THE LIBRARIES

Bequest of
Frederic Bancroft

1860-1945

2

FIRST CATHOLIC BISHOP
OF CHICAGO

By
afolfn E. mc(Bur. A. m.. iR. D.

Professor of Anatomy and Physiology, Chemistry and Botany

in the University of St. Mary of the Lake

Chicago, Illinois

1^

rsprinted undeit the direction of

His gracb The Most revehend georqe W. mundelein

abchbismop of chicago

on the occasion of the diamond jubilee of the archdiocese

ay

ST MART'S TRAINING SCHOOL PRESS
DES PLAINES. ILLINOIS

1920

• « .•,••••• •*

• •••• • ••J«**

i •• • t •

•I • • • « * «

• « • • »

.AA

Sight aruprniti William Qpiiartrr. S. i.

JFirat ?Staha;i uf (llhirauia

tJo the

ijcxii «Jvc^, iValtex ^>|oAcpn ocuattct, (J.*:/,

This feeble effort to recall the labors tuid virtues

of his deceased brother is respectfully

dedicated, as a token of personal

regard, by the author.

^nitx

CHAPTER I. PAGE

From his birth until his departure for America ... i J

CHAPTER II.

From his departure for America until his appointment as

Pastor of St. Mary's Church in New- York ... J 9

CHAPTER III.
Hismissionary labours at St. Mary's in New- York . . 3/

CHAPTER IV.

From his Consecration for the See of Chicago until the

end of the first year of his Episcopal labours . . 42

CHAPTER V.

From the commencement of the second year of his Episco-
pacy until his Death 03

CHAPTER VI.
Reviewof his labours; his character; conclusion ... 79

I*

l^xticitt

N writing this Life, I have endeavoured
to keep in view the fact, that the early
years of Bishop Quarter gave the
promise of that virtuous career which
his after life realized: and therefore
have I dwelt upon the manner of his
early training. Again: I have introduced observa-
tions that might, to some, seem not strictly war-
ranted by the subject; but it will be found, I think,
that they go to describe the danger and violence of
a disease, so that the judicious selection of the rem-
edy applied by the Bishop and the success of the
cure, may the more fully exhibit the skilfulness of
the physician.

To guard every loop hole, to avoid every error,
would be impossible. Nothing terrestrial escapes
the common condition of imperfectibility ; and the
writer has besides to urge in extenuation of his
errors, the novelty of his situation in appearing
before the public as the author of a book.

Would that it were worthier! with all its faults,
however, it is sent forth, confident that the reader
will look rather to the subject of the picture than
to the manner of the colouring ;— to the gem, than
to the setting.
Chicago, April iqth, 1849

3Intrabuction

"Example is a globe of precept."' — Bacon

Example rules the world. The warrior upon
his country's battle-field performs prodigies of
valour, and whether the cause in which he fights be
just or unjust, his individual merits are blazoned
upon the historic page. Youths dwell upon the
relation of these exploits, and in spirit they are
warriors. The statesman in the senate chamber
defends successfully an important political prin-
ciple;— thousands of his party laud his efforts, and
from the hands of the untiring press his opinions
are scattered broadcast over the land. Youths are
anxious to be statesmen, to gain the world's renown,
and the fame which it values is their only governing
motive.

The history of a generation affords thousands of
instances in which example stamps the character and
seals forever the fate of its deluded victims; and if
example be thus potent, how important does it
become that the model be of an exalted kind — one in
which the higher and the holier aspirations that
should govern mortals would appear — one in which
would not exist that vain, pitiful, miserable longing
for the breath of popular applause, as evanescent as
that upon the dimmed surface of a polished mirror,
but in which would be found that earnest yearning

JO I rdroduction

to accomplish good things for all men ; that unceasing
effort to benefit all mankind, the memory of which
will live after them.

We may then turn popular attention with much
benefit from the military and political idols that now
fill its eye, to the contemplation of man as he ought to
be, — to the nobleness of virtue which sanctifies
knowledge. Oh! it is a holy duty, while selfishness
and impiety go hand in hand through the world
seeming to constitute the only essential qualifications
to respectability, the only passports to renown, to
place before it the character of one who laboured for
the good of all, and earnestly before God and for
God ; one in whom there was no selfishness nor guile
Thus youth may be able to contrast the character
of the worldling with that of the man of God.

The first endeavours, by his example, to prove
that man may live independently of his Creator;
the latter, while he proves our absolute dependence
on Him who called us into being, teaches the infant
heart the secret by which the fountains of God's
goodness may be opened. The first teaches youth
to scoff; the latter, to pray, under the sublime
conviction that the prayer offered up by the child
at its mother's knee, is the same prayer that is
uttered by the myriads of the angels around the
throne of the Eternal: — the same prayer taught
here below that it will repeat when, having "shaken
off this mortal coil," it will return to the household
of its Father who is in Heaven.

fife of tlic
3Ri0l]t JReitercnit Hilliam (fDuartcr, p. p.

CHAPTER I.

FROM HIS BIRTH UNTIL HIS DEPARTURE FOR AMERICA.

1806—1822

Rt. Rev. William Quarter, first Bishop of
Chicago, in the state of Illinois, was born inKillurine.
Kings County, Ireland, on the 21st day of January,
in the year 1806. He was the third son of Michael
Quarter and Ann Bennet. There were four brothers :
John, the eldest; Walter Joseph, the vicar general
of the Bishop and present administrator of the
diocese; William, the subject of this memoir; and
James, who died before he arrived at the age neces-
sary to receive ordination. It was his intention to
have entered the holy order of the priesthood.

The family of the Quarters was of the most
respectable; and rarely is one found that has given
more priests and bishops to the Church than the
maternal branch of it has done. 'The number of
clergymen here and in the diocese of Meath that are
connected with it, is at the present time little short
of twenty; and they have to display an unsullied
name, while there have never been any men in the
ministry more firm in upholding the rights of the
priesthood."

Mrs. Quarter, the Bishop's mother, looking upon
the pledges that God had given as merely entrusted

12 Life of The

to her guardianship upon earth, and to be required
from her hereafter, devoted herself to their early
training in the path in which they should walk, so
that "in age they might not depart from it." As
soon as they could enunciate properly, they were
taught their morning and evening prayers ; and that
good custom of gathering the little flock to the
morning and evening devotions was never omitted
in her house ; nor did the family ever retire at night
without having first said the Rosary of the Blessed
Virgin Mary. From this practice sprung that
devotion to the Mother of God, which so remarkably
distinguished the Bishop through life.

The example thus set him by his mother; her
earnest efforts to instil into his young heart the love
of virtue and the horror of sin, made a deep impres-
sion upon his pliant mind. In after life he would
often say, "I never saw but one, and that one was
Bishop Brute, who exhibited so tender a piety as my
mother;" and the recollections of the scenes of his
childhood's years when he knelt beside that mother's
knee, while she placed her hand upon his little head,
and taught him to lisp his prayers, could never be
blotted from his memory. How often did he thank
God for having given him such a mother! and he
seemed never to weary of repeating the instances of
her kindness, her goodness, and her watchfulness.
Frequently, he said, "I owe all that I am to her; I
would never have been a Priest, I would never have
been a Bishop, but for her;" a tear would gather in
his bright eye, and steal over his care-worn cheek,

Rt. Rev. Wm. Quarter /j

while he breathed a prayer to God that he might
meet his mother again in his father's house, after he
had accomplished his earthly pilgrimage.

The virtuous example, the pious life and the
tender love of such a mother, could not but make a
deep impression upon the hearts of her children.
She ruled them by love, and they were bound to her
by the ties of love. As the gentle breath of the
zephyr, dancing upon the smooth surface of a lake,
causes neither ripple nor wave to disturb that
surface, nor raises up sediment from the bottom of
the deep, so did the even tenor of these children's
lives, leave undisturbed beneath the surface, the
passions that for the most part disfigure the face of
childhood. It gave them early a mastery over
themselves, which was a marked characteristic in
the life of the Bishop.

His mother was anxious that God might call
some one of her children to the holy order of the
Priesthood, and the manner of her early training
was directed to favour in them a desire similar to
her own. She had taught her son William, at the
age of seven years, to serve mass, and he never felt
so happy as when he had served at that holy sacrifice,
for the priest who officiated in his father's house.
She would tell him, when he had been thus engaged :
"My son, it does my heart good to see you serving at
the altar. I consider your place there more honour-
able than if you occupied the first station in a
kingdom: now you are truly in the service of your
God."

j^ Life of The

William Quarter early corresponded with her
wishes, and he seemed to have set his heart upon a
religious life: for in his very childhood, and while
his playmates were building their mud houses, or
their little sand embankments to stop a water-course,
or playing bo-peep, or engaged in other diversions
peculiar to their years, he would steal away from
them, that he might be alone, and then he would
build his little altar and ornament it, offering up to
God upon it the sacrifice of his young and spotless
heart. And the sacrifice was accepted; for what on
earth is purer, what more worthy of the Creator of
all things, than the pure heart ere the stain of sin
has disfigured it.

Mrs. Quarter had received an excellent education
in the school of a religious community, and she
therefore assumed the task of instructing her son, of
opening and expanding the first flowers of his
intellect. She was well aware that the common
schools of education were to the morals like a
Siberian desert to the tender plant reared under a
warmer clime. She determined therefore to have
the entire management of his early years; and his
after life is evidence of her capability and of the
manner in which she discharged her duty.

He devoted himself assiduously to his studies,
and he mastered every branch and overcame every
difficulty with which he grappled, in a way that
showed him to be possessed of a very high order of
intellect. So rapid was his progress, that at the age

Rt. Rev. Wm. Quarter /5

of eight years he was fitted to enter a boarding school
at Tullamore.

Previous to entrusting him to the care of
strangers, his mother exerted herself to fortify his
piety by preparing him for his first communion.
He presented himself at that holy table where he
was to receive his Redeemer into his young heart,
with a piety so remarkable as to produce an effect
which they have never forgotten, upon the older
friends who witnessed his reception of the sacrament.

Influenced then by his happiness, by the love
that burned in his soul, and in correspondence with
the graces vouchsafed to him, he expressed his
determination to live henceforth for God alone, to
enter the holy order of the priesthood, and he laid
his talents with a self-denying humility at the foot
of the cross, to be consecrated to Christ.

Immediately after having made his first com-
munion, he left home for Tullamore, where he entered
the Academy of Rev. Mr. Deran, a retired Presby-
terian clergyman, and one of the best classical
scholars in Ireland. Here he commenced his classical
and mathematical studies. After remaining about
two years with Mr. Deran, he entered the Academy
of John and Thomas Fitzgerald, kept in the same
town. In this school he completed his course of
study preparatory to entering the College of
Maynooth. With this purpose, in his sixteenth
year, he stood and passed in a most satisfactory
manner his public examination. But Providence
had marked out for him another destiny.

1 6 Life of The

During the years that he thus spent preparing
himself for his collegiate course, he was distinguished
for the same tender and exemplary piety that char-
acterized him when under the watchful care of his
good mother ; and so remarkable was his demeanour,
that his companions styled him the ^little Bishop.''
Little thought they that the day would come when
the title of his boyhood would be the distinction of
his manhood. The qualities of his heart so endeared
him to all his schoolmates, that his power of doing
good among them was almost unbounded, and he
used it to the utmost, exhorting to virtue and
reproving vice. His charity, even thus early in life,
was ever in search of objects, and whenever his
parents furnished him with pocket money, it was not
hoarded up, nor spent in youthful indulgences, but
distributed to the last farthing among the suffering
and the needy poor. He realized often how sweet
it is to give alms for God's sake.

About the time that his preparations to enter
the college of Maynooth were completed, the Rev,
Mr. McAuley, brother of Count McAuley, of
Frankford, Kings Co., returned to Ireland from the
United States. This gentleman spent much of his
time at the house of the father of young Quarter;
and often, as he spoke of the condition of the Catholic
missions in America; — of the thousands of Catholic
children, that were growing up far away from the
teachers of their holy faith, and in a land where
Mammon was the worshipped deity — of the wander-
ing away from the one sheepfold of so many that

Rt. Rev. Wm. Quarter 17

were sealed at the baptismal font as members of the
one holy Church, and who were thus lost for want of
instructors and example — of the extent of the harvest
and the scarcity of the gleaners; as he spoke of all
these, the young aspirant to the ministry would
listen to him till the tears trembled on his eyelids,
and with the hope that God would call him to so
important a field. And to it, he did call him.

So great became his desire to forsake all things
for Christ, that the abandonment of home and
friends, even of his dearly-loved mother, of the
shamrock-covered hills and green fields of his native
island, and the thousand memories that so strongly
influence the heart of youth, ere the stern realities of
life have petrified it, seemed as nothing to him, in
comparison with the happiness of having saved one
soul from eternal perdition. Influenced by the zeal
that burned in his bosom, he went to the Rt. Rev.
Dr. Doyle, his Bishop, and requested his exeat that
he might go whither the voice of his Father in heaven
called him; and he did this, even before he had
communicated to his parents his purpose. The
good Bishop Doyle was sorry to part with one whom
he looked upon as peculiarly his own, and likely soon
to be a very valuable labourer in his vineyard; an
ornament to his diocese; still he could not but admire
the courage of the youth and his truly christian
spirit, and he gave him his exeat and his blessing.

What were the feelings of the family of the
young Quarter, when he announced to them that
he was about to start immediately for America, is

iS LiU of The

more easily imagined than described. And it is
only he who has knelt to his parents and received
their parting blessing, ere he has bidden adieu to
the land of his birth, about to go forth into the land
of the stranger for a home and a grave, that can
tell what must have been the thoughts of the young
exile. Still the remonstrances of friends and rela-
tives, and the strong ties of filial affection, knocking
at the chambers of his heart, received no response:
he had formed his resolution. His parents felt that
they had no right to stand between him and the
service of his divine Master; and when he knelt by
his mother's knee, where he had first learned to lisp
his infant prayers, to receive her parting blessing,
she kissed his fair young brow, as she said to him:
"My son, I have given you to God; go withersoever
He calls you, and may his and your mother's
benediction ever attend you!" — Oh! how often,
amid the checkered scenes of his life, did the remem-
brance of his mother's voice and blessing, as she
bade him go; of her kindness and her care; rise
before and hover around him, even as guardian
angels, to shield and to comfort him in the hours of
trial and of tribulation !

Rt. Rev. Wm. Quarter ig

CHAPTER II.

FROM HIS DEPARTURE FOR AMERICA UNTIL HIS APPOINTMENT AS
PASTOR OF ST. MARY's CHURCH IN NEW-YORK, 1 822 — I 83 3

On the loth day of April, 1822, in the sixteenth
year of his age, William Quarter left his native land
for North America. It is a singular coincidence,
that, on the very same day of the same month,
twenty-six years later, the period of his earthly exile
terminated.

