Moses MARCY
Cathedral of Marble! Equal to Any in All New England. Massive and Gleams on Historic Site, Southbridge Landmark Is to Be Its Sacrifice. Two Hundred Thousand in Cash is the Cost.

Splendid Monument to Work of Mgr. G. E. Brochu.

HERE IS BORN A GOVERNOR OF NEW YORK.

Lafayette Make Homestead His Inn.

SOUTHBRIDGE, Feb. 11. - On the site of the house occupied by William A. Marcy, at the brow of Main-street hill, there will some day be erected a magnificent cathedral.

The old Marcy house, which was built a half century before the revolutionary war, will be torn down when William Marcy dies, and the oldest frame house in Southbridge will be brushed away to be replaced by a costly church of marble for the Notre Dame French Catholic parish.

Four year the French residents of Southbridge have waited to erect their new house of worship, and William Marcy, hale and hearty at nearly 70 years of age, has no idea of relinquishing his hold on his native home.

Mr. Marcy hope the French parish will wait a good many years for its new church, and it pains the old gentleman to think that after his death the historic homestead will be the site of a Catholic church. Not that he has any animosity for the denomination, but it has always been his wish that the March house should remain the property of the family and be cherished by the Marcy descendants. William Marcy has a life lease of the house.

The Marcy house was owned at one time by John Marcy, brother to William Marcy, who lives in Fairfield, Iowa, and Mrs. Andrew J. Bartholomew of Southbridge.

Mrs. Bartholomew sold her interest in the house to John Marcy, and he sold the property four years ago to Rt. Rev. Mgr. George Elzear Brochu, pastor of Notre Dame church, for $10,000. It was pecified in the deed that William Marcy should occupy the house the remainder of his life.

William Marcy and his niece, Mrs. Bartholomew, were sorely displeased when they learned that the hold homestead had been sold.

William L. Marcy, at one time, governor of the state of New York, and secretary of state of the United States, was born in the Marcy house, and rarely did he visit Massachusetts in after life but he came to Southbridge to visit the home of his boyhood.

Col. Moses Marcy, who built the house, was the first settler in Southbridge to erect a dwelling. He was born in Woodstock, Ct., April 18, 1702, and moved to Sturbridge about 1726. What is now Southbridge was then a part of Sturbridge, and Col. Marcy was allotted a 50-acre grant of land by the Sturbridge land proprietors on condition that he build a grist mill on the banks of the Quinebaug river at the dam, where he had already built a sawmill. The deed of the land grand also specified that the grist mill must be built prior to the year 1736.

Col. Marcy had previously erected the house which is now occupied by his great-great-grandson, William A. Marcy. He certainly showed good judgement in his selection of a spot on which to build, for the Marcy farm is a beautiful site, commanding an excellent view of Southbridge, and the Quinebaug valley, and situated in the residential center of the town. The house is on an elevation and faces a roadway which ends in a terrace and stone wall, making picturesque surroundings.

William Andrew Marcy was born May e, 1829, son of Jedidiah Marcy, and he, like his father, grandfather and great-grandfather, has known no home but the old Marcy homestead. He sustained a shock of paralysis when a mere boy, and since his boyhood has had only the partial use of his left side. He went through the Southbridge schools, and says the town had a better high school then than at the present time. He afterward attended Wilbraham academy for two years, and then he came home and carried on the farm.

Farming has always been his occupation, and a prominent characteristic of Mr. Marcy is his fondness for dumb animals.

His predecesors left an ample fortune, and Mr. Marcy has never lacked for money. While he enjoys good health, his constitution has never been strong since he was stricken with paralysis.

He is well posted on public affaris, and is a careful reader of The Worcester Telegram. He believevs thoroughly in extending the Southbridge line of electric road to the Brookfields or to Charlton.

Mr. Marcy is considered by many to be a hard man to approach, but a reporter for The Telegram found him agreeable and possessed of an unusually courteous manner. In speaking to The Telegram reporter, concerning the transferral of the Marcy property to Notre Dame parish, Mr. Marcy said: -

"I never knew anything about it until it was all over. My brother, like Esau, sold his birthright. I blame him and no one else, for selling the property. I don't blame the priest, but it was not right for John to sell the old homestead. My home is a historic old place, and I was sorry to have its ownership pass out of the family. Why it's the oldest house in Southbridge, and my ancestors were the first settlers. My mother told me time and again of seeing Lafayette when he passed through Sturbridge and took dinner at what is now the Elms hotel.

"This was a howling wilderness when Col. Moses Marcy came here 50 years before the revolution, and he ran the only sawmill and gristmill between Brookfield and Putnam, Ct."

Additions have been built on the Marcy house, but the main building has never undergone any changes.

Rev. Mgr. Brochu told The Telegram that he bought the Marcy property five years ago for $10,000, and that after Mr. Marcy's death he would erect a cathedral which would be second to none in New England. He said the new church would probably be of marble and would cost about $200,000. The parish has already raided nearly $120,000 of the amount necessary.

G. Venne of Montreal has drawn the plans for the new church, which will be of Romanic style.

The church will face Main street, and its floor plan will be 225 feel ong by 155 feet wide.

Sunday Telegram
Worcester, Massachusetts
February 12, 1899

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