Alameda County Biographies

ST. MARY'S COLLEGE, OAKLAND

Transcribed by Kathy Sedler

This file is part of the California Genealogy & History Archives http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~cagha/index.htm


 
        Under date of July 9th, 1863, the Most Rev. Joseph Sadoc Alemany, D. D., 
O. P. (1814-1888), Archbishop of Upper California, made entry in his diary: "I 
blessed the chapel of the College of St. Mary beyond the Mission Dolores." 
Simply that and nothing more. But it was significant; it marked an epoch in the 
history of Catholic education in the west.
        San Francisco was growing fast; its El Dorado fascination had not yet 
waned. A sprinkling of the population had the faith and its children were 
maturing with few men to break the word to them. To develop a native priesthood, 
the saintly Bishop had established St. Thomas Seminary at the old Mission 
Dolores, placing it in charge of Monsignor J. Prendergast, the present Vicar 
General of the Archdiocese. To preserve and cultivate the old faith he founded 
St. Mary's College on the Mission Road to San Jose, about three miles west of 
the seminary. On the scroll that went into the cornerstone was written: Joseph 
Alemany, Archbishop of California, laid the cornerstone of this college under 
the title of St. Mary, for the instruction of the youth of California, not in 
literature only but what is greater, in true Christian knowledge."
        The founding of St. Mary's College was a gigantic undertaking in those 
days and the event is enshrined in names that will forever adorn the history of 
the Catholic church on the Pacific coast. Some of these names are Patrick 
Manogue (1831-1895), subsequently Bishop of Sacramento, who took a handful of 
clay from the proposed site and carried it to town for chemical analysis (it 
proved fit and the brick that went into the beautiful Gothic pile was 
manufactured on the ground); James Croke, V. G. (1829-1889), a brother of the 
Archbishop of Cashel, Ireland, who collecting thirty-three thousand dollars 
among the miners of California is immortalized in the above mentioned scroll 
with these words: "It has been erected by the offerings of the miners and the 
faithful of California, through the exertions of Rev. James Croke, V. G.;" 
William Gleason, M. A. (1827�1903), author of "Trials of the Church" (1880), and 
"History of the Catholic Church in California" (1872), and Richard Brennan 
(1835-1905), Chancellor of the Archdiocese, both of whom professed the ancient 
classics in the institution; and Patrick J. Gray (1822�1907), its first 
president.
        The site comprised sixty acres of the Salinas Y Viejo Potrero Ranch and 
was purchased for fourteen hundred dollars. The fact lends a tinge of 
romanticism to the establishment. Though exposed to the wind and fog of the 
Pacific ocean the site was long known as University Mound and lay on the western 
slope of Bernal Heights, named after the original grantees. The name and a few 
city lots near Mission Dolores is all that is left of that generous Spanish 
Grant. The Bernals have deserved to fare better. They were liberal benefactors 
to Archbishop Alemany; the boys received their early education at St. Mary's 
College; but time and "squatters" have dealt hard with their descendants. The 
old college building too has disappeared, having been sold and razed in 1910.
        The beginnings of St. Mary's were quite modest. Five lay professors and 
two priests composed the faculty. They were assisted by pupil-teachers�men who 
attended class sessions three-fourths of the time and taught the other fourth. 
The curriculum embraced the three R's, English, grammar and rhetoric, 
mathematics to quadratics, Euclid's geometry, logic and philosophy, modern 
languages, music, physical culture, and a rather extensive course in classics 
and religion. Students flocked to it from all quarters. The first year 
registered four hundred and seventeen, but hard times succeeded the season of 
prosperity. Father Grey was an earnest and stern man of the old school. He 
worked hard and zealously but the proverbial Californian writhed under 
restraint. Though the opportunity was offered him to get an education at one 
hundred and seventy-five dollars a year he began to shun St. Mary's and the 
registration in 1868 fell to less than one-fourth the initial number.
Archbishop Alemany felt keenly the diminution in numbers and finances. When one 
of the professors in 1864 asked about his salary for the ensuing year his Grace 
wrote in reply: "I regret very much to have to state�that I must back out from 
the engagement made with you. Poor old St. Mary's has lost too much these last 
two years * * * . If you continue acting as professor�it will have to be at what 
Father Grey can afford, which may be a fraction less than what he generally gave 
last year." Father Croke, who was absorbed in the success of the college, wrote 
to the same professor in a similar but more hopeful strain, from Mission San 
Jose, where he was confined with a fractured knee: "From what I heard of the 
last examination I think we have reason to be proud of St. Mary's as a literary 
establishment. Its advantages to the public are not duly appreciated, but time 
will effect a change. Then I hope St. Mary's can afford to be generous toward 
those who labor with zeal and profit in the noble cause of education. Meanwhile 
they must be satisfied with a moderate supply of United States coin and plenty 
of prayers."
        From the inception of the institution it was the Archbishop's intention 
to have it conducted by Brothers. In December, 1863, he wrote to Archbishop 
Spaulding at Baltimore and to the Bishop of Bruges, Belgium, asking if they 
could provide him Brothers. During the same year he visited Montreal, New York 
and Paris in an effort to secure them. In 1867 Cardinal Bornabo wrote to the 
Superior of the Salesians at Bruges, and of the Christian Brothers at Dublin, 
Ireland, inquiring if they could supply subjects to the Archbishop of San 
Francisco to take charge of a boarding college. In 1868 the untiring Alemany 
