I suspect that most of us have heard the words attributed to writer and philosopher George Santayana which in its original form read, “Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.” I was reminded of that quote when reading the following excerpt from the 1924 Stella Niagara chronicle, as the land referred to is the very area which was sold to the Western New York Land Conservancy. Although it is highly unlikely that in 2015 anyone consciously remembered the earlier plans for a park in the meadow, neither the angst of that experience nor the outcome were repeated.
The jubilee year (50th anniversary of the sisters’ arrival in the U.S.) was not to close without a cross for the community. One day, Lawyer Scoville of Lewiston, who had ever shown his aversion to the religious owners of Stella Niagara, came to inform the sisters that the State of New York was about to appropriate a section of the Stella property for the purpose of a public park.
This was a most unwelcome piece of news. As the sisters knew that they would get no assistance from Scoville, but that on the contrary he would work against their interests, they resolved to place the matter in the hands of a Catholic attorney of Buffalo, Mr. Waechter. The latter, however, evinced no interest in the affair which meant so much to the sisters, and so, by the advice of a friend, we asked the assistance of two noted Jewish lawyers, Messr. Fleischmann and Desbecker. These gentlemen at once took up the matter with great vigor. They seemed to understand perfectly our side of the question. If the part of our property which was threatened, had really been taken from us, we would not only have lost the most picturesque section of our grounds, but furthermore—this would have been even more undesirable—the close proximity of a public park would have destroyed our privacy and would have brought very questionable people to the neighborhood. So while the lawyers were working away vigorously to save the property for us, the sisters were storming heaven; especially the good St. Joseph was called upon to help us in this need. And the good saint did not turn a deaf ear to his children's prayer. Mr. Desbecker finally appealed to Governor Alfred E. Smith. The latter had previously given his consent to the park proposition because he had been told that it was agreeable to the sisters. But now when he heard the real facts of the case, he decided that the property might not be taken against the consent of the owners. It was consequently agreed upon to lay out the park at some distance from Stella Niagara, near the so-called "Devil's Hole Inn," which will be done away with, a very great blessing for good morals. God had provided anew. Deo Gratias.
What a difference 91 years made in the way the Sisters of St. Francis viewed the possibility of having the Five Mile Meadow property become a place open and welcoming to the public. The thoughts, hopes, and needs of the modern era were and are very different from those of the generations before us, and the joy with which the sisters welcomed the possibility of preserving the land by selling it to the Conservancy shows how our thinking evolved over time. What is the same, however, is the belief that “God had provided anew” and the later generation could truly echo the words of the earlier, “Deo Gratias!”