Tag Archive for Catholics

Welcome The Catholic Gene

September 3, 2011 Craig Family History, Genealogy

This morning, I awakened to things usual and brand-new! The usual thing was that my mother-in-law, aged 90, was up and watching Mother Angelica on EWTN [Eternal Word Television Network; Comcast channel 233 in the Greater Sacramento area]. (My mother-in-law’s family has been Catholic since at least 1722; which I believe is about when  Mother Angelica commenced her television ministry!) The unusual thing was that a new blog appeared in my reader!

The Catholic Gene has gone live on wordpress.com! The brainchild of the well-grounded Donna Pointkouski, it’s a blog  “dedicated to the faith of our fathers and mothers…and their ancestors.  This blog will feature articles by a diverse group of authors who share a strong Catholic identity and a love for genealogy. Join us as we share about genealogy, the Catholic faith, and anything in which those two worlds intersect.”

The Catholic Gene features some of the most well-regarded writers in the geneablogosphere: Donna, of course, of What’s Past is Prologue;  Jasia, the multi-talented writer and photographer who publishes Creative Gene and is the Queen of the Carnival; Denise Levenick, the fabulous Family Curator and Shades The Magazine’s Penelope Dreadful; Lisa of the Smallest Leaf, our exemplary expositor of Eire (and more! ); the incomparable Steve Danko; the esteemable Lisa A. Alzo; prolific author Cecile Wendt Jensen, of the Wolverine State; the most Educated Genealogist I know (and the one who’ll keep us on the path to salvation [or not] with her Get Out of Hell Free cards), Sheri Fenley.

And somehow, this great group asked moi to join!  Thank you!

The first post is up now at The Catholic Gene; and tomorrow (Sunday, September 4, 2011) a special treat: The Carnival of Genealogy will be hosted at The Catholic Gene! The topic is “Ancestors’ Places of Worship.”

Update: One member of our group not mentioned above is the extraordinary footMaven, our favorite Lutheran and honorary Catholic [we'll forgive that stuff back in the 16th & 17th Centuries]. She and her family could use some good old fashion prayer right now, so please remember them.

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Edna Micheau is 90 years old!

May 10, 2011 Craig Family History, Genealogy

Check out today’s special birthday slideshow to the right – – – – – –>

Edna Mary Micheau Penny was born on May 10, 1921 in St. Louis Missouri. Her parents were Joseph Perry Micheau (1888-1975) of Prairie du Rocher, Illinois, and Edna Julia Lewis (1890-1989), of Carbondale, Illinois.  From the time she was born until 2008 she lived almost exclusively in St. Louis. However as a child she did spend several years in Prairie du Rocher. She recalls that her father did gardening around St. Joseph’s Church in Prairie du Rocher which was diagonally across the street from the house. Her mother was the first black teacher in Prairie du Rocher, taking over at the colored school when the nuns left.

She is a seventh generation Catholic and her family historically has been very devout. They became Catholic in 1722, when their forebears were brought as slaves from Santo Domingo by Philip Renault to Upper Louisiana to find gold and silver for the King of France. Renault never found precious metals, but he did find lead, which is still mined today in southern Illinois and eastern Missouri.

Edna’s father Joseph had wanted to become a priest, but after meeting Edna Lewis, God showed him a different way.

Edna Mary had five siblings: John Joseph Micheau, who died in infancy in 1915; Claude Alexander Micheau (1917-1991); Philip A Micheau (1919-2008); and Ottie Margarett Micheau Perkins, and Mary Anne Micheau Robinson, the latter two still living.

In St. Louis, Edna attended St. Rita School and Sumner High School.

On June 17, 1939, Edna Mary Micheau wed Ralph A Penny (1920-1983) at St. Peter’s Catholic Church in Kirkwood Missouri. It was a double ceremony as her brother, Philip, at the same time, married Alquinston White (1921-1989).

Ralph and Edna had four children: Edna Mary Penny (1941-2008); David Joseph Penny (1942-2007); Claude Anthony Penny of Dallas Texas; and Margaret Ann Penny Manson of Carmichael California.

