By Rev. R. Donald Kiernan

Hall County (Gainesville) is named after a “Connecticut Yankee” who came to Georgia at an early age, served one term as governor, and was one of the signers of the Declaration of Independence, Lyman Hall.

There is little or no evidence of Catholicism in this area before 1910. While it is true that Catholics came with the railroad, these settlements were all located south of this region. Gainesville was truly Indian territory with the famous Princess Nacooche reigning just a little north of here. All of north Georgia at that time was a mission of the Athens parish. Father Harry Clark had been assigned as pastor of the area in 1910, and for two years after his appointment he traveled the northern part of the county begging for funds to erect a mission center in Athens.

A famous Civil War general, Longstreet, who retired to become postmaster in Gainesville, married a young Brenan College graduate and evidence has it that the first Mass offered in this mountain town was in the widow Longstreet’s home located on Green Street.

The first Mass here was a nuptial Mass performed by Father Harry Clark. On July 4, 1910 Faraba H. Snow and Ignatius L. Courtenay were united in marriage. Sister Mary Melanie R.S.M., the present administrator of Atlanta’s Saint Joseph’s Hospital, is the daughter of Mrs. Courtenay and the late I.L. Courtenay.

Mass was then said in the Longstreet home for about two years when the little congregation of about 5 people began to worship in the Cinceolo home which is now the president’s home of Brenau College.

Records indicate that in April, 1920, Mrs. Cinceolo, who owned a parcel of property on Spring Street, donated this to Father Clark. Immediately the little congregation began to save “their pennies” for the day they would be able to build a place of worship of their own.

In the meantime Father Clark was transferred to Atlanta’s Saint Anthony’s Church in West End. Father Clark was followed by Father James E. King (now Monsignor King of Saint Anthony’s), Father John Kennedy, Father Harold Barr, all of whom were pastors at the Athen’s parish.

In 1932 Father James King engaged the services of the famed priest - architect of Belmont Abbey, Father Michael McInerny, O.S.B., to design a church for the Gainesville parish. On April 30, 1933 the Most Rev. Michael J. Keyes, S.M.D.D., the bishop of Savannah, dedicated the new church. (The coat of arms of Bishop Keyes’ is still seen over the front doors of the church). An Altar Society was formed and the parishioners, led by Mrs. Teresa LeRoy (Cinceolo), began to work on the grounds planting grass, trees, and bushes.

Tragedy struck this North-east Georgia community on the morning of April 26, 1936 when a tornado hit Gainesville. Virtually all the town was destroyed, hundreds killed, and the property damage ran up to the millions. It occasioned two visits to the city by the then-president of the United States, the late Franklin D. Roosevelt.

Nothing short of a miracle happened when the tornado travelling in the direction of the church changed its course and went around the church, thereby sparing the three year old edifice. (One witness in a bus which was halted in front of the church thought for certain that they would all be lost, only watch the tornado make a semicircle course around the church property, resuming its previous direction just south of the church.)

In 1939 the mission of Gainesville was entrusted to the priests stationed at the Cathedral of Christ the King in Atlanta. Father Francis Des Lauries, a Victorian Father on loan to the diocese, is probably the best remembered of all the “mission pastors.” It was Father Des Lauries, C.S.V., who initiated the now famous Benefit Bridge Party which the parish has held for 24 consecutive years. Now a social event of the fall season in this city, the Benefit Bridge draws hundreds of people of all faiths together and to some it is looked upon as the first event of the fall social season.

Father Maurice Daley, C.S.V., another Victorian father followed Father Des Lauries. In turn the parish was cared for the pastor of the Cathedral parish, Monsignor Joseph E. Moylan; the diocesan officialis, Monsignor Edward J. Dodwell; the superintendent of schools, Monsignor Cornelius L. Maloney.

Other priests of the Cathedral staff who traveled the 50 miles to Gainesville included the late Father John A. Morris, Father John Dowling, and an army chaplain, Father David F. Murphy, C.S.S.R.

The first child to be baptized in the new church was John Austin Edmondson (May 7, 1939), and the first priest to offer his first Mass in the church was the Rev. Joseph Beltran. Though not natives of Gainesville, Fathers Joseph Beltran and Eusebius Beltran and William Hoffman have all honored the little parish by offering their first Solemn High Mass at Saint Michael’s. Native vocations from the parish have all been to the Religious Life, with the Profession of Lucille Lawlor in the Carmelite Sisters; Genevieve Lawlor in the Presentation Sisters; and Lucille Courtenay in the Sisters of Mercy.

The original settlement was Indian. A Cherokee Indian by the name of George Conpone establishing the first settlement of residents. The City of Gainesville was named after General Gaines of Indian War fame. The city enjoyed a normal and healthy growth through the years. If any factors might be credited to the establishment of the city as one of the thriving communities of Georgia, they would be the construction of Lake Lanier and the establishment of the city as the “Broiler Center of the World.” So it is said: “As chickens grew, so grew Gainesville.”

