History of Saint Louis City and County, from the earliest periods to the present day: including biographical sketches of representative men, Part 141

Author: Scharf, J. Thomas (John Thomas), 1843-1898
Publication date: 1883
Publisher: Philadelphia : L.H. Everts
Number of Pages: 1358

USA > Missouri > St Louis County > St Louis City > History of Saint Louis City and County, from the earliest periods to the present day: including biographical sketches of representative men > Part 141

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1639

RELIGIOUS DENOMINATIONS.

rule, was the Catholie. The slaves, both negroes and Indians, and the free Indians living in the town were also brought up in the Catholic Church. For some time after the settlement of Laeledc's party at St. Louis the parish or mission was supplied by priests from Vincennes, Cahokia, and Kaskaskia, through the instrumentality most probably of St. Ange, the French eominandant. Father Mcurin, priest of " Our Lady of the Kahokias," it is said, while offi- ciating at St. Louis, baptized three whites, twelve negroes, and five Indians. The first baptism by Father Mcurin oceurred in the early part of May, 1766. The record (in French) is partly obliterated, but in substance it reads as follows :

" In the year one thousand seven hundred and sixty-six, on the - undersigned, missionary priest in the county of the Illinois - St. Louis, in a tent, for want of a church, have baptized, under condition, Mary - day of the month of September, one thousand seven hundred and sixty-five of the law - John Baptist Deschamps and of Mary Pion, her father and mother. The godfather is Mr. Réné Tiercerot (Kier- cereaux), and the godmother Mary

" In faith whereof, I have signed with the godfather. " J. S. MEURIN, Priest."

The second child baptized by him was Antoine, son of Lisette, a Pawnee slave. This baptism was on the 9th of May, 1766. Owing to the non-residenee of the priest in St. Louis, there is no record of his hav- ing officiated at interments, which appcar to have been attended to by Réné Kiercereaux, the godfather of Mary Deschamps, a man of note in the community, whose name appcars frequently in the French and Spanish civil records. After the first church was built he was for a long time " chantre," or singer of the church, and to the subsequent interments recorded by him he signed his name as " Chantre de cette église" (" ehanter or singer of this ehurch"). From October, 1770, to the 17th of March, 1772, Kier- cereaux recorded the burial of nineteen whites, ten negroes, and five Indians. The next priest who vis- ited St. Louis was Father Pierre Gibault, previously of Vincennes, who styled himself " Priest-Curate of the Immaculate Conception of Our Lady of the Kas- kaskias, and Vicar-General of my Lord the Bishop of Quebec," who remained from June, 1770, to Jan- uary, 1772. From February, 1772, until May of the same year Father Meurin also occasionally visited St. Louis, and during that time baptized two whites and three negrocs.

Until 1770 the country was supposed to belong to France, and the clergy continued to aet under the di- reetion of the French Bishop of Quebec, but upon the arrival in that year of the Spanish Lieutenant- Governor, the ecclesiastical jurisdiction was trans-

ferred to the Spanish Bishop of Havana. The first priest who resided permanently at St. Louis seems to have been Father Valentin, a Capuchin friar, who in his official aets styled himself " priest of the parish of St. Louis and its dependencies." He remained from May, 1772, to June, 1775, and during that period baptized sixty-five whites, twenty-four negrocs, and eighteen Indians. He also solemnized four marriages of whites, and officiated at the interment of forty-two whites, eleven negroes, and ninetcen Indians. During Father Valentin's ineumbency the body of the eom- mandant, St. Ange, was buried, and the record, trans- lated into English, reads,-

"In the year 1774, 27th December, I, the undersigned, have interred in the cemetery of this parish the body of Hon. Louis de St. Ange, captain attached to the battalion of Louisiana, administered of the sacraments of the church.

" FR. VALENTIN."

From June, 1775, to May, 1776, there does not appear to have been any stationary priest, but the parish was occasionally visited. During two days, the 4th and 5th of October, 1775, Father Meurin again officiated, and baptized four whites. On the 19th of March, 1776, Father Hilaire, a priest of the order of Capuchin friars, and apostolic prothonotary, baptized six whites and solemnized one marriage. In the absence of a pricst, Réné Kireereaux, " singer of the church," recorded from July 7, 1775, to March 2, 1776, the burial of twenty-nine whites, five negroes, and two Indians. ' The certificate was subsequently attested and approved by Father Bernard de Lim- pach, who succeeded Father Valentin in the spring of 1776.

Father Bernard had been transferred from Cuba by Father Dagobert de Longwy, vicar-general of Louisiana. His appointment to the church at St. Louis reads as follows :

" Father Dagobert de Longwy, principal Capuchin priest and vicar-general of the mission of Louisiana, in the diocese of Havana de Cuba, to our very dear brother, the Reverend Father " Bernard, de dix par, a professed friar of that order, in the prov- ince of Liege, and apostolic missionary of this mission, greeting :

" Well and sufficiently knowing your good habits and capac- ity, desirous also to conform in all things to the commands of his very Christian Majesty, by his letters patent, regis- tered at the registry of the Superior Council of this colony to grant, in proper and due form, appointments as curate to our missionaries who merit it to those parishes and posts which the mission had formerly been decmed as entitled to, and to place them in legal possession, the patronage, emoluments, and all other arrangements being reserved to our position as the head until his Catholic Majesty should otherwise direct, we have therefore given and conferred, and by these presents do give and confer on you the curacy or parish church of St. Louis, of Illinois, post of Pain Court (short-bread), with all its rights and appendages, upon condition of actual personal resi- dence there, and not otherwise, until a change or revocation by

1640

HISTORY OF SAINT LOUIS.

us or our successors; requiring in consequence the services of the deputy of the king's attorney to see you placed in actual possession of said curacy of the parish of St. Louis, of Illinois, in accordance and with the usual solemnities.

"Granted at our parsonage, under the seals of office, the 18th of February, in the year of grace one thousand seven hundred and seventy-six.

" FRIAR DAGOBERT, Vicar-General. "NEW ORLEANS."

"I certify that this present document is an exact copy of the original appointment presented to us by the Reverend Father Bernard de Limpach, to be deposited for safe-keeping in the archives of this government office in St. Louis of the Illinois. " FRAN'CO CRUZAT. " May 19, 1776."

Father Bernard was placed in possession of the parsonage and formally installed on the same day, as the following translation of the Lieutenant-Governor's certificate shows :

"In the town of St. Louis, at nine o'clock of the morning of Sunday, the nineteenth day of the month of May, in the year one thousand seven hundred and seventy-six, before me, Don Francisco Cruzat, captain of infantry and Lieutenant-Governor of these settlements of the Illinois, and the most distinguished parishioners of the parish of said town, all assembled together in church, the Reverend Father Friar Bernardo de Limpach, Capuchin priest, in virtue of the dispatch which he has brought and delivered from the Most Reverend Father Dagobert de Longwy, Capuchin priest, Superior and Grand Vicar-General of the mission of this province of Louisiana, bearing date the eighteenth of February last passed, and the letter of direction which I, the said Lieutenant-Governor, have received from the Senor Don Luis ne Unzaga y Ameraga, brigadier of the royal armies and Governor-General of this province, bearing date the 28th of February of the current year, in which he commands me to recognize the above-named Father Friar Bernard de Limpach as the curate of the said town of St. Louis. After having performed all the ceremonies that are usual and pre- scribed by his said Superior, the Most Reverend Father Dago- bert, he has entered into and taken legal and formal possession of the cure of this parish of St. Louis of the Illinois; and I, the said Lieutenant-Governor, have caused him to be recognized publicly, as he is recognized by all the parishioners of said parish, and in order that the same may more fully appear and that no obstacle may at any time hereafter be interposed to the exercise of his ministry, there shall be deposited in the archives of this government under my charge the copy of this dispatch, together with this act, which the said Father Friar Bernardo de Limpach has signed with me, the said Lieutenant-Governor, and the most distinguished persons of this town, who by my com- mand were assembled for this purpose, the same day, month, and year above mentioned,-P. F. Bernard, Dubreuil, Perrault, Benito Basquez, Hubert, Sarpy, Laclede Liguest, A. Berard, Ene. Barre, Labuscière, Chauvin, Conde, Jh. Conand, Fran- cisco Cruzat."

Father Bernard officiated as priest from May, 1776, to November, 1789, during which time he baptized four hundred and ten whites, one hundred and six negroes, and ninety-two Indians; solemnized mar- riages of whites, one hundred and fifteen ; negroes, one; Indians, two; mixed white and Indian, one; and buried two hundred and twenty-two whites, sixty negroes, and forty-four Indians.

On the 17th of April, 1780, during the adminis- tration of Leyba, he blessed " the first stone of the fort on the hill back of the church, and it was named Fort St. Charles, in honor of Charles III., king of Spain." This was the stone martello fort which stood as late as 1820 at the southwest corner of Wal- nut and Fourth Streets, where the Southern Hotel now stands. The barracks for the Spanish troops was a long low stone building on the north side of Walnut Street and immediately opposite the location of the hotel. After the change of government from Spain to the United States, the old fort was for a long time used as a jail.

On the church register, under date of June 28, 1780, appears the record of the burial of Fernando de Leyba, Lieutenant-Governor. The English version reads,-

"In the year 1780, the 28th of June, I, priest, Capuchin mis- sionary, curate of St. Louis, country of the Illinois, province of Louisiana, bishopric of Cuba, have interred in this church, in front of the balustrade on the right, the body of Don Fer- dinand Leyba, captain of infantry in the battalion of Louisiana, actual commandant of this post, administered of all the sacra- ments of our mother the Holy Church. In faith whereof, I have signed the day and year as above.

"F. BERNARD, Mi88."

Father Bernard was much beloved by his congrega- tion, and traditions are still preserved of his piety and zeal. His successor was the missionary priest Ledru, who continued to officiate from November, 1789, to September, 1793, during which period he baptized one hundred and sixty-eight whites, fifty-five negroes, and nineteen Indians ; solemnized twenty-nine marri- ages of whites and two of Indians and whites, and officiated at the interment of seventy whites, thirty- five negroes, and three Indians.

On the 14th of March, 1792, he interred the bone of Pierre Gladu, whom he describes in the certificate of interment as " a Canadian, before then buried in the Little Prairie, killed by the Indians, ' l'année du coup' (in 1780), a good man and of known probity, according to public statement and report." 1

1 In Hon. Wilson Primm's address before the Missouri His- torical Society, delivered Sept. 7, 1867, to which the author is indebted for much valuable material concerning the early his- tory of Catholicism in St. Louis, the following paragraph oc- curs :

" In connection with this interment, it was said by the old in- habitants who lived at the time and knew the facts that shortly before a man named Duquette came from Canada, sought out the grave of Gladu in the Little Prairie, and caused the re- mains to be disinterred. He then caused them to be buried in the graveyard of the town with all the solemnities and cere- monies of the Catholic Church. There was a large procession from the Prairie to the cemetery, Duquette walking near the coffin, bareheaded, and with a lighted taper in his hand. After

1641

RELIGIOUS DENOMINATIONS.

Father Ledru was sueceeded by Pierre Joseph Di- dier, a priest of the religious order of the Benedie- tines, of the congregation of St. Maur. He officiated from December, 1793, to April, 1799, during which period he baptized two hundred and twenty whites, seventy-nine negroes, and sixteen Indians. He sol- emnized seventy-thrce marriages of whites and one marriage of white and Indian, and buried eighty-five whites, sixty-one negroes, and nine Indians.

From October, 1793, to Mareh, 1794, the inter- ments were made by Jaeques Clamorgan, who was aeting charge warden, and Réné Kiercereaux. These, which are exclusive of the interments at which Father Didier officiated, numbered seven whites, four ne- groes, and two Indians. During the latter part of Father Didier's connection with the parish it appears that he did not officiate regularly, for the register shows that Leander Lusson, pricst of " St. Charles of the Little Hills of the Missouri," and Jacques Max- well, priest of Ste. Genevieve, occasionally officiated at St. Louis from July, 1798, to May, 1799, during which period there were baptized eight whites, one negro, and there was solemnized one marriage of whites. Father Lusson appears to have become the regular priest, serving from May 23, 1799, to March 23, 1800, during which time he baptized twelve whites, eight negroes, and five Indians, and solemnizing five marriages of whites. He was succeeded by Father Pierre Janin, who officiated from April 6, 1800, to Nov. 12, 1804, during which time he baptized two hundred and twenty-five whites, one hundred and fif- teen negroes, and fifty-nine Indians ; solemnized the marriages of thirty-four whites, and two whites and Indians, and buried one hundred and thirty-eight whites, fifty-eight negroes, and nineteen Indians.

The large number of interments recorded during Father Janin's pastorate is accounted for by the fact that the smallpox made its first appearance in St. Louis on the 15th of May, 1801. From the fact that no record of baptisms appears from Nov. 12, 1804, to March 2, 1806, it is to be presumed that the parish had no pastor during that period. Interments, how- ever, were recorded by Jean Baptiste Trudeau. He was the sehoolmaster of the village, and locally noted as a stern disciplinarian, and succeeded Réné Kiercereaux as singer of the church. The interments recorded by him numbered forty-five whites, sixteen negroes, and twelve Indians. After November, 1806, the church

was supplied by priests from other parishes. From March 2, 1806, to the 29th of May of the same year Father Maxwell officiated, and on the 14th and 15th of September of the same year, Father Donatien Olivier, " missionary priest to the Illinois," officiated for baptisms only. Father Maxwell baptized forty-five whites, sixteen negroes, one Indian, and solemnized three marriages of whites. Father Olivier baptized eleven whites, five negroes, and one Indian.

The next registry of baptisms is dated. Nov. 9, 1806, and the entry is made in a new volume, on the first page of which is the following :

" This register, containing ninety-two pages, including this one, marked and numbered, is intended for the inscription of the baptisms of the parish of St. Louis, country of the Illinois, under the domination of the United States of America, and of the bishopric of Baltimore. In faith whereof, we, Amos Stod- dard, civil commandant of said place, have signed said register, the year and day 26th September, 1804.

" AMOS STODDARD, " Capt. and First C. Comdt. U. Louisiana."

Thomas Flynn, of the religious order of Capuehins, exercised the functions of parish priest from Nov. 9, 1806, to June 2, 1808, during which time he baptized eighty-eight whites, eleven negroes, and one Indian, solemnized eleven marriages of whites, and buried thirty whites and nine negroes. From the 2d of June, 1808, to May, 1813, no regular priest was stationed at St. Louis, but the parish was visited by the following clergymen :

Father Maxwell, from 5th to 8th of June, 1808, baptizing 23 whites and 9 negroes.

Father Urbain Guillet, a Trappist of the monastery of " Notre Dame de Bon Secours, near Kahokias, in the Territory of Illi- nois," from 20th July to 26th of August, 1808, baptizing 15 whites and 5 negroes.

Marie Joseph Dunand, priest and prior of the order of La Trappe, from 25th December, 1808, to January, 1809, baptizing 11 whites, 7 negroes, and 1 Indian.

Father Guillet again, from 24th to 31st December, 1809, the parish having been without a priest for nearly a ycar. He baptized 9 whites and 2 negroes.

Father Bernard, of whom mention has been made before, officiated from 6th February to 13th July, 1810, baptizing 49 whites and 9 negroes.

Father Maxwell again on the 30th of July, 1810, baptizing 3 whites and 1 negro.

Father Dunand again on the 5th August, 1810, baptizing 2 whites and 2 negroes.

Father Maxwell again, from 12th to 15th August, 1810, bap- tizing 12 whites and 1 negro.

Father Guillet again, from 2d November, 1810, to 28d June, 1811, baptizing 27 whites and 9 negroes.

Father Dunand again, from 30th July to 2d August, 1811, baptizing 6 whites.

Father Guillet again, from 9th August to 1st December, 1811, baptizing 15 whites, 8 negrocs, and 1 Indian.

Father Savigne, from 11th December, 1811, to 15th December, 1812, baptizing 76 whites and 19 negroes.

the reinterment lie caused to be placed at the head of the grave a large cross bearing the name of the deceased, and having ful- filled the last sad duties to the deceased he quit the country, leaving his connection with the deceased a mystery which the inhabitants never could solve."

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HISTORY OF SAINT LOUIS.

Father Dunand again on the 10th November, 1812, baptizing 2 whites.

Father Savigne again on the 11th February, 1813, baptizing 1 white.

Father Dunand again, and also Savigne, on the 14th March, 1813, each baptizing 1 white.

Father Dunand again on the 16th March, 1813, baptizing 2 negroes.

From the 18th of December, 1810, to the 12th of April, 1813, in the absence of officiating priests, Trudeau, as singer of the church, Jean Louis Marc, as sacristan, Samuel Solomon, Patrick Lee, and others, as church wardens, superintendcd and certified to the burial of the dead. The number of these interments was 165 whites, 61 negroes, and 11 Indians.

Father Savigne again appears to have exercised permanent functions as curate of St. Louis from the 12th of May, 1813, to Oct. 3, 1817, during which time he baptized 130 whites, 48 negroes, and 1 Indian ; solemnized the marriages of 90 whites and 2 negroes, and interred 135 whites, 40 negroes, and 3 In- dians.

It was during the ministry of Father Savigne that St. Louis was visited by Benoit Joseph Flaget, Bishop of Bardstown, Ky., who was received with great re- joicing by the Catholic population. During his stay he baptized the children of many of the leading families, among them Joseph Simpson, son of Dr. Robert Simpson. Father Savigne was the last priest of the Canadian mission sent to St. Louis by the Bishop of Quebec. He is described as having been " a man of fine presence, of amiable disposition, zeal- ous in the performance of his dutics, and especially kind to the poor and those in distress."

On the 5th of January, 1818, Louis Guillaume Valentin Dubourg, Bishop of Louisiana, accompanied by Bishop Flaget, of Kentucky, and a number of missionary priests, arrived at St. Louis, which was made the episcopal seat for the Territory of Missouri. Bishop Dubourg determined to remain in St. Louis until affairs had become settled in New Orleans, which was then in a disturbed condition. He continued to reside in St. Louis until 1824, and was actively as- sisted in the work of building this portion of his dio- cese by the priests who had accompanied him, Fathers De Andreis, Rosatti, Acqueroni, Ferrari, and Caretti, the first three of the Congregation of the Missions.

Louis Guillaume Dubourg was born at Cape Fran- çois, island of San Domingo, Fcb. 14, 1766, was educated in France, and studied theology at the Semi- nary of St. Sulpice. Subsequently he was placed in charge of a new Sulpitian institute at Issy, ncar Paris, but was driven from France by the revolution of 1792, and fled to Spain, whence he went to Balti- more, where he arrived in December, 1794. In the following year he became a priest of the Order of St. Sulpice, and in 1796 was made president of St. Mary's Ecclesiastical Seminary in Baltimore, which, in Janu-

ary, 1805, he raised to the rank of a university, hav- ing also previously establislied colleges in Havana and New Orleans, which were broken up by political dis- turbances. He established the Sisters of Charity in Baltimore in 1809, and in 1811 founded what is still the mother-house of the order for the United States at Emmitsburg, Md. In October, 1812, he was ap- pointed administrator apostolic of the Territory of Louisiana, and arrived in New Orleans towards the close of the year. In 1815 he went to Rome, and was there consecrated Bishop of Upper and Lower Louisiana, Sept. 24, 1815. On his return he brought with him five Lazarist priests (among whom were Fathers De Andreis and Rosatti) and twenty-six young men belonging to the same order. He arrived in the United States Sept. 14, 1817, and proceeded to St. Thomas' Seminary at Bardstown, Ky., where the priests remained until they had acquired pro- ficiency in the English language. He reached Ste. Genevieve Dec. 27, 1817, in company with Bishop Flaget, who had previously visited Ste. Genevieve and St. Louis for the purpose of determining which was the more eligible site for a seminary. It was finally decided that St. Louis should be made the seat of the episcopal residence, and on the 5th of January, 1818, the two bishops reached St. Louis. Bishop Dubourg at once established his episcopal residence in St. Louis, and continued to live there until 1824, on March 25tlı of which year hc consecrated Father Rosatti Coadjutor Bishop of St. Louis, after which he went to New Or- leans to reside. In 1815 he founded in America the Society for the Propagation of the Faith, and in 1818 established, under the charge of the Lazarist Fathers, St. Mary's College and Seminary at the Barrens, which in 1838 was transferred to Cape Girardeau, where it still flourishes. Before leaving Europe in 1817 he had applied to the Superior-General of the Order of the Sacred Heart, Madame Barat, for a colony of religious ladies to establish a house of the order at St. Louis. The request was complied with, and in August, 1818, the ladies of the order arrived in St. Louis. During Bishop Dubourg's administra- tion the Sisters of Loretto organized schools in Mis- souri, and in 1819 the College of St. Louis, attached to the Cathedral, was established. He was also active in establishing missionary schools among the Indians, and introduced Jesuits from Maryland into his dio- cese for that purpose. In June, 1826, Bishop Du- bourg left New Orleans for the See of Montauban, in France, and in February, 1833, was made Archbishop of Besançon. He died Oct. 10, 1833. It is said by his biographer that he was a San Domingan by birth, a Frenchman in education, an American in principle,

1643

RELIGIOUS DENOMINATIONS.

and a priest by vocation. Bishop Dubourg was a man of singular energy and untiring zeal, and con- tributed greatly to the growth of Catholicism in the West and Southwest.

At this time (1818) there were in the whole of Upper Louisiana only four priests and seven chapels and about eight thousand Catholics. The chapels were at Ste. Genevieve, Kaskaskia, St. Louis, Floris- sant, Prairie du Rocher, Cahokia, and New Madrid. During Bishop Dubourg's connection with the St. Louis Church, from 1818 to 1826, Fathers Pratte, De Neckcre, De Andreis, Cellini, Rosatti, Acqucroni, Ferrari, Saulnier, Niel, Dahmen, Tichitoli, Jean-Jean, and others officiated at the Cathedral. Of tliese, Father De Andreis was retained as vicar-general in St. Louis by Bishop Dubourg, and died in 1820, and Father Dc Neckcre became Bishop of New Orleans in 1829, succeeding Bishop Dubourg. He died in 1833 of yellow fever.

Joseph Rosatti was born at Sora, kingdom of Naples, Jan. 30, 1789, and entcred, at Rome, the novitiate of the " Congregation of the Priests of the Mission of St. Vincent de Paul," commonly known as the Lazarists. He was induced by Bishop Dubourg to come to America, whither he preceded the bishop, and arrived in Baltimore July 26, 1816. He then re- paircd to St. Joseph's College, at Bardstown, Ky., to perfect himself in the knowledge of English, and ar- rived in St. Louis Oct. 17, 1817. In the year fol- lowing he took charge of St. Mary's College, which had just been established by Bishop Dubourg at what was then known as " the Barrens," in Perry County, Mo. This region had originally been settled in 1797 by Catholics from Maryland and Kentucky, who gave it the name " Barrens," applied to the prairie land of Southwestern Kentucky, but which did not imply an absence of fertility in the soil in Perry County. Here the Lazarist Fathers with their own hands built themselves a rude homc, and founded St. Mary's College, which was transferred to Cape Girardeau in 1838, when the establishment in Perry County was made a preparatory seminary. In 1820, Father De Andreis died, and was succeeded as su- perior of the Lazarists by Father Rosatti, who had been his pupil in Rome. Father Rosatti was conse- crated Bishop of Tenegra in partibus, March 25, 1824, and made coadjutor to Bishop Dubourg, being left in charge of Upper Louisiana, with his residence in St. Louis, when Bishop Dubourg left for New Orleans. Bishop Rosatti transferred his residence to New Orleans in 1826, when Bishop Dubourg left for France, but returned to St. Louis in 1827 as Bishop of Upper Louisiana. Hc established in St.

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History of Saint Louis City and County, from the earliest periods to the present day: including biographical sketches of representative men, Part 141

Author: Scharf, J. Thomas (John Thomas), 1843-1898 Publication date: 1883 Publisher: Philadelphia : L.H. Everts Number of Pages: 1358

Author: Scharf, J. Thomas (John Thomas), 1843-1898
Publication date: 1883
Publisher: Philadelphia : L.H. Everts
Number of Pages: 1358