Among the victims struck down by the terrible de-
stroyer that year was Bishop Van de Velde, formerly
president of the St. Louis University ; he died of yel-
low fever at Natchez, Mississippi, on November 13,
I855- 1
Not even at any subsequent period was the number
of boarders in the St. Louis University ever so great
as it was during the session of 1855-56. It is a fact
generally observed that, perhaps with no exception, in
all Catholic boarding-schools, both male and female,
throughout the United States, the number of boarders
has been gradually diminishing for many years. This
change may be accounted for, at least in part, by in-
creased facilities for education in better local schools
than formerly existed ; and thus, boarding-schools being
less of a necessity, are also less in public favor than they
once were. But, while the number of boarders at the
university, after reaching its highest, thenceforth de-
clined somewhat, on the other hand, the number of
externs increased in a much greater proportion dur-
ing the same period.
A gloom was cast over the entire city of St. Louis by
the railroad disaster which happened on November i,
1855, when a numerous party of citizens, by invitation,
went out on the Missouri Pacific Railroad, then just com-
pleted to a point beyond the Gasconade River. When
the train was on the approaches to the bridge over that
stream, the trestle-work gave way, and nearly all the
cars were precipitated to the declivity of the banks be-
low, killing more than thirty persons, and wounding,
1 His remains were removed to St. Stanislaus Novitiate, near Floris-
sant, Missouri, and there reinterred on November 20, 1874.
6
82 HISTORY OF THE ST. LOUIS UNIVERSITY.
more or less seriously, a hundred. Among the killed
or wounded were many prominent citizens, and of these
some had sons then at the St. Louis University. Mr.
Henry Chouteau, Capt. O'Flaherty, and Dr. Bullard
were of those who lost their lives by this sad catas-
trophe, and were, perhaps, the ones most generally
known to the public.
In November, 1855, the "Students' Library Society"
was instituted, with the view of securing a collection of
suitable works on branches of polite learning, which
could be made accessible to all the classes on easy con-
ditions. The members of the association were required
to pay a small fee for the right of using the books.
This library, which was a successful undertaking from
its very beginning, has proved to be a boon, especially
for the more advanced classes of the institution ; and,
despite losses by the wear and tear of twenty-four years*
time, it has grown to be a large and well-selected library
of the standard works which are best adapted for culti-
vating taste and style of composition in youth, and at
the same time storing their minds with useful knowledge
on many learned subjects.
The " Philalethic Literary and Debating Society "
was first organized in 1832. It was always prosperous ;
it always was, and it still is, a means of developing and
cultivating students more advanced in their classes,
which, perhaps, could not be otherwise supplied at all.
In 1838, the "Philharmonic Society" was begun among
the students, with the aim of developing a taste for the
higher style of music, and at the same time to furnish
the young performers an opportunity of acquiring the
art of music under the direction of skilful masters. This
society also fully realized its object.
HISTORY OF THE ST. LOUIS UNIVERSITY. 83
During the intervening period from 1832 to the pres-
ent time, various other societies were started at differ-
ent dates among the students, and had a temporary
existence ; but, because they supplied only an acci-
dental and passing want, they ceased to exist when the
reason or necessity for beginning them had passed
away. But, as if by the theory of " natural selection
and survival of the fittest," only the three societies
above named and described have permanently en-
dured, in spite of all contingencies and changing cir-
cumstances ; whence it seems to follow that they
supply a common want, and are a necessary means of
good for the students of the St. Louis University.
On July 6, 1856, Rev. William S. Murphy retired
from the office of vice-provincial, which he had filled
from August 15, 1851, and he was succeeded by Rev.
