Born: 22 September 1834, Omagh, County Tyrone
Entered: 13 October 1851, Frederick, MD, USA - Marylandiae Province (MAR)
Died: 29 August 1855, Burlington, NJ, USA - Marylandiae Province (MAR)

Part of the Frederick, MD, USA community at the time of death, which occurred in a train crash at Burlington NJ

◆ Woodstock Letters SJ : Vol 4, Number 1

“St Joseph’s Church, Philadelphia” p 37ff

......The 29th of August was a day not soon to be forgotten in this country. Being confined to my room by a severe headache, three scholastics spent an hour around my bed. They were on their way to the College of the Holy Cross, as teachers. At 11am, I sent them down to the refectory to a substantial lunch; and then - saying a short prayer in honor of the thorn-crowned head - I walked my floor for hours in intense pain.

About 4pm., being relieved, I went out to pay a visit to my mother's. After staying there a short time, I started for home, and on the way met a young lady acquaintance, with face the color of ashes of roses. “Oh! O! Mr ... , have you heard the news? the noon train to New York is smashed up, and oh! oh! oh! the young-the scholastics .are all killed”. I waited not to thank her for her kindness: and indeed, Miss Kate Egan has a heart brimming full of kindness for everyone who can lay claim to the title of Jesuit, but started at double quick for Willing's Alley, where I found that the scholastics were not “all killed”, for there was Mr Woolts under the care of good Dr McNeil. One was dead, one was severely injured, and one was greatly, oh! greatly scared.

Poor Mr Hugh Rush, a few more weeks and you would have called yourself a man, but suddenly that warm heart ceased to beat. Those who knew you well tell me it was indeed a warm heart 'that ceased to beat on that memorable 29th of August. You had just finished your retreat, Mary’s beads were in your hands, Mary's name was on your lips; you were going to instil the love of Mary and of Mary's Son; but Mary's Father and your God willed otherwise : as good Brother John Dowling says: “Thanks be to God”.

.......I remember the Mass at 5 o'clock in the church,-two living, a Jesuit priest and a Jesuit Scholastic, and two dead, a Jesuit Scholastic and a slave negress, lying side by side; no dis- tinction before the Altar of the God of the black and the white, the free and the bond. Do you remember how, when you had been carried into a private room, while they changed your clothes, you tried, in Latin, to supplement the confession of the early morn, and how one of the surgeons told you what you were doing, and how you found out that he was a former student of Georgetown College, and how for weeks he used kindly to visit you and many a pleasant chat you had together? I remember how I attended the coroner's inquest and took my first oath, swearing “this is the body of Henry Rush” when it was in reality the body of Hugh Rush. I remember how the people crowded round to view the corpse, and how it was not necessary for the coroner to say : “Stand back, my friends; and allow the Reverend gentleman to identify the remains. “Identify the remains? Not one day had passed since the immortal spirit had fled its casket and who could recognize a feature? Corruption had been busy in that one day”. “Get it into the earth, sir, as soon as you can”, was the officer's kind remark, as he handed me the permit to take possession of the body.

.... When the body arrived at the Church, Fathers Barbelin, Ryder and Tuffer followed it to St Joseph's Cemetery and while two men dug the grave, they gave the final absolution. As the body reached the bottom of the grave, the coffin burst, and the remains of Hugh Rush mingled with holy earth. Dust returned unto the earth, from whence it was, and the spirit returned to God who gave it.