Pioneer Bishops of Nebraska

This blog will discuss bishops that served in Nebraska up to 1900.  For more information about Nebraska, see my blog of November 9, 2016 (my first blog).

Spanish and French explorers and fur traders came to what is now Nebraska for two and a half centuries prior to the Louisiana Purchase of 1803 when the land became part of the United States.  Pioneers followed the Oregon Trail along the Platte River starting in 1841 and Mormons headed for Utah followed in 1847.  Gold seekers going to California and Colorado came after the Mormons.  Few stayed in Nebraska thinking that the land was unsuitable for agriculture.  Congress created the Nebraska Territory in 1854 and opened the land for settlement.  There were 29,000 people in the Territory in 1860 and Nebraska became the 37th State in 1867.  The Union Pacific and the Burlington Railroads were built in the late 1860s and Nebraska grew quickly, from 452,000 people in 1880 to slightly over a million in 1890.

Jesuit missionaries came to Nebraska in 1837 to bring the Faith to the Native Americans.  Catholicism was mainly brought to Nebraska by Irish and German settlers in the 1850s and Bohemians (who came to build the Burlington Railroad) in the 1860s.  By 1880, there were over 40 Catholic churches in the State, mostly in the eastern half, and many more would be built over the next 20 years as the population grew rapidly.  Omaha grew from 31,000 people to over 100,000 between 1880 and 1900, and Lincoln grew from 13,000 to over 40,000 during that time.

Nebraska became part of the Vicariate Apostolic of the Indian Territory East of the Rocky Mountains (a missionary diocese) in 1850, along with all or part of seven other future states.  Pope Pius IX created a separate Vicariate Apostolic of Nebraska in 1857, which included Nebraska and all or part of five future states.  Pope Leo XIII created the Diocese of Omaha in 1885 which included Nebraska and Wyoming.  Pope Leo separated southern Nebraska into the Diocese of Lincoln (and created the Diocese of Cheyenne, Wyoming) in 1887.  Pope Pius X established western Nebraska as the Diocese of Kearney in 1912 and this became the Diocese of Grand Island in 1917.  Pope Pius XII made Nebraska a separate province in 1945 raising Omaha to the status of an Archdiocese. 

James M. O’Gorman was born in Ireland in 1804 and ordained a Cistercian (Trappist) priest in 1843 in Ireland.  He came to New Melleray Monastery in Iowa after the Potato Famine and eventually became the Monastery’s second prior.  He was appointed the first Vicar Apostolic of Nebraska in 1859.

Bishop O’Gorman governed a vicariate that included all of Nebraska and all or parts of what are now six other states.  The Catholic population consisted of a few thousand Native Americans, mostly in Montana, and a few hundred settlers.  There were only three other priests to assist O’Gorman in ministering to these few and widespread Catholics.  The Catholic population increased thanks to migration to the West and to the building of the transcontinental railroad.  O’Gorman brought in priests and nuns from religious orders to teach and administer parishes and by the time he died in 1874, the Catholic population had grown to 12,000, the number of priests to 19, and there were 20 parishes and 56 missions.  O’Gorman, along with the Sisters of Mercy, also opened a Catholic hospital.  

James O’Connor was born Ireland in 1823.  James and his older brother, Michael, came to the United States in 1834.  Michael was a priest who had been invited to teach at the seminary in Philadelphia.  James enrolled in the seminary and was ordained a priest for the Diocese of Pittsburgh in 1848.  By that time, his brother Michael had become Bishop of Pittsburgh.  He served as a priest in the Pittsburgh diocese until 1857 when he was named rector of the Pittsburgh seminary.  O’Connor was named rector of the Philadelphia seminary in 1862 and was appointed Vicar Apostolic of Nebraska in 1876 and the first Bishop of Omaha in 1885.

When the Diocese of Omaha was established in 1885, the Diocese consisted of Nebraska and Wyoming.  In 1887, the Diocese consisted of northern Nebraska.  Settlement in Nebraska increased greatly after the Union Pacific and the Burlington Railroads were constructed in the late 1860s and many of these settlers were European Catholics.  Bishop O’Connor invited several religious orders, including the Franciscans, the Benedictines, the Poor Clares, the Religious of the Sacred Heart, the Sisters of the Blessed Sacrament for the Indians and Colored People (O’Connor served as a spiritual advisor for St. Katharine Drexel), and the Sisters of Providence, to help minister to the Catholics in Nebraska.  O’Connor established Creighton University before transferring it to the Jesuits.  He died in 1890. 

Richard Scannell was born in Ireland in 1845 and attended seminary in Dublin.  He was ordained a priest for the Diocese of Nashville, Tennessee, in 1871.  While in Nashville, Scannell served at various times as cathedral rector, apostolic administrator of the Diocese, and vicar general of the Diocese.  He was appointed the first Bishop of Concordia, Kansas (now the Diocese of Salina) in 1887 and Bishop of Omaha in 1891.

In Omaha, Bishop Scannell built many parishes and schools and began construction of St. Cecilia’s Cathedral.  He also opened two hospitals and invited several religious orders to serve in the Diocese.  At the time his death, there were 80,000 Catholics in the Diocese, which by that time consisted of the current boundaries, with 95 parishes and 144 diocesan priests.  Bishop Scannell died in 1916.

Thomas Bonacum was born in Ireland in 1847 and came the following year with his family to St. Louis.  He attended seminary in Wisconsin and Missouri before be ordained a priest for the Archdiocese of St. Louis in 1870.  He served at several Missouri parishes and spent two years studying theology in Bavaria.  He was initially considered as a candidate for Bishop of Belleville, Illinois, but was named as first Bishop of Lincoln in 1887.

During Bonacum’s episcopacy, the number of priests, parishes, and schools, increased greatly to keep up with population growth.  He also invited several orders of religious sisters to teach in schools and other religious institutions.  Bonacum also had disputes that led to civil court actions, one against a donor which Bonacum won, and one against one of his own priests, which was also resolved in his favor.  Bonacum had a particularly nasty dispute with one of his priests which lasted from 1893 until 1911, when both died.  The dispute resulted in Pope Pius X banning priests and bishops from suing each other in secular courts.  Bonacum died of pneumonia and Bright’s disease.