This file portion of www.watertownhistory.org website
Crangle
Family
First
Mass in Watertown
Founding of St. Bernard’s Catholic Church
Bernard Crangle and family arrived in
Watertown
The Crangle family had come from
Ireland in 1831 and had made their home in Sherbrooke, Canada, until coming to
Watertown.
Two sons, Bernard, Jr., and Henry
had come from Beloit in 1840 and they built the first frame house in the
village as well as a barn, both located south of the present east-west railroad
tracks on the east side of the present-day Milford Street, directly opposite
the Karma manufacturing plant. It was only a short walk to the cabin of Timothy
Johnson. The land was purchased from
John Cole on
The next summer, Bernard Crangle,
Sr. together with his wife Mary, and sons Robert and Patrick arrived in
Watertown and took up residence in the home their carpenter sons had built for
them. That house was of very sturdy construction; typical was that the oak roof
boards were all one inch thick and twenty inches wide.
The house, located at
Watertown Daily Times, 07 26 1941
Both gravel and sand pits were
developed on portions of the property. When the gravel pit was created, thirty
human skeletons were found in it. The sand pits also contained dozens of skulls
as well as other human bones, including those of children. The Rogan farm was
located on land that had been an Indian burial ground. While Indian artifacts
were not unearthed, dozens of stone arrowheads turned up in the fields.
At the time the Crangle family
settled in Watertown, the nearest Catholic church was located in Milwaukee.
Members of the family went to that church on occasion, presumably when they
made the lengthy trip to Milwaukee to replenish provisions. It was in these
early years, very likely in the fall of 1842, that Fr. Kundig came to
Watertown. The Crangle boys had gone to Milwaukee for supplies, met Kundig
there, and brought him home with them.
From that time forward, generally
every other Sunday, he regularly stopped at the Crangle home and said Mass
there, using a small cherry table as an altar. That table has survived and is
used in St. Bernard's Church even today where it holds the altar breads, water
and wine used by the priest in the celebration of Mass
Wallman, Charles J., Built on Irish Faith, Impressions, 1994
The house stood over 100 years and no
doubt can last another hundred years, for a barn frame cut from the forest
supports the strong timbers.
The first Mass said in Watertown was
celebrated in the Crangle home by Father Kundig in the fall of 1841, and he
continued to visit the village at intervals until 1845 when the first little
church was completed on the site of the present St.
Bernard’s.
Shortly before his death in 1898,
Patrick Rogan wrote the article referred to above telling of the beginnings of
the first Catholic Church in Watertown. His "Reminiscences" relating
to certain of those events reads as follows:
Reminiscences
On a Saturday afternoon of a cold
winter day in the month of December, 1841, in making the circuit of his mission
on his way home to Milwaukee, the Rev. Martin Kundig made his second visit to
Watertown, stopping at Bernard Crangle's home, now the residence of Robert
Crangle, and announcing his purpose to celebrate Mass on the morrow, and
requested one of the boys to notify Catholics living in the vicinity. Henry
Crangle carried the message to Daniel Crowley and William Barrett's family and
to James and Patrick Rogan who then comprised the Catholics residing in
Watertown.
Accordingly, on that Sunday morning
Father Kundig found kneeling before his improvised altar, Bernard Crangle and
wife, four sons and one daughter, Daniel Crowley, William Barrett, James and
Patrick Rogan, all told. Mass over, Father Kundig made a short address urging
upon his hearers the necessity of providing a place suitable for divine
worship, and requested those present to meet him there in the afternoon to
initiate some plan for the erection of a church.
Accordingly, as requested, we met in
the Crangle front room where Father Kundig assumed the chair and announcing his
plans and stating how all things had a beginning, that large oaks from little
acorns grew, and, to get a church in Watertown (though few in number) we must
commence at once, and then and there drew up a Church Building Subscription,
and all present signed it. It was then proposed to go and select the site on
which to erect the church. And, accordingly, Daniel Crowley, William Barrett,
Henry and Bernard Crangle, Jr., and James and Patrick Rogan accompanied Father
Kundig to witness his selection of a site to build on. And after examining the
ground over, he stood near if not on the very spot on which the church now
stands, and in manner and language most impressive said:
In the name of God, here we will
build our church and here and now I will name the congregation, and the church
when erected, and as a compliment to our good and venerable friend Bernard
Crangle will call it St. Bernard, and by that name it will henceforth be known.
From 1840 [sic] till 1844 Father
Kundig and his successor on the mission Father Morrissey, in their periodic
visits to Watertown always found a cordial welcome at the house of the Crangle
family, and in the little twelve-foot square room and good fathers were wont to
celebrate Holy Mass at each recurring visit.
Cross Reference:
No 1: Crangle
property site of Van Camp
