La Crosse Tribune Photo Window of the Immaculate Conception THE Cjeniermiut <Jtisiori/ OF ST. MARY'S CHURCH 1854 1954 LA CROSSE, WISCONSIN ". We invite each and every one of you Venerable Brethren, by reason of the office you exercise, to exhort the clergy and people committed to you to celebrate the Marian Year which we proclaim to be held the whole world over from the month of December next until the same month of the coming year—just a century having elapsed since the Virgin Mother of God, amid the applause of the entire Christian people, shone with a new gem, when our predecessor of immortal memory solemnly decreed and defined that she was absolutely free from all stain of original sin. And we confidently trust that this Marian celebration may bring forth the most desired and salutary fruits which all of us long for." From the encyclical letter Fulgens Corona September 8, 1953 4 • ! k • | i % j r -'••-.. -.;•; 5? " -^ SR I • ' 1 *i ry „p*ll|||; : ; :!;; •• - ;:- l rUHb f* * ..- j "1 tft Jfe v> Hfn l K • W1H :. *H $r 5 DIOCESE OF LACROSSE 4?2 HOESCHLER BUILDING LACROSSE, WISCONSIN OFFICE OF THE BISHOP April 3, 1954 Rev. Father William L. Mooney 319 South 7th Street La Crosse, Wisconsin Dear Father Mooney: • One hundred years in the life of the Church is but one-nineteenth part of her existence. Yet this same time in the life of an American parish marks a very definite milestone in the life of Christ's Church on these shores. One cannot help going back in grateful memory to all the early pioneer priests, Sisters and people who made the noblest kind of sacrifices in order that this church might be established, and even more than that, that the children of the parish might be given their birthright, namely a Christian, American education. Saint Mary's has been singularly fortunate in its list of pastors and assistant pastors during this time. All were zealous priests, wholly dedicated to the service of Christ and the administration of the heavenly gifts of Christ to His people. The parish is the real unit in the life of the Church. It can truly be said that the strength of the individual parishes is summed up in the strength of the diocese, and the strength of the diocese makes for the strength of the entire unit, which stems from the Vicar of Christ now gloriously reigning in the Chair of Peter where Christ Himself placed His Church. May the graces and blessings so bountifully bestowed on. Saint Mary's Parish in the past one hundred years be but the shadow and foretaste of even greater blessings as the parish begins its second centenary. Devotedly your Bishop, \^J Eishop of La Crosse 6 Bishop John P. Treacy 7 Father William L. Mooney 8 ,rf*S Father Lucian Galtier The History of St. Mary's Parish When Nathan Myrick had laid in his supply of calico, beads, gun powder, scissors, candles, needles, and assorted foodstuffs and poled his keelboat up the Mississippi River from Prairie du Chien to Prairie la Crosse, he doubtless did not dream that his little trading post would one day become the see city of the Diocese of La Crosse. But in the designs of God such was to be the destiny of the settlement which he began in 1841. At the same time Myrick was building his trading post, a young French missionary priest was building a little log chapel 140 miles farther up the Mississippi on the eastern bank of the river. "In my arduous desire (to bring the faith) I needed a power­ ful protector," he wrote. "I needed a model of patience and 9 courage; hence I called my chapel and the adjoining settlement St. Paul." This priest was the Rev. Lucian Galtier. It was he who was to bring the faith to the settlers at Myrick's trading post. It was he who was to begin the formation of St. Mary's Church. Born in France in 1811, Lucian Galtier and five companions had left their seminary in 1838 to come to the mission field of America at the request of Bishop Loras of Dubuque. He was ordained two years after his arrival, and in the same year he boarded a steamboat and proceeded up the Mississippi to estab­ lish a mission in the settlement which was to become St. Paul. Between 1841 and 1851, Father Galtier devoted himself to missions in Minnesota, Iowa, and Wisconsin. He returned to his native France in 1848 intending to remain there, but the oppor­ tunities of the American mission caused him to return. He became pastor of St. Gabriel's, Prairie du Chien, and in 1852 he made La Crosse one of his missions, though he may have been here as early as 1850. In the La Crosse Democrat for