Looking back: Parochial schools

An announcement that Our Lady Queen of Peace School would close June 23, 2010, after 50 years of providing parochial school education, was the result of a painful decision.

The Rev. Frederick Walters, the parish pastor, said that despite efforts to keep the school open, it was financially impossible to do so.

By the end of the March 1 registration period for the 2010-11 school year, just 49 pupils were signed up to attend classes. The registration deadline was extended to March 19 but only six more children were enrolled.

The Parish Finance Council met and faced the reality that getting the 135 students needed to make the school sustainable was an unattainable goal. Parents owning homes in the West Milford, faced with rising public school taxes, no longer could afford to also pay for the private religious school education that they wanted for their children.

Those with the money to register their children in an out-of-town parochial school found that St. Catherine’s School in Ringwood and St. Mary’s School in Pompton Lakes were filled.

The trend of falling enrollment continued and more parochial schools closed. St. Joseph’s School in the Echo Lake community closed in June 2006. St. Anthony’s School in Butler closed in June 2017. St. Mary’s in Pompton Lakes operated until June 2020. St. Francis School in Wanaque is no longer open.

The Holy Spirit School in Pequannock remains open, along with some others in the Paterson Diocese.

Catholics hid religion

From 1744 to 1764, the first missionary priest in this area, Father Theodore Schneider, traveled through the area on horseback, disguised as a doctor or a tinker, a tinsmith who mended pots, pans and other metal utensils.

Because most early settlers were Protestants, the Catholics worshiped in secrecy because of anti-Catholicism among the settlers and British control before the Revolutionary War.

The first Franciscan priests arrived in New York on Sept. 5, 1875. They were received by the Diocese of Ogdensburg, N.Y., and assigned to St. Joseph Church in Croghan, N.Y.

With more Franciscans arriving in 1876, a parish was established in Paterson. It had two priests, three clerics who were preparing for the priesthood and three lay brothers. In 1877, a church was built and named for St. Bonaventure. Father Ferdinand Miller was the first pastor, followed by Father Francis Koch, who eventually took charge of the outside missions connected with St. Bonaventure.

While on an outing to Greenwood Lake, Father Koch learned that many Catholics were unable to attend Mass because of impassible roads and the long distance to the nearest church. He had a chapel built for people near the New York/New Jersey border.

Named Our Lady of the Lake, the church at Sterling Forest, N.Y., was dedicated July 14, 1907. People traveled by lake steamers and boats to get to the church. Some went on the railroad line that ran from Pompton Lakes along the eastern shoreline of Greenwood Lake to the state border.

This mission church was placed under the administration of the Franciscan fathers in Butler in July 1927. Low lake water in 1920 made it difficult to get to the service at Our Lady of the Lake Church.

New church built

Mrs. James H. Slater (formerly Catherine E. Quinlan of West New York) contacted the Franciscan Holy Name Province to get a priest for the section of Greenwood Lake near what is now Lincoln Avenue, then known as Glen Aerie.

She was told that because of a flu epidemic and the scarcity of priests, her request was not granted. But on a Sunday in July 1921, Father Bonaventure Oblasser arrived to hold Mass in Nicholas Warmoth’s Glen Aerie Dance Pavilion with 115 people present.

The support and attendance continued, and plans were made for a church, with money collected through carnivals, various sales and parties given by Quinlan and her friends. The church building on Lincoln Avenue (now a thrift shop) was completed in June,1922 at a cost of about $10,000.

An additional $1,500 was collected to add a basement to the church along with a belfry and organ. A stained-glass window had the inscription “To Honor Our Benefactor.” The church was used until 1951, when the growing population showed the need for a larger church.

During this time, Sunday Masses also were being offered in the clubhouse at Upper Greenwood Lake for the benefit of the 150 families living on Moe Mountain.

St. Cecelia Church was constructed and opened in 1938 with more than 300 people attending the service.

During the administration of Father Ronald Scott from 1944 to 1946, the Cooley Farm property on Union Valley Road in Hewitt was acquired from Thomas Weinhardt. With the house and barns needing work, the exterior of the house was repaired and the foundation was reconstructed. A new heating system was installed, and the interior was renovated. It was a home for the priests.

In 1947, Father Paschal Kerwin was appointed pastor of St. Catherine’s Church. In summer 1949, that church, with a 300-seat capacity, could not accommodate all the people who arrived, although five Masses were offered every Sunday.

Our Lady opens

The current Our Lady Queen of Peace Church on Union Valley Road in Hewiit was built, at a cost (without furnishings) of about $90,000. Named for the Virgin Mary, it was dedicated June 24, 1951.