A growing number of Catholic students at Riverside Military Academy and Brenau College, both located in Gainesville, necessitated the establishment of Saint Michael’s as a parish with a resident priest. Accordingly in 1945, the Most Rev. Gerald P. O’Hara, J.U.D., then Bishop of Savannah - Atlanta named the Rev. Michael Manning as the first pastor of Gainesville Saint Michael’s Church.

A native of Ireland, Father Manning had studied for the Georgia diocese and had served at parishes in Savannah and Thomasville before coming to Gainesville. Father Manning’s first Baptism in the parish was the sister of the first boy ever baptized in the new church, Mary Ellen Edmondson.

Two years later Father Manning again engaged the services of the priest architect of Belmont Abbey to design a rectory. The building tied in with the church and with additional property acquired from Mr. O. B. Leverett, the church property became what many people in Gainesville call: “The smallest, but prettiest church in our town.”

The new parish of Father Manning included seven counties; an area almost as large as the State of Rhode Island. Father Manning traveled mountain roads, every Sunday to Toccoa and Clayton to offer Mass.

In 1954 Father Manning purchased property for a church in Toccoa. With funds contributed through the Mother’s Day Mass cards a church, Mother of Our Divine Savior, was constructed and blessed in a ceremony with the Most Rev. Francis E. Hyland, D.D., J.C.D., officiating. The parish subsequently was taken over by the Verona Fathers when a resident pastor was named.

During Father Manning’s pastorate the parish grew considerably. At one time the parish grew from five families to 125 families (now 83). The fantastic growth of the poultry industry during this time brought many families to the area and among these were many Catholics. A Sunday School was established and the Missionary Sisters of the Sacred Heart from Athens soon began to come every Sunday to teach the children of the now growing parish.

The men of the parish were organized and a Holy Name Society was officially chartered on February 1, 1956. Likewise, in 1951 the students attending Brenau College received their charter in the National Newman Federation.

Additional property for future expansion was acquired in 1958 by Father Manning. A parcel of property located in Nix Heights, amounting to 10 acres, was purchased by the parish and a donation of seven acres near Buford was given to the parish by Mr. Bona Allen.

In 1959 Father Manning was named the pastor of a new parish in Decatur and he was succeeded by Father R. Donald Kiernan, the pastor of Cedartown’s Saint Bernadette’s Church.

In 1961, Father Kiernan located a piece of property in Dahlonega for the establishment of a new parish in that area. The Glenmary Fathers had already promised Bishop Hyland to come to Georgia, and late in 1961 Father Leonard Spanjers was named the first pastor of Saint Luke’s and the area was established as an independent parish. The new parish took four counties away from the mother church, leaving St. Michael’s with Hall, Gwinnett, Cherokee and Forsyth counties.

Soon after Archbishop Hallinan came to Georgia, the parishioners of Saint Michael’s were honored when he presided at the first Solemn Mass of Father William Hoffman. Already the lay participation in the Mass had been initiated and in a sermon to the parishioners the archbishop complimented them.

St. Michael’s demonstrated their capacity for organization when such archdiocesan projects as the census and “Operation Understanding” were announced. Flawless, the projects received 100% cooperation and were termed highly successful.

The initiation of a Boy Scout and Cub Scout program early in 1962; the beginning of a Study Club for adults; a confraternity program for high school students; aid to the poor through the St. Vincent de Paul Society and their organization of a choir to give to the parish life a well-rounded and balanced program of activity.

In 1962 the practice of having the annual May procession outdoors was initiated. This first ceremony was especially remembered by the old parishioners because it occasioned the presentation of the parish of an outside shrine by Mr. Roy Milwood. A convert, Mr. Milwood had as his sponsor of Baptism, Mrs. Mary Cinceolo. “Aunt Mary” as she was affectionately called had donated the original property on which Saint Michael’s Church was built in 1933.

Parishioners get together the at children’s annual Easter Egg hunt and Christmas Party, and the annual “parish meeting”, held at the Dixie Hunt Hotel, which drew 100% representation from every family in the parish gave a feeling of “belonging” to oldsters and newcomers alike.

St. Michael’s has a tremendous visitor list. Two U.S. highways run near the church property, students at Riverside Military Academy and Brenau College, and the influx of vacationers to the resort areas are made to feel at home whenever they visit the mountain parish.

Nineteen hundred and sixty four finds the parishioners of Saint Michael’s viewing the past with a sense of steady accomplishment and looking into the future with a vision of expansion and a willingness to cooperate which has characterized the church in Georgia for well over a hundred years.