History of Wabasha County, Minnesota, Part 28

Author: Curtiss-Wedge, Franklyn. cn
Publication date: 1920
Publisher: Winona, Minn. : H.C. Cooper
Number of Pages: 1222

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Lake Pepin has exacted a large toll of victims. On the evening of December 13, 1878, Porter B. Guernsey, the fifteen-year-old son of a well known and respected citizen, A. T. Guernsey, and Florence Wyckoff, daughter of Rev. Samuel Wyckoff, pastor of the Presbyterian church of this city, were drowned by falling through an air hole in the ice near the foot of High street, while skating. No one witnessed their death, and their bodies were not recovered until the next day.

On June 12, 1882, Frank Collins was drowned while out in a skiff with two other men and a boy, their boat being cut down by the steamer Centennial, for which the officers of the steamer were blamed, the pilot being convicted of manslaughter in the fourth degree.

A gale which occurred on Sunday, April 22, 1883, caused the death of John Matter and his newly married wife, residents of Pepin, by overturning their boat. They had come to Lake City for some needed articles, and were on their way back when the accident occurred.

A more recent tragedy was enacted on the lake Wednesday evening, Janu- ary 15, 1913, when Oscar Youngress, aged 33 years, and his sister Alice, aged 19, were drowned while crossing the ice with a single horse and cutter while en route to this city from their parents' home at Bogus Creek, Wisconsin. Mr. Youngress, who had resided in Lake City for a number of years, left a wife and two small children.

The situation of Lake City, on the shore of the lake, at some distance from its outlet or inlet, has always had the effect of curtailing its water-trade, espe- cially with the Wisconsin shore. Repeated attempts have been made to over- come this disadvantage by the establishment of ferries, or by subsidizing them to a certain extent, but with only moderate success, as such ferries have always had to compete with the little coasting steamers plying on the lake, which were not confined to any regular route, but could touch at any points affording opportunities for trade or passenger transit. Passenger transit across the lake, more or less irregular, was afforded in the closing years of the Civil War by Capt. J. Hull, of Maiden Rock, Wis., who ran a small sailboat, the Daisy, between Maiden Rock and Lake City. In 1866 Capt. John Doughty, of this place, made trips to different points on both sides of the lake with a sailboat called the Union, which was capable of carrying 75 passengers, and its operation was continued for three years. It was then transformed into a steamer and operated for one year, when its trips were discontinued owing to lack of profit. Another boat, the May Queen, was also operated on this part of the lake that season.

In 1870 Capt. Nelson put a regular ferry on the lake between Lake City and Stockholm, Wis. This was a sailboat and was for passenger traffic exclusively. In 1872 William B. Lutz and W. W. Scott received a charter, con- ferring on them, for ten years, the exclusive right of keeping and maintaining a ferry across the Mississippi River at the town of Lake City. In 1873 the time of the franchise was extended to fifteen years, and thirty months allowed for the time of opening the ferry. A similar franchise owned by parties on the Wisconsine shore, was purchased by Lutz & Scott, but the opening of the ferry was postponed by the illness of Mr. Lutz, and in due time the franchise expired by limitation, nothing having been done.

In the meanwhile a proposition was made to the city to purchase the franchises on both sides of the river, or lake, and to give a bonus, or loan, to some responsible parties who should undertake, under bonds, to establish and maintain a ferry for a given number of years, and state legislation was secured in February, 1873, in the form of the ferry-bond act, which enabled the city to act in the matter, but the proposition was decisively turned down by the voters, April 1, 1873. It was next proposed to raise $800 by the issue of shares of $25 each, for the purchase of the Lutz & Scott charter, which had not yet expired, but the purchase was not affected, and in September negotiations

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were entered into with Capt. Murphy for the permanent establishment of a steam ferry. Owing to dilatory action this matter fell through, Capt. Murphy making other arrangements.

In the meanwhile Capt. O. N. Murray, of the little steamer Pepin, had been making regular trips around the lake, his steamer being sometimes accom- panied by a barge on which merchandise and passengers were transported. It was not, however, wholly suited to the purpose, and in May, 1874, a sub- scription was started to raise funds for the building of a better boat, which was finally completed at a cost of about $500, and on Thursday, July 16, the first regular trip was made in the city's own boat, with the mayor and common council in attendance. The city barge had a capacity of six teams and as many passengers as could crowd on. Trips were made at 9 A. M. and at 4 P. M., the rest of Capt. Murray's time being devoted to his regular coasting trips around the lake.

