History of Chicago. From the earliest period to the present time, Part 81

Author: Andreas, Alfred Theodore
Publication date: 1884
Publisher: Chicago, A. T. Andreas
Number of Pages: 1340

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cluding by warning them that if they offered the slightest resistance to any public ceremony enjoined by the Church, they would them- selves incur the guilt of sacrilege, and be accordingly subjected to the very pains and penaities of excommunication which they wished to avert from another. This had the effect of calming them into submission, and the priest, learning this, consented to assign over to his superiors the property of the Church which he had unlawfully withheld from it, and to leave the town on the following day, so that all proceedings were stayed against him."

RIGHT REV. WILLIAM QUARTER, D.D., the first Bishop of Chicago, was born at Killurine, Kings County, Ireland, January 21, ISO6. His father's name was Michael Quarter, and his mother's maiden name Ann Bennett, who were the parents of four sons; John, the eldest of the four ; Walter Joseph, Vicar-General of the diocese of Chicago, and administrator of the diocese after the death of his brother William; William, the subject of this memoir, and James. The Quarter family was a most respectable one, the maternal branch of it especially having given many priests and bishops to the Church. Mrs. Quarter devoted herself to the early training of her children in the path in which she desired them to walk; and besides the principles and precepts she continuously in- stilled into their minds, her life itself was a continual precept, and her virtuous example, pious life and tender love made a deep and inefface- able impression upon the hearts of her children. Bishop Quarter was frequently heard to say, " I owe all to my mother; I should never have been a priest, never have been a bishop, but for her." Mrs. Quarter, having received an excellent education in the schools of a religious community, assumed the task of instructing young Will- iam, believing that the common schools were to the moral like a Siberian desert to the tender plant, transplanted thither from a sunny clime. He was as assiduous in his studies as she was earnest and industrious in her teaching, and he overcame the difficulties he found in his way with an ease that indicated the possession of a high order of mind. At the age of eight years he was prepared to enter a boarding school at Tullamore. Before leaving home to enter this school he partook of his first communion, and at the same time expressed his determination to live henceforth for God alone, and to enter the holy order of the priesthood. He immediately left home for Tullamore, and there entered the academy of Rev. Mr. Deran, a retired Presbyterian clergyman, one of the best classical scholars in Ireland. Here he commenced his mathematical and classical studies, and after spending about two years with Mr. Deran, he entered the academy of John and Thomas Fitzgerald in the same town. With the Messrs. Fitzgerald he completed his course of study prepara- tory to entering the college of Maynooth, and in his sixteenth year satisfactorily passed his examination with this purpose in view. During his preparatory course his demeanor had been so remark- able that his companions styled him the " little bishop." During the vacation between his examination preparatory to entering May- nooth College and his proposed entry therein, the Rev. Mr. Mc- Auley, brother of County McAuley, of Frankford, Kings County, Ireland, returned to Ireland from the United States. This gentle- man spent much time at Michael Quarter's house, and there young William heard given a full description of the condition of the Catholic missions in America, of the thousands of Catholic chil- dren growing up in a land where Mammon was the deity most generally worshiped-of the wandering away from the sheepfold of so many that had heen sealed to the one holy church at the bap- tismal font in their native land-of the extent of the harvest and the paucity of the gleaners, and he at once determined to forego his contemplated course of study at Maynooth College, to forsake his mother, and all in his native country he so dearly Inved, and to devote his life in America to the salvation of souls from eternal perdition. He therefore embarked for North America, April 10. 1822. The vessel landed hin at Quebec. To the Bishop of Quebec he immediately applied for reception as an ecclesiastical student, but was rejected on account of his youth. The same fate awaited him at Montreal; but at Emmetsburg, Mfd., the reason that caused his rejection in Canada proved his first and best recom- mendation. The Rev. Mr. Dubois, President of St. Mary's Col- lege at Emmetsburg, himself an exile, received young Quarter as a father would receive a son. Mr. Dubois at once placed him in. the seminary, which he entered September 8, 1822. So thorough was found his scholarship that he was given charge of the classes in Greek, Latin and algebra, and the second year of his residence there he was appointed professor of the Greek and Latin languages. On the 29th of October, 1826, the Rt. Rev. Dr. Dubois was consecrated Bishop of New York, and in 1829 on the completion by young Quarter of his theological studies, Dr. Du- bois called him to New York as his assistant pricst. On the 14th of September he left the retirement of his mountain home and started to New York, reaching there on Wednesday evening the I6th of the same month. On Thursday morning the 17th, he re- ceived at the hands of Bishop Dubois the Clerical Tonsure, Minor Orders and Sub-Deaconship, and on Saturday morning he was

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raised to the dignity of the priesthood. The next morning Bishop Dubois started for Europe, leaving his diocese in charge of the Very Rev. Dr. Power, pastor of St. Peter's, of which parish Rev. William Quarter was appointed assistant pastor. Duriog the rav- ages of the cholera which visited New York with great severity in 1832, Rev. Mr. Quarter devoted himself, almost day and night, to relieving as much as was practicable the sufferings of its victims. and he gathered together the children of the dead members of his Church, placing them under the charge of the Sisters of Mercy. and contributing all of his own means to their support. St. Mary's new church building was dedicated June 9, 1833, by the Rt. Rev. Dr. Dubois, and at the close of the service the Bishop announced the appointment of Kev. William Quarter as pastor of the Church. He remained pastor of this Church until his consecration to the new See of Chicago. St. Mary's Church in New York is indebled to him for the introduction among them of the daughters of St. Vincent and St. Peter's in New York for the establishment there of the first colony of the Sisters of Charity. One of the most remark- able results of his labors in that city was the conversion from . the Lutheran Church to Catholicism of the Rev. James Maximilian Oertel. The Provincial Council which met at Baltimore, in May 1843, found it necessary, on account of the great spread of Cathol- icism, to increase the number of bishops, and passed a degree recommending the formation of the Sees of Chicago, Little Rock, Hartford and Milwaukee, and the Apostolie Vicarate of Oregon Territory. The Court of Rome immediately acted upon the recom- mendation of the council. Apostolic letters for the consecration of three new bishops arrived in New York early in 1844, and on the Ioth of March, three new bishops were consecrated in St. Patrick's Cathedral, by the Rt. Rev. John Hughes, Bishop of New York. The three newly consecrated bishops were Rt. Rev. William Quar- ter for the Diocese of Chicago ; Rt. Rev. Andrew Byrne, for the Diocese of Little Rock, and Rt. Rev. John McCloskey, Coadjutor Bishop of New York. Bishop Quarter, not however without many a regret, left his parish, St. Mary's in New York, for his new field of labor, the Diocese of Chicago, in which St. Mary's was the principal church, and the only one within the city limits. On the 18th of April, accompanied by his brother, Very Rev. Walter J. Quarter, he left New York for Chicago, arriving there on Sunday, May 5, 1844. On the day of his arrival he said mass in the old church and preached in the new one, then unfinished and afterward the cathedral. Not only was the church building unfinished, but worse than all, the congregation was burdened with a debt, on their church of $3,000, on an adjoining lot, where afterward stood the Convent of Mercy, of $1,000, and on the graveyard of $400, thus making an aggregate indebtedness of nearly $5,000, upon some of which from ten to twelve per cent interest was being paid. Then the congregation was very poor, and it seemed impossible for them to pay off this indebtedness and to finish the church. There- fore Bishop Quarter and his brother, the Very Kev. Walter J. Quarter, united their funds and paid all the debt with their private means. The Bishop's noble example was not without its effect upon his congregation, for so harmoniously and successfully did they labor that within a year they had the satisfaction of kneeling before their new altar in their finished church, whose glittering spire and golden cross reflected the first rays of the morning sun as it rose from the bosom of Lake Michigan, and which was the first and then the only steeple in Chicago. After the departure of the two priests, Rev. Maurice de St. Palais and Rev. Mr. Fischer, at the peremptory command of the Bishop of Vincennes. Bishop Quarter was without a priest to watch over the district. However, before the end of June he ordained three, Rev. Jeremiah A. Kin- sella being one of them. By the close of the year 1844, the cathedral was finished, and the college and seminary were com- menced. Upon the completion of the latter, he next set about furnishing facilities for the education of the female portion of his flock. He was deeply impressed with the necessity of a proper training of young women, knowing that upon them, as wives and mothers, depends in great measure the character of the people. In order to supply this want, Bishop Quarter applied to Bishop O'Connor, of Pittsburgh, for the establishment in Chicago of a branch of the order of the Sisters of Mercy. In response to this appeal, five members of the order, accompanied by their superior- ess, Sister Mary Francis Ward, and Very Rev. Walter J. Quarter, arrived in Chicago on the 23d of September, 1846. ()n the day of their arrival the bishop conducted them to his own resi- dence, a Inw, one-story, frame honse, which, with many fears as to their satisfaction with it. he resigned to them as their convent, retiring himself to an abode, compared with which, the one aban- doned by him was a palace. On the 11th of November he estab- lished the Theological conferences, the first in America. In order to enhance the spiritual welfare of his flock, he directed the Sisters of Mercy to establish a sodality of the Blessed Virgin, by means of which the female children might the more thoroughly be in- structed in their religous duties. Ile also directed the instructors

