September 12, 2023 • 22 mins
Diane Watson, Linda Perry and Lori Stevenson joined the podcast from Marion St. Mary Church to talk about the upcoming celebrations of their 125th Anniversary of the Church Dedication.
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Episode Transcript
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(00:00):
Joining me in studio today, Ihave Laurie Stevenson, Diane Watson, and
Linda Perry. They are all fromSaint Mary's Parish getting ready to celebrate the
one hundred and twenty fifth anniversary ofthe church's dedication. Ladies, thank you
guys so much for being on theshow. How are you? We're doing
good. We are fast approaching theevent and we've been doing a lot of
(00:22):
research into some of the history ofthe church and I think that there's been
a lot of people that have addedvalue to it and a couple of the
people that are here today are wantto share some of the history of Saint
Mary's Church well, and that's what'sexciting about it because if you've followed on
Facebook or you follow Saint Mary's Churchon Facebook, you've seen over the summer
(00:47):
a lot of the history of thechurch being unveiled and brought to life again
on Facebook, which has been kindof fun to watch. And I know
you guys have put together a storythat will be published via marian made later
on this month or early into October, but the celebrations are coming up in
the middle of October, so rightoff the bat, we'll let you know
(01:08):
that there will be a public opportunityfor you to have an open house and
tour of Saint Mary's Church. Andit's one hundred and twenty fifth anniversary of
the dedication of the church three tosix on Sunday, October fifteenth, so
mark your calendars there. You canalso check out, like I said,
Saint Mary's Church on Facebook and thatwill give you some ideas as to what's
(01:30):
happening as well. And I knowDiane Linda Perry has done a lot of
work in coming up with the historythat surrounds the church and really it is
one of the most historic buildings inMarion, Ohio. Oh yeah, when
you when you say Mary made,this is truly, truly truly maryan made.
I mean way back when Marian wasfounded by Yebrabaker, the settlers,
(01:56):
there were only a few Catholics,and then by eighteen forty four there were
about one hundred Catholics and that's whenthe mission of Saint Mary's Church was founded.
The first part of the Catholic churchwas circuit writers where they had priests
that were they went around two differentchurches and that's how Saint Mary's Church really
(02:21):
started in Marian. And that wasway back in eighteen forty four. So
Mary made to the Corps right whenMarian was was started. And Linda has
been on a committee for the onehundred and twenty fifth anniversary for a number
of years, and of course herfamily has been a lot of that history,
(02:46):
that is Marian, and so herand a number of other people were
very instrumental in coming up with thattimeline of what we see as the Saint
Mary's Church. So I don't knowif you want to add to that pot.
Well, when the circuit writers camethrough, I mean they had to
(03:07):
celebrate Mass in people's homes, andone of them was Tim Fahey, who
was very prominent. And so thevery very first building we had was the
old Uber building and it was boughtfrom the Methodist and during that time,
that was in the late forties.In eighteen fifty three, mister Fahey opened
(03:31):
his bank and he purchased land fromEbra Baker on North Prospect Street where the
President's School is sitting, and heand nine other gentlemen assigned agreements to build
the church there. And then ineighteen fifty four, the cholera epidemic swept
through Marian and nine of the tendied, leaving Tim Fahy to see this
(03:57):
task through by himself. Well,it took a little longer than to get
the church built, but finally thechurch was built and dedicated in eighteen sixty
two. And as Marion grew,so did the parishioners, and it wasn't
long before they realized they were goingto have to have it at a church,
(04:20):
and so they bought land on NorthMain Street where the President churches,
and they started to work on itin eighteen ninety one, set the cornerstone
in eighteen ninety four, and itwas completed in The first Mass was October
twenty third, eighteen ninety eight.There's a lot of numbers, a lot
(04:47):
of days, a lot of days, that's what I said. That's Linda.
Linda just has that four. It'samazing. So the anniversary of the
original church dedication that would have happenedby Bishop rose Krans was in eighteen sixty
eight. Correct, that's what weare celebrating, or are we we're getting
back to eighteen ninety four, correct, Well, actually eighteen ninety eight,
(05:10):
eighteen ninety eight, the first Masswas celebrated, so we're missing it by
one day. Okay, I gotyou on the twenty second. Okay,
yeah, there'll be one hundred andtwenty five years, but we've there.
