Belmont Abbey College - Spire Yearbook (Belmont, NC)

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lay brothers, and the four students (the Richmond boys and two from Charlotte) lived in the log house on the prop- erty, cleared fields, and at- tended to studies. In the fall of 1876, the frame building which was to house the Col- lege was begun. In 1877, three new students arrived at Maria Stein, the chapel was constructed, and the first Mass was celebrated on September 8. The chapel was blessed in honor of Our Lady under her title of Mary Help of Christians. The official opening of St. Mary ' s College took place in September of 1878. Father Stephen Lyons, O.S.B. was the first rector of the Col - lege, and Fathers Julius Pohl and Jerome Schmitt, O. S. B. , newly arrived from St. Vincent ' s, were the first teachers. 1879 saw a greatly increased enrollment of thirty-nine students. St. Mary ' s College was firmly established, and except for a few setbacks which were soon overc ome, faced the future with determination. In 1884, Abbot Vincent and the chapter of St. Vincent ' s voted the North Carolina from its Foundation to tt)e Present Three

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5 History In the fall of the year 1872, during the rigors of recon- struction in the Carolinas, the Reverend Jeremiah J. O ' Connell purchased the Caldwell Plantation, a rather expensive estate about twelve miles west of Charlotte, which he presented to the Diocese of Richmond in 1875. The Right Reverend James Gibbons, then Bishop of Richmond, accepted the donation, and in turn offered it to the Benedictine monks of St. Vincent ' s Abbey in Latrobe, Pennsylvania, un- der the guidance of the Right Reverend Boniface Wimmer, O. S. B. It was suggested by the Bishop that a college be set up there. After some deliberation and inquiry, the monastic chapter voted on January 19, 1876 to accept the land. On April 21, 1876, Father Herman Wolf, O.S.B. and two boys from Richmond ar- rived at the Caldwell Plan- tation and took possession of the premises. Father Herman called the place Maria Stein (Mary of the Stone) because of the large shaft of granite in the front yard. Lay brothers arrived from St. Vincent ' s four days later, and work began. During the first year, much went on at Maria Stein; Fa- ther Prior Herman, the five 73409 of Belmoot gbbe Two

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•JC : • priory independent. A call was issued: Volunteers were des ired f rom St. Vincent ' s to transfer their vows to the new Abbey. Eight monks re- sponded immediately, and to these men was entrusted the duty of electing an abbot. On Bastille Day of 1885, the Reverend Leo Haid was elected the first Abbot of Mary Help Christians Ab- bey. Soon, two more monks joined them, and this Abbot and community of ten took possession of the college and Abbey of St. Mary. The college was reopened that September with an in- creased number of students. Abbot Leo was blessed the following month by the Bis- hop of Charleston in his cathedral there. The college expanded: an- other building was started and built from bricks made on the site. Many were the times that the monks and students were roused at midnight from a sound sleep to save the yet-undried bricks from a sudden down- pour. Throughout the rest of the nineteenth century, St. Mary ' s College and Mary Four •••• ••■■- ■•■•■-■ ■ ' •■»— ' y-f ' iwnMtmMM««