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270 HISTORY OF ERIE COUNTY
timber, and during that time I Avent aAvay for the retreat. I Avas absent
five or six weeks, and upon my returji I invited an IrMh priest, Avho
is my neighbor and lives also on the shore of the Lake, to come and preach
for the laying of the corner-stone. A feAV days later about fifteen or
tAventy. Catholics, the pastor among the number, set to the real Avork,
ami from the 13th of October until the winter came on every minute that
was not consecrated'to the ministry was given to the Avorkmen. I have
been at times architect, superintendent, mason, and even less than that,
as the need may have been.
"The day of the blessing of the corner-stone I made use of a veryefficacious
means to make my people work. The teamsters had unloaded
an enormous pile of stone inside the plan of the foundations. It Avas
right in our way. So Avithout saying a Avord, I took off my coat and
hat and began carrying the stone outside of the foundations. The spectators
all took the hint immediately and it AA'as not long before all the
stone AVIIS removed. In doing this I Avas only imitating our Bishop, AVIIO
at the head of his seminarians, used the shovel for half a day digging
for the foundations of his cathedral, while Fathers Gacon, Cheymol and
others filled the AvheelbarroAvs. You see that AAX* are obliged to turn ourselves
to everything."
The church Avas built entirely of stone, with AvindoAvs, front and corners
trimmed with cut stone and dedicated in 1845. It is 40 by 70, of the
pure Gothic style. The first story of the belfry is 40 feet high, and the
steeple rises 30 feet higher Avith a gilded cross.
In June, 1846, Bishop Purcell visited Sandusky and blessed Father
Machebeuf's churches, of Avhich there Avere now three, and gave confirmation
to 137 persons in the mission. The bishop Avas pleased with
Avhat he saAv, and admired particularly the fine .stone church at Sandusky,
40 by 70 in dimensions, in Gothic style, with its spire 117 feet high, surmounted
by a cross, as Father Machebeuf says, "made by an English
Anabaptist, gilded by an American infidel and placed upon a Catholic
Church to be seen shining by mariners far out upon the lake."
This church had also the luxury of a bell, and in connection with this
Father Machebeuf used to relate the folloAving incident: "When I AVIIS
telling them a feiv Aveeks before Christmas that I expected to find a man
of good will AVIIO Avould volunteer, to go to Toledo for the bell before
Christinas, 1845, one of them in an excess of good will, forgot that he
AA'as in church and cried out immediately, 'Say priest, I'll go tomorroAv.'
and he kept his Avord." John McGoldrick AVIIS the man AVIIO "kept his
-word."
The Catholic Church of St. Peter and St. Paul is a monument to the
Rev. R. A. Sidley.
Reverend Father Sidley came here April 28, 1863. He AA'as then
rather in the prime of life, and naturally a priest desired to carry on
the AA'ork so nobly begun at Holy Angels.
In taking charge of the Holy Angels he found matters in a very good
condition, considering the difficulties the congregation had to pass
through. Father Sidley, folloAving in the footsteps of his old professor,