She has two grandchildren David Penny and Christopher Penny, who live in Washington state and a great-grandchild, Christopher’s daughter with his wife Melissa, Jacqueline Elizabeth Penny.  She has numerous nieces and nephews all across the USA.

As a young woman, Edna trained as a licensed practical nurse (LPN). She worked for many years at a neighborhood health center near the intersection of Cass Avenue and North Jefferson in St. Louis.

A shy but inquisitive woman, Edna would take her children on trips across the country by train. For example in 1962 she took her two youngest children Claude and Margarett to Seattle to see the worlds fair. Another time she took her children to South Dakota to see Mount Rushmore.

For herself, Edna continually educate yourself about things that merely interest her. For example she once took an auto mechanics class, though she did not own or drive a car at the time. She learned to make her own soap and paper; and in the 1950s she made up virtually all of her children’s clothes, including a business suit for her eldest son David.

But it is her Catholic faith that defines Edna Micheau Penny more than anything. She attends mass every day of the week and prays the rosary multiple times during the day.. Her favorite television channel is the Eternal Word Television Network (EWTN).

After she retired from the active workforce, Edna was a fixture at Birthright of St. Louis Inc. For nearly 30 years, she attended the March for Life in Washington DC, riding a bus on the 24 hour round-trip.

In 2008, the culmination of tragic events, including the second premature death of one of her children, led Edna Micheau Penny to come live with her daughter and son-in-law in California. Here her pastimes include rocking babies at Mercy women’s health Center while their mothers receive treatment. She still attends daily mass sometimes walking in the rain to make it there. When for some reason there’s not a mass, she will sit in the chapel with the Blessed Sacrament.

California has been somewhat of an adjustment for them. We drive too fast we talk too fast and we each strange foods according to her. She’s fiercely proud of her Catholic upper Louisiana heritage. Once when someone asked her what race she was, it not being particularly obvious, she said “I’m Illinois French.”

Family means everything to her. Lately thanks to a son-in-law she’s discovered genealogy. She’s intensely interested in her Micheau/Mischeaux cousins throughout the country, though most remain in St. Louis.

She spends time with her daughter and son-in-law (although at their house she’s more likely to see the Game Show Network than EWTN–Chuck Woolery instead of Mother Angelica; Lingo instead of Latin!).

Happy 90th birthday to the world’s greatest mother-in-law!

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Valentines Day: Love Letters from Prairie du Rocher

February 13, 2010 Craig Family History, Genealogy

Joseph Perry Micheau (born 23 Feb 1888, Prairie du Rocher, Illinois; died 15 Nov 1975, St Louis, Missouri) was a descendant of the French Negroes of Illinois–originally slaves from Jamaica brought to Upper Louisiana  by French entrepeneur Phillipe Renault in the 1720′s.  The Micheau family represent well the social and cultural lives of the descendants of the French Negroes of Illinois.  They were deeply religious, very hard-working, and focused on education.   Joe Micheau wanted very much to be a priest, until another irresistible force entered his life as we can see in these  nearly century old letters.

The letters were written to Edna Julia Lewis (born 14 Jul 1890, Carbondale, Illinois; died 28 Sep 1989, St Louis, Missouri).  She was not a French Negro. She was not a “cradle” Catholic (i.e, she was an adult convert to Catholicism).  She was the daughter of former slaves John Philip Henry Lewis (born Jan 1852, Baltimore, Maryland; died 29 Aug 1916, Carbondale, Illinois), and Margaret Elizabeth Griffin (born Jun 1860, Charleston, Tennessee; died 11 Dec 1942, Union County, Illinois).   Edna became a teacher, taking over the education of black children in Randolph County, Illinois, from a group of nuns.

P.D.R. Ill. May 1,’ 13.

Dear Friend

This is Ascension Thursday, and indeed a most beautiful day.  Am at leisure this morning, but must make my usual weekday trip.

How are you getting along by this time?  I suppose you are well settled to the routines of home life again.  We’re trying to make the best of these fine days.  So are all very busy.  Ema{{1}} has not finished talking of her C.Dale visit yet.  Nen{{2}} expects to go to St. Louis next Thursday.  Both she and M.{{3}} are coming to see you, but said  I must make the first trip.  Will tell you when I am coming in my next letter.  Are you being well treated by the Catholic people of Carbondale?{{4}}  I am sure, if Father Hilgenberg is the Fr. that I have reference, to, you will be well treated.

