By Teresa M. Pirch

On April 17, 1982, Archbishop Thomas A. Donnellan officiated at the blessing and rededication of Our Lady of Perpetual Help Church in Carrollton, marking the 20^th anniversary of its construction. In observance of this celebration, a history of the growth of the Catholic community in the West Georgia area has been written by Laurraine Goreau. The book, entitled The Grapes of Faith, traces the history of the parish from the earliest settlers to the present membership. Much of the information in this article was researched by Ms. Goreau and appears in her book.

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By the year 1882, 26-year-old Ralph Spencer, a Connecticut-born dreamer and industrial developer, had seen his Tallapoosa Land Mining and Manufacturing Company boom into gold, iron, silver, copper and garnet mines, a glass works and the Lithia Springs luxury hotel -- all under the slogan "A Yankee City Under the Southern Sun."

The population of this part of Western Georgia had swelled from 1,699 in 1880 to 5,000 in 1886, and, just as swiftly, the early 90s saw the mines close and the population dwindle to 2,500 people. Spencer went back North but soon returned with a fresh scheme; on the idle mining lands he would grow wine grapes with skilled grape-growers, who happened to be Catholic immigrants from Hungary. The colony Spencer promised them, to be named Budapest, would be complete with lots for homes and businesses, civic facilities, a school and, of course, a Catholic Church and cemetery.

Spencer reached an agreement with Father Francis Janishek to bring 200 families from the coal mines of Pennsylvania to the Georgia foothills of the Appalachian Mountains, hired an interpreter, and deeded three plots of land to the "Church of the Sacred Heart."

BUILDING BEGINS

Four miles east of Tallapoosa lay the vineyards, which Spencer organized into the Georgia Fruit Growing and Winery Association. The Hungarians were joined by 200 Slovak families, also Catholic, who lived in the Nitra community three miles north of Tallapoosa. A Catholic church and a home for Father Janishek were built there. Spencer brought in wine specialists from France to oversee the pressing and bottling of the grapes and the enterprise began to thrive. A huge cellar was dug and soon 40,000 gallons of wine were stored, awaiting sale as soon as negotiations could be completed.

Another town site, to be named Tokay, for the tawny golden Hungarian wine, was planned, but never came into being. The State Prohibition Act of 1907 was enacted and "abruptly the entire Budapest-Nitra-Tokay enterprise was illegal. It fell into ruins. (What happened to the 40,000 gallons of wine is shrouded in mystery)," says historian Laurraine Goreau.

The majority of the colonists moved away, others died in the typhoid epidemic and the church in Nitra burned down. The spiritual needs of the few remaining unemployed grape-growers were served by missionary priests who came once a month, first by horse and buggy, later by Model T, to say Mass in the old Budapest one-room school - the church of St. Joseph. Eventually, only the Marcinko, Estavanko, Bukzar, Fekete and Buzardy families remained. From 1929-1936, Father Joseph Cassidy from St. Mary's in Rome and Father James Grady from Christ the King Cathedral ministered to them. Membership still dwindled at one point leaving the Estavankos the only Catholic family in the Bremen area.

During Father Cassidy's pastorate, his father came to visit from New York and later sent the Stations of the Cross which hang today in the church on Center Point Road.

CENTRAL LOCATION

After 55 years of being a mission with a once-a-month Mass at a church some 30 miles round-trip away, the parishioners finally had an opportunity to buy a structure more centrally located to their Carrollton population. In 1952, St. Margaret's Episcopal Church was offered for sale for $8,500 and Father Charles Duke, SM, then pastor, encouraged the community to raise the necessary fund. A "nearly new" sale and donations from local businessmen gave them enough for their first step. Bishop Francis Hyland and his secretary, Father Michael Regan, came to make the down payment. The people renewed their fund-raising efforts, enlisting the help of a newcomer to Carrollton, car dealer Eaton Chalkley, who was a convert to Catholicism. Donations came from as far away as Chicago, but still the total could not be met. On July 25, 1953, one week before the deadline for the remainder of the payment, Bishop Hyland authorized purchase of the church which stood on the corner of West Avenue and White Street.

Eight days after he purchase, the first High Mass of thanksgiving was said by Father Duke and sung by the choir of Christ the King Cathedral. Thereafter, Father Duke informed the parishioners, Mass would be said weekly. With not more than a dozen families to make the monthly loan payments to the diocese and outfit the church, the women set up sale racks, priced merchandise, publicized, cleaned, pressed, mended the articles they had collected for another "nearly-new" sale and set to work.

Paul Williams, a zealous worker on behalf of his wife, Mary, built a parish hall alongside the church, creating a place for socializing, meetings, religious education, and those "nearly-new" sales, which were becoming big enterprise. Eventually, with donations from the area textile mills and merchants, the sale became a three-day event, twice a year.

