CHAPTER II

MONTANA'S CIVIL AND ECCLESIASTICAL ORGANIZATION.

By act of Congress, May 26, 1864, Montana was carved out of Dakota, Wyoming, and Idaho, and formed into a distinct territory. Twenty-five years later, that is, February 22, 1889, it became one of the states of the Union.

Its white population in 1870, just four years after becoming a territory, numbered 18,306. The census of 1880 grew to 39,159 whites. In the next ten years the number grew to 132,159, an increase of 93,000. They are the figures of the last census.

One year after its admission into the Union, Montana consisted of sixteen counties, and the number of whites in each county, as given by the last official census, was as follows:

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Three of these counties, namely Deer Lodge, Missoula and Silver bow, with a portion of Beaverhead, are on the west side of the range and constitute western Montana. All the others, to the exception of a part of Beaverhead County, are on the east side, and form the western section of our State of Eastern Montana.

Passing now to the Ecclesiastical organization, it is first to be observed that the continental divide of the Rocky Mountains has been made by the Holy See the line of division between the Ecclesiastical Province of St. Louis, and that of Oregon. It hence followed that all the country east of the main range, the dividing line, belonged ecclesiastically to the former, and the country west of it to the latter. Consequently, as Montana sat, as it were, astraddle the line of division or the main range, its western section or Western Montana came under the jurisdiction of the Metropolitan of Oregon, whereas, the other section or Eastern Montana, remained subject to the Metropolitan of St. Louis. Thus, the new territory, while civilly one, was split in two ecclesiastically by the dual jurisdiction.

It is further to be observed that the See of Oregon, having sprung from that of Quebec, retained and followed the discipline, laws and customs of the parent church. Now, some of these laws and customs with regard to feats, fasts, and other points of church discipline, were somewhat different from those the obtained in the Province of St. Louis. Hence the church discipline in western Montana varied from that in the eastern part of the State, which was confusing and a matter of no little inconvenience for priests and people.

In 1860, the Second Plenary council of Baltimore petitioned the Holy See for the erection of two Vicariates Apostolic, one in Montana, the other in Idaho. That the initiative of this measure, so far at least is it referred to Montana, is due to General

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Thomas Meagher admits of no doubt, and has become a matter of history.

Shortly after the Civil War, General Thomas Francis Meagher was sent to Montana as Secretary of the Territorial Administration and acting Governor for the time being. Stopping at St. Paul while on his way to Montana, he had several conversations with the rt. Rev. Thomas L. Grace, the Bishop of that city, and the Most Rev. John Ireland, at that time Archbishop of St. Paul, and laid open to both his plans for the spread of Holy church in the new territory.

It was his wish, he repeatedly sated, to colonize Montana with Catholics, drawing settlers principally from Irishmen in Ireland and Irishmen in America. He would at once take steps to secure priests and would write to All Hallows College in Dublin to engage there ten students, for whose tuition he would make himself responsible. He would, furthermore, he added, take steps to have a Bishop in Montana.

With regard to this last part of his plans, General Meagher was told by Bishop Grace that the proper mode of procedure was to communicate with the Bishop of St. Louis under whose Metropolitan jurisdiction the greater part of Montana then lay. With those purposes of General Meagher I was quite conversant, having heard him time and again, and having encouraged him very much to go forward and become the great founder of the Church in Montana.

So states His Grace, the Archbishop of St. Paul, ina letter which he very kindly sent to the writer under date of January 29, 1912.

But more. We learn from the same authority that:

During the Baltimore Council mentioned above, the Archbishop of St. Louis stated to the Bishops assembled, that he had letters from General Meagher and Mrs. Meagher earnestly requesting the appointment of a Bishop for Montana. The request was favorably considered by the Archbishop himself and on its strength he urged upon the Council the erection of Montana into a Vicariate Apostolic. Hence the action of the Council in favor of the project. It is clear from this that it was General Meagher who brought the Council's attention to Montana and induced the Council to erect it into a Vicariate.

Thus His Grace Archbishop Ireland in the same letter quoted above, and which we reproduce in full in the Appendix.