But in eighteen ninety four we alsodid a jubilee because celebrating the one hundred
and fiftieth correct anniversary of Catholic hasbeen Marian since eighteen forty four. Yea,
(05:30):
there's a lot of days. Itgoes way back, but then there's
a number of churches that we've hadin that line that lineage, and then
what we are celebrating is the currentchurch, the current Sandstone Church and the
dedication of that. There we gothat wonderful mass all right now, Now,
now we're all on the same pagehere. So October twenty third,
(05:54):
eighteen ninety eight and uh, andthe celebration will be for the Blake on
Sunday, October fifteenth with a churchopen house and tours, and then the
parish itself will be celebrating the daybefore that actual one hundred and twenty fifth.
So some good stuff there. So, Diane, where do we want
to continue to go with? Youknow, I think there's a lot of
(06:17):
things that when Linda talks about thehistory and what she has really dug up
is, you know, like thelist of the priest and we're not going
to go over those should. Iknow that she's had a lot of extensive
research that talk that sort of wentdown the line of all of the priests
that participated in becoming a part ofSaint Mary's Church. And then you know,
(06:43):
when you talk about all of theservices and committees and stuff that we've
had over the years, it's justa wealth of information. And I had
a couple of boards she's done,display boards that will have out our celebration
on October twenty second, which iswhat we are going to celebrate a Mass
(07:05):
on that day and then do alittle bit of a celebration too, but
the public is welcome to come tothe open house. But when Linda's put
together a number of displays that willshow a lot of these things. And
I can't remember all of the differentboards that you did, but I know
the newest one is the on thepriests. Yeah, and it's it's done,
(07:26):
yes, yea. And actually it'sinteresting to note that we've had since
the first pastor, we've had twentysix pastors, and that seems a long
time, over one hundred and fifty, you know, years plus years.
But you have to remember, ifFather Spickerman was here from nineteen twenty eight
to nineteen sixty three, everybody remembersince so he was our longest one in
(07:46):
anybody that's been a Marinae length oftime certainly remembers Father Spickerman. Yes,
but yeah, we have some displayswith artifacts like that was in the time
capsule, and displays of the firstchurch and first school and it's you know,
just a different memorability of the historyof and you had a board that
(08:11):
was you know, we talked aboutthe different churches because you were at the
humor and then you had this littleredstone church and then now we have the
current church and then you know thethe circuit rider priests. That is amazing
that you know, how do youset that up in those days when you
have a couple of people that wantto be able to gather as a communion
(08:35):
of Catholics and then you know havethat that priests come around to the different
congregations small very small congregations at thatpoint. But then one of the other
things that Linda has is in atthe jubilee, we also did a quilt
(08:56):
that sort of covered the history ofSaint Mary's Church, and we will bring
be bringing that out for the celebrationas well, just sort of reliving some
of those moments that are put downon the quilt that talk about Saint Mary's
history. Yeah. So my question, Linda, when you talk about the
(09:18):
the original White Sandstone Church and itwas built to accommodate seven hundred and fifty
at that time in eighteen ninety eightwhen it was dedicated, were there seven
hundred and fifty parishioners at that timeor what was the story at that point
for that capacity. Well, whatI read that on dedication day, ten
(09:39):
thousand people came to that dedication.Wow, they came by train. It's
in a it's one it's one ofone of our directories. And because I
had not remember, you know,hearing that, I don't know exactly the
amount of parishioners we had, butI'm sure there were because they had multiple
(10:00):
priests and they had multiple masses,right, And since that time the church
has changed, evolved, and theseating capacity has changed dramatically. It was
just an interesting thought of you know, whether or not that seven fifty was
looking into the future or where wewere today, that that's kind of where
(10:20):
I was going on that because Ididn't know. I don't know if it
was or not. That's interesting.I'd love to find that out. But
but obviously a beautiful layout in andof itself, and that'll be part of
the tours that will be happening inthe open house that happens on Sunday,
October fifteenth from three to six atSaint Mary's Church here in Mary. And
you can see a lot of thehistory that Diane and Lynda have been talking
(10:41):
about by going to the Facebook page, because you guys have been publishing stuff
since the spring, haven't you.LORI has been very good at taking some
of this history and then making littleclippets out of it and then putting it
on our Facebook page because we dowant want to share or the history.
Along with the many other media outletsthat we have, this one is very
(11:05):
important to get out to the publictoo. Laurie, I'm I'm sure you've
had so much fun putting all ofthat stuff out there and with it.
