USA > Iowa > Jones County > History of Jones County, Iowa, past and present, Volume I > Part 22
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Rev. Alexander Hamilton was next, of whom nothing can be learned more than the name.
Rev. John O'Connor succeeded in 1860. During his pastorate the old church, and all the records were destroyed by fire. Hence the loss of preexisting data.
Rev. J. V. Cunningham became pastor in 1862. At the close of the war, the congregation, then numbering one hundred and thirty-nine families, took steps to replace the burned building. They completed a new stone structure in 1866. Rev. M. Lynch, residing in Cascade, with Father McIntosh as copastor, held charge of both churches from 1867 to 1872. The former died in Holy Cross, Dubuque county, the latter died suddenly on the road, near Temple Hill.
Rev. Laurence Roche arrived in the fall of 1872, immediately after his or- dination. Overflowing with animation, ability and the fervent zeal of youth, he built the present parochial residence, also a church in Onslow, ten miles away, which he attended regularly, during his four years' stay. He still lives in Cas- cade. That nearly two score years of strenuousness has not yet diminished his vigor or dimmed his successful zeal is demonstrable by the beautiful church and all the parochial accompaniments which stand to his everlasting credit, in the little town of his present habitat. His name should go shining down the diocesan records.
Rev. Daly was pastor from 1876 to 1880; Rev. Edmund Farrell, from 1880 to 1890; Rev. William Convery, from 1890 to 1902. He enlarged the church, added a very respectable school, which is in charge of the Franciscan sisters, from Dubuque. It was opened in 1889.
The present encumbent, Rev. P. J. Coffey has held the position since 1902. His single minded life is devoted unreservedly to the duties of his office. Hav- ing meritedly gained the confidence, combined with the generosity of his people, he has made wonderful improvements in the church and surroundings. Addi- tional schoolroom has been well provided, over an extensive basement, which is furnished with culinary requisites, and a hall for church entertainments.
Altogether the mother church of Jones county is one to which both its pastor and people can point with just pride. Standing on a forty-acre plot, its mag- nificent spire points to heaven from the summit of a gently sloping hill. The grounds are ornamented with shade trees, cement walks, and terraces. The par- ishioners, among whom but few non-Catholics, are all prosperous and happy.
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Contented in their present circumstances, they live in peace, friendship and unity, faithful alike to their fathers' church and their fathers' God. And as they live harmoniously here, they are satisfied in the hope that they will "sleep hereafter the sleep of the just" in union, or reunion, in the pretty little cemetery behind their house of prayer.
The following came to the locality previous to 1850, besides those already named: Thos. Moran, Patrick Donahoe, Michael Flanagan, John Finn, Thos. McNally, Michael Geraghty, Thomas Devanny, John Lang, Thomas Morrisson, Thomas Leonard, Malachi and Michael Kelly, Michael (Squire) Kinney with five brothers-Dennis, Patrick, Martin, William, and Thomas. There may possibly be others whose names are not remembered.
CATHOLICITY IN ANAMOSA.
Passing the geographical and topographical aspects of the county seat, also political and civic considerations which form no part of our immediate concern, leaving aside, too, the general religious history of the locality in whch we con- stitute but a rather small fragmentary portion, our contribution to the present work- will have to do with the Catholic church only.
Comparatively short as it may seem since the first nucleus of an organization of this denomination in Anamosa, yet all official record of it is lost, if it ever was reduced to writing; and, indeed, all remembrance of it is nearly effaced from the tablets of memory. The world-physical, intellectual, social, and ecclesiastical- moves very rapidly, history is made day after day, the common-place events of yesterday are the history of today. Is it just because events are common-place that people do not think worth while to remember, much less to make a note of them? It is impossible at this date to tell when the first Catholic settled in Ana- mosa, or who he was; it is not known when the first Catholic missionary visited those parts, or who he was; and it is a matter of very unreliable conjecture when the first Catholic congregation was organized in this community. It may be the records were lost or destroyed; it is much more likely they never were made out in a form that could be preserved.
