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THE FATHER 
 OF 
 THE CHURCH IN TENNESSEE 
 
Nihil @Obstat - 
 Fr. Franciscus D. McSuHane, O.P., S.T.Lz. 
 Fr. Enyuarpus C. Daty, O.P., S.T.Lnz. 
 
 Imprimatur : 
 Fr. Raymunpbus Meacuer, O.P., S.T.Lr. 
 Prior Provincialis. 
 Imprimatur : 
 Ré™vs MicHaet J. CuRLEY, 
 Archiepiscopus Baltimorensis, 
 Baltimorae, die Aprilis 11, 1926. 
 
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 FATHER OF THE CHURC 
 IN TENNESSEE 
 
 OR THE LIFE, TIMES, AND CHARACTER OF 
 
 THE RIGHT REVEREND 
 
 RICHARD PIUS MILES, O. P. 
 
 THE FIRST BISHOP OF NASHVILLE 
 
 By 
 |/ THE VERY REVEREND 
 V. F. ODANIEL, O.P., 8S.T.M., Litt.D. 
 
 THE DOMINICANA 
 487 MicHI1GAN AvENUE, N. E. 
 WaASHINGTON, D. C. 
 
 For sale by 
 
 FREDERICK PUSTET CO. (Inc.) 
 NEW YORK CINCINNATI 
 52 BARCLAY STREET 436 MAIN STREET 
 
Baus Deo Patri, et HFiliv 
 
 et Spiritut Sancto 
 
 PRESS OF 
 SAINT Mary’s INDUSTRIAL SCHOOL 
 1926 
 
TO THE MEMORY OF THE 
 FOUNDERS OF SAINT JOSEPH’S PROVINCE 
 OF FRIARS PREACHER 
 BISHOP MILES COMPANIONS IN STUDY 
 AND 
 THE EARLY PRIESTS OF OHIO, KENTUCKY, AND 
 TEN NESSEE 
 BOTH SECULAR AND REGULAR 
 
 THIS VOLUME IS AFFECTIONATELY DEDICATED 
 

 
 
 
 ay q : 
 
 wis 
 2 abe 
 ie Tm 
 
 
 
 
 
CHAPTER 
 
 CONTENTS 
 
 PAGE 
 E ORE WORT ME. saat irate Ae ree eee reales xi 
 BInTHPeLACH ANDILAREN TAGE sitieireet.cicse ls eed eenans 1 
 Kentucky anp His BovHoop THERB.............0..00sc00es 23 
 CFOESETO AMAIN TIGECOSE: Sestecce case eh ore entrant. 51 
 Dons THE HasirT oF SAINT DOMINIC............cecceeee sees 75 
 Re.icious Proression, STUDENT, PROFESSOR............ 91 
 END OF STUDENT Days, ORDINATION.......ccccscceesscoeees 121 
 HART YUL RIESTHOOD ote eerie reece sce ed 141 
 Last Years UNDER FATHER WILSON........0...ceeeecceeeee 163 
 Four Years UNDER FATHER TUITE... ..cccccccsseccceeees 187 
 INETSSIONAR VAIN # GELIO see fe cartes seu cee rere ret ne eae 211 
 PRIOR SE ROVIN OLAL DISH OP ste saa secs aes eee 23} 
 HPA Fe Vee LEE NT ARES ET eee, seach ce teaak Gy hee oe eh ran eer We 263 
 First CaTHoLic CHURCH IN TENNESSEB........c0sccceeee 294 
 PAK ES UP OSSESSION | OF SHEL IS BOER. .c2:0. 8s hs sporeacccthacesh eae 315 
 JOURNEY ABROAD AND CONTINUED LABOR..........00008 341 
 RIGHT ERMOUTL OOR 7. ttre belt pions ines cautael eee 371 
 TEOSSESGAND.« GAINS ec i oieieie hese des ener Ue sss heel ctau a ahaa neh d 393 
 PROGRESSIO LOWS LDU LT Oo TEAD acc iit attr ecco sues 419 
 TEATRO RUE CHROWICE oor eacete cet test cere ree oe tae herein aen tetese 444s 
 RESUME—PERSONS AND PLACES........ccsccsscsccecceecenscesees ATT 
 WARIOUS APOSTOLIC, IL FFORTSsscsyis2stesvectscetbrcitroaisecsess 508 
 THe CrRowNING oF A WELL-SPENT LIFBE..........00..0000 522 
 PLPREN TD IRVRED CE tate ceca cte teats Pheer dat Mca oe eteeD ras Snead Weare 560 
 PACE BIEN DUS WL eee ane ORE he LE LE. cu val ah ny 575 
 BIBTIOGR ARE VER cere elke sc eens cucalesicemecciehecesfioveb es 576 
 LD XU en Ne tes rete nv attnae venture 583 
 
 Vil 
 

 
Ta ise BCA ea ss 
 
 Paar 
 toe ignitelcy sr iGhArd nr wyilles, O), Pita, .detvtsieccsese sss Frontispiece 
 PGmIgitarey werd ward > WemwiCks Oy, be occenccct pesccceregh este ses 83 
 Saint Rose’s Priory and Saint Thomas’ College..................., ae 
 MceVeTVORcy -oAllucl: LeaWilson, .b., sabe cdercesohencr est 185 
 Poe sC eV Lilcs me AU ALN. Ue uy ae. Meets eleetcac cad iesoteerctersale fender Eoneer tl ces 261 
 AvemeLL ey mio LO eti My Lem LALIT hss. oesnscse sh sttre net nat oereaekek are eee ants 314 
 Pac me IUCVaMm CODE Tiam mht DELL tuncsussccc;cttcty ates cuebcse-hevtsetalerstaeeees 314 
 em y MECMISI Ame OULD ev esscvenssreetescveast sh staccstsa tye neaerereredsa. 314 
 ame UPR OUTED LIME AD TILE ess sts secrers cys osredecceties sess tasot eter ences 314 
 Bishop Miles at the time of his Consecration.....................0+ 326 
 PatucopArrellee NASHVILLE SaHirst AAT BOY sssete.ccsegsscdh tessseeesedet ste: 326 
 Ploterosary GaAtnedrals NASD VILE). 7... pcedeenscsaspst ies -sesstnnneatonca ts 326 
 Teme CV PeMeVLICNACLE IVE CALCOT ese) sc teecicet heres case tocse in ve vaph anette decoys 390 
 eeBIUCY i) dines Wi Ely LAT KSON EOL tesccestteecengerscare decisions finn tyes 390 
 hem birst: CatholicnGnurch ati M empiissy...tsysessey-sesscesersedsecs ste 390 
 A eMIE Vem LV ORS COACH Laat sie tetcsicr ycuubsthatee ter sree gauveatese dee neae vce 4.02 
 SPL GY OMeYV ILI AIUMaEL OWE Crtins sassohvivauxes ss acsesas tesgiesseesnentovetetaboterits 402 
 Immaculate Conception Church, Clarksville... eeeeees 402 
 (ihesoeven, Dolors\ Cathedral, Nashville...ci tis. aiid ecsccescnee 426 
 RE MmLveY in) OSC DILG Sa, a DSICTOANIS a idcstseokaansessigsteflnvgiie toes teeecs Sa cote ee 473 
 CiemivcyreNiIcnOlasi itv ONO, P io... 0c ec Wivscetie sexsgsubsaccedy sn A738 
 iiiaciiiatce conception Church, | Knoxville: scvssatiscssites cee setses see 473 
 Seite y LOUD eV ned ACK UCL its ceets tie ractcastserconcsy ester cces (asuaels dontiversacs 499 
 Beemer ee LeCTIVY BV INCE DESO LOW Tic iceciatactcs tues tesco cveve-rracoss teed cea 499 ° 
 Saints Peter and Paul’s Church, Chattanooga..................008 499 
 item ueveen) ONMmrts LEAT VEO), Deas tans. ce ascnasedrttibestneetiverdeceapests cases 505 
 Rem LU even) OUIIEA MUD OKELIRO) Li. terccas, tracceeashttet tyes secs cassicceececacsaies 505 
 Weer ittcuietitS te CA CHOC? I CCLOLVs..tevssscarcceeiitessecetaceseistrtaeeses senna te 505 
 ieav ervettevesamuciiilin Montgomery, O:PoV.G.2...7,.:.0.0- 515 
 Maem eens AMeS UN suCT ETO, CO). Lists. c sdvates acts csasshssanpnasnessdetantauts ccs 515 
 aie ise WemerOUne tiem layTiClign Oc ks sarsskek costes cis iedceareees te edie vencdtsAtss aes nese 515 
 
 ix 
 
ILLUSTRATIONS 
 
 Paas 
 LEV ir) SNUATIUS | SVLTeo LL) ATCOsm Clee cctei spss cstraes tence tense meee 515 
 New poaintar éter sy Conech. geen pills, accra. ese 534 
 Bev anthony ei erane ois (), eceae eee eee: Seen a eee 548 
 Reve anes ey Gaal vie G); er ereneues tae tracy eevee ever tete eee een 548 
 Rtey arte DMeT ews V files lobar aqiien iy vii e seer ae eine et eee 548 
 TGV ie OL Teli N CALISe 2 OC). Diiveceme ciara harcate ean aey eee 548 
 Most= Rey, Joseph: se Alemany,. OQ. P22 tivecce. eceses eee 559 
 Woosterewn | homas ie GracesOi eee we eee 559 
 Hight) Rev eRichard Poo Miles, 4O7P ise ree ecterneee 559 
 
 Richt sRev.. 4) ames Whelan. @i Paneer eee 559 
 
FOREWORD. 
 
 Only a specialist can fully realize the toil, research, 
 and patience involved in an effort to write a thorough 
 and accurate work in so untouched a field as that with 
 which, the present volume deals. Yet, it does not seem 
 too much for belief, a casual glance at a few of its 
 chapters, its voluminous footnotes, and its bibhography 
 will give even a careless reader some idea of the endless 
 labor, time, delving, and study, as well as the painstak- 
 ing care, devoted to its execution. ‘The difficulty of the 
 task was rendered all the greater by numberless errors 
 discovered in the few meager accounts written at an 
 earlier date, and the fact that much of our information 
 on the Church in Tennessee, Bishop Miles, and his early 
 entourage is largely derived from tradition. 
 
 Serious students, we venture to be assured, can hardly 
 fail to note the faithful, constant effort to make the 
 biography of the Father of the Church in Tennessee 
 complete and reliable in every detail. No stone was 
 left unturned in order to place the narrative on a bed- 
 rock foundation, drawing the life-story of the Friar- 
 Preacher prelate, in so far as might be, from only first- 
 hand sources. ‘The footnotes and quotations, let us 
 hope, will bring the conviction that in but few instances 
 did these researches fall short of their purpose. Sim- 
 ilarly, ever and always, were the venerable traditions, 
 whilst accorded the highest regard, thoroughly sifted 
 and examined in the light of every available document. 
 This, too, may be seen in many parts of the book. 
 
 X1 
 
xii FOREWORD 
 
 Nothing was taken for granted. Even graveyards 
 were visited in the hope that the tombstones might 
 yield, as they sometimes did, desired dates and data. 
 
 Because of Bishop Miles’ early, long, and fruitful 
 associations with Saint Joseph’s Province of Friars 
 Preacher and the Church of Ohio, no less than that 
 of Kentucky, the story of his life is inseparable 
 from these institutions. In like manner, his birth in 
 Maryland, together with his honorable ancestry there 
 and the part which that colony played in the youthful 
 Catholicity of the United States, seemed to call for an 
 outline of the history of Lord Baltimore’s former pa- 
 latinate as a proper historical setting for the volume. 
 To all these subjects the same careful research was given 
 as to the life of the bishop himself and to the history 
 of the Church in Tennessee. 
 
 Doubtless general readers will constitute the greater 
 number of those into whose hands the book will fall. 
 For this reason, our constant effort was to write the 
 text in a popular style, but without departing from the 
 historical method. Few works of its kind are so pro- 
 fusely illustrated. Indeed, no effort was spared to pro- 
 cure pictures of the churches and priests of Tennessee 
 in Bishop Miles’ time. The copious footnotes and 
 references are principally intended for the student and 
 historian, that they may see at a glance the sources 
 from which the story is drawn. 
 
 Sometimes, though happily not often, what we 
 candidly believed to be the best interest of historic truth 
 obliged us to take friendly issue with previous writers, 
 and even to indulge in a little criticism of those who 
 were unfair to the subject of our narrative and his co- 
 laborers. However, few are the historians who are not 
 
FOREWORD Xili 
 
 obliged to confront some such unpleasant experiences. 
 In all these instances we have sought to lay the plain 
 facts before the reader, and to give due credit to the 
 other side, if there was another side, that thus neither 
 truth nor charity should be infringed. For the same 
 purpose, the documents and their interpretation were 
 always submitted to others that, if needs there should 
 be, we might correct our views, as well as otherwise 
 better the book by the judgment of different minds. 
 
 This scrupulous care not to deviate from historic 
 truth or the square deal emboldens us to hope that the 
 volume will receive from the public and reviewers a rec- 
 ognition like unto the generous measure of praise which 
 was accorded its predecessors in the same field. It will 
 offer the historian a fund of information on our Amer- 
 ican Church which has never appeared in print before. 
 The charm of Bishop Miles’ character, we doubt not, 
 will combine with his deeply religious nature, spirit of 
 self-sacrifice, untiring zeal, and ceaseless labors in the 
 cause of religion to arouse the interest of readers in 
 his life-story, no less than to win their hearts, give them 
 great edification, and prove a source of good for their 
 souls. 
 
 Perhaps a Catholic writer in the United States could 
 not, at this time, better employ his pen than in rescuing 
 our early heroes and heroines of the faith from the 
 oblivion with which not a few of them are threatened. 
 Their memories should be preserved and treasured, as 
 well for the sake of religion as for the inspiration of 
 future generations; and the only way of effecting this 
 is by the written story of their lives. Gratitude de- 
 mands that much of us. Despite his long, faithful, 
 and fruitful toils for God and for souls, outside his own 
 
xiv FOREWORD 
 
 diocese and the order to which he belonged, 'Tennessee’s 
 great first bishop was all but forgotten in a country 
 where his name should be a symbol of love, a token of 
 honor, and a pledge of fidelity. If this volume but 
 save for him the place which he deserves in our eccle- 
 siastical annals, the labor of writing it will not have 
 been expended in vain. Besides, as in the State, so 
 in the Church her history is largely what it has been 
 made by her noble men and women. Without them 
 the narrative of her centuries would be dull beyond 
 expression. 
 
 We take advantage of this foreword to express our 
 gratitude to all those who have, in various ways, aided 
 with the book. Perhaps special mention is due to the 
 Rev. Lucian C. Mercier, of the Third Order of Saint 
 Dominic, who has labored for many years in the ar- 
 chives of Europe, both large and small. During the 
 past decade and more, he has discovered, copied, and 
 sent to us many documents that were invaluable for 
 our work. When this biography was commenced, he 
 sought to obtain permission to continue the researches 
 which we had made in the Propaganda Archives down 
 to 1830 (the term set for us by the sacred congregation) , 
 in order to give it the benefit of the bishop’s letters to 
 Rome and other documents relating to the Diocese of 
 Nashville; but the cardinal prefect did not feel disposed 
 to set aside the rule which closes the archives to investi- 
 gation after that date. However, Father Mercier 
 secured copies of a few such documents which were of 
 service in the cause. 
 
 Victor F. O’Daniet, O.P. 
 
 THE DomMINICAN House or STUDIES, 
 CATHOLIC UNIVERSITY OF AMERICA, 
 WasHINcToNn, D.C., May 5, 1926. 
 
The Father of the Church in Tennessee 
 
 CHAPTER I 
 BIRTHPLACE AND PARENTAGE 
 
 Tue Colony of Maryland must ever occupy a con- 
 spicuous place in the history of the Catholic Church 
 and the Order of Saint Dominic in the United States. 
 Its beginnings form one of the brightest chapters in 
 our national annals. It was in the former Baltimore 
 Palatinate that the Church first took root in English- 
 speaking America. There also were born the saintly 
 founder of the Dominican Order in our great republic, 
 the Right Rev. Edward Dominic Fenwick, and five 
 out of the first six recruits to the province of Friars 
 Preacher that he established. The colony was formed 
 under Catholic auspices, and begun by contributions 
 mainly from Catholic sources. So was it dominated 
 by Catholic ideas, whilst its first settlers were largely 
 if not principally Catholics.’ 
 
 Perhaps none of the early English colonies were so 
 elite in their personnel as was that of Lord Baltimore. 
 Certainly none of them were founded on such broad 
 principles of freedom and Christian charity. Mary- 
 
 1 Whether Catholics or non-Catholics were the more numerous part 
 of the original colonists in Maryland has been, and still is, a much 
 debated question. Suffice it here to say that, in the opinion of the 
 
 writer, those who hold that Catholics were in the majority for some 
 years have the better part of the argument. 
 
 Z ] 
 
2 THE FATHER OF THE CHURCH IN TENNESSEE 
 
 land’s very corner-stone was liberty of conscience. She 
 gave the modern world its first example of unrestricted 
 religious toleration—a principle that afterwards happi- 
 ly became a keystone in our American civilization. 
 Others had dreamed of such a civic state; but Cecilius 
 Calvert, the father and founder of Maryland, was the 
 first to reduce it to practice either in the Old World or 
 in the New. 
 
 Another dominant idea that the second Lord Balti- 
 more inherited from his father, George Calvert, was to 
 make his American palatinate a refuge and a home for 
 all who were persecuted for conscience’ sake.” The 
 dream of his life, there seems no room for doubt, was to 
 convert it into a land of sanctuary in which his fellow 
 Catholics of England could find and enjoy the hap- 
 piness of worshipping God in accordance with the dic- 
 tates of their consciences in freedom and safety. Nat- 
 urally he felt a special compassion for those of his own 
 faith, because the hardships imposed on them in the 
 home country were oppressive beyond measure. How- 
 ever much we who have Anglo-Saxon blood in our veins 
 may dislike to admit it, from the time of Henry VIII 
 until well within the eighteenth century, with the ex- 
 ception of the short reign of Queen Mary, the perse- 
 cution of Catholics in England rendered the lives of 
 those who remained true to the old faith in that once 
 happy country not unlike the lives of the Christians in 
 the early ages of the Church. 
 
 2George Calvert, the first Lord Baltimore, had essayed to establish 
 a similar colony in Newfoundland, which he called Avalon; but he 
 failed in the attempt, largely on account of the cold climate. He then 
 obtained a patent for one in Maryland. He died, however, before he 
 
 could put his design into execution. His son Cecilius fell heir to his 
 rights. 
 
BIRTHPLACE AND PARENTAGE 3 
 
 Baltimore was not only too broad of mind but also too 
 good of heart to confine his philanthropic enterprise to 
 those of his own creed. He knew well that the most 
 relentless and unmerciful of all tyranny is that of relig- 
 ious bigotry. He wished therefore to extend a protect- 
 ing hand to any and every one who suffered under its 
 oppression, irrespective of faith, race, or country. 
 Doubtless he wished also to prove to the world that 
 Catholics and Protestants could live together in peace, 
 harmony, and happiness. The necessity of such an ac- 
 cord for the success of his undertaking in the wilds of 
 America is the keynote of the instructions that he gave 
 his brother, Governor Leonard Calvert, for the manage- 
 ment of the colony. 
 
 As Bishop Russell correctly states: “It can now be 
 asserted without question that to Maryland belongs 
 the credit of having been the first government in the 
 world in modern times to successfully establish religious 
 freedom.” * Our unbiased non-Catholic historians give 
 the same conclusion. Nor was the wisdom of the lord 
 proprietary’s plan slow to manifest itself. Indeed, 
 largely owing to it, the Maryland Palatinate enjoyed 
 prosperity and happiness from the start, while hard- 
 ships and distress were commonly the lot of the other 
 English settlements in the present United States. 
 George Bancroft but tells the plain truth when he says: 
 
 No sufferings were endured; no fears of want were excited; 
 the foundation of the colony of Maryland was peacefully and 
 happily laid. Within six months, it had advanced more than 
 Virginia had done in as many years. The proprietary continued 
 with great liberality to provide everything that was necessary for 
 
 3See The Calvert Papers: Number One (Fund-Publication, No. 28, 
 
 pp. 127 ff). The first item in the instructions concerns this point. 
 4 Maryland; The Land of Sanctuary, p. 276 
 
4 THE FATHER OF THE CHURCH IN TENNESSEE 
 
 its comfort and protection, and spared no costs to promote its in- 
 terests. ... But far more memorable was the character of the 
 Maryland institutions. Every other country in the world had perse- 
 cuting laws; through the benign administration of the government 
 of that province, no person professing to believe in Jesus Christ 
 was permitted to be molested on account of religion.” Under the 
 munificence and superintending mildness of Baltimore, the dreary 
 wilderness was soon quickened with the swarming life and activ- 
 ity of prosperous settlements; the Roman Catholics who were op- 
 pressed by the laws of England, were sure to find a peaceful asy- 
 lum in the quiet harbors of the Chesapeake; and there, too, 
 Protestants were sheltered against Protestant intolerance. . . .® 
 
 The colonists enjoyed freedom of conscience, not less than 
 freedom of person and estate, as amply as ever any people in any 
 place of the world. The disfranchised friends of prelacy [ Epis- 
 copalians| from Massachusetts, and the Puritans from Virginia, 
 were welcomed to equal liberty of conscience and political rights 
 in the Roman Catholic province of Maryland.’ 
 
 William Hand Browne, discussing Calvert’s instruc- 
 tions for the government of his palatinate, declares that 
 “equal justice and Christian charity to both Catholic 
 and Protestant was the keynote of his rule.”* In like 
 manner, David Ramsay tells us: ‘““Mankind then beheld 
 a new scene on the theatre of English America. They 
 saw, in Massachusetts, the Puritans abridging the rights 
 
 °*The words “no person professing to believe in Jesus Christ” refer 
 to “An Act Concerning Religion” passed by the Maryland assembly of 
 1649 (Maryland Archives, I, 244-247). The exclusion of tolerance from 
 the Jew and unbeliever, as expressed in this clause, was not in accord- 
 ance with the spirit and plan of Lord Baltimore. The “Act of 1649,” 
 so highly praised by some writers as a legislation in favor of religious 
 liberty, was in reality a notable narrowing of the broader tolerance that 
 had prevailed in the colony until that time, and must evidently be 
 attributed to the Puritan influence that had begun to make itself felt. 
 
 6 History of the United States (twenty-fourth edition), I, 247-248, 
 
 7 Ibid., p. 257. In the same place, speaking of the beginnings of Mary- 
 land, Bancroft says: “Its history is the history of benevolence, gratitude, 
 and toleration. Everything breathed peace but Clayborne.” 
 
 8 George Calvert and Cecilius Calvert, Barons of Baltimore, p. 57. 
 
BIRTHPLACE AND PARENTAGE 5 
 
 of various sects; and the Church of England in Virgin- 
 ia, actuated by the same spirit, harassing those who 
 dissented from them in religion while the Roman Catho- 
 les of Maryland tolerated and protected the professors 
 of all denominations.” 
 
 Hardly indeed had the Maryland pioneers begun to 
 reap the fruit of their adventure when Baltimore invited 
 the persecuted Puritans in Virginia and the more sorely 
 tried Episcopalians in Massachusetts to his colony. 
 Calvert, however, was in advance of his age. Perhaps 
 the initial success of the palatinate gave him too im- 
 plicit a trust in human nature. At any rate, in view 
 of its results, this invitation seems an error, or at least 
 premature. Until then, with the exception of the diffi- 
 culty with William Claiborne and occasional threats 
 from the Indians, which were perhaps inspired by that 
 gentleman, there prevailed a happiness and harmony 
 unusual in pioneer colonies. 
 
 Trouble and even persecution all too quickly followed 
 the advent of the newcomers from Virginia and Mass- 
 achusetts. They soon forgot the charity, good-will, and 
 hospitality that had been shown them. In their former 
 homes they had been the persecuted; in their new abode, 
 overlooking the gratitude they owed the founders of 
 Maryland, they became persecutors, in accordance as 
 they gained the ascendency—first the Puritans, and 
 then the Episcopalians. Under the rule of both the 
 Catholics bore the brunt of the intolerance. Their 
 treatment forms an unpleasant subject to write about 
 at this day. Yet it is well for us to dwell on it, for it 
 shows the baneful effects of rampant religious prej- 
 udice. 
 
 9 History of the United States, I, 116. 
 
6 THE FATHER OF THE CHURCH IN TENNESSEE 
 
 The consequences of such a spirit may be seen in the 
 insurrection incited by Richard Ingle in 1645; in the 
 reduction of the province by Claiborne, Richard Bennet, 
 and others in 1652: in the deposition of Governor Wil- 
 liam Stone in 1654; in all the subsequent train of mis- 
 chievous events that ended in the replacement of the 
 liberal policy of the first Baltimores by one of a religious 
 intolerance little less oppressive than that which had 
 preceded it in the mother-country. In a word, one of 
 the brightest chapters in our civic history was succeeded 
 by another that brings a blush to every American of 
 true blood. 
 
 It required all the adroitness and ability of Cecilius 
 Calvert, together with the power and influence of his 
 friends in England, to prevent his charter from being 
 annulled. Under his son and successor, Charles Cal- 
 vert, it was actually vacated. Indeed, the Maryland 
 assembly sought to have the third Lord Baltimore de- 
 prived of even his proprietary rights. The mother- 
 country, however, declined to sanction such a gross in- 
 justice towards one whose father had done so much for 
 the province. Benedict Calvert, the profligate son of 
 Charles, apostatized from the faith for no other purpose 
 than that of regaining the Maryland charter; but he 
 survived his father only a few weeks. Charles Calvert 
 II, son of Benedict, then became the fifth Lord Balti- 
 more. He had followed his father in the change of re- 
 ligion, and as a consequence the charter was restored 
 to him in its original terms, with the hearty approbation 
 of the Maryland assembly. It was a sad change both 
 for the welfare of the colony and for the happiness of its 
 people. 
 
 In spite of the spirit of opposition that began to man- 
 
BIRTHPLACE AND PARENTAGE é 
 
 ifest itself soon after the advent of colonists from Vir- 
 ginia and Massachusetts, and grew as their numbers 
 increased, Maryland long enjoyed the reputation 
 abroad of being a province with religious tolerance. In 
 fact, it is not unlikely that many believed that those of 
 the old faith still constituted the greater part of its 
 population. For this reason, Catholic immigrants con- 
 tinued to seek homes there. Ireland and Scotland con- 
 tributed their quotas as well as England.” 
 
 Doubtless among those who came to the colony under 
 such an impression were some of the progenitors of the 
 subject of this sketch. The exact date when the first 
 Miles arrived perhaps could not now be determined. 
 Still it is beyond question that they were in the palati- 
 nate not many years after its foundation. Tamily tra- 
 dition, which seems to be borne out by documents, tells 
 us that Bishop Miles’ first American forbear was among 
 the early Maryland colonists; that he was English; 
 that he was a Catholic; and that he made his home in 
 Saint Mary’s County. 
 
 It is certain that settlers of this family name, though 
 apparently not numerous, were widely scattered 
 through Maryland. By 1725 we find them in Somerset, 
 Dorchester, Talbot, Calvert, Kent, Anne Arundel, Bal- 
 timore, Saint Mary’s, and Charles counties. The earli- 
 est record in which we have discovered the name is that 
 of the court of January, 1645, noting a credit of four 
 hundred and fifty pounds of tobacco to Robert Miles 
 which were received in 1643; but it does not state in 
 
 10 No doubt the reason that Catholics did not come to Maryland in 
 greater numbers than they actually did, after the first years of the 
 establishment of the colony, was their opposition to taking the oath of 
 
 allegiance and supremacy, which was required by law before they would 
 be allowed to sail. 
 
8 THE FATHER OF THE CHURCH IN TENNESSEE 
 
 what part of the colony he lived.“ The second is a de- 
 mand of Nicholas Miles for a survey of land, in behalf 
 of himself and his sons John and Peter, “‘on the condi- 
 tions of the plantation.” This was in November, 1651, 
 and indicates that they had been in the province for 
 some years.” 
 
 Circumstances, for he settled on Britton’s Bay, in 
 Saint Mary’s County, family traditions, and the hand- 
 ing down of the first name lead us to believe that this 
 Nicholas Miles was the progenitor of Tennessee’s first 
 bishop. Most lkely the John Miles who married 
 Mary Beckwith, granddaughter of Nicholas Harvey, 
 an intimate friend of Cecilius Calvert and a passenger 
 on the Ark or the Dove, was the son in whose name 
 the early colonist demanded a grant of land.” 
 
 Several individuals by the name of Miles must have 
 arrived in Maryland shortly after those just mentioned. 
 John Miles of Dorchester County is the only one of 
 these whose location is designated. Francis Miles, to- 
 gether with his wife (Catherine) and their children 
 James, John, Catherine, and Priscilla, was brought 
 or sent over by “His Excellency Charles Calvert’ 
 himself, the son of the palatinate’s founder and its sec- 
 ond proprietary. They settled in Saint Mary’s County, 
 where “Miles Meadow” was surveyed for them in 1664, 
 which would indicate that they had come to America 
 sometime before.“ 
 
 11 Maryland Archives, IV, 296. We follow the new style of dating. 
 Tobacco, it will be remembered, was then used as currency in Maryland. 
 
 12 Karly Settlers, Liber A.B.H., p. 233 (Land Office, Annapolis). 
 
 13 Early Settlers (Liber Q, p. 416) and Inventories and Accounts CEVS 
 179) show this Miles-Beckwith marriage (Land Office, Annapolis). 
 
 14 Karly Settlers, XVII, 531 (ibid.) ; Ricuarnson, Sidelights on Mary- 
 
 land History, 1, 289. There are a number of errors in the present 
 index to Early Settlers at Annapolis. 
 
BIRTHPLACE AND PARENTAGE 9 
 
 The records also show a Thomas Miles in the colony 
 in 1657. ‘They do not tell where he lived; but in 1669 
 we find a person of the same name in Anne Arundel 
 County. One Tobias Miles of Calvert County was in- 
 dicted by the provincial court of April, 1672, because 
 his dog had bitten Sarah Carr the previous May;” 
 whilst the earliest will we have found by one bearing 
 this patronymic is that of a Tobias Miles, in Anne 
 Arundel County. It is dated August 16, 1691, and was 
 probated on March 16, 1692. He had a considerable 
 landed estate. A part of it, called “Brantry” (that is, 
 Bantry), was left to his younger son, then under eigh- 
 teen years of age, who bore the same name as his fa- 
 ther.” Again a “Tobias Miles, son of Tobias Miles,” 
 is remembered in the will (probated on February 16, 
 1666) of Nicholas Hammond of Calvert County.” If 
 these people belonged to the same family, as they prob- 
 ably did, it would seem from the names Carr and 
 Bantry that they were of Irish origin, or had Irish con- 
 nections. ‘Tobias would be a rather singular baptismal 
 name for a Catholic, whilst there is something of a 
 tradition to the effect that the Miles in Calvert and 
 Anne Arundel counties were Quakers. 
 
 A will of Henry Miles of Somerset County (dated 
 March 18, 1696, and probated February 20, 1697,) 
 shows that he was a fairly well-to-do planter. One 
 William Miles, a sailor or ship carpenter living in Kent 
 County in 1697, seems really to have belonged to Som- 
 
 15 Maryland Archives, (in the order recorded above) X, 534; II, 228; 
 XXXIX, 676. 
 16 Batpwin, Maryland Calendar of Wills, IV, 236. 
 
 Role 135. 
 18 Jbid., II, 126. 
 
10 THE FATHER OF THE CHURCH IN TENNESSEE 
 
 erset County.” Most likely he was a relation of Henry. 
 We have discovered no suggestion regarding the reli- 
 gion of these people. It is noteworthy, however, that 
 there were then, as there are now, few Catholics in that 
 part of Maryland. 
 
 Miles River, in Talbot County, was known by that 
 name before 1675. So do we find a noted plantation in 
 the same county called “Miles End” prior to 1700. 
 Doubtless they got their names from some early colon- 
 ists of that patronymic who had attained no little in- 
 fluence in the province. 
 
 Saint Mary’s County, the first established in the col- 
 ony, was always strongly Catholic, and the Miles there 
 seem certainly to have been of the same faith as the 
 greater number of their neighbors. Although they had 
 evidently been in the county for many years, the earliest 
 will we have found in its records by one of the name is 
 that of John Miles. It bears the date of February 20, 
 1697, and was probated on March 16, 1697. He left 
 six children—J ames, John, Nicholas, Henry, Edward, 
 and a daughter whose name is not given. James was 
 the eldest, for he was bequeathed the “home plantation.” 
 The remainder of the estate was equally divided among 
 his four brothers and sister. The fact that ao mention 
 is made of the wife in the will indicates that John Miles 
 was a widower at the time of his death; while the ap- 
 pointment of his son John as the guardian of some of 
 his brothers and his sister until they should attain their 
 majority shows that the children were still largely 
 minors.” 
 
 19 Maryland Archives, XXV;. 599; BALDWIN, op. cit., III, 172. 
 20 BALDWIN, op. cit., II, 133. This John Miles seems to have been 
 
 the son of the Nicholas Miles mentioned earlier. The father appears 
 to have died intestate. 
 
BIRTHPLACE AND PARENTAGE 11 
 
 A. recurrence of the same first or Christian names 
 in families of the same patronymic points clearly to a 
 relationship, or common origin. It is one of the best 
 helps to the genealogist. For this reason, though per- 
 haps it could not now be proved, we are inclined to be- 
 heve that this John Miles, to whose will we have just 
 referred, was one of the early American progenitors 
 of the Right Rev. Richard Pius Miles. ‘The names 
 John, Nicholas, Henry, and Edward are frequently 
 repeated among the bishop’s relatives. It is a family 
 tradition that he was descended from the Miles of Saint 
 Mary’s County. So is it on record that some of his 
 kinsmen went from that locality to Kentucky. Indeed, 
 some years ago there were a number of families of that 
 name in central Kentucky who claimed relationship 
 with him, and whose forbears were said to have gone 
 west from the counties of Charles and Saint Mary’s. 
 
 Next in chronological order comes the will of Francis 
 Miles of Saint Mary’s County. It bears no date, but 
 it was probated on September 23, 1700.7" He left two 
 small plantations, known respectively as “Miles Mead- 
 ow and “Back Acres’, to his grandson Francis, son 
 of John Miles. In case of Francis’ death without issue, 
 “Back Acres” were to go to Robert, son of John Wise- 
 man; and “Miles Meadow” to Mary, daughter of John 
 Miles; and should she die without issue, to John, son of 
 John Miles. Catherine Wiseman, a daughter, was be- 
 queathed personalty. 
 
 The will of Susanna Miles of the same county is 
 dated February 23, 1702, and was probated on June 
 2, 1702. She left her plantation, known as “Halford’s 
 Folly”, to her daughter Catherine, wife of Edward 
 
 “1 [bid., II, 197. 
 
12 THE FATHER OF THE CHURCH IN TENNESSEE 
 
 Horne. Robert, son of John Wiseman, and Mary, 
 daughter of John and Margery Miles, received some 
 personalty. The two last legatees, it will be recalled, 
 had benefitted by the testament of Francis Miles, a 
 circumstance that suggests a relationship between him 
 and the present testator, Susanna Miles. It is quite 
 possible that she was his wife; that she was a widow 
 when she married him; and that she had a daughter by 
 her previous marriage, the Mrs. Catherine Horne to 
 whom she gave her real estate.” 
 
 These two last wills deserve to be considered in 
 connection with another fact noticed at this time. From 
 the days of the insurrection of John Coode, in 1689, and 
 the appointment of Lionel Copley as governor by the 
 English crown two years later, Catholics were debarred 
 from holding public office. Yet we find a John Miles, 
 almost certainly the son of the Francis Miles mentioned 
 above, filling such a position in 1696. It is but natural 
 to wonder if he did not sell his faith for worldly honor 
 and profit, and if this were not the reason for which he 
 was passed over in the wills of Francis and Susanna 
 Miles, though his children were remembered in them. 
 In all ages there have been those who forsook God for 
 mammon.”* 
 
 Be this as it may, the fidelity of the Miles of Saint 
 Mary’s County to the faith, no less than their social 
 standing may be seen from their intimate associations, 
 
 22 Ibid., II, 239. These people seem evidently to have been the Miles 
 brought or sent over by Charles Calvert I. It would appear that Francis 
 Miles’ first wife died,and that he married again. 
 
 23 Maryland Archives, XX, 540. However, in justice to John Miles, 
 it should be noted that the test oath for office holders was introduced 
 
 only in 1699. Thus he might have held the position of public trust 
 without too much of a sacrifice of his religion. 
 
BIRTHPLACE AND PARENTAGE 13 
 
 as shown in the public records, with the best Catholic 
 families in the colony. Such relations meant much at 
 that day. From Saint Mary’s County descendants of 
 the first settlers of the name gradually made their way 
 northward into Charles County, and thence into wes- 
 tern Prince George’s. In these two counties also they 
 were not only held in high regard, but were counted 
 as well among the truest members of the Church. 
 
 As in the case of their namesakes mentioned earlier 
 in the chapter, so in that of the Miles of southwestern 
 Maryland there are reasons for believing that they had a 
 Celtic strain in their blood; and that, though very likely 
 of different creeds, these various families were close 
 friends, if not even related. The Catholic Miles are 
 mentioned more than once in connection with persons 
 who were evidently Irish either by birth or by descent. 
 
 In the Maryland militia during the Revolution we 
 find a soldier with the significant name of “Murphey” 
 (Murphy) Miles, but we do not know from what part 
 of the colony he hailed.** Tobias Miles of Calvert 
 County had a son and a grandson called John. Sev- 
 eral of the Miles in Saint Mary’s and Charles coun- 
 ties bore the same personal designation. Thomas is 
 a name found in all these places; and Bishop Miles 
 had a brother and a nephew so called. ‘There were at 
 least three Henry Miles in Somerset County, which was 
 quite a common name among the Miles of Charles and 
 Saint Mary’s. So were there two landed estates known 
 as “Miles End”—one in Talbot and the other in Charles 
 County. 
 
 Although they do not afford positive proof, these 
 facts appear to be more than a case of mere coincidence. 
 
 24 Maryland Archives, XVIII, 232. 
 
14 THE FATHER OF THE CHURCH IN TENNESSEE 
 
 They seem clearly to point in the direction indicated. 
 As in England, so perhaps in Maryland there were 
 then few Catholic families without relations who did 
 not belong to the faith. In Ireland also, than which 
 no country in the world has suffered more in defense of 
 its religion, homes were sometimes divided by lapses 
 from the Church. A like division not infrequently oc- 
 curred through the conversion of the invader from Eng- 
 land. The original Miles, there can be no doubt, were 
 of unmixed British blood; but it is a matter of history 
 that more than one person of that name went over to 
 the Emerald Isle, where they became the forefathers 
 of some of the principal families in the land.” Thus 
 possibly, through intermarriage or conversion, we have 
 the explanation of the apparent difference of religion 
 among the Miles in the Baltimore Palatinate and of 
 their Irish connections. 
 
 In Maryland, after the power of government was 
 taken out of the hands of Catholics, there was tolerance 
 for all except those who had founded the colony on a 
 basis of religious toleration. 'They were disqualified 
 from holding public office, deprived of the franchise, 
 forbidden to erect churches, permitted to worship only 
 under the roofs of their own homes, fettered by every 
 kind of penalty. Jiven the right to have a private chap- 
 el in or attached to one’s house came from the English 
 parliament, which refused its consent to the more dras- 
 tic legislation of the colonial assembly forbidding all 
 Catholic worship.” Those were cruel days. May 
 their like be never seen again. 
 
 25 O’Hart, Irish Pedigrees, passim. 
 26 Maryland Archives, XXVI, 340-341, and 431-432. 
 
BIRTHPLACE AND PARENTAGE 15 
 
 It was the misfortune of Maryland that she fell all 
 too often into the hands of unscrupulous and predatory 
 adventurers. Under their influence pernicious laws 
 were enacted. Well-meaning Protestants opposed such 
 legislation; but they could not stem the tide of prej- 
 udice. The well-springs of public opinion had been 
 too thoroughly poisoned by false, tireless, and not in- 
 frequently malicious propaganda against Catholicity. 
 
 Yet, under the guidance of their Jesuit missionaries, 
 the Catholics of the colony, for the greater part, proved 
 faithful to their religion. In spite of the ostracism, 
 handicaps, and even hardships against which they had 
 to contend, they increased in numbers. Their industry 
 and intelligence, their respect for law, their honest 
 dealing and blameless lives not only wrested admiration 
 from even the enemy, but also made them perhaps the 
 most highly regarded and influential element in the 
 province. 
 
 There is reason for believing that the ancestors of 
 Bishop Miles and their connections contributed not a lit- 
 tle towards the attainment of this good repute. No rec- 
 ord has been discovered that would cast a shadow upon 
 their fair name. They held no civic positions, it is true; 
 neither could they under the law. However, the Miles 
 of Maryland and their descendants seem to have had 
 little desire for such honors, for it is seldom that we find 
 one in public office, whether in their home land or in 
 the place of their adoption. They rather ambitioned to 
 do good and to serve in a private capacity, be it in the 
 Church or in the State. This was an admirable trait 
 of Nashville’s first bishop. Not many years ago one 
 used frequently to hear it said of him that he made a 
 splendid superior, that his confréres loved to serve under 
 
16 THE FATHER OF THE CHURCH IN TENNESSEE 
 
 him, that he consistently sought to avoid dignities, and 
 that he accepted authority only under obedience. 
 
 The Catholic Church, whilst somewhat monarchical 
 in form, is essentialiy democratic in spirit. She is adap- 
 table to every kind of government, for she recognizes 
 all legitimate authority as derived from God. It was 
 her inborn spirit of democracy that made her adherents 
 in the English colonies of America rally so nobly to the 
 cause of liberty when the break came between them and 
 the mother-country. Despite the intolerance and bur- 
 densome laws to which they had long been subjected by 
 their fellow citizens, the Catholics of Maryland forgot 
 their grievances at the call of duty and patriotism. 
 None flocked to the standard of freedom in proportion- 
 ately greater numbers or proved themselves braver than 
 they. ‘Their heroism, fortitude, and perseverance form 
 a bright chapter in our history, both civic and eccle- 
 siastical, 
 
 Albeit a peace-loving people, the Miles were not 
 among the slowest or least resolute to take up arms in 
 defense of the rights of the province. There were not 
 many of that patronymic in the former palatinate. Yet 
 we discover a goodly number of the name engaged in 
 the struggle for liberty. 
 
 In the Maryland revolutionary muster-roll, for in- 
 stance, we find mention of Kdward, Frederick, Henry, 
 “Henry of Joseph”, Jacob, James, John, Joshua, 
 “Murphey” (Murphy), Nicholas, Richard, Thomas, 
 Walter, and William Miles.” The Christian or given 
 name of Frederick appears three times; that of John, 
 apparently a favorite in the family, eight times; Joshua 
 four times; Walter three times; Nicholas, Richard 
 
 27 Ibid., XVIII, passim. 
 
BIRTHPLACE AND PARENTAGE 17 
 
 and William each twice. The name of Joshua is also 
 given four times in the Journal and Correspondence of 
 the Maryland Council of Safety, and thrice in the 
 Journal and Correspondence of the Council of Mary- 
 land; that of Henry in the latter document once; and 
 that of Nicholas twice.” It goes without saying, of 
 course, that the repetition of the first name does not 
 always designate a different person. Yet when it oc- 
 curs often, or in distinct records, we have an indication 
 that it refers to more than one soldier. 
 
 It should also be borne in mind, in the same connec- 
 tion, that it is generally admitted that our revolutionary 
 records are incomplete, and that they were imperfectly 
 kept. Thus the above shows how nobly the Miles, in 
 proportion to their numbers, rallied to the sacred cause 
 of independence. As a rule, they enlisted early, and 
 fought until victory crowned their efforts. One Joshua 
 Miles of the “Western Shore” became a captain. Still 
 another, it would seem, of the same name, who belonged 
 to Harford County, attained the rank of first lieutenant. 
 A Nicholas Miles, apparently of Charles County, 
 served as second lieutenant; while one of the John Miles 
 
 and Walter Miles were corporals. 
 
 A different story is told of Robert Miles, a Batehen 
 at Annapolis. In May, 1779, he was placed under 
 arrest on the charge of having expressed sentiments 
 “inimical to the cause of America.” However, he soon 
 secured his release from prison under a bail of 
 
 SMO t G7, 000, and X12 25,170, 
 
 29 Tbid., XXI, 6, 7, 157, 327, 62, 414. The name “Levin Miles” also 
 appears several times in these revolutionary records; but, as there were 
 strong reasons for suspecting that it was an error, and that the real 
 
 name of this man was Levin Mills, we did not give him in the list of 
 Miles who served in the war. 
 
 3 
 
18 THE FATHER OF THE CHURCH IN TENNESSEE 
 
 three hundred pounds. His bondsmen were James 
 Reid and Henry Sibel.» But whence came this Miles 
 of apparent Tory inclination, or whether the charge 
 against him were true, we did not discover. Anyway, 
 accusations made at a time of such excitement should 
 not be too readily accepted. We should be slow to 
 impugn his honesty, even granted that the indictment 
 was based on fact. There were many who were Tories 
 by sincere conviction, for they sincerely questioned the 
 wisdom of the Revolution, as well as doubted the possi- 
 bility of its success. 
 
 That the Miles failed to attain higher positions in 
 the American forces may be attributed to various rea- 
 sons. First, be it said to their credit, they were patriots, 
 not men of ambition. ‘They enlisted in the cause on its 
 own merits, not for personal gain. They sought not 
 glory, but the autonomy of their country. So again 
 it could hardly be expected that religious prejudices 
 and intolerance would undergo so sudden and violent a 
 change that the oppressed should receive equal promo- 
 tion almost overnight. ‘Time was needed for such a 
 modification of sentiment and righting of wrongs. As 
 a matter of fact, the old-time bias still exists in parts 
 of the country. 
 
 Perhaps it could not now be shown that Nicholas 
 Miles, father of the subject of this biography, bore 
 arms in the American Revolution. The name appears 
 in the Maryland records; but it seems always to reter 
 to a soldier of Charles County, while the bishop’s father, 
 at this juncture, lived in Prince George’s.” Even if 
 
 30 Ibid, XXI, 401, 409, 423. 
 
 31 Although it appears that there was a Nicholas Miles of military 
 age in Charles County through the war, it is not improbable that the 
 
BIRTHPLACE AND PARENTAGE 19 
 
 he did not actually engage in the conflict, one may rest 
 assured that, like his fellow Catholics and connections, 
 he was deeply in sympathy with the cause of indepen- 
 dence, and that he contributed his quota towards its at- 
 tainment by way of assisting his native colony to carry 
 on the struggle. He was a man cf four or five and 
 thirty years of age, and married, when the war began. 
 It has been handed down to us that he was a husband 
 with strong family affection. ‘Tradition has wreathed 
 a halo around his brow as one of the brave men who 
 helped to free his country from bondage. 
 
 The scanty records point to Saint Mary’s or Charles 
 County as the birthplace of Nicholas Miles; and the 
 date of his birth, 1740 or 1741, suggests the first local- 
 ity, for it would seem that branches of the family 
 had begun to move northward only a short time before. 
 Possibly he was brought up in Charles County. There 
 are indications that he was married twice; but if this 
 be true, nothing is known of his first wife. The maiden 
 name of the second Mrs. Miles, however, was Miss Ann 
 Blackloc. For the date of this marriage Father Mar- 
 tin P. Spalding, O.P., gives July 23, 1771, which is 
 apparently correct.” It proved a happy union. Nich- 
 olas Miles himself was a splendid type of the southern 
 father of Nashville’s ordinary lived there at its outbreak. So it is 
 possible that it was he whose name is given in the records, that he 
 signed from Charles County, and that his place of registry was not 
 changed. After all, it is admitted that the revolutionary records are 
 far from complete. 
 
 382A photographic reproduction of the census of Prince George’s 
 County, in 1776 (page 87 of Gaius M. Brumbaugh’s Maryland Records: 
 Colonial, Revolutionary, and Church), gives Nicholas Miles’ age as 
 thirty-five, and that of his wife Ann as twenty-eight, It also shows 
 two children, a son aged ten years, and a daughter aged three. Seven 
 
 years between children would have been remarkable at that day, unless 
 some had died in the meantime. If the boy were a son of Ann 
 
20 THE FATHER OF THE CHURCH IN TENNESSEE 
 
 gentleman in colonial days. Ann Blackloc’s character 
 may be judged by the fact that she left in Kentucky 
 a lasting reputation of a lady who possessed all the 
 virtues that grace a Christian home. 
 
 Just where the marriage occurred we could not as- 
 certain; but we find the young couple settled in Prince 
 
 Blackloc, she was eighteen years of age when he was born. She was 
 forty-three when she gave birth to Bishop Miles. This would also 
 be somewhat singular, if her first child were born when she was only 
 eighteen. 
 
 For these reasons, one is antecedently inclined to believe that Nich- 
 olas Miles was married twice. If Father Spalding’s statement is correct, 
 as it very likely is, the question is settled. Father Spalding was born 
 at Bardstown, Kentucky, in the neighborhood of which, as will be seen 
 later, Bishop Miles was brought up. About thirty-five years ago, while 
 stationed at Saint Rose’s, in Kentucky, he began to collect data on the 
 early fathers of the province, and took a particular interest in Bishop 
 Miles. There were then a number of more or less near relations of 
 the bishop still living around Bardstown. Doubtless it was from 
 family records, or a family Bible, in the possession of some of these 
 relatives that Father Spalding obtained his information. 
 
 The Catholic church records of that period have all been destroyed 
 by fires. The colonial law of Maryland, and even the early state law, 
 did not require a marriage license from the civil government, provided 
 the banns of the intended marriage were proclaimed in a place of 
 worship. This may explain why a diligent search failed to discover any 
 trace of that sort of the marriage between Nicholas Miles and Ann 
 Blackloc. 
 
 Blackloc seems to have been quite an uncommon name in Maryland, 
 for we found it in only three instances. Thomas “Blacklock” was a 
 witness to the will of Paul Busey of Prince George’s County in 1718. 
 Nicholas “Blacklock” died in Charles County in 1799, leaving eight 
 children, one of whom was named Nicholas and another Ann. Benjamin 
 Caiwood was their guardian, and also, together with John Spalding, 
 executor of the estate. Another Nicholas “Blacklock”, son of the 
 former, died in the same county in 1818. These Blacklocs or Blacklocks 
 of Charles County seem to have had connections in Virginia. Possibly, 
 therefore, Ann Blackloc was a Virginian and a convert. 
 
 We had much trouble in ascertaining the name of Bishop Miles’ 
 mother. Several descendants of his sisters thought it was Blackloc. 
 Finally Mrs. Florida Young of Bloomfield, Kentucky, a great-grand- 
 niece, was discovered. Though a non-Catholic, she knew the family 
 history well. Her grandfather, Thomas Blackloc Miles; a nephew of 
 
BIRTHPLACE AND PARENTAGE 21 
 
 George’s County in 1776.” There they were blessed 
 with seven children, four girls and three boys, who 
 attained mature ages. Of Miles’ early avocation we 
 know only that records of the day call him a carpenter; 
 which, at that epoch, often meant one whom we would 
 now term a builder.** It must have been so in his case, 
 for his occupation brought him a snug competency that 
 combined with his sterling character to make him one 
 of the influential men in the western’ part of Prince 
 George’s County. 
 
 Nicholas Miles, it seems, plied his business for six 
 years or more after his marriage to Ann Blackloc. In 
 1788, however, he purchased a farm of some three hun- 
 dred and fifty acres from Thomas Young, possibly of 
 the noted family stem of Catholic Youngs who owned 
 immense tracts of land in southern Maryland.” The 
 plantation bought by Miles appears to have lain not 
 far below the District of Columbia, and in the vicinity 
 of the Potomac River. The first census of the United 
 States, got up in 1790 in order to determine how many 
 members each of the thirteen original commonwealths 
 might send to the national congress, gives him six chil- 
 the bishop, was called Blackloc from the bishop’s mother. Similarly, 
 she said, the bishop had a brother called Edward Blackloc Miles, the 
 Blackloc being given him in honor of his mother. This Edward 
 Blackloc Miles is buried at Bloomfield. In the records at Bardstown, 
 the county seat, his name is generally given as Edward B. Miles; but 
 two or three times it is given as Edward Blackloc Miles. Mrs. Young 
 insisted that the name should be spelled “Blackloc;” and we have fol- 
 lowed the old spelling out of reverence. 
 
 33 BRUMBAUGH, Maryland Records: Colonial, Revolutionary and Church, 
 D.'o7: 
 
 34 Deed of Thomas Young to Nicholas Miles, Recorder’s Office, Marl- 
 boro, Maryland, Liber H. H., No. J. pp. 249-251; and deed of Nicholas 
 Miles to Joseph Messenger, Marlboro, Liber H. H., No. III. pp. 586-589. 
 
 39 Deed of Thomas Young to Nicholas Miles as in the preceding note. 
 The deed is dated January 4, 1788. 
 
22 THE FATHER OF THE CHURCH IN TENNESSEE 
 
 dren (two sons and four daughters), and makes him 
 the owner of eight colored slaves.*° 
 
 The subject of our sketch had not yet come into the 
 world; but he was born shortly afterwards, May 17, 
 1791, being the last of the children.” At his baptism 
 he received the Christian name of Richard. However, 
 a few years after the future bishop’s birth, his father 
 joined in the tide of emigration from Maryland to Ken- 
 tucky, and took him to the new west. 
 
 36 The First Census of the Untted States, 1790: Maryland, p. 96. 
 
 37 Because of the destruction, by fires, of all records at the Maryland 
 Catholic missions that go back to this time, the date of the bishop’s 
 baptism or birth can not be found at any of these places. The above 
 date of his birth, however, is that given in many brief accounts of his 
 life. Father Martin P. Spalding, O.P., also has it in his notes, and 
 it is probable that he got it from a family Bible. After the sixth 
 provincial council of Baltimore, convened on May 9, 1846, the Catholic 
 papers of the country gave an account of the event, together with the 
 names of the bishops who attended it, and the places and dates of 
 their births. Of Bishop Miles, for instance, the Catholic Advocate 
 of May 23, 1846, says: “Right Rev. Richard Pius Miles, Bishop of Nash- 
 ville, born in Maryland, 17th May, 1791.” The United States Catholic 
 Magazine (Baltimore), for June, 1846, has the same. Undoubtedly this 
 date is official, first-hand, and correct. 
 
CHAPTER IT 
 KENTUCKY AND HIS BOYHOOD THERE 
 
 TRIBULATIONS are often blessings in disguise sent by 
 the Ruler of the universe for purposes little dreamed 
 of at the time when they try the courage of souls. 
 Such, there is every reason to believe, was the War of 
 the American Revolution. The Church was then in 
 evil plight throughout the English-speaking world. In 
 England and Ireland, it is true, her condition had some- 
 what bettered through a gradual abatement of relig- 
 ious prejudices, the repeal of some of the penal stat- 
 utes, and the suffering of others to remain in abeyance. 
 Yet in both countries the lot of the Catholics was still 
 hard almost beyond human endurance. In the Ameri- 
 can colonies, with the exception of Pennsylvania, their 
 trials rather increased than diminished. Indeed, at this 
 period intolerance was even more rampant in them than 
 in the mother-country. Is it not then probable that 
 the Revolution was sent by an unseen power for the 
 religious betterment and the happiness of the world? 
 
 The literature of that day shows beyond peradven- 
 ture of doubt that anti-Catholic bias had much more to 
 do with the Revolution than our historians are gener- 
 ally willing to admit. The Quebec Act, by which toler- 
 ance was granted to Catholics in the former French pos- 
 sessions, and the later decree of the British parliament 
 that forbade the occupation of the Ohio Valley by the 
 inhabitants of the original English settlements along the 
 
 23 
 
24 THE FATHER OF THE CHURCH IN TENNESSEE 
 
 Atlantic seaboard, threw these colonies into a veritable 
 furore. An anti-Catholic mania took possession of the 
 popular mind, which played a large part in fanning 
 into open rupture the resistance to the principle of 
 taxation without representation.’ It is quite probable 
 that, had there been no Quebec Act, the break between 
 England and her American dependencies would have 
 been long delayed. 
 
 For this reason, a loyal citizen of the United States 
 can hardly look upon the spirit of intolerance at that 
 particular time otherwise than in the light of a godsend 
 in disguise. By mere accident, of course, this animus 
 brought blessings to both Church and State. It was 
 slow to change—so slow indeed that it perhaps pre- 
 vented a part at least of Canada from joining us in 
 the struggle for independence. As a matter of fact, 
 the ugly temper succumbed only under the combined 
 force of dire necessity, the assistance given us by 
 France, and the influence of such men as George Wash- 
 ington. 
 
 Incidentally the baneful effects of religious intoler- 
 ance at this epoch taught England as well as the United 
 States a useful and needed lesson. Doubtless it is to 
 the experience gained through the American Revolution 
 that is largely to be attributed the broader policy which 
 has marked Great Britain’s government of her foreign 
 possessions since that period. At home also, despite 
 relentless opposition, the contest for Catholic emancipa- 
 tion grew in volume and intensity until 1829, when it 
 was finally crowned with victory. 
 
 1 Throughout the length and breadth of the colonies the pulpits rang 
 with the most virulent denunciations of the Quebec Act and the Catholic 
 
 Church, while the country was flooded with pamphlets of the same char- 
 acter. 
 
KENTUCKY AND HIS BOYHOOD THERE 25 
 
 The new American republic was quicker to act. In 
 the earliest congress of the youthful state ten amend- 
 ments were made to its lately adopted constitution, the 
 first of which declares: “Congress shall make no law 
 respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting 
 the free exercise thereof.” This was in 1789. A little 
 later (1791), through the ratification of the required 
 two-thirds of the original thirteen states, the amend- 
 ment became a part of the country’s fundamenal law. 
 ‘or more than a century and a quarter has the statute 
 not only stood the test of time, but even helped to make 
 our constitution a model for those of other countries. 
 May it ever remain a primal keystone as well to adorn 
 our social fabric as to bind the land together in a peace- 
 ful, happy, united, and prosperous people. 
 
 It was befitting that the subject of our narrative 
 should have been born in the very year in which the 
 principle of religious toleration was incorporated in the 
 constitution. We should search in vain for a more kind- 
 ly, charitable, and practical exponent of tolerance than 
 was he in his daily life. ‘Thoroughly Catholic, he 
 claimed that right for himself, and he readily extended 
 it to others. It was in part this trait that enabled him 
 to gain the hearty good-will of every community in 
 which he lived. 
 
 Meanwhile, now that the clouds of war had dispersed, 
 the ways of peace had resumed their even tenor, no 
 intolerant laws guided the selection of homes, and no 
 parliamentary prohibition held the colonists back from 
 the west, the call of the fertile lands beyond the 
 Alleghany and Cumberland mountains became irre- 
 sistible. The earliest large stream of immigration 
 
26 THE FATHER OF THE CHURCH IN TENNESSEE 
 
 was into Kentucky.” Among the pioneer settlers were 
 many Catholics, who felt that priests would soon fol- 
 low in their wake, and that thus they could better 
 their worldly fortunes without a sacrifice of their re- 
 ligion. 
 
 With its fascinating legends of the battlefields and 
 hunting-grounds of the aboriginal American; the tradi- 
 tions of its fearless explorer, Daniel Boone; the charac- 
 ter of its bold, hardy pioneer hunters; and the spirit 
 of its brave and picturesque backwoodsmen, the story 
 of Kentucky never lacks interest. ‘The early annals 
 of few of our states are so rich in a charm ever old, and 
 yet always new. However, in a work like this we can 
 do no more than give a brief outline of its early history, 
 especially the Catholic part of it, as a background for 
 the narrative. 
 
 More than likely the first white men who set foot 
 within the territory now comprised in that state were 
 French. In 1673, Louis Joliet, accompanied by the 
 noted Jesuit missionary, Father James Marquette, 
 made his historic voyage of exploration down the Mis- 
 sissipp1 River. By some they are thought to have land- 
 ed at the juncture of the great “Father of Waters” and 
 the Ohio, where they visited the wandering Shawnees. 
 Others again think it probable that Robert de la Salle 
 touched the western part of what is now Kentucky in 
 1680 or 1681. Possibly, too, Father James Gravier, 
 S. J., sojourned a while with the mild and peaceful 
 Shawnees on a journey along the Mississippi in 1700.* 
 
 2 The immigration into Tennessee was earlier than that into Kentucky, 
 but it was not so great in volume. 
 3 Wess, The Centenary of Catholicity in Kentucky, pp. 13-14; Co ins, 
 
 History of Kentucky, I, 14-15. Shea (History of the Catholic Church in 
 Colonial Days, pp. 314-315) does not think that Marquette landed at 
 
KENTUCKY AND HIS BOYHOOD THERE 27 
 
 Be this as it may, from that time until fifty years later 
 rarely, if ever, was the solemn silence of Kentucky’s 
 primeval forests broken by the tread of human feet 
 other than those of the roving Indian. 
 
 However, the country had become known to the Eng- 
 lish on the Atlantic seaboard before the outbreak of the 
 Revolutionary War. The second half of the eighteenth 
 century was not far advanced when adventurous hunt- 
 ers, fur traders and even surveyors began to make their 
 way over the mountains, and descended the streams in 
 their westward course. Gradually they penetrated into 
 what is now central Kentucky. Such names as Mooney 
 and Fitzpatrick not only show the presence of the ubi- 
 quitous Irishman, but also suggest that there must have 
 been an occasional Catholic among the earliest explor- 
 ers, nearly all of whom were from Virginia and North 
 Carolina. Following these adventurers, perhaps insti- 
 gated by the reports they brought back about the rare 
 beauty, the extraordinary fertility, and the genial cli- 
 mate of the country, home-seekers from Maryland as 
 well as from the two states just mentioned soon com- 
 menced to set up their tents in the “land of hill and 
 vale.” + 
 
 While, as in all pioneer settlements, there were rough 
 characters among them, never perhaps was there a peo- 
 ple of a more chivalrous, daring, and fearless spirit than 
 the first white inhabitants of Kentucky. Nor were they 
 without need of dauntless courage. Regarded as ene- 
 the mouth of the Ohio. See also a reference to a letter from Shea 
 to Collins in the latter’s History of Kentucky, I, p. 509. The statements 
 that the Spaniards and English were in Kentucky at a very early date 
 seem to have no historical probability. 
 
 4 Later, settlers came from farther south, north and east, and even 
 
 from Europe; but the great bulk of them was from Maryland, Virginia, 
 and North Carolina. 
 
28 THE FATHER OF THE CHURCH IN TENNESSEE 
 
 mies and usurpers by roving bands of red men who 
 traversed the country in every direction, they lived, so 
 to express it, with their lives in their hands. ‘These 
 dangers were abated from late in 1782, when General 
 George Rogers Clark inflicted a severe defeat upon the 
 Indian allies of the English north of the Ohio. Yet 
 not until General Anthony Wayne’s historic victory 
 over the Miamis and allied tribes on the Maumee River, 
 August 20, 1794, and the treaty of Greenville, in 1795, 
 could the frontiersman of Kentucky feel that he was 
 free from the peril of redskins ambushed in the forests.” 
 
 The ban placed by the parliament of Great Britain 
 on emigration to the west was intended largely at least 
 to keep the people of its earlier colonies out of the 
 country formerly claimed by the French. Not unlikely 
 the measure was taken in part as a means of fulfilling 
 an article of the Treaty of Paris (February 10, 1763), 
 whereby England guaranteed liberty of conscience and 
 freedom of worship to the inhabitants, whether white 
 or red, of the territory ceded by France. 'This delicate 
 task could not with prudence have been entrusted to 
 the English settlements, or even successfully executed, 
 had their people been permitted to take up homes at will 
 in that part of America. 
 
 However, the inhibition received scant respect as re- 
 gards Kentucky. Yet emigration thither, properly 
 - speaking, did not begin until 1774, when the bonds be- 
 tween the colonies and the mother-country were near 
 the breaking point. Among the earliest emigrants, 
 there can be no doubt, were adherents of the faith of 
 
 S SPALDING, Sketches of the Early Catholic Missions of Kentucky, 
 pp. 18-21; Cotiins, op. cit., I, 257, and II, 139-140, 769; Bryant, A Pop- 
 ular History of the United States, IV, 116-118; Etson, History of the 
 United States, II, 225-226. 
 
KENTUCKY AND HIS BOYHOOD THERE 29 
 
 Lord Baltimore’s original palatinate. Still the first 
 Catholics, of whom we have any definite record, to settle 
 there were Doctor George Hart, William Coomes and 
 family, and perhaps Abraham and Isaac White. They 
 moved westward in the spring of 1775. Coomes was a 
 native of Maryland, but went to Kentucky from Vir- 
 ginia. Hart was born in Ireland, and had made his 
 home in Maryland. He was probably Kentucky’s first 
 physician. Similarly Mrs. Coomes appears to have 
 been the state’s first school-teacher.°® 
 
 While, as the Hon. Ben. J. Webb suggests, members 
 of the same religion could doubtless have been found 
 in the steady stream of home-seekers that flowed into 
 that region for ten years after the above date, the real 
 Catholic emigration began in 1785. At the outset, they 
 were nearly all from Maryland, and principally from 
 Saint Mary’s, Charles, and Prince George’s counties.’ 
 
 Still, other parts of the former Baltimore Colony 
 contributed their quota towards Kentucky’s early Cath- 
 olic population. Washington County may serve as an 
 instance. We learn from a letter of the pastor at Saint 
 Mary’s, Hagerstown, that by the summer of 1796 the 
 parish had become depleted through emigration. Few 
 of the faith remained, other than those who had not the 
 means to go west. Hagerstown was a center whence 
 various stations were attended in northern Maryland 
 and southern Pennsylvania. Now Father Bodkin re- 
 commended that it should be made a mission, and Km- 
 mitsburg appointed as the place of residence for the 
 priest. 
 
 6 SPALDING, op. cit., pp. 23-24; Wess, op. cit., 24-25. 
 
 7 SPALDING, op. cit., p. 25; WeBB, op. cit., pp. 24, 26. 
 
 8 Rev. Francis Bodkin, O.P., Hagerstown, Maryland, to Bishop Car- 
 roll, Baltimore, July 5, 1796, (Baltimore Diocesan Archives, Case 1, T. 5). 
 
30 THE FATHER OF THE CHURCH IN TENNESSEE 
 
 We may form some idea of the exaggerated reports 
 spread abroad about the new west from the fact that 
 many were induced to leave a country so wholesome 
 and beautiful and a soil so productive as that in the 
 neighborhood of Hagerstown. It was believed that 
 wealth surely awaited those who went to Kentucky. 
 Rumor, in fact, pictured the land beyond the mountains 
 as a veritable agricultural Kl Dorado. As Bishop 
 Spalding elegantly expresses it: 
 
 The reports carried back to Virginia and Maryland by the first 
 adventurers who had visited Kentucky, were of so glowing a 
 character as to stimulate many others to emigrate thither. The 
 new country was represented as a sort of promised land, with 
 exuberant and fertile soil; and if not flowing with milk and honey, 
 at least teeming with all kinds of game. This rich country now lay 
 open to the enterprising activity of the white man; and its fertile 
 lands could be obtained by occupation, or purchased for a mere 
 trifle; and the emigrants might subsist, like the Indians, by hunt- 
 ing, until the soil could be prepared for cultivation.? 
 
 It was but natural that these fascinating stories 
 should make a strong appeal to the people in Saint 
 Mary’s, Charles, and Prince George’s counties, Mary- 
 land. Much of the land there, through long and un- 
 scientific cultivation, had become greatly impoverished. 
 Accordingly, in 1785, the heads of sixty Catholic fam- 
 ilies in these three counties, but the greater number res- 
 idents of Saint Mary’s, formed a league, and pledged 
 themselves to emigrate to Kentucky as circumstances 
 should permit."° They were aware of the dangers they 
 would have to encounter, not on the way only, but even 
 after they had settled in their new homes. With the 
 tales of the beauty, climate, and productiveness of this 
 earthly paradise were interspersed those of the horrors 
 
 BID TCL iD: 
 10 Wess, op. cit., p. 27. 
 
KENTUCKY AND HIS BOYHOOD THERE 31 
 
 committed by the red man. But that was America’s 
 age of chivalry. Such perils could not chill the growing 
 spirit of adventure in the brave hearts that had just 
 thrown off the yoke of dependence. 
 
 Like their forefathers who had _ sacrificed much 
 for conscience’ sake, these sturdy Catholic pioneers 
 treasured their faith above every worldly possession. 
 They realized, too, that prudence is the better part of 
 valor. Thus the league of families had a twofold pur- 
 pose. Settling in the same locality would not merely 
 serve as a protection against bands of Indian marau- 
 ders; it would likewise the more readily secure the con- 
 solations of religion through the services of a priest. 
 
 In the association were relations as well as friends of 
 Father John Carroll who had just been appointed pre- 
 fect apostolic of the United States, and was therefore 
 on the way to become the father of our American hier- 
 archy. Some of the leaders of the alliance no doubt 
 consulted him on the project. Nor could he have failed 
 to praise it. Tradition at least tells us that he encour- 
 aged the scheme of Catholic colonization, and promised 
 either to send a clergyman with the first band of settlers, 
 or to procure a pastor for their souls as soon as possible. 
 Be this as it may, he was naturally anxious to build up 
 the Church in the vast extent of territory under his 
 spiritual jurisdiction. 
 
 Twenty-five of the sixty families must have left 
 Maryland at once, for we are told that they reached 
 Kentucky the same year in which the league was 
 formed. ‘The remainder followed in the years 1786, 
 1787, 1788, 1789, 1790, and, 1791." Among those who 
 migrated in 1787 or 1788 were Philip Miles and his son 
 
 11 SPALDING, op. cit., pp. 25-27; Wess, op. cit., pp. 27-28. The United 
 
32 THE FATHER OF THE CHURCH IN TENNESSEE 
 
 Henry, from near Leonardtown, Saint Mary’s Coun- 
 ty. They were relations of the subject of our narra- 
 tive, the Right Rev. Richard Pius Miles, Father of the 
 Church in Tennessee.” Meanwhile others joined in the 
 emigration, swelling the westward march to enormous 
 proportions. As Bishop Spalding expresses it: “Men 
 and women, young and old, caught up this spirit; and 
 soon nearly half of Virginia and Maryland was in mo- 
 tion for the west.” * 
 
 The rush for “the land of promise” became particu- 
 larly noticeable after the cessation of danger that came 
 with Wayne’s victory and the treaty with the Miamis, 
 in 1794 and 1795. Prior to that time, as the banks of 
 the Ohio between Cincinnati and Louisville were es- 
 pecially infested by Indians, the more ordinary route 
 for the home-seekers was overland to Pittsburgh, and 
 thence down the river in flat boats to Limestone, the 
 present Maysville, Kentucky. From that point the 
 pioneers labored their way through the forests to the 
 properties they had already secured, or to the location 
 wherein they hoped to settle. It was a weary method 
 of travel for even the stout hearts of the past. 
 
 So journeyed the first five and twenty families of 
 the league.* Of the remainder some no doubt followed 
 the same route. Others braved the greater danger, and 
 
 States Catholic Miscellany of December 1, 1824 (Vol. III, pp. 337 ff) has 
 an article on this subject that is full of inaccuracies. 
 
 The writer is a lineal descendant, in the fifth generation, of the 
 Leonard Hamilton and Benedict Spalding mentioned on page 27 of 
 Bishop Spalding’s Sketches of the:Early Catholic Missions of Kentucky. 
 
 12 Wess, op. cit., p. 68. Webb nowhere speaks of any connection 
 between Philip Miles and Nicholas Miles, the father of Bishop Miles; 
 but the descendants of these two noted pioneers almost feel that they 
 are still related. 
 
 13 Op. cit., p. 23. 14 Wess, op. cit., p. 27. 
 
KENTUCKY AND HIS BOYHOOD THERE 33 
 
 descended the river to Louisville. In this way, they 
 lessened their journey by land in Kentucky by nearly 
 two thirds, as well as avoided much of its hardship. 
 Many of the band must have been keenly disappointed 
 when they reached their future homes on Pottinger’s 
 Creek, for they were not slow to discover that the soil 
 in this locality, with the exception of a few purchases, 
 was poor in the extreme. 
 
 History records much sharp practice in the acquisi- 
 tion and sale of land at that period. Possibly the Cath- 
 olics who belonged to the above league were victims of 
 such unfair dealing. At any rate, it is generally be- 
 lieved that speculators in the east obtained large areas 
 in Kentucky, and sold this part of it to these prospective 
 colonists by misrepresentation before they left Mary- 
 land.” The tradition seems well grounded, for other- 
 wise it would be difficult to understand why they set- 
 tled in so barren a part of the country. Perhaps, how- 
 ever, undue credence in the current reports led them 
 to buy without seeing, for they believed that every part 
 of the ultramontane region was fertile. 
 
 Be this as it may, it was now too late to remedy the 
 error. A partial payment had been made, and bonds 
 given for the rest. Few of the settlers, thus deprived 
 of their means, had any option but to remain where they 
 were. Might not the whole affair have been the prov- 
 idence of God who knows that all too often worldly and 
 spiritual wealth do not happily harmonize? 
 
 This Catholic colony, called the Pottinger’s Creek 
 Settlement from the stream that ran through it, lay in 
 what is now western Marion and southern Nelson Coun- 
 ty. It was the first formed in the state, and at the date 
 
 15 [bid., p. 32. This tradition still exists. 
 4 
 
34 THE FATHER OF THE CHURCH IN TENNESSEE 
 
 of its foundation was all in the latter county, which then 
 had many times its present area. In connection with it 
 we have an example of sacrifice on the part of the pio- 
 neers of the Church in the west for the sake of their 
 souls that has edified more than one historian. Al- 
 though the land was of the poorest, and the situation 
 uninviting, many still took up homes there. The 
 nucleus of a large Catholic colony had settled in the 
 localty. ‘Thither therefore they went, in spite of tem- 
 poral disadvantages, that they might secure the con- 
 solations of their religion for themselves and _ their 
 children.*® 
 
 Some of the later arrivals of the alliance fared better 
 than the first. They did not make their purchases until 
 they reached Kentucky, which enabled them to select 
 more fertile farms in adjacent districts, or even in the 
 bottom-lands along Pottinger’s Creek and the little 
 river known as the Rolling Fork. Philip Miles, a near 
 relative, if not a brother, of Nicholas, the bishop’s father, 
 seems to have followed this wiser course; for he bought 
 a beautiful home in sight of the present village of New 
 Hope, where his descendants lived until within the mem- 
 ory of the writer. He was a man of fine judgment, and 
 quite possibly Nicholas Miles acted on his advice when 
 he himself determined to move to Kentucky.“ 
 
 16 Jbid., p. 32; SPALDING, op. cit., p. 25. 
 
 17 We are inclined to think that Philip and Nicholas Miles were 
 brothers. It is said that Bishop Miles claimed near relationship with 
 “Harry” Miles who succeeded his father (Philip) on the plantation 
 near New Hope; and that he always visited him when he came to 
 Kentucky. Edward Miles, a son of Harry, who lived and died on the 
 farm owned first by his giandfather, and then by his father, also claimed 
 a rather close relationship with the bishop. Father Thomas Miles, S.J., 
 a brother of Edward, claimed near kinship with the subject of our 
 narrative. All of which indicates that Harry Miles and the bishop were 
 first cousins, and Philip and Nicholas Miles brothers. The Catholic 
 
KENTUCKY AND HIS BOYHOOD THERE 35 
 
 Most of the Catholic colonists who were not members 
 of the league, more prudent as regards their earthly 
 fortunes, chose other sections of the state for their 
 abodes. Yet with few exceptions, wherever they set- 
 tled, they purchased contiguous tracts of land from 
 the same motive that inspired the association in Mary- 
 Jand and brought so many together on Pottinger’s 
 Creek. Thus this proto-Catholic settlement in Ken- 
 tucky was followed in quick succession by a number of 
 similar communities. 
 
 The colony on Hardin’s Creek, Marion County, for 
 instance, and probably that on Elkhorn Creek, Scott 
 County, long known as Saint Francis’, began in the 
 following year (1786). The Cartwright’s Creek Set- 
 tlement, in Marion and Washington counties, and that 
 of “Poplar Neck’, near Bardstown, Nelson County, 
 had begun before the close of 1787. ‘Then came the 
 one on the Rolling Fork, Marion County, in 1788. 
 The colony near Hardinsburg, Breckinridge County, 
 dates from 1790. Both 1792 and 1795 are given as the 
 date of the birth of the Cox’s Creek or Fairfield Set- 
 tlement, which was in Nelson County.” 
 
 However, it is noteworthy that, with the exception 
 of Saint Francis’, all these Catholic communities took 
 root in what was then Nelson County. This civic divis- 
 ion of Kentucky, therefore, holds in the Church of 
 that state the place which Saint Mary’s County holds 
 in the Church of Maryland—the cradle of its Catholic- 
 ity. Nelson was the fourth county established in Ken- 
 Advocate of February 19, 1885, gives an obituary of “Brother G. Miles”, 
 a Jesuit lay brother in Missouri, who, it says, was born in Kentucky, 
 in 1802, and “was a relative of the late Bishop Miles. ...and of Rev. 
 
 Thomas H. Miles, S.J.” 
 18 Wess, op. cit., p. 26, and passim. 
 
36 THE FATHER OF THE CHURCH IN TENNESSEE 
 
 tucky, the act being passed by the general assembly 
 of Virginia in 1784, eight years before the erection of 
 the territory into a state, and the name given it in honor 
 of ex-Governor Thomas Nelson.” Subsequently, by 
 division and subdivision, it became the parent stem of 
 many other counties. The old cathedral church still 
 remains Bardstown’s greatest glory, just as its chief 
 pride is that it was once an episcopal city, whilst its 
 keenest regret is the loss of its dignity as a place of resi- 
 dence for a Catholic bishop. 
 
 Thus from Nelson the faith largely spread through 
 Kentucky, in the same way that it had radiated from 
 Saint Mary’s through Maryland, whence it passed over 
 the mountains. Indeed, for a number of years Nel- 
 son’s original seven settlements comprised the greater 
 part of the Catholic population of Kentucky, which 
 Father Badin estimated at about three hundred fam- 
 
 19 Kentucky was the Indian name for that part of the country, which 
 was a common hunting ground for various tribes. Its forests, under- 
 growth, cane-brakes, and ravines, together with the battles of the aborig- 
 ines on its soil, have deservedly given the word the meaning, whether 
 right or wrong, of “the dark and bloody ground.” The attempt of Colonel 
 Richard Henderson and his company of land speculators, in 1775, to 
 organize more than half of the present state into a separate common- 
 wealth, under the designation of Transylvania, failed dismally; for in 
 1776 Virginia claimed all the territory now included in the state by 
 virtue of her royal charter, and established it into a county. In 1780, 
 she divided it into three counties, to which she gave the names of 
 Fayette, Lincoln, and Jefferson. In 1784, Nelson was added to the 
 number ; in 1785, Bourbon, Mercer, and Madison; and in 1788, Mason and 
 Woodford. In 1790, the country became a distinct part of the Union 
 under the title of “Territory south of the Ohio.” In 1792, the State of 
 Kentucky was erected by the national congress, being the first created 
 west of the mountains. The same year (1792), Washington, destined 
 long to be the home of the subject of our narrative, Scott, Shelby, Logan, 
 Clark, Hardin, and Green counties came into existence. During the 
 greater part of this time the struggle for conquest by the whites and 
 defense by the Indians was one of the bravest and most sanguinary in 
 American annals. 
 
KENTUCKY AND HIS BOYHOOD THERE 37 
 
 ilies as early as 1793.°° Immigration, still mostly from 
 Maryland, continued to augment the number of the 
 faithful. Later these first colonies sent out nucleuses 
 of other similar settlements into different parts of the 
 state. | 
 
 Smaller Catholic communities or isolated families 
 were also scattered here and there in widely separated 
 places. Unfortunately, they could seldom be visited 
 by the few missionaries, were out of touch with Catholic 
 influences, and received little or no instruction in their 
 religion. Because cf these privations, together with the 
 environments in which they lived, they or their children 
 were soon lost to the Church. 
 
 A like sad story has to be told of Saint Francis’ (la- 
 ter Saint Pius’, and now White Sulphur), in Scott 
 County. 'That mission seems to have got a wrong start. 
 Webb thinks it had too much wealth, with the resultant 
 spirit of pride. At any rate, every priest in charge 
 of the place had trouble with the people.” Catholicity 
 has almost died out in the locality, and it is said that 
 few of those descended from the founders of the col- 
 ony profess the faith of their forefathers. Perhaps 
 the whole history of that settlement is a verification of 
 the old adage: “The enemies of man are the world, the 
 flesh and the devil.” 
 
 The seven notable Catholic communities that origi- 
 nated in Nelson County were either already founded or 
 in process of formation when Nicholas Miles, father of 
 the future bishop and apostle of Tennessee, left his 
 home in the east. The precise time of his arrival in 
 Kentucky can not now be ascertained. But the date 
 
 20 SPALDING, op. cit., p. 65; Wess, op. cit., p. 163. 
 
 21 Wess, op. cit., p. 88. 
 22 Many documents attest this fact. 
 
38 THE FATHER OF THE CHURCH IN TENNESSEE 
 
 of the deed for his farm in Prince George’s County, 
 Maryland, to the Rev. Joseph Messenger, August 6, 
 1795, indicates that he started for the west late in that 
 year or early in the next.” 
 
 No doubt he had been in correspondence with Philip 
 Miles, or other relations and friends among the earlier 
 pioneers. From these he would have learned the diffi- 
 culty, if not impossiblity, of procuring in the new coun- 
 try household, farm, and other utensils, as well as arti- 
 cles that make for the beauty and comfort of a home. 
 Thus, for he was not only of a practical turn of mind, 
 but also in good circumstances, we may believe that he 
 carried as many of these chattels with him as he well 
 could. Many of the wealthier emigrants at that time 
 took such a precaution. That Nicholas Miles followed 
 this wiser course is suggested by the fact that we dis- 
 covered no record of any sales by him in Maryland, 
 except that of his farm. It would also indicate that 
 he transported his colored servants at the same time, 
 especially since it would have been expensive to pro- 
 cure such help in a young state still quite unsettled. 
 
 Now that danger from Indians was passed, two log- 
 ical ways lay open for the journey. One was via the 
 national highroad to Pittsburgh, and then down the 
 Ohio River in flat boats to Louisville; the other across 
 Virginia, through the Cumberland Gap, and into the 
 almost untouched forests primeval of Kentucky. As 
 he was able to meet the greater expense of the first 
 route, one is inclined to think that he chose it rather 
 than the latter, with the length of time it required, the 
 hardships and ceaseless toil it involved, and the anxiety 
 
 23 Liber J. R. M., No. 3, pp. 586-589, Recorder’s Office, Marlboro, 
 Maryland. 
 
KENTUCKY AND HIS BOYHOOD THERE 39 
 
 incident to the care of the number of persons under his 
 charge. 
 
 However, it will be remembered that Nicholas Miles 
 had eight colored slaves in 1790. He probably had 
 more by this time. Possibly, therefore, he may have 
 sent his wife, children, and colored women by the easier 
 way, together with one or two men servants to look 
 after their needs; whilst he himself travelled by the lat- 
 ter route, having with him the rest of the colored men 
 to help with the chattels and guard whatever domestic 
 animals he took to the west. Whichever way he jour- 
 neyed, the old-time covered emigrant-wagon was in- 
 dispensable for the portage and protection of the wom- 
 en folk and equipment, whether for house or farm. He 
 was a builder by occupation. ‘Thus, in case he went to 
 Kentucky by the northern route, he and his colored men 
 could themselves have constructed the simple boats on 
 which they descended the Ohio.” 
 
 The hospitality for which Kentucky is noted was then 
 in its flower. On their arrival, therefore, the wayfarers 
 
 24 The earthly remains of the writer’s great grand-father, Joseph 
 O’Daniel, lie somewhere in the Cumberland Gap. He was on his way 
 with his family from Maryland to Kentucky, in the first years of the 
 nineteenth century. When almost through the break in the mountains, 
 he retraced his steps in order to have something made at a blacksmith 
 shop that he had passed only a short distance, but told the family to 
 continue their way, and he would soon overtake them. As he did not 
 return as soon as was expected, they waited for him. Two days or 
 more thus went by. Then his son Joseph (the writer’s grandfather) and 
 a colored man went back to look for him. To their horror they learned 
 that he had been captured, taken into the mountains, robbed and slain 
 by thieves, who made away with his fine horse. In those days it was 
 not an uncommon thing for such a catastrophe to befall single travellers 
 or small bodies bound for the west while they were in the fastnesses 
 of the Cumberland Mountains. Unable to recover their loss, the sor- 
 
 rowing family journeyed on to central Kentucky, where they located 
 in the Cartwright’s Creek Settlement. 
 
40 THE FATHER OF THE CHURCH IN TENNESSEE 
 
 were no doubt sheltered by friends, especially by Philip 
 Miles, until they could secure a home of their own. 
 But it would seem that the head of the newcomers was 
 in no hurry to establish himself definitely. Possibly 
 he wished to get a better idea of the trend of the settle- 
 ments, and engaged in his former business until he 
 found a location that suited him. No less staunch in 
 his faith than practical in the affairs of the world, the 
 father of the future bishop wanted his homestead with- 
 in ready reach of the busy priests as well as on good soil. 
 He would have his family, whose souls he prized above 
 earthly treasure, in a place where they would be under 
 the wholesome influence of the Church and able to prac- 
 tise their religion. 
 
 As the reader will recall, the Cox’s Creek Settlement 
 was the last of the notable Catholic colonies established 
 in the early days of Nelson County. It lay in the north- 
 ern part of the county, slightly to the east, whence it 
 gradually stretched into the present Spencer County. 
 The country was rolling, beautiful, and well watered; 
 the climate healthy; the soil not only fertile but likewise 
 adapted to almost every kind of produce. Although the 
 settlement was little more than started at the time of 
 Nicholas Miles’ arrival in Kentucky, some of Mary- 
 land’s finest old Catholic families soon began to take 
 up homes there. In 1797, for instance, Clement Gar- 
 diner, a wealthy man, purchased a large farm where 
 now stands the town of Fairfield.” Doubtless these 
 people had already attracted Father Badin’s attention, 
 for Gardiner set apart a large room in his house te 
 serve as a chapel for the neighborhood. 
 
 29 Gardiner purchased his farm from “Nicholas Paul alias Powell”. 
 
 The deed for it is dated July 3, 1797, and is in Deed Book 7, pp. 191-192, 
 in the Recorder’s Office, Bardstown, Kentucky. 
 
KENTUCKY AND HIS BOYHOOD THERE 41 
 
 Few of the Catholic colonies held out such bright 
 worldly prospects as did that just beginning on Cox’s 
 Creek; nor did any give better promise in matters re- 
 ligious. Nicholas Miles did not leave Maryland under 
 stress of need, for he possessed an ample sufficiency on 
 which to live in comfort there. Although advanced in 
 years, he braved the hardships of the western wilds in 
 the interest of his children. He determined therefore 
 to make his home in this newest Catholic settlement, 
 which offered splendid opportunities for them, both 
 temporal and spiritual. Besides, some of the friends of 
 his boyhood and young manhood had located in that 
 vicinity. 
 
 Towards the end of 1799, he purchased a farm of 
 somewhat more than two hundred acres from one Zeb- 
 ulon Collings. The fertile tract of land lay on F'ro- 
 man’s Creek, a branch of Cox’s Creek.”° It was situated 
 perhaps six miles, a little to the northeast, from Bards- 
 town, the county seat; and not much less west from the 
 present village of Fairfield, that afterwards rose on 
 the farm owned by Clement Gardiner, almost in the 
 center of the settlement. The location must have ap- 
 pealed strongly to Nicholas Miles for his purpose. In 
 those days, Catholics considered themselves fortunate if 
 they were so near a church or chapel. But our anxious 
 father had one on each side of his home; for, besides 
 the station at Clement Gardiner’s, there was another 
 at the house of Thomas Gwynn, half way between Miles’ 
 and Bardstown, near the site of the present Nazareth 
 Academy. Moreover, Saint Joseph’s, a small log struc- 
 ture, stood just outside the capital of the county. 
 
 26 Collings’ deed to Miles for the farm is dated December 2, 1799, 
 
 and is in Deed Book 5, p. 502, in the Recorder’s Office, Bardstown, 
 Kentucky. 
 
42 THE FATHER OF THE CHURCH IN TENNESSEE 
 
 Kagerness to get settled down in his new home, one 
 may readily believe, caused the good man to take pos- 
 session of his purchase at once, and to build a house. 
 Doubtless also, like those of even the wealthiest among 
 the pioneers, it was a temporary structure of logs adapt- 
 ed to meet the needs of the family until a more commo- 
 dious dwelling could be erected. 
 
 Here Nicholas Miles began life anew in Kentucky 
 at the age of nearly sixty years. The change must 
 have been no little trial. But that was a hardy period, 
 and he was a man of his time, as well as one who would 
 shrink from no hardship in behalf of his family. ‘The 
 days of fear from raids by Indians were over; the man- 
 ners of the people had become somewhat less rude. 
 But heroic labor was still required to clear away the 
 forests, fence in the fields, prepare the soil for cultiva- 
 tion, and supply the farm with domestic animals. Pro- 
 tection of the crops and the younger stock from birds 
 and wild beasts offered a serious problem. ‘There were 
 few places of market, little ready money, and few arti- 
 cles of merchandise for sale. 
 
 However, these disadvantages were counterbalanced 
 by the ease with which game of every kind could be pro- 
 cured from the forests. ‘The men and boys—often even 
 the women—went armed for this purpose, as also for 
 protection against bears and wildcats or a chance pack 
 of wolves. 'The table was ever supplied with the choicest 
 venison. Fresh milk and butter were plentiful. The 
 bread was made from the meal of Indian corn cooked 
 in a marvelous variety of ways. It provided a whole- 
 some food on which the pioneers throve. 
 
 Fortunately the women were not less brave or indus- 
 trious than the men. They carded and spun wool and 
 
KENTUCKY AND HIS BOYHOOD THERE 43 
 
 flax or hemp, raised and prepared by the men, wove it 
 into cloth, and made clothes for the family. The skins 
 of wild animals, particularly those of deer, were not 
 infrequently used for the same purpose. Moccasins 
 often served as shoes. Caps made from the furs of rac- 
 coons or rabbits were common articles of apparel. For 
 years all classes and sexes dressed principally in home- 
 spun, the cost of overland transportation in the primi- 
 tive way making finer and more delicate fabrics a rare 
 luxury for even the wealthy. ‘The richest were not too 
 proud to wear at home garments wrought on the spot. 
 
 Plain clothes were the custom of the day. The gen- 
 tler sex did little prinking. Yet the women folk are 
 said to have looked quite neat in the quaint costumes 
 made by their own hands. Perhaps not a few dainty 
 dames of today would be surprised to learn that, in the 
 summer time, their great-grandmothers or even grand- 
 mothers in Kentucky went to church with their home- 
 made bonnets decked with the silk, tassel, and green 
 husks of Indian corn. Vanity has ever been the privi- 
 lege of woman. Still this innocent adornment more 
 than once brought down upon ‘her the denunciation of 
 the zealous missionary.” 
 
 Cisterns or wells were few, if any. For this reason, 
 the houses or cabins were ever located near a spring. 
 The furniture was ordinarily of the most primitive 
 character. Although that in the Miles home was no 
 doubt somewhat better than the general run, even from 
 the start, the following description gives an idea of the 
 interior of the dwellings of most of the pioneers at the 
 time Nicholas Miles settled in Kentucky. 
 
 27In days gone by the writer often listened to his grandmother and 
 
 other old people tell of the scoldings they used to get in sermons for the 
 vanity they displayed in their dress. 
 
44 THE FATHER OF THE CHURCH IN TENNESSEE 
 
 No pictures ornamented the bare walls. Stools 
 served the purpose of chairs; the tables were slabs of 
 timber roughly put together; wooden plates and ves- 
 sels took the place of our modern chinaware. Even 
 the spoons and forks were either wooden or tin. ‘The 
 beds, if not lain on the floor, were placed on rough 
 puncheons, supported by legs of a kind, or by wooden 
 pins fastened in the sides of the house. All these arti- 
 cles were home-made, except the tin forks and spoons, 
 which were few. Long-stemmed gourds, grown on the 
 premises, were used for drinking purposes. Tin cups 
 were a luxury almost as rare as an iron fork. ‘The 
 pocket or hunting knife served at the table as well as 
 in the field or on the chase. Perhaps bear and buffalo 
 skins no longer principally constituted the blankets 
 for the beds; yet these articles were still manufactured 
 at home. Sheets, when present, were a delicacy made 
 of unbleached flax or hemp spun and woven by the 
 ladies of the household. 
 
 Such was the miliew in which grew up Tennessee’s 
 first Catholic bishop, who went to Kentucky when only 
 five years of age. It was a great change from the more 
 elite life in older Maryland, yet a good preparation for 
 the work that lay before him. Besides, his father 
 located happily in the west, for the Cox’s Creek Settle- 
 ment was one of the most faithful to its religion in the 
 state, and offered good temporal advantages. It pros- 
 pered from the start. An idea of its growth and of 
 the character of the people who founded it may be 
 
 gleaned from the Hon. Ben. Webb, who writes: 
 
 In the year 1800, the Cox’s Creek Settlement, afterwards 
 better known as that of Fairfield, was composed of between forty 
 and fifty families. The names borne by the heads of these families, 
 
KENTUCKY AND HIS BOYHOOD THERE 45 
 
 so far as the writer has been able to secure them, were: Clement 
 Gardiner, Nicholas Miles, Thomas Elder, Francis Coomes, Zach- 
 ariah Aud, Thomas Aud, James Knott, Austin Montgomery, Rich- 
 ard Adams, Thomas Higdon, Austin Clements, Wilfred Wathen, 
 Raphael Hagan, Richard Coomes, Walter Simpson, James Simp- 
 son, Archibald Pitt, Richard Jarboe, Valentine Thomson, John 
 Payne, James Speaks, Benedict Smith, Joseph Gardiner, Charles 
 Wathen, Thomas Lilly, John Lilly, Thomas Brewer, Richard 
 Clark, Daniel Rogers, Clement Clark, Ignatius Drury, — Mitch- 
 ell, Charles Warren, James Spalding, Joseph Clark, — Daugh- 
 erty, Hezekiah Lucket and Hilary Drury.?® 
 
 To those conversant with the Catholic history of Ken- 
 tucky this list reveals a community well worthy of note. 
 Some of the best known names in the annals of Catholic- 
 ity in the state appear there. A number of the per- 
 sons mentioned were not only exemplary characters; 
 they also deserved well of the Church and their adopted 
 county. Webb speaks of the cluster in terms of spe- 
 cial praise, and gives sketches of several of those who 
 composed it. From them or their descendants have 
 come a goodly quota of vocations to the ministry of the 
 Church and to our various sisterhoods. 
 
 Nicholas Miles himself was by no means the least 
 worthy or unimportant personage in this group of fine 
 families. God blessed him both temporally and spiritu- 
 ally. Indeed, in spite of his age when he went to the 
 new west, he seems to have prospered more than most 
 of his neighbors. Honest and possessed of an excellent 
 character, in addition to a good mind and judgment, 
 he soon became one of the most influential citizens of 
 Nelson County. If we may trust a still extant tradi- 
 tion, the people admired him, trusted him, and sought 
 his advice. His word was as good as his bond. So far 
 as the writer has ascertained, he held no political posi- 
 
 23 Wess, op. cit., p. 114. 
 
46 THE FATHER OF THE CHURCH IN TENNESSEE 
 
 tion. Possibly, imbued with the true Miles spirit, he 
 wanted none. He did not need such remuneration for 
 the support of his family, and he had little desire for 
 honors. 
 
 It has been handed down to us that he was an affec- 
 tionate husband and a kind father, anxious to bring up 
 his children in the fear and love of God. Doubtless in 
 this duty he found the best of helpmates in his wife, 
 whom tradition represents as an excellent lady and fond 
 mother. Like many of the early Catholic women in 
 Kentucky, she was pious, deeply attached to her relig- 
 ion, and little imbued with the spirit of the world. 
 In short, she was a worthy mother of the worthy son 
 whose life is sketched in these pages. 
 
 A family blessed with parents like these could not 
 but be happy. Perhaps their greatest sorrow was the 
 lack of priests properly to attend to the spiritual needs 
 of the people. Kentucky was a distant, lonesome, and 
 arduous field for which it was hard to procure mission- 
 aries. Letters show that this problem formed one of 
 Archbishop Carroll’s chief difficulties and regrets. 
 Most of those who undertook the task either became 
 disheartened by the trials and left it for other spheres 
 of labor, or sank under the weight of the burden. Much 
 of the time from the date of Nicholas Miles’ arrival 
 there (1796), until the summer of 1805, Father Badin 
 was the only priest in the state. Even when he had 
 assistance, the various missions could not be visited of- 
 tener than once in a month or six weeks. When he 
 was left alone the intervals between the ministrations 
 were much longer. 
 
 Fortunately the people had been well trained in 
 Maryland. Even when there were no divine services on 
 
KENTUCKY AND HIS BOYHOOD THERE 47 
 
 Sunday, the best Catholics gathered at the church, chap- 
 el, or station, where they read the mass prayers, said 
 litanies, and recited the Rosary. The family of Nicho- 
 las Miles, one can not doubt, was one of the most faith- 
 ful in attendance at these pious exercises. Tradition 
 has it that at times mass was offered up in his house; 
 but ordinarily this sacred function was performed at 
 Clement Gardiner’s (or Saint Michael’s, Fairfield) 
 and Thomas Gwynn’s, which were more conveniently 
 situated for the faithful. On such occasions the Miles 
 thought nothing of riding horseback to those places and 
 Saint Joseph’s, or even to Poplar Neck, five or six miles 
 the other side of Bardstown. 
 
 The sacrifices which the Catholics of that day made 
 for the sake of their religion stand out in bold contrast 
 with the spirit of ease and indifference that charac- 
 terizes many in our generation. It has been said that 
 in. his after life as priest and bishop the subject of our 
 narrative often spoke of how strict his parents were that 
 everyone should attend mass whenever possible. He 
 loved them, and his gratitude went out to them with 
 special force because of the way in which they looked 
 after the interests of his soul. 
 
 Another topic on which he loved to dwell was how, 
 in his youthful days, he went to church riding horseback 
 behind his father or mother, or an older brother or sister. 
 Not infrequently the father of a family would take one 
 child in his lap, while another, or even two, were perched 
 behind him, their little legs dangling down by the horse’s 
 side. It was a heroic time that made staunch men and 
 women. 
 
 One of the greatest problems with which the pioneers 
 of Kentucky had to contend was the education of their 
 
48 THE FATHER OF THE CHURCH IN TENNESSEE 
 
 children. Still, largely thanks to Irish schoolmasters 
 who emigrated to America in numbers, more than one 
 intellectual giant was reared in the backwoods of that 
 state. No doubt the same difficulty gave Nicholas anx- 
 ious moments. Some of his children were past the 
 school age when he moved west. There the older girls 
 very likely followed the custom among the better fam- 
 ilies of the day, and helped the mother to instruct their 
 younger brothers and sisters. It has also been handed 
 down to us that Nicholas Miles kept a private tutor 
 at his home. ‘he tradition is borne out by the fact 
 that Richard had laid the foundations of a good educa- 
 tion by the time the Dominicans arrived in the neigh- 
 borhood. 
 
 Nicholas Miles, as has been seen, fared well in Ken- 
 tucky—perhaps even beyond his fondest hopes. In 
 1812 he added another small tract of land to his former 
 possessions. But in the next year, possibly unable 
 longer to look after his farm because of age, he seems 
 to have purchased some acres where the town of Bloom- 
 field now stands, and to have started a country store.” 
 At any rate, there is something of a tradition to the 
 effect that he died while engaged in business there, and 
 that he and his son Kdward were among the founders 
 of the town, if it does not even owe its existence to their 
 initiative. ‘The old homestead of Edward Miles, al- 
 most palatial in size and appearance, still stands just 
 outside Bloomfield. We could not discover whether 
 it was built by him or by his father.” 
 
 29 Deed Book 9, p. 476, and Deed Book 10, pp. 48-50, in Recorder’s 
 Office, Bardstown, Kentucky. 
 
 30 Will Book E, pp. 28-29, Recorder’s Office, Bardstown Kentucky, 
 
 gives the will of Nicholas Miles. It is dated February 27, and was 
 probated October 20, 1823. His wife Ann and son Edward were execu- 
 
KENTUCKY AND HIS BOYHOOD THERE 49 
 
 Meanwhile the children married into some of the best 
 Catholic families in Nelson County. Charity, the first 
 to leave the parental home, was united in marriage to 
 Ralph Lancaster by Father Badin on April 21, 1798. 
 Milly, or Matilda, became the wife of Clement Hagan, 
 February 4, 1799, Father Badin officiating again. 
 Thomas married Christina Gardiner, daughter of Clem- 
 ent Gardiner, whose house long served as a station for 
 the people of Cox’s Creek Settlement. ‘This was on 
 December 9, 1805. Father Badin also presided at this 
 ceremony. When Mary joined in wedlock with Robert 
 Livers, November 8, 1806, she obtained the muiunistra- 
 tion of Father Charles Nerinckx. ‘The tireless Badin, 
 who ordinarily attended that mission, must have been 
 on an apostolic tour in another part of the state.” 
 
 It was a common thing in those days for one daughter 
 to remain single, at least until comparatively late in life, 
 and play the role of good angel to the rest of the fam- 
 ily. Ann Miles, unless she were the youngest girl, 
 would seem to have taken this part in the home of her 
 parents; for the register shows that she married Daniel 
 Smith on June 23, 1815. Father John B. David, later 
 coadjutor bishop of Bardstown, performed the cere- 
 mony for her.” The inscription on the tombstone of 
 
 tors. They gave a bond for eight thousand dollars. Thomas Miles 
 and Robert Livers were their securities. 
 
 31 Manuscript list of early marriages in Nelson County (in County 
 Clerk’s Office, Bardstown) got up by William J. Dalmazzo from the rec- 
 ords in the court house. 
 
 32 See preceding note. The careful Webb is in error when he says 
 (op. cit., p. 79) that this daughter of Nicholas Miles was named Cath- 
 erine. Doubtless, however, he is correct in the statement that Daniel 
 Smith belonged to Washington County, and later moved to Louisville, 
 where he became one of the pillars of Saint Louis’ Church. The 
 descendants of Nicholas Miles through these various marriages, like 
 those of practically all the pioneer settlers of Kentucky, are scattered 
 in many parts of the United States. 
 
 5 
 
50 THE FATHER OF THE CHURCH IN TENNESSEE 
 
 himself and wife Rebecca shows that Edward B. Miles 
 married still later, and that she died first; while the 
 settlement of his estate reveals the fact that he left no 
 children. 
 
 But God had a higher vocation in store for good 
 Nicholas Miles’ youngest child, Richard. Tradition, 
 both in the family and in Saint Joseph’s Province of 
 Friars Preacher, represents him as a clever boy much 
 given to piety. Possibly he was one of Father Badin’s 
 altar boys for the stations at Thomas Gwynn’s and at 
 Clement Gardiner’s. ‘The zealous missionary’s busy 
 life left him little time to do much in the way of foster- 
 ing vocations, which may have turned the mind of the 
 pious youth towards the Order of Saint Dominic, in- 
 stead of the priesthood in the ranks of the diocesan cler- 
 gy. Of this, however, future pages will tell. 
 
CHAPTER III 
 
 GOES TO SAINT ROSE'S 
 
 PERHAPS we can not begin this chapter better than 
 with a relation of the circumstances that led the Domin- 
 icans to Kentucky contrary to their original plans. 
 This course will involve a repetition, it is true, of much 
 that has been told in the Life of the Right Rev. Ed- 
 ward Dominic Fenwick, founder of Saint Rose’s, and 
 later the first bishop of Cincinnati. Still the plan is no 
 less necessary as a historical setting for any complete 
 sketch of the I*ather of the Church in Tennessee than 
 it was for the story of the apostle of Ohio. No man 
 can be properly understood without a knowledge of 
 his environments, and of the various currents of 
 influence that flowed into the stream of his life. 
 
 One of the prime motives that inspired the league of 
 sixty families in Maryland for emigrating to Kentucky 
 was the more certainly to secure a pastor for their souls; 
 another was to render his labors easier and his life less 
 lonely, as well as his work more effective, by having 
 his flock gathered in one settlement." However, the 
 scarcity of priests in the United States, the multitudi- 
 nous calls for help, and the distance of the western mis- 
 sion made it hard in the extreme for Father Carroll to 
 send them a spiritual shepherd. There can be no doubt 
 that the vicar apostolic’s heart went out to them in their 
 privation. They were his charge, for his authority ex- 
 
 1 SpapinG, Early Catholic Missions, p. 25; WEBB, op. cit., ps 27. 
 51 
 
52 THE FATHER OF THE CHURCH IN TENNESSEE 
 
 tended throughout the country, while not a few of them 
 were perhaps connected with him by ties of both blood 
 and friendship. But he could not do that which was 
 impossible. 
 
 In this way, two years elapsed before the five and 
 twenty families of the league who emigrated first had 
 the happiness of seeing an ambassador of Christ in 
 their midst. One can more readily imagine than por- 
 tray the joy that filled their hearts when he arrived, for 
 their lonesomeness was all the more desolate because 
 of the long privation of the succors of religion. ‘This 
 early missionary was Father Charles Whelan who had 
 formerly labored in New York City, where he began the 
 first church in our greatest American metropolis. 
 
 Father Whelan reached Kentucky during the year 
 1787. Unfortunately we have only the meagerest rec- 
 ord of his labors there. He was a member of the Order 
 of Saint Francis, pious, zealous, humble, and gentle. 
 He had lived in the refined society of Europe, and seems 
 to have been of too mild a disposition to cope with the 
 difficulties of rough backwoods life, where the people 
 had perhaps become somewhat intractable through long 
 deprivation of the sacraments, no less than through lack 
 of spiritual guidance. 
 
 All the while the toilsome missionary was overbur- 
 dened with his ministry to others, he had no priestly 
 companion with whom he could consult, or to admin- 
 ister the waters of grace to his own soul. Rest he knew 
 none. His incessant travels and his poverty did not 
 even permit him to erect an humble home for himself, 
 or a modest temple of worship for the people. Some of 
 the Catholics treated him rudely, whilst the spirit of in- 
 tolerance on the part of not a few non-Catholics wor- 
 
GOES TO SAINT ROSE’S 53 
 
 ried him. For these reasons, he returned to the east in 
 the spring of 1790, after a little more than two years 
 of labor in the wilds of Kentucky.’ 
 
 Some six months later in the same year, the Rev. 
 William Rohan appeared in the settlements. He had 
 exercised the ministry in Virginia; but it is said that 
 he went into Kentucky with a band of emigrants from 
 North Carolina and eastern Tennessee. Our most volu- 
 minous Catholic historical writer, John Gilmary Shea, 
 is greatly in error when he says that this missionary was 
 a Dominican. Like his predecessor, Father Rohan was 
 of Irish parentage. However, he seems to have been 
 educated, if not born, in France. He performed the 
 sacred functions in Kentucky for only a few months. 
 Yet, before the close of 1790, he built the first Cath- 
 olic church erected in the state. It was located in the 
 Pottinger’s Creek Settlement, and was later consecrated 
 to the service of God under the title of Holy Cross.’ 
 
 2 Bapin, Origine et Progrés de la Mission du Kentucky, p. 2; SPALDING, 
 Early Catholic Missions, pp. 41 ff, and Life of Bishop Flaget, pp. 73-74; 
 Wess, op. cit., pp. 156-158; Sura, Life of Archbishop Carroll, passim; 
 O’DanieEL, Life of Bishop Fenwick, pp. 71-72. 
 
 Mr. Webb insinuates at least that Father Whelan was a man of 
 violent temper and rather hard to get along with. However, he had 
 various charges in the east, and the writer has found no accusation 
 made against him in any of these places. On the contrary, he seems to 
 have been a very mild character. He died at Saint Mary’s Church on 
 White Clay Creek, New Castle County, Delaware, not far from Wil- 
 mington, March. 21, 1806. At the time of his death he was pastor 
 of Saint Mary’s, whence he attended several missions in Delaware and 
 southeastern Pennsylvania. 
 
 In his Life of Archbishop Carroll (pp 271-272), Doctor John G. Shea 
 says that Father Paul de St. Pierre, O.C.D., was in Kentucky in 1785, 
 and gives as his reference a letter of the Carmelite to the archbishop. 
 However, it should be noted that there is no tradition of the presence 
 of this priest in the state; nor have we been able to find any such 
 document at Baltimore. 
 
 3 Spaupinc, Early Catholic Missions, p. 49, and Life of Flaget, p. 74; 
 
54 THE FATHER OF THE CHURCH IN TENNESSEE 
 
 The next three years were a period of spiritual exile 
 and desolation for the Catholics in the west like unto 
 that of Babylon for the chosen people of old. Mean- 
 while Father John Carroll had been appointed the first 
 bishop of the United States, and had gone to England 
 and received episcopal consecration from the Right 
 Rev. Charles Walmesley, O.S.B., vicar apostolic of the 
 Western District, August 15, 1790. ‘The new prelate 
 reached Baltimore on his return journey, December 7 
 of the same year.* His heart must have been saddened 
 by the situation of the faithful in Kentucky, and by 
 their appeals for a priest who could give them the bread 
 of eternal life. Still, however much it pained him, it 
 was long before he was able to grant their petition. 
 
 God, in His wise counsel, knows well how to draw 
 good out of evil. Thus He turned the afflictions 
 brought upon the Church of Europe by the French Rey- 
 olution into a source of blessings for that of the United 
 States. Nor was Kentucky, mayhap in answer to the 
 prayers of the good people there, overlooked in the di- 
 vine dispensation. Among the ecclesiastical refugees 
 who came to Baltimore were the Revs. Michael Bernard 
 Barriére and Stephen Theodore Badin. ‘The former 
 was already in priestly orders; the latter a subdea- 
 con. Ordained on May 25, 1793, Father Badin was 
 not only the first man raised to the priesthood by Arch- 
 WEsp, op. cit., pp. 26, 70, 158-159; Sura, Life of Carroll, p. 272; 
 O’DanieEL, Life of Fenwick, p. 72. 
 
 It is certain that Father Rohan labored for a time in Virginia, shortly 
 after he came to America. Spalding (page 29 of his Early Misstons) 
 tells us that he was in Tennessee for more than a year before going to 
 Kentucky, and that towards the end of his life he went to Saint Thomas’ 
 Seminary, near Bardstown, “where he died piously, about the year 1832.” 
 
 4SHEA, op. cit., pp. 359, 369; Guitpay, Life of Archbishop Carroll 
 pp. 373, 383. 
 
GOES TO SAINT ROSE’S 55 
 
 bishop Carroll, but even the first upon whom that sacred 
 office was conferred within the present limits of the 
 United States.” 
 
 These two clergymen were chosen for the desolate 
 western mission. Barriéere received the appointment of 
 vicar general. They began their journey on September 
 6, 1793, and travelled by the easier and safer way of 
 Pittsburgh. At Gallipolis, Ohio, they broke their river 
 voyage in order to visit the remnants of the French still 
 in the ill-fated Scioto Colony, which they found in a de- 
 plorable spiritual situation. They left the boat again 
 at Limestone (now Maysville), Kentucky, whence they 
 struck out for Lexington and the Catholic settlement 
 in Scott County. They arrived at Lexington in time 
 for the younger priest to say mass there on the first 
 Sunday of Advent, which fell that year on the first day 
 of December. Father Barriere, for they had but one 
 chalice, then rode sixteen miles in order to perform the 
 same good office for the people in the Catholic settle- 
 ment of Scott County.° 
 
 With Father Badin this mass at Lexington marked 
 the beginning of labors in Kentucky that extended over 
 a period of more than a quarter of a century, as well 
 as justly won for him the title of apostle of the state. 
 Barriére soon tired of the hardships and loneliness of the 
 backwoods, or perhaps felt it impossible to learn the 
 English language at his age. He left the missions for 
 New Orleans in the April of 1794.‘ In this way, did 
 
 S BADIN, op. cit., p. 3 
 
 6 BavIN, op. cit., p. 16; Spatpinc, Early Missions, passim; Wess, op. 
 cit., passim; O’DANIEL, op. cit., pp. 72-73. For further information 
 on Father Badin the reader is referred to Spalding’s Early Missions, 
 Webb’s Centenary, and the author’s Life of Fenwick. 
 
 7 After leaving Kentucky, Father Barriére was given a mission in 
 an extensive district in southern Louisiana known as Attakapas. There 
 
56 THE FATHER OF THE CHURCH IN TENNESSEE 
 
 the youthful Badin, not yet twelve months ordained, 
 and only five and twenty years of age, have the entire 
 burden of the widely scattered Catholic settlements 
 thrown on his shoulders. It must have been a severe 
 shock for him. A man of less spirit would have lost 
 courage, and followed the example of the senior clergy- 
 man. 
 
 The reader can imagine what exertions so extensive 
 a pastoral charge demanded that the various stations 
 might be even occasionally visited, confessions heard, 
 and the faith kept alive in the hearts of the people. 
 With all this, in addition to sick calls from far and near, 
 the lonely missioner may be said to have practically lived 
 on horseback, then the only way of travel. Fortunate- 
 ly, nature had blessed him with a buoyant spirit that 
 was proof against dejection, an iron constitution that 
 nothing could break, and a nervous energy that seemed 
 never to tire. The wonder is that he effected so much 
 under almost unparalleled handicaps, rather than that 
 he did not accomplish more. 
 
 One can hardly but believe that the Catholics of 
 Maryland had some knowledge of the difficulties with 
 which their friends and relations in Kentucky had to 
 contend in the practice of their religion. Yet the 
 stream of immigration did not lessen. Krom this fact 
 we may conclude that Bishop Carroll must have given 
 solemn assurances to the home-seekers that the dearth 
 of missionaries would soon be remedied. In fact, it 
 he labored hard and faithfully until in extreme old age. In 1824, he 
 returned to his native Bordeaux, but died eight days after his arrival. 
 Father Charles L. Souvay, C.M., who feels that he left Kentucky because 
 of his despair of learning the English language, has a very nice sketch 
 of his life and work in Louisiana in the Saint Louis Catholic Historical 
 
 Review for October, 1921 (Vol. III, pp. 242-294): “Rummaging through 
 old Parish Records”. 
 
GOES /TO SAINT ROSE'S 57 
 
 was towards the end of this religiously forlorn period 
 that Nicholas Miles took his family to the west. Little 
 Richard, then only five years of age, went with the 
 rest. 
 
 On February 26, 1797, Father Badin and his desolate 
 flocks were gladdened by the arrival of the Rev. Mich- 
 ael J. Fournier, an affable and zealous French clergy- 
 man. Meantime the veteran missionary had put up a 
 rectory or priest’s house near the center of the Catho- 
 lic settlements, where now stands the mother-house of 
 the Sisters of Loretto. He called it Saint Stephen’s. 
 Here he and Father Fournier lived together for a time, 
 although they made an apportionment of the missions. 
 
 Badin, who was the vicar general, ordinarily attended 
 the more distant places; but he retained Nelson County, 
 in which the Cox’s Creek Settlement was situated, as 
 a part of his charge. ‘Thus he was the pastor of Nich- 
 olas Miles and the subject of our narrative. After a 
 twelvemonth’s sojourn at Saint Stephen’s, Fournier 
 built a residence for himself in the colony on the Roll- 
 ing Fork, near the present Church of the Holy Name 
 of Mary, Calvary. The division of the work, however, 
 continued practically the same as before.” 
 
 A little later, to the joy of all the faithful in the state, 
 the clerical force in the missions was increased a hun- 
 dred fold. The Rev. Anthony Salmon reached Saint 
 Stephen’s on January 31, 1799. Father John Thayer 
 
 8 Father Fournier, Kentucky, to Bishop Carroll, Baltimore, March 2, 
 1797 (Baltimore Archives, Case 8 A, M 1); Badin to same, March 2, 1797 
 (ibid, Case 1, E 7). Spalding’s Early Missions (p. 73) tells us that 
 Fournier fled from France to England, and that he taught French in 
 London for about four years before coming to America. 
 
 9 Father Badin to Bishop Carroll, March 4, 1798 (Baltimore Archives, 
 Case 1, E 9); Spaupine, Early Missions, pp. 74-75; Wess, op. cit., passim. 
 
58 THE FATHER OF THE CHURCH IN TENNESSEE 
 
 arrived a few days later.’? Salmon and Fournier had 
 been fellow students and brother priests in the Diocese 
 of Blois, France, before the French Revolution. 'Thay- 
 er, a former Presbyterian minister in Massachusetts, 
 was converted and received into the Church in Rome, 
 but studied and was ordained at Paris. Never before 
 had Kentucky been blessed with so many ambassadors 
 of Christ. All finally promised well for the spiritual 
 welfare of the faithful there. 
 
 In the new disposition of things Father Thayer took 
 up his residence in Scott County, where a house was 
 erected for him. Father Salmon made his home at 
 Saint Stephen’s with the vicar general; whilst Father 
 Fournier remained on the Rolling Fork. This arrange- 
 ment seems to have left Father Badin freer to give more 
 attention to the smaller and more remote Catholic set- 
 tlements, isolated families, and whatever else demanded 
 his care. 
 
 The field of labor assigned to Father Salmon includ- 
 ed Nelson County." In this way he came into contact 
 with Master Richard Miles and his father. It is said 
 that the amiable missionary soon won the hearts of his 
 flock. Tradition also tells us that at times he said mass 
 at the home of Nicholas Miles, that he had no truer ad- 
 mirer than this staunch Catholic gentleman, and that 
 he showed a particular interest in little Richard, whose 
 piety possibly foreshadowed his future life. It is not 
 improbable that the vocation of the future Father of the 
 
 10 Father Salmon, Kentucky, to Bishop Carroll, Baltimore, May 27, 
 1799 (Baltimore Archives, Case 8 B, G 5); Badin to same, February 20, 
 1799) (ibid) Cusevli ale pe 
 
 11 Father Badin to Bishop Carroll, October 9, 1799 (Baltimore Archives, 
 
 Case 1, E 16), and February 20, 1799, as in the preceding note; SPALDING, 
 Early Missions, pp. 74-81; Wess, op. cit., passim. 
 
GOESTIO,SAIND ROSE'S 59 
 
 Church in Tennessee received its first impluse from this 
 friendship. 
 
 These fair prospects were short-lived. Death and 
 other causes all too soon thinned the sacerdotal ranks— 
 nay, left the people again with little spiritual succor 
 and guidance. 'The first to fall a victim to his zeal was 
 Father Salmon. He was thrown from his horse, while 
 on his way to the station at Thomas Gwynn’s. He had 
 not recovered from a spell of sickness contracted, says 
 Spalding, from excessive labor and exposure. Perhaps 
 the weak state of his health helped to make fatal the fall, 
 from which he died at Mr. Gwynn’s the next day, No- 
 vember 10, 1799. Father Salmon was the first priest 
 to die in Kentucky.” The Gwynn home stood not far 
 from that of Bishop Miles, who was then a boy nearly 
 nine years of age. It has been handed down to us that 
 he remembered the sad event well, and that he was 
 wont frequently to speak of it in after life. 
 
 Less than four years later, February 12, 1803, Fa- 
 ther Fournier also passed to his eternal reward. He, 
 too, was a victim of his zeal. His death, although oc- 
 casioned by an accident in a saw mill, the state’s apostle 
 says, “was chiefly caused by his excessive labours and 
 long rides.” *° 
 
 Conversion and ordination failed to take all the old 
 leaven of Puritanism out of Father Thayer. This fact 
 combined with other causes to make his ministrations 
 unacceptable. Accordingly, he exercised the sacred 
 functions in Kentucky for only about two years. Later 
 he returned to the east, going thence to England, and 
 
 12 SpatpinG, Early Missions, 77-78 ; WEBB, op. cit., pp. 138, 168-169. 
 13 Father Badin to Bishop Carroll, April 11, 1803 (Baltimore Archives, 
 
 Case A Special, L 12); Spatpinc, Early Missions, p. 75; WeEsB, op. cit., 
 pp. 111-113. 
 
60 THE FATHER OF THE CHURCH IN TENNESSEE 
 
 finally to Ireland, where he is said to have spent the last 
 years of his life in the service of the poor in Limerick.* 
 
 Thus was the stalwart Badin again left alone for 
 more than two years in the pastoral care of Kentucky. 
 His labors now became greater than they had ever been. 
 The missions had grown in both size and number; the 
 distances he had to travel were lengthened; the sick-calls 
 were multiplied; there were more scattered Catholics re- 
 mote from the districts oecupied by the faithful. The 
 good priest’s cares had no end. One can form some 
 idea of his toil when it is recalled that the places he was 
 obliged to visit extended, from east to west, over a dis- 
 tance of some one hundred and thirty or forty miles, 
 and from north to south perhaps seventy miles. I*ew 
 missionaries could have faced so much in such a soli- 
 tary situation. From this point of view his life was 
 truly heroic. 
 
 Letters in the diocesan archives of Baltimore show 
 that not only did the solitary pastor of Kentucky send 
 urgent appeals to Bishop Carroll for spiritual assist- 
 ance; the people themselves joined in the supplication. 
 Money was forwarded to defray the expenses of travel 
 for priests from the east to the west.” Rumors or prom- 
 ises of aid often raised hopes that were soon disap- 
 pointed. We can imagine the interest aroused in the 
 bosoms of the backwoodsmen by a proposal to establish 
 
 14 Spatpinc, Early Missions, pp. 78-81; Wess, op. cit., pp. 169-174. 
 In his Life of Archbishop Carroll, pp. 420-427, Doctor Guilday gives 
 some interesting biographical details of Father Thayer. He labored 
 in many places, and the documents of that day show that he proved 
 successful in none, unless it were in his charity work in Limerick, where 
 he died in 1815. Prudence and judgment were not among his qualifi- 
 cations. 
 
 15 Father Badin’s voluminous correspondence in the Baltimore archives 
 shows that he did not spare himself during this trying time, nor from 
 
GOES TO SAINT ROSE’S 61 
 
 a community of Franciscans in Scott County under the 
 leadership of Father Michael Egan, afterwards the 
 first bishop of Philadelphia. Surely the good people 
 must have felt that finally God had heard their 
 prayers.”® 
 
 Hiventually, late in the summer of 1804, Father Ba- 
 din received a visit from the Rev. Urban Guillet, su- 
 perior of a band of Trappists who had been driven from 
 France by the revolution, and were temporarily located 
 at Pigeon Hills, not far from Gettysburg, Pennsyl- 
 vania. Father Guillet’s purpose was to find a suitable 
 home for his brethren in one of the Catholic settlements 
 of Kentucky. The idea greatly pleased the state’s vet- 
 eran missionary. Yet he felt that the presence of a com- 
 munity whose life was wholly contemplative would 
 rather offer him a place of occasional retreat than 
 lighten his labors, or aid in distributing the bread of 
 life to the starving Church of the west." 
 
 Almost immediately after his arrival in Kentucky, 
 Father Badin estimated the number of Catholic families 
 
 1794 to 1797 when he was also alone. Besides, the same archives have 
 a number of letters from the people appealing for priests. One of these 
 is signed by one hundred and four men of the Cartwright’s Creek Settle- 
 ment. It bears no date, but some one has written “1808” on it. This, how- 
 ever, seems to be a mistake. It must have been written around 1803, and 
 very likely led to the Dominicans settling there. In the last years of 
 the eighteenth century some thirty-five or forty families, among them 
 those of Joseph Fenwick and George Hamilton, his son-in-law, moved 
 from Kentucky to the Spanish possessions in Missouri in order to be 
 able to practise their religion. 
 
 16 Badin to Carroll, December 6, 1804 (Baltimore Archives, Case A 
 Special, L 10); American Catholic Historical Researches, IX, 75-76. 
 ~The documents also show that Father John Dubois, founder of Mount 
 Saint Mary’s College, Einmitsburg, Maryland, and later the third bishop 
 of New York, once thought of going to Kentucky. 
 
 17 Badin to Carroll as in the preceding note; and same to same, 
 September 7, 1804 (Baltimore Archives, Case A Special, L 11). 
 
62 THE FATHER OF THE CHURCH IN TENNESSEE 
 
 in the state at some three hundred. By the time of 
 which we speak these had increased a hundred fold, for 
 in a letter to Bishop Carroll dated August 31, 1803, 
 he states: ““Having made a new census of the different 
 parishes, I find the number of Catholics amounts to up- 
 wards of seven hundred families.’”**> Doubtless, how- 
 ever, the wide territory over which the faithful were 
 scattered, the many matters that demanded the time 
 and attention of the lone priest, and other difficulties of 
 the day rendered it impossible to make a complete cen- 
 sus. 
 
 Indeed, it is quite probable that the Catholic house- 
 holds were considerably in excess of Father Badin’s es- 
 timate. Very likely the number in 1803 was nearer that 
 which he gives in another statement more than three 
 years later. In a letter of March 14, 1807, he tells his 
 ordinary that he has counted nine hundred and seventy- 
 two families.” For nearly two decades those of the 
 faith had flocked into Kentucky in ever increasing vol- 
 ume, not merely from Maryland, but also from other 
 parts of the country, and even from Ireland. 
 
 Together with this letter of March 14, 1807, Father 
 Badin sent Doctor Carroll a list of nineteen parishes 
 or stations with churches or prospects of having them 
 in the near future. Apart from their interest as a mat- 
 ter of history, these places and their respective distances 
 from Father Badin’s residence will give the reader a 
 better idea of the forces that led the Dominicans to 
 Kentucky, and serve as a further background for our 
 narrative. 
 
 1. Saint Stephen’s, then in Washington, but now 
 
 18 Baltimore Archives, Case A Special, L 1. 
 19 Jbid., Case 1, I 3. 
 
GOES TO SAINT ROSE’S 63 
 
 in Marion County. Mass was said in Father Badin’s 
 house for the faithful. 
 
 2. Holy Cross, in the Pottinger’s Creek Settlement, 
 then also in Washington County, but now in Marion. 
 It was five or six miles west of Saint Stephen’s.”° 
 
 3. Saint Francis’, in Scott County, built in 1796 or 
 1797, and seventy-two miles northeast.” 
 
 4. Saint Ann’s, in the Cartwright’s Creek Settle- 
 ment, Washington County, built in 1797 or 1798— 
 about seven miles east. 
 
 5. Saint Joseph’s, near Bardstown, Nelson County, 
 which was built in 1797 and 1798—thirteen miles north. 
 
 6. Holy Mary’s, in the Rolling Fork Settlement, 
 in Washington County, but now in Marion and about 
 five miles from the present Lebanon—thirteen miles 
 southeast. The church there was under way. 
 
 7; Saint Thomas’, in “Poplar Neck”, on the Beech 
 Fork, Nelson County, eleven miles north. 
 
 8. Saint Charles’, Washington County (now in 
 Marion County), eight miles southeast. This church 
 was built in 1806. 
 
 9. Saint Michael’s, in the Cox’s Creek Settlement 
 (now Fairfield), Nelson County, twenty-four miles to 
 
 20 Washington County was cut out of Nelson County in 1792, the 
 same year that Kentucky received the honor of statehood. Marion 
 County was formed, in 1834, by a division of Washington County. 
 
 21 In no other early Catholic settlement of Kentucky has religion fared 
 so badly as in that of Scott County. From the beginning the parish 
 gave its pastors trouble. It was the most favorably situated of them all 
 from a worldly point of view, for the land was very fertile. Perhaps the 
 people gave too much attention to their temporal welfare, making a god of 
 mammon at the expense of their souls. It seems unfortunate that a 
 number of the best families of the colony, including several Fenwicks 
 who were leaders in church affairs, removed to Missouri. The parish 
 
 has dwindled down to seven or eight families, of whom only about 
 three can claim any connection with the original Catholic settlers. 
 
64 THE FATHER OF THE CHURCH IN TENNESSEE 
 
 the north. It seems that a log temple of prayer had 
 been begun there, if it were not even in actual use. The 
 reader will remember that this was the parish to which 
 Nicholas Miles belonged.” 
 
 10. Saint Clare’s, near the present Colesburg, in 
 Hardin County—twenty-four miles to the northwest. 
 
 11. Saint Benedict’s, Shelby County, thirty-five or 
 forty miles north.” 
 
 12. Saint Anthony’s, “near the forks of Rough 
 Creek”, Breckinridge County—eighty miles to the west. 
 It is now the parish known as Axtel. 
 
 13. Saint Christopher’s, “near the Kentucky River’, 
 Madison County—eighty miles east by north. 
 
 14. Saint Louis’, in the present City of Louisville, 
 which was more than fifty miles north. 
 
 15. Saint Peter’s, in Lexington, seventy miles to 
 the northeast. 
 
 16. Saint Bernard’s, Adair County, thirty-four 
 miles southeast. ‘he church for this congregation was 
 subsequently built in Casey County, where now stands 
 the village of Clementsville. 
 
 17. Saint Patrick’s, Danville, Mercer County (now 
 Boyle County )—thirty miles east. 
 
 22For one reason or another, there was considerable trouble about 
 building the little log church at this place, which caused it to be a long- 
 drawn-out affair. 
 
 23 Father Badin’s list and a letter from him to Bishop Carroll, sent 
 from “St. Benedict’s, Shelby County, May 12, 1808” (Baltimore Archives, 
 Case 1, I 7), show that this station was then in Shelby County. A 
 communication to the United States Catholic Miscellany of December 
 16, 1826, tells us that it was in the part of Shelby County taken (in 1824) 
 to help in forming that of Spencer. The distance of Saint Benedict’s 
 from Saint Stephen’s is given in Bishop Maes’ Life of Father Charles 
 Nerinckx (p. 126) as thirty-three miles. But a letter of Father Badin 
 
 to Bishop Carroll, October 5, 1805 (Baltimore Archives, Case 1, G 10) 
 says it was about forty miles from his home. 
 
GOES TO SAINT ROSE’S 65 
 
 18. Saint John’s, Bullitt County, twenty-five or 
 thirty miles northwest of Saint Stephen’s. The church 
 there was in course of erection.” 
 
 19. Springfield, Washington County, nine or ten 
 miles to the east.” 
 
 One would have expected to see Harrodsburg men- 
 tioned in the above list. The nucleus of a Catholic col- 
 ony gathered in that neighborhood, thirty-five or forty 
 miles northeast of Father Badin’s home, at an early 
 date. Although it never became numerous, still it 
 would seem to have deserved notice. Possibly its omis- 
 sion was an oversight. 
 
 The spiritual desolation of the faithful in that dis- 
 tant part of his diocese and Father Badin’s endless la- 
 bors gave Bishop Carroll great anxiety. He had expe- 
 rienced no little difficulty in finding priests ready to set- 
 tle in the remote mission, or capable of sustaining its 
 hardships and privations. It was but natural, there- 
 fore, that he should turn his thoughts to the Dominicans 
 from the English province, when Father Edward Dom- 
 
 24Maes (op. cit., p. 127) makes Father Nerinckx say that place was 
 only fifteen miles from Saint Stephen’s. But this is evidently a typo- 
 graphical or other error. 
 
 29 The church afterwards built by the Dominicans in Springfield was 
 called Saint Dominic’s. Saint Rose’s, which was under way at the 
 time Father Badin sent his list to Bishop Carroll (and about half way 
 between that incipient town and Saint Ann’s—two miles from each), 
 long delayed the necessity of a church in Springfield. The pretermis- 
 sion of Saint Rose’s in the list is a surprise. 
 
 This schedule of churches and stations by Father Badin is in the 
 Baltimore Archives, Case C. Special, L. Maes’ Life of Nerinckx, pp. 126- 
 127, with a few exceptions, was used for the distances of the various 
 missions from Saint Stephen’s, as these are not given in Badin’s list. 
 In addition to his list, Father Badin sent the Bishop a map of Kentucky 
 drawn by himself, with the location of the churches, etc., indicated by the 
 letters of the alphabet, and an accompanying explanation of their pros- 
 
 pects. This document is also in Case C Special, L, of the Baltimore 
 Archives. Saint Rose’s is given in this chart. 
 
 6 
 
66 THE FATHER OF THE CHURCH IN TENNESSEE 
 
 inic Fenwick proposed to make a foundation within his 
 jurisdiction. Before Fenwick made his request, the 
 bishop himself had urged Father William B. Short, the 
 English provincial, “to embrace a fine opportunity 
 which offered of obtaining a most advantageous settle- 
 ment in the United States.” This was in 1802, if not 
 earlier.*° Quite probably Baltimore’s prelate wished 
 then to have them locate in Kentucky; for we know of 
 no other place so sadly in need of priests at the time, 
 nor one that seemed to proffer better opportunities 
 for a body of religious men. 
 
 Father Fenwick, who began the negotiations that 
 happily resulted in the establishment of the Friars 
 Preacher in the United States, was born in Saint Mary’s 
 County, Maryland, in 1768. When a mere youth, he 
 had been sent to Holy Cross College, conducted by the 
 English Dominicans at Bornheim, Belgium. While 
 there he learned to love the Order, and realized the 
 good that it might effect for the Church in his native 
 land. For this reason, he joined the Province of Eng- 
 land with the express purpose of one day starting the 
 institute of Saint Dominic in our youthful republic.” 
 
 He received the Dominican habit at Bornheim on 
 
 26 Bishop Carroll, Baltimore, to Rev. Richard Luke Concanen, O.P., 
 Rome, November 21, 1806 (Archives of the Dominican Master General, 
 Codex XIII, 731); O’Dantet, Life of Bishop Fenwick, pp. 114-115. 
 Bishop Carroll states in his letter: “So long ago as 1802, I had urged 
 Mr. Short, then the Provincial of it [the Order] in England, to embrace 
 a fine opportunity which offered of obtaining a most advantageous settle- 
 ment in the United States.” As Father Short’s term of office as provin- 
 cial ended in 1798, it would seem that the bishop had written to him at 
 an earlier date, but had forgotten the precise time. Father Short died 
 in 1800. 
 
 27 This fact has always been a tradition in Saint Joseph’s Province 
 
 of Friars Preacher. Researches of late years have shown it to be stated 
 in more than one document belonging even to Fenwick’s lifetime. 
 
GOES TO SAINT ROSE’S 67 
 
 September 4, 1788, and was raised to the priesthood 
 early in 1793.°° In June, 1794, the community was 
 obliged by the French revolutionists to seek refuge in 
 England, where he spent the next ten years of his life. 
 Although the college at Bornheim was re-opened on 
 the restoration of peace, the uncertain and unhappy po- 
 litical horizon of Continental Europe, together with the 
 secularization by Pius VII of all religious in the coun- 
 tries under French domination, not only prevented the 
 educational institution from prospering again, but even 
 rendered impossible the practice of the Order’s char- 
 acteristic life. On the other hand, the strong anti-Cath- 
 olic prejudices of Engand, which bore with special force 
 against religious institutes, also gave a gloomy outlook 
 for the future of the Friars Preacher in that country. 
 
 These circumstances convinced the young American 
 that the time had come for him to undertake the pur- 
 pose for which he had entered the Order. They more- 
 over induced three of his companions to offer their ser- 
 vices in the pious enterprise—the Revs. Samuel Thomas 
 Wilson, William Raymond Tuite, and Robert Anto- 
 ninus Angier. Just when Fenwick first broached the 
 subject to Bishop Carroll can not now be ascertained; 
 but it is certain that the proposal was warmly espoused 
 by the father of the American hierarchy. It received a 
 similar approval from the Dominican Master General, 
 the Most Rev. Pius J. Gaddi, to whom the project was 
 made known by his assistant, Father Richard Luke Con- 
 canen, later the first bishop of New York.” 
 
 25 Book of Receptions and Professions (Archives of the English 
 Province) ; records of the Cathedral of Saint-Bavon, Ghent, Belgium. 
 
 29 The facts recorded in this and the preceding paragraph are shown 
 
 by the correspondence given in chapters III, V, VI, VII, and VIII of the 
 Life of Bishop Fenwick, and by the last part of the history of Holy 
 
68 THE FATHER OF THE CHURCH IN TENNESSEE 
 
 The first two letters that passed between Fenwick 
 and Concanen on the matter are no longer extant; but 
 those that still remain show that the correspondence be- 
 gan as early as 1802.°° Another, addressed to Carroll 
 and dated January 12, 1804, indicates that the bishop 
 had been notified of the design prior to this latter date.” 
 In the beginning, Father Thomas A. Underhill, then 
 provincial in England, gave his ready consent that Fen- 
 wick might return to his native land. However, when 
 others began to enlist in the American enterprise, Un- 
 derhill opposed the whole plan. Nor were his objec- 
 tions without reason, for his province could not well 
 afford to lose so many of its best men. The question 
 
 was then referred to the General. He decided in 
 favor of the New World.” 
 
 Cross College, Bornheim, Belgium, in Father Raymund Palmer’s Life 
 of Philip Thomas Howard, O.P., Cardinal of Norfolk. Writing from, 
 Georgetown, District of Columbia, to Father Richard L. Concanen, 
 Rome, October 14, 1805, Father Wilson says: “Ever since the notice I 
 received from our Archbishop, Monsignor Roquelaure, that all religious 
 in France, being now secularized by His Holiness, were entirely under 
 his jurisdiction, I have turned my thoughts to America, where a new 
 prospect opens of laboring with success” (Archives of the Dominican Gen- 
 eral, Codex XIII, 731). Father Concanen, a friend of Bishop Carroll, 
 and for a time his agent at Rome, took a keen and helpful interest in 
 the establishment of the Friars Preacher in the United States. Since 
 writing a sketch of Concanen, some years ago (Catholic Historical 
 Review, January and April, 1916), we have discovered the date of his 
 birth, He was born in the Diocese of Elphin, December 28, 1847 
 (Diario dt Roma, May 11, 1808). 
 
 30 A letter from Fenwick, Carshalton, England, to Concanen, Rome, 
 March 15, 1803, shows that two previous letters had passed between 
 them on the subject (Archives of the Dominican General, Codex XIII, 
 Toa 
 
 31 Baltimore Archives, Case 3, R 1. 
 
 32 There were two Fathers Underhill in England, Thomas A., who 
 was provincial at this time, and Gerard A., an elder brother. They 
 frequently went under the alias of Plunkett. Fenwick began his com- 
 munications with Rome through Father Gerard. The relations between 
 Fenwick and the English provincial through all the controversy are truly 
 
GOES) PO DAINTAEROSES 69 
 
 Fathers Fenwick and Angier reached Maryland late 
 in November, 1804. ‘There they were joined by Wilson 
 and Tuite nearly a year later. Before the arrival of 
 any of these clerical forces, Bishop Carroll had _ ac- 
 quainted Father Badin with their desire, and signified 
 his intention of sending them to Kentucky. It was wel- 
 come news to the lonely missionary.” Fenwick was a 
 native of Maryland, the state from which by far the 
 greater number of Catholics in Kentucky, or their par- 
 ents, had come. Doubtless, therefore, Doctor Carroll 
 felt that the American Friar Preacher and his English 
 associates would understand the people better than 
 priests with a foreign tongue, as well as be better un- 
 derstood by them. One of the aims of the Dominicans 
 was to establish a college for the education of youth, 
 and the Church in the west had no Catholic schools for 
 its children. This gave an additional reason for placing 
 them in that part of the vast Diocese of Baltimore. 
 
 Fenwick had confidently expected to set up the stand- 
 ard of Saint Dominic on land inherited from his father 
 in Maryland. However, he bowed to the solicitation 
 of Bishop Carroll that he should visit Kentucky in the 
 spring of 1805, in order to see if he could not find a 
 suitable location there for himself and confreéres. Sat- 
 isfied with the prospects offered by the new west, he 
 returned to await Fathers Wilson and Tuite. He did 
 
 edifying. See Life of Bishop Fenwick, pp. 62-63 and passim, 
 
 33 Fenwick, Saint George’s, Maryland, to Carroll, Baltimore, November 
 29, 1804 (Baltimore Archives, Case 3, R 3); Wilson, Georgetown, District 
 of Columbia, to Concanen, Rome, October 14, 1805 (Archives of the 
 Dominican General, Codex XIII, 731); Badin to Carroll, December 6, 
 1804 (Baltimore Archives, Case A Special, L 10), and February 26, 
 1805 (ibid., Case A Special, L. 9). For later relations between Father 
 Badin and the Dominicans in Kentucky see Life of Bishop Fenwick, 
 Chapter VIII, p. 127 ff, and Catholic Historical Review, April 1920 (VI, 
 Poe andegoy f). 
 
70 THE FATHER OF THE CHURCH IN TENNESSEE 
 
 not wish to come to a definite decision without the con- 
 sent of his co-laborers.™ 
 
 Whilst the leader of the little band of Friars Preacher 
 was on this journey, Father Charles Nerinckx, of mis- 
 sionary fame, started from Georgetown College for the 
 same sphere of activity. He left at this particular junc- 
 ture in order to accompany the Trappists of Pigeon 
 Hills, who, under Father Guillet, were about to depart 
 for Kentucky. However, the field was large, and gave 
 promise of a good harvest; the labors many. Besides, 
 the Trappist’s vocation largely witholds him from the 
 ministry. For these reasons, a few weeks after their 
 arrival at Baltimore (September 10, 1805), Fathers 
 Wilson and Tuite were dispatched on to Kentucky. 
 Because of the upsetting of their wagon on the western 
 slopes of the Alleghany Mountains, from which both 
 received wounds that retarded their progress, they did 
 not reach their destination until late in December. 
 Father Angier, at the request of Bishop Carroll, was 
 left to labor temporarily on the missions of Maryland. 
 Business connected with the settlement of his paternal 
 estate detained Fenwick.” 
 
 While waiting the arrival of the superior in Ken- 
 tucky, Tuite resided at the house of Thomas Gwynn, 
 
 34 Fenwick to Concanen (Rome) from Carshalton, England, March 15, 
 1803, and Piscataway, Maryland, August 1, 1805 (Archives of the 
 Dominican General, Codex XIII, 731; Carroll to same, November 21, 
 1806 (ibid.) ; Fenwick to Carroll, Saint George’s, Maryland, November 
 29, and Washington, December 15, 1804 (Baltimore Archives, Case 3, 
 R 3 and 4). 
 
 35 Life of Fenwick, passim. Not many years ago one used frequently 
 to hear the old fathers tell how Father Wilson had an arm broken and 
 Father Tuite received an ugly cut on his forehead when the horses ran 
 away and overturned the wagon as they were descending the mountains. 
 
 Bishop Miles, Father Nicholas D. Young, and Father Samuel L. Mont- 
 gomery were given as the authorities for the statement. The tradition 
 
GOES TO7SAINT, ROSE'S 71 
 
 where Father Salmon had died. Thence he attended 
 the faithful in Nelson County. In this way, he became 
 the temporary pastor of Nicholas Miles, whose resi- 
 dence, it will be recalled, stood in the vicinity of the 
 Gwynn station, and whose youngest son was destined to 
 become one of the glories of the Friars Preacher in the 
 United States. 
 
 The great Wilson stopped at the home of one Henry 
 Boone, an exemplary Catholic who lived in the neigh- 
 borhood of Saint Ann’s. From there he looked after 
 the Cartwright’s Creek Settlement, which had become 
 perhaps the largest parish in the state. Almost simul- 
 taneously he gathered around him a few boys who man- 
 ifested a desire for the priesthood. ‘These he lodged 
 with Boone and others, and began to teach them in one 
 of his benefactor’s cabins.” 
 
 This little makeshift of a school was the beginning 
 of the first Catholic college west of the Alleghanies. 
 Among its pupils were Robert and Nicholas Young, 
 nephews of Father Fenwick, who went to Kentucky, 
 probably with their preceptor, with the intention of 
 joining the Order. Another was the subject of our nar- 
 rative, Richard Miles. It has been handed down to us 
 that he approached “good Father Tuite”, when that 
 faithful priest took charge of the missions in Nelson 
 still lives in the province and in Washington County, Kentucky. It is 
 said that Wilson never fully recovered the use of his arm and that 
 Tuite carried an ugly scar to the grave. Shea speaks of this mishap in 
 his History of the Church in the United States, III, 274. 
 
 36 Letters of Fathers Badin and Nerinckx substantiate the tradition 
 of the province about Fathers Wilson and Tuite making their homes 
 for a time with Messrs. Gwynn and Boone. Father Stephen Byrne speaks 
 of it in his manuscript sketch of the province, as also does Shea (See 
 
 preceding note). The tradition about both this and the school is still 
 strong in the province and in the vicinity of Saint Rose’s. 
 
72 THE FATHER OF THE/CHURCH IN TENNESSEE 
 
 County, made known his wish to consecrate himself to 
 God, and was sent at once to study under Father Wil- 
 son.” 
 
 Master Miles was near the close of his fifteenth year, 
 or had just entered on the threshold of his sixteenth, 
 when he came under the influence of the masterful mind 
 of the Rev. Samuel 'T. Wilson, whom Bishop Spalding 
 designates “one. of the most learned divines who ever 
 emigrated to America.” ** Only a short time before, 
 because of the lack of educational institutions in Ken- 
 tucky, the youthful backwoodsman could hardly have 
 aspired to so sublime a state. Doubtless, therefore, his 
 unsullied heart thrilled with joy and gratitude because 
 of the opportunity of realizing a vocation that pos- 
 sessed his soul. Nor can we doubt that his parents 
 gave him their blessing and sincerest encouragement 
 when he left the parental roof, for they were pious 
 people who could but see the hand of God in the favor 
 shown their youngest child. 
 
 Father Fenwick wound up his business in Maryland 
 in June, 1805. Before the close of the next month, 
 we find him again in Kentucky. Eager to set his pious 
 enterprise on foot, he almost immediately purchased a 
 large plantation from one John Waller, who is said 
 to have been anxious to leave a locality in which so 
 many Catholics had settled. The farm lay on Cart- 
 wright’s Creek, in Washington County, about half way 
 between Springfield and Saint Ann’s Church—some 
 
 37 In times past the writer often listened to the older priests recounting 
 how Father Nicholas Young and even Bishop Miles himself used to tell 
 about the days they spent under Father Wilson at this school. There 
 is no stronger or more reliable tradition in the province than that 
 
 concerning the facts recorded in this paragraph. 
 38 Early Missions, p. 154. 
 
GOES TO SAINT ROSE’S 73 
 
 two miles from each—, and about eight miles east of 
 Father Badin’s residence.®” 
 
 There stood on the Waller land a two-storied brick 
 house. ‘This was hurriedly remodeled. Fathers Wilson 
 and Tuite, together with the students of the former, 
 were then called to their new home, which was blessed 
 and opened in December, 1806.*° It was dedicated to 
 Saint Rose of Lima, America’s first flower of sanctity. 
 Thus this modest little domicile, one of the earliest brick 
 buildings erected in Kentucky, became not only the 
 first Dominican priory, but even the first convent for 
 men in the United States, with the possible exception of 
 the temporary establishment of ‘Trappists, which was 
 transplanted from Pennsylvania to Kentucky, and 
 thence to Missouri and other places until they returned 
 to Europe. ‘Today, therefore, save alone the Francis- 
 can monastery at Santa Barbara, California, which was 
 founded under Spanish domination, Saint Rose’s is 
 the oldest convent of men in the country. Well may 
 it be proud of such a distinction.” 
 
 39In the Recorder’s Office, La Plata, Charles County, Maryland, 
 are two deeds of Fenwick to Joseph Gardiner bearing the date of June 
 5, 1806. Father Badin, writing to Bishop Carroll, September 17, 1806, 
 says that Fenwick purchased the Waller plantation within three days 
 after his return to Kentucky (Baltimore Archives, Case A Special, L 15). 
 Perhaps one of the reasons for his haste was Father Badin’s unconquer- 
 able proclivity to interfere in every sort of affair. 
 
 40 Fenwick, Springfield, Kentucky, to Carroll Baltimore, March 1, 
 1807 (Baltimore Archives, Case 3, R 8). Waller’s deed of his farm to 
 Fenwick is dated December 1, 1806; but it would seem that the renova- 
 tion of the Waller house was completed by this time. 
 
 41 The Trappists came over from France in 1803 or 1804, and settled 
 at Pigeon Hills, Pennsylvania. In 1805 they moved to Kentucky, loca- 
 ting at the foot of Rohan’s Knob, near Holy Cross Church; but in the 
 spring of 1807 they removed to Casey County. Thence, in 1809, they 
 
 went farther west, stopping for a while near Cairo, Illinois, and finally 
 settling at Florissant, Missouri. In 1810, they moved to Cahokia, Illinois, 
 
74 THE FATHER OF THE CHURCH IN TENNESSEE 
 
 It was in this mother-priory of his native land that 
 
 Richard Miles got his first real insight into the life of 
 a Friar Preacher. From the start, tradition tells us, 
 he showed fine Judgment, no mean talent, a spirit of 
 tireless industry, and a fund of sensible piety. Father 
 ‘Tuite now became one of his teachers, with the result 
 that a life-long friendship soon sprang up between the 
 two men. Fenwick’s time, because superior, was mostly 
 taken up with the ministry and the new buildings 
 that he almost immediately got under way. However, 
 the stay of the future apostle of Tennessee in the “Wal- 
 ler mansion’, as the people called it, was of short dura- 
 tion; but to tell of this change will be the burden of the 
 next chapter. 
 Eventually, in 1813, they left this place for the east, and after a short 
 sojourn in New York City returned to France. It is admitted by all 
 that they were a community of exemplary men, but they had the 
 misfortune of being under an unpractical and capricious superior. 
 The liberty with which they went from place to place indicates that none 
 of their establishments had the canonical status of a convent. 
 
 Saint Mary’s Coliege (now a Seminary) under the Sulpicians in 
 Baltimore, Georgetown College and other houses of the Jesuit Fathers 
 in the east, although communities, were not convents in the strict sense 
 of the word. Father Matthew Carr, O.S.A., had built the Church of 
 Saint Augustine and a rectory for his order in Philadelphia several 
 
 years prior to the opening of Saint Rose’s, in Kentucky; but the Augus- 
 tinian house does not seem to have become a convent until at a later date. 
 
