Pioneer Bishops of Wyoming

This blog will discuss bishops that served in Wyoming up to 1900.  For more information about Wyoming, see my blog of February 20, 2017.

Spanish explorers and French-Canadian fur traders may have come to Wyoming, but the first recorded visit by a non-Native American, was by John Colter.  Colter, an American who had been a member of the Lewis and Clark expedition, explored Wyoming in 1806 and 1807 and gave the first account of the Yellowstone area.  Fur traders continued to come to Wyoming for the next several decades, and fur traders established Fort Laramie as a fur trading center in 1834.  The Oregon Trail opening in 1841 and the Union Pacific Railroad came in 1867.  The U.S. Army had established forts as early as 1849—a year after all of Wyoming had become part of the United States—and fought with Native Americans for control of the area until 1876.  Congress created the Territory of Wyoming in 1868, which at the time had about 9,000 residents.  Wyoming became the 44th State in 1890, at which time the population had risen to 63,000.

Father Pierre De Smet celebrated the first Mass in Wyoming in 1840, which was attended by Native Americans and fur traders attending a “Rendezvous” near present-day Daniel.  Eastern Wyoming became part of the Vicariate Apostolic of the Indian Territory (a missionary diocese that included all or part of 8 future states) in 1850 and later became part of the Vicariate Apostolic of the Nebraska Territory.  Western Wyoming was under the jurisdiction of the Archbishop of Oregon City (now Portland).  All of Wyoming became part of the newly created Diocese of Omaha in 1885 and became the Diocese of Cheyenne in 1887.  Cheyenne, then as now, was Wyoming’s capital and largest city.

Maurice F. Burke was born in Ireland in 1845 but moved as a child with his family to Chicago.  He was ordained a priest for the Diocese of Chicago in 1875 and was assigned to a parish in Joliet.  Burke was appointed the first Bishop of Cheyenne, Wyoming, in 1887.  When Bishop Burke arrived in Cheyenne that year, he found that his new Diocese had about 7,500 Catholics (including 3,000 Shoshone and Arapaho served by St. Stephen’s Indian Mission), 8 parishes and 28 missions, served by four diocesan priests and one Jesuit priest.  The Sisters of the Holy Child Jesus had two schools in Cheyenne and the Sisters of Charity of Leavenworth operated St. Joseph’s Hospital and a school in Laramie.  Anti-Catholic groups, such as the “Know Nothings” were very active at the time, which forced the Sisters of Charity to leave Wyoming.  Burke was so discouraged after his first two years as Bishop that he asked Rome to dissolve the Diocese.  His request was studied, but not granted.  Two years later, things had improved slightly—there were 9 priests and the number of missions had increased to 43.  Many of these missions were located in settlements along the newly built Union Pacific Railroad.  He was named Bishop of St. Joseph, Missouri, in 1893.  Bishop Burke died in 1923.

Thomas M. Lenihan was born in Ireland in 1844 and came to Dubuque, Iowa, with his family in 1850.  He served as an altar server at the Cathedral in Dubuque and received his education in Kentucky, Missouri, and Wisconsin prior to being ordained a priest for the Diocese of Dubuque in 1868.  He served mostly at Fort Dodge, Iowa.  This was a large parish geographically and Lenihan started new parishes.  He preached temperance and prohibition and served on a State committee related to Russian famine relief.  Lenihan was appointed the second Bishop of Cheyenne in 1896.

Bishop Lenihan established a new parishes and schools and organized the administration of the Diocese.  While he was Bishop, the number of Catholics and priests doubled.  Despite poor health, he traveled throughout the Diocese, but his heart and kidney ailments eventually caused his death in 1901.  His younger brother, Mathias, served as Bishop of Great Falls, Montana.