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After he had returned to the pastoral residence, he was called upon by a committee of the Trustees of the church, the spokesman of which delivered an ultimatum as follows:
"That was a fine sermon you preached today, but as we wish to live in peace with our Protestant neighbors we come to tell you that you must not preach any more such sermons in our church."
Springing to his feet and seizing a poker, Lemke thundered : "You blacksmiths, you carpenters, you tailors! How dare you come here and tell me how to preach! Get out of here." They got out.
On the following day Lemke related this occurrence to Bishop Kenrick and asked to be relieved of this charge. His request was granted, and he was given permission to engage in missionary work in other parts of the diocese; when taking his course to the Allegheny Mountains, ministering to scattered Catholics on the way, his objective point being Loretto to meet Father Gallitzin, he reached Munster in the month of September, 1834. His meeting with the Apostle of the Alleghenies he describes thus:
"I arrived at last in safety at Munster, a little village laid out by Irish people on a table land of the Allegheny Mountains, only four miles from Gallitzin's residence. The stage stopped at the house of Peter Collins, a genuine Irishman, who kept the postoffice and hotel. The next morning,
for it was evening when I arrived, and they would not on any account let me go on, a horse was saddled for me, and Thomas, one of the numerous Collins children, now a man of influence and reputation, stood ready with a stick in his hand to show me the way, and to bring back the horse. We had gone about a mile or two in the woods when I saw a sled coming along drawn by two strong horses. N. B. - In September, in the most beautiful summer weather.
"In the sled half sat and half reclined a venerable looking man, in an old, much worn overcoat, wearing a peasant's hat which no one, it is likely, would have cared to pick up in the street, and carrying a book in his hand. Seeing him brought along in this way, I thought there must have been an accident; that perhaps the old gentleman had dislocated a limb in the woods, but Thomas, who had been on ahead, came running back and said: `There comes the priest,' pointing to the man in the sled. I rode up and asked: 'Are you really the pastor at Loretto?' `Yes, I am
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