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ST. MARY'S CHURCK_ _ �". __ -
PIONEER MEMBERS
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1Irms LITTLE BOOKLET OF TWENTY PAGES
�contains an" Historical Review of Saint
Mary's parish for the past fifty years or'
more. It was compiled by Very Rev. James
A. Burns, C. S. C., Ph. D., a child of Ste
Mary's parish and now president of Holy
Cross College, Washington, D. C., and was
delivered by Father Burns at the Memorial
Service held. in Sta Mary's church, during
the celebration of the golden jubilee of that
parish, Nov. 11, 19�7.
"Let us praise men of renown, and our fathers in
their generation. These were men of mercy, whose
Godly deeds have - not failed. Good things continue
with their seed, their posterity are a holy inheritance,
and their seed hath stood in the covenants. Their
children for their sakes remain forever; their seed and
their glory shall not be forsaken." - Ecclus., XLIV ..
1Ir HE SOLEMN SERVICE OF THE REQUIEM
\tI-I Mass which we hold this morning, my dear
brethren, is calculated to remind us of that
most consoling truth of our holy faith, tnat the dead,
although they may be taken from us, are not separated
from us forever, nor altogether; that they continue to
belong to the one true church, and, through their union,
with that Church, they remain united to us; and that,
just as every time the holy sacrifice of the mass is offered,
the Church recalls the memory of her departed ones, so
in the midst of this solemn jubilee celebration, it is fitting
that our thoughts and our charity should go out more
abundantly towards those of this congregation who have
"gone before us with the sign of faith and rest in the
sÎeep of peace. "
3
But if the first thought and purpose of this Requiem
service be, as it ought to be, to remind us of what we
may do by our prayers for the departed, another and not
less important purpose of it is, to remind us of what
those departed members, especially the early members
of the parish have done for us. Looking back fifty years
we can see great changes. The parish has grown, in
numbers and in influence it has been multiplied over and
over; but, if we look at the matter rightly, we shall see
that all that the parish is in numbers, material resources,
and inner spirit, and all the work that it is doing,
religious, educational and social, is but the growth and
development of that which was implanted and organized
here in the beginning. I t is the story of the mustard
seed over again-the tiny seed springing up in the earth
and growing greater and greater, until at length it
becomes a mighty tree, under which men may find rest
and in whose branches the birds build their nests. The
parable, as uttered by our Blessed Lord, was doubtless a
prophesy of the growth of the Church as a whole, but it
is not less applicable to the e]ements severally which go
to make up the Church, according to the law governing
the growth of organic - bodies, by virtue of which the
characteristics of the body as a whole are reproduced in a
general way in each and all of its parts. '
This memorial service for the deceased benefactors
and members of the congregation carries us back in
thought to the time of the foundation of this city, when
as yet there were only a few fishers' and traders' shanties
huddled together at the foot of Hoosier Slide, with a few
4
farm clearings in the country lying to. the east, The first
historic references we have to. the ministry of souls here
go. back to. the year 1835. Chicago. was then a little
struggling town; Green Bay and Mackanac were the only
other important white settlements on Lake Michigan; in
the interior, however, all .through Indiana, pioneer towns
were springing up, as a consequence of the stream of
immigra tion reaching the middle west. There were only
three priests in. the diocese of Vincennes, comprising all
Indiana and the eastern half of Illinois, The Catholic
bishops of America however, were quick to. realize the
possibilities of the future, and in the year 1834 Sirnon
Gabriel Brute had been appointed bishop of Vincennes.
This learned and saintly prelate, who. had been driven
from France many years before by the great revolution,
immediately set about visiting the scattered sheep of his
immense pastoral charge, and thus we find him, after a
horse-back ride of hundreds of miles, reaching Chicago,
and then skirting the edge of the lake until he arrived at
this place, where he tells us he found, even at that early
date, a few Catholic families, whom he visited and to.
whom he ministered. That was, as I said; early in 1835,
"and that is the first historic record we have to. Catholic
services or ministration in Michigan City. But we may
believe that even before Bishop Brute, these "few Cath­
olic fàmilies" were visited by Father Badin, the first
priest ordained in the United States, who. was stationed at
Fort St. J oseph, near N otre Dame, between 1830 and 1834,
and, who, from that place as a centre, traveled all
through Northern Indiana and Southern Michigan, minis-
5
tering to the scattered Catholics. It is more than likely
that Father Badin stopped here again and again. We
have reeords going to show that he must have passed
through here. We may safely add the name of Father
Baden, then, to that of the great Bishop Brute, and we
:may say that these two men were the pioneer shepherds
of this flock, the men who implanted here the tiny mustard
seed of faith, as they did in so many other places through­
out the Middle West, the men whose names it is fltting
for the people of this parish to recall first on this day, in
order to hand them down in grateful remembrance to
their children.
It is good to remember that there were Catholics
here-both priest and bishop here-long before there
were enough of Ca. rholies to form an organized parish,
that the Catholic church was here before this town had
been given its present name, and even before it had any
corporate existence. Bishop Brute speaks of finding "a
few Catholic families." Unfortunately, the names of
these families have not come down to us. But the
Catholics must have been few for many years. It was
hot until 1849 that the first real influx of Catholic
emigrants came. The Michigan. Central and the Lake
Shore railroads were being built at the time, and these
two great arteries of commerce and travel, attracting the
stream úf immigration t.hat naturally tended to spread
itself over the sea-board states, drew thousands of Cath­
olic emigrants to the farms and little settlements of the
Middle West. It was thus that, about the year 1849 we
find a considerable increase in the number of Catholics here,
6
and during the several years following, while the rail­
roads were being pushed on to Chicago, they continued to
come. These early Catholic settlers were all either Irish
or Germans. They were poor, and glad to get work of
any kind; and- the work that they engaged in here was of
the hardest and roughest kind, out on the railroad tracks
as section hands, or as day laborers and helpers in the
grimy railroad shops. N either they nor their wives had
any social standing or influence in the community,
although these terms did not mean quite as much in those
early days as they do now; but those men and women had
that which was better than riches and more ennobling
than any social standing, they had the spirit of the faith,
the faith of Catholic Ireland and Catholic Germany, and
poor and humble as they were, those Catholic emigrants,
they were carrying with them, although they little knew
it, the destinies of the Church Catholic and universal into
this great empire of the west.
The beginnings of organized parish life here really
date from this period, although a permanent pastor was
not appointed until some years later. Michigan City was
fortunate in its proximity to Notre Dame, where Father
Sorin and his devoted bands of brothers, priests and
sisters were engaged in the development of that ancient
centre of the faith. From the year 1847 on, we find in
the old parish books, the names of priests who came from
Notre Dame once a month or so to minister to the infant
parish. Fathers Shortis, Schilling, Granger, Cointet,
Rooney, Wallace, Force, Flynn, Kilroy, Meagher, Gillen
and even that of Father Sorin himself, who came occa-
7
sionally in his capacity as superior to inspect the parish
records and attest the faithfulness of his early missionary
companions in the discharge of their sacred duties.
The earliest Catholic settlers were mostly Irish, and
among these, as the faithful co-laborers of the band of
pioneer priests just mentioned, and as deserving to be
reverenced with them as the true founders and fathers of
this parish, I might name the following, together with
their devoted wives:
John Bluett, Patrick Burns,
Thomas Clark, Peter Donnelly,
Patrick Cassidy, Andrew Charlton,
Timothy Fogarty, Michael Fîtzpatrick,
Patrick Hoban, William Kenefick,
Patrick Murphy, Patrick Olvaney,
Daniel Campbell
We have still among us, thank God, some few who
belong to this noble band, and if I do not speak their
names, it is only out or regard for the character of this
sacred service and place. The pioneer church of the
parish dated from 1849. It was known as St. Ambrose
church, and it stood on the corner of Washington and
Second streets. It was a small wooden building, 20x30
feet, formerly used as a warehouse, and- was replaced by
a new and larger building, of wood' also, erected on the
same spot in 1854. The new building cost about $1000.
That seems a mere trifle now, but, as a sum to be raised,
it must have appeared something immense in those days.
A subscription of $5 to the new church from men who
were getting only from a dollar to a dollar and a half a
8
day, with newly erected or purchased homes to be paid
for, and growing families to feed and clothe meant a
great deal of personal sacrifice, and tradition tells us that
more than one of those devoted pioneers of the faith who
did not have a $5 or even a $1 to give, went again and
again, after his hard day's work of twelve hours, and
labored as long as there was light, at the work of laying
the foundations, or erecting the walls, or finishing the
interior of the new church building. I t was the same in
the case of the Germans. who built St. Mary's German
Catholic church, at the corner of Washington and Fourth
streets, in the year 1859. And here I might mention
along with their devoted wives as perhaps the earliest
German Catholic pioneers who are deceased:
Henry Berwanger, Charles Kintzele,
John Pahs', J oseph Piszareck,
John Seimetz, Joseph Wellnitz,
August Timm, Andrew Timm,
Martin Timm
The names that I have mentioned are not by any means.
exhaustive of the list. They are the names of the deceased
members which occur most often . in the oldest parish
record books, and they are the names of the men I have
heard spoken of most often in connection with the work
of founding and building up this parish in the early days.
