Early Years
The first recorded burial in what is now Saint Joseph Cemetery was that of Bartholomeu Quinn, who died July 2, 1848. Father William McDonald, Manchester’s first permanently assigned Catholic priest, acquired land on a hillside overlooking the city’s West Side, more than two miles (3 km) from downtown when Mr. Quinn’s death made the establishment of a Catholic cemetery a necessity.
For more than twenty years, Father McDonald administered the cemetery from his rectory office at Saint Anne’s Church. The only known references in print, however, refer to it simply as “the Catholic cemetery in ‘Squog.” “‘Squog” is the nickname given to a broad expanse of land on the banks of the Piscataquog River near its confluence with the Merrimack River, all on Manchester’s West Side.
By 1869, the Catholic population had grown too large for just one parish. Bishop James Augustine Healy of Portland, Maine, to whose diocese Manchester still belonged, sent Father John O’Brien to assist Father McDonald by establishing a new parish, this one dedicated to Saint Joseph. Father O’Brien was succeeded by Father Denis Mary Bradley, who would go on to become New Hampshire’s first Catholic bishop. Under his pastorate, control of the cemetery was ceded to Saint Joseph parish. The cemetery has borne Saint Joseph’s name ever since.
Read more about this topic: St. Joseph Cemetery (Manchester, New Hampshire)
Famous quotes containing the words early and/or years:
“In the early forties and fifties almost everybody “had about enough to live on,” and young ladies dressed well on a hundred dollars a year. The daughters of the richest man in Boston were dressed with scrupulous plainness, and the wife and mother owned one brocade, which did service for several years. Display was considered vulgar. Now, alas! only Queen Victoria dares to go shabby.”
—M. E. W. Sherwood (1826–1903)
“The knave of a thousand years ago seems a fine old fellow full of spirit and fun, little malice in his soul; whereas, the knave of to-day seems a sour-visaged wight, with nothing to redeem him.”
—Herman Melville (1819–1891)