Ed., enclosed is the cross, please let it be a token of my dearest remembrance.  Hoping this will find all as well, as it leaves us.

I am very truly, your friend,
J.P. Micheau

P.S.  Sisters send love
Ans. S.{{5}}

[[1]] His sister, Mabel Emily Micheau (b. 4 Aug 1892, Prairie du Rocher, Illinois; date & place of death unknown.[[1]]

[[2]] His sister, Mary Angelique Micheau (b. 6 Jun 1873, Prairie du Rocher, Illinois; 29 Jun 1959, Normandy, Missouri).[[2]]

[[3]] His sister, Margerette (“Margery”) E. Micheau (b. 29 Apr 1895 Prairie du Rocher,Illinois; date & place of death unknown)[[3]]

[[4]] Edna had been baptized into the Catholic Church just about a month earlier on 3o Mar 1913, at St Francis Xavier Church in Carbondale. See Records of the Catholic Diocese of Belleville,  Illinois, available at www.familysearch.org [[4]]

[[5]] Writing letters every week or every day is something that people did for a great part of the twentieth century. These two abbreviations “PS” and “Ans. S.” mean respectively, “post script” (i.e., literally, “after writing”; used to convey an additional thought after closing a letter) and “answer soon” (rendered in 21st century language perhaps as ANX ASAP).[[5]]

[undated]
My dear Ed
I just suppose you are waiting for a long letter well here it comes.  I am pretty much at leisure these warm days.  In fact, it is almost too warm to do much.  So after the morning chores, my hardest work is keeping in the shade.  Margery is still at work today is her last day tho.

Oh!  Ed she rec’d your card only this morning.

I am sorry to say they are not coming down this Sunday.  But sure, next Sunday, unless sickness prevents.  It is this way, with us here at home, everything was all right.  And Nen & M. were already.  But Addie{{6}} only asked her time off for next Sunday.  And this is the reason they cannot come down.

As for myself Ed this is what I me[a]nt when I said “Things may run my way.”  Syl{{7}} is expecting to come down for a few weeks.  So if he does, why then he will take care of home and things for me.  You know, we cannot all leave home together.  I think I may go to the city{{8}} Sunday morning, and I surely will have tried to have one of the boys come down.  I want to see you.  And as I said before, will enjoy being with you altogether, for once.  Mrs. Wright{{9}} only arrived back in P.D.R. last night.  Mrs. Lizzie came back with her.  Also among the visitors in our city are three of Mr. J. Lacavia’s three nieces.

Ed I would be so glad if you could come back with the girls.  If not then I hope it will be while Addie is home, which will be two weeks or more.  Please, may I send your fare or give it when you come up.  Either way will be pleasing.

If I go to St L. Sunday,  then I will not write until Monday morning, if not then you will receive a letter M.  morn.

Nen said to say she was sorry that they cannot possibly make it this Sunday. Next Sunday, sure tho.  All here are O.K. I hope the same of your people in C’dale.

With hearty good wishes to all.

I am your loving

Jos.

[[6]] His sister, Adelaide Frances Micheau (born 27 Nov 1884, Prairie  du Rocher, Illinois; date & place of death unknown), who became Sister Celestine, OSP.[[6]]

[[7]] His brother, Sylvester August Micheau (born 14 Mar 1890, Prairie du Rocher, Illinois; died 10 Jul 1957, Petpskey, Michigan). Syl likely was in Chicago at the time of this letter.[[7]]

[[8]] St Louis[[8]]

[[9]] Likely a relative of Joseph’s sister-in-law, Sophronia “Zoe” Wright (1880-1968), who was married to his brother, Marshall Emmanuel Micheau (born 1 Oct 1878, Prairie du Rocher, Illinois; died 22 Oct 1954, St Louis, Missouri).[[9]]

P.D.R. Ill.  June 15, 1913.

Dear, Dear Ed.

