St. Patrick's Church
1877 - 2005
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For over 100 years, the white, wood-framed church in the country has stood.
Its slate-colored steeple, 160-feet high, is visible for miles. The huge bell in the old belfry can be heard for miles. Like anything over 100 years old, history abounds. Tradition, tales and memories ooze out of the stain-glassed windows, the heavy wooden front doors, and the land on which the old structure rests. If the church could speak and reflect on its centennial life it probably would say, "I never thought I'd make it this far."
It would have reason to feel that way. The present St. Patrick's rose 100 years ago out of the ashes of another magnificent structure that was a carbon copy of the church today. In fact, this is the fourth St. Patrick's to stand in Parnell. The first quickly was outgrown by a growing community of Irish settlers, the second and third burned to the ground.
The real story of St. Patrick's begins in December 1844.
On December 7 of that year, the first Irishmen of the community appointed a committee composed of Richard Giles, William Byrne, Michael Farrell and Dennis McCarthy to raise money for a church. The early settlers responded generously. Like the names on the church committee, names of the subscribers are familiar names in today's parish: McCormick, Howard, Mooney, Murphy and Doyle.
On March 4, 1845, the first St. Patrick's was dedicated, making it the second oldest Catholic Church in the Grand Rapids area. That little first church stood in about the middle of what is now the old part of St. Patrick's Cemetery. Richard Giles donated four acres of ground for the church. By 1859, it was apparent that the building was not large enough to accommodate those early settlers, whose ranks had been swollen by more Irishmen from New York and Canada.
A second St. Patrick's was built on a site just to the west of the present church, facing the present Five Mile Road. A church committee consisting of James Byrne, Dennis McCarthy, James Hefferan and Rev. Henry Rievers saw to the fund raising. By the summer of 1860, a new St. Patrick's was nearly ready to serve the Irish of the townships of Grattan, Cannon and Vergennes. But, a dispute between Father Rievers and contractor Patrick Brady of Grand Rapids, probably over money, resulted in the church not being completed for three years. The contested matter eventually wound up in court with Brady losing. But the new church wasnÕt to last much longer. In 1869, during construction of an addition to the church, fire broke out and destroyed the entire structure.
Parishioners gathered almost immediately in the old small church, which was being used as a district school, and decided to build another St. Patrick's. A makeshift barn was used for services while a new structure, bigger and better than any before it was built. The new building was 136 feet long, 50 feet wide, with a belfry and spire stretching 160 feet in the air. John Sullivan donated Land for the structure, completed in 1871. The committee that saw to its construction consisted of John Flanagan, Terrence McGee, Timothy Scally and Patrick Fingleton.
This church, too, was to have a short and tragic life. It also stood during one of the darkest times of the parish, when pastor was pitted against parishioner. The pastor was Rev. Bernard Quinn, who according to stories handed down through the generations was an emotionally disturbed man, leveled a "curse" on some of his adversaries. This allegedly took place after the September 22, 1876 fire that totally destroyed the third St. Patrick's. Father Quinn also had left the insurance premium unpaid on the building. The priest fled the parish and parishioners were unable to claim insurance on the burned-down structure. Adversity, however, is something the early Irish Catholics had lived with both in Ireland and in making their way to West Michigan.
A new committee of Dennis Driscoll, Dennis McCarthy, Patrick Abraham and James Jones was formed to begin making plans for yet another church. A second committee also was formed to aid in the construction drive. They were William Farrell, James Gahan, and Dennis McCarthy. Thus, the fourth St. Patrick's, the one that stands today, was built in 1877 and ready for use by 1878. Completion of the new church also brought stability to the parish and a return of good feeling between pastor and parishioners. A succession of priests from Rev. A.S. Leitner in 1877 to Rev. John Troy in 1909 presided over a prospering parish.
During the pastorate of Rev. James Crumley, the Irish settlement was given its name "Parnell" in 1889. Father Crumley chose the name in honor of the great Irish patriot Charles Stuart Parnell, who had worked so hard to win civil rights for Catholics in Ireland. The name was given because the community finally had been given a post office (in the general store owned by Patrick Bresnahan) and it had to have a name. It was at the insistence of Father Crumley, that a post office was established in Parnell.
In 1892, Fr. Crumley opened the first St. Patrick's School. The Sisters of Mercy, who still teach at Parnell, were the first to staff the small country school, which was built on land donated by John Sullivan. Rev. James Byrne, who succeeded Father Crumley, built a new school in 1905 on the site now occupied by the present St. Patrick's School. The brick, two story structure also had living quarters for the nuns.
At the turn of the century, St. Patrick's was a parish of 140 families with 85 students in the school. Father Byrne died in 1909 and parishioners erected a giant Celtic cross on his grave, which is located on the west side of the cemetery along Parnell Avenue. During the pastorate of Father Troy, the present fieldstone rectory was built in 1912. Church, rectory and school stayed nearly the same until Rev. Gordon Grant added the convent addition in 1948 and the church hall about the same time.
One phase of Catholic education in the community came to an end in 1964 when St. Patrick's High School was closed. Difficulties maintaining and staffing such a small high school made the closing inevitable. Concentrating on Catholic education for grade school age children, the parish under the pastorate of Rev. Edmund J. Farrell, constructed a modern new school that opened in 1965. Father Farrell is a descendant of Michael Farrell, on of Parnell's first settlers.
Under the guidance of Rev. Kenneth Schichtel, St. Patrick's underwent a major facelift, inside and out. Father Earnest Bernott replaced Father Schichtel in 1978.
Since that time, the following items have become part of the history of the parish under the pastorates of Fr. Julian Reginato and Fr. Wayne Wheeler.
1. Expansion of the school, by the addition of an extra classroom and teacher.
2. Blacktopping of all parish property, except the church parking lot.
3. Extensive repair of the church tower.
4. New playground equipment.
In the meantime, there has been an expansion of our church community,
so much so, that the present enrollment of the school stands around
200, the CCD program and we have some approximately 900 registered
families. This growth necessitated the expansion of our parish facilities.
In 2000, under the guidance of Fr. Ron Hutchinson, the parish built
a Parish Center which houses meeting rooms, a nursery, a gym, a
multi-purpose room(s), and a kitchen. The following year, the school
facilities underwent an extensive renovation that gave the school
a much-needed facelift and turned the former school cafeteria into
useable classroom space.
Those early settlers, most of whom are buried across the street in St. Patrick's Cemetery, would feel proud if they could come back and view the church today. They would feel proud not only because St. Patrick's stands as noble and proud as it did in 1877, but because their children and childrenÕs children, as well as newcomers, carried on the tradition of keeping St. Patrick's the center of the community.
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