The vessel in which he sailed landed at Quebec.
He presented himself to the Bishop of that city,
and asked to be received as an ecclesiastical student:
but his youth was urged as an objection, and this
objection he could not remove. He applied next to
the Bishop of Montreal, where the same objection as
to his youth was urged against him. He then went
to Mt. St. Mary's College, Emmetsburg, Md.,
where he applied to Rev. Mr. Dubois, the President
of the College, afterwards the Bishop of New- York.
Here the reason that had caused his rejection in
Canada, operated in his favour, and with Rev. Mr.
Dubois his youth was his first and best recom-
mendation. That good clergyman, an exile himself,
received young Quarter even as a father would a son ;
and ever afterwards through life there existed
between them the reciprocal tenderness and regard
of a father for a son and of a son for a father.

Rev. Mr. Dubois examined his young pupil in
the studies which he had been pursuing, and finding

20 Life of The

that he was master of them, placed him at once in
the Seminary, which he entered on the 8th day of
September. He chose this day as the one on which
to commence his preparation for the ecclesiastical
state, because it was a festival of her whom in his
childhood he had chosen as his patroness.

So thorough had been his course of mathematical
and classical studies, and so completely was he
master of these branches, that he was at once placed
in charge of the classes of Greek and Latin and
Algebra; and in the second year of his residence at
Mt. St. Mary's, he was appointed Professor of the
Greek and Latin languages.

As a proof of his piety, of his humility, and of his
veneration for the mysteries of his holy faith at this
period of his life, it may not be improper to mention,
that when appointed sacristan, one year after having
entered the seminary, he prepared himself for his
duties by approaching the holy sacraments of
penance and the Eucharist, and he went on his bare
knees from the door of the church to the sanctuary,
so unworthy did he consider himself. It was with
fear and trembling that he placed his hand upon the
chalice which contained the consecrated blood of
Jesus Christ. Familiarity in his long ministry did
not diminish one iota of this his early respect and
veneration ; and often has he warned those whom it
was his happiness to have exalted to the holy
ministry of the altar, that they should beware and
keep over themselves a constant watch, lest famil-
iarity might cause them to forget for one moment a

Rt. Rev. Wm. Quarter 21

particle of that respect due by them to the Holy
Sacrament.

The Sainted Brute, by whom he was tenderly
beloved, was his Professor of Philosophy and
Divinity. Mr. Quarter was a pupil worthy his
distinguished master ; and the letters of that master,
from which I might quote were I not anxious that
this memoir should be as brief as possible, show how
high an estimate was placed upon his character, his
talents and his virtues, by a man who knew well
every avenue to the human heart, and who could
thread its mazes with consummate skill. Even
after Mr. Quarter had been transplanted to another
field, the watchful care, the consoling accents of
encouragement, and the sincere expressions of com-
mendation, were bestowed by this good old man upon
his absent pupil, and were never forgotten by him
who was the object of such solicitude.

"Among all the professors and students he was
highly esteemed for his clear mind, sound judgment,
gentle disposition, firm friendship and perfect
devotion;" and he loved these with an affection so
pure that amid all the changing scenes of his life,
too apt generally to engender forgetfulness, he
ceased not to remember them each and every one;
and how his bright eye would sparkle and his
spirits become elated, when he met with any child of
that dear old mountain, with whom he could converse
of the days that were past, and of the men who had
been called to other scenes on earth, or away to a
better world ; or with one who could tell him of the

22 Life of The

progress and prosperity of that favourite institution,
and the tear would start unbidden to his eye, when
the new names that now filled the places of those he
loved so tenderly, were repeated, calling up to his
mind the truthfulness of the observation, that we
are but sojourners on this earth, where all is change.
Often have I been seated with him for hours,
forgetting all else, while we spoke of the men and
things there — of the little church away up upon the
mountain-side — of the beautiful valley that stretched
out in front of it from the base of the Blue-ridge and
extended away as far as the eye could reach — of the
graveyard and the friends of his that lay mouldering
there — of the cottage, and the garden, and the
grotto, and the ravine, bridged over by "Plunket's
folly" — of the crystal fountain bubbling up at the
mountain's base, pure, sparkling, and bright, and
distributing its liquid treasures — of the old wooden
college that has been long since removed and
replaced by the tall stone one, with its majectic
steeple, with its cross above the clouds; its terraces
and its trees, fringing their borders — of the hunting
grounds, and the rabbit dens and their trappers; —
of the little gardens of each student's industry,
nestled like birds' nests amid the tall tress upon the
mountain-side — of these and a thousand other topics
that may be readily imagined by any one who has
spent his college-years at Mt. St. Mary's. In this
regard for the memories of those years, we behold
how unchangeable were his affections. Once your
friend, he was "a friend indeed."

Rt. Rev. Wm. Quarter 2j

On the 2Qth day of October, in the year 1826,
the Rt. Rev. Dr. Dubois was consecrated Bishop of
New- York. At his departure from the institution
which he had founded, he took with him the exeat
and other papers committed to his keeping by Mr.
Quarter when he was received into the Seminary.
It was the intention of Bishop Dubois to call him to
his own diocese as soon as the termination of his
course of theological studies had been reached. He
did call him; and though the then Archbishop of
Baltimore exerted himself to detain him, and though
the faculty of the College made him splendid offers
in order to prevent his departure, and to secure the
continuance of his services to that institution, he
felt himself bound by the ties of a stronger gratitude
to his first friend, and he cheerfully resigned the
honours that awaited his college-life for the labours
and privations of a mission under his benefactor.

On the 14th of September, iSiq, he left the
lovely retirement of his mountain-home, where he
had spent so many happy days, for the noise and
bustle of the great city of New- York, which was to
be the theatre qf his ministerial labours. "He
reached New- York on Wednesday evening, the i6th
of the same month, and on Thursday morning,
the 1 7th, he received at the hands of Bishop Dubois
the Clerical Tonsure, Minor Orders, and Sub-
deaconship; on Friday morning, the i8th. Deacon-
ship ; and on Saturday morning he was raised to the
dignity of the Priesthood." Being under 23 years of

24 ^^f^ of ^^^

age when he was ordained, the sacrament was
therefore conferred on him by dispensation.

On the day after this ordination, Bishop Dubois
started for Europe, leaving the charge of his diocese
to the very Rev. Dr. Power, then Pastor of St.
Peter's. As administrator, Dr. Power took up his
residence in the Bishop's house, placing the Rev. Jas.
Smith in the pastoral charge of his own church.
The Rev. William Quarter was appointed the
assistant pastor of St. Peter's, receiving his clerical
jurisdiction from the Very Rev. Dr. Power.

In the year 1831 he determined to pay a visit
to his Alma Mater, Mt. St. Mary's. Rev. Mr.
Smith, being anxious that the female portion of the
children of his congregation should be entrusted to
the care of the Sisters of Charity, Rev. Mr. Quarter
determined, on his arrival at Emmetsburg, to
propose to the Mother Superioress at St. Joseph's, to
send on to New York three sisters of the order who
would take charge of the female free-school attached
to St. Peter's Church. The proposition was favour-
ably received, and in the month of June of the same
year, the three sisters asked, took charge of the
schools. Sister Lucy Ignatius was the first sister
servant.

The house first occupied by these ladies was a
miserably dilapidated frame building, directly oppo-
site to the church, and on the very spot probably
where the splendid mansion recently erected for the
present Rev. Clergy now stands. After the lapse of
a year, they were transferred from that shattered

Rt. Rev. Wm. Quarter 25

building to another not much better, which was on
the same side with the church itself, and which was
the house occupied previously by the clergymen of
the church. Here they lived, pursuing their mission
of love and mercy, until necessity compelled them
to remove their frame building and erect another in
its stead. After years of privation, they at last
succeeded in building their present splendid and
spacious house on the ground that was sanctified by
their early labours and sufferings.

On Wednesday the qth day of November, in
this year, the church of St. Mary in Sheriff-street
was burned to the ground. The loss was a heavy
one, "but steps were immediately taken, (under the
direction of Rev. Luke Berry, the pastor of old St.
Mary's,) by some active members of the congrega-
tion, to secure a handsome site for a new church."
The lots selected and purchased are those on the
corner of Grand and Ridge streets, upon which the
present church of St. Mary's stands.

The congregation had many, (and to a less
devoted and enterprising people) almost insur-
mountable difficulties to overcome, before they
could again assemble under the roof of a church they
might call their own. In one month and five days
(Dec. 14th) after the conflagration of St. Mary's,
and before they had recovered from that shock, a
new calamity befel the congregation in the death of
their beloved pastor. Thus the church and the
pastor, in the space of a few short weeks, existed
only in remembrance. Still, though the shepherd

2.6 L ife of The

was smitten, the sheep were not scattered. They
laboured earnestly in the erection of their new
church, and successfully, until that terrible scourge,
the cholera, broke out amongst them ; entering their
habitations, their storehouses and their workshops —
striking them down in the thronged marts of business
or upon the highway — passing onward with its car of
destruction, and crushing beneath its wheels the rich
and the poor, the just and the unjust — desolating
cities, and making charnel-houses of the populous
habitations of men. The building advanced slowly
during these days of affliction, of wo, of misery, and
of death : for as the city was comparatively desolated,
no means could be collected. At length, however, a
brighter day dawned: the dark cloud that hovered
so long over the devoted city was dispelled, and the
energies of the congregation were again aroused to
complete the work.

During this period of time when the cholera was
in New-York, Rev. Wm. Quarter was still assistant
pastor at St. Peter's, and here it was that the
generous self-devotion of this truly christian mission-
ary shone conspicuous, and left for him a name and
a fame that will not be forgotten in that city while
the visitation of the cholera is remembered. From
the time of its commencement until its termination
he was always at his post. Day and night he labour-
ed constantly and unceasingly, well satisfied if he
could snatch but three hours' repose from the twenty-
four. If you sought for him, you would find him
now in the humble habitation of poverty, again in

Rt. Rev. Wm. Quarter 27

the mansions of wealth — every place where duty called
him. Yes, there he was, amid pestilence and death,
holding the cup of refreshment to the parched lips
of the sufferer, when the nearest and the dearest had
forsaken him; "wiping away the clammy sweat from
his sunken brow, fixing the dimmed eye on the sign
of salvation, and turning its expiring glance to
heaven;" or fortifying the departing spirit for its
gloomy passage through the gates of death, with the
last sacraments of that Church, whose faith fortified
his heart and strengthened him, encouraging him
onward in the path of his hard duty, inspiring him
with a bravery far greater than was ever exhibited
by warrior on any battle-field. Truly has it been
said, that the enthusiasm of genius has made poets
and orators; the enthusiasm of glory, conquerors;
but the enthusiasm of charity inspires the humble
ministers of the faith taught to the fishermen — of
charity, which is their morning and evening sacrifice,
which is the labour and happiness of their entire lives.
Besides devoting himself to the victims of disease,
he gathered together the children of the dead mem-
bers of his flock to the number of about sixty, and
placing them under the charge of the Sisters of
Charity, freely gave all the means he possessed for
their support. O ! how many blessings would not the
pure prayers of these little innocents, rescued from
starvation and death, or from a fate worse than death,
which might have overtaken them had they been cast
out upon a wicked world ; how many blessings would
not the prayers of these, I say, call down upon the

28 Life of The

head of him who was indeed their benefactor! He
obtained for his purpose a house from Cornelius
Heaney, Esq., to whom the orphans of New- York
owe very much, and who afterwards gave the same
house to the Sisters of Charity, for the benefit of the
fatherless. Here, guarded by a watchful care, they
were fed and clothed until the time when they could
safely take their places in the busy world.

Rev. Mr. Quarter resided, during this period of
his missionary career, in the house of Mr. Snowden,
the publisher of the Courier and Enquirer. The
great attention of this young ecclesiastic to the
people of his flock, the heroic self-devotion, and the
sacrifices he underwent during those days "that tried
men's souls," produced so great an impression upon
the minds of the lady and family of this gentleman,
that she with her three daughters and two sons
embraced the faith that taught such heroism for
God's sake. Often, during the period of that
fearful visitation, did she herself sit and watch while
the worn-out priest was resting his exhausted frame,
so that she might give him notice of the calls upon
him.

Rt. Rev. Wm. Quarter 29

CHAPTER III.

HIS MISSIONARY LABOURS AT ST. MARY's IN NEW YORK,

1833 — 1844

The storm that had paralyzed the energies of the
congregation of St. Mary's had passed by, and their
church was completed. It was dedicated on the qth
of June, in the year 1 833, by the Rt. Rev. Dr. Dubois.
At the close of the service, the Bishop announced to
the people that Rev. Wm. Quarter was appointed by
him Pastor of the new church of Saint Mary's.

He continued the pastor of this church until his
consecration for the See of Chicago. Mr. Quarter
entered at once upon his duties with all the ardour of
his nature, and with a view of labour frevently and
sincerely for the good of the flock committed to his
care; so that when called to give an account of his
stewardship, his Master might be satisfied with him.
He set himself at once to work, in order to remedy
the evils that existed among the people of his new
charge. The youths of the congregation were
scattered, and he observed with grief and affliction
that they could not be collected for the purpose of
receiving religious instructions on Sundays.

"He had already the experience of the salutary
influence exercised over the female youth of the
congregation of St. Peter's Church by the Sisters of
Charity, and he was resolved, if possible, to obtain
them at St. Mary's. The church was as yet, how-

JO Life of The

ever, struggling and much embarassed, and he knew
not how he could obtain his object." On consulta-
tion with the trustees, though they did not oppose
him, yet they advised him to lay aside his purpose
until some future day, since the expenses thus neces-
sarily to be added would be beyond their means.

Bishop Bubois, whom he consulted respecting the
introduction of the Sisters, advised the same course,
owing to the observations of the trustees with respect
to their straitened circumstances. But when did
ordinary difficulties or obstructions deter Rev.
William Quarter from undertaking and accomplish-
ing anything, if he saw clearly that it was for the
advancement of the holy cause to which he had
consecrated his life? Difficulties that would affright
ordinary men only stimulated him to more energetic
action. When any measure was for the benefit of
religion, he fearlessly undertook it, confident that God
would watch over and favour the issue. In this
matter, the conviction that his present purpose must
be accomplished at his own risk, did not deter him;
but he with that spirit of self-sacrifice which ever
characterized him, resolved to make the experiment
even at that risk. With the consent of his Bishop,
he therefore commenced on his own responsibility a
correspondence with the Mother Superior of the
Sisters of Charity at Emmetsburg, the result of
which was, that on the first of September, 1833, three
of the ladies of this community arrived in New- York
to take charge of the free-school of St. Mary's.

Rt. Rev. Wm. Quarter jj

They were Sister Eugene, Sister Servant; Sister
Mary, and Sister Pelagia.

On the arrival of the Sisters, a school was im-
mediately opened. The more respectable Catholics
of this and other portions of the city encouraged it
by sending their daughters. In addition to the
small salary thus afforded, the Sisters were allowed
to receive a few scholars, boarders, whose pensions
would enable them to defray current expenses.
Many difficulties (as was anticipated) presented
themselves, and it required all the skill and manage-
ment of Mr. Quarter to be exerted, ere his under-
taking ceased to be a serious burden upon him; still
that burden was cheerfully borne, until at last his
perseverance triumphed.

