Sacred Heart Church at 139 3rd St NE, New Philadelphia, OH 44663-3900 US - St. Paul at Midvale

You may remember from the last newsletter that in April of 1921 Bishop Hartley instructed Father Wendelin of Sacred Heart to organize and send catechists to instruct the young Catholics of Goshen, Wainwright, Midvale, Barnhill and New England. Some years later, in 1939, Father Oswald Greiner, O.M.Cap., of Sacred Heart parish, requested permission of the Bishop to celebrate weekly mass in Midvale, “for the convenience of those unable to travel to New Philadelphia.” On January 24 of that year, Bishop Hartley gave permission, which would be temporary, until the Bishop saw how things would work out. On April 16, 1939, in rented quarters in Miners’ Hall, Father Oswald celebrated the first mass for the new community. The Capuchin friars of Sacred Heart continued to offer mass and oversee catechetical instruction there for the next five years. After the death of Bishop Hartley, but before the accession of Bishop Michael Ready, the chancery office announced the establishment of the Midvale community as the mission of St. Paul the Apostle, with Father Paul Bernier, the pastor of Immaculate Conception in Dennison to be responsible for the Catholic needs of the community. Notice of this arrangement came to the friars of Sacred Heart only in a letter to them from Father Bernier, by way of the Dover friary. The last mass in Midvale offered by the friars of Sacred Heart church was on Christmas Day, 1944. In February of 1945, Bishop Ready wrote to Father Pius of Sacred Heart that the Midvale mission should have been considered a totally separate entity from the beginning, and all monies received there kept in a separate account. As this had not been done, the Bishop ordered Father Pius to send $1000 to Father Bernier as the beginning of the fund for the new mission. Other fund raising activities were begun almost immediately, and construction of a church on old Route 250 began in 1948. The first mass in the basement structure was celebrated on January 30, 1949, by Father Joseph Buzek, assistant priest at Dennison who had been placed in charge of the mission churches of Wainwright and Midvale. Father Ralph Dermody was assigned as first resident pastor of Wainwright in September of 1950, with Midvale assigned to him as a mission church. This arrangement of a single pastor at Wainwright and Midvale continued until the closing of both churches in 1995. Cornerstone laying for the upper part of the church was in 1955. The completed church was dedicated by Bishop Ready on June 18, 1956. Construction of the Route 250 expressway in 1966 threatened the life of St. Paul, as the church was located directly in the path of the proposed eastbound lane of traffic. Father Robert Manning, then pastor, arranged to have the brick building moved some 1400 feet down the road to land already owned by the Diocese of Columbus on the opposite side of the road. This land had originally been purchased as a potential site for the Central Catholic High School. During the time of moving, a small apartment was added to the building, with plans to have it become the priest’s residence. The new basement was equipped as a parish hall with kitchen facilities. In later years, Father Manning recalled vividly that the purchase price for the church, $200,000, was paid to him by the State of Ohio. As a young priest in his first pastorate, he did not know that this money was to be turned over to the Bishop for proper disposition in the name of St. Paul mission. Instead, the entire amount had been spent on the moving and building project. All seemed well until Bishop John Carberry asked where his money had gone! The pastors of Wainwright/Midvale never lived in the Midvale residence. It was occupied for many years by priests who were principals or full time teachers at Central Catholic High School, and by retired priests. When the future staffing plan of the Diocese of Columbus called for the closing of St. Paul the Apostle, it projected that the church would remain open as long as Father Anthony Migoni, C.PP.S., currently in residence in his retirement, would be able to celebrate mass for the people. Unfortunately, Father Migoni died before the implementation of the plan, bringing about the closing of St. Paul along with other Catholic churches of Tuscarawas County, officially on July 11, 1995. The last mass in St. Paul church was offered on Sunday morning, July 9, 1995. The property was sold by the Diocese of Columbus, with the former church now in use as the Brightwood Day Care Center.

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