One of the 
 signs, spiritual writers tell us, that our devotion to Mary is genuine 
 and not sentimental, is that Mary will be instrumental in leading 
 us to have an intense devotion to her Son. It is certainly true that 
 the Blessed Mother lead this orphan boy, the "lost sheep," to her 
 beloved Son who redeemed him, and led him to partake of the 
 Sacraments He instituted, for the salvation of his soul. We believe 
 we realize our intense devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus through 
 our devotion to the Immaculate Heart of Mary. I was so deeply 
 impressed with the "lost sheep" orphan boy returning home to his 
 church due to this devotion to the blessed Virgin, and the sweet 
 memory of my mother, in thought associated with his return, that 
 I exhorted my congregation in Durham to always keep up a devo- 
 tion to Mary to their dying day. As Catholics we know that we are 
 obligated to believe in Divine Revelation but the same obligation 
 does not bind one to private revelation. On one occasion when I 
 
66 The Memoirs of 
 
 was present seeing a lady with a stigmata bleeding from her fore- 
 head and hands as if her head had been crowned with thorns, and 
 having the imprint of the nails and actually suffering the Passion 
 of our Lord in her body and spirit, a message was given to her by 
 the Blessed Virgin, that it was her will that all present pray for 
 Russia. The twenty-one of us, including priest and laymen were 
 thrilled beyond describing in words to hear this message coming 
 from the Blessed Virgin. Speaking to a theologian who was present 
 and deep in thought, I asked him about his impressions and re- 
 actions to what Ave had seen. He answered thoughtfully and cau- 
 tiously that the stigmata and suffering of the lady could not be 
 explained by natural laws. The large majority of the Russian 
 people are adherents of the Rusisan schematic Church and are not 
 in communion with Rome, yet the peasant people love the Blessed 
 Virgin and have icons of Mary in their homes. The Blessed Virgin 
 is pleased with their devotion to her as it is really the plan of her 
 Son, and is in accordance with His wishes. There is a reason why 
 the Blessed Virgin asks us to pray for Russia so that they can be 
 brought back to the Church Her Son founded. It depends upon 
 us to pray and make reparation for our sins to hasten Russia's con- 
 version. The evil spirit is evidently let loose in the beginning of 
 the suffering predicted to come on mankind before the end of the 
 world. There are supernatural warnings to us, in our forgetfulness 
 of God and being wholly led and governed by secularism. Let us 
 not forget prayer and more prayers that Russia will be converted, 
 and the threat of the third world war will cease and the super- 
 natural might of our prayers will soon hasten the time when Mary's 
 heel will crush the head of Satan. "I will put enmity between thee 
 and the Woman and thy seed and her seed; and she shall crush thy 
 head and thou shall lie in wait for her heel." (Chapter 3, verse 15.) 
 The Immaculate Virgin Mary, the church teaches, is the Woman 
 that God had in mind, the second Eve, and the Mother of Jesus. 
 
 MISSION TO CHAPEL HILL 
 
 My first priestly visit to Chapel Hill was early in the year 1906. 
 A University student from Wilmington was accidentally wounded 
 from a shot fired from a pistol in a college game of amusement. I 
 was called from Nazareth and brought Holy Communion to him, 
 as he was a Catholic. When I went to his bedside, I found that he 
 was not able to receive it. It was late in the evening and too late 
 to return to Nazareth, so I asked for a room for overnight, that I 
 could secure a small oil lamp to burn all night before what our 
 Holy Mother Church teaches is the Real Presence of Our Lord. 
 
William Francis O'Brien 67 
 
 Much concern was made by several gentlemen in securing a fitting 
 place as the dormitories were filled to capacity. Realizing this, the 
 official in charge of a dormitory gave me his own room. Having 
 a Mass kit with me, I arose very early in the morning and fitted 
 out an altar table on a dresser in the room, offered up the Mass 
 for the University and all living in Chapel Hill. The student who 
 was wounded was named Waters. I often listened to the sweet 
 soprano voice of his mother singing in the choir of St. Thomas' 
 Church in Wilmington, built by Father Murphy in 1816. I cannot 
 forget the courtesy and kindness of Dr. Abernathy in showing 
 me the points of interest around the University. 
 
 About the time William Carmichael, Jr., who is now Vice- 
 President and Finance Officer of the Greater University, was a 
 student there I read a paper on "Why f am a Catholic." The 
 Episcopalian clergyman at the Hill during the first world war had 
 what he called a symposium. He invited a Methodist clergyman to 
 lecture on why he was a Methodist and a Baptist clergyman to 
 lecture and read a paper on "Why he was a Baptist," and other 
 clergymen on why they believed in THEIR churches. I remember 
 that my paper, which had taken me about three months to prepare 
 in my spare time, was well received. I had sent an outline and 
 separate divisions to my bishop and had received not only his 
 hearty approval, but also the approval of Dr. Felix, my dogmatic 
 theological professor and also was commended by Dr. Thomas, who 
 was a classmate when I was an ecclesiastical student at Belmont 
 Abbey College. On another occasion I spoke in the annex of the 
 Presbyterian Church there. 
 
 In 1922, 1 wrote my bishop that I was arranging to have Mass 
 every Sunday for the benefit of the Catholic students. My Bishop 
 wanted me not to take on any more work, and he judged that "now 
 I was satisfied since I was going to open up a mission at Chapel 
 Hill." In addition to receiving a cordial letter from Dr. Graham, 
 the president of the LIniversity, I received several other letters from 
 congenial workers for the general welfare of the Carolina students. 
 I quote a letter to me from Mr. Comer, who was the YMCA official 
 there in 1922: 
 
68 The Memoirs of 
 
 Dear Father O'Brien, 
 
 On behalf of the Catholic boys with us at the University 
 this year, I want to thank you for the great convenience to 
 them in coming to the Hill this year, thus saving their trip- 
 ping to Durham with the expense involved. 
 
 I shall get in touch with one of the upperclassmen today 
 and ask him to take responsibility of seeing that the room 
 is in order and furnished with suffiicient seating capacity, 
 before meeting time each Sunday. 
 
 Please command us on any point in which we might be 
 able to serve you in your efforts with these boys. 
 
 Very sincerely yours, 
 H. F. Comer, Gen. Sec. 
 University Y.M.C.A. 
 
 I first began to have Mass on Sundays in the fall of 1921. On the 
 18th of October, my seventieth birthday, our Right Reverend Bishop 
 McGuiness said the first Pontifical High Mass at Chapel Hill. The 
 President of the University, Dr. Graham, was present at the Mass. 
 It was during the second world war, and students and officers of the 
 pre-flight school were present in the thousands. Mr. Comer sought 
 me out and in greeting me said, "You are the forerunner of all this 
 happening today." 
 
 Another letter among the four others I received was from Mr. 
 Francis F. Bradshaw, Dean of the University students. I quote: 
 
 Mr. Wm. F. O'Brien 
 Immaculate Conception Church 
 Durham, N. C. 
 
 Dear Sir: 
 
 I am delighted to know that you intend to serve the 
 Catholic students of the University. It has always seemed 
 to me to be a pity that denominational minorities were unable 
 to furnish opportunity to its members of the students to 
 continue their religious life while at the University. The 
 University is only too glad to assist you in this fine under- 
 taking. I will see that this announcement is made in Chapel 
 on this coming Friday morning when we have the attendance 
 of the entire student body, upperclassmen and all. 
 
 I hope you will command me if I can be of assistance 
 to you. 
 
 Very sincerely yours, 
 Francis F. Bradshaw 
 
William Francis O'Brien 69 
 
 Mr. W. D. Carmichael, Si., the lather of W. 1). Carmichael, Jr., 
 has an apartment at the Carolina Inn. He often drove over to 
 Chapel Hill with me to attend Mass as he loved the University, 
 his Alma Mater. He was a former superintendent of the Durham 
 Public Schools and Vice-President Emeritus of the Liggett &: Myers 
 Tobacco Company. He is now in his eighty-sixth year and living in 
 retirement. Alter his beloved wile died he was a generous financial 
 supporter of the Immaculate Conception Chinch in Durham, in 
 which he was baptized in 1940. He purchased the land on which 
 the chinch in Chapel Hill was to be built, was a very generous 
 contributor to the chinch and is still a dependable and generous 
 church contributor and has the special honor ol breaking ground 
 on which the present magnificent Church of St. Thomas More is 
 erected in Chapel Hill. The few remaining Catholics living in 
 Chapel Hill that either attended Mass from 1921 to 1922 or who 
 attended Mass a lew years after, during the time I said Mass there 
 till the time that Monsignor John Manley was appointed to Chapel 
 Hill, when he was superintendent ol the Orphanage at Nazareth, 
 are Mr. W. D. Carmichael, Sr., Mr. and Mrs. W. D. Carmichael, Jr., 
 Professor and Mrs. Cameron and daughter, and Mrs. Wettach. 
 
 In 1944 I sent my History of the Catholic Church of Durham, 
 North Carolina, to Dr. Peter Gnilday, historian of the Catholic Uni- 
 versity of America. Dr. Gnilday was the author of the life and 
 time of the first Archbishop of the United States, Archbishop Car- 
 roll of Baltimore, the brother of the last survivor of the signer of 
 the Declaration of Independence, Charles Carroll of Carrollton; 
 author also, of the life of Bishop England, who was called "the 
 noblest Roman of them all," that is, of the bishops of America in 
 his day. He was appointed to the See of Charleston, South Carolina, 
 in 1820. North Carolina was included in his jurisdiction. It was 
 through his activity and influence that the Catholic ecclesiastical 
 councils were held for the establishment of laws and degrees for 
 the well-ordered growth in America. Dr. Guilday was the author 
 of the book on the Catholic Councils held in the Linked States. 
 On receipt of my brochure of the History of the Catholic Church 
 in Durham, Dr. Guilday wrote: 
 
 My dear Monsignor O'Brien: 
 
 You are indeed kind to send me a copy of your History 
 of the Catholic Church of Durham, North Carolina, and I 
 have read the little book with great pleasure. No one but 
 yourself could have told that delightful story in such a strik- 
 ing way. It is a great encouragement to find a parochial 
 
70 The Memoirs of 
 
 history written in such good taste. I feel I have gained the 
 right to say this, for I have read thousands of parochial his- 
 tories in the past thirty years. 
 
 No doubt you remember my article on "The Writing of 
 Parish Histories," some years ago in the Ecclesiastical Review. 
 One of the points I tried to emphasize was that too many 
 of these histories were written as if in a vacuum, and that 
 they seemed to be about exiles. You have escaped that. To 
 you the Catholics are part of Durham. They breathe and live 
 as Durhamites. Unity of that kind is a city's finest asset. 
 
 I'll never forget that time I was part of Durham as your 
 guest, during the meeting of the historical societies there. 
 
 May our Blessed Lord give to you and your parish every 
 happiness. 
 
 Cordially Your Friend in Christ, 
 
 Peter Guilday. 
 
 Archbishop William D. O'Brien, D.D., Auxiliary Archbishop 
 of Chicago and the President of the Catholic Extension Society of 
 America wrote that my little book on the Catholic Church was 
 "well done." I was pastor of the Immaculate Conception Church 
 in Durham for forty-four years. I retired in 1951 as Pastor-Emeritus 
 of the Immaculate Conception Church. I have been living in Dur- 
 ham for fifty-one years. This year, 1958, is my Diamond Jubilee 
 year — sixty years as a priest. If there is one privilege I enjoy, and 
 it is very consoling and comforting to me, thanks to our zealous 
 Bishop Vincent Stanislaus Waters, D.D., it is the private Chapel 
 in my home, where the Real Presence of Our Lord is kept on the 
 altar night and day. If I had any inconvenience in my labors in 
 North Carolina in the past, and any disappointments, it has been 
 infinitely more than compensated in the realization of having the 
 Living Presence of Our Lord, in the Blessed Sacrament on the 
 altar in my home. Following is the letter from Archbishop O'Brien: 
 O'Brien: 
 
 My dear Monsignor: 
 
 Your gracious note of February 10th, together with the 
 booklet on the History of the Catholic Church in Durham, 
 North Carolina, at hand. 
 