in the Academy of St. Joseph to form among the male children a St. Joseph's Society, that the members of it might be taught to emulate the exalted virtues of St. Joseph. He originated the Chi- cago Hibernian Benevolent Emigrant Society, the object of the asso- ciation being to welcome the Irish immigrant to his new home, to furnish him, if need be, with timely assistance, to advise and direct him, and guard him against imposition by sharpers who were ever ready to plunder him the moment he set foot upon our shores. In this way was the life of Bishop Quarter spent, in estab- lishing and furthering works of charity, benevolence, improvement and progress even up to the day before his death, which occurred April 10, 1848. During Lent he was engaged in delivering a series of lectures on the " Marks of the True Church," and on Passion Sunday he lectured at last mass at the cathedral on the Apostolicity of the True Church. This was his last lecture. On leaving the pulpit he was much fatigued, and at vespers his voice

FIRST CATHOLIC CATHEDRAL.

wanted its usual fullness of tone. About two o'clock next morn- ing, Mr. McElhearne, who resided in the house with him, was awakened by his moans, and hurrying to bis apartment, found him sitting on the edge of his bed, and complaining of a severe pain in his head. Although medical aid was immediately summoned, his strength rapidly failed, and having received the consolations of religion, he sank into what seemed to those around him a deep sleep, uttering as his last words. "Lord have mercy on my poor soul." From this sleep he did not awaken, but died of cerebral congestion about three o'clock in the morning of the toth. For two days his remains, dressed in full pontificals, lay exposed at his residence, where they were visited and viewed by Catholic and Protestant alike. At two o'clock on the 12th, they were removed to the Cathedral and placed immediately without the sanctuary in front of the altar. At three o'clock on Friday, the Feast of the Seven Dolors, the funeral ceremonies commenced and concluded about five o'clock, the fun- eral oration being delivered be Rev. Mr. Feely. of Peoria. The body was deposited at the rear of the church in a tomb prepared for it, beneath the sanctuary and in front of the altar he himself had reared. The body of the Bishop was embalmed by Prof. John E. McGirr, of the University of St. Mary's of the Lake, and inclosed in three coffins. The inner one was black walnut with a silver cross upon it, bearing the following inscription : " Rt. Rev. Will- iam Quarter, D. D., First Bishop of Chicago, Consecrated March IO, 1844. Died April 10, 1848. Requiescat in l'ace." Over the vault, which was of brick and lined with waterproof cement, was a beautiful white marble cross about six feet high, with engravings in bas-relief of the Bible, Missal, Crosier, and Miter on the top ; on the horizontal part the same inscription as was on the coffin, except the "Requiescat in Pace," which was on the lower part. On the riser of the marble step leading to the altar was a scroll bear- ing the inscription : " Pretiosa in Conspectu Domini. mors Sanctor- um rjus." 'Within the cathedral was erected to his memory a beautiful cenntaph. to defray the expense of which Protestants contributed liberally, as did the Catholics. A young Protestant poetess of rare talents, Miss Mary A. Merritt, gave a volume of her poems, the proceeds from the sale of which was added to the

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contributions. On Sunday, April 30, 1348, an address was deliv- ered by the Very Rev. Jeremiah A. Kinsella, on the necessity of transmitting to posterity the memory and virtues of this distin- guished man, whose life had been so beneficial to society. Rev. Kinsella requested the gentlemen to meet in the afternoon in the basement of the cathedral to deliberate on the matter. In obe- dience to this request a large number of citizens assembled. D. L. Gregg was appointed chairman, T. J. Kinsella secretary, and a committee of five was designated to procure subscriptions. This committee suggested that a committee be appointed in each block of each ward of St. Mary's parish. The suggestion was acted upon, and John Breen was made treasurer. A central or executive committee was appointed to co-operate with and direct the different committees, and also to communicate with all who might be willing to assist. This executive committee consisted of the following gentlemen : The Very Rev. Jeremiah A. Kinsella, Rev. Mr. McElhearne, Rev. Mr. Scanlan, D. L. Gregg, and Thomas J. Kinsella. The follow- ing were appointed to act as committees in the several blocks for the procuring of subscriptions : Michael Byrne, William Flemming, John Darlin, John McGoven, Philip Carlon, James Carney, James Fitzsimmons, John Serehan, Captain Parker, James McMullen. William Corrigan, John Young, John Quinn, C. McDonell, Michael Gleeson, John Taylor, Michael Lantry, Bartholomew Ford, John Bush, Michael Diversy, Dennis Skelly, Peter Turbot, Mich- ael O'Brien, Michael McGuire, William B. Snowhook, George Brown, Thomas Roche, A. Getzler and B. Blasey. The monu- ment was designed by Mr. Van Osdel, and constructed at the mar- ble manufactory of A. S. Sherman, and a bust was taken after his decease, at considerable pains and expense, by R. N. White.

