USA > Indiana > Fayette County > History of Fayette County, Indiana : her people, industries and institutions > Part 42
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The strength of Connersville's Catholics was augmented somewhat. by this time, for several years had elapsed since they began to meet for services at private homes. John Burke was a contractor of some importance for those days. He lived during the years preceding 1850 in the building on
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Eastern avenue, which was the Claypool inn of an earlier period. Here he kept in readiness a room for Catholic services and hospitably received Father Ryan, of Richmond, upon the occasion of the latter's several visits between 1846 and 1848.
When Father Doyle, of Richmond, began his visits in 1850 he found quarters with Anthony Apert, where again a room was set aside for Catholic services, and priest and layman knew a welcome awaited them. The arrangements at the Apert home, the large frame house on the east- ern side of Eastern avenue, between Fourth and Third streets, which still stands on a line with the sidewalk, were somewhat elaborate for the times and their use destined to cover a period of seven or eight years before superseded by a permanent church home.
Late in the fall of 1850 a lay Catholic came to Connersville who promptly became identified with the church work in hand. It was his nature to act resolutely, and his two years of American experience in New York, Connecticut and Ohio was preceded by a European business career. Consequently he had traits of character and qualifications that became use- ful in the working out of results. A counting of heads revealed fourteen separate family groups upon whom reliance could be placed, and although George Heinemann was the last to arrive, he was in the front ranks of those who pressed the project of building a church to completion. There is a set of account books in existence, in his handwriting, showing the progress of the work. It is an epitome of the strain under which Catholics of that day labored to raise the funds needed to build a house for God's worship. The first entry in these books is under the date of July 16, 1851, and represents an expenditure of fifty cents paid to William Ervin for surveying and staking off the lot. A series of settlements made in October, 1851, seem to indicate the period of the cornerstone-laying festivities. These events over, the books show that bricks were the next subject of con- cern. Under date of January 26. 1852, one hundred and twenty-three thou- sand bricks were settled for at six dollars a thousand. During the spring and summer of 1852 various small payments to the contractors who erected the building are recorded, which seem to indicate rather slow progress of the work, a final settlement being shown only in the month of March, 1853. In this settlement one-half of the sum due on the work was paid in cash and for the remaining half the trustees signed "orders on ourselves," due on December 25, 1853. The trustees were Anthony Apert, Valentine Michael, Daniel Cohine and George Heinemann.
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When the church was first put to use, in the spring of 1853, there was no interior finish. The bare, unplastered walls and roof girders met the gaze of worshippers. A rough altar, made from boards left on the prem- ises by the contractors, was used, and the primitive method of kneeling and standing during divine services was observed because of the absence of seats. But the church was under roof and enclosed. This was much indeed, though, truth to tell, the faithful's available store of resources also . seemed to have reached a state of depletion by this time. For some reason Father Doyle's visits were irregular and in a few months his pastorate in this neighborhood was to end. In August, 1853, he was called to Terre Haute. His withdrawal closes the mission period of St. Gabriel's.
FIRST RESIDENT PASTOR.
With the arrival of Rev. Henry Peters in the late summer of 1853, a new experience was in store for the Catholics within a radius of traveling distance from Connersville. Father Peters made this place his home, and undertook to visit regularly Liberty, Rushville, Cambridge and Laurel and look after the whole intermediate territory. Consequently Connersville Catholics then had a resident pastor, that is, they had one at such times when he was not traveling the uncertain "roads of his outlying districts. The extent and diversity of his labors in this field can be judged by his building record, which is as follows:
1854-Frame church at Liberty.
1857-Frame church at Rushville.
1858-Parish house (brick) at Connersville.
. 1859-Brick church at Liberty.
1865-Addition to church at Rushville.
1868-Frame churchi at Laurel.
1873-Brick school at Connersville.
To this list should be added the purchase of a cemetery plot at Liberty in 1857.
