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The teachings of Catholicism were perhaps brought to the Pike's Peak
country many decades before the first permanent white settlements were
located. The Spaniards taught the principles of the faith to the Pueblos,
but these tribes, for some reasons, failed to adopt completely the customs
and their religious rites, even to this day, contain only a few features
suggestive of the Catholics.
The denomination proper did not have
birth in this territory until about 1858, when the first white settlers
began to come in numbers. Catholicism was the fourth denomination in the
settlement at Denver, although the members erected the second church
building in the village. The Town Company had extended to the churches the
privilege of obtaining ground upon which to erect houses of worship, and
the Catholics seem to have been about the only ones who took advantage of
this offer, receiving land which afterwards proved to be extremely
valuable. The first actual record of the Catholic Church in Denver is
contained in the following excerpts from the Town Company's books:
"Mr. Clancy moved that a committee of three be appointed to see Mr.
Guiraud in relation to a Catholic Church and that said committee be
further empowered to reserve grounds for them, if they should determine to
build a church in Denver City."
The Guiraud referred to in the
above statement was a Denver merchant, of French nativity, and undoubtedly
one of the leaders among the members of his church and one who represented
the church officially in the community.
Late in the spring of i860
Rt. Rev. J. B. Miege, bishop of Leavenworth, Kansas, came to Denver with
the purpose of establishing his church, the matter of the first lot
donation having been settled the previous March. His first services were
conducted in Guiraud's home, located on the southeast corner of Fifteenth
and Market streets. This was in June. Immediately afterward he journeyed
out of Denver and conducted mass in several of the mining camps in the
surrounding country, carrying his religion into many of these places for
the first time. He found, upon his return to Denver, that the Town Company
had donated to him another lot, known as Block 139, and bounded by
Fifteenth, Stout, Sixteenth and California streets. A church association
was then organized, with Judge G. W. Purkins as president and arrangements
were made for the construction of a church on Stout Street near Fifteenth.
About this time Rt. Rev. J. B. Lamy, bishop of Santa Fe, received official
notice that the Pike's Peak region had been united to his diocese.
The foundation of the church building was laid on the designated spot
and the work of construction begun. However, this was in a period of
financial strain over the whole region and the subscription lists which
had been started in order 10 pay the expenses failed to accumulate as fast
as expected. The result was that very shortly the building work had to
cease.
At this juncture the Bishop of Santa Fe despatched the Very
Rev. J. P. Machebeuf and Rev. J. B. Raverdy. They arrived in Denver
October 29, i860, to take charge of the Catholic missions in the Pike's
Peak country. Reverend Machebeuf was the greatest Catholic Colorado ever
had; he is responsible for the establishment of the denomination in its
strength in practically every locality in the state, and his efforts and
kindly work have made a glorious chapter in the religious history of the
Columbine State. He passed away in Denver August 2, 1889, and was followed
in death by Father Raverdy on November 18th of the same year. Raverdy had
been vicar general to Machebeuf.
Immediately upon the arrival of
the two priests the work of building the church and securing funds was
revived and the church pushed toward completion. The first religious
services were held in the building on Christmas night in the year 1860. In
1862 an organ, the first in Denver, was brought from St. Louis; also an
800-pound bell, the first in the village. The bell was suspended in a
wooden tower in front of the church, but during the storm on the night of
December 25, 1864, the tower fell and the bell was broken into pieces.
Thereupon a new bell, weighing 2,000 pounds, was sent from St. Louis.
Additions were subsequently made upon each side of this first church
building and for many years it was one of the familiar structures of
Denver.
