Fr. Rosensteel Council and Historic St. John's

Worthy Grand Knight, I appreciate the honor of coming to your meeting. I have to admit that I never thought I would be in this room with all of you. I would like to share with you what I became interested in when were first moved here. The topic is our Church and how it effects you and participates in your every day lives. I decided to name this presentation "A Man Who Cared." A central figure whose name I am sure you meet quite often, if not every day, is Father Rosensteel. You have Fr. Rosensteel Council; the street out front is Rosensteel Avenue.

Another man who is the source of so much pride in our history was John Carroll, and this is the man who caused this area to be known as the Bethlehem of the United States. The street that Rosensteel Avenue meets at the corner that you know as Forest Glen Road was not Forest Glen before. It was originally Church Lane, and there is history behind that name. The land that was here was a land grant known as Joseph's Park. Part of this grant that was bought by the Carrolls was known as Forest Glen. There were two brothers, and sisters as well, but it is mainly the two brothers Daniel Carroll the Second and John Carroll in whom we are interested here. Daniel Carroll was the man whose name you always see on the historical marker on this corner because of his signing of the Constitution. He is known as the forgotten Carroll. Everybody thinks of Charles Carroll of Carrollton who was a cousin through an entirely different family. Daniel even married a Carroll, the daughter of Daniel Carroll of Dunnington. So the families did intermingle.

The most important part for our history here was that these young men, Daniel Carroll and John Carroll, as young boys were not allowed to study and learn their religion or to go to school. So in their teens (I believe the records say that Daniel was 12 years old), these young men were sent by ship to Europe to study their religion. They had to get up to Annapolis, and they were literally smuggled out of the country to go to school. So now we look at this and say aren't we lucky we didn't have to go to school that way, and neither do our children. So we are very very important people when we think of ourselves as Catholics.

When John came back one of his main goals was to build a Church. The first Church was a chapel in his mother's home. This became too small immediately, so the separate Chapel was built. That brings us back to the origin of Church Lane.

Here is a book that is called "At Peace With Their Neighbors; Catholics and Catholicism in the Nation's Capital 1787 - 1860." The author began to write about his own parish, but he got two pages into it and he had to jump back here, because here is where it starts. So really you gentlemen have a lot to keep up in your history, and that is why it is important that every age and every era has "A Man Who Cares".

John Carroll's mother built the Chapel on Daniel's land, and Daniel supported John and his Chapel until when the Jesuits were able to some time later. At that time there was no reason for the order to support John since he lived at home, so his brother did.

He had a sister who married a Robert Brent, whose picture is here. Robert Brent was the first mayor of Washington, DC. He is buried in the cemetery across the street. You will notice that there is an iron fence right next to the Chapel, and you will find his headstone there. It says right there that he was the first mayor.

But the one we don't know about is Daniel. The matriarch was his mother Eleanor Darnell Carroll and she didn't die young . She was 92 years old when she passed away, but right after she died so did Daniel. John went on to be our Archbishop so he is buried in what we know as the Basilica today. He designed it with Benjamin Latrobe, but before it was finished both of these gentlemen had passed on.

When you look at the Chapel up here that we originally knew as Rock Creek and now know as St. John's Chapel, or Carroll Chapel, remember that this is the first secular parish in the U.S. (Secular because it was built and maintained by private family, not a religious organization) I would like you to come see our Chapel across street. We are open every summer. Basically it was the Legion of Mary that kept it open; but in order to keep it open we have to keep it in condition, and this is where we come to another group of men who care. There are a very large number of men in this room who have helped through the years to keep this Chapel open. In 1934 members of this Council build the replica of the original Chapel. If you ever take the time to look at the Chapel, note the cross. When that Chapel cross started falling in 1953, it just began to disintegrate. When it disintegrated we had a man by the name of Henry Smithhisler of Scranton and a few people who got to pushing it together and putting back up. But later it just couldn't stand any longer, and there was another man who is an artist who was able to copy it and match it identically to what was there before. So these men did all this, and we've had paint jobs and everything you can think of in maintaining the building. I would appreciate it if the men of today, who are the men who care in this room, would all please stand if you had anything to do with keeping up this Chapel. (APPLAUSE) I can tell you that there are a lot more and not just the elders; there are many young.

Now this series of illustrations shows St. John's as it changes. Here was the Chapel. It lasted 82 years. It fell and was replaced one time after being burnt, but in 1850 it was really getting very run down and a new one had to be built. This Church was built on the site where the Chapel was built. It was wood also. In 1893 the "New" Church was built of the sandstone which is native to this area. This was built by Father Rosensteel. And a lot of people had something to say about the roof he put on it! It was a tile roof and that same roof is there today. There were problems; they thought the roof was leaking but it was not the roof.

So Father Rosensteel is another man who cared. You will notice what we show here for Father Rosensteel. Father Rosensteel as you can see here was a stately gentlemen. You can see him as a young man, as a pastor, and he's in a horse drawn buggy. You can see a very friendly smile. So I hope that you will have time to come over and look at it. And down here you see the same man beside his brand new automobile. I understand that he was quite a driver.

Here you will see two statues that are in the cemetery. Father was from Emmittsburg, but he wanted to be buried here. This was his home. This was the priest of the families of this Parish and of this Church, and this statue began to look very very sad and very grieved. But there are two particular young men (I am looking trying to see them now) who recently brightened Father's resting place. One was Dave Bowles and the other was Tim Morse. If you take the time and go up the drive to the cemetery across the street where Father Rosensteel was buried, you will see his grave on the left. This has been cleaned, and you would think that it was just a brand new grave and it is quite beautiful.

Inside the stone Church it has changed many times, and I am sure that there are a lot of you here who have been in front of this church many times and know the changes. I think there was a man who was 93 one year; on his birthday he and others started pulling the pews from that church a row at a time. They were taken out and repaired and the natural wood was brought back from under all the old varnish. While each row was out that part of the floor was sanded. Then the next row came out and was put back in. And I think you gentlemen enjoy going there to Mass today. See how beautiful it is. You have Knights to thank for that also. But the most important thing to remember is this; there always has to be a man who cares and I hope that you are the men who will keep caring and keep our history alive.