It would be a mistake to infer that Father Peters allowed himself to become a stranger to his home flock at Connersville. This was his home in a genuine sense during the whole of his eventful career, and all people here learned to know and to love him. A sympathetic touch with human nature impelled in him a due regard for the purity of other people's motives, and in practice he sought to influence human conduct by leading people to do
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right. A profound faith that God ordains all things well, is seen as the beacon light of his greatest trials ; and a placid mind is ever in control of his commonest everyday acts. It is not surprising, consequently, that he made friends of all who came his way. It explains also the demonstration of popularity on the occasion of a voting contest, in the spring of 1871, at a church fair of the leading Protestant denomination, which had lately come into possession of the Claypool Opera House for their future place of wor- ship, and at which place a gentleman's lounging coat was voted to the most popular minister of the town. Although their own minister's chances were impaired, no doubt, by the demands of courtesy, still, it would have been easy under the general conditions of the times for the prizes to go to some one other than a Catholic priest. except for the universal respect in which Father Peters was held in the community. His was indeed a well-known figure, one with no harsh reputations to mar his kindly ways, and conse- quently the award. met with universal approval.
Father Peters was a friend and counsellor to many persons in his day. He was a builder of temples and a creator, seemingly, of the means to do so; and yet, with all this to his credit, it will be found in the end that his most lasting monument is something even greater, namely: his life demon- strated anew that the Christian ideal is a practically possible ideal. It is not given to the church to annihilate evil, but it is her mission to furnish a counterpoise to it. And the living subject of these remarks stands in the recollection of not a few people as a human agency employed by God for that purpose. His career was an active leaven for good. He was a priest, humbly striving for God's kingdom on earth, a spiritual father to the extent of every atom of his being, but always with an overshadowing sense that to be a priest and a Christian, in greatest perfection, was in harmony with the simpler duties of life, to be ever kind and considerate and to be neigh- borly and helpful to all men.
During his pastorship Father Peters had the pleasure for a short period to have his younger brother at his side as assistant. Rev. William Peters was ordained at Vincennes on April 11, 1861. He read his first mass at St. Gabriel's and decided to give here a service commensurate with his strength ; but impaired health made it plain that this service would be brief. In the spring of the next year it became evident that life's thread was weak- ening, and August 9, 1862, witnessed his demise. His remains were taken to Madison, Indiana, for burial in the Catholic cemetery.
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IMPORTANT YEARS FOR THE PARISH.
There were plenty of duties to engage the efforts of St. Gabriel's pas- tor during the next ten years-important years-for they were eventful ones for our country. And Connersville of course felt the thrill of the na- tional life. In fact the history of this particular period is keyed throughout to the shrill note of martial times rather than to the symphonies of peace and religion ; and doubtless the inattention paid to many of Father Peter's appeals for the interests of the church at this time can be explained by the fact that the Civil War was on with all of its engrossing terrors. At least thirty or forty names of the enlistment from this neighborhood clearly belonged to Catholic manhood. Some returned, some fell, but all created excitement when going, and a gap while absent. In at least one instance was the church the parting scene, an incident which resulted eventually in a small legacy. Frantz Eierund was a German youth of late arrival, making his home with George Heinemann, and he attached himself to the regiment of General Weilich which took part in the battle of Pittsburg Landing, where Eierund fell. The morning of the day of departure, he received the sacraments from Father Peters and left the residue of his European funds, about fifty dollars, with the friends where he was domiciled to be applied to the church if he failed to return. The sum was used subsequently in the purchase of a St. Joseph statue which long adorned the old church. Father Peters ·labored steadily through the trying times of the sixties, and brought into unison every available element to build up a parish. He was ever mind- ful also of the younger members of his flock. A school for children was fre- quently the task which engaged his best efforts. With varying success was this work put to a practical trial by conducting school in the basement of the church. After several such efforts, the practical eye of Father Peters saw in the situation an opportunity of doing a lasting good by establishing per- manency. To do this suitable quarters were needed, and the placing of the burden of teaching into the hands of a teaching sisterhood. The conviction once reached, action soon followed, As early as 1868 the first steps were taken for a new school. These plans were ripened during the next few years and the fall of 1873 saw the present school building opened to the children of St. Gabriel's.
