In the early 1830s, a handful of Catholic families made their way to the Smithtown area.  Burns, Fisher, Haggerty, Cumminsky, Laughlin, McGinley and Dohahue are the names listed for these early Long Island settlers (the list varies slightly according to the source(.  Their efforts to make Smithtown their home were thwarted by townspeople who refused to sell or give land to Catholics.  Nearby Hauppauge was more hospitable and the Catholic settlers made their new home at the present site of St. Patrick Cemetary on Mount Pleasant Road.

While the area could offer them land, it could not offer them a Catholic Church or a priest.  The new settlers missed the Mass and the Sacraments.  They petitioned the Most Rev. John DuBois, the third Bishop of New York, to send them a priest.  Their request marked the beginning of what is today St. Patrick Parish.

The initial response to the petition was the sending of priests to take a census of Catholics living on Long Island.  One of the first priests to minister to the scattered Catholic poplation on Long Island was the Rev. John Walsh, pastor of St. james Church on Jay Street in Brooklyn.  He was followed by Fr. James O'Donnell, OSA, and Fr. Nicholas O'Donnell, OSA.

The first St. Patrick's Church after it was moved to the other side of Mount Pleasant Road to make room for the second church in 1874.

In the early years, Mass was celebrated at the Fisher farmhouse.  Eventually, a small church was built.  The structure resembled a cabin and measured 25 feet by 25 feet - one story and an attic.  Inside, the simple church contained hemlock boards, without backs, which served as pews.  The Fisher family provided both the building and the property.  At the time, this was the only Catholic church between St. Andrew's in Sag Harbor and St. Monica's in Jamaica, Queens.  The church was dedicated on St. Patrick's Day - March 17th, 1840 - by Bishop John Hughes of New York.

In 1843, an addition was built on the church.  One set of vestments was used and a small projection of the structure's southwest corner served as a confessional and a sacristy.  In the decade that followed the dedication of the small church, Mass was celebrated approximately two or three times a year.  Sometimes a priest would come from St. James Church in Brooklyn.  Often it was Fr. Michael Curren, who was stationed in Flushing.  Fr. Curren made the arduous trip to the eastern reaches of Long Island (as far as Greenport) on a regular basis, traveling on horseback.  St. Patrick was one of several mission churches of the Flushing parish.  Other priests would do the same in the years to come.

The second St. Patrick's Church on Mount Pleasant Road.  Built in 1974 and destroyed by fire in 1927.

As the years went by, the Catholic population in the area grew and the little church became too small for its congregation.  In 1874, Rev. Peter Kearney built a new church near the old one and eventually had the first St. Patrick Church moved across the road.  Fr. Kearney stayed in Hauppauge from 1885 to 1887.  living in "the first house on the road south of the church. 

Continued on next page...