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DVESDAY EVENING,A LANDMARK GOING.WAS A SANCTUARY FOR PRESBY-fERIANS AND CATHOLICS. jII TIip O'd St. Fanis Church on Third Streetirs Present Tottering: Frame Soon to bePulled Down—its Builders and Bells—The !Lot Under an Option by the Jackson Club.The Oid St. Paul s church on northThird street is soon to be torn down.c; This old land mark has had an interest- IiLg history. It was built in 1857 58 bylt;a sturdy little band of Presbyteriansjunder the leadership of the RevOviatt. Mr. J. R. Nairn was the contractor, and was also one of the earlymembers of the church. After thebuilding was completed and services init begun. Mr. Oviatt 6ought greenerfields and was succeeded by Rev. Mr.Adams, a bright young man, just out ofcollege. The church was not rich, andafter a time Mr. Adams grew very thin.After a few months it was decided tosurprise the dominie with a donationparty, but ho heard of it before theplans matured, and fled, leaving thePresbyterian church in Burlington without a pastor. The membership keptdropping off, and the church languished.Mr. \\ arren Dee was holding a mortgage on the building at this time. Itwas the proverbial church mortgage—couldn't be lifted-so Mr. Dee sold theproperty to the Rev. Michael Kinsellafor the use of the people of St. Paul'sCatholic church congregation then woishipping iu the old building on Columbia street near Fourth, the first churchbuilt in the city after the “Old Zion.and recently torn down to be replacedby the new St. Paul's.The Presbyterian property c^st theCatholic people somewhere in the vicinity of tflO.OOO. This was in 1859, amiFather Kinsella remained in town untilNov. 1st, 1861, when he was succeededby b at her James Douelan, who mini-tered to the spiritual wants of the people for nine years. When Father Dcne-l m arrived there was no steeple on thechurch, nor any bell. lie instantivmade a contract with Mr. Fenton Doranfor a steeple, and the present steeple wasbuilt. Theu a big Dell was put iu thesteeple and the people of St. PauPtswelled up with pardonable pride.Probably the proudest man of the wholecongregation was Andy Ellett, an oldIrishman who acted as sexton of thechurch and lived with Father Donelanil* was the man who rang the bell, andlie used to ring the whole town into nervous prostration.One Sunday morning, in the excitingwar times, Andy went down to thechurch and rang the “Angelus.” Ailsorts of rumors had been flying around.a i l Jeff Davis had been hung in effigvat the Barrett house corner the nightrbefore. Andy was thinking of this whileI walking back through the church afterh • had finished ringing the bell. Suddenly he heard a sound like “tin t’ous-and cannons goin’ off at wanst” as h«afterwards expressed it. He struck outfor home like a man going to a tire.1’hero wasn’t much hair on Andy's hear],but Father Donelan afterwards said thatwnen Mr. Eliott reached the house theilittle hair he had “looked like fringe ona tidy. Investigation disclosed thefact that the bell had proved too heavyfor the steeple and had fallen through.A new bell was put in, but it crackedand was of no account, and shortly af wethe close of the war a third bell was putin.I’he bell in the church at present isthe first chyrch bell landed on theshores of the Mississippi at the FlintHills. Father Donelan died, universally beloved, the day after Christmasin 1S7U, and was buried on December 51•Vi ter Father Donelan came Father P.J. Moran, who remained a couple olyears and was succeeded by Father TomGunn, now of Cedar Rapids. FatherGunn made many improvements on thed iu the parish. He was agreat favorito with the boys of theschool, and they all remember the daywhen the reverend gentleman, who waan athlete as well, kicked a football oveithe academy on the corner of Fourthan 1 Court street from his own door step.In 1880 Father Gunn was sent to Ceihtri t ipids. Then came Father Lowry, whoV *t n ted the new church movement butwas called to Keokuk in 1888 before hetould get the movement fairly underway. He was succeeded by Rev. M. P.Kirkpatrick, who worked so hard andfaithfully to get the people of St. Paul'sout of the oid building, which is now asad wreck, aud on his departure toRiverside last summer Father BernardMackin, the present energetic youngpast r, took the affairs of the church inhand.| It was during Father Donelan's termas pastor that the split in the churchwas made and St. Patrick's congregation formed.Many aro the marriages, funerals ambaptisms that have taken place betweei;he solemnly decaying walls of the okchurch. Figuring upon the basis otwo masses a day on Sundays and holidays, and a mass every week day in tinyear, it is estimated that mass was celt«bra led in the building nearly 14,001i times since the church was ffret occu;j pied by the Catholics. One thousamsix hundred and fifty eight infants wencleansed of original sin by the waters obaptism in the same time. The mairiage record has been imperfectly kept*and no satisfactory conclusions can bdrawn from it.:The peopie of St. Paul's will be sorr;*ito see the old church go, on account oi.Ithe many fond recollections connectedwith it. But the sorrow will not lasiIloDg. The sale of the old property wifurnish more sinews of war for the corstruction of a new edifice. The groumupon which the church stands is no\held under an option by the Jacksoclub, which organization is investiga!ing the feasibility of building a inoder i club house upou the 3ite for politictand social purposes,
Newspaper Details
Burlington Gazette
Burlington, Iowa, US
Wed, Jan 25, 1893
Page 4
Full Page
Clipped by
Burlington P.
IA, USA 29 Jun 2023
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