It was Father Peters' last achievement. His health declined rapidly and the Christmas Day services were his last public appearance. His death oc- curred on January 31, 1874, he then being in the forty-seventh year of his
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age and in the twenty-first year of his residence in Connersville. To the burial at Madison, Indiana, by way of Cincinnati, a few persons followed from here, but a vastly greater number who could not go mourned the loss of a benefactor-St. Gabriel's first resident pastor.
In the year of 1874 several priests from nearby stations loaned their services to Connersville Catholics. Among them were Rev. J. L. Brassart, of Indianapolis, and Rev. H. Alerding, then of Cambridge, but later bishop of the Ft. Wayne diocese, and Rev. Peter Bischof who remained in charge of the parish till the summer of 1876.
Rev. J. B. H. Seepe came here in August, 1876, and remained pastor at Connersville till the month of May, 1881. He brought into his work from the start the ideas of a strict disciplinarian and the efforts of an uncom- promising foe of deviations, however slight, from Christianity's loftiest ideals. These ideas found expression also in the management of the temporal affairs of the parish. The debts still standing against the school building were considerably reduced, under the working of his plans; and when he left Connersville complete order had been restored to the affairs of the parish. He became pastor of St. Mary's, Madison, Indiana, where he died on July 16, 1913.
GOOD WORK OF FATHER RUDOLF.
An important chapter opens at this point in St. Gabriel's history. Rev. Francis Joseph Rudolf came to Connersville on May 4, 1881. An eventful pastorate ended with his death on July 10, 1906. Twenty-five years of unstinted service, when broken, brought sorrow to the whole community. Father Rudolf's circle of acquaintances was the very widest. Everybody felt at home in his presence. There was a well-trodden path to his door ,and the travelers thereof truly were of all classes. Open of countenance, frank in demeanor, generous and helpful were the qualities of mind and heart which people soon learned to consider a part of the nature of St. Gabriel's new pastor.
Father Rudolf came here from Shelby county, where he had built a new church at St. Vincent's, and previous to that he had been a short time at Lancaster, Ohio. He was ordained on May 4, 1867, at Mount St. Mary's, Cincinnati, and, consequently had been fifteen years in the priesthood when he entered on his new charge at Connersville. As his experience had been varied by this time, he possessed a practical knowledge of affairs which became a useful asset to the Connersville parish. The tradition of ihs uncle,
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the Father Rudolf of Oldenburg of an earlier period, added to his prestige, of course, with all who knew of the relationship; but the individuality of Connersville's new shepherd itself was sterling in its every trait and it quickly impressed itself upon the surroundings into which it was cast ..
It had come to be accepted as a fact at this time, that a new church was needed. The old one was too small, and its location was unsuited on account of the closeness of the railroad. Nearly ten years before, a new site was opened when the present school building was put up; and the history of several years had been woven about the thought that a new church should be built. The panic years of the seventies, when the school was built, had left a debt of about seven hundred dollars still unpaid. What the members had grown into the habit of asking themselves continued to remain a question only: What is to be done?
Here is the starting point for the new pastor who came upon the ground in 1881 and where he showed his mastery. With little commotion, plans were obtained and a start made. To the general public it soon was a "cathedral" that was building. This title is often met with in the press of that day. Catholics smiled, yet, truth to tell, themselves knew not how or when they would pay for it. But there the picture was, for whomsoever would see. How grand, how large! was the common comment.
CONNERSVILLE IN 1881.
