and now amusing, together with songs from younger
members and brief speeches from the older ones, filled
up several hours of time with unmixed pleasure for the
party there collected to honor the first founders of the
Missouri province of the Jesuit Society. The address
given by the amiable Father Van Assche, in answer to
a toast, abounded in that wit, pleasantry, and pathos,
happily blended with deep and moving piety, which
none other than this good and wise old man could have
uttered. A special effect was added to all he said by
his reverend locks, white as the snow; by his manners,
simple and ingenuous as those of a child ; while his
countenance beamed with unfeigned cheerfulness and
the goodness of his heart.
On June I, 1872, Dr. Moses L. Linton died at his
country residence, College Hill, St. Louis. He had been
HISTORY OF THE ST. LOUIS UNIVERSITY. Ill
the family physician at the St. Louis University for
nearly thirty years. Dr. Linton was, on the whole, far
the most influential professor of the St. Louis Medical
College in his day ; and he has left his impress on the
profession in St. Louis. He was not only master of the
medical science and art, but he was a scholar of exten-
sive and varied learning on many subjects. His lectures
to his class were remarkable for their clearness and the
thoroughness with which they exhausted the subjects
treated, leaving little else for his listeners to learn con-
cerning them. He was a self-made man, of strong
convictions and decided opinions, which he declared
and defended firmly, but not offensively to others. He
was an original and deep thinker ; and, according as the
occasion demanded, he was an orator, and even a poet,
whose verses were far above mediocrity. Dr. Linton
was born in Nelson County, Kentucky, April 12, 1812.
He studied medicine in Springfield, Kentucky, under
the direction of Dr. Polin, a Catholic physician of that
town. He graduated at Transylvania University, and on
October I o, 1 837, he married Ann Rachel Booker, daugh-
ter of Judge Paul J. Booker, of Springfield, Kentucky.
He went to Paris, France, in order to further perfect
himself in his profession, and returned to Springfield in
September, 1840. He became a Catholic in February,
1841, and he was assailed for taking this step by Rev.
Robert Grundy, a Presbyterian minister, who published
pamphlets on the occasion. Dr. Linton's replies, full
of learning, and written in a spirited and pleasing style,
were much admired by all parties. He became a mem-
ber of the medical faculty of the St. Louis University in
1842, and he moved his family to St. Louis in 1844, with
112 HISTORY OF THE ST. LOUIS UNIVERSITY.
the view of making this city his permanent home. He
was elected a member of the Constitutional Convention
which assembled in 1865. Dr. Linton was, in more re-
spects than one, an extraordinary man. His uprightness
of purpose was admitted by all, even the most opposed
to his opinions on various public questions. He neither
feared nor flattered any man, but did his duty to God
and to his fellow-men from the highest and purest mo-
tives. His death was that of the faithful servant, after
accomplishing his task, in the hope of a bright immor-
tality; and the honors paid to his remains and his
memory showed how highly Dr. Linton was esteemed
by all classes of citizens, how sincerely he was regretted,
especially by the poor, to whom he had ever been a
friend in their distresses.
The following characteristic letter, written in Dr.
Linton's own hand a few days previous to his death,
may appropriately conclude this brief outline of his
life :
"ST. Louis, Mo., May 14, 1872.
" DEAR FATHER O'NEIL, I wish to say a few things
to the Jesuit fathers of St. Louis. Since I entered
their hospitable doors, thirty years ago, up to the present
hour, I have been the recipient of their kindness and
benefactions. I cannot express my gratitude, and there-
fore shall not attempt it ; I wish merely to record it.
If Almighty God has an heroic and faithful vanguard in
the church militant, it is most surely constituted by the
Society of Jesus. The more I think about this organi-
zation, the morel am convinced that there is something
miraculous about it. Contemplate the life of St. Francis
Xavier, whose canonized relics are religiously guarded
HISTORY OF THE ST. LOUIS UNIVERSITY. 113
at Goa, who wrought more miracles than the adored
Man-God himself and all His apostles. This assertion
was made by one of Mr. Seward's party in their recent
visit to the shrine of the saint, and it is the general
belief, in that part of India, of those of all creeds.
This order checked, hurled back, and forever crippled
the confident and advancing hordes of Protestantism.
