Waterbury evening Democrat., 1908-12-05
CATHOLIC POPULATION.
New Haven Man Contributes Paper to
 New Encyclopedia.

New Encyclopedia.
 James H. Webb of New Haven con tributes to volume of the Catholic Encyclopedia the article on Connecti- cut. The following extracts will be found of special interest:
 ''The see of Hartford was erected September IS, 1S43, with jurisdic- tion over the states of Connecticut and Rhode Island. These states had formerly been included in the diocese of Boston. The first. bishop of Hart ford was the Right Rev William Ty- Ter, who, with his successors, main tained the episcopal residence in the city of Providence until 1872, when Rhode Island was set apart as the diocese of Providence, and Bishop Mcfarland then took up his residence in Hartford. In 1885 census taken by Bishop Fenwick of Boston found about 720 Catholics in Connecticut, and in 1S44 Catholics numbered A. SIT. In 1890 they had increased to 152,945, outnumbering the com municants of all Protestant denom- nations by more than 5000. In 1899 the Catholic population in Connecti- cut exceeded 250,000, and in 1908 had reached 395,354, with remain ing non-Catholic population of 725,- 900. Neither the colored nor the Indian races contribute appreciably to this number. For the most part the Catholics of Connecticut are of Irish ancestry, largely augmented by the German, Italian, French Canadian and Polish immigrations of recent years. Comparatively few trace their ancestry to the early settlers of the colony, and these generally are con- verts or belong to the families of converts. The number of conversions has been slowly but steadily increas- ing, but the enormous growth of the Catholic church in Connecticut is still chiefly due to the great tide of immi- grafton from European countries during the last half century.
 The Congregationaiists are the most numberous of the Protestant de. nominations, having, according to the religious census taken in 1890, 59,. | 154 members. The same census 6ss- closed 26,652 Protestant Episco- lpalians, 29,411 Methodists and 22,' 372 Baptists. It is notable that ol Presbyterians, probably in other parts of the United States one of the most numerous of the Protestant bodies, there were in Connecticut al the time of the taking of this census only I ,6S0 communicants.
 In the state system of public schools, high schools are maintained in all cities and considerable towns and district or grammar schools are conveniently accessible to every child in the state. The public schools have total enrolment of 163,14f pupils with 4,2S1 teachers. The total amount expended for the main. tenance of these schools, including expenditures for new buildings and repairs, was for the year 1905. $3,' 795,259. Besides the state schools good schools of the grammar grade are maintained in most of the larger Catholic parishes. There are seven. ty-five of these parochial schools ir the state, with 31,S17 pupils and TIA teachers. The teachers are al most exclusively members of various sisterhoods. The establishment ol these paroehial schools has cost tho Catholic population of the state $3,
 290,700, and the annual cost of theil maintenance has reached the sum oI $475,355. These schools receive nc aid from the state or other public l. funds"