Finding that I need you, I want you, I love you, and today thinking of you am writing this little message of love, even though you are  in my debt.  I have taught often do now, what must Edna Lewis think of me.  And again, the answer comes well, I have explained my situation to her, and surely she understands me.  I truely hope you do, tho now each little visit to your home, only tends to make you more dear to you [me].

You may think well he has changed his story.  All to[o] true.  But it is not without due consideration and I daresay not to hurri[e]dly either.  Frankly and Truely Ed, it is with a tinge of regret that I cannot see my way through the required schooling to reach my former desires.  And now feeling that it is not entirely my own fault in trying to make the best of all things my thoughts are turned it to you.

If knowing what you know of J.P.M. you still continue to love him.  Please answer soon.

How are you and All? Did John{{10}} spend Sunday with you this week.  Many times in the past week have M. & my conversations drifted to a week ago just passed.  The girls, that is, Nen, M., & A. are planning their visit to you. Surely a long promised one isn’t it?  They are coming tho. We have mass here at seven o’clock high Mass and the morning is a little longer. Rec’d communion to and surely remembered you together with the rest of sisters and Brothers.  Oh!  Say do you read the after dinner storries in Visitors [?]{{11}}  They are very, very fine.  I was much pleased last week to receive a card from one of Oscar Beckham’s sisters, asking me for last week’s Visitor.  Have been sending a few of them away, but failed to do so last week, and as she was interested in the story she missed the issue until Margerette sent it to her, a few days ago.  I am^ you send, an Angelus to[o], I think it is very good this week.  Please Ed, I want to see this letter and our next meeting. Has Miss Ema{{12}} gone to Chi. yet? My heartiest good wishes to each and all and

Much love to yourself

Margerette has just sounded the dinner call so I must close.

Yours sincerely.

Jos. P. Micheau

[[10]] Unable to identify this person. [[10]]

[[11]] Our Sunday Visitor, a national Catholic weekly still  in publication today.[[11]]

[[12]] Edna’s sister, Emma Lewis (born Sep 1877, Charleston, Tennessee; died about 1951, Carbondale, Illinois)[[12]]

[undated]

Dear Joseph,

Your loving message came to me this A.M. I was quite surprised to receive it as I owed you this one but never-the-less I received it with the same joy as I have the others.

Dear Joe, I fully realize what it means to you to give up all that you have held dear in this life and make new plans for the future.  I fully realize how much you were attracted to your intentions for the your future vocation, but through it all there is one greater than we now who plans our destinations, and with Him for our leader we can never choose the wrong path. Everything is for the best provided we are guided by the right influence.  Not only once have I prayed for strength to think of, you only as a brother and a friend but many times.  And instead of drifting from you my heart has been steadily turning more and more toward you.  God only knows the longing and thoughts I’ve had of you.  God only knows the many prayers I’ve said for your success and when I’ve found that I could not forget you, I prayed that God’s will not mine be done.  And Joseph, dear Joseph, knowing what I know of you, of your great desire to become a religious, to make of that great sacrifice for love of Christ, I could love you all ways and shall. I could not do other wise, every moment brings tho’ts of you.  I wish I were talking the instead of writing this, for I have lots I would say.  I shall be very glad to see you, for though we are miles apart, my heart is ever near you.

With loving wishes I am forever

Your Ed.

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Black History Month: Knights of Peter Claver – St Elizabeth’s Branch, St Louis, MO

February 9, 2010 Craig Family History, Genealogy

During November, which is Black Catholic History Month, I wrote about the Knights of Peter Claver.  A few days ago, I came across this badge from St Elizabeth’s Catholic Church in St Louis.  St Elizabeth’s was a parish established especially for black Catholics by Fr. John Markoe and his brother, Fr. William Markoe, both Jesuits, during the term of Archbishop Cardinal Glennon.  St Elizabeth’s became one of the most prominent churches in St Louis.

The original St Elizabeth’s Church was closed several years ago and should not be confused with the current parish, St Elizabeth Mother of John the Baptist.

The Peter Claver badge on this badge belonged to Joseph Perry Micheau (1888-1975).  When I found it, it was in an envelope in which it may have originally been obtained by Joseph Micheau.  The envelope itself has a connection to St Louis history; see the next post.

