Capuchin Franciscan Father Blaine Burkey spent decades digging through centuries-old church records in pursuit of a single goal: setting straight the historical record.
Now 90, the Cumberland native has self-published “The Cumberland Mission,” a 316-page archival study of the Catholic Church’s efforts to minister to Catholics in Western Maryland during the region’s frontier period from 1778 to 1853. Father Burkey said he began writing the book about 20 years ago, drawing on archival research he had accumulated over decades.
The most widely known history of the Catholic Church in Western Maryland, “A Century of Growth: A History of the Church in Western Maryland” by Father Thomas Stanton, contained so many factual errors that someone “had to do something about it,” Father Burkey said.
Already the author of several history books, Father Burkey decided to take on the challenge himself.
Originally intended to correct numerous errors in Father Stanton’s 1900 two-volume history, Father Burkey’s project grew into a comprehensive archival study that fills in gaps left by earlier accounts and draws on documents long preserved in church archives.
“It’s a really extensive study of that period,” Father Burkey said. “I learned so many things.”
According to Father Burkey, Father Stanton based much of his earlier history on interviews with “the oldest people in the area.” As a result, Father Burkey said, many of the historical accounts were inaccurate. Even one of the few direct quotations included in Father Stanton’s work contained an incorrect date.
“It wasn’t all his fault. He was quoting someone else,” Father Burkey said of Father Stanton. “He absolutely knew about the archives in Baltimore. Maybe he didn’t have access to them.”
Father Burkey said Father Stanton quoted only one original historical document in his two-volume history. By contrast, “The Cumberland Mission” draws extensively on letters preserved in church archives from circuit-riding priests serving Western Maryland and from the first priests who resided in Allegany County.
Those archives at St. Mary’s Seminary in Roland Park became the cornerstone of Father Burkey’s own research.
Among the most valuable sources were letters written by missionary priests to the Archdiocese of Baltimore describing their travels through Western Maryland. The correspondence offered firsthand accounts of life on the frontier and the realities of ministering to scattered Catholic communities.
“It is much more interesting to know what they were doing there, in their words,” Father Burkey said.
The documents also enabled Father Burkey to reconstruct the lives and ministries of most of the priests known to have served the area. The book includes biographies of those priests, recounting both their successes and failures, often in their own words.
The letters also vividly documented the hardships missionary priests endured as they traveled on horseback through the rugged landscape.
“There were no big highways – just trails through the forests,” Father Burkey said. “They certainly gave their lives to this.”
One letter included a hand-drawn map on its reverse side showing the priest’s route between mission stops. Although the sketch inaccurately showed the direction of the Potomac River, Father Burkey was able to compare the locations mentioned in the letter with a modern map of Maryland to reconstruct the journey.
“He did what he could at that time,” Father Burkey said of the priest’s map, which he reproduced in the book.
“The research he did was just phenomenal,” Kathryn Mattingly said. A lifelong Cumberland resident, Mattingly, a parishioner of Our Lady of the Mountains, enjoyed learning how Catholicism started in the area.
“They had a hard life, yet they came,” Mattingly said of the traveling priests featured in the book. “They left their mark here.”
One lingering mystery remains. While the archives preserve the priests’ letters to Baltimore, they do not include the archdiocese’s replies.
“We don’t have the answers to their questions,” Father Burkey said. “We are able to understand things a little better, but don’t know if the bishop was pleased or not.”
By the end of the Revolutionary War, permanent settlements had taken root in the region, and, Father Burkey said, the Catholic Church “was pretty well established.” As communities became more stable, missionary priests were no longer needed.
A Cumberland native, Father Burkey was ordained a Capuchin Franciscan priest in 1961 and has served in St. Louis; Victoria and Hays, Kansas; and Denver, where he is archivist for the Capuchin Franciscans.
He is the author of several previous books, including “Als Ich in Cumberland War”; “Seelos: The Cumberland Years”; “Custer Come at Once”; “Wild Bill Hickok, the Law in Hays City”; and “In Secret Service of the Sacred Heart: The Life and Virtues of Julia Greeley.” He also serves as spokesperson for the Julia Greeley Guild, which promotes Greeley’s cause for canonization.
Father Burkey self-published “The Cumberland Mission,” which is available in paperback through Amazon.
“I really didn’t know this one was going to get there, but it did,” Father Burkey said. “I made it happen.”
Email Katie V. Jones at kjones@CatholicReview.org.
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