He then directed the Sisters to throw the school
under the church open to all ; making it free for the
poorest children of his little flock, and to establish a
select school in their own house. This plan suc-
ceeded admirably. The free schools were frequented
by a large number of pupils; there came daily at first
about one hundred pupils, which number was soon
increased to about five hundred. The number of
the pupils in the select school averaged from seventy
to eighty, and sometimes it reached one hundred.
He had thus, in a comparatively brief space of time,
the gratification of witnessing success crown his
efforts.

"What an appearance did these schools now
present! How different from what they were a few
months before the Sisters of Charity arrived ! Then

32 Life of The

were male and female teacher engaged in the same
room, instructing a few squalid and dirty-looking
children, boys and girls mixing indiscriminately.
Now the pupils under the charge of the Sisters pre-
sented a different appearance: they were orderly
and decorous in their behavious, and they were the
elements of the future congregation of St. Mary's,
promising to grow up in virtue, and being early
instructed in sound religious principles."

When the church of St. Mary's had surmounted
most of her pecuniary difficulties, the trustees added
their efforts to those of their zealous pastor, in order
to secure a residence of their own for the Sisters of
Charity. The house which they then occupied
No. 447 Grand Street, was purchased for them.

Thus to the enterprise and perseverance of Rev.
William Quarter are the congregation of St. Mary's
indebted for the introduction among them of the
humble daughters of Saint Vincent, and for the
manifold and incalculable blessings that follow thence
to them and to their children, and to their children's
children. Well indeed may they consider him their
benefactor. He was the benefactor not of the
Catholics of St. Mary's only, but of the whole city —
of the poor and the orphan ; for he was instrumental
in establishing the first colony of the Sisters of
Charity of St. Peter's also.

The benefits resulting to the Catholics and to the
city, may be estimated in some measure, when it is
remembered that the child is father of the man — that
men are but children of larger growth ; and that as we

Rt. Rev. Wm. Quarter 3j

would have the character of the man, so must we
have the character of the child. This truth, which
the experience of ages confirms — which is written on
temples and palaces, on upturned altars and ruined
shrines — on all the monuments of the earth — in
letters of blood upon every page of the history of
man — is so familiar, that it ceases to command our
attention.

"The Pastor of St. Mary's Church, anxious for
the spiritual advancement of the congregation com-
mitted to his charge, thought it advisable, as soon as
convenient, to establish confraternities and pious
sodalities of the Rosary and the Scapular. When
the members of a congregation are attached to some
religious society or confraternity, they are more
likely to attend to their religious obligations. They
find occupation in prayer on Sundays and festivals,
and other leisure hours; whereas if they were not
attached to such societies, much of their time might
be wasted in vice and dissipation, in slander and
calumny, especially on those days when their
worldly occupations do not claim their attention,
and when, forgetting that the greater part of these
days should be spent in the service of God, they
seem to think they can idle them away or spend them
in frivolous amusements or in sin. The poor
especially experience much consolation in attaching
themselves to any pious sodality or confraternity:
while the rich seldom attach themselves to these
associations. The least sacrifice of ease or of pleasure
seems too much for them, and hence it is that their

3^ Life of The

souls grow cold in devotion; the sacraments even
THAT the Church commands them to approach at
least once a year, they neglect, and they seem to
disregard the penalties due their non-compliance.

What a contrast the rich who do not, and the
poor who do, attach themselves to these sodalities,
present in the church on Sunday! In the morning
early the poor are devoutly there preparing to feed
their souls on the rich banquet of the Body and
Blood of Jesus Christ. The rich have not as yet
raised their heads from off their soft pillows. At
the last mass, the poor are there fasting up to the
hour of midday, and then too happy if they be per-
mitted to approach the table of their Lord. They
press through the dense mass of people, and prostrate
themselves before the altar, their souls filled with
devotion and inflamed with divine love. The rich sit
in their pews and look coldly and indifferently on
them, and appear like strangers in the house of their
Lord and Master: they have no regard for the
spiritual favours and heavenly blessings, gifts and
graces which God would bestow on them, were they
faithful.

At vespers, the poor are again in the house of
God. The seats of the rich are empty. The psalm
of praise and the canticle of joy is being sung; the
rich join not in the chorus; the sacred melody has
no charm for their ears; and they sit, if there at all,
gazing idly, or perhaps ridiculing those simple,
pious souls that are engaged in the praises of their
God. Not now even are the poor tired of their

Rt. Rev. Wm. Quarter j^

devotions. Again they assemble in the evening,
to close the day with prayer, to read pious books,
and to recite the Rosary. Thus it is that the
members of the several religious societies now
established at St. Mary's, spend the Sunday."

These lines, written by Bishop Quarter himself,
when pastor of the congregation of which he speaks,
proves, that though "he found the parish overrun
with vice," it did not continue long so under his
zealous and watchful care: but iit became, for its
devotion and for its piety, an example to the whole
city. They exhibit also to us evidences of the
regard in which he held the mother of God, in the
efforts made to establish sodalities in her honour.
And that the same tender regard for her was enter-
tained by him to the end of his life, is evidenced in
his last Pastoral Letter, written but a short time
before his death. When speaking of the adoption
of "the Blessed Virgin Mary, conceived without
sin," as the Patroness of the American Church, he
says:

"We Catholics are not ashamed to honour the mother of
our Redeemer, who is also our mother ; we hesitate not to ask
her intercession and her prayers on our behalf with her divine
Son, knowing that they will be efficacious, if the fault be not
our own. Jesus honoured the Blessed Virgin Mary in choosing
her for his mother — and shall Christians not honour her like-
wise ? She has been selected by God to give birth to the Saviour
and the Redeemer — and shall we be unmindful of the glorious
prerogative? The angel of God prophesied that all generations
should call Mary blessed — and shall it not be our glory to

j6 Life of The

contribute as far as we can to the fulfillment of this angelic
prophecy ?

"Our attachment to the Blessed Virgin is no ways destruc-
tive of, or prejudicial to our firm belief in Christ, but rather an
encouragement to it — because it is grounded on her prerogatives,
which derive all their lustre from Christ, and are only as it
were a reflection of the glory of the Son to the mother. It is
in consequence of our steadfast belief in the divinity of Christ,
that we respect and honour the Blessed Virgin, who subminis-
tered to him her flesh in the accomplishment of the mystery
of the Incarnation as Mother of God, and that we suppose her
to have been favoured with additional accumulation of graces
to fit her for the sublime station to which she had been elected.
The Son is therefore the fundamental cause of all her privileges,
and the immediate object of our veneration; and we do not
pretend to honour the mother but with reference to the Son,
and in him. 'There is no question,' says St. Jerome, 'but
whatsoever praise is given to the mother, it all rebounds to the
Son.' Our devotion then to the B. V. contributes to strengthen
our faith in Christ — because upon the one the other has an
essential dependence.

"Let the Sodalities and Societies, in honour of the Blessed
Virgin Mary, Mother of God, already established in many of
the churches and congregations of this diocese, renew their
fervour, and endeavour to increase their numbers. If they
are the devout clients of Mary, the Mother of Jesus, they will
be beloved by her divine Son. Who is devout to Mary, who
has not a supreme love and a supreme devotion for Jesus, the
Eternal World? Who despises the mother that can still love
the Son?"

His whole missionary career in New York was
marked by the same zealous efforts to promote the
welfare of his people, and by his unceasing labours
in the faithful discharge of all his duties ; and he was
always ready to respond to any call, even without

Rt. Rev. Wm. Quarter 37

the sphere of his duties, when that call was for
the promotion of the honour and glory of God.

Among the most brilliant results of his teachings
in St. Mary's, was the conversion of the Rev. John
James Maximilian Oertel, a Lutheran minister of
New York city. This gentleman was the son of
Professor Oertel, M. D., of Ansback, in Bavaria.
He studied theology in the University of Erlang.
"After a course of five years' studies in this Uni-
versity, he was examined for holy orders, and was
soon ordained a minister of the Evangelical Lutheran
Church. Being invited by the Evangelical Mis-
sionary Society of Barmen, in Prussia, to preach the
Gospel to German protestants of the United States,"
he accepted the invitation and departed for New-
York, whither he arrived in the year 1837.

To use the words of Rev. Mr. Oertel himself:
" I was a zealous preacher of the Lutheran doctrines;
for I believed that the Lutheran Church alone was
the true Church of Christ." Again he says: "In-
fluenced by the prejudices of my education at the
University, I believed that the Lutheran doctrine
was the same as that taught by the fathers of the
preceding ages; I believed that Luther's doctrine
was the same as that which Christ taught to his
apostles, and which they delivered to their suc-
cessors. ********j believed that I had
learned the sound doctrine, and that I had the true
belief. I believed, in a word, that I was a member
of the Holy Catholic Church, and I clung to the
thought with the fondness of a child for its mother."

3<5 Life of The

He looked upon the holy fathers of the early ages
of the Church, St. Ambrose, St. Chrysostom, St.
Augustine, St. Bernard, &c., as the witnesses best
entitled to be believed with respect to what were the
teachings and the practices of the early Church, and
no doubt ever harassed his mind, that the doctrine
taught by these holy fathers was the same as that
preached by himself.

What then must have been the disappointment of
a man who clung thus ardently to the teachings of
the fathers, to find here in this country, on his
arrival, these teachings diregarded; — to witness the
indifference, the lukewarmness and the infidelity of
those who professed to be the ministers and the
followers of the great (?) Reformer!

Chagrined and in sorrow at the want of unity in
doctrine among the teachers of the protestant belief,
with whom he associated in New York, he resolved to
visit Missouri, where the Lutheran Bishop, Dr.
Stephan, resided. He expected to find in him a true
professor of the belief taught to himself on the other
side of the Atlantic. But he was disappointed.
Bishop Stephan believed, as he often told him,
"f/iaf the Lutheran Church is extinct, not only in
Germany, but throughout all Euro l^e.^' How soon did
Mr. Oertel find this so ! How soon did he realize the
truth of the charge, that "there are not three pro-
fessors of Theology in Germany, who consent to or
agree with the old Lutheran doctrines as laid down in
the Lutheran symbolical books!"

Rt. Rev. Wm. Quarter 39

In this condition of things, it was no wonder that
serious doubts began to disturb his mind, and that
anxiety succeeded to doubt; that the little bark, in
which his faith had hitherto quietly sailed, began to
be tossed by the tempest, and that he began to direct
his mind to the applying of those marks by which
only the true Church of Christ is to be recognized.

It would be out of place here to follow him
through the arguments he advances in the course
of his inquiry : suffice it to say, that in laying down
the marks of the true Church; — her Unity, her
Sanctity, her Catholicity and her Apostolicity, as the
only means whereby she could be tested, he found
that his Lutheran Church could claim no inheritance
of the faith of the early Church, and that, therefore,
as these marks would not apply to her, she was not
the true Church.

Arrived at this point of his inquiry, he was tossed

like a vessel ••-->. r j

'-oov.i Q^ ^ gg^ Q^ dreams,

Her helm of reason lost;"

and for a time he balanced between Christianity and
infidelity, between hope and despair!

"Oh, it would be difficult to describe," says he,
"my feelings at the eventful moment when I became
convinced that I was not a member of the true Church.
Could I have persuaded myself that it was only a
dream, and that the illusion would pass away as
soon as I awoke, what a consolation would it have
been to my agitated mind, and to my bleeding soul !
But I could not do so. The vizard was now lifted,

^o Life of The

and I shuddered at the sight of what it had so
carefully concealed from my view." Oertel's Rea-
sons for becoming a Catholic, p. 24.

It was at this time that accident made him ac-
quainted with the pastor of St. Mary's, Rev. Wm,
Quarter; and the kind, affable and gentlemanly
manners of this zealous priest so captivated Mr.
Oertel, that he opened to him his heart. "Rev. Mr.
Quarter cheerfully extended his hand," says he, "to
support my weakness, and gave his advice to cheer
my mind." He furnished him with works which
explained correctly the Catholic doctrines and
practices, and he elucidated whatever might seem
obscure. Mr. Oertel was a finished scholar, and an
excellent theologian, and was the very man able to
detect an error in the instructions thus imparted to
him, if one existed. He had already detected the
errors in his former belief, and was now the more
alive to the possibility of deceptions, particularly in
the teachings of a Church upon which he had hitherto
looked with aversion.

But he applied to this Church the marks by
which he knew that her claims to authority were to
be tested. The mark of unity could be applied to her
for "all her members agree in one faith, are all in one
communion, and are all under one head." The
mark of sanctity could be applied to her: for "she
teaches a holy doctrine, invites all to a holy life,
and is distinguished by the eminent sanctity of so
many thousands of her children." The mark of
Catholicity could be applied to her: for "she teaches

Rt. Rev. Wm. Quarter 41

all nations, extends through all ages, and maintains
all truth." The mark of Apostolicity applies to her:
"because from the apostles has she received her
doctrine, her orders, and her mission."

Yes, he found that to that Church, which was
ever the same; which though kingdoms and empires,
and states and people, have risen up and faded
away, was herself unchangeable; which teaches now
the same doctrine taught by her divine Founder on
the shores of the sea of Galilee, and which she will
teach until the end of time; that to that Church
only would these marks apply; and, resting his
fevered temples upon that holy mother's bosom,
beneath which throbbed the fountain of a vitality,
as enduring as the word of God, he wept for very
joy, that he had at last found the secure haven,
wherein he could anchor the frail bark of his mor-
tality, regardless of the storms that might howl
and the waves that might dash against her with
their broken fury, until the coming of the bright
day, when he might plant his ransomed feet upon the
shores of that land which is within the walls of the
heavenly paradise.

Mr. Oertel is still living in the city of Baltimore,
where he edits a Catholic German newspaper. Dear
to him must be the memory of Bishop Quarter,
through whose instrumentality, under God, he
became reconciled to that Church, which ensures
him the prospect of meeting again his earthly
mediator in heaven.

^2 Life of The

CHAPTER IV.

FROM HIS CONSECRATION FOR THE SEE OF CHICAGO UNTIL THE
END OF THE FIRST YEAR OF HIS EPISCOPAL LABOURS,

1844 — 1845.

