Pioneer Bishops of Ohio

This blog will discuss bishops that served in Ohio up to 1900.  For more information about Ohio, see my blog of August 11, 2017.

The first Europeans to visit Ohio were led by the French explorer, Robert Cavelier, Sueur de La Salle, who claimed the land for France in 1671.  French Jesuit missionaries came to Ohio around 1750 and established a mission to the Hurons near modern day Sandusky in 1751, but this and other missions to the Native Americans were not successful.  Ohio became part of the British colonies in 1763 and part of the United States in 1783.  Ohio was included in the Northwest Territory in 1787 and it was only at this time that settlers from the East—many were Revolutionary War veterans—came to Ohio, establishing Marietta in 1787, Cincinnati in 1788, and Cleveland in 1796.  Ohio became the 17th State in 1803.  Catholics settled in Somerset and established the first permanent Catholic church there (St. Joseph’s) in 1818.  Other early Catholic settlements were in Knox County in central Ohio and in Stark and Columbiana Counties in northeastern Ohio.

Ohio became part of the Diocese of Bardstown, Kentucky, in 1808, but by 1820, Ohio had a population of almost 600,000, making it the fourth most populous of the 24 States.  Pope Pius VII established the Diocese of Cincinnati in 1821 as the ninth U.S. diocese.  Over the next twenty years, large numbers of immigrants, mostly German, came to Ohio, and in 1840, Ohio had 1.5 million people.  In 1847, Pope Pius IX created the Diocese of Cleveland for the Catholics in northern Ohio.  Three years later, Pius IX established the Province of Cincinnati (the Provinces of Cincinnati, New Orleans, and New York, were created on the same day, making them the fourth, fifth, and sixth provinces in the United States).

In the 1840s and 1850s, large numbers of German and Irish immigrants came to Ohio and by 1860, the population had grown to 2.3 million.  Pius IX created the Diocese of Columbus in 1868.  The latter half of the 19th Century saw large numbers of immigrants coming to Northern Ohio from Eastern Europe.  Pope Pius X established the Diocese of Toledo in 1910 and Pope Pius XII created the Dioceses of Youngstown in 1943 and Steubenville in 1944.

Edward D. Fenwick was born in Maryland in 1768 and ordained a Dominican priest in 1793.  He was from a prominent Maryland Catholic family—one cousin, Benedict, became the first Bishop of Boston, and another cousin, Enoch, became president of what is now Georgetown University.  After his ordination in Belgium, Fenwick remained in Europe teaching at Dominican colleges.  He returned to the United States in 1804.  Bishop John Carroll of Baltimore asked him and his fellow Dominicans to go west of the Appalachian Mountains and evangelize in the newly acquired Louisiana Purchase.  Fenwick and three other Dominican priests traveled throughout this vast territory before eventually purchasing a plantation near Springfield, Kentucky, in 1806.  This became St. Rose Priory and was the first Catholic educational institution west of the Allegheny Mountains.  This also became the home of the first U.S. Dominican province and Fenwick served at various times as the provincial superior.  A college was added to the Priory in 1812 and one of the early students was a young Jefferson Davis.

Life for these Dominicans was difficult.  They traveled alone across great distances on horseback.  Fenwick first traveled to Ohio in 1808 and found many German and Irish Catholics, who often spoke little English.  He built the first three Catholic churches in Ohio in 1818 in Somerset, Lancaster, and Cincinnati.  Fenwick was appointed the first Bishop of Cincinnati in 1822.  Fenwick’s new diocese consisted of Ohio, Michigan, and portions of other states.  There were about six thousand Catholics in Ohio at the time the Diocese was created in 1821.  The young diocese lacked resources and Fenwick traveled throughout Europe from 1823 to 1826 successfully recruiting priests and religious, and obtaining contributions.  After his return, he built a new cathedral, established a seminary (the third in the United States and now known as the Athenaeum of Ohio-Mount St. Mary Seminary), and started a diocesan newspaper (in part to defend the Faith against attacks—the newspaper is the oldest continuously published Catholic newspaper in the nation).  He also established what is now known as Xavier University in 1831.  He rode on horseback throughout the Diocese establishing missions and making converts.  He died in 1832 of cholera.

