A Brief History of Saint Martin Church

In 1881, New Hampshire was still part of the Maine diocese when a delegation of French Canadian immigrants largely employed a the Great Falls Mfg. Co. seeking to redress inexorable, unchristian discrimination in Somersworth petitioned Amercia's first black bishop. Mgr. Francis Augustine Healy of Portland, who studied in Nicolat, P.Q., with Fr. Bouvier of Saint Mary's in Salmon Falls, to establish a francophone ethnic parish of their own.

He  immediately granted them permission and selected 35 year old. Fr. Cleophas Demers(1882-1906) who mounted his horse in Aroostook County and arrived here on October 8, 1882, to found St. Martin's parish-- aa name he selected after nearly drowning in the St. John River and promising St. Martin to name his first parish after him if he spared his life.

Encouraged by the generosity of his new parishoners, he soon purchased the Dr. Shapley property, corner of Franklin and Green Streets, had the house moved acorss the street where it still stands, and proceeded to build a huge wooden gothic church whose first cornerstone was blessed by Bishop Healy on the French holiday of St. John the Baptist, June 24, 1883, prior to the first Mass on Palm Sunday.

Fr. Demers immediately opened a school in the basement with the help of lay teachers prior to the arrival of seven Holy Cross Sisters of St. Laurent in August 1902 to begin the school year in September with 477 students waiting in the school yard. The academie St. Martin was eventually enlarged to enroll as many as 527 pupils in 1908.

It was during his pastorate that St. Martin's witnessed its first priestly ordination when his nephew, Father Demers, was ordained by New Hampshire's first bishop, Denis Delaney in 1903, one year after the wooden structure had been covered with bricks,

Fr. Onesime Desrosier(1907-1926) strengthened the parish organizations of the Societe St. Jean Baptiste(founded in 1872, ten years before the parish existed) and established the Dames de Ste. Anne in 1914. One of his greatest accomplishments was to foster vocations so that eventually St. Martin saw 40 of its men become priests and 90 of its women enter the religious life.

Fr. Hormidas Tetreau(1927-1937) supervised the blessing of the chruch bells in the sanctuary in 1929 before they were hoisted to the belfy. He also renovated the church furniture, had beautiful stained glass windows installed and improved the cemetery. He founded St. Martin's Commerical School(secondary). It was during his administration that the parish hosted a three-day visit by the new Blessed Nadre Bessette in 1929.

Fr. Artuher Sylvestre(1938-1947) established a scholarship fund to pursue studies in French whereas Msgr. Hector Benoit(1947-1967) continued to foster his predecessors' goal and refurbished tghe sanctuary in oak.

Msgr. Lionel Boulay(1967-1970) began negotiations to move St. Martin's establishment to the corner of West High and Maple Streets, a task completed by Fr. Robert Marchand(1970-1985) who also presided at the closing of St. Martin's Academy, the sale of the rectory and the convent, and the construction of a new rectory and church, which was blessed by Bishop Ernest Primeau in 1972.