The Provincial Council that assembled in
Baltimore in May, 1843, finding that from the very
great spread of the Catholic Church several addi-
tional Bishops were necessary, passed a decree
recommending the formation of the New Sees of
Chicago, Illinois; Little Rock, Arkansas; Hartford,
Connecticut; and Milwaukie, Wisconsin; and the
Apostolic Vicarate of Oregon Territory. The recom-
mendation of this Council was immediately acted
upon by the court of Rome : and accordingly, in the
February of the following year ( 1 844) , the Apostolic
letters for the consecration of the three new Bishops,
who were to be taken from New York, arrived in
that city; and on the loth of March, 1844, these
gentlemen were consecrated in St. Patrick's Cathe-
dral, by the Rt. Rev. Dr. John Hughes, Bishop of
New York, assisted by the Rt. Rev. Dr. Fenwick,
Bishop of Boston, and Rt. Rev. Dr. Whelan, Bishop
of Richmond. The new Bishops were: Rt. Rev.
Wm. Quarter, for the Diocese of Chicago; Rt. Rev.
Andrew Byrne, for the Diocese of Little Rock; and
Rt. Rev. John McCloskey, now Bishop of Albany,
Coadjutor Bishop of New York. The ceremony of
the consecration was probably one of the most
magnificant spectacles ever witnessed by the

Rt. Rev. Wm. Quarter 4^

Catholics of the empire city. — The Freeman's Journal
thus describes it :

"At half past nine o'clock precisely, the sacred procession
left the sacristy, and passing along the raised dais outside the
sanctuary, entered in front of the great altar. First went the
Acolytes, Thunrifer, and the Seminarians of St. John's, followed
by several clergymen of New- York, Brooklyn, Jersey City, and
other parts of the diocese, with a few from Emmetsburg College ;
next were — the Senior Assistant Bishop with his chaplain and
attendant; the three Bishops elect — Right Rev. Andrew
Byrne, Right Rev. William Quarter, and Right Rev. John
McCloskey, with their chaplains and attendants; the other
Assistant Bishop, with his chaplain and attendant; then the
Master of Ceremonies, the Deacon and Sub-Deacon, Assistant
Priest, and other attendants of the consecrator; the procession
being closed by the consecrator, the Right Rev. Bishop of New-
York. The clergy were in their chasubles or their surplices;
the Bishop elect in amict., alb., cincture, stole and cope, and
wearing the small cap common to the clergy; the Assistant
Bishops in rochets, stoles, copes and mitres, and the consecra-
tor in full pontificals — rochet, stole, cope, mitre, crozier, &lc.
The vestments of the consecrator and his attendants were of
the richest description, and literally dazzled the eye. The
mitres and copes of the Assistant Bishops were also distinguished
for their beauty, as was the case with the vestments of the
clergy generally. As the procession moved slowly forward, its
numbers, splendour, and magnificence of array — chasubles
and copes and mitres glittering in the light — presented a
brilliant and imposing spectacle.

"Many of the clergy and seminarians (the latter particu-
larly) had not room in the sanctuary, and were in attendance in
the sacristy, with or without their cossacks. Altogether, the
number of clergy and seminarians present during the day could
not have been far from seventy; and to the Catholic heart it
must have been not the least consoling of the many reflections

44 Lif^ of The

suggested by the occasion, that from the immediate neighbour-
hood of this one city, so many ecclesiastics and religious could
be assembled, and without withdrawing from a single con-
gregation the opportunities of divine service in their own church.
Surely such an abundance of labourers promises well for the
gathering in of the harvest in this great diocese! God grant
it! — say we.

"The ceremony then proceeded, as described with consider-
able minuteness in this paper last week, until the end of the
Gospel, where the Preacher of the Consecration Sermon, the
Very Rev. John Power, D. D., having given the usual saluta-
tion to the Consecrator, ascended the pulpit and commenced
his discourse.

"At Vespers in the evening, the church was almost as
densely crowded as in the morning. The discourse was
delivered by the Rev. Dr. Pise. Five of the Bishops and most
of the clergy were present; and as they sat in the Sanctuary, the
Pontificals of the Bishops and the Vestments of the Priests
shining in the lights which burned around, the observer recalled
involuntarily what the historians of the time tell of the magnifi-
cance of the famous "Field of the Cloth of Gold." The Vespers
were over at about half past nine, P. M.

"Thus passed and terminated a day, which, in no spirit of
vain words we say, will be not only long memorable in this
diocese, but will be remarkable in the annals of Catholicism in
the United States; remarkable that it witnessed a ceremony
without parallel for splendour and importance in this country,
the Consecration of three Bishops, two of them for new Sees ;
remarkable, that it assembled more of the worth and dignity
of our American Church than has ever before been brought
together, except at the grand Councils of thee ntire Province,
six Bishops and nearly fifty Priests; remarkable, also, in a
higher sense, that it was a day significant of past progress and
future promise, speaking to the Catholic heart with silent but
thrilling eloquence of great triumphs achieved, and of those still
greater, God willing, yet to be accomplished: and recalling to

Rt. Rev. Wm. Quarter 4^

it irresistibly the consoling conviction that the Promise of the
New Covenant is eternal with the Church, and that those
spiritual princes whom she on that day sent forth, went of a
surety "conquering and to conquer;" remarkable, in fine,
that it was a day which, long years hence— when those who
performed and those who received the august rite, and those
who looked on breathless with awe at the mystery before them,
shall have passed away, and save a few, been all forgotten —
when, as we trust in God it will be, the mists of error now
darkening our well-loved land shall have disappeared before
the ascending Sun of Righteousness, and His Church shall have
won over to her sway of love all the tongues and races within
the republic, so that from the Atlantic to the Mississippi, and
from the Mississippi to the Pacific shore, there shall be but one
faith for one nation of free, enlightened and happy Americans —
a day which then the Catholic historian will love to dwell upon
with delight, and record upon his glowing page, as the advent
of one of the many bright eras which (please God) will illustrate
the history of the Church of Christ in the New World."

Hard must have been the struggle to the sensi-
tive Bishop Quarter, when obliged to tear himself
away from his faithful f^ock of St. Mary's, who had
woven themselves around his heart, by whom he was
so tenderly beloved, and among whom he had
laboured so long, and so successfully. Though his
good father, Bishop Dubois, was gone to the bosom
of his God, yet from his successor in the episcopal
chair of New York, Rt. Rev. Dr. Hughes, (a scion
from that noble tree that Bishop Dubois planted at
the foot of the Blue Ridge) — it cost his heart a pang
to separate. Still duty, and the honour and glory
of God, bade him forsake all things for Christ's
sake, and go again among the strangers for his
resting place.

46 Life of The

He was anxious to enter without delay upon the
field of his labours, where the harvest was fast
ripening, and lest one ear might drop, or be lost
from neglect. Accordingly, on the i8th of April,
accompanied by his brother. Very Rev. Walter J.
Quarter, he departed from New York for Chicago
where he arrived on Sunday morning, May the 5th.
Though fatigued and weary from his long and very
tedious journey, like a general on the field of battle,
he was at once at his post, and no personal con-
siderations could induce this faithful servant of God
to neglect for a moment his duty. On the day of his
arrival, he said mass in the old church and preached
in the new one.

The old church was a long low frame building,
having upon it a small steeple and bell. It was on
the lot directly in the rear of the Bishop's dwelling.
This building has been since divided : one half being
used as the Academy of St. Joseph, the preparatory
department of the University of St. Mary of the
Lake. The other half was removed to the rear of
the new church, to be used by the Sisters of Mercy
for their free school.

The new church, then unfinished, is the present
cathedral. At that time the brick walls of the
church were merely roofed, and four posts stood
upright where the steeple now stands. "The build-
ing was not plastered; a temporary altar was stuck
up against the western wall. There was no vestry;
the sanctuary was enclosed with rough boards; the
children were seated on benches, on each side, where

Rt. Rev. Wm. Quarter 47

the vestries are now. — There were neither columns,
nor steps, nor doors, (except temporary ones made
of rough boards;) and worse than all, even that
much of a church was burdened with about three
thousand dollars of debt. Add to this, that on the
adjoining lot, where the Convent of Mercy now
stands, the whole purchase-money, about 1000
dollars, was unpaid, as also four hundred dollars on
the grave-yard. Thus there was near five thousand
dollars debt contracted by his predecessors, and
some of this debt bearing interest at from 10 to 12
per cent.," was left as a legacy to the new Bishop of
Chicago! With an unfinished church, and a poor
congregation, and such a debt, what a prospect had
he! Dark and dreary enough it must have been,
but there was before him a bright star, beckoning
him and alluring him onward; and with his eye
steadily fixed on that hope-star, he faltered not.

Such was the condition of the church of Chicago,
when Bishop Quarter took possession of his see.
How different was the state of affairs, that day on
which he stood for the last time in the pulpit of his
beautiful church, when the mellow tones of the
magnificent organ were re-echoed by the lofty domes
and the spacious aisles, filling all the hearts that
came there to treasure up his burning words with
hopes of the enjoyment of heavenlier strains, when
the choirs above will take up the chant, intoned
below, and continue it forever around the throne of
the Invisible.

^8 l-^f^ of The

He considered it impossible that the congregation
of St. Mary's in Chicago could at that time pay the
debt upon, and finish their church, and therefore
he and his brother having united their funds, paid it
with their own private means. His generous-hearted
flock followed this noble example. The city was
divided into districts; proper collectors were ap-
pointed; and so harmoniously and successfully did
they labour, that in about a year they had the
happiness of kneeling before the new altar in their
finished church, whose glittering spire and golden
cross reflect the first rays of the morning sun, as
it rises out of the bosom of the broad and beautiful
Lake Michigan.

This was the first, and at that time the only
steeple in Chicago; and its cross, the emblem of
man's salvation, perched upon the summit of that
steeple, is the first object that presents itself to the
traveller approaching the harbour from the lakes,
or far away upon the prairie, as his eye rests upon the
"city of the plain." But it is no longer the only one :
for several beautiful steeples and spires now adorn
the different churches; yet of all these, St. Mary's
(true to her heavenly origin) is the only one that is
not ashamed to rear on high that sign which will be
the sign of victory — of the triumph of the Son of
man, when he comes in the clouds of heaven to
judge the world!

Previous to the erection of the new see of Chicago,
the greater part of the state of Illinois had been
under the episcopal jurisdiction of the Bishop of

Rt. Rev. Wm. Quarter 49

Vincennes, in the State of Indiana. The clergymen
in this district therefore belonged to that diocese.
As soon as it was known that his episcopal power in
Illinois was about to be superseded, the Bishop of
Vincennes recalled all his priests from the diocese
of Chicago. They obeyed immediately, excepting
four who were unwilling to leave unprotected the
children committed to their spiritual charge, as they
must in that case (having no pastors) have been for a
long time deprived of the consolations of their holy
religion.

Two of these gentlemen were Rev. Maurice de
Saint Palais, the present worthy Bishop of Vincennes,
and Rev. Mr. Fischer, and they were the only
officiating clergymen in Chicago on the arrival of
Bishop Quarter. Much service as they might have
rendered to the new Bishop, their stay with him was
but short indeed; for early in the month of June
their immediate return to the diocese of Vincennes
was commanded, their Bishop, suspending their
functions until they obeyed. Bishop Quarter could
obtain neither mitigation of the penalty, nor privilege
for them to remain with him any time. They were,
therefore, obliged to depart, and to leave him without
a priest to watch over the districts in which they
had officiated. This was a great and unexpected
difficulty, but, like every other that beset his path,
it was met resolutely.

He was soon able, however, to add to his priests,
and before the end of the month of June he had
ordained three, among whom was the present

^o I^iU of The

distinguished V. President of the University of
St. Mary's of the Lake, Very Rev. Jeremiah A.
Kinsella.

On the 5th of May, as we have seen. Bishop
Quarter arrived in Chicago, and on the third of June
he opened the new Catholic College, the germ of the
present University, in the building formerly occupied
as the old church. This establishment commenced
with two professors and six students.

He was ever a most liberal patron of education,
considering that among his first duties he should
provide means for that end. Not for that education
which the world generally dignifies with the title;
but for an education by which the mental and
the moral man would be cultivated together; in
which the being would be taught to consider the
instructions of this life as merely the means for
obtaining the great end for which we were all
created.

There is a physiological law which teaches, that
Practice or Repetition is essential to induce facility of
mental and moral, as well as of bodily action; and,
therefore, in mental and moral education this fact
is so important, that it should be engraven on the
heart of every one interested in the welfare of
society. It is only by repetition, that impressions
can be made upon the mind, so as to render them
permanent. A truth may be enunciated; but it is
only by repetition that it escapes oblivion. As no
accomplishment can be attained by a single effort, so,
when the mind is engaged upon any new subject, it

Rt. Rev. Wm. Quarter 5/

is only by study, viz., by repeating, that it is
mastered.

The extent to which this law of repetition effects
the intellectual and moral condition of the world,
has not been properly estimated; and though I
cannot enter fully into the subject in a work of this
kind, yet I cannot pass it unnoticed altogether, and,
when writing respecting the foundation of a College
for the purposes of education, I will be pardoned, I
hope, the digression.

If we would be kind, sociable, polite, &c., &c., we
must be always so, whether in private or in public.
If we, in the retirement of our homes, indulge in
habits or in language that we would hide from the
world's eye and ear, we will betray ourselves often
when we do not expect it. Therefore it is, that
with all his efforts to appear genteel, an ill-bred or a
profane man, will, in spite of all his watchfulness,
betray his accustomed associations; for the habit,
which has grown with his growth, and strengthened
with his strength, cannot be controlled. As are
those associations, such will be the character of the
man for life; and for the one that rises above the
vicious associations of early years, ten thousand sink
into the depths of sin and infamy, so low, that there
is no escape for them but through the gates of
death. Thus it comes that our cities, densely
populated, are filled with wretches, fit ministers for
every crime. They have never known what virtue
is — they have grown up in the haunts where thieves
and gamblers and drunkards congregate ;— where

^2 Life of The

cunning, cheating, and beastly gratification hold
their empire ; — where no warning voice is ever raised
in behalf of honesty or piety, or against the bad
example set before them. As these vices are daily
held up before their eyes, they become practised,
and, in accordance with the principle laid down, by
the repetition, increase upon them, until they
swallow up every virtuous sentiment that God may
have implanted in their hearts, and that, watered by
the careful hand of innocence, might have produced
fruit ripening for immortality.

If these individuals had been blessed with the
privilege of better associations, with the temperate,
the honourable, the virtuous, the same law of
repetition would have so strengthened them, as to
have enabled them to stand firm against the seduc-
tions that beset their early years, and that lie
like pit-falls all around their pathway through life.

It is passing strange, that, with the evidences
daily and hourly staring us in the face, that appeals
to the intellect will never fix permanently a high
moral feeling or course of education, we should be so
negligent of the fact thus demonstrated, that it is
the brain we cultivate, and not the immaterial
principle, mind. When we wish to accomplish
either of the purposes of which I have just spoken,
we do what scarce any one is aware we do, viz., we
exercise the brain. How long would it be before
appeals to the intellect would convert the hardened
heart from its wickedness! But if the feelings of
kindness, of love and of sympathy, may have been

Rt. Rev. Wm. Quarter 53

early exercised until they are easily called up from
the great deep in which years had entombed them,
how readily do appeals for this purpose find their
way to the heart and produce abundant harvest!
And yet we never think but that the harvest springs
immediately from the edge of the sickle that is
gathering it; we never think that the seed must
have been long sown; that the germ must have
grown; that the husbandman merely gathers what
somie other hand planted.