A. M. D. G. Who invented this motto, I should like to
know? The grandest four words, the greatest thought
that mortal language affords. They embrace heaven and
earth ; they apply equally to the most august hierarchs
in the presence of God, and the humblest denizen of
our globe ; they include what is sublimest in eloquence
and song ; they indicate what is holiest, worthiest, and
best in eternity, as well as in time. Please do not call
this raving ; for if it be, then I have been a lunatic, with-
out lucid intervals, for several years.
I am very thankful to God for my long acquaintance
I may say, my intimate association with the Jesuit
fathers. Most of them whom I first knew have pre-
ceded me to the grave, though much younger than I am
now. How often do I recall and gaze upon their famil-
iar faces, and ask myself why such men should die so
soon. I believe in the Catholic Church, every article
of her creed, from the divinity of Christ to the infalli-
bility of the Pope. I want a firm faith now, as the time
for my going hence approaches; I beg of all the Jesuit
fathers, and the brothers, too, an occasional prayer. If
I live, I shall go to my country residence this week ;
and I never expect to leave it, until I am removed to
another residence, which I have provided for myself and
family, near the foot of the cross in Calvary. And now,
114 HISTORY OF THE ST. LOUIS UNIVERSITY.
my dear fathers and friends, with a heart full of grati-
tude, yea, deep and abiding love for you all, I bid
you adieu.
" M. L. LINTON."
At the annual commencement held June 25, 1873,
three young gentlemen received the degree of A.M., and
three received that of A.B. ; twenty-three candidates
received diplomas in the commercial department. The
total number of students registered for the scholastic
year then ending was four hundred and thirteen, the
highest number ever at the institution during one session ;
the greatest number in actual attendance at the same
time was three hundred and seventy-four, which was
reached on November 13, 1872. The records show that
the number of students varies up and down, with increas-
ing or waning prosperity among the general public, in
commercial and industrial pursuits ; but it is influenced
also by the coming or going of officers and professors
of greater or less celebrity and popularity, as would
naturally be expected. The financial crisis of 1873
caused a sudden and extraordinary reaction in business
of every kind, and its depressing effects are still plainly
visible at the present day.
A tabular statement of results for ten years is here ap-
pended, which will serve to show how the university,
now relatively an old institution, and one which has
always retained its hold on public favor, yet follows up
and down the changing fortunes of the business com-
munity. The table presents statistics of a kind that may
suggest interesting or useful reflection, especially to
those whose attention is given to questions pertaining
to the advancement of education. It is believed that the
HISTORY OF THE ST. LOUIS UNIVERSITY.
period often years embraced in the statement will pre-
sent results sufficiently comprehensive, as a sample.
The numbers given are taken by actual count from the
published catalogues for the respective scholastic years
specified :
Number of
/'..\ terns
Classical....
ci
Total No. .S
^
5
N
to
Commercial
years ending
.>/>.( VOij
1
|
b
|
5"
J
8-
g
$
j
5i
j
June 30, 1870
93
1 20
84
2 97
7
3
8
June 29. 1871
93
155
60
317
c
8
June 27, 1872
194
?r>8
140
180
8?
402
c
j
17
June 25. 1873
229
163
180
70
413
3
3
23
June 24, 1874
T58
158
CO
374
IO
17
Tune 30, 1875
I 32
221
109
9
353
4
3
12
Tune 26 1876
III
23Q
Tl8
1:3
7Q
3"O
7
2
21
Tune 27. 1877
IOO
227
122
68
327
3
2
II
June 26, 1878
1 06
I 34
144
18
J*-<
334
3
2
27
June 25, 1879..
117
245
I 5 S
140
64
362
9
21
15
3
,6
It will be observed that the total number of students
was increasing till the financial crisis of 1873, when it
began to decrease, reaching the minimum during the
session ending June 27, 1877 ; and since that date there
has begun an increase, which is greater for the year just
ended, June 25, 1879. Within that period fifty-six
young gentlemen received the degree of A.B., twenty-
nine that of A.M., and one hundred and forty received
their diplomas in the commercial course. Five re-
ceived the degree of B.S., or Bachelor of Science,
within the two years elapsed since the scientific course
was introduced.
Il6 HISTORY OF THE ST. LOUIS UNIVERSITY.
On May 23, 1873, at half-past two o'clock, A. M., Rev.
