Patrick J Harkins (1827 - 1910)

Born 1827 in Ireland

Ancestors

Died 4 Dec 1910 at about age 83 in Holyoke, Hampden, Massachusetts, United States

Problems/Questions Profile manager: Jay Byrne [send private message]

Biography

Patrick Harkins, born about 1833, son of Daniel and Rose (Doherty) Harkins. ^[1]

From the History of the Sisters of Providence: http://www.sisofprov.org/html/history.html

Our story begins

In 1873, two Sisters of the Sisters of Providence from Kingston, Ontario, Canada came to Father Patrick J. Harkins, pastor of St. Jerome's Church in Holyoke, Massachusetts, asking permission to solicit funds for their work with the poor in Canada from his parishioners. Agreeing, he in turn asked their Community to establish a mission of Sisters for the hundreds of poor immigrants and mill workers living in Holyoke. The Kingston Community responded by sending four of their number to Holyoke. The Sisters arrived in November 1873 and within a week started caring for their first orphan. Within a very short time, they were ministering to so many needy and infirm that their "House of Providence" was filled to capacity. As a result, only the very sick and friendless could be admitted.

When a Sister was not tending to those in the House of Providence, she was visiting the sick poor in their homes, spending nights with the dying or preparing the dead for burial. From the History of Holyoke's Churches St. Jerome's Church

From a history of the parishes of Holyoke, MA:

http://www.holyokemass.com/transcript/church/ch17.html

...Father Sullivan was a man of gentle disposition. His fear of giving offense made him, at times, timid. He was not strong physically. He was loved by his people, but the work to be done in Holyoke demanded a man of iron constitution, of tireless energy, and of indomitable will. Such a man the archbishop of Boston sent to St. Jerome's in the person of Patrick J. Harkins.

For forty-four years, Father Harkins labored for the spiritual, the moral and the material progress of the Catholic people of Holyoke. He was interested in every movement which made for the betterment of the community, which he loved. But he hated shams, and he denounced hypocrisy. He had some of the roughness of a strong and sincere man. But he never said an unkind word which he did not afterwards recall with regret. He wished to be jut. His frugal habits enabled him to save some money. This he spent or left, as he always told his friends he would spend or leave his property in such a way that it might advance the cause of religion and of charity. But the best that he gave to the catholicity of Holyoke was not his money. It was himself. He recognized that his mission on earth was to help his people to fit themselves for citizenship in the Kingdom of God, and he believed that in fulfilling this mission he was helping them to fit themselves also for citizenship in Holyoke.

Father Harkins was of the opinion that sound religious instruction was the basis of enlightened religion and true Americanism, hence the year after he came to Holyoke he made plans for a school for girls. This was opened in 1868 by the Sisters of Notre Dame. This school so flourished that a new home was needed for it. The present girls' school building was completed in 1883. In it nineteen sisters care for 509 children. Farther Harkins established a parochial school for boys in 1872. This was the first boys' school in the diocese of Springfield. It now accommodates 500 pupils. Miss Grace Harkins was the first principal of the boys' school. She was assisted by such able teachers as Miss Kate Harkins, Miss Mary A. Duckford, Miss Hannah E. McCoy, Miss Catherine Holmes, and Miss Margaret Pollet. The Sisters of Providence assumed charge of this school in 1876. It is still under their care.

It was Father Harkins, who, in 1873, induced these Sisters to come to Holyoke. It was he who urged them to open first an institution of charity at South Hadley Falls, then a hospital at Holyoke, then the Orphans' Home at Ingleside. His sympathy and assistance were with this great community while he lived, and at his death he left them the means to extend the field of their labors for charity and for God.

Father Harkins would not have been able to accomplish any of his great works were he not seconded by a loyal Christian people. He saw his people advance in material prosperity; he saw many of them occupying positions of honor and responsibility in the community, and his heart was glad, for he realized that the greater their usefulness to their fellow citizens the greater the honor they reflected upon their church. It would be tedious to name all these men. Let the Catholic gentleman, Dr. O'Connor, stand as a representative of the rest.

When, in 1904, Pope Pius X made Father Harkins a Domestic Prelate with the title of Prothonotary Apostolic, it was his intention to reward the religious activities of an earnest Catholic people as well as to crown the labors of the monsignor who was their leader.

Monsignor Harkins died December 4, 1910. He was succeeded by Monsignor Madden, vicar-general of the Diocese of Springfield....

And from another page at the same site: http://www.holyokemass.com/transcript/people/provid.html

The late Monsignor Harkins did may fine things for Holyoke, but no greater service than when he was instrumental in getting the order to locate to the city. He had been a student at Kingston, Canada, and was there acquainted with the splendid work of the Sisters of Providence.

