History - Hometown Matters

paulinemasson August 10, 2025August 11, 2025ImageHistory 1 Comment

Margaret Murphy 1896-1986 / Old Rock Church Legend / Every Archbishop and Auxiliary Bishop Who Visited Here Knew Her Name

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 … Continue reading “Margaret Murphy 1896-1986 / Old Rock Church Legend / Every Archbishop and Auxiliary Bishop Who Visited Here Knew Her Name”

,Steamboat on the Meramec One day a farmer, who had taken produce to St. Louis, returned with important news. While there he had learned that two steamboats were on their way to the Moselle iron works, and would pass by this place, in the Meramec River, the next day. The news was carried from house to house until nearly everybody in the settlement knew of it. Early in the morning they began to gather along the banks of the river. The high bluffs close to the stream afforded the best view. One of those that was most convenient was on the road to Port William (Gray Summit), two miles west of the town, at the Dr.Jeffries farm. There is a long line of rocks close to the river at this place, and collected in groups, gathered.

As they pass by the spectators can read the names. The first boat is the Petrel iand the second is Dove. They move on up the river to the Moselle Iron Works, where they load with iron. They start down stream, but the mad waters of the river carry them with great force. The Petrel is in the lead. She runs in safety past this place but the Dove has been delayed and the river is falling. Why has she stopped?The men are throwing off the iron! It is near where the fish trap was made twenty years ago. Some of the iron lies there yet. Again she starts down the river, and again lodges and is aground about a mile below town. There she waited nearly a year for a freshet and then was run a few miles further down. She turned across the stream and was broken in two and destroyed.

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Category: History

Margaret Murphy 1896-1986 / Old Rock Church Legend / Every Archbishop and Auxiliary Bishop Who Visited Here Knew Her Name