It is right that these names should be mentioned here to­
day, not only because it is befitting the character of this
memorial service, but also as an honor to their children
and their children's children, and in order that the names
9
of these men and women and the memory of their services
to the church may be handed down to future generations.
I have said that St. Mary's parish, large and pros­
perous as it is today, is only a development of that little
parish of 50 years ago, founded by the zealous priests and
laymen mentioned. or referred to. The history of the
parish gives abundant evidence of this, but I shall content
myself' with calling your attention to a few broad facts
which are especially appropriate it seems to me, to this
occasion, and which show that the blessing of God rested
with a peculiar fullness upon the life and work of the
pioneer Catholics of this congregation.
One of these facts is, that a very large proportion,
perhaps the largest proportion of the membership of St.
Mary's parish consists today, and has always consisted of
the descendants and relatives of the pioneer members.
Another fact, which is strikingly significant of the spirit
of faith which was so strong in the early days, that of the
twenty-six souls from this parish who have devoted
themselves specially to the service of God, consisting of
five priests, five seminarians, and sixteen sisters, the
larger number have also been either direct descendants
or relatives of the pioneer families. Again, the two
oldest societies in the parish, the Married Ladies' Rosary
Society, organized in 1856, and the St. 'Joseph'e Aid
Society, established in 1862. which are both still in
existence, strong and flourishing, have been, I might say,
the parent societies of all the religious organizations in
the parish. A glance at the membership of the numerous
10
societies of today will show that the greater proportion
of those who belong to them, and especially of those who
have been most active and influential in them, are con-­
nected in some way with the devoted men and women
who constituted the early membership of the two pioneer
religious societies.
One of the most striking evidences of this continuity
of parish life is to be found in the field of education. St.
Mary's parish is justly proud of her system of schools.
with the fine modernly equipped school building, offering
opportunity for both primary and secondary education,
paralleling the splendid city school system, and all
supported by the voluntary contributions of the people
of the parish, without either endowments or outside aid of
any kind. I know that the present pastor deserves more
credit than anyone else for this. He has labored through
long years, in season and out of season, to build up and to
broaden the schools, and it is saying little in recognition
of his splendid work, to say that no priest in the diocese
has labored harder or more successfully than he for the
advancement of Catholic parish education. This school
building will stand as a monument to his zeal, aud these
hundreds of school children who now tax the capacity of
the class rooms, will live to testify to the wisdom of his
zeal, as, well as to the devotion and self sacrifice of these
good Sisters of Notre Dame, _ and the sound, thorough,
and progressive character of their work in the school.
But it behooves us, on, an occasion such as this not to for­
get how much of _ the result here again flows to us from
11
the labors and sacrifices of priests, sisters and laymen of
the past; and that, if St. Mary's parish is able to boast
today of a fine school system, if we are able to say today
that both priests and people are united as never before in
support and defense of the Catholic school, the result is
due in very large. part to the fact that the generations of
today have themselves been trained in a Catholic school,
that Catholic schools have existed in this parish from the
very beginning, and that, if there is anyone thing which
stands out clearly and consistently all through the history
of the parish, it is that principle which those pioneer
Irish and German Catholics brought with them from
their Catholic fatherlands and embedded, so to speak, in
the very foundation of this parish, the principle of a
Catholic school and Catholic education from start to
finish for every Catholic child. It was the great Arch­
bishop Hughes who, about the time this parish was
forming, gave utterance to the opinion that "the time
has come when we must build Catholic schools, even
before we build Catholic churches.' , That was, in fact,
the principle the pioneer Catholics of Michigan City
acted upon, for we find that as early as 1856, one year
before a permanent pastor was appointed, a little school
was opened alongside. St. Ambrose church, at Washing­
ton and Second streets, and two sisters of the Holy Cross
came' from St. Mary's, Notre Dame, to take charge of
it. It did not require much to start a school in those
,days, once the teachers were go tten, The school
appears to have been taught at first in the sisters'
12
house, two little rooms heing set apart for the
purpose, and about the only item of expense I can
mention which the old parish book records in con­
nectton with the opening of the school was $2 for the
making of two teachers' rude desks. Later on, when
this present church was built, the old St. Mary's
Church building, at the corner of Washington and
Fourth streets, was con verted into a school, and this
continued to be the parish school, until the erection
of the new building here near this church under the
present pastor. 'I'here are many present here this
morning who remember well the old St. Mary's school;
the two great rooms into which it was divided by a
rude partition, the few long rough benches and desks,
with the teacher's desk in the middle and towards the
wall, the long, home-made black-boards stretching
along the walls, such was the place where hundreds
of the boys and girls of this parish received the only
education they ever had an opportunity of getting.
There are many here this morning also who will
recall St. Ambrose Academy, standing on what was
then a beautiful grassy slope to the west of the old
St. Mary's school, and opened about the same time.
Intended to furnish an education superior to that of
the primary grades, with a fine faculty of teachers
and equipped after the fashion of the best academies
of the time, St. Ambrose Academy was doubtless, for
the Michiga.n City of those days, an institution that
was far ahead of its time. Every vestige of the great
13
builrling and every trace of the hill upon which it
stood, has long since disappeared, but the memory of
the institution, and of the financial burden and loss
which it entailed upon those good sisters is a witness
I wish to invoke, to testify to the educational zeal of
the Sisters of the Holy Cross and of the people and
pastors of this parish in former times, as well as to
the loftiness of the educational purpose they cherished,
and that was cherished in this parish from the begin­
ning.
When we come to consider the life and work of
the priests of the parish, we meet this same feature of
continuity and development. From the time of the
appointment of the first permanent pastor, in 1857,
up to the present, St. Mary's parish has had five
pastors. 'I'he fathers of Notre Dame continued to
have charge for the first few years after the parish
was organized, Father Paul Gillen being succeeded by
the Rev. Dr. Kilroy, farn ous as the first grad ua te of
the University of Notre Dame. Then, in 1860, came
the Rev. George Steiner, a young secular priest just
ordained by Bishop Luers, full of zeal and instinct,
with the spirit of kindness and geniality that won for
him at once the hearts of all, and has caused his name
to be handed down in the unwritten records of the
parish as that of a true priest of God, a faithful
shepherd of his flock, deserving of a place beside the
saintly missionaries who had preceded him; as one of
the true founders of this parish. Father Steíner, in
14
fact, m aybe said to have been the last .of the pioneer
priests, as well as the first of the pastors of what
might be called the modern period in t.heb lst.or-y of
the parish. A German hy nationality, he was heloved
by Irish and Germans alike, and by non-Catholics as
well as Catholics. Under his pastorate. the two
llt.tle congregations were united, and a way was thus
paved for an escape from financial burdens which had
resulted from this scattering of forces, as well as for
the rapid and substantial progress that was soon to
result from their union. But Father Steiner was not
able to remain and reap where he had sown; the
labors and anxieties of these first four years under­
minded his constitution; many, even of those who
were but children at the timé, remember how he
came here, as a last token of his fatherly affection for
his parish, when he was starting out with Father
Becks on that journey to the far southwest from
which he was never to return.
It is fitting that we should' recall also this
morning the name of Father Julius Becks, who suc­
ceeded Father Steiner in 1864. It was Father Beè'ks,
who, continuing the work of union and expansion
inaugurated by his predecessor, purchased the two
blocks of church property here and built this church,
and it was by his hand that most of those who are
now grown up members of the congregation were
baptized. There are probably few things more diffi­
cult in this world than to manage successfully a
15
parish of mixed nationalities, and no one who at­
tempts the task can hope to please everybody, or
wholly to escape censure and trouble. Father Becks
was a faithful pastor of the congregation for twenty­
one years, and during nearly the whole of t.hat time
he had to st.ruggte hard against financial difficulties
springing from the ·big debt incurred in the building'
of this church. He was a pastor of the old school,
authorative in appearance and manner, peremptory
in whatever related to the carrying out of his plans
and ideas, severe in dealing with the abuses of the
times, having the habit of preaching long sermons,
which he delivered. with all the forcefulness of voice
and gesture that he was able to demand. Their is
this tribute to be paid to the memory of Father
Becks, and I do not know that any better tribute,
after all, could be paid to the memory of any man and
that is, that those who knew him longest and most
intimateiy loved him most; there were few if any in
the parish who did not come to realize that under­
neath all that peremptortness of manner there was
always a genial, mirth-loving disposition, and a big,
kind, fatherly human heart.
There is one more name that must be mentioned
this morning, at this memorial service, another priest
of this parish, and he is, I am sure, present to your
minds, even before I speak his name. A child of
devoted Catholic parents who settled very early in
the parish, although not among the pioneers, distin-
16
guished by the piety of his youth, during the greater
part of which, as in the case of the youthful Samuel,
his life and duties centered about the sanctuary, there
was something priestly about Father Trahey, even
before he went to Notre Dame, at the age of 1.5, to
begin his studies. A learned priest at Notre Dame
w ho is regarded as a rare judge of character, said to
me not long ago, that no one ever came there as a
candidate for the holy priesthood, in all the years that
he was there, who was more richly endowed with nat­
ural and supernatural qualities befitting the holy priest­
hood than Father Trahey. While he was making
his theological studies, I lived in the same house with
him, and I can say that he was truly a model of all
that the seminarian ought ideally to be, regular and
exact in whatever regarded the rule of his religious
life, the current of his life outwardly ran on in an
even, monotonous way; but interiorly, it was easy to
recognize in him that profound attachment to spiritual
things, that abiding earnestness, that fervent zeal
and all-embracing purity of intention which betokened
a rare and saintly soul, a real man of God. Along
with holiness of life, there went a devotion to study
and a development of mental power that marked him
out as one who was, in the judgment of his professors,
destined to accomplish great things. You knew him
here as a priest, after he came back crowned with the
honors of the University, you saw him at the altar
saying mass, you heard his burning words in the
17
pulpit, like another St. Francis Xavier, moving all
hearts to the love of God by what he said and still
more by the manner in which he said it-by the
magnetic influence of that ardor of divine charity
which glowed within him, and which we read of as
ever the characteristic of the saints. He was truly
the "flower of the flock," a priest whose career,
though brief, was so filled with good works and so
informed by the spirit of God that .it can never be
forgotten, a child of St. Mary's Parish, the memory
of whose holy and zealous life will remain forevermore
as a tribute to the depth and fruitfulness of the spirit
of faith implanted here by the Catholic pioneers.
History is full of lessons, and the really wise are
those who have learned to reverence the past and to
read aright its lessons. The history of this parish
has its lessons for those of this generation, lessons
that have been wrought out for you, my brethren, in
the heroic labors of great priests like Brute and
Badin, Sorin and Cointet, Shortis and Gillen and
Steiner, who first sowed the seeds of faith here;
lessons that have been set for you in the solidly
christian lives and noble, self-sacrificing, unflinching
support of the church by the little band of devoted
men and women that gathered around the first mis­
sionary priests; lessons of devotion to the principle
of christian education, in the lives and labors of those
good sisters who labored through all those long
yeé.srs, without material reward or comfo:t, in the old
18
parochial schools and academy; lessons that impress
themselves upon us, and sometimes painfully in the
annals of the parish, as to the mutual love and esteem
that ought to animate pastor and people in their
relations to each other, if there is to be peace and
progress within and edification without; lessons of
highest virtue, that shine out for us in a life like that
of the lamented Father Trahey.
I t is good for Us, at a time like this, to pause and
listen to those lessons, to gather up the scattered
traditions, to record the names and labors of those who
have. helped to make the parish what it is, for the in­
formation and instruction of after generations. Fifty
years is a long time in the life of a man, but it is only
as a brief interval in the life of the Church of God.
St. Mary's Parish, with the celebration of its golden
jubilee may feel itself to be no longer young, and yet
it is doubtless in only the earlier period of its devel­
opment. In place of the 120 families, all told, that
gathered about Father Steiner in the early 60' s, there
are now in the two parishes, St. Mary's and St.
Stanislaus' not less than 800 families; and in place of
the old parochial school that we remember, with 100
children or so, there are now the two large and well
equipped parish! schools, counting over 700 pupils,
with 18 teachers It is altogether likely that the.
future will witness an even greater and more rapid
growth than these figures indicate, for these great
fertile states of the Mississippi valley seem destined to
19
form, in the Providence of God, the very heart of
this vast republic and to become the theatre of" its
"most wonderful development. May the future of St.
Mary's parish, this is the best wish that I can frame
for it, be worthy of that past we are endeavoring
fittingly to commemorate in this golden jubilee; may
its priests be priests who will be worthy to have their
names recorded with the names of the great priests of
its early history; may its people be worthy descend­
ants in spirit, if not in flesh and blood, of the pioneer
Catholics, men and .women, who went to form the
parish of half a century ago; and may the souls of
all whom we commemorate this morning, may the
souls of all the faithful departed of this parish, make
intercession with God, in return for our prayers, that
this parish may ever continue to be, as it has been in
the past, a fruitful portion of the harvest field of the
Great Master, may ever remain, in the words of Holy
Writ, "a holy inheritance," that it may stand in the
covenants," and that "good things may continued
with it," so that their children for their sakes may
remain forever, and their seed and their glory may
never be forsaken.
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