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Black Catholic History Month: The Knights of Who?

November 30, 2009 Craig Family History, Genealogy

“Claverism” observes 100th Anniversary in USA

Every Catholic and many a non- Catholic recognizes the name of the largest Catholic lay organization in the world, the Knights of Columbus.  This is a group of “practical” Catholic men who do charitable acts.  Indeed, over the last ten years, the “K of C” have donated more than a billion dollars to charitable causes.  The Knights of Columbus were chartered as a fraternal organization in Connecticut  in 1882.

Far fewer Catholics and others have heard of the Knights of Peter Claver.   This organization was founded in 1909 at Most Pure Heart of Mary Catholic Church in Mobile, Alabama.  The organization was founded to give “colored men” a Catholic fraternal organization. (Yes, sadly, there was a time that those other Knights allowed  no “colored men” among them.  Fortunately those days are gone.)  Like the Knights of Columbus, the Knights of Peter Claver are engaged in charitable works.  from their start in Alabama a century ago, they now have over 1000 subordinate units around the country.

CentennialEmblem2KoPC

But who was Peter Claver?

Pedro Claver Corbero (1580-1654) was born in Verdu, Catalonia.  After advanced Jesuit education in Barcelona, Tarragon, and Majorca,  Claver followed the call of God to minister  to slaves in South America.  In 1610, he traveled to Cartagena, Colombia, at the time, the leading slave port in the world.

Claver cared for the poor and the sick slaves.  He created a corps of catechists to teach the slaves the Bible.   It is said that Claver  baptized over 300,000 slaves in his 44-year career.  For his service to the slaves, Claver earned the title of “slave to the slaves.” In 1896, nearly 250 years after his death, Claver was declared patron saint of missions to African slaves.  Today, he is recognized as patron of slaves, Colombia, African Americans, and race relations.

The Knights of Peter Claver strive to carry out their charitable works with the same selflessness as St Peter Claver himself.

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Black Catholic History Month: Black Catholics in the South

November 30, 2009 Craig Family History, Genealogy

The notion of black Catholics in the South is not often the subject of much discussion by anyone, anywhere.  The southern United States is frequently thought of as having been settled largely by Scots-Irish and English people, not exactly fans of the Church of Rome.   The South is caricatured as a bastion of Baptists and, if one wants “high church,” Presbyterians.  Beyond that, outsiders think of marginal cult-like Christianity in the South with practices regarded as odd, if not outright ridiculous.   Blacks in the South are stereotyped as Baptists, but rarely thought of as being anything like Catholic.

Of course, these preconceptions fail to serve anyone or respect anybody’s beliefs.   Southern Protestants, black and white, are quite a complex and diverse group.   And southern black Catholics were among the first Catholics in North America.

We have previously discussed St Augustine, Florida, where a black child was baptized by a Catholic priest in 1606.  This was more than a quarter-century before the arrival of the first Catholic settlers in Maryland.

One might reasonably say that the South was the birthplace of black Catholicism.  The geopolitical history of the region beginning in the sixteenth century explains this point.

Near the end of the fifteenth century, the crowns of Aragon and Castile were united by the marriage of Ferdinand and Isabella.  The unified kingdom had its internal problems to be sure, but the old adage “two crowned heads are better than one” proved true as Aragon-Castile embarked on  a number of imperial expeditions and conquests.  Among these, of course, were successful forays into North America.   At one point, “Spain” [as the merged kingdoms became known popularly] controlled what is now Florida, Alabama, Mississippi, and parts of Georgia and Louisiana.

The Spanish brought black slaves with them to Florida in the sixteenth century.   The Spanish viewpoint on slavery was vastly different from that  of their enemies, them British.  The Spanish had white, as well as black slaves, so for the Spanish, slavery was not completely tied up with race.  Furthermore, Spanish law, heavily influenced by the Church, regarded slaves as human beings and not as property.  As a result, Spanish slaves were frequently baptized, permitted to marry, and encouraged to  have families.

