"'I did not believe,' said an ex-United States Senator, still living among us, 'that the Catholics had such solid proofs for their doctrines.'"
Father John Shanahan succeeded Father Bulger. Father Shanahan had been educated at Mount St. Mary's College and had been ordained in 1823 by Bishop Connolly. He remained but a short time and left Paterson to take charge of a mission in Utica, New York, and from thence he went in 1850 on a mission to California. He subsequently returned to New York, where he died in St. Peter's parish.
Father Charles Brennan came next. He had been educated in Kilkenny College, Ireland, and had been ordained by Bishop Connolly in 1822. He conceived the idea of erecting a new church, as the Catholics were rapidly increasing in numbers, and proceeded to carry his design into execution. He made a number of tours through the surrounding country soliciting subscriptions and it was while thus engaged that he was taken sick. He went to New York, where he died in March, 1826, and his remains were interred by the side of Father Bulger.
While Father Brennan was lying sick in New York Father John Conroy--uncle of the late Bishop John J. Conroy of Albany--was sent to Paterson to look after the welfare of St. John's congregation. Father Conroy was educated in Mount St. Mary's College and was ordained by Bishop Connolly in 1825. He was subsequently assistant at the Cathedral in New York and assistant at St. Lawrence's Church in Eighty-fourth street, New York. He died when chaplain of Cavalry Cemetery, New York.
Father Francis O'Donoghue was the next priest. He took up the work left unfinished by Father Shanahan and collected money for the new church. The construction of the Morris Canal at this time brought to Paterson a large number of Catholic Irishmen and it was found that the congregation of St. John's received such numerous accessions that it was necessary to construct a gallery in the church building on Congress and Mill streets. Mr. Colt, on behalf of the Society for Establishing Useful Manufactures, showed a disposition not to extend to the Catholic Church any favors he had not shown to congregations of other denominations and at first refused to give the church any more property or permit the sale of the real estate on which the church was situated. Rt. Rev. Bishop Du Bois then came to Paterson and he and Father O'Donoghue called to see Mr. Colt. After a conference Mr. Colt was induced to withdraw his objections to the sale of the Mill street property and the congregation obtained from him the tract of land on Oliver street on which stands the church in which St. John's congregation worshipped nearly a third of a century.