J. B. Druyts. Father Druyts made it a chief aim of his
administration to educate thoroughly the young n>en
destined to replace the older ones, then soon to pass
away, and he spared no efforts to have them duly cul-
tivated in those sciences and those virtues which would
fit them to perform the future duties awaiting them as
professors in colleges, missionaries, and pastors of con-
gregations, to the best advantage. He instituted a full
course of study for them in the scholasticate on " Col-
lege Hill," or theological department of St. Louis Uni-
versity. This was an important step forward in the
work of advancing the vice-province ; and so completely
did he imbue the minds of all with his own convictions
concerning what was the wisest and best for the inter-
ests of Jesuit colleges and missions in the West, that his
undertaking met with cordial and universal cooperation,
and it was executed in succeeding years as planned by
84 HISTORY OF THE ST. LOUIS UNIVERSITY.
him. Father Druyts, whether as president of the uni-
versity or as vice-provincial of Missouri, had the rare
gift of so using his authority as both to secure perfect
government of the charge intrusted to him, and to win
the heart of every individual person subject to his direc-
tion or control ; and it is extraordinary for one exer-
cising power over others so to do his whole duty as
yet to be loved by every one.
As already stated in a previous chapter of this sketch,
a farm of three hundred acres was bought by the uni
versity in 1836, with a view of moving the institution
to that locality, and that after the foundation had been
dug the project was abandoned. When Father Verdin
became president of the university, in 1854, more than
half of this farm, now within the limits of North St.
Louis, had been sold. Father Verdin divided a portion
of the remainder into town lots, in 1855, and most of
them were subsequently sold, after a church had been
erected in a central position, which was completed in
1857. Amid the groves which then covered a portion
of this land, a brick house three stories high and nearly a
hundred feet long was put up in the year 1857, to serve as
a country resort for students and professors, especially
during the oppressive months of summer. In the spring
of 1858, an addition was made to this house, and other
buildings were erected, with a view of placing there the
theological department of the university, or the scholas-
ticate. All things being made ready, the scholasticate
was begun there on September 1 1, 1858, with four profes-
sors, Rev. F. X. Wippern being the superior. Suitable
cart-roads, and walks for the students and professors, were
completed ; the young men set out ornamental trees in
due season, and laid out a vegetable and flower garden,
HISTORY OF THE ST. LOUIS UNIVERSITY. 85
which they adorned with an " Indian mound " at its
centre. This was a delightful place of abode, till it was
encroached on by rendering establishments, with their
" two and seventy stenches, several and well defined ; "
and by foundries and rolling-mills, whose tall, volcanic
chimneys loaded the air with black clouds of suffocating
bituminous smoke.
In the year 1857, Bishop O'Regan, of Chicago, 1 Illi-
nois, invited the Jesuits of Missouri to establish a house
of the order in that city. In compliance with his wish,
Father Arnold Damen and Father Charles Truyens
were sent to Chicago, reaching that city on May 4,
1857. Father Damen, immediately after his arrival,
contracted for a frame church and residence, to be built
on the corner May and Eleventh Streets, he and his
companion residing with Bishop O'Regan till the 7th
of the following July. The corner-stone for the Church
of the Holy Family, fronting on Twelfth Street, and
east of May Street, was blessed by Bishop O'Regan on
August 25, 1857, and the church was dedicated by
Bishop Duggan in August, 1860, Archbishop Kenrick,
of St. Louis, preaching in the English language, and
Bishop Henni, of Milwaukee, preaching in German. A
brick dwelling was built on the corner of Twelfth and
May Streets in 1861 ; on September 24, 1867, St. Igna-
tius College, Chicago, was begun, and classes were first
organized therein about the beginning of September,
1 The following well-known distich may occur to the reader's mind,
but what it conveys does not always hold true now : " Bernardus valles,
monies Benedictus amabat; Oppida, Franciscus, magnas Ignatius
urbes." Bernard preferred the valleys ; Benedict the high lands ; Fran-
cis loved the small towns, and Ignatius the large cities.
86 HISTORY OF THE ST. LOUIS UNIVERSITY.
1870, under the general direction of Rev. John S. Verdin.