Money was always a problem, so the sale of the Budapest property in 1953 meant a great deal to the indebted Catholics. Shortly after the sale was completed, the parishioners were shocked to read in the newspaper that while they were still having monthly services in the Budapest Church, moonshiners had been hiding liquor under the altar!

DEDICATION

When the "nearly-new" sales, ham suppers and cake sales had finally outfitted the building, the first Our Lady of Perpetual Help Church was dedicated on June 14, 1954, with the Most Reverend Francis E. Hyland officiating and Father Michael Regan serving and master of ceremonies.

The Mary Francis and J. Owen Malloy family moved to Carrollton in 1958, becoming the 23^rd family in the church, and they offered 10 acres of their farmland on Old Camp Church Road for the construction of a larger church. After assessing the property and considering the necessity of building and paving a road and bringing in gas and electric lines a considerable distance, a period of indecision followed. Then Eaton Chalkley offered 13 acres on Center Point Road, opposite the home he had built for himself and his wife, actress Susan Hayward. It was decided to build on Center Point Road, and at a luncheon at the Chalkley home on September 30, 1960, Bishop Hyland and the mission pastor of Our Lady of Perpetual Help, Father Richard Morrow, formalized the decision.

Contracts were let to S. N. Hodges of Atlanta and M. K. Patterson of Carrollton from plans by Warren F. Penny of Atlanta, but the winter nights and weekends saw the "construction-wise leading the professional men-turned laborers: Warenzak, Willegalle, Shadrix, Brooks, McNamara, Malloy, Awalt, Cashen, Frost, Maddox, Benchina, and Chalkley," says Laurraine Goreau.

Everyone canvassed for donations of materials or labor and with cash, as always, in short supply, Mr. Chalkley often quietly stepped in to pay the bill to keep the construction going. There were still fewer than 50 families to use the structure, but six months after Bishop Hyland gave the go-ahead, the church stood complete. "The Story of Our Lady of Perpetual Help," by Charles Frost and Marge LaFoy, describes the exterior of Stone Mountain granite, and California redwood, its mosaic façade entitled "The Divine Word Made Flesh," surmounted by a silver cross. The interior of British Columbia pine, Louisiana pine and Alabama marble has an Italian sculpture of Christ crucified, a carved altar canopy, the Stations of the Cross from the little Budapest church and an antique vestibule lamp from the once-Episcopal church. The building of worship embraces a collection of God's gifts as varied as the people who have and will praise out Father there. The church was dedicated on March 25, 1962.

After building the pastor's home, the parishioners turned their attention to the fund-raising efforts necessary to move the little downtown church to the campus of West Georgia College. The college was pleased to accept the gift of the church after the lot on which it stood had been purchased by a Carrollton financial institution, but no college funds were available for the move. So, once again, the members of the church worked to raise $5,000 and, on May 28, 1964, Robert F. Kennedy and his wife, Ethel turned the first trowel of earth in the groundbreaking ceremony, for the John F. Kennedy Memorial Chapel.

OFFICIAL FOUNDATION

In 1965, the parish was officially founded. No longer was it considered a mission church, and Father Richard B. Morrow became the first pastor. When Eaton Chalkley died, that event was the catalyst for the action which was to result in the "projected" cemetery actually coming into being. Susan Hayward Chalkley asked for and received permission to bury her husband near the church which meant so much to them both, and designed the monument for his grave. She landscaped the cemetery and was herself buried there in 1975.

In May 1972, Monsignor Michael Regan came to the parish from Immaculate Heart of Mary Church in Atlanta where he had served for ten years.

In the past ten years, the members of Our Lady of Perpetual Help Church have lived up to their heritage of hard work and faith in action. The Charles Carroll Center, a two-level structure, which houses the School of Religious Education, a parish hall and kitchen, was built by the men of the parish. Traditions of involvement were maintained, activities for young people, Scout Packs, and services to the community became a part of the new building and the growing membership.

Today, the parish continues its growth, reaching an all-time high membership of 1,009 in April of this year. The newly elected Parish Council serves the pastor and parishioners in an advisory capacity, the Men's Club shares social, spiritual and work times together. The Altar Society still labors lovingly to raise funds for the church and minister to the spiritual, family, and other needs of the parish. Once again the parish community is supporting a Newman Club for Catholic students at West Georgia College. The teenagers are again active in the church, participating in the repair and cleanup jobs, enjoying each other's company, and sharing their Catholic beliefs as they learn to put them into their lives. Parishioners come from 16 communities in Carroll, Paulding and Haralson Counties and from three in Alabama -- Graham, Heflin and Woodland -- reminiscent of the early mission days of the Budapest Church's scattered congregation. Nearly 100 years ago, the first Catholic settlers arrived from Pennsylvania and began carving out a life for themselves in West Georgia. Today, the Catholic community continues to grow in the faith of their fathers and the brotherhood of their neighbors. As Laurraine Goreau closes her book, "… the roots go deep. The branches are reaching out."