 This is a very informative booklet you have gotten up 
 giving the history of Durham and it is very well done! The 
 thing I like most about it is how the O'Briens figure in the 
 history of the town, and when I think of how one of our 
 
William Francis O'Brien 71 
 
 illustrious namesakes was the vice-president of that tobacco 
 company down there I can't understand why he hadn't built 
 a church and school and rectory for you years ago! I hope 
 you will live to see the fourth school in Durham and the 
 new church that will have to be put up there some day. 
 
 Hoping you are real well, and with all good wishes, be- 
 lieve me 
 
 Sincerely yours in Christ, 
 William D. O'Brien 
 
 The two lots on which the old church and old school were 
 built and on which the present new church and rectory are built, 
 were given by William T. O'Brien in 1905. Mr. O'Brien died in 
 January, 1906. The writer was not made the first resident pastor 
 of the church in Durham till September, 1907. Had Mr. O'Brien 
 lived, he had intended to build a library for Bishop Haid, his 
 friend, near the Benedictine Abbey where Bishop Haid lived as 
 Abbot of the Monastery there in Belmont. I feel that if he had 
 lived after the writer became pastor in 1907, he would lead in 
 seeing that the temporal needs of the church would not be neg- 
 lected. Archbishop William O'Brien of Chicago, evidently thought 
 that Mr. William T. O'Brien was living during my pastorate of 
 forty-three years and three months, with the title of Pastor-Emeritus 
 of the Immaculate Conception Church in Durham. 
 
 A former pastor of St. Marcella's Chapel in Sanford, North 
 Carolina, now deceased, wrote me in 1944: 
 
 My dear Monsignor: 
 
 Your History of Catholicity in Durham to hand this 
 morning, I glanced at the opening chapter, it was so inter- 
 esting, had to sit down and read it through, must say it is a 
 masterpiece and congratulations are due you in writing this 
 history and the great work you have accomplished in Dur- 
 ham and all North Carolina. It brought me back in spirit 
 to bygone days, familiar with many of the names mentioned. 
 I pride myself that I might be associated with in North 
 Carolina in the past pioneer days of the church. Will be 
 an adopted Tar-Heelian forty-one years come March 3rd, 
 next month. God bless you Monsignor, may you live many 
 more years to work in the vineyard of the good Lord. 
 
 Most respectfully and sincerely in Xto 
 George Watkins 
 
72 The Memoirs of 
 
 Father Watkins was one of the early students at Nazareth when 
 Father Price, Msgr. Irwin, and the writer were banded together as 
 the first missionaries in the North Carolina Apostolate. For this 
 reason, I deeply appreciated the letter he wrote me when he was 
 pastor of St. Marcella's Chapel in Sanford. It is now some fifteen 
 years since he has gone to his reward. 
 
 Following is a letter from Father Kuder written in 1944 from 
 Spruce Pine, N. C: 
 
 Dear Monsignor O'Brien: 
 
 Please accept my cordial thanks for the "History of St. 
 Mary's Parish." I have read and reread this with interest 
 and wish that other histories of parishes in the Diocese had 
 been recorded with as careful detail. I hope that some day 
 some of our fellow priests having the qualifications and time 
 will write a complete history of the Diocese of Raleigh. 
 If you do not know this it might be of interest to hear that 
 Maryknoll is about to issue a new and quite complete history 
 of the Life of Father Price. He was well known to you I 
 am sure. A friend wrote to me just this week from New York 
 City and mentioned about this new book from the Maryknoll 
 Press. 
 
 I earnestly trust that these years of passing hardships will 
 not exact too great a toll of your health and stamina and 
 you will live to see St. Mary's Parish in Durham grow to 
 become a parish second to none in the state. Again thanking 
 you for sending a copy of its history, I remain, 
 
 Sincerely in Our Lord, 
 Wm. J. Kuder 
 
 Father Kuder did fine apostolic work when he was assistant 
 to Msgr. Irwin, in New Bern, some years ago. 
 
 Another recipient of my brochure was Father Reinfels of Sacra- 
 mento, California, who writes: 
 
 Dear Rt. Rev. Classmate: 
 
 More power to you and God bless you for kindly re- 
 membering me with the copy — beautifully written — History 
 of the Catholic Church of Durham, North Carolina. You are 
 a fine historian and would do well to write the history of 
 the Catholic Church of North Carolina. Too bad you were 
 not made a Bishop. You would have made a good one — as 
 
William Francis O'Brien 73 
 
 you are naturally gifted to be a leader and organizer. How- 
 ever "The Master" has you called to be the foundation of 
 His service. 
 
 The History came when I was away substituting for a sick 
 neighbor-priest else you would have had a word of hearty 
 thanks before this. You have no idea how deeply I appre- 
 ciate your kind remembrance. 
 
 Well, my good classmate, may God reward you lor all your 
 sacrifices made for the Cause of our grand and holy religion. 
 You have the consolation of being a trail-blazer and your 
 fruits are shared by the Junior Clergy. 
 
 Your grateful Classmate, 
 
 (Rev.) F. P. Reinfels 
 
 Father Reinfels was a classmate of mine in the seminary at 
 Belmont from 1894 to 1898. He was a native ot Baltimore, Mary- 
 land. I was glad to get this letter from an old-timer, who died 
 about three years ago. 
 
HISTORY OF THE CATHOLIC CHURCH 
 OF DURHAM, NORTH CAROLINA 
 
 The City of Durham was incorporated as a town twelve years 
 before the formation of Durham County. Durham County was 
 formed from parts of Wake and Orange Counties in 1880. The 
 Village of Durham in 1869 contained two hundred people. The 
 first known Catholic to reside in Durham was in 1871, just two 
 years after the incorporation of the little town. The name of the 
 Catholic was Mrs. James Lawrence. 
 
 Mrs. James Lawrence, before her marriage, was a Miss Mar- 
 garet Myers and was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. She moved 
 with her family early in life to Charlotte, N. C. Mr. James Law- 
 rence, her husband, who she met in Charlotte, had some reputa- 
 tion, locally, of being a genius in mechanics. Mr. W. T. Blackwell, 
 one of the original tobacco magnates of Durham, hearing of the 
 reputation of Mr. Lawrence of Charlotte, invited him to take a posi- 
 tion in his plant. Mr. Lawrence proved to be a valuable acquisition 
 to the tobacco industry, as he subsequently invented the Lawrence 
 Cigarette Packing Machine. This machine was used up to a few 
 years ago. 
 
 After Margaret Myers, now Mrs. Lawrence, took up her resi- 
 dence in Durham with her husband in 1871, a Priest from Raleigh 
 came to have Mass in the Lawrence home about every six months. 
 The first Catholic children baptized in Durham were Frank Law- 
 rence and Mary Lawrence. Frank was born September 17, 1876 and 
 Mary Lawrence in 1878. These baptisms took place in Durham, in 
 the Lawrence home in 1880 and were and are now recorded in the 
 Baptismal Register kept in the Sacred Heart Cathedral Rectory in 
 Raleigh. Father James B. White was the officiating Priest. 
 
 In 1876 a group of Catholics from Lockhaven, Pennsylvania, 
 located about three miles north of Hillsboro. A Mrs. Shepherd of 
 Raleigh donated a tract of land to these pioneers of that place, and it 
 became known as St. Bernard's Mission. The Priests from Raleigh 
 made visits to the Mission for about four years, or as long as the 
 Catholics remained there. Several Catholics are buried at the spot 
 where the Mission once was. The Mission and the burial lot are 
 now practically forgotten and abandoned. In the fall of 1879, or 
 the spring of 1880, a small number of Catholics of St. Bernard's 
 Mission moved to Durham and attended Mass as often as Mass was 
 said at the home of Mrs. James Lawrence. 
 
 One of the families that originally came from Lockhaven, Penn- 
 sylvania, to St. Bernard's Mission, three miles north of Hillsboro, 
 and moved to Durham in 1879 or 1880, in turn moved to Stanton, 
 
 74 
 
William Francis O'Brien 75 
 
 Virginia, where the writer as a young man of twenty years formed 
 their acquaintance. These devoted people often told him of the 
 periodical visits Priests from Raleigh made to Durham. It was 
 the custom of the few Priests of the Vicariate of North Carolina, some 
 years before Raleigh was made a Diocese, especially in the 80's and 
 90's, to visit Belmont Abbey from time to time. There at Belmont 
 as a student of the College in 1889, I met Father Mark Cross and 
 Father James B. White, who attended Durham from Raleigh in the 
 70's and 80's. On one occasion at a gathering of Priests from all 
 over the country with the few Priests of the North Carolina Vicariate, 
 I heard the Venerable Bishop Haid, the Abbot of Belmont Abbey 
 and President of St. Mary's College, thank Father White for his 
 activity and foresight in acquiring the valuable property where the 
 Sacred Heart Cathedral now stands in Raleigh and also for acquir- 
 ing the property on which the beautiful Church in Asheville is 
 erected. 
 
 A remarkable coincidence to me, personally, that keeps the pri- 
 vations and spirit of sacrifice of the early pioneers of St. Bernard's 
 Mission and Durham ever vivid and sacrosanct in my memory is, 
 that I adopted a boy of three years of age in 1911, baptized him 
 and sent him to school at Nazareth, North Carolina and Virginia. 
 Returning home to our little Rectory, he soon kept company with a 
 great-granddaughter of one of the pioneers of St. Bernard's Mission 
 and Durham. I united them in marriage on St. Joseph's Day. 
 Through this dual relationship, to these young Durhamites, as 
 spiritual Father and paternal Father by adoption, as arranged by 
 an inscrutable providence, though 1 was born in Washington, D. C, 
 I feel rooted in the soil of Durham, where now 1 have been work- 
 ing and residing for over thirty-six years. 
 
 In 1881 a Catholic, who was destined to be a friend indeed to the 
 infant struggling Church in Durham, came from Lynchburg, Vir- 
 ginia and installed the then recently invented Bonsack Machinery in 
 the Duke and Sons Tobacco plant here. Returning to Lynchburg, 
 and making his headquarters there, he also installed this Bonsack 
 Cigarette Machinery in factories in Louisville, Kentucky, and St. 
 Louis, Missouri. In 1883 he returned to Durham, this time to take 
 up his residence. He had a beautiful and tender devotion to St. 
 Joseph and so elected to come to Durham on the 19th of March, 
 the least of St. Joseph, the foster Father of Jesus Christ. Before 
 the arrival of this devoted, capable and ingenious man, Mr. William 
 T. O'Brien, in 1881 cigarettes were made by hand. Between the 
 years 1881 and 1883 the Bonsack Machinery caused many a head- 
 ache to the management and their employees. The machinery was 
 simply not workable — it had many defects. Mr. O'Brien worked 
 
76 The Memoirs of 
 
 over the machinery night and day and watched over it like a devoted 
 mother over a child. As a reward for his genius and painstaking care 
 he perfected this complicated and marvelous masterwork of human 
 ingenuity. He not only saw the Bonsack Machinery working smooth- 
 ly for the first time with his two eyes, but also the cigarettes turned 
 out thousands by the thousands within the hour. This successful 
 working of the Bonsack Machinery, due to the genius and efforts of 
 Mr. O'Brien gave the real start to the Dukes of Durham in ac- 
 cumulating their millions upon millions. In this sense Mr. William 
 T. O'Brien is the "Grand Daddy" of the American Tobacco 
 Company. 
 
 Since the coming of Mr. O'Brien to Durham, his home became 
 the home of priests. Not content with generously supporting them, 
 he purchased property on West Chapel Hill Street and erected a 
 Church. He together with his wife are Benefactors to the Immaculate 
 Conception Church in Durham. He was the most generous Catholic 
 layman in North Carolina in his day. He gave Father Price, the first 
 native born secular priest in North Carolina, $5,000.00 shortly after 
 that saintly and zealous missionary founded the Catholic Orphanage 
 at Nazareth. He was preparing to build a Library for Bishop Haid at 
 Belmont before he died. He put off building a house for himself and 
 his family, because, he said, he wanted to see a House of God in Dur- 
 ham before he would think of one for himself and his own. He died 
 two weeks after the dedication of the Church in 1906. Stationed at 
 the Catholic Orphanage at Nazareth, N. C, at the time, I brought a 
 goodly number of the orphan children to attend the Solemn Re- 
 quiem Mass at which, Bishop Haid, his friend, was the celebrant. 
 Indeed the memory of the many charities of Mr. William Thomas 
 O'Brien to the poor of the city, and his generosity of spirit, is a 
 treasured Christian heritage to the Catholic Church of Durham. 
 
 If Mr. O'Brien made his home the Home of the Priests, his 
 devoted and sacrificing wife was the gentle Queen of the Household. 
 The Priests felt the warmth of the Christian hospitality she invari- 
 ably dispensed. Indeed thoughts would naturally suggest themselves 
 to one to evaluate how far this gentle Christian character influenced 
 her husband in his many benefactions to the Church and the poor. 
 
 Mrs. Catherine O'Brien, the mother of Mr. William T. O'Brien, 
 was born in Limerick, Ireland. She lived to be ninety years of age. 
 She was of noble mien and mellowed to the fullest in patience and 
 kindliness. She would remind one of the Prophetess Anna who loved 
 to come to the Temple and remain absorbed in recollection and 
 prayer. Miss Margaret O'Brien, her daughter, seemed to have dedi- 
 cated her life in care of her venerable mother. It was the intention 
 of Mr. and Mrs. W. T. O'Brien to have the church named after 
 
William Francis O'Brien 77 
 
 St. Joseph, but as there was a church named after St. Joseph in the 
 colored section of the city, there was some anxiety about the possible 
 mix up of the mail, for this reason it was decided to name the church 
 in honor of the Blessed Virgin. Knowing this, Miss Margaret 
 O'Brien remarked to Bishop Haid shortly before the dedication of 
 the church in 1906: "Bishop, since the church is going to be named 
 after the Blessed Virgin, could we suggest that the church be given 
 the beautiful title of the Immaculate Conception of Mary." The 
 good Bishop was only too glad to dedicate the church under the title 
 of the Immaculate Conception. It was only fitting and proper that 
 the sister of the Benefactor of the church would have the honor and 
 privilege of suggesting the beautiful title of the sinless Mother of 
 Jesus Christ as Patroness of the church. 
 
 The oldest son of Mr. William T. O'Brien, William J. O'Brien, 
 is a veteran of the World War I and is at present the Civilian Coordi- 
 nator of the City of Durham. He was married to Miss Ruth Green 
 in April, 1910. Not only was William J. O'Brien filled with joy, but 
 the heart of Mrs. W. T. O'Brien, the mother of William J. O'Brien, 
 was enlarged when her daughter-in-law was received into the 
 "bark of Peter" by their Pastor in January, 1914. Ruth Green's 
 grandfather owned a goodly portion of the good earth of Durham 
 before it was a village. On one occasion, when called from Durham to 
 Tokay near Fayetteville, N. C, to administer the Sacraments to the 
 daughter of Colonel Wharton Green, a Civil War veteran and son of 
 General Green of Mexican Revolutionary fame, the Colonel asked 
 me how the progressive city of Durham was moving along. After I 
 had given him a rosy picture of Durham's future, he stated that at 
 one time in his life he nearly owned all of Durham. "How do you 
 figure that out, Colonel?" I asked. "Well," said the Colonel, "I 
 was interested in buying a ranch. My agent was negotiating with 
 a namesake of mine, a Mr. Green of Durham, but had finally de- 
 cided to purchase a ranch in Texas. Had I chosen Durham when 
 it was a crossroad I would have owned all Durham." The member- 
 ship of the church in Durham has not only increased through the 
 children of the sturdy pioneers but it is also identified with families 
 who are descendants of the first settlers of the community. Mrs. 
 William J. O'Brien is only one of the converts of the people of 
 prominence in Durham. 
 
 A young priest ordained by Bishop Haid about the year 1894 
 and whom I frequently met during my days in the Seminery at 
 Belmont, North Carolina, was a Father Pendergast. He was born 
 in Philipsburg, N. J. Appointed Pastor of Raleigh he gave one 
 Sunday in the month to Durham. The little Hock in Durham was 
 devoted to him, especially the O'Brien family. I recall very vividly 
 
78 The Memoirs of 
 
 how he importuned me in the tall of 1898 to take a Sunday for 
 him in Raleigh so he could visit Durham. Being Assistant Pastor 
 at New Bern, North Carolina, at the time, I had made a visit to 
 Belmont to celebrate Thanksgiving Day, and on my return I stop- 
 ped over in Raleigh to supply for him. I still remember how deep- 
 ly he appreciated my giving him an opportunity to visit his warm 
 friends in Durham. It was like making a visit to his home folks. 
 The good Father did not live long. In February, 1899 he had gone 
 to receive his reward in his long Home. Father Griffin, the Pastor 
 of St. Patrick's in Fayetteville, was appointed to succeed Father 
 Pendergast in Raleigh and I was transferred from New Bern to 
 Fayetteville to succeed Father Griffin in February, 1899. In the 
 fall of 1899 I made an exchange with Father Griffin for Sunday 
 services. Father Griffin took my place in Fayetteville, and I took 
 his Sunday in Durham as it was the one Sunday in the month he 
 gave to Durham. I shall never forget my first visit to Durham as a 
 Priest. Miss Margaret O'Brien, the sister of Mr. O'Brien, met me 
 at the Depot. The Depot then was an old shed. Mr. Patrick 
 O'Brien, the Postmaster of Durham at the time, and brother of 
 William T. O'Brien took a great deal of pleasure in pointing out 
 to me all places of interest of the growing town. This was in the 
 days before there was a Catholic Church in Durham. I said Mass 
 in a room over the old Seeman Printery on Corcoran Street and on 
 a second visit in a room over a bakery on Main Street. On week 
 days I said Mass in the old O'Brien Home on Wilkerson Avenue. 
 
 In 1901 Father Michael Irwin was sent to Durham as Missionary 
 Pastor with headquarters at Newton Grove, North Carolina. As 
 Durham was growing he gave two Sundays to Durham when there 
 were five Sundays in the month. On the other Sundays of the 
 month he interested young men who were studying for the Priest- 
 hood at Nazareth to have regular catechetical instructions in Dur- 
 ham every Sunday. Father Michael Irwin was born in Portsmouth, 
 Virginia. He was a tireless worker. In addition to administering to 
 the one hundred souls, including men, women and children, he 
 preached on his every visit to non-Catholics in the halls of East and 
 West Durham. He made monthly visits to Durham for seven long 
 years. The older members of the congregation remember him as 
 a very capable, zealous and truly missionary Priest. Father Irwin, 
 now Rt. Rev. Monsignor Michael A. Irwin is still going strong in 
 his 77th year, as Pastor of St. Paul's Church, New Bern, the Mother 
 of all the Churches in North Carolina by reason of its primacy as 
 to age. 
 
 On the 23rd of September, 1907, Bishop Haid appointed the 
 writer, Father William Francis O'Brien, the first resident Pastor of 
 
William Francis O'Brien 79 
 
 Durham. In September, 1907, there were about 110 Catholics in 
 Durham, including men, women and children. 1 loved the environ- 
 ment of Nazareth at the time. The community life lived there was 
 attractive. I came to Nazareth as an invalid and was Chaplain from 
 Christmas 1900 until September 1907, except for a few months in 
 190-i, when I again worked the Fayetteville Mission, and about 
 three months in 1905 when I worked the Coldsboro Mission. 
 
 Were I to be called away from Nazareth, I had hoped that I 
 would be sent to Durham, not because Durham had more religion 
 than any other place, but because, as it seemed to me, everybody 
 was working in Durham. It was a hustling and bustling place. 
 Another reason why I had a soft spot for Durham was that a de- 
 vastating fire broke out in the old Priest's House at Nazareth in 
 October 1905. I was compelled to jump out ol the third story 
 window. Naturally, I was laid up for repairs. The children of 
 Durham sent me a sizable check. It was signed by Felicia Kueffner 
 as Treasurer of the Durham Sunday School Class. Miss Felicia 
 Kueffner, now Mrs. I. L. Sears has been our Organist for 37 years. 
 In all that time she has not only played the organ and directed the 
 Choir without a thought of compensation, but gladly and gener- 
 ously paid for the sheets and books of music used by the members 
 of the choir. The Mother of Mrs. Sears, Mrs. Rudolph Kueffner, 
 has ahvays been a very active Church worker. She has lived in 
 Durham 47 years and is now at the ripe age of 87 years. She still 
 comes to the Church and receives Holy Communion every month 
 and some times oftener. Her son, Mr. Herbert Kueffner, has been 
 the City Engineer for 18 years and has been the Director of Public 
 Works of Durham for the last 12 years. He is a devoted member 
 of the Church. 
 
 It is a coincidence that I am recording these pleasant recollec- 
 tions on the 53rd Anniversary of my seeing the town of Durham 
 for the first time. In the morning of the 18th of June, 1890, I 
 passed through Durham on my way from Belmont, North Carolina 
 to New Bern. I was then a boy of 17 years, never dreaming that I 
 would be appointed the first Resident Priest of the little town 
 that was so fascinating to me, so filled with attractions in the to- 
 bacco world, and where I was destined to spend up to now over 
 half of my life. 
 
 Having nearly ten years of experience on the Carolina Missions 
 and as Chaplain at Nazareth before coming to Durham as first 
 Resident Priest, my first thought, even though there was not ade- 
 quate housing for the Priest, was to work to get a school. The idea 
 of working for a school here and now did not meet with the hearty 
 approbation of my little flock. As they looked upon it — it cer- 
 
80 The Memoirs of 
 
 tainly was not the practical thing to do. Why, the children were 
 not here. The Priest does not have a home. It would be folly to 
 bring the Sisters here. There is no place for them to stay. They 
 would have to return to their Motherhouse in humiliation. Besides, 
 where was the money, not to speak of the opposition that would 
 come from good and sincere people, not of our persuasion, who 
 would naturally think it was their bounden duty to oppose such 
 a move. I had been preaching and working purely with non-Catho- 
 lic people, together with Father Irwin throughout Wake County. 
 We were Priests sent to preach the Gospel not only to Catholics, 
 but to all the people. When I was appointed Pastor of Durham 
 I literally looked upon all Durham as my Parish. If I could not 
 personally contact all the people in my Durham Parish, which 
 would be the most effective way in contacting them in the years 
 ahead looking at it in the light of eternity? And how could I con- 
 tent myself leading, as I view it, a humdrum life. Could I save my 
 soul living my life in such circumscribed limits. "My soul longed for 
 the Courts of the Lord." Even if I failed, I would have the assurance 
 that I failed in a good cause. It seemed to me that if I treasured 
 the pathway to happiness and looked forward to receive consola- 
 tion in my labor, I had no other choice, but to work for a school, 
 wherein I could not only gather our few children, but also the 
 children of our good neighbors. 
 
 We started our little school in September 1909. The first day 
 we had nine children and closed with twenty-three children at the 
 end of the year. Now we have one hundred and seventy children. 
 Sixty per cent are children of parents not of our persuasion. Our 
 first school was in the little rectory in the rear of the church, in 
 which the Priests are now living. The second school was in the 
 building the Sisters now occupy. It was built in 1913 mostly from 
 collections taken up in Baltimore, Washington, Buffalo, N. Y., and 
 in New York City. The third school building is at 406 West Chapel 
 Hill Street and is nearer to the heart of the City. Bishop William 
 O'Brien, Auxiliary Bishop of Chicago, gave $25,000 towards this 
 building, which is known as St. William's School. His Excellency, 
 our Most Rev. Bishop Eugene J. McGuiness, gave $10,000 to pur- 
 chase property for the building of a commodious school on Burch 
 Avenue after this World War II. If I am here after the duration 
 of this war I may see our fourth school building in the span of my 
 years as Pastor of Durham. 
 
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William Francis O'Brien 83 
 
 Some idea of our reason for the struggle to perpetuate our 
 school can be had from an article I contributed to the November 
 issue ot the Extension Magazine in 1914 when we had thirty chil- 
 dren: 
 
 "The town wherein I labor has about thirty thousand 
 people, but of this number only 110 souls are Catholic. 
 (1914.) This includes men, women and children. It may 
 seem strange that I have a school — or that 1 was so insistent 
 lor a school, but when everything is considered it is not to 
 be marveled at. The sum of $500.00, sent me through the 
 Catholic Extension Society, made possible its erection. A 
 school is a crying need of every Catholic Mission. I consider 
 aid given for schools in the Southland, when the population 
 is chiefly non-Catholic, practical missionary work directed 
 in the right channel. The making of converts in a stronghold 
 of Protestantism is necessarily slow. And if a school is not 
 established in such a community the children of converts 
 may not be brought up in the Faith. The school is necessary 
 both for the preservation and conservation of the Faith of 
 our children. In a community where a school is established, 
 the foundation for the Church of the future has been well 
 laid. Provision has been made for a systematic upbuilding 
 of the Church through the children and their children's chil- 
 dren. A devoted Sister in a classroom will necessarily mold 
 the hearts and minds of the children to the practice of virtue. 
 Through these children the Priest will convert his parish 
 and his parish in turn will be the leaven in his efforts to con- 
 vert the 'other sheep' of the community. This is indeed true, 
 particularly in North Carolina, where the vast majority of 
 people are overwhelmingly Protestant. 
 
 "We are fortunate in securing the Dominican Sisters from 
 an eastern province, for our school here. At the opening we 
 had nine children. There are now thirty happy and con- 
 tented youngsters within its Avails. 
 
 "The Cross is now raised above our little school, and, too, 
 Old Glory is floating over it. For the increase of the love 
 of God and Country more schools should be built, and re- 
 ligious should be given the opportunity to give more pleas- 
 ure to their Divine Spouse and Lover, Jesus Christ. 
 
 "A school like this in a Protestant stronghold is one of 
 the glories of the Church. It is a veritable stronghold — a 
 fortress from behind the walls of which we can repel evil 
 forces of unbelief and indifterentism. 
 
84 The Memoirs of 
 
 "The religious communities, who generously give some 
 of their members for these poor and out-of-the-way Missions, 
 have learned the secret of increase. The words of Holy Writ: 
 'Cast thy bread upon the running waters; for after a long 
 time thou shalt find it again,' have a literal significance to 
 them. They have learned that the secret of receiving is simp- 
 ly to give joyously. These sacrifices bear fruit in rich graces 
 for the religious order that, forgetting itself, has truly re- 
 membered 'these, My little ones.' The pioneer work of the 
 individual members is felt by the whole congregation. Then 
 the influence that the Sisters have is indeed wonderful. Their 
 lives, as the work goes on, are filled with consolation, and 
 gradually become the 'hundredfold reward' promised even in 
 this world. The missionary Sister who puts her hand to the 
 plow, never to turn back, prefers to work on the missions. 
 Like Mary, she too, has chosen the better part, and does 
 not wish it to be 'taken from her.' Religious communities 
 through the members generously given in the South and 
 other needy parts of the country, in turn influence the entire 
 Church. 
 
 "The Sisters too as religious, are object-lessons to the 
 religious minded non-Catholics, in these parts especially. 
 Realizing that the system of Protestantism is powerless to 
 produce religious the non-Catholics lose faith in their own 
 respective denominations and study the claims of the Old 
 Mother Church. Bigotry and opposition may assert them- 
 selves in various forms among a limited number who are 
 ignored by the majority of their coreligionists, but this will 
 be only of short duration in comparison to the future years 
 of rich harvesting. We are only units in the work. The 
 struggle in our efforts in planning to so adjust conditions 
 that the pendulum will in God's time swing our way, may 
 take up the greater portion of our span of life, but the 
 effort is a most glorious one and in itself contains its own 
 reward even here. It is laying the foundation of a future 
 glorious Church. What matter if we do not see the im- 
 mediate fruit? It is God's work. It is not ours. Our consola- 
 tion is that we have started right, no matter what the finan- 
 cial condition, how few the pupils, or what the opposition. 
 The fewness of the pupils has not troubled me. If St. Augus- 
 tine considered one soul sufficient for the diocese of a Bishop, 
 surely I cannot deny that one soul is enough of a class to 
 warrant religious instruction. Thirty pupils to my mind, 
 
William Francis O'Brien 85 
 
 constitute a thriving school, especially when 1 consider that 
 the good Sisters opened the school with only nine children 
 in attendance. 
 
 *'Of course it is from my actual and practical experience 
 that 1 realize the necessity of Sisters lor our pioneer work. 
 It a religious is taken from the ranks where the Church is 
 prospering, another can he found to supply her place. This 
 is not so with religious doing pioneer work. 11 the work is 
 not done voluntarily in these parts by zealous souls it will 
 never be done. Hence the individual religious souls can have 
 the consolation ol knowing that if the work is not done here 
 by themselves, God will never get the external glory which 
 is now causing much divine complacency in His Heart, and 
 ol which they are the chosen instruments. The work without 
 a school is necessarily spasmodic. With a school the work 
 goes on ad infinitum. Money given lor schools is put in 
 God's Bank, the interest ol which will increase the noble 
 missionary work here beyond our fondest dreams. 
 
 "Under God, I attribute the success ol the work to the 
 Sisters, those noble women who have seconded every effort 
 I have made in behalf ol Christian education. Their gener- 
 osity has borne the fruit that a sacrifice always brings forth, 
 and the results of their work in my school gives the promise 
 of permanency to our joint labors." 
 
 A History of the Parish of Durham would not be complete 
 without recording the self-sacrificing work of the Dominican Sisters 
 who have been teaching in St. Mary's, now St. William's School, for 
 over thirty-four years, or from the struggling and trying days of its 
 infancy. 
 
 My first contact with Dominican Sisters was in the year 1899. A 
 cousin of mine of New York Gity applied to be a cloistered Sister in 
 the Dominican Monastery of Perpetual Adoration in Newark, N. }. 
 I was present at her reception. Making a second visit in 1901 on the 
 Feast of the Immaculate Conception, the Rev. Mother Superior 
 asked me to speak to the Sisters. "What shall I talk about?" "On 
 anything you might say that will increase the love of souls in their 
 hearts," replied the good Mother. I described the missionary work 
 at Nazareth. The Priests lived at Nazareth, Wake County. They 
 built Chapels throughout the County, invited the people to come 
 to the Chapels. We went out without money or food. Slept on the 
 boards in the Chapels, if necessary. We had a setting similar to that 
 of St. Dominic when he went among the obstinate Waldensian and 
 Albigensian people. This was the work that their founder loved. 
 
86 The Memoirs of 
 
 Pray for North Carolina with the same intensity of love and fervor 
 that yon are praying for New York and New Jersey. Archbishop 
 Corrigan had introduced the Order into Newark, New Jersey and 
 Hunt's Point, New York. Several Archbishops remarked that this 
 was the time when we should introduce more active workers into the 
 vineyards of the Church. Archbishop Corrigan replied that he con- 
 sidered this move of introducing these Cloistered Nuns of Per- 
 petual Adoration into his Diocese as one of dynamic action. Our 
 Divine Lord remained in solitude with Joseph and Mary until 
 He was thirty years old. Why did not Jesus Christ go out to the 
 helpless and sinning world when the world was yearning and sorely 
 in need of Him? "Who hath known the mind of the Lord, or who 
 hath been His counsellor?" One of my consolations in my early 
 Priesthood while working in the Carolina Missions was the thought 
 of and knowledge that virginal and angelic souls were making 
 sacrifices and praying for the North Carolina Missions. 
 
 When I saw the Dominican Sisters come from New York to 
 North Carolina in 1907 and locate particularly at that time, in the 
 out-of-the-way place of Newton Grove, the immortal lines of Tenny- 
 son instantly came to my mind: "There is more wrought by prayer 
 than this world dreams of." Father Irwin first received the Domini- 
 can Sisters in North Carolina. I had given a Mission for Father 
 Irwin in Newton Grove in 1906, the year before the coming of the 
 Sisters there. Returning in the fall of 1907 I observed a remarkable 
 change among the people and especially among the children due to 
 the gentle and cultural influence of the Sisters. I then and there 
 determined to get the Dominican Sisters for Durham. There were 
 two communities of Sisters in the State at that time. The Sisters of 
 Mercy and the Sisters of Christian Education, a\*1io had recently 
 opened the College of St. Genevieve in Asheville. The sisters of 
 Mercy community was founded by Bishop England in Charleston, 
 South Carolina, and is older than the Mother McCauley Sisters of 
 Mercy. The Sisters of Mercy are rich in traditions of apostolic work 
 in the Carolinas. In 1909 the Sisters were too few in number to take 
 all the places clamoring for Sisters to do pioneer work, even though 
 they were willing to do so. Of necessity a call had to be made for 
 other Communities to lend a helping hand. Would the Sisters of 
 St. Dominic accept Durham when there were only 110 souls includ- 
 ing infants in 1909? Would they accept Durham where there were 
 so few children and where there were no Sisters or a Catholic School 
 before? Would they accept Durham where the coin for barter 
 necessary to purchase food for subsistence was all but invisible? 
 
William Francis O'Brien 87 
 
 The most apostolic woman I ever met, Rev. Mother Emmanuel, 
 the Mother General of the Dominican Sisters of Newburgh, New 
 York, readily consented to send her Sisters to our Mission. 
 
 The Church of the Immaculate Conception is very much alike 
 in appearance to the Dominican Monastery Chapel in Newark, N. }. 
 It would be impossible to describe the flood of thoughts that flashed 
 through my mind when I heard the Sisters chant the canonical hours 
 of prayer and praise in our little Immaculate Conception Church, as 
 I had heard and seen Dominican Sisters chant the divine praises in 
 their Monastery Chapel in Newark. In every undertaking worthy of 
 the name, there are moments of joy and sorrow, of hopes and dis- 
 appointments, successes and failures. When our infant struggling 
 school was hanging on a thread, more than one time, I would write 
 post haste to the Sisters in Newark to storm the heaven of Heavens 
 for us that we continue to carry on. There were dire predictions 
 from all sides of certain failure in our efforts, but I could not be 
 greatly disturbed. I had too much confidence in our earthly as well 
 as our heavenly intercessors. "There is more wrought by prayer 
 than this world dreams of." The existence of St. William's School 
 is absolute proof of it, if proof were needed. 
 
 About the time I was appointed Pastor to Durham, there were 
 three outstanding citizens who wielded a wide moral and intellectual 
 influence in the community of Durham by reason of their high 
 Christian principles and probity. They were like beacon lights in 
 the community. The names of this triumvirate were: Mr. South- 
 gate, Mr. Minims and Mr. W. D. Carmichael. Mr. Southgate was 
 interested in organizing the Chamber of Commerce. Having a 
 desire to contact the people, I volunteered to solicit members in the 
 interest of the good of the city in this laudable civic project. As 
 a citizen I personally subscribed for three shares in the Hotel 
 Washington Duke. Mr. Southgate gave me a cordial heart and hand 
 in my efforts. In after years when representative citizens of the 
 community were interested in building a Dormitory on the East 
 Campus in memory of Mr. Southgate, I personally contributed my 
 mite to commemorate the memory of Mr. Southgate as a Christian 
 gentleman who had the interest of his people at heart. The gentle- 
 man who gladly received my mite replied with deep feeling: "Father 
 O'Brien, this is worth thousands of dollars to you personally." It 
 was their way of expressing their appreciation. 
 
 Mr. Mimms, the second of the triumvirate, is now or was some 
 years ago at the head of the English Department in Vanderbilt Uni- 
 versity. 
 
88 The Memoirs of 
 
 Mr. W. D. Carmichael was Superintendent of Public Instruction 
 in the Schools of the City and did his share in building up, co- 
 ordinating and perfecting the Public School System in Durham. 
 The term of nine months and twelve grades were taught in the 
 Public School System in Durham when I came to Durham in 1907. 
 Only recently the Legislature passed a law that nine months term 
 of school and 12 grades should be taught wherever possible. Twelve 
 grades were only taught in Raleigh after Bishop McGuinness estab- 
 lished 12 grades in Raleigh Cathedral School about three years ago. 
 
 About three years ago I had the happiness of receiving Mr. W. D. 
 Carmichael into the Church. He is now retired from the Liggett 
 and Myers Tobacco Company of which he was the Executive Vice- 
 President and is living in Chapel Hill where he serves the Priests' 
 daily Mass and daily receives Holy Communion. 
 
 Mrs. W. D. Carmichael was a loyal and devout member of the 
 Congregation. She loved God's House and frequently made visits to 
 the Blessed Sacrament. Devotion to the Church and its interests was 
 a passion with her. She arranged to have a Mass said daily for the 
 Poor Souls in perpetuum. For years before her husband was re- 
 ceived into the Church she had a votive light burning daily before 
 the Sacred Heart Shrine that her husband one day would come into 
 the Bark of Peter. She was queenly in her manner, gentle in disposi- 
 tion and was admired generally in social circles. Fifteen years have 
 passed since her death, yet the influence of the godly union of Mr. 
 and Mrs. W. D. Carmichael is a sweet and treasured memory that 
 time will not efface in the lives of many Christian souls who are 
 still with us. 
 
 The Carmichaels were blessed with nine children. Five of them 
 were called to Heaven in their infancy. These holy innocents did 
 not linger long here on earth after the regenerating waters were 
 poured on their foreheads. I have often invoked these holy in- 
 nocents as angelic and saintly intercessors, as did their devoted 
 parents. The oldest son, William Donald Carmichael, Jr., is the 
 Vice-President and Finance Officer of the Consolidated University 
 at Chapel Hill. He has received Holy Communion daily for the 
 last twenty-five years. As an Altar Boy in his youthful years he 
 often served my Mass. He had the happiness of seeing his devoted 
 wife received into the Church. Cartwright Carmichael, the second 
 son, has a responsible and leading position in the Liggett and 
 Myers Tobacco Company. He loved to be in the Sanctuary when 
 a little boy and is now a devoted member of the Church. Martin 
 is doing well in Philadelphia. His charming wife is a convert to 
 the Church and they are blessed with several children. I baptized 
 
William Francis O'Brien 89 
 
 Robert, the fourth son. He was a pupil of our school. He is doing 
 well in New York City. His wife is a devoted member of the 
 Church. 
 
 In my early pastorate of Durham, nothing gave me more consola- 
 tion, especially when I had to leave Durham to attend my out mis- 
 sions for days and weeks, than to know that there was one devoted 
 soul who had the opportunity more than others, to be perpetually 
 in and around the Church, making frequent visits to the Sanctuary 
 and keeping fresh flowers on the Altar as an act of personal love to 
 |esus in the Blessed Sacrament. The immediate care of the Church 
 and the keeping of the house of the Priest was the personal choice 
 of Miss Ann Rhea Harvey. Miss Ann Harvey was the sister of 
 Mrs. Etta Smedes, the wife of the President of St. Mary's Episcopal 
 School in Raleigh and the cousin of Miss Emma McVeigh, the 
 President of Sweet Briar College in Virginia. In 1898 when she 
 resided in Raleigh at St. Mary's Episcopal School, she was a very 
 close friend of Miss Nettie Marshall, the sister of Doctor Marshall, 
 the Episcopal Minister in Raleigh at that time. Miss Nettie 
 Marshall was a distinguished and devout convert of Father Julius, 
 a very able and very spiritual priest of the Order of St. Benedict. 
 It was under the inspiration, example and direction of this Man 
 of God that the Monsignori Michael A. Irwin and William F. 
 O'Brien owe, under God, the fostering and cultivation of their 
 vocations to the Priesthood. Miss Ann Rhea Harvey and Miss 
 Nettie Marshall would remind the struggling missionary priests 
 of the holy women who administered to the Apostles. Miss 
 Harvey kept house for Monsignor Thomas Griffin of Raleigh for 
 about twelve years. In 1910 on the eve of Passion Sunday Miss 
 Ann elected to come to Durham and keep house for Monsignor 
 O'Brien. After nearly twenty-three years of devotion to her duties 
 as housekeeper to the priest and personal love of the Church, she 
 died full of years and good A\orks January 1, 1933, the octave of 
 the Nativity and the Feast of the Circumcision of Our Lord. 
 
 In life she had a burning desire to be buried at Nazareth. On 
 a beautiful Sunday morning in October, 1898, she was one of the 
 few who saw Father Price, the Tar Heel Apostle, bless his ideal place 
 on which he was to build his orphanage. She was so impressed in 
 seeing Father Price in his purposeful and devout demeanor, with 
 crucifix in hand, his immaculate white surplice and the folds of his 
 cassock blowing in the breeze, that she had a longing desire, then 
 and there, to have her last resting place at Nazareth. She was God- 
 Mother to many baptized children in Durham, who are now grown 
 up to manhood and womanhood, who revere her memory. She 
 
90 The Memoirs of 
 
 shared very largely in spirit with the Priest in the struggles incident 
 to a mission church. We feel that she is not the least of our in- 
 tercessors of the Church of Mary Immaculate in Durham. 
 
 A family that gave much consolation to the writer in his early 
 labors in Durham was the Gallagher family. The Gallaghers were 
 devoted, loyal and militant. Mr. Philip Gallagher was devoted to 
 such saintly and early pioneer Priests as Father Mark Gross, in his 
 early days in the Carolinas. Father Gross came from Baltimore with 
 Bishop Gibbons, in 1868. Bishop Gibbons afterwards became Cardi- 
 nal Gibbons. In my rounds in the Fayetteville Missions in 1899 
 and 1900, the people in the remote places from the larger centers 
 were still singing and constantly repeating the Litany of good works 
 and charities of good Father Gross. On coming to Durham in 1907, 
 Mr. Philip Gallagher came to me and spoke of the difficulty of 
 getting and building a school in Durham, where the children were 
 not, "but I will be with you in whatever you do in the interest 
 of the Church," he said. He was blessed with a large family. The 
 Gallagher children made up half of my little school in the begin- 
 ning. Mrs. Gallagher taught Sunday School in Laurinburg and 
 seconded the Priests in all their efforts. Her home was the home 
 of the Priests wherever she lived on the Carolina Missions. Mrs. 
 Gallagher was a descendant from a line of militant Catholics in 
 Carolina. Her mother, Mrs. Robinson of New Bern, at one time 
 warned one of her sons about attending a Sectarian Church with 
 a young lady — that if he presisted in doing so, she would come into 
 the Church before the whole congregation and take him out. The 
 son did not heed the warning of his mother. The mother true to 
 her word and convictions went into the Church and took her son 
 out. The son in chagrin and embarrassment said that she would 
 never see him again and that this would be a separation forever. 
 The son remained away from home for about three months, and 
 then returned and looked upon and felt in deep appreciation that 
 his mother was indeed a "Mother of Israel." One day Mrs. Robin- 
 son, the mother of Mrs. Gallagher saw Bishop Haid riding in a 
 train going to fill one of his appointments in the State. Coming up 
 to the Bishop she said, "Bishop, you don't know me, I am a Mrs. 
 Robinson, one of your little flock." "What I don't know you!" said 
 the Bishop, "Why, I know you among a thousand mothers. Would 
 to God we had many more mothers like you in North Carolina." 
 One of Mrs. Gallagher's sons, Patrick Gallagher, went through our 
 school with his brothers and sisters, graduated at Chapel Hill, 
 finished his theological studies in Rome and was ordained a Priest. 
 He is now doing well in Virginia. 
 
 In my labors in Durham invaluable moral and financial help 
 throughout the years was given to me by the ladies of the Altar 
 
William Francis O'Brien 91 
 
 Society. The ladies carried on in their lay activities in doing good 
 before I was appointed Pastor. Much credit should be given to 
 Miss Margaret O'Brien, the sister of Mr. W. T. O'Brien. She with 
 Miss Susan Burns, who afterwards became Sister Mary Mercedes, 
 conducted St. Ann's Society, the Sunday School, a Catholic library 
 for the children, and visited the sick. Our Altar Society is the 
 continuation of St. Ann's Society. The only lady now in the con- 
 gregation who was a member of St. Ann's Society and is still a faith- 
 ful and active member of the Altar Society is Mrs. Luther Markham. 
 Mrs. M. T. Adkins, who came to Durham a few years after my 
 appointment here, has been a very loyal, tireless and active member 
 throughout the years. Mrs. S. M. Credle has been a very devout, 
 capable and dependable member since her coming to Durham over 
 twenty years ago. Mrs. James B. Smith has been a dependable, 
 faithful and loyal member since her coming to Durham, which 
 was over twenty years ago. Mrs. B. D. Dodson has been a generous 
 and active member for about twenty-one years. Mrs. C. A. Johnson 
 has been an invaluable member for over seventeen years and is now 
 as active as she was seventeen years ago. 
 
 A very active member of the Altar Society, who has gone to 
 receive her reward, was Mrs. Thomas Brenan. In addition to her 
 interest in the Altar Society and Church Circles generally she was 
 deeply in sympathy with the success of our infant struggling school. 
 She had put away the savings of her little crippled nephew who died 
 in his twelfth year. This little sum she gave to me as my first con- 
 tribution for my school. She remarked that it made her happy to 
 give this little purse for our school as she felt her little nephew 
 would be so pleased to give it for this purpose, if he were living. 
 This most gracious act touched me deeply at the time, f cannot 
 forget it. May her soul rest in Peace! 
 
