“From the Archives” — Parish Histories

During its 229 years, several histories have been written about Saint Mary parish. In 1870, its 75th anniversary, Father Richard Carne and his historian brother, William Carne, wrote a short history. They included much firsthand information because some parishioners, or their children, from the early years of the parish were still living.

Nearly 70 years later, Father Thomas Rankin, Saint Mary’s pastor from 1930 to 1942 and an avid historian, planned to write a new, expanded history. He hired a professional researcher who spent considerable time at the Library of Congress and other sources, amassing considerable information. Unfortunately, Father Rankin died shortly before Christmas in 1942, before the book was written. Monsignor Edward L. Stephens, his successor as pastor from 1943 to 1959, decided to complete the book for the parish’s 150th anniversary in 1945. He used his vacation to rent a cottage at Westmoreland State Park, packed his typewriter, voluminous notes and yellow legal pads, and wrote One Hundred and Fifty Years for Christ, distributed to parishioners at the anniversary celebration.

This book was the source for much of the information in the 1995 parish history, Two Hundred Years for Christ. Very little archival material had been digitized yet, so researchers made numerous trips to the Jesuit Archives at Georgetown University, the Library of Congress, and the offices of the Diocese of Richmond and the Catholic Virginian newspaper archives. Much had happened in the previous half century!

A new history book had been planned for the 225th parish anniversary in 2020, but the COVID pandemic disrupted those plans. Since so much information is digitized now, it was possible to complete our new history working from home much of the time, online, rather than traveling to Richmond—or even to the pandemic-closed Alexandria Library. Phone calls and emails to archivists in the Arlington and Richmond dioceses, also working from home, worked well. The new history is expected to be published as part of our 230th anniversary celebration in 2025.

— Kitty Guy, Parish Historian

 

In 2020, to commemorate the 225th anniversary of our parish, we started “From the Archives” as a weekly feature online and in our bulletin to spotlight the history of Saint Mary’s. Due to its popularity, we are continuing the series in 2022. An archive of the features is located here.