Kingsbury County independent. (DeSmet, Kingsbury County, S.D.) 1894-1929, 1905-01-13
EARNED FORTUNE TO
BLOT OUT DISGRACE
Back of Wonderful Success of
Father kroeger of Epiphany
Is Tragedy.
LEFT DEBTS AT ELKHART
Fleeing Indiana Town at Night, Priest
Healer Butt Up Business at
Epiphany to Repay Last
Dollar of Obligations.
rsioux City Tribune.l

BACK OI TIE blt III Una ndAiN
financial success of Father William
Kroeger, of Epiphany. S. d.. who died
December s. lies a story OF disgrace
bravely borne and conscientious resti-
tuition TO the last iota.
Just thirteen years before his death
f'athe Kroeger disappeared from Elk
hart, Ind, where he made a most re-
markabfe record as priest of one parish
there. To carry out his plans for the
material enrichment of the parish, he
had engaged In numerous financial in
vestinents. He became involved and
left one night. Next morning Elkhart
was amazed to find they had been de-
ceived ia the mar they had loved and
trusted.
Bat Father Kroeger did not forget.
SIX years later they first heard Of him
and hat was through checks sent back
10 Flkhart in payment OF debts he had
left there. While he built the towns
of Epiphany and kroeger, ;. d., cstab-
liShed q medical practice that extended
almost from ocean to ocean and died
possessed of a quarter of a million dol
lars worth of property, this was but
incidental. He embarked III these en-
terprfses because he was an honorable
nan and determined TO live up to his
agreement to pay the debts left at Fix :
hart and estimated variousiy at from
$4,000 to 500, 900.
Case Taken to Rome.
ii was because he felt it incumbent
uEon him TO do tins that he later be-
came involved in trouble with his own
church. The bishop had become dis
pleased because he thought Father
kroeger was not attending strictly
enough to his parish duties at Epip-
hany, Father Kroeger was holding
services in his hospital, ms politely
but firmly declared that he must con-
tinue TO do so. He asked for an as
sistant priest but the bishop thought
one man should be able to care for
so small a parish and refused. The
case eventually was carried to Rome
and Father Kroeger made a trip to the
vatican, and, il is supposed from the
ensuing silence, that he made a salts
factory explanation
The following account of Father
Kroeger's disappearance from Elkhart
was written by a correspondent of that
town
Eikhart. Ind, Dec. 29.-The death of Rev.
Father William a. Kroeger at his home
IN Epiphany. S. D.. on Thursday, Deem
Der !, has brought wildly to mind the
sensation and distress which was caused
among his paTishioners and friends when,
one morning in December, 1891. it was dis
covered that the trusted prelate had de-
campod, leaving creditors whose claims
aggregated many thousand dollars to ex-
plain their surprise as best they could.
Tacae creditors included business men,
professional money lenders, member Of
his narIsh. Including widows whose scant
savings were implicitly and unreservedly
intrusted TO the holy father. and even
brother clergymen, who were at the head
Of parishes in neighboriug towns. Rev. Mr..
kroegcr's most intimate friends and chief
business sponsors were dumbfoundcd and
their chagrin and disappointment were in
tense a.id most depressing, for he had held
his friends with a magnetism of unusual
power, and their BELIEF in him was phe-
nomenal. The mans ability TO fayorably
impress his intimates was augl - nted by
his general reputation for executive ca
pacIty and administrative ability, After
coming to Elkhart in lSSO TO be priest Of
the only Catholic church here. that of st.
Vincent de Paul, a struggling parish, he
had set about to erect a suitable and at
tractive ediiice, so much more pretentioGs
than any other church building In Elk
iart up to that time. and for several
years after. that II was digni1ed with the
descriptive term cathedral. Through in
defatigible energy and the application of
exceptional zeal and rcsourcefulnes the
lead of the parish was able to see his am
~.litions realized SO far as the church proper
was concerned, though the denonment in
his financial affairs came before he had
built the rectory that he had planned.
Crisis Was Unexpected.
The crisis IN itev. MI. I<roesers afrairs In
Elkh3rt came quite unexpectedly to all
saee himself. and even yet the impulse
that caused him TO drop priestly dignity
and obligation TO seek escape from en-
B4rrassment I'm ignominious flight Is sub
sect OF conjecture. This stress of fnan-
tial difficulty came as the result of too
much speculation in matters secular, an
overwhelming ambition 10 shine I'm bus
mess affairs OF the community as well as
the head of a prosperous and constantly
growing parish in a little city that was
fast forging to the front as one of the
most important towns of this section. He
Was chief promoter of the DIR. kroeger
Cough Cure Co, which spent large
mounts In advertising a remedy OF Rev.
MIR. kroeger's compromising: he became
owner of a dray line of considerable pro-
portions; he embarked In the grocery bus
iness, and in fact was interested either as
Z The head ar as a silent partner in a num-
Der OF other business enterprises. When
they failed to prove profitable or even self
sustaining he fell back upon the loans of
friends, or the funds that had been in
trusted TO him by contding parishioners.
some Of whom, as above indicated, We're
humble though thrifty.
The facI that the Investments were bad
was not revealed until after his Right, for
none who were aware of Father Kroeger's
apparent business acumen and unim-
I,eachable Integrity would have doubted
him for an instant. Many harsh things
wero said after his unceremonious flight,
and he was held in memory more bitter
than sweet, for some of the victims, as
well az The unscathed s~coffers. could not
persuade themselves that all had been
lost in business failures, though they were
awar that Rev. Mr.. kroeger lived most
hnmbiy-hardly a family ia his parish
Jared more scantily than he and his
housekeper in the rectory, or wore so
cheap apparel
Kept His Secret Well.
After bis departure the intimates Who
knew kept his secret well. and Ii was not
4 until he had been gone half a dozen years
that Il became known here that he had
settled at Epiphany. The first reports
wife of the wonderful cures he was effect
iiig there and were 9repet.tions OF the as
serfions that some achiaysments bordered
IN the miraculous. IL. indeed, they did not
attain that dignity. Elkhartans were in
credulous when they heard of the inn
mense influence that was being welded by
the Fugitive ciergyman and or the prestige
Tie Mas acquiring. Later. little by little.
ii became known that the ~absconding
priest was reimbursIng hts Eikhart crcdi-
tors. with interest. and a Catholic priest
in a ~ncighboring town or whom Rev. MIR.
kr0eper had borrowed several hundred
dsllars OF church funds lmade good at the
time 10 the lender) publicly acknowledged
elsa .ist principal. with interest, had been
,;aid, and thar Father Kroeger had told
MIN that his most ardent ambition was
10 i've long enough 20 so conduct the san
Itasium Ak Epiphany as TO be able TO repay
,yeyy creditor. That a number OF Others
w,yc fully repaid is known. but whether
~o,nc vet old claims Is not nown here.
-sft,,.r. was a hint here at one tine In re-