You know, I love social mediaanyway, so but yeah, putting it
into little snippets that try to,you know, get a few things that
happened in that year, tying alot of it to who was the pastor
(11:26):
at that time. It's been funto watch how it's been being shared on
various you know Mary and Ohio historypages. I didn't expect it that get
you that much attention, but everypost we're putting out there shared a summer
getting a little more you know,attention than others. But once we got
into the father Spickerman, everybody hada comment about how much they loved him.
(11:48):
And when I got into the oneabout you know, Mary Catholic High
School, that that got a lotof conversation of course. So yeah,
it's been fun to watch, yes, and you know, as we get
closer think, you know, hopefullythat'll give a little bit of excitement about
the open house that we are goingto have. Over the years, the
church has had some redecorating, rehabbingand updates and beautifications, and it may
(12:18):
have been a long time since somepeople have been in there. We just
recently got our wooden floors back,and it is just beautiful when you walk
in there, and I think we'reat that point where it just looks so
pristine, and the different things thatyou walk in and notice every day that
(12:39):
you may not have noticed before.One of the quotes that I got from
Father Shakina was that you know,he walks in there every day as a
new pastor of Saint Mary's and seesomething new that he may not have seen
before, and that's you know,somebody from the community walking in needs to
see how beautiful this is in theircommunity, and that it was it was
(13:03):
literally marrying made it is part ofthe Marian's history to the core. Yeah,
I know, Laurie's been doing somestuff where she's been trying to find
some really interesting things around the churchthat people may walk by every single day
but not really make any notice of. And that's been kind of fun,
hasn't Lourie. Yeah, it's sortof a visual scavenger hunt. Yeah.
(13:24):
So I've got some pictures that Ihad taken actually quite a while ago,
of some of the architectural details andliterally the things you walk by every day
if you're you know, a memberof the parish and visiting the church,
but you may never have noticed.There are medallions on the ceiling, one
of which is the papal seal.If you're not looking at the ceiling,
(13:45):
which a lot of people aren't whenthey're at mass, but you may have
never noticed that before, and downto little details like holy water fonts and
just you know, where are thesethings in the church. So as we
get closer to the house, I'mgoing to put those back up on our
social media feeds again and we'll havea little guide if you walk in and
(14:07):
you don't necessarily want somebody to followyou around and tell you all about it,
that you'll be able to walk throughthe gathering space of the church and
look at different things. And that'swhat we want. We want people to
feel comfortable walking in. It is, you know, something sacred and holy
for us, but we'd like toshare it for that weekend as well.
(14:28):
And the wonderful things the symbols.The architecture of the church is just amazing
to us and we see it everyweek. But we want the community to
see what this solid church in theircommunity really looks like on the inside because
over the years, like I saidbefore, there have been many beautifications and
(14:52):
updates, and we want to shareit because it's an appropriate time. It's
the one hundred and twenty fifth ofwhen it was really dedicated. Well,
Linda, when you when you lookat at one hundred and twenty five years
of a building and you compare itto other things churches, organizations, businesses,
things like that. How often doyou find a building is in the
(15:16):
same organization for one hundred and twentyfive years in its base model. You
know, it seems like that justisn't something that we see today. Correct,
that's true. I mean, Iknow that there was a period of
time where everybody wanted to tear everythingdown that was old, right, you
know, we didn't want to preserveanything. Now we've kind of switched back
(15:39):
that if it's a building's worth preserving, you know, But that doesn't mean
that the same original organization you knowwould be there, that it would be
a church and uh uh it's it'syeah, I think it's one of the
nicest buildings in Marian. Yeah,well you look around. I can't just
off the top of my head,I can't. I can't start buildings that
(16:00):
have been that long that are underthe same you know, ownership organization,
whatever you want to call the situationin the four one hundred and twenty five
years, you just don't have itin some way, shape or form.
It has been completely redesigned and donenext door down the street or in a
different populated area wherever it might be. So to leave that there and do
what's been done to it. Andyeah, I mean if you look at
(16:22):
the school, you look at thechurch, you look at everything that's been
that's been improved and changed and buildon and everything, but you can still
see how original that is from onehundred and twenty five years. Makes it
amazing architecture. Obviously, not tomention the things that have gone on inside
the church and the organization and everyoneeveryone and everything's and the families that have
evolved through those. It's just it'san amazing story and it will be fun
(16:47):
to unveil all that. I thoughtit was interesting too. I didn't realize
that when the church was built,they didn't build the basement originally, so
they dug that out starting in nineteenoh seven. I would just think I'd
be so hard once you've already gotthere then to build, then to build
the basement. Oh absolutely build.No, yeah, that's usually your foundation.
(17:11):
I wonder why. I mean,obviously there's probably no way to find
out, but that's really interesting eitherthat you look back in history and go,
yeah, at that time, noone built basements, but then they
started becoming a thing, so theydecided to try to do it that.
Yeah, you talk about you know, engineering and technology. That's amazing.
That's a great fact. I'm glad. Any other things like that that you've
(17:32):
uncovered that that really are kind oflittle nuggets of I can't believe they did
that. Oh. I think theone that amazes me the most is the
you know, Timothy fay Fahey anda bunch of the men there was what
nine, eight or nine of thosetotal ten total of ten, you know,
had the forethought to say, we'regoing to invest in this and then
(17:56):
you know, it's life happens.Yeah, and the next year the cholera
came and they were all gone,but he still had that dedication of saying,
you know, this is still goingto happen, right, and then
it took a number of years,but he still made it happen. And
that just it just is that cornerstone, really that corner part of the cornerstone
(18:19):
that we don't think about our forefathersand what they really did for us with
building this church and and it sortof reminds me then of the cornerstone that
we took out a few years ago, and some of the things that were
taken out of it, and thenwe're that we're put back in So a
(18:40):
few years ago, like twenty five. Yeah, oh my god, yeah,
it really was, It really was. I was on the committee back
then. Yes, what's interesting tothink how how quickly that time moves.
Any other thoughts when you look atfamilies that were there when everything went in
eighteen ninety eight that are still activein the church, how many are there
(19:00):
that are in that descendant obviously theFahey family continues. I don't that's a
good question. Yeah, I haveno idea. There are a few family
names that have just been around foreverin the parish that would be a good
one to ask, or at leasthave, you know, try to get
that conversation going. Maybe on thefifteenth when folks come in social media post.
(19:22):
My great great grandparents were here theSweeney's yea, and they're buried out
in Saint Mary's Cemetery. And mygreat grandparents and my grandparents and my mother.
So I know that, but that'sonly what I know. I'll understand
that I can. I can takemy family back at least four generations just
(19:44):
looking at you know, was goingto the school, my my grandmother and
her siblings, my father and hissiblings, myself, my kids. There's
you know, there's four generations,so the traces back to the Robbins was
the family name on that side.Wow. And I'm a transplant, so
yeah, no, absolutely, andthat's just I just think that's an interesting
(20:06):
but that's a part of the churchthat continues though too. Absolutely no question
about it. Once again, weare inviting you Sunday, October fifteenth the
church open house at Saint Mary's Church. It is the Saint Mary's Parish one
hundred and twenty fifth anniversary of thechurch's dedication. A public open house and
tours on Sunday, October fifteenth fromthree until six, and then a week
(20:26):
later the church family will get togetherfor Mass and dinner with the Bishop.
That'll be a day before the actualone hundred and twenty fifth anniversary of the
church's dedication. Be looking for thatmarry and Maid story coming out at the
end of September early October in advanceof that. That really digs into the
history of the church, the organization, the building itself, you know,
(20:49):
just some really neat stuff. So'llbe looking for all of that. But
we certainly hope to see you onOctober fifteenth. I end anything else you
guys wanted to add, No,I think it's it's a great opportunity for
someone who has been curious about whatthe interior of the church looks like.
This is the perfect opportunity to comein and, you know, walk around
(21:11):
and discover what those little architectural featuresthat Laurie's talking about and ask questions.
There'll be people there that will walkyou through some of the features of the
interior. But that's what it's allabout, is being able to feel at
home in Saint Mary's Church because itis the community church as well as it
(21:36):
is our Catholic faith. Here greatstuff. My guests today Laurie Stevenson,
Diane Watson, and Linda Perry fromSaint Mary's Church. The Saint Mary's Parish
one hundred and twenty fifth anniversary ofthe church's dedication coming up on a public
open house Sunday, October fifteenth fromthree until six. You're gonna have tours.
You can check it out and certainlyget information. Don't forget to check
(21:59):
out Mary's on Facebook to get toall the details that we were talking about.
