An illustrated history of the state of Idaho, containing a history of the state of Idaho from the earliest period of its discovery to the present time, together with glimpses of its auspicious future; illustrations and biographical mention of many pioneers and prominent citizens of to-day, Part 23

Author: Lewis Publishing Company. cn
Publication date: 1899
Publisher: Chicago, The Lewis publishing company
Number of Pages: 1014

USA > Idaho > An illustrated history of the state of Idaho, containing a history of the state of Idaho from the earliest period of its discovery to the present time, together with glimpses of its auspicious future; illustrations and biographical mention of many pioneers and prominent citizens of to-day > Part 23

Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).

Because of a decision of the department of the interior which left the mission ground outside of the Indian reservation, and because the rush of miners into the Coeur d'Alene mining district brought the Indians in too close a contact with the whites, whose association has always been a source of evil to them, the Coeur d'Alene mission was removed in 1878 to the spot now known as De Smet mission. De Smet mission is situated in the midst of a rich agricultural district about ten miles from Tekoa, Washington. Any one de- sirous of convincing himself of the success of the Jesuits in civilizing and Christianizing the Coeur d'Alenes has but to pay a visit to that mission and to the reservation of which it is the center. The neat farm houses, the well tilled fields, the

12.

HISTORY OF IDAHO.

general appearance of prosperity visible every- where, show that the savages whose excessive cruelty distinguished them among the neighbor- ing tribes and won for them the title indicative of their character, that of Coeur d'Alenes- · Hearts of Awls"- are now peaceable and thrifty farmers, a credit to their teachers and pastors.

The first Catholic priests appointed to minister to the spiritual wants of the white settlers whoni the discovery of gold was daily leading to the placer diggings of southern Idaho were the Rev- erend Fathers T. Mesplié and A. Z. Poulin, who were sent from Portland to Boise basin, by Arch- bishop F. N. Blanchet, in the summer of 1863,- less than a year after the arrival of the first min- ers. Fathers Mesplié and Poulin were well quali- fied for work amidst the mountain wilds and in the rather chaotic state of society in which a rough and depraved element abounded. Both were gentlemen of culture, well educated and very anxious to build up the church in the district assigned to them; they were also of good phy- sique, strong, hardy, and capable of bearing un- flinchingly-in their travels from place to place, to attend sick calls or afford the scattered Cath- olic miners an opportunity of performing their religious duties-the many sufferings consequent upon the severe Idaho climate. Broad and liberal in their views, they were not long in gaining the good will of the sturdy miners who had come from all points of the compass, bringing with them the virtues and vices of their respective nationalities, all having but one common aim- the amassing of gold; all courageous and adven- turous, incapable of quailing before discourage- ment, and prepared to encounter any disaster; many of them rough and uncouth, perhaps, but invariably generous and without religious preju- dice, ready to patronize charity at all times, and doing it without stint. Thanks to the unbounded charity of the people among whom they had come to labor, Fathers Mesplié and Poulin were able within the short period of six months to erect four churches,-St. Joseph's, at Idaho City (then called Bannock); St. Thomas', at Pla- cerville; St. Dominic's, at Centerville, and St. Francis', at Pioneer City. They were all small frame buildings, it is true, yet, with lumber at one hundred dollars per thousand feet and carpenter's wages six dollars a day, the task to raise the

