History of the Ohio falls cities and their counties : with illustrations and bibliographical sketches, Vol. I, Part 71

Author: Williams, L.A., & Co., Cleveland
Publication date: 1882
Publisher: Cleveland, Ohio : L. A. Williams & Co.
Number of Pages: 814

USA > Ohio > History of the Ohio falls cities and their counties : with illustrations and bibliographical sketches, Vol. I > Part 71

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Bishop Hubbard Hinde Kavanaugh, D.D., was born January 14, 1802, near Winchester, in Clark county, Kentucky. His father, Rev. William Kavanaugh, was of Irish descent. While a young minister in the Methodist church, the clergymen of that denomination were forbidden to marry. He observed this injunction for a time, but finally married Miss Hannah M. Hinde, whose father, Dr. Thomas Hinde, had been an officer in the British army. He now united with the Episcopal church, and was one of the first ministers of that denomination who ever preached in Louisville. His death occurred when his son was but a child. Bishop Kavanaugh's mother was born in Virginia in 1777. She was three times married, and was the mother of ten chil- dren. A woman of wonderful fortitude, hope, and patience, her influence, doubtless, more than any one influence besides, made her children what they were in after years. The subject of our sketch was educated, as was then customary, in the private schools available, and spent some time in learning the printing business. In 1817 he became a member of the Methodist church, and at once began to think of becoming a preacher of the gospel. His work began in a humble way. He was a leader of the black people, then of the whites ; was licensed to ex- hort in the country pulpits ; was admitted by the annual conference into its membership, and as- signed to the Little Sandy Circuit "on trial." Since that day, he has filled the most impor- tant charges in the State. In 1839 he became Superintendent of Public Instruction for his State, and was at the same time agent for the college at Augusta, under the auspices of the Methodist church. In 1854, at the General Conference held in Columbus, Georgia, he was

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elevated to the highest office within the gift of the church. For more than half a century, Bishop Kavanaugh has been a minister of the gospel, and half of that time has held the im- portant office of bishop. He still preaches at times, and with much of the fire of his earlier days. His endurance and unremitting persever- ance in times past have been almost marvellous, the sermons he has preached having reached nearly eight thousand, and in addition to these the duties faithfully discharged that are incident to the life of a pioneer preacher, pastor, and bishop would have reached a figure, had they been counted, almost too large to be believed. In his life he has always been pure, sympathetic, and consistent. Intellectually forcible, his eloquence has always commanded the multitude, and held in thrall the hearts of his people. He has been twice married, first to Mrs. Margaret Crittenden Green, and afterward to Mrs. Martha D. P. Lewis, daughter of Captain R. D. Richardson, of the United States army. He has no children now alive.

Rev. Charles Booth Parsons, D. D., a minister and actor, was born July 23, 1806, in Enfield, Connecticut. His father was a victim of yellow fever in New York City, dying away from his fam- ily, who were long ignorant of his fate. The son's early education was obtained in the schools of New England. At the age of fifteen he went to New York to support himself, his mother not being able to provide farther for him. He was so far successful as to find a position in a store where he was forced to work hard for low wages. Here he formed acquaintances whom he ac- companied to meetings of a society for amateur theatricals, and soon became an interested par- ticipant. On one occasion, when he had played the part of Sir Edward Mortimer in the "Iron Chest," some of the city papers compared him favorably with the elder Kean, whose playing of the same part was everywhere commended. The young man's fancies were at once turned to the fame and fortune that must certainly come from his devoting himself to the life of an actor, and he accordingly joined himself to a theatrical con- pany, and at Charleston, South Carolina, first made his appearance as an actor among actors. Being a singularly attractive man in face and person, and having the large sympathetic nature that begets the same feeling in others almost in-

voluntarily, he rose in his profession to rank among the most popular and able actors of the day. In his private life, too, he was singularly pure. His parts were in plays of a semi-tragic character, and he remained on the stage from the age of eighteen to thirty-three. In one of his professional tours, he met Miss Emily C. Oldham in Louisville, and on December 7, 1830, they were married. Soon after his marriage he abandoned his profession from conscientious con- victions, and began an entirely opposite career by reading the History of the Bible. He had long been known "behind the scenes" as the preacher, and this circumstance may have had its influence in his decided conduct. The day after he left the stage, he began family prayers in his house, and within four months joined the Meth- . odist Episcopal Church, and was licensed to preach the gospel in Louisville. During the first year he studied diligently, and at its close was a licensed local preacher. Following this time, he was for two years on a circuit ; was or- dained a deacon and stationed at Frankfort; was located in St. Louis, Missouri, and had the degree of Doctor of Divinity conferred upon him by a college in that State; and after hav- ing several other charges, in 1855 returned to St. Louis. He was at one time a presiding elder, and in the troubles resulting in the division of the Methodist Church North and South, he was appointed a peace commissioner. He remained with the Southern side till the breaking out ot the war, when he went over to the North. In the pulpit he was even more effective and more popular than he had been on the stage. He was invited to dedicate churches, aid or lead in revivals, marry the living, and bury the dead. He died at his home in Portland, a suburb of Louisville, December 8, 1871. He left six chil- dren, and his wife is still living. Three other children died in early life. Charles W. Parsons, M. D., Professor H. B. Parsons, A. M .. Frank Parsons, a lawyer, Mrs. Emily T. Brodie, and Mrs. Belle Lishy, are children of theirs residing in Louisville. The late brilliant young Congress- man, Hon. E. Y. Parsons, was their son.

Rev. Edward Waggener Sehon, D. D., son of Major John L. and Fannie W. Sehon, was born at Moorefield, Hardy county, Virginia, April 4, 1808. Major Sehon was first chancery clerk of the Western Judicial Division of the State of

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Virginia. When eighteen years old, the son graduated from the University of Ohio, at Ath- ens, and was designed by his parents for the law. At a Methodist eamp-meeting he became deeply interested in the subject of religion, and from that time on was strong in his convictions that preaching the gospel should be the work of his life. He was first, while in the University, given a class of fifteen members. In 1826 he was granted a license to exhort; afterwards he was licensed to preach, by the Quarterly Conference, was received on trial, in the traveling connection, and began as junior preacher on the Youngstown circuit, which was mostly in Ohio. Following this date, we hear of him on such important charges as those in St. Louis, Missouri; Co- lumbus and Cincinnati, Ohio; and also as agent of the African Colonization Society, agent for Augusta College, general agent of the Amer- ican Bible Society in the West. In 1841, in the General Conference in New York, he took sides with his native State, and adhered to the South- ern church. In 1846 he received the degree of D. D. from Randolph Macon College, Virginia, and the year following was transferred to the Louisville Conference and appointed to the Louisville District, and by the people's request was stationed at the Fourth Street church. In 1850 he became corresponding secretary of the Missionary Society of the Methodist Episcopal church South. For a number of years from 1854 he was a delegate to the General Conven- tion. In 1875 he was appointed to the Bowling Green District, hoping by travel and a life in the country to regain his health. But the heart and nervous difficulties only increased, till on June 1, 1876, he became partly paralyzed. He never spoke again, but was conscious to the time of his death, which occurred six days later. Dr. Sehon was one of the most popular ministers of his time. Educated, eloquent, of superb appearance, possessed of a warm heart and imbued with fer- vid piety, he accomplished a most excellent work. September 4, 1833, he was married to Miss Caroline A. Mclean, daughter of Hon. William McLean of Cincinnati, and niece of Hon. John McLean, Chief Justice of the United States Supreme Court. A pious and gifted wife, she was a true aid to him through all the long years of his busy life. Their only child now living is Sallie, the wife of Colonel M. H. Wright.

ROMAN CATHOLICISM.

The Diocese of Louisville was established in 1808, and now includes that part of the State lying west of Carroll, Owen, Franklin, Woodford, Jessamine, Garrard, Rock Castle, Laurel, and Whitley counties. Its first Bishop was the Right Rev. Benedict Joseph Flaget, D. D., already mentioned in the annals of Louisville, who was consecrated Bishop of Bardstown November 4, 1810. A coadjutor was afterwards given him, in the person of the Right Rev. John B. David, D. D., consecrated Bishop of Mauricastro and coadjutor to Bishop Flaget, August 15, 1819. Fifteen years afterwards, July 20, 1834, Right Rev. Guy Ignatius Chabrat, D. D., was conse- crated Bishop of Bolina and coadjutor to the Bishop of Bardstown. The Episcopal See hav- ing been removed to Louisville, the next coadju- tor (and Bishop of Langone) was to the Bishop of Louisville, and was the scholarly and able historian of Catholicism in Kentucky, the Right Rev. Martin John Spalding, D. D., consecrated September 10, 1848. The long term of Bishop Flaget having ended, Right Rev. Peter Joseph Lavialle, D. D., was consecrated Bishop of Louisville September 24, 1865. His term was very short, and he was succeeded May 24, 1868, by the present incumbent, Right Rev. William George McCloskey, D. D.

Near the close of 1876, in pursuance of a pon- tificial rescript authorizing the change, received from Rome early in the year, Bishop Flaget, first Catholic Bishop of Kentucky, whose initial visit was made here in 1792, and who was again here in 1811, on his way to the interior, to assume the duties of his bishopric, determined to remove the Episcopal See from Bardstown to Louisville. Five years before, when visiting the Pope, he had broached the subject of this removal; and, attached as he was to the former place, the cen- ter of his episcopal labors for thirty years, and now the seat of a number of flourishing Catholic institutions, the expediency of the transfer was by this time too evident to admit of longer delay. As his biographer, Bishop Spalding, puts it:

Louisville, which at first was comparatively an unimportant place, having but a mere handful of Catholics, and these mostly indifferent to the practice of their religion, had now become not only the largest city in the diocese, but also the seat of a large and fast increasing Catholic population. Its situation on the Ohio at the interruption of navigation, and central position in the length of the State stretching along that river ; above all, the prospect of its still more rapid

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growth, and the constant influx into it of Catholics from the interior of the diocese, but chiefly from abroad-it being in a word, the great center and emporium of the State- ren- dered it evidently the most suitable place for the Episcopal See.

The change was accordingly made, the inhab- itants of Louisville, says his biographer, being all favorably disposed towards the project, and the Protestants themselves uniting with the Cath- olics in welcoming him cordially to the city. The narrator continues:

Bishop Flaget was not disappointed in the expectations he had conceived of the benefits likely to accrue to religion from the step he had taken, after so much mature deliberation. While Catholicity in the interior was not materially affected by the change, it gave a new impulse to religion in Louisville. The inhabitants of the city, without distinction of creed, ex- hibited a commendable liberality in co-operating with him in every good work. They came forward generously to support every appeal made to them on behalf of Catholic charities; and the Catholic population also rapidly increased. On the death of the holy prelate, eight years later, the Catholic pop- ulation of the city was about one-fourth of that of the entire diocese.

About a year after his removal to Louisville, the heart of the Bishop was rejoiced by the arrival from France of a colony of religious ladies, belonging to that heroic institute whose object it is to reclaim to virtue the fallen and degraded of their own sex. These devoted Sisters of Charity of the Good Shepherd reached Louisville December 1, 1842, from the mother house of Angers. Much as he was gladdened by their arrival, his joy at first was not unmingled with regret, as he had not expected them so soon, and had as yet made no arrangements for their accommodation. But these heroic ladies had already made too many sacrifices in carrying out the painful but sublimely charitable object of their order, to be deterred by inconveniences comparatively so light. They were lodged for nine months in a house of the Bishop adjoin- ing the academy of Cedar Grove, Portland, where they ap- plied themselves to the study of English until their monastery in Louisville could be built and prepared for their reception. · The sisters entered their extensive new establish- ment, erected entirely at the Bishop's expense, on the 4th of September, 1843. Their institute was no sooner known than it was greatly admired by many among the Protestants, as well as by the Catholics. The number of penitents soon became as great as the house designed for their use could accommodate. Liberal presents were often made to the infant establishment; their marketing was often furnished gratuitously by Protest- ants; and the needlework, their chief reliance for a mainte- nance, flowed in on them so abundantly that the institution was soon able to support itself. A large and commodious chapel was afterwards erected, and during the last year [1851] a spacious building was put up for the separate class of relig- ious Magdalenes, to be composed of such penitents as might give indications of a desire to retire permanently from the dangers of the world and devote their lives to the religious exercises of the cloister.

Bishop Flaget also welcomed the Jesuits, who came in 1832 to take charge of the college of St. Mary, after the restoration of the society by Pius VII., and also, in 1848, took in hand St. Joseph's

College. They likewise conducted the Catholic free school for boys in Louisville, and soon erected a spacious college edifice upon a neigh- boring site.

The corner-stone of the new Cathedral at Louisville was laid August 15: 1849, but the venerable Bishop was too feeble to do more than overlook the scene from a balcony of his resi- dence. He died February 11, 1850, in his eighty-seventh year of age, and the fortieth of his episcopacy, much lamented by his people and the community.

The first Catholic church edifice erected in Louisville was about at the present corner of Eleventh and Main streets, upon a lot given to the society by one of the Tarascons, of Shipping- port. It was of a Gothic style of architecture. The Rev. Father Badin, priest of the parish, took charge of the erection and of the laying-off of a cemetery about it. A few human bones were thrown up by workmen in making excava- tions on the site as lately as 1876.

The Catholics, from very humble and feeble beginnings, have become a strong and numerous people in the city. Their churches are more numerous than those of any other denom- ination, and some of the church buildings are among the most imposing in the city. The congregations are those of the Cathedral of the Assumption, occupying the old Catholic site on Fifth street, between Green and Walnut; St. Louis Bertrand's, Sixth street, near Churchill ; St. Patrick's, Thirteenth and Market streets ; St. Augustine's, Broadway and Fourteenth ; Church of the Sacred Heart, Broadway and Seventeenth; St. John's, Clay and Walnut ; St. Michael's, Brook, near Jackson ; St. Cecilia's, Twenty-fifth street ; St. Bridget's, Baxter Avenue ; St. Co- lumba's, Washington and Buchanan ; St. Vin- cent of Paul, Milk and Shelby; St. Agnes, Preston Park; and the Church of Our Lady, Portland. The following are German churches: St. Martin's, Shelby, near Broadway ; St. Boni- face's, Green, near Jackson ; Church of the Im- maculate Conception, Eighth and Grayson ; St. Peter's, Sixteenth, near Kentucky; St. Joseph's, Washington and Adams ; St. Anthony's, Market and Twenty-third. Services are also attended in nearly or quite all the Catholic charitable in- stitutions and higher schools of the city.

The Catholic convents and similar retreats in

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Louisville are those of the Sisters of the Good Shepherd, on Eighth street; St. Agnes' convent, or House of the Sisters of the Good Shepherd, on Bank street, with 30 sisters and 4 pro- fessed novices ;* the Mother House of the Ursu- line Sisters, Chestnut and Shelby streets, with 106 sisters, 25 novices, and 5 postulants ; the House of the Sisters of Notre Dame, Green, near Jackson-6 sisters, 2 postulants; Mother House of the Sisters of Mercy, St. Catherine's convent, Second street-22 sisters, I novice ; House of the Sisters of St. Francis of Assisium, Market, near Twenty-third; and the House of the Little Sisters of the Poor, Tenth and Maga- zine. On Green street, near Jackson, is the Convent and House of Studies of the Franciscan Fathers, with 10 clerics and 3 lay brothers; on Fourth avenue the Institute of the Xavierian Brothers, with 17 members in community; and on the Newburg road are the Sacred Heart Retreat and Chapel of the Sacred Heart, Pas- sionist Fathers, with 7 priests and 4 lay brothers.

The chief of the Catholic schools of Louis- ville is the Preston Park Theological Seminary, of which Bishop McCloskey is President. On Fourth Avenue is St. Xavier's Institute of the Xavierian Brothers, with four instructors and 140 pupils. The Brothers have general charge of the parochial schools of the city, which will be mentioned presently. Others of the higher in- stitutions of learning are the Ursuline Academy, Chestnut street-16 boarders, 50 day scholars ; Mount St. Agnes Academy, conducted by the Sisters of Mercy, Barrett Avenue, Preston Park -four instructors, 70 pupils; Presentation Acad- emy, Sisters of Charity, next the Cathedral, Fifth street-five teachers, 70 pupils ; St. Cath- erine's Academy, Sisters of Mercy, Second street-30 pupils ; Academy of the Holy Rosary, Dominican Sisters, Ninth and Kentucky-nine sisters, 70 pupils ; and the Academy of the Sacred Heart, Ursuline Sisters, Shelbyville Road, near the city-five teachers, 8 boarders, 50 day pupils.

The Catholic parochial schools of Louisville are numerous and important. The Cathedral schools on Fifth street are taught by the Sisters of Mercy, and have about 400 pupils. St. Boni-

face's school for boys is taught by five Francis- can Brothers, and has 450 pupils; the girls' school by the Sisters of Notre Dame, and has 440. The Parish School of the Immaculate Conception is instructed by three Xavierian Brothers, with 106 pupils; the girls' school of the same by the Sisters of Loretto (three) with 130. St. Martin's for boys has two religious and two secular teachers, and 324 scholars; for girls, five Ursuline Sisters and 348 pupils. St. Pat- rick's schools have-for boys, three Xavierian Brothers and 264 pupils ; girls, four Sisters of Mercy and 225 pupils. St. Peter's, two Ursuline Sisters, 182 pupils. St. John's-for boys, two Xavierian Brothers, 116 scholars ; for girls, three Sisters of Charity, 114 pupils. St. Joseph's- boys, two lay teachers, 135 pupils; girls, two Ursuline Sisters, 118 pupils. St. Anthony's, one lay teacher and four Sisters of the Third Order of St. Francis, with 330 pupils. St. Augustine's, for colored children, two Sisters of Charity, 114 pupils. Our Lady's, three Sisters of Loretto, 130 pupils. St. Michael's, four Sisters of Char- ity, 175 pupils. St. Louis Bertrand's -- three Xavierian Brothers, 190 boys ; three Dominican Sisters, 190 girls. Sacred Heart, three Sisters of Mercy, 211 pupils. St. Cecilia's, three Sis- ters of Charity, 70 pupils. St. Bridget's, four Sisters of Loretto, 250 pupils. St. Columba's, two Sisters of Charity, 72 pupils. St. Vincent of Paul's, three Ursuline Sisters, 180 pupils. St. Agnes' Day School, Barrett Avenue, Sisters of Mercy. St. Stanislaus', for small boys, Sec- ond street, same order. Night school for young ladies, Convent of Mercy, same order. St. Xavier's Industrial School of the Sisters of the Good Shepherd.

We have been kindly furnished with the fol- lowing sketches of Catholic institutions in Louis- ville :

The church and convent of St. Louis Ber- trand were founded during the episcopacy of the Rt. Rev. Dr. Lavialle, former Bishop of Louis- ville. The ground extending from St. Catherine street towards Oak a distance of three hundred and seventy-nine feet, and running from Sixth to Seventh streets, three hundred and fifty feet, was purchased in December, 1865, and in the following June the erection of the old wooden church was commenced. It still stands on Seventh, at the head of Oldham streets. It was

*These and the following statistics were made up near the close of 1881, for Sadliers' Catholic Directory, from which we have them.

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completed in a few months, and was merely a temporary affair. The Convent, a fine substantial building 100x 50, and four stories, with mansard roof, and built of brick, was commenced in August, 1866. The new church, which has been in use since 1870, was soon after commenced. It is built of limestone, and its dimensions are 180 x82. Its towers are still unfinished, though a temporary one was added last year to contain the bell, five thousand pounds weight, presented by B. J. Scally, of this city. The church build- ing cost about $125,000, the convent about $65,000. The original founders were the Very Rev. W. D. O'Carroll, O. P., who died in 1880, Coadjutor Bishop of Trinedad, West Indies ; the Rev. D. J. Meagher, the Rev. Stephen Byrne, Rev. J. A. Sheridan, Rev. J. V. Darby, Rev. P. C. Coll, J. P. Turner, and J. R. Fallon, also of the Order of Preachers. These fathers, also known as the Dominican Fathers, from their founder, St. Dominic, who lived from 1170 to 1221, have conducted this church since its com- mencement. Many changes have taken place by death or removal to other establishments of the Dominicans in the United States. The first Prior and President of the St. Louis Bertrand Literary Society, under which title the association was in- corporated by act of the Legislature, March 4, 1869, was Rev. D. J. Meagher. He held the office for three years, the term prescribed by the by-laws. He was succeeded by Rev. J. P. Turner, Rev. J. R. Meagher, Rev. C. H. Mc- Kenna, and finally by Rev. M. A. McFeely, who now holds the office. The clergymen at present residing in the convent and attending to the church, are Very Rev. A. McFeely, Rev. D. J. Meagher, Rev. J. A. Sheridan, Rev. H. J. Mc- Manus, Rev. J. H. Leonard.

The Xavierian Brotherhood was established in Bruges, Belgium, in 1839, with a special view to the wants of the Catholic Church in America. Bishop Spalding, then Bishop of Louisville, see- ing the necessity of educating the young in the practice of their religion, was most anxious in procuring men for that noble work. Hearing of the new community established at Bruges, he entered into an agreement with these brothers, by which they promised to open schools in Louisville as soon as arrangements for their reception should be made. The first colony of these zealous men arrived in Louisville in 1854

and began to teach at St. Patrick's parochial school; the upper story was used for their resi- dence. As, however, that building was inade- quate for receiving young men, the Bishop as- signed to them a handsome house on Fourth avenue. There, in 1864, they opened a novi- tiate, to train the young candidates to become good and useful religious, as well as zealous and competent, teachers. In connection with the novitiate they also opened an academy. Chil- dren of every denomination came to their school, and soon the indefatigable zeal of the Brothers became everywhere known. The school, known as St. Xavier's Institute, opened with about one hundred and fifty pupils. They were divided into three classes, well graded. As, however, their thirst after the practical and useful could not be satisfactorily quenched, the directors and faculty concluded to establish a regular, practical business course, to increase the number of classes, and to have the school chartered. This was accordingly done in 1872, and the institution was empowered to confer all the honors and degrees usually conferred by such institutions on their students. Like the tree that, coming erst to view, is but a tiny blade, so the number of graduates in the first year was small-only one; the second year it was double the first; the third double that of the second; since then the average number is six, but the prospects are that in the near future it will still reach a higher number. Believing that a business education includes something more than a mere knowledge of book- keeping, and that a good education cannot be had in a few weeks, the course has been extended to four years. After a pupil has creditably passed the minim and preparatory departments he is allowed to begin the course. It consists of penmanship, higher arithmetic, algebra, geometry, trigonometry, mensuration, modern and ancient history, United States history, natural philosophy, rhetoric, grammar, bookkeeping, etc. A talented and studious young man may thus, in the course of four years, find himself not only in pos- session of a most valuable practical education, which will place him in the front rank of educa- ted business men, but with it all sciences and arts so highly necessary for those that claim to be educated. The above-mentioned novitiate was some years ago transferred to a beautiful country place near Baltimore.

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History of the Ohio falls cities and their counties : with illustrations and bibliographical sketches, Vol. I, Part 71

Author: Williams, L.A., & Co., Cleveland Publication date: 1882 Publisher: Cleveland, Ohio : L. A. Williams & Co. Number of Pages: 814

Author: Williams, L.A., & Co., Cleveland
Publication date: 1882
Publisher: Cleveland, Ohio : L. A. Williams & Co.
Number of Pages: 814