CHAPTER IV 
 DONS THE HABIT OF SAINT DOMINIC 
 
 FatHer Edward D. Fenwick’s original idea was to 
 establish a house in Maryland that should be really an 
 extension of the English Friars Preacher. He hoped, 
 no doubt, that, with God’s favor, this place would in 
 time become the mother of other similar institutions, 
 and that eventually the way would be prepared for an 
 independent province of his Order in his native coun- 
 try. But the Master General, the Most Rev. Pius Jo- 
 seph Gaddi, determined to take the proposed American 
 convent under his own immediate jurisdiction. He so 
 notified Fenwick through Father Concanen. ‘The rea- 
 son for this decision was the well-known jealousy 
 against British influence that existed in the United 
 States at the time.’ 
 
 On second thought, however, Father Gaddi resolved 
 to found a separate and distinct province from the out- 
 set, with Father Fenwick as its superior.” Behind the 
 change of mind on the part of the Master General lay 
 several factors. One was the slow and uncertain mail 
 service, together with the distance from the seat of 
 Christendom; another the dangers that encompassed the 
 Holy See, and threatened a break of communications 
 between Rome and the New World. Furthermore, 
 
 1Concanen, Rome, to Fenwick, Carshalton, England, November 19, 
 1803 (Archives of the English Province). 
 
 2Concanen to Pius VII, November (?), 1804 (Copy in Archives of 
 the Dominican General, Codex XIII, 731). 
 
 75 
 
76 THE FATHER OF THE CHURCH IN TENNESSEE 
 
 Father Gaddi doubtless wished to see the religious in- 
 stitute over which he presided take its place among the 
 laborers for the glory of God, the spread of the Church, 
 and the salvation of souls in our new and promising re- 
 public, as it had done so nobly in Latin America. Un- 
 der the existing circumstances, the surest way to this 
 end was to place Fenwick’s enterprise on an autono- 
 mous basis from the start. 
 
 Indeed, the General’s zeal in the matter was such 
 that it led to an incident that has few, if any, parallels 
 in the long history of the Order of Friars Preacher, 
 since the early years of its existence. ‘The law is most 
 positive in its exaction that there must be at least three 
 convents before a province can be established. In this 
 instance, by virtue of apostolic authority of course, the 
 erection of one was decreed even before it had a single 
 house. Archbishop Carroll, by another extraordinary 
 procedure, was empowered to found it and to deter- 
 mine where it should set up its standard.” 
 
 The documents to this effect arrived in Maryland 
 early in October, 1805.4 Behind them one can clearly 
 discern the kindly guiding hand of Father Richard L. 
 Concanen, who espoused F’enwick’s cause from the be- 
 ginning. Tor years the Irish assistant of the Domini- 
 can Master General had unselfishly given much of his 
 time and thought to the aid of the Church in missionary 
 countries; but he seems to have had an especial love for 
 that of the United States. The claims of the Catholics 
 
 3 Father Gaddi might have awaited Bishop Carroll’s answer, and then, 
 having obtained the beneplacitum apostolicum, erected what is known as 
 a congregation. But he felt that, under the circumstances, the best 
 thing to do was to proceed as recorded in the text. 
 
 4 Fenwick, Zacchia, Maryland, to Carroll, October 10, 1805 (Baltimore 
 Archives, Case 3, R 5). 
 
DONS THE HABIT OF SAINT DOMINIC 77 
 
 here appealed so strongly to his heart that only age 
 prevented him from offering his services in their behalf. 
 Through study, no less than through correspondence 
 with Archbishop Carroll, whose friend and agent he 
 was, he had become conversant with our needs, as well 
 as knew the venerable patriarch’s longing desire for 
 more zealous ambassadors of Christ. F’rom Fenwick he 
 had learned that prelate’s wish to have the Friars 
 Preacher come to his assistance.” 
 
 F’ew clergymen in Rome were better known at the 
 Propaganda than Doctor Concanen, or so completely 
 possessed the confidence of its cardinals; for he had 
 long been the medium used by many bishops under its 
 jurisdiction in their dealings with that sacred congre- 
 gation. For the same reason, he stood high in the es- 
 teem of the Sixth and the Seventh Pius. At the pres- 
 ent time the latter Pontiff was still in Paris, whither 
 he had gone to crown Napoleon Bonaparte emperor of 
 France. ‘I‘hence rumors floated back that combined 
 ‘with the uncertain state of Europe to render dangerous 
 any further delay in stabilizing Fenwick’s project. 
 
 Armed, therefore, with the approbation of Father 
 Gaddi, and encouraged by his knowledge of the Prop- 
 aganda’s anxiety to do all in its power for the Church 
 in the young American republic, no less than by the 
 well-known friendship between himself and Doctor Car- 
 roll, Conecanen placed his request before that august 
 
 ° There are a number of letters of Concanen to Carroll in the Bal- 
 timore Archives. Others from Carroll to Concanen exist in the Propa- 
 ganda Archives and those of the Dominican Master General, Rome. It 
 was the friendship between the two illustrious ecclesiastics that led to 
 Concanen’s appointment as the first bishop of New York. See, on this 
 
 subject, the Catholic Historical Review for January, 1916, (I, 400-421), 
 and April, 1916 (II, 19-46, and 73-82). 
 
78 THE FATHER OF THE CHURCH IN TENNESSEE 
 
 body of the Roman curia. His trust did not prove un- 
 grounded. ‘The answer of the sacred congregation 
 was in the form of a decree that authorized the bishop of 
 Baltimore, as delegate apostolic, to create the proposed 
 province of Friars Preacher in his vast diocese, if it 
 met with his approbation. 
 
 Father Gaddi himself entertained so firm a confidence 
 in favorable action in the matter on the part of Bishop 
 Carroll that, apparently. along with the document 
 from the Propaganda, he had Concanen forward let- 
 ters patent of the Order’s head appointing Fenwick 
 superior of the future province, and naming it after his 
 own patron, Saint Joseph. ‘True to the General’s ex- 
 pectation, Doctor Carroll not only accepted the power 
 conferred upon him, but even lost no time about put- 
 ting it into execution. Moreover, he seems to have 
 allowed Fenwick full liberty in the choice of a location 
 for his purpose in Kentucky.° 
 
 6 Decree of March 11, 1805. The date of this decree shows that it was 
 enacted while Pius VII was in France; but it was held in abeyance 
 until his return to Rome. He signed it on May 19, 1805. Cardinal 
 Michael di Pietro and Archbishop Dominic Coppola, respectively the 
 prefect and secretary of the Propaganda, affixed their signatures to the 
 document on June 1, 1805. It seems certainly to have been forwarded 
 to Baitimore at the same time that Father Gaddi’s letters, dated June 22, 
 1805, were sent to Fenwick. 
 
 Concanen had addressed a letter (in the name of Fenwick) to Pius 
 VII late in November or early in December, 1804. The document is 
 not dated; but on December 22, 1804, following its custom in such 
 affairs, the prefect of the Propaganda wrote to Carroll in order to 
 ascertain his will in the matter. Now, owing to the slow and doubtful 
 mail service and the danger of further delay, the sacred congregation 
 resorted to the decree mentioned in the text as the surest way of setting 
 the business on its feet. Copies of all the documents relating to the affair 
 (in Concanen’s own handwriting) are in the Archives of the Dominican 
 Master General. See also the Catholic Historical Review as in the 
 preceding note, and Life of Bishop Fenwick, chapters III and V. It 
 is worthy of record that the Dominican Master General, out of gratitude 
 
DONS THE HABIT OF SAINT DOMINIC 79 
 
 It was with this authority that Father Fenwick pur- 
 chased the Waller farm, renovated the little brick house 
 that stood on it, and established the Convent of Saint 
 Rose. Although, because of its remoteness from any 
 large center of population, one would hardly pick out 
 the same site today for a priory or college, it would have 
 been difficult nearly a century and a quarter ago to se- 
 lect in Kentucky a localty that gave greater promise 
 for the realization of the Friar Preacher’s design. The 
 future development of the country could not be even 
 surmised, for the state was almost entirely given to ag- 
 riculture. It had no cities, nor any towns whose pros- 
 pects were assured, or where Catholicity had gained a 
 firm footing. 'The plantation that he purchased lay al- 
 most in the center of the Catholic settlements, while it 
 was in the very heart of one of the largest and most 
 prosperous of them. 
 
 Moreover, the Waller land was good; the country 
 round about it rolling, beautiful, picturesque; the clim- 
 ate mild, equable, and healthy. Through the farm se- 
 cured for the community flowed Cartwright’s Creek, 
 which, though now of little service, then furnished an 
 abundance of water-power for running, the greater 
 part of the year, a grist and a saw mill that stood near 
 the house. ‘These equipments, indeed, were almost in- 
 dispensable aids for such an institution in the back- 
 woods of that period.‘. While not trained in generosity, 
 nor, as a rule, blessed with an abundance of the goods 
 for Bishop Carroll’s friendliness in the matter, placed the noted Balti- 
 more prelate in the list of the Order’s benefactor’s, and made him a 
 participant in its prayers and good works in perpetuum. 
 
 7 Fenwick’s letters show that he set much store on these mills, while 
 tradition tells us that they long stood the community in good stead. 
 It is not more than twenty-five years since the old-time waterpower 
 flour mill was torn down, after proving a blessing to the community 
 
 and neighborhood for nearly a century. Lack of water was the reason 
 for its discontinuance. 
 
80 THE FATHER OF THE CHURCH IN TENNESSEE 
 
 of this world, the people were chivairous and hospita- 
 ble. They could not be coerced, but they were singu- 
 larly tractable under wise and kindly leadership. Firm 
 in the faith, as well as true to its practices, it would 
 have been hard to discover a better Catholic body. The 
 same remains true to this day.” 
 
 The diminutive convent proved too small from the 
 start. Father Fenwick therefore began work at once 
 on a larger and more substantial building of brick, three 
 stories in height and some seventy-five feet in length 
 by about thirty in width, that would serve not only as 
 a priory and novitiate for the community, but also as a 
 preparatory college for candidates of the Order. The 
 site chosen for the new structure lay some four hundred 
 yards west of the former Waller home. Possibly it 
 was selected not less because of its beauty than because 
 it was farther removed from the miasma and dampness 
 which sometimes arose from the creek that ran hard by 
 the first convent. 
 
 Fenwick himself blessed and opened the new abode on 
 March 19, 1807. It was a joyful occasion on which 
 people of every creed gathered from near and far to 
 witness the ceremonies.” Whilst plain in outline, the 
 second Saint Rose’s, when completed, was one of the 
 largest and most imposing edifices in the State of 
 Kentucky. Fortunately it still stands on the crest of a 
 little hill, a happy reminder of a past that is rich in 
 traditions as well as full of inspiration.” 
 
 8 These statements are borne out by every reliable authority. 
 
 9 Fenwick, Lexington, Kentucky, to Concanen, Rome, July 10, 1808 
 (Archives of the Dominican General, Codex XIII, 731). 
 
 10 The building has been recently renovated, and strengthened by a 
 
 broad, substantial porch of re-enforced cement, and the walls covered 
 with an incasement of the same material. 
 
DONS THE HABIT OF SAINT DOMINIC 81 
 
 Perhaps not even the founder of the province and his 
 confreres experienced greater joy at the opening of the 
 new convent than did Tennessee’s future bishop. He 
 must have regarded it as an augury of the realization 
 of his heart’s holiest aspiration. At any rate, there he 
 now took up his abode, and it remained his home for 
 one and twenty years. 
 
 No drones were tolerated in the youthful institution. 
 Yet Richard Miles was not one whom the better and 
 more commodious quarters would entice to waste his 
 time. He needed not the spur of Father Wilson, for 
 he had been brought up to a life of industry, while his 
 thirst for an education and the hope of soon receiving 
 the habit of Saint Dominic gave added zest to his stud- 
 ies. ‘Tradition informs us that God blessed him with a 
 ready, retentive memory as well as a good mind—an in- 
 dispensable requisite for rapid progress. There can 
 be no doubt that he was one of the six youths who, Fa- 
 ther Fenwick writes to Father Concanen, July 10, 1808, 
 “have made much progress in Latin, . . . are verbally 
 received, and will be solemnly admitted to the habit 
 and novitiate on St. Rose’s day, in August next.” ™ 
 
 However, the leader of the enterprise seems to have 
 counted too fast. Perhaps his wish to see this event, the 
 first of its kind in the province he had just established, 
 take place on the feast of the proto-convent’s patroness 
 was father to the thought. Perhaps also it had been 
 actually decided that the six postulants should be 
 clothed with the habit on that day, but it was afterwards 
 found to be more convenient or better that the recep- 
 tion should be deferred until a later date. 
 
 
 
 11 See note 9 above. 
 
 7 
 
82 THE FATHER OF THE CHURCH IN TENNESSEE 
 
 Be that as it may, a change of authority over our 
 youthful aspirant to the religious life and the priesthood 
 should be noted here. Krom the beginning of his cor- 
 respondence with Rome, Fenwick had strongly urged 
 that his former professor, the Rev. Samuel 'T. Wilson, 
 should be placed in charge of the American project. 
 Although it was his conception, and the province was 
 to be in his own country, Fenwick’s humility was such 
 that it convinced him that he had not the ability suc- 
 cessfully to carry out the plan. On the other hand, 
 he had unlimited confidence in Wilson. With him at 
 the head of affairs, he was sure all would go well; with- 
 out him, he feared lest the attempt to found the pro- 
 posed new province should prove a dismal failure. 
 
 Because of these repeated solicitations, Father Fen- 
 wick was not appointed provincial, but simply superior, 
 in the Master General’s first official letters.” Yet the 
 spirit of self-abnegation shown by the American Friar 
 Preacher won the heart of the highest authority in his 
 Order. Indeed, so tradition at least tells us, such was 
 Father Gaddi’s confidence in his humble confrere that, 
 when he finally decided to appoint a provincial, he sent 
 two letters patent to Fenwick, one nominating him to 
 the office, and the other conferring it upon Wilson. A 
 personal letter that accompanied these two documents 
 authorized him to choose for himself which one should 
 be put into execution. 
 
 Without hesitation, so the story runs, the meek son 
 of Saint Dominic tore up the letters of his own appoint- 
 ment, and handed to Father Wilson those that made 
 
 12 Letters patent of Fenwick’s appointment, June 22, 1805 (Archives 
 of Saint Rose’s Priory). In practically every letter of Fenwick to Con- 
 
 canen Wilson’s name came up as the man who should be appointed 
 superior. 
 

 
 
 
 THE RIGHT REV. EDWARD D. FENWICK, O. P. 
 
 FOUNDER OF THE PRIARS PREACHER IN THE UNITED STATES, 
 AND THE FIRST BISHOP OF CINCINNATI 
 
DONS THE HABIT OF SAINT DOMINIC 83 
 
 him the head of the province. ‘These documents bore 
 the date of February 27, 1807, but they did not reach 
 Kentucky until Ocotober of the same year. The next 
 day that for Wilson was read before the little commu- 
 nity, and Fenwick gladly took his place in the ranks of 
 his brethren, whilst his friend assumed the reins of 
 authority.” 
 
 Thus Father Wilson became the first provincial of 
 religious men in the United States.“ Strange to say, 
 and of course because of the incipient state of the 
 enterprise, the same document made him also prior of 
 the house. He was now Richard Miles’ superior in a 
 
 13 Letters patent of Father Wilson’s appointment (Archives of Saint 
 Rose’s Priory). The only extant letter of Fenwick to Concanen after 
 Wilson’s appointment as provincial is that of July 10, 1808 (referred to 
 in note 9 of this chapter). It gives the time of the arrival of Wilson’s. 
 document, and tells us that it was read before the community the day 
 after its reception; but it does not even allude to any appointment of 
 himself to the office of provincial. However, this proves nothing, for such 
 an omission was only in keeping with Fenwick’s spirit of humility. 
 
 The tradition of the province on the matter is so definite, lively, and 
 persistent that it demands a place in the history of the Friars Preacher 
 in the United States. Nay, it is of such a character that it brings con- 
 viction to one conversant with those early days. This tradition found 
 expression in the sketch of Bishop Fenwick in the Catholic Telegraph 
 (a paper founded by him), January 12, 1833, a few months after his death. 
 
 14 The Jesuit Fathers in the colonies, prior to the unfortunate sup- 
 pression of the Society, August 16, 1773, belonged to the English province, 
 and were under a superior appointed from that country. From the time 
 of the revival of the Society in the United States (1805), by virtue of 
 a vivae vocis oraculum, and the affiliation of its members here with the 
 Russian Province, the fathers were governed by a superior appointed 
 from Russia. On August 7, 1814, the Society of Jesus was restored the 
 world over. But the Jesuit mission of Maryland was not formally 
 erected into a province until 1833, when Father William McSherry was 
 appointed its first provincial. 
 
 As early as 1797 a province of the Augustinians was established at 
 Philadelphia, and Father Matthew Carr was appointed vicar provincial. 
 But ‘t does not appear to have had a formal convent or a provincial 
 unt’. after the date of Father Wilson’s appointment in Kentucky. 
 
84 THE FATHER OF THE CHURCH IN: TENNESSEE 
 
 double sense. Father W. R. Tuite became master of 
 the postulants; while Father Robert A. Angier, who 
 came from Maryland about the same time that the 
 Master General’s letters arrived (possibly he took them 
 with him from Baltimore), temporarily increased the 
 staff of professors. Although the times were hard, 
 Fenwick could with truth tell his friend, Father Con- 
 canen, that the “young province” had so far succeeded 
 “beyond all expectation’, and that every one was 
 pleased and happy.” 
 
 Perhaps none were happier than the subject of our 
 narrative. Unfortunately, as Father Wilson was little 
 given to writing letters, and the first superior, now that 
 he no longer had charge of affairs, seldom engaged in 
 such pastime, we have few documents that throw lght 
 on the early religious life of the future bishop. With 
 truth does Bishop Spalding say: “The Dominicans in 
 Kentucky did much and wrote little.”** However, 
 what with tradition and what with the scanty data that 
 still remain, we can follow the young man’s course 
 with a fair degree of certitude. 
 
 The days ran smoothly along for him, though anx- 
 ious in expectation of receiving the habit. Unfortun- 
 
 15 Letter of July 10, 1808, as in note 9 of this chapter. Father 
 Angier, who had been left in Maryland at Carroll’s request, reached 
 Kentucky about October, 1807. By the close of 1808, or early in 1809, 
 owing to another request of the bishop, he became resident pastor in 
 Scott County, whence he attended other missions in the north and east. 
 Father John C. Fenwick, S.T.Lr., an uncle of Father Edward D. 
 Fenwick, had intended to join his brethren in Kentucky; but Bishop 
 Carroll urged so strongly that he should remain in Maryland, where he 
 had labored on the missions since about 1800, that he was left to con- 
 tinue his toil there. He died at Saint Thomas’ Manor, Charles County, 
 Maryland, August 20, 1815. See Life of Bishop Fenwick, passim, for 
 
 both of these clergymen. 
 16 Spatpinc, Early Missions, p. 149. 
 
DONS THE HABIT OF SAINT DOMINIC 85 
 
 ately, for the reasons given, the date of this important 
 event in his life can not now be determined with pre- 
 cision. In July, 1808, Fenwick wrote to Concanen that 
 the thirtieth of the next month, the feast of Saint Rose, 
 had been set for the clothing of six postulants. Others 
 have stated that Bishop Miles was given the habit on 
 October 10, 1808. Yet, in default of documents defi- 
 nitely settling the question, the date of his religious pro- 
 fession inclines us strongly to the belief that the cere- 
 mony was deferred, and that it did not take place until 
 1809—most likely late in April or early in May. What- 
 ever the time it occurred, those who then donned the 
 white frock and black mantle of the Friar Preacher were 
 Richard Miles, Robert Young, William Willett, Step- 
 en Montgomery, Samuel Montgomery, and Chris- 
 topher Rudd. All six were native Americans. Wil- 
 lett was born in Kentucky; the others, with the possible 
 exception of Rudd, in Maryand. All, save Young, had 
 been brought up in Kentucky.” 
 
 17 Fenwick’s letter as in note 9 of this chapter; Suea, op. cit., 274-275. 
 The Dominican noviceship is a twelvemonth; nor can it be prolonged 
 beyond that period without grave reason. The profession of Miles 
 and his companions could not have been deferred more than six months 
 without permission from the Master General. There is no record or 
 tradition of its having been delayed, nor any known cause why such 
 action should have been taken. On the other hand, in the documents 
 of the day there is clear evidence of an ardent desire to hasten matters 
 as much as was compatible with efficiency. For these reasons, in the 
 absence of any positive record or proof to the contrary, since they did 
 not make their religious profession until May, 1810, it seems almost 
 certain that they received the habit in April or early May, 1809. Shea 
 says that Nicholas Dominic Young received the habit with Bishop Miles. 
 But the fact that he did not make his profession until several months 
 later, August 4, 1810, shows that this is an error. He was younger than 
 the others, and there is a very distinct tradition in the province that 
 Father N. D. Young’s clothing with the habit was deferred because of 
 his age and health. 
 
86 THE FATHER OF THE CHURCH IN TENNESSEE 
 
 Before their investiture the postulants were subjected 
 to a serious examination by the superior and his coun- 
 cil. In addition to this, as is required by canon law and 
 the Order’s constitutions, they were obliged to answer 
 certain important questions regarding the motives that 
 induced them to seek admission into the religious life. 
 They were also required to give a solemn assurance 
 that they had no duties or responsibilities that might 
 require them to remain in ‘the world. The Order, for 
 it never loses sight of the claim of parents, does not 
 admit those whose services are indispensable at home. 
 Even the youthful Province of Saint Joseph, great as 
 was its need of subjects, faithfully adhered to this rule. 
 
 Because of its place in the ecclesiastical annals of the 
 west, if for no other reason, this event deserves a further 
 word in our narrative. If it were the first time that 
 such a ceremony was held in public in Kentucky, as it 
 probably was, for the Trappists who had given the 
 habit to novices at a prior date most likely did so in 
 private, it must have aroused no little interest. ‘Tra- 
 dition tells us that numbers went to witness it, and 
 that many were disappointed because the chapel was too 
 small to admit them. It is a pity that all could not be 
 accommodated, for the investiture of a Friar Preacher, 
 while brief and simple, is a beautiful and solemn rite 
 that leaves a lasting memory, as well as makes a pro- 
 found impression. Doubtless the parents of these six 
 firstlings of the province, especially Nicholas and Ann 
 Blackloe Miles, never forgot that occasion. 
 
 When the time appointed for the ceremony came, the 
 candidates entered the conventual choir, which then 
 also served as a chapel for the people. At a signal 
 given by the superior they prostrated themselves on 
 
DONS THE HABIT OF SAINT DOMINIC 87 
 
 the floor, their arms outstretched in the form of a cross. 
 “What do you seek?” (Qwid quaeritis?), asked the su- 
 perior. “God’s mercy and yours” (Misericordiam Dei 
 et vestram ), replied the postulants. Then, at another 
 signal, they arose, and knelt while they reverently lis- 
 tened to the instruction of the prior. 
 
 The prostration typified immolation of one’s self on 
 the altar of humility and obedience. The intent of both 
 question and answer was to signify to the youthful can- 
 didates that, if they were to live the life of true religious, 
 they should no longer seek self; that henceforth they 
 should be subject to the will of their superior in all 
 things not sinful. They were not to do the work of 
 their own choice, but that which was assigned to them. 
 They would have to live and labor, not where they 
 pleased, but where they were sent. The provincial 
 might send them anywhere within his jurisdiction; the 
 Master General to the furthermost parts of the earth. 
 All this was explained to them, together with the obli- 
 gation they were about to assume of bearing patiently 
 the onera and austerities imposed by the rule of Saint 
 Dominic—a wise regulation, for the life of a Friar 
 Preacher is not an easy one. In its entirety it is a 
 life of prayer, sacrifice, and heroic labor for the salva- 
 tion of souls. Of the mercy of God the applicants were 
 assured, on condition that they proved faithful to the 
 rule of the Order. 
 
 At the close of his address, the superior asked: “Do 
 you wish, by the grace of God, to undertake all this 
 in the measure of your strength?” 'The six candidates 
 answered in chorus: “I do.” Then the prior added 
 the prayer: “May God complete that which He has 
 begun.” And the community answered: “Amen.” 
 
88 THE FATHER OF THE CHURCH IN TENNESSEE 
 
 While the strains of “Come, O Holy Ghost” (Veni 
 Creator) rose heavenwards, Richard Miles and his five 
 companions knelt in turn before the superior, laid aside 
 their secular garb, and were clothed with the flowing 
 tunic, the long scapular, and the capuche—all of snow 
 whiteness. Over these was placed the black mantle to 
 complete the Order’s habit. Then they prostrated 
 themselves for the second time, while the prayers of the 
 liturgy were recited to invoke God’s blessings upon 
 them. When the signal was given, they arose and were 
 sprinkled with holy water. ‘Then, while their brethren 
 chanted the T’e Dewm, they received the kiss of peace 
 from each member of the little community—a symbol 
 of the new brotherhood in which they had been enrolled. 
 
 All the above is formula whose significance is conse- 
 crated by time and usage. It is sacrosanct rubric ren- 
 dered more venerable by ages of custom. The circum- 
 stances of time, place, and the incipient state of the com- 
 munity must have made the affair all the more impres- 
 sive and inspiring on that occasion. 
 
 Father Wilson, of course, because both prior and 
 provincial, officiated at the ceremony. Nor can one 
 doubt that the fact of its being the first incident of its 
 kind in the province combined with the charm and sig- 
 nificance of the ceremony to inspire the learned divine 
 to give one of those eloquent and exquisitely instructive 
 discourses, traditions of which still live in central Ken- 
 tucky. In years past one not infrequently heard echoes 
 of this very event from those who knew of it through 
 their parents or others who were present on the occa- 
 sion. 
 
 The investiture was preceded by a retreat of ten days, 
 as required by the Order’s constitutions. No doubt, 
 
 
 
DONS THE HABIT OF SAINT DOMINIC 89 
 
 again, Richard Miles made a review of his life to the 
 guide of his soul in a general confession. This was in 
 further preparation for the momentous step he was 
 about to take. We may rest assured that the youthful 
 aspirant’s tender conscience caused him to make ready 
 for it with his whole heart. 
 
 At baptism, by which we are received into the fold 
 of the faithful, the Church requires us to take the name 
 of some saint. The idea is to give us a model after 
 whom we should pattern our lives, and a patron who will 
 intercede for us in heaven. Similarly, in the Order of 
 Saint Dominic, as in most other religious institutes, it is 
 the custom, at the reception of the habit, to add the 
 name of another saint to that by which one was known 
 in the world. ‘This second patron then becomes the ex- 
 emplar that should guide the religious in his efforts to 
 attain perfection. Richard Miles took the name of Pius 
 in religion, after the great Dominican Pope, Pius V, 
 the last of the Sovereign Pontiffs to receive the honor of 
 canonization.** 
 
 Almost irresistible is the impulse to attempt a por- 
 trayal of the impression made on one of the suscep- 
 tible character of Nicholas Miles’ youngest child by the 
 ceremony in which he took a conspicuous part in the 
 backwoods of Kentucky more than a century ago. 
 However, in view of the impossibility of doing justice 
 to his sentiments, suffice it to say that it really marked 
 the beginnings of the Order of Friars Preacher in the 
 
 18 Samuel Montgomery, at the reception of the habit, became Brother 
 Louis; William Willett Brother Thomas; Stephen Montgomery Brother 
 Hyacinth; Christopher Rudd Brother Antoninus. Of Robert Young’s 
 religious name there is no record; nor has it been handed down to us 
 by tradition. For this reason, whenever his name occurs, we shall speak 
 
 of him as Brother Robert. Possibly he took his baptismal name also 
 in religion. 
 
90 THE FATHER OF THE CHURCH IN TENNESSEE 
 
 United States; and that Brother Pius, for this was 
 the name by which Richard now became known, fully 
 realized the significance of the step he had taken. He 
 resolved to become a worthy priest and a faithful mem- 
 ber of the institute he had joined, one of whose bright- 
 est ornaments is the great athlete of the faith (Saint 
 Pius) after whom he took his name in religion. 
 Through observance of rule, practice of virtue, and the 
 spirit of obedience he became a model in the community, 
 grew in divine wisdom, and gained favor with men no 
 
 less than before God. 
 
CHAPTER V 
 RELIGIOUS PROFESSION, STUDENT, PROFESSOR 
 
 ALTHOUGH Father Fenwick’s humility prevented him 
 from realizing the gifts with which nature had endowed 
 him, the success of his work had so far surpassed per- 
 haps his fondest hopes. He sowed with wisdom. ‘Thus, 
 whilst the location and poverty of the mother-house, 
 the later development of the country which ran north 
 of Kentucky, and other circumtances rendered prog- 
 ress necessarily slow, providence blessed his efforts 
 in the quality, if not in the quantity, of the harvest. 
 However, the richest legacies that he left his brethren 
 at Saint Rose’s were holiness of life and the practice of 
 every Christian and religious virtue. They must have 
 exercised a vital force in the formation of Brother Pius’ 
 character, for with him they were objects of personal 
 observation. 
 
 Fathers Fenwick and Wilson were men of one mind 
 and one heart. The latter, too, was a man of God, 
 who gave his all for the good of the Church and the 
 salvation of souls. His position as prior and provin- 
 cial, as well as his continuance at Saint Rose’s, brought 
 him more in touch with Nashville’s future bishop. 
 Closer still were Father Tuite’s relations with him, for 
 his office of master of novices made him their immediate 
 superior. His duty required that he give them every 
 possible attention. That he trained so spiritual a man 
 as the patriarch of Tennessee’s Church speaks well for 
 
 91 
 
YZ THE FATHER OF THE CHURCH IN TENNESSEE 
 
 his piety. But tradition and a few scattered documents 
 tell us that, owing to the paucity of priests, he was often 
 obliged to spend Saturday and Sunday on the missions, 
 and that on these occasions Father Wilson took his 
 place in the novitiate.’ 
 
 Father Angier had become a settled missionary in 
 the northern part of the state before the first reception 
 of postulants to the habit. Yet it is but reasonable 
 to suppose that the good word of his apostolic labors 
 had its part in cheering the subject of our narrative in 
 the solitude of his noviceship, and in strengthening him 
 in his vocation.” 
 
 The part of the house allotted the novices was on the 
 third floor. However, of Brother Pius’ novitiate there, 
 or the twelve months that intervened between his recep- 
 tion of the habit and his religious profession, but little 
 is known. Even this little has come down to us more 
 by tradition than in records. Yet through both these 
 channels we know that the extreme want of the com- 
 munity rendered its life harder than it would otherwise 
 have been; that, even under such circumstances, the 
 constitutions of the Order were rather too rigidly than 
 too leniently carried out; and that only the brave and 
 strong could hope to persevere. 
 
 These hardships explain why by far the greater num- 
 ber of those who entered the novitiate in the early days 
 did not remain to take the vows. For instance, Chris- 
 topher Rudd, Brother Antoninus, who received the 
 
 1]t is evidently this fact that explains why one sees Father Wilson 
 noted now and then as novice-master, in addition to his other offices. 
 
 2 The sending of Father Angier to labor on the missions in northern 
 Kentucky involved a heavy loss for Saint Thomas’ College, then about 
 
 ready to be started. It was done at the request of Bishop Carroll, 
 although the sacrifice of him greatly crippled the teaching faculty. 
 
RELIGIOUS“PROFPESSION: STUDENT, PROFESSOR 93 
 
 habit with Bishop Miles, though a deeply religious 
 man, found the life more than his strength could stand. 
 He is said to have completed his education in the col- 
 lege. Later he became a physician and a citizen who 
 yielded to none in the popularity he gained in Wash- 
 ington County, or in the influence for good that he 
 wielded among its people. In after life he retained 
 the name of Antoninus which he received in religion, 
 in addition to that of Christopher given him at baptism. 
 For four years he was the state senator from his dis- 
 trict, and for three its congressman.° 
 
 Similarly, Nicholas Young, who took the name of 
 Dominic in religion, was the only one of several who 
 are said to have received the habit with him about the 
 first days of August, 1809, to remain for profession. 
 Indeed, afterwards it became necessary to modify con- 
 siderably the austerities of the life led at the institu- 
 tion in order to temper it even to the hardy sons of the 
 Kentucky pioneers. Despite the modification, those 
 who were later sent abroad to complete their studies, as 
 well as those who came to the province, after having 
 made their novitiate in Kurope, found religious life 
 there much easier than in the backwoods of the west.* 
 
 3 Wess, op. cit., p. 79: CoLitins, History of Kentucky, II, 749. Webb 
 speaks of Doctor Rudd having been educated at Saint Thomas’ College, 
 but does not mention that he was in the novitiate. Some are averse, 
 without cause, to telling such things. Father Byrne’s manuscript sketch 
 of the province and tradition, however, leave no doubt about the fact. 
 Doctor Rudd’s memory is still cherished in Washington County, and no 
 one hesitates to state that he once wore the Dominican habit. 
 
 4A letter of Father Wilson to the Rev. John A. Hill (Rome), dated 
 March 16, 1818, and one of the same Father Hill, from Saint Rose’s, 
 in Kentucky, November 21, 1821, to some friend in England, give a very 
 clear idea of the trials and privations of the little community. Wiailson’s 
 
 letter (extracts in an Italian translation) is in the Propaganda Archives, 
 America Centrale, Vol. IV, No. 138; Hill’s is published in the London 
 
94 THE FATHER OF THE CHURCH IN TENNESSEE 
 
 The same tradition tells us again that none bore 
 these trials and hardships more bravely than did 
 Brother Pius Miles. A true son of Saint Dominic, he 
 was joyous under them. Nay, so it is said, he was 
 wont in after years to speak of his novitiate as the hap- 
 piest period of his hfe. ‘There was nothing gloomy or 
 morose in his nature. Doubtless this buoyant disposi- 
 tion combined with the grace of God to sustain the 
 youthful candidate in whatever temptation may have 
 crossed his path. 
 
 Nothing daunted by trials and privations, Brother 
 Pius advanced in virtue as well as made ready for his 
 religious profession. This pivotal event in his life took 
 place on May 13, 1810.° It was of a Sunday, chosen 
 no doubt that the people of the neighborhood might 
 
 Catholic Miscellany, I, 327-328. However, neither document details the 
 hardships by any means so fully as does tradition. 
 
 5 For the precise date of the profession of Brother Pius and his 
 companions (Samuel and Stephen Montgomery, Thomas Willett, and 
 Robert Young) we have had to depend on the Analecta Sacri Ordins 
 Praedicatorun for January, 1900 (IV, 440). There used to be at 
 Saint Rose’s three or four small books, some ten inches long by eight 
 wide and one thick, with mass, church, community, and miscellaneous 
 records down to about 1830. The writer often had them in his hands. 
 Unfortunately, some years ago, they found their way into a bonfire 
 during one of those spasmodic and careless house-cleanings by which 
 so much priceless material for history has been destroyed. Most likely 
 the then editor of the Analecta got the date of these professions from 
 these books, through the medium of some friend, before their destruction ; 
 for we know of no other source from which he might have obtained his 
 information. Father Samuel L. Montgomery, one of the five, says in 
 a letter that he made his profession in May, 1810, but he does not give 
 the day of the month. 
 
 The Analecta does not mention the profession of Brother Robert 
 Young. This omission was probably either because the editor wished 
 to give the names of only those who became priests; or because the 
 one from whom he got his data, under the impression that he wanted 
 only those who attained the priesthood, did not copy the name of Robert 
 Young in the list which he sent. We will refer to Brother Robert again 
 later in this chapter. 
 
RELIGIOUS PROFESSION, STUDENT, PROFESSOR 95 
 
 the more easily witness a spectacle the like of which 
 few, if any, of them had ever seen. It was perhaps the 
 first public affair of the kind no less in the west than 
 in the new province of Friars Preacher; for the Trap- 
 pists who had professed two or three novices at an 
 earlier date seem to have done it in private. The day 
 selected for the occasion confirms the old tradition that 
 Saint Rose’s Church, but lately dedicated, was filled by 
 the crowd that came for the ceremony, and that it 
 long formed a frequent topic of conversation among 
 the Catholics in that part of the state. Doubtless 
 Brother Pius’ parents and relations were among the 
 number.® 
 
 At the same time, the Catholics of New York City 
 were in anxious expectation of the arrival of their first 
 bishop, the Right Rev. Richard L. Concanen, O.P. 
 Father Fenwick, at the instruction of the provincial, 
 journeyed to the east in order to welcome the friend 
 and patron of Saint Rose’s. No doubt he delayed his 
 departure from Kentucky on account of the profession 
 of Brothers Pius Miles, Thomas Willett, Samuel Mont- 
 gomery, Stephen Montgomery, and Robert Young on 
 May 138, 1810, and that of Brother Dominic Young on 
 the fourth of the following August.’ The two Youngs, 
 
 6In bygone days the author often heard old people of Saint Rose’s 
 and neighboring parishes speak of this profession. His own maternal 
 grandmother, Mrs. Lucy (Edelen) Hamilton, a woman of fine mind 
 and extraordinary memory, was present at the ceremony. She was a 
 girl ten years of age at the time. 
 
 7The Analecta (see preceding note) gives August 4, 1811, as the date 
 of Father Nicholas Dominic Young’s profession. This is evidently a 
 typographical or other error. Both tradition and the ordo of the 
 province give August 4, 1810, as the date of the event. Besides, Bishop 
 Spalding’s Life of Bishop Flaget (page 69) shows that Father Young 
 (then a novice) was in Maryland in 1811, and met Flaget at Pittsburgh 
 in June of that year. He had certainly made his profession prior to that 
 
 date; for he could not have left Saint Rose’s for such a journey during 
 his simple novitiate, without breaking it and having to make it anew. 
 
96 THE FATHER OF THE CHURCH IN TENNESSEE 
 
 it will be remembered, were his nephews. He seems 
 to have started for New York immediately after the 
 latter event.” Naturally he was anxious to witness the 
 first religious professions in a branch of his Order that 
 he had lately established, and all the more so because 
 two of his own family were thus to bind themselves to 
 God. 
 
 Nothing could be simpler, nor yet more sublime in 
 its significance, than the profession of a Friar Preacher. 
 As a modern writer beautifully expresses it: 
 
 - The ceremonial on this occasion has always been simple in the 
 extreme. The absence of all external splendour sets in clear light 
 the superhuman beauty and the profound signification of what is 
 taking place. Great sacrifices call for no display, still less for 
 any long and formal ceremonies. Here is simply a man who is 
 giving himself to God, wholly, unreservedly, until death. And 
 he does so in a few brief words shorn of all rhetoric; yet no one 
 who retains any sense of supramundane realities can fail to be 
 stirred to the depths of his soul when he witnesses such a scene. 
 
 With his hands laid between those of the Prior, and resting on 
 the book of Constitutions, kneeling like some vassal of old before 
 
 his suzerain, the novice pronounces in a loud voice the formula 
 
 which is to decide his life forever.? 
 
 In 1857, Pius IX enacted a law by which the mem- 
 bers of religious orders were required to take, at first, 
 only simply perpetual vows. ‘These were to be fol- 
 lowed by solemn vows three years later, unless a dis- 
 pensation should intervene. Today, by virtue of 
 the new code of canon law, religious must first take 
 temporary vows for three years, and then the solemn. 
 In the olden times solemn vows were taken from the 
 
 8 Life of Bishop Fenwick, pp. 173-174. 
 
 9 Jacguin, Le Frére Précheur Autrefois et Aujourdhu, p. 168 (Father 
 
 Hugh Pope’s translation under the title of The Friar Preacher Yester- 
 day and To-day, p. 140). 
 
RELIGIOUS PROFESSION, STUDENT, PROFESSOR 97 
 
 start, and the greater number of theologians held that 
 they constituted an engagement from which not even 
 the Sovereign Pontiff could grant a dispensation.”® 
 
 Brother Pius Miles and his four companions made 
 their profession under the old law. With one heroic 
 act they cut themselves away from the world, and 
 bound themselves irrevocably to the service of God in 
 the life of a Friar Preacher. This was precisely what 
 Brother Pius wanted. ‘The valiant soldier of Christ 
 wished to be linked with the Blessed Master by bonds 
 that could not be easily severed. We may rest assured, 
 therefore, that, during the ten days’ retreat which pre- 
 ceded it, he prepared for the joyful event with his whole 
 heart and soul. 
 
 It is of such a ceremony that Father Jacquin speaks 
 in his Le Frére Précheur Autrefois et Aujourdhui. 
 The copy of the formula of profession which Brother 
 Pius made for himself, and used at that time, no longer 
 exists. In default of it, we take that which is found 
 in the constitutions, and, by filling in the names suited 
 to the occasion, give an English translation of the words 
 by which he bound himself to the way of perfection on 
 that memorable day of his life. 
 
 I, Brother Richard Pius Miles, make my religious profession, 
 and promise obedience to God, to the Blessed Virgin Mary, to 
 our Holy Father Saint Dominic, and to you, Very Rev. Samuel 
 Thomas Wilson, Prior Provincial of this Province of Saint Joseph, 
 acting in the place of the Most Rev. Pius Joseph Gaddi, Master 
 General of the Order of Friars Preacher, and his successors, ac- 
 cording to the Rule of Saint Augustine and the Constitutions of 
 
 10 We speak here of religious orders in the strict canonical sense 
 of the term, not of religious congregations. The Society of Jesus also 
 formed an exception to the rule of Pius IX, for its members do not 
 make solemn vows until some years after they have taken the simple. 
 
 8 
 
98 THE FATHER OF THE CHURCH IN TENNESSEE 
 
 the Friars Preacher. To you and to your successors I promise obe- 
 dience until death. 
 Brother Richard Pius Miles, of the Order of Preachers.1 
 
 Solemn words these, clear, vigorous, to the point—ex- 
 pressive of a heroic and complete sacrifice of one’s self 
 to God. They were typical of him who thus immolated 
 himself on the altar of divine love that thirteenth day 
 of May, 1810. Well had he pondered over them; 
 thoroughly did he understand their meaning. ‘They 
 gave him a picture of his future life. It was a picture 
 that pleased him, despite the sacrifice involved, for in it 
 was shown the narrow but sure path that leads to God 
 and eternal happiness with Him in heaven. 
 
 First of all, he pledged obedience to God, for in obey- 
 ing he would submit his will to that of the Creator 
 rather than to that of man. He promised obedience to 
 the Blessed Virgin, which reminded him that the Queen 
 of Heaven is the patroness and protectrix of the 
 Order, to whom its members owe a special filial devo- 
 tion. No mention was made of the visible head of the 
 Church; but Brother Pius knew well, as do all his breth- 
 ren, that the entire institute is under the Pope, and 
 must render obedience to him as the Vicar of Christ 
 on earth. The young Friar Preacher also promised 
 obedience to Saint Dominic. This told him that the 
 founder of the Order, next to the Divine Master, was 
 the ideal after which he should strive to model his life 
 as a religious. 
 
 It will be noticed that Brother Pius made his pro- 
 fession to Father Wilson, the local superior or provin- 
 cial, acting not in his own name, but in that of the Mas- 
 ter General. ‘This fact merely showed him wherein lie 
 
 11 Constitutiones Fratrum S. Ordinis Praedicatorum, Paris, 1886, pp. 
 151-152 
 
RELIGIOUS PROFESSION, STUDENT, PROFESSOR 99 
 
 the supreme authority and principle of unity in the 
 Order. It did not free our American cleric from the 
 obligation of full and unqualified obedience to any and 
 every superior under whom he might be placed. In- 
 deed, addressing Father Wilson in the last sentence 
 of his profession, he said: “To you and to your succes- 
 sors I promise obedience until death.” 
 
 The norm of the obedience that he was to render he 
 saw Clearly specified in the words “according to the 
 Rule of Saint Augustine and the Constitutions of the 
 Friars Preacher.” But we must not forget that he 
 obliged himself to follow these in addition to the laws of 
 the Church and the Catholic code of morality, which 
 teach submission to every legitimate authority as coming 
 from God. 
 
 Thus, the reader can hardly have failed to remark, 
 obedience is the keynote to the profession of the youth- 
 ful Friar Preacher. Indeed, it is pivotal in every order. 
 Without it no religious institute could long survive. 
 It is expressly to. emphasize this important truth 
 that in the Order of Saint Dominic the vows of poverty 
 and chastity are not mentioned in the formula of pro- 
 fession. ‘They are contained in that of obedience as 
 beauty and sweetness in the rose. 
 
 Not content with the observance of the general com- 
 mandment of our Lord: “Render therefore to Caesar 
 the things that are Caesar’s, and to God the things that 
 are God’s’, Brother Pius was anxious to bind himself 
 to follow even the divine counsels. His wish to be per- 
 fect impelled him to the religious state, for he knew 
 that such a life would oblige him to strive after perfec- 
 tion.” 
 
 12 The religious life is rightly called a state of perfection, because he 
 
100 THE FATHER OF THE CHURCH IN TENNESSEE 
 
 In the instructions on the aims and purposes of the 
 Order that he received during his novitiate he learned 
 that he must labor for something more than his own 
 personal sanctification; that Saint Dominic established 
 his institute expressly for the salvation of souls; that the 
 vocation of every Friar Preacher, therefore, requires 
 him to keep this idea ever uppermost in his mind; and 
 that the specific means by which he is to carry out the 
 chivalrous Spaniard’s dominant design in the founda- 
 tion of his institute are preaching and teaching the word 
 of God.” In fact, all a Dominican’s studies, the obser- 
 vance of his rule, and everything else must subserve the 
 prime object of his Order, which is the salvation of souls. 
 This idea the subject of our sketch never lost sight of, 
 whether as a scholastic, priest, or bishop. 
 
 A Friar Preacher’s higher course of studies (that is, 
 philosophy, theology, and the accompanying branches) 
 begins after his profession, unless he has made them, 
 in part at least, prior to entering the Order. He is 
 supposed to have completed the classics before he re- 
 ceives the habit. The novitiate proper should be given 
 wholly to his spiritual formation. But those days of 
 stress, when priests were few and the calls for laborers 
 as well many as urgent, necessitated a partial dispen- 
 sation from the rigid law. Yet the superiors were care- 
 ful that the mitigation involved no serious interference 
 with the routine of novitiate life. 
 who embraces it obliges himself to aim at perfection. It is no sin 
 for a religious not to be perfect; but it is a sin for him not to desire 
 or aim at perfection. 
 
 13 The first Declaratio in the prologue of the constitutions states em- 
 phatically that the Order was specially founded for the salvation of 
 
 souls, and that the specific means for the attainment of this end are 
 preaching and teaching the word of God. 
 
RELIGIOUS PROFESSION, STUDENT, PROFESSOR 101 
 
 There can be no doubt that Brother Pius applied 
 himself to the classics between the time of his reception 
 and that of his profession, and little doubt but that he 
 had become proficient in Latin when he took his vows. 
 In the olden days ecclesiastical students were diligently 
 drilled in that language. It is this that explains how 
 they mastered it so quickly. Some of the early fathers 
 educated at Saint Rose’s were excellent Latin scholars. 
 We recall, for instance, the Rev. Joseph T. Jarboe, 
 who, it is said, could quote both the prose and poetry 
 of the ancient Romans by the hour.” 
 
 Tradition tells us that Bishop Miles was also a good 
 Latinist. Nor is its truth to be doubted, for his teach- 
 ers, Fathers Wilson, Angier, and Tuite, were men of 
 ability and education as well as trained in the art of 
 pedagogy. It would be interesting to know just how 
 they first taught Brother Pius and those who began 
 their novitiate with him. Works on the classics could 
 hardly have been found in Kentucky at that time, and 
 these proto-Catholic professors brought few books with 
 them. Possibly, until this defect could be remedied, 
 they used a system akin to the modern Berlitz method 
 of languages, than which perhaps no other gives such 
 satisfactory progress in beginners. ‘There is something 
 of a tradition in the province to that effect. KF urther- 
 more, it tells us that they supplemented this manner 
 of instruction with written lessons which they required 
 
 the students to learn by heart; and that the results were 
 splendid.” 
 
 14 Father Jarboe could repeat the classics with marvellous facility 
 even after he had attained the age of eighty years. 
 
 15 Tradition tells us that Father Wilson wrote a Latin grammar and also 
 an entire course of theology adapted to the needs of England and the 
 United States. But shortly before his death the collection of manuscript 
 
102 THE FATHER OF THE CHURCH IN TENNESSEE 
 
 Be this as it may, Brother Pius began the study of 
 philosophy soon, if not immediately, after his religious 
 profession; for he had made four years in the classics 
 prior to that time—no mean course, if we consider the 
 day and the special attention then paid to Latin. 
 Theology followed philosophy in due order. ‘These 
 two sciences were, of course, accompanied by the study 
 of other branches of learning, such as Scripture, history, 
 and polemics, the last of which was then much in vogue. 
 In all did he give satisfaction to his superiors. In 
 Father Wilson, we should not forget, he had the ad- 
 vantage of studying under one of the most learned 
 scholars, and perhaps the best philosopher and theolo- 
 gian, then in the United States. 
 
 Although he is not usually given this credit, the fu- 
 ture prelate numbered among his gifts an artistic taste 
 and no mean talent for music. Fortunately, in spite 
 of his busy life, he was able to develop them under the 
 guidance of F’ather Tuite. There had long been a tra- 
 dition about these two men having decorated the par- 
 lors of the second Convent of Saint Rose. And five or 
 six years ago, when the plaster was removed from this 
 part of the structure in the course of its renovation, the 
 brick walls were found to be covered with graceful fes- 
 toons and other ornaments in water-colors. Hardly 
 does it seem probable that there was any one else in 
 Kentucky at the time capable of such artistic work."® 
 disappeared. It is thought that he himself, through an exaggerated spirit 
 of humility, committed these compositions to the flames. Possibly he 
 had even other writings which he destroyed in the same way. Spalding’s 
 Early Missions (p. 154) speaks of the tradition as regards the course 
 of theology. 
 
 16 Tradition has it that they also decorated the first Saint Rose’s 
 Church. 
 
RELIGIOUS PROFESSION, STUDENT, PROFESSOR 103 
 
 As a musician, indeed, Brother Pius was considered 
 a prodigy in the backwoods of the west. His talent 
 along this line not only brought him into prominence 
 among the people, but also proved a valuable asset for 
 the college and church at a time when it was not easy 
 to procure persons with musical attainments except on 
 the Atlantic seaboard, or in the former Spanish and 
 French settlements beyond the Mississippi River. 
 Even after his ordination he retained charge of the 
 parish choir, and presided at the organ for at least one 
 episcopal consecration.” 
 
 Father Wilson, in a letter to the Rev. John Augus- 
 tine Hill, O.P., tells us that the early students at Saint 
 Rose’s were taught French and Italian, in addition to 
 the courses ordinarily given in seminaries.’* Bishop 
 Miles is said to have had a good knowledge of both these 
 languages, a rather extraordinary acquisition for an 
 American at that time who had been entirely educated 
 at home. More than likely he taught these branches 
 in Saint Thomas’ College while a professor in that in- 
 stitution. 
 
 From the outset, it will be recalled, the founders of 
 Saint Joseph’s Province of Dominicans had intended 
 to establish, in connection with their convent, a college 
 for the education of secular youth. Accordingly, prep- 
 arations for the erection of a church and still another 
 building for educational purposes were got under way 
 even before they took possession of the new priory. 
 
 17 Webb speaks of Bishop Miles’ musical talent in his Centenary of 
 Catholicity, pp. 207 and 211. A contributor (from Paducah, Kentucky,) 
 to the Catholic Advocate of April 24, 1847, speaks of how he learned 
 music under Father Miles. The contributor seems to have attended 
 Saint Thomas’ College in the twenties of the nineteenth century. 
 
 18 See note 4 of this chapter. Father Hill had lately entered the 
 
 Order in Rome for the American province, and was making his studies 
 there. 
 
104 THE FATHER OF THE CHURCH IN TENNESSEE 
 
 Great quantities of brick were burned for these struc- 
 tures in 1807; since, with an eye to the future, it was 
 determined to make them large enough to meet all 
 demands for years to come.” 
 
 However, the realities could not keep pace with the 
 zeal of these pioneer builders. Father Fenwick’s patri- 
 mony had been exhausted by what had already been 
 accomplished; financial depression bore heavily on the 
 country; the people, although both Catholics and non- 
 Catholics had hitherto contributed generously of their 
 brawn and time in the enterprise, were not able to ful- 
 fill their promises of money. It would seem, in fact, 
 that, discouraged by hardships or even the difficulty of 
 making ends meet in the necessaries of life, they now 
 became disheartened, largely lost interest in the educa- 
 tion of their children, and no longer showed the same 
 readiness to give the little community the aid of their 
 muscles in the erection of the proposed church and 
 college. 
 
 In this way, the two structures rose much more slowly 
 than had been expected. Because of the untoward cir- 
 cumstances, the postulants, novices, and professed cler- 
 ics were obliged to measure their strength, between 
 classes and religious exercises, with that of colored ser- 
 vant, hired man, and sturdy farmer in making brick, 
 lime, mortar or plaster, felling trees, sawing and haul- 
 ing lumber, rearing walls, or whatever work was nec- 
 essary for the common good.*® This toil was their rec- 
 
 19 Father Fenwick, Lexington, Kentucky, to Father Concanen, Rome, 
 July 10, 1808 (Archives of the Dominican General, Codex XIII, 731). 
 20 The reader need hardly be told that negro slavery prevailed in all 
 “the southern states at this time, and that every white man with means 
 had his slaves. Institutions formed no exception to the rule. Indeed, 
 fortunate was considered the lot of a colored person who belonged to a 
 Catholic clergyman or institution, for in such hands he was sure to 
 
RELIGIOUS PROFESSION, STUDENT, PROFESSOR 105 
 
 reation. ‘They had little other diversion. Their lives 
 were a succession of periods at prayer, study, and man- 
 ual labor. 
 
 The priests themselves were not above taking part 
 in such menial toil and good-natured rivalry. It has 
 been handed down to us that Father Wilson, a stockily, 
 well-built Englishman, could hold his own in lifting 
 with the strongest of the laborers. Learned divine and 
 provincial though he was, he spent many of his spare 
 moments in this way, for it was useful to the commu- 
 nity, as well as gave him the physical exercise necessary 
 for health. Father ‘Tuite, cast in a more delicate mold, 
 could not perform the heaviest toil; yet he did whatever 
 he could, and his time permitted. 
 
 Father Fenwick, weak but wiry, busied himself 
 without surcease at every sort of occupation. He was 
 both missioner and syndic. On his return from a mis- 
 sionary tour, he would take a rapid survey of what had 
 been accomplished, and then join in the work himself. 
 Before leaving on another journey in quest of souls 
 to be saved, he mapped out what he wished to be done 
 during his absence. His zeal and restless activity left 
 him little repose. 
 
 Brother Pius Miles did his part bravely. Even 
 after he became a member of our American hierarchy, 
 he used frequently to speak of how his face was 
 browned by exposure, while his hands were blistered 
 and callous from manual toil in his student days and 
 early priesthood. Apparently, perhaps with a view of 
 encouraging them in their lighter trials, he loved to 
 recount these experiences before the younger men of 
 
 receive not only humane treatment, but also due consideration for his 
 soul, 
 
106 THE FATHER OF THE CHURCH IN TENNESSEE 
 
 the province in which he had been a distinguished 
 leader.”* 
 
 Such things may appear almost insupportable to 
 many of our readers. Possibly they would be for our 
 generation, accustomed as we are to every manner of 
 luxury. Yet we must remember that life in the past 
 was vastly different from what it is at present. It was 
 harder in every way, although it had its counter- 
 balance of a free-heartedness and contentment to which 
 we are almost strangers. Besides, some of the trials 
 that have been detailed were imposed by a necessity 
 that knew no law. 
 
 In the mind of the serious student of history, even 
 though he be glad that he escaped them, there can be 
 small doubt that such hardships conduce to formation 
 of character. ‘They had not a little to do in the making 
 of the grand personages of bygone days, the perusal of 
 whose noble lives affords no less delightful than instruc- 
 tive pastime. ‘Trial and privation have their advantages 
 as well as their disadvantages. Few men have ever 
 amounted to much without having passed through them. 
 In the story of the first bishop of Tennessee they are 
 as a flavor, give it the additional charm of sympathy, 
 
 21 There is no tradition in the Province of Saint Joseph more definite 
 or more persistent than that about the manual toil of its early 
 members in the construction of Saint Rose’s Church and Saint Thomas’ 
 College, and even in the fields. We have a very distinct recollection 
 of hearing the following priests tell how Bishop Miles had edified 
 them with recitals of his early experiences along these lines—the 
 Revs. Sydney A. Clarkson, James V. Edelen, Osman A. Walker, John 
 A. Bokel, Constantine L. Egan, Michael D. Lilly, John H. Lynch, John 
 B. McGovern, Denis J. Meagher, Jeremiah P. Turner, Dominic H. Noon, 
 John A. Rochford, and Joseph H. Slinger. The old lay brothers were 
 wont to tell the same story, and also the old sisters at Saint Catherine’s, 
 
 near Springfield, Kentucky, and at Saint Mary’s of the Springs, Col- 
 umbus, Ohio. 
 
RELIGIOUS PROFESSION, STUDENT, PROFESSOR 107 
 
 and show what manner of man he was, just as they 
 had their part in preparing him for the hard labor 
 that God had in store for him. It speaks well for him 
 and his confreres that we find no word of complaint 
 from them, however oppressive their toil or adverse 
 their circumstances. ‘They always wrote kindly of the 
 people, and praised their good-will, but never criticised 
 them for their lack of support. 
 
 Because of the many drawbacks, Saint Rose’s Church 
 was not completed until late in 1809, although it had 
 most likely been in use before that time. Its dedica- 
 tion took place on the feast of Christmas, which fell 
 that year on Monday. ‘Thus the occasion was a two- 
 fold source of joy for the parish and community. It 
 is worthy of note that it was the first brick Catholic 
 church finished west of the Alleghany Mountains; and 
 that, albeit far from sumptuous, it was for some years 
 considered one of the finest temples of divine worship 
 in the country.” 
 
 Events of note now began to succeed one another 
 with greater rapidity in Kentucky. On November 4, 
 1810, the Right Rev. Benedict J. Flaget, who had been 
 appointed bishop of Bardstown in April, 1808, was 
 consecrated in Baltimore by Archbishop Carroll. He 
 arrived at Father Badin’s residence, where he was to 
 make his home temporarily, in June, 1811. ‘There the 
 fathers of Saint Rose’s formed a part of the committee 
 
 22 Rev. S. T. Badin to Archbishop Carroll, February 5, 1810 (Baltimore 
 Archives, Case 1, I 7). In this letter Father Badin writes: “The church 
 of St. Rose was opened on Christmas Day; that of St. Patrick [,Dan- 
 ville,] will be opened probably on the 17th or 18th of March.” This doc- 
 ument certainly refutes the contention that Saint Patrick’s was completed 
 before Saint Rose’s. It was commenced before, but it rose still more 
 
 slowly, a circumstance that shows how hard it was to build in Kentucky 
 in those days, if one had to depend wholly on home aid. 
 
108 THE FATHER OF THE CHURCH IN TENNESSEE 
 
 for his reception.“” Whether Brother Pius and the 
 other scholastics accompanied them can not now be 
 known; but it is quite probable they were also present, 
 for there was certainly an effort to make the occasion 
 as solemn as possible. None of these candidates for 
 the priesthood could hardly have ever seen a bishop 
 before. None of them had been confirmed, although 
 they were already professed members of a religious 
 order. For them, therefore, Doctor Flaget’s arrival 
 was a source of genuine joy for more reasons than 
 one. 
 
 In the little band of clergy and seminarians that 
 accompanied the saintly prelate to Kentucky was a 
 young subdeacon, the Rev. Guy Ignatius Chabrat, 
 destined later to become auxiliary bishop of Bardstown. 
 He was soon to be raised to the priesthood. Since 
 there was no other church in the new diocese well suited 
 for so notable an occasion as the first sacerdotal ordi- 
 nation not only in the state but even in the entire west, 
 or large enough to accommodate all who might wish to 
 witness it, Father Wilson suggested that Saint Rose’s 
 should be used for the purpose. Bishop Flaget grate- 
 fully accepted his proffer. ‘There, accordingly, Father 
 Chabrat was priested on ember Saturday, December 
 21, 1811. The event aroused considerable pious senti- 
 ment among the people; but unfortunately, as the 
 weather was bad, only a few could attend the cere- 
 mony.” 
 
 23 SpatpING, Early Missions, pp. 182-192; and Life of Bishop Flaget, 
 pp. 60-72. 
 
 24 Bishop Flaget to Archbishop Carroll, January 1, 1812 (Baltimore 
 Archives, Case 8 A, K 3). Doctor Flaget says here: “On the 21 of 
 
 December I had the happiness of ordaining Mr. Chabrat priest. The 
 ceremony was performed in St. Rose’s Church; but as the weather was 
 
RELIGIOUS: PROFESSION, STUDENT, PROFESSOR 109 
 
 Kither Father Tuite or Brother Pius must have 
 presided at the organ and directed the music for the 
 occasion. Most likely it was Brother Pius, for the 
 priests were wanted in the sanctuary. At any rate, 
 there originated at the time a life-long friendship 
 between the newly ordained clergyman and the youth- 
 ful Friar Preacher, which afterwards perhaps had its 
 part in the promotion of both to the miter. 
 
 The joy caused by the ordination of the first priest 
 in Kentucky was soon followed by an event of sadness 
 for the community at Saint Rose’s, which one may 
 believe brought no little sorrow to the subject of our 
 narrative. Brother Robert Young failed in health 
 shortly after his religious profession. Tradition tells 
 us that his uncle, Father Fenwick, took him and his 
 brother, Nicholas D Young, to Maryland in the hope 
 that the air of his native state might restore the invalid’s 
 health; and that he did not live long after his return 
 to the west. t 
 
 No doubt Brother Robert was then on his way back 
 to Kentucky, and was one of those who, Bishop 
 very unfavorable, the congregation was small. Everything was carried 
 out with much propriety and fervor. Previous to the ceremony, Mr. 
 Badin explained minutely everything that was to be done, which gave 
 great satisfaction to the people and myself.” 
 
 In both his Early Missions and his Life of Bishop Flaget, Bishop, 
 Spalding states that Father Chabrat was ordained on Christmas Day, 1811. 
 Other writers, naturally, have followed him. We always felt that 
 the feast of Christmas was an extraordinary time for an ordination; 
 and all the more so in the Kentucky of that day, where the clergy were 
 obliged to multiply their exertions in order that the people might hear 
 mass on Sunday or a holy day of obligation once in a month or six 
 weeks. This letter of Bishop Flaget, there can be no doubt, gives the 
 correct date of the ordination of Father Chabrat. The truth of it is 
 confirmed by the presence of Father Badin—perhaps other diocesan 
 
 priests also—, and by the fact that the advent ember Saturday is one 
 of the appointed days for ordination. 
 
110 THE FATHER OF THE CHURCH IN TENNESSEE 
 
 Spalding informs us, were with Father Fenwick when 
 he met Bishop Flaget at Pittsburgh, in May, 1811.” 
 While the date is not certain, Brother Robert Young 
 seems to have died in 1812. His was the first death 
 in the incipient province, and it is said that he was 
 a plous young man who gave much promise. Pos- 
 sibly these two facts have contributed more than 
 anything else to keep his memory so long in tradition, 
 albeit he did not live even to complete his studies.”° 
 
 25 SPALDING, Life of Bishop Flaget, p. 69. 
 
 26 Strange to say not a record of Brother Robert Young can now be 
 unearthed at Saint Rose's. Possibly something about him found its 
 way into the bonfire mentioned in note 5 of this chapter. Not even a 
 tombstone marks his grave. Doubtless he was buried in a part of the 
 parish graveyard set apart for the community. In 1829, Father Raphael 
 Mufios started another burial place for the fathers and brothers, to which 
 he had transferred the body of Father Wilson, who died five years before. 
 However, no mention is made of a transfer of Brother Robert. He had 
 been dead seventeen years, and there was then no one left at the convent 
 who was there at the time of his death, and there were no tombstones in 
 the graveyard at this period. Possibly ignorance as to the exact spot 
 where he lay determined Father Mufios not to distrub his place of rest. 
 Until quite recently only wooden crosses marked the graves in the 
 cemetery of the community. Often these were allowed to fall and rot 
 until all trace of the names, and sometimes even the memory of the 
 buried, was lost. 
 
 Fortunately a strong and definite tradition in the province kept the 
 memory of Brother Robert Young alive. The writer often heard the old 
 priests who knew Father Nicholas D. Young well say that he frequently 
 told them that his brother Robert, about two years and a half older than 
 himself, was in the first band of novices to receive the habit and make 
 his profession at Saint Rose’s, and that he died there as a clerical novice. 
 Father Fenwick, in his letter of July 10, 1808, telis Father Concanen that 
 he has two nephews among the postulants at Saint Rose’s, who range 
 from fifteen to nineteen years. Father Dominic Young, born in 1793, 
 was fifteen years of age, which would make Brother Robert seventeen. 
 
 Father Young, who spent the last year or two of his life in Washington 
 City, retained a clear mind and memory until the end. A little while 
 before his death, the fathers at Georgetown College gave a dinner in his 
 honor, one of the purposes of which was to have him give them a history 
 of the noted Young family. Our late friend, the Rev. Edward I. Devitt, 
 S.J., then a young man and a student of history, was one of the instiga- 
 

 
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RELIGIOUS PROFESSION, STUDENT, PROFESSOR 111 
 
 The college, a much larger structure, rose more 
 slowly than the church. It appears to have been built 
 piecemeal, as circumstances permitted. Almost every- 
 one worked on it. But in 1812, on the receipt of a 
 legacy left the community by Bishop Concanen, Father 
 Fenwick brought it to completion in a hurry.” 
 
 tors of the plan to bring the venerable clergyman to Georgetown. Father 
 Young, Father Devitt often told us, was in fine fettle on the occasion. 
 As he talked, Devitt and others, so posted that he could not notice them, 
 took down what he said. The story appeared in the Georgetown College 
 Journal of January, 1879. In it Father Young states that his brother 
 “Robert became a Dominican, and died at the age of twenty-one.” This 
 fact, as he was about two years and a half older than Father Young, 
 and the latter was born on June 11, 1793, would make the date of 
 Brother Robert’s birth late in 1790 or early in 1791, and that of his death 
 about 1812. 
 
 The extant records of the college conducted in connection with Saint 
 Rose’s date back to shortly after 1812. In them one finds an occasional 
 mention of Brothers Pius Miles, Dominic Young, Stephen Montgomery, 
 Thomas Willett, and Louis Montgomery (his companions in the noviti- 
 ate), but Brother Robert’s name does not occur once. 
 
 The late Rev. Hugh Ewing of Columbus, Ohio, whose mother was 
 a niece of Father Nicholas D. and Brother Robert Young, had an old 
 family Bible, which is now in the possession of his sister, Mrs. Charles 
 W. Montgomery of Newark, Ohio. It gives the date of Ignatius Young’s 
 birth as December 29, 1790; that of Nicholas, the priest, as June 11, 1793; 
 and that of Robert as February 21, 1795. Such family records are 
 often inexact in some particular. If we exchange the dates of birth 
 between Robert and Ignatius, making the former the elder, and born 
 December 29, 1790, it fits in with almost mathematical nicety with the 
 tradition of the province, the statement of Father Nicholas D. Young, 
 and the scanty records of Saint Rose’s. To the writer the Bible record 
 seemed clearly to say: “Robert Young died Jan.[uary] 6th, 1812.” 
 Father Ewing maintained that the year was 1822; and the last time we 
 saw the book “1822” was written in fresh ink. It is not stated that 
 Robert was a Dominican; but the fact that he did not attain the priest- 
 hood, and his early death in the backwoods of Kentucky, would account 
 for this lapsus. General Hugh Ewing, father of the Rev. Hugh Ewing, 
 got out a genealogical tree of the Fenwick and Young families, in which 
 he followed the family Bible. He states that Robert Young “died without 
 issue,’ but does not mention that he was a religious. 
 
 27 Father Fenwick to Jacob Dittoe, Lancaster, Ohio, May 25, 1812 
 (Archives of Saint Joseph’s Priory). 
 
112 THE FATHER OF THE CHURCH IN TENNESSEE 
 
 Meanwhile, however (seemingly from late in 1808, 
 or early in 1809), the school had not only been in 
 action; it had also gained a good repute. It was called 
 Saint Thomas’ College, after the patron of Catholic 
 schools, Saint Thomas of Aquin, the great Dominican 
 theologian. In the beginning, the boarders were 
 lodged partly in the first convent (the former Waller 
 home), and partly in the portion of the new priory 
 intended for postulants.**~ Classes were held in the 
 parlors or any available place. But, in accordance as 
 it was made ready for their reception, both boys and 
 classes were gradually removed to the college proper 
 until it sheltered the entire secular element of the 
 institution. 
 
 No sooner was the edifice completed than Saint 
 Thomas’ College began really to flourish in point of 
 numbers. Besides the inmates, there were not a few 
 day scholars, both boys and young men, who came 
 
 28 Father Fenwick is not always clear and definite in his statements. 
 In one place in his letter of July 10, 1808, to Concanen he seems to say 
 that there were twenty-two postulants at Saint Rose’s and immediately 
 afterwards that there were twelve. If there were twelve, only his 
 nephews, Robert and Nicholas Young, paid for their education ($100.00 
 per annum); if twenty-two, twelve paid that sum. Whichever the 
 number, ten were being educated gratis. 
 
 As has been seen, the tradition that Richard Miles was one of these 
 postulants, and that he had been with Father Wilson from the time he 
 lived at the home of Henry Boone, can hardly be questioned. Nicholas 
 Miles, Richard’s father, was a man of considerable means for the day, 
 generous, large-hearted, and possessed of too much family pride to let 
 his son be educated without pay. For this reason, together with the 
 tradition that a large number of boys placed themselves under the fathers 
 at this time (although few persevered), we are inclined to think that 
 the number of postulants was twenty-two, and that Richard Miles was 
 one of those who paid $100.00 per annum. As we learn from a letter 
 of Fenwick to Bishop Carroll, May 7, 1808 (Baltimore Archives, Case 3, 
 R 10), there were then eight postulants at the institution. Possibly all 
 these had come from the school at Boone’s. 
 
RELIGIOUS PROFESSION, STUDENT, PROFESSOR 113 
 
 from the neighborhood, some of whom are said to have 
 ridden eight or ten miles in order to take advantage 
 of the opportunities thus offered them. Although 
 religious bias ran rather rampant at the time, many 
 forgot their prejudices under the impulse of the col- 
 lege’s good name and their desire to obtain an education. 
 Indeed, it seems quite sure that at times Saint Thomas’ 
 had as many, if not even more non-Catholics than 
 Catholics among its students. Thus it accomplished 
 much good in the uplift of the state and in the way of 
 breaking down the spirit of intolerance as well. 
 
 As early as 1806, Fathers Fenwick and Wilson had 
 journeyed through the state on horseback in order to 
 make known their project of establishing a college ;*” 
 nor did they afterwards slacken their efforts. Now 
 their zeal began to bear its reward in every way, 
 except in a pecuniary remuneration. Kentucky was 
 then a new commonwealth sparsely settled; the people, 
 as a rule, had very limited means; the financial de- 
 pression continued; ready money remained scarce. 
 One marvels rather that so many went to the college 
 than that more did not attend it. We may call those 
 days heroic for both the professors and their charges. 
 
 Comparatively few at least of the students at Saint 
 Thomas’, it has also flown down to us on the stream 
 of tradition, could pay all their board and tuition even 
 in the currency of Kentucky, which lost perhaps half 
 of its value when it was necessary to purchase articles 
 outside the state.” Many paid partly in kind; not a 
 
 2) Fenwick, Scott County, Kentucky, to Bishop Carroll (Baltimore 
 Archives, Case 3, R 11). This letter is not dated, but other documents 
 show that it was written early in Ocober, 1800. 
 
 30 That was in the days when the idea of state banks ran rampant. 
 Their paper money, unbacked by specie, was sometimes even almost worth- 
 less in another state. 
 
 9 
 
114 THE FATHER OF THE CHURCH IN TENNESSEE 
 
 few partly or wholly in labor. Before the completion 
 of the church and college, most of these spent a few 
 hours each day in helping in whatever way they could 
 with the rising structures. Later they were employed 
 at any kind of light work that was helpful to the insti- 
 tution or conducive to their support. ‘The commodities 
 or produce received from the pupils, some of whose 
 parents were small merchants, proved useful for the 
 table and in other ways, though more frequently than 
 not they were far from being the most beneficial method 
 of payment for the community. 
 
 In this connection we may mention Robert Abell, 
 later on one of Kentucky’s most efficient missionaries 
 and noted pulpit orators. Some writers mention that 
 he was in Saint Thomas’ College; but they do not tell 
 that he was once a Dominican novice. Perhaps they 
 were not aware of this fact; or perhaps they preferred 
 to pass it over in silence. However, his failure there 
 involves no disgrace, nor the recording of it any indel- 
 icacy. He himself was not ashamed of it; neither did 
 he hesitate to tell how he had once worn the habit. It 
 was felt that his vocation lay in another than a religious 
 life. For this reason, he left the novitiate, but wisely, 
 and very probably on the advice of Father Wilson or 
 Father Tuite, went to the diocesan seminary. He is 
 a credit to Saint Thomas’ College and Saint Rose’s 
 priory no less than to the Church of Kentucky. 
 
 Never did he give up the friendships that he formed 
 during his college and novitiate days with the Friars 
 Preacher, among which we may note those with the 
 future bishop of Tennessee and Father Nicholas D. 
 Young. Like Christopher Rudd, he retained a grate- 
 ful recollection of Saint Rose’s throughout his life. 
 
RELIGIOUS PROFESSION, STUDENT, PROFESSOR 115 
 
 Father Abell lost his father when he was ten years 
 of age. The tradition of the province places him at 
 Saint Rose’s in the early years of the institution; yet 
 it does not seem to include him among the postulants 
 there in May, 1808, in whom Father Fenwick found 
 much consolation.” ‘Ten of these were educated gratis. 
 Young Abell was most likely taken in the same way, 
 for his widowed mother possessed no generous share 
 of the goods of this world. Be this as it may, as long 
 as he lived, the great preacher loved to visit his alma 
 mater and the scenes of his early school days. Often 
 he made a retreat there. 
 
 Some years back, the older priests of the province, 
 who had made their noviceship at Saint Rose’s, or lived 
 there, and met him on these occasions, were wont often 
 to speak of how he claimed many privileges on the 
 strength of early associations. One of these was that 
 of going to the novitiate to see the novices and students. 
 On these visits he never failed to recount the old times, 
 his experiences as a student and a novice, and how he 
 had worked on both Saint Rose’s Church and Saint 
 ‘Thomas’ College. 
 
 “Yes,” he would say in a jocular way, “I helped to 
 build both the church and the college. ‘Then they sent 
 me away. Father Wilson thought I did not have 
 enough talent to become a son of Saint Dominic. But 
 I think I have done pretty well—dquite sufficient to 
 prove him wrong, and that I would have made a very 
 creditable Dominican. However, God rest him, he was 
 a great, learned, and holy priest, no less than an elo- 
 quent jpreacher. IJ profited much from him. The 
 
 31 Letter of July 10, 1808, to Concanen. Tradition has it that he 
 received the habit after Father Nicholas D. Young made his profession. 
 
116 THE FATHER OF THE CHURCH IN TENNESSEE 
 
 Lord willed it so. Hence I am a member of the 
 Church militant among the secular clergy, instead of 
 among the fathers of Saint Rose’s, a place that I love. 
 I’m sorry; but the ways of God are not the ways of 
 man. I owe it to Saint Rose’s that I am a priest of 
 God, for which I can not be too grateful.” ” 
 
 Father Abell, eloquent preacher that he was, lost no 
 opportunity to deliver a speech. On the occasions of 
 his visits at Saint Rose’s he invariably gave the young 
 men a discourse. In these talks he extolled the virtues 
 of the founders of the establishment, spoke of the first 
 priests trained there, told of the hardships and priva- 
 tions which all bore bravely, gave exhibitions of Father 
 Wilson’s style of oratory, and descanted on the studious, 
 tireless habits of the boys in those days. The noted 
 clergyman’s genial spirit and fidelity to his alma mater 
 combined with his lectures (for such we may call them) 
 to render his stays pleasant and welcome as well as 
 interesting and instructive. From superior and master 
 of novices he received every courtesy. The doors of 
 the priory were ever open to him. He saw it, and it 
 made him feel perfectly at home.*? 
 
 32 Mr. Webb (Centenary of Catholicity, p. 109) quotes a letter in which 
 it is stated that Father Abell went from Saint Rose’s to the diocesan 
 seminary in 1811. But the old fathers of the province thought this date 
 was too early, for on the occasions of his visits to Saint Rose’s he 
 always declared that he had helped on the college until its completion, and 
 this was in 1812. This contention is sustained by the date of his ordina- 
 tion and the rapidity with which the first students of the seminary were 
 advanced to the priesthood. However, it should be noted that the date 
 usually given as that of his ordination, August 14, 1818, can not be 
 correct; for Spalding’s Life of Bishop Flaget (pp. 183-205) shows that 
 the bishop left Kentucky for Detroit in May, 1818, and did not return 
 until the end of June, 1819. We wonder if the real date of Father 
 Abell’s ordination might be August 14, 1817. 
 
 33 Fathers Charles H. McKenna, William Quinn, and William F. 
 Linahan were the last to die of those who used frequently to speak of 
 
RELIGIOUS PROFESSION, STUDENT, PROFESSOR 117 
 
 One of the greatest difficulties against which our 
 educational institutions had to contend in the early days 
 was that of getting a sufficient corps of suitable pro- 
 fessors. Catholic colleges were especially tried in this 
 way. They received no public aid; they had scant 
 means. Besides, those of the faith, for the protection 
 of which they were largely founded, were not only 
 vastly fewer in numbers, but also possessed of much 
 less wealth than non-Catholics. Because of these han- 
 dicaps, in the schools under church auspices the pupils 
 in the higher grades helped with the teaching of those 
 in the lower branches. We find the practice in about 
 all our early American Catholic colleges. It was not 
 uncommon even in institutions that were accorded 
 public help. 
 
 However, the plan, though not the best in itself, had 
 its advantages in those pioneer days. First of all, in 
 more than one instance it rendered possible a Catholic 
 school which could not have been maintained under 
 any other system. Again, it enabled many an ambitious 
 young man, by thus making at least a partial payment 
 for his education, to carry his own studies to a point 
 of completion to which otherwise it would have been 
 idle for him to aspire. It gave the budding student- 
 professor confidence, taught him to think for himself, 
 and often afforded him an insight into his subject- 
 matter that he did not get from his teachers. 
 
 The method would receive little support from modern 
 educators; yet some of the greatest men of the past 
 worked their way through college in the double capac- 
 Father Abell’s visits. It seems that, even when on distant missions, 
 he rarely, if ever, let a year pass without at least a brief visit to his first 
 alma mater. Always did he eulogize Father Wilson’s solid, instructive, 
 
 and eloquent sermons. Some have thought that he imbibed much of his 
 ambition and inspiration for preaching from the learned Friar Preacher. 
 
118 THE FATHER OF THE CHURCH IN TENNESSEE 
 
 ity of student and professor. We find them in the 
 fields of literature, the classics, philosophy, the pro- 
 fessions, and even pedagogy itself, no less than in that 
 of commerce. Fortunately, therefore, the system was 
 not regarded with an unfavorable eye by the public at 
 that period. ‘That those not of the faith made no dis- 
 crimination against Catholic colleges merely because 
 they were so conducted is evidenced by the fact that they 
 often selected them for the education of their sons in 
 preference to schools favored by state patronage, or 
 under the auspices of their own creed. ‘They realized 
 that these institutions were guided by educated clergy- 
 men who took good care that no teacher proved derelict 
 in his duty, and that the moral character of the 
 students was trained at the same time that their minds 
 were developed. 
 
 That the Dominican College of Saint Thomas, in 
 Kentucky, was conducted on this plan seems beyond 
 question.** The first bishop of Nashville had com- 
 menced his studies before the opening of the college 
 proper; but there is little doubt that he made a part 
 of his classical course in it. At the same time, fol- 
 lowing the custom of the day, he aided Fathers 
 Wilson and Tuite in the instruction of the students 
 less advanced than himself. 
 
 After his religious profession, as has been seen, he 
 began his higher studies. Along with these also, for 
 there was little time for leisure in those days, he 
 continued to lend a hand to the professorial staff in 
 
 34 This was one of the topics on which Father Abell was wont to 
 speak during his visits. Webb insinuates it on page 204 of his Centenary; 
 Fenwick (letter of July 10, 1808) tells Concanen that the fathers intend 
 
 to adopt it. Indeed, because of the small number of priests, the college 
 could not have been carried on otherwise. 
 
RELIGIOUS PROFESSION, STUDENT, PROFESSOR 119 
 
 whatever way it was required. He still took his turn 
 at manual labor, as he was needed, or the occasion 
 presented itself. ‘The office of prefect fell to him in 
 regular turn. In all these duties, tradition tells us, the 
 youthful Friar Preacher acquitted himself to the 
 satisfaction of his superiors. No more could be ex- 
 pected of one engaged in so many things. He is said 
 to have shone especially in philosophy and theology. 
 Yet he did not suffer these various occupations to 
 interfere with his religious life or observance. Punc- 
 tuality in attendance at the community exercises was 
 one of his characteristics. He never failed to be among 
 the first who appeared for them, unless prevented by 
 an order from his superior, or the duty to which he 
 was assigned. 
 
 Those who may be tempted to doubt that one could 
 have made much progress in the highway of education 
 under such conditions should remember that the simple 
 games of the past took little time. ‘The youths of that 
 era were satisfied with less than are those of today. 
 They lived under sterner conditions, which made them 
 more serious, filled them with greater regard for their 
 elders, gave them a readier spirit of obedience, rendered 
 them more docile to the laws and regulations of their 
 superiors, caused them to be industrious. ‘They rose 
 earlier, and labored later. 
 
 They were not afraid of work. Baseball, football, 
 basketball, and our other athletic sports were unknown 
 to them. The hours which modern youths in school or 
 college give to these pastimes and festivity they gave 
 to toil that was useful in many ways. ‘They did not 
 take up all the topics taught the present generation, 
 not a few of which are fantastic or merely ornamental; 
 
120 THE FATHER OF THE CHURCH IN TENNESSEE 
 
 but what they did study they learned more thoroughly. 
 Too often we simply teach our boys to walk on stilts; 
 those of a hundred years ago were trained to tread on 
 terra firma. They mastered principles and elements, 
 thus laying a solid foundation whereon they could after- 
 wards build through personal industry—which, after 
 all, is the real objective of a college education. 
 
 Brother Pius Miles spent more than ten years of 
 such a student life before his ordination. It was a 
 period which combined with a splendid religious train- 
 ing to give him that character, at once charming and 
 stalwart, which made him an ornament to the hierarchy 
 of our American Church, no less than to its priesthood. 
 
CHAPTER VI 
 END OF STUDENT DAYS, ORDINATION 
 
 OnE could ask no better criterion whereby to judge 
 the character of a man than the life he leads and the 
 spirit with which he lives it. Tried by such a test, 
 Bishop Miles stands out as a personage who compels 
 admiration. 
 
 While, as Bishop Spalding states, the Dominicans 
 in Kentucky wrote little, they were certainly faithful 
 to their calling and zealous in the cause of God. They 
 worked hard, and performed their duties well. During 
 the time that he was superior, Father Fenwick wrote 
 to his friends, Bishop Carroll and Father Concanen, 
 frequently enough to leave us letters that throw much 
 light on the earliest days of Saint Joseph’s Province 
 of Friars Preacher. But from that date letters become 
 sadly few. Fortunately, however, those that have 
 survived the destructive agencies of time clearly estab- 
 lish the truth of a living and inspiring tradition of 
 the province, which, it can not be repeated too often, 
 informs us that its founders and first recruits were 
 scrupulously exact in the obligations of their state of 
 life, when there was every reason to excuse them from 
 a rigid observance. Even under the most adverse 
 circumstances they sought minutely to carry out the 
 rules and constitutions of their Order. 
 
 The year in which the subject of our narrative was 
 raised to the priesthood, for instance, the Master Gen- 
 
 121 
 
122 THE FATHER OF)THE CHURCH IN TENNESSEE 
 
 eral writes to congratulate the little community at 
 Saint Rose’s on its spirit of religious observance, and 
 to encourage it in that holy practice, despite the dif- 
 ficulties which stood in the way. ‘This was in 1816. 
 No doubt the General’s letter was in reply to one from 
 Father Wilson, no longer extant, giving an outline of 
 the life led by himself and confréres.* 
 
 Similarly, we have the letter (or rather extracts from 
 it in an Italian rendition) from the provincial to 
 Father Hill mentioned in the previous chapter. Al- 
 though written on July 23, 1820, four years after the 
 ordination of Bishop Miles, the document is pertinent 
 to our subject just at this point, for it affords a pic- 
 ture of the circumstances under which he lived, studied, 
 and was trained, whether intellectually or spiritually.’ 
 It is a detailed account of the daily community life 
 at the convent, apart from the college, written to Father 
 Hill in order to give him an idea as well of the needs 
 of the little band of Friars Preacher as of the privations 
 that he and some companions whom he expected to 
 join him at Rome should be prepared to put up with 
 on their arrival in Kentucky. In view of the scarcity 
 of data, the communication is precious beyond estimate. 
 For these reasons, in spite of its length, we translate 
 
 the entire document back into its original language. 
 My dear Brother in Christ :— 
 
 I received your letter of August 13, [1819, ?] eleven months 
 later. The present letter will serve as a commentary on another 
 that I wrote to the Most Rev. Father General, in which I begged 
 him for your speedy departure, and constituted you my procurator.® 
 Please, therefore, let him see this letter also. 
 
 1 Father Pius J. Gaddi to Father Wilson, March 16, 1816 (Archives of 
 Saint Rose’s Priory.) 
 
 2 Propaganda Archives, America Centrale, (Vol, IV, No. 138). 
 
 3 We could not find this letter of Wilson at Rome. 
 
END OF STUDENT DAYS, ORDINATION 123 
 
 We carry out community life to perfection. No one has a far- 
 thing in his own name; nor does anyone even think of having money 
 here in a country where there are neither books nor any other 
 desirable objects to purchase. We wear the tonsure just as you 
 do at the Minerva. I enclose a sample of our clothes, habit, and 
 so on. Since our principal concern is to live without the need of 
 buying, we have all necessaries in our power; that is, food and 
 clothing, except the secular dress for the missionaries. We have 
 a blacksmith, a shoemaker, and a tailor; but we need a joiner 
 and a mason for the mills, since the repairs on these and their 
 maintenance amount to some two hundred dollars a year. 
 
 We also need lay brothers, not for heavy labor, but for the 
 direction of our negroes, of whom there are twenty-seven.* These 
 servants are very easily controlled and industrious. I place so 
 much trust in them that J dismissed our overseer last fall, an 
 action that, in the way of saving, gained us a fourth of the pro- 
 duce of the mills and farm. Indeed, as Americans have little 
 idea of economy, a few lay brothers would be very useful, for 
 they would about double our income [from the farm]. I hope to 
 find one before long. Two or three others would not be too many. 
 
 There are twelve of us in the community. Of late we have 
 met with some severe losses. Two of our wagon horses died,” 
 and our grain crops failed for two years in succession. Moreover, 
 like the other people in this part of the country, we have been 
 obliged to sell on credit. In this way, we shall probably lose 
 also the portion of the farm products which we did not consume, 
 and which we sold on credit, for the past two years. The sum 
 amounts to six hundred dollars. These things, however, should 
 not dishearten you, nor prevent you from bringing along with 
 you the religious of whom you have written to me, as well as some 
 lay brothers; for we have considerably over four hundred acres of 
 land, which, if cultivated a little more, will supply us all with 
 the means of a decent maintenance.® 
 
 4 This number must be a typographical error, for it seems that the 
 institution never had so many colored servants. 
 
 5 “Due cavalli da carretta.” Carretta means either a cart or a carriage 
 but it is almost certain that Saint Rose’s had no carriage at this early date. 
 
 6 The Italian rendition of Father Wilson’s letter makes him say: “We 
 have considerably over two thousand acres of land,’ which is a gross 
 
124 THE FATHER OF THE CHURCH IN TENNESSEE 
 
 So far Father Wilson’s letter gives us, in addition 
 to a literal confirmation of the tradition of the prov- 
 ince, an edifying picture of the spirit of personal 
 poverty and common life practised by those early 
 Friars Preacher, than which one would hardly ask for 
 a better proof of religious observance. It reveals the 
 courage with which they bore privations, without lay- 
 ing claim to any superior merit therefor. As a matter 
 of fact, it seems certain, the document rather tones 
 down the hardships of the community than gives them 
 in their full measure. From it we conclude that the 
 produce brought in through the students in the college 
 almost supplied the table with food and the community 
 with material for making clothes, which left a surplus 
 from the farm for sale, small and uncertain as were the 
 profits thus realized. 
 
 Furthermore, the document affords a glimpse into 
 the happier lot of our quondam enslaved Africans who 
 belonged to Catholic institutions, where their bodily 
 comforts were no less carefully looked after than their 
 spiritual welfare." Nor should we overlook the length 
 exaggeration undoubtedly due either to an oversight of the translator, | 
 or to Father Hill’s well-known fertile imagination. The tone of his letter 
 shows that Father Wilson was speaking only of the Saint Rose farm, 
 which originally had four hundred and fifty acres, and there is no record 
 of more having been purchased prior to this time. Hence our re-trans- 
 lation of “considerably over four hundred acres of land.” Jacob Dittoe, 
 it is true, had lately given Father Fenwick three hundred and twenty 
 acres of forest land in Perry County, Ohio, for an establishment there. 
 Besides, the community of Saint’ Rose had purchased twelve hundred 
 acres of similar land in Union County, Kentucky, of which we shall 
 speak later. The intention was to establish a college in Western Ken- 
 tucky, but Bishop Flaget objected. As matters stood at this time, the 
 fathers were heavily in debt for this property, and were holding on to 
 it in the hope that they might sell it for something like what it cost, 
 
 and use the proceeds for a plantation near Cincinnati. 
 7 For a sample of the love which the old-time colored servants of Saint 
 
END OF STUDENT DAYS, ORDINATION 125 
 
 of time it took Father Hill’s letter to reach its destina- 
 tion. The slow mails of that day rendered the life of 
 religious communities all the more difficult, because they 
 impeded communication with the higher authorities 
 abroad. 
 
 Father Wilson insisted, as long as he lived, on the 
 tonsure being worn by the novices and those whose 
 duties kept them at the college and convent. But, tra- 
 dition tells us, his successor, Father Tuite, for reasons 
 of health, and because he did not think it productive 
 of good in a non-Catholic country, had the practice 
 discontinued, about 1824 or 1825. Besides, the priests 
 on the missions could not go tonsured into the places 
 where they were often obliged to travel. Why then 
 should it be worn by any? However, the kindly man 
 is said to have incurred the displeasure of Bishop 
 Flaget by this action, for he felt that it was a relaxation 
 of discipline, albeit the tonsure had not been worn any- 
 where else in the United States. 
 
 You can therefore invite them [continues Father Wilson] to an 
 abundance of pork, bacon, cabbage, turnips, and somewhat indif- 
 ferent potatoes. They will also often have chicken, duck, goose, 
 and turkey. From September until Christmas we have fresh meat 
 [pork] that is fairly good. All these things are from our farm. 
 But you must let them know that they will meet with tastes that 
 will hardly appeal to their palates, unless they are skilled in the 
 culinary art; for the fowl here are a little insipid, which, I fancy, 
 comes from a lack of vegetable salts in their food, the sea being 
 at so great a distance from us. For this reason, we are obliged 
 to give salt to hogs, sheep, cattle, and the like. 
 
 So you see we are not so badly off for the days on which meat 
 is allowed.« We should be just as fortunate as you are in 
 
 Rose’s entertained for the institution, see the writer's An American 
 Apostle (or Life of Father M. A. O’Brien), p. 187. 
 
 8 The community ate meat at three meals a week; that is, for dinner 
 on Sunday, Tuesday, and Thursday. But tradition tells us that, because 
 
126 THE FATHER OF THE CHURCH IN TENNESSEE 
 
 Europe, if our Americans knew anything about cooking. You will 
 note the lack of such knowledge from their way of cooking fowl. 
 Scarcely is a stranger arrived, when they send the negroes and 
 dogs after the chickens. They take the first on which they lay 
 hand, place an iron kettle on the fire, wring the heads off the 
 chickens, thrust them into the kettle of boiling water while the 
 flesh is still quivering, and leave them there until the feathers are 
 ready to come off. Immediately the feathers are removed, the 
 chickens are drawn and put into a slowly boiling pot. Finally, 
 they are laid, together with some bacon, in a basting-pan until 
 they are browned. Then they certainly have a musty odor and 
 a distasteful flavor. 
 
 We are very unfortunate as regards vegetables. It seems that 
 but few of the seeds of England and Flanders are suitable or 
 adapted to this warm climate, for they grow too fast. Generally 
 speaking, I can not do better than liken our bread to that which 
 you yourself made the first time you attempted to make bread at 
 Bornheim.” Our water is hard or a bit limy, often muddy, and in 
 the summer time not very fresh. In many things, it is true, we 
 might better our condition; but we have so much to do that, without 
 lay brothers and a little more money with which to provide accom- 
 modations, our lot must remain a trifle cruel. Thus it is not 
 altogether out of love, but also somewhat out of personal interest, 
 that we are so anxious to see you and your companions. 
 
 It will be especially on the days of abstinence that the Euro- 
 peans will experience their greatest difficulty.1° We can not have 
 a single mess of fish during the entire year, although a creek runs 
 only a short distance from the house. While merely a dry furrow 
 
 of the work in the college, it was now and then given to some also on 
 another day. Yet some one always abstained from meat even at these 
 meals. 
 
 9 Father Hill was a convert, and had been a married man and an officer 
 in the British Army. After his retirement, at an early age, he went to 
 live at Bornheim, Belgium. His house stood near the college of the 
 English Dominicans, of whom he was an intimate friend. By mutual 
 consent, and the approbation of the Holy See, he and his wife separated 
 that he might become a priest. She went to live with a community of 
 nuns in Belgium. See Life of Bishop Fenwick, passim. 
 
 10 The days other than those mentioned in note 8 of this chapter were 
 called days of abstinence. 
 
END OF STUDENT DAYS, ORDINATION 127 
 
 in the summer time, it rushes along like a torrent in the winter. 
 Instead of fish we use apple pie and other pastry. Salt mackerel 
 is exceedingly scarce. A single one costs a quarter of a dollar. 
 
 When Europeans first arrive in America, they fancy that they 
 can manage things better than those who were here before them. 
 But they very soon discover that they are mistaken; because, for 
 instance, if one knows how to make bread, he can not do it with- 
 out being able to make the yeast also—and something more, even 
 to the building of the oven. In case he can do all these things, 
 he will be in good luck if he can find everything that he needs. 
 For example, there is nothing here out of which to make yeast, 
 except salt and sugar. 
 
 So remember the saying of poor old Decker: “Come to a beau- 
 tiful country, where you will find an abundance of all things, 
 provided you bring them with you.” 
 to me, holds in regard to all the sciences. That is to say, you 
 can make no progress, unless you know all their accessory branches. 
 
 The same thing, it occurs 
 
 I hope to be able, on your arrival, to regale you with a little 
 home-made beer; for we have here a young Irishman, a professed 
 novice, who makes it well.1! Up to the present, our beverage has 
 been miserable water tempered with a most wretched sort of 
 spirits, which, if it be ever extracted from grain, has the strongest 
 taste of smoking, or rather chewing tobacco.” 
 
 But we go on improving every day. So we tried to make some 
 cider a few days ago. However, here again, as usual, we did 
 not succeed. Our apples ripen too soon, and the iron vessels turn 
 black. Accordingly, we had to give up the enterprise. Neverthe- 
 less we have four hundred ‘later trees that are doing well. We 
 haven't enough laborers to make cider or anything else in that 
 line without infringing on the time for studies and other duties. 
 In a word, you can form no idea of the great need we have of help. 
 
 I was about to forget Father Tuite’s vineyard. It has fifty- 
 five vines that yield an abundance of mediocre grapes. Hence 
 we can have wine also, when you come, if you can show us how 
 to make it. Note well, we have a clumsy old wine-press. The 
 
 il This was either Brother James Thomas Polin, Brother Hyacinth 
 McGrady, or Brother Thomas Martin, all of whom afterwards became 
 
 noted priests. 
 12 Evidently Father Wilson knew little about tobacco. 
 
128 THE FATHER OF THE CHURCH IN TENNESSEE 
 
 wine for mass, which we never touch except at the altar—not 
 even in case of sickness, costs five dollars a gallon, or for four 
 bottles. 
 
 Doubtless the reader has not been able to repress a 
 smile at some parts of Father Wilson’s letter. Yet, 
 on the whole, it gives an accurate picture of country 
 life in Kentucky a hundred years ago. ‘The same 
 spirit of hospitality still prevails there, while the cus- 
 toms have changed little in many respects. 
 
 However, one is at liberty to disagree with the 
 distinguished clergyman’s prejudice against chicken 
 cooked so soon after it is killed. Connoisseurs in deli- 
 eacies of the table universally, not only praise the 
 method of cooking chicken in the rural districts of the 
 south, but even declare that nowhere else has it so 
 exquisite a flavor. Almost the same scene as that de- 
 scribed by the learned divine may be witnessed today 
 by a traveller throughout the states below the Mason 
 and Dixon Line, when he stops for a meal even at the 
 humblest household. Indeed, a southern countryman 
 cares little for chicken, unless it is prepared for the 
 table soon after it has been killed. ‘The bacon, when 
 it is used, inproves stewed or basted chicken, while it 
 receives a delicious flavor in return. Father Wilson 
 evidently preferred the English custom of keeping 
 meats until they are “good and ripe” before putting 
 them into the oven. 
 
 One would hardly expect so much wit in such a 
 serious student and busy man as the provincial. No 
 doubt he used the amusing details in order to tone down 
 the trials and privations of the community, lest Father 
 Hill and his companions should be frightened, perhaps 
 even swerved from their good intentions. Be that 
 
END OF STUDENT DAYS, ORDINATION 129 
 
 as it may, the document shows a keen sense of humor 
 which its writer employed with dexterity for their 
 pleasure. Jor this reason, one is prepared to overlook 
 a few inaccuracies and likely a little exaggeration, 
 which, after all, may be due in part to a faulty Italian 
 rendition of the original. Although it is not so stated, 
 it was evidently the demands of the college that kept 
 the brethren so occupied that they had little time to 
 arrange conveniences for themselves. 
 
 Having given his friend an account of the convent’s 
 temporal affairs, Father Wilson proceeds to lay before 
 him a more detailed recital of the religious and educa- 
 tional side of its life. The story reflects no little credit 
 on the institution, especially if we consider the adverse 
 circumstances against which it had to contend. It 
 reveals, in fact, a genuine spirit of mortification, no 
 less than an earnest effort at advancement as well 
 intellectual as spiritual, in all of which, tradition 
 assures us, Brother Pius Miles set a wholesome ex- 
 ample. On this point the document says: 
 
 As for the disposition of our time, it is as follows. We are 
 on our feet at four o’clock every morning, and make a half hour’s 
 meditation. There is silence until the conventual mass, which is 
 said three hours later; that is, at seven o'clock. During that time 
 we also say the little hours of prime, tierce, and sext. ‘These are 
 followed by a collation, when it is permitted; and it consists of 
 warm milk just taken from the cow, for in the summer time the 
 milk becomes sour very quickly. At times a little tea is allowed 
 those who prefer it. We have the same for supper.t? After the 
 collation (that is, at eight o’clock), the bell is rung for silence, 
 
 13 We fancy that something was left out here in the Italian translation 
 of Wilson’s letter; for it seems certain that a morsel of bread must have 
 been taken not only at supper, but also at breakfast. Doubtless, too, 
 sorghum molasses (perhaps, at times a little butter) was used with the bread. 
 
 10 
 
130 THE FATHER OF THE CHURCH IN TENNESSEE 
 
 which continues until dinner. On the fast days of the Order we 
 take this meal at eleven o’clock; and on those of the Church at 
 twelve, or midday. The rest of the year we dine at one o'clock. 
 We follow this rule in order to have the fresher part of the day 
 for study. 
 
 We say none immediately before or immediately after dinner, 
 according to the time prescribed for it. Before dinner we have 
 a short meditation. From Trinity Sunday to the end of August 
 we avail ourselves of the privilege of saying matins the previous 
 evening, in accordance with the rubrics (§ 36). At this time 
 vespers are said at three o'clock, P.M., and compline at four, 
 followed by ten minutes’ meditation. Silence from this time until 
 six o clock; then matins, supper, and recreation until the night 
 prayers that we say at eight. 
 
 From the end of August to Trinity Sunday we say matins 
 immediately after the morning meditation; that is, at four o'clock, 
 A.M.; and vespers at four, P.M.; silence thence until six, when 
 we have supper. This is followed by recreation until compline, 
 said at seven. Compline finished, all retire for the night. 
 
 On feasts with simple octaves we say matins and lauds at mid- 
 night. On those of the Order, and the higher feasts, we sing 
 compline, together with the Salve, and more or less of the whole 
 office, according as our choir permits; for only one of our young 
 men understands the chant well.14 The singing is accompanied 
 by the organ. 
 
 As we have no lay brothers, those who are not priests work in 
 the garden or do some other kind of labor a part of the after- 
 noon. This is a necessity, although it really interferes with their 
 studies. Four lessons in theology [and philosophy] are given in 
 the morning and one in the afternoon each week. The simple 
 novices and postulants are assiduously drilled in Latin. A spiritual 
 instruction is given them every day an hour before dinner. Thanks 
 to the late Bishop Concanen, nearly all of whose library was left 
 to us, we are not so badly supplied in the way of books. The 
 most of our young men know French and Italian. However, we 
 need Touron’s works on the lives of the saints and illustrious men 
 
 14 More feasts had simple octaves according to the Dominican rubrics 
 at that time than are so honored today. 
 
END OF STUDENT DAYS, ORDINATION 131 
 
 of our Order, some good books of controversy, and commentaries 
 on the Scriptures. 
 
 On Sunday mornings we teach catechism and Christian doctrine 
 from ten to eleven o’clock. Then comes solemn high mass, for 
 which the community sings the Kyrie, Gloria, Credo, and Agnus 
 Dei. In place of the Alleluia or the Gradual, a hymn is sung by 
 some of the congregation in the gallery at the rear of the church, 
 under the direction of an Italian who teaches them and accom- 
 panies the singing with a clarinet. A sermon is preached after 
 the mass. 
 
 We have a bell of French make for the church, but it is cracked. 
 We have also some relics, but are in need of a pyx. That which 
 we have is Roman and made of copper plated with silver. The 
 silver has become perfectly black. The parish, which surrounds the 
 convent, is composed of three hundred and ten families. Besides 
 these, however, there are many young men who work here and 
 there through the country. The families have an average of eight 
 souls, and should pay an annual assessment of half a dollar for 
 each person over ten years of age; but we can scarcely collect two 
 hundred and fifty, or at the most three hundred dollars a year. 
 Even this sum is paid in kind, and not in coin, whereby we lose 
 a third of the value it would have were it given in money. 
 
 We should be perfectly content if the parish brought us even 
 sufficient means to provide the horses and secular clothing necessary 
 for the missionaries, which I fear will never be the case. None 
 the less, we do not cease to perform gratis all religious functions, 
 such as baptisms, marriages, and the like. The out missions bring 
 us nothing. Now and then we get a dollar; but this by no means 
 suflices to defray the expenses of them.1® Our people here, while 
 rich in lands and victuals, are poor in money. The taxes are of 
 
 little moment. Ours amount to only four or five guineas a year.!? 
 
 15 Evidently this Italian was a professor in the college. Father Miles, 
 however, is said to have had charge of the choir as long as he remained 
 at Saint Rose’s. 
 
 16 At this time two Fathers were in Ohio, one in Scott County, Ken- 
 tucky, and one in Lexington. They barely supported themselves, and 
 contributed little or nothing to the upkeep of their convent; perhaps at 
 times they were an expense. 
 
 17 According to some accounts that we have seen of that day this sum 
 did not amount to more than twelve or fifteen dollars. 
 
132 THE FATHER OF THE CHURCH IN TENNESSEE 
 
 Conversions of Protestants are infrequent and somewhat long- 
 drawn-out affairs. The reason of this is that there are only seven- 
 teen missionaries, eight of whom are members of our Order, for 
 the states of Kentucky, Ohio, Indiana, and Tennessee, a vast 
 stretch of territory as large as all Europe. Even the bishop and his 
 coadjutor are included in this number of priests.!® 
 
 Our latitude is between the thirty-sixth and the thirty-seventh 
 degrees. During the dry season it is very warm; but after the 
 rains the weather is as moderate as in Flanders. The hot weather 
 rarely begins before June, and it generally continues until Sep- 
 tember. Winter commences around Christmas. At times the cold 
 is intense, especially from four until ten o'clock in the morning. 
 The rest of the day is milder. 
 
 We need missals, breviaries, diurnals, a collectarium, a cere- 
 monial of the Order, a martyrology, etc., etc., etc. 
 
 Father Thomas Wilson. 
 
 In spite of its length, one lays down the above doc- 
 
 ument with a regret that the entire original could not 
 
 be given, instead of extracts perhaps hurriedly made 
 by the first translator who knew little or nothing about 
 America. ‘The letter reveals the broad, orderly mind 
 
 and keen insight of an eye-witness to the things of 
 which he wrote. Because of an inability to differentiate 
 strictly between what would be and what would not 
 be useful for the history of the Church in the United 
 States, it is very probable that points of much impor- 
 
 18 The translation of Father Wilson’s letter makes him say that there 
 were seventeen priests in the states mentioned; but it would seem that 
 there were eighteen The Dominicans were Fathers S. T. Wilson, E. D. 
 Fenwick, W. R. Tuite, R. P. Miles, S. L. Montgomery, W. T. Willett, 
 S. H. Montgomery, and N. D. Young, The diocesan clergy, besides 
 Bishops Flaget and David, were apparently the Reverend Charles 
 Nerinckx, G. I. Chabrat, Anthony Ganilh, R. A. Abell, Charles Coomes 
 (the first of that name), William Byrne, George A. Elder, and James 
 Derigaud. A Rey. Peter Schaeffer had been ordained prior to this time, 
 but he soon returned to Belgium because of ill health. Father Angier, 
 O.P., had gone to Maryland for the same reason. Indiana seems to 
 have been attended occasionally from Kentucky, the Rev. Anthony Blanc 
 (later archbishop) having been called to New Orleans from Vincennes. 
 
END OF STUDENT DAYS, ORDINATION 133 
 
 tance as well as of great interest were omitted in the 
 Italian rendition which we have used. ‘The whole doc- 
 ument, as it now stands, forms but one paragraph; 
 and there are other signs that it gives us only a sum- 
 mary of Wilson’s real letter, with merely the points 
 that appealed to the translator’s ideas. Possibly it is 
 in this way that we are to explain the failure to men- 
 tion Saint Thomas’ College run in connection with the 
 convent.” 
 
 It was wise in Father Wilson to forewarn the pro- 
 spective recruits to the province from abroad of what 
 they should expect in the wilderness of Kentucky. 
 
 That he gave them a true picture of the strict religious 
 life that prevailed there is evidenced by a letter of 
 Father Hill himself. Shortly after his arrival from 
 the Convent of the Minerva, the residence of the Order’s 
 General and its historic House of Studies in Rome, 
 he assures a friend in England that the diet of the 
 little community is indeed “very plain’, and its lite 
 quite “sufficiently severe.” 'That the members enjoyed 
 good health he seems to attribute to the providence 
 
 19 There are partial Italian renditions of two other letters of Wilson 
 and one of Fenwick to Hill (also a similar French rendition of Fenwick’s 
 and one of Wilson’s) in this same year (1820), and a petition of Hill 
 to the cardinal prefect of the Propaganda in the archives of that sacred 
 congregation in conjunction with that which we have translated. Father 
 Hill was a brilliant and learned man, an eloquent preacher, a good 
 priest, and a zealous missionary; but he lacked judgment. He never 
 succeeded in getting all the old leaven out of himself, while he retained 
 too much of the military spirit to be placed at the head of things. He was 
 also something of a dreamer. Unfortunately he won the confidence of 
 Fathers Fenwick and Wilson, which caused the latter to appoint him 
 his representative at Rome. At once he entered on the chimerical scheme 
 of uniting the English and American provinces, which caused some un- 
 necessary hard feelings. Some years ago, we had a talk with the late 
 historian of the English Province, Father Raymund Palmer, on this sub- 
 ject; not without reason he was very positive in his censure of Father Hill. 
 
134 THE FATHER OF THE CHURCH IN TENNESSEE 
 
 of God who “tempers the wind to the shorn lamb.’ *° 
 
 History combines with tradition, so strong and direct 
 that it impels conviction, to fill out the story. It is 
 known that wheaten bread was a luxury not often 
 indulged in by the settlers of Kentucky. Pork and 
 bread made of maize were their mainstay of life. 
 Because they ate the former at only three or four meals 
 a week, the fathers depended principally on the latter.** 
 Fortunately it could be prepared in a variety of ways, 
 from which we have the names “‘corn bread’, ““‘hoe-cake’”’, 
 “corn pone”, “Johnny-cake’, “corn dodger’, “sweet 
 pone”, “corn-cake’’, and so on. However prepared, 
 it was not unwholesome; neither was it unsavory on the 
 rather rare occasions, when butter could be used with it. 
 At other times omnipresent sorghum molasses made at 
 the home served to render this common staple more 
 acceptable to the palate. Ordinarily necessity required 
 the use of lard in its preparation. 
 
 The best of all that the community could command 
 went to the tables of the growing youths in the college. 
 In fact, not infrequently the money that came from the 
 wealthier boys was used to help the poorer. While 
 nothing could be too good for their young charges, the 
 fathers, novices, and postulants were content with the 
 bare necessaries of life. 
 
 Father Wilson himself tells us, early in his letter, 
 that all his brethren’s clothes were made at home, with 
 the exception of the better secular suits for the mis- 
 sionaries. These outfits, however, were reserved for 
 distant journeys and special occasions. Nobody, 
 
 20 Letter dated November 21, 1821( London Catholic Miscellany, I, 
 
 327-328.) 
 21 See note 8 of this chapter. 
 
END OF STUDENT DAYS, ORDINATION 135 
 
 unless he was almost continually engaged in apostolic 
 work at a distance, had such a suit specially for himself. 
 One was used by several men of about the same size, 
 for in those days a little misfit caused no comment. 
 The secular dress ordinarily worn by the priests 
 for work in the parish and on the adjacent missions was 
 made of jeans. 
 
 Indeed, the wearing apparel of the community was 
 not merely home-made; it was also home-spun and 
 home-woven. Although they have now disappeared, the 
 writer has often seen around the convent relics of the 
 old-time wool-carder, spinning-wheel, loom, and other 
 appliances for making cloth. Its colored servants 
 were especially valuable because of this sort of work, 
 for the price of more delicate stuffs was prohibitive 
 to the institution’s slender means. 
 
 At that time the world had not so much as dreamed 
 of the modern utilities for which electricity is now 
 employed. Perhaps nowhere in Kentucky was gas 
 used for lighting purposes. Of kerosene or other oil 
 lamps there were few, if any, in the state. The first 
 artificial hight for reading and study at Saint Rose’s 
 was furnished by grease from pork. It was poured 
 into a shallow metal vessel of the shape and about the 
 size of a pie-pan, with a ring-like handle on one side 
 that it might be carried in safety, and a mouth or 
 slight depression on the other. A strip of cloth, pre- 
 ferably woolen, soaked in grease lay in the pan, with 
 one end projecting a little over the rim at the mouth. 
 This was the wick. Another vessel for the same 
 purpose (in which the same material was used, and 
 which probably came into service somewhat later) 
 looked not unlike a cheap incense-boat, or an alchemist’s 
 
136 THE FATHER OF THE CHURCH IN TENNESSEE 
 
 lamp. Candles, though used on the altars, and probably 
 in the choir for the recitation of the divine office, did not 
 come into general vogue at the institution until after the 
 subject of our narrative had been sent to other fields of 
 labor.” 
 
 Father Wilson passed over such items as the above 
 when writing to his friend, for they were common to 
 every household in that heroic era of brave men in the 
 new west. But the reader, we venture to believe, has 
 not passed over the kindly way in which Father Wilson 
 speaks of the people and palliates their failure to assist 
 his community, when he might have indulged in some 
 censure—perhaps justly, in view of the modest sum 
 asked of them for the support of their pastors, and the 
 fact that the college was for the education of their 
 children. 
 
 This trait, however, was characteristic of those early 
 Friars Preacher, and especially of Fathers Fenwick 
 and Tuite. We have in it a fact that speaks volumes 
 in their praise, no less than indicates that they were 
 of the kind that shrink from no drudgery for the good 
 of souls. During the period of his education, the 
 Father of the Church in Tennessee drank deeply of this 
 spirit, which caused it to guide him through all his 
 apostolic days. 
 
 The course of philosophy and theology in the Order 
 of Saint Dominic is long and profound. At the time 
 of which we speak, owing to the circumstances with 
 which the reader is now familiar, that given in Saint 
 Joseph’s Province could not be carried out to the full 
 length. Nevertheless it was thorough and painstaking. 
 
 22 Even within recent years numbers of these out-of-date vessels, molds 
 for candles, and old-fashion candle-sticks might be seen on the premises. 
 
END OF STUDENT DAYS, ORDINATION 137 
 
 As the grease lamps were not conducive to study after 
 dark, the community probably burned little midnight 
 oil. Early to bed and early to rise was the rule. Even 
 the literati of that period worked by day. Hence, 
 perhaps, the reason why it used to be said of the 
 brethren at Saint Rose’s that “the sun never caught 
 them in bed.” 
 
 Since time was precious and occupations many, 
 Brother Pius Miles and his companions, unless other- 
 wise occupied, were rarely seen without a book or their 
 notes in hand. In this way, they were ready for ordi- 
 nation after six years in their higher studies; that is, at 
 the end of the second semester of 1815-1816. We can 
 rest assured that none of them, either during their 
 studies or in the retreat that immediately preceded it, 
 prepared for this important event in their lives with 
 greater care or more earnestness than Brother Pius. 
 In view of his serious character, one can not doubt but 
 that it dominated his thoughts from the time he finished 
 his novitiate. 
 
 This ordination deserves special notice in the Catholic 
 history of Kentucky for various reasons. Never before 
 had so many been ordained at one time in the state. The 
 four (Miles, Willett, and the two Montgomerys) were 
 the first priests wholly prepared in the west for the 
 ministry. One of them, Father Willett, was Ken- 
 tucky’s first native son to attain the priesthood; while 
 another, the subject of our sketch, was the first cler- 
 gyman entirely educated west of the Alleghany Moun- 
 tains who became a bishop. 
 
 Yet, strange to say, no contemporary record of the 
 event can now be found. Perhaps stranger still is it 
 
 that Bishop Spalding, although he followed the diary 
 
138 THE FATHER OF THE CHURCH IN TENNESSEE 
 
 of Bishop Flaget when writing the life of that pious 
 prelate, should not have noted the ordination as priest 
 of one of his own most intimate episcopal friends.” 
 However, the year 1816 is always given as that in 
 which he was ordained. Sometimes it is stated that it 
 was in the month of September; and this is the tradition 
 of the province. Mr. Francis X. Reuss, who spent 
 years in serious investigation, for his valuable little 
 book, places the event on ember Saturday in Septem- 
 ber of the above year, which appears very likely, in 
 view of the fact that this is one of the canonical times 
 for ordination, and would make it occur on September 
 21, 1816." In fact, we have seen this precise date given 
 for the bishop’s ordination, but we could not find on 
 what authority it was stated. 
 
 Whatever the date, saintly Bishop Flaget made him 
 an ambassador of Christ. The ceremony, it has come 
 down to us by a tradition that seems unquestionable, 
 took place in Saint Rose’s Church, and aroused so much 
 pious curiosity that the sacred edifice could scarcely hold 
 all who went to witness it. Quite naturally the people 
 of that parish were the most keenly interested, for the 
 Dominicans were the pastors of their souls, while 
 Willett and the two Montgomerys were members of 
 it. To the writer’s personal knowledge, the occasion 
 
 23JIn the preface to his Life of Bishop Flaget Spalding tells us that 
 this prelate kept a diary from 1812 to 1834. This record the learned 
 divine used extensively for the above volume. Chapter VI (pp. 115-147) 
 covers the years 1814-1816, but it makes no mention of Bishop Miles’ 
 ordination; although his Early Catholic Missions places it in 1816. Only 
 the first volume of the Flaget diary is now known to exist. The writer 
 discovered it in the former seminary, at Preston Park, Louisville. It 
 is now at Notre Dame University. Throughout it the bishop notes his 
 actions day by day. 
 
 24 Biographical Cyclopedia of the Catholic Hierarchy in the United 
 States, p. 75. 
 
END OF STUDENT DAYS, ORDINATION 139 
 
 was long remembered and formed a frequent topic of 
 conversation. It could hardly have been otherwise; 
 for this was the first ordination of Dominican priests 
 in the United States, and accordingly marked an epoch 
 not only in the history of the new American province 
 of Friars Preacher, but also in that of the first parish 
 which it took under its charge.” 
 
 Piety characterized the religious life of Saint Rose’s. 
 It dwelt deep in the heart, though it was not the kind 
 which sometimes sits gracefully on the face. ‘This 
 spirit, there is every reason to believe, combined with 
 Brother Pius’ native disposition to cause his ordination 
 to make a profound impression on him. ‘Thoroughly 
 did he realize that he was now an, anointed of the Lord, 
 
 25 In times past all the old people of Saint Rose’s Parish used to speak 
 about the ordination of Bishop Miles, Father Willett and the two Mont- 
 gomerys having taken place in the church there. The tradition is still 
 universal both there and in the province. 
 
 Father Howlett (St. Thomas’ Seminary, p. 58) says that the two 
 Montgomerys were ordained in St. Thomas’ Church, Poplar Neck. But 
 this statement can not be correct, unless Miles and Willett were also 
 ordained there, which is highly improbable. Spalding, quoting Bishop 
 David (in Early Catholic Missions, p. 224), simply says that three or- 
 dinations had taken place in the Poplar Neck church by November, 1817. 
 Two of these ordinations were those of the Revs. Peter Schaeffer and 
 James Derigaud; the other seems to have been that of Father Anthony 
 Ganilh. 
 
 It does not seem at all probable, even were there no tradition to the 
 contrary, that Bishop Flaget would insist, or consent, that the four 
 young candidates to the priesthood should be taken to a smaller church 
 for an event so notable at that time; or that they should be ordained 
 any where except in a church of the Order, they being its first fruits 
 in the country. There was all the more reason for ordaining them at 
 Saint Rose’s, if, as seems to have been the case, the new Saint Thomas’ 
 was under construction and not yet ready for such a ceremony; for 
 then the ordination would have had to be performed in the oid log-cabin 
 of achurch. As a matter of fact, Father Derigaud, who was raised to the 
 priesthood in January, 1817, is supposed to have been the first man or- 
 dained in the new Saint Thomas’. Reuss (op. cit., p. 75) says that the 
 bishop was ordained at Saint Rose’s by Doctor Flaget. 
 
1440... THE FATHER OF (THE CHURCH IN TENNESSEE 
 
 and consecrated to the work of saving souls, no less 
 than bound to a life of evangelical perfection. How 
 faithfully he fulfilled this vocation we hope to reveal 
 in the course of these pages. 
 
 Of the earthly joys brought the young priest by 
 his ordination the principal must have been the happi- 
 ness which he saw that it gave his venerable parents to 
 realize that they would leave on earth a son who would 
 intercede for them at God’s altar. Doubtless they were 
 present on the occasion, and among the most interested 
 of the spectators. ‘The mother was then sixty-eight 
 years of age. The father’s seventy-seven years told him 
 that his life’s journey could not be far from its end. 
 That on which their youngest child became a messenger 
 of Christ, and that on which he offered up his first mass 
 in their presence, were possibly the happiest days of 
 two long, exemplary Catholic lives. 
 
 ' Tennyson, if we mistake not, wrote: 
 “And lay thine uphill shoulder to the wheel, 
 And climb the Mount of Blessing.” 
 
 This Father Miles, for thus he now became known, 
 had bravely done. ‘The way was far from smooth, it 
 is true; but with courage had he followed the light which 
 beckoned him on. Blissful, therefore, was he in the 
 thought that at last he could begin the work of an 
 ambassador of Christ. 
 
CHAPTER VII 
 EARLY PRIESTHOOD 
 
 Tue College of Saint ‘Thomas, attached to the Con- 
 vent of Saint Rose, in Kentucky, seems to have attained 
 the zenith of its glory and numbers about the time of 
 which we have now to speak. Although he himself had 
 been a student all the while, tradition at least tells us 
 that Brother Pius Miles had played no little part in 
 its notable success. The financial condition of Ken- 
 tucky and the west had perhaps never been so good as 
 it was at this juncture. Thus, with the addition of the 
 four young priests, Fathers Miles, Willett, and the 
 two Montgomerys, the future of the pioneer college 
 promised well. 
 
 Unfortunately for it, however, Father Robert A. 
 Angier had been obliged to relinquish the care of the 
 missions in the northern part of Kentucky. Accus- 
 tomed to community life and educational work abroad, 
 the stress of his missionary efforts and. lonely existence 
 in the wilds of the new west gradually undermined his 
 health, both physical and mental. This was in 1815." 
 
 1 Father Wilson to the superior of the Jesuit Fathers in Maryland, 
 May 5, 1816 (Archives of the New York-Maryland Province of the Society 
 of Jesus, Case 205, Z 17) ; extracts from letter of same to Rev. John Hill, 
 in Rome, September 11, 1820 (Propaganda Archives, America Centrale, 
 No. 138); Father Fenwick to Jacob Dittoe, in Ohio, April 20, 1816 
 (Archives of Saint Joseph’s Priory); Spaxtpinc, Early Catholic Missions, 
 and Life of Flaget; Wess, Centenary of Catholicity, and O’DANizL, Life 
 
 of Fenwick—passim. 
 In his letter to Hill, if the document is correctly rendered, Wilson 
 
 141 
 
142 THE FATHER OF THE CHURCH IN TENNESSEE 
 
 Father Fenwick then combined this charge, as best he 
 could, with that of his apostolate in Ohio. But now 
 it became necessary for him to give all his time to the 
 Catholics of the latter state, the needs of whose grow- 
 ing Church demanded his constant attention. Out of 
 the goodness of his heart, therefore, Father Wilson sent 
 Father Samuel L. Montgomery to replace Father 
 Angier at Saint Francis’, Scott County, and other 
 missions in northern Kentucky.’ 
 
 Meanwhile, the faithful had greatiy increased in that 
 part of the Diocese of Bardstown. They lived in widely 
 separated localities, between which the roads were often 
 almost impassable. Accordingly, Father Willett, who 
 had become a prey to pulmonary consumption, was 
 soon sent to the aid of Father Montgomery, and sta- 
 tioned at Lexington, whose growing congregation had 
 erected a church and rectory. His superiors hoped 
 
 is positively uncharitable, even unjust to Angier. However, the communi- 
 cation was confidential; but Hill honored the trust reposed in him by 
 giving the Propaganda a translation of the document. The letter itself 
 shows that Father Angier had been a complete nervous wreck, and 
 that this condition was brought on by overwork and the loneliness of 
 his life—to which we may add the troublesome character of a part of 
 his congregations. In 1816, Father Wilson sent him to Maryland in 
 the hope that his health might be restored. There he took charge of 
 several missions, on which he labored faithfully and fruitfully for over 
 eight years. In the report of his diocese to the Propaganda (1818) 
 Archbishop Maréchal says that he has three English priests, and that he 
 would to God that he had more like them. One of these clergymen was 
 Father Angier. In 1825, he went to England. Father Edward I. Devitt, 
 5. J., (Records of the A. C. H. S. of Philadelphia, XXII, 241) says he 
 undertook the journey in order to obtain help for his poor missions. 
 Doubtless his English brethren persuaded him to remain in his original 
 province, for he did not return to America. There he was a Preacher 
 General, received other honors, and labored on for nearly a quarter 
 of a century longer. He died on December 20, 1850, in Antwerp, where 
 he was chaplain of the Alexian Brothers. 
 
 2 Early Catholic Missions, Life of Flaget, Centenary of Catholicitw 
 and Life of Fenwick, passim. 
 
EARLY PRIESTHOOD 143 
 
 that the outdoor life imposed by such a pastoral 
 charge, for attendance on the scattered missions would 
 keep him in the open air a great part of the time, might 
 not only prolong the life of the zealous and talented 
 young clergyman, but even so restore his health that he 
 could realize the promise of his student days.° 
 
 Perhaps even before Father Willett’s departure from 
 Saint Rose’s, a similar response to the call of charity 
 towards souls had deprived the west’s first Catholic 
 educational institution of another of its useful members. 
 Father Fenwick was overpowered in Ohio by labors no 
 less trying than multifarious. He could not attend to 
 all the needs of the faithful. The loneliness of his 
 life was even greater than had been that of Father 
 Badin’s in Kentucky some years earlier. In_ this 
 dilemma he applied for assistance from his brethren. 
 Father Nicholas D. Young, therefore, ordained on 
 December 18, 1817, was at once sent to the aid of his 
 reverend and revered uncle.* 
 
 For these reasons, of the first five priests trained 
 at Saint Rose’s only Fathers Richard Miles and 
 Stephen H. Montgomery remained to help with the 
 college, the parish attached to the convent, and _ its 
 adjacent missions. ‘Thus the ordination made little 
 change in the life of the subject of our narrative other 
 than the standing it gave him, a substitution of min- 
 isterial labors for his own class work under Fathers 
 Wilson and Tuite, and the privilege of saying mass, 
 the last of which he treasured more than words can 
 express. ‘The added dignity did not lessen his humility 
 or his spirit of obedience; but it deepened his piety, and 
 quickened his zeal—a true sign of a real man of God. 
 
 3 See note 2 of this chapter. 4 Life of Fenwick, passim. 
 
144 THE FATHER OF THE CHURCH IN TENNESSEE 
 
 Active, industrious, and spiritual, endowed with a 
 good mind that had been well trained, and possessed of 
 splendid judgment, it was but natural that he should 
 have been one of the mainstays of Saint Thomas’ Col- 
 lege even before his ordination. Now, as a priest, he 
 became still more useful in that capacity. The institu- 
 tion had no better disciplinarian. Following the custom 
 of those days, for it was necessary, he taught several 
 branches in the college. In addition to this, he helped 
 with the education of the candidates for the priesthood. 
 The students not only admired him; they loved him, 
 whether as professor or confessor. ‘Their parents, 
 whether Catholics or non-Catholics, esteemed him; nay, 
 they placed implicit confidence in his advice. Father 
 Miles’ name was on every lip, and his assistance was 
 sought in every emergency. 
 
 Neither the regard that he commanded, nor the trust 
 reposed in him was undeserved. Forthright and frank, 
 somewhat reserved, yet open and affable, he ever gave 
 the impression: There is a man whom I should like to 
 have for a friend—a person of genuine worth in whose 
 hands one would be safe. With a mild, quiet strength 
 of character and firmness of principle he combined a 
 whole-souled, kindly, and generous disposition, which, 
 when he was once understood, won and held the heart. 
 Never was he known to deceive, or to betray the faith 
 placed in him, or intentionally either to hurt the feelings 
 or injure the reputation of even an adversary.” 
 
 Doubtless it was these sterling qualities that so en- 
 deared the future bishop of Tennessee to Father Wil- 
 son; for it has been handed down to us that perhaps 
 
 5 Frequent echoes of the praises that the old people used to heap upon 
 Father Miles are still heard in central Kentucky. 
 
EARLY PRIESTHOOD 145 
 
 there was no other person (not even excepting Father 
 Fenwick) in whom the provincial placed such unlimited 
 confidence, or to whom he entrusted so many of his 
 confidential and important affairs. A true priest would 
 hardly ambition a higher encomium from his superior. 
 In this case, coming as it did from a man of Father 
 Wilson’s learning, judgment, and character, it be- 
 speaks a splendid tribute to great merit. 
 
 Father Miles was an all-round man, useful in what- 
 ever kind of labor his superiors employed him. Yet 
 perhaps in no place did he prove more valuable than 
 in the college. Indeed, his long and intimate connec- 
 tion with that institution, no less than the distinguished 
 services that he rendered it, calls for a further word 
 on Saint Thomas’ College. Unfortunately, thanks to 
 the fault for which the Friars Preacher have been so 
 often censured by historians the world over, that of not 
 keeping records ot their own work (which is about 
 the only sphere of labor in which they have lagged), 
 it is now impossible to do the subject the justice that 
 it deserves. Because of the same carelessness as regards 
 personal glory, even by far the greater part of the ac- 
 counts which must have been written of matters per- 
 taining to the former Saint Thomas’ are irrevocably 
 lost. 
 
 However, this handicap is partially offset by another 
 source of information which appears more creditable 
 than lore ordinarily obtained in this way. In the coun- 
 try, villages, and small towns, because of the greater 
 leisure of the people and the fewer distractions that 
 engross their minds, traditions are not only kept longer 
 but also more faithfully than in the busy marts of com- 
 merce and industry. The more intelligent the people, 
 
 il 
 
146 THE FATHER OF THE CHURCH IN TENNESSEE 
 
 the more trustworthy the knowledge thus preserved. 
 Possibly nowhere in the world have the early tradi- 
 tions of their Church been more keenly treasured or 
 better retained than by the Catholics of Kentucky, 
 which still remains largely agricultural; and they are 
 decidedly intelligent—many of them educated. ‘This 
 is perhaps especially true of the neighborhood around 
 Saint Rose’s, which is in the very heart of the state 
 and in the center of the first Catholic settlements. 
 There has been practically no immigration into that 
 part of Kentucky since Saint Thomas’ College got well 
 under way. Thus the traditions concerning this col- 
 lege have been handed down from generation to gener- 
 ation with almost incredible uniformity. ‘Their trust- 
 worthiness is further substantiated by the few docu- 
 ments that still remain, and by the traditions of Saint 
 Joseph’s Province of Friars Preacher. It is in this 
 way that we know for certain that the college pros- 
 pered, in point of numbers, from the very beginning.° 
 Whatever the source of information, be it ever so 
 meager, it assures us of the above fact, as well as tells 
 us that the institution was held in the highest regard, 
 that students came to it from far and near, and that 
 perhaps no college in the land at that day had a more 
 respectable curriculum. All this is the more credible 
 in that the founders of Saint Thomas’ were expert and 
 experienced educators, men who had aided in bringing 
 Holy Cross College, Bornheim, Belgium, to the zenith 
 of its renown.’ Doubtless it was a continued growth 
 in the number of pupils, together with the annoyances 
 6 The stranger visiting the rural portions of Kentucky inhabited by 
 Catholics can not but be struck by the vividness of their traditions. 
 
 One might say that the people almost live on them. 
 7 PautmMeErR, Life of Cardinal Howard, passim; Life of Fenwick, passim. 
 
EARLY PRIESTHOOD 147 
 
 and inconveniences inseparable from the attendance of 
 day-scholars at boarding schools, and the increased ex- 
 penses, that explains the following entry in an old ac- 
 
 count book chiefly devoted to the college. 
 1815 
 F.[ather] T.[homas] Wilson, at Easter, reassumed the care 
 of the College. The pension was raised from seventy-five Dollars 
 to one hundred and twenty-five. Agreed to admit no more externs, 
 and to dismiss the present ones as soon as their term is out.® 
 
 Temporary illness, it seems, had obliged Father 
 Wilson to entrust the charge of Saint Thomas’ into 
 other hands for a while. It is said, in fact, that for a 
 time serious fears were entertained lest his sickness 
 should prove fatal. Tradition informs us that the 
 resolution to exclude day-pupils aroused a veritable 
 storm in the town of Springfield and through Wash- 
 ington and Marion counties; and that the furore 
 caused it to be cancelled.? It would seem also that a 
 like opposition to the advancement of the board and 
 tuition bill from seventy-five to one hundred and twen- 
 ty-five dollars a year resulted in a compromise on one 
 hundred. Although it would be ridiculous to attempt 
 to run a boarding school on such terms in our day, it 
 should not be forgotten that a century ago a hundred 
 dollars represented a sum of no small consideration. 
 
 Another record of interest appears shortly before 
 the date of the bishop’s ordination, which reads: “Jef- 
 ferson Davis arrived July 10, 1816.” *° The president- 
 to-be of the ill-fated Confederate States of the South, 
 
 8 Page 16. 
 
 9 What is now Marion County was then a part of Washington County. | 
 
 Many boys from the remoter parts of these counties are said to have 
 boarded with their relations or friends, who lived nearer the college, 
 during the school year, and to have attended as day pupils. 
 
 10 Page 47. 
 
148 THE FATHER OF THE CHURCH IN TENNESSEE 
 
 then a boy only eight years of age, had travelled on a 
 pony all the way from the extreme southwestern county 
 (Wilkinson) in the state of Mississippi. Scarcely 
 could one wish a better proof of the wide repute which 
 Saint Thomas’ College enjoyed. The distinguished 
 statesman is said to have retained a strong affection 
 for the place throughout his long and eventful career. 
 Possibly it was, in part, this love that caused him, on 
 one occasion when he met Father Matthew A. O’Brien, 
 to kneel and ask the venerable priest’s blessing.” 
 
 It was but natural that Mr. Davis’ recollections 
 should prove inexact in some particulars as regards 
 that part of his hfe when dictating, at the age of 
 seventy-nine or eighty years, the course of his early 
 boyhood. In addition to his great age, one must con- 
 sider the delicate state of his health at the time.” 
 Besides, all his associations, environments, and activities 
 tended to dim his reminiscences of the days he spent 
 at Saint Thomas’. However, his experiences there will 
 be best told by himself. They brought him into 
 intimate contact with Nashville’s first bishop, throw 
 light on the times, and show that boys, even at that 
 era of rigid discipline, were still boys, and occasionally 
 indulged in innocent pranks. As quoted by his affec- 
 tionate widow, Mrs. Varina (Howell) Davis, the story 
 runs: 
 
 My first tuition was in the usual log-cabin school-house; though 
 
 in the summer, when I was seven [eight] years old, I was sent 
 on horseback through what was then called ‘““The Wilderness’ —by 
 
 11 Jefferson Davis, Ex-President of the Confederate States of America 
 (By His Wife), p. 8. 
 
 12 Q’DaniEL, An American Apostle (Life of Very Rev. Matthew 
 O’Brien), p. 297. 
 
 13 Jefferson Davis as in note 11 above, pp. 2-3. 
 
EARLY PRIESTHOOD 149 
 
 the country of the Choctaw and Chickasaw nations—to Kentucky, 
 and was placed in a Catholic institution then known as St. Thomas, 
 in Washington County, near the town of Springfield. 
 
 In that day (1815) [1816] there were no steamboats, nor were 
 there stage-coaches traversing the country. The river trade was 
 conducted on flat- and keel-boats. The last named only could be 
 taken up the river. Commerce between the Western States and 
 the Lower Mississippi was confined to water-routes. The usual 
 mode of travel was on horseback or afoot. Many persons who 
 had gone down the river in flat-boats walked back through the 
 wilderness of Kentucky, Ohio, and elsewhere. We passed many 
 of these daily, on the road... . 
 
 The party with which I was sent to Kentucky consisted of 
 Major { Thomas] Hinds, (who had charge of the famous battalion 
 of Mississippi dragoons at the battle of New Orleans), his wife, 
 his sister-in-law, a niece, a maid-servant, and his son Howell, who 
 was near my own age, and like myself, mounted on a pony. A 
 servant had a sumpter mule with some supplies, besides bed and 
 blankets for camping out. ‘The journey to Kentucky occupied 
 several weeks.14 
 
 At this point of his narrative the venerable man tells 
 of a halt at Nashville, where Major Hinds wished to 
 visit his friend and former commander, General Andrew 
 Jackson. In lieu of Mr. Davis’ youthful impressions 
 of this noted pioneer of Tennessee, for they have no 
 bearing on our subject, we take occasion to note two 
 ships in his memory. The records show that this jour- 
 ney was in 1816, instead of 1815; and that the young 
 traveller was eight years of age, instead of seven, as 
 stated in his story. Small matters these, it is true; yet 
 it is well to correct them for the sake of historical 
 accuracy. 
 
 In the same connection it is worthy of note that it 
 is probable Major Hinds also brought his own son 
 Howell to Kentucky in order to place him in Saint 
 
 14 [bid., pp. 8-11. 
 
150 THE FATHER OF THE CHURCH IN TENNESSEE 
 
 Thomas’ College, for we find the registry of a “Hynes” 
 at almost the same time as that of Master Davis. The 
 boy’s first name is not given, but the similarity of the 
 pronunciation of “Hinds” and “Hynes” might easily 
 account for the error in spelling found in the records. 
 This mistake could have been rendered the easier by 
 the fact that there was already an Alfred Hynes in the 
 school. Continuing his life story, the ex-president of 
 the Confederacy says: 
 
 The Kentucky Catholic School, called St. Thomas’ College, 
 when I was there, was connected with a church. The priests were 
 Dominicans. They held a large property; productive fields, slaves, 
 flour-mills, flocks, and herds. As an association they were rich. 
 Individually, they were vowed to poverty and self-abnegation. 
 They were diligent in the care, both spiritual and material, of 
 their parishioners’ wants. 
 
 When I entered the school, a large majority of the boys belonged 
 to the Roman Catholic Church. After a short time I was the only 
 Protestant boy remaining, and also the smallest boy in the school. 
 From whatever reason, the priests were particularly kind to me— 
 Father Wallace, afterward Bishop of Nashville, treated me with 
 the fondness of a near relative. 
 
 As the charge has been frequently made that it is the practice 
 of the priests in all their schools to endeavor to proselyte the boys 
 confided to them, I may mention an incident which is, in my case 
 at least, a refutation [of the arraignment]. At that period of 
 my life, I knew, as a theologian, little of the true creed of Chris- 
 tianity, and under the influences which surrounded me I thought 
 it would be well that I should become a Catholic, and went to 
 the venerable head of the establishment, Father Wilson, whom 
 I found in his room partaking of his frugal meal, and stated to him 
 my wish. He received me kindly, handed me a biscuit and a bit 
 of cheese, and told me that for the present I had better take some 
 Catholic food. 
 
 I was so small at this time that one of the good old priests 
 had a little bed put up in his room for me. There was an organ- 
 ized revolt among the boys one day, and this priest was their 
 
EARLY PRIESTHOOD 151 
 
 special objective point. They persuaded me to blow out the 
 light which always burned in the room; so, after everything was 
 quiet, I blew it out; then the insurgents poured in cabbages, 
 squashes, biscuits, potatoes, and all kinds of missiles. As soon as 
 the light could be lit, search was made for the culprits, but they 
 were all sound asleep, and I was the only wakeful one. 
 
 The priests interrogated me severely, but I declared that I 
 did not know much and would not tell that. The one who had 
 especial care of me then took me to a little room in the highest 
 story of the monastery and strapped me down to a kind of cot, 
 which was arranged to facilitate the punishment of the boys; but 
 the old man loved me dearly and hesitated before striking me a 
 blow, the first I should have received since I had been with the 
 monks. He pleaded with me: “If you tell me what you know, no 
 matter how little, I will let you off.” ‘Well’, said I, “I know one 
 thing. I know who blew out the light.” The priest eagerly prom- 
 ised to let me off for that piece of information; and then I said: 
 “I blew it out.” Of course I was let off, but with a long talk 
 which moved me to tears and prevented me from co-operating with 
 the boys again in their schemes of mischief.!° 
 
 These reminiscences of one of our most noted and 
 single-minded statesmen, given out near the close of his 
 life, demand little comment. They breathe a spirit 
 not merely of respect, but likewise of affection for the 
 former Kentucky college in which he had laid the foun- 
 dations of his later education. The amusing incident 
 which he recounts, and which has ever been typical of 
 life at boarding schools, bears out the tradition as 
 regards the kindly discipline that prevailed at Saint 
 Thomas’. Perhaps it was somewhat out of the ordinary 
 in that day when rigid corporal punishment was too 
 often regarded as the best, if not the only, means of 
 correction. ‘The gentle system which prevailed at the 
 institution in Kentucky is said to have borne excellent 
 results. Doubtless, however, severe measures could be 
 
 15 Jbid., pp. 11-15. 
 
is2 THE FATHER OF THE CHURCH IN TENNESSEE 
 
 employed when necessary, but they seem to have been 
 _ the exception. 
 
 Father William R. Tuite was undoubtedly “the 
 good old priest” placed in special charge of Master 
 Davis, and with whom the boys conspired to have a 
 little fun. It has been handed down to us that his 
 kindly disposition at times led the boys to attempt 
 tricks on him. However, he was a good professor. 
 The youths loved him, and would do almost anything 
 for him. 
 
 Like most outsiders, young Davis labored under the 
 erroneous impression that the convent was wealthy. 
 Similarly, tradition leads us to believe that he was de- 
 ceived as regards the Catholic students so greatly 
 outnumbering the non-Catholic, and as to his soon 
 being the only non-Catholic at the school, unless this 
 happened in the time of vacation, when nearly every 
 one had gone home. Possibly the fact that all attended 
 the religious exercises, which was required for the sake 
 of discipline, led the youth to believe some to be Cath- 
 olics who were not of the faith. Father Miles became 
 bishop of Nashville. There was no Father Wallace 
 at the convent. So it would seem that the venerable 
 ex-president confused Father Willett’s name with that 
 of Wallace, and that he had been misinformed as to 
 which one of his former professors attained the miter. 
 
 The records do not tell us when Master Davis left 
 Saint Thomas’ College; but he himself says that he 
 was away from home for two years, from which we 
 may conclude that he studied there from 1816 to 1818. 
 Furthermore, he states that he had been sent to this 
 distant school without his mother’s knowledge or con- 
 sent (for what reason we do not know); that she 
 
HARLYMPRIESTHOOD Leo 
 
 became impatient for his return; and that her anxiety 
 was the cause of his recall. Possibly, therefore, had not 
 Mrs. Davis’ discontent intervened, this distinguished 
 statesman might have been numbered among the grad- 
 uates of the first Catholic educational institution in the 
 new west.’° 
 
 Another tradition substantiated by the Davis recol- 
 lections is that as long as he lived, the personal mag- 
 netism of pious and learned Father Wilson drew youth 
 to him in trusting confidence as a magnet draws steel. 
 Father Stephen Badin writes that the number of 
 students at Saint Thomas’ College soon exceeded a 
 hundred.“ The tradition of Saint Joseph’s Province 
 and Washington County, Kentucky, assures us that 
 at one time there were more than two hundred pupils, 
 certainly no ordinary enrollment for a boarding school 
 at that period. This large number, we are convinced, 
 must have been attained during the time that the former 
 confederate chieftain was there, for obstacles of which 
 we shall speak in the next chapter seem certainly to 
 have lessened the attendance in later years. 
 
 Scanty and incomplete as are the extant records, they 
 show names representative of not a few of the most 
 respectable families in Kentucky, both Catholic and 
 non-Catholic. Such, for instance, are the names: Baker, 
 Bates, Boone, Bullock; Calhoun, Clark, Clay, Crughan; 
 Durbin, Duval; Gough; Hagan, Hill, Hite, Hopkins; 
 
 16 Jbid., pp. 15-16. The tradition is that, unlike her husband and illus- 
 trious son, Mrs. Davis was strongly biassed against things Catholic, and 
 that this prejudice had its part in her discontent. 
 
 17 Photostat copy of an extract from his article “L’Etat de la Religion 
 Catholique dans le Kentucky, et dans les Territoires Voisins” in L’Amt 
 
 de la Religion, December 8, 1819. The extract is in the Propaganda 
 Archives, America Centrale, Vol. IV, No. 56. 
 
154 THE FATHER OF THE CHURCH IN TENNESSEE 
 
 Janes, Jones, Joyce; Kelly, Kruggs; Lancaster, Love, 
 Lucas; McElroy, Mackay, Manning, Maxey, Micken, 
 Montgomery, Moore; Ormsby; Polin, Pope, Prather; 
 Rowan; Sanders, Simms, Skidmore; Tarlton, Thomas, 
 Tool, Toon; Worland. A few names suggest Ohio or 
 even Maryland. 
 
 Louis and Henry ‘Tarrascon were probably sons of 
 John or Louis Tarrascon, early French millers of 
 Louisville, Kentucky. ‘The other French names (over 
 twenty in number), it seems certain, were borne by 
 young men and boys from Michigan, Louisiana or the 
 vicinity of Saint Louis. Spanish youths, from Latin 
 America, had not yet begun to come to the United 
 States for their education. 
 
 In connection with James Boisleduc, whom tradi- 
 tion associates with New Orleans, the records reveal 
 an incident that is at once full of interest and illustra- 
 tive of the time. Like Jefferson Davis, he came all the 
 way on horseback, arriving at the college on Sunday, 
 August 13, 1815. Evidently his father had instructed 
 him to dispose of his steed, and to use the proceeds in 
 part payment for his education. It was sold at public 
 auction. Possibly the animal looked its worse from the 
 long journey; for it brought only twenty-five dollars 
 and twenty-five cents, out of which the crier received 
 one dollar for himself, and twenty-five cents for the 
 state. Another French student, Julien De Pestre, who 
 arrived just a month earlier, seems to have been for- 
 tunate enough to hire the use of his horse for the 
 return journey of a young man who lived in the same 
 part of the country as he, and was about to leave 
 school."® 
 
 18 Account Book, pp. 15, 16. 
 
BOR UYOPR LE onOOD 155 
 
 Tradition has it that a number of Saint Thomas’ 
 students attained no little distinction in their after life. 
 Thus the Hon. James P. Bates, a state representative 
 from Barren County for many years, is said to have 
 been the James Bates whose name appears in the 
 records. Similarly, David W. Maxey, the representa- 
 tive from Hart County in 1845, it is said, was the same 
 Maxey noted in the records without his first name. 
 John, William, and Minus Pope who went to school 
 there, we are told, were sons of the Hon. John Pope, 
 one of Kentucky’s noted lawyers and statesmen, in the 
 state legislature, a congressman and senator of the 
 United States, long a resident of Washington County, 
 and for six years governor of the Territory of Arkansas. 
 
 Stephen Ormsby, another of its students, is said to 
 have been the son of the Hon. Stephen Ormsby, long 
 a lawyer of note, a congressman, and a judge of the 
 circuit court who commanded the highest respect of 
 all with whom he had to deal. Mr. Webb claims that 
 the Hon. John Rowan, Jr., son of one of Kentucky’s 
 most illustrious lawyers and judges, studied at Saint 
 Joseph’s College, Bardstown.”? But the tradition 
 around Saint Rose’s has ever been that he was a student 
 of the former Saint Thomas’ College attached to that 
 institution. Certainly the name of Rowan appears in its 
 books, though without the student’s first name; and the 
 date given by Webb (1823 at the earliest) seems too 
 late for John Rowan’s school days. The Green Clay 
 who studied at Saint Thomas’, there appears to be no 
 doubt, was the son of doughty General Green Clay, 
 one of the noted pioneers of Kentucky.” 
 
 19 Centenary of Catholicity, p. 281. 
 
 20 None of the students mentioned in the last three paragraphs seem 
 to have been Catholics. 
 
156 THE FATHER OF THE CHURCH IN TENNESSEE 
 
 Elisha J. Durbin became a priest of the Diocese of 
 Louisville, and was one of its most faithful and efficient 
 missionaries. Thomas J. Polin and James V. Bullock 
 entered the Order of Saint Dominic, as members of 
 which they rendered conspicuous services to the Church 
 —the first in Kentucky, and the latter in various parts 
 of the country.” 
 
 The above were all boarding scholars; those whom 
 we now mention were most likely day pupils, for they 
 lived in Washington County, in the vicinity of the 
 college, whence few boarders were obtained. Richard 
 Rudd, a brother of the Christopher A. Rudd spoken 
 of in a previous chapter, served in our last war with 
 England, settled in Bardstown, was one of Nelson 
 County’s most highly respected citizens, and repre- 
 sented his district in the state congress for four terms. 
 Captain James Rudd, another brother, moved to Louis- 
 ville, where he was no less a pillar of the Church than 
 a leader in civic affairs. He held many offices in the 
 city and was its state’s congressman three times.” 
 
 Robert C. Palmer became a physician who enjoyed 
 a wide reputation, and served in the state senate for 
 seven years. Doctor Palmer was not a Catholic. A 
 
 21 Father Durbin had been a parishioner of Father Angier in northern 
 Kentucky. Tradition tells us that he went to Saint Thomas’ College with 
 the intention of becoming a Dominican, and that he was actually a postu- 
 lant. Doubtless his love for Father Angier drew him thither. Later, 
 however, he changed his mind, went to the seminary and became a priest 
 of the diocese. He retained his love for the Order as long as he lived. 
 He was especially fond of Father Angier, whose praises he sang until 
 the end of his long life. See Webb’s Centenary of Catholicity, pp. 92, 364. 
 
 22In his Centenary of Catholicity, pp. 79, 303, 304, Webb speaks of 
 these Rudds in terms of praise, but he does not state that they went to 
 Saint Thomas’ College. Although their names do not appear on any 
 record (in fact, we have found no record of any day pupil), the tradition 
 about them being students of St. Thomas’ is too strong, direct and persis- 
 tent to be at all doubted. The same remark applies to all those men- 
 tioned here as day-scholars. With two exceptions, they were surely 
 Catholics. 
 
EARLY PRIESTHOOD 157 
 
 man of exceptional character, and having a wide prac- 
 tice, he was beloved in Washington and the adjacent 
 counties. William Osbourn represented the same 
 county as its congressman in the thirties. William T. 
 Hamilton, the writer’s grandfather, was elected to a 
 similar position from Marion County in 1849, serving 
 one term. Like Doctor Palmer, James P. Barbour, a 
 state representative in 1841, was not a Catholic. 
 
 Benjamin and Richard Wathen, after they graduated 
 in medicine, settled in Breckinridge County. An 
 honor alike to the profession they followed, and to the 
 religion they professed, it is no matter for surprise that 
 they enjoyed not only the good-will but also the high 
 esteem of all, whatever their walk in life or their creed. 
 ‘Webb says of them: “Among the Catholics of the 
 county [that is, Breckenridge], especially, there should 
 be none to forget how much they did for religion in 
 their day that has not yet ceased to reflect benefits on 
 the living. ... Their Catholic zeal was proverbial, 
 and in no emergency were they ever known to respond 
 ungenerously.” ** 
 
 Passing over others of perhaps lesser renown, we may 
 now mention Judge Charles C. Kelly of Springfield, 
 one of Kentucky’s legal lights. He held important 
 positions; yet he was not less faithful to his religion 
 because of his profession or busy life. It is worthy of 
 note, in this connection, that in the state constitutional 
 convention of 1849, Garrett Davis, prominent in the 
 “Native American” movement, later a leading spirit 
 in the “Knowing-Nothing” party, ever an adversary of 
 the Catholic Church, introduced an amendment to the 
 constitution of the state that would have deprived Cath- 
 
 23 Centenary of Catholicity, pp. 154-155. 
 
158 THE FATHER OF THE CHURCH IN TENNESSEE 
 
 olics of their civil rights. Strange as it may seem today, 
 the proposed change was not defeated without consid- 
 erable difficulty, and after much heated controversy. 
 Among its most effective opponents were Judge Kelly 
 and Captain James Rudd who were members of the 
 convention. Thus two former students of Saint 
 Thomas’ College had a prominent part in frustrating 
 the legalization of one of the most tyrannical acts ever 
 attempted against the Church in the United States.** 
 
 Nearly all the men mentioned in the foregoing pages 
 had entered the college before Bishop Miles was 
 ordained. Some of them had perhaps left it and begun 
 their life’s work. But he took a generous share in 
 their education, whereby he contributed not only 
 towards the advancement of the state, but also the 
 betterment of society, as well as helped to break down 
 religious prejudices against the Church and to broaden 
 her sphere of influence through men, albeit not her 
 members, stationed in different parts of the country, 
 
 24 See WEsB, op. cit., p. 304, and Cotrins, History of Kentucky, Ul, 82. 
 Ignatius Spalding of Union County also took a prominent part in the 
 defeat of the Davis proposal. There is a tradition that Spalding was 
 educated at St. Thomas’, but we did not include him in the list, for it 
 could not be so well substantiated. However, he was an educated man, 
 and there was no other Catholic school at the time from which he could 
 have received his education. 
 
 Christopher or Richard Rudd, if not both of them (for both were in 
 the senate at the time), took an active part in the debate for the incor- 
 poration of Loretto and Nazareth Academies. So did Doctor Richard 
 Forest, who is also said to have been an alumnus of Saint Thomas’. 
 (See Annales de la Propagation de la Foi, IV, 557 ff; and Cotttns, op. 
 cit., II, 749). Another noted man who, it has been persistently handed 
 down to us, was a student at this Dominican college was the Rev. James 
 M. Lancaster of Kentucky; and the tradition seems to be supported by 
 a letter of Bishop Miles, in which he tells Archbishop Eccleston that 
 
 he had known Father Lancaster from his childhood. (See note 34 of 
 Chapter XVIII). 
 
EARLY PRIESTHOOD 159 
 
 acquainted with her teaching and her spirit. The 
 same occupation continued to demand most of his time 
 at the period of which this chapter speaks. However, 
 it was by no means his only work. 
 
 We remember one or two letters of Bishop Flaget 
 prior to this time, in which he says that only Father 
 John B. David, rector of the diocesan seminary, and 
 Father Samuel T. Wilson, provincial of the Domin- 
 icans and president of Saint Thomas’ College, could 
 claim the privilege of remaining at home on Sundays. 
 The rest of the clergy had to play the part of mission- 
 aries, which took them out for the days on which the 
 faithful were obliged to hear mass. This statement 
 confirms the old tradition that Father Tuite, even 
 though master of novices, went to Danville or some 
 other place practically every Sunday. Father Wilson 
 looked after the large congregation at Saint Rose’s, 
 just as Father David took care of that at Poplar 
 Neck, where the seminary was situated.” 
 
 Things had changed little since that time, for the 
 increase of the clergy had not kept pace with that of 
 the Catholics, ever all too scantily provided with spiri- 
 tual shepherds for their souls. Thus Father Miles had 
 many missionary labors in addition to those connected 
 with the college. Now that Father Tuite was growing 
 old, he no doubt sought to lighten his burdens by taking 
 his place as often as circumstances permitted. Doubt- 
 
 25 This seminary was also called Saint Thomas’, which, we are sure, 
 occasioned a few statements in Hon. Ben. Webb’s Centenary of Catholicity 
 anent the early education of Fathers Abell and Durbin that seem cer- 
 tainly to be erroneous. A very definite tradition in the province assures 
 us that the fathers at Saint Rose’s attended Danville from the time Bishop 
 Flaget arrived in Kentucky until the death of Father Wilson; that 
 Father Tuite gave up the place when he became superior; and that this 
 action was the beginning of the misunderstanding of which we shall 
 
 speak in another chapter. They resumed charge of the place years later, 
 and continued it until 1865. 
 
160 THE FATHER OF THE CHURCH IN TENNESSEE 
 
 less, whenever possible, he went on the longer journeys 
 in order that the older man might be less exposed to 
 fatigue and the headaches to which he is said to have 
 been subject. 
 
 Tradition assures us that the young priest soon 
 acquired a reputation as a good confessor. White and 
 black, young and old, the sinner as well as the devout 
 found in him one who could wisely direct their souls 
 and soothe their consciences. This repute, together 
 with his prudence, kindness, patience, and open char- 
 acter, brought him crowds of penitents from near and 
 far. Indeed, from the outset, Saint Rose’s became a 
 favorite place for confessions to which the people 
 flocked from the surrounding parishes. It still remains 
 such, largely because of the example set by Bishop 
 Miles and his teachers. Possibly that not a few are 
 today in the enjoyment of eternal bliss is due to his 
 fidelity in this all-important part of a priest’s vocation.”° 
 
 While perhaps he could not be called an orator from 
 the point of view of fervid flights of eloquence or 
 rounded sentences—which, in fact, would neither be 
 expected from nor suited to one of his character— 
 Father Miles was soon considered a good speaker. He 
 had a splendid voice; a clear, distinct pronunciation; 
 a pleasant delivery; graceful gestures. His sermons 
 were well prepared, instructive, solid and orderly; his 
 language simple, the words so chosen as not to be over 
 the heads of his audience. He was a man of fine phy- 
 
 26 In the days of Bishop Miles’ young priesthood Saint Rose’s was one 
 of the very few country places where mass was said every Sunday. 
 Thither, on those Sundays on which there were no services in their own 
 churches, the people flocked from the adjoining parishes for many miles 
 
 around. This circumstance also brought the fathers almost innumerable 
 confessions. 
 
BAKUYOEURIEST HOOD 161 
 
 sique, full six feet in height, with an attractive coun- 
 tenance, a face at once strong and kindly. ‘Traditions 
 are still extant about how the people loved to hear him 
 preach. ‘They are no less distinct about him being 
 an interesting conversationalist, the charm of whose 
 personality was accentuated by his rich barytone voice 
 and well-modulated cadences. It was a treat to hear 
 him sing mass. 
 
 Even at this early period our Friar Preacher dis- 
 played a tact for dealing with non-Catholics, which ere 
 long became one of the characteristics of his priestly 
 ministrations. ‘They esteemed him, as well as admired 
 him, and went in numbers to hear him preach. He was 
 unusually successful in making converts. However, 
 we shall have occasion to touch on this topic time and 
 again in the course of our pages; for, impressed with the 
 lofty dignity of the ministry and his vocation of saving 
 souls, he zealously devoted himself to this sublime work 
 no less than to the spiritual advancement of those 
 within the fold of the faith. 
 
 Two notable events in the Catholic history of 
 Kentucky, with which the tradition of Saint Joseph’s 
 Province connects the subject of our narrative in a 
 useful way, fall within the period covered by the 
 present chapter. The one is the consecration of the 
 first cathedral in the state; the other the first episcopal 
 consecration west of the Alleghany Mountains. 
 August 8, 1819, Bishop Flaget consecrated the Cathe- 
 dral of Saint Joseph at Bardstown. Seven days 
 later, the feast of the Assumption, he consecrated the 
 Right Rev. John B. David his coadjutor in that sacred 
 edifice. In the latter ceremony, it should not be 
 omitted, the saintly prelate was assisted by Fathers 
 
 12 
 
162 THE FATHER OF THE CHURCH IN TENNESSEE 
 
 Charles Nerinckx and Wilson, O.P.* 
 
 Bishop David, an accomplished musician, not infre- 
 quently presided at the organ for high mass. But 
 he could not well perform this office at the time the 
 cathedral was consecrated, for he had to preach a 
 sermon in explanation of the ceremonies. At his own 
 consecration, of course, it was impossible for him to be 
 the organist or to direct the choir. Accordingly, so 
 tradition at least tells us, the services of Father Mules 
 were sought and obtained in this capacity for both of 
 these notable occasions. Doubtless he enhanced the 
 music with his own superb voice, and thus contributed 
 not a little to the solemnity of the events. 
 
 27 This extraordinary favor was conferred on Fathers Nerinckx and 
 Wilson because there was no bishop west of the Alleghany Mountains 
 to be had for the ceremony. It was, of course, given them by virtue 
 of the apostolic authority of the Pope. 
 
CHAPTER VIII 
 
 LAST YEARS UNDER FATHER WILSON 
 
 AccipDENT and fortune are often the circumstances 
 that determine the course of events, whether in the 
 lives of mdividuals or in the progress of a society. 
 As the poet expresses the same idea: 
 
 ‘All states have changes hurried with the swings 
 Of chance and time, still riding to and fro.” * 
 
 Such was the situation of the little American province 
 of Friars Preacher, of which Father Miles had now 
 become a leading member, at the present period of his 
 busy career. Much depended on the way in which 
 the pendulum should swing. 
 
 The founders of Saint Joseph’s Province had fore- 
 seen that the only way of guaranteeing a continuation 
 of their labors in behalf of the Church in the new west 
 was to begin with the establishment of a novitiate which 
 would supply them with properly home-trained and 
 educated priests. They saw slight prospects of get- 
 ting a sufficient number of subjects, if even any, from 
 abroad—and perhaps felt that those to the manner 
 formed would be better suited for work in America. 
 Father Fenwick’s letters show that one of the dominant 
 ideas in the founding of Saint Thomas’ College was 
 to obtain candidates for the Order and means for 
 their support. 
 
 Bishop Flaget and Father John B. David must have 
 
 1 Quar_es (Francis), Emblems, III, 1. 
 
 163 
 
164 THE FATHER OF THE CHURCH IN TENNESSEE 
 
 gone to Kentucky with similar ideas as regards the 
 diocese, for both of them had had experience in teach- 
 ing, as well as received their baptism of missionary 
 labors. Wilson, we know, possessed the confidence and 
 affection of the bishop. At least one of the early dioc- 
 esan consultations was held at Saint Rose’s. We have 
 also seen several letters in which the holy prelate calls 
 the learned Friar Preacher the shining light of his 
 diocese.” Doubtless the scholarly divine advised a sem- 
 inary, and perhaps a college also, as the one hope of 
 success for the new diocese, for he was a single- 
 minded man without guile. 
 
 However this may be, a seminary and college were 
 soon uppermost in the bishop’s thoughts. He wisely 
 brought from France to Kentucky three or four 
 candidates for the priesthood; and when he obtained 
 possession of the historic farm left to the diocese by 
 Thomas Howard, thither he tranferred his students 
 from Father Badin’s residence, and opened a seminary 
 under Father David. 'The new institution he named 
 Saint Thomas’, in honor of the patron saint of the donor 
 of the plantation. This was in the fall of 1811. From 
 this date the saintly prelate anxiously looked forward 
 to the time when he would be able to erect a cathedral 
 in Bardstown, the episcopal seat, and to locate the sem- 
 inary and start a college in its immediate vicinity.° 
 
 God gradually prospered these zealous designs. The 
 cathedral was dedicated in the summer of 1819; the 
 
 2“Fulgens lumen dioecesis meae,” and “fulgens lumen in dioecese mea” 
 are the expressions that he uses. 
 
 3 SpaLpING, Early Catholic Missions, and Life of Bishop Flaget; Wess, 
 op. cit.; How ett, St. Thomas’ Seminary—all passim. It is sometimes 
 said that the bishop took four seminarians with him to Kentucky; but 
 letters published by Spalding in the works referred to incline us to 
 believe that the number was three. 
 
LAST YEARS UNDER FATHER WILSON 165 
 
 advanced seminarians took possession of their new 
 quarters at its side some weeks later; the college opened 
 early in 1820—all placed under the patronage of 
 Saint Joseph. Before the close of the same year 
 (1820), Father Wiliam Byrne started Saint Mary’s 
 College in what is now Marion County.* The college 
 at Bardstown was eighteen miles northwest from that 
 of Saint Thomas conducted by the Friars Preacher; 
 Saint Mary’s ten or eleven miles south of that of the 
 Dominicans. 
 
 What is now to be recorded, we trust, will merit no 
 adverse criticism. It not only falls within the sphere 
 of our narrative, but is even demanded in order to 
 round out the life-story of Nashville’s first bishop, for 
 he is said to have taken an active part in the affairs. 
 We censure no one; defend no one. Perhaps, indeed, 
 no one deserves censure, whilst no one needs defense. 
 All were within their rights, as far as they went. 
 Doubtless, too, all sought the greater glory of God, 
 each striving to do his best in accordance with his own 
 light. 
 
 A steady stream of tradition, distinctly borne out 
 by two letters of Father Wilson,” tells us that the 
 difficulty of three colleges being able effectively to 
 operate in such close proximity, especially in a new 
 and thinly settled state, was foreseen; and that Bishop 
 Flaget wanted Father Wilson to convert Saint Thomas’ 
 into a mere preparatory school for the candidates of 
 his Order, so that the two newer diocesan institutions 
 might enjoy a larger patronage. The saintly prelate 
 
 4SpatpinG, Life of Flaget, pp. 211 ff; and Early Missions, pp. 265 ff. 
 
 5 Letters to Father Hill (in Rome), March 6 and September 11, 1820 
 (Propaganda Archives, America Centrale, Vol. IV, No. 138). 
 
166 THE /PATHER OF THE CHURCH IN (TENNESSEE 
 
 was emphatically an honest man, perhaps almost over- 
 zealous for that portion of his diocese which lay within 
 the State of Kentucky. Far be it from us, therefore, 
 even to suspect that in this matter he acted from any 
 motive other than what he felt was for the broader good 
 of religion. Still, it must be admitted, his request 
 was one to which Wilson could not readily accede. 
 Father Miles is said to have opposed it strenuously. 
 
 When the matter became public, the people of Union 
 County, whence Saint Thomas’ College had drawn a 
 goodly number of students, offered to raise a sub- 
 scription in order to help Wilson and his associates to 
 purchase land and erect a similar institution there in 
 leu of Saint Thomas’ College. Their generous offer 
 was accepted, for it seemed a good way out of the 
 difficulty, especially in view of the splendid soil in 
 Union County, the wealth of its inhabitants, and its 
 distance from the other two educational establishments. 
 A fertile tract of twelve hundred acres was secured 
 on Lost Creek, near Uniontown, and partially paid 
 for by the people. To this plan, however, Bishop 
 Flaget, acting, as Father Wilson believed, under the 
 influence of Bishop David, refused to consent.® ‘Thus 
 the precipitous purchase, made no doubt in good faith 
 as a happy solution of the dilemma, left matters in 
 statu quo. 
 
 But Saint Rose’s found itself burdened with a 
 heavy debt; for the fathers felt that they were no less 
 bound to refund the money contributed in Union 
 
 6 Letters as in the preceding note. The original deed for this land 
 (Recorder’s Office, Frankfort, Kentucky) bears the date of September 
 13, 1819. It is from Joseph and William Trotter to (Rev.) Samuel L. 
 
 Montgomery, who acted for Saint Rose’s. Saint Mary’s College had not 
 been started at the time, but preparations for it were under way. 
 
LAST YEARS UNDER FATHER WILSON 167 
 
 County for this purchase, than to raise that which 
 still remained due on it. Meanwhile the pall of the 
 financial crisis of 1819 and subsequent years fell upon 
 the country. Banks failed right and left. Land and 
 produce became almost valueless. The fathers were 
 unable to collect the bills due to them for their educa- 
 tional work, whilst few could afford to send their sons 
 to college.’ Thus the number of students at Saint 
 Thomas’, as was but natural, declined to perhaps half 
 of what it had been. 
 
 Here we may briefly interrupt our narrative in order 
 to explain an assertion; of Father Badin anent the 
 Dominican college. Kentucky’s apostle left the state in 
 the spring of 1819, when the discussion about its being 
 limited to a preparatory school for the Order must 
 have been at its height. Doubtless he took it for 
 granted that Father Wilson gave in to the wishes of 
 his friend, Bishop Flaget. It is only in this light that 
 we can understand the venerable missionary’s statement 
 in L’Ami de la Religion et du Rot, December 8, 1819, 
 to the effect that Saint Thomas’ had been closed, and 
 that the fathers were confining their educational work 
 to their novitiate. Certainly the assertion is erroneous.” 
 
 Meantime Bishop Flaget explained to Father Wil- 
 
 7 Wilson’s letters as in note 5 above. 
 
 8 Father Badin says nothing about the cessation of the college in his 
 Origine et Progrés de la Mission du Kentucky, published in Paris, in 1821; 
 and a Latin postcript to the pamphlet (over the names of Fathers Wilson 
 and Tuite clearly indicates that it was then in operation). Bishop Spalding 
 (Early Missions, page 160) says that it closed in 1819 or 1820. He most 
 likely followed Badin’s first statement. A close scrutiny of Doctor Spald- 
 ing’s Early Missions and Life of Bishop Flaget shows that he was too busy 
 a man to take the time necessary to look up dates. At least, he is often 
 inexact in them. The whole drift of the present chapter shows that he was 
 
 in error, when he says that the fathers closed Saint Thomas’ because they 
 found educational work incompatible with that of the missions. 
 
168 THE FATHER OF THE CHURCH IN TENNESSEE 
 
 son that he had opposed the Union County project 
 because he had written to Rome asking that a Domini- | 
 can be appointed bishop of Ohio, and that the missions 
 of that promising state be placed in charge of the 
 fathers. This information, together with prospects of 
 recruits from abroad, turned all thoughts towards the 
 north. Wilson determined, if at all possible, to retain 
 the land near Uniontown until the return of good 
 prices, so that the proceeds from it might be used in 
 the purchase of a like property for the support of a 
 college which they hoped to start in the vicinity of 
 Cincinnati.2 HZtowever, committed to the work of 
 education which they loved, they maintained Saint 
 Thomas’ College in operation; and it continued to draw 
 a fair quota of pupils, despite the hard times and its 
 two younger competitors. 
 
 One is pleased to see that this difference of opinion 
 did not disturb the amicable relations between Bishop 
 Flaget and Father Wilson. Indeed, in the report of 
 his diocese which the humble prelate sent to the Laity’s 
 Directory for 1822, we find a brief paragraph which 
 clearly shows the error of Father Badin and Bishop 
 Spalding as regards the time when Saint Thomas’ 
 closed its doors. Having spoken of his seminary and 
 other affairs of his diocese, Doctor Flaget proceeds to 
 say: 
 
 The Dominicans have likewise established a college in Ken- 
 tucky, which is greatly frequented, and promises to be of great 
 
 benefit to the Diocese. Dr. Wilson is at the present time president 
 of it, a gentleman of known piety and talents.!° 
 
 9 Letters to Hill as in note 5 above. In view of the fact that what 
 is called “the French period” in the American Hierarchy was just then 
 beginning, one can hardly blame Father Wilson’s fears lest a Frenchman 
 should be appointed bishop of Cincinnati. 
 
 10 Page 110. 
 
LAST YEARS UNDER FATHER WILSON 169 
 
 Among the greatest handicaps with which the fathers 
 had to contend was a scarcity of members. Candidates 
 seem to have come in fair numbers, but they did not 
 persevere. They soon found the trials too severe for 
 them. In his letter of September 11, 1820, to Hull, 
 Father Wilson says the convent has even less difficulty 
 in sustaining subjects than in finding those who are 
 brave enough to bear the burdens of its life. None 
 came from abroad, and none remained for profession 
 for some years after Father Nicholas D. Young pro- 
 nounced his vows. In this way, it was necessary to 
 employ lay teachers, no less than to continue the old 
 system of having the more advanced students assist 
 in the instruction of those in the lower classes. 
 
 Ever faithful Father Miles’ zeal and_ practical 
 mind made him one of the provincial’s principal sup- 
 ports in all these perplexities. He was called “‘the 
 power behind the throne;” but this was said of him 
 with no tinge of malice. As a matter of fact, he exer- 
 cised his influence with such fine Judgment, and in so 
 admirable a spirit of fairness and disinterested zeal 
 for the better good, that it neither aroused jealousy 
 nor evoked adverse criticism. 
 
 Albeit, for the reasons given, the future of their 
 institution must have at times appeared gloomy, the 
 fathers appear to have toiled on with a buoyant spirit. 
 Possibly they were confident that God, in whom they 
 placed their trust, would bless their efforts in His 
 own good time. At the present juncture these hopes 
 seemed on the point of realization. Thomas James 
 Polin, John Hyacinth McGrady, and James Vincent 
 Bullock had made their professions. ‘Thomas H. Mar- 
 tin had almost compieted his novitiate, whilst Charles 
 
170 THE FATHER OF THE CHURCH IN TENNESSEE 
 
 Pius Montgomery, a younger brother of Father Samuel 
 Montgomery, had received the habit. Charles Dom- 
 ine Bowling and Joseph Thomas Jarboe were 
 postulants still in the college, but had almost completed 
 their classical course. All these were young men of no 
 little promise; so had they been with the fathers long 
 enough for them to be assured of their characters. 
 
 The outlook grew still brighter in the early fall of 
 1821, when Father John A. Hill, Brothers John 
 Thomas Hynes, and John Baptist Vincent De Ray- 
 maecker, Mr. Daniel Joseph O’ Leary and two or three 
 other postulants, whose names we have not been able 
 to discover, arrived from Europe.** They were the 
 first foreign recruits. Hynes was ready for ordi- 
 nation; the same is true of De Raymaecker, although 
 he had not pronounced his vows, having the singular 
 experience of making a part of his novitiate under Hill 
 at sea while on the journey to America. O’Leary 
 and the others were students in theology. Martin and 
 McGrady, mentioned above, had about completed 
 their divinities; Polin was not far behind them. 
 
 Thus the prospects of a more rapid increase in num- 
 bers and better equipment for educational work had per- 
 haps never appeared so glowing. Doubtless no one 
 rejoiced more in these promises than the subject of our 
 narrative. If only Father Hill had been kept, at least 
 for a while longer, in the ranks of the subjects, they 
 would likely have materialized. An excellent priest 
 
 11 Rey. F. P. Kenrick to Bishop Rosati, New York, August, 1821, and 
 Bardstown, Kentucky, September 24, 1821 (Saint Louis Archives) ; Father 
 John A. Hill to same, Springfield, Kentucky, September 29, 1821 (ibid.). 
 During their stay in Rome and on their journey thence to the United 
 
 States a friendship arose between Fathers Hill and Kenrick which had 
 its part in the trouble to be recounted in the next chapter. 
 
LAST YEARS UNDER FATHER WILSON 171 
 
 though he was, zealous, splendidly educated, and an ora- 
 tor of the first rank, the premature placing of him in 
 authority combined with other circumstances of which 
 we shall soon speak to engender division, rather than 
 strength, and in the end to close Saint Thomas’ College. 
 
 About the time of the arrival of the above recruits 
 bulls were received from Rome erecting the Diocese of 
 Cincinnati, and appointing Father Edward D. Fenwick 
 its first bishop. ‘There could then be little doubt but 
 that the proposed college in or near the new episcopal 
 city would soon be a reality. However, to Father Fen- 
 wick his nomination was as unexpected as a bolt out of 
 the clear. Genuinely humble, he buried himself in the 
 forests of Ohio in the hope of thus escaping the dreaded 
 responsibility; and when he was finally discovered it 
 required all the authority of his superiors in order to 
 induce him to accept the miter.” As stated in his life: 
 
 Father Fenwick was raised to the episcopacy by Bishop Flaget 
 on the octave of the Epiphany, Sunday, January 13, 1822. The 
 consecration, the second of the kind performed west of the Alle- 
 ghany Mountains, took place at Saint Rose’s, a church that the 
 friar himself had erected. By papal dispensation two of his col- 
 leagues, Fathers Wilson and Hill, assisted at the ceremony which 
 was carried out with all the pomp and splendor possible in the 
 backwoods of Kentucky. Right Rev. John B. David, coadjutor 
 of Bardstown, preached the sermon. Attracted in part perhaps by 
 the novelty of the occasion, but especially by the love and esteem 
 in which the well-known missionary was held, people came from 
 far and near to see him enrolled in the Church’s episcopacy. 
 
 12 Fenwick, Kentucky, February 9, 1823, to Archbishop Maréchal (Bal- 
 timore Archives, Case 16, W 1); Rev. John A. Hill, Kentucky, November 
 21, 1821, to a friend in Europe (London Catholic Miscellany, I, 327-328) ; 
 same, Kentucky, January 27, 1822, to Father Benedict Olivieri, Rome, 
 (Propanganda Archives, Scritture Originali, Vol. 929); Spatpinc, Early 
 
 Missions, pp. 157-158, and Life of Bishop Flaget, p. 217; O’DaAntEL, Life 
 of Fenwick, pp. 242-243. 
 
172 THE FATHER OF THE CHURCH IN TENNESSEE 
 
 Father Fenwick was now a bishop. But possibly no Christian 
 prelate was ever confronted with greater destitution than that 
 which Cincinnati’s first ordinary had to face. He had taken the 
 vow of poverty, and he had practised it with scrupulosity. He had 
 not a farthing that he could call his own. The poor convent from 
 which he had been taken could help him but little. Fortunately, 
 the people of Saint Rose’s Parish, though themselves poor, agreed 
 to take up a subscription in his behalf. In the meantime, while 
 the funds necessary to take him and his retinue to the episcopal 
 city were being thus collected, the new prelate conferred holy 
 orders on a number of his confréres in the same church in which 
 he himself had been so lately consecrated. Fathers Thomas H. 
 Martin, John Hyacinth McGrady, J. T. Hynes, and J. B. V. De 
 Raymaecker, the last two of whom have already been mentioned, 
 were raised to the priesthood. 
 
 Bishop Fenwick had made it a condition of accepting the miter 
 that Father Wilson, the provincial, would go to Cincinnati in the 
 capacity of vicar general. Accordingly, having obtained between 
 four and five hundred dollars in paper money from the people of 
 Kentucky, and got together whatever vestments, chalices or other 
 articles his convent could spare, the saintly prelate started for his 
 episcopal city, accompanied by this learned divine and Fathers 
 Hill, Hynes, and De Raymaecker. The journey, which must have 
 taken several days, was made in an old-fashioned cart, then an 
 indispensable possession of our pioneer backwoodsmen, drawn by 
 two horses in tandem fashion—all a gift of Saint Rose’s to his 
 lordship. The weather was rainy; the roads, lately cut through the 
 forests, were rough and muddy. In places they consisted merely 
 of trees felled and laid side by side over marshes and low places. 
 More than once the conveyance, carrying both the episcopal suite 
 and their luggage, broke down. The travellers, obliged to swim 
 the Kentucky River which was swollen by recent rains, were in 
 great danger of losing their lives. 
 
 The evening before they reached their destination, the ecclesias- 
 tical caravan halted at a roadside hostel for supper. As it was 
 Friday, the bishop instructed the lady of the house to prepare any- 
 thing she pleased for their meal, except meat. Surprised at such 
 instructions from travellers so way-worn, she suggested that per- 
 
LAST YEARS UNDER FATHER WILSON 173 
 
 haps they would like to have chicken. On being told they would 
 not take even this dish, she asked: “‘Are you of those people whom 
 they call Jews, and who crucified our Saviour? Or are you 
 Romans?” ‘To which the holy prelate kindly replied: “No, my 
 good lady, we are Christians. We are Catholics; but some people 
 call us Roman Catholics, because the head of our Church resides at 
 Rome.” Another source of amusement to the pioneer innkeepers, 
 especially to the younger ones, was the sign of the cross made by 
 the travellers before and after eating. 
 
 The meal, considering the day and the times, was all that could 
 be desired, and was enjoyed by the wayfarers. A bountiful piece 
 of pie which all, except the bishop, thought was made of prunes, 
 formed the last portion. The famished priests had begun to eat 
 this dish with evident delight, when they noticed that his lordship 
 had set his plate aside, and was amused at the others. Asked why 
 he had done so, he replied with a smile: “It is mince. But con- 
 tinue. I have every reason for dispensing you.” 
 
 It was on Saturday evening, apparently March 23, that the 
 travellers, after many difficulties, arrived at Cincinnati. Putting 
 their horses and cart in the stable of the hotel, they went to Michael 
 Scott’s for supper; but the unexpected arrival of so many made 
 it necessary to send out for their first meal in the episcopal city. 
 As Scott’s home was not large enough to accommodate his guests, 
 together with his own family, an empty house within the municipal 
 limits was rented for Saturday night and Sunday. ‘The building, 
 it would seem, had but one room. Fortunately it was a spacious 
 chamber. Here the little band of exhausted ecclesiastics slept 
 soundly on pallets spread on the floor. 
 
 On the morrow, no doubt, mass was said in this room and the 
 Scott home, as well as in the little suburban church of which we 
 have spoken. It was at this last place, of course, that the papal 
 bull erecting the new See of Cincinnati was read by Father Wilson, 
 and that Bishop Fenwick was installed in his diocese with “humble 
 ceremony and silent panegyric.’”’ He needed none other.!* 
 
 These noteworthy events, one may rest assured, had 
 13 Life of Bishop Fenwick, pp. 243-246, The sources whence the in- 
 
 formation contained in this quotation is drawn are given in the footnotes 
 on the same pages. 
 
174 THE FATHER OF THE CHURCH IN TENNESSEE 
 
 no more keenly interested a participant than Father 
 Miles. But we must not overlook the part which the 
 Father of the Church in Tennessee took in the ceremony 
 of the consecration of the apostle of Ohio. As Mr. 
 Webb says, Father Miles was regarded as “quite a 
 musical prodigy.” "* Accordingly, he was chosen to 
 direct the music for the occasion, and presided at the 
 organ. His melodious voice no doubt could be heard 
 above all the others. It is said that the church could not 
 afford even standing room for the crowd that came to 
 witness the event, and that all, whether clergy or laity, 
 were delighted with the way in which he acquitted him- 
 self of his part in the program. ‘The tradition concern- 
 ing the whole occurrence is among the many sweet 
 memories that cluster around the walls of the venerable 
 institution and the life of Father Miles there. 
 
 Bishop Flaget was accused by more than one of his 
 brethren in the hierarchy of what may be termed zealous 
 selfishness for that part of his diocese contained in Ken- 
 tucky. Rarely did he station any of his own diocesan 
 clergy elsewhere. With the possible exception of Fa- 
 ther Savine, the Canadian priest who accompanied him 
 to Bardstown in 1811, and seems to have labored for a 
 while in Illinois,’® the missionaries in that state and 
 Michigan were either there before he became bishop, or 
 were borrowed from New Orleans or Saint Louis. The 
 same is true of Indiana until 1823, when the Rev. John 
 Leo Champonnier was stationed at Vincennes, remain- 
 ing the state’s sole missionary until 1827, or later. In 
 1833, however, the year before the erection of the See 
 of Vincennes, we find Father L. Picot in that city and 
 
 14 Centenary of Catholicity, p. 207. 
 15 We have never been able to learn Father Savine’s baptismal name. 
 
LAST YEARS UNDER FATHER WILSON Woe 
 
 Father Simon Lalumiere at Oak Ridge, Davis 
 County.” 
 
 Father Edward D. Fenwick had begun his labors in 
 Ohio before Kentucky became a bishopric, whilst the 
 Dominican provincial sent Father N. D. Young to 
 Fenwick’s aid in that part of Bishop Flaget’s charge. 
 Tennessee, it must be admitted, was sadly overlooked; 
 for, with the exception of the temporary sojourn of the 
 Rev. James Cosgreve at Nashville, in 1828, no priest 
 was stationed in that state until it was erected into a 
 diocese.“ Not until 1843, when the Rev. Ignatius A. 
 Reynolds was selected as bishop of Charleston, did the 
 saintly Flaget even willingly consent that one of his 
 clergy should be taken for the head of another episco- 
 pal see. 
 
 However, Webb assures us, in answer to Father Fen- 
 wick’s ardent plea for spiritual aid, on the day of his 
 consecration, Doctor Flaget consented that Francis V. 
 Badin, then in deacon’s orders, should transfer his alle- 
 giance to the Diocese of Cincinnati.’*> Father Anthony 
 Ganilh enlisted in Fenwick’s cause of his own accord. 
 Francis Badin was raised to the priesthood in Cincin- 
 nati on Holy Saturday, April 6, 1822, his ordination 
 being the first in Ohio, just as that of his older brother, 
 Father Stephen T. Badin, had been the first in the 
 United States. Immediately afterwards the younger 
 Badin and Ganilh proceeded to Detroit, Michigan, 
 
 16 Catholic Almanac, 1833, pp. 41-42; ALerpinc, The Diocese of Fort 
 Wayne, p. 18, and The Diocese of Vincennes, pp. 82-97; Annales, III, 
 TAL 
 
 cane Banner and Nashville Whig, March 28, 1828. The Umted 
 States Catholic Miscellany, May 17, 1828, gives this priest’s name as 
 Cosgrave. If he were French, Cosgreve is probably correct. Otherwise, 
 
 his name was likely Cosgrove. 
 18 Op. cit., p. 207. 
 
176 THE FATHER OF THE CHURCH IN TENNESSEE 
 
 where they were to help the Rev. Gabriel Richard, over- 
 burdened with labor since the return of the Revs. John 
 Bertrand and Philip Janvier to New Orleans.” 
 Before Bishop Fenwick’s consecration, a matter of 
 importance had been got under way at Saint Rose’s that 
 demanded Father Wilson’s attention. From the time 
 they settled in the west—even prior to Fenwick’s de- 
 parture from England—the fathers had wished to es- 
 tablish a community of Dominican Sisters in America, 
 but had been deterred from any attempt to put the pious 
 design into execution by the lack of means to insure its 
 success.”” Possibly convinced that he had not long to 
 live, Father Wilson seems to have felt that, unless the 
 project were undertaken now, it might never be realized. 
 At just what date can not today be determined, 
 Father Wilson obtained Bishop Flaget’s approbation 
 of the enterprise. ‘Then the authorization of the Order’s 
 head, the Most Rev. Pius Maurice Viviani, was se- 
 cured.” Backed by these credentials, the learned divine 
 launched the sacred and long-contemplated project by 
 an eloquent sermon on the beauty and heroism of a voca- 
 tion to the religious life in the sisterhoods of the Church, 
 which he preached at Saint Rose’s a Sunday or two after 
 Bishop KFenwick’s consecration. ‘The beloved Friar 
 Preacher made a strong plea for postulants to enable 
 
 19 Life of Fenwick, pp. 247-248, and passim. See also sources given 
 there. 
 
 20 Several of Fenwick’s letters to Father Concanen, and one at least 
 of Concanen’s to Fenwick, touch on this subject. 
 
 21 Father Viviani was vicar general of the Order from 1820 to 1823. 
 In one of the books of his administration we read: “Die 24 Martii, 1821. 
 Auctoritate Apostolica Nobis commissa, conceditur facultas Patribus 
 Provinciae Nostrae Kentucki fundandi Collegii pro Tertiariis Ordinis 
 Nostri in eadem Provincia Kentucki et Ohio.” (General’s Archives, IV, 
 268). See also Minocur, Pages from a Hundred Years of Dominican 
 History, pp. 42 ff. 
 
LAST YEARS UNDER FATHER WILSON 177 
 
 him to initiate a work which he had long had at heart. 
 He painted in roseate colors the blessings which the sac- 
 rifices and labors of those who should thus give their 
 lives to the service of God would bring not only upon 
 themselves, but also upon the congregation, the State of 
 Kentucky, and even the American Church at large. 
 
 Tradition tells us that Father Wilson’s discourse pro- 
 duced a deep impression. It would seem that he set a 
 day on which any young ladies who might feel disposed 
 thus to consecrate themselves to the Divine Master 
 should call to see him at the convent. At any rate, on 
 Thursday, February 28, 1822, nine young women of the 
 parish offered their services for the provincial’s under- 
 taking, which, in the light of the work then set on foot, 
 one does not hesitate to say was inspired from on high. 
 They were Marie Sansbury (later the community’s first 
 superior), Mary Carrico, Mary A. Hill, Mary Sans- 
 bury, Rose Sansbury, Rosanna SBoone, Judith 
 McMahon, Severly Tarleton, and Molly Johnson.” 
 Doubtless Father Miles’ zeal made itself felt in all this, 
 for no priest was held in higher esteem by the congre- 
 gation, wielded a stronger influence for good, or cher- 
 ished a deeper sympathy for the pious undertaking. 
 
 This generous response to his appeal must have re- 
 joiced the heart of the founder, as well as made him 
 feel that God was with him in his new enterprise. How- 
 ever, he wisely determined to give his protégés a trial 
 of the life they would be expected to live before invest- 
 ing them with the habit of the Sisters of the Third Order 
 of Saint Dominic. They were therefore located in a log 
 cabin, with one room and a loft, which stood on Saint 
 
 22 Records of Saint Catherine’s Academy, and MINOGUE as in the pre- 
 ceding note. The Record, Louisville, Kentucky, May 29, 1902. 
 
 13 
 
178 THE FATHER OF THE ‘CHURCH IN: TENNESSEE 
 
 Rose’s farm about half a mile east of the convent, in 
 the direction of Springfield. Father Miles was appoint- 
 ed their chaplain and spiritual director. No _ better 
 could have been selected. 
 
 Meanwhile the provincial made ready for his northern 
 journey for the installation of Bishop Fenwick at Cin- 
 cinnati. Despite his one and sixty years of age and the 
 hardships attendant on travel at that period, he hurried 
 back to Saint Rose’s immediately after that ceremony 
 in order to preside at another of perhaps not less beauty 
 and significance, albeit simple in the extreme. The nine 
 postulants for the sisterhood were at the solemn high 
 mass in the parochial church on Easter Sunday, April 
 7, 1822. After the services and sermon Miss Marie 
 Sansbury was called to the altar railing, where, in pres- 
 ence of the congregation, she was vested in the tunic of 
 a Dominican Sister, over which were placed the scapular 
 and veil. She took the name of Sister Angela. Never 
 before had this religious garb been seen in Kentucky, 
 or even in the United States. 
 
 It is no matter for surprise, therefore, that the cere- 
 mony profoundly impressed the people of Saint Rose’s 
 Parish, or that it was long remembered and spoken of 
 throughout the neighborhood. Later in the same day, 
 no doubt in the afternoon, Father Wilson gave the 
 habit to Sister Margaret (Mary Carrico), Sister Mag- 
 dalen (Judith McMahon), and Sister Columba (Sever- 
 ly Tarleton), in Saint Magdalen’s Chapel, as the little 
 log cabin had. been named, in honor of the penitent sin- 
 ner. At both ceremonies he was assisted by Father 
 Miles, who had prepared all things for them, no less 
 than instructed the sisters in the rubrics and constitu- 
 tions.”° 
 
 23 Records of Saint Catherine’s Academy, and MinocuE as in note 22 
 above. 
 
LAST YEARS UNDER FATHER WILSON 179 
 
 Doubtless the decision to defer the reception of the 
 other young ladies a little longer was caused by their 
 youth, which suggested the prudence of further trial. 
 Meantime Miss Molly Johnson, finding that she had no 
 vocation to the religious life, wisely returned to the 
 world. But in her stead came Miss Elizabeth Sansbury 
 (a younger sister of Mother Angela), and Miss Teresa 
 Eidelen. Accordingly, in the absence of the provincial 
 for reasons which will soon be seen, Father Miles him- 
 self officiated at the second investiture in the little log 
 Saint Magdalen’s. This was on August 3, 1822, when 
 Sister Ann (Mary Hull), Sister Catherine (Mary Sans- 
 bury), Sister Frances (Rose Sansbury), Sister Rose 
 (Rosanna Boone), Sister Euphrasia—later Sister Mag- 
 dalen (Teresa Edelen), and Sister Mary Benven (Eliz- 
 abeth Sansbury) received the habit.** 
 
 Soon, if not immediately, after the impressive cere- 
 mony of Easter Sunday, Father Wilson had returned 
 to Cincinnati, where important matters claimed his at- 
 tention. One of these affairs was the establishment of 
 a college, towards which steps had already been taken; 
 for in one of the public prints of the city we read: 
 
 We congratulate the Roman Catholicks of this city and environs 
 on the arrival of the Rt. Rev. Dr. Fenwick, lately consecrated 
 Bishop of Cincinnati and the State of Ohio. This circumstance 
 interests not only the Catholicks but all the friends of literature and 
 useful knowledge, as we understand that his intention is ultimately 
 to open a school, aided by the members of his order long dis- 
 tinguished for their piety and learning.’® 
 
 Indeed, it seems quite certain that the fathers, as a 
 consequence of the disfavor which Bishop Flaget now 
 
 24 Ibid. 
 
 29 Liberty Hall and Cincinnati Gazette, March 30, 1822. See also the 
 London Catholic Miscellany, 1, 475. 
 
180 THE FATHER OF THE CHURCH IN TENNESSEE 
 
 manifested towards Saint Thomas’ College, had deter- 
 mined to transfer this institution to Cincinnati, and to 
 use the place in Kentucky merely as a convent and no- 
 vitiate—perhaps eventually even to give it up altogeth- 
 er, for it had not yet become hallowed by the associa- 
 tions which at present render it sacred. ‘Tradition has 
 it that Fathers Wilson and Miles advocated disposing 
 of the convent and college structures to the sisters, and 
 that this wish was the reason why they were housed in a 
 cabin on the farm, and why such scant preparations 
 were made for the commencement of their community. 
 Nor is the motive far to seek. Sisters would be needed 
 for schools and spiritual works in Ohio. While it was a 
 problem whether vocations to such a life could be found 
 in the newer State of Ohio, the experience of the Sisters 
 of Loretto and the Sisters of Charity showed that they 
 might be expected in Kentucky. 
 
 With these purposes in view, Fathers Stephen H. 
 Montgomery, John McGrady, and Thomas Martin 
 were called to the north. But Bishop Flaget, vigilantly 
 eager for the good of his own diocese, strongly opposed 
 the measure. He even appealed to Cardinal Consalvi, 
 prefect of the Propaganda, to prevent its execution. 
 Strange to say, although he perhaps had no competency 
 in the matter, the cardinal at once ordered that the little 
 band of Friars Preacher should be divided between Ohio 
 and Kentucky. Stranger still, he issued the command 
 without taking the trouble either to consult their pro- 
 vincial or to hear their side of the case.*° On the other 
 
 26 The prefect of the Propaganda to the superior of the Dominicans 
 in Kentucky, July 27, 1822 (Archives of Saint Rose’s Convent, Spring- 
 field, Kentucky); Fenwick to Archbishop Maréchal, February 9, 1823 
 (Baltimore Archives, Case 16, W. 1); Fenwick to the prefect of the 
 Propaganda, April 16, 1823 (copy in Archives of Notre Dame University). 
 
LAST YEARS UNDER FATHER WILSON 181 
 
 hand, it affords no little edification to see Wilson, for 
 the sake of harmony, readily obey a command that likely 
 did not bind in law or conscience, even though it was 
 fraught with evil consequences both to his Order and to 
 the diocese of his former confrére, Bishop Fenwick. 
 
 Father Wilson, as a result of this interference, was 
 soon obliged to return to Saint Rose’s. Father Hill 
 then took his place as vicar general in Cincinnati. 
 However, the ill-advised ordinance of Cardinal Con- 
 salvi, preventing as it did a concentration of forces, 
 not merely long stood in the way of a more rapid growth 
 for the American province of Friars Preacher; it was 
 likewise a source of much annoyance to Bishop Fen- 
 wick, and greatly impeded the progress of religion in 
 Ohio. 
 
 Fortunately, although the number of students had 
 perhaps somewhat decreased because of the preoccupa- 
 tions about Cincinnati, Saint Thomas’ had not been 
 closed. Father Samuel Montgomery was therefore re- 
 called from the missions in northern Kentucky. Father 
 William T. Willett was left at Lexington only for the 
 sake of his health, which would not permit him to engage 
 in educational work.*’ With his diminished forces the 
 provincial set himself to the reorganization of the col- 
 lege in the hope that it might soon attain, if not exceed, 
 its highest number of pupils. In these efforts he placed 
 the greatest reliance on Father Miles, who was a tower 
 of strength in all that made for good. 
 
 —There are many documents showing Fenwick’s bitter disappointment 
 at this turn of things. Cardinal Consalvi’s order reached Kentucky in 
 October, 1822, just when matters were assuming shape in Ohio. 
 
 27 Father Willett died in Lexington on May 6, 1824. For notices of 
 
 this talented and pious friend of Bishop Miles see Spalding’s Early Mis- 
 sions, p. 159, and Life of Bishop Fenwick, pp. 286-287. 
 
182 THE FATHER OF THE CHURCH IN TENNESSEE 
 
 Meantime, that he might still help impoverished and 
 distressed Bishop Fenwick so far as he could, Wilson 
 used his authority to send Father Hynes to Rome, 
 where he had studied, and Father McGrady to Ireland. 
 The mission of both was to obtain means and mission- 
 aries for Ohio. It is a pity that Hynes did not return, 
 for subsequent events show him to have possessed rare 
 talents for just such work as was then needed in the 
 new diocese. While he was at Rome the higher author- 
 ities saw fit to send him to British Guiana, where he 
 became a veritable apostle, and eventually bishop. Still 
 it is not improbable that he welcomed the change for 
 the reasons that follow.” 
 
 Hardly had these two men started on their way when 
 Father Hill began to disturb the even trend of affairs. 
 As in Rome, while Wilson’s procurator, he had sought 
 to unite the English and the American provinces of 
 Friars Preacher; so now, in his capacity of vicar gener- 
 al, he gained the confidence of Bishop Fenwick, and 
 used his influence in order to divide the little American 
 Province. He induced the postulants whom he brought 
 from abroad to join him in Ohio. But there only one 
 of them, the saintly Father Daniel J. O’Leary, re- 
 mained for profession. 
 
 Father Hiull’s influence, there can be no doubt, was 
 the power that brought about the historic agreement 
 between Father Wilson and Bishop Fenwick, on the 
 eve of the latter’s journey 'to Europe in the late spring 
 of 1823, for the erection of a separate province of the 
 
 28JIn some of his letters Bishop Fenwick speaks as though he had sent 
 these two priests to Europe. However, he was not their superior. Pos- 
 sibly Father Wilson sent them at his request. The Annales de la Prop- 
 
 agation de la Foi, January, 1839 (XI, 92 ff), give a sketch of Father 
 Hynes’ labors in British Guiana. 
 
LAST YEARS UNDER FATHER WILSON 183 
 
 Order in Ohio independent of that in Kentucky. Fa- 
 ther Miles, tradition declares, opposed the measure with 
 all his might, yet in his characteristically mild and gen- 
 tle way. The provincial also strongly doubted the wis- 
 dom of the division; but he felt that, under the circum- 
 stances, it was perhaps the best thing that could be done. 
 For this reason, greatly as he disliked to do so, he with- 
 stood the arguments and entreaties of his trusted friend. 
 
 Father Tuite, though the mildest of men, yet a not 
 disinterested witness in the affairs, says that the turn 
 of events broke F'ather Wilson’s heart; which is no doubt 
 true, for it necessitated starting anew at an age when 
 most people look for a surcease from toil.” However, 
 he found a source of courage in the subject of our nar- 
 rative and other valiant confréres, and bravely took up 
 the task. To Father Miles he entrusted the charge of 
 the sisters, but helped him, as opportunity permitted, 
 in the preparation of them for their work of teaching.*” 
 
 If Doctor Wilson and Father Miles (for the latter 
 may justly be styled a co-founder) had done no more 
 than establish Saint Magdalen’s Community of Domini- 
 can Sisters (now known as that of Saint Catherine of 
 Sienna), their names would still deserve to be inscribed 
 in letters of gold in the annals of our American church 
 history. By natural and legal division, subdivision, and 
 inspiration it has become the parent stem of various 
 provinces of Sisters of Saint Dominic, whose members 
 
 29 Letters to Father Velzi, January 23 and July 24, 1828. The dis- 
 turbing tendency of Father Hill’s influence is patent from various sources. 
 
 30 This explains why Father Miles’ name, instead of Father Wilson’s, 
 appears in nearly all the earliest records of the convent. In one of his 
 letters, written some years after this time, Bishop Fenwick speaks as 
 if Father Hill gave the habit to the first sisters, which is certainly erron- 
 
 eous. Likely the holy prelate, owing to the crowded works of his life, 
 became confused on this matter. 
 
184 THE FATHER OF THE CHURCH IN TENNESSEE 
 
 run into thousands, teach Catholic schools, conduct 
 academies and colleges, and carry on works of charity 
 throughout the length and breadth of the land. The 
 work of the two priests, no less than their memory, still 
 lives in and through these pious ladies. Everywhere 
 are their names blessed.** 
 
 Saint Thomas’ College held its own with its competi- 
 tors. In fact, it prospered, considering the times. 
 Father Miles rendered it efficient services, in spite of his 
 care of the sisters and: his labors in the parish and on 
 the missions. But Father Wilson’s course was near its 
 end. God had decreed to give the great man the reward 
 of his long and faithful life. He died, almost on his 
 feet, May 23, 1824. Webb rightly says of him: 
 
 Father Wilson’s administration of the foundation of St. Rose 
 was in all respects admirable. He seemed to have felt in advance 
 that the great coming want of the country, in respect to Catholic 
 interests, would be a properly trained and educated clergy; and 
 
 his grand idea was to make the institution over which he had been 
 
 placed a source of supply to the ranks of the priesthood. . . .° 
 
 [The province’s] after expansion, and the happy results of its 
 foundation, now to be seen in the heart of the country, and extend- 
 ing from seaboard to seaboard across its face, are to be attributed, 
 in a great degree at least, to the wise direction given to the little 
 
 31 Jt was during this eventful period of his life that Father Mules lost 
 his venerable father. The precise date of Nicholas Miles’ death can 
 not now be determined; but his will, dated February 27 and probated 
 October 20, 1823 (Will Book E, pp. 28-30, Recorder’s Office, Bardstown, 
 Kentucky), shows that he died in that year (at the age of eighty-two or 
 eighty-three), and sustains the tradition that he remained active almost 
 to the end of his long life. Although, in the natural course of things, 
 he could ‘not have expected his father to live much longer, and must 
 have realized that he had been unusually blessed in having him even to 
 such an age, one is justified in the belief that so devoted a son felt the 
 loss keenly. Mrs. Miles survived her husband, and is said to have lived 
 several years after his demise. We could find no record of her death. 
 
 32 Centenary of Catholicity, p. 203. 
 
ra ee (aso! 
 
 7 
 
 
 

 
 VER YVaR Ee Veeo ANU Eats WILSON? OO; PS sreMe 
 
 THE FIRST PROVINCIAL OF A RELIGIOUS ORDER IN THE UNITED 
 STATES, ANDSIAE FIRST. PRIESTSLOSRECELVE THE DEGREE 
 OF MASTER OF THEOLOGY IN THE COUNTRY 
 
LAST YEARS UNDER FATHER WILSON 185 
 
 community of St. Rose by its second [first] provincial three quar- 
 ters of a century ago..... oS 
 
 Father Thomas Wilson was fitted by nature and grace, as well as 
 by culture, for the position to which he had been appointed. He 
 commanded both admiration and respect, the first on account of his 
 great learning and acknowledged talents, and the last because of 
 his adherence to the right on all occasions, and the virtues he prac- 
 ticed in the sight of men. It were impossible that between such a 
 preceptor and his pupils there should not have grown up affection 
 on the one side and reverence on the other. That he loved them is 
 shown by his solicitude in everything that concerned them, and 
 most especially in their advancement in the knowledge of divine 
 things; and that he was held by them in the most profound rever- 
 ence is evidenced by the fact that in their after-lives they never 
 appeared weary of rehearsing his praises. . . .°4 
 
 What he did for secular education in the congregation of St. Rose 
 and far beyond its limits, and what he did for the Church in Ken- 
 tucky in supplying it with zealous priests to uphold and continue 
 God’s work in the land of his adoption, must in the future, as in the 
 present and the past, make his name a by-word of honor among 
 Catholic Christians all over the country.®*° 
 
 As the same author says, Father Wilson was. honored 
 by all with whom he came into contact. Owing to his 
 merits, the representations of Father Fenwick, and the 
 initial state of the province, his appointment as pro- 
 vincial and prior was usque ad revocationem (until re- 
 voked). So he held the position until his death—nearly 
 seventeen years. No one, with the possible exception of 
 Father Hill, found fault with his government; no one 
 wanted any other as superior in his stead. 
 
 More than forty years have passed since the historian 
 of the Church in Kentucky penned the words we have 
 just quoted, and over a century since the great Friar 
 Preacher’s death. Yet his name is still “a byword of 
 honor” not only in the province of the brethren which 
 
 33 Ibid., p. 204. 34 Ibid., p. 206. 35 Ibid., p. 208. 
 
186 THE FATHER OF THE CHURCH IN TENNESSEE 
 
 he helped to found, but also in the parish of Saint Rose, 
 central Kentucky, and beyond. His influence is still 
 felt; his memory still gives added zeal to the labors of 
 one generation of confréres after another, though the 
 province has grown greatly, and its members are many 
 times the number of his day. 
 
 The first provincial had no more ardent admirer, no 
 truer friend, no more willing or faithful helper than 
 Father Miles. Thus, while his death was deeply re- 
 gretted by all, none could have felt it more keenly than 
 the future bishop of Tennessee. 
 
CHAPTER IX 
 
 FOUR YEARS UNDER FATHER TUITE 
 
 SHORTLY before he left Cincinnati for Rome to seek 
 aid for his impoverished diocese, Bishop Fenwick and 
 Father Wilson agreed jointly to ask the General of the 
 Order for a division of the little band of American 
 Friars Preacher into two provinces. ‘This was in May, 
 1823. One of the reasons for the step was certainly 
 to obviate future difficulties between the dioceses of 
 Cincinnati and Bardstown over the matter of locating 
 Dominican missionary priests. Little less certain is it 
 that the scheme was evolved by Father John A. Hill, 
 or that his influence practically forced Father Wilson 
 into such a compact." 
 
 When Bishop Fenwick reached the Eternal City, as 
 he had not made known his intention of going thither, 
 the Most Rev. Joseph Velzi, Vicar General of the 
 Order, was absent on a visitation of the Kingdom of 
 The Two Sicilies. But Father Alexander Bardani, 
 whom he had left in charge at Rome, received the re- 
 quest favorably, and on January 11, 1824, issued letters 
 patent for the erection of the Province of Saint Louis 
 Bertrand in the Diocese of Cincinnati. He also ap- 
 pointed Father Hull its provincial, doubtless at the sug- 
 
 1A joint letter of Fenwick and Wilson to the General of the Domin- 
 icans. It bears no date, but it was evidently written very shortly before 
 the bishop started for Rome, at the end of May, 1823 (Archives of the 
 
 Propaganda, America Centrale, Vol. IX). A number of documents show 
 Hill’s activity in the matter. 
 
 187 
 
188 THE FATHER OF THE CHURCH IN TENNESSEE 
 
 gestion of Bishop Fenwick. Saint Joseph’s Province 
 was confined to the limits of the Diocese of Bardstown. 
 But, before the documents in the affair reached their 
 destination, the great Wilson had passed to his eternal 
 reward.” 
 
 However, the erection of the Province of Saint Louis 
 Bertrand, or the separation of the fathers in Ohio from 
 that of Saint Joseph, was to become operative only in 
 case the measure should be approved by a majority 
 of those in Kentucky, a condition that was not fulfilled.® 
 This defect, of course, vacated the entire enactment. 
 Father William R. Tuite succeeded Wilson at Saint 
 Rose’s, and a very definite tradition assures us that his 
 stand in the matter was largely responsible for the mis- 
 carriage of the division project. In this way, although 
 a holy, quiet, and inoffensive man, he incurred the dis- 
 pleasure of those who favored two provinces—all the 
 more so because his action prevented the fathers in Ohio 
 from receiving the means and property that were to go 
 to them in accordance with the Fenwick-Wilson com- 
 pact.* 
 
 2 Patent erecting Saint Louis Bertrand’s Province —a copy in the 
 handwriting of Father Stephen Byrne, O. P. (Archives of Saint Joseph’s 
 Priory, Somerset, Ohio). Shea tells us (History of the Catholic Church 
 in the United States, III, 352) that the original of this patent is in the 
 Archives of Notre Dame University; but we did not find it there. Doubt- 
 less Father Byrne made his copy from this before it was taken from 
 Cincinnati. There are two copies of it in the Archives of the Dominican 
 General, Rome—an unsigned one in Codex IV, 269, Letters 1822-1839, p. 
 10; and one signed with Velzi’s name in Codex V, 26. But it seems cer- 
 tain that Bardani signed the latter in Velzi’s name. Both these copies are 
 dated January 18, 1824. 
 
 3 Velzi to Tuite, August 23, 1827 (Archives of Saint Rose’s Priory, 
 Springfield, Kentucky). There are several documents to this effect, but 
 the original letter on the matter to Wilson has been lost. 
 
 4 The Fenwick-Wilson letter to the Dominican General as in note 1 
 of this chapter. The same appears from several documents. It should 
 
FOUR YEARS UNDER FATHER TUITE 189 
 
 Father Hill, it would seem certain, received no direct 
 notice from either F'ather Bardani or Father Velzi about 
 the condition on which the Province of Saint Louis Ber- 
 trand had been founded, and refused to take Father 
 Tuite’s word for it. Quite naturally Bishop Fenwick’s 
 sympathies were with Hill. Rome let the matter drag 
 on for nearly four years without action. There are clear 
 indications that, because of the small number of priests, 
 Father Velzi himself regarded the existence of two prov- 
 inces with little favor, but disliked to do anything that 
 might offend Fenwick, or appear to reflect on the action 
 of his own vicar. So he permitted the affair to remain 
 at a standstill, not without a serious drawback to the 
 interests of his brethren in the United States.° 
 
 Father Hill had the support of Father N. D. Young, 
 the bishop’s nephew. Between them they gained the 
 co-operation of the Rev. Frederic Rese. Because of the 
 oppressive work of the college, in consequence of the 
 diminished forces brought about by the emigration to 
 Ohio, Father Tuite gave up the charge of Danville and 
 other missions, by which he aroused the wrath of Bishop 
 Flaget.© When therefore Father Hill and his sympa- 
 thizers approached that zealous prelate about the mat- 
 ter under consideration, they found him in a receptive 
 be noted in this connection that these documents seem to show Bishop 
 Fenwick (pious, meek, and just though he certainly was) too anxious to 
 get possession of the little property owned by his brethren in Kentucky. 
 No doubt he was led to this by his straits, and felt that he was justified 
 by the fact that most of what they had came through him. With Father 
 Hill the property consideration was quite an important item. 
 
 5° Velzi to Tuite, August 23, 1827, as in note 3 of this chapter; same 
 to Fenwick April 26, 1828 (ibid.). 
 
 6 Father William T. Willett died in Lexington, May 6, 1824, a few 
 weeks before the death of Father Wilson. Father Tuite’s refusal to send 
 
 another priest to take his place there, although he could not have been 
 expected to do so, is said to have greatly angered Bishop Flaget. 
 
190 THE FATHER OF THE CHURCH IN TENNESSEE 
 
 mood for their representation of the case. Through him 
 the Rev. Francis P. Kenrick, a learned young priest of 
 his diocese, ‘was also partly drawn into the affair.‘ 
 
 All this, there can scarcely be any room for doubt, 
 was largely responsible for a number of criticisms 
 against Father ‘Tuite’s administration and his intimate 
 friend, Father Samuel Montgomery. Some complaints 
 were even sent to Rome by Bishop Flaget and Father 
 Kenrick.> However, a study of the lives of Tuite and 
 Montgomery, together with the manuscript literature of 
 the day, shows these remonstrances to have been not 
 only hasty, but also made with little or no reason. 
 
 Letters, his own included, prove that the bishop’s 
 piety and honesty did not always safeguard him against 
 undue credence to groundless talk, or harshness in eriti- 
 «ism, or lack of charity in his judgment. One whom he 
 suffered to deceive him was an unscrupulous overseer 
 who had. been discharged by Fathers Tuite and Mont- 
 gomery, respectively the superior and syndic at Saint 
 Rose’s. Fathers Hill and Young he let convince him 
 that Tuite really had no authority. It seems certain 
 that Hill sought to get Dominican Sisters for Ohio 
 through the bishop rather than through ‘Tuite and Miles, 
 although they were under the jurisdiction of the Order; 
 and even that he endeavored to persuade them all to go 
 to the Diocese of Cincinnati.” 
 
 7 The facts recorded in this paragraph are shown by a number of docu- 
 ments—some in the Propaganda Archives, and some in those of the prov- 
 ince and Saint Rose’s Priory. Father Kenrick afterwards became bishop 
 of Philadelphia and archbishop of Baltimore. 
 
 8 There are several of these letters in the Propaganda Archives and 
 those of the Dominican General. 
 
 9 Tuite to Flaget, March 28, 1826 (?) (Archives of Saint Rose’s 
 
 Priory) ; Hill to Fenwick, October 23, 1824 (Archives of Saint Joseph’s 
 Priory, Somerset, Ohio) ; M. Johnson to same, July 18, 1825 (ibid.) 
 
FOUR YEARS UNDER FATHER TUITE 191 
 
 The whole affair is an illustration of the proneness of 
 human nature to bias, especially when one’s interest is 
 concerned, and of the inconsistencies into which it not 
 infrequently leads the best of us. Possibly it is the tra- 
 dition of his part in this matter that has prevented Fa- 
 ther Hill from being held by the province in the esteem 
 and reverence to which his zeal, labors, virtues, and 
 ability should entitle him. He did extraordinary mis- 
 sionary work in Ohio, while he was universally loved 
 and admired by the people. 
 
 More than one of the interested parties sought to 
 enlist the subject of our narrative on their side. But 
 Father Miles was too well balanced to be drawn from 
 what he belived to be his duty. Evidenty he defended 
 his friend and superior, whose rights he could not but 
 see had been unjustly attacked, which alone would have 
 won the sympathies of a man of his character. Still 
 he sought to pour oil on the troubled waters. Even 
 this wiser course seems to have offended Doctor Ken- 
 rick. On the other hand, Father Tuite was somewhat 
 incensed because he did not take a more active part 
 in his behalf, which he wrongly felt to be the result 
 of ambition. Whilst the future prelate was perfectly 
 content to let Father Hill have some of the sisters 
 for Ohio, he stood firm against him taking the entire 
 community. In this resolution he naturally had the 
 support of his provincial.’® 
 
 Father Tuite also maintained the even tenor of his 
 ways. Indeed, he showed a strength that few would 
 have expected of one with his mild disposition. His 
 life is an apt illustratation of the old saying: “Still 
 
 10 Tuite to Velzi, January 23, 1828, and July 29, 1828; Hill and Johnson 
 to Fenwick as in the preceding note. 
 
192 THE FATHER OF THE CHURCH IN TENNESSEE 
 
 water runs deep.” With the faithful co-operation of 
 Miles, Montgomery, and Polin, then the only priests 
 in the community, he effected much good in the College 
 of Saint Thomas as well as in the congregation. Stu- 
 dents came to the school in goodly numbers as well from 
 a distance as from the state and parish. 
 
 In this connection we distinctly recall meeting one 
 of its former professors in the distant past, I’ather 
 Joseph T. Jarboe, then almost an octogenarian, who had 
 just retired from his long labors in 'Tennessee in order 
 that he might end his days at Saint Joseph’s, Somerset, 
 Ohio. On his way north he stopped for a week or more 
 at Saint Rose’s for a last visit at the place where he 
 had entered the Order, made his studies, and spent 
 many years of his life. He was in high spirits and fine 
 reminiscent mood; his mind good; his memory excellent. 
 More than one evening he entertained the novices with 
 recollections of his early days there. Besides, we had 
 the good fortune to be appointed to look after his 
 needs. Again, when he left, we were delegated to take 
 him in a buggy to the home of his nephew who lived 
 about eleven miles distant. 
 
 On all these occasions, for his mind seemed full of the 
 subject, the patriarchal old priest discoursed at length 
 on Bishop Miles, Fathers Tuite and Samuel Mont- 
 gomery, and the college which, he said, had a large 
 attendance for that day. It was an excellent school. 
 Some splendid men, both Catholic and non-Catholic, 
 were educated in it. They were a credit to every 
 profession. He loved the work of teaching, but the 
 effort to combine it with his own studies so undermined 
 his health that it was feared he would not live until his 
 ordination. Fathers Charles D. Bowling, James V. 
 
FOUR YEARS UNDER FATHER TUITE 193 
 
 Bullock, and Charles P. Montgomery, the last named 
 afterwards provincial and nominated bishop of Mon- 
 terey, California, also came in for much _ praise. 
 Bowling was one of the most ascetic men he ever knew; 
 Bullock the most extraordinary linguist with whom he 
 had come into contact. Like Jarboe himself, they were 
 professed clerics, but helped in the college. Excessive 
 work kept them “as thin as rails.”” Quite a number of 
 lay professors were likewise employed in the institution. 
 
 Saint Thomas’ College had almost as many students 
 as Saint Joseph’s and Saint Mary’s together until a 
 French priest came up to Bardstown from Louisiana 
 with his whole school.** One of the most unfortunate 
 things that ever happened to the province was the 
 closing of Saint Thomas’ by Father Mufios. When 
 he spoke of this action the aged clergyman’s cheeks 
 reddened as if with indignation. Bishop Miles was 
 president of the college during Father Tuite’s term 
 of office. 
 
 It would appear, in fact, that, when better times 
 returned, Saint Thomas’ bade fair soon to outstrip its 
 palmiest days. The United States Catholic Miscellany 
 of November 10, 1827, in an account of the jubilee ser- 
 vices given at Saint Rose’s in the previous September, 
 says: “Contiguous to it [that is, the convent, | is erected 
 a school of public instruction, the number of whose 
 
 11 This was the Rev. B. Martial who had conducted a school in a 
 country house of the Ursuline Sisters of New Orleans. He came up to 
 Bardstown in 1825, and brought fifty-four students with him. In 1826 
 he went to Rome and took with him a letter to the prefect of the Prop- 
 aganda from Bishop Flaget, in which the zealous prelate says that this 
 increase of students had fortunately put his college on its feet. See also 
 
 Annales de la Propagation de la Foi, I, No. V, p. 74, and III, 184; and 
 SPALDING, Early Missions, p. 280. 
 
 14 
 
194 THE FATHER OF THE CHURCH IN TENNESSEE 
 
 pupils is daily increasing.” Similarly, “A Brief Ac- 
 count” (Breve Narrazione) of the jubilee, which Bishop 
 Flaget sent to Rome, states that there are four colleges 
 in the diocese, one of which is conducted “by the Do- 
 minican Fathers who belong to the Convent of Saint 
 Rose,” where many youths are educated.” 
 
 Apostolic work kept pace with that of education. 
 In truth, Saint Rose’s was the model parish of the 
 diocese. The Hon. Ben. Webb but states a plain fact, 
 when he says: 
 
 The congregation of St. Ann, the first over which pastoral 
 supervision was exercised by the Dominican Fathers, and that of 
 St. Rose, by which it was succeeded in 1808, and which is still 
 subject to their care and guidance, has at no time been regarded 
 otherwise than as a model congregation of Catholic christian souls. 
 As early as the year 1826 [1827], on the occasion of the jubilee 
 preached that year in Kentucky, it exceeded all others in the 
 State in the number of those who approached the sacraments of 
 penance and the Holy Eucharist. Whereas the highest number 
 of communicants in any one of the other congregations of the 
 diocese, on the occasion referred to, was but four hundred and 
 ninety-five, (that of Holy Cross,) no fewer than eight hundred 
 received holy communion in the single church of St. Rose.1* 
 
 Futhermore, the Breve Narrazione referred to above 
 reveals the almost incredible fact that the communions 
 
 at Saint Rose’s nearly doubled those at the cathedral, 
 
 12 Propaganda Archives, America Centrale, Vol. IX. In the Annales as 
 in the preceding note, III, 174 and 197, mention is also made of the 
 Dominican college, showing it in operation in 1826 and early in 1828. 
 Father Kenrick likewise speaks of it in a letter to the prefect of the 
 Propaganda, October 27, 1827, and says that it is under the direction 
 of Father Miles (Propaganda Archives, Vol. IX, as above). All this 
 clearly shows the error of Badin and Spalding, when they tell us that 
 it was closed in 1819 or 1820. The same error is found in Father J. A. 
 Burn’s The Catholic School System in the United States (p. 178). He 
 took the date from Spalding. 
 
 13 Op. cit., p. 205. 
 
FOUR YEARS UNDER FATHER TUITE 195 
 
 and were well-nigh one fifth of the entire number 
 received in the one and twenty parishes of the diocese 
 on that notable occasion.’* The correspondent of the 
 United States Catholic Miscellany, who signs himself 
 “J. M.,” declares: “The solicitude of the pious people 
 to gain the spiritual treasure of the Jubilee caused them 
 to anticipate the sun’s morning appearance, and to wait 
 until after he had hid his lustre, that they might have 
 access to the confessors.” Nearly eight hundred, he 
 says, approached the sacred table by the end of the 
 week. As it was impossible to hear the confessions of 
 all, it was necessary to defer the completion of the 
 jubilee until a later date; which must have carried the 
 number of communions to considerably over eight 
 hundred.*” 
 
 The Miscellany’s accounts of the jubilee exercises 
 in the various churches, about all from the pen of “J. 
 M.,” show clearly that at none of them did the people 
 manifest such piety, fervor, and earnestness, or turn 
 out in proportionately such great numbers, as at that 
 of Saint Rose. Indeed, their spirit of religion so im- 
 pressed Bishop Flaget that it moved him to write to 
 Bishop Fenwick: 
 
 I have just returned from an apostolic excursion, during which, 
 aided by several of my young missionaries, I gave the jubilee in 
 three parishes. The first one was that of Saint Rose, where some 
 eight hundred persons received holy communion. ... I declared 
 
 14 Spalding (Life of Flaget, p. 260) says that over six thousand per- 
 sons received communion during the jubilee which is evidently an exag- 
 geration; for the Breve Narrazione, following parish by parish, gives the 
 number as four thousand three hundred and fifty. This document is 
 in the handwriting of Father F. P. Kenrick who everywhere helped to 
 conduct the jubilee. 
 
 15 Edition of November 10, 1827. “J. M.” was likely an assumed name, 
 for we have not been able to discover any priest in the Louisville Diocese 
 at that time to whom it may apply. 
 
196 THE FATHER OF THE CHURCH IN TENNESSEE 
 
 publicly that I had not expected to find in this parish such 
 fervor as it had manifested; and that I was greatly consoled in 
 that I could bestow only the highest praise on the piety of the 
 faithful and on the zeal of the priests who directed them.'® 
 
 This splendid manifestation of faith was a sponta- 
 neous outpouring of the heart. Its reason is not far 
 to seek. Father Tuite and his associates (Fathers 
 Miles, Samuel Montgomery, and Thomas J. Polin) 
 were zealous and holy priests, notwithstanding the 
 uncharitable strictures that cropped out in the unpleas- 
 ant relations to which reference has been made. ‘They 
 understood their people; their people understood them. 
 True shepherds of souls, they were ever at their post 
 of duty, which brought out the parish in numbers for 
 all spiritual exercises. Anent their leader, who bore 
 
 the brunt of the ill-will, Mr. Webb writes thus: 
 
 Of Father William Raymond Tuite and his labors the writer’s 
 knowledge is limited to the simple fact that he was a most 
 amiable and praiseworthy priest. ... He remembers having 
 heard him spoken of by a friend, years ago, as one toward 
 whom naturally tended the affection of his parishioners of the 
 congregation of St. Rose, and as having lived a life filled with 
 merits, and having died the death of the just.1? 
 
 Thus the misunderstanding and unpleasantness did 
 not chill the zeal or ardor of the fathers for the salvation 
 of souls. As a matter of fact, they never labored harder 
 or with greater fruit than at this very time. Cognizance 
 was taken of their apostolic toil not merely in America, 
 but even in Europe. Of how Father Nicholas Sewell, 
 provincial of the Society of Jesus in England, was 
 impressed by the reports of their spiritual endeavors 
 may be judged from his letter to Father Enoch Fen- 
 wick, S.J., of Georgetown College, written when the 
 
 16 Letter dated October 10, 1827 (Notre Dame Archives). 
 17 Op. cit., p. 208. 
 
FOUR YEARS UNDER FATHER TUITE 197 
 
 agitation was at its height. “The Dominicans [he says ] 
 are doing great things for the glory of God in Ohio, 
 Kentucky, etc.; let us emulate their example and renew 
 the zeal of our forefathers.” ** 
 
 Similar in tone is a communication which appeared 
 in the Catholic Advocate of April 24, 1847. It covers 
 the period of which we are speaking, and shows how 
 the memory of the zeal of these early fathers was 
 treasured by those who came under its influence. ‘The 
 language reveals a good mind at the same time that it 
 indicates an education which must have been received 
 
 at Saint Thomas’. 
 
 In your number for the 3rd of April [says the writer] I read 
 a communication upon “Catholic Institutions, Convents, Schools, 
 etc., in Kentucky”, which called forth many serious reflections. 
 The writer of that article has taken me back, in thought, not 
 only to the days of my youth, but to the very place of my nativity. 
 O how long will the scenes and reminiscences of my childhood 
 last! I have lived nearly half a century, and yet I am unable 
 to forget the good old land of my early home. 
 
 Yes, St. Rose is a venerated name, which, though I could live 
 for centuries to come, I cannot forget. For it was within her 
 sacred walls that I received that salutary Christian instruction, 
 at the hands of pious Fathers Wilson, Tuite, Miles, Willett, and 
 Polin, which I hope, with the grace of God, never to forget. . . .19 
 It was there that I used to go to early Mass, when I wished to seek 
 a reconciliation with an offended God, in the holy sacrament of 
 
 18 Letter from Stonyhurst (?), England, and dated September 28, 1824 
 (Archives of the Maryland-New York Province of Jesuit Fathers, Case 
 204, K 14).—Doubtless some of the writers of the uncharitable letters 
 of this time afterwards regretted their actions. This is certainly true of 
 Father Francis P. Kenrick. 
 
 19 We are inclined to think that the Advocate’s correspondent con- 
 founded Father Willett with Father Samuel Montgomery. Willett did 
 not remain long at Saint Rose’s after his ordination. Montgomery spent 
 more time there. Father Polin seems to have been ordained shortly after 
 Father Wilson’s death; and this fact shows that the Advocate’s com- 
 munication covers the period of which we treat in this chapter. 
 
198 THE FATHER OF THE CHURCH IN TENNESSEE 
 
 penance. Never, never, can I eradicate from my remembrance the 
 holy counsels of Father Polin. He was the most holy man I ever 
 knew. And no one, I will venture to say, ever knelt at his feet 
 and did not go away a better man. 
 
 It was there, too, that I learned the little that I know of 
 sacred music, under the tuition of the Right Rev. Bishop of 
 Nashville. O what satisfaction did I then enjoy, on Saturday 
 and Sunday evenings, when the young people would assemble at 
 church, with the good Bishop, then a Priest, at our head, and with 
 the organ, we would sing the joyful hymns and anthems appro- 
 priate to the time. It was there, too, that I used to go on Sunday 
 evenings to hear the Fathers of St. Dominic chaunt, or sing the 
 Vespers. In fine, it was there that every facility was afforded to 
 the sincere Christian for the practice of his duties as such, and 
 all efforts were made to reclaim sinners from the evil of their 
 WAYS.) 6 7s ts 
 
 [Signed] A.” 
 Paducah [ Kentucky], April 11, 1847.” 
 
 After the death of Father Wilson, the subject of 
 our narrative seems to have acted as master of novices. 
 But he held the position for only a short time, for it was 
 given to Father Polin soon after his ordination. As the 
 reader may readily imagine, the zealous priest found 
 ample employment in the ministerial and educational 
 duties attached to the parish of Saint Rose and the Col- 
 lege of Saint Thomas of Aquin. Yet to tell of his labors 
 along these lines at the present period of his life were 
 largely to repeat what has been recounted in previous 
 chapters. Suffice it then to say that in all things he 
 was one of Father Tuite’s mainstays, even as he had 
 been one of Father Wilson’s—and then pass on to 
 another phase of his apostolate which had come into 
 prominence at this time. 
 
 Shortly after the ordination of the apostle of ‘Ten- 
 nessee, one of the ministers in Springfield, possibly 
 
FOUR YEARS UNDER FATHER TUITE 199 
 
 aroused by the doctrinal sermons that drew crowds to 
 Saint Rose’s, commenced a series of violent attacks on 
 the Church and everything Catholic. At first, little 
 attention was paid to his harangues by the fathers. 
 However, when they began to engender bitterness be- 
 tween the Catholics and their neighbors, as well as 
 otherwise to disturb the tranquillity of the neighbor- 
 hood, the priests were obliged to take up the cudgels, no 
 less in the interest of peace than in their own defense 
 and that of the Church. Gradually the trouble maker 
 was reduced to silence by the masterful refutations de- 
 livered, some in the courthouse in Springfield and some 
 from the pulpit at Saint Rose’s. Then he tried the 
 same tactics in Bardstown, where he came into conflict 
 with the Right Rev. John B. David.” 
 
 Naturally, Fathers Wilson and Tuite, because the 
 senior clergy, were the leading spirits in this contro- 
 versial bout. Yet it has been handed down to us that 
 Father Miles, though ordained only a short time, played 
 a no inconspicuous part in the affair. Doubtless he was 
 guided in these efforts by his mentor, Father Wilson, 
 to whom he had recourse in every uncertainty. Be this 
 as it may, the discussions not only brought him into 
 prominence as an able controversialist, but also pre- 
 pared the way for other fruitful labors along some- 
 what similar lines. 
 
 Although he had commenced such work prior to the 
 present period of his life, he now became especially 
 active in lecturing on the Catholic faith to mixed 
 audiences in and around Springfield. Huis favorite 
 method of carrying on this apostolate was that of 
 
 20 See introduction to Bishop David’s Vindication of the Catholic Doc- 
 trine concerning the Use and Veneration of Images, etc. 
 
200 THE FATHER OF THE CHURCH IN TENNESSEE 
 
 question and answer. Father Samuel Montgomery, 
 whenever they could arrange to be together, proposed 
 the stock objections against the Church and the diffi- 
 culties in her tenets. Father Miles solved them. His 
 clear, logical mind, happy expression, and urbane man- 
 ner stood him in splendid stead in these endeavors. 
 Perhaps not less helpful was the care with which he 
 avoided whatever might offend any part of his au- 
 dience. He knew well that harsh words, sarcasm or 
 ridicule often darken-the mind, but seldom enlighten 
 it; that wounded feelings tend rather to close than 
 to open the heart. For this reason, he took particular 
 pains to show, not animus, but kindness in his refuta- 
 tion of un-Catholic tenets. Little wonder that crowds 
 went to hear him. 
 
 Tradition tells us that Father Miles’ gently contro- 
 versial discourses resulted in a number of conversions. 
 Some there were who advised him to be more pointed in 
 his remarks; still he remained firm in his conviction that 
 moderation is far the wiser policy. “Quietly sow the 
 seed,” he would reply; “the harvest will come later.” It 
 was only natural that the knowledge of the good thus ac- 
 complished should spread. ‘The old fathers of the prov- 
 ince used to maintain that it inspired Bishop Flaget with 
 the idea of conducting the jubilee of 1826 and 1827 
 along the same lines, and that Father Miles took the 
 part of objector at the time of the exercises at Saint 
 Rose’s. However this may be, the project gave the Rev. 
 I’. P. Kenrick, then only a few years ordained, an ex- 
 cellent opportunity to employ his superior talents and 
 learning for the benefit of religion in Kentucky.” 
 
 21 Tradition tells us that the clever Propaganda student declared that 
 Father Miles, during the exercises of Saint Rose’s, gave him some of the 
 
FOUR YEARS UNDER FATHER TUITE 201 
 
 Despite the pressure of his other occupations and the 
 exigency of his professional duties, Father Miles did 
 not overlook the needs of the community of sisters 
 which he had helped to bring into existence. After 
 Father Wilson’s death especially, he was their guiding 
 light, and the staff upon which they leaned in their many 
 trials. When their first school, started in a former 
 still-house that stood on the farm given them by Mother 
 Angela Sansbury’s father, became too small, he en- 
 couraged that valiant woman to erect a brick structure 
 which would serve for both an academy and a convent. 
 Similarly, when their small means became exhausted, he 
 persuaded Bishop Flaget to permit them to solicit 
 means to carry the enterprise to completion.” 
 
 But the scanty contributions received proved wholly 
 inadequate for the project. Father Miles, shocked at 
 the idea that these spouses of Christ should be thus 
 thwarted in their good work, or obliged to continue in 
 almost uninhabitable quarters, then obtained permission 
 from Father Tuite to sign a pledge by which he made 
 himself personally responsible for the payment of the 
 money which the sisters should have to borrow in order 
 to finish the edifice. The signature, though required 
 by those who lent the means, was a mere matter of form, 
 for there could be no doubt that his charges would be 
 able to pay their debts by degrees. Pages from a 
 Hundred Years of Dominican History assures us that 
 he was ever their “true friend and counsellor.”** He 
 
 most difficult objections that he had to answer the whole time of the 
 jubilee. 
 
 22 Flaget to Miles, August 25, 1826 (Louisville Archives) ; MrInocuE, 
 Pages from a Hundred Years of Dominican History, pp. 53 ff. 
 
 23 Fenwick to the Most Rev. Joachim Briz, Dominican General, October 
 10, 1829 (copy in Saint Rose’s Archives) ; MINoGUE, p. 62. 
 
202 THE FATHER OF THE CHURCH IN TENNESSEE 
 
 instructed them, trained them in the art of pedagogy, 
 drilled them in the rules and constitutions of the Order, 
 taught them the aims and purposes of their vocation. 
 
 However, the future prelate’s long years of faith- 
 ful labor in Kentucky were now near their close. 
 Father Tuite’s term of office would soon expire. The 
 same was true of Father Hill’s provincialship in Ohio. 
 Father Joseph Velzi, the General, it would appear, 
 wrote to both to notify them of this fact, but the letter 
 for Kentucky miscarried. Hill replied on January 12, 
 1827, and seems to have sent his answer by the Rev. 
 Frederic Rese who went to Rome on business for 
 Bishop Fenwick.” 
 
 The document presses Velzi to co-operate with the 
 bishop’s plan for a Dominican prefecture apostolic in 
 Ohio. As the decree of the division of the fathers 
 into two provinces had not taken legal effect, in default 
 of an approval by a majority of the brethren in Ken- 
 tucky, Hill would have the enactment formally 
 annulled, the Province of Saint Joseph suppressed, 
 and a new one organized under the name of Saint 
 Louis Bertrand, with headquarters in Ohio. He now 
 thinks that it would be better both for religion and for 
 the Order if all the fathers were placed under one ju- 
 risdiction, as their united efforts would be more effective 
 for good.” 
 
 Meantime the General determined to give the fathers 
 a voice in the selection of their provincial. On August 
 23, 1827, therefore, he wrote to authorize Father Tuite, 
 
 24 Propaganda Archives, America Centrale, Vol. IX); Life of Bishop 
 Fenwick, pp. 338 ff. 
 
 25 There is every reason for believing that the proposed Ohio pre- 
 
 fecture was the work of Father Hill. Such an idea fits in with his way 
 of dreaming, while it is totally foreign to Bishop Fenwick. 
 
FOUR YEARS UNDER FATHER TUITE 203 
 
 as the superior of the oldest house, to convoke the 
 brethren in chapter and to forward to him the name of 
 the one whom the majority should judge the best fitted 
 for that position. The same document declared that, 
 as the former division of the province had not been 
 accepted by the greater number of the members in 
 Kentucky, which had been stipulated as necessary for 
 the instrument to become effective, the Province of Saint 
 Louis Bertrand had never enjoyed any legal exis- 
 tence; that in the future there should be only one prov- 
 ince; and that it should retain the name of Saint 
 J oseph.*° 
 
 Before the appointment of a new provincial could be 
 made, Fenwick’s petition for a prefecture apostolic in 
 Ohio, which was carried to Rome by Father Frederic 
 Rese, brought together Cardinal Capellari and Arch- 
 bishop Caprano, respectively the prefect and the sec- 
 retary of the Propaganda, and Father Velzi. This 
 affair, in conjunction with the disagreements mentioned 
 earlier, culminated in the appointment of Bishop 
 Fenwick as head (or commissary general) of the 
 province, the letters patent of which bear the date of 
 May 25, 1828.°° Certainly no holier man could have 
 been selected. Yet the action could scarcely be pro- 
 nounced wise. Apart from its extra-constitutionality, 
 it placed the bishop in a most delicate position; while, 
 pressed as he was for means and missionaries in his 
 diocese, he could hardly be expected, or even able, 
 
 26 Archives of Saint Rose’s Priory, Springfield, Kentucky. As the prov- 
 ince did not yet have three convents, the right of appointing a provin- 
 cial vested in the hands of the Master General. 
 
 27 Copy in Archives of Saint Joseph’s Priory, Somerset, Ohio. See 
 also Life of Bishop Flaget, pp. 53 ff. 
 
204 THE FATHER OF THE CHURCH IN TENNESSEE 
 
 always to strike a just poise between its rights and 
 those of the Order of Preachers. 
 
 Doubtless there were those who, quite naturally, 
 preferred to have the reins of authority in the hands 
 of another than the bishop, though he had been one of 
 their number. ‘Tradition tells us that, could an elective 
 chapter of all the brethren have been held, Father Miles 
 would have been chosen for the position by practically 
 a unanimous vote. Yet, because of the high esteem 
 and love in which the province’s founder was held, not 
 a voice seems to have been raised against his appoint- 
 ment. Every one knew that he had not sought the new 
 dignity and onus, as well as that the choice of him for 
 the place was much against his wish. 
 
 Shortly after the receipt of the letters patent of this 
 extraordinary appointment, which has few parallels in 
 the history of the Order, Bishop Fenwick set out for 
 Kentucky to visit Saint Rose’s. While there, August 
 21, 1828, he forwarded to Cincinnati Father Raphael 
 Munios’ appointment as prior to succeed Father Tuite.” 
 The fact that the document is in the handwriting of 
 Father Tuite reveals the good-will of that humble re- 
 ligious, speaks well for his spirit of obedience, and 
 shows, even were there no other proof, that Mufios was 
 not sent to Saint Rose’s for the purpose of re-estab- 
 lishing discipline as Bishop Spalding, evidently 
 deceived by some letters of his predecessor, was led 
 to believe.” 
 
 Father Mufios’ appointment, as a matter of fact, 
 was largely intended as a pacific to Bishop Flaget; 
 
 28 Archives of Saint Rose’s Priory, Springfield, Kentucky. 
 29 Life of Bishop Flaget, p. 288. 
 
FOUR YEARS UNDER FATHER TUITE 205 
 
 for, in spite of the fruits which he had witnessed of 
 Father Tuite’s zeal, he still cherished a bias towards 
 the venerable Friar Preacher. Mufios was the aus- 
 terest of men. He mortified himself in the extreme, 
 often taking the discipline, it is said, until the blood ran 
 to his heels. He was a Master of Sacred Theology; 
 had been a confessor to the royal family of Spain, a 
 member of the regal chapter and a synodical examiner 
 for two Spanish dioceses; was widely known as a zeal- 
 ous priest of the most exemplary character and an 
 eloquent preacher.®® Moreover, he had been an effi- 
 cient missionary in Ohio for three years. Surely, 
 thought the vicar provincial, Bardstown’s prelate will 
 find no fault with such a man at the head of the 
 institution. 
 
 Although no one could have foreseen it, the choice 
 of the Spanish priest for prior proved singularly un- 
 fortunate. His ways and ideas did not harmonize with 
 those of his American brethren. He did not believe 
 that the work of secular education fell within the limits 
 of the vocation of a Friar Preacher. ‘Thus, for he 
 was a man of strong will, his appointment as superior 
 sounded the death-knell of Saint Thomas’ College. 
 Albeit he must have been fully aware of Bishop Fen- 
 wick’s desire to establish similar institutions at Cincin- 
 nati and Canton, Ohio, if not even another at Saint 
 Joseph’s, near Somerset, in the same state, Father 
 Munios’ first step on his arrival at Saint Rose’s was to 
 suppress that with which the Province of Saint 
 Joseph had started. The only explanation of why 
 
 30 Mufios’ testimonial letters signed by Ferdinand M. Pantossa, chaplain 
 to Ferdinand VII, king of Spain (Archives of Saint Rose’s). 
 
206 THE FATHER OF THE CHURCH IN TENNESSEE 
 
 Bishop Fenwick permitted the reckless deed to be 
 carried out is that he hoped it would enable him the 
 sooner to realize his designs for his own diocese. 
 
 The sentiments aroused in the fathers at large by 
 this act of the Spanish prior can not be better expressed 
 than in the words of the annalist of the English Prov- 
 ince. On the suppression of its College of the Holy 
 Cross, Bornheim, Belgium, whence sprang that in 
 Kentucky, he wrote: “May God forgive, whoever they 
 were, the authors of a counsel so pernicious to the 
 province. They would have committed a lesser evil, 
 had they reduced the convent to ashes; for such a loss 
 would have been reparable, whilst this injury can never 
 be repaired.” ** Such were now the feelings that filled 
 the breasts of the American brethren. 
 
 None could have regretted Father Mufios’ ill-advised 
 action more deeply than the Father of the Church in 
 Tennessee. Saint Thomas’ had become as the apple of 
 his eye. There had he attained the object of his heart’s 
 holiest aspirations. He had given the institution many 
 of the best years of his life. Keenly did he realize the 
 good that had come from the college, and the drawback 
 entailed in its closure. Possibly, indeed, its suppression 
 gave him the greatest shock that he ever experienced. 
 
 Meanwhile Father Hill, whom Bishop Fenwick re- 
 garded as his most efficient missionary, died at Canton, 
 Ohio (September 3, 1828).* Father Tuite was sent 
 
 31 Patmer, Life of Cardinal Howard, p. 132. “Condonet ipsis Deus, 
 quicumque authores fuere consilii Provinciae adeo perniciosi; damni mi- 
 nus attulissent, si conventum in cineres reduxissent; damnum enim illud 
 reparabile, hoc numquam reparari potest.” 
 
 32 For Fenwick’s appreciation of Hill see Annales de la Propagation 
 
 de la Fou, III, 298-299, and IV, 506-507. An English rendition of por- 
 tions of the bishop’s letters is given in Life of Fenwick, pp. 345-346. 
 
FOUR YEARS UNDER FATHER TUITE 207 
 
 to take his place; whilst Father Miles became pastor at 
 Zanesville, in the same state, in order that Father 
 Stephen H. Montgomery might help at the Cathedral 
 in Cincmnati. Father Samuel Montgomery was 
 called to Saint Joseph’s, near Somerset, Ohio, for the 
 missions in that vicinity. 
 
 Out of joint with the needs of the young American 
 Church, Father Mufos had no sooner closed Saint 
 Thomas’ College than he turned his thoughts towards 
 the suppression of Saint Magdalen’s Community of 
 Dominican Sisters. Since in Spain he had seen only 
 enclosed nuns of the Order, he felt that the active life 
 of those in America was in contradiction to its true 
 spirit. Furthermore, their hardships astounded him, 
 and he could not understand why they should undergo 
 such unspeakable trials and privations for the educa- 
 tion of young girls. He refused to give the sisters 
 mass, or to let confessions be heard in their chapel; 
 which, of course, obliged them, as well as their pupils, 
 to go to Saint Rose’s for the sacraments and divine 
 services. Nay, it left them without the Blessed Sacra- 
 ment, the very source of the joy, strength, and conso- 
 lation of the religious life. 
 
 Curious as it may seem, he pressed them to seek a 
 dispensation from their vows and return to the world, 
 until at least, should they persevere in their wishes, 
 they could begin a community under more favorable 
 auspices. Bishop Fenwick intervened, possibly at the 
 request of Bishop Flaget. Father Mufios then reluc- 
 tantly gave the sisters mass on Sundays, but he would 
 yield no further. Finally, when he discovered their 
 debt and that Father Miles was sponsor for it, he used 
 
208 THE FATHER OF THE CHURCH IN TENNESSEE 
 
 this circumstance in order to frighten the vicar provin- 
 cial over to his views. Doctor Fenwick became anxious 
 about the situation, and he shrewdly determined to make 
 use of it for the double purpose of settling the debts of 
 the sisters and of taking the community to his diocese. 
 However, he soon discovered his error. Father Munos 
 was then recalled to Ohio. Father S. H. Montgomery 
 took his place in Kentucky.”” 
 
 Father Mufios’ administration at Saint Rose’s re- 
 flects not the least discredit on him as a priest or 
 religious. He was zealous ad unguem, and practised all 
 the mortifications of the fathers of the desert. In his 
 native land he might have made the best of superiors; 
 for, after all, he was a man of tender heart. In Amer- 
 ica it turned out otherwise. Nevertheless we should 
 not overlook the probability that the excessive penances 
 and labors, which brought on his death, may have 
 incapacitated him for the position which he held in 
 Kentucky. He died in the odor of sanctity at Cincin- 
 nati, July 18, 1830, mourned by the entire city. Ohio 
 had no more zealous or tireless missionary; the poor 
 no truer friend.** 
 
 Tradition, which seems indubitable, assures us that 
 
 33 Flaget to Fenwick, January 16, 1829 (Archives of Saint Rose’s 
 Priory) ; Fenwick to the Most Rev. Joachim Briz, Dominican General, 
 October 10, 1829 (copy, ibid.) ; MinocuE, op. cit, pp. 59 ff. 
 
 34 United States Catholic Miscellany, August 14, 1830; Catholic Tele- 
 graph, May 4, 1848—The Miscellany says: “He had laboured on the 
 Ohio missions for nearly six years with the zeal of an apostle. His 
 pleasure consisted in explaining and inculcating the principles of the 
 catholic faith; and, tor that end, he spared neither time nor pains. Sur- 
 rounded by children and others destitute of religious instruction, he 
 would spend weeks in the cabins of the interior to remove ignorance 
 and replace it by the light of revealed truth. In the city of Cincinnati, 
 
 where he chiefly resided, the poor knew him as another good Samaritan, 
 who never passed them by, without administering all the relief which 
 
FOUR YEARS UNDER FATHER TUITE 209 
 
 Father Miles, by word of mouth before he left Ken- 
 tucky, and by letters after he went to Ohio, was the 
 good sisters’ chief support and counsellor in their period 
 of sore trial. He advised, nay, urged them not to yield 
 in their rights; told them that their resistance, which, 
 however, should be respectful, would not be disobe- 
 dience; promised them that, with prayer and patience, 
 God would see them happily through the trouble. So 
 it happened, and the zealous Friar Preacher saw in it 
 the divine approbation of the work which he had helped 
 to initiate. Doubtless his influence had its part not 
 only in convincing Bishop Fenwick of his mistake, but 
 also in inducing him, in 1830, to establish a branch of 
 the community at Somerset, Ohio, which has since 
 grown into a prosperous province. 
 
 Thus Tennessee’s first bishop was connected with 
 Saint Thomas’ College from its commencement until 
 its closure—a period of about twenty years. During all 
 this time students attended it not merely from every 
 part of Kentucky, but also from far north, south, and 
 west. None toiled harder or more faithfully in the in- 
 stitution than he; none were better beloved by its pupils, 
 through whom the benefits of his good influence were 
 carried in all directions. His work at Saint Thomas’, 
 together with the part that he played in the establish- 
 ment and conservation of our first community of 
 his condition afforded, and their necessities required. 
 
 “The tears of a large and pious assembly, on the day of his interment, 
 proclaimed aloud that the widow had lost a friend; the orphan an advo- 
 cate; religion one of its fairest ornaments; and the diocese of Cincinnati 
 one of its most useful missionaries. His memory will live in the grateful 
 and pious remembrance of the numerous friends, who deplore his loss; 
 
 while their children shall be taught to unite with them in fervent ejac- 
 ulation for the soul of his departed spirit. M[ullon].” 
 
 15 
 
210 THE FATHER OF THE CHURCH IN TENNESSEE 
 
 Dominican Sisters, entitles him to a distinguished place 
 among the early Catholic educators of the United 
 States. In Kentucky, whose Church has had no more 
 zealous priest, even though he did not carry his piety 
 on his sleeve, his name should never be forgotten. 
 
CHAPTER X 
 MISSIONARY IN OHIO 
 
 THE great State of Ohio, although more favorably 
 situated than that of Kentucky, was slower to attract 
 the English-speaking settler. Until a few years prior 
 to the French and Indian War, the territory now em- 
 braced in that commonwealth seems to have been 
 regarded somewhat in the nature of a buffer space 
 between the Briton on the east and the thinly scattered 
 Gaul to the west, albeit both the French and the Eing- 
 lish eventually laid claim to its fertile plains. From 
 the close of the American Revolution, when that 
 country became a part of the United States, until 1796, 
 the hostility of the Indians, abetted by the British at 
 the north, caused the stream of home-seekers from the 
 Atlantic seaboard to flow towards the lands south of 
 the Ohio River. 
 
 There appears to be little room for doubt that the 
 French were the first white race who set foot on the soil 
 of Ohio. Like the Spanish, they regarded their explora- 
 tions almost as much in the light of a means of carrying 
 the word of God, the knowledge of Christ, and the way 
 of salvation to the benighted aborigines as in that of 
 an effort to enlarge the domain of their king abroad. 
 With them, as with the Spanish, ever went the priest. 
 Indeed, not infrequently the zeal of the missionary to 
 christianize the Indian led him to outstrip the explorer 
 
 211 
 
£12 THE FATHER OF THE CHURCH IN TENNESSEE 
 
 and colonizer, and to prepare the way for further prog- 
 ress and conquest. 
 
 With the French along the Great Lakes were Fran- 
 ciscan Recollects, secular priests, Sulpicians, and mem- 
 bers of the Society of Jesus. As the uppermost parts 
 of Ohio lay along the line of the westward march of 
 their countrymen, it is higly probable that some of 
 these missionaries entered the state in search of souls 
 at an earlier period than is now known. ‘The Jesuits 
 were both the earliest and the most numerous of the 
 pioneer priests in those northern parts. History in- 
 dicates that they were also the first to sow the seed of 
 the Gospel in what is now, in point of population, the 
 fourth commonwealth in the Union. Still there is no 
 document to show the presence of a Catholic mission- 
 ary there before 1749, when Father Joseph Bonnécamp, 
 S.J., accompanied Celeron de Bienville on his expedi- 
 tion to lay claim to the territory for France. On this 
 occasion Bienville’s travels were a hurried work of 
 political expediency, and nothing indicates that the 
 priest performed any ministerial functions among the 
 Indians, though he must have said mass for his 
 companions." 
 
 However, such spiritual labors were not slow to 
 follow. According to Mr. Shea, Father Armand de la 
 Richardie, of the same order, erected ‘“‘the first shrine 
 of Catholicity within the present limits of Ohio” about 
 1751. ‘The little wigwam of a church stood on the site 
 now occupied by the City of Sandusky. Fathers 
 
 1 SuHeA, History of the Catholic Church in the United States, III, 330; 
 Houck, The Church in Northern Ohio (edition of 1903), I, 2-6; Lamorrt, 
 
 Archdiocese of Cincinnati, pp. 4 ff. See also Vol. I of Shea’s history 
 and Life of Archbishop Carroll, passim. 
 
MISSIONARY IN OHIO 213 
 
 Bonnécamp (mentioned above) and Nicholas Potier are 
 said to have followed their confrére, and to have also 
 labored among the red men along the southern shores 
 of Lake Erie* Unfortunately the vicissitudes of war 
 all too soon drove these zealous missionaries from their 
 newest field of harvest in what is now the near-west. 
 The French and Indian War broke out in 1754. At 
 first, it was largely a religious strife, and a conflict 
 between the British and French colonists. In 1756, the 
 mother countries, these two nations having now become 
 engaged in war, took up the quarrel. Despite his 
 smaller numbers, success attended the Gaul in the begin- 
 ning of the struggle; but in the end the tide turned in 
 favor of the Briton. The earliest triumphs of the 
 English were in the west, and through them the Catholic 
 missionaries just mentioned were obliged to withdraw 
 into Canada. Quebec fell on September 18, 1759, deci- 
 ding the fate of the Gallican possessions in North Amer- 
 ica. By the Treaty of Paris, signed February 10, 1763, 
 France not only ceded to England her claims to the 
 Ohio Valley, but also surrendered the whole of Canada. 
 From the time of the departure of the Jesuits until 
 the arrival of Father Peter Joseph Didier, the pioneer 
 Benedictine in the United States, at Gallipolis, Ohio 
 probably saw no Catholic clergyman. This was in 1790. 
 He came to take spiritual charge of the ill-planned and 
 unfortunate Scioto Colony. Although a pious and 
 zealous priest, his labors there were of short duration— 
 not more than two years. He built no church. Find- 
 ing the people of the colony discontented, unruly, and 
 deeply imbued with the principles of the French Revo- 
 lution, the follower of Saint Benedict soon despaired 
 
 2 See note 1. 
 
214 THE FATHER OF THE CHURCH IN TENNESSEE 
 
 of accomplishing any permanent good among them, 
 and possibly became downcast because he had no one 
 to administer to his own soul. For this reason, he 
 journeyed on to Missouri, where he toiled in the cause 
 of Christ until his death.* 
 
 Fathers Michael B. Barriere and Stephen T. Badin, 
 it will be remembered, stopped at Gallipolis in 1793, 
 while on their way from Baltimore to the missions of 
 Kentucky. But they tarried only three days in the 
 place.* 
 
 The next missionary who, as far as can be ascertained 
 from records, exercised the ministry in Ohio was the 
 Rev. Edmund Burke. He was a native of Ireland, 
 aman of note, and a priest of the Diocese of Quebec. 
 In the Treaty of Paris, September 18, 1783, Great 
 Britain ceded all the territory south of the Great 
 Lakes to the United States; yet, under futile pretexts, 
 she continued to hold the forts in that part of the 
 country. Even as late as 1795 she erected Fort Miami 
 on the Maumee, near the present Perrysburg, Wood 
 County, northwestern Ohio. The presence of the 
 British soldiers brought Father Burke to that locality, 
 for the occupation of these northern lands by them ob- 
 scured the correct boundary lines between the dioceses of 
 Quebec and Baltimore. However, Father Burke re- 
 turned to Canada with the forces of England the 
 year after Fort Miami was built.° 
 
 3 SHEA, Life of Archbishop Carroll, pp. 481-482; Gumtpay, Life of Arch- 
 bishop Carroll, pp. 395-404; Catholic Historical Review, IV, 415 ff (“The 
 Gallipolis Colony,” by Rev. L. J. Kenney, S. J.) 
 
 4Bapin (Un Témoin Oculaire), Origine et Progrés de la Mission du 
 Kentucky, p. 16. 
 
 5 SHEA, Life of Carroll, pp. 474-480; Houck, op. cit., pp. 6-7; GuILpAy, 
 
 Life of Carroll, p. 698; Lamott, Archdiocese of Cincinnati, pp. 20-21; 
 O’DaniEL, Life of Fenwick, p. 192. After leaving Ohio Father Burke 
 
MISSIONARY IN OHIO 215 
 
 After the Treaty of Greenville, in 1795, and the with- 
 drawal of the British soldiery, in 1796, with the 
 consequent cessation of danger from the Indian and 
 of uneasiness caused by the presence of a foreign enemy, 
 the tide of immigration into Ohio grew steadily. In- 
 deed, it soon assumed enormous proportions, for the 
 report of the state’s fertile lands now turned the stream 
 of home-seekers towards the north. At first, they were 
 principally from New England; but it was not long 
 before they began to flow in from many parts of the 
 United States and even from the Old World.° 
 
 Among the early colonists there were doubtless a few 
 Catholics of whom there is no trace. As often happens 
 under similar circumstances, the most of them must 
 have lost the faith. Perhaps, with the exception of a 
 brief visit of Father Badin at Gallipolis in December, 
 1807, not from the time of Father Burke’s departure, 
 in 1796, until 1808 did a priest enter the limits of Ohio, 
 although its population had grown by leaps and bounds, 
 and the territory had been erected into a state as early as 
 1802. Jacob Dittoe, a “Pennsylvania German” of Al- 
 satian descent, was an instrument in his coming; the 
 missionary, it will be recalled, was none other than 
 Father Edward D. Fenwick, who went from the mon- 
 astery in Kentucky where the subject of our narrative 
 was then domiciled.’ 
 became titular bishop of Sion and vicar apostolic of Nova Scotia. He 
 died in Halifax in 1820. 
 
 6 RANDALL and Ryan, History of Ohio, Ill, 4 ff; Howe, Historical Col- 
 lections of Ohto, passim. 
 
 7 For the letters of Jacob Dittoe to Archbishop Carroll begging for a 
 priest see Life of Fenwick, pp. 194 ff. Father Badin in a letter to Carroll, 
 begun in Pennsylvania, December 17, 1807, and completed at Bardstown, 
 
 January 7, 1808, says: “On Christmas day I officiated at Gallipolis, where 
 I found still a spark of faith. That settlement has much declined since 
 
216 THE FATHER OF THE CHURCH IN TENNESSEE 
 
 From that year (1808) until 1816, Father Fenwick 
 could do no more for the Catholics in these northern 
 parts than visit them at the most twice in a twelve- 
 month; but from 1816 he gave them his entire time, find- 
 ing lodgment wherever he could. Late in 1817, he was 
 joined by his nephew, Father Nicholas D. Young. 
 Because of their poverty and the stress of their mission- 
 ary labors, the two ambassadors of Christ could find 
 neither the time nor the means to build a home for 
 
 I visited it first; but they assure me that there are many Irish Catholic 
 families in the vicinity” (Baltimore Archives, Case 1, I 5). A letter 
 of appeal, discovered since the appearance of Fenwick’s Life, was also 
 sent to Baltimore in behalf of some Catholics who had come to Ohio 
 from the “Eastern Shore”, Maryland. It is signed by Whaland Goodee 
 and Major Philips. 
 “February Ist, 1807. 
 
 “State of Ohio, Ross County, Chillicothe. 
 “To the Rev. Mr. Carroll, 
 “Dear Sir :— 
 
 “We join our hands as one man in supplication to you, desiring a 
 priest, as there is no teacher of our Church in this part of the country; 
 and if it be convenient for you to send us one, we will do everything 
 that is reasonable to support him. We have made no calculation of what 
 might be collected yearly, as we did not know whether we could be 
 supplied or not. Neither can we give a true account of the number of 
 Catholics, but as nigh as we can come, [it] is betwixt 30 and 40 which came 
 from the Eastern Shore; and, I suppose, numbers from other parts which 
 I am not acquainted with. Dear Sir, if you would be so kind as to make a 
 trial and send a priest, there is nothing [which] would give us more 
 pleasure on account of our children as well as ourselves. Please write 
 as soon as possible. 
 
 I am yours with Respect, 
 Whaland [Goodee—torn off] 
 
 (Ibid. Case 10, I 6). and Major Philips. 
 
 The fact that Father Fenwick found no Catholics, except three families 
 near Somerset, on his way through Ohio in 1808, and that Bishop Flaget’s 
 diary of a similar journey in the fall of 1812 mentions only two Catholic 
 families near Chillicothe and two or three individuals of the faith in 
 the city itself, indicates that these Catholics must have soon gone else- 
 where. Possibly they went to Kentucky that they might enjoy the con- 
 solations of their religion. 
 
MISSIONARY IN OHIO 217 
 
 themselves or a temple of prayer for the people until 
 near the close of 1818. However, on December 6, 
 that year, they blessed and opened the mother church 
 and convent of Ohio—Saint Joseph’s, about two miles 
 from Somerset, Perry County. Both structures were 
 quite diminutive, and of hewn logs; but they were the 
 birthplace and the cradle of Catholicity in one of the 
 greatest of our American commonwealths.® 
 
 Fenwick is the father of the Church in Ohio, and the 
 apostle of the state; Young its Paul. The missionaries 
 traversed and re-traversed the territory in every direc- 
 tion. Saint Patrick’s, a small, barnlike frame building 
 just outside the city limits of Cincinnati, was appar- 
 ently opened for use, though perhaps not dedicated, on 
 Easter Sunday, April 11, 1819. Saint Mary’s, Lan- 
 caster, it would seem, had been made ready for divine 
 service somewhat earlier in the same year. Next in 
 order, about 1820, came a brick warehouse, purchased 
 and fitted up by John S. Dugan, in Zanesville, a town 
 destined to become the center of the second field of 
 labor assigned to the subject of our narrative.” 
 
 Meanwhile, the report that there were priests in Ohio 
 brought Catholics, principally Irish and Germans, into 
 the state in ever increasing numbers.” June 19, 1821, 
 Cincinnati was erected into an episcopal see. [*ather 
 Fenwick became its first incumbent, but his consecra- 
 tion did not take place until the following January. 
 
 8 Life of Fenwick, passim. 9 Life of Fenwick, passim. 
 
 10 Bishop Fenwick speaks in more than one of his letters of the 
 great number of Irish and German Catholics flocking into Ohio. The 
 Germans predominated. Quite a number of German descent also came 
 in from Pennsylvania; while not a few descendants of the old English 
 
 Catholics in Maryland emigrated from that state. In the latter half of 
 his episcopate many French settled in Stark and surrounding counties. 
 
218 THE FATHER OF THE CHURCH IN TENNESSEE 
 
 Athough oppressed with poverty of every kind, the 
 anxious prelate was especially bewildered for want of 
 missionaries. During his journey abroad for help, it is 
 true, he secured Father Raphael Mufios, of the Order 
 of Preachers, and three secular priests—the Revs. 
 Frederic Rese, (later the first bishop of Detroit, Mich- 
 igan), John Bellamy, and Peter J. Dejean; while, 
 shortly after his return, he had the happiness of ordain- 
 ing Father James Ignatius Mullon for the diocese. 
 Bellamy and Dejean he had to despatch at once to. the 
 aid of Father Gabriel Richard in Michigan, whence 
 the Rev. Anthony Ganilh had departed. Now 
 (August, 1828), Mufios was sent to Kentucky. 
 Father Hill died at Canton a few weeks later; and 
 Father John TT’. Hynes, at the order of his superiors, 
 had gone to the missions of British Guiana.” 
 
 Thus there were only eight priests (six Dominicans 
 and two diocesan clergymen) left on the missions of 
 Ohio, though three times that number would have been 
 insufficient for the needs of the diocese. Bishop Fen- 
 wick was therefore practically obliged to call Fathers 
 William Tuite, Samuel Montgomery, and Richard 
 Miles from Saint Rose’s to aid him in the north.” 
 Stephen Montgomery had been transferred to the 
 cathedral at Cincinnati from Zanesville, where he had 
 lately erected a neat brick church, and placed it under 
 the patronage of Saint John the Evangelist.* Accord- 
 
 11 Life of Fenwick, passim. 
 
 12.The two secular priests then in Ohio were Frederic Rese and James 
 I. Mullon; the six members of the Order of Preachers Stephen H. Mont- 
 gomery, Nicholas D. Young, John B. De Raymaecker, John H. McGra- 
 dy, Thomas H. Martin, and Daniel O’Leary. The addition of Fathers 
 Miles, Tuite, and Samuel L. Montgomery raised the number of Domini- 
 
 cans to nine, and the total of the clergy to eleven. 
 13 United States Catholic Miscellany, February 24, 1827; Sutor, Past 
 
MISSIONARY IN OHIO 219 
 
 ingly, Father Miles was installed as pastor of that 
 parish, with its outlying missions. 
 
 The letter removing him from Saint Rose’s is dated 
 October 22, 1828, states that his transfer is temporary 
 (ad tempus), directs him to report at the episcopal 
 residence in Cincinnati for further orders, and instructs 
 him to begin his journey on the third day of November. 
 The Annales de la Propagation de la Foi seem to say 
 that he went first to Canton, and the tradition of Saint 
 Joseph’s Province accredits him with a brief pastorship 
 there shortly after the death of Father Hill. However, 
 this can not be proved by the church records of Canton, 
 for they do not go back earlier than 1830, more than a 
 year after the Father of the Church in Tennessee had 
 taken charge at Zanesville.“ 
 
 Father Miles began a new church book at Zanesville, 
 in which his first entry bears the date of December 25, 
 1828. It is the baptism of Thomas D. and Peter S., 
 sons of Francis and Catherine (Sarchet) Dusouchet— 
 god-parents Thomas William McCaddon and Barbara 
 Dugan. Unless there were an earlier book of records, 
 and Present of the City of Zanesville and Muskingum County, Ohio, 
 p. 159; Records of the American Catholic Historical Society, September, 
 1914 (“The First Three Catholic Churches in Zanesville, Ohio,’ by R. J. J. 
 Harkins) ; Diocese of Columbus, p. 263; Life of Fenwick, pp. 310 and 323. 
 The cornerstone of this church was laid on March 4, 1825; and it was 
 dedicated, though by no means completed interiorly, on July 2, 1825. 
 The Diocese of Columbus erroneously calls it Saint John the Baptist’s, 
 instead of Saint John the Evangelist’s; while Mr. Harkins seems evi- 
 dently in error when he places its dedication in 1827. 
 
 14 Archives of Saint Rose’s Priory, in Kentucky; records of Saint 
 John the Baptist’s, Canton, Ohio; Annales, IV, 504; Granam, A Sketch 
 of Saint John’s Parish (Canton, Ohio), p. 91. Two letters of Bishop Flaget 
 to the prefect of the Propaganda (May 12 and December 12, 1829— 
 Propaganda Archives, Vol. 10) show that Bardstown’s prelate complained 
 
 of Fenwick’s calling Miles, Tuite, and S. L. Montgomery to Ohio without 
 consulting him. 
 
220 THE FATHER OF THE CHURCH IN TENNESSEE 
 
 now lost, which he used for a time, the above sacrament 
 was no doubt administered within a week or two after 
 our missionary: took charge of what was then, though 
 perhaps not so large as a few others, one of the most 
 promising parishes in Ohio outside of Cincinnati.” 
 
 Be this as it may, the record approximates the be- 
 ginning of a notable period in Father Miles’ life. 
 Doubtless it was no little hardship for him to tear him- 
 self away from his beloved Saint Rose’s, the good 
 people whom he had helped to guide in the spiritual 
 life for so many years, and the religious community 
 in whose establishment he had assisted. But he was 
 too true and too well-trained a religious to hesitate when 
 the voice of authority had spoken. Nor was his ready 
 obedience to the call for the north slow in its reward. 
 Shortly after the apostolic man’s arrival in Ohio, the 
 Rev. John Baptist Clicteur, a newly ordained priest 
 then acting as secretary to Bishop Fenwick, wrote to 
 the Annales:*® 
 
 After the death of Father Hill, the bishop, who is the su- 
 perior general of the Dominicans here in America, wishing to fill 
 his place, withdrew Father Miles from the Dominican convent in 
 Kentucky. Father Miles felt keenly being torn away from the 
 good Kentuckians of Saint Rose’s Congregation, to whom he 
 ministered, and begged the bishop to allow him to return thither, 
 when he should have labored a few months in Ohio. The mon- 
 signor has placed him at Zanesville, Muskingum County (Ohio). 
 Lately he visited the Catholics in the districts nearest to that city. 
 On his return he wrote to the bishop, expressing himself as follows: 
 
 “I have just made my first circuit. I visited several congre- 
 gations and preached in many places. I baptized a large number 
 
 15 Records of Saint Thomas’ Church, Zanesville, Ohio. 
 
 16 Father Clicteur was ordained in Cincinnati (by Bishop Fenwick) on 
 February 2 1829. At the same time were ordained the Revs. John M. 
 Henni (later archbishop of Milwaukee) and Martin Kundig. Clicteur 
 died on September 18, 1829. 
 
MISSIONARY IN OHIO peaked 
 
 of children and two adults who had never professed any religion, 
 received several Protestants into the Church, and left many 
 others well disposed towards conversion. These last I will admit 
 into the fold on my next tour, when they will be sufficiently in- 
 structed.’ In a word, I have been in Ohio only a few weeks, 
 and already, in spite of the prejudices that I had conceived, I 
 am beginning to feel that I should like to remain here permanently ; 
 for I see clearly that the people of Ohio are so well disposed that, 
 if you had sufficient priests, you could make the whole state 
 SeALOOLIC. act 
 
 Some miles distant from Zanesville there is a congregation 
 composed entirely of converts. It has nearly five hundred mem- 
 bers. They have lately built a church, which, though small, is 
 quite pretty. Father Miles has visited these people, and made 
 further conversions among them. He says that he remarked a 
 great fervor among them in the service of the Divine Master. 
 May it please heaven to send us a few more priests, and to grant 
 that we may be able to station one in such congregations !15 
 
 The good promises given thus early by our mission- 
 ary were fully realized. Ohio has had many zealous, 
 efficient, and tireless missionaries who have aided at 
 
 17 The missionaries of those days, owing to their enforced long absences 
 from the various Catholic settlements, were obliged to confide the in- 
 struction of their catechumens to the care of the more faithful and intelli- 
 gent members of the parishes appointed to that duty. 
 
 18 4nnales, IV, 509-510. This parish which Father Clicteur tells us 
 was so largely composed of converts seems certainly to have been that 
 of Saint Dominic, Beaver Township, Guernsey County, which is spoken 
 of more than once in the literature of that day as a parish of converts. 
 In 1851, Beaver Township was taken from Guernsey County to aid in 
 forming that of Noble, and is now in the extreme northeastern part of 
 the latter county. It would appear that this church was near the present 
 Batesville; for Howe (Historical Collections of Ohio, II, 634) gives that 
 village a Catholic church and states: “Catholics are strong in this region. 
 As early as 1825 they erected a log church, which in 1853 was succeeded 
 by a brick edifice at a cost of $8,000.” It is now the parish of Temperance- 
 ville, just over the border in Belmont County. The History of the Upper 
 Ohio Valley (by Bryant and Fuller), II, 783, is certainly in error when 
 it states that the log church was erected in 1822. This work says that 
 the brick edifice (Saint Mary’s) was erected in 1854. 
 
222 THE FATHER OF THE CHURCH IN TENNESSEE 
 
 one time or another in the building up of her Church. 
 Father Miles ranks high among the best of them. 
 From Zanesville as the center of his apostolic activities 
 he traversed and re-traversed) Muskingum, Morgan, 
 Noble, Guernsey, and Coshocton counties. At times 
 his labors carried him into Licking and Knox counties, 
 or to more remote places. Occasionally Bishop Fen- 
 wick took him on his own toilsome journeys;” for he 
 was no less an agreeable companion than a willing work- 
 er, always ready to do whatever he was asked, endowed 
 with the happy faculty of doing it to the best advan- 
 tage, and quick to detect what needed to be done. 
 
 His manners were as gentle and amiable as those of 
 Fenwick himself; his ways of dealing with his fellow- 
 men as open and candid; his zeal as consuming; his 
 charity as broad; his bearing, though stately, as guile- 
 less; his deportment as gentlemanly and priestly. These 
 noble qualities were enhanced by a splendid physique— 
 a countenance in which were reflected a great tenderness 
 of heart and sympathetic honesty, no less than a strong 
 character—an untiring energy—and an_ unaffected 
 piety. His soul went out to all who were in distress, 
 which caused him to seek in every way to aid those 
 who were in need, whether of the goods of this earth or 
 of spiritual consolation. He was notably felicitous in 
 his way of meeting those who were not Catholics. 
 
 As he had done in Kentucky, so in Ohio Father Miles 
 soon acquired the reputation of being a good preacher. 
 Where there was no Catholic church, as often happened, 
 he preached in that of the Presbyterians, the Metho- 
 dists, or other religious affiliation—in courthouses, or 
 
 19 The United States Catholic Miscellany of January 2, and December 4, 
 1830, gives two such journeys. 
 
MISSIONARY IN OHIO 223 
 
 schools, and not infrequently in the open air from a 
 platform in some grove or the public square of a town. 
 Crowds came to hear him, and his strong voice and 
 distinct articulation caused him to be understood by 
 all, even when he spoke outdoors. 
 
 Ordinarily, when addressing a non-Catholic or mixed 
 audience, he chose for his topic the spirit of the Church, 
 some point of her doctrine which he wished to prove 
 or elucidate, or which had been misunderstood, or stock 
 accusations against Catholicity. Owing to the fact 
 that he was for the greater part alone in Ohio, only on 
 rare occasions could he there obtain a priest for public 
 discussions of religious matters through questions and 
 answer, like those which he had used with good effect in 
 Kentucky. In both sermon and conversation he was 
 uniformly careful to avoid whatever might wound the 
 feelings of those to whom he spoke, even when he sought 
 to drive home a point with telling force. He was an 
 adept in the combination of strong argument with 
 happy expression, which never failed to win his hearers 
 and to send them away well pleased. 
 
 Another trait that characterized the sermons and 
 lectures of the missionary was the simplicity of his 
 style and the use of words that every one could under- 
 stand. With him it was a case of “he who runs may 
 read.” Indeed, it is said that his style mirrored the 
 inner man, gave his discourses an added charm, and 
 rendered them all the more fruitful in good. He rather 
 studiously abstained from attempts at flights of ora- 
 tory, which he believed tended more to please the ear 
 than to touch the mind and heart, or to bring conviction. 
 For the sermon or lecture eloquent in this sense he felt 
 that he had little talent. Perhaps in this modesty, the 
 
224 THE FATHER OF THE CHURCH IN TENNESSEE 
 
 fact that he labored principally in the backwoods of 
 Ohio and Kentucky, his aversion to seeing his name in 
 the public press, and his dislike for notoriety we have 
 the explanation of why he did not become more widely 
 known as a preacher, and was not in greater demand as 
 the speaker on occasions of note. 
 
 The above qualities, no doubt, combined to win 
 Father Miles the confidence of those with whom he 
 came into contact in the private walks of life. As 
 a matter of fact, tradition tells us that he effected as 
 much good by his ordinary conversations as from the 
 rostrum; for he was ever on the alert to spread the light 
 of truth. Although retiring by nature, his zeal almost 
 invariably led him deftly to broach the subject of relig- 
 ion to those whom he met by any chance. Often the 
 seed thus sown afterwards blossomed into the flower of 
 Catholic faith.”° 
 
 Bishop Fenwick and Father Hill are commonly 
 given the credit of being the most successful convert 
 makers among the early missionaries of Ohio. Yet the 
 tradition of Saint Joseph’s Province is that Father 
 Miles, although not so long in the state as they (nor 
 his riding circuit so extensive as that of the bishop), 
 was perhaps just as effective a worker among non- 
 Catholics. What we know of his character, zeal, and 
 talent for dealing with men justifies such a_ belief. 
 So should it be noticed that few, if any, of the mission- 
 aries in Ohio at that time had a larger territory under 
 their charge. Muskingum, Coschocton, Guernsey, and 
 Noble counties, with parts of Licking and Morgan 
 
 20 These traditions are still happy memories in Saint Joseph’s Province 
 
 and in the Diocese of Columbus (established in 1868). Thirty years ago 
 they were strong and vigorous. 
 
MISSIONARY IN OHIO 225 
 
 counties, seem to have constituted his parish proper.” 
 They kept him almost continually on horseback. In 
 these districts he brought many dissidents into the 
 Church, as well as reclaimed numbers of fallen-away or 
 negligent Catholics, and converted not a few sinners. 
 
 Muskingum County, because more thickly populated 
 and containing the greater number of faithful, demand- 
 ed the principal part of the devoted pastor’s time and at- 
 tention. Indeed, that county alone was more than 
 the most zealous and stalwart messenger of Christ 
 could attend to, if the best results were to be attained. 
 No priest in the Diocese of Cincinnati, we venture to 
 say, could have toiled more diligently or accomplished 
 greater good for the Catholics there than did the sub- 
 ject of our narrative. 
 
 How faithfully he labored, no less than how strong 
 a hold he gained on the hearts of the people, is evidenced 
 by the fact that his memory is still held in benediction 
 not merely in Zanesville, but even throughout Muskin- 
 gum County, albeit it is nearly a hundred years since 
 he exercised the ministry in those parts. One still 
 runs across Catholics who bear the first name of Miles 
 in his honor. ‘The records of the old Dominican parish 
 in Zanesville, now known as Saint Thomas’, show a 
 long list of notable pastors and curates. Passing over 
 for the present the Father of the Church in Tennessee, 
 one of them, Father Joseph Sadoc Alemany, became 
 
 21 The old Catholic Almanac (now called Catholic Directory) and the 
 records of Saint Mary’s Church, Temperanceville, Ohio, show that all 
 these places were attended from Zanesville until near the end of 1834, 
 with an exception of a tenure of the Rev. Martin Kundig in Guernsey 
 County from late November, 1832, until the middle of March, 1833. The 
 Rev. James Reid, ordained by Bishop Fenwick on Holy Saturday, April 
 
 11, 1832, became pastor of Saint Dominic’s, Guernsey County, late in 1834, 
 and records his first baptism: on October 31. 
 
 16 
 
226 THE FATHER OF THE CHURCH IN TENNESSEE 
 
 the first archbishop of San Francisco. Another, 
 Father Charles Pius Montgomery, was appointed 
 bishop of Monterey, California, but declined the miter. 
 A. third, the late lamented Very Rev. Lawrence 
 Francis Kearney, 8.T.M., headed the list sent in by 
 the diocesan electors as their unanimous first choice for 
 a successor to scholarly Bishop Waterson in the Diocese 
 of Columbus, Ohio. None of them, however, have been 
 more highly esteemed or more dearly beloved than was 
 Father Miles. Non-Catholics held him in almost as 
 great regard as did-those of his own flock. 
 
 A musician himself, and ever striving to make the ser- 
 vice of God more and more attractive, he gave much 
 attention to the Church music at Saint John’s. As a 
 consequence, its choir soon became widely known for 
 its efficiency. A lover of Catholic literature, and desir- 
 ous of providing his people with good, wholesome 
 reading, he acted as agent for the Catholic papers of 
 the country in all the missions under his charge. In 
 short, zealous and charitable to the fingers’ tips, noth- 
 ing that made for the spiritual advantage of his flock 
 escaped his notice. 
 
 In addition to the spiritual blessings it received from 
 him, Father Miles, considering the times and the length 
 of his pastorate there, did much for the Catholicity of 
 Zanesville in a temporal way. One of the first matters 
 that demanded his attention was the erection of a rec- 
 tory. How well he built it may be seen from the fact 
 that, though enlarged later, it served as a residence for 
 the fathers until five or six years ago. He completed 
 and decorated the interior of Saint John’s, placed a 
 graceful little tower upon it, and hung therein the bell 
 which hitherto had swung from a wooden frame in the 
 
MISSIONARY IN OHIO 227 
 
 yard. When finished the sacred edifice was considered 
 one of the finest in the city. 
 
 Another benefit which should not be overlooked was 
 a Catholic school. An educator himself, Father Miles 
 wished the children under his charge to have the ad- 
 vantages of the best education that could be procured; 
 but he wanted it to be obtained under Catholic influ- 
 ences, for he felt that only in this way could their 
 religion and morality be safeguarded, and the highest 
 interests of their souls protected. Accordingly, about 
 1830, he arranged the basement of his church, where 
 he opened one of the earliest parochial schools in Ohio. 
 Doubtless he would have been delighted to obtain a 
 - community of sisters for this purpose; but under the 
 impossiblity of procuring such instructors he had to 
 content himself with lay teachers, over whom he kept 
 a watchful eye.” 
 
 Despite the expense of these improvements, for he 
 was a practical man, our missionary managed greatly 
 to reduce the debt of the parish. Under his guidance 
 both spirituals and temporals prospered. It was in 
 no small measure due to his administration that the 
 History of the Diocese of Columbus could truly state 
 that “Zanesville has always been a stronghold of Cath- 
 olic faith.” ** 
 
 Still another blessing to religion in Ohio in which our 
 ambassador of Christ was deeply interested, even if he 
 were not a prime mover in the enterprise, is recorded 
 in the United States Catholic Miscellany of February 
 
 22 Diocese of Columbus, pp. 261 ff. Even if he had secured sisters for 
 his school, he could have used them only for the girls and small boys, 
 
 for at that time our nuns did not teach large boys. 
 23 [bid., p. 261. 
 
228 THE FATHER OF THE CHORCH IN TENNESSEE 
 
 20, 1830. Here that journal’s correspondent tells its 
 editor: 
 
 Four Sisters of the Order of St. Dominic, called from their 
 monastery in Kentucky, a few days since, passed through Cincin- 
 nati, on their ,way to Somerset, Perry County, Ohio. They are 
 about to establish a female school in that place near the church 
 of the Holy Trinity. From their qualifications, and devotedness 
 to the cause of moral and religious instruction, much good may be 
 anticipated from their location in the large and respectable con- 
 gregation of St. Joseph’s. The same attention will be paid, by 
 them, to the poor children, as is paid by the Sisters of Charity 
 [in Cincinnati]. 
 
 Tradition tells us that, almost from the time he was 
 stationed at Zanesville, Father Miles sought to have 
 an establishment of these Dominican Sisters founded 
 in Ohio. One is inclined to think that, could he have 
 had his own way, Zanesville would have been chosen 
 as the place of their location. Possibly he was thwarted 
 in such a design only by the fact that his frequent 
 absences on, the missions attended from Saint John the 
 Evangelist’s made it impossible for him always to give 
 them mass on Sundays. Be this as it may, there is no 
 room for doubt but that he was delighted with the 
 action of Bishop Fenwick in bringing them into his 
 diocese, and that they frequently sought the mission- 
 ary’s advice and direction as long as he remained in 
 the north. 
 
 Bishop Fenwick had accepted the superiorship over 
 his former brethren in religion with reluctance. Nat- 
 urally, therefore, he was anxious to be relieved of so 
 uncommon and extra-constitutional a position. Be- 
 sides, especially since his diocesan clergy were on the 
 increase, he must have felt that such a step was de- 
 manded by simple justice to the little band of Friars 
 
MISSIONARY IN OHIO 229 
 
 Preacher. Accordingly, he called a meeting at Cincin- 
 nati on April 18, 1831, to which he summoned Fathers 
 Richard P. Miles, Samuel L. Montgomery, Nicholas 
 D. Young, Stephen H. Montgomery, Joseph T. Jar- 
 boe, and Charles P. Montgomery. Here, among 
 other things, it was decided that the bishop should ask 
 the Holy See and the General of the Order to accept 
 his resignation as superior of the Dominicans; and that 
 he should propose Fathers Miles and Young respec- 
 tively as the assembly’s first and second choice for the 
 provincialship. This petition was sent to Rome, and the 
 tradition of the province is that it was the unanimous 
 wish of its members that the subject of our narrative 
 would be selected as its head.” 
 
 Ever cautious Rome is proverbially slow to act. 
 Perhaps in this instance the delay was lengthened by 
 the high regard in which Cincinnati’s prelate was held 
 alike by the papal court and the Dominican General, 
 together with a knowledge of the needs of the youthful 
 diocese. Meanwhile the saintly Fenwick fell a victim 
 
 24 Archives of Saint Joseph’s Priory, Somerset, Ohio. The petition 
 and letter which Bishop Fenwick sent to Rome on this matter could not 
 be found in the Propaganda Archives or those of the Dominican General. 
 Besides Fathers Clicteur, Henni and Kundig, already mentioned, Bishop 
 Fenwick had ordained the Rev. Edmund Quinn in Cincinnati, January 
 1, 1830; Fathers J. T. Jarboe, C. P. Montgomery, Charles D. Bowling, 
 and James V. Bullock at Saint Rose’s, in Kentucky, June 13, 1830; and 
 Father Samuel C. Mazzuchelli (later one of the most celebrated mission- 
 aries of the northwest) in Cincinnati on September 5, 1830. Quinn was 
 a priest of the diocese. The other five were Dominicans; but Mazzuchelli 
 had come to America with the hope of laboring among the Indians. 
 Bowling had been sent to Somerset, and another of the band seems to 
 have been destined for the same place. The Rev. Anthony Ganilh had re- 
 turned to the diocese, while several seminarians at Cincinnati and else- 
 where were nearing ordination. Thus, albeit he still needed many priests, 
 
 the bishop was no longer in such dire straits, and saw his way to put 
 his former brethren back on their proper footing. 
 
230 THE FATHER OF THE CHURCH IN TENNESSEE 
 
 of his zeal at Wooster, Ohio. This occurred on Sep- 
 tember 26, 1832. There were those who believed that, 
 in view of what the Order had done for religion in the 
 state, the Holy See would probably select his successor 
 from among the Friars Preacher, and hoped that, should 
 such a choice be made, it would fall on Richard Pius 
 
 Miles. 
 
CHAPTER XI 
 PRIOR, PROVINCIAL, BISHOP 
 
 Lro XII, acting on the agreement between Cardinal 
 Mauro Cappellari and the Most Rev. Joseph Velzi, re- 
 spectively the prefect of the Propaganda and the Supe- 
 rior General of the Dominicans, had authorized the 
 appointment of Bishop Fenwick as the head of Saint 
 Joseph’s Province. In November, 1830, Pius VIII, 
 Leo’s successor, died after a short reign. Italy was 
 then in the throes of an agitation excited by the secret 
 societies, notably by the Carbonari, and was beginning 
 to be stirred by the influence of French liberalism. The 
 spirit of revolution was ripe everywhere. On February 
 2, 1831, after a conclave that lasted fifty days, Cardinal 
 Capellari ascended the throne of Peter, taking the name 
 Gregory XVI. On the very day of Gregory’s election, 
 the Most Rev. Thomas Ancarani, successor to Father 
 Velzi (who had resigned the office of General in July, | 
 1828, in order to become master of the Sacred Palace), 
 passed to his eternal reward, and was at once succeeded 
 by Father Francis Ferdinand Jabalot.’ 
 
 It is doubtful if the assembly gathered at Cincinnati 
 to discuss the affairs of Saint Joseph’s Province were 
 aware of Father Ancarani’s demise. Possibly, there- 
 
 1 Arzoc, Manual of Universal Church History, III, 691 ff; Morttrr, 
 Histoire des Maitres Généraux de l’Ordre des Fréres Précheurs, VII, 472; 
 TAURISANO, Series Magistrorum Generalium Ordinis FF. Praedicatorum, 
 
 mn 14, 
 Zot 
 
232 THE FATHER OF THE CHURCH IN TENNESSEE 
 
 fore, Fenwick’s resignation of the provincialship was 
 sent to him, although it was received by Father J abalot. 
 At first, the authorities at Rome declined to accede to 
 the request; nay, for more than a year they apparently 
 did not even acknowledge the receipt of the earnest and 
 repeated solicitations of the apostle of Ohio that he 
 might be relieved of so undesirable a burden. 
 
 Meanwhile, doubts, based on the constitutions of their 
 institute, had arisen in the minds of the fathers in Ken- 
 tucky. They believed that the bishop’s superiorship 
 had ceased with the resignation of Father Velzi who had 
 appointed him to the office, and felt, quite naturally, 
 that they should now have a provincial taken from the 
 actual members of the Order. Father Miles was sent 
 to Saint Rose’s in the capacity of visitor that he might 
 convince them that the Velzi arrangement, because 
 sanctioned by the Holy Father, would have to stand 
 until it was dissolved; and that the bishop was doing all 
 in his power to be freed from the unnatural position.’ 
 
 Finally, November 30, 1832, Father Jabalot wrote 
 to Cincinnati’s prelate to notify him that, in compliance 
 with his “wishes and repeated requests,” he had ac- 
 cepted his resignation, and would appoint his nephew 
 “vicar provincial ad beneplacitum Nostrum.” Four 
 days later, December 3, 1832, the General forwarded 
 letters patent to Father N. D. Young by which he was 
 instituted head of the province.® 
 
 2 Bishop Fenwick, Washington, D. C., January 23, 1832, and Cincinnati, 
 April 3, 1832, to Father Thomas Martin, Saint Rose’s, in Kentucky (Ar- 
 chives of Saint Rose’s Priory). 
 
 3 Jabalot’s letter to Fenwick is in Archives of Saint Joseph’s, Somerset, 
 Ohio. We could not find the letters patent to Young; but their date is 
 
 given in a record of the Profession Book at Saint Rose’s, and also in 
 a note of Father Stephen Byrne on them in Saint Joseph’s Archives. 
 
PRIOR, PROVINCIAL, BISHOP ide 
 
 Doctor Fenwick had died on the twenty-sixth day of 
 the preceding September; but Jabalot’s letter to him, 
 as well as the introductory words of the letters patent 
 of Young’s appointment, shows that the General was 
 not cognizant of this sad fact.* It is evident that a 
 desire to gratify the province’s saintly founder was a 
 deciding factor in the nomination of his kinsman to the 
 honorable office of provincial, instead of Father Miles, 
 although the latter had been the Cincinnati assembly’s 
 first choice for the place. Doubtless, too, it was felt 
 at Rome that the conferring of this position upon the 
 bishop’s nephew would insure the most harmonious re- 
 lations between the respective heads of the Diocese of 
 Cincinnati and the Province of Saint Joseph. 
 
 Despite diligent search, we failed to discover just 
 when Father Young received the letters of his appoint- 
 ment; but they do not appear to have reached America 
 until the spring of 1833. Perhaps the least disap- 
 pointed man in the province at the General’s selection 
 for its head was Father Miles himself, even though, in 
 view of the choice of his brethren, he might with reason 
 have felt that the honor was due to him; for Father 
 Young was a close friend and a zealous priest, while 
 the subject of our narrative desired nothing more than 
 to be left to the even tenor of his ways in laboring 
 for the salvation of souls without the weight of 
 authority. 
 
 Zealously did the ambassador of Christ continue his 
 
 4 Note of Father Stephen Byrne as in the preceding note. Jabalot’s 
 words, as quoted by Byrne, are: “Cum, vacante officio Provincialatus 
 praefatae Provinciae Sancti Josephi in Ditionibus Foederatis in America 
 Septentrionali propter abdicationem Illustrissimi et Reverendissimi Dom- 
 
 ini Cincinnatensis Ordinis Nostri cujus justissimae petitioni annuendum 
 duximus’, etc. 
 
234 THE FATHER OF THE CHURCH IN TENNESSEE 
 
 work in Zanesville and on the missions. But his toil 
 there was near its close. After the death of Bishop 
 Fenwick, Father Thomas Martin, who had been supe- 
 rior at Saint Rose’s, returned to Ohio. When, there- 
 fore, the community met to elect a successor to him, 
 their choice fell upon Father Miles. This was on May 
 1, 1833.° It is worthy of notice that this was the first 
 election of a superior at Saint Rose’s, for until then its 
 priors had been instituted by the higher authorities; and 
 it is said that there was but one ballot, and that, when 
 the votes were counted, they were all found to be for 
 Father Miles. 
 
 Evidently he and Father Young were in Kentucky 
 at the time, and the provincial hastened to confirm the 
 election—possibly ordered Miles to accept the office; 
 for the new prior presided at an investiture in the 
 habit on May 5, 1833.° It would have been impossible 
 at that day for him to receive word in Ohio and reach 
 Saint Rose’s between that date and the time of his 
 election. Certain also is it that he then returned to 
 Zanesville in order to arrange his affairs there. 
 
 During his absence Kentucky was visited by one of 
 those periodical epidemics of Asiatic cholera which were 
 the dread of the past. It threw all the state into con- 
 sternation. In the central parts, where lay the prin- 
 cipal Catholic settlements, the plague appeared in an 
 especially violent and deadly form. ‘There mourning 
 and desolation were to be seen on all sides. Perhaps 
 none of the parishes were so severely smitten as that of 
 Saint Rose. The cholera broke out in the latter half 
 of May. Father Miles perforce remained in Zanesville 
 
 5 Saint Rose’s Profession Book, p. 124. 
 6 [bid., p. 4. 
 
PRIOR, PROVINCIAL, BISHOP 235 
 
 until his successor could be appointed; but on the very 
 day of the arrival of Father Charles P. Montgomery 
 he started for the sorely afflicted congregation that had 
 just been placed under his charge.‘ 
 
 When the new pastor reached Saint Rose’s, he found 
 the people stricken with a terror and bowed with a 
 sorrow such as he had never seen before. His own 
 heart was pierced as with a sword by the suffering and 
 lamentations of the parish. His life-long friend, good, 
 kindly Father William R. Tuite, had succumbed. to 
 his zeal, having contracted the cholera while adminis- 
 tering to the sick in the first days of the plague, and 
 died in a few hours. This was on May 25, 1833.° 
 Without thought of danger to himself, Father Miles, 
 though he had travelled all the way (some three hun- 
 dred and fifty miles) from Zanesville, Ohio, on horse- 
 back, at once threw himself into the thick and thin of 
 the confusion, administering the sacraments, visiting the 
 stricken or convalescent, aiding the poor, consoling the 
 afflicted, or performing whatever other deeds of charity 
 lay in his power. 
 
 In these works of mercy our Friar Preacher knew no 
 distinction of race, condition, or creed. ‘The colored 
 slave demanded his attention as readily as the free-born 
 white, the poorest as readily as the richest, those of 
 
 7 Baptismal records of Saint Thomas’, Zanesville, Ohio. Father Miles’ 
 last record is on June 2, 1833, and Father Montgomery makes his first 
 on the same day. 
 
 8 Saint Rose’s Profession Book, p. 181. It is not stated there that 
 Father Tuite died of the cholera; but it is a tradition, too strong 
 to be doubted, of both Saint Joseph’s Province and Saint Rose’s Parish 
 that he contracted the disease a few days after its appearance, while 
 administering to the sick, and died in a few hours. For many years 
 
 the people frequently prayed at his grave, and took earth from it to their 
 homes. They venerated him as a saint. 
 
236 THE FATHER OF THE CHURCH IN TENNESSEE 
 
 another religious affiliation as readily as those of his 
 own. Everywhere non-Catholics, stricken with fear 
 and deprived of the consolations of religion, flocked 
 to the priests. Many received baptism on their death- 
 beds, or came into the Church later as a result of the 
 heroic zeal shown by the missionaries at the time of the 
 epidemic. In the parish of Saint Rose and on its mis- 
 sions Father Miles, because of his happy way of meet- 
 ing those outside the fold, ordinarily attended to such 
 calls; and it is said that his ministrations bore rich fruit. 
 
 It was only natural that, on his return from Ohio, the 
 new prior should find all works suspended at Saint 
 Rose’s except those of charity and clerical ministra- 
 tions. Fathers Polin, Samuel Montgomery, and C. 
 D. Bowling were overwhelmed with calls from near 
 and far; while Father Jarboe, the subprior, had per- 
 haps already installed himself and two lay brothers in 
 Springfield, where nearly the entire population was 
 stricken with cholera at one time. For fear of the dread 
 disease the neighbors could not be induced to wait on 
 the sick and dying, or even to bury the dead. Father 
 Miles multiplied himself, so to speak, that he might 
 lighten the toils of his confréres, no less than aid the 
 suffering and distressed. 
 
 In a long letter on the epidemic to the editor of the 
 ‘Annales de la Propagation de la Foi Bishop Flaget 
 highly praises the zeal of his clergy and the sisters on 
 this sad occasion. But he singles out the fathers of 
 Saint Rose’s for special laudation, and lays particular 
 stress on the Springfield incident. 
 
 For more than two months [he says] the Dominican Fathers 
 
 who have charge of the most numerous Catholic congregation in 
 Kentucky gave themselves up to almost inconceivable labors. In 
 
PRIOR, PROVINCIAL, BISHOP 237 
 
 a little town near their convent nearly all the inhabitants, five or 
 six hundred in number, were stricken at the same time with the 
 frightful disease. Consternation became so universal that the sick 
 were left almost entirely to themselves; for the neighbors were 
 afraid to go near a house infected with an epidemic that had 
 become so fatal. 
 
 A young Dominican Father, born and reared in Kentucky, though 
 of very delicate health, and already much exhausted by the fatigue 
 and toils of the ministry, betook himself with two lay brothers 
 of his Order to this town thus generally afflicted. Animated with 
 a truly priestly zeal, he threw himself into his work amidst the sick 
 and dying with a courage which was believed to be nothing short 
 of the marvellous, and visited all who were in suffering, whether 
 they were Catholics or non-Catholics. He was welcomed every- 
 where, for wherever he went he dispersed in abundance those 
 spiritual consolations which mere worldlings can not bestow. Nor 
 did he neglect the needs of the body, and his timely services 
 often saved the sick from death. A number of non-Catholics, who 
 had vainly sought their minister, gave a ready ear to the instruc- 
 tions of the Dominican, accepted the truths which he made known 
 to them, and ended by embracing our holy religion.’ 
 
 The two lay brothers also seemed to multiply themselves in 
 giving medical succor to the sick, but above all in burying the 
 dead. At least eighty persons succumbed to the cholera’s ravages, 
 and were carried off in less than fifteen days.!° 
 
 Notwithstanding the considerable losses and expenses which 
 they suffered then, the inhabitants of the village who survived the 
 destructive scourge have insistently asked my permission to buy 
 a lot in the town, to build a church on it, and to bestow these 
 
 9 Bishop Flaget does not mention Father Jarboe by name, but the de- 
 scription leaves no doubt about his identity. He had been in very poor 
 health from his student days. At the time of his ordination, three years 
 before, he was so weak that it was necessary for a priest to support him 
 during the ceremony. He had a good knowledge of medicine which he 
 used in aid of the poor throughout his long and useful life. In and 
 around Springfield one still hears the people speak of his labors there at 
 the time of the cholera. See also Voiz, A Century's Record, pp. 16-17 
 
 10 These men were Brother Patrick McKenna and either Brother Pat- 
 rick Shepherd, or Brother William Peter Hutton. 
 
238 THE FATHER OF THE CHURCH IN TENNESSEE 
 
 upon the Dominican Fathers as a fitting acknowledgment of their 
 keen appreciation of the important services which they received 
 from these fathers during the cholera. The Protestants offer to 
 contribute generously towards this twofold act of piety and 
 gratitude.4_ Thus God is pleased to reward his zealous servants 
 a hundredfold even in this world. Although the five Dominican 
 Fathers who showed such great zeal throughout the time that the 
 epidemic lasted were extremely fatigued, nay, exhausted, none 
 of them died. Now, thanks be to God, they are all in good 
 health.” 
 
 Father Miles had every reason to take an honest 
 pride in the fidelity manifested by his brethren at this 
 lamentable time. The fathers’ courage had been tried 
 as it had never been tried before, and to a man they 
 were found true even in the face of death. Similarly 
 he must have been greatly gratified at the heroism shown 
 by the little community of Dominican Sisters in whose 
 establishment he played so important a part, for they 
 yielded to none in courageous deeds during the cholera. 
 Possibly he directed them in their efforts of charity. 
 
 Of these Bishop Flaget writes: 
 
 The Sisters of the Third Order of Saint Dominic have as much 
 claim to the recognition of the public as the Sisters of Charity 
 and the Sisters of Loretto. There being only ten or eleven sisters 
 in the community in Kentucky, they had recourse to a holy in- 
 genuity in order to multiply their forces that they might thus 
 
 11 For some reason the church in Springfield was not erected until 
 1843. It was dedicated in January, 1844. 
 
 12 Annales, VII, 95-96. These five priests were Fathers Miles, Jarboe, 
 S. L. Montgomery, Polin, and Bowling. Father C. P. Montgomery left 
 Saint Rose’s for Ohio just before the cholera appeared. Evidently Bishop 
 Flaget overlooked Father Tuite who died at its outbreak. So did he 
 speak in a relative sense, when he said that all the fathers were in good 
 health, for Polin and Jarboe were both quite sickly. It is strange that 
 Spalding (Life of Bishop Flaget, pp. 275 ff), although he refers to this 
 letter in the Annales, speaks of the labors of others at some length, and 
 mentions a few by name, says not a word about the work of the Domini- 
 cans during this epidemic of cholera. 
 
PRIOR, PROVINCIAL, BISHOP 239 
 
 render greater services to the sick in the county in which their 
 convent is situated. They induced women of mature age and 
 known virtue to associate themselves with their works of charity. 
 For many weeks might they be seen at all hours of day or night 
 in those houses where the sick were most numerous, or misery at 
 its height. Not one of them or of their companions died; but all 
 of them were worn out and exhausted beyond the power of words 
 to describe. Without the special protection of divine providence, 
 it would have been impossible for them so long to continue such 
 toils of mercy and compassion.! 
 
 Happy traditions concerning these heroic labors of 
 the Friars Preacher are still extant in Washington 
 County, Kentucky. Before his transfer to Ohio, 
 Father Miles had been one of the most popular and 
 highly esteemed priests at Saint Rose’s. The zeal, 
 courage, and charity that he exhibited throughout the 
 ordeal of the cholera made him still more beloved by 
 the people irrespective of race or creed. This love 
 still exists, and it explains the frequency with which 
 one runs across persons, both black and white, in that 
 part of Kentucky with the first name of Miles, Richard, 
 or Pius. 
 
 Another tradition in Saint Joseph’s Province tells 
 us that the good judgment, zeal, and other excellent 
 qualities manifested by the subject of our narrative 
 at this trying time so won the heart of Bishop Flaget 
 that the saintly prelate often consulted him on matters 
 of the highest importance. One such affair, it is said, 
 was the choice of a coadjutor to succeed aged Bishop 
 David who had resigned. Bishop Flaget, so the story 
 goes, was undecided whether to urge the appointment 
 of the Rev. Guy Ignatius Chabrat, whose name had 
 
 13 Annales, VII, 94.. Spalding, as in the preceding note, tells of the 
 
 zeal of the Sisters of Charity and the Sisters of Loretto at this time, 
 but passes over that of the Dominican Sisters. 
 
240 THE FATHER OF THE CHURCH IN TENNESSEE 
 
 already been sent to Rome, or to propose that of the 
 Rev. Ignatius A. Reynolds in his stead; and Father 
 Miles advocated the appointment of Chabrat, for he 
 had rendered longer, if not greater, services to the dio- 
 cese, and, while not a favorite with the clergy, was less 
 unpopular than Reynolds. 
 
 Howsoever this be, the tradition is corroborated by 
 Webb’s statement that Doctor Reynolds did not enjoy 
 much popularity in Kentucky,“ and by a paragraph 
 in Spalding’s biography of Bishop Flaget. After 
 giving an account of an attack of cholera which brought 
 that prelate to the verge of the grave, Doctor Spalding 
 
 proceeds to say: 
 
 On his recovery, he continued to feel no little solicitude in 
 regard to his future Coadjutor. The negotiations on the subject 
 were long pending; Rome moved slowly and cautiously in a matter 
 of so much importance. At length, on the feast of the Apostles 
 SS. Peter and Paul,—June 29th, 1834,—the Bulls arrived, ap- 
 pointing Dr. Chabrat Bishop of Bolina, and Coadjutor of Bishop 
 Flaget. The consecration took place on the 20th of July, in the 
 Cathedral of Bardstown; our venerable prelate being the Con- 
 secrator, and Bishop David and the Rev. R. P. Miles, O.P., being 
 
 the assistants.1° 
 
 Certainly the selection of Father Miles for the sin- 
 
 14 Centenary of Catholicity, p. 312. 
 
 15 Life of Flaget, p. 280. Doctor Spalding, earlier in his volume, tells 
 how Chabrat’s name had been sent to Rome sometime before this date, 
 and insinuates that there was opposition to his appointment; but he 
 does not mention Reynold’s name. However, we have seen a letter in the 
 Propaganda Archives signed by a number of priests begging that Father 
 Reynolds would not be appointed. Possibly Doctor Spalding does not 
 tell all he knew. See also CLarkeE, Lives of the Deceased Bishops, Ill, 
 286. We have before us photostat copies of four letters of Bishop F. P. 
 Kenrick to Bishop Flaget on the question of proposing Fathers Chabrat 
 and Reynolds as his coadjutor. The originals are in the Louisville Ar- 
 chives, and were written at Pittsburgh, November 5, 1832, and at Phila- 
 delphia, August 6, 1832, September 17, 1833, and January 4, 1834. 
 
PRIOR, PROVINCIAL, BISHOP 241 
 
 gular distinction of assistant to the consecrating prelate, 
 together with the necessity of obtaining faculties from 
 Rome for him so to act, when there were bishops 
 as near as Saint Louis and Cincinnati, and priests of high 
 standing who belonged to the diocese, not only shows 
 the favor in which our Friar Preacher was held, but also 
 lends credence to the tradition Just mentioned. As a 
 matter of fact, Saint Rose’s prior had become one of the 
 best known and most esteemed clergymen in Ohio and 
 Kentucky. 
 
 Quite naturally, the sorrow and desolation which the 
 cholera left in its wake threw a pall of gloom over the 
 parish of Saint Rose for some months afterwards. 
 From house to house the kind-hearted pastor made his 
 way on foot or on his faithful horse, consoling the afflict- 
 ed, cheering the disconsolate, encouraging the timid, suc- 
 coring those left in want. Everywhere were his visits 
 received as those of an angel of mercy who spread bless- 
 ings as he passed along. The poor colored people 
 were an object of his special solicitude. One can but 
 hope that the traditions of the good thus accomplished 
 by our gentle ambassador of Christ will continue to 
 be handed down from generation to generation, for 
 seldom perhaps has charity ever been dispensed with 
 greater tenderness, or more beneficially to religion. 
 
 No doubt the readiness with which the people of 
 the parish responded to his efforts helped to sustain 
 his energy, as well as enabled him to proceed with his 
 pastoral work with a lighter heart. But even to outline 
 his parochial labors, apart from his toils in connection 
 with the cholera, during the three years of priorship at 
 Saint Rose’s were merely to repeat what has been told 
 in previous chapters of his exertions along the same 
 17 
 
242 THE FATHER OF THE CHURCH IN TENNESSEE 
 
 lines both there and in Ohio. Suffice it then to state 
 that, under his kindly leadership, the fathers diligently 
 collaborated with him in the cause of souls; religion 
 flourished; and the faithful were delighted at the zeal 
 with which the way of salvation was kept open for 
 them. 
 
 No less a true son of Saint Dominic than a faithful 
 pastor of souls, Father Miles showed the greatest con- 
 cern about the religious observances of the community. 
 They were carried out with a regularity and prompt- 
 ness that were a source of edification to all. He 
 himself set the example; for he felt that, as superior, 
 he should lead the way which he wished the others to 
 follow. When at home rarely did he miss the conven- 
 tual exercises; nay, he would put himself to almost any 
 inconvenience that he might be present at them. Gen- 
 erally he was the first to appear in choir and at mass. 
 In the internal government of the priory, with the 
 exception of wearing the tonsure, he is said to have 
 followed Father Wilson as his model, whose name he 
 seldom mentioned without the qualification of “happy 
 memory,’ and whose ideals he ever held up to his 
 brethren as an inspiration.” 
 
 Doubtless the future bishop was glad to be again 
 in a house which he so greatly loved, and among a 
 people for whom he had a special affection. However, 
 Saint Rose’s without Saint Thomas’ College could 
 hardly have been to him what it had been to him in 
 times past with an institution in which his heart was 
 wrapped up for many years, and which he felt exercised 
 a strong influence not only for the good of his Order, 
 
 186 One not infrequently sees “of happy memory” after Father Wilson’s 
 name. 
 
PRIOR, PROVINCIAL, BISHOP 243 
 
 but also for the advancement of religion and Christian 
 education. An early page will disclose that he cherished 
 a hope of soon seeing the error of closing the College 
 of Saint Thomas of Aquin rectified, if not even that of 
 effecting its re-establishment. 
 
 Another source of joy afforded by his return to 
 Kentucky was the opportunity which it gave him of 
 further aid to Saint Catherine’s Community of Domin- 
 ican Sisters. He sought in every way to help them. 
 Their annals join with tradition in telling us that this 
 joy was mutual; and they show that the community 
 still cherishes his memory in gratitude for his effective 
 sympathy.” 
 
 Father Miles’ missionary life in Ohio added to his 
 reputation as a harvester of souls. No doubt this fact 
 had its part in broadening his labors in Kentucky at 
 the present period; for we now find him, in answer to 
 calls from his brother priests of the diocese, journeying 
 hither and thither in many parts of the state for ser- 
 mons, retreats, spiritual exercises, or other functions 
 of the ministry. Everywhere his efforts were produc- 
 tive of good; nowhere did he fail to please either the 
 clergy or the laity. His name was known and honored 
 throughout the Mississippi Valley. 
 
 Albeit Father N. D. Young, the provincial, had 
 secured the erection of Saint Joseph’s, Somerset, Ohio, 
 into a convent as early as 1834," he seems to have 
 continued to govern that institution himself until 1836, 
 for missionary labors and the lack of priests made it 
 difficult to institute another superior. Father Miles’ 
 
 17 Pages from a Hundred Years of Dominican History, p. 76. 
 
 18 Letters patent dated December 23, 1834 (Archives of Saint Joseph’s 
 Priory). 
 
244 THE FATHER OF THE CHURCH IN TENNESSEE 
 
 term of office in Kentucky expired on May 1, that 
 year. Accordingly, he now became prior of Saint 
 Joseph’s, and appears to have been the first to hold the 
 position there. In view of the fact that the selection 
 of the first prior of a convent belongs to the provincial, 
 and in default of documents to the contrary, we are 
 inclined to believe that he was appointed to that office 
 by Father Young, rather than elected by the commu- 
 nity. Be this as it may, no better choice, nor one more 
 welcome to the fathers, could have been made.” 
 
 Thus the Father of the Church in ‘Tennessee now 
 took up his residence at the mother church and convent 
 of Ohio, which brought him into still more immediate 
 touch with the beginnings of Catholicity in that state 
 than his earlier stay at Zanesville. Here he showed the 
 same zeal that had characterized his apostolate in his 
 previous fields of labor, and won the affections and 
 esteem of all with whom he came into contact. ‘The 
 records show that, though prior, he took his turn with 
 the other fathers on the missions attended from the 
 monastery. It was another broadening of his views 
 and experience, albeit he toiled there for only a short 
 time. In its obituary notice of the bishop the Catholic 
 Tclegraph says: “For many years he was pastor of 
 congregations in Somerset and Zanesville in this dio- 
 cese, where his zeal for the spiritual and temporal 
 welfare of his flock and his most kind and genial man- 
 ners will never be forgotten.” ”° 
 
 Father Young’s appointment as provincial by the 
 
 19 We have not been able to find any document of Father Miles’ ap- 
 pointment or election as prior of Saint Joseph’s; yet it is certain that 
 he became prior there immediately after the expiration of his term of 
 
 office at Saint Rose’s. 
 20 Edition of February 25, 1860. 
 
PRIOR, PROVINCIAL, BISHOP 245 
 
 Most Rev. Francis F. Jabalot read “Subject to Our 
 will” (ad beneplacitum Nostrum). This General died 
 in March, 1834. On May 26, 1834, his successor, the 
 Most Rev. Benedict Maurice Olivieri, reappointed 
 Father Young to the same office, placing the term of 
 his office on the Monday following the third Sunday 
 after Easter, 1837, which Monday fell that year on the 
 seventeenth day of April. In February, 1835, Olivieri 
 resigned the post of General for that of Commissary 
 of the Holy Office, and was succeeded by the Most Rev. 
 Thomas Hyacinth Cipolletti, whom Bishop Fenwick 
 had sought to have appointed his coadjutor in Cin- 
 cinnati.”* 
 
 Meanwhile, Father Young either grew weary of his 
 responsibility, or felt that Father Miles would make 
 a more effective leader for the province; for, if we may 
 judge from a letter of Cipolletti, he wrote to that Gen- 
 eral more than once, praising the virtue, zeal, prudence, 
 religious spirit, and ability of the future bishop, and 
 suggested that it would be well to appoint him pro- 
 vincial. But Father Cipolletti decided that the incum- 
 bent should continue in office for the time specified in 
 his nomination. Furthermore, the General determined 
 to give the fathers of the province their first opportunity 
 to elect their own provincial. He therefore instructed 
 Father Young to convoke a chapter for this purpose 
 at the close of his provincialship.” 
 
 21 Letters patent of Young’s appointment (Archives of Saint Joseph’s 
 Priory); Taurisano, Series Magistrorum Generalium, p. 14; Mortirr, 
 Histoire des Maitres Généraux, VII, 474-476; Life of Fenwick, pp. 
 261-262, 303. 
 
 22 Cipolletti to Young, October 9, 1836 (Archives of the Dominican 
 General: copy in Archives of Saint Joseph’s Province). Father Cipolletti 
 simply signs this letter “Magister Ordinis”; but there is no doubt about 
 its authorship. 
 
246 THE FATHER OF THE CHURCH IN TENNESSEE 
 
 Pursuant to the General’s instructions, the capitular 
 fathers met at Saint Rose’s on April 17, 1837. They 
 were the Revs. N. D. Young, R. P. Miles, J. T. Jarboe, 
 S. L. Montgomery, T. J. Polin, J. V. Bullock, C. P. 
 Montgomery, C. D. Bowling, James Hyacinth Clark- 
 son, and Joseph Augustine Wilson.*’ Father Young, 
 in accordance with the General’s orders, presided at 
 the opening of the chapter. Their first act was to elect 
 (by secret ballot) Fathers Miles and Jarboe and the 
 two Montgomerys definitors, or the law-making body 
 of the assembly. Possibly because it was really the 
 first provincial chapter held in the province, several 
 days were devoted to a consideration of its needs. One 
 subject discussed was certainly the establishment of a 
 college. 
 
 Finally, they came to the selection of a new provin- 
 cial. ‘This was on April 22, 1837, and Father Miles 
 was elected on one ballot. One of the assembly, pos- 
 sibly waiting to see the trend of affairs, evidently 
 abstained from voting, for only nine votes were cast. 
 Of these Father Miles received seven, and Father 
 Polin two. Miles, we may take it for granted, gave his 
 suffrage to Polin. Thus the subject of our narrative 
 was elected provincial by a practically unanimous vote. 
 The reader need hardly be told that the chapter proved 
 a source of great rejoicing.” 
 
 23 A number of these men had no constitutional right to take part in 
 the chapter; from which we conclude that the General, in a subsequent 
 letter (now lost), extended this privilege to all the fathers in order that 
 the first election of their highest superior might the better represent the 
 wish of the province as a whole. This supposition is borne out by an 
 article in the Catholic Advocate of May 13, 1837. However, some of 
 them did not attend the chapter. Doubtless they remained away lest the 
 
 missions should suffer from their absence. 
 *4 Manuscript acts of the chapter (Archives of Saint Joseph’s Province). 
 
PRIORS PROVINCIAL BISHOP 247 
 
 In his letter to Father Young the General had 
 ordained that, although the document of election should 
 be sent to him for confirmation, the one chosen for pro- 
 vincial should take up the office immediately that he 
 was elected. Father Miles, therefore, began to fill that 
 position on April 22, 1837. It is said that the province 
 commenced at once to experience beneficial effects from 
 his administration.” 
 
 The chapter had taken up the question of a college, 
 but deferred it for fuller consideration later. Father 
 Miles, however, began to press the matter immediately 
 that he assumed office; for the Catholic Advocate of 
 May 13, 1837, speaking of the Dominicans and the 
 election of their new provincial, says: “It is understood 
 that they intend to establish a public College next year. 
 Although the Order is more especially instituted 
 for preaching and other duties of the ministry, yet it is 
 considered that the education of youth may be made 
 instrumental in preparing their members for the proper 
 discharge of this most important duty.” Doubtless 
 the presence of two such institutions near Saint Rose’s 
 determined the selection of Saint Joseph’s, in Ohio, 
 for the undertaking. The following notice in the Cath- 
 olic Almanac of 1838 must have been sent in to the 
 editor some time before the close of the previous year. 
 
 There is a college now in progress of building on the convent 
 grounds [at Saint Joseph’s], which will soon be finished, and will 
 afford young gentlemen as many facilities of acquiring a thorough 
 English, Classical and Mathematical education as are enjoyed 
 
 in other literary institutions of the Union. The prospectus of this 
 establishment will be published next year.7® 
 
 25 See note 22. See also Catholic Advocate, May 13, 1837, which shows 
 Father Miles acting in the capacity of provincial. 
 26 Page 98. 
 
248 THE FATHER OF THE CHURCH IN TENNESSEE 
 
 Doubtless Father Miles foresaw that, under the 
 existing circumstances, this enterprise would demand no 
 little courage and sacrifice; but he was not one who 
 would be deterred from any good by such difficulties. 
 Meanwhile, Bishop Purcell, who had strange ideas of 
 the life and privileges of religious, wrote to the new 
 provincial to send the priests at Saint Joseph’s to Cin- 
 cinnati for the diocesan retreat, although they made 
 one in their convent every year. ‘The extraordinary 
 and uncanonical procedure brought forth a reply from 
 Father Miles which reveals the quiet, gentle strength 
 and prudent tactfulness of the man, no less than the 
 poverty of the community. 
 
 Right Rev. Sir:— 
 
 It would afford us great pleasure to comply with the request 
 made by your Reverence that all the clergy should meet at Cin- 
 cinnati for the purpose of making a spiritual retreat; but it would 
 be attended with great difficulty on our part. Our very limited 
 means render it morally impossible that we sheuld all attend. We 
 have heretofore been accustomed to make our retreat annually at 
 Saint Joseph’s. Should it please your Reverence to permit us 
 to continue our accustomed course, it would be regarded as a great 
 favour. If expedient, two of us will attend the Synod, as was 
 our practice in Kentucky. 
 
 A line from your Reverence, expressing your pleasure on this 
 subject, will be gratefully acknowledged. 
 
 With sentiments of the highest esteem and respect, 
 
 Right Rev. Sir, 
 I am your very obedient servant, 
 R. P. Miles, Provincial. 
 Somerset, October 28, 1837.77 
 
 Father Cipolletti seems to have received the document 
 of the future bishop’s election as provincial only late in 
 the summer or early in the fall of 1837. October 1, 
 
 27 Archives of Notre Dame University. 
 
PRIOR, PROVINCIAL, BISHOP 249 
 
 the same year, he sent a letter to the fathers of the 
 province congratulating them on the choice they had 
 made for their leader; and another similar in character 
 to Father Miles himself.* Cipolletti was a superior 
 man in every way. Nothing lay nearer to his heart 
 than the welfare of the religious institute over whose 
 destinies he presided. Perhaps none of the Generals, 
 with the possible exception of Father Gaddi who estab- 
 lished it, showed so friendly an interest in Saint J oseph’s 
 Province for many, many years after it came into exis- 
 tence. No doubt this kindly concern inspired the two 
 documents just mentioned, both of which are delight- 
 fully paternal and encouraging. 
 
 Cipolletti’s letters could not but have been a source 
 of inspiration to the new provincial. Unfortunately 
 an event had already occurred, though apparently still 
 unknown to either the subject of our sketch or his con- 
 freres, which was not merely to thwart these good 
 promises, but likewise to cast a gloom over the province. 
 Bishop Flaget had long desired to have his diocese 
 limited to the State of Kentucky. After the lopping 
 off of Lllinois and Indiana through the erection of the 
 See of Vincennes, in 1834, only Tennessee, a domain 
 wherein Catholicity had been sadly neglected, remained 
 to be separated from Bardstown’s original jurisdiction 
 in order that the saintly prelate’s wish might be real- 
 ized. 
 
 When, therefore, the American hierarchy assembled 
 at Baltimore, April 16-23, 1837, for the third provincial 
 council held in that city, Bishop Chabrat urged the 
 erection of Tennessee into an episcopal see, and asked 
 
 28 Copies in the handwriting of Father Stephen Byrne (Archives of 
 Saint Joseph’s Priory). 
 
250 THE FATHER OF THE CHURCH IN TENNESSEE 
 
 that Father Miles be nominated its head. Indeed, apart 
 from the tradition of Saint Joseph’s Province, there 
 are reasons for believing that Doctors Flaget (then in 
 Europe) and Chabrat had agreed on both these prop- 
 ositions prior to the assembling of ‘the council, if not 
 even before the former started abroad, in 1835. Ac- 
 cordingly, the prelates of the council requested the Holy 
 See to erect the Diocese of Nashville, and placed 
 Father Miles’ name at the head of the list of priests 
 which they forwarded for the selection of a worthy 
 bishop for its government.” 
 
 In answer to the appeal of the. Baltimore council 
 Gregory XVI issued the Brief Universt Dominici 
 Gregis, making Nashville an episcopal see, and the 
 Bull A postolatus Officium, by which Father Miles was 
 appointed its first bishop. Both documents bear the 
 
 29 Sura, History of the Church in the United States, III, 608, 656; 
 CLARKE, Lives of the Deceased Bishops, II, 149; Year Book of St. Mary's 
 Church, Memphis, 1908, p. 47; Facts (Chattanooga, Tennessee), August 
 18, 1894. Two letters of Bishop Francis P. Kenrick show that the vote 
 of the Baltimore council was unanimous. At the same time, they prove 
 that Doctor Kenrick had not lost his former prejudice against the 
 Father of the Church in Tennessee. In that to Cardinal Fransoni (April 
 26, 1837—Propaganda Archives, America Centrale, Vol. XII) he tells 
 the prefect of the Propaganda that he would not have given his consent 
 to Miles’ nomination, had not Bishop Chabrat “lauded his piety, zeal, 
 and other gifts so highly.” Practically the same assertion is made in 
 a letter (May 22, 1837) of Kenrick to the Rev. Paul Cullen, then rector 
 of the Irish College, Rome, and later cardinal archbishop of Dublin 
 (Records of the American Catholic Historical Society, VII, 295). As 
 Doctor Kenrick was so anxious to express his views about Doctor Miles, 
 he can not object to another recording a doubt whether the learned third 
 bishop of Philadelphia would have had the courage to face the task which 
 confronted the apostolic first bishop of Tennessee. Afterwards, however, 
 this bias was succeeded by admiration. See An American Apostle (Life 
 of Very Rev. M. A. O’Brien), pp. 141-142. The high regard in which 
 the other bishops of the council held Father Miles is further shown by 
 the fact that they also placed his name on the list of priests proposed for 
 Natchez. 
 
PRIOR, PROVINCIAL, BISHOP asp 
 
 date of July 28, 1837, were forwarded to America at 
 the same time, and reached Baltimore late in October.°®° 
 This action of the Holy See brought consternation to 
 Saint Joseph’s Province of Dominicans, for the fathers 
 felt that, in their state of poverty and with their small 
 number of priests, they could not afford to lose so val- 
 uable a man. ‘To them their beloved provincial seemed 
 simply indispensable. 
 
 We remember reading some years ago a letter of 
 Father Thomas Martin, one of the most unselfish and 
 efficient of Ohio’s early missionaries, in which he rather 
 indignantly complained against the appointment. He 
 declared that, if they were determined to make Father 
 Miles a bishop, they should have had him appointed 
 successor to Fenwick in Cincinnati, so that he could have 
 collaborated with his brethren, instead of sending him 
 to Nashville, where his services would be lost to them 
 altogether. What Miles himself thought about his nom- 
 ination is evident from the following reply to Bishop 
 Purcell. 
 
 Somerset, [Ohio], November 9, 1837. 
 Right Rev. dear Sir:— 
 
 Your favour of the third instant reached me this morning. I 
 am apprehensive that my nomination to the See of Nashville will 
 prevent any of our Fathers from joining you either in the retreat 
 or synod. If I must accept, it will be necessary that we should 
 meet in council and attend to the affairs of the Order, which will 
 be much affected by my removal; and there will be no time to 
 lose, as in that case I must hasten to adjust my affairs here and 
 return to St. Rose. 
 
 The loss of any efficient member of the Order at this time will 
 be severely felt; and I do not see how I can in conscience accept, 
 
 30 Archives of the Secretary of Briefs, Vol. 4929, Vatican Palace, Rome; 
 HeErNAEz, Coleccion de Bulas, Breves y Otros Documentos, etc., II, 794; 
 Bullarium de Propaganda Fide, V, 163. 
 
Abs THE FATHER OF THE CHURCH IN TENNESSEE 
 
 without compulsion. The Archbishop has informed me officially 
 of my nomination, and I have requested him to send on the Bulls 
 and other documents which he says are in his hands. If these 
 contain a formal precept, I then have no choice; but if left 
 free, I shall certainly remain so. 
 
 I do not feel disposed to complain of my superiors, but I think 
 there has been a strange blunder committed in my nomination. 
 How could it ever have entered into the mind of any one to appoint 
 a poor Religious, who cannot command one cent, in case he accepts, 
 to a See where there is neither a church nor a clergyman, nor any 
 means, that I know of, to procure either. I shall not even have 
 a book except my breviary; and my brethren are not obliged to 
 supply me. And in case I am taken from them without their 
 consent, they will be illy disposed to assist me. Unless, therefore, 
 the will of God manifests itself in a manner that I cannot resist 
 without [sin?],°4 I shall feel myself bound under sin to refuse. 
 May His holy will be done. 
 
 I, am, 
 Right Rev. dear Sir, 
 Yours sincerely, 
 RiiP2)MilessOrpe 
 Provincial of the Province of St. Joseph. 
 Right Rev. Dr. Purcell.?? 
 
 This document speaks for itself. It is straightfor- 
 ward, to the point, brief, strong, and clear; it breathes 
 the true spirit of humility, obedience, and respect for 
 authority; it reveals a well-poised mind and a noble 
 character without self-interest, no less than a soul pos- 
 sessed of much kindly strength; it marks a superior 
 under whom one would rejoice to live and to labor. 
 
 Evidently another Friar Preacher wrote a letter 
 of protest to the Order’s General. Most likely this 
 was N. D. Young, who wielded a ready pen; and he 
 
 31 A word is torn out here, and the word sin, which suggests itself, 
 
 would just fit in the missing space. 
 32 Archives of Notre Dame University. 
 
PRIOR, PROVINCIAL, BISHOP Zo 
 
 doubtless did so as much at Miles’ request as of his 
 own accord—perhaps even in response to the entreaty 
 and in the name of his confreres. Quite possibly, so 
 strong was the desire to retain their provincial, the 
 letter was signed by every professed member of the 
 province. At any rate, on January 2, 1838, Father 
 Cipolletti wrote to the fathers in general, stating that, 
 because of their great loss, he himself was overwhelmed 
 with grief when informed by his Eminence James 
 Philip Cardinal Franzoni, prefect of the Propaganda, 
 that Miles had been preconized bishop of Nashville. 
 However, Cipolletti feared then, and still fears, to 
 protest against the appointment; but if Father Miles 
 himself will write directly to the Holy Father, begging 
 to be relieved from such an honor for the good of the 
 province and the American missions, then the General, 
 in case his opinion is asked, will do whatever he possibly 
 can in the matter.*® 
 
 Although, owing to the sacred secrecy under which 
 the Propaganda guards its documents of less than a 
 hundred years of age, we have discovered no letter on 
 the subject from the bishop elect to Gregory XVI, 
 other sources show that he followed Father Cipolletti’s 
 suggestion, and apparently made more than one urgent 
 appeal to be freed from the glory of the miter. In 
 fact, despite his strong opposition, the affair dragged 
 on for nearly a twelvemonth. Rome’s inflexibility in- 
 dicates that “the striking testimony” (praeclarum testi- 
 monum) which Gregory declares in the bull of 
 appointment he has received “from the late provincial 
 
 33 Copy in Father Stephen Byrne’s handwriting (Archives of Saint 
 
 Joseph’s Priory). In this letter Cipolleti appoints Father Young provis- 
 ional provincial, so that the province may nct be without a head. 
 
254 THE FATHER OF THE CHURCH IN TENNESSEE 
 
 synod of Baltimore of his [Miles’] piety, moral integ- 
 rity, learning, and zeal and labor for the propagation 
 of religion” continued to be urged at the papal court 
 by persons anxious for his nomination. Possibly 
 Bishops Purcell and Chabrat—and even Bishop Flaget 
 himself, who was then in Kurope—were the responsible 
 parties. 
 
 Meanwhile, Father Miles labored on with the affairs 
 of the province; but his state of uneasiness stood in the 
 way of his efforts for its advancement. ‘The project 
 which suffered the most from his appointment to a 
 bishopric was that of the proposed new college, for it 
 was not put into execution until more than ten years 
 afterwards. When the positive order finally came from 
 the Vicar of Christ that he must accept the dreaded 
 dignity, he gracefully bowed to the will of heaven, and 
 
 wrote to Bishop Rosati of Saint Louis: 
 Right Rev. and dear Sir:— 
 Having lately received a letter from the Cardinal Prefect of 
 
 
 
 the Propaganda, in which his Eminence informs me that the Holy 
 Father insists on my accepting the arduous office of Bishop, I have 
 consented to do so. The consecration will take place on the six- 
 teenth of September, in the Cathedral of St. Joseph, at Bardstown. 
 It is my wish that your Reverence would be present on the occa- 
 sion. Should it suit your convenience to confer this honor on one 
 so unworthy, it will be regarded as a great favour, and one not 
 to be forgotten. In the mean time I beg a share in your prayers 
 and sacrifices. 
 I am, 
 Right Rev. and dear Sir, 
 with sentiments of high esteem, 
 Your Reverence’s humble servant and brother in Jesus Christ, 
 R. P. Miles, 
 Bishop elect of Nashville. 
 
PRIOR, PROVINCIAL, BISHOP 
 
 bo 
 on 
 wn 
 
 Bardstown, August 22, 1838. 
 Right Rev. Dr. Rosati, 
 Bishop of St Louis.*4 
 
 Father Miles had no doubt gone to Bardstown, im- 
 mediately on the receipt of his orders from Rome, to 
 inform Bishops David and Chabrat of his acceptance 
 of the miter, and to engage the venerable David to per- 
 form the august ceremony of consecration; but the 
 aged prelate felt that he was too feeble to undertake 
 so long and arduous a rite. ‘Then it was agreed that 
 the honor should go to Doctor Rosati as the next 
 senior bishop in the west. ‘There also it was doubtless 
 decided that the event should take place in Bardstown, 
 on September 16, and that invitations should be ex- 
 tended to only the nearest ordinaries, for Father Miles 
 had little taste for personal display, and his heart was 
 too sad for exaltation. Bishops Flaget and Purcell 
 were in Europe; but Bishop Kenrick of Philadelphia 
 was invited because he had been a priest in Kentucky. 
 When the reverend editor of the Catholic Advocate re- 
 ceived the news he wrote: 
 
 We have been very much gratified to learn that the Right Rev. 
 Dr. Miles, some months since nominated by the Holy See to the 
 newly erected See of Nashville, has, in consequence of letters just 
 received from Rome, accepted the appointment. We have re- 
 ceived no intelligence lately which has rejoiced us more. The 
 Catholics dispersed throughout the State of Tennessee have long 
 been in need of more spiritual aid than it has been in the power 
 of the Bishop of Bardstown to extend to them. From the known 
 talents, acquirements, and zeal of Bishop Miles we most con- 
 fidently anticipate a rich harvest of spiritual blessings to his new 
 flock. His appointment has afforded universal satisfaction, both 
 to the Catholic Clergy and Laity, and to all who are acquainted 
 with him. 
 
 34 Diocesan Archives of Saint Louis. 
 
256 THE FATHER OF THE CHURCH IN TENNESSEE 
 
 The Consecration of Dr. Miles will take place in St. Joseph’s 
 Cathedral, on Sunday the 16th of September. The Right Revs. 
 Drs. Rosati, Kenrick and Bruté have been invited, and are ex- 
 pected to attend on the occasion. Dr. Miles earnestly invites 
 all the Regular and Secular Clergy of Kentucky to be present 
 at the ceremony. We hope that all those whose occupations may 
 allow will comply with his request.*° 
 
 The Catholic papers of the country evinced no little 
 delight when copying the Advocate’s statement. or 
 instance, the Catholic Telegraph, Archbishop Purcell’s 
 diocesan organ, in its issue of September 6, 1838, de- 
 clares: “Our feelings of gratification and joy are in 
 unison with those which our friends of the Catholic 
 Advocate express in the followmg announcement.” 
 Similarly, the United States Catholic Miscellany, con- 
 ducted by Bishop England himself, says, on September 
 8, 1838: “We copy the following very gratifying intel- 
 ligence from the Catholic Advocate of Bardstown, of 
 August 25. The last Provincial Council recommended 
 the creation of the Diocese [of Nashville] and the ap- 
 pointment of Doctor Miles.” 
 
 Doubtless Father Miles looked forward to the event 
 in fear and trembling, for he was to receive a dignity 
 and to take upon himself a responsibility which he 
 dreaded. Because of their intrinsic interest, no less than 
 because of their place in our narrative and in the history 
 of the Church in Tennessee, we must not omit two 
 accounts of the consecration by eye-witnesses. One is 
 evidently by a clergyman, the other by a chance spec- 
 tator who was not of the faith. ‘The first must have been 
 prepared with considerable care, for it reached the 
 Catholic Advocate too late for the issue immediately 
 
 35 Edition of August 25, 1838. Bishop Kenrick did not attend the 
 consecration. 
 
PRIOR, PROVINCIAL, BISHOP ay) 
 
 following the event, which appeared on Septembr 22, 
 1838, and could not be published until that of the 
 twenty-ninth of the month. 
 
 THE CONSECRATION 
 OM Et aARIGH TREVOR Pe NEES. DD. 1, 
 
 This splendid ceremony took place in St. Joseph’s Cathedral 
 on last Sunday morning. At an early hour, the church was crowded 
 to overflowing. When everything had been prepared, the proces- 
 sion of the Bishops and clergy moved in order from the Sacristy 
 to the Sanctuary. The Right Rev. Joseph Rosati acted as Bishop 
 Consecrator, and he was assisted by the Right Rev. Dr. Chabrat, 
 Bishop Coadjutor of Bardstown, and the Right Rev. Dr. Bruté, 
 Bishop of Vincennes. The Right Rev. Dr. David had been in- 
 vited by the Bishop Elect to officiate as Bishop Consecrator, but 
 his great age and growing infirmities prevented his acceptance 
 of the invitation. The venerable old man however assisted at the 
 function in which he was not able to participate.°® 
 
 The Very Rev. Stephen T. Badin officiated as assistant Priest; 
 the Very Rev. E. J. Durbin as Deacon; the Rev. Mr. [ Charles | 
 Blanc as Subdeacon;** the Rev. M. J. Spalding, D.D., as Notary, 
 read the Bulls of Consecration; and the Rev. F. Evremond, S.J., 
 and the Rev. W. E. Clark acted as Masters of Ceremonies. The 
 Rev. S. H. Montgomery and the Rev. Joseph Haseltine assisted 
 the Bishop Elect as Chaplains. Many of the clergy of the Dio- 
 cess, both regular and secular, were also present, and aided in 
 the functions of the solemn sacrifice. 
 
 The impressive and splendid ceremonies of the church, in the 
 consecration of Bishops, were heightened in their effect by the 
 
 36It was fortunate that Bishop David did not undertake to be the 
 consecrating prelate; for in a letter, written September 17, 1838, to Sister 
 Elizabeth, Union County, he tells her that a slight attack of illness 
 obliged him to leave the sanctuary “ about the preface’ (Archives of 
 Nazareth Academy, Bardstown). 
 
 37 Through an oversight, when giving a brief account of Bishop Miles’ 
 consecration in An American Apostle (page 59), we stated that this 
 priest was the Rev. Anthony Blanc, later archbisop of New Orleans. 
 Doctor Blanc was consecrated in 1835. The man mentioned here belonged 
 to the Diocese of Bardstown. 
 
 18 
 
258 THE FATHER OF THE CHURCH IN TENNESSEE 
 
 manner in which they were performed. All admired the perfect 
 ease and self-possession; the gravity, the dignity, and unction with 
 which the venerable Consecrator, the Right Rev. Dr. Rosati, per- 
 formed all the lengthy functions of the day. There is in his voice 
 and whole manner something peculiarly impressive and moving—- 
 something that decorates and sets off in its proper form the splen- 
 did ceremonial of our church. 
 
 All were impressed, too, with the appearance of the Bishop 
 Elect. Though deeply affected, he went through the whole cere- 
 mony with firmness, self-possession and dignity. Whether making 
 his solemn profession of faith in the hands of the consecrating 
 Bishop, or answering the solemn questions propounded to him in 
 regard to his future conduct—whether prostrate in prayer at the 
 foot of the altar, imploring the prayers of the Saints in heaven, 
 or receiving the imposition of hands from the Bishops, and being 
 anointed with the mystic unction—the emblem of his consecration 
 to God—whether bearing the Book of the Gospel upon his neck, 
 as the yoke which he was in future more especially bound to bear; 
 or, clad in all the insignia of his episcopal office, walking proces- 
 sionally through the congregation and giving his benediction— 
 throughout the whole solemn functions, he awakened a deep inter- 
 est in all present. 
 
 The consecration sermon was preached by the Very Rev. John 
 Timon. It was an appropriate and excellent discourse on the min- 
 istry established by Jesus Christ. He proved from natural 
 reason and the Scriptures that Christ established a regular gra- 
 dation amongst the ministers of his church—that to their charge He 
 had entrusted the sacred deposit of faith and of the sacraments, 
 and that to their judgment are the faithful to attend, if they do 
 not wish “to be tossed to and fro by every wind of doctrine.” 
 His address to the Bishop Elect at the close of the discourse was 
 full of unction and tenderness. He alluded to the difficulties and 
 trials with which he would have to contend in his new Diocess, 
 and hoped that the same success might crown his labors as had 
 crowned those of the Right Rev. Bishops Flaget and Rosati, who, 
 in a few years, had reared such beautiful monuments to religion. 
 
 Bishop Miles expects to be in Nashville on Sunday, the 14th of 
 October. Truly, he goes like the Apostles, without purse or scrip, 
 or money in his girdle: but we hope and trust that he has a large 
 
PRIOR, PROVINCIAL, BISHOP 299 
 
 portion of their spirit, and that his zealous labors will be crowned 
 with similar success. He will bear with him the kind wishes and 
 the prayers and tears of many friends. God prosper him in his 
 arduous labors! ! °° 
 
 The second account is taken from The Record which 
 reprinted it some years ago from a source unknown to 
 us. First, its writer, evidently a visitor in Bardstown, 
 tells how he accidentally heard on the morning of Sep- 
 tember 16, 1838, that a Catholic bishop was to be con- 
 secrated in the cathedral that day. So great was his 
 curiosity to witness the ceremony that he deferred his 
 breakfast and hastened to the church at the first sound 
 of the bell. But the bell was for an early mass, through 
 which the good man remained in the vain hope of seeing 
 a bishop consecrated. However, he was rewarded by the 
 sight of an extraordinary manifestation of piety on the 
 part of the worshippers at mass and in receiving holy 
 communion. He records his impressions at length, and 
 
 then proceeds to say: 
 
 I ascertained, before leaving the church for my breakfast, that 
 the ceremony of consecration, which I had so much anxiety to wit- 
 ness, was to commence at ten o’clock. Before the hour arrived, 
 the bell, whose solemn sound I had previously admired, seemed to 
 thunder into my ears audi verbum Domini. I returned to the 
 church. It was pretty well filled; I seated myself in an eligible 
 pew, convenient to the altar and the pulpit. Presently there en- 
 tered about one hundred of the students of St. Joseph’s College, 
 and ascended to the gallery. Soon was every pew filled to over- 
 
 flowing—not a seat was vacant. 
 
 38 Catholic Advocate, September 29, 1838. It should have appeared 
 in the previous edition—September 22. It is worthy of note that the 
 Rey. Martin John Spalding, who acted as notary for the consecration, 
 later became bishop of Louisville and archbishop of Baltimore; while the 
 Rey. John Timon, who preached on the occasion, afterwards became the 
 first bishop of Buffalo. 
 
260 THE FATHER OF THE CHURCH IN TENNESSEE 
 
 At this point in his account the spectator tells. of 
 the entrance of some one hundred and thirty young 
 ladies from Nazareth Academy, who occupied seats 
 prepared for them in front of the pews. ‘The tribute 
 which he pays them and the noted institution which they 
 represented is beautiful, but it can scarcely be said to 
 have formed a part of the ceremony. Consequently 
 
 we pass on to the rest of the article which states: 
 
 Presently a throng, robed in all the sublime splendor of the 
 Catholic ritual, crowded into the sanctuary, amongst whom were 
 four who had already been honored with the Mitre. I regret 
 exceedingly that my intimacy with the Catholic liturgy does 
 not enable me to picture the character of this truly sublime and 
 imposing ceremony. Of the number who thronged the sanctuary, 
 one of the mitred dignitaries performed the sacrifice of the Mass, 
 which I discovered to be intimately connected with the consecrating 
 service. His appearance of itself was imposing. He seemed to be 
 officiating in that place for which he was intended by nature; his 
 manner, so graceful and dignified, seemed to add much to the 
 impressive scene. His intellectual countenance appeared as though 
 he was alone with subjects celestial in their nature. 
 
 During the consecration, the Litaniae Sanctorum, together with 
 many other hymns in Latin and English, were chanted. The music 
 awakened every sense of my understanding, aroused every feeling 
 of my soul, and pealed into my heart this truth, that homage is 
 due from man to the Author of his being. I wondered not, after 
 listening to this music, that Orpheus of old harmonized the pas- 
 sions of the Grecians, and subdued the ferocity of the beasts, 
 and even tranquilized the tortures of the infernal regions. 
 
 After the Gospel was read, one of the sacred order, having 
 invoked a blessing from above, retired from the thronged sanctuary 
 and ascended the pulpit. He delivered a short but truly eloquent 
 and appropriate sermon, and returned to afford an opportunity for 
 the continuance of this mysterious and certainly interesting part 
 of the Catholic liturgy. An offering, apparently consisting of 
 loaves and small casks of wine, was made by the new Bishop to 
 the Prelate Consecrator, in accordance with their ancient and 
 
dhs ‘ Set aa 
 Cyd Me Se ong 
 hit PL at otk iy 
 fl ad - i) vs Al, 
 Sha z i Cie, lly a 
 fof rt "s 
 
 - 
 
 & .. 
 Tink wy ~ 
 
 - 
 
 
 

 
 THE RIGHT REV. RICHARD PIUS MILES, O. P. 
 
PRIOR, PROVINCIAL, BISHOP 261 
 
 peculiar custom. This unchanging character of their religious 
 rites forcibly reminded me of the unalterable attributes of the 
 Deity. 
 
 When the consecration of Bishop Miles was completed, it was 
 announced by one of the inmates of the sanctuary that he had to 
 pass through the aisle of the church. It was instantly cleared of 
 its crowd. He then, accompanied by two others of the same rank, 
 walked down and back, at the same time invoking from on high 
 benedictions on all present. Robed in the vestments of a Bishop, 
 he presented an appearance truly grand and imposing. His mild- 
 ness and humility seemed to impress the crowded assembly with 
 respect and with veneration. When the ceremony was ended (which 
 lasted for upwards of two hours), the noise created by the im- 
 mense crowds retiring was drowned by a burst of rich melody 
 from the organ, which gave rise to the most pleasing sensations. 
 The skillful musicians, in accordance with the occasion, executed 
 a piece animating and appropriate. 
 
 Thus ended the consecration, which surpassed in beauty, 
 grandeur, and solemnity anything I had ever had the satisfaction of 
 witnessing. I seriously concluded that this ceremony bore, un- 
 questionably, an impress of some supernatural institution, for its 
 sublimity could never have been reached by human intellect.°? 
 
 Father Miles was now a member of the American 
 hierarchy. He had become the first bishop of ‘Tennessee 
 in the first cathedral west of the Alleghany Mountains. 
 History was still a-making in old Bardstown. A 
 beautiful character had been consecrated with a beau- 
 tiful ceremony, accompanied with the pomp, glory, and 
 splendor of the Catholic ritual; yet the congratulations 
 heaped upon him must have sounded almost like irony 
 or insult. ‘Truly was he to enter upon his new field 
 of toil “like the apostles, without purse or scrip, or 
 
 39 We regret that the clipping from The Recerd which we used for 
 the above does not give the date on which it appeared; but we remember 
 that it was a good many years ago. Another cause for regret is that the 
 
 late Father Louis G. Deppen, then editor of The Record, did not tell 
 when and where the original appeared. 
 
262 THE FATHER OF THE CHURCH IN TENNESSEE 
 
 money in his girdle’. Fortunately he possessed “a 
 large portion of their spirit.” Without co-laborers, 
 poverty was his sole companion. All that he could com- 
 mand was a courage quickened by the order of God 
 received through His Vicar on earth, and, as the editor 
 of the Advocate tells us, his “known talents, acquire- 
 ments, and zeal,” to which we may add “virtue of a 
 heroic character.” 
 
CHAPTER XII 
 
 EARLY TENNESSEE 
 
 THE early history of Tennessee vies with that of Ken- 
 tucky in romantic glamour. The early settlers of both 
 states were largely of the same stock, had the same 
 difficulties with which to contend, showed the same 
 prowess in danger, possessed the same spirit of chiv- 
 alry, and were guided by the same views in their west- 
 ward migration. Perhaps this explains, in part, why 
 the character of their descendants is strikingly similar 
 even to this day, while their sympathies and _ politics 
 have much in common. Indeed, climatically and typo- 
 graphically the two commonwealths seem to have been 
 intended by nature to form only one. 
 
 Just when the white man first set foot on the soil of 
 Tennessee will possibly never be known with absolute 
 certainty. However, there are many who, not without 
 good reason, are strongly inclined to the belief, if not 
 even convinced, that the no less ill-fated than historic 
 expedition of Hernando de Soto (1539-1542) made its 
 way into the southern part of the state, halted for about 
 a month on the Chickasaw bluff, where stands the pres- 
 ent City of Memphis, and there crossed the Mississippi 
 River into Arkansas. The Indian village of Chisca, 
 they maintain, occupied the same site that is now oc- 
 cupied by Memphis. ‘They base their arguments on a 
 comparison of the topography of the country described 
 by the companions of De Soto with that of southern 
 
 263 
 
264 THE FATHER OF THE CHURCH IN TENNESSEE 
 
 ‘Tennessee, the location of Chisea, and the fact that 
 religious articles of Spanish make have been found on 
 Jackson Mound, just below the southern limits of 
 Memphis." 
 
 If these unfortunate Spaniards wandered so far 
 north, they were beyond question the earliest of the 
 Caucasian race to visit that part of the American con- 
 tinent. ‘There were a number of clergymen with the 
 expedition, and among them two at least, Fathers John 
 de Gallegos and Louis de Soto, seem certainly to have 
 belonged to the Order of Saint Dominic.” Thus, in 
 ease the sad remnant of wayfarers reached ‘Tennessee, 
 two of the first priests in the state were confreres of the 
 first bishop of Nashville. Circumstances rendered it 
 impossible for the missionaries to do any work among 
 the Indians throughout the long and perilous journey. 
 After the battle at Mauilla (or Mavilla) they could not 
 even say mass for the Spaniards, for all their wheat, 
 flour, vestments, and church vessels were lost in a con- 
 flagration at that place.° 
 
 Again, it is well within the realm of probability, 
 though not susceptible of proof, that Louis Joliet and 
 
 1 The great majority of those who have really studied the accounts 
 of De Soto’s peregrinations place Tennessee and Memphis on the route 
 he followed. There is a very good article on the subject by Walter 
 Malone in the Memphis Commercial Appeal of July 2, 1909. The late 
 Brother Maurelian of the Christian Brothers College, Memphis, who was 
 thoroughly versed in the history of Tennessee, and especially in that of 
 Memphis, was convinced that De Soto passed that way; and he used to 
 show religious articles that had been found on Jackson Mound. 
 
 2 SHEA, Catholic Missions among the Indian Tribes of the United States, 
 p. 45. These two fathers died after the expedition passed under the leader- 
 ship of Louis de Moscoso who succeeded to command after the death 
 of De Soto. 
 
 3 SHEA, History of the Church, I, 112; Winsor, Narrative and Critical 
 
 History of America, II, 249; Spanish Explorers in the Southern United 
 States (In Original Narratives of Early American History), p. 193. 
 
EARLY TENNESSEE 265 
 
 Pere Jaques Marquette touched on the western shore 
 of 'Vennessee on their voyage down or up the Missis- 
 sippi in 1673.4 Robert Cavelier de La Salle made a 
 similar voyage down the great Father of Waters in 
 1682, erected Fort Prud’>homme on the site of our 
 modern Memphis, and raised the flag of France over the 
 stockade in attestation that he took possession of the 
 country in the name of his Catholic majesty, Louis 
 XIV. With La Salle were two Franciscan Recollects, 
 Fathers Zenobius Membré and Anastasius Douay.” 
 Unless, therefore, De Soto’s expedition extended into 
 Tennessee, the French were the first white race who trod 
 the soil of the state, and the first priests within its limits 
 either the Jesuit Marquette, or the Franciscans Membré 
 and Douay. None of these men could have labored 
 among the Indians at the time; but at least the two sons 
 of Saint Francis must have offered up the holy sacrifice 
 of the mass where Memphis now stands. In any case, 
 the discoverers of the country were of the Catholic faith. 
 Fort Assumption (Assomption), so named in honor 
 of the Blessed Virgin, succeeded Prud’homme in 1714.° 
 By this time, in fact, a cordon of small French forts 
 and posts had begun to spring up, which soon extended 
 4The Jesuit Relations and Allied Docunents (edited by Thwaites), 
 LVIII, 95 ff. Other volumes of the same work touch on the same topic. 
 It is generally admitted that Joliet and Marquette journeyed as far south 
 as the neighborhood of the Arkansas River; and that Marquette’s journal 
 of the voyage describes embankments which correspond with those on the 
 Tennessee side of the Mississippi, which suggests that he probably stopped 
 at some of these places. See also CHARLEVoIx-SHEA, History and De- 
 scription of New France, III, 178 ff. 
 5 SHEA, History of the Church, I, 326 ff; Catholic Encyclopedia, IX, 
 378; Bancrort, History of the United States, III, 167-168; Ramsey, 
 Annals of Tennessee, p. 39; Puetan, History of Tennessee, pp. 5, 313; 
 
 RANDALL-Ryan, History of Ohio, I, 143-144. 
 6 PHELAN, op. cit., p. 313; GoopspeED, History of Tennessee, p. 62. 
 
266 THE FATHER OF THE CHURCH IN TENNESSEE 
 
 from Quebec to the Great Lakes, and thence to New 
 Orleans. Through these, in spite of the small number 
 of French in the New World, there was a constant com- 
 munication between the vast Gallican possessions. 
 Seeking new discoveries and conquests, trapping wild 
 animals, plying his trade with the Indians, acting under 
 an inborn spirit of adventure, responding to the call 
 of his wander-lust, or obeying orders from the civic 
 authorites, back and forth the Gaul wandered between 
 north and south, or from post to post. Quebec, Mon- 
 treal, or the country of ‘the Great Lakes lay at one end 
 of his journey; New Orleans at the other. Oftentimes 
 he was never less alone than when alone; for then his 
 poetic soul could, undisturbed, contemplate and revel 
 in the unrivalled beauties of primeval nature. Per- 
 haps it is this mental build that enables the French, 
 even though brought up in the most refined society, to 
 content themselves in the wilds of forest or desert, and 
 has had its part in making them such splendid mis- 
 sionaries among uncivilized peoples.‘ 
 
 The Vicariate Apostolic of Quebec was established 
 in 1657. In 1674 it became a bishopric, whose jurisdic- 
 tion, besides Canada, soon embraced all the then known 
 parts of the present United States except the English 
 colonies along the Atlantic seaboard and those of Spain 
 on the northeastern shore of the Gulf of Mexico.” The 
 Mississippi River was the great artery of trade, travel, 
 and communication between the southernmost and 
 northernmost possessions of France. Up and down 
 
 7 The ability of the French to accommodate themselves to such untoward 
 circumstances is a well-known characteristic of that nation. 
 SLe Vénérable Francois de Montmorency-Laval Premier Evéque de 
 
 Québec (Souvenir of the Second Centenary of his Death) ; SHEA, History 
 of the Church, II and III, passim. 
 
EARLY TENNESSEE 267 
 
 its waters the missionaries made their way to and from 
 their fields of labor, whether among the aborigines or 
 their own fellow-countrymen. 
 
 Fort Prud’homme, or Fort Assumption, was a 
 convenient resting-place for these zealous messengers of 
 the Gospel.’ Despite the lack of documents, therefore, 
 there can be no doubt that they often halted there, ad- 
 ministered the grace of the sacraments to the whites 
 connected with the post, and sought to christianize the 
 red men who happened to be in the vicinity. Quite 
 possibly, too, they made other landings on the eastern 
 bank of the river between the present states of Ken- 
 tucky and Mississippi. However, the Indians in Ten- 
 nessee do not seem to have offered an attractive or prom- 
 ising field for apostolic labor; for it appears certain 
 that the missionaries made no concerted effort for the 
 conversion of the tribes of that state. 
 
 Perhaps the explanation of this apparent neglect is 
 to be found in the character and location of these Indians 
 themselves. ‘They were all largely wandering tribes, 
 without fixed villages. The Shawnees, on the lower 
 Cumberland, were so migratory that it is difficult to 
 determine their real abode. The Cherokees loved the 
 mountains and highlands,” lived in the east, and were 
 more settled; yet they spent the greater part of the 
 time on the war path, or in the common hunting grounds 
 of middle Tennessee and Kentucky. Besides, they were 
 near the English possessions, and far removed from 
 the highway of travel followed by the missionaries. 
 The Choctaws held the upper Cumberland; while the 
 
 9 Fort Assumption was built at the mouth of Wolf River (the Margot 
 
 of the French), and on the present site of Memphis. 
 10 The word Cherokee is said to mean “upland field.” 
 
268 THE FATHER OF THE CHURCH IN TENNESSEE 
 
 Chickasaws claimed and used the territory between the 
 Tennessee and Mississippi rivers, and were bitter ene- 
 mies of the French. Furthermore, the strongholds of 
 the last two tribes were in Mississippi, where they could 
 be more conveniently reached from the south. In these 
 facts, no doubt, we have the principal reason why 
 Tennessee was passed by for a more promising apos- 
 tolate on either side of the great watercourse, both 
 above and below.** 
 
 French traders, in small numbers, made their. way 
 among the Indian tribes scattered through the state. 
 As early as 1714, a trading post was established on the 
 present site of Nashville. Possibly there were others in 
 the state, of which no memory or trace has been left. 
 In 1736, it was discovered that one Christian Priber, 
 whose name and position suggest that he was an Al- 
 satian, lived among the Cherokees. He seems to have 
 spent a part of his time in eastern Tennessee. He 
 knew the language of the Indians perfectly, sought 
 to bring them to a more civilized manner of life, and 
 to ally them with the French, as whose agent he acted.” 
 These traders were Catholics, but there is no indication 
 
 11 Catholic Encyclopedia, XIV, 508; PHELAN, op. cit., passim; BANCROFT, 
 op. cit., III, passim; The Catholic Journal of the South, December 21, 
 1912; The Century Cyclopedia of Names, passim. 
 
 12 RAMSEY, op. cit., pp. 45, 79; PHELAN, op. cit., pp. 10, 114; History 
 of Nashville (edited by Wooldridge), p. 38; Crayton, History of David- 
 son County, Tennessee, p. 17; Apvatr, History of the American Indians, 
 pp. 240-243; Stevens, History of Georgia, I, 164-167; Nineteenth Annual 
 Report of the Bureau of American Ethnology, Part I, pp. 36-37. It is 
 hard to say which the Rev. B. Stevens stretched the most, his imagination 
 or his prejudice, in his harsh characterization of Priber as a Jesuit. There 
 is no record of a Jesuit or any other missionary of that name in the north, 
 west, or south. Adair does not call him a priest, and there is nothing 
 
 to show that he was. Unfortunately, J. W. Powell, in the Ethnological 
 Report, was deceived by Stevens, and calls Priber a Jesuit. 
 
EARLY TENNESSEE 269 
 
 that priests of their nationality ever visited their posts 
 of business or the red men whose friendship they cul- 
 tivated. 
 
 After the French and Indian War, the territory 
 claimed by the French on the lower Mississippi, to- 
 gether with all the country west of the great river, 
 passed into the hands of Spain. ‘Thus the Catholic 
 missions there fell under Spanish domination. Quebec 
 retained its jurisdiction over those parts ceded to Great 
 Britain, for the Treaty of Paris (1763) guaranteed 
 religious liberty to their inhabitants. The Quebec Act 
 (1774) still further confirmed this freedom of con- 
 science, but the suppression of the Society of Jesus 
 (1773) had greatly crippled the missionary force in the 
 near and middie west. With the recognition of the 
 independence of the United States by England, Sep- 
 tember 3, 1783; the appointment of Father John Car- 
 roll prefect apostolic of the new American republic, 
 June 9, 1784; and his nomination as bishop of Balti- 
 more, November 6, 1789, the missions on the southern 
 shores of the Great Lakes were severed from their 
 allegiance to Quebec. However, owing to the occupa- 
 tion of those parts by British forces, the ecclesiastical 
 jurisdiction over them remained in doubt until several 
 years after Carroll’s consecration. 
 
 F’rom the end of the French and Indian War to 
 the appointment of Father John Carroll prefect apos- 
 tolic, ‘Tennessee was in the extreme southern portion 
 of the Diocese of Quebec. Then it became subject to 
 Baltimore. Fort Assumption no longer played any 
 role in the scheme of colonization. Yet it was seized by 
 the Spanish in 1794, They erected Fort San Ferdi- 
 
270 THE FATHER OF THE CHURCH IN TENNESSEE 
 
 nando, and remained in possession for four years.”® 
 
 During all this time, and from the recession of the 
 southern and western country to France by Spain 
 (1800), no less than from the Louisiana Purchase by 
 the United States (1803), until the establishment of 
 the Diocese of Nashville, western 'Tennessee appears to 
 have had no more than an occasional visit from a priest 
 while on a journey up or down the Father of Waters. 
 There are no records of even such calls; yet it seems 
 improbable that the country should have been left so 
 long untouched by some missionary of Louisiana, 
 Mississippi, or Missouri. ‘Thus, although Tennessee 
 was first discovered by Catholics, and the earliest 
 attempts at colonization of the state were made by them 
 in the west, these pioneers failed to plant the standard of 
 Catholicity permanently within its boundary. ‘Those 
 who brought it this blessing, as will now be seen, came 
 in from other directions. 
 
 Successful occupation of the lands of Tennessee by 
 the white man began in the east. ‘The French had 
 failed in the west principally because of their lack of 
 numbers and the want of sympathetic support by the 
 authorities abroad. ‘The English-speaking colonists 
 prevailed on its soil through their own bravery and 
 perseverance. Just when the first of them passed over 
 the mountains into the present limits of the state will 
 possibly never be known. However, it seems almost 
 certain that hunters, explorers, and traders with the 
 Indians made their way into 'Tennessee at a somewhat 
 
 13 Bancroft (op. cit., III, 368), without giving his authority, says 
 that Fort Assumption was razed in 1740. But Phelan (op cit., p. 314) 
 says that it was superseded by Fort San Ferdinando de Barancas; while 
 
 Keating (History of the City of Memphis and Shelby County, p. 90) says 
 that the old fort continued as a trading post with “varying fortunes.” 
 
EARLY TENNESSEE 271 
 
 earlier date than into Kentucky—apparently in the 
 second or third quarter of the eighteenth century. 
 The glowing reports which these forerunners of civili- 
 zation carried back concerning the abundance of game, 
 the beautiful country, the healthful climate, and the 
 fertile stretches of land beyond the Alleghanies soon 
 fired the imagination of the brave and ambitious, with 
 the result that a tide of emigration was not slow to set 
 in towards the new west, where, it was thought, wealth 
 certainly awaited the hardy adventurer. 
 
 Practically all the first and the greater part of the 
 earlier settlers were from Virginia and North Carolina. 
 They were a fearless people, but they had need of great 
 courage in order to face the dangers and difficulties 
 which confronted them. In no part of America did the 
 pioneer meet with more stubborn or more persistent op- 
 position from the red man. There was almost perpetual 
 warfare between the two races for over a quarter of a 
 century.'* Another source of trouble was the uncertain- 
 ty whether the country was a part of Virginia, or a part 
 of Carolina. This doubt gave rise to the historic Wa- 
 tauga Association, which was perhaps the first attempt 
 at an organized civil government by the English west 
 of the Alleghany Mountains. 
 
 The pioneers lived under the laws enacted by this 
 association from 1769 to 1777, when, at their own re- 
 quest, they were annexed to North Carolina. Removed 
 as they were from the scene of disturbance, the people 
 of Watauga showed much resentment at the aggression 
 
 14 The early history of Tennessee is as bloody as that of Kentucky. 
 Candor demands the admission that right lay with the Indians, for they 
 
 were the owners of the soil; the whites were encroachers. The same is 
 true of all our early history. 
 
272 THE FATHER OF THE CHURCH IN TENNESSEE 
 
 of the English government, and later, by their prowess, 
 contributed not a little towards turning the fortunes of 
 war in favor of the Americans in the south, at a mo- 
 ment when the cause seemed all but lost to the patriots 
 of the Revolution. North Carolina, however, wasted 
 little courtesy on her new acquisition, left its inhabitants 
 to fight their own battles with the Indians, and finally 
 voted to cede the territory to the United States govern- 
 ment. In 1784, therefore, they declared themselves the 
 State of Franklin, free and independent of North Car- 
 olina. Jonesborough became its capital; while chival- 
 rous, picturesque John Sevier, a soldier of the Revolu- 
 tion, and ‘Tennessee’s most noted Indian fighter, was 
 elected governor. 
 
 Carolina soon took steps to protect her rights; but 
 Sevier held his office until its expiration, in 1788, when 
 the State of Franklin ceased to exist evenin name. For 
 two years more Tennessee was again a part of North 
 Caroiina. They were a period of dissatisfaction, large- 
 ly because the parent state manifested scant interest in 
 the backwoodsmen beyond the mountains. Finally, in 
 1790, Tennessee was taken under the charge of the 
 national government, and became “The Territory of 
 the United States South of the Ohio River.” However, 
 owing to the public policy of treating with the Indians 
 which left the pioneers unprotected. against their deadly 
 foe, discontent was scarcely less than it had been before. 
 
 Still another disturbing factor was an embargo which 
 the Spaniards placed on the navigation of the Mis- 
 sissippi River by the people of the United States, and 
 a refusal to grant them the right to deposit goods at 
 New Orleans. It was no more than natural that the 
 west should fret under these two restrictions; for they 
 
EARLY TENNESSEE 23 
 
 made its produce practically valueless, by leaving it 
 without an approachable market, or burdened it with 
 almost prohibitive costs for its transportation. While 
 by far the greater number of the settlers in Tennessee 
 were too patriotic to lend an ear to the suggestions of 
 General Stephen Miro and Francis Baron de Caronde- 
 let, successively governors of Louisiana, that they 
 should forswear allegiance to the United States and 
 ally themselves with the Spanish possessions, there were 
 those who felt disposed to adopt such a measure in order 
 to be relieved from the drawback thus placed upon their 
 traffic. Happily this difficulty was removed, in Octo- 
 ber, 1795, by a treaty with Spain. 
 
 The cup of the Tennesseeans’ joy was finally filled 
 on June 1, 1796, when their territory was accorded the 
 right of statehood, it being the sixteenth commonwealth 
 of the Union, and the second erected west of the Alle- 
 ghany Mountains. John Sevier became its first govern- 
 or. Knoxville'was its capital; but this honor, as was 
 only natural, soon gravitated towards a more central 
 city until, after many years (1843), it definitely settled 
 on the brow of Nashville. 
 
 When recorded in detail, though it is but sober his- 
 tory, all the above reads much like an overdrawn novel. 
 To tell its story in full hardly belongs to a work of the 
 character of the present volume; for up to this point, 
 and long after, there is little of the leaven of Catholicity 
 in the state’s progress, be it social, political, religious, or 
 commercial. Haywood, Marshall, Phelan, and other 
 historians of ‘Tennessee will repay any one for the time 
 spent over their pages.’ Suffice it here to say that all 
 
 15 However, these authors are at times too drastic in their strictures 
 on the French and Spaniards. 
 19 
 
274 THE FATHER OF THE CHURCH IN TENNESSEE 
 
 these authorities agree that the real settlement of the 
 state began on the waters of the Watauga River, in 
 1768 and 1769. Ever onward the bold pioneers pushed 
 their way through trials, hardships, war, and bloodshed, 
 occuping one section after another, until they gained the 
 mastery everywhere. As the reputation of the country 
 spread abroad, colonists came from all directions. By 
 the time the territory became a state the population had 
 risen to more than sixty thousand. 
 
 Just when the first English-speaking Catholics en- 
 tered the limits of Tennéssee, whence they came, or where 
 they located seem problems which can not now be de- 
 monstratively settled. However, the civic history of the 
 state and geographic position make it almost certain 
 that they found their way into the east, and that the 
 greater number of them took up their abodes in or 
 around Knoxville. Documents, which will be produced 
 later, are also plainly in favor of such a conclusion. 
 
 Most of the earliest colonists were of English, Irish, 
 and Scotch descent. Among them were names (Bean, 
 for instance, *°) which would suggest Catholics in Mary- 
 land. But as those who bore them in ‘Tennessee seem, as 
 a rule at least, to have gone from Virginia or North 
 Carolina, they afford no certain clue to the religion of 
 their possessors. Similarly, one runs across a number 
 of early settlers with distinctively Catholic Irish names. 
 Some of these appear to have migrated from the Caro- 
 linas and Virginia. Whence others came is not known. 
 Doubtless a few of them were born in the Emerald Isle 
 
 16 Phelan’s history (p. 5) says that “the history of Tennessee as a 
 distinctive individuality begins with the erection, in 1769, of William 
 Bean’s cabin” farther in the forest than his predecessors had ventured. 
 
 His son, Russell Bean, was the first white child born in Tennessee (ibid., 
 Did). 
 
EARLY TENNESSEE 275 
 
 itself, and gradually made their way into Tennessee. 
 Beginning with the brutal Cromwell, it is known, thou- 
 sands upon thousands of Irish youths of both sexes 
 were sent to the southern colonies. Others emigrated 
 of their own accord. By far the greater number of the 
 children of these, born of mixed marriages and in places 
 where they had no priests, were lost to the Church.” 
 Yet in other instances, particularly when several 
 Catholics located in the same neighborhood, the faith 
 was kept and handed down from generation to genera- 
 tion through a long series of years. 
 
 Thus it is highly probable, if not even certain, that 
 some of those with Irish names who figured in the ear- 
 hest steps of Tennessee’s making were Catholics. They 
 could, of course, enjoy none of the consolations of their 
 religion. For this reason, some of them possibly returned 
 to Maryland, went to Kentucky, or moved on to the 
 former Spanish possessions. Most of the descendants 
 of those who remained must eventually have lost the 
 faith—a sad commentary on the folly of Catholics who, 
 for mere worldly advantages, settle where they can not 
 practise their religion, or have their children brought up 
 under the influence of the Church, and grounded in its 
 doctrine. Defections, broken hearts, and souls lost in- 
 evitably follow. ‘This somber truth is written on every 
 page of the early Catholic history of all our states, no 
 less than of that of Tennessee. 
 
 The first priest of whose presence in beautiful eastern 
 Tennessee there is any record was the Rev. William 
 Rohan, mentioned in a previous chapter. The rough 
 
 17 There can be no doubt that a large proportion of our American 
 
 non-Catholics who claim to be of “Scotch-Irish” origin are descended 
 from ancestors circumstanced as described in the text. 
 
276 THE FATHER OF THE CHURCH IN TENNESSEE 
 
 draft of a letter from Archbishop Carroll, then prefect 
 apostolic, to Father Rohan himself indicates that he was 
 given faculties for the missions in Virginia.’ Thence 
 he seems to have made his way into Tennessee, which he 
 possibly believed fell within his field of labor. Bishop 
 
 Spalding, who must have known him personally, writes: 
 
 After the departure of F[ ather] Whelan [in the spring of 1790], 
 the Catholics of Kentucky were again left without a pastor. In the 
 following summer, however, there arrived among them, in company 
 with a caravan of emigrants from North Carolina and East Tennes- 
 see, the Rev. Wm. de Rohan.!9 He seems to have been born in 
 France, of Irish parentage, and was a reputed doctor of the Sor- 
 bonne. Some chance had thrown him on the American shores; 
 and a few years previous to his arrival in Kentucky, he had re- 
 ceived faculties for a mission in Virginia, from the Very Rev. Dr. 
 Carroll. Shortly afterwards he had travelled to Tennessee, where 
 he remained for more than a year. 
 
 In Kentucky, he said Mass for the Catholics, visited the sick, 
 and administered the sacraments of Baptism and Matrimony; but 
 he abstained from hearing confessions, as he did not at first believe 
 that his powers extended to this distant mission. He subsequently 
 changed his opinion on this subject, on the ground that Kentucky 
 was a county of Virginia at the date of his faculties, which had 
 been given for the latter State, or a portion of it.?° 
 
 Doubtess Father Rohan performed the same spiri- 
 tual functions for the few Catholics in eastern 'Tennes- 
 see while he resided there. Perhaps it would be no 
 
 18 Baltimore Archives, Case 9, S 9. The letter is not dated, but it 
 certainly belongs to 1785 or 1786. 
 
 19 Some give the name as de Rohan, others give it as Rohan. In the 
 letter referred to in the preceding note, and in another of March 31, 1794 
 (Baltimore Archives, Case 9 A, I 2), Archbishop Carroll calls him Roan. 
 Rohan seems to be the correct name. In a number of Father Badin’s 
 letters it appears as Roane. 
 
 20 Early Catholic Missions of Kentucky, pp. 48-49. The same author 
 (ibid. p. 49) tells us that Father Rohan spent the last years of his life 
 at the seminary in Bardstown, where he died in 1832. Doctor Spalding 
 himself was a student there from 1826 to 1830. 
 
BARLY TENNESSEE PAM: 
 
 stretch of fancy to believe that he also heard confessions ; 
 that, when a doubt arose in his mind as to whether he had 
 such a right, he induced some of the faithful to accom- 
 pany him into Kentucky, where he thought they would 
 find Father Charles Whelan; and that others, unfortu- 
 nately for their souls, preferred to remain behind. 
 Possibly among these latter was gallant John Sevier 
 —one of ‘Tennessee’s most noted men, governor of 
 the State of Franklin, the first and several times after- 
 wards governor of the new State of Tennessee, con- 
 gressman, senator, the idol and ever beloved and trusted 
 servant of the people. “There is a widespread. tendency 
 to think that he was a Catholic. While a member of 
 Congress in Philadelphia, and afterwards in Washing- 
 ton, his diary shows that he attended Catholic church- 
 es.”*' ‘Tennessee had neither a priest nor a Catholic 
 house of worship. Perhaps this spiritual privation led 
 him to attend the Presbyterian church with his wife, as 
 well as to suffer her to bring up their children in that 
 creed. It was probably his wish to have a Catholic 
 clergyman and church nearer to his home that caused 
 _him to offer to sell enough land for a Catholic settlement 
 21 W. A. Henderson, Washington, D. C., May 10, 1909, to Rev. John K. 
 Larkin, Johnson City, Tennessee (Diocesan Archives, Nashville). Parts 
 of Sevier’s diary are published in the Tennessee Historical Magazine of 
 October, 1919, and January and April, 1920. No mention is made of 
 Philadelphia. But in the April, 1920, issue of the Magazine, covering the 
 years 1812-1815, there is frequent mention of Sevier’s attendance at 
 Catholic services in Washington City—so often, indeed, that one suspects 
 that a thorough study of his life might result in positive proof of his 
 Catholicity. Tennessee historians generally say that he was born in 
 Virginia, and was of Huguenot descent. It is probable, however, that 
 it is a case of the wish being father to the thought, and that Sevier was 
 
 no more of a Huguenot than many Americans with Celtic names, despite 
 their contention, are descendants of the so-called Scotch-Irish. 
 
278 THE FATHER OF THE CHURCH IN TENNESSEE 
 
 of one hundred families, and to donate a tract for their 
 pastor. 
 
 The case of Hugh Rogan is at once sad and edifying. 
 He was born in County Donegal, Ireland, where he 
 married Miss Nancy Duffy of Tyrone. He belonged 
 to the “Irish Defenders; and it would seem that he left 
 his native land no less in order to escape the police who 
 sought him because of his associations with this patriotic 
 society, than to build up a home for himself and young 
 wife and child in the New World. Sailing on the last 
 merchant ship that left England for the colonies before 
 the American Revolution, he heard in mid-ocean of the 
 Battle of Bunker Hill from vessels returning with 
 wounded British and American prisoners. In Philadel- 
 phia, where the cargo was landed, he obtained employ- 
 ment from a Quaker with tory sentiments. However, 
 he soon enlisted for the first man-of-war fitted out for 
 colonial service, but an accident prevented him from 
 making connection with his ship. 
 
 Later he went to North Carolina, where, with Daniel 
 and Thomas Carlin, he engaged in mercantile trade, 
 their place of business, because of the faith of the three 
 men, being known as the “Catholic store.” Here Rogan 
 secretly played the part of agent for the patriots, whom 
 he kept informed of the plots and intended raids of 
 the tories. However, his days there as a merchant were 
 short, for he was soon employed in helping to survey the 
 western country. This was about 1789. In Tennessee 
 he showed much prowess in the contests with the In- 
 dians. For his services he received a pre-emption for six 
 hundred and forty acres of land which is supposed to 
 have lain where the Vanderbilt University, Nashville, 
 now stands. 
 
) | 
 
 EARLY TENNESSEE 279 
 
 Finally, Hugh Rogan exchanged this pre-emption 
 for the same number of acres near Gallatin, Sumner 
 County, about thirty or thirty-five miles northeast of 
 Nashville. Wauith the two horses, which he received in the 
 bargain, he now started for the seashore, whence he in- 
 tended to sail for Ireland that he might bring his wife 
 and child to Tennessee. In Virginia, unfortunately, a 
 miscreant not long from Donegal told him that his wife 
 had married again. The broken-hearted man then re- 
 turned to his home. But in 1795 or 1796, Rogan heard 
 from his wife, and immediately set off for his native 
 land, after an absence of more than twenty years. Per- 
 haps not from the time he left Philadelphia had he seen 
 a priest. Doubtless, therefore, the occasion which this 
 visit to Ireland afforded him of hearing mass and receiv- 
 ing the sacraments gave the sturdy pioneer as much joy 
 as the re-union with his wife and son, the latter of whom 
 had now grown into vigorous young manhood . 
 
 Our immigrant’s stay abroad was brief, for he hurried 
 back to his home in Sumner County. There Francis 
 Rogan, the second and last child, was born in 1798. A 
 long period of spiritual desolation followed. Hugh 
 Rogan prospered temporally: but it would seem that 
 he never again saw a priest. We may trust that his ar- 
 dent faith, good life, and efforts to serve the Divine 
 Master in the best way he could under the circumstances 
 sufficed for his salvation. It is noteworthy that this 
 sturdy son of Erin was, in principle, a strong abolition- 
 ist. He possessed slaves only because of the necessity 
 of the times. His dying injunction to his sons was that 
 they should follow his own practice—never to sell a col- 
 ored person, except in order to prevent a family from 
 being separated, and never to retain the money obtained 
 
280 THE FATHER OF THE CHURCH IN TENNESSEE 
 
 through such a bargain. Faithfully did they obey their 
 father’s last behest. 
 
 God granted the prayer of Mrs. Rogan that she 
 would not die without seeing a priest. The way in 
 which it happened seems almost providential. In 1831 
 Francis Rogan married Miss Martha Lytle Read, who 
 belonged to two of Tennessee’s most noted families, the 
 ceremony for which was performed by a Methodist cir- 
 cuit rider by the name of Fountain E. Pitts, although 
 Miss Read had been brought up a Presbyterian. Mrs. 
 Rogan’s strong faith and deep piety profoundly im- 
 pressed her daughter-in-law. Francis had grown care- 
 less about his religion. Yet, when his wife accidentally 
 met the Rev. William Byrne, founder of Saint Mary’s 
 College, in Kentucky, at Miss Jeanne Floyd’s, an 
 elderly Catholic lady who kept a pastry shop at her 
 home in Gallatin, she told this good priest the story of 
 her aged mother-in-law, and asked him to go home with 
 her. The reader need hardly be told that his unexpected 
 appearance brought untold joy to this pious soul. He 
 gave her the sacraments, and baptized her only grand- 
 child. 
 
 Mrs. Hugh Rogan lived to see her daughter-in-law 
 received into the Church. Bernard, the son who was 
 born in Ireland, remained single. Francis did not take 
 up the practice of his religion until a few years after 
 his mother’s death. Yet his home, which was that of his 
 father, had become the hospitable and welcomed stop- 
 ping place for the missionaries, no less than the station 
 where mass was said for the scattered Catholics of the 
 neighborhood. Such it continued for several genera- 
 tions of Rogans, all of whom stood firm in their faith.” 
 
 22 Diary of Mrs. Clarissa (Rogan) Desha; Manuscript sketch of Hugh 
 
EARLY TENNESSEE 281 
 
 Without doubt this case of spiritual starvation was by 
 no means solitary in the early stages of Tennessee’s 
 progress. More likely there were many others of which 
 nothing is known. ‘The children grew up without 
 priests or instruction, contracted mixed marriages, and 
 denied the faith. Perhaps for this very reason they 
 became all the more prejudiced against Catholicity. 
 
 The Frenchman, Timothy De Montbrun who is not 
 inaptly called the father of Nashville, offers an instance 
 in some ways like unto that of Hugh Rogan. Many 
 stories have been told about him. One is that he fought 
 under gallant Louis Joseph Montcalm; and that after 
 the fall of Quebec, in 1759, he made his way to 'Tennes- 
 see, where he settled on the site now occupied by the 
 state’s capital city. He was an Indian trader. For 
 some years he lived in a cave with his wife and children. 
 Possibly he felt that such a place afforded better pro- 
 tection against the fickle aborigines. AI authorities 
 appear to agree that De Montbrun’s settlement at 
 Nashville antedates by some years the earliest approach 
 of even the hunters and explorers from the eastern 
 colonies. The first English settlers, who arrived late 
 in 1779 and early in 1780, found him there. After- 
 wards he built a house at “Eaton Station.” ** Clayton 
 says of him: 
 
 Rogan (Nashville Diocesan Archives); Facts (a paper), Knoxville, Ten- 
 nessee, August 18, 1894. The manuscript sketch is undated and unsigned; 
 but in a letter of July 6, 1894, the Rev. Thomas V. Tobin tells Father 
 William Walsh, editor of Facts, that he is sending “Miss Rogan’s sketch 
 of her ancestors,” that he believes in its veracity, and that Hugh Rogan 
 deserves more than a passing notice in the history of the diocese (Nash- 
 ville Archives). 
 
 23 Haywoop, Civil and Political History of the State of Tennessee, p. 94, 
 
 and passim; Ramsey, Annals of Tennessee, pp. 192-193, and passim; 
 PHELAN, History of Tennessee, p. 108, and passim; History of Nashville, 
 
282 THE FATHER OF THE CHURCH IN TENNESSEE 
 
 The family of Demonbreun was therefore the first European 
 family that ever occupied the site of Nashville. Abating all 
 mythical traditions, more or less of which have been naturally 
 associated with one who ventured into this region at so early a 
 period, there are facts enough to warrant the conclusion that the 
 Demonbreuns were here in advance of the first American settlers 
 from fifteen to twenty years. One of the streets of the city is 
 named in honor of the venerable Timothy.?4 
 
 Professor Clayton’s book is dated 1880, and it states 
 that De Montbrun’s descendants still resided in Nash- 
 ville, and had in their possession the watch and gun 
 which he carried in the siege of Quebec at the time of the 
 defeat which decided the fate of the French colonies in 
 North America. Evidently he took pride in his French 
 blood; for the old trader’s soul overflowed with delight 
 at the time of the visit paid Nashville, in May, 1797, by 
 the three exiled sons of the Duke of Orleans, the eldest 
 of whom afterwards occupied the throne of France 
 under the name of Louis Philippe. Again, in 1825, 
 the year before his death, the aged frontiersman had 
 a similar experience in the presence of General La 
 Fayette. No doubt his joy on this occasion was all the 
 greater because he could speak to the man who had so 
 largely contributed towards the defeat of the nation that 
 had wrested Canada from his compatriots..”° 
 
 Timothy De Montbrun seems not only to have en- 
 joyed a good reputation in Nashville, but also to have 
 p. 38, and passim; THomas, Old Days in Nashville, p. 17; Barr, Souvenir 
 of Saint Mary's Cathedral, p.9; Facts, August 18, 1894; Nashville Herald, 
 Aprils; (1909, 
 
 24 History of Davidson County, Tennessee, pp. 192-193. The historians 
 of Tennessee, who knew little about French, give this pioneer different 
 names, evidently writing it as it sounded in English. The name which 
 we use is French, and it is that given to the father of Nashville by 
 
 Bishop Flaget in his diary, as quoted by Spalding. 
 25 History of Nashville, pp. 95-96, 102; CLayTon, op. cit., pp. 197, 204. 
 
EARLY TENNESSEE 283 
 
 stood high with the people. Probably no other man 
 in the state was better educated. Facts which will soon 
 be presented show that, though there was neither church 
 nor priest in the city, he retained the faith, and did not 
 hesitate to profess it; from which we may conclude that 
 he did whatever he could to instill the true religion into 
 the minds and hearts of his children. ‘The father of 
 Nashville and his family, there appears little reason to 
 doubt, were the city’s first Catholics. 
 
 There are English names in the early annals of Ten- 
 nessee which, as has been said, would indicate Catholics 
 in those of Maryland. Possibly some of these men 
 appealed to Archbishop Carroll for a priest, and the 
 venerable prelate directed Father Badin to investigate 
 the matter. At any rate, the missionary of Kentucky 
 writes to Baltimore’s prelate on February 28, 1799: 
 
 I expected Mr. Thayer would have one more congregation; viz., 
 [that] in Madison County. But it is about being dissolved, several 
 of them being dissatisfied, others having lost their lands, others 
 having none; they are now exploring Tennessee. I have written 
 twice to the Governor of that State in order to procure an ecclesi- 
 astical settlemant there. I think that for 1,000 pounds as much 
 land might be procured there at this day as would at a future time 
 support all the clergy in your diocese. The above emigrants and 
 others about me intend to settle themselves about one hundred miles 
 from this [ place? ].7° 
 
 A few months later, June 3, 1799, Father Badin 
 again writes to the archbishop: “The Governor of Ten- 
 nessee and another gentleman, his partner, wrote to me 
 about forming a [Catholic] settlement of one hundred 
 
 families in the State, and offers me a handsome seat 
 
 26 Baltimore Diocesan Archives, Case 1, E 12. The reader must re- 
 member that Father Badin was a Frenchman, and expect to find some 
 Gallicisms in his letters. We have taken the liberty of omitting a “the” 
 
 66,99 
 
 which he sometimes uses before Tennessee, and an “a” one or two times. 
 
284 THE FATHER OF THE CHURCH IN TENNESSEE 
 for a Priest.”*’ There were then four missionaries 
 in Kentucky, which gave Father Badin more leisure to 
 explore for scattered members of the faith. So he 
 writes a third time to Doctor Carroll on October 9, 
 1799: 
 
 As to Tennessee, I know of no compact settlement of Cath- 
 olics; tho’ many Irish people, etc., I think, are scattered here and 
 there, and would at the appearance of Priests flock together. Such 
 beginnings would be but little encouraging, if there was not [a| 
 settlement made up of Marylanders. I intend to travel thither 
 this fall.28 | 
 
 Thus early then appeals for spiritual assistance must 
 have been received from Catholics in Tennessee. John 
 Sevier, who had Landon Carter for his partner in land 
 speculation, was the governor of the state. The minds 
 of the Catholics in Madison County, Kentucky, were 
 turned towards the south because some of them had lost 
 their lands through the conflicting titles of the early 
 settlers. Father Badin’s project of a Catholic colony 
 on Sevier’s possessions failed for reasons which he gives 
 in a letter to Archbishop Carroll on August 4, 1800. 
 
 Here he writes: 
 
 Concerning the Catholics of Tennessee I have lately been in- 
 formed that there were nearly one hundred families of them in 
 Hawkins County, not far from Knoxville. They are mostly of Irish 
 breed and [a] satisfactory account was given to me of their 
 fidelity to the principles of [the] faith. I have written to a French 
 Gentleman there who lives with Governor Blount, and makes an 
 open profession of his religion. When I receive further intelligence 
 I will faithfully transmit it to Your Lordship. The Governor of 
 Tennessee set on his land too great a price; so that none of my 
 parishioners intend any more to settle on Obey’s River, where the 
 Governor’s tracts lie. And consequently the offer he made to me 
 
 27 [bid., Case 1, E 14. 28 [bid., Case 1, E 16. 
 
EARLY TENNESSEE 285 
 
 of a handsome piece of land for the Church, etc., is to this day of 
 no ayail.?9 
 
 The Frenchman who lived with ex-Governor William 
 Blount was most likely James Dardis whose name will 
 appear several times in the course of these pages, and 
 whose faith can not fail to edify. Evidently Father 
 Badin did not take his intended journey; for neither in 
 this letter nor in any of his voluminous correspondence 
 with Doctor Carroll until eight years later does he men- 
 tion a visit to Tennessee. He is ever careful to tell his 
 superior of all that he does, and his failure to speak of 
 a journey to that state is positive proof that he made 
 none. Father Anthony Salmon died in the first part of 
 November, 1799; Father John Thayer’s inability to 
 manage his missions gave the vicar general trouble; and 
 the influx of Catholics into Kentucky grew daily. 
 These factors, no doubt, rendered it next to impossible 
 for him to leave the state at the time intended in order 
 to visit the faithful farther southwards. We wonder 
 what became of the goodly collection of Catholics in 
 eastern Tennessee in the meantime. 
 
 Four years after the last letter quoted, Archbishop 
 Carroll took up in earnest the question of having a west- 
 ern see erected. Father Badin writes to the Baltimore 
 prelate on the same subject, March 16, 1805. In the 
 course of his letter he tells Doctor Carroll that he en- 
 closes a communication from Judge James ‘T’wyman of 
 northern Kentucky, which he had intended to forward 
 at an earlier date.- Then he adds: 
 
 29 Ibid., Case 1, F 3. The Hon. William Blount had been the governor 
 of Tennessee while it was a territory. No doubt it is from some of the 
 
 Catholic families then in eastern Tennessee that not a few of the so- 
 called Scotch-Irish scattered through the south are descended. 
 
286 THE FATHER OF THE CHURCH IN TENNESSEE 
 
 As Mr. Twyman speaks of the Catholics in Tennessee, this 
 reminds me that I have lately received by several channels some 
 information respecting them which is of good omen. I wrote them 
 a letter, by which I gave them notice that, should Priests arrive 
 in Kentucky, as I expected, I should next summer or fall visit 
 them. There are at Nashville several Catholics of good name, one 
 of which is my countryman.°? 
 
 Here we have further proof that Father Badin had 
 not yet visited ‘Tennessee, as well as another indication 
 that the Catholics scattered here and there through the 
 state continued to appeal for the bread of life, but found 
 no one to give it to them. FEvidently Father Badin’s 
 “countryman” was none other than Timothy De Mont- 
 brun, the father of Nashville. Most likely he was one 
 of those who wrote to Kentucky’s overworked mission- 
 ary. ‘Twyman’s reference to the Catholics in Tennessee 
 adds nothing new or important; still it deserves in- 
 corporation in these pages as another stone in the fabric 
 of the history of early Catholicity in that fair common- 
 wealth. The Judge’s words are: 
 
 I am much pleased that we are about to have an Archbishop 
 in America, and as much or more so that we are to have a Bishop 
 in Kentucky. I say in Kentucky, as this State and Tennessee 
 are to compose the Diocese. [I fancy] that his residence will 
 probably be in Kentucky, as very few Catholics reside in the 
 State of Tennessee, compared to Kentucky.*! 
 
 Prior to this time (December 6, 1804), the indefati- 
 gable Badin had written to the archbishop: “About ten 
 days ago I was honored with your favor dated October 
 15, by Mr. Gough, to which you request an immediate 
 answer on a subject which I have much at heart; viz., 
 the erection of an Episcopal See in this State.” ‘Then 
 
 30 [bid., Case A Special, L 9. 
 
 31 James Twyman, Scott County, December 24, 1804, to Father Badin 
 (Baltimore Archives, Case 10, E 13). 
 
EARLY TENNESSEE 287 
 
 he proceeds to give his opinion as regards “other in- 
 tended dioceses contiguous to that one which shall be 
 established in Kentucky”, in the course of which he 
 says: I concur in your opinion that a Bishoprick should 
 be erected so as to comprehend both states of Kentucky 
 and. Tennessee.” *° 
 
 Although other missionaries had arrived in Kentucky 
 before the close of 1805, from that time until more than 
 two years later the name of ‘Tennessee is conspicuous in 
 the Baltimore archives for its absence. Finally, in the 
 middle of a long letter of Father Badin to the arch- 
 bishop, begun on March 10, but not finished until 
 April 30, 1808, and dealing with all sorts of matters, we 
 find the following brief paragraph: “I have received 
 from Knoxville a letter written by a certain Mr. Patrick 
 Campbell in the name of the Catholics of that vicinity, 
 who invite me to visit them. At the persuasion of Mr. 
 Nerinckx I have promised to go to that country next 
 fall.”°* This time the tireless missionary was able to 
 fulfill his engagement; for on his return to Kentucky, 
 
 he wrote to Doctor Carroll: 
 Near Bardstown, 7th January, 1809. 
 Most Rev. Father in God:— 
 
 Your last favor was dated 30th September; and I had the honor 
 to answer it on the 4th November. Since that epoch, I visited 
 the Catholics of Knoxville, and returned soon enough to attend 
 the Court of Louisville. I had the good fortune to obtain the 
 company of Mr. Ignatius Gough just returned from your State; 
 to travel safe through the horrid Cumberland Mountains; to be 
 sheltered from rains, and enjoy a puncheon bed at night. I re- 
 
 32 Ibid., Case A Special, L 10. 
 
 33 Ibid., Case 1, I 6. The last installment of this letter is dated May 
 30; but the ending of the document, together with the fact that Badin 
 wrote to the bishop again on May 12, shows that May 30 was an over- 
 sight for April 30. 
 
288 THE FATHER OF THE CHURCH IN TENNESSEE 
 
 mained only eight days at Knoxville, where I found six or seven 
 Irish Catholic families, with a good will to adhere steadfastly to 
 the visible body of the Church. Would to God they were as anx- 
 ious to belong to her ‘soul! I heard only four confessions, and 
 baptized twenty persons of different ages, and preached four 
 times in the State-house. Hic meta laborum. 
 
 However, I am nowise disheartened. I hope for better success 
 on a second visit, which I promised to make next October. Sacred 
 vestments were procured, and promise given me to purchase for a 
 chapel a beautiful lot of two acres on the edge of the town and 
 banks of Holston River. As the time of my next visit is precisely 
 fixed, I am made to hope that I shall see a larger congregation. 
 I am apprehensive that, the land-titles being there fully as un- 
 certain as in Kentucky, the ‘Bishop of Bardstown will have but 
 few diocesans in that State. The soil is represented as very fer- 
 tile about Nashville, Duck River, Tellico, etc.; but I have seen 
 very few desirable spots in the parts through which I travelled.** 
 
 The above document leaves no doubt but that this 
 was Father Badin’s first visit to Knoxville. Similarly, 
 its tone and the absence of all reference, both in it and 
 in his other letters, to any prior apostolic journey to 
 Tennessee make it certain that this was also the first 
 time that he had ever entered the state. On September 
 1, 1809, he wrote to Archbishop Carroll that he would 
 soon go to Knoxville again; and in a letter to the same 
 on September 23, he says: “I shall myself leave the 
 State next week to be at Knoxville on the first Sunday 
 of October.” *® After his return to Kentucky, he writes, 
 December 4, 1809: 
 
 I was at Knoxville and preached before the Legislature on the 
 first and second Sunday of October. I baptized four adults, 
 revalidated several marriages, had a few more penitents and com- 
 municants than last year; and instead of building a chapel in 
 town, [I] advised the purchase of a tract of land for the main- 
 tenance of a clergyman. ‘The State lands are sold [for] only 
 
 34 Ibid., Case 1, J 1. 35 Ibid., Case 1, J 4 and 5. 
 
EARLY TENNESSEE 289 
 
 $100.00 for one hundred acres, payable yearly in ten install- 
 ments.°6 
 
 Hight months later Father Badin paid east Tennes- 
 see his third and last visit of spiritual mercy. On this 
 occasion he wrote to Archbishop Carroll from the City 
 
 of Knoxville itself, May 10, 1810: 
 Most Rev. Father in God:— 
 
 My last was dated 2nd March. I had the honor to write three 
 or four times since your last favor was received. Mr. James 
 Dardis, the principal Catholic of this place, will take this with 
 him on his journey to your city. He takes charge of $30.00 for 
 Mrs. Henry, which you will have the goodness to receive, unless 
 he could be introduced to her personally. Mr. Dardis will be 
 able to say more than I could write about the infant Church of 
 Knoxville, which I call Saint Andrew. There are about twelve 
 [ Catholic] families unconnected, and many more stragglers, who 
 live at a distance, whom I might gather in one fold, if time per- 
 mitted me to stroll in the country in search of stray-sheep.?! 
 
 36 [bid., Case 1, J 6. 
 
 37 Ibid., Case 1, J 8. After the arrival of Father Nerinckx in Kentucky, 
 he and Father Badin were accustomed to name a mission before a church 
 had been built. This was done in the present instance. Wailson’s Gazette 
 of Knoxville announces, Saturday, May 19, 1810: “Tomorrrow, at four 
 o’clock, the Rev. Stephen Theodore Badin, Roman Catholic Priest from 
 Kentucky, will preach, at the Court-house, on the Resurrection of our 
 Lord Jesus Christ.” 
 
 James Dardis was an influential man at Knoxville in the early days 
 of the city. He was one of the first aldermen, a successful merchant, 
 and a director of the city’s earliest bank. Because of his honesty and 
 good judgment he seems to have been liked and trusted by all. There 
 was also a Thomas Dardis who was a lawyer in the city as early as 1800— 
 likely a brother, or at least a relative, of James. Doubtless he too was 
 a Catholic. The two names of Patrick Campbell, who wrote to Father 
 Badin in 1808 (see note 33) leave little doubt concerning his origin and 
 faith. 
 
 Wilson's Gagette of June 16, 1810, has the following item: “LOST— 
 On Piles Road, between Knoxville and Major William Campbell’s Ferry, 
 a Large Pocket Book containing: Ist, a small silver plate wrapt up in 
 linen; 2ndly, some papers which can be of service to nobody but the 
 owner; 3rdly, some small pamphlets. Whoever shall find and return the 
 
 20 
 
290 THE FATHER OF THE CHURCH IN TENNESSEE 
 
 Towards the end of his letter, after speaking of 
 affairs in Kentucky, Father Badin adds: “You will 
 oblige me and this congregation to send, by Mr. Dardis, 
 to Knoxville an altar stone. The supply which you had 
 the goodness to bestow at my last visit in Baltimore is 
 quite exhausted.” And the document ends with: “I 
 return to Kentucky tomorrow morning.” 
 
 Western Tennessee had as yet received little atten- 
 tion from the inrush of settlers. But Nashville, in the 
 center of a prosperous agricultural district, was fast 
 becoming a town of much promise. Some Catholics 
 settled there, possibly headed by Timothy De Mont- 
 brun, had appealed more than once to Father Badin 
 for spiritual aid. So now the zealous missionary finally 
 gave that place a visit, doubtless being the first priest 
 ever in the city or in central Tennessee. On his return 
 home, Saint Stephen’s, he wrote to Archbishop Carroll, 
 
 August 20, 1810: 
 
 On the 17th of June I visited a small congregation of eighty 
 souls in Barren County [ Kentucky], on Green River, which had 
 never been visited but by the Rev. Mr. Nerinckx. I was then on 
 my way to Nashville, where I was cordially received by Mr. 
 Priestly and other acquaintances, but found very few Catholics.** 
 
 This brief account clearly indicates that Father 
 Badin felt that Nashville offered little prospects for the 
 Church in the immediate future. He rather placed his 
 hopes in Knoxville. Indeed, his letter on the tenth of 
 the preceding May shows clearly that he intended to 
 continue his visits to eastern ‘Tennessee; and in the 
 
 same to Mr. William Campbell, or Capt. William Evans, shall be rewarded 
 for his trouble. 
 24th May, 1810. SACL: Bading’ 
 
 We are indebted to Miss Catherine White and Miss Alberta Koen of 
 Knoxville for these finds in the Gazette. 
 
 38 Jbid., Case 1, J 9. 
 
EARLY TENNESSEE 291 
 
 course of the last communication from which we quoted, 
 telling of his many engagements, he says: “I am ex- 
 pected in Knoxville the last week of October.” Nay, 
 Wilson’s Gazette (Knoxville), November 3, 1810, an- 
 nounces: “The Rev. Stephen T’. Badin, Roman Catholic 
 Priest, will preach on Baptism, in the Court House 
 in this place, tomorrow at three o'clock.” However, 
 though he must have been ready to start on the journey, 
 something evidently detained him at home. 
 
 Thus Knoxville seemed on the point not only of 
 having a Catholic church, but even of soon becoming’ 
 a center of an extensive mission. Possibly, now that 
 Kentucky had a bishop, Father Badin aspired to be- 
 come the apostle of Tennessee, as he had been that of 
 Kentucky.” Yet, as far as documents and indications 
 go, eastern Tennessee did not see a priest from the time 
 of his departure, May 11, 1810, until after Father Miles 
 was consecrated bishop of Nashville, or for nearly 
 thirty years. It is one of the saddest silences in the 
 annals of our American Church. No wonder anti- 
 Catholic prejudice there became almost insurmountable. 
 
 Doctor Spalding tells us that Kentucky’s missionary 
 wrote on the margin of the report of his diocese which 
 Bishop Flaget sent to Rome in 1836, that he (Badin) 
 made four apostolic excursions into Tennessee.*° The 
 same statement, as will soon be seen, is made by F'ather 
 Badin in a pamphlet which he wrote on the Diocese of 
 Bardstown. Again, the Hon. B. J. Webb, in a lecture 
 on his personal reminiscences, speaks of Father Badin’s 
 
 39 Dear Father Badin, it is a pity that he was not endowed with a 
 more judicial temperament, a milder disposition, and a gentler speech. 
 The country has had no missionary who more richly deserved the miter 
 
 on the score of zeal and labor. 
 40 Life of Flaget, pp. 235-236. 
 
292 THE FATHER OF THE CHURCH IN TENNESSEE 
 
 long riding circuits, and facetiously remarks: “He told 
 me himself of a short ride he had once taken, in com- 
 pany with my father, from Bardstown to Nashville.” * 
 Thus this noted priest made four journeys to Tennes- 
 see (three to Knoxville, and one to Nashville), of all 
 of which he has left brief accounts over his own hand. 
 
 In the report which he sent to Rome, April 10, 1815, 
 Doctor Flaget says simply: “In the neighboring State 
 of Tennessee there are about twenty-five families of 
 Catholics who are deprived of all the aids of the Church. 
 A good many years ago, they were visited once or twice 
 by a priest from Kentucky. Not as yet has it been pos- 
 sible for me to call on them.” * Similarly, in an article 
 on the “State of the Catholic Religion in Kentucky 
 and the Neighboring States,” which he wrote some eight 
 months after his return to France, and which appeared 
 in a French paper of date December 8, 1819, Father 
 Badin says: “Tennessee, which is a part of the same dio- 
 cese, has not been visited by any missionary. At least 
 we have received no information to that effect.”* By 
 this, however, he evidently means that no other priest 
 than himself had gone there; for less than two years 
 later he writes: 
 
 The diocese [of Bardstown] embraces six large states—Ten- 
 nessee, Kentucky, Ohio, Michigan, Indiana, and Illinois. There 
 are priests and churches in all these states, except that of ‘Tennes- 
 see. As yet, this state, owing to its great distance and other obsta- 
 
 cles, has been visited only four times, and that by the senior 
 missionary of Kentucky; [that is, by Badin himself]. He brought 
 
 41 Wess, Reminiscences of a Lay Catholic in Kentucky, p. 5. 
 
 42 Propaganda Archives, America Centrale, Vol. III. The typewritten 
 copy made for us reads “Tandem enim possibile miht fuit ad eos per- 
 gere,;” but the context and other documents to be seen later show that 
 the copyist should have written “nondum” instead of “tandem.” 
 
 4370’ Ami de la Religion et du Roi, December 8, 1819. 
 
EARLY TENNESSEE 293 
 
 together a small congregation at Knoxville, its capital city. May 
 the words of the prophet be fulfilled in this state: I will collect 
 them, as the shepherd gathers his flock with the call of his voice, 
 for I have redeemed them; and I will multiply them as before. I 
 
 will bring them from the peoples, and they will bear me in mind 
 
 in the furthermost places.“ 
 
 Father Badin, it is true, had called the little mission 
 at Knoxville Saint Andrew’s; yet it is evident that no 
 church was erected there. Similarly, there is no record 
 and no indication of a house of prayer having been built 
 at Fort Prud’homme or Fort Assumption, where Mem- 
 phis now stands. Thus Tennessee, although its settle- 
 ment had begun early, had never seen the time when it 
 could boast of a Catholic church. 
 
 44 Origine et Progrés de la Mission du Kentucky, pp. 24-25. The same 
 appears in the Annales, I, No. II, p. 41. 
 
CHAPTER XIII 
 FIRST CATHOLIC CHURCH IN TENNESSEE 
 
 A well-defined and persistent tradition in Nashville 
 teaches that the building of the first Catholic church in 
 that city was occasioned by the construction of the first 
 bridge over the Cumberland River within the municipal 
 limits. This bridge was a splendid structure supported 
 by large stone piers, the remains of which may still be 
 seen, at low water, a little north of the Woodland Street 
 suspension bridge. Miss Jane Thomas describes it as 
 “eovered over and weather-boarded like a house,” with 
 windows on either side to let in the light." Perhaps this 
 explains why it is some times called “the wooden 
 bridge,” and at others “the stone bridge.” Unfortu- 
 nately, it did not prove high enough when larger boats 
 began to enter Nashville. For this reason, it was taken 
 down about 1855; yet even as late as 1880 it was con- 
 sidered to have been the best bridge that had so far 
 spanned the Cumberland.’ 
 
 The date of the construction of this bridge coincides 
 with facts now to be recorded to substantiate the tra- 
 dition just mentioned. ‘The contract for building it was 
 awarded to Messrs. Stacker and Johnson of Pittsburgh; 
 
 1 Old Days in Nashville, Tennessee, p. 54. The proto-bridge extended 
 from the present Main Street, East Nashville, to the short alley which 
 now runs from the river to the Public or Court Square. An early 
 
 map of the city shows that this alley was called Bridge Street. 
 2 CLAYTON, op. cit., p. 204; History of Nashville pp. 102, 306-307, 326-327. 
 
 294 
 
FIRST CATHOLIC CHURCH IN TENNESSEE 295 
 
 and the History of Nashville, edited by Wooldridge, 
 says: “The Nashville Bridge Company was organized 
 on August 19, 1819, and an installment of five dollars 
 per share was required to be paid August 31. The 
 architects and builders of the bridge came from Penn- 
 sylvania, the announcement being made in January, 
 1819 [1820], that Mr. Stacker, one of the contractors 
 for building the bridge, left Pittsburgh, December 8, 
 1819, with thirty mechanics.” * 
 
 On the way down the Ohio, other workmen were 
 obtained at Cincinnati and Louisville. Many of these 
 mechanics were Irish Catholics. When they reached 
 Nashville, and discovered that there was neither church 
 nor priest in the city, as the story goes, they were so 
 discouraged that they declined to remain for the con- 
 struction of the bridge. ‘Those interested in the enter- 
 prise, therefore, promised to build a church, and sent 
 post-haste to Kentucky for a missionary to visit them.* 
 All this synchronizes with what seems to have been 
 Father Robert A. Abell’s first pastoral journey to 
 Nashville, and bears out the Catholic tradition of the 
 city. For instance, Father James T. Lorigan writes 
 in the Catholic Encyclopedia: 
 
 The first authentic records of a priest in Tennessee are con- 
 tained in the archives of St. Mary’s Cathedral, Nashville, when 
 Father Abell came (1820) from Bardstown to attend the few 
 Catholics then living in Nashville. Shortly after his arrival, 
 Father Abell undertook the building of the first church in Ten- 
 nessee, at Nashville, a small building on what is now Capitol Hill.° 
 
 3 Page 306. 4 See also History of Nashville, p. 499. 
 
 5X, 705. The Rev. John K. Larkin makes the same assertion in the 
 Nashwuille American of June 26, 1910. A recent search failed to uncover 
 the records used by Fathers Lorigan and Larkin; but many of the dioc- 
 esan papers were lost when they were transferred from the old cathedral. 
 At the time of writing their articles, these two priests were not aware 
 
296 THE FATHER OF THE CHURCH IN TENNESSEE 
 
 Bishop Flaget had ‘sent another account of his dio- 
 cese to Rome the year before (October 18, 1819), in 
 which he told the prefect of the Propaganda: “In 
 Tennessee there are scarcely thirty Catholic families; 
 and these have almost lost every sentiment of religion. 
 The priest who visited them from time to time has 
 returned to France. If God spares my life, I will 
 make a visitation of that state next spring.”® When 
 the appeal came for spiritual aid in behalf of the work- 
 men on the bridge, the bishop possibly decided to send 
 Father Abell to Nashville at once, and to await fur- 
 ther developments before taking his intended journey. 
 
 Be that as it may, there seems no room for doubt that 
 Father Abell was the first priest placed in care of 
 Nashville. From Saint Anthony’s, Breckinridge 
 County, as a center he attended many missions in west- 
 ern Kentucky. Doubtless it was there, possibly after 
 a tour of his other charges, that he received word to go 
 to Tennessee. Webb seems certainly in error, when he 
 states that Father Abell visited Nashville only once 
 from Saint Anthony’s. It is beyond question either 
 that he accompanied Bishop Flaget on such a journey 
 in 1821, or that they went from Breckinridge County, 
 where Father Abell was then pastor.‘ So again, be- 
 sides the Catholic tradition of Nashville, there are in- 
 dications that this noted missionary was in the city a 
 number of times while he looked after the interests of 
 the Church in western Kentucky. Perhaps the experi- 
 of the Badin documents at Baltimore which are given in the previous 
 chapter. 
 
 6 Propaganda Archives, America Centrale, Vol. IV. Father Badin was 
 certainly the only priest of the Bardstown Diocese who had visited 
 
 Tennessee. 
 7 Webb speaks also of this journey on page 346 of his Centenary. 
 
FIRST CATHOLIC CHURCH IN TENNESSEE 297 
 
 ence in Tennessee recorded in the Centenary of Catho- 
 licity belongs to his first call to the south, and Mr. 
 Webb understood him to say that it was his only jour- 
 ney to Nashville from Saint Anthony’s. 
 
 Be that as it may, the story, apart from the correction, 
 is too authentic, full of interest, and pertinent to be 
 omitted. But we shall let the venerable historian tell it 
 in his own charming way. 
 
 Once only, while stationed ‘at St. Anthony’s, he was called as 
 far south as Nashville. At the time referred to there were few 
 Catholics in Tennessee, and not over five families, nominally 
 Catholic, in the city that was his journey’s limit. On this occa- 
 sion—the story has been told differently, but the writer, having 
 it from the lips of the missionary himself, naturally prefers the 
 evidence of his own ears—an incident took place that is at least 
 worth telling. The story, as related by Father Abell, is as follows: 
 
 “I had been riding for several weeks,” said he, “and the effects 
 of time and wind and weather were beginning to tell disastrously 
 upon my habilaments. My pantaloons were threadbare, and my 
 coat and waistcoat were things of threads and patches. I was 
 really ashamed of my appearance, and while I remained in the 
 town its streets saw little of me except after nightfall. One eve- 
 ning, I went out for a walk, and accident brought me to the 
 vicinity of what I took to be a Protestant chapel or meeting 
 house. The doors were open, and many persons were passing into 
 the building. Without thought of the propriety or impropriety 
 of the step I was taking, I went with the rest. A small rostrum 
 at the farther end of the hall was indicative of the use that was to 
 be made of it on this occasion. I managed to get a seat near the 
 door, and there comparatively unnoticed, I waited for developments. 
 By and bye, a hymn was given out and sung with a will, the 
 greater part of the audience, which was quite orderly, taking part 
 in the performance. 
 
 “After a prayer had been offered up, about which I shall say 
 nothing, a dapper little fellow mounted the stand and announced 
 the subject of the discourse that followed. He was going to prove 
 to his hearers that the Roman Catholic Church is a system of 
 
298 THE FATHER OF THE CHURCH IN TENNESSEE 
 
 idolatrous worship, and that the Pope of Rome is the veritable 
 ‘Man of Sin’ referred to in the Bible. I was interested. I had 
 never before had so favorable an opportunity of learning the esti- 
 mate that was placed upon my religion by its enemies. The 
 preacher, for such he turned out to be, was as ignorant as dirt. 
 and insufferably conceited. As he proceeded, you may be sure 
 that I was more astonished than confounded. His whole discourse 
 was made up of misstatement and travesty of Catholic doctrine, 
 and of denunciation of Catholics, and especially of the Pope. 
 The poor man, it is to be hoped, was guiltless of intentional lying; 
 his ignorance was beyond conception, and possibly beyond remedy. 
 
 “His harangue coming to an end at last, I anticipated the 
 motion of the audience in the direction of the door by rising to 
 my feet and begging their attention for a moment. ‘Ladies and 
 gentlemen, said I, ‘there is no trait of the American character more 
 conspicuous than its love for fairness. You have heard to-night a 
 most violent attack on the religion that is professed by two-thirds 
 of the christian world. You behold in me a minister of that relig- 
 ion, and an American born citizen. If I may speak here to- 
 morrow night, or if you will provide me with a hall in which to 
 speak, I think I can promise to prove to you that the religion I 
 profess is not idolatrous, and that neither is it unreasonable.’ 
 Retaining my place until the greater part of the audience had left 
 the hall, I soon found myself surrounded by a knot of young 
 men, each of whom appeared to be anxious that I should carry out 
 the announcement I had made. It was at once arranged that, on 
 the following evening, I should occupy the stand from which the 
 attack had been made.’ ® 
 
 Father Abell then goes on to tell how the report of 
 the lecture brought such a crowd that it was difficult for 
 him to reach the platform from which he was to speak. 
 Possibly a knowledge of his oratorical powers had pre- 
 ceded him. “I never felt more equal to an occasion in 
 my life,” he says, “and I soon had both my subject and 
 my audience well in hand.” He found it easy to de- 
 
 molish the attacks that had been made on the Church. 
 
 8 Centenary of Catholicity in Kentucky, pp. 149-150. 
 
 a 
 
FIRST CATHOLIC CHURCH IN TENNESSEE 299 
 
 In reply to the assertion that priests require “specific 
 sums’ of money for their pretended forgiveness of 
 “specific sins” he called attention to his faded and worn 
 clothes, and asked how much the audience thought he 
 had received from the thousands of penitents whose 
 confessions he had heard. He assured them that, should 
 he dare accept money for this holy office, he would at 
 once be suspended from the exercise of his priestly 
 powers. 
 
 The lecture was not only well received; it also gave 
 universal satisfaction. But it was another matter, when 
 it came to interest his listeners in a religion which they 
 had heard traduced from their infancy. In this Father 
 Abell confesses that he failed signally. However, he 
 did not go unrewarded in a temporal way; for, as quoted 
 by Webb, he proceeds to say: 
 
 “T am quite certain that I had myself no reason to be disap- 
 pointed with the result of my unpremeditated incursion into the 
 camp of the enemy. It gained me a number of friends, and, what 
 was just about as welcome at the time, a complete suit of clothes, 
 delicately presented by a committee of gentlemen duly appointed 
 to carry out the will of the obliging donors, which did me 
 excellent after-service.” 
 
 Father Abell was sent to Saint Anthony’s, Breck- 
 inridge County, in the fall of 1818." Everything seems 
 to indicate that the journey just described took place 
 not long afterwards. Father Lorigan says positively 
 that he was at Nashville in 1820; and in view of Bishop 
 Flaget’s account of 1819 and what has been said in the 
 previous chapter, it does not seem probable that he was 
 there at an earlier date. Possibly the report which 
 Father Abell brought home with him combined with an 
 appeal from the people to convince Bishop Flaget that 
 
 9 [bid., p. 149. 
 
300 THE FATHER OF THE CHURCH IN’ TENNESSEE 
 
 he should now make a visit in person to that part of his 
 diocese. However that be, we find him, in company 
 with Father Abell, at Nashville in the spring of- 1821. 
 Doctor Spalding, with Flaget’s diary before him, gives 
 an account of this journey in his life of the prelate. 
 
 Because of its interest and importance, no less than 
 on the principle of gathering up the fragments before 
 they are lost, and in order that the early Tennessee 
 documents may be found in one convenient volume, 
 we again let the narrator tell his own story. It should 
 be noted, however, that there are some statements in 
 the narrative which were probably not taken from 
 the bishop’s diary. Of these labors Doctor Spalding 
 writes: 
 
 Tennessee was a portion of his diocese, which he had never 
 as yet been able to visit. As there were few Catholics therein, 
 he had delayed visiting them, until other and more pressing calls 
 would be met. Father] Badin had already made four missionary 
 excursions to this State.1° 
 
 In the beginning of May, 1821, the Bishop set out on this 
 journey, and proceeded by the way of Breckinridge county, in 
 order to take with him the Rev. Mr. Abell, who was there sta- 
 tioned. They said Mass in Litchfield on the 7th, and on the 8th 
 they were in Bowling Green, where they found but five Catholics. 
 They reached Nashville on the 10th, and put up with a Mr. Mont 
 Brun, a Frenchman, who received them with tears in his eyes. 
 On the following day, the first Mass that was ever offered up by 
 a Bishop in Tennessee was celebrated by our prelate, in the house 
 of his entertainer.11 The Blood of the Lamb, now mystically shed 
 
 10 At this place Spalding has the following footnote: “This fact he 
 states himself in a marginal note to Bishop Flaget’s report to the Pope in 
 1836.” This must have been a copy of the report kept in the Bardstown 
 diocesan archives; for Father Badin was not in Europe after 1828, or 
 1829. All of Badin’s visits were made before the bishop reached Ken- 
 tucky. 
 
 11 Here we have another proof that Timothy De Montbrun retained 
 the faith through all his spiritual desolation. 
 
FIRST CATHOLIC CHURCH IN TENNESSEE 301 
 
 on the holy altar, made a potent appeal in behalf of that infant 
 mission. The total number of Catholics in Nashville and vicinity 
 did not exceed sixty; and there were not, perhaps, half as many 
 more in all the rest of the State. The prospects of soon establish- 
 ing a congregation here were certainly not very flattering. The 
 Catholics were both few and poor. Yet the Bishop was not dis- 
 heartened, and he resolved to make the experiment. 
 
 What was his joy, when he found that his proposal was most 
 favorably entertained, even by the first Protestant citizens of the 
 place! A liberal subscription was taken up, signed by Protestants 
 as well as by Catholics. <A lot for a church, 70 by 100 feet, was 
 offered by a Mr. Foster, grand master of the Masons.!2 The Prot- 
 estants of the city vied with one another in showing every polite 
 attention to the Bishop and his companion. The late Hon. Felix 
 Grundy and his amiable wife are gratefully mentioned by the 
 prelate in his Journal. He was invited to take tea with a Pres- 
 byterian minister named Campbell.!® 
 
 Many of the first families attended Mass; and a large and in- 
 telligent concourse were assembled every evening at the court 
 house to hear the sermons of the Rev. Mr. Abell. They listened 
 with profound attention to his eloquent exposition and defence of 
 the Catholic doctrine, on confession, on baptism, and on several 
 other points little understood among Protestants. The notorious 
 Baptist revivalist—Mr. Vardiman—was in Nashville at the time; 
 and he took the alarm. He even went so far as to give notice, 
 that he would hold forth in the court house on an evening, when it 
 was known that Mr. Abell was engaged to preach therein. The 
 stratagem did not, however, succeed; his friends prevailed on him 
 not to attempt preaching, as great public indignation, already 
 partially aroused by his attempt, would be likely to break upon 
 his head in such a manner as to injure both himself and his sect.!* 
 
 12 The deed to this property shows that it was sixty by one hundred feet. 
 Others, possibly following him, have made the same mistake as Spalding. 
 13 Felix Grundy went to Tennessee from Kentucky. He was a liberal- 
 minded man, and always friendly towards Catholics. Spalding (Early 
 Missions of Kentucky, p. 26) gives a pretty illustration of this trait in 
 Mr. Grundy. The Presbyterian preacher referred to was the Rey. Allan D. 
 Campbell (See Crayton, op. cit., p. 313, and History of Nashville, p. 476). 
 14 This revivalist was the Rev. Jeremiah Vardeman of Kentucky (See 
 
 CLAYTON, op. cit., 318). 
 
302 THE FATHER OF THE CHURCH IN TENNESSEE 
 
 The Rev. Mr. Abell also preached in Franklin, Tennessee, where 
 there was one Irish Catholic family; and in Columbia, where he 
 made a triumphant answer to a preacher, who had grossly attacked 
 the Catholic Religion. A sermon he delivered in the latter place, 
 on the real presence, made a great impression; and several Prot- 
 estant lawyers, and others in the place, made him a present of 
 money and a suit of clothes, in consideration of the very hand- 
 some manner in which he had dressed the preacher, who appears 
 to have been both ignorant and unpopular. On the journey, the 
 Bishop served Mr. Abell’s Mass, and they mutually went to con- 
 fession to each other. They departed for home on the 27th of 
 May. 
 
 Webb also notes this journey of Bishop Flaget and 
 Father Abell, but says nothing about the sermon in 
 the “meeting house,” or the suit of clothes.” We are 
 inclined to think that this latter incident occurred as 
 given by him rather than as narrated by Doctor Spald- 
 ing; that is, that the missionary received it at Nashville, 
 and not in the then mere village of Columbia, where 
 there must have been less generosity, as well as less 
 money, and fewer lawyers. Possibly, however, Father 
 Abell was twice rewarded in this way for his sermons, 
 as he doubtless eloquently defended the Catholic doc- 
 
 trine in both these places. 
 
 Be this as it may, it is certain that a number of 
 Nashville’s influential non-Catholics showed themselves 
 anxious to have a Catholic church in their city. It may 
 be that their action was inspired in part by a wish to 
 
 15 Life of Bishop Flaget, pp. 235-238. In a footnote Doctor Spalding 
 says of the minister at Columbia: “His name was McConico;” and of the 
 money given to Father Abell there: “The sum presented was two hundred 
 dollars.” The minister was probably the Rev. Garner McConico men- 
 tioned in the History of Nashville (page 476). We wonder if Spalding 
 did not make a mistake about this money, and it were not the sum con- 
 tributed at Nashville for the erection of a Catholic church in that city. 
 
 16 Centenary of Catholicity, p. 346. 
 
FIRST CATHOLIC CHURCH IN TENNESSEE 303 
 
 see Nashville grow, and in part by a desire to make sure 
 that the bridge was completed; but the fact is none the 
 less unquestionable for that. One of those who took an 
 active interest in the affair was Anthony Foster, whom 
 Miss Thomas describes as “a very benevolent, hos- 
 pitable, and wealthy man.” 
 
 Foster donated to Bishop Flaget a part of lot one 
 hundred and seven. ‘The plot measured sixty feet 
 frontage by one hundred in length. The deed, which 
 is dated October 25, 1821, tells us that the land was 
 conveyed to Bishop Flaget and his successors “for and 
 in consideration of the desire said Anthony has that a 
 Roman Catholic church should be erected in the Town 
 of Nashville where the said society may worship the 
 Deity after the form of the religion which they profess, 
 and in consideration of one Dollar to the said Anthony 
 in hand paid by the said Benedict, the receipt whereof 
 is hereby acknowledged.” On the same day, Anthony 
 Foster also deeded Bishop Flaget a contiguous portion 
 of the same lot, which measured forty by one hundred 
 feet, the consideration being “two hundred and fifty 
 dollars in hand paid.” ** Doubtless Father Abell was 
 in Nashville again at this time, took advantage of his 
 presence to attend to these transactions for the bishop, 
 and used the money contributed by the citizens to 
 pay for the second plot of ground. 
 
 The land lay on the northern side of an elevation then 
 known as Cedar Knob. Later it was called Camp- 
 bell’s Hill; now it has the more dignified name of 
 
 17 Old Days in Nashville, Tennessee, p. 25. 
 
 18 Deed Book O, pp. 358-359, Recorder’s Office of Davidson County 
 
 (Nashville). Both deeds were registered on November 1, 1821. They 
 
 show that it was Anthony Foster, and not Robert Foster, as one some- 
 times reads, who gave the property to Bishop Flaget. 
 
304 THE FATHER OF THE CHURCH IN TENNESSEE 
 
 Capitol Hill. Possibly a small frame church had been 
 erected on the part donated by Anthony Foster, even 
 before Bishop Flaget’s visit. A very definite tradition 
 among the Catholics of Nashville tells us that such a 
 church first stood there. Some years ago we met sev- 
 eral people who remembered the little building well, 
 although it was not used for divine services in their time, 
 it having been then superseded by a brick structure. 
 As late as 1924, Mr. William H. Hyronemus and Mrs. 
 Columba Leonard said that both these houses of prayer 
 formed a part of their early childhood recollections. 
 They were the first Catholic churches in the State of 
 Tennessee. 
 
 The frame church, one fancies, was run up at once 
 as an earnest in order to retain the Catholic workmen 
 on the bridge. ‘The brick structure, we are told, was 
 built by these mechanics themselves, between their 
 hours of labor for the contractors. This would explain 
 why it rose so slowly; for it is said that nearly all the 
 Catholic employees left Nashville after the completion 
 of the bridge, and that this church was not completed 
 until about 1830.” Those who remained, no doubt, 
 aided the few faithful already resident in the city and 
 vicinity to bring it to completion. Perhaps the number 
 of these latter at the time, while certainly small, was 
 greater than that given by Webb, or discovered by 
 Bishop Flaget. 
 
 Certainly some kind of a church had been built before 
 the departure of these mechanics; for a travelling cor- 
 respondent of the United States Catholic Miscellany, 
 in a letter written from Kentucky, December 19, 1824, 
 
 19 This Catholic tradition of Nashville is borne out by CLayTon, op. 
 cit., pp. 205, 341, and by the History of Nashville, p. 499. 
 
 oS 
 
FIRST CATHOLIC CHURCH IN TENNESSEE 305 
 
 gives an account of the disposition of the priests there, 
 in which he says: “Another, in the lower parts of the 
 state, embraces within his jurisdiction a vast extent of 
 country, and even several times in the year visits the 
 neighboring state of Tennessee, wherein a church is 
 already erected at Nashville.’ Meanwhile, Father 
 Abell was changed from Saint Anthony’s. Webb says 
 that he went to Louisville in 1823, or 1824.2° From 
 this juncture until several years later, Nashville seems 
 to have been practically unattended. In the report of 
 his diocese dated January 11, 1826, Bishop Flaget tells 
 the prefect of the Propaganda: 
 
 In the western part there is the Rev. Father Sutt[on?], who 
 was born in Ireland, but received his entire education in our 
 seminary, and all the sacred orders from me. He has charge of 
 three congregations, attends a number of stations, directs the sis- 
 ters of Mount Carmel Convent belonging to the community of 
 Loretto, and watches over the school conducted by them. The same 
 missionary will visit (visitabit) the State of Tennessee twice a 
 year.71 
 
 The Rev. Francis P. Kenrick, then a professor at 
 the Bardstown seminary, touches on the same subject 
 in a letter of January 30, 1826, to the Propaganda’s 
 prefect, his Eminence Julius M. Cardinal de Somaglia. 
 Father Kenrick’s statements do not appear precisely 
 to accord with that of the bishop; and he indicates either 
 that Father Abell went to Saint Joseph’s College from 
 Breckinridge County, or that some other priest had 
 
 20 Miscellany, April 13, 1825; Wess, op. cit., pp. 153, 292. We are 
 inclined to think that Father Abell’s ministrations at Nashville ceased 
 at the time the bridge was completed, and the Catholic mechanics began 
 to move away. The Nashville Gazette of March 14, 1825, shows the bridge 
 in use, and indicates that it had but lately been finished. 
 
 21 Propaganda Archives, America Centrale, Vol. VIII. This account 
 is the only place in which we have run across Father Sutton’s name. 
 Possibly he died in his early priesthood. 
 
 onl 
 
306 THE FATHER OF THE CHURCH IN TENNESSEE 
 
 occasionally visited Tennessee after Abell gave up the 
 pastorate of Saint Anthony’s. ‘The letter tells the 
 cardinal: 
 
 The State of Tennessee, which is a part of this diocese, has 
 a few Catholics scattered here and there, who are little solicitous 
 concerning their souls. The priest who used to attend them three 
 or four times a year is now vice president of the college, and can 
 therefore go to that state but once or twice in a twelvemonth. 
 The church, which is built in the City of Nashville, has never been 
 consecrated, or even blessed; and it either remains closed, or it 
 is used by a Protestant schoolmaster who holds his classes 
 therein.” 
 
 The History of Nashville also says that, about 1825, 
 “the Catholic church building in the northern extremity 
 of the town was secured for a preparatory school,” as 
 a part of Cumberland College.’ However, this ar- 
 rangement was only temporary; and the fact that the 
 brick church was not completed until 1830 or 1831 in- 
 dicates that it was the older frame structure which was 
 leased for a school. In any case, the following state- 
 ment in the United States Catholic Miscellany of March 
 1, 1828, shows that those of the faith in Tennessee 
 finally appealed to Charleston, South Carolina, for 
 spiritual aid. 
 
 A respectable Catholic gentleman of Dublin writes to a Catholic 
 clergyman of this city, requesting that he would, if possible, visit 
 several Catholic families resident in the State of Tennessee. This 
 is impracticable. The zealous Bishop under whose jurisdiction 
 Tennessee is placed will, no doubt, make every exertion to supply 
 the Catholics of that State with regular or occasional visits of 
 clergymen. The Diocess of Charleston suffers as well as many 
 others the serious loss of a want of a sufficient supply of useful 
 Priests. It is painful to reflect on the situation of those Catholics 
 who seek for the bread of life, and there are but a few to break 
 
 22 Propaganda Archives, America Centrale, Vol. VIII. 
 23 Page 387 
 
FIRST CATHOLIC CHURCH IN TENNESSEE 307 
 
 it to them. The places mentioned where the aid of a Priest is 
 required are Nashville, Franklin, Winchester, and Gallatin, Ten- 
 nessee. 
 
 Not long after the appearance of this article, and 
 possibly in part because of it, the first attempt was 
 made to place a resident priest in Nashville. Accord- 
 ingly, we read in the National Banner and Nashville 
 Whig of March 28, 1828: 
 
 ROMAN CATHOLIC CHURCH:—On Sunday next, the 30th 
 instant, the Rev. James Cosgreve will celebrate Mass in the Cath- 
 olic Church, and preach from the Gospel of the day. The pro- 
 fessors and musical amateurs in Nashville (ladies and gentlemen) 
 have kindly consented to give their aid on the occasion. In the 
 course of the Mass, several appropriate pieces of music from 
 Handel, Haydyn, etc., etc., will be performed. The Church being 
 yet in a very unfinished state, and from the circumstance of the 
 intention of having a resident clergyman located here, in order 
 to enable them to comply with such intention, the Roman Catholics 
 appeal to the liberality of their fellow-citizens (already amply 
 experienced in their generous contributions when building the 
 Church itself) for further means to finish the interior of the 
 building; and for which purpose a collection will be made. Mass 
 will commence precisely at 10 A.M. 
 
 The day did not prove propitious for the pious 
 effort; so another attempt was made for the purpose. 
 Thus the April 4 issue of the same paper announces: 
 
 ROMAN CATHOLIC CHURCH. In consequence of the 
 inclemency of the weather on Sunday last, the collection that 
 was intended to have been made for the benefit of the Catholic 
 Church was postponed till Sunday next, the 6th instant (Easter 
 Sunday), when the Rev. James Cosgreve will celebrate Mass 
 again, and preach. The Musicians, professors and amateurs, ladies 
 and gentlemen, have again kindly volunteered their services on 
 the occasion. Mass will commence at 10 o'clock A.M. 
 
 Evidently the new pastor was a man of action, 
 determined to leave no stone unturned in order to bring 
 his church to completion. Doubtless also the Kaster 
 
308 THE FATHER OF THE CHURCH IN TENNESSEE 
 
 Sunday collection did not realize as much as he had 
 expected. Now, therefore, he resorted to an old-time 
 method of raising money for religious, charitable, and 
 other purposes not infrequently adopted when all other 
 efforts had failed—a lottery. The Banner and Whig 
 of April 15, 1828, says: 
 
 CATHOLIC CHURCH: LOTTERY NO. 2—FOR 1828 
 
 One prize of 6,000 Dollars; three prizes of 2,000 Dollars; 
 one prize of 1,750 Dollars. Besides numerous smaller prizes. 
 Tickets $5.00; Halves $2.50; Quarters $1.25. Tickets in any of 
 the above Lotteries can be had in the greatest variety of number, 
 on application at Donovan and Stouts, New Office, Nashville. 
 
 A careful search of the National Banner and Nash- 
 ville Whig failed to reveal any account of the Easter 
 Sunday services, which must have been due to the fact 
 that the volume was not complete. However, the 
 United States Catholic Miscellany, giving that paper 
 as its authority, says, on May 17, 1828: 
 
 It appears that the Rev. James Cosgrave officiated on Easter 
 Sunday in the Catholic church of Nashville, and a splendid Musical 
 Concert was given on the occasion by the Professors and Musi- 
 cal Amateurs in that city. General Jackson, with several other 
 distinguished characters, was among the respectable audience that 
 concurred to encourage by their presence, and aid by their contri- 
 butions, the opening of this church, whereof this worthy clergyman 
 is now appointed, by the Right Rev. Bishop of Bardstown, resi- 
 dent Pastor. The few Catholics of this city, and the others 
 scattered throughout the State, may doubtless hail this event as 
 auspicious to the progress of their religion, hitherto retarded 
 through the scarcity of Missionaries. 
 
 There were not many Catholic journals published in 
 the country at that period; and of these only the United 
 States Catholic Miscellany of Charleston, South Caro- 
 lina, was near enough to Kentucky and ‘Tennessee to be 
 
 interested in the ordinary happenings of the Church in 
 
FIRST CATHOLIC CHURCH IN TENNESSEE 309 
 
 those parts. So again, with few exceptions, practically 
 no effort has been made to preserve the primal records 
 of the early dioceses, which should be the foundation 
 stones for our ecclesiastical history. ‘To these causes, 
 no doubt, is to be attributed the failure to discover any 
 further trace of Father James Cosgreve (or Cosgrave), 
 whose labors appear to have promised much good for 
 the Church in Nashville. Bishop England, in the quo- 
 tation above, calls him a “worthy clergyman’, and 
 speaks as if he knew him well. That he was an ener- 
 getic man may be seen from the initial steps of his pas- 
 torate. Possibly he brought the little brick Catholic 
 church in ‘Tennessee’s capital to completion before going 
 to another field of toil.” 
 
 The Catholics now had recourse to Bishop Kenrick 
 of Philadelphia in the hope that he might be able to do 
 something for their spiritual distress. In an undated 
 letter, but almost certainly of this period, that learned 
 prelate tells Bishop Flaget: 
 
 I take advantage of the return of Mr. B. Smith to renew assur- 
 ances of my high regard and my friendship for you. I wish also 
 to apprize you of the complaints and petitions of a number of your 
 spiritual children scattered through the State of Tennessee. Mer- 
 chants who come to Philadelphia have approached me several times, 
 and begged me to interest myself in their behalf; but I have 
 always told them that they should apply to you. Lately, when a 
 gentleman who lives at Bolivar, Tennesssee, visited me and made 
 known the sad situation in which he was placed, I promised 
 him that I would write to you and waive the services of two 
 clergymen who had offered themselves for this diocese, should you 
 wish to send them to the aid of the Catholics in that state.?° 
 
 24 There is a tradition in Nashville that a priest died there at an 
 early date. Could it have been Father James Cosgreve? 
 
 25 Original in Louisville Archives—photostat copy in the writer’s hands. 
 There is a tradition in Nashville to the effect that Father Julius Massip 
 
310 THE FATHER OF THE CHURCH IN TENNESSEE 
 
 What reply Bishop Flaget made to this communi- 
 cation we do not know. Possibly, however, the circum- 
 stance fired the zeal of Father William Byrne, whose 
 name has appeared in connection with the Rogan 
 family, and determined him to relinquish the educa- 
 tional institution under his charge; for he seems to have 
 been the next priest in Tennessee. Spalding tells us 
 that he merely paid the state a visit; but he doubtless 
 turned the journey into an apostolic tour, as he was so 
 impressed with the sad condition of the Church there 
 that he resolved to make it the theater of his future 
 labors, and even to establish a Catholic college at Nash- 
 ville. This must have been sometime in 1832, just 
 after he conveyed to the Jesuit Fathers Saint Mary’s 
 College which he had founded in Kentucky. Unfortu- 
 nately he did not live to put his design into execution.” 
 
 While, as is known, the old Catholic Almanac (or 
 Directory), which began in 1833, is not always complete 
 in its accounts, it is often the only guide we have to 
 follow; and in the present instance it will likely serve 
 to give one a fair idea of the scant Catholic activity in 
 Tennessee from that time until Father Miles’ appoint- 
 ment as its first bishop. The Almanac of 1833 has a 
 of Alabama visited the city once or twice in the early days. Quite 
 possibly the people had recourse to Bishop Portier also for spiritual aid, 
 and he sent this missionary to them—with the permission of Bishop 
 Flaget of course. Father Massip was ordained in Mobile in 1830 or 
 1831. His name appears in the Catholic Almanac until 1838. As he does. 
 not seem to have been assigned to any particular place, he was most likely 
 one of the two priests whom the Almanac tells us Bishop Portier used 
 as itinerant missionaries. Father Massip seems to have been a Frenchman, 
 and he most likely returned to France in 1838. 
 
 26 SpaLpinG, Early Missions of Kentucky, pp. 267-278. Here we have 
 a good appreciation of this splendid priest. See also the writer’s An 
 
 American Apostle, pp. 27 ff. Father Byrne died of cholera, at Saint 
 Mary’s College, June 5, 1833. 
 
FIRST CATHOLIC CHURCH IN TENNESSEE 311 
 
 dash after Nashville, which means at least that no spe- 
 cial priest attended the place. In the edition of 1834, 
 Father James Elliot, pastor of Fairfield, Nelson 
 County, and several other missions in Kentucky, is 
 noted as having charge of Nashville. In 1835, Nash- 
 ville is marked “vacant,” and in 1836, as “having no 
 resident clergyman.” But the Almanacs for 1837 and 
 1838 tell us that “Nashville [is] visited semi-annually 
 by the Rev. EK. J. Durbin, dwelling at Morganfield, 
 Kentucky.” ** Of this extraordinary man Mr. Webb 
 writes: 
 
 In 1824, Father Durbin was intrusted with the pastoral care 
 of the entire Catholic population of western and south-western 
 Kentucky, with headquarters near Morganfield, in Union County. 
 His pastoral jurisdiction covered thousands of miles of territory, 
 in every portion of which there were living at least isolated Cath- 
 olic families, every one of whom was dependent upon him for 
 spiritual aid and comfort, and to whose calls, in cases of sickness, 
 prompt response was considered by him as of imperative obligation. 
 
 This immense field, it would reasonably seem, was beyond the 
 powers of any unit of human capability to cultivate properly; 
 and yet the Catholics living in the tier of counties that bordered 
 the northern bank of the Ohio, in the States of Illinois and Indi- 
 ana, were equally with his own people dependent upon him in all 
 emergencies affecting their spiritual needs. Besides all this, from 
 and after the year 1832, the terms of his pastorate obliged him, 
 once in the year at least, to visit Nashville, in the State of Ten- 
 nessee, and to bear thither, to the few Catholic families there 
 residing, the benefits of his ministry.7° 
 
 This appreciation gives Father Elisha Durbin no 
 more than his merits deserve. In all the places men- 
 
 27 Catholic Almanac, 1833, p. 54; 1834, p. 82; 1835, p. 62; 1836, p. 81; 
 B/D. 140 sr LO3R,) Peo lls. 
 
 28 Op. cit., p. 365. This work says many beautiful things about Fathers 
 Durbin and Abell. The latter died on June 28, 1873, aged eighty-two 
 years. He remained on duty until the day of his death. 
 
312 THE FATHER OF THE CHURCH IN TENNESSEE 
 
 tioned his name is still held in benediction. However, 
 if the Catholic Almanac be correct, his regular visits 
 to Nashville and central Tennessee did not commence 
 until after 1832. More than likely they began late in 
 1834 or early in 1835. The Catholic Telegraph of 
 August 14, 1835, gives a letter written by him in Union 
 County on the twenty-third of the previous month, in 
 which he says: “In my former letter I mentioned my 
 intention of visiting Nashville, etc. I have fulfilled my 
 promise, and expect soon to resign the care of Tennes- 
 see to Rev. Mr. Deparcq.”” However, Father Durbin 
 retained the charge, and it was probably in order to en- 
 able him to do this that he was given an assistant at this 
 ‘time.”” 
 
 Apparently Bishop Chabrat selected him for the try- 
 ing position; nor could a better choice have been made, 
 for he was one of the most faithful and tireless mission- 
 aries with whom our country has been blessed. In 
 length of service he stands almost without a parallel. 
 How he notified his southern flock of his intended jour- 
 neys among them may be judged from the following 
 announcement in the Catholic Advocate of August 6, 
 1836: 
 
 MISSIONARY VISIT 
 
 Rev. Mr. Durbin desires us to inform the Catholics of Tennes- 
 see that he will shortly visit that State. His present intention 
 is to be in Nashville on the 8rd Sunday in October. He will also 
 visit Gallatin and Hartsville. Catholics residing in other parts 
 of the state will please meet him in Nashville, or let him know, 
 
 as soon as possible, their places of residence, that he may call on 
 them. I 
 
 29 Catholic Almanac, 1835, p. 61. Matthew Martin of Fayetteville, Ten- 
 nessee, in a letter of July 10, 1839, to the Catholic Herald, says: “Our 
 Catholic brethren of this State have been visited by the Rev. Mr. Durbin 
 since the spring of 1836” (Herald of August 1, 1839). 
 
 
 
 
 
FIRST CATHOLIC CHURCH IN TENNESSEE 313 
 
 With the appointment of Father Durbin as pastor of 
 Nashville began the dawn of a better day for the Church 
 of 'Tennessee; for one can but believe that he kept before 
 Bishop Chabrat the sad condition of the scattered 
 Catholics, and the imperative need of a resident bishop 
 that Catholicity might gain a firm hold in that fair state. 
 No doubt also, for he was a man of much good judg- 
 ment and considerable penetration, he foresaw the tact 
 and time and labor and patience which would be re- 
 quired to put the Church well on its feet there, after 
 the soil had been left so long untilled. 
 
 The zealous ambassador of Christ did all that he 
 could, in the little time at his disposal, to keep the faith 
 alive in the hearts of the people. From the pastorate 
 of Father Cosgreve, the modest brick church was rarely, 
 if ever, used by the visiting missionaries. Thus Father 
 Durbin found it in a state of dilapidation. Perhaps 
 he felt that it would be an injustice to his small and 
 poor flock to place upon them the burden of repairing 
 and keeping it in good condition. He therefore, no 
 doubt wisely, followed the example of his predecessors, 
 and contented himself with the larger houses of the 
 Catholics for all ecclesiastical functions. But, in this 
 way, the temple of prayer had almost gone to rack and 
 ruin by the time of Bishop Miles’ consecration. 
 
 Father Durbin was delighted when he heard that 
 Nashville had finally been erected into an episcopal see, 
 and that his friend had been appointed as its first head. 
 He made a hurried visit to the city and vicinity in order 
 to acquaint the Catholics with the good news, no less 
 than to make whatever preparations he could for a be- 
 fitting reception of their bishop. On his return home, 
 
314 THE FATHER OF THE CHURCH IN TENNESSEE 
 
 he wrote to Bishop Chabrat, in his characteristic, brief, 
 simple way: 
 
 I am glad to hear of the nomination of Right Rev. Mr. Miles 
 to the new See of Nashville. But I cannot consider myself re- 
 leased from the place until I see him installed. I have promised 
 to give $200.00 to help him to fix himself there. I hope you will 
 urge others to assist liberally—both priests and the people of the 
 different congregations. I hope you will know the time he will 
 go either to see and arrange, or to take charge of the place, and’ 
 note [?] your visit to this place at the same time. I suppose 
 it will be for you to go and install him; and then it might be well 
 (if it can suit other things) to visit the Purchase [on your way] 
 from Nashville, and this place on your way home.?° 
 
 30 Archives of Saint Joseph’s Province. The Purchase was one of 
 Father Durbin’s missions in western Kentucky. It got its name from the 
 fact that it was in the part of the “Jackson Purchase” which extended 
 into Kentucky. Father Durbin’s letter was written at “St. Vincent’s,”’ 
 Union County, Kentucky, November 27, 1837. 
 

 
 REV ote Pee Nias BADIN REV. ROBERT A. ABELL 
 
 
 
 REV. ECISHA J. DURBIN REV. JOHN D. MAGUIRE 
 
 THREE MISSIONARIES IN TENNESSEE BEFORE BISHCP MiLES, AND ONE 
 OF THE FIRST WHO CAME TO H!S ASSISTANCE 
 
oP 
 
 
 
CHAPTER XIV 
 TAKES POSSESSION OF HIS SEE 
 
 SucH was the status of the new diocese over which 
 Bishop Miles had been appointed. He was then in his 
 forty-ninth year. Few men, even if younger and ot 
 more vigorous health, would have had the courage to 
 face that with which he was confronted. Yet, now that 
 he was consecrated, he faltered not, though all that he 
 or his diocese possessed in temporal goods was a dilap- 
 idated brick church, forty-five by fifty-five feet, which 
 stood on the northern declivity of a barren knob, cov- 
 ered with dwarf cedars, in the outskirts of Nashville. 
 No doubt the clergy of Kentucky had defrayed the 
 expenses of his consecration. While preparations were 
 under way for his installation, he stayed with his breth- 
 ren at Saint Rose’s, where, during the first week of 
 October, he performed his first episcopal functions by 
 conferring all the sacred orders, except that of the 
 priesthood, on jhis former novice, Brother Matthew 
 Anthony O’Brien, who afterwards did much strenuous 
 and fruitful apostolic work up and down the lower 
 Mississippi River.’ 
 
 Meanwhile, Father Durbin, who had possibly come 
 from Nashville to Bardstown for the consecration, 
 hastened back to the southern city in order to make 
 ready for Doctor Miles’ arrival. Father Joseph T. 
 
 1 The Catholic Advocate, October 20, 1838; An American Apostle, pp- 
 
 59-60, and passim. 
 S15 
 
316 THE FATHER OF THE CHURCH IN TENNESSEE 
 
 Jarboe, the prior of Saint Rose’s Convent, seems to 
 have been selected to assist Father Durbin at the 
 bishop’s induction. It was a happy choice, for the three 
 men were close friends. Says the Catholic Advocate 
 of October 20, 1838: 
 
 On Monday, the 8th of October, the Right Rev. Dr. Miles, 
 accompanied by the Very Rev. F[ather] Jarboe, left the Church 
 of St. Rose’s on his way to Nashville, his Episcopal See. The 
 Rev. E. J. Durbin had preceded him a few days in order to dispose 
 all things for his arrival. Bishop Miles undertakes a difficult and 
 most arduous mission; but we have every reason to hope that God 
 will bless his labors, and that Religion will flourish in Tennessee. 
 
 It has been handed down to us that Saint Rose’s 
 gave the bishop its best steed, and that he and Father 
 Jarboe travelled from that place to Nashville on horse- 
 back; and the tradition is borne out by the fact that 
 they were five days in making the journey. If we may 
 judge by Father Jarboe’s account, the ceremony of 
 installation was simplicity itself. Perhaps, however, 
 it was all the more solemn, as well as the more Christ- 
 hke, for that very reason. Certainly it was no less in 
 accordance with Bishop Miles’ spirit than in keeping 
 with the circumstances of poverty and privation. In 
 a letter written at Saint Rose’s, October 29, 1838, to 
 the editor of the Catholic Advocate, Father Jarboe thus 
 tells the story: 
 
 Rev. and Dear Sir:— 
 
 When I last addressed you, I was just setting out with Right 
 Rev. Dr. Miles for his new home, Nashville, which we reached 
 on the Friday night following, having spent a day in Franklin 
 [the last town in Kentucky], where the Bishop preached an elo- 
 quent sermon on “The Rule of Faith” to quite a respectable 
 audience. 
 
 Our zealous brother in the work of the ministry, Rev. Mr. 
 Durbin, “whose praise is in all the churches,’ had been at work in 
 
TAKES POSSESSION OF HIS SEE 317 
 
 Nashville, making preparations for the Bishop’s reception. The 
 church which is a brick building, forty-five by fifty-five feet, had 
 been entirely neglected for many years, and was consequently much 
 out of repair. Rev. Mr. Durbin had the windows, door, and floor 
 repaired, and also four rows of genteel, plain seats made, num- 
 bering fifteen or sixteen in a row; a neat temporary altar, and a 
 convenient pulpit. It is but a just tribute of praise to this inde- 
 fatigable missionary to state that he contributed a hundred and 
 twenty-five dollars of his own towards these repairs, and that he 
 has been the only priest that has visited the Catholics of Nash- 
 ville for many years past; so that to him they are indebted for 
 all those spiritual aids by which their faith has been kept alive. 
 We took lodgings provided for us at the “Washington Hotel,” 
 where the Bishop was soon visited by most of the Catholics of 
 the place, as also by many of the citizens of other denominations 
 who seemed pleased at his coming amongst them, and expressed a 
 willingness to aid him in his many necessities. Indeed, his dig- 
 nified demeanor, and his modest and unassuming manners will not 
 fail to gain the respect of all who become acquainted with him, 
 and insure their concurrence in all his laudable undertakings. 
 Although the Sunday was unfavorable, the church was tolerably 
 well filled. The Bishop addressed the congregation before Mass 
 in a most feeling and paternal manner, and assured them of his 
 devoted attachment to those lately committed to his charge. In 
 truth, he seemed almost unearthly. Putting self entirely out of 
 view, he declared that he lived only for them, and that his greatest 
 and only happiness, both in life and death, would be to see them 
 faithful in the practice of all those Christian virtues which our 
 holy religion inculcates on her members. He exhorted them to 
 a frequent participation of the holy sacraments, as being the means 
 established by a merciful Saviour for obtaining all necessary 
 graces—pledges of that eternal life which Jesus Christ has pur- 
 chased for us at the price of His blood. He expressed his utmost 
 confidence in the protection of heaven, and the final success of his 
 labors. He assured them that no worldly interest could ever 
 
 2The National Banner and Nashville Whig of April 11, 1828, shows that 
 the Washington Hotel stood on Main Street, at the east side of the 
 Public Square. 
 
318 THE FATHER OF THE CHURCH IN TENNESSEE 
 
 have induced him to accept so responsible a position, and one to 
 which, in his modesty, he declared he felt himself unworthy to be 
 elevated. 
 
 After Mass, Rev. Mr. Durbin preached on “Regeneration;” 
 and I must say he did his subject ample justice. His attention 
 was turned particularly to this subject by a remark of one of 
 the religious papers of Nashville that “he knew no more about 
 Regeneration than Nicodemus when he came to Jesus by night.” 
 We celebrated Mass every day till Thursday inclusive, at which 
 such of the Catholics as could attended, and prepared themselves 
 to approach the holy sacraments. We had no opportunity of 
 taking the census of the congregation with any exactness, but 
 supposed there were in Nashville as many as seventy-five or a 
 hundred Catholics. | 
 
 The Right Rev. Bishop, accompanied by Rev. Mr. Durbin, left 
 Nashville on the 22nd instant, and set out on a visitation of his 
 Diocese, which will take him four or five weeks. He intends to 
 hunt up all his flock, and no doubt, like the good shepherd, will 
 take upon his shoulders such as have gone astray, and bring them 
 back to the fold. After having performed the visitation of his 
 Diocese, Dr. Miles will return to Nashville, and will present, 
 perhaps, the first instance the world ever beheld, since the days 
 of the Apostles, of a Bishop without scrip or staff, or even whereon 
 to lay his head! and who has not within his Diocese one single 
 Priest! ! Well may he say: “Portio mea, Domine” [| Thou, O Lord, 
 art my portion]. But I would say to him: “Fear not. God said 
 to Gideon: “You cannot conquer because you have too many sol- 
 diers;’ and when these were dismissed till the number was so 
 small that they knew the victory came from God, they were suc- 
 cessful. The work is the Lord’s and He will have the honor. 
 And [so] be satisfied with the reward.” 
 
 These things I have thought proper to communicate to you, that 
 through your valuable paper they may reach his many friends, 
 who are anxiously expecting an account of the prospects of his 
 Diocese. 
 
 Yours, etc., 
 
 Je Dw parboe |se 
 
 3 Catholic Advocate, November 10, 1838. 
 
TAKES? POSSESSION: OF. HIS SEE 319 
 
 F'ather Jarboe’s words have a special value, for he 
 was an observant man, possessed of good critical judg- 
 ment, and not at all given to flattery. Evidently he 
 remained at Nashville until the departure of the 
 bishop and Father Durbin. As we learn from a sub- 
 sequent issue of the same paper, which gives a digest 
 of their letters on their travels, they took a southeasterly 
 course from Nashville. At Murfreesborough, which 
 had been the state capital from 1819 to 1826, they dis- 
 covered one Catholic family of seven persons, and one 
 Catholic man in the vicinity. Thence they continued 
 their way, via McMinnville, over Walden’s Ridge, on 
 the top of which they found an English Catholic family, 
 and across the Cumberland Mountains to Athens, in 
 east Tennessee. At this place and along the Charleston 
 and Ohio Railroad, the missionaries were welcomed by 
 over a hundred Catholic Irishmen, with whom they 
 spent six days in giving them instructions and the 
 sacraments. 
 
 The ambassadors of Christ did not visit Knoxville, 
 which shows that the faith had died out there, and that 
 its people no longer appealed for spiritual aid; for the 
 place is no more than a day’s journey by horseback from 
 Athens. MRetracing their steps westward through the 
 southern tier of counties, they visited Calhoun, Ross- 
 ville (most likely Ross’ Landing, now Chattanooga) ,* 
 Salem, Winchester, and Fayetteville. Although it is 
 evident from other sources that they met a few 
 Catholics in all these places, Doctor Spalding’s digest 
 
 4 Ross’ Landing, or Chattanooga, lay on the missionaries’ route. The 
 
 only Rossville in Tennessee that we have been able to discover is in 
 Fayette County, in the western part of the state. 
 
320 THE FATHER OF THE CHURCH IN TENNESSEE 
 
 mentions none, except at Fayetteville, where they found 
 two in the city and some in the neighborhood.’ 
 Thence the wayfarers proceeded northward. At 
 Mount Pleasant they visited one Catholic family. Some 
 were also found at Columbia. Their last stop was at 
 Franklin, about twenty-five miles south of Nashville, 
 where they halted in order to administer to a handful 
 of faithful in that city and vicinity.° 
 Bishop Miles and Father Durbin had ridden on 
 horseback some five hundred miles by the time they 
 returned to Nashville. They had preached in court- 
 houses, in non-Catholic churches, and in the open air. 
 Possibly it was during the few days they now remained 
 in the episcopal city that they estimated its Catholic 
 population at somewhat over one hundred and thirty. 
 Western Tennessee had got on the map, and calls for 
 spiritual help were coming in from that quarter, espec- 
 ially from Memphis. The bishop and his companion 
 computed that the Catholics in the state numbered per- 
 haps more than three hundred, but they were scattered 
 here and there throughout its length and _ breadth.’ 
 Whilst the outlook was gloomy indeed, from point of 
 numbers and financial, clerical, and other needs, the 
 appeals for priests, no less than the kindly reception 
 everywhere accorded the bishop, were hopeful signs. 
 In connection with his digest of the Tennessee letters, 
 Doctor Spalding, who was then the editor of the Advo- 
 cate, makes a strong plea not only for a widespread 
 assistance in behalf of the Diocese of Nashville, but also 
 9 The Advocate of January 26, 1839, shows that Father Durbin com- 
 plained to Doctor Spalding of the inexact digest which he printed of 
 these travels. 
 
 6 Catholic Advocate, December 7, 1838. 
 7 Ibid. 
 
eb, La. LOI OLE Ly ss hbs 321 
 
 for the Catholic papers of the country to take up its 
 cause and broadcast its needs. Its bishop, he declares, 
 “is not only in want of the comforts, but even, to a 
 great extent, of the necessaries of life.” At the end 
 he adds an extract from Father Durbin’s letter in 
 which that noble missionary says: 
 
 I do hope that the clergy in the different Diocesses will con- 
 sider these things, and that some one may be spared, and be willing 
 to go and labor with him [ Bishop Miles]. But it should be one 
 who is sincerely devoted to the cause, willing to spend himself 
 and his means in establishing, or rather fixing, the Bishop, and 
 serve the people for God’s sake. I don’t mean that he may not 
 expect the means of subsistence. The Catholics there are few, 
 but in general generous and noble souls. I do hope that the clergy 
 and laity will think a little on the state of things in the new 
 diocess. The church is in debt, [and] unfinished; the roof decayed. 
 The Bishop is poor and without a home. If we fold our arms, and 
 say: “There are others to assist in these things,’ the work must 
 remain undone. We of Kentucky especially ought to feel ourselves 
 bound. We should consider those of Tennessee as part of our- 
 selves. But all should reflect that it is a work of the Lord; and 
 that it is to establish a chair of truth in a vast field. It is needless 
 for me to say more. 
 
 Doctor Spalding states, in the course of his obser- 
 vations: “We feel a deep interest in the welfare of the 
 Diocess of Nashville; and this is our only motive, as it 
 is our sufficient apology, for the remarks which we have 
 made.” From the same source we learn that, after a 
 few days’ delay at Nashville, the bishop and Father 
 Durbin visited Gallatin, whence the latter returned to 
 his home; while Doctor Miles also went to Kentucky 
 in order to make some sort of arrangements for his 
 final settlement in Tennessee.*> On Sunday, December 
 
 8 Ibid. Although Father Durbin is said to have visited Bishop Miles 
 
 from time to time, his labors in Tennessee terminated with the journey 
 spoken of in the text. He is said to have ridden a hundred and fifty 
 
 22 
 
322 THE FATHER OF THE CHURCH IN TENNESSEE 
 
 2, he preached in the Bardstown cathedral, where he 
 doubtless made an urgent appeal for an assistant priest 
 and financial aid.? In regard to the first aim he failed. 
 However, he appears to have had better success in the 
 matter of temporal means, for in its issue of January 
 26, 1839, the editor of the Catholic Advocate writes: 
 
 We are pleased to learn by a private letter from Nashville that 
 Dr. Miles has already succeeded in raising funds almost sufficient 
 to repair and refit his Cathedral Church. Several Catholic fam- 
 ilies have removed to Nashville during the fall and winter. ‘There 
 is every prospect of there soon being in that city quite a respec- 
 table Catholic congregation. Much credit is due to the liberal 
 Protestants of Nashville for their generous aid in contributing for 
 the repairing of the Catholic Church in that place. We cordially 
 wish Bishop Miles every success in his new field of labor. Besides 
 the higher impulses of zeal, he has the sympathies and well wishes 
 of many friends to cheer him on in his arduous labors. In the 
 commencement of his career, he will no doubt have to sow in 
 sorrow; but soon he may hope to reap in joy the golden harvest of 
 the Lord. 
 
 The zealous pastor hardly knew which way to turn, 
 er where to begin. Doubtless he felt that one of the 
 best things to be done, under the circumstances, was to 
 remind his little flock of the penitential practices of 
 the Church. Accordingly, he published regulations for 
 the observance of lent in the Advocate of February 9, 
 1839; for this paper was taken by some of the Cath- 
 olics in Tennessee, and through them the notice would 
 reach the ears of others whose whereabcuts he did not 
 know. Besides that of being the first regulations of the 
 kind issued in the state, the document has the added 
 
 thousand miles on horseback in the fulfillment of his missionary duties. 
 He lived to an extreme age. He was born in Madison County, Kentucky, 
 February 1, 1800; was ordained on September 21, 1822; and died on March 
 22, 1887, remaining active almost to the end. 
 
 9 Advocate of December 1, 1838. 
 
TAKES POSSESSION OF HIS SEE 323 
 
 interest of recalling the noticeable differences between 
 the observances of the past and the milder law of today. 
 
 Abstinence from flesh meat [it says] will be observed from 
 Ash Wednesday to the following Saturday, both included; also 
 on Wednesday, Friday, and Saturday of the ensuing weeks of 
 Lent; and every day from Palm Sunday till Holy Saturday, both 
 included. The use of flesh meat is allowed on all the Sundays of 
 Lent, except Palm Sunday, without restriction as to the number of 
 times. It is likewise allowed, at one meal only, on Monday, 
 Tuesday, and Thursday of every week, after the first Sunday 
 until Holy Week. The use of fish and flesh at the same meal is 
 forbidden. The use of eggs, cheese, and butter is permitted. The 
 evening collation should be moderate—and in quantity and quality 
 regulated by the general practice of pious Christians, so as not to 
 become a meal, instead of a collation. Persons dispensed from 
 the obligation of fasting on one meal, on account of delicate health 
 or hard labour, should at the other meals use only food of such 
 quality as is allowed to those who are obliged to fast. 
 
 Without a priestly companion, without means, and 
 with scarcely more than three hundred of his faith 
 amidst a population of several hundred thousand, and 
 these scattered throughout a state nearly five hundred 
 miles in length, as well as over a hundred in width, and 
 with an area of forty-two thousand square miles, the 
 bishop must have felt lost. He now busied himself with 
 the episcopal city and the nearer missions until the 
 return of good weather. Then he started on another 
 visit of his diocese, travelling this time, in answer to a 
 eall for the bread of life, almost to the extreme eastern 
 boundary of Tennessee. The Catholic Advocate of 
 June 16, 1839, gives a partial account of his journey in 
 these words: 
 
 The Right Rev. R. P. Miles, Bishop of Nashville, has just 
 returned from a visitation of the eastern portion of his Diocess. 
 At Athens, about one hundred and fifty miles [south]east of Nash- 
 ville, he found about a hundred Irishmen engaged in grading the 
 
324 THE FATHER OF THE CHURCH IN TENNESSEE 
 
 railroad. The Bishop spent three days with them, said Mass on 
 Sunday in a shanty, and preached to a large congregation. On 
 Monday he set out for Jonesborough, one hundred and fifty-five 
 miles [north]east of Athens, where he understood several persons 
 were anxious to see him. On Friday he arrived at Col. [ Matthew] 
 Aiken’s, whose son and daughter were the objects of his search, 
 and was received and treated in the most hospitable manner by 
 this excellent family. 
 
 He found the two young converts well disposed and acquainted 
 with every point of our doctrine, having obtained their knowledge 
 from books and from the instructions of an elder brother, who had 
 previously entered the Church, and is now studying with the 
 Jesuits, in Frederick City, Maryland. Bishop Miles remained 
 with them till Sunday, baptized them, said Mass, and gave them 
 their first communion, which they received in a truly edifying 
 manner. The young man had never before seen a Catholic clergy- 
 man, and was present at Mass for the first time; his sister had 
 been at school at the Convent of the Visitation, Georgetown, D. C. 
 
 The Bishop left this small family with regret, and returned 
 to Athens, which place he reached on the eve of the Ascension. On 
 the next day he said Mass in one of the shanties and preached. 
 He continued along the line four days, making a station each day; 
 and on Tuesday after Ascension started for Nashville, which 
 place he reached after four days’ travel, having made a circuit 
 of nearly seven hundred miles, alone and on horseback.?® 
 
 Doctor Miles was the most grateful of men. Under 
 no circumstances would he allow a favor, or even an 
 expression of sympathy, to go without sincere thanks. 
 On his return from the journey just recounted, he 
 found awaiting him a letter from the Right Rev. An- 
 thony Blanc, in which that prelate graciously offered 
 ‘to help him in whatever way he could. ‘The immediate 
 reply to the bishop of New Orleans illustrates this 
 beautiful trait of the Father of the Church in 'Tennes- 
 
 10 The Ascension Day of 1839 fell on the ninth of May, which shows 
 that the bishop reached Nashville on his return journey on the seven- 
 teenth or eighteenth of May. 
 
TAKES’ POSSESSION OF HIS SEE 325 
 
 see, as well as throws much light on the condition and 
 
 needs of his diocese. 
 Nashville, May 20, 1839. 
 Right Rev. and dear Brother in Christ. 
 
 I found your kind favour of the 9th April in my box on my return 
 from a long and fatiguing visitation of the eastern part of my 
 Diocese. I am consoled to find that some of my brethren remem- 
 ber me in my lonely and destitute situation, where I am left 
 entirely alone to perform all the arduous duties of this hitherto 
 cruelly neglected region, and where so much aid is needed to repair 
 the evils that have taken deep root among my poor, deserted, and 
 scattered flock. I find Catholics in almost every part of the state, 
 many of whom have for many years neglected their duties, and 
 in many instances have lost their faith for the want of some 
 one to stir them up to a sense of religion. And what can a 
 single individual do, now on the verge of fifty, amidst this general 
 desolation? 
 
 My great poverty deprives me of the means of offering a com- 
 petent salary to a clergyman; and in default of this I am doomed 
 to struggle alone among the frightful difficulties of every species 
 that surround me! God knows how long this unpleasant state of 
 affairs is to continue. For the sake of the dear souls entrusted to 
 my care, I hope it will not be long. 
 
 You were kind enough to say in your letter that you would 
 aid me, and request me to make known the manner in which you 
 could do this. After thanking you most cordially for your gen- 
 erous offer, I must confess that my wants are so numerous that I 
 am ashamed to begin to mention them, lest I should frighten you 
 by their number. Encouraged, however, by your liberality, I will 
 state, in short, some of the most prominent. I need, in the first 
 place, a good, zealous, active Priest to help me, and who shall 
 have with me every comfort that I can procure for him. I need 
 money to assist in repairing our church, vestments, chalices, etc., 
 etc. -I should be particularly pleased to get one of those cloth ante- 
 pendiums which I have seen sent from France. I wish also to 
 get a keg of pure wine for the altar; for which I will pay you, 
 if you will be kind enough to send it to me. 
 
 In fine, I need everything. And if you can send me any thing 
 
326 THE FATHER OF THE CHURCH IN TENNESSEE 
 
 above mentioned, you will confer a favour on your poor, destitute 
 brother, which will not soon be forgotten. I would cheerfully pay 
 you a visit, but it is growing too late in the season. Moreover, 
 my services are needed among my people. Be kind enough to let 
 me hear from you soon; and should it be in your power to send 
 me any of the above articles, please direct them to the care of 
 Connor and McAlister, Commission Merchants of this place. 
 I am, Right Rev. and dear Brother, 
 Very respectfully and affectionately your devoted servant 
 and brother in Christ, 
 T Richard Pius, 
 Bishop of Nashville.1 
 
 Matthew Martin tells us that, at the time of his 
 journey in the fall of 1838, Bishop Miles “traversed 
 nearly all Kast and Middle Tennessee;” that he prom- 
 ised to make a similar visit in the spring of 1839; and 
 that he was prevented from doing so only by want of 
 
 assistance.” 'To Martin he wrote: 
 
 I have no hope under God but in my own exertions and 
 individual labour. Having heard during the winter that there were 
 two persons near Jonesboro’ wishing to become members of our 
 Church, I thought it my first duty to see them; which I have 
 done, and, to my great gratification, added two fervent members to 
 
 my little flock. The railroad near Athens was in my way, [ and} 
 I also visited it. The unsettled condition of my affairs at home 
 required my speedy return, and thus I have failed in executing 
 a plan which I had in view when I last wrote you. In my present 
 destitute condition, it will be impossible for me to visit my diocese 
 more than once a year. My case is a hard one, and I hope my 
 friends will have patience. I must visit Kentucky once more, and 
 make a last effort to procure assistance. If I fail on this occasion, 
 as on the last, I must wait till God pleases to relieve me.}% 
 
 In Robert and Mary Aiken, the two converts men- 
 tioned here and in the Advocate of June 16, 1839, we 
 11 Archives of Notre Dame University. 
 
 12 Letter to the Catholic Herald from Fayetteville, Tennessee, July 10, 
 1839 (Herald of August 1, 1839). 13 [bid, 
 

 
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 JAMES FARRELL 
 
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 HOLY ROSARY CATHEDRAL 
 NASHVILLE'S FIRST CATHEDRAL, FIRST BISHOP, AND FIRST 
 
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TAKES POSSESSION OF HIS SEE 327 
 
 have an interesting side-light on Tennessee’s early 
 Catholic history. Though born and reared where there 
 were no Catholics, and brought up strict Methodists, 
 they came into the Church through a special gift from 
 heaven, albeit the faith had all but died out in the 
 eastern part of the state. Doubtless it was a reward 
 for their good lives. Their brother, Father John F. 
 Aiken, S.J., was Tennessee’s first priest. He became 
 a convert while a student at Georgetown College, 
 entered the Society of Jesus, and through his letters 
 and books of instruction which he sent home converted 
 nearly all his large family, and had the unusual happi- 
 ness of baptizing his own aged father and mother.“ 
 Evidently the bishop’s faithful steed was worn out 
 by his frequent and long journeys, for this time the 
 harvester of souls travelled to Kentucky in the stage- 
 coach. While there he gave the minor orders and 
 subdeaconship to Brother Augustine Peter Anderson, 
 O.P., and conferred the priesthood upon Brother Mat- 
 thew A. O’Brien.” But he failed to secure help for 
 14 Catalogues of the Maryland Province of the Society of Jesus from 
 1838 to 1862; Baptismal Register of Holy Trinity Church, Georgetown; 
 PARKE, Some Notes on the Rise and Spread of the Catholic Missions in 
 Virgima, p. 21. The Aikens were a noted family of Pulaski County, 
 Virginia. Col. Matthew Aiken married Miss Blanche Brown, possibly 
 in his native place, with whom he settled in Washington County, Ten- 
 nessee. Father Aiken, their eldest son, was born there, August 11, 1814; 
 was sent to Georgetown College; was baptized a Catholic, December 30, 
 1835; entered the Society of Jesus, August 25, 1837; was ordained, July 
 22, 1844 (United States Catholic Magazine, III, 609—September, 1844) ; 
 spent the most of his priestly life at Alexandria, Virginia, where his 
 memory is still treasured; died at Georgetown, February 6, 1861. His 
 letters to various members of his family (archives of Nashville and Saint 
 Joseph’s Province) reveal that there was a large family, and that he left 
 
 nothing undone to make them Catholics. 
 15 Advocate of July 6, 1839; An American Apostle, pp. 60-61. 
 
328 THE FATHER OF THE CHURCH IN TENNESSEE 
 
 his diocese; for the Advocate of July 6, 1838, informs 
 its readers: 
 
 Right Rev. Dr. Miles took the stage for Nashville on Tuesday 
 the 25th instant, “‘solitary and alone,’ without yet having the 
 consolation of a clergyman to assist him in his many and arduous 
 labors. Heaven grant him courage to bear up under difficulties and 
 privations so trying. It is to be hoped that some zealous clergy- 
 man, who is willing “to spend and be spent” in the cause of the 
 Gospel, will be induced to offer his service to labor in a field where’ 
 much is to be suffered and little to be gained for this world; but 
 where the faithful laborer is amassing treasures for heaven, which 
 “the moth cannot consume, nor thieves break through and steal.” 
 
 Fathers Durbin and ‘Athanasius A. Aud of the Dio- 
 cese of Bardstown offered him their services, but met 
 with resistance from their superior."° The Rev. Joseph 
 Stokes, rector of the seminary at Cincinnati, however, 
 determined that he would labor in the desolate diocese 
 for a year, or until such time as Doctor Miles could pro- 
 cure other help; for he felt that the poor bishop would 
 not be able to bear up much longer under the strain of 
 his labors and the stress of his anxiety. It was a provi- 
 dential resolution. Indeed, the holy man had already 
 fallen a victim of his zeal. When Father Stokes, on his 
 way to Nashville, reached Franklin, Kentucky, he was 
 met by a messenger who urged him to make the re- 
 maining forty miles as speedily as possible, for Bishop 
 Miles was dangerously ill.” 
 
 The anxious priest arrived at Nashville on Saturday 
 night, September 7. While the bishop was very sick, 
 there seemed no cause for fear. But the next day he 
 
 16 Matthew Martin to the Catholic Herald as in note 12; the Rev. 
 Joseph Stokes to the Rev. M. J. Spalding, D.D., December 27, 1839 
 (Louisville Archives). 
 
 17 The Rev. Joseph Stokes to Bishop Purcell, September 15, 1839 (Cin- 
 cinnati Archives). 
 
TAKES POSSESSION OF HIS'SEE 329 
 
 grew worse, and lay between life and death for more 
 than a week. On September 15, 1839, Father Stokes 
 wrote to Bishop Purcell: 
 
 On Sunday evening he became worse, and the best medical aid 
 was called in. He is now attended by three of the best physicians 
 in town. On Monday last he received the last Sacraments, made 
 his will, and appointed me his Vicar General and administrator. 
 He is still living, and we have but faint hopes of his recovery. 
 The doctors will not pronounce, but are with him day and night. 
 You may judge how I feel in this strange city, and yet how 
 wonderful are the ways of God. The Bishop of Nashville who 
 was so long deprived of the assistance of a Priest would not be 
 permitted to die without receiving the holy Sacraments. My 
 heart is too much affected to dwell upon the desolate [ situation] 
 in which I fear it is my lot to be placed. 
 
 [Should] it please God to call Bishop Miles away, perhaps you 
 [would] have the charity to lend me one of the young Priests 
 taught by myself until the Holy See disposes of Nashville. Surely 
 you will not refuse me this favour. If it please God to spare the 
 Bishop, and I am almost this day in despair of his recovery, it 
 will not be for me to repeat my request; but I thought, in the 
 making of a disposition of your Priests, you might have some re- 
 gard for me and where I am stationed. I should certainly 
 return to you the young Priest at any time you would appoint. 
 I need not ask you and the Priests and Sisters and orphans and 
 Seminarians to pray for Bishop Miles, and not to forget myself 
 who requires much more than the good Bishop. I am in attend- 
 ance day and night upon him. I wonder [that] I feel no fatigue.!® 
 
 Father Stokes does not mention the character of the 
 Bishop’s illness, but the tradition of Nashville and the 
 Province of Saint Joseph tells us that it was pneumonia 
 brought on by a cold which his constitution could not 
 throw off, because weakened by exposure and excessive 
 labors.” The report of his danger occasioned wide- 
 
 18 See the preceding note. Some words are torn out of .Father Stokes 
 
 letter; hence a part of the brackets in the quotation. 
 19 This tradition is substantiated by the Advocate of November 16, 1839. 
 
330 THE FATHER OF THE CHURCH IN TENNESSEE 
 
 spread uneasiness. Bishop Purcell, for instance, wrote 
 to the Most Rev. Samuel Eccleston, October 5, 1839: 
 
 We were thrown into great alarm, at the beginning of the week, 
 by the news which reached us from Nashville of Dr. Miles being 
 at the point of death. . . . Bishop Flaget was exceedingly afflicted 
 at hearing the news yesterday, when he reached this town after 
 a tedious trip down the Ohio. But during dinner the grateful 
 tidings of our good brother’s convalescence were announced to us. 
 May the cure be effectual, for the moment is indeed auspicious 
 
 for the work of Grace in Tennessee.7° 
 
 Similarly the Catholic Advocate of October 26, 1839, 
 Says: 
 
 We are happy to be able*to inform our readers that the health 
 of the Right Rev. Bishop Miles is fast improving. He is now 
 out of all danger, and is able to ride out in a carriage.*! This 
 intelligence must prove highly gratifying to his numerous friends 
 in Kentucky, who, from the accounts they had received, entertained 
 serious fears that he would not recover. The prospects of the 
 Diocess of Nashville are becoming daily more cheering... . 
 Bishop Miles has, we think, abundant motives for hoping that God, 
 in whom he has reposed all his trust, will speedily provide for his 
 scattered and hitherto abandoned flock.?* 
 
 The appeals sent abroad had finally awakened some 
 sympathy for the diocese; for from the same issue of 
 the Advocate and a letter of the Rev. Edward Barron 
 of Philadelphia we learn that, besides Father Stokes, 
 the Rev. John Dunn, editor of the Catholic Herald in 
 that city, also offered his services. Doubtless he too was 
 
 20 Baltimore Archives, Case 25, Q 10. The omitted portion of the 
 quotation merely gives some of the facts contained in Father Stokes’s 
 letter as in note 17. Bishop Flaget was just returning from Europe after 
 an absence of more than four years. 
 
 21 The bishop himself had no carriage; but his friends, very often 
 non-Catholics, had their carriages ever at his disposal during the time 
 of his convalescence. Such at least is the tradition of Nashville. 
 
 22 The omitted portion of the quotation contains words of praise for 
 the bishop and Father Stokes, the prospects of the diocese, and so on. 
 
ee LO as eooLON OB THIS SEE 331 
 
 dissuaded by his superior from going to Tennessee. 
 Bishop Miles, however, had come to the conclusion that 
 the surest way of providing his flock with pastors was 
 to start a little seminary under the direction of Father 
 Stokes and himself. Possibly another factor in this de- 
 termination was a letter received from the treasurer 
 of the French Society for the Propagation of the Faith, 
 who had heard of the bishop’s straits, and wrote to him 
 that he might draw on the society immediately for the 
 money which it had allotted for his diocese.** 
 
 No sooner did the bishop regain sufficient strength to 
 look after the faithful in Memphis than he despatched 
 Father Stokes on the circuit which he himself had hoped 
 to make the previous spring. Franklin, Columbia, 
 Shelbyville, Winchester, and Fayetteville were visited. 
 On his return, he wrote to the Catholic Advocate: 
 
 I met Catholics in all these places. Amongst some the spirit of 
 Catholicity is almost extinct; whilst others, notwithstanding a long 
 and painful privation of a ministry, adhered with a surprising 
 fidelity to the creed of their Catholic forefathers, rejoiced at 
 receiving a visit from a Priest, and prepared for the holy Sacra- 
 ments. ... Although afflicted, as every Priest must be, at the 
 apathy but too apparent in some of our Catholic people, and for 
 which, after all, in this Diocese at least, much allowance must be 
 made, I have had much consolation in witnessing the tenacity with 
 which, “through good and through evil report,’ some have clung 
 
 23 Advocate, October 26, 1839; Father Barron, October 7, 1839, to the 
 Rev. Paul Cullen, at Rome (Records of the U. S. Cath. Hist. Soctety of 
 Philadelphia, VII, 367); Bishop Miles to Bishop Blanc, October 29, 
 1839 (Archives of Notre Dame University). Father Cullen was then the 
 rector of the Irish College at Rome. Afterwards he became the cardinal 
 archbishop of Dublin. Father Barron later went as a missionary to the 
 free colored people who left the United States for the Republic of Liberia, 
 in western Africa, became vicar apostolic of North and South Guinea, 
 and was consecrated titular bishop of Constantia. He returned to the 
 United States, and died at Savannah, in 1853 or 1854 (See Catholic 
 Encyclopedia, 1X, 217). 
 
332 THE FATHER OF THE CHURCH IN TENNESSEE 
 
 to the religion of their fathers. In the solitary instances, how- 
 ever, of such firmness, who can tell the evils with which they have 
 been connected? 
 
 On one occasion, I met a man more than eighty years of age, 
 a great-grandfather, the head of a numerous offspring, who for 
 thirty years had not been visited by a priest. He taught his 
 children, when young, the mysteries of our religion—had even 
 his wife baptized and instructed by a Catholic Priest (the Very 
 Rev. S. T. Badin, V. G., and the first Priest ordained in the United 
 States). Yet he alone of his entire family continued faithful to 
 his belief, and would never unite in any sectarian worship. His 
 faith, like that of Abraham, was rewarded by the Almighty; his 
 fidelity was blessed, for he lived to receive the Holy Sacrament. 
 I have no doubt that if Tennessee had been favoured as other 
 states, by a Catholic ministry, for years gone by, not only the 
 numerous family of him just alluded to, but a multitude of others, 
 would now be worthy and edifying members of the Catholic 
 Church.?* 
 
 Father Stokes says that, besides administering the 
 sacraments in all the places which he visited, he preached 
 several times in court-houses and Presbyterian churches 
 which were generously offered to him. In fact, he re- 
 ceived the most courteous treatment from the repre- 
 sentative non-Catholics. Thanks to Matthew Martin 
 of Fayetteville, who wrote to the Advocate on the same 
 matter, October 25, 1839, we learn the date of Father 
 Stokes’ visit, as well as the name of the faithful octo- 
 genarian. ‘The missionary reached Fayetteville on 
 October 21. The edifying old man was none other than 
 the former Catholic alderman of Knoxville, James 
 Dardis, who had moved to Winchester. 
 
 Martin tells us that the venerable patriarch’s heart 
 overflowed with joy at the sight of the good priest, and 
 that “he informed Mr. Stokes that every Sunday he 
 
 24 Advocate of November 16, 1839. 
 
TAKES POSSESSION OF HIS SEE 333 
 
 read the Canon of the Mass in his prayer-book, and 
 that he had never entered a Protestant church, until 
 Jast Sunday evening, when he went to hear Mr. Stokes 
 preach.” *” This means much, when we consider the 
 channels of grace denied him, and the temptations into 
 which he was thrown. The same writer gives us an 
 idea, in a previous letter, of the trials of the early Cath- 
 olics in Tennessee, where he says: 
 
 The feelings of a Roman Catholic residing here are not known 
 or appreciated by his brethren in the East. On the Sabbath day 
 he beholds his fellow-citizens of other denominations going to their 
 respective places of worship. He has either to go with such, or 
 stay at home; for although I have lived in this state nearly fifteen 
 years, I have never yet been at Mass publicly celebrated.”® 
 
 Meanwhile, calls for the services of a priest continued 
 to come in from various places of west ‘Tennessee. 
 Those who were trying to found towns in that part of 
 the state, in spite of religious bias, realized the bene- 
 ficial effects of a liberal consideration for Catholics 
 which might induce them to settle in such places. One 
 Willham Connor, a non-Catholic of Brownsville inter- 
 ested in the proposed town of Ashport, on the 
 Mississippi River, about midway between the northern 
 and southern boundaries of the state, wrote to the 
 bishop: | 
 
 I have known for a long time that cities can not be built without 
 mechanics, and that one cause of the slow growth of the Tennessee 
 towns was the little encouragement given to Catholics to settle 
 in them. We have had a full trial of this lately. We had a number 
 of Irish Catholics at work on the Ashport Turnpike, who could 
 not be induced to stay, for fear of dying without a priest. The 
 principal object of this communication is to propose that you get a 
 priest to come here and settle himself. I will guarantee that the 
 
 25 Advocate of November 30, 1839. 
 26 Matthew Martin’s letter to the Catholic Herald as in note 12. 
 
334 THE FATHER OF THE CHURCH IN TENNESSEER 
 
 Proprietors of the town of Ashport shall donate to the Roman 
 Catholics an eligible lot on which to build a church of any dimen- 
 sions, and give them an equal chance with all other religious de- 
 nominations.” 
 
 However, the printed advertisement for the sale of 
 lots at Ashport, a copy of which Connor sent to the 
 bishop, shows that the proprietors of the incipient town 
 did not dare publicly to defy the strong religious prej- 
 udices of the day. Whilst it announced in bold 
 characters “Lots for the use of the Presbyterian, Bap- 
 tist, Methodist, and Episcopal Churches will be set 
 apart as Donations,” it contained not so much as a 
 reference to the Catholics. Nevertheless, the Father 
 of the Church in Tennessee, anxious to avail himself 
 of every opportunity for the spread of religion, did not 
 allow this circumstance to prevent him from taking 
 favorable action. He forwarded Connor’s letter, to- 
 gether with the advertisement, to the Advocate, for 
 publication in the hope that it might bring Catholics 
 into his diocese. Besides, he knew well the southern 
 spirit of chivalry, and trusted that the presence ot 
 missionaries might result in conversions among the fair- 
 minded. 
 
 Still too weak for the journey himself, Bishop Miles 
 despatched Father Stokes to Jackson, Ashport, and 
 Memphis on November 4, 1839. Eiverywhere he was 
 received with joy by the few who belonged to the fold, 
 and treated with courteous hospitality by the leading 
 non-Catholics. At Ashport, where he spent a week 
 in instructing the Catholics and giving them the sac- 
 raments, two lots, each one hundred and five by one 
 hundred feet, were deeded to the bishop, and Andrew 
 
 27 Advocate of September 21, 1839. 
 
TAKES POSSESSION OF HIS SEE 335 
 
 Finn, a contractor, was appointed his agent to super- 
 intend the construction of a church, fifty by thirty-five 
 feet in dimensions. Stokes speaks in terms of the 
 highest praise of Messrs. William Connor and R. C. 
 Campbell, two of the proprietors whom he met. Unfor- 
 tunately, their efforts to found a city proved abortive, 
 and thus the plan for a church there came to naught.” 
 
 Father Stokes was the first priest of the diocese, 
 and possibly the first English-speaking missionary, to 
 visit any of these places. For this reason, as also 
 because Memphis soon played a conspicuous part no 
 less in the spiritual than in the temporal welfare of the 
 state, we let Father Stokes tell the story of his labors 
 in that city in his own words. Besides, they show the 
 
 spirit which he encountered all along his route. 
 
 I arrived at Memphis [he says] on Thursday, the 14th of 
 November, and was exceedingly gratified at the Joy that was man- 
 ifested by the Catholics of that town on the first arrival of a Priest 
 of the Diocese of Nashville.29 The Catholics, some of whom are 
 amongst the most intelligent and respectable citizens of that 
 flourishing town, generally conducted themselves in a most edify- 
 ing manner, prepared themselves to receive the holy Sacraments, 
 and in every respect exhibited the most gratifying testimony of 
 love and veneration for the merciful institution of our Redeemer. 
 
 On Sunday, the 17th, I was invited to preach in the Male 
 Academy of the town, and was favored by the attendance of the 
 most intelligent portion of its citizens.2° I endeavored to explain 
 
 28 Advocate of Jaunary 4, 1840. 
 
 29 He hurried down from Ashport to Memphis in order to keep an 
 engagement, and went back to Ashport later. 
 
 30 This was Eugene Magevney’s log school. Magevney was the first 
 Catholic school-teacher in Memphis, and one of the earliest of any kind. 
 The Male Academy, as it was called, stood in what is now the center of 
 Court Square, today in the very heart of the business district of the city. 
 Tradition, which is doubtless true, tells us that the first public mass said 
 in the present Memphis was celebrated within the humble walls of this 
 school. 
 
336 THE FATHER OF THE CHURCH IN TENNESSEE 
 
 what the Church really taught on the various subjects of which 
 our Protestant brethren entertain such erroneous notions; and 
 the result was that many of them generously offered to assist their 
 Catholic fellow-citizens in the purchase of a lot and the erection 
 of a Catholic church in their town. Messrs. Magevney, McKeon, 
 Kenna, and Langan were appointed a Committee to select a lot 
 and procure subscriptions for the building; and from the known 
 Catholic spirit of these gentlemen, as well as the kind and liberal 
 feelings of the citizens generally, we can have no doubt that in 
 Memphis a Catholic church will soon be erected that will do honor 
 
 to themselves and the holy religion we profess.°4 
 
 Father Stokes possessed a buoyant disposition, which 
 was no doubt partly sustained by Bishop Miles’ unfail- 
 ing cheerful temperament and his own previous mission- 
 ary experiences in the Diocese of Charleston. He ever 
 writes in the most optimistic spirit—doubtless due in 
 a measure to his own as well as to the bishop’s desire to 
 attract Catholics and priests to Tennessee. In the 
 course of his present letter, which we feel sure was 
 written to Doctor Spalding, he says that he went from 
 Memphis about forty miles down the river to attend 
 some Catholics in Mississippi, and returned to Nashville 
 v1a Memphis and Ashport, reaching home on Monday, 
 December 16. During the journey, he travelled “seven 
 hundred miles, principally on horseback.” ‘The close of 
 the document deserves to be put in his own words. 
 Here he tells us: 
 
 I administered the Blessed Sacrament to fifty-two persons, 
 prepared some for death, and baptised a great number of children. 
 
 31 Three of these gentlemen were Eugene Magevney, Patrick McKeon, 
 and Patrick R. Kenna. The fourth always signs himself “M. Langan” in 
 the documents we have seen. The Advocate of December 7, 1839, shows 
 that Mrs. Henrietta Kenna, wife of P. R. Kenna, a native of Baltimore, 
 and received into the Church at Cincinnati a few months before, died in 
 Memphis on November 18, and was assisted by Father Stokes. Stokes’ 
 letter, from which we quote here, is dated: Nashville, Tennessee, December 
 19, 1839. 
 
TAKES POSSESSION OF HIS SEE Bos 
 
 Could I have remained out longer, much more might be done; and 
 had I a supply of books of instruction to distribute amongst 
 those in whom a spirit of enquiry was excited, great good might 
 be accomplished. But situated as we are, poor in every respect, 
 and without clergy to aid us, we must only pray that the Father 
 of the Faithful may assist us, and send us a few disinterested, 
 laborious clergymen who will not seek in this world their reward, 
 but be ever mindful of the solemn promise made when initiated 
 amongst the clergy—Dominus pars haereditatis meae, et calicis mei 
 {The Lord is the portion of my inheritance and of my cup]. 
 Yours affectionately in Christ, 
 Ji S  ptokes] 34 
 
 Nashville, Tennessee, December 19th, 1839. 
 
 In spite of sickness, poverty, and incessant labors far 
 and near, the once dilapidated little cathedral that stood 
 on Capitol Hill now became a temple of prayer worthy 
 of the name. The bishop dedicated it to the Mother of 
 God under the title of the Holy Rosary. “A Catholic”, 
 writing to the Advocate, January 27, 1839, says that 
 “through the generous zeal of the flock, the kind hber- 
 ality of their Protestant fellow-citizens, and the untiring 
 exertions of the Bishop, the building has undergone a 
 thorough repair, and, decorated in a chaste and simple 
 style, is now really a beautiful church.” A new organ 
 had also been secured, and was used for the first time 
 on Christmas Day. Doctor Miles, in his love of music 
 and affectionate efforts to have the divine services as 
 befitting as possible, had trained a choir of which several 
 non-Catholics formed a part. The singing at both 
 masses on the Feast of the Nativity was excellent. 
 
 Bishop Blanc must have extended his helping hand; 
 for the Advocate’s correspondent declares that the altar 
 was exquisitely decorated, although his attention seems 
 
 32 The Advocate makes Father Stoke’s initial “T.”—evidently an over- 
 sight. 
 
 23 
 
338 THE FATHER OF THE CHURCH IN TENNESSEE 
 
 to have been principally attracted by six large candle- 
 sticks sent by a Belgian lady in Brooklyn, New York. 
 In the crowd that thronged the church were a number 
 of non-Catholics, “among whom were noticed several 
 members of the Legislature,” then in session. After 
 the Gospel, at the eleven o’clock mass, continues the 
 Advocate, “the Bishop ascended the pulpit; and, 
 cheered and animated as he evidently was, he delivered 
 an admirable discourse on the mystery of the day.” The 
 joy of the little flock was beyond expression, delight 
 glistened in every countenance. Christmas Day, 1839, 
 the writer felt, would mark the beginning of a new era 
 in the history of Catholicity in Nashville.*° 
 
 Another source of happiness to Bishop Miles at this 
 time was the acquisition of a second missionary, the 
 Rev. William Clancy who came up from the Diocese 
 of Mobile, where he had labored on the missions, as well 
 as taught in Spring Hill College. A student at a sem- 
 inary in the east had also offered his services, and the 
 bishop expected to ordain him when he should go to the 
 provincial council to be held at Baltimore, in May, 1840. 
 All this is recounted in a letter of Father Stokes to the 
 Catholic Advocate dated February 19, 1840.°* Before 
 leaving Nashville, however, Doctor Miles wished to 
 inspect western ‘Tennessee personally, that he might 
 the better judge what arrangements he should make 
 for that part of his diocese. 
 
 Accordingly, Father Stokes tells us, he and Father 
 Clancy now journeyed to Ashport and Memphis. 
 Because of the condition of the roads, the inclement 
 
 33 Advocate of January 11, 1840. 
 
 34 Copied from the Advocate in the United States Catholic Miscellany 
 of April 4, 1840. 
 
TABRES POSSESSIONIOFN HISISEE 339 
 
 weather, and the state of the bishop’s health, they 
 travelled by boat, although this necessitated a much 
 longer route, as well as prevented the bishop from going 
 to other places which he wished to visit. At both towns 
 the Catholics received them with unfeigned joy, while 
 the non-Catholics treated them with great courtesy. 
 The bishop preached many times, and helped Father 
 Clancy in the administration of the sacraments. They 
 returned to Nashville a few days before Father Stokes 
 wrote his letter. Possibly Father Clancy accompanied 
 his superior back to the episcopal city because of the 
 still weakened condition of the latter’s health, for it 
 had already been determined that the missionary should 
 be stationed at Memphis, with Ashport, Jackson, Boli- 
 var, La Grange, and other places under his charge. 
 A little seminary had also been started with two 
 students, under the patronage of Saint Joseph, while 
 others were expected. Preparations were likewise 
 under way for starting a school for the Catholic boys in 
 Nashville. Doubtless it was in part his desire to obtain 
 means wherewith to carry on these good works that now 
 turned Bishop Miles’ thoughts towards Europe.” But 
 before we close this chapter, attention should be called 
 to the fact that even optimistic Father Stokes realized 
 the difficulties which had to be overcome ere the faith 
 could be firmly planted in the soil of the new diocese; 
 
 for here he remarks: 
 
 Indeed, a more laborious mission, or one that requires more 
 patient perseverance, than that of Tennessee is not to be found 
 in the Union. But with a firm reliance on Providence, and our 
 
 35 In a letter of December 27, 1839, Father Stokes tells Doctor Spalding 
 that the bishop puts his main reliance on this seminary, and that he will 
 make every sacrifice to maintain it (Louisville Archives). 
 
340 THE FATHER OF THE CHURCH IN TENNESSEE 
 
 own humble co-operation, we have already abundant evidences 
 that much good may be effected. 
 
 The Catholic Almanac for 1840 informs us that the 
 principal “stations” then in the diocese were “Gallatin, 
 Hartsville, Athens, Fayetteville, Memphis, Columbia, 
 Jackson, and Franklin.” From the same source we 
 learn that Father Durbin volunteered occasionally to 
 visit a few faithful in the northwestern part of the state. 
 Father Ambrose J. Heim, stationed at New Madrid, 
 Missouri, engaged to do the same for some across the 
 Mississippi River from his mission.*° 
 
 36 Father Heim was a native of France, but he was ordained in Saint 
 Louis—apparently in 1837. New Madrid seems to have been his first 
 mission. From there he was sent to Illinois in 1842. In 1845 he became 
 
 Bishop Kenrick’s secretary and an assistant at the cathedral in Saint Louis, 
 where he died on January 3, 1854. 
 
CHAPTER XV 
 JOURNEY ABROAD AND CONTINUED LABOR 
 
 Bishop Miles was blessed with a no less rich fund of 
 practical wisdom than of kindness and good humor. 
 Nowhere have we found him accused of an unjust or 
 even an uncharitable deed. His letters are almost uni- 
 formly benevolent. Yet, gentle though he was, he 
 could be stern and inflexible if duty demanded it. 
 Falsehood and insincerity he could not brook. Every- 
 where one reads that, even under the most trying 
 circumstances, his spirit of cheerfulness never deserted 
 him. Always prudent, rarely did he fail to act on the 
 principle that what is left unsaid needs not to be re- 
 tracted. .A square deal to all was a dominant trait of 
 his character. He neither became exuberant in his 
 praise, nor harsh or over-critical in his correction; for 
 he felt that both the one and the other were harmful, 
 not beneficial, in their results. His good nature, tender 
 heart, and well-balanced judgment all disposed him to 
 approve and encourage, rather than to censure or 
 dispirit. 
 
 Another characteristic of our shepherd of souls was 
 the supreme command which he kept over his temper. 
 Nevertheless, but this was only natural, he seems to 
 have strongly resented the action of those men who 
 were responsible for the miter being forced upon him, 
 and then declined to consent that even one of their 
 clergy might go to the aid of his needy diocese. It 
 
 341 
 
342 THE FATHER: OF THE CHURCH IN TENNESSEE 
 
 provoked him that he should be left alone through what 
 he believed to be their pious selfishness for their respec- 
 tive charges. However, he did not like to express his 
 sentiments in his own words. It is this delicacy of 
 feeling which explains Father Stokes’ letter to the 
 Rev. Martin J. Spalding, D.D., December 27, 1839: 
 “The whole matter has so disedified Bishop Miles that 
 he does not like for the present to trust himself on 
 paper; and hence he requests me to write and say he 
 will accept the young man whom you propose [for the 
 seminary], and that he may come as soon as he 
 pleases.” * 
 
 Doubtless the anxiety in which his friend of the 
 hierarchy was thus left had its part in determining 
 Doctor Spalding, then president of Saint Joseph’s 
 College, Bardstown, to give his services to the Diocese 
 of Nashville, if he could make such an arrangement 
 within the bounds of prudence. The proposal brought 
 a prompt response. Bishop Miles’ letter reveals at 
 once a keen appreciation of the generous offer, and a 
 soul so noble that, greatly as it needed him, it would have 
 the brilliant young priest think well before he sacrificed 
 his opportunities in Kentucky for the doubtful pros- 
 pects in ‘Tennessee, where the future of the Church was 
 
 still in a state of uncertainty. 
 Nashville, February 29, 1840. 
 Rev. and dear Friend :— 
 
 Your very kind and much esteemed favour of the 21st instant 
 has been duly received, and has afforded me much consolation. 
 The very idea that you may probably one day be among the 
 clergy of my poor and heretofore cruelly neglected Diocese gives 
 me a pleasure which I cannot express. Not forgetful, however, 
 of the admonition you gave me, I will not permit my hopes to go 
 
 1 Louisville Archives. 
 
JOURNEY ABROAD AND CONTINUED LABOR 343 
 
 so far as to suffer from disappointment as much as I have here- 
 tofore in cases of a similar nature of much less importance. As 
 I expect soon to see you, I will not enter into any particulars, 
 but desire you to recommend the matter seriously to Almighty God. 
 
 As the time for the Council is approaching, I have thought it 
 would be as well to defer consulting with Bishop Rosati until 
 I meet him at Baltimore. And if you will be kind enough to 
 accompany me as Theologian, you will not only add another to the 
 very many favours I have already received at your hands, but you 
 will have a better opportunity of consulting with the assembled 
 Prelates on the propriety of joining the mission of Tennessee. 
 I shall be much flattered if this favour can be granted. 
 
 As I shall have business of importance to attend to before the 
 Council, I shall leave home in the latter part of the next month; 
 and shall, if possible, be at St. Rose for the first Sunday in 
 April, immediately after which I hope to see you in Bardstown. 
 I shall endeavour to reach Somerset, Ohio, for Holy Week. In 
 case you could not leave home before Easter, you could perhaps 
 join me at the latter place after Easter. I do not wish Dr. 
 Chabrat to know anything about these matters until I see you. 
 I will then give you my reason why I make this request; that is, 
 if you don’t guess it before I come. 
 
 The young man you sent me arrived safe; and, although some- 
 what awkward, seems to be well disposed, and will I hope prove 
 useful. Another has just arrived from Georgia. And our sem- 
 inary has commenced with this small beginning. The ordoes have 
 not yet reached us. We are obliged to use the Catholic Almanac 
 as a substitute. Very Rev. Mr. Stokes sends you a portion of the 
 good feelings with which he abounds. 
 
 I am, Rev. and dear Friend, 
 Sincerely yours in Christ. 
 T Richard Pius, 
 Bishop of Nashville.” 
 
 Bishop Miles had now been out of his sick-room for 
 
 several months; yet he was by no means well. Doubt- 
 
 less he had already turned his mind towards Rome that 
 
 2 Baltimore Archives, Case 35, I, 7. 
 
344 THE FATHER OF THE CHURCH IN TENNESSEE 
 
 he might consult the head of the Church on the needs 
 of his diocese, and obtain from the Catholics of Kurope 
 wherewith to carry on the good works which he had 
 begun. Some priests might also be induced to offer 
 themselves for Tennessee. In this plan the zealous 
 prelate but followed the example of our bishops before 
 him, nearly ail of whom had recourse to this way of 
 supplying their wants.° 
 
 Possibly he had also spoken to his friends about the 
 idea. At any rate, the doctors, who were uneasy about 
 his health, now took up.the matter, and urged an early 
 voyage across the ocean as positively necessary for 
 regaining his strength. Once he should be at Baltimore, 
 the journey would be fairly begun. The bishop there- 
 fore determined to continue his way abroad. Much of 
 the time between the date of his letter to Father 
 Spalding and his departure from Nashville was no 
 doubt given to preparations for this undertaking. 
 Meanwhile, through the Catholic Advocate, he ad- 
 dressed the following pastoral letter to the faithful of 
 his diocese—perhaps the first of its kind ever seen in 
 ‘Tennessee. 
 
 Richard Pius, by the Grace of God, and with the approbation of 
 the Holy See, Bishop of Nashville, 
 
 To our beloved Brethren, the Roman Catholic Laity of the Diocese 
 of Nashville, Health and Benediction. 
 
 Beloved Brethren:— 
 
 About to undertake a voyage to Europe for the purpose of 
 exposing the wants of our Diocese, and soliciting in our favour 
 the generous charities of our Catholic brethren in Italy, France, 
 and Germany to enable us, before we die, to form some religious 
 foundations, by which you, and generations yet to come, will be 
 
 3 Only a study of our early Church can give us a correct idea of the 
 enormous debt of gratitude which we owe to the Catholics of Europe at 
 that time. 
 
JOURNEY ABROAD AND CONTINUED LABOR 345 
 
 preserved and instructed in Divine Truth—urged, moreover, by 
 our physician not to delay our voyage, now thought indispensable 
 for the perfect restoration of our health—we could not think of 
 departing without making to you this our Pastoral Address. 
 
 Called to the elevated station we so unworthily occupy, and 
 deeply sensible of our utter unworthiness for so responsible, 
 so dignified, an office, in vain did we remonstrate in all sincerity 
 with his present Holiness, Pope Gregory XVI, and _ solicit 
 permission to decline the burthen of the Episcopacy. Ac- 
 quainted, however, with your spiritual privations, and fearing that 
 by any further postponement we would resist the will of Heaven, 
 and that through our fault souls redeemed by the Saviour’s blood 
 might perish—trusting solely to the mercies of our God, who alone 
 is capable of strengthening our weakness, and imparting to us 
 wisdom and knowledge—we at length submitted to the will 
 of the Holy Father, and were consecrated Bishop of Nashville 
 in the month of September, 1838. 
 
 Having already passed eighteen months of our Episcopacy 
 amongst you, you yourselves are witnesses whether we can say 
 with truth that “we are clear from the blood of all,’ mindful, as 
 we trust we have been, of the charge of the Holy Apostle to the 
 Ephesian Bishops: “Take heed to yourselves, and to all the flock, 
 over which the Holy Ghost has placed you Bishops to rule the 
 Church of God” (Acts, XX, 28). It is well, beloved brethren, 
 if you also can say with truth you have observed the solemn pre- 
 cept that concerns you: “Obey your prelates, and be subject to 
 them; for they watch as being to render an account of your souls, 
 that they may do this with joy, and not with grief; for this is 
 not expedient for you’ (Hebrews, XIII, 17). 
 
 We cannot, however, conceal from our own heart that, whilst 
 we have been sometimes consoled and edified, we have yet had more 
 cause for grief than for joy since our elevation to the Episcopal 
 dignity. Unable for an entire year to procure the assistance of 
 one useful priest; having no church in which to offer with decency 
 the mysteries of our holy religion; obliged to peril our own health 
 by attending distant missions; and still anxious to succeed in pre- 
 paring our church, and organizing our flock in our Episcopal See, 
 we would have sunk under the weight of our cares and labors, were 
 
346 THE FATHER OF THE CHURCH IN TENNESSEE 
 
 we not sustained by the merciful Providence of God. Our grief, 
 indeed, would have been mitigated, and, midst all the trials to 
 which we have been subjected, our joy would have been great, 
 had we found amongst our flock all that zeal for religion, that 
 devotion to its solemn duties, that anxiety to profit by the saving 
 mysteries of our faith, which have distinguished the Faithful 
 Christians of every age. 
 
 You are witnesses, beloved brethren, how frequently we have 
 admonished you that we “have kept back nothing that was profit- 
 able to you, but have preached it to you, and taught you publicly, 
 and from house to house’ (Acts, XX, 20). You will bear witness 
 that, with the Holy Apostle, we have not ceased to treat “of 
 justice, and chastity, and of the judgment to come” (Acts, XXIV, 
 25). We call you to witness how often we have urged you to 
 approach the tribunal of penance for the remission of your sins, 
 that you might become worthy to partake of the blessed body and 
 blood of your God and Saviour in the Most Holy Eucharist, 
 remembering the awful declaration of Divine Truth: “Amen, amen, 
 I say to you, unless you eat of the flesh of the Son of Man, and 
 drink His blood, you shall not have life in you” (St. John, VI, 
 54). Can you, beloved brethren, notwithstanding this solemn 
 enunciation of our Blessed Redeemer, yet flatter yourselves with 
 the hope of immortal life, if you obey not His commands, or 
 despise His threats and promises? 
 
 Willing to make all allowance for a people so long left without 
 a ministry, we allude not to the painful part for the purpose of 
 afflicting you on the eve of our departure, but rather to urge you 
 to a more serious consideration of your duty, that in our absence 
 you may be mindful of our parting counsel, and no longer remain 
 strangers to that peace which your holy religion so abundantly 
 imparts. We desire to be able to say with St. Paul: “Out of 
 much affliction and anguish of heart, | wrote to you with many 
 tears, not that you should be made sorrowful, but that you might 
 know the charity I have more abundantly towards you” (2 Cor., 
 II, 4). 
 
 Once again, imploring you with all affection and charity, beloved 
 brethren, to begin in earnest to do penance, [we exhort you] to 
 comply, as far as your condition and circumstances permit, with the 
 
JOURNEY ABROAD AND CONTINUED LABOR 347 
 
 penitential exercises of this season of Lent; to “be converted in 
 all your heart, in fasting, and in weeping, and in mourning” 
 (Joel, I1, 12), at this holy time when, “between the porch and the 
 altar, the priests, the Lord’s ministers, shall weep, and shall say: 
 Spare Lord, spare Thy people; and give not Thy inheritance to 
 reproach” (Joel, II, 17). Now, in fine, when you are exhorted in 
 the language of the Prophet “to wash yourselves; be clean 
 [we beg of you]; take away your devices from my eyes; cease to 
 do perversely; learn to do well; seek judgment; relieve the op- 
 pressed; judge for the fatherless; defend the widow. And then 
 come, and accuse me, sayeth the Lord: If your sins be as scarlet 
 they shall be made white as snow; and if they be red as crimson, 
 they shall be white as wool” (Isaias, I, 16, 17, 18). 
 
 Can you, beloved brethren, resist those tender assurances of our 
 heavenly Father, refuse to promote your own peace, and afford us 
 consolation? Indeed, we hope for better things from you. You 
 will not be ungrateful for the many blessings you have already 
 received; and you will be “our joy and our crown.’ We have 
 appointed our Vicar General, the Very Rev. Joseph Stokes, to 
 minister to the spiritual wants of our beloved flock of the diocese 
 of Nashville during our absence. In his zeal, piety, learning, and 
 experience we have unlimited confidence, and we require of our 
 clergy and people to pay to his authority the respect and obedience 
 due to ourself in person. 
 
 And now, beloved brethren, promising to be ever mindful of 
 you in our prayers and sacrifices, and commending ourself to the 
 pious supplications to Heaven in our favour of our brethren and 
 children in Christ, “the Grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, and the 
 charity of God, and the communication of the Holy Ghost be with 
 you all. Amen.” 
 
 Given at our Episcopal residence, Nashville, Tennessee, March 
 9, 1840. 
 
 T Richard Pius 
 Bishop of Nashville.* 
 
 This pastoral letter speaks for itself. It reveals a 
 shepherd of souls pure of heart, profoundly humble, 
 deeply religious, abounding in zeal and affection for his 
 
 4 Catholic Advocate, March 21, 1840. 
 
348 THE FATHER OF THE CHURCH IN TENNESSEE 
 
 flock, ever ready to sacrifice himself for their salvation. 
 It presents a picture of a man of God whose life illus- 
 trates the old adage which tells us that virtue avoids 
 extremes, and follows the safe and sound middle course 
 (In medio stat virtus). 
 
 Possibly leaving Father Clancy in temporary charge 
 at Nashville, before he should settle at Memphis, Bishop 
 Miles and his vicar general started for Saint Rose’s, 
 in Kentucky, where they arrived on the Sunday eve- 
 ning of March 29. There they met Bishop Purcell, 
 Father John McElroy, one of the best known Jesuits 
 of Maryland, and Father Francis X. Evremond, S.J., 
 of Saint Mary’s College, in Kentucky. It was at Saint 
 Rose’s, no doubt, that the Father of the Church in Ten- 
 nessee made arrangements for the mission at Nashville 
 of which we shall speak later. There also, with the 
 permission of Bishop Flaget, Doctor Miles raised 
 Brother Augustine Anderson to the priesthood on 
 April 5, 1840, and administered confirmation to the 
 children of the parish.” 
 
 The correspondent of the Telegraph, who gives us 
 this information, says that Saint Rose’s Church was too 
 small to admit all who came for the occasion; that there 
 were many non-Catholics present; and that a main force 
 which drew the crowd was the love of the people for 
 Bishop Miles, who declared that he had passed the 
 happiest years of his life there. How “A Visitor,” as 
 the writer styles himself, was impressed may be seen 
 from the second sentence of his communication, in which 
 he states: “I have made several visits to many of the 
 religious establishments of Kentucky, and have always 
 been edified; but I do not recollect that I have at any 
 
 9 Catholic Telegraph, May 9, 1840. 
 
JOURNEY ABROAD AND CONTINUED LABOR 349 
 
 former period been more edified than on a recent visit 
 to the Convent of St. Rose, occupied by the priests of 
 the Order of St. Dominic.” ® 
 
 F’'rom Saint Rose’s the bishop proceeded to Cincin- 
 nati, where he gained two recruits for his diocese—the 
 Revs. Michael McAleer and William O. C. Morgan. 
 As the Catholic Telegraph of April 25, 1840, tells us: 
 
 Right Rev. Dr. Miles, bishop of Nashville, left this city on‘ 
 Tuesday for Somerset, Perry County. ... The bishop was ac- 
 companied by the Very Rev. Mr. Stokes, Vicar General of Nash- 
 ville, . . . Rev. Michael McAleer and Rev. Mr. Morgan, the 
 latter of whom was ordained subdeacon on Saturday and deacon 
 on Sunday last by Dr. Miles in the German Catholic Church of 
 this city. The two last named gentlemen have resolved to labor 
 in the new diocese, where we wish them every success.! 
 
 From this source, then, we learn that Father Morgan, 
 a convert, a very saintly man, and the first priest 
 ordained for the Diocese of Nashville, as well as the 
 first of its clergymen to die, received subdeaconship 
 and deaconship in Holy Trinity Church, Cincinnati, 
 on April 18 and 19, 1840. Most likely he was promoted 
 to the priesthood by Doctor Miles, a few days later, at 
 Saint Joseph’s, near Somerset, Ohio. Thence he no 
 doubt went immediately to Nashville with Father 
 Stokes; while the bishop continued his way, via Mount 
 Saint Mary’s College, to the metropolis of Maryland. 
 Doctor Spalding’s plan of joining the Nashville Dio- 
 cese did not .materialize, which probably explains why 
 he failed to accompany Doctor Miles to the council, 
 where the Rev. Benedict Bayer, C.SS.R., of Baltimore 
 
 6 Ibid. 
 
 7 Telegraph, April 25, 1840. We have not been able to ascertain where 
 
 Father Morgan made his ecclesiastical studies. Possibly he began them 
 in Ireland, and completed them at Cincinnati. 
 
350 THE FATHER OF THE CHURCH IN TENNESSEE 
 
 acted as theologian for the Friar Preacher prelate.® 
 
 Prior to this time, October 10, 1839, Father Stokes 
 had written a letter to the Rev. John McCaffrey, D.D., 
 president of Mount Saint Mary’s College, Emmits- 
 burg, Maryland, in which he says: “The Diocese of 
 Nashville, as I presume you are aware, was in a most 
 desolate condition until the appointment in 1838 of 
 Bishop Miles, and, what is still more distressing, none 
 are found willing to share his labors and privations. He 
 has been alone, without a priest, almost since his con- 
 secration.” ‘I'hen the document goes on to tell how 
 the bishop’s delicacy of conscience forbids him “‘to hold 
 out inducements to good men occupied in other places,” 
 and puts in an urgent plea for two seminarians who 
 have about completed their studies.” 
 
 Similarly, on February 19, 1840, Stokes wrote to the 
 Advocate that the bishop would ordain a young man 
 for the diocese “when he visits Maryland” for the 
 council; and on August 6, 1840, in a letter to the same 
 paper, he states that the Rev. John Maguire, an alum- 
 nus of Mount Saint Mary’s, was then in Tennessee. 
 So is it certain that Doctor Miles stopped at that 
 historic institution on his way to Baltimore, and that 
 a John Maguire was one of the prefects there for the 
 school year of 1839-1840. From these facts, although 
 we have found no positive statement to that effect, we 
 are of the opinion that the subject of our narrative 
 then ordained the second priest for his diocese.*® 
 
 8 Telegraph, May 30, and Advocate, June 6, and Miscellany, May 23, 1840. 
 
 9 MELINE-MCSWEENEY, The Story of the Mountain, I, 405-406. 
 
 10 We did not discover the Advocate with Stoke’s letter of February 
 19, 1840; but it is copied in the Miscellany of April 4, 1840. See also 
 
 Advocate, August 22, 1840; Mretine-McSweEEney, op. cit., I, 402; Miscel- 
 lany, May 23, 1840. A correspondent of the Catholic Herald (issue of 
 
JOURNEY ABROAD AND CONTINUED LABOR 351 
 
 However this may be, the bishop reached his journey’s 
 end on May 13. It was possibly Bishop England who, 
 May 14, wrote to his splendid paper the news about 
 the impending council. In the course of his letter, when 
 telling of the arrival of Doctor Miles, he uses words 
 that are significative of no little affection. 
 
 On the afternoon [of Wednesday, May 14, he says] the zealous 
 bishop of Cincinnati arrived from the College of Emmitsburg, over 
 which he had formerly presided with so much advantage. With 
 him came the pioneer of Tennessee, the laborious Doctor Miles, 
 bishop of Nashville, considerably improved in health—and with 
 as good bone and sinew and height as any of the sharpshooters 
 of that state who lined the cotton bags of New Orleans.!! 
 
 Although this was the first council attended by the 
 subject of our narrative in his capacity as a member 
 of the hierarchy, no digest of its labors seems called for 
 here. Suffice it to say that the prelates assembled on 
 Saturday, May 16, 1840, and that the council was 
 formally opened the next day with a solemn high mass 
 sung by Archbishop Eccleston, and an eloquent sermon 
 preached by the illustrious Doctor England. All! the 
 administering bishops were present, except the Right 
 Rev. John Hughes of New York, who was in Kurope. 
 The fathers of the council admitted to its sessions 
 Bishop Charles A. de Forbin-Janson of France who 
 February 13, 1845) says that Father Maguire was the first priest ordained 
 by Bishop Miles, which is evidently an error. Possibly that writer meant 
 to say that he was the first clergyman ordained by the prelate then living 
 in his diocese. 
 
 11 United States Catholic Miscellany, May 23, 1840. “The cotton bags 
 of New Orleans” are a good-natured reference to the battle of New 
 Orleans (January 8, 1815), in which General Andrew Jackson, largely 
 aided by raw troups from Tennessee, defeated the English under Sir 
 
 Edward Packenham. The British made breastworks of hogsheads of 
 sugar; the Americans used cotton bales. 
 
352 THE FATHER OF THE CHURCH IN TENNESSEE 
 
 was then on a visit to the United States, and drew up 
 a letter of condolence and consolation to the archbishops 
 of Cologne and Posen who were suffering the trials of 
 persecution at the hands of Frederick William III, 
 king of Prussia.” 
 
 When the council closed, Bishops Miles, Rosati, and 
 Portier were appointed a committee to take its proceed- 
 ings to Rome. They were also entrusted with duplicates 
 of the letter of encouragement sent by the American 
 hierarchy to the German metropolitans. Sailing from 
 New York on the British Queen, June 1, he and Bishops 
 Portier and Rosati reached Portsmouth on the seven- 
 teenth, and were in Paris by the nineteenth. Bishop 
 Miles still suffered from the effects of his late illness; for 
 which reason he feared to face the heat of a summer in 
 Rome. After a time spent at Paris, therefore, he went 
 to Belgium, where he knew Fathers John V. De Ray- 
 
 12 Concilia Provincialia Baltimori, 159 ff; Telegraph, May 30, and 
 Advocate, June 6, 1840. The prelates who took part in this council were 
 the Most Rev. Samuel Eccleston of Baltimore, and the Right Revs. Bene- 
 dict J. Flaget of Bardstown, John England of Charleston, Joseph Rosati 
 of Saint Louis, Benedict J. Fenwick of Boston, Francis P. Kenrick of 
 Philadelphia (coadjutor and administrator), John B. Purcell of Cincin- 
 nati, Anthony Blanc of New Orleans, Mathias Loras of Dubuque, Richard 
 P, Miles of Nashville, and Celestine de La Hailandiére of Vincennes. 
 The Right Revs. Henry Conwell of Philadelphia and John Dubois of 
 New York were incapacitated by age and infirmity; whilst the Right 
 Revs. Frederic Rese of Detroit and John Hughes of New York (co- 
 adjutor and administrator) were in Europe. The Right Rev. Guy I. 
 Chabrat, coadjutor of Bardstown, was possibly detained at home by ill 
 health or labor. 
 
 A digest of the decrees of this council is given in Shea’s History of the 
 Church, Il], 452 ff. Guilday’s National Pastorals gives (pp. 120 ff) its 
 pastoral letter to the country. The Miscellany of June 20 and the Tele- 
 graph of July 4, 1840, contain Latin and English renditions of the letter 
 which the fathers of the council sent to the archbishops of Cologne and 
 Posen. 
 
 a 
 
JOURNEY ABROAD AND CONTINUED LABOR 353 
 
 maecker and Francis Adrian Van De Weyer, both of 
 whom had been on the American missions.’® 
 
 At Ghent, he enjoyed the warm hospitality of Fathers 
 Pius Braeckman and Francis Ackerman, two aged 
 Friars Preacher who had lately begun to reorganize 
 their province after its suppression by the French Revo- 
 lution and the division of United Netherlands, in 1830. 
 Father Braeckman had always shown a keen interest in 
 our American missions, putting himself at the disposal 
 of our bishops who went to his country in search of aid. 
 In the father of Catholicity in Tennessee he took a 
 particular interest. From the convent in Ghent, which 
 he used as the center of his activities, he traversed Bel- 
 gium in every direction, and was doubtless accompanied 
 by one or the other of his hosts. While there, with the 
 permission of the bishop of the place, he seems to have 
 held an ordination in their conventual church. Most 
 likely he took with him the letters of the Baltimore coun- 
 cil, getting them to the archbishop of Cologne through 
 the aforesaid friends.“ 
 
 The Friars Preacher of Holland also gave Doctor 
 Miles a hearty welcome; but Fathers John D. Ranken 
 of Rotterdam and Raymond Van Zeeland of Schiedam 
 appear to have been especially active in his welfare. 
 Here the bishop made Father Ranken’s home the chief 
 base of his quest after aid.” Among the gifts received 
 
 13 Telegraph, June 13 and September 12, 1840; Miscellany, June 13 and 
 September 26, 1840; Rev. Hercules Brassac, Paris, July 7, 1840, to Bishop 
 Purcell (McCann, History of Mother Setows Daughters, I, 290). 
 
 14 A manuscript life of Fathers Braeckman and Ackerman in French— 
 translated from Flemish (Archives of the Dominican Master General, 
 Codex III, 42) ; Advocate, September 19, 1840; Miscellany, October 17, 1840. 
 
 15 There are a number of letters in the Archives of the Province of 
 
 Holland which show that the Dominicans there did all they could to help 
 Bishop Miles. In this connection, it may be noted that the only aid which 
 
 24 
 
354 THE FATHER OF THE CHURCH IN TENNESSEE 
 
 in Holland was an extra-large monstrance of solid 
 silver, trimmed in gold, and set with precious stones. 
 The chasing is most delicate and artistic in character. 
 Today, because regarded as a relic, it is used only on 
 special solemnities. On its base is a Latin inscription 
 which, rendered into English, reads: 
 
 “The Year of Our Lord 1841. To the King of 
 Kings, Jesus Christ, and His Apostle in the United 
 States of North America, Richard Pius Miles of the 
 Order of Preachers, the first Bishop of Nashville, the 
 clergy and people of Uden, Holland, have made a gift 
 of this ostensorium.” *° 
 
 Although we have run across but one brief mention 
 of the bishop in France after his departure from Paris 
 for Belgium, it goes without saying that he spent some 
 time in that country before he returned home. ‘The 
 Association for the Propagation of the Faith had given 
 him 26,827 frances for his diocese in 1839. "The next 
 year, possibly as a result of his presence, his allowance 
 was raised to 33,900; but in 1841, perhaps because of 
 what he had received elsewhere, it was lowered to 24,600 
 francs. Octobor 18, 1839, and January 3, 1840, he had 
 
 the American Province of Saint Joseph received from abroad was the mite 
 which their brethren in Holland and Belgium began to turn towards them 
 from those countries about this time. The annals of the French and 
 Austrian associations for the propagation of the faith mention rather 
 generous help bestowed on all the other orders in the United States, but 
 none to the Dominicans, with the exception of the modest donations made 
 to Father Mazzuchelli in Wisconsin from 1844 to 1849. Perhaps one of 
 the reasons for this apparent oversight was that the fathers neglected to 
 write for aid. However, a tradition, borne out by a letter soon to be 
 quoted, tells us that Bishop Purcell absolutely demanded that all donations 
 for the missions in Ohio should be sent to him. 
 
 16 A.D. MDCCCXLI. Regi Regum, Jesu Christo, et Apostolo ejus in 
 Americae Septentrionalis provinciis foederatis, Richardo Pio Miles, Ordinis 
 Praedicatorum, primo Episcopo Nashvillensi, hoc Ostensorium dono 
 dederunt Clerus populusque Udenses, in Hollandia. 
 
JOURNEY ABROAD AND CONTINUED LABOR 355 
 
 written to the Association, whose Annales published 
 extracts from both letters.’ As these probably contain 
 the gist of what he told the French people at the time of 
 his visit, we give their main facts, omitting only those 
 which have been recounted in documents already laid 
 before the reader. 
 
 When he went to Tennessee, the state had not had 
 a resident pastor for ten years. Here he evidently refers 
 to Father Cosgreve. Only a few localities were visited, 
 at long intervals, by a missionary. Through this isola- 
 tion and neglect, the Catholics became scattered like 
 sheep without a pastor. Some of them left the state in 
 order to find spiritual nourishment for their souls else- 
 where. Others have grown weak in their faith, or even 
 lost it. In the cases of mixed marriages, the children 
 have uniformly grown up non-Catholics. In great 
 stretches of the state our religion has left scarcely a 
 memory. 
 
 Then he tells how he took possession of his episcopal 
 city with its dilapidated church, which is still the only 
 one in the diocese; and how he found not more than one 
 hundred and thirty Catholics there, only twelve of whom 
 received holy communion after much preaching and 
 exhortation. There are now perhaps three hundred 
 faithful in Nashville. When the two priests who came 
 for his induction returned to their homes, he was left 
 alone in his endless missionary efforts, unable to answer 
 all the calls for spiritual succor that came from widely 
 separated places. After riding on horseback about nine 
 hundred miles over mountains, through forests, and by 
 
 17 Annales de la Propagation de la Foi, XII, 225; XIII, 125, 190; 
 PD bVens 1. 
 
356 THE FATHER OF THE CHURCH IN TENNESSEE 
 
 way of rough roads, as well as in the hottest part of the 
 year, his health failed him.** 
 
 Then he became sick, and was at the door of death 
 when God sent him a priest whose zeal and piety gave 
 him his first ray of hope and consolation. The popular 
 prejudices against the faith are not hard to overcome. 
 Wherever the Catholic doctrine is preached the people 
 of other beliefs manifest an anxiety to hear it explained 
 at length. Not a few have expressed a desire to have 
 a Catholic church and a priest in their midst. The 
 faithful along the Mississippi River are striving to erect 
 churches in the hope that the bishop will soon be able 
 to send them priests; but what can he do without either 
 means or missionaries? All efforts have failed him in 
 both regards. Having nothing himself, and taken from 
 a cloister that is unable to help him, he labors under 
 disadvantages which the other bishops were not obliged 
 to confront. 
 
 He had started a little seminary in his residence. For 
 the maintenance of this and his priests he must trust to 
 the Association for the Propagation of the Faith, which 
 has already laid him under obligations which he can not 
 forget. His own people are not able to defray the 
 travelling expenses of their pastors. If God will but 
 send him a few more good missionaries, and the Cath- 
 olics of Kurope supply the means for their support, the 
 bishop will be able to say: “Now, O Lord, dismiss Thy 
 servant in peace.” *” 
 
 From Bordeaux the bishop went to Vienna in 
 response to an invitation to visit that city. In Austria, 
 
 18 This shows that Bishop Miles spent the summer of 1839 in travel- 
 
 ling from place to place through Tennessee. 
 19 Annales, XIII, 125-128. 
 
JOURNEY ABROAD AND CONTINUED LABOR 357 
 
 there can be no doubt, he also received donations from 
 the Leopoldine Association established specially for 
 the assistance of the American missions. 'Thence he 
 retraced his steps to Rome, possibly reaching the 
 Eternal City by the Christmas holidays in 1840; for we 
 find him there early in the next year.*® In Italy he 
 evidently received a letter from the provincial of the 
 American Friars Preacher touching on the misguided 
 Capellari-Velzi compact of 1828, by which Saint 
 Joseph’s Province was directed to give the bishop of 
 Cincinnati three hundred dollars a year, unless he should 
 be a Dominican; but which the fathers felt certainly 
 to be illegal, because based on misrepresentation and 
 going beyond the authority of their General. Besides, 
 it could not be observed in their state of poverty. In 
 reply Miles wrote (Rome, January 16, 1841) to Father 
 Charles P. Montgomery: 
 
 I hope your letter to the Society [for the Propagation of the 
 Faith] at Lyons will have the desired effect. I shall certainly do 
 all in my power, though I have reason to believe that this and 
 the existing difficulty with your Bishop will bring me in conflict 
 with him; which I regret, as I have a great regard for him. You 
 must try to conciliate his feelings, and take care that none of your 
 community say or do anything that may widen the breach already 
 so wide. You will never gain anything by being at war with your 
 Bishop. Father Grace has prepared a memorial to present to the 
 Propaganda for a rehearing of the matter between you. I feel con- 
 vinced that, if the matter is rightly understood here, there will be no 
 difficulty in settling it to your satisfaction. It also appears to me 
 that if Bishop Purcell understood the matter correctly he would not 
 make the demand.?! 
 
 20 Catholic Advocate, February 6, 1841; Miles, Rome, February 18, 
 1841, to the Right Rev. Joseph O’Finan, Ireland (Archives of Saint Jo- 
 seph’s Province). The Advocate shows that he wrote to friends in Nash- 
 
 ville from Vienna, November 1, 1840. 
 21 Archives of Saint Joseph’s Priory. This letter substantiates the 
 
358 THE FATHER OF THE CHURCH IN TENNESSEE 
 
 Bishop Miles spent about two months at Rome. Of 
 the impression he made in the capital of Christendom 
 one may judge by the fact that happy tradition? of his 
 sojourn still exist among the Friars Preacher of that 
 city. On his return journey he most likely passed 
 through France again. April 10 (Holy Saturday), 
 1841, he “held an ordination in the new and splendid 
 church of the Dominicans at Rotterdam.” After 
 another stay in Holland and Belgium, he possibly 
 passed over to England and Ireland. Be that as it 
 may, it was August 26, when he reached New York on 
 his way back to Tennessee.” 
 
 Zanesville and Somerset, Ohio, and Saint Rose’s, in 
 Kentucky, not only lay on his homeward route, but were 
 also the places which he loved most next to his own 
 diocese. Accordingly, he halted at them all. While 
 at Saint Joseph’s, he administered confirmation to the 
 children of that parish, Holy Trinity (in Somerset), 
 and Saint Patrick’s, Junction City.** Because of these 
 delays, the bishop did not reach Nashville until Sat- 
 urday, October 9, 1841. The joy of the people was 
 unbounded; but we can not do better than let Father 
 Stokes, for the style seems to be his, tell the story. 
 tradition mentioned in note 15. The matter of giving the ordinary of 
 Cincinnati three hundred dollars annually, which was the cause of the 
 unpleasantness referred to by Miles, dragged along for twenty years or 
 more. Bishop Purcell, who had been in Rome and taken up the affair 
 there shortly before Bishop Miles’ visit, acted harshly from the start. 
 However, it is said that in Father N. D. Young he met his match in hard 
 blows. See also Lamott’s History of the Archdiocese of Cincinnati, pp. 181 
 ff. Father Grace, who made out the memorial in behalf of his brethren in 
 1841, afterwards became the second bishop of Saint Paul. It is im- 
 possible for one to study the case on its merits and not come to the con- 
 clusion that justice and right were on the side of Saint Joseph’s Province. 
 
 22 The Catholic Advocate, June 5 and September 25, 1841. 
 23 Parish records; Advocate (quoting the Telegraph), October 23, 1841. 
 
JOURNEY ABROAD AND CONTINUED LABOR 359 
 
 Mr. Editor :— 
 
 Our beloved Prelate has arrived. Our Bishop, our father, and 
 our friend, whose absence in Europe for more than eighteen months 
 was the subject of so much regret, has by his return gladdened the 
 hearts of his flock, and diffused by his presence aniversal joy. 
 As soon as the day was announced on which the Bishop’s arrival 
 might be expected, the Catholics of Nashville, composed of French, 
 Italian, German, Irish, and American people, with one accord 
 resolved to honor and greet his return by going in a body several 
 miles distant from the town to meet him. Accordingly, about one 
 o'clock, P.M., on Saturday last, a train of carriages, filled with 
 members of our flock, and followed by a number of persons on 
 horseback, proceeded from town at a rapid pace, and in excellent 
 order. The flock were anxious to meet their Bishop some ten or a 
 dozen miles from the town; not more, however, than three or four 
 miles had been gone over, when the priests, who occupied the 
 first carriage in the procession, recognized at a distance their 
 Bishop travelling in a gig, accompanied by one of his clergy, a 
 native of Corsica. 
 
 The horses were immediately checked; the carriages soon un- 
 occupied; those on horseback dismounted; and all, with uncovered 
 heads and heartfelt joy, approached their Bishop who was soon 
 amongst them, blessing with a fond affection all those who sought 
 in this way to testify their love and veneration for their Prelate. 
 The smiles of joy; the holiday attire; the hearty welcome, better 
 expressed in manner than in words, affected the good Bishop even 
 to tears, and with a truly pastoral affection he blessed his spiritual 
 children. 
 
 When the congratulations had ceased, the Bishop ascended the 
 open carriage provided for him, and with him sat his Vicar General 
 and the worthy Pastor of Memphis, the Rev. Mr. McAleer. The 
 order of the procession was resumed; and all, in the finest spirits, 
 and rejoicing at the improved health and appearance of their much 
 beloved father, accompanied him to the episcopal residence, in 
 Nashville. As soon as the Bishop had paid his adoration to the 
 Blessed Sacrament, in his domestic chapel, he was again surrounded 
 by his flock, receiving the congratulations of his affectionate chil- 
 dren. The boys of our school then appeared, bearing a flag of 
 
360 THE FATHER OF THE CHURCH IN, TENNESSEE 
 
 white satin on which was inscribed, in simple but beautiful 
 language, their congratulations for the happy return of their 
 Bishop and Father. Indeed, so delighted was the good Prelate 
 with the evidences of attachment he this day received from his 
 children in Christ that he was heard to pronounce it the happiest 
 day of his life. And well indeed may the Catholics of Tennessee 
 rejoice at so zealous, pious, and amiable a Prelate.** 
 
 On the following day a solemn mass of thanksgiving 
 for Doctor Miles’ safe return was sung by Father 
 Stokes, with Father Nicholas Savelli as deacon, and 
 Father Louis Stokes as subdeacon. Before the mass, 
 the bishop addressed the worshippers in a way that 
 showed not only his love for them and his delight to be 
 home again, but likewise the happiness afforded him by 
 the brighter prospects of his diocese. In the afternoon, 
 he gave benediction, and preached. On both occasions, 
 there were present a number of liberal-minded non- 
 Catholics, among them several members of the state 
 legislature.” 
 
 Bishop Miles had every reason to be pleased with his 
 vicar general, for he proved not less faithful to the 
 instructions given him than zealous in his labors. In a 
 letter of date August 6, 1840, he tells the readers of the 
 Advocate how, through the coming of the three priests 
 mentioned earlier (Fathers Morgan, McAleer, and 
 Maguire), the labors have become lighter for each, the 
 fruitage greater, and the outlook more cheerful. Father 
 Morgan, perhaps because of his infirm health, was 
 
 24 Catholic Advocate, October 23, 1841. The letter to the Advocate bears 
 date October 12, 1841. 
 
 25 “Catholicus,” the Advocate’s correspondent, states this was the third 
 anniversary of the Bishop’s entrance into Nashville, which is not quite 
 exact; for Father J. T. Jarboe’s letters in the Advocates of October 12 
 
 and November 10, 1838, show that the anniversary had passed by a few 
 days. See the beginning of Chapter XIV. 
 
JOURNEY ABROAD AND CONTINUED LABOR 361 
 
 placed in Nashville, and given charge of the little 
 seminary.”° 
 
 An object of great solicitude to our respected Bishop [the 
 letter then says] has been to secure to the Diocese Priests of true 
 Apostolic spirit, prepared to do all things, “to spend and be spent” 
 for the sake of their Divine Master. Knowing also the character 
 and intelligence of the people of Tennessee, he was most desirous 
 that his missionaries should possess the necessary qualifications to 
 preach with success, and to explain with satisfaction to our citizens 
 the real doctrines of the Church. Two missionaries were, for this 
 purpose, to be selected to travel together as a mutual support 
 for each other—to be pious, exemplary, and fully competent to 
 announce in a becoming manner the word of eternal life. 
 
 Before the Bishop’s departure for Europe, he instructed his 
 Vicar General to have this design carried into effect as soon as 
 practical. A merciful Providence appears to favor the good Bish- 
 op's zeal, and we are happy to state that, with the divine blessing, 
 his, best wishes are about to be realized to their fullest extent. 
 Two zealous, disinterested clergymen, properly qualified, have 
 recently joined our missions, and joyfully undertaken the enviable 
 office of evangelizing a great portion of our Diocese. The Rev. 
 Michael McAleer and Rev. John Maguire, both alumni of St. 
 Mary’s College, Emmitsburg, have been appointed, and already 
 commenced their duties as travelling missionaries. 
 
 The week previous they had preached in Gallatin and 
 Hartsville, Sumner County, where the Catholics are 
 good, and perhaps will soon be sufficient in number to 
 support a pastor. Next week they will go to Franklin, 
 and thence to Columbia. A priest, Father Clancy, ts 
 stationed at Memphis. Two are at Nashville, Father 
 Stokes himself and Father Morgan. 
 
 In like manner, Father Stokes’ letter of September 
 4, 1840, tells how Fathers McAleer and Maguire had 
 gone to Franklin, Williamson County, on August 15, 
 preached to both Catholics and non-Catholics, made a 
 
 26 Advocate, August 22, 1840; Catholic Almanac, 1841, p. 172. 
 
362 THE FATHER OF THE CHURCH IN TENNESSEE 
 
 splendid impression, and felt that a pastor might be 
 stationed at that town in the near future, and find the 
 means of a decent support. From Franklin they pro- 
 ceeded to Columbia, Maury County. On their route 
 they met a “man calling himself a Catholic who had not 
 seen a priest for forty years.” In Maury County the 
 missionaries also came across “‘several nominal Catholics, 
 some with very numerous families; but in no instance 
 did they find one family wholly or strictly Catholic. 
 The unhappy parents, educated themselves in the truth 
 of the Catholic faith, permit their children to unite in 
 worship with their Protestant neighbors.” 
 
 At Columbia, where they arrived on August 20, and 
 in the neighborhood, the ambassadors of Christ reported 
 “some of respectable standing in society, once Catholic, 
 but who, from long habits of neglect, are distinguished 
 from their Protestant brethren by no character or merit 
 of Catholicity. ... They have unhappily forgotten 
 what their holy religion taught them in early youth, and 
 have in some instances added to their fault by an ungen- 
 erous renunciation of their creed.” It will not be long 
 before a priest may be stationed in Maury County. 
 From Columbia the missionaries travelled to Shelby- 
 ville, in Bedford County. 
 
 At all these places they preached either in some non- 
 Catholic church or the court-house. Everywhere it is 
 the same old tale of mixed marriages, long neglect, 
 eventual carelessness in matters religious, and, more fre- 
 quently than otherwise, final apostasy. As is always 
 the case, there is more hope for conversions among the 
 non-Catholics than among those who have fallen away 
 
 from the Church. 
 
JOURNEY ABROAD AND CONTINUED LABOR 363 
 
 Father Clancy of Memphis has spent a week at 
 Jackson, Madison County, where he preached nearly 
 every evening in the Baptist church with good results. 
 Stokes trusts that a Catholic church will soon be built 
 in that “beautiful town.” 'The proprietors of the pro- 
 posed new city of “Fort Pickering’, just below 
 Memphis, have offered a lot for a church, and it is 
 probable that one will be built there, instead of at 
 Memphis, for the faithful in that part of the state.?’ 
 
 From the same source we learn that Doctor Spalding 
 spent a part of his vacation in the summer of 1840 
 at Nashville. Possibly he promised the bishop this 
 favor in order to appease his disappointment for not 
 joining his diocese or accompanying him to Baltimore 
 as his theologian at the council. However this be, the 
 eloquent divine frequently electrified the people of 
 Nashville by the sermons and lectures which he then 
 delivered in the Holy Rosary Cathedral. In speaking 
 of Doctor Spalding’s labors, Father Stokes says: “We 
 sincerely pray that the good Bishop of Bardstown may 
 be induced to relinquish his claim upon his services in 
 favor of a Diocese which needs so much the zeal, and 
 talents, and learning of men like him.” Spalding him- 
 self is anxious to come to Nashville. Bishop England 
 also promised Doctor Miles at the Baltimore Council 
 that he would soon visit Tennessee’s capital, and give a 
 course of lectures.”* 
 
 27 Advocate of September 19, 1840. 
 
 28 The same issue of the Advocate and a record in the book of bap- 
 tisms on August 30, 1840, show that Doctor Spalding was in Nashville in 
 late August and early September. It is possible that his desire for an 
 active apostolate in Tennessee cost him his position as president of Saint 
 
 Joseph’s College; for we soon find him stationed at Lexington, Kentucky. 
 See his Life by J. L. Spalding, pp. 83 ff. 
 
364 THE FATHER OF THE CHURCH IN TENNESSEE 
 
 Meanwhile Father Morgan was taken ill, which 
 necessitated F'ather Maguire’s being retained at Nash- 
 ville. For this reason, Father McAleer made the next 
 tour alone. Stokes’ letter on these labors is not dated, 
 but it was evidently written about the middle of No- 
 vember. ‘The missionary left Nashville on October 2 
 for the lower counties of middle Tennessee. On Sunday 
 the fourth, he said mass and preached in the house of a 
 Catholic in Williamson County. ‘Taking in the parts of 
 Maury County that lay on his route, he then visited 
 Pulaski, Giles County, some eighty miles south of 
 Nashville. 
 
 At Fayetteville, Lincoln County, where he used the 
 Cumberland Presbyterian church for preaching, he 
 enjoyed the hospitality of Matthew Martin. At 
 Winchester, Franklin County, the next place visited, 
 the missionary preached in the Methodist church, and 
 discovered several Catholics who had hitherto escaped 
 notice. Returning to Pulaski, he now preached there. 
 But one Catholic lived in that town, and he did not hear 
 the sermon. Of the second visit to Pulaski Father 
 Stokes says: 
 
 As this was the first time that a Catholic Priest was known to 
 have preached in this town, you may well imagine the great anxiety 
 manifested to see and hear one. Many seemed to be of the opinion 
 that some one not human was to make his appearance in the shape 
 of a Catholic Priest; and to their utter surprise they at length 
 discovered that, in the person of our missionary, a human being not 
 very unlike many among themselves spoke, and preached, and 
 reasoned, and even sustained his doctrines by appropriate texts of 
 Scripture. 
 
 Father McAleer received the greatest kindness every- 
 where. His tour took a month. One priest can not 
 
 well attend to all west Tennessee. This part of the 
 
JOURNEY ABROAD AND CONTINUED LABOR 365 
 
 state therefore will be visited next in order.” 
 Unfortunately, death and departure came all too soon 
 with their derangement of the plans which Bishop Miles 
 had mapped out, and which his vicar general was follow- 
 ing with scrupulous fidelity. Father Morgan’s health 
 obliged him to take what seems to have been thought 
 would be only a temporary rest. He went to Lexing- 
 ton, Kentucky, where he died November 10.°° The 
 death of this saintly young priest was a severe loss for 
 the new and struggling diocese. Whilst not so sad, 
 
 29 Advocate, November 21, 1840. 
 
 30 The obituary notice in the Advocate of November 21, 1840, runs as 
 follows: “Died on the morning of the 10th instant, in Lexington, Kentucky, 
 of pulmonary consumption, the Rev. William O. C. Morgan, of the Ro- 
 man Catholic Church. The deceased was a native of the city of Dublin, 
 Ireland, had but lately received ordination, and was attached to the Dio- 
 cess of Nashville. Though far removed from his relations and country, 
 yet Religion provided for him in a distant land new friends and brothers, 
 who sweetened the cup of his sorrows, and smoothed the pillow of death. 
 She herself, as the handmaid of Heaven, came, shedding her hallowed in- 
 fluence around his death-bed, assuaging every pain, softening every pang, 
 and opening upon the eyes of his faith a bright and glorious vista in 
 the future. 
 
 “He bore his protracted illness here with heroic fortitude, edifying all 
 who were in attendance. His faith shone out in every circumstance of 
 his painful illness; and he expired with a smile upon his countenance. 
 Mr. Morgan was a convert to the Catholic faith; and in becoming a 
 Catholic he had incurred the displeasure of his parents, who, in conse- 
 quence, dissolved all connections with him. Thus discarded at home, he 
 came to this country; but before he died, he addressed a very affectionate 
 letter to his mother, exhorting her, as his last request, to enquire seriously 
 into the Catholic Faith. His humility was admirable. He viewed himself as 
 the greatest of sinners, while he reposed an unbounded confidence in the 
 tender mercies of his Saviour. He earnestly requested that nothing might 
 be said in his praise after his death; and that ;it should be announced 
 that he died a penitent, with an entire confidence in the merits of Christ. 
 His funeral was numerously attended, and a discourse was delivered on 
 the occasion by Rev. M. J. Spalding, who had kindly befriended and as- 
 sisted him to the last.” 
 
 He was buried in Lexington; and the inscription on his tombstone tells 
 us that he died “in the odour of sanctity.” 
 
366 THE FATHER OF THE CHURCH IN TENNESSEE 
 
 perhaps no less hurtful to the Church of Tennessee was 
 the acceptance of an invitation from his kinsman, the 
 former coadjutor bishop of Charleston, by the pastor 
 in the western part of the state to go to the missions of 
 British Guiana. December 12, 1840, Father Stokes 
 writes to the Advocate: “The Rev. Mr. McAleer has 
 been appointed pastor of Memphis, with the charge of 
 Jackson, Bolivar, La Grange, etc., in the room of the 
 Rev. William Clancy, who leaves our Diocese to join 
 his cousin at Demarara, the Right Rev. Dr. Clancy.” ** 
 
 A more joyful and fruitful event, no doubt arranged 
 by Bishop Miles himself-before he left for Kurope, was 
 a mission given at the Nashville cathedral from April 
 25 to May 2, 1841. Fathers Francis Evremond and 
 John Larkin, two Jesuit Fathers of Saint Mary’s Col- 
 lege, in Kentucky, conducted it. Their earnest preach- 
 ing and efforts in the confessional not only effected 
 great good for religion, but were also long remembered 
 in the episcopal city. The happiest relations existed 
 between Saint Mary’s College and Saint Rose’s Con- 
 vent. Bishop Miles and Father Evremond were especi- 
 
 31 Advocate of December 19, 1840. The freedom with which the priests 
 of the United States went from one diocese to another in the earlier 
 missionary days makes it at times practically impossible to trace them 
 in their various fields of labor. The Miscellany of November 22, 1828, 
 shows that a Father W. J. Clancy was ordained by Bishop England at 
 Charleston on the previous Sunday; while the Catholic Almanac of 1833 
 places a Father W. J. Clancy in charge of Carbondale, Friendsville, and 
 Silver Lake, Pennsylvania. Similarly, the Almanacs of 1839 and 1840 show 
 a Father W. J. Clancy at Montgomery, Alabama, with various other 
 charges. Father Stokes’ letter of February 19, 1840, to the Advocate (See 
 note 34 of preceding chapter) makes it certain that the Clancy in Alabama 
 came to Tennessee. As it would have involved endless time and labor 
 (possibly without result), and as he labored for only a short while in 
 the Diocese of Nashville, we did not attempt to ascertain whether he 
 
 were the Clancy who was in the Diocese of Charleston, or in that of 
 Philadelphia. 
 
JOURNEY ABROAD AND CONTINUED LABOR 367 
 
 ally close friends. In his letter of May 10, telling of the 
 communions at the close of the mission, Father Stokes 
 
 writes: 
 
 If any feeling of regret found admittance within our breasts, it 
 was caused by the absence of our beloved Bishop on that day 
 from his flock, when so many of his faithful children were ful- 
 filling the anxious desires of his paternal heart. I need not say 
 how frequently his beloved name was repeated on Sunday, the 
 second of May. His cup of happiness would seem full, could he 
 then be present with his flock. The Rev. Father Evremond, in 
 his sermon, spoke of this good and common father, and the tear of 
 affection glistened in the eyes of many who offered up a fervent 
 prayer for his safe and speedy return.°” 
 
 Only Father Maguire was now left as a travelling 
 missionary; and he was well qualified for this work. 
 Yet, as we learn from a prefatory note of Father 
 Stokes to a letter of the itinerant harvester of souls, 
 which was afterwards sent to the Advocate, the zealous 
 priest’s exposure and labors brought on a fever which 
 nearly resulted in his death.’ The Maguire document 
 is so full of interest, and so important for the early 
 Catholic history of Tennessee, that we close this chapter 
 with a reproduction of it almost in its entirety. 
 
 [The Rev. Joseph Stokes]. 
 [ Rev. and dear Sir ] :— 
 
 I left Nashville on the 21st of May, and proceeded to Franklin, 
 
 where I administered the Sacraments. From Franklin I went to 
 
 Columbia, and gave the last Sacraments to one person. I visited 
 the Catholics of Shelbyville and Winchester, crossed the Cumber- 
 
 32 Tbid., May 22, 1841. Father Stokes’ letter is dated May 10. 
 
 33 When sending the Advocate the letter which he had received from 
 Father Maguire, Father Stokes writes: “The following communication 
 has been received from a zealous missionary of our Diocese, the Rev. 
 John Maguire. It would have been sent to you for publication before now, 
 but anxiety for the life of the missionary, whose labours and exposure 
 brought on a violent fever, excluded for a time every other thought” 
 (Advocate, October 2, 1841). 
 
368 THE FATHER OF THE CHURCH IN TENNESSEE 
 
 land Mountains (via Jasper), and arrived on the first of June 
 at Chattanooga, in East Tennessee. On the second I visited the 
 men who are employed on the Western and Atlantic Railroad. 
 There are one hundred Catholics on this road, with whom I have 
 remained for the last six weeks. They were not visited by any 
 priest for more than two years. Our beloved Bishop and the 
 zealous Father Durbin visited them in the fall of 1838, when work- 
 ing on the Hiwassee Railroad. Their names are held in benediction 
 by these poor men. They received me with joy, and immediately 
 erected a temporary church in the midst of the forest.*+ 
 
 Many Protestants are present every Sunday to hear our doc- 
 trines explained, some of whom evince a great desire to find out 
 the truth. Two intelligent Protestants commenced some weeks 
 ago to study and examine for themselves, and I have the happi- 
 ness to inform you that their study ended in their conviction of 
 the divine origin of our holy religion. A respectable farmer called 
 to see me a short time ago, and asked me to explain my creed to 
 him. I did so. On his departure I gave him some books to read, 
 and told him to come and see me again. He returned in two 
 weeks. I asked him how he liked our doctrine. “As far,” said he, 
 “as I have examined, I am well pleased. I firmly believe in the 
 Supremacy of St. Peter, in the Infallibility of the Church, and in 
 the real presence of Jesus Christ in the Lord’s Supper.” I gave 
 him some catechisms for his children. I hope ere long, I will have 
 the pleasure of informing you that he and his eight children have 
 been united to the true fold.*° 
 
 The missionary then tells his vicar general that many 
 of the laborers on the railroad, because of their hard- 
 ships and spiritual privations, have become addicted to 
 an excessive use of strong drink. Accordingly, he has 
 started a total abstinence society among them. 'Twen- 
 ty-five have already taken the pledge, and he believes 
 that most of the others will soon follow the good 
 
 34 Bishop Miles, it will be remembered, also visited these railroad men 
 in the spring of 1839. This railroad, as also the river after which it 
 
 was named, is now generally written “Hiawassee.” 
 35 Advocate of October 2, 1841. 
 
JOURNEY ABROAD AND CONTINUED LABOR 369 
 
 example. ‘The results of the move have been highly 
 beneficial. It is quite probable, we may note here, that 
 Bishop Miles had left instructions in this matter also. 
 While not an extremist, he was always a warm advocate 
 of this society, especially for those who could not other- 
 wise control their appetites. So had he twice visited 
 these men of toil. But to return to the letter: Father 
 Maguire now says: 
 
 I heard that there were many Catholics in Bradley, McMinn, 
 Meigs, and Monroe Counties. I set out to visit them on the 
 tenth of June. In Cleveland, Bradley County, many respectable 
 Protestants treated me very kindly, and they invited me to preach 
 four times. There are four respectable Catholic families in this 
 place; one of them gave me a beautiful lot for a church; all 
 promised to contribute according to their means. I found many 
 families in the other counties who were glad to see me. One 
 person did not see a priest for sixty-six years, another for twen- 
 ty-nine years. I preached three times in Charleston, on the 
 Hiwassee River. I was invited to return by some respectable Prot- 
 estants, in order to explain our doctrines. 
 
 I heard there was one family near the North Carolina line 
 that had never been visited. I determined to go and see them. 
 I arrived about dark at a neat farmhouse, and called for lodging. 
 A venerable old man came to the door, and in a very kind and 
 amiable manner invited me to put up for the night. After a 
 few minutes, I told him who I was. “What!” he exclaimed, “a 
 Catholic Priest! Oh, my God! I am a happy man. I knew that 
 my God would not abandon me.” He embraced me with swim- 
 ming eyes and a throbbing heart. He has a very interesting 
 family. He has brought them up in the Catholic religion. He 
 takes the Catholic Miscellany; and, by the aid of that highly re- 
 spected journal, he endeavours to keep alive the flame of Catholic- 
 ity among his children. 
 
 . . . During my mission, I performed several marriages, ad- 
 ministered baptism to fourteen children, and admitted to holy 
 communion nearly fifty persons. I returned to the railroad on the 
 tenth of July, after this arduous but consoling mission. Thus I 
 
 25 
 
370 THE FATHER OF THE CHURCH IN TENNESSEE 
 
 have given you an outline, as you requested, of my labours and 
 success for the past two months, during which I have travelled on 
 horseback nearly one thousand miles. 
 
 Very respectfully in Christ, 
 
 John Maguire. 
 Chattanooga, July 11, 1841. 
 
CHAPTER XVI 
 BRIGHTER OUTLOOK 
 
 Bishop Miles began his apostolic circuits again as soon 
 as he reached home. First, he took a rapid survey of 
 the episcopal city and the nearer missions. ‘Then he 
 journeyed to western Tennessee, where preparations 
 were put under way for the erection of two churches; 
 one of which was certainly in Memphis, the other prob- 
 ably in Fort Pickering, although the failure of the 
 proprietors of that town to make it a success rendered 
 the bishop’s spiritual efforts there abortive.’ On his 
 return to Nashville, he gave the tonsure and four minor 
 orders to John O’Dowde and William Howard, and 
 the tonsure to Ivo Schacht, Saturday, November 27, 
 1841. On the morrow, the first Sunday of Advent, 
 O’Dowde received subdeaconship; on Tuesday, No- 
 vember 30, he became a deacon, and on Sunday, 
 December 5, 1841, he was raised to the priesthood.’ 
 
 These were the first ordinations ever administered in 
 the state of Tennessee. The ritual was carried out with 
 great solemnity on all four days. Father Stokes acted 
 
 1 Bishop Miles secured a deed to land for a church at Memphis on 
 October 29, 1841. 
 
 2 Catholic Advocate of December 25, 1841. Father Stokes’ letter to 
 that journal is dated December 9, 1841. Everywhere one sees this new 
 priest’s name given O’Dowd; but in the Nashville records he signs it 
 O’Dowde. We follow his way of spelling it. Father Schacht’s baptismal 
 name (he afterwards became a priest) was Ivo; but he wrote the capital I 
 
 so much like the capital J that in some early communications it appears 
 as John, the Ivo evidently being taken for Jno. 
 
 371 
 
372 THE FATHER OF THE CHURCH IN TENNESSEE 
 
 as archdeacon; Fathers Hoste and Maguire were 
 respectively deacon and subdeacon; Father Savelli was 
 master of ceremonies. The description of the bishop’s 
 pontifical robes, the cope of the archdeacon, and the 
 vestments of the other ministers shows that the Journey 
 abroad had been well rewarded in this regard. Many 
 non-Catholics were drawn to the church by the novelty 
 of the spectacle. Happiness filled the hearts of the 
 faithful, especially of those who had formerly suffered 
 so much from spiritual starvation. 
 
 After the ordination of Father O’Dowde as an 
 ambassador of Christ, Bishop Miles preached on the 
 priesthood, and told the people that he was greatly 
 rejoiced in the hope that the little seminary would help 
 to supply the diocese with a sufficient number of spiri- 
 tual shepherds. Father Stokes speaks in high praise of 
 the eloquence, zeal, and good nature of Father Maguire, 
 no less than of his success as a missionary in “Kast 
 Tennessee.” * Of Bishop Miles he writes: 
 
 It is indeed gratifying to communicate that wherever he visits 
 his presence is hailed by the scattered flock, and he receives from 
 others many proofs of respect and consideration. To you, how- 
 ever, who know our Bishop so well it will not appear surprising 
 that he should everywhere secure the esteem and regard of those 
 with whom he has intercourse. He is indeed most deservedly 
 popular with all classes. ... You will, I know, rejoice to hear, 
 Mr. Editor, that in no part of the Union can be found a more 
 happy and united body than the good Bishop and his clergy. 
 Indeed, the amiable manners of Bishop Miles attach all to him. 
 He is truly a father to his clergy and people; and if in other places 
 
 3 Father William Walsh is in error, when he states (Facts, August 18, 
 1894) that the Rev. John M. Jacquet was the first priest in Chattanooga. 
 It seems all but certain that Bishop Miles and Father Durbin were there 
 in the fall of 1838, when the place was known as Ross’ Landing; while 
 there can be no doubt that Father Maguire made the city the center of 
 his activities at this time. 
 
BRIGHTER OUTLOOK | 373 
 
 the clergy enjoy advantages we do not possess, in the union and 
 affection that ought to subsist between a Bishop and his Priests 
 we of the Diocese of Nashville cannot be excelled. And _ this, 
 you will admit, is no small compensation for whatever privations 
 we are subject to. 
 
 Two days after the ordination of Father O’Dowde, 
 the bishop and Father Maguire set out for the southern 
 counties, whence they seem to have passed over the 
 Cumberland Mountains into the missions in the south- 
 eastern part of the state to which that zealous mission- 
 ary was now devoting his attention. On his return from 
 this tour, Father Stokes’ next letter informs us, Doctor 
 Miles prepared a course of lectures on temperance 
 which he preached at the cathedral in the first part of 
 the early lent of 1842. That he might set the people 
 a good example, he, his clergy, and his little band of 
 seminarians took the pledge in a body in the cathedral 
 on Sunday, February 27. Immediately after the lec- 
 tures on temperance, the bishop began another course 
 of sermons in explanation of the Catholic faith, which 
 he delivered Sunday after Sunday for two months or 
 more, and which drew such numbers that the church 
 was taxed to its utmost capacity.’ 
 
 In the doctrinal lectures the bishop adopted the plan 
 of question and answer which he had formerly followed 
 with no little success in Ohio and Kentucky. Father 
 Stokes tells us that these discourses attracted so much 
 attention that many letters were received by mail, 
 “proposing to the Bishop subjects for discussion and 
 explanation.” In the same connection the vicar general 
 writes: 
 
 4 Advocate, December 25, 1841. 
 2 Advocate, April 30, 1842. Stokes’ letter is dated April 19. 
 
374 THE FATHER OF THE CHURCH IN TENNESSEE 
 
 We pray that God may bless this work. Much prejudice will 
 at least be removed by it; but God alone can bestow the divine 
 gift of faith. In Nashville, although there is, and must be, con- 
 siderable prejudice against our faith, slandered as we have been, 
 without a single voice having been raised in our defence, for so 
 many years gone by, it gives us pleasure to state that the most 
 intelligent and best informed of the citizens evince towards us the 
 kindest feelings, treat our clergy with respect, and manifest a 
 
 disposition to learn at least what we really believe.® 
 
 Although Bishop Miles seems to have advocated 
 communion at an early age, he believed that, as a rule, 
 candidates for confirmation should be well instructed 
 before they received that sacrament. Possibly it is for 
 this reason that the earliest record which we find of his 
 confirming in his own diocese is in April, 1842; and it 
 was doubtless the first time that he administered the 
 sacrament there, the delay being due to the difficulty 
 of proper preparation.‘ Father Stokes’ letter tells of 
 this event in the cathedral; after which it proceeds to 
 say: 
 
 Since the return of Dr. Miles from Europe, a church has been 
 erected in East Tennessee through the active zeal of the Rev. 
 John Maguire; and another in Middle Tennessee, Robertson Coun- 
 ty. Two more are in progress of being erected in the [ Western? | 
 District, or West Tennessee, under the superintendence of the 
 pastor of Memphis, Rev. Mr. McAleer. In our own city of Nash- 
 ville, on the fine and extensive lot purchased by the Bishop, we 
 have already commenced the building of our Seminary, which wiil 
 
 6 Ibid. 
 
 7 According to the Nashville cathedral registry confirmation was ad- 
 ministered on April 3 and 10; but the record was written sometime after- 
 ward, for it is signed by Father Alemany who, it seems certain, had not 
 yet gone to Tennessee. Stokes’ letter (Advocate of April 30, 1842) says 
 it took place on April 20; but his letter is dated April 19. Besides, it 
 says that the confirmation was given on Sunday, and April 20, 1842, was 
 Wednesday. Possibly 20 is a typographical error for 10, and April 10, 
 1842, is the correct date of the first confirmation given in Nashville. 
 
BRIGHTER OUTLOOK 375 
 
 be completed, it is hoped, by the first of September next. We shall 
 then have it in our power to accommodate more Seminarians than 
 at present, and receive a greater number of pupils in our school.® 
 
 Father Stokes himself blessed and opened a church 
 in Robertson County, under the patronage of Saint 
 Michael, on Sunday, May 8, 1842.° It was a small 
 log structure situated near Turnersville, seven miles 
 south of Springfield, and some twenty-six north of 
 Nashville. In regard to Saint Michael’s, Father Stokes 
 writes: 
 
 Its erection has been effected through the active zeal of a young 
 man who may be called a convert to our hely religion. He was, 
 like numbers in Tennessee, born of Catholic parents, but had grown 
 up without a knowledge of his religion, and in the absence of a 
 Catholic ministry had become indifferent, or thought equally well 
 of all. Soon, however, after the arrival of the Bishop of Nashville, 
 he applied for instruction, and after due time was prepared for 
 the holy sacraments. The grace of God in him was not inactive; 
 he soon began to impart his happiness to others; and, possessed 
 of good natural talents, and thoroughly versed in the doctrines 
 of the Catholic Church, he soon induced others to investigate [ the | 
 divine truth. ... You perceive, Mr. Editor, how very humble 
 our efforts in Tennessee are; and even in the days of primitive 
 Christianity, when its sacred truths were first announced, there 
 scarcely could have been more difficulties to be encountered. But 
 God’s grace alone can effect what no human efforts can accomplish; 
 and He desires to teach man his own inefficiency, that ‘“‘no flesh 
 should glory in His sight.” 
 
 8 We have not been able to determine where this church in eastern 
 Tennessee was located, unless it was the temporary structure spoken of in 
 Father Maguire’s letter of July 11, 1841, which was run up by the work- 
 men on the railroad near Chattanooga—for which see note 35 of the pre- 
 ceding chapter. Doubtless the second church in western Tennessee was 
 the ill-fated one at Fort Pickering. The other was certainly at Memphis. 
 
 9 The Advocate of June 4, 1842, says that this event took place on 
 May 6; but this must be a typographical error for May 8, for the Sun- 
 days of May, 1842, were 1, 8, 15, 22, and 29. 
 
376 THE FATHER OF THE CHURCH IN TENNESSEE 
 
 The Rev. John Maguire, now pastor of the Cathedral, has lately 
 returned from Jonesboro’, where he visited two edifying converts, 
 a young lady and her brother, who were received into the Church 
 more than two years ago by the Bishop, who, when he had no priest 
 to assist him, undertook this long and painful journey over the 
 mountains for the purpose. Father Maguire gave us the most 
 edifying account of the firmness with which they adhere to all the 
 duties of religion, and their scrupulous observance of all the Church 
 prescribes. ... The Rev. John O’Dowd has recently visited 
 several counties in which no Catholic Missionary had ever been 
 seen before. He met scattered members of the flock almost 
 everywhere.1° 
 
 Until this juncture, or thereabout, Father Stokes 
 had held the three positions of vicar general, pastor of 
 the cathedral, and rector of the littl seminary and 
 college. Now Father Maguire becomes the cathedral’s 
 rector, whilst he in turn is succeeded by Father 
 O’Dowde as missionary in southern and eastern Ten- 
 nessee. As a whole, despite the hardships and priva- 
 tions that came from poverty, the small number of 
 priests, and the scattered situation of the few Catholics, 
 the outlook for the diocese loomed brighter than ever 
 before. 
 
 None of the missionaries manifested greater zeal than 
 the bishop himself. None toiled harder, or took longer 
 or more trying journeys, whether on horseback or by 
 other early ways of travel, for the salvation of souls. 
 With him it was a principle to set the example which 
 he wished others to follow. His command was: 
 “Come,” rather than “Go;” and it was given in action, 
 rather than by word. In holiness of life all regarded 
 him as a model. 
 
 10 Advocate, June 4, 1842. The two converts at Jonesborough, it will 
 
 be recalled, were Robert and Mary F. Aiken. Father Stokes’ letter is 
 dated May 25, 1842. 
 
BRIGHTER OUTLOOK 377 
 
 The reader can not have forgotten that one of the 
 first things which Doctor Miles did, after the arrival 
 of Father Stokes. was to start a Catholic school for 
 boys in Nashville. Although we have discovered no 
 documents to that effect, there can be no doubt that 
 he also sought to obtain nuns for a similar school for 
 girls in the episcopal city; or that he preferred to have 
 in this capacity the Dominican Sisters whom he had 
 helped to establish, and upon whom he perhaps looked 
 as the crowning glory of his priestly ministry. Doubt- 
 less also the only obstacle which stood in the way of 
 securing the services of these daughters of Saint Dom- 
 iniec, either from Ohio or from Kentucky, was their lack 
 of numbers at the time. On his return from Europe, 
 therefore, the bishop directed his thoughts towards the 
 Sisters of Charity, at Nazareth, near Bardstown, 
 Kentucky, where his appeal met with a charitable re- 
 sponse. ‘Touching on this topic in his letter to the 
 Catholic Advocate, September 15, 1842, Father Stokes 
 writes: 
 
 The Sisters of Charity arrived in our city on Thursday, the 25th 
 of last month. They were accompanied by their superior, Mr. 
 [ Joseph] Hazeltine, and the Rev. J[ames] M. Lancaster, Presi- 
 dent of St. Joseph’s College, Bardstown. On the Sunday following, 
 28th August, a solemn high mass of thanksgiving, at which the 
 Bishop assisted, was celebrated by the Vicar General, attended by 
 the Rev. Messrs. [Louis] Hoste and [Joseph Sadoc] Alemany as 
 deacon and subdeacon. After Mass, the Rey. Mr. Lancaster 
 ascended the pulpit, and delivered a most interesting and instruc- 
 tive discourse on the means of ascertaining the true religion. 
 He treated the subject in a most lucid and argumentative manner, 
 and claimed the attention of his numerous audience for more than 
 an hour. The Protestants, who were present in great numbers, 
 appeared to be deeply interested. 
 
378 THE FATHER OF THE CHURCH IN TENNESSEE 
 
 The day after, the 29th, the Rev. Mr. Lancaster took his 
 departure for Bardstown, to be present at the commencement of his 
 college exercises; but the Rev. Mr. Hazeltine remained until a 
 residence was provided for the Sisters, who in the meantime were 
 most kindly and affectionately entertained by a respectable lady 
 of our city, a former pupil of Nazareth [Mrs. T. J. Stevenson]. 
 The Sisters now occupy a large and commodious building, the 
 late residence of Captain John Williams, on the brow of Camp- 
 bell’s Hill, a most eligible site. They have already commenced 
 their school, and with prospects of extensive usefulness. We 
 thank God sincerely for His mercies to us, and we hope to prove 
 ourselves by our gratitude worthy of future blessings.!4 
 
 Father Stokes’ letters, we feel sure, present a fair 
 picture of the disposition manifested by the more liberal- 
 minded non-Catholics towards the Church and the 
 progress that it was making in Tennessee. ‘Tradition, 
 no less than this correspondence with the Advocate, 
 assures us that Bishop Miles’ straightforward char- 
 acter and gentlemanly ways exerted a strong influence 
 in the creation of these kindly feelings. However, 
 possibly because of his own fraternal and optimistic 
 spirit, Father Stokes appears to have overlooked the 
 deep-seated prejudices of the masses. Perhaps he had 
 come into contact with few other than the well-disposed, 
 and forgot that no bias is more stubborn, more bitter, 
 or harder to dispel, than religious bias—especially that 
 begotten of the anti-Catholic propaganda which has 
 been ceaselessly carried on, throughout the English- 
 speaking world. It is so today; it was infinitely worse 
 three quarters of a century ago. 
 
 11 Advocate, September 24, 1842; Sister Mary Vincent, Nazareth, De- 
 cember 15, 1896, to Rev. William Walsh (Nashville Archives). See also 
 History of the Sisters of Charity of Leavenworth, Kansas, pp. 19 ff., and 
 McGu1, The Sisters of Charity of Nazareth, Kentucky, pp. 114 ff.; but 
 
 the Advocate shows these two authors to be in error when they say that 
 the sisters went to Nashville in 1841. 
 
BRIGHTER OUTLOOK 379 
 
 Thus the introduction of the Sisters of Charity into 
 Nashville, although a step no less calculated to advance 
 the cause of education than that of religion, aroused the 
 ingrained prepossessions of many almost to a frenzy. 
 A Methodist paper of that city was “absolutely furious 
 in the expression of its malignity.” The Catholic 
 Telegraph of Cincinnati took up the unscrupulous 
 sheet, and showed it no mercy in a lengthy excoriation 
 of its bigotry and slander.** Bishop Miles, however, 
 for there is no evidence or tradition to the contrary, 
 seems to have followed his accustomed course of patient 
 forbearance, without compromise, which rarely failed 
 to win favor for the Church as well as for himself. 
 Doubtless he delivered some doctrinal lectures or ser- 
 mons at the cathedral in reply, but referred to the 
 diatribe only by innuendo. This was his usual way of 
 defense. Again it must have brought good results, for 
 the school was soon liberally patronized by non- 
 Catholics. 
 
 Their small numbers and multiplicity of labors had 
 made it impossible for the Friars Preacher to carry out 
 their desire of aiding the beloved bishop of Nashville. 
 But it would seem that, on the arrival of Fathers 
 Francis Cubero and Joseph S. Alemany, two Spanish 
 brethren, it was decided to give him their services, as 
 they both wished the sort of missionary work that was 
 required in Tennessee. The Telegraph of April 25, 
 1840, states that they had lately arrived from Rome, 
 and that they were destined for the Diocese of Nash- 
 ville. It was no doubt in view of this fact that the 
 report which Bishop Miles sent to the Catholic Almanac 
 of 1842, after placing Father Stokes at Nashville, and 
 
 12 Telegraph, September 17, 1842; and Pilot, April 12, 1845. 
 
380 THE FATHER OF THE CHURCH IN TENNESSEE 
 
 Father McAleer at Memphis, with the charge of 
 Jackson, Bolivar, and La Grange, says: 
 
 Franklin, Columbia, Shelbyville, Fayetteville, and Winchester— 
 attended by Rev. Joseph Sadoc Alemany, O.P. Several counties 
 in East Tennessee are attended by Rev. John Maguire and Rey. 
 Francis Cubero, O.P. Missionaries for West Tennessee—Rev. 
 Nicholas Savelli and Rev. Louis Hoste.12 
 
 However, necessity demanded that Alemany and 
 Cubero should be kept in Ohio. Meanwhile, in August, 
 1841, the Very Rev. Eugene H. Pozzo, O.P., S.T.M., 
 arrived, and was stationed at Saint Joseph’s, in that 
 state. On the other hand, Father Savelli, who came 
 with him, and whose namevhas already been mentioned, 
 had grown tired of the Tennessee missions. Possibly, 
 meeting few who could talk Italian, and knowing 
 little English, he found life there too lonesome. At any 
 rate, he left the Diocese of Nashville for that of Saint 
 Louis about the period of Bishop Miles’ life at which 
 we have now arrived.’* Probably it was in part to fill 
 this loss that Father Alemany was now sent to Nash- 
 ville. His last baptismal record at Zanesville, Ohio, 
 is dated June 29, 1842; and his earliest at Nashville was 
 performed on October 9 of the same year. He was the 
 first Dominican stationed in Tennessee.” 
 
 13 Page 147. 
 
 14 The Catholic Almanac for 1843 shows him as assistant to Father 
 Francis Cellini at Saint Michael’s, Fredericktown, Missouri. The next 
 year he was pastor in the same place, and remained there until 1846, 
 when he went to New Orleans. Here he was appointed pastor of the 
 parish of Plaquemine, where he labored efficiently for eleven years. He 
 was foully murdered on October 3, 1857, by members of an Italian secret 
 society. See Catholic Telegraph, November 7, 1857. 
 
 15 The baptismal records of Nashville at this time are so few and far 
 apart that they enable us to determine the date of a new priest’s coming 
 only approximately. The Catholic Herald of Philadelphia, August 12, 1841, 
 
 says: “Two Italian missionaries, Rev. Mr. Tavelli [Savelli], for the diocess 
 of Nashville, and Rev. Father Pozzo, of the Order of Preachers, for the 
 
BRIGHTER OUTLOOK 381 
 
 The next letter on the diocese is from Robertson 
 County, and is dated November 15, 1842. The sig- 
 nature of “S.”, together with the unmistakable style and 
 spirit of Father Stokes, leaves no doubt as to its 
 authorship. Here we find a detailed account of the 
 confirmation of a small class at Saint Michael’s two 
 days before. Curiosity to see and hear a Catholic bishop 
 brought a large crowd to the church. Before the cere- 
 mony, our prelate preached on confirmation and the 
 mass; afterwards he delivered a sermon on faith. 
 Perhaps it was his masterful use of the Scriptures, no 
 less than his splendid voice, that made those of his 
 audience who could not gain entrance into the little 
 log church wait around the edifice, in spite of the 
 inclement weather, for he could be heard almost as 
 distinctly without as within."® 
 
 Tennessee was now to experience a far greater loss 
 than that which it had suffered through the departure 
 of Father Savelli. At first, Father Stokes offered his 
 services to the Diocese of Nashville for only one year. 
 Possibly he remained until this time because of his love 
 and admiration for Bishop Miles, and his pity for the 
 people in their state of spiritual destitution. Hven 
 before going to Tennessee, he appears to have thought 
 of entering the Society of Jesus.*. The Catholic Advo- 
 cate of October 8, 1842, announces: ““We understand 
 that the Very Rev. Joseph Stokes, Vicar General of 
 Nashville, has resigned his office, and proceeded to the 
 College of the Jesuits, in Marion County, Kentucky, 
 diocess of Cincinnati, have just arrived from Leghorn in our Port. Rev. 
 Mr. Tavelli [Savelli] left Rome in the middle of May.” 
 
 16 Advocate, December 2, 1842. 
 
 17 Father Stokes to Bishop Purcell, Septemebr 15, 1839 (Cincinnati 
 Archives). 
 
382 THE FATHER OF THE CHURCH IN TENNESSEE 
 
 with a view to unite himself to that distinguished order.” 
 
 While this statement, for the reason given above, 
 seems to have been erroneous in that it states that 
 Father Stokes had already left the diocese, 1t was 
 evidently true as regards his intention. 'The Catholic 
 Almanac for 1843, doubtless because the report of the 
 diocese had been sent before his resignation, still gives 
 him as vicar general of Nashville; but that for 1844 
 places him at Saint Mary’s College, with “S. J.” after 
 his name.*® In the departure of Father Stokes, which 
 no one could have regretted more than Bishop Miles 
 himself, the young Diocese of Nashville lost not only 
 a good priest, a zealous missionary, and a clergyman 
 whose cheerful disposition must have been a source of 
 joy in the hard lives of his co-laborers, but also a 
 splendid publicity man. Because of his letters to the 
 Advocate on the early Church there, he deserves the title 
 of the first Catholic historian of Tennessee.” 
 
 18 Almanac, 1843, p. 105; Almanac, 1844, p. 150. 
 
 19 Father Stokes was born in Ireland, studied at Carlow, and was or- 
 dained there for the Diocese of Charleston, December 21, 1822. Then he 
 spent a year in the Archdiocese of Dublin, probably at Maynooth pre- 
 paring to teach in Bishop England’s seminary and college. But the U. S. 
 Catholic Miscellany of June 15, 1825, says: “Columbia [South Carolina]: 
 The Rev. Joseph Stokes has been appointed to take charge of this and 
 the neighboring congregations until some further arrangements can be 
 made, and he has arrived to take charge of his flock.” This is the first 
 mention of him that we have found. He remained at Columbia until 
 about 1829, when he was transferred to Savannah, Georgia, of which he 
 was pastor until 1835. All these ten years he was one of the most active 
 missionaries of the Charleston Diocese. From Savannah he went to 
 Portsmouth, Virginia; but after about a year there he became rector of 
 the seminary at Cincinnati, whence he went to Nashville. In all these 
 places he was regarded as a fine scholar and eloquent preacher. 
 
 Soon finding that his vocation was not to a religious life, he left 
 Saint Mary’s College, in Kentucky, and then labored for a while (1844- 
 1845) at Saint Joseph’s Church, New York City. From 1845 to 1851 he 
 was at Saint John’s, Utica, New York. In 1851 he became pastor at New 
 
BRIGHTER OUTLOOK 383 
 
 A further glimpse of the zeal of the Father of the 
 Church in Tennessee for the beauty of God’s temple 
 and divine worship, as well as of the way in which he 
 had been aided in this regard by the generosity of Cath- 
 lics abroad, is afforded by a letter of a transient who 
 styles himself “Philadelphian” to the Catholic Advocate 
 from Nashville, December 31, 1842. First, he tells 
 how, in spite of the beauty of the place and its favored 
 location, his heart had been rent on a former business 
 visit, some years before, at the sight of its dilapidated 
 church, no less than at the thought that among such a 
 splendid people “God’s best gift to man, His one and 
 true religion, was scarcely known.” 'Then he proceeds 
 to say: 
 
 I return, and with joy beheld on last Christmas morning its 
 sanctuary dignified by a Bishop, . ... surrounded by a youth- 
 ful and efficient clergy, and its church thronged by many of the 
 most intelligent and reflecting men of Nashville. All was calcu- 
 lated to excite in my mind the most pleasurable feelings—contrast- 
 ing the appearances and circumstances that then surrounded me 
 with those, as I knew them, of other days. ... But my attention 
 was soon directed to the preparations that were being made for 
 the celebration of the holy sacrifice of the Mass by the Bishop, 
 who with two attendant priests, robed in vestments surpassing any- 
 thing of the kind I ever saw in richness of material and chasteness 
 of design, performed the solemn sacrifice with an air of most 
 unfeigned piety and heartfelt devotion. 
 
 He appeared in pretty good health. He is naturally majestic, 
 his bearing bespeaking the dignity of his character. He still seems 
 to have some of the vigor of manhood blending with the approaching 
 majesty of age; and gives hope that he may still survive many 
 London, Connecticut; in 1852, the bishop of Hartford, who then lived in 
 Providence, Rhode Island, took him to that city, and made him his vicar 
 general. He died on July 16, 1854, at Saratoga, where he seems to have 
 gone for his health. He was a splendid priest, but seems to have had 
 
 somewhat of a roving disposition, perhaps brought about by his long 
 missionary life. 
 
384 THE FATHER OF THE CHURCH IN TENNESSEE 
 
 years, cheering his little flock by his serene hilarity, strengthening 
 his clergy by his evangelical example, and decorating his humble 
 Cathedral by his venerable appearance. Every one with whom 
 I conversed about him, Catholic or Protestant, united in the one 
 general sentiment of praise. All spoke highly of him. I cannot 
 describe to you the thrill of delight which almost paralyzed my 
 senses, when he entoned the “Gloria in Excelsis.” His voice is 
 correct, soft, mellifluous, vast in compass, and charming in effect. 
 
 He was well responded to by the gush of a rich tide of harmony, 
 
 bursting forth with almost magic effect from a full choir.?° 
 
 After the mass, the Rev. John Maguire, a young man 
 whom all regard as possessed of “surpassing talents,” 
 preached an eloquent and learned sermon suited to the 
 occasion. At vespers in the evening, the church was 
 again packed to its utmost capacity alike by Catholics 
 and non-Catholics. Again Father Maguire preached, 
 but this time his sermon was the continuation of a series 
 of lectures which he is giving on the “Rule of Faith.” 
 The discourse was splendidly adapted for a mixed audi- 
 ence. On neither occasion was the music “surpassed by 
 any church in Philadelphia.” Another great surprise 
 was the presence of the Sisters of Charity, who are 
 located in one of the most beautiful and retired situ- 
 ations in the city.”* 
 
 Despite his physical appearance, Bishop Miles’ 
 strength was taxed almost to the snapping point by 
 labors. which were not only excessively hard, but also 
 without end or intermission. For fear lest his beloved 
 diocese should be left, even for a short time, without 
 the guidance of a supreme pastor caused him to think 
 seriously of a coadjutor. ‘To Archbishop Eccleston, 
 who had notified him of the fifth provincial council to 
 be held in Baltimore the next May, he wrote on Feb- 
 ruary 11, 18438: 
 
 20 Advocate, January 7, 1843. 21 [bid. 
 
BRIGHTER OUTLOOK 385 
 
 Your kind favour of the 30th January, announcing the time for 
 the council, has just come to hand. Your first never reached 
 me. I do not know that I have anything to propose to the Council 
 worthy of its attention; but I think there is an abuse in the publica- 
 tion of prayer-books that calls for some attention. There appears 
 to be too great a variety; and some of them contain expressions that 
 are calculated to scandalize Protestants. In some of the prayers 
 addressed to the Blessed Virgin she is styled Divine; in others 
 “our only hope.” In a Protestant country such expressions, I 
 think, are calculated to do much injury to religion. I wish to 
 propose to the Council, if I do not obtain it before, the appointment 
 of a Coadjutor for the Diocese of Nashville, as my health is de- 
 clining. I feel myself unable to attend to the arduous duties 
 incumbent on me. 
 
 I had not forgotten the request of the poor negro belonging to 
 the Carmelites; but my endeavours to find his wife and children 
 have, so far, been unsuccessful. I have found a coloured man in 
 Nashville who is acquainted with the affair, and who has promised 
 me to inquire into it. Be kind enough to assure the poor fellow 
 that I will do all in my power to serve him.?? 
 
 Tradition, supported by every sign, tells us that the 
 bishop’s choice for a coadjutor was the Rev. Martin 
 J. Spalding. Doubtless it was in part to prepare 
 Nashville for such an event that the distinguished divine 
 was brought to the city for a course of lectures in 
 March, 1843. The report of these discourses to the 
 Advocate may easily be read in such a light, no less 
 than in that of appeasing the ecclesiastical authorities 
 of Kentucky for the loss of so useful a clergyman. 
 
 “Idem,” as the correspondent signs himself, speaks 
 at length of the effect which Doctor Spalding produced 
 on his crowded audiences, irrespective of creed; of his 
 magnificent panegyric of Saint Patrick, Sunday, 
 March 26; of how he was admired by all classes in 
 the episcopal city; and of the good which he had 
 
 22 Baltimore Archives, Case 25, M 7. 
 
 26 
 
386 THE FATHER OF THE CHURCH IN TENNESSEE 
 
 accomplished in the way of further dispelling religious 
 prejudices. The article begins with an expression of 
 gratitude to Kentucky for the many blessings which 
 Tennessee has received from that state through the 
 missionaries sent to keep alive the spark of Catholic 
 faith in the hearts of the people, but especially for the 
 gift of the diocese’s beloved pastor. In this latter 
 connection, it says: 
 
 Tennessee is indebted, even more than this, to Kentucky in 
 sending her a bishop, a spiritual father to her children in the 
 faith—one whose noble heart yearns for their welfare; one whose 
 life, and health, and faculties are incessantly and unsparingly 
 devoted to their eternal and temporal well-being.?° 
 
 Father John Maguire, who is said to have wielded 
 a facile pen, was probably the author of this communt- 
 cation. In the light of tradition, the letter of Bishop 
 Miles about the council at Baltimore, the friendship that 
 existed between him and the former president of Saint 
 J oseph’s College, and the popularity enjoyed by Doctor 
 Spalding at Nashville, the import of the document 
 would seem to be: Since Kentucky has done so much 
 for 'Tennessee, let these good deeds now be crowned by 
 giving the venerable head of our diocese the man whom 
 he wishes to have as his coadjutor. 
 
 Bishop Miles kept a watchful eye over even the most 
 isolated of his scattered flock, and sought to keep alive 
 their faith by letters of encouragement as well as by 
 sending them a priest whenever he could. His big 
 heart and broad zeal went out to all. A letter to Robert 
 and Mary F. Aiken in far-off Washington County will 
 serve as an example of how he forgot no one. Although 
 occupied with preparations for his journey to the 
 council, no less than with the affairs to which he had to 
 
 23 Advocate, April 8, 1843. 
 
BRIGHTER OUTLOOK 387 
 
 attend before leaving home, on the eve of his departure, 
 
 he wrote: 
 Nashville, April 30, 1843. 
 My dear Children:— 
 
 The approach of the anniversary of your baptism and _ first 
 communion reminds me of a duty which I have delayed too long. 
 Knowing that some of my clergymen corresponded with you, and 
 being overpowered with business since my return home, I have 
 left that pleasing duty principally to them. I am just on the eve 
 of setting out for Baltimore to be present at the Provincial Council, 
 which commences on the fourteenth of May; and in order that you 
 may have an opportunity to approach the holy sacraments I have 
 directed Rev. Mr. O’Dowd to visit you for that purpose. He 
 will set out for East Tennessee in two days, and will be with you 
 about the middle of the month. He has to call at Athens and 
 some other places where there are Catholics, in order to afford 
 them the same opportunity. 
 
 I am delighted to hear that you remain firm in the faith and in 
 the practice of good works; and I trust in the goodness and mercy 
 of God that you will persevere to the end. Heaven cannot fail 
 to bless such fidelity; and although you seem almost left without 
 a protecting arm to defend you, yet He who looks down with an 
 eye of complacency from His seat of glory will never suffer you 
 to be deserted so long as you are faithful to your engagements. 
 Take courage then, my dear children. A great reward awaits 
 you; for after the few years of toil and trouble amidst trials and 
 temptations shall have passed away, that beneficent Father, for 
 whose love you have sustained the combat, will reward your labours 
 with a crown of immortal glory. 
 
 This life with all its troubles must soon pass away. How 
 cheering then is the prospect which futurity presents! The eye 
 hath not seen nor ear heard, neither hath it entered into the heart 
 of man what God hath prepared for them that love Him (I Cor., 
 II, 9). Let us then continually aspire to the possession of those 
 things that are promised us. Let us sigh continually for that happy 
 country, where we shall be eternally inebriated, as the Psalmist 
 expresses it, with the plenty of God’s house, and be made to drink 
 of the torrent of His pleasure; for there with Him is the fountain 
 
388 THE FATHER OF THE CHURCH IN TENNESSEE 
 
 of life (Psalm XXXI)—the great river of the water of life, clear 
 as crystal, which proceeds from the throne of God and of the 
 Lamb. 
 
 I am obliged from want of time to close my letter. Please 
 remember me kindly to your excellent parents, and pray for your 
 affectionate father in God. 
 
 I am, my dear children, 
 
 Sincerely yours in Christ, 
 T Richard Pius Miles, Bishop of Nashville.*! 
 
 No better proof that the saintly prelate was pressed 
 for time is needed than that he did not visit his beloved 
 alma mater of Saint Rose on his way east to the fifth 
 provincial council; for there he found such rest of soul 
 in the calm of the place, the memories of former days, 
 and the attachment of his early friends that he would 
 not have passed it by, had he found it possible to visit 
 the convent. The Catholic Telegraph of May 6, 1843, 
 shows that he had already passed through Cincinnati. 
 Father Pozzo of Saint Joseph’s was his theologian at 
 the council; but we did not discover whether he took 
 the longer route by way of Somerset, Ohio, in order to 
 travel with his official adviser, or proceeded directly 
 from Cincinnati to Baltimore, and engaged the services 
 of that learned Friar Preacher by letter.” 
 
 The council convened on May 14, and lasted for one 
 week. Salutary laws and regulations were enacted for 
 the government of our American Church; the Holy 
 Father was asked for the erection of new episcopal 
 sees at Pittsburgh, Chicago, Milwaukee, Hartford, and 
 Little Rock, together with the establishment of a vica- 
 riate apostolic in Oregon; Father Ignatius Reynolds 
 
 24 Tetter Addressed “Mr. Robert P. Aiken, near Jonesborough, Wash- 
 
 ington County, Tennessee’”’ (Archives of Saint Joseph’s Province). 
 25 United States Catholic Magazine, II, 377. 
 
BRIGHTER OUTLOOK 389 
 
 was proposed as successor of Doctor England at 
 Charleston, Father John McCloskey (afterwards our 
 first cardinal) for coadjutor of New York, and Father 
 John B. Fitzpatrick for the same position in Boston.”* 
 What action was taken in regard to a coadjutor to 
 Bishop Miles, or whether he actually requested that the 
 council should solicit the appointment of one for him, 
 we could not ascertain. 
 
 Possibly the fathers of the council, misled by the 
 deceptive outward appearance of the holy man’s health, 
 and convinced that the maintenance of two prelates 
 would be an excessive tax on Tennessee’s few Catholics, 
 persuaded him to bear the burden of his labors alone for 
 a while longer. Perhaps also they overlooked the fact 
 that Father Spalding was well able to support himself, 
 which was not unlikely one of the reasons why Doctor 
 Miles specially desired him for the place of coadjutor. 
 
 However, there can be little doubt that the expres- 
 sions of good-will which he received from his brethren 
 in the hierarchy cheered the hard-working man to 
 renewed efforts, at the same time that he found a source 
 of courage and consolation in the ever-increasing 
 number of our bishops and in the proofs that he thus 
 saw of the Church’s growth throughout the country. 
 A further happiness was the presence of a former 
 confrere whom he had not seen for some years, and 
 whom Doctor Loras of Dubuque brought to the coun- 
 cil as his theologian—Father Samuel C. Mazzuchelli. 
 From Baltimore the subject of our narrative, probably 
 on the invitation of Bishop Kenrick (whose estrange- 
 ment was now a thing of the past), went to Philadelphia 
 
 26 Concilia Provinciaha Baltimori, pp. 207 ff; Umted States Catholic 
 Magazine, II, 376-378; Sura, History of the Church, III, 459-461. 
 
390 THE FATHER OF THE CHURCH IN TENNESSEE 
 
 in search of means to help him out with the needs of his 
 poor diocese. While there he also preached in Saint 
 Joseph’s Church in behalf of the orphans of that city.” 
 
 Immediately that his business in the north was 
 completed the apostolic man hurried back to his own 
 dear Tennessee, where he took up again the endless 
 round of labors. By the fall of 1843 Father McAleer 
 had succeeded in erecting a substantial brick church 
 in Memphis, to which he gave the name of Saint Peter. 
 Accordingly, Bishop Miles now made another visit 
 through the western part of the state. At Memphis 
 he administered the sacrament of confirmation in the 
 new church; while at Jackson, in default of a temple 
 of Catholic worship there, he performed the same cere- 
 mony in the house of one of the faithful. Hverywhere 
 he gladdened hearts as much by the sunshine of his 
 disposition as by the warmth of his zeal and the piety 
 of his sermons.”* 
 
 Hardly had he returned to Nashville when he 
 ordained two young men from his little seminary. 
 They were William Howard who was born in Ireland, 
 and Ivo Schacht, a native of Belgium. They received 
 subdeaconship on the first Sunday of advent, Decem- 
 ber 3, 1843; on the twenty-third of the same month they 
 were given the order of deacon; and on the next day, 
 Sunday, December 24, they were raised to the priest- 
 hood during a solemn pontifical mass. Father Hoste, 
 now the vicar general, assisted as deacon, and Father 
 Alemany as subdeacon. Unless he was out on the 
 missions, F'ather Maguire must have been the master 
 
 27 Herald, May 5, and June 1, 1843. The tradition of Nashville is that 
 Bishop Miles obtained more financial aid from Philadelphia than from 
 any other place in the United States. 
 
 28 Advocate, January 6, 1844. 
 

 
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BRIGHTER OUTLOOK 391 
 
 of ceremonies, for he was the rector of the cathedral. 
 After the mass, the bishop made a soulful and touching 
 address to the newly ordained, with which, for the sake 
 of those who thronged the little cathedral, were inter- 
 woven explanations of the sublime ceremonies per- 
 formed on the two young men.” 
 
 Bishop Miles loved the ritual of the Church. A 
 southerner himself by both birth and rearing, he under- 
 stood the people of that section of the country, and knew 
 well their love of the sublime and beautiful. For 
 these reasons, although he could command no more 
 than a handful of clergymen, he shrank from no incon- 
 venience or even hardship in order to sing a solemn 
 pontifical mass in the cathedral at least on the major 
 feasts of the year. He saw too how non-Catholics 
 were ever present in numbers on these occasions, felt 
 that they offered an opportunity for making the life 
 and teachings of the Church better known, and hoped 
 that they might result in conversions. Thus on the 
 morrow of the ordination just mentioned, which was 
 Christmas Day, he treated Nashville to another of those 
 exquisite celebrations which can be found only in the 
 Catholic Church. In a letter dated at Nashville, 
 
 December 28, 1843, “Amicus” writes: 
 
 At ten o’clock the church was crowded to excess, principally by 
 Protestants, to witness solemn high mass to be sung by the Bishop. 
 The church was tastefully decorated by the pious Sisters of 
 Charity, and presented a beautiful appearance. At half-past ten 
 o'clock the choir, under the direction of Mr. King of Philadelphia, 
 assisted by several other gentlemen of the city who kindly offered 
 their services, performed in a manner highly creditable. Mr. 
 Joseph McEvoy, one of the seminarians, presided: at the organ; 
 and when the Venite Adoremus was intoned in heavenly strains, 
 
 29 Ibid. 
 
392 THE FATHER OF THE CHURCH IN TENNESSEE 
 
 there dropped many a tear from the pious flock in humble adoration 
 before their God. 
 
 The Bishop, being robed in his rich pontificals, accompanied by 
 Very Rev. Lewis Hoste, V.G., as deacon, and Rev. Joseph Ale- 
 many, O.P., as subdeacon, intoned high mass in a thrilling and 
 sweet tone, so peculiar to him, and so well known to all who ever 
 had the happiness to hear him sing high mass. The Rev. Mr. 
 Schacht acted as master of ceremonies, and conducted all with 
 the skill of one well acquainted with such ceremonies. After mass, 
 Rev. John Maguire, the pastor of this congregation, who by his 
 active zeal has done so much for religion, ascended the pulpit and 
 delivered an eloquent and impressive discourse. 
 
 The whole was to the Catholics of Nashville a day of joy and 
 consolation. And we cannot be sufficiently grateful to God for 
 sending to us a father who has placed all his solicitude in our 
 welfare, and who, notwithstanding the many difficulties he has to 
 contend with in his poor diocese, endeavours to educate, under his 
 own immediate direction, a priesthood which, I hope, are ready to 
 sacrifice every human consideration, and, like generous souls, to 
 devote themselves to this emphatically arduous mission.®? 
 
 Such was the state of the Diocese of Nashville at the 
 close of the first period of its founder’s labor after his 
 journey to Europe in its behalf. Under the circum- 
 stances, and with the same limited means, no man could 
 have accomplished more, or reasonably expected greater 
 progress. While his zeal doubtless sighed for a more 
 rapid growth of Catholicity in every way, Bishop Miles 
 might well have congratulated himself on what he had 
 done for religion in Tennessee. Possibly, all in all, he 
 was satisfied, for we have found no expression of regret, 
 or of fear lest something had been left untried, even 
 though he was not one who would hesitate to criticize 
 
 himself. 
 
 30 Ibid. 
 
CHAPTER XVII 
 LOSSES AND GAINS 
 
 Bisuor Miles’ zeal caused him to rejoice in the 
 reports which he received of the advance of Catholicity 
 in other parts of the country, even though its progress 
 in his own diocese was slow and uphill. It delighted 
 him to hear of the appointment of new bishops. How- 
 ever busy he might be, if at all possible, he sought to 
 give them the pleasure of his presence at their conse- 
 cration. ‘Thus, in spite of the fact that he was over- 
 whelmed with care at this time, he journeyed to 
 Cincinnati in order to act as assistant at the consecration 
 of the Right Revs. Ignatius Reynolds for Charleston 
 and John M. Henni for Milwaukee. The ceremony 
 was performed, March 19, 1844, by Bishop Purcell in 
 the cathedral built by the apostle of Ohio. Doctor 
 Michael O’Connor of Pittsburgh was the other assis- 
 tant.* 
 
 Meanwhile, apparently near the close of the previous 
 year (1843), Father O’Dowde, who had charge of the 
 missions formerly attended by Father Maguire south 
 of Nashville and in eastern Tennessee, had grown weary 
 of his lonesome life there, and gone to the Diocese of 
 New York. There he was given charge of Brownsville, 
 Carthage, Copenhagen, and Watertown, in the present 
 Diocese of Ogdensburg. As his name disappears from 
 
 1 Advocate, March 23 and 30, 1844. 
 393 
 
394 THE FATHER OF THE CHURCH IN TENNESSEE 
 
 the Catholic Almanac after 1846, he probably returned 
 to Ireland about that time.” His place in Tennessee 
 was taken by the Rev. William Fennelly, who seems 
 to have come from the cathedral of Boston. It is pos- 
 sible, however, that Father Fennelly offered his 
 services to Bishop Miles merely until Fathers Howard 
 and Schacht could be ordained and placed; for we find 
 him at Maysville, Kentucky, in 1845, where he built 
 Saint Patrick’s Church.* 
 
 Father Stokes has told us of the model community 
 life led by the diocesan clergy at Nashville, where the 
 Bishop’s kindly character made every one happy, in 
 spite of the privations imposed by poverty. ‘The priests 
 were principally supported by means sent to the diocese 
 from abroad. Economy of the strictest kind was a 
 necessity. Doubtless it was this that caused all the 
 clergy, with the exception of Father McAleer in 
 Memphis, to make their home with their beloved prelate, 
 though the greater number of them were practically 
 
 2 Catholic Almanac, 1845, pp. 86-89; 1846, pp. 107-110. Father O’Dowde 
 was educated partly at Mount Saint Mary’s, Emmitsburg, and partly in 
 Nashville. Possibly he had made some of his studies before coming to 
 America. Not a few early missionaries, finding life in the then undeveloped 
 United States harder than they anticipated, returned to their native lands 
 after a few years of poorly requited toil. 
 
 3 Almanac, 1845, p. 131. There was a “Rev. Mr. Fennelly” at Boston 
 for several years. The Almanac for 1844 (p. 143) gives his first name 
 as “Lewis”; but the records at Nashville and subsequent Almanacs show 
 that this was an error. In 1846, he took charge of various missions in 
 Breckinridge and Daviess counties, Kentucky. In 1850, he went to the 
 Diocese of Albany, New York, where he labored on various missions until 
 his death. He was killed by a train, February 6, 1886. He was then 
 pastor of Saint Patrick’s Church, Oneida, and eighty-six years of age. 
 In the olden days of setting type by hand, when an error got into the 
 Almanac it often remained a long time. Until the last years of his life, 
 Father Fennelly’s name was very often written Finnelly. At Oneida 
 he baptized Father Francis D. McShane, one of the censors of this 
 book. 
 
LOSSES AND GAINS 395 
 
 always on the road. ‘They were hunters of souls who 
 could spare little time for domestic comforts. 
 
 This arrangement continued for some years, appar- 
 ently until after the ordination of Fathers Schacht 
 and Howard. Their advancement to the priesthood no 
 doubt combined with the expected arrival of Father 
 Samuel L. Montgomery, one of the bishop’s early 
 companions in labor, to determine the Father of the 
 Church in Tennessee, in spite of his slender financial 
 resources, to attempt a more convenient and efficient 
 disposition of his clerical forces. Father Montgomery, 
 the second Friar Preacher stationed at Nashville, seems 
 to have arrived about the end of April, 1844. ‘Though 
 somewhat advanced in age, he still retained much of 
 his former strength and vigor. He too lived in the 
 bishop’s house, whence he attended adjacent missions, 
 as well as made himself useful generally.* 
 
 Prior to the acquisition of this new helper, Father 
 Schacht had taken residence at Clarksville, where he 
 immediately began the erection of a brick church, the 
 corner-stone for which he laid on June 11, 1844. 
 Eight counties constituted his parish. In Humphreys 
 County, where the bishop had secured a large area of 
 land and was endeavoring to establish a Catholic 
 colony, Father Schacht also soon had a church under 
 way near Waverly. Preparations were started for a 
 third on a lot donated for the purpose by Francis 
 Rogan, seven miles from Gallatin. ‘The last two fanes 
 were log structures, it is true, but they were neat and 
 well-built, and in their day considered quite good 
 
 4 Father Montgomery’s arrival at Nashville may be approximated from 
 his last baptismal record at Saint Rose’s, in Kentucky, April 16, 1844. 
 
396 THE FATHER OF THE CHURCH IN TENNESSEE 
 
 enough. Saint Michael’s, Robertson County, was also 
 in Father Schacht’s district.” 
 
 Shortly after his return from the episcopal conse- 
 erations in Cincinnati, Bishop Miles made another 
 journey through eastern Tennessee. On May 12, 1844, 
 he confirmed Robert and Mary F. Aiken at Jones- 
 borough. Possibly he took Father Howard with him, 
 and it was at this time that the young priest was 
 stationed at Montgomery, then the capital of Morgan 
 County, thus becoming the first resident pastor of east 
 Tennessee. “He carries with him to the mountains,” 
 says a correspondent of the Advocate, “ardent zeal, 
 and unaffected piety,’ indispensable requisites for per- 
 severance in his lonely situation.°® 
 
 When Nashville was definitely chosen as the capital 
 of Tennessee (1843), it at once became certain that 
 Campbell’s Hull would be selected for the location of 
 the state-house. In like manner, probabilities had 
 begun to loom strong that railroads and other works 
 of public utility would eventually encroach on the 
 neighborhood in which stood the episcopal residence. 
 Accordingly, on the advice of friends, perhaps no less 
 than pursuant to his own judgment, Bishop Miles now 
 cast about for property in another location, whereon 
 to erect his proposed new cathedral. A plot of ground, 
 one hundred and twenty-two feet in length by seventy 
 in width, on the corner of Cedar and Summer streets 
 was secured from Vernon Stephenson at a cost of four 
 
 5 Advocate, June 22, 1844. The letter to its editor was written at 
 Clarksville, June 14, 1844. 
 
 6 Advocate, June 22, 1844; Catholic Almanac, 1845, p. 128; cathedral 
 records of Nashville. Montgomery, a mere hamlet, is about two miles 
 
 from the present Wartburg. This letter to the Advocate was written at 
 Nashville, June 8, 1844. 
 
LOSSES AND GAINS 397 
 
 thousand four hundred and forty dollars. The land 
 ran along the southern side of Cedar and faced west on 
 Summer, which is now Fifth Avenue. Preparations 
 were begun at once for a sacred edifice there.’ 
 
 The corner-stone of the structure was laid on the 
 Feast of Corpus Christi, June 6, 1844, Curiosity, 
 favored by a beautiful day, brought an immense crowd 
 to see a spectacle which was the first of its kind in 
 Nashville. Major Daniel Graham, a Presbyterian and 
 former state comptroller, whose home stood on the 
 northeast corner of Summer and Cedar streets (just 
 across from the proposed church), not only gave the 
 use of his mansion to the bishop and clergy for the 
 occasion, but also permitted a platform to be erected 
 in front of it. Father Maguire held his large audience 
 spellbound during a long, learned, and eloquent sermon, 
 an outline of which is given in the Advocate.” 
 
 After the sermon, Bishop Miles, his priests, and the 
 little band of seminarians proceeded with the ceremony 
 of blessing and laying the corner-stone. ‘Tall, straight, 
 graceful, and handsome even in advancing years, the 
 venerable prelate, always majestic in appearance, must 
 have been especially so when clothed in the rich pon- 
 tifical robes which he had received from abroad. He 
 towered above all around him. The Advocate’s corres- 
 pondent tells us as much. But what appears to have 
 attracted his attention in a special manner was the good 
 order preserved on the occasion, the great regard in 
 which the bishop was held by all classes, and the fact 
 that the non-Catholics of the city contributed far more 
 
 7Deed Book VI, 675-676 (Recorder’s Office, Nashville); Nashville 
 
 Sunday Herald, January 12, 1890. The deed is dated March 30, 1844. 
 8 Letter of June 8, 1844, to the editor of the Advocate as in note 6. 
 
398 THE FATHER OF THE CHURCH IN TENNESSEE 
 
 towards the enterprise than did those who professed 
 the faith. All this he attributes to the “zeal, piety, and 
 gentlemanly courtesy of Doctor Miles,” whose example 
 is faithfully followed by his clergy.? Writing to a 
 friend at the time, the bishop himself says: 
 
 We laid the corner-stone of our Cathedral on Corpus Christi, 
 which ceremony was witnessed by a large crowd of our citizens 
 who conducted themselves on that occasion with as much propriety 
 as could have been expected even in Baltimore. Father Maguire 
 gave a fine discourse which has been much spoken of since. After 
 the discourse, we went in procession from Major Graham’s to 
 the cross erected in the foundations. This is the first time that 
 the Mitre and Crozier have been seen in the streets of Nashville, 
 and [they] must have produced»strange feelings in many who had 
 not seen them before. There was, notwithstanding, great quiet 
 throughout [ the ceremony |. 
 
 One of the occurrences of that day which, I think, is worthy of 
 particular notice is that Major Graham, who is a Presbyterian, 
 should have treated us with such liberality. Tell me, can Baltimore 
 boast anything like it? Our foundation is gradually rising; and 
 in a few years we hope to have a temple for worship in some 
 degree worthy of the Great Being for whom we intend it. You, 
 who have seen and felt our privation in this respect, can give your 
 Baltimore friends some idea of it. I say some idea, for it is 
 impossible for those who never experienced anything of the kind 
 to form an adequate idea of it.!° 
 
 These advances were not slow to raise a storm of 
 indignation in some minds. Sectarian journals as well 
 as pulpits sounded alarms against the progress of 
 
 Catholicity. Bishop Miles and Father Maguire took 
 
 9 See preceding note. The writer of the communication signs himself 
 “Viator”, and was probably a visiting clergyman. He states that in the 
 papers placed in the corner-stone Father Alemany is given as the vicar 
 general; but this is a mistake, for Father Hoste held that position. 
 
 10 Miles, Nashville, June 13, 1844, to Mrs. Emilie Sanders, Baltimore 
 (Francis X. Reuss Collection, Archives of American Catholic Historical 
 Society of Philadelphia). Mrs. Charles Sanders, an exemplary Catholic, 
 was a native of Baltimore, and was visiting her people at the time. 
 
LOSSES AND GAINS 399 
 
 these attacks as a matter of course. But Father 
 Schacht, younger and more impulsive, came back at the 
 chief instigators with replies that must have made them 
 wince. His answers were strong, logical, and well- 
 written.” 
 
 Prior to going to Tennessee, Father Alemany had 
 been sent to Cuba in search of means to help not only 
 his brethren, but also Bishop Miles. After the depar- 
 ture of Father Stokes, the Spanish Friar Preacher 
 succeeded him as rector of the little seminary at Nash- 
 ville. No stricter or more conscientious man could have 
 been selected for the place. How careful he was in 
 regard to those who applied for admission may be seen 
 
 from the following note to Bishop Blanc. 
 
 I would be very thankful to you, if you would be so kind as to 
 give me whatever information you might about the morals and 
 conduct of Mr. , that young man who lived with you at 
 the end of 1841. I cannot see how, if he was destined by Almighty 
 God to be a clergyman, you did not keep him for your diocese; 
 or how, if you had clergymen enough, he did not make beforehand 
 some application to some other place. I beg of you to be so 
 good as to give me some information about it; which will oblige 
 
 
 
 me still more, and keep stronger in my memory the kindness and 
 attention used by you and your whole house in my passing through 
 New Orleans, going to and coming from Habana.” 
 
 In the early summer of the same year our busy 
 prelate had Father Alemany send a brief account of 
 
 11 Advocate, August 24 and December 7, 1844. 
 
 12 Letter written at Nashville, January 21, 1844 (Notre Dame Archives). 
 The name of the addressee is not on the letter, but the context supplies it. 
 In the same archives is a letter of Miles without either date or the ad- 
 dressee’s name, but both are shown by the contents and the letter of Ale- 
 many just quoted. Miles tells Blanc that he is forwarding to his care 
 a letter for Alemany who is going to Cuba “on the quest.” It was at 
 this time that Father Alemany obtained in Cuba a large crucifix which is 
 now on the main altar at Saint Joseph’s, Somerset, Ohio, and which is 
 considered one of the finest in the United States. 
 
400 THE FATHER OF THE CHURCH IN TENNESSEE 
 
 the diocese to the Propaganda. ‘Tennessee, it says, has 
 a population of 850,000, among whom there are some 
 eleven hundred Catholics. English is the language 
 ordinarily used, but in some places German is spoken. 
 The clergy, counting the bishop, are eight in number. 
 There are five churches and chapels built. Besides 
 these, there are three churches in course of construction, 
 among which is the new cathedral of Nashville, whose 
 corner-stone was laid on the Feast of Corpus Christi, 
 or the sixth day of June just past. The diocesan sem- 
 inary is under the direction of a Dominican. ‘The Sis- 
 ters of Charity, seven in number, have a convent and 
 a school attended by eighty pupils.”® 
 
 Bishop Miles was an ardent believer in Catholic 
 education, and even strove to do whatever he could for 
 the advancement of the negro. In spite of his untoward 
 circumstances, Father Alemany tells us, he had “two 
 schools for young men and boys—one in Nashville, 
 and another in Memphis.” ‘There was also “a free 
 school for the colored people” in the episcopal city. At 
 this time, the male school for the whites of Nashville 
 was kept in connection with the seminary; while that 
 for the blacks would seem to have been conducted, in 
 the best way that it could, in the former frame church 
 on Capitol Hill. Possibly Father McAleer had Eugene 
 Magevney give religious instruction to the youths of 
 Saint Peter’s Parish after hours, and for this reason 
 Alemany’s relation classifies the “Memphis Academy” 
 as a Catholic school.“ 
 
 13 Propaganda Archives, America Centrale, Vol. XII]I—copy in Nash- 
 ville Archives. 
 
 14 This is the earliest mention we have seen of a Catholic school in 
 Memphis. 
 
LOSSES AND GAINS 401 
 
 In his love of learning, the Father of the Church in 
 Tennessee was in quest of books wherever he went. 
 From Europe, where Bishop O’Finan proved one of his 
 best patrons in that regard, he obtained many volumes. 
 With these collections not only was the little seminary 
 well supplied for the time, but also, as we learn from the 
 Alemany relation and other sources, two circulating 
 libraries were started—one in Nashville, and the other 
 at Saint Michael’s. Doctor Miles’ object in the estab- 
 lishment of these libraries, Father Alemany states, was 
 to afford those who loved to read, whether Catholic or 
 non-Catholic, an opportunity to become informed on the 
 teachings of the Church.” 
 
 Meanwhile, Father N. D. Young had been elected 
 prior at Saint Rose’s. Anxious to celebrate in a 
 befitting manner possibly the first Saint Dominic’s 
 Day which he had spent at that institution since he was 
 a student there, Father Young persuaded Bishop Miles, 
 then on business in Kentucky, to grace the occasion with 
 his presence. Several Jesuit Fathers and Scholastics 
 came from Saint Mary’s. ‘The Rev. William Murphy, 
 president of the college, preached the panegyric. 
 Bishop Miles sang the solemn pontifical mass, at which 
 he gave minor orders to three Dominican students, and 
 conferred subdeaconship on Brothers Sydney Albert 
 Clarkson and Joseph Thomas Ryan. The church was 
 not large enough to admit all who came for the 
 ceremonies. 
 
 Exhausted by his labors at home, our venerable 
 prelate rested for a little more than a week at Saint 
 Rose’s and Saint Catherine’s. ‘The love which the peo- 
 
 15 The yearly Catholic Almanacs; Miles, Rome, February 18, 1841, to 
 Bishop O’Finan, O.P. (Archives of Saint Joseph’s Province). 
 27 
 
402 THE FATHER OF THE CHURCH IN TENNESSEE 
 
 ple of the parish bore him made them ever anxious to 
 have him confirm their children. Accordingly, on 
 Sunday, August 11, 1844, he again administered the 
 sacrament of confirmation at Saint Rose’s, before which 
 he spoke to the children on the graces which confir- 
 mation would bestow upon them, and the obligations 
 which they were about to assume. After the high mass, 
 he delivered a sermon on death which brought tears to 
 every eye.” 
 
 But we soon find the tireless man back in his own 
 diocese, and occupied with its needs. On December 8, 
 1844, he dedicated the Church of the Immaculate 
 Conception, built by> Father Schacht at Clarksville. 
 Before the ceremony, the bishop gave an “explanation 
 of its character and object.” Father Maguire preached 
 after the dedication. In the evening of the same day, 
 Bishop Miles gave another sermon, and administered 
 confirmation. “A mitred Bishop and priests in their 
 respective robes,” writes the Advocate’s correspondent, 
 “had never been seen publicly in our town; and you 
 may well judge, Mr. Editor, of the anxious looks of 
 the multitude.” ‘The non-Catholics were so taken with 
 the holy prelate that many asked the favor of speaking 
 with him. This he readily granted, and they were so 
 well pleased that a goodly number of them thereafter 
 attended the Immaculate Conception on the Sundays 
 when mass was said at Clarksville. 
 
 Saint Patrick’s, near Waverly, Humphreys County, 
 progressed more slowly. Father Schacht himself dedi- 
 cated this church on Easter Sunday, March 23, 1845."° 
 
 16 Advocate, August 25, 1844. 
 17 Advocate, April 12, 1845. 18 [bid. 
 

 
 Rey lV OMmCHACGHT REV. WILLIAM HOWARD 
 
 
 
 THE IMMACULATE CONCEPTION CHURCH 
 
 CLARKSVILLE’S FIRST CHURCH, AND TWO PRIESTS 
 ORDAINED BY BISHOP MILES 
 

 
LOSSES AND GAINS 403 
 
 Meantime, Father Maguire had apparently been sent 
 to Saint Louis on business in connection with the 
 Nashville cathedral, for it was necessary to seek in many 
 places the means required for its completion. Sunday, 
 January 19, 1845, he preached in the church attached 
 to Saint Louis University at the ten o’clock mass, and 
 again in the evening to “the society for the conversion 
 of sinners.” Says a contributor to the Catholic Herald: 
 “He is a clear, cogent, and forcible speaker, his aim 
 evidently being, not to dazzle the imagination with high 
 sounding, pompous language, but to convince the mind 
 and improve the heart. . . . ; and on both occasions 
 [he] gained the warm approbation of large audi- 
 ences.” ” 
 
 Bishop Flaget still retained the titles to the property 
 in Nashville which he had obtained from Anthony 
 Foster in 1821. Bishop Miles now asked that it should 
 be transferred to him. Evidently his request was misin- 
 terpreted; for he writes to the vicar general of Louis- 
 ville, Doctor Spalding: 
 
 Nashville, August 22, 1845. 
 Very Rev. dear Friend :— 
 
 I perceive from your last favour that in our late correspondence 
 we have mutually misunderstood each other, and the shortest way 
 would be to say no more about it till we meet; when, if necessary, 
 we will give the matter a further investigation. I beg leave only 
 to say in addition that, in the remark made about the deed, I 
 had no intention to allude to anything dishonourable to Bishop 
 Flaget. There is no person living of my acquaintance whose 
 virtue I respect, and whose person I honour more than Bishop 
 Flaget; and consequently he is the last one that I would be dis- 
 posed to speak of with disrespect. 
 
 Be kind enough to attend to the deed when convenient, and 
 
 19 Herald, February 13, 1845. The Herald’s letter is dated January 23. 
 
404 THE FATHER OF THE CHURCH IN TENNESSEE 
 
 allow me to assure you that I am, as heretofore, 
 Truly yours in Christ, 
 T Richard Pius Miles, 
 Bishop of Nashville.?° 
 
 The friendly, amicable tone of this document, as is 
 the case with practically all our bishop’s communica- 
 tions, speaks for itself. That it allayed Doctor 
 Spalding’s wrath is evident from the next letter of the 
 apostle of Tennessee to him; for there the grateful 
 
 prelate writes: 
 Nashville, August 29, 1845. 
 Very Rev. dear Sir:— 
 
 Permit me to thank you for the very kind attention and great 
 interest you have shown for my welfare. I have, agreeably to 
 your instructions, procured a copy of the form in which the matter 
 regarding the deed for the lot is to be managed, which I send you. 
 With regard to the form of the deed, I think it had better be, as 
 you say, made to my heirs or assigns, as it would be somewhat 
 dificult to get myself incorporated, the legislature having refused 
 that favour to another more liable to succeed than your humble 
 servant. I should therefore be afraid to try it. It is not nec- 
 essary to wait for the return of Mr. Maguire, as any other two 
 witnesses acknowledging their signatures before the court of Louis- 
 ville will be sufficient. 
 
 The Sisters’ school has commenced under circumstances more 
 flattering than usual. No news worthy your attention. 
 
 Truly yours in Christ, 
 Tt Richard Pius Miles, 
 Bishop of Nashville.?} 
 
 20 Archives of Nazareth Academy, near Bardstown, Kentucky. Father 
 Spalding was now vicar general. Just before the date of this letter, or 
 June 8, 1845, there died one of Tennessee’s great men whose life perhaps 
 exercised considerable influence on the erection of Nashville into a diocese 
 —Andrew Jackson. He was friendly towards Catholics, and it is not 
 at all unlikely that his fame drew the attention of the bishops towards 
 Tennessee, and had its part in making them believe that a bishopric 
 should be established there. 
 
 21 Archives of Nazareth Academy. There were two church lots in 
 
LOSSES AND GAINS 405 
 
 Doubtless the bishop derived no little joy at this 
 time from the good accomplished by the academy under 
 the Sisters of Nazareth whom he had brought to his 
 diocese. It had now attained an enviable reputation, 
 and had some eighty or ninety pupils. All Nashville 
 was jubilant over the exhibition of merit given at the 
 closing exercises of the school year 1844-1845, which 
 a contributor to the Advocate paints in eulogistic terms. 
 He begins by saying: 
 
 I was present at the annual exhibition of St. Mary’s Female 
 Academy conducted by the Sisters of Charity. I was kindly 
 received by Sister Serena, the Superior. Their neat, clean, and 
 beautiful house charmed me. Its location is a delightful one; it is 
 one of the best furnished houses in the city. I met with many of 
 the elite of the city, accompanied by their blooming daughters 
 full of hope and anxious to display the knowledge acquired during 
 the scholastic year.?* 
 
 The exercises, as was then the custom, consisted 
 principally of examinations. Jather Maguire con- 
 ducted them with skill, and the girls showed the 
 thoroughness with which the school was conducted. It 
 is worthy of note, in this connection, that the editor of 
 the United States Catholic Magazine was so pleased 
 with the account of the closing exercises of the Nash- 
 ville institution that he chose it for notice in preference 
 to all others which he saw for that year.** Another thing 
 revealed in the account is the care with which Bishop 
 question—one donated by Anthony Foster, the other bought from him. 
 Possibly Bishop Flaget felt that he should be paid for the lot which he 
 had purchased; while Bishop Miles thought that it belonged to the diocese, 
 because the money paid for it had been contributed in Nashville. Flaget’s 
 deed of the lots to Miles bears the date of September 3, 1845, and is in 
 Deed Book VIII, pp. 161-162, Recorder’s Office, Nashville. Five 
 dollars were the consideration paid for them. 
 
 22 Advocate, July 26, 1845. 
 23 U. S. C. Magazine, September, 1845. 
 
406 THE FATHER OF THE CHURCH IN TENNESSEE 
 
 Miles selected a home for the sisters and a location for 
 the school. In the midst of his labors he received an 
 invitation from Bishop Purcell to be present for the 
 consecration of the new cathedral in Cincinnati, to 
 which he responded in his usual happy manner, inter- 
 spersing a little of the wit which he ever had at 
 command. 
 
 Nashville, September 8, 1845. 
 Right Rev. dear Friend :— 
 
 Your very kind invitation to be present at the consecration of 
 your Cathedral has been received, and if possible I will do myself 
 the honour to be there. I am at present engaged in directing the 
 building of my own little affair; which I hope, by that time, will 
 be sufficiently advanced to allow my absence for that grand occa- 
 sion. As for the discourses of which you speak—there will be 
 no necessity, I suppose, for me to preach, as there will no doubt 
 be some good preachers present, and my awkward manner would 
 only spoil the solemnity of the occasion. Don’t, then, count on 
 any discourse from me. Anything that I can do I will do cheer- 
 fully. 
 
 Please remember me to Mrs. McClellan [ ?], with whom I deeply 
 sympathize for her late bereavement. 
 
 Sincerely and truly yours in Christ, 
 T Richard Pius Miles, 
 Bishop of Nashville.?* 
 
 On his way north, the venerable prelate stopped at 
 Saint Rose’s, where, on Sunday, October 26, 1845, he 
 again held an ordination, and administered confirmation 
 to the children of the parish. Brothers S. A. Clarkson 
 and J. 'T. Ryan were now made deacons; Brother James 
 Vincent Edelen received subdeaconship; whilst the 
 tonsure and minor orders were conferred on Brothers 
 
 Anthony Raymond Gangloff, Thomas Dominic Buck- 
 
 24 Notre Dame Archives. 
 
LOSSES AND GAINS 407 
 
 man, and Joseph Augustine Kelly.*”. Nor must we 
 omit the expressions of high regard here repeated by 
 the Advocate’s correspondent; for (it can not be too 
 constantly borne in mind) to overlook the love, esteem, 
 and admiration which he everywhere inspired were 
 wholly to fail in forming a correct estimate of Bishop 
 Miles. 
 
 The many virtues of this Right Rev. Prelate [he says], and 
 his amiability of character had long since endeared him to the 
 people of this congregation, of which he was many years the pastor; 
 and his occasional visits, prompted no doubt by a correspondent 
 feeling of attachment for the people of his former charge, are 
 always hailed with joy and congratulation. But the attestation 
 of the high regard they have for him is the deep effect which 
 his feeling appeals to them upon the subject of their eternal 
 interests always produce. His voice has always the force of a 
 pastor’s, a father’s, a friend’s. His visits give also to the Cath- 
 olics, as well as to the Protestants, of this neighborhood the 
 opportunity of witnessing some of the most imposing rites of our 
 holy religion. j 
 
 Bishop Purcell had made elaborate preparations for 
 the consecration of his new Cathedral of Saint Peter, 
 which took place on November 2, 1845. The Most 
 Rev. Samuel Eccleston performed the ceremony, being 
 the first archbishop who had ever gone west of the 
 Alleghany Mountains. Eight other prelates were 
 present. The celebration did not close until ‘Tuesday. 
 Bishop Miles sang the solemn mass of requiem on 
 Monday, November 3, and was no doubt selected for 
 this function not merely on account of his splendid 
 voice, but as much because of his great devotion to the 
 dead.”° 
 
 25 Advocate, November 1, 1845. Nearly all these men afterwards labored 
 in the Diocese of Nashville. 
 
 26 Telegraph, November 6, 1845; Advocate, November 8, 1845; U. S.C. 
 Magazine, December, 1845. 
 
408 THE FATHER OF THE CHURCH IN TENNESSEE 
 
 The Association for the Propagation of the Faith 
 originated in France; the greater part of its receipts 
 were contributed in that country; it was largely kept 
 alive by the charity of the Catholics there; and it con- 
 sequently remained under Gallic direction. It was thus 
 no more than what might have been expected that the 
 society should show some partiality towards French 
 bishops in the allotments of its alms, for the human 
 element enters even into religion. Yet not a few of our 
 hierarchy, including some who, it would seem, could 
 have got along without such aid, protested strongly 
 against such a distinction. Still another factor which 
 doubtess figured in the distribution of these funds was 
 the assiduity with which a prelate kept the needs of his 
 diocese before the moderators of the society. 
 
 Bishop Miles, it appears, wrote few letters to the 
 association, and in these he gave the briefest relation of 
 his church. Possibly he felt that this should suffice. So 
 have we discovered but one letter of complaint from 
 his pen against what he received. In all that he had 
 done he had largely depended on this source of aid, for 
 which he felt grateful. His cathedral was under way, 
 a debt had been contracted, and he looked forward to 
 making his payments. When, therefore, the holy 
 prelate received notice that the allotment for Nashville 
 had been greatly curtailed, he was almost stunned. 
 However, he did not lose courage, for he ever trusted 
 in God. ‘To Bishop Purcell he wrote, December 18, 
 1845, to learn if money might be borrowed on reasonable 
 terms in Cincinnati. Then he tells his friend: 
 
 I find from a letter received last evening from Paris that my 
 
 allocation for this year will be less than half what it has been 
 heretofore, though at most I have never received more than half as 
 
LOSSES AND GAINS 409 
 
 much as my nearest neighbour on the north. I have had all sorts of 
 troubles and inconveniences to struggle with from the commence- 
 ment, and they seem to increase rather than diminish. Why the 
 gentlemen of the Propagation de la Foi have thought proper to 
 treat me thus is more than I can tell.?? 
 
 Although it had been intended to erect a church in 
 Morgan County, Father Howard apparently did not 
 meet with success there; for the Almanac of 1846 does 
 not place him at Montgomery. Possibly, however, 
 another arrangement of the missionary forces was 
 adjudged better. At any rate, the diocesan account 
 for that year tells us that “East Tennessee is attended 
 occasionally from Nashville;” and that “all the prin- 
 cipal towns and larger villages of the state have been 
 visited during the past spring and summer, the counties 
 being so divided among the clergymen as to enable 
 them to discover the scattered Catholics, and explain 
 to our dissenting brethren the tenets of our holy 
 religion.””* 
 
 In the summer of the same year, Father John M. 
 Jacquet arrived from France. He was at once put in 
 charge of the little seminary in order that Father 
 Alemany might be sent to help Father McAleer in 
 the western part of the state.” A correspondent from 
 Memphis writes to the I’reeman’s Journal in November, 
 1845: 
 
 Several years since, the Catholics of this city, under the direction 
 of the Rev. Michael McAleer, our zealous pastor, erected a fine 
 
 27 Notre Dame Archives. The Annales show that Nashville received 
 23,940 francs in 1842; 21,560 in 1843; 28,500 in 1844; and 18,500 in 1845. 
 From this it would seem that Bishop Miles wrote a letter to the society 
 at this time, and that in consequence his allotment for 1845 was raised 
 somewhat. 
 
 28 Catholic Almanac, 1846, p. 146. 
 
 29 Father Jacquet’s first baptismal record at Nashville is dated August 
 25, 1845; Father Alemany’s first at Memphis is dated August 16, 1845. 
 
410 THE FATHER OF THE CHURCH IN TENNESSEE 
 
 brick church, forty feet by seventy feet, which is now about to be 
 entirely and finely finished, with a beautiful spire surmounted by 
 a cross, at an elevation of one hundred feet, and will no doubt 
 soon be consecrated to the service of Almighty God, by our Right 
 Rev. Bishop Miles of Nashville, under the name of St. Peter’s. 
 The congregation now numbers about five hundred Catholics, and 
 is rapidly on the increase. 
 
 Latterly, our pastor, Mr. McAleer, has been assisted in his 
 arduous and Jlaborious ministerial duties by the Rev. Joseph 
 Alemany, a Spanish priest of the Order of St. Dominic, who was 
 educated in Rome, and emigrated to America in 1840. His aid 
 promises to be truly efficient and useful; and we confidently look 
 for the most brilliant success to attend their combined efforts. 
 And everything induces the belief that it will not be long before 
 we will have a large and pious congregation regularly attending 
 St. Peter’s.2° 
 
 The author of the article from which the above 
 quotation is taken signs himself “G. W. M.” He 
 writes at length, and gives a glowing description of 
 Tennessee’s metropolis. Memphis is not only pros- 
 perous now; the city has also an advantageous location 
 that must soon make it one of the greatest commercial 
 centers in the south. Clearly his object is to attract the 
 attention of Catholics in the north and east towards the 
 Diocese of Nashville. In brief, the article is one among 
 the many efforts of Bishop Miles at Catholic coloniza- 
 tion in Tennessee. 
 
 Archbishop Eccleston’s letter of notification that the 
 sixth provincial council of Baltimore would convene in 
 that city on May 10, 1846, and that the members of the 
 hierarchy were expected to be there for the morning of 
 the ninth, found the Father of the Church in Ten- 
 nessee busy with his cathedral and diocese; but he at 
 
 30 We did not find the Freeman’s Journal containing this article; but 
 it is copied in the Advocate of December 20, 1845. 
 
LOSSES AND GAINS 411 
 
 once made ready to obey the voice of authority. About 
 this time also, it would seem, he suffered the loss of 
 another of his clergy, Father William Howard. A 
 tradition which seems plausible tells us that Bishop 
 Miles used to say: “Bishop Hughes stole Fathers 
 O’Dowde, Howard, and McAleer from me.”’ 
 
 However it happened, we find Father Howard in the 
 Diocese of New York in 1847; while it is certain that 
 in those days some members of our American hierarchy 
 had little scruple about accepting a good priest from 
 another diocese, even, without consulting his bishop. 
 Neither has one the heart severely to censure a clergy- 
 man who would succumb to an invitation from the State 
 of New York, where Catholicity was growing by leaps 
 and bounds, in order to escape the privations in that 
 of Tennessee. Bishop Miles ever acted on the principle 
 that it were wiser to give an eweat to those who desired 
 it; nor would he again, except for special reasons, 
 receive a priest who had thus left his diocese.** 
 
 The Catholic Telegraph of May 7, 1846, states that 
 “the Right Rev. Bishops of Mobile, Natchez, Nashville, 
 Louisville, St. Louis, Vincennes, and Dubuque passed 
 through Cincinnati this week, attended by their theo- 
 logians, on their way to the Baltimore council to 
 convene next Sunday.” No doubt Doctor Miles’ heart 
 again rejoiced in the renewed proof of the growth of 
 our Church manifested by the presence of twice as many 
 
 31 Father Howard was born in Ireland, but he seems to have made all 
 his ecclesiastical studies at Nashville. He was stationed in the part of 
 the State of New York taken to form the Diocese of Albany in 1847. He 
 labored there on several missions, and was pastor of Saint Francis de 
 
 Sales’ Church, Herkimer, when he retired, on account of ill health, in 
 1886. He died on February 25, 1888. 
 
412 THE FATHER OF THE CHURCH IN TENNESSEE 
 
 American prelates, less one, as had attended his first 
 council six years before.” 
 
 Unfortunately for Tennessee, Bishop Loras_ of 
 Dubuque took Father McAleer with him to the council 
 as his theologian. ‘There Memphis’ pastor met the 
 Right Rev. John Hughes, later the first archbishop 
 of New York, who induced him to come to his diocese. 
 In this case, the Mreeman’s Journal of March 5, 1881, 
 gives us written evidence of the influence through which 
 the subject of our narrative lost a good, zealous, and 
 able priest. ‘The departure of Father McAleer was 
 deeply regretted by Tennessee’s holy prelate, but he 
 felt that it were just as well to make no protest now that 
 the capable ambassador of Christ had set his mind on 
 an opportunity which he could not give him. Father 
 McAleer’s notes in the church records show that his 
 life at Memphis had not been a bed of roses. Possibly 
 his trials there predisposed him to accept the call from 
 New York, although his troubles in the south would 
 seem to have been near their end, while the prospects 
 for his church were becoming brighter every day.*° 
 
 32 It is in their accounts of this council that the United States Catholic 
 Magazine (June, 1846) and the Catholic weeklies give the dates and 
 places of the births of the bishops, placing Miles’ birth on May 17, 1791. 
 His theologian at this council was the Rev. Charles H. J. Carter of 
 Philadelphia. 
 
 33 Father Michael McAleer was born in County Tyrone, Ireland, March 
 4, 1811. His parents brought him to the United States about five years 
 later, and settled at Frederick, Maryland. He studied at Mount Saint 
 Mary’s, Emmitsburg, and was ordained in Cincinnati by Bishop Purcell 
 on Thursday, November 23, 1837. From that time, until he went to 
 Tennessee (1840), he labored at Canton, Ohio, and on adjacent missions. 
 In New York City, he was at once appointed pastor of Saint Columba’s 
 Church, retaining the charge until his death, February 24, 1881. He was 
 
 buried at Frederick, Maryland. Father McAleer was a splendid preacher 
 as well as an excellent priest and a man of considerable erudition. 
 
LOSSES AND GAINS 413 
 
 Evidently our good bishop’s appeal to the Association 
 for the Propagation of the Faith had produced its effect. 
 His allowance was enlarged. Indeed, either the society 
 advanced him a part of what should be granted him at 
 the end of 1846, or he obtained a further assistance 
 from another foreign source, for he wrote from the 
 council to his agent in Philadelphia, Mark Anthony 
 Frenaye: 
 
 Baltimore, May 13, 1846. 
 Mr. Frenaye:— 
 
 Enclosed you will find a check for 18,054:15 francs, which you 
 will please sell for me to the best advantage. By tomorrow’s mail 
 I will send you the second. I have signed and endorsed these 
 checks, and you will have the goodness to fill up the blanks. As it 
 will be some time before I shall go home, I will still ask you another 
 favour—that you would be kind enough to exchange the proceeds 
 of this check for checks on Nashville, if possible or expedient, and 
 send the same immediately to Mr. Michael Burns, Nashville, 
 reserving a memorandum of the amount, so that I may see it, when 
 I shall have the pleasure of visiting my friends in Philadelphia. 
 which will be soon. 
 
 Very grateful for past favours, I am, dear Sir, 
 
 Truly yours in Christ, 
 Tt Richard Pius Miles, 
 Bishop of Nashville. 
 
 P. S.—I have concluded that, as the distance is so small, I would 
 send both [checks] together. Have the goodness to inform me, 
 at your first leisure, if they have arrived safe. 
 
 Rees, BN ee 
 
 By this time the bishop of Philadelphia had become 
 one of the most sympathetic friends that the distressed 
 apostle of Tennessee had among our American hier- 
 archy. Doubtless it was on Doctor Kenrick’s invitation 
 
 34 Records of the American Catholic Historical Society of Philadelphia, 
 
 December, 1902. Mark A. Frenaye was long the trusted agent in such 
 matters for many American bishops and priests. 
 
414 THE FATHER OF THE CHURCH IN TENNESSEE 
 
 that he again visited the City of Brotherly Love after 
 the council in order to make another collection in 
 behalf of his cathedral and diocese. No doubt either, 
 the editor of the Catholic Herald received authoritative 
 word to print the following notice in his paper: 
 
 The Right Rev. Dr. Miles, Bishop of Nashville, preached at 
 St. Mary’s Church on Sunday last, after which a collection was 
 taken up in aid of his diocess, which is in a very impoverished 
 state, owing to the limited number of Catholics resident there, 
 and the manner in which they are scattered throughout the diocess. 
 Their zeal is in every way commendable; but, situated as they are, 
 they cannot render that zeal as effective as the pressing wants of | 
 the diocess imperatively demand. 
 
 Bishop Miles feelingly enumerated some of the many privations 
 under which he has labored since he took charge of his diocess, 
 the arduous duties of which he was obliged for a time to discharge 
 himself, there being not a single clergyman to assist him in the 
 many calls appertaining to his sacred office. We sincerely hope 
 that his mission among us and our fellow Catholics of the neigh- 
 boring cities may meet with that complete success which he so 
 well merits, and to which his cause is so eminently entitled.°° 
 
 From Philadelphia he is said to have continued his 
 way to New York for the same purpose. Perhaps 
 Bishop Hughes wished, in this way, to make some sort 
 of amende honorable for taking Father McAleer from 
 Tennessee. Tradition informs us that the Nashville 
 prelate was well repaid for these journeys. Similarly, 
 the Right Rev. John J. Chanche of Natchez writes to 
 Doctor Blanc, July 16, 1846: “I left Bishop Miles in 
 the north making very successful collections.” °° 
 
 During his absence, his beloved Saint Mary’s 
 Academy closed its fourth year of successful ‘work 
 with an examination which was considered the best 
 
 35 Herald, June 18, 1846. 
 36 Notre Dame Archives. 
 
LOSSES AND GAINS 415 
 
 thing of the kind that Nashville had hitherto witnessed. 
 The elite of the city were present. Father Maguire 
 again conducted the exercises. Governor Aaron V. 
 Brown addressed the graduates, and gave them their 
 diplomas. The noted geologist and chemist, Doctor 
 Gerard Troost, complimented the day’s exhibition in 
 terms not a little eulogistic; while the public press was 
 unsparing in its praise of the sisters and their school. 
 The Advocate’s contributor who gives us this infor- 
 mation closes his article with: “The venerable Bishop 
 Miles is expected home in a few days from the North. 
 The Cathedral will be completed by Christmas. Our 
 congregation is increasing very fast. Our city is very 
 healthy, and is improving rapidly.” ** 
 
 But the holy prelate had hardly reached home, when 
 he learned that Father John Maguire had also decided 
 to leave Tennessee. The loss of three missionaries in 
 so short a time, as was but natural, sorely tried the 
 bishop’s patience. Father Maguire’s action, although 
 he was within his rights as such things then went, pro- 
 voked Bishop Miles all the more because in him the 
 diocese lost not only one of its most efficient priests, 
 but even the one who had charge of its best parish, and 
 to whom many favors had been shown. At first it was 
 thought that he went to Ohio. Two letters of the 
 bishop to Doctor Purcell, in which the matter is referred 
 to, at once reveal the wounded feelings of 'Tennessee’s 
 apostle, and come nearer to being severe and critical 
 in judgment than any other we have seen from his pen.** 
 
 37 Catholic Advocate, July 20, 1846. The article is dated July 20, and 
 is signed “M. S. M.” Doubtless work on the cathedral was slackened 
 for want of funds, for it was not completed for nearly a year later. 
 
 38 Bishop Miles to Bishop Purcell, August 28 and September 8 (‘‘Feast 
 of the Nativity B. V. M.’”), 1846 (Notre Dame Archives). 
 
416 THE FATHER OF THE CHURCH- IN TENNESSEE 
 
 However, it would perhaps be as unjust to censure the 
 capable, zealous, and energetic priest’s determination, 
 as it would be wrong to blame Bishop Miles, had he 
 momentarily lost his temper under the circumstances. 
 
 An educated man himself, Father Maguire seems 
 to have felt that he would like to try his hand at teaching 
 for a while, and so to have turned his mind to Kentucky, 
 instead of to Ohio. At the end of the scholastic year 
 of 1845-1846, the Jesuit Fathers gave up Saint Mary’s 
 College in the former state. He knew that Bishop 
 Chabrat and others did not wish to see the college 
 closed. Consequently he must have offered himself 
 for this good work, for the Catholic Advocate of 
 
 December 19, 1846, announces: 
 
 It will be gratifying to the patrons of St. Mary’s College to 
 learn that the talented Rev. J. Maguire, so favorably known in 
 Kentucky and elsewhere, has associated himself to Rev. J[ulian] 
 Delaune in the management of this flourishing institution, where 
 he will discharge the duties of professor.2®? We are informed that 
 the daily increase of students has already secured a fair prospect 
 of prosperity and usefulness to the college, and we may with 
 confidence recommend it to parents who are anxious to give their 
 children a good and sound education. The second session will 
 begin on the 12th of March, 1847.4° 
 
 Father Thomas L. Grace seems to have been sent 
 to Memphis that he might help there while Father 
 
 39 Father Delaune was brought from the Diocese of. Vincennes. 
 
 40 Father John D. Maguire was born in County Cavan, Ireland. 
 His early education was directed by his Uncle, the Right Rev. George 
 J. Browne, bishop first of Galway, and then of Elphin. Father Maguire 
 completed his course of divinity at Mount Saint Mary’s, Emmitsburg, 
 where he seems to have been ordained by Bishop Miles in May, 1840. 
 He was a man of scholarly attainments and a splendid ‘orator. During 
 the scholastic year of 1847-1848 he was vice president of Saint Mary’s 
 College, Kentucky. From the fall of 1848 to that of 1850, he held the 
 position of president in the same institution, and continued teaching 
 there until 1851. Shortly before he left Tennessee, a younger brother 
 
LOSSES AND GAINS 417 
 
 McAleer was at the Baltimore council. But now, at 
 the earnest solicitation of Bishop Miles for help, he was 
 transferred from Saint Rose’s, in Kentucky, where he 
 held the posts of professor and subprior, and stationed 
 at Saint Peter’s.** 
 
 Our tireless prelate continued his labors on the 
 missions, no less than with his cathedral. August 28, 
 1846, he wrote to Bishop Purcell to learn if he could 
 rely on John Koehneke of Cincinnati to build a good 
 organ for him.* A little later, he started on a diocesan 
 visitation, especially in western Tennessee. Perhaps, 
 in fact, we can not close the present chapter in a 
 manner more acceptable to the Catholics of Memphis 
 than with the account of the dedication of their first 
 church given in the Catholic Advocate of December 
 19, 1846, which states: 
 
 whom he had brought from Ireland to study for the American missions 
 died at Mount Saint Mary’s, Emmitsburg. From 1851 to 1854 he was 
 pastor of Saint Peter’s, Lexington, Kentucky, where he built the first 
 Catholic school erected in that city. In 1854 and 1855, he was pastor 
 of Saint Peter’s, Newport, Kentucky. The Almanac of 1856 shows him 
 pastor of the cathedral in Chicago. The Catholic Telegraph of June 29, 
 1910, says that he was for a while at Notre Dame University; but as 
 the records of that institution do not reveal his name, it is probable 
 that this error was occasioned by the fact that Saint Mary’s College, Ken- 
 tucky, was under the Fathers of the Holy Cross late in 1846 (Catholic 
 Almanac, 1847, p. 128; Le Trés Rév. Pére Basile-Antoine-Marie Moreau, 
 pp. 194-195). Father Maguire was likely with them there for a while. 
 
 From Chicago, it would seem, he returned to Ireland because of the 
 ill health of his uncle, Bishop Browne, who died on December 1, 1858. 
 A few years later, the talented young priest (he was only in his early 
 forties) died in Egypt while on a tour for literary purposes. 
 
 41 Father McAleer’s last baptismal record at Memphis is dated April 
 7, 1846. Father Grace records for the first time on April 14, 1846, and 
 a few times in May. From the fall of the same year he records regularly. 
 On November 17, 1846, Father Alemany signs himself “vice pastor.” 
 
 42 Notre Dame Archives. 
 
 28 
 
418 THE FATHER OF THE CHURCH IN TENNESSEE 
 
 We learn from a gentleman recently from Memphis that on 
 Sunday, the 22nd of November, the beautiful Catholic Church 
 at that place, recently erected by the Rev. Michael McAleer, 
 and now under the pastoral care of the Rev. Messrs. Alemany 
 and Grace, O.S.D., was solemnly dedicated to the service of 
 Almighty God, under the patronage of St. Peter, by the Right 
 Rev. R. P. Miles, assisted by the Rev. Geo. Wilson, Provincial of 
 the Order of Dominicans, with the Pastors of the congregation. 
 The day was beautiful, and the church was crowded to overflowing. 
 The Rev. Mr. Wilson sung High Mass, and the Bishop delivered 
 a very eloquent and appropriate sermon on the occasion. 
 
 In the afternoon of the same day Vespers were sung, and the 
 Sacrament of Confirmation was administered by the bishop to about 
 forty persons, several of whom were recent converts. The whole 
 service of the day, being conducted according to the manner 
 prescribed by the ritual, made a most striking and favorable im- 
 pression upon the minds of the large and respectable audience, a 
 majority of whom were Protestants, and who had never previously 
 witnessed anything of the kind. 
 
 A small belfry, instead of a spire, crowned the church. 
 Doubtless one of the reasons for this change was the 
 difficulty of getting money. Indeed, the erection of the 
 edifice itself had been a slow, tedious process; and it 
 was used for divine service long before completion. 
 By this time also, the pastors could see that it were 
 unwise to spend much in ornamentation, for the influx 
 of Catholics was such that a larger temple of prayer 
 would soon be required to accommodate them. 
 
CHAPTER XVIII 
 PROGRESS SLOW, BUT STEADY 
 
 No doubt the reader has wondered how Bishop Miles 
 managed to make both ends meet with so small an 
 income. One of the explanations of this feat is the 
 simple life led by himself and his priests. Father 
 Samuel Montgomery, who had shown no little skill in 
 the management of such affairs while syndic at Saint 
 Rose’s, was appointed steward of the episcopal house- 
 hold; and his meager book of accounts which has happily 
 escaped the ravages of time reveals the rigid economy 
 practised there. Only necessaries were purchased; 
 nothing was wasted.” Nevertheless at no time was the 
 holy prelate’s hand closed to the poor. In fact, he 
 sought in every way to aid the honest and deserving, 
 whatever their color, nationality, or creed. This plain, 
 frugal life and impartial charity united with his other 
 virtues to make him so justly and universally beloved. 
 
 The experience of the bishop during the period just 
 recounted convinced him that he could not with safety 
 rely on the perseverance of freer priests in his diocese, 
 be they ever so zealous and unselfish. Their privations 
 in ‘Tennessee were such that they could hardly be 
 expected to decline better opportunities offered them 
 in other places. After the departure of Fathers 
 McAleer and Maguire, therefore, the man of God 
 
 1 Archives of Saint Joseph’s Province. 
 
 419 
 
420 THE FATHER OF THE CHURCH IN TENNESSEE 
 
 determined to proffer Memphis to a religious order. 
 Naturally, his preference was the institute to which 
 he had belonged; for, apart from other reasons, two 
 of its members were already in the city. 
 
 Doubtless the tender was made in November, 1846, 
 while the bishop was in Memphis for the dedication of 
 Saint Peter’s. At any rate, the church property there 
 was deeded over to the Dominicans on January 15, 
 1847. We have discovered no statement to that effect; 
 yet it is quite probable that the zealous prelate was 
 in the city on another apostolic visitation at the time 
 of the transfer, even though such a tour then involved 
 more time as well as infinitely more trials and fatigue 
 than a journey from Memphis to New York in our 
 day. It goes without saying that the offer was readily 
 accepted. Besides, the arrangement was no less bene- 
 ficial to the diocese than helpful to the Province of 
 Saint Joseph. On the one hand, it assured a suc- 
 cession of priests in western ‘Tennessee. On the other 
 it gave the fathers the best place which they had so far 
 obtained, though the province had been in existence 
 for forty years, and none in the country had labored 
 harder than they.’ 
 
 Because of his age and infirmities, Bishop Flaget 
 had placed the administration of his diocese into the 
 hands of his coadjutor, Doctor Chabrat. In 1847, this 
 
 2A photostat copy of the deed. Father Martin P. Spalding’s notes 
 on the province say that Saint Peter’s was given to the Order in 1845. 
 But we found no record to that effect; and the facts in the case show 
 the statement to be erroneous. Doubtless Father Spalding drew his con- 
 clusion from the presence of Father Alemany in Memphis at that time 
 (or depended on papers which made the same statement on the same 
 
 grounds). Father McAleer was pastor of Saint Peter’s until his resig- 
 nation at the council of Baltimore, in May, 1846. 
 
PROGRESS SLOW, BUT STEADY 421 
 
 prelate determined to make a visitation of the parishes 
 of Kentucky in order to help the people the better to 
 make the general jubilee which was celebrated that 
 year. But while thus occupied he suffered a renewed 
 attack of an ocular malady which had long threatened 
 him with blindness. He then determined to go to 
 Europe for treatment, and engaged the ever-willing 
 _ Bishop Miles to complete the visitation of the diocese.* 
 
 In this way the subject of our narrative spent a 
 considerable portion of the jubilee year in Kentucky. 
 From about the middle of June to the middle of July, 
 he labored in Spencer, Nelson, Washington, and 
 Marion counties. Among the places visited were 
 Taylorsville, Fairfield, Saint Vincent’s, Bardstown, 
 New Haven, Gate’s Station, Saint Rose’s, and Holy 
 Cross, and the academies of Nazareth, Lorretto, Geth- 
 semani (where now stands Kentucky’s celebrated 
 Trappist monastery), and Saint Magdalen’s (the 
 present Saint Catherine’s). On all these occasions, he 
 preached and administered the sacrament of confir- 
 mation. “His discourses,” says the Advocate, “made a 
 very favorable and beneficial impression.” On Monday 
 morning, July 12, he blessed and laid the corner-stone 
 of Saint Magdalen’s new chapel belonging to the 
 Dominican Sisters, near Springfield.* 
 
 At this juncture, he was obliged to return to his 
 own diocese, but he promised to return to Kentucky 
 that he might carry out his engagement with Bishop 
 Chabrat to make visitations in Breckinridge, Hardin, 
 Daviess, Union, and other western counties.? That 
 
 3 Advocate, May 29, 1847. 
 
 4 Advocate, July 24, 1847. 
 5 Advocates of May 29 and July 24, 1847. 
 
422 THE FATHER OF THE CHURCH IN TENNESSEE 
 
 he did so, if at all possible, we may take for granted, 
 although we did not discover any account of his 
 labors in these places; for there never lived a man 
 truer to his word than was the Father of the Church 
 in Tennessee. However, these toils in Kentucky, the 
 fulfillment of the jubilee in his own diocese, work on 
 his own cathedral, and other cares must have given 
 him a busy year.® August 18, 1847, he sent an account 
 of his diocese to the Propaganda, the substance of which 
 is as follows. 
 
 Although it is ten years since his appointment to 
 the See of Nashville, he has been bishop only nine, for 
 a year elapsed before he accepted the dreaded burden. 
 During this time, the Catholic religion has made little 
 progress in the diocese in comparison with its rapid 
 
 strides in other parts of the country. However, in view 
 of the long neglect of Tennessee; the deep root taken 
 
 there by infidelity, no less than a strong dislike towards 
 and wide-spread prejudices against Catholicity which 
 gained ground as a consequence of this neglect; and the 
 fact that the state offers few advantages to immigrants 
 from Europe, he thinks it no exaggeration to say that 
 much good has been accomplished. 
 
 A decade ago, there was not a single priest in the 
 state. Even in 1840 he had but one little church; 
 while, with the exception of Nashville and on the 
 public works at Memphis and Athens, there were not 
 more than ten Catholics in any locality. The total 
 number did not exceed three or four hundred. ‘Today 
 there are six priests, six churches, three chapels, a 
 
 6 The Advocates of September 11 and 25, 1847, show that Bishop Cha- 
 brat’s resignation of his coadjutorship (made on account of his health) 
 
 was accepted at this time; but this made no difference in regard to Bishop 
 Miles’ visitation, for he would just as readily do it for Bishop Flaget. 
 
PROGRESS SLOW, BUT STEADY 423 
 
 convent of Sisters of Charity who conduct a school and 
 academy for girls, a free school for negroes, and a 
 Catholic population of some fifteen hundred. Our holy 
 faith is continually preached in places where a priest 
 was never heard before. Not more than eighty-five 
 adults have been received into the Church since he took 
 charge of the diocese; but the number of conversions 
 assumes a greater proportion year by year, which gives 
 hope for a more abundant harvest in the future.‘ 
 
 This frank, open exposition of the state of his diocese, 
 without pretense, and without effort to cover up the 
 slow growth of religion in that part of the Lord’s 
 vineyard under his charge, must have pleased the sacred 
 congregation. If one may judge by the reports of 
 conversions here and there, the account rather lessened 
 than enlarged the number of those who had come into 
 the Church. Doubtless it was due to his many cares at 
 the time that he overlooked the little seminary, the two 
 schools for Catholic boys, and the cathedral that was 
 nearing completion. On September 10, 1847, he wrote 
 to Bishop Purcell in regard to this last item: 
 
 I have at length so far advanced with my church as to have 
 reason to hope that it will be ready for dedication on the last 
 Sunday of October, and have set that time for it. May I indulge 
 the hope of having your company on that occasion? I shall be 
 truly gratified if you can do me that favour. As our church is 
 not paid for, it will only be blessed for the present. If you will 
 honour us with your presence on that occasion, we shall expect 
 you to preach the dedication sermon. The organ intended for 
 our church is being built in your city. I hope that good Dutchman 
 will not disappoint us.® 
 
 7A copy in the Nashville Archives from the Propaganda, Udienza di 
 Signore Nostro del 1847, Vol. 107, fol. 1248. 
 8 Notre Dame Archives. 
 
424 THE FATHER OF THE CHURCH IN TENNESSEE 
 
 The time between the date of this letter and the end 
 of October was no doubt well filled in with episcopal 
 visitations in Kentucky and his own diocese. However, 
 work on the cathedral progressed as he anticipated; 
 for the Nashville Daily Union of November 3, 1847, 
 says: “On Sunday, the 31st ultimo, a large body of our 
 fellow-citizens witnessed a novel and imposing spec- 
 tacle—the dedication of the new Catholic Cathedral, 
 just completed. This beautiful edifice, situated on the 
 eorner of Cedar and Summer streets, is an ornament to 
 our city.” Then follows a description of the church 
 and ceremonies, but we prefer that contained in the 
 Catholic Advocate of November 20. Yet we must not 
 omit the statement of the Union that the cathedral 
 “reflects credit upon its architect’’, and that “Dr. Miles 
 deserves much praise for his taste and enterprise in 
 decorating our city with this additional architectural! 
 monument.” 
 
 The new Cathedral of Nashville [ says the Advocate of November 
 20, 1847] was dedicated to Almighty God on the 31st ultimo under 
 the name and patronage of the Blessed Virgin of the Seven Dolors. 
 It is a chaste and beautiful specimen of Grecian architecture, and 
 is situated in the heart of the city. Its external dimensions are 
 one hundred and ten feet in length by sixty in breadth. The 
 ceiling is thirty-two feet above the floor; it is flat, and is taste- 
 fully decorated with mouldings and square panel work. The 
 front presents a neat half portico supported by two fine Ionic 
 columns; and the entire exterior and interior of the edifice are 
 ornamented with pilasters placed at suitable distances, imparting 
 additional strength to the walls. 
 
 Under the Cathedral there is a spacious and commodious base- 
 ment designed for catechism classes and school rooms. The high 
 altar stands in a semicircular recess, and is surmounted by an 
 appropriate group of statuary representing the Most Sorrowful 
 Mother receiving the lifeless body of her dear son when He was 
 
PROGRESS SLOW, BUT STEADY 425 
 
 taken down from the cross, these principal figures being surrounded 
 by a circle of angels. The figures are composed of what is called 
 sand-stone paper, and the whole group was procured in France. 
 
 The cost of the structure, the Advocate proceeds to 
 state, was at least $30,000, which were collected by 
 Bishop Miles not merely in Nashville, but also in many 
 parts of the United States. Because a considerable 
 debt still remains on the cathedral, it could be only 
 blessed; but the worthy bishop hopes to have it conse- 
 erated at a future day. The man of God himself 
 performed the solemn ceremony of dedication, during 
 which Bishop Purcell explained from a platform the 
 significance of all that was done. Bishop Portier of 
 Mobile then sang a solemn high mass, and Doctor M. 
 J. Spalding delivered the sermon for the occasion. 
 Among the clergy present was Father Elisha J. Durbin 
 who doubtless came to witness the consummation for 
 which he had often prayed. Bishop Purcell preached 
 again in the evening. Both the Advocate and the 
 Union assure us that great crowds witnessed the cere- 
 mony, and listened to the preaching with rapt attention. 
 
 Doctor Spalding was persuaded to remain another 
 week at Nashville, and to lecture every night on religion 
 or some point of Catholic faith. The impression which 
 he produced was profound. Indeed, says the corres- 
 pondent, “the progress of our holy religion in the 
 Diocese of Nashville cannot but be consoling to every 
 Catholic heart.” Then he proceeds to relate the early 
 trials which the man of God had to face, to tell what 
 he had accomplished in spite of almost unparalleled 
 difficulties, and to speak of the “excellent and well- 
 selected ecclesiastical library” which he had collected, 
 closing his article with these words: “All this he has 
 
426 THE FATHER OF THE CHURCH IN TENNESSEE 
 
 been able to effect, through the divine blessing, with 
 the most scanty means. ‘Thus has one of the most 
 unpromising fields in the American Church been made 
 to yield an abundant harvest.” 
 
 Another item which deserves notice here appeared 
 in the previous issue of the Advocate. Here we learn 
 that on the day after the dedication Bishop Purcell 
 confirmed a class of twenty-two in the new cathedral, 
 fourteen of whom were converts. Besides these, there 
 were four others who had lately been received into the 
 Church, but had not had time to prepare for the recep- 
 tion of the sacrament.’ From this one may see how 
 modest Doctor Miles was in the account of his diocese 
 which he sent to Rome. Possibly he meant to say that 
 there had been eighty-five converts in the episcopal city, 
 where, the Advocate’s notice of the dedication assures 
 us, the Catholics now numbered some eight hundred. 
 
 The Seven Dolors Cathedral, all things considered, 
 was really a noteworthy achievement; and it was so 
 considered at the time. Its cost, said by some to have 
 been from $40,000 to $50,000, represented a huge sum 
 for that day; yet there were not more than fifteen hun- 
 dred Catholics in all Tennessee, who were poor as well 
 as scattered throughout the state. Hven now Nashville 
 has not a more beautiful or devotional church. 
 William Strickland, an architect of no mean reputation 
 and the builder of Tennessee’s state capitol, is reported 
 to have considered it his finest ecclesiastical structure.” 
 
 Bishop Miles himself was certainly well pleased with 
 
 9 Advocate, November 13, 1847. The publication of the account of the 
 dedication was delayed through a mishap in the mails, which caused this 
 item to appear before it. 
 
 10 The Tennessee state capitol, minus the cupola which is not a con- 
 ception of Strickland, is considered a gem of Greek architecture. 
 

 
 INTERIOR AND EXTERIOR OF THE SEVEN DOLORS CATHEDRAL 
 
 BUILT BY BISHOP MILES, STILL ONE OF NASHVILLE’S FINEST CHURCHES, 
 AND REGARDED AS A SHRINE BY ITS CATHOLICS 
 

 
PROGRESS SLOW, BUT STEADY 427 
 
 it, while its beneficial effects soon became evident. In 
 a letter to Bishop Purcell, December 9, 1847, he writes: 
 “We are much gratified to see a fine congregation in 
 our new church every Sunday. And there are fine 
 prospects of increase, which, though slow, will be steady. 
 Sit nomen Domini benedictum! [ Blessed be the name of 
 the Lord!] Be kind enough to beg of God to aid our 
 feeble efforts.” ‘T'wo other letters, of dates respectively 
 January 21 and February 3, 1848, to Doctor Purcell 
 show that our anxious prelate’s heart had been glad- 
 dened by the reception of a beautiful madonna for his 
 cathedral.” 
 
 In Memphis also Fathers Alemany and Grace had 
 started a ladies’ altar society for the beautification of 
 the house of God, whose labors soon bore good fruit. 
 The deft fingers of its members wrought vestments 
 for the clergy and articles, useful as well as ornamen- 
 tal, for the altar and sanctuary. Among the note- 
 worthy things which they did was to have a crucifixion 
 painted by the well-known Tennessee artist, William 
 Cooper. This picture long hung over the high altar, 
 and was an object of general admiration. In October, 
 1847, they held a bazaar in Hightower Hall to raise 
 funds for the purchase of a large bell for the church.” 
 Father Alemany, however, was soon made master of 
 novices in Kentucky. Father James Hyacinth Clark- 
 son, a friend of the bishop, took his place as pastor of 
 Saint Peter’s.”* 
 
 The Memphis parish, in fact, was now fast overtaking 
 
 11 All these letters are in the Notre Dame Archives. 
 
 12 Advocate, November 6, 1847, and January 22, 1848. 
 
 13 Father Alemany’s last baptism at Saint Peter’s was on November 
 27, and Father Clarkson’s first on December 15, 1847. 
 
428 THE FATHER OF THE CHURCH IN TENNESSEE 
 
 that of Nashville. While on a visitation of the western 
 part of his diocese, Bishop Miles administered confir- 
 mation there, February 27, 1848, to a class of twenty- 
 four, three of whom were converts. In an interesting 
 account of the event the correspondent of the 4dvocate 
 
 states: 
 
 Our congregation is rapidly increasing. ‘The number is now at 
 least seven hundred. In general intelligence and respectability 
 we compare favorably with any other class of our citizens. Many 
 of the most worthy of the Protestants attend regularly at our 
 church, and evince great liberality on all occasions. Though few 
 converts have as yet been made, we trust the good seed that is 
 sown will, in due time, fructify and produce a hundred fold. 
 
 Hardly had the bishop reached home when he was 
 rejoiced by the arrival of an Italian priest who soon 
 proved one of the most zealous and _ self-sacrificing 
 missionaries of ‘Tennessee—Father Aloysius Orengo, 
 O.P.” After the departure of the Rev. John Maguire, 
 Father Schacht had been brought from Clarksville to 
 Nashville.*° On the return of the bishop, pursuant to 
 his desire of having the scattered Catholics visited as 
 frequently as possible, he sent the Belgian priest on 
 a tour of the eastern part of the state. It was a hard 
 journey. Because the streams were much swollen by 
 rains, Father Schacht had not merely to cross mountains 
 by the roughest roads; in nearly every instance he was 
 obliged to make his horse swim the rivers. However, 
 
 14 Advocate of March 18, 1848. The article is dated March 5, and 
 ify a fare Bite d FN ase 
 
 15 Father Orengo wrote on the title-page of a Gury’s Theologia Moralis 
 that he arrived in Nashville on March 24, 1847; but this was written long 
 after, when he had forgotten the year. The baptismal records at Saint 
 Rose’s, Kentucky, show that he was there until in February, 1848. His 
 
 first record at Nashville is dated March 26, 1848. 
 16 Catholic Almanac, 1847, p. 134. 
 
PROGRESS SLOW, BUT STEADY 429 
 
 he continued his way, searching in every direction for 
 those who might be of the faith. 
 
 In Morgan County, the first place he mentions, the 
 colony of Germans and Irish, who had gathered there 
 largely through the instrumentality of Bishop Miles, 
 was visited, and found to be on the increase. The 
 agent of the land company gave a bond for fifty acres 
 of ground which were to be set apart for a priest, and 
 donated a lot in Wartburg for a church and school, 
 the latter of which the Catholics engaged to build in the 
 near future. Thence the missionary journeyed south- 
 ward to Tellico Plains, at the foot of the Unaka or 
 Great Smoky Mountains, Monroe County, where he 
 discovered about thirty Catholic emigrants from Hol- 
 land. Here Judge Johnson, for whom most of the 
 Hollanders labored, deeded to the bishop two acres of 
 land near the iron works for a church. The Bayer 
 Settlement, Polk County, was visited next; and while 
 there our ambassador of Christ went to a neighboring 
 village occupied by a remnant of the Cherokee Indians. 
 
 Father Schacht does not appear to have gone to 
 Knoxville or Jonesborough, for he does not mention 
 them by name, while his route lay rather in another 
 direction. However, he tells us that, with the exception 
 of an Italian and a Frenchman, all the Catholics he 
 met eagerly availed themselves of the opportunity of 
 approaching the sacraments. He rode seven hundred 
 miles on the tour, and reached home shortly before 
 Easter, which fell that year on the twenty-third day 
 of April.“ 
 
 Meanwhile, Bishop Miles decided to convert the old 
 
 17 Advocate, June 24, 1848. The article is dated June 15, and signed 
 “Verax,’ a pseudonym under which Father Schacht often wrote. 
 
430 THE FATHER OF THE CHURCH IN TENNESSEE 
 
 Holy Rosary Cathedral, which faced north on Gay 
 Street, into a hospital and girls’ orphan asylum. This 
 task was entrusted to Father Schacht immediately 
 after his return from the missionary journey just out- 
 lined. The project met with a warm welcome from 
 all the city. “Above all,” says Father Schacht, “my 
 Irishmen proved again, what needed no longer any 
 proof, that they are always by the side of their priest 
 in works of benevolence and charity. It was not so 
 much the labor itself, but the spirit in which they 
 performed it, that cheered me most.” In an astonish- 
 ingly short time both institutions were in operation. 
 They were placed under the charge of the Sisters of 
 Charity, and effected much good in Nashville— 
 especially among the poorer and middle classes.*° 
 
 In the remodeling of the proto-cathedral for a 
 hospital the new front given the structure made it face 
 towards the east. Its number was then 63 North 
 High Street. Simultaneously with this renovation 
 Father Schacht either erected a frame cottage on the 
 same plot of ground for the sisters in charge, or con- 
 verted the original wooden church into a home for 
 them. Very likely the smaller orphans at least were 
 domiciled in this with their pious guardians.” 
 
 Among the matters in which Bishop Miles took a 
 keen interest at this time was the appointment of 
 Doctor Spalding as coadjutor of Louisville. It had 
 
 18 4dvocate of April 22, 1848; June 24, 1848; and January 20, 1849 
 (this letter is also signed “Verax,” and is dated January 12); and the 
 Nashville Republican Banner, January 5, 1849. 
 
 19 The Nashville Directory (by John P. Campbell), 1853-1854; 1855- 
 1856; 1857. The stretch of High Street towards which these buildings 
 fronted is now called “Park.” The land on which they stood forms a 
 
 part of the state-capitol grounds, and is no longer occupied by any 
 structures except the state-house. 
 
PROGRESS SLOW, BUT STEADY 431 
 
 been understood that the learned divine had received the 
 appointment, but opposition on the part of some caused 
 it to be held in abeyance. Uneasy because of the delay, 
 
 our Nashville prelate wrote to Bishop Purcell: 
 
 What has become of Dr. Spalding? I had received information 
 from him sometime since that the Coadjutorship of Louisville has 
 been conferred on him, and that he was going to Cincinnati to 
 make a retreat in order to decide whether he would accept or not. 
 I have not had a word from him directly or indirectly for a month, 
 and fear some mistake has been made as to the nomination. Could 
 you give me any information on the subject??? 
 
 A little later, he took a journey to the east, perhaps 
 as much in the interest of his friend as in that of his 
 own diocese. From Baltimore he wrote to Doctor 
 Spalding to tell him how kindly he was received by 
 Archbishop Eccleston who immediately introduced 
 the question of the Louisville coadjutorship, and told 
 him that Bishop Flaget had now agreed to leave the 
 matter to the metropolitan and Bishop F. P. Kenrick 
 of Philadelphia. Then he adds: 
 
 It is now pretty well understood here that the Bulls for your 
 nomination have, through misrepresentation, either not been 
 issued, or have been suppressed, and consequently the matter stands 
 in statu quo, and will remain so till the Archbishop’s letter reaches 
 Rome—which, I trust, will put a final quietus to this disgraceful 
 affair. ... I need not exhort you to patience, nor tell you how 
 solicitous I feel in your regard; but I may say that all your 
 friends are doubly so since the injustice and ill treatment you 
 have suffered have come to their knowledge. I hope your health 
 will have been much improved ere this reaches you; and it is my 
 sincerest wish that Kentucky may be represented in our next 
 Provincial Council by one of her own sons, even if her Foreign 
 Ally should be doomed to immoderate regret in consequence”! 
 
 Four months later, the subject of our narrative had 
 
 20 Notre Dame Archives. Letter dated March 30, 1848. 
 21 Baltimore Archives, Case 35,18. Letter dated May 23, 1848. 
 
432 THE FATHER OF THE CHURCH IN TENNESSEE 
 
 the satisfaction of assisting at the consecration of 
 Doctor Spalding in the cathedral of Louisville. Ven- 
 erable Bishop Flaget performed the ceremony on 
 September 10, 1848. Bishop F. P. Kenrick was the 
 other assistant, while Archbishop Peter R. Kenrick 
 of Saint Louis preached the sermon.” 'The ceremonies 
 have always been considered among the most interesting 
 ever witnessed in Kentucky. 
 
 January 14, 1849, the Father of the Church in Ten- 
 nessee consecrated Father Maurice De St. Palais 
 bishop of Vincennes in the old French town from which 
 the see took its name. He and Doctor Spalding were 
 the only prelates who had the courage to face the awful 
 weather in order to be present at this ceremony. 
 Spalding, therefore, not only acted as assistant conse- 
 crator, but also preached, the other assistant being the 
 Rev. Hippolytus Dupontavice. The Vincennes cor- 
 respondent of the Advocate thanks Bishops Miles and 
 Spalding for heroicly braving the tempestuous time, 
 states that the ceremony “was admirably performed by 
 the very dignified Consecrator,’ and thus closes his 
 account of the event: “The venerable Consecrator must 
 indeed have ranked that day among the happiest of 
 his life. Our Bishop is joined by his flock in wishing 
 him ad multos annos.” *° 
 
 The Saint John’s Hospital and Orphan Asylum had 
 been put in operation the previous October. Prior to 
 starting for Vincennes, the bishop had decided to hold 
 a supper for the liquidation of the debt which still 
 remained on the establishment. This took place in 
 Masonic Hall, January 9, 1849, during the holy man’s 
 
 22 Advocate, September 16, 1848. 
 23 Advocate, January 27, 1849, 
 
PROGRESS SLOW, BUT STEADY 433 
 
 absence. JT‘ather Schacht, who managed the affair, 
 writes of it: “If our good Bishop had been at home, he 
 would have been agreeably convinced that his labors 
 here have not been in vain. No doubt he never 
 expected, ten years ago, that such a change would take 
 place in Nashville.” Catholicity, he proceeds to say, 
 is making great strides in the city. On All Saints’ 
 Day one hundred and twenty-four persons received 
 holy communion, while at least two hundred approached 
 the sacraments at Christmas. In Memphis also, where 
 the bishop had sent him to assist the Germans the week 
 before advent, he was “surprised and delighted” at the 
 rapid progress of the true religion, no less than at the 
 respect which he found the Church to enjoy in the pros- 
 perous town. About affairs there he also writes: 
 
 Much credit is due to the zeal and talents of the Dominican 
 Fathers of Memphis. Through their endeavors, under God, the 
 Church is taking a stand worthy of herself, and practical religion 
 is decidedly on the increase; for the good example of religious 
 orders has always a good effect on the congregation. At early 
 mass on Sundays the church was nearly filled, and entirely so at 
 high mass. Many of the attendants were Protestants, but their 
 religious demeanor proved at once that they came to learn, and not 
 to cavil. Indeed, the church appeared far too small to accommodate 
 the people.*4 
 
 Hardly had Bishop Miles returned from Indiana, 
 when he was obliged to start for Saint Louis that he 
 might be present at the consecration of Father James 
 O. Van De Velde, S.J., as the second bishop of Chicago. 
 This event took place in the Church of Saint Francis 
 Xavier, attached to Saint Louis University, February 
 11, 1849. The Most Rev. R. P. Kenrick performed 
 the ceremony, in which he was assisted by Bishops 
 
 24 Advocate, January 20, 1849, as in note 18. 
 29 
 
434 THE FATHER OF THE CHURCH IN TENNESSEE 
 
 Miles and Loras. Doctor Spalding preached for the 
 occasion.~” Scarcely had he settled down to his work 
 again, when the tireless prelate received notification 
 of the seventh provincial council of Baltimore which 
 was to convene in early May. 
 
 To Bishop Purcell he wrote, April 9, 1849, that he 
 hoped to leave Nashville on the sixteenth, and to be in 
 Cincinnati on the following Friday or Saturday, and 
 that he would stay over Sunday in that city. “I must 
 then [he continues] allow myself a week to visit my 
 brethren and old parishioners about Somerset and 
 Zanesville. After which I shall, I hope, be able to 
 meet you at Wheeling on the Wednesday following.” *® 
 That he carried out this design is evident from the 
 fact that he gave confirmation at the church of the 
 Jesuit Fathers in Cincinnati on Sunday, April 22.77 
 The vote of the council in favor of a definition of the 
 doctrine of the Immaculate Conception pleased his 
 piety, while its petition for the creation of three arch- 
 dioceses, the erection of several new sees, and the 
 establishment of two vicariates apostolic gladdened his 
 soul as a further proof of the Church’s growth.” 
 
 But his frequent absences in order to gratify friends 
 in the hierarchy by his presence at their consecrations 
 caused the man of God to hurry home, where affairs 
 called for his attention. The Catholic Advocate of 
 June 2, 1849, shows that he had passed through 
 
 25 Advocate, February 24, 1849. Telegraph, March 1, 1849. 
 
 26 Notre Dame Archives. 
 
 27 Telegraph, April 26, 1849. 
 
 28 At the request of this council New York, Cincinnati, and New Or- 
 leans were made archbishoprics; the dioceses of Saint Paul, Savannah, and 
 
 Wheeling were erected; and the vicariates apostolic of New Mexico and 
 the Territory East of the Rocky Mountains were established. 
 
PROGRESS SLOW, BUT STEADY 435 
 
 Louisville before it went to press. Soon after he 
 reached Nashville, the city was in the throes of an 
 epidemic of cholera, the ravages of which rent his tender 
 heart as well as gave him a busy summer.” Memphis 
 was still more sorely afflicted; for there smallpox com- 
 bined with cholera to bring gloom to all the town. One 
 of the great sorrows of the bishop’s life was the loss, in 
 this double epidemic, of a saintly, useful, and zealous 
 priest in whose formation he had had a part, Father J. 
 H. Clarkson, pastor of Saint Peter’s, who died on 
 August 25, 1849. Although a scholarly man, the 
 Friar Preacher clothed his attainments with an admi- 
 rable humility, just as he expressed choice thoughts in 
 the simplest English. The Memphis Daily Eagle of 
 August 29, 1849, says of him: 
 
 Rev. Mr. Clarkson was a member of the Order of St. Dominic, 
 but for some time past he had been associated in the pastoral charge 
 of the Catholic Church of this city. He was unwearying in his 
 ministrations, and was greatly beloved by the members of his 
 Church. During the prevalence of the late epidemic, he was con- 
 stant in attendance upon the poor and suffering. At their bedsides, 
 night and day, he stood to speak the promise of a better world; 
 to minister to the minds and hearts of the diseased the healing 
 and purifying lessons and inspirations of a Christian faith; and, 
 in that spirit of religion which is humanity ennobled by the loftiest 
 convictions of duty and the holiest impulses of love, to apply 
 every remedy, and to perform every ministration, no matter how 
 humble or menial, which suffering might crave to have or charity 
 prompt to offer. 
 
 His devoted labors brought on the attack under which he passed 
 from earth, and closed the tasks of the Christian missionary in 
 
 29 The History of the Sisters of Charity of Leavenworth, Kansas (p. 19) 
 says the epidemic of cholera was in 1848. Miss McGill (The Sisters of 
 Charity of Nazareth, Kentucky, p. 115), doubtless following the above 
 book, makes the same statement. But the histories of Nashville and the 
 cathedral records show that it was in 1849. 
 
436 THE FATHER OF THE CHURCH IN TENNESSEE 
 
 the glories of the martyr. What his labors may have accomplished 
 we know not; but we do know that the martyr of charity leaves 
 a noble memory in the quiet beauty of a good man’s life. 
 
 This eulogy is all the more striking because evidently 
 from the hand of the non-Catholic editor of a secular 
 paper; and it thus shows the general esteem, approach- 
 ing veneration, in which the holy priest was held. 
 Another tribute appeared in the Catholic Telegraph 
 
 of September 13, 1849. Here we read: 
 
 The field of his labors up to the time of his coming to 
 Memphis—two years since—were portions of Ohio and Kentucky, 
 where he left a name which will long be cherished and revered. 
 He was of a mild and placid disposition, and possessed good 
 practical sense and a sound judgment. His talents, without 
 being brilliant or showy, were solid and useful. But his leading 
 trait of character was benevolence. He was totally regardless of 
 self when his neighbor’s good, either temporal or spiritual, called 
 for his exertion. This he gave cheerfully, and at any cost of 
 personal sacrifice, or of means within his power. 
 
 His sickness was occasioned in a great measure by exposure 
 and overexertion. For six months our city had been given up to 
 the ravages of pestilence. The Rev. Father Clarkson was fore- 
 most in encountering the destroyer—rescuing the victims when it 
 was possible by medical prescriptions, and, when not, assuaging 
 their pains with his personal attentions and soothing commisera- 
 tien, and with hope-inspiring words. His death has thrown a 
 gloom over our community. The outburst of grief, spontaneous 
 and general, as well among Protestants as among Catholics, with 
 which the intelligence of his demise was received, was but the 
 natural tribute of the heart to known excellence and worth. 
 
 The warning was sudden, and the event followed quick upon 
 the warning. But still there was ample time. When his whole 
 life had been a continual preparation for death, there was little 
 left to be done in those last moments. Fortified with the holy 
 sacraments of religion, and with the benediction of his Order, he 
 met his fate with that confidence and resignation, and with that 
 calmness and composure, which the assurance of a good conscience 
 
PROGRESS SLOW, BUT STEADY 437 
 
 and the retrospect of a well-spent life always produce.®° 
 
 The Telegraph's tribute is not signed. But the 
 internal evidence of style, thought, and spirit, as well 
 as the external evidence of intimate knowledge and 
 close friendship, suggests that its author was none other 
 than Bishop Miles himself. Quite likely he went to 
 Memphis after his friend’s death, and wrote to the 
 Cincinnati paper from there. In any event, true man 
 of God that he was, Father Clarkson could scarcely 
 have asked greater praise from either journal. He 
 was the first priest to die in Memphis. Like many of 
 his successors in the same city, he was a martyr to his 
 zeal and charity. 
 
 There is another fact regarding this holy priest which 
 should be put on record, and no longer left to the mercy 
 of tradition. At first, he was buried in the yard which 
 lay at the side and rear of the original church. Some 
 twelve or fifteen years later, when his body was taken 
 up that it might be laid to rest beneath the sanctuary 
 of the new Saint Peter’s, it was found to be intact. 
 
 30 Father Clarkson was the son of James Henry and Elizabeth (Wor- 
 land) Clarkson, was born in Washington County, Kentucky, in 1812, and 
 was educated partly at Saint Mary’s College, and partly at Saint Rose’s. 
 He received the habit of Saint Dominic at the latter place on August 2, 
 1829, and made his profession on August 5, 1830. There he made his 
 higher studies. He received the tonsure from Bishop Fenwick in Cin- 
 cinnati, Sunday, October 16, 1831, and the minor orders two days later. 
 He was ordained priest by Bishop Flaget or Bishop Chabrat in the spring 
 of 1835, his first baptismal record at Saint Rose’s bearing the date of 
 May 17 that year. In May, 1837, he was sent to Saint Joseph’s, in Ohio, 
 to succeed Bishop Miles as prior, remaining there and on the Ohio missions 
 until the provincial chapter in the fall of 1847, by which he was sent to 
 Memphis. He was a splendid preacher, had a logical mind, and gave much 
 time to the explanation of Catholic doctrine. Some times it has been said 
 that he died of smallpox, and at others that cholera brought on his 
 
 death. The time of the year and other circumstances indicate that it 
 was due to the latter disease. 
 
438 THE FATHER OF THE CHURCH IN TENNESSEE 
 
 God’s servant appeared to be asleep rather than dead. 
 His flesh was as pliable and natural as in life.”* 
 
 But here we must retrace our steps a little in order 
 to gather up a few threads of our narrative which are 
 necessary for a proper perspective of the picture. 
 Saintly Father Louis Hoste, the vicar general, had 
 lived in Nashville from the time of his arrival from 
 France, in 1841. One of his cares there had been the 
 few French Catholics of the city. At first, he lived 
 with the bishop. Later he and Father Montgomery 
 seem to have occupied another house, possibly that 
 which still stands at the side of Saint Mary’s of the 
 Seven Dolors, and which was the cathedral rectory. 
 After the coming of Father Orengo, Father Schacht 
 became pastor of the cathedral. Father Hoste, doubt- 
 less at his own request, went to reside at Saint 
 Michael’s, near ‘Turnersville, Robertson County, where 
 he started a school and a male orphan asylum of which 
 we shall speak later. 
 
 Father Orengo became an itinerant missionary for 
 central Tennessee, who saw little of his home with the 
 bishop at Nashville. Father Jacquet was sent to 
 Chattanooga, whence he looked after all the eastern 
 part of the state until the arrival of the Rev. Edmund 
 Etschmann, O.S.F., sometime in 1849. This worthy 
 son of Saint Francis was stationed at Wartburg, 
 Morgan County, whose German colony Doctor Miles 
 turned over to the care of the Franciscans. Under 
 the same charge came Kingston, Roane County, and 
 
 31 Fathers John A. Bokel, James V. Edelen, and Sydney A. Clarkson 
 (a younger brother) used often to speak of having witnessed this fact. 
 Several old people of Memphis spoke of it to the writer some years ago. 
 
 The tradition of it is still strong in that city and in Saint Joseph’s 
 Province. 
 
PROGRESS SLOW, BUT STEADY 439 
 
 Tellico Plains, Monroe County. Far-off Jonesborough 
 was then attended from Nashville. But like his prede- 
 cessor, the Rev. William Howard, Father Etschmann 
 received all too scant support, and was recalled by his 
 superiors late in 1850 or early in 1851. During the two 
 years that he labored in the diocese he effected much 
 good, for he was a zealous priest of blameless life.” 
 
 In the midst of these changes for the advancement 
 of religion, the heart of ‘Tennessee’s apostle was glad- 
 dened again by the arrival of the Rev. Henry Vincent 
 Brown, a convert priest whom he had himself received 
 into the Church, and sent to Rome for his studies. 
 Father Brown was ordained by the Most Rev. John 
 MacHale, archbishop of ‘Tuam, Ireland, in the chapel 
 of the College of the Propaganda, on Pentecost Sunday, 
 June 11, 1848, and arrived in Nashville late in the 
 year, or early in 1849. It was a happy day for the 
 Church there, for the history of his labors in the state 
 is inseparable from that of the diocese. He was 
 stationed in the episcopal city, but his toils were prin- 
 cipally on the missions.*° 
 
 32 Catholic Almanac, 1847, p. 134; 1848, p. 220; 1849, pp. 115-116; 1850, 
 p. 133; 1851, p. 131. The Almanac places Father Etschmann at Saint 
 John’s, Cincinnati, from 1847 until he went to Tennessee, and again from 
 the time he left the Diocese of Nashville until 1856. From that time 
 to 1862 or 1863 he was at Saint Boniface’s, Louisville, Kentucky, whence 
 he seems to have returned to Europe. He died in Austrian Tyrol, May 21, 
 1890. 
 
 33 Father Brown was born about 1816. His parents were Presbyterians. 
 About 1839, he was engaged as teacher of art at Saint Catherine’s 
 Academy, near Springfield, Kentucky. While there, Father Jarboe con- 
 verted him, but he was baptized by Bishop Miles at Saint Rose’s, April 
 5, 1840. Then he studied at Saint Joseph’s College, Bardstown, whence 
 
 he went to Rome in 1844 or 1845. His first baptism at Nashville is dated 
 February 25, 1849. 
 
440 THE FATHER OF THE CHURCH IN TENNESSEE 
 
 Among the nominations made by the council held 
 at Baltimore was that of Father Charles Pius Mont- 
 gomery, a younger brother of Father Samuel in 
 Nashville, and like him a Friar Preacher. He declined 
 the honor. When Archbishop Eccleston wrote to 
 Bishop Miles to acquaint him of this fact, and to ask for 
 
 suggestions, the subject of our narrative replied: 
 Nashville, April 8, 1850. 
 Most Rev. Archbishop :— 
 
 I regret very much to learn from your late favour that Rev. 
 Mr. Montgomery persists in his refusal of the appointment to the 
 See of Monterey, as I know him to be well fitted for that office. 
 With regard to the Rev. Mr. Grace, although a very worthy and 
 efficient clergyman, I think he is too young, and has not been in 
 orders long enough.*+ This is the only objection that could be 
 made against him. 
 
 At your request, I will take the liberty to propose the names of 
 Very Rev. Joseph Alemany, O.P., who stands second on the list 
 for Santa Fe, and who is sufficiently known for his piety and 
 learning to render any recommendation on my part unnecessary; 
 and the Rev. James M. Lancaster, whom I have known from his 
 childhood, and whom I heartily recommend as one well worthy 
 of the mitre. I am aware that some objections have been made 
 against Mr. Lancaster; but I have never heard of any that, in my 
 estimation, ought to stand in his way on this occasion. I have 
 never heard the most distant hint against his moral character, 
 and know him to be a good, zealous clergyman, and highly 
 esteemed by the congregation he has had charge of. 
 
 Allow me, Most Rev. Archbishop, to thank you for the kindness 
 expressed in your letter, and to hope that my future conduct may 
 deserve a continuation of the same, whilst I remain with senti- 
 
 34 This was Father Grace of Memphis. He had studied and was or- 
 dained abroad, returning to this country late in 1844, or in the early 
 days of 1845. The United States Catholic Miscellany of August 24, 1850, 
 together with this letter, indicates that his name was the second on the 
 council’s list for Monterey. 
 
PROGRESS SLOW, BUT STEADY 44] 
 
 ments of the highest regard and esteem, 
 Your most obedient servant, 
 T Richard Pius Miles, 
 Bishop of Nashville.*° 
 
 Whenthe Holy See raised Saint Louis to the rank 
 of an archbishopric, July 20, 1847, it was decided to 
 defer the appointment of its suffragan dioceses until 
 the American hierarchy should make known their wish 
 in the matter at the next provincial council to he held 
 at Baitimore. Although, doubtless because of long- 
 standing associations, Bishop Miles would have pre- 
 ferred that Nashville should be associated with the 
 Province of Cincinnati for the establishment of which 
 the council petitioned, he was too humble a man to 
 oppose the wishes of the conciliar fathers. Accord- 
 ingly, by a letter of the Propaganda dated August 9, 
 1850, Tennessee was severed from Baltimore, and 
 annexed to Saint Louis.*° 
 
 35 Baltimore Archives, Case 25, M 8. Father Alemany, S.T.Lr., was 
 born in Vich, Spain, July 13,-1814. He entered the Order of Saint 
 Dominic in his native country when fifteen years of age; but on the 
 suppression of the religious orders in Spain (1835), he went to Viterbo, 
 Italy, where he was raised to the priesthood on March 27, 1837, and ob- 
 tained the degree of Lector of Theology in 1840. Shortly afterwards, 
 he came to Ohio. In 1842, he was sent to Nashville, and to Memphis 
 in 1845, in both of which places he left a sacred memory. In 1847, he 
 was made master of novices in Kentucky, and became provincial in 1849. 
 While in Rome, he was appointed bishop of Monterey (May 31, 1850), 
 and was consecrated there, June 30, 1850. On the erection of the Arch- 
 diocese of San Francisco, he became its metropolitan (July 29, 1853). 
 He resigned in December, 1884, returned to Spain, and died at Valencia, 
 April 14, 1888. He was one of our most saintly and best beloved prelates. 
 
 36 HERNAEZ, Coleccion de Bulas, Breves, etc., II, 787-788; Concilia Bal- 
 timort, pp. 281, 287-289. These documents show the error of Shea who 
 writes (History of the Church, IV, 36): “When the authorities in Rome 
 at last recognized the consequences of their action, Pope Pius IX., on the 
 8th day of October, 1847, made St. Louis a metropolitan see, with Du- 
 buque, Nashville, Chicago, and Milwaukee as suffragans.’’ Doctor Shea 
 had a decided Gallican tendency, and overlooked few opportunities of 
 
442 THE FATHER OF THE CHURCH IN TENNESSEE 
 
 Three other acts of the Holy See in agreement with 
 the requests of the seventh provincial council of 
 Baltimore were the erection of the Diocese of Wheeling, 
 the transfer thither of Bishop Richard V. Whelan, and 
 the appointment of the Rev. John McGill of Kentucky 
 as his successor at Richmond. ‘The new appointee was 
 a close friend and admirer of the Father of the Church 
 in Tennessee. When therefore Father McGill was 
 consecrated bishop of Richmond by the metropolitan 
 of Saint Louis, Doctors Miles and St. Palais acted as 
 assistants. The event took place in Saint Joseph’s 
 Church, Bardstown, the former cathedral, November 
 10, 1850. Bishop Spalding delivered an _ eloquent 
 sermon.” It is noteworthy that this was the last 
 episcopal consecration in that historic edifice, as well 
 as one of the most striking ceremonies that ever occurred 
 there. 
 
 With the exception of that of the Right Rev. 
 Amadeus Rappe of Cleveland which took place in 
 Cincinnati, October 10, 1847, and at which only Bishops 
 Purcell and Whelan were present, the subject of our 
 narrative had not only attended, but also participated 
 in, every episcopal consecration in the near west from 
 the time of his elevation to the hierarchy, twelve years 
 before. His big heart and broad mind urged him to 
 undergo every sacrifice that he might gratify his 
 equals. Previous engagements and the Nashville 
 cathedral, which was nearing dedication, rendered it 
 next to impossible for him to be at Bishop Rappe’s 
 consecration; yet, had he known that so few would 
 censuring Rome, even when there was clear evidence of a desire to please 
 
 our hierarchy. 
 
 37 Telegraph, November 30, 1850. 
 
PROGRESS SLOW, BUT STEADY 443 
 
 attend it, one can not doubt that he would have found 
 a way of gracing the occasion with his ever welcomed 
 presence. 
 
 Ill health combined with much that called for his 
 attention at home to keep him from the consecration 
 of Bishop John B. Lamy as vicar apostolic of Santa Fe, 
 in Cincinnati, November 24, 1850. ‘The holy prelate 
 had spent nearly the whole year in travel, on horseback 
 and otherwise, through his diocese, which sapped his 
 strength even to the point of danger. Worry and extra 
 toil caused by another outbreak of cholera in the early 
 summer contributed to the same effect. From Bishop 
 McGill’s consecration he returned to Nashville a sick 
 man. In a letter of date December 27, 1850, Father 
 
 H. V. Brown tells Mark Frenaye of Philadelphia: 
 
 At the request of Bishop Miles I write to inform you that he 
 duly received the certificate of Bank deposit for $103.02 for- 
 warded to him by you. Our venerable Bishop has been seriously 
 indisposed for some three weeks. He is now a little better, but 
 cannot yet sit up, and requires constant attention day and night. 
 His physician does not name his complaint, but he has a violent 
 cough, frequent fever and swollen limbs.®* 
 
 Although the progress of the period was slow, on 
 the whole it was steady and solid. Those acquainted 
 with the conditions regarded it as nothing short of 
 extraordinary. Indeed, they marvelled not that the 
 zealous prelate failed to effect more, but that he was 
 able to accomplish so much. 
 
 38 Records of the American Catholic Historical Society, March, 1903 
 (XT Vien tlo,)% 
 
CHAPTER XIX 
 FAIRER GROWTH 
 
 THE union of the Catholic Advocate with the 
 Catholic Telegraph, in the latter half of 1849, was 
 unfortunate for the history of the Diocese of Nashville. 
 It practically took away from Bishop Miles the paper 
 which he had in a large measure used as his official 
 organ. Between the clergy of Ohio and the clergy of 
 Tennessee naturally there was not that community 
 of spirit, general acquaintance, or warmth of friendship 
 which existed between the priests of Kentucky and the 
 priests of Tennessee. The student can not but notice 
 that, immediately after this change, communications 
 on the affairs of the Diocese of Nashville became much 
 -more meager, as well as far less frequent, than they had 
 been before. 
 
 Possibly the columns of the Telegraph were not so 
 open for news items from the struggling little see 
 which lay farther to the south as had been those of 
 the Advocate, which was more in sympathy with its 
 hardships from the fact that it had been taken from 
 Bardstown, and was a closer neighbor. However this 
 may be, distance from Cincinnati and Nashville’s 
 connection with Saint Louis, one can but believe, cer- 
 tainly had their part in this unfortunate circumstance. 
 The matter is aggravated still more in that Archbishop 
 P. R. Kenrick preserved practically no records. Hap- 
 pily, however, a few documents have survived the 
 
 444 
 
FAIRER GROWTH 445 
 
 ravages of time and neglect which, especially when taken 
 in connection with those already laid before the reader, 
 afford a fair idea of the life and labors of Tennessee’s 
 first chief pastor during the last decade of his govern- 
 ment. 
 
 We left the apostolic man, at the close of the last 
 chapter, in another serious spell of sickness brought on 
 by unremitting labor and exposure. Although he 
 possessed a splendid vitality and power of recuperation, 
 his strength had been so overtaxed that the recovery 
 was slow. Weakness rendered it impossible for him to 
 attend the consecration of Father John B. Miége, S. J., 
 as vicar apostolic of Kansas and the Indian Territory, 
 on March 25, 1851. However, that year opened with 
 an event which must have brought no little joy to our 
 apostle’s fatherly heart. He had long desired, even 
 sought, to obtain for his diocese the services of the 
 Dominican Sisters whom he had helped to establish. 
 These were then under the jurisdiction of the Domin- 
 ican provincial. When, therefore, Father M. A. 
 O’Brien, the first priest whom he had ordained, was 
 elected to that position, October 30, 1850, Bishop 
 Miles at once renewed his efforts to this end; for he 
 felt that a zealous friend for whom he had done so much 
 would leave nothing untried in order to grant his 
 petition." 
 
 It happened as he had prayed. Indeed, pursuant to 
 his swift way of doing things, Father O’Brien sent 
 the sisters before preparations were made for their 
 reception. Doubtless it was as much to divide the honor 
 of initiating the work between the two little commu- 
 nities, as to spare either the entire burden, that the 
 
 1An American Apostle, pp. 39, 54, and passim. 
 
446 THE FATHER OF THE CHURCH IN TENNESSEE 
 
 provincial selected three members of Saint Catherine’s, 
 Springfield, Kentucky, and an equal number from 
 Saint Mary’s, Somerset, Ohio. Those from Kentucky 
 were Sisters Lucy Harper, Ann Simpson, and Vin- 
 centia Fitzpatrick; those from Ohio, Sisters Emily 
 Thorpe, Magdalen Clark, and Catherine McCormack. 
 
 This little band of workers, escorted by Father 
 Francis Cubero, travelled down the Ohio and the 
 Mississippi from Louisville to Memphis, where they 
 arrived between one and two o’clock on the morning of 
 January 1, 1851. As they had to leave the boat, Father 
 Cubero took them directly to Saint Peter’s. Father 
 Grace had just retired after a late sick-call; but he 
 arose at once to welcome them. Having no place in 
 which he could put them to sleep, he entertained them in 
 the parlor the rest of the night, and after mass and 
 breakfast took them to a Mrs. McKeon’s, who showed 
 them every hospitality for about two weeks, or until 
 they could be settled in their new home.* 
 
 Prior to the arrival of the sisters, Father Grace had 
 purchased what was then known as the “Coe Place” 
 from its former owner and occupant, the Hon. L. H. 
 Coe. ‘The house, a neat frame structure two stories 
 high, had eight small rooms, besides the garret, stood 
 somewhat beyond the city limits, and was pleasantly 
 situated back from the highway in a large yard of 
 primeval forest trees. ‘There early in February, 1851, 
 began the school which soon developed into the present 
 widely-known Saint Agnes’ Academy. At first, the 
 garret was used for a chapel. But in the following 
 year, when the bishop and Father Grace entrusted the 
 
 2 This lady was probably the wife of Patrick or William McKeon, two 
 of Memphis’ earliest Catholics. 
 
FAIRER GROWTH 447 
 
 Catholic orphans of Memphis to the sisters, a new 
 building was added, in which a room on the second story 
 was set apart for an oratory. Indeed, the growth of 
 this schoo! was so rapid that by 1855 it became nec- 
 essary to send the orphans to a place which Father 
 Grace had purchased, about five miles outside the city, 
 with the intention of starting a college for boys. It 
 was long known as “Gracewood Farm;” and here the 
 orphans remained until after Bishop Miles’ death.” 
 Unfortunately, the affairs of Saint Mary’s Academy 
 at Nashville took a less happy turn at this juncture. 
 After his appointment as pastor of the cathedral, 
 Father Ivo Schacht, or “Scatt” as he was universally 
 called, was given too much authority by good Bishop 
 Miles. Father Schacht was a capable man, an extraor- 
 dinary linguist, and a zealous, hard-working priest. 
 These qualities, there can be no doubt, won for him 
 the unreserved confidence of his ordinary, who had not 
 yet learned that his one failing was an inflexible deter- 
 mination to have his own way, regardless of costs. 
 In addition to the pastorship of the cathedral, he was 
 placed in charge of the school, and appointed spiritual 
 director of the sisters. ‘Trouble was not slow to follow. 
 Among the causes of the misunderstanding are said 
 3 Saint Agnes’ Annals (Mss.); Minocur, Pages from a Hundred Years 
 of Dominican History, pp. 84 ff. Gracewood Farm contained one hundred 
 and ten acres, and was bought from John Park and Andrew Henderson 
 in 1854 for a college which Bishop Miles wished the fathers to start 
 near Memphis. But they were unable to begin the work before the Civil 
 War. Father William D. O’Carroll, who became provincial in 1865, 
 sold the property. 
 Sister Catherine McCormack died at Saint Agnes’, August 8, 1851, 
 being the first nun to die in Tennessee. Sisters Monica Conlan, Vincent 
 
 Nicolas, and Mary Pius Fitzpatrick were added to the staff of the school 
 in 1852. 
 
448 THE FATHER OF THE CHURCH IN TENNESSEE 
 
 to have been a too frequent change of teachers and a 
 desire that the sisters should sing in the cathedral choir.* 
 Possibly this is in part true, although documents laid 
 before the reader indicate that there was little difficulty 
 in finding at Nashville those who were ever ready to 
 supply this latter need for church services. 
 
 Another reason given for the friction is the wish of 
 Bishop Miles to have a purely diocesan community free 
 from outside authority.” There may also be some truth 
 in this statement, especially in the after-development 
 of affairs; for the Sisters of Mercy, founded along these 
 lines, seem to have engendered in the minds of more than 
 one bishop a disposition to establish such bodies of 
 religious women. Archbishop Hughes had already 
 started one with some of the Sisters of Charity of 
 Emmitsburg who were in the Diocese of New York, 
 while Archbishop Purcell was taking a similar step 
 for Cincinnati. 
 
 Whatever the origin of the differences, Father 
 Schacht’s hand is clearly visible behind the project 
 which all too soon took effect in Nashville. Doubtless 
 the conception was entirely his, and he took advantage 
 of the bishop’s illness that he might bring his plan to 
 execution. Evidently also some of the sisters readily 
 espoused his cause. Bishop Miles’ well-known char- 
 acter and spirit of charity and thoughtfulness for 
 others—apart from his religious training, principles, 
 and experience—, it seems almost needless to say, would 
 have made him the last person in the world to think of 
 dividing a community for his own sake, had not the 
 
 4 History of the Sisters of Charity of Leavenworth, Kansas, pp. 22 ff; 
 
 McGiLL, The Sisters of Charity of Nazareth, Kentucky, p. 116. 
 9 Ibid. 
 
FAIRER GROWTH 449 
 
 strongest influence been brought to bear upon him while 
 in a state of prolonged infirmity in which he largely 
 depended upon the zeal and judgment of Father 
 Schacht. Some others seem to have also urged Father 
 Schacht’s idea. 
 
 Mother Catherine Spalding of Nazareth finally went 
 to see the bishop about the difficulty. That two persons 
 of such equipoise could not come to an agreement is 
 proof that matters had then arrived at a pass in which 
 the best, if not the only reasonable, solution of the 
 trouble lay in the withdrawal of some of the sisters at 
 Nashville from the mother-house, and the establishment 
 of a distinct and independent community. This was 
 determined upon at the time; for six members of Saint 
 Mary’s Academy and Saint John’s Hospital and 
 Orphan Asylum, apparently under the leadership of 
 Father Schacht and Sister Xavier Ross, had openly 
 pronounced themselves in favor of such a step.° In 
 the first part of a letter to Bishop Spalding, when the 
 plan had matured, Father Schacht rather hides behind 
 his ecclesiastical superior; but towards the end he dis- 
 closes clearly enough who had brought it about. Here 
 he writes: 
 
 Nashville, June 9th, 1851. 
 Right Rev. and dear Friend :— 
 
 Nothing would give us more pleasure than to welcome your 
 Lordship to Nashville on your return from the Springs. Boats 
 are coming up from Smithland nearly every day. Besides, the 
 digression would amount to nothing as to time. So, Right Rev. 
 Friend, permit me to hope you will favour us thus far. The 
 Bishop desires that the house of Nazareth would be kind enough 
 to furnish him with five or six Sisters to commence a Novitiate 
 with of our own. Our peculiar position, the good of Religion, and 
 
 6 Sisters of Leavenworth as in note 4, p. 23. 
 
 30 
 
450 THE FATHER OF THE CHURCH IN TENNESSEE 
 
 many other circumstances render this an imperative duty on our 
 part. I consider a refusal almost certain, because I could not 
 take any other but such as I would name myself. Moreover, 
 the thing is to be done.” I want to do things amicably, and find 
 myself without such counsel as I need. Mother Frances most 
 pressingly invites you too. And all will feel under lasting obli- 
 gations to you, Right Rev. Friend. 
 In anxious expectation, Yours in Christ. 
 
 I. Schacht.® 
 Whether Bishop Spalding went to Nashville on this 
 invitation we did not discover. Be that as it may, Father 
 Schacht wrote to him again on November 5, 1851, a 
 letter which shows how keenly he felt the accusations 
 made against him for his actions in the matter, as well 
 as abounds in countercharges. ‘The document is too 
 violent for publication. Suffice it to say that, we are 
 convinced, his charges are grossly exaggerated, and 
 that the letter is almost proof positive that the scheme 
 of separation originated with him, and that Se 
 Xavier Ross took a leading part in bringing it to pass.” 
 
 7 The italics are Father Schacht’s. 
 
 8 Louisville Archives (photostat copy in those of Saint Joseph’s Prov- 
 ince). Mother Frances Gardiner, referred to in the letter, did not join 
 in Father Schacht’s plan, after all. 
 
 9 Ibid. (photostat copy, ibid.). One of the accusations against which 
 Father Schacht is particularly anxious to defend himself in this letter 
 is that he had acted as Mother Xavier’s adviser in all that she had done. 
 However, the facts that she was superior from 1847 to 1850; that in 
 1850 she was superseded by Mother Frances Gardiner; that the break 
 came in 1851; that Mother Xavier immediately became the superior of 
 the new community, and held the office as long as it remained in Nashville; 
 that it looked on Father Schacht as its chief guardian friend; that it 
 regarded Bishop Miles as in his right when he consented to the separa- 
 tion from Nazareth, but in the wrong when he took action against Father 
 Schacht; and that it broke with the Bishop when Father Schacht broke 
 with him—all this leaves more than a suspicion in the mind that Father 
 Schacht sadly deceived himself when he wrote this letter. See the Cath- 
 olic Almanacs from 1848 to 1858, and History of the Sisters of Leaven- 
 qorth and McGuu, op. cit., as in note 4. 
 
FAIRER GROWTH 451 
 
 Doubtless, as in all similar difficulties, there were 
 mistakes on both sides. The error of Bishop Miles, 
 we may take it for granted, was one of judgment, and 
 not of the heart. It is one of the very few which we 
 may lay at the holy prelate’s door. Quite probably, 
 before it reached his ears, the business had progressed 
 so far that, while those who favored a division of the 
 community could no longer be happy at Nazareth, the 
 only way in which he could save his school was to accede 
 to their desire, and he made what he believed to be the 
 wisest choice under the circumstances. Possibly again 
 it was to make amends for whatever wrong he feared 
 might have been committed against the Kentucky insti- 
 tution that (September 15, 1851) he deeded to its eccle- 
 siastical superior, Father Joseph Hazeltine, a splendid 
 piece of land, together with the buildings on it, which he 
 had purchased at a bargain five years earlier, and which 
 had since been used for educational purposes”. 
 
 The sisters who abided by the decision of their mo- 
 ther-house returned to Kentucky after the school year 
 of 1850-1851. ‘Those who remained at Nashville were 
 Sisters Xavier Ross, Mary Vincent Kearney, Joanna 
 Brunner, Ellen Davis, Jane Frances Kennedy, and 
 Baptista Kelly. At first, as the academy property had 
 been turned over to Father Hazeltine, they all lived in 
 the cottage near the hospital, 63 North High Street, 
 where they were soon joined by two recruits from 
 
 10 Deed Book XV, pp. 81-82 (Recorder’s Office, Nashville). Deed 
 Book IX, pp. 288-289, shows that Bishop Miles bought this property at 
 a public auction, September 26, 1843, and received the deed for it, when 
 he had finished paying the purchase money, on October 26, 1846. Deed 
 Book IX, pp. 432-433, shows that he also deeded property to Father Hazel- 
 
 tine, February 22, 1847. In each case one dollar was the consideration 
 paid by Hazeltine. 
 
452 THE FATHER OF THE CHURCH IN TENNESSEE 
 
 Nazareth who had probably been in Nashville before— 
 Sisters Pauline Gibson and Dorothy Villeneuve™. 
 
 However, it was not long before the large, beautiful 
 home of Doctor William A. Cheatham, which stood at 
 42-44 Cedar Street, opposite the cathedral, was secured 
 for the teaching sisters and converted into a convent un- 
 der the name of Saint Vincent’s Home. Here also were 
 Saint Mary’s Academy continued and the orphans 
 transferred, as well as a novitiate opened. ‘The hospital 
 remained at 63 North High Street, while a free school 
 for the poor and such as chose it for the education of 
 their children was taught in the spacious basement of 
 the cathedral’. Indeed, the new community prospered 
 marvellously for a time. Doubtless it would have ren- 
 dered the diocese lasting services, had not Father 
 Schacht’s unruly spirit and ugly temper intervened. 
 But of this we shall speak in a later chapter. 
 
 Bishop Miles’ kindness of heart, no less than his 
 charity, uniformly prevented him from cherishing ill 
 will towards any one. So it happened in the case of the 
 misunderstanding just recorded. We sought in vain 
 for a hard or harsh word from him in regard to that 
 matter. Contrariwise, we discovered from various 
 sources manifestations of sincere friendship, high es- 
 teem, and good wishes for Nazareth. Similarly the 
 apostolic man was not one who would stop to cry over 
 spilt milk. HKeenly sensitive though he was for the good 
 of religion, naught seemed to ruffle the even tenor of his 
 
 11 Authorities as in note 4 and the Almanacs from 1852 to 1858. The 
 only other Sisters up to this time whose names we have discovered were 
 Sister Serena Carney (superior 1845-1847), Sister Frances Gardiner (supe- 
 rior 1850-1851), and Sister Margaret Bamber (superior at the hospital 
 1849-1851). None of these three joined the new community. 
 
 12 Sisters of Leavenworth, pp. 22 ff; Almanacs, 1852-1858; Nashville 
 Directory, 1853-1854, 1855-1856, 1857. 
 
FAIRER GROWTH 453 
 
 ways, for the consciousness that he did his best, chose 
 
 what he believed to be right, and sought to avoid that 
 
 which he feared might be wrong, enabled him to possess 
 his soul in peace. 
 
 Another incident, of slight importance in itself, but 
 which is said to have caused the subject of our narrative 
 considerable pain, seems to have grown out of the es- 
 tablishment of the new community in Nashville. In the 
 life of his predecessor, which he was compiling just at 
 this juncture, Bishop Spalding states that Father 
 Raphael Mufios was sent to Saint Rose’s, in Kentucky, 
 as prior of the convent that he might restore the disci- 
 pline which had become somewhat relaxed through the 
 exigencies of missionary life. ‘Tradition tells us that the 
 distinguished divine wrote this through pique; and 
 that Bishop Miles was not a little chagrined by the as- 
 sertion of his friend. Nor is the reason far to seek in 
 either case. It was only natural that Doctor Spalding 
 should be nettled by the split in a religious body under 
 his jurisdiction, for which he felt that the Father of the 
 Church in Tennessee was partly responsible; whilst the 
 latter could hardly be expected not to resent the impu- 
 tation that he had needed to be reformed by one who 
 had been so harsh to him as Father Murfios"®. 
 
 However, as his letters show, Bishop Miles did not 
 permit this incidental unpleasantness to mar a friend- 
 ship which had been long, intimate, and trusting. In- 
 deed, the relations between the two prelates were soon 
 
 13 Life of Flaget, p. 288; Fenwick, p. 142. In Fenwick is shown Father 
 Maes’ fantastic use of Doctor Spalding’s statement. Possibly it was 
 this spleen which occasioned Bishop Spalding’s failure to mention the 
 labors of the Dominicans in Kentucky during the epidemic of cholera in 
 
 1833—for which see his Life of Flaget, pp. 275 ff, and note 12 in Chapter 
 XI of this book. 
 
454 THE FATHER OF THE CHURCH IN TENNESSEE 
 
 as near and amicable as ever. Despite his zeal, the de- 
 bility induced by the severe spell of sickness seems to 
 have rendered the year 1851 the least active since the 
 holy man’s elevation to the miter. Still he kept in close 
 touch with the affairs of his diocese, which he strove to 
 advance in every way. arly in the fall he made a 
 journey to Ohio, and officiated at the cathedral in Cin- 
 cinnati“. Quite probably his ever-present financial 
 straits, which had become still more tightened by the 
 loss of the academy property, carried him there, for he 
 often sought to borrow money in that city. 
 
 The summons for our first plenary council to assem- 
 ble at Baltimore by May 8, 1852, found the man of God 
 busy at his work. This was before the close of the 
 previous year’. Because of the slow travel at that time 
 a number of bishops in the west arranged to make a 
 part of the journey together, which would insure them 
 a pleasant companionship, no less than afford them an 
 opportunity of discussing the needs of the American 
 Church before the council should meet. Bishop Spald- 
 ing invited the subject of our narrative to join them at 
 Louisville, and received in response a letter dated 
 March 30, 1852, in which the chief pastor of Tennessee 
 tells him: 
 
 “IT am happy to acknowledge your late kind favour, 
 and will do myself the pleasure of accepting your invi- 
 tation to join you and the other distinguished charac- 
 ters that are to form our company to Baltimore. I pro- 
 pose to leave home as soon as possible after the second 
 Sunday after EKaster—by water, if we have enough, or 
 
 14 Telegraph, September 20, 1851. 
 
 15 The Acta et Decreta of this council show that Archbishop F. P. Ken- 
 rick sent out the letter of convocation on November 21, 1851. 
 
FAIRER GROWTH 455 
 
 by stage, as the case may be’’.” Then he makes a few 
 
 good-natured references to the talk in Kentucky about 
 the Saint Mary’s Academy affair, and closes his letter 
 with the statement: “Every thing is going on well 
 here, except money matters which are rather slim as far 
 as I am concerned. Many compliments, and all sorts of 
 blessings.” ‘The Catholic Telegraph of Saturday, May 
 8, 1852, shows that the hierarchical company passed 
 through Cincinnati that week, which gave them barely 
 time to reach Baltimore for the opening of the council. 
 
 At this assemblage our zealous prelate had another 
 convincing proof of the growth of the Church in his be- 
 loved country in the reports brought from every direc- 
 tion, and in the petition of the fathers of the council for 
 the establishment of no less than nine new sees and one 
 vicariate apostolic. His cup of joy would have been 
 filled, could he have given a more roseate account of the 
 increase of Catholicity in his own charge. Doubtless 
 the request for the erection of the Archdiocese of San 
 Francisco and the nomination of his friend and former 
 colaborer in Tennessee, Bishop Alemany, for its metro- 
 politan afforded him a special pleasure. From Balti- 
 more he journeyed to New York City, where he dedi- 
 cated Saint Ann’s Church, June 1, 1852, in the presence 
 of Archbishop Hughes and the bishops of Boston, 
 Pittsburgh, and Louisville.” 
 
 On his way back to Nashville, he stopped at his for- 
 mer missionary fields of Saint Joseph’s, Somerset, and 
 
 16 Louisville Archives. The second Sunday after Easter fell on April 
 25 in that year. 
 
 17 Acta et Decreta Concilii Plenarit........ , Baltimori habiti Anno 1852; 
 
 Freeman’s Journal, June 5, 1852; Memoranda of the Diocese of Boston 
 (Mss.), June 1, 1852; Goutpinc, The Churches in New York City, p. 150. 
 
456 THE FATHER OF THE CHURCH IN TENNESSEE 
 
 Zanesville, Ohio, in all of which he administered confir- 
 mation, and delivered to the candidates some of those 
 simple, beautiful, and instructive sermons in which he 
 was an adept. At Saint Joseph’s the ambassador of 
 Christ had the satisfaction of finding the new college in 
 full operation. It was the first time he had seen it, and 
 the thought that his: former ambition had at last been 
 realized gave him unbounded joy. The account of his 
 welcomed visit says: “The Right Rev. Prelate, though 
 declining in years and somewhat worn by arduous la- 
 bors, is still in the possession of much vigor, and during 
 his stay with us was in the enjoyment of excellent 
 health.”’*® 
 
 Strange to say, although it had been the first place 
 in the state to loom promisingly from a Catholic point of 
 view, and had no doubt been visited more than once 
 by a priest since the establishment of the diocese, we 
 have found the name of Knoxville in but one document 
 (the Almanac of 1854) referring to the Church from 
 the days of Father Badin more than forty years past. 
 Evidently the faith there had all but died; yet it was 
 soon to be resurrected. In fact, the #reeman’s Journal 
 of May 26, 1860, reproduces a contribution to the 
 Louisville Guardian, which tells of the promise at this 
 later time, and says: “Six or eight years ago, not one 
 resident Catholic was known to be in Knoxville.” 
 
 Chattanooga, thanks to public works of various kinds, 
 had now begun to attract a goodly number, which was a 
 source of no little joy to the zealous bishop. Before his 
 departure for Baltimore, he had sent Father Brown to 
 that city in order to build a church and leave Father 
 
 18 Telegraph, June 26 and July 3, 1852. 
 
FAIRER GROWTH 457 
 
 Jacquet freer for work among the laborers on the rail- 
 roads and in the parts farther towards the east. These 
 places seem to have demanded our apostle’s attention 
 immediately on his return from the council. Apparent- 
 lv he was at or around Chattanooga when Bishop 
 Spalding wrote to request his presence at the consecra- 
 tion of the cathedral in Louisville, which had been set 
 for October 3, 1852. He answered from Nashville, the 
 seventh of September: 
 
 I have delayed some time to acknowledge your late kind favour 
 in which you invite me to be present at the consecration of your 
 new Cathedral, an invitation quite agreeable to my feelings. At 
 the time I received your letter Mr. Montgomery was quite ill of a 
 fever, and for some time his case was considered dangerous. He 
 is now happily recovered, so that, without some accident not antici- 
 pated, I shall enjoy your pleasant society and the solemn ceremony 
 that is to come off on Rosary Sunday. 
 
 You have laid me under one restriction that will go very hard 
 with me. You say in your letter: “Of course you will fail to ex- 
 hibit to us the light of your countenance on that auspicious day.” 
 This will be a hard task for me, and I hope you will at least allow 
 me a small grin from time to time. Otherwise there would be dan- 
 ger of an explosion, for the consequences of which you will be 
 held responsible. 
 
 Rev. Mr. Brown was present when I read your letter. When I 
 announced your invitation to him, he made his best bow, and ex- 
 pressed his great regret that he could not come. He is preparing 
 to build a church in Chattanooga, and is entirely absorbed in his 
 grand undertaking. I propose to leave home on next Sunday; and 
 after spending a few days with my pets about St. Rose’s, I will come 
 to Louisville, and endeavour to make my retreat before the dedica- 
 tion. You know you promised to join me. If this arrangement 
 doesn’t suit, please let me know. A letter directed to St. Cathe- 
 rine’s, near Springfield, any time next week will find me there. 
 
 Bishop Reynolds has promised to visit me this fall. Of course 
 he will be at the consecration, and I shall expect him to accompany 
 
458 THE FATHER OF THE CHURCH IN TENNESSEE 
 
 me phomers aes May every happiness and blessing be yours. 
 I am most faithfully your devoted friend, 
 Tt Richard Pius Miles, 
 Bishop of Nashville. 
 
 The consecration of the cathedral took place on the 
 day prescribed, and has come down in history as one of 
 the great Catholic events of Louisville. Two metropol- 
 itans and eight bishops from all parts of the country 
 graced the occasion with their presence. Bishop Miles, 
 there can be no doubt, put his very soul into the signa- 
 ture which he affixed to the signed set of resolutions 
 sent by this august assemblage to Father John Henry 
 (afterwards Cardinal) Newman approving his exposé 
 of the apostate priest, Giovanni Achilli, who had writ- 
 ten and spoken so villainously of the Church. While 
 most tolerant of inculpable error and compassionate to- 
 wards the sinner, a true man of God that he was, our 
 bishop had little mercy for such reprobate characters as 
 Achilli, who he felt deserved only contempt.”° 
 
 Through his ceaseless efforts, in spite of obstacles of 
 every sort, religion made continual, though slow, prog- 
 ress. In the Catholic Almanac for 1853 he reported 
 six churches, two chapels, twenty stations, and five 
 thousand faithful served by himself and nine priests. 
 Four of the missionaries (Louis Hoste, John M. Jac- 
 quet, Ivo Schacht, and H. V. Brown) were secular 
 clergymen. ‘The other five belonged to the Order of 
 Saint Dominic—Fathers S. L. Montgomery, Thomas 
 
 19 Louisville Archives. 
 
 20 Telegraph, October 9, 1852; Spatpine (J. L.), Life of Archbishop 
 M. J. Spalding, p. 148. It is noteworthy that the first Newman fund in 
 the United States was opened by the bishops at this meeting for the 
 
 purpose of helping the distinguished English divine to defray the expenses 
 of the suit for libel brought against him by the infamous Achilli. 
 
FAIRER GROWTH 459 
 
 L. Grace, Aloysius Orengo, John Raymond Cleary, and 
 John Albert Bokel.** 
 
 Five of the six churches were certainly those of Nash- 
 ville, Memphis, Robertson County, Clarksville, and 
 Humphreys County, all of which have been mentioned 
 more than once. The sixth was likely the log fane 
 which Father Schacht built on the Rogan farm about the 
 end of 1844, and which appears to have been known la- 
 ter as the “Immaculate Conception, Gallatin Tunnel.” 
 Father Lorigan, in his article for the Catholic Encyclo- 
 pedia, tells us that a church (Saint Mary’s) was erected 
 at Jackson in 1849. Quite likely this is true, for such 
 a project had been long in contemplation; but as the 
 Almanac never speaks of a church there, we are inclined 
 to think that this small temple of prayer was one of the 
 two designated as chapels in the bishop’s report. ‘The 
 other was probably the small wooden affair which either 
 Father Jacquet or Father Brown had built on a lot of 
 Michael Harrington in Chattanooga, and which Father 
 Lorigan says was put up in 1852. Possibly Father 
 Brown wished to have it known as a chapel because he 
 had already begun preparations for a large and beauti- 
 ful Gothic stone church.” 
 
 The twenty stations in the diocese were scattered here 
 and there from the boundaries of Mississippi, Alabama, 
 and Georgia to that of Kentucky; and from Jones- 
 borough in the extreme east to the banks of the great 
 Father of Waters. 
 
 One of the holy man’s greatest difficulties still con- 
 tinued to be that of procuring a sufficient number of 
 priests for the proper care of his widely dispersed flock, 
 
 21 Almanac, 1853, pp. 122-123. 
 22 Catholic Encyclopedia, X, 705; Freeman’s Journal, May 28, 1854. 
 
460 THE FATHER OF THE CHURCH IN TENNESSEE 
 
 and means for a suitable sustenance of the missionaries 
 who had come to his aid. However he managed to 
 maintain his works of charity and his free schools is 
 almost a mystery. When, October 23, 1852, the pre- 
 fect of the Propaganda urged that our American hier- 
 archy should agree upon some general plan for an 
 ecclesiastical living which might be enacted into law, 
 Archbishops Purcell and R. P. Kendrick wrote for our 
 prelate’s views on the subject.”* To Doctor Purcell he 
 replied, March 30, 1853: 
 
 You ask me what I think of the decree of Rome. In my reply 
 to the Archbishop of St. Louis asking my opinion on the same sub- 
 ject, I told him I did not think I had a right to give any opinion, 
 as I was entirely out of the scrape; that I received no assistance 
 from any church in my Diocese except from my Cathedral, and 
 from this only two or three hundred dollars; and that, had it not 
 been for the small pittance I receive annually from the Propaga- 
 tion of the Faith, together with a legacy from a deceased brother, 
 I should have starved long since.?4 
 
 Thank God, my condition is somewhat better now. I am out of 
 debt. Rev. Mr. Schacht has returned from Europe, having pro- 
 cured sufficient means to satisfy all demands against my church. 
 Some good friend, God forgive him, had so shamefully misrepre- 
 sented my condition to the Propagation of the Faith that they had 
 for several years put me off with a mere trifle. Mr. Schacht suc- 
 ceeded in disabusing them of their error, and they have sent me 
 francs 18,000, which, together with what he collected in his own 
 country, has made me again even with the world. But my purse 
 is in a perfect and frightful state of collapse in consequence. 
 N’importe.*® 
 
 23 Acta et Decreta Concilu Plenarii......., Balttmort habiti Anno 1852, 
 p. 61. This was before the establishment of our present cathedraticum. 
 
 24 This brother was Edward B. Miles who died at Bloomfield, Ken- 
 tucky, February 4, 1846. 
 
 25 Notre Dame Archives. Father Schacht had been in Belgium on a 
 
 vacation. Beginning with 1847, Bishop Miles’ allotments from the Propa- 
 gation of the Faith had been cut to about one fourth, or less, of what 
 
 tJ 
 
FAIRER GROWTH 461 
 
 The Father of the Church in Tennessee was now in 
 his sixties. Hardships, age, and labors had so told on 
 his strength that he could no longer spend days or even 
 weeks in the saddle at a stretch. The weight of a large 
 physical frame and not infrequent periods of ill health 
 also interfered with his journeys. Yet he continued to 
 visit his diocese as often as he possibly could, making his 
 way into every nook and corner that no Catholic family 
 or individual might be overlooked. When it was feasi- 
 ble, he went by train; but there were then few places in 
 the state which could be reached in this wise. Often, in 
 order to conserve his energy, he took the unpalatable 
 stage-coach even for short distances. For the same rea- 
 son, when going to the missions in the farther west, he 
 ordinarily travelled by the long, circuitous route of the 
 boat on the Cumberland, Ohio, and Mississippi rivers. 
 
 Similarly, an ambassador of Christ in the fullest sense 
 of the word, our apostle directed the work of his under- 
 shepherds, no less than watched over his flock, with scru- 
 tinous eye and unflagging zeal. Still he pointed out the 
 way for all with a fatherly kindliness which won the 
 hearts alike of priests and people. Non-Catholics con- 
 tinued to vie with those of his own fold in their love and 
 esteem for him. Not many years ago, one used fre- 
 quently to hear it said in Nashville that, “had it not been 
 for his religion, Bishop Miles could have held the city in 
 the palm of his right hand.’ Although not so well 
 known elsewhere, he was scarcely less beloved in the rest 
 of his diocese. 
 
 From the beginning, Tennessee’s first chief pastor 
 was their average the first six years of his episcopacy. Doubtless, how- 
 
 ever, one of the causes of the reduction was the ever-increasing number 
 of calls on the society for assistance. 
 
462 THE FATHER OF THE CHURCH IN TENNESSEE 
 
 rarely left the state except on business of importance, or 
 to oblige his confréres in the hierarchy. The occasional 
 visits to his earlier fields of labor, which he thoroughly 
 enjoyed, were nearly all made either on his way from 
 home for other purposes, or on the return journey. We 
 have found no record of an absence in 1858, and of but 
 one in 1854, from which it appears that he was out of 
 his diocese only once in those two years. ‘This was for 
 the consecration of the Right Rev. Anthony O’ Regan 
 as bishop of Chicago at Saint Louis, July 25, 1854; 
 but he eS #0 unwell that he could not attend the august 
 ceremony.” 
 
 Catholicity’s eoathie in Chattanooga demanded his 
 attention, no less than delighted his paternal heart. 
 Doubtless it was while on a journey thither that he ad- 
 ministered confirmation on Low Sunday, April 23, 
 1854, for Father Jacquet who then labored among the 
 men working on the railroads and in the coal mines 
 south of Nashville. Knoxville had also returned to its 
 own, in spite of prejudice, not only so far as to deserve 
 a mention in the Catholic Almanac for the first time in 
 1854, but also to be in a fair way of having a church. 
 This also, there can be no doubt, was a source of joy as 
 well as of care to the holy bishop. ‘There, too, labor in 
 the construction of railroads brought the change.” 
 
 However, Doctor Shea seems certainly in error when 
 he writes: “Rev. H. F. Parke, of Wytheville, found 
 many of his flock drifting into Tennessee in search of 
 better wages. He followed them in his visits and report- 
 ed to the Bishop at Nashville, who, in time, stationed a 
 
 26 The Telegraph, August 12, 1854. 
 
 27 Cathedral records at Nashville; Telegraph, August 12, 1854; Al- 
 manac, 1854, p. 175. 
 
FAIRER GROWTH 463 
 
 priest at Knoxville.” The most diligent search failed 
 to reveal any record, or even a tradition, in support of 
 this statement. Father Parke did not go to Wytheville 
 until the end of 1852. Neither in the outline of his own 
 life, which is given on page sixteen of his “Some Notes 
 on the Rise and Spread of the Catholic Missions in Vir- 
 ginia,” nor anywhere in the pamphlet does he so much 
 as mention ‘l'ennessee. ‘The only reference we have 
 found to his presence in the state regards a visit, in 1860, 
 to the Aikens at Jonesborough, some years after Knox- 
 ville had its church and resident pastor.” 
 
 Baptismal registers, the Catholic Almanac, and other 
 sources show that Father Brown, stationed at Chatta- 
 nooga, had charge of Knoxville and other places in 
 eastern Tennessee. Before the close of 1854, we find 
 him proposed as worthy of the miter. Although our 
 apostle would suffer any sacrifice in order that a subject 
 of his might be so honored, if he felt that he would 
 make a good bishop, he maintained that no priest should 
 be placed in so responsible a position until he had been 
 well tried by experience and proved himself to be a man 
 of prudence and judgment, as well as possessed of zeal 
 and ability. Accordingly, as he had done in the case 
 of Father Grace, he wrote to Archbishop Francis P. 
 
 Kenrick on this subject: 
 Nashville, November 3, 1854. 
 Monseigneur: 
 I have just received a letter from Bishop Reynolds stating that 
 he had put the name of Rev. H. V. Brown on the list for Bishop of 
 
 28 SHEA, History of the Church, IV, 437; Father John F. Aiken, 
 Georgetown, October 31, 1860, to one of his brothers, Jonesborough (Nash- 
 ville Archives). The Aikens certainly kept Bishop Miles informed on 
 matters Catholic in those parts of eastern Tennessee. The bishop was 
 dead at the time of this visit of Father Parke. 
 
464 THE FATHER OF THE CHURCH IN TENNESSEE 
 
 Savannah; and he requests me to write Your Grace on the subject. 
 In doing so I beg leave to say that I do not consider Mr. Brown as 
 qualified for that office as yet, although he is zealous and fulfills his 
 duties very well on the missions. He needs more experience. 
 Moreover, he is a neophyte. Non neophytum, ne in superbiam 
 elatus [It behoveth a bishop, says Saint Paul, to be no neophyte, 
 lest he be puffed up with pride].?° 
 
 Be kind enough to obtain a blessing for me from His Holiness, 
 and allow me to wish you a safe return to your Diocese. 
 
 I am, Monseigneur, with great esteem and respect, your most 
 obedient servant, 
 
 ‘TRicuarp Pius Miss, 
 Bishop of Nashville.®° 
 
 Little by little the foundations of the diocese had been 
 deepened, strengthened, and rendered secure. Although 
 no rapid increase in the number of the faithful could be 
 anticipated for years yet to come, there could be no 
 doubt that, in spite of difficulties, the Catholic religion 
 had at last been placed on a firm basis in Tennessee. In 
 the early summer of 1855 business affairs called Bishop 
 Miles to Ohio. While there, he accepted an invitation 
 to preside and distribute the premiums at the closing 
 exercises of Saint Joseph’s College and Saint Mary’s 
 Academy, Somerset, in the first week of July. On the 
 same oceasion, he administered confirmation at Saint 
 Joseph’s and in the town.** 
 
 Know-nothingism, the reader will recall, was then 
 rampant throughout the country. Accordingly, the 
 Telegraph of July 21 informs us, in his sermon to those 
 confirmed, the bishop “told them how happy it made 
 him to see them offering themselves to God as His sol- 
 
 29 This reference is to I Timothy, III, 1-6. 
 
 30 Baltimore Archives, Case 30, Q 2. 
 31 Telegraph, July 14 and July 21, 1855. 
 
FAIRER GROWTH 465 
 
 diers. He exhorted them to remain firm to the step 
 they had taken, and to mind not the sneers and menaces 
 of that contemptible organization which foolishly is 
 seeking to destroy that holy institution against which 
 even the gates of hell cannot prevail.” 
 
 Two other journeys in the same year are noted in the 
 records of the day, and deserve mention in our work. 
 One of them was to Kentucky. Father M. A. O’Brien 
 first invited Bishop Spalding to dedicate the beautiful 
 stone Gothic Saint Rose’s which he had built near 
 Springfield. But Doctor Spalding had other engage- 
 ments—or perhaps he felt that Bishop Miles should 
 perform this ceremony at a place in which he had lived 
 so long, and loved so well. Be this as it may, the latter’s 
 services were now solicited; and on Saint Dominic’s 
 Day, August 4, 1855, he blessed the new church with all 
 the solemnities of the ritual. For many years the event 
 formed a frequent topic of conversation among the 
 people of the parish.*” 
 
 Meanwhile, a summons had been sent out to the suf- 
 fragans of Saint Louis for the first provincial council, 
 which opened in that city on October seventh. It was 
 a notable assemblage, and enacted some important legis- 
 lation for the government of the western Church. Be- 
 sides the Most Rev. R. P. Kenrick, those who took part 
 in it were Bishops Loras, Miles, Henni, Cretin, and 
 O’Regan. Bishop John B. Miége, vicar apostolic of 
 Kansas and Indian Territory, was absent, while the 
 Diocese of Quincy, Llinois, had no spiritual head.*° 
 
 32 Telegraph, September 8, 1855; An American Apostle, pp. 161 ff. 
 33 Telegraph, October 13, 20 and 27, 1855; the Metropolitan for Novem- 
 ber, 1855. The Diocese of Quincy, Illinois, was established in 1853; but 
 
 no bishop was ever appointed for it. In 1857 it was transferred to 
 Alton, of which Father Henry D. Juncker became the first ordinary. 
 
 31 
 
466 THE FATHER OF THE CHURCH IN TENNESSEE 
 
 For a year after the death of Father Clarkson, Father 
 Grace, who then became pastor at Saint Peter’s, was 
 left practically alone in west Tennessee. However, the 
 records show that he occasionally procured the assis- 
 tance of a German priest, neither of the diocese nor of 
 his Order, for those of that nationality. A confrere, 
 Father James V. Daly, aided him for a short time 
 towards the end of 1849, while F'ather Orengo spent the 
 latter half of 1850 in that part of the state. Father 
 Cubero, who came with the Dominican Sisters, remained 
 at Memphis until the arrival of Father John Raymond 
 Cleary, whose first baptism there is dated October 9, 
 1851. This zealous young clergyman, but lately or- 
 dained, was sent by his provincial to be a permanent 
 assistant in the city and on the missions. Father J. A. 
 Bokel came in April, 1852, to look after the Germans. 
 Two years later, June, 1854, he was succeeded by 
 Father R. A. Gangloff. Thus, beginning with Father 
 Bokel, Memphis and its missions never had less than 
 three priests.™*. 
 
 The missionary force was also increased in middle 
 Tennessee. A Father Augustine Murphy reached there 
 sometime in 1854, or perhaps late in the previous year. 
 Most likely he came from Ireland, as we could find no 
 earlier trace of him in the United States; and possibly 
 
 34 Church records of Saint Peter’s, Memphis. Father Cubero was born 
 in Saragossa, Spain, March 7, 1807, and entered the Order of Saint 
 Dominic in his native land. At the time of the suppression of the relig- 
 ious orders in Spain, he went to Italy, and was ordained at Viterbo in 
 1837. With the exception of the few months in Tennessee, he spent his 
 priestly life in Ohio and Kentucky. About 1861, while at Zanesville, 
 Ohio, he obtained permission to become a missionary apostolic. He then 
 labored at Dayton, Ohio, for nine or ten years, and for a short while 
 in Louisville Kentucky. Early in 1872, he became chaplain of the Do- 
 minican Sisters at Saint Catherine’s, near Springfield, Kentucky, where 
 he died on July 15, 1883. 
 
FAIRER GROWTH 467 
 
 his services were obtained by Father Schacht, while 
 the latter was in Europe. Father Nicholas R. Young, 
 a nephew of Ohio’s veteran missioner of the same pat- 
 ronymic, appeared in Nashville late in 1854, or early 
 in 1855. He had been sent by the Dominican provincial 
 to the aid of the sorely pressed bishop, and remained for 
 over a year and a half.” 
 
 Father Orengo, although he had missions of his own, 
 was eminently an itinerant harvester of souls. A spiri- 
 tual watchman we may call him. Ever on the alert, as 
 well as ready for the orders of his bishop, an appeal 
 from a brother priest, a call from the people, or a notice 
 from some one in need, whether spiritual or temporal, 
 the Italian clergyman was here, there, and everywhere. 
 It took more than one horse with sinews of steel for his 
 incessant travels. Nowhere was he a stranger through- 
 out the length and breadth of Tennessee. Oftentimes 
 did the bare earth serve him for a bed, the saddle for a 
 pillow, and the overhanging trees for protection, whilst 
 the stars in heaven’s canopy twinkled joyfully down 
 upon his peaceful slumbers at night. He appeared 
 never to grow weary, nor to become discouraged. 
 
 Not infrequently his only food for the day consisted 
 of cheese and crackers, which he ever carried in his 
 pockets. For his faithful steed he stored corn in a bag 
 
 35 Father Young’s name appears in the Almanac for Tennessee only 
 in 1856, but he baptizes at Nashville in February, 1855. Father Murphy’s 
 is given for the first time in the Almanac in 1855. There is something of 
 a tradition in Nashville that Bishop Miles went to Ireland on business in 
 the early fifties; but as no record to that effect could be discovered, and 
 all indications seem to point to the contrary, we are inclined to the belief 
 that Father Schacht’s visit abroad has been changed into a journey of 
 the bishop. It is possible, however, that Father Murphy received orders 
 
 late in life in this country—perhaps even from Bishop Miles himself, 
 though no record of it was discovered. 
 
468 THE FATHER OF THE CHURCH IN TENNESSEE 
 
 flung across the animal’s back. While it enjoyed its 
 meal, he partook of his own frugal portion, which 
 he washed down with a little coffee heated in a tin cup 
 (both of which he invariably took with him) over a small 
 fire lighted by the roadside. Nor rain nor shine, nor 
 heat nor cold, did he suffer to prevent a work of mercy, 
 whether spiritual or temporal. Balmy as the climate of 
 his native land was his cheerful disposition. Hiveryone 
 loved him, for he greeted all with an open heart, no less 
 than with a glad hand and a welcoming smile. Uncom- 
 promising with evil and error, he was the soul of com- 
 passion towards the sinner and the deceived. Many 
 wayward lives did he reform; not a few converts did 
 he bring into the Church.*® 
 
 Father John M. Jacquet was another of 'Tennessee’s 
 indefatigable missionaries. Indeed, there seems to have 
 been almost a holy rivalry among some of them to see 
 who could undergo the greatest hardships and priva- 
 tions. From the time he left the cathedral (1847 or 
 1848), he knew no rest. At first, his visits extended 
 from Chattanooga to Jonesborough. Later he was 
 commissioned to look after the spiritual needs of the 
 Catholic laborers in the coal mines and on the railroads 
 and other public works in the southern and eastern 
 parts of the state—mostly around Chattanooga. He is 
 said to have built a small church near the Chattanooga 
 tunnel, which was burned down by “the enemy.” 
 
 36 Some years ago, the old people in Tennessee were wont to tell the 
 most edifying stories of Father Orengo’s missionary life there. The late 
 Rev. Eugene Gazzo and two of the early Dominican Sisters at Memphis, 
 Sisters Vincent Nicolas and Mary Pius Fitzpatrick, loved to dwell on the 
 Italian Friar Preacher’s zeal, labors, and spirit of self-sacrifice. More 
 than once, starting from one extreme of the state for another, he trav- 
 ersed practically its entire length, stopping at his own mission in the 
 central part, just long enough to take a meal and change horses. 
 
FAIRER GROWTH 469 
 
 Following the toilers from place to place, he slept in 
 hovels, subsisted on the coarsest food (which he often 
 prepared for himself), and wore the rough garments of 
 the ordinary workman of his day. Never was he heard 
 to complain of his lot. He bore all and did all with 
 alacrity, for it was for the glory of God and the sal- 
 vation of souls. Only one fault did the people find with 
 him, namely that he was at times somewhat harsh and 
 crabbed. Children are said to have feared him for this 
 failing, which was no doubt due in part to the life 
 which necessity forced upon him. Beneath a severe 
 outward appearance there beat a heart tender as a 
 mother’s, no less than true as steel. 
 
 Unfortunately, Father Jacquet engaged to labor in 
 Tennessee for only ten years. At the end of this period, 
 doubtless feeling that he had done his part by the 
 Diocese of Nashville, he applied to be received into that 
 of Cincinnati. Bishop Miles in a letter of date Septem- 
 ber 19, 1855, to the Most Rev. John B. Purcell indicates 
 his regret at the loss of so valuable a priest. Apart 
 from the slight fault just mentioned, Bishop Miles tells 
 his friend Father Jacquet “is an excellent missioner; 
 industrious and full of zeal; plain, honest, and blunt; 
 and one that will never deceive you.” *‘ 
 
 37 Notre Dame Archives. At first, Father Jacquet wished to go to 
 California; but Archbishop Alemany, unwilling to deprive the Diocese 
 of Nashville of so serviceable a priest, did not encourage his proffer. 
 Father Jacquet was born of Claude and Claudine (Blethery) Jacquet at 
 Saint Bonnet, France, August 20, 1817. He was ordained by Louis J. M. 
 Cardinal de Bonald, archbishop of Lyons, December 21, 1844. On March 
 7, 1845, he obtained the cardinal’s permission to leave France for the 
 Diocese of Nashville. 
 
 In Ohio his labors were not less hard, zealous, and self-sacrificing than 
 they had been in Tennessee. At first, he was stationed at Temperance- 
 
 ville (Saint Mary’s), Belmont County. About 1866 he went to reside 
 at Bellaire, where he had built a church, and was there when that part of 
 
470 THE FATHER OF THE CHURCH IN TENNESSEE 
 
 Although cast in a milder mold, and possessed of a 
 more retiring disposition, than his French co-laborer 
 whose toils in Tennessee we have just outlined, Father 
 Louis Hoste was not less zealous, indefatigable, or 
 willing to endure hardships. He seems to have been 
 blessed with a sweet priestly character to which the 
 Catholics, and even Protestants, took instinctively. 
 Possibly because of his gentle nature, he had no love 
 for positions of authority which sometimes. demand 
 stern decision, if not even stern action. ‘This, we are 
 inclined to believe, was what induced him to resign the 
 vicar-generalship. He Seems also to have preferred the 
 quiet of life in the country to the noise, bustle, and dis- 
 tractions of that in a city.* 
 
 While he resided in Nashville, saintly Father Hoste 
 had attended several missions in northern ‘Tennessee 
 from 1845 or 1846. From 1848, if not before the close 
 of the previous year, he made his home at Saint 
 Michael’s, Robertson County, where he at once opened 
 a school for both sexes and an orphan asylum for boys, 
 of which we shall speak more at length later. Suffice 
 it here to state that these institutions, together with the 
 parish, required all this zealous priest’s time until near 
 the state was taken (1868) to form the Diocese of Columbus. In 1869 
 he was transferred to Coshocton. In all these places he had charge of 
 several missions. In 1895 he retired. In the following year he went to 
 spend the rest of his days with Bishop Nicholas A. Gallagher (whom he 
 had largely educated for the priesthood), at Galveston, Texas, where 
 he died on October 24, 1896. 
 
 Until the end of his long life, he retained the highest regard and the 
 deepest affection for Bishop Miles; which, no doubt, combined with his 
 own touch with the fathers in Tennessee and the traces of their labors 
 in Ohio to make him an ardent admirer of the Order of Saint Dominic. 
 This admiration he instilled into the future bishop of Galveston. 
 
 38 Traditions still live of Father Hoste’s mild and amiable disposition, 
 and of how he was loved by children. 
 
FAIRER GROWTH 471 
 
 the end of the period of Bishop Miles’ life covered by 
 the present chapter. Just when Father Hoste resigned 
 his post as vicar general we have not been able to deter- 
 mine with certainty. Although the title does not 
 appear after his name from 1848, we are convinced that 
 his resignation was not accepted until the appointment 
 of a successor four years later; for so apostolic a bishop 
 would hardly have left such an important position 
 vacant for that length of time.” 
 
 Father Samuel Montgomery, stalwart of character, 
 as well as possessed of rare prudence and judgment, 
 became vicar general in 1852, holding the position 
 through the remainder of Bishop Miles’ life and the 
 short administration of his successor, the Right Rev. 
 James Whelan. Doubtless it was because of these 
 sterling qualities that the Father of the Church in 
 Tennessee selected him for the place, even though he 
 was not a diocesan clergyman. ‘Tradition tells us that 
 the choice met with universal favor, for by all was he 
 regarded as a man of God. Ever ready for whatever 
 task was assigned him, he continued to be very useful, 
 in spite of his age. 
 
 Vigorous Father Ivo Schacht, just in the prime of 
 manhood, seemed never to tire. The records of the old 
 cathedral show his labors in Nashville, while the History 
 of the Sisters of Charity of Leavenworth attests his 
 interest in that community as long as it remained in 
 Tennessee. It must have been his youth, or perhaps an 
 incipient manifestation of his self-will and officiousness, 
 that prevented his appointment as vicar general. One 
 of the new-comers, Father Murphy, superintended the 
 bishop’s school and visited neighboring missions. The 
 
 39 Catholic Almanacs from 1846 to 1855. 
 
472 THE FATHER OF THE CHURCH IN TENNESSEE 
 
 other, Father Young, appears to have been largely 
 employed in preaching or lecturing through the state. 
 
 Anti-Catholic bigotry has never been more rampant 
 or violent in the country than it was at this period. 
 To Tennessee’s credit be it said that, while it was there, 
 it did not attain the strength which might have been 
 expected. Possibly this was due in no small measure to 
 the influence of Bishop Miles and his clergy. Knox- 
 ville, where priests had been seen the least frequently, 
 witnessed perhaps the most violent manifestations of the 
 unnatural frenzy. When, early in 1855, a plot of 
 ground one hundred and-fifty feet square was purchased 
 just outside the city limits for Catholic purposes, the 
 wrath of the bigots knew no bounds. 
 
 Tradition, which has found its way into manuscript 
 and public print more than once, tells us that Father 
 Brown was compelled to have the little stone church, 
 which he started at once, guarded day and night to 
 prevent the walls from being torn down, and the mate- 
 rial thrown into the Tennessee River. History sug- 
 gests that the prejudice was strongest among the 
 descendants of the former Catholic families spoken of 
 by Father Badin. However, the fair-minded Protes- 
 tants prevailed, and peace was restored. The Know- 
 
 ville Register of June 7, 1855, told its readers: 
 
 The building designed for a Catholic Church and school in this 
 city is still in a state of progress. We have been requested to 
 state that the lot on which it is being constructed was not given 
 to the Catholic Church by any member of the American Party, but 
 was purchased from Jacob Newman, deceased, who of course had 
 a right to sell it to any one he pleased. We make this statement 
 as an act of justice to all concerned—as true facts that cannot be 
 
 doubted.?9 
 40 Deed Book T, pp. 385-387 (Recorder’s Office, Knoxville) contains a 
 

 
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 THE IMMACULATE CONCEPTION CHURCH 
 
 KNOXVILLE’S FIRST RESIDENT PASTOR, FIRST CHURCH, AND THE 
 PRIEST WHO PREACHED AT ITS DEDICATION 
 
FAIRER GROWTH 473 
 
 The exquisitely beautiful little temple of prayer was 
 dedicated to God, under the title of the Immaculate 
 Conception, shortly after the Register’s statement. 
 Bishop Miles, it is said, performed the ceremony, and 
 Father Nicholas R. Young preached a sermon. Know- 
 ing what we do of the Friar Preacher’s classic diction, 
 eloquence, and happiness of speech, it is hardly an 
 exaggeration to say that his discourse must have not 
 only pleased his audience, but also have done much to 
 allay the spirit of intolerance in Knoxville. Before the 
 close of the year (1855), the Rev. Joseph L. Biemans, 
 a splendid type of the Belgian missionary, arrived in 
 Nashville. He was forthwith stationed at Knoxville as 
 its first resident pastor, with a charge that extended 
 near and far. Bishop Miles could have but experienced 
 the keenest joy that this part of his diocese could at 
 last practically sustain a priest, and that he could spare 
 one for its special care.* 
 
 title bond dated February 28, 1855, whereby Jacob and William G. New- 
 man bind themselves under penalty of twenty-four hundred dollars to 
 deed to Bishop Miles a plot of ground fronting one hundred and fifty 
 feet on Vine Street, and extending one hundred and fifty feet along 
 Crooked Street, when he paid the last four hundred of the twelve hun- 
 dred dollars of the purchase money. This was to be on February 28, 
 1857. Deed Book V, pp. 575-576, gives the deed for the same to Miles, 
 February 2, 1857, by T. W. and J. W. Newman, administrators of Jacob 
 Newman, for themselves and William Newman. Deed Book W, pp. 13-14, 
 gives a deed for an adjoining plot (fronting ten feet on Walnut Street, 
 and extending, the same width, the full length of the above property) 
 by Willlam G. Swan to Bishop Miles. The instrument states that Mr. 
 Swan did this for “a sufficient consideration.” It is said that Swan, 
 though not a Catholic, made the bishop a present of these ten feet so 
 that no one would be able to build a house too near the pretty little stone 
 church. 
 
 41 An outline of Father Bieman’s life on the back of a mortuary card 
 says that he was born at Edeghem, Belgium, November 3, 1831, left his 
 native country for the missions of the United States in 1851, and was 
 sent to Knoxville in 1853. This last date is certainly erroneous, and we 
 
474 THE FATHER OF THE CHURCH IN TENNESSEE 
 
 This arrangement left Father Brown free to devote 
 his undivided attention to the growing parish at Chat- 
 tanooga and its missions. At Memphis Father Grace 
 was always and ably assisted by two curates. When 
 (in June, 1854) Father Bokel, who was much beloved 
 wherever he labored, became master of novices in Ohio, 
 Father Gangloff took his place at Saint Peter’s. The 
 care of the Germans in western ‘Tennessee fell partic- 
 ularly to these two men, but they also gave a helping 
 hand to the pastor in other work.** Father Cleary did 
 not confine his labors to the diocese. Up and down the 
 majestic Father of Waters he travelled, laboring among 
 the workmen on the boats and levees, no less than trav- 
 ersed northwestern Mississippi, eastern Arkansas, and 
 western Tennessee in every direction. 
 
 Perhaps no clergyman ever chose harder, less invit- 
 ing, and more unwholesome toil than that to which this 
 self-sacrificing son of Saint Dominic devoted himself 
 with all his heart. He was the soul of charity. The 
 
 are strongly inclined to think that the second is also an error. The 
 card was got out in London, England, where he had labored, after leav- 
 ing Tennessee, until two years before his death, which took place in his 
 native town. This may account for the errors. Very likely Father 
 Schacht came in touch with him in 1852 or 1853, and engaged his ser- 
 vices for Tennessee when he should be ordained, which, if the date given 
 for his birth is correct, could hardly have taken place earlier than 1854. 
 
 42 Almanacs from 1853 to 1856; Father Bokel’s diary. Father Bokel 
 was born on September 1, 1820, in the hamlet of Herbergen, near Lonin- 
 gen, in southwestern Oldenburg, Germany. His parents were George and 
 Catherine (Kramer) Bokel. He came to Baltimore in 1838. In 1842 he 
 went to Saint Joseph’s, in Ohio, as a postulant. There he received the 
 habit of Saint Dominic, September 18, 1844, made his profession, Sep- 
 tember 25, 1845, and was ordained by Archbishop Eccleston on June 20, 
 1848. He remained in Ohio until made the first pastor of the Germans 
 in Memphis. After leaving there, he labored in many parts of the country 
 (principally in Ohio, Kentucky, and Washington City), and spent much 
 time on the missions. 
 
FAIRER GROWTH 475 
 
 poor were the special object of his tireless ministra- 
 tions. No wonder the people loved him. Labor and 
 exposure undermined his health, rendering him an easy 
 victim for the yellow fever which he contracted while 
 attending the sick, and of which he died on September 
 17, 1855, within a few hours after he was stricken with 
 the fatal malady. 
 
 The Daily Appeal of Memphis says of him, Sep- 
 tember 18, 1855: “We regret to announce the death, 
 of yellow fever, on yesterday, of Father Cleary. We 
 have the assurance that his decease was produced by 
 unremitted attention to the sick of his congregation and 
 his previous delicate health.” Similarly, the Catholic 
 Telegraph of September twenty-ninth states: “We 
 have heard with deep regret of the death of Rev. Mr. 
 Cleary, of congestive [yellow] fever, at Memphis a 
 few days since. Mr. Cleary was ordained at St. 
 Joseph’s, Somerset, by Archbishop Purcell only about 
 four or five years ago; but his services to religion in 
 Memphis, and for many miles up and down the Mis- 
 sissippi, will never be forgotten.” *° 
 
 Although it was much against his will, his lovable character caused 
 him to be nearly always in some post of responsibility. He was superior 
 at Memphis in 1878, and was engaged in giving a retreat when the yellow 
 fever epidemic of that year broke out. At once he stopped the retreat, 
 and hurried back to the afflicted city; but on his arrival he received a 
 telegram ordering him away in virtue of holy obedience. From this will 
 be seen the lack of both charity and truth in the insinuation of a certain 
 paper that he fled because of terror. No man would have laid down his 
 life more courageously than Father Bokel. In advanced age he spent 
 several years as chaplain of the Dominican Sisters of Sinsinawa, Wis- 
 consin. Wherever he labored, he left a hallowed memory because of his 
 priestly zeal, and saintly life, and eminent virtues. He died in Washington 
 City, March 28, 1902. 
 
 43 Father Cleary was born in Dublin, Ireland, in March, 1827, his 
 
 parents being Thomas and Margaret (Deagan) Cleary. There also he 
 received his early education. In 1844 he came direct to Saint Joseph’s, in 
 
476 THE FATHER OF THE CHURCH IN TENNESSEE 
 
 Father Cleary was the first priest to die of yellow 
 fever in ‘Tennessee. His premature death was a shock 
 to his many friends, a severe loss to religion as well as 
 to his brethren, and no doubt a cause of deep sorrow 
 to Bishop Miles. Father Orengo filled the gap created 
 by it at Memphis until the arrival of a successor late in 
 November. 
 
 Ohio, as a postulant, received the habit on November 16, 1845, and took 
 the religious vows a twelvemonth later. He was ordained by Archbishop 
 Purcell, July 26, 1850. Thence until he went to Memphis he labored in 
 
 Ohio. His priestly career was short in years, but filled with fruitful 
 toil, and rich in virtue. 
 
CHAPTER XX 
 RESUME—PERSONS AND PLACES 
 
 Years ago, Brother Azarias wrote of Catholic 
 history: “The past is ours, but we treat it shamefully. 
 We neglect it; we let its sacred memory be enyeloped 
 in a growth of rank weeds that hide or efface its noble 
 records; we permit its deeds to be misrepresented, its 
 honor to be stained, its glory to be tarnished; and 
 scarcely, if at all, in feeble accents do we enter protest.” 
 In a similar strain, a contributor to the Nashville 
 Banner of October 24, 1897, told his readers: “If the 
 walls of beautiful St. Mary’s Cathedral could speak, 
 they would tell the heart story of many a one who has 
 worshipped God within their confines in the half 
 century the edifice has been dedicated to the service 
 of God. Not even the most casual visitor can cross its 
 sacred threshold without a feeling of reverential awe.” 
 
 Kindred thoughts and sentiments are responsible, in 
 part at least, for the chapter which we now undertake. 
 Besides, there can be no diocese without the faithful. 
 whilst beginnings have a special interest all their own. 
 However, since a mutiplicity of the names of the early 
 Catholics would render our volume of undue size, and 
 is scarcely expected in a work of its character, we shall 
 be content with the earliest discovered in the research 
 which was more or less directed merely to the acquisition 
 of a better knowledge of Bishop Miles’ pastoral life in 
 Tennessee. 
 
 477 
 
478 THE FATHER OF THE CHURCH IN TENNESSEE 
 
 In fact, this part of our story is a later determination. 
 While, for the reason given, it must necessarily be 
 incomplete, and perhaps at times inexact, it can hardly 
 fail to be of interest to the reader, especially the Ten- 
 nesseean. May its recital lead to a history along the lines 
 of the excellent book of the Hon. Ben. Webb on 
 Catholicity in the neighboring State of Kentucky. 
 The centenary of the diocese would be an appropriate 
 occasion for its appearance, as well as afford time for 
 ransacking records, both civic and ecclesiastic, which 
 would be necessary in order that the task might be at 
 all well done. Nor can the Knights of Columbus in the 
 Diocese of Nashville aid a work that would redound 
 more to their credit.’ 
 
 Few will be disposed to question that Timothy De 
 Montbrun and his family were Nashville’s first Cath- 
 olics. Others perhaps were not slow to follow, though, 
 through lack of priests, they most probably gave up 
 their faith. In the issue of the Banner just quoted we 
 read: “The records of 1784-1785 show that of the 
 twenty-six taxpayers enrolled on the books half a dozen 
 bear Catholic names, viz.: Carr, Gillespie, Hayes, 
 
 1 From the above remarks the reader can see that this chapter is an 
 afterthought. It was not decided upon until much of the book had been 
 actually written, and when it was too late personally to copy names from 
 the baptismal records, without another visit to Tennessee. Fortunately, 
 however, we had done this for Nashville; while Fathers Francis D. 
 Grady of Knoxville and Innocent Damiani of Memphis kindly sent us 
 the earliest records of those places, and Miss Nora Crimmins copied the 
 first year (1852) of the register at Chattanooga. Nearly all the other 
 names we give are taken from notes of or letters to Fathers William 
 Walsh and John K. Larkin, which we transcribed while at the Cathedral, 
 Nashville. Although, for this reason, in the matter of earliest names 
 (always one of the historian’s hardest problems), we can hardly claim 
 that degree of certitude which we make bold to believe characterizes the 
 
 rest of the book, it is still hoped that the present chapter will fairly serve 
 the purpose for which it is written. 
 
RESUME—PERSONS AND PLACES 479 
 
 Mulloy, Neville, and Walker.”* About the first five 
 of these names there can be little doubt. There are 
 others not less distinctly Catholic in the early annals 
 of the state capital; but, as it is not known whether 
 they professed the religion indicated by their patro- 
 nymics, it seems useless to give them here. 
 
 Father Badin has told us that there were a few 
 Catholics in the city and vicinity in the opening years 
 of the nineteenth century, although he mentions only 
 the staunch old Frenchman, De Montbrun. Never- 
 theless an apparently well authenticated tradition tells 
 us that there was then in Nashville a Mrs. Jane Manea, 
 a native of Dublin, Ireland, and that mass was said in 
 her house in 1810, which, it will be recalled, was the 
 year in which the venerable missionary visited the city. 
 Her daughter Jane married a man by the name of 
 Carroll from Virginia, and her descendants still live in 
 Tennessee’s capital.° 
 
 Although others might possibly be unearthed in the 
 county records, the names of practically all the Catholics 
 who went to labor on Nashville’s first bridge are now 
 buried in oblivion. Philip Callaghan, who later married 
 Mrs. Manea’s granddaughter, Mary Carroll, seems to 
 have been one of them. Joseph Dwyer and his wife, 
 whose daughter Elizabeth became Mrs. William D. 
 
 2 Nashville Banner, October 24, 1897. Facts, August 18, 1894, Barr 
 (St. Mary's Cathedral, Nashville, Tennessee, p. 9), and a manuscript 
 sketch by Father William Walsh (Nashville Archives) make the same 
 statement. 
 
 3 This tradition is still rather general in Nashville. It is particularly 
 strong among the descendants of Philip Callaghan, an early Catholic 
 of the city who married Mary Carroll, a granddaughter of Mrs. Manea. 
 One of them, Mrs. Thomas J. Tyne, still preserves and treasures two 
 
 silver candlesticks used at mass in the Manea homestead, and two crystal 
 vases employed in administering the sacrament of baptism. 
 
480 THE FATHER OF THE CHURCH IN TENNESSEE 
 
 Phillips; Patrick Kinney; and Daniel Barr, who mar- 
 ried Miss Susanna Gallagher, go back to the early days 
 of the city’s Catholicity, if they were not even among 
 the mechanics taken down from Pittsburgh, Cincinnati, 
 or Louisville. Possibly a Mr. Gallagher and a Mr. 
 Slavin, whose first names and family connections we 
 did not learn, Thomas McLaughlin and his wife Ann, 
 and a Mrs. Flowers go back almost to the same period.* 
 
 The five brothers, Michael, Hugh, James, Patrick, 
 and William Burns, and Thomas and Margaret 
 (Coyle) Farrell, together with their son James, who 
 is said to have been Nashville’s first altar boy, certainly 
 settled in the city in the thirties. To the same period 
 belong John and Elizabeth (McGran) McGovern; 
 John McHenry; John Herman and Mary (Ratter- 
 man) Buddeke; John G. and Frederic Ratterman 
 (possibly also their father, Bernard Ratterman, who 
 died at Nashville in 1852, at the age of eighty-two 
 years); and Andrew Morrison, whose wife was Miss 
 Sarah Lawrence. ‘The agent for the Catholic Advocate 
 at Nashville, from 1836 to 1838, was one F. Lynch. He 
 was succeeded by W. Dougherty. Others still might 
 be revealed in Father Durbin’s records at Saint 
 Vincent’s. Union County, Kentucky.° 
 
 Old Saint Mary’s registers, now at the new cathedral, 
 show the baptisms, in 1838, of the children of 'Thomas 
 
 4 The above is a prevailing opinion in Nashville, and one finds it stated 
 in’more than one short account of the city’s early Catholicity. 
 
 5 The burial records show that Bernard Ratterman died on September 
 2, 1852. Probably he was the father of the other Rattermans. The 
 Advocate for these years, passim, gives Lynch and Dougherty as its agents 
 in Nashville. Staunch Michael Burns married Miss Margaret Gilliam, 
 who was not a Catholic at the time; but she became an exemplary con- 
 
 vert. A number of the names in these two paragraphs appear on the early 
 church records. 
 
RESUME—PERSONS AND PLACES 481 
 
 and Catherine (Molloy) May; John and Mary 
 (Hughes) Flannagan; Joseph and Louisa (Mitchel) 
 Despres; John and Emily (Frensly) Garvin; Cor- 
 nelius and Tabitha (Allen) Boyle; and John and 
 Martha (Watterson) Griffin. Omitting all names that 
 have appeared before, as was done in the case of those 
 whose children were baptized at this time, the sponsors 
 were: Patrick Monahan, Catherine Brannan, Charles 
 Kinney, Mary Kinney, W. and Jane Murray, William 
 Lowe, and Eleanor McLaughlin. 
 
 These were followed, in the next year, by the baptism 
 of children whose parents were: John and Mary (San- 
 ders) Dane; George and Louisa (Kutman) Benzer; 
 Andrew and Caroline (Dildy) O’Neil; James and 
 Margaret (Shaunpy) Quinlon; Patrick and Martha 
 (Woods) Armstrong; Jeremiah and Mary (Lyning) 
 Donovan; William and Bridget (Coyle) Lowe; John 
 and Judith Baptiste; Charles and Frances French; 
 and James and Mary (Harrison) McGrath. The 
 sponsors in 1839, still omitting names previously shown, 
 were: Julius Werner, Dina Burns, Collum Dorly, Ann 
 Fitzsimmons, Kennedy Lonergan, Eleanor Fitzsim- 
 mons, Martin and Anastasia Brazil, Jeremiah Shin- 
 nick, Jane McCarthy, James McLaughlin, Eleanor 
 McGovern, Mary Bonfils, William Dougherty (likely 
 the Advocate’s agent), James McDermott, and Eleanor 
 McLaughlin. Daniel McGrath, whose wife was bap- 
 tized in 1840, should also be included in the list. 
 
 Doubtless these names, together with some that 
 appear in the records of 1840 and 1841, represent the 
 handful of Catholic families with which Bishop Miles 
 began his pastoral labors in Nashville. George H. 
 Wessell, the Kuhns, and Mr. and Mrs. Francis A. 
 
 32 
 
482 THE FATHER OF THE CHURCH IN TENNESSEE 
 
 Hyronemus, J. D. Plunkett, Mr. and Mrs. Francis 
 W. Collet, and William Dorrity, who are sometimes 
 mentioned as persons who took an active part in early 
 church affairs, appear to belong to a somewhat later 
 date. The same is true of Mrs. Charles Sanders, whose 
 name has appeared in a previous chapter. ‘Thomas 
 Murphy likewise belongs to this category. He was 
 probably a grandnephew of Bishop Miles, and brother 
 to Mrs. Sarah (Murphy) Marcell who held the position 
 of organist in the cathedral for a number of years, and 
 was noted for her musical accomplishments.° 
 
 Indeed, it is said that not a few of our prelate’s 
 Catholic admirers in Kentucky followed him to Nash- 
 ville, one of whom was Joseph H. McGill, a brother of 
 the third bishop of Richmond, Virginia. Irish names 
 outnumber those of any other nationality in the bap- 
 tismal records through all Bishop Miles’ life as chief 
 pastor. German patronymics appear with the next 
 greatest frequency. It was in part for the benefit of 
 this portion of the parish that Father Schacht was first 
 brought from Clarksville to the cathedral, and special 
 services were held for them at given hours on Sunday. 
 One is rather surprised at the number of French and 
 Italian names, and it explains why the old Catholic 
 Almanacs speak of Fathers Hoste and Jacquet being 
 the pastors of the French in the city. 
 
 The Buddekes, Rattermans, Wessells, Kuhns, and 
 Hyronemuses, we are told, were leaders in German 
 Catholic activities. Michael Burns, Philip Callaghan, 
 Thomas Farrell, Mrs. Charles Sanders, Mrs. William 
 
 6 The Nashville Banner of April 30, 1904, says that Mrs. Marcell was 
 the second organist of the cathedral. Doubtless the Henry C. Marcell, 
 whose death is noted in the cathedral records as having taken place on 
 February 8, 1854 (“aged 49 years”), was her husband. 
 
RESUME—PERSONS AND PLACES 483 
 
 D. Phillips, and her daughter, Mrs. Felix Demoville, 
 and Philip Olwell were among those who never tired 
 in aiding religion in whatever way they could. Burns 
 and Farrell seem often to have been the bishop’s 
 advisers in matters financial. Whilst the sum generally 
 given (eighteen hundred dollars) is likely an exaggera- 
 tion, it can hardly be denied that these last two gentle- 
 men canvassed the city for means to repair Holy 
 Rosary Cathedral before the arrival of the Father of 
 the Church in Tennessee, or that by far the greater 
 amount was subscribed by non-Catholics.’ 
 
 Frequent reference has been made to the generosity 
 and kindliness of this latter element in the city towards 
 the bishop. Among those who showed him a signal 
 friendship must be placed Felix Grundy and his family. 
 Another was Vernon K. Stephenson, whose wife, Miss 
 Elizabeth Childress, was one of Nashville’s early con- 
 verts and devout Catholics. 
 
 In this connection, it should be further noted that the 
 homes of the Catholics, whether rich or poor, were ever 
 open to their clergy without limit as to the time of wel- 
 come. ‘The bishop himself, in the goodness of his heart, 
 did not hesitate to give his own room to some travelling 
 priest, and trust to this southern hospitality for his per- 
 sonal accommodation. Callaghan, Buddeke, Burns, 
 Farrell, Ratterman, Phillips, Sanders, and Wessell are 
 the names most frequently mentioned as those who often 
 thus sheltered the care-worn ambassadors of Christ. 
 Possibly the recurrence of such acts of charity, espe- 
 cially in the earlier missionary days, is responsible for the 
 
 7 The activity, goodness, and interest of these people still form the 
 subject of frequent conversation, for they are one of Nashville’s cherished 
 traditions. We also find them mentioned in a number of brief accounts 
 of the early Church there. 
 
484 THE FATHER OF THE CHURCH IN TENNESSEE 
 
 exaggerated time the bishop or a priest is said to have 
 lived in some of these homes.® 
 
 The principal interest of all, even if they could do 
 but little towards the project, was not merely that they 
 should have a place of worship worthy of the great 
 purpose to which it was to be consecrated. ‘They wished 
 it to contribute to the greater glory of God and His true 
 Church by the fact that it should be one of the finest 
 ecclesiastical structures in Tennessee’s capital. For 
 this Father Brown’s artistic talent and training came in 
 well. During the first two or three years of his priestly 
 life, he devoted every spare moment to painting and 
 decorating the interior of the sacred edifice; and when 
 he completed the task, their was perhaps no other such 
 object of art in the state comparable to his work in the 
 Seven Dolors Cathedral. 
 
 Sumner County’s first Catholics, it can hardly be 
 doubted, were Hugh and Nancy (Duffy) Rogan, and 
 their sons Bernard and Francis. ‘The latter and his 
 children William, John, Charles, and Clarissa (Mrs. 
 Joseph Desha) long remained among the Church’s 
 mainstays there. At Gallatin, the county-seat and not 
 far distant from Rogana, or the Rogan home, Miss 
 Jean or Jeanne Floyd was one of the earliest members 
 of the faith. There also, or in the vicinity, settled the 
 pioneers Francis, John, Patrick, and Michael Duffy, 
 and brought their aged father. John Dwyer and his 
 family, James Galvin, the two brothers, Daniel and 
 Andrew McAulay, together with their sister Anne, and 
 
 8 William D. Phillips lived in Edgefield, now East Nashville. He 
 himself became a Catholic only on his death-bed. Still his family were of 
 the faith, and in his home mass was said for the people in that neighbor- 
 
 hood. Charles Sanders was another of the bishop’s friends who came 
 into the Church late in life. 
 
RESUME—PERSONS AND PLACES 485 
 
 apparently a family by the name of Fisher formed 
 another group. 
 
 Quite possibly some of these people labored on the 
 Nashville bridge, and moved to Sumner County after 
 its completion. The two McAulay men were agents 
 for the Catholic Advocate, which, in its issue of May 7, 
 1842, tells us: 
 
 Died in Gallatin, Tennessee, on Saturday, the 2nd of April, 
 after a lingering illness of about a month, Mr. Daniel McAulay, 
 in the fifty-third year of his age. Mr. McAulay was a native of 
 Ireland, but had been a resident of Gallatin for twenty-seven 
 years previous to his death. Although thrown by circumstances 
 into a situation where he had no opportunity of practising, during 
 a long series of years, the observances of the Church, yet he 
 adhered strenuously to the faith of his forefathers, and by the 
 integrity of his conduct, and the rich vein of benevolence and 
 Christian charity which animated all his intercourse with society, 
 won for himself and for the faith he professed the respect of those 
 by whom he was surrounded.? 
 
 Saint Michael’s, the reader will recall, is between 
 Turnersville and Springfield in the adjoining county 
 Robertson. This place was sometimes called the 
 “Byrnes colony” from the fact that it seems to have been 
 started by one John Byrne, who moved there from 
 Davidson County with his wife, family, a widowed 
 sister (Mrs. Redmond), and her two children about 
 1838. The baptismal register at Nashville shows the 
 names of Henry, Frances, and Harriet Redmond. 
 Although Saint Michael’s was the center of considerable 
 missionary activity, the only other names discovered in 
 connection with it were Levi and Mary (Fisher) 
 
 
 
 9 The Advocate of September 24, 1842, shows that Anne McAulay died 
 on the seventh of the previous August; while its issue of November 5, 
 1845, gives an account of the death of the young convert wife of Andrew 
 McAulay, which occurred on the sixth of the preceding July. 
 
486 THE FATHER OF THE CHURCH IN TENNESSEE 
 
 Traughber, Joseph Watson, and a Frenchman called 
 Gustave Bouchard. Miss Dorothy Byrne, a daughter of 
 the pioneer settler, devoted her long life to the Catholic 
 education of the children in the neighborhood of the 
 church. 
 
 However, there were several Catholic families on the 
 outskirts between this mission and that of Rogana. In 
 this section lived people by the name of Hynes, Don- 
 ohue, O’F laherty, Morgan, Badjer, and so on. Mass 
 was said for them in the home of Michael Hynes, 
 Saundersville, and in that of Mrs. O’Flaherty, at 
 Goodletsville. | 
 
 Protestant good-will and generosity (or was it in part 
 a spirit of enterprise for the growth of the city) were 
 largely responsible for the erection of a church in beau- 
 tiful Clarksville at so early a date; for there were very 
 few of the faith in that locality at the time. ‘The heads 
 of the earliest Catholic families there, so far as could be 
 gleaned from parish records and other sources, were Mr. 
 and Mrs. Thomas McManus; Hugh and Mary (Can- 
 on) Foy; George Kinney and wife; a Mr. Dougherty 
 and a Mr. Walter; Balthasar and Martha Griter; Pe- 
 ter and Collette Catoir; James and Honora Coughlan; 
 Thomas and Henrietta Marten (Mr. Marten was not 
 a Catholic) ; Francis and Mary McManus; Michael and 
 Anna (Corts) Schmitt; Thomas and Catherine (Bur- 
 den) McMahon; John and Sarah Dunlevy; Denis 
 and Honora Sullivan; John and Henrietta O’Neal; 
 and perhaps Andrew and Margaret O’Sullivan. Pat- 
 rick McManus, Margaret Griter, John Barres, John 
 Whelan, Lucy H. Scott, Louis Schmitt, and Edward 
 Ryan were also pioneer Catholics of the district; but we 
 
RESUME—PERSONS AND PLACES 487 
 
 did not discover whether they were married or single.”° 
 
 Happily, the reminiscences of Humphreys County 
 have been better preserved. In his report for the 
 Catholic Almanac of 1845, Bishop Miles says of the 
 settlement there: “This is a new plantation comprising 
 a large tract of good and cheap land, sixty miles from 
 Nashville, near the Tennessee River, and on the stage 
 road from Nashville to Memphis.” A Doctor Knapp 
 of New Orleans, who married a Miss Neale of Mary- 
 land, purchased an extensive area in this county, and 
 donated a thousand acres to the bishop, which the 
 apostolic man sold for twenty-five cents an acre in an 
 effort to draw Catholic settlers into his diocese. About 
 ten years later, six hundred acres more were secured 
 for the purpose, and the disposition of it entrusted to 
 Father Orengo, whose activity gave birth to the parish 
 now known as McEwen." 
 
 Among the early settlers were James Neale (a 
 brother-in-law of Doctor Knapp), Michael Brennan, 
 Abraham Burchiel, Frank McQuaid, Patrick Burns, 
 Nicholas Bradley, James Sheehy, Anthony and Andrew 
 Leahman, Thomas Langan, Peter Connor, Thomas 
 Tarpy, Patrick and John Dougherty, Peter Curley, 
 Michael Pyburn, Patrick Halpin, John Glasner, 
 
 10 Father C. P. Wassem kindly furnished the names from the Clarks- 
 ville church records. Picturesque Clarksville, Past and Present—A His- 
 tory of the City of Hills, although it was written in 1887, and speaks 
 of other churches, says nothing of the Catholic Church. Several of the 
 names it mentions are distinctly Catholic, but we do not know if those 
 who bore them professed the faith. Goodspeed’s History of Tennessee, 
 published in 1886, says that the Boylans and Dunbarrys were then among 
 the oldest Catholic families in Clarksville. However, they do not seem 
 to have been among the first in the city. Today the Catholics of Clarks- 
 ville, whilst not numerous, are highly regarded by their fellow citizens. 
 
 11 The Almanac for 1843 speaks of this colony, which shows that it 
 began in 1842. 
 
488 THE FATHER OF THE CHURCH IN TENNESSEE 
 
 Thomas and William Glynn, John Hughes, Luke 
 Farley, Terrence McGuire, Jeremiah Sheehan, Patrick 
 Gilgannon, Patrick Herity, Thomas Conley, John 
 Broderick, and Jeremiah O’Neil. ‘There were also some 
 families by the name of Dorney, Curtis, Gerraghty, 
 Gallagher, McInroe, Heel, Taylor, and Larkin. There, 
 too, now settled Thomas McManus and Hugh Foy, who 
 had been in Clarksville.’ 
 
 All the above places are in what is called “Middle 
 Tennessee.” In the same division of the state the 
 Almanac mentions missions at Franklin, Williamson 
 County; Murfreesborough, Rutherford County; Leb- 
 anon, Wilson County; Dover, Stewart County; 
 Perryville, on the western bank of the Tennessee River, 
 in Decatur County; Columbia, Maury County; Pulaski, 
 Giles County; Fayetteville, Lincoln County; Shelby- 
 ville, Bedford County; Manchester, Coffee County; 
 and Coal Mines, Marion County. That the location 
 of Sycamore Mills was north of Nashville is shown by 
 the fact that Father Hoste attended the place. Near 
 the city also was the mission called “the Northwestern 
 Railroad,” in charge of Father Augustine Murphy. 
 
 Want of time and lack of information in the records 
 at Nashville prevented the discovery of the names of 
 any of the Catholics in all but three of these missions, 
 or larger “stations.” ‘Those unearthed at Franklin 
 were Mr. and Mrs. Hugh Kelly; Patrick McLaughlin; 
 Mr. and Mrs. James Plunkett; Thomas Dempsey; 
 Lawrence and Elizabeth (Clay Duvai) Finn; John 
 Finn; Frances Finn; William and Margaret (Brady) 
 
 12 The most of these names were taken from a manuscript account by 
 Miss Eliza Pyburn (Nashville Archives) and conversations with Mrs. 
 Thomas F. McQuaid, both of whom were born there in the early years 
 of the settlement. 
 
RESUME—PERSONS AND PLACES 489 
 
 McKeon; Patrick McKeon; Eliza Kernahan; James 
 and Eleanor (Harrison) Champion; and Agnes Pol- 
 lock. Doctor S$. Pollock, who Bishop Miles tells 
 Bishop Blane (1844) contemplates settling at Pointe 
 Coupée, Louisiana, was also likely an early settler in 
 Franklin.” 
 
 Only two families are mentioned in connection with 
 Murfreesborough—one by the name of Harrison, and 
 that of John Stanfield. Those of Matthew Martin, 
 John Baxter, and Matthew and Margaret (Martin) 
 Owen are designated as residents of Fayetteville. 
 About eight miles from the city stood the home of Isaac 
 and Mary (Daily) Poe. The head of this family was 
 an exemplary convert, whose dwelling served as the 
 mass-house for a few Catholics in that neighborhood. 
 Doubtless Winchester, Franklin County, is not given 
 in the Almanac, after the first years of Bishop Miles’ 
 episcopacy, because it was one of the smaller stations. 
 Yet it has been seen that the venerable James Dardis 
 moved there from Knoxville, and that he had a few 
 companions in the faith. 
 
 Another division of the state is called “East Tennes- 
 see.” During an apostolic journey through a part of 
 this section, in the spring of 1844, Father Howard notes 
 a number of baptisms. One was that of a child of 
 Patrick and Mary Morgan, on the Cumberland Moun- 
 tains, for whom Thomas Smyth and Ann Farley were 
 sponsors. At William’s Spring, he baptized children of 
 Thomas and Elizabeth Gannon, and Denis and Caroline 
 Sullivan, together with Elizabeth, the wife of John 
 Dady. Here Lawrence Murphy appears as godfather. 
 
 13 Bishop Miles’ letter to Bishop Blanc is dated April 9, 1844, and is 
 in Notre Dame Archives. 
 
490 THE FATHER OF THE CHURCH IN TENNESSEE 
 
 In another place, the missionary did the same for a son 
 of Patrick and Martha (Winsight) Daily, and received 
 Mrs. Daily into the Church. Patrick McNally acted as 
 sponsor. Elsewhere, children of Terrence and Mary 
 (Harrison) Fogarty, and John and Dolly (Hennessy) 
 Begly received the same sacrament. On the same 
 journey, Mary Magdalen Cambden, wife of Patrick 
 Thornton, was received into the Church and a daughter 
 of James and Margaret (McNeely) McCulla bap- 
 tized.“* 
 
 Possibly the most distant point Father Howard 
 reached on this occasion was Athens, McMinn County, 
 where he christened Ellen, a daughter of John C. and 
 Ann Catherine Molloy. From the fact that this is the 
 only baptism noted for Athens at the time, and that the 
 place is not mentioned among: the stations of the dio- 
 cese, except in the first years of its existence, we may 
 conclude that, after the Irish laborers on the railroad 
 passed on to other parts, but few Catholics were left in 
 McMinn County. 
 
 In fact, though there were certainly many others 
 of minor importance, only eight stations are given by 
 name for this part of the state in the Catholic Almanac 
 during the last decade of our apostle’s life. Five of 
 these were certainly attended from Knoxville, after that 
 place received a_ resident pastor—Tellico Plains, 
 Monroe County; Kingston, Roane County; Wartburg, 
 Morgan County; Greeneville, Greene County; and 
 Jonesborough, Washington County. Most likely 
 Father Biemans also had charge of the Bayer Settle- 
 ment in Polk County. The Walden’s Ridge and 
 
 14 Baptismal records at Nashville. 
 
RESUME—PERSONS AND PLACES 491 
 
 Sequatchie Valley stations fell under the care of 
 Father Brown, who resided at Chattanooga. 
 
 The most prominent Catholics at Jonesborough were 
 certainly the Aikens. Probably, together with those 
 whom they helped to convert, they formed the greater 
 part of the faithful in that mission; for they were 
 intelligent and did much to spread the light of truth. 
 Although a number followed the railroad into Greene 
 County, the only ones whose names we caine across 
 were William and Honora (Nolan) Joy, who soon 
 moved to Knoxville. In none of the other stations in 
 the eastern part of the state did patronymics of any of 
 the Catholics come under observation.” 
 
 James and Thomas Dardis, Patrick McCormack, 
 and his son Edward were among Knoxville’s first 
 Catholics. James Dardis moved farther west; but what 
 became of the other three and the rest whom Father 
 Badin found there is not known. With the building of 
 the East Tennessee Railroad Catholics flowed into the 
 city in numbers, revived the faith, and finally placed 
 the Church on a firm footing there, after a long period 
 of the darkest desolation. ‘The most conspicuous of 
 these, as well as among the most practical, were ‘Thomas 
 L. Fossick, an Englishman, and his family. Fossick 
 was a contractor on the railroad. He furnished the 
 stone for the first church, and directed its construction. 
 Father Brown drew the plans. Fossick’s name deserves 
 a conspicuous place in the Catholic annals of east 
 Tennessee. All his Catholic toilers labored on the little 
 church free of charge. David Grady seems to have 
 
 15 A number of evidences of the Aikens’ spiritual activity were dis- 
 covered. Sister Rose, O. S. D., of Saint Cecilia’s Academy, Nashville, 
 
 is a daughter of William and Honora (Nolan) Foy; and she was born 
 in Greeneville. 
 
492 THE FATHER OF THE CHURCH IN TENNESSEE 
 
 been the master mason. When completed the structure 
 “was so neat that it looked more like a picture than a 
 real building.” *® 
 
 Prior to Fossick, Grady, and their co-workmen, 
 however, a few other Catholics seem to have settled 
 in Knoxville. Among these were Daniel Lyons, John 
 B. and Peter Ricardi, and perhaps William Hayes, 
 Michael Foley, and James Reilly. With Fossick were 
 evidently James J. Bowser (his half-brother) and 
 George Sedgwick. ‘The earliest baptismal records of 
 the place were likely taken to Chattanooga by Father 
 Brown, who resided there, for those now at Knoxville 
 begin only with September 29, 1855; and the number 
 who received the sacrament between that time and the 
 close of the next year show that Catholicity made rather 
 fair progress in Knoxville at this juncture. Doubtless 
 
 16 Thomas L. Fossick was born at Ingleton, England, in 1817. In 
 1839, he married Miss Margaret Richardson at Durham. Ten years later, 
 he came to America, and to Lynchburg, Virginia, in 1850. Thence he 
 went into Tennessee. During the Civil War he lost practically all he 
 possessed, but recuperated a snug competency afterwards. January 13, 
 1887, he wrote to Father Francis T. Marron from Alabama: 
 
 “The little stone church upon the hill was built more than thirty 
 years ago. And we had a hard struggle to raise the funds necessary to 
 complete it. The congregation was very small at the time, and of the 
 working class of people; but all contributed as much as they were able. 
 All difficulties were surmounted, and it was a very happy day for the 
 little congregation when the building was completed and ready for use. 
 Several of those faithful old pioneer Catholics of Knoxville are still 
 members of the same congregation. May the blessing of God attend them 
 forever... Nothing you could have sent me would be more highly treas- 
 ured than this little picture and its accompanying inscription. While I 
 live, I will ever preserve it as a memento of the past; and when I have 
 passed away, I am sure it will always be cherished as a precious heirloom 
 in my family” (Nashville Archives). 
 
 Fossick died at Sheffield, Alabama, June 13, 1894, fortified by all the 
 sacraments of the Church. 
 
RESUME—PERSONS AND PLACES 493 
 
 some of the baptisms were performed at various 
 stations. 
 
 In any case, the records of late 1855 reveal children 
 of Patrick and Elizabeth (Brotherton) Dowd; John 
 and Margaret Connor; Peter and Amanda (Wam- 
 bell) McKieran; Patrick and Mary (McBarrens) 
 Morgan; Patrick and Jane (Sheahan) Griffin; Martin 
 and Bridget (Fogarty) Shea; William and Martha 
 (Cochran) Philips; Thomas and Pauline (Cahill) 
 Clifford; Thomas and Margaret Hogan; James and 
 Mary (O’Brien) Horan; and William and Mary 
 (Flemming) Fitzgerald. ‘The sponsors, leaving out 
 names already mentioned, were Peter Joyce; Bern- 
 ard D. and Bridget Dolan; Christopher Dillon; 
 Catherine, Nicholas and Mary Lyons; Edward and 
 Anna Morgan; Thomas Carroll and Catherine Curry; 
 Michael Connor; Mary Leary; Patrick Welch; Daniel 
 Brenahan; Margaret Kennedy; John McGrath; and 
 Elizabeth Curry. 
 
 Throughout the next year baptisms were still more 
 frequent; for the records show children of John and 
 Mary Ferriter; Jeremiah and Sarah (Hembree) Col- 
 lins; Patrick and Jane (Lee) Collins; Patrick and 
 Elisa (Cobel) Clifford; John D. and Elizabeth 
 (Moran) Manning; Denis and Helen Sullivan; Cor- 
 nelius and Elisa (Gillin) Armstrong; Jeremiah and 
 Catherine (McGettigan) Sykes; John and Hugenia 
 (Rorke) Daley; Patrick and Elizabeth (Vane) Cotter; 
 John and Mary (Tilden) Pedele; Michael and 'Theresa 
 (Jenkins) Mulholland; Michael and Anna (Ody) 
 Haloran; Patrick and Rachael (Body) Connor; 
 Thomas and Elizabeth (Body) Harringham; Michael 
 and Jane (Boler) Kem; Thomas and Mary (Shea- 
 
494 THE FATHER OF THE CHURCH IN TENNESSEE 
 
 han) Casey; Thomas and Elizabeth Farrell; Daniel 
 and Mary (Martin) Sullivan; John and Anna 
 (McGinley) O’ Keefe. 
 
 The above baptisms were adminstered in the first 
 half of the year. ‘Those which follow occurred in the 
 last six months of 1856, and were conferred upon the 
 sons and daughters of Michael and Catherine (McDon- 
 ald) Murphy; Timothy and Bridget (Sullivan) De- 
 vine; Thomas and Mary (Connell) Sheahan; Patrick 
 and Mary (Daley) Carney; John and Jane (Burke) 
 Breene; Maurice and Margaret (Lawne) Dolan; 
 Michael and Mary (Wall) Nem; Jefferson and Della- 
 lion (Wright) Germam; Charles J. and Susan (Boyer) 
 Schrend; Jerome and Henrietta J. (Wetzell) Erhart; 
 John and Honora (Davis) Shea; Cornelius and Mar- 
 garet (Cantillon) Wrenn; Timothy and Mary 
 (McCarthy) Dargan; Patrick and Honora (Connell) 
 Donaghue; Daniel and Catherine (Rice) Lyons; Wil- 
 liam and Margaret (Oaks) Keegan; John and Anna 
 (Connell) Fitzgerald; Patrick and Catherine (Sull- 
 van) Donaghue; Michael and Margaret (Ryan) Lar- 
 kin; John and Bridget (Wrenn) Callahan; William 
 and Honora (Nolan) Joy; Patrick J. and Sarah C. 
 (Starms) Duane; Thomas and Jane (Coleman) Sul- 
 livan; and John and Bridget (Keilly) Nichols.” 
 
 Of the same character are the sponsors’ names 
 throughout the year—nearly all not only distinctively 
 Irish, but also distinctively Catholic Irish, as ‘were 
 many of the early settlers in eastern Tennessee. Doubt- 
 less these too, like their predecessors, would have lost 
 
 17 Owing to Father Biemans’ lack of familiarity with English and Irish 
 
 names, and the difficulty of deciphering his handwriting, there are doubtless 
 some errors in the above list of names. 
 
RESUME—PERSONS AND PLACES 495 
 
 the faith had not Bishop Miles been able to furnish 
 them, though insufficiently, with priests. Before ground 
 was secured for a church, the visiting missionary said 
 mass in the homes of the faithful, among which were 
 those of Daniel Lyons and Thomas Fossick.** While 
 the structure was under way, a small house which stood 
 on the same lot served for that purpose. But, Father 
 Francis Marron assures us, “it was not unusual then 
 for Parson [William G.] Brownlow [editor of the 
 Knoxville Whig| to come around for the purpose of 
 provoking the workmen [on the church], and to show 
 his friends where his Satanic Majesty would stand in 
 taking observations.” ” 
 
 Doubtless among those mentioned in later pages of 
 the records were some of the earliest Catholics of 
 Knoxville, after the resuscitation of the faith there; 
 but we had no way of ascertaining them. No doubt, 
 too, a few afterwards moved on to other places, where 
 they perhaps helped to sow the seed of divine truth. 
 The greater number of them, however, must have re- 
 mained, and their descendants are today members of 
 one or the other of the city’s two flourishing parishes. 
 
 In the southwestern corner of this grand division, 
 
 18 By some it is stated that Daniel Lyons was a Presbyterian. But the 
 frequency with which that patronymic appears on the early church records 
 as godparents proves that his family at least was Catholic. Daniel Lyons 
 (was it father or son?) performs that function more than once. Per- 
 haps Daniel, Senior, became a convert. 
 
 19 An autobiographic outline of Father Marron for Father Larkin 
 (Nashville Archives). There are traditions that Father Patrick O’Neill of 
 Charleston, or one of the two Fathers Jeremiah O’Neill of Savannah, and 
 a Father Brown, different from Father H. V. Brown, visited Knoxville. 
 This is probably true of one of the O’Neills, though his visit was likely 
 at a later date than that given. But there seems to have been no other 
 
 Father Brown who could have made his way into Tennessee at this early 
 date. 
 
496 THE FATHER OF THE CHURCH IN TENNESSEE 
 
 > 
 
 “East Tennessee,” is situated one of the state’s most 
 historic, interesting, and scenic cities, which began with 
 the ferry and warehouse of a half-blood Indian, John 
 Ross. ‘This circumstance, at first, gave it the name of 
 Ross’ Landing, where we find Bishop Miles and Father 
 Durbin in the fall of 1838. Two hundred and fifty 
 acres were then being laid off in town lots, an enter- 
 prise no doubt inspired by the hopes held out by the 
 prospective approach of railroads already under way, 
 and the advantageous location of the incipient village. 
 In 1841, the name Ross’ Landing gave place to the 
 more euphonious one of Chattanooga.”° 
 
 The visit of Bishop Miles and Father Durbin 
 suggests that there were Catholics in the locality at 
 the time. Besides, among those interested in the town 
 from its start were John Keeney, Allen Kennedy, and 
 A. S. Lenoir, names strongly indicative of the Catholic 
 faith. Whether they professed it or not is another 
 question. In 1841, Father Maguire made Chattanooga 
 a center of missionary activity. Father Jacquet, who 
 succeeded him, did the same; while Father Brown, one 
 of Tennessee’s most noted early missionaries, whether 
 in point of zeal or years of service, spent by far the 
 greater part of his priestly life there. Maguire certainly 
 built a little temporary church in the vicinity of the city 
 as early as 1841, which was the first Catholic house of 
 prayer in eastern Tennessee.’ The three planted with 
 great care the seed of faith which has eventually grown 
 into Chattanooga’s present large and flourishing parish. 
 
 20 Catholic Advocate, December 7, 1838; ParKMAN, Chattanooga, Ten- 
 nessee, Hamilton County, and Lookout Mountain, pp. 5-6. See notes 4, 
 5, and 6 of Chapter XIV. 
 
 21 PARKMAN, op. cit., p. 5 and passim; Catholic Advocate, October 2, 
 1841. See end of Chapter XV. 
 
RESUME—PERSONS AND PLACES 497 
 
 Father Jacquet seems to have had one book of 
 records for all his missions which he retained for him- 
 self, after Father Brown succeeded him at Chattanooga, 
 and which in all likelihood is now lost. Facts, in its 
 issues of August 4 and 18, 1894, tells us that, in May, 
 1847, Father Jacquet baptized Helen Deady in the 
 neighborhood of Chattanooga; but there can be no 
 doubt that he also baptized a number in the city both 
 before and after that date. The earliest baptism now 
 on record at Saints Peter and Paul’s is that of Mary 
 Ellen, daughter of John and Margaret Fitzgibbon. 
 The date was February 10, 1852. James Cleary and 
 Fillen Kiley acted as godparents; Father Brown 
 administered the sacrament. | 
 
 Then follow in order, during this year (1852), all 
 by Father Brown, the baptisms of the children of John 
 and Melvina Richardson; John and Mary Driscoll; 
 Peter and Bridget Moran; Patrick and Ellen Kiley; 
 Patrick and Margaret Farrell; Thomas and Jane 
 McGovern; John and Helen Ahern; John and Mar- 
 garet Myers; Daniel and Soethe M. Crowley; Terence 
 and Elizabeth Slattery; James and Catherine Curtain; 
 Hugh and Catherine Easley; Patrick and Ellen Boyle: 
 Michael and Catherine Bohen; Denis and Catherine 
 Sullivan; Thomas and Mary Boyle; and William and 
 Margaret Sandrigan. 
 
 Among the sponsors of the time were Patrick and 
 Catherine Sheahan; Patrick and Roger Sullivan; 
 Michael and Bridget Doheny; Michael and Margaret 
 Gibbons; William Stewart; Thomas Kediam and Mar- 
 garet Dillon; David Coleman and Mary Cleary;. Hugh 
 Easley and wife Margaret; Margaret Hagerty; James 
 and Margaret O’Connor; John Hannon; Timothy 
 
 55) 
 
498 THE FATHER OF THE CHURCH IN TENNESSEE 
 
 Carroby and Mary Daly; William Harnett; Patrick 
 Easley; Thomas and Mary Bolen; Michael Gary; 
 Denis and Mary Shea; and Patrick Keenan and Anna 
 Fahey. 
 
 Still others who seem to have been in the city at this 
 time, or to have arrived shortly afterwards, were 
 Martin and Catherine (Dwyer) Hussey; Patrick 
 Cotter and his wife Elizabeth; Mrs. Honora (Cotter) 
 Crimmins; James and Bridget (McCarthy) Cotter; 
 Patrick and Bridget (O’Donnell) Nelligan; Patrick 
 and Ellen (Driscoll) Garvin; and James and Margaret 
 (McCarthy) Sullivan.**> Daniel Hogan and an Italian 
 by the name of Herlini played important parts in the 
 construction of Chattanooga’s second church. Nor 
 should we forget Colonels Joseph J. Griffin and James 
 Whiteside who, even though the latter was not of the 
 faith, largely donated to Bishop Miles a splendid 
 property whereon to erect a suitable Catholic temple of 
 worship in the city.”* 
 
 From Facts we learn that Father Jacquet said mass 
 in a hall on the second story of the “Bryant Building, 
 on Market Street, near the river,” and at times in the 
 house of Michael Harrington, “near the foot of Came- 
 ron Hill”; that Joseph Ruohs was one of those who 
 
 22 The researches of Miss Nora Crimmins of the Public Library, Chat- 
 tanooga, were of great aid in unearthing some of these names. She 
 believes, and in this she seems to be supported by records in the court- 
 house, that John and Catherine (Finukin) McMahon, Myles Kelly, An- 
 drew Warren, James and Robert Hickson, Mrs Ellen (Maguire) Fawkes, 
 Patrick Hughes, and a few other Catholic individuals came to the city 
 about this time. 
 
 23 The Advertiser as quoted by the Freeman’s Journal of May 28, 1854. 
 Griffin’s deed to Miles is dated January 9, 1857 (Recorder’s Office, Chat- 
 tanooga, Deed Book L 1, 310). Possibly the land was not deeded over 
 
 until all the money ($1,000) was paid; though the bishop seems certainly 
 to have had possession several years earlier. 
 

 

 
 REV. JOHN M. JACQUET : REV. HENRY V. BROWN 
 
 & 
 
 a 
 E 
 ey 
 eS 
 4 
 eS 
 ba 
 Cy 
 
 Samana saiicanresiare: 
 
 Geet es ae | 
 2S SB RR ee 
 
 | 
 
 
 
 SAINTS PETER AND PAUL’S CHURCH 
 
 CHATTANOOGA’S SECOND CHURCH, AND TWO OF ITS EARLIEST 
 MISSIONARIES 
 
RESUME—PERSONS AND PLACES 499 
 
 attended divine service in these places; and that the 
 first Catholic church in Chattanooga was erected on a 
 lot of Harrington, on Pine Street, close to his house. 
 But the fact that the Almanac places the city among 
 the stations attended by Father Jacquet as early as 
 1848 makes Father Walsh’s statement that the mis- 
 sionary said mass in Chattanooga for the first time in 
 1850 open to question. 
 
 Records of the Hamilton County court-house sub- 
 stantiate the old tradition that Father Brown, acting 
 under the direction of Bishop Miles, secured a great deal 
 of land on “Branham Hill” which he sold to Catholics 
 at cost price in order to keep them in Chattanooga and 
 have them locate near the church. Father Walsh 
 (Facts, August 4, 1894) also says that Father Brown 
 erected the first Catholic temple of prayer in the city; 
 yet one can not easily suppress the suspicion that this 
 honor belongs to Father Jacquet, for he was an active 
 man, and had spent several years in and around Chat- 
 tanooga before the arrival of the artist priest. To the 
 writer it seems quite probable that the little church on 
 Mr. Harrington’s lot was the work of the French 
 missionary. 
 
 Besides, it appears to be understood that there was 
 a church in Chattanooga in 1852; while, in a letter of 
 September 7, 1852, Bishop Miles says Father Brown 
 “is preparing to build a church. ... and is entirely 
 absorbed in his grand undertaking.” This was cer- 
 tainly the frame structure on a stone foundation, which 
 stood on A Street, where now stands the sisters’ 
 convent; and which an April or May issue of the 
 Chattanooga Advertiser in 1854 shows had then made 
 
500 THE FATHER OF THE CHURCH IN TENNESSEE 
 
 little progress.** In any case, Facts informs us that the 
 
 French missionary built a little fane near “Cumberland 
 Tunnel,” which was burned on October 22, 1850. ‘The 
 names of neither of these ambassadors of Christ should 
 ever be forgotten in Hamilton and the adjacent 
 counties. 
 
 This brings us to what is known as “West Tennes- 
 see.” After the departure of Father McAleer, that 
 vast division of the state fell entirely to the care of the 
 sons of Saint Dominic, who were then practically its 
 sole missionaries for twenty years. Faithful were they 
 to their duty; ceaselessly did they toil. While there 
 were certainly others, the only stations mentioned in 
 the Almanac as attended from Memphis were Jackson, 
 Madison County; Somerville and La Grange, Fayette 
 County; Bolivar, Hardeman County; and Savannah, 
 on the eastern bank of the Tennessee River, in Hardin 
 County. 
 
 With the exception of Bolivar and Jackson, we did 
 not discover the names of any of the Catholics in these 
 places. Bolivar’s most noted family of the faith was 
 that of the Barrys, the head of which would seem to 
 have been Valentine D. and Mary (Adams) Barry. 
 Their sons Daniel, William, and Arthur became news- 
 paper men who left their impress upon the state. 
 Possibly it was Valentine, the father, who visited 
 Bishop Kenrick in Philadelphia, about 1832, to see if 
 he could not send a priest to Tennessee. It appears that 
 there were also some families by the name of Moore, 
 Grace, Sterling, Arthur, Lee, and Collins at Bolivar, 
 
 24 See preceding note for the Advertiser and note 19 of Chapter XIX 
 for Bishop Miles’ letter. 
 
 
 
RESUME—PERSONS AND PLACES 501 
 
 or in the neighborhood.”” The elder Barry was a circuit 
 judge, and died in Memphis. 
 
 Jackson, it is of record, had but few Catholics. 
 Five of the families were those of James Hughes, 
 George and Lydia (Armour) Jenkins, and John, 
 Michael, and Philip Magevney. Another seems to 
 have had the name of Meechim. ‘The Catholic Alma- 
 nac of 1844 says that half of the little congregation were 
 converts; while we have in hand a statement which 
 tells us that the convert wives of John Magevney, 
 George Jenkins, and James Hughes were confirmed 
 by Bishop Miles in 1842. Jenkins was a native of 
 Baltimore. The others came from Ireland.” 
 
 As Memphis, or the “Bluff City,” owes its existence 
 largely to the energy, foresight, and ability of Judge 
 John Overton, so Saint Peter’s Church is in no small 
 measure indebted to the business acumen of his kinsman 
 and the executor of his will, John 8S. Claybrook, for 
 its erection. Father Stokes’ letters have told us of the 
 good spirit and liberality of the enlightened non-Cath- 
 olics there. However, with this was certainly mixed 
 the desire to hasten and solidify the city’s growth by 
 encouraging Catholics to settle in it through the posses- 
 sion of a church under the auspices of their faith. 
 There can be no doubt that this idea had its force in 
 the warm reception given Bishop Miles and Fathers 
 Stokes and Clancy on their first appearance on the 
 Mississippi, or in the generosity shown in their cause, 
 of which we have soon to speak. 
 
 25 Notes of Father Walsh (Nashville Archives). 
 
 26 Father Walsh as in preceding note, and Saint Peter’s records, Mem- 
 phis. 
 
502 THE FATHER OF THE CHURCH IN TENNESSEE 
 
 Father Stokes has told us of Patrick McKeon, 
 Eugene Magevney, Patrick R. Kenna, and M. Lan- 
 gan, whom he met at Memphis in November, 1839, and 
 of the interest they took in the erection of a church. 
 On the same occasion, the records at Nashville show, 
 he baptized at Memphis children of Basil and Catherine 
 (Spaeh) Rapp; Michael and Mary (Murphy) Leon- 
 ard; Patrick R. and Henrietta Bordley; and William 
 and Pauline (Phiphs) Prince. ‘The sponsors were 
 Francis Scheller, Balina Prince, Catherine Calfield, 
 P. McKeon, and Sophia Phobus. 
 
 However, there must have been a few of the faith 
 in the Bluff City years before the arrival of these. At 
 least, Patrick Meagher, the proprietor of the Old Bell 
 Tavern and a friend of Andrew Jackson; “Squire” 
 McMahon, engaged in the same business; Margaret 
 Grace; Thomas B. Carr; John W. Fowler; John R. 
 Dougherty; and half a dozen others similar in character, 
 which one meets with in the early annals of the town, 
 are names almost as distinctively Catholic as significa- 
 tively Irish. Doubtless though we have here, in the case 
 of some, the same sad story which one finds wherever 
 there were no priests—defections from the religion of 
 their forefathers. 
 
 Father Clancy’s records can not be found, but it is 
 known that he married Eugene Magevney and Mary 
 Smyth on May 31, 1840. ‘This was perhaps the first 
 Catholic ceremony of the kind in Memphis. It took 
 place in the Magevney home, which still stands on 
 Adams Avenue, near Saint Peter’s church.** Father 
 
 27 Statement of Mrs. Catherine Hamilton, their daughter (Nashville 
 
 Archives). One also reads this in practically every account of the early 
 Church in Memphis. 
 
RESUME—PERSONS AND PLACES 503 
 
 Clancy seems to have had no home of his own, and he 
 said mass in the houses of the faithful—among them 
 that of Kugene Magevney. Tradition says that he usu- 
 ally offered the sacred mysteries in the homestead of 
 this Irish school-teacher, where a mahogany bureau may 
 still be seen which served as an altar. 
 
 Father McAleer’s first recorded baptism was that of 
 Mary, the first child of Mr. and Mrs. Magevney, who 
 aftewards became a Dominican Sister. The date was 
 February 24, 1841. Other baptisms in the same year, 
 omitting those that appear to have been administered 
 in Jackson and names already mentioned, were of the 
 children of Edward and Drusilla (Cherry) Read; John 
 and Margaret (Clancy) Conaghan; Thomas and Cath- 
 erine (McCabe) Hogan; James and Mary (Gorman) 
 Green; William and Margaret (Brady) McKeon; 
 James and Mary (Warfel) McNamee; John and Mar- 
 garet (Poland) Burke; and James and Annora (Hoo- 
 ligan) Nugent. The sponsors were Joseph A. White, 
 Catherine Shaller, William and Mary (Dunn) Eng- 
 lish, James Kennedy and wife, Mary Larkin, William 
 Bradshaw, Mary Conaghan, Patrick McKeon, Patrick 
 Farrell, Michael Gaffney and wife, James and Mary 
 (Quinn) O’Brien, Robert Burke, Mrs. Michael Kiely, 
 and a Mr. Jones. 
 
 Again avoiding a repetition of names, the parents 
 of 1842 were Frederic and Margaret (Bonninger) 
 Udwig; Michael and Bridget (Handlon) Power; 
 William and Mary (Quinlan) Irwin; Michael B. and 
 Margaret (Murphy) Martin; Francis and Bridget 
 (Foley) Coffey; John and Bridget (O’Connor) Burke; 
 M. and Mary Agnes (Snyder) Miller; and Rudolph 
 and Elizabeth (Armstrong) Davis. Among the god- 
 
504 THE FATHER OF THE CHURCH IN TENNESSEE 
 
 parents were Patrick Golden, Mrs. Davern, Thomas 
 Costigan, Bridget Powers, Denis Kerby, Mary McCar- 
 thy, Thomas McKeon, John McMahon, Mary Haley, 
 Bridget Archer, John Carroll, Joseph C. and Mary 
 Ursula Snyder, Michael McNamara, Ann Reagan, and 
 Peter Connolly and wife. 
 
 Father McAleer had all preparations made for the 
 purchase of a lot when Bishop Miles returned from 
 Europe. The anxious prelate therefore hurried off to 
 Memphis, where he received a deed from John Clay- 
 brook on October 29, 1841.°° Again the enlightened 
 non-Catholics showed their good will; for, in a little 
 book used alike to record the payment of pew-rent and 
 to keep accounts for the erection of the sacred edifice, 
 we read: | 
 
 The Committee deem it a pleasing duty to record this, on the 
 very liminal of their official proceedings—the magnanimous fact 
 that the Church lot ,was in part donated to our Bishop for the 
 Catholic congregation worshipping at Memphis, by the acting 
 agent (Mr. Claybrook) of the heirs of Judge Overton’s estate, 
 the nominal price required by the agent being five hundred dollars, 
 which our Protestant brethren very generously paid, as shown by 
 the annexed list.?9 
 
 Unfortunately this list of contributors is no longer 
 in the record. However, the accounts show that work 
 was soon under way for building the temple of the 
 Lord. Patrick McKeon, James Kennedy, Eugene 
 Magevney, and M. Langan were appointed a com- 
 mittee for the people. Doubtless Kennedy took the 
 place of Patrick Kenna, who had held that position in 
 1839, but who had likely left the city after the death of 
 his young convert wife. Father McAleer himself 
 
 28 Photostat copy (Archives of Saint Joseph’s Province). 
 29 Records of Saint Peter’s. 
 
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 REVJJORHN RR. CCEARY,:O. P. REV. JOHN A, BOKER Oss 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
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 MEMPHIS” FIRST RECTORY, ITS FIRST PRIEST TO DIE OF THE YELLOW 
 FEVER, AND ITS FIRST GERMAN PASTOR 
 
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 RESUME—PERSONS AND PLACES 505 
 
 headed the committee, as well as had charge of all 
 matters appertaining to the structure. In the Memphis 
 Appeal of May 13, 1842, he issued the following 
 notice: 
 
 Sealed proposals will be received, from the 16th to the 24th 
 of May, for the Brick and Carpenter work of a Catholic Church 
 to be built in Memphis, agreeably to the plan and specifications 
 to be seen at Rev. Mr. McAleer’s office, opposite the City Hotel. 
 Proposals to be deposited in the Post Office, addressed to 
 
 M. McAleer. 
 
 The building accounts extend over twenty-two pages, 
 run from April 17, 1842, to June 20, 1844, and show 
 that Father McAleer’s task was by no means without 
 difficulties. Between fifty and sixty new names are 
 revealed in these pages, the greater number of whom 
 were doubtless Catholics. Henry and William Irwin 
 had the contract for the woodwork; the firm of Hickman 
 and Austin received that for the masonry. D. Morison 
 was the architect. 
 
 Simultaneously with the church, which faced on 
 Third Street, Father McAleer built a rectory. This 
 stood at the rear of the church, fronted on Adams 
 Avenue, cost one hundred and seventy dollars, and is 
 said to have been almost a counterpart of Hugene 
 Magevney’s home.*” Until his own house was finished, 
 he probably lived in that in which he had his office, oppo- 
 site the City liotel.** Before the church was ready 
 for use, he no doubt said mass at Magevney’s and in the 
 domiciles of other Catholics, if not in some hall rented 
 
 30 We have frequently heard Mrs. Catherine Hamilton and other old 
 people speak of the location and appearance of the first Catholic rectory 
 in Memphis. It was not taken down until 1872. 
 
 31 The City Hotel seems to have stood on Winchester Avenue, between 
 
 Main and Front streets; and across from it there were some residences. 
 Doubtless Father McAleer lived in one of these. 
 
506 THE FATHER OF THE CHURCH IN TENNESSEE 
 
 for the purpose on Sundays. The impression made on 
 the public by Father McAleer may be gaged by the 
 American Eagle of August 12, 1842. In an article 
 entitled “The Memphis Churches’, the editor of that 
 paper states: 
 
 The Roman Catholics are building a handsome brick Cathedral, 
 and they have already quite a congregation. The officiating Priest 
 is said to be a gentleman of learning and talents—but the Roman 
 Catholics never stick asses in their pulpits—and we hope of piety 
 also. They bid fair to have a flourishing church. 
 
 Hardly, however, was the modest temple of the Lord 
 far enough advanced for divine service to be held within 
 its walls, before the continual increase in the number 
 of faithful showed that Father McAleer had miscal- 
 culated its size, and that the time was not far distant 
 when a larger edifice would be needed. No doubt this 
 was one of the reasons why he did not erect the spire 
 which he had planned, or even have the church formally 
 dedicated. 
 
 Scarcely had’ the Dominicans taken spiritual charge 
 of Memphis, when they were confronted with the 
 question whether they should enlarge Saint Peter’s, or 
 build another church. Money was scarce; as a rule, 
 the new Catholics had acquired little of the world’s 
 goods; those not of the faith felt that they had done 
 their share. This situation rendered the erection of a 
 new edifice so soon after the first practically prohibitive. 
 On the other hand, the fathers felt that an addition to 
 the old would solve their problem for only a short time, 
 and in the end greatly increase the burden of the people 
 entrusted to their care. 
 
 For these reasons, it was determined to proceed with 
 the dedication of the church, leaving matters in statu 
 
RESUME—PERSONS AND PLACES 507 
 
 quo for a few years more. Meanwhile, the flock grew 
 steadily. Among the most noted additions, tradition 
 tells us, was a nephew of Bishop Miles—Doctor George 
 Murphy, who was not less faithful as a Catholic than 
 successful as a physician.** Finally, May 25, 1852, 
 Father Grace had the following notice inserted in the 
 Daily Eagle and Enqurer: “To Brick Masons :—Pro- 
 posals will be received for the Brick Masonry of a 
 Catholic Church, to be built in the city of Memphis, 
 agreeably to the plans and specifications to be seen at 
 the office of the Rev. T. L. Grace, in the rear of the 
 Catholic Church, Adams Street. Proposals desired 
 immediately.” 
 
 In like manner, the Catholic Telegraph of Cincin- 
 nati, in its issue of December 18, 1852, tells its readers: 
 “The Catholics of Memphis, Tennessee, are about to 
 erect one of the most splendid edifices west of the Alle- 
 ghanies.... It is to have two towers, each one 
 hundred feet high, surmounted by a chime of bells.” 
 But to tell of the progress, final completion, dedication, 
 and beauty of the new Saint Peter’s will fall to the final 
 chapter. 
 
 32 The Catholic Advocate of January 24, 1846, notes the marriage of 
 “Dr. George Murphy of Memphis, Tennessee, to Miss Mary Ann McManus 
 
 of Bardstown,” Kentucky, in the latter place on January 15. Doubtless he 
 went to his former home to marry a sweetheart of his earlier days. 
 
CHAPTER XXI 
 VARIOUS APOSTOLIC EFFORTS 
 
 It was doubtless immediately after his installation 
 that, as an apparently authentic tradition tells us, 
 Bishop Miles went to board at the hospitable home of 
 Philip Callaghan, which stood on Market Street (the 
 present Second Avenue), near the corner of Church 
 Street. But he soon rented a house from one Dough- 
 erty, possibly the William Dougherty mentioned in the 
 previous chapter. Here most likely it was that he fell 
 sick in the fall of 1839, and received the last sacraments 
 from Father Stokes. This building stood on the same 
 street, then one of the nicest thoroughfares in the city, 
 as that of Callaghan, but farther to the north.’ 
 
 Here also was the holy man’s stay of short duration, 
 for he wanted a place of his own, wherein he would feel 
 less fettered for the work of God. Accordingly, as soon 
 as he received his first aid from the providential Society 
 for the Propagation of the Faith—just before he 
 started on his journey for Europe—he purchased a 
 large lot from James and William Park. It fronted 
 on the west side of Market Street, near Whiteside. 
 On it evidently stood a commodious house, which was 
 at once converted into a residence for the bishop and 
 Father Stokes, no less than into a little seminary, since 
 
 1 Notes of the Rev. William Walsh, after talks with Mrs. Mary (Ken- 
 
 ney) Dougherty (Nashville Archives) ; Ropert, Nashville and Her Trade 
 for 1870, p. 452. 
 
 508 
 
VARIOUS APOSTOLIC EFFORTS 509 
 
 such an institution appeared imperatively necessary 
 that the diocese might be supplied with priests.* 
 
 Two more adjacent purchases, one from the same 
 parties immediately after his return from abroad, and 
 the other from Joseph B. Knowles and William 
 Boswith, early in 1843, extended the diocesan property 
 from Market Street on the west to Water Street (now 
 First Avenue) on the east; while it stretched fromi 
 Whiteside on the north to perhaps Locust on the south.* 
 Considering the times, the bishop’s poverty, the price 
 paid for the holdings, and other circumstances, it was a 
 bold venture which required a brave heart. A con- 
 tributor to the Nashville Herald of January 12, 1890, 
 tells us that the entire tract contained ten acres, and 
 that it lay in the heart of what was then Nashville’s 
 finest residential section. Here Bishop Miles hoped 
 to erect a cathedral, seminary, and college, in all of 
 which he had the hearty sympathy of the city’s most 
 representative citizens, whether non-Catholics or those 
 of his own faith. 
 
 Doubtless the man of God would have preferred 
 to protect his seminarians with the quiet of a life in the 
 country, but he had neither the means nor the clergy 
 necessary for so many separate institutions. Besides, 
 he wished to have the young aspirants to the priesthood 
 near himself that he might keep a more constant eye 
 on their training, whilst they could lend added solemnity 
 to the services in the cathedral and give a helping hand 
 
 2Father Stokes to Bishop Purcell, December 27, 1839 (Cincinnati Ar- 
 chives) ; same to the editor of the Catholic Advocate, February 19, 1840— 
 copied in the U. S. C. Miscellany of April 4, 1840; Deed Book II, 459- 
 460, Recorder’s Office, Nashville. 
 
 3 Deed Book IV, 412-413; V, 23-24; and VI, 21-22, Recorder’s Office, 
 Nashville; Nashville Herald, January 12, 1890. 
 
510 THE FATHER OF THE CHURCH IN TENNESSEE 
 
 in the college. All these proposed structures he 
 intended to make the grandest within his power, for he 
 well knew the love of the southern people for the beau- 
 tiful, and felt that in no other way could he more surely 
 win their esteem, and perhaps predispose them to con- 
 version. 
 
 Hardly, however, were his purchases completed 
 before the likelihood of the encroachment of railroads 
 and other public utilities on that part of the city began 
 to loom large. He therefore secured other property for 
 a cathedral. Nor was the wisdom of the step slow to 
 become manifest; yet this change of plan, imposed by 
 necessity, brought many inconveniences, greatly in- 
 creased the burden of the bishop’s indebtedness, and 
 seriously interfered with his efforts for good, if it did 
 not even retard the growth of Catholicity in Tennessee 
 by shortening the means for its advancement. Thus, 
 although the first location, at the time it was bought, 
 appeared to be one of the best adapted for his purposes 
 that he could select, the choice, through the civic devel- 
 opment, proved unfortunate. 
 
 At any rate, our apostle now had no alternative but 
 to leave his treasured seminary where it was, or to close 
 it and sell the property at a sacrifice which he could not 
 afford. Accordingly, he retained his residence, which 
 stood at 110-114 North Market Street, where he con- 
 tinued his efforts to educate young men for the diocese.* 
 Fathers Morgan, Hoste, Alemany, and Jacquet were 
 successively the superiors of the seminarians. All lived 
 with the pious bishop, who, as occasion permitted, not 
 infrequently aided with the teaching. Tradition tells 
 
 4 City Directories of 1853-1854, 1855-1856, 1857. 
 5 See the Catholic Almanacs from 1841 to 1848. 
 
VARIOUS APOSTOLIC EFFORTS 511 
 
 us that Father Montgomery also often gave a helping 
 hand, and at times acted as superior. Father Schacht 
 seems to have played a similar part. 
 
 Just when the little seminary was definitely closed 
 we did not ascertain. It involved almost heroic sacri- 
 fice and hardship. Fathers O’Dowde, Howard, and 
 Schacht appear to have been the only priests ordained 
 from it. Yet there are clear indications that a number 
 of others tried their vocations there, and proofs that 
 Bishop Miles would ordain only those who showed 
 evident signs of possessing such a sturdy character as 
 would enable them to persevere on the trying missions 
 of the diocese. More than one eveat, with a few lines 
 of recommendation (for his letters were ever brief), 
 reveal a student sent to other parts, where he became a 
 successful harvester of souls. 
 
 Mention of Saint Athanasius’ Seminary does not 
 appear in the Almanac after 1848. Doubtless, in view 
 of the results, Bishop Miles concluded that the candle 
 was not worth the flame, for the money and labor 
 devoted to the institution might yield richer fruits of 
 religion in other fields. However, it deserves this fuller 
 notice not only because it reveals a noble effort for the 
 good of souls, but also because it was really the only 
 diocesan seminary ever in Tennessee.° 
 
 Catholic education was a topic in which the subject 
 of our narrative took the keenest interest. As the reader 
 will recall, one of the first things he did, after regaining 
 his health and the arrival of Father Stokes, was to 
 establish a school. ‘Tradition tells us that it was first 
 started in the little frame building which stood beside 
 
 6 Father Stokes’ letter to the Advocate, as in note 2, and the Almanacs 
 of 1841 and 1842 show that the seminary was called Saint Joseph’s at first. 
 
512 THE FATHER OF THE CHURCH IN TENNESSEE 
 
 Holy Rosary Cathedral on Capitol Hull; but on his 
 return from abroad the bishop erected a larger structure 
 of the same material near his residence, and removed 
 the classes thither. It stood at 122 North Market 
 Street. The seminarians are said to have been the 
 principal teachers, at the start at least; yet the priests 
 also gave a part of their time to this work. 
 
 The Catholic Almanac for 1843 states: “Attached 
 to the seminary is an academy for boys, in which, besides 
 mathematics and the ordinary branches of a good 
 English education, the Greek, Latin, Italian, French 
 and Spanish languages are carefully taught. The 
 religious instruction of Catholic pupils only is attended 
 to, and every facility [is] afforded for the improvement 
 of the mind and the cultivation of virtue. The academy 
 is conducted by ecclesiastics under the superinten- 
 dence of the Rev. Superior of the seminary.” ‘The 
 Almanac for 1844 tells us practically the same, except 
 that it states the institution “is conducted by clergymen 
 and seminarists under the direction of the Right Rev. 
 Bishop Miles.” * 
 
 It would seem that about this time the zealous prelate 
 must have made a suggestion that the Jesuits Fathers 
 in Kentucky should take over his college; but, after a 
 consultation with him, they felt that Nashville did not 
 hold out a sufficiently good prospect of success.’ Early 
 in the same year (1844), either Father Edward Sorin 
 offered of his own accord to let him have some Brothers 
 of the Holy Cross, then called the Brothers of Saint 
 Joseph, for his parochial school, or gave a favorable 
 
 7 Directories as in note 4. 
 
 8 Almanac for 1843, pp. 105-106; for 1844, p. 144. 
 9 THEBAUD, Three Quarters of a Century, III, 264. 
 
VARIOUS APOSTOLIC EFFORTS ap ie 
 
 reply to an appeal for such aid. In any case, on the 
 ninth of April, that year, the sorely tried bishop wrote 
 to Father Sorin: 
 
 Your favour of the 5th ult. came to hand in due time, the 
 acknowledgment of which has been delayed for some time in con- 
 sequence of my absence from home. I have long wished to have 
 some of the Brothers of St. Joseph in my Diocese, and am glad 
 to indulge the hope that my wish may be realized. Should it be 
 possible to send me some, please inform me in order that I may 
 make preparations for them. I will cheerfully bear their travelling 
 expenses and give the annual pension you demand. . . .1° 
 
 Then he answers some questions asked by Father 
 Sorin, and closes his letter with these words: “I am 
 decidedly of the opinion that this excellent institute 
 should not be confined to any one place, but that it 
 should be spread as widely as possible, convinced that 
 the most beneficial results will follow from it.” Eyvi- 
 dently, these fair prospects gave Bishop Miles much 
 pleasure, which perhaps made his disappointment all 
 the keener. December 15, 1844, he wrote another letter 
 
 to Father Sorin, in which he says: 
 
 Some time in the spring you honoured me with a letter respecting 
 the institution over which you preside, and gave me hopes that 
 I should be able to obtain two of the Brothers of St. Joseph for 
 Nashville. I immediately replied, and expressed my wishes to 
 have them, since which I have heard nothing on the subject. I 
 would consider it a great favour, if you would be kind enough, at 
 your first leisure, to drop me a line stating whether I may hope 
 to have the aid of those good Brothers! 
 
 Doubtless Father Sorin thought it unwise to accept 
 a place so far from home which could support only two 
 
 brothers. ‘Thus Bishop Miles was obliged to conduct 
 10 Notre Dame Archives. 
 
 11 Jbid. Evidently the bishop had forgotten the delay in his reply caused 
 by absence from home. 
 
 34 
 
514 THE FATHER OF THE CHURCH IN TENNESSEE 
 
 his school with a secular staff. The college, or “male 
 academy,” ceased with the close of the seminary; for, 
 without the aid of ecclesiastical students, his limited 
 means rendered it impossible to carry it on any longer. 
 However, the building was at once turned into a private 
 school for the sons of the better-to-do Catholics who did 
 not wish to send their children to the more common 
 parochial school. 
 
 Despite the failures of Bishops Flaget and Rosati 
 along the same line under far more favorable auspices, 
 Bishop Miles now assayed the establishment of an order 
 of teaching brothers, whom he called the Brothers of 
 Saint Patrick. ‘This was hoping almost against hope. 
 Still his private school prospered under this tentative 
 religious institute for five or six years later. Then, 
 principally for want of vocations, the brothers dis- 
 banded. Somewhat later, September 4, 1854, the 
 anxious prelate wrote a letter of strong appeal to Bishop 
 Spalding to let him have a few members of the newly 
 established ‘Xaverian Brothers who had come from 
 Belgium, so that he might place them in charge of his 
 private school. As none could be spared, the holy man 
 was again obliged to engage secular teachers.” 
 
 Nevertheless, the Father of the Church in Tennessee 
 managed to keep this school going in a most creditable 
 manner until his death. The early Nashville Directories 
 tell their readers: “Bishop Miles’ school is ably con- 
 ducted.” ** Under his watchful care, it could hardly 
 have been otherwise. ‘Tradition informs us that men 
 of note in every profession were either wholly educated 
 in his college, or started on their way of success in his 
 
 12 Louisville Archives. 
 13 See note four. 
 

 

 
 VERY REV. REV. JAMES A. ORENGO, 
 SAMUEL L. MONTGOMERY, O. P. 
 
 Oe R 
 
 
 
 REV. JOHN A. LYNCH, REV. JANUARIUS M. D’ARCO, 
 One, O. P. 
 
 FOUR OF THE FRIAR-PREACHER MISSIONARIES IN NASHVILLE AND 
 MIDDLE TENNESSEE UNDER BISHOP MILES 
 
VARIOUS APOSTOLIC EFFORTS at Ie 
 
 private school. Both rendered invaluable services to 
 religion. 
 
 After the establishment of the new community of 
 sisters, these taught the children of both sexes of the 
 poorer classes in the “spacious’”’ rooms under the cathe- 
 dral, as well as took care of the wealthier girls in Saint 
 Mary’s Academy. Again the city Directories assure 
 us: “The Sisters of Charity, laborious and _ self-sacri- 
 ficing, are doing much to educate the poor.” The 
 bishop, however, paid these laborers their salaries; for, 
 as a just man, he saw that every toiler received his 
 wages—would permit no meritorious deed to go unre- 
 quited. 
 
 Indeed, the charity of Christ urged His ambassador 
 ever onward. It is this that explains his efforts in 
 behalf of the colored people. Few of his contemporary 
 bishops seem to have taken so keen an interest in that 
 race. Throughout his episcopate, that their lives might 
 thus be rendered happier, no less than that their souls 
 might profit therefrom, he sought to gather around 
 him the few free colored people in Nashville, and as 
 many of the slaves as their masters would allow such 
 a privilege, to give them a rudimentary education, teach 
 them to sing, and instruct them in the principles of 
 Christian doctrine. First, according to tradition, he 
 used the old frame church on the hill for this noble 
 purpose. Afterwards, they were brought to his own 
 house (where the people long attended mass on week 
 days), taken to the cathedral basement, or collected 
 wherever he could find a place for them. Really his 
 efforts in this regard amounted to, as they were called, 
 a “free colored school.” ™* 
 
 14 Catholic Almanac, year after year. 
 
516 THE FATHER OF THE CHURCH IN TENNESSEE 
 
 Father Hoste went to reside at Saint Michael’s, 
 Robertson County, in 1846. Shortly afterwards, under 
 the instructions of his bishop, this saintly priest and 
 lover of children erected a building and opened a board- 
 ing school in order to accommodate parents who could 
 not afford to patronize an expensive institution. Both 
 boys and girls were admitted here, but they had separate 
 quarters. A matron looked after the girls. Gustave 
 Bouchard, whom Father Hoste seems to have brought 
 over from France for that purpose in 1847, took charge 
 of the boys. Father Hoste exercised a supervision over 
 all; nor did anything escape the watchful, yet kindly, 
 care of the general director, who, as his time permitted, 
 also took part in the teaching. Here, too, orphan boys 
 were collected and taken care of until good homes were 
 found for them, or they were able to provide for them- 
 selves.*° 
 
 This institution continued until the stress of mission- 
 ary work and the bishop’s finances obliged him to close 
 it. This was about 1855, when the Sisters of Charity 
 opened a new house in the country, a few miles from 
 Nashville. The boys’ orphan asylum was then trans- 
 ferred to this place."° During the eight or nine 
 years of its existence, Saint Michael’s Academy, as it 
 was called, proved a source of wide-spread good for 
 religion in the diocese. Apparently the intention was 
 to suspend it only temporarily. Even this gave the 
 bishop and Father Hoste no little sorrow. Father 
 Hoste, it is said, hoped to do in Robertson and Sumner 
 counties, ‘Tennessee, what T‘ather Demetrius Gallitzin 
 
 15 These facts are shown by several of the Almanacs. In years past 
 we met several people who had been at this school when they were chil- 
 
 dren. They spoke of it in terms of high praise. 
 16 The Sisters of Charity of Leavenworth, Kansas, p. 28. 
 
VARIOUS APOSTOLIC EFFORTS 517 
 
 had done in Cambria and the surrounding counties of 
 Pennsylvania; nor did he give up the idea until the 
 southland was disrupted by the Civil War.” 
 
 Bishop Miles evidently believed in the principle that 
 a full Catholic school meant full pews. One can but 
 admire the anxiety with which, when there was question 
 of a new church to be built, he sought to secure enough 
 ground for a school in order that it might be put in 
 operation as soon as the place had a resident pastor. 
 Under his inspiration, Father Hoste continued a paro- 
 chial school at Saint Michael’s, that in Nashville was 
 conducted in the basement of the cathedral, and special 
 buildings were erected for that purpose in Memphis, 
 Chattanooga, and Knoxville at the earliest oppor- 
 tunity.*® 
 
 The impossibility of doing otherwise necessitated the 
 employment of lay teachers in all these places except 
 Nashville, after the new community of the Sisters of 
 Charity had been set on its feet there. However, the 
 pastors were instructed to keep a watchful eye on both 
 pupils and teachers within their jurisdictions. That 
 none might have an excuse for sending their children 
 elsewhere our apostle insisted, despite the expense thus 
 entailed when money was scarce, on these schools being 
 free for all Catholics. Herein, it should be noticed, 
 he set an example which is now followed by many of our 
 bishops, and which the rest would like to see put into 
 practice wherever feasible.” 
 
 17 Rev. P. J. Gleason, who was once the pastor of Saint Michael’s, to 
 Rey. William Walsh, May 14, 1909 (Nashville Archives). 
 
 18 This may be seen from various sources. 
 
 19 Brother Michael Whelan, O. P., for more than twenty years an efh- 
 
 cient lay brother at Saint Rose’s, in Kentucky, was a teacher in Father 
 Grace’s school at Memphis before he became a religious. He might have 
 
518 THE FATHER OF THE CHURCH IN TENNESSEE 
 
 One of the great difficulties against which Bishop 
 Miles had to contend, it will not have been forgotten, 
 was the way in which his little flock was widely scattered 
 here and there, few places having more than five or six 
 families—many even a smaller number. To better this 
 condition, to the end that they might be visited oftener 
 by a priest, he continued his efforts to induce those so 
 unfortunately situated to locate nearer one another, or 
 where there was already a nucleus of faithful which 
 gave better promise of soon having a church. ‘This 
 mayhap explains why the Almanac occasionally drops 
 a station that had been mentioned before. Certainly 
 his fatherly advice was followed in some instances. 
 
 For the same reason, the holy man centered his 
 attempts to bring Catholic farmers into his diocese on 
 just a few places. Perhaps Morgan County, in east 
 Tennessee, Humphreys County, in middle Tennessee, 
 and the vicinity of Memphis, in west ‘Tennessee, are 
 the most conspicuous examples of his endeavors along 
 this line. He felt, no doubt, that, if he met with success 
 in these places, he could then turn his attention to other 
 parts, and have a better hope of obtaining missionaries 
 for their spiritual care. 
 
 Mention has been made of the two circulating libra- 
 ries established (one in Nashville and another at Saint 
 Michael’s), with the many books gathered from differ- 
 ent parts of Europe and America. The fathers are said 
 to have had a third in Memphis, which they collected 
 themselves. Bishop Miles showed no little anxiety that 
 all his priests should possess a good library, and that 
 they should be generous in lending books to the public. 
 
 entered the Order as a candidate for the priesthood, but he preferred the 
 more humble state of a lay brother. 
 
VARIOUS APOSTOLIC EFFORTS 519 
 
 His idea in this, as regards Protestants, was to let them 
 see for themselves what the Church teaches. Catholics 
 he wished not only to acquire the habit of reading whole- 
 some literature, but also to be able to give a reason for 
 the faith which they professed. Possibly the intelligent 
 Catholicity of Tennessee today is in part due to this 
 apostolate of its first bishop.” 
 
 Whilst in this, as in all other matters, we should 
 take the luridly-phrased denunciations of fanatics with 
 a liberal reservation, it must still be admitted that in 
 times past the habit of excessive use of strong drink 
 was all too common. Scarcely had Bishop Miles donned 
 the miter, though himself not at all an extremist, when 
 he began a kindly campaign against this vice. Tem- 
 perance societies were established in the main parishes, 
 with branches in the missions attended from them. 
 That of the cathedral attained a membership of six 
 hundred. Many and appealing were the sermons he 
 preached on this subject; for he would not only safe- 
 guard the souls of the faithful, but also have them set 
 an example for their neighbors. 
 
 In like manner, the man of God sought in every way 
 to foster religious societies among his people. Al- 
 though there is no record of it, tradition tells us that 
 he had a flourishing Rosary Confraternity in the 
 cathedral parish. There was another at Memphis. 
 In their choice of societies, however, he seems to have 
 let the pastors follow the bent of their own devotion, 
 with the exception of the Sacred Heart Society and 
 
 20 Bishop O’Finan, a Dominican who gave Bishop Miles a number of 
 books, requested that those which came from him should be bequeathed 
 to a house of the Order in the diocese, if there were one there; and if 
 
 not, to Saint Joseph’s Province. Practically no trace of these libraries 
 is now left. 
 
520 THE FATHER OF THE CHURCH IN TENNESSEE 
 
 the Archconfraternity of the Immaculate Conception, 
 or of the Sacred Heart of Mary, for the Conversion 
 of Sinners. These two sodalities he had established in 
 about every parish of the diocese. 
 
 Bishop Miles’ devotion to the Blessed Sacrament is 
 said to have been the tenderest. He loved to pray 
 before his Kucharistic God. For a further proof of his 
 devotion to the Blessed Virgin one has but to consider 
 the fact that nearly half of the churches in the diocese 
 were dedicated to the divine service under her patron- 
 age. Clarksville and Sumner County and Knoxville 
 had each its Church of the Immaculate Conception; 
 Jackson its Saint Mary’s; Nashville its Church of the 
 Assumption; the first cathedral, on Capitol Hull, was 
 called the Holy Rosary; while to the second was given 
 the name of the Cathedral of the Seven Dolors. It is 
 noteworthy that the church at Clarksville, dedicated in 
 1844, was one of the earliest in the country designated 
 the Immaculate Conception. 
 
 Nowhere in the United States were the clergy more 
 overwhelmed with toil, or had less time at their disposal, 
 than those of Tennessee. Yet its apostolic bishop, in 
 his broad charity, not infrequently had them extend 
 their missionary journeys into northern Alabama, and 
 perhaps into Georgia and southern Kentucky. For 
 some years Ilorence, Huntsville, Tuscumbia, and Deca- 
 tur, Alabama, were attended from Nashville for Bishop 
 Portier. From Memphis the Fathers of Saint Dominic 
 long burdened themselves with the northwestern coun- 
 ties of Mississippi and places in eastern Arkansas. 
 
 The bishop loved the work of the confessional. 
 Wherever he went, he spent hours in the sacred tribunal 
 of reconciliation. Everywhere, especially in the cathe- 
 
VARIOUS APOSTOLIC EFFORTS 521 
 
 dral, crowds sought his kindly ministrations there; for 
 his wise guidance never failed to bring peace to the soul. 
 In the pulpit, in administering the sacrament of pen- 
 ance, in his conversations, he urged frequent commun- 
 ion. Always did he press the faithful to subscribe for 
 and to read the Catholic papers, convinced as he was 
 that a knowledge of the efforts in behalf of religion in 
 other parts of the country would be an incentive to a 
 better life. One of his keen regrets was that he could 
 not afford to have a paper for his own diocese. ‘T'radi- 
 tion informs us that he published a very practical little 
 catechism which long did excellent service in the state.” 
 
 Truly the whole story of the early apostolate in 
 Tennessee is one of edifying zeal, self-sacrifice, and even 
 heroism. 
 
 21 We could not discover any copy of this catechism, but the tradition 
 
 about it is so strong that it leaves no doubt about its publication or its 
 simple excellence. 
 
CHAPTER XXII 
 THE CROWNING OF A WELL-SPENT LIFE 
 
 Even today a traveller from another part of the 
 country in the day coaches in the south is astonished 
 at the frequency with which he hears the Bible and 
 religion form the subject of conversation between the 
 passengers. ‘The arguments are usually earnest and 
 intense. This spirit was still more prevalent three 
 quarters of a century ago. Doubtless Bishop Miles was 
 perforce drawn into such discussions from time to time 
 while on his journeys. Indeed, it has been handed down 
 to us, he was often amused by this stage-coach theology, 
 and deftly sought to use his superior knowledge for 
 bringing those who thus approached him into the true 
 Church. 
 
 Oftener than not, however, the man of God failed in 
 these zealous efforts. Nor is the reason far to seek. 
 He possessed all those graces and accomplishments 
 which give charm and elegance to society. As a rule, 
 he found the people of 'Tennessee full of human kind- 
 ness, friendly, and good neighbors. They served God 
 sincerely according to their hight. They admired the 
 bishop and his clergy no less for their lives than for their 
 gentlemanly qualities and for their higher attainments. 
 Yet, brought up as they were, these people, for the most 
 part, knew the Catholic religion only through perverted 
 
 522 
 
THE CROWNING OF A WELL-SPENT LIFE 523 
 
 history and the popular jeremiads against the so-called 
 dark ages and the Inquisition. 
 
 Thus, although they saw that the few Catholics with 
 whom they came into contact ordinarily had uncommon 
 trust in God, led exemplary lives, and showed great 
 devotion to their religion, as well as earnestness in its 
 requirements, they (the Protestants) understood little 
 about the Catholic faith. It was all but a myth to 
 them—a pillar of cloud not only by day, but by night 
 as well. The doctrine that Christians can get to 
 heaven only by way of the cross, for that was the way 
 by which our Lord and His Blessed Mother journeyed 
 (and we are no better than they), did not appeal to 
 them. To whatever sect they belonged, their creed was 
 deeply ingrained. Under such circumstances few con- 
 versions could be expected. Perhaps no one could have 
 made more than did the subject of our narrative. 
 
 This inherited religious bias combined with unscru- 
 pulous politics and the greed and vaulting ambition of 
 characters with little or no conscience to give birth to 
 Know-nothingism, which attained the height of its 
 strength and influence in 1855 and 1856, On the night 
 of Christmas, 1855, adherents of that party gathered 
 around the cathedral of Nashville, bent on making 
 trouble for the worshippers at the midnight mass. 
 Bishop Miles, having received word of these evil inten- 
 tions, notified as many as he could that the mass was 
 cancelled, and had some of his friends to patrol the 
 streets and quietly induce all Catholics to return 
 to their homes. He himself kept watch in the sacred 
 edifice, and gave similar directions to those who, because 
 they had not received the information, made their way 
 thither. ‘The rowdies kept up a hideous uproar for a 
 
524 THE FATHER OF THE CHURCH IN TENNESSEE 
 
 couple of hours, but dispersed when they discovered that 
 their plot had been frustrated.* 
 
 Franklin, Murfreesborough, Pulaski, and _ other 
 places had a number of riots. Knoxville, however, 
 seems to have been the greatest stronghold of Know- 
 nothingism. Here Catholics, and especially those of 
 Irish origin, were accorded the most shameful treat- 
 ment. ‘Through all these troubles Bishop Miles kept 
 in constant contact with his priests,.and it was perhaps 
 through his wise guidance that much harm was pre- 
 vented. 
 
 The greatest trouble of the bishops in the east, north, 
 and new west was to build churches fast enough to 
 accommodate the steady influx of immigrants. ‘Ten- 
 nessee’s apostle had all sorts of difficulties to face. 
 Few priests were willing to bear the hardships of his 
 mission. He had little means with which to erect 
 needed churches, and an insufficient number of clergy 
 for the care of those which he had. Throughout the 
 country the growth of Catholicity was principally 
 through immigration. In Tennessee immigration was 
 a negligible quantity ; for the newcomers, as a rule, were 
 not only opposed to the institution of Negro slavery, 
 but also saw little prospect of success where they would 
 be obliged to compete with the colored laborer who re- 
 ceived no wages for his toil. Besides, this class of 
 immigrant was not wanted in the south; and he received 
 scant courtesy from the prior occupants of the soil. 
 
 Slavery and an antagonistic attitude towards immi- 
 gration, it is generally admitted, were what prevented 
 a more rapid increase of population in the south. In 
 most of these states, they combined with religious bias 
 
 1 Traditions of this night still live in Nashville. 
 
THE CROWNING OF A WELL-SPENT LIFE 525 
 
 to retard the growth of the Catholic Church. Only by 
 taking this into consideration can we form a just appre- 
 ciation of the trials of the bishops in those parts, or 
 rightly understand why they did not accomplish so 
 much as their brethren in the hierarchy who labored 
 in more favorable environments. 
 
 Despite obstacles of every sort, and declining health, 
 the Father of the Church in Tennessee strove bravely to 
 do all he could in the cause of God. As early as June 
 22, 1850, he had sold a part of his land on Water Street 
 (First Avenue) to the Nashville Gas and Light Com- 
 pany. Further debts, it seems, had been necessitated 
 in order to place the new community of sisters on its 
 feet. On September 24, 1855, therefore, he sold another 
 tract to Charles EK. Franklin; and September 6, in the 
 same year, he sold his house and the ground on which 
 it stood to the Nashville and Northwestern Railroad.’ 
 March 26, 1856, Bishop Spalding wrote to Archbishop 
 Purcell: 
 
 By the way, the Nazareth Sisters at Nashville have prospered 
 beyond my anticipations. In going to the South, I stopped two 
 days with our brother of Nashville, and visited the seceding branch, 
 which is getting on famously, having already twenty-one members, 
 of whom only three are the original “bolters.” I was agreeably 
 disappointed, and I begin to think that “secession”, after all, is 
 not so bad. It is well that each Diocese should have a mother 
 house and a novitiate. 
 
 I found Bishop Miles in very bad health. His cough is 
 exceedingly troublesome, and I fear that he is not long for this 
 world. He has sold his fine house and lot, and bought what he 
 calls a “rattrap’ near his Cathedral. But he congratulates him- 
 self that he is at least out of debt.? 
 
 2 Recorder’s Office, Nashville, Deed Book XIII, 494-495; and XXII, 
 294-295, 362-363. 
 
 3 Notre Dame Archives. Two of the earlier sisters had died—Sister 
 Jane Frances on February 18, and Sister Ellen on December 6, 1854. They 
 were the first sisters who died in Nashville. 
 
526 THE FATHER OF THE CHURCH IN TENNESSEE 
 
 Busy man as he was, Doctor Spalding’s regard for 
 Nashville’s saintly prelate was such that he often visited 
 him, in spite of the slow, tiresome travel of the day. 
 Archbishop Purcell held him in no less esteem. March 
 28, 1856, he wrote, in reply to the above letter: “I am 
 sorry to hear of good Bishop Miles’ ill, or threatening 
 state of, health. He was, I think, the best choice for 
 Nashville that could have been made; and the founda- 
 tion which he has built will surely receive, in God’s 
 time, a noble superstructure.”* This seems to have been 
 the prevailing opinion among the hierarchy, by all of 
 whom he was looked upon as a model of piety, virtue, 
 and zeal, no less than as a most fatherly bishop possessed 
 of splendid judgment and no mean executive ability. 
 
 “Whom the Lord loveth He chastiseth,” says Saint 
 Paul. Judging Tennessee’s apostle by this criterion, 
 one feels that he enjoyed no small measure of divine 
 favor. March 21, 1856, he suffered the loss of another 
 of his zealous priests. Four days later, Father Schacht 
 wrote to the editor of the Catholic Telegraph: 
 
 Very Rev. dear Sir:—You will oblige us all by publishing in the 
 next issue of the Catholic Telegraph and Advocate the death of our 
 dear Rev. Father Augustine Murphy, who died of flux on Good 
 Friday at his mission, about nine miles from this city. The de- 
 ceased was a native of Ireland; near fifty years of age; a man 
 devoted to God, to prayer, and to the duties of the holy ministry; 
 beloved by all who knew him. His remains were brought to the 
 Cathedral in the night between Good Friday and Holy Saturday, 
 and were surrounded all the time by our afflicted people, whose 
 prayers and tears were the best evidence of their sincere grief. At 
 half past two, P. M., the Right Rev. Bishop recited the Solemn 
 Office of the Dead with his clergy, and then performed the funeral 
 obsequies. You can conceive, Very Rev. dear Sir, what a loss the 
 
 4 Louisville Archives. 
 
THE CROWNING OF A WELL-SPENT LIFE 527 
 
 death of this good priest is to our poor Diocese. May God send us 
 such another.’ 
 
 A. few days later, the holy man’s soul was tried per- 
 haps as it had never been tried before, when a historic 
 fire, fanned by a strong wind, destroyed a number of 
 Nashville’s public structures, and threatened to include 
 his cathedral, school, and home in its work of devasta- 
 tion.° However, like Job, he placed his trust in God, 
 who both gives and takes away with a wisdom that is 
 divine and not to be judged by man. Whatever hap- 
 pened, therefore, he submitted to with an admirable 
 Christian patience, and continued his work with a heart 
 that never lost its courage, and seldom its good cheer. 
 
 Despite an ever weakening constitution and a racking 
 cough that often tortured his entire frame, the ambassa- 
 dor of Christ appears to have traversed the whole state 
 again in 1856. Mrs. Mary Dunn, now of Nashville, 
 told us that she was one of a large class, a number of 
 whom were converts, confirmed in Chattanooga that 
 year, while the bishop was on a tour of his diocese. The 
 records of Knoxville give a list of some thirty confirmed 
 there on the sixth of July. Nearly all these latter ap- 
 pear to have been adults, if not even married people, a 
 circumstance which shows that they were late arrivals 
 in the city, and how it was often hard in those days for 
 the faithful to receive that sacrament. Before the close 
 of the year, his missionary forces were weakened by the 
 recall of eloquent Father N. R. Young. 
 
 5 Issue of April 5, 1856. Evidently the body could not be kept until 
 the next morning. We regret that more could not be learned about this 
 excellent priest than has been given in the text. He must either have 
 come directly from abroad to Tennessee, or was ordained late in life for 
 Nashville. Father Schacht’s letter to the Telegraph is dated March 
 
 25, 1856. 
 6 Telegraph, April 19, 1856. 
 
528 THE FATHER OF THE CHURCH IN TENNESSEE 
 
 The work of the next two years was but a repetition 
 of that which we have just outlined. Still, however oc- 
 cupied at home, the zealous bishop’s goodness of heart 
 rarely failed to cause him to find, or rather to make, 
 time that he might increase the joy of the occasion by 
 his presence at the consecration of a new member of the 
 hierarchy within the ecclesiastical province of which he 
 was a member, or that in which he had spent a large 
 part of his life—Saint Louis and Cincinnati. Thus 
 we find him in the latter city for the consecration of 
 the Rev. Henry D. Juncker as the first bishop of Alton, 
 Illinois, and the Rev. James F. Wood as coadjutor to 
 Philadelphia, which took place on April 26, 1857, and 
 was one of the most noted church events that had hither- 
 to occurred in the near west.’ 
 
 From Cincinnati the venerable prelate returned to 
 Louisville with his friend, Doctor Spalding, whence he 
 intended to accompany him to Saint Louis a few days 
 later for the consecration, on May the third, of the Rev. 
 James Duggan as coadjutor to Saint Louis, and the 
 Trappist, Father Clement T. Smyth, for the same posi- 
 tion in the Diocese of Dubuque. But, on his arrival 
 at Louisville, our patriarch felt so weak that he feared 
 to undertake this further journey. He therefore pro- 
 ceeded to Saint Rose’s Priory. Thence, after a short 
 rest, he went back to Nashville.* 
 
 Evidently, before he left Kentucky on this occasion, 
 Father M. A. O’Brien, then prior at Saint Rose’s, per- 
 suaded him to return there and officiate on July 5 at a 
 celebration, which must have been to commemorate the 
 
 7 Telegraph, May 2, 1857. 
 
 8 Bishop Spalding to Archbishop Purcell, April 30, 1857 (Notre Dame 
 Archives); Telegraph, May 2, 1857. 
 
THE CROWNING OF A WELL-SPENT LIFE 529 
 
 golden jubilee of the erection of the first building of 
 that Dominican alma mater. Very likely, indeed, the 
 idea of these festivities originated in the bishop’s visit at 
 the time, and they were largely in his honor. At any 
 rate, on June 2, 1857, he wrote to Doctor Spalding from 
 Nashville: 
 
 I am very much relieved on hearing that you have returned safe 
 home, and must congratulate you on the success of your wild-goose 
 chase. It is an additional pleasure to know also that you will 
 honour us with your presence at St. Rose on the first Sunday in 
 July. Allow me also to crave the favour of using the crozier on 
 that occasion, and to thank you in advance for the same.® 
 
 Although we discovered no account of this celebration 
 as such, the Catholic Telegraph of July 25, 1857, indi- 
 cates that it was carried out on a rather grand scale. 
 Manifestly Saint Catherine’s Academy made the clos- 
 ing exercises of their school a part of the event; for the 
 good sisters, no doubt in honor of their beloved co- 
 founder, did their best that these might be a notable 
 success. Bishop Miles himself presided. Father John 
 De Blieck, S.J., rector of Saint Joseph’s College, 
 Bardstown, and Mr. James P. Barbour, both men of 
 distinction, delivered addresses. Doubtless in part be- 
 cause of the occasion, and in part that he might have a 
 much needed relaxation, the bishop spent two weeks or 
 more at his old home. Father Brown, perhaps no less 
 to look after the needs of his esteemed superior than to 
 gratify his own desire to revisit the place where he had 
 received the light of faith, accompanied the venerable 
 apostle on this occasion. 
 
 Father James V. Daly took the place of Father 
 Cleary, deceased, at Memphis late in 1855. The Rev. 
 John Scollard came from Princeton, New Jersey, to 
 
 9 Louisville Archives. 
 
 35 
 
530 THE FATHER OF THE CHURCH IN: TENNESSEE 
 
 join the clergy at Nashville in the summer or early fall 
 of 1857. There too Father John Hyacinth Lynch, 
 O.P., not only soon filled the vacancy created by the re- 
 call of Father Young, but was also appointed rector of 
 the cathedral, Father Schacht having resigned that 
 position that he might have more time for the erection 
 of a chapel at the new academy and orphan asylum, and 
 a church in Edgefield (now East Nashville), as well as 
 to make preparations for building another for the Ger- 
 mans in Nashville proper.” 
 
 On the whole, the progress of the diocese was good. 
 During 1856, Father Orengo finished a church at 
 McEwen, which seems to have supplanted an earlier 
 one in Humphreys County built by Father Schacht, 
 
 10 Daly’s first baptism in Memphis at this time is dated December 2, 
 1855. Scollard’s first in Nashville was on September 18, and Lynch’s 
 first October 18, 1857. 
 
 Father Nicholas Raymond Young was born in the District of Columbia 
 about 1818. He was a nephew of the noted Ohio missionary, Father N. 
 D. Young, and the son of Ignatius and Barbara (Smith) Young. He 
 received the habit of Saint Dominic at Saint Rose’s, in Kentucky, from 
 Bishop Miles, then prior, January 23, 1834, and made his religious pro- 
 fession, in the same place and to the same superior, June 28, 1835. In 1838 
 he was sent to Rome to complete his studies, where he was ordained in 
 1841. From the time of his return home, late in 1844 or early in 1845, 
 as a Lector in Sacred Theology, he taught the Order’s ecclesiastical stu- 
 dents in Ohio and Kentucky, was professor in Saint Joseph’s College 
 (in the former state), and filled other important positions until he went 
 to Tennessee. On leaving Nashville, he became pastor of Saint Dominic’s, 
 Washington City, whence he went to Rome in the spring of 1859. He 
 returned to Washington in 1860, and went back to Ohio the next year. 
 In 1862 he became provincial, but resigned the position two years later, 
 and shortly afterwards was secularized and incardinated into the Diocese 
 of Cincinnati, under his intimate friend, Archbishop Purcell. Here he 
 labored in Dayton and Bellefontaine. Twelve years later, for he ever 
 retained his love and esteem for the Order, he made arrangements to 
 return to it. He then paid a visit to his brother in Washington City, 
 where he died on July 24, 1876, before he could put his design into ex- 
 ecution. 
 
THE CROWNING OF A WELL-SPENT LIFE 531 
 
 and received the same name—Saint Patrick. Father 
 Brown completed Saints Peter and Paul’s at Chatta- 
 nooga before the close of 1857." Tradition, supported 
 by the fact that he would undergo almost any hardship 
 to benefit such occasions by his august presence, tells 
 us that Bishop Miles blessed the two fanes. The church 
 at McEwen was a log structure; the other a frame on 
 a stone foundation. Both were neat and well built. 
 Sometime in the same year (1857), the zealous prelate 
 also purchased a Presbyterian church at a bargain in 
 the thrifty town of Shelbyville, which he was having 
 converted into a Catholic temple of prayer.” Father 
 Grace had a fourth ready for dedication in Memphis. 
 A German student was also nearing the end of his 
 studies in the seminary at Cincinnati. 
 
 Although the corner-stone of Saint John the Evan- 
 gelist’s, Edgefield, was laid only on November 8, 1857, 
 owing to the good weather and the earnestness of the 
 workmen, it rose so rapidly that Bishop Miles was able 
 to dedicate it on Sunday, December 22.° It was a neat 
 Gothic structure, fifty-four feet in length by thirty- 
 four in width. A correspondent of the Baltimore 
 
 Catholic Mirror writes: 
 
 On the 8th November, was recorded the laying of the corner 
 stone of the Catholic church in Edgefield, near this city; and I 
 feel much pleasure in having now to state that it is now finished, 
 and has been (on yesterday) solemnly dedicated by our beloved 
 and [venerable?] Right Rev. Bishop, in his usually solemn manner. 
 Owing to the profound respect in which his Lordship is held by 
 all classes of the community, although many non-Catholics were 
 present, nothing occurred during the interesting and edifying cere- 
 
 11 For several years the Almanac had noted the second church at Chat- 
 tanooga as under way, but that for 1858 shows that it was then completed. 
 
 12 The Guardian, November 27, 1858. 
 13 The Metropolitan, December, 1857. 
 
532 THE FATHER OF THE CHURCH IN TENNESSEE 
 
 monies to mar the heartfelt satisfaction and pleasure which he 
 must have experienced at this further proof of the increase of 
 Catholicity in his Diocese, to the interest of which he is so entirely 
 devoted. 
 
 It was a matter of agreeable surprise and conversation to many, 
 as they left the church, to find that in the short space of a few 
 weeks so neat and substantial a church has sprung up in their 
 midst. It is built of brick in the Gothic style of architecture. 
 No doubt it speaks well for the zeal of the Pastor and the piety 
 of the people to do so much in so short a time, particularly as the 
 church is nearly paid for.14 | 
 
 Father Schacht said his midnight mass there for 
 Christmas. On this occasion also, the Telegraph of 
 January 9, 1858, tells us, the church was crowded with 
 worshippers, “many of whom were not Catholics, but 
 who vied with their Catholic fellow-citizens in religious 
 and respectful behavior.” Continuing the account, 
 it says: 
 
 The choir performed Mozart’s Twelfth Mass to a delighted 
 congregation, who felt and expressed their pleasure and grati- 
 fication to all their friends; for, though the Catholics are not 
 many in number, they have long needed a little church, especially 
 in the winter season. And they have now realized, they said, 
 their long cherished hopes. The Right Rev. Bishop has (on the 
 12th of October last) charged the Rev. I. Schacht with the new 
 mission, where much remains to be done, it being the terminus of 
 three different railroads, where several Catholic families will find 
 employment.!© 
 
 Together with Saint John’s, the industrious mission- 
 ary busied himself with another sacred work. ‘This 
 was also outside the city. Of the celebration of the 
 
 14Tssue of January 9, 1858. 
 
 15 Both in this quotation and in that which immediately follows Father 
 Schacht’s initial is J. Evidently he himself wrote the account, and this 
 error was caused by the fact that he made the capital I exactly like the 
 capital J. We corrected the mistake in both instances. 
 
THE CROWNING OF A WELL-SPENT LIFE sake 
 
 feast of our Lord’s Nativity there the Telegraph's 
 correspondent writes: 
 
 On the same Christmas morning, Rev. I. Schacht opened the 
 chapel at the new Academy of the Sisters of Charity three and 
 a half miles from Nashville, on the White’s Creek Turnpike, and 
 celebrated therein his second Mass on Christmas Day. The little 
 sanctuary was most tastefully decorated by the good sisters, and 
 they sang several hymns during the celebration of the Holy 
 Sacrifice. The neighboring Catholics who were present approached 
 Holy Communion after the community. You see, Messrs. Editors, 
 that we are endeavoring to do something nowithstanding the 
 many difficulties we labor under in this Diocese. 
 
 Hardly had our aged prelate recovered from the fa- 
 tigue caused by the hard labor of the Christmas season, 
 when he started for Memphis, accompanied by Fathers 
 Montgomery and Lynch. The object of this journey 
 was to dedicate the new Church of Saints Peter and 
 Paul (January 24), and to administer the sacrament 
 of confirmation. In an account of the ceremony, a 
 southern contributor to the Telegraph of January 30, 
 
 1858, writes: 
 
 The dedication of the new Catholic church on Sunday last was 
 witnessed by one of the largest assemblages of citizens that we 
 remember ever to have seen on any religious occasion in our city. 
 The service of dedication was performed by the Right Rev. 
 Bishop of the Diocese, Doctor Miles, assisted by Rev. T. L. Grace 
 of Memphis, and Rev. S. L. Montgomery of Nashville. The cere- 
 monies were most imposing, and had a striking effect upon all pres- 
 ent, particularly when the procession, after moving around the ex- 
 terior of the edifice, advanced through the great door up the nave to 
 the High Altar. After the blessing of the church, a Solemn High 
 Mass was performed by the Very Rev. T. J. Jarboe of Wisconsin, 
 assisted by the Rev. J. V. Daly and the Rev. J. H. Lynch as 
 deacon and subdeacon. 
 
 Among those in the sanctuary were the Right Revs. 
 William Henry Elder of Natchez and Martin J. 
 
534 THE FATHER OF THE CHURCH IN TENNESSEE 
 
 Spalding of Louisville, the latter of whom preached at 
 the Gospel. After vespers, in the afternoon, Bishop 
 Miles, in his characteristically edifying manner, con- 
 firmed a class of more than a hundred—among them 
 a number of converts. Doctor Elder delivered a 
 sermon. ‘The day closed with benediction in the eve- 
 ning and an eloquent discourse by the Louisville 
 prelate. At all these services the church was crowded 
 by an audience who conducted themselves with the 
 utmost decorum. 
 
 Saints Peter and Paul’s was largely the work of 
 Father Grace, who had been pastor from 1849, and vicar 
 general for the western part of the diocese from 1856 
 or 1857. Few clergymen in the country enjoyed so 
 great a reputation for learning, zeal, eloquence, and 
 prudence. Every notice of the church he had built 
 which one sees in the literature of the day, whether in 
 the form of a letter or an article in print, speaks of its 
 exquisite beauty. The stately brick Gothic structure 
 is still regarded as one of the finest ecclesiastical edifices 
 of the south. 
 
 In point of numbers the Catholicity of Memphis had 
 by this time perhaps overtaken, if not even outstripped, 
 that of Nashville. Saint Peter’s was now a flourishing 
 parish. German members of the faith had considerably 
 increased, had a pastor (Father Gangloff) specially 
 for themselves, and were anxiously awaiting the day 
 when they could afford to have a church of their own. 
 The records also show the beginning of that splendid 
 Italian element which was later to play an important 
 part in the religious affairs of the city. 
 
 Bishop Miles, it will be recalled, would have preferred 
 to be placed in the ecclesiastical province of Cincinnati. 
 
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 see 
 
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 INTERIOR AND EXTERIOR OF SAINT PETER'’'S 
 
 SECOND CHURCH, AND STILL ITS MOST BEAUTIFUL 
 
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THE CROWNING OF A WELL-SPENT LIFE 535 
 
 His clergy seem to have felt the same way—possibly 
 more for reasons of convenience than anything else, as 
 the development of the country lay at that time. Now 
 therefore, since a number of suffragan dioceses had 
 been erected under the metropolitan see of Saint Louis, 
 he consulted Archbishop Peter R. Kenrick, and ob- 
 tained his consent that Tennessee should be taken from 
 the Province of Saint Louis and affiliated to that of Cin- 
 cinnati. But, of course, this change could not take 
 effect without the sanction of Rome. Accordingly, 
 April 5, 1858, the man of God wrote to acquaint 
 Archbishop Purcell with the matter.*© The reply must 
 have been both swift and strongly favorable; for on 
 the thirteenth of the same month he wrote again: 
 
 Your very kind welcome to my old home has filled my heart 
 with gratitude; and my trip to Cincinnati will be one of the most 
 pleasant in my recollection. I thank you for your kindness in 
 offering me a room in your house, and cheerfully accept it. The 
 room at the head of the stairs, in which I have spent many happy 
 hours, would suit me “to a fraction.” Whilst I am very grateful 
 to Mr. Slevin and Lady for their kind offer of hospitality, I beg 
 
 leave to say that it is too far from the Cathedral for my 
 comfort. . . .17 
 
 Doubtless Archbishop Purcell’s prompt response 
 was due to his anxiety to have his life-long friend in 
 his province, and his desire that he should be at hand 
 when the affair came up for consideration at the pro- 
 vincial council of Cincinnati which was to convene on 
 the second day of May. The kindness of the metro- 
 politan’s offer of a room in his own house at this time 
 may be gauged by the fact that it was not large enough 
 to accommodate all the bishops of the province who 
 
 16 Notre Dame Archives. 
 17 Thid. 
 
536 THE FATHER OF THE CHURCH IN TENNESSEE 
 
 would attend the council, and the subject of our nar- 
 rative had no legal right to be there. Indeed, wherever 
 he went, his own native goodness seems to have caused 
 Nashville’s prelate to be accorded some special regard. 
 Possibly Archbishop Purcell procured him the offer 
 of Mr. Slevin’s hospitality that he might avail himself 
 of it, in case he should not like to be so closely associated 
 with .the fathers of a conciliar body of which he was 
 not a member. 
 
 In any event, he soon started for Cincinnati, accom- 
 panied by Father Schacht. He remained in the city 
 until after the close of the council, but took no part 
 in its deliberations, although he was no doubt invited 
 to its sessions. While there, he preached in the 
 cathedral, and gave a discourse to its school children.*® 
 
 The overworked apostle had long desired and sought 
 to obtain a coadjutor. Doubtless, therefore, as he felt 
 that he would soon be out of the ecclesiastical province 
 of Saint Louis, was borne down with age and broken 
 in health, and did not believe that he had long to live, 
 it was in Cincinnati that he wrote to Pius [X, begging 
 this favor. Father N. R. Young, who had already 
 labored in ‘Tennessee, was the first on his list. Father 
 Sydney Albert Clarkson, prior of Saint Rose’s, in 
 Kentucky, was second. ‘Then came Father James 
 Whelan, provincial at the time. ‘The reason why he 
 proposed only Dominicans for the position was that 
 more than half of the priests in the diocese belonged 
 to the Order, that this religious institute had always 
 aided him at a great sacrifice, that the Church of Ten- 
 nessee was very poor, and that the fact of its first bishop 
 having been a member of the Order would, in case 
 
 18 Telegraph, April 24 and May 1, 8, and 15, 1858. 
 
THE CROWNING OF A WELL-SPENT LIFE Jan 
 
 his successor were taken from it, cause it to continue 
 its heroic sacrifices in behalf of religion there.” 
 Father Brown, because a convert, the holy man no 
 doubt felt had not yet been long enough ordained to be 
 elevated to the episcopal dignity; Father Grace, he well 
 knew, would not accept the honor of the miter without 
 compulsion; humble Father Hoste, who spoke English 
 very indistinctly, would have recoiled from such a 
 responsibility with his whole soul; and Father Schacht, 
 despite his talents and capacity for work, lacked qual- 
 ities necessary for a good bishop. The others were either 
 too young in the ministry or too imperfectly acquainted 
 with the language of the land. ‘These considerations, 
 there can be little doubt, explain why no priest of the 
 diocese was placed on the list. Probably another reason 
 was the hope that the appointment of an outsider might 
 result in bringing more missionaries into ‘Tennessee. 
 That Bishop Miles submitted his petition to the pro- 
 vincial council of Cincinnati is evidenced by a letter of 
 Archbishop Purcell to the prefect of the Propaganda 
 of date May 9, 1858. In this document the metro- 
 politan says that he prefers Father Young for the place, 
 and that the Right Rev. Peter Paul Lefevre, adminis- 
 trator of Detroit, objected to only Dominicans being 
 placed on the list. Others seem to have been added by 
 the fathers of the council, but we could not learn who 
 they were.” Evidently some influence not that of Bish- 
 op Miles determined the appointment of Father Whe- 
 lan—-or was it perhaps the fact that his name had been 
 previously sent to Rome in connection with other vacant 
 
 19 A draft of his letter in the Notre Dame Archives. It is not dated, 
 but circumstances leave little or no doubt that it was written in Cin- 
 cinnati at this time. 
 
 20 A draft or copy in the Notre Dame Archives. 
 
538 THE FATHER OF THE CHURCH IN TENNESSEE 
 
 sees! The tradition of Saint Joseph’s Province has al- 
 ways attributed it to Archbishop Purcell. 
 
 Our apostle did not tarry long in Cincinati. On 
 his homeward journey he seems to have stopped at 
 Louisville and Saint Rose’s. A communication from 
 Nashville, May 24, 1858, to the Guardian says: 
 
 As an item of ecclesiastical intelligence, I have no doubt that 
 many of your readers will be glad to hear that our venerable Bish- 
 op, Right Rev. Doctor Miles, has returned home in good health 
 from his short visit to Ohio and Kentucky, the scenes of his former 
 many labors and triumphs. It afforded much pleasure to his 
 affectionate flock, on yesterday (Pentecost Sunday), to witness 
 with what solemn and impressive dignity he administered the Sac- 
 rament of Confirmation to those of the children who were prepared 
 to receive that consoling and strengthening rite.?! 
 
 Bishop Miles’ rule was one of patience, kindness, for- 
 bearance, and discretion. No one could be freer from 
 the charge of favoritism. Never did he act with im- 
 petuosity. He sought first to correct a transgressor by 
 gentle advice, rather than by infliction of punishment; 
 and rarely did his efforts fail. Still, when he felt it 
 necessary, he could be firm and unbending. Now his 
 calm spirit was to be subjected to a test such as perhaps 
 it had never experienced before. 
 
 A strong tradition, which is rather corroborated even 
 by the History of the Sisters of Charity of Leaven- 
 worth, has it that for some time the gentle prelate had 
 admonished F'ather Schacht of certain unwise actions, 
 and exhorted him to be more prudent; but his paternal 
 advice was neither heeded nor kindly taken.” Shortly 
 after his return from Cincinnati, he learned that Father 
 Schacht was using a glass goblet for a chalice at the 
 academy and orphan asylum on White’s Creek Turn- 
 
 21 Issue of June 5, 1858. 22 Page 33. 
 
THE CROWNING OF A WELL-SPENT LIFE 07 
 
 pike. The distressed bishop lost no time, as he was 
 bound in conscience to do, in ordering a discontinuance 
 of this flagrant and unpardonable transgression. Fa- 
 ther Schacht, however, not only defended himself, but 
 even continued to use the goblet at mass.** Although he 
 must have felt that he was now obliged to take severe 
 measures, Bishop Miles did not wish to do this without 
 first consulting another member of the hierarchy. <Ac- 
 cordingly, July 27, 1858, he wrote to his friend, Doctor 
 Spalding of Louisville: 
 
 Please pardon me for troubling you at this moment, and allow 
 me to lay before you a case that has given me much anxiety. I 
 would then ask what should I do with a priest that has dared to 
 offer up the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass without a chalice, using 
 a glass phial in its stead? ‘There was not even the slightest ne- 
 cessity for so doing; and surely no case whatever could excuse or 
 even palliate the sacrilege. If Monseigneur will be kind enough 
 to give me his opinion on this subject, he will greatly oblige me. 
 Does not the culprit deserve suspension ?*4 
 
 The trembling hand in which the document is written 
 reveals the anguish of mind caused our apostle by this 
 distressful incident. Bishop Spalding was not slow to 
 advise the penalty of suspension. When it was inflicted, 
 Father Schacht almost aroused a schism by a vociferous 
 appeal to his friends, and even went in high dudgeon 
 to Saint Louis in order to have Archbishop Kenrick 
 cancel the sentence. Possibly the recalcitrant clergy- 
 man thought he could frighten his aged and infirm 
 
 23 This affair is an old tradition. The late Father Eugene Gazzo of- 
 ten spoke of it to the writer. He received direct information of the in- 
 cident from Father Orengo who was a missionary in Tennessee when it 
 occurred. We have before us a document which shows that the sisters 
 knew all about the use of a goblet for a chalice in their house, and the 
 trouble which it caused Father Schacht. 
 
 24 Louisville Archives—photostat copy in those of Saint Joseph’s Prov- 
 ince. 
 
540 THE FATHER OF THE CHURCH IN TENNESSEE 
 
 superior. In his anger, the missionary, though he 
 should have learned by long association, forgot Bishop 
 Miles’ strength of will and firmness of character, as 
 well as his courage of conviction. Adamantine was his 
 stand; neither could it have been otherwise. ‘The metro- 
 politan, as might have been foreseen, showed Father 
 Schacht scant courtesy. However, he was too proud 
 to bend. August 25, 1858, Bishop Miles wrote again to 
 Doctor Spalding: 
 
 Allow me to thank you, though late, for your very kind and 
 prompt attention to my late request. J have acted upon it, and 
 the consequence is that our congregations at Nashville are at log- 
 gerheads ever since. The persecuted gentleman went to St. Louis 
 with flying colours, leaving his duped followers under the full 
 conviction that the Archbishop would restore him. MHe returned, 
 however, with colours at rather less than half-mast. He is here 
 yet; and the people are greatly excited, and will remain so as 
 long as he is among them. I go next week to the Provincial 
 Council, and should not be surprised to meet him there. I hope 
 to see you at home in a few weeks, when I shall take occasion 
 to explain the whole matter.?° 
 
 Mother Xavier Ross, there is but little room for 
 doubt, was among those who took sides with her friend 
 and counsellor, Father Schacht, in his rebellion against 
 his bishop, one of the kindliest and most benevolent of 
 men. Naturally this alienated Bishop Miles’ affections 
 from a community upon whom he had bestowed no little 
 tender care. It also looks very much as if Father 
 Schacht, now that he had to go, urged the sisters to do 
 the same, and they followed his advice. ‘These were the 
 things, and not their debts, as represented in their his- 
 tory, which led to the departure of the sisters from 
 Nashville.” 
 
 25 Original and photostat copy as in the preceding note. 
 
 26 There is abundant evidence of the high regard in which Bishop Miles 
 held this community until this time. The History of the Sisters of Charity 
 
THE CROWNING OF A WELL-SPENT LIFE 541 
 
 The second provincial council of Saint Louis assem- 
 bled in that city on September 19, 1858. Bishop Miles 
 had to attend, for Rome had not sanctioned the incor- 
 poration of Nashville in the Province of Cincinnati. 
 We do not know if Father Schacht went to the council, 
 as Bishop Miles thought he might. But Mother Xavier 
 Ross, the History of the Sisters of Charity of Leaven- 
 worth assures us, did go; nor is it any stretch of fancy 
 to suppose that she acted on the advice of Father 
 Schacht.’ There she was fortunate enough to be 
 offered a place in Leavenworth by Bishop Miége, who 
 was in need of sisters. Bishop Miles, for he knew that 
 the days of her usefulness in Nashville were at an end, 
 quite naturally made no objection to the arrangement. 
 No doubt, indeed, he even welcomed it as a happy solu- 
 tion of the difficulty. It is scarcely probable that 
 Doctor Miége took in her and her companions without 
 consulting their former bishop. 
 
 Quite possibly the Father of the Church in Tennessee, 
 in his goodness of heart, even persuaded Bishop Miége 
 to extend Father Schacht an offer of hospitality in his 
 of Leavenworth (pages 32-33) would have us believe that Bishop Miles 
 authorized Father Schacht to use money on deposit at the cathedral for 
 the erection of a new academy in the country; and then, when the trouble 
 came, he (the bishop) refused to be responsible for debts which he had 
 sanctioned. There is no evidence for this charge of cruelty and injustice. 
 Indeed, the whole story of the bishop’s life shows that there could scarcely 
 have been any deposits at the cathedral, for he was practically always in 
 debt. Besides, Father Schacht seems to have troubled himself little about 
 permissions. He did things pretty much as he liked. He, not the bishop, 
 was responsible for the sisters’ debts. He, not the bishop, should have 
 assumed their burden—especially, as this history tells us, it would have 
 been only a matter of a short time when the debt could have been paid. 
 It strikes one as quite strange that, according to this history, Bishop Miles 
 was wholly within his rights at the time of the separation from Nazareth, 
 
 and totally in the wrong when the latter difficulty arose. 
 27 Page 44. 
 
542 THE FATHER OF THE CHURCH IN TENNESSEE 
 
 diocese. At any rate, we find the former pastor of the 
 Seven Dolors Cathedral, Nashville, in Kansas before 
 the close of 1858. In Leavenworth the sisters met with 
 extraordinary success, for which God be _ praised. 
 Tennessee’s loss was Kansas’ gain. However, under 
 the circumstances, Bishop Miles could not well have 
 done otherwise than he did. Our greatest regret in the 
 matter is that, in their history, they saw fit to lay prac- 
 tically the entire blame for the difficulty on him, when 
 the evidence places it elsewhere; and that this obliged 
 us to go into the story more fully than we liked.” 
 Still, while he could but deeply regret the loss of 
 these efficient workers, the man of God had every rea- 
 son to congratulate himself. ‘Through the more than 
 twenty-one years of his episcopate we found no other 
 trace of shock or scandal, a record of which any bishop 
 might be justly proud. Few chief pastors gain so 
 strong a hold on the hearts of their clergy and people 
 as did the first of Nashville. Doubtless it was this that 
 enabled him to keep his equipoise at so trying a moment. 
 
 Father Grace, vicar general for western Tennessee, 
 accompanied him to the council in Saint Louis as theo- 
 
 28 About the time of the arrival of Father Schacht in Kansas see Kin- 
 sella’s A Centenary of Catholicity in Kansas, p. 89. 
 
 Father Ivo Schacht was born in Bruges, Belgium, in 1821, and was 
 principally educated in his native land. The appeal of Bishop Miles for 
 missionaries, at the time of his visit abroad, brought him to this country. 
 From Kansas he went to Kentucky in 1861 or 1862. There he labored 
 hard and faithfully at Saint Alphonsus’ (Daviess County), Lebanon, 
 Paducah, and Owensboro, dying in the last named place, April 14, 1874. 
 The Owensboro Monitor of April 22, and the resurrected Catholic Ad- 
 vocate (Louisville) of April 23, 1874, gave good accounts of his life 
 and labors. Wherever he toiled, he was popular among the people. It 
 is a pity that an earlier spirit of unruliness, into which he was probably 
 
 led by a popularity that came while he was young, cut short his efficient 
 work in Nashville. 
 
THE CROWNING OF A WELL-SPENT LIFE 543 
 
 Jogian, where he again met his old friend, Father J. T. 
 Jarboe, who represented the Friars Preacher there. 
 After his return home, and the departure of the sisters 
 who went to Kansas, the bishop, continuing the even 
 tenor of his ways, made arrangements by which those 
 who remained loyal were placed in charge of the Hos- 
 pital of the State of Tennessee located at Nashville. 
 With these he hoped to begin anew, trusting that in time 
 they would be able to resume all their charitable and 
 educational works. But his successor, perhaps wisely in 
 view of the late troubles, persuaded them to become 
 affiliated with other communities, and brought in Do- 
 minican Sisters in their stead.” 
 
 Meanwhile, John Anthony Vogel, a seminarian 
 obtained from Bishop Spalding, had been brought from 
 Mount Saint Mary’s, Cincinnati, that he might instruct 
 the Germans while completing his studies under 
 Father S. L. Montgomery. On Sunday, October 17, 
 1858, Bishop Miles ordained him, and placed him in 
 charge of the German portion of the cathedral parish. 
 Before his ordination, the young priest had begun a 
 church for those of that nationality, for which he now 
 collected means in various parts of the country. Of 
 an artistic temperament as well as of a practical mind, 
 he was architect, contractor, and superintendent of the 
 structure all in one.*° 
 
 Father Brown had by this time completely meta- 
 morphosed the brick Presbyterian church purchased 
 in Shelbyville the previous year. The exterior had been 
 
 29 An account of his own administration by Bishop James Whelan in 
 the Nashville Archives; Catholic Almanac, 1860, and 1861. 
 
 30 Bishop Miles to Bishop Spalding, February 18, 1857 (Louisville 
 
 Archives); same to Archbishop Blanc, February 22, 1859 (Notre Dame 
 Archives) ; the Guardian, October 23 and 30, 1858, and August 27, 1859. 
 
544 THE FATHER OF THE CHURCH IN TENNESSEE 
 
 renovated, the interior painted and re-arranged, and the 
 old-time weathereock and pawnbroker’s balls on the 
 cupola supplanted by a handsome cross, so that the 
 former fortress of error no longer recognized itself, it 
 looked so much like a new Catholic temple of worship. 
 Father Biemans came from Knoxville to say the first 
 mass in it on Sunday, September 19, 1858. Father 
 Brown preached at the mass, and Father Biemans at 
 vespers. The choir of the cathedral furnished the music. 
 Bishop Miles could not be present because he was at the 
 council in Saint Louis. Doubtless this was why the 
 ceremony of dedication was deferred until the next 
 year.” 
 
 There is every indication (and it was only natural 
 that he should) that Bishop Miles again brought up 
 the subject of a coadjutor at the council of Saint Louis, 
 for he was still in that province. Possibly Father 
 Whelan was put first on the list there, for he was the 
 best known of the three Friars Preacher selected by 
 Nashville’s incumbent, while he was also a native of 
 Ireland, like Archbishop Kenrick. Such things some- 
 times count even in matters of religion. Early in the 
 next year, our apostle learned that Rome had decided he 
 should remain a suffragan of Saint Louis, but at the 
 same time he received the consolation of an assurance 
 that he would soon have a coadjutor.*” 
 
 31 The Guardian, November 27, 1858. 
 
 82 Archbishop Purcell to Bishop Spalding, January 3, 1859 (Louisville 
 Archives). The Mirror of October 9, 1858, as do other papers, gives a 
 long account of this council. The Telegraph of the same date contains 
 the pastoral of its bishops; and the Annales, XX, 1-2, print their letter 
 of thanks and gratitude to the Society for the Propagation of the faith. 
 
 Bishop Patrick A. Feehan, who was appointed to Nashville from Saint 
 
 Louis, eventually succeeded in having Tennessee made a part of the 
 Province of Cincinnati. 
 
THE CROWNING OF A WELL-SPENT LIFE 545 
 
 One can readily imagine that the man of God was 
 deeply rejoiced at this latter information, and that he 
 prayed heartily for a worthy successor, whoever he 
 might be, who would build well on the foundations 
 which he himself had laid with such great pains. He 
 had not long to wait, if we consider the slow mails of 
 the day together with Rome’s well-known policy of 
 deliberation; for, on March 15, 1859, Father James 
 Whelan, O.P., received the bulls of his appointment as 
 coadjutor of Nashville, and was given the written con- 
 sent of his provincial, Father Joseph A.., Kelly, to 
 accept the nomination on Easter Sunday, the twenty- 
 fourth of April.** 
 
 Father James Michael O’Gorman, prior of the 
 Trappist Monastery of New Melleray, near Dubuque, 
 Iowa, had been appointed vicar apostolic of Nebraska 
 and titular bishop of Raphanea about the same time. 
 The consecration of the two prelates took place in 
 Saint Louis, May 8, 1859. Archbishop Kenrick per- 
 formed the ceremony, in which he was assisted by 
 Bishops Miége, S.J., and Smyth, O.C.R., the latter of 
 whom also preached the sermon for the occasion. Be- 
 sides many priests, Bishops Juncker and Duggan also 
 honored the event with their presence.** One of his 
 frequent sudden attacks of sickness prevented Bishop 
 Miles from attending. Perhaps, however, not even the 
 newly consecrated were more deeply interested. At 
 
 33 Father Kelly’s diary. 
 
 34 Father Kelly’s diary; the Saint Louis Missouri Republican, April 10, 
 1859. Kelly’s diary shows that his own name had been sent to Rome on 
 the list from which to select a bishop for the quondam Diocese of Grass 
 Valley, California, and substantiates the old tradition that the Saint Louis 
 council proposed Father Jarboe for one of the new dioceses which it 
 asked to be erected. It is an accepted tradition in Saint Joseph’s Province 
 
 and in Tennessee that only Father Jarboe’s deafness prevented him from 
 becoming a bishop. 
 
 36 
 
546 THE FATHER OF THE CHURCH IN TENNESSEE 
 
 home he sent up his prayers to heaven for them. As 
 far as we are aware, this was the only occasion on which 
 two members of religious orders were anointed bishops 
 at one time in the United States, and the only event of 
 the kind in which four prelates of religious orders took 
 part—a Dominican, a Jesuit, and two Cistercians. 
 Because of Bishop Miles’ illness, the coadjutor of 
 Nashville, although he hurried to the episcopal city 
 immediately after his consecration, could not be pub- 
 licly inducted into his new post of duty until three weeks 
 later. A correspondent of the Guardian, most likely 
 the Rev. H. V. Brown, writes to that paper from Chat- 
 
 tanooga, June 4, 1859: 
 
 On Sunday, May 29, I was in Nashville, and had the good 
 fortune to witness, in the Cathedral, the installation, by Bishop 
 Miles, of his coadjutor, Right Rev. James Whelan. Immediately 
 before High Mass, the two Bishops, with several attendant Priests 
 and acolytes, entered the sanctuary, and having knelt before the 
 high altar in silent prayer, took their appropriate places. The 
 venerable Bishop Miles, standing on his throne, proceeded at 
 once to introduce to the large congregation his coadjutor, the future 
 Bishop of Nashville, as one whom he had long known, in whom 
 he had every confidence, and whom he had urgently presented for 
 the office, and heartily recommended to the love and obedience of 
 the Catholics of ‘Tennessee. 
 
 “I cheerfully surrender to him,” said he, “as well the consola- 
 tions as the labors, cares, and responsibilities of the Episcopacy. 
 I give up to him all but my title and chair, which I am not at 
 liberty to relinquish while I live.” He glanced briefly at the 
 time of his arrival in Nashville, the dreary and discouraging 
 circumstances by which he was then surrounded, as contrasted 
 with the present condition of affairs, so full of hope for the rapid 
 progress of our holy religion. He said that he had long and 
 ardently desired and sought the assistance of a coadjutor, which 
 his advanced age and increasing infirmities rendered so necessary, 
 
THE CROWNING OF A WELL-SPENT LIFE 547 
 
 and congratulated himself and his hearers that the choice had fallen 
 upon one every way so worthy. 
 
 The aged prelate spoke slowly, in a low and tremulous tone of 
 voice, broken sometimes by his efforts to restrain his emotions. 
 He sat down amid the profoundest silence, and numerous evidences 
 of deep feeling on the part of his auditors.*° 
 
 Another communication from Nashville tells us that 
 the bishop’s discourse brought tears to every eye.*° 
 Both writers pronounce Bishop Whelan’s reply happy 
 in the extreme, and say his address “made a visible and 
 strong impression, and was exceedingly well received 
 by all who heard it.” At the Gospel he also preached 
 a superb sermon, which no one could but admire. 
 Father Brown (for he was at the installation, and no 
 other would have written from Chattanooga), after 
 telling about Bishop Whelan’s sermon, closes his article 
 in this way: 
 
 But while we admire him, and wish him every success and 
 happiness, we will not forget the many labors and sacrifices of 
 Bishop Miles, through whose instrumentality everything so far 
 done for the Church in Tennessee has been accomplished. We 
 owe him a debt of gratitude we can never repay. We wish him 
 length of days, a serene and happy old age, and a glorious im- 
 mortality. 
 
 This must have been a happy day for Bishop Miles, 
 for he had now realized a long-cherished desire, and seen 
 how his successor had won the hearts of the people. On 
 Sunday, June 12, Bishop Whelan preached again at the 
 mass, at the close of which he administered confirmation 
 and delivered a sermon on that sacrament. Again, to 
 the joy of Bishop Miles, the cathedral parish was elec- 
 trified by the coadjutor’s learning and eloquence. In 
 connection with the account of this event, the Nashville 
 
 35 Issue of June 18, 1859. 
 36 The Guardian, June 11, 1859. 
 
548 THE FATHER OF THE CHURCH INvTENNESSEE 
 
 correspondent writes: “The Catholics of the Diocese of 
 Nashville owe our venerable Bishop an everlasting 
 debt of gratitude, not only for his successful efforts in 
 behalf of religion during the many years of his episco- 
 pacy, but also for giving us so good and kind a Father 
 as the Right Rev. Bishop Whelan.” * 
 
 The diocesan schools, though they were all now 
 taught by lay persons, were in a flourishing condition. 
 Saint Agnes’ Academy, conducted by the Dominican 
 Sisters in Memphis, had a large attendance, and had 
 attained a wide reputation for its efficiency. The 
 orphan asylum there was a blessing to the city and 
 western ‘Tennessee. 
 
 Father Daly had been called to other parts by his 
 provincial in February or March, 1858; but I’ather 
 Stephen Byrne forthwith took his place at Memphis. 
 Father Januarius M. D’Arco accompanied Bishop 
 Whelan to Nashville; and Father Lynch became pastor 
 of Saint Peter’s, in the Bluff City, in lieu of Father 
 Grace who had been obliged by Rome, in spite of his 
 strong reluctance, to accept the miter of Saint Paul, 
 Minnesota. In the fall of the same year (1859), Mem- 
 phis received another recruit in the person of Father 
 John Thomas Nealis. Father James A. Marschal (or 
 Marshall), a Dominican missionary apostolic from the 
 Polish-Prussian Province who had labored in various 
 dioceses of the United States, joined the clerical 
 forces of ‘Tennessee in the same year. He was 
 stationed at Clarksville.** The bishop had established 
 
 37 The Guardian, June 18, 1859. 
 
 38 Father Lynch’s last baptism at Nashville was on May 10, 1859, and 
 
 Father D’Arco’s first on August 9. Father Daly’s last at Memphis was on 
 
 February 8, 1858, and Father Byrne’s first on March 29. Father Lynch’s 
 first in Memphis was on July 3, and Father Nealis’ first on September 17, 
 

 
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 Ornc: 
 
 
 
 RE Veo. Poe NIB Y RINE ORE: REV. JOHN TaANEALCISZOSP. 
 
 FOUR OF THE EARLY FRIAR-PREACHER MISSIONARIES IN MEMPHIS AND 
 WESTERN TENNESSEE 
 
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THE CROWNING OF A WELL-SPENT LIFE 549 
 
 a board of diocesan counsellors in 1858 composed of 
 Fathers Montgomery, V.G., Hoste, Scollard, and 
 Lynch. 
 
 Thus, all in all, the diocese was well organized, had 
 at last been placed on a firm footing, and held out good 
 promise for the future. Bishop Miles might, therefore, 
 now that he had a coadjutor, reasonably have availed 
 himself of a well-earned right to rest and repose. But 
 the ever alert mind of our venerable patriarch united 
 with an unbounded zeal to urge him on to action, if 
 he was able to be about. 
 
 Father Grace’s name had been sent to Rome in 
 connection with several American sees. By the last 
 provincial council of Saint Louis he was proposed as 
 the second bishop of Saint Paul, the Rev. Anthony 
 Pelamourgues, vicar general of Dubuque, having de- 
 clined the place. Father Grace returned the bulls of 
 his appointment at once; but in early June, 1859, he 
 received them the second time with a positive command 
 to accept. He was consecrated by Archbishop Kenrick 
 in Saint Louis on the twenty-fourth of July. Bishops 
 Miles and Duggan acted as assistant consecrators, the 
 1859. We did not inspect the records at Clarksville, and hence do not 
 know just when Father Marschal took charge there. 
 
 Father James Vincent Daly was born in Ballygawley, County Tyrone, 
 Ireland, December 25, 1816. His parents were Patrick and Mary (Keen) 
 Daly. He was practically ready for the priesthood when he received the 
 Dominican habit at Saint Joseph’s, in Ohio, January 18, 1845. There he 
 made his religious profession on January 23, 1846, and was ordained by 
 Archbishop Eccleston on June 20, 1848. Few priests have had a busier 
 life than he; while many parts of the country felt the beneficial effects 
 of his consuming zeal. The greater part of his time, after leaving Mem- 
 phis, was given to parochial missions. Everywhere his strong, logical 
 sermons were listened to with breathless silence. He died in New York 
 
 City, July 3, 1881. Had he lived a little longer, he would have been one 
 of his province’s first Preachers General. 
 
550 THE FATHER OF THE CHURCH IN TENNESSEE 
 
 latter of whom also preached the sermon. Bishops 
 Henni, Juncker, and Whelan and a large number of 
 priests filled the sanctuary.” 
 
 39 Father Kelly’s diary; Reuss, Biographical Cyclopedia, p. 50. Father 
 Kelly does not mention Bishop Miles’ presence; but, because of a storm 
 which delayed his boat from Memphis, he did not reach Saint Louis until 
 after the ceremony. Probably he did not see the aged prelate, who had 
 perhaps retired to his room, and so did not think of him. In fact, the 
 diary does not say who were.the assistant consecrators. Reuss, who 
 claims that he got his data from Archbishop Grace himself, says positively 
 that Bishops Miles and Duggan were the co-consecrators. No other ac- 
 count that we have seen gives either the bishops present or those who 
 were assistants in the consecration. 
 
 Archbishop Thomas Langdon Grace, all the authorities tell us, was born 
 in Charleston, South Carolina, November, 16, 1814, and was the first native 
 of that state to become either a priest or a bishop. Some years ago, we 
 showed the late Archbishop Ireland a statement in the Profession Book 
 of Saint Rose’s, in Kentucky, that Doctor Grace was born in Pennsyl- 
 vania; but he said that it was an error occasioned by the fact that Pierce 
 Grace, the father, went from that state to Cincinnati shortly before the 
 son went to Saint Rose’s. Archbishop Grace’s father, a man of con- 
 siderable education, was a teacher by profession, but served as an officer 
 in the American army during the war of 1812-1814. He gave all his 
 children a splendid education. 
 
 The archbishop went to Saint Rose’s from Bishop Fenwick’s college 
 in Cincinnati, received the habit of Saint Dominic, June 10, 1830, and made 
 his religious profession on June 12, 1831. In 1838 he was sent to Rome, 
 where he was ordained on December 21, 1839. Returning home late in 
 1844, or early in 1845, with the Dominican degree of S. T. Lr., he was sta- 
 tioned at Saint Rose’s until he went to Memphis. Here he won the hearts 
 of all by his zeal, virtues, and priestly deportment, as well as by his kindly 
 manners, charity, manly spirit, learning, and eloquence. Memphis has yet 
 to have any clergyman who has been more generally or profoundly loved, 
 admired, and esteemed than was he. After he became a bishop, he gave 
 his whole heart and soul to his diocese. Rarely did he leave its confines 
 except on urgent business or necessity. On one occasion, he started for 
 Rome to plead that Father John Ireland, whom he wished to have for 
 his own successor, might not be appointed to another see. When he reached 
 Lourdes, he received word that his petition had been granted. Immediate- 
 ly, he turned his steps towards his beloved diocese. He was one of the 
 staunchest advisers of the establishment of an American Catholic Uni- 
 versity in the nation’s capital. In 1884 he resigned his bishopric, and 
 in 1888 was appointed titular archbishop of Siunia. He died on February 
 22, 1897. 
 
THE CROWNING OF A WELL-SPENT LIFE 551 
 
 Our apostolic chief pastor had long desired to have 
 a church for his beloved Germans in Nashville. <As 
 early as April 3, 1857, he sold the land on which stood 
 Saint John’s Hospital (the former Holy Rosary Cathe- 
 dral, on Capitol Hill) to the State of Tennessee which 
 wanted it for public purposes.*® Before the sale of this 
 ground, which he knew the government would soon 
 demand, he took down the structure and stored away the 
 materials for a German church. The sacred edifice, now 
 practically completed, was a neat and substantial brick 
 building, Gothic in architecture, ninety-eight feet in 
 length by fifty in width, with an interior height of forty- 
 five feet. From Saint Louis he hurried back home for 
 the dedication of this church, which took place on 
 August 14, 1859. A writer to the [Lieder lis Guardian 
 
 says of the event: 
 
 On Sunday, the fourteenth instant, your humble servant, a 
 stranger in Nashville, had an opportunity of witnessing a cheer- 
 ing evidence of the steady progress of our holy religion in this 
 city. This was the dedication of a new temple of the Most High 
 
 for the use of the German Catholics of Nashville and vicinity. 
 Long before the hour appointed, though the weather was ex- 
 
 tremely warm, a great concourse of Catholics and Protestants was 
 on the ground, awaiting the arrival of the Right Rev. Bishops to 
 commence the imposing ceremony. 
 
 The venerable Bishop Miles, despite his feeble state of health, 
 performed the ceremonies of dedication. He was assisted by the 
 Rev. Messrs. Hoste, D’Arco, and Vogel. The forms and usages 
 of blessing a new Catholic church, so solemn, so full of deep 
 meaning, and so elevating to the Christian mind, were gone through 
 with in an imposing and effective manner. After the blessing of 
 the new church, Right Rev. Bishop Miles spoke to his people 
 in a very feeling manner. He congratulated the German Catholics 
 on the consummation of an event he so long had at heart; and he 
 
 40 Recorder’s Office, Nashville, Deed Book XXVI, 402. 
 
San THE FATHER OF THE CHURCH IN TENNESSEE 
 
 commended them to the guidance of their worthy pastor, Rev. J. 
 41 
 
 Vorel iy 
 
 After the Gospel, Bishop Whelan preached a classic 
 sermon in English. Father Vogel spoke in German. 
 The church was named the Assumption, which doubtless 
 increased the joy of the day, for both Bishop Miles and 
 his cherished German Catholics had a great devotion to 
 the Blessed Virgin. 
 
 Shortly after the dedication of Nashville’s German 
 church, our beloved patriarch took his last journey 
 beyond the confines of his diocese. It would seem that 
 he promised his friend, Bishop Wood, at the time of 
 the latter’s consecration, to visit him in Philadelphia, 
 which until now he had not been able to do. When, 
 therefore, the Rev. Charles J. Carter, a native of Ken- 
 tucky, but vicar general of Philadelphia, urged him and 
 Bishops Spalding and McGill to take part in the con- 
 secration of the Assumption (Carter’s church in that 
 city) on September 11, 1859, he availed himself of the 
 companionship of the Louisville prelate to make the 
 long journey.” Doubtless in part to avoid over-fa- 
 tigue, on his way home he stopped at Baltimore, where 
 he stayed with the Rev. Leonard Obermeyer, pastor 
 of Saint Vincent de Paul’s. The Catholic Mirror of 
 September 24, 1859, says of his visit there: 
 
 The late important Church proceedings eastward brought several 
 distinguished prelates from a distance to aid in the ceremonies, and 
 Baltimore was last week favored with the presence of several of 
 them on their way home. Right Rev. Richard Pius Miles, the 
 venerable Bishop of Nashville, who is now in his seventieth year, 
 and the oldest man in the American Hierarchy, but still sprightly 
 and active, spent several days with his friend, the pastor of St. 
 
 41 The Guardian, August 27, 1859. 
 
 42 Bishop Spalding to Archbishop Purcell, September 2, 1859 (Notre 
 Dame Archives) ; the Guardian, September 10 and 17, 1859. 
 
THE CROWNING OF A WELL-SPENT LIFE 553 
 
 Vincent’s. He received and returned the visits of his old friends, 
 who were delighted at seeing him again after an absence of seven 
 years. 
 
 Most likely the universally beloved and admired man 
 of God also broke his homeward journey at the places 
 of his former labors, which lay along the route; for this 
 was his custom, and he had every reason to believe that 
 he would not see them again. On reaching Nashville, 
 while he left the more arduous and distant toils of the 
 episcopacy to his coadjutor, he still busied himself with 
 many matters for the good of religion in his diocese. 
 In December he was rejoiced by a visit of his ever true 
 friend, Bishop Spalding, and keenly anticipated the 
 pleasure of one from the metropolitan of Cincinnati 
 on his way back from the consecration of the Right 
 Rey. John Quinlan, in New Orleans, for Mobile. Jan- 
 uary 1, 1860, Doctor Spalding wrote to Archbishop 
 Purcell: 
 
 I was so much disappointed that you did not come to Louisville, 
 either in going to or returning from New Orleans. I was in Nash- 
 ville about the time you were expected to return, and expected 
 to come home with you, if you should come that way from Mobile. 
 which would have been probably the best route. Bishop Miles 
 was also disappointed, as I had told him to hope for a visit from 
 the apostolic band of consecrators. But you went all around us, 
 and left us isolated.*? 
 
 Before he went east, Bishop Miles started up his 
 little seminary again. He also reorganized the board of 
 diocesan counsellors. Father Brown was added to the 
 number, and Father D’Arco substituted for Father 
 Lynch who had gone to Memphis. Now the holy man’s 
 work was over, and he could die in peace of mind. With 
 the rainy season, after Christmas, his chronic cough 
 
 43 Notre Dame Archives. 
 
554 THE FATHER OF THE CHURCH IN TENNESSEE 
 
 grew worse. However, no one saw cause for serious 
 alarm, since his recovery in such cases had often been 
 almost as sudden as the attack. But in this instance 
 it proved somewhat more violent and stubborn than 
 usual. 
 
 Friday, February 17, he went about the city. The 
 next morning, he was found “sitting before the fire in 
 the position which he usually assumed while reciting the 
 divine office.” He had not slept all night, and was 
 unable to stand alone. Yet, in his thoughtfulness 
 for others, he had not called for assistance, lest he should 
 deprive the household of their needed rest. Monday 
 afternoon, Bishop Whelan gave him the last rites of 
 the Church. In the afternoon of Tuesday, February 21, 
 1860, the saintly Father of the Church in Tennessee 
 expired as he had lived—calm and trustful in God.* 
 
 The Nashville papers of that period gave little space 
 to matters religious, especially if they were Catholic. 
 However, although deeply absorbed in politics at the 
 time, they all noticed Bishop Miles’ death. The Union 
 and American of February 22 says: “He was a cour- 
 teous, affable gentleman, and highly respected in the 
 private walks of life; and by the members of his Church 
 he was regarded with the highest degree of love and 
 reverence.” The Republican Banner of the same date 
 states: “It is with sincere regret that we, this morning, 
 are called upon to announce the death of the Right Rev. 
 Richard Pius Miles, for a number of years Bishop of 
 the Diocese of the Roman Catholic Church of Ten- 
 nessee.”’ 
 
 Again, the Banner of February 23 describes how the 
 bishop lay in state in the sanctuary of the cathedral, 
 and how the people flocked in to pay him their last 
 
 44 The Guardian, March 10, 1860. 
 
THE CROWNING OF A WELL-SPENT LIFE 555 
 
 respects. Similarly, in its issue of February 25 it tells 
 of the funeral on the yesterday. Here it says: “Owing 
 to the suddenness of the demise of Bishop Miles, and 
 its occurring in the season of Lent, when all the Bishops 
 are engaged in their own dioceses, the oration was post- 
 poned until some future time, when it will be delivered 
 by the Very Rev. B. J. Spalding, Vicar General of 
 Louisville.” However, it states that Bishop Whelan, 
 who sang the mass, “pronounced a very excellent eulogy 
 upon the life and services of the deceased.” 
 
 In regard to the clergy present, the writer in the 
 Banner says he noticed “especially the Very Rev. 
 Samuel L. Montgomery, Vicar General of this Diocese, 
 who has been an intimate friend and trusted companion 
 of Bishop Miles almost from boyhood. He shared his 
 labors, Joys, and sorrows, and must be one of the most 
 sincere of the many mourners. .. . Seminarians, aco- 
 lytes, etc., filled up the number: in the Sanctuary.” 
 In like manner, the Catholic Telegraph of Cincinnati, 
 February 25, 1860, declares that “his zeal for the spiri- 
 tual and temporal welfare of his flock, and his most 
 kind and genial manners will never be forgotten;” and 
 then it proceeds to say: 
 
 He was the right man in the right place; and with the aid of 
 a small number of devoted fellow-laborers, he did probably ail 
 that could be done for the advancement of religion in a State in 
 which there were not many native Catholics, and but few induce- 
 ments to Catholic immigrants. Nevertheless, he built a handsome 
 Cathedral, established a hospital, and male and female schools, 
 and neglected not anything for the development of the resources 
 of the State in the interests of religion. 
 
 Still more noteworthy is the notice of the man of God 
 given in the Guardian, Louisville, Kentucky. Father 
 Brown, we fancy, was its author. It is in the issue of 
 
 e 
 
556 THE FATHER OF THE CHURCH IN TENNESSEE 
 
 March 10, 1860, and begins by stating: “In the death 
 of the Right Rev. Richard P. Miles, first Bishop of the 
 Diocese of Nashville, the Catholics of Kentucky, Ohio, 
 and ‘Tennessee must recognize the loss of one who has 
 done much for the extension of the faith in these States. 
 He was almost the last of those zealous missionaries 
 from whom the elder portion of our native Catholic 
 population received instructions in their religious 
 duties.” Then the writer proceeds to give a brief out- 
 line of the bishop’s life, both in the priesthood and 
 in the episcopacy. Next comes an account of his last 
 short sickness, after which he says: 
 
 On Wednesday morning, his remains were taken into the church, 
 where they remained exposed before the altar until after the 
 funeral, which took place on Friday morning. During the whole 
 time, thus exposed, the remains were visited by crowds of citizens, 
 both Catholics and Protestants, all apparently anxious to manifest 
 their regrets for the loss of one who had endeared himself to 
 every class of the community. On the evenings of Wednesday 
 and Thursday, the office of the dead was read in the church by 
 the Right Rev. Bishop Whelan and his clergy. 
 
 A most affecting scene took place on Wednesday morning, im- 
 mediately after the remains were carried into the church. The 
 day was the beginning of Lent (Ash Wednesday), and the cere- 
 mony of blessing and distributing the ashes was performed by 
 Bishop Whelan. With the remains of their beloved Bishop before 
 them, how could the people fail to feel deeply the truth of those 
 solemn words addressed by the celebrant to the recipients, while 
 he made upon their foreheads the sign of the cross: “Remember, 
 O man, that thou art dust, and unto dust thou shalt return?” 
 The scene was most affecting, and especially so when Bishop 
 Whelan, at the end of the ceremony, ascended the steps of the 
 altar, which was heavily draped in mourning, and in most eloquent 
 and touching terms poured forth the thoughts which stirred his 
 own soul, and were busy in the minds of all present. It was an 
 occurrence not likely to be forgotten by those who witnessed it. 
 
THE CROWNING OF A WELL-SPENT LIFE 557 
 
 The final funeral rites commenced at nine o’clock on Friday 
 morning. High Mass was celebrated by Bishop Whelan, with the 
 Very Rev. B. J. Spalding of Louisville as assistant priest, Very 
 Rev. J. A. Kelly, Provincial of the Dominicans, as deacon, and 
 the Rev. J. H. Lynch of Memphis as master of ceremonies. There 
 were also present in the sanctuary the Rev. H. V. Brown of Chat- 
 tanooga, and the Revs. Messrs. J. Scollard, J. M. D’Arco, and D. 
 Carroll.4° Before the absolution, Bishop Whelan addressed the 
 congregation in a short but appropriate sermon, in which he re- 
 ferred to some of the facts which we have given above in the life 
 of Bishop Miles. The ceremony was closed by the absolution, 
 which was pronounced by Bishop Whelan, and the final interment 
 of the remains under the High Altar of the Cathedral. 
 
 Never morose, and seldom low-spirited, Bishop Miles had the 
 happy faculty, in his social relations, to be able to impart to all 
 around him a portion of his own cheerful spirit. He was pious, 
 without affectation, charitable to the poor, and kind and affable 
 to all. 
 
 Evidently the Guwardian’s printer did not read the 
 manuscript correctly in regard to the holy sacrifice 
 offered for the deceased prelate. The very description 
 of it shows that it was a solemn high, and not merely 
 a high, mass. Moreover, the Republican Banner of 
 February 25 tells us that it was such, that Father Lynch 
 was subdeacon, and that Father Brown acted as master 
 of ceremonies. However, this is a minor matter. The 
 main point is that it shows how lived, labored, died, 
 and was laid to his final rest a noble soul who was, from 
 every point of view, a conspicuous ornament alike to 
 the Order of Saint Dominic, to the priesthood, and to 
 the hierarchy in the United States. 
 
 45 Both the Guardian and the Republican Banner give Father Carroll’s 
 initial as D. But the baptismal records at Nashville and other sources 
 show that his first name was William. He belonged to the Diocese of 
 Albany, New York, and seems to have been in Nashville for a rest or his 
 health. 
 
558 THE FATHER OF THE CHURCH IN TENNESSEE 
 
 To form a just appreciation of his apostolate in 
 Tennessee one must not consider merely what he accom- 
 plished in itself, but what he did under circumstances 
 the most adverse—nay, in spite of obstacles that were 
 apparently insuperable. On his arrival in Nashville, 
 he found himself alone—without a priest; practically 
 without a church; without scrip or purse; without a 
 home, or even a place whereon to lay his head. When 
 he died, tells us the Catholic Almanac, he left thirteen 
 clergymen; fourteen churches, built or under way; six 
 chapels; thirty “stations”; a theological seminary; three 
 communities of sisters; one academy for girls; nine pa- 
 rochial schools; an orphanage; and about twelve thou- 
 sand Catholics. But a short time would have been re- 
 quired for the resurrection of the academy and orphan 
 asylum in Nashville. 
 
 Surely this is no inglorious record, when all is taken 
 into consideration. Not always does the efficient and 
 faithful laborer receive the credit that is his due. Such 
 has largely been the lot of the subject of our narrative. 
 Perhaps Archbishop Purcell but speaks the truth, when 
 he says that he was the best choice that could have been 
 made for Tennessee. Certainly it would have been diffi- 
 cult to find another so well fitted for that state, where 
 so much prejudice had to be overcome, and so much 
 hard work and self-sacrifice were necessary to build up 
 the Church. Just also is the appreciation of the T'ele- 
 graph, when it emphatically declares that our ambas- 
 sador of Christ was the right man in the right place, 
 and that he did all that could possibly have been done 
 for the cause of religion in his diocese. 
 
 A careful study of Bishop Miles’ life reveals not only 
 a charming character, but also a great and holy man 
 

 

 
 MOST REV. MOST REV. 
 JOSEPH S. ALEMANY THOMAS L. GRACE 
 
 
 
 RIGHTS REYV. RIGHTS REV: 
 RICHARD P. MILES JAMES WHELAN 
 
 FOUR FRIAR-PREACHER PRELATES IN OR FROM TENNESSEE 
 
THE CROWNING OF A WELL-SPENT LIFE 559 
 
 and zealous prelate. He was practical, courageous, 
 vigilant, resourceful, prudent, judicious—all qualities 
 necessary for the success of his work. His labors in 
 Kentucky, Ohio, and Tennessee can never be forgotten. 
 There he is still, as he must ever be, loved, esteemed, 
 and even revered. His name deserves a distinguished 
 place in the annals of our American Church. The 
 influence of his life lived on after him, and had its part 
 in writing one of the brightest chapters of our eccle- 
 siastical history. We can almost picture how it animated 
 the noble priests who fearlessly exposed or laid down 
 their lives during the successive plagues of yellow fever 
 that devastated the western part of Tennessee. 
 
APPENDIX I 
 
 THE REV. LOUIS HOSTE 
 
 The Rev. Louis Hoste, who had seen longer service in the 
 Diocese of Nashville than any other priest at the time of Bishop 
 Miles’ death, was born in France about 1808. Lyons seems to 
 have been his native city. There he studied, and was ordained 
 on June 1, 1833. The next eight years he spent as a professor, 
 apparently in the preparatory seminary of Lyons. With the per- 
 mission of his ordinary, he offered his services for Tennessee 
 while Bishop Miles was in Europe in search of help, and arrived 
 at Nashville before the close of 1841. For a quarter of a century 
 he did yeoman service for that diocese. 
 
 During the Civil War, although his sympathies were strongly 
 with the south, Father Hoste gave spiritual aid to Catholic soldiers 
 in the opposing armies. The distressful condition in which the 
 strife left Tennessee broke the good priest’s heart. Accordingly, 
 at the end of the war (1865), he returned to France, where he 
 seems to have remained for two years. In 1867, we find him at 
 New Iberia, Louisiana. Thence, a year later, he was brought to 
 New Orleans, where he labored until 1881, when he retired, and 
 went to spend his remaining years in the quiet of the Monastery 
 of Gethsemani, Nelson County, Kentucky. Here, however, he 
 took charge of the little parish then belonging to the Trappist 
 Fathers. The present abbot of that institution, the Right Rev. 
 Edmond M. Obrecht, writes that the venerable guest “‘edified the 
 community with his piety and devotion to the duties committed 
 to his care.” In 1886, he was forced by illness and debility to go 
 to Saints Mary and Elizabeth’s Hospital, Louisville, where he 
 died on February 15, 1888. He is said to have been one of 
 Bishop Miles’ best friends and most ardent admirers. He is 
 
 buried at Gethsemani-! 
 
 1 For further information see text passim. 
 
 560 
 
APPENDIX I 561 
 
 THE VERY REV. SAMUEL LOUIS MONTGOMERY, 
 Ory LG: 
 
 Father Samuel Montgomery was born in Maryland, January 
 9, 1789, and was the second of the ten children of Charles and 
 Mary Ann (Elder) Montgomery. He went to Kentucky with 
 his parents about 1795. He was educated, received the Domin- 
 ican habit, made his religious profession, and was ordained with 
 Bishop Miles. Besides teaching in Saint Thomas’ College and at 
 Saint Rose’s Priory, in Kentucky, where he took an important 
 part in the parochial work attached to that institution, he spent 
 some years on the missions in that state and in Ohio. His zeal, 
 charity, gentle manners, and good nature are still spoken of, after 
 a lapse of nearly three quarters of a century, in the Dominican 
 parish in Washington County, Kentucky—which shows the lasting 
 impression made by his pastoral labors there. 
 
 These good qualities, together with a splendid judgment and 
 rare prudence, led to his appointment as vicar general by Bishop 
 Miles, after whose death he was placed in the same position by 
 Bishop Whelan. No priest in Nashville was more loved or trusted 
 than Father Montgomery. There his memory is held in benedic- 
 tion. He died rather suddenly on Thanksgiving Day, November 
 26, 1868. The Freeman’s Journal of December 12, 1863, says 
 that “he was followed to the grave by a large number of sorrowing 
 friends, .. . [and] was truly a man without guile, a successful 
 missionary, and a model priest.” He is now buried at Saint 
 Rose’s, in Kentucky.? 
 
 FATHER JAMES ALOYSIUS ORENGO 
 
 Father Orengo was born on January 15, 1820, at Castel Vittorio, 
 Liguria, Italy. His parents were Louis and Bianca (Rebaudi) 
 Orengo. When a youth of fifteen or sixteen years of age, he 
 entered the Order of Saint Dominic, but chose the Province of 
 Rome in order to avoid military conscription under the Pied- 
 montese government. In religion he took the name of Aloysius. 
 Doubtless it was at Viterbo that he received the habit, and made 
 his novitiate, pronouncing the religious vows in 1836 or 1887, 
 
 2 For further information see text passim. 
 
 ayy 
 
562 THE FATHER OF THE CHURCH IN TENNESSEE 
 
 He studied in the Eternal City for several years, but was sent 
 to Lucca in the fall of 1841. There he most likely received the 
 priesthood, which was in 1843. From November that year until 
 September. 18, 1844, he was again at Viterbo. No doubt his 
 desire for the American missions had been aroused by Bishop 
 Miles at the time of his visit to Rome. Now therefore, that his 
 studies were completed, Father Orengo proceeded to the Eternal 
 City, where he received the degree of Lector in Sacred Theology, 
 October 17, 1844, and started at once for the United States in 
 company with Fathers Grace, Young, D’Arco and Francis S. 
 Vilarrasa, the last of whom afterwards founded the Province of 
 the Holy Name in California. 
 
 The little band of Friars Preacher was headed by Father 
 George A. J. Wilson, the American provincial who had been in 
 Rome. Father Orengo was first sent to Saint Rose’s, where ke 
 remained until the spring of 1848. Then he went to Tennessee, 
 on whose missions he labored for twenty-five years. Certainly no 
 priest is mentioned either more frequently or in terms of greater 
 praise, affection, and esteem in the notes and letters sent to Fathers 
 Walsh and Larkin and still preserved at Nashville. Father Orengo 
 was emphatically one of 'Tennessee’s apostles. He established 
 numerous missions around Nashville. He built churches at Frank- 
 lin, McEwen, Columbia, Pulaski, Edgefield Junction, Tracey City, 
 Gallatin, Humboldt, Brownsville, Grand Junction, Covington, and 
 Jackson; extricated those of Clarksville and Shelbyville from a 
 heavy burden of debt; and purchased ground for others at Trenton, 
 Fayetteville, and Union City. 
 
 The ever alert missionary served under three bishops and an 
 administrator, by all of whom he was trusted and admired. Middle 
 and western Tennessee were the principal theater of his activities; 
 yet he was not a stranger in any part of the state. In 1873 or 
 1874 he returned to Italy, but lived on to the extreme old age of 
 eighty-nine years, seventy-two or seventy-three of which he had 
 
 3 Attention has been called in the text to the fact that Father Orengo 
 wrote on the title-page of Gury’s Moral Theology (which he gave Father 
 Gazzo) that he went to Nashville in March, 1847; but that the baptismal 
 records at Saint Rose’s, in Kentucky, show that he did not go there until 
 March, 1848. He had forgotten the precise year. On the fly-leaf of the 
 same book he wrote the list of the churches which he built, etc., as given 
 
 above; but he does not mention that at McEwen. Father Gazzo, however, 
 assured us that he also built a church there. 
 
APPENDIX I 563 
 
 worn the habit of Saint Dominic, and had been a priest of God 
 for more than sixty-five. He died on March 18, 1909, in the 
 Convent of La Quercia, near Viterbo. We have heard more than 
 one regret that his life has not been written, for it would make a 
 story of intense interest.* 
 
 THE REV. HENRY VINCENT BROWN 
 
 Father Brown is always spoken of as of Puritan descent. How- 
 ever, Syracuse and Rochester, New York, as well as New England, 
 are given as the place of his birth. Possibly he was born in New 
 England, but spent a part of his early life in those two cities of 
 the Empire State. On his conversion he became a Catholic through 
 and through. Bishop Whelan called him to Nashville, and made 
 him one of the vicars general of the diocese; but after the ap- 
 pointment of the Right Rev. Patrick A. Feehan as bishop, he 
 returned to his beloved Chattanooga, and spent the rest of his 
 Hires there: 
 
 Father Brown merited the love and high regard which he enjoyed 
 among all classes wherever he labored. He was a perfect gentle- 
 man, well educated, of fine appearance, intelligent, zealous, chari- 
 table, and a good orator. Few priests of his day were more widely 
 known. He rendered a splendid service to religion on both sides 
 of the combat during the Civil War; still, though born in the east, 
 he gave his preference to the cause that was lost. Apparently 
 a short while before Bishop Miles’ death, Father Brown began a 
 magnificent stone church at Chattanooga, the foundation of which 
 either he or Father Biemans had completed when the war broke 
 out.” The destruction of this by the northern army for military 
 purposes must have rent Father Brown’s heart. 
 
 His death, at Chattanooga, April 14, 1870, was a shock not 
 only to the Catholics of that place and Nashville, but also to 
 liberal-minded people of every shade of religious belief and walk 
 in life. He is buried at Nashville. Father Brown was another 
 
 4 For further information see text passim. 
 
 5 The Almanac of 1861 places Father Brown at Nashville and Father 
 Biemans at Chattanooga. Whether the latter actually took charge at Chat- 
 tanooga or not can only be determined definitely by the church records 
 there, which we did not consult. Father William Walsh’s article on Chat- 
 
 tanooga, in Facts, August 4, 1894, does not mention him among the city’s 
 pastors. 
 
564 THE FATHER OF THE CHURCH IN TENNESSEE 
 
 of Bishop Mile’s intimate friends and strong admirers. The 
 Freeman’s Journal of April 30, 1870, after speaking of his tem- 
 poral efforts for the Catholics of Chattanooga, says: ‘“These are 
 the visible monuments of his labors, but more enduring than these 
 will be the love and esteem which he inspired in the hearts of his 
 parishioners and of all with whom he came in contact. ... His 
 congregation will long mourn the loss of Father Brown, and few 
 among them can yet appreciate the magnitude of the loss.” ® 
 
 THE REV. JOSEPH L. BIEMANS 
 
 Father Joseph Biemans, as told in note forty-one of Chapter 
 XIX, was born at Edeghem, not far from Antwerp, Belgium, 
 November 3, 1831. The date of his arrival in Tennessee, we are 
 inclined to think, was after his ordination, and some time in the 
 summer or early fall of 1855; for his name does not appear 
 in the Catholic Almanac until 1856, and his first record 
 at Knoxville was on September 29, 1855. Five years he labored 
 hard and faithfully through eastern Tennessee, leaving an impres- 
 sion that lasts to this day. The Almanac for 1861 places him at 
 Chattanooga, but with Knoxville and its former missions still under 
 his charge. His last record at Knoxville is dated December 1, 
 1860, for he was soon succeeded there by the Rev. J. A. Bergrath. 
 How long Father Biemans remained in Chattanooga, where it was 
 evidently intended that he should take the place of Father Brown, 
 we do not know. However, as he soon left the country, it is 
 probable that the Civil War turned his mind towards other parts.‘ 
 
 From Tennessee Father Biemans went to England. There he 
 labored in and around London until 1893, when, broken in health, 
 he returned to Belgium. After two years of sickness, he died, 
 October 3, 1895, in his native Edeghem, and was there laid to his 
 final rest.§ 
 
 FATHER ANTHONY RAYMOND GANGLOFF 
 
 Father Anthony R. Gangloff was born at “Danne et Quatre 
 Wann,” Alsace, about 1822, and was one of the eldest of a family 
 
 6 For further information see text passim. 
 
 7 See note 5 above. 
 
 8 Much of this information is taken from Father Biemans’ mortuary 
 card, for the correction of errors in which see text. 
 
APPENDIX I 565 
 
 of eleven children. He had nearly completed his education, when 
 his parents, Nicholas and Appolonia (Wahl) Gangloff, brought 
 him to Perry County, Ohio. October 23, 1843, he received the 
 Dominican habit at Saint Rose’s, in Kentucky, and made his relig- 
 ious profession at the same place on November 1, 1844. He 
 pursued his ecclesiastical studies there and at Saint Joseph’s, in 
 Ohio, and was ordained by Bishop Purcell in Saint Peter’s Church, 
 Chillicothe, Ohio, on September 3, 1849. From that time until 
 he went to Memphis, Ohio and Kentucky were his fields of labor. 
 
 Bishop Whelan called Father Gangloff to Nashville late in 
 1860. There he became pastor of Saint John’s Church, in Edge- 
 field. Father Gangloff had now gone into consumption. Accord- 
 ingly, with the permission of his superiors, he returned to Ohio, 
 where he took temporary charge of Saint Michael’s, Madisonville.® 
 He died at Saint John’s Hospital, Cincinnati, June 9, 1864, aged 
 forty-two years. At the request of his family, who had now 
 moved to Piqua, in the same state, he was buried there. The 
 Telegraph of June 15, 1864, says of him: “During a long illness 
 he was faithful to say Mass, when scarcely able to stand at the 
 altar, and attended to his pastoral cares, when apparently tottering 
 on the brink of the grave. He was a man of truly sacerdotal life 
 and manners, and will long be remembered by his Rev. brethren 
 in the ministry, whom he greatly edified.”’ 1° 
 
 THE REV. JOHN SCOLLARD 
 
 The first mention of Father John Scollard we found is in the 
 Catholic Almanac for 1851, when he was pastor of Saint Paul’s, 
 Princeton, New Jersey, and also had under his charge the Church 
 of Saint Rose of Lima, at Freehold. When and where he was 
 born, or when and where ordained, we did not discover. He 
 labored on the missions named until he went to Tennessee. The 
 late Father Eugene Gazzo used to say that, when the Civil War 
 broke out, Father Scollard became a chaplain in the Confederate 
 army, getting a horse from Father Orengo for the purpose. After 
 the war (that is, in 1866,) we find him at Jackson, Louisiana, 
 in the Diocese of New Orleans. In 1869, he was changed to Amity, 
 
 9 Madisonville is now incorporated in Cincinnati. 
 10 For his work in Memphis see text. 
 
566 THE FATHER OF THE CHURCH IN TENNESSEE 
 
 where he seems to have died in 1876, for his name no longer 
 appears in the Almanac.11 
 
 FATHER JOHN HYACINTH LYNCH 
 
 Father J. H. Lynch was born in Zanesville, Ohio, June 22, 1825, 
 his parents being Patrick and Christina (Sedwidge) Lynch. He 
 had two brothers, one of whom died in young manhood, and the 
 other went to California. All his five sisters became Dominican 
 Nuns. Father Lynch received the habit of Saint Dominic at Saint 
 Joseph’s, in Ohio, January 19, 1851, and made his religious pro- 
 fession on February 8, 1852. Archbishop Purcell ordained him 
 in the chapel of the Ursuline Sisters, Brown County, Ohio, July 
 18, 1854. After her husband’s death, Mrs. Christina Lynch also 
 entered the Order of Saint Dominic, where she had her own 
 daughter for novice mistress. 
 
 Father Lynch had an unusual variety of priestly experiences. 
 Between the time of his ordination and that when he was sent 
 to Nashville, he labored in Ohio and Kentucky. He was recalled 
 to Ohio from Memphis at the outbreak of the Civil War; but a few 
 months later we find him at Lexington, Kentucky, being sent there 
 by his provincial with Father Peter €. Coll, O.P., in response to 
 Bishop George A. Carrell’s appeal for help. It was a trying and 
 perilous post which Father Lynch filled to the satisfaction of his 
 superiors until the summer of 1863, when he was sent to his native 
 City of Zanesville. 
 
 From that time, he toiled in many parts of the United States, 
 either on parochial missions or in various parishes attended by 
 his Order. In 1878, however, he returned to Zanesville, where 
 he spent the remainder of his long life. He died in Zanesville on 
 August 7, 1908, aged eighty-three years, and was buried at Saint 
 Joseph’s Convent, near Somerset. Father Lynch was a very intel- 
 ligent and well-read man, deeply religious, zealous, faithful to his 
 priestly duties, and scrupulously exact in the observances of. his 
 state of life. He possessed an extraordinary voice, was an enter- 
 taining conversationalist, and in his younger days drew large crowds 
 
 11 The fact that Father Scollard was on the board of diocesan con- 
 sultors shows the high regard in which he was held in Nashville. 
 
APPENDIX I 567 
 
 by his eloquence. In spite of his age, he left a host of friends, 
 many of whom still live in Zanesville.!* 
 
 FATHER STEPHEN BYRNE 
 
 Patrick and Mary (Fitzsimmons) Byrne were the parents of 
 -Father Stephen Byrne, who was born in Wexford, Ireland, De- 
 cember 25, 1832. It is said that his mother was sixty years of 
 age at the time of his birth. He was educated abroad, and seems 
 to have studied for the priesthood there, but temporarily gave up 
 the idea. Shortly after coming to America, he began to teach in 
 Saint Joseph’s College, Somerset, Ohio, and at the same time read 
 philosophy and theology under the Dominican Fathers attached 
 to that institution. There he received the habit of the Order, 
 October 10, 1854, made his religious profession exactly a twelve- 
 month later, and was ordained to the priesthood (August 4, 1856) 
 by Archbishop Purcell. 
 
 From this time until his death, November 23, 1887, Father 
 Byrne’s labors were varied, ubiquitous, fruitful, tireless; for his 
 many-sided talent and cheerful spirit of co-operation rendered 
 him useful in almost any line of work. He taught at the college 
 in Ohio, was master of novices, held the office of superior, preached 
 and lectured throughout the country east of the Mississippi River, 
 and gave or helped on many parochial missions.*> He founded 
 Saint Antoninus’ Priory, Newark, New Jersey. In 1877 he was 
 elected provincial, but resigned his office two years later because 
 of ill health and a desire to have more time for labor that lay near 
 to his heart. While provincial, he established Holy Rosary Priory 
 in Minneapolis. Always ailing though he was, he never ceased 
 from toil of one kind or another. Although he died in Minne- 
 apolis, his love for Saint Joseph’s Convent, in Ohio, caused the 
 superiors to have him buried there. 
 
 Doubtless that which will especially perpetuate Father Byrne’s 
 memory in future generations is his literary work and efforts in 
 behalf of Catholic colonization. He translated several spiritual 
 books, wrote a number of biographical brochures, and contributed 
 many historical articles to the Catholic papers. Perhaps no one 
 
 12 For his work in Tennessee see text. 
 
 13 Father Byrne was called away from Memphis in June, 1860; but he 
 labored there again at a later date. 
 
568 THE FATHER OF THE CHURCH IN TENNESSEE 
 
 strove more fruitfully (certainly none with greater energy and 
 perseverance) in the cause of Catholic colonization. By far the 
 greater part of his writings, whether in the form of brochures or 
 articles, were on this subject. ‘These were scattered throughout 
 the country, were read by hundreds of thousands, and were admired 
 for their statistical lore. The story of his life, if well written, 
 would make a volume full of interest and instruction. At the time 
 of his death, the editor of the Catholic Columbian says that the 
 event has “filled many hearts with great sadness,’ speaks of his 
 character, and then adds: 
 
 “He was also, during his life, a studious scholar, fully informed 
 on those subjects that would tend to promote the good of our holy 
 religion, and in all had the beautiful simplicity of the child. He 
 contributed frequently to the columns of the Columbian. He was 
 the historian of his Order, and had he lived longer, might have 
 still further enriched that department of our literature. We of the 
 Columbian who knew the deceased well, and loved him for his 
 many noble qualities, his grand character, and happy geniality, 
 will miss him; and unite our prayers with the thousands that will 
 ascend for him to the Throne of Grace, that he may be admitted 
 to eternal happiness.” 
 
 THE REV. ANTHONY VOGEL 
 
 Of Father John Anthony Vogel we discovered but little more 
 than has been narrated in the text of Bishop Miles’ life. He 
 seems to have been born in Germany. He spent some years in 
 Louisville, Kentucky, before he studied for the priesthood, and 
 made many friends there. He entered the seminary at Bardstown 
 for the Diocese of Louisville, but later requested that he might 
 give his services to Bishop Miles. Bishop Spalding consented, and 
 the young man was then sent to the seminary in Cincinnati, where 
 Archbishop Purcell, apparently without charge to his new ordinary, 
 kept him until ready for ordination. 
 
 Father Vogel certainly labored with great zeal and effect at 
 the Church of the Assumption in Nashville until the outbreak of 
 the Civil War. The Catholic Almanac was not issued for the years 
 1862 and 1863. His name does not appear in that for 1864, or 
 afterwards. Quite probably, like several of the priests of Ten- 
 
APPENDIX I 569 
 
 nessee, he became a chaplain in the Confederate forces and fell on 
 the field of honor, as did Father Emmeran Bliimel, O.S.B., in the 
 eastern part of the state. Perhaps some day a record may be 
 discovered of Father Vogel’s noble deeds and heroic death in one 
 of the bloody battles of the south.# 
 
 FATHER JANUARIUS MANNES D’ARCO 
 
 Father J. M. D’Arco was born in Naples, Italy, May 24, 1818. 
 At the age of nineteen years he entered the Order of Saint Dominic 
 at the Convent of San Domenico Maggiore, that city, and was there 
 ordained by Cardinal Riario Sforza on December 18, 1841. Octo- 
 ber 17, 1844, along with Father Orengo, he obtained the degree 
 of Lector in Sacred Theology in Rome, and started at once for the 
 United States. His first field of toil was Perry County, Ohio. 
 In 1847 he was sent to aid Father John T. Van den Broek at 
 Little Chute, Wisconsin, but returned to Saint Joseph’s before 
 the close of 1849. Here he now remained until he went to Ten- 
 nessee with Bishop Whelan. At Nashville he was secretary, chan- 
 cellor, and one of the diocesan counsellors. 
 
 After the resignation of Bishop Whelan, Father D’Arco obtained 
 the permission of the Order’s Master General, the Most Rey. 
 Alexander V. Jandel, to become a missionary apostolic, and went 
 to Oxford, Ohio (in the Diocese of Cincinnati), where he labored 
 until 1873.1° That year he entered the Diocese of Vincennes 
 (now Indianapolis), and was stationed at Liberty, Indiana. Here 
 he labored on until 1894, when, broken down by age and infirmity, 
 he retired from active work. About the same time, as he feared 
 that he could not again adapt himself to community life, he became 
 secularized. He continued to live at Liberty until 1898, when 
 he went to Saint Vincent’s Hospital, Indianapolis, dying there 
 on June 1, 1899. He is buried in Holy Cross Cemetery, 
 Indianapolis. 
 
 FATHER JAMES AEGIDIUS (GILES) MARSCHAL 
 
 Of Father James A. Marschal’s early life we know only that he 
 was born in Prussian Poland, entered the Order of Saint Dominic 
 
 14 For further information see text. 
 
 15 Father D’Arco’s last record at Nashville is dated July 6, 1863. 
 
 16 Father Marschal’s name is practically always given as Moshall or 
 Marshall in the Almanac; but this is incorrect. 
 
570 THE FATHER OF THE CHURCH IN TENNESSEE 
 
 there, went to Rome after the suppression of his province by the 
 German government, and received letters patent from Father A. 
 V. Jandel, the Dominican Master General, to come to the United 
 States as a missionary apostolic. The first record of him here 
 places him at Manayunk, Pennsylvania, in 1854. Thence he went 
 to Maine, from there to Wisconsin, and then to Tennessee, where 
 he was stationed at Clarksville. The Freeman’s Journal of Novem- 
 ber 3, 1860, shows that during his pastorate at Clarksville he was 
 held up by robbers, and thought to be killed. Possibly this was 
 why he did not remain longer in Tennessee. From there he went 
 back to the Diocese of Philadelphia, remaining in it for four years. 
 Late in 1856, he went to the Diocese of London, Ontario, and was 
 stationed at Ingersoll. Thence he departed for Chicago, and after 
 some years returned to Europe, where he died on September 4, 1893. 
 Wherever he labored, Father Marschal left a good reputation 
 for zeal, candor, and priestly deportment. He was an intellectual 
 and highly educated man. He spoke English, French, German, 
 and Polish perfectly. This gift of languages seems to have caused 
 him to be placed in charge of “mixed”’ congregations which were 
 troublesome in themselves, in addition to the difficulty inherent in 
 such a care. Besides, he was of a nervous temperament, and per- 
 haps somewhat tactless, while the letters patent of missionary 
 apostolic given him by his highest superior made him independent 
 of the Order’s authorities in this country, whose direction might 
 have rendered him a more stable and useful harvester of souls. 
 
 FATHER JOHN THOMAS NEALIS 
 
 Father John T. Nealis, who was born in New York City about 
 1833, was the son of Thomas and Mary (Harrison) Nealis. How 
 early in life he developed a religious vocation may be seen by the 
 fact that he became a postulant at Saint Joseph’s, in Ohio, in 1847. 
 Thence he went to Saint Rose’s, in Kentucky, where he received 
 the habit of Saint Dominic, September 6, 1851, and made his 
 religious profession on the eighth of the same month in 1852. 
 Archbishop Purcell ordained him at Saint Joseph’s, in Ohio. 
 August 4, 1856. Then he was returned to Saint Rose’s, where 
 he remained, with the exception of a few months which he spent 
 
APPENDIX I 571 
 
 in Washington City to take the place of one of the fathers at 
 Saint Dominic’s, until stationed at Memphis.” 
 
 Father Nealis had already developed into an excellent preacher. 
 This combined with his zeal, charity, genial manners, and priestly 
 deportment to win the hearts of the hospitable southern people. 
 From Memphis, however, he soon went to Chattanooga which had 
 been left witheut a priest. His last record in the Bluff City is 
 dated September 5, 1861. Late in 1862, while attending some of 
 his stations, he was maliciously shot by a ruffian, and narrowly 
 escaped death. In fact, though he continued his labors and did 
 not lose his spirit of optimism, he never fully recovered from the 
 wound he received. Near the close of 1863, he was brought to 
 Nashville, and placed in charge of Saint John’s, in Edgefield. 
 The injury inflicted on him at Chattanooga had left him subject 
 to sinking and fainting spells, in one of which he fell from the 
 window of his room at the cathedral rectory on the night of March 
 18, 1864, and was instantly killed. 
 
 With one voice tradition and the journalistic literature of the 
 day tell us that Father Nealis was a most exemplary priest who, 
 while he labored heart and soul for the salvation of others, never 
 forgot his own. No wonder his sudden and unexpected death 
 brought deep sorrow to his many friends far and wide. He is 
 buried at his alma mater, Saint Rose’s, in Kentucky.1® 
 
 THE RIGHT REV. JAMES WHELAN 
 
 As yet no documentary record of the place of Bishop James 
 Whelan’s birth has been discovered other than that this honor 
 belongs to Ireland. The most reliable authorities say that he was 
 born in historic Kilkenny. Both June 8 and December 8, 1823, are 
 given as the date of his birth. Tradition tells us that his mother 
 was only fourteen or fifteen years of age when she married, and 
 that he was the eldest of two children. He was taken to Dublin in 
 infancy, and brought thence to New York City. In these two 
 
 17 Numerous inaccuracies are given in sketches of Father Nealis’ earlier 
 life. The above is based on the church records of the places named. 
 
 18 Despite the clear, calm, and well-reasoned decision of the coroner 
 and his jury, who pronounced Father Nealis’ death evidently accidental, 
 a few evil-minded bigots sought to create the impression that the good 
 priest committed suicide. However, they only succeeded in bringing odium 
 upon themselves. 
 
572 THE FATHER OF THE CHURCH IN TENNESSEE 
 
 places he received his early education. From the beginning, he 
 had attracted attention by his rare mind, remarkable memory, and 
 love of study. 
 
 Father Andrew Byrne, then pastor of Saint James, New York, 
 and later the first bishop of Little Rock, Arkansas, carefully fos- 
 tered a vocation to the religious life which he detected in the 
 promising Irish youth, and took him to the Very Rev. N. D. 
 Young who had most likely gone to the east to see his nephew, 
 Brother N. R. Young, off for Rome. This was in the spring or 
 early summer of 1838. The next year, now that he had nearly 
 completed his classical course, James Whelan went to Saint Rose's, 
 in Kentucky, where he received the habit of Saint Dominic on 
 May 1, 1839, and took his vows of religion on June 29, 1840. 
 Brother James, for in the Order he took the name which he had 
 received at baptism, mastered philosophy and theology with strik- 
 ing thoroughness, and was the first member of the province to 
 obtain the degree of Lector of Sacred Theology at home. August 
 2, 1846, Bishop Purcell ordained him at Saint Joseph’s, near 
 Somerset, Ohio. 
 
 From this time, Father Whelan rose rapidly in his province, 
 holding many offices of trust and responsibility. In October, 1854, 
 he was elected provincial.!9 This position he filled for four years. 
 Traditions in Saint Joseph’s Province still exist of the ability and 
 success with which he guided its destinies at the time. From the 
 same source we learn that only the strong prejudice then existing 
 against a provincial immediately succeeding himself prevented 
 his re-election in 1858. Father Whelan was a philosopher, a 
 theologian, a scientist, and a historian of a high order. During 
 his provincialship, he gave missions, preached, and lectured in va- 
 rious parts of the country. Everywhere, for he had an excellent 
 voice, a fine personal appearance, a good delivery, graceful ges- 
 tures, he established a reputation as a pulpit orator. Besides, he 
 was a priest and religious of irreproachable life, as well as zealous 
 and possessed of a charming personality.°° 
 
 19 He was elected provincial at the age of one and thirty years, and was 
 the youngest person who has ever held that office in the province. 
 
 20 The writer has often heard old persons, both lay and clerical, in Ohio 
 
 and Kentucky speak of the facts given here, and they are borne out by 
 many statements in print. 
 
APPENDIX I 573 
 
 These were the qualities that caused his name to be sent to 
 Rome in connection with more than one see. From the time of his 
 installation at Nashville, he entered on his new duties with an 
 admirable zeal and capacity which won the hearts of all.21_ Un- 
 fortunately, his lot in Tennessee was cast in trying times. Scarcely 
 had he his work well in hand, when the Civil War broke out. 
 Perhaps no bishop from the north with Federal sympathies could 
 have met with much success in Tennessee or Kentucky at this 
 period. The few accounts and records of the day show that Bishop 
 Whelan did his best impartially to administer to the spiritualities 
 of the Catholics on both sides of the fratricidal strife. But it 
 was practically impossible for him to steer between Scylla and 
 Charybdis. 
 
 Federal sympathies filled his breast, for he was strongly op- 
 posed to a dismemberment of the Union, and in his honesty he 
 made no effort to conceal his convictions. . Naturally this at once 
 alienated from him the affections of by far the greater part of his 
 flock. A number of his priests had become chaplains in the army, 
 which left the parishes without shepherds; the costly stone foun- 
 dation of the church in Chattanooga was torn down; his own cathe- 
 dral had been converted into a military hospital; everywhere his 
 diocese was in ruins; by not a few his fervent exhortation (at ben- 
 ediction during a novena for the protection of heaven just before 
 the fall of Nashville) to the Catholics that, should the worse come, 
 they would put their trust in God, and not forget their religion, 
 was construed as the act of an enemy.** Numbers of the officers 
 (General Rosecrans, for instance,) and soldiers from Ohio were 
 his personal friends. With these he openly fraternized, and this 
 was bitterly resented alike by Catholics and non-Catholics. 
 
 Under the circumstances, all this was but natural—nay, might 
 have been expected. However, it was more than the zealous 
 bishop could stand. He was a victim of circumstances. His health 
 failed; his nerves became shattered; he felt that, even after the 
 
 21 See text. 
 
 22 This exhortation is still spoken of in Nashville. Some years ago, 
 several old persons of intelligence who were present on the occasion told 
 the writer that the people, owing to the excitement of the times, simply 
 lost their heads, and could find nothing too harsh to say against Bishop 
 Whelan, though he spoke only for their good. The late Father P. J. 
 
 Gleeson said that he had investigated the matter, and found it as given 
 above. 
 
574 THE FATHER OF THE CHURCH IN TENNESSEE 
 
 war, he would be able to effect but little good for religion in Ten- 
 nessee. Accordingly, he resigned his miter and retired to the quiet 
 of cloister life at Saint Joseph’s, in Ohio.22 Somewhat later, he 
 went to Zanesville, where he spent the remainder of his years in 
 prayer, study, and scientific investigation. He had a facile pen 
 as well as a logical mind. His Catena Aurea, or Golden Chain of 
 Evidences of Papal Infallibility, though brief and pithy, is one 
 of the best works we have on the subject in the English language. 
 Bishop Whelan died in Zanesville on February 18, 1878. He long 
 felt that his death would come suddenly, as it did in a stroke of 
 apoplexy, and he prepared for it by a saintly life. He is buried 
 in the cemetery of Saint Joseph’s Convent.*4 
 
 23 We did not discover the date of his resignation. Reuss (Biographical 
 Cyclopedia, p. 107) and Shea (The Defenders of Our Faith, p. 307) say 
 that it was in 1864. Father J. A. Kelly, who was appointed administrator 
 of the diocese, signs himself as such in the baptismal records on October 
 25, 1863. Probably Bishop Whelan insisted that Archbishop Kenrick 
 
 should appoint an administrator at this time, though he had not yet actually 
 resigned. 
 
 24 Clarke’s Lives of the Deceased Bishops (III, 292-294) is grossly 
 unjust to Bishop Whelan, and we are glad to learn that an unbiased study 
 is being made of his life. 
 
APPENDIX II 
 
 There were two foreign sources from which our American 
 Church, and especially our bishops, received an aid which we 
 should never forget. One was the French Society for the Propa- 
 gation of the Faith; the other an Austrian society, known as the 
 Leopoldine Association, which was established specifically to help 
 the missions of the United States. We found no record of any 
 aid that the Leopoldine Association gave Bishop Miles; yet it 
 is not unlikely that he was benefited by it from time to time. The 
 French society was a regular benefactor of his; and the following 
 list shows the amounts it gave him year by year from 1839 to 
 1858. We could not find the volumes of the Annales which should 
 have specified the sum given to him for 1859 and 1860; so we 
 do not know how much the society allowed Tennessee these two 
 
 years. 
 1839. 26,827 Francs. 1849. 6,000 Francs. 
 1840. 33,900 “ L850 bIb00 0S 
 1841.) 24,600). © )* VSoly 5,000. ee 
 18 aa eer oS O40 aa 1852. 18,000 <“ 
 1843.° 21,560 “ L855.0 910,000 ui) 5 
 1844. 28,500 “ LSh4r 6.0008 4 
 1845. 18,500 “ 1855.. 8,000 “< 
 1846. 15,872  “ 1856. 7,000 “* 
 1847, 15.600 4". “ 1857....16.000' 41)“ 
 1848. 5,040 “ 1S 56 eS 000 thane 
 
 Thus the Church of Tennessee received 219,839 francs from the 
 French Society for the Propagation of the Faith in the twenty 
 years from 1839 to 1858. If we allow six thousand francs each 
 for 1859 and 1860, this would bring the amount up to 231,839 
 francs. Thus, valuing the franc at twenty cents, Bishop Miles 
 received about $58,000 from this source for his poor diocese. 
 While this amount of money was by no means sufficient for all his 
 needs, we can but wonder how he could have managed without it. 
 The story of his life shows the good works to which it was devoted. 
 
 575 
 
BIBLIOGRAPHY 
 
 I. PRINICIPAL MANUSCRIPT SOURCES 
 
 Vatican Archives of the Secretary of Briefs; Archives of the 
 Propaganda down to 1830; and Archives of the Dominican Master 
 General, and of the Convent of San Clemente, Rome.—Archives 
 of the Dominican Fathers in Belgium, Holland, England, and 
 Ireland. 
 
 Diocesan Archives of Baltimore, Cincinnati, Saint Louis, Louis- 
 ville, and Nashville—Catholic Archives of America, Notre 
 Dame University.—Archives of Saint Joseph’s Province of 
 Dominicans.—Archives of Georgetown University.—Records and 
 Archives of Saint Rose’s Church and Priory, Springfield, Kentucky, 
 of Saint Joseph’s Church and Priory, Somerset, Ohio, and of Saint 
 Peter’s, Memphis.—Archives of Mount Saint Joseph’s Academy, 
 Cincinnati, and of Nazareth Academy, Kentucky.—Church Rec- 
 ords of Holy Trinity, Somerset; Saint Thomas’, Zanesville; Saint 
 John’s, Canton; and Saint Mary’s, Temperanceville (all these in 
 Ohio).—Church Records of the cathedral, Nashville, Immaculate 
 Conception, Knoxville, and Saints Peter and Paul’s, Chattanooga, 
 Tennessee. 
 
 Records of the Land Office and Registers of Deeds and Wills, 
 Annapolis, Maryland (state documents).—Registers of Deeds and 
 Wills, Leonardtown, La Plata, and Marlborough, Maryland.— 
 Registers of Deeds, Frankfort and Morganfield, and of Deeds, 
 Wills, and Marriages, Bardstown, Kentucky.—Records of Deeds, 
 Knoxville, Chattanooga, Nashville, and Memphis, ‘Tennessee. 
 
 Diaries of Bishops Flaget (1812-1813) and Rosati, and of 
 Fathers John A. Bokel and Joseph A. Kelly.—Father Raymond 
 Palmer’s Anglia Dominicana.—Father Stephen Byrne’s rough 
 sketch (in pencil) of Saint Joseph’s Province; and his brief his- 
 tories of Saint Rose’s, Kentucky, Saint Joseph’s, Ohio, and 
 Saint Peter’s, Memphis.—Acts of the provincial chapter of 1837. 
 
 II. PRINTED SOURCES AND OTHERS WHICH MAY 
 BE CONSIDERED AS BELONGING TO THAT: 
 CLASS 
 
 Indirizzo alla Pieta dei Fedeli, etc., (a circular letter addressed 
 to the people of Italy by Bishop Fenwick, and printed at Rome 
 
 576 
 
BIBLIOGRAPHY 577 
 
 in December, 1823).—Acta Capitulorum Provinciae Angliae, 
 London, 1918.—Archives of Maryland, 41 vols.—Bullarium de 
 Propaganda Fide, Vol. V.—The Calvert Papers, Nos. 28, 34, 35 
 of the Fund Publications of the Maryland Historical Society.— 
 The Catholic Almanacs (now called Catholic Directories), from 
 1822 to 1896.—Concilium Plenarium. ... Baltimori Habitum 
 Anno 1825, Baltimore, 1853.—Concilia Provincialia Baltimori 
 Habita ab Anno 1829 usque ad Annum 1849, Baltimore, 1851.— 
 Hernaez (Rey. Francis X.), Coleccion de Bulas, Breves y Otros 
 Documentos relativos a la Iglesia de America y Filipinas, 2 vols., 
 Brussels, 1879.—WuireE (Rev. Andrew), Relatio Itineris in Mary- 
 landiam, No. 7 of Fund Publications. 
 
 BaLpwin (Jane, and later Jane Baldwin Cotton) and Henry 
 (Roberta Bolling), Maryland Calendar of Wills, 7 vols., Baltimore, 
 1901-1925.—BrumBauGu (Gaius M.), Maryland Records: Coloni- 
 al, Revolutionary, County, and Church, Baltimore, 1915.—Camp- 
 BELL (Rev John P.), Nashville Directory, for 1853-1854, for 1855- 
 1856, and for 1857.—The First Census of the United States, 1790 
 —Maryland. 
 
 III. WORKS PRINCIPALLY CONSULTED 
 
 Apair (James), History of the American Indians, London, 
 1775.—ALBRIGHT, (Edward), Early History of Middle Tennessee, 
 Nashville, 1909.—Aturrpina (Rev. Herman J.), A History of the 
 Church in the Diocese of Vincennes, Indianapolis, 1883; and The 
 Diocese of Fort Wayne, Fort Wayne, 1907.—Atsop (George), 4 
 Character of the Province of Maryland (No. 15 of Fund Publica- 
 tions), Baltimore, 1888.—Auizoa (Rev. John), Manual of Uni- 
 versal Church History (Pabisch-Byrne translation), Vol. III, 
 Cincinnati, 1878.—Atrwater (Caleb), A History of Ohio, Natural 
 and Civil, Cincinnati, 1838. | 
 
 Bancrorr (George), History of the United States, (24th ed.), 
 10 vols., Boston, 1872.— Bozman (John L.), A Sketch of the His- 
 tory of Maryland, Baltimore, 1811; and The History of Maryland, 
 2 vols., Baltimore, 1837.—Brown, (B. F.), Maryland not a Roman 
 Catholic Colony, Baltimore, 1876.—Browne (William H.), Mary- 
 land, The History of a Palatinate, Boston, 1888; and George 
 Calvert and Cecilius Calvert, Barons of Baltimore, New York, 
 1890.—Bruce (H. Addington), Daniel Boone and the Wilderness 
 Road, New York, 1916.—Bryant (William C.), A Popular His- 
 tory of the United States, 4 vols., New York, 1888-1890.—Bryant 
 and Fuuiuer, History of the Upper Ohio Valley, 2 vois., Madison, 
 Wisconsin, 1890.—Burns (Rev. James A.), The Catholic School 
 System in the United States, Its Principles, Origin, and Estab- 
 lishment, New York, 1908; and The Growth and Development of 
 the Catholic School System in the United States, New York, 
 
 38 
 
578 THE FATHER OF THE CHUORCH IN TENNESSEE 
 
 1912.—Burver (Mann), A History of the Commonwealth of Ken- 
 tucky, Louisville, 1834. 
 
 Carr (John), Harly Times in Middle Tennessee, Nashville, 
 1857.—CavanauGcH (Rev. John), The Priests of Holy Cross, 
 Notre Dame Press.—Cuaumers (George), Political Annals of the 
 Present United Colonies from their Settlement to the Peace of 
 1768, 2 vols., London, 1780.—Cuarvevorx Dr (Rey. Francis X.), 
 History and General Description of New France (Shea transla- 
 tion, with notes), 6 vols., New York, 1866-1872.—CuarkeE (Richard 
 L.), Lives of the Deceased Bishops of the Catholic Church in the 
 United States, 3 vols., New York, 1888.—Clarksville, Picturesque, 
 Past and Present, A History of the City of Hills, 1887.—Cuiayton 
 (W. W.), History of Davidson County, Tennessee, Philadelphia, 
 1880.—Coxss (Standford H.), The Rise of Religious Liberty in 
 America, New York, 1902.—Coxuins (Lewis), History of Ken- 
 tuckg (revised and brought down to 1874 by Richard H. Collins), 
 2 vols., Covington, 1882.—Columbus, Diocese of, The History of 
 Fifty Years, Columbus, 1918.—Currier (Rev. Charles W.), His- 
 tory of the Religious Orders, New York, 1894. 
 
 Davin (Rev. John B.), A Vindication of the Catholic Doctrine 
 concerning the Use and Veneration of Images, etc.,. Louisville, 
 1821.—Davis (George L.), The Day Star of American Freedom, 
 New York, 1855.—Davis (James D.), History of the City of 
 Memphis, Memphis, 1873.—Dr Courcy-Suea, History of the 
 Catholic Church in the United States, New York, 1856.—Domin- 
 ican Province, The English, London, 1921. 
 
 Exson (Henry W.), History of the United States, 5 vols., New 
 York, 1905.—Encyclopedia, The Catholic, various volumes.—Eth- 
 nology, Bureau of American, Nineteenth Annual Report of, Wash- 
 ington, 1897-1898. 
 
 Frynn (Rev. Joseph M.), The Catholic Church in New Jersey, 
 Morristown, 1904.—Forp (Henry A. and Kate), History of Cin- 
 cinnati, 1881.—Fox (Sister Columba), The Life of the Right Rev. 
 John Baptist Mary David, New York, 1925. 
 
 GamBRALL (Rev. Theodore C.), Church Life in Colonial Mary- 
 land, Baltimore, 1885; and Studies in the Civil, Social, and Eccle- 
 siastical History of Early Maryland, New York, 1893.—GLEESON 
 (Rev W.), History of the Church in California, 2 vols., San Fran- 
 cisco, 1871.—Golden Bells in Convent Towers, The Story of 
 Father Samuel [Mazzuchelli] and Saint Clara, Chicago, 1904.— 
 GoopsPEED (Weston A.), History of Tennessee, Nashville, 1886.— 
 Goss (Charles F.), The Queen City, 4 vols., Cincinnati and Chi- 
 cago, 1912.—Goulding’s Catholic Churches in New York City 
 (edited by John G. Shea), New York, 1878.—Granam (A. A.), 
 History of Fairfield and Perry Counties, Ohio, Chicago, 1883.— 
 Guitpay (Rev. Peter), The English Catholic Refugees on the 
 
BIBLIOGRAPHY 579 
 
 Continent, London, 1914; The National Pastorals of the Ameri- 
 can Hierarchy, Washington, 1923; and Life and Times of John 
 Carroll, Archbishop of Baltimore, New York, 1922. 
 
 Hammer (Rev. Bonaventure), Eduard Dominik Fenwick der 
 Apostel von Ohio, Freiburg, 1890.—Hawks (Rev. Francis L.), 
 A Narrative of Events Connected with the Rise and Progress of the 
 Protestant Episcopal Church in Maryland, New York, 1839.—Hay- 
 woop (John), The Civil and Political History of Tennessee from 
 Its Earliest Settlement up to the Year 1796, Nashville, 1891.— 
 Houck (Rev. George F.), A History of Catholicity in Northern 
 Ohio and in the Diocese of Cleveland, editions of 1887, 1890, and 
 1903 (last ed. 2 vols.), Cleveland—Howe (Henry), Historical 
 Collections of Ohio, Cincinnati, 1848, and Columbus (3 vols.), 
 1890-1891.—Howtertr (Rev. William J.), Historical Tribute to 
 St. Thomas’ Seminary, Saint Louis, 1906; and Life of Rev. Charles 
 Nerinckx, Techny, Illinois, 1915.—Hueues (Rev. Thomas), His- 
 tory of the Society of Jesus in North America, 2 vols. of Text, 
 and 2 vols. of Documents, 1907-1917. 
 
 Inete (Edward), Captain Richard Ingle, the Maryland Pirate 
 and Rebel (No. 19 of Fund Publications), Baltimore, 1884.— 
 Irvine (Washington), Life of George Washington, 3 vols., New 
 York, 1857. 
 
 JarreTT (Rev. Bede), The English Dominicans, 1921.—Joun- 
 son (Bradley T.), The Foundation of Maryland and the Origin 
 of the Act Concerning Religion (No. 18 of Fund Publications), 
 Baltimore, 1883. 
 
 Kratine (J. M.), 4 History of the Yellow Fever in Memphis, 
 Tennessee, Memphis, 1879; and History of the City of Memphis 
 and Shelby County, Tennessee, 2 vols., Syracuse, 1888.—Kin- 
 sELLA (Rev. Thomas H.), A Centenary of Catholicity in Kansas, 
 Kansas City, 1921. 
 
 Lamotr (Rev. John H.), History of the Archdiocese of Cin- 
 cinnati, Cincinnati, 1921—bLyncu (Rev. J. S. M.), A Page of 
 Church History in New York: Saint John’s, Utica, 1893. 
 
 McCann (Sister Mary Agnes), The History of Mother Seton’s 
 Daughters, the Sisters of Charity of Cincinnati, Ohio, 4 vols., New 
 York, 1917-1923; and Archbishop Purcell and the Archdiocese of 
 Cincinnati, Washington, 1918.—McGitt (Anna B.), The Sisters 
 of Charity of Nazareth, Kentucky, New York, 1917—McManon 
 (Rev. John V. L.), An Historical View of the Government of 
 Maryland, Baltimore, 1831.—McSuerry (James), History of 
 Maryland, Baltimore, 1849.—Mars (Rev. Camillus P.), Life of 
 Rev. Charles Nerinckx, Cincinnati, 1880.—Maari (Rev. Joseph), 
 The Catholic Church in the City and Diocese of Richmond, Rich- 
 mond, 1906.—Martzourr (Clement L.), History of Perry County, 
 Ohio, Columbus, 1902.—Mazzucue ui (Rev. Samuel C.), Memoirs 
 
580 THE (FATHER (OF ‘THE CHURCH IN| TENNESSEE 
 
 Historical and Edifying of a Missionary Apostolic (a translation 
 of Memorie Istoriche ed Edificanti,) Chicago, 1915.—MeE ine- 
 McSweeney, The Story of the Mountain, 2 vols., Emmitsburg, 
 Maryland, 1911—Muitter (Charles C.), History of Fairfield 
 County, Ohio, Chicago—Mtnoaur (Anna C.), Loretto Annals of 
 the Century, New York, 1912; and Pages from a Hundred Years 
 of Dominican History, Louisville, 1922.—Montmorency-Laval De, 
 Le Vénérable Francois, Quebec, 1908.—Moorer (John Trotwood), 
 Tennessee, the Volunteer State, Vol. I, Chicago and Memphis, 
 1923.—Moreau, Le Trés Rév. Pére Basile A. M@—Mortier (Rev. 
 D. A.), Histoire des Maitres Généraux de VOrde des Freres 
 Précheurs, Vol. VII, Paris, 1914. 
 
 Nashville, Tennessee, History of (edited by J. Wooldridge), 
 Nashville, 1890.—Neitt (Rev. Edward D.), Terra Mariae, Phil- 
 adelphia, 1867; The Founders of Maryland, Albany, 1876; and 
 Thomas Cornwallis and the Early Maryland Colonists, Boston, 
 1879.—No.tu (Rev. Arthur H.), History of the [ Episcopalian | 
 Church in the Diocese of Tennessee, New York, 1900. 
 
 O’Daniet (Rev. Victor F.), Very Rev. Charles Hyacinth 
 McKenna, 1917; The Friars Preacher, 1917; Right Rev Edward 
 D. Fenwick, 1920; and An American Apostle (Very Rev. M. A. 
 O’Brien), 1923.—O’Harr (John), Irish Pedigrees, or the Origin 
 and Stem of the Irish Nation, Dublin, 1881.—O’SHeEa (John J.), 
 The Two Kenricks, Most Rev. Francis P., Archbishop of Balti- 
 more—Most Rev. Peter R., Archbishop of St. Louis, Philadelphia, 
 1904. 
 
 Parmer (Rev. Raymond), Life of Philip Thomas Howard, 
 Cardinal of Norfolk, London, 1867.—Parkman (Louis L.), Chat- 
 tanooga, Tennessee, Hamilton County, and Lookout Mountain, 
 Chattanooga, 1876.—PuHrELAN (James), History of Tennessee, 
 New York and Boston, 1889.—Purnam (Abigence W.), History 
 of Middle Tennessee, Nashville, 1859. 
 
 Ramsay (David), History of the United States from their First 
 Settlement as English Colonies, 3 vols., Philadelphia, 1816—Ram- 
 sey (J. G. M.), The Annals of Tennessee to the End of the 
 Eighteenth Century, Philadelphia, 1860.—Ranpati (Emelius O.> 
 and Ryan (Daniel J.), History of Ohio, 5 vols., New York, 1912. 
 —Reruvuss (Francis X.), Biographical Cyclopedia of the Catholic 
 Hierarchy in the United States, Milwaukee, 1898.—RicHarpson 
 (Hester D.), Side-lights on Maryland History, 2 vols., Baltimore, 
 1913.—RipeGeLtey (Helen W.), Historic Graves of Maryland and 
 the District of Columbia, New York, 1908.—R6seEerr (Charles 
 E.), Nashville and her trade for 1870, Nashville, 1870.—Ru.e 
 (William), History of Knoxville, Tennessee, Chicago, 1900.—Rvus- 
 sELL (Rev. William T.), Maryland the Land of Sanctuary, Balti- 
 more, 1907. 
 
BIBLIOGRAPHY 581 
 
 Scuarr (J. Thomas), History of Maryland, 3 vols., Baltimore, 
 1879.—Suea (John G.), History of the Catholic Missions among 
 the Indian Tribes of the United States, New York, 1854; and A 
 History of the Catholic Church in the United States, 4 vols. (sec- 
 ond vol. Life of Archbishop Carroll), New York, 1886-1892.—Sit- 
 ver (John A.), The Provincial Government of Maryland, Balti- 
 more, 1905.—Sisters of Charity of Leavenworth, Kansas, History 
 of the, Kansas City, 1898.—Smitu (C. E.), Religion under the 
 Barons of Baltimore, Baltimore, 1899.—Smiru (Rev. John T.), 
 A History of the Diocese of Ogdensburg, New York, 1885.— 
 SmitH (Z. F.), The History of Kentucky, Louisville, 1892.— 
 SpaLpine (Rev. John L.), Life of the Most Rev. M. J. Spalding, 
 New York and Baltimore, 1873.—Spaxtpine (Rev. M. J.), Sketches 
 of the Early Catholic Missions of Kentucky, Louisville, 1844; and 
 Sketches of the Life, Times, and Character of the Right Rev. 
 Benedict Joseph Flaget, Louisville, 1852.—Spanish Explorers in 
 the Southern United States (Original Narratives of Early Amer- 
 ican History), New York, 1907.—Sparxs (F. E.), Causes of the 
 Maryland Revolution of 1689, Baltimore, 1896.—SrxEiner (Ber- 
 nard C.), Life of Rev. Thomas Bray, Baltimore, 1901; and Mary- 
 land during the English Civil Wars, and The Beginnings of Mary- 
 land, both Baltimore, 1903.—Strevens (Rev. William B.), A 
 History of Georgia, 2 vols.. New York, 1847.—Srtrocksrivee 
 (Henry), The Archives of Maryland as Illustrating the Spirit of 
 the Times of the Early Settlers, Baltimore, 1886.—Srreeter 
 (Sebastian F.), Maryland Two Hundred Years Ago, 1852; and 
 Papers Relating to the Early History of Maryland, Baltimore, 
 1876.—SvutTor (J. H.), Past and Present of the City of Zanes- 
 ville and Muskingum County, Ohio, Chicago, 1905. 
 
 Tuomas (James W.), Chronicles of Maryland, Cumberland, 
 1913.—TuHomas (Jane H.), Old Days in Nashville, Tennessee— 
 Reminiscences, Nashville, 1897.—Treacy (Rev. William P.), Old 
 Catholic Maryland and Its Early Jesuit Missionaries, 1889. 
 
 Van Doninck (Benedictus), Het Voormalig Engelsch Klooster 
 te Bornhem, Louvain, 1904.—Wesp (Ben. J.), The Centenary of 
 Catholicity in Kentucky, Louisville, 1884.—WitHEeLm (Lewis W.), 
 Sir George Calvert Baron of Baltimore, Baltimore 1884.—Winsor 
 (Justin), Narrative and Critical History of America, 8 vols., New 
 York and Boston, 1889. 
 
 IV. PAMPHLETS AND PERIODICALS 
 
 An account of the Progress of the Catholic Religion in the 
 Western States of North America, etc., London, 1824.—Bapin 
 (Rev. Stephen T.—Un Témoin Oculaire), Origine et Progres de 
 la Mission du Kentucky, Paris, 1821.—Barr (Daniel), St. Mary’s 
 
582 THESFATHER OF sSTHE: CHURCH DIN: TENNESSEE 
 
 Cathedral, Nashville, Tennessee, 1897.—Fuick (Laurence F.), 
 The French Refugee Trappists in the United States, Philadelphia, 
 1886.—GrauHam (Rey. Edward P.), A Sketch of St. John’s Parish 
 (Canton, Ohio), 1924.— Korte Beschryving van de Zendelingschap 
 van Pater Fenwick Bisschop van Cincinnati, in Ohio, Antwerp, 
 1824.—Lorican (Rev. James T.), The Church of the Holy Ghost, 
 Knoxville, Tennessee, 1909.—Patmer (Rev. Raymond), Obituary 
 Notices of the Friar-Preachers, or Dominicans, of the English 
 Province, 1884.—Saint Joseph’s Parish, Somerset, Ohio, The 
 Centenary of, Somerset, 1918.—Tavurisano (Innocentius), Series 
 Magistrorum Generalium Ordinis FF. Praedicatorum, Rome, 1916. 
 —Vouz (Rev. John R.), A Century’s Record, 1905.—Wess (Ben. 
 J.), Reminiscences of a Catholic Layman in Kentucky, Louisville, 
 1867. 
 
 American Catholic Historical Researches.—American Catholic 
 Quarterly Review. American Historical Magazine.—Analecta 
 Sacri Ordinis Fratrum Praedicatorum, March, 1899, and January, 
 1900.—Annales de la Propagation de la Foi.—Annales de L’ Archi- 
 confrerie des Saints Noms, August-September, 1911.—Berichte der 
 Leopoldinen-Stiftung im Kaiserthume Oesterrich.—Catholic His- 
 torical Review.—Catholic Miscellany and Monthly Repository of 
 Information.—Catholic Spectator—Catholic World.—The Col- 
 legian (London).—The Columbian (Nashville).—Dominican Year 
 Book, 1913.—Illinois Catholic Historical Review.—Maryland His- 
 torical Review.—Merry England.—The Metropolitan.—Records 
 of the American Catholic Historical SocietyRecords and Studies 
 of the United States Catholic Historical Society.—St. Louis 
 Catholic Historical Review.—St. Mary’s Sentinel, November, 1915. 
 —Tennessee Historical Review.—United States Catholic Magazine. 
 
 Vie ek ue: 
 
 (Catholic) Adam—Catholic Advocate—Catholic Columbian— 
 Catholic Guardian—Catholic Herald—Catholic Journal of the 
 New South—Catholic Mirror—Catholic Telegraph—Freeman’s 
 Journal—The Pilot—Shepherd of the Valley—The Record— 
 United States Catholic Miscellany—The Truth Teller (mixed). 
 
 (Secular) Liberty Hall and Cincinnati Gazette; Cincinnati Daily 
 Gazette; and the Western Spy.—Louisville Courier Journal.— 
 Knozville Register; Whig; and Wilson’s Gazette—Memphis Ap- 
 peal; Avalanche; and a few others of that city —WNashville Gazette; 
 Whig; Banner; Banner and Whig; Republican; Republican Ban- 
 ner; Patriot; Union; Union and American; Herald, etc. 
 
INDEX 
 
 Since bibliographical references have an alphabetical arrange- 
 
 ment in the Bibliography, they are not repeated here. 
 
 Abell, Rev. Robert A., 118 n., 132 n., 
 novice, 114-117; education, 159 n.; 
 in Tenn., 295-306 
 
 Achilli, Giovanni, apostate priest, 
 458. 
 
 Ackerman, Father Francis, O.P., 
 visit of Miles to, 353 
 
 Adams, Richard, 45 
 
 Ahern, John and Helen, 497 
 
 Pike ei heves LON AE.) On). tod. 
 463 n 
 
 Aiken, Mary and Robert, conver- 
 sion, 326-327, 376n.; letter of 
 Miles to, 386-388; confirmation, 
 
 396 
 Aiken, Col. Matthew, 324, 327 n. 
 Alemany, Most Rev. Joseph S., 
 aE AAT 00s (it. LADOLS in) O/ Os 
 
 380, 409, 410, 418, 427; at ordina- 
 tion, 390; in Cuba, 399; account 
 by, 399-401; in Memphis, 420n.; 
 made bishop of Monterey, 440- 
 441; sketch of life, 441 n.; superior 
 of Nashville seminary, 510 
 
 Alexian Brothers, 142n. 
 
 Alton, Ill., diocese, 465 n. 
 
 Anderson, Rev. Augustine P., O. P., 
 made subdeacon, 327; ordination, 
 348 
 
 Angier, Rev. Robert A., O.P., 67, 
 1o2 Belo nN. sin Md. 409 sat7 St. 
 Rose’s, 84; missionary labors, 92, 
 101, 102, 141, 142n.; scholarship, 
 101, 102 
 
 Anne Arundel 
 family in, 7, 9 
 
 Co., Md., Miles 
 
 583 
 
 Archer, Bridget, 504 
 
 Armstrong, Cornelius and Elisa 
 (Gillin), 493 
 Armstrong, Patrick and Martha 
 
 (Woods), 481 
 
 Arthur family, at Bolivar, 500 
 
 Ashport, Tenn., plan for church in, 
 333-335 
 
 Assumption, see Fort Assumption 
 
 Athens, Tenn,, 340; Miles at, 323; 
 early Catholics, 490 
 
 Attakapas, mission, 55n. 
 
 Aud, Father Athanasius A., aid 
 offered Miles, 328 
 
 Aud, Thomas, 45 
 
 Aud, Zachariah, 45 
 
 Augustinians, in Philadelphia, 74 n., 
 83 n. 
 
 Avalon, Calvert’s colony, 2n. 
 
 Axtel, Ky., 64 
 
 Badin, Rev. Stephen T., cited, 36-37, 
 60n., 153; at. consecration \ of 
 Miles, 257; in Ky., 46, 49, 54, 
 61-63, 65, 107; in Tenn., 283-293, 
 296 ne S00in} 332 
 
 Badjer family, 486 
 
 Baltimore, Lord, see Calvert 
 
 Baker, , at St. Thomas’, 153 
 
 Baltimore, Md., provincial council, 
 343, 349, 351-352, 385, 386, 388-390, 
 410, 411-412, 434, 440-442; first 
 plenary council, 454-455 
 
 Baltimore Co., Md., Miles family 
 in, 7 
 
 Bamber, Sister Margaret, 452n. 
 
 
 
584 INDEX 
 
 Baptiste, John and Judith, 481 
 
 Barbour, James P., alumnus of St. 
 Thomas’, 157; address, 529 
 
 Bardstown, Ky., Cathedral, 36; ex- 
 tent of diocese, 292 
 
 Barr, Daniel, 480 
 
 Barres, John, 486 
 
 Barriére, Rev. Michael 
 labors, 54-55 
 
 Barron, Rev. Edward, letter of, 330; 
 account of, 331 n. 
 
 Barry, Arthur, 500 
 
 Barry, Daniel, 500 
 
 Bernard, 
 
 Barry, Valentine D. and Mary 
 (Adams), 500 
 
 Barry, William, 500 
 
 Bates, WJames 7b; at) St. Thomas, 
 Mec Reds) 
 
 Baxter, John, 489 
 
 Bayer, Rev. Benedict, C.SS.R., and 
 Miles, 349-350 
 
 Bean, Russell, 274 n. 
 
 Bean, William, 274n. 
 
 Beckwith, Mary, wife 
 Miles, 8 
 
 Begly, John and Dolly (Hennessy), 
 490 
 
 Bennet, 
 land, 6 
 
 Benzer, George and Louisa (Kut- 
 man), 481 
 
 Bibliography, 576-582 
 
 Biemans, Rev. Joseph L., missionary 
 labors, 473, 490, 544; sketch of 
 life, 473n., 564; cited, 494n. 
 
 Blackloc, Ann, wife of Nicholas 
 Miles, 19-20 
 
 Blackloc, Nicholas, 20 n. 
 
 Blackloc, Thomas, 20n. 
 
 Blackloc family, 20 n. 
 
 Blanc, Rt. Rev. Anthony, 132n.; 
 aid to Miles, 324-326, 337; at 
 Baltimore council, 352n. 
 
 Blanc, Rev. Charles, at consecration 
 of Miles, 257 
 
 Blieck, Rev. John de, 
 
 of John 
 
 Richard, action in Mary- 
 
 S.J., address 
 
 at St. Catherine’s, 529 
 Blount, Gov. William, 284, 285 
 Bodkin, Rev. Francis, O.P., letter 
 
 from, 29 
 Bohen, Michael and Catherine, 497 
 Boisleduc, James, at St. Thomas’, 
 
 154 
 Bokel, Rev. John A., O. P., 106n.; 
 
 cited, 438 n.; hore 459, 466, 474; 
 
 sketch of hie. 474 n. 
 
 Bolen, Thomas and Mary, 498 
 Bolivar, Tenn., early Catholics, 500 
 Bonfils, Mary, 481 
 
 Boone, Daniel, in Kentucky, 26 
 Boone, sat» St. Thontas#erss 
 Boone, Henry, 71, 112 n. 
 
 Bordley, Patrick R. and Henrietta, 
 
 502 
 Bornheim, college at, 66, 67 
 Boswith, William, 509 
 Bouchard, Gustave, 486, 516 
 Bowling, Rev. C. D., O.P., 246 
 Bowser, James J., 492 
 Boyle, Cornelius and 
 
 (Allen), 481 
 Boyle, Patrick and Ellen, 497 
 Boyle, Thomas and Mary, 497 
 Bradley, Nicholas, 487 
 Bradshaw, William, 503 
 Braeckman, Rev. Pius, 
 
 of Miles to, 353 
 Brannan, Catherine, 481 
 Brassac, Rev. Hercules, 
 
 
 
 Tabitha 
 
 OPP air sif 
 
 353 n. 
 
 Brazil, Martin and Anastasia, 481 
 Breene, John and Jane (Burke), 
 494 
 
 Brenahan, Daniel, 493 
 
 Brennan, Michael, 487 
 
 Brewer, Thomas, 45 
 
 Broderick, John, 488 
 
 Brown, Gov. Aaron V., 415 
 
 Brown, Blanche (Mrs. Matthew 
 Aiken), 327 n. 
 
 Brown, Rev. Henry V., ordination, 
 439; cited 443, 546-547; in Chat- 
 tanooga, 456, 457; missionary 
 
INDEX 585 
 
 labors, 458, 459, 463, 474, 491, 
 492, 496, 497, 499; proposed as 
 Bishop, 463-464; churches erected, 
 472, 499, 531, 543-544; paintings, 
 484; at St. Rose’s, 529; and co- 
 adjutor, 537; diocesan counsellor, 
 553; at Miles’ funeral, 557; sketch 
 of, 563-564 
 
 Browne, Rt. Rev. George J., 416n.; 
 death, 417 n. 
 
 Browne, William H., cited, 4 
 
 Brownlow, William G., 495 
 
 Brunner, Sister Joanna, 451 
 
 Bruté, Rt. Rev. Simon G., and con- 
 secration of Miles, 256, 257 
 
 Buckman, Rev. Thomas D., O.P., 
 minor orders, 406-407 
 
 Buddeke, Mary (Ratterman), 480 
 
 Bullock, patiSt) Ghomas 7153 
 
 Bullock, Rev. James V., O. P., 156; 
 246 
 
 Burchiel, Abraham, 487 
 
 Burke, John and Bridget (O’Con- 
 nor), 503 
 
 Burke, John and Margaret (Po- 
 land), 503 
 
 Burke, Robert, 503 
 
 Burns, Dina, 481 
 
 Burns, Hugh, 480 
 
 Burns, James, 480 
 
 Burns, Michael, 413, 480, 482 
 
 Burns, Patrick, Nashville, 480 
 
 Burns, Patrick, Humphreys Co., 487 
 
 Burns, William, 480 
 
 Busey, Paul, 20n. 
 
 Byrne, Dorothy, 486 
 
 Byrne, John, 485 
 
 Byrne, Rev. Stephen, O.P., cited, 
 71n., 93n., 249n.; at Memphis, 
 548; sketch of, 567-568 
 
 Byrne, Rev. William, 132n.; foun- 
 der of St. Mary’s College, Ky., 
 280; in Tenn., 310 
 
 Byrnes Colony, 485 
 
 
 
 Caiwood, Benjamin, 20n. 
 
 Calfield, Catherine, 502 
 
 
 
 Calhoun, eatin euomas, 
 153 
 
 Calhoun, Tenn., Miles at, 319 
 
 Callaghan, John and_ Bridget 
 
 (Wrenn), 494 
 
 Callaghan, Philip, 479, 482, 508 
 
 Calvert, Benedict, fourth Lord Bal- 
 timore, apostasy of, 6 
 
 Calvert, Cecilius, second Lord Bal- 
 timore, 2, 6 
 
 Calvert, Charles, third Lord Balti- 
 more, Maryland under, 6 
 
 Calvert, Charles, fifth Lord Balti- 
 more, charter restored, 6 
 
 Calvert, George, first Lord Balti- 
 more, 2 
 
 Calvert, Gov. Leonard, 3 
 
 Calvert Co., Md., Miles family in, 
 7D 
 
 Campbell, Rev. Allan, D., 301 
 
 Campbell, Patrick, letter of, 287, 
 289 n. 
 
 Campbell, R. C., proprietor of 
 Ashport, 335 
 
 Campbell, Maj. William, 289 n.- 
 290 n. 
 
 Campbell’s Hill, church on, 303 
 
 Cappellari, Cardinal, 203 
 
 Carlin, Daniel, of N. C., 278 
 
 Garlin, Thomas, of Ni -C., 278 
 
 Carney, Patrick and Mary (Daley), 
 494 
 
 Carney, Sister Serena, 452 n. 
 
 Carrondelet, Francis Baron de, 273 
 
 Gare , 478 
 
 Carr, Rev. Matthew, O.S.A., 74n., 
 83 n. 
 
 Carryoarahy:9 
 
 Carr, Thomas B., 502 
 
 Carroby, Timothy, 498 
 
 Carroll, Jane (Manea), 479 
 
 Carroll, Most Rev. John, 31, 66n., 
 504; vicar apostolic, 5153, first 
 bishop of the United States, 54-56; 
 and the Ky. missions, 60-65; and 
 
 
 
586 INDEX 
 
 establishment of Dominicans, 76- 
 78; appointment, 269 
 
 Carroll, Mary, 479 
 
 Carroll, Thomas, 493 
 
 Carroll, Father Wlliam, at Miles’ 
 funeral, 557 
 
 Carter, Rev. Charles H. J., at coun- 
 cil, 412 n.; vicar general of Phila. 
 delphia, 552 
 
 Carter, Landon, Tenn. lands, 284 
 
 Cartwright Creek’s Settlement, 35, 
 61n., 63 
 
 Casey, Thomas and Mary (Shea: 
 han), 493 
 
 Catholics, persecution of, 23 
 
 Catoir, Peter and Collette, 486 
 
 Cellini, Rev. Francis, 380 n. 
 
 Chabrat, Rt. Rev. G. I, 132n., 343, 
 JoZi ser ordination, © LUG) 2e109m.. 
 made coadjutor, 239-240; bishop- 
 ric of Tenn. proposed by, 249-250, 
 254; and pastor of Nashville, 312, 
 313; and St. Mary’s College, 416; 
 illness, 420-421 
 
 Champion, James 
 (Harrison), 489 
 
 Chanche, Rt. Rev. John J., letter 
 from, 414 
 
 Charitysy Sistersotjwin® Ky 238; 
 239 nJ:) Nazareth, Ky.) 377 ;)\in 
 Tenn., 377-379, 423; academy, 405; 
 hospital and orphanage, 430; in 
 Nashville, 515, 516, 533 
 
 Charles Co., Md., Miles family in, 
 7, 13, 17, 18; emigration to Ky., 
 30-35 
 
 Charleston, S. C., diocese of, 306- 
 307 
 
 Chattanooga, first priest, 372n.; 
 state of Church in, 456; early 
 Catholics, 496-498; school, 517; 
 church built, 531 
 
 Cheatham, Dr. William A., 
 dence, 452 
 
 Cherokees, 267, 268 
 
 Chicago, diocese established, 388 
 
 and Eleanor 
 
 resi- 
 
 Chickasaws, 268 
 
 Childress, Elizabeth, 483 
 
 Chisca, Indian village, 263-264 
 
 Choctaws, 267 
 
 Cincinnati, dedication of cathedral, 
 406-407; made archbishopric, 
 434n.; provincial council, 536 
 
 Cipoletti, Most Rev. Thomas, O. P., 
 Superior General, 245, 248-249, 
 
 253 
 Claiborne, William, dispute with 
 Calvert, 5, 6 
 
 Clancy, Rev. William, labors, 338- 
 339, 361, 502; in Nashville, 348; 
 transfer, 366 
 
 Clark, “at St. Phomay eae 
 
 Clark, Clement, 45 
 
 Clark, Gen. George Rogers, 28 
 
 Clark, Joseph, 45 
 
 Clark, Sister Magdalen, 446 
 
 Clark, Richard, 45 
 
 Clark, Rev. W. E., .at consecration 
 of Miles, 257 
 
 Clarkson, Rev. James H., O. P., and 
 choice of provincial, 246; in 
 Memphis, 427; labors and death, 
 435-438 
 
 Clarkson, Rev. Sydney A., O.P., 
 cited, 106 n., 438n.; made sub- 
 deacon, 401; made deacon, 406; 
 proposed as coadjutor, 536 
 
 Clarksville, Tenn., church erected, 
 395; church dedicated, 402; early 
 Catholics, 486-487 
 
 
 
 
 
 Clay, » at Stl, Thomas yias 
 Clay, Green, son of Gen. Green 
 Glay155 
 
 Clay, General Green, 155 
 
 Claybrook, John S., 501, 504 
 
 Cleary, James, 497 
 
 Cleary, Rev. John R., O.P., mis- 
 sionary labors, 459, 466, 474-475; 
 death, 475-476; sketch of life, 
 475 n. 
 
 Cleary, Mary, 497 
 
 Clements, Austin, 45 
 
INDEX 587 
 
 Clifford, Patrick and Elisa (Cobel), 
 493 
 
 Clifford, Thomas and Pauline (Ca- 
 hill), 493 
 
 Coe, Hon. L. H., residence, 446 
 
 Coffey, Francis and Bridget (Fo- 
 ley), 503 
 
 Coleman, David, 497 
 
 Colleges, early Catholic, system of 
 instruction, 117, 119-120 
 
 Collet, Francis W., and wife, 482 
 
 Collins, Jeremiah and Sarah (Hem- 
 bree), 493 
 
 Collins, Patrick and Jane (Lee), 
 493 
 
 Collins family, at Bolivar, 500 
 
 Collings, Zebulon, 41 
 
 Cologne, letter to archbishop of, 
 they 
 
 Colonies, American, Church in, 23 
 
 Columbia, Tenn., 340; Father Stokes 
 at, 331-332 
 
 Conaghan, John 
 (Clancy), 503 
 
 Conaghan, Mary, 503 
 
 Concanen, Right Rev. Richard L., 
 O.P., 95; and the establishment 
 of Dominicans, 67-68, 68 n., 76-86; 
 legacy, .1115,130 
 
 Conlan, Sister Monica, 447 n. 
 
 Conley, Thomas, 488 
 
 Connolly, Peter, and wife, 504 
 
 Connor, John and Margaret, 493 
 
 Connor, Michael, 493 
 
 Connor, Patrick and 
 (Body), 493 
 
 Connor, Peter, 487 
 
 Connor, William, proprietor of Ash- 
 port, 333-334, 335 
 
 Connor and McAlister, merchants, 
 326 
 
 Consalvi, Cardinal, 180-181 
 
 Conwell, Rt. Rev. Henry, 352n. 
 
 Coode, John, insurrection of, 12 
 
 Coomes, Rev. Charles, 132 n. 
 
 Coomes, Francis, 45 
 
 and Margaret 
 
 Rachael 
 
 Coomes, Richard, 45 
 
 Coomes, William and wife, 29 
 
 Cooper, William, artist, 427 
 
 Copely, Gov. Lionel, 12 
 
 Coppola, Archbishop Dominic, 78 n. 
 
 Cosgreve (Cosgrove), Rev. James, 
 in Nashville, 307, 308, 309, 355 
 
 Costigan, Thomas, 504 
 
 Cotter, James and Bridget (Mc- 
 Carthy), 498 
 
 Cotter, Patrick and Elizabeth 
 (Vane), Knoxville, 493 
 
 Cotter, Patrick and Elizabeth, Chat- 
 tanooga, 498 
 
 Coughlin, James and Honora, 486 
 
 Councils, first plenary, 454-455; 
 provincial, see Baltimore, Cincin- 
 nati, St. Louis 
 
 Cox’s Creek Settlement, see Fair- 
 field 
 
 Cretin, Bishop, at provincial council, 
 465 
 
 Crimmins, Mrs. Honora (Cotter), 
 498 
 
 Crimmins, Nora, 478n., 498 n. 
 
 Crowley, Daniel and Soethe, 497 
 
 Crughan, ——, at St. Thomas’, 153 
 
 Cubero, Rev. Francis, O. P., labors, 
 379, 380, 466; Sisters escorted by, 
 446; sketch of life, 466n. 
 
 Cullen, Rev. Paul, 250 n. 
 
 Cumberland River, bridge, 294-295 
 
 Curley, Peter, 487 
 
 Curry, Catherine, 493 
 
 Curry, Elizabeth, 493 
 
 Curtain, James and Catherine, 497 
 
 Curtis family, 488 
 
 Dady, John and Elizabeth, 489 
 
 Daily, Patrick and Martha (Win- 
 sight), 490 
 
 Daley, John and Eugenia (Rorke), 
 493 
 
 Dalmazzo, William J. 49n. 
 
 Daly, Rev. James V., O.P., mis- 
 sionary labors, 466; at Memphis, 
 
588 
 
 529; at dedication, 533; transfer, 
 548; sketch of, 549n. 
 
 Daly, Mary, 498 
 
 Damiani, Father Innocent, 
 478 n. 
 
 Dane, John and Mary (Sanders), 
 481 
 
 Danville, Ky., Dominicans at, 159 n. 
 
 D’Arco, Rev. Januarius, M., O. P., 
 in Nashville, 548; at dedication, 
 
 OP ses 
 
 551; diocesan counsellor, 553; 
 Miles’ funeral, 557; sketch of, 
 569 
 
 Dardis, James, early Catholic in 
 Tenn., 285, 289, 290, 332, 489, 491 
 
 Dardis, Thomas, 289, 289n., 491 
 
 Dargan, Timothy and Mary (Mc- 
 Carthy), 494 
 
 Daugherty, 
 
 Davern, Mrs., 504 
 
 David, Rt. Rev. John B., 49, 132 n.; 
 rector of seminary, 159; conse- 
 cration, 161-162; resignation, 239- 
 240; and consecration of Miles, 
 Zoo aon 
 
 Davis, Sister Ellen, 451 
 
 Davis, Garrett, 157 
 
 Davis, Jefferson, at St. 
 College, 147-153 
 
 Davis, Rudolph 
 (Armstrong), 503 
 
 Deady, Helen, 497 
 
 De Blieck, see Blieck 
 
 Delaune, Father, at St. Mary’s Col- 
 lege, 416 
 
 De Montbrun, Timothy, story of, 
 281-283, 286, 290, 300 
 
 Demoville, Mrs. Felix, 483 
 
 Dempsey, Thomas, 488 
 
 De Pestre, see Pestre 
 
 Deparcq, Father, 312 
 
 Deppen, Rev. Louis G., 261 n. 
 
 Derigaud, Rev. James, 132n.; or- 
 dination, 139 n. 
 
 Desha, Clarissa (Rogan), 
 484 
 
 » 45 
 
 
 
 Thomas’ 
 
 and Elizabeth 
 
 280 n., 
 
 INDEX 
 
 De Soto, Hernando, expedition, 263- 
 265 
 
 De Soto, Rev. Louis, O. P., 264 
 
 Després, Joseph and Louisa (Mitch- 
 el), 481 
 
 Devine, Timothy and Bridget (Sul- 
 livan), 494 
 
 Devitt, Rev. Edward I., S.J., 110 n.- 
 IT in. l42ine 
 
 Dillon, Christopher, 493 
 
 Dillon, Margaret, 497 
 
 Dittoe, Jacob, 111 n., 124n. 
 
 Doheny, Michael and Bridget, 497 
 
 Dolan, Bernard D. and Bridget, 493 
 
 Dolan, Maurice and Margaret 
 (Lawne), 494 
 
 Dominican Sisters, in Ky., 238-239; 
 and Miles, 377; in Tenn., 445-447 ; 
 in Memphis, 548; see also St. 
 Catherine’s; individuals by name 
 
 Dominicans, of Md., 1; in Ky., 62- 
 66, 79-90; English, 66; establish- 
 ment in U. S., 67-74, 75; cere- 
 mony of investiture, 86-90; cere- 
 mony of profession, 97-99; aims 
 and studies, 100; wearing of ton- 
 sure, 123, 125; in early Ten., 264; 
 assume charge of Memphis, 420; 
 see also St. Joseph’s; St. Rose’s; 
 and individuals by name 
 
 Donaghue, Patrick and Catherine 
 (Sullivan), 494 
 
 Donaghue, Patrick and Honora 
 (Connell), 494 
 
 Donohue family, 486 
 
 Donovan, Jeremiah and Mary (Ly- 
 ning), 481 
 
 Dorchester Co., Md., Miles family 
 in, 7 
 
 Dorly, Collum, 481 
 
 Dorney, family, 488 
 
 Dorrity, William, 482 
 
 Douay, Father Anastasius, O.S.F., 
 with La Salle, 265 
 
 Dougherty, Clarksville, 486 
 
 Dougherty, John, 487 
 
INDEX 
 
 Dougherty, John R., 502 
 
 Dougherty, Mrs. Mary (Kinney), 
 508 n. 
 
 Dougherty, Patrick, 487 
 
 Dougherty, William, 480, 481, 508 
 
 Dowd, Patrick and _ Elizabeth 
 (Brotherton), 493 
 
 Driscoll, John and Mary, 497 
 
 Drury, Hilary, 45 
 
 Drury, Ignatius, 45 
 
 Duane, Patrick —J. 
 (Starms), 494 
 
 and Sarah 
 
 Dubois, Rt. Rev. John, 61 n., 352 a 
 
 Duffy, Francis, 484 
 
 Duffy, John, 484 
 
 Duffy, Michael, 484 
 
 Duffy, Nancy, 278 
 
 Duffy, Patrick, 484 
 
 Duggan, Rt. Rev. James, consecra- 
 tion, 528; at consecration, 545, 549 
 
 Dunlevy, John and Sarah, 486 
 
 Dunn, Rev. John, aid offered by, 
 330 
 
 Dunn, Mrs. Mary, cited, 527 
 
 Dupontavice, Rev. Hippolytus, at 
 consecration, 432 
 
 Durbin, Very Rev. Elisha J., at St. 
 Thomas’, 153; in Louisville, 156; 
 education, 159n.; at consecration 
 of Miles, 257; in Tenn., 311-314, 
 340, 368; and induction of Miles, 
 315-322, 328; at dedication, 425; 
 at Ross’ Landing, 496 
 
 Duval, watwoten Dhnomasy4153 
 
 Dwyer, John, and family, 484 
 
 Dwyer, Joseph and family, 479 
 
 
 
 Easley, Hugh and Catherine, 497 
 
 Easley, Hugh and Margaret, 497 
 
 Easley, Patrick, 498 
 
 Eccleston, Most Rev. Samuel, let- 
 ters to, 158n., 330, 384; at Balti- 
 more council, 351, 352n.; dedica- 
 tion by, 407; and Spalding, 431; 
 and bishopric of Monterey, 440 
 
 Edelen, Rev. James V., O. P., cited, 
 
 589 
 
 106 n., 438 n.; made subdeacon, 406 
 
 Edgefield, Tenn., dedication of 
 church.) 531-532 
 
 Egan, Rev. Constantine L., O.P., 
 106 n. 
 
 Egan, Rt. Rev. Michael, O.S.F.,, 
 first bishop of Philadelphia, 61 
 
 Elder, Rev. George A., 132n. 
 
 Elder, Thomas, 45 
 
 Elder, Rt. Rev. William H., at dedi- 
 cation, 533-534 
 
 Elkhorn Creek, settlement, 35 
 
 Ellen, Sister, death, 525 
 
 Elliot, Rev. James, in Tenn., 311 
 
 England, Rt. Rev. John, cited, 309, 
 Solr oOo ati baltimore, council: 
 352n.; successor, 389 
 
 England, condition of Church in, 23 
 
 English, William and Mary 
 (Dunn), 503 
 Erhart, Jerome and _ Henrietta 
 
 (Wetzell), 494 
 
 Etschmann, Rev. Edmund, O.S.F., 
 labors in Tenn., 438-439 
 
 Evans, Capt. William, 290 n. 
 
 Evremond, Rev. Francis. X., S. J., 
 348 ; at consecration of Miles, 257; 
 mission by, 366-367 
 
 Ewing, Gen. Hugh, genealogy by, 
 111 n. 
 
 Ewing, Rev. Hugh, cited, 111 n. 
 
 Facts, 281n., 497 
 
 Fahey, Anna, 498 
 
 Fairfield Settlement, 35, 40, 44, 57 
 
 Farley, Ann, 489 
 
 Farley, Luke, 488 
 
 Farrell, James, 480 
 
 Farrell, Margaret (Coyle), 480 
 
 Farrell, Patrick, 503 
 
 Farrell, Patrick and Margaret, 497 
 
 Farrell, Thomas, 480, 482 
 
 Farrell, Thomas and Elizabeth, 494 
 
 Fawkes, Mrs. Ellen (Maguire), 
 498 n. 
 
 Fayetteville, Tenn., 340; Miles at, 
 
590 INDEX 
 
 319; Father Stokes at, 331, 332; 
 early Catholics, 489 
 
 Feehan, Rt. Rev. Patrick A., 544 n. 
 
 Fennelly, Rev. William, in Nash- 
 ville, 394 
 
 Fenwick, Rt. Rev. Benedict, at Bal- 
 timore, council, 352 n. 
 
 Fenwick, Rt. Rev. Edward D., 
 132 n., 143; birth, 1, 66; life and 
 labors, 65-85; education, 66; or- 
 dination, 67; and establishmént 
 of Dominicans, 67-70, 75-80, 91; 
 Cited, (oleae m2 Le) in! ON ee 
 95-96; (‘visits Md., 109; “at” St. 
 Thomas’, 113-115 
 
 Fenwick, Rev. John C., O.P., la- 
 bors, 84n. 
 
 Fenwick, Joseph, 61 n. 
 
 Ferriter, John and Mary, 493 
 
 Finn, Andrew, contractor, 334-335 
 
 Finn, Frances, 488 
 
 Finn, John, 488 
 
 Finn, Lawrence and_ Elizabeth 
 (Clay Duval), 488 
 
 Fisher family, 485 
 
 Fitzgerald, John and Anna (Con- 
 
 nell), 494 
 
 Fitzgerald, William and Mary 
 (Flemming), 493 
 
 Fitzgibbon, John and Margaret, 
 
 497 
 
 Fitzgibbon, Mary E., 497 
 
 Fitzpatrick, early families in Ky., 
 27 
 
 Fitzpatrick, Rt. Rev. John B., pro- 
 posed for coadjutor, 389 
 
 Fitzpatrick, Sister Mary 
 447 n., 468 n. 
 
 Fitzpatrick, Sister Vincentia, 446 
 
 Fitzsimmons, Ann, 481 
 
 Fitzsimmons, Eleanor, 481 
 
 Flaget, Rt. Rev. Benedict J., 132 n.; 
 ordinations by, 107-110, 138; and 
 wearing of tonsure, 125; cited, 
 138, 159, 236-239, 292, 296, 305; 
 and Miles, 239-240, 254, 255; visit 
 
 Pius, 
 
 to Nashville, 299-302; at Balti- 
 more council, 352n.; title to pro- 
 
 perty, 403; illness, 420; and 
 Louisville coadjutor, 431-432 
 Flannagan, John and Mary 
 
 (Hughes), 481 
 
 Flowers, Mrs., 480 
 
 Floyd, Jeanne, 280, 484 
 
 Fogarty, Terrence and Mary (Har- 
 rison), 490 
 
 Foley, Michael, 492 
 
 Forbin-Janson, Bishop Charles A. 
 de, at Baltimore, 351-352 
 
 Forest, Dr. Richard, 158 n. 
 
 Fort Assumption, 265, 267, 269, 
 270 n., 293 
 
 Fort Pickering, Tenn., 
 church, 363, 371, 375 n. 
 
 Fort Prud’homme, 265, 267 
 
 Fort San Ferdinando, 269-270 
 
 Fossick, Thomas L., 491, 492 n., 495 
 
 Foster, Anthony, property for 
 church, 301, 303, 304, 403, 405 n. 
 
 Foster, Robert, 303 n. 
 
 Fournier, Rev. Michael J., labors, 
 57-59; death, 59 
 
 Fowler, John W., 502 
 
 Foy, Hugh, 488 
 
 Foy, Hugh and Mary (Cannon), 
 486 
 
 Foy, Sister. Rose, O.S. D., 491n: 
 
 Franciscans, community proposed 
 for Scott Co., Ky., 61; early con- 
 vent, 73; in Nashville diocese, 
 438 
 
 Franklin, Charles E., 525 
 
 Franklin, State of, 272 
 
 Franklin, Tenn., 340; Miles at, 320; 
 Father Stokes at, 331-332; early 
 Catholids, 488-489; Know-noth- 
 ingism in, 524 
 
 Franzoni, Cardinal, 250n., 253 
 
 Frenaye, Mark, letter to, 443 
 
 French, Charles and Frances, 481 
 
 French and Indian War, 269 
 
 Froman’s Creek, 41 
 
 proposed 
 
INDEX 591 
 
 Gaddi, Most Rev. Pius J., O. P., 67, 
 75-84, 122 
 Gaffney, Michael and wife, 503 
 
 
 
 Gallagher, , 480 
 Gallagher, Rt. Rev. Nicholas A., 
 470 n. 
 
 Gallagher, Susanna, 480 
 
 Gallagher family, 488 
 
 Gallatin, Tenn., 340; visit of priest, 
 312; Miles at, 321; first Catholics, 
 484-485 
 
 Gallegos, Father John de, O. P., 264 
 
 Gallitzin, Father Demetrius, 516 
 
 Galvin, James, 484 
 
 Gangloff, Rev. Anthony R., O.P., 
 minor orders, 406; missionary la- 
 bors, 466, 474, 534; sketch of, 564, 
 565 
 
 Ganilh, Rev. Anthony, 132n., 139 n., 
 
 Gannon, Thomas and Elizabeth, 489 
 
 Gardiner, Christina (Mrs. Thomas 
 Miles), 49 
 
 Gardiner, Clement, 41, 45; chapel in 
 house of, 40, 47 
 
 Gardiner, Mother Frances, 450n., 
 452 n. 
 
 Gardiner, Joseph, 45, 73 n. 
 
 Garvin, John and Emily (Frensly), 
 481 
 
 Garvin, Patrick and Ellen (Dris- 
 coll), 498 
 
 Gary, Michael, 498 
 
 Gazzo, Rev. Eugene, 468n., 539n. 
 
 Georgetown College, 74n., 110n., 
 327 
 
 Germam, Jefferson and Dellalion 
 (Wright), 494 
 
 Gerraghty family, 488 . 
 
 Gibbons, Michael and Margaret, 497 
 
 Gibson, Sister Pauline, 452 
 
 Gilgannon, Patrick, 488 
 
 Gillespie, , 478 
 
 Gilliam, Margaret, 480 n. 
 
 Glassner, John, 487 
 
 Gleason, Rev. P. J., 517 n. 
 
 Glynn, Thomas, 488 
 
 
 
 Glynn, William, 488 
 
 Golden, Patrick, 504 
 
 Gough, ati ote bhoniase: 153 
 
 Gough, Ignatius, 286, 287 
 
 Grace, Margaret, 502 
 
 Grace, Most Rev. Thomas L., O. P., 
 memorial, 357, 358 n.; labors, 417, 
 418, 427, 459, 466, 474; proposed 
 as bishop, 440; school, 517n.; 
 church built, 531; at dedication, 
 200 mana coadjutor. 90734 at) pros 
 vincial council, 542; appointed 
 bishop, 548; consecration of, 549- 
 550, sketch of, 550 n. 
 
 Grace family, at Bolivar, 500 
 
 Gracewood Farm, 447 
 
 Grady, David, 491-492 
 
 Grady, Father Francis D., 478 n. 
 
 Graham, Maj. Daniel, residence, 397, 
 398 
 
 Gravier, Rev. James, S. J., 26 
 
 Gregory, XVI, 250, 253-254 
 
 Green, James and Mary (Gorman), 
 503 
 
 Greenville, treaty of, 28 
 
 Griffin, John and Martha (Watter-. 
 son), 481 
 
 Griffin, Col. Joseph J., 498 
 
 Griffin, Patrick and Jane (Shea. 
 han), 493 
 
 Griter, Balthasar and Martha, 486 
 
 Griter, Margaret, 486 
 
 Grundy, Felix, 301, 438 
 
 Guillet, Rev. Urban, 61, 70 
 
 Gwynn, Thomas, 59, 70, 71 n.; chapel 
 in house of, 41, 47 
 
 
 
 Hagan, ateote. Holds malod 
 
 Hagan, Clement, 49 
 
 Hagan, Raphael, 45 
 
 Hagerty, Margaret, 497 
 
 Hailandiére, Rt. Rev. Celestine de 
 la, at Baltimore council, 352n. 
 
 Haley, Mary, 504 
 
 Haloran, Michael and Anna (Ody), 
 493 
 
 
 
592 
 
 Halpin, Patrick, 487 
 
 Hamilton, Mrs. Catherine, 
 505 n. 
 
 Hamilton, George, 61 n. 
 
 Hamilton, Leonard, 32 n. 
 
 Hamilton, Mrs. Lucy (Edelen), 
 95 n. 
 
 Hamilton, William T., alumnus of 
 St. Lnomasqe ins 
 
 Hammond, Nicholas, will of. 9 
 
 Hannon, John, 497 
 
 Hardin’s Creek Settlement, 35 
 
 Harford Co., Md., Miles family in, 
 1G} 
 
 Harnett, William, 498 
 
 Harper, Sister Lucy, 446 
 
 Harrington, Michael, 459, 498, 499 
 
 Harringham, Thomas and Elizabeth 
 (Body), 493-494 
 
 Harrison family, 489 
 
 Harrodsburg, settlement, 65 
 
 Hart, Dr. George, 29 
 
 Hartford, Conn., diocese established, 
 388 
 
 Hartsville, Tenn., 312, 340 
 
 Harvey, Nicholas, 8 
 
 Hawkins Co., Tenn., early Catho- 
 lics, 284 
 
 Hayes, , 478 
 
 Hayes, William, 492 
 
 Hazeltine (or Haseltine), Rev. Jo- 
 seph, at consecration of Miuiles, 
 257; deed to, 451; and Sisters of 
 Charity, 377-378 
 
 Heim, Rev. Ambrose J., account of, 
 340 
 
 Henderson, Andrew, 447 n. 
 
 Henderson, Col. Richard, 36n. 
 
 Henderson, W. A., cited, 277 n. 
 
 Henni, Rt. Rev. John M., consecra- 
 tion, 393; at provincial council, 
 465; at consecration, 550 
 
 Henry, Mrs., 289 
 
 Henry VIII, persecution under, 2 
 
 Herity, Patrick, 488 
 
 Herlini, , Chattanooga, 498 
 
 502 n., 
 
 
 
 
 
 INDEX 
 
 Herman, John, 480 
 
 Hickman and Austin, contractors, 
 505 
 
 Hickson, James, 498 n. 
 
 Hickson, Robert, 498 n. 
 
 Higdon, Thomas, 45 
 
 Ei , at Stclhomas aia 
 
 Hill, Rev. John’ A., O“P), 93 teeta, 
 133; letter to, 122-132; sketch of, 
 126n.; characteristics, 133 n. 
 
 Hill family, 488 
 
 Hinds, Howell, at St. Thomas’ Col- 
 lege, 149-150 
 
 Hinds, Maj. Thomas, 149-150 
 
 Hite, , at St. Thomas’, 153 
 
 Hogan, Daniel, 498 
 
 Hogan, Thomas 
 (McCabe), 503 
 
 Hogan, Thomas and Margaret, 493 
 
 Holy Cross, first Catholic church in 
 Ky., 53, 63 
 
 Holy Cross College, Bornheim, Bel- 
 gium, 66, 146 
 
 Holy Name of Mary, Calvary, 57, 
 63 
 
 Holy Rosary Cathedral, Nashville, 
 dedication, 337; mission, 366-367 ; 
 converted into hospital, 430 
 
 Holy Trinity, Somerset, Ohio, Miles 
 aeoge 
 
 Hopkins, 
 I boys) 
 
 Horan, James and Mary (O’Brien), 
 493 
 
 Horne, Catherine, daughter of Su: 
 sanna Miles, 11 
 
 Horne, Edward, 11 
 
 Hoste, Rev. Louis, at ordinations, 
 372, 390; labors, 377, 380, 396, 409, 
 438, 458, 470-471, 482; superior of 
 Nashville seminary, 510; school 
 established, 516-517; and coad- 
 jutor, 537: at dedication,;) S51" 
 diocesan counsellor, 549; sketch 
 of, 560 
 
 Howard, Rev. William, minor or- 
 
 
 
 
 
 and Catherine 
 
 
 
 , at) Ste Thomass 
 
INDEX 
 
 ders, 371; ordination, 390, 394, 
 395, 511; transfer, 411; missionary 
 labors, 439, 489-490 
 
 Hughes, James, 501° 
 
 Hughes, Rt. Rev. John, in Europe, 
 351, 352n.; and Nashville priests, 
 411; at council, 412; invitation 
 from, 414; at dedication, 455 
 
 Hughes, John, 488 
 
 Hughes, Patrick, 498 n. 
 
 Humphreys Co., Tenn., first Catho- 
 lics, 487-488 
 
 Hussey, Martin 
 (Dwyer), 498 
 
 Hutton, Brother William P., O. P., 
 251 i. 
 
 Hynes, Alfred, 150 
 
 Hynes, Michael, Saundersville, 486 
 
 Hynes family, 486 
 
 Hyronemus, Francis A., and wife, 
 481-482 
 
 Hyronemus, William H., 304 
 
 and Catherine 
 
 Immaculate Conception, Clarksville, 
 dedicated, 402 
 
 Immaculate Conception, 
 Tunnel, 459 
 
 Immaculate Conception, Knoxville, 
 dedicated, 473 
 
 Indians, in Tenn., 267-269 
 
 Ingle, Richard, insurrection of, 6 
 
 Ireland, Most Rev. John, 550 n. 
 
 Ireland, immigrants from, 7; con- 
 dition of Church in,: 23 
 
 Irwin, Henry and William, contrac- 
 tors, 505 
 
 Irwin, William and Mary (Quin- 
 lan), 503 
 
 Gallatin 
 
 Jackson, Gen. Andrew, visit to, 149; 
 at Catholic service, 308; attitude 
 towards Catholics, 404 n. 
 
 Jackson, Tenn., Father Stokes at, 
 334; church at, 340, 459; early 
 Catholics, 501 
 
 Jackson Mound, 264 
 
 39 
 
 593 
 
 Jacquet, Rev. John M., at Chat- 
 tanooga, 372 n., 496, 497, 498-499 ; 
 in Nashville, 409; labors, 438, 457, 
 458, 459, 462, 468-469, 482; sketch 
 
 of, 469n.; superior of Nashville 
 seminary, 510 
 
 Jane Frances, Sister, death, 525 
 
 Janes, wate ot... nomas alld 
 
 Jarboe, Rev. Joseph T., O.P., edu- 
 cuuotwel Ole labors, 23/ine and 
 choice of provincial, 246; and in- 
 duction of Miles, 316-319; cited, 
 360 n.; conversion by, 439; at dedi- 
 cation, 533; at provincial council, 
 543; proposed as bishop, 545n. 
 
 Jarboe, Richard, 45 
 
 Jenkins, George and Lydia (Ar- 
 mour), 501 
 
 Jesuits, in Md., 15; early communi- 
 ties, 74n.; in America, 83n.; pro- 
 fession, 97n.; suppression, 269; 
 in charge of St. Mary’s College, 
 Ky., 310 
 
 Johnson, Judge, church land given 
 by, 429 
 
 Joliet, Louis, expedition, 26, 264 
 
 Jones, , at St. Thomas’, 154 
 
 Jones, , of Memphis, 503 
 
 Jonesborough, Tenn., capital, 272; 
 Miles at, 324; early Catholics, 491 
 
 Joy, William and Honora (Nolan), 
 491, 494 
 
 Joyce, , at St. Thomas’, 154 
 
 Joyce, Peter, 493 
 
 Juncker, Rt. Rev. Henry D., con. 
 secration, 465 n., 528; at consecra- 
 
 tions, 545, 550 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 Kearney, Rev. L. F., O. P., 226 
 
 Kearney, Sister Mary Vincent, 451 
 
 Kedian, Thomas, 497 
 
 Keegan, William 
 (Oaks), 494 
 
 Keenan, Patrick, 498 
 
 Keeney, John, 496 
 
 Kelly, , at St. Thomas’, 154 
 
 and Margaret 
 
 
 
594 INDEX 
 
 Kelly, Sister Baptista, 451 
 
 Kelly, Judge Charles C., alumnus 
 of St. Thomas, 71540158 
 
 Kelly, Hugh and wife, 488 
 
 Kelly, Rev. Joseph A., O. P., minor 
 orders, 407; provincial, 545; at 
 Miles’ funeral, 557 
 
 Kelly, Myles, 498 n. 
 
 Kem, Michael and Jane (Boler), 
 493 
 
 Kenna, Mrs. Henrietta, 336 n. 
 
 Kenna, Patrick R., 336, 502, 504 
 
 Kennedy, Allen, 496 
 
 Kennedy, James and wife, 503, 504, 
 505 
 
 Kennedy, Sister Jane Frances, 451 
 
 Kennedy, Margaret, 493 
 
 Kenrick, Most Rev. Francis P., and 
 consecration of Miles, 256, letters 
 from, 240n., 305, 309, 460; and 
 Miles, 250 n., 389, 414; at Balti- 
 more council, 352n.; and Louis- 
 ville coadjutor, 431, 432; letter 
 to, 463-464 
 
 Kenrick, Most Rev. Peter R., 433; 
 sermon, 432; at provincial coun- 
 cil, 465; consecrations by, 545, 
 549; and Schacht affair, 539, 540 
 
 Kent Co., Md., Miles family in, 7, 9 
 
 Kentucky, early immigration, 26, 27, 
 56; Spaniards and English in, 
 27n.; early Catholics, 29, 31-40, 
 61-65; growth, 36n.; early life in, 
 42-44, 123, 125-128; education in, 
 
 48; early missionaries, 52-56; 
 Trappists in, 70, 73n.; Domini- 
 cans, 78, 79-90, 132n., see also 
 names of individuals; work of 
 
 Sisters in, 238, 239 
 Kerby, Denis, 504 
 Kernahan, Eliza, 489 
 Kiely, Mrs. Michael, 503 
 Kiley, Patrick and Ellen, 497 
 King, , of Nashville, 391 
 Kinney, Charles, 481 
 Kinney, George, and wife, 486 
 
 
 
 Kinney, Mary, 481 
 
 Kinney, Patrick, 480 
 
 Knapp, Dr., New Orleans, 487 
 
 Knott, James, 45 
 
 Knowles, Joseph B., 509 
 
 Know-nothingism, in Tenn., 523-524 
 
 Knoxville, capital of Tenn., 273; 
 state of Church in, 456, 462; 
 church erected, 472-473; early 
 Catholics, 491-495; Know-noth- 
 ingism in, 524; school, 517 
 
 Koehneke, John, organ builder, 417 
 
 Koen, Alberta, 290 n. 
 
 Kruggs, , at Sts Thomas 6134 
 
 Kuhns family, Nashville, 481 
 
 
 
 Lamy, Most Rev. John B., conse- 
 cration, 443 
 
 Lancaster, Rev. James M., at St. 
 Thomas’, 154, 158 n.; accompanies 
 Sisters, 377-378; proposed as bish- 
 op, 440 
 
 Lancaster, Ralph, 49 
 
 Langan, M., of Memphis, 336; 502, 
 504 
 
 Langan, Thomas, 487 
 
 Larkin, Rev. John K., 277 n. 295 n., 
 478 n., 495 n. 
 
 Larkin, Rev. John, S. J., mission by, 
 366 
 
 Larkin, Mary, 503 
 
 Larkin, Michael and Margaret (Ry- 
 an), 494 
 
 Larkin family, 488 
 
 La Salle, Robert de, 26, 265 
 
 Lawrence, Sarah, 480 
 
 Leahman, Andrew, 487 
 
 Leahman, Anthony, 487 
 
 Leary, Mary, 493 
 
 Lee family, at Bolivar, 500 
 
 Lefevre, Rt. Rev. Peter, 537 
 
 Lenoir, A. S., 496 
 
 Leonard, Mrs. Columba, 304 
 
 Leonard, Michael and Mary (Mur- 
 phy), 502 
 
 Leopoldine Association, purpose of 
 
INDEX 595 
 
 and, aid from, 357;.575 
 Lexington, Ky., congregation, 142 
 Lilly, John, 45 
 Lilly, Rev. Michael D., O. P., 106 n. 
 Lilly, Thomas, 45 
 Panahan, weve William; -K., .O.P. 
 
 116 n. 
 
 Little Rock, diocese established, 388 
 Livers, Robert, 49 
 
 Lonergan, Kennedy, 481 
 
 Loras, Rt. Rev. Mathias, at councils, 
 
 352 n., 389, 412, 465; at consecra- 
 
 tion, 434 
 Loretto, Sisters of, in Ky., 57, 238, 
 
 239 n.; see also Mt. Carmel Acad- 
 
 emy 
 Loretto Academy, 158n. 
 
 Lorigan, Rev. James T., cited, 295, 
 
 459 
 Lottery, for Nashville church, 308 
 Louis Philippe, visit to Nashville, 
 
 282 
 Louisville, dedication of Cathedral, 
 
 457-458 
 
 
 
 Love, Watvotcnoinas » 154 
 
 Lowe, William, 481 
 
 Lowe, William and _ Bridget 
 (Coyle), 481 
 
 Lynch, F., 480 
 
 Prnchaney.))obn«ts,.0; P., Jabors, 
 106n., 530; at dedication, 533; 
 pastor at Memphis, 548, 553; 
 diocesan counsellor, 549; Miles’ 
 funeral, 557; sketch of, 566-567 
 
 Lyons, Catherine, 493 
 
 Lyons, Daniel, 492, 495 
 
 Lyons, Daniel and Catherine (Rice), 
 494 
 
 Lyons, Mary, 493 
 
 Lyons, Nicholas, 493 
 
 Lucas, , at St. Thomas’, 154 
 
 Lucket, Hezekiah, 45 
 
 
 
 McAleer, Rev. Michael, goes to 
 Nashville, 349, 359; labors, 364- 
 365, 380, 390, 394, 400, 409, 410, 
 
 420 n., 504-506; at Memphis, 374; 
 transfer to N. Y., 411; at coun- 
 cils, 412, 417; sketch, 412n.; 
 Church erected by, 418, 504-505 
 
 McAlister, see Connor and McAlis- 
 ter 
 
 McAulay, Andrew, 484, 485 n. 
 
 McAulay, Anne, 484, 485 n. 
 
 McAulay, Daniel, 484, 485 
 
 McCaffrey, Rev. John, letter to, 350 
 
 McCarthy, Jane, 481 
 
 McCarthy, Mary, 504 
 
 McClellan, Mrs., 406 
 
 McCloskey, Cardinal John, proposed 
 for coadjutor, 389 
 
 McConico, Rev. Garner, 302n. 
 
 McCormack, Sister Catherine, 446, 
 447 n. 
 
 McCormack, Edward, 491 
 
 McCormack, Patrick, 491 
 
 McCulla, James and Margaret (Mc- 
 
 
 
 Neely), 490 
 
 McDermott, James, 481 
 
 McElroy, fp-F euihey mye Mare vaer ko 
 154 
 
 McElroy, Father John, S.J., 348 
 
 McEvoy, Joseph, organist, 391 
 
 McEwen, Tenn., church built, 530 
 
 McGill, Rt. Rev. John, consecration, 
 442 
 
 McGill, Joseph H., 482 
 
 McGovern, Eleanor, 481 
 
 McGovern, Elizabeth (McGran), 
 480 
 
 McGovern, John, 480 
 
 McGovern, Rev. John B., O.P., 
 106 n. 
 
 McGovern, Thomas and Jane, 497 
 
 McGrady, Brother Hyacinth, O. P., 
 IZAN: 
 
 McGrath, Daniel, 481 
 
 McGrath, James and Mary (Har- 
 rison), 481 
 
 McGrath, John, 493 
 
 McGuire, Terrence, 488 
 
 MacHale, Most Rev. John, 439 
 
596 
 
 McHenry, John, 480 
 
 MclInroe family, 488 
 
 Mackay, Jat St whomas’, 154 
 
 McKenna, Father Charles H., O. P. 
 cited, 116 n. 
 
 McKenna, Brother Patrick, O. P., 
 237 n. 
 
 McKeon, Patrick, 336, 489, 502, 503, 
 504 
 
 McKeon, Mrs. Patrick or William, 
 446 : 
 
 McKeon, Thomas, 504 
 
 McKeon, William and Margaret 
 (Brady), 488, 503 
 
 McKieran, Peter 
 (Wambell), 493 
 
 McLaughlin, Ann and Thomas, 480 
 
 McLaughlin, Eleanor, 481 
 
 McLaughlin, James, 481 
 
 McLaughlin, Patrick, 488 
 
 McMahon, John, 504 
 
 McMahon, John and _ Catherine 
 (Finukin), 498 n. 
 
 McMahon, “Squire,” 502 
 
 McMahon, Thomas and Catherine 
 (Burden), 486 
 
 McManus, Francis and Mary, 486 
 
 McManus, Mary A., 507n. 
 
 McManus, Patrick, 486 
 
 McManus, Thomas, 486, 488 
 
 McNally, Patrick, 490 
 
 McNamara, Michael, 504 
 
 McNamee, James and Mary (War; 
 fel), 503 
 
 McQuaid, Frank, 487 
 
 McQuaid, Mrs. Thomas F., 488 n. 
 
 McShane, Father Francis D., O. P., 
 baptism, 394 n. 
 
 McSherry, Father William, 83n. 
 
 Magevney, Eugene, school, 335n., 
 336; instructions by, 400; mar- 
 riage, 502; mass in home of, 503; 
 of building committee, 504 
 
 Magevney, John, 501 
 
 Magevney, Mary, 503 
 
 Magevney, Michael, 501 
 
 
 
 and Amanda 
 
 
 
 INDEX 
 
 Magevney Philip, 501 
 
 Maguire, Rev. John, ordained, 350, 
 351 n.; labors, 360, 361, 364, 367- 
 370, 373, 374, 376, 380, 384, 390- 
 391, 392, 496; at ordinations, 372; 
 cited, 386; sermons, 397, 402, 403; 
 examinations by, 405, 415, 416; 
 transfer, 415, 416; sketch, 416-417 
 
 Male Academy, Memphis, 335 
 
 Malone, Walter, cited, 264n. 
 
 Manea, Jane, 479 
 
 Manning, , at St. Thomas’, 154 
 
 Manning, John D. and Elizabeth 
 (Moran), 493 
 
 Marcell, Henry C., 482 n. 
 
 Marcell, Mrs. Sarah (Murphy), 482 
 
 Maréchal, Archbishop, 142 n. 
 
 Marion Co., Ky., created, 63 n. 
 
 Marquette, Father, voyage, 26, 265 
 
 Marron, Father Francis T., 492 n., 
 495 
 
 Marschall, Father James A., O.P., 
 labors, 548; sketch, 569-570 
 
 Marten, Thomas and Henrietta, 486 
 
 Martin, Matthew, 312n., 332-333, 
 364, 489; letter of Miles to, 326 
 
 Martin, Michael B. and Margaret 
 (Murphy), 503 
 
 Martin, Father 
 1274251 
 
 Mary, Queen, persecution under, 2 
 
 Maryland, religious liberty, 1-5; 
 action of Protestants in, 5; Catho- 
 olic immigrants, 7, 16, 17; perse. 
 cution of Catholics in, 14, 15; 
 Jesuit missionaries in, 15; mar- 
 riage law in, 20n.; emigration 
 to Ky., 27, 29; Dominican house 
 proposed for, 75 
 
 Massachusetts, colonists in Md., 5 
 
 Massip, Father Julius, of Ala., 
 309 n.-310 n. 
 
 Mauilla, (Mavilla), battle, 264 
 
 Maurelian, Brother, cited, 264 n. 
 
 Maxey, David W., at St. Thomas’, 
 154, 155 
 
 
 
 Thomas, s7O3P8 
 
INDEX 597 
 
 May, Catherine (Malloy), 481 
 
 May, Thomas, 480-481 
 
 Mazzuchelli, Rev., Samuel C., O. P., 
 foreign aid to, 354n.; at Balti- 
 more council, 389 
 
 Meagher, Rev. Denis J., O. P., 106n. 
 
 Meagher, Patrick, 502 
 
 Meechin family, at Jackson, 501 
 
 Membré, Father Zenobius, O.S. F., 
 with La Salle, 265 
 
 Memphis, Tenn., Father Stokes at, 
 334-336; erection of church, 371, 
 504-507; school, 400, 517; church 
 dedicated, 418; early Catholics, 
 501-505; state of Church in, 534 
 
 Mercier, Rev. Lucian C., aid ac- 
 knowledged, xiv 
 
 Mercy, Sisters of, 448-453 
 
 
 
 Messenger, Rev Joseph, deed to, 
 Zine, oo 
 Micken, , at St. Thomas’, 154 
 
 Miége, Bishop John B., 465, 541; 
 consecration, 445; at consecration, 
 545 
 
 Miles, Ann (Mrs. Daniel Smith), 
 49 
 
 Miles, Ann Blackloc, at investiture 
 ceremony, 86 
 
 Miles Catherine, daughter of Fran- 
 cis, 8 
 
 Miles Catherine, wife of Francis, 
 8 
 
 Miles, Charity (Mrs. Ralph Lan- 
 caster), 49 
 
 Miles, Edward, in Revolution, 16 
 
 Miles, Edward, son of Harry, 34n. 
 
 Miles, Edward, son of John, 10 
 
 Miles, Edward, son of Nicholas, 48 
 
 Miles, Edward Blackloc, brother of 
 the bishop, 21 n., 50, 460n. 
 
 Miles, Francis, of St. Mary’s Co., 
 8, 11 
 
 Miles, Francis, son of John, 11 
 
 Miles, Frederick, 16 
 
 Niles BrowG. is, Ji 35.0: 
 
 Miles, Henry, in Revolution, 16 
 
 Miles, Henry, of Somerset Co., 9, 
 137816 
 
 Miles, Henry, son of John, 10 
 
 Miles, Henry, son of Joseph, 16 
 
 Miles, Henry, son of Philip, 31-32 
 
 Miles, Jacob, 16 
 
 Miles, James, 16 
 
 Miles, James, son of Francis, 8 
 
 Miles, James, son of John, 10 
 
 Miles, John, 12, 16 
 
 Miles, Corp. John, 17 
 
 Miles, John, of Dorchester Co., 8 
 
 Miles, John, of St. Mary’s Co., 10 
 
 Miles, John, son of Francis, 8 
 
 Miles, John, son of John, 10, 11 
 
 Miles, John, son of Nicholas, 8 
 
 Miles, Joshua, 16, 17 
 
 Miles, Margery, wife of John, 12 
 
 Miles, Mary, daughter of John, 11, 
 12 
 
 Miles, Mary (Mrs. Robert Livers), 
 49 
 
 Miles, Matilda (Mrs. Clement Ha- 
 gan), 49 
 
 Miles, Murphey, (Murphy), soldier 
 in Revolution, 13, 16 
 
 
 
 Miles, Nicholas, a Revolutionary 
 soldier, 16 
 
 Miles, Nicholas, early settler in 
 Md., 8 
 
 Miles, Nicholas, father of the bis- 
 hop, 19-22; in Ky., 34, 37-50; will, 
 48n.; mass in home of, 58; at 
 investiture ceremony, 86;  fi- 
 nances, 112n. 
 
 Miles, Mrs. Nicholas (Ann Black- 
 loc), 19-20 
 
 Miles, Lieut. Nicholas, of Charles 
 Cossl7 18 
 
 Miles, Nicholas, son of John, 10 
 
 Miles, Peter, son of Nicholas, 8 
 
 Miles, Philip, arrival in Ky., 31, 34, 
 38, 40 
 
 Miles, Priscilla, daughter of Fran- 
 cis, 8 
 
 Miles, Rebecca, wife of, Edward, 50 
 
598 
 
 Miles, Richard, Revolutionary sol- 
 dier, 16 
 
 Miles, Rt. Rev. Richard P., descent, 
 7, 11, 20n., 22; early youth, 44, 
 50; early studies, 71-74 at St. 
 Rose’s, 80, 83-90; as novice, stu- 
 dent and professor, 91-120; for- 
 mula of profession, 97-98; musi- 
 cian, 103, 109, 131 n., 337; manual 
 toil, 105-106: records,» 1ilin. 
 132 n.; ordination, 137-140; at St. 
 Thomas’ College, 141-145; early 
 priesthood, 159-162; at consecra- 
 tions, 240-241, 432, 433, 442, 462, 
 528, 549; and Dominican Sisters, 
 243, 445-447; prior of St. Joseph’s, 
 244; provincial, 246-254; appoint- 
 ment as bishop, 250-254, 314; con- 
 secration, 254-262; takes posses- 
 sion of his see, 315-340; ordina- 
 tions by, 315, 348, 349, 358, 371- 
 372, 390, 406-407, 543; illness, 328- 
 331, 356, 443, 445, 525, 526, 545; 
 character, 341, 554, 558-559; jour- 
 ney abroad, 343-347, 352-358; pas- 
 toral letter 344-347; visits St. 
 Rose‘s, 348-349, 401, 406, 421, 528- 
 529; and coadjutor, 385, 536-538, 
 544, 545, 546-547; at provincial 
 councils, 349, 351-352, 385, 386, 388- 
 390, 410-412, 434, 440-442, 465, 536, 
 541; lectures, 373; letters, 403, 
 404, 406, 408, 460; at dedications, 
 407, 455, 457-458, 465, 473, 531-533, 
 551-552; and Propagation of the 
 Faith, 408-409, 413; sermons, 414, 
 418, 464; relations with his 
 priests, 419; visitation of Ky. 
 parishes, 421; report of diocese 
 (1847), 422-423; and bishopric of 
 Monterey, 440; difficulty with 
 Father Schacht, 447-451, 538-540; 
 at first plenary council, 454-455; 
 buys Nashville property, 508-509, 
 510; establishes teaching order, 
 514; libraries established, 517-518; 
 
 INDEX 
 
 and religious societies, 519-520; 
 devotion to the Blessed Virgin, 
 520; death and burial, 554-559 
 
 Miles, Robert, 7 
 
 Miles, Robert, Annapolis, 17-18 
 
 Miles, Susanna, will of, 11 
 
 Miles, Thomas, early Md. settler, 9 
 
 Miles, Thomas, Revolutionary sol- 
 dier, 16 
 
 Miles, Thomas, son of Nicholas, 49 
 
 Miles, Rev. Thomas, S.J., 34n., 
 ae hae 
 
 Miles, Thomas Blackloc, nephew of 
 the bishop, 20 n. 
 
 Miles, Tobias, of Anne Arundel 
 Co., 9 
 
 Miles, Tobias, of Calvert Co., 9, 13 
 
 Miles, Tobias Jr., 9 
 
 Miles, Walter Revolutionary sol- 
 dier, 16 
 
 Miles, Corp. Walter, 17 
 
 Miles, William, of Kent Co., 9 
 
 Miles, William, Revolutionary sol- 
 dier, 16 
 
 Miles family, genealogy, 7-14, 17-22 
 
 Miles River, 10 
 
 Miller, M. and Mary (Snyder), 503 
 
 Milwaukee, diocese established, 388 
 
 Miro, Gen. Stephen, 273 
 
 Mitchell, , 45 
 
 Molloy, Ellen, 490 
 
 Molloy, John C., and Anna C., 490 
 
 Monahan, Patrick, 481 
 
 Montbrun, see De Montbrun 
 
 Montgomery, , at St. Thomas’, 
 154 
 
 Montgomery, Austin, 45 
 
 Montgomery, Rev. Charles P., O.P., 
 labors, 238n.; and choice of pro- 
 vincial, 246; letter to, 357; bishop- 
 ric declined, 440 
 
 Montgomery, Mrs. 
 111 n. 
 
 Montgomery, Louis, records 111 n, 
 
 Montgomery, Rev. Samuel L., O. P., 
 cited, 70n.; postulant, 85; reli- 
 
 
 
 
 
 Charles W., 
 
INDEX 599 
 
 gious name, 89n.; religious pro- 
 fession, 94n., 95; labors, 132n., 
 395, 438, 458; ordination, 137-140; 
 at St. Thomas’ College, 141, 142; 
 and choice of provincial, 246; 
 steward, 419; vicar general, 471; 
 at Nashville seminary, 511; at 
 dedication, 533; diocesan counsel- 
 lor, 549; at Miles’ funeral, 555; 
 sketch, 561 
 
 Montgomery, Rev. Stephen H., 
 O.P., postulant, 85; religious 
 name, 89n.; religious profession, 
 an. Joeerecords,, 111 ns" 132'n.; 
 Brdinationyyyio/-140;" at? St 
 Thomas’ College, 141, 143; at con- 
 secration of Miles, 257 
 
 Mooney, early families in Ky., 27 
 
 Moore, , at St. Thomas’, 154 
 
 Moore family, at Bolivar, 500 
 
 Moran, Peter and Bridget, 497 
 
 Morgan, Edward and Anna, 493 
 
 Morgan, Patrick and Mary, 489 
 
 Morgan, Patrick and Mary (Mc- 
 Barrens), 493 
 
 Morgan, Rev. William O. C., goes 
 to Nashville, 349; labors, 360-361 ; 
 illness, 364; death, 365; superior 
 of Nashville seminary, 510 
 
 Morgan family, 486 
 
 Morison, D., architect, 505 
 
 Morrison, Andrew, 480 
 
 Moscoso, Louis de, 264 n. 
 
 Mt. Carmel Convent, Sisters of, 305 
 
 Mt. Pleasant, Tenn., Miles at, 320 
 
 Mt. St. Mary’s College, Md., 61n.; 
 visit of Miles, 349, 350, 351; priest 
 in Nashville, 361, 394n., 412 n. 
 
 Mulholland, Michael and Theresa 
 (Jenkins), 493 
 
 
 
 
 
 Mulloy, , 479 
 Mufios, Father Raphael, O.P., 
 110n., 453 
 
 Murfreesborough, Tenn., Miles at, 
 319; early Catholics, 489; Know- 
 nothingism in, 524 
 
 mis- 
 
 A88 ; 
 
 Murphy, Father Augustine, 
 sionary labors, 466, 471, 
 death, 526-527 
 
 Murphy, Dr. George, 507 
 
 Murphy, Laurence, 489 
 
 Murphy, Michael and Catherine 
 (McDonald), 494 
 
 Murphy, Thomas, 482 
 
 Murphy, Rev. William, S.J., ser- 
 mon, 401 
 
 Murray, W. and Jane, 481 
 
 Myers, John and Margaret, 497 
 
 Nashville, erection of diocese, 249- 
 250, 313; trading post, 268; made 
 capitol of Tenn., 273, 396; early 
 Catholics, 290, 478-484; seminary, 
 339; new cathedral, 396-397; 
 schools, 400; report of diocese 
 (1847), 422-423; diocese annexed 
 to St. Louis, 441; dedication of 
 cathedral, 423-427; circulating 
 library, 518-519; Know-nothing. 
 ism, 523; coadjutor proposed, 536- 
 538; German church, 551 
 
 Nazareth, Sisters of, Academy, 
 158n., 405; in Nashville, 525 
 
 Neale, James, 487 
 
 Nealis; Father’ John *T.,’:QwP., in 
 
 Memphis, 548; sketch, 570-571 
 
 Negroes, at St. Rose’s, 124 
 
 Nelligan, Patrick and_ Bridget 
 (O’Donnell), 498 
 
 Nelson, Gov. Thomas, 36 
 
 Nelson, Co., Ky., Catholic com- 
 munities, 35; Miles family in, 40, 
 58 
 
 Nem, Michael and Mary (Wall), 
 494 
 
 Nerinckx, Rev. Charles, 49, 132 n.: 
 labors, 70, 287, 289, 290; at con- 
 secration, 162 
 
 Neville, , 479 
 
 Newman, Jacob, 472, 473 n. 
 
 Newman, Cardinal John H., resolu- 
 tions to, 458 
 
 
 
 
 
600 INDEX 
 
 New Mexico, vicariate established, 
 344 n. 
 
 New Orleans, right of deposit, 272- 
 273; made archbishopric, 434 n. 
 New York, arbishopric created, 
 
 434 n. 
 Nicolas, Sister Vincent, 447 n., 468n. 
 Nichols, John and Bridget (Keilly), 
 494 
 Noon, Rev. Dominic H., O. P., 106 n. 
 North Carolina, emigration to Ky,, 
 27; emigration to Tenn., 271, 274 
 Nugent, James and Annora (Hooli- 
 gan), 503 
 
 Obermeyer, Rev. Leonard, visit of 
 Miles to, 552 
 
 O’Brien, James and Mary (Quinn), 
 503 
 
 O’Brien, Father Matthew A., O. P., 
 and Jefferson Davis, 148; ordina- 
 tion, 315, 327; provincial, 445; 
 church erected, 465; prior of St. 
 Rose’s, 528 
 
 O’Carroll, Father William D., O. P., 
 447 n. 
 
 O’Connor, James and Margaret, 497 
 
 O’Connor, Rev. Dr. Michael, at con- 
 secration, 393 
 
 O’Daniel, Joseph, father and son, 
 39 n. 
 
 O’Dowde, Rev. John, minor orders 
 and Ordination mos lo/Z lls 
 labors, 376, 387; transfer of, 393- 
 394, 411; education, 394 n. 
 
 O’Finan, Rt. Rev. Joseph, O P., 
 books from, 401, 519 n, 
 
 O’Flaherty, Mrs. 486 
 
 O’Flaherty family, 486 
 
 O’Gorman, Rt. Rev. James M., 
 consecration of, 545 
 
 Ohio, Dominicans in, 132 n. 
 
 O’Keefe, John and Anna (McGin- 
 ley), 494 
 
 Olivieri, Most Rev. Benedict, O. P., 
 appointment by, 245 
 
 Olwell, Philip, 483 
 
 O’Neal, John and Henrietta, 486 
 
 O’Neil, Andrew and Caroline (Dil- 
 dy), 481 
 
 O’Neil, Jeremiah, 488 
 
 O’Neill, Fathers Jeremiah, 495 n. 
 
 O’Neill, Father Patrick, 495 n. 
 
 O’Regan, Rt. Rev. Anthony, conse- 
 cration, 462; at provincial coun- 
 cil, 465 
 
 Oregon, vicariate apostolic, 388 
 
 Orengo, Rev. Aloysius, O.P., la~ 
 bors, 428, 438, 459, 466, 467-468, 
 476, 487; church erected, 530; 
 cited, 539n.; sketch, 561-563 
 
 Ormsby, , at St. Thomas’, 154 
 
 Ormsby, Hon. Stephen, and son, 155 
 
 Osbourn, William, alumnus of St. 
 Thomas’, 157 
 
 O’Sullivan, Andrew and Margaret, 
 486 
 
 Overton, Judge John, 501 
 
 Owen, Matthew and Margaret 
 (Martin), 489 
 
 
 
 Palmer, Dr. Robert C., alumnus of 
 St. Thomas’, 156-157 
 
 Park, John, 447n., 508 
 
 Park, William, 508 
 
 Parke, Rev. H. F., 462-463 
 
 Payne, John, 45 
 
 Pedele, John and Mary (Tilden), 
 493 
 
 Pelamourgues, Rev. Anthony, de- 
 clines bishopric, 549 
 
 Pennsylvania, toleration, 23 
 
 Perry Co., Ohio, Dominican pro- 
 perty in, 124n. 
 
 Pestre, Julien De, at St. Thomas’, 
 154 
 
 Philadelphia} Augustinians, 83n.; 
 aid given Nashville diocese, 390 n. 
 
 Phillips William and Martha 
 (Cochran), 493 
 
 Phillips, William D., 484n. 
 
 Phillips, Mrs. William D. (Eliza- 
 
INDEX 601 
 
 beth Dwyer), 479-480, 483 
 
 Phobus, Sophia, 502 
 
 Pietro, Cardinal Michael di, 78 n. 
 
 Pigeon Hills, Pa., 61, 70, 73 n. 
 
 Pitt, Archibald, 45 
 
 Pitts, Fountain E., Methodist minis- 
 ter, 280 
 
 Pittsburgh, diocese established, 388 
 
 Pius V, Dominican Pope, 89 
 
 Bis eV ie 177 
 
 Pausey L677 7 
 
 Pius IX, arid religious vows, 96 
 
 Plunkett, J. D., 482 
 
 Plunkett, James and wife, 488 
 
 Plunkett, see also Underhill 
 
 Poe, Isaac and Mary (Daily), 489 
 
 Polin, Math ote Lhomas #154 
 
 Polin, Rev. Thomas J:,-O. P., 127 n., 
 156, 246 
 
 Pollock, Agnes, 489 
 
 Pollock, Dr. S., 489 
 
 Pope, , at St. Thomas’, 154 
 
 Pope, Hon. John and sons, 155 
 
 Poplar Neck Settlement, 35, 47, 63 
 
 Portier, Rt. Rev. Michael, missions, 
 310 n., 520; with Miles abroad, 
 352; at dedication of Nashville 
 cathedral, 425 
 
 Posen, letter to archbishop of, 352 
 
 Pottinger’s Creek Settlement, 33-35, 
 S03 
 
 Power, Michael and Bridget (Hand- 
 lon), 503 
 
 Powers, Bridget, 504 
 
 Pozzo, Rev. Eugene H., O.P., la- 
 bors, 380; at Baltimore council, 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 388 
 Prather, NateotuLonomas.s154 
 Priber, Christian, Indian agent in 
 Tenn., 268 
 Priestly, , early settler of 
 
 Nashville, 290 
 Prince, Balina, 502 
 Prince, William 
 
 (Phiphs), 502 
 Prince George Co., Md., Miles fam- 
 
 and Pauline 
 
 ily, 13; emigration to Ky., 29-35 
 Propagation of the Faith, French 
 Society, aid given Miles, 331, 354, 
 408-409, 413, 460, 575 
 Pulaski, Tenny, Know-nothingism 
 in, 524 
 Purcell, Archbishop John B., and 
 Miles, 248, 251-252, 254, 255, 348, 
 406, 407, 460, 469, 535; letters to, 
 329, 408, 415; letters of, 330, 537; 
 at Baltimore council, 352n.; and 
 foreign aid, 354n.; and annuity, 
 357, 358n.; at consecration, 393, 
 442; visits Nashville, 425-426 
 Pyburn, Eliza, 488 n. 
 Pyburn, Michael, 487 
 Quebec, vicariate apostolic, and 
 bishopric, 266 
 Quebec Act, 23-24, 24n., 269 
 Quincy, IIl., diocese, 465 n. 
 Quinlan, Rt. Rev. John, consecra- 
 tion, 553 
 Quinlon, James 
 (Shaunpy), 481 
 Quinn, Rev. William, O.P., 116n. 
 
 and Margaret 
 
 Ranken, Rev. John D., O.P., visit 
 of Miles to, 353 
 
 Rapp, Basil and Catherine (Spaeh), 
 502 
 
 Rappe, Rt. Rev. Amadeus, conse- 
 cration, 442 
 
 Ratterman, Bernard, 480 
 
 Ratterman, Frederic, 480 
 
 Ratterman, John G., 480 
 
 Raymaecker, Father John V. de, 
 O.P., visit of Miles to, 352-353 
 
 Read, Edward and Drusilla (Cher- 
 tv8 1503 
 
 Read, Martha Lytle, 280 
 
 Reagan, Ann, 504 
 
 Recollects, with La Salle, 265 
 
 Redmond, Mrs. C., 485 
 
 Redmond, Frances, 485 
 
 Redmond, Harriet, 485 
 
602 INDEX 
 
 Redmond, Henry, 485 
 
 Reid, James, 18 
 
 Reilly, James, 492 
 
 Rese, Rt. Rev. Frederic, in Europe, 
 S521. 
 
 Reynolds, Rt. Rev. Ignatius A., 457, 
 463; proposed for bishop, 240, 
 388-389; consecration, 393 
 
 Ricardi, John B., 492 
 
 Ricardi, Peter, 492 
 
 Richardson, John and Melvina, 497 
 
 Richardson, Margaret, 492 n. 
 
 Robertson Co., Tenn., Church at, 
 374, 375 
 
 Rochford, Rev. 
 106 n. 
 
 Rogan, Bernard, 280, 484 
 
 Rogan, Charles, 484 
 
 Johny tAt, WO sn, 
 
 Rogan, Clarissa, (Mrs. Joseph 
 Desha), 484 
 Rogan, Francis, 279, 280, 395, 484 
 
 Rogan, Hugh, story of, 278-280, 
 281n.; and Nancy (Duffy), 484; 
 
 Rogan, John, 484 
 
 Rogan, William, 484 
 
 Rogers, Daniel, 45 
 
 Rohan, Rev. William, missionary 
 labors, 53, 54n., 275 
 
 Rolling Fork Settlement, 
 5/2100 
 
 Rosati, Bishop Joseph, and conse- 
 cration of Miles, 254, 256, 257, 
 258; at Baltimore council, 343, 
 352n.; with Miles abroad, 352 
 
 Ross, John, 496 
 
 Ross, Sister Xavier, and division of 
 Sisters, 449, 450, 451; and Schacht 
 affair, 541; cited, 541 
 
 Ross’ Landing, Miles at, 319; early 
 Catholics, 496; see also Chatta- 
 nooga 
 
 Rossville, Tenn., Miles at, 319 
 
 Rowan, , at St.’ Thomas’, 154 
 
 Rowan, Hon. John, Jr., 155 
 
 Rudd, Christopher A., 156, 158n.; 
 postulant, 85; religious name, 
 
 34, 35, 
 
 
 
 89n.; account of life, 92-93; at 
 St. Rose’s, 114 
 
 Rudd, Capt. James, alumnus of St. 
 Thomas’, 156, 158 
 
 Rudd, Richard, alumnus 
 Thomas’, 156 
 
 Ruohs, Joseph, 498 
 
 Ryan, Edward, 486 
 
 Ryan, Rev. Joseph T., O. P., made 
 subdeacon, 401; made deacon, 406 
 
 of (St 
 
 St. Agnes’ Academy, Memphis, 446- 
 447, 548 
 
 St. Andrew’s, Knoxville, 289, 293 
 
 St. Ann’s Cartwright’s Creek Set- 
 tlement, 63 
 
 St. Ann’s, N. Y., dedication, 455 
 
 St. Anthony’s, Breckinridge Co., 
 Ky., 296, 297, 299, 464 
 
 St. Athanasius’ Seminary, 510-511 
 
 St. Augustine’s, Philadelphia, 74n, 
 
 St. Benedict’s, Shelby Co., Ky., 64 
 
 St. Bernard’s, Adair Co., Ky., 64 
 
 St. Catherine’s Convent, Spring- 
 field, Ky., 106n., 243, 421, 529 
 
 St. Charles’, Washington Co., Ky., 
 63 
 
 St. Christopher’s, Madison Co., Ky., 
 64 
 
 St. Clare’s, Hardin Go, Kysnge 
 
 St. Dominic’s, Springfield, Ky., 65 n. 
 
 St. Francis’ Settlement, 35, 37, 63, 
 142 
 
 St. John’s, Bullitt Co., Ky., 65 
 
 St. John’s Hospital and Orphan 
 Asylum, 430, 432 
 
 St. John the Evangelist’s, Edgefield, 
 dedication, 531-532 
 
 St. Joseph, Brothers of, for Nash- 
 ville, 512-513 
 
 St. Joseph’s Cathedral, Bardstown, 
 161, 442 
 
 St. Joseph’s, Somerset, Ohio, erec- 
 tion of, 243; crucifix, 399 n. 
 
 St. Joseph’s College, Somerset, 247, 
 464 
 
INDEX 603 
 
 St. Joseph’s Province, founded, 103; 
 early days, 121; subsidy to Cin- 
 cinnati archbishopric, 357, 358 n. 
 
 Saint Louis, Ky., 64 
 
 St. Louis, Mo., archbishopric, 441; 
 provincial councils, 465, 541 
 
 St. Louis University, 403 
 
 St. Magdalen’s, see St. Catherine’s 
 
 Saint Mary’s, Columbus, Ohio, 
 Sisters of, 106n. 
 
 St. Mary’s, Hagerstown, Md., letter 
 from pastor, 29 
 
 St. Mary’s, Jackson, 459 
 
 St. Mary’s Academy, Nashville, 
 work of, 405, 414-415, 447-452, 515 
 St. Mary’s Academy, Somerset, 
 
 commencement, 464 
 
 St. Mary’s College, Ky., 366, 382, 
 401; transfer, 310, 416 
 
 St. Mary’s Co., Md., Miles family 
 fe7 io, Opi i213 emigration 
 to Ky., 29-35 
 
 St. Mary’s Seminary, 
 74 n. 
 
 St. Michael’s, Nelson Co., Ky., 47, 
 63 
 
 St. Michael’s, Robertson Co., Tenn., 
 375; early Catholics, 485-486; 
 academy established, 516; library, 
 518 
 
 St. Palais, Rt. Rev: Maurice De, 
 consecration, 432, 442 
 
 St. Patrick, Brothers of, establish- 
 ment, 514 
 
 St. Patrick’s, Danville, Ky., dedica- 
 tion, 107 n. 
 
 St. Patrick’s, Junction City, Miles 
 at, 358 
 
 St. Patrick’s, Maysville, 394 
 
 St. Patrick’s, McEwen, 520, 521 
 
 St. Patrick’s, Mercer Co., Ky., 64 
 
 St. Patrick’s, near Waverly, dedi- 
 cated, 402 
 
 St. Paul, diocese erected, 434 n. 
 
 St. Peter’s, Lexingotn, Ky., 64 
 
 St. Peter’s, Memphis, erected, 390, 
 
 Baltimore, 
 
 504-507; dedication, 418; placed 
 under Dominicans, 420 
 
 St. Pierre, Father Paul de, 53 n. 
 
 Sti Pius’,- Ky. Mission: 37 
 
 St. Rose’s Church and Priory, 
 Springfield, Ky., established, 65 n., 
 73, 79-80; construction, 103-107; 
 ceremony of profession, 95; deco- 
 rations, 102; dedication, 107, 465; 
 ordinations, 108-109, 138; early 
 days, 122-136; spiritual life, 129- 
 132; Miles visits, 348-349, 358, 388, 
 401, 406, 421, 528-529 
 
 Sts. Peter and Paul’s, Chattanooga, 
 erected, 531; dedication, 533-534 
 
 St. Stephen’s Ky., 57, 62-63 
 
 St. Thomas’ College, 92n., 103n.; 
 construction of, 103-107; history, 
 111-120; students and priests, 141- 
 158 
 
 St.. Thomas’, Nelson Co., Ky.,. 63, 
 139 n. 
 
 St. Vincent’s Home, 452 
 
 Salem, Tenn., Miles at, 319 
 
 Salmon, Rev. Anthony, labors, 57- 
 59; death of 59-71) 285 
 
 Sanders, vatiot, <Laomas’, 154- 
 
 Sanders, Charles, 484 n. 
 
 Sanders, Mrs. Charles 398n., 482 
 
 Sandrigan, William and Margaret, 
 497 
 
 Santa Barbara, Calif., Franciscan 
 monastery, 73 
 
 Savannah, bishopric, 434 n. 
 
 Savelli, Rev. Nicholas, labors, 360, 
 380; at ordinations, 372 
 
 Schacht, Rev. Ivo, tonsure received, 
 371; ordination, 390, 511; labors, 
 394, 395-396, 399, 428-429, 433, 458, 
 459, 460, 471, 482, 530, 532-533; 
 church dedicated, 402; difficulty 
 with Miles, 447-450, 538-540; aid 
 secured by, 460; visit abroad, 467; 
 cited, 526; and coadjutor, 537; 
 sketch, 542 n. 
 
 Schaeffer, Rev. Peter, 132n., 139 n. 
 
 
 
604 INDEX 
 
 Scheller, Francis, 502 
 
 Schmitt, Louis, 486 
 
 Schmitt, Michael and Anna (Corts), 
 486 
 
 Schrend, Charles J. 
 (Boyer), 494 
 
 Scioto Colony, 55 
 
 Scollard, Rev. John, labors of, 529, 
 530n.; diocesan counsellor, 549; 
 at Miles’ funeral, 557; sketch, 
 565-566 
 
 Scotland, immigrants from, 7 
 
 Scott, Lucy H., 486 
 
 Scott Co., Ky., Catholic settlement. 
 55, 63n.; missionaries, 58; Fran- 
 ciscans proposed for, 61 
 
 Sedgwick, George, 492 
 
 Serena, Sister, 405 
 
 Seven Dolors Cathedral, Nashville, 
 295; dedication, 423-425, 426 
 
 Sevier, John, governor of Franklin, 
 272; governor of Tenn., 273; reli- 
 gion of, 277; Tenn. lands, 284 
 
 Shaller, Catherine, 503 
 
 Shawnees, in Tenn., 267 
 
 Shea, Denis and Mary, 498 
 
 Shea, John and Honora (Davis), 
 494 
 
 Shea, Martin and Bridget (Fogar- 
 
 and Susan 
 
 ty), 493 
 
 Sheahan, Patrick and Catherine, 
 497 
 
 Sheahan, Thomas and Mary (Con- 
 nell), 494 
 
 Sheehan, Jeremiah, 488 
 
 Sheehy, James, 487 
 
 Shelbyville, Tenn., Father Stokes 
 Ab ooiee churen, 064 
 
 Shepherd, Brother Patrick, O.P., 
 237 n. 
 
 Shinnick, Jeremiah, 481 
 
 Short, Father William B., O.P., 
 invited to U. S., 66 
 
 Sibel, Henry, 18 
 
 Semms, , at St. Thomas’, 154 
 
 Simpson, Sister Ann, 446 
 
 
 
 Simpson, James, 45 
 Simpson, Walter, 45 
 
 
 
 
 
 Skidmore, svat St. Thontas; 
 154 
 
 Slavin, , 480 
 
 Slattery, Terrence and Elizabeth, 
 
 497 
 Slevin, Mr., Cincinnati, 535, 536 
 
 Slinger, Rev. Joseph H., O.P, 
 106 n. 
 Smith, B., 309 
 
 Smith, Benedict, 45 
 
 Smith, Daniel, 49 
 
 Smyth, Rt. Rev. Clement T., conse- 
 cration, 528; at consecrations, 545 
 
 Smyth, Mary, 502 
 
 Smyth, Thomas, 489 
 
 Snyder, Joseph C. and Mary, 504 
 
 Somaglia, Julius M. Cardinal de, 
 letter to, 305 
 
 Somerset Co., Md., Miles family 
 inn BO.atS 
 
 Sorin, Father Edward, C.SS.C., 
 and Nashville academy, 512-514 
 
 Spalding, Benedict, 32 n. 
 
 Spalding, Rev. B. J., 557 
 
 Spalding, Mother Catherine, 
 division of Sisters, 449 
 
 Spalding, Ignatius, 158 n. 
 
 Spalding, James, 45 
 
 Spalding, John, 20n. 
 
 Spalding, Bishop Martin J., cited, 
 30, 84, 121, 276, 300-302; at con- 
 secrations, 257, 259n., 434; plea 
 for Miles, 320-322; relations with 
 Miles, 342-343, 349; sermons, 351, 
 365n., 442; in Nashville, 363; 
 proposed as coadjutor, 385-386; 
 letters to, 403, 404; coadjutor of 
 Louisville, 430-432; and Mufios, 
 453; letter of, 525; at dedication, 
 533-534; and Schacht affair, 539, 
 540; visit to Miles, 553 
 
 Spalding, Rev. Martin P., O. P., 19, 
 20n., 22n., 420n. 
 
 Speaks, James, 45 
 
 and 
 
INDEX 
 
 Springfield, Ky., church, 65, 238 n. 
 
 Stacker and Johnson, builders, 294 
 
 Stanfield, John, and family, 489 
 
 Stephenson, Vernon, 396, 483 
 
 Sterling family, at Bolivar, 500 
 
 Stevenson, Mrs. T. J., 378 
 
 Stewart, William, 497 
 
 Stokes, Rev. Joseph, letters of, 329, 
 350; labors, 331-340; in charge 
 of diocese, 347; cited, 359-360, 
 361, 363, 364, 367, 372-373, 374. 
 376, 377-378, 381, 501-502; at or- 
 dinations, 371-372; enters Jesuit 
 order, 381-382; later career, 
 382 n.-383 n. 
 
 Stone, Gov. William, deposition, 6 
 
 Strickland, William, architect, 426 
 
 Sullivan, Daniel and Mary (Mar- 
 tin), 494 
 
 Sullivan, Denis and Caroline, 489 
 
 Sullivan, Denis and Catherine, 497 
 
 Sullvian, Denis and Helen, 493 
 
 Sullivan, Denis and Honora, 486 
 
 Sullivan, James and Margaret (Mc- 
 Carthy), 498 
 
 Sullivan, Patrick, 497 
 
 Sullivan, Roger, 497 
 
 Sullivan, Thomas and Jane (Cole- 
 man), 494 
 
 Sulpicians, 74 n. 
 
 Sumner Co., Tenn., first Catholics, 
 484-485 
 
 Sutton, Father, labors, 305 
 
 Swan, William C., 473 n. 
 
 Sykes, Jeremiah and Catherine 
 (McGettigan), 493 
 
 Talbot, Co., Md., Miles family in, 
 ye ola 
 
 Tarlton, , at St. Thomas’, 154 
 
 Tarpy, Thomas, 487 
 
 Tarrascon, Henry, 154 
 
 Tarrascon, Louis, 154 
 
 Taylor family, 488 
 
 Tennessee, immigration, 26n., 271, 
 524-525; Dominicans in, 132n.; 
 
 
 
 605 
 
 early history, 263-275; early mis- 
 sionaries, 264; French in, 265. 
 269; Indians, 267-269; in Diocese 
 of Quebec, 269; admitted to 
 Union, 273; early Catholics, 274- 
 275, 284-293; first priest of, 275, 
 295-306; first Catholic Church in, 
 294-313; Sisters of Charity in, 
 377; early missions, 488, 490-491, 
 500 
 
 Thayer, Rev. John, labors, 57-60, 
 283, 285 
 
 Thomas, , at St. Thomas’, 154 
 
 Thomson, Valentine, 45 
 
 Thornton, Patrick and Mary M., 
 490 
 
 Thorpe, Sister Emily, 446 
 
 Timon, Rt. Rev. John, sermon at 
 consecration of Miles, 258, 259 n. 
 
 Tobin, Rev. Thomas V., letter of, 
 281 n. 
 
 Tool, Matiot. 2homasy) 154 
 
 Toon, Sateot, unomas, 1o4 
 
 Trappists, 61, 70, 73n.; novices, 86, 
 95 
 
 Traughber, Levi 
 (Fisher), 485 
 
 Troost, Dr. Gerard, 415 
 
 Tuite, Rev. William R., O.P., 67, 
 132n.; labors, 69-74, 159-160; 
 accident, 70n.; master of postu- 
 lants, 84, 91; scholarship, 101, 102; 
 musician, 109; at St. Thomas’, 
 114, 152; and wearing of tonsure, 
 125; vineyard, 127-128; death, 
 238 n. 
 
 Turner, Rev. Jeremiah P., O,P., 
 106 n. 
 
 Twyman, Judge James, 285, 286 
 
 Tyne, Mrs. Thomas J., 479 n. 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 and Mary 
 
 Udwig, Frederick and Margaret 
 (Bonninger), 503 
 
 Underhill, Father Gerard A., O. P., 
 68 n. 
 
 Underhill, Father Thomas A., O.P., 
 
606 
 
 and Dominicans in U. S., 68 
 Union Co., Ky., Dominican proper- 
 ty in, 124n. 
 
 Van De Velde, Rt. Rev. James O., 
 consecration, 433-434 
 
 Van den Broek, Rev. John T., O.P., 
 569 
 
 Van de Weyer, Rev. Francis A., 
 O. P., visit of Miles to, 353 
 
 Van Zeeland, Father Raymond, 
 O.P., visit of Miles to, 353 
 
 Vardeman, Rey. Jeremiah, Baptist, 
 301 
 
 Villeneuve, Sister Dorothy, 452 
 
 Vincennes, bishopric, 249 
 
 Virginia, colonists in Md., 5; in- 
 tolerance in, 5; emigration to Ky., 
 27, emigration to Tenn., 271, 274 
 
 Visitation Convent, Georgetown, 
 DAGar324 
 Vogel, Rev. John A., ordination, 
 
 543; at dedication, 551; sketch, 
 568-569 
 
 
 
 Walker, , 479 
 Walkerwa Rev. Osman Ay OAre 
 106 n. 
 
 Wallace, Father, see Willett 
 
 Waller, John, farm of, 72, 79, 112 
 
 Walsh, Rev. William, 281 n., 372 n., 
 478 n., 499, 508 n. 
 
 Walter, , Clarksville, 486 
 
 Warren, Andrew, 498 n. 
 
 Warren, Charles, 45 
 
 Wartburg, Tenn., church property, 
 429; Franciscans in charge, 438 
 
 Washington Co., Md., emigration 
 to Ky., 29 
 
 Washington Co., Ky., created, 63 n, 
 
 Wassen, Rev., C. P., 487 n. 
 
 Watauga Association, 271-272 
 
 Wathen, Dr. Benjamin, alumnus of 
 St. Thomas’, 157 
 
 Wathen, Charles, 45 
 
 Wathen, Dr. Richard, alumnus of 
 
 
 
 INDEX 
 
 St. Thomas’, 157 
 
 Wathen, Winifred, 45 
 
 Watson, Joseph, 486 
 
 Waverly, Tenn., church near, 395, 
 402 
 
 Wayne, Gen., Anthony, 28 
 
 Webb, Hon. B. J., lecture, 291-292 
 
 Welch, Patrick, 493 
 
 Werner, Julius, 481 
 
 Wessell, George H., 481 
 
 Wheeling, bishopric, 434n., 442 
 
 Whelan, Father Charles, O.S.F., 
 missionary labors, 52-53; leaves 
 Ky., 276 
 
 Whelan, Rt. Rev. James, coadjutor 
 of Nashville, 536, 537, 544, 545, 
 546-549; at consecration, 550; at 
 dedication, 552; last rites given 
 Miles, 554; at Miles’ funeral 556. 
 557; sketch of, 571-574 
 
 Whelan, John, 486 
 
 Whelan, Brother 
 517 n. 
 
 Whelan, Rt. Rev. Richard V., 442 
 
 White, Abraham, 29 
 
 White, Catherine, 290 n. 
 
 White, Isaac, 29 
 
 White, Joseph A., 503 
 
 White Sulphur, Ky., mission, 37 
 
 Whitside, James, 498 
 
 Willett, Rev. William T., O.P3 
 postulant, 85; religious mame, 
 89n.; religious profession, 94n., 
 95; records, lll n., 132n.; ordina- 
 tion, 137-140; at St. Thomas, 
 College, 141, 142 
 
 Williams, Capt. John, residence, 378 
 
 Wilson, Rev. Joseph A., O. P., and 
 choice of provincial, 246 
 
 Wilson, Rev. Samuel T., O. P., and 
 establishment of Dominicans, 67; 
 cited, 68n.; labors, 69-74, 132n.; 
 accident, 70n.; relations with 
 Miles, 72, 143, 144-145; work as 
 provincial, 80-91; scholarship, 
 101; death, 110 n.; at St. Thomas’, 
 
 Michael, O. P., 
 
INDEX 607 
 
 113-120, 143, 147, 153, 159; elo- 
 quence, 116, 117 n.; description of 
 St. Rose’s, 122-136; at consecra- 
 tion, 162; and tonsure, 242 
 
 Winchester, Tenn. Miles at, 319; 
 Stokes at, 331 
 
 Wiseman, Catherine, 11 
 
 Wiseman, John, 11, 12 
 
 Wiseman, Robert, 11, 12 
 
 Wood, Rt. Rev. James F., consecra- 
 tion, 528; visit of Miles to, 552 
 
 
 
 Worland, Meatioot. 14 Lomas, 
 154 
 Wrenn, Cornelius and Margaret 
 
 (Cantillon), 494 
 
 Young, Mrs. Florida, 20n. 
 
 Young, Ignatius, record of birth, 
 111 n. 
 
 Young, Father Nicholas D., O.P., 
 Viap et Lodi loom, ou t.4) cited, 
 
 pnw e/2 wee Tne ilone a iain 
 postulant, 85n.; as novice, 93; 
 profession of, 95; return to Md., 
 109; records, 111 n.; in Ky., 143; 
 provincial, 243, 244-246; protest 
 of, 252; and Purcell, 358 n.; prior, 
 401 
 
 Young, Father Nicholas R., O.P., 
 missionary labors, 467, 472; ser- 
 mon, 473; transfer, 527; sketch, 
 530 n.; proposed as coadjutor, 536, 
 537. 
 
 Young, Brother Robert, O.P., as 
 pupil, 71; postulant, 85; religious 
 name, 89n.; religious profession, 
 94n., 95; illness and death, 109, 
 110; information concerning, 
 110 n.-111 n. 
 
 Young, Thomas, 21 
 
 Zanesville, O., Miles at, 358 
 
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