As remarked above, it is beyond doubt that the first Catholic settlers in the county came into Washington township at the northeast corner, in the late '30s of the last century. In those days, when railroads were a thing of the future, all travel was by ox-teams, horseback, stage-coach, or the oldest of all methods of locomotion, on foot. The current of communication ran from Dubuque to the state capital, along the famous highway known as the Military road-established by the national government in 1839-through Cascade, to Anamosa, where horses were exchanged at the Waverly Hotel, in the down-town district, now dubbed as Dublin, to Fairview, then a promising village, Marion, and Iowa City, the capital. A four-horse coach ran daily over this route, commencing in 1844. Cedar Rapids and Monticello were yet of minor note on the map.
The middle '50s mark a turning point in the life of Anamosa. Two great railroads, the Iowa Central Air Line, east and west, and what was called the Ram's Horn, north and south, from Dubuque to Keokuk, both incorporated in 1852 and both surveyed to pass through Anamosa, made this city a center of anticipated
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growth and prosperity. Both of these roads could have been built, and the city's anticipations abundantly realized, if men were only honest; but unfortunately the "noblest work of God"-an honest man-was as scarce then as he is now. The first named railroad "suicided through reckless management and open rascality," the latter road proved a failure except for the small part of it called the Dubuque Western. This fraction, for which Anamosa is principally indebted to the late Colonel W. T. Shaw, gave the first impetus to send here that class of people who are not afraid of hard work, who build the railroads, make the prairie blossom and propagate the human race. Some of them came and went to follow the old avoca- tion of railroading elsewhere; some of them staid to make homes in this city or surrounding country. Our best inquiry cannot make certain the name of the pre- cursor. Like the leaders of many other movements, his name is lost in the morn- ing haze of time immemorial. This is as far as our information goes :
P. McCaffrey and a man named Kelly lived here in 1855, when John Henley, (father of Mrs. McGreevy), Phillip Flannery, (father of Mrs. Spellmann) and Jas. O'Donnell, (uncle of Mrs. B. Mclaughlin, Sr.), reached this place en route from Cascade. In the following year P. Wallace, and James Dorsey came upon the scene. The latter journeyed afoot all the way from Farley, carrying his worldly effects in the proverbial grip-sack. The winter of 1856-57 was counted the coldest experience "within the memory of the oldest inhabitant." Cattle were seen standing in the yards frozen fast in death. James Spellman formed one of a searching party who found a family named Wade in the snow frozen on the prai- rie near Langworthy. The newcomers vowed that if they survived the season's severity, they should never more set foot on Iowa soil. But the breath of spring which melted away the snow, just as effectually melted away the migratory mood from the minds of the home-hunters. The building of the railroad from Farley was commenced in 1857. A large influx of immigrants, anticipating the results, rushed to Anamosa, among them a goodly number of Catholics, merchants. mechanics, laborers, and farmers, (E. C. Holt, Maurice Cavanagh, John Hayes). In 1858 and 1859, as the road was nearing Anamosa, whilst a few families re- mained in Langworthy, Jno. Fleming, M. Mulconery, and M. Doyle, the greater number came and settled in the city-P. Morrissey, Tom English, B. Mclaughlin, F. O'Rourke, M. Casey, H. White, John Murphy, Foley Brothers, Chesire Broth- ers, Gavin Brothers. Most of those are long since resting in their last sleep, some are pitifully consigned to the grave of oblivion, and, sad to relate. not a few of them were lost to the roll of religion for which they and their forebears were ready to shed their blood. Besides the settlers in the city, a far greater number of steadfast adherents to the old faith cast their lot in the outlying country-Stone City quarries, Fairview, Langworthy, Prairieburg, and the Buffalo Creek prairie. For want of better opportunities, they drove ten or twelve, and some as far as fourteen miles to church. Their names are worthy of being written in letters of gold; but they are too numerous to be recounted in the space at our disposal. For years the facilities of church attendance were like angels' visits, "few and far between." When an itinerant missionary happened to pass along, or write before- hand announcing his intended visit, a courier carried the word from house to house, and the little crowd assembled in some shanty or log cabin, where their
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prayers ascended to heaven's throne, with as much heartfelt devotion as in St. Peter's at Rome.
The first house in which mass was celebrated in this city is said to have been a small frame, behind E. M. Harvey's residence. It was owned at the time by Colonel Shaw, who himself lived in a much smaller place situated across the road from the fair grounds, a short distance west of the slaughter house. Preparing as he was for the erection of the brick dwelling near his father-in-law, Mr. Crane, on Strawberry Hill, where he long lived in later years, he put up the studding, with roof, of a low barn-like structure, in the fall of 1858. When work was stopped by the cold winter weather, he tacked around the outside some pieces of carpet, sheets and paper, and there he made his habitat for a whole year. The first itinerant priest made his presence known in town, and sought some place to hold services. The colonel readily proffered the use of his new building, such as it was, and further offered him the hospitality of his own home whilst the priest staid here. Early on the following morning, when a few of the Catholic men hastened to the unfinished house, to light a fire, sweep up and fix a table in lieu of the altar, they found that the good colonel had anticipated their intentions, and with his own hands prepared everything in perfect shape for the occasion.
After this, a log house, the residence of James O'Donnell, at the bend of the road, close by the northeast corner of the Driving Park, served the purposes of a Catholic chapel, for some time. Increasing numbers impelled them to provide larger, if not more suitable quarters. They next secured the use of the county courthouse, then located on a knoll at the extreme west end of town, in a frame adjoining a two-story brick (this latter used for other county offices) still to be seen at the lower end of Main street. This courthouse was moved away, and turned to other uses; and for some length of time court was held in the Odd Fel- low's hall, east of the Gillen House (hotel). Whether it was the congruity of propounding and expounding and pounding the divine and civil law from the same tribunal, or that in the case at issue "necessity has no law" anyway both the Epis- copalians and the Catholics again resorted to the courthouse to perform their devo- tional exercises and hear the law of the gospel. Later on, in a room which was then the "City Hall," over Gordon's Store, in the same block, the same two so- cieties, Episcopal and Catholic, held their Sabbath services successively.
The first mention we find, or perhaps more true to say, the first steps taken, toward the erection of a Catholic church in Anamosa, is when Colonel Shaw, with characteristic enterprise and generosity, donated two lots for a building site, on the corner of First and Garnavillo streets, where the Episcopal and Methodist Churches were afterward located. This property was transferred to the diocese, through Father Slattery, who was then stationed at Cascade, but visited Anamosa, during the building of the railroad, at certain regular intervals. For reasons, whether wise or religious will never be determined, these beautiful lots were sold, and the receipts expended for the purchase of some ground away back on the hill, at the other side of town where a brick church was built, in a spot as inconvenient as it was unsightly. In justice perhaps it ought to be mentioned, that the then diocesan, Bishop Smyth, when he heard of this oc- currence, voluntarily offered to refund the total amount realized from the trans- action, two hundred and fifty dollars. The colonel scouted the proposition.
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INTERIOR OF CATHOLIC CHURCH, ANAMOSA
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The first church, at the northwest corner of town, was a simple structure, fifty by thirty feet, without spire or ornament indicative of its use. It was built almost entirely by the free labor of a few devoted sons of St. Patrick. Ah! but what they may have lacked in numbers, they more than made up for in strength of muscle and in strength of soul. Money was a scarce article in those days, but the faith that moves mountains and the muscle that moves dirt and the spirit that builds churches was not scarce as it is now. Five men dug the foundation. The senior "Barney" Mclaughlin dug the first sod, and no one will deny that there was a man behind the spade. On the good work went, with willing hands and hearts-no shirking, and no such thing as growing tired-each toiler was anxious to do more than his brother. It would remind one of the Middle Ages, when "free labor" built the famous cathedrals of Europe. They quarried the rock and hauled it, they hauled the sand and brick and wood. Thomas Holt, with three sons and a nephew, all expert stonemasons and bricklayers, were not long putting up walls that most competent judges pronounced, fifty years afterward, the best piece of workmanship that they had ever examined. The only cash con- tributions are said to be one hundred dollars from Philip Flannery, who was then in the army, where he died and one hundred dollars by Maurice Mulconery, uncle of Maurice Fay, who was roadmaster on the Dubuque & Southwestern Railroad. This money was used to buy brick. It was completed in 1861, and at its opening was entirely free of debt. There is no written account attainable of the formalities attending its dedication-no recollection, not even a tradition of the date, or of any particulars of the function. A local print says: "It was dedi- cated by Bishop Smith, assisted by several of the clergy."
As mentioned in a preceding notice on the church in Washington township, the principal thoroughfare of traffic in the early '6os ran from Dubuque west- ward. Accordingly, all ministerial attendance might be expected to come here, by way of stage, from Cascade, or Temple Hill. So it was. Fathers Slattery, Cunningham and O'Connor paid regular visits in the order of succession speci- fied; also occasionally Fathers Pickenbrock, Rehnoldt, and in response to special calls Father Cogan, of Monticello, Bernard, of New Melleray Monastery, Treacy of Garryowen, Sheils, of Independence, and Paul Gillespie, C. S. C., of Holy Cross, now Key Stone.
After the railroad, the building of which was temporarily suspended during the war, had reached Marion, in 1865, and some time later was extended as far as Cedar Rapids, the clergymen charged with the Catholic interests of Anamosa came by rail from the west end of the line. Rev. John Sheils attended to Catholic wants here for a rather long, though broken period, and at one time had a fixed residence at Anamosa, in a little house at the lower end of town. His first re- corded baptism was October 2, 1857, and his last, January 4, 1868. He lies buried, in a raised tomb, at the left-hand side of the walkway, between the street and the door of the Catholic church at Waverly, Iowa. During a gap in his pas- torate, Rev. P. V. Mclaughlin, a young man raised in Dubuque, acted as pastor, or substitute, for a few months from January to May, 1867. He also made his residence here, in a small house, off Park avenue to the northwest of Doctor Skinner's. His next appointment, in May, 1867, was to St. Mary's church, Clin- ton, where "he labored acceptably and successfully in the interests of the church,
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and was greatly beloved by his people," up to the time of his death, January 16, 1879. He is buried under the altar in his church. His successor, and the present pastor of St. Mary's, is his brother, Dean E. J. Mclaughlin, whom many old set- tlers well remember as a small bright boy, running over the hills, whilst he staid here on a visit with his elder brother.
In 1868 Rev. B. C. Cannon, stationary pastor at Cedar Rapids, paid monthly visits to Anamosa, besides attending calls of emergency. After various subse- quent vicissitudes, he closed his labors as chaplain at the Franciscian orphanage, Dubuque, some ten or twelve years ago.
The next succeeding pastor at Cedar Rapids, Rev. Clement Lowery, also con- tinued to make periodical visitations to Anamosa, in 1869 and 1870, sometimes on Sunday, and sometimes on week days, as this was one of thirteen missions in his circuit. Then as now. in the southern tier of townships of this county, there were very few Catholics. Among the few was M. D. Corcoran. He writes: "I came to Jones county, the 15th of April, 1856. For the first year I never saw a person of my race or religion. Then Mr. John Gorman, with four Englishmen, came from Illinois, and joined in a contract to build seven miles of the Air Line Railroad. I hastened to see him. Imagine the joy of meeting a friend in a desert, of Robinson Crusoe meeting a brother on the lonely island! We were the only two Irishmen that either had any knowledge of. It served to form a friendship between us that nothing but death could or did dissolve." Mr. Corcoran is still one of us, living with his sons in Missouri.
Rev. P. J. Maher, of blessed memory, was cradled on the banks of the Suir, six miles above the city of Waterford, Ireland. Having made his classical and ecclesiastical studies at St. John's College in that city, he was ordained at Pen- tecost, 1870, affiliated to the diocese of Dubuque. After the usual season of rest and recreation, he emigrated to his chosen field of labor and received his first ap- pointment as pastor of Anamosa, where he arrived to take up his residence in November of the same year. He was supposed by many to be a rather quaint character, with unconventional ways; but he impressed his personality on the church and community as few men can do. In fact, he may be said to have in- spired new life and vision into the church. Immediately on assuming charge he addressed himself to his entrusted duties with a zeal and fidelity that soon told. At first he boarded at the home of Henry Jackman, and at John Stafford's; later he rented a house south of the union depot, where he lived until he built the present pastoral residence, on a square acre of ground purchased from Dr. Sales, at the corner of Broadway and High street. He had nothing to begin with. except the four walls of the little brick church on the hill. Soon finding that this had outlived its usefulness for the increasing congregation he advocated a new build- ing. The foundation of a commodious substantial stone edifice, one hundred and ten by forty-six, was laid in 1875. The corner stone is inscribed "August 22, 1876." It was carried to completion in due time, and, after some ad- ditional improvements of a sacristy and vestibule, was made ready for dedication September 12, 1880. Diocesan Bishop Hennessy had come to the city, but being prevented by illness from officiating, he delegated Rev. James Brady, of Farley, to act in his stead. The sermon was by Rev. Thomas Rowe of West Dubuque, later of Strawberry Point, where he died, July 22, 1904. A local paper describes
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Sanitarium
Sitamosa, Ja vim
SANITARIUM AT ANAMOSA
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the preacher as "a young man with much dignity of carriage and a clear, bright face, who delivered a plain matter-of-fact discourse-a message of beneficence to the good Catholics of St. Patrick's parish-some passages of which were illu- minated with exalted eloquence." The music was in charge of Miss Jennie Sales, daughter of Dr. Sales, now a star vocalist in the metropolitan theaters of Europe. Father Maher also attended an out mission, on the Buffalo Creek prairie, where he built a church two miles south of Prairieburg. He made an attempt, too, to utilize the vacated brick church building for the purposes of a parochial school, but the effort proved a failure. There is a cant clerical phrase to the effect that the minister who builds a church builds himself outside of it. A year after put- ting the top stone on the Anamosa church, its builder exchanged places with the pastor of DeWitt, Clinton county, Iowa. There he remained up to the time of his death, October 3, 1904.
Rev. Thomas McCormick accepted the spiritual direction of his coreligionists at Anamosa, in November, 1881, and retained it for more than four years. Little is known of his antecedents or birthplace. However, the brief period of his pas- torate represents some steps of good progress. He was a man who did things. During his time the Catholic cemetery, which was first a little patch on the side hill, behind the old brick church, and then moved to a worse site some two miles outside the city, was removed back, and permanently located on a most charming plat of ten acres, on a rising ground close by town, on the way to Stone City. The Catholics of this latter parish cooperate with those of Anamosa in keeping up the "city of the dead," as they all combined to purchase and prepare the place for a burying ground. Father McCormick also began the construction of a bell-tower, which the church up to that time had not had, the bell being set on the ground. He left in January, 1886, ostensibly to join a missionary society, and nothing was heard of him more, until the announcement of his death, in April, 1894.
Rev. Robert Powers, who had been three years a pastor resident in another part of the county, came to Anamosa March 20, 1886, and has held charge as rector up to the present time (1909.) Whatever may be the dictates of policy or friendship or historical truth or even self-interest, this is not the time nor the place to express them. No one will dare speak of another in his presence as he might have it in his heart to do. Although nearly a quarter of a century has elapsed, and many changes, and it is hoped a few improvements, have taken place, yet, whilst a soldier is in the fire of battle it may be premature to blow the trumpet note of victory. The meritorious deeds of the longest lifetime may be lost by one final fall, and whilst the outcome is hidden in the darkness of doubt, it would savor of pride at the least, to pronounce life's problem successfully wrought out. The real worth of a parish and the real work of a pastor is not stone and brick and mortar, nor any other perceptible thing, neither is it pretense, and least of all is it self-praise. St. Patrick's church and parish house have been en- larged, remodeled and modified to such an extent that what little remains of the original is scarcely recognizable. The make-up of the old building on the hill, where the seed was first planted, has been modernized in a manner to make it a suitable house to transplant the first seeds in the minds of the rising generation. The single acre of ground first bought has spread until it now includes more than ten acres. A sanitarium, worthy of a much larger place, was built in 1892, and
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rebuilt after being burned down, in 1902. Almost all the years, one after another, have witnessed something done-in what measure each progressive effort deserves the name of improvement is left for others to say.
Twenty-four years past! The past has a peculiarly subtle hold upon our minds. A desire to look back at the past comes to most of us, in response to the conviction that "no man liveth to himself alone." A generation has nearly passed away. Blest be the tie that binds us to all that is gone. Some of the old stock have left lineal descendants, taught to love the ways of the church and to hunger for the worship of God after the manner of their forefathers. May it never be said of them, as it has been said of others, that on leaving the old home they left their religion behind them.
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