Nine
acres of land, extending west of Duncan and 26th Streets,
were conveyed by deed November 30, 1849 by the Sisters of
Charity of Nazareth to the Diocese of Louisville, as
recorded in the Jefferson County Deed Book 74, page 584.
cemetery lots were laid out and the first burial took
place in 1851.This cemetery was first called St. Mary's
later became known as St. John's. Father John
B. Wuest in his One Hundred Years of St. Boniface Parish,
Louisville, KY, page 48, makes reference to the
"German Catholic Cemetery near Portland," and as
late as 1869, the "Louisville City Directory"
lists "St. Mary's Catholic Cemetery, W. S. 26th St.
corner of Duncan."
St. Joseph Orphan Home and Society were formed in August
1849. At that period there were two German catholic
Churches in Louisville, St. Boniface and the Church of the
Immaculate Conception, which was commonly called St.
Mary's. Father Charles Boeswald, pastor of St,.
Mary's, was the first president of the orphan society, and
we suspect was instrumental in the purchase of the
property at 26th and Duncan for a German cemetery.
It is interesting to note that at his death in November,
1855, he was laid to rest in that cemetery. It
should be observed that interments in this burying ground
were reserved at first in the section then developed for
those of German descent.
Available records of burial in St. Mary-St. John Cemetery
are to be found in the catholic Cemeteries Office at
Calvary Cemetery.
There is an unsavory connection between this first German
Catholic burying ground and St. Stephen's Cemetery.
Opposition to St. Mary's quickly arose, perhaps even
before the first burial, by a rebellious faction in St.
Boniface parish. The cause is not certain. The
"malcontents" alleged they wanted a cemetery
where the poor could be buried free of cost. Perhaps
it was the location of the cemetery or its management.
Maybe it was spirit of jealousy against the newly formed
St. Mary's parish and its pastor. In any case,
Father Wuest, in the history cited above, pages 48-50, has
a lengthy account of the affair. His excellent book,
printed in 1937, is now out of print and becoming very
rare, so we paraphrase his detailed explanation of it as
follows:
The spirit of rebellion came to a head in 1851. A
group of men, the St. Boniface Benevolent Society had
formed an organization and had bought a piece of property
for the purpose, as they alleged, of burying poor people
free of charge. This, they said, was a necessity
since a fee of six dollars was demanded for the interment
in the German Catholic Cemetery then located near the
section of Louisville called Portland.
The officers of the society
wished to be independent of the ecclesiastical control and
had formed an independent corporation refusing to give the
deed of the property to the Bishop of the diocese.
Accordingly, Bishop Spaulding and Father Otto {Tair, the
pastor of St. Boniface} refused to consecrate the new
burial grounds, known as St. Stephen's Cemetery, unless
the deed was duly surrendered to ecclesiastical
authorities.
Turbulent scenes and
demonstrations followed. On September 12, 1851, a
crowd of some six hundred gathered in front of St.
Boniface Church, and considering the excitement and high
tension, could have easily been led to excesses. The
wrath of the members of the society was leveled especially
at Mr. Goss, who preferred yet another site for cemetery
purposes, the present St. Michael's Cemetery, and who was
accused of inciting the Bishop against the society.
The members refused unanimously to hand over the deed,
which, they said, would mean the end of all free burials
of the poor.
As was to be expected, some
of the parishioners took sides with the rebellious
faction, and a divided parish resulted. Even some of
the trustees of the church cast their lot with the
malcontents, tainted, undoubtedly, with some of the
radical spirit rampant among the Forty-Eighters,
revolutionary refugees from Germany. Those trustees,
who went over to the disobedient society were deposed by
the Bishop, and new ones appointed in their stead.
This was a cause of a new deedifying scene. On the
Sunday following the appointment of their successors,
during the course of the services, words were exchanged in
the church itself between the new and the deposed trustees
that turned into a brawl. A charge of disturbing
church services was brought against the discontents, but
was later dismissed.
The cemetery was placed
under interdict and the Catholics threatened by the Bishop
with ecclesiastical censure if they permitted any of the
faithful to be buried there. the first to be
interred was Peter N. Lorenz, a school teacher. On
Sunday, October 19, 1851, his remains were borne to the
cemetery by a vast concourse of people, estimated at three
thousand, not al necessarily Catholics, but all infected
with the rebellious spirit of the radical German element
in Louisville. Since no Catholic priest could be
had, the president and secretary of the society conducted
the funeral services and held discourses.
The society was later known as the St. Stephen's Cemetery
Society and when on October 17, 1852, it celebrated its
first anniversary by a pilgrimage to the interdicted
burial grounds, it numbered one hundred and forty members.
It still existed twenty years later and the cemetery can
still be seen on South Preston and Rawlings Street.
- This
history provided by Janis Fowler - |
