Parish histories published

Two parishes have recently published their histories in book form, but the authors never started out to write such sizable volumes.

For example, David Dinneen, who prepared the history of St. Mary's parish in Little Falls (now part of Holy Family parish), began with the idea of putting together a little booklet. At St. Brigid's Church in Watervliet, a committee of four hoped to find just enough information for a tri-fold pamphlet about the 150 years of the parish.

What happened in both cases is that basic research soon evolved into something more complex.

More than you know

At St. Brigid's, the committee looking into the parish history was headed by Margaret London, a retired professor of political science at St. John's University in New York.

"We began with just a couple of boxes we found in the church basement," she told The Evangelist. "What we found were lots of photos and some information from what we thought was the parish's 100th anniversary."

But as they began to dig, they found some revealing information, including "the fact that our parish school was older than we had originally thought. It was a monumental discovery."

The news indicated that St. Brigid's parish school might be the oldest continually operating school in the Albany Diocese.

About time

Mr. Dinneen, a retired school administrator, has spent his entire life in Little Falls and nearby Hamilton, which lies in the Syracuse Diocese.

He always had an interest in local history and had begun to research the parish's history as far back as 1979. But his desire to explore the complete history didn't take off until he retired.

"I discovered that the community histories of both Little Falls and Hamilton kept intersecting," he said. "I did actually begin a history [on St. Mary's] but wasn't very happy with it. It was obvious to me from the beginning that I had to do a lot more research than I was able to at that time. [Once I retired], I really started to work on it."

Discovery

Mr. Dinneen had experience in research from the 1960s when he looked into his family tree. He looked into several generations, including priests who had served at St. Mary's.

At a local hotel, he found more than "50 ledgers filled with articles and photographs of local events and personalities. Someone had painstakingly clipped them from newspapers over the years and saved them by gluing them into the ledgers. It was an amazing discovery."

Mr. Dinneen's book includes many fascinating details, including the story of an 1861 visit to Little Falls by then president-elect Abraham Lincoln. The train taking him from his home in Springfield, Ill., to Washington, D.C., stopped in Little Falls, and he made a brief speech. In 1865, his body returned when his funeral train stopped en route to Springfield for his burial.

(Mr. Dinneen has donated 300 of his books to the Little Falls Historical Society. Call 315-823-3151, and ask for Terese Kelly. More information about the St. Brigid's book appeared in The Evangelist in April. Read the article at www.evangelist.org by searching for Margaret London's name. To find out about the book, call 273-2913.)

(8/14/03) [[In-content Ad]]