Such is the brief outline of the early history of the Catholic Church in this part of the country and it will thus be seen that shortly after the Catholics were first permitted to worship God in their own way Catholicism took root in New Jersey. The following concerning the first Catholic missionaries who visited New Jersey is taken from an article which appeared in the Catholic World in 1875: "About this period (1757) there were a few Jesuit priests in Maryland and Pennsylvania; and the earliest account that we have of Catholics in New Jersey is in 1744, when we read that Father Theodore Schneider, a distinguished German Jesuit who had professed philosophy and theology in Europe, and been rector of a university, coming to the American provinces, visited New Jersey and held church at Iron Furnaces there. This good missionary was a native of Bavaria. He founded the mission at Goshenhoppen, now in Berks County, Pennsylvania, about forty-five miles from Philadelphia, and ministered to German Catholics, their descendants and others. Having some skill in medicine, he used to cure the body as well as the soul; and travelling about on foot or on horseback under the name of Doctor Schneider (leaving to the _Sinelfunguses_ to discover whether he were of medicine or of divinity), he had access to places where he would not otherwise have gone without personal danger; but sometimes his real character was found out, and he was several times raced and shot at in New Jersey. He used to carry about with him on his missionary excursions into this province a manuscript copy of the _Roman Missal_, carefully written out in his own handwriting and bound by himself. His poverty or the difficulty of procuring printed Catholic liturgical books from Europe, or, we are inclined to think, the danger of discovery should such an one with its unmistakable marks of 'Popery' about it (which he probably dispensed with in his manuscript), fall into the hands of heretics, must have led him to this labor of patience and zeal. Father Schneider, who may be reckoned the first missionary in New Jersey, died on the eleventh of July, 1764. Another Jesuit used to visit the province occasionally after 1762, owing to the growing infirmities of Father Schneider, and there still exist records of baptisms performed by him here. This was the Rev. Robert Harding, a native of England, who arrived in America in 1732. He died at Philadelphia on the 1st of September, 1772. But the priest principally connected with the early missions in New Jersey is the Rev. Ferdinand Farmer. He was born in South Germany in 1720, and, having entered the Society of Jesus, was sent to Maryland in 1752. His real name was Steenmeyer, but on coming to this country he changed it into one more easily pronounced by English-speaking people. He was learned and zealous, and for many years performed priestly duties in New Jersey at several places in the northern part, and seems to have been the first to visit this colony