EMBRACING A SUMMARY OF THE EARLY HISTORY OF THE STATE; THE ADVENTURES OF THE FIRST CATHOLIC EMIGRANTS; BIOGRAPHICAL NOTICES OF THE EARLY MISSIONARIES; THE EARLY HISTORY OF THE PRINCIPAL PROTESTANT SECTS IN KENTUCKY; WITH SOME ACCOUNT OF THE ESTABLISHMENT OF THE EPISCOPAL SEE AT BARDSTOWN, OF THE VARIOUS RELIGIOUS SOCIETIES, AND OF THE GENERAL STATE OF THE CATHOLIC RELIGION IN KENTUCKY.
COMPILED FROM AUTHENTIC SOURCES, WITH THE ASSITANCE OF
THE VERY REV. STEPHEN THEODORE BADIN
THE FIRST PREIST ORDAINED IN THE UNITED STATES.
BY M. J. SPALDING, D. D.
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Colligite fragmenta quo manet, ne percant.
Gather up the fragments that remain, lest they be lost. – St. John vi. 12.
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LOUISVILLE:
- J. WEBB & BROTHER.
JOHN MURPHY, – BALTIMORE.
TO THE
Rt. Rev. Benedict Joseph Flaget, D. D.
BISHOP OF LOUISVILLE,
And the Venerable Patriarch of the West,
THESE SKETCHES OF A HISTORY,
IN WHICH HE WAS A PRINCIPAL ACTOR,
AND OF WHICH HE WAS THE BRIGHTEST ORNAMENT,
Are Respectfully Inscribed,
AS SOME SLIGHT TRIBUTE TO HIS MANY EMINENT VIRTUES,
AND TO HIS PROTRACTED APOSTOLICAL LABORS IN KENTUCKY,
AND AS A SMALL PLEDGE OF GRATITUDE
FOR HIS PARENTAL SOLICITUDE,
AND FOR HIS MANY ACTS OF AFFECTIONATE KINDNESS,
BY HIS FAITHFUL SERVANT,
AND GRATEFUL CHILD IN CHRIST.
THE AUTHOR.
PREFACE
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The writer of the following pages has not intended to give a full and connected history of the early Catholic Missions in Kentucky. His only object has been, to collect together, and to record, in a series of sketches, such facts as might prove interesting to the general reader, and serve as materials for the future church historian of the United States, and especially of the West, to which Kentucky has been, in a religious, if not in a political, point of view, the great pioneer and alma mater.
Of all the Western States Kentucky is the oldest; and it was this State, that the first Episcopal See of the West was erected. At the time of its establishment, the See of Bardstown held spiritual jurisdiction over all the States and Territories of the United States, lying between the thirty-fifth degree of the North Latitude and the lakes of the North, and between the States bordering on the Atlantic Ocean and the Rocky Mountains. This vast original diocese of the West is now divided into ten different flourishing dioceses, under ten different prelates, all of whom look up to the venerable Bishop Flaget as their Patriarch.
Most of the early Catholic settlers of Kentucky, and almost all the older missionaries, have already disappeared from the stage of life; and the scanty remnant of these venerable pioneers is now fast hastening to the tomb. They belonged to a class; which did much, and wrote little. The dangers and hardships, through which they had to pass, left them little time; and gave them little inclination, to write their memoirs. Almost the only means of learning the early religious history of Kentucky, of which their lives constitute the principal part, is to take down their own statements of facts, and their own reminiscences of early times, while they still linger above the horizon of life.
This is what the writer of these hasty and imperfect sketches has attempted to do. How well he has succeeded the public will best judge. The only merit he can claim is that of some industry and patient research. He has sought information from almost every living source within his reach; he has noted down, and compared with one another the different statements of numerous aged persons; he has labored to supply the deficiencies, or to correct the mistakes, of some of the statements, by the more copious or accurate details furnished by others: in a word, he has endeavored to derive from all of them an accurate, and, as far as was practicable, a connected account of the early Catholic Missions of Kentucky.
