As far back as 1832 the Toole family settled in Cleveland, Ohio. They were natives of County Wicklow, Ireland, where they had a farm near the town of Baltinglass, with Dublin as their market place. The elder Toole having died, his widow with her nine children emigrated to the United States. Her name was Elizabeth, and the names of her children were: Charles, John, Thomas, Lawrence, Bridget, Ann, Julia, Mary, and Margaret. Mr. Charles Toole, the oldest of these, who... Read more
Sisters of Our Lady of Charity of Refuge (Good Shepherd) (Introduced into America, 1855) This order dates its beginning nearly three centuries back and was founded by a zealous missionary priest, the Blessed John Eudes, also founder of the Congregation of Jesus and Mary, or Eudist Fathers. Its object and work are identical with all the houses of the Good Shepherd. Its chief aim is the reclamation of girls and women from the downward course of recklessness and sin. In... Read more
The Great Memorial Church to Bishop Loughlin. The Brooklyn Eagle, April 29, 1894 Bishop McDonnell’s recommendation at the meeting of the Catholic Historical Society, last Wednesday evening, that the new cathedral should be finished at once as a monument to the late Bishop Loughlin, has met with general popular approval. The building was designed by Mr. Patrick Keely, the architect of so many splendid temples all over the country. He still resides at 257 Clermont avenue, and is about the... Read more
XLVII.—Gratitude. Luke, XVII., 11-19 (XIII. Sunday After Pentecost.) It is our strict duty to be thankful to God and men for favors received, and not only to feel our gratitude, but to express it in word and deed. The gospel that I have just now read to you, reminds us of this duty, for in it Our Saviour complains bitterly of men’s ingratitude. Out of ten whom He cured that day only one went back to thank Him. And Jesus... Read more
The Brothers of the Christian Schools. The Institute of the Brothers of the Christian Schools is a teaching congregation, founded in the year 1680, St. John Baptist de la Salle, priest, and Doctor of Divinity. The establishment of this important society is the fruit of the prayers of a pious association, organized in France about the middle of the seventeenth century for the purpose of obtaining from heaven Christian teachers for the children of the people. Henry Barnard, the founder... Read more
Fordham University developed out of Saint John’s College, founded by Bishop Hughes upon the old Rose Hill Farm at Fordham, then in Westchester County, and formally opened on St. John the Baptist’s Day, 24 June, 1841. This same year the theological seminary of the New York diocese was moved from Lafargeville, Jefferson Co., to Fordham. In April, 1846, an act of incorporation passed by the New York Legislature granted it the power to “confer such literary honours, degrees or diplomas... Read more
Early Days in Little Rock On the 6th of February, 1851, the Sisters, under the fatherly care of the bishop, reached their new home among the forest trees after an unusually prosperous journey. They were met at the Little Rock wharf by Rev. John O’Reilly and several leading people of the neighborhood, but there was no convent to receive them. The vicar-general, to whom the care of building the convent had been entrusted, died during the bishop’s absence, and nothing... Read more
Very Rev. William Keegan. The New York Times, May 11, 1890 Vicar General William Keegan of the Catholic diocese of Brooklyn, rector of the Church of the Assumption, York and Jay Streets, in that city, died early yesterday morning, in the sixty-seventh year of his age, of pneumonia, super-induced by an attack of chills and fever. He was attended in his last moments by his brother and sister, and by Mr. and Mrs. George M. Nichols. Drs. Carey and Young... Read more
VIRGINIA’S FIRST BISHOP Right Rev. Patrick Kelly. First Bishop of Richmond, A.D. 1820 Bishop Kelly was a native of Ireland. He was for many years Professor, and at the time of his appointment as Bishop, President of Birchfield College, near Kilkenny. In 1820 the Catholics of Norfolk, Virginia, and those of Charleston, South Carolina, petitioned the Holy See for the erection of Episcopal Sees in those States. By Apostolic Letters, bearing date July 11, 1820, the Holy See erected... Read more
José Navarro, successfully engaged in wool growing at Boise, is a well-known member of the Spanish-Basque colony, who came to this in 1908 from the Jordan valley of Oregon, where he had resided from 1889 until 1908. He was born in Spain, August 27, 1868, the son of a farmer, and in 1887 came to the United States, then a young man of nineteen years. He spent two years in Nevada and in 1889 removed to the Jordan valley of... Read more
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