Plus you can see some of thehistory of the church, the organization,
parishioners, pasted clergy, all ofthat on that page, so check
that out and check out some ofthose neat details.
Joining me in studio today, Ihave Laurie Stevenson, Diane Watson, and
Linda Perry. They are all fromSaint Mary's Parish getting ready to celebrate the
one hundred and twenty fifth anniversary ofthe church's dedication. Ladies, thank you
guys so much for being on theshow. How are you? We're doing
good. We are fast approaching theevent and we've been doing a lot of
(00:22):
research into some of the history ofthe church and I think that there's been
a lot of people that have addedvalue to it and a couple of the
people that are here today are wantto share some of the history of Saint
Mary's Church well, and that's what'sexciting about it because if you've followed on
Facebook or you follow Saint Mary's Churchon Facebook, you've seen over the summer
(00:47):
a lot of the history of thechurch being unveiled and brought to life again
on Facebook, which has been kindof fun to watch. And I know
you guys have put together a storythat will be published via marian made later
on this month or early into October, but the celebrations are coming up in
the middle of October, so rightoff the bat, we'll let you know
(01:08):
that there will be a public opportunityfor you to have an open house and
tour of Saint Mary's Church. Andit's one hundred and twenty fifth anniversary of
the dedication of the church three tosix on Sunday, October fifteenth, so
mark your calendars there. You canalso check out, like I said,
Saint Mary's Church on Facebook and thatwill give you some ideas as to what's
(01:30):
happening as well. And I knowDiane Linda Perry has done a lot of
work in coming up with the historythat surrounds the church and really it is
one of the most historic buildings inMarion, Ohio. Oh yeah, when
you when you say Mary made,this is truly, truly truly maryan made.
I mean way back when Marian wasfounded by Yebrabaker, the settlers,
(01:56):
there were only a few Catholics,and then by eighteen forty four there were
about one hundred Catholics and that's whenthe mission of Saint Mary's Church was founded.
The first part of the Catholic churchwas circuit writers where they had priests
that were they went around two differentchurches and that's how Saint Mary's Church really
(02:21):
started in Marian. And that wasway back in eighteen forty four. So
Mary made to the Corps right whenMarian was was started. And Linda has
been on a committee for the onehundred and twenty fifth anniversary for a number
of years, and of course herfamily has been a lot of that history,
(02:46):
that is Marian, and so herand a number of other people were
very instrumental in coming up with thattimeline of what we see as the Saint
Mary's Church. So I don't knowif you want to add to that pot.
Well, when the circuit writers camethrough, I mean they had to
(03:07):
celebrate Mass in people's homes, andone of them was Tim Fahey, who
was very prominent. And so thevery very first building we had was the
old Uber building and it was boughtfrom the Methodist and during that time,
that was in the late forties.In eighteen fifty three, mister Fahey opened
(03:31):
his bank and he purchased land fromEbra Baker on North Prospect Street where the
President's School is sitting, and heand nine other gentlemen assigned agreements to build
the church there. And then ineighteen fifty four, the cholera epidemic swept
through Marian and nine of the tendied, leaving Tim Fahy to see this
(03:57):
task through by himself. Well,it took a little longer than to get
the church built, but finally thechurch was built and dedicated in eighteen sixty
two. And as Marion grew,so did the parishioners, and it wasn't
long before they realized they were goingto have to have it at a church,
(04:20):
and so they bought land on NorthMain Street where the President churches,
and they started to work on itin eighteen ninety one, set the cornerstone
in eighteen ninety four, and itwas completed in The first Mass was October
twenty third, eighteen ninety eight.There's a lot of numbers, a lot
(04:47):
of days, a lot of days, that's what I said. That's Linda.
Linda just has that four. It'samazing. So the anniversary of the
original church dedication that would have happenedby Bishop rose Krans was in eighteen sixty
eight. Correct, that's what weare celebrating, or are we we're getting
back to eighteen ninety four, correct, Well, actually eighteen ninety eight,
(05:10):
eighteen ninety eight, the first Masswas celebrated, so we're missing it by
one day. Okay, I gotyou on the twenty second. Okay,
yeah, there'll be one hundred andtwenty five years, but we've there.
But in eighteen ninety four we alsodid a jubilee because celebrating the one hundred
and fiftieth correct anniversary of Catholic hasbeen Marian since eighteen forty four. Yea,
(05:30):
there's a lot of days. Itgoes way back, but then there's
a number of churches that we've hadin that line that lineage, and then
what we are celebrating is the currentchurch, the current Sandstone Church and the
dedication of that. There we gothat wonderful mass all right now, Now,
now we're all on the same pagehere. So October twenty third,
(05:54):
eighteen ninety eight and uh, andthe celebration will be for the Blake on
Sunday, October fifteenth with a churchopen house and tours, and then the
parish itself will be celebrating the daybefore that actual one hundred and twenty fifth.
So some good stuff there. So, Diane, where do we want
to continue to go with? Youknow, I think there's a lot of
(06:17):
things that when Linda talks about thehistory and what she has really dug up
is, you know, like thelist of the priest and we're not going
to go over those should. Iknow that she's had a lot of extensive
research that talk that sort of wentdown the line of all of the priests
that participated in becoming a part ofSaint Mary's Church. And then you know,
(06:43):
when you talk about all of theservices and committees and stuff that we've
had over the years, it's justa wealth of information. And I had
a couple of boards she's done,display boards that will have out our celebration
on October twenty second, which iswhat we are going to celebrate a Mass
(07:05):
on that day and then do alittle bit of a celebration too, but
the public is welcome to come tothe open house. But when Linda's put
together a number of displays that willshow a lot of these things. And
I can't remember all of the differentboards that you did, but I know
the newest one is the on thepriests. Yeah, and it's it's done,
(07:26):
yes, yea. And actually it'sinteresting to note that we've had since
the first pastor, we've had twentysix pastors, and that seems a long
time, over one hundred and fifty, you know, years plus years.
But you have to remember, ifFather Spickerman was here from nineteen twenty eight
to nineteen sixty three, everybody remembersince so he was our longest one in
(07:46):
anybody that's been a Marinae length oftime certainly remembers Father Spickerman. Yes,
but yeah, we have some displayswith artifacts like that was in the time
capsule, and displays of the firstchurch and first school and it's you know,
just a different memorability of the historyof and you had a board that
(08:11):
was you know, we talked aboutthe different churches because you were at the
humor and then you had this littleredstone church and then now we have the
current church and then you know thethe circuit rider priests. That is amazing
that you know, how do youset that up in those days when you
have a couple of people that wantto be able to gather as a communion
(08:35):
of Catholics and then you know havethat that priests come around to the different
congregations small very small congregations at thatpoint. But then one of the other
things that Linda has is in atthe jubilee, we also did a quilt
(08:56):
that sort of covered the history ofSaint Mary's Church, and we will bring
be bringing that out for the celebrationas well, just sort of reliving some
of those moments that are put downon the quilt that talk about Saint Mary's
history. Yeah. So my question, Linda, when you talk about the
(09:18):
the original White Sandstone Church and itwas built to accommodate seven hundred and fifty
at that time in eighteen ninety eightwhen it was dedicated, were there seven
hundred and fifty parishioners at that timeor what was the story at that point
for that capacity. Well, whatI read that on dedication day, ten
(09:39):
thousand people came to that dedication.Wow, they came by train. It's
in a it's one it's one ofone of our directories. And because I
had not remember, you know,hearing that, I don't know exactly the
amount of parishioners we had, butI'm sure there were because they had multiple
(10:00):
priests and they had multiple masses,right, And since that time the church
has changed, evolved, and theseating capacity has changed dramatically. It was
just an interesting thought of you know, whether or not that seven fifty was
looking into the future or where wewere today, that that's kind of where
(10:20):
I was going on that because Ididn't know. I don't know if it
was or not. That's interesting.I'd love to find that out. But
but obviously a beautiful layout in andof itself, and that'll be part of
the tours that will be happening inthe open house that happens on Sunday,
October fifteenth from three to six atSaint Mary's Church here in Mary. And
you can see a lot of thehistory that Diane and Lynda have been talking
(10:41):
about by going to the Facebook page, because you guys have been publishing stuff
since the spring, haven't you.LORI has been very good at taking some
of this history and then making littleclippets out of it and then putting it
on our Facebook page because we dowant want to share or the history.
Along with the many other media outletsthat we have, this one is very
(11:05):
important to get out to the publictoo. Laurie, I'm I'm sure you've
had so much fun putting all ofthat stuff out there and with it.
You know, I love social mediaanyway, so but yeah, putting it
into little snippets that try to,you know, get a few things that
happened in that year, tying alot of it to who was the pastor
(11:26):
at that time. It's been funto watch how it's been being shared on
various you know Mary and Ohio historypages. I didn't expect it that get
you that much attention, but everypost we're putting out there shared a summer
getting a little more you know,attention than others. But once we got
into the father Spickerman, everybody hada comment about how much they loved him.
(11:48):
And when I got into the oneabout you know, Mary Catholic High
School, that that got a lotof conversation of course. So yeah,
it's been fun to watch, yes, and you know, as we get
closer think, you know, hopefullythat'll give a little bit of excitement about
the open house that we are goingto have. Over the years, the
church has had some redecorating, rehabbingand updates and beautifications, and it may
(12:18):
have been a long time since somepeople have been in there. We just
recently got our wooden floors back,and it is just beautiful when you walk
in there, and I think we'reat that point where it just looks so
pristine, and the different things thatyou walk in and notice every day that
(12:39):
you may not have noticed before.One of the quotes that I got from
Father Shakina was that you know,he walks in there every day as a
new pastor of Saint Mary's and seesomething new that he may not have seen
before, and that's you know,somebody from the community walking in needs to
see how beautiful this is in theircommunity, and that it was it was
(13:03):
literally marrying made it is part ofthe Marian's history to the core. Yeah,
I know, Laurie's been doing somestuff where she's been trying to find
some really interesting things around the churchthat people may walk by every single day
but not really make any notice of. And that's been kind of fun,
hasn't Lourie. Yeah, it's sortof a visual scavenger hunt. Yeah.
(13:24):
So I've got some pictures that Ihad taken actually quite a while ago,
of some of the architectural details andliterally the things you walk by every day
if you're you know, a memberof the parish and visiting the church,
but you may never have noticed.There are medallions on the ceiling, one
of which is the papal seal.If you're not looking at the ceiling,
(13:45):
which a lot of people aren't whenthey're at mass, but you may have
never noticed that before, and downto little details like holy water fonts and
just you know, where are thesethings in the church. So as we
get closer to the house, I'mgoing to put those back up on our
social media feeds again and we'll havea little guide if you walk in and
(14:07):
you don't necessarily want somebody to followyou around and tell you all about it,
that you'll be able to walk throughthe gathering space of the church and
look at different things. And that'swhat we want. We want people to
feel comfortable walking in. It is, you know, something sacred and holy
for us, but we'd like toshare it for that weekend as well.
(14:28):
And the wonderful things the symbols.The architecture of the church is just amazing
to us and we see it everyweek. But we want the community to
see what this solid church in theircommunity really looks like on the inside because
over the years, like I saidbefore, there have been many beautifications and
(14:52):
updates, and we want to shareit because it's an appropriate time. It's
the one hundred and twenty fifth ofwhen it was really dedicated. Well,
Linda, when you when you lookat at one hundred and twenty five years
of a building and you compare itto other things churches, organizations, businesses,
things like that. How often doyou find a building is in the
(15:16):
same organization for one hundred and twentyfive years in its base model. You
know, it seems like that justisn't something that we see today. Correct,
that's true. I mean, Iknow that there was a period of
time where everybody wanted to tear everythingdown that was old, right, you
know, we didn't want to preserveanything. Now we've kind of switched back
(15:39):
that if it's a building's worth preserving, you know, But that doesn't mean
that the same original organization you knowwould be there, that it would be
a church and uh uh it's it'syeah, I think it's one of the
nicest buildings in Marian. Yeah,well you look around. I can't just
off the top of my head,I can't. I can't start buildings that
(16:00):
have been that long that are underthe same you know, ownership organization,
whatever you want to call the situationin the four one hundred and twenty five
years, you just don't have itin some way, shape or form.
It has been completely redesigned and donenext door down the street or in a
different populated area wherever it might be. So to leave that there and do
what's been done to it. Andyeah, I mean if you look at
(16:22):
the school, you look at thechurch, you look at everything that's been
that's been improved and changed and buildon and everything, but you can still
see how original that is from onehundred and twenty five years. Makes it
amazing architecture. Obviously, not tomention the things that have gone on inside
the church and the organization and everyoneeveryone and everything's and the families that have
evolved through those. It's just it'san amazing story and it will be fun
(16:47):
to unveil all that. I thoughtit was interesting too. I didn't realize
that when the church was built,they didn't build the basement originally, so
they dug that out starting in nineteenoh seven. I would just think I'd
be so hard once you've already gotthere then to build, then to build
the basement. Oh absolutely build.No, yeah, that's usually your foundation.
(17:11):
I wonder why. I mean,obviously there's probably no way to find
out, but that's really interesting eitherthat you look back in history and go,
yeah, at that time, noone built basements, but then they
started becoming a thing, so theydecided to try to do it that.
Yeah, you talk about you know, engineering and technology. That's amazing.
That's a great fact. I'm glad. Any other things like that that you've
(17:32):
uncovered that that really are kind oflittle nuggets of I can't believe they did
that. Oh. I think theone that amazes me the most is the
you know, Timothy fay Fahey anda bunch of the men there was what
nine, eight or nine of thosetotal ten total of ten, you know,
had the forethought to say, we'regoing to invest in this and then
(17:56):
you know, it's life happens.Yeah, and the next year the cholera
came and they were all gone,but he still had that dedication of saying,
you know, this is still goingto happen, right, and then
it took a number of years,but he still made it happen. And
that just it just is that cornerstone, really that corner part of the cornerstone
(18:19):
that we don't think about our forefathersand what they really did for us with
building this church and and it sortof reminds me then of the cornerstone that
we took out a few years ago, and some of the things that were
taken out of it, and thenwe're that we're put back in So a
(18:40):
few years ago, like twenty five. Yeah, oh my god, yeah,
it really was, It really was. I was on the committee back
then. Yes, what's interesting tothink how how quickly that time moves.
Any other thoughts when you look atfamilies that were there when everything went in
eighteen ninety eight that are still activein the church, how many are there
(19:00):
that are in that descendant obviously theFahey family continues. I don't that's a
good question. Yeah, I haveno idea. There are a few family
names that have just been around foreverin the parish that would be a good
one to ask, or at leasthave, you know, try to get
that conversation going. Maybe on thefifteenth when folks come in social media post.
(19:22):
My great great grandparents were here theSweeney's yea, and they're buried out
in Saint Mary's Cemetery. And mygreat grandparents and my grandparents and my mother.
So I know that, but that'sonly what I know. I'll understand
that I can. I can takemy family back at least four generations just
(19:44):
looking at you know, was goingto the school, my my grandmother and
her siblings, my father and hissiblings, myself, my kids. There's
you know, there's four generations,so the traces back to the Robbins was
the family name on that side.Wow. And I'm a transplant, so
yeah, no, absolutely, andthat's just I just think that's an interesting
(20:06):
but that's a part of the churchthat continues though too. Absolutely no question
about it. Once again, weare inviting you Sunday, October fifteenth the
church open house at Saint Mary's Church. It is the Saint Mary's Parish one
hundred and twenty fifth anniversary of thechurch's dedication. A public open house and
tours on Sunday, October fifteenth fromthree until six, and then a week
(20:26):
later the church family will get togetherfor Mass and dinner with the Bishop.
That'll be a day before the actualone hundred and twenty fifth anniversary of the
church's dedication. Be looking for thatmarry and Maid story coming out at the
end of September early October in advanceof that. That really digs into the
history of the church, the organization, the building itself, you know,
(20:49):
just some really neat stuff. So'llbe looking for all of that. But
we certainly hope to see you onOctober fifteenth. I end anything else you
guys wanted to add, No,I think it's it's a great opportunity for
someone who has been curious about whatthe interior of the church looks like.
This is the perfect opportunity to comein and, you know, walk around
(21:11):
and discover what those little architectural featuresthat Laurie's talking about and ask questions.
There'll be people there that will walkyou through some of the features of the
interior. But that's what it's allabout, is being able to feel at
home in Saint Mary's Church because itis the community church as well as it
(21:36):
is our Catholic faith. Here greatstuff. My guests today Laurie Stevenson,
Diane Watson, and Linda Perry fromSaint Mary's Church. The Saint Mary's Parish
one hundred and twenty fifth anniversary ofthe church's dedication coming up on a public
open house Sunday, October fifteenth fromthree until six. You're gonna have tours.
You can check it out and certainlyget information. Don't forget to check
(21:59):
out Mary's on Facebook to get toall the details that we were talking about.
Plus you can see some of thehistory of the church, the organization,
parishioners, pasted clergy, all ofthat on that page, so check
that out and check out some ofthose neat details.
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