Father Joseph A. Gallen (1886-1955)
The things that Fr. Gallen did in the 1920s and 1930s could not be done today.
Ordained in 1911, Father Gallen had several assignments before becoming founding pastor of St. Joseph Parish in 1922. There were few Catholics in the area and the Parish was to fill the gap between St. David’s in Willow Grove and Our Lady of Mt. Carmel in Doylestown. At St. Joseph’s, Father took in orphan boys and troublemakers from the Catholic Children’s bureau letting them sleep on the second floor of the rectory or boarded in nearby homes. There were no case workers or probation officers, just hard work and a clean bed. Father and the boys constructed buildings, everything from the church and the stone grotto (Easton and County Line Rds.) to houses in the Warrington area. They scavenged railroad ties from an old trolley line near the church to heat the school and rectory.
“He believed in teaching all kinds of trades. These boys worked at everything on the farms and in the fields. Some worked with plumbers or electricians. He told them they could learn everything, that there was no such thing as woman’s work. They learned to cook and sew, to bake bread and mop floors. “
-Jim Furlong, son of Fenton Furlong who lived at St. Joseph’s after his policeman father was killed in a fire.”
They became known around Warrington/Warminster/Horsham as Father Gallen’s gang. A 1939 story in the Philadelphia Record shows dozens of boys in the duties of tearing down the rectory porch and building a stone foundation for a statue of the Virgin Mary and yes, helping to make beds.
“No one had a bad thing to say about Uncle Joe. When you were with him, you felt like you were among common folk., but on the other hand, you felt you were around someone really holy and from another place. He was very special. “
-Rose Marie Gallen Bell, great grandniece of Fr. Gallen
Our Council is proud to have Fr. Gallen as our patron, a man both ordinary and extraordinary at the same time. And we are grateful to Mrs. Ann Monahan (wife of our first Grand Knight Frank Monaghan) who suggested Fr. Gallen. No better person