To understand the relative importance of the new project to build the present St. Gabriel's, a brief retrospect of Connersville's public buildings will be illuminating. None of the present large buildings were in existence in 1881. The court house, built in 1849, held the distinction of pre-eminence. Another building from the same period of time, and which contains traces of art in its makeup, existed then as it does even yet-although now used for many years as a residence. It was built originally as the main office of the White Water Canal Company, and afterwards was used for bank- ing purposes. This bit of architectural art of classic expression, on Fourth street east from Central avenue, is indeed left behind as a reminder of the few isolated specimens of good art in house building in the early days. There was one narrow bank building with sandstone front on Central avenue. Trinity church is in good style, though of moderate size, which puts it into a different class. Two or three private residences existed that were rare productions for our community in those days, but this is the limit that the year of 1881 sets to the exhibitions of art applied to the construction of
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INTERIOR DECORATIONS OF ST. GABRIEL'S. Completed in 1901 for Golden Jubilee of Parish by Giovanno Gioschio, late from Italy. Center View is Canal, with Church to left.
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large-sized buildings. In the other specimens to be viewed, the popula- tion of those days was accustomed to utility and mechanical dictation for dominant traits. The seminary building, at Fifth street, was prominent indeed, but merely as a large square-built structure of imposing dimensions, but otherwise unattractive. Two factory buildings had lately been erected, which made them notable for their purpose; but beyond this listing none of our present graceful edifices had existence when St. Gabriel's pastor brought out plans for a new church. As a first step, the unplatted ground north of the school house on Ninth street to the railroad embankment and west to the Milton road, was bought in August, 1881. This permitted an ample site for the proposed "cathedral" and eliminated the possibility of any crowded appearance for so large a building, as everybody admitted. The purchase of the new ground answered the question finally where to build. As to the matter of money, for the building of the church, this was next in order.
SUCCESSFUL OUTCOME OF PROJECT.
Father Rudolf's plan of finding out what relationship existed between possession and generosity-to have and hold, and to give-was truly charac- teristic. He put down his name at the head of the list for five hundred dol- lars. Anthony Apert, though aged, was still on the scene. His close attach- ment and early habits of helpfulness in behalf of the church moved him to apply his signature for a like amount. Otho McCarty, whose birth in Fayette county in 1819 placed him in a historic premiership-he was the oldest-born member-drew on his belongings for a like amount. Maurice Connell, a prosperous farmer, did the same. Austin Ready, at this time looked up to as one of the active and public-spirited citizens of the com- munity, quickly furnished another name. And the goodness of heart of Anthony Kehl would endure no interference, no holding back, for himself in entering into the plans and the work of first class contributors. The last named persons, Austin Ready and Anthony Kehl, in the sequel, fur- nished in addition to their donations of money, the largest amount of personal service in the endless details belonging to an extensive canvass for aid, closing their connections with the effort only with the time of occupancy of the completed structure.
In the study of names, to be found in the itemized statement of the money raised for the purpose of building the new church, it is evident that many members strained their ability to the utmost; and if sacrifice be truly an essential quality for a monument intended to praise God's name, then,
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among the secondary contributors, can be found easily those who rank on this account with the first. This self-sacrificing spirit explains also the successful outcome of the popular entertainments given and public fairs. At these meetings personal service and handicraft and home products were given with lavish hands. An aggregate of mites by those who could not give more, when added to the dollars of those who had them to bestow, resulted in the phenomenal profits shown in the statements of these efforts. But, withal, the difference between the total of the income and that of the expen- diture left a sum of indebtedness which was considerable for the time. It is much honor to the disposition of the local bankers that during this time of the building, the name of F. J. Rudolf at their counters was sufficient for temporary accommodations. Austin Ready's well-known trait to respond to a demand to do a good turn for somebody else was a silent asset perhaps, but, in fact, his endorsement was used a very few times only, the pastor of St. Gabriel's himself conducted the finances for the whole period as a personal account.