money for these structures could not have been altogether a sinecure, even considering the min- ers' promptness in answering to the priests' call for assistance. The Idaho City church, built on East Hill, above Bannock Bar, was the largest of the four and the first to be completed; it cost between three and four thousand dollars. "Every man, woman and child almost, in and around Idaho City," says Elliot's History of Idaho, "con- tributed, more than willingly, more or less to- wards this sacred object." The other churches were of smaller dimensions, but large enough to accommodate the congregations of the respective communities wherein they had been built. Ser- vices were held in all of them on Christmas, 1863. Father Mesplié celebrated midnight mass at St. Thomas', Placerville, whence he proceeded to Pioneer to offer up the second mass, and thence to Centerville, where he celebrated the third; Father Poulin offered up the customary Christ- mas masses, including midnight mass, at St. Jo- seph's, Idaho City. As the Catholic churches were at that time the only ones in the Boise basin we need not be surprised to read in the news- paper accounts of that first Christmas in Idaho, that they were filled to overflowing: for it was but natural that the services should be attended not only by Catholics, but also by many non- Catholics, desirous of paying on that day of all days their worshipful homages to the God made man for their salvation. The Catholic miners of those early days and their fellow citizens gen- erally throughout the Basin were proud of the Catholic church edifices that had been reared in their midst, as they visibly attested, when in May, 1865, Idaho City was almost totally wiped out by fire; for, through the efforts of hundreds of willing hands, St. Joseph's church was saved from the fury of the flames, although all the other buildings around it were destroyed. Immediately after the conflagration Father Poulin, mindful of the great law of charity, opened the structure to the inmates of the county hospital, which the flames had not spared. This action of the Cath- olic priest won for him the gratitude of the entire community, which, after that, showed itself more generous than ever in responding to the appeals he made for carrying on his work among them.

The second great fire of Idaho City, on the 17th of May, 1867, did not spare St. Joseph's as

125

HISTORY OF IDAHO.

the first had done, although on this occasion, also, great exertions were made by bands of in- trepid and devoted men to save the edifice. The church and structures connected with it were valued at ten thousand dollars and only one thou- sand five hundred dollars' worth of property was saved. Nothing daunted by their ill fortune, Fathers Mesplié and Poulin went resolutely to work on the building of a new house of worship; for not more than two months later the Idaho World had the following paragraph: "Prominent among the frame edifices in Idaho City is the new Catholic chapel, upon the site of the church destroyed by the May fire, on East Hill. It is not quite completed, but it already presents the finest appearance of any building in the city, and is a credit to the place, to its architects and builders altogether."

In the territorial legislature of 1867 some members of the church, with more zeal than dis- cretion, had a bill passed appropriating thirty thousand dollars of territorial money for the erec- tion of Catholic schools. The bill provided for the issue of territorial bonds to the amount of thirty thousand dollars, drawn in favor of F. N. Blanchet, archbishop of Oregon, bearing interest at the rate of ten per cent. per annum, and re- deemable out of funds accruing out of the sale of the thirty-sixth section of school lands. Gov- ernor Ballard vetoed it and his veto was sus- tained by the council and house. The ostensible object of the framers of the bill was to assist the Sisters of the Holy Name, who were conducting successful educational institutions in Oregon, in establishing schools in the Boise basin, whence the support for the measure principally came. The governor in vetoing it rendered a real service to the church; for its real object was a political one, namely, to secure for the party that fathered it the support of the Catholic voters. For the small benefit the Sisters would have derived from it, the church would have had to bear for years the odium of having been supported from the public funds. I hardly think that the Sisters were disappointed because the bill failed of be- coming a law; for in August of the same year two of them came overland from Portland to Idaho, accompanied by Father I. T. Malo, to se- lect a suitable place for the establishment of an academy. The citizens of Idaho City offering

the greatest inducements, it was decided to locate the school there. It was opened January 2, 1868, under the most favorable circumstances; but the encouraging prospects of the first year did not last; for in 1869 there was a great exodus of miners from the Basin and the school failing to receive the necessary support, the Sisters gave it up in June of that year. Bishop Lootens, who had been in charge of the ecclesiastical affairs of the then territory of Idaho since February, 1869, attempted to keep the Sisters in his vicariate and to locate them at Boise; but as he could not give them much assistance at the time and hoped but little for the future, he allowed them to return to Portland, which they did on the 27th of June.

