Historic Mass to celebrate Roman Catholic Church
©The Register-Herald 2003
By: John Blankenship, Staff September 08, 2001
If you like history and you're a wee bit Irish, you might want to make plans for
Saturday.
That's when a historic Mass will be celebrated at one of Raleigh County's oldest
religious landmarks.
On Irish Mountain stands the first Roman Catholic church built in the county.
And though it's been almost 125 years since the first crossbeams and rafters
were raised at the historic structure, a throng of pious Irish patrons are
expected to gather at the house of worship Saturday, when a special Mass will be
offered by Father Sam Sacus of St. Francis de Sales in Beckley. The Mass will
begin at 5 p.m.
"It promises to be a very moving event,'' explained Danny Kuhn of Cool Ridge.
"The church was started in the 1870s to accommodate Irish railroad workers. The
cemetery has stones of people who died there, but stone after stone records
birth places in Ireland.''
Kuhn has gathered a number of documents and historical materials about the St.
Coleman's colorful past. The former high school psychology teacher noted that
the old Irish Mountain church was built in 1878.
"The parent church of St. Coleman's was St. Patrick's Catholic Church in Hinton,
which was founded in 1872 by Father D.P. Walsh. Once a month, a priest from St.
Patrick's would make a laborious 25-mile trek to St. Coleman's to say Mass."
And while it's no longer used for regular religious ceremonies - except for
special events and holiday occasions celebrating its anniversary dates - the
white-frame church is still maintained and remains open to visitors. A guest
registry inside the church indicates people continue to find and visit the
church often.
Its hand-hewn sills and joists resting on large foundation stones, St. Coleman's
church stands on one of the highest knolls in the Irish Mountain settlement
plateau. The church is surrounded by a cemetery containing about 50 markers.
Inside the wooden building are 12 benches used by early worshippers. Some of the
attending early Irish families fashioned their own pews at the time.
The present altar and a few of the pews were made in 1904 by Father John J.
Swint, who was a carpenter and cabinet maker, and who later became bishop, then
archbishop of the Wheeling diocese.
Descendants of the original Irish Mountain clans still hold services in the
little church about once a year. People from Sandstone and Abraham get together
on a given Sunday for reunions and photographs.
About 20 families once lived at the Irish Mountain settlement, which at the time
grew to become one of the largest hamlets for miles around. Except for the
church itself, little remains of the original community today.
Quite a number of the early settlers of Irish Mountain and their descendants are
buried in the churchyard. Names like Sullivan, Conner, McCarthy, Dillon,
Fitzpatrick and Nee are etched on the gravestones.
Early church records and historical accounts show that a common link that
brought people to the area was the railroad. "Priests traveled to Hinton by
train and then by horse to Irish Mountain," explained Kuhn, who will offer
refreshments at his home in Cool Ridge after the Saturday evening Mass. He noted
that the church is listed in the National Register of Historic Places and is
still part of the charge of St. Patrick's parish because of its links to Hinton.
"There are a number of patrons from both Beckley and Hinton who take great
interest in seeing the church is kept up,'' Kuhn said. "It's been a tradition
for some parishioners to go there and hold Mass around Memorial Day and Labor
Day.''
On Saturday Father Sacus will celebrate a Vigil Mass at St. Coleman's with the
assistance of Beckley dentist Dr. Jim Farris, who served communion as an altar
boy some 70 years ago.
"I served as altar boy at St. Francis de Sales in 1932,'' Farris said. "I was
one of the first altar boys who served under Father John Halpin. On several
occasions, I served as altar boy at the Irish Mountain church with Father Halpin.
"We drove up to the church in one of the early automobiles. Both the Irish
Mountain church and the Beckley church were missionary churches, offshoots of
St. Patrick's in Hinton because of the C & O Railroad."
Farris has visited the Irish Mountain church on several occasions over the
years, helping to maintain the grounds of St. Coleman's with the 56-57 Beckley
Council of the Knights of Columbus. "It's wonderful that it's still there. It
isn't a large church; it can hold about 50 to 75 people. But there's a lot of
history in that church."