USA > New York > Niagara County > History of the Seminary of Our Lady of Angels : Niagara University, Niagara County, N.Y., 1856-1906 > Part 1
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History of the Seminary of Our Lady of Angels Niagara University
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BRARY OF TH,
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J. Felici Depose
HIS HOLINESS, POPE PIUS X.
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HISTORY OF THE SEMINARY OF OUR LADY OF ANGELS
NIAGARA UNIVERSITY NIAGARA COUNTY, N. Y.
1856-1906
COMPILED BY THE PRESENT FACULTY
BUFFALO THE MATTHEWS-NORTHRUP WORKS 1906
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TO FORMER PROFESSORS AND TO THE ALUMNI OF "OLD NIAGARA" THIS GOLDEN JUBILEE VOLUME IS FONDLY DEDICATED BY THE PRESENT FACULTY 1906
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TABLE OF CONTENTS
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The Congregation of the Mission in the United States, 3 History of the College and Seminary (Introductory), 9
CHAPTER I
Establishment of a College on Lake Shore near Buffalo - Fathers Lynch, C. M., and Monaghan, C. M., the Sole Faculty - Visit to Niagara Falls - Purchase of the Vedder Farm, 100 Acres, Midway between Suspension Bridge and Lewiston - No Funds, Yet Another Purchase of 900 Acres from the De Veaux Estate - "The Folly of the Cross" - Father Mc- Guinness and the Miraculous Ten Thousand Dollars - Bishop Timon Gives Advice - Bishop Loughlin Solves a Difficulty, 13
CHAPTER II
Father Lynch Appointed Coadjutor of Toronto - Death of Father McGuin- ness - Incorporation of Seminary - Officers Elected - Some Well- known Names - N. Y. Legislature Petitioned to Grant a Charter to the Seminary - Text of Charter- Some Events of the Early '60's - Burn- ing of the Seminary, 17
CHAPTER III
Rebuilding of the Seminary - Present South Wing Opened for Studies - Distinguished Visitors Present -Corner Stone of Main Building Laid - New Trials-Generous Friends - Niagara's Aid to Poor Students- More Prosperous Times - The New Gymnasium, 23
CHAPTER IV
Silver Jubilee of the Seminary - Morning Exercises - Dignitaries Present - Afternoon Exercises - Alumni Association Formed - Alumni Gaudea- mus, 31
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CHAPTER V
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Our Silver Jubilee (continued) - Address of Archbishop Lynch - The Music - Letters of Regret - Father Alizeri's Latin Jubilee Poem, 49
CHAPTER VI
Change of Title - "Niagara University " - Text of Charter - School of Med- icine Established - Historical Sketch by Dr. Hubbell - Report of the "Buffalo Express " on the Eleventh Commencement of the Medical School 65
CHAPTER VII
Niagara University (continued) - School of Law Established -Notable Petition- ers-Our Attitude Towards Special Schools-"Buffalo Courier's" Report of Law School's First Commencement, 85
CHAPTER VIII
History of Alumni Chapel-Opened for Regular Service - Decorated and Solemnly Reopened - Ceremonies on that Occasion - List of Visitors - Destroyed by Fire - Rebuilt and Converted into Alumni Hall - New Accommodations for Our Societies, . 95
CHAPTER IX
Buffalo's Bishops - Right Rev. John Timon, C. M., D. D., First Bishop of Buffalo,
109
CHAPTER X
Right Rev. Stephen Vincent Ryan, C. M., D. D., Second Bishop of Buffalo - First Chancellor of Niagara University, 117
CHAPTER XI
Right Rev. James Edward Quigley, D. D., Third Bishop of Buffalo - Second Chancellor of Niagara University, 134
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CHAPTER XII
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Right Rev. Charles Henry Colton, D. D., Fourth Bishop of Buffalo - Third Chancellor of Niagara University, 144
CHAPTER XIII
Niagara's Presidents and Their Associates - Very Rev. John Joseph Lynch, C. M., First President - Rev. John Monaghan, C. M., and Other Asso- ciates, . 159
CHAPTER XIV
Very Rev. John O'Reilly, C. M., Second President of Niagara - His Associates, 166
CHAPTER XV
Very Rev. Thomas J. Smith, V. C. M., Third President of Niagara - His Asso- 169 ciates, .
CHAPTER XVI
Very Rev. Robert E. V. Rice, C. M., Fourth President of Niagara - His Associates,
177
CHAPTER XVII
Very Rev. Patrick V. Kavanagh, C. M., Fifth President of Niagara - His Associates,
199
CHAPTER XVIII
Father Kavanagh's Silver Jubilee- His Departure from Niagara - His Sick- ness, Death, and Burial,
223
CHAPTER XIX
Very Rev. Patrick S. McHale, C. M., Sixth President of Niagara - His Asso- . 244 ciates, .
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CHAPTER KX
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Very Rev. William F. Likly, C. M., Seventh President of Niagara - His Asso- ciates, .
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CHAPTER XXI
Alumni Bishops - Rt. Rev. James J. Hartley, D. D., 1889- Rt. Rev. Thomas F. Lillis, D. D., 1884, . . 983, 985
CHAPTER XXII
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Organizations,
989, 991
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PREFACE
T HE record of an institution such as ours, extending over a period of fifty years, must almost of necessity include ac- counts that are at times semi-traditional, obscure, and of little interest to the present generation. The proverbial " labor of love " has sustained the present Faculty of Niagara in their re- searches through incomplete records of the past half century. They have pieced together, after diligent inquiry from their predecessors yet living, those portions of Niagara's history which were found to be broken here and there, especially in the earlier days when the efforts of our pioneers to maintain our infant institution absorbed almost their entire attention.
. We believe that the record now offered to the Alumni and other friends of Niagara is substantially complete, and that its pub- lication, though not "a long-felt want," will meet with most cordial welcome from those for whom it is principally compiled. We feel assured that in sending forth a volume which tells of Niagara's early struggles, vicissitudes and later successes, we are giving to the educational world a convincing example of what Catholics have done for the past fifty years to advance the cause of religion and letters in this country.
With practically no material resources, with no encouragement - indeed with positive opposition, in earlier days at least, from influential quarters - the faculties of Catholic institutions such as ours have had to toil in " the sweat of the face " to maintain a foot- hold or to make substantial progress in the field of education. That Catholic institutions of learning are now so numerous, so well equipped, and so prominent in the cause of higher education is proof abundant of that pioneer spirit which animated our prede- cessors. Likewise it accentuates the sacrificing spirit of the Catho- lic laity who co-operated with them in times when the giving of finan- cial support meant more than mere generosity. Moreover, the pres-
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PREFACE
ent flourishing condition of most Catholic houses of learning, among which we are privileged to class our own beloved Niagara, argues that the Catholic teaching body of to-day has inherited the endur- ance, devotion, and hopeful spirit of its illustrious predecessors.
To-day, as in the beginning of higher Catholic education in this country, we find that our institutions can be erected, maintained, and made efficient for their purpose principally through the generosity of our own people. The latter, because of complex duties and distractions, are not always alive to the necessities of the average Catholic college, and it is only by constant appeal to them that Catholic educators are at all successful in gaining their practical support. Loving the Faith, most interested in its prop- agation, knowing full well that intellectual advancement without true moral training is impossible, or at least a detriment to society, Catholics are, nevertheless, too often supine in the selection of Catholic colleges when the education of their own children is in question.
We do not speak now for other college faculties working like ourselves in the great field of Catholic higher education, although we feel convinced that they are of a mind with us in the statement which we are about to make. We premise by saying that we are religiously grateful to those whose financial aid, given to us or to our predecessors, has tided Niagara over obstacles appar- ently insurmountable. It would be foolishness on our part to discourage such assistance in the future, because the circumstances which rendered the bestowal of burses or other financial aid so wel- come in the past will continue to confront us as long as we charge ourselves with the education of deserving but poor students. And should the next half century of Niagara's history find its compilers, as this half has done, one item at least will be found unchanged : Niagara's attitude towards the boy of hopeful promises but slender resource.
But we confess that one of our chief ambitions is to have our halls of study frequented by that class of Catholic youth who, though blessed with sufficient material comforts, are not yet solidly
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enough grounded in the principles of their Faith to entrust their education to sectarian or irreligious hands. We long to do our share in saving this class of students to the Church and to Christian society. Among such students vocations to the Priest- hood may be found as well as among poorer boys, and the develop- ment of such vocations is among the principal aims for which our institution was founded.
We would appeal, therefore, to our Alumni and to other friends of our institution to aid us in our work of Catholic education by directing to our halls of learning such desirable subjects as are under their control or influence. The class which we have specified is numerous enough, if only properly directed in its educational bias, to supply our halls and those of other institutions working in friendly competition with us for the furtherance of that cause to which the energies of Niagara have been consecrated for the past fifty years - the Catholic education of our Youth.
Respectfully and devotedly,
THE PRESIDENT AND FACULTY OF 1906.
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CONGREGATION OF THE MISSION IN THE UNITED STATES
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THE CONGREGATION OF THE MISSION IN THE UNITED STATES
T HE Congregation of the Mission, whose priests have con- ducted this institution since its beginning in 1856, was founded in France in 1625 by the great Saint Vincent De Paul. His prime object in organizing this community was to system- atize and perpetuate the work of evangelizing the poor country people who, unlike those of our day, were so often made the victims of neglect until ignorance, want, and too often vice, rendered them wellnigh irreclaimable. Spasmodic efforts had, indeed, been made by the government to better their condition, but Saint Vincent per- ceived that little if any good was accomplished among these unfortu- nates, through lack of organization.
Accordingly, he directed all his energies to the establishment of a spiritual family whose members would consider it their first duty to preach the gospel to the poor of the country parishes through- out the kingdom of France. In the course of time, as the numbers of his missionaries increased, his all-absorbing charity went out to the poor of other countries, until, before his death in 1860, he be- held his brethren of the Mission laboring in Italy, Ireland, Ger- many, Poland, Madagascar, China, and Japan.
That the fruit of the seed thus sown in tears and sweat and blood might be preserved to all time, he instituted a co-ordinate work, the education of the clergy, opening seminaries for that purpose in France and other parts of Europe. He was the first, or nearly the first, to give definite shape to this all-important movement of maintaining seminaries in compliance with the decrees of the Coun- cil of Trent, that aspirants to the priesthood might be trained properly for their responsible calling. Hence, while the giving of missions to the poor country people was cited by Saint Vin- cent as the primary duty of himself and his brethren, he neverthe- less laid such stress on the conducting of seminaries for the train- ing of ecclesiastics that he may be said to have regarded this latter work as of equal importance with the first.
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His zeal for the cultivation of such virtues as are peculiar to the clerical state was manifested, also, by the institution and mainte- nance of conferences, as they were called, for the benefit of the sec- ular clergy, who assembled at regular intervals at the Mother House
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of the Congregation in Paris to discuss matters relating to the in- struction and government of their people.
As a supplementary aid to these efforts in behalf of God's afflicted ones he gathered about him, besides the lay brothers of his community, a band of heroic women who became nurses to the sick, teachers to the ignorant, mothers to the orphaned. With the sac- rificing spirit of their founder they leave all things to follow Jesus Christ, serving Him in the school room, the foundling asylum, the hospital, the pest house, on the field of battle, and wherever there is a chance to lighten the misery of their neighbor and save im- mortal souls. Catholic society idolizes these women ; Protestant society respects them, and even the infidel, personified by the Turk, though cursing the name of Christian, bows reverently before the Sister of Charity, the daughter of Saint Vincent.
It was not until about the year 1815 that the Priests of the Mis- sion came to the United States to labor. Bishop Dubourg of New Orleans, shortly after his consecration that year, induced a number of Saint Vincent's sons to come from Rome to aid him in evangelizing his extensive diocese. Of those who arrived in this country on that occasion some went to the assistance of Bishop Flaget in Kentucky, the others proceeding to the diocese of Bishop Dubourg.
It was the intention of Bishop Flaget to establish the headquar- ters of the missionaries at Saint Genevieve, but as no great encour- agement seems to have been given to the proposition by the Cath- olics of that place, St. Louis was determined upon as a center for the newly-arrived colony of Vincentians. Here, too, it appears, the offers of the zealous Bishop failed to meet with that unanimous ac- ceptance which he had reason to expect. But while the question was still under debate a delegation of Catholics, representing thirty- five families living at the Barrens, Perry County, Mo., appeared upon the scene and offered 640 acres of land as an inducement to the Fathers to come into their midst and build a seminary. The offer was accepted, and to this fact we owe the establish- ment of " Saint Mary's of the Barrens," that grand old homestead of the Vincentians in the United States. From this central house the sons of Vincent radiated throughout the South and West, more than covering the "Louisiana Purchase " in their missionary travels.
Besides the establishment of a college and a seminary at the Barrens, similar institutions were, in the course of time, opened at
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Cape Girardeau, Mo .; Los Angeles, Cal .; and New Orleans, La. The faculties chosen to conduct the seminary of Saint Charles Borromeo in Philadelphia and one established at Lafargeville, N. Y., in 1838, the forerunner of Fordham College, were selected from the priests of the Mission.
The worth of these men as missionaries and educators of the clergy in times when such work meant hardships of the most trying nature, is best evinced by the regard in which they were held by the Holy See. Of the early pioneers who came from the Eternal City to preach the gospel in our Western land Fathers Neckere, Rosatti, and Odin were elevated to the Episcopate, the first as Bishop of New Orleans in 1830, the second as Coadjutor of New Orleans, and later as first Bishop of Saint Louis in 1824, the third as archbishop of New Orleans in 1838. Of their successors in the missionary and teaching field, Father Amat was made Bishop of Monterey, Cal., Father Lynch was elevated to the See of Toronto, Canada, afterwards becoming its first Archbishop; Father Domenec became Bishop of Pittsburg; Father Timon of Buffalo, and on the latter's death Father Ryan was appointed his successor.
In 1868, the headquarters of the Congregation of the Mission in the United States were transferred from the Barrens to German- town, Pa., only a small number of the community remaining at the former place, sufficient to attend to the wants of the parish and the cultivation of two extensive farms. In 1888, what is now known as the Western Province was created - a step made necessary be- cause of the increased number of establishments under the care of the Vincentians, and the wide extent of territory to be covered by a single Visitor, as the General Superior of a Province is called.
On the establishment of the Western Province the seminary at the Barrens again became the Mother House for that territory, the old homestead taking on new life through the energy of that " grand old man," Father Smith, who had accepted the government of the new division, and who, only a few months ago, after fifty- five years of service as a Vincentian, fell asleep in the Lord. He had been Visitor of the entire community in the United States, with official residence at Germantown, Pa., and upon his retirement from that post, Very Rev. James McGill was appointed by the Superior General, in Paris, France, to succeed him.
The establishments in the Western Province under the control of the Vincentians, or administered by them through Episcopal ar- rangement, are, besides the Mother House just mentioned, Saint
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Vincent's College, Cape Girardeau, Mo .; Saint Vincent's Church, Chicago; the Cathedral at Dallas, Texas; Saint Vincent's Church, Kansas City, Mo .; Saint Patrick's Church, LaSalle, Ill .; Saint Thomas' Villa, Long Beach, Miss .; Saint Vincent's College and Church, Los Angeles, Cal .; Saint Stephen's Church, Saint Joseph's Church, and a Diocesan Seminary in the city of New Orleans; Saint Vincent's Church and the Kenrick Seminary in St. Louis; the Church of Our Lady in Whittier, Cal. Missionary bands with head- quarters at most of the places mentioned are constantly in the field, giving missions, as did their predecessors in early times in the South and West. Number of priests employed in ministering to the above institutions, ninety-eight.
The Eastern Province, in which our beloved Niagara is in- cluded, is governed by Rev. James McGill, who, as stated above, succeeded Father Smith on the latter's appointment as Visitor of the newly-elected province in the West. The establishments under Father McGill's control are, besides our own institution, the Mother House in Germantown, Pa., with its seminary, apostolic school, and parish ; Saint Vincent's Church, also in Germantown ; Immaculate Conception Church, Baltimore, Md .; Saint John's Diocesan Sem- inary, College, and parish in Brooklyn; Saint Joseph's Church, Emmitsburg, Md .; Saint Vincent's Missionary Home, Springfield, Mass. Three missionary bands are maintained, one at Germantown, another at Springfield, and the third at Niagara.
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INTRODUCTORY
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IBRARY OF THE
* SEMINART, NEW YORK .
1
COPYRIGHT 1900
RIGHT REV. CHARLES H. COLTON, D. D. Bishop of Buffalo Chancellor of Niagara University
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HISTORY OF THE COLLEGE AND SEMINARY OF OUR LADY OF ANGELS (NIAGARA UNIVERSITY) NIAGARA COUNTY, N. Y.
T HE entire region surrounding the site on which the College and Seminary of Our Lady of Angels (now Niagara Uni- versity) is located is replete with historic, scientific, and poetic interest. The cataract, the river, the lakes, the adjacent country within a radius of thirty miles, are redolent of memories, some of them of national import, involving the fortunes of war, the results of extensive scientific explorations, or the triumphs of genius over nature. Some, again, are merely poetic, subjective, senti- mental, having to do more with the life of the individual than with society in the concrete. Yet are they all rich in material, affording the scientist, historian, relic hunter, and dreamer abundant scope for their respective themes, so that it is no wonder if the literature exploiting Niagara's greatness is found to be both copious and excellent.
The present compilers, however, have no ambitious intentions in dealing with localities in the neighborhood of our institution. Indeed, we feel obliged to pass by historic spots in our vicinity, ex- cept in so much as they have had bearing on the career of Niagara students since the foundation of their college home by the waters of our turbulent river. If the battleground of Queenston Heights, for instance, receives notice in these pages, it wins that distinction more because Brock's Monument is a student's landmark than because it notes the spot near which the British general of that name fell while leading his forces against the Americans in the War of 1812. Lundy's Lane may not go unmentioned, for through that historic pass many a footsore student trudged behind his Prefect in quest of exercise and Canadian relics. The "Devil's Hole " may get a chapter, not because it names the place where in 1763 the English were massacred by the Senecas, but because of student explorations conducted by that ever vigilant mentor, the Prefect, in the deep and tangled ravine.
And who would think for a moment that our memoirs could be complete without extended reference to Lewiston, a town which has
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OUR LADY OF ANGELS
figured in song, story, and varied experience, as far as Niagara boys are concerned? Lewiston, which a local writer once denomi- nated a "mausoleum of defunct energies," which another preferred to Irving's "Sleepy Hollow," but which an energetic alumnus of the '90's resurrected through a stone church and a zealous congre- gation, will be sure to claim our deepest attention - when we get to it. But as even the Falls, Suspension Bridge (now a misnomer, for a steel arch bridge has replaced it), Lewiston, or any sec- tion of the region about us, has enduring interest for us only because our " College Home " is to us at least the focus of these attractions, we had better begin by telling how our institution came to be situated on the highest point of Mont-Eagle Ridge.
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