The Red Cloud chief., 1884-02-15
FATHER TANNING.

JOHN ARTHUR O'CoNNELL TANNING,
Pastor of the Church of st. John the
Baptist, of F~airbury, Illinois, the sub
iect of this sketch, was born July 4th,
1874. In early childhood he was
brought by his mother to county Ca
van, Ireland, where he remained until
Is years of age, having finished his En-
glish education under the tutleage OF
his uncle and aunt, they having charge
of the school at that place; he entered
tie military academy at Woolwich,
England, and from there he went to
Rome in 1859, and and after the short
and brilliant campaign of the Papal
Zouaves, ending at Castel Fidardo, en-
tered the Urban College of the Propa-
CATION of the Faith at Rome !; health
failing, he left Rome in 1861, at the
close of his classical education, and
matriculated the same year at the
Catholic university of Louvain, Bel
GUM !; there he applied himself chiefly
to the studies of philosophy and theol-
ogy, and took the degree of Bachelor
of Divinity in 1866, being then in his
odd year, the first young man who
graduated at that famed institution at
such an early age. After passing
through the various preparatory orders
he was ordained Priest by Cardinal
Stercks, Primate Of Belgium, August
Is, 1867, and arrived in Chicago in No
vember of the same year, where he
was appointed to the position of First
Assistant at the Bishops church in
July, 1868, he received the appoint
ment of Pastor at Pontiac, having in
charge the missions at Falrbury, Chats
worth, Gilman, Lodi Watseka and
other minor places. On entering his
field of labor he transferred his head
quarters to Fairbury, where he built a
church. and others were built soon
after at Chatsworth, Gilman, Chenoa.
Lodi and Gibson City. Under his min
istrations these congregations have SO
increased that there are nov four
Priests laboring with him in the field
which he Travelled over unaided and
alone. Father Tanning is now (lSS0)
in the twelfth year of his pastorate, bat
contemplates seeking a new country
where he intends to found a colony.
Father Fanning's great-grandfather
was Charles Tanning, n of the harp
ers and bards of Ireland that in 1892,
when it was thought that Volunteers
and United Irishmen would "do some
: thing for the country" went to Belfast
, to maintain Ireland's claim to music.
Father Fanning's mother died in
Milwaukee a few years ago, and from
the p~anegyric of the deceased, deliver
) ed by Father Heating, of Ell Paso, ILL.,,
we extract the following eloquent trib.
butte:
j Daughter of Nathaniel O'Donnell,
seventh in descent from the great Earl
of Tyrconnell, whose fidelity to faith
, and his fatherland left him in condi.
! ton to bequeath to him his remote de.
!, descendants, instead of a coronet OF
princiaality, the craftsmanship of the
Board of Guardians, and the feudal
honors given by his clan through
! courtesy, what his forefathers claimed
!, by right. Born in 1922, within view OF
3 the Rock of Donow, the Inauguration
! seat of her ancestors and of Gartan
where her kinsman, St. Columbkille
: provoked a bloody battle for the pos
session of a Bible, and closed his eye:
to Ireland, an imposed penance for hi:
e pious rashness. No wonder she scorned
e. to live a subject when she had a right
to reign. At the age of seventeen sht
, married a youth to fortune and tt
fame unknown. Although he, too, wa.
of noble birth, being ~collateralfy des
cended from the great Ulster House
O'Neil. This respective descent from
the heads of such historic families
o brought about a friendship which rip
, ened into love. Ireland was then no
0 place for catholics the laws making i
J, a crime..to hear mass had not Ion,
y been abrogated. The Catholic Irish DO!