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| History of Cambria County, V.2 |
| 450 | HISTORY OF CAMBRIA COUNTY. | |
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there are not five doors to be found which can be locked. My host is one of the first magistrates, that is the collector and accountant of public revenues of the entire district, covering a territory of about four hundred square miles, and besides, he carries on the carpenter trade and farming business without an apprentice; for apprentices and maid-servants are unknown here. The squire, also called the district judge, met me yesterday with a load of wood, which he himself had cut down and loaded. When I return from my horse-back trip through the woods I lead my horse into the stable, unsaddled him and give him the attention which he needs; then I hang up my boots and coat; which are covered with several pounds of clay, to the fire, and seat myself before it; while the children climb up on my knee and the house-wife busies herself getting me something to eat. On the following morning the dried coat is rubbed out; the boots and the harness are cleaned, and so on. That I do these things does not strike any one as strange; but on the contrary I would be looked upon as singular if I did not do them. In the place itself there are only a few Catholic families and not one German soul. I can therefore not get a drink of water without asking for it in English, and I am thus compelled to learn what the different things are used for. It is this very necessity which is of the greatest importance to me.” Dr. Flick is of the opinion that Rev. Lemke probably remained in Ebensburg for three years, during which time he and Gallitzin were the only active priests in the county. On July 12, 1835, Lemke assisted the bishop in dedicating the St. John Gualbert church at Johnstown, at which time he was directed to look after the welfare of the Catholics in that community. After leaving Ebensburg, Lemke located at Hart's Sleeping Place, and there erected a church, but finding it was not convenient for his members, on June 22, 1840, he purchased the site and located a new colony at Carrolltown, laying out the streets and lots. He desired to name it for Prince Gallitzin, but the latter declined the honor and insisted that it be called for the first Catholic bishop in the United States. In 1844 he went to Europe and collected sufficient funds to construct a church according to his ideal in the town he had founded. Some difficultties arose when he was transferred to Reading, and while there he translated Gallitzin's pamphlet entitled, “A Defense of Catholic Principles.” On February 2, 1852, he was formally admitted a novitiate in the Benedictine Order. Three years later he went to Kansas to establish a monastery on the prairie, probably at the suggestion of his friend Dr. Aristide Rodrigue, who was then at Lecompton, but owing to the turbulent condi- |
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