The Rev. Andrew Arnold Lambing’s booklet Brief Sketch of St. James’ Roman Catholic Church gives a window into history.
Rev. John M. Bierl and the Founding of the Church
Although Father Hughes, of Braddock, still laid claim to Wilkinsburg, the people for the most part did not recognize the claim, but affiliated themselves generally with the church in East Liberty. The pastor of Sts. Peter and Paul’s at that time was Rev. John M. Bierl, who took the future congregation in hand with a view of organizing it and having a church built as soon as convenient; for, unlike the beginnings of many other congregations, Mass was never celebrated there in a hall or other place before the completion of the church.
The Location
James Kelly donated lots for a number of the religious denominations of the town for church sites; and, though very unfriendly to Catholics, he was prevailed on to donate one to them also. It was situated on the present South avenue, now Nos. 910 and 912 . . . most of the people and the Bishop were displeased with it, and . . . looked out for another. With this object in view, the Bishop sent Ver. Rev. Tobias Mullen, Vicar-General of the Diocese, and pastor of St. Peter’s Church, Allegheny, and Rev. A. P. Gibbs, pastor of St. Mary’s Church, Forty-sixth street, Pittsburgh, to visit the town, as it were, casually, and select a more eligible site. This was most probably in the early summer of 1866 . . . and their choice was the spot now occupied by the church. . . .
The Cherry Tree
In deliberating on this matter the two priests stood under a large cherry tree which stood close to the rear of the present church. Speaking of this tree in the fall of 1886, a few years before his death, Bishop Mullen—for he was now Bishop of Erie—inquired of me with much concern whether the old cherry tree was still standing, and made me promise that when it should fall, I would have a post formed from a solid part of its trunk, and plant it where the tree had stood to mark the spot. But the years of its silent testimony to the birth of St. James’ congregation were at length numbered, and the last remnant of its decayed trunk fell to the ground on March 14, 1911, no longer able to support its own weight. Nothing of it remained solid but a small part, which forms a most unique relic of its former greatness, and which adorns and will long continue to adorn the pastor’s study. It seems that when the tree was yet a mere sapling it was “blazed” near the ground, and as it grew up the wound inflected on its trunk grew larger and its rim hard and burly; and when the trunk had decayed and fallen to the ground this rim remained intact in one very hard oval piece, which was removed, and, with only a little smoothing off, made an irregular oval frame about nine by sixteen inches, the frame sloping inward and measuring from two and one-half to three and one-half inches in width. Within this frame the pastor of the church has prepared and inserted the following bit of our congregation’s history:
“This frame, in one piece, was cut from the trunk of the large cherry tree that stood to the rear of St. James’ Church, Wilkinsburg; which, after weathering many storms, died at a good old age, and the last remains of its venerable trunk fell to the ground March 14, 1911.
“It was under the shadow of this tree that Very Rev. Rev. Tobias Mullen, Vicar-General, and Rector of St. Peter’s Church, Allegheny, and Rev. Andrew P. Gibbs, Rector of St. Mary’s Church, Forty-sixth street, Pittsburgh, consulted together at the request of Bishop Domenec, in the summer of 1866, and decided on the purchase of the lots on which St. James Church now stands.
“A. A. Lambing, Rector”
Rev. Gibbs, Philip Weisenberger, and James Kelly
Having fixed upon a spot, and, knowing that it could not be bought in the name of the Bishop or the congregation, Father Gibbs secured the intervention of Philip Weisenberger, an oil dealer and friend of his, living in the Lawrenceville district of the city and in his congregation, as a purchaser of the ground. He accordingly bought lots Nos. 359 and 360 of the Wilkinsburg plan, each 116 feet in width and extending 264 feet, from Franklin to Rebecca avenues, parallel with Mulberry street, though 116 feet west of it, with the ostensible purpose of building a country residence on them, the deed being dated September 20, 1866. . . . Philip Weisenberger and his wife, Sebella, deeded these lots to Bishop Domenec in trust for the congregation, May 8, 1868, for a consideration of $2,800. When Mr. Kelly learned that the lots were intended as the side of a Catholic church he was very much displeaseed, alleging that Mr. Weisenberger had bought them for a residence, and the presence of a Catholic church would depreciate the value of his adjoining properties. He applied to the court for an injunction, and a long litigation was the result, in which Mr. Kelly lost his case; and the church was built.
Rev. Bierl and Memories
Upon my applying to him for information . . . Father Bierl, then a member of the Franciscan Minor Conventuals, at St. Joseph’s Church and Monastery, Utica, N. Y., wrote me . . . November, 3, 1909, as follows:
“Rev. and Dear Father Lambing:
“The memory of the seven years of my pastorate in East Liberty will remain dear to me as long as I live. It was the time of the war of secession, when Greater Pittsburg developed; a boom in real estate and church building set in. “Old Kelly” . . . a large land owner in Wilkinsburg, who had surveyed his farm and laid out streets and town lots, and was selling and giving away plots for churches, was approached by Mrs. John Carley, a wide-awake and zealous Catholic lady of Wilkinsburg, to donate a plot of ground for a Catholic church, in or about the year 1868. He gave a plot east of the ravine that crossed his farm. An Irishman, whose name I have forgotten, who had a lumbering camp near Lilly Station, P. R. R., gave the lumber and a young builder and carpenter of Wilkinsburg designed and contracted to build the chapel on the lots donated. But, lo! I was surprised one morning by Mr. Weisenberger, an oil speculator, who handed me a deed by which he had sold to Bishop Domenec for $1.00, etc., a plot near the Wilkinsburg railroad station for the new church. Tableau! Father Hickey had sprung this surprise on me. . . . This was a much more desirable lot for the new church. Father Hickey superintended the building from that time. . . . Mr. Kelly, who sold the ground to Weisenberger for a villa . . . was raving mad and sued for an injunction to prevent the Catholic church being erected. The suit went into chancery, Judge Shannon was my attorney, and Kelly was defeated.”
James Kelly and Lumber
It would appear that the lumber got for the new church was first placed on the lots donated by Mr. Kelly, and a number of the congregation were in favor of building there . . .. But when the other lot was secured the lumber was hauled to it by order of Father Hickey, who had the matter now in his hands, and work was began or about to begin when Mr. Kelly sent his teams by night and had the lumber taken back to the other lot. Some of his friends prevailed on him, however, to return it to its place and avoid difficulties; and it was then that he applied for the injunction to which reference has been made. Not a few of the citizens of the town were also very much opposed to the presence of a Catholic church in their midst; but that spirit has, happily, evaporated.
The corner-stone was laid without ceremony . . . and the little edifice on its completion was dedicated by Very Rev. Father Hickey, on Thanksgiving Day, November 18, 1869, Feast of the Dedication of the Basilicas of St. Peter and St. Paul, Rome. A special train for the accomodation of the Catholic societies and other came out from the city, as the Gazette informs us, and the celebration was quite an elaborate affair. The church was an unpretending little frame structure of no particular style of architecture, 30 by 60 feet, with a little bellfry over the entrance, and was furnished, in addition to the body of the church, with a small gallery or organ loft.
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Rev. A. A. Lambing, LL. D., “An Interesting Bit of Local History: Brief Sketch of St. James’ Roman Catholic Church, Wilkinsburg, Pa.” circa 1912.