The Rt. Rev. L. Lootens was the first vicar apostolic of Idaho, having been appointed to that office by Pope Pius the IX, in March, 1868, at which time Idaho was cut off from the archdio- cese of Oregon City. He received the episcopal consecration, with the title of bishop of Casta- balla, at the hands of Archbishop Alemany, in the cathedral of San Francisco, August 9, 1868. He had not been in Idaho more than six months when he left it to be present at the ecumenical council of the Vatican, whence he did not return until 1871. During his absence a new church was built at Granite Creek, to replace one de- stroyed by fire; and another was erected at Boise, which was dedicated on the 25th of De- cember, 1870, and reduced to cinders by a fire less than three weeks after its dedication. These two new churches were only partly paid for when the flames consumed one of them, so that Bishop Lootens found on his return from Rome the financial burdens, which were already large when he left his infant vicariate apostolic, increased in- stead of diminished. These financial difficulties, coupled with failing health, prompted him to send in his resignation to Rome. This he did in March, 1874; but, as it was not accepted until the next year, he did not leave Idaho until Octo- ber, 1875. After his departure the vicariate apos- tolic of Idaho reverted once more to the jurisdic- tion of the archbishop of Oregon, who was named its administrator. The two priests left in charge of southern Idaho at this time were Fath- ers Mesplié and Archambault. The former, who, before coming to the Boise basin, had worked as an Indian missionary in Oregon, spent what-

126

HISTORY OF IDAHO.

ever free time his arduous duties in the Basin and surrounding country allowed him, in work- ing for the conversion and civilization of the In- dians of southern Idaho. During the first years of his stay in the Basin he paid, alternately with Father Poulin, his colleague, semi-annual visits to the Bannocks, Shoshones and Snakes. In a letter to General Parker, commissioner of Indian affairs, dated February 13, 1871, ne says that there are four hundred and fifty Catholic Indians at the Fort Hall reservation, which had just then been established, and he asks that the agent at the reservation be instructed to allow him and Father Poulin full liberty to evangelize these In- dians, all well disposed towards the "Black Robes." On the return of Bishop Lootens from the Vatican council, Father Mesplié, who had gone east on business connected with his Indian proteges of southern Idaho, met his superior at Leavenworth, Kansas, accompanied him to Idalio City, where they arrived May 20th, made two tours of the white settlements of his mission and then went on horseback to the Fort Hall Indian reservation, reaching it on the 8th of August, after twelve days' travel. From there he writes to Father De Smet, at St. Louis, that he intends to make that reservation huis headquarters for fu- ture labors, because he thinks that as Captain M. P. Berry, the newly appointed agent, is favorably disposed towards the work of the Catholic church for the Indians, the difficulty of converting them will be materially lessened. He did not stay long with them, however; for in August, 1872, he was appointed a United States Army chaplain, and having been assigned to duty at Fort Boise, he resided there permanently from that time, al- though he visited the Boise basin occasionally, and also Owyhee county, where, in 1872, a church had been built at Silver City through his and Father Archambault's instrumentality.

Father A. J. A. Archambault came to the vic- ariate of Idaho with Bishop Lootens in 1869, and left it in 1880. He was a zealous worker, spend- ing all the spare time his onerous pastoral duties allowed him in educating the young. He had a private school at Idaho City whilst he made that town his place of residence, and one at Boise when residing there. During his stay in Idaho City the convent and school built there in 1867, at a cost of seven thousand dollars, met the fate

of several other Catholic church structures in Idaho,-it was consumed by fire. This sad event took place on the 27th of April, 1877. But for the heroic efforts of the people the present Idalio City church would have been gutted by the flames at the same time, for the burning building was in dangerous proximity to the church.

