Sacred Heart Church at 139 3rd St NE, New Philadelphia, OH 44663-3900 US - Church of the Assumption

The third Catholic Church of Tuscarawas County was that of the Assumption, a short distance west of Bolivar. The life of this church seems to have been totally dependent on the person of Father Augustin Rollinet, some time pastor of the church of Sainte Genevieve in neighboring Holmes County. Local tradition states that the church was two miles west, or three and a half miles northwest, of the town of Bolivar, but can no longer be accurately located, as it was on the private property of one of the members. When not in use as a church, the building was known to the local residents as “Pierre Lab’s Blockhouse.” Father Rollinet, after being appointed to Calmoutier in 1849, began to care for the French speaking members of the predominantly German Saint Peter. Early in the latter half of 1850, many of the French-speaking parishioners withdrew from Saint Peter, beginning the new congregation of the Assumption. In February of 1852, Father Rollinet wrote to Archbishop Purcell of Cincinnati, “Your Grace, in the two little French missions of Bolivar and Milscreek, near Coshocton, in your diocese, the two chapels were built. They did not know about turning over to the Bishop the title to the land given for worship, cemetery, etc. That is why I beg Your Grace in your reply to impose on me the duty to rectify the title of these two small parishes and assure in that way a greater stability for the future.” The statement “in your diocese” perhaps needs some clarification. The Diocese of Cincinnati was divided in 1847, with the northern part of the state of Ohio being established as the Diocese of Cleveland. The original decree set the boundary between the two dioceses at forty degrees, forty-one minutes north latitude. This was soon amended, for practical reasons, to a boundary along county lines. Counties divided by the line of the original decree were to go entirely to the diocese in which the greater part of the county had originally been placed. By this decision, Holmes county, entirely south of the line, belonged to the Diocese of Cincinnati, as did Tuscarawas county. However, by agreement between the two Bishops, the Bishop of Cleveland accepted responsibility for Holmes county and its two Catholic churches. Thus Father Rollinet wrote as a priest of the Diocese of Cleveland about two missions in the Diocese (Archdiocese since 1850) of Cincinnati. The final disposition of Holmes county was not accomplished until 1868, when it became a part of the newly established Diocese of Columbus. It seems evident that Archbishop Purcell did give Father Rollinet the requested direction, as the property was transferred to the Archbishop’s name on April 8, 1852. It is described as one half acre and the buildings thereon near the southwest corner of a forty-two acre tract owned by Joseph and Jeane Baptiste Saint Voirin. The Saint Voirin property was a part of Lot 23 of the Military Lands in quarter township two, of what is now Lawrence township. The location of the church half-acre can be found on the current Tuscarawas county road map, at the intersection of a line drawn due west from the intersection of I-77 and State Route 212, with a line drawn due north from the intersection of Columbia Road and Saint Peter’s Church Road. There is no immediate public access to the location, but it is within a quarter mile of County Road 99, the Strasburg-Bolivar Road. This places the former church about two and a quarter miles west-southwest of the center of Bolivar. It is interesting to note that the Wills Creek [Milscreek] mission property in Coshocton County was not titled to the Archbishop until 1856. In the death register of Ste. Genevieve church, under the date of February 19, 1852, Father Rollinet lists the burial of Francoise Morhang, wife of Pierre Etienne Lab, who had died the day before. Burial was at “Assumption cemetery among the French people of Bolivar.” No other record of this cemetery has been located. St. Stephen cemetery in Bolivar has a relatively new tombstone with the names of Pierre and Francoise Lab. It is not certain whether the remains of Francoise were moved to this place, or only the stone was placed there in her memory. Father Rollinet was released from parish work on August 15, 1852, to begin novitiate with the Society of Mary at Dayton, Ohio. His departure marked the practical end of the church of the Assumption. Father Rollinet returned to Calmoutier as pastor in 1856, remaining there until his death on January 1, 1859. He did nothing in those final years to resurrect the church of the Assumption. The beginnings of St. Martin church in Bolivar proper may have had some effect on this decision, even though St. Martin, as St. Peter, was primarily a German-speaking congregation. Joseph and Jeanne Baptiste St. Voirin (transcribed in the deed record and Joseph Sowery and Johanna Boblist) sold their entire forty-two acre tract on September 2, 1856, with no exclusion of the half acre that had earlier been deeded to Archbishop Purcell.

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