The Intermountain Catholic. (Salt Lake City [Utah] ;) 1899-1920, 1909-02-06
CHEYENNE, WY0.

With all the pomp and ceremony OF
| the Catholic church, in the presence OF
hundreds of reverent people. the fine
| new st. Mary'S Cathedral was soIemnly
dedicated last Sunday. To Right Rev
| Maurice Burke. first bishop of WyOm-
| ing, fell the honor of celebrating the
| solemn pontifical high mass, and the
most eloquent sermon was delivered by
Right Rev. Bishop Carroll of Montana.
The new cathedral. of which the zeal
| Gus prelate of Wyoming. Right Rev. j.
j. keane, is justly proud, is certainly
monument to which the Catholics of
Bishop Keane's diocese turn with rapt
reverence and earnest devotion.
The music for the services. which was
composed of many of the best voices of
the city, materially assisted in making
the exercises a success. Under the eff
ficient direction of Mrs. Susan F. Ca
hill, special music had been carefully
prepared.
The evening services and benediction
were celebrated by Bishop Lenehan,
and Bishop Garrigan preached the SER
mon. Hundreds were turned away
from the church. as it was packed to
the doors. Messrs. Dineen, Hopkins,
HoTfsky, Crowley Bon. Muller. Car
roll, Conley, Kelley and TroastIe acted
as ushers in handling the big crowd.
The following from the Cheyenne
(Wyo) Tribune will prove interesting
to all Catholics of this western coun-
try: The farewell mass was celebrated
at old st. Mary's at 9 o'clock by Right
Rev. NJ. T. Lehman. who also delivered
the sermon, the choir being furnished
by the convent children. The bishop
discoursed on the many pleasant remi-
niscenses the old church called forth,
and the reluctance many would have
on leaving 1t for the new cathedral. The
service was largely attended by those
who wished to assist at mass in the
building where they were wont to seek
spiritual solace for so many years.
Old St. Mary's was built in 1878 to
take the place of the wooden structure
on West Twenty-ffrst street, between
O'Neil and Themes street, built by the
pioneer priests, Father Kelley, who re-
recently died at Omaha. When Father
Kelley arrived at Cheyenne the railway
had just reached here and the Magic
City of the plains was too busy maxi
ing name for itself as a wild and
wooley'' place to lend much aid to the
establishing of a church. But Father
Kelley it appears was able to meet
any condition, and after laboring for
a while among the railway builders.
cattlemen and the few merchants of
those days, was able to secure enough
support from these hardy pioneers to
enable him to erect his modest wooden
church and claim the famous me-
tropolis, which was the rendezvous
for some of the most notorious char
acters in the country, for his church.
The city in those days QS67-69) was
mostly in the west part of town in the
Grow creek bottoms. and st. Johns.
as the church was then known, bore
witness that there was a good element
in the character of the men who blazed
the trail in the west. Cheyenne
slowly outgrew st. Johns, and endeav-
oring to keep pace with its material
development, st. Mary's was erected
during the pastorate of Father John
Hayes. and old st. Johns was turned
into a school conducted by the Sisters
of the Holy Child Jesus, who had come
here to attend to the educational
wants of the parish. After the sisters
moved into their present convent the
church was abandoned and was either
destroyed by fire or removed to the
south side and remodeled into a. resi-
dence. 1t is not known exactly what
the disposition Of it was.