St. Meinrad Abby and  Perry County

The monks had no more success in establishing Perry County as a Catholic stronghold than did the earliest missionaries to that county, The priest Augustus Bessonies spent the years between 1840 and 1852 founding parishes and attending scattered families of Catholics from Kentucky, with Derby planned as a Catholic hub.^ls3 However, the only parishes that ever flourished in Perry County were the ethnic ones. Never receiving much of an impetus from among the English speaking Catholics, it took the ethnic settlements of Belgians at Leopold and the Germans in Cannelton and Tell City to bolster the Catholic population of the area and feasibly establish the Catholic Church. The monks of St. Meinrad would try to stir up a greater fervor among the English speaking Catholics, and eventually even reach out to evangelize the Protestants, but their efforts did not change the religious layout of the county. Of the fifteen Catholic churches built in the course of the county’s history, only ten survived into the 1920s, and two of those remaining were consolidated in 1968. Taking stock of their work, the monks from St. Meinrad successfully established one parish (St. Martin), helped to reestablish one (St. John)” and at one time or another cared for seven, but three of St. Meinrad’s attempts at parishes in the county closed in the early part of twentieth century (St. Peter, Uniontown, Adyeville).

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John William Book was born in Starlight, Indiana, on Oct. 21, 1850. He was ordained on Nov. 2, 1873, and also followed the monks in caring for Cannelton, where he died on Oct. 1, 1898. Stineman, 22; Rutherford, 98-101; St. Meinrad Alumni Directory, 27.153 One of Bishop Brute’s recruits, August Bessonies was born at Alzac, France, on June 17, 1815 and Red· went to seminary at Isse near Paris, where he met Vincenne’s first bishop. After finishing his studies at St. Sulpice he came to the United States in 1839, still too young to be ordained a priest. Hands were finally lain on him by Bishop Hailandiere on Feb. 22, 1840, who then sent to Perry County where he labored for twelve years, founding the town of Leopold and building the church at Derby. Beginning in 1852 he was assigned to different parishes throughout the diocese, but is most famous as the long time pastor of Old St. John’s in Indianapolis where he was pastor from 1857 until 1897. As the senior priest of the diocese, he was appointed administrator upon Bishop de St. Palais’ death in 1877. Upon his succession as bishop in 1878, Chatard appointed him vicar general. He continued to work with the bishop in Indianapolis until his death on Feb. 22, 190 I. Augustine Bessonies, Reminiscences of a Pioneer Priest in the Diocese of Vincennes, found in Alerding, 485-505; Blanchard, 45-47, Stineman, 20; Rose Angela Horan, The Story of Old St. John’s, (Indianapolis: Litho, 1971),85-159, 192-195.

1. St. Pius, Troy

The second oldest surviving parish in Perry County was established in 1847 by Josef Kundek. It was here that the first church was built in 1849, and attended by a diocesan priest until O’Connor arrived in 1853. When O’Connor returned to St. Meinrad, the parish was again assigned to a diocesan priest, but frequently visited from St. Meinrad until 1863. From this time, it was sporadically put under St. Meinrad’s care until 1876, when the parish received its first long-time resident pastor, Conrad Ackermann, O.S.B.. Remembered well into the twentieth century, it was often remarked upon how everyone in Troy, of all faiths, loved Fr. Conrad. His one drawback was that he was unable to speak English, and a parishioner interviewed by Fr. Albert Kleber once related how that when a few English speaking members had joined the parish, he attempted to read the epistle in English. “But, recalled the parishioner with a smile, he should not have attempted that. In 1879, when the parish had seventy ­two families, Ackermann determined that it was time to build a new church, which was completed in 1884. 155 In his typical, humble, fashion, he gave the honors of breaking ground to an altar boy on a rainy afternoon when he took the boy out into the yard, and while holding an umbrella, helped the boy dig a few spades of dirt.¹⁵⁶ Ackermann served the parish until 1884, when due to declining health, the abbot called him back to St. Meinrad. While serving as prior he was diagnosed with tuberculosis, and after a failed treatment in Illinois returned to Switzerland where he died in 1887.¹⁵⁷ Ackermann was the last St. Meinrad priest to reside at Troy in the nineteenth century, but the St. Meinrad tradition was continued when William Wack.an alumnus of the school, became pastor in 1890.¹⁵⁸

1. Patrick, Cannelton

St. Meinrad officially cared for the parish at Cannelton during O’Connor’s brief pastorate in 1853 and 1854. Of the “3,000-4,000” people living in the area’s biggest town, there were about 400-500 “Easter” Catholics, according to O’Connor’s estimate. 159 In 1854 O’Connor took a census of those belonging to the parish and found 241 English speaking Catholics (Americans, Irish, English, Welsh), twenty­seven Germans, and eighteen Canadians, which totaled 286 souls.¹⁶⁰ That number had grown to 647 people by 1857 when another census was conducted by the diocesan pastor, Michael Marendt. 161 But, in fact, due to the absences and lack of priests, St. Meinrad was often providing parochial assistance. Upset and embarrassed about Bachmann’s withdrawing St. Meinrad from the parish, O’Connor railed against the prior’s ideas about plowing rather than preaching and wrote to the dean, Athanasius Tschopp, “What can we do here with one who knows only farming and cattle? The building of souls here is more important than farming. If the spirit is good, a man can serve well in the field or in the church.” ¹ 62 With those words, he withdrew from Cannelton; the people were sad to see him leave, but he and some other monks still attended the parish from St. Meinrad while the bishop delayed in appointing a priest. Holding out hope that the monks would change their mind, the bishop appointed the newly ordained Michael Marendt as temporary pastor in 1855, but the appointment became a rermanent one when Tschopp, then prior, continued to refuse the request. 1 3

1. St. Michael, Cannelton

During O’Connor’s pastorate, it was determined by the bishop that it would be best to create a parish in Cannelton to serve the needs of the Germans. When the parish at Cannelton finally split in 1859, it was Marendt who took charge of building the German parish of St. Michael, which is today the surviving Catholic church in the town. During Marendt’s absence from the country raising money to pay-off the debt for the new church (1860-1866), the monks from St. Meinrad covered the parish in cooperation with the other diocesan priests in the area.!” Fr. Michael Guthneck was the first alumnus of St. Meinrad who cared for both parishes in Cannelton beginning in 1878.¹⁶⁵

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158 William Wack was born in Evansville, Indiana, on Jan. 3, 1859 and studied at St. Meinrad before going to Innsbruck to complete the last year before his ordination on Feb. 12, 1882. Feeling particularly close to St. Meinrad, he discerned joining the monastery for a time, but decided against it, serving in the parishes of the diocese until his death in Cincinnati on Oct. 28,1917. Stineman, 91; Kleber, St. Pius, 57-65. 159 O’Connor to Tschopp, Feb. 7, 1854, Cannelton, StiAEins A. RG II. 4. B20. O’Connor’s estimation of the population is about double what it was. The highest population for the city in the nineteenth century was reached in 1870 when it had 2,481 residents. Tenth Census of the United States. 1880, 153.

160 Rutherford, 1.

161 Michael Marendt was a diocesan priest who worked closely with the monks and whom the monks aided in trying to bolster Catholicism in Perry County. He was born at Lambach, Alsace on Sep. 11, 1820, and emigrated with his family to Spencer County in 1841. After working as a carpenter and stone mason, he taught at the parish school in Ferdinand and then entered the seminary in Vincennes, being ordained at the age of 35 on Mar. 24, 1855. Assigned to Cannelton, he also visited the parishes at Troy and Rockport. Marendt missed the Civil War, having gone to South America in 1860 to raise money to cover the debts he incurred while building St. Michael. Upon his return in 1866, he again took up his work of instituting parishes and churches and continued in this until his death from pneumonia at Cannelton on Jan. IS, 1871. Rutherford, 3-18; Steineman, 55.

1. Paul, Tell City

Tell City, like so many towns in the Kundek Catholic Belt, was a planned town. However, it was unusual in that it was not planned for religious reasons. The Swiss Colonization Society (Schweizerischer Ansiedlungsvereiny, formed in 1856, had as its intent the buying of land on which to build homes and businesses along the Ohio to facilitate trade in the United States and with Germany. The land was bought in 1857 and the first settlers arrived 1858.¹⁶⁶ This brought much joy to Jacques Martin, who was feeling overwhelmed by the German Catholics and who always felt an affinity toward the decidedly enlightened town, preferring to spend his free time among the Protestants and Freemasons of the Swiss settlement. The population doubled during March and April, 1858, with over 300 people taking up residence over that two month period, bringing its population to over 600. 168 After this initial burst, the increase of colonization did not go as well as planned, but it did always maintain a decent standard of living for its colonists. Driving the settlement was speculation, and the monks and neighboring Catholics were not too pleased at the invasion of so blatant a mercantilism into their area. The monks would call the German and Swiss settlers there “Forty-eighters” and refer to the town as “Masonic City” The original settlers and planners of Tell City did fit that description, building a Masonic hall and naming the streets of their new town after the humanists and industrialists of the time. Because business was the principal driving force, religion played no role in people choosing to settle there. Ironically, the first church to form there was the Catholic Church, at the instigation of Michael Marendt. After sending two women around to take a Catholic census, twenty-five families were found, and so what would become the parish ofSt. Paul began services in 1859. It was not long after this that Marendt began to have his financial difficulties, and St. Paul became yet another parish cared for by the monks while not officially falling into the St. Meinrad district. Later, between 1891-1896, Simon Barber from St. Meinrad became the official pastor. The census for 1898 showed 660 people belonging to the parish. 173

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162 “Was harten wir in dieser Hinsicht an einem Manne der sich blof aufas Ackerwesen und Vieh verstunde. Seelenbau geht hier nothwendigerweise vor dem Ackerbau. Wenn der Geist gut ist, so wird es sicherlich auf dem Felde oder in der Casa nicht schlinun aussehen.” O’Connor to Tschopp, Sep. 14,1854, Cannelton, StiAEins A. RG II. 19 B24; O’Connor to Schmid, Jan. 8,1855, St. Meinrad, StiAEins A. RG II. 4 B33. 163 Tschopp to Schmid, July 8, 1855, St. Meinrad, StiAEins A. RG II. 2 A9. 164 Rutherford, 1-13.

165 Michael Guthneck was born in St. Marie, Illinois, on March 11, 1848, and was ordained on Sep. 29, 1878. He died in Madison, Indiana, on Feb. 2, 1922; Stineman, 42; Rutherford,27-30. 167 Martin, 127,journal entry for Aug. 2,1857.

168 Warrick. Spencer, and Perry Counties, 629-30.

169 Hobi to Morel, Aug. 29, 1858, Fulda, StiAEins A. RG II. 8 Isla. 170 Hobi to Perot, June 2, 1858, Ferdinand, StiAEins A. RG II. 8 Is8. 171 Warrick, Spencer, and Perry Counties, 726.

172 Simon Barber was born on Feb. 14, 1862, in Louisville, Kentucky, and professed his vows as a monk on Sep. 8, 1879. He was ordained on May 30, 1885, and after service in the parishes and in the monastery, he died at St. Meinrad on Feb. 16, 1941.

173 History of St. Paul’s Parish, Tell City, Indiana, J858-J946, (n.p., 1946), 2-6; Report of the Disabled Priests’ and the Peter Pence Collections for the year J 898, SMAA Indianapolis Archdiocese, box 1: Circulars.

1. St. Martin, Siberia

St. Martin in Siberia was St. Meinrad Abbey’s only successful parish foray into Perry County. Chrysostom Foffa began visiting German and Russo-Polish settlers in the area in 1864, where he built a small church in 1869.¹⁷⁴ As its original name suggests, Sabaria was designated to honor the patron of the local church, St. Martin of Tours. In yet another misunderstanding by the post office, the official name was changed from Sabaria to Siberia. Isidor Hobi is considered the father of the settlement, as he platted the village and recorded the papers in 1873. By 1885 it had grown to thirty families, and in 1892 counted forty-five families within its parish boundaries.!” It was attended from St. Meinrad until 1880, when for the next three years it was visited by the diocesan priest from St. Croix, the alumnus Karl Bilger. 176 St. Meinrad again took charge of the parish in 1883, with the parish receiving its first resident pastor from the monastery in 1896.

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174 Foffa to Oberholzer, June 14, 1876, Schnellville, SMAA St. Meinrad Abbey Letters in Einsiedeln Archives, box 3: vol. 13, 1515-1517; Alerding, 322.

175 Warrick. Spencer. and Perry Counties. 727; Marty, Annalen 60, (Munich. 1892),204. 176 De la Hunt. 271; Boeglin, 57. (For Bilger’s biographical information see footnote 111.)

177 Raymond McGinnis, The Centennial of Siberia and St. Martin of Tours Church. Siberia. Indiana. (An Historical Precis. 1869-1969), CSt. Meinrad, Ind.: Abbey Press, 1969).

St. John, St. Mark, St. Peter, and Uniontown, Perry County

St. John, originally called Cassidy’s Settlement, was one of the parishes formed by Julian Benoit in the 1830s.¹⁷⁸ Throughout its history it was occasionally attended out of the other parishes in Perry County, such as Leopold and St. Croix. In the 1860s Martin Marty began to pay more attention to the region, and in 1873 reestablished the parish in the original church built by Bessonies in 1840. It was the only parish formed by St. Meinrad for English speaking Catholics. According to two varying sources, there were either twenty families or twenty-five people when it was reestablished. The attending monks built a new church in 1875 and cared for the parish excurrendo from St. Meinrad until 1877, after which it became a mission of St. Mark.

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Fr. Julian Benoit, yet another priest recruited by Brute, was born at Septmoncel in France on Oct. 17, 1808. After completing his studies for priesthood, too young to be ordained, he taught at a college in Lyons for four years when Brute met the young man. After corning to America in 1836, Brute ordained him priest at St. Mary’s Seminary in Baltimore on Apr. 25, 1837. In his four years of work in southern Indiana, Benoit first lived in Rome and worked among the English speaking Catholics, and then was stationed among the Belgians in Leopold. Moving north in 1840, he worked in Chicago and Fort Wayne, and was named vicar general by de St. Palais in 1852. When Fort Wayne became a diocese in 1854, he became Bishop Luers first vicar general. He worked in the diocese of Fort Wayne until hI? “death there on Jan. 26, 1885. Blanchard 190-201.

St. Mark was officially established with about eighteen families in 1867 by Michael Marendt, although it already had a Catholic school operating since 1860 due to some of his earlier efforts. While Marendt was in South America it received sporadic visits from St. Meinrad.^lso Never a large parish, Placidus Zam nonetheless resided there as pastor for a short time between 1879 and 1881, in order to serve the smaller parishes of Perry County, including St. John and Siberia. Succeeding Zam was Peter Hommes, an alumnus of St. Meinrad, who attended the combined missions of the county, which would have included St. John, St. Mary in Derby, St. Peter in Rome, and a later diocesan established parish, St. Joseph (1891).  By 1897, there were 585 parishioners in this cluster of parishes. 182

St Peter; In the early 1860s Fintan Mundwiler first paid attention to the German settlers in the far eastern area of Perry County that came to be known as “German Ridge,” originally settled by Protestant Germans who later came under the Methodist umbrella. 183 During this time Mundwiler or another monk would travel to Rome and celebrate Mass at the homes of the few German Catholics who lived there. Finally in 1868 the church builder of Perry County took charge, Marendt of Cannelton, and a small building was erected. But in 1885 there were only eighteen families belonging to the parish, and by 1916 no services were being held.¹⁸⁴

In Uniontown, a village that lies halfway between Siberia and St. Croix, a small frame church was built in 1890. Attended from St. Martin in Siberia, a more permanent structure was constructed between 1891 and 1892.  It is unknown whether this was a serious attempt to begin a new parish or was erected for some other purpose.  In an case, its obvious redundancy led to its being abandoned by 1908.