P. J. De Smet, the illustrious Indian missionary, died at
the St. Louis University. Perhaps no Jesuit since the
restoration of the Jesuit order, in 1814, has gained so
widespread a celebrity as Father De Smet. As long
ago as 1843, a volume of his letters, in which, with his
own peculiar power of narrating and describing events
and scenes witnessed by him, he gave an account of
his first journey to Oregon, and among the Indian tribes
of the Rocky Mountains, was read extensively and with
avidity in the United States and throughout Europe.
On the various trips undertaken in order to advance the
welfare of the Indian missions, Father De Smet trav-
eled over one hundred thousand miles ; he collected,
principally in Belgium and Holland, one million of
francs in money, and in valuable objects for the altar,
which were devoted to the various missions of Kansas
and in the Rocky Mountains ; during the period of forty
years he induced a hundred young men to offer them-
selves to the province of Missouri, most of them with
the view of going on the Indian missions ; and finally,
not here to estimate the amount of good done for the
Indian race through these different means, he baptized
many thousands of these aborigines with his own
hands. His name is still in benediction, and his love
for the red men is still gratefully remembered among the
tribes of the Rocky Mountains, with whom his influ-
ence was so great that the United States authorities
more than once used his moral power over those sav-
ages to pacify them, when irritated into violence by the
cupidity and injustice of dishonest agents, or by
sharp traders that had swindled or robbed them.
Father De Smet received from the government at
HISTORY OF THE ST. LOUIS UNIVERSITY. I I/
Washington the exclusive right of nominating all Indian
agents for Catholic tribes, or Catholic sections of tribes ;
he exercised this office till a few months before his death,
when he was compelled, by ill-health, to resign the
trust. Father De Smet's remains were buried on the
little mound, shaded by the tall black-thorn trees, by
the catalpa, and the weeping willow, in the garden at
St. Stanislaus Novitiate, near Florissant, Missouri,
where are now buried all except one of the party who
first reached that spot, in June, 1823.
On July 31, 1873, St. Stanislaus Novitiate, the mother
house of the province, celebrated the fiftieth anniversary
of its foundation. Although Father Van Quickenborne
and companions actually moved into their new home be-
fore the end of June, I823, 1 they began to dig the cellar
for an addition to their little cabin on the 3 1st of July,
the feast of St. Ignatius Loyola. From this latter cir-
cumstance, July 3 ist was chosen, in 1873, as an appro-
priate day for celebrating the golden jubilee of the
novitiate. The president of the St. Louis University,
with some of the professors, as also some Jesuit fathers
from St. Joseph's Church, St. Louis, and other neigh-
boring residences, participated in the observance of the
day, the venerable Father Busschotts pronouncing be-
fore the assembly an elegant and feeling discourse in
the Latin language.
The session of 1873-74 did not begin under favorable
auspices, owing, first, to the general panic caused by
the financial crisis, the banks closing in St. Louis on
1 On the last day of June, or possibly the first day of July, 1873, i l
was just two hundred years since Marquette, also an Indian missionary
and a Jesuit, first passed by the site of St. Louis, the first white man
who saw the mouth of the Pekitanoui, or the Missouri River
Il8 HISTORY OF THE ST. LOUIS UNIVERSITY.
September 26, 1873, and, indeed, the banks in nearly
all cities of the United States closed almost simultane-
ously ; secondly, throughout August, September, and
a great part of October, 1873, the yellow fever was pre-
vailing in those Southern States from which usually
a number of students come to the university. During
that season, this scourge of the Southern cities was very
destructive in Memphis and Shreveport; but it was
also more or less fatal in all the towns situated on the
Lower Mississippi, and on Red River. From these
causes, the number of boarders at the university during
this session fell considerably below that of the preced-
ing session. Yet, relatively to the unpropitious cir-
cumstances, the school was large, there being three
hundred and seventy-four pupils registered for the
scholastic year. Ten candidates received the degree of
A.B. at the annual commencement, June 24, 1874, the
largest number ever receiving that degree at the same
time in this institution.
The completion of the bridge over the Mississippi at
St. Louis, and the tunnel under the city, during the
summer of this year, 1 together with the opening of other
commercial avenues to and from St. Louis, served to
check the rapidity with which all business was hasten-
ing downward into confusion. The change for the bet-
ter was noticeable at the university in 1874, especially
through the increased number of students from St.
