St. Francis de Sales Parish History©
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The history of St. Francis de Sales parish must necessarily begin with what there was before this church was constructed because there were Roman Catholics living in Waterville as early as 1828.
The earliest recorded Roman Catholics in the Waterville area were French-Canadians who came to find work at the local manufacturers, shops, saw mills, in the woods, and at the local farms. Many only came during the summer months and the harvest season and then returned to their families and homes in their respective towns in Quebec province. Since there was no established Catholic parish in the Waterville area, the early immigrants and migrant workers who wished to attend Mass, get married by the Church, or have their children baptized by a Catholic priest, had to travel to North Whitefield, located about 10 miles southeast of Augusta, where St.Denis parish is located. St.Denis was established in 1818 and is one of the oldest Roman Catholic churches in the eastern United States and the second oldest in New England, St.Patrick's in Newcastle being the oldest (1801). Both were then in the diocese of Boston. After St.Mary's church was established in Augusta in 1834, the distance they had to travel was reduced.
Thus, Waterville's earliest Roman Catholics were largely isolated from their Church. Maine town records and church records in Quebec show that, due to the absence of an established Catholic parish where they lived in Maine, many of the earliest immigrants who's children were born in Maine had their children baptized in their home parish in Quebec whenever they returned there. Those couples who wished to get married back then did one of four things:
1 - they got married locally by a Justice of the Peace, and many of these couples later had their marriage vows validated by the Church (generally in Quebec)
2 - they went to North Whitefield or Augusta to get married
3 - they were married in a non-Catholic church (in Waterville, the Baptist church and the First Universalist Society/church)
4 - they went back to Quebec to get married in their home parish

FATHER FORTIER In July 1841, Father Moïse Fortier (son of Moïse Fortier and Madeleine Gourdeau) as the first pastor of St.Georges parish in Beauce county, made his initial visit to Waterville. His bishop directed that he make such missionary visits to the French-Canadian Catholics in Waterville - many of whom were from his parish. While in Waterville, he performed baptisms, marriages, listened to confessions, and said Mass. He also ministered to the French-Canadian Catholics living in the Bloomfield-Skowhegan area as well (on July 25, 1841). St.Georges records prove he also had gone as far as Belfast (on July 22, 1841). His travel was mostly by foot but also part way by canoe. He was usually accompanied by one or two men from St.Georges. On May 12, 1845, Father Fortier, accompanied by Pierre Langelier and Augustin Turcotte (caretaker of the parish), left St. Georges by canoe on their way to Québec city. They stopped at Beauceville for a short while and got back in their canoe for the trip north. It was very shortly afterwards that their canoe capsized in spring's torrential waters of the Chaudière River. Only Mr. Turcotte survived by hanging on to the canoe.
About three weeks after this accident, his body was found down river and was given a burial in the nave of St. Georges' chapel on June 17, 1845 following his funeral Mass at Ste. Marie. After the demolition of the old 1831 wooden chapel in 1862, and the erection of a new church in 1863, his body was removed and placed in a new wooden coffin and reinterred in the nave. It is interresting to note that some of those who were responsible for this transfer later recalled that Father Fortier's body posed no difficulties despite the fact his corpse was found after having spent nearly 3 weeks in the river and he had, by 1863, been dead for more than 18 years. His body was essentially uncorrupted. In French, it was said that "....le cadavre de Messire Fortier était chaulé et que grâce à ce système... ils placèrent ce même coffre du côté de l'évangile dans le nouveau lieu saint." It was also recalled by those who saw Father Fortier and his two companions as they headed down the Chaudière, Father Fortier, sitting low in the middle of the canoe, was singing "Dieu D'Amour, Quand M'appellerez-vous au céleste séjour" which, in English, would be "God of Love, When will you call me for my heavenly stay."