In the spring of 1875, the Lutz & Scott charter having expired the previous fall, the franchise for a ferry was granted to the city by special act of legis- lature, with power to operate or lease at their discretion. During 1875 and 1876 the exclusive right to the ferry charter was granted to Capt. Murray, who maintained communication between Lake City and the Wisconsin shore.

Early in the spring of 1877, a joint stock company, named the Lake City Ferry and Transportation Company, was organized with a capital of $10,000, for the purpose of operating a ferry such as would maintain regular com- munication between this point and the Wisconsin shores. By the terms of the ordinance not less than six trips a day were to be made during the season of navigation. The company was to meet all expenses, but the city was to furnish them the use of the barge and confer the rights of the franchise without charge. The rate of tolls or charges showed that oxen were still being used to some extent. The company was to own and continue to own the franchise on the Wisconsin shore as a condition precedent to the continuation by the city of the grant of its charter. The ferry company was composed of responsible business men of Lake City, the first board of directors being: John J. Doughty, H. Gillett, J. C. Stout, William Campbell, W. J. Hahn and H. D. Stocker. The steamer Clipper, a staunch built craft, but with poor engines, was purchased by Capt. Raney for $1,500, was repaired, and a cabin built, at an expense of about $2,000, and operated during the season of 1877 with the old engines. During the following winter she was supplied with new engines, and other improvements, at a further cost of $3,000. This latter amount was refunded the company by special vote of the citizens, this being the only subsidy ever received. The cost of maintenance, and competence by coasting steamers, however, caused the enterprise to be unprofitable, and after four seasons, the directors concluded to wind up the affairs of the company and dispose of the assets, which was done. The steamer was put up at auction and bid in by Messrs. Stout & Post, two of the stockholders, for an amount equal to the company's liabilities,-about $1,800. The franchise on the Wisconsin shore had been placed in the hands of the city council, and also a mortgage upon the boats of the company, as security to the city that the company would maintain the ferry a given number of years. This was done in 1878, when the bonus of three thousand dollars was given by the city. These franchises were to be the property of Messrs. Post & Stout, so long as they fulfilled the obligations of the old ferry company, but were retained by the city, which released the mort- gage upon the boat, at the request of the directors. Messrs. Post & Stout kept the ferry running during the season of 1881, and that fall closed out, having only added to their former losses by the attempt to continue the line in opera- tion. They started their boat for Stillwater when the ferry season closed, intending to dispose of her there, but on the way up the river the pilot ran her on the government pier near Prescott, and there she remained during the winter. The following spring she was left to break up, her machinery taken

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out, and when high water came she floated off and the hull sunk some distance down stream.

In the spring of 1882, Murray & Lenhart resumed trips between the Wis- consin and Minnesota shores; and Murray dying, the firm became Lenhart & Collins, who operated the steamer Pepin and barge from Lake City to Maiden Rock, Pepin and Stockholm, on the Wisconsin shores, making semi-weekly trips to Read's Landing, in this county. Within a short time L. Y. Lenhart became the proprietor, and has been connected with the ferry operation almost con- tinuously ever since, either alone or with a partner. He is now in partnership with Elmer N. Holstrom, of Maiden Rock, Wis., who was previously employed by him for two years as engineer. Under the firm name of Lenhart & Holstrom, they operate the steamer Verona, which was built by Mr. Lenhart in 1895. During the season they make four trips daily between Lake City and Stock- holm, Wis.