The eloquent Father Cornelius Smarius was sent to
Chicago, in the summer of 1861, to aid Father Damen
in giving missions. These missions had first been un-
dertaken in the autumn of 1857, an d the zealous and inde-
fatigable Father Damen, with a number of assistants, has
continued them down to the present day, or for twenty-
two years. Some estimate of the work done by Father
Damen and companions during that period may be made
from the results accomplished. Father Damen has per-
sonally conducted 208 missions, averaging two weeks'
time for each. He travelled, on an average, 6,000
miles each year; or during the twenty-two years, he
travelled 132,000 miles. He and his different bands
of companions, together, gave 2,800,000 communions
within the twenty-two years; and in that period they
made 12,000 conversions to the faith. 1
It will serve to convey a still more comprehensive
notion of the work actually done on these missionary
journeys, here to add a few general facts as to what has
been done by the illustrious Father Weninger during
the thirty-one years spent by him almost exclusively in
such employment. He began giving missions of eight
or ten days' duration to German congregations, and oc-
casionally to mixed German and English congregations,
in 1848. During the thirty-one years from 1848 to the
present year, 1879, he conducted over eight hundred
missions, preached over thirty thousand times, giving his
1 At a mission given by Rev. John Coghlan and his associates, at
St. Stephen's Church, New York, lasting for four weeks, during the past
spring, the number of communions given, as published in the Catholic
newspapers, was 42,000.
HISTORY OF THE ST. LOUIS UNIVERSITY. 8/
sermons, when to mixed congregations, both in English
and German. The number of communions given by him
at each mission varied from three hundred to one thou-
sand, and the number of conversions to the faith made
by him during that period was between two and three
thousand. He travelled through all parts of the United
States to give these missions, journeying a total distance
of over two hundred thousand miles. In all that time his
voice never failed him, and in all his journeying he never
met with a serious accident. By these results we may
estimate the magnitude of the work done by this mission-
ary, who, though now nearly seventy-four years of age,
still retains both the vigor of his health and the freshness
of his primitive zeal for this laudable occupation.
At the opening of the session 1858-59 in the uni-
versity, the classical course and the commercial course
were entirely separated from each other and assigned
to distinct class-rooms, and distinct teachers were ap-
pointed for them. The former course was made to
comprise six classes, or six years ; and the latter, four
classes, or four years. It was also arranged that the
professor in each class should teach all the matter, or
all the branches of study, assigned to that class. Ex-
perience has shown that this plan works well, in practice,
for the intermediate and lower classes. As regards the
learner, there are exceptional cases of students far ad-
vanced in their knowledge of English and mathematical
branches who are only beginners in the ancient classics,
and they must be provided for accordingly. The final
examination of candidates for graduation in the classical
course was to be in logic, general and special metaphys-
ics, including ethics or moral philosophy, and the higher
mathematics. Candidates for graduation in the com-
88 HISTORY OF THE ST. LOUIS UNIVERSITY.
mercial course were to be examined in rhetoric, elements
of logic and moral philosophy, algebra, geometry, sur-
veying, chemistry, and physics, including astronomy.
After nearly twenty years of observation, it was
found expedient and advantageous fora certain number
of young men in the commercial course to give them
an additional year, or a fifth class, in which they might
pursue their study of mathematics, the physical sciences,
logic, general and special metaphysics, including ethics
or moral philosophy, much further; and it seemed
that they might enjoy the advantage of attending the
lectures and discussions in the class of philosophy, which
had heretofore been limited to graduates of the classical
course. Successful examination in these additional
branches of higher study would entitle the candidate
to the degree of B.S., or Bachelor of Science.
This fifth class, for the degree, Bachelor of Science,
was first introduced into the course of study at the
university in the year 1877, and the results reached by
the two classes that have now finished show how
exceedingly greac are the advantages of this arrange-
ment for those young men who aspire to a good English
education without study of the ancient classics.
It cannot be legitimately doubted by the learned
scholar that the mastering of the best Greek and Latin
authors, in their original languages, has a peculiar effect
in refining one's literary taste and elevating its stand-
ard ; nor can this result be so perfectly accomplished
without the aid of these primitive and best of all models.
Neither can the language of higher learning, or of
science, as clothed in the cultivated vernaculars of
modern nations, be easily or even thoroughly mastered
without a sufficient acquaintance with the tongues
HISTORY OF THE ST. LOUIS UNIVERSITY. 89
which are the original groundwork of nearly all scien-
tific terminology.