From the very savage that prowls through our
forests, or hunts the deer and the buffalo upon our
far-away prairies, we might learn wisdom. If he
wishes the young warrior he is rearing to distinguish
the sound of the footstep of his foe, he does not
merely point out the way he should listen, lay down
the rules, &c., but he directs him to put his ear to
the ground, and by the effect produced upon a
material organ, by the exercise of that organ until
it is capable of distinguishing those sounds, does he
train him. If he wishes him to excel in the various
accomplishments of savage life — in lying in wait — in
ambush — in daring attack — in courage — in contempt
of pain — of fatigue — in revenge — he practises him
in the same manner by the exercise of the material
instrument, until he is worthy to become a chief of
his tribe; and yet if we reflect but one moment, we
will be satisfied that it is the mind, which thus
manifests itself through its exercised material organ,
and accomplishes his purpose.

54 LiU of The

Thus should it be with us. If we wish our
children to excel in the accomplishments of civilized
life — if we wish them to be modest, humble, virtuous
in the most extended sense, — a solace to our gray
hairs, we must exercise and cultivate in them the
virtues we wish them to possess. We must make

THIS EXERCISE A PART OF THEIR DAILY LIFE. We

must educate the conscience; — we must educate all
the feelings, in order that they may become the
sources of happiness here, and of hope hereafter.
We will then learn how much easier it is to practise
virtue than vice; — how much easier it will be to
make the world a better place.

Man does not come from the hand of his Creator
necessarily vicious, he is made so by *an erroneous
education; and if we would remedy this error, we
must search for its source, and we will find that it is
in the ignorance of the fact, that the virtues must be
cultivated as well as the physical organs, in order
that they should be vigorous.

How erroneous then is that course of education
which excludes religious training; — which appeals
to the intellect only, and not to the ' moral and
religious sentiments and affections! Many, it is
true, both schools and parents, profess to give their
pupils and children religious instructions; but it is
by moral precepts which appeal to the intellect only,
and which are uttered only to be forgotten; may be
are contradicted by the practise which alone can
make them permanent.

Rt. Rev. Wm. Quarter 55

What I contend for is the necessity of the daily
repetition of, or education in virtuous practises ; and
in the practical education of the young, it becomes a
matter of the highest moment, to remember that
the moral sentiments and the intellectual processes
are absolutely dependent on the physical organiza-
tion, and require that daily cultivation as much as
any of the physical operations of the body. How
absurd then to expect, that the moral instruction
given on one day in the seven, is sufficient to counter-
act the immoral impressions that are likely to be
made on the other six days!

We cannot, therefore, sufficiently cherish those
institutions that combine religious training with the
intellectual. They are the only props that sustain
society against the deluge of indifferentism and
infidelity, that is sweeping over the land. Thank
God! that in the Catholic Church are to be found
societies of men and women who devote their lives
to this noble enterprise !

When we look to the future as well as to the
present ; to the children and to the children's children,
that will be saved from everlasting perdition, (to say
nothing of the bad example their evil course would
have given, and of its effects upon the world,)
saved, I say, by the timely instruction furnished at
such institutions, we can estimate, in a measure, the
debt of gratitude which the world owes to the
founders of these schools. They are indeed bene-
factors of their people and of their age, and of ages
far down the stream of time, when their names will

5 6 Life of The

have been long forgotten. Thus will the schools
established by Bishop Quarter continue to shed
abroad over the world the light of science and of
religion, forming an holy union, blessed before the
throne of God, strewing the thorny pathway of life
with roses that bloom even in the winter of age, and
deck with their never-fading loveliness the lonesome
prison-house of the grave.

How strongly did he urge the wedded union of
religion and philosophy, and while he wished to
store the intellect with treasures of learning, he
endeavoured to furnish the heart with unfailing
support against the bitter trials of life! Here
indeed does religion fulfil her divine mission, turning
the wayworn and the weary into that beautiful valley
of virtue and faith, where its purified waters will
bring refreshment to the seared hearts of thousands,
causing them to bless the author of their being, and
teaching them to look with a steady eye onward, to
that home in which they may sit down to rest after
their pilgrimage is ended — that home in their father's
house in heaven.

So eager was he to establish schools of a kind in
which the very highest order of literary and scientific
learning would be imparted together with proper
religious instruction, that he determined to establish
a University; and on the iqth of December of this
year a bill was passed by the legislature, incor-
porating "the University of St. Mary of the Lake."

With the same solicitude for the spiritual welfare
of the children under his charge, that characterized

Rt. Rev. Wm. Quarter 57

his efforts in behalf of the children of St. Mary's,
New York, he now, when he could obtain a moment's
leisure, set about providing means for their spiritual
instructions, more directly even than could be
accomplished in the schools ; and for this purpose he
formed those children into a pious association, and
the lessons then learned from his lips show their
fruit in the virtuous and exemplary young men and
women that form part of the Catholic youth of
Chicago.

The same legislature that passed the law incor-
porating the University of St. Mary of the Lake,
passed a bill empowering the Bishop of Chicago and
his successors to hold property in trust for the use
of the Catholic Church. The passage of a law,
which, as far as I know, exists in every diocese in the
United States, has in itself nothing strange or
unusual, nor would it have found a notice here,
only that from want of understanding its nature,
it has been sometimes represented in a false light,
and has been supposed to be an unreasonable law.
Some of the advantages of this law are, that as
properties are held in trust for the Church, and not
as personal property, they must in every contingency
be more secure. As the title of Bishop of Chicago
and his successors is recognised by the laws of the
State by virtue of this act, properties, willed to the
Bishop of Chicago for charitable purposes, can be
legally recovered, and applied to their destined uses.
This could not otherwise have been done, unless
such bequests were made to the Bishop in his

^8 Life of The

individual capacity, and not as Bishop of Chicago;
and, therefore, his relatives might, in case of his
sudden death, have deprived the Church of its rights,
and the poor of the charities intended for them.

Bishop Quarter had now a charter for his new
College, and he wished next to establish an Eccle-
siastical Seminary, in which he might educate young
men for the holy ministry, in order to supply the
wants of his diocese. Great was the dearth of
clergymen in it, and all his energies were applied to
remove this very serious obstacle to his progress.
There was, however, a very great bar in the way of
the accomplishment of this his purpose and that
was the lack of means to erect the buildings. With
a view to procure this means, he left Chicago for
New York, early in the April of 1845. He was
absent about four months, and during that time
he collected a large sum of money, which enabled
him to commence the erection of the building. On
the 17th of October the foundation of the College
and Seminary was begun; so rapidly did the work
progress, that on the 2 id of November they were
under roof.

The amount of money that he had collected in
the diocese of New York, was not sufficient to
enable him to complete these buildings; and, in
order to do this, his pastoral of 1846 was directed
to his faithful clergymen, directing them to assist
him in his undertaking. He says:

"Although our holy religion advances daily and steadily,
under the protecting care of Divine Providence, and although

Rt. Rev. Wm. Quarter 59

the number of the clergy has been considerably increased within
the last two years, still are there several congregations in the
Diocese, deprived the whole year round of the consolations of
their Religion. There are many who have not the happiness
to assist even once in the twelve months at the Adorable
Sacrifice of the Mass; and numbers die annually without
receiving the last rites of the Church, especially in those months
when sickness is most prevalent in these Western States, and
all this because the clergymen are not as yet sufficiently numer-
ous in this diocese to have one stationed in each congregation.
Another melancholy evil arising also from the scarcity of clergy-
men, is, that the children of Catholic parents, in various sections
of the State, are suffered to grow up without any religious in-
struction. If the present, in their regard, be painful to reflect
upon, the future presents a dismal and a dreary aspect.

"It is not necessary that I make here reflections. The
naked facts cannot fail to touch every Christian heart. They
who have always enjoyed the consolations of their holy religion,
and who never experienced the agony occasioned by the absence
of a priest, especially when sickness, disease and death were
near, or had already smitten some of their friends or family,
cannot, perhaps, fully appreciate the sad and forlorn condition
of those around whom all those miseries have gathered. Still,
they cannot be so hardened as not to sympathize with their
afflicted brethren. They who have already tasted of this cup
of sorrows, know too well its bitterness to need a word of
explanation.

"Are those evils to remain, or shall no effort be made to re-
move them ? Will no effort be made to send to our brethren that
are far away from their father's house, and toiling in bondage,
an adviser, — a consoler, — yea, a deliverer? Will no effort
be made to secure a pious, a disinterested, a zealous clergy,
who may go to the exile in his lone hut, in his solitary and
desert home, with words of peace on their lips and blessings in
their train, to offer the Adorable Mysteries, to administer the
Sacraments, and to instruct in the ways of Salvation? To

6o Life of The

enable the Bishop to send missionaries where they are most
needed, will not the faithful generously co-operate and assist
with their means? Can any alms be better bestowed than
those which are given to have the poor relieved, the sick
visited, the afflicted and sorrowing, soothed and consoled, the
ignorant instructed, and the seeds of virtue planted in the
youthful breast ? Can any alms be more micritorious than those
which tend to preserve the soul from eternal ruin? Without
the charitable co-operation of the faithful throughout the
Diocese, little, comparatively, can be done by the Bishop;
with it, much can be effected. Were every adult Catholic in
the Diocese, or even every head of a family, to contribute but
one dollar annually towards the support of the Diocesan
Ecclesiastical Seminary, that has been in existence about two
years, soon could missionaries be sent to every congregation in
the Diocese. As yet, however, the Catholics of the Diocese
have contributed but little towards the support of this Eccle-
siastical Seminary. They are now requested to be more con-
siderate hereafter. They are emphatically requested to turn
their attention and to direct their charitable donations to an
Institution where the future priests of the Diocese are being,
and are to be, educated, and from whence many have already
gone forth to labour in the vineyard of the Lord. The Eccle-
siastical Seminary of the Diocese has to depend for support on
the voluntary contributions of the faithful. To it, in their turn,
are the faithful to look, both now and hereafter, for a supply
of zealous missionaries. Will they refuse then their fostering
care? Will they deny to it support, and still expect to have
clergymen sent to them when they are in need?"

Addressing each of his clergymen separately, he
entreats them to use their utmost exertions in
behalf of the new Seminary in order to sustain it.
He says :

"To you, Rev. and Dear Sir, do I confidently and unhesi-
tatingly entrust the task of explaining more fully to your

Rt. Rev. Wm. Quarter 6i

people, the vast importance to Religion of contributing towards
the support of our Ecclesiastical Seminary, — you know the
wants of the people — you have discovered how fast irreligion is
spreading, where religious instruction is not imparted — you
have heard, with aching heart, the God of Heaven blasphemed
— you have witnessed with sorrow the contempt shown for the
sacred institutions of Christ — you have seen with hrror and
dismay, the blood of Calvary that was shed for the redemption
of the world, impiously trodden under foot — your remonstrances
might have been fruitless, and you could only pray in the
words of your Divine Master: 'O Heavenly Father, forgive
them, for they know not what they do;' — you have seen Christians
transgress against all the commandments of God, and of his Holy
Church, and indulge in crimes, from the commission of which,
even Pagans would recoil — you discovered that the sacraments,
the channels through which the Grace of God was to be com-
municated to the souls of Christians, were neglected, and that
the Sinner, hardened in guilt, would rather suffer his immortal
soul to perish eternally, than forsake the evil of his ways. At
the sight of these evils your soul melted in anguish, and you
desired and prayed that you might behold, in the midst of this
erring people, an Apostolic Priesthood, who by their pious,
assiduous, and disinterested labours, might reclaim them again
to God, and give them back sightly plants to the vineyard of his
Holy Church; you have experienced, moreover, how great are
the toils, how many the privations, and how few the earthly
consolations of our small but very zealous body of Clergymen;
you felt that an increase of numbers was much needed, needed
to aid and assist those already engaged in the toilsome labours
of the missions, that their valuable lives may not be shortened
by over-exertion, and that the vineyard of the Lord may be
cultivated properly, and in every part, that for heaven may be
reaped hereafter a rich harvest of those souls for whose salvation
Christ shed his precious blood.

"Because of these motives, you will concur, and heartily
aid in the success of this holy work.

62 Life of The

"The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with your spirit.
** fWILLIAM, Bishop of Chicago.

"Given at Chicago, Feast of St. Francisl
Xaverius, Dec. 4, 1846." J

These eloquent appeals never failed to find an
echo in their hearts ; for so did this body of clergymen
love their Bishop, that it was enough for them to
know what was his will or wish, in order to set about
gratifying it.

Rt. Rev. Wm. Quarter 63

CHAPTER V.

FROM THE COMMENCEMENT OF THE SECOND YEAR OF HIS
EPISCOPACY UNTIL HIS DEATH. 1 845 — 1 848.

During the first year of his mission that was
now passed, he had surmounted all the difficulties
that threatened his outset. His Cathedral was
finished and paid for ; his College and Seminary were
in progress; he had supplied with pastors many
missions hitherto deprived of the consolation of
religion; and although he came to a Diocese almost
stripped of clergymen, he had now a goodly array
with which to battle against the powers of darkness.
He had ordained seven young men, and occasionally
an American or an Irish or a German priest would
find his way to this far-out corner of the Church,
adding to his numbers and his strength.

As the clergymen who could minister to the
spiritual wants of the people increased, so did the
numbers of the people increase. Catholics began
now to pour in from other and distant states and
countries; and St. Mary's Church was already too
small to contain all the worshippers that came up to
bow their hearts and bend their knees before her holy
altar. A new church was required to accommodate
them, and on the loth of March, 1846, the frame of
St. Patrick's Church, on the west side of the Chicago
River, was erected by the Very Rev. Walter Quarter,
who was the first pastor of it.

64 ^if^ of The

In the same month was commenced the erection
of two Catholic German churches, one on the north
side and the other on the south side of the main
river.

Immediately after the return of the Bishop
from the Provincial Council of Baltimore, which was
held in this year, he opened his new Seminary. He
had at the same time the satisfaction of witnessing
the completion of the first monument of his enter-
prise. The last touch of the painter's brush had
been given to his new University, and on the fourth
of July it was opened with appropriate ceremonies
for the reception of pupils.

Its career commenced with two professors
and two teachers, and sixteen pupils. It gradually
progressed until he had the happiness, even during
his life, of witnessing the success of his undertaking,
of seeing the "sapling become the oak tree" — and
now there are eleven professors employed by the
University, four tutors, and the number of pupils is
125.

The course of instruction is as extensive as is
given in the best Colleges in the United States, and
some of the departments are more practical than
are to be found elsewhere, while the college-fee is
only 1 50 dollars per annum.

The location is a beautiful and healthy one, just
on the borders of Lake Michigan; and the ample
grounds and the extensive meadows in the vicinity
afford students ample opportunity of enjoying
healthful exercise and abundant recreation in the

Rt. Rev. Wm. Quarter 65

free, open air — while the College itself, though
situated within the city limits, is far enough removed
from the business-part to make it favourable to the
pursuits of study.