Two sisters came to Holyoke in June, 1873, and it was then that he was able to put in operation a plan he had for the establishment of a place where the poor working girls of the parish might go in time of sickness. He made application for a body of nuns to come to the parish and start the work. In September of that year he went to Kingston with Dr. J.J. O'Connor, afterwards mayor of Holyoke, and looked over the field. They were favorably impressed and agreed to send the Sisters. They came in November, headed by Sister Mary Edward as Superior, and Sisters Mary Patrick, Mary of the Cross, and Mary Mt. Carmel. Monsignor Harkins was in charge of the South Hadley parish at that time, and so it was in the parish house over the river that the Sisters first took up their work.

At that time there was neither hospital nor alms house in Holyoke, and the opening of the home at South Hadley was the first work in this line of public charity in the vicinity. In 1875 the Parsons property, where stands today the House of Providence Hospital, was purchased, and the Sisters took up their residence in Holyoke. In 1878 the parish at South Hadley was set off, and the orphans were brought over to the Institute.

In 1875 the Sisters of Providence accepted the care of the boys' school at St. Jerome parish. This was the first parochial school established for boys, not only in Holyoke but in the entire Diocese. Though not primarily a teaching order, nevertheless it was only during the present year (1912) that the Sisters of Providence have laid aside their teaching duties and gone back to their chosen field, among the orphans and the aged. And for the first time in the year 1875 appears on the list of members of the community the name of Sister Mary of Providence. The following year she was made principal of the St. Jerome School, and from that day to this the story of the Sisters of Providence in the Springfield Diocese is the story of the life work of this wonderful woman.

The community was incorporated in 1878 and took over its own name the Parsons property. A story was added to the building that year and hospital work began in Holyoke at that time. From 1878 to 1893, when the new City Hospital was erected, the House of Providence was the only institution of its kind in the city.

There were far too many orphan children for the Institute at the time, and on the advice and through the agency of Dr. O'Connor, the Ingleside property was bought from Messrs. Chandler and Holman. The original price was twelve thousand ($12,000) dollars, but when Mr. Holman heard that the would-be purchasers were the Sisters of Providence he insisted that the price be made ten thousand ($10,000) dollars, and had his way.

Sister May John, the Mother-General of the order, came from Canada and with Sister Mary of Providence, drew the plans for the new orphans' home. No architect was required for the work, and in the opinion of builders ad architects alike, they would have trouble improving on the work of the two great leaders of the community. Toomey & Shea built the home, and it was dedicated on Washington's birthday, 1880, by Bishop O'Reilly. Father Harkins celebrated the first high mass in the chapel, and the home became at once the refuge of orphan boys and girls and aged men and women.

It remained for Mother Mary of Providence to show the way to less daring spirits to make something out of nothing. No sooner would ceaseless labor on her part and the part of the other members of the community serve to life the burden of debt that has borne heavily on their shoulders, at all times, than some new need appeared, to be met with the promptness and an optimism born of a great faith that God would smile on enterprises undertaken in the name of charity. There was not a dollar in the community charity when the first home at Ingleside was built. There is not a dollar now, but there is one of the finest organizations of its kind in the country.

An addition to Ingleside was necessary in 1887. Mother Mary drew the plans herself and the work was done at a cost of twenty-two thousand ($22,000) dollars. The original debt had been cleared by that time, largely through the efforts of Sister Mary Leonard and Sister Mary Theresa, who went into the rough mining districts in the far West to solicit aid, and collected six thousand ($6,000) dollars. A great fair was held in 1880, at which the Sisters cleared seven thousand ($7,000) dollars. The Holyoke Water Power Company gave as a donation to the fair a plot of land on Maple street, for which tickets were sold aggregating two thousand ($2,000) dollars. When the tickets were drawn, Mother Mary Edward held the lucky number. She promptly sold the lot for two thousand ($2,000) more.

From page 115 of the anti-prohibition 'Textbook of True Temperance' (Published by the United States Brewer's Association, 1911)

"I was here when the prohibitory laws were in effect in this State and know the evils which existed under them. Under no-license in Holyoke there would less drinking, but more drunkenness." - Monsignor Harkins, Holyoke, Mass.

From: "Sketch of Holyoke" by George H. Allyn, page 15

http://www.holyokemass.com/transcript/allyn/p15-fin.html

...The writer will not attempt to comment upon the clergymen of the last twenty years, save that the Rev. P.J. Harkins was a personality requiring a column to adequately characterize. The term "Father Harkins" revealed much. He had the sternness of a father, but he loved Holyoke, and harmonized with its rugged, old-time spirit, a trifle out of touch with the more modern ideas and fads. The title Monsignor never fitted him for a moment, and most of us refuse to recall him save by the familiar, rough-and-ready name, which fitted him like a glove....

Sources

1. ↑ like many Irish people 17 March is given as his date of birth "Massachusetts Deaths, 1841-1915," database with images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:S3HY-6QGW-FBF?cc=1463156&wc=MJCT-HZ9%3A1043030401 : 20 May 2014), 2314427 (004283179) > image 1512 of 2157; State Archives, Boston.

See also: