By Rita McInerney

Catholicism in Georgia had its beginning in Locust Grove, a wilderness area about 50 miles from Augusta, in 1790. The first settlers were a small band of Catholics from Maryland.

When they arrived with some of their slaves, they called their settlement Mary Land. Later the colony became known as Locust Grove.

While many references to this first Catholic site claim the settlers had fled religious persecution in Maryland, archives of the archdiocese of Baltimore have no records to substantiate this. Father Paul Thomas, archivist, could find nothing to indicate any kind of religious bigotry around the time of the group's departure. He told The Georgia Bulletin that Port Tobacco, mentioned in an historical paper as the departure point for the Marylanders, was a Jesuit stronghold at the time. The Carmelites also were there, having arrived shortly before the Catholics left for Georgia.

Maryland's first state constitution, in 1776, provided all Christians protection under the law. After the American Revolution there were approximately 15,000 Catholics out of a total Maryland population of 319,700. In contrast, the population of Georgia in 1790 was 82,548.

While Georgia was a colony of the English crown, free exercise of religion was accorded everyone except Papists, the term used for the despised Catholics. After Georgia became the fourth state of the new United States of America, its own state constitution guaranteed "free toleration of all religions."

The newcomers to the sparsely settled Locust Grove region were both prosperous and religious. Early on they built a small church of hand-hewn logs and when it was finished, Bishop John Carroll of Baltimore sent Father John LeMoin to minister to them as well as to Catholics in Augusta. The priest, sometimes referred to as Abbe Le Moine, died in Savannah in 1796.

The small congregation grew with the arrival in the Augusta area of French exiles fleeing rebellion in Santo Domingo around 1800. A Father Souze arrived with this group which worshiped at Locust Grove. In time, the French planters left to seek riches in the fertile Mississippi area. The void they left in the tiny congregation was filed by Irish arrivals, seeking a better life than the harsh existence of their native island.

Wealthy Protestants began purchasing land in the Locust Grove vicinity. These new landowners established plantations and refused to sell parcels of land. This barred Irish Catholics from establishing their homes near the small church. It didn't however, stop them from attending Mass whenever a priest came by, even though they had to walk long distances.

In 1809, Joseph Thompson's will left two acres of his land, on which the burial ground and chapel were already in place, to the Roman Catholic congregation with the stipulation that a permanent residence for a priest be built within two years. This information was contained in a brief history of Locust Grove written by Girdwood Macfie of Taliaferro County.

Several of the settlers decided to establish a school for the education of their children. In 1821, Locust Grove Academy was incorporated with William Darden, Ignatius Semmes, William Gustus and Silvester Luckett listed as trustees. Many prominent Georgians were to be educated at this early school.

That same year, the renowned Bishop John England, an Irish priest appointed first bishop of the newly created diocese of North and South Carolina and Georgia (1820) made the first of many visits to Locust Grove. He was frequently accompanied by Father Jeremiah F. O'Neill, Sr., known to be the bishop's chief assistant in establishing the Church in the Carolinas and Georgia.

Bishop England was impressed by the undaunted faith of the small band of Catholics in Locust Grove despite lengthy stretches of being without a priest and promised to send them one. He had a condition; they were to repair the small log church.

The Locust Grove Catholics did better. They tore down the small building and replaced it with a larger frame church. They situated the new worship place in what had become their burying ground. True to his promise, Bishop England sent Father Francis O'Donoghue to Locust Grove in 1822. The new church was called the Purification of the Blessed Virgin Mary.

Bishop England led the far-flung diocese until his death in 1842. He accomplished much in these years, a time of national intolerance and bigotry. He traveled all around the large territory, mostly by stagecoach, and drew crowds, both Catholic and non-Catholic, wherever he preached. He was recognized for his intellect and his eloquence and gained the respect of local and national lawmakers as well as the Baltimore hierarchy for his persistence and innovation in education and caring for the poor. He began a seminary for priests soon after his arrival in Charleston and encouraged the founding of religious women's congregations.

Probably the first son of Locust Grove Catholics to become a priest was Father Jeremiah F. O'Neill, Jr., a nephew and namesake of the priest who assisted Bishop England. The O'Neills settled in Locust Grove, coming from Canada shortly after the birth of the younger Jeremiah in 1827. At 15 he was accepted for the priesthood by Bishop England and was ordained in 1850. He spent his priesthood ministering to Catholics in the out-missions of Georgia as well as in Macon and Savannah.

First priest to be assigned as pastor at what is now the Shrine of the Immaculate Conception in down-town Atlanta, he served from 1850 until 1857 and was officially appointed pastor on Feb. 13, 1851. He died in 1868 in Baltimore and is buried in the old cemetery at Locust Grove.

Father Peter Whelan, a native of Wexford, Ireland, served the scatter mission of Locust Grove from 1833 until 1850. Described as well educated and an instructive preacher, he eked his support from the earth around his cabin.

After the Civil War, a Father J.M. O'Brien was assigned to the Locust Grove mission. He decided the isolated church should be moved closer to the people who ha been drawn to Sharon by the coming of the Washington branch of the Georgia Railroad in 1852. He had the small frame church taken down and moved less than two miles away to Sharon where it was rebuilt.

In 1878, at the request of Savannah Bishop William Gross, the sisters of St. Joseph of Georgia sent three members to Sharon to establish a school called the Sacred Heart Seminary for boys. The sisters persevered from a humble beginning in a small house. When the need for a school building became desperate, Father O'Brien urged the congregation to construct a new church. The Catholics responded with good will and the old church, the small one dismantled and moved from Locust Grove, was refurbished to serve as a boarding school for boys. For generations, local children, both boys and girls, also got their early education from the Sisters of St. Joseph.

Father Clarence J. Biggers, OCSO, of the Monastery of the Holy Spirit in Conyers, was enrolled in the pre-school at the seminary with his brother Harry in the late 1920s.

He remembers the sisters taking the boys for walks in the woods. "They wanted us to appreciate the area," he said. In memory, he can still see cotton bales piled high at the depot in Sharon when he rode the train home to Atlanta.

A brochure from the early 1940s said the school was within easy distance of Atlanta, Augusta, and Savannah. Board, tuition, laundry, mending and first aid cost $25 per month and book rental was $2 per year payable in advance.

The school closed around 1945 and some of the sisters, now known as the Sisters of St. Joseph of Carondelet, went 15 miles north to Washington to work in an orphanage for boys the former Georgia congregation had established there in 1876. In 1963 Archbishop Paul Hallinan made plans to move the facility to Atlanta. The move was made in 1967 and it became known as the Village of St. Joseph.

The church remains in Sharon. The sturdy white frame structure still graces its quiet ground on Highway 47. And a brief newspaper notice included in a Catholic historian's account recalls its dedication in November 1883, and the large crowds that came by rail to witness the blessing by Bishop Gross.

An Article on Purification Mission today will appear in the Sept. 17 issue of The Georgia Bulletin.