He had now completed his College, his Seminary,
the two Catholic English churches of St. Mary's and
St. Patrick's, the two Catholic German churches of
St. Peter and St. Joseph in the city, and the diocese
was in a flourishing condition. But there was yet
a want unsupplied. The male youths of the congre-
gation were furnished with good schools and proper
facilities for receiving instruction ; the female portion
had as yet no such facilities. But if they were
unprovided, it was not because he did not feel the
necessity of such provision, but because it could not
possibly have been sooner made.

No man living was more deeply impressed with
the necessity of a proper training for the female
youth than Bishop Quarter. He knew that to
them, as mothers, wives and daughters, would in a
great measure be entrusted the character of his
people. He knew that the society in which they
might mingle, would bear the character they would
stamp upon it, and that by his mother would the
man be marked for weal or wo. It is true that
those female children whose parents could watch
over them, might fulfil their expectations; but
what would have become of the female poor, whose
parents, in their hard struggle for bread, had no
time to devote to them, and could not provide them
with instructors? How could these ever hope to

66 Life of The

rise above their low condition, or how could they
pass the fiery ordeal unscathed, when the myriads
of temptations, to which a life of poverty and
destitution exposes them, were around them like
harpies? How would they escape, when unpro-
tected by proper religious instructions which would
serve as their safeguards?

Though there are schools for the poor, with
well-paid teachers fattening on the spoils wrung
from the people in the way of taxation yet experience
has demonstrated beyond the possibility of contra-
diction, that the morals of the poor who frequent
these schools are not improved. Indeed, improve-
ment under the head of morals should not be expected
from them. — How can teachers in the world, pursuing
a wordly life, root out the seeds of vice and impiety
sown, deeply sown, amid the haunts of intemperance
and impurity? They cannot reach the disorder,
for they are not clothed with the sanctity that will
permit them to probe to the bottom the festering
wounds that are gangrening upon the face of society,
and, therefore, they cannot apply the remedy; but
the Catholic Church, the mother of the unfortunate,
has within her pale, communities of men and
women who have no worldly aims in view, and who
devote themselves to this sacrifice of love: the
bringing back into the fold the strayed sheep of the
flock, and sending them forth again, that their
example may improve their associates, and make
them better.

Rt. Rev. Wm. Quarter 67

In order then to supply this want — to procure a
community of female religious, who would instruct
and educate the female children, Bishop Quarter
applied to Bishop O'Connor of Pittsburg, from
whom he received a branch of the order of the
Sisters of Mercy, established in that city. On the
23d of September, five members of the order of
Mercy, accompanied by their superioress. Sister
Mary, Francis Ward and Very Rev. Walter Quarter,
who had been commissioned by the Bishop to
conduct them, reached Chicago. — They were Sisters
Mary Agatha O'Brien, the superioress of the New
Foundation, Mary Vincent McGirr, Mary Gertrude
McGuire, Mary Eliza Corbitt, and Mary Eva
Smidt. This small community entered at once
upon their mission of Mercy, dispensing the rich
stores of earthly acquirements they had gained in
the world, and of unearthly riches they had amassed
while clothed with the habiliments of their new
vocation.

As an instance of the regard for the happiness of
all around him, and the total absence of all considera-
tions for self, it will not be out of place to here
observe, that on the day on which the Sisters
arrived, the Bishop conducted them around the
church, and the building that was to be their convent.
This was a low one-story house, neither very con-
venient nor of very captivating appearance, but it
was the best he had to offer them. It had been his
own residence, and poor as it was, it was a palace
compared with the one to which he himself removed.

68 Life of The

when he resigned it to them for their convent.
Could you have seen him as he passed that round,
watching to catch but one expression of satisfaction
upon the countenances of the Sisters, you would
have pitied him had it not been given. That night
he did not retire at all : his anxiety banished sleep
from his eyelids; for he feared that they might be
disappointed at not finding things in better order
for their coming. Next morning, however, while
seated conversing with their superioress, he heard
in their community-room the joyous laugh, which
could come only from the contented heart: clasping
his hands as he rose from his seat, he exclaimed:
"Now indeed I am satisfied; that laugh could not
have come from the dissatisfied."

Dear Bishop Quarter, could there have been one
around thee that had witnessed thy self-denial, —
thy willing poverty, for Christ's sake, — thy patience,
thy meekness, thy anxious efforts in behalf of the
people committed to thy charge, and have been
unwilling to have divided with thee the dry bread
that was at times thy only sustenance — that would
not have been willing to have shared with thee a
poverty that left thee but one dime to be called thy
own, on that day when God summoned thee to
himself?

The schools of the Sisters of Mercy were at once
opened, and well attended; and already the good
effects of the wise policy of Bishop Quarter are
beginning to be experienced. Who can estimate the
incalculable benefits that will result from this

Rt. Rev. Wm. Quarter 69

policy in days and years yet to come? God only.

Having now the household of his Diocese in
order, he summoned a Diocesan Synod of his
clergymen: of these, thirty-two were present and
nine absent in consequence of ill health, or bad
roads. — This Synod met in Chicago, in the April of
this year, and with his assistance formed the Statutes
of the Diocese. Forty-one clergymen already in
this new Diocese! How must Bishop Quarter have,
laboured, to have gathered around him so many
disciples, worthy disciples of the fishermen of
Galilee! — men of every country and clime, come
hither to dispense the glad tidings of salvation, —
sending up like incense to the throne of heaven, the
praises of their Creator, — and raising loudly their
voices amid the late solemn silence of the wilderness,
or by the side of the streams that had hitherto
hymned up their everlasting anthems unchorussed
by the voice of mortal man!

The convent of the Sisters of Mercy was now too
small for the accommodation of the numbers that
flocked to their schools, and he therefore commenced
and completed, during this the last year of his life,
the large and convenient building at present occupied
by the Sisters of Mercy as their Convent and
Academy. It was incorporated by the legislature
in 1846, and possesses a most ample charter. The
building is located in the most beautiful and healthy
part of the city, and but one square removed from
the beach. In front of it stretches away, as far

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as the eye can reach, the waters of the beautiful
Lake Michigan.

The course of instruction is the same as that
given in the best female schools in the country.
Ten Sisters are constantly engaged in this Academy.
The foundation was begun with five Sisters: there
are now sixteen members in the community, and
seven applicants who will be received very shortly.
Scarce has two years elapsed from the time this
little colony was sent out by the Bishop of Pittsburg,
until it had reached the maturity of many old
foundations. Upwards of two hundred pupils attend
the schools of the Sisters of Mercy in Chicago.

On the 1 1 th of November the Theological
Conferences were established by Bishop Quarter,
first in America. These Conferences are held twice
a year, at Chicago, Alton, and Galena. All the
clergymen in the Diocese assemble at them, and
are questioned on certain tracts of Theology desig-
nated by the Master of the Conference. Questions
appertaining to the holy calling and ministerial
duties of the Clergymen — regarding the Rubrics of
the Roman Missal and the Statutes of the Diocese —
are discussed at these Conferences. The advantages
derived from them are, that they keep the doctrines
of the Church, and the proofs, fresh in the minds of
the teachers of the people: so that at any moment
they may be prepared to give a reason for the
truth of their teachings. The establishment of
these "Conferences" showed alike his energy and
judgment in providing for the welfare of the Church.

Rt. Rev. Wm. Quarter 7/

He eagerly encouraged every means that might
enhance the spiritual welfare of every member of
his flock, and with this view he directed the Sisters
of Mercy to establish a Sodality of the Blessed
Virgin, by means of which the female children
might be gathered together, in order to instruct
them in their religious duties more thoroughly than
could be done otherwise; and in his last pastoral,
from which I have already quoted, he urged upon
his clergymen the advantages of establishing Sodali-
ties of the same kind in their congregations, where
such had not been as yet done. He says:

'"We earnestly recommend the clergy to establish in their
congregations, if they have not already done so, "the Confra-
ternity of the Rosary,' or of 'the Immaculate Heart of Mary;'
and we as strongly recommend to the faithful to become
members, and to endeavor to partake of the spiritual benefits
and privileges granted to those societies. Let parents urge
their children also to join those religious societies, and soon will
they discover the happy results, in their obedience, gentleness,
tractableness, and faithful attention to their Christian duties."

For the same purpose, he directed the instructors
in the Academy of St. Joseph, to form among the
male children of the Academy a St. Joseph's Society :

"The exalted virtues of St. Joseph, and the dignified privi-
leges he obtained, not only convince us 'how wonderful is God
in his Saints,' but demand from us a relative devotion due to so
faithful a servant. And if our Heavenly Father has elected him
to watch over the tender years of His Divine Son, and to be his
protector; and if He has placed under his patronage and guard-
ianship, the Blessed Virgin, mother of the same Divine Redeemer
how pleased must not be this Heavenly Father to see us, his
'little ones', place ourselves under his protection and patronage.

72 Life of The

The end then of this 'Society' is, that the members cultivate
the devotion due to St. Joseph; invoke his intercession, and
regulate their lives in such a way, as that they may be worthy
to adopt him as their Patron. In order the more fully to
attain this end, the devotion to the Blessed Virgin, styled
'full of grace,' is particularly recommended. Another end of
this 'Society' is, to collect together at convenient times the
pupils of the 'Academy,' and such boys and adults as frequent
the Sunday School kept there, that instructions may be given
them in the principles of the Religion they profess, and in the
doctrines of morality they are bound to practise."

I have said, that he laboured for the spiritual
welfare of all his people. He laboured also for their
temporal welfare, and particularly for that of his
Irish fellow-citizens. His heart clung fondly, O, how
fondly! to the memories of the past. The associa-
tions of his young years were woven round that
heart, which yearned with the tenderest regard
towards the poor and persecuted exiles, that sought
beneath this happier clime a home and a resting-
place. He laboured earnestly and zealously to
improve their condition in this country of their
adoption, in order to make them worthy the glorious
privileges they here enjoyed. He saw them, having
escaped the blood-hounds of power, met as they
landed upon the shores of the New World, by the
harpies that watched for them. He knew the
feelings of their generous hearts, and that they had
learned at home to love America, her institutions,
amd her people : but I say he saw them met, as they
landed, by the sharpers, and plundered by them of
the little left them; and where they had hoped for

Rt. Rev. Wm. Quarter 73

succor, they were beggared in the moment of their
confidence, and thrown pennyless in a strangers*
land upon the cold charity of the world.

Such was the fate from which Bishop Quarter
wished to save this people. He wished to see
them no longer the tools of the designing; — he
wished to see them stand forth among their fellow
freemen in the majesty of their nature, asserting the
old dignity of which ages of oppression had not
altogether deprived them : and therefore he originated
the Chicago Hibernian Benevolent Emigrant Society.
This association was gotten up to bid the stranger
welcome to his new home — to guard him from
imposition — to advise and to direct him — to furnish
him with timely charity, if need be. The advantages
which the immigrant derives from such associations
are known only to those who may have been benefited
by them, and many an one will now be found to
bless the memory of Bishop Quarter for benefits
derived from this Chicago Society.

During Lent he was engaged in delivering a
series of Lectures upon the marks of the True
Church. — On Passion Sunday he lectured at last
mass in the Cathedral on her Apostolicity, and while
he, the apostle of this young church, stood in that
pulpit, making, as it were, his own profession of
faith; as the burning words fell from his lips, who
could have imagined the catastrophe that was
impending?

On leaving the pulpit, he felt very much fatigued ;
and at vespers, his voice, as he gave his last blessing

7^ Life of The

to his people, was remarked to want its usual full
tone; but in the evening he conversed with his
friends, in as lively a manner as usual. He ate a
light supper, and retired early, remarking, however,
to Rev. Mr. McElhearne, who resided in the house
with him, that he did not feel as well as usual; but
that he thought sleep would revive him.

About 2 o'clock in the morning of the tenth of
April, Mr. McElhearne was awakened by his
moans, and hurrying instantly to the Bishop's
apartment, found him seated on the edge of his
bed.— He complained of a very severe pain in his
head. Rapidly his strength seemed failing, and
with a prudence worthy of imitation, this zealous
young clergymen proceeded, having sent for medical
aid, to administer to his Bishop all those consolations
which the Church affords to her departing children.

Scarce had this duty been accomplished, when,
having uttered the words, "Lord have mercy on my
poor soul," the Bishop fell over into a deep slumber.
— So thought those around him: but alas! it was a
sleep that knew no awakening!

When 1 entered his room, his devoted clergymen
of the city were around him; and though no relative
was there to receive his last sigh, there were those
beside him who loved him dearly, very dearly.
Not a word was spoken as I passed to the bed side.
The dear Bishop lay as if in a quiet slumber. I
reached for his arm; explored the wrist for the
pulse; but there was no pulse, and the cold hand
dropped from my grasp. I placed my ear upon the

Rt. Rev. Wm. Quarter 75

chest, to ascertain whether life might not be yet
standing, tottering upon the threshold of eternity:
but I listened in vain. The spirit had departed
from its earthly tenement — had shaken off its
mortal shackles — had passed the bourne: and that
lately warm and noble heart had ceased its pulsations
forever! — the tongue that pleaded so eloquently for
the truths he taught, would plead no more.

I knew that for him life's volume was closed,
but how could I speak that knowledge? What a
scene of woe would one simple word disclose! Oh
how truly is it, that to us is given the power to
cause the blush of hope to mantle the pale cheek, or
to speak the words that will make it paler still ! and
how painfully did I feel this as I turned from that
bed and whispered the word, "Dead!" — and ere my
startled ear recovered from the shock that whisper
made on silence, it was re-echoed amid the tears and
the lamentations even of those without! He was
dead! Yes, there he lay calmly and quietly, as in
sweet repose. His spirit had passed away like the
zephyr's breath, and there was a lingering smile
upon his cold lip, that told how happily.

In less than an hour the news of his death had
spread over the whole city, and in the evidences of
deep regret and consternation in the face of each
passer-by, you might have read the sorrow and the
surprise that were so general. The people began to
crowd around his residence at an early hour, to
obtain a look of all that was left of their Bishop.

■/6 Life of 1 he

Dressed in full pontificals, his remains were
exposed in his residence until 2 o'clock of the second
day after his death. Here they were visited by all
his flock, and by every respectable and liberal
protestant in the city ; also by some of the protestant
clergymen, which mark of respect, while it showed
the regard in which the Bishop was universally held,
did honour to their hearts, testifying, for them, that
difference in belief had not smothered Christian
charity. So great was the crowd of persons who
thus visited his remains, that two days were occupied
in allowing them to see him by turns.

At two o'clock on the 12th, his body was removed
to his Cathedral, where it remained in state, upon
the Catafalque erected for the purpose of supporting
it. It was placed immediately without the sanc-
tuary, and in front of the altar. Upon the coffin
were deposited the insignia of his office. The
widowed Church had on her robes of mourning.

During the time that the body remained thus
exposed, masses were being offered up for the repose
of his soul, or the solemn office for the dead was
being chanted within the sanctuary. At the solemn
high mass of each day the full-toned organ poured
forth the Requiem, adding yet deeper solemnity to
the warning which the example before us gave:
Prepare and keep your houses ready, for you know
not the day nor the hour wherein the Son of man
Cometh !

