arguments which came before it; and a few weeks later Lamy wrote with relief to Purcell, âYour answer to my last letter delivered me of a great anxiety of mind. I was very much afraid to have displeased you.â On the same day he took out his United States citizenship, and when within a week or so he received another plan for his transfer elsewhere, with Father Senez uninvolved, Lamy agreed with abounding alacrity and willingness. He told Purcell on 20 August 1847, now with no talk of bricks, timber and shingles,
âAs you desire me to go to Covington [Kentucky] I am ready to leave Danville at your first orders. You may dispose of me as you please, my duty is to obey cheerfully, if you think I will do better I am perfectly willing to try. one thing which consoles me is to know that I will be so near you â¦â His work had prevented him from writing to Father Senez. He had heard that some feared Senez would not come at all if he had to stay alone. Would Purcell please write him? As for himself, he would like two or three weeks to settle some affairs at Danville, chiefly concerning the new church. A week later he wrote to the chancellor at Cincinnati giving his final report on Danville, Mt Vernon, Mohican, Pine Run, Mansfield, where he had congregations totalling two hundred fifteen families. Was he to wait for a replacement or come immediately? In any case, he was ready. His new assignment at Covington, which was directly across the river from Cincinnati, would put him distant the whole length of Ohio from Machebeuf at Sandusky. He left his forest parishes with feeling which was returned to him by them all. Something of him remained alive for generations in Danville. In a lovely phrase, Francis Sapp, grandson of the founder George, wrote in reminiscences set down in his last years, that Lamyâs âname is held in benediction by all the old residents of the county, irrespective of creed.â Francis Sapp, a waning old man, speaking with a childhoodâs returned simplicity, said that âFather Lamaâ was a man âso good that everybody loved him. I was a very young boy when he was pastor here, but had such a high esteem for him I thought that God would not let him die but take him to heaven a live body and soul.⦠He baptized me and called me Francis Sapp.⦠I think him the most lovely priest I ever knew.⦠I have sat upon his knee many timesâ¦.â It is the earliest picture of Lamy at work in the New World.
xi .
Lamy to France
B Y AUTUMN 1847, many concerns were resolved. For the nation, the Mexican War drew to a close when Scott took Mexico City on 14 September. In December, at the call of the United States military governor, the conquered and ceded province of New Mexico held an election to vote on joining the Union as a territory. The vote carriedâmostly by the ballots of United States troops stationed there, and the mercantile resident-traders of the Santa Fe Trail. Peace was signed on 2 February 1848, with the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo roughly indicating a new boundary between Mexico and the United States. Other sovereignties would be affected by this vast geographical change and soon enough would be dealt with, along with individual destinies linked to it. In Covington, Kentucky, Lamy, the new pastor of St Maryâs, was at work on the tasks he had rehearsed so often beforeâacquiring land, moulding together a community, planning a church (to stand where the Covington cathedral would eventually be built). He placed the temporal responsibilities of Covington in the hands of a committee, headed by Mr Doyle, father-in-law of Mr McClosky, and including Mr John White and Mr John OâDonnell,â among others.
As always, it was slow work, but it went along in Lamyâs familiar pace of deliberate, daily steps which reflected his patience with the day and his long view of the future. He could be in closer touch with Purcell now, for it was only a
âAs you desire me to go to Covington [Kentucky] I am ready to leave Danville at your first orders. You may dispose of me as you please, my duty is to obey cheerfully, if you think I will do better I am perfectly willing to try. one thing which consoles me is to know that I will be so near you â¦â His work had prevented him from writing to Father Senez. He had heard that some feared Senez would not come at all if he had to stay alone. Would Purcell please write him? As for himself, he would like two or three weeks to settle some affairs at Danville, chiefly concerning the new church. A week later he wrote to the chancellor at Cincinnati giving his final report on Danville, Mt Vernon, Mohican, Pine Run, Mansfield, where he had congregations totalling two hundred fifteen families. Was he to wait for a replacement or come immediately? In any case, he was ready. His new assignment at Covington, which was directly across the river from Cincinnati, would put him distant the whole length of Ohio from Machebeuf at Sandusky. He left his forest parishes with feeling which was returned to him by them all. Something of him remained alive for generations in Danville. In a lovely phrase, Francis Sapp, grandson of the founder George, wrote in reminiscences set down in his last years, that Lamyâs âname is held in benediction by all the old residents of the county, irrespective of creed.â Francis Sapp, a waning old man, speaking with a childhoodâs returned simplicity, said that âFather Lamaâ was a man âso good that everybody loved him. I was a very young boy when he was pastor here, but had such a high esteem for him I thought that God would not let him die but take him to heaven a live body and soul.⦠He baptized me and called me Francis Sapp.⦠I think him the most lovely priest I ever knew.⦠I have sat upon his knee many timesâ¦.â It is the earliest picture of Lamy at work in the New World.
xi .
Lamy to France
B Y AUTUMN 1847, many concerns were resolved. For the nation, the Mexican War drew to a close when Scott took Mexico City on 14 September. In December, at the call of the United States military governor, the conquered and ceded province of New Mexico held an election to vote on joining the Union as a territory. The vote carriedâmostly by the ballots of United States troops stationed there, and the mercantile resident-traders of the Santa Fe Trail. Peace was signed on 2 February 1848, with the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo roughly indicating a new boundary between Mexico and the United States. Other sovereignties would be affected by this vast geographical change and soon enough would be dealt with, along with individual destinies linked to it. In Covington, Kentucky, Lamy, the new pastor of St Maryâs, was at work on the tasks he had rehearsed so often beforeâacquiring land, moulding together a community, planning a church (to stand where the Covington cathedral would eventually be built). He placed the temporal responsibilities of Covington in the hands of a committee, headed by Mr Doyle, father-in-law of Mr McClosky, and including Mr John White and Mr John OâDonnell,â among others.
As always, it was slow work, but it went along in Lamyâs familiar pace of deliberate, daily steps which reflected his patience with the day and his long view of the future. He could be in closer touch with Purcell now, for it was only a
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