Atonement Friars in West Texas
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806-383-2243 + Fax 806-383-8452 P. O. Box 5644 + Amarillo, TX 79117-5644 Museum 806-381-9866 + Email: [email protected] THE CATHOLIC HISTORICAL SOCIETY Diocese of Amarillo 806-414-1076 + Fax 806-383-8452 P. O. Box 5644 + Amarillo, TX 79117-5644 4512 N. E. 24th Avenue Email: [email protected] NEW VOLUME FOUR WINTER 2019 Atonement Friars in West Texas colonizer, father Joseph Reisdorff, came to Hereford in 1920, not quite had founded a parish at Nazareth a generation later, there was a sim- in Castro County, and another at ilar movement of young farmers. Umbarger in Randall County in Families from Nazareth and Um- 1909. He had had experience in barger, and of course others, found bringing German farmers to two new farms and new homes in the ir- other parishes that he had found- rigated farm land around Hereford, ed earlier, farther east in Texas. At where St. Anthony’s Church and Nazareth he began advertising in the Atonement Friars served them. Catholic newspapers in South Tex To go back again to 1920, the young Irish priest, Father David Henry Dunn, who was pastor of the entire Panhandle except Nazareth, moved his church headquarters from Clar- Fr. Paul Wattson endon in Donley County to Amaril- Highway 60 in the Texas Panhan- lo, because that was the coming rail- dle turns southwest from Amarillo road center of the Panhandle. He and runs through parts of Potter, built the first Sacred Heart Church in Randall, Deaf Smith, Castro, and Amarillo in 1916, only a few months Parmer counties and on into New earlier than Father Reisdorff built Mexico. It was along this route, in a Holy Family church in Nazareth. tremendously productive area of ir- It was Father Dunn who first rigated farm land, that the Friars of brought the few Catholics in Her- the Atonement, in their sixty-eight Father Joseph Reisdorff eford under the ministry of the years there, 1920-1988, built three as and in the Middle West. Young Church. The first recorded bap- parishes and laid good foundations farmers, whose fathers or grandfa- tism for Hereford is that of Ed- for a fourth. From their center at thers had found farms in those areas ward Renfro, baptized in Sacred St. Anthony’s Church in Hereford, in the 1800s, were looking for farms Heart Church, Amarillo, by Fa- they developed St. Ann’s Parish in for themselves. In 1902, the ranches ther D. H. Dunn on July 4, 1906. Bovina, St. Teresa’s Parish in Fri- in the Texas Panhandle were being It was Father Dunn’s practice to ona, and began the mission of St. broken up into individual farms. make trips on the railroad lines Joseph’s parish in Hereford, the sec- The prospect of a farm in a new land, out of Amarillo, stopping off at ond Catholic parish in Hereford. To in a parish where there was a Cath- points to offer Mass for the few go back a little earlier than the com- olic church, was very appealing, and Catholic families in the towns or ing of the Friars, in 1902 the priest- the parishes grew. When the Friars surrounding territory. For some Inside: The Hereford POW’s ly 1910, celebrated Mass in Here- and his few Catholic families, and he ford the last Sunday of each month. did something about it. He set up a Then in late 1910, Father J. A. small press in Umbarger and pub- Campbell, who was to found St. An- lished a monthly magazine called thony’s Church in Hereford, was as- The Antidote to counteract the poi- signed to Umbarger, with missions son spread by The Menace. It seems along Highway 60 from Canyon to that Father Campbell had the help the New Mexico line. By motor- of another priest of the Diocese of cycle he went, celebrating Mass in Dallas in his refutation of the calum- his one church in Umbarger and nies published in the Menace. This in other towns in homes, or pos- was Father Kemper, stationed oater sibly public buildings, baptizing at Kerrville, Texas. Father Kemper children both Spanish and Anglo. answered a letter of inquiry from There was at this time a rabid Bishop Laurence J. FitzSimon of anti-Catholic paper called The Amarillo. Yes, he had helped Father Menance circulating in the country. Campbell in editing The Antidote. He It was an expression of the centu- wrote part of the material published ries-old hatred of Catholics, dating in the paper, on occasion writing all from the Reformation, and this an- of it. He and Father Campbell had families farther from the railroad he imosity was heightened by the fear obtained