THE OLD CHAPEL AT LAMAR By Mrs. Kate O'Connor

In some of the old notes of mine, I find that when the town of Lamar was laid out In 1839-40, the proprietors, Messrs. J. U. Byrne [and partners]..., owners of the town site, set aside the plot for the Catholic Church. I cannot find the original name given to the chapel.... [Bishop Oberste says in Texas Irish Empresarios that it was St. Joseph's.]

Mr. Byrne was a devout Catholic and a relative of Bishop Odin. Extracts from Bishop Odinl's) diary show that in 1840 he Made Father Eusebius Esbany Pastor of Victoria, then gave him also as his charge and to visit Carlos Ranch, Fagan Ranch, Refugio. Goliad, Lamar and Matagorda Island and Lavaca as his region to cover. (Some distances for a horseback rider to cover!)

Misses Sarah and Carrie Little, the olds maids who lived next door to me in Victoria... gave me most of my information on the Chapel at Lamar. They said their parents (John and Henrietta Gregory Little) and Mr. and Mrs. Byrne donated and placed on the altar a pair of pure silver candlesticks -- that after their death and families moving away, led to the decline and almost abandonment of Lamar in the early I900's.

In the meantime someone stole the candlesticks and Miss Carrie said: "I know who!" I asked her why did she not make the thief return them, and she said: "They, the thieves, were prominent people and defied ae to have then make reparation and restore the candlesticks." She always refused to tell me who they were. But I can tell you who has two China candlesticks from the Chapel: "Me!" I'll tell you later about them in this tale.

About 1921---I was in Lamar one day, and visited the abandoned, storm-wrecked, open to the weather Chapel and found it in a shameful desecrated condition. On the floor amid wreck- age of the organ, stations of the Cross, broken vases and candle- sticks I found two China candlesticks, 9 3/4 inches; one white and one blue.....I am ready to return them when...you are ready for them.

The hurricane of 1915 or 1919 - I cannot remember which, completed the destruction. After one of these storms my husband, Tom O'Connor, sent the ranch boss of the Salt Creek Ranch, Ed Coward, to see whether he could close up the hole in the roof, and mail up the windows to keep rain out. This he did. There was a hole in the roof where the steeple and the bell crashed through the roof. But when I first visited the church, about 1920-21 or thereabouts - I found the whole place in shambles. My son Dennis was with me.

We entered the place at the back of the shrine, through a partly open door of the sacristy. We found on a table, back of the altar, the monstrance [receptacle for consecrated host] partly covered with a grey outing bag draped about its base. Dirt daubers had built a nest right in the lunula holder. On the floor in front of It, the priest's vestments, i.e. chasuble, alb, stole, lay in a rotting heap, which fell to pieces when I tried to lift then - it looked like the priest had stepped out of them and left them there, but of course, some vandal had put them there. Going inside the sanctuary we found the tabernacle door open, and an empty whiskey bottle stood inside of it. On the floor the two China candlesticks, crucifixes, lay whole amidst other broken smashed ones and vases. As I said before, I picked up the two whole ones and have them still. I tried to restore them but I could find no one who wanted to take care of them. I reported the monstrance to the old Pastor at Refugio, who said it was not his care - to report to the Pastor of Rockport. I told Father Feeney in Victoria about it, but he was not able to interest the Rockport priest...I have no idea who recovered it, nor where it is.

But while Dennis and I were shuddering over the apparent desecration and vandalism, we became aware of a strange buzzing, rumbling sound, seemingly coming from beneath the broken floor boards. Dennis said: "It's the devil guarding his own work. Let's get out of here." And we did - pronto - for out of the hole in the floor swarmed a ball of bumble bees, and out of the window tumbled Dennis and Kate O'Connor.

Post Script: An item of interest: Empresario Power gave the shell dobey, of which the church is made, and slave labor built the bricks. Bishop Ledvina rebuilt the church in 1932-33.

Mrs. Thomas O'Connor, Sr. Melon Creek Ranch Refugio, Texas [After 1933]

submitted by: Barb Ziegenmeyer