May 17, 1853, appeared the following news item: "Divine services of the Roman Catholic Church will be held at La Crosse on Sunday, May 29, 1853, at 10 o'clock, a. m. A gen­ eral attendance of the members in this vicinity is requested as business of importance is to be transacted." La Crosse in 1853 was a settlement of 745 persons. Of the 417 adults, 39 had been born in Germany, 25 in Norway and Archbishop John Martin Henni Until 1868 his diocese included all of Wisconsin 10 Bishop Michael Heiss became the first bishop of the diocese of La Crosse in 1868 Sweden, 23 in Britain, 19 in Ireland, seven in Canada, three in France. Of the American-born, 89 had come from the New Eng­ land states, 105 from New York, 30 from Ohio, 20 from Penn­ sylvania, and the others from the Southern states. LA CROSSE IS A SUPPLY CENTER It was the period of general westward movement, and they had emigrated toward the Mississippi in search of opportunity. Most of them earned their livelihood in one of the trades as­ sociated with the role of the community as supply center for the extensive pine lumbering districts to the north. Others worked at jobs associated with La Crosse as a stopping place for tran­ sients looking for locations or on their way farther west. A contemporary account lists "four stores for the sale of merchandise in general, one drug, one hardware, one furniture, and one stove and tin store, three groceries, one bakery, one livery stable, one harnessmaker, four tailors, three shoemakers, three masons, one watchmaker, four blacksmiths, three painters, one wagonmaker, one surveyor, 20 carpenters, four millwrights, one butcher, one barber, one gunsmith, one turner, six physicians, six lawyers, four clergymen, three religious societies, a Division of the Sons of Temperance, a Free Masons' Lodge, one church edifice, a courthouse, a steam saw and grist mill, and five hotels." FRONTIER CONDITIONS PREVAIL Log cabins and plain board houses formed the homes of the settlers. Few trees or lawns added beauty to the landscape. 11 Patches of creeping vines and tall, coarse grass were brightened in the spring by the blossoms of wild flowers. The hot sun of summer burned the prairie, and scorching winds drove sand through the rough streets and into dwellings. During the winter the winds swept through the settlement unobstructed and piled the sleet and snow into huge drifts. Sometimes sleds came through from the East, but for the most part the community was isolated, for the great link with the rest of the world—the steamboat—was missing. In summer the steamboats arrived daily—33 in the month of Father Galtier's visit. Doubtless, as he entered La Crosse that day in May, he could see the long line of covered wagons which constantly arrived from the East and departed across the river by ferry. As he approached the small home of James Gallagher on Pine Street between Tenth and Eleventh he probably saw Win­ nebago Indians on the dirt streets, their blankets adding a color­ ful touch to the conservative dress of the White settlers. THE PARISHIONERS PLAN A CHURCH The aftermath of the May 26 meeting was reported in the Democrat for Tuesday, June 7, 1853, as follows: "Although nothing has been heard of this congregation until recently, they seem about going ahead of the rest of our religious societies in the way of church building. We are informed that $500 cash has been subscribed—the northeast corner of the Public Square secured upon which to erect the building. Messrs. Conlon Bishop Kilian Flasch 1881-1891 12 Bishop Alexander J. McGavick 1921-1946 and others of Black River have subscribed the whole bill of lumber and Lieutenant Governor Burns one acre of land adjoin­ ing the village for church purposes. The main building is to be 30x40 feet and by the plan and draught will be a splendid edifice and an ornament to the place. Success to every good enterprise we say, and on the part of this small but enterprising congrega­ tion we call upon the good citizens of La Crosse to give them a lift—a few dollars contributed in this impoverishes no man. The Rev. L. Galtier held services at the house of James Gallagher with this congregation Sunday, May 29." Such was the beginning of St. Mary's Church. THE FIRST RESIDENT PASTOR ARRIVES An interval of two years elapses before the plans made at this meeting materialized, and Father Galtier continued his periodic visits during this time. It was on Aug. 24, 1855, that Father William Tappert arrived in La Crosse and celebrated Mass in a settler's home.