A Brief History

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St. James Minor Parish
P.O. Box 117
Cadyville, NY 12918

About Our Parish

A Brief History

St. James Church is Subdivision 33 of the Canadian-Nova Scotia Refugee Tract. The Refugee Tract was the result of an Act passed by Congress in 1784 designed to provide parcels of land to American Patriot refugees in Canada and Nova Scotia, most of which were veterans of the Revolutionary War. A majority of these parcels were sold off by the veterans who didn’t wish to settle the area, which at the time was a vast wilderness inhabited primarily. By 1805, the region was still considered to be a frontier, with a sparse population. It was described as an “ungodly place, where religion and education were neglected”. Perhaps it was this condition that inspired the Reverend James Rooney to build St. James Church in 1854.

In 1869, St. James received it’s first resident Pastor... Father John O’Haire. O’Haire was also the first occupant of the St. James Rectory. In 1872, as Chancellor of the Diocese, O’Haire went on to establish parishes in Lisbon, Heuvelton, Morristown, Crown Point, Essex and Burke.

Under Reverend James McGowan, with the assistance of O’Haire, the Church lot was deeded to St. James Church on August 24, 1874 from the Canadian-Nova Scotia Refugee Tract. McGowan oversaw the parish during a time when nationalistic rivalry among Irish and French-Canadian settlers was growing. McGowan, presumably Irish himself, even complained to the Pope on September 18, 1880 that his French parishioners “...liked to have the time and health of a priest for nothing.”

For an in depth look at the history of St. James Parish please visit our Parish Publications page for more information our Parish History book.

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