'Native Frenchtonian' writes book about St. Nicholas history

FRENCHTOWN — The Rev. Jayme Mathias, Frenchtown native and pastor of Holy Family Catholic Church in Austin, Texas, will present his new book Friday about the early years of St. Nicholas church, one of three churches to be demolished this fall. The event is set for 6-8 p.m. Friday at New Riegel American Legion Post No. 354, 20 South St., New Riegel. The unincorporated village of Frenchtown is about 3 miles southeast of New Riegel. "Early Frenchtonians: A History of Saint Nicholas Catholic Church in Big Spring Township, Seneca County, Ohio, Vol. 1" features the history of St. Nicholas Catholic Church through 1900 and the community that became known as Frenchtown. "We now face the very imminent demolition of St. Nicholas Catholic Church by the Roman Catholic Diocese of Toledo, likely Oct. 16-27," Mathias said. "Spread the word and join us for a presentation and book signing while the church we all love still stands. "In light of its imminent demolition, let's gather to celebrate the pioneers who built the church, rectory and school of a once-vibrant immigrant community," he said. The demolition of St. Patrick's in Bascom is underway, and St. Nicholas is next in line, to be followed by St. Peter's, Alvada. "I wrote this book to preserve a bit of the history that is actively being destroyed on account of a church's unwillingness to change," he said. St. Nicholas is one of 2,800 U.S. Roman Catholic churches closed since 2000. "The demolition of each church represents the needless destruction and exile of a community. That's 2,800 communities destroyed – many with no one to chronicle their history," he said. "This three-volume set is my own meager attempt to record and share the history of a vibrant immigrant community that built three churches (a log chapel and two brick churches), a rectory for their priests, a school for their children, a convent for the sisters who served their children, and a cemetery with over 1,000 graves." Mathias said he also has attempted to preserve local history by photographing in their entirety the Catholic cemeteries of St. Nicholas, St. Boniface, St. Peter & Paul, St. Patrick, St. Andrew and McCutchenville. Those records can be found on Findagrave.com. Mathias grew up in the former church rectory just west of St. Nicholas – which he now owns. "So I literally grew up in the shadow of the church," he said. "After my father's passing in 2017, I purchased the family home, so I am a Frenchtown landowner. Like the church, the old rectory was very significant to my family." After the parish no longer used it as a priest's residence, he said the parish rented it to his grandmother, Marie (Shultz) Reinhart, who raised his mother for a time in the home, and later his paternal grandparents, Herman and Agnes (Borer) Mathias, also raised his father there. "My parents raised my three brothers and me in the old rectory, beside the church in which they were very involved," he said. "As a result, my brothers and I were very involved in the church." Among a long list of family involvement, Mathias said he served as a parish organist from sixth grade through high school. Local inspiration In addition to his parents, Mathias said he was inspired by centenarian Mildred Wuebbe, "who showed extraordinary love for that church for over 60 years," and his grandmother, Agnes (Borer) Mathias. He wrote his first history of Frenchtown as a class project at New Riegel High School, and completed a class project on his campaign to be "mayor" of Frenchtown. "I also loved hearing the stories of community elders," he said. "Lorena (Welter) Reinhart allowed me to reproduce her copy of Father Matthew Clancy's work, 'Memoirs of Our Family,' and she and Mildred Wuebbe and my grandmother, Agnes Mathias, helped me to know the characters involved in those family stories. I diagramed all those ancestors on large pieces of butcher paper that I laid out on their dining room tables – and I loved listening to their stories." He said he got the ideas for the book began when was alerted by the Rev. Tom Orians that St. Nicholas was slated for demolition. He created a Facebook page, and six months later he had compiled the history of the parish's first 45 years. The 480-page book, which includes 45 years of parish history, sheds light on a 19th-century Roman Catholic immigrant community, largely from Belgium, Luxembourg and Germany, which took root on a former Native American reservation. "Our ancestors felt the need for a church closer to their homes, and they petitioned their French-speaking bishop for recognition and a resident priest to serve them," Mathias said. "They built three consecutive houses of worship, a log chapel and two brick churches). They provided a rectory for their priests, a school for their children, a convent for the nuns who taught their children, and a cemetery for their deceased loved ones—and the remnants of all this activity became known as 'Frenchtown.'" The book includes the sacramental and burial records for the church through the turn of the 20th century, allowing readers to learn about "early Frenchtonians." It includes an 18-page index of surnames, which enables readers to quickly find the names of their ancestors. He said the book will be of special interest to descendants of the following pioneering families in Frenchtown: Arend, Bakies, Calmes, Clapper, Clouse, Collet, Company, Decker, Dell, Etchen/Eischen, Erford/Erfort, Feck, Fosty, Fox, Fuchs, Gase, Genin, Genot, Goshe, Grine, Guillaume, Hammer, Heinen, Huber, Huss, Jacoby, Kaufmann, Kin/Kinn, Kirian, Krell, Lafontaine, Limbach/Limpach, Lucius, Magnet/Mangette, Mathias, Mullholand, Nepper, Nick, Niederkohr, Peter, Peth/Pethe, Poiry, Popenberg/Poppenberg, Reinhard/Reinhart, Schlachter, Schneider, Schreiber, Simonis, Snyder, Stark, Strasser, Thom, Tiell, Vetter, Wagner, Wangler/Wengler, Warnement/Warnimont, Weber, Weinandy, Welter, Windau, Wonderly and Youngpeter. About the author Mathias was ordained into the Roman Catholic priesthood in 2001 at the Basilica of Our Lady of Consolation in Carey. He then served as president of a college preparatory school for minority students in Austin, Texas, and then as pastor of what grew to be Austin's largest Spanish-language Roman Catholic community. Mathias earned his doctorate of philosophy in leadership studies from Our Lady of the Lake University in San Antonio, Texas., and he possesses a total of seven degrees from Roman Catholic institutions. After serving as a Roman Catholic priest for more than 10 years, Mathias said he "made headlines for his public disagreements with his bishop over such issues as immigration and women's reproductive health." Mathias then became a leader of the "Vatican-free Inclusive Catholic movement." For more than 11 years, he has pastored the only inclusive Catholic community in the nation's 11th-largest city. The movement has reclaimed "the ancient Church's tradition of female clergy," he said. Mathias oversees four priests and two deacons at Holy Family Catholic Church, including the parish's first woman priest and the parish's second female deacon. In 2012, he said 55,000 voters elected him as the first openly-gay school board member in Austin. For eight years, he oversaw a $1.6 billion budget for the 86,000 students and 11,000 employees of Austin's 130 public schools. Mathias now serves as executive director of the Texas Latino School Boards Association. He has published 45 books, including three previous works on his ancestors in Seneca County. Orders for the newly-released book made by Oct. 14 are $19.95 each, and can be ordered at http://surveymonkey.com/r/FrenchtownBook and then picked up at the book signing or mailed. Beginning Oct. 15, the book will be available on Amazon for $29.95. He said proceeds from Volume 1 will fund Volume 2, which is to cover 1900-1950, and is expected in 2024, possibly on the anniversary of the church demotion.