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 GERMANS

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GERMANS

nati, Somerset, Lancaster — and by their untiring zeal awoke religion in the hearts of many who had for years neglected to practise it. One of these itinerant priests was the Rev. John Martin Henni, a name to be known in time as tliat of tlic founder of the first Ger- man ('atlu)lic paper, lirst Hishop of Wi.sconsin, and first Archbisliop of Milwaukee. In 1832, on the death of Bishop l''enwick of Cincinnati, the ailniinislration of the diocese devolved on the zealous missionary priest. Father Edward Reese, who had lalioured so earnestly among his countrymen in tlie diocese and been instrumental in the establishment of the "Leo- poldiiien-Stiftung", an association for aiding missions, at Vienna, whose alms have fostered so many missions and helped substantially towards developing the Catholic school .system, particularly in the Diocese of Cincinnati, and the dioceses formed from it. Dr. Reese was born at Vianenburg, near Hildesheim, in 1791 and, like Pio Nono, had been a cavalry officer before he embraced the priesthood. He was the founder of tlie Athenaeum in Cinciimati, which later was transferred to the Jesuits, and changed into the present St. Xavier College. Holy Trinity, erected in 1834, was the first German church west of the Alle- ghanies. Its second pastor, the Rev. John M. Henni, whom we have already mentioned, displayed untiring energy in founding and organizing schools in Cincin- nati and was actively interested in the development of Catholic educational work throughout the States ; he also formed the German Catholic Orphan Society of St. Aloysius, and an asjdum was soon erected. About this time, log churches arose at Glandorf, Bethlehem, and New Riegel in northern Ohio, sufficient to gather the faithful together, and afforded a place for the instruction of the young. Meanwhile, the Catholic I)opulation of the State increased steadily, and the churclies and institutions were very inadequate. St. Mary's church for the Germans, in Cincinnati, was dedicated in July, 1842; another German church was erected about the same time, at Zanesville, by Rev. H. D. Juncker. As early as 1836, a German congrega- tion was organized at Louisville, Kentucky, by the Rev. Jos. Stahlschmidt; they soon erected St. Boni- face's church, which was dedicated on the feast of All Saints, 1838. This church was attended for a time from Indiana and Ohio by the Rev. Jos. Ferneding and Rev. John M. Henni." In 1842, on 30 October, Bishop Chabrat dedicated St. Mary's church, Coving- ton, Kentucky, a fine brick structure, erected by the German Catholics of that city. When, in 1833, the Rt. Rev. Frederick Reese became Bishop of Detroit, there were labouring in his diocese, among other Ger- man priests, the Redemptorist Fathers Saenderl and Hatscher. In the following year the German church of the Holy Trinity was established. At that time Vincennes was erected into a diocese. Three years later, we find a German congregation in Jasper Coimty, Illinois. The German Catholics around Quincy, Illi- nois, had erected a house for a priest, and as a tem- porary chapel till their church was built. Father Charles Meyer's ministrations in the little log church of St. Andrew, at Belleville, 111., was his first step to a future bishopric. In 1841 a German Catholic church was erected at West Point, Iowa, in the present Dio- cese of Dubuque. At Pittsburg the German Catholics attended St. Patrick's until their increasing numbers made it expedient for them to form a separate congre- gation. They then worshipped in a building previously used as a factory. In 1839, at Bishop Kenrick's sug- gestion, a community of Redemptorists then in Ohio, came and took charge of this mission, and the factory was soon transformed into the church of St. Philo- mena, with a Redemptorist convent attached — the first house of that congregation in the United States. Here, before long, the Rev. John N. Neumann received the habit and began his novitiate, to become in time Bishop of Philadelphia, and die in the odour of sanc-

tity. When, on 3 December, 1S43, Jhe first Bishop of Pittsburg reached that city, he fo',fnd in his district a Catholic poi)uhition estln'.ated ti forty-five thou- sand, 12,1101) being of (iern.an origin.

An attempt at Catholic colonization was made about this time at St. Mary's, Elk County, where Messrs. Matliias Benziger and J. l^schbach, of Baltimore, pur- chased a large tract. Settlers soon gathered from tiermany, who, from the first, were attended by the Redemptorist Fathers, but, though well managed, and encouraged by the hearty approval of the bishop, the town never attained any considerable size. Impor- tant and wide-reaching in its results, not only for the Diocese of Pittsburg, but for the Catholic Church in the United States, was the arrival at Pittsburg, 30 September, 1845, of the Benedictine monk, Dom Boni- face Wimmer. The Rev. Peter Lemcke, a German priest, had been labouring for several years in the mission of Pennsylvania. His life had been a strange and varied one. Born in Mecklenburg, of Lutheran parents, he grew up attached to their sect, trained piously by those who still clung to the great doctrines of Christianity. Drafted into the army, he fought under Bliicher at Waterloo, and afterwards returning to his home, resolved to become a Lutheran minister. To his astonishment and dismay, he foimd the profes- sors to be men who, in their classes, ridiculed everj' religious belief which he had been taught to prize. He was led to study, and a thorough mastery of the works of Luther convinced him that Almighty God never could have chosen such a man to work any good in his Church. He went to Bavaria, where he began to study Catholic doctrines, and was received into the Church by Bishop Sailer. Having resolved to become a priest, he went through a course of study and was ordained. Coming to America in 1834, he was sent, in time, as assistant to Father Gallitzin, and laboured in the missions of Western Pennsylvania. As early as 1835, he appealed, in the Catholic papers of Ger- many, to the Benedictines to come to the United States. He returned to Europe in 1844, mainly to obtain German priests for the missions of the Diocese of Pittsburg. At Munich he met Dom Boniface Wimmer, a Benedictine monk of the ancient Abbey of Metten, in Bavaria, a religious whose thoughts had al- ready turned to the American mission. Father Lemcke offered him a farm of 400 acres which he owned at CarroUtown, Maryland. Correspondence with Bishop O'Connor followed. Dom Boniface could not secure any priests of his order, but he obtained four students and fourteen lay brothers. Their project was liber- ally aided by the Ludwig-Verein, the Prince-Bishop of Munich, the Bishop of Linz, and others. After con- ducting his colony to CarroUtown, Father Wimmer paid his respects to Bishop O'Connor. That prelate urged him to accept the estate at St. Vincent's which Father Brouwers had left to the Chiu'ch in the preced- ing century, rather than establish his monastery at CarroUtown. Visiting St. Vincent's with the bishop, Dom Boniface foimd there a brick church with a two- story brick house which, though built for a pastoral residence, had been an academy of Sisters of Mercy. He decided in favour of the bishop's suggestion, and, 19 October, 1846, the first community of Benedictine monks was organized in the schoolhouse at St. Vin- cent's. Father Wimmer took charge of the neighbour- ing congregation, and was soon attending several sta- tions. His students were gradually ordained, and in a few years St. Vincent's was declared by the Holy See an independent priorj', and was duly incorporated 10 May, 18.')3. Prior Wimmer .showed great ability and zeal, and from the outset confined his labours as much as possible to German congregations.

Already, before 1850, the Rev. John E. Paulhuber and other Jesuit Fathers from Georgetown had been in charge of St. Mary's church at Richmond, Virginia, erected for Germans, of whom there were seven or