The Columbia herald. [volume] (Columbia, Tenn.) 18??-1935, 1900-01-26
MONUMENT TO FATHER KYty.
Virginia's Daughter ofth- Confrderacy
80 HOI or the pOei.
written for the Sunday Repuollc1

80 HOI or the IOei.
written for the Sunday RepuOllc)
The memory of that poet-piiest
Father Abraham Joseph RYAN, is t.
he still further honor' d by the South.
IL is designed by to ID rnghterS ~
the Confeder cy Of Virginia to,reci a
monument o. stOLe to the poet
laureate of the Southern COufrueI-
acv.
Many Southern hearts al"oady
hold monuments to Father Rcah
but it is fitting and proper that to
warm love IN hIGh he WIS aud /,
held, should be expressed III corr-
crete form. 1t will be I'm WhrI 90,
that he wrote Of Lees mohum-ut:
But Lee has Thousand grave
| in a thousand hearts, weeu.'
! This is also eXpr"' sive of the re-
gard in which Father Ryan is held.
The birthplace of Father r. dn,
Norfolk, Va, will be the home f the
NOR umCrt. The project is stili in
rather pmhr~onir condition. Mrs.
james Ii. Leigh, State president
for Virginia Of The Dlugh,era Of u e.
! CoDfedeIacy, has announced that d
committee has been appointed to
reclaim the plotin EIm"ood Gene
terry, Norfolk, where are many
graves Of unknown Confederate
dead. This plot will be handsom- ~
! fenced with stone bayOnet spikes
and cannon balls. The monument
of the oct. riest will occupy the
exact center Of this resting p.ace Of
the unnamed dead.
Born in Norfolk, Va, this son Of
devout Irish parents came to st.
Louis with his family when he was
7 orS years cd. He was a stpdious
lad, and at length entered the &c
clesiastical seminary at Niagara, n
Y ., to prepare for the priesthood. 1t
is said that be obtained a part Of his
education in Maryland. Not long
after his ordination to the priesthood
he entered the Confederate Army.
as a chaplain, and served in that
capacity until the close OF the war.
He had a dear brother who was a
Confederate soldier. In the winter
of 1862 63 be miuistered to the Im
mates of a prison in New Orleans
where smallpox was raging. OF il
experience in New ORLEANS this
| StOTV Is oxen COlO:
1t set ms that Union soldier had
died, and some kindly persons
wished to give him Christian burial
Those were troubled times in New
Orle ans, and ministers were in great
demand everywhere. 1t was exceed
ingly difficulJ to find minister &c
read a service over the body of the
man from the North Some one
thought of Father RYAN, and asked II
he would bury the yankee soldier
why, yes" said Father Ryan,
IN bury him. Then a twinkle
came into his eye. II would bury
10 900 of them with pleasure" he
added.
After the war he was stationed al
Nashville and afterward at Clarks
vile, Tenn, and still later Augusta
Ga, where he founded the publica-
ton, the b inner If the South, which
continued about five years. In 1876
he became pastor of Su. Mary,
Church at Mobile, Ala, and contin
ued in that position until 1888, wher
he obtained leave of absence from
Bishop Quinlan to m Ike an EXTENDED
lecture tour of the Country to further
Il charitable undertaking of interes
to the south. Bishop Quinlan hav
ing died soon afterwards, Fathe
Ryan's leave was extended by hit
successor, Bishop M tnucy. IL was
while engaged in this mission tina
, Father Ryan died at the Franciscan
Monastery Of ST. ,nifacius in
: Louisville, KY, April % 1886
, Following is one of the poems o
Father Ryan which helped to max,
/ him famous aud beloved in tn,
south: