USA > Missouri > Centennial history of Missouri (the center state) one hundred years in the Union, 1820-1921, Volume I > Part 110
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Archbishop Kenrick gave a great deal of attention to the Newsletter. He not only contributed articles but advised as to editorial policy. He counseled that while in its main feature it should be distinctively a Catholic newspaper, yet it should maintain a high literary character through essays, reviews and especially
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in well selected reprint. He used to recommend the use of scissors and paste pot, saying to the editor, "Selected sense is much better than original nonsense."
Father Ryan.
Thirty years after Archbishop Kenrick had inaugurated and carried out a policy, if that word may be used, of interesting and impressing non-Catholics, another great preacher with remarkable power for awakening religious thought came forward in the Catholic church of St. Louis. It is told of Patrick John Ryan that when he was thirteen years old, in Naughton's school in the parish of Rathmines, he was chosen as the spokesman to deliver a special address to Daniel O'Connell, imprisoned in 1844 at Richmond, Bridewell. The boy was the born orator. He had a taste for literary effort. His schoolmates selected him to prepare the address and read it to the patriot.
Father Ryan was only a deacon when with a determination to become a missionary priest in America, he reached St. Louis toward the close of 1852 and was sent to Carondelet. With him came Patrick A. Feehan, who became bishop of Nashville and afterwards archbishop of Chicago. The two young deacons were sent to the seminary to remain until of age for ordination to the priesthood. Father Ryan became a bishop in 1872 but long before that he was famed for his eloquence. After his ordination in 1854, he was attached to the cathedral. He became best known as pastor of St. John's, where for twenty years he preached regularly, his sermons drawing non-Catholics in large num- bers. It became the custom with strangers in the city over Sunday to attend St. John's on Sixteenth and Chestnut to hear a sermon by Father Ryan.
Father Tom Burke, the Dominican of international fame as an orator, came to St. Louis between 1870 and 1880 and remained some time. He was on a lecture tour of the United States. While he was here Father Tom, for that everybody called him, heard Bishop Ryan then but recently consecrated. There was no jealousy of Father Ryan; the humility of the man forbade it, but intense admiration for his power as a speaker. The St. Louis priests asked Father Tom what he thought of their pulpit orator.
"Well, in good truth," replied Father Burke, "when I heard Lacordaire in Paris, I thought the whole church could not produce his equal, but now that I have heard your good and great assistant bishop, I do not hesitate to say that as a pulpit orator he immeasurably surpasses that celebrated preacher of our order.'
After the manifold duties of bishop made it impossible to preach weekly at St. John's, Father Ryan adopted the. custom of occupying the pulpit on the first Sunday of the month, unless he was too far away to get home. "Bishop Ryan's Sunday" obtained a fixed place on the religious calendar of St. Louis. On those Sundays St. John's was uncomfortably crowded.
"The Great Controversy."
The outside calls upon Bishop Ryan grew numerous and pressing. By invi- tation, the eloquent prelate preached twice before the Missouri legislature. He was very obliging. Twice he went to Columbia to address the students of the University of Missouri. The Sanctity of the Church and Modern Skepticism
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were two subjects upon which Bishop Ryan preached or lectured in the leading cities of the country. The last traced popular opinion through various phases with deductions in favor of Catholicism. In 1882, Bishop Ryan delivered one of the most notable of his many lectures before an audience which filled Mer- cantile Library hall. It was explanatory and conciliatory, calculated to win consideration of the principles of Catholicism. The audience included several pastors of Protestant churches.
From the days of his student life, Father Ryan had a liking for the press. He wrote much for periodicals when other duties permitted. Out of Father Ryan's eloquent preaching and the interest it aroused in Catholicism developed one of the most notable features in the history of St. Louis journalism. Joseph B. McCullagh, editor of the Globe-Democrat, printed in full one of the bishop's addresses. Bishop Ryan had two kinds of sermons, the dogmatic and the moral. Mr. McCullagh selected a dogmatic discourse, one that brought out the salient and distinctive qualities of the Catholic faith. Then he opened the columns of the paper for all creeds. For months "The Great Controversy" was carried on in the Globe-Democrat, filling in the aggregate some hundreds of columns.
Archbishop Kenrick's Travels in Missouri.
Archbishop Kenrick rarely spoke of the experiences he had in the missionary work which made Catholicism so strong in St. Louis and vicinity during the period of great immigration ten years before the Civil war. He had a free colored servant, "William." In a vehicle, accompanied by William, the arch- bishop drove through the country without regard to seasons or weather. One day he insisted on fording a swollen creek in St. Charles county and went under, having a narrow escape. But of these incidents he was reticent.
The archbishop's advice to young priests probably revealed the lesson of his own experience. He was accustomed to say that when a profession is embraced the first duty is to acquire all the knowledge necessary to discharge it fully and conscientiously. Until that is done extraneous duty should be avoided.' "Therefore," he said, to young priests, "lose no day that you shall not apply some part of it to the learning of dogmatic and moral theology as also to the reading of commentaries on the Scriptures." The history of the church and the lives of the saints, he recommended also, and he deemed it highly important to have a favorite book of devotion to "nourish piety within the soul." Careful preparation for preaching was recommended.
The extraordinary growth of Catholicism in St. Louis, the theological strength of the clergy, the thousands of conversions of residents, not so much from other churches as from the mass of the indifferent, are better understood when the example and precepts of Peter Richard Kenrick are known.
The Humor of Father Ryan.
One of the stories still told of Archbishop Ryan is his comment on the boy's answer to a catechism question. A parish priest was showing off the children's aptness. He asked a boy, "What is matrimony?" The pupil, embarrassed by the presence of the archbishop, replied: "Matrimony is a state of punishment to
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which some souls are condemned to suffer for a while before they are considered good enough to go to heaven."
"Oh!" said the priest, "that is the answer for purgatory."
"Let the boy alone, father," commented the archbishop. "He may be right. What do you or I know about it anyway?"
Father Ryan once pleasantly suggested to a priest that it was time for him to get a new hat. The priest was a loyal Irishman. "I would not give up that old hat for twenty new ones," he said, with emphasis. "It belonged to my father who fell in the uprising of '48."
"And evidently fell on that hat," said Father Ryan.
One of the archbishop's famous lecture subjects was on Ireland. In that lec- ture he told the story of the Irishman who came to him with the most amazing series of troubles. Father Ryan said he listened to the recital and then asked :
"Pat, in all your troubles, did you at any time think of committing suicide ?" "Not upon myself, your reverence," was the instant reply.
When a certain man had been elected from St. Louis to Congress and every- body was marveling, a friend excitedly asked Father Ryan, "Bishop, did you know that Blank had been elected to Congress?"
"Oh, well," said the bishop, "he is young and strong. Maybe he will out- live it."
The association of Kenrick and Ryan for thirty years in St. Louis was extra- ordinary. Kenrick had marvelous capacity for organization and management. Ryan was philosophical and eloquent. One was the complement of the other. The relations were more than harmonious. Upon his bishop the archbishop leaned more and more. The Catholic church in the archdiocese of St. Louis pros- pered beyond comparison. The fame of Ryan, as a preacher and a lecttirer, became national. Both of these men maintained the friendliest relations with and commanded the highest respect of the non-Catholics of St. Louis. When Archbishop Ryan was called to Philadelphia, St. Lonisans, without regard to religious affiliations, tendered him a most notable farewell reception.
Dr. Niccolls' Tribute to the Roman Catholics.
Religious intolerance has been the exception in the relations of the churches. since statehood. Slavery and the Civil war prompted some denominational divi- sions. The attending bitterness was only temporary, the matter of a single gen- eration. The liberality of view was shown in a rather striking expression by Rev. Dr. Samuel J. Niccolls in his centennial sermon of 1909:
"The Roman Catholic church, always conservative, has, in spite of Its cherished tradi- tions, been moved by the spirit of progress and has become a most important factor in the civilization of the West. In this city it has greatly multiplied its churches, schools, hos- pitals and asylums. Its leaders have been godly men of broad. statesmenlike vision, who have administered the affairs of their branch of the church with marked discretion and success and its members are among our foremost citizens in seeking the highest welfare of our city. It occupies a most influential position in the religious and social affairs of the city, and the history of its progress furnishes a most instructive chapter in the story of the development of the great Valley of the Mississippi. But I leave to those more familiar with it the full recital of its progress, although venturing the prediction that before another hundred years have gone by the relations between the different branches of the Christian church will be much more intimate than they now are."
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Bishop Tuttle.
When Daniel Sylvester Tuttle was, in 1866, elected bishop of Montana, with jurisdiction over Idaho and Utah, he was compelled to confess to the committee sent to notify him that he was only twenty-nine years old. The church law required a candidate to be thirty years old. Bishops Potter and Whitehouse were the committee. They had picked out Mr. Tuttle, a man of stalwart frame, as peculiarly well fitted for such missionary field as the three frontier territories offered at that day. They were not willing to relinquish their plan. So they said to Mr. Tuttle, "My brother, go home to Morris to your work, continue in it quietly and steadily till after January 26, 1867, when you will be thirty years old. After that you will doubtless receive from the presiding bishop information to guide you in your next step." Thus it came about that in 1867, with a little missionary band, Bishop Tuttle started for Montana, within the bounds of which no Epis- copal clergyman had set foot up to that time. The bishop rode across the plains on a stage coach, every man carrying a rifle and a revolver for protection against Indians. The first thing he did on reaching Salt Lake was to call upon Brigham Young, telling him for what he had come. Ten days afterwards, the bishop con- firmed eleven persons. He went on to Montana and lived in a log cabin in the inining town of Virginia City. That year a telegram came to the bishop in his cabin from Rev. Montgomery Schuyler of St. Louis, reading: "Elected bishop of Missouri at Kirkwood, May 29th, on first ballot." Bishop Tuttle sent back his declination. His sole companion in the cabin at Virginia City was his cat "Dick." Nineteen years later a second telegram from Dr. Schuyler found Bishop Tuttle in a mining camp of Utah and notified him that for the second time he had been elected bishop of Missouri. This time acceptance was sent. Bishop Tuttle came to St. Louis in 1886.
The New Cathedral.
The sun sent slanting rays through banks of clouds into the faces of an army with banners marching out Lindell avenue on Sunday, the 18th of October, 1908. Pageants of different kinds St. Louis had seen, but never before one like that. Of military and of civic demonstrations there had been many. But now moved with the precision and array of an army the men of the Catholic churches. This mighty host gave new meaning to the 79 parishes of the city.
East and west of Newstead avenue spread a mass of humanity which crowded . sidewalks and lawns and encroached upon the broad asphalt until only by stren- uous effort of the police was a pathway kept open for the moving column. Above the heads of the marchers and spectators hung from the long arm of a great crane a massive block of granite with the words "Christo Victori." Over the foundations of the new cathedral, tier above tier, sat the hundreds of frocked priests and seminarians. In front were grouped about the Apostolic Delegate, Diomede Falconio, most reverend archbishops and the right reverend bishops, in their purple robes. A full head above the other dignitaries, erect of figure, his face alight with the spirit of the event, stood the young metropolitan of St. Louis, John J. Glennon.
A striking feature in the celebration of the laying of the corner stone was the interest shown by the entire community. Lindell boulevard, the great residence,
REV. DR. THOMAS M. FINNEY Methodist
REV. DR. SAMUEL J. NICCOLLS His pastorate of the Second Presbyterian Church of St. Louis exceeded fifty years
BISHOP ENOCH MATHER MARVIN Methodist
REV. DR. TRUMAN MARCELLUS POST Congregational
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church and club avenue of the city of St. Louis, from Grand avenue to King's Highway, a distance of nearly two miles, was filled with waving colors. In response to the invitation of the central committee having charge of the celebra- tion the residents and the institutions on the avenue almost without exception hung out the American flag. The request of the committee was that the colors of the country be displayed. Directly opposite the scene of the ceremony, American flags festooned the windows of the Lindell Avenue Methodist church.
Among the seated guests upon the stand overlooking the corner stone were men of all religious beliefs, responsive by their presence to the general sentiment that the whole city had a living sympathetic interest and pride in the ceremony.
A great contribution to the church architecture of the city, that in which the whole community had an interest, was the cathedral, with its foundation walls above ground and waiting the corner stone of Missouri granite. It is no detrac- tion from the reverence and religious fervor of the Catholic, that the St. Louisan forecasted with civic pride the completion of a cathedral which was to surpass any other in the country. And by the same sign it was none the less a fitting sub- ject for civic pride that this monumental creation of the architect and the artist had as its inspiration the religious motive.
Impressive Corner Stone Ceremonies.
The parade of the parishes preceded the laying of the corner stone. When the head of the column led by the grand marshal, Amedee Valle Reyburn, a descendant of one of the oldest families of St. Louis, reached the site of the new cathedral, it was met by a procession of prelates and priests, the most notable ever seen in the Mississippi valley. The Apostolic Delegate, Most Reverend Diomede Falconio, was escorted by the seven archbishops. thirty bishops and seven hundred priests from the Sacred Heart convent, on Maryland avenue, to the site of the cathedral, arriving there just as the procession of the parishes came marching up from the other direction.
The procession of the parishes was three hours in passing the reviewing stand upon which the distinguished prelates took their positions. When the procession of the parishes had filed by, the laying and blessing of the corner stone took place in accordance with the usual forms of the Catholic church. It was preceded by the blessing of a great cross which had been erected for the occasion. After the blessing of the cross came the blessing of the foundation of the new structure, and then the procession of prelates and priests marched back to the stone which was first blessed and then placed by the Apostolic Delegate. The ceremony con- cluded with the drawing of the cross by the trowel upon the side of the corner stone.
The Latin, cut deep into the geological formation which is the foundation of all terrestrial, dedicates the building to the Saviour and in the same sentence honors the city. The sentiment is reverent and patriotic. It is happily framed. When the archbishop approached the matter of the inscription, he thought much about what sentiment should be embraced in it. To well known Latin scholars he sent out his request for counsel. He told them that the words should be few, that they should impress primarily the religious character of the edifice, the con- secration to the Catholic faith. And then he added that recognition of the patron
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and of the city should be included. And finally the archbishop desired that the participation of the entire diocese in the building of this cathedral should be given imperishable tribute.
The Benedictines are famous for their learning and skill in the cryptogram. They were asked to suggest a form of inscription. The archbishop did not stop with the Latinists of the United States. He gave some of the scholars of Europe opportunity to compete. A St. Louis priest supplied the text which, with slight alteration, was decided to express best the sentiments. He used fewer than forty words, most of them very short. In the Latin, St. Louis becomes "S. Ludovici."
The translation, following closely the concise Latin, is:
"To Christ the victor, and in honor of St. Louis, King of France, patron of the bounteous city and archdiocese, this stone, inaugural of the metropolitan church, erected by the bounty of the faithful of the whole diocese, was placed on October 18, by the Most Reverend Delegate of the Holy See."
The inscription was the composition of Rev. F. G. Holweck, rector of St. Francis de Sales church on the Gravois road in the southern part of the city. Father Holweck was one of the foremost classical scholars in the country. He was the censor librorum of this archdiocese. Catholic books intended for publication here were submitted in manuscript to him because of his ability to detect errors. Out of all of the forms suggested for this corner stone, Rector Horweck's ex- pressed most perfectly the sentiments the archbishop desired.
The Work of a Generation.
The Catholics of St. Louis had been preparing for this work of building a grand cathedral a generation or more. Archbishop Kenrick, during his lifetime, conceived and made some preliminary plans looking to a cathedral. The late Archbishop Kain, who succeeded Archbishop Kenrick, also devoted attention to the project and started the fund for it. It remained, however, for the present archbishop of St. Louis, Most Rev. John J. Glennon, to take up preliminaries and to bring the project to the actual construction. Archbishop Glennon was made coadjutor bishop of St. Louis under Archbishop Kain's administration during 1903, and the same year, on the death of Archbishop Kain, Bishop Glennon be- came archbishop of St. Louis, being the youngest prelate of that rank in the country.
It was well that the movement progressed slowly. An earlier beginning might have been a mistake as to location. On the 28th of April, 1871, was taken the formal step for the cathedral, the corner stone. of which was laid October 18, 1908. Archbishop Kenrick, Bishop Ryan and Vicar-General Muehlsiepen were at the head of the movement. The men of means of that day who participated in the incorporation of the St. Louis Cathedral Building association were James H. Lucas, Henry S. Turner, Joseph O'Neil, John Withnell, Nicholas Schaeffer, H. J. Spaunhorst, J. B. Ghio, Bernhard Crickhard, Julius S. Walsh, John Byrne, Jr., Bernard Slevin, Charles P. Chouteau; Charles Slevin, James Maguire, Joseph Garneau. The site tentatively selected was the block bounded by Twenty-second and Twenty-third streets, Pine and Chestnut streets, now largely occupied by light manufacturing establishments.
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The Y. M. C. A.
Three times the Young Men's Christian association was started before it secured a permanent and flourishing hold in St. Louis. In 1853, nine years after the original Young Men's Christian association was founded in London, a St. Louis association was started. Samuel Cupples and Henry Hitchcock were offi- cers. The Civil war caused this association to disband. After several years another beginning was made by Rev. Shepard Wells and General Clinton B. Fisk. This movement failed. In 1875 twelve young men met at the Union Methodist church, then on Eleventh and Locust streets, and organized the Y. M. C. A., which has grown to the present impressive strength. The officers were H. C. Wright, Frank L. Johnson, Dr. L. H. Laidley, Charles C. Nichols, and E. Anson More. The association occupied one rented room after another down town, until in 1879 Mr. Moody conducted one of his revivals. The evangelist appealed to the business men of St. Louis to provide the Young Men's Christian association with a building. Stephen M. Edgell, Carlos S. Greeley and John R. Lionberger headed a subscription which reached $40,000. The Union Methodist church was bought for $37,500. In 1885 the association occupied the former residence of John D. Perry on Pine and Twenty-ninth streets and built a gymnasium. In 1892 the property on Eleventh and Locust was sold for $125,000. A lot on Grand and Franklin avenues was bought for $51,250 in 1894. On this a building which cost $200,000 was erected. The business management of the association has been excelled only by its Christian influence. In a third of a century the St. Louis Young Men's Christian association had two general secretaries-Walter C. Doug- las and George T. Coxhead. The latter held the position twenty-five years. For many years the association had one presiding head-Thomas S. McPheeters. It added branch after branch to the central until the whole city was its field of operation. In the northern and southern parts of the city the branches occupy their own buildings and grounds. The railroad branch occupies a model Y. M. C. A. building erected at a cost of $80,000, to which Miss Helen Gould was the chief contributor. This branch was dedicated in October, 1907, with Miss Gould in attendance. Queen Victoria knighted the man who first thought of the Y. M. C. A. and put his thought into action. The honor roll of most useful citizens con- tains the names of the men who have made the St. Louis Young Men's Christian association.
The St. Louis Provident Association.
In sixty years the St. Louis Provident Association has expended for the relief of the poor of St. Louis $1,750,000, has investigated 200,000 cases. About 1860 the most charitable man in St. Louis, by common consent, was James E. Yeatman. He lived on Olive street in what was called Yeatman's row. The poor, Mr. Yeat- man had always with him. One very bad night he was called to the door and was told a tale of distress by a woman who represented that her child was desper- ately ill and that she had no means to buy food or medicine. Mr. Yeatman took the address, gave some temporary help and went back to his fire. He couldn't rest. He got his overcoat and started out. Around the corner at Tenth and Locust streets lived Dr. Pope, the eminent surgeon. He was just leaving the house to take his buggy for a visit to a patient. Mr. Yeatman insisted that Dr. Pope
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go with him to see the sick child. The doctor demurred and then yielded. The two good Samaritans made their way to an alley above Franklin avenue and found the house. But the supposed abode of distress was lighted and a sound of revelry came through the cracks of door and window. Mr. Yeatman knocked. The door was opened. There stood the woman holding a child. Behind her surrounding a table upon which stood the beer bought with Mr. Yeatman's charity were three or four husky fellows.
"Where is that sick child?" asked Mr. Yeatman.
"Here she is," said the woman, indicating the one in her arms.
Dr. Pope looked at the little sleeper closely and said with some emphasis, "I prescribe soap and water. Good night."
The next day Mr. Yeatman invited a few business men to meet him. That was the genesis of the St. Louis Provident Association, which handles from $35,- 000 to $50,000 a year, helping the poor to help themselves and protecting charity from abuse.
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