John Baptist Purcell was born in Ireland in 1800 and was sent to the United States as a teenager to get an education.  He entered Mount St. Mary’s Seminary in Maryland in 1820, received additional education in Europe and was ordained a priest in Paris in 1826.  He returned to the United States and later became president of Mount St. Mary’s.  Purcell was named Bishop of Cincinnati in 1833 and became the first Archbishop of Cincinnati in 1850.  At the time of his appointment as Bishop, the Diocese included all of Ohio.

Archbishop Purcell served half a century as the leader of the Diocese and Archdiocese of Cincinnati—the second longest tenure of any U.S. bishop for a single diocese.  After Purcell became Bishop, Irish and Germans came to Ohio by the thousands.  He greatly increased the number of churches and other Catholic institutions in the Archdiocese, as well as the number of priests (from 14 to 480) and religious.  He built the first parish for Germans (in Cincinnati) east of the Allegheny Mountains and established a German newspaper.  He was a strong proponent of parish schools and many were built as a result.  He famously and successfully debated the noted Protestant preacher, Alexander Campbell, over the course of a week in 1837, converting several people (including some Protestant ministers) to Catholicism.  He defended the Church, and specifically his Cathedral, against attacks by the anti-Catholic Know-Nothing party in 1853 and strongly supported the Union during the Civil War.  Purcell also completed the current Cathedral of St. Peter in Chains. Purcell’s last years were difficult due to mismanagement of Archdiocesan funds by the Archbishop’s younger brother, who was also a priest.  Purcell died in 1883.  Willa Cather based the character of Father Ferrand in Death Comes for the Archbishop, after Archbishop Purcell.

William H. Elder was born in Baltimore in 1819 to a Maryland Catholic family.  He was related to the Spalding family which produced two 19th Century bishops and one foundress of a religious order.  Elder attended seminary at Mount St. Mary’s in Maryland and in Rome before being ordained a priest for the Archdiocese of Baltimore in 1846.  He taught at Mount St. Mary’s until he was appointed Bishop of Natchez, Mississippi, in 1857. 

Bishop Elder was named coadjutor archbishop of Cincinnati in 1880 and became Archbishop of Cincinnati in 1883 upon the death of Archbishop Purcell.  Archbishop Elder was eventually able to resolve the financial crisis that he inherited from Archbishop Purcell and was able to reopen the diocesan seminary that had closed eight years earlier because of the crisis.  He also established 32 parishes.  Elder was a talented administrator and greatly improved the management and organization of the Archdiocese, in part by requiring annual reports from each parish and Catholic institution.  He was a good and holy priest, hearing confessions almost to the day he died in 1904 from influenza.  

Louis Amadeus Rappe was born in France in 1801.  He was one of ten children born to peasant parents and he labored on a farm until he was 19.  He eventually attended seminary and was ordained a priest in 1829.  In 1839, Rappe accepted an invitation from Bishop John Purcell to come to Cincinnati, which he did the following year.  He eventually became pastor of St. Francis de Sales parish in Toledo and in 1847, he was appointed the first Bishop of Cleveland.  Rappe’s new Diocese had 42 churches in northern Ohio served by 21 priests.

Bishop Rappe established many new institutions for his new Diocese, including churches, schools, hospitals, orphanages, and a diocesan seminary, and invited religious orders to work in the Diocese.  He also began construction of the Cathedral of St. John the Evangelist in Cleveland.  He was a strong believer in temperance.  He sought to fulfill the spiritual needs of immigrants, which led to tension in the Diocese.  The situation plus failing eyesight led Rappe to resign as Bishop in 1870, at which time the Diocese had 100,000 Catholics and 160 churches.  After his resignation, Bishop Rappe moved to St. Albans, Vermont, to do missionary work in Vermont and Canada.  He died there in 1877.  

Richard Gilmour was born in Scotland in 1824 to Presbyterian parents.  The family moved to Canada in 1829 and eventually to Pennsylvania.  Gilmour was educated in Philadelphia where he met a Catholic priest, which led to Gilmour’s conversion to Catholicism in 1842.  He was ordained a priest for the Archdiocese of Cincinnati in 1852.  He spent the next 20 years serving as a pastor at parishes in southern Ohio before being appointed the second Bishop of Cleveland in 1872.

Bishop Gilmour formalized the governance of the Diocese and established a Diocesan newspaper.  He fought for the rights of Catholics by establishing an association to defend the Catholic Faith against bigotry, winning the religious rights of prisoners in Ohio, and gaining tax exempt status for Catholic churches and schools.  He directed that all parishes have schools, if possible, and he even wrote some textbooks for the schools.  He also established a diocesan school board.  He established over 70 churches, over 60 schools, and four hospitals.  He was also very active in the Third Plenary Council of Baltimore in 1884.  He died in 1891.

Ignatius F. Horstmann was born in Philadelphia in 1840.  After studying in Philadelphia and Rome, he was ordained a priest for the Diocese of Philadelphia in 1865.  He taught philosophy, German, and Hebrew at the local seminary until he was appointed pastor of a Philadelphia parish in 1877.  Horstmann was appointed chancellor of the Archdiocese in 1885 and also served as president of the American Catholic Historical Society.  He was named the third Bishop of Cleveland in 1891.

Bishop Horstmann was the author of several articles defending the Catholic Faith.  He also supported missionary work and started a Diocesan missionary group.  He built schools, hospitals, and orphanages, and sought to improve relations between Catholics and non-Catholics.  He sought to meet the needs of immigrants in his Diocese, notably those from southern and eastern Europe, by establishing parishes for them.  Horstmann asked for and received an auxiliary bishop specifically to minister to Slavic immigrants.  Despite this, Horstmann faced opposition from some Polish immigrants.  One priest established an independent parish and Horstmann excommunicated the priest and the parishioners.  Horstmann died in 1908 of heart disease.

Sylvester H. Rosecrans was born in Homer, Ohio, in 1827, to Dutch Methodist parents.  His mother was descended from two members of the Hopkins family—one served as colonial governor of Rhode Island and the other served as commander-in-chief of the Continental Navy.  Rosecrans brother, William, served as a Union general during the Civil War.  Sylvester was attending Kenyon College in Ohio in 1845 when William informed him that he had become a Catholic.  This led to Sylvester’s conversion the same year and he studied in New York and Rome before being ordained a priest for the Diocese of Cincinnati in 1853.  Rosecrans served at parishes in Cincinnati and as a professor and eventually president at the seminary in Cincinnati.  Rosecrans was appointed auxiliary bishop of Cincinnati in 1861 and as the first Bishop of Columbus in 1868.

The new diocese had about 30 parishes and 40,000 Catholics.  As the bishop of a new diocese, Bishop Rosecrans established many new churches, schools, and other Catholic institutions, including a diocesan newspaper and a diocesan seminary.  Bishop Rosecrans died in 1878—one day after he consecrated the new St. Joseph Cathedral. 

John A. Watterson was born in Pennsylvania as one of 11 children.  His father’s father, born an Episcopalian, was raised by a Catholic family and became Catholic.  Watterson’s mother was of Irish ancestry.  The Watterson home often welcomed missionary priests.  Watterson attended St. Vincent’s College in Pennsylvania and Mount St. Mary’s Seminary in Maryland and was ordained a priest for the Diocese of Columbus in 1868.  Watterson was a professor at Mount St. Mary’s until he became vice president in 1877.  He was named president in 1879 and appointed Bishop of Columbus in 1880.

Watterson established a diocesan seminary, Mount Carmel Hospital, and new parishes, especially for new immigrants from Europe.  He emphasized Catholic religious education and sought to increase the number of priests.  Watterson was the first Catholic bishop to speak at the Ohio State University.  He believed strongly in the virtue of temperance and prohibited saloon keepers from holding any office in any Catholic organization.  Unfortunately, Watterson’s building program put the Diocese deep into debt and consideration was given to suppressing the Diocese.  Bishop Watterson died in 1899.

Henry Moeller was born in 1849 in Cincinnati.  He parents were immigrants from Germany and his father worked as a building contractor.  Moeller was educated in Ohio and Rome and was ordained a priest for the Archdiocese of Cincinnati in 1876.  He served as a parish pastor and seminary professor before becoming personal secretary to Archbishop Elder in 1880.  He served as chancellor of the Archdiocese from 1886 to 1900.  Moeller was name Bishop of Columbus in 1900.

In 1900, there were 60,000 Catholics in the Diocese of Columbus.  Bishop Moeller was in Columbus only three years, but he was able to pay off most of the Diocesan debt and make improvements in the governance of the diocese, for example by establishing parish boundaries for Franklin County, and by convening the fifth synod of the Diocese to set regulations pertaining to the needs of the clergy and people of the Diocese.  Moeller established three new parishes and four missions.  He had two brothers who became priests and one sister who became a nun.  Bishop Moeller was named coadjutor archbishop of Cincinnati in 1903 and became Archbishop the next year.  He died in 1925.