The Catholics of Alder Gulch or Virginia City, where General

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Meagher and Mrs. Meagher resided, became well aware of the facts, and now, in consequence, they were all in eager and daily expectation of the arrival in Montana of the new Prelate, earnestly petitioned for by the Acting Governor and his wife. We have before us the sermon which Father L. Van Gorp, S. J., the priest in charge at the time, delivered on the occasion of the funeral services held for the repose of the soul of General Meagher at Virginia City, July 9, 1867. We quote from it in the following, which is much to our point:

He (General Thomas Francis Meagher) used his utmost endeavors with the Ecclesiastical Authorities to have Montana made a separate Diocese . . . . . .and in this he has been successful; for we daily expect the mitered envoy from Rome to come and take charge of his diocese.

But while it is made evident from all this that General Meagher was directly instrumental in securing a Vicariate for Montana, the fact that the Second Plenary Council of Baltimore in recommending to the Holy See the Montana Vicariate recommended also the erection of another Vicariate in Idaho, seemed to indicate that his action with regard to the former, has some bearing also in the case of the latter, at least, indirectly. For the Vicariate of Montana, as presented to the Holy See, took in only the eastern part of the territory, namely, the section that lay east of the main range, or Eastern Montana. Hence, but for the erection of the Vicariate also of Idaho, no provision would have been made for Western Montana. Yet, General Meagher sought to have a Bishop for Montana. Can it be that his request referred to only a part and not to the whole of Montana? It hardly seems probably. Hence our surmise that his action, if no more than indirectly, led to the erection of the Vicariate of Idaho also.

Be this as it may, the two Vicariates Apostolic recommended to the Holy see by the Baltimore Council were erected, their common limits being made to coincide with the line that separated the jurisdiction of the two Ecclesiastical Provinces of Oregon and St. Louis. this line, as already stated, was the continental divide or the main range of the Rocky Mountains; and thus, Western Montana, because of lay west of the dividing line, became a part of the Vicariate of Idaho; while the section

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east of the line became the Vicariate of Montana, though it comprised only the eastern part of the territory.

Approving the action of the Council which had recommended them, the Rt. Rev. L. Lootens, of the Archdiocese of San Francisco, Cal., and the Rt. Rev. A. Ravoux, of St. Paul, Mimm., were appointed by the Holy See, the former to the Vicariate of Idaho, and the latter, to that of Montana. On the ground of poor health, Father a. Ravoux was released from his appointment at his own request; while Bishop L. Lootens accepted his charge and continued in the performance of its duties up to 1875, when, owing to physical disability, he resigned. No new appointments to fill the vacancies were made, but instead, the two Vicariates were confided for administration, Montana, to the Vicar apostolic of Nebraska, and Idaho to the Metropolitan of Oregon. Thus, Montana in things spiritual was left, as a matter of fact, not a whit better off than it was before the erection of those two Vicariates.

This condition, undesirable and unsatisfactory as it was, became increasingly so with the increase in population. The dual jurisdiction and the great distance of the two Sees on which Montana depended, were felt to be in many ways a serious disadvantage to the spiritual welfare of the people, and hampered considerably the development of the Church in the Territory.

It was at this period that His Grace, Charles Seghers, the Coadjutor Archbishop of Oregon, visited Western Montana a couple of times, and thus became personally acquainted with actual conditions and the spiritual wants of the country. He went in person to lay the matter before the authorities at Rome, and it is owing, principally, to his representations that the Holy See gave Montana a new and most satisfactory ecclesiastical organization, to the great delight of the whole community.

By a decree, dated March 5, 1883, Western and Eastern Montana were united into one Vicariate. Another decree, issued a few days later, March 11, detached Eastern Montana from the Ecclesiastical province of St. Louis and joined it to that of Oregon, whilst on April 7, of the same year, it bestowed on Montana a resident Administrator in the person of the Rt. Rev. John B. Brondel, the Bishop of Vancouver Island, who, though retaining his title of Bishop of Vancouver, was to reside in our

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territory. One Year later, March 7, 1884, the Vicariate of Montana became the Diocese of Helena, with the Rt. Rev. John B. Brondel as its first Bishop.

But of this last act of the Holy See we shall speak more in detail further on. We but mentioned it here, to present Montana's ecclesiastical organization in full. Let us now proceed to speak of the first missionary work among the whites.