The Biographical Dictionary of America/Baltes, Peter Joseph

BALTES, Peter Joseph, R. C. bishop, born at Enshein, Rhenish Bavaria, April 7, 1827. He studied at the college of the Holy Cross, Worcester, Mass., passed from thence to St. Ignatius college, Chicago, and completed his education by a course at Laval university, Montreal. In 1853 he received his ordination as a priest, and after seventeen years of faithful service in that capacity, was consecrated bishop of Alton in 1870. He wrote and published, in 1875, a book of "Pastoral Instruction," of which a third and enlarged edition was printed in 1880. He founded the Ecclesiastical college of the sacred heart at Ruma, Ill., and endowed his diocese with many schools and charitable institutions. He died at Alton, Ill., Feb. 15, 1886.