At 3 o'clock on Friday, the Feast of the Seven
Dolors, the funeral ceremonies commenced. The

Rt. Rev. Wm. Quarter 77

church was crowded to suffocation at an early hour,
and multitudes were unable to enter at all ; so great
was the desire to witness the last sad rites that she
pays to those who have been the shepherds of her
sheepfold. The office for the dead was chanted by
the large body of his faithful clergymen, who had
gathered in from their different parishes, to pay their
last duties to the remains of their Bishop, whom they
so dearly loved. When the office was concluded.
Rev. Mr. Feely, then of Peoria, now of Elgin,
pronounced an eloquent funeral oration, recalling
vividly to the minds of all, the character and virtues
of the deceased prelate.

At half past four o'clock, the procession formed
to conduct the body to its resting-place. First
came the clergymen and ecclesiastical students —
then the body, borne by six priests — then the
students of the University — then the pupils of the
Academy of St. Francis Xavier — then followed the
people of all denominations, sexes, and sizes. It
passed out of the church; wound round to the rear,
where a tomb had been prepared for it beneath the
sanctuary, and in front of the altar which himself
had reared. The ceremony was orderly and im-
posing. And when the clergymen in their white
surplices, with lighted candles in their hands, and
the beautiful little children of the Academy, dressed
in white, reminding one of guardian angels, watching
to protect us, stood with lighted candles in their
hands around the tomb, while the body was being
committed to its kindred earth, the effect was beyond

j8 Life of The

description. All was as still as the grave itself, and
each eye was entranced, as if some vision from a
better world had suddenly disclosed itself; until
the sound of the coffin touching the bottom of the
vault re-echoed through the chamber: then, while
stifled sobs and groans were heard amid the tears
that chased each other down the cheek of childhood
and youth — over the pale face of beauty — the sun-
burnt visage of manhood and the wrinkled front of
age — the vision around that tomb faded away !

The ceremonies were ended, the vault was
closed, and the seal was placed upon its entrance,
guarding the remains of the great and the good man
who reposes there in the hope of resurrection, until
the archangel shall sound the trumpet, calling up
the dead to judgment. Then will we meet again:
— He, the Pastor who taught us our duty to our
God, our country, and our race; and we, the people
who will be obliged to answer for the manner in
which we have practised his teaching. It will then
be well for us, if we have followed and profited by
his example.

Rt. Rev. Wm. Quarter 79

CHAPTER VI.

REVIEW OF HIS LABOURS; HIS CHARACTER. — CONCLUSION.

Thus died Bishop Quarter, in the prime of his
life, and at the very threshold of his usefulness. Yet
short as was his career, it was brilliant almost
beyond example. — His life was not undisturbed by
storms, but in their midst he heard a voice that the
world does not hear, and his frail bark was guided by
a hand more powerful than the mightiest ocean
surge.

Amid all his trials, he kept steadily in view the
great object of his mission; and when he expounded
that holy book to the weary and the heavily bur-
dened; when he spoke of the healing of the blind,
the lame, the palsied, the leper, and the beggar;
when he repeated the sentence of the pardon of God
the Father to the woman stained with shame; and
when he told that upon the cross the malefactor, in
his last hour, obtained the forgiveness of Christ;
when he spoke of the ministry of God, the Son,
upon earth, who from his birth to his death shared
the griefs and sorrows of our life, sweetly compas-
sionating our woes, and pleading with his heavenly
Father for our redemption; could you, dear reader,
have seen him then, with his sparkling eyes upturned
to heaven, with that wistful gaze of hopeful reverence
pleading for pardon for his people in the earnestness

8o Life of The

of his heart, you could not doubt the result of such
a mission.

Great was the loss sustained by the city and the
Diocese, indeed by the whole Church, in his death.
Many of his purposes were for a time retarded.
Already had arrangements been made by him for
adding to the spacious building of the University,
another one of brick, double the size of the present
one. The Convent and Academy of the Sisters of
Mercy was to have been increased to double its
present dimensions. The ground was laid out for
the erection of a Charity Hospital, and for an
Orphan Asylum, and the contract had been entered
into for publishing a Catholic newspaper in this city.
These were all suspended at once; for the master-
spirit was gone !

A new foundation of the Sisters of Mercy in
Galena was projected by him, and the necessary
building purchased. This plan of his, as well as
every other one possible under the circumstances,
was carried out by his worthy brother, the Admin-
istrator of the diocese, and on the 28th of May, six
Sisters departed for this mission.

The day after his death, the following eloquent
tribute to his memory, from the pen of a cherished
Protestant friend, S. Lisle Smith, esq., appeared in
the Chicago Journal :

On Monday morning, at 3 o'clock, William Quarter,
Bishop of Cliicago, yielded up his spirit to his Maker. On the
preceding beautiful Sabbath morning, this faithful servant of
God stood in the house consecrated to the worship of the Most

Rt. Rev. Wm. Quarter 8i

High, and there, before his beloved people, fervently proclaimed
the oracles of life.

Scarce had that Sabbath sun gilded with its rays the evening
cloud, ere his ransomed spirit joined in the melody of the
heavenly choir.

To-day, the wise, the gifted, the beloved pastor, is leading
his flock beside the still waters of Salvation; — to-morrow, the
eloquent voice is still — the beaming eye is closed — the generous
heart no longer pulsates, and all that remains of him, on earth,
is the cold and senseless corpse.

Truly the ways of Providence are inscrutable. — Truly,
"God moves in a mysterious way
His wonders to perform."

In the midst of extensive usefulness — in the midst of a
congregation, by whom he was beloved — in the midst of a com-
munity, by whom he was respected — in the very prime of a
mature and active manhood, a true — a sincere — a devoted
Christian, is, almost without a moment's warning, called away
to his Father's House. Surely this dispensation of an all-wise
Providence, should not fall listelessly upon our ears.

It is not our purpose (for we cannot obtain the materials)
to write an extended obituary of this truly good, and eminently
distinguished man. Other, and abler pens than ours, will,
doubtless, prepare an account of his useful life, and others will
do ample justice, to those virtues and graces which adorned his
simple, but lovely character.

It was however our good fortune to have become acquainted
with Bishop Quarter soon after his arrival in Chicago, and we
esteem it now a most fortunate circumstance, that we enjoyed
frequent opportunities of improving that acquaintance.

By nature, Bishop Quarter was endowed with talents of a
high order; and laboriously had the natural powers of his mind
been cultivated by unremitting industry. Strong and decided
in the advocacy of his own religious opinions, he was always
tolerant of the opinions of others. Charity seemed to be the
ruling trait of his character.

82 Life of The

In all his tastes and habits, he was simple. Enterprising
and perservering, he was diligently employed in advancing the
interests of the Church of which he was a bright ornament, and
in beautifying and adorning our city, by the erection of Schools,
and Colleges, and Cathedrals. He was an enthusiastic friend
of education, and proved his devotion, by contributing his own
small private fortune to the advancement of that noble cause.

As a divine, he was learned, logical and profound; as a
scholar, he was ripe and matured; as a friend, he was true and
unselfish; as a Christian, he was faithful, humble, and sincere.

In the social circle, he was beloved by all who knew him.
In his public sphere of duty, he was universally admired and
respected. Enemies he had none; for his kind and gentle spirit
disarmed opposers, and converted them into warm and devoted
friends.

Such a man's departure to another sphere, is a great
calamity. Who can supply his place? Who can in so short a
sojourn in a land of strangers, again make so many true and
sincere friends?

But he is gone — gone to his great reward. Peace to his
ashes. Honour to his memory !

But who will break the tidings to that aged father, whose
hoary locks have long been ripening for the grave? Who shall
comfort that bereaved sister, and that afflicted brother? Alas!
our pen is arrested. — Our hearts are full. *****

"Many die as sudden — not as safe."

The remains of Bishop Quarter lie beneath the
Sanctuary, in front of the Altar of his Cathedral.
They are enclosed in a vault purposely erected for
their reception. The body was embalmed by the
writer of this memoir. It is enclosed in three coffins :
the inner one is of black walnut, with a silver cross
upon it bearing the following inscription :

Rt. Rev. Wm. Quarter 83

"Rt. Rev. William Quarter, D. D., First Bishop
of Chicago. Consecrated March loth, 1844: Died
April loth, 1848. Requiescat in Pace."

The vault is built of brick, and lined with water-
proof cement. Upon the top of it, and even with the
floor of the Cathedral, is placed a beautiful white
marble cross, about six feet long. Upon the top
part of this cross is engraved in bas-relief the Bible
and the Missal surrounded with a halo of glory.
Resting upon these are the Cross and the Crosier
and the Mitre, and underneath the whole, and joined
by a band in the centre, are two laurel wreaths,
which extend round the design so as to embrace
three parts of it. On the horizontal part of the
cross is engraved in raised Roman letters the follow-
ing inscription :

"Rt. Rev. William Quarter, D. D., First Bishop
of Chicago. Conscrated March loth, 1844: died
April loth, 1848: aged 42 years."

On the lower end is engraved in sunk letters the

following: -Requiescat in Pace."

At the head of the cross, and in the step of the
altar, is a marble step, about two feet four inches
long, on the rises of which is a scroll bearing the
following inscription:

"Pretiosa in Consepectu Domini, mors sanctorum
ejus."

The regard of the congregation of St. Mary's
for their Bishop is evinced in their liberality, which
has erected a beautiful Cenotaph to his memory.

84 -Li/^s of The

To this work the protestants of the city contributed
generously, and of their number Miss Mary A.
Merritt, a young poetess of rare gifts, has given a
volume of her beautiful poems, the proceeds of the
sale of which are to be added to the contributions
already given. It is built after the style of similar
monuments in the churches of Europe. It stands
in the south wall of the Cathedral, within about two
feet of the south altar, and is seven feet four inches
high, by four feet three inches wide, projecting
eight inches from the face of the wall. The whole
stands upon two pgee trusses placed about four feet
from the floor. Resting on these is a small projecting
base, upon which stands two plain pilasters, sur-
mounted by plain caps and a plain Roman arch, the
faces of which are on a level with the wall forming
the inner recess. Upon this arch is engraved in
bold Roman letters:

"Gloria in excelsis Deo."

In the rear of the arch and of the pilasters, and
constituting the recess, stands the back plate, upon
which is engraved in bold bas-relief — the Bible, the
Missal, the halo of glory, the Cross, the Crosier, the
Mitre, and the laurel wreath, as before described.
This recess is twenty-one inches wide, and four feet
eight inches in height. Outside of the foregoing
work are the wall plates, slightly Gothic on the top.

These plates rest upon the outer end of the base
before mentioned, projecting two and a half inches
from the wall. Against these and the plain pilasters
stand a pair of pilasters projecting outwards about

Rt. Rev. Wm. Quarter 8$

six inches, under and upon which are Grecian bases
and capitals. The principal mouldings on the
caps are ornamented with cornice-leaf engravings,
and upon the outside pilasters is sculptured an
inverted flambeau in bold bas-relief, and ornamented.
These pilasters and caps are surmounted by a
Roman arch and key-stone. The principal moulding
on the arch is ornamented with cornice-leaf
engravings.

Between the outside pilasters and resting upon
the base stands the Sarcophagus, the height of which
is three feet four inches, and the width three feet five
inches. The mouldings on the caps are ornamented
with leaf-engravings. On the face of the Sarco-
phagus is sculptured heavy folds of drapery, under
and between which is engraved in raised Roman
capitals, the following inscription :

"Rt. Rev. William Quarter, D. D., First Bishop
of Chicago."

On the top of the Sarcophagus stands a richly
ornamented Urn, fifteen inches high; the whole
presenting a most beautiful and striking appearance
as you approach the altar from the door of the
church.

All this work, which does credit as well to the
skill of the workmen as to the city in which it was
done, was manufactured at the shop of A. S. Sher-
man, out of the finest American marble.

Feebly, however, does this monument speak the
feelings of the hearts of those who placed it there;
still it speaks in language not to be mistaken: and

86 Life of The

while one Catholic of those that loved him whose
memory it perpetuates, comes to bow before St.
Mary's Altar, as his eye rests upon that marble
tribute, he will offer up to God his earnest supplica-
tions for the happy repose of the soul of Bishop
Quarter.

In reviewing his brief but brilliant career, every
one will be astonished at the vast amount of labour
performed by him in so short a time. The condition
of the diocese on his arrival has been already noticed.
Its condition imm.ediately before his death, and his
determination to improve it farther, is thus described
in his last pastoral address :

"The great increase in the number of the Catholic popula-
tion of this city may be inferred from the following facts: In
the year 1844, when we took possession of this See, there was
only one Catholic church in the city of Chicago. There are
now four, together with the chapel of "the Holy Name of
Jesus," attached to "the University of St. Mary of the Lake."
This one Catholic church, then under roof, but not finished,
accommodated all the Catholics on Sundays. The German
Catholics, the Irish and American Catholics, assembled within
its walls to assist at the divine mysteries, and were not pressed
for room. The German Catholic churches of St. Peter and
St. Joseph have since been built; the Catholic church of St.
Patrick also, which has lately been enlarged by an addition
capable of containing as many as the original edifice. The
University of St. Mary of the Lake has been built within that
time, to which is attached the chapel of the Holy Name of
Jesus; as also the Convent of "the Sisters of Mercy," which
has its domestic chapel. Now, all those places, set apart for
the worship of God, and for the celebration of the august
sacrifice of the Mass, are crowded every Sunday to overflowing
with Catholics. What stronger proof is needed of the great

Rt. Rev. Wm. Quarter 87

and rapid increase of Catholics in this city? But not only in
Chicago, but throughout the diocese, is the increase of Catholics
apparent. Within the last few years. Catholics have purchased
here Congress and other lands to a large amount ; and in various
parts of the State of Illinois are townships owned chiefly by
Catholics.— Immigration from Ireland, from Canada, and from
Catholic portions of Germany, has contributed much to this
result; nor is there, to all appearance, any likelihood that the
numbers of such immigrants will be diminished this year, or for
years to come. Indeed, the calculation is, that there will be a
larger immigration of Catholics to this State the present year,
than any preceding one.

"There is no privation so keenly felt by the Catholic
emigrant, as the want of a Catholic church, and the absence of a
Catholic priest from the place where they fix their abode, in a
new and to them strange country. We shall use our best
efforts that they experience no such privations. We shall
endeavour that they have, everywhere in the diocese, the
consolations of their holy religion."

During the period of his episcopacy he ordained
twenty-nine priests; built thirty churches, ten of
which were either of brick or of stone. He began
his labours with six clergymen in his diocese, and not
one ecclesiastical student; he left it with fifty-three
clergymen and twenty ecclesiastical students. And
on all the improvements made by him in Chicago,
there was noi due one cent of debt'

What Catholic can look upon this young Diocese
without exultation? Here in these wilds, where,
but a brief period since, the savage yelled his startling

war-whoop
council fire

— where curled up the smoke of his
-where he honoured the Manitou with

human sacrifices and the war-dance ; — is now hymned

88 Life of The

the praises of the God of the Savage and the
Christian, — is reared the altar upon which the pure
holocaust is daily offered up, and far above the tall
prairie grass, and resting upon the horizon, is the
emblem of man's redemption, the sign to the way-
worn traveller that civilization is at hand ; — the sign
to the pilgrim, wearied on his journey towards the
grave, that the haven where he may rest is hard by.