On the other hand, there are some who condemn the
study of the Greek and Latin classics, on the alleged
principle of conscience that they are ethnical, or pagan,
and they may, therefore, taint Christian manners,
especially in the young. This opinion seems to rest on
a narrow view of the subject, and is, perhaps, when
held on the ground of conscience, prompted by zeal
that is not according to knowledge ; indeed, the prac-
tice which has been prevalent in the Christian schools,
from the earliest ages, of reading for their style the
poetry of Homer, the writings of Plato and Aristotle,
the speeches and essays of Cicero, the poems of Virgil,
etc., is not at all the thing which is at fault; it is the
theorizing that is at fault. 1
There are others who are opposed to the study of the
ancient classics, with less inconsistency, for less objec-
tionable reasons : as, first, they who desire only that
education which can be acquired in a shorter time;
secondly, those who are to pursue the walks of life in
which a good English education will answer all practi-
cal purposes ; and, finally, those who believe that one
can acquire perfect education without the ancient
classics or the dead languages. The commercial and
scientific courses in the St. Louis University were
1 Some account will be given, in a succeeding chapter of this volume,
of the " Ratio Studiorum," or "Plan of Studies," as proposed by St
Ignatius Loyola, in the rules and constitution of the Jesuit Society
made by him. The method of teaching proposed by him directly
regards the Latin language, the only learned tongue in his day ; but
it is capable of being applied as well to instruction in any cultivated
language of the present time.
90 HISTORY OF THE ST. LOUIS UNIVERSITY.
designed to realize these ideals, so far as they are some-
thing feasible. It is sure that the thoroughness or
perfection of mental education does not intrinsically, or
of its own nature, depend on the knowing of Greek
and Latin classics in their original languages ; but it is
also true, as the experience of centuries proves, that
thorough study of the ancient classics has, as a fact,
refining effects on one's literary taste and style which
are not actually produced so perfectly by any other
means of culture.
On March 19, 1859, Rev. Ferdinand Coosemans was
installed president of St. Louis University, succeeding
Father Verdin, who was afterwards stationed at St.
Joseph's College, Bardstown, Kentucky.
At the beginning of September, 1860, the scholas-
ticate was transferred from College Hill to Boston,
Massachusetts, owing to special advantages possessed
at that time by Boston College for the conducting of
the theological and philosophical studies. The young
men and their professors who had spent two years at
College Hill, then just beyond the northern limits of
St. Louis, ever afterwards preserved among the most
pleasant remembrances of their lives the two happy
years spent by them at that spot, then embosomed in
shady groves and gardens ; but now bald, bereft of all
its natural charms, and environed with petty factories.
Shortly after the beginning of 1861, Rev. J. B. Druyts,
vice-provincial of Missouri, whose health had long been
declining, became incapable of any official duty, from
softening of the brain. Early in February of that year
Rev. William S. Murphy, who had formerly been vice-
provincial of Missouri, from 1851 to 1856, was recalled
to the West from New Orleans, where he was then
HISTORY OF THE ST. LOUIS UNIVERSITY. 9!
residing, to resume the position temporarily, which had
already been held by him in Missouri, until the regular
appointment of Father Druyts's successor could be
made. Father Murphy retained the office till July.
1862; meanwhile, Father Druyts lingered till June 18,
1 86 1, when he breathed his last.
The events accompanying the presidential election
of 1860, the angry debates and inflammatory speeches in
the national Congress which afterwards assembled, left
no doubt that serious troubles, which had been brewing
for a number of years, were now about to break out
into open violence. It had long been foreseen by wise
persons that the existence of African slavery in the
United States was, sooner or later, to test the durability
of the American Union. The sagacious Father Mur-
phy had predicted, many years beforehand, that this
war between the Northern and Southern States was
sooner or later to take place. In 1844, when a mob of
lawless ruffians, instigated by fanatical zealots, burned
the churches and convents of Philadelphia, some
timorous citizens even then augured revolution as cer-
tainly to ensue in the near future. " I fear no disastrous
consequences to the nation," said Father Murphy,
" from violence of this kind, since it will be emphatically
condemned by all good citizens throughout the land;
but if the Union is ever to be dissolved, it is far more
probable that it will result from that civil war which
must ultimately spring from the difficulties presented
by the existing slavery." When this was spoken, Father
Murphy was president of St. Mary's College, in Ken-
tucky.