The Most Rev. Thomas A. Boland, Bishop of Paterson, officiated at the dedication with more than 600 people in attendance. Father Paschal Kerwin was the first pastor at the new church.

With the increase of vacationers during summers, the community hall was enlarged to accommodate those attending the Masses. This annex was completed in 1955.

The parish children attended St. Catherine’s School in Ringwood. The need for a local parochial school was evident.

Construction of Our Lady Queen of Peace School was completed under the administration of Father Roland Fregault in September 1960. The school opened for children from kindergarten through fourth grade, with Sister Marty Gemma as the first principal.

By 1965, all grades were added and the first eighth-grade graduation took place. In 1969, the first class that completed kindergarten through eighth grade graduated. A convent was completed in 1963. A three-car garage was built in 1973.

Under administration of Father Thomas Kelly, plans for construction of a new friary were formalized in 1975. It was ready for occupancy in 1977. Later, there was an interior church renovation with a reconciliatory room replacing confessional boxes. The annex was refurbished with new ceiling and modern chairs, and the church was carpeted throughout.

Musical show

Students who attended Our Lady Queen of Peace School may remember the second annual musical show in 1966. It featured a script written by seventh-grade students Ellen Green, Eileen Murray and William Shannon.

Pat Mooney and Michael Scott, masters of ceremony, opened the show with Mooney landing in a flying saucer “because I’m tired of flying around the Wanaque Reservoir.”

The musical numbers by the chorus and soloists were convincing that “Dear Hearts and Gentle People” were numerous in West Milford, but Mooney decided to take off again in his flying saucer for planets unknown because if he stayed in West Milford, “I might have to hook up to those sewer pipes.”

It was a time when some people thought UFOs were flying around the reservoir, and a controversial battle was under way to bring a public sewer system into the township.

During the program, John Kelly sang “King of the Road.” A musical trip across the nation following drama subjects ended with the singing of “This Land is Your Land.”

People’s opinions change through the years. The song, with its lyrics written in 1940, became one of the most famous American folk songs. Who would believe then that today, 60 years later, this song once celebrated as a patriotic anthem has been criticized for overlooking the history of colonialism and violations against native Americans.

Songs from the Broadway musical “Annie Get your Gun” were sung by Eileen Murray, Tom Kolikoeski and Barbara Bruce. The lyrics and music for that show were written by Irving Berlin. The book by Dorothy Fields and her brother Herbert was a fictionalized story of Annie Oakley, a sharpshooter who starred in Buffalo Bill’s Wild West Show. Ethel Merman starred in the original 1946 Broadway production, and she was the star again in the 1966 revival.

In the Our Lady Queen of Peace School show, William Shannon played his guitar. The fifth-grade girls did a tambourine dance and boys from that class performed a precision drill to the music of “The Ballad of the Green Berets.” It was created by Staff Sgt. Barry Sadler while he was training to be a Special Forces medic in 1964 and recorded the following year. This was one of the few popular songs of the Vietnam War era.

Tom Digney sang “Kansas City” and Charmagne Cromack did a blues rendition of “Bill Bailey.” Second grade students danced a minuet at a plantation party; first-graders sang a Chinese song; John Malone crooned “Brooklyn Love Song.” Mooney sang “I Left My Heart in San Francisco,” and Green and Harry Wiertz sang “Dearie. Third-graders performed a country square dance, while Jim White imitated Al Jolson. Marie Serrichio, Marie Ragonese, Dorothy Connors and Lynn Deaver were “Go Go” dancers.

Mrs. Thomas Hatcher was the dramatics director and Pat Organ oversaw costumes. Bill Majorossy headed the crew to supply the scenery. Anthony Organ provided a spacecraft for Mooney’s travel. Sister M. Paula directed choreography, Thomas Hatcher handled sound effects. Harvey Cousin was “the man Friday” on the set.

Sister Vincent, the school principal, directed the production, and I played the piano accompaniment for the students when they sang and danced in the show.

Among the former students who may still remember the fun they had being in that 1966 production are Blanche Wiggins, Toni Organ, Pat Reynolds, Nancy Cuneo, Elizabeth McGuire, Susan Bressel, Barbara Shilling, Jeanne McAllister, Dorothy Daley, Donna Collins, Steven Sullivan, Colleen Crowe, Artie Beattie, Katherine Canterino, Jeffy Tegato and Mary Ann Kelly.

To contact Ann Genader, send email to anngenader@gmail.com