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HOME OF JEAN-BAPTISTE MATHIEU Father Fortier kept records of his Waterville baptisms and these records are presently part of St.Georges' parish registers. Those baptisms are listed in volumes 2 and 3 and are identified accordingly. Father Fortier's first recorded visit to Waterville was on Thursday, July 15, 1841 when he baptized Sophie Poulin, eleven children on Saturday, July 17, and thirteen more children on Sunday, July 18 of that year, returning to St.Georges probably on Monday, July 26, 1841 after ministering to the Catholics in Skowhegan that weekend. An article in the Quebec Annals of the Propagation of the Faith in 1842 reports Father Fortier's first visit to Waterville. It states that he arrived on the 15th at night and there were many happy Canadians present to greet him as some told him they had not seen a Catholic priest in 17 years. (If that statement is true, it would indicate that there had been French-Canadians in this town as early as 1824. However, the author has not found any record, church or civil, to support this statement. They may have been young single men or unaccompanied married men if true). While in Waterville, Father Fortier lodged at the home of Mr. and Mrs. Jean-Baptiste Mathieu (his wife was Sara Dostie). This home is still at its original location at 134 Water Street and is basically unchanged except for some internal and external modernizations.
Jean-Baptiste Mathieu was born on 6 February 1785 at St.Joseph, Beauce county, Quebec to Francois Mathieu and his wife Marie Letarte. Jean-Baptiste was born a twin with his brother named Ignace. Jean-Baptiste's wife, Marie-Anne-Sara Dostie, was born on 10 June 1792 also at St.Joseph, Beauce to Pierre Dostie and his wife M.-Louise Jacques. Jean-Baptiste and Sara were joined in Holy matrimony on 27 November 1809 in the church at St.Joseph, Beauce.

During Father Fortier's first four-day visit here, he said Mass and gave communion each morning at 5 o'clock so that men could attend before going to work. He also gave catechism lessons in the mornings and afternoons to some 37 children, heard confessions, and gave religious instructions to the men at 8 o'clock in the evening followed by the confessions of about 100 adults and 25 children lasting until midnight. This was all done at the Mathieu home. Father Fortier came again in 1842. He also celebrated Mass at the home of John and Susan Fogarty at 266 Main Street during one of his visits. Though it is possible that Father Fortier returned to Waterville again in 1843 and 1844, no sacramental records have been found to substantiate those visits.
FATHER JOHN BAPST

In 1840, there were about 150 French-Canadians (most, if not all, were Catholics) living in Waterville. By the late 1840's, that number had doubled to more than 300. By 1850, a growing number of French-Canadian Catholics were living in Winslow, Fairfield, Skowhegan, and other local towns. About this time, the French-speaking Swiss-born Jesuit missionary, Father John Bapst, assigned to minister to the Catholics in the Old Town area, began making missionary visits to Waterville and other Maine communities. Other Catholic priests who also came here were Fathers DeNekere, Force, and Ciampi. But it was under the leadership and inspiration of Father Bapst that a fund drive was initiated in 1851 for the construction of a Catholic church in Waterville. Land had been purchased from the Drummond Estate on Grove Street in 1847 for the purpose of building the church. Mr. Gaspard Poulin and Mr. Jacques Paré (alias James Perry) led the fund drive. Construction was begun later that year and the church was completed and in use by 1852. This church was Father Bapst's first of more than 5 churches he helped to establish in Maine. This church building clearly appears on the 1853 map of Waterville and was located on the south side of Grove Street at the bottom of the hill just east of Pine Grove cemetery. This wooden structure was dedicated to St.John the apostle. It was not a tiny chapel as it could seat as many as 300 persons - roughly 68 less than Waterville's present Sacred Heart church. According to an article written in the October 27, 1920 Waterville Morning Sentinel (page 1), St. John's chapel was built in 1847, a date which is incorrect by virtue of the 1851 article in the Waterville Mail reporting the progress in the fund-raising effort for the purpose of "building a Catholic church in Waterville." Rather, the 1847 date is most likely the year the land for the church was purchased. Father Bapst was later transferred to Boston where he became president of Boston College for several years.