St. Mary's Church, Lake City .- Our forbearers who built St. Mary's were not rich in wordly goods ; indeed many of them came from a people who, because of their faith "were made outlaws, their homes destroyed, their estates for- feited, and their liberties and life itself (made) the price they had to pay for their refusal to conform to the new religion"; from a people "disfranchised, disqualified from acquiring or holding property, compelled to remain illiterate, fined, imprisoned, and many of them tortured with every refinement of cruelty"; many came from a land where in times past "Bishops and priests were classed as felons, a price set on their heads and 'where' an incredible number of both clergy and people who adhered loyally to the religion of their forefathers were either put to the sword or hanged, drawn and quartered"; where "the methods adopted to crush (the faithful) were cruel in the extreme, their cattle taken from them, their houses leveled and their harvests burned"; where "men, women and even children were indiscriminately shot down or hanged by a brutal soldiery, and the remnant which escaped found shelter in the neighboring bogs and mountains, where they were hunted to death as outlaws or perished from starvation"; they came from a land where, "lest the sur -. vivors in whom the native instinct of industry and enterprise still prevailed, should draw any measure of prosperity to themselves and away from England, the legislation was steadily directed towards the restraint, if not the absolute ruin, of all (her) trade and commerce"; where "embargoes were laid on the exportation. ......... of cattle, meat and other food products, and the expor- tation of wool and woolen goods to any country other than England (which manufactured a supply sufficient for home consumption) was forbidden under heavy penalties" (Catholic Encyclopedia: Irish in the United States). The offspring of such trials and persecutions, with learning, the professions, trades, commerce, even property denied them, what wonder that many of our fathers were a lowly people. But though broken, they were not crushed, and they came led by a hope which centuries of persecution had failed to stifle-the hope, to wit: of tolerance and liberty.

Not all, indeed, of St. Mary's founders were offspring of that persecuted land, but one and all were children of peoples who sighed and hoped for that sweet thing we call liberty. The others were children of a land where the people were excluded from all political action, where there was no freedom of the press, no trial by jury, no right of organization, no elective parliament. Meanwhile America was prospering by reason of the blessings that were denied men in the Fatherland; its broad acres called to them, offering them a con- genial home, with the outcome that while for the period 1821-1902 the num- ber of immigrants from Ireland was 3,944,269, or 19.3 per cent of the total immigration into the States, the number from Germany for the same period was 5,098,005, or 24.9 per cent, of the total immigration.

Our forebears, then, one and all, had suffered persecution; some religious persecution, the others political; and the only justice the one and the other

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had ever experienced had come to them at the hands of the church; and not only justice, but comfort and consolation in their long years of trial. Coming, then, in quest of liberty, our fathers brought with them an intense devotion to the church; and wherever they went, whether to the thickly populated cities of the East, or to the sparsely settled prairies of the West, their first care, invariably, was the erection of a church. America's 16,000 Catholic churches are nearly all the outcome of persecution abroad.

And what was true of the Irish and German immigrants elsewhere through- out the States was true of such as came to Lake City. The first family came in 1856; three families came in 1857; more in 1858, and now the Catholic Church of Lake City was beginning. The Catholic Directory now for the first time listed Lake City, saying that it was "occasionally visited," and it is still well remembered by a few that in 1858 Fathers Ravoux and Oster came and stayed two days. The Catholic Directory for the next year speaks of Lake City as "regularly visited from Wabashaw," and Father Tissot's Baptism and Marriage Records show that in 1859 he visited Lake City on May 8, July 10, September 11 and November 13. On these visits nine infants were baptized and one couple married. In 1860 Father Tissot came again four times, on March 11, July 8, September 9 and November 11, and again nine infants were baptized during the year.

Meanwhile Mass was celebrated in a private house, but the thought of a church must have been uppermost in the minds of those early settlers, for as early as 1863, less than five years after Father Tissot began to visit Lake City, two lots, six and seven, of block 137, were purchased as a site for the future church. The lots were those abutting to the south on Center street, to the west on Seventh street, and the day of purchase was November 9, 1863.

This was the church's first foothold in Lake City, but the parish evidently was not yet strong enough to proceed with the building of the church, for Mass continued to be celebrated in a private house until early in the year 1866. In January of that year, Mr. H. F. Williamson, responding to an agitation for a public hall in the city, fitted the second story of his large store into an audi- torium, 100 by 30 feet in size. Here now Mass was celebrated on the appointed days until the completion of the church. On April 14 of that year the Lake City Leader had in its news column, "We learn that a Catholic church is being erected in the back part of town, not far from the Baptist Church. It is to be a very fine building, calculated to add to the appearance of Lake City." On March 23 of the next year the same newspaper printed: "The Catholic Church at this place numbers a large congregation among its members, and we learn that it is soon to be under the charge of a Priest who will be a resi- dent of Lake City. It at present has the services of a reverend (sic) living at Wabashaw. The society here is a new one, and last season built a church worth about $1,800. The church was built on the lots purchased in 1863. It was designed by Father Tissot, and fronted on Center street."

