One of St. Mary’s primary founding families is the Mays (or in Germany -- Maï). As the inscription reads, “Philip [und] Elisabeth May,” donated the large Austrian stained glass window of Sts. Paul and Peter along the north wall.

Philip was born in 1815 in Hesse-Darmstadt. He immigrated to Washington, DC, in 1842 and set up shop as a master baker in Georgetown, then the Capital City’s thriving port. He married Maria Elisabeth Freimann in 1845, who immigrated from nearby Hesse-Kassel five years earlier. Their first son Philip Michael was born the following year and they lived above the shop with their eight children (six survived to adulthood) in the old High Street, now known as Wisconsin Avenue after the 1895 renaming of Georgetown’s streets. It is highly likely the Mays started attending Mass in the house on 8th Street, NW, that the Ruppert family donated for this purpose when Washington’s German community started the congregation in 1845.

And afte the first church was built in 1846, we know that the Mays were deeply involved in parish sacramental life. For example, records show that in 1876 Philip and (Maria) Elisabeth’s son Philip Michael married Elizabeth Antoinette Bergling, daughter of Josephine Bergling, at St. Mary’s. The Berglings were also a founding family of the parish and donated one of our great bells cast by the McShane Foundry in 1920. It is dedicated to George and Josephine Bergling and their ancestors. “In memoriam et Josephinae Bergling consanguineorum haec campana data.” “In memory of Josephine Bergling and her ancestors for whom this bell is given.”

A little side note about the Berglings...

At one point, the Berglings lived right across the street from the church. Josephine emigrated from Oldenburg, Prussia, where she was born in 1833 and came to Washington not long after the “old” church was built by German immigrants in 1845. In 1850, she married another Prussian immigrant, George Bergling from Freienhegen, Heilhigenstant, and lived in the 700-Block of Fifth Street with her husband and twelve children for the rest of her life until her death in 1907. She is buried in our old parish cemetery near Catholic University.
Back to the Mays...

By the time the present church was built, Philip’s son Philip Michael May and his bride were living in St. Mary’s neighborhood where he ran a hardware store. While the Georgetown of his birth and his father’s bakery was the neighborhood of commerce prior to the Civil War, merchants thrived in the city’s new post-War downtown around St. Mary’s with the capital’s growing, permanent middle class. The Mays’ local shop eventually grew to become a family business, the famous F. G. May hardware store with locations downtown and in Ivy City. Philip and his brothers ran the business just down 6th St. from the church. It was a recognized and prosperous Washington institution well into the twentieth century.

Sadly, later in life, tragedy and scandal followed young Phillip’s daughter. Her name was Anna Loretta, known as “Annie.” She married the son of Irish immigrants, Elmer Dwyer, a Georgetown plasterer, and had four children. In 1921, Annie committed suicide by hanging herself with a bed sheet from a beam in the cellar of her home. Her 10-year-old son found her. She attempted to kill herself once before by inhaling illuminating gas, but her 17 year-old son saved her by shutting it off. She was reportedly despondent, believing that her husband had left her for another woman. Elmer married an 18-year old woman just 12 days after Annie’s death.

Following her burial, the May family asked for an autopsy as they suspected that Annie’s husband murdered her. They also successfully petitioned the courts to remove her four children from the home. Her body was exhumed, but the examination revealed nothing new. According to the police, Annie had been in the Washington Asylum Hospital before her death suffering from “melancholia.” The children were eventually returned to Elmer and his new wife after much scandalous citywide press. She is buried in Mount Olivet Cemetery with her father. Her mother is buried with the rest of the Bergling family in our parish cemetery.

On a happier note, the main subjects of this story, the elder Phillip and Elisabeth, both lived long lives, retired in prosperity, and grew old to witness many of their six surviving children thrive with growing families in the nation’s capital. In 1895, their children threw them what was then considered a lavish golden anniversary dinner (with gifts referred to in Elisabeth’s will excerpted below). They both died at 84-years old; Philip in 1899 and Elisabeth in 1903. They are buried in Mount Olivet Cemetery.

Elisabeth’s last will is a testament to her faith, her church, and her family. It is a precious document worth excerpting here:

“In the name of God, Amen… I direct a sum of $36.00 be expended [to St. Mary’s] for Masses to be said for the repose of my soul, and that $200.00 be given to St. Mary’s Catholic Church from time to time [thereafter] for [Masses for] the repose of the souls of my deceased husband and myself.”

“I direct $100.00 be given to the pastor of St. Mary’s Church to be used for the education of indigent children at the [St. Mary’s] Parochial School.”

“To my grandchild and godchild…I leave [my]…silver-plated ware consisting of a crucifix and two candlesticks.”

“To my daughter, I leave my mahogany prie-dieu.”

“I direct that the presents received by my deceased husband and myself at the time of the fiftieth anniversary of our marriage [1895] be divided equally…among all my children…”