St. Patrick Cemetery

76 Dublin Road • Canaan, CT • Litchfield County

Historical Significance

St. Patrick Cemetery is one of the earliest sites of the area's Catholic population. Included among those buried there are family members of parishioners of St. Bridget Church. Because the first Church of St. Bridget, located in West Cornwall, sat on barely a quarter acre, deceased parishioners were buried in the Cemetery of St. Patrick, an 8 mile journey from West Cornwall.

Photo: Aerial view of St. Patrick Cemetery.

William Lane, his wife, Johanna and their sons, John, Peter and Robert came from the parish of Kilworth in County Cork. By 1851 they were living in St. Helens, Lancashire, England and they arrived in the United States sometime before 1860.http://www.stbridgetct.org/lane.html

In 1862, William and John Lane purchased a farm of about 80 acres along the Housatonic River on River Road in Sharon. Peter Lane later purchased most of the land from his brother although John retained a small lot, which is still owned by the Lane family today, after nearly 150 years.

William Lane died in 1876 and is buried in St. Patrick Cemetery in Falls Village, CT. His son, Peter, has the distinction of being the first interment in St. Bridget Cemetery in December 1884. John Lane and Peter Lane are commemorated on two of St. Bridget's stained glass windows: the John Lane on the north corner and Peter Lane on the west corner.

Photo: Troy Family Headstones. (Tod Bryant)

The family of Roger and Mary Troy was closely associated with the history of St. Bridget Church from its very beginning. Even before the first St. Bridget Church was built, mass was said in the home of Mary O'Rourke Troy in Cornwall. Michael Troy, born in Ireland in 1840, served as a trustee after the Church of St. Bridget moved to Cornwall Bridge and was one of the signers of the deed which transferred the Harrison farm to the Roman Catholic Congregation of St. Bridget in 1882.

Four members of the Troy family are buried in St. Patrick Cemetery, Falls Village: Roger who died in 1854 due to typhoid pneumonia; his son Patrick, a Civil War veteran and member of 2d Connecticut Heavy Artillery Regiment; and his daughters: Bridget and Ellen, both born in Connecticut who died in 1874 and 1876 respectively.

Sources

"St. Patrick Cemetery," A Walking Tour of St. Bridget Parish
[ view source ]


Additional Information

Date(s):  c. 1860


Top ] [ Back ]