Readers unearth Diocese's history

Several months ago, The Evangelist asked readers to send in historical photographs that might be of interest to fellow Catholics in the Albany Diocese.

The Evangelist said it would archive the material or send it back after digitally copying it.

Readers responded with photos and other memorabilia -- and memories to go with the treasures:

* A World War II buff, Frank LeGere calls himself "historically minded," but it took him quite a bit of research last year to come up with a photo of Rev. John Ready, the first pastor of Immaculate Conception parish in Schenectady, for its 100th anniversary booklet.

The only information Mr. LeGere had was that Father Ready had been a pastor in Little Falls. Mr. LeGere called a former editor of a newspaper in the Little Falls area, who sent along a history of the area that mentioned Father Ready's going to Montana because of poor health.

Next, Mr. LeGere called the Diocese of Helena, Montana, where an archivist found documentation that the priest's health had improved in his time out West, so he had enlisted as a chaplain in World War I. He then came back to the Albany Diocese, serving at St. Peter's parish in Canajoharie.

Mr. LeGere's research had come full circle. He contacted Rev. Charles Gaffigan, current pastor of St. Peter's, who happened to have two photos of Father Ready. The anniversary booklet for Immaculate Conception could now be completed.

* Jean Nyfeler was just 16 when she went on a junior-senior bus trip with her class from St. Joseph's Academy in Albany in 1949. Two priests assigned to the parish accompanied the group to Caroga Lake, where she took photos of them in front of a restaurant: Revs. Arnold English and Edward Hogan.

"Father Hogan was the pastor," recalled Mrs. Nyfeler, now a parishioner of St. James Church in Chatham.

* Rev. J. Barry Lonergan, a retired priest of the Albany Diocese, loves to figure out mysteries. His latest effort was tracking down what may be the oldest baptismal font in the Diocese's "North Country" area. It's located at Blessed Sacrament Church in Hague.

In May, Father Lonergan read an article detailing the history of the parish. Included was a specific account of each company involved in working on the circa-1924 church. One paragraph mentioned that then-Bishop Edmund Gibbons of the Albany Diocese purchased a baptismal font from Rev. James O'Brien of Hudson Falls to donate to the new church.

Father Lonergan found that item intriguing and believed that the font was actually the original one from St. Mary's parish in Sandy Hill (the town later renamed Hudson Falls).

The priest, once pastor of St. Mary's himself, visited Blessed Sacrament and found the font in storage under a stairwell. The current pastor, Rev. George Fleming, did not even know of its existence.

Father Lonergan can't prove the font's provenance, but he noted that "the style is right for the period -- the 1830s or 1840s. It just made sense to me."

* Reader Ernest Blanchet of Troy sent in a receipt for the rental of a pew at St. Michael's Church in Troy in 1898.

Mr. Blanchet found the receipt in a religious book left in the home of Rev. Michael Halpin, a priest of the Albany Diocese.

Mr. Blanchet bought the house for $600 when he came home from serving in World War II.

"I was lucky in this old religious house," remarked Mr. Blanchet, who lived there for 26 years with his wife and children. A sign of his luck was that one of his sons was born in the home and weighed just three pounds; he survived.

As for the receipt, pew rental was common in the Church's earlier days, but the $4-per-quarter cost seemed a bit steep to Mr. Blanchet.

"Sixteen dollars a year, in the 1800s, was a lot of money," he declared.

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