copies, he said, of the sub- made a trip by hack into the coun- that the Catholic immigrants would scription lists of The Menace, and try, as he did for O’Loughlin fam- take over the English-speaking they sent The Antidote to those sub- ily north of the Canadian River. United States of America. Millions scriber’s. The last issue of The Anti- We might note that Father Charles of Irish people had come to Amer- dote, he said, was dated 1931. When Bier, who was Father Dunn’s assis- ica following the potato famine in father Campbell came to Umbarg- tant from 1909 to 1913, followed the 1940’s. Now millions more were er in 1910, he immediately began the same procedure. Father Dunn coming from southern Europe, many to expand his services in Hereford. would send a postcard ahead of of them Catholic, all of them foreign A new county courthouse was be- time to the family in whose home he speaking. This wide spread fear ing built there on Sampson Street, would celebrate Mass, telling them would result in restrictive immigra- across the street south of the old the time he would be there. Fami- tion laws that held for a half century. county courthouse. The old court- lies would notify each other. One of house, located on the northeast cor- the Hereford families preserved one ner of the intersection of 4th and of Father Dunn’s postcards for years. Sampson, was for sale. Father Camp- The family of W. D. Keliehor set- bell bought the property, Lots 7 and tled southeast of Hereford in 1893 8 in Block 10 of the city of Hereford, and had attended Mass in the T P. for four thousand dollars – for three McCormick home at Wynne (later hundred dollars in cash and the re Nazareth) in Castor County. The mainder in a series of eight notes for family moved to Hereford in 1907, $500.00 each, payable in intervals of where Father Dunn offered Mass in one year. The deed read: purchased their home once a month. Grad- by J. A. Campbell, in trust for Bish- ually Father Dunn got some help. op of the Roman Catholic Diocese Father Reisdorff offered Mass of Dallas, Texas. The agreement was in Hereford on occasion, com- made that the building could con- ing probably from Umbarger, and tinue to be used for the purposes of so did Father Bier, from Ama- a courthouse until the new court- rillo. Father Christian Weigand, house was finished, and could also who served at St. Mary’s church in For Father Campbell in 1910 The used for religious purposes, so long Umbarger for some months in ear Menace was defaming his church as those did not interfere with the Father Paul Called his shed the Palace of Lady Poverty reunited with the Catho- lic Church. He prayed and he spoke for this reunion. He filled a number of positions in the Episcopal churches in the East, and was then appointed as the superior of a group of unmarried Episcopal ministers in Omaha, Ne- braska, who were living a common life together as they did their apos- tolic work. This would seem to be a good experience for one who en- visioned the founding of a religious order. For three years the young minister stayed there, and before County’s use. There is no record of disagreement over those terms. leaving Omaha, he made a vow of Father Campbell was purchasing the building to be used for a Franciscan church as well as within church and a school. When the building was free he established a it. From the Bible, the Rev. Mr. Wat- chapel on the second floor, in the former district court room, and son took the name of the Religious named it for St. Anthony of Padua, a name that the parish has kept society that he wished to found, since. He moved the printing press from Umbarger and installed it on the Society of the Atonement. the first floor, where it was used in printingThe Antidote for near- ly a decade. The building came to be calledThe Antidote Building. In late 1913 Father Campbell moved to Hereford, the first resident pastor, us- ing a room or rooms on the first floor of the Antidote Building for his residence The first Catholic families in Hereford wanted a Catholic school as well as a church. On St. Anthony’s annual parish report for 1914, to be sent to the Bishop of Dallas, the Catholic congregation was giv- en as ten families, and it carried the notation, “School will be opened in April.” The following year the school was open for two months. It was not until 1917 that St. Anthony’s School began full opera- tion. Four Sisters of the Atonement from Graymoor, New York ar- rived in Hereford in August 1917, and opened St.