Such attitudes were reinforced when the Bourbons took the Spanish Crown in 1700.   The French, too, controlled large areas of southern North America and held similar views  about slavery.  The South was an incubator for Catholicism among blacks.

There are several significant black Catholic locales in the South, other than St Augustine.   The Diocese of Biloxi, Mississippi, though a late 20th century creation, owes its black Cathodic roots to the era of  Spanish rule. The same could be said of the Archdiocese of New Orleans, with respect to the French.

But in the nineteenth century, both Spain and France, otherwise and elsewhere engaged,  lost their  North American territories to Britain and the United States.   As the plantation system spread across the South, the demand for more black labor grew.  French and Spanish laws were replaced by harsh slave codes.  The number of black Catholics dwindled in number and proportion.

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Black Catholic History Month: The Josephite Fathers and Brothers

November 30, 2009 Craig Family History, Genealogy

Earlier in the month, we discussed the life of Father Charles Uncles, the first black priest both trained and ordained in the United States. He was instrumental in the founding of the Society of St Joseph of the Sacred Heart.   This order of priests and religious were founded to evangelize the recently freed blacks in America.

Actually, there had already existed a Catholic organization called the Josephites, the St Joseph Mission Society, founded in London in 1866.  At the request of a council of American bishops, the Mission society sent some of its personnel to the United States to establish missions and schools for freedmen.

In 1893, just two years after his ordination, Father Charles Uncles was asked to help reorganize the Mission Society offices into a permanent American institution.  He and four other priests did just that, forming the  Society of St Joseph of the Sacred Heart in Baltimore.

Today, Josephites are active throughout the nation, and have parishes in Alabama, California, Louisiana, Mississippi, Texas, Virginia, Washington, D.C., as well as Maryland.  The Josephites aren’t exclusively African-American.  Historically there have been more white Jospehite priests than black.  But this order of dedicated religious men holds great significance for the African–American community inside and outside the Catholic Church.

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Black Catholic History Month: Preserving St Augustine’s Documents

November 24, 2009 Craig Family History, Genealogy

Okay, the headline takes some liberty: we’re talking about saving Catholic records in  St Augustine, Florida, America’s oldest city. But before we get to that, let’s understand why we’re covering this during Black Catholic History Month (not that it wouldn’t always be of interest to those interested in Catholic history generally).

In a number of communities around America you will find parishes named for  St. Monica, frequently in African-American neighborhoods.  She was an Algerian Christian of Berber descent.  Although not of the same racial group as most African-Americans, was embraced by early African-American Catholics as someone of virtue from Africa.  St. Augustine’s father was a man named Patricius, from whom Augustine probably got most of the vices of which he famously asked God to relieve him, “but not quite yet.”  So Augustine was half North African.  As a result St. Augustine himself holds a place of  special reverence for some African-Americans.

The city we now know as St. Augustine Florida, was founded in 1565 by Spanish explorers. This was decades before any European settlement in North America.  And  the history of the city from then until now is inextricably bound up with the history of African-Americans. The earliest record of a black child being born in America is from St. Augustine in 1606, more than a decade before blacks first arrived in Virginia in 1619.  It is, of course, a baptismal record.

first_mass

The first Catholic Mass in North America was celebrated at St Augustine, Florida in 1565 (Image courtesy of Roman Catholic Diocese of St Augustine)

You may recall from your high school history that the British and the Spanish did not get along very well in the days of the 16th century through the 18th century. The British tried a number of times to dispossess the Spanish of Florida, but were mostly unsuccessful. The Spanish provided sanctuary for slaves who escaped from the British colonies in North America.  The first such area of sanctuary was in St. Augustine in 1738, known as Fort Mose.

mose1

Right: Artist’s rendition of Fort Mose, haven for freed slaves near St Augustine, Florida. The military commander of Fort Mose, officially known as Gracia Real de Santa Teresa de Mose, Captain Francisco Menendez, was an escaped slave from South Carolina. [Image courtesy, US Dept of the Interior, National Park Service]


Black Catholics were not  novel around St Augustine.

Within [the Cathedral-Basilica of St Augustine] , a certain number of marriages took place between African-Americans and Spanish Catholics. More common were baptisms of Catholic children born of Catholics and African-Americans, with various religious rights being passed to slave children. One example is found in Zephaniah Kingsley, a fabulously wealthy plantation owner in what is now Duval County, who took Anna Magigene Jai, the daughter of an African chieftain, as his acknowledged wife. While the couple was married outside the church, Anna remained a devout Catholic and throughout the early 1800’s made sure that priests from the Cathedral in St. Augustine traveled to the Kingsley Plantation on Fort George Island to baptize each of their four children.

Historical Overview of the Roman Catholic Dicoese of St Augustine, Florida

Then came the so-called French and Indian war (or the Seven Years’ War as it was known in Europe).  When that war was over in 1763, the Treaty of Paris gave Florida to the British.  When war broke out between Britain and its colonies in the 1770s, St. Augustine became a Loyalist community. however, the Spanish crown sided with the colonists.  As a result, when the war was over, the new United States ceded any claim to Florida to the Spanish.

As for slavery, under Spanish rule after the Revolutionary war, Florida continued to welcomed runaway slaves as long as they converted to Catholicism and swore allegiance to the king of Spain. A number of slaves escaped to Florida from Georgia, South Carolina and Alabama.

But Spanish rule in Florida came to an end in 1821. Spain being then preoccupied with Napoleon found it prudent to give Florida to the United States.  During the American Civil War, Florida became a Confederate state. The one US soldier at the fort in St. Augustine was dispossessed by Florida state troops in January 1861.  However a force of Union troops retook St. Augustine in March of 1862.

Despite its status as a haven for escaped slaves in an earlier era, Florida soon adopted Jim Crow laws.  When the civil rights movement began, it played out in St. Augustine just about the way it did across the most of the South: protests by supporters of civil rights resulted in them being jailed by the hundreds and violent backlashes by groups like the KKK.

Today, however, St. Augustine is a peaceful historic village of about 12,000 people.   Its historic district includes such as national historic landmarks as Fort Mose, where that original haven for escaped slaves was established.

St. Augustine is proud of its heritage and history and now efforts are underway to preserve historic documents of the Church.

The Associated Press reported last week:

Sister Catherine Bitzer slowly opened a file box and carefully removed a brittle page, scarred by years of neglectful storage, mold and insects. At 415 years old, the marriage record written by a Roman Catholic priest is still readable and is one of the oldest known European records from the United States.

It’s among thousands of artifacts detailing the lives of the Spanish soldiers, missionaries and merchants who settled St. Augustine, the nation’s oldest permanent city. The church kept the only official records, a role that today is filled by government.

Read the rest of the story here at Google News.  To learn more about the city of St Augustine, check out one of Denise Olson’s great blogs, Family Matters, Moultrie Creek, or Graveyard Rabbitt of Moultrie Creek

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Black Catholic History Month:First Black Priest in the USA? A Third Contender

November 22, 2009 Craig Family History, Genealogy

Last week I wrote about the question of the first black Catholic priest in America.  I said the answer to that question depended upon who you asked.  I now know that the answer to the question depends upon how the you ask the question!  This is because there has emerged yet a third contender for “first black priest”.

First a little personal background: I don’t think I ever saw a black Catholic priest until I was well into my adulthood.  I guess I assumed that there were some somewhere; I just never thought that much about it.  But when I was in my 20s, my dad began the practice of sending me a calendar every year from an order of priests called the Josephites.  This is an order of priests, officially known as the St. Joseph Society of the Sacred Heart, formed in 1893 to minister to African-Americans.  The man given credit for leading the founding of the Josephites was Father Charles Randolph Uncles, a native of Baltimore.  Sunday, November 8, 2009, marked the 150th anniversary of Father Uncles’ birth.

Father Uncles is the third contender for the title of first black priest in America.  You may recall from the previous article, that Bishop James Healy and Father Augustus Tolton are the first two contenders for the title.  We resolve that issue by deciding that Bishop Healy, descendant of an Irishman and a slave woman, under the “rules” of racial identity may deserve the title of first black American priest, although he would not have wanted it.  But Father Tolton, descendant of two slaves, is entitled to be called the first black priest in America born of slave parents. In the minds of some, this may make Father Tolton the more “authentic” first “black priest in America.”

