SAINT LOmS
357
SAINT LOUIS
Father Vogel administered to the spiritual wants of
the faithful. Robidoux, alive to the importance of
his trading post, began preparations to form a town.
The population was about two hundred at that time.
He had surveys and plats made by Fred W. Smith,
a CathoUc. Smith named his plat St. Joseph; it
was taken to St. Louis and recorded on 26 July,
1843. The first permanent pastor was the Rev.
Thomas Scanlon, who began his labours in 1847.
On 17 June, 1847, a brick church was begun and in
September of the same year was dedicated by Arch-
bishop P. R. Kenrick of St. Louis. The "Overland
Period" was the most important one in the infancy
of St. Joseph. Early in the spring of 1849 began the
rush to Cahfornia. As a starting point St. Joseph
offered advantages which no other place possessed.
There was at that time a population of 1900 souls.
At the Second Plenary Council of Baltimore in 1866, St. Joseph was among the new episcopal sees proposed. Rev. John J. Hogan was chosen its first Bishop, 3 March, 1868. The area assigned to the new diocese was that part of the State of Missouri lying between the Missouri and Chariton Rivers. On investigation the bishop-elect found that there were in the Diocese of St. Joseph 600 famihes, about 3000 souls, attended by five secular priests. The church edifices were of the poorest kind; the largest (pro-cathedral) was a low, narrow, brick building, built at three different times. Bi.shop Hogan was consecrated by Archbishop P. R. Kenrick, 13 Sep- tember, 1868, and at once took charge of his new field of labour. In 1869 ground was broken for a new cathedral which, three years later, was opened for Divine service. The number of priests increased gradually, religious consciousness and enthusiasm were awakened, cliurchcs were built, parish schools erected, and charitable institutions founded. On 10 September, ISSO, Hislioji Hogan was transferred to the newly-erected Diocese of Kansas City, Mo., and appointed Administrator of St. Joseph. When he resigned his administration of the Diocese of St. Joseph in 1893, the Rt. Rev. M. F. Burke, D.I)., was transferred from the Diocese of Cheyenne, \\yo- ming, to St. Joseph. His reception by clergy and laity was most enthusiastic. Under his able adminis- tration great progress has been made in the material as well as in the spiritual upbuilding of the diocese. A heavy debt on the cathedral hiis been liquidated, an episcopal residence built, a school of the cathedral parish erected at a cost of $60,000, new missions opened, and new parishes organized.
The City of St. Joseph has at present 8 parishes with 12 resident pjistors, 6 parish schools attended by 1340 pupils, 1 commercial college conducted by the Christian Brothers, 1 academy for the education of young ladies conducted by the Ladies of the Sacred Heart, and 1 hospital conducted by the Sisters of Charity. Catholic population: 10,000. Outside of the City of St. Joseph may be mentioned the Bene- dictine Abbey at Conception, established in 1874; the Concepti6n Classical College conducted by the Fathers of the Abbey; the Franciscan Fathers at ChilUcothe and Wien; two charitable hospitals, one at ChilUcothe conducted by the Sisters of St. Mary, the other at Maryville conducted by the Sisters of St. Francis; an academy for the education of young ladies at Chillicothe conducted by the Sisters of St. Joseph; the mother-house and academy of the Benedictine Sisters of Perpetual Adoration at Clyde; an orphan asylum at Conception; twenty churches with resident priests; thirty-two mission stations; and seven parochial schools. By a decree of the Sacred Congregation of the Consistory, dated Rome, 16 June, 1911, the territory containing the Coun- ties of Adair, Clark, Knox, Lewis, Macon, Marion, Monroe, Ralls, Randolph, Shelby, Schuyler, Scot- land, and that part of Chariton County east of the
Chariton River was detached from the Archdiocese
of St. Louis and attached to the Diocese of St. Joseph.
By reason of this extension the Diocese of St. Joseph
now comprises the whole northern part of the State
of Missouri, extending from the Missouri to the
Mississippi River, and is bounded on the south by
the Counties of Howard, Boone, Audrain, and Pike.
By the increase of territory 16 parishes have been added,
and 20 more priests have been affiliated with the dio-
cese. The CathoUc population is (1911) about 34,000.
Hogan, On the Mission in Missouri (Kansas City, 1892); LiNNENKAMP, Historical Souvenir of the Immaculate Conception Parish (St. Joseph, 1907); Official Catholic Directory (1910). C. LiNNENKAMP.
Saint Louis, Archdiocese of (Sancti Ludovici), created a diocese 2 July, 1826; raised to the rank of an archdiocese 20 July, 1847. It comprises that por- tion of the State of Missouri bounded on the north by the northern lines of the Counties of Pike, Au- drain, Boone, and Howard, on the west by the western lines of the Counties Howard, Boone, Cole, Maries, Phelps, Texas and Howell, on the south by the State of Arkansas, and on the east by the Mississippi River, a territory of 26,235 square miles.
History. — The City of St. Louis was founded in 1764 by Pierre Liguest Laclede, a French nobleman, who came to Louisiana in 1755 and entered commer- cial life in New Orleans. In 1762 the firm of Maxent Laclede and Co. were given the exclusive privilege of treating with the Indians of the North-west, and in the same year Monsieur Laclede with some companiona came up to Fort Chartres in the interest of the firm. The Treaty of Paris in 1763 put an end to the priv- ilege, and Monsieur Laclede purchased the interest of his partners, left Fort Chartres and landed on the west bank of the Mississippi, where in 1764 he selected a spot, at that time a wilderness, anrl here laid the foundation of St. Louis. He built the first housi;, om- I)l(>yiiig Indian women and children in digging out, the cellar and carrying the earth away in their blankets. By the Treaty Of Paris, France ceded to Spain all of Louisiana west of the i\Iississi])pi, but there was no formal occupation by th(> Sjiiuush until 1770. St. Louis therefore during the first years of its existence belonged to the Dioc<'se of Santiago d(^ Cuba, a juris- diction that extended throughout Louisiana. There were but two priests in the St. Louis territory: Father Luke Collet, a Recollect, and the Jesuit Father Meu- rin; the former died in 1765 leaving but one priest in the Mississippi Valley, the veteran Father Sebastian Louis Meurin. The story of good old Father Meu- rin is replete with tales of hardship and sacrifice* made for the French and Indians of Illinois and Missouri. In 176(), finding the task too great, he wrote the Bishop of Quebec: " Ste Genevieve is my residence. Thence I go every spring and visit the other villages. I re- turn again in the autumn and whenever I am sum- moned on sick calls. I am only sixty-one years old, but I am exhausted, broken by twenty-five years of mission work in this country, and of these nearly twenty years of malady and disease show me the gates of death. I am incapable, therefore, of long ap- plication or bodily fatigue. I cannot accordingly supply the spiritual necessities of the ("ountry, where even the stoutest men could not endure. It would need four priests. If you can give me only one, he should be appointed to Cahokia, and with the powers of vicar-general." In 1768 Fr. P. Gibault, Vicar General of Quebec, was sent to his aid and laboured with him until the formal occupation of Louisiana by the Spaniards.
Father Gibault continued his visits until the com- ing of the Capuchin Fathers from New Orleans in 1772, and Father Meurin remained on the east sid(» of the Mississippi River. Prior to Father (Jibault's coming, there was no church building in this territory. The records at Cahokia show that at St. Louis Father