Having acquired a building site at the corner of Colfax
Avenue and Logan Street, the Catholics sold the Stout Street property in
the spring of 1900, and on May 13th of that year the last services were
held in the old building, which had housed the congregation for forty
years. Plans were immediately made for the raising of funds for a new
cathedral, but the work progressed slowly. The foundation was laid, but
the lack of money prevented any further work. "Then," writes Rev. William
Howlett, the diocesan historian, "on July 26, 1908, a new rector was
appointed in the person of Rev. Hugh L. McMenamin, a young man of talent,
energy and courage, who proved the man of the hour, the right man in the
right place. Lender him new plans for financing the undertaking were
devised, subscriptions were actively and successfully pushed, and the work
of building the superstructure begun. It is not necessary to enter into
the details of the different contracts, nor to recount the personal and
material difficulties inevitable in such a stupendous task, let it be
sufficient to say that Father McMenamin met every difficulty with a
courage that conquers." This magnificent church property, which is now
completed, stands at the corner of Colfax and Logan and is valued closely
to $1,000,000; it is a work of art and declared by architectural critics
to be one of the best cathedral types in the country. In addition to the
cathedral, there are now twenty-one Catholic churches in the City of
Denver.
In 1864 the large frame dwelling of William Clanton, on
the south side of California, between Fourteenth and Fifteenth streets,
was purchased and placed in charge of three sisters of the Order of
Loretto, who came from Kentucky in response to a call from Father
Machebeuf to institute an academy school in Denver. This school was given
the name of St. Mary's. The Sisters of Loretto later constructed their
academy several miles southeast of the city and now occupy a commodious
new building within the city.
When the California Gulch fever
broke out and brought hordes of men from the east in 1860, Father
Machebeuf appeared upon the field and celebrated the first mass. He
labored among the camps, paying yearly visits to each and remaining for
several weeks at a time. In 1875 Father Robinson of Denver was sent to
Fairplay, just across the range, and one of the duties assigned him was a
monthly visit to California Gulch and Oro (Leadville), which then
consisted of only a few log cabins. In February, 1879, Father Robinson was
despatched to Leadville, where he found about twenty-five members, but so
rapidly did the congregation increase that in the course of a few weeks a
church was erected on the comer of East Third and Spruce streets, the
first place of public worship in the city. The church, quickly becoming
too small, was abandoned in 1879 and the new Church of the Annunciation
occupied. Father Robinson, who gave Catholicism its first life in
Leadville, was also responsible for the St. Vincent's Hospital in that
city.
In Boulder, Colorado, the first church building of the
Catholic Church was that 0f the Sacred Heart, constructed in the year 1876
by Rev. A. J. Abel. In Georgetown the Catholics formed the basis of their
church when the town was first laid but; a building was early constructed
and named after "Our Lady of Lourdes," with Rev. Thomas Foley as the first
rector. Longmont had her first Catholic church building in 1882, the same
year as the first structure was put up in Colorado Springs. At Central
City Father Machebeuf established a church in 1872; an academy was built
on Gunnell Hill in 1874. The first priest at Golden was Rev. Thomas
McGrath, who began his work there in 1871. The church was established at
Glenwood Springs in 1886 and at Manitou in 1889. The Catholics were
established at a very early date in the vicinity of Trinidad. Its people
have progressed with the years and now number far in excess of other
denominations in the southern part of the state. Sterling first had a
Catholic church, built of wood, in 1887-8. Rev. Father Howlett was among
the more prominent of the early rectors here. At Grand Junction Rev.
Father Servant, assistant priest at Gunnison, held the first services
March 24, 1883, and on June 7th was appointed pastor by Father Machebeuf,
his work also embracing Delta, Montrose, Ouray and the San Miguel country.
The new church at Grand Junction was opened for services in April of the
year 1884. The period of greatest growth of Catholicism in Colorado is
from 1885 until 1895; in this decade, at some time or other, church
societies were established at practically every community of importance in
the state. Most of these had small beginnings, meetings ordinarily being
held in the private residences at first, but in nearly every case church
structures of size and beauty were soon built. In a census of the
different denominations of the state at the present time, the members of
the Catholic Church are found to be in greater numbers than of any other
one denomination.
History of Colorado
Source: History of Colorado, Wilbur
Fisk Stone, Editor, Volume I, Chicago, The S. J. Clarke Publishing
Company, 1918 |
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