Like an exquisite stained glass window whose colors and figures mingle and blend together to create beauty, so the history of St. Patrick's Church is woven together with the history of the community.  It is a part of Hubbard.  This story of the Catholic Church in Hubbard, and its 125 years of activity since its founding as a parish in 1869, is inevitably shaped by the events that occurred in this community over this time, as well as by the people who lived and worked here.  Those dominant figures and events make up the richness and diversity of this history.

      No one is more remembered in our history than Father Eugene O'Callaghan, who first came to Hubbard around 1863 to 1865 to say Mass for the Catholics of the community.  Father O'Callaghan, a ranging six-foot-tall man with a full beard and piercing dark eyes, emigrated from Ireland in 1847, graduated from a little college somewhat west of Ohio called Notre Dame, attended St. Mary's Seminar in Cleveland, and was ordained to the priesthood in 1859.  Six years later, in 1865, he became pastor of St. Columba in Youngstown.  In addition to his responsibilities as pastor, Father O'Callaghan had three missions and many stations -places where he would go on horseback or occasionally even on foot to say Mass and administer the sacraments.  It was said that Father O'Callaghan's long walks in all kinds of weather from Youngstown to the station of Hubbard often resulted in bloodied stockings inside his boots.

      It seemed to be an appropriate time for Hubbard's Catholics to organize and form a parish in their own community.  Hubbard was growing in population, size, and in the number of businesses locating here.  The community has definitely changed from a settlement of people who came to clear the land and raise crops to a much more diverse community.  Early industries, like Samuel Tylee's grist mill and the old tannery on property now occupied by St. Patrick's cemetery on South Main Street, had given way to establishments like the post office and even a tavern, kept by Nathaniel Mitchell on the north side of West Liberty Street.

      As the population grew, other churches were established.  The Methodists built the old Veach Church just off the present Route 304 (toward West Middlesex), and the Presbyterians had constructed their meeting place in 1804 on the site of what is now Old North Cemetery.  In 1857, they would build a bigger structure at the southeast corner of West Liberty and Hager.  Cornerhouse Christian Church was established in 1828, on land donated by Jesse hall, in a building where Routes 62 and 7 North meet.  The Catholics, mostly of Irish and German heritage, decided that they too needed a place of worship.  New groups of people were moving into the area, particularly as news of coal mines containing a very high grade of mineral began to spread.  Banks began to spring up, as north of town, in what is now Coalburg, and east and south of the Middlesex Road, were Jackson's Coal Bank, as well as Beach, Burnett, and Smith Banks.  It was becoming obvious to the community residents that saying Mass in private homes was no longer practical.

      Father O'Callaghan, Michael Pigott and Leopold Lumpp, a bootmaker, began to search the area, looking for a possible site for a Catholic church in Hubbard.  The opportunity came when a Mr. David agreed to sell a lot near Park Avenue and North Main Street, approximately where the Pennzoil station stands today, for $165.  The deed to the property was signed on January 25, 1866, in Mr. Lumpp's bootmaking shop on the northeast corner of Main and Park.  From then through July, 1867, work proceeded on the church due to the efforts of its parishioners.  Mr. Lumpp, Michael O'Brien, Sr., Michael Mugent and John Clancy laid the foundation for the 50 foot-long wooden building.  Subscription drives were undertaken, allowing a payment of $1,700 to be made to Thomas Heidt to close the building in.  Although the church presented a finished view from the outside, the inside was still in a state of construction.  A carpenter's bench served as the altar, scantling laid across bricks served as kneelers, and sills of the window, not yet enclosed, were pews.

      In May, 1868, just one month before Hubbard was incorporated as a village, Father O'Callaghan asked Father Edward Conway, pastor of the church in Warren, to take Hubbard as a mission.  Father O'Callaghan's duties at St. Columba's were simply too pressing for a trip to the First Vatican Council in Rome in November, 1868.  During the 10 months that Father Conway held the responsibilities of the Hubbard church he raised $290 at a fair, using the money to buy pews and plaster part of the church's interior.  St. Patrick's parishioners were active as well.  Three women of the parish, Mrs. Holzbach, Mrs. Lumpp, and Mrs. John Mock, provided their own bed sheets as a backdrop for the main altar.  Mr. Lumpp and Martin Washington collected $100 for the church in just one night by canvassing a community called Coal Run, near Wheatland.  Father Conway's successor, Father Peter Becker, who came to Hubbard in 1869, finished the plastering and bought statues for the church.  Father Becker administered the first baptism at St. Patrick's on March 17, 1869, with Martin Schidell and Elizabeth Schmidt as sponsors.  Father Becker served the parish until July, 1870.

      The last 30 years of the 19^th century saw many changes in the community of Hubbard.  Its incorporation as a village in 1868, coupled with the booming coal mining and refining industries, attracted many new businesses and organizations.  City services, for example, were in high demand.  A jail, consisting of two cells and a small office, was built in 1870 and, in 1875, the first fire company was established.  Education was important to the community as well.  The first free high school, located on School Street where Roosevelt Elementary School now stands, opened in 1870.  The Old Brick Building, as it was known then, had elementary school rooms on the first floor and high school rooms on the second.  Alexander Campbell was the school's first principal.  Hubbard City Council was formed in 1868, and one of its first actions was to construct sidewalks in the village.  Hubbard had a newspaper as well.  The Standard, was established and edited by A.D. Fassett in 1868 and ran through 1872.  After several years of inactivity, the paper was resurrected as The Enterprise, edited by J.F. Horton and printed until 1926, when The Hubbard News began.