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St. John's chapel is the large white building. (photo ca.1859)
(looking across the Kennebec from near Fort Halifax; Pine Grove Cemetery in background) St. John's did not have a steeple nor belfry - perhaps to keep the building unobtrusive and thus not draw attention to it since there were, in that period, a number of religious bigots and KKK members throughout this State who objected to, feared the presence of, and even hated the "Papists" (i.e., Roman Catholics). However, such feelings were not outwardly exhibited nor were any extremist type actions ever taken against Waterville's Catholic minority by the local "Yankee" population. Rather, it was observed by many of the native population that these "French-Canadians" were an industrious, law-abiding, family-loving, and God-fearing people who were contributing much to the welfare of the community and were an asset to the village of Waterville. Many non-Catholics in the village actually contributed toward the building of this church and the local weekly newspaper reported the fact that their Catholic population now had a church of their own "for the benefit of public worship" and "we heartily commend its movers for their efforts" and "Let those connected with other sects see that 'the Greeks are at their doors' and the charity which is at the basis of their religion will tell them what to do."
During the early 1850's, Father Bapst made regular missionary visits to Waterville, usually residing at the home of Jean-Baptiste Mathieu and sometimes at John Fogarty's. He married a number in persons at St. John's as well as performed numerous baptisms (all of those that are known are recorded in these volumes) and other religious functions. It was not until May 1855 that St.John's had its first resident pastor, Father Jean-Jacques Nicollin, born 1802 in France. He was installed by Father Bapst. However, Father Bapst's missionary work was not without problems from some "Knownothings" in the Bangor and Ellsworth area. In Bangor, he opened a Catholic school in an old chapel. The chapel was blown up by the bigots. He then moved the school into the Catholic church and the church as well as his residence were stoned. In July 1852, an attempt was made to burn the church. In October of that year (as pastor in Bangor), he went to Ellsworth to hold services for the handful of Catholics there, but was seized, dragged naked, tarred and feathered, made to run the gauntlet and left abandoned to die. He managed to survive this terrible ordeal and held religious services the following day. A Grand Jury unanimously failed to indict his attackers and no one was ever punished. But the Bangor newspapers loudly condemned this action and a public meeting expressed strong indignation
to the attack upon the priest. Today, a Catholic school in Bangor (John Bapst Memorial H.S.) is named in his honor.

FATHER D. J. HALDE Father Nicollin (also sp. Nycollin) remained in Waterville until 1862 and was then transferred to St.Joseph's parish in Old Town, the second parish Father Bapst helped establish. Father Nicollin appears in the Waterville 1860 US census as "John James Nycollin" and was evidently living at the home (probably in an apartment) of Frédéric Poulin and Obéline Maheu, next door to Jacques Paré & Marie Mathieu. The Catholics in the Skowhegan area were then a mission for the Waterville parish. From the time of Father Nicollin's transfer until 1865, Father Charles Egan of St.Mary's parish assumed pastoral responsibilties for the Catholics of St.John's. From 1865 until Nov. 1868, Father Louis A. L'hiver was made pastor, followed by Father François Picard from Jun. 1869 to Feb. 1870. In Feb. 1870 came Father David J. Halde, the pastor who would accomplish a great deal for the Catholics in this area. Father Halde was pastor of St.John's and, later, of St.Francis de Sales, until Aug. 1880, when Father Narcisse Charland assumed the role as pastor.
Father Halde recognized early on that St.John's chapel was totally inadequate for the ever-growing Catholic population which, by the 1850's, included a number of Irish Catholics who had come to Waterville both from Quebec and as workers from the Boston area on the new Androscoggin and Kennebec Railroad which reached Waterville on Sep. 27, 1849. In June of 1871, under Father Halde's leadership, the Catholics of St.John's parish purchased from John Ware the old Sanger residence and property where the present St.Francis de Sales church now stands. Fund-raising for the new church was begun in 1871. By the summer of 1872, construction was already underway as reported by the Waterville Mail of Jul. 5 of that year. The new church was completed in 1874 and was consecrated and dedicated as St.Francis de Sales by Bishop David W. Bacon of Portland on Jun. 14, 1874. Confirmations were administered in the afternoon that day.
The reason for selecting that location for the new church was evidently based on practicality. By 1870, numerous Catholics also lived at the north end of town which was more convenient for those who worked at the Railroad car shops and other industries in that part of town. Grove Street was a considerable distance for those living at the North End in those horse-and-buggy days. The center of town would also be more convenient for the Catholics who lived in Winslow and in Fairfield. It was a wise and practical choice of location although there was some resistance to that move by a few French Catholics from the south end of town - the so-called "Plains" of Waterville which was where the majority of the French-Canadians lived in those days.
On November 5, 1873, at a cost of $1,000, St. John's parish (under the name of Bishop David W. Bacon of the Portland diocese - since all church properties in those days were under Bishop's names), purchased a property on College Avenue a short distance from the Fairfield line, for the purpose of a Catholic cemetery (which now contains the remains of about 1,500 of this area's early Catholics). Located behind what was, for many years, the W. S. Pillsbury Tractor Co., the Pillsbury building was originally Father Halde's residence. He personally purchased a large tract of property around the 5.83-acre cemetery. This burial ground was known variously as the Mount Calvary Cemetery, the Catholic Cemetery, the Holland Brook Cemetery, and, after the new St. Francis cemetery was purchased, it was called the Old Catholic Cemetery. It is now referred to as the "Halde Cemetery" due to Father Halde's early association with it. The first burial was in 1873. Prior to this, Catholic burials were usually in the town's cemetery known as Pine Grove which was opened in June of 1851. A fairly large section in the central part of Pine Grove has numerous graves of Waterville's early French-Canadians. A few of these deceased were actually first buried in the old Waterville cemetery (presently Monument Park near the Baptist church on Elm Street) but were re-buried at Pine Grove in the early 1850's after the town converted it into a park.
In 1874, Father Halde had a church built in North Vassalboro, which remained a mission of St. Francis de Sales parish until 1911.
The new St.Francis de Sales church could seat 600 persons. It had cost $22,000 to construct. The old St.John's chapel, having served the Catholics in the area for some 22 years, was moved to Temple Court on a property purchased from Dr. C. W. Abbott and was used for a while by Farther Halde as a parish school with lay teachers. That building was later sold and was converted to a tenement house and was finally razed along with many others during Waterville's Urban Renewal in the mid-1960s. Father Halde was transferred on July 9, 1880 to Manchester, NH where he established the parish of Ste. Marie.

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FATHER CHARLAND On Aug. 27, 1880, after serving St.Joseph's parish in Old Town since June 6 of that year, Father Narcisse Charland was assigned as pastor of St.Francis de Sales parish. He served that role until his death in 1923. Father Charland was an active, effective, and highly respected pastor, having the responsibilities of a very large Catholic parish with missions in Farmington, Skowhegan, Solon, Bingham, Madison, North Vassalboro, Dexter, Foxcroft, Dover, Fairfield, Oakland, and Norridgewock. Until those areas had churches of their own, Father Charland ministered to the Catholics of this entire region with the help of an assistant, as available. Back then, as now, there was a shortage of priests in Maine. In 1880, the parish numbered 800 souls not including Winslow and the missions.
Due to the ever-growing Catholic population in Waterville and the surrounding towns, St. Francis de Sales church was, by 1882, already too small. Thus, in 1883, permission was granted to add side galleries to increase the seating capacity from 600 to slightly over 1,000. These were completed in 1888. By 1902, 2 of the 4 Sunday services were standing-room only, the first and third masses with an average of 600 parishioners in attendance, and the second and fourth masses with as many as 1,200 souls despite the fact that, by this time, Fairfield, Skowhegan, Farmington, and other former missions were detached. Thus arose the need for additional churches in Waterville and later Winslow. Sacred Heart church was opened in 1906, Notre Dame in 1910, and St.John the Baptist in Winslow in December 1926 provided much relief for the over-burdonned St. Francis de Sales parish with its pastor and assistant.
In 1885, the Caswell house next to the church (now the vacant space between the church and the present rectory) and the McCaffrey house (next house south) were purchased by the parish for $3,600. The Caswell house was used as the rectory and was remodeled in 1891. The Caswell house thus served as the rectory from 1885 to 1888 and as the first convent from 1888 to 1891.
An edition of the Waterville Mail, a weekly newspaper, dated Jun. 25, 1886 gives a church directory for the area. The following announcement appeared in this issue as well as in previous and subsequent issues of this newspaper: Catholic - Elm St. Rev. N. Charland, pastor
   Sunday services: Mass at 8 am and at 10 am on every
   1st and 3d Sunday of the month.
   Sunday school at 2:30 PM; vespers 3 PM

It is assumed from this announcement that St. Francis de Sales had Sunday Masses only twice a month rather than every Sunday. The reason for this is evidently due to Father Charland's responsibilties at the other missions such as in Fairfield, Farmington, North Vassalboro, and Oakland (at Memorial Hall) where he performed marriages, baptisms, first communions, funerals as well as saying Mass at some of these locations. It is also assumed that, despite the absence of their priest, local parishioners of St. Francis de Sales still went to church on the 2nd and 4th Sundays of the month where they probably simply recited the Rosary and other prayers.
The May 12, 1887 issue of the French newspaper, Le Méssager, reports that Mrs. Charles Chassé is teaching school to 35 (parish) children in the "Dunn Block." The Jun. 23, 1887 issue of this paper reports that, out of a total population of 7,500 in Waterville, the Catholics numbered 3,000. The building of the parochial school was underway in the rear of the church property.
The most significant improvements and growth of St.Francis de Sales parish took place under Father Charland's 43-year tenure as pastor. Father Charland had gone to Trois-Rivières in Québec province to encourage the Ursuline Sisters to come to Waterville. In 1888, the first group of Ursulines arrived. He had a convent built for them adjacent to the church and it served both as a residence for the Ursulines as well as a school. The convent-school building had cost the parish $7,000 and was opened in March 1888 with an enrollment of 400 students.

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St. Francis de Sales Parochial School and Convent In 1891, a larger convent building was completed and fully furnished at a cost of $8,788. St.Francis de Sales parish now had a convent, a small boarding school (21 boarders in 1889), a noviciate, and 19 Sisters. This building connected with the church sacristy. The new convent was dedicated by Bishop Healy on October 21, 1891 when he also christened a bell for it.
The old rectory-convent was sold and moved to Gilman Street. The Caswell house alongside served as the rectory since its purchase and renovation at a cost of $7,000 in 1885.
On Apr. 19, 1888, Le Méssager, reported that St. Francis de Sales had 2,047 parishioners of which 210 were Irish and the rest were French. On June 1, 1898, a large tract of land (about 10 acres) on Grove Street adjacent to Pine Grove Cemetery (formerly the old trotting park owned by the city) was purchased at a cost of $ 1,710 by St. Francis de Sales parish (under the name of the Roman Catholic Bishop of Portland) for a new Catholic cemetery primarily due to the obvious inadequacy of the old cemetery (Halde Cemetery), the difficulty in approaching it, especially in the winter, and sub-surface water problems. Lots in this new cemetery were eventually sold with "perpetual care" in mind. It is uncertain, due to lack of good record-keeping back then, as to exactly when this new cemetery was first used. However, church death records appear to indicate that the first person buried there was Alfred Trial, the 10 year-old son of David Trial and Octavie Boissonneault on September 6, 1898. Bishop Healy blessed this new cemetery on Oct. 14, 1899. Most burials here probably did not start in earnest until the spring of 1899 since much ground work was obviously required to lay it out and prepare it for its new mission.
For the purpose of posterity, it should be noted at this point that there are a significant number of gravestones at the St. Francis cemetery which actually pre-date its purchase. The explanation for this paradox is two-fold. First, the majority of these pre-1899 gravestones were simply removed from the Halde Cemetery by relatives or descendants and placed on their newly-purchased lots at the St. Francis Cemetery. Evidently, the diocese, early on, was abandonning its interest in the old graveyard and parishioners felt a need or simply wished to remove those gravestones and place them with their own. Second, some people have reported that a few families had their relatives from the Halde Cemetery re-interred on their own lots at St. Francis Cemetery. The irony is that most of those pre-1899 gravestones give the false impression that the actual remains of those individuals are there when, in fact, they are actually somewhere (now unknown to living descendants) within the grounds of the old Halde Cemetery. The St. Francis Cemetery caretakers have also, on occasion, discovered that the ground under which some of these old gravestones are located has no evidence of having ever been disturbed - thus indicating there are no remains buried beneath. This would also account for the numerous depressions in the ground at the Halde Cemetery (caused by the collapse of the wooden caskets/boxes which were not encased in concrete vaults back then) and have no monuments to indicate which persons are buried in those particular spots.
On Aug. 29, 1894, the first fruits of the new novitiate were professed as Ursuline Sisters: Sisters Marie-de-la Providence, St-Augustin, Ste-Angèle, and Ste-Ursule. Monsignor J.L.K Laflamme of Québec, uncle of Sister Ste-Angèle, presided at the ceremony.
The rectory, which had been adapted from the McCaffrey house, was sold and moved away in two sections and a new rectory was built in 1895 on that site at a cost of $8,000. Click on this arrow for part two of this article

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