The Barre daily times. (Barre, Vt.) 1897-1959, 1918-09-25
Noted Prelate of Catholic
Church in the United
States
HE ONCE LIVED
IN BURLINGTON
His Last Illness Was Heart
Disease and Stomach
Trouble

st. Paul, MINI, Sept. q. Archbishop
John Ireland of the st. Paul diocese Of
the Roman Catholic church, died at 1855
o'clock to-day after a long illness of
heart disease and stomach trouble. He
was 80 years old.
John Ireland, archbishop of ST. Paul,
held such keen and active interest in
general affairs in the United States
during the past half century that he was
noted as publcist as we'll as for his re-
ligious zeal. He was one of the most
distinguished of the Roman Catholic
churchmen Of America There were few
fields Of intellectual, political or spiritual
endeavor in which he failed to take a
positive stand making himself at times
the center Of q controversy,
Born in 1888 in Ireland, a carpenters
son, he was carried with his parents in
the tide of Irish immigration to Ameri.
ca while he was child. Altar service
at Burlington, VT, and a jolting trip
west ON prairie schooner were among
his boyhood memories, bringing him
finally to st. Paul, Mimi. in 1852, when
Indians in gay blankets stalked the
streets Of that frontier town. One even
ing, the missionary Cretin, first bishop
of st, Paul, while watching from his
window some boys of bis parish at play,
called to John Ireland and Thomas
O'Gorman--who later became bishop Of
Sioux Falls--to come into the church.
He asked them If they wished to become
priests. Both he and his playmate agreed
| that priesthood was their ambition Bis.
| hop Cretin sent them, in charge Of a
guardian, to France, where they were ed
ucated by the Marist Fathers. When he
heard Of the outbreak Of the Civil war
! in America the student turned home
ward, fired with as much patriotism as
religion.
After being ordained at St. Paul, he
eagerly accepted an appointment az
chaplain Of the 5th regiment OF the Min
nesota volunteers.
he was ardent for the Unionist cause
and shared every hardship Of the SOL
dier's life in their terrible winter raids.
At Iuka he gave yeomans help by rush
ing ammunition to the front when it
was sorely needed. he was stricken with
/ fever after less than years service
and returned to St. Paul pastorate.
| He soon attracted national attention
| through his work for temperance. The
story is told Of how on one January
night in 1859, three drunksrds staggered
into his doorway and handled him a
rumpled sheet, which read:
For Gods sake organize temperance
society" The paper was signed by sew
en- men, including a saloon keeper. Those
were the days when St. Paul was filed
/ with border turbulence and the riot Of
drink. The next Sunday Father Ireland
began his campaign by organizing a tenn.
! peranee society OF eighty members. He
made hut -to-hut visits to St. paul's
shanty town, throwing whiskey bottles
out Of the squalid doorways. The work
be thus began he extended throughout
| the Northwest and travelled the whole
country preaching temperance, He even
carried the battle back TO Ireland and
| Great Britain. His energy was so abund.
ant and his zeal for work such that the
term "oonsecrated blizzard as applied
to him by one Of his admirers, was ac-
cepted by many Others as peculiarly
/ happy expression.
! He at one time conceived the idea of
consolidating the Catholic parochial
schools and the public schools. The plan
was tried at Fairabault and Saltwater,
MINI, but friction which the archbishop
could not relieve arose and the scheme
was dropped He was founder of the
Hill seminary on the Minnesota side Of
the Mississippi river To this he gave
his highly -prized private library, one of
the most comprehensive in the North
west. One Of his early works was the
| founding Of colony Of 900 Catholic
farmers in western Minnesota in 1875
He became bishop in 1875 and arch
bishop in 1885. He received support
from many Of his admirers for appoint
ment as the fourth American cardinal.
Celebrating his golden jubilee few
years ago, the priests of his diocese pre-
sented him with a purse of 100000
AS a speaker Archbishop Ireland was
direct and magnetic, with a sense Of hui
nor One Of the phrases which has oft
en- been quoted as Characteristic Of his
particular endeavor in life is this;
"The watchwords Of the age are rea.
son, education, liberty, the 'amelioration
of the masses"
|