And here through these wilds passed this mes-
senger of truth on his episcopal visitations which
were yearly made, bearing the glad tidings of salva-
tion to his people; — proclaiming the precepts of the
Gospel and Christ, and breaking the bread of life to
those hungering by the way side ; — building churches,
establishing missions, and placing over them zealous
pastors who might labour for that people's good.

It is true that he experienced much difficulty in so
establishing many of these missions, as that his
priests might be enabled to obtain from them a bare
subsistence. — In many places the settlements were
thinly populated; the settlers but recently arrived,
and with means so scanty as barely to enable them
to provide for the immediate wants of their little
families, and therefore unable, no matter what their
desire, to contribute any thing considerable for
religious purposes. Still he struggled on, and God
blessed his perseverance.

He himself set the example which that faithful
priesthood followed; and though their support was
bare indeed, they complained not, but cheerfully
laboured in poverty and in privations, while they

Rt. Rev. Wm. Quarter 8q

knew that the condition of their Bishop was no
better than their own.

The settlement of Bishop Quarter reminds us
of a husbandman going upon a new and uncultivated
farm, with very limited resources and a full-grown
family, and where there is no dwelling and but a
few implements of husbandry. There is stir and
bustle and confusion and effort, to build here, — to
clear there, — to plant in another place. By and by
the farm-house will be reared, the farm in a high
state of cultivation, and well stocked; the fields will
soon contribute their rich and abundant harvest, the
family will quietly enjoy the fruits of their former
industry, and comfort and happiness will reign around
the mansion. If the thought that he may not live
to reap the fruits of his toil should flit across the
father's mind, he does not on that account relax his
efforts; but he labours on for his children's sake;
for his posterity. In imagination he sees them
dwelling amid plenty, when his resting place is in
the wet earth beneath the green sod.

The people were the children of Bishop Quarter;
and though he might not live to gather the rich
harvest from the seed he had sown, he yet did not
cease to scatter that seed with a full hand; but he
saw his children happy and enjoying the full benefits
of their holy faith, their children growing up in
virtue and innocence; — the fruit watered copiously
by the stream "flowing fast by the oracle of God,"
and he saw too the angels gathering up the immense

go Life of The

ears of the ripened grain, and storing them away in
the granaries of heaven.

He heeded not the toil nor the labour. The
glory of God and the salvation of souls urged him
onward, and for these great ends "he travelled by
day and by night, in the wintery cold and under
the scorching rays of the summer's sun, exposed to
the dangers of the swollen river, of the storms and
of the rain, and cheerfully partook of the humblest
fare, glad to repose his wearied frame upon the
floor of the poor man's hut." And as an instance
of how faithfully he discharged every duty belonging
to his ministry, I may observe, that during the last
winter of his life he said mass every morning in the
Convent for the Sisters of Mercy; and no matter
how pleasant or unpleasant it might be, the hour of
five o'clock found him at the altar offering up the
holy sacrifice.

He was, without being rash, a naturally
courageous, even a fearless man. After the destruc-
tion of the Convent at Charlestown by a band of
midnight incendiaries, mobs became the order of
the day; even New York was threatened with their
pious efforts to demolish popish temples — with a
repetition of scenes that have stained the escutcheon
of Massachusetts forever; and while one of these
popular gatherings was tossed and heaving like an
angry sea beneath the windows of his residence,
preparing to destroy the church opposite to him, he
was seated in his study, writing his charity sermon
to be delivered for the benefit of the Eastern Dis-

Rt. Rev. Wm. Quarter 9/

pensary, a Protestant institution; and when Rev.
Mr. Danaher, his assistant, entering his room and
finding him thus occupied, expressed his astonish-
ment at so much calmness and composure, while
all around was commotion and confusion, Mr.
Quarter raised his eyes from his manuscript for a
moment, while he replied in his usual bland manner
— "It is time enough to think of escaping when we
are attacked."

He was a faithful soldier of Jesus Christ, endowed
with extraordinary moral courage, and he knew no
impossibilities. Any thing once determined by
him was half accomplished. Thought and action
went hand in hand, and his purposes would be
effected while many thought they had not yet
been shaped. — His eye, once fixed on any object
for religious good, never lost sight of it.

His powerful mind comprehended the most
knotty questions almost at a glance, and although
his career was one of constant labour, one in which
he could repose only upon his arms, yet he was always
prepared "to give a reason for the faith that was
in him."

He possessed an extraordinary power over men's
minds. Though surrounded by clergymen of dis-
tinguished abilities, yet his judgment was supreme;
and so great was their confidence in his powers of
mental perception, that it was always deferred to.

He was an affectionate and faithful pastor to his
people, entering cheerfully into the examination of
their wants, and struggling with his best energies to

92 Life of The

remove them, and to make these people comfortable
and happy.

To his faithful priests, who bore with him the
"burden of the day and the heat," he was even
more affectionate, merciful and indulgent. He was
well aware of the toils and of the fatigues they were
obliged to undergo in consequence of the extent of
their missions. He knew well the danger to which
they were exposed on those missions, where, without
roads, they were obliged to hunt their pathway
through the prairies, guiding themselves by the stars
in the heavens, and often sleeping beneath its blue
arch with the heath for their pillow, and the howl
of the prairie wolf around them — without bridges
which would enable them to avoid the madly-rushing
current of the swollen river — exposed to the rains
and the fogs, and the pestiferous exhalations of a
country rank with festering vegetation. He saw
them stricken down by sickness in the midst of their
career, and in places too where their danger was
increased by the want of proper care. His com-
passionate heart grieved for them, and with his
usual consideration he formed amongst them an
association, by means of which those thus afflicted
might be removed to Chicago, where they would
receive proper attendance until health was restored ;
and if in Chicago this could not be effected, then
funds were supplied for journeying wherever in
Europe or America it might be necessary that the
invalid should go. Those who had laboured in the
vineyard of the Lord until old age and its attendant

Rt. Rev. Wm. Quarter 9j

infirmities overtook them, were supported in the
evening of their days ; and when they could work no
longer, by funds from this same association.

In the pulpit his manner was solemn and impres-
sive, and his eloquent lessons of Divine Truth
never failed to reach the heart, and leave upon it
impressions that time could not efface. The series
of sermons he was engaged in delivering when
death cut short his career, were master-pieces of
argument and eloquence, and the crowded throngs
that hung upon his words, thinking no tim.e too
long to listen, showed how much they were appreci-
ated. Long will these powerful exhortations con-
tinue to be remembered. Truly was his last sermon
a profession of faith.

Were I to write all that might be said in praise
of the public career of Bishop Quarter, I fear i
would be charged with the common error of biog-
raphers, viz., that of endeavouring to make their
heroes perfect; and yet the charge would in this
case, as I have no doubt it often is in others, be
incorrectly made. His career, however, will speak
his eulogy in words more eloquent than pen can
trace.

It was in private life that the rare qualities of his
head and heart could be best appreciated. Kind,
affable, gentlemanly, sincere with the utmost solici-
tude, did he endeavour on all occasions to avoid
any remark or insinuation that might give the least
shadow of offence or wound the most sensitive: and

94 Life of The

yet so firm in the right, that his opinion, once
formed, was not to be changed at any risk.

The remembrance of his many virtues was
written in the faces of all of every denomination
who came to pay their last respects to his remains —
and the love of his own people was manifested in
the flood of grief that overwhelmed them when the
news of his unexpected death spread through the
city. It was seen in the crowded church, in the
funeral train, in the tearful eyes of those who came
to witness the performance of the last sad rites over
all that was left of the Bishop, who in the full
vigour of his life stood a few days ago before them.

He was remarkable for his kindness and for-
bearance towards those who were without the
sheepfold of the only holy Catholic Church. He was
well aware how erroneous are the opinions enter-
tained by them, respecting the doctrines and prac-
tices of that Church. He knew that they were
taught to consider doctrines as cherished by us
which we regard with a horror even greater than
their own, and making every allowance for the
fact that they were taught these errors from their
childhood upwards, that they had been repeated to
them so often as to constitute almost a part of their
religious belief, he wondered only, that while they
supposed Catholics to be so impious, they could be
even as tolerant of them as they were; — that while
they charged them with superstition and idolatry,
and every crime in the calendar, they could even
imagine that a Catholic had any hope of Heaven.

Rt. Rev. Wm. Quarter 95

He was not, therefore, surprised at the distrust
with which Protestants look upon the Catholic
Church; and he on this account treated their
prejudices with becoming charity, confident that
their distrust did not proceed from the heart, but
from the errors of their early education; and he
endeavoured, whenever an opportunity offered, to
remove the cause of this prejudice by explaining to
them what were truly and really the doctrines of the
Catholic Church. The increased liberality of the
community now so remarkable in Chicago, demon-
strates the wisdom of the course that seemed to him
so correct.

Protestants, he often remarked, do not in reality
hate Catholic doctrines. They hate only what the
enemies, the malicious ignorant enemies of the
Church for which Christ died, represent as belonging
to Catholics and Catholic doctrines. But when the
veil defiled by these slanders is removed from the
face of the beautiful SpDuse of Jesus Christ, when
the light of her lovely countenance, beaming with
a heavenly radiance, falls upon their hearts; they
can, even as ourselves, appreciate that loveliness
which time cannot dim, but which increases for ever.

It has been frequently asked, how, with so little
means. Bishop Quarter accomplished so much.
None but a Catholic Bishop, aided by zealous
Catholic priests, could have done the same. They
had no families to support, no worldly appearances
to keep up; and they imitated the poverty of their
divine Master, contented to live in need, often upon

g6 Life of The

hard dry bread, so that they might give all they
possessed to the advancement of that holy cause
on which their hearts were fixed. What could
retard the progress of the Church that was supported
by such self-devotion and sacrifices — that Church
which had the promise of the Holy Ghost to sustain
her for ever — against which "the gates of hell
cannot prevail?"

Many kind, and generous and liberal Protestant
gentlemen of the city, aided him much by donations
and encouragement; and to Messrs. \V. B. Ogden,
W. Newberry, and J. Y. Scammon, Esqs., the
Catholic Church of Chicago owes a great debt of
gratitude, and one which will not be soon forgotten.
Besides, he was liberally assisted by that staunch
friend of his own, James Kerrigan, Esq., of New
York, while the funds and the energies of his dearly
loved brother. Very Rev. Walter J. Quarter, were
always at his disposal.

By "an inscrutable decree of Divine Providence,"
however, he was called away, in the midst of his
usefulness, to make room for a worthy successor.*
How lamentable is it, that the catastrophe was so
sudden! How precious would have been the words
of such a man, as he calmly contemplated the
passage to "that land whence no traveller returns!"
Oh! it is at the last hour of life, when the world is
fast fading from the view, and the morning of
eternity is dawning, that the admonitions of the good
are like the prophetic warnings of old, which warm

* Rt. Rev. Jas. Vandevelde, D. D., now Bishop of Chicago.

Rt. Rev. Wm. Quarter qy

the heart to virtue, and make it better. It is then
that we feel the littleness of all here below, and the
greatness of the reward that may be ours in heaven.

He is gone, but how richly does he merit our
gratitude! He has left us a priceless inheritance in
our College and our Convent, where our children
may receive the religious instructions that will fit
them for the discharge of their duties in this world,
and their rewards in the next; — but more than all,
he has left us his example.

Yesterday he stood like a tall column firm upon
its base, and pointing its beautiful shaft to the
heavens; to-day that column is broken in its midst,
and prostrated to the earth. Yesterday he was
in life before us; to-day he lives in our memories.
To die as a hero dies, is a glorious death ; but to die as
died this faithful champion of the cross, after having
sealed his ministry, was still more glorious. "Oh
God! as is the heroism of thy armies, so is the
grandeur of thy triumphs. How poor is the splen-
dour that crowns earthly conquests, to the opening
of the gates of pearl, leading into the Golden City
with walls of sapphire and chrysolite, in which the
great Captain sitteth upon the white throne, smiling
upon his servants who have 'fought the good fight
and kept the faith!' The wreaths that crown the
brows of mortal victors fade before the night;
theirs lose not their fragrance forever, and their
beauty is eternal."

g8 Life of The

The following beautiful and touching lines from
the pen of Miss Merritt, whose name has been
already mentioned, form a fit conclusion to this
memoir.

MEMORIAL OF ^ WILLIAM,

Bishop of Chicago.
"Sorrow not as those without a hope."

Now all is over! to the requiem

Of the deep organ, solemn in its swell,
They bore him onward to the chamber dim,

Our Fiiend — our Father — he that loved us well !
Never! ah, never! shall as kind a glance

Send us the greeting his was wont to send :
O'er the calm brightness of his countenance

The chilling shadows of the grave descend.

His form is resting 'neath the saintly shade

Of shrine and altar that he helped to rear;
Within their silence he hath knelt and prayed.

And it is fitting we should lay him here.
So may the organ's wild and thrilling peal

A mournful requiem o'er his slumber pour,
"While our hushed spirits thrill again to feel

His presence near us, though of earth no more.

But yesterday we looked upon his face

Lit up and kindling with the earnest soul —
But yesterday within his wonted place,

From lips now silent, words of fervour stole.
Never! ah, never! shall their accents fall

Upon the stillness of the Sabbath air, —
The smile — the greeting — these have vanish'd all,

That place is vacant by the shrine of prayer.

99

Rt. Rev. Wm. Quarter

We might not kneel beside him at the last.

To win a blessing from his soul to ours,
Ere the Dark Angel's pinions o'er him past,

In the dim silence of the midnight hours;
No word of parting on our hearts might sink,

To still, of sorrows, this the deepest one,
Yet may we triumph in our woe to think

His latest whisper was, "They will be done!"

Yes! on our sorrow breaks a fervent tone,

An inward breathing to the spirit borne.
Far thro' the shadow is a star-beam thrown,

To lead us upward to the clime of morn;
There led his pathway through the midnight veil,

Unto the fulness of a Love Divine;
Now may Faith's whisper, thrilling low, prevail

O'er earthly conflict, with a heavenly sign.

And yet, oh, Father! we have lost in thee

All that which language has no power to name :

For us thy heart beat true and fervently-
Through change, and coldness, thou wert still the same.

Now are our souls supremely desolate,

Since gone the presence and smile that blest,

And wo! for those on whom the chastening weight
Falls like a shadow, long and dim, to rest.

Yet thou — within thy soul's effulgent realm.

Know'st not the sadness thro' our spirit breathed;
But vain! oh vain! its clouding to o'erwhclm

They blessed memory unto us bequeathed ;
With those who loved thee it shall be a spell

Of holy influence shrined within the heart.
Uplifting thought from earth, and earth's farewell,

To the eternal dwelling where thou art.

M. A. M.

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