HEADER
Andrew Arnold Lambing
ANDREW ARNOLD LAMBING, A.M., LL. D., pastor of St. James ‘ Roman Catholic
Church, Wilkinsburg, near Pittsburgh, Pa., was born in Manorville, Armstrong
Co., Pa., Feb. 1, 1842. He is the son of Michael Anthony and Anne (Shields)
Lambing, the family being of German extraction on the father’s side , and
Irish on the side of the mother.Christopher Lambing emigrated from Alsace, Germany, and landed at
Philadelphia, from the ship “Edinburgh,” James Russell master, Sept.
15, 1749. After spending some time in the eastern part of Pennsylvania, he
settled in Bucks county, four miles west of the Delaware river and sixteen
miles south of Easton, Pa., the spot being called Nockamixon, an Indian word
meaning “Where there are three cabins.” Here Christopher married
Anne Mary Wanner, his second wife. He died in 1817 at the advanced age of
ninety-one years. He had a numerous family, one of the sons, Matthew, being
grandfather of Father Lambing.Matthew Lambing drifted down into Adams county, Pa., where he married Mary
Magdalena Kohl, reared a family and then moved to Armstrong county, in
September, 1823. He settled finally at Manorville, where he died in 1851. His
son, Michael Anthony, married Anne Shields, great-granddaughter of Thomas and
Mary (O’Neill) Sheilds, who emigrated to this country from the southern part
of Donegal, Ireland, about the year 1745, and settled in Amberson’s Valley
thirty-five miles north of Chambersburg, Pa. Her father, William C. Sheilds,
came to Armstrong county in 1798, and soon after married Mary Magdalene
Ruffner, of Westmoreland county.Of the family of nine children two were priests, one a sister of charity,
and three were soldiers in the Civil war.Andrew arnold Lambing, the third son and child was born in Manorville Feb.
1, 1842, and had but four months of schooling each year, being obliged to work
on the farm. in a brickyard and an oil refinery during intervals. After a term
in Kittanning Academy and much private reading and study he entered St.
Michael’s Preparatory and Theological Seminary, at Glenwood, Pittsburgh, Feb.
2, 1863. Here he made a brief course, owing to the the great need for priests
at the time, frequently rising at three o’clock in the morning to pursue his
studies, and spending four of his vacations at hard work to defray the
expenses of his education. He was ordained in the seminary chapel by Bishop
Domenac, August 4, 1869, and sent to St. Francis’ College, Loretto, Pa., to
teach, with the additional obligation of attending the little congregation of
St. Joseph’s, Williamsburg, Blair county, forty miles distant, one Sunday in
the month, and assisting the village pastor on the others.On Jan. 5, 1870, Father Lambing was appointed pastor of St. Patrick’s
Church, in the eastern part of Indiana county, where he remained till April of
the same year, when he was transferred to St. Mary’s Church, Kittanning, with
its five monthly out-missions, ranging from two to twenty-two miles distant.
Here he made considerable improvement and also built the Church of the Holy
Guardian Angels, eight miles across the river in South Buffalo townhip. On
Jan. 17, 1873, he was appointed to St. Mary’s Church, Freeport, with the
additional charge of the congregation at Natrona. In July of the same year he
was named chaplain of St. Paul’s Orphan Asylum, Pittsburgh, but the advent of
the panic prevented any bettering of the financial condition of the
institution. He was accordingly made pastor of the Church of Our Lady of
Consolation at the Point, in Pittsburgh, where he placed the school in charge
of the Sisters of Mercy and remodled a Protestant church, which was later
dedicated under the invocation of St. Mary of Mercy. He also built a pastoral
residence and was for some years president of the Catholic Institute, the
forerunner of the present Duquesne University. In 1885 he was placed in charge
of St. James’ Church, Wilkinsburg, and has done much for the parish, having
erected the present church and school building, which replace those destroyed
by fire shortly after his appointment to the charge.Father Lambing has written innumerable articles for newspapers and
magazines on historical and religious subjects, and has been the author of
eight works of great value to students of our history. He wrote a considerable
part of of the “History of Allegheny County,” part of the
“Standard History of Pittsburgh,” and was the founder of a Catholic
historical monthly. He is at present at work on a history of the deceased
priests of the Diocese of Pittsburgh, part of which has been published. For a
long term of years he was president of the Historical Society of Western
Pennsylvania, is a trustee of the Carnegie Institute and the Carnegie School
of Technology, Pittsburgh, was president of the board that prepared the school
exhibit for the Columbian Exposition at Chicago, and is present censor of
books for the Diocese of Pittsburgh. Notwithstanding these many duties and
labors he has never been two Sundays successively absent from his
congregations. In 1883 the University of Notre Dame conferred on him the
honorary degree of Master of Arts and three years later that of Doctor of
Laws.Source: Pages 413-414 Armstrong County, Pa., Her People, Past and
Present, J.H. Beers & Co., 1914
Transcribed September 1998 by Rodney G Rosborough, for the Armstrong County
Beers Project
Contributed for use by the Armstrong County Genealogy Project (http://www.pa-roots.com/armstrong/)Armstrong County Genealogy Project Notice:
These electronic pages cannot be reproduced in any format, for any presentation, without prior written permission.Return to the Beers Project
Â
Return to the
Armstrong County Genealogy ProjectÂ
Return to the
Armstrong County Genealogy Project
Return to the
Armstrong County Genealogy Project
(c) Armstrong County
Genealogy Project
About Author
