Atlanta Catholic Centennial

This article followed the last installment of the above series in the March 1938 edition of Saint Anthony's Parish News. It indicates the historical importance of this work, and the great debt that the Catholic Community of Atlanta owes to the memory of T. J. O'Keefe.

WANTED HELP

Are You Interested in the Catholic Church?

1937 was the centennial of the founding of the city in which we live --Atlanta. True, it was not always called Atlanta, but that does not matter. The great majority of those who read this are Catholic citizens of Atlanta. Atlanta is your home and you should be proud of your city. Catholics from the very beginning of this city have done their part to make Atlanta the metropolitan city that it is, therefore you should also be proud of the work of your Church in this city.

Last July we started an article entitled “Our City's Centennial,” which has been continued from month to month, and which is still being published. We have received more favorable comments on this article than any article that has been published in St. Anthony's Parish News. This article contains valuable information on the progress of your Church in Atlanta.

In assembling the data for this article we consulted a number of histories of this city and we were very much surprised at finding very little information on the work that Catholics and the Catholic Church have done in building this city. Take, for instance, the subject of early Catholic Schools. We read of only one Catholic School being mentioned before 1870 and that in about one line: “A Convent School for girls is kept by the Sisters of Mercy.” In these articles we have mentioned six conducted previous to 1870. Others ignore the existence of a Catholic Church prior to 1851 at which date a resident pastor was stationed here. Yet we know that a Catholic Church had been built and dedicated before April, 1849.

In several histories it is stated there were not over half a dozen families here in 1842. We have the word of Mrs. Willis Carlisle (in contempt, it is true) that there were Catholic (Irish) families living here when she and her husband first located in this city in June, 1842. We know that Catholic missionaries passed through here in the early forties. The writer's grandfather, a Catholic, settled in Cass County, Georgia, in 1840. Father Barry visited the Catholics in that county. He was pastor of Holy Trinity Church in Augusta, Georgia, and was Vicar General of Georgia from 1839 and for the entire Diocese of Charleston from 1844 until the erection of the See of Savannah in July, 1850. In traveling from Augusta to Cass County and other sections of northwest Georgia he must have passed through Terminus at its very beginning.

That the work Catholics have done in the building of this city has not appeared in histories of this city as it should, may be partly the fault of the Catholics themselves. It has been a very difficult job to secure the little information that we have published in these columns. However, we wish to hearily thank those who have assisted us in securing the valuable data so far obtained.

And now to that “Wanted Help” that starts this column. There are plenty of people in this city who possess valuable and interesting information, pictures of historical value, etc., on facts pertaining to the Catholic History of Atlanta, or, who have friends from whom they could secure this data. We are anxious to secure information, dates, pictures, etc., that may inform our friends and our constantly increasing Catholic population of what Catholics and the Catholic Church has done in the developing of our city. You can help by giving or lending us information, pictures or data that you possess, or by lending your assistance in securing this information from relatives, friends, and acquaintances who possess interesting or valuable data.

If you want to help, get in touch with some member of the staff or call T. J. O'Keefe at Raymond-0425.