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History of St. Augustine

22 History of Parish of St. Augustine, St. Augustine, Pa.

 

monetary consideration, but a stipulation in the deeds of conveyance was that the purchaser should build on the lot within two years, under penalty of the forfeiture of the title thereto a two story log house not less in dimensions than 20x24 feet, well chunked and daubed, with two rooms downstairs and two rooms upstairs, with a chimney with a fireplace in one end of the house. Father Gallitzin was anxious for the comfort of the family and seggregation of the sexes.

Father Gallitzin Becomes a Land Agent.

     In order that he might assist those who wished to settle in his colony, and not for profit, for according to the author of "Reminiscences of Doctor Gallitzin," supposed to have been Samuel Riddle, Esq., an able attorney of Huntingdon, he bought land for $4.00 per acre and sold it to settlers for $1.00 per acre, he, after the 400 acres of land bequeathed to the church by Capt. Michael McGuire, had been settled, became by virtue of a power of attorney from Henry Drinker and Jacob Downing, dated July 8, 1806, to Demetrius Augustine Smith, agent for the sale of 9,311 acres, 39 perches of land, known as "land of the Drinker heirs" in the townships of Allegheny and Cambria.

The Vast Extent of Father Gallitzin's Missions.

     From east to west Father Gallitzin's missions extended from Huntingdon to Greensburg, and from north to south the lines are not known, probably as far north in Pennsylvania as Catholics were to be found, and as far south in Cambria county as the bounds of the county extend. From the early thirties of the eighteenth century he frequently said Mass and administered the Sacraments at outlying stations - at Johnstown, in James Young's barn near Jefferson (Now Wilmore) and often under an apple tree in his orchard in summer time when the number of Irish laborers engaged in construction of the Allegheny Portage Railroad became too numerous for the barn to hold; in the house of Joshua Parrish, near the head of the Wilmore dam; in Ebensburg; at Hart's Sleeping Place and in other places.

     The name Cambria is the Latin name of ancient Wales the division of syllables being between r and i; for illustration: Cambr-ia. It is remarkable to what extent that syllable ia is used, as in Hibern-ia, meaning western land;


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