CATHOLIC: CHURCH JN CHICAGO 1673 - 1871 CILBF.RT J. G.VKU \C,HAN, S. J. THE UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS LIBRARY Return this book on or before the Latest Date stamped below. Theft, mutilation, and underlining of books are reasons for disciplinary action and may result in dismissal from the University. University of Illinois Library OCT 22 I3B6 BEC 3 Wl MAR ?' APR 2 5 1995 SEP 1 1 1S95 182)01 Y 3 2001 L161 O-1096 THE CATHOLIC CHURCH IN CHICAGO 1673 - 1871 AN HISTORICAL SKETCH By Gilbert J. Garrl^attSSAJr fr ft OF LOYOLA UNIVERSITY PRESS CHICAGO, ILLINOIS 1921 COPYRIGHT, 1921 BY LOYOLA UNIVERSITY CHICAGO, ILL. Most Reverend George W. Mundelein, D.D. Archbishop of Chicago r 709522 TABLE OF CONTENTS Page I. EARLY MISSIONARY VISITORS 1 II. THE PASTORATE OF FATHER ST. CYR, 1833-1834 - 45 III. BISHOP BRUT AND THE MISSION OF CHICAGO 71 IV. THE PASTORATE OF FATHER ST. CYR, 1834-1837 - 82 V. BISHOP QUARTER 108 VI. BISHOP VAN DE VELDE 137 VII. BISHOP O 'BEGAN 167 VIII. BISHOP DTJGGAN 180 IX. BISHOP FOLEY AND THE FlRE OF 1871 ... 219 LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS FACING PAGE Jacques Marquette, S. J 1 Marquette at the Chicago Portage 5 Marquette 's Journal 9 Montigny's Chicago Letter, 1699 18 and 19 Father Gabriel Richard 29 Father Stephen T. Badin 35 Jean Baptiste Beaubien 37 Father John Mary Irenaeus St. Cyr 45 Petition of the Catholics of Chicago, 1833 46 Et. Eev. Joseph Eosati, D. D 48 Father St. Cyr to Bishop Eosati 51 Eecord of Baptism of George Beaubien 54 Eecord of Baptism of Eobert Jerome Beaubien 56 Mark Beaubien 58 Anson H. Taylor 60 Augustine Deodat Taylor , 65 Et. Eev. Simon William Gabriel Brute, D. D 71 The Diocese of Vincennes, 1835 73 Bishop Flaget 's Appeal for Chicago 79 The First Saint Mary's Church 82 Et. Eev. Maurice de St. Palais, D. D 106 Et. Rev. William J. Quarter, D. D 108 Saint Mary's Cathedral 110 Bishop Quarter to Bishop Purcell, 1844 112 University of Saint Mary of the Lake 115 Letter of Father Stephen T. Badin 120 The Eosarist 's Companion 129 Et. Eev. James Oliver Van de Velde, D. D 137 Et. Eev. Anthony O'Eegan, D. D 167 Church of the Holy Family 177 Et. Eev. James Duggan, D. D 180 Et. Eev. Thomas Foley, D. D 219 INTRODUCTION The present year, 1921, is the fiftieth since Chicago was laid waste by a conflagration which has passed into history as the extreme instance of public calamities of the kind. The amazing swiftness with which the city retrieved its losses and stood erect on its feet again has almost made us forget what a calamity it was. And yet, though to the Chicagoans who followed with bated breath its remorseless trail of destruction it seemed a catastrophe tremendous beyond words, the Fire of 1871 is now recognized, not paradoxically, to have been a thing that accelerated, though it checked for a time, the victorious advance of the City of the Lakes. But calamity or blessing, the event was and always will remain epochal in the history of the municipality. A line of cleavage was then and there set up between the Chicago that was and the Chicago that was to be. Pre- Fire Chicago is an outstanding historical unit, with color, atmosphere and individuating lines quite its own. Even so, in the story of Catholic origins and growth in Chicago a line of demarcation is drawn across the record by the event of 1871. The incidents prior to it fill out and circumscribe the pioneer period of that fascinating story and as such may be dealt with by the historian as a unified whole. It is this conception which has led the author to limit his sketch by the Fire of 1871, for he finds in that obvious turning-point of local history the logical end of a narrative which purposes to re- count the beginnings only and not the mature develop- ment of the Catholic Church in Chicago. IX X INTRODUCTION Within the compass of this brief sketch will be found compressed, it is believed, all the essential facts of Chicago Catholic history between the limits named. Where possible, recourse has been had to primary sources of information. In particular, the Archdiocesan Ar- chives of Saint Louis, the Archives of Saint Louis Uni- versity, and the Catholic Archives of America at Notre Dame University, have been drawn upon for pertinent material of value. Where the author has had to lean largely on secondary authorities as in Chapter VIII, he has felt less secure. The scale of treatment as regards the various topics varies according to the shifting meas- ure of available material. Thus, the pastorate of Father St. Cyr, our knowledge of which has been so much en- larged through his correspondence with Bishop Rosati but recently brought to light, is treated in detail. On the other hand, the meagreness of the data available in regard to Bishop 'Regan's episcopate has led the author to eke out this section of the narrative by a rather particularized account of the beginnings of the Hol* r Family parish, concerning which much first-hand material of interest happened to be within reach. Chapters I, II and IV, and the greater part of Chapter VII have appeared in the Illinois Catholic His- torical Review, July, October, 1918 and April, 1919, while Chapter III has been published in the Saint Louis Catholic Historical Review, October, 1919. To the editors of these magazines the author makes grateful acknowl- edgment for the privilege of reproduction. St. Louis University, August 14, 1921. THE LIBRARY OF THE 'SHYER::?; c? SLLI^IS James Marquette, missionary-explorer of the Society of Jesus. Photograph from the heroic-sized statue by the Florentine sculptor, Signer Gaetano Trentanove, which represents Wisconsin in Statuary Hall, the Capitol, Washington, being the State's tribute to the man who with Louis Joliet discovered the Missis- sippi at the junction of the great waterway with the Wisconsin near Prairie du Chien, June 17, 1673. THE CATHOLIC CHURCH IN CHICAGO CHAPTER I EARLY MISSIONARY VISITORS No other city of the Middle West traces its histor- ical beginnings more remotely into the past than does Chicago. Its civic organization dates indeed only from the third decade of the nineteenth century; but long before the close of the seventeenth century the locality that was to see its growth had found a place in the permanent record of the times. As early as 1688 the name of the city had been written into the geography of the day, Pranquelin's famous map of that year showing "Fort Chicagou" on the site of the future metropolis; and this, thirteen years before Cadillac founded Detroit, seventy-six before Laclede set up his trading-post in St. Louis and a hundred before Denham and Patterson platted the village that was to develop into Cincinnati. The distinction that attaches to re- moteness of origin is not to be denied to the great metropolis of the Middle West. To pick up, then, the first threads in the religious history of Chicago, one must, as when he seeks to trace i 2 THE CATHOLIC CHURCH IN CHICAGO its secular origins, grope in a distant and shadowy past. In particular, the story of Catholicism in the metropolis carries us back for its opening pages to the first emergence of the locality into the light of history. As it happened, all the early white visitors to the site of Chicago were of the Catholic faith ; and with their com- ing were forged, it may be said, the first links of associa- tion between the Catholic church and the future city. One may not determine at this late date who of wjiite men were the first to arrive at the mouth of the Chicago River. True, the distinction has been claimed for that picturesque figure on the stage of early Western history, Eobert Cavelier Sieur de La Salle; but no evidence sufficient to establish his supposed visit of 1671 on anything even like an historical basis has ever been adA^anced. Not the empire-builder, but an humble soldier of the cross is the first figure that we are able to recognize with anything like certainty through the mists that hang over the day-break of Chicago history. 1 Two years after the alleged visit of La Salle to the marshy prairie-land that has since become Chicago, the missionary-explorer Father James Marquette arrived on the scene. On June 17, 1673, Marquette and Joliet discovered the Mississippi at its junction with the Wis- consin. The two then descended the great waterway as lar as the Arkansas, whence, after a brief stay, they 1 " It is claimed that he [La Salle] discovered the Illinois River also and was the first of white men to visit the place where Chicago now stands but the evidence does not warrant the as- sumption." E. G. MASON, Chapters from Illinois History, Chi- cago, 1901, p. 46. La Salle 's alleged visit of 1671 to Illinois appears to have been a fiction invented by his friends. See ALVOKD, The Illinois Country, 1920, p. 78. EARLY MISSIONARY VISITORS 6 started on their homeward journey. With their canoes directed up the Mississippi they proceeded as far as the Illinois, into which they turned. At the village of the Kaskaskia Indians situated on the Illinois at a place not yet definitively identified, Marquette set foot for the first time, as far as we have record, on the soil of the future commonwealth of Illinois. Finding the Indians in a receptive mood, he promised to return at the first opportunity and plant a mission in their midst. Then, resuming their journey, Marquette and Joliet continued to ascend the Illinois until they reached the Desplaines, which they entered, portaging thence to the Chicago River and so reaching Lake Michigan over the blue waters of which they voyaged to Green Bay. Marquette redeemed his pledge to evangelize the Marquette Kaskaskia. Leaving the Mission of St. Francis Xavier at Ghicago, on October 25, 1674, with the village of the Kaskaskia 1674 ' 1675 for his objective, he journeyed partly by land, partly by water, along the west shore of Lake Michigan, in company with two French voyageurs, Pierre Porteret and Jacques Le Castor. He arrived December 4 at .the mouth of the Chicago River, broken in health and unable to proceed to his journey's end. After a stay here of some days, his companions built for him a rude shelter on the west fork of the south branch of the Chicago River, at a distance of about five miles (two leagues) from its outlet into Lake Michigan. Here Marquette lived from December 14, 1674 to March 30, 1675, busying himself with his devotions and with the composition of memoirs of his journeys, while his com- panions hunted turkey, deer and buffalo on ground now covered by the world's fourth largest center of popula- 4 THE CATHOLIC CHURCH IN CHICAGO tion. 2 In the Journal which the missionary composed in part while he was thus confined during the long winter - ' ' Thus began in December, 1674, the first extended sojourn, as far as we have record, of white men on the site of the future Chicago." QUAIFE, Chicago and the Old Northwest, 1673-1835, University of Chicago Press, 1913, p. 24. "Thus it came about that our first account of life at Chicago pictures the doings of a lonely priest passing the dreary winter in a rude hut, animated by a fiery zeal for the salvation of the savages he was seeking, the while his physical frame was shaken with the pangs of a mortal disease. If plain living and high thinking be the ideal life, no locality ever launched its recorded career more auspiciously than did Chicago in the winter of 1674-1675." QUAIFE, The De- velopment of Chicago, 1674-1914, (The Caxton Club, Chicago, 1916). Various sites have been suggested for Marquette's winter- quarters at Chicago. According to Carl Ilg (ATKINSON, The Story of Chicago and National Development, pp. 8-11), he wintered on a hillock on the right bank of the south fork of the south branch of the Chicago Eiver, at what is now the east end of the Thirty- fifth Street Bridge. Another location, at the foot of Robey Street, on the left bank of the west fork of the south branch of the Chicago River, was marked in 1907 by a cross of mahogany bearing the following inscription: IN MEMORY OF FATHER MARQUETTE, S. J., AND LOUIS JOLIET OF NEW FRANCE (CANADA) FIRST WHITE EXPLORERS OF THE MISSISSIPPI AND ILLINOIS RIVERS AND LAKE MICHIGAN, 1673, NAVIGATING 2,500 MILES IN CANOES IN 120 DAYS. IN CROSSING THE SITE OF CHICAGO, JOLIET RECOMMENDED IT FOR ITS NATURAL ADVANTAGES AS A PLACE OF FIRST SET- TLEMENT AND SUGGESTED A LAKE-TO-THE-GULF WATERWAY, (See "Jesuit Relations," Vol. 58, p. 105) BY CUTTING A CANAL THROUGH THE "PORTAGE" WEST OF HERE WHERE BEGINS THE CHICAGO DRAINAGE- SHIP CANAL. WORK ON THIS CANAL WAS BEGUN SEPT. 3, 1892, AND IT RECEIVED THE FIRST WATERS Of tfl H3 c3 ^ h PR ~& ^3 Co O ,i >+ - ^ O EARLY MISSIONARY VISITORS days in his cabin on the bleak prairie, occur the follow- ing paragraphs, memorable as the record, in his own OF LAKE MICHIGAN, JAN. 2, 1902. THIS REMAEKABLE PROPHECY MADE 234 YEARS AGO IS NOW BEING FUL- FILLED. THE END OF ROBEY STREET IS THE HIS- TORIC "HIGH GROUND" WHERE MARQUETTE SPENT THE WINTER 1674-1675. "TO DO AND SUFFER EVERYTHING FOR SO GLORIOUS AN UNDERTAKING." Marquette's Journal. ERECTED SATURDAY, SEPT. 28, 1907, BY THE CITY OF CHICAGO AND CHICAGO ASSOCIATION OF COMMERCE. This Marquette memorial cross was maliciously destroyed a few years ago, but has since been replaced by a new one, erected by the Willey Lumber Company. John Huston Finlay, the educator, pictures thus a visit which he paid to this Marquette cross. "In the dusk of an autumn day, I went out to find the place where the novena had worked the miracle of his healing. As I have already intimated, few of all the hundred thousands there in that great city have had any consciousness of the back- ground of French heroism and suffering and prevision in front of which they were passing daily, but I found that the policeman and watchman on the railroad near the ruins knew at least of the great black cross which stands by that drab and sluggish water, placed there in memory of Marquette and Joliet. ' ' The bit of high ground where the hut stood is now sur- rounded by great looming sheds and factories which were entirely tenantless when I found my way through a long unlighted and unpaved street in the direction of the river. The cross stood, in a little patch of white, black as the father's cowl [sic] against the night with its crescent moon. I could not make out the inscription on the river-side of the monument, and, seeing a signal lantern tied to a scow moored to the bank near by, I untied it and by its light was able to read the tribute of the city to the memory of the priest and explorer who first of white men had passed that way having travelled, as it recites, 'two thousand, five hundred miles in canoes in one hundred and twenty days.' The bronze plate bears a special tribute to the foresight 6 THE CATHOLIC CHURCH IN CHICAGO words, of the first extended sojourn of a Catholic priest on the site of Chicago. "Having camped near the portage, two leagues up the river, we resolved to winter there, as it was impossible to go further, since we were too much hindered and my ailment did not permit me to give myself much fatigue. Several Ilinois passed yesterday on their way to carry their furs to nawaskingwe. We gave them one of the cattle and one of the deer that Jacque had killed on the previous day. I do not think that I have ever seen any savages more eager for French tobacco than they . They came and threw beaver skins at our feet, to get some pieces of it; but we returned them, giving them some pipefuls of the tobacco, because we had not yet decided whether we would go farther. Chachagwessiou and the other Ilinois left us, to go and join their people and give them the goods that they had bought, in order to obtain their robes. In this they act like the traders, and give hardly any more than do the French. I instructed them before their departure, deferring the holding of a council until this spring, when I should be in their village. They traded us three fine robes of ox-skins for a cubit of tobacco; these were very useful to us during the of Joliet, but it commemorates first of all the frail body and valorous soul of Father Marquette, the first European within the bounds of the city of Chicago. I wish there might be written on maps, in that space that is shown between the Chicago and the Desplaines, or the 'Divine River' as it was sometimes called, the words 'Portage St. Jacques.' That were a fitter canonization than to put his name among the names of cities, steamboats on the lake or tobaccos, as is our custom in America. ' ' The crescent moon dropped behind the shadows that now line the portage 'like a somber forest,' but it is only a few steps through the darkness back into the light and noise of the city of more than two million people." FINLAY, The French in the Heart of America, p. 258. EARLY MISSIONARY VISITORS 7 winter. Being thus rid of them we said the Mass of the Conception. After the 14th my disease turned into a bloody flux. Since we addressed ourselves to the Blessed Virgin Im- maculate and commenced a novena with a Mass at which Pierre and Jacque, who do everything they can to relieve me, received Communion, to ask God to restore my health my bloody flux has left me, and all that remains is a weakness of the stomach. I am beginning to feel much better and to regain my health. The North wind delayed the thaw until the 25th of March, when it set in with a South wind. On the very next day, game began to make its appearance. We killed 30 pigeons, which I found better than those down the great river; but they are smaller, both old and young. On the 28th, the ice broke up, and stopped above us. On the 29th, the waters rose so high that we had barely time to decamp as fast as possible, putting our goods in the trees, and trying to sleep in a hillock. The water gained on us nearly all night, but there was a slight freeze and the water fell a little, while we were near our packages. The barrier has just broken, the ice has drifted away: and, because the water is already rising, we are about to embark to continue our journey. The Blessed Virgin Immaculate has taken such care of us during our wintering that we have not lacked provisions and have still remaining a large sack of corn with some meat and fat. We also lived very pleasantly, for my illness did not prevent me from saying holy Mass every day. We were un- able to keep Lent, except Fridays and Saturdays. We started yesterday and traveled three leagues up the river without finding any portage. 3 " 3 Jesuit Relations, (Thwaites ed. 59: 173-181). "There is no monument of him [Marquette] so interesting and pathetic as his unfinished letter during his last visit to the land of Illinois. . . . THE CATHOLIC CHURCH IN CHICAGO Another account of Father Marquette's residence on the banks of the Chicago River in the winter of 1674-75 is to be found in a contemporary narrative by the mis- sionary's Superior, Father Claude Dablon. "He set out for this purpose in the month of November, 1674, from the Bay of the Fetid [Green Bay] with two men, one of whom had already made that voyage with him. During a month's navigation on the Ilinois lake [Lake Michigan], he was pretty well : but as soon as the snow began to fall, he was again seized with the dysentery, which forced him to stop in the river which leads to the Ilinois. Then they raised a cabin and spent the winter, in such want of every comfort that his illness constantly increased; he felt that God had granted him the grace that he had so often asked, and he even plainly told his companions so, assuring them that he would die of that illness, and on that voyage. To prepare his soul for its departure, he began that rude wintering by the exercises of St. Ignatius, which, in spite of his great bodily weakness, he performed with deep sentiments of devotion and great heavenh" consolation; and then spent the rest of his time in colloquies with all heaven, having no more intercourse with The larger portion of it was written in Marquette's winter camp at the bleak portage within the limits of Chicago. It would be very fitting should it find its final abiding place in the city of whose early history it is a priceless and unique memorial." MASON, op. cit., p. 35. That Marquette while wintering on the Chicago River occupied himself in writing memoirs of his voyages is stated in a contemporary letter (dated Oct. 10, 1675) from the Jesuit Cholenec published in Eochemonteix, Les Jesuites de la Nouvelle France Au XVII Siecle, 3: 606. For the argument that Marquette wintered on the Calumet and not on the Chicago Eiver, see WILLIAM HENRY LEE, The Calumet Portage, in Transac- tions of the Illinois Historical Society, 1912 ; also ANDREAS, His- tory of Chicago, 1:46. That Marquette used the Chicago Eiver portage on his return journey with Joliet from the Mississippi is indicated in his Journal, Jesuit Relations, 59: 181. OF TH St* *>**'# ***' & ^*.**f4U*>* if*'t*l, *z**t(*>fV <^H- dot f< $/&'*** it jttiixvtf t(t*ftf< &/ r#i>Vfir6rmJ/ *tlM^**,rfV ,**..< t,*. : . ^ ^ f&t'^ tf ^f^i **.. puJ*#t*t &r* ** } * ****' 4*f*# J&. u ..^.-^-'.'.-:^ 4W4^. J&. iJtiA U/ -A***/*/ */r>a *f-*?*<4S -******+* $ v*-fe?/ *t &<&<*'**** vtittf U M . ^r',^ ^jg^ ^Uj gtrtf & eJk&~ sMjfU-***" **~ " *** &- **"******- ***.. t?-**V -{ ^t*. ^J. Amff 4$t*4(, j_ ,*&*** / << - ,.* , .tv <^t.V!.,' j^l jt*A. ^^** ^.^, ^-^!^ ,.-; =V/: f w/^ -/-- -^ nrivJ <*^sW guitcAeSn ,t,v.^ w ,fc )X ,. /:,.,_ f ^:-faixf- x~ StJu/ltt- ' jlrioMitt. HUfrfe ^,... j.- and 19th we camped on the 20th at a place five leagues from 1(i99 Chikagou. We should have arrived there early on the 21st, but the wind which suddenly arose on the lake compelled us to land half a league from Chikagou. We had considerable difficulty in landing and in saving our canoes; we had all to jump into the water. One must be very careful along the lakes, and especially Lake Michigan, whose shores are very low, to take to the land as soon as possible when the waves 11 Eelation De La Mission Du Mississippi du Seminaire de Quebec en 1700 par Mm. De Montigny, De St.. Cosme et Thaumur Du La Source, 65 (Shea, Cramoisy Press, New York, 1861). 16 THE CATHOLIC CHURCH IN CHICAGO rise on the lake, for the rollers become so high in so short a time that one runs the risk of breaking his canoe and losing all it contains. Many travellers have already been wrecked there. We, Monseigneur de Montigny, Davion and myself, went by land to the house of the Reverend Jesuit Fathers while our people remained behind. We found there Reverend Father Binneteau, who had recently arrived from the Illinois country and was slightly ill. I cannot describe to you, my lord, with what cordiality and manifestations of friendship these Reverend Fathers re- ceived and embraced us while we had the consolation of re- siding with them. Their house is built on the bank of a small river, with the lake on one side and a fine and vast prairie on the other. The village of the savages contains over a hundred and fifty cabins and a league up the river is still another village almost as large. They are all Miamis. Reverend Father Pinet usually resides there except in winter, when the savages are all engaged in hunting and then he goes to the Ilinois. We saw no savages there; they had already started for their hunt. If we may judge of the future from the short time that Reverend Father Pinet has passed in this mission we may believe that if God will bless the labors and zeal of that holy missionary there will be a great number of good and holy Christians. It is true that but slight results are obtained with reference to the older persons, who are hardened in profligacy, but all the children are baptized, and the jugglers even, who are the most opposed to Chris- tianity, allow their children to be baptized. They are also very glad to let them be instructed. Several girls of a certain age and also many young boys have already been and are being- instructed, so that we may hope that when the old stock dies off, they will be a new and entirely Christian people." At the departure of Father Montigny and his fellow- priests from the Jesuit Mission at Chicago, a young lad of their party lent an unexpected element of excitement to the routine of the journey by getting lost in the prairies. Thirteen days later he reappeared at the EARLY MISSIONARY VISITORS 17 Mission-house utterly exhausted and out of his mind. Chicago's first "small boy" went on record as occasion- ing at least one spell of poignant anxiety to his elders. The incident is told by Father St. Cosme, as he con- tinues his letter : "On the 24th of October the wind fell and we went for our canoes with all our effects, and finding that the water was extraordinarily low, we made a cache in the ground with some of them and took only what was absolutely necessary for our journey, intending to send for the remainder in the spring. We left Brother Alexandre in charge thereof, as he agreed to remain there with Father Pinet's man. We started from Chikagou on the 29th, and slept about two leagues from it on the little river [south fork of the Chicago river] that afterward loses itself in the prairies. On the following day we began the portage, which is about three leagues in length when the waters are low and is only one-fourth of a league in the Spring, for then we can embark on a small lake [Mud or Portage Lake] that discharges into a branch of the river of the Illinois, and when the waters are low a portage has to be made to that branch. On that day we got over half our portage and would have gone still further when we perceived that a little boy given us by Monsieur de Muis and who had set out alone although he was told to Avait, was lost. We had not noticed it because all our people were busy. We were obliged to stop to look for him; everybody went and several gun-shots were fired but he could not be found. It was a rather unfortunate accident; we were pressed for time, owing to the lateness of the Season, and the waters being very low, we saw quite well, that as we were obliged to carry our luggage and our Canoe, it would take a long time to reach the Illinois. This compelled us to separate. Messieurs de Montigny, de Tonty and Davion continued the portage on the following day, while I with four other men went back to look for the little boy. While retracing my steps I met Fathers Pinet and Binneteau, who were on the way with two Frenchmen and a savage. We looked for the boy during the whole of that day also without finding him. As it was 18 THE CATHOLIC CHURCH IN CHICAGO the day before the feast of All Saints, I was compelled to go to Chikagou for the night with our people. After they had heard Mass and performed their devotions early in the morning, they spent the whole of that day also looking for the little boy without getting sight of him. It was very difficult to find him in the long grass, for this country con- sists of nothing but prairies with a few groves of trees. We were afraid to set fire to the long grass lest we might burn the boy. Monsieur de Montigny had told me to remain only one day, because the cold weather pressed us and this com- pelled roe to proceed, after giving orders to Brother Alex- andre to seek him and take some Frenchmen who were at Chikagou." 12 In April of 1699 Father Montigny was again in Chicago, having returned thither from the lower Mis- sissippi. To Father Bruyas, Jesuit Superior at Quebec, he wrote from Chicago on April 23 of that year a ] - KELLOGG, Early Narratives of the Northwest, p. 346. See also QUAIFE, The Development of Chicago, 1674-1914. Father St. Cosme and his companion-priests in the course of their voyage down the Mississippi celebrated Mass, December 8, 1698, on the right bank of the river directly opposite the Tamaroa village, near the later Cahokia. This location is evidently to be identified with the site of St. Louis. We accordingly have here the earliest recorded exercise of the Christian ministry within the limits of the future metropolis. "Next day [Dec. 7] about noon \ve reached the Tamarois but did not go to it as we wished to prepare for the feast of the Conception. We cabined 011 the other side of the river on the right next day, feast of the Conception, after saying our Masses, we went with M. Tonty and seven of our men well armed . ' ' Up to a period well within the nineteenth century custom sanctioned the prefix "Father," for the names of priests belong- ing to religious orders, and the prefix ' ' Mr. ' ' for the names of priests not belonging to such orders. Conformably to present-day usage, the writer has preferred to designate all priests uniformly as "Father." wbc < +v A ,^ st ^ -; ****** cux The Reverend Mr. Montigny, priest of the Society of Foreign Missions, writes from "Chicagou," April 23, 1699, to the Superior of the Society of Jesus in Quebec, advising him that the Jesuit missionary stationed in "Chicagou" is overtaxing himself with the labors of the ministry. Prob- ably the oldest written communication dated from Chicago. Photostat copy from the hitherto unpublished original in the Congressional Library, Wash- ington. , EARLY MISSIONARY VISITORS 19 letter which is still preserved, being very probably the oldest written communication from that locality known to exist. 13 "We are under too many obligations to your Fathers for the kind reception they have been pleased to tender us not to give some expression of my gratitude. For your Fathers of Michilimakinac, of Pimiteoui [Peoria] and of Chicagou have spared no pains to make us welcome. I declare to you I have been highly edified by their zeal, though of a surety I do not believe that they can bear up much longer under the severe hardships which they endure; I believe that you ought either to tell them not to take so much upon themselves or at least to send somebody to share with them the toils of their missions. I speak in particular of the one in Chicagou and of Father Binneteau, whom we found in Chicagou quite exhausted after the rather serious illness he had passed through. I do not doubt that the gentlemen of the Seminary of Quebec will inform you, should you so desire, concerning the particulars of our journey, which, thanks be to God, ha? been a fairly prosperous one, the occasion which is about to slip by not permitting me to write to you about it my- self, as I should wish to have done. I beg you be persuaded that I am very truly in our Lord, My Reverend Father, Your very humble and obedient servant. MONTIGNY. From Chicagou, April 23, 1699." 13 M. Montigny a P. Bruyas, April 23, 1699. The original, in French, of Father Montigny 's Chicago letter of April 23, 1699, hitherto unpublished so far as the writer is aware, is in the Congressional Library, Washington. Shea has printed two Chicago letters in his Relation, etc., (cf. note 11) one by Thaumur la Source, April, 1699, and the other by Michael St. Cosme [1] "de Chicago, ce Avril, 1699." "We [Montigny and la Source] arrived on Maunday Thursday at Chicagou, after making thirty leagues by land We are to start from Chicagou on Easter Monday. The finest country we have seen Chicago, April 23, 1699 20 THE CATHOLIC CHURCH IN CHICAGO Few particulars of the work of the Jesuit mission- aries at Chicago during the period 1696-1700 have come down to us. 14 Around the Mission were two Indian villages of one hundred and fifty cabins each. The most interesting fact recorded is the conversion by Father Pinet of the Peoria chief who had previously resisted the zealous solicitations of Father Gravier at Kaskaskia. Yet, that the Mission of the Guardian Angel at Chicago was a post of importance in the French dominions of the New World seems borne out by the fact that it chal- lenged the attention of Frontenac, Governor of Canada, who, in pursuance of his general policy of unfriendliness to the Jesuit establishments, closed it in 1697. Appeal having been made to the Bishop of Quebec, the mission- aries were enabled through his intervention to resume their labors, which, however, were not to continue long. For reasons not ascertainable now the Mission was closed permanently about the beginning of the eighteenth century, Father Pinet, its founder, withdrawing there- upon to the Tamaroa Indians, who were settled on the left bank of the Mississippi opposite the point on the right bank where Laclede was in later years to establish the trading post that developed into St. Louis. Among the Tamaroa and the Cahokia he labored with excellent results, his little mission-chapel of the Holy Family being unable, on the testimony of Father Gravier, to contain the throng of Indians that flocked to hear him. When the Tamaroa with a considerable number of the in all is from Chicagou to the Tamaroas. It is nothing but prairie and clumps of trees as far as you can see." 14 The few references to Father Pinet 's Mission in the Jesuit Relations are gathered together in Frank B. Cover's paper cited above. EARLY MISSIONARY VISITORS 21 French joined the Kaskaskia in their new home on the right bank of the Mississippi two leagues below the mission of the Holy Family, Father Pinet appears to have accompanied them; at all events, he died in their midst. He is the first clergyman known to have died in the territory that has since become the state of Mis- souri, the French-Kaskaskia-Tamaroa village which saw his last moments, Missouri's earliest settlement, having stood on the north bank of the Des Peres river at its mouth, a spot within the city-limits of the St. Louis of today. Francois Pinet, the first resident missionary- priest of Chicago, was likewise, it would appear, one of the first resident missionary-priests of St. Louis, thus furnishing in his person a most interesting link of association of over two centuries ' standing between those two great cities of the Middle West. 15 15 A brief sketch of Father Pinet may be read in the Jesuit Eelations, 64: 278. For an imaginative treatment of the Mission of the Guardian Angel of Chicago, see JENNIE HALL'S The Story of Chicago, 35. According to SHEA, Mississippi Voyages, 53, note, Father Pinet died at Cahokia about 1704, while the author- itative list of Jesuit missionaries prepared by Father Arthur Jones, S. J v of Montreal, for the Jesuit Eelations, 71: 158, gives place and time of Father Pinet 's death as Chicago, July 16, 1704. Both of these authorities are apparently to be set aside by the definitive contemporary testimony of Father Bergier ac- cording to which Pinet died among the Kaskaskia, August 1, 1702 (Letter of Bergier, March 1, 1703, in Transactions of the Illinois Historical Society, 1905, p. 41). At the period of Pinet 's death at the Eiver Des Peres, Father Bergier was living at Cahokia on the opposite bank of the Mississippi. The tradition locating a Jesuit mission at the mouth of the River Des Peres, Missouri, has recently been placed on a strictly historical basis by Rev. Laurence Kenny, S. J v of St. Louis University. Cf. St. Louis Catholic Historical Review, 1: 151-156. 22 THE CATHOLIC CHURCH IN CHICAGO With the closing about 1700 of Father Pinet's Mis- sion of the Guardian Angel at Chicago, a veil is thrown over the religious history of the locality for more than a century. Not until 1796 is the place known to have been visited again by a Catholic priest. It is safe indeed to assume that during this interval, one or more of the Jesuit missionaries stationed at Cahokia and Kaskaskia on the Mississippi made use of the Chicago portage on their way to and from headquarters in Canada; but no mention of any of their number in such connection occurs in the Relations or other sources. 16 In 1721 Father Francois Charlevoix, Jesuit traveler and his- torian, then visiting the region of the Great Lakes and the Mississippi country under a commission from the French government to investigate the problem of a trade-route to the Pacific Ocean, was at the Potawatomi- Miami Mission on the St. Joseph river near Niles, Michigan. Thence, as his entertaining narrative informs us, his itinerary was to bring him to the Illinois by way Father Montigny, one of the party of priests of the For- eign Missions who passed through Chicago in the autumn of 1698, returned there for a visit the following spring. "I will inform you simply of that which took place in this Mission since our arrival from the Arkansas and since M. de Montigny left it to go to Chicago, March 28, of the preceding year, 1699. He left me here with two men. I worked toward having my home built and had wood gathered for my chapel. I baptized several children and upon Mr. Montigny 's return from Chicago, I had baptized thirty." Extract from a letter of Father St. Cosme dated Tamarois, March 1700, in the Transactions of the Illinois Historical Society, 1908, p. 236. 16 In 1728 Father Dumas, S. J., accompanied a French mili- tary expedition to Chicago or its neighborhood where a band of Foxes and Kickapoo were routed in battle, many of them being killed. ALVORD, Tlie Illinois Country, 1673-1818, p. 163. EARLY MISSIONARY VISITORS 23 of ' ' the little river Chicagou ' ' ; but the low stage of water in that stream made it necessary for him to choose another route. 17 At the end of the seventeenth century the Miami Indians were settled on the site of Chicago or in its immediate vicinity. 18 Having shifted their habitat at a later period to the southeast, to what is now northern and central Indiana, they were followed in the Chicago region by the Potawatomi, who remained there until the removal of the tribe to the A\ 7 est by the Government in 1835. At the treaty of Greenville in 1795 the Pota- watomi ceded to the United States as a site for a government fort a tract six miles square at the mouth of the Chicago River, the innermost area of the metrop- olis that was to be. Pioneer After the eclipse into which it passed for the first settlers, six decades of the eighteenth century, that point on the ^f^ ^ Guane, map again comes into view as a place of human habita- Pointede tion with the alleged arrival about 1765 of Madame >< l aib , le ' f Omlmette, La Compt nee La Flamme, born at St. Joseph on Lake LeMai, Pettel, 17 CHARLEVOIX, A voyage to North America, Dublin, 1766, Kimie. Letter XXVI, 139. "I think I informed you in my last, that I had the Choice of Two Ways to go to Illinois: The first was, to return to Lake Michigan, to coast on the South Shore, and to enter into the little River Chicagou. After going up it five or six leagues, they pass into that of the Illinois, by the means of two Portages, the longest of which is but a league and a quarter. But as this River is but a Brook in this place, I was informed that at that time of the year I should not find water enough for my canoe; therefore I took the other route, which has also its inconveniences, and is not near so pleasant, but it is the nearest." See also QUAIFE, op. cit., 45. 18 Handbook of American Indians (Bureau of American Eth- nology), I, Art. Miami. 24 THE CATHOLIC CHURCH IN CHICAGO Michigan. 19 Here is a curious, almost half-mythical figure, as seen through the prevailing haze that envelops this period of Chicago history. Next in succession to Madame La Compt arrives a trader by the name of Guarie, whom tradition represents has having had a house on the North Branch as early as 1778. Then, about 1790, came the San Domingo negro or mulatto, Jean Baptiste Pointe de Saible. 20 He was a trader by occupation and according to one account had so in- gratiated himself with the Potawatomi that he aspired to become their chief. By Col. De Peyster, British Com- mandant at Detroit, he is touched off in an official report as a "well educated and handsome negro." Pointe de Saible built his cabin close to the north bank of the river at the foot of the former Pine Street, where now the new massive boulevard bridge spans the river. Here he remained until about 1796, when he withdrew to Peoria, or, according to another account, to the region of St. Louis. Before his departure he dis- posed of his cabin to Francis Le Mai, a French-Canadian trader, who in time sold it to John Kinzie when the 30 By far the most critical study of the successive arrivals of the pioneer settlers of Chicago is to be found in MILO MILTON QUAIFE 's Chicago and the Old Northwest, 1673-1835 (University of Chicago Press, 1913), to which reference has already been made. For notices of Madame La Compt and Guarie, see QUAIFE, op. cit., 137. Madame La Compt, later Mrs. Brady, died at Cahokia at the age of 100 years. According to REYNOLDS, Pioneer History of Illinois, Belleville, 1852, p. 136, she settled in Chicago with her first husband, ' ' Sainte Ange or Pelate, as he was some- times called," about the year 1765. Reynolds, who apparently was so informed by Madame La Compt herself, is the only authority for the statement. -" QUAIFE, op. cit.. 138-142. EARLY MISSIONARY VISITORS 25 latter arrived in Chicago in 1804. 21 Enlarged and im- proved by its third owner, this building achieved local fame as the Kinzie Mansion, the first chronologically of that vast forest of human habitations which is Chicago. To the names of Pointe.de Saible and Le Mai must be added those of Antoine Ouilmette and Louis Pettel or Pettle to complete the list of persons who are known to have settled at the mouth of the Chicago River prior to 1805. As Antoine Ouilmette took up his residence there as early as 1790, he is perhaps entitled to the distinction of being the first white settler of Chicago, if we except the claims to priority, doubtful at the best, of Madame La Compt and Guarie. 22 Interesting as are these remote occupations of Chicago land by - 1 The identity of the Do Saible and Le Mai cabin with the Kinzie ' ' mansion ' ' in its primitive stages of construction is as- serted by Andreas. - BLANCH AED, Chicago and the Northwest, 1: 574. Quaife does not accept without reserve Ouilmette 's statement that he settled at Chicago in 1790. All available information concerning this interesting figure on the stage of early Chicago history has been collected by Frank R. Grover in his brochure, Some Indian Lund Marks of the North Shore, pp. 177-290. Ouilmette 's wife, Archange, a Potawatomi, was awarded a reservation of two sections of land by the Treaty of Prairie du Chicn, 1829. "The reservation extends from a point a little south of Kenilworth to Central Street in the city of Evanston, with the Lake as the eastern boundary and extending west of the Northwestern Rail- way. It contains two full sections of 1280 acres of land, some 300 lying in the city of Evanston and the remainder comprising the greater part of the land in Wilmette Village." The Evanston portion of the reservation was sold by Ouilmette 's children in 1844-45 at $1.50 an acre. Two of his daughters were still living in 1905 in Kansas. Wilmette is of course an Americanized spell- ing for Ouilmette. 26 THE CATHOLIC CHURCH IN CHICAGO adventurous pioneers, they can scarcely be said to have given rise to the future city. The event that really determined the growth of a center of population at the outlet of the Chicago River was the establishment there in 1803 of Fort Dearborn by Captain John Whistler, II. S. A. Burnt to the ground by' the Indians in the historic massacre of 1812, the Fort was rebuilt in 1816 and around it as a nucleus the various elements of a new settlement gradually took shape. Captain Whistler was born in Ireland in 1758. In the opinion of Quaife, than whom no one has written more authoritatively of Chicago beginnings, if any individual may with pro- priety be called the "Father" of the modern city, it is Captain John Whistler. Of the earliest residents of Chicago mentioned in the preceding paragraph, all, probably without excep- tion, were Catholics or had Catholic connections. 23 On October 7, 1799, a party of Chicago residents, "habitans a Chicagou" were in St. Louis enlisting the services of the acting pastor of the place, the Recollect, Father Lussoii, for the baptism of their children. The party included Francis Le May [Mai] and his wife, Marie Therese Roy and Jean Baptiste Peltier and the latter 's wife. Susanne Pointe de Saible, Joseph and Marie :3 Robert, son of John Kinzie, was baptized in Chicago, April 29, 1837, by Father Timothy O'Meara, being then twenty- eight years of age. Gwenthlean, daughter of Robert Kinzie and Gwenthlean Harriet Whist'ler, daughter of Major William Whistler, was baptized in Chicago, September 2, 1838, by Bishop Brute. Robert Kinzie was buried from St. James's Catholic Church, the officiating priest being Father Patrick Riordan, the future Archbishop of San Francisco. With regard to Major William Whistler, son of Captain John Whistler, see note 42, p. 44. EARLY MISSIONARY VISITORS 27 Therese Le May [Mai] and Eulalie Peltier were the names of the children baptized. The godfather of Marie Therese Le May [Mai] was Pierre Cadet Chouteau, grandson of Madame Terese Chouteau, the "mother" of St. Louis. 23b To these interesting entries in the bap- tismal register of the St. Louis Cathedral may be added an entry in a register of the church of St. Francis of Assisi, Portage des Sioux, Missouri, which records the marriage there on July 27, 1819, of Domitille Pettelle of "Chicagow" and Jean Evangelist Sicard of St. Joseph, Quebec. 24 As far as can be ascertained the above take precedence chronologically over all other recorded baptisms and marriages of residents or former residents of Chicago or vicinity if we except the baptism at Mackinac in June, 1764, of Louis Amiot, who was born "at the river Aux Plains, near to Chicago." 25 In 1815 the French Catholics settled in Chicago ap- pear to have been numerous enough to call for special mention in a report on conditions in his diocese ad- 3b Le meme jour et I'an [7 October 1799] Eulalie nee huit October, 1796, du legitime marriage du Sr. Jean Baptiste Peltier et du Dlle Susanne point de Saible Son epouse habits a Chicagou le parain a etc le Sr hyacinth Saint Cyr et la marain Dlle helene hebert son epouse ct ce en presence of M. et Madame le May et de plusieurs autres qui ont signe leur marque ordinaire. The baptismal and other registers of the Old Cathedral of St. Louis are preserved in the Chancery office of the Archdiocese of St. Louis. - 4 Transcript of the Portage des Sioux Registers in the St. Louis University Archives. 25 Father Du Jaunay, Jesuit missionary, baptized at Mackinac in June, 1764, "Louis, legitimate son of Amiot and Marianne his wife, said infant born at the river Aux Plains near to Chicago early in October last." EDWIN O. WOOD, Historic Mackinac, 1: 108. 28 T11K CATHOLIC CHURCH IN CHICAGO dressed in that year by Bishop Flaget of Bardstown to the Holy See. ' ' Moreover, I heard during my excursion that in the very midst of the Indians were four French congregations belonging to my diocese ; one on the upper Mississippi, another in a place usually designated as Chicagou, still another on the shores of Lake Michigan and a fourth towards the source of the Illinois River; but lack of time and the prevalence of war have pre- vented me from visiting them." 26 It is interesting to note in this connection that the locality of Chicago was up to this period successively under the ecclesiastical jurisdiction of the dioceses of Quebec, Baltimore and Bardstown. It remained attached to Quebec approx- imately from the last quarter of the seventeenth century up to the erection in 1784 of the Prefecture Apostolic of the United States, to which it was then transferred with the rest of the former French possessions east of the Mississippi. From the Prefecture- Apostolic of the United States, which became the diocese of Baltimore in 1789, it passed to Bardstown when that see was erected in 1808 with the old Northwest Territory in- cluded in its jurisdiction. 27 - A transcript of the Latin original is in the St. Louis Uni- versity Archives. The document is dated Bardstown, April 11, 1815. It has recently been reproduced with English translation and annotations in the Catholic Historical Ecview, 1 : 305. Hub- bard, the pioneer fur-trader, states that on his arrival in Chicago in 1818, there were only two French families living in the place, those of A. Ouilmette and J. B. Beaubien. The Autobiography of Gnrdon Saltonstall Ilubbard, Lakeside Press, Chicago, p. 39. The ' ' French congregation ' ' at Chicago, referred to by Bishop Flaget in his report of 1815, evidently included Catholics residing in the outlying districts. 27 Chicago was apparently for a while in the diocese of DC- THE LIBHMN OF THE Father Gabriel Eichard, of the Society of St. Suplico, who said Mass and preached in Chicago in 1821. He was delegate to Congress from Michigan Territory, a unique distinction, as no other Catholic clergyman of the country has held similar office. His statue, with Cadillac's, adorns the fagade of the City Hall of Detroit, with which metropolis, in its pioneer stage of development, his ministerial career is chiefly identified. Original painting by Lewis, dated approximately 1828-1830, now the property of the University of Detroit, to which it was presented in 1912 by the daughters of Mrs. Elenore St. Amour Thompson. Courtesy of the University of Detroit. EARLY MISSIONARY VISITORS 29 During all these years the Chicago district was left Gabriel without the ministrations of a Catholic priest. From Richard > 1 821 the passing of Father Pinet at the dawn of the eighteenth century down to 1821 no exercise of the Catholic ministry is on record as having taken place at the mouth of the Chicago River or in its vicinity. 270 The distinction of being the first clergyman known to have officiated there after that interval belongs to Father Gabriel Richard, who arrived in Chicago from Detroit in September, 1821. "Fifteen days later, thirty days in all from Mackinac, I arrived at a post called Chicago, near a little river of the same name, ten leagues to the northwest of the southernmost point of Lake Michigan. I said Mass in the house of a Canadian and preached in the afternoon to the American garrison. Business of another kind brought me to Chicago. I had been invited by one of the Potawatomi chiefs, who lived near the old Jesuit mission of St. Joseph, situated on a river of the same name, to be present at a treaty in Chicago which the Indian tribes were going to make at that place with his Excellency, our Governor [Cass]. Contrary 'winds having detained me two weeks or twenty days longer than I ex- pected, it fell out that the treaty was over (when I arrived). I had hoped to be able to support the Indians in the petition troit, the original southern line of that diocese, as erected in 1833, having run from the mouth of the Maumee west to the Mississippi. A reproduction of a contemporary map indicating Chicago as within the limits of the diocese of Detroit accom- panies Dean O'Brien's sketch of the Detroit diocese in the Michigan Pioneer and Historical Collection, 9: 135. 27b Eev. Michael Levadoux, a Sulpician, passed through Chi- cago in 1796 on his way from Cahokia to Detroit. ' ' Then, con- tinuing my journey, I reached the borders of Lake Michigan, that is to say, a village called Chicago. I remained there only a day and a half. I was visited by a great Indian chieftain and a large number of his braves, I embarked on the Lake the 8th of July." 'Records American Catholic Historical Society, 20: 259. 30 THE CATHOLIC CHURCH IN CHICAGO which they were going to present and which they did actually present for a Catholic priest at St. Joseph's like the Jesuits. The outcome of it all was that they were given a Baptist missionary." 28 The Canadian in whose house Father Richard said Mass on this occasion was, in all probability, Jean Baptiste Beaubien, Indian trader and agent of the American Fur Company at Chicago, who settled there permanently shortly after the Fort Dearborn massacre. 29 His home at the period of Father Richard's visit was in the so-called "Dean House", which he purchased in 1817 from a Mr. Dean, sutler to the Fort, and which stood south of that structure and near what is now the intersection of Randolph Street and Michigan Ave- nue. 30 Here, then, was apparently offered up the first Mass in Chicago after it had become a settlement of white people. As to the discourse preached by the mis- sionary to the garrison, it may safely go on record as the first sermon preached in modern Chicago. The language of the sermon appears to have been English, as the soldiers could have understood no other, and as Father Richard, though a native-born Frenchman, had learned by this time to express himself with more or less ease in the tongue of his adopted country. 31 Corrobor- 28 Annales de la Propagation de la Foi, 3 : 342. 29 The precise date of J. B. Beaubien 's permanent settlement in Chicago appears to be open to dispute. See QUAIFE, op. cit., 278. 30 ANDREAS, op. cit., 1. 31 A statement attributed to the pioneer Baptist missionary, Isaac McCoy, is interesting in this connection. "In the forepart of October I attended at Chicago, the payment of an annuity by Dr. Wolcott, United States Indian Agent, and, through his politeness, addressed the Indians on the subject of our mission. On the 9th of October, 1825, I preached in English, which, as I EARLY MISSIONARY VISITORS 31 ative evidence on this latter point is supplied by the fact that in 1823 the missionary was elected delegate to Congress from Michigan Territory, being the only Catholic priest who ever held a seat in the National House of Representatives. It is significant that this priest, who was the first clergyman to preach the word of God in Chicago, should have put that place under other obligations to him by rendering it services of a material order for the only speech he made in Congress was one urging the opening of a public highway between Chicago and Detroit. 32 Nine years were to pass before another Catholic Stephen priest was to set foot in Chicago. In October, 1830, Badtn,i8ao Father Stephen Theodore Badin, the first priest or- dained in the United States, made a missionary excur- sion to Chicago from the Catholic Potawatomi Mission near Niles, Michigan, of which establishment he was resident pastor. "I am on my way to Chicago or Fort Dearborn on the west shore of Lake Michigan in the state of Illinois, fifty miles from here; no priest has been seen there since eight [nine] years ago, when Mr. Richard paid the place a visit. Along the entire route I shall not come across a single house or hut. I am waiting here for a party of good Catholic Indi- ans, Chief Pokegan at head of them, who are charged with the carrying of my chapel equipment. I had started out with- out them in order to avail myself of the company of two Canadians, whose services I engaged as interpreters, and who am informed, was the first sermon ever delivered at or near that place." ANDREAS, op. cit., 1: 288. 32 Catholic Encyclopedia, art. Rev, Gabriel Eichard. Import- ant articles on Father Eichard are to be found in the volumes of the Collections and Researches of the Michigan Pioneer and His- torical Societv. 32 THE CATHOLIC CHURCH IN CHICAGO must by this time have arrived in Chicago, where I intended to celebrate the divine mysteries on Holy Rosary Sunday; but fearing that my Indians would not come up in time, I stopped at the river Calamic [Grand Calumet] in the hope of receiving my chapel this evening or tomorrow morning. Besides, if I had continued on the way with the two Canadians, I should have found it necessary to sleep in the open, a thing I thought nothing of at one time but when a man is beyond sixty, he must avoid that sort of thing, unless he be accus- tomed to live like the Indians and traders, to whom it is all one whether they sleep indoors or outdoors. Man proposes, God disposes. My party of Indians ar- rived three days too late, and I was put to the necessity of spending the night in the woods ten miles from Chicago. I found there another band from the Kickapoo tribe, who live in an immense prairie in Illinois, along the Vermilion river at a distance of about one hundred miles from Chicago. Some time before these good people had sent their compli- ments to Chief Pokegan, telling him at the same time that they envied him the happiness of having a pastor." 33 The letter of Father Badin from which the above passage is cited is silent about his work in Chicago on the occasion of this visit of 1830. 34 It is said that he 33 Annalcs do la Propagation de la foi, 6 : 154. 31 According to G. S. Hubbard in the Chicago Evening Jour- nal, April 29, 1882, Father Badin baptized in Chicago, Alexander Beaubien and his two sisters Monique and Julia and also the mixed blood Potawatomi chief, Alexander Robinson. The state- ment cannot be verified. Though the name of Father Theodore Stephen Badin, the first priest ordained in the United States, has found its way into some accounts of early Catholicity in Chicago as that of the first clergyman to visit the place after the passing of the early Jesuit missionaries, a diligent sifting of the historical evidence bearing thereon fails to bring the Father mentioned into any such connection. Unfortunately, the baptismal records and the other memoranda covering the early period of Father Badin 's long missionary career were lost or EARLY MISSIONARY VISITORS 33 attended the town more than once from his Potawatomi Mission on the St. Joseph, conducting services in Fort destroyed at some time during his stay with the Potawatomi at the Catholic mission-center near Niles, Michigan. (Cf. SPALDING, Si-etches of Early Kentucky, Preface). That Badin was in Chicago in 1796 is asserted by ANDREAS, History of Chicago, 1: 288, and by HURLBURT, Antiquities of Chicago, 382. The source of the assertion may be traced to a communication to the Chicago Evening Journal for April 29, 1882, from the pen of Gurdon Saltonstall Hubbard, one of the pioneer settlers of the city. Therein the writer declares that Father Badin, on the occasion of a visit to Chicago in 1846, presented Mrs. John Murphy, a resident of the city since 1836, with a book of a religious char- acter containing his autograph, saying to her, ' ' this is the fiftieth anniversary of my arrival in Chicago." This obviously would fix the date of Father Badin 's first visit to Chicago as 1796. It is difficult, however, to reconcile this alleged date with certain well authenticated circumstances of the priest's early career. Between the years 1793 and 1819, Father Badin was a missionary in Kentucky, nor does it appear that he made an extended journey outside of the state at any time during that period except once in 1806, when he accompanied Bishop Flaget on an episcopal visitation to Vincennes. In a brochure from the pen of Father Badin published in Paris in 1821 under the title progres de la Mission du Kentucky and also published in the Annales de la Propagation de la Foi and reproduced in an English translation in the Catholic World for September, 1875, the writer states that he was the sole priest in Kentucky from April, 1794, to 1797. Dur- ing this period the nearest Catholic clergyman to him was Rev. Mr. Rivet, stationed at Vincennes on the Wabash River, with whom he exchanged letters but whom he could not visit owing to the demands made upon his time by the scattered Kentucky missions. ' ' But the respective needs of the two missions never permitted them [Fathers Badin and Rivet] to cross the desert in order to visit one another or to offer mutual encouragement and consolation in the Lord." (Catholic World, 21: 826). If Father Badin, during the period 1794-1797 could not afford a visit to his fellow priest at Vincennes, ifc seems quite improbable 34 THE CATHOLIC CHURCH IN CHICAGO Dearborn, on which occasion Mr. Anson Taylor essayed to discharge the duties of Mass-server; but no record that he found time to make a journey of at least twice the distance, such as would bring him to Chicago or what was to become such. Moreover, it is significant that Father Badin, though he comments in the brochure referred to on the hardships of a missionary's life in early Kentucky, makes no mention therein of a journey to the shores of Lake Michigan in 1796, an incident highly deserving of record, had it taken place, nor does Archbishop Spalding in his Kentucky Sketches, a work which supplies many additional details of Father Badin 'a pioneer days down to 1826, make mention of any missionary journey under- taken by the latter in that direction. Finally, the matter appears to be put beyond dispute by Father Badin 's own letters written from Kentucky during the period 1796-1799, in which he makes absolutely no mention of any journey of his outside the state, but on the contrary declares his purpose not to leave his parish- ioners for any great length of time for fear some of them should die without the sacraments. Eecords of the American Catholic Historical Society, 19: 258-275, 454-482. It is impossible there- fore, in the face of the strong available evidence to the contrary, to accept without reserve the statement that Father Badin was in Chicago in 1796. As to the incident referred to above as occurring between Father Badin and Mrs. John Murphy some confusion of dates in the reporting of it would seem to have occurred. In the case of Father Badin 's alleged visit to Chicago in 1822, the evidence to the contrary is more direct. (For mention of this visit cf . Catholic Encyclopedia, art. Archdiocese of Chi- cago ; also MOSES KIRKLAND, History of Chicago 2: 303. "He, [Father Badin] probably never made this point [Chicago] his home, but that he returned in 1822 is shown by an authentic record of the baptism in that year of Alexander Beaubien. As far as known, this was the first administration of the sacrament to any white person within the neighborhood of Fort Dearborn." KIRKLAND. In a letter of Father Badin descriptive of his missionary labors at the Potawatomi mission near Niles, Michigan, which was published in the Annales de la Propagation de la THE OF Tii Father Stephen Theodore Badin, first Catholic priest ordained in the United States, who conducted services in Chicago in Octo- ber, 1830. From an engraving preserved in Saint Mary's Sem- inary, Baltimore, the portrait being an excellent likeness of the subject according to the testimony of the Reverend P. P. Denis, S. S., a personal acquaintance of Father Badin 's. EARLY MISSIONARY VISITORS 35 of any visit to Chicago other than the one mentioned above is to be found in his published letters. 35 The Foi, 6: 154, he narrates a missionary excursion which he made to Chicago in 1830. He prefaces his account, which is extremely meagre in details, with the statement that no Catholic priest had been in Chicago since Father Gabriel Richard's visit. This he declares to have taken place eight years previous to his own visit of October, 1830. (Father Badin is in error here. Father Richard's visit occurred nine years before, in September, 1821. Cf. Annales de la Propagation de La Foi, 3: 342). The inference therefore must be drawn that Father Badin, on his own admission, was not in Chicago between September, 1821, and October, 1830. As to the authentic record of the baptism of Alexander Beaubien by Father Badin at Chicago in 1822, to which Kirkland makes reference in the passage cited above, no evidence that such record exists has come to hand. EDWIN O. GALE in his Eeminiscences of Early Chicago and Vicinity, 131, gives the date of Alexander Beaubien 's baptism by Father Badin as 1829. ' ' His [Jean Baptiste Beaubien 's] son, Alexander, who was born here on January 28, 1822, claims at this writing, May 1900, to be the oldest living person born in the place he believes himself to be the first child baptized in this vicinity. Father Stephen T. Badin was a Catholic priest who came to Chicago with the Indians from St. Joseph's Mission and stopped at the Colonel's house, where the baptism took place in 1829, as there was no church in Chicago at that time." The dates 1822 and 1829 for the alleged baptism of Alex- ander Beaubien by Father Badin, besides being irreconcilable with the missionary's certain absence from Chicago during the period 1821-1830, must also be set aside through evidence fur- nished by the Baptismal Eegisler of St. Mary's Church, Chicago, which contains an entry in Father St. Cyr's handwriting, attesting the baptism on June 28, 1834, of Alexander Beaubien, son of Jean Baptiste Beaubien and Josette Lafromboise. For a sketch of Father Badin, cf. REV. N. J. HOWLET in Historical Records and Studies, U. S. Catholic Historical Society, 4: 101 et seq. 35 Eeminiscences of Augustine D. Taylor, Historical Scrap- 36 THE CATHOLIC CHURCH IN CHICAGO Beaubien baptismal and marriage records of his early missionary career are no longer extant, having been lost some time during his stay among the Potawatomi. The presence of Chief Pokegan in Father Badin's retinue as carrier of the altar equipment lends an interesting touch to the missionary's visit to Chicago in October, 1830. Few more appealing portraits of Indian virtue are on record than that of this well known civil chief of the St. Joseph Potawatomi, whom a tradition, more picturesque than authentic, represents as having rowed the Kinzies across the waters of Lake Michigan from the smoking ruins of Fort Dearborn to a place of safety on the St. Joseph. 36 Chicago was incorporated as a town in June, 1833, * ne first election of town-trustees taking place in August of that year. 37 The Catholics in and around the place book, Library of St. Ignatius College, Chicago. "Father Badin would come here to celebrate services at the headquarters of Col. Whistler in the garrison. Anson Taylor would try to assist him, but did not know the prayers." 36 CHARLES H. BARTLETT, Tales of Karikakee Land. The sup- posed rescue of the Kinzies by Pokegan (Pokagon) and Tope-in- a-bee furnishes the theme of one of these stories of the Potawa- tomi Indians along the Kankakee valley. Interesting side-lights on the character of Pokegan will be found in the Annales de la Propagation de la Foi, 6: 154-165. a? 1 1 rr;h e c i oge O f ^6 y ear 1833 found Chicago a legally or- ganized town. Its population at the time has been variously estimated at from one hundred and fifty to one thousand. No record of any enumeration of the inhabitants is extant, and all statements as to the actual population at that time are estima- tions based on the whims, impressions and rumors of the time. It required a population of 150 to form a corporate town organiza- tion, and it is but probable that Chicago had more than the required number. Based on the number of voters (twenty-eight) THE LIBRARY OF M Col. Jean Baptiste Bcaubien, picturesque civilian figure in the village days of Chicago. A native of Detroit, where he was born in 1787, he settled shortly after the Fort Dearborn massacre in Chicago and there took up and followed with success the occupation of Indian trader. In 1817 he purchased the Dean house, within the limits of the Fort Dearborn reservation, to which tract he afterwards laid claim, the litigation that thereupon ensued being a cause celcbre among Chicago land-suits. The property at stake, embracing the city-blocks between the River, the Lake, Madison and State Streets represented real-estate hold- ings of fabulous value today. The chain-of -title of the Mont- gomery Ward and Company property at Michigan Avenue and Madison Street, originally (1839) purchased by Father O'Meara from the Government as a second site for Saint Mary's Church, includes a quit-claim deed from Col. Beaubien, whose claim to the Fort Dearborn reservation was in the end definitely re- jected by the United States Supreme Court. EARLY MISSIONARY VISITORS 37 numbered at this time about one hundred and thirty. As the total population of the town, according to a calcula- tion made by Andreas on the basis of the poll-list of the election of August, 1833, did not exceed 140 at that date, the Catholics must have comprised the larger part of the inhabitants. The majority of them were either pure French or of mixed French and Indian blood. The most conspicuous figure among the Chicago Catholics was Jean Baptiste Beaubien. He was born in Detroit of a French-Canadian family settled there early in the eighteenth century. A quick, shrewd intelligence, com- bined with a good address and a fair degree of educa- tion enabled him to take an important and often a controlling part in public affairs. Probably it is a testimony to his standing in the community greater than may at first sight appear that he presided in the capacity of moderator over the meetings of the village debating society, the first organization of its kind Chicago knew. His claim to a large tract of land on the lake-front in Chicago, the same on which he had settled as early as 1817, though allowed by the State Supreme Court of Illinois, was rejected by the Supreme at the first election and allowing a population of 5 to each voter, the resident population was 140 in August, 1833, at the time the first election was held." ANDREAS, 1: 129. The petition addressed in April, 1833, by the Catholics of Chicago to Bishop Eosati of St. Louis declared their number to be 100. The signers of this petition, together with the members of their families, actually numbered 128. Patrick Shirreff, an English traveller who visited Chicago in 1833, estimated the number of houses in the town at about a hundred and fifty; from which it would appear that Andreas 's estimate of the popu- lation of the town at that date as only one hundred and fifty is considerably below the mark. See QUAIFE, op. cit., 349. 38 THE CAfTHOLIC CHURCH IN CHICAGO Court of the United States, and he tasted the bitter experience of seeing his home sold over his head. 38 88 HURLBURT 's Chicago Antiquities, pp. 302-326, "Beaubi- eniana," contains detailed information about the famous "Beau- bien Claim." See also ANDREAS, History of Chicago, I, for sketches of Jean Baptiste Beaubien (p. 84) Mark Beaubien (p. 106) Alexander Robinson (p. 108) and Billy Caldwell (p. 108). The Beaubiens of Detroit were conspicuous in the early history of that city. The Antoine Beaubien farm of over three hundred acres included the ground now covered in part by the buildings of the University of Detroit and until recently by the Convent of the Sacred Heart on Jefferson Avenue, the site and endowment for the latter being a gift to the nuns from Antoine Beaubien. An idea of the numerous connections of the Detroit Beaubiens may be gathered from the fact that their names alone fill about one hundred and twenty-pages in Father Christian Denissen's monumental Genealogy of Detroit French Families, now preserved in MS. in the Burton Historical Collection of De- troit. It is interesting to note in this connection that Colonel Jean Baptiste Beaubien was a claimant to an interest in the Antoine Beaubien farm in Detroit, and on one occasion attempted to institute ouster proceedings against property-owners in the district ; but he was as unsuccessful in having his Detroit claim allowed by the courts as he was in the case of his Chicago claims. For a contemporary protest against the ejection of Colonel Beaubien from his Chicago home on Michigan Avenue, within the limits of the old Fort Dearborn Reservation, see the Daily American, June 18, 1839 (Chicago Historical Collection). "Shall the veteran citizen who has resided here during all the horrors of savage warfare, who has undergone all the privations and vicissitudes of border life for more than twenty years shall he be forced to seek another resting place for his aged limbs? Shall he be forced to provide a new home for his wife and little ones? Shall he, the hospitable and generous old man whom we all know and respect be driven from a little remnant of the soil for which he fought and in which some of his offspring repose in everlasting sleep? Justice, humanity and Christian EARLY MISSIONARY VISITORS 39 Mark, a younger brother of Jean Baptiste Beaubien, Mark was also a notable figure in the pioneer stage of Chicago history. He came to the place in 1826 and after pur- chasing of James Kinzie a log-cabin which stood on the east side of Market Street a short distance south of Lake Street, built a frame addition to it in which he opened a tavern and hotel. The hotel bore the name of the Sauganash in honor of the mixed-blood Potawa- tomi chief, Billy Caldwell, to whom had been given the soubriquet of Sauganash or Englishman. Besides the Beaubiens, there were among the Catholic residents of Chicago in 1833, Antoine Ouilmette, a settler there since 1790 and one of the first white men to take up his residence in the place; Claude and Joseph Lafram- boise, traders of mixed French and Indian blood, orig- inally from Milwaukee; Pierre Le Clerc, (Pierish Le Claire) also Indian mixed-blood, who fought in the Fort Dearborn affair and in his capacity of interpreter arranged the terms of surrender; and Daniel Bourassa, whose cabin stood on the west side of the river a short distance south of the forks. 39 charity forbid." Beaubien 's claim rested on his purchase May 28, 1835, at the land office in Chicago, of the southwest fractional quarter of section 10, etc., a tract twenty-five acres in extent, the price paid being $1.25 an acre. The tract, which was known as the Fort Dearborn Military Eeservation, comprised the land bounded by State and Madison Streets, the river and the lake. When the suit was decided definitely against Beaubien, he was required to deliver up the receipt issued to him by the Land Office, the purchase money being thereupon refunded to him. In- teresting data concerning the Beaubiens will be found in the article, The Beaiibiens of Chicago, by Frank O. Beaubien, son of Mark Beaubien, in the Illinois Catholic Historical "Review, 2: 348-364. 40 THE CATHOLIC CHURCH IN CHICAGO Buiy The Chicago Catholics at this period included also Alexander the two half-breed Potawatomi chiefs, Billy Caldwell Robinson and Alexander Robinson. They were widely and favor- ably known as loyal friends of the whites. Though not present at the Fort Dearborn massacre, they are said, though the truth of the tradition has been questioned, to have arrived on the scene the day following and succeeded by their influence in saving the lives of the Kinzies and others who had escaped the fury of the 39 Pierre Le Clerc (Pierish La Clair or Le Claire) accom- panied his Potawatomi kinsfolk to the Council Bluffs and Kaw River reserves. According to Richard Smith Elliott, Indian Agent at Council Bluffs, a daughter of his was educated at the Sacred Heart Convent in St. Louis. Le Claire was one of the Potawa- tomi orators that went to Washington in 1845 to discuss the cession of the Iowa reserve to the Government. ' ' Peerish Le Claire, in Indian lingo, was to refer to some former treaties, the promises of which had not been kept by the government, and was to expatiate on the charms of the country about Chicago where the frogs in the marshes sang more sweetly than birds in other parts, a land of beauty which they had ceded to the government for a mere trifle, although it had been their home so long that they had traditions of Pierrot, the first white man who ever set foot upon it two hundred years ago." ELLIOTT, Notes Taken in Sixty Tears, St. Louis, 1883, p. 208. Le Claire died at the Kaw River reserve March 28, 1849, attended in his last moments by a Jesuit priest from the Catholic Potawatomi Mission of St. Mary's, Kansas. Le Claire's name, with those of Joseph Laframboise and Half Day, was attached to a petition addressed to the government in 1848 in favor of the establishment of Catholic schools among the Potawatomi of the Kansas reserve. Files of the Indian Bureau, Washington. The name of the Potawatomi chief, Half Day, is borne by a village of that name on the Chicago-Libertyville road. EARLY MISSIONARY VISITORS 41 Indians on the fateful August 15, 1812. Later the two chiefs were instrumental in restraining the Potawatomi from participation in the Winnebago and Black Hawk wars. Caldwell, the son of an English army officer and a Potawatomi woman, was attached to the Indian hero Tecumseh in the capacity of secretary, and fought with him at the battle of Thames, in which the latter per- ished. He moved with his Potawatomi kinsfolk to the Council Bluffs reservation, where he died September 28, 1841. Alexander Robinson was the son of a Scotch trader and an Ottawa woman. He married in 1826 Catherine Chevalier, daughter of the chief of a Potawa- tomi band, on whose death he succeeded to the chieftancy of the band. He received from the government a reservation of land on the Desplaines River, where he died in 1872. 40 40 Alexander Robinson 's cabin 011 the banks of the Desplaines was about six miles north of Riverside, Township of Leyden, Cook County, Illinois. In November, 1920, the forest preserve district of Cook County acquired title to eighty acres of the original Robinson reserve, the price paid being $12,600. The Circuit Court gave permission to Mrs. Mary Ragor, a daughter of the chief, eighty-five years old, to continue to reside on the lands, on which she was born. The chief's two daughters, Cynthia and Mary, were pupils at the Sisters of Mercy Academy, Wabash and Madison Street, in the early 'fifties. "Among the pupils of St. Xavier's Academy and boarding School in the days that I am recalling, were the daughters of Chief Robinson of the Pota- watomi tribe of Indians. I must say that the two girls, Cynthia and Mary Robinson were the best behaved girls in the school. They were in every way a credit to the school. The chief and his wife would often come in from the Reservation at Desplaines, in 1852, and stop at the convent all night." MRS. B. K. GAR- 42 THE CATHOLIC CHURCH IN CHICAGO Catholics other than those of French or Indian stock were few in Chicago v in 1833. The most prominent of this element were the two Taylors, Anson and Augustine Deodat, both converts from Episcopalianism. In 1832, Anson, with his brother Charles H., built at Eandolph Street the first bridge over the Chicago River, the Pota- watomi Indians defraying one-half of the expense. Augustine Deodat Taylor, who arrived in Chicago in the summer of 1833, was an architect and builder. His was the distinction of erecting the first four Catholic churches in the town, St. Mary's, St. Patrick's, St. Peter's and St. Joseph's. Chicago, as was noted above, came under the juris- diction of the Bishop of Bardstown on the erection of the latter see in 1808. But this new ecclesiastical dis- trict was too vast in extent to be administered by a single hand and even in the lifetime of Bishop Flaget ten dioceses were formed out of its territory. By ar- rangement with that prelate and Bishop Rosati of St. Louis, the latter was given the power of Vicar- General of the Bishop of Bardstown for the "Western moiety of the State of Illinois." 41 This arrangement RAGHAN, 'Reminiscences of Early Chicago, in Illinois Catholic Historical 'Review, 2 : 266. See also in the same Review, 2 : 357- 361, a graphic account of Robinson's friendly intervention in favor of the whites during the Black Hawk War. 41 The Metropolitan Catholic Calendar for 1834, p. 95, uses the terms, ' ' one-half the State of Illinois acjolning the Missis- sippi River." As early as 1818, Bishop Du Bourg had arranged with Bishop Flaget to take care of the Catholic settlements on the east bank of the Mississippi. SPALDING, Life of Bishop Flaget, 177. According to Rev. John Rothensteiner (Illinois Catholic Historical Beview, 2: 412), "the impression at this time EARLY MISSIONARY VISITORS 43 appears to have been later modified so as to bring the northeastern portion of Illinois also under the provi- sional jurisdiction of the Bishop of St. Louis. Ecclesi- astically, Chicago thus became dependent on St. Louis. Respectable, prosperous, with a population of 10,000 contrasting with Chicago's paltry 150 and with almost seventy years of recorded history to look back upon, the metropolis of Missouri might well command the attention and respect of the mushroom settlement of yesterday at the outlet of the Chicago River. As a circumstance pointing in some measure to the greater importance of the older settlement, it may be noted that some of the pioneer residents of Chicago had even at this early date found their way to St. Louis or its vicinity. We have seen above that members of the Le Mai and Pointe de Saible families of Chicago had their children baptized in St. Louis in 1799. Again, Captain John Whistler, who established Fort Dearborn in 1803, and more than any one else, in the opinion of Quaife, deserves to be called the "Father of Chicago," was later stationed at Jefferson Barracks, St. Louis, [1833] was that Bishop Rosati desired to have the entire state of Illinois placed under his jurisdiction. Bishop Flaget states that 'Bishop Rosati exercises his jurisdiction upon a vast tract of the Illinois, but he has never determined the line where he ceases exercising his administration.' Baltimore seemed favorable to his claims. But Bishop England together with Bishop Rese of Detroit and Bishop Dubois of New York formed a party as against the followers of the Archbishop of Baltimore. The fact that only two-thirds and not the whole of the State of Illinois was placed under Bishop Rosati of St. Louis in 1834 is owing to the exertions of Bishop England. Of course all were working for the good of the Church as they saw it." 44 THE CATHOLIC CHURCH IN CHICAGO where he died in 1829. 42 To cite still another instance, Captain Heald, commandant of Fort Dearborn at the time of the massacre and the central figure in the tragedy, was later a resident of St. Charles, Missouri, some twenty-five miles to the west of St. Louis. 43 But we do not recall any instance of St. Louis people at this early period shifting their residence to Chicago. 42 Cyclopedia of National Biography, 6: 463. The name of Major William Whistler, son of Captain John Whistler, is signed to the 1833 petition of the Chicago Catholics. Three children of John Whistler and Esther Baillie, the former a son of Major William Whistler, were baptized by Father T. O'Meara, June 15, 1838, in St. Mary's Church, Chicago. 43 QUAIFE, op. cit., 405. TH ll& OF Father John Mary Irenaeus St. Cyr, 1803-1883, first Catholic resident priest of modern Chicago. From a photograph of date sometime in the 'seventies. CHAPTER II THE PASTORATE OF FATHER ST. CYR, 1833-1834 Under the impression that they were within the Petition of bounds of his spiritual jurisdiction, the Catholics of Chicago addressed themselves to the Bishop of St. Louis when they resolved in 1833 to petition for a resident pastor. Their petition ran as follows : "We, the Catholics of Chicago, Cook Co., 111., lay before you the necessity there exists to have a pastor in this new and flourishing city. There are here several families of French descent, born and brought up in the Roman Catholic faith and others quite willing to aid us in supporting a pastor, who ought to be sent here before other sects obtain the upper hand, which very likely they will try to do. We have heard several persons say were there a priest here they would join our religion in preference to any other. We count almost one hundred Catholics in this town. We will not cease to pray until you have taken our important request into considera- tion." i 1 ANDREAS, History of Chicago, 1 : 289. The following signed the petition, the figure after each individual's name indicating the number of persons in his family : Thomas J. V. Owen, 10 ; J. B. Beaubien, 14; Joseph Laframboise, 7; Jean Pothier, 5; Alexander Robinson, 8 ; Pierre Leclerc, 3 ; Alexis Laframboise, 4 ; Claude Laframboise, 4 ; Jacques Chassut, 5 ; Antoine Ouilmet ; Leon Bourassa, 3 ; Charles Taylor, 2 ; J. Bt. Miranda and sisters, 3 ; Louis Chevalier and family, 3 ; Patrick Walsh, 2 ; John Mann, 4; B. Caldwell, 1; Dill Saver, 1; Mark Beaubien, 12; Dill Vaughn, 1 ; James Vaughn, 1 ; J. Bt. Babbie, 1 ; J. Bt. Poulx ; 45 46 THE CATHOLIC CHURCH IN CHICAGO The appeal of the Catholics of Chicago to Bishop Rosati reached him at a providential juncture. A few days before it came into his hands, he Had raised to the priesthood a young Frenchman, John Mary Irenaeus St. Cyr, whose services were now available for whatever corner of the Lord's vineyard the prelate might see fit to assign him. Accordingly, under date of April 17, 1833, Bishop Rosati signed a document charging Father St. Cyr with the spiritual care of the Catholics of Chicago. 2 J. B. Tabeaux, 1 ; J. Bt. Durocher, 1 ; J. Bt. Brodeur, 1 ; Mathias Smith, 1 ; Antoine St. Ours, 1 ; Bazille Desplat, 1 ; Charles Monselle, 1 ; John Hondorf , 1 ; Dexter Apgood, 1 ; Nelson Peter Perry, 1; John S. C. Hogan, 1; Anson H. Taylor, 1; Louis Francheres, 1 ; a total of 122. If to the list we add, the entry on the reverse side of the petition, "Major Whistler's family about 6" the total becomes 128. The original copy of the peti- tion is endorsed with these dates "Received April 16, 1833. Answered April 17, 1833." The above list has been compared with the original document (in French) in the St. Louis Arch- diocesan Archives and inaccuracies occurring in Andreas 's version of the same have been corrected. 2 The original of this document was recently presented by Archbishop Glennon of St. Louis to Archbishop Mundelein of Chicago. The translation cited is in Andreas, op. cit., 1: 290. Bearing the same date as Bishop Rosati 's commission to Father St. Cyr is a letter addressed by that prelate to Bishop Flaget. "Having received a petition "of the Catholics of Chicago, who regarded me as their diocesan bishop and demanded of me a priest, showing the danger of losing a concession of two thousand acres of land which the chiefs of the Pottawatomies with the consent of the government have made to the Catholic Church, by virtue of the powers of Vicar General, which you have given me, I will send Mr. St. Cyr, but on condition that when the limits of the diocese are fixed I can recall him. ' ' Illinois Catholic Historical Review, 2: 412. The original of this letter, in French, is in Bishop Rosati 's Letter-Book, IX. Names affixed to petition of the Catholics of Chicago to Bishop Rosati of Saint Louis for a resident priest. On the reverse side is the entry, "Major Whistler's family, about 6. ' ' The document is endorsed in Bishop Rosati 's hand- writing "Received April 16, 1833. Answered April 17, 1833." Saint Louis Archdiocesan Archives. OF THE PASTORATE OF FATHER ST. CYR, 1833-1834 47 "Joseph Rosati, of the Congregation of Missions, by the grace of God and of the Apostolic See, Bishop of St. Louis, to the Rev. Mr. John Irenaeus St. Cyr, priest of our diocese, health in the Lord : Rev. Sir:- Whereas not a few Catholic men inhabiting the town commonly called Chicago, and its vicinage, in the State of Illinois, have laid before me that they, deprived of all spiritual consolation, vehemently desire that I shall send them a priest, wlio, by the exercise of his pastoral gifts, should supply to them the means of performing the offices of the Christian religion and providing for their eternal salvation : wishing, as far as in me lies, to satisfy such a de- sire, at once pious and praiseworthy, by virtue of the powers of Vicar-General to me granted by the most illustrious and most reverend Bishop of Bardstown (Ky.), I depute you to the Mission of Chicago and the adjoining regions within the State of Illinois, all of which have hitherto been under the spiritual administration of the said most illustrious and most reverend Bishop of Bardstown, [and I] grant you, until re- voked, all the powers as described in the next page, with the condition, however, that as soon soever as it shall become known to you that a new Episcopal See shall have been erected and established by the Holy Apostolic See from the territory of other sees now existing, to that Bishop within the limits of whose diocese the aforesaid Chicago mission is included, you shall render an account of all those things which shall have been transacted by you, and surrender the place to such priest as shall be by him deputed to the same mission, and you, with God's favor, shall return to our dio- cese from which we declare you to be by no means separated by this present mission. Given at St. Louis from the Episcopal building, the 17th day of April, 1833. JOSEPH, Bishop of St. Louis. Jos. A. LUTZ ; Secretary." Father John Mary Irenaeus St. Cyr was a native J T oJ * arv 1. &t. C2/7* of France, having been born November 2, 1803, at 48 THE CATHOLIC CHURCH IN CHICAGO Quincie, Canton of Beaujeu, in the archdiocese of Lyons. 3 He spent four years at an elementary school in his native place, and seven years at the college of Largentier. Having there completed his classical studies, he entered the Grand Seminary of Lyons, where he studied philosophy and theology. In the beginning of June, 1831, he left the land of his birth for America and arrived in St. Louis in August of that year, being one of the first clerical recruits secured at this period for the diocese of St. Louis through the agency of the French Association for the Propagation of the Faith. Having spent eighteen months in the seminary of "the Barrens," Perry County, Mo., he was ordained deacon in 1832 and on April 6, 1833, was raised to the priest- hood by Bishop Rosati. Twelve days later he set out from St. Louis for his new field of labor in northern Illinois in company with Mr. Anson Taylor, who had been dispatched from Chicago to serve as escort. 4 A journey of twelve days brought the pair to Chicago, 3 A letter of Father St. Cyr's to the Hon. John Wentworth of Chicago, written in the early eighties, supplies most of the data embodied in the sketch of the priest in Andreas, op. cit., 1. Historical Scrap-Book, Library of St. Ignatius College, Chicago. A number of documents bearing on the life of Father St. Cyr, including certificates of baptism and holy orders are reproduced in the Illinois Catholic Historical Eeview, 1: 323-327. Father St. Cyr's departure for Chicago was reported in the Shepherd of the Valley, (St. Louis, Mo.), April 20, 1833. 4 Bishop Rosati 's Private Diary (Ephemerides Privatae) in the Saint Louis Archdiocesan Archives contains this entry under date of April 18, 1833: "Pransi apud PP. Societatis in Collegio. D. St. Cyr profectus est Chicag. " "I took dinner with the Fathers of the Society [Jesuits] at the College [St. Louis Uni- versity]. Mr. St. Cyr set out for Chicago." Et. Rev. Joseph Bosati, member of the Congregation of the Missions and Bishop of Saint Louis, who in the same year, 1833, gave Chicago and Kansas City their first resident priests in the persons respectively of Father John Mary Irenaeus St. Cyr and Father Benedict Eoux. The years of Bishop Bosati 's episcopate (1826-1843) witnessed a vast deal of missionary effort put forth from St. Louis for the upbuilding of Catholicism in the Missis- sippi Valley and beyond. He was born in Italy in 1789 and died in the same country, at Eome, September 25, 1843. THE PASTORATE OF FATHER ST. CYR, 1833-1834 49 May 1, 1833. About a month later, June 4, Father St. Cyr made his first report to Bishop Rosati on the religious outlook in the new field. "If I have delayed so long to send you news, you may be sure that this is not owing to negligence or much less to st - Cyr to any lack of good will on my part. The fact is that as I have (j hi ' no acquaintance as yet with the people of Chicago and do not j une 4, 1333 know how they stand as to the establishment of religion in their town, I have wished to sound them a little to the end that I may be less uncertain as to what to say to you about conditions here in the matter of religion. While the number of Catholics is large, almost all of them are entirely without knowledge of the duties of re- ligion. Still, the regularity with which they are present at Mass every Sunday and the attention and respect with which they assist thereat, give reason to hope that with patience and some Sunday instructions, we shall be able, with God's help, to organize a congregation of good Catholics. Many Protestants, even of the most distinguished of Chicago, appear to be much in favor of the Catholic religion, in particular Mr. Owen, the Indian agent, as also the doctor and several other respectable families who come to Mass every Sunday and assist at it with much respect. 5 The people of Chicago have taken up a subscription amounting to 261 dollars, and they hope to go even some- what beyond that. Mr. [Jean] Baptiste Beaubien gives a site on which to build the church. However, despite all the fair prospects held out in every way by this town of Chicago, 5 Thomas Joseph Vincent Owen, a native of Kentucky, U. S. Indian Agent at Chicago, was elected a member of the first Board of Trustees of the Town of Chicago, and by the board elected first president of the same, (an office corresponding to that of mayor). He signed his name to the petition addressed by the Chicago Catholics to Bishop Rosati in April, 1833, representing a group of ten. He died on October 15, 1834, and his funeral services were conducted by Father St. Cyr according to the Catholic rite. St. Mary's Church Records, Chicago. 50 THE CATHOLIC CHURCH IN CHICAGO despite the fine promises made to provide the priest with everything necessary for his support, despite all the honor and courtesy and marks of respect with which the residents of the place received me and which they continue to show me daily to the chagrin of the Protestant ministers, I should have reason to complain, Monseigneur, were you not to send me some assistance at the start to relieve my needs; for I should not have money enough even to pay postage on a letter were I to receive one, nor do I know how I am going to pay the transportation charges on my trunk, when it comes, unless I have some help from you beforehand. I cannot say Mass every day, as I should like to, for I cannot always obtain the wine and candles. I am eager to go to St. Joseph's, as soon as [Rev.] Mr. Badin shall have returned from Ken- tucky, but . It is true, as you will tell me, that the Catholics have promised to furnish everything necessary for the support of the priest. Yes, Monseigneur, but they are going to start to build a little chapel and a presbytery with money contributed by them for the purpose. Therefore, if the money contributed falls short of the cost of the buildings, I shall be constantly in want. As to what the Indian chiefs are reported to have promised for a Catholic church, nothing certain is known up to this; we must wait and see what the outcome will be of the treaty that is to take place next fall. The eagerness shown by the people of Chicago, the Protestants even, to have a Catholic church, allows us to place great hopes in the future. Every Sunday so far, I have given an instruction alternately in English and French. I aim particularly to remove prejudices by showing as clearly as possible in what the teaching of the Church consists. In my first instruction I explained the meaning of the invoca- tion of the saints, the difference there is between praying to God and praying to the saints, the meaning of the venera- tion paid to images and relics and the doctrine of the Catholic church regarding purgatory. The second Sunday I preached in English on the unity of the Church of Jesus Christ. I showed its necessity, bringing out also how this unity is found in the Catholic Church. On Ascension day I preached THE Lin OF TiiS _jT o o a c3 M a* w S cs jp := -r o * yf ^ 3 03 ^ S il^QQ M p os Q -^ i3 _i EC p^3 ^.2 to *. < !a 3S'.g -- >^S s l 0522 . B ^ S SB *H ^H C! 2 cS QJ -i-T 7i ^2 03 -g Lj ^ Mr. St. Cyr, who was pleased to charge himself with the task of having it forwarded to me, but was owing to the fact that when he arrived at Hotway [Ottawa], he found the water too low to enable him to proceed by river as far as Chicago, and was obliged to take another route, by land, to his destination at Mackina [w]. My trunk accordingly remained at Hotway [Ottawa] until the eighteenth of this month. I am very much surprised that the Missal was not found, for the third book I came to when I opened my trunk was the Missal [?]. And what I told you in my first letter, Mon- seigneur, happened to me just so, namely, that I shouldn't have money enough to pay for the transportation of my effects. This cost me two dollars and a half and these I had to borrow from Mr. Beaubien, who shows me every kindness imaginable. I have received a letter from [Rev.] Mr. Deseille, who is at St. Joseph in [Rev.] Mr. Badin's place; he urges me to go to St. Joseph, but this is impossible as I have not a penny with which to defray the expenses of the Journey. 8 I beg you, 7 ANDREAS, op. cit., 289, 315. 8 Father Deseille was missionary to the Potawatomi Indians of Northern Indiana and Southern Michigan from 1833 to his death in 1837. As no priest could reach him in his dying mo- ments, he dragged himself to the altar of his humble chapel, opened the tabernacle door and communicated the sacred species 54 THE CATHOLIC CHURCH IN CHICAGO Monseigneur, to send me a little money to relieve my present needs. Perhaps the future shall find me better off in this respect. I am well aware that the people should provide for all my needs; they have promised to do so. If I can have from them the wherewithal to build a little chapel, I shall consider myself very fortunate and I hope that with the grace of God and the assistance of charitable souls, our Divine Savior will have a temple in Chicago where he will dwell continually in the midst of us by his real presence in the Blessed Sacrament of the Altar. Our subscription for the church amounts now to 332 dollars; but according to the building plans agreed on, we shall need five hundred dollars. It will be 36 feet long, 24 wide and 12 high. As to the land which the Indian chiefs are reported to have promised, we cannot count on it, seeing that [Rev.] Mr. Baclin, to whom the Indians made the promise, did not fulfill the conditions of the contract in virtue of which the Indians offered to give a certain amount of land toward the building of a Catholic church, for their own use, however. Another thing which causes me much pain. I cannot say Mass during the week, or rarely so, for lack of the necessary articles. But, Monseigneur, I must tell you in all sincerity that this mission holds out the fairest hopes for the future and that to abandon it for lack of some little assistance, of some small sacrifices, would be a great loss for religion, a loss all the greater and more certain now that a Presbyterian minister arrived in Chicago from some other place a few days ago. 9 to himself as viaticum. See The story of fifty years, p. 19. (Notre Dame Press). 9 This was apparently the Eev. Jeremiah Porter, founder of the first Presbyterian Church of Chicago, who arrived in the city on May 13. His Journal, which appeared in the Chicago Times in 1877, has this reference to Father St. Cyr: "The first priest residing here was Father St. Cyr with whom I had some friendly interviews in my study which I had built near my 21 2 M . 5' E&o -, fl> BIS s 2 P vT- p * ^ ? w 9 a i s enclosed two others, one addressed to Mr. J. B. Beaubien and the other to Mr. Robert Stuart. I have delivered each one to its address. 11 Both gentlemen offered very willingly to pay me the fifty dollars; but I shall receive the money only at the conclusion of the treaty which began last Saturday and will fromboise as their principal men, in whom they have unlimited confidence and in whose decision in all matters relating to their people they fully acquiesce; and to use their own language, they wish their great Father, the President, and Secretary of War to permit no interference with the treaty of Chicago so far as it relates to the country ceded west of Lake Michigan." Thomas J. V. Owen, Indian Agent at Chicago, to Lewis Cass, Secretary of War, November 17, 1834. Files of the Indian Bureau, Washington. In this same documentary depositary is the hitherto unpublished official ' ' Journal of the proceedings of a Treaty between the United States and the United Tribe of Potawatomies, Chippeways and Ottawas, " a source to be drawn upon when the history of the Chicago treaty of 1833 is adequately written up. One passage from the Journal is pertinent here. " Way-mich-soy-go. When you called us into council at Prairie du Chien [1829] we were troubled and knew not what to do. We then appointed these men (pointing out Caldwell and Eobin- son) our chief counsellors. We are one flesh, they have been raised amongst us. So long as they live, they were chosen to manage our business. Whatever they say and do we agree to. They will take time and council together and determine what shall be done." 11 Robert Stuart was agent for the American Fur Company of Chicago and one of the controlling figures in the affairs of that powerful concern. 58 THE CATHOLIC CHURCH IN CHICAGO finish the middle of next month. At this treaty a decision will be reached as to whether we are to get the lands which the Indian chiefs promised to give towards the support of a Catholic establishment in their midst. More than 1,000 Indians are gathered here for the payment. Yesterday I said Holy Mass four miles from Chicago before a congregation of con- verted Indians recommended to me by their pastor [Rev.] Mr. Deseille, who could not accompany them to the treaty, as he is the only priest at St. Joseph. Besides the Catholic Indians of St. Joseph, a great many other Indians from Mackina[w] and Green Bay assisted at Mass. They had arranged a pretty altar under a tent. Their modesty, their good behavior during the most Holy Sacrifice and their respect for priests touched and edified me exceed- ingly. The Catholics of Chicago, together with those from St. Joseph who came to attend the treaty, gathered there in great numbers to hear Mass. The Catholics sang French hymns at the beginning of the Mass. Then the Indians sang the Credo in their own language, but to the same air to which *?e sang it, and they sang, besides, a number of beautiful hymns. Three carpenters are working at present on my little chapel. I hope it will be finished by Sunday or at least during the oourse of the following week. 1 saw Mr. Menard on Saturday. 12 He gave me a letter for you. So far, I have not received the books you were so good to send me. I hope to receive them today, as soon as Mr. Menard's effects shall have arrived here. Monseigneur Reze spent a little while here on his return from Green Bay. He gave me ten dollars for my church and 12 Pierre Menard, Sr., of Kaskaskia, 111., was the first Lieu- tenant Governor of the State of Illinois and a foremost figure in the early political life of the commonwealth. He held the title at one time to valuable North Side property in Chicago subsequently acquired by the Kinzies. For a sketch of Pierre Menard, Sr., see MOSES, Illinois Historical and Statistical, 1 : 289 ; also, MASON, Early Chicago and Illinois. Mark Beaubien, brother of Jean Baptiste Beaubien. He came to Chicago in 1826 from Monroe, Michigan, and was for a time proprietor of the Sauganash Hotel at Market and Lake Streets, where he gave hospitality to Father St. Cyr on the latter 's arrival in Chicago in 1833. From a minia- ture loaned to the Chicago Historical Society by Mrs. Emily Lebeau, daughter of Mark Beaubien. THE PASTORATE OF FATHER ST. CYR, 1833-1834 59 ten dollars for myself. His visit was extremely short as the steamboat left the same day it arrived." I received fifteen days ago a letter from Monseigneur Flaget in which he announces the death of two of his priests and of four religieuses. There is no particular sickness except bilious fever, which, however, has not been dangerous. I had an attack of it myself for fifteen days. I buried last week a little child, which I had baptized only a short time before. There is no news which might interest you, Monseigneur, apart from the extraordinary growth of Chicago, which only a little ago was nothing but a small village. Now there is a street a mile long [Lake Street] and soon there will be two others of the same length. But, unfortunately, piety will not flourish any more on that account. The mention made by Father St. Cyr in the preced- ing letter of the Potawatomi treaty of 1833 and of the Catholic services conducted on that occasion before the assembled Indians recalls the fact that the Potawatomi had a direct share in the first formal organization of the Catholic Church in Chicago. A communication from Mr. Thomas J. V. Owen, U. S. Indian Agent at Chicago, to Mr. Ansoii H. Taylor under date of April 4, 1833, declared that "at the petition of the principal chiefs of the Potawatomi tribe of Indians to the President of the United States, permission was given them to donate to the Roman Catholic Church four sections of land on the Desplains or Chicago River near the town of Chi- cago, for the purpose of establishing a seminary of 13 Monsignor Frederick Rese [Eeze] was at this time Bishop- elect of the newly founded diocese of Detroit. He was con- secrated in Cincinnati, October 6, 1833, three weeks after his visit to Chicago. He resigned his episcopal charge in 1837 and returned to Europe. 60 THE CATHOLIC CHURCH IN CHICAGO learning. 14 " The intention of the Indians to subsidize a Catholic school or college by a grant of land from their extensive holdings was, for some unknown cause, never embodied in the treaty of 1833, and on that account no advantage ever accrued from it to Father St. Cyr or his successors. Further testimony to the good will of the Potawatomi to the Catholic Church was the cir- cumstance already noted that the petition of April, 1833, on the part of the Catholic residents of Chicago for a resident priest, addressed to Bishop Rosati, was signed by the two Potawatomi chiefs, Billy Caldwell and Alexander Robinson and by numerous persons of mixed French and Indian blood, like the Laframboises and Chevaliers. Moreover, it was with the help of Indian women that Father St. Cyr's church was swept and put in order in preparation for the first services and the humble place of worship often echoed to the hymns which the Indians were taught to sing. 15 14 St. Louis Archdiocesan Archives. The Shepherd of the Valley, (St. Louis, Mo.), January, 1834, has the following: "A letter recently received from Chicago, 111., states that the Indians near that place have received a large tract of land for the purpose of establishing a Catholic mission among them, and are only waiting the arrival of a priest to commence erecting a mission house and church. ' ' Governor Porter of Michigan, one of the three commissioners who negotiated the treaty of 1833, assured Father Badin that the petition for four sections of land would meet with success. Badin to Bishop Eeze, October 31, 1833, Files of the Indian Bureau, Washington. Bishop Reze in October, 1834, was still seeking information re- garding the fate of the four sections. 15 Recollections of Augustine D. Taylor. Historical Scrap- Book in Library of St. Ignatius College, Chicago. The name and date of the newspaper cannot be identified. Anson H. Taylor, builder with his brother Charles H. Taylor of Chicago's first bridge (1832), which was of trestlework and spanned the river between Lake and Randolph Streets. He had come to Chicago in 1829. A convert from Episcopalianism, he journeyed to Saint Louis in the Spring of 1832 to escort Father St. Cyr to Chicago and the following Summer hauled with his own team the lumber which his brother, Augustine Deodat Taylor, used in the construction of the first Saint Mary 's Church. He died in his seventy-third year at Lakeside, Cook County, Illinois, May 9, 1878. From a photograph in the possession of his daugh- ter, Miss Monica Taylor, of Hubbard Woods, Illinois. THE OF Tti THE PASTORATE OF FATHER ST. CYR, 1833-1834 61 Father St. Cyr said the first Mass in the new church in October, 1833, for the Catholic Indians, 300 in num- ber, who had come to Chicago from South Bend for their annunities. Work on the structure had been fin- ished by its builder, Augustine Deodat Taylor, only the day before and the Indians began at once to sweep and clean the little place of worship in preparation for the opening services. The church, however, was still unplastered, and as there was no prospect of collecting additional money from the people of Chicago, who had contributed to the limit of their means in defraying the initial expense, Father St. Cyr determined to solicit aid from the Catholics of St. Louis. He wrote, November 23, to Bishop Rosati: "For over a month my little chapel has been finished in St. Cyr to a manner decent enough to enable us to say Mass without in- Rosatl > & i j ^ November 88, convenience every Sunday and week day up to the present. 18S3 But the cold which is now beginning to make itself felt more keenly over these vast prairies makes the chapel almost unin- habitable, for it is still unplastered. The impossibility of say- ing Mass in it during the winter as also the impossibility of having it plastered owing to the slender means at present at our disposal, make it necessary for me to go down to St. Louis to do a little begging. Thus, together with what the people here have promised still to give, (though I scarce put any trust in their pledges), I shall have quite a pleasant chapel, small though it be. Another motive which induces me to make a trip to St. Louis is that Thursday next we are going to open a school in Avhich three languages, French, English and Latin, are going to be taught. Mr. Kimber [ ?] who is 40 years old, will be in charge; he is a good singer and speaks English, French and Latin very well, but as we cannot find here the books needed by the children, I will take ad- vantage of the journey to secure them. 16 16 No mention of a Catholic school in Chicago apart from 62 THE CATHOLIC CHURCH IN CHICAGO Up to the present, we have had Mass and Vespers sung every Sunday with all the solemnity possibile under the cir- cumstances. People enter into these services with great ear- nestness. I have hopes that with the grace of God and the charity of the faithful and in spite of all difficulties and miseries, it will be possible to organize a congregation of good Catholics here in Chicago. Next "Wednesday, if nothing stands in the way, I am going to leave for St. Louis with the firm resolution of return- ing as soon as possible, so as not to lose time (if such be your wish in the matter, Monseigneur)." Father St. Cyr undertook his contemplated journey to St. Louis, whence he returned to Chicago in the late spring of 1834. 17 Here, however, now that we see his the above occurs in any of Father St. Cyr 's letters. It seems likely that some reference to so important an adjunct to the church would have been made by the Father in his subsequent correspondence with his Bishop had the school actually been set on foot. The first school in Chicago was opened in 1816 by William Cox, a discharged soldier of Fort Dearborn. The first school con- ducted along regular lines was taught by Stephen Forbes in June, 1830, in a building owned by one of the Beaubiens, which stood at what is now the crossing of Randolph Street and Michigan Avenue. The first Sunday school in Chicago, organized August 19, 1832, by members of the Methodist Episcopal denomination, held its initial sessions in a small frame building erected shortly before by Mark Beaubien. ANDREAS, op. cit., 1: 289. " Bishop Eosati 's Private Diary (Ephemerldes Privatae) con- tains the item, "1833, 31 Dec. statui D. St. Cyr Sti. Ludovici retinere toto hieme, 'I have decided to keep Mr. St. Cyr in St. Louis all winter.' " Father St. Cyr, according to the same Diary, was present at the consecration of the church of St. James in Potosi, Mo., April 27, 1834. THE PASTORATE OF FATHER ST. CYR, 1833-1834 63 little chapel, as he describes it, thrown open for divine service, we may retrace our steps a little and gather up some additional details concerning the erection of Chi- cago's first Catholic house of worship. On his first arrival in Chicago Father St. Cyr had st. Mary's become the guest of Mr. Mark Beaubien, proprietor of the Sauganash, the best known of the pioneer hotels of the city. For a year or more he enjoyed gratis the hospitality of Mr. Beaubien, who from the very first interested himself in the most direct way in the priest's plans for a Catholic church in Chicago, discharging in this connection the duties of chairman of the building fund. Moreover, it was in a log building about twelve feet square, situated on the west side of Market Street, across from the Sauganash and occupied by one of Mr. Beaubien 's laborers, that Father St. Cyr conducted services pending the erection of the church. 18 As a site for the latter, Mr. Jean Baptiste Beaubien, Mark's elder brother, offered for the nominal sum of two hundred dollars a lot at the southeast corner of Lake and Dear- born Streets occupied subsequently by the Tremont House. 19 The Catholics of Chicago, however, were un- 18 Father St. Cyr's first Mass in Chicago, May 5, 1833, was celebrated in the above mentioned house on the west side of Market Street. The Sauganash stood, not on the southeast corner of Lake and Market Streets, as it is sometimes stated, but almost eighty feet to the south on the east side of Market Street. See CATON, The Last of the Illinois and a Sketch of the Pota- watomies, 29, in Fergus Historical Series, 3. 19 1 ( rpjjg mos t historical lot in Chicago undoubtedly is the one occupied by the Tremont House In 1833, Captain Luther Nichols refused to give Baptiste Beaubien forty cords of 64 THE CATHOLIC CHURCH IN CHICAGO able to collect this amount, in addition to what they had already subscribed for the church, and in conse- quence Jean Baptiste's offer could not be accepted. The latter shortly afterwards sold this lot to Dr. Wil- liam Egan, who in 1836 disposed of it, so it is said, for the sum of $60,000. Taking advice of Mr. Beaubien and Colonel Owens, the Indian agent, Father St. Cyr now decided to build the church on a canal lot at the southwest corner of Lake and State streets, the last named thoroughfare not having been as yet laid out. The lot adjoined or almost adjoined the military reserv- ation around which was a fence enclosing a number of acres of cultivated land. It does not appear that Father St. Cyr purchased this property or acquired any sort of title to it, though he did obtain a guarantee that no bid would be admitted higher than the valuation to be placed on it by the canal commissioners. At all events, it was on this Lake Street lot, occupied in later years by the printing house of Cameron, Amberg & Co., that wood for it and wood was then worth $1.25 a cord." 'Recollec- tions of J. D. Bonnett, in ANDREAS, op. cit., 1 : 137. According to Kirkland, Story of Chicago, 1 : 157, the lot offered by Col. Beaubien to Father St. Cyr for a church-site was on the north side of Lake Street between Dearborn and State, being lot 7 of block 16, in size 80x150 feet. On September 27, 1830, Col. Beaubien bought, it being the first public sale of lots held in Chicago, ten lots at an aggregate cost to him of $346. Among them were two lots, one at the northwest, another at the southeast corner of Lake and Dearborn Street, the first being the original and the second the later site of the historic Tremont House. Col. Beaubien 's ten lots bore a valuation in 1853 of $450,000 and in 1891 of $2,480,000. The story of the financial reverses of this redoubtable pioneer, Chicago's heaviest tax-payer in 1825, John Kinzie and Antoine Ouilmette coming next, is a chapter of tragic interest in the early history of the city. TKE UMARY OF Ttf ' Augustine Deodat Taylor, builder of six of Chicago's pioneer Catholic Churches, including the four earliest, Saint Mary's, Saint Patrick's, Saint Peter's, Saint Joseph's. He came to Chicago in 1833, four years later than his brother Anson, and was thereafter a resident of the city up to his death. From a photograph in the possession of his niece, Miss Monica Taylor of Hubbard Woods, Illinois. THE PASTORATE OF FATHER ST. CYR, 1833-1834 65 the first Catholic church of Chicago was erected under the name of St. Mary's. On the same lot with the church stood a house built by a Mr. Dexter Graves, who, like Father St. Cyr, had built on the property only after he had received a guarantee that it would not be sold at a price in excess of the valuation to be fixed by the canal commissioners. "When eventually the lot came on the market at the commissioners' appraisement of $10,000, Mr. Dexter Graves became the purchaser at that figure, the Catholics of Chicago finding it beyond their means to raise so considerable a sum. 20 20 Letter of Father St. Cyr to Hon. John Wentworth, (His- torical Scrap-Boole, St. Ignatius College Library, Chicago). This letter is the basis of the account in ANDREAS, op. cit., 1 : 290, from which the following additional details are cited: ' ' In the meantime, not anticipating the high price at which the lot would be appraised, they erected thereon a church build- ing, twenty-five by thirty-five feet in size. The lumber for this building was brought in a scow across the lake from St. Joseph, Mich., a brother of Augustine Deodat Taylor, with his own team, hauled it from the schooner to the site of the prospective church. Augustine D. Taylor was the architect and builder. The total cost of the edifice was about $400, but though small and in- expensive it was not completed sufficiently for occupying and dedication until in October. Catholic Indians assisted at the first Mass celebrated therein. Indian women had cleaned and prepared the modest building for the celebration of the sacred rite, and Deacon John Wright, a strong supporter of Eev. Jere- miah Porter, pastor of the first Presbyterian church, had, in August, assisted in raising the frame of the building. At this dedication service there were present about one hundred persons. The church itself Was not plastered, it had only rough benches for pews and the simplest of tables for altar and pulpit. The outside of the building was not painted and it had neither steeple nor tower. Some time afterwards it was surmounted by a low, open tower, in which a small bell was hung, being the 66 THE CATHOLIC CHURCH IN CHICAGO Shortly after his return to Chicago from St. Louis, Father St. Cyr wrote to Bishop Rosati, June 11, 1834 : St.Cyrto i arrived in Chicago the fifth of this month, (June, osa i, 1834) to the great astonishment of the people, who thought I was never going to return. They were pleased to see me again. Last Sunday we had High Mass, the church being full of people despite the bad weather, and in the afternoon we sang Vespers. A great many Americans assisted at the services. I cannot give you the population of Chicago exactly. The common opinion is that there are two thousand inhab- itants in town and every day you may see vessels and steam- boats put in here from the lake crowded with families who corne to settle in Chicago. Every day new houses may be seen going up on all sides. Surgunt moenia Trojae. In the course of my journey I saw or visited nearly all the Catholics of Illinois. I performed 13 baptisms and 4 marriages and gave the Catholics of Sugar Creek, Deer Creek, South Fork and Springfield an opportunity to make their Easter duty. Eighteen miles above Peoria I found several Catholic families who so far have not been visited. I could not stop there but I promised to visit them when I should return from Chicago. As I learn that [Rev.] Mr. Fitzmaurice is at Galena, am I to remain in Chicago or is he to take on himself the duty with which I have been charged, namely, of visiting Chicago from time to time? 21 I await your orders in this first bell used in Chicago to call the pious together for religious worship. It was the size of an ordinary locomotive bell of the present, and could be heard for only a short distance." Augustine D. Taylor, builder of the church, relates in his Reminiscences, published in one of the Chicago dailies, that when he went to collect his bill from Mark Beaubien, the treasurer of the building fund, the latter pulled from under his bed a half- bushel basket of shining silver half-dollars, such as the Govern- ment used in paying the Indians their annuities. 21 Father Charles Fitzmauriee, a native of Ireland, joined THE PASTORATE OF FATHER ST. CYR, 1833-1834 67 matter; please be so good, Monseigneur, as to let me know as soon as possible what I am to do." Bishop Rosati's prompt reply to Father St. Cyr's inquiry in regard to Galena elicited from the latter a communication under date of July 2, 1834, in which he sets forth his views concerning the proper place to station the missionary who was to attend to the spiritual needs of the Catholics of Central Illinois. "I have just received your letter under date of June 20, St.Cyrto by which I learn that [Rev.l Mr. Fitzmaurice is at Galena and Rf atl - Jiili/ 2 1834 will remain there definitely. I am greatly pleased with the news as it relieves me of the considerable uneasiness I should have felt had I been obliged to visit this 'place according to the charge you first gave me. As to the Catholics whom you tell me about in your letter, Monseigneur, I am acquainted with them, have met them and know where they live. Despite all this, I cannot visit them so long as I remain in Chicago, in view of the fact that they are 150 miles from where I am stationed and that I cannot meet the expenses I am obliged to incur in running from place to place. What is more, my health would allow it less at the present time than ever. As to the most centrally located place from which to visit all the Catholics of Illinois, and I gave the matter particular attention during my journey from St. Louis to Chicago, it is in my opinion Springfield, 100 miles from St. Louis and a little over 200 miles from Chicago. Here is the place I should pick out for headquarters, as being the most suitable for the purpose. But you see at the same time that I cannot visit the Catholics of Illinois on account of the great distance in- tervening between the settlements and the difficulties to be met with in traveling over the prairies. Hence, either Chicago the St. Louis diocese in 1834. He left St. Louis on May 22 of that year for Galena, to which place he was assigned by Bishop Eosati in succession to Father McMahon, who had died the year before. Shepherd of the Valley, May 23, 1834. 68 THE CATHOLIC CHURCH IN CHICAGO or the Catholics of Illinois are to be neglected or else some other measures must be taken. Now, Monseigneur, it is for you to decide as you judge best. Only, whether you judge it proper that I remain in Chicago or leave it, kindly let me know as soon as possible, because, if I am to remain here at least some time longer, the people are going to enlarge the church by 24 feet and build a presbytery. It would disappoint and even discourage them were we now to abandon them after having put them to so much expense. We have had 34 [ ?] pews put in the church, some for four and some for six persons. Last Sunday, I gave first Communion to four distin- guished persons, Madame Beaubien, whom I baptized with one of her children, Madame Juneau Solomon [Solomon Juneau], etc. A large number of Catholics approached the sacraments. 22 The population of Chicago increases daily; the town num- bers now about 2,400 inhabitants. People here are anxious to know when the Bishop will be appointed. They would like to have him in Chicago. If you judge it expedient that I remain in Chicago until another priest comes, please tell [Rev.] Mr. Lutz to secure for me the books which I suggested that he send me at the first opportunity. They are books I should find of the greatest utility here, but I have been without them, as I could not take them with me when I left St. Louis. I should be gratified to know, Monseigneur, whether the books of which I gave you a list that you might have them brought from the Barrens are at length in St. Louis." It may be noted in connection with the above letter of Father St. Cyr that he had been preceded in his 22 Madam Beaubien (Josette Laframboise), second wife of Col. Baptiste Beaubien, and her son, Alexander Beaubien, were baptized by Father St. Cyr on June 28, 1833. Madame Juneau was the wife of Solomon Juneau, the founder of Milwaukee and first mayor of that city. THE PASTORATE OF FATHER ST. CYR, 1833-1834 69 ministry to the Catholics of Springfield and other localities in Sangamon County, Illinois, by the Jesuit missionary, Father Charles Van Quickenborne, who established the Missouri Province of the Society of Jesus in 1823. Father Van Quickenborne 's baptisms in Sangamon County, dating as early as 1832, are, among the earliest, if not the earliest recorded for that part of the state of Illinois. 23 23 Allusion may here be made to the statement appearing at intervals in the Catholic press that Father St. Cyr, on occa- sion of these ministerial visits to the Catholics of Sangamon and adjoining counties in Illinois, often said Mass in the house of Thomas Lincoln, father of the future President, Abraham Lin- coln. The most authoritative version of the statement in question is furnished by Archbishop Ireland in a letter communicated to the editor of the American Catholic Historical Researches, 22 : 207. ' ' I happen to be able to furnish a slight contribution to the discussion by repeating, without peril of mistake, what the old missionary, Father St. Cyr, was wont actually to say touch- ing Catholicity in the Lincoln household. Father St. Cyr was a priest of the diocese of St. Louis, from which in early days the scattered Catholics of Southern Illinois received ministerial at- tention. He was a remarkable man, intelligent to a very high degree, most zealous in work, most holy in life. I knew him when in later years he was chaplain to the Sisters of St. Joseph, of Carondelet. He held in vivid recollection the story of the Church in olden times through Missouri and Illinois. It was a delight and a means of most valuable information to sit by and converse with him. In 1866 he spent a month visiting me in St. Paul. Here is his statement, as I then took it down in writing, regarding the Lincoln family. 'I visited several times the Lincolns in their home in Southern Illinois. The father and stepmother of Abraham Lincoln both were Catholics. How they had become Catholics I do not know. They were not well in- structed in their religion; but they were strong and sincere in their profession of it. I said Mass repeatedly in their house. Abraham was not a Catholic; he never had been one, and he 70 THE CATHOLIC CHURCH IN CHICAGO never led me to believe that he would become one. At the time Abraham was twenty years old or thereabouts, a tall, thin young fellow, kind and good-natured. He used to assist me in pre- paring the altar for Mass. Once he made me a present of a half dozen chairs. He had made those chairs with his own hands, expressly for me; they were simple in form and fashion as chairs used in country places then would be.' " Without raising the question of the value to be attached to the testimony of Father St. Cyr in regard to the alleged Cath- olicity of the Lincoln family, it may here be stated that there were certainly Catholic connections of the President's family settled in Hancock County, Illinois, where they were visited by Father Van Quickenborne in his missionary rounds during the early thirties. (The Van Quickenborne baptismal records for Illinois are in the Archives of St. Mary's College, St. Mary's, Kansas. See also an important article, "The Lin- coins of Fountain Green" in the St. Louis Globe-Democrat, February 9, 1899). One of these Hancock County Lincolns, Abraham Lincoln by name and a first cousin of the President, figures in a baptismal entry in Father Van Quickenborne 's records. ' ' But to return to the Fountain Green Lincolns. The religion of the family was Eoman Catholic. The brothers, Abra- ham and James, were members of the Catholic church in Ken- tucky and they are all buried in the old Catholic cemetery a short distance from the village of Fountain Green, as are other members of the family." Journal Illinois State Historical So- ciety, 8: 62. It seems probable that in Father St. Cyr's recol- lections of later years the Sangamon County Lincolns were con- founded with the Catholic Lincolns of Hancock County. The Et. Rev. Simon William Gabriel Brute, first Bishop of Vincennes, in the territory of which diocese Chicago was included during the period 1834-1843. Ascetic, litterateur, educator and tireless worker in the ministry, Bishop Brute is an outstanding figure of interest and charm in the story of the early develop- ment of Catholicism in the United States. Engraving by J. A. O'Neill from a cast taken after death. The only portrait of the prelate known to exist and according to his biographer, Bishop Bayley of Newark, "a good representation of his features." \ CHAPTER III BISHOP BRUTE AND THE MISSION OF CHICAGO By the Bull, Maximas inter, Gregory XVI erected Diocese of in 1834 the diocese of Vincennes, comprising the state of Indiana and Illinois east of a line from Fort Massac along the eastern boundaries of Johnson, Franklin, Jefferson, Marion, Fayette, Shelby and Mann Counties, to the Illinois river, eight miles above Ottawa, and thence to the northern boundary of the State. 1 Eastern Illinois and with it Chicago thus fell within the limits of the new ecclesiastical district and the story of Catholicism in that rapidly growing town became for a decade a chapter in the history of the diocese of Vincennes. The choice of. the Bishops of America, ratified by Simon Gregory XVI, for incumbent of the newly erected see, ^briei fell upon Father Simon William Gabriel Brute de Brute Remur, at the moment professor of theology in Mt. St. 1 SHEA, History of the Catholic Church in the United States, 3: 640. "It seems to me, and I have answered to that effect, that my true limits in Illinois being a meridian drawn from Fort Massac to the Falls of the Illinois river, eight miles above Ottawa, everything to the West belongs to the diocese of St. Louis, as the town of Shelbyville, Decatur, Bloomington, Ottawa." Brute to Eosati. The full text of the decree of Gregory XVI de- nning the limits of the diocese of Vincennes is translated in the Illinois Catholic Historical Review, 2 : 411. 71 72 THE CATHOLIC CHURCH IN CHICAGO Mary's Seminary, near Emmitsburg, Maryland. Born at Rennes in Brittany, March 20, 1779, this singularly typical Breton Catholic passed through the fiery ordeal of the French Revolution, being eye-witness of many of the gruesome excesses, burnt forever afterwards into his memory, that marked the progress of the great up- heaval. From medicine, in which he graduated with the highest honors, he turned to the priesthood, came to America in 1810, became a member of the Society of St. Sulpice, and was for a period President of the Sulpician Seminary of St. Mary's in Baltimore. Ex- ceptional gifts of mind and heart, a vast range of learning, ardent personal piety, ascetic habits of life, the faith of a Breton peasant, though not of the peasantry himself, engaging manners and an exquisite sympathy for others, made Brute an outstanding figure in every circle in which he moved. His correspondence, distinguished alike in sentiment and literary form, up- held the best traditions of the classic letter-writers of his native land. Friends he made in numbers, among them figures of the highest distinction in the church circles of the day. Mother Seton, foundress of the American Daughters of Saint Vincent de Paul, counted him the most trusted of her spirtual guides. He knew intimately the unhappy De Lammenais and attempted, vainly withal, both in personal visits in France and in letters from the United States to recover that brilliant ecclesiastic for the Church. Such was Simon William Gabriel Brute de Remur, who saw himself summoned by the Holy See to occupy the new See of Vincennes. Bishop England is said to have expressed in council his serious misgivings as to the fitness of this very retiring and unworldly figure, TRIE LITOW OF Tii '"''" ; ~ ^- _ , i The diocese of Vincennes at its birth. Offhand pen-and-ink sketch by Bishop Brute in a letter addressed to Bishop Eosati, March 2, 1835. The congregations under his jurisdiction, so Brute informs his correspondent, "lie off [lit. play] at four corners, 200, 250 miles away from the see, Vincennes." Saint Louis Archdiocesan Archives. BISHOP BRUTE AND THE MISSION OF CHICAGO 73 this ascetic and man of books, for the rough tasks of a missionary-bishop; but all doubts his friends may have entertained as to his fitness for his new duties vanished when they saw him set himself with amazing energy and zeal to cultivate the great spiritual waste of Indiana and Eastern Illinois which Providence had entrusted to his hands. 2 Father Brute was conducting a spiritual retreat for Mother Seton's Sisters at their Mother-house in Emmits- burg, Maryland, when the papal bull appointing him Bishop of Vincennes came into his hands; and he is said to have opened the document in the chapel and read it on his knees. 3 At the first opportunity he went into retreat to determine whether to accept or decline the proffered dignity, drawing up on this occasion, in very precise and lawyer-like fashion, a memorandum of 2 For information concerning this remarkable member of the Catholic hierarchy in the United States, see Bayley, Memories of Bishop 'Brute; R. F. Clarke, Lives of the Deceased Bishops of the United States, 2 : 7 ; Catholic Encyclopedia, 3 : 24 ; Herber- mann, The Sulpicians in the United States. Bishop Du Bourg had already, in 1822, proposed either Brute or Rosati as his successor in St. Louis in case that city were erected into a new See. "I have cast my eyes on two men, one French, the other Italian; the one a Sulpician, who has been in Baltimore for twelve years and is a man of universal knowledge, of eminent sanctity, whose zeal was in the past considered excessive, but which age and experience have toned down to the proper degree; for the rest, possessing in a high degree the power of making himself beloved, because his heart is the tenderest and humblest that I know of, blessed finally with strength proportionate to the immense labors that he would have to undertake." Du Bourg a Plessis, Archbishop of Quebec, in Eecords of the American Cath- olic Historical Society, 19 : 192. 3 BAYLEY, Memories of Bishop Brute, p. 58. 74 THE CATHOLIC CHURCH IN CHICAGO the reasons pro and con. Influenced solely by a high sense of duty, he made his choice for acceptance and set out for St. Louis in September, 1834, to receive consecra- tion. At Bardstown, on the way, he withdrew for some days into retreat to fortify himself by prayer against the grave responsibility he was about to shoulder. And here we find him already anxious over the impending removal from Chicago of Father St. Cyr, whose services that place had been enjoying only through the courtesy of the Bishop of St. Louis. From Bardstown where he met Bishop Flaget he wrote October 5 to Bishop Rosati : Bruttto "it does not seem that Mgr. Reze will be able to come. ^* a **' I regret it exceedingly. He writes me that you are recalling 1834 Mr. St. Cyr from Chicago on account of his health. May I find him better and may I recover in St. Louis the services of this worthy priest. Ah! Monseigneur, you will accord me in my destitution everything you possibly can. I have got abso- lutely no one for Vincenhes on starting out, nor the promise of anybody later on. I can only say the prayer we recite at the ordination of priests Domine haec adjumenta largire qui quanta fragiliores sumus tanto his pluribus in- digemus. [Grant us, Lord, these helps which we need in measure proportionate to our weakness.] I find here only Mr. Picot, whom everybody tells me to leave here. At the Jesuits' place, St. Mary's, good Father Chazelles grants me Father Petit, but only for the moment of installation and a few days after. 4 They tell me that Mr. Badin will be able to make his 4 Saint Mary 's College, near Lebanon, Marion County, Ken- tucky was at this time under the management of a colony of French Jesuits, Father Chazelles being Superior. Father Louis Petit, one of their number, who accompanied Brute to Saint Louis for the latter 's consecration, is not to be identified with Father Louis Benjamin Petit of the secular clergy, the Potawatomi missionary, who went with his Indian charges on their forced journey from Indiana to the West in 1838. BISHOP BRUTE AND THE MISSION OF CHICAGO 75 residence at Fort Wayne. From there up to Logansport there are, so they say, about 2,000 Irishmen engaged on the work of opening a canal, whom it would be well to attend to in the near future. But we shall reserve all these matters for the conversations we are soon to have." 5 On September 30 Bishop-elect Brute had already written to Bishop Rosati representing that he might find it necessary to appeal to "the great, rich and splendid metroplis of Missouri" for financial help to enable him to continue his journey to St. Louis "But I do very wrong to obtrude into matters that ought to be left to you, good and wise Bishop. I pass the pen to Mgr. Flaget and on both knees ask your blessing. ' ' Bishop Flaget 's post-script runs as follows : "What modesty, humility, simplicity in these few words Flaget to written by the new Bishop-elect! It all edifies me and puts Rosatl > .,1111 ,i ,- -r-i , i n i T i September 30, me to the blush at the same time. For the five days I have 1834 been in the company of this successor of the Apostles, I have done nothing but admire and bless the Providence which com- passes mightily its designs by means inexplicable and such as would be reputed folly in the eyes of wordlings. The figure, rather odd, of this excellent prelate; the ceaseless motions of his fingers, hands, head and whole body when he speaks; his 5 Saint Louis Archdiocesan Archives. Numerous unpublished letters of Bishop Brute are preserved in various Catholic deposi- taries throughout the country. His correspondence with Bishop Eosati comprising 138 letters is in the Saint Louis Archdiocesan Archives (Saint Louis Catholic Historical Eevieiu, 1: 33) and his correspondence with Judge Gaston is in the Catholic Archives of America, Notre Dame University. All in all, abundant orig- inal material is extant for an authoritative first-hand biography of Bishop Brute. With the exception of the letter to Mother Rose, the Brute letters incorporated in this sketch are here pub- lished for the first time from the French originals in the Saint Louis Archdiocesan Archives. 1 6 THE CATHOLIC CHURCH IN CHICAGO language, English pronounced exactly like French and coming from a mouth that is almost toothless, all this would seem perforce to render him useless for the post assigned him, not to say laughable and ridiculous. But, mon Dieu, when he speaks of our Divine Lord, of His love for men, of His con- tinual spirit of sacrifice, etc., my heart dilates and is aglow like that of the disciples of Emmaus. I am beside myself; I hope then against all hope and look forward to wonder upon wonder to be wrought by this venerable Apostle. To give you a slight idea of his perfect abandonment to Divine Providence, in the more than twenty letters which he has written to Mgr. David and myself on the bishopric of Yincennes, the number of Catholic missionaries, etc., he has never said a word about his episcopal revenue or about his palace, its furniture, etc.; and so, conformably to these prin- ciples of disinterestedness, he seems to be content as a king, because, of the one hundred and fifty dollars which he col- lected in the East, some $60 or $80 still remain to him now when he has almost reached his destination. For the love of God. bring this veritable and more than episcopal poverty to the notice of the pious and generous souls of St. Louis, so that they will come to his aid not only by meeting the ex- penses he will incur by transferring his consecration to Saint Louis, but by helping him to set up his new household. My dear Brother, I am a beggar for other people, when in all conscience I could be a beggar for myself." From Bardstown Bishop-elect Brute travelled by stage to Saint Louis in company with Bishop Flaget, the Nestor of the Catholic hierarchy in the "West, then in his seventy-second year. The two were caught in a violent storm on the prairie and suffered severely from wet and cold. " L 'incomparable," Brute calls his ven- erable companion as he pictures him drying his breviary before the inn-fire. 6 The travellers assisted at the con- secration of the new Saint Louis Cathedral, which took 6 Bayley, Memories of Bishop Brute, p. 61. BISHOP BRUTE AND THE MISSION OF CHICAGO 77 place October 26, 1834. Two days later, on October 28, followed the consecration of Brute at the hands of Bishop Flaget, assisted by Bishops Rosati and Purcell. Nothing weighed more heavily on the spirits of Bishop Brute in the days immediately preceding his consecration than the spiritual plight in which Chicago was left by the recall to Saint Louis of Father St. Cyr. And yet he was unable to discuss the weighty matter with Bishop Rosati, so absorbed was the latter in prep- aration for the consecration of the new house of worship and in other pressing business. But if he could not confer with the Saint Louis prelate on the Chicago situ- ation, he could at least lay the matter before him in a written memorial. Brute to "The davs are slipping bv. \ou are so busv that I , ,. *, Rosati, cannot see you or rather can see you only at times when you Q Ctober 1834 ought to be giving that over-burdened head and heart of yours some little repose I write to you instead. I beg you to reconsider seriously before the Lord the case of Mr. St. Cyr and grant me him (or else Mr. Roux or Mr. Loisel or Mr. Dupuy) but Mr. St. Cyr is already known and esteemed in Chicago. 7 In this event, (1) I will give him $50 at first and more later on. (2) I will go ahead of him to Chicago immediately after my installation to announce him and to pledge the peo- ple my assistance; and I will return there in the Spring. I beg you to consider (1) that the Holy Father who es- tablishes this new diocese, desires that it be encouraged by the 7 Father Benedict Roux, fellow-countryman and intimate friend of Father St. Cyr, was at this time resident priest among the French Catholics settled on the site of Kansas City, Missouri, whither he was sent by Bishop Rosati in November, 1833. Father Regis Loisel (1805-1845) was the first Saint Louisan raised to the priesthood. Father E. Dupuy was stationed at "The Post" in Arkansas. 78 THE CATHOLIC CHURCH IN CHICAGO neighboring bishops. Mgr. Maget grants me Messrs. Lalu- miere, Ferneding and Badin do you grant me Mr. St. Cyr for the space of a year, during which I shall endeavor to ob- tain some other priests. 8 (2) Be pleased to recall with what zeal and with what respect for the priests of Saint Vincent de Paul and the missionaries of Mgr. Du Bourg, I did all I pos- sibly could in 1816, the critical date of yours' and Mr. De Andreis's arrival; and in 1819 for his second band of mis- sionaries. 9 No sooner had I consented to accept my appoint- ment, than everything failed me at once, money, priests to bring along with me, priests already on the ground Mr. St. Cyr, Mr. Picot, Mr. Petit, each for some different reason money, sisters, everything, and still I am going to be conse- crated. Oh! do make an effort and write again yourself to the Archbishop. If you help to organize this diocese, which you have together created in council, for the Holy Father could not do otherwise than second your desire, within a few years this empty country between yourself and Cincinnati will be filled up those very important points, Chicago and Fort Wayne Vincennes will have its Sisters again. Sisters! Ah, Mon- seigneur, I have done so much to secure them for you. For twenty-five years I have put to use all that I was, all that I 8 Father Simon P. Lalumiere (1804-1857), a native of Vin- cennes, Indiana, welcomed Bishop Brute at his installation in November, 1834. He was a zealous, energetic missionary, identi- fied with the pioneer days of the diocese of Vincennes and died pastor of Saint Joseph's church, Terre Haute, Indiana. A rough sketch-map of the Vincennes diocese drawn by Bishop Brute in a letter to Bishop Eosati, March 1, 1835, indicates "Mr. Ferned- ing 's Germans" as located east of Vincennes towards the Ohio line. Saint Louis Archdiocesan Archives. The Eight Eev. Louis William Valentine Du Bourg, Bishop of Louisiana and the Floridas, was installed in Saint Louis as his cathedral city January 6, 1818. Among the European recruits he brought with him to Missouri was a party of Lazarists or Priests of the Mission, including the saintly Father Felix De Andreis and Father Joseph Eosati, the future Bishop of St. Louis. THE OF v > _^ ,,i -^ 5 ^ ^NT 1 : * ^ vW" "i %? ""^^ 5 i \ x.> I ^ l^lm^ * IvCtJ MPHif ki ?.?.1 i.f^rUK-l is.i4v!?.Hl5i Ill Pi r2 rd S S 00 g TS O jj R 1-1 "^ -4-s i-gh-S 1 S 2 S S s S.g a .2 o " 13 _ F? oo O rC ' :H a .6 w BISHOP BRUTE AND THE MISSION OF CHICAGO 79 had ; and now they make me bishop in spite of all reluctance of mine and against my own personal conviction as to the sphere of well-doing in which I should have been allowed to remain. I have laid before you all my weakness. If you had named a man of talent or enterprise, one made for the place, you might more readily leave him to himself to create his own resources. But with me the case is quite the contrary even my exterior is against me, as Mgr. Flaget and yourself realize, for there is no dissembling the fact. All this calls then for a more generous effort of zeal in the interests of the diocese to which you have together summoned me. Deign then, to pray and deliberate in visceribus Christi and under the eyes, as it were, of His Vicar on earth, who, I am confident, desires only to have his holy enterprise of a new diocese succeed and above all make a good beginning. The occasion of the dedication of a church in regard to which the Divine Goodness has favored you in so admirable a manner, when, too, every one comes to respond with joyful efforts to your simple appeal, will be an auspicious one, I hope, for these simple lines; it is a child and a subject of St. Louis who supplicates and the cause, moreover, is such an urgent one. Grant, I beseech you, the prayer of Your very respectful and devoted brother, SIMON BRUTE. Let me know the answer you return to this memorial on Chicago." Below the signature of the memorial Bishop Flaget wrote, in his characteristically trembling script, the fol- lowing lines: "In the pitiable and truly deplorable situation in which our dear confrere finds himself placed through the choice we have made of him, does not charity, not to say justice even, require that we render the yoke at least bearable for him at his entrance into this frightful desert? And to this end, could you not acquiesce in the petition of Mgr. Brute, which surely is not extravagant, and influence Mr. Condamine, to whom 80 THE CATHOLIC CHURCH IN CHICAGO you will disclose the very great difficulties that beset the poor bishop of Vincennes, to defer for a year his journey to France and remain at his post, thus giving Mr. St. Cyr a chance to return to Chicago and stay there during that period? 10 It appears to me that Mr. Condamine, let his generosity and feeling be ever so slight, cannot fail to enter into your views. Hisce expositis, fac, dilectissime amice, quod tibi placuerit. [These representations having been made, do, my very dear friend, just as you please]." This remarkable joint appeal of the Bishop-elect of Vincennes and the Bishop of Bardstown was not with- out effect. Father St. Cyr was soon dispatched to Chi- cago with instructions to remain there for another year. A communication from Bishop Brute to the Cin- cinnati Catholic Telegraph under the pen-name "Vin- cennes" reveals the satisfaction he felt over the arrange- ment thus made. "From Chicago the Bishop had the pleasing account of the return of the Rev. Mr. St. Cyr, ordained and sent by the Bishop of St. Louis to that most interesting and rapidly grow- 10 Father Matthew Condamine, of French birth, was attached to the Saint Louis diocese during the period 1831-1837. Bishop Flaget, it may be noted here, had expressed his satisfaction to Bishop Kosati over Father St. Cyr's first appointment to the Mission of Chicago, then within the limits of the diocese of Bardstown. ' ' I tell you that you did very well to send Mr. St. Cyr to Chicago and if you could send two to the same dis- trict and even into Indiana, you would greatly tranquillize the conscience of the Bishop of Bardstown." Flaget a Rosati, 17 May, 1833. Saint Louis Archdiocesan Archives. "The Catholic Telegraph published frequently a Vincennes letter from Bishop Brute, the 'French-English' of which Bishop Purcell 'amended' as Mother Seton had done in earlier days." Sister Mary Agnes McCann, Archbishop Purcell and the Archdiocese of Cincinnati, p. 22. BISHOP BRUTE AND THE MISSION OF CHICAGO 81 ing town, the southern port of Lake Michigan, with which a canal will soon connect the Illinois river. He had been re- called to his own diocese, when Chicago with a part of the State of Illinois was attached to that of Vincennes. Our Bishop obtained his return before he left St. Louis after his consecration. A house built on the lot of the church during the absence of Mr. St. Cyr was with kind attention prepared for him. Soon that most promising point may receive Sisters ; perhaps have a large college, for in scarcely three years the town has advanced from a few scattered houses to the aston- ishing progress of about three thousand souls. Who can tell how much of improvement a few years more may enact for such a place. 11 " 11 Cincinnati Catholic Telegraph, January 16, 1835. At the time of Bishop Brute's consecration, there were only three priests in the entire diocese of Vincennes. ' ' Mr. Lalumiere took charge of the Missions in the vicinity of Vincennes, but still 25 or 30 miles distant, and in the whole diocese there were but two other Priests, one Mr. Ferneding, in charge of the German missions 150 miles distant, and Mr. St. Cyr, whom Bishop Eosati had permitted to assist me for one year and who was stationed in Chicago, 225 miles off." Bayley, op. cit., 63. CHAPTER IV. THE PASTORATE OF FATHER ST. CYR, 1834-1837 The winter of 1834-1835, the first which Father St. Cyr spent in Chicago, was a mild one, as winters in that locality usually went. But for one reared in the softer climate of southern France, it was trying enough as the Father intimates to Bishop Rosati: St. Cyr to "I avail myself of the occasion offered through Mr. Rosati, Boilvin who leaves today [January 12, 1835] for St. Louis to let you hear from me. Up to the present my health has been sufficiently good not to prevent me from attending to my duties, though I often experience pains through my whole body, causing me at times not a little suffering. These pains have become more acute, since the cold weather began to moderate a little. The winter is very mild this year and if we are to believe the old Canadian residents, it is no winter at all. To give you a more correct idea of it, we have only 2 [ ?] inches of ice and there has been skating on all the rivers for more than a month; and still they launch bitter complaints heavenward because the ice is not strong enough. Judge from this what a winter here must be when there is one. Labor improbus omnia vincit. Our little chapel is fin- ished at last, but not without many difficulties and annoy- ances occasioned by the mild winter of the Canadians. We have been obliged to keep up a fire constantly day and night to prevent the plaster from freezing, and this for more than three weeks. Only at the end of this time were we able to say Mass, but since then we have had Mass and Vespers sung every Sunday, sometimes to music though that is not always 82 Saint Mary's, the first Catholic Church in Chicago, erected in 1833 by Father St. Cyr on the south side of Lake Street near State, Augustine D. Taylor being architect and builder. The photograph shows it as it stood in its third and last location, on the south side of Madison Street between Wabash Avenue and State Street. Both Cathedral and the first Saint Mary's Church were swept away in the conflagration of 1871. THE PASTORATE OF FATHER ST. CYR, 1834-1837 83 very harmonious. However, they do not fail to make a noise and this is what is looked for here. But it must be observed that if there is discord in our music, it is owing not precisely to any fault or bad will on the part of the musicians but to their lack of instruments. I wrote lately to Cincinnati for song-books. I will also state that though I speak English very poorly, the Americans do not fail to come in crowds to our church every Sunday, and if it is finished, it is partly to their gen- erosity that I owe it. You see from this, Monseigneur, that our little church is far from being put up for sale, as our miracle-worker said on board the steam-boat Michigan (I mean the Presbyterian minister of this town). If there is any church that will keep on growing, it is the Catholic church, though it be small in the beginning, as is only natural. And Jeremiah Porter, Avho boldly takes the name of pastor in a circular to the editor of the St. Louis Observer, deceives himself grossly in taking the name of pastor of a congregation of 60 or 80 members, as he did on board the steam-boat Michigan, when he mistook a piece of ice for a wafer !" x The spring of 1835 found Bishop Brute in Chicago in the course of a canonical visitation of his diocese. An account of the visit was communicated by the Bishop to the Catholic Telegraph of Cincinnati. "Chicago, 7th of May. Of this place the growth has been surprising, even in the West, a wonder amidst its wonders. 1 The incident referred to occurred on board a Lake Michi- gan steamer on which the Rev. Jeremiah Porter, the first Pres- byterian minister in Chicago, was a passenger. A young Catholic by name of Thomas Watkins, also a passenger on the same steamer, gave some ice to two cholera patients on board in ac- cordance with directions given him by the ship's doctor. The minister, who observed the action, concluded somehow that the young man had administered the Eucharist to them. A letter of Watkins in explanation of the affair appeared in the St. Louis Shepherd of the Valley, November 15, 1834. THE PASTORATE OP FATHER ST. CYR, 1834-1837 83 very harmonious. However, they do not fail to make a noise and this is what is looked for here. But it must be observed that if there is discord in our music, it is owing not precisely to any fault or bad will on the part of the musicians but to their lack of instruments. I wrote lately to Cincinnati for song-books. I will also state that though I speak English very poorly, the Americans do not fail to come in crowds to our church every Sunday, and if it is finished, it is partly to their gen- erosity that I owe it. You see from this, Monseigneur, that our little church is far from being put up for sale, as our miracle-worker said on board the steam-boat Michigan (I mean the Presbyterian minister of this town). If there is any church that will keep on growing, it is the Catholic church, though it be small in the beginning, as is only natural. And Jeremiah Porter, who boldly takes the name of pastor in a circular to the editor of the St. Louis Observer, deceives himself grossly in taking the name of pastor of a congregation of 60 or 80 members, as lie did on board the steam-boat Michigan, when he mistook a piece of ice for a wafer !" 1 The spring of 1835 found Bishop Brute in Chicago in the course of a canonical visitation of his diocese. An account of the visit was communicated by the Bishop to the Catholic Telegraph of Cincinnati. "Chicago, 7th of May. Of this place the growth has been surprising, even in the West, a wonder amidst its wonders. 1 The incident referred to occurred on board a Lake Michi- gan steamer on which the Rev. Jeremiah Porter, the first Pres- byterian minister in Chicago, was a passenger. A young Catholic by name of Thomas Watkins, also a passenger on the same steamer, gave some ice to two cholera patients on board in ac- cordance with directions given him by the ship's doctor. The minister, who observed the action, concluded somehow that the young man had administered the Eucharist to them. A letter of Watkins in explanation of the affair appeared in the St. Louis Shepherd of the Valley, November 15, 1834. 84 THE CATHOLIC CHURCH IN CHICAGO From a few scattered houses near the fort it is become, in two or three years, a place of great promise. Its settlers san- guinely hope to see it rank as the Cincinnati of the North. Here the Catholics have a neat little church. Americans, Irish, French and Germans meet at a common altar, assembled from the most distant parts of this vast republic or come from the shores of Europe to those of our lakes. Rev. Mr. St. Cyr is their pastor. They have already their choir supported by some of the musicians of the garrison. Many of the officers and a number of the most respectable Protestants attend. The Bishop on his arrival in the diocese had been invited by the Protestants as well as the Catholics of this place to fix his resi- dence among them and felt his gratitude revived by the kind reception he now received. During his stay he preached three times in English and on Sunday morning administered the sacrament of Confirmation. On the same day Doctor Chase, the late Protestant Bishop of Ohio, preached in the Presby- terian church of Chicago. The environs of Chicago do not appear as favorable for agriculture as the situation of the town is for commerce; but time and industry may do much for their improvement." '" We have seen that Bishop Brute, at the time of his consecration in St. Louis, had arranged with Bishop Rosati to have Father St. Cyr remain in charge of the Catholics of Chicago for at least a year longer. But Father St. Cyr was uncertain what his status would be when this period had run its course. He wrote to Bishop Rosati, August 3, 1835 : St. Cyr to j } iave j us t rece ived a letter from Monseigneur Brute Augusts advising me of his departure for France. According to this -Catholic Telegraph, August 7, 1835. "At Chicago I had only four to confirm and was unable to enlarge the church, the title to the property being uncertain." Brute a Rosati, May 24, 1835. Bishop Brute estimated the Catholic population of Chicago at this period at about four hundred souls. BAYLEY, Memories of Bishop Brute, 69. THE PASTORATE OF FATHER ST. CYR, 1834-1837 85 letter it appears that I am definitely attached to his diocese or at least am to spend the winter in Chicago; but he makes no mention of any new arrangement with you. However, should you have made any contract with him in virtue of which I am attached to his diocese for good or for some longer period than the twelve-month of which there was ques- tion last year, please have the goodness, Monseigneur, to advise me to this effect as soon as possible, that I may know on whom I am to depend for orders and that I may take meas- ures against the severity of the winter. I am very anxious to renew my holy oils my cases are almost dry. Should you find occasion to send me a supply, I shall be a thousand times obliged to you. The town of Chicago is growing rapidly. Immigration was so considerable for a space of almost three weeks that there is fear of a famine. A barrel of flour has sold as high as twenty dollars. Many Catholic families have arrived in Chicago. There is no sickness here, thanks be to God. I learned that the cholera paid you a visit and carried off a number of persons. I asked good [Rev.] Mr. Lutz quite a while ago for some Mass intentions. 3 He seems to have forgotten me en- tirely, and yet I think very often of him. If I am to spend the winter here I intend to take a trip to St. Louis before the end of fall, Deo adjuvants but all this, Monseigneur, depends on the answer you will send me." Bishop Rosati's answer to Father St. Cyr was to the effect that he should remain at his post in Chicago until the return of Bishop Brute from Europe, in which decision Father St. Cyr readily acquiesced. 3 Father Joseph Lutz, born at Odenheim in Germany, did missionary work among the Kansa Indians in 1828 and was sub- sequently assistant pastor at the Cathedral of St. Louis and pas- tor of St. Patrick's Church in that city. An excellent sketch of him from first-hand sources by Rev. Francis Holweck was pub- lished in the St. Louis Pastoral-Blatt, October, 1917. 86 THE CATHOLIC CHURCH IN CHICAGO "Since it is your wish and desire that I remain in Chicago until the return of Monseigneur Brute, this is my wish also and for as long a time as it will be yours. Kindly send me an Ordo as soon as they are printed. I will even make bold to ask you for a half dozen copies of the Pious Guide. If you could find occasion to forward them to me, I shall say Masses ccording to your intentions to defray the expense. Should [Rev.] Mr. Lutz have a German grammar to dispose of in my favor I shall be infinitely obliged to him. Mr. Zender, whom you knew at the Barrens, has been here for some days. 4 He styles himself "doctor and phrenol- ogist distributing Phrenological diplomas, etc." It is probable that he will shortly honor you with a visit. There is nothing of particular note or interest here for the present. Chicago grows larger every day in an amazing manner. Land round Chicago is extravagantly high. Mr. Laframboise's house was reduced to ashes last week and it was only " with great trouble that they saved Mr. Boilvin's which adjoined it. 5 " Though Father St. Cyr was in Chicago in September, 1835 > at the time of the departure of the Potawatomi 1835 Indians of Northwestern Illinois for their new home along the Missouri River, no mention of the incident is to be met with in his correspondence. 6 And yet, with the migration westward of these Indians he lost a num- ber of his parishioners, mixed-bloods like the Lafram- boises, Ouilmettes, and Chevaliers, who had been identi- fied with St. Mary's church from the day that, the 4 The Seminary of the Lazarists, known as the ' ' Barrens, ' ' was established near Perryville, Perry County, Missouri, in 1818. 5 St. Cyr a Rosati, November 2, 1835. "Father St. Cyr's letter of September 5, 1836, to Bishop Rosati contains a reference to a Potawatomi migration occurring at that period, very likely the one under Mr. Kercheval's manage- ment. See infra, p. 91. THE PASTORATE OF FATHER ST. CYR, 1834-1837 87 Catholics of Chicago sent their historic petition to the Bishop of St. Louis. The withdrawal of the Indians from Chicago was marked by circumstances of a dramatic character. Possibly with a view to make a final display of their strength on ground that had been the scene of many of their past triumphs, they marched, one hot day in August, 1835, in procession through the streets of Chicago. Hideously painted and clad in scanty raiment, they started from their rendezvous on the North Side, crossed to the West Side on an old bridge over the North Branch, then crossed the West Branch on Anson's Tayor's bridge near Randolph Street and with fierce war-whoops and savage dancing proceeded along Lake Street to Fort Dearborn. From one of the upper windows of Mark Beaubieii's hotel, the Sauga- nash, Dean Caton watched this final demonstration of Indian tribal spirit in the streets of Chicago, after- wards putting on record the emotions of mingled fas- cination and alarm which the spectacle awakened in those who witnessed it. 7 The emigration of the Potawatomi to the West took place in September, 1835, under the management of Colonel Russell. Moving across Illinois they took a southwestwardly route through Iowa and thus reached the triangular strip of land then claimed by the Sacs and Foxes and later known as the Platte Purchase. 8 Here they tarried for almost two years, not moving up into the lands guaranteed to them by the treaty of 1833 until the middle of 1837. While still occupying the Platte Purchase, they were visited from the Kickapoo 7 CATON, The Last of the Illinois and a Sketch of the Pota- watomies in Fergus Historical Series, 3. 8 Encyclopedia of the History of Missouri [Conard] 5 : 152 ; BABBITT, Early Days at Council Bluffs, 25, 26. 88 THE CATHOLIC CHURCH IN CHICAGO Mission by Father Charles Felix Van Quickenborne, founder of the Missouri Province of the Society of Jesus, who, on January 29, 1837, baptized fourteen Indian children in the Potawatomi camp opposite Fort Leavenworth. The first of the number baptized, Susanne, the six-month old daughter of Claude Lafram- boise and a Potawatomi woman, had William or as he was familiarly known in Chicago, "Billy" Caldwell, for godfather, who also stood sponsor for two more of the children. Other sponsors on this occasion were Claude Laframboise, Toussaint Chevalier, Joseph Chevalier, Francis Bourbonet [Bourbonnois] and Michael Arcoit. Father Van Quickenborne was in fact dealing with a group of ex-residents of Chicago or its vicinity, some of whose names had appeared on the poll-book of the election of 1826, the first in the history of the city. 9 During their occupancy of the Council Bluffs reservation (1837-1848) the Potawatomi were minis- tered to for a while by the Jesuits of Missouri, who opened St. Joseph's Mission at Council Bluffs in re- sponse to a petition from the Indians signed at Fountain Blue on the Missouri River, September 12, 1837, by Wa-bon-su [Wa-pon-seh, Waubansee] and fourteen of his fellow tribesmen. 10 The familiar names of the Chicago half-breed Pota- watomi recur in the baptismal and marriage records of the Mission. 11 On August 15, 1838, Father Peter De The Kickapoo Mission Baptismal Register rests in the ar- chives of St. Mary's College, St. Mary's, Kansas. 10 Files of the Indian Bureau, Washington. 11 These records are in the archives of St. Mary 's College, St. Mary's, Kansas. At Council Bluffs the Jesuit missionary, Father De Smet, made the acquaintance of Billy Caldwell, to whom he THE PASTORATE OF FATHER ST. CYR, 1834-1837 89 Smet, the noted Indian missionary, performed two mar- riage ceremonies at Council Bluffs, the first recorded in the history of the place. The contracting parties were Pierre Chevalier and Kwi-wa-te-no-kwe and Louis "Wilmot [Ouilmette] and Marie Wa-wiet-mo-kwe. Janu- ary 2, 1839, the same priest married William Caldwell to Susanne Misnakwe. That chief again appears as god- father, this time to John Naakeze, baptized at the age approximately of 102 years by Father De Smet, De- cember 29, 1838. In 1848 the Council Bluffs Potawa- tomi were united with the Osage River branch of the tribe on a common reservation along the Kaw River in what is now the State of Kansas. Here they came under the spiritual care of the Jesuits of St. Mary's Mission. The baptismal, marriage and burial registers of that Mission frequently record the names of Beaubiens, Ouilmettes, Laframboises and other former Potawatomi mixed-bloods of Chicago and its vicinity. It is an in- teresting reflection that the Society of Jesus which gave Chicago its first priest in the person of Father Mar- quette and its first resident pastor in the person of the Miami missionary, Father Pinet, found itself for years the spiritual guardian of the Potawatomi Indians, the immediate predecessors of the whites in the occupa- tion of the Chicago terrain and a picturesque factor in the pioneer social life of the future metropolis. In the summer of 1836 Bishop Brute returned from his recruiting journey to Europe bringing with him a thus refers in a letter: "Mr. C[aldwell] though far advanced in years seems to be a very worthy, honest man: he is well dis- posed towards us The chief [Caldwell] has given us pos- session of three cabins." CHITTENDEN AND RICHARDSON'S De Smet, 1: 157. 90 THE CATHOLIC CHURCH IN CHICAGO number of French priests whose services he had secured for his diocese. Of the number were Fathers Celestine de la Hailandiere and Maurice de St. Palais, successors of Bishop Brute in the see of Vincennes. In the arrival of these clerical reinforcements Father St. Cyr saw an opportunity to be relieved of his duties in Chicago and return to the St. Louis diocese. He wrote to Bishop Eosati July 15, 1836 : "I received a letter from Mons. Brute a few days ago in which he gives me to understand that he will be at Vincennes towards the end of July. I beg you therefore, Monseigneur, to recall me to your diocese, as soon as he returns, or rather do you arrange the matter definitely with him; for I cannot remain any more as I am, deprived of everything, even of the succors of my religion, and not knowing to whom to have recourse in cases of necessity." In September, Father Bernard Schaeffer, a native of Strassburg in Alsace, one of Bishop Brute's clerical recruits, was in Chicago zealously co-operating in the ministry with Father St. Cyr, as we learn from a com- munication of the latter to Bishop Rosati under date of September 5, 1836 : "To judge from your letter, it seems to be your wish that I remain in Chicago until Monseigneur Brute has another priest to replace me. Nothing seems to me to be more reason- able; at the same time I do not promise to remain at Chicago another year longer or even to spend the winter there in the situation in which I find myself at present. Be that as it may, the affairs of the church of Chicago are in such state that they allow of no further delay; they constrain me as a consequence to make a trip to St. Louis and from there to Vincennes to confer about them with Monseigneur Brute. I leave the congregation until my return to the zealons care of Mr. Schaeffer, a German priest, who has been here with me for some weeks and is destined for Chicago. , THE PASTORATE OF FATHER ST. CYR, 1834-1837 91 I am bringing two sons of Mr. Deodat Taylor along with me to the college of St. Louis; I hope to leave at the end of this week. 12 I have said five Masses for the repose of the soul of Mr. Condamine. His death has greatly distressed me. All the Indians are here at Chicago. They are receiving their final payment and are going to journey towards the Mis- sissippi. Veteres migrate coloni et dulcia linquimus arva. 13 I long to see you, Monseigneur, as well as Messrs. Lutz and Louis de Fontbonne." In January, 1837, Father St. Cyr conveyed to Bishop Rosati the surprising intelligence that the Catholics of Chicago were unable to support two resident priests : "I am writing you this letter to inform you of a situation st. Cyr to which may appear to you to be somewhat strange; be this Rosati, as it may, I hasten to make it known to you so as to have J anuar v, 1837 a decision from you in answer to this letter as soon as possible and thus know what I am to do under the circum- stances. It is impossible for two priests to live here in Chicago without running into debt. Everything is extraordinarily dear, while the majority of Catholics are poor and without means to support their families. Hotel rates run from $15 to $20 a month. I have myself up to the present time been paying $10 a month; and yet this appears to be a favor towards me from Mr. Medard Beaubien, with whom I have been boarding for more than a year, and to whom I owe a thousand sentiments of gratitude for all the kindnesses which he together with his wife have ever shown in my regard. 14 12 Anson and Deodat, sons of Deodat Taylor of Chicago, were entered in the Mercantile Department of Saint Louis University in October, 1836. Deodat (Adeodatus) was baptized by Bishop Rosati in the University Chapel, January 14, 1838. 13 See supra, p. 86. The Latin which follows is a combination of disconnected lines from Virgil, to be translated, ' ' migrate, old settlers, and, we leave behind these pleasant fields." 14 Medard or Madore Beaubien, son of Col. J. B. Beaubien, 92 THE CATHOLIC CHURCH IN CHICAGO But for several reasons I shall be obliged to go and board elsewhere until my departure. This puts me in the way of incurring debts, while the Catholics, having learned that I am to quit Chicago, make a difficulty about contributing to the support of the priest. The result is that the uncertainty regarding the length of my stay in Chicago has been to me a constant source of trouble and anxiety, and the reason why I have so often lacked the most necessary things. Mr. Schaeffer finds himself almost in the same situation as myself. He declared to me positively yesterday evening that, in view of the circumstances, one of us two ought absolutely to go and start another parish either on the canal or some place else, a thing impossible just now seeing that we have only a single chalice and a single missal. 15 I followed his Potawatomi relatives to the Kaw Eiver Eeserve. He gave the land on which the town of Silver Lake, in Shawnee County, was laid out, and was three times mayor of the town. Silver Lake is twelve miles east of St. Mary's, one-time site of the well-known Catholic Potawatomi Mission. Madore, Beaubien and Theresa Streets in Silver Lake, the last named for Madore 's wife, preserve the memory of this one-time influential citizen of Chicago. See Emma Cowes Richerter, A History of Silver Lalce, Kansas, p. 5. Medard Beaubien had "the reputation of being the handsomest man that was ever in this city He gave as reason for abandoning Chicago, where he was a merchant, that he would rather be a big Indian than a little white man." Hon. John Wentworth. in the Chicago Times, May 8, 1876. 15 The construction of the Michigan and Illinois Canal was authorized in 1835 by a bill of the Illinois State Legislature. The project was meant to provide a Lakes-to-the-Gulf waterway by connecting Lake Michigan and the Chicago River with the Illinois and Mississippi Rivers. ' ' The contractors who had the work in hand, sent circulars to all the seaports of the United States and the Canadas, which were distributed among the emi- grants, who were at this time coming in multitudes to America. Thousands started westward to find ready work and it is a noticeable fact that the majority were from Ireland, as the tide of emigration from the Green Isle to America set in at this time." McGovERN, The Catholic Church in Chicago, p. 14. THE PASTORATE OF FATHER ST. CYR, 1834-1837 93 told him thereupon that I would write to you and do every- thing I possibly could to hasten my departure, already desii-ed so long a while back and yet repeatedly delayed or put off. I shall leave with all the more pleasure that Mr. Schaeffer can now preach in English and hear confessions much better than I could the first time I came to Chicago. I beg you, Monseigneur, to take this matter under con- sideration. I beg you also to tell me, if it be possible, what will be the location of my second mission so I can have the newspapers I receive at Chicago sent to that address; tell me too, what English books from my library, such as I can easily procure for myself elsewhere, I may leave with Mr. Schaeffer, who has almost no books at all. I am going to write directly on this matter to Monseigneur Brute, as will also Mr. Schaeffer. We have not yet received the Ordo. I do not know whether it is to you, Monseigneur, that I ought to apply for it or to Monseigneur Brute. If you could send me a copy, I will discharge Mass intentions, as far as will be necessary." The representations made by Father St. Cyr in the preceding letter were not without effect. He was at last definitely recalled to the diocese of St. Louis, as he in- timates in a communication to Bishop Rosati, March 4, 1837: "I received your letter of February 23 today. I hasten to answer it and to let you know that I shall do every thing in my power to follow out your orders despite great difficulties in the way. If I cannot go on to St. Louis before Holy Week as you desire me to do, it will not be through any lack of good will on my part, but because circumstances will not allow it. It is with considerable pain, Monseigneur, that I s.ee myself forced to sell a portion of my books to pay part of my travelling expenses, and even so, I shall be obliged to borrow money, but from whom I do not know. When I went to Vincennes, I did everything in my power to get a chalice and missal for Mr. Schaeffer. But all my THE CATHOLIC CHURCH IN CHICAGO efforts were in vain, so that you will not take it amiss, Mon- seigneur, if I leave the chalice and missal with Mr. Schaeffer. He will return them as soon as he can procure others in their place. Sacrifice on sacrifice." Two weeks later Father St. Cyr again addressed Bishop Rosati, declaring in emphatic terms his willing- ness to remain in Chicago should the Bishop judge that the good of souls demanded this arrangement. St. Cyr to j ee j cer t am that y OU received my letter, which was March 1837 an answer to your own of February 23, and which notified you that you might expect me in St. Louis for Holy Week, if nothing untoward occurred. However, in spite of my good intentions, I have been unable to realize my own wishes or to comply with yours. The news of my departure coming at the very moment when a large number were making ready to fulfill their religious duties fell like a thunderstroke on the whole congregation, many of whom will be unable to receive the sacraments supposing that I leave next week as I had intended to do in order to be able to reach St. Louis by Holy Week. Hence, Monseigneur, to avoid inconvenience and quiet the people a little I have thought it my duty to defer my departure until after Easter Sunday. I have heard some talk of a petition which they have sent you to prevail upon you to leave me in Chicago. As to myself, Monseigneur, my whole desire is to do the holy will of God, to go and remain where ever the glory of God and the salvation of souls should call me through the voice of my superiors, firmly persuaded as I am that nihil mihi deerit in loco pascuae ubi me collocavit [nothing will be wanting to me in the place of pasture where He hath set me] . If then, Monseigneur, you think it God's holy will that I establish myself definitely in Chicago or its neighborhood, say so boldly, and despite the difficulties that start up on every side, I am ready to obey and submit my will to yours, to embrace with my whole heart this mission of Chicago and share with my worthy confrere, Mr. Schaeffer, its hardships and merits. THE PASTORATE OF FATHER ST. CYR, 1834-1837 95 If, on the other hand, you think it God's will that I return to your diocese, then, cost what it may, I will tear myself away from the midst of my flock and away from my first- born, I will obey and go whithersoever I am sent in the firm conviction that vir obediens loquetur victorias [the obedient man will speak of victories]. For the rest I will leave everything to your decision; what you tell me to do, I will do. Mr. Schaeffer is just now indisposed as a consequence of an attack of headache which he experiences almost regu- larly every month and which torments him severely for the space of forty-eight hours. Yesterday the outskirts of Chicago and Chicago itself were entirely covered with ice and snow. Today everything is flooded for at this moment the rain is coming down in torrents. The roads and streets of Chicago are impassible." The news that Father St. Cyr had been recalled to Potion of Chicago his own diocese of St. Louis came as a shock to the catholics Catholics of Chicago. Eager to retain the services of this zealous priest, they addressed a memorial on the subject to Bishop Rosati. It is a noteworthy testimony to the esteem in which Father St. Cyr was held by his Chicago parishioners, and deserves to be here reproduced in extenso : "To the Rt. Revd. Doctor Rosati, St. Louis : "The undersigned Roman Catholic inhabitants of the town of Chicago have heard with the deepest regret that you have recalled the Revd. Mr. St. Cyr from this Mission and as such an event would in their opinion be productive of injurious consequences to the cause of Catholic truth in this place, they humbly beg leave to call your attention to the actual situation of our people in this Mission and request that you will carefully consider all the circumstances previous to such removal. They would in the first place inform your Grace that the Revd. Mr. St. Cyr by his exemplary conduct, great zeal 96 THE CATHOLIC CHURCH IN CHICAGO in the cause of religion and incessant perseverance has en- deared himself to every member of our congregation and is highly esteemed by the members of other denominations, and having acquired a sufficient knowledge of the English language to enable him to preach and instruct with fluency and elo- quence, they conceive that his removal would be a subject of bereavement to the whole congregation. That his associate Rev. Mr. Schaeffer although equally distinguished for piety and zeal has but an imperfect knowl- edge of the English language and is consequently unfitted for discharging the spiritual duties of a pastor among an English population. That we have in this town two thousand and perhaps more Catholics as there are a large number of Catholic families in the adjacent country particularly on the line of the Chicago and Illinois canal, the great body of labourers on which are Catholics, to all of whom the clergy here must render spiritual assistance. The attention therefore of a clergyman speaking the English language will be indispens- ably necessary and they would humbly represent that nothing but the most urgent necessity should induce the removal of a man from such a vast field of labor who is so beloved and revered by his congregation. That as our church is totally inadequate to contain the fourth part of the attending congregation, we have taken the preliminary steps to erect a new chapel capable of ac- commodating our large and increasing society. The removal of the Revd. Mr. St. Cyr will operate to retard and delay the work so much desired not only by Catholics but by various members of other denominations. That as this is the most important place in the State, as the population is so rapidly increasing that we can in a few years justly expect a Catholic population of several thousand and as one clergyman cannot possibly discharge the duties annexed to it, good policy as well as duty require that we should have clergymen stationed here capable by their example of inspiring respect, by their talents of dissipating ignorance and prejudice and by their zeal and perseverance of building THE PASTORATE OF FATHER ST. CYR, 1834-1837 97 up in this new region the imperishable monuments of our holy religion. We therefore humbly entreat your Grace not to deprive us of a dearly beloved pastor at the commencement of his usefulness, but to leave him Avhere his zeal and virtues are so well appreciated and so likely to respond to the best in- terests of the church. 16 " The efforts of the Catholics of Chicago to retain the services of Father St. Cyr were not successful. He left Chicago for St. Louis, April 17, 1837, and in the following June was assigned by Bishop Rosati to the mission of Quincy, Illinois, from which place he made periodical excursions to the Catholics of the neighboring counties. 17 16 St. Louis Archdiocesan Archives. 17 Father St. Cyr 's baptismal, marriage and burial records, all contained in one register now resting in the parish archives of St. Mary's Church, Chicago, afford authentic information of his ministerial activities during his stay in Chicago. On May 22, 1833, he baptized George, son of Mark Beaubien and Monique Nadeau. This, as far as can be ascertained, is the first adminis- tration of the sacrament in Chicago attested by documentary evi- dence. Among the baptisms subsequently conferred by Father St. Cyr in Chicago were the following: June 5, 1833, Caroline, daughter of Jean Baptiste Beaubien and Josette Laframboise. Godparents: John Whistler and Esther Bailly. June 5, 1833, Marguerite, daughter of Solomon Jnneau and Josette Vieau. (Solomon Juneau was the founder of Milwaukee.) June 17, 3833, Francis, son of Francis Bourbonnois and Ho- setta Ashani of Ottaway (Ottawa). August 30, 1833, Francois, son of Joseph Laframboise and Jacquet Peltier. Godparents: Mark Beaubien and Josette La- framboise. June 28, 1834, Joseph, son of John Welsh and Marie Louise Wimette. (This is the first person of Irish extraction whose baptism is recorded in Chicago.) Marie Wimette (Ouilmette) 98 THE CATHOLIC CHURCH IN CHICAGO Brute's jf t h e services of Father St. Cyr were thus lost to to Retain the Catholics of Chicago, it was not for lack of repeated fit. Cyr was a daughter of Louis Ouilmette. According to the Fergus Historical Series, 7: 56, art. "Chicago Marriages Recorded in Peoria Co.," John B. Beaubien on May 11, 1830, married Michael Welch or Welsh and Elizabeth Ouilmette. "He was our first [?] Irishman and his wife was the daugh- ter of Antoine Ouilmette of Ouilmette 's reservation in this county. ' ' Among the signers of the 1833 petition of the Catholics of Chicago was Patrick Walsh. See Illinois Catholic Historical Re- view, 2 : 467, for information concerning these early Welshes or Walshes of Chicago and their claim to be considered the first Irishmen in the city. June 28, 1834. Josette Beaubien, wife of Jean Baptiste Beaubien. (Josette Laframboise, wife of Colonel Beaubien, was of mixed French and Ottawa blood.) June 28, 1834. Alexander, son of Jean Baptiste Beaubien and Josette Laframboise. December 22, 1834. Robert Jerome Beaubien, son of Jean Baptiste Beaubien. Godparents: Robert Kinzie and Gwenthalin Whistler. August 25, 1835. Abram [?] Schwartz, son of Schwartz and Marie Belbare [?]. (The handwriting of this entry is difficult to decipher. Schwartz is the first German name occurring in the register.) Totaling up Father St. Cyr's baptisms in Chicago, we find them to number 19 in 1833, 12 in 1834, 14 in 1835, 36 in 1836, and 12 in 1837. His last baptismal entry is dated March 19, 1837. Father Schaeffer's baptisms, as entered in the St. Mary's Rig- ister, range from September 5, 1836, to July 24,1837. They include five administered on the same day, April 20, 1837, in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Baptized on this occasion by Father Schaeffer were Matilda, daughter of Solomon Juneau and Josette Vieau, and ' ' Margaret Klark, sixteen years of age, born amongst the Indians." These Milwaukee baptisms appear to be the earli- est on record for that city. Father St. Cyr's second marriage in Chicagc bears date THE PASTORATE OF FATHER ST. CYR, 1834-1837 99 efforts on Bishop Brute's part to retain him for his diocese. The latter wrote to Bishop Eosati, March 11, 1837: March , 1835, when he married Mark Bourassa, son of Daniel Bourassa, and Josette Chevalier, daughter of Louis Chevalier, and "gave them the nuptial benediction in the Catholic Church of Chicago." His first marriage in the city dated 1834, month and day not recorded, appears to have been that of N. Murphy and Mrs. M. Frauner(?). Father St. Cyr officiated at only twelve burials during his pastorate at St. Mary's. In June, 1834, was buried "one of the daughters of Mr. Colewell [Caldwell] agent of the Indians." In July of the same year, day of the month unrecorded, was buried Mr. Braner [Brennan?] "recently arrived from Ireland," who died suddenly and was interred ' ' according to the rites of the Catholic Church." For access to Father Cyr's Register the writer is indebted to the courtesy of the Paulist Fathers in charge of St. Mary's Church, Chicago. Father St. Cyr died February 21, 1883, at Nazareth Convent, a house of the Sisters of St. Joseph, a short distance beyond the southern limits of St. Louis, Missouri. A sketch of his life after he left Chicago may be read in Zurbonsen, In Memoriam, a Cler- ical Bead Eoll of the Diocese of Alton, Illinois. Data concern- ing the missionary activities of Father St. Cyr outside of Chicago will be found in the Illinois Catholic Historical Revieiv, July, 1920, art. "Northwestern Part of the Diocese of St. Louis," by Rev. John Rothensteiner, who draws this interesting picture of Father St. Cyr: "It was in 1878 that I, as a seminary student, visited the blind old man, the last link then connecting the heroic days of Bishop DuBourg and Rosati with the living, progressive present, in his retreat at Nazareth Convent. He was a man of small stature, with hands and face of translucent whiteness, as of pure wax. Being unable to read the Ordinary of the Mass, he was permitted to say the Votive Mass of the Blessed Virgin every 100 THE CATHOLIC CHURCH IN CHICAGO "I fear it is too late and quite impossible to request that Mr. St. Cyr protract his stay a little while longer and yet, see how many priests you have, my good Bishop aready 51 and 4 more whom you are going to ordain. As to the chalice which he has in Chicago, if Mr. Lalumiere has not got back those that were sent to St. Louis to be gilded, you might keep one of them and Mr. St. Cyr could leave his own in Chicago." In two letters addressed in May of the same year to the Bishop of St. Louis, Brute reveals how keenly he felt over the situation in Chicago where Father Schaeffer was left to minister single-handed to the Catholic popu- lation now going forward by leaps and bounds. "I have not been urging you earnestly enough or with confidence enough in our Divine Master to acquiesce in Mr. St. Cyr's wishes and my own, at least for a few months longer. I am so sick I do not think I am in a condition to go to Chicago to see my worthy Mr. Schaeffer. It has been a great consolation to me to see them [Messrs. St. Cyr and Schaeffer] so ready to help each other and you have seen from St. Cyr's detailed letter that the care of 2000 Catholics is in question. What hope them for Dubuque and the whole of Northern Illinois and Wisconsin Territory Be so good as to take this last remark into consideration do it, I implore you, well-beloved and venerated colleague, not for me but for the . great common cause. I believe that this provisional arrangement, even after all the favors you have already granted, will be blessed of God, as He has blessed it in the past, for you have already doubled the number of clergy in your diocese since 1834, when on second thought you agreed to send Mr. St. Cyr back to Chicago. day. And I was told he did so regularly with the assistance of another priest. Little did I know then of the importance of this feeble old man in his earlier days; but his presence impressed me as that of a saint, the bright sun of whose soul was breaking through the thin veil of the body containing it." THE PASTORATE OF FATHER ST. CYR, 1834-1837 101 Since my return I hear nothing spoken about except emigrants and the cry for priests that goes up on every side. What shall we do, especially as our French priests are, many of them at least, still quite too weak in English? And as for German priests alas ! Where shall we find them ? It is heart-breaking. I should think it necessary, the need is so pressing, that we write to the Bishops of Ireland or Germany. I intend to write at least to Keane, the Vice-President of the Irish Seminary. How I tremble to think in this situation, which must be the same for yourself, that you do not grant me the extension of time which Mr. St. Cyr himself solicits, and which would be so capital a thing for the North for Wisconsin even and that soon, if only Chicago be given time to get her strength. At any rate, I have ventured to entreat you again in a letter which you will have found in Cincinnati. Ah! Monseigneur, grant me all you possibly can. I have no second priest to send to Mr. Schaeffer for those 2000, perhaps at present 3000 Catholics, so amazing a thing is this deluge of Catholic emigration. 18 " By July Bishop Brute felt that he must acquiesce in the loss of Father St. Cyr, "that great favor con- ferred by the diocese of St. Louis on our own"; but he was deeply grateful to the Bishop of Saint Louis for having been permitted to retain so long the services of that zealous priest: ''Nothing remains for me, Monseigneur but to thank you with the fullest outpouring of my heart for all the good which 18 Brute a Eosati, May 7, 1837; May 19, 1839. Though still without an adequate supply of priests, the diocese of Vincennes showed considerable growth during the period 1834-37. "As to Missionaries, instead of the total of 2 (Fathers Lalumiere and Badin) which appeared in the almanac of 1835 and which aston- ished the Holy Father himself, behold us now sixteen priests and we shall be eighteen when you read these lines." Letter of Brute, May 24, 1837, in the Annales de la Propagation de la Foi, 10: 159. 102 THE CATHOLIC CHURCH IN CHICAGO Mr. St. Cyr lias done in Chicago during the protracted stay you have accorded him, nor can I murmur in any wise against his recall. I bless, too, this excellent priest and shall never think of him before God other than as the pastor of a parish which he has in very truth created and where I hope his memory will continue long to encourage this new flock to preserve and his successor to enlarge still further the great amount of initial good that has been accomplished." 19 Father Schaeffer did not long survive the departure of Father St. Cyr from Chiacgo. "I announce with grief," wrote Bishop Brute to the Leopoldine Associa- tion of Vienna, "that I have lost one of my excellent fellow-workers by death. Mr. Schaeffer of Strassburg, who accompanied me to America, whom I sent to the Mission of Chicago immediately after my arrival and who preached in French and English as also in German, and by his exceeding zeal in the service of souls had won the love of all, died to our great sorrow on October 2, [1837], feast of the Guardian Angels." 20 Father Schaeffer 's last entry in the baptismal record of St. Mary's parish is dated July 24, 1837. Six days later, July 30, the name of Father Bernard O'Meara appears 19 Brute a Rosati, July 9, 1837. 20 Berichte der Leopoldinen Stiftung, 22, 1839. Father Mar- tin Kundig, well known for his early missionary labors in Michi- gan and Wisconsin, occasionally officiated in Chicago at this period. "We are requested to state that the Eev. Mr. Kundig will deliver an address on Sunday evening at Russell's Saloon." The Chicago American, April 27, 1837. Russell's saloon, at the southwest corner of Lake and Clark Streets, was a meeting-hall and not a dispensing-place for liquor, as the conventional mean- ing of the term would lead one to infer. In it took place, Stephen A. Douglas being one of the participants, the first political debate ever held in Northern Illinois. THE PASTORATE OF FATHER ST. CYR, 1834-1837 103 for the first time in the same register. 21 The following year, 1838, Bishop Brute made a canonical visitation of Chicago, of which he gives a brief account in his halting English in a letter to Mother Rose of Emmits- burg. The letter is dated St. Rose's Day, August 30: Chicago, one hundred and fifty miles north of Vincennes on the Lake Michigan, southwest corner; a city of seven or lca d> eight thousand, largest in the diocese. Alas ! so small a wooden church where I have just celebrated the Divine Sacri- fice, though we have near a thousand Catholics, they tell me; one priest, Mr. O'Meara, I had a second, Mr. Schaeffer, our Lord recalled him to heaven, I hope. Arrived yesterday night from the line of the works of the Illinois canal. I will spend till Sunday here planning and devising for my successors. Also, so little of genius at plans ! unless our Lord himself pity such an immense "avenir" that I know not how to begin well! I dream of Sisters here! but how so? Col. Beaubien offers lots, etc. Very well but Sisters? A small wooden church, not sufficient for the fourth part on Sunday; and yet most, (as usual) of our Catholics are of the poorest; and the few better off, (as usual too, in our West) so eagerly busy at the great business of this West, growing rich, richer, richest; too little ready, when the talk is only : of lots, interest and estate in Heaven; or of placing in its Bank on earth, by hands of the Church, and that poor Bishop, the cashier of said Bank, in this part of the world, who could sign bills of millions of eternal acquittal, etc., etc. Well Mother! tell me how I will succeed to spirit our busy Chicago to build a good, large brick church. Another man, yes, some proper man might succeed, not this unworthy Simon. But enough! I must go to meet Mr. O'Meara, and devise plans. I would take more pleasure to speak of the shanties 21 " I have sent an assistant to Mr. Schaeffer, Mr. O 'Meara, an Irish priest, who came to join us a short time ago." Brute a Rosati, June 29, 1837. 104 THE CATHOLIC CHURCH IN CHICAGO where I have lived, and have done some duty these few days past; but now I am in the city, and owe myself as well to the city as to the shanties. 22 " Death of Within a year of this visit to Chicago, Bishop Brute died in Vincennes on June 26, 1839, at the age of sixty. His death was due to pulmonary consumption, which developed from a cold he contracted while riding on the outside of a stage-coach in Ohio on his way to the Provincial Council of Baltimore of 1837. To the priest who attended him he remarked the morning of the day before he died, "My dear child, I have the whole day yet to stay with you, to-morrow with God." 23 With characteristic zeal and energy he wrote with his own hands six hours before his death a number of letters to persons whom he longed to reclaim to a better life. Rare piety of soul and a very exceptional range of learning, secular as well as sacred, helped to lend dis- tinction to the personality of Bishop Brute. Bishop Quarter, his pupil at the Emmitsburg Seminary, de- clared that he had never known a more tender piety than that exhibited by his beloved professor. As a theologian and master of ecclesiastical lore and as an uncommonly enlightened and inspiring guide in things of the spirit, his reputation was high in church circles throughout the land and many eagerly sought his advice. A considerable body of his private correspond- ence, for he was a prolific letter-writer, is still preserved in various ecclesiastical archives throughout the country, - American Catholic Historical Researches, April, 1898. On the occasion of this visit to Chicago Bishop Brute baptized, Sep- tember 2, 1838, Gwenthlean Harriet Kinzie, daughter of Robert Kinzie and Gwenthlean Harriet Whistler. - 3 BAYLEY, Memories of Bishop Brute, p. 85. THE PASTORATE OF FATHER ST. CYR, 1834-1837 105 giving reason to hope that an adequate biography of this remarkable churchman will some day be given to the world. 24 For the Catholics of Chicago it may be a subject of solemn pride that the first rude beginnings of the church in their great metropolis felt for a while the .shaping hand of the saintly first Bishop of Vincennes; just as for the Catholics of St. Louis it will be gratify- ing to recall that the progress made by the church in the Northern city during that prelate's administration was due in large measure to the zealous ministry of Father St. Cyr, "that great favor" in Bishop Brute's own words, "conferred by the diocese of St. Louis on our own." The Rt. Reverend Celestine Rene Guy de la Hailan- dela ,,., ,. r. i Hailandiere, diere succeeded Bishop Brute as incumbent of the see second Bishop of Vincennes. At the outset of his episcopate there de- volved upon him the painful duty of attempting to heal a schism in the Catholic congregation of Chicago due to the independent and refractory course of action 84 HASSARD, Life of Archbishop Hughes, p. 73. See supra, p. 75. Bishop Brute was deeply interested in the early church history of the Mississippi Valley and over the signature, "Vincennes," pub- lished in the Catholic Telegraph of Cincinnati a series of letters in which in his own words, "the ancient labors of the Society of Jesus in this region, from the Lakes to the Mississippi, were de- scribed." In an unpublished letter written to Father Elet, S. J., President of Saint Louis University, he makes the suggestion that the site of the old Jesuit Mission at Peoria, Illinois, be marked with a permanent memorial before all traces of it be lost to his- tory. Eight letters from Bishop Brute, descriptive of conditions in his diocese, appeared in the Berichte der Leopoldinen-Stiftung Im Kaiserthume Oestereich during the period 1837-1840. 106 THE CATHOLIC CHURCH IN CHICAGO Maurice de St. Palais, Pastor at Chicago, 1840-1844 pursued by its pastor, Father O'Meara, the sole priest in Chicago after the death of Father Schaeffer. In December, 1839, Father Maurice de St. Palais left Vincennes for Chicago in company with Father Du Pontavice, who had been named pastor of Joliet, the pair travelling in a spring-wagon. 25 As Father O'Meara continued to hold possession of the old church, which he had caused to be moved from its original site on Lake Street to the north side of Madison Street some yards west of Michigan Avenue, St. Palais had to conduct services in an upper room of a building at the northwest corner of Wells and Randolph Streets. 26 On June 27, 1840 Father O'Meara tendered in writing to Bishop Hailandiere his resignation as "pastor of the congregation of the Catholic Church in the city of Chicago." 27 He continued, however, to exercise the ministry independently of the Bishop and against his prohibition until Father St. Cyr, who went to Chicago for the purpose, prevailed upon him to retire from the active ministry. His last baptism, all his ministrations 25 ALERDIXG, History of the Catholic Church in the Diocese of Vincennes, 171, 491. - 6 The New World (Chicago), April 14, 1900. The lot at the northwest corner of Michigan Avenue and Madison Street, pur- chased by Father O'Meara from the Government, June 21, 1839, for $262, was sold by Archbishop Mundelein, January 24, 1920, for $500,000. It had been leased in 1900 to Montgomery Ward & Co., who erected on it the Tower Building, one of Chicago's most conspicuous sky-scrapers. Shortly after purchasing the property, Father O'Meara was given a quit-claim by Col. J. B. Beaubieu, in whose famous controverted tract the property was included. In June, 1840, Father O'Meara ceded the property to the Bishop of Vincennes. 27 Chicago Daily American, November 30, 1840. Et. Rev. Maurice de St. Palais, fourth Bishop of Vincennes, 1849-1877. As Father de St. Palais, he was resident pastor at Chicago, 1840-1844. THE OF WE THE PASTORATE OF FATHER ST. CYR, 1834-1837 107 of the sacrament having been entered by him with scrupulous accuracy in the parish records, is dated August 12, 1841. Adjoining the old church was the parish rectory, a one-story cottage of frame, which faced east, being number 115 Michigan Avenue. Here Father de St. Palais took up his residence and here lived the Catholic Bishops of Chicago until the erection by Bishop 'Regan of a handsome episcopal residence on the same site. Finding the old church, "a long low frame building," utterly inadequate, Father de St. Palais undertook the erection of a new church, one hundred feet by fifty-five, on property acquired by him at the southwest corner of Wabash Avenue and Madison Street. Though in an unfinished state, it was opened for service on Christmas Day, 1843. Father de St. Palais was also the purchaser of ten acres of land for a cemetery at what is now the intersection of State Street and North Avenue, a point then beyond the city limits. 28 The rapidly growing pop- ulation of Chicago added ever to the labors of his ministry, in which he had the zealous co-operation of Father Francis Fischer for the German portion of the flock. They were the only priests officiating in the city when Bishop Quarter arrived, on May 3, 1844, to take possession of his episcopal see. 28 The first Catholic burial ground in Chicago was near Chi- cago Avenue, east of Clark Street. Here the town authorities purchased ten acres in 1833, alloting the southern half to the Catholics and the northern half to the Protestants. ANDREAS, History of Chicago, 2: 448. CHAPTER V BISHOP QUARTER The Fifth Provincial Council of Baltimore having recommended to the Holy See the establishment of several new dioceses, among them that of Chicago, Gregory XVI issued a brief September 30, 1843, erecting the diocese of Chicago with the entire state of Illinois as territory and appointing Reverend William J. Quarter, pastor of St. Mary's Church, New York, in- cumbent of the new see. 1 A native of Killurine, King's County, Ireland, where he was born January 24, 1806, Father Quarter had come to America as a young man, made his ecclesiastical studies at Mount St. Mary's, Emmitsburg, Maryland, where he had the saintly Brute among his professors, was ordained by Bishop Dubois and was subsequently curate at historic St. Peter's church, New York, and pastor of St. Mary's church in the same city. Together with Bishop Byrne of Little Rock and Bishop McCloskey, the future cardinal, he 1 Practically all available biographical data regarding Bishop Quarter are to be found in SHEA, History of the Catholic Church in the United States; CLARK, Deceased Bishops of the United States, and McGovERN, History of the Catholic Church in Chi- cago. The last-named work contains in reprint the sketch of the Bishop written by his physician and intimate friend, Dr. McGirr, a sketch reissued by the press of St. Mary's Training School, Desplaines, Illinois, on the occasion of the diamond jubilee of the archdiocese of Chicago, June, 1920. 108 Rt. Rev. William J. Quarter, first Bishop of Chicago, 1844- 1848. The founder of Catholic education in Chicago. The first Catholic University, Saint Mary of the Lake, the first Catholic High-School, Saint Xavier's, and the first Catholic parish-school of the city owe their origin to him. He was born in Ireland in 1806, labored in the ministry with unremitting zeal as pastor in New York City and afterwards as chief pastor in Chicago, where after four years of distinguished service rendered to the new diocese entrusted to his care he died at the early age of forty- two. THE OF BISHOP QUARTER 109 was consecrated March 10, 1844, in the Cathedral of New York at the hands of Bishop Hughes. Accompanied by his brother, Rev. Walter J. Quarter, Bish P . Quarter Bishop Quarter arrived in Chicago on Sunday morning, arr ives in May 5, 1844. That same morning he said Mass in the Chicago old church, "a long, low frame building having a small steeple and surmounted by a cross," and preached in the new St. Mary's at 10:30 o'clock Mass. The new church of brick "a respectable building," so Bishop Quarter describes it, was destined to be the cathedral of the diocese until its destruction in the great Chicago fire of 1871. It was still unplastered at the time of the Bishop's arrival and a temporary altar was set up against the western wall. From the very first the view he took of the outlook for Catholicism both in Chicago and the diocese gener- ally was frankly optimistic. "I am happy to inform you," he writes to Bishop Purcell of Cincinnati in the September following his arrival in the West, "that a spirit of great liberality exists towards Catholics in all parts of this state and in the city a word exasperating or painful to the feelings of Catholics I have never heard uttered. Indeed, the citizens appear all like the members of one united and well organized family where each one consults for the benefit and advantage of all. I have already visited a large portion of the diocese and the prospects everywhere are, I think, bright for Catholicity. In almost every part of the state there are Catholics settled and although they are poor, yet they are willing to contribute of their scanty means towards the support of their church and clergyman. The greatest privation they have in many places to endure is that of clergymen to administer to their spiritual wants. There are at present 22 or [2] 3 priests engaged in the 110 THE CATHOLIC CHURCH IN CHICAGO missions, but bow small is that number compared with the population of 50 or 60,000 that they have to attend. In one or two years 100 or more clergymen can be actively engaged in those missions. 2 " A period of scarcely four years was to round out the career of Bishop Quarter as first incumbent of the episcopal see of Chicago; but within that narrow span he was to achieve a brilliant record of apostolic zeal and enterprise for the upbuilding of the diocese. Cath- olicity all through Illinois, but especially in Chicago, awakened to a new life at the touch of his swift and splendid energy. A great quantity of debts confronted him on his arrival in the city; three thousand dollars on the unfinished cathedral, five hundred on the adjoin- ing property purchased by Father de St. Palais and three hundred on the graveyard. Here were almost four thousand dollars of debt, an obligation insig- nificant enough according to present-day standards, but very disconcerting in those days of almost uni- versal poverty among the Catholic immigrants, espe- cially as much of that debt was bearing interest as high as 12 and 15 per cent. To liquidate these debts Bishop Quarter bent every effort from his first arrival in the diocese and before his untimely decease many if not all of the obligations had been lifted. "We are indeed very poor here and I shall have to struggle hard for some time," he informed Father Carrell, President of St. Louis University, a few months after his arrival in Chicago. 3 - Quarter to Purcell, September 2, 1844, Catholic Archives of America, Notre Dame University. 'Quarter to Carrell, July 30, 1844, St. Louis University Archives. Saint Mary's Cathedral, erected by Father Maurice de St. Palais on ground purchased by him at the southwest corner of Madison Street and Wabash Avenue. One hundred by fifty-five feet, the length being along Madison Street. Opened for divine services Christmas Day, 1843, and dedicated by Bishop Quarter the first Monday of October, 1845. THE OF THE BISHOP QUARTER 111 More pressing even than the question of debts was he question of an adequate number of priests for the eeds of the diocese. Fathers de St. Palais and Fischer, lie only Catholic clergymen in Chicago when the Bishop ook possession of his see in 1844, were recalled to their iocese of Vincennes the next month and left Chicago, rhere they had done excellent work, the following Lugust. But, within a few months of his arrival in be city he had ordained five priests, Fathers McMahan, IcGorisk, Kinsella, Brady and Ingoldsby and was soon eceiving clerical reinforcements from other dioceses, itep by step Bishop Quarter proceeded to organize his iocese and to insure to his clergy the helps calculated o maintain their ministry at a high standard of effi- iency and zeal. In April, 1847, he convened a diocesan ynod in the new Seminary building which was pre- eded by a "spiritual retreat" of three days conducted y Father Francis De Maria, S. J., professor of theology a St. Louis University. Thirty-two priests were in ttendance, while nine were excused on account of ill- ealth or the difficulty of travelling from remote corners f the diocese. Statutes for the diocese were drawn up y the synod and duly promulgated. On November 12 f the same year the first theological conference of the iocese was held in the new Seminary chapel of the loly Name of Jesus, while a similar conference was .eld on the same day at Alton for the priests of the outhern section of the diocese. 4 4 Father De Maria, who was an excellent classical scholar, omposed a Latin inscription recording the praise of Bishop Quar- 3r for having convened his first diocesan synod. The inscription 3 in McGovern, p. 82. The first to receive holy orders in Chi- 112 THE CATHOLIC CHURCH IN CHICAGO Beginning Catholic education in Chicago owes its beginnings education to Bishop Quarter. On June 3, 1844, scarcely a month in Chicago after coming to the "West, he opened in Father St. Cyr's old frame church, which had been removed from its original site to the north side of Madison Street between Wabash and Michigan Avenue, a Catholic school for boys, the first of its kind in Chicago, which he dignified with the name of the "College of St. Mary." 5 "June 3d. On this day the new Catholic College of St. Mary's, Chicago," the Bishop thus records the event in his Diary, "w r as opened for the reception of students. The professors are Eev. Messrs. McGorisk and Kinsella. Rev. Mr. McMahan will assist when necessary. The College opened with five students, Timothy Sullivan making the sixth." "Shortly after my arrival," wrote Bishop Quarter the following September to Bishop Purcell of Cincinnati, "I commenced a small college in a very humble way hoping that at some future day we may have means to carry it on more extensively we have given it the euphonious name of St. Mary's of the Lake." 6 cago were Patrick McMahan and Bernard McGorisk, ordained priests by Bishop Quarter, May 24, 1844. 5 See supra, p. 61. Though Father St. Cyr projected a school for the Catholic children of Chicago, no evidence that it was actually opened is at hand. 6 Quarter to Purcell, September 2, 1844, Catholic Archives of America, Notre Dame University. The text of Bishop Quarter's Diary, with continuation by Father Walter Quarter and Bishop Van de Velde, the whole con- stituting an invaluable contemporaneous record of Catholic his- tory in the diocese of Chicago during the period 1844-1853, is reproduced in extenso in McGovERN's, The Catholic Church in Chicago. 3. a P. CK_ ffi O 2^ THE OF TiSE BISHOP QUARTER 113 This humble beginning, perforce a makeshift, was presently to develop into an institution commensurate with the expansion which his far-eyed vision saw Cath- olicism was to undergo in the Middle Western States. As a preliminary to his educational scheme, he secured from the Illinois Legislature an act dated December 19, 1844, incorporating "The University of St. Mary of the Lake." One cannot but be surprised at this remove of time at the boldness of the Bishop's educational venture undertaken within six months of his arrival in Chicago and amid conditions that seemed utterly out of keeping with such an ambitious scale of preparation. But somehow this youthful, far-eyed prelate looked steadily to the future and the future did not belie his expectations. In February, 1845, another bill of far-reaching im- portance for the interests of Catholicity in Chicago, constituting the Catholic Bishop of Chicago and his successors a ' ' corporation sole ' ' to hold property in trust for religious purposes, was enacted into law by the Legislature of Illinois. Of these two measures Bishop Quarter wrote at the beginning of 1845 to Bishop Blanc of New Orleans : "So far I have no cause of complaint, thank Providence. I have just got a bill through the Legislature chartering for us a University, 'The University of St. Mary of the Lake.' The bill passed without opposition. I have now another bill before them, which, if it passes, will be highly beneficial to Religion, I trust. It is a bill authorizing myself and my successors to hold all properties ecclesiastical for which they have been granted, purchased, etc. This bill if it passes, will obviate the necessity of anything in the form of trusteeism in 114 THE CATHOLIC CHURCH IN CHICAGO this diocese forever. There is not a trustee in the diocese nor shall there be as long as I live. 7 " In the spring of 1845 Bishop Quarter undertook a trip to the East to collect money for the new College and Seminary which he now planned to build on prop- erty acquired by him on the North Side. The property, which comprised an entire block bounded by Chicago Avenue, Cass, Superior and Wolcott (now State) Streets, had belonged to Chicago's first Mayor, William B. Ogden, who with public-spirited generosity donated one-half the block to Bishop Quarter. 715 The appeals made by the latter in the various cities of the diocese of New York netted a little over three thousand dollars. On October 17, 1845, work was begun on the new in- stitution, as chronicled in the Bishop's Diary. " [17th Oct. 1845]. On this day the workmen began to dig the foundation of the University of St. Mary of the Lake. The name of the man who has contracted to build it is Jas. O'Donnell; the name of the architect is Daniel Sullivan. In digging the foundation they found shells, an evidence it would seem that this was caused by the waters of Lake Michigan, which have since receded. ' ' By November 22 the building, which was of frame, was under roof, and on July 4, 1846, the University opened its new quarters with appropriate ceremonies. It is pleasant to record that a note of emphatic American- ism was struck in the exercises of the occasion. The Declaration of Independence was read by one of the students, there was an apostrophe to America and a 7 Quarter to Blanc, January 17, 1845, Catholic Archives of America, Notre Dame University. 7b So, according to the writer in the Illinois Catholic His- torical Review, 2: 137. THE OF TKE , f . .. .''<* jjivof ;"<"' ,',---- Q . :3 o -*^ r* "S O *S ^j ( ~~ 1 If i|| I .g l ~ l 3 ^ So ,i~8 -* | to *"^ c3 ,2 r o s g gO K 11 *? w JJ 5 -2 3 -^ .In CB C O ft O . OQ I fc II BISHOP QUARTER 115 Latin ode to Liberty and the exercises concluded with the "Star Spangled Banner". The degree of B. A. was conferred on this occasion on Lawrence Hoey, J. A. Keane and Dr. J. Walsh of New York. 8 This red-letter day in the educational history of Chicago was marked by a procession of the Catholic clergy and laity to the college grounds. "Fancy to yourself an entire open black or square, in the northeastern part of the city, a short distance from the Lake Shore, enclosed with a substantial, high, close plank fence, with a beautiful, architectural three-story wooden edifice, with brick basement and colonade front, situated on the north half of the block, and fronting the south and surrounded on all sides with native forest trees of stately growth; oaks, linden, cottonwood, elm, etc., shading a grassy lawn, and you have in your mind's eye the 'University of St. Mary's of the Lake/ which is just now quite the Lion of the day with us. Fancy to yourself again, on a cool summer morning, and that the anniversary of the glorious birthday of Liberty, an immense concourse of people, old and young, great and small, in rapid movement threading the different streets of our city. See them finally settle around the Cathedral and the public square on the Lake Shore, see the proud Montgomery Guards in beautiful uniform, a company of adopted citizens, headed by a spirit-stirring band of music; see the Sunday School children by thousands, as white and pure as angels; see the Sons of Temperance with their elegant banners, and see the streets filled with lookers on, as this well-ordered procession proceeded to the University, accompanied by the Bishop and Clergy, Professors and Pupils of the College and you have the whole movement before you. 9 " 8 Catholic Magazine, 5 : 460. 9 M. L. Knapp in the St. Louis News Letter, August 1, 1846. The University building stood, facing south, on the south [?] half of the University block (Chicago Avenue, Cass, Superior, State Streets) and well towards the middle of the block. Illinois Catholic Historical Review, 2: 138. 116 THE CATHOLIC CHURCH IN CHICAGO Two days later, July 6, ordinations were held for the first time in the new University Chapel of the Holy Name of Jesus and on the 14th of the same month the students of the Seminary Department moved from their old quarters into the new University building. 10 10 The Metropolitan CatJiolic Almanac and Laity's Directory for 1845 lists among the institutions of the "Diocess" of Chicago, St. Mary's Ecclesiastical Seminary and St. Mary's College of the Lake, which latter, in the same publication for 1846, appears as the University of St. Mary's of the Lake. (The correct title is the one appearing in the charter University of St. Mary of the Lake.) "This Institution is situated in the city of Chicago and on the borders of Lake Michigan. The location is pleasant, healthy and sufficiently remote from the business part of the city to make it favorable to the pursuits of study. The ample grounds and extensive meadows in the vicinity will afford the students an opportunity of enjoying healthful exercise and abundant recrea- tion in the free and pure air." Father Badin, who was in Chi- cago in the summer of 1846, has this to say of the University: ' ' Bishop Quarter has fourteen theologians in his Seminary. The College is beautiful, solidly built and without flaw and free from debt." Badin to - , June 14, 1846. For an institution catering to the needs of what might almost be called a frontier settlement, the range of subjects which it offered was surprisingly complete and did not differ essentially from the curriculum ob- taining in the best present-day institutions of collegiate grade. ' ' The course of instruction will embrace Hebrew, Greek, Latin, French and English Languages, Poetry, Rhetoric, History, Myth- ology, Geography, Book-keeping, Arithmetic, Algebra, Mathe- matics, Intellectual and Moral Philosophy, Natural Philosophy and Chemistry. The German, Spanish and Italian Languages, together with Music and Drawing, will also be taught if required; but for these there will be extra charges." Metropolitan Catholic Almanac, etc., 1845, p. 113. An article from the pen of Msgr. Daniel J. Eiordan in the Illinois Catholic Historical Review, 2: 135-160, is the best account available of Chicago's first Catholic University. Of the early students of the University some were BISHOP QUARTER 117 Provision had thus been made for the Catholic edu- sisters cation of the male youth of Chicago and for the training ercy of the clergy. Bishop Quarter now took in hand the task of securing educational advantages for the Catholic girls of the city. At his invitation six Sisters of Mercy from the Pittsburg community arrived in Chicago on Septem- ber 23, 1846, to establish a convent and open schools. The names of these first nuns to arrive in Chicago and inaugurate there the great work of the Catholic educa- tion of women, which has assumed such splendid propor- tions in our own day, are deserving of lasting record. They were Sister Mary Agatha 'Brien, Superioress of the new foundation and Sisters Mary Vincent McGirr, Mary Gertrude McGuire, Mary Eliza Corbett and Mary Eva Smith. With them came also, to supervise the beginnings of the new establishment, Sister Mary Frances "Ward, Superioress of the community of the Sisters of Mercy in Pittsburg. 11 Until better quarters could be provided for them, the Bishop gave over to the Sisters his residence on Michigan Avenue, a low, one-story frame house of very humble appearance, but considerably more pretentious than the little cottage in which he thereupon began to later to fill posts of distinction in the Church, as Bishops McMul- len and Baltes and Archbishops Biordan and Ireland, of whom the two latter, however, attended the institution for a brief period only. It may be noted here that Bishop Quarter had made the Virgin Mother patroness not only of his University but of the entire diocese. "I have concluded to adopt the Ordo published in New Orleans in this diocese, which is under the special protec- tion of the Immaculate Mother of God." Quarter to Blanc, No- vember 18, 1844, Catholic Archives of America, Notre Dame Uni- versity. 11 Bishop Quarter 's Diary. 118 THE CATHOLIC CHURCH EN CHICAGO lodge. The Sisters at once organized St. Xavier's Academy as an institution for young ladies, conducting classes in the old church vacated a few months pre- viously by the students of the University on the comple- tion of their new building on the North Side. A contemporary press-notice bespoke a hearty wel- come on the part of the city to the first Catholic nuns to establish themselves in Chicago. "A school for young ladies is this day opened by these Sisters of Mercy (than whom none are more competent to teach) in the old chapel in the rear of their residence on the Lake Shore. They also visit the sick and distressed and dispense mercies to the wretched and those whom poverty has chained to her car. Ere long, too, they contemplate forming an Orphan Asylum. What citizen is there who will not hail the coming of these Sisters of Mercy as among the choicest of blessings for our city. 12 " In September, 1847, the Sisters moved into the new brick building built for them by Bishop Quarter on AVabash Avenue on church property contiguous to the Cathedral on the south. The cost of the structure was $4,000, of which some $3,000 were a gift from the Asso- ciation of the Propagation of the Faith, a Catholic international agency with headquarters at Lyons in France. 13 A contemporary description of the new ^Chicago Daily Democrat, October 24, 1846. ANDREAS, 2: 406, states that the Academy of St. Francis Xavier was " organ- ized" September 24, 1846. NORRIS AND GARDINER'S Chicago Di- rectory, 1847-48, give as location of "St. Francis Xavier Female Seminary," the corner of Michigan Avenue and Madison Street. 13 ANDREAS, History of Chicago, 2 : 406. ' ' A substantial brick building, 40 feet square, 3 stories high, has been erected in Wa- bash Avenue, near Madison Street, for the purpose of a nunnery, owned by the Catholic Church, cost $4,500; Peter Page and Alex. BISHOP QUARTER 119 Academy notes that "it is an elegant building and situated in a most beautiful spot, commanding an agreeable view of Lake Michigan and but a square from its banks, surrounded with everything that could render it desirable as a suitable place for the instruction and training of youth and health combined. . . . Viewed at a distance from the lake, the Academy, adjoining the Cathedral whose radiant spire, heavenward pointing, may be seen afar off amid the beauteous trees that surround it and which offer an agreeable shade, presents an admirable and highly picturesque appearance." 14 St. Xavier's Academy was incorporated by act of the Illinois Legislature in 1847. Though the Catholics of Chicago were reckoned by St. Patrick's Bishop Quarter in 1846 to number only 1.300, one tenth the population of the city, he organized, in the course of that year three additional parishes, St. Patrick's, St. Joseph's and St. Peter's. St. Patrick's church, built at the earnest desire of the Bishop's brother. Father Walter J. Quarter, who undertook to collect and pay for it and who was appointed its first pastor, stood at the southwest corner of Desplaines and Kandolph Streets, on the west side of the River, where Irish im- migrants had begun to settle in large numbers. The architect and builder was Augustine Deodat Taylor, who had built the first St. Mary's, and the cost was only $750. March 10, 1846, "the frame of the building was raised," and on Easter Sunday, April 12, the church was opened for divine service. The following August Loyd, builders, van Osdel, architect." KORRIS AND GARDINER'S Chicago Directory, 1847-1848. "McGovERN, op. tit., p. 151. 120 THE CATHOLIC CHURCH IN CHICAGO Father P. J. McLaughlin succeeded Father Quarter as pastor. 15 German Meanwhile, steps had been taken to provide the German Catholics of the city with their own houses of divine worship. The earliest attempt to bring them religious instruction in their own tongue, for the great bulk of them, lately arrived from Europe, were utterly without knowledge of the vernacular, was apparently made by Father Bernard Schaeffer, a Strassburger, and the first German-speaking priest to reside for any length of time in the city (1836-1837) . Father Francis Fischer ministered to them during the period 1842 [?] -August 24, 1844, on which last date he withdrew from Chi- cago to return at the summons of his Bishop to his own diocese of Vincennes. 16 On the same day that Father Fischer left Chicago Father Gaspar Henry Ostlangenburg arrived there from Galena to succeed the former as pastor of the German Catholics of the city. September 25 of the following year, 1845, Father John Jung reached Chicago from Strassburg in Alsace and was immediately given charge of the German-speaking Catholics. During all this time that part of the Catholic body was without a church of its own, services with German sermon being held on their behalf at certain hours on Sundays at the old and later at the new St. Mary's. In his efforts to build one or more churches for the Catholic immigrants from Germany settled in Chicago, Bishop Quarter turned for aid to the Leopoldine "ANDREAS, op. cit., p. 294; Bishop Quarter's Diary. 16 Father Martin Kundig, of the Diocese of Detroit, held serv- ices for the German Catholics in the spring of 1837 in the so- called Saloon, a large hall for public gatherings. Of. supra, p. 102. THE IISMRY OF THE BISHOP QUARTER 121 Association of Vienna, established by Father Reze, future Bishop of Detroit, in 1828 for the purpose of financing the destitute German Catholic churches and parishes of the United States. To the Archbishop of Vienna, as President of the Leopoldine Association, he wrote October 7, 1844: "The newly created diocese embraces the entire State of Illinois. About fifty thousand Catholics live within this territory, of which the great majority are Germans and Irish. Up to date but few Americans profess the Catholic faith; we trust, however, that its holy light, through the efforts of the missionaries, will, ere long, enlighten many and guide them to the true fold of Christ. A great number, especially in recent times, have already returned to the all- saving church. Here, in Chicago, my so-called episcopal see, we have but one Catholic church, and even this one church is not yet completed. Thus far only the main walls are under roof and with much effort the construction of the sanctuary has been sufficiently advanced to enable us to officiate therein. To complete the nave of the church we are dependent on the subscription monies, which are being contributed very sparsely by an already otherwise poor and needy congrega- tion. We were compelled to mortgage church property to prevent the sale of the church building on account of the debts incurred. I hope to God, however, that brighter times are at our doors. Day by day the number of Catholics is growing, of whom the majority are immigrants, who purchase a piece of land or some field to cultivate and thus by diligence and untiring labor to earn a livelihood. Whereas many German Catholics have already settled here in Chicago, I indeed deplore the fact that they as yet have no church of their own; thus far they have the only church here in common with the Irish and the English. Con- sequently the divine services are divided between them. At 8 :30 o'clock the former and at 10 :30 o'clock the latter come to attend Holy Mass and to hear a sermon. Those among the Germans who understand English also frequent the last service. 17 " 17 Illinois Catholic Historical Review, I: 227. 122 THE CATHOLIC CHURCH IN CHICAGO For a remittance of almost a thousand dollars from the Leopoldine Association to the needy diocese of Chicago, Bishop Quarter conveyed his thanks in a letter addressed to the Archbishop of Vienna under date of December 20, 1845 : "How can I adequately thank you for the great generosity and tender love you entertain for the poor diocese of Chicago. Your welcome epistle, dated June 20, 1845, arrived here about the end of August; I was not at home at the time, but it was delivered to me immediately upon my return During the past two years my band of missionaries has been increased by sixteen, which is indeed a source of much consolation to me. A new clerical Seminary has also been erected, at which one professor especially teaches the German language in order that the students on entering the holy priesthood may be enabled to preach and hear confessions in this language. The new Cathedral is likewise completed and was dedicated on the first Sunday of October, 1845. German priests are ministering to the German Catholics in their own language, both here in Chicago and vicinity, as well as in other parishes in this diocese. But as yet the Germans have no church of their own, which is indeed a great drawback. The faithful of every nationality gather in one and the same church; this does not permit of special religious instructions for German children and people in their own language, and consequently no German priest can exercise a direct influence over them, which would be possible if they had their own church, in which the sermons and instructions could be con- ducted in the German language. I therefore earnestly beg of you to provide me with means to ameliorate these conditions and to build a church for the German Catholics of this city. I beseech God to touch the hearts of some benefactors for this purpose. 18 " In the following January Bishop Quarter again appealed to the Archbishop of Vienna for aid to enable 'Illinois Catholic Historical Heview, I: 231. BISHOP QUARTER 123 him to build a church and school for the German Catholics of Chicago. He had in view an eligible piece of property on which to build them, but the price asked for it, about $3,500, was beyond his means. Whatever surplus money he found at his disposal went to pay off the debt on his Cathedral, amounting to some $4,820, so that he could be in a position to say that his cathedral at least was free from incumbrance. 19 In the spring of 1846 Bishop Quarter was at last enabled to realize his plans in favor of the German Catholics of Chicago. We read in his Diary: "March 28th. Rev. Mr. Jung signed a contract today with A. D. Taylor to build two German Catholic churches in Chicago. Present : the Bishop, Messrs. Diversey, Shaller, Busche and Heptinger, both to be built for $1,000." St. Peter's, a frame structure, 40x60 feet, on the north side of Washington Street between Fifth Avenue (Wells Street) and Franklin Street, was dedicated by Bishop Quarter on August 2, 1846, being the first German Catholic church to be opened in Chicago. On August 15 following, the Bishop dedicated St. Joseph's church of frame, 36x65 feet, erected on the North Side at the northeast corner of Chicago Avenue and Cass Street. Father Jung was for a period pastor of both parishes, 19 Illinois Catholic Historical Eeview, 1 : 232. The sixth and last letter of Bishop Quarter to the Leopoldine Association in Vienna is published in translation in the January, 1919, issue of the Eeview named. Therein he records gratefully the receipt from the Association of $1,300, which sum was applied to various needs of the diocese, e. g. " towards the erection of the Seminary, which costs ten thousand dollars; towards the support of the Semina- rians which amounts to two thousand dollars; to erect a church for the Germans of the city which will cost fifty-five hundred dollars. ' * 124 THE CATHOLIC CHURCH IN CHICAGO singing High Mass on alternate Sundays at either church, until he was relieved at St. Joseph's in October, 1847, by Father Schaeffer and at St. Peter's by Father Liermann. 20 In view of the facts assembled in the preceding para- graphs the year 1846 must stand out as a notable one in the parochial organization of the Catholic Church in Chicago. This year saw the original parish of St. Mary's thirteen years after its creation by Father St. Cyr, reenforced by three additional parishes, St. Patrick's for the Irish Catholics of the West Side and St. Peter's and St. Joseph's for the German Catholics of the South and North Sides respectively. Moreover, in 1846 were laid the foundations of the parish of the Holy Name on the North Side, the English-speaking Catholics resident in that division of the city being assigned in that year to the spiritual care of the Fathers attached to the University of St. Mary's of the Lake, who began to hold services for them in the University chapel of the Holy Name of Jesus. Not only in Chicago but throughout his entire diocese Bishop Quarter bent every effort to build churches where they were needed and thereby bring the consolations of religion within convenient reach of the inpouring Irish and German immigrants, who constituted the bulk of the Catholic population of Illinois. 21 He built in all thirty - ANDREAS, op. cit., 295; Catholic Almanac, 1848; Bishop Quarter's Diary. 21 Bishop Quarter calculated in 1846 that his diocese was one- third German and two-thirds ' ' Irish, French and Americans. ' ' Illinois Catholic Historical Eeview, October, 1918, p. 233. A later estimate made by the Bishop in the same year gave the Germans BISHOP QUARTER 125 churches, ten of which were of either brick or stone. Moreover, he ordained at Chicago during his brief episcopacy twenty-nine priests, whereas, when he en- tered the diocese, there were only six and not a single candidate for Holy Orders. At his death he left behind him fifty-three priests and twenty ecclesiastical students. 22 What had been accomplished during his incumbency as Bishop he reviewed in a spirit of devout thanksgiving in the last pastoral letter which he issued to his flock. "The great increase in the number of the Catholic popu- lation of this city may be inferred from the following facts : in the year 1844, when we took possession of this See there was only one Catholic church in the city of Chicago. There are now four, together with the chapel of 'The Holy Name of Jesus/ attached to 'The University of St. Mary of the Lake.' This one Catholic church, then under roof, but not finished, accommodated all the Catholics on Sunday. The German Catholics, the Irish and American Catholics assembled within its walls to assist at the divine mysteries and were not pressed for room. The German Catholic churches of St. Peter and St. Joseph have since been built; the Catholic church of St. Patrick also, which has lately been enlarged by an addition capable of containing as many as the original edifice. The University of St. Mary of the Lake has been built within that time, to which is attached the Chapel of the Holy Name of Jesus, as also the Convent of "the Sisters of Mercy," which has its domestic chapel. Now all of these places set apart for the worship of God and for the celebration of the august sacrifice of the Mass are crowded to overflowing every Sunday with Catholics. What stronger proof is needed of the grand and rapid increase of Catholics in this city ? 23 " twenty-eight thousand out of a total Catholic population of fifty thousand for Illinois. 22 McGiRE, Life of St. Eev. William Quarter, p. 87. 23 Id., p. 86. 126 THE CATHOLIC CHURCH IN CHICAGO Bishop ^ i n the Diary which Bishop Quarter kept during his Diary^ residence iri Chicago with a certain old-world leisureli- ness, though there was nothing leisurely in the energetic stride of his episcopal career, the outstanding features of his personality are portrayed by his own hand with intimate and often vivid touch. No other form of literature leads us further into the innermost secrets of human character than the Diary or Journal. Bishop Quarter's Chicago Diary is no exception to the rule. One may not, indeed, call it a journal intime. Rather does it deal primarily with the varied official busi- ness that crowded the few years of his episcopal career. And yet withal it does in one entry 'and another re- veal very intimately what manner of soul was behind the steady progress of visible achievement that men saw and commented on. Zeal, piety, restless energy, sym- pathy with his flock, unaffected charity, prudent plan- ning for the future, these and kindred traits of the Christian prelate discover themselves in its carefully written pages. Now he records his joy in the simple piety and zeal for religion of the Catholic servant-girls of Chicago; now he describes the solemn services at the Cathedral, not overlooking to enter accurately the names and functions of the clergy participating; and now, for to every phase of his environment he seemed to be awake, he notes the state of the weather or registers the names of the steamers, which as he looked out towards the Lake from his little episcopal cottage on Michigan Avenue, he saw entering or leaving the harbor. Some extracts from the Diary are cited : "1844, May 5. The residence of the Bishop and of the clergy at the present time is a small one-story frame building fronting- the lake. There are, at the present writing, only two priests doing duty in Chicago. BISHOP QUARTER 127 1844, May. The old church is a long, low, frame build- ing, having a small steeple and bell surmounted by a cross. The new church is of brick and is a respectable building. Its dimensions are one hundred feet in length and fifty- five feet in width. There is a lot of ground adjoining the new church upon which may yet be erected the diocesan Cathedral; there is also a lot in the rear of the church, where a free school for the poor of the congregation may in course of time be erected. There are ten acres of land a short distance out of town where is now the Catholic burial ground and where may be built at some future day a Charity Hospital. The residence of the Bishop and of the clergy at the present time is a small one-story frame building fronting the lake. There are, at the present time, only two priests doing duty in Chicago : the Rev. Mr. de St. Palais, French, and Rev. Mr. Fischer, German; there are two Seminarians: Messrs. P. McMahan and Bernard McGorisk, and one boy of the age of 15, Timothy Sullivan, who is destined for the priesthood. Second Sunday after the arrival of the Bishop, May 12th, the Bishop preached at the High Mass, published that the Seminarians named above would receive sub- deaconship on the following Thursday (Ascension day) at 8 o'clock Mass; and that there would be a meeting of the congregation on Monday evening at 7 o'clock to take into consideration the best mode of raising subscriptions to plaster the walls and finish the Cathedral. The meeting was held and a good spirit prevailed. May 24th, Friday. Today the Bishop officiated pon- tifically and raised to the dignity of the Priesthood the Rev. Messrs. P. McMahan and Bernard McGorisk. June 3rd. Today received a letter from the Bishop of Vincennes recalling to his diocese Rev. Messrs, de St. Palais, Fischer, De Pontavice and Gueguen. June 15th. On this morning the Bishop set out, in com- pany with Rev. Mr. de St. Palais for Joliet, with the intention of visiting a portion of the Diocese, set out for Ottawa The roads were very bad; swam the horses over the La Salle river; stopped that night at Verniets within nine miles of Ottawa; reached Ottawa next day early; had 128 THE CATHOLIC CHURCH IN CHICAGO some difficulty in passing the sloughs; had to apply rails to lift the carriage out of them twice; found a steamboat ready to sail down the Illinois river; stopped at Peru. June 19th. Walked to La Salle; saw the church and clergymen. August 23rd. Rev. Maurice de St. Palais took his de- parture from Chicago for the diocese of Vincennes. November 1. On All Saints Day formed a society among the children of the congregation having for its object their religious instruction. In the beginning of this month the spire of the steeple was elevated on its base. The steeple erected this month also, the first and only spire, as yet, in the city of Chicago. 1845, March 15. Saturday, 9 o'clock. Just noticed the steamer Champion sailing out of Chicago harbor for St. Joseph, Mich., her first trip there this season. "Some weeks previous to Holy Week, Margaret Donohue, domestic at the Bishop's, inquired of the Bishop if there would not be a Repository prepared for the Blessed Sacra- ment during Holy Week. The Bishop had but little hope of making much preparations for Holy Week, owing to the unfinished state of the church; but when the question was asked he told this pious girl to make what preparations she could. She immediately set to work and the following pious girls, all of whom are living out, lent their aid, viz. Mary Long, who was indefatigable, Mary Casey and Mary Gleason. These girls collected amongst their acquaintance many orna- ments. Mr. Thomas Aughoney, one of the Seminarians, had already constructed a neat altar in the basement of the church, and this the girls proposed dressing up for a Repository. When Holy Week arrived, they spread on the platform of the little altar a carpet they had already purchased and then went on arranging the drapery, flower vases, etc., until it was tastefully and very neatly arranged before Holy Thursday. It is worthy of remark that when the funds gave out and they could not purchase all the artificial flowers they wanted, so as to weave a wreath for the front of the altar, they stripped their bonnets of their ornaments and made a wreath of those flowers to adorn the Altar of their God, which before THE ROSARIST'S COMPANION; OR, MANUAL OF DEVOUT EXERCISES: COMPRlSr.VG NIGHT AND MORNING PRAYERS, PRAYERS AT MASS, &c. The Rosaries of B. V. M., and of Jesus; the Little Office of Uie B. V. M. : the Rules of the Con- fraternity of the Scapular; together with the Indulgences granted to the Confrater- nities of Rosary aud Scapular. THE DEVOTION OF THE WAY OF THE CROSS OF THE SACRED HEART: And of the Association for a Happy Death, called Bono. Nors. THE ARCH-CONFRATERNITY OF THE IMMACULATE HEART OF MARY, For the Conversion of Sinners. VESPERS, OR EVENING OFFICE OF THE CHURCH, IN LATIN AND ENGLISH. CHICAGOt PRINTED FOR THE PROPRIETOR, And sold by Charles M'Donnel, corner of Ma rkctand Randolph Streets, near the South Branch Bridge. Title page of the first Catholic book published in Chicago. "During his stay, the latter [Rev. James Cummiskey] has pub- lished a catechism for the Diocese that has received the sanction of the Bishop, and a work entitled "Rosarist's Companion," for the use of the members of the different Confraternities of which it treats. These two are, it is believed, the first Catholic books ever published in Chicago." Bishop Quarter's Diary. Copy of Bosarist's Companion in possession of Miss Harriet McDonnell, daughter of Charles McDonnell, proprietor of Chicago's first Catholic book store. BISHOP QUARTER 129 might have subserved their own vanity! May our Heavenly Father reward such devotedness, such piety in his humble handmaids. At his birth the poor were the first to wait on the Infant Jesus. At his death also, and in this new See of Chicago, the poor girls were the first to prepare for our Lord the Repository. March 24. On this evening at 6 o'clock the steamboat Bunker Hill left the harbor of Chicago for Buffalo the first boat run on the lake this season a fine, cool evening clear weather. Low Sunday, March 30. There was in the church Rev. Jas. Cummiskey, who is sojourning in the city since last fall. During his stay, the latter has published a catechism for the sanction of the Bishop, and a work entitled "Rosarist's Com- panion," for the use of the different Confraternities of which it treats. These two are, it is believed, the first Catholic works ever published in Chicago. A Catholic book-store has been opened last week by Charles McDonnell; this is the first Catholic book-store in the city. 24 April 7. Monday morning, at 9 o'clock, a violent snow- storm set in. About an hour previous, mountainous clouds hovered over the lake, towards the northeast, their peaks sunclad, their flanks dark and shadowing. They burst opposite Chicago ana emptied themselves of snow to the depth of three or four inches in the city. The lake swelled its waves and as the storm has not subsided entirely at 10 o'clock, the troubled, agitated waters of the lake still rage and rave. The Champion was seen returning into the harbor, having made probably a fruitless attempt to reach Milwaukee. January, 1846. About the first Sunday of the New Year, Sister Mary Agatha O'Brien, first Mother Superior of the "Sisters of Mercy" in Chicago, formed a society amongst the female children of the congregation, called the society of the 24 The McDonnell bookstore was on the east side of Market Street, between Lake and Randolph Streets. Miss Harriet Mc- Donnell, a daughter of Chicago's pioneer Catholic book-dealer, is still a resident in the city. 130 THE CATHOLIC CHURCH IN CHICAGO "Children of Mary." About sixty female children entered their names as members. On the Saturday before the first Sunday after Epiphany, Mr. Hampston, one of the Seminarians, formed a society amongst the boys, under the patronage of 'St. Joseph.' January 9th. The first Sunday after Epiphany the fol- lowing named Catholic gentlemen met in the Bishop's room after Vespers: .'Messrs. John Breen, John McGovern, Charles McDonnell, William Snowhook, Thomas Kinsella, John Devlin, all Irish, and Mr. Ellis, Scotch, and had a conversation re- garding the propriety of establishing a society to be known by the name of the 'Hibernian Benevolent Emigrant Society.' The Bishop said he approved highly of the design of forming such a society that it was called for by every feeling of humanity, benevolence and charity and that it should have his hearty co-operation. He showed that the active efforts of such a society could not fail to benefit the State, whilst it would be of service to the emigrant in a variety of ways. Many had sought the West during the past year. It was likely that a large number would turn their steps westward the coming spring and every feeling of sympathizing humanity seemed to require that there be someone to bid the stranger 'Welcome.' " 25 Death of The stream of Bishop Quarter's health and energy Quarter was flowing at full tide when death claimed him at the early age of forty-two. On Passion Sunday, April 9, 1848, he preached at the Cathedral High Mass on the Apostolicity of the Church. Father Jeremiah A. Kin- sella, President of the University of St. Mary of the 25 "The march of the Catholic religion in this State [Illinois] is onward. Nothing will appear so obvious to the traveller, even the least observant, as this fact. A constant flood of emigration pours into this fertile country; every ship or steam-boat that ploughs through Lake Michigan to Chicago comes loaded with settlers, the most of them are Catholics." ' ' Americanus " in the St. Louis News Letter, August 8, 1846. BISHOP QUARTER 131 Lake, who was present, declared that he had never heard the theme handled with more telling effect. 26 On leaving the pulpit the Bishop expressed himself as feeling very much fatigued after the effort and it was remarked that his voice at Vespers on that day lacked its usual fullness of tone. But otherwise he did not appear particularly unwell and in the evening in converse with his friends his customary liveliness of manner did not forsake him. He retired early, after remarking to Father McElhearne, who resided with him, that he felt indisposed, but that he thought sleep would restore him. About three o 'clock in the morning, Monday, April 10, Father McElhearne was awakened by loud moans that came from the Bishop's apartment. Hurrying at once to his aid, he found him very weak and in great distress from a severe pain in the head. The Father realized that the Bishop 's strength was rapidly failing him ; and so, after summon- ing medical aid, he proceeded at once to administer to him the last rites of the church. Scarcely had this timely - e Bishop Quarter appears from numerous testimonies to have been an excellent preacher. In this connection the following item from the St. Louis News Letter, November 21, 1847, may be quoted. It refers to a slow and tedious river-trip which the Bishop made from La Salle to Alton during low water : ' ' He was not, however, while on board idle. He preached several times to a number of most respectable and intelligent passengers (about two hundred) composed of physicians, lawyers, merchants and wealthy planters, the most of whom were just returning from the Saratoga Springs to their homes in the Sunny South. He answered to the satisfaction of all the most popular objections urged against Catholic doctrine and Catholic discipline. All the passengers were highly delighted with the Bishop his easy and dignified manner commanded the respect even of the most bigoted." 132 THE CATHOLIC CHURCH IN CHICAGO service been rendered when the Bishop uttered the words, "Lord, have mercy on my poor soul." They were the last he spoke. He straightway relapsed into unconsciousness, dying a few minutes later. When Dr. McGirr, his physician and intimate friend, reached his bedside, all was over. The first Bishop of Chicago had rested from his labors; but his works, and they seemed of surpassing merit, followed him. 27 27 Following the final entry in Bishop Quarter 's Diary is a notice of his death written by Father Kinsella, President of the University of St. Mary of the Lake. "April 10, 1848. Died, at his Episcopal residence, Chicago, the Eight Rev. Dr. Quarter, the first Bishop of Chicago. On the day preceding his death, Sunday of the Passion of our Lord Jesus Christ, he lectured at last Mass in the Cathedral on the Apostolicity of the church. We have never heard so profound a discourse on the same subject. What an open and sincere profession of Faith did the Apostle of this young church make the day before he gave up his pure spirit to Him who gave it! Shortly before 3 o'clock on the morning of the 10th, the Rev. Mr. McElhearne, the clergyman who resided with the Bishop, and the housekeeper, were awakened by loud moans. They hurried instantly to the Bishop's apartment and found him walking through his room. He complained most of pain in his head and heart. He thought there was no necessity of medical aid, but wished frequently to see the Rev. Mr. Kin- sella, President of the University of St. Mary of the Lake. He began to sink rapidly and the time of his dissolution seemed to be at hand ; so that the Rev. Mr. McElhearne deemed it necessary to administer to him all those consolations which our Holy Church prescribes to be given to the soldiers of Jesus Christ at their dying moments. He lived only a few minutes afterwards. The soul of the disinterested, the zealous, the holy, pious Bishop Quar- ter at the hour of 3 o'clock on this morning fled to its God, whose vicar he was in truth, to render an account of his steward- ship and to receive the great reward that was due his truly apos- tolic labors. J. A. Kinsella, Pres. U. St. M. of the Lake." BISHOP QUARTER 133 Grief in Chicago over the demise of the brilliant young prelate, thus snatched away with tragic sudden- ness from the scenes of his ever-growing usefulness, was as universal as it was unfeigned. Through long hours, great crowds of the Catholic laity and large numbers of the Protestant population of the city, clergymen among them, thronged the humble epis- copal residence on Michigan Avenue, where the re- mains of the deceased were first laid out. At three o'clock on Friday, Feast of the Seven Dolors, the funeral rites took place at the Cathedral with every solemnity which the young Church of Chicago could command. The Office of the Dead was chanted by the assembled clergy and an eloquent eulogy of the deceased Bishop pronounced by Father Feely of Peoria. The remains were interred in a specially prepared vault under the sanctuary and directly in front of the high altar of the Cathedral. Dr. McGirr, Bishop Quarter's physician and biographer, dwells on the impressive scenes that marked the obsequies. "At half -past four o'clock the procession formed to con- duct the body to its resting place. First came the clergymen a/id ecclesiastical students then the body, borne by six priests then the students of the University then the pupils of the Academy of St. Francis Xavier then followed the people of all denominations, sexes and sizes. It passed out of the church ; moved round to the rear, where a tomb had been prepared for it beneath the sanctuary, and in front of the altar which he himself had reared. The ceremony was orderly and imposing. And when the clergymen in their white surplices, with lighted candles in their hands, and the beautiful little children of the Academy, dressed in white, reminding one of guardian angels, watching to protect us, stood with lighted candles in their hands around the tomb, 134 THE CATHOLIC CHURCH IN CHICAGO while the body was being committed to its kindred earth, the effect was beyond description." Here in the first Catholic Cathedral of Chicago, at the southwest corner of Madison Street and Wabash Avenue, the remains of Bishop Quarter continued to rest until the great fire of 1871 when they were trans- ferred to Calvary. 28 Testimony of value to the sterling w r orth of Bishop Quarter's personality is to be found in the impression he made in non-Catholic circles of the city. Distin- guished citizens of the day, like William B. Ogden, AY alter Newberry and J. Young Scammon, though dif- fering from him in religious affiliation, lent him liberal financial aid and encouragement in the various enter- prises to which he put his hand; for which generosity, Dr. McGirr wrote in 1848, the Catholic Church of Chi- cago owed them a debt of gratitude which would not soon be forgotten. One gets an idea of the esteem in which the Bishop was held by his Protestant friends from the tribute to his memory which one of their num- ber, Mr. J. Lisle Smith, put on record in the Chicago Journal. "In the social circle he was beloved by all who knew him. In his public sphere of duty, he was universally admired and respected. Enemies he had none; for his kind and gentle spirit disarmed opposers and converted them into warm and devoted friends. 25 A marble cenotaph of Bishop Quarter designed by Van Osdel and executed in the studios of A. S. Sherman stood in the south wall of St. Mary's Cathedral a few feet from the south altar. It measured seven feet, four inches high by four feet, three inches wide and was surmounted by a richly ornamented urn fifteen inches high, "the whole presenting a most beautiful and striking appearance as you entered the church." BISHOP QUARTER 135 Such a man's departure to another sphere is a great calamity. Who can supply his place? Who can, in so short a sojourn in a land of strangers, again make so many and such true friends T' "But he is gone gone to his great reward. Peace to his ashes. Honor to his memory!" A similar vein of esteem and affection for the de- ceased prelate runs through the stanzas of a poem written on the occasion of his death by a young Prot- estant poetess of Chicago, Miss Mary A. Merritt. "Sorrow not as those without a hope" Now all is over ! to the requiem Of the deep organ, solemn in its swell, They bore him onward to the chamber dim, Our Friend our Father he that loved us well ! Never ! ah, never, shall so kind a glance Send us the greeting he was wont to send, 'er the calm brightness of his countenance The chilling shadows of the grave descend. His form is resting 'neath the saintly shade Of shrine and altar that he helped to rear ; Within their silence he hath knelt and prayed, And it is fitting we should lay him here. So may the organ's wild and thrilling peal A mournful requiem o'er his slumber pour, While our hushed spirits thrill again to feel His presence near us though of earth no more. 29 Our meagre account of Bishop Quarter's brilliant, if fleeting, episcopal career in Chicago may here find an 29 Quoted in McGiRR, Life of Bt. Rev. William Quarter, p. 98. Miss Merritt devoted the proceeds of the sale of a volume of her poems to the erection of the marble cenotaph of Bishop Quarter in St. Mary's Cathedral. 136 THE CATHOLIC CHURCH IN CHICAGO end. When in the June following his death Bishop Hughes of New York, who had consecrated him in 1844, passed through Chicago, he was in admiration at what the dead prelate had accomplished in so short a time, saying more than once: "Oh, if all would labor like Bishop Quarter. Look at what he has done! See the University, see that Convent! What had he when he came here and still see what he has left after him. Bishop Quarter is gone, but Bishop Quarter's memory shall never be, can never be forgotten in Chicago." 30 30 McGovERN, The Catholic Church in Chicago, p. 89. \ Rt. Eev. James Oliver Van de Velcle, second Bishop of Chi- cago, 1849-1853. Born in Belgium in 1795. Transferred in 1853 to the See of Natchez, where he died in 1855. As a member of the Society of Jesus before his elevation to episcopal rank, he held important executive positions including those of President of Saint Louis University and Superior of the Vice-Province of Missouri. CHAPTER VI BISHOP VAN DE VELDE On the death of Bishop Quarter, his brother, Father Walter Quarter, at the instance of the neighboring Bishops, took provisionally in hand the administration of the diocese, a step subsequently approved by the Archbishop of Baltimore and the Holy See. Father Quarter showed himself zealous and energetic in ful- filling this important charge, though for lack of funds he made no attempt to carry forward the new projects to which his brother was about to put his hand. Shortly before the latter 's death, arrangements had been made to add to the spacious building of the University another one of brick. Moreover, the Convent and Academy of the Sisters of Mercy was to receive an addition that would double the capacity of the original building, a charity hospital and an orphan asylum were to be erected and steps had been taken towards the publication of a Catholic paper in Chicago. It was left to the second Bishop of Chicago, James Oliver Van de Velde, to take in hand and realize these noble designs in the cause of Christian charity and religious growth left him as a precious heritage by his predecessor. Under date of December 14, 1848, Father Quarter wrote in his Diary: "14th. Received a letter this morning from the Most Rev. Archbishop of Baltimore stating that Very Rev. J. Van de Velde, of St. Louis, 137 138 THE CATHOLIC CHURCH IN CHICAGO is appointed Bishop of Chicago in place of my brother, the Right Eev. Dr. Quarter. Glory be to God! May his Episcopal reign be such as will give glory to God and peace to the Church is all I have to say; I rejoice, however, that the Very Rev. Mr. Van de Velde is the person appointed." 1 James Oliver James Oliver Van de Velde was born in Lebbeke, near Termonde, in Belgium, April 3, 1795. While a educator candidate for the priesthood in the Grand Seminary of Mechlin, he came under the spell of the heroic Father Nerinckx, then in Belgium in search of financial aid and clerical workers for his destitute missions of Kentucky. It was agreed between the two that Mr. Van de Velde should accompany the missionary to America and com- plete his theological studies in Bishop Flaget 's Seminary at Bardstown. Accordingly, in company with Father Nerinckx and a party of clerical recruits, among them several young Belgians on their way to the Jesuit Novitiate at Georgetown College, he crossed the Atlantic in the spring of 1817, in the brig Mars, Captain Hall. After a few weeks' stay at St. Mary's Seminary, Balti- more, where he recovered from the effects of an accident he had met with on board the ship, he was received into the Jesuit Novitiate at Georgetown College, August 23, 1817. Here he remained fourteen years, meantime being 1 Bishop Quarter 's Diary was continued by his brother, Father Walter Quarter, and later by Bishop Van de Velde. Father Quar- ter returned to the diocese of New York, to which he originally belonged, shortly after the arrival of Bishop Van de Velde in Chicago. He was visited in 1851 at his rectory in New York City by two young Chicagoans, John McMullen and James McGovern, then on their way to Eome, where they were to make their ecclesi- astical studies at the Propaganda. BISHOP VAN DE VELDE 139 raised to the priesthood, 1827, and discharging various duties, among others those of professor of Belles Lettres and librarian of the College. The last-named occupation particularly appealed to him and he notes in a Memoir with evident satisfaction the circumstance that he found the library of Georgetown College, when he assumed its management in 1818, a mere handful of some two hun- dred books and left it in 1831 a great collection of twenty thousand volumes. In that year Father Van de Velde was attached by his Superiors to the teaching staff of the college, soon to become a University, con- ducted by the Jesuits since 1829 in St. Louis, Missouri. He travelled AVest in company with Father Peter Kenny, Visitor of the Jesuit houses in the United States, and Father William McSherry, Assistant of the latter, the three having enjoyed the rare good for- tune on the eve of their journey of being entertained by the venerable Charles Carroll of Carrollton at his mansion, Doughregan Manor, in Howard County, Maryland. 2 Father Van de Velde, after being attached to the Missouri Jesuits, filled various posts of honor and im- portance among them. At St. Louis University he was successively Professor of Belles Lettres, Vice-President and President. During the period 1843-1848 he was Superior of the Vice-Province of Missouri, of which office he had been relieved but a few months when word came to him that he had been named by the Holy See to the vacant see of Chicago. An account from 2 In keeping with the European custom favoring a certain prodigality in the bestowal of proper names, the full name of the second Bishop of Chicago was John Andrew James Oliver Bene- dict Rotthier Van de Velde. 140 THE CATHOLIC CHURCH IN CHICAGO Van de Velde's appointment to the See. of Chicago Father Van de Velde's own hand gives interesting details of the circumstances under which the appoint- ment was received. "In the beginning of November of the same year [1848] Father Van de Velde went to New York to transact some business of importance for the V[ice] Province. On his return he passed through Baltimore, where on the very day of his arrival the news had reached that the Holy Father had nominated him to the vacant see of Chicago. This intel- ligence was communicated to him by the Very Rev. L. E. Deluol, Superior of the Sulpicians, and was contained in a letter which the latter had just received from Right Rev. Dr. Chanche, Bishop of Natchez, who was then in Paris and had obtained official information of it from the Apostolic Nuncio, Monsignor Fornari. Father Van de Velde left Baltimore the same day, before the news of his nomination was known to any of his friends, and out-travelled it till he reached Cin- cinnati, where a telegraphic dispatch announcing it had been received from the Archbishop of Baltimore on the morning of his arrival. On his way to St. Louis he visited Bards- town to consult the Rev. F. Verhaegen, then President of St. Joseph's College, concerning the manner in which he should act under the circumstances in which he was placed. It was agreed that he should decline the nomination unless compelled by an express command of His Holiness. He reached St. Louis in the beginning of December. There all was known and the Brief with a letter freeing him from all allegiance to the Society of Jesus, and appointing him to the vacant see of Chicago, arrived but a few days later. It bore the superscription of the Archbishop of Baltimore, who by letter urged him to accept. Not long before we had been informed by the papers that Rome had fallen into the hands of the Socialist rebels and that the Holy Father had fled in disguise from the holy city. Hence Father Van de Velde, who was anxious to return the package, knew not whither to send it, and kept it for several days unsealed, as he had received it. In the meantime he wrote to the Cardinal Prefect of the Propaganda and to the General of the Society, who had also BISHOP VAN DE VELDE 141 left Rome, endeavoring to be freed from the burden which it was intended to impose upon him. In his perplexity he went to consult the Archbishop of St. Louis to know whither he should send the Brief of appointment, in case it should ar- rive, for no one yet knew that he had received it. The Arch- bishop, before answering, insisted upon knowing whether the Brief had been received. On being answered in the affirma- tive and having the package presented to him he immediately broke the seal and examined the contents. He gave it as his opinion that the letter, if not the Brief, contained a command to accept and used his influence to prevail upon Father Van de Velde to do so and to be consecrated without delay. The nominee asked for a delay of six weeks to reflect on the matter, hoping that in the meantime he would receive answers to the letters which he had written to Rome and to France. Unwilling to accept the nomination and distrusting his own judgment, he referred the matter as a case of conscience to three theologians, requesting them to decide whether the words of the letter contained a positive command and whether, in case they did, he was bound under sin to obey. Their decision was in the affirmative and he submitted to bear the yoke. He was consecrated on Sexagesima Sunday, llth of February, 1849, in the Church of St. Francis Xavier attached to the University [of St. Louis], by the Most Rev. Peter R. Kenrick, assisted by the Bishops of Dubuque and Nashville, and the Right Rev. Dr. Spalding delivered the consecration sermon." Immediately after his consecration, Bishop Van de Velde began to visit some of the parishes of his juris- 1 diction in the neighborhood of St. Louis. Cahokia, Kaskaskia and Quincy were given an opportunity to welcome him, and sermons were preached by him in these rounds in English, French and German. 3 He 3 Bishop Van de Velde wrote English with an idiomatic pro- priety and ease remarkable in one for whom the language was not a natural inheritance but a laborious acquisition. An official rec- ord of his attainments made by his Jesuit superiors notes his ac- 142 THE CATHOLIC CHURCH IN CHICAGO reached Chicago Friday, March 30, and was installed in St. Mary's Cathedral on April 1, Palm Sunday. 4 On July 25 following his installation at Chicago, Bishop Van de Velde started off on his first extended visitation of the diocese. Though it lasted but five weeks, he visited twenty-two different places, confirming, preaching and discharging other episcopal duties with every token of apostolic zeal. At Prairie de Rocher, in the course of this visitation, he exhumed the remains of Father Sebastian Meurin, last survivor of the pre- suppression Jesuits of the Mississippi Valley and had them conveyed to the cemetery of the Jesuit Novitiate at Florissant in Missouri, "where," as he wrote, "exists the first cemetery of the restored Society in the West, a beautiful spot, and where his precious remains reposing near those of Fathers Van Quicken- borne, Timmermans, De Theux and others will form the connecting link between the suppressed and revived Society." 5 Destitution j n a letter addressed under date of December 13, 1849, to the French Association for the Propagation of the Faith, Bishop Van de Velde sketched briefly but graphically the widespread poverty and spiritual desti- tution he had encountered in his first visitation of the diocese : quaintance also with French, Flemish, German, Spanish and Italian. 4 Bishop Van de Velde 's Diary in McGovERN, The Catholic Church in Chicago, p. 101. 5 Letter of Van de Velde in Freeman 's Journal, September 15, 1849, cited in CLARK, Lives of the Deceased Bishops of the United States, 2: 381. BISHOP VAN DE VELDE 143 "Since my consecration, I have visited almost a third of my diocese. This episcopal tour of inspection, equivalent to a journey of twelve hundred French leagues, has revealed to me in all its extent the misery of the flock entrusted to me. You will form an idea of it, gentlemen, from this passing glimpse, the heart-rending accuracy of which I have verified with my own eyes. In general, the emigrants who come to these parts and who make up almost the entire Catholic population, are not in a position to supply even their own wants. Poverty is so great that there is not a single parish, even among those longest established, which is sufficiently provided with the necessary equipment for the celebration of the sacred rites. A single priest has sometimes eight parishes to attend and as he has for those various stations only one chalice, one missal, one chasuble, one alb, one altar-stone, he must perforce carry all these articles with him, however long and distressing be the way. As to monstrances and ciboria, such things are almost unknown in the diocese. Thus far, in all the parishes, ranging through 3,700 English miles, which I have visited, I have seen only three monstrances and five ciboria. In default of sacred vessels they reserve the Blessed Sacrament in a corporal or else in a tinbox or porcelain cup. After these details I think it superfluous to give you a description of my episcopal residence. It is on a par with everything else. I don't know whether it is the humblest in the world, but at least certain it is that none poorer is to be found in America." 6 Nothing reveals more pointedly the zeal and energy Bishop which Bishop Van de Velde brought to the discharge of ^^ his official duties than the manner in which he performed Diary at intervals the visitation of his diocese. For one of his advancing years and uncertain health these periodic journeys up and down the State, however consoling from an apostolic standpoint, were by no means pleasant 8 Annales de la Propagation de la Foi, 22 : 313. 144 THE CATHOLIC CHURCH IN CHICAGO experiences from the standpoint of personal convenience and comfort. By river packet, stage, carriage, "mud- wagon," and towards the end, occasionly by railroad, the Bishop made his way to the Catholic settlements scattered through Illinois often in the most out-of-the- way and almost inaccessible localities. 7 Certain graphic entries in his Diary help us to understand the strenuous, uncomfortable side of these apostolic visitations : "[1849] June 7th. The Bishop of Chicago arrived at Galena, having performed the whole journey from the Aux- plaines River in a mud-wagon, in which he spent two days and nearly two nights. September 25th. Said Mass again at Bourbonnais and left for the South; several members of the Congregation ac- companied me in carriages and on horseback to the other side of the Kankakee river, with the Pastor at their head. Passed through immense prairies; dined at Middleport, county seat of Iroquois county; thence through Milford, and slept at Bartholomew's tavern. September 26th. Reached Danville where we dined and found but two Catholic families. After dinner started for Paris where we arrived at 10 o'clock p. m., having this day travelled 72 miles through prairies. October llth. Said Mass and left with a troop of horse- men for Taylorsville ; stopped at Ewington, county-seat of Effingham. The people agreed to buy a lot and promised to build a church on it. Passed through Shelbyville, but one Catholic there from Lorraine. Slept at a farm-house six miles further on. 7 At the time of Bishop Quarter's death not a single railroad led out of Chicago. The first railroad to connect the city with outside points, the Galena and Chicago Union, the germ of the present Northwestern System, was built in the fall of 1848. In the following spring Bishop Van de Velde made the trip from St. Louis to Chicago by river-packet and stage to be installed in his episcopal see. BISHOP VAN DE VELDE 145 October 14th. Sunday. [Springfield.] Said first Mass and preached at the last; no choir now, no first Communion nor Confirmations; the children not being sufficiently in- structed. No Vespers, no evening service, and this is the Capital of the State! Low frame church, St. John the Bap- tist, 60 by 27. Spent the whole evening and part of the next morning hearing the confessions of the Germans. October 15th. At 9 o'clock said Mass for the Germans. Forty of them received communion, most of whom for want of a German priest had not approached the Sacrament for the last four years. [1850] June 16th. Fourth Sunday after Pentecost. Said Mass in the unfinished church of Mt. Sterling; immense crowd of people, chiefly Protestants. Confirmation to thirty-five persons; could find no dinner in town. In the evening left for Mr. Doyle's (on the way to Quincy) where we spent the night. [1851] November 10th. Left McHenry for Marengo, and there took the stage for Galena; overset and was near being killed. [1853] July 14th. Visited Pittsfield with Rev. James Dempsey of Quincy, after dinner went and took steam-boat at Florence for Calhoun. July 15th. During the night landed amid thunder, rain and vivid lightning, at Lejarlier thoroughly wet and covered with mud; staid [sic] till noon and set out for Mr. McDonald's in a rough wagon without springs, over stones and gullies; after dinner (16th) left McDonald's for the church in a rough wagon. Found Father Verreydt at the church, slept about four miles from it on the road." To the four churches, St. Mary's, St. Patrick's, St. Church of Joseph's, and St. Peter's and the chapel of the Holy Name in which the Catholics of Chicago were worshiping when Bishop Van de Velde arrived among them, others were added during the period of his episcopate. At the corner of Cass and Superior Streets, this being the southeastern extremity of the grounds of the University 140 THE CATHOLIC CHURCH IN CHICAGO of St. Mary of the Lake, a small frame church of the Holy Name was commenced by Father William J. Kin- sella in 1848 and opened for services November 18, 1849. As the building soon proved inadequate to hold the growing number of North-side Catholics, a second church was built by Father Kinsella in 1851 on State Street between Superior and Huron. Though enlarged in 1852, the second church of the Holy Name was, like its predecessor, very shortly found to be unequal to the needs of the parish, which comprised all the English- speaking Catholics of the North Side. Accordingly, on August 3, 1853, Bishop Van de Velde laid the corner- stone of a new and spacious edifice of brick on ground at the south-east corner of State and Superior Streets. It was Gothic in style, measured 84x190 feet and was to cost $100,000 when completed. Work on it was far enough advanced by the Christmas of 1854 to permit of services being held in it on that day. This noble structure, one of Chicago's earliest monuments of ecclesiastical architecture, was swept away in the fire of October, 1871. 8 st. Michael's Meanwhile, the German Catholics of the North Side were showing an increase in numbers parallel to that of. their English-speaking co-religionists. In 1851 they numbered sixty families and their church, St. Joseph's, at the north-east corner of Chicago Avenue and Cass Street, no longer answered to their needs. As immi- grants of their race were beginning to settle thickly in the district about North Avenue, a mile above St. Joseph's, the project of a new parish on their behalf was now taken up. At a meeting of the parishioners 8 ANDREAS, History of Chicago, 1 : 297. BISHOP VAN DE VELDE 147 of St. Joseph's, June 20, 1852, presided over by the pastor, Reverend Anthony Kopp, steps were taken toward the organization of the new parish. Michael Diversey, one of the most well-to-do of the attendants at St. Joseph's, whose name is perpetuated in one of Chicago's splendid boulevards, donated a lot 87y 2 xl30 feet, at the north-west corner of North Avenue and Church Street, he being the owner of fourteen acres of land in that locality The sum of $750 having been collected from the members of the new parish, a church of frame was erected at the cost of $730 on Mr. Diver- sey 's lot and dedicated by Father Kopp under the title, St. Michael's, on October 19, 1852. Father Kopp remained temporary pastor of the church until the ap- pointment in November, 1852, of Father August Kroemer. A school was opened in 1853, the old church being used for school purposes after the erection of a new brick church at the corner of Hurlburt and Eugenia Streets. Among the donations received for the pur- chase of a lot on which to build a presbytery was one of $240 from Cardinal Eeisach of Munich. In Febru- ary, 1860, St. Michael's parish passed into the hands of the Redemptorist Fathers. 9 In 1853 the German Catholics of the West Side, Church of numbering about fifty families, were organized into a fAssisi parish. A church for their use, named for St. Francis of Assisi, was built at the corner of Mather and Clinton Streets and dedicated August 15 of that year by Bishop Van de Velde. It was of frame, had a seating capacity of 400 and cost some $2,000. Its first pastor was Father John Bernard A\ T eikamp, who remained in charge until ANDREAS, op. cit., I: 275. 1855. In 1867 the parish built a spacious church of brick on West Twelfth Street and Newberry Avenue. The old church thereupon began under the title of St. Paul's to serve the needs of the numerous English- speaking Catholics resident in its vicinity. 10 New Late in 1853 old St. Peter's church at the corner of Washington and Wells Streets was moved to the southwest corner of Clark and Polk Streets, following the parishioners who were for the most part no longer to be found in the crowded business district that had grown up around the original site. The first Mass in 10 ANDREAS, op. cit., 1 : 297. Father Weikamp, who had been pastor of the old St. Peter's during the period 1850-1853, resigned this post owing to chronic difficulties with his trustees. With means which he had in part brought with him from Europe and in part collected in Chicago, he undertook the building of a church and community-house for a Third Order of St. Francis, which he had established while at St. Peter's. The church, named for St. Francis of Assisi, was built at Clinton and Mather Streets. Retiring hither in the summer of 1853 he was followed by a group of pious souls of both sexes, who chose to live in poverty, chastity and obedience under his directions, according to the spirit of St. Francis of Assisi. With permission of the Bishop, Father Weikamp organized a German parish in connection with the new church, which was to be without trustees, as it was the property of the religious community for which it was primarily built. In the fall of 1855 Father Weikamp, at the invitation of Bishop Baraga of Sault-Ste-Marie, transferred his community to the Indian Mission of Arbre Croche in Michigan. On leaving Chicago he put his church up for sale, an action which elicited protest on the part of Bishop O 'Began. The affair was subse- quently settled by correspondence between Bishops O 'Regan and Baraga, and in January, 1857, the church of St. Francis was reopened with Father Gaspar H. Ostlangenberg as pastor. Illinois Catholic Historical Review, 3:57, art. Eeverend Gaspar Henry Ostlangenberg by Rev. F. G. Holweck. BISHOP VAN DE VELDE 149 St ' Pl Catholica St. Peter's after its removal to the new location was celebrated on Christmas Day, 1853, by the pastor, Father G. W. Plathe. The thirty families that made up the parish at its organization in 1846 had now grown to one hundred and fifty. 11 A new site was also found in this same year, 1853, for St. Patrick's Church. On Trinity Sunday, May 22, Bishop Van de Velde laid the corner-stone of the im- posing brick edifice, 154x70, which the congregation had undertaken to build at the north-west corner of Des- plaines and Adams Streets, three blocks south of the original church site. The French-speaking element that made up the ma- French jority of Father St. Cyr's parishioners in 1833 was depleted through the migration westward of the French mixed-bloods and their Potawatomi kinsfolk. How radically the racial complexion of St. Mary 's parish had been transformed as early as 1837 is evidenced by the fact that the petition addressed by its members in that year to Bishop Rosati to retain Father St. Cyr contains only six or eight French names, the remainder of the hundred and fifty names affixed to the document being Irish with but few exceptions. But in the 'forties and 'fifties a new French element was substituted for the old one through the arrival in Chicago of numerous French-Canadians who came to settle down in the thriving young metropolis. The first priest ordained by Bishop Van de Velde, Father Louis Hoey, the ceremony taking place April 22, 1849, was immediately assigned to the duty of looking after the French-Canadians in and around the city. By November, 1850, steps were 11 ANDREAS, op. cit., 1 : 294. 150 THE CATHOLIC CHURCH IN CHICAGO Church of St. Louis Parochial schools being taken to provide them with a church of their own, at which time Father Isidore Lebel, lately arrived from Canada, was assigned to care for them. Bishop Van de Velde notes in his Diary for January 1, 1851, that High Mass at the Cathedral was sung by Reverend J. A. Lebel, "who also preached in French, as the majority of those who attended were French and Canadians. The Mass was executed by the French choir with general satisfaction. ' ' 12 In the course of 1851 Father Lebel began the erection of a church, under the invocation of St. Louis, on the east side of Clark Street, between Jackson and Adams, on ground leased from Captain Biglow, where now the great Federal Building rises in massive grandeur. The building, a low frame structure 25x75, cost $3,000, two- thirds of which sum was contributed by Mr. P. F. Rofinot, one of the parishioners. In 1852 the church was renovated and in the words of a press-notice of the day ' ' decorated interiorly in the neatest and most appro- priate manner and with the taste and artistic effect which are natural to the French." It was blessed by Bishop Van de Velde January 16, 1853. A few years later it was moved from the leased ground on which it had been erected to the corner of Polk and Sherman Streets. 13 Parochial schools, first introduced into Chicago by Bishop Quarter, increased in number under his suc- cessor. The boys' and girls' schools attached to St. 12 Bishop Van de Velde 's Diary. 13 Bishop Van de Velde had a fondness for giving measure- ments of churches in exact figures. His report in the Catholic Almanac for 1853 gives the material and dimensions of practically every church in the diocese. BISHOP VAN DE VELDE 151 Mary's Cathedral were the earliest of their kind. The boys' school has a particularly interesting history. We have seen above that ' ' St. Mary 's College, ' ' the nucleus from which was to develop the future University of St. Mary of the Lake, was opened in the old St. Mary's Church, June 3, 1844, by Bishop Quarter only a month later than his arrival in the city. In 1846 the new University buildings were occupied and the old church building was thereupon vacated. In 1848 there was opened in the latter St. Joseph's Academy for boys under the direction and superintendence of the Presi- dent and Professors of the University. Boys whose circumstances would otherwise prevent them from ob- taining a "high-school" education were here to receive "an opportunity to prepare themselves for the various business departments of life." 14 John A. Hampston, a seminarian was prefect and manager of the Academy, which was also intended to serve as a preparatory school for the undergraduate course of the University. In 1851 the institution appears as St. Joseph's Free School for Boys with upwards of forty pupils in attendance. ; ' This school is kept in South Chicago near the Bishop 's residence and is taught by two young men daily sent from the University." 15 In 1854 the parochial char- acter of the school was fully recognized. "St. Joseph's Free School for Boys is kept in an old frame building (formerly the only church in Chicago) in the rear of the lot on which the Bishop has hitherto resided. It belongs to the Cathedral parish as also St. Mary's Free 14 Metropolitan Catholic Almanac, 1849, p. 135. 15 Id., 1851, p. 154. 152 THE CATHOLIC CHURCH IN CHICAGO School for Girls, kept by the Sisters of Mercy in the rear of the Cathedral." 16 St. Mary's parish school for girls dated from about November, 1847, when a portion of the old church built by Father St. Cyr was detached and moved to the south side of Madison Street west of Wabash Avenue and in the immediate rear of the new St. Mary's. Known first as St. Mary's Second Day School to dis- tinguish it from the select First Day School attached to the Boarding Academy' of St. Xavier, St. Mary's Free School for Girls numbered in 1848 as many as 148 pupils. It shares with St. Mary's parish school for boys the distinction of being the first in historical suc- cession of the long and splendid line of parochial schools which the sacrifices of Catholic clergy and laity through seventy years have built up in the metropolis of Illinois. The third parochial school was the one opened in 1850 for the children of the Holy Name parish in a rented frame house adjoining St. Mary's Female Or- phan Asylum on North Clark Street. Instruction was given by the Sisters of Mercy, the teachers residing at the Asylum and later at the Motherhouse on Wabash Avenue. In the first year of the school, which was named St. James' Free School, the teachers numbered three and the pupils one hundred and thirty. Both boys and girls were apparently in attendance, but in 1854 the two departments were conducted separately. "North Chicago Boys' Free Scliool of the Holy Name is kept on the lot owned by the Bishop, opposite the University, and is under the care of the priests of the 16 Id., 1854, p. 158. BISHOP VAN DE VELDE 153 parish. St. James' Free School for Girls also belongs to the Congregation of the Holy Name and is kept in a frame building rented for the purpose on North Clark Street. It is taught by three Sisters of Mercy, who reside on the North Side." 17 The last year of Bishop Van de Velde's residence in Chicago, 1853, saw the number of free or parochial schools grow to the considerable total of twelve. St. Patrick's Free School for Boys had been started at Desplaines and Adams Streets alongside the new church then in process of construction, while a Girls' School was about to be opened on property adjoining the old church site on Desplaines near Randolph. The French parish of St. Louis had its school in the old St. Peter's school-house after the erection in 1853 of the new St. Peter's at Clark and Polk. Nor were the German parishes behind-hand in providing educational facilities for their children. At the beginning of 1854 schools, "partly free and partly paying" were attached to St. Peter's on the South Side, to St. Joseph's and St. Michael's on the North Side and to St. Francis' on the West Side. 18 The schools of the parish of St. Francis were taught by "Brothers and Sisters of the Third Or- der of St. Francis who live in separate communities near the church." 10 The only parish school in the diocese outside of Chicago at this period appears to have been " Id., 1854, p. 158. 18 John Kribler was the first teacher of St. Peter's School and Joseph Stommel of St. Joseph 's School. ANDREAS, op. cit., 1 : 294, 295. 10 Metropolitan Catholic Almanac, 1854, p. 159. See note 10, supra. 154 THE CATHOLIC CHURCH IN CHICAGO the one opened in 1853 by the Sisters of Mercy in St. Mary's parish, Galena. 20 Orphan During the summer and early autumn following Bishop Van de Velde's arrival in Chicago the dread Asiatic Cholera was daily taking toll of its people and an ever-increasing number of Catholic orphans and half-orphans were being left to the charity of the diocese. To provide a refuge for these destintute chil- dren became the need of the moment, which the Bishop set himself promptly to relieve. Pending the time when a common home could be provided on their behalf, a number of orphan boys were lodged in a house on the Bishop's premises, while the girls were boarded with private families at the Bishop's expense. 21 On Sunday, August 5, 1849, the latter announced to the congrega- tion of St. Mary's Cathedral that he had rented a house for the use of the orphans. 22 On August 16, Sister Vincent McGirr and three other Sisters from the Chicago Convent of the Sisters of Mercy, to whose management the new institution was to be entrusted, moved into the "Female Orphan Asylum" on Wabash Avenue. At a meeting of the Catholic clergy of Chicago, - At least no other parochial schools outside of Chicago are listed in the Catholic Almanac for these years. 21 Metropolitan Catholic Almanac, 1850. Between July 25 and August 28, 1849, 1000 cases of cholera with 314 deaths were reported in Chicago. The cholera raged at the same time in St. Louis, leaving in its wake, as in Chicago, a large number of Catholic orphans, to provide for whom St. Vincent's German Catholic Orphan Asylum was established. - Bishop Van de Velde 's Diary. According to Andreas, op. cit., 279, the Cumberland House, at the southwest corner of Wabash Avenue and Van Buren Street, was rented for the use of the orphans. BISHOP VAN DE VELDE 155 held September 11, plans were formulated for the financing of the Asylum. The management of the affair was left to the Bishop, who was to appoint committees of priests and lay-people to undertake the collection of the necessary funds among the parishes; and the re- sults attained at the clerical gathering were com- municated on the following day to the Catholic laity at a meeting of that body. On this occasion or some- what later was organized the Orphan Asylum Associa- tion, the members of which were assessed the very modest sum of twelve and one-half cents monthly. Having in September, 1850, purchased three forty- foot lots on the west side of Wabash Avenue between Jackson and Van Buren Streets, Bishop Van de Velde immediately signed a contract with Peter Page, for the erection thereon at a cost of $4000 of a three-story building of brick with stone-foundation, fifty feet front by forty in depth. Augustine D. Taylor, the builder of Chicago's first Catholic churches, received the contract for the wood- work. 23 "The Bishop has appropriated to it all the monies he has on hand and all he expects to receive before the end of the year, amounting to almost $2500, and relies upon Providence for the balance of $1500, which is to be paid on the first day of next January. This building, however, will afford shelter only to the female orphans; the boys will have to remain in a small rented frame building until the Bishop shall be able to obtain means to build two orphan asylums. ' ' The cost of the new building, surprisingly low if measured by present-day standards, was not easily met. McGovERN, The Catholic Church in Chicago, p. 129. 156 THE CATHOLIC CHURCH IN CHICAGO Fairs held at the City Hall netted $1100, while the Bishop contributed $1400. The remaining $1500 were to be obtained through subscriptions solicited by a com- mittee of Catholic ladies and gentlemen of the city. ' ' On February 16, 1851, the orphans having taken posses- sion of the New Asylum, a donation party was given, though the weather was unfavorable. Several people attended and about $100 was obtained in cash, besides flour, groceries and some dry goods." (Bishop Van de Velde's Diary.} The report of the Orphan Asylum issued in Janu- ary, 1853, notes that almost three years and a half had passed since the Sisters of Mercy first devoted them- selves to the care of the Catholic orphans left in the wake of the great cholera visitation of the summer and autumn of 1849. During 1852 eighty-two children had been maintained in the two departments of the Asylum at a cost of only $32 per child, thanks to the rigid economies practiced by the good Sisters in charge who, moreover, contributed their services gratis to this work of mercy. The three-story brick building erected in 1850 was reserved at this time to the boys, while the girls occupied a frame house standing on one of the two lots on "VVabash Avenue purchased by the Bishop. "From the financial report it will appear that neither of the asylums has any permanent fund or revenue, and that for the support of the children we are entirely dependent on Divine Providence, and upon the charity of our benevolent citizens. Stern necessity compels us to have recourse to fairs and tea-parties, which would not be the case if sufficient means for their support BISHOP VAN DE VELDE 157 could be procured through other channels." 24 Before the end of 1853, a brick building for the girls to cost $8000 had been commenced. Sisters and orphans in 1849 numbered 5 and 125 respectively, and in 1863, 16 and 200 respectively. In the last named year the Sisters of Mercy relinquished charge of the Asylum into the hands of the Sisters of St. Joseph. The heroic services rendered by the Sisters of Mercy in the cholera visitations of 1849 and 1854 did not escape public notice and appreciation. Speaking of the former the standard history of Chicago notes that "a few physicians and (as a rule in such calamities) some Catholic priests and Sisters of Charity remained to care for those who otherwise would have been thrown upon the streets or be placed under the guardianship of the public authorities." 2415 In the epidemic of 1854, at the crisis of which the deaths averaged sixty daily, Sister Mary Agatha, Superioress of the Chicago com- munity of the Sisters of Mercy, having contracted the 24 McGovEfiN, op. cit., p. 172. Eeport of the Orphan Asylums Under the Care of the Sisters of Mercy, Chicago, Illinois (Janu- ary, 1853). "The lots, 110 by 180 on Wabash Avenue, where the two Orphan Asylums are kept and the new three-story house at present occupied by the male orphans, was built chiefly at the Bishop's expense, aided by a collection made for the purpose in the city of New York, and by the charitable contribution made by some of our citizens. The frame house, at present occupied by the female children, stands on one of the lots bought by the Bishop and is much too small and too incommodious for the purpose for which it is used. It was the Bishop's intention to erect a building for them equal in size and dimensions to the one occupied by the male orphans." ' 24b ANDREAS, op. cit., 1 : 596. 158 THE CATHOLIC CHURCH IN CHICAGO disease on a visit to a destitute sick family, succumbed to it, a martyr of charity. Mercy With the beginnings of Mercy Hospital in Chicago the name of Bishop Van de Velde stands in intimate connection. Before him Bishop Quarter had cherished the project of a Catholic hospital in the chief city of his diocese, but his untimely death intervened before the project could be realized. To his successor was to come the opportunity to inaugurate this great work of Christian charity. Already in September, 1850, Bishop Van de Velde had announced his intention of building a hospital, though "such was the destitution of the Catholics of the city that he must almost exclusively depend upon Providence for the means of erecting it. ' ' 25 As a preliminary step to the venture, application was made at Springfield for a charter of incorporation of Mercy Hospital, which was issued in 1852. Mean- time, pending the erection of a building of their own, opportunity was afforded the Sisters of Mercy to engage without further delay in the hospital service they so eagerly desired. Late in 1850 the trustees of the Illinois General Hospital of the Lake, a private non-denominational institution chartered in 1849, were soliciting from the public subscriptions to the aggregate amount of $5000, which modest sum was deemed sufficient to place the hospital on an operative basis. Moreover, they announced a course of paid lectures of a popular character by Dr. Nathan Smith Davis, the proceeds to go to the support of the new hospital. This was opened November 23, 1850, in the old Lake House, a three-story brick building at the 25 McGovERN, op. cit., p. 129. BISHOP VAN DE VELDE 159 corner of Michigan and Rush Streets erected in 1835 at a reputed cost of $100,000. The capacity of the hospital at its opening was only twelve beds, the patients being charged at the nominal rate of $2 or $3 a week. 26 In February, 1851 the management of the hospital was assumed by the Sisters of Mercy, as Bishop Van de Velde notes in his Diary. "1851 Feb. 23d, Washington's Birthday. Just received the news from Springfield that the act had passed to incor- porate the Mercy Hospital and the Mercy Orphan Asylum. Four Sisters of Mercy were sent to take charge of the tem- porary hospital opened at the Lake House. [Act did not pass the Lower House.] 27th. Articles of agreement drawn up and signed with respect to the services of the Sisters at the Lake House Hos- pital, and the arrangements for erecting a Hospital under our new charter at some future period, to be commenced, if pos- sible, this year." 27 It Was not until 1853 that the Sisters of Mercy were enabled to establish a hospital under their own auspices. Withdrawing in June of that year from the Illinois General Hospital of the Lake, which was thereupon discontinued, they attended for a while the patients in the County Hospital in Tippecanoe Hall at the south- 26 ANDREAS, op. cit., 1: 578. 27 McGovERN, op. cit., p. 144. The Hospital cared for 220 patients during the year February 20, 1851-February 20, 1852. The Metropolitan Catholic Almanac for the years 1852, 1853, con- tinues to give the Lake House as the quarters of Mercy Hospital. According to Bishop Van de Velde 's Diary the Orphan Asylum building on Wabash Avenue was first occupied by Mercy Hos- pital in October, 1853. That the Hospital was moved from the Lake House as late as June, 1853, is stated by Andreas. 160 THE CATHOLIC CHURCH IN CHICAGO east corner of State and Kinzie Streets and then opened Mercy Hospital in the recently erected building of St. Mary's Female Orphan Asylum on Wabash Avenue, between Jackson and Van Buren. Here Mercy Hos- pital remained until 1863, when new quarters were found for it in the St. Agatha's Academy building at the northwest corner of Calumet Avenue and Twenty- Sixth Street. Between the Easter of 1853 and his departure from Chicago for Natchez the following November, Bishop Van de Velde visited nearly every Catholic congregation and settlement in the state, travelling during that period over six thousand miles and administering Confirmation to nearly thirty-six hundred persons in fifty-eight differ- ent localities. While he occupied the See of Chicago, seventy churches were commenced in different localities of the diocese, of which number sixty were either en- tirely finished or so far finished as to be in use for divine service. Fifty-three were built in places where before there had been no church at all and seventeen in places where old and small chapels were replaced by more pretentious structures. Of the eighteen churches in course of erection in the fall of 1853, thirteen were being built of brick, all of the edifices being of very respectable size and some one hundred and fifty long and sixty feet wide. Besides these churches, all begun under Bishop Van de Velde, eleven others that had been begun before his accession were brought to completion under him and by his exertions. The entire number of churches left by him in Illinois was one hundred and nineteen. 28 - s Western Tablet, October, 1853. A count of the priests of BISHOP VAN DE VELDE 161 Bishop Van de Velde had occupied the see of Chi- cago but a brief span of four years and a half when at his own request he was transferred to the see of Natchez. It was with extreme reluctance, and only after being assured that the appointment could not be conscien- tiously refused that he had consented to shoulder the burden of the episcopate. As soon as free communica- tion with the Holy See was re-established after the revolutionary disorders of 1848, he wrote to the Holy See tendering his resignation on the plea of his ad- vancing years, the feeble state of his health which was sorely tried by the severities of the northern climate in which he was compelled to reside, and his very earnest desire to assume again the simple life of a Jesuit. No action was taken by the Holy See on his petition other than to encourage him, through Cardinal Fransoni, Prefect of the Propaganda, to bear his burden with patience and resignation. Having later become involved in difficulties with a few of his clergy over the title to certain pieces of ecclesiastical property, which they were retaining in their own name, he wrote again to Rome, adding this to the reasons he had previously urged in favor of his resignation. He was answered that his petition would be submitted to the prelates of the First Plenary Council of Baltimore, which was to con- vene in the Spring of 1852. The Council declined to accept the Bishop's resignation, though, with a view to relieving him of a part of the extensive territory en- the Chicago diocese according to birthplace for the last rear of Bishop Van de Velde 's administration gave the following inter- esting figures : Ireland, 29 ; Germany, 12 ; Alsace-Loraine, 7 ; France, 3 ; Scotland, Switzerland, Belgium, Canada, Italy, 2 each ; Spain, United States, 1 each. 162 THE CATHOLIC CHURCH IN CHICAGO trusted to his charge, it decided to recommend to the Holy See the division of the State of Illinois into two dioceses, the see of the southern portion to be fixed at Quincy. 29 As Bishop Van de Velde had purposed visiting Europe on the dissolution of the Council, the prelates assembled commissioned him to bear the decrees of the Council to Pius IX in Rome. Here he personally urged with the Holy Father the acceptance of his resig- nation or at least his appointment as Coadjutor or Auxiliary to another Bishop, that being thus relieved of his status as Ordinary he might more easily secure his readmission into the Society of Jesus. 30 The Holy Father after consultation with the Propaganda declined to accept his resignation but assured him at a second audience that he would make arrangements with the Father General to have him restored to the Society of Jesus and would probably transfer him to another see in a more genial climate. A few days later Monsignor Barnabo, Secretary of the Propaganda, informed the Bishop that the Holy Father had refused to accept his resignation, but would insist on his being readmitted into his Order even as titular Bishop and would, more- 29 Bishop Van de Velde 's Autobiographical Memoir [Ms.]. St. Louis University Archives. 30 Archbishop Kenrick of St. Louis desired to recommend to the Holy See the appointment of Bishop Van de Velde as his coadjutor cum jure successions; but the latter, when the Arch- bishop intimated to him such desire, objected strongly on the ground that he would be thus debarred from re-entering the Society of Jesus. Bishop Van de Velde communicated this in- formation to Father De Smet in a letter written to the latter from Natchez. BISHOP VAN DE VELDE 163 over, transfer him to another see. 31 He declared that this decision of the Pope was final and could be relied upon, and he counselled the Bishop to take his choice of one of the new American dioceses that were soon to be erected. Returning from Europe late in 1852, Bishop Van Transfer of de Velde arrived in Chicago in December of that year. Fear lest his nomination to one of the new American sees might cause unpleasantness led him to write to the to Natchez Holy See shortly after his return suggesting his trans- fer to the see of Natchez in Mississippi, which had become vacant by the death of its first Bishop, the Right Rev. J. J. Chanche. 32 His petition was granted. While engaged in laying the corner-stone of a church in Carlyle, Clinton County, word reached him that the Brief appointing him to the see of Natchez had arrived in St. Louis. By the same mail the Very Rev. Joseph Melcher, Vicar-General of St. Louis, received a Brief erecting Quincy into an episcopal see and appointing him its first Bishop as also Administrator of Chicago pending the appointment of a successor to Bishop Van de Velde. Father Melcher 's refusal to accept the ap- pointment to the new see left the two dioceses of Quincy and Chicago vacant and unprovided for. In this emerg- ency, Bishop Van de Velde was requested by Archbishop Kenrick of St. Louis, Metropolitan of the Ecclesiastical Province, to assume temporary administration of the two dioceses. This he did until by appointment of 31 Bishop Van de Velde was readmitted into the Society of Jesus by the Father-General, John Eoothaan. 32 The diocese of Natchez at this period was almost if not quite the most inconsiderable in the country, numbering only nine priests, who attended eleven churches. 164 THE CATHOLIC CHURCH IN CHICAGO Archbishop Kenrick, Bishop Henni of Milwaukee became administrator of Chicago, while the Archbishop of St. Louis took over himself the administration of the diocese of Quincy. Free now to withdraw from Chicago to his new see, Bishop Van de Velde took leave of the people whose spiritual destines he had directed during the pre- vious four years and a half. In a farewell address deliv- ered at the end of High Mass at St. Mary 's Cathedral on Sunday, October 30, 1853, he frankly detailed the cir- cumstances that had influenced him to petition the Holy See to be relieved of his duties as Bishop of Chicago. He left the city November 4 for Natchez. 33 33 Bishop Van de Velde died at Natchez, November 13, 1855. A few weeks before his death he had met with an accident which resulted in a broken leg; and while in this crippled condition contracted yellow fever, which was epidemic at the time. Father Peter Tschieder, S. J., subsequently assistant-pastor for many years of the Holy Family church, Chicago, who attended Bishop Van de Velde in his last days, detailed the circumstances of the prelate's death in letters to his Superior, Father William Stack Murphy, S. J., of St. Louis. ' ' November, 1855. Since Friday the Bishop has the yellow fever and humanly speaking there is no hope of his recovery. He has been sinking since this morning. You can imagine in what position I am the young clergyman has also the yellow fever. Father Grignon is still at Vixbourg [Vicksburg] though 1 telegraphed him as also the Archbishop of New Orleans. I had the painful duty of informing the Bishop of his critical situation. In the beginning he would scarcely believe it, but now he is perfectly resigned. He made his confession twice, last evening and this morning, and with such humility that I was over- powered and could scarcely pronounce the formula absolutionis ; he had to help me the first time. This afternoon I gave him Extreme Unction, as there is no hope of his receiving the Blessed Sacrament. The Bishop is perfectly in his senses and answered himself to the prayers. From time to time I say some prayers BISHOP VAN DE VELDE 165 In the departure of Bishop Van de Velde for an- other field of labor the diocese of Chicago lost an un- usually zealous and energetic worker in the vineyard of the Lord. Scholarly in all his tastes and mental habits, with a bent to studious retirement and an aversion for the publicity attendant on the conduct of ecclesiastical affairs, he did not permit his tendencies in this regard to stand in the way of a whole-souled and self -denying devotion to the episcopal tasks that fell to him on every side. Though beset by chronic bodily infirmities, with him. Happily I am not afraid of yellow fever our Lord, who put me in this painful situation, has given me also courage enough to keep to the post assigned me. Without a miraculous intervention of St. Stanislaus, to whom the Bishop made a No- vena, he cannot possibly recover." "November 13, 1855. Bishop Van de Velde is dead. He expired this morning at 7. Two gentlemen watched and attended on him. At 2 o'clock in the night I was called I said some prayers with the Bishop which he repeated but his mind was wandering he perceived it himself. At 2% violent spasms took him, probably the effect of a very strong medicine which he had taken. Immediately he lost his senses and I gave him the last absolution and plenary indulgence. I began the recommendation of the soul. He was enabled to receive the viaticum which I could not give him yesterday. It was evidently a favor obtained through the intercession of St. Stanislaus. He had made a novena to the Saint had several times expressed the wish to die on his feast. Whilst I was saying Mass at 5 for him, all the Sisters and orphan girls, who had also made a Novena for him, received communion. Father Grignon gave him the Viaticum. He remained suffering till 7 when he expired. All that time the good Catholics were flocking to receive his last blessing; he gave it with full consciousness he spoke even, though very indistinctly. The people appeared very much attached to him and the Catholic gentlemen showed great attention, day and night they all regret the loss of their good Bishop." 166 THE CATHOLIC CHURCH IN CHICAGO he did not decline the duty of the periodic visitation of his state-wide diocese, with its rough, unpleasant experiences in travelling, but performed it at intervals with unfailing energy and zeal. He built the first Catholic Orphan Asylum in Chicago, was largely in- strumental in establishing the city's first Mercy Hospital and was at all times energetic and enterprising in pro- moting the erection of new churches and the organiza- tion of new parishes throughout the diocese. ' ' He never rested from his labors," wrote a biographer, "and, when he finally departed from Chicago for Natchez, there were few indeed either of the clergy or laity, that did not sincerely regret the loss of such an apostolic prelate to the diocese of Chicago ; that there should have been even a few is one of the sad evidences of human weakness which the church has sometimes had occasion to lament." 34 34 Bishop Van de Velde 's remains lie buried in the cemetery of the Jesuit Novitiate, Florissant, Missouri. CLARK, Deceased Bishops of the United States, 2 : 389. THE LIBRARY OF THE Rt. Rev. Anthony O 'Regan, third bishop of Chicago, 1854- 1858. A native of Ireland, he came to Chicago from Saint Louis where he had filled with distinction the office of President of the Theological Seminary at Carondelet. Transferred to Dora in partibus infidelium in 1858, and died in London in 1866. Painting by Gregori in the Bishops' Gallery, Notre Dame University. CHAPTER VII BISHOP 'REGAN With the departure of Bishop Van de Velde for Anthony Natchez, the duties of administrator of the diocese of Third Bishop Chicago, at first taken up by Bishop Henni, were shortly f Chicago, relinquished by him into the hands of Reverend James Duggan of St. Louis, who continued to exercise them until the arrival in Chicago of Bishop 'Regan. Anthony 'Regan, born in Lavallevoe. County Mayo, Ireland, in 1809, was educated at Maynooth College and immediately after his ordination to the priesthood was appointed by Archbishop McHale of Tuam a professor in the diocesan College of St. Jarlath. Professor for ten years, he was subsequently for a period of five years president of that institution, achieving in his career a?. educator a success that made his name favorably known even in ecclesiastical circles across the Atlantic. At the invitation of Archbishop Kenrick of St. Louis, Father 'Regan assumed in 1849 the presidency of the new Theological Seminary established by that enterprising prelate at Carondelet on the outskirts of St. Louis. Here he won high opinions on all sides for exemplary piety of life, scholarship and efficiency in the training of young men for the priesthood. Bishop Van de Velde knew him intimately and proposed to the other Bishops of the ecclesiastical province of St. Louis that he be recommended to the Holy See for the see of Chicago, 167 168 THE CATHOLIC CHURCH IN CHICAGO made vacant by the transfer of Bishop Van de Velde to Natchez. When the papal documents appointing him to this dignity came into his hands, he respectfully returned them to Rome, alleging his unfitness as a man of bookish and retired habits for the strenuous duties of an American bishopric. The appointment having been sent to him a second time, with a mandate from the Holy See to accept, Father 'Regan submitted to consecration which he received in the Cathedral in St. Louis, July 25, 1854, at the hands of Archbishop Ken- rick, assisted by Bishops Van de Velde, Henni and Loras.. Anxiety _ over the grave responsibilities thus thrust upon him induced a severe spell of nervous debility and it was not until September 3 that he was installed in St. Mary's Cathedral, Chicago. Though lasting scarcely three years, Bishop 'Regan's residence in Chicago saw numerous im- portant gains for Catholicity in the city and in the diocese generally. Under him were taken the first steps towards the organization of the new parish of St. James. At his earnest solicitation the Jesuits established them- selves in the city, where they organized the parish of the Holy Family, which in a few years counted on the roll-call of its parishioners probably a larger number of souls than any other English-speaking parish in the United States. He acquired the extensive property on which was laid out the present Calvary Cemetery, where after the lapse of over sixty years interments still con- tinue to be made; and for the shabby little cottage in which Bishop Quarter and Van de Velde had lodged, he substituted an episcopal residence of a style com- mensurate with the dignity of a great Catholic diocese. Built of marble and brick on property at the northwest BISHOP o 'REGAN 169 corner of Michigan Avenue and Madison Street, it was finished in 1856 and was reputed in its day one of the handsomest residences in the city. During the years that he presided over the diocesan Jesuit seminary of Carondelet, Bishop 'Regan had made acquaintance with the Jesuits of St. Louis. From Chi- Chicago, isse cago he endeavored to secure their services in some permanent form for his diocese. Already in the spring of 1856 Father De Smet, the noted Indian missionary, informed a correspondent in California, "Bishop O 'Regan offers us his college, with two churches. But where are the men?" In the summer of that same year Father Arnold Damen, pastor of the Jesuit church of St. Francis Xavier in St. Louis, assisted by three priests of his Order, conducted a series of missions or spiritual revivals in Chicago at the invitation of Bishop 'Regan. A communication under date of August 26, 1856, to the St. Louis Leader dwells on the very gratifying results that attended the efforts of the missionaries. The cor- respondent was Father Matthew Dillon, pastor of the Holy Name Church and president during the period January, 1855-August, 1856, of the University of St. Mary of the Lake. "The spiritual retreat which our Right Rev. Bishop has provided for the Catholics of this city has just now closed. For the last three weeks the exercises have been conducted by five Jesuit Fathers under the guidance of Father Damen. The fruits of their holy and successful labors are already manifest. Many Protestants have embraced the Catholic re- ligion, and the Catholics to be counted by thousands many, very many of whom had for years neglected their spiritual interests, crowded the churches and confessionals. 170 THE CATHOLIC CHURCH IN CHICAGO The zeal, the piety and labors of Father Damen and his associates, and his practical and persuasive eloquence, have won for these eminent servants of God the love and veneration of all our citizens, Protestant and Catholic. From four in the morning until after midnight, these zealous Fathers and the parochial clergymen have been occupied with the duties of religion, yet all this was insufficient, such was the holy importunity of the people whom God moved to profit by their ministry. It is understood that twelve thousand, at least, have re- ceived communion. None of the churches could accommodate the multitude that crowded from all parts of the city. The cathedral with its galleries newly put up, being found alto- gether too small, the mission was transferred to the large enclosure on the North Side known as the church of the Holy Name and here, as if nothing had been previously done, a new harvest is found already mature. Years of spiritual indolence are atoned for and a new life the life of grace is begun by hundreds who for many long years knew not how great a blessing this was. How consoling to the heart of the Right Reverend Bishop and of the missionaries must not be this fruit of their labors, this fresh evidence of the vitality of the Catholic spirit, which it would seem neither time nor circumstances the most unfavor- able to its culture can root out of the soul of the sincere believer. This is the third retreat with which, within the brief period of five months, the Catholics of Chicago have been blessed, the first given by the Jesuit Father Weninger, and the second soon after by the Redemptorist Father Krutil. May we not now hope that henceforth the religious progress of our city will keep even in advance of its astonishing mate- rial prosperity? Concedat Deus. Amen. M. DILLON." 1 With the results of Father Damen 's missionary appeals in Chicago in the midsummer of 1856 Bishop 1 The St. Louis Leader, August 15, 1856. BISHOP o 'REGAN 171 'Regan declared himself to be highly gratified and he Bishop T in n i T-I i i O'Regan accordingly took advantage of the Father s presence in inv it e sthe the city to renew again his invitation to the Jesuits to Jesuits to establish themselves in the metropolis. Father Damen, having previously obtained the sanction of his Superior in St. Louis for the course he now pursued, showed himself disposed to accept the invitation and began at once to look over the ground to determine a suitable location for a new parish. Investigation led him. to prefer the West Side, where large numbers of Irish Catholic immigrants were settling down. A few weeks after Father Damen 's return to St. Louis, he received a communication from Bishop O'Regan. "Chicago, Illinois, September 15, 185G. To Reverend Father Damen, S. J ., St. Louis: DEAR FATHER DAMEN I have just now written to Father Provincial and I want you to assist me with him that he may grant the request of establishing a House in Chicago. You know its necessity and the prospects before it and hence I have referred to you as one who can give to the Provincial and others all the requisite information on this subject. May I beg of you to do so? You could not co-operate in a holier work. You would be a most efficient instrument to build up religion in this city and diocese. Land can be had quite near to the locality you wished for, but in a still better place, at a fair price and in large quantities. In one place as much as six acres can be had. By buying all this, you would, in one year, have two entirely free. The increased value caused by your establishment would effect this. This is a positive fact. I would also request of you not to correspond on this matter with anyone whatever in Chicago, except myself, not even with those who, in other respects, would be found most trustworthy. Already Catholics whom you regard much are actually speculating on the subject and if they knew you or I had a preference for a particular place, they would soon have it bought up. You will write to me soon again. 172 THE CATHOLIC CHURCH IN CHICAGO I am sorry that I did not merit your thanks better whilst you were in Chicago. I can never sufficiently express my es- teem for you and your worthy Fathers. I would have written sooner to you and to Father Provin- cial, but I wished to know more about the land. With kindest regards for Father De Smet and the earnest wish of seeing you soon permanently at work in Chicago, where you are most ardently expected, I am, Reverend dear Father Damen, very truly yours, ANTHONY, Bishop of Chicago and Administrator of Quincy." 2 In a second letter which Bishop O 'Regan wrote to Father Damen a few weeks later he expresses again his desire to see the Society of Jesus established in Chicago. "I know I cannot do a better work for religion, for the diocese or for my own soul than by establishing here a house of your Society, and this is the reason I have been so very anxious to effect this. It was on this account as also from my personal regard and affection for your Institute as for many of your Fathers individually, that I so urgently and perseveringly tried to see this good work accomplished." 2 Bishop 'Regan's earnest invitation to the Jesuits of St. Louis to establish themselves in Chicago having been definitely accepted, Father Damen acquired in the spring of 1857 property in that city as a site not only for the imposing house of worship which he planned to build, but also for a future college. The property was located on the West Side a block west of the intersection of Twelfth Street with Hoosier, or, as it was subse- quently called, Blue Island Avenue, and consisted of thirty-two lots, making up the entire block between Twelfth, May, Eleventh and Austin (Aberdeen) Streets. St. Louis University Archives. BISHOP o 'REGAN 173 March 10, 1857, Father Damen wrote to his Superior in St. Louis, Father John Baptist Druyts. "The answer from Philadelphia has come about the Bull's head property. They will sell at $600 a lot, which would make a total of $24,600 [sic] for the 44 lots. The acre which is in litigation cannot be settled yet. With this acre included, there would be 52 lots, and this would make a total of $31,- 400 [sic]. Of this $2,500 would be paid by two Protestant gentlemen towards the improvement. I went out this after- noon and made inquiries about the number of Catholic fami- lies in the neighborhood and I could not find a dozen around the place. I therefore concluded that the place should be rejected as one that would not pay us for the sacrifices we have to make. Should your Reverence think differently, tele- graph (buy the Bull's head). Bishop still continues recom- mending this place and says that we will regret it; but I can- not believe that informed as I am at present about the few Catholics in that vicinity. Moreover, here we would have to put up $10,000 improvements the first year; that is a part of the bargain. 3 Now I have accepted the Southwest Side, three acres at $5,500 an acre, that is thirty-two lots. Here we will have a large Catholic population at once, sufficient to fill a large church. We can put up a frame church, which will answer the purpose till all the land is paid off. Then it will answer for a school, and the rest of the land, which we can sell, will help us to build the college and the new church. In my opinion, it is decidedly the only place we can take here." Having thus determined on a site for his new church, Father Damen returned to St. Louis, whence he had the satisfaction of advising Bishop 'Regan that the busi- 3 The Bull 's Head was a tavern at the southeast corner of Madison Street and Ogden Avenue, where the Washingtonian Home stood in later years. It was built in 1848 by Matthew Laflin and owed its name to the neighboring cattle-yards, the first to be opened in Chicago. 174 THE CATHOLIC CHURCH IN CHICAGO ness just concluded by him in Chicago had received the indorsement of his Superior. Further plans for the expansion of Catholicism in Chicago were now communi- cated by the Bishop to Father Damen. "Chicago, Illinois, MarcH 21, 1857. To Reverend A. Damen : Reverend Dear Friend I have received your note with the agreeable news that Father Druyts has confirmed your acts in Chicago. I have given thanks to God for this great bless- ing and I pray that He may always aid with His abundant graces the holy work. I would strongly impress on you to come as soon as possible after Easter to collect and commence the work. This can now be more effectually done, because the Sisters of Mercy have given up the project of building a Hospital. Moreover, some one else might be walking over your ground unless you come in good time. I would at once define your Parish, announce it, and you would attend the sick calls from my house and have the emoluments and a better claim in collecting. I have now another trouble to give you. It is this : I want to bring the Ladies of the Sacred Heart or some of them to Chicago and I want this to be done this summer. I will give all the patronage in my power, and this is the only aid I can give. But at present this patronage is money or worth it. It stands thus : The Sisters of Mercy are to give up their Boarding School this summer and to convert that house into an hos- pital. They now have 46 boarders it may be more. All these would at once pass into the school of the Ladies of the Sacred Heart, with many others, I am sure. In order to receive them it would be necessary to have a house built and completed at farthest on the middle of next September. This can be easily done by a community able to raise money, as I am sure The Sacred Heart can. I consider all this as a happy coincidence and as the voice of God calling to us at one time the Jesuits and the Ladies of the Sacred Heart. Do, Dear Father and Friend, complete the good work you have begun. Use all your influence to have this effected. BISHOP o 'REGAN 175 Now is the fitting time. Property can be conveniently had not far from your church. In three months, a house can be fin- ished, and when opened, it will be filled. It will be a transfer from one house here into another. I write this day to Madame Galway, and, through God and his Virgin Mother, I implore success for this good and holy project. I depend very much on you. Write soon and work hard for the Sacred Heart's sake. Yours most affectionately, ANTHONY,, Bishop of Chicago." The March of 1857 had thus seen Father Damen zoiy Family f i ^ Church make definite choice of a site for the imposing church edifice which he planned to build. May 4 following he arrived in Chicago from St. Louis in company with Father Charles Truyens to take the work definitely in hand. He carried with him a memorandum of instruc- tions from the Vice-Provincial, Father Druyts, which bespeak the high religious purpose that actuated the promoters of this apostolic venture. "Remember why we go to Chicago, viz. A. M. D. G. the good of re- ligion, the good of souls. Let us then have the best of intentions and often renew them." 4 Father Damen lost no time on his arrival in giving out contracts for the erection of a temporary frame church, a two-story structure, 20 x 48, with "a neat balcony erected in front of first-story," to be delivered on or before July 15, 1857. July 12 the church was solemnly blessed under the title of the Holy Family by Bishop Duggan of St. Louis. Circumstances had brougdit it about that Bishop 'Regan, to whose efforts were primarily due the establishment of the Jesuits in Chicago, was not to preside at the dedication of their temporary church. St. Louis University Archives. 176 THE CATHOLIC CHURCH IN CHICAGO At the dedicatory services the sermon, an eloquent one, was preached by Bishop Duggan. The throng of worshippers soon taxed the little house of worship beyond capacity and an addition was made to it in August to be followed by a second addition in the course of 1858. The first church of the Holy Family stood at the southeast corner of Eleventh and May Streets. On Sunday, August 23, 1857, Festival of the Most Pure Heart of Mary, took place, with the Bishop, his clergy and a great concourse of the laity in attend- ance, the laying of the corner-stone of the spacious and permanent edifice of brick. The Daily Times in an- nouncing the event declared that "the Reverend gentle- men who have undertaken this enterprise propose to spend $100,000 on the erection of a temple of worship which will surpass in size any other in Chicago, which sum must be raised principally among themselves and also, it is understood, to found a collegiate institution with funds of their own, which it is anticipated will eventually rival that of Georgetown, District of Colum- bia." At the time that Father Damen began his work in Chicago, the panic of 1857 was in full swing. Lack of money, business and commercial depression, the growing number of the unemployed and a general air of rest- lessness and discontent on all hands were so many circumstances to render the task of collecting funds for a new church an appalling one even for the stoutest heart. Yet Father Damen attempted the task and succeeded. By the end of May, 1857, the subscriptions amounted to $30,000. "I get along pretty well," he wrote in September to Father Druyts, "and people are astonished that I can get money at all. ' ' BISHOP o 'REGAN 177 Work on the new church went steadily forward. Dedication of Early in 1860 contracts were let to Patrick O'Connor ^oiy Family for the towers and front wall of the church and to Church Robert Carse for the stained-glass windows, "work to be equal to that of the windows in St. James' church, North Side." Progress in bringing the great structure forward to completion was now so rapid as to permit of the solemn dedication in the midsummer of 1860. The ceremony took place on Sunday, August 26, Feast of the Immaculate Heart of Mary, a day in the church's calendar dear to the heart of Father Damen, and was carried out with a degree of splendor hitherto quite unprecedented in the ecclesiastical history of the Middle West. Thirteen members of the hierarchy were in attendance, Bishop Duggan being the officiating prelate, Bishop Fitzpatrick of Boston celebrant of the Pontifical Mass, and Archbishop Kenrick of St. Louis the preacher of the dedication sermon, while in the progress of the ceremony sermons were delivered in English by Bishop Carrell of Covington, in German by Bishop Henni of Milwaukee and in French by Bishop de St. Palais of Vincennes. Besides the prelates named there were present in the sanctuary Bishops Smyth of Dubuque, Juncker of Alton, Grace of St. Paul, Whelan of Nash- ville, Lefevre of Detroit, Luers of Fort Wayne and Timon of Buffalo. Mozart's Twelfth Mass, rendered under the personal direction of Father Maurice Oakley, one of the priests serving the parish, was the musical feature of the occasion. To Father Damen perhaps no day in all his career was quite like this in the splendid tokens of success with which it crowned his labors of the preceding three years. ' ' The Reverend Arnold Damen, ' ' wrote in 1866 James W. Sheahan of the Chicago 178 THE CATHOLIC CHURCH IN CHICAGO Tribune, "is the Hercules who has in a few years wrought all this work. To his energy, his ability, his sanctity, his perseverance and his great practical intel- ligence is due not only the erection of this magnificent edifice but the great spiritual success which has crowned the labors of the Society." 5 Resignation Despite the purity of his intentions and his obvious o'Regan zea ^ ^ or ^ e best interests of the diocese, Bishop 'Regan was not to escape from difficulties that detracted much from the success of his administration. He became involved in painful difficulties with certain influential members of the clergy attached to the University of St. Mary of the Lake, while the Chiniquy schism, though substantially healed through his earnest efforts, de- pressed him greatly and made him skeptical of his future usefulness to the diocese. In the course of 1857 he visited Rome where he made earnest petition to the Holy See to be relieved of his charge. While in Rome he made acquaintance with the young Chicagoan John McMullen, first Bishop of Davenport to be, then a student at the Propaganda. To McMullen he expressed the high hopes he entertained for the future of the Chicago diocese, despite the ill-success that had attended his efforts to administer it. "I see no reason," wrote the seminarian from Rome to a Chicago correspondent in 1858, "why the church should not keep up with the growth of Chicago. The Bishop speaks in glowing terms of the Catholic people and how well they assisted him in building his palatial residence." 6 5 From an album of Chicago views (1830-1866) with letter- press by James W. Sheahan. 6 McGovERN, Life of Bishop McMullen, Chicago, 1888, p. 117. BISHOP o 'REGAN 179 The Holy See having accepted Bishop O 'Regan's Death of resignation, he was made titular Bishop of Dora in partibus and thereupon retired to Michael's Grove, Brompton, London, where he spent the remainder of his days, dying November 13, 1866, at the age of fifty-seven. He often assisted the illustrious Cardinal Wiseman in the more solemn services of the Church and was visited in his last illness by Doctor, subsequently Cardinal Manning. Among the bequests in his will was one of two thousand pounds to the Roman Catholic Missionary College of All Hallows, Dublin, the interest of which was to be applied to the education of priests for the dioceses of Chicago and Alton; and another one of five hundred pounds towards the erection of a Catholic hospital in Chicago. 7 Nature had not, it would appear, fitted Bishop O 'Regan to the task of taking tactfully in hand and administering with success the delicate affairs of a young and unsettled diocese of Western America. But as an ecclesiastic, a scholar, and a director of young men in the mental and moral training preparatory to the holy priesthood, his reputation ran high in the church circles of the day and all bore testimony to the rectitude of his intentions. ' * It may be said of Bishop 'Regan, ' ' wrote a Chicago ecclesiastic whose seminarian days were contemporary with the Bishop's episcopacy, "that he was a man in the truest sense, single-minded, firm as a rock and honest as gold. A lover of truth and justice, whom no self-interest could mislead and no corruption contaminate, he held fast the affection of many and gained the full respect of all." 8 7 CLARKE, Deceased Bishops of the United States, 3 : 169. 8 McGovERK, Catholic Church in Chicago, p. 195. CHAPTER VII of Chicago, 1859-1868 James James Duggan, fourth Bishop of Chicago, was born Fourth Bishop in Maynooth, County Kildare, Ireland, on May 22, 1825. As one of a number of young Irish ecclesiastics who responded to a call for recruits sent out by Archbishop Kenrick of St. Louis in 1842, he was sent to complete his theological studies at St. Vincent's, Cape Girardeau, where he was ordained a priest in 1847. Assigned to the Cathedral parish in St. Louis, he soon distinguished himself by his zealous discharge of the ministery and by the forceful and eloquent quality of his utterances in the pulpit. During the vacancy in the. see of Chicago following upon the resignation of Bishop Van de Velde, he was for a period administrator of that diocese though still a simple priest. Having been appointed by the Holy See Bishop of Antigone and coadjutor to the Archbishop of St. Louis, he was consecrated by the Archbishop of St. Louis, assisted by Bishops Henni and 'Regan. Only a few months had elapsed since his consecration when he was sent by Archbishop Kenrick to Chicago to act as administrator there after the with- drawal from the diocese of Bishop O 'Regan. On January 21, 1859, he received from the Holy See letters transferring him to the see of Chicago and on the fol- lowing Sunday he was installed in St. Mary's Cathe- dral. 1 SHEA, History of the Catholic Church in the United States, 180 Rt. Eev. James Duggan, fourth Bishop of Chicago, 1859-1870. He was a native of Ireland and came to Chicago from Saint Louis, where he had been consecrated Coadjutor to Archbishop Kenrick in 1857. Trans- ferred to Chicago, January 21, 1859, and retired on account of infirm health in 1879. Died in Saint Louis, March 27, 1899. Painting by the distinguished artist, George P. A. Healy, in the Newberry Library, Chicago. THE UBMW OF THE C; Sl BISHOP DUGGAN 181 With the advent of Bishop Duggan the diocese felt a new vitality and energy pulsate through its veins. Both clergy and laity lent him their confidence and loyal support and the results of his efficient handling of ecclesiastical affairs were soon to be felt on every hand. The church began to assume a higher place in public regard through the reception into its fold of figures of public note. Ex-Governor Bissell of Illinois was buried with Catholic rites in Springfield, Father Smarius, the Jesuit, preaching the funeral sermon, while Stephen A. Douglas was received into the church by Bishop Duggan, who delivered a eulogy over his remains. The Catholic Institute, a society of laymen founded in the 'fifties to foster intellectual life and culture among the laity and promote Catholic interests generally, continued its useful career. Old St. Mary's was the place of meeting and lectures and addresses by persons of national and even international celebrity were delivered at intervals under the auspices of the Institute. Among the lecturers whom the Catholics of Chicago were thus privileged to hear were James McMaster, Orestes A. Brownson, Thomas D 'Arcy McGee, John Gough, John Mitchell and Rev. Donald MacLeod. Particularly active in the affairs of the Institute were Bernard G. Caulfield, W. J. Onahan, Col. James A. Mulligan, Philip Conley, Charles McDonnell and Michael Lantry. 2 4: 620; McGovERN, op. cit., pp. 196-202. Bishop Constantine Smyth of Dubuque was for a brief period Administrator of the diocese after the withdrawal of Bishop O 'Regan. Catholic Alma- nac, 1858. 2 The funeral oration delivered by Father Smarius over Ex- Governor Bissel was reproduced in the Chicago New World, April 14, 1900. William J. Onahan 's reminiscences, contributed under 182 THE CATHOLIC CHURCH IN CHICAGO Of the clergy serving the Chicago parishes during the administration of Bishop Duggan, several were more the title Catholic Progress in Chicago, to the Illinois Catholic Historical Review, 1 : 176-183, contain interesting data on Cath- olic life in Chicago from the 'fifties on. The Catholic Institute was organized January 8, 1854. On March 21, 1858, a Debating Club was established among its mem- bers, chiefly through the efforts of William J. Onalian and Michael W. O'Brien, afterwards a prominent banker of Detroit, who were eager and enthusiastic supporters of all the activities of the Insti- tute. In 1859 the Institute appears to have been supplanted by a new Catholic "literary society" known as the Chicago Lyceum, the name being borrowed from an older organization of secular character, which went out of existence in the early 'fifties. The Catholic Institute wrote a brief but glorious page in the history of the Catholic lay-apostolate in Chicago. Its objects, as outlined in the minutes of the Institute in the excellent handwriting of James A. Mulligan, present an admirable ideal of lay-cooperation in the church: "The objects of the Association are to establish a Cath- olic Library and Reading room, to provide for the delivery of Lectures explanatory of the principles of the Catholic Church as to her History, Philosophy and Politicks. To present to the Cath- olics of Chicago opportunities and incentive for improvement. To multiply the sources of information and to promote a friendly intercourse and exchange of thought among the members of the Catholic Body and to excite and maintain a laudable zeal for the honor and character of Catholicity. Any Catholic of good moral standing may become a member of the Institute." The energies of the militant young Catholics behind the In- stitute did not run in literary channels alone. Besides maintain- ing a lecture bureau, debating club and library, they promoted various Catholic social gatherings, taught Sunday-school and an- ticipated the work of the St. Vincent de Paul Society in the city by visiting and aiding the poor whose needs, especially during the great panic of 1857, they made earnest effort to relieve. See the article, The Chicago Institute and Chicago Lyceum, by John Ireland Gallery, in the Illinois Catholic Historical Seview, 2: 303-323. BISHOP DUGGAN 183 especially identified with the church affairs of the day. Among these were Father Dennis Dunne of St. Patrick 's, Vicar-General of the diocese, Father Thaddeus J. Butler of the Immaculate Conception, Father Joseph P. Roles of the Holy Name, Father John Waldron of St. John's, Father Patrick W. Reardon, the future Archbishop of San Francisco, Father John P. McMullen, afterwards Bishop of Davenport, and Father Thomas Burke of St. Columbkille 's. With these and other zealous clergymen attending the parishes or filling professors' chairs in the University, Catholic life in Chicago gave every token of health and vigor and promised still greater things to come. Bishop Duggan had been chief pastor of the Chicago CMI War diocese only three years when the country was plunged into the horrors of Civil War. Ranging himself from the outset on the Union side in the tremendous conflict, he was energetic in securing it loyalty and support from the Catholics under his jurisdiction. 3 He encouraged 'ANDREAS, History of Chicago, 2: 398. "During the late rebellion, Bishop Duggan has been a strong Union man and has thrown all his influence on the side of the Government." PHIL- LIPS, Chicago and Her Churches, p. 270. Interesting comments on the attitude of Chicago priests dur- ing the Civil War period are to be found in the contemporary letters of Eliza Allen Starr, a distinguished convert to the Cath- olic Church and a resident of Chicago as early as 1856 : ' ' You will be more ready to do this when I tell you that on the day of National Thanksgiving Father E[oles] came out in the broadest and most emphatic manner upon the virtue of loyalty and the hei- nousness of any breach of its law. On the same day I heard an in- struction from Dr. Bfutler], whose high mass was earlier, and a more enthusiastic sermon I am certain was not preached that day. It was grand in its theology, and he brought forward as his exam- 184 THE CATHOLIC CHURCH IN CHICAGO recruiting, being one of Col. Mulligan's chief supporters in the latter 's efforts to organize the Irish Brigade, pies saints, popes, and bishops. He did not content himself with a negative loyalty, but it was absolute and positive, an actual support of the present administration and prayers for our chief President ardent and persevering prayer. It was one of those grand bursts of a sanctified enthusiasm to which my good con- fessor is somewhat liable. From the very first year of the Rebel- lion the Doctor has gone in the face of national feeling and polit- ical leanings, actuated by a simple, theological, and humanly logical (would it be correct to say homological) persuasion of the wrong of secession, and the heinousness of rebellion. He has come out of it thus far true to the training of the Propagandist, which always declares equality without distinction of race or color, and a horror of slavery. He now says, 'Call me an Aboli- tionist, if you please, but I hold fast to my colors.' As far as my observation goes the practice at the Propaganda is all in favor of Northern ideas. I sometimes find even the Propa- gandists with an antipathy to Yankees as a race, though I have never seen it towards individuals, but the good Doctor goes in for the Yankees now. "I shall enclose to you one of the Bishop's circulars. His council, of which Dr. Dunne, Dr. McMullen, and Dr. Butler are prominent members, were strongly in favor of a very marked attention to the wishes of the President. Dr. Butler went so far as to tell his people, ' The President had a right to command them to aid him by their devotion.' Thursday I went to mass at a farmhouse four or five miles from here. An Irish family, of course, and its head a leading Irishman in these parts; he is 'for the Union, for the administration, though the taxes swallow his farm,' my brother says. The neighbor with whom I went made a visit, as well as attended to her duty, so I spent a day among my Celtic neighbors, and everything I heard was 'for the government as it is, and the powers that be.' " (The Life and Letters of Eliza Allen Starr, edited by Eev. James J. McGovern, D. D., Chi- cago, 1905, p. 191.) "If you wish to hear good, patriotic talking, come to Chi- cago and hear the Doctor and he is not the only one Dr. BISHOP DUGGAN 185 despatched chaplains and Sisters of Mercy for the spiritual and physical relief of the soldiers and was actively interested in the various war-relief organiza- tions of the period, notably the Sanitary Relief Commis- sion. Nor were examples of loyal, energetic support of the Union wanting in the ranks of Bishop Duggan's clergy. Father Thomas F. Kelly, founder of the parish of St. James, became associated as chaplain with the 90th Illinois Volunteers, better known as the Irish Legion, while Father Thaddeus J. Butler discharged a similar service for the Irish Brigade. Noteworthy in this connection were the words of Dr. John McMullen, President of the University of St. Mary of the Lake: "If it were not that I am a priest and a man of peace, I would be down South with my old companions who are still alive, fighting under the Stars and Stripes for the preservation of the Union." 4 The story of the Irish Brigade, the 23rd Illinois . . Brigade Infantry, deserves more than passing notice. James A. Mulligan, native-born American of Irish extraction, had been graduated from the University of St. Mary of the Lake in the same class with John McMullen, subse- quently President of that institution. Of an interesting and engaging personality, he possessed literary and journalistic gifts above the common and was for a space McMullen and Dr. Dunne are as sound as himself, only Dr. But- ler's enthusiastic heart and demonstrative manner make a won- derful impressions. The Doctor is really a Democrat, but not a Copperhead, and all the shades of copper are lashed out of his presence. His patriotism is guarded like his faith, at all points. It would refresh you to hear his grand voice on the side of gov- ernment, justice, and the hosts of Michael against all rebels." (Id., p. 175.) 4 McGovERN, Life of Bishop McMullen, p. 148. 186 THE CATHOLIC CHURCH IN CHICAGO editor of Chicago 's first Catholic newspaper, the Western Tablet; and he enjoyed, too, in no inconsiderable degree, the Celtic gift of oratory. In Chicago in ante-bellum days were several military bodies of Irish Catholics, the Shields, the Emmett, the Montgomery guards among them ; and from the personnel of these Mulligan planned early in the Civil War to recruit a regiment for the de- fense of the Union. "Rally for the honor of the old Land, Rally for the defense of the New," was the stirring summons to a meeting held in North Market Hall, April 20, 1861. Mulligan addressed this meeting at which in the space of an hour and a half three hun- dred and twenty-five recruits handed in their names, this number growing to twelve hundred in a week's time. The military body thus organized was the first independent Illinois regiment to be accepted by the War Department, being mustered into service June 15, 1861, as the 23rd Illinois Infantry. Among the field and staff officers, all of Chicago, were Col. James A. Mulligan, Lieutenant Col. James Quirk and Chaplain Father Thaddeus J. Butler. From their headquarters, "Fontenoy Barracks," on Polk Street, the "Irish Brigade," as the 23rd Illinois Infantry came to be known, proceeded to St. Louis there to be armed and equipped at the Arsenal. A short while after it went into action at Lexington, Missouri. Here it bore itself with distinguished gallantry, the regi- ment 's green flag being torn on the battlefield into pieces which were divided among the men to prevent it from falling into the hands of the enemy. The news of the affair at Lexington was received in Chicago with en- thusiasm. I. N. Arnold, one of its most conspicuous citizens and Lincoln's friend and biographer, presented BISHOP DUGGAN 187 to Congress the following resolutions which were adopted by that body: "Resolved by the Senate and House of Representatives, that the thanks of Congress be presented to Col. James A. Mulligan and the gallant officers and soldiers under his com- mand who bravely stood by him against a greatly superior force, in his heroic defense of Lexington, Mo. Resolved, that the 23rd Regiment Illinois Volunteers the Irish Brigade in testimony of their gallantry on this occa- sion, be authorized to bear upon their colors the word 'Lex- ington.' " Mustered out of service, the Irish brigade was later, as a result of Col. Mulligan's personal appeal to President Lincoln, reorganized and sent again into active service. In an engagement fought at Kernstown, near Winchester, West Virginia, July 24, 1864, Col. Mulligan, while leading his men in a charge, fell mortally wounded, dying a few hours after. As his officers were endeavoring to remove him to a place of safety the regi- mental colors became endangered, realizing which he gave his last command in words that were soon to ring throughout the country, "Lay me down and save the flag. ' ' All Chicago mourned the loss of its distinguished citizen and matchless soldier. At his obsequies held in St. Mary's Cathedral, his eulogy was pronounced by Dr. McMullen, his intimate of college days and fellow- graduate. What was less familiar to the public than Colonel Mulligan's military achievements, his sincere and practical Christian piety, was particularly stressed by the speaker. "Never did his lips which once repeated, 'Thou shalt not take the name of God in vain/ in obedience to His will, pro- nounce the Holy Name irreverently. Lately returning from 188 THE CATHOLIC CHURCH IN CHICAGO New Parishes : St. Henry's the toils of war, he made a short sojourn among us and took the opportunity of attending in a special manner to the sancti- fication of his soul. Every morning-, St. Mary's, the mother of churches in our city, received him at the Sacrifice, this 'old sanctuary of his early piety, where rests all that time has left us of that object of his veneration, Bishop Quarter. And how can I forget his parting words, which brought to me, I thought to him, a presentiment of what has happened. 'Pray for me,' he said for parting, 'for I shall need your prayers soon, and so farewell until this cruel war is over.' " 5 The single parish of St. Mary's which Bishop Quarter found in Chicago when he arrived there in May, 1844, saw three additional ones St. Patrick's, St. Peter's, St. Joseph's and to some extent a fourth, the Holy Name, grow up before his untimely death. To these were added, under Bishop Van de Velde, St. Louis's, St. Michael's, St. Francis of Assisi's, St. Henry's and St. Bridget's. The first three were or- ganized and well started on their way as independent parishes under Bishop Van de Velde ; but of St. Henry 's and St. Bridget's, only the beginnings were made before his withdrawal from the diocese. As early as 1851 a church had been built by Father Henry Fortmann, 5 ANDREAS, op. cit., 2 : 190 ; McGovERN, Life of Bishop Mc- Mullen. Michael Diversey, prominent in German Catholic circles in Chicago and one of the prime movers in the organization of St. Michael's parish, was Lieutenant-Colonel of the Washington Independent Regiment, which was offered entire to Governor Yates at the outbreak of the Civil War and accepted. A gran- ite shaft, surmounted by the figure of a Union soldier, was erected in St. Boniface Cemetery in memory of the German Cath- olics who died in their country's service during the Civil War. "In the last war many German Catholics fought for the preser- vation of the Union, proving thereby that the German immigrants are true sons of the land." BURGLER, op. cit., p. 212. BISHOP DUGGAN 189 pastor of Gross Point or New Trier, on the site of the present St. Henry's church at Ridge and Devon Avenues, then outside the city limits in the suburban district subsequently known as Rose Hill. Attended first by the pastor of Gross Point and later by the Redemptorist Fathers of St. Michael's church, St. Henry's parish received its first resident priest, Decem- ber, 1869, in the person of Father Haems. The origin of St. Bridget's parish is to be referred st. Bridget's to the beginning of the 'fifties, when Mass began to be said in a private house at the south branch of the river and Archer Avenue. Here, in the district named Bridgeport, Irish emigrants were settling in ever- increasing numbers. Served at first as a station from St. Patrick's, St. Bridget's was recognized as an inde- pendent parish in 1854, the church records beginning with the baptism of Margaret Duffy on January 1 of that year. The officiating priest was Father Michael Donohue of St. Patrick's, who was succeeded in 1855 by Father Thomas Kelly, deputed by Bishop O 'Regan in 1855 to look after the Catholic families resident in the districts known as Carville and Bridgeport. Father Kelly made his residence in Carville, attending thence the station in Bridgeport, where he built the first per- manent St. Bridget's church, a brick structure, on the site of the present church at Archer Avenue and Arch Street. Having resigned his parochial duties to become a chaplain in the Civil War, Father Kelly was suc- ceeded in the care of St. Bridget's by Father John Grogan, the first resident pastor of the church. 6 6 Diamond Jubilee of tlie Archdiocese of Chicago, 1920, St. Mary's Training School Press, Desplaines, Illinois, p. 271. 190 THE CATHOLIC CHURCH IN CHICAGO st. James's, The few years of Bishop 'Regan's residence in South Chicago Chicago witnessed the establishment of the parishes of St. James, St. Patrick in South Chicago, and the Holy Family. Father Damen's achievement in building up his great parish on the West Side has been told above. St. James 's parish owes its creation to the zeal of Father Thomas Kelly, who in 1855 took in hand the spiritual care of the Catholic families resident in Carville on the South Side. These families numbered in the beginning some twenty, those of "William Donohue, Robert AVhalen, John Downey and Timothy Flannigan being particu- larly identified with the birth of the new parish. Mass for the parishioners was first celebrated in a room in St. Agatha's Mercy Convent, Twenty-sixth Street and Calumet Avenue. In 1858 a frame church was erected on Prairie Avenue between Twenty-sixth and Twenty- seventh Streets, the pastor residing at 314 Calumet Avenue and later at 1223 Prairie Avenue. It was not until 1880 that a church was built on the present site, Wabash Avenue and Twenty-ninth Street. St. Patrick's parish, South Chicago, now within the limits of the metropolis, was in its origin a mission in the village of Ainsworth attended from St. James's. It w r as started in 1857 by Father Kelly, the founder of St. James's parish, who in 1861 built a frame church at what is now South Chicago Avenue and Ninety-third Street. St. Patrick's was served from St. Thomas's, Hyde Park, after the establishment of that parish in 1866 and not until 1880 did it receive its first resident pastor, Father Martin Van der Laar. In its early days the territory of St. Patrick's embraced in addition to Ainsworth the entire Calumet region, including the settlements known I BISHOP DUGGAN 191 as Irondale, Hegewisch, Windsor Park, Cheltenham and Pullman. 7 Under Bishop Duggan the organization of new st. John's, -i . i -i T T j_ J.-L. St. ColumbkiJie' parishes went on apace, some sixteen being added to the Immaculate list during his tenure of the Chicago see. The year 1859 Conception was marked by the establishment of three new parishes, St. John's, St. Columbkille 's and the Immaculate Con- ception. St. John's dates from June 24 of that year when Father John Waldron, an outstanding figure among the Catholic clergy of the day, who had been in charge of the French church of St. Louis ever since his ordination, began the erection of a frame church at the corner of Clark and Old or Eighteenth Streets. The humble house of worship had a seating capacity of three hundred and cost $3,500. It was dedicated by Bishop Duggan October 30, 1859. Subsequently enlarged to the dimensions 64x66 feet, the original St. John's church, building site included, cost the parishioners the sum of $20,000. St. Columbkille 's at Paulina Street and West Grand Avenue (originally Owen and later Indiana Street) began as a mission of St. Patrick's. The bap- tismal and marriage records of the parish open with entries for September 18, 1859, the first pastor being Father Patrick Ward, who was succeeded the following year by Father Edward Keeney. Then, in 1862, came Father "Tom" Burke, with whom the pioneer stage of the parish is especially identified. In its early years St. Columbkille 's was a parish of vast extent, taking in, as it did, Cicero, Cragin and the rolling-mill district of 7 ANDREAS, op. cit., 2 : 401 ; Catholic Directory, 1867 ; Dia- mond Jubilee of the Archdiocese of Chicago, 1920, p. 315. 192 THE CATHOLIC CHURCH IN CHICAGO North Chicago and reaching down on the south to St. Patrick's and the Holy Family. The first church was built about the beginning of the Civil War; and from its portals, after attending the Holy Sacrifice, went forth to the front in 1861 a regiment made up largely of parishioners of St. Columbkille 's. To the zealous efforts of Father William Edwards is due the inception of the Immaculate Conception parish, which at first took in the wide sweep of territory lying between Division Street and Evanston. The church, work on which was begun in 1859, was dedicated by Bishop Duggan on March 25, 1860. It stood at Franklin, now North Park Avenue, and Schiller Streets and was erected at a cost of $17,000. Father Edwards was succeeded at his death in 1861 by Father Thaddeus Butler, D. D., Chaplain of the Irish Brigade, who remained pastor of the Immacu- late Conception for seven years. 8 Growth of The three German parishes of St. Peter's, St. paJflTr Joseph's and St. Michael's prospered all through the st. Peter's 'sixties. In the fall of 1853 St. Peter's moved its pioneer church from the original location on the south side of Washington Street, some hundred feet west of Wells, to the south-west corner of Clark and Polk Streets. In 1863 a brick church was begun to be occupied the fol- lowing year. It cost $45,000 and is still standing, though the parish has long since dwindled into insig- nificance before the encroachments of business and undesirable social elements. Yet large numbers of the devout Catholic laity continue to frequent old St. Peter's to share the ministry of the Franciscan 8 ANDREAS, op. cit., 2: 406; Diamond Jubilee of the Arch- diocese of Chicago, 1920, pp. 341, 331, 333. BISHOP DUGGAN 193 Fathers, who have been in charge of the church since 1878. The parish, which numbered only some thirty families at its foundation and one hundred and fifty at the time the old church was moved to Clark Street, had grown to twelve hundred families at the period of the Fire. 9 Keeping pace with the growth of St. Peter's parish st. Joseph's was its twin-sister, St. Joseph's parish, the two having been organized simultaneously by Father' Jung. The little frame church, 36x65, which stood at the north-east corner of Cass and Superior Streets on a lot purchased from Peter Annen, served the needs of the parish until 1861. Father Jung withdrew from the Chicago diocese in 1848 and was followed at St. Joseph's in succession by Fathers Schaeffer, Plathe and Kopp. Father Kopp served the parish for seven years, organizing during his incumbency a number of its families into the new parish of St. Michael's. In September, 1856, the Fathers of the Holy Cross, established since the early 'forties at Notre Dame, Indiana, arrived in Chicago to take over the management of the University of St. Mary of the Lake. St. Joseph's church, directly across from the Uni- versity property on Chicago Avenue, was at the same time committed to their charge. Father John B. Mager 9 BURGLER, Gescliichte der Tcathol. Kirche Chicago's mit ~beson- derer Berucksichtigung des Jcatholischen Deutschthums, Chicago, 1889. Burgler's list of original members of St. Peter's parish includes the names of John Gross, Joseph Yager, John Glasen, Andrew Schall, Andrew Schaller, Nicolas and Peter Rees, Joseph and Anton Berg, Hubert Maas, Michael Gleinhaus, Joseph Schu- macher, John Paul, Adam Amberg, John and Frank Busch, Casper Pfeifer, Michael Eule and M. Haas. 194 THE CATHOLIC CHURCH IN CHICAGO at once assumed the duties of pastor with Father C. B. Kilroy as assistant. In May, 1857, Father Mager was succeeded by Father Andrew Tusch, who in turn was followed by other priests of his Congregation including Fathers Force, Schuyler and Gillespie. Father Mager subsequently returned to St. Joseph's as pastor and was apparently in charge at the time the Holy Cross Fathers withdrew from Chicago, the up-keep of the University having entailed financial burdens too great for them to continue to bear. They were succeeded at St. Joseph's by Benedictine Fathers from St. Vincent's Abbey, Pennsylvania, who took over the parish on June 15, 1861. From the first the parishioners were drawn to these zealous sons of St. Benedict, whose ministry in this venerable North Side parish has continued to our own day. At the head of the long line of Benedictine priests who have lent their services with distinguished zeal to the care of St. Joseph's parish was Father Louis Mary Fink, who took up his pastoral duties June 13, 1861. The first of his Order to assist him in the pastorate was Father Meinrad Jaegle, who was consecrated Abbot by Bishop Duggan in St. Joseph church, July 25, 1861. Father Fink began in 1862 the erection of a new church in basilica style, which was occupied before the close of the year. It was solemnly dedicated March 19, 1865. Abbot Boniface Zimmer having appointed Father Fink Prior of St. Benedict's Abbey, Atchison, Kansas, the latter was succeeded at St. Joseph's in 1868 by Father Leander Schneer. Three years later, in 1871, Prior Fink was named by the Holy See to the bishopric of Leavenworth left vacant by the resignation of Bishop BISHOP DUGGAN 195 Miege. June 11 of that year saw his consecration by Bishop Foley assisted by Bishops Melchers, Domenec and Miege. The consecration took place in the new St. Joseph's church, Chicago, of which ha had formerly been pastor and which owed its erection to his zealous enterprise. A few months later this splendid shrine of Catholic worship fell a prey to the Great Fire. 10 The story of the beginnings of St. Michael's parish St. Michael's has been told above. 11 First among the pastors of St. Michael's was Father Kopp, who attended the new church from St. Joseph's. In November, 1852, Father August Kramer was installed as first resident priest of the parish, after him following in quick succession Fathers Eusebius Kaiser, Joseph Zoegel, Anthony Saeger and Aloysius Hatala, a Hungarian. Then after a few months' vacancy of the pastorate came the Redemptorist Fathers, who in January, 1860, assumed charge of the parish. 10 BURGLER, op. tit., 37. Burgler gives a list of original mem- bers of St. Joseph's parish as follows: Peter Gobel, Michael Diversey, Augustin Gauer, Jacob Miller, Maurice Baumgarten, John S. Vogt, Frank Spohr, Matthias Kreiser, Mathias Miller, Michael Hoffman, M. Laux, Jacob Easkop, Henry Gherkin, Thomas Muimvegen, N. Petri, Joseph Marbach, Jacob Doni, N. Leis, N. Brisback, Wilhelm Wischmeier, Heinrich Wischmeier, J. Leist, W. Dussmann, N. Schinacker, N. Palm, Lorenz Bar, Peter Berens, N. Brachtendorf, N. Schweissthal, W. Faymonville, M. Hambach, N. Klassen, Peter Annen. 11 Vid. supra, p. 146. BURGLER, op. cit., pp. 56-62. The original members of St. Michael's parish included William Dussmann, Michael Diversey, John Forsell, Nicolas Hamson, Mathias Miller, Peter Brachtendorf, William Faymonville, John Kuhn, Christian Kuhn, Conrad Folz, John Schummer and Peter Scheinberg. 196 THE CATHOLIC CHURCH IN CHICAGO With the coming of the Redemptorists new spiritual vigor began to manifest itself in the parish, which had been none the better for the frequent change of pastors. Father Joseph Mueller was first Superior of the Eedemptorist community and pastor of the church. Father Roesch became pastor in 1863 and Father Peter Zimmer in 1865. Under Father Zimmer the corner-stone was laid on November 4, 1866, of a new brick church, 200x80 with tower, the cost of the structure being $130,000. It was dedicated to divine service September 29, 1869. The fire of 1871 burnt out the interior of the church, but the massive brick walls were left uninjured. What the Redemptorist ministry meant to St. Michael 's parish has been aptly sketched by a competent authority : "With the care of souls now taken in hand by the Re- demptorist Fathers, began a new life for St. Michael's parish, a season of real blossoming and expansion, a season of pros- perity and growth. With that earnestness joined to engaging mildness which seems to be peculiar to the sons of St. Alphon- sus and of Blessed Clement Mary Hofbauer, the Fathers won the confidence and love of the German Catholics; many who had gone off to other churches, many also who had given up church-going altogether, met again together under the Fathers and little by little the parish waxed stronger and an active Catholic life began to develop. The irreproachable and genu- inely priestly conduct of the Fathers who lived by themselves in the strict retirement of the cloister and went among the people only to discharge their priestly calling was a powerful support to them in their activities for the salvation of souls and the welfare of the parish committed to their hands. Thanks to the zeal and efficiency of the very worthy order of Our Most Holy Redeemer, St. Michael's parish has grown BISHOP DUGGAN 197 [1889] to be the largest and most distinguished German-Cath- olic parish in the city of Chicago." 12 During the first year or two of the Civil War church building and the organization of new parishes were very much at a stand-still; but they again became active as the great conflict wore down to the final issue. In 1863 St. Wenceslaus's and in 1864 St. Boniface's and Notre Dame de Chicago came into being. At a meeting held August 14, 1863, the Bohemian Catholics of the city, eager for a church of their own, decided to purchase the property of H. H. Washburn at the corner of Des- plaines and De Koven Streets. Some eighty-five families having signified their readiness to contribute to the building-fund, the church was begun on the site named in 1865 and finished the following year. Attended for a brief period first by Father A. Lang of the Dubuque diocese and after him by Father F. X. Schulak, a well- known Jesuit missionary of Moravian birth, St. Wences- laus parish came into the hands, August 26, 1865, of Father Joseph Molitor, who served it with edifying and unabated zeal down to his death in 1906. St. Boniface's parish was started by the Benedictine st. Boniface's Fathers for the families resident in the west end of their parish of St. Joseph. A school-house appears to have been built in 1864, the first Mass was said March 5, 1865, and in the summer of that year a church of frame, costing $7,500, was erected at Noble and Cornell Streets. Father Philip Albrecht, a diocesan priest, was in charge from the fall of that year to 1867, when Father J. Mar- schall succeeded to the pastorate. Two years later, in 1869, Father Clement Venn was named pastor, holding "BURGLER, op. dt., p. 32. 198 THE CATHOLIC CHURCH IN CHICAGO Notre Dame de Chicago Sacred Heart the post for twenty-seven years, during which St. Boniface's grew to be the largest German-speaking parish in Chicago with the possible exception of St. Michael's. In 1867 the Franciscan Sisters of Joliet were entrusted with the direction of the parish schools. 13 The parish of Notre Dame de Chicago was in reality the old parish of St. Louis for French-speaking Catholics, nearly all of whom were immigrants from Canada. The pioneer church on Clark Street had been moved in 1855 to the west side of Sherman Street just north of Polk. Nine years later, in 1864, a new church was begun at the northwest corner of Halsted and Congress Streets. Dedicated in March, 1865, it was served first by Father A. De Montabrique and after him by Father Cote. 14 New units were now being added yearly to the Catholic parishes of Chicago. In 1865 the first steps were taken towards the establishment of the parishes of St. Stanislaus, later the Sacred Heart, St. Thomas the Apostle and St. Anne. That of St. Stanislaus was an outgrowth of the Holy Family. In March, 1865, Father Arnold Damen, S. J., built a frame school-house on Evans now Eighteenth Street, opposite John. The ground on which it stood was the gift of Mr. John Welsh, an alumnus of St. Louis University. In 1868 the original structure received an addition 50x40, and in this enlarged structure, known as St. Stanislaus chapel, the Holy Sacrifice, the first in the history of the parish, was offered by Father Damen on January 1, 13 BURGLER, op. cit., p. 100 ; Diamond Jubilee of the Arch- diocese of Chicago, 1920, p. 361. "ANDREAS, op. cit., 2: 400. BISHOP DUGGAN 190 1869. Placed at first under the patronage of St. Stanislaus Kostka, the Jesuit saint, the parish later adopted the title of the Sacred Heart, under which title a spacious church of brick was erected, 1873-75, at the southeast corner of Nineteenth and South Peoria Streets. St. Thomas the Apostle's church at Kimbark Ave- st. Thomas nue and Fifty-fifth Street is a child of St. James's, the theA P stle founder of the latter, Father Thomas Kelly, having as early as 1865 gathered the scattered Catholic families of Hyde Park Station into a mission and shortly after- wards built them a little church. In 1868 Father P. T. Butler became pastor. St. Anne's at Fifty-fifth Street and Wentworth Avenue likewise began its career as a mission of St. James's about the same time as St. Thomas the Apostle's. When in July, 1868, the latter was organized as an independent parish, with Thirty- eight Street as the line between it and Saint James's, it found the mission of St. Anne's lying within its territory. The first St. Anne's church, a frame structure formerly serving the purpose of a Jewish synagogue in the down-town district, was moved to the site of the present St. Anne's in August, 1868. A few months later Father Thomas Leyden was installed as first resident pastor. 15 The Annunciation parish, with church at Paulina Annunciation, Street and Wabansia Avenue, dates from 1866 when Father "Tom" Burke of St. Columbkille's established here a mission and built a small church, which he con- tinued to serve until the advent in 1868 of the first 15 Diamond Jubilee of the Archdiocese of Chicago, 1920, pp. 365-371. 200 THE CATHOLIC CHURCH IN CHICAGO resident pastor, Father Thomas Edwards. In 1867 a hundred and fifty Polish families, organized as the Society of St. Stanislaus, began with episcopal appro- bation the erection of a modest two-story frame building serving both school and church purposes, at the corner of Noble and Bradley Streets. Father F. X. Schulak, S. J., was in charge until the appointment in 1869 of Father Joseph Juskiewicz as permanent pastor. The following year came the Resurrectionists, who have con- tinued ever since to serve zealously this great parish of St. Stanislaus Kostka. Even in distant Poland the story of the parish in said to be familiarly known and its parochial school has the largest registration of any in the country. 16 Nativity, In 1868 Father Michael Lyons was commissioned by Bishop Duggan to organize a parish in the Stock-yards district, which centered around the Transit House at Halsted and Forty-second Streets in the Town of Lake. Having acquired property on the north side of Thirty- ninth Street between Halsted Street and Emerald Ave- nue, Father Lyons caused to be moved thither a building which had been used as a sales-stable and which he now had converted into a church. It was dedicated April 8, 1868, by the Rev. T. J. Halligan, Administrator of the diocese, under the title, it would appear, of the Holy Angels, a title subsequently changed to that of the Nativity. The same year that saw the establishment of a parish in the Stock-yards district, saw the members 16 For data regarding the parishes which follow use has been made chiefly of the above-cited Diamond Jubilee of the Arch- diocese of Chicago, 1920. The Catholic Directory, 1867, lists St. Rose's Church, North Franklin near Chicago Avenue. BISHOP DUGGAN 201 of the German parish of St. Francis of Assisi beginning to worship in the splendid new edifice of brick erected by them at the southeast corner of Twelfth Street and New- berry Avenue. Their old church of frame at Clinton and Mather Streets thereupon began, under the name of St. Paul, to serve the needs of the English-speaking Catholics of the vicinity with Father, or, as he was more popularly known, Dr. John McMullen in charge. The church and other parish buildings of St. Paul's were all swept way in the fire of 1871 and the parish, which counted over a thousand families in 1866, was thereupon discontinued. Two West Side parishes, St. Jarlath's and St. st.jariath's, Stephen's, date from 1869. The westernmost section of St. Patrick's parish having been laid out in that year as a separate parish w T as given the name St. Aloysius, changed a year later to that of St. Jarlath. A frame church with seating capacity of three hundred and fifty was built at the corner of Hermitage Avenue and West Jackson Street and at first served from St. Patrick's, Father J. J. Grogan being the first attending priest and subsequently the first resident pastor. It was Father Grogan who named the parish for St. Jarlath as a tribute to his alma mater, St. Jarlath's College in Tuam, Ireland. Established in the same year as St. Jarlath's was St. Stephen's parish, its founder being Father Stephen Barrett who built his church on North Sangamon Street. Finally, in February, 1870, the be- ginnings were made of the parish of St. John Nepo- mucene, the second for the Catholic Bohemians of Chicago. Property was bought at Twenty-fifth and Portland (now Princeton) Streets, and steps were taken 202 THE CATHOLIC CHURCH IN CHICAGO Catholic Sisterhoods Religious of Sacred Heart towards the erection of a frame church, which was completed in 1871, Father W. Cheka arriving from Moravia to assume the duties of pastor. All in all, twenty-eight parishes, including St. Thomas 's in Hyde Park, St. Patrick 's in South Chicago and St. Henry's in Rose Hill, had been established in Chicago at the time when the great fire of 1871 spread the trail of destruction that was to mark a turning- point in the religious 110 less than in the civic history of Chicago. To the Catholic sisterhoods more than any other human agency is due the upbuilding of Chicago 's system of Catholic parochial schools to its present splendid development. They were early in the field, as we have seen, the Sisters of Mercy leading the van in the late 'forties. The latter opened girls' free schools succes- sively in St. Mary's, the Holy Name, and St. Patrick's parishes. In 1856 the Sisters of the Holy Cross were conducting schools for "German and English girls," while at the same time similar schools for boys were being taught by Brothers of the Holy Cross in various parishes of the city. 17 In August, 1858, Madame Galway, with ten other Religious of the Sacred Heart arrived in Chicago at the invitation of Bishop 'Regan and subsequently of Bishop Duggan. The community resided first on Wabash Avenue and later at Rush and Illinois Streets, where they conducted a school for girls. Madame Galway, having acquired twelve acres on Taylor Street on the West Side, within the limits of the new Jesuit parish of the Holy Family, built there 17 Metropolitan Catholic Almanac, 1857. BISHOP DUGGAN 203 a convent, which was first occupied by the nuns on August 20, 1860. In the fall of the same year the frame building on the North Side formerly occupied by the nuns was moved to the northwest corner of Taylor and Lytle Streets and in it was opened a "free-school" for the girls of the Holy Family parish. In 1864 Madame Galway enlarged the convent building, establishing in it an academy and boarding-school for girls. In 1866 a brick building with capacity for 1000 children was erected for the "free" or parochial school at Taylor and Lytle Streets. 18 In 1864 the Sisters of Mercy were engaged as teach- ers of the girls' schools of St. Mary's and St. John's, while the Sisters of Notre Dame were similarly engaged in St. Michael's, the Sisters of Charity in the Holy Name and the Sisters of Loretto in St. Patrick's. The Benedictine Sisters were in 1866 teaching in the parish schools of St. Joseph's, while in the same year the Sisters of Mercy took in charge both the boys' and girls' schools of the new parish of St. James. 19 In 1867 a second parish school for girls was organ- sisters of ized in the Holy Family parish, with the Sisters of th e messed Charity of the Blessed Virgin, a Dubuque foundation, virgin in charge. In February of that year Sister Mary Margaret, Superioress of the Davenport convent of the Sisterhood, wrote to Father Donaghoe, to whose enter- prise the creation of the Sisterhood was largely due : "Since I wrote the above Father Damen has been here. He wants our Sisters, six or nine, to teach a parochial school "ANDREAS, op. cit., 3: 774. 19 Catholic Directory, 1864- 1866; MINOGUE, Loretto: Annals of the Century, 183. 204 THE CATHOLIC CHURCH IN CHICAGO in Chicago. He will provide for them a house furnished, an oratory and daily Mass, will pay two hundred and fifty dollars a year to each Sister, and if they teach music, em- broidery or painting, the income will be their own. Father Damen will do all he can for them. He would be glad to get nine Sisters, but is willing to take six for a beginning. He has an understanding with the Bishop about it. Now, dear Father, think of it, and I hope God will direct you. I told Father Damen I would write you all these details. I will get all the Sisters to say the Thirty Days' Prayer for your intention. Will you tell me what you think of it when you write? Father Damen wrote to you on this subject some time ago. I will be glad to hear what you will say to his proposi- tion ; I hope it will succeed." 20 Though Father Donaghoe was eager to seize this opportunity of introducing his Sisters into the great field for Catholic education that lay white to the harvest in the most prosperous city of the Middle West, the step could not be taken without some delay. The following July found Father Damen still awaiting the Sisters anxiously. "We would like to get nine Sisters," he writes to Father Donaghoe, "but try to send three or four at once, if possible, and let them be good teachers so as to make a good impression, for the first impression is generally the lasting one. I need not say that I have the approbation of our good Bishop." July 10 Father Donaghoe conveyed to Sister Mary Margaret in Davenport the glad tidings that permission to despatch Sisters to Chicago had been obtained from 20 In the Early Days. Pages from the Annals of the History of Sisters of Charity of the Blessed Virgin Mary, 1833-1837, St. Louis, 1912, p. 200. BISHOP DUGGAN 205 Bishop Smyth of Dubuque, the ecclesiastical Superior of their community. "I have written by this post to Father Damen to say that I have obtained from the Right Rev. Bishop ample lib- erty to send him Sisters. So Chicago is ours, thank God." In August, 1867, Sister Mary Agatha, with six nuns began the educational work of the Sisters of Charity, B. V. M., in the Holy Family parish. Pending the erection of St. Aloysius school and convent on Maxwell Street a short distance west of Jefferson, the Sisters occupied a house at the corner of Halsted and Kramer Streets. St. Stanislaus' School for boys and girls, within the limits of the future Sacred Heart parish, was also entrusted by Father Damen to their care, so that by 1871 as many as 1250 children were being educated under their direction. In 1867 came the Franciscan Sisters, who were to be engaged in the parish-schools of St. Boniface's and St. Francis of Assisi's. Schools were opened in 1868 in St. Columbkille 's parish, with Sisters of Charity of St. Vincent in charge, while in the same year the Dominican Sisters of the Sinsinawa foundation took in hand the schools of the Immaculate Conception. In 1870 Sisters of Charity were conducting the Holy Name schools and Sisters of Charity B. V. M., those of St. Stanislaus, subsequently the Sacred Heart. Of the Catholic paro- chial schools at this period, those of the Holy Family had by far the largest enrollment. Attending the girls' schools of St. Aloysius and the Sacred Heart w r ere 850 and 853 pupils respectively, while the boys' school under the management of Father Andrew 'Neil, S. J. and Brother Thomas 'Neil, S. J., assisted by twenty-three 206 THE CATHOLIC CHURCH IN CHICAGO lay-teachers, numbered over 2000 pupils. All in all there were in the Fall of 1871 twenty-one parochial schools in Chicago, with an attendance of nearly 10,000 children, the entire burden of expenses of the system resting entirely on the Catholic clergy and laity of the city. As to the Catholic sisterhoods of Chicago they num- bered eleven in 1871, being in the approximate order of their establishment in the city the Sisters of Mercy, Keligious of the Sacred Heart, Sisters of Charity of St. Vincent de Paul, Sisters of the Good Shepherd, Sisters of St. Benedict, Sisters of Loretto, Notre Dame Sisters, Sisters of St. Francis, Sisters of St. Joseph, Sisters of St. Dominic, Sisters of Charity of the Blessed Virgin, and Poor Handmaids of Christ. 21 To those pioneer institutions of Catholic Chicago, the Orphan Asylum and Mercy Hospital, other institu- tions of a charitable and philanthropic character were added, especially in the 'sixties. House of the The first house of the Sisters of the Good Shepherd Shepherd i* 1 Chicago owed its origin to the energetic zeal of Rev. Dr. John McMullen. With three hundred dollars borrowed from his brother James, a resident of Chicago, he rented a house on Pierce Street, later Boston Avenue, and with the approval of Bishop Duggan invited the Sis- ters of the Good Shepherd of St. Louis to send some of their number to open therein a Magdalen Asylum. The three Sisters that came in 1859 in answer to the invita- tion were at once charged with the care of seven women inmates recently pardoned out of the Bridewell. In his 21 The Sisters of the Holy Cross were established in the city during the period 1856-1861. BISHOP DUGGAN 207 efforts to finance the new venture, Father McMullen visited St. Louis and other cities of the Middle West where he made personal appeals for aid, and in Chicago itself he was seen to beg on behalf of the Sisters from door to door, on occasion even purchasing groceries and carrying them in a basket to the convent when its little commuunity was hard pressed for the necessaries of life. In 1860 better quarters for the institution, with room for thirty inmates, were found on Franklin Street on the South Side. Here the asylum has been established only a short time when it was removed to Market Street on the North Side. A frame building, which Dr. Mc- Mullen had started to erect at the new location was only half completed when a fire of incendiary origin reduced it to ashes; but the zealous priest, not dis- couraged by this set-back, proceeded thereupon to build a substantial structure of brick, which was to be the house of the Magdalen Asylum until it in turn fell a prey to the great conflagration of 1871. The Sisters of the Good Shepherd all these years were conducting the Magdalen Asylum only, and it was not until 1866 that they took in hand a Reformatory and Industrial School for girls. 22 In 1866 Brother Bonaventura Thelen, of the Alexian Brothers, arrived in Chicago. A letter of approval of his projected work signed under date of March 31, 1866, by Bishop Duggan designated him as a " professed mem- ber of the Order of St. Alexius, founded for the benefit of the aged, poor and sick, being commissioned by his Superior to travel to America in order to extend the beneficial labors of his Order also to this country." 22 McGovERN, Life of Bishop McMullen, pp. 128-132. THE CATHOLIC CHURCH IN CHICAGO AYithin six months he had, with the assistance of a layman, Mr. Wischmeyer, established St. Mary's Hos- pital with a capacity of eight beds at North Dearborn and Schiller Streets. Brother Bonaventura 's little com- munity soon numbered five brothers and three novices and in 1868 the Hospital found more spacious quarters at 546 North Franklin Street. In 1899 the institution changed its name to that of Alexian Brothers' Hos- pital. 23 In 1868 St. Joseph's Hospital was opened by the Sisters of Charity of St. Vincent in temporary quarters at Diversey Avenue and Green Bay Road, which were soon exchanged for a commodious building erected at Sophia, now Garfield Avenue, and Buiiey Streets. With a capacity of only thirty patients in the beginning, the Hospital was enabled after occupying its new quarters to extend considerably the range of its benevolent serv- ices. It is an interesting circumstance that the two Catholic hospitals of Chicago, Mercy and St. Joseph's, were both located outside the area ravaged by the Fire of 1871 and were thus enabled to continue their charitable ministrations through that memorable crisis. In 1865 the German Catholics of Chicago purchased ten acres of land with a small house as a home for their orphans. The property was located at Rose Hill, then lying beyond the northern line of the city but now well within the city limits. The first children were received November 1, 1866, and were cared for by a Mr. Trauffler and his wife. In 1867-68 a building was erected at a cost of $8,000, the contractor, a Mr. Ebertshauser, lend- :s ANDREAS, op. tit., 2: 537. Souvenir of the Golden Jubilee of the Alexian Brothers at Chicago, 1916. BISHOP DUGGAN 209 ing his services gratis. The poor Handmaids of Christ were subsequently called from Fort Wayne by Father Fischer, President of the Asylum Board, to take charge of the institution. The credit of having been the founder of the Asylum belongs to Father Holzer, a Redemp- torist, who called the first meeting of German Catholics at which steps were taken to establish it and whose vigilant enterprise pushed the project forward to suc- cess. 24 All in all, the hospitals and asylums of Catholic Chicago in 1871 numbered nine, Mercy Hospital on the South Side, St. Joseph's and the Alexian Brothers' Hospitals on the North Side, the Magdalen Asylum on North Market Street, St. Joseph's Orphan Asylum at State and Superior, the German Orphan Asylum in Rose Hill, Chicago Reform and Industrial School in Bridgeport (conducted by the Christian Brothers), the House of Providence on Huron Street, and the House of Providence on \Vabash Avenue. Higher education for the Catholic young women of r u ^ Chicago began in 1846 with the opening by the Sisters Academies of Mercy of St. Xavier's Academy. Ten years later the same Sisters established the branch Academy of St. Agatha at Rio Grande, now Twenty-sixth Street, and Calumet Avenue, a boarding-school with an average attendance in its opening year of fifty-two pupils. St. Paul's select-school for girls was opened in 1856, also by the Sisters of Mercy, in a frame building adjoining St. Xavier's Academy. In 1858 the Sisters of Charity upened the Academy of the Holy Name in a small building on Huron Street near State. The building 1 BUKGLER, op. dt. 210 THE CATHOLJC CHURCH IN CHICAGO subsequently occupied by the Academy was swept away in the Fire of 1871, the Academy being thereupon dis- continued. 25 In 1860 the Religious of the Sacred Heart under Mother Galway opened an Academy on "West Taylor Street, while in 1867 the Benedictine Sisters added still further to the number of Catholic high- schools for girls by establishing St. Joseph's Academy on Chicago Avenue for day-scholars and boarders. The development of higher education for the Cath- o/tfttzlife ^ c young men of early Chicago is identified, we need not say here, with the University of St. Mary of the Lake. Of the fortunes of that venerable institution during the "fifties and "sixties we shall, accordingly, speak with some detail. The beginnings of the Univer- sity under Bishop Quarter have been sketched above. Bishop Van de Velde. as a man of scholarly attainment and much ripe experience as an educator, was deeply interested in the progress of the institution and made every effort to maintain its academic standards at a high level. Difficulties, however, apparently over matters of business, arose between the Bishop and the pastors of Holy Name Church, all of whom were connected either as officials or professors with the University. Father Kinsella T head pastor of the Holy Name, had been President of the University since its inception, as also professor of dogmatic theology and sacred scrip- ture: while of his assistants. Father dowry was secre- tary of the board of trustees and Fathers Breen and Hoey were on the teaching staff. To remove the dangers that now began to threaten the moderate measure of prosperity which the University had hitherto enjoyed, History of Chicago, 2: 404. BISHOP DUGGAX 211 Bishop Van de Velde looked to a change of management. He accordingly visited Xotre Dame University in 1852 to solicit the Fathers of the Holy Cross to assume charge of the University. This well-known Congregation had been established by the venerable Father Edward Sorin, a Frenchman, near South Bend. Indiana, in the early "forties, and Xotre Dame University, the work of his hands, had already won for itself a place of distinction in the Catholic educational life of the country. But the Congregation over which he presided was still in its merest infancy and for the moment at least in no position to extend its field of operations. Bishop Van de Velde "s offer was consequently declined. Under Bishop O "Regan, the controversy with the rotken pastors of the Holy Name, which he had inherited from %,^ Cron his predecessor, was brought to a close by the resignation ' eiarge, of the latter from their parochial charges in January. 1855. and their withdrawal from the diocese.- 6 Bishop O "Regan now reopened negotiations with the Fathers of the Holy Cross, pending which Father Matthew Dillon was. in charge of the University, assisted by Fathers McLaughlin. Hurley and Aylward. A proposal made by the Bishop to the Fathers of the Holy Cross to sell them the University and its belongings for $60.000 payable in twelve installments of $5.000 each without interest met at first with favor from the Fathers 14 "At the request of the Bishop, Fathers Kinsella. dowry. Breen and Hoey resigned in January, 1S55. their charge as priests of the Holy Name and severed their connection with the Uni- versity. All four went East and offered their services, three to the Bishop of Xew York and one to the Bishop of Trenton. They were accepted and in a short time were assigned to positions of prominence.' 1 Illinois Catholic Historical Eerier, 2: 1-tS. 212 THE CATHOLIC CHURCH IN CHICAGO but was eventually declined. An invitation to take over the University which the Bishop extended to the Jesuits of St. Louis was likewise declined. Finally, as the result of a personal visit made to Notre Dame in 1856, Bishop 'Regan prevailed upon the Holy Cross Fathers to take a fifty-year lease on the University property and build- ings at an annual rental of $2100. The lease was signed August 4, 1856. The Fathers stipulated, it would ap- pear, to conduct a preparatory day-school only and not an institution of collegiate or university grade. With them also came to Chicago in the summer of 1856 a number of Brothers and Sisters of the Holy Cross to conduct schools in St. Joseph's and other parishes of the city. The Brothers took over the management of the boys' schools of St. Joseph's, St. Patrick's and St. Mary's parishes; while the Sisters taught the girls of St. Joseph's parish, and opened an industrial school in the University building and also a select school for girls in a brick building which they rented at the northwest corner of Chicago Avenue and Cass Street. withdrawal Though professedly only a preparatory school of of Fathers high-school grade, the University still continued to give of the Holy Cross the title of President to its principal officer. Father G. B. Kilroy was the first President during the period the Congregation of the Holy Cross was in charge of the University; and he was succeeded by Fathers Shortis, Patrick Dillon, James Dillon and Neil Gillespie. In 1857 there were thirty-five students in attendance at the University so-called; by the end of 1859 this number had risen to 120. But the spectre of financial distress hovered at all times over the institution. The panic of 1857 added notably to the embarrassment of the Fathers. A collection ordered by Bishop 'Regan BISHOP DUGGAN 213 in all the churches of the city towards helping them to pay their rent, through which means he hoped to realize at least a thousand dollars, brought only sixty. Under his successor, Bishop Duggan, the Fathers of the Holy Cross, feeling themselves no longer able to main- tain the unequal struggle, resolved to discontinue their educational and parochial labors in Chicago, where their zeal had merited general commendation, and return to Notre Dame. This they did at the close of the scholastic session 1860-61, the Brothers and Sisters of the Holy Cross also withdrawing from the city at the same time. The Sisters especially had achieved great popularity during their stay in Chicago, as was witnessed by the demonstrations of sympathy made at their departure. They were escorted to the depot by the Montgomery Guards with full band under command of Capt. Gleeson, who at the time was preparing to enter the Union service with Col. Mulligan. 27 Two distinct phases had now marked the career of the University of St. Mary of the Lake, one of ten years under the presidency of Father Kinsella, and one of five years under the managment of the Congregation of the Holy Cross. It was now to enter on a third and final phase of five years' duration. With the appointment early in 1861 of Rev. Dr. John McMullen as President, a second spring appeared to dawn on the sorely tried institution. To a friend in Rome Dr. McMullen wrote on Janu- Dr -J hn nrv 9^ 1869- McMullen, ary ZD, JbZ. President of "I have four lay-professors associated with me in carry- the University ing on the University. We have about 110 students, thirty- three are boarding in the place. The university is doing bet- 27 Illinois Catholic Historical Eeview, 2 : 149. 214 THE CATHOLIC CHURCH IN CHICAGO ter than I expected at first and still I am not without many difficulties, considering that I had to make great improve- ments in order to open it with decency becoming its name. I have some of the ablest lay professors in the West teaching for me." The University buildings at this period comprised the original frame structure dating from Bishop Quar- ter's time and a two-story edifice of brick on the Chi- cago Avenue side of the property which included the entire square bounded by Chicago Avenue, State, Supe- rior and Cass Streets. To provide quarters adequate to the increasing number of the students, a new and spacious building of brick was planned, the corner- stone being laid by Bishop Duggan on July 4, 1863. Occupied by the students February 1, 1864, the new building, of which only the south wing was actually erected, at once attracted public notice as a type of the best school-construction of the day. ' ' There is no build- ing for educational purposes in the state," commented one of the local prints, ' ' better arranged or more appro- priately fitted out, ' ' 28 To make the University over which he presided such in reality as well as in name became now the ambition of Dr. McMullen. By the beginning of the session 1863- 1864 the institution had been organized on a strictly university basis, having affiliated to it professional schools of law, medicine and divinity. Among the in- structors in law were Judges Booth, Wilson and Good- rich, while the noted physician, Dr. Daniel Brainard, filled the post of dean of the staff of medicine. The school of medicine was indeed none other than the pio- neer institution of medical instruction in Chicago, Rush 'Chicago Tribune, January 28, 1864. BISHOP DUGGAN 215 Medical College, in the building of which, a few blocks distant from the University, all medical classes were con- ducted. The Rector of the Theological Department or Seminary was Father James McGovern, D. D., who also lectured on Holy Scripture and Ecclesiastical History. Dr. McMullen and later Father P. W. Riordan, the future Archbishop of San Francisco, occupied the chair of Dogmatic Theology and Father T. J. Butler that of Moral Theology, while Father Roles was spiritual di- rector of the seminarians. In the undergraduate depart- ment or School of Arts and Sciences instruction was imparted by Drs. McMullen and McGovern, assisted by a numerous staff of lay-professors. 29 Lending prestige to the University was the publica- tion under its auspices of "the Month," a Catholic monthly magazine established by Dr. McMullen, Janu- ary 1, 1865, under the editorship of Mr. Peter Foote of the University staff. It was at the time one of the few Catholic periodicals of the kind in the United States, if not the only one, Brownson's Review having been discontinued a few months before. A number of con- tributions from the pen of Dr. McMullen appeared in its pages; but it ran only one year, lack of patronage making it necessary to suspend publication. 30 Though destined apparently to carry on with sue- The cess the cause of Catholic education in the Middle West, Universit v closed, the University of St. Mary of the Lake succumbed in 20 ANDREAS, History of Chicago, 1: 298. 30 McGovERN, Life of Bishop McMullen. According to An- DREAS, op. cit., 2: 405, Father Roles, while pastor of the Holy Name Church, 1862-1868, edited and published the first Catholic illustrated Sunday-school paper in the city. The Sunday School Messenger of the Holy Family Parish, Chicago, dates from 1867. 216 THE CATHOLIC CHURCH IN CHICAGO the end to the financial embarrassment under which it had had to struggle steadily from its birth. With dra- matic suddenness it closed its doors early in 1866. Though collections made by Dr. McMullen in the par- ishes of the diocese netted $3,000, there remained obli- gations amounting to $6,000 that apparently could not be met. The indefatigable Doctor, than whom no one could have battled more perseveringly to keep the insti- tution alive, broke down and Avept as he disclosed to the faculty the financial straits of the University and its inability under the circumstances to continue its work. The Seminary was maintained until 1868 when it was closed by Bishop Duggan. The University buildings were thereupon made to house the Orphan Asylum, with the Sisters of St. Joseph in charge. 31 If the noble-hearted Dr. McMullen, whose services to religion and education the Holy See was later to rec- ognize by naming him the first incumbent of the See of Davenport had thus to taste the bitterness of failure in the most cherished of his plans, it was not for lack of vision of the magnificence of the field which Chicago offered for a Catholic institution of University type. ' ' Of all places, ' ' he declared, l ' the great city of Chicago was and is the place for such an institution. It is the heart of the West, the most enterprising, the most pro- gressive, the most American of all the geographical divi- sions of our grand Republic, and with its vast Catholic population it ought to have lifted up the torch for all of us." "I shall send you some copies of a child's paper which Father Roles is getting up to come out every month I do not think there is a paper of this sort for children in the country." Mc- GOVERN, Life and Letters of Eliza Allen Starr, p. 191. 31 McGovERN, Life of Bishop McMullen. BISHOP DUGGAN 217 In the 'sixties education of a grade higher than that Christian of the grammar school began to be supplied to the Brothers Catholic boys of Chicago by the Brothers of the Chris- tian Schools, who came to the city in 1861. Their Academy at 99 East Van Buren Street offered the ad- vantages of a business and commercial education, which was later brought within the reach of the West Side boys by the establishment of St. Patrick's Academy. At a period beyond the limits of this narrative they were to found the De La Salle Institute on the South Side, which has achieved a success known to all in the cause of Christian education. 32 To offer to the Catholic youth of Chicago oppor- st. Ignatius tunities for a classical education, the Jesuits opened St. Ignatius College on West Twelfth Street. Classes were first held September 5, 1870. A spacious and im- posing structure of brick, four stories in height and costing over $200,000, housed the institution, which owed its origin chiefly to the zealous enterprise of the well- known Jesuit missionary, Father Arnold Damen. As the only institution in Chicago offering instruction in the classics at the hands of professional Catholic edu- cators, it soon won for itself a place of distinction in the Catholic educational life of the city. Founded at a time when the University of St. Mary of the Lake had but lately closed its doors, St. Ignatius College 32 The first school in Chicago taught by the Christian Brothers was St. Patrick's parish-school for boys. Later they took charge of St. Mary's School. "During this month (on the 15th) Chris- tian Brothers took possession of the new school on Van Buren and 4th Avenue, preparatory to the opening of it for the children of the parish on the 2nd of September, 1868." Note in Bap- tismal Register, St. Mary's Church, Chicago. 218 THE CATHOLIC CHURCH IN CHICAGO became the timely successor of that venerable institution in dispensing to the youth of Chicago the advantages of higher Catholic education. The latter days of Bishop Duggan's administration were clouded by the unfortunate controversies that arose between him and certain influential members of his clergy. Only after a long-drawn out and painful period of misunderstanding and dissension was the variable- ness of purpose which the Bishop betrayed in his man- agement of affairs recognized as a premonitory stage of complete mental collapse. Suspicion of the true nature of the malady having been aroused after the prelate's return to Chicago from the Second Council of Baltimore in 1866, he was advised by his physician to seek relaxa- tion in a European trip. A stay at Carlsbad in Austria failed to produce the hoped-for results and the Bishop returned unimproved to the United States, where the advance of his disease made it necessary to confine him. He was accordingly sent to an institution conducted by the Sisters of Charity on the outskirts of St. Louis, where he spent the remainder of his days, dying as late as 1899. 33 The tragic denouement of Bishop Duggan 's episcopal career, so rich in its early days in achievement for the diocese of Chicago, was deeply deplored by clergy and laity alike and by a sort of spontaneous accord it was felt on all sides that the recent unhappy controversies should be suffered to lapse into well-deserved oblivion. 33 SHEA, History of the Catholic Church in the United States; McGovERN, Catholic Church in Chicago, 196-210; McGovERN, Life of Bishop MoMullen. Et. Eev. Thomas Foley, fifth Bishop (Coadjutor Bishop and Adminis- trator) of the Diocese of Chicago (1870-1879). A native of Baltimore in Maryland, he was the first Bishop of Chicago born in America. His episcopate was marked by the great Fire of 1871 and the critical period consequent thereon, through which he conducted the Church in Chicago with the utmost charity and resourcefulness, laying anew the foundations on which was to be reared the splendid fabric of Catholicism in that city today. His death in the full tide of pastoral achievement occurred on February 19, 1879. CHAPTER IX BISHOP FOLEY AND THE FIRE OF 1871 On March 10, 1870, Bishop Thomas Foley was in- Bishop Foley > Administrator stalled in the church of the Holy Name, the pro-Cathe- oftjie dral, as successor to Bishop Duggan in the see of Chi- Diocese cago, amid very cordial manifestations of good-will and satisfaction on the part of the clergy and laity of the city. Bishop Foley was a native of Baltimore, where he was born of immigrant Irish parents, March 6, 1822. A graduate with the degree of A. B. from St. Mary's Col- lege, Baltimore, at the early age of eighteen, a priest at twenty-four, pastor for twenty-one years at the Balti- more Cathedral, and in turn Chancellor, Vicar-General and Administrator of the diocese of Baltimore, he had discharged with satisfaction the various important du- ties committed to him and with a very distinguished record of clear judgment, scholarship and experience in church affairs thus to his credit, gave promise of fill- ing still higher ecclesiastical positions with eminent suc- cess. So it was that the Holy See turned to him as one who could be trusted to take up and wield with delicacy and tact to the edification of all the reins of administra- tion that had fallen from the hands of Bishop Duggan. Having in November, 1869, been appointed Bishop of Pergamus in partibus infidelium, Coadjutor-Bishop and Administrator of the Diocese of Chicago cum jure suces- sionis, he was consecrated February 27, 1870, in the 219 220 THE CATHOLIC CHURCH IN CHICAGO Cathedral of Baltimore, by Bishop McCloskey of Louis- ville. "Peace be to you" was the text of the sermon which Bishop Foley addressed to the congregation that gath- ered in the pro-Cathedral of the Holy Name on the occasion of his installation ; and a notable sermon it was, all aglow with exquisite charity and priestly zeal and revealing beyond mistake in its eloquent sentences the great heart and superior mind of the man who had come to direct the destinies of the Catholic church in Chicago. "Now I wish again to repeat the words of our Lord and Savior, may his grace abide with you. I hope that in the power of God this diocese which already holds so high a place, which has so vast a population and is destined if not to be the first at least to be the second in the country ; this diocese which has such vast material wealth and such a number of souls within its limits, shall grow in grace and power. This shall claim my careful attention and while I live and am with you, whatever I can do shall be freely, entirely and cheerfully given to Chicago." The pre-eminent fitness of Bishop Foley for the posi- tion to which he had been called was amply demon- strated as his episcopate ran its course. New parishes were organized and churches built, new institutions of charity and benevolence sprang up on every side, while an atmosphere of Christian kindliness and forbearance spread out from the great-hearted prelate and settled over the entire diocese. Fire of 1871 Bishop Foley was in the first flush of his zeal for the restoration of all things in Christ when a disaster of overwhelming proportions visited the chief city of his diocese. From 10 o'clock on Sunday evening, October 9, 1871, to 6 o'clock on the evening of the following day, BISHOP FOLEY AND THE FIRE OF 1871 221 a span of only twenty-one hours, a fire of quite uncon- trollable character spread over Chicago, sweeping away the entire business district of the city and thousands of residences and leaving in its wake of destruction a loss in buildings, merchandise and household effects esti- mated at $200,000,000. A great part of the material equipment of the Catholic Church in Chicago in churches, schools and institutions, representing years of self-sacrificing toil and generosity on the part of clergy and laity, was involved in the common disaster. St. Paul's Church and parish buildings, at Clinton and Mather, distant only a few blocks from the starting- point of the fire, soon fell before the advancing flames. As the conflagration pursued its undisputed march to- wards the northern limits of the city, were destroyed St. Louis's Church and Parsonage on Sherman Street, the Christian Brothers' Academy on Van Buren Street, the Convent and Schools of the Sisters of Mercy on Wabash Avenue, St. Mary's Cathedral, the original St. Mary's of frame built by Father St. Cyr, the Bishop's residence at Michigan Avenue and Madison Street, the Holy Name Church, the House of Providence, the Acad- emy of the Sisters of Charity, St. Joseph's Orphan Asylum, formerly the University of St. Mary of the Lake, the Christian Brothers' Parochial School, the Ben- edictine Convent, St. Joseph's Church at Chicago Ave- nue and Cass Street, the Magdalen Asylum, the Church of the Immaculate Conception, and St. Michael 's Church with schools and other parish buildings attached to these churches. The total loss in Catholic church property was estimated at $1,000,000. For the moment Chicago stood dazed and even para- lyzed at the extent of the calamity ; but for the moment 222 THE CATHOLIC CHURCH IN CHICAGO only. Presently the indomitable spirit of the metropolis asserted itself and plans for a greater, a richer, a more splendid Chicago were already taking shape in the minds of its citizens before the last embers of the great con- flagration had smouldered away. Bishop Foley was absent on a confirmation-trip to Champaign, Illinois, on the fateful Sunday and Monday of the fire; and he returned to Chicago only to find the splendid shrines of worship and monuments of Christian charity reared under his predecessors levelled to the ground, thousands of Catholic families homeless and impoverished and a condition of acute distress among a large part of his flock that called for instant relief. With characteristic courage he set himself to the task in hand. Food, cloth- ing and money with which to relieve the urgent needs of the victims of the fire were not to be had in sufficient quantity at home; and appeals were therefore made to the Catholics of the country. To Eliza Allen Starr, the distinguished convert, Dr. McMullen, pastor of Holy Name Church, wrote October 14 from St. Patrick's, where he had taken refuge after his own church had been laid in ashes: "I need not tell you that you were often in my thoughts. I have met most of my people and have been able to do some- thing to relieve them. I have been very busy in procuring and distributing supplies. Busy as ever in my life. This eve- ning I leave with Father P. W. Riordan for New York; we will collect through New York and New England; Dr. Butler with another takes Maryland and Pennsylvania; Father Roles goes to the Pacific Coast; others to Cincinnati and others to St. Louis." 1 1 McGovERN, Life of Bishop McMullen. BISHOP FOLEY AND THE FIRE OF 1871 223 The plight to which a prosperous and high-spirited Conclu8ion city had suddenly been reduced by a great calamity touched the heart of the nation and relief sufficient to temper the worst features of the crisis was soon flowing in from every quarter. Catholic response to the call for help was prompt and generous and in no long time the Catholics of Chicago, under the leadership of the indom- itable Bishop Foley, the man of the hour, were heart- ened to look around them and plan for the restoration of the Church to something of its pristine splendor. But here we must end. The story of the new Catholic Chi- cago, risen on the ashes of the old to a splendor of growth and prosperity utterly undreamt of fifty years ago, falls beyond the scope of the present narrative. Under a succession of prelates as zealously enterprising and efficient as ever led a Catholic diocese along the paths of progress, Foley, Feehan, Quigley and Munde- lein, the march of the new Catholicity in Chicago has been one of steady and triumphant advance. Where so much has been achieved, the imagination loves to dwell on the historical landmarks that emphasize the nothing- ness from which the start was made. Two hundred and forty-seven years ago Father Jacques Marquette offered the first Holy Sacrifice on the wind-swept prairie that has since become Chicago. Two hundred and twenty-five years ago, Father Francis Pinet, the first resident priest, was ministering in his little Indian chapel at the forks of the river. Eighty-eight years ago when Father St. Cyr arrived in Chicago to build the first parish church, he found the Catholics of the place numbering but a paltry two hundred. Eleven years later when Bishop Quarter took possession of the newly-erected see of Chicago, St. Mary's parish, with its two attendant priests, was still 224 the only one in the city. Fifty years ago, when the Great Fire came in the guise of a calamity to mark the passing of the old and the birth of the new Chicago, there were in the city twenty-four parishes, twenty-two parish schools, fifty-five priests of the secular and reg- ular clergy, and a Catholic population of probably a hundred thousand. Today, seventy-eight years since the erection of the diocese of Chicago, the Catholic Church in that city counts two hundred and twenty-seven par- ishes, five hundred and more priests of the secular and regular clergy and over a million communicants. Few pages in the history of the Catholic Church in any coun- try furnish a more amazing illustration of the growth of the proverbial mustard-seed to a tree of vast and over-shadowing proportions. I N D EX INDEX A. Albrecht, Father Philip, 197 Alexian Brothers' Hospital, 207 Allouez, S. J., Father Claude, 10-11 Amiot, Louis, 27 Annunciation parish, 199 Apgood, Dexter, 46 Arnold, I. K, 186 Aylward, Father M., 211 Badin, Father Stephen T., at Chicago (1830), 31, 32; al- leged visits of 1796 and 1822 to, note, 32-35; land prom- ised by Indians to, 54, 60 ; Bishop Quarter 's Seminary, 116 Bailly, Esther, 97 Baltes, Bishop, 117 Baltimore, Chicago in diocese of, 28 Bardstown, Chicago in diocese of, 28 Barrett, Father Stephen, 201 Beaubien, Alexander, 32, 34, 35, 98 Beaubien, Caroline, 97 Beaubien, Charles H., 62 Beaubien, George, 97 Beaubien, Jean Baptiste, Chi- cago pioneer, ' ' Dean House, ' ' home of, 30; land-claim, 37- 39; signs petition for priest, 45; offers site for first Cath- olic Church, 49, 63; per- forms marriage-ceremony, 98; offers lots for school, 103 Beaubien, Josette Laframboise, wife of J. B. Beaubien, 68, 97, 98 Beaubien, Julia, 32 Beaubien, Mark, Chicago pi- oneer, 39; signs petition for priest, 45 ; St. Cyr guest of, 63; Sauganash Hotel, 87; named in baptismal register, 97 Beaubien, Medard (Madore), 91 Beaubien, Monique, 32 Beaubien, Robert, 98 Beaubiens of Detroit, note, 38 Benedictines, 194-195, 197 Binneteau, S. J., Father, 15-17, 19 Bissell, Governor, 181 Bourassa, Daniel, 39, 99 Bourassa, Leon, 45 Bourbonnois, Francis, 97 Braner (Brennan?), , 99 Breen, Father J., 210-211 Brodeur, J. B., 46 Brotherhoods : Brothers, Alexian, 207 Brothers of the Christian Schools, 209, 217 227 228 INDEX Brothers of the Holy Cross, 212 Brute, Bishop, baptizes in Chi- cago, 26, 104; appointed Bishop of Vincennes, 71-77; writes to Eosati about St. Cyr, 74, 76, 77, 99, 100, 101 ; letters in archives, 75; writes about Chicago in Cincinnati Catholic Telegraph, 81, 83; visitation of Chicago (1838), 103; death, 104; interest in history of Mississippi Val- ley, note, 195 Bulf's Head, 173 Burke, Father T., 183, 191 Butler, Father P. T., 199 Butler, Father Thaddeus J., 183, 184, 185, 186, 192, 222 Caldwell, Billy, Potawatomi Chief, 39, 40, 41, 56, 89, 99 Caton, Dean, 87 Catholic Institute, 181, 182 Cemeteries, Catholic ; first ceme- tery, 107; Calvary, 168 Condamine, Father Matthew, 80 Charlevoix, S. J., Father Fran- gois, 22 Chassut. Jacques, 5 Cheka, Father W., 202 Chevalier, Catherine, 41 Chicago, missionary visitors to, Marquette, 2-9; Allouez, 10; Gravier, 11 ; Membre, Cave- lier de la Salle, Douay, 12; Pinet, 13-20 ; Montigny, Dav- ion, St. Cosme, 14-19 ; Rich- ard, 29-31; Badin, 31-36; Catholic population in 1833, 37; Catholics petition for priest, 45-47; Protestant de- nominations in early, 52; St. Cyr's ministry (1833-37), see St. Cyr, Father ; pioneer schools, 62; described by Brute, 80, 83, 103; Quarter praises citizens of, 109; be- ginnings of Catholic educa- tion in, 112-119; early par- ishes, 119-124; 145-150, 188- 202; first parochial schools, 150-154; orphan-asylum, 154- 157; Mercy Hospital, 158- 160; Jesuit parish, 169-178; Catholic lay-activities, 181, 182 ; Catholic patriotism in Civil War, 183-188 ; sisterhoods, 202-206; asylums and hos- pitals, 206-209 ; Catholic higher education for women, 209-210, for men, 210-218; Fire of 1871, 220-222 Chevalier, Josette, 99 Chevalier, Louis, 45, 99 Chevalier, Pierre, 89 Christian Brothers, 209, 217 Clark, Margaret, 98 Clowry, Father William, 210- 211 Cote, Father Jacob, 198 Council Bluffs, Chicago Potawa- tomi at, 88 Cumberland House, 154 Cummiskey, Father James, 129 D Damen, S. J., Father A., 169- 178, 198, 203-204 Davion, Father, 15, 16, 17 De Andreis, C. M., Father Felix, 78 De Maria, S. J., Father Fran- cis, 111 Deseille, Father, 53 INDEX 229 De Smet, S. J., Father Pierre, 89, 169 Desplat, Bazille, 46 Dillon, C. S. C., Father James, 212 Dillon, Father Matthew, 9, 211 Diversey, Michael, note, 123, 147, 188 Donaghoe, Father Terence J., 203, 204 Douay, Father Anastasius, Recollect, at Chicago (1688), 12 Druyts, S. J., Father John, 173, 175, 176 Du Bourg, Bishop, 78 Duggan, Bishop, appointed to see of Chicago, 180; Cath- olic lay-activities, 181-182 ; Catholics and Civil War, 133- 188; new parishes, 188-202; Catholic sisterhoods and par- ish schools, 202-206; asylums and hospitals, 206-209; high- er education for women, 209- 210; higher education for men, 210-218 ; illness and re- tirement, 218. Dumas, S. J., Father, in vicin- ity of Chicago (1728), 22 Dunne, Father Dennis, 183, 184, 185 Du Pontavice, Father Hippoly- tus, 106 Dupuy, Father E., 77 Durocher, J. B., 46 E Education, Catholic : University University of St. Mary of the Lake, 112-116, 151/210-216 College St. Ignatius College, 217 Academies St. Agatha's, 160, 209 Christian Brothers, 207 Holy Name, 209 St. Joseph's, 210 Sacred Heart, 203, 210 St. Paul's, 209 St. Xavier's, 117-119, 209 Parish Schools, 231 Edwards, Father Thomas, 200 Edwards, Father William, 192 Fink, O. S. B., Bishop, 194, 195 Finlay, John Huston, quoted, 5 Fire of 1871, 220-223 Fischer, Father, 204 Fischer, Father Francis, 107, 127 Fitzmaurice, Father C., 66 Flaget, Bishop, mentions Chi- cago in address to Holy See, p. 28; writes to St. Cyr, 59; character-sketch of Brute, 75 ; consecrates Brute, 77 ; writes about St. Cyr, 79, 80 Foley, Bishop, appointed Ad- ministrator of Chicago, 219 ; installation, 220; Fire of 1871, 220-222 Foote, Peter, 215 Force, C. SS. C., Father, 194 Fortmann, Father Henry, 188 Francheres, Louis, 46 Franciscans, 193 French Catholics, 149-150, 198 G Galena, 67 Galway, Madame, 202 German Catholics, German name in petition of 1833, 46 ; Father B. Schaefer, first Ger- man-speaking priest (q. v.) ; 230 INDEX first German name in St. Mary's register, 98; Father M. Kundig holds services for, 102; efforts of Bishop Quar- ter on behalf of, 120-123, first churches, St. Peter's and St. Joseph's, 123-124; popu- lation in Illinois, note, 124; St. Michael's, 146; St. Fran- cis of Assissi's, 147, 148, 201; new St. Peter's, 148, 192; in Civil War, note, 188; growth of St. Peter's, St. Joseph's, St. Michael's, (192 197; St. Boniface's, 197; orphan asylum, 208 Gillespie, C. S. C., Father Neil, 194, 212 Grogan, Father John, 189 Grogan, Father J. J., 201 Gravier, S. J., Father Jacques, at Chicago (1700), 11 Guarie, 24 H Hailandiere, Bishop de la, 90, 105 Halligan, Father T. J., 200 Hatala, Father Aloysius, 195 Heald, Captain, 44 Hondorf, John, 46 Henui, Bishop, 164 Hibernian Benevolent Emigra- tion Society, 130 Hoey, Father Louis, 149, 210- 211 Hogan, John S. C., 46 Holy Cross, Brothers of the, 212 Holy Cross Fathers, 193-194, 211, 212 Holy Family parish, 169-178 Holy Name parish, see Par- ishes, Chicago Holzer, C. SS. E., Father, 209 Hospitals : Alexian Brothers', 207 Mercy, 158-160 St. Joseph's, 208 House of Providence, 209 Hughes, Bishop, 109, 136 Hubbard, Gurdon S., 28, 32, 33 Hurley, Father, 211 Immaculate Conception parish, 191, 192 Ingoldsby, Father John, 111 Ireland, Archbishop, quoted, note, 69, 117 Irish Brigade, 185, 188 Irish names, petition of 1833, 45; St. Mary's baptismal register, 97 Jaegle, O. S. B., Father Mein- rad, 194 Jesuits, first priests in Chicago, 1-23; Holy Family parish, 169-178; St. Stanislaus (Sa- cred Heart) parish, 198; St. Ignatius College, 217 Joliet, discovers Mississippi, 2 Joiitel, at Chicago (1688), 12 Juneau, Josette Vieau, wife of Solomon Juneau, 68, 97 Juneau, Marguerite, 97 Juneau, Matilda, 98 Jung, Father John 120, 123, 193 Juskiewicz., Father Joseph, 200 K Kaiser, Father Eusebius, 195 Keeney, Father Edward, 191 INDEX 231 Kelly, Father Thomas F., 185, 189, 190 Kenrick, Archbishop, 163, 164 Kilroy, C. S. C., Father C. B., 194, 212 Kinsella, Father Jeremiah, 1.1, 112, 130, 132, 210, 211 Kinzie, Harriet Gwenthlean, 104 Kinzie, John 24 Kinzie ' ' Mansion, ' ' 25 Kinzie, Robert, 26, 98, 104 Kopp, Father Anthony, 147, 193 Kroemer, Father A., 147 Kundig, Father Martin, 102, 120 L La Compte, Madame, 23 Laframboise, Alexis, 45 Laframboise, Claude, 39, 45, 88 Laframboise, Joseph, 39, 45, 56 ; 97 Laframboise (Beaubien), Jos- ette, see Beaubien, Josette L. Lalumiere, Father Simon, 78 Lang, Father A., 197 La Salle, at Chicago (1681), 12 La Salle, Father Cavelier De La, at Chicago (1688), 12 Lebel, Father J. A., 150 Le Mai, Francis, 24, 26 Le Clerc (Claire), Pierre (Pier- ish), note, 39, 45 Levadoux, Father Michael, 29 Leyden, Father Thomas, 199 Liermann, Father, 124 Lincoln, Abraham, alleged Catholicity of, 69, 70 Loisel, Father Regis, 77 Lutz, Father Joseph, 47, 85, 86 Lyons, Father Michael, 200 M Mackiuac, Chicago mentioned in baptismal register of, 27 Magdalen Asylum, 207-208 Mager, C. S. C., Father John B., 194 Mann, John, 45 M a r q u e 1 1 e , S. J., Father James, discovers Missis- sippi, 2; winters at Chicago, 3-9 ; death of, 10 Marquette cross, 5 Marschall, Father J., 197 McDonnell, Charles, 129, 130 McElhearne, Father Michaci, 131, 132, 133 McGirr, Dr., 132. 134 McGorisk, Father Bernard, 112, 127 McGovern, D. D., Father James, 215 McLaughlin, Father P. J., 120 McMahan, Father P., 127 McMullan, Father J. B., 117, 178, 183, 184, 185, 187, 201, 206, 213, 216 Melcher, Very Rev. J., 163 Membre, Father Zenobe, Recol- lect, at Chicago (1681), 12 Menard, Pierre, 58 Mercy Hospital, 158-160 Merritt, Mary A., 135 Miami Indians, at Chicago, 16, 23 Michigan and Illinois Canal, 92, 93 Milwaukee, baptisms by Father B. Schaefer, 98 Miranda, J. B., 45 Monselle, Charles, 46 Montabrique, Father A., de, 198 Month, The, 215 232 INDEX Montigny, Father, letter of, 19 ; at Chicago (1699), 22 Mueller, C. SS. R., Father J., 196 Mulligan, Col. J. A., 185-188 Murphy, Mrs. John, 33, 34 N Nativity parish, 200 Nadeau, Monique, 97 Notre Dame parish, 198 O Oakley, S. J., Father Maurice, 177 O'Brien, Sister Mary Agatha, 117, 129, 157 Ogden, William B., 134 O'Meara, Father Timothy, bap- tizes Kobert Kinzie, 26; first baptism in Chicago, 102 ; Brute and, 103 ; suspended, 106 Onahan, W. J., 181, 182 O'Neill, S. J., Father Andrew, 205 O'Neill, S. J., Brother Thomas, 205 O 'Began, Bishop, early career, 167; appointed Bishop of Chicago, 168 ; organizes new parishes, 190; invites Jesuits to Chicago, 169-175; Holy Family (Jesuit) parish and church, 175-178; resigns see, 179; death, 179 Orphan Asylum, 154-157 Orphan Asylum, German, 208 Ostlangenberg, Father Gaspar H., 120 Ouilmette, Antoine, Chicago pi- oneer, 25, 28, 39, 98 Ouilmette, Elizabeth, 98 Ouilmette (Wilmot), Louis, 89, 98 Ouilmette (Wilmette) Marie, 97 Owen, Thomas J. V., Indian agent at Chicago, 45, 49; Chicago treaty of 1833, 57; Indian land-grant to church, 59 Parishes, Chicago: Annunciation, 199 Holy Family, 169-178 Holy Name, 124, 125, 146, 170 Immaculate Conception, 191, 192 Nativity, 200 Notre Dame, 198 Sacred Heart, 198 St. Anne's, 199 St. Boniface's, 197 St. Bridget's, 189 St. Columbkille's, 191 St. Francis of Assissi 's, 147, 148, 201 St. Henry's, 188 St. James, 190 St. Jarlath's, 201 St. John's, 191 St. John Nepomucene, 201 St. Joseph's, 123, 146, 188, 193-194 St. Louis, 150 St. Mary's, 49-51, 54, 61, 65, 82, 106, 107, 109, 125, 127, 128, 149 St. Michael's, 147, 195-196 St. Paul's, 201 St. Patrick's, 119, 149, 1SS St. Patrick's (South Chica- go), 190 INDEX 233 St. Peter's, 123, 148 St. Stanislaus (Polish), 200 St. Stanislaus (Sacred Heart), 198 St. Stephen's, 201 St. Thomas, 190 St. Thomas the Apostle 's, 199 St. Weneeslaus, 197 Parish Schools: Holy Family, 203, 205 Holy Name, 152, 153, 202, 203, 205 Immaculate Conception, 205 St. Boniface's, 205 St.Columbkille's, 205 St. Francis of Assissi's, 153, 205 St. James, 203 St. Joseph's, 153, 203 St. Louis, 153 St. Mary's, 151, 152, 202, 203 St. Michael's, 153, 203 St. Patrick's, 153, 188, 202, 203 St. Peter's, 153 St. Stanislaus (Sac. Heart), 205 Peltier, Jacquet, 97 Peltier, Jean Baptiste, 26 Perry, N. P., 26 Pettel (Fettle), Louis, 25 Pettelle, Domitille, 27 Pinet, S. J., Father Francois, at Chicago (1696-1700, 12- 20; with the Tamaroa, 20; death, 21 Plathe, Father G. W., 149, 19.3 Platte Purchase, 87 Pointe de Saible, Jean Baptiste, 24 Pointe de Saible, Susanne, 26 Pokegan, Potawatomi chief, 36 Poor Handmaids of Christ, 209 Portage des Sioux, Mo., Bap- tismal register of, 27 Porter, Rev. Jeremiah, Pres- byterian clergyman, 52, 54, 83 Potawatomi Indians, occupy site of Chicago, 23 ; Catholic chiefs, 40; treaty of 1833, 56 ; grant land for church purposes, 60; migrate to West, 86-89 Pothier, Jean, 45 Poulx, J. B., 45 Quarter, Bishop, early career, 108; arrives in Chicago, 109; ordains first priests, 111 ; University of St. Mary of the Lake, 112; University incor- porated, 113 ; Catholic Bishop of Chicago constituted "cor- poration sole ' ', 113 ; new University building opened, 114 ; invites Sisters of Mercy to Chicago, 117 ; makes Vir- gin Mother patroness of di- ocese, 117; organizes new parishes, St. Patrick's, St. Patrick's, St. Joseph's, St. Peter's, Holy Name, 119-124; extracts from Diary, 126- 130; death, 130-132 Quarter, Father Walter, 109, 112, 119, 137, 138 Quebec, Chicago in diocese of, 28 R Railroads, note, 144 Redemptorists, 147, 196 Rabbie, J. B., 45 234 INDEX Reformatory and Industrial School, 207 Keform and Industrial School (Bridgeport), 209 Eeligious of the Sacred .Heart, see Sisterhoods Resurrectionists, 200 Reze (Reze, Rese), Bishop, visits Chicago (1833), 59 Richard, Father Gabriel, at Chicago (1821), 29-31 Riesch, C. SS. R., Father George, 196 Riordan, Msgr. Daniel J., note, 116 Riordan, Father P. W. Rear- don, 117, 183, 222 Robinson, Alexander, Potawa- tomi chief, 40, 41; daugh- ters of, note, 42 ; signs peti- tion for priest, 45; supports Chicago treaty of 1833, 57 Roles, Father Joseph P., 183, 215, 222 Tiosarist's Companion, 129 Rosati, Bishop, jurisdiction in Chicago, 42, 43; sends St. Cyr to Chicago, 47; letters from Father St. Cyr to, 49, 53, 57, 61, C6 ,67, 82, 84, 86, 90, 91, 93, 94 Rothensteiner, Father John, quoted, note, 42 Roux, Father Benedict, 77 St. Cosme, Father, at Chicago, 15; letter of, 15-18 St. Cyr, Father J. M. I., ap- pointed to Chicago mission, 47 ; early career, 48 ; arrives in Chicago, 48 ; letters to Bishop Rosati, 49, 53, 57, 61, (36, 67, 82, 84, 86, 90, 91, 93, 94 ; first Mass in new church, 61; goes to St. Louis (1834), 62; first Mass in Chicago, 63 ; Chicago Catholics peti- tion to retain, 95; baptismal records, 97, death, 99 St. Joseph's hospital, 208 St. Ours, Antoine, 46 Sacred Heart parish, 198 Saeger, Father Anthony, 195 Saver, Dill, 45 Scammon, J. Young, 134 Schaeffer, Father, 193 Schaeffer, Father Bernard, 90, 92, 94, 96, 98, 100, 101, 102 Schulak, S. J., Father F. X., 197 Schneer, O. S. B., Father Lean- der, 194 Schuyler, C. S. C., Father, 194 Schwartz, Abram, 98 Sheahan, James W., 177 Shortis, C. S. C., Father Rich- ard, 212 Sisterhoods : Benedictine Sisters, 203, 210 Franciscan Sisters, 198, 205 Poor Handmaids of Christ, 209 Religious of the Sacred Heart, 174, 202, 203, 206, 210 Sisters of Charity, B. V. M., 203-205 Sisters of Charity of St. Vin- cent, 203, 205, 208, 209 Sisters of the Good Shepherd, 206-207 Sisters of St. Joseph., 216 Sisters of Loretto, 203 Sisters of Mercy, 117-H9, INDEX 235 125, 129, 137, 153, 154, 156, 157, 158-160, 174, 202, 203, 206, 209 Sisters of Notre Dame, 203 Sisters of St. Dominic (Sin- sinawa) 205, 206 Sisters of Mercy, Holy Cross, Loretto, Notre Dame, St. Benedict, St. Dominic, St. Francis, St. Joseph, see Sis- terhoods "Skokie", 14 Smarius, S. J., Father Cor- nelius, 181 Smith, J. Lisle, 134 Smyth, Bishop, 181 Sorin, C. S. C., Eev. Edward Sorin, 211 Springfield, 111., proposed by St. Cyr as headquarters for missionary, 67 St. Louis, party of Father Mon- tigny at, 18; Father Pinet at Eiver Des Peres (St. Louis), 21 ; cathedral registers, 27 ; Chicago in ecclesiastical jur- isdiction of, 42, 43 St. Mary's (Kansas), Chicago Potawatomi at, 88 St. Mary's, St. Patrick's, etc., parishes, etc., see, Parishes, Chicago St. Palais, Father Maurice de, 90, 106, 107, 110, 111, 127, 128, 177 T Tabeaux, J. B., 46 Taylor, Augustine D., 42, 61, 65, 66, 91, 123, 155 Taylor, Anson, 42, 46, 48, 59 Taylor, Charles, 45 Thelen, Brother Bonaventura, 207 Tippecanoe Hall, lo'J Tonty, at Chicago (1681), 12 Tschieder, S. J., Father Peter, 164 Truyens, S. J., Father Charles, 175 Tusch, C. S. C., Father Andrew, 194 V Van der Laar, Father Martin, 191 Van de Velde, Bishop, early early career, 138, 139; ap- pointed Bishop of Chicago, 140, 141; installation, 142; poverty of diocese, 143 ; ex- tracts from Diary, 144 ; paro- chial schools, 150-154 ; founds Orphan Asylum, 154-157 ; Mercy Hospital, 157-160 ; transferred to Natchez, 161- 164; death, note, 165 Van Quickenborne, Father C. F., 69, baptizes Potawatomi from Chicago, 142 Vaughn, Dill, 45 Vaughn, James, 45 Venn, Father C., 197 Vieau, Josette, see Juneau, Josette Vieau Vincennes, diocese of, erected, 71 ; scarcity of priests, 78, 81 W Waldron, Father John, 183, 191 Walsh, Patrick, 45, 98 Ward, Father Patrick, 191 Watkins, Thomas, 83 236 INDEX Weikamp, Father John B., 147, 148 Welsh, John, 97 Whistler, Gwenthalin (Gwenth- lean), 26, 98 Whistler, Capt. John, estab- lishes Fort Dearborn, 26; dies in St. Louis, 43 Whistler, Johne, 44, 97 Whistler, Major William, 26, 44, 46 Wilmot (Ouilmette), Louis, 99 Wimette (Ouilmette), Marie, 97 Wisehmeyer, Henry, 207 Zimmer, O. S. B., Abbot Boni- face, 194 Zimmer, C. SS. E., Father P., 196 Zoegel, Father Joseph, 195 UNIVERSITY OF LUNOI-UJ|IANA 30112046522014