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"Under the direction of Captain William Ivory, as chief marshal, assisted by P. Clarke, A. Kelly, J. Collins and others as aides, a long and imposing procession moved along the pike towards Munster. In no part of the United States was Monsignor Bedini greeted with a more cordial welcome than that which he received in this truly Catholic locality. This immense crowd, of all ages and classes, principally from Loretto and Summit congregations, but largely represented by the Loop (St. Augustine), Chest Springs, Carrolltown and other neighboring towns and adjacent county, and swelled into unusual dimensions by a large force of laborers on the railroad, assembled to welcome to their mountain home the distinguished prelate who came to represent the Vicar of Christ. The procession, marching by way of Munster and what is now Kaylor, was met at the upper end of Loretto by a strong body of horsemen from the Loop.
"At Loretto the reception to the Nunzio was as imposing as it was unmistakably Catholic. A large body of the congregation, with music resounding and banners flying, met him on the hill north of town, while about fifty of the Germans, nearly all of neverable age, with Philip Hertzog In the lead, rendered the `Grosser Gott' in magnificent style. The procession divided near the church to allow the Nunzio and his cortege to pass through. The address prepared in the name of the Catholics of Cambria was here delivered by Mr. Thomas Collins, the gentleman who represented the county in the Legislature of the State. Very Rev. Father Heyden preached the sermon. The Loretto demonstration in honor of the representative of the Holy Father was most imposing and is talked of to this day.
"On the following morning the Nunzio visited Ebensburg, and in the afternoon the clergy of the mountain district accompanied him to Jefferson (now Wilmore), where to took the train to Pittsburg. During his entire trip through Cambria County, though it was in the usually rough month of December, the weather was most beautiful."
The year 1852 was the first year in which trains on the railroad ran in the winter months. The Pennsylvania Railroad, which was commenced in 1849, was in that year completed from Columbia to Altoona and from thence by a branch line to Hollidaysburg, and on the Western Division from Pittsburg to the Great Viaduct below South Fork,
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