again visited Montreal, New York and Paris, but in vain. As a court of last 
resource he applied to Rome. The Holy Father, Pius IX, immediately ordered 
Brother Phillipe (1806-1874), Superior General of the Brothers of the Christian 
Schools at Paris, to give Archbishop Alemany enough Brothers to open a boarding 
college. On the evening of August 10, 1868, eight Brothers under the direction 
of Brother Justin (1834-1912) landed in San Francisco. On the following day they 
dined with his Grace and in the afternoon rode in carriages out the Mission Road 
to the college, where they were installed without ceremony.
        The building was amply large for two hundred students though but 
thirty-four greeted the new tutors. Brother Justin with characteristic energy 
immediately sent broadcast the first prospectus of St. Mary's, a quarto-sheet, 
and his Grace sent urgent letters to all the priests of the archdiocese asking 
them to encourage Catholic parents to send their children to the college for a 
Christian education. The result was beyond expectations. The register swelled to 
three hundred and twenty-seven names the first year, though the tuition had been 
advanced to two hundred and fifty dollars. In 1872 the institution was 
incorporated. That year was graduated the first Bachelor in Arts and Letters, J. 
Alpheus Graves, and since that year three hundred and twenty-five men have 
received their degrees from St. Mary's besides five hundred and seventeen who 
have been awarded diplomas in accounting by the commercial department. A record 
for collegiate work on the Pacific coast.
        Fulfilling admirably the fondest hopes of Archbishop Alemany, his Grace 
felt most kindly towards St. Mary's. He honored it on many occasions with his 
presence and was proud to make it an objective point for all his distinguished 
visitors. Several times was he the recipient of words of respect and devotion 
from the students of the college. The bond of union that naturally grew between 
the clergy and the Brothers has been strengthened with time, and his present 
Grace, Most Rev. P. W. Riordan, D. D., has fostered it with untiring vigilance. 
He it was who annually administered the Sacrament of Confirmation in St. Mary's 
since 1884, who dedicated and rededicated the building in Oakland in 1889 and 
1895, and who opened the first course of lectures in the new institution with 
"Books and How to Use Them," October, 1889. Other members of his clergy who also 
lectured in the course were the late Most Rev. George Montgomery, D. D., Rev. 
Thomas McSweeney, and Rev. Joseph Sasia, S. J.
        Brother Justin was succeeded in 1879 by Brother Bettelin, who in 1889 
transferred St. Mary's to Oakland, where a massive building had been erected at 
a cost of three hundred and twenty-five thousand dollars. Owing to the duties 
devolving on him through the provincialship of California, Brother Bettelin 
placed the guidance of the college under one of his subordinates, called 
director. This title was maintained until 1900 when the director became 
president of the college and the provincial, president of the board of trustees.
        The Brothers early realized that they were not organized to make money 
and St. Mary's has been no exception. The debt that hung over it on August 11, 
1889, has never been raised; in fact it has grown with age. In 1894 the building 
was burned and the walls of the old college in San Francisco once again 
resounded with teachers and pupils in battle array. Eighteen months passed 
before the Oakland building was reoccupied. The earthquake of 1906 again 
enhanced the debt when fifty thousand dollars were expended in repairs and in 
the enlargement of accommodations. Then during the active prefectship of Brother 
Joseph, thirty thousand was spent in the erection of a completely equipped 
gymnasium, a swimming tank, and the construction of a regulation stadium. Withal 
the equipment of the institution has steadily improved. Assaying, chemical and 
physical laboratories were added in 1900-1903, a pre-medical course introduced 
in 1910, while the first graduates in civil engineering had been given their 
sheepskins in 1905.
        St. Mary's College upholds the old system of non-electives. The courses 
are prescribed and students must fall in line. Some time ago it was considered 
antiquarian, but universities have reverted lately to it as the savior of their 
standards of scholarship. Even in the matter of religion all students must 
follow the religious exercises of Holy Mother Church, and listen to the 
exposition of Catholic doctrine though non-Catholics are dispensed from 
recitation. The result is that St. Mary's has fitted men for this world while it 
trained them for another. The, thirst for knowledge acts for and by itself and 
makes its own way; but the art of living must be learned by instruction and 
developed by regular systematic practice. As evidence of this idea in education, 
St. Mary's already numbers amongst its graduates, twenty-eight priests, 
thirty-three doctors, fifty-seven lawyers, and twelve judges. Further, as 
orators, its men are called into requisition on all occasions and never does a 
St. Patrick's Day or a Fourth of July pass without the alumni of the college 
upholding the tradition emanating from the great Brother Justin. The standard of 
a nation's greatness is set by the number of its great men; may not the 
criterion apply to institutions as well? It is substantiated in the Catholic 
church, and like wheels within a wheel it is lived in the institutions which she 
fosters.
        St. Mary's great work on the Pacific coast will stand. It will also grow 
because its ideal is set down in the scroll that went into the head of the 
corner. On subserviency to this ideal alone does it bank its continuity for 
good. Men must get a moral, physical and intellectual education, to attain the 
right standard of true citizenship. The influence of such men on the body 
politic is known to God alone. Communicative, it enlarges in an ever increasing 
circle.
 
Past & Present of Alameda County, California � Vol II, S. J. Clarke Publ. Co., 
1914, p. 268