In July, 1879, Archbishop Seghers, who had just then been appointed coadjutor to Arch- bishop Blanchet, started from Portland on a pas- toral tour through the vicariate of Idaho, which at that time included also portions of Montana. He went by way of The Dalles to Lewiston, visit- ing the Lapwai Indian mission, the De Smet mis- sion, and the St. Ignatius mission, among the Flatheads in Montana, and came back into Idaho through the Salmon river country. He arrived at Salmon City, October 3d, and on October 4th held the first Catholic services ever held in that place; he had the same privilege at Challis and at Bonanza. When he arrived at the latter place the Yankee Fork Herald, in a very complimen- tary article on the archbishop, stated that he was the first minister of any denomination to visit that city. He left Bonanza on horseback on the 12th of October, in the company of a merchant and three miners, and after a very perilous jour- ney through an unknown country he arrived at Banner, October 26th. From Banner he went to Idaho City, visiting all the towns of the Basin, also Boise City and Silver City, being everywhere warmly received by Protestants as well as Cath- olics, who flocked to the churches and halls where he announced the good tidings of salva- tion. He made a second visit through Idaho in 1882. It is due to Archbishop Seghers that the church in Idaho was again given, in 1885. after ten years of tutelage under an administrator, a shepherd of its own in the person of our present worthy bishop, the Rt. Rev. A. J. Glorieux.

Shortly after Archbishop Seghers' first visit to Idaho Father Archambault was called to Port- land and replaced here by Father L. Verhaag, now the efficient pastor of Baker City, Oregon. During his three years' stay in Idaho he liqui- dated the debt on the Boise City church and in- augurated the building of a new house of wor- ship at Granite Creek, Boise county. He was the first Catholic clergyman to hold divine ser- vices in the Wood river country, which he visited

127

HISTORY OF IDAHO.

in July, 1880, two months after his arrival in Boise. When Father Nattini was sent to assist him, in December, 1880, Father Verhaag re- moved his headquarters from Boise City to the Boise basin and left Father Nattini in charge of the former town and of the Owyhee county mis- sions. During the latter's incumbency of these missions St. Andrew's church, at Silver City, was torn down, because of its considerable distance from the residential portion of the town and its inaccessibility during the winter months; a large building known as the Graham building was purchased from the Regan Brothers, for seven hundred and fifty dollars, and was converted into a church, which was dedicated on the 5th of No- vember, 1882, by Archbishop Seghers, as the Church of Our Lady of Tears. Father Nattini also purchased the bell that to this day calls the members of St. John's church, Boise, to worship, as well as the bell pealing forth from the little steeple of the Church of Our Lady of Tears. When the latter bell was first heard in Silver City the following paragraph appeared in the Avalanche: "We uns of Silver City feel quite civilized when we hear the church bell, which, thanks to the energy of Father Nattini, now peals forth in clear, ringing tones, calling the people to worship. Just wait now till the new fire engine arrives, and we guess Boise City won't put on so many frills, and call us 'that little one-horse mining camp over in the snow drifts.' Ain't it?"

On the arrival of Father Hartleib, in 1882, Father Nattini began to give a great deal of his time to the Wood river country, where he took up his permanent abode in June, 1883, and where he built St. Charles' church at Hailey. He was also instrumental in erecting St. Peter's church at Shoshone. Father Hartleib took his place and that of Father Verhaag as missionary rector of the counties of Ada, Boise, Owyhee and Wash- ington. One of the latter's first duties was to fin- ish St. Patrick's church at Granite Creek, which Father Verhaag had begun. During the seven years of his pastorate Father Hartleib attended most zealously the numerous but scattered settle- ments of his vast parish. There was not a Cath- olic home that the Reverend Father did not visit at least twice a year, to offer up the holy sacrifice of the mass and dispense the sacraments of the church. It was his good fortune to welcome the

Rt. Rev. A. J. Glorieux when he came, in 1885, to assume charge of the church in Idaho, as its second vicar apostolic. With the advent of Bish - op Glorieux the steady upbuilding of the church in our state began in real earnest; and under him it is still faithfully continuing. During the twen- ty-two years that had elapsed since the arrival of the first priests in southern Idaho to work for the spiritual welfare of the whites there had been a manifest lack of confidence in the permanency of the towns which sprang up wherever any pre- cious metals were discovered; the churches that were built during that period denoted that the main idea which presided at their construction was, "They will be needed only for a short time." The clergymen who succeeded one another in the missions worked faithfully for the welfare of the flocks committed to their charges; but they built not for the children of their parishioners, as they did not expect that these children would take their parents' places before the altars erected in the Idaho wilds. They were right in some in- stances; for of the churches they reared, there are those that have since been either torn down or turned into profane uses for want of worship- ers. So little were the priests of early days im- pressed with Idaho's future that not one of them stayed with the vicariate beyond a few years, after which other fields of labor were sought. Not one lies buried in our midst. When Bishop Glorieux took charge church affairs at once as- sumed a different aspect. Fired by the enthu- siasm with which their bishop set to work under the most adverse circumstances, the Catholic priests and people became inspired with faith in the future of the church of Idaho and thoroughly penetrated with the idea that they must build for the coming generations as well as for the present.

Bishop Glorieux arrived at Kuna on the 12th of June, 1885; he was met there by Father F. Hartleib, who escorted his lordship from that place to Boise, then fifteen miles away from the railroad. The Father's three years' sojourn in Idaho had not contributed to make him fall in love with it and, during the course of the lonely stage trip from the railroad to the capital city, he rather discouraged than encouraged his newly appointed superior by the gloomy picture he drew of the condition of the bishop's new field of

128

HISTORY OF IDAHO.

labor. The situation at Boise bore out the Fath- er's uninviting description; for all that the Bish- op found there in the line of church structures was a little shanty of a church and four small rooms back of it, used as sacristy and living apartments by the priest when in Boise. Hardly any one was aware of the Bishop's coming and the apathy of the citizens, Catholics as well as Protestants, was such that no attention was paid to it. Mr. James Flannagan, one of earth's no- blemen, with that generosity characteristic of Erin's sons, tendered the Bishop the hospitality of his home. This was gratefully accepted and partaken of till a suitable residence was built near the church, which was to be the future cathedral. With that determination of which Father Glor- ieux had given so many proofs as president of St. Michael's College, Portland, where it attracted Archbishop Seghers' attention, Bishop Glorieux, after a few days' stay in Boise, started on a sys- tematic survey of the eighty-four thousand square miles of territory assigned to his pastoral care. In it he found less than three thousand Catholics, of whom eight hundred were Coeur d'Alene and Lapwai Indians. Two secular priests and four regulars constituted his clergy; eight frame churches, two schools for Indian children and one school for white girls formed the sum total of the religious institutions. Having satisfied himself, after a visit to every inhabited spot of the territory, and after traveling over every mile of railroad and every stage line in it, that the city offering the greatest advantages for the es- tablishment of his headquarters was Boise, he made it the seat of his ecclesiastical jurisdiction. However, it was not sufficient to call Boise the episcopal city; it must also be made so by the character of its religious institutions. It had a church, which, though small, was large enough for the Catholics who attended it; so that the Bishop's first care was to build a residence where he and his priests might come to rest and study at intervals between their missionary tours throughout the country. This residence was built in 1886, at a cost of two thousand five hun- dred dollars. The Catholics of Boise were so few and so little blessed with this world's goods that all but two hundred dollars of this sum came out of the allowance which the Association for the Propagation of the Faith, whose headquar-

