Tag: Boac Church

Did you know there was a plan to change the look of the Boac Church?

I was able to locate: Proyecto De Reconstrucction De Una Ygelsia En El Pueblo De Boac Provincia De Mindoro (Reconstruction Project of a Church in the Town of Boac, Mindoro Province).

It is a floor plan, front elevation, cross section, and 2 lateral elevations of the Boac church Signed by Pedro Alvares and disbound from paper title page. Pen-and-ink. 5 technical drawings on cloth sheets 310 x 697 mm or smaller. The plans are undated.

The church plan was donated to the Newberry Library collection by Holman G. Purinton. Purinton served in many capacities in the Philippines. Captain in Company C 29th Regiment United States Volunteers (2). Various elements of the 29th USV were stationed in Marinduque during 1900 and 1901 and were known to have quartered In the church in Boac.

As a Captain with the 29th he served as the Superintendent of Carcel de Bilbid, relieving Alcalde M. Benitez. Captain Purinton was also assigned as the Manila City Engineer, Department of Public Works and Water Supply, Military Government of the Philippines.

During the time Purinton was stationed in the Philippines he was also serving as Sir Knight Holman Greene Purinton, Eminent Grand Captain General of the Knights Templar of Illinois, USA.

Besides donating the Church plan to the Ayers collection, Purinton also donated a Baptism document from the Boac Church and various letters from Bilbid Prison and the City of Manila. It is not known under what authority (if any) he obtained these documents and removed them from the Philippines.

The stolen baptismal records of the Boac Church.

Sometime in April of 1900, Corporal Henry J. Flanagan of H Company, 29th United States Volunteers Infantry removed two pages from the Baptismal records of the Boac Church.

Flanagan was part of the 29th that were the first occupiers of the Church when they came ashore in Marinduque April 25th, 1900.

Flanagan had written on the bottom of one of the pages noting:

Church record taken from the Catholic Church at Boac, Isle of Marinduque after the rebels had been driven out of the church. First American soldiers to land here was H Co. 29th Inf. April 25 1900. He initialed HJF.

The two pages contain 5 baptismal records from 1891. The names on the pages are Simeon Justiniani, Josefa Ladesma, Jorge Matining, Josefa Macatong and Gregoria Montiano.

These two pages remained lost until the early 2000’s when I located them at an auction in the United States. I was able to retrieve them and they were brought back to Marinduque. Upon consultation with the church, it was decided that the best location for them was the National Museum here in Boac, where hopefully they still exist today. At the time they had no way to display them and were put in a drawer.

I was able to isolate from a group picture, Corporal Flanagan himself so we are able to get a glimpse of him. I also located in a U.S. newspaper dated July 19, 1900, a letter published by him which had details about his time in Marinduque. No mention of the records taken by him are mentioned. I would caution in reading his account that there is a defamatory use of words to describe Filipinos and was in common use during that time in the U.S. to describe persons of African heritage.