ST. PATRICK'S CHURCH .- This Church was estab- lished early in 1846, by the Very Rev. Walter J. Quar- ter, V. G. A church building was erected by Augus- tine D. Taylor the same year, on Desplaines Street, between Randolph and Washington streets, which was opened for religious services on Easter Sunday, April 12. The parish at that time embraced the whole of the West Side of the city. In 1848 the lots upon which it stood were purchased of the canal commissioners for $3,000. The first church building, which originally cost $750, was enlarged by Rev. P. J. Mclaughlin, who became pastor in August, 1846. In 1850, at the sug. gestion of the assistant pastor of the parish, the pro- perty at the corner of Desplaines and Adams streets was purchased, and also at his suggestion a house was purchased of Mr. Gleeson by Bishop Van de Velde in 1850, in which the parochial school was established. The school was opened in October of that year by Pat- rick Dillon, afterward the well known and popular presi- dent, for many years of Notre Dame University, Indi- ana. In 1854 Rev. P. J. Mclaughlin commenced the erection of the present brick and stone edifice on the new lots, at the corner of Desplaines and Adams streets. This building was completed by the Very Rev. Dennis Dunne, V. G., sufficiently to be used for religious pur- poses in the summer of 1856. He continued to im- prove it until he made it one of the finest church edi- fices in the city at the time. Its style of architecture was the Romanesque. Stained glass windows were used, and the interior was, for the time at which the church was erected, elegantly frescoed. It is a two-story build- ing, basement of stone, and upper story containing the main auditorium, of brick. The auditorium, including the large gallery facing the pulpit, has a seating ca- pacity of about 1,200. Originally it was the design to orna- ment the building with a high spire on each front cor- ner, but this has not yet been accomplished. The old church building was moved on to the lots at the corner of Desplaines and Adams streets and employed for the purposes of the parochial school. The first bap- tism in St. Patrick's parish was that of Edward Carroll, son of Owen and Elizabeth Carroll, March 12, 1846 ; and the first marriage that of John McCunniff to Sarah Ladan, February 11, 1846. The successor of Very Rev. Walter J. Quarter was Father Mclaughlin, who remained with the Church until he was himself suc-

ceeded by the Very Rev. Dennis Dunne, in September. 1854. Mr. Mclaughlin's assistants were as follows : Revs. P. L. Scanlan and John O'Reilly, in 1848 ; Revs. Thomas Canada, James A. Drew and Francis Darwin in 1849; Rev. Patrick Terry from September, 1850, until June, 1852, and Rev. Michael Donohue from this time until the close of his term of service. The Very Rev. Dennis Dunne, V. G., became pastor September 11, 1854. His assistants were as follows; Rev. Michael Donohue until 1855 ; Rev. Edward O'Neil from 1855 to 1857 ; Rev. Michael Downey and Edward Kenney from the beginning of 1856 to the latter part of 1857 ; Revs. P. Gaffney, Michael P. Lyons and John Magan in 1857.