So where does Father Uncles fit in? His parents, Lorenzo Uncles and Annie Marie Buchanan, both had been slaves.  Charles Randolph Uncles was ordained in 1891 –after both Healy and Tolton had been ordained.  But remember, it depends upon how you ask the question.  Uncles was ordained in New York City.  Both Healy and Tolton, though Americans, could not attend seminary in the United States because of racism and therefore were ordained outside the United States.  So Father Uncles rightfully can be called the “first black priest ordained in America.” [It should be noted, speaking of the "rules" of racial identity, that Charles Uncles and his parents were described as being light enough to pass for white.]

Indeed, at the time, it was big news.  Here’s the New York Times headline from December 19, 1891:
CR Uncles-NYT

The Times story noted:

The congregation gathered to witness and participate in ceremonies was more than usually large and included many of the best colored people of the city. A special reason for the presence of the latter was that the first man of their race to be ordained a priest in the United States and that he was to have that high honor bestowed upon him by the Cardinal Archbishop himself–the primate of episcopacy of the country.

Lorenzo and Annie Uncles were Catholics.  They and their family attended Mass at St. Frances Xavier Church in Baltimore which was, as the New York Times put it, “a church for colored people, but from which whites were not excluded.”

As a young man, Charles was an altar boy at St. Frances Xavier.  He graduated number one in his high school class.  After that, he taught in the Baltimore County public schools until he was 25 years old.  During this same period of time, he was being tutored by a priest from St. Joseph’s seminary(for black men only) in Baltimore.  Finally in 1883, Charles Uncles went to St. Hyacinth’s College in Canada, graduating in 1888.  Back in Baltimore he then entered St. Joseph’s seminary.  But he applied to attend classes at St. Mary’s Seminary which was for white men.  The faculty of St. Mary’s put the matter to a vote of the seminarians.  They were unanimously in favor of admitting Charles Uncles.  And so it was that three years later, he was ordained a priest.  He began teaching at the Epiphany Apostolic College, which was then located in Baltimore.  In 1925, the college moved to New Windsor, New York, and Father Uncles moved also.

He died on July 20, 1933 at the college, and is buried there.

Coming up: The Josephite Priests

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Black Catholic History Month: The Catholics in My Families

November 16, 2009 Craig Family History, Genealogy

The number of black Catholics in the United States is small.  I know this both anecdotally and empirically.   I  was probably a teenager before I met another black Catholic family.   My parents, each for their own reasons,  converted to Catholicism as teenagers.   They did not know each other at the times of their conversions.

My mother was raised as the granddaughter and niece of Baptist preachers, and not surprisingly was the cousin of a couple more Baptist preachers.  Later, she was active in Methodist youth activities.   But having concluded for her own reasons that she belonged in the Catholic Church, she’s been a faithful and devout Catholic for, well, let’s just say more than a few decades.    I never knew until recently that there were other Catholics in her family tree.  For example, her cousin Amos Johnson, Jr. (1908-1975) , grandson of

Amos R. Johnson, Jr.

Amos R. Johnson, Jr.

Ezekiel Johnson and Sarah Gilbert, was Catholic.     A longtime federal civil servant, he was a member of Blessed Sacrament Church in Kansas City, and served on the Catholic Interracial Council and the National Council of Catholic Men.  He is buried in Mt Olivet Cemetery in Kansas City.  I don’t know how much more of the Johnson branch of the family was Catholic or how any of them can to be Catholic.

On my father’s side of the family, uncle  Herman Walker (1906-2002) was a Catholic. He was born the son of my dad’s grandmother, Hattie Bryant.  Living his mother’s peripatetic life,  would seem not conducive to regular religious instruction except of the most primitive sort.   I do know that Herman became Catholic about the time he met and married Ida Mouton, a Louisiana woman who was a life-long Catholic.   H became very active in St Paul’s parish in Houston where he attended Mass for nearly seventy years.   He was a member of the Knights of Columbus.

cmm-herman-walker


Herman Arthur Walker (1906-2002), our only known Catholic paternal uncle, with my sister, in Houston, Texas, 1962.

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