      Business began to boom in the 1870's.  The Andrews and Hitchcock Blast Furances, built in 1868, added a second furnace in 1872.  An iron works, the Hubbard Rolling Mill, opened in 1872 as well.  Two brickyards and a furniture manufacturing plant were established, along with two breweries, both operated by Jacob and Adam Holzbach.  Hubbard also had several foundries operated by Gilchrist and Leonard and Henry Hescock and E.A. Loveless, who also ran a planing mill.  In addition to the foundries, Hescock established the Hubbard Evaporating Works, which manufactured buckets, pans and tanks used in the gathering and preparation of maple syrup.  Henry Street, named for the enterprising entrepreneur, Hescock, together with Henry Moore, owned the Hubbard Dry Goods Store.  Another store, run by the G.M. McKelvey Company of Youngstown, was situated north of the Erie Depot and sold goods to residents who lived near the furnaces.  Hubbard had a bank as well, the Hubbard Savings Bank, which opened in 1873 and was presided over by A.M. Jewell.  Three doctors and two attorneys had offices here and, as early accounts attest, Hubbard had "many saloons" and one "fine" hotel.

      During that same period, 1870-1900, St. Patrick's Church began to grow and, like Hubbard itself, expanded its services to meet the needs of its parishioners.  Father John Schaffield became the first resident pastor of St. Patrick's and in his 10 years here, until 1880, he accomplished many things.  Father Schaffield's work could not have been done, however, were it not for the generosity and dedication of the parishioners.  For example, there is a record of a fair held in December, 1872, where one of the principal events was a race between Rees Charles, proprietor of the coal bank, and A.K. Price, who owned a blast furnace.  The pair raced for a gold-headed cane.  Price ended up the winner, but the real victor that day was the church, which collected $1,000 from the contest, and used the money to purchase land and buildings.  Father Schaffield bought property from Hiram Bell on North Main Street as a site for the rectory, which was built the following year for $2,250.  In 1870, he also arranged for the Sisters of the Holy Humility of Mary, whose Motherhouse was in nearby Bedford, PA, to come to Hubbard to teach in the two-room schoolhouse built near the church on Main Street.  The order of Nuns had come from France only 15 years before, and St. Patrick's was to be their third teaching assignment in America.  The school was small, and primitive by today's standards, but it had what all schools need most: dedicated faculty, attentive pupils, and interested parents.  Originally, the nuns stayed at the home of the Hopes in Hubbard, but the church later purchased property on Park Avenue for their convent.

      During his tenure here, Father Schaffield turned his attention to two other vital concerns -the need for an addition to the church, and the need for a parish cemetery.  Three-and-a-quarter acres of land were purchased from J. Lydee and A. Cowdrey for the cemetery in July, 1872.  In 1873, an addition to the church was built under the direction of George Vogel, a local carpenter.  William Schaffield, Father Schaffield's brother, built the new altar for the enlarged church.  It was truly a proud congregation that saw Rt. Rev. Bishop Edward Gilmour of Cleveland, formally dedicate the church.  Two years later, a bell that was bought for $407 and inscribed with names like Pigott, Weitz, Killeen, McAvey, Buck, Holway, Fox and Lumpp, was added.

      The years between 1880 and 1890 saw four pastors serve: Father John Kute, who provided a third classroom for the school; Father Nicholas Pfeil; Father Felix Scullin, who left Hubbard to build St. Stephen's Church in Niles; and Father J.J. Clarke whose ill health made his stay in Hubbard a brief one.

      The last decade of the 19^th century and the early years of the 20^th century were interesting times.  There was a short financial panic in 1893 and 1894 which had devastating effects, yet the village of Hubbard continued to grow.  The community could no longer be isolated, as businesses and services located in Youngstown and Sharon were needed by Hubbard residents.  In 1890, Hubbard issued a franchise to the Penn-Ohio Streetcar Company to permit service between Sharon and Youngstown, traveling through Hubbard on North Main and West Liberty streets.  Passengers could go round-trip to Youngstown for 20 cents.  Two years later, a streetcar line from Hubbard to Sharon to New Castle was added.  Travel to and from these communities was important because of the many stores and services available in the two towns.  For example, people could travel into Youngstown to the Weil-Hartzell Company at Hazel and West Federal, for example, for rugs, carpets, linoleum or wallpaper, or they could have their First Communion portraits taken at the Miller Studios on West Federal.  There was even a café near the corner of Champion and Boardman that advertised itself as being "at the end of the Hubbard Streetcar line." The area was booming, and St. Patrick's needed a dynamic leader to bring it into the 20^th century.

      That leader came in the person of Father Nicholas Drohan, a tall, distinguished-looking man, who assumed the pastorate of St. Patrick's on July 4, 1889, and remained here for the next 23 years.  Father Drohan, a native of Massachusetts was ordained at St. Mary's Seminary in Cleveland and came to Hubbard after serving as pastor for 13 months in Wellsville.