Margaret Murphy 1896-1986 _________________________________
Pauline Masson –
To Family and friends she was a devout Catholic lady who attended Mass on Sundays and saints days, not famous by any measure, but in recent years every archbishop and auxiliary bishop in the St. Louis Archdiocese who came to celebrate Mass at the Old Rock Church knew her name.
St. Patrick of Armagh Church in Catawissa, aka the Old Rock Church – built in 1864 and abandoned as a Catholic parish in 1925 – is now a historic landmark, known for its annual homecoming picnics, melding of Catholic and Protestant worshipers and hefty preservation fund, thanks to a modern preservation society.
To locals, the one person most closely associated with this popular gathering place is the late Billy Murphy, a former auto worker, Century Farmer and scion of at least three pioneer families, the Murphys, McCauleys and Leitches. He served as president of the St. Patrick’s Preservation Society from 1972 until his death in 2018. He would be the first to tell you he did it only because his mother, Margaret Murphy insisted.
Billy Murphy _______________
Billy was a raconteur of the frst water – a non-stop talker who knew how to throw out phrases that captured the attention of listeners.
There were stories aplenty for Billy to tell about the troubled and triumphant life of St. Patrick’s.
There was the story of lumberman Ronny Short, who loaned the picnic committee boards in the 1970s to build picnic booths. If they did not cut the boards and removed any nails they had hammered in, there would be no charge when they returned them. But on the fourth year when Billy went to pick up the boards, Mr. Short said he was not going to loan St. Patrick’s “no more lumber.”
“I’m tired of loaning you Catholics all that lumber to go out there and make money,” he said. He went on about how awful we were for borrowing his lumber. And as we started to leave with our heads bowed, he said, “I’m just going to give you the damn lumber.”
St. Patrick’s Cemetery in the lean years. _______________.
There was the lady who got down on her hands and knees and used her sewing scissors to clip grass away from gravestones as other volunteers used hand scythes and push mowers to clear a path to a burial site in the overgrown cemetery.
And the lady who decided to wear her worn shoes for another year so she could give the $2 she saved for new shoes to buy the J.G. Pfeffer organ for the church – which is still in working condition and played at every Mass celebrated at the historic church.
There was the day in the year 2000 when the 1880 Stuckstede Brothers bell that had called neighbors in all directions to Mass for 120 years settled into the soft pine floor of the bell house and stopped ringing. Volunteers wrestled two one-ton chain hoists up the outside ladder to top beam of the tower to lift the bell and cradle, then carried two six-inch by twelve-inch by six-foot timbers up the ladder and shimmied them under the cradle allowing the bell to swing free and produce a resounding ring. Jim Phelan, one of the hoisting volunteers, who was 89 at the time, said the bell was worth saving. It could be heard at his house over two miles away.
There was the year the well went dry in the weeks leading up to the picnic. The local well driller had too many wells in progress to drill a well before St. Patrick’s picnic. Without water there would be no picnic. The well driller’s daughter wasn’t having it. She rounded up a crew of drillers and worked around the clock for three days and miraculously produced water for the picnic.
One by one Billy told these tales of sacrifice and derring do.
But the real story of the survival of this community treasure is Billy’s recollection of a Sunday in 1972, the day Father Bell, St. James pastor told congregants that all the service buildings at the old St. Patrick’s parish were to be demolished, and the insurance on the property would not be renewed. The archdiocese could not justify pouring more money into a dormant rural parish, Father Bell said. Anyone wanting more information on the planned demolition should remain after Mass.
Sitting next to Billy during this alarming announcement was his mother Margaret Murphy. She held up one finger, as Billy later recalled, and said, “You stay.”
John and Margaret Murphy’s 50th Wedding Anniversary: from left John Murphy, Billy Murphy, Bob Murphy holding (David Murphy), Connie Pross (holding Bridget Pross), Charlotte Murphy and Margaret Murphy. ________________________________________________________________
Margaret Murphys ties to St. Patrick’s were immutable. In the cemetery behind the church, carved stones marked the graves of her father Daniel Leitch, her mother Anna McAuley Leitch, her grandfather Riverboat Dan McAuley and her grandfather John Leitch, who had laid the cornerstone for the rock church 1859.
She couldn’t bear the thought that the priest’s house might be demolished. She and her husband John were the last couple to be married in the parish church. On their wedding in February 1924 she decorated the priest’s house for her wedding breakfast. Their son Edmund was the last infant to be baptized in the church.
Although Father Bell said the stone church was not to be torn down, Margaret and her fellow former parishioners were dubious. The Archdiocese had demolished St. Patrick’s sister church, St. Columbkille in Byrnesville, only eleven years earlier.
The former St. Patrick’s parishioners had to save the church, she told Billy. He dutifully joined supporters and formed a new Preservation Society. Billy later recalled that he was not the first choice as president of the new society. For one week, that honor went to Virginia Brummett, the church organist.
“When Virginia found out that she had to give her Social Security number to get a beer license she resigned. So that threw me in as president, Billy said. It was 1972, the first year of the modern day homecoming picnics.
Margaret Murphy died in 1987, the year the homecoming picnic raised $17,358 with $8,932 in profit to be spent on the cemetery, rectory, bell tower, and outdoor kitchen. It was a princely sum. Even Father Berry’s old barn was eventually restored.
As archbishops and auxiliary bishops began to take notice of this remote stone church and its incredible revenue generating homecoming picnic, one by one archdiocese leaders came to check it out.
At the announcement of these impending visits, priests at St. James, St. Mary’s and St. Bridget rounded up altar boys to form a welcoming court. Members of the Father Berry Knights of Columbus, dressed in full Fourth Degree Regalia, lined up to escort their excellencies and their entourage into the church.
Visiting prelates were astounded at the full pews in a parish closed in 1925.
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Bishopsß eyed the crowds that filled the pews of a church that ceased being a parish in 1925 and marveled at the legendary lady who inspired it’s continued life.
“How did this happen?”each visiting bishop wanted to know.
Each time Billy told the story of that day at St. James Church when the thought of the church being torn down distressed his mother’s and her insistence that he remain after Mass and join the local chorus to save it.
Each archbishop and auxiliary bishop who celebrated Mass at St. Patrick’s began their homily by paying homage to Margaret Murphy for her role in saving such a community jewel.
For 45 years, by will of his infectious personality, Billy Murphy kept the St. Patrick’ homecoming picnics going and growing. But, he would remind listeners, he did it at the insistence of his mother Margaret Murphy. After his death in 2018 two of his grandsons, David Murphy and Mark Pross took over the responsibility – along with descendants of Billy’s picnic co-chair Bob Conley.
Revenue for last year’s picnic reached $76,399 – with $19,636 available for church and grounds maintenance. David Murphy Preservation Society president noted that due to the generous patronage of supporters the Preservation Society was able to complete a number of improvements.
“We expanded the sidewalk, so it runs continuously from the church to the dining hall and into the restrooms. This was a big hit at Memorial day Mass,” he said. “Work included repairing the beer booth, purchasing new chairs for the dining hall and restoring the front of the church, painting the high arched windows and front door that anchors the handicapped ramp that Billy installed in 2017.
Local painter Mike Branson stripped the layers of white paint that had covered the front door for untold decades. Using artisan technique he brought out the color of the pine door and stained it to embellish the design in the pediment, giving the door the look of an ancient European cathedral entry.
St. Patric’s of Armagh restored entry door. _______________________________________________
David Murphy and Mark Pross, worked at the annual homecoming picnic as young boys, along with Steve Conley, Bob Conley’s nephew. Still, they never fail to voice amazement at the love and support the community lavishes on their grandfather’s and great-grandmother’s old church. It is a constant reminder that their family ties go deep in a community that cherishes local lore and tradition.
One of the stories I always heard was when Mrs Murphy arrived at the church as demolition was to begin and she stood in front of the tractors that were to do the work and challenged them to go past her !!!