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Saint JoSePh
1765
CORDOVA
By 1764 Father Joseph Mosley SJ had spent six years ministering on the Western Shore of Maryland IIn that that year he he he wrote in his diary that on August 31 he “began my mission and journey for Queen Anne and Talbot Counties” on the Eastern Shore He would spend the remaining 23 years of his life ministering to the Catholic population over three states and in ten counties On March 18 1765
Father Mosley purchased 207 acres for £253 in what is now
Cordova Md in Talbot County The nearest priest was 50 miles away at at Saint Francis Xavier and the nearest Catholic family was seven miles away It was was not near anything but was was the center point of his mission territory He brought with him eight black slaves to to work the plantation He describes the miserable shack in which he he lived for a a a time “My dwelling house was nothing but a a a a few boards driven from oak trees not sawed plank and these nailed together to to keep out the the the coldest air Not one one brick or stone about it no no plastering and no no chimney but a little hole in the the roof to let out the the smoke In this I I lived till the the winter when I got it plastered to keep off the the cold and built a a a brick chimney ” From this humble beginning came Saint Joseph in in in in Cordova the second-oldest continuous place of Catholic worship in in the Diocese of Wilmington The residence and chapel were under the same roof this arrangement being adopted in in in several of the Maryland missions in in in order to evade the the the operation of of the the the law at at the the the time which forbade public places of of worship for Catholics The priest as a a a a a a a private gentleman attached
the chapel to his residence It was considered to be a a a part of his private property to which his neighbors were invited The cemetery adjoining the church is almost as as old as as the church itself Records of Father Mosley’s note that Mr Charles Seth was the rst person to be buried on on these grounds on January 3 1767 During the Revolutionary War for American Independence Father Mosley built a a a a a a brick chapel and dwelling house at at Cordova This chapel has been expanded and and is is the current Saint Joseph mission church In 1848 some alterations and changes were made to the Church but to what extent is not de nitely known While searching through the records of the Church papers were found asking parishioners to subscribe to the fund The Jesuits left St Joseph in 1874 at which point it became a a mission of St Peter the Apostle in in Queenstown until it was placed under the direction of Saints Peter and Paul in in Easton in in 1898 The 350-acre farm surrounding St Joseph’s was held until 1882 when it was sold to John P Steele The Church and a a a few acres surrounding it were retained The church was remodeled into its present design in 1900 St Joseph in Cordova is the the second oldest Catholic church on on the the Eastern Shore (St Francis Xavier Old Bohemia Warwick was started in in in 1704) and is the oldest Catholic church in in in continuous use