Holy Family High School - Achillean Yearbook (Auburn, NY)

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.. Histor of our School A 5' i fl' The first school in .Xuhurn, liuilt in 179o, with llenjamin l'helps ' as schoolniaster, was a small log' house located on the site of 'f A- lluly l'i3l1lily Seltfifil. Holy l'iH1T1llj' Scltotil is 3 Iamlmark also, front the Catholic viewpoint, for -lesuit Missionaries traveled the lndian trail which has grown to he North Street. on their way to the villages ol' the fayugas. Rt. Rev. Monsignor lfdward l llyrne. a former memher of Holy lfamily Parish, has kindly written ati accotttit of their lahors for our puhlication on the opposite page. A Q The first Holy lfamily school was originally huilt in 18211 hy Methodists and was purchased in 1834 hy Catholics to he used as the first Catholic Church in Auhurng and later, in 186111, was converted into the first Catholic schoolhouse, The first teachers were laymen and attendance was very ir' regular, tmtil 1867, when the Sisters of Mercy came to Auhurn. .Xt the request of Rev. Thomas O'Flaherty, five Sisters ot' Mercy came from Rochester. Sister M. lJePazzi, Sister M. Gertrude. First Holy Fmmly Sdmul Sister M. Angela, Sister M. Ursula and Sister M. Veronica. A person living today, Mrs. .-Xlice Keeler of XYashington, D. C.. who was a memher of the Sisters' school during the first year writes as follows about it: The house tof the Sistersl was where it is now, lt was a doulile house and Sister M. Gertrude opened a select school on one side. 1 was one of the first pupils. The old Church was made into a school house and Mother lie- Pazzi was in charge there. Of course, other Sisters came on, The Sisters lived in the side toward lilullens' who were very kind to them, l rememher the Chapel especially. lt had an altar which my father helped to huild. lt was white and a little red latnp with oil was lvefore it. There were lights and flowers in vases. l thought l was almost in Heaven when we went in there. You know the property extended hack to llowlines' on Yan.'Xnden Street. lt was lovely in the hack, separated from the front hy hedges and we played hack there. The select school did not last long. and then l went to the parochial school for the rest ot' my school days. The second sehool, a hrick structure was erected on Chapel Street in 1875, during lfathei' Kavanaug'lt's pastorate. By this time the attendance had increased consideralily and at one time reached nearly ollll, the approximate numher now attending Holy Family School. l'rincipals during these years were: Sister M. lJel'azzi, Sistet' M. Catherine. Sister M. Patricia, Sister M. Berchmans, Sister M. Benedict. Sister M. Stella, Sister M. Stanislaus, Sister M. Genevieve. The present school was huilt in 1928 hy Monsignor Conway. The grade school has heen supervised hy Sister M. Genevieve, Sister M. Camilla and at present hy Sister M. Antonia, lleeause of the size of the new school, Very Rev- erend john Francis O'Hern. llishop of the llioeese. suggested that a parochial high school he included in the liuilding. Upon Father Conway's accepting this suggestion, Sister M, Martha he-came the first principal. On Septemher 8, 19311, Holy Family High School, which consisted of one classroom. a lahoratory, and a lihrary of ,ltlll hooks, was officially opened. Altliougli the school was small, its students were very active. ln 1932, Rev. XYil1iam li. Davie was assigned to Holy Family as principal and teacher of the young school. The first class graduated in 1934. Since that time the school h-as flourished, gaining prestige for seliolarship, athletics, and ahove all religious training: thus, giving the connnunity no small contrihution of Catholic, talented and civic-minded nten and women. Maura Cuddy '49 tonveut and the second Holy lfamily School

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Present Holy Family School THF FIRST NYHITIC TICACHICRS IN 'FHICAUHURN DISTRICT were nndotlhtedly the Catholic Missionaries who came in the middle of the seventeenth century to spread the Gos- pel of Christ among' the Indians. XYhile the primary purpose of their dwelling and their activities among the natives was a religious one, it is heyond doulmt that the early ,lesuits taught in addition to religion, lessons of culture and civilization. Such was their custom, as is shown hy the letters and reports made hy them to their Superiors, which are still extant, and hy their practise elsewhere. The first white resident of the country of the Cayneas was Father Rene Menard. S.,l., to whose memory the hridge over the Seneca River on the main highway he- tween :Xuhurn and Seneca Falls is dedicated. He was sent in N150 with a numher of fellow ,lesuits to hegin work among the lroquois of what is now New York State. 'l'he headquarters of the mission were located among the Unondagas. From that center Missionaries went out to the various trihes of the Iroquois Confed- eracy. Father Menard, accompanied hy Father Chau- monot, came to the Cayugas at their own request in the late summer of 1056. He settled among them in their principal village, located near the present day Mapleton. south of I-Xuhurn, where the Indians under Chief Saon- ehiagua lvuilt him a C-hapel. For ahout two years Father Menard lahored among the Cayugas of this and of other villages of the 'l'rihe. liventually in 1658 he with all the wther Missionaries among the Iroquois were recalled and ilulieeil to rttire tu Canada on account of a threatened massacre of all the French. made known hy a Christian Indian. llnring his settlement of approximately Iwi: years in the Indian village of fioi-o-onguen Father Menard nn- douhtedly visited and taught in the other nearliy villages nl. the Cayugas. Consequently he can legitimately he eonsidered the first white teacher of the district. .Xml as thtre was a small Cayuga village at the ford over the Uwasco River near the site of the present ,Xnhurn Prison, Father Menard may have evangelized the In- dians of that village. In this case he wotild have heen the original white teacher not only of the .-Xuhurn district hut even of the confines of Holy Family Parish. .-Xfter their withdrawal from the Iroquois country in l6S8, tl1e Jesuit Fathers. notwithstanding repeated invi- tations and pleas on the part of the treacherous Iroquois, did not return until l668. Their efforts to Christianize the Iroquois were then renewed in their various cantons. The mission to the Cayugas was undertaken hy one of France's nohlemen, Father Stephen de Carheil. Arriving at Goi-o-ougen in November lfmo8, he erected a Chapel and dedicated it to St. joseph. Ifnfortunately he was after a few years attacked hy sickness and he was com- pelled in lo7l to retire for a time for medical treatment in Canada. 'l'o the priest. who replaced him during that period of ahout two years in the Cayuga Mission, name- ly, Father Peter Raffeix, we are indehted not only for a tnap hut also for the first written description of the country between Owasco and Cayuga Lakes. The latter is contained in a letter, dated June 24, 1672, which may he found in the Collection of ,lesuit Reports tRe- lationesj for that year, On the return of Father de Carheil frotll Canada, he resumed charge of the Chapel at Goi-o-ougen, of the one dedicated to St. Stephen near the northern end of Cayuga Lake, and that of St. Rene, which was located on the Seneca River, prohahly a little north of the present village of Montezuma. Father de Carheil was a very learned teacher and there are still in existence in Canadian archives manuscripts in his own handwriting. Iiventually he and all the other French Missionaries were ohliged to retire from the Iroquois country when it was taken over hy lfngland. A large numher of the Cayuga Indians, who had hecome Chris- tians, followed them to Canada where many of their descendants live as good Catholics at the present time. lviyflil lv't'1't'rt'ml .llou.vt'y1uor lfilxcttrtl J. liyrne.