 There is only one person not mentioned so far in this paper 
 who has been a member of the congregation for over forty years 
 and that is Mr. Frank Kellerman. Mr. Kellerman has been a very 
 faithful and loyal member of the Church. Fie is now seventy-six 
 years of age and looks like he will be active many more years hence. 
 
 The little congregation was blessed with religious people who 
 spent their early days in Durham. M iss Susan Burns left Durham in 
 1897 to become a Sister of Mercy at Belmont. She was a lady of 
 refinement and culture. She became Sister Afary Mercedes. Miss 
 Blanche Hasse, a convert to the faith, and a cousin of Mr. South- 
 gate Jones, and one of the oldest and most respected families in 
 Durham, became a Religious of Christian Education and is now 
 at the College of St. Genevieve of the Pines in Asheville. Mary 
 Frances Shea, who spent a great part of her childhood days in 
 
92 The Memoirs of 
 
 Durham and has a childlike love for our little Church, graduated 
 at Boston College, competed with fifty native French students from 
 Montreal in French and won the Class Gold Medal for excellence 
 in French, became a Sister of Notre Dame in Montreal. She is 
 known as Sister Mary of the Divine Heart. She is the niece of 
 Mrs. W. J. O'Brien. 
 
 A fourth Sister, Miss Catherine Robbins, now Sister Mary Grace, 
 a Sister of Mercy, was a native of Durham. She was born in our 
 little Rectory. Her parents lived in the little house that the Church 
 converted into a little Rectory after my arrival as the first resident 
 Priest. Catherine was only four months old when I came to Dur- 
 ham. As her father was away, it fell to my lot to keep an eye on 
 and mind baby Catherine while her mother was in the Church 
 fixing the Altar. I saw her grow up. She attended and graduated 
 from our School. She is now an asset to the Sisters of Mercy in 
 Asheville. 
 
 In my work here I have not forgotten the care and concern of 
 a Pastor for the material and spiritual care of the Colored people. 
 I preached more than once in the Colored Baptist and Methodist 
 Churches in Durham. In 1913 when there was a seeming discrimi- 
 nation against the Colored people, I wrote to the Editor of the 
 Durham Herald suggesting better moral conditions for these peo- 
 ple. A few introductory lines of the letter follows: 
 
 "I was very much impressed with an article in your paper 
 yesterday. The headline read: 'Is the Negro Expecting Too 
 Much?' This excellent article was signed by a Negro of 
 Greensboro. It was certainly to your eternal credit that you 
 in your characteristic fairness published it, and it must have 
 been refreshing reading indeed to all Christian men and 
 women who read it. I, for one, am deeply grateful to you 
 and heartily thank you." 
 
 The Negro writer of the article, Dr. James B. Dudley, President 
 of the State Teachers Association, who made such a reasonable and 
 excellent appeal for the just consideration of the rights of his 
 people, wrote me in appreciation of my letter published in the 
 Durham Herald of June 13, 1913, and said: 
 
 "I got much encouragement from your letter, as did also 
 many other Negroes who are interested in this question and 
 who called my attention to the splendid sentiments ex- 
 pressed. We are sure your expressions represent the feeling 
 of the best people of the South and that it is only necessary 
 for us to let the people know how badly we are treated and 
 how seriously we are being imposed upon at times." 
 
William Francis O'Brien 93 
 
 In my early Pastorate here I was deeply moved by a class of 
 High School Colored pupils singing Negro Spirituals. I felt as it it 
 were called from Heaven to help them and their people to travel 
 here as pilgrims in a direction pleasing to God. The thought of 
 Priests as teachers and pastors coming from elsewhere at that time 
 seemed out of the question. 1 was naturally devoted to my work, 
 yet I felt urged to write to Bishop Haid that I was willing to let 
 a Priest take over my work, and I would take up the Colored work 
 here, starting from scratch. The Bishop wrote me to stick to my 
 work, which he described to me was not a little work and to do 
 what I could on the side for the Colored people, and if the work 
 prospered he would send a Priest to care for them. I did what I 
 could for some years, but found it humanly impossible to do two 
 works. At last the day dawned, when our good, tireless and de- 
 voted Bishop Eugene J. McGuiness negotiated and planned for the 
 Jesuit Fathers of Baltimore to take up the Colored work here. 
 Father John Risacher, S. J., was sent here about three years ago to 
 take up the work for the Colored people, and how well did he plan 
 his work and how devoted he is to it! 1 am eternally grateful to 
 him for asking me to perform the ceremony of blessing the ground 
 which was to be the scene of his sacrificial future labors of love 
 in his apostolic field. 
 
 When I was appointed to Durham in 1907 I gave it three Sun- 
 days a month. The fourth Sunday I had services at Halifax, N. C. 
 During the week I visited Littleton, Weldon, Roanoke Rapids, 
 Penitentiary Farms, Enfield, Scotland Neck and Crowell. I preached 
 in a public hall in Weldon and in the Town Hall at Enfield. I 
 placed placards in the banks, business houses and public places. 
 I had good audiences, I well remember, in Town Hall at Enfield. 
 As my flock increased in Durham, these Missions which I attended 
 for 20 years were taken over by younger Priests recently ordained. 
 This enabled me to attend Missions in the Durham area. I paid 
 monthly visits to Hillsboro, Efland, Oxford, Roxboro and Hender- 
 son. 
 
 I said Mass for a few years at Chapel Hill on Sundays. My first 
 visit to Chapel Hill was in the days when William D. Carmichael, 
 Jr., now Vice-President and Finance Officer of the University, was 
 a student there. The Priest in Henderson would come over to 
 Durham on Saturday and say the first Mass at Durham. After 
 saying the Sunday Mass at Chapel Hill I would return to Durham 
 and have my second Sunday Mass here. The students and parents 
 appreciated this very much. A letter written January 22, 1922 by 
 Mrs. R. H. Staton, Hendersonville, N. C, is an example of the 
 deep appreciation of the Priests saying Mass at Chapel Hill at 
 that time: 
 
94 The Memoirs of 
 
 "For several weeks I have been wanting to write, to thank 
 yon for what you are doing for the Catholic boys at Chapel 
 Hill. 
 
 "I have two boys there, one in his third year, the other in 
 his second. While they usually went to Durham, every other 
 Sunday, to hear Mass, this is so much better for them, as well 
 as the others. Vincent and Leon have always been good boys, 
 never, up to the present moment, given me one anxious 
 moment, for which I am very thankful. 
 
 "One can never tell, what may happen, there are so many 
 temptations where boys are thrown with so many different 
 types of characters. I feel that your going over to Chapel Hill 
 gives them, in a way, greater opportunities than when they 
 went to Durham. They realize the sacrifices you are making 
 for them, and the others, that they may have the privileges 
 of their religion. I think it is just wonderful, f sincerely 
 hope that your congregation will grow. Am quite positive 
 that, if it doesn't it will be through no fault of yours. 
 
 "Very many thanks to you, Father O'Brien, and may the 
 year 1923 contain untold blessings for you is the prayer of a 
 most grateful Mother. 
 
 Very sincerely, 
 Mrs. R. H. Staton." 
 
 This good lady is still living and has a son, Dr. Staton, in the 
 service of Uncle Sam, stationed at Camp Butner. The Doctor has- 
 tened to come to see his old Pastor. Our prayers are with him. 
 
 On October 18, 1942, on my 70th birthday, our Rt. Rev. Bishop 
 McGuiness celebrated a Pontificial Mass at Chapel Hill. The Presi- 
 dent of the University was present at the Mass. Students and offi- 
 cers of the Pie-Flight School were present in the thousands. The 
 Mass was a revelation to me. When I first started to say Mass in 
 1921 at Chapel Hill, I said Mass in the University Y.M.C.A. Build- 
 ing. The present official, Mr. Comer, who was an official in 1921 
 and cooperated with me as far as he possibly could do so, in greeting 
 me on the occasion of the Pontificial celebration, said to me that I 
 was the forerunner of all this happening today. I deeply appre- 
 ciated his personal expression and was somewhat puzzled to divine 
 his line of thought. 
 
 The Priests who were my assistants or quasi-assistants during my 
 Pastorate here were Fathers Lagle, Dr. Morrissey, Noonan, Livels- 
 burger and Curran. Father William J. Dillon was sent here after 
 he was ordained to take my place when I was on a collecting tour 
 
William Francis O'Brien 95 
 
 in Baltimore, Washington and New York in 1910. Father Patrick 
 Gallagher took my place when 1 attended the Eucharistic Congress 
 in Dublin in 1932. 
 
 Father Charles B. McLaughlin is my present Assistant and is 
 very active. He is assisted by a Priest from Nazareth and also has a 
 Mass at Duke University on Sundays. We have six Sunday Masses. 
 The attendance of the Congregation and the officers with their 
 wives and the servicemen from Camp Butner is inspiring. The 
 future looks bright and rosy- Catholic thought is seeping in the 
 minds of our good neighbors. The debts on the Church, the Con- 
 vent, the new School and the Church property fronting on Burch 
 Avenue have all been cleared. It seems to us that the linger ol 
 Cod is here. 
 
 (Signed) WILLIAM F. O'BRIEN. 
 
 During my pastorate at Durham from 1907 to 1951, a period 
 of forty-three years and four months, I received a few letters highly 
 commending and very pleasing, from persons I personally never 
 met, as well as laudatory articles in the Durham Herald and Durham 
 Sun, and a splendid letter from Mr. Carr, the mayor of our City of 
 Durham. 
 
 COPY 
 
 Office of the Mayor 
 W. F. Can- 
 Rev. W. F. O'Brien September 14, 1948 
 810 West Chapel Hill Street 
 Durham, North Carolina 
 
 Dear Monsignor: 
 
 It is with interest and inspiration that we note that on 
 October 7 you will have completed fifty years of priesthood. 
 We also note that you are rounding out the forty-first year 
 of your work in Durham. 
 
 During all these years you have been a much loved and 
 highly respected citizen of our City. You have added to the 
 spiritual, moral and physical upbuilding of Durham and the 
 City owes you a greater debt than it will be able to repay. 
 
 We wish for you many more years of useful service and 
 with best wishes, I am 
 
 Yours very truly, 
 W. F. Carr 
 Mavor 
 
96 The Memoirs of 
 
 The following is a letter from a gentleman, written to me, 
 from Chicago: (1938) 
 
 Dear Father O'Brien: 
 
 Tempus fugit — or something like that. It is now several 
 years since it was my good fortune to have been in Durham 
 during Holy Week and to have attended the service in 
 that peaceful little church. I have already (back in 1935, 
 when I wrote you a note from San Francisco) mentioned 
 that your Easter Sunday sermon was one of the most inspiring 
 I have ever heard. That still goes. 
 
 More of my close friends have passed beyond since then 
 and I would appreciate a Mass being said for them. 
 
 My sister 
 
 James Hanan 
 
 Edward Moran 
 
 Trust this finds you in good health, that your 30th an- 
 niversary as pastor was a very happy occasion and that your 
 golden jubilee will be even bigger and better. 
 
 Sincerely, 
 
 Edward T. McGrath 
 
 The address made over the radio by Mr. Clark, who, to my 
 recollection I was not fortunate to meet, was very deeply appreciat- 
 ed. I quote, in full, Mr. Clark's address of some sixteen years ago: 
 
 RT. REV. WILLIAM FRANCIS O'BRIEN 
 
 by }. B. Clark 
 
 When a max so lives that his life becomes an inspiration to others, 
 that man is blessed as few mortals are. Particularly if that man's 
 life is one of spiritual beauty. Few of us devote our time to a 
 perpetual quest of opportunity to serve others. Few of us turn 
 aside when such opportunity is presented, for we are all as good 
 Americans conscious of our obligation one to the other and aware 
 of the strength to be found in unity of action and purpose. But 
 it is rare when one does come upon a citizen who devotes his 
 life to a complete service of others without thought of self. I 
 believe tonight as we salute another splendid citizen of our city 
 that we have found such a person. Certainly, others with whom 
 we have talked speak of him in this manner, and facts of his life, 
 
William Francis O'Brien 97 
 
 upon study, support this belief. He is in the work of the church — 
 naturally, therefore, he should be prompted to render constant 
 service to the unfortunate, the bewildered, the perplexed ones of 
 life. But it requires more than theological preparation for success 
 in the ministry. It requires an all-consuming love of one's fellow- 
 man to the extent that devotion to duty in helping others super- 
 sedes all else. Our citizen is now 69 years of age, having been 
 born on October 18, 1872 in the city of Washington, D. C. For 
 44 years he has been engaged in the work of spreading a ray of 
 spiritual hope for lost and lonely men in the maelstrom of an ever- 
 confusing world. At the age of 16, after serious contemplation of 
 the duties awaiting him should he enter his profession, he cast 
 aside worldly ambitions and set forth upon the road leading to 
 ordainment and assignment as a worker in the cause of Christianity. 
 He has been in Durham almost 35 years and has instilled himself 
 in the heart of the city as a gentle, kind, and understanding man. 
 The church is his love, of course, but the city in which his church 
 is located shares in this affection. Any civic movement requesting 
 his services has always found him responsive. Back in World War 
 I he was selected as one of the Four-Minute Men in Durham, 
 speaking as one of a group to solidify the citizens behind the 
 government. He was active in the membership solicitation for the 
 Chamber of Commerce 1908; he worked with other civic-minded 
 individuals in raising funds for the building of the much-needed 
 Washington Duke Hotel, and on numerous occasions he has been 
 on panel discussions designed to bring about or to maintain good 
 will among groups holding conscientious convictions. He is broad- 
 minded, thoroughly respectful of the opinion of those who may 
 differ with him, and sympathetic in his treatment of any controver- 
 sial subject. His intimates admire him for the sincerity of his pur- 
 pose in carrying forward his work, for his benevolence in his church 
 missions, for a keen intellect and an all-consuming desire to render 
 comfort to the weary and lonely. He works in a garden when he is 
 not in his study and the gentle care he bestows on the troubled 
 humans who go to him for spiritual guidance is manifest in his 
 flowers, growing lovely under his watchful attention. He enjoys 
 music, walking in the sunlight, the smiles of children, and friendship 
 with all whom he meets. Yes, he has a creed for living too — he 
 believes in following any procedure or activity that will increase the 
 love of neighbor and the glory of God. And as for a message which 
 he would deliver to Durham were it possible for him to speak to the 
 entire citizenry at one assembly, he said he would wish for each 
 person only this — the blessing of peace acquired through an ever- 
 
98 The Memoirs of 
 
 increasing love of God and neighbor. Ladies and gentlemen, WDNC 
 gladly honors as our Citizen of Merit tonight — The Right Reverend 
 William Francis O'Brien of the Catholic faith. 
 
 I feel personally indebted to Mr. Dixon of the Durham Herald 
 for his article under his weekly column "How Times Do Change" on 
 the occasion of our dedication of our new church in 1956. 
 
 Catholics of Durham witnessed an historic step forward in the 
 history of their church this week when, with the clergy from many 
 sections of the state participating in the impressive rites, their new 
 and modern church was dedicated to the service of Gad and man. 
 Their hearts rejoiced over the happy event but it is safe to bet that 
 the happiest person in all the vast assemblage which witnessed it 
 was Msgnr. William F. O'Brien. 
 
 It was close to half a century ago when Father O'Brien came 
 here to serve the people of his denomination as priest. His com- 
 ing was preceded a year previously by the erection of the wooden 
 building which recently was razed to give way for the fine church 
 now in use. He served as priest in charge of the local parish until he 
 assumed the pastor emeritus status a few years ago. 
 
 When Father O'Brien was appointed local pastor there were 
 only 110 Catholics in Durham. The growth of the church has been 
 steady. 
 
 In his sermon delivered on the recent occasion of the dedication 
 of the new church, Father O'Brien stated that it was in 1868 when 
 North Carolina was established as a vicariate. There were only 700 
 Catholics in the state. When he came to the state as a boy of 15 
 years of age in 1888 there were 2,500 Catholics in the state. In 
 1898, the year Father O'Brien was ordained a priest, there were 3,800 
 members in North Carolina. The number of Catholics in now ap- 
 proaching 40,000 and Father O'Brien said "The future is very 
 bright and very promising for the increasing growth of Catholicity in 
 North Carolina." 
 
 Some of the history of the denomination in Durham is contain- 
 ed in the following paragraph contained in his sermon: 
 
 "Since I knew all the priests who came here every six months 
 in the 1870-80's, as well as all the early Catholics, it is a simple 
 matter for me to recall the history of our church in this city. 
 As the old church, recently demolished, was dedicated in 1906 — 
 50 years ago — this is our golden jubilee year, and is for us a crown- 
 ing double feast day. In 1910, when I was collecting funds in Wash- 
 ington and Baltimore for the church here, Cardinal Gibbons said to 
 me that Durham has not been on the map as having any Catholics 
 when he labored in North Carolina between the years of 1868 and 
 

 X 
 
 X 
 - 
 
X 
 u 
 Pi 
 
 X 
 U 
 
 H 
 
 
William Francis O'Brien 101 
 
 1872. He remembered well having preached and administered the 
 sacrament of confirmation in Raleigh and Greensboro during those 
 years. The chinch in Durham is much younger than the churches 
 in Raleigh and Greensboro or many other places in the state. The 
 first Catholic came to Durham in 1871. I met her in 1907 when 
 1 was appointed the first resident priest of Durham. I said mass 
 here as early as 1899, in O'Brien on Wilkerson Avenue, about 
 seven years before the construction of the frame church which was 
 torn down only last month. Some Catholics from Lockhaven, Pa., 
 made an effort to colonize a tract of land five miles west of Hillsboro 
 in 1876. This colony was abandoned and a few of those Catholics 
 moved to Durham. William T. O'Brien had moved here from 
 Lynchburg, Va., in 1883, and it was he who built the frame church 
 that stood for 50 years, but finally proved far too small to accom- 
 modate the increasing number of converts and Catholics locating 
 in the city." 
 
 That the dedication of the new church was a happy occasion for 
 the beloved priest was indicated when, in his sermon, he said "I 
 am grateful to God for sustaining me in my later years to see the 
 erection of this beautiful church, and I rejoice that the bishop and 
 supreme pastor of our souls has come and dedicated this new Im- 
 maculate Conception Church of Mary in this our golden jubilee 
 year." The ceremonies were the crowning achievement of years of 
 patient toil and loving, devoted service given by him and the fine 
 new church to many will be considered a symbol of this man's 
 love for his Lord and a monument to him whose life has been so in- 
 timately and forcefully a part in the events which made the his- 
 toric day possible. 
 
 Father O'Brien was born in Washington, D. C. on Oct. 18, 1872. 
 His parents moved to Baltimore and then to Fayetteville, Ark. 
 They moved to New Bern in 1888 and young O'Brien entered Bel- 
 mont College. The next year he was ordained into the priesthood. 
 
 The address made at the Pontifical High Mass, by the writer, 
 seemed to be well received from the many congratulations made to 
 me. A letter received from Dr. Alexander Hunter, who died about 
 two years ago, touched me deeply. 
 
102 The Memoirs of 
 
 Dr. Alex S. Hunter 
 
 DENTIST 
 
 Durham, N. C. 
 May 24, 1957 
 
 Monseigneur W. F. O'Brien 
 810 W. Chapel Hill Street 
 Durham, N. C. 
 
 Dear Sir: 
 
 Last Monday May 21, my friend Dr. Norman Cordice 
 phoned me extending an invitation to attend with him the 
 dedicatory services of the new Church that evening. 
 
 We attended, and I want to extend to you my deepest 
 appreciation and most sincere thanks for the long lasting 
 impression and deep spiritual uplift afforded me on the 
 occasion. 
 
 When I say that we have been a practitioner (dental) 
 here since 1909, makes me quite qualified to know of the 
 wonderful contribution you have made to the City in making 
 this a better place in which to live. 
 
 Such a constructive and spiritual contribution has not 
 been, and could not be confined to your particular faith or 
 church, no, for your contribution occasioned by Divine 
 Inspiration, and an abiding faith has been a blessing to all 
 mankind. 
 
 It must have been a highlight in your life to have lived 
 to see the wonderful growth of the work here, and the sin- 
 cerity of the theme of your presentation expressed a most 
 sincere thankfulness for having been spared by Providence 
 to take part in the services. 
 
 Again thanking you, and with prayers that God may con- 
 tinue to keep and bless you. 
 
 Yours very truly, 
 
 A. S. Hunter 
 
William Francis O'Brien 103 
 
 I am glad to close my memoirs with my address made during 
 the memorable Solemn High Mass celebrated by Most Reverend 
 Bishop Waters, D.D., our bishop of the diocese of Raleigh. 
 
 "I have loved, O Lord, the beauty of Thy House, and the place 
 where Thy Glory dwelleth." (Ps. 25 — Verse 8) 
 
 The holy Prophet and King, David, cried out, as a penitent, in 
 his distress, that he might come to worship God in His Tabernacle, 
 as if he had seen, in prophetic vision, the beauty of God's House 
 and the place where His Glory dwelleth, in the Church which he 
 founded in the New Law, of which we are members, and which 
 will last to the end of time. In chapter 7, verse 12, of the Second 
 Book of Kings, it is recorded that God made it known to David 
 that when his days would be fulfilled and he should sleep with his 
 fathers, He would raise up from the seed of David, one after him, 
 and that He would establish His kingdom. He shall build a House 
 to my name, and I will establish the throne of his kingdom for- 
 ever. 
 
 This prophesy partly relates to Solomon but much more to 
 Jesus Christ, who is called the Son of David in scripture, and who 
 is the Builder ot the true temple, which is the Church, His ever- 
 lasting kingdom, which shall never fail. 
 
 A number of self-appointed religious leaders of this day, speak 
 in vague terms, to religious groups, of the kingdom of God to 
 come on this earth some day, but if there is one true fact that is 
 clearly certain and has been known to be certain, it is that the 
 Kingdom of God is on earth now and has been for the last nearly 
 two thousand years. Speaking to the Jews, even to the Pharisees, 
 and especially to His Apostles, Jesus Christ, Our Lord, often spoke 
 of His kingdom. The Kingdom that Jesus Christ spoke of, was not 
 the Kingdom of Heaven, where the saints of God see Him face to 
 face; He was speaking of His Kingdom of Heaven on earth; He 
 was speaking of His Church on earth. This was clearly implied 
 and understood when He said: "The Kingdom of Heaven is like 
 a net which a man casts into the sea, and in which he takes up 
 everything, good and bad." It is clear then, the kingdom of heaven 
 which Jesus was speaking of was not the kingdom of heaven above, 
 for there is nothing bad there, but only good. He was speaking of 
 His Church on earth, in which there are both good and bad chil- 
 dren; children whom she encourages to be good; children whom 
 she makes sacrifices for; children over whom she weeps, seeking 
 their conversion and their living with God. 
 