Louis that were then registered.
On November 20, 1874, the remains of Right Rev.
1 By the entries in a private diary, it appears that the bridge first
joined the two shores on December 19, 1873 ; it was first open for foot-
passengers on May 23, 1874, for vehicles on June 6th, and on June
9th the first train of cars crossed over the bridge.
HISTORY OF THE ST. LOUIS UNIVERSITY. 119
James Van de Velde, Bishop of Natchez, Mississippi,
were reinterred at St. Stanislaus Novitiate, near Floris-
sant. Rev. James Converse had removed them for the
purpose from Natchez, where Bishop Van de Velde
died of yellow fever, on November 13, 1855. His re-
mains now repose beside those of Father De Smet and
those of Father Meurin, translated in 1849 by Bishop
Van de Velde himself from Prairie du Rocher, Illinois,
where that missionary of the old society died, February
23, 1777; and thus, as Bishop Van de Velde observed
on the occasion, the restored society is thereby in some
manner united to the old society. Bishop Van de
Velde's grave was the sixty-third grave on the little
mound at the novitiate. 1
An additional house, erected to supply the wants of
the novitiate, was religiously dedicated on June 9, 1874,
and it was finally occupied on the 2d of July. It is a
large brick house, containing a dormitory for the
novices and juniors, a chapel, study-halls, refectory,
and infirmary. It is at the rear of the main building,
parallel with it, and distant from it about seventy-five
feet ; the second stories of the two buildings are con-
nected by a covered passage resting on pillars. At
that date there were at the novitiate thirty-seven scho-
lastics, the entire community then numbering sixty-four
members.
Rev. L. Bushart succeeded Rev. Joseph Zealand as
president of the St. Louis University, on November 22,
1874. At the commencement on June 30, 1875, three
young gentlemen received the degree of A.M., four
that of A.B., and twelve received their diplomas in the
1 The number has now, July I, 1879, reached eighty-two.
120 HISTORY OF THE ST. LOUIS UNIVERSITY.
commercial department. The roll of students for the
year contained three hundred and fifty-three names.
At the termination of the next scholastic year, on June
28, 1876, the degree of A.M. was conferred on two-
young gentlemen, that of A.B. on seven, and diplomas
were conferred on twenty-one in the commercial de-
partment.
The year 1876, being the one hundredth anniversary
of American independence, was commemorated in a
becoming manner at the close of the session, and dur-
ing the summer vacation of that year a number of the
students visited Philadelphia, the cradle of American
independence, where, by general consent, the centen-
nial was celebrated in a special manner by the nation.
The patriotic festivals of our country, as February 22d,
or Washington's Birthday, and the Fourth of July, were
always publicly commemorated at the university; but
within the last twenty-five years the 4th of July always
came during the summer vacation, when classes had
been suspended and the students had returned to their
homes. In earlier times the summer vacation did not
begin till the end of July, and sometimes not before
August 1 5th; but experience ultimately showed the ne-
cessity of suspending classes altogether during the en-
tire months of July and August, owing to their extreme
heat. For a few years past, the summer vacation at
the university has extended from the last Wednesday
in June to the first Monday of the following Septem-
ber.
In the autumn of 1876, a number of Catholic young
gentlemen, most of them former students of the univer-
sity, through the influence of Rev. J. M. Hayes, associ-
ated themselves together for the purpose of establish-
HISTORY OF THE ST. LOUIS UNIVERSITY. 121
ing a society styled by them the " St. Mark's Academy,"
which, as declared in the preamble to its constitution,
"has for its object the development of an active Catho-
lic spirit by philosophical, literary, and scientific cult-
ure." With the view of realizing this design, its mem-
bers aim to study further and more thoroughly the
branches of higher learning best fitted for effecting their
purpose, more especially by acquiring knowledge of
those superior subjects in their relations to the Catholic
religion. They hold their meetings bi-monthly, in the
Philalethic Hall, at the university, and they are pre-
sided over by one of the professors. The enrolled
members number twenty-nine, and there is an average
attendance at their meetings often. This undertaking,
which was first inspired by Rev. J. M. Hayes, has met
with encouraging success, and it gives promise of effi-
caciously and fully supplying an important desideratum
for the educated young gentlemen of St. Louis.
