As every schoolboy once knew, Vermont, during the great and terrible War between the States, sacrificed a higher percentage of her men to the conflict than any other state. To look back at that Vermont is to see a land not far removed from frontier-like conditions, a state that depended then as it does now on immigrants to maintain its sparse population; it is a beautiful but inclement, un­promising land that encourages its young to look elsewhere for their futures. The soil is famous for its ability to produce a fresh new crop of rocks at the start of every abbreviated growing season, and the harsh winters seem almost endless, as well as needlessly cruel in their opulent provision of snow and day after day of sub-zero, wind-driven weather.

In the late winter cold of March 23, 1863, the reality of the war that had been raging for the past two years was far removed from the valley town of West Randolph. History of a different kind was in the making on that day as Father Zephyrin Druon, resident pastor of Montpelier, made the long journey down through “The Gulf” and across the steep hills, over frozen mud and snow to the home of Peter Maginnis to celebrate Mass. Within a few hours after the last “Amen,” he had accepted from Edmund Weston, in the name of Bishop Louis de Goesbriand, the deed to a parcel of land upon which a new church would be built within the year.

There were, according to Fr. Druon’s later report, only about thirty French and Irish