The building had made enough progress in the early spring of 1884 to warrant fixing the date of June 15, 1884, for the ceremony of dedication. That this event was looked forward to with interest by neighboring com- munities is shown by the generous response to the invitations sent out to par- ticipate in the festivities. The local press speak of five thousand people being present. The special train from the west, starting at Indianapolis, brought twelve coaches of excursionists; and that from Cincinnati, ten coaches well filled. The train from the north, six coaches and from the south, five. No previous function had ever brought this number to our town before, for a purely Catholic event.
NEW EPOCH FOR CONNERSVILLE CATHOLICS.
With the new church in use, a new spirit is noticed in all forms of church activity; in reality an epoch opens for Connersville Catholics. The extent of the growth and development in parish work, soon called for a new parsonage, which was built in 1890. This brought the pastor's home to the new location on Ninth street, and completed the cycle, except that taking care of a new expression in parish activity produced Library Hall in 1891, and finally the Sister's home, a commodious brick building, in 1905.
It would be a mistake to infer that Father . Rudolf only knew about rearing material buildings. The depth of his sincerity and unaffected piety and self-effacement in the work of shepherding Christ's sheep were soul-
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inspiring from their very simplicity. He knew of the conventional ways of good society, of course-the many natural virtues that go towards making life pleasant-but they were duly surbordinated in his estimate of things that were worth while. What counted in his balancing of the scales was the motive behind human conduct. The trustful look of his countenance with a mild but sure and incisive discernment, left little room for human perversity to hide itself in his presence. In consequence, that God's claims upon men were imperative was very plainly a lesson taught. In another way, . and for other purposes, there was ever present in his personal and intellec- tual makeup an insistent persuasiveness that was well nigh irresistible. With- out argument, his open, honest and sympathetic opinion would usually be accepted in the end, because it was Father Rudolf's. There was always a moral stimulus in store for whoever talked to him even casually, since his trustfulness in the final good of life was as inexhaustible as it was infec- tious. It is not surprising, consequently, with these traits, that the funda- mental principles of religion, as the true philosophy of life, were given a wide diffusion during his long term of service. It explains also, the extent of his efforts to bring the members of his flock into a proper appreciation of the better things of the mind, instead of spending themselves on questionable social diversions. Library. Hall was a result of this program to train young people in habits of mental activity rather than social ones-strong drink, dancing and the score or more of attendant misgrowths, all received a cur- tailment because of his leadership. That the community was benefited thereby, is writ in large characters in the careers of those who were placed, in their youths, under his influence.
FATHER RUDOLF'S 'SILVER JUBILEE. . . ...
A parish event that called out large response, was the observance of the silver jubilee, in May, 1906, of Father Rudolf's labors in Connersville. It took the form of a strictly religious exercise, a Forty-Hours' Devotion, and it proved to be the last opportunity for a manifestation of love for this valiant friend and true pastor. Death came only a few months later. It found Francis Joseph Rudolf at his post of duty. ' The tolling of the church bell was the first announcement to the public; and it created universal sorrow. The interment of his remains took place at Oldenburg, near his parents, and the home of his brothers and sisters and the scenes of his first days in America, near the church where he read his first mass after ordination.
The next chapter of St. Gabriel's-1906 to 1917-is still in the making.
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It will doubtless be found notable in many relations. It is full of hope and promise at this moment, and can only be contemplated as a something of bright hues.
In many ways, it was a new period that opened for Catholicity in Fayette county even in the closing years of the last century. Although the develop- ments of the business life of the locality had always been constant and popu- lation showed a steady increase by new arrivals from other localities, still, the time which gave occasion for a new pastor of St. Gabriel's in 1906, also stands for a time which brought an added impulse to this tendency. In a business way Connersville was feeling the stir of new life. New industries were installing themselves and old ones all taking firmer roots. In addition to the general business conditions favoring the growth of Connersville, it was a noticeable fact that young farmers of German parentage from neigh- borhoods to the south, were now taking over the management and even owner- ship of Fayette county agriculture lands in increasing numbers, and were proportionately adding new names to the church records.
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