USA > Missouri > Jackson County > Kansas City > Kansas City, Missouri : its history and its people 1808-1908 > Part 30
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St. John's and St. Joseph's parishes were taken from the territory of St. Patrick's parish. Both were founded at the same time. Father James Phelan organized St. John's parish in February, 1882; the cornerstone of the church was laid Sunday, June 14, 1882. He purchased the pastoral residence in 1892. Father James Kennedy of St. Joseph's said mass in an empty hall on Eighteenth street until he completed the basement of the church at Nineteenth and Harrison streets. He purchased the location on which he erected the parish school. In connection with the school property, he bought a lot and house for the Sisters. Father Clohessy became pastor in 1889 or 1890. He completed the church, and erected a pastoral residence.
The Redemptorist Fathers came to Kansas City from New Orleans, Louisiana, in 1876, and purchased ten acres of ground in Westport. The following year they erected a church edifice and monastery at Thirty-third and Wyandotte streets, at a cost of $40,000. They soon opened a preparatory college for students, and in 1885 found it necessary to add to their build- ings. The preparatory department was removed to Kirkwood, Missouri, in 1890, and the college was devoted solely to use as the Theological Seminary of the Redemptorist Order. In addition to the college faculty and the parish priests, the monastery is the home of nearly a score of missioners who go out to various western states. From 1878 until April, 1895, the people of the parish attended the Redemptorist Church of Our Lady of Perpetual Help. A parish church under that name was opened for divine worship, April 2, 1895.
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St. Aloysius's parish was organized in January, 1886, by the Rev. Henry A. Schapman, S. J. A lot at Eleventh street and Prospect avenue was pur- chased and a church building was completed by the Rev. James A. Dowling, S. J. Until its completion services were held in the basement for some years. The church is conducted by the Jesuit Fathers. The church of the Holy Name was also founded in 1886. During the first year, Father Sher- idan, Devereux and O'Dwyer served in turn, and services were held in three different dwelling houses. A frame church building was crected at Twenty- third street and College avenue in 1887. The church is conducted by the Dominican Fathers.
In 1886, the Rev. William McCormack began the organization of a parish in the East bottoms, to which he gave the name of St. Francis the Seraph, or of Assissi. A church building was erected in 1887, and a school building in 1897. In 1891 the parish came under the care of the Franciscan Fathers. The congregation includes various nationalities. Sacred Heart parish was established in 1887 by the Rev. M. J. O'Dwyer. In order to lessen expense Father O'Dwyer utilized the earth removed in grading for brick-making, with which brick he built an academy and a residence. The Rev. R. M. Ryan was appointed to reorganize the parish in Westport in 1888, and he succeeded in renovating the old church building, which had been in disuse from 1874 to that. time. It is known as Our Lady of Good Counsel. St. Stephen's parish was formed in 1888 by the Rev. P. J. O'Donnell, then secretary of the diocese of Kansas City, and chaplain of St. Joseph's hospital.
Holy Trinity parish, under the care of the Rev. M. J. Gleason, was established in 1888. St. Vincent's parish was founded in 1888 by the Rev. P. M. O'Regan, and a church building was erected soon afterward. This building was abandoned and a new parish was established on the south side of the city. The church is under the care of the Lazarist Fathers. The church of Our Lady of Sorrows was founded in 1888, by the Rev. Aloysius Kurts and a building was completed in 1891. It is under the care of the Franciscan Order. A congregation of Arabians was formed by Father John, an Arabian priest, in 1890. For want of a church building services have been held in a room at Second street and Grand avenue. Services are con- ducted in the Syro-Chaldaic tongue. The Holy Rosary is an Italian church founded in 1895 by the Rev. Santo Paulo.
St. Teresa's academy for young women was opened August 4, 1866. It ranks high among the best academies for young women in the West. In 1899 it numbered 220 pupils. The Christian Brothers conduct an academy and primary school for boys, and use the school building attached to the
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Cathedral. There are thirteen parish schools in Kansas City, numbering about fifty teachers and upwards of 1,600 pupils.
The Roman Catholic diocese of Kansas City was created September 10, 1880, and comprises all that part of Missouri south of the Missouri river, and west of the eastern boundary lines of the counties of Moniteau, Miller, Camden, Laclede, Wright, Douglas and Ozark. The Right Rev. John Joseph Hogan, bishop of St. Joseph, Missouri, was transferred to the new see, and took up his episcopal residence in Kansas City. He continued to act as administrator of the St. Joseph diocese until 1893, when Bishop Burke of Cheyenne, was transferred to St. Joseph.
Soon after his transfer to Kansas City, Bishop Hogan built a new church of the Immaculate Conception, to be known as the Cathedral. Ground was broken October 1, 1881; the cornerstone was laid May 14, 1882, and in 1883 the edifice was completed. The building is one hundred and seventy by seventy feet in size, with a fifty-foot sanctuary, and a tower one hundred and sixty feet in height. The latter contains a beautiful chime of eleven bells, the gift of the late Mrs. Thomas Corrigan as a memorial to her dead husband. The cathedral was the scene of impressive religious observances, August 27, 1895, on the return of Bishop Hogan from a visit to Ireland, whither he had gone to restore his health. The golden jubilee of the coming of Father Donnelly to "Westport landing" was celebrated in the same year, and upon this occasion the chimes rang for the first time.
Oppressed by increasing duties and the growing infirmities of age, Bishop Hogan petitioned Rome for a coadjutor, and the Right Rev. John J. Glennon, since 1893 rector of the Cathedral parish and vicar general of the Kansas City diocese, was elevated to the position. Father Glennon was con- secrated bishop of Pinara, Asia Minor, June 29, 1896, by Archbishop Kain of St. Louis; his coadjutorship bears with it the right of succession in the episcopacy.
In the Kansas City diocese are fifty-five churches with resident priests; thirteen missions with churches; twenty-seven stations; nine chapels; forty- eight secular priests, and forty-two priests of religious orders ; fifteen ecclesiasti- cal students; nine academies for young women; parochial schools in forty- one parishes and missions; two asylums for orphans; one industrial and re- form school; five hospitals, and a home for the aged poor. The Catholic population of the diocese is about 45,000. The only Catholic journal in the diocese is the Catholic Register, founded in 1899.
The Rev. William J. Dalton, priest of the church of the Annunciation, has labored in Kansas City more than thirty years. Father Dalton was born in St. Louis in 1848. His early life was spent in that city and part of his education was received at the Christian Brothers' college. It was completed
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in Milwaukee and at Cape Girardeau. So high stood Father Dalton in his scholastic work that he won upon his completion of school life a scholarship in one of the famous universities of Europe. It was at the age of 21 years that Father Dalton was ordained priest. The ordination services were by special dispensation on account of Father Dalton's age and were conducted in the cathedral in St. Louis. Father Dalton was the first priest of the church of the Annunciation in St. Louis but left there to begin his labors in Kansas City in 1872. He erected during the first and second years of his pastorate here a temporary church on the corner of Wyoming and Fourteenth streets, at a cost of $3,000
In 1882, Father Dalton's labors were rewarded by the parish being able to erect a new church at a cost of $20,000. Notwithstanding the fact that Father Dalton's time was greatly occupied with his religious duties, he always has found time to aid in worthy public enterprises. Thirty years of Father Dalton's life here were spent in his old parish in the West bottoms for it was not until May 10, 1902, that the New Annunciation parish on the East side, was created, and Father Dalton placed in charge. June 29, 1902, on the thirti- eth anniversary of his arrival in Kansas City, Father Dalton said his first mass in his new parish, in a tent on the site of the new church.
The pioneer protestant church of the three towns, Independence, West- port and Kansas City, was the Methodist Episcopal church, South, cradled in Westport in 1836. From the city of Nashville, Tenn., came the leading spirit that moved the cradle, the Rev. James Porter, his wife and only child, Jesse L. The family brought a number of valuable horses, droves of cattle, hogs and twenty-five or thirty black servants. Over turnpike and prairie, through forests and fertile valleys, the cavalcade traveled several weary weeks, finally striking the trail along the Missouri river and going west along this trail until the evening of a lovely day in the spring of 1832, the Rev. Mr. Porter and his family reached the French settlement at the Kaw's mouth where they re- mained several days, while Mr. Porter rode through the adjoining forests in search of a location to build his home. He finally purchased a large tract of land lying southeast of the settlement.
On the southwest corner of what is now 27th and Tracy, Mr. Porter and his black servants began the construction of the future home. They went to the forests, felled the trees, hewed and dragged the logs to where the foundation had already been prepared from rock quarried on the spot. Oaken logs were used for the walls and walnut for the floors and window casings of the five room house; it required weeks of labor to build this home which was builded as solidly as any settler ever built a cabin. It was a story and a half structure with a kitchen eight or ten feet away, and servants' quarters nearby, each head of a family having a cabin. The old homestead, afterwards weather-
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boarded, still stands on the original site preserved by the immediate descend- ants of Mr. Porter
A class was formed by the Rev. Mr. Porter in 1836 or 1840. This little church class, as it was then called, held services for some time after its organ- ization in the home of Mr. Wm. M. Chick at Westport. In 1844, however, Mr. Chick moved from Westport to Kansas City and together with Mr. Porter, Mr. James Hickman and other settlers decided to build a school house which should serve both purposes, for school and church, until such time as a church building should become necessary. The Rev. James Porter's influence on the religious and moral life of Westport and Kansas City began with his residence here, and is shown today in the lives of the descendants of his con- gregation. From the beginning of the organization of the class at Col. Chick's, Mr. Porter continued his connection with the church and when Col. Chick moved to Kansas City, Mr. Porter with other neighbors and black servants went to the forests south of Kansas City and hewed and dragged to town a sufficient number of logs to build the school house at Missouri avenue and Walnut street. In 1845 the Rev. Mr. Porter began preaching in the log school house at Missouri avenue and Walnut street. In the forests near the school house, the weather being warm, in the summer of 1845 Mr. Porter organized an association of the Methodist Epicsopal Church South. In response to the invitation of the preacher, Mr. Porter, those who wished to join the church should take their seats on a log nearby, five persons responded. These five persons were Mrs. James Porter, his wife, James Hickman, Colonel Wm. M. Chick and his wife, Ann Eliza Chick, and a Mrs. Smith. The log school house was used as a place of worship until Dr. Johnston Lykins built a frame school house near the river at Third and Delaware streets, and this was occupied until 1852 when the brick church, the first protestant church in Kansas City, was completed on 5th street between Delaware and Wyandotte. This church was dedicated by Bishop Paine. The first patsor of the, now completed, Meth- odist Episcopal Church, South, was Rev. Wm. M. Leftwitch, the well known author of "Martyrdom in Missouri." In the fall of 1852, Nathan Scarritt was appointed to Kansas City and Westport and for many years was a con- spicuous figure in Kansas City Methodism. Later the church was used as a hospital for confederate prisoners wounded in the battle of Westport.
In 1856, the women of all denominations, led by Mrs. Millet, conceived the idea of giving a church fair on board a steamboat that was ice bound at the Kansas City Levee, the funds to be used for church improvements. Cap- tain Alexander Gilham in charge of the boat generously assisted the women in their enterprise. This was the first church fair held in Kansas City. Mrs. James M. Sexton, mother of Mrs. J. S. Chick, was appointed president of the fair, but owing to ill health resigned and was succeeded by Mrs. Dr. Johnston
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Lykins, a member of the Baptist church, to whose efforts much credit was acorded for the success of the fair.
The Methodists worshiped in the Fifth Street church until 1874, when they sold that property and erected a new church near the corner of Ninth and Walnut streets, known as the Walnut Street Methodist Church, South. The congregation moved into the lecture room of the Walnut Street church in 1875, but not until 1879 was the new and spacious church completed, free from debt, and dedicated by Bishop Wightman.
In 1880 being again forced to seek larger quarters a site was purchased at 9th street and Lydia avenue and a frame church was erected. The Rev. L. P. Norfleet served as pastor for one year and was succeeded by Dr C. C. Woods. In the winter of 1880 the church burned and a temporary frame building was built on Ninth street and Woodland, which was used until the church could be rebuilt. In 1882 Rev. J. W. Lawrance became pastor and under his ministry the church was rebuilt at 9th and Lydia and was dedicated in May, 1884. This being the centennial year of organized American Metho- dism, the church was called Centenary. The Rev. C. O. Jones became pastor in 1886 and was succeeded in 1888 by the Rev. J. C. Morris, formerly of Wal- nut Street church. In May, 1890, the general conference elected Dr. Morris assistant church extension secretary and Dr. J. E. Godbey served the rest of the year. In the fall of 1890, Dr. G. C. Rankin was appointed pastor and was followed by the Rev. W. T. McClure in 1892. The church was consolidated with the Walnut street church in 1893, under the name of the Central church, of which the Rev. C. M. Hawkins was pastor for four years. Dr. F. R. Hill who had been at Troost avenue for three years was appointed pastor of Central church in 1897. In 1898 the Rev. C. H. Briggs succeeded the Rev. W. T. McClure as presiding elder and S. H. Werlein who had served Troost avenue one year was appointed.
With the growth of the city and the largely increased membership, it was found necessary, in order to properly care for the new members through- out the numerous additions to the city, to erect houses of worship accessible to the homes of the growing membership. Out of this movement churches have been built in various parts of the city.
Central church purchased a lot at the northwest corner of Eleventh street and the paseo and built a church, one of the largest and best equipped in the city. It has a seating capacity of 2,500. The building was completed in January, 1908. The new church was built in the pastorate of the Rev. Paul H. Linn.
The Washington Street Methodist Episcopal Church, South, was estab- lished in 1880, on Washington street between Thirteenth and Fourteenth streets, Dr. Nathan Scarritt at its head. Judge Holmes and L. T. Moore each
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gave $1,000 in 1887-88 for the support of the Washington Street church. The church was abandoned in 1904. Campbell street church at the corner of Missouri avenue and Campbell street was organized in 1883. Dr. Nathan Scarritt was the first pastor in 1884. Brooklyn Avenue church, at Thirteenth street and Brooklyn avenue, was built in 1884. Under the pastorate of the Rev .. J. M. Boone, the property was sold and a new church was built at the south- west corner of Olive and Fourteenth street. The Rev. Zachariah M. Williams is the present pastor.
Melrose Methodist Episcopal Church, South, was organized in 1888 through the influence of Dr. Nathan Scarritt. Dr. Scarritt contributed $30,000 . to the church and in 1889 he served as pastor. In 1899 Mrs. Lucy A. Porter of- fered to give a lot with a frontage of 100 feet near Twenty-sixth street on Troost avenue, for the erection of a church to cost not less than $25,000. This was the Porter family cemetery. The bodies had been removed but it was the wish of Mrs. Porter that the ground should be used for sacred purposes. She and her children made a further gift of $8,000. Later a Sunday school was organized in a hall on Vine street and later still in a hall on McCoy avenue. When the Troost avenue Methodist church was established these organizations were merged with it. The church was completed and dedicated in the spring of 1893. The membership of the new church was organized chiefly from members of the Walnut street church.
The extension of the city limits added Westport church to the number in Kansas City. The society of Westport was organized before the one in Kan- sas City, but the first church was not built until several years after the erection of the Fifth Street church. In 1852-53 Dr. Nathan Scarritt served in West- port in connection with his Kansas City labors, and was again pastor in 1870 and 1875 . The Rev. T. M. Cobb was appointed in 1869, the Rev. G. W. Horn in 1871, the Rev. R. A. Halloway in 1873, the Rev. W. F. Camp in 1876 and the Rev. J. D. Wood in 1877. About that time Westport was the principal appointment in a circuit which included Belton in Cass county. The Rev. Joseph King was appointed pastor in 1878, the Rev. J. B. Ellis in 1881, the Rev. W. F. Wagoner in 1885 and the Rev. J. C. Given in 1886. In 1887 Westport again became a station, and the Rev. J. M. Clark was appointed pastor, succeeded in 1888 by the Rev. J. E. Carpenter, and he in 1899 by the Rev. H. C. Meredith. In the pastorate of the Rev. C. W. Moore, appointed in 1894, the beautiful stone church at the corner of Washington and Fortieth streets was built. The Institutional church, established by the Methodist Epis- copal church, South, is distinct among the other churches of the city. It. was founded in the interest of "preventive" work among the poor of the "North end" of Kansas City with special reference to children. The building was opened February 11, 1907. The Institutional church follows a system of
INSTITUTIONAL CHURCH
DAY NURSERY DINING ROOM OF INSTITUTIONAL CHURCH
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practical Christianity and administers to the mental and physical as well as the spiritual needs of its parishioners.
The Institutional church in Kansas City originated with the Rev. Charles W. Moore, a Methodist minister with broad education and broad sympathies. Dr. Moore studied both in America and Europe, and the experiment with the new kind of church was not tried until he had made a thorough study of the subject. His knowledge of the work at hand, his wide acquaintance in Kansas City and his persistent efforts enabled him to establish the Institutional church on a firm basis.
In answer to the cry of the "North end" district, a commodious building of gray stone and tile roof at the corner of Admiral boulevard and Holmes street was erected. The building contains 32 rooms with entrances on three streets. The building is two stories high on the Admiral boulevard front, and is four stories high above the basement on the Sixth street front; its value is estimated at from $65,000 to $75,000. A large play ground at the east of the building, surrounded by a stone wall, is furnished with swings, rings, turning bars, teeter-totters, merry-go-rounds, sand piles and tents. On the Admiral boulevard side, a porch 75 feet long extends across the front of the building. On this floor is the main auditorium with a seating capacity of 700 or 800. This room is provided with convenient arrangements for Sunday school purposes, having twelve rooms for separate classes. Other rooms on this floor are used for the Junior and Senior Epworth league, Home Mission society, the music school, the Sewing school and Girls' club. One floor contains a large club room, equipped with apparatus for games; a furnished parlor for the workers, a large bed room containing a number of snow white beds occu -- pied by little girls who are paroled in the Juvenile court in Kansas City and placed in the institution; four furnished rooms for the resident deaconesses; a medical closet used by the resident workers in caring for trivial ailments of the children in the day nursery. About thirty-five little children are left every week day by mothers who have no one to care for their babies while they are away from home at work. A large play room provided with little red chairs, plenty of toys and pretty pictures, is filled with prattling, playful children, who, in their happy surroundings, are quite forgetful of their moth- ers until the evening when the mothers begin to call for their children on their way home from work.
A large gymnasium two stories high, over seventy feet long, contains lockers and shower baths, for boys on the one side and girls on the other; and the balcony for visitors; parallel and horizontal bars, basket ball, Indian clubs, rings and other apparatus. In this room twelve clubs of boys and girls and young people meet in the week. Children thus are taken off the streets and are brought into contact with the leaders of the clubs and classes and
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taught how to play in a fair and generous spirit, at the same time imbibing principles of cleanliness, obedience and honesty.
The neglected children who are wards of the juvenile court find a home at the Institutional church. They are kept in the church only long enough to provide a home for them elsewhere, in place of the neglected or wrecked ones from which they come. About ninety children and young girls are taught in the cooking school, which is under the supervision of Miss Belle Stewart, the instructor of the domestic science department in the Manual Training High school. Cooking and the proper care of the dining-room and kitchen are taught. The Night school is attended by about 100 boys and girls, who are instructed by fourteen teachers. Children, as well as young men and women who work during the day and have no opportunity for study, are instructed in shorthand, typewriting, bookkeeping and English in the Night school. The Institutional church, co-operating with several other institutions in the city, helps to support a summer camp at Indian creek, near Kansas City, where boys and girls find a pleasant summer outing.
Two resident deaconesses, Mrs. W. G. Catlin and Miss Ethel Jackson, have headquarters at the Institutional church. The Institutional department of the church is under the direction of Miss Mabel K. Howell, a teacher of sociology in the Scarritt Bible and Training school, and is entirely non- sectarian. Dr. Moore's assistant in charge of the department of worship is the Rev. James C. Rawlings. There are services on Sunday and through the week, Sunday school and young people's meetings, visits to the sick and the poor, flowers distributed and cheer spread abroad from this department to the desolate homes in the "North end." The Institutional church is open seven days and seven nights in the week. The women's board of city missions, with Mrs. George P. Gross president, and the Methodist church association, with Charles W. Scarritt president, are responsible for a part of the funds for administration. This philanthropic work is largely supported by broad minded men and women of all faiths in Kansas City, all realizing the necessity of extending a hand from the better part of our city down into the less fortunate, to lift up into the light those who dwell in darkness.
The Scarritt Bible and Training school in Kansas City is under the direction of the Women's Board of Missions of the Methodist Episcopal church (South). It affords instruction to young women in the Bible, evi- dences of Christianity, church history, missions, missionary methods, nursing, physiology and medicine. The building occupies a splendid site on the Mis- souri river bluffs, overlooking Kansas City on the northeast. It has a court and contains a boarding department, dormitories, lecture rooms, a chapel, a dispensary and hospital wards. The school was opened September 14, 1892, with five teachers and five pupils in the school department.
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