Dutchess County Historical Society Yearbook Vol 072 1987

through the expenditure of emergency funds were some of the unsanitary conditions cited by the Board of Health remedied. In the years ahead, Poughkeepsie faced the challenge of raising money for adequate schoolhouses .1°° Another issue which was apparent in the dispute was the hostility towards Roman Catholicism by those who fought to end the Poughkeepsie Plan.

Mr. Keyser in explaining his actions began by stating: One of the great dangers that threatens and menaces our country today, and creates dissension among our neighbors and citizens is the aggressive attitude of the Roman Catholic Church toward our public school system and educational institutions, and a determination to weaken, overthrow and entirely revolutionize our present form of government both state and municipal. 101 Mr. Keyser went on to denounce the tax-exempt status of Church property, the inability and inadequacy of monks and nuns as teachers, (". . we do not want nor will we have the abject slaves of a foreign power, deadly hostile to this Republic, training our future citizens"), the superstitious teachings of the Church and the petty politics and expediency which prevent the asserting of true principles, and true Americanism.102 Ironically, as this significant chapter of American Catholic- history came to a close in Poughkeepsie because of the fear of the influence of Rome, a chapter was also coming to a close in the history of Catholicism in America because of Rome's concern about the negative influence of some American ideas and practices on Catholicism in America. In early 1899, the papal letter Testam Benevolentiae listed a series of concerns about "Americanism", that is, practices and beliefs of liberal Catholics in America which were not to be encouraged or continued. Both liberals and conservatives outwardly welcomed the letter; conservatives because they believed it represented a rebuke to the liberals; liberals because they felt they had never held the condemned views and believed that the letter recognized that .1°3 The death in 1902 of Father James Nilan signaled the end of another significant phase in the history of the Catholic community in Poughkeepsie. Although those who came to pay him honor were more numerous and more prestigious than those attending the funeral of his fellow priest, Fr. Riordan, thirty-two years before, both men followed a similiar course in life and in death. They had earned for themselves and for their Church, respect and acceptance; they prepared their people to live at ease with both their Catholicism and their Americanism.

The next decades of the twentieth century saw Poughkeepsie welcome new immigrants who expanded the congregations of St. Joseph's and Mt. Carmel and created the Church of St. John the Baptist on Grand Street in 1921. More established families began moving away from the riverfront areas. They joined the congregations of St. Mary's and later helped found, in 1921, Holy Trinity in Arlington.

Catholic laymen and laywomen organized themselves in wider Church-related organizations like the Knights of Columbus and the Catholic Daughters of America even as many maintained the vitality of their parish organizations — the St. Michael's Society; the Aquinas Club; the St. Rita's Society; the Kosciuszko Society. They took special pains to join in patriotic celebrations and proudly listed their service to the armed forces .1" Gradually, Catholics became more prominent in political life: Morschauser and Mack, the judges; Monsolillo, Waryas, Burns, the aldermen; Richard Connell 123