This war actually began, in the spring of 1861, with
an attack on Fort Sumter, in Charleston harbor. For
92 HISTORY OF THE ST. LOUIS UNIVERSITY.
the magnitude and strength of the armies engaged in
this struggle between the two sections of the country ;
for the determination with which both parties contin-
ued the deadly contest; for the consequences of the
long and eventful fight for victory, by which the entire
military art itself, if not revolutionized, was at least
greatly modified, no war, perhaps, in the history of the
world presents a parallel.
The effects of this great occurrence in the United
States on the institutions under the control of the Mis-
souri province were important, and some of them per-
manent. St. Joseph's College, at Bardstown, Ken-
tucky, was closed at the beginning of June, 1861, in
consequence of the war. Classes were resumed in the
following September, but the number of students was
small, from the fact that its communication with the
Southern States was entirely cut off. As there was no
security against straggling bands from passing armies
and marauding guerrilla parties, the students remaining
at St. Joseph's College were transferred by Rev. John
S. Verdin, then president of the college, to the St. Louis
University, towards the end of December, 1861. The
Jesuit fathers never again organized classes at St.
Joseph's College ; and, as heretofore stated, they finally
made over the college and all the property there owned
by them as a donation to the Bishop of Louisville, in
December, 1868, and departed from that diocese.
After the Camp Jackson affair, at St. Louis, which
happened on the loth of May, 1861, the warlike feeling
in St. Louis, and throughout Missouri, daily grew more
and more intense. Many of the students at the uni-
versity were from the Southern States ; the excitement
among them, and thei impatience to get home before
HISTORY OF THE ST. LOUIS UNIVERSITY. 93
it was too late to cross the military lines, suggested the
expediency of allowing them to depart about the end
of April. All the classes were suspended, and the
remaining students were started home to their parents
and guardians on May 24th, excepting a small number
who preferred not to leave the university.
CHAPTER VIII.
1861 1871.
DURING the session which was prematurely closed May
24, 1 86 1, on account of the civil war, there were at the
St. Louis University sixty-three students from the
Southern States, most of them being from Louisiana.
During the next session, 1861-62, there were only nine
students registered as coming from the Southern States,
and several of these had remained at the close of the
preceding session only because unable to communicate
with their parents. A large proportion of the boarders
were from the Southern States, at all times anterior to
the civil war of 1861-65 5 an d this was true of most
Catholic boarding-schools, both male and female. A
marked change has taken place since the war, owing to
losses caused by that long and ruinous struggle. Few
Southern families have been able since its termination
to send their children to boarding-schools, as they
did formerly. On this account, and partly from the
multiplication of good day-schools in the cities and
smaller towns throughout the nation, the number of
boarders in all such institutions has been gradually but
steadily diminishing, down to the present period. In
the early days of the St. Louis University the number
of extern students, or " day-scholars," was small, and
they occupied separate apartments from the boarders.
The case has become very different in recent times;
(94)
HISTORY OF THE ST. LOUIS UNIVERSITY. 95
full t \vo-thirds of the students, all counted, are now
externs.
Rev. J. B. Druyts, vice-provincial of Missouri, died
Tuesday, June 18, 1861, at the St. Louis University,
aged fifty years. It was on the previous day, or June
I /th, that a regiment of raw recruits for the army, while
passing a crowd of laboring men collected on a vacant
lot east of Ninth Street, between Morgan Street and
Christy Avenue, where the mayor was to meet them
and give them work, was seized with a panic, and after
reaching the corner of Seventh and Olive Streets, fired
their muskets on the people who had gathered there
out of curiosity. This occurrence served still further
to exasperate public feeling in St. Louis against the
army and its commanders.
Classes were resumed at the university in the follow-
ing September, but the number of students was reduced
much below what it had been during previous years,
owing to the circumstance that the "border States"
already at that early period of the war were overrun
by vast armies; and the struggle itself was one which
there caused confusion and division, even in many pri-
vate families, some of their members sympathizing with
one side, and others favoring the opposite side in the
contest. St. Louis was placed under the government