It has been said that good things come to those who wait. And so, they do. Having written about numerous area churches during the past decade, I long had designs on writing an historical column on Holy Family Catholic Church. For the record, as a Protestant, I don't profess to know the Catholic faith. But I do know the history. Thanks to a new friend, I possess pertinent information on the church's formal organization in the 1940s. And it was at Holy Family Catholic Church that I was married to my husband Rodney, on November 19, 1988, in a secondary ceremony following our civil ceremony on September 30 of that same year in Lake Tahoe.
With my ear to the ground, I picked up bits and pieces of the church's history through the years, assimilating a file. Then last spring, I struck gold when Anita Magee Nicholson, the only child of Robert Wellington "R. W." Magee and Winona Marie Schexnayder Magee, came waltzing in The Era-Leader office in search of me. I missed her visit but not her mailing - the mother lode of materials on the founding of Holy Family Catholic Church, which her beloved mother was instrumental in, in the 1940s.
The daughter of Olide Paul Schexnayder and Martha Alice Vial Schexnayder, Winona was born on September 11, 1911, on the Lone Star Plantation in St. Charles Parish. The Schexnayder family relocated to Washington Parish in the early 1920s, moving to abundant, verdant property purchased near Plainview. It was there, at the dipping vat in the Plainview community, that Winona first saw the gentleman who would one day become her husband. Before that, R. W. Magee was her teacher and principal. Eventually marrying on September 12, 1933, the couple moved from Bogalusa (where the Schexnayder family had settled in 1927) to Franklinton, making their home on Pearl Street in 1936. Yet the one thing missing was a Catholic Church where Winona could worship.
This was a hardship Catholics in our area endured from the early days of our parish. Reaching out, Catholic missionaries on the north shore of Lake Pontchartrain would occasionally visit within Washington Parish. For example, in the early 1900s Fr. Columban Menzel, O. S. B. of St. Joseph's Abbey journeyed to Franklinton. It was told by Fr. Adalbert Suercek, O. S.B., who was then a student in the priesthood, that he drove Fr. Menzel in a horse and buggy to the home of Mr. Simmons, two miles west of Franklinton, where he said Mass. Fr. Suercek also drove Fr. Ambrose Reger, O. S. B., until he did his own driving. Other priests who visited our parish included Fr. Felix Rumpf, O. S. B. (died in 1908) of Amite City and Fr. Joseph Koegrel (retired in 1916) of Covington.
With Archbishop Blenk, S. M., of New Orleans determined to provide more churches for Catholics in the Florida parishes, the Benedictine Fathers of St. Joseph's Abbey, St. Benedict, LA, were assigned in 1912 "the spiritual care" of both Washington and St. Tammany Parishes. In 1907 the first Catholic church parish in Washington Parish had been built, Annunciation of the Blessed Virgin Mary. And Fr. Odilo Alt, O. S. B. was a "missionary at large" who, visiting Franklinton, sought out Catholics. Then, in 1927, Fr. Odilo built a chapel just to the north of what once was Seals' Grocery Store (approximately nine miles west of Franklinton) on the Amite Highway/Highway 16. This mission failed, closing just prior to World War II. Some of the building materials were salvaged during demolition and reused in St. John the Baptist Church, a beautiful church just west of Folsom.
This early Catholic history -- in fact, largely all of the history in this series - was taken from an unsigned, lengthy, handwritten document, entitled "The Story of Holy Family Mission Chapel." Within the text, the compiler was identified as Father Malachy Burns O. S. B., and the information was said to have derived from the diary of Father Charles Villerie (mission founder) which was continued by Father John LeBlanc.
In order to attend Mass after moving to Franklinton in the 1930s, Winona Magee travelled perforce to nearby towns, including Bogalusa, Amite, and Covington, with other local Catholics doing the same. They attended Annunciation Church in Bogalusa for their children's first communion or confirmation. But all of this travel was a burden back in that day. And to make bad matters worse, it became a real issue with the onset of the Second World War and gas rationing, which created a serious obstacle to long-distance worship.
But as is often said, where there's a will, there's a way. And so it was in Franklinton in the 1940s. Six original Catholic families (from the original secretary's booklet) - those of Mrs. R. W. Magee, Mrs. Howard Zerangue, Mrs. George Dick, Mrs. Robert Shaw, Mrs. J. H. Ulmer, and Mrs. L. O. "Ted" Terrogrossa - flocked together to establish the very first "Ladies Altar Society" in Franklinton, meeting in members' homes. Their resolute goal was organization of masses and the eventual building of a Catholic church in our community. Though Mrs. Terrogrossa was not Catholic, she generously hosted meetings in her home when it was her husband's turn. Because there wasn't yet an altar, the group was retitled "The Catholic Ladies Society." Officers selected at a meeting held on February 8, 1945, were as follows: Mrs. George (Addie) Dick - President - and Mrs. R. W. (Winona) Magee - Secretary and Treasurer. Dues were twenty-five cents per month though donations of more were accepted.
Desperately desiring their own church, the Catholic Ladies Society hosted Rev. Father Placide Dobyns, O. S. B., pastor at Annunciation, at their January 16, 1945, meeting. He noted that construction of a building likely would be post-war and advised them to make an appeal to the Most Rev. Archbishop. Mrs. Robert Shaw was assigned the task of putting together the appeal. After said appeal was prepared and accepted by the society members at the February 8, 1945, meeting, it was sent, as planned, to Fr. Dobyns who had agreed to place it "in proper hands for approval."
•Stay tuned next week for the promising reply