At the annual commencement, which took place
June 27, 1877, the degree of A.M. was conferred on
two young gentlemen, that of A.B. on three, and di-
plomas were conferred on eleven successful candidates
in the commercial department. The total number of
students registered for the year then terminating was
three hundred and twenty-seven.
On April 18, 1877, a number of the students per-
formed a drama in the public hall of the university, for
the benefit of the sufferers by the burning of the South-
ern Hotel, in St. Louis. This disastrous fire broke out
just after midnight on the morning of April II, 1877,
raging with much violence for several hours, and en-
tirely destroying the magnificent building. Eleven per-
sons were known to have perished in the flames, and
122 HISTORY OF THE ST. LOUIS UNIVERSITY.
much distress was caused by the calamity to the ser-
vants and various employees of the hotel, many of
whom lost all they possessed as means of living. The
students answered a call made on public charity, and
chose this means of contributing to the relief of the un-
fortunates. It may be added that a similar work of
beneficence was performed by the students on Septem-
ber 25, 1878, when a public entertainment of the same
kind was given by them in favor of the sufferers by the
yellow-fever epidemic, which, under an unusually viru-
lent type, was then producing much misery in several
of the Southern States.
The golden jubilee of Pius the Ninth's consecration
to the episcopal dignity was celebrated in St. Louis on
June 3, 1877, witn much enthusiasm and display. A
procession of twelve thousand persons marching in line,
six abreast, passed near the university, where it was
joined by the students, and by five hundred additional
young men, who also filed out from the premises and
united with the main body of the procession.
It was on the same day, June 3, 1877, that the province
of Missouri actually took possession of the former
cathedral and adjoining residence in the city of Detroit,
Michigan, with a view of there establishing a college,
the arrangement having been previously agreed on be-
tween Right Rev. Bishop Borgess and Rev. Thomas
O'Neil, provincial of Missouri. Rev. J. B. Miege received
principal charge of this new undertaking, being ap-
pointed first superior of the residence after it had passed
under control of the Jesuits. On September 2, 1877,
a few classes were organized, as a first step towards
establishing " Detroit College."
On June 26, 1877, Rev. J. F. Van Assche died at St.
HISTORY OF THE ST. LOUIS UNIVERSITY. 12$
Stanislaus Novitiate, in the seventy-eighth year of his
age, and just fifty-four years after his first arrival at the
same place. He was buried at the novitiate on June
29th, the solemn Requiem Mass and other funeral rites
taking place in the church at the village of Florissant,
of which he had long been pastor, and to which his
remains were conveyed in order that his congregation
might witness the ceremony. The crowd that was pres-
ent on the occasion exceeded in number, perhaps, any
collection of i eople ever before assembled at St. Fer-
dinand's Church, Florissant ; nearly one hundred vehicles
accompanied his remains back to the novitiate for inter-
ment. Father Van Assche was exceedingly modest as
to his natural gifts and his acquired good qualities, and he
ranked himself below all his companions; but he seems
actually to have been one of the most correct in judg-
ment, and at the same time one of the most remarkable
of all those sterling and excellent pioneers, for numer-
ous and amiable virtues.
The following extract from a sketch of his life, fur-
nished the St. Louis Times of June 27, 1877, will interest
the public of this city and vicinity, where he was held
in high esteem by all that knew him ; and at the same
time it will add some facts concerning the original
founders of the St. Louis University, not contained in
the foregoing chapters of this volume :
" Rev. Judocus Francis Van Assche, S. J., departed
this life yesterday, at twelve o'clock, noon, in the seventy-
eighth year of his age. On the 26th of last May he
started on horseback to visit the sick, carrying with him
the Blessed Sacrament. When two miles from Florissant,
out on the Cross Keys Road, he was suddenly attacked
with paralysis, falling from his horse. The faithful
124 HISTORY OF THE ST. LOUIS UNIVERSITY.
animal stood still, seemingly waiting for him to rise and
remount. He lay helpless on the ground, till a gentle-
man, happening to pass that way, assisted him upon his
horse. He wished to go on to the house of the sick
person ; but after riding a short distance he felt that he
could proceed no further, and he turned about and
returned to his home at Florissant, which he reached
with much difficulty. Dr. Hereford being called, found
the attack to be a serious one, that offered little hope of
recovery. The patient was removed to the St. Stanis-
laus Novitiate, where, despite all that medical art and