But he did not stop here. He endeavoured to examine all the written and printed documents, bearing on the subject, to which he could have access. The statements furnished by these papers, were diligently compared with those contained in the notes of the oral accounts just alluded to: and the comparison served to shed additional light upon both.
The published accounts of our early missions, besides being, in general, unconnected and fragmentary, are meager enough. Scattered over the pages of the many volumes compromising the “Annals of the French Association for the propagation of the Faith,” or published in various religious journals of Europe and America, they are sometimes inaccurate in point of facts and dates. Some of them are overburdened with unimportant details, too trivial for history; while others by far the most valuable – are much too brief and summary. To the former class belong many of the letters written by our early missionaries; to the latter, a few succinct and well-written accounts of our early missions.
To this class belongs the admirable account of the early missions of Kentucky drawn up by the very Rev. M. Badin, while residing in Paris, in 1822. This sketch has good qualities of nearly all the other writings of the venerable ‘first-ordained” of the United States. It is clear, connected, accurate in point of facts and dates, well written, and in good taste. The only matter of regret is, that it is so brief, and that it enters into so few details. Yet, withal, it has been found of great utility in the composition of the following sketches, which have in fact, been based on it, at least, in that portion of the early religious history of Kentucky of which it professes to treat.
The author deeply regrets, that this is almost the only writing of M. Badin to which he could have access. In the numerous peregrinations and wanderings of this venerable missionary pioneer, most of his notes and papers, connected with his early labors in the west, have been entirely lost.* Yet the writer of these sketches has derived invaluable assistance from him otherwise. In fact, it was he who, in a great measure, originated the work, which would not probably have been undertaken, but for his promised aid and co-operation. His clear memory of facts and dates furnished much valuable information on the earlier portion of our missionary history; and supplied many of the links that were wanting in the chain of printed documents.
The later portion of our religious history, comprised in these sketches, might have been much more copious and detailed, had another venerable personage not been prevented by his modesty and humility from allowing the writer access to his copious notes and papers. However much this may be regretted, it may, perhaps, be thought that the time had not yet come for writing this portion of our missionary history. When that time shall come, the necessary materials will probably not be wanting; nor will they be deficient, either in copiousness, or in interest.
One of the greatest difficulties, perhaps, which the writer of these pages had to encounter, arose from his having undertaken to write the history of recent events, many of the actors in which are still living. If it is a difficult and delicate task to write the history even of the dead; it is manifestly much more so, to write that of the living. A man’s actions and motives cannot be properly appreciated, until after he has completed his career, and finished all the acts in the drama of life. Influenced by these considerations, the author has determined to say as little as possible of the living, and to confine himself almost entirely to the dead. He has however felt compelled to make two exceptions to this rule; and to speak at some length of two venerable living octogenarians, without an account of whose lives and labors, any history of the early missions of Kentucky would be meagre and incomplete indeed.
The chief thing aimed at by the author has been accuracy in facts and dates. He is, however, sensible that, from the difficulties he had to encounter in regard to the materials of the history, as well as from numerous interruptions by heavy missionary duties while engaged in writing it out, he may have been betrayed into some errors. These he will willingly correct, whenever they will be pointed out by any kind friend. To enable his readers the more easily, to know the sources whence he borrowed his information, he has also thought it better to indicate his authorities as he proceeded.
To such as might be included to think, that many incidents and anecdotes related in these pages are too trivial in their character, and had better have been omitted, he would beg leave to say, that these things may have a local, if not a general interest; and that many details, which would be wholly out of place in a regular history, may be pardoned in more desultory sketches.
BARDSTOWN, KENTUCKY
Feast of Corpus Christi, 1844
* This loss occurred chiefly while he was laboring among the Potwatomy Indians of the North west, about twelve years ag
o.
Just a Fat Sassy Grandma 