Delanson marks golden jubilee

In rural Schenectady County, where cross burnings occurred during the 1920s to protest Catholic influence, a small mission church flourished and eventually became an independent parish.

On May 4, the members of Our Lady of Fatima in Delanson celebrated their 50th anniversary as a parish during a Mass celebrated by Bishop Howard J. Hubbard with Rev. David Mickiewicz, pastor.

In 1872, the parish began as a mission of St. Vincent de Paul parish in Cobleskill. Rev. John Brosman traveled by train to celebrate Mass for Catholics in the tiny village, which was named after the Delaware and Hudson Railroad. It had set up a depot in the rural farming village and still cuts directly through town.

In 1933, the mission was transferred to Ss. Peter and Paul parish in Canajoharie.

The late Kitty Haag, one of the original parishioners and the newly established parish's Sunday school teacher in the 1950s, recalled in a parish history that crosses were burned in the Twenties to protest Catholics living in the area.

Ron Neadle remembers early Masses being celebrated at the firemen's hall. "It was about a hundred feet away from the railroad tracks," he said. "Every time a train came through, Father had to stop the Mass. There was so much noise we couldn't hear anything but the train."

Noreen Mickel recalls that rocking chairs were used not only for pews. "Several of the elderly gentlemen would bring the Sunday papers, sit in the rocking chairs and read before Mass began," she said. "It was good to be able to use the firemen's hall because it had a furnace."

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