NEW YORK
27
NEW YORK
United States at St. Louis, Missouri, Bishop Dubois
was most favourably impressed by them, and wished
to have a community for New York also. A letter
which he wrote to Mother Barat in the following
October expresses this desire and gives a view of his
charge at that time. "It was my intention", he says,
"to visit you and your pious associates in Paris in
order to give you a better idea of our country before
asking you to establish a house in New York. There
is no doubt as to the success of an order Uke yours in
this city; indeed it is greatly needed; but a consider-
able sum of money would be required to supply the
urgent needs of the foundation. The Catholic popu-
lation, which averages over thirty thousand souls, is
very poor, besides chiefly composed of Irish emigrants.
Contributions from Protestants are so uncertain and
property in this city so expensive that I cannot prom-
ise any assistance. All I can say is that I believe one
As has been said, the state appropriation for educa-
tion was divided at first among all schools. Public
education in New York, at the opening of the nine-
teenth century, was denominational, and under the
direction of the Public School Society organized in
1805 "to provide a free school for the education of
poor children in the city who do not belong to, or are
not provided for by any religious denomination". In
1808 the name was changed to the "Free School Soci-
ety of New York" and again in 1826 to the "Public
School Society of New York", with power "to provide
for the education of all children not otherwise pro-
vided for". This society gradually became, under
the control of intolerant sectarian ministers, a com-
bination against Catholic interests so that, when, in
1840, the eight Catholic parish schools, with an at-
tendance of about 4000 pupils, made a dernand for the
share of the school appropriations to which the law
of your schools, commenced with sufficient money to entitled them, it was refused by the Board of Alder-
purchase property and support itself until the ladies men after a memorable hearing of the Catholic peti-
have time to make themselves known, would succeed tion in the City Hall on 29-30 October, 1840, at which
beyond all our expectations. ... I have the sorrow Bi-shop Hughes made one of his greatest oratorical
of witnessing an efforts. As a result
abundant harvest | I of this contest the
rotting in the earth, Public School Society
through lack of Apos- was soon after abol-
tolic labourers and ished, and the pres-
have a school then |^p^irBB||^^^^^^^^ ^^U a^ ^ ,' ' ! ,^,^^ , I k e parish schools.
Mercy, Sisters of St. '^ . „ ^ ?ens of the Repub-
Dominic, School Sis-
St. .Joseph's Seminary. Dunwoodie
ters of Notre Dame, and other teaching communi-
ties followed in the course of the succeeding years,
until now (1910) the parish schools of the archdiocese
are in charge of twenty-six different reUgious com-
munities, twenty-two of Sisters and four of Brothers.
In 1829 an Irishman named James D. Boylan with the
approbation of Bishop Dubois attempted to establish
a religious community on the lines of the Irish Broth-
lie, and the day will
come when you viiW enforce recognition".
To supply priests for the diocese Bishop Dubois es- tablished a" seminary at Nyack-on-Hudson, in 1833, but it was burned down just as it was ready to be opened. Cornelius Heeney then offered the bishop the ground in Brooklyn on which St. Paul's church now stands, refusing, however, to give the diocese the title to the property immediately, and the design to
ers of Charity to teach the boys' schools, and opened build in Brooklyn was abandoned. In 1838 the es-
two schools. The attempt failed in the course of the tate of John Lafarge, Grovemont, in Jefferson County,
year, owing to want of business tact and the inimical was purchased and the seminary begun there Ihe
spirit of trusteeism. The Christian Brothers opened place was then so inaccessible and impracticable that
their first school in New York in September, 1848, in it was given up, and, on 24 June, 1841, Bishop
St. Vincent de Paul's parish, at 16 East Canal Street. Hughes, administrator of the diocese, opened with
La Salle Academy was opened in Canal Street in 18.50, thirty students the new St John s seminarj- and mI-
moved to Mulberry Street in 18.56 and East Second lege at Fordham then a village just outside the city.
Street in 1857. Manhattan College was opened in The Rev John McCloskey, later Arclibishop of New
1853. These Brothers have charge also of the De La York and first cardinal in the United States,^ was its
Salle Institute, the Cla.sson Point Military Academy, first president The seminary remained at Fordham
twenty-six parish schools, and the great Catholic Pro- until 24 Oct., 1864, when it was moved again to Troy
tectory. Bishop Hughes, in 1846, invited the Jesuits where St. Joseph's seminary began with hfty-scven
to return to the diocese and take charge of St. John's students transferred from Fordham. The faculty
College and Seminary at Fordham, which he had wsus composed of secular priest
opened there in the old Rose Hill manor house, 24
June, 1841. The seminary was moved to Troy in
1864, and St. John's remained as part of Fordham
University. St. Francis Xavier's College was begun
at the school of the church of the Holy Name of Jesus,
EUzabeth Street, in 1847. It was burned down in
under the direction of the Very Reