The Intermountain Catholic. (Salt Lake City [Utah] ;) 1899-1920, 1907-07-20


early days and who were members of
Patrick Walsh's congregation when L
arrived were Mrs. Marshall, the widow
of Judge Marshall, who died quite re-
Gently, Mrs. O'Reilly and her husband
and, Mrs. Simpkins and her husband.
Judge Marshall afterward became a
member of the church, receiving the
sacrament before his death.
Oldest Surviving Pastor.
There were at that time less than
! five hundred Gentiles in what was then
! the territory of Utah. 1 am the oldest
surviving pastor in Salt Lake City who
is still in charge of his church. Bish-
op futile, Episcopalian, now of st.
Louis, is the only minister of the gos-
pei now alive who was in active work
when l came here.
There was also a Methodist mission
and the Presbyterians held services in
a hall. The pastor of the former was
! Rev. Mir. Pierce, whom I remember
we'll.
MY title as pastor of St Mary's was
a very high sounding one, that of rec
tor of the territory of. Utah. but there
were at that time no communicates
| outside of Salt Lake City and old st.
Mary's. L was alone for the first year,
and then the bishop sent to me from
California Father Dennis Kelly, who is
now my vicar general. He has been
for thirty three years my faithful CO.
laborer and friend. We had a very
hard road to travel at first. / would
become almost discouraged with the
size of my audiences. / even used the
newspapers to announce in advance at
times that 1 would speak on a partic-
ular subject. You must remember that
that was a very different Salt Lake
from the Salt Lake of today 1 had
been here some time before they put
in the first one-mule cars on Main |
street There were only about $4,000
people in the entire city. But as the |
city began to grow, st. Mary's also be-
gan to grow until we had our beauti- |
full old church filled and it has been so |
ever since.
Work Broadens Out.
1T was only three years after l |
came to Salt Lake that we were on a |
satisfactory enough basis in Salt Lake |
City to justify reaching out into the |
territory beyond. We dedicated st. |
Joseph's at Ogden with Father Cush- |
nahan as rector in 1876. The growth of /
traffic across the Union Pacific and the |
subsequent remarkable development of |
that city have made it one of our larg-
est subparishes. Two years later we
sent Father Galligan to Park City.
We now have there as attendants /
about one thousand Catholics, the next
greatest number to Ogden. Father |
Donahoe went to Eureka in 1888 and |
the church of st. Patricks has been
in fiourishing condition since st. |
Johns, at Provo, was founded in 1892. |
The church of ST. Mary MagdaIen |
hn 'ad
too, Of these institutions, and when you
ask US for a story of st. Mary's we give |
it to you as a work of the dear old |
church of which we are very proud. ST |
Mary'S academy, founded in 1876 rep
resenting a value of $150000 all in all; |
the Holy Cross hospital, 1880. represent
ing greater sum; All Hallows college. |
named after the institution in Dublin
where 1 received my education, and |
built at cost of 100000 in 1886 The
KearnS st. AIMS orphan asylum, the |
result of a generous donation of S75, OOO |
And the recently built Judge Miners
home, S150,G00.
In addition to which the church of |
st. Mary Magdalen has during the past
eight years contributed over 100000 for
the erection of our new cathedral"
Vicar Apostolic.
In 1885, whist directing the studies |
at All Hallows college, he was appoint
ed vicar apostolic of Utah and the
eastern part of Nevada. His new APP
pointment required that he be named
for some defunct diocese in Asia, or, as
1t is termed economically, in Daribus in
fidelium, so was named as bishop of
Laranda, which title he retained till
the vicariate apostolic was elevated to
the dignity of the diocese of Salt Lake.
Cathedral Is Broached.
The bishop in his modest way attrib-
uted all these financial conquests for
the charity and religion of St Mary's
to the church itself.
when did you first conceive the idea
of the new cathedral?"
Shortly after ] was ordained bishop.
on June 20, 1887. 1t was some time be-
fore presented the idea to my congre-
cation. But 1 held it always dear to
me as the proper elimination. of my
lifes work and the beginning of a new
life for my dear parish of ST Mary
Magdalen. On the first of July. 1899.
made it the feature of my sermon. 1
do not know what I said | hardly
dared hope for success, but the result
was beyond my widest hopes. We
with $50,0o0 subscribed. We kept at
work continuously from then on until
now, with the exception of four breaks
of two months each when we were out
of funds. Luckily, we were able to
place these times in the middle of the