The rumor which the "Leader" printed that the church was soon to be under charge of a Priest who will be a resident of Lake City," came true in the person of Father Hermon. Coming to Lake City in 1869, he found Block 54, on which the church now stands, vacant save for a single house at the corner of Prairie street and Lyon avenue. Father Hermon secured this house and remodeled it for his residence. This placed the church three blocks away, and, be it that Father Hermon wished to be closer to the church, or that he did not fancy having the Catholic Church "on the back part of town," on May 22, 1873, he purchased in the name of the church, lots 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, and the southeast one-third of lots 2 and 9. This gave the church all of the block on which the church now stands, except lots 1 and 10, which run along Lyon avenue, and one-third of lots 2 and 9. This was in May, 1873, and in the Wabashaw County Sentinel of September 17, 1873, we read, "The Society of St. Mary have removed

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their house of worship to the lot adjoining the residence of Rev. Father Hermon on the corner of Prairie street and Lyon avenue."

In 1875 Father Quinn came, and to him we owe the present St. Mary's Church. On January 30, 1877, he purchased for the church lot 10 and two- thirds of lot 9, and now St. Mary's had a site. The Lake City Leader of May 19, 1877, speaks thus of what was to come: "The new church building of the Catholic Society of this city, the construction of which has now been com- menced in good earnest, is to be an imposing structure. Beautifully situated at the corner of Lyon avenue (upon which it is to front) and Garden street, it will be in size, 53 by 120 feet, all told, the main building itself being 53 by 100. The first, or basement story, will be of stone, the second of brick. The tower will be 16 feet square on the ground, running to a height of 55 feet of brick, and 100 feet still higher of wood, making a tower 155 feet in height to the cross by which it will be surmounted. It is expected, we understand, that the corner-stone of this grand edifice will be laid on July 4, next, the stone and brick work to be completed by September 1, and the whole structure com- pleted by the first of December. William B. Lutz has the contract for the stone and brick work, and also the plastering. Mr. Robert White has the contract for the carpenter work and painting. These gentlemen are masters in their respective departments of construction and we are sure they will, jointly, com- plete this fine building in a way that will make it an ornament to the city, and one that will in every way accord with the hopes and desires of our Catholic friends."

July 4 saw the laying of the corner-stone and Lake City, likely, has seen few if any such days. Two Catholic societies came from Wabasha: St. Pat- rick's Irish. Benevolent Society, and the Father Matthew Total Abstinence Society; from Highland came another, Father Matthew Total Abstinence; from Oakwood, another; from West Albany, another; and these with the Father Matthew Total Abstinence Society of Lake City made six societies, with banners and regalia, marching to the strains of music furnished by several brass bands. In the morning they marched from the Academy of Music to the old church, where Father O'Gorman of Rochester celebrated Mass. In the afternoon they met Bishop Grace at the railway station and escorted him to the church grounds where he officiated and Father O'Gorman preached the sermon.

And just as the foundation was ready for the laying of the corner-stone on July 4, so was the building ready for divine service in December. Speaking of Christmas, 1877, the Lake City Leader of December 29 said: "At the new Catholic Church edifice, at 6 o'clock in the morning, the first Mass was held in that beautiful structure, participated in by a large congregation. Had the roads been in a passable condition, no doubt there would have been enough present on this notable occasion to fill the immense edifice in every part. Services were held at three different hours during the day. The church is indeed a handsome building, both inside and out; the frescoing is among the most chaste and artistic we have ever seen and is carried out with the most perfect harmony throughout all parts of the building, and is perfectly pleasing to the eye. The Rev. Mr. Quinn can certainly feel proud of his church build- ing; and the members of that society can feel well assured that they possess a house of worship second to none in the West in point of artistic elegance."