ST. PETER'S CHURCH .- German Catholics began coming to Chicago, though not in large numbers, be- fore the Revolution of 1848, but in 1846 they were suf- ficiently numerous to sustain two churches of their own nationality, and hence the organization of two German Catholic churches-St. Peter's on the South Side, and St. Joseph's on the North Side-in the latter year. Pre- viously all the Catholics had assembled in St. Mary's . church. Father John Jung was given permission by Bishop Quarter to build a church. Bishop Quarter gave a lot for the purpose on Washington Street, between Wells and Franklin, and here in the spring of 1846, a few industrious German Catholics began to erect an edifice for St. Peter's Society. Among them were John Gross, Joseph Yager, John Glasen, Andrew Schall, An- drew Schaller, Nicholas and Peter Reis, Joseph and Anton Berg, Hubert Maas, Michael . Gleinhans, Joseph Schumacher, John Paul, Adam Amberg, John B. and Frank Bush, Casper Pfeifer, Michael Eule, and Mr. Hahn. The dimensions of the lot received by the so- ciety were eighty feet on Washington Street by one hun- dred and eighty on Wells. Father Jung was the first priest in charge, and through his energetic management the society succeeded in erecting not only their church, but also a rectory and school-house-all frame struct- ures. The church was a one-story building, forty by sixty feet, capable of seating about seven hundred peo- ple ; was surmounted by a small steeple containing a bell, and cost about $goo. The rectory stood on the southeast corner of the lot, back of the church, and the school-house on the southwest corner. In i850, as speculation increased and railroads commenced to be built into the city, a large portion of the members were compelled to move south toward Twelfth Street, and also into the southern part of the city. The removal of the inhabitants rendered necessary the removal of the church property. Permission was given to Father Plathe, then priest in charge, to remove to a lot on the southwest corner of Clark and Polk streets, where the church now stands, and to this lot, in the latter part of 1853, the society removed its buildings. Here the first services were held on Christmas Day, 1853. At that time the surroundings of the church were uninviting, being swamps and wilderness, but during succeeding years improvements were made, and in 1863 the society had so increased in numbers by immigration that Father Maeger, priest in charge, erected the brick church which still stands upon the lot. The first priest in St. Peter's was Father John Jung, who officiated temporarily for both this and St. Joseph's, saying high mass on alter- nate Sundays in each church, and celebrating low mass when not celebrating high mass. This arrangement lasted but a few months, when Rev. Hermann Liermann became priest and remained about two years. Father Liermann was succeeded in 1849 by Rev. Antonius Volker, who remained until 1852, when Rev. James

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Bernard Weikamp became priest. Father Weikamp remained until 1854, when Rev. G. H. Plathe succeeded him, and remained until September 23, 1855, when he was succeeded by Rev. C. Schilling. Rev. Father Schill- ing remained until the 5th of the following October, when Rev. G. H. Osllangerberg became priest, and was himself succeeded by Rev. Hermann Liermann, who re- turned to the church on the 6th of January, 1857, and remained three years. The membership of this Church, which at first consisted of about thirty families, in- creased until when most prosperous, previous to the removal, it comprised about one hundred and fifty families. Besides a Sunday school there was a day school connected with St. Peter's Church, which was first taught by John Kribler, who continued with the school six or seven years, when it was taken charge of by Frederick Pryor, who remained about the same length of time.

ST. JOSEPH'S CHURCH (German) was established early in 1846. Among the original members of the society were Peter Gebel, Michael Diversy, Augustine Gauer, Jacob Miller, Maurice Baumgarten, John S. Vogt, Frank Spohr, Motts Kriezer, Mathias Miller, Michael Hoffman, Peter Annen, Mr. Lauks, Jacob Ras- kop, and Henry Gherkin. The society purchased a lot at the northeast corner of Chicago Avenue and Cass Street, upon which they erected a frame building thirty- six by sixty-five feet in size, capable of accommodating about six hundred people, at a cost of nearly $900. Upon this edifice was erected a small steeple, in which a bell was hung. The church building served the pur- poses of the congregation until after the Benedictine Fathers took charge of the organization in 1861. The first pastor was Father John Jung, who remained be- tween one and two years, when he left the city and was succeeded by Schaeffer Platte and Father Kopp, who remained about seven years. During the most of Father Jung's pastorate he was without assistants. The records of this Church made previous to 1856 having been lost or destroyed, it is difficult to give a complete history of it previous to that time; but in September of this year Rev. John Baptiste Mager became its priest. His assistant was Rev. E. B. Kilroy, a member of the Order of the Holy Cross. In May, 1857, Father Mager was superseded by Rev. Andrew Tusch, who was re- placed by Rev. Bernard J. Force, who remained until August, 1858, and who during a portion of his pastor- ate was assisted by Rev. J. Hoefflinger. Rev. B. Schnyder became pastor in August, 1858; Rev. N. H. Gillespie in January, 1859; and in September, 1859, Rev. John Baptiste Mager returned to the pastorate. He was assisted by Rev. P. Exel, a member of the Order of the Holy Cross, from February, 1860, to June following, when he was succeeded by Rev. Peter Hart- laub, who remained until October of that year. Father Hartlaub was succeeded in October, 1860, by Father Storr, who remained until May, 1861, when Rev. Charles Schafooth became pastor and remained until June 15, when the Church passed under the care of the Benedictine Fathers, who still remain in charge. Dur- ing the pastorate of Father Kopp the Church grew un- til its membership, in 1850, was about sixty families, or nearly three hundred and sixty individuals. Under

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History of Chicago. From the earliest period to the present time, Part 81

Author: Andreas, Alfred Theodore Publication date: 1884 Publisher: Chicago, A. T. Andreas Number of Pages: 1340

Author: Andreas, Alfred Theodore
Publication date: 1884
Publisher: Chicago, A. T. Andreas
Number of Pages: 1340