Encyclopedia of the history of Missouri, a compendium of history and biography for ready reference, Vol. I, Part 95

Author: Conard, Howard Louis, ed. 1n
Publication date: 1901
Publisher: New York, Louisville [etc.] The Southern history company, Haldeman, Conard & co., proprietors
Number of Pages: 856

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1843 engaged in the second comptroller's office in Washington. He died in the latter year. and his wife died four months later. Oi their twelve children, ouly three were born in the United States. A daughter, Mrs. Jane Banker Newkirk, has compiled the volume. "The Captives," containing the nar- rative of her father's lie from the memoirs of James Leander Catheart. One of the sons. Henry Nassau, was born in Cadiz, Spain, but reared in Washington City ; in youth he accompanied his brothers to Indiana, then a new country, and engaged in farming ; he lived for a time in Texas, then returned to Indiana, where he died. His wife. Nancy Eaton, was born in Virginia, of Irish par- ents in excellent position ; her father served in the War of 1812, and her grandfather in the Revolutionary War. Charles Philadel- phus, son of Henry and Nancy, was brought up on the home farm near Westville, Indi- ana, and was educated in the common school and the high school in that place; sickness compelled his withdrawal from the latter a fortnight before he would have graduated. He acquired his medical education under Dr. George M. Dakin, of Laporte. Indiana ; in the Eclectic Medical Institute, of Cincinnati, Ohio, of which the eminent Dr. Seudder was chief, from which he graduated in 1872; at Bellevue Hospital Medical College, New York, where he took private courses in physi- cal diagnosis from Professor Janeway, and in surgery from Professor Bryant, receiving diplomas from both those accomplished scientists ; and in the University Medical Col- lege, Kansas City, from which he graduated in 1884. Of all his professional training. he esteems as pre-eminently valuable the in- struction received in the Eclectic College, and from his tutors in New York. Mean- while, he practiced for a year in Piqua, Ohio, and for seven years in Westville, Indiana. In 1881 he engaged in general practice in Kansas City, which he continues to conduct with marked success, obstetrics forming a large share of his work. He is a member of the Jackson County Medical Society, of the Missouri State Medical Society, and of the American Medical Association; but four Kansas City practitioners antedate him in membership in the latter body, which he entered in 1884. In politics he is a Repub- lican : in 1897 he was the party candidate for coroner in Kansas City, but was defeated.

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He is a charter member of South Gate Lodge No. 547, Ancient Free and Accepted Masons, and a fourteenth degree member of the Scot- tish Rite Masons. For fourteen years past, although not now a member, he has been medical examiner for the Knights of Honor. In 1879 he was married to Miss Alicia Mor- rison, of Westville, Indiana, descended from a family which saw Revolutionary War ser- vice. He is a member of the Knife and Fork Club, of Kansas City. An active and useful professional life has worked no impairment of his social qualities, and he is popular in all his relations with his fellows.

Catholic Charities of Kansas City. It is a proclaimed purpose of the Roman Catholic Church to aid mankind physically and mentally, as well as spiritually. In Kan- sas City its charities were early begun, and have become numerous and broad in their scope. The principal of these are the Kansas City Boys' Orphan Home, the Home for the Aged, and St. Joseph's Orphan Asylum, which are noted in this work under their respective heads. The House of the Good Shepherd was founded by the Sisters of the Good Shepherd in 1888. The community first occupied rented premises ; subsequently, the trustees of Mount St. Mary's Cemetery con- veyed to the sisters a portion of their grounds, upon which substantial buildings were erected out of the donations of the peo- ple of Kansas City. The primal purpose is the reformation of outcast females, but the majority of the inmates are virtuous girls, taken from surroundings not conducive to right living. The fallen women, known as Penitents, number fifty ; these are employed in the laundry and at needlework, and their labor assists in the support of the house. If necessary, they are taught reading and writ- ing : a considerable percentage reform and find pleasant homes. The Preservation Class, numbering ninety, are girls of all ages, who are afforded a practical education. Eighteen sisters are in charge; they make monthly collections in the city, and hold an annual bazaar to make up any deficit. St. Anthony's Home, under the charge of Sisters of Char- ity, cares for infant children deprived of home and parents. It is of recent establishment, and its means for prosecuting its purpose are limited.

St. Vincent de Paul's Society, connected

with the Cathedral Parish, is an efficient aid in the work of charity. Its purpose is to assist the poor, and inspectors are employed to discover the deserving and expose impos- tors. A council of the same society is maintained in St. Patrick's Parish. The membership is restricted to the laity, from whose contributions are derived the charity fund, amounting annually to about $1,000 in each body. The society was organized about 1881 by Bishop Hogan.

The Catholic Ladies' Aid Society has for twelve years rendered liberal assistance to various charities, including the relief of widows and orphans, of infirm men and sick women, of poor children, of newsboys and of bootblacks.

Catholic Church .- In the history of the Louisianas, as, indeed, in the history of this entire continent, we find the Catholic missionary not only keeping pace with the commissioned explorer and military ad- venturer, but often in advance of them. The first Christian missionary who is known to have visited our shores was a Spanish priest named Cabrera de Vaca, who accompanied the expedition to Florida in 1523. In the expedition of De Soto, in 1539, several In- dians were found in possession of crucifixes and other religious objects. Just a century before the Laclede colony had migrated to Upper Louisiana, Father Jacques Marquette, S. J .. with his companions, sailed down the Mississippi, which he had discovered, in their birch-bark canoe. passing the site of St. Louis until they reached the mouth of the Arkansas River. The names given to rivers, valleys and towns indicate at once the faith and piety of the first settlers. The present Indian- named Mississippi was known to the early French as the "Immaculate Conception," or "St. Louis River," and to the Spanish as "Rio del Espiritu Sancto." The neighboring town of Cahokia was known as "Notre Dame des Kahokias." The town of Ste. Genevieve was named after the saintly patroness of Paris, and St. Louis in honor of that great saint and hero, King Louis IX, of France. The city owes its name and origin to French ad- venture and patriotism. While under French domination, Louisiana was under the spir- itual jurisdiction of the see of Quebec. When Laclede and his companions settled there. forming the "new village of St. Louis."

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there were but two priests in the vast dis- trict, the Recollect Father, Luke Collet, and the Jesuit Father, Sebastian Louis Meurin. In September of 1765 Father Collet died. leaving Father Meurin the only solitary priest to minister to the faithful of Ste. Genevieve, Kaskaskia, Fort Chartres, Cahokia, Prairie du Rocher and St. Louis. Writing to the bishop of Quebec. in 1766. this grand old Jesuit missionary says: "Ste. Genevieve is my residence. Thence I go every spring and visit the other villages. I return again in the autumn, and whenever I am summoned on sick calls. I am only sixty-one years okl, but I am exhausted, broken by twenty-five years of mission work in this country, and of these, nearly twenty years of malady and disease show me the gates of death. I am in- capable, therefore, of long application or bodily fatigue. I can not, accordingly, sup- ply the spiritual necessities of the country, where even the stoutest man could not en- dure. It would need four priests. If you can give me only one, he should be appointed to Cahokia, and with the powers of vicar general." Accordingly. in 1768, he was joined by Rev. Pierre Gibault, vicar general of the diocese of Quebec, who was assigned to Kas- kaskia. Father Gibault was not only a zeal- ous missionary, but a true patriot. Darcy McGee, speaking of Catholics and the Revo- lution, says: "We find Father Gibault, vicar general of the bishop of Quebec. blessing the arms of French volunteers in the American cause, administering the oath of allegiance to Congress in his own church, and enlisting the Christian Indians upon the same side." Great were the labors and trials of this untiring missionary, and we learn from a letter to his bishop: "To all the pains and hardships that I have undergone in my dif- ferent journeys to most distant points, winter and summer; attending villages in Illinois, distant from each other, in all weather, night and day, snow or rain, windstorm or fog on the Mississippi, so that I never sleep four nights in a year in my own bed. never hesitat- ing to start at a moment's notice, whether sick or well, and always ill fed." With the transfer of authority to the Spanish Governor in 1770 came a change in ecclesiastical juris- diction. The bishop of Havana now held jurisdiction over the new Province. Father Meurin was forced to change his residence to Cahokia, and to cease his administrations

in Spanish dominions. Father Gibault, how- ever, continued his visits to St. Louis and other missions on this side of the river. The infant village was not yet able to boast of a church edifice. The earliest record in the old Catholic register is dated 1700, and states that a tent was used for a church. Father Gibault, therefore, set to work to erect a modest structure of upright logs, which he dedicated on the 24th of June, 1770. In 1772 the Capuchins came from New Orleans to the country of the Illinois to labor in the mis- sions of Upper Louisiana. Father Valentine. a Capuchin, became the first resident priest of the village of St. Louis, where he re- mained until 1775. The last of the Capuchin fathers who administered the parish of St. Louis was Fra. Bernard, who was formally installed as "Cure of the parochial church of St. Louis, post of Paincourt," under the Gov- ernorship of Don Francisco Cruzat. His ministry of thirteen years was most fruitinl. From this center he organized the parishes of St. Charles, St. Ferdinand, and other neighboring points. The annalists agree in the statement that Fra. Bernard was a man of great zeal and apostolic courage, which he displayed during the stormy period of the Revolution. We find a Rev. Mr. F. Leden in charge of the parish of St. Louis from 1789 to 1793. The next incumbent was Dom. Pierre Joseph Didier, a monk of the Order of St. Benedict, who remained in charge until toward the close of 1799. After him came Father Pierre Janin, who held the pastorship from 1800 to 1804. At the time of the ce- sion of this territory to the United States there were but twenty-six priests in the Province: of these, twenty-two followed the standard of Spain. The consequence to the church was most deplorable. The Diocese of New Orleans, which had been organized in 1793. at this time included the whole of Louisiana. The bishop of New Orleans. therefore. appointed Rev. James Maxwell vicar general of the Province of Louisiana over the English and American settlers, as resident pastor there. He is represented as a man of much persuasive eloquence. Fath- ers Maxwell, of St. Louis, and Olivier, of Prairie du Rocher, were the only priests on the mission within this vast province. Father Olivier is described by Archbishop Spalding as "among the most pious, zealous and offi- cacious priests who labored in the Missis-

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sippi Valley." He was for many years vicar general of the bishop of Baltimore for all the missions extending over the present States of Indiana and Illinois. He died in 1841 at the Seminary of the Barrens, in Mis- souri, at the advanced age of ninety-five. Rev. Thomas Flynn appears the next parish priest of St. Louis. He remained there about two years, from 1806 to 1808, when he retired to Ste. Genevieve. There was no perma- nent priest in St. Louis until the advent of Father Savigne, in 1811, who continued to reside there up to 1817. This good priest en- deared himself very much to the inhabitants of the town. His patriotism must have been as ardent as his religious zeal, as we read that at the close of the War of 1812, when General Jackson obtained the victory over the English at New Orleans, the town of St. Louis was illuminated and a solemn mass and Te Deum were chanted in the Catholic Church, and a patriotic discourse was deliv- ered by Father Savigne.

In the meantime, mighty changes were ac- complished in the political world. By the treaty of St. Ildefonso, in ISoo, the Louisi- ana Province was ceded to the French Re- public. But scarcely had this decree been carried into effect when Napoleon Bonaparte entered into negotiations with President Jef- ferson for its cession to the United States. This was accomplished in 1803. The colony being almost entirely French, the people were much attached to the political tradi- tions of the old country, and hence was this announcement received at first with disfavor. It was the dawn of a new era to the inhab- itants of the Territory. The United States flag had replaced those of France and Spain, which they had so long held in veneration. Many of the old families were of the best patrician stock, "aristocratie seions of noble houses, who had come to better their for- tune in Louisiana." Ford, in his "History of Illinois." has this to say of the old French settlers : "They were the descendants of those French people who had first settled the coun- try who formed all that remained of the once proud empire which Louis XIV had intended to plant here. Notwithstanding this people had been so long separated by an immense wilderness from civilized society, they still re- tained all the suavity and politeness of their race." All historians speak of their beau- tiful and primitive simplicity of manners, a

warm and princely hospitality, punctuality and honesty in all dealings, politeness and courtesy, friendship and cordiality, gentle kindness and affection in the domestic rela- tions, reverence and respect to elders ; a re- ligious adherence to truth and justice to all, are the characteristics recorded of them by impartial American observers. Captain Stoddard pays an eloquent tribute to their religious character and urbanity of manners. The Frenchman treated the Indian justly and kindly, hence the most amicable rela- tions were preserved among them. The speech of the Shawnee Chief to General Har- rison corroborates this: "You call us your children ; why do you not make us happy as our fathers, the French, did? They never took from uis our lands ; indeed, they were in common between us. They planted where they pleased, and cut wood where they pleased. So did we. But now it a poor In- dian attempts to take a little bark from a tree to cover him from the rain, up comes a white man and threatens to shoot him, claiming the tree as his own." Lambing, in his "Historical Researches in Pennsylvania," holls that "of all the nations entering the New World, the French treated the abori- gines in the truest Christian spirit." The government, both under French and Spanish rule, was most paternal. The priest and the commandant were looked upon as spiritual and temporal fathers, and, though Catholic in every respect. no favoritism was shown Catholics as against Protestants, and the King gave orders that the people were not to be disturbed in the exercise of their re- ligion. (See Rader's "llistory of Missouri," p. 20.) Sometimes there were personal wrongs which demanded redress, but this never savored of aught that was sordid or covetous. The early days of St. Louis abound with instances presenting a social picture the simple beauty of which it is dif- cult to improve. In our days of social re- finement, when the wounds inflicted upon reputation are soothed and healed through the intervention of legal tribunals and by the liberal application of a golden salve, the case which is here cited will prove refresh- ing to the right-minded. On the 3d of De- cember, 1778. Mrs. Therese Charon, wife of John B. Petit, presented her petition to the Lieutenant Governor, in which she stated that one Baptiste Menard had grossly de-

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famed her character, in presence of Miss Delor and Mrs. Ladouceur. She asked that he be required to prove his assertions, and in default thereof that he be imprisoned until he made public reparation at the church door on a Sunday for her honor which he had tarnished. On that same day the Lieuten- ant Governor issued an order requiring Menard to prove what he had said against the complainant, or to make retraction, un- der such penalties as may be adjudged. On the following day Menard presented his an- swer, in which he said, inasmuch as the Lieu- tenant Governor gave him choice of punish- ment. he accepted that of public reparation, and he declared also that what he said of Mrs. Petit was said maliciously and wrong- fully, while under the influence of drink ; that she was a woman whose character was above reproach, and that he asked pardon of Gol. of the King, and of Mrs. Petit, beseeching her to forgive him, promising to respect her on all occasions, and praying the Lieutenant Governor to receive the declaration which he offered to make to the lady where it may be deemed proper. On the same day the Lieutenant Governor adjudged that his declaration was not sufficient unless made publicly. He ordered, moreover, that the de- fendant be led, on the Sunday following, to the church door of the parish, and after the termination of high mass, then that he should make the reparation offered in his answer and in the same terms. It was ordered, also. that he should be imprisoned fifteen days, likewise, by way of example, and should pay the cost of the proceeding against him. Furthermore, Jean Baptiste Lachapelle, a police officer, certified that on the 5th of De- cember. 1778, the above sentence was pub- lished, having been executed in his presence, and before the public of St. Louis .*

About the year 1800 Abbot Urban, of the Trappists, obtained from Bishop Carroll the pastoral care of the Catholics of upper Mis- sissippi. On their arrival at Florissant, John Mullanphy generously granted them his own residence, but after one year they selected for the site of their conventional establish- ment the great mound near Cahokia, since known as Monk's Mound. After three years

they retired to France. in 1813. Fra Marie Joseph Denaud, the prior of this wandering community, remained upon the missionary field. laboring with extraordinary zeal and ministering to the wants of the faithful in Missouri and Illinois, Bishop Flaget, of Bardstown. Kentucky, was the one recom- mended as the first bishop of St. Louis. In a letter written in 1815 to Mr. Gratiot, of St. Louis, Bishop Flaget expressed his pleasure over the contemplated transfer to that city. lle was the first bishop to visit that place. lle administered confirmation throughout the district in 1814. and did much to preserve religion in the neglected portion of the church. On the occasion of this visit the ladies of St. Louis presented him with a fine cross and mitre. He was invited by Gov- ernor Clark to his house. and requested to baptize three of his children, for whom the bishop stood godfather and Mrs. llum god- mother.

The Catholic Church in St. Louis, hitherto of slow growth, is now about to be singu- larly favored. After the formal transfer of Louisiana to the United States, this coun- try came under the spiritual jurisdiction of Archbishop Carroll, of the primatial see of Baltimore. The see of New Orleans was vacant since 1802. Much disorganization prevailed in consequence. The Rev. Louis Dubourg was named the third bishop of New Orleans, in 1812, but through the imprison- ment of Pius VII. the Bulls were delayed. Having been previously appointed adminis- trator of the diocese. he was urged to go at once to New Orleans and assume the duties of that office. He remained in that capacity for two years and a half, when he repaired to Rome, to lay before the Holy Father the sad condition of the church in Louisiana. He recommended to the Holy See a division of the diocese. Upper Louisiana to be a new see. with St. Louis as its center. The plan did not mature. Bishop Dubourg was con- secrated in Rome. September 28, 1815. but remained two years in Europe, engaged in raising funds and to procure missionaries for his diocese. Though consecrated bishop of New Orleans, Bishop Dubourg resolved to fix his residence in St. Louis. He accord- ingly wrote to his friend. Bishop Flaget. to prepare the way before him. Bishop Ilaget paid a second visit to St. Louis in October, 1817, to make the necessary preparations for

* Witnesses were sworn with uplifted hand, making the sign of the cross and promising in God's name and in that of the King to speak the truth. A superior officer was not required to swear. He simply placed his hand upon the huilt of his sword and declared the truth npon his honot cences ofa Missionary Priest," p 41.

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the reception of Bishop Dubourg. It was not a fruitless mission. Bishop Flaget was waited on by its most influential citizens, among others by Colonel Benton, the afterward fa- mous Senator from Missouri. Mr. Jeremiah Connor started a subscription list, giving the princely sum of one thousand dollars, which had a most beneficial effect on those who followed. Bishop Dubourg arrived from Europe on the 4th of September, 1817, land- ing at Annapolis. He was accompanied from Europe by five priests and twenty-six Levites, some of whom on their arrival were royally entertained by the immortal Charles Carroll, of Carrollton. The party set out on their journey by stage, arriving at St. Louis on the 5th of January, 1818. While in Europe, Bishop Dubourg appealed to the superior general of the Vincentians, or Laz- arist Fathers, for missionaries to labor in this portion of the diocese. Fathers An- dreis and Rosati, and others, arrived there in October, 1817. Bishop Dubourg took up his residence in St. Louis in 1818, and with this noble band of apostolic priests, he set to work to bring up the church in that place to a spirit of progress. He appointed the Very Rev. Felix de Andreis, C. M., pastor of the mission and vicar general of the dio- cese. Father Andreis having died after a brief period of two years, one of his saintly companions, the Rev. Joseph Rosati, suc- ceeded him in the pastoral charge. Rt. Rev. Bishop Dubourg commenced at once the ercetion of a fine Cathedral on the spot where stood the old log church. It was a brick edi- fice, forty feet by one hundred and thirty- five in depth. It was provided with several large bells, cast in France. He also erected the St. Louis College, a two-story brick building. The lot on which the church, col- lege and other buildings were erected em- braced a complete square, a part of which was used as a burial ground. Speaking of this first Cathedral building, Mr. Paxton, the editor of the first directory (1821) says: "It is a truly delightful sight to an American of taste to find in one of the remotest towns in the Union a church decorated with orig- inal paintings of Rubens, Raphael, Guido, Paul Veronese, and a number of others by the first modern masters of the Italian, French and Flemish schools. The ancient and precious gold embroideries which the St. Louis Cathedral possesses would certainly

decorate any museum in the world. The bishop possesses, besides, a very elegant and valuable library, containing about 8,000 vol- umes, and which is without doubt the most complete scientific and literary repertory of the Western country, if not of the Western world." Under the direction of this ener- getic bishop, the Vincentian Fathers opened an ecclesiastical seminary at the Barrens, in Perry County, in 1818, where divinity, philosophy and the oriental languages were taught. The Catholic Church owes to him the origin of the Sisters of Charity and the Ladies of the Sacred Heart in America, and the foundation of the Society for the Propa- gation of the Faith. Bishop Dubourg* is described as a man "at once endowed with the elegance and politeness of the courtier, the picty and zeal of the apostle, and the learning of a father of the church." The biographer of the saintly Father Andreis thus speaks of Bishop Dubourg: "It is just that we should acknowledge the source whence, after God, so much good was derived in be- half of the United States ; or, rather, that we should gratefully recognize the principal in- strument of which God vouchsafed to make use to renew the face of this land, so sterile at the beginning of the present century. The first instrument of the mercy of God was Rev. William Dubourg." "I must render glory to God," writes Father Andreis, "and bear witness to the truth. . . . I must confess that after God, the merit of all that has been, or will be done, is due to the rare talents, industry, experience, activity, ability, prudence, vigilance, patience, zeal- in a word, to the indefatigable perseverance of this extraordinary man, Bishop Dubourg. He preaches continually in both lan- guages, English and French. The numer- ous conversions that take place should be attributed to him. He is not only at the helm, but at the sails and oars; he is every- where ; he preaches, hears confessions, bap- tizes, marries, assists the sick, is general, captain, sergeant, and foot-soldier."

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Encyclopedia of the history of Missouri, a compendium of history and biography for ready reference, Vol. I, Part 95

Author: Conard, Howard Louis, ed. 1n Publication date: 1901 Publisher: New York, Louisville [etc.] The Southern history company, Haldeman, Conard & co., proprietors Number of Pages: 856

Author: Conard, Howard Louis, ed. 1n
Publication date: 1901
Publisher: New York, Louisville [etc.] The Southern history company, Haldeman, Conard & co., proprietors
Number of Pages: 856