 We read in the scriptures (III Kings VIII) that Solomon built 
 a magnificent temple for the Lord, the dedication of which he 
 solemnized for two weeks; that this feast was annually observed by 
 
104 The Memoirs of 
 
 the Jews, and attended by Jesus Christ, Himself, in Jerusalem. 
 (John X- — 22). The early Christians, in like manner, dedicated 
 their Churches, and solemnly commemorated their dedication every 
 year. St. Jerome makes mention of the consecration of the first 
 Church of Rome built by St. Peter. In the very earliest days of 
 Christianity, on account of persecution, the churches were not 
 solemnly dedicated; but as soon as the persecutions came to an end 
 under the Emperor Constantine, who embraced Christianity about 
 the year A.D. 312, the bishops of the Church caused the dedication 
 of churches to be solemnized with the most imposing ceremonies. 
 
 Our Holy Mother, the Church, has selected the Epistle to be 
 read in the Mass on the feasts of dedication of churches. This 
 Epistle, which describes the vision and heavenly inspiration of St. 
 John in the Apocalypse (Apoc. XXI, verses 2-5) was read in the 
 Mass today. The Apostle, St. John, writes: "And I, John, saw the 
 holy city, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, 
 prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. And I heard a great 
 voice from the throne, saying: 'Behold the tabernacle of God with 
 men: and He will dwell with them. And they shall be His people: 
 and God Himself with them shall be their God'." Here is a picture 
 of Jesus Christ coming down out of heaven, in heavenly glory, and 
 with the fullest joy of a bride, in the brightness of sanctifying grace, 
 to take possession of His kingdom on earth, the Church which he 
 founded; and to be with His people in a special manner, and in 
 reality, in the Most Excellent Sacrament of the Holy Eucharist; to 
 be with the congregation as their God, and the members of the 
 congregation might be with Jesus Christ as their God. After the 
 Bishops and Pastors of our souls dedicate our Churches, the 
 churches, to their believing and fervent members, become like re- 
 freshing oases; to their hearts, minds and souls, in the deserts of 
 this world, they become veritable paradises. In the opening words 
 of the Mass today, the Church uses the words of the Patriarch 
 Jacob: "Terrible is this place: it is the House of God and Gate 
 of Heaven, and shall be called the Court of God." (Gen. XXVIII-17) 
 "How lovely are Thy tabernacles, O Lord of Hosts! My soul 
 longeth and fainteth for the courts of the Lord." (Ps. LXXXIII, 
 2 verse) 
 
 When Jesus Christ was about to form His kingdom or His 
 church on earth, He said to His disciples: "Whom do men say that 
 the Son of Man is?" And they replied: "Some, John the Baptist; 
 some, Elias; and others, Jeremias, or one of the Prophets." Jesus 
 saith to them: "But whom do you say that I am?" Simon answered 
 and said: "Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God." And 
 Jesus answering, said to him: "Blessed art thou, Simon Bar-Jona, 
 
William Francis O'Brien 105 
 
 because flesh and blood hath not revealed it unto thee but My 
 Father, Who is in heaven. And I say to thee, Thou art Peter, and 
 upon this rock I will build My Church, and the gates of hell shall 
 not prevail against it. And I will give to thee, the keys ot the 
 kingdom of heaven; and whatsoever thou shalt bind on earth, it 
 shall be bound in heaven, and whatsoever thou shalt loose on earth, 
 it shall be loosed in heaven." (St. Matthew, chapter 13, verse 19) 
 
 The House of God of which the patriarch, Jacob, speaks, the 
 kingdom of God of which St. John speaks, and the Church which 
 Jesus Christ founded upon the believing Peter, are identical. 
 
 Peter was told by our Lord to confirm his brethren. He was 
 commissioned to feed both lambs and sheep of His sheepfold of the 
 Church. He presided in the election of Matthias in the place of 
 Judas. After there had been much discussion at the first Council of 
 Jerusalem, in the year A.D. 57, Peter rose up with authority, as the 
 representative of Jesus Christ, and all held their peace. The name 
 of Peter leads the list of all the Apostles, as told by the Evangelists; 
 and also, his name leads the list of the other apostles in the Acts of 
 the Apostles, written by St. Luke. The councils of the Church and 
 the early apologetical writers attest to this. The Council of Ephesus, 
 held in A.D. 431, considered his leadership as "questioned by no 
 one." 
 
 In the annals of history, since Jesus Christ founded His Church 
 and the last of the apostles died, where in the nations, where in the 
 provinces, where in the people that have received Christianity, can 
 divinely appointed authority be found, except in the Popes, the 
 lawful successors of St. Peter? Who sent St. Patrick into Ireland 
 in the year A.D. 432? The holy Pope, St. Celestine. Who sent St. 
 Augustine into England in the year A.D. 595? Pope St. Gregory the 
 Great. Who sent St. Boniface into Germany in the year A.D. 722? 
 Pope Gregory the Second. Who sent St. Cyril and St. Methodius 
 among the Slavonian nations in the year 868? Pope St. John the 
 Eighth. "No one can convert unless he has his mission and diploma 
 from Rome." (St. Paul, chapter 10, verse 15) "No man can preach 
 except he has been sent", and the one to send is the visible represent- 
 ative of Jesus Christ and the lawful successor of St. Peter, our Holy 
 Father the Pope. All the Bishops of the universal, Catholic world, 
 of 470 millions of Catholics of the various dioceses of all the nations 
 of the world, have been chosen to be consecrated as bishops and have 
 received their right of extensive jurisdiction from the Pope. 
 
 If the Catholic Church was taken out of the world, society would 
 be in a chaotic state, as there would be no power in the world to 
 bring order, inspiration and stability into society. All other religious 
 
106 The Memoirs of 
 
 bodies are divided, and without the God-appointed and supreme 
 spiritual head so necessary to guide mankind in the way of peace 
 and tranquility as citizens of two worlds — the temporal sovereign 
 state, and the kingdom of God above, our true country, our eternal 
 home. Many religious leaders in the multiple religious bodies do 
 not believe in the divinity of Christ, and they even permit divorced 
 persons in their membership. The Catholic Church is the champion 
 in the Christian world in teaching and upholding the doctrine of 
 the divinity of Christ. Anyone who denies the divinity of Jesus 
 Christ is cut off from the Church. Divorce, basically, is the real 
 cause of juvenile delinquency. Juvenile delinquency has gone 
 beyond the control of civic, ethical and welfare societies in the State. 
 The danger to the State is not the Church, rather, the danger to 
 the continued existence of the State, would be the loss of the Church. 
 
 In 1820 there were about a million people in the States of North 
 Carolina, South Carolina and Georgia. In all the territory of 129,000 
 square miles of these three States, there were only 1,000 Catholics; 
 and North Carolina had fewer Catholics than South Carolina and 
 Georgia together. Bishop England was appointed the first bishop 
 of these three States and resided at Charleston, South Carolina. In 
 1820, he had only two priests to assist him in his apostolic labors 
 and in the jurisdiction of this extensive territory. In 1868, North 
 Carolina was established as a Vicariate, with separate jurisdiction 
 from Charleston; and Bishop Gibbons was the first Vicar-Apostolic 
 and bishop of North Carolina. There were 700 Catholics in the State 
 in 1868, and Bishop Gibbons had only two priests to assist him. 
 Bishop Gibbons was made Archbishop of Baltimore in 1877, and 
 Cardinal Archbishop of Baltimore in 1886. I was confirmed by him 
 in Baltimore before he became Cardinal. In 1888, when I came to 
 North Carolina as a boy fifteen years of age, there were 2500 
 Catholics in the State. In 1898 when I was ordained a priest, there 
 were 3800 Catholics in the entire State. There were only five 
 Secular priests laboring in the State in 1898, and I became the 
 sixth Priest. North Carolina was made a diocese in 1924. At the 
 present time there are about one hundred Secular priests and about 
 sixty-five priests of the Religious Orders and Communities working 
 in the State, with fifty Seminarians preparing to be priests in North 
 Carolina. The number of Catholics is now approaching the figure 
 of forty thousand (40,000) . The future is very bright and very 
 promising for the increasing growth of Catholicity in North Car- 
 olina. 
 
 Since I knew all the priests who came here every six months 
 in the 1870-80's, as w r ell as all the early Catholics, it is a simple 
 matter for me to recall the history of the Church in this city. As 
 
William Francis O'Brien 107 
 
 the old church, recently demolished, was dedicated in 1900 — fifty 
 years ago — this is our Golden Jubilee year, and is for ns a crowning 
 and double Feast Day. In 1910, when I was collecting funds in 
 Washington and Baltimore for the Church here, Cardinal Gibbons 
 said to me that Durham had not been on the map as having any 
 Catholics, when he had labored in North Carolina between the 
 years of 1808 and 1872. He remembered well having preached and 
 administered the sacrament of Confirmation in Raleigh and 
 Greensboro during those years. The Church in Durham is much 
 younger than the Churches in Raleigh or Greensboro or many 
 other places in the State. The first Catholic came to Durham in 
 1871. I met her in 1907 when I was appointed the first resident 
 priest of Durham. I said Mass here as early as 1899, in the resi- 
 dence of William T. O'Brien on Wilkerson Avenue, about seven 
 years before the construction of the frame church which was torn 
 down only last month. Some Catholics from Lockhaven, Pennsyl- 
 vania, made an effort to colonize a tract of land, five miles west of 
 Hillsboro, in 1870. This colony was abandoned and a few of these 
 Catholics moved to Durham. William T. O'Brien had moved here 
 from Lynchburg, Virginia, in 1883, and it was he who built the 
 frame church that stood for fifty years, but that finally proved far 
 too small to accommodate the increasing number of converts and 
 Catholics locating in the city. 
 
 I am grateful to God for sustaining me in my later years to 
 see the erection of this beautiful church, and I rejoice that the 
 Bishop and Supreme Pastor of our souls has come and dedicated 
 this new immaculate Conception Church of Mary, in this our 
 Golden Jubilee year. It is to the everlasting credit of Father 
 Charles O'Connor, your Pastor, and of you, the members of this 
 Immaculate Conception parish of Durham, who have cooperated 
 with him in your generosity of spirit, that the construction of this 
 beautiful church was made possible — a Church which will be so 
 satisfying and devotional to you, and which is also a contribution 
 by you, as citizens, to the civic beauty of your city. Congratula- 
 tions are also due to Mr. Latimer, the architect, for designing this 
 beautiful edifice; and to Mr. George Kane, the contractor, and his 
 able assistants, for the splendid workmanship and finish of this 
 church building, which has now become to us a "House of God 
 and Gate of Heaven." 
 
 In conclusion, let me say, there is one more occasion which I 
 should like to see, God willing, and which with the Bishop's con- 
 sent, I should like to add to the sweet memories of my past Priest- 
 hood. That occasion is the consecration of this magnificent church, 
 dedicated to Mary. Before a church may be consecrated, it must 
 
108 The Memoirs of 
 
 be free of debt. In our struggles here in the past, we had the 
 edification to know that our benefactor, Mr. William T. O'Brien, 
 built and paid for the old first church where the Holy Sacrifice 
 was offered up for fifty years, before he would think of building 
 a house for himself and his family. This is the tradtiion that you, 
 dearly beloved members of this Parish, have inherited from the 
 past. True to this noble tradition, we will be zealous to resolve 
 to offer up, as a gift, this House of God and Gate of Heaven, to 
 Mary and her Son, free from all encumbrances. Then we can say 
 devoutly, both as a united congregation and individually, with our 
 whole souls, minds and hearts: "I have loved, O Lord, the beauty 
 of Thy house and place where Thy glory dwelleth." 
 
 In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy 
 Ghost, Amen.