But Father Quinn was not to be contented with mere material greatness; he knew well that the church building, after all, was but an object lesson of what the Catholic should be; to him the edifice was but a means to an end. St. Mary's at the corner of Lyon avenue and Garden street might be second to none in the West, but of what avail was that unless his people in soul and character were second to none anywhere? To ensure that his people would be such, he established that other agency which invariably accompanies the church, viz., a school. Thus did he have a perfect parish equipment. In August, 1877, when it was evident that the old church would soon be vacated

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and could be used as a school building, he caused to come from Illinois Rev. Mother Liguori and four companions in the Sisterhood. He converted his own residence into a convent for the sisters, while he retired to a cottage on Center street. The old church was turned into a parochial school where the common school branches were taught, while in the convent was conducted a boarding- school for girls, with instruction in academical work and music. The parish was now complete and some notion of its size can be obtained from the records, which show that the number of baptisms in 1875 was thirty-five; in 1876 fifty ; in 1877, fifty; in 1878, forty. Indeed, so large was the congregation in those days that it sometimes happened that part of the congregation could assist at Mass only by standing at the doors outside the church.

Such was St. Mary's, Lake City, in 1878, but that year saw the beginning of the colonization movement in Minnesota-a movement which caused a de- crease in size in St. Mary's congregation. Homes in well organized parishes, on fertile soil, were to be had on the western prairies at a cost of less than ten dollars per acre with ten years' time to pay. The movement built up the western part of the state, but some parishes in the eastern part it almost depleted. In St. Mary's, in the year 1879, the baptisms fell to thirty-six; in 1880 to twenty-four; in 1881 to thirteen, and until 1888 twelve or thirteen baptisms per year is what the records show. The church at its completion was far from being paid for; Father Quinn's health did not permit him to make the necessary collections, and when at the close of 1881 he was obliged on account of his health to resign the parish, an enormous debt lay upon the con- gregation-a debt all the heavier by reason of the decreased number of par- ishioners. It was to retrench the expenses of the parish that in 1884 the parochial school was discontinued. A History of Wabasha County issued in 1885 said of St. Mary's, Lake City, "The services are at present conducted by supplying priests from St. Paul. The number of contributing families in the parish is about thirty-five, but the number of families actually connected with the parish is much larger."

In these few years St. Mary's, from being one of the most important par- ishes of the diocese, had come to be one of the least important; the pastor appointed was always in line for promotion; pastors came and went as larger places opened. When in 1898 Father McAuliffe was ordained, St. Mary's was not considered too important to be his first charge. At his coming the main altar in the church was the one built for the. old church thirty-one years earlier; the only furniture in the church were the pews; the frescoing had faded; Father Hermon's remodeled house still did service for a rectory; and the debt still hung over the congregation. In the years that have elapsed between Father McAuliffe's coming in 1898 and his going in 1911, a commodious residence was built, the church appointed with altars, statues, lights, and frescoed in the best possible taste-best of all, the debt which had harassed the parish for more than thirty years, was paid. And the progress that begun under Father McAuliffe has continued under his successors, so that again can be said with truth what was said when the first Mass was celebrated in St. Mary's, viz., the members of the congregation "can feel well assured that they possess a house of worship second to none in the West in point of artistic elegance." And all this material elegance is but the outward expression of the piety and devotion to God that reigns in the hearts of St. Mary's children. Again is St. Mary's in the very forefront of the parishes of the diocese, num- bering as it does in round numbers one hundred and fifty families.

And here we close our history of St. Mary's in this year of grace 1920. It is the Second Spring. St. Mary's was not and St. Mary's was; again St. Mary's was not and now St. Mary's is once again. It is the Second Spring. May the promises of this second spring not go the way that went those of the first; rather, may we see realized all the good projects that were fondled by Father Quinn. (Rev.) John A. Cummiskey.

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History of Wabasha County, Minnesota, Part 28

Author: Curtiss-Wedge, Franklyn. cn Publication date: 1920 Publisher: Winona, Minn. : H.C. Cooper Number of Pages: 1222

Author: Curtiss-Wedge, Franklyn. cn
Publication date: 1920
Publisher: Winona, Minn. : H.C. Cooper
Number of Pages: 1222