The Church on Marienstein Rd
The 390 Marienstein Rd Church History begins with Father Henry Stommel, pastor of St. John the Baptist Church in Haycock Township from October 7, 1871 to November 19, 1875. Father Stommel was the driving force behind building St. Joseph’s Church on Marienstein Road in Upper Black Eddy, PA 18972. St. Joseph’s was a mission of St. John’s Roman Catholic Parish, Haycock.
Who was Father Henry Stommel?
The pastor of St. Mary’s Catholic church, at Doylestown, Father Stommel was born at Hodgeroth, county of Siegburg, Germany, June 23, 1842. He was the second of a family of four children, all of whom except the eldest were residents of Bucks County, PA county.
This Ceiling Painting at 390 Marienstein RD18972 was Discovered Hidden Under Another Ceiling During Renovation
Henry Stommel was devoted to the ministry, and pursued his preparatory studies in Germany, and later in Belgium. He was ordained at Louvain, in Belgium, September 11, 1870, by the Rt. Rev. Stein, bishop of Calcutta, India. Early in December, 1870, he sailed for Boston, Mass. Soon after his arrival he was appointed assistant pastor of St. Boniface church in Philadelphia, by the late Archbishop Wood, and on the 9th of October, 1871, he assumed charge of St. John’s church and the missions at Haycock.
Under Father Stommel’s direction, about twenty parochial buildings were erected, seven churches, school-houses, residences, halls, etc., in addition to the many improvements effected on existing buildings. Among the structures which owe their origin to the pastor’s enterprising industry are St. Joseph’s, at Marienstein.
The Church at 390 Marienstein Rd
An energetic young German-born pastor, Rev. Henry Stommel, better met the needs of those in the western Swamp (a major portion of Upper Bucks County near Quakertown) by overseeing the construction of a filial church there in 1872 on what is today 390 Marientstein Rd, Upper Black Eddy, PA 18972. St. Joseph’s, with its simple Gothic edifice, was set amidst the rocks and woods along the east-west road that connected the thoroughfares in the western part of the township with the canal and river on the eastern edge.
Father Stommel unofficially christened this boulder-strewn spot “Marienstein” (Mary’s Stone), which became the common appellation for the church and the adjacent road as well as that whole region of the Swamp.
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