ters are at Paris, France, made for the Bishop's sustenance. To it the Bishop moved his small belongings over a year after taking up his resi- dence in Boise, from Mr. Flannagan's, although he still continued to be a guest at the latter's hos- pitable board. The next thing in the line of im- provements was the enlargement of the little church and its appropriate decoration. This was done in 1887, at a cost of one thousand seven hundred dollars, of which the congregation con- tributed about one hundred. In 1889 the Bishop built, at a cost of six hundred dollars, St. Pat- rick's Hall, to provide a suitable meeting place for the societies of the parish. The same year he brought the Sisters of the Holy Cross from Notre Dame, Indiana, who, on the 9th of Sep- tember of that year, opened a day-school in St. Patrick's Hall, adjacent to the church, and, on the 20th, a boarding school and academy, with one boarder, Miss Mamie Harrington, in the house now the property and home of Senator Shoup. As the school was a success from the very beginning, it was not a difficult matter for Bishop Glorieux to induce the superiors of the Community of the Holy Cross to purchase, for the sum of six thousand dollars, the block of ground on which St. Teresa's Academy now stands. To the dwelling which stood on that block and which had been Father Mesplié's home, as U. S. chaplain for Fort Boise, the Sis- ters removed their boarding and day school on the Ist of April, 1890. During the winter of the same year about one thousand five hundred dol- lars was spent on an addition to the episcopal res- idence.

In February, 1891, the Bishop received the news of the serious illness of his mother at Dot- tignies, Belgium. She had not seen him since he left his native land to come to the missions of Oregon, in 1867, and when she realized that her end was near at hand the poor mother expressed a longing to see once more her only son, who, after leaving her to become a poor missionary priest in a far western land, had, step by step, been raised to one of the highest dignities in the gift of the church. Anxious to comply with her request, and at the same time to fulfill the obli- gation which calls all the bishops of the Amer- ican church to make a visit to the supreme Ro- man pontiff, whose spiritual authority the Amer-

129

HISTORY OF IDAHO.

ican Catholics recognize in common with the Catholics throughout the world, once every ten years, he left Boise on the 21st of February and went directly to Belgium by way of New York and Havre. Alas! When he reached the home of his childhood he found it desolate; for his old mother had died several days previously, offering as a last sacrifice to her Maker the trial caused by the absence of the Bishop, her son. After traveling seven thousand miles, it was a hard blow to be disappointed in the attainment of the main object of his journey. For two weeks every thirob of his filial heart had been one of mingled fear and hope; now that he saw his fears and not his hopes realized, he said with Christian fortitude: "God's will be done." Leaving Dot- tignies and his ancestral home after a few days' stay, he proceeded to Rome, where he was re- ceived in private audience by the Holy Father and where he assisted, in St. Peter's church, at the ceremonies of Holy Week of that year. Hav- ing spent several weeks in the capital of Chris- tendom, he left it to visit the principal cities of Italy, Switzerland, Austria, Germany, France, Belgium, Holland, England and Ireland, and re- turned to his vicariate in the month of October. On his return the Catholic citizens of Boise gave him a public reception of welcome and presented him with a purse, which, though small, was large for the congregation whose generosity had made it. The warmth of the reception and the heartiness with which the good Catholic people made their gift, satisfied his lordship that they had learned to appreciate the work he had done for them since his coming, and that they were ready to stand by him in the future in any undertaking that his zeal for the honor and glory of God or for the material welfare of the community would suggest. Through the time of the Bishop's ab- sence his progressive spirit had abided, as he was pleased to ascertain on his return; for he found at St. Teresa's Academy the building of a ten- thousand-dollar school structure well under way to completion; it was completed on the Ist of January, 1892. In 1893, in spite of the financial crisis of that fated year, Bishop Glorieux laid the foundation for St. Alphonsus' Hospital, which institution was not, however, made ready for oc- cupancy until the 27th of December, 1894. When the Sisters of the Holy Cross moved into it fifteen

Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.

An illustrated history of the state of Idaho, containing a history of the state of Idaho from the earliest period of its discovery to the present time, together with glimpses of its auspicious future; illustrations and biographical mention of many pioneers and prominent citizens of to-day, Part 23

Author: Lewis Publishing Company. cn Publication date: 1899 Publisher: Chicago, The Lewis publishing company Number of Pages: 1014

Author: Lewis Publishing Company. cn
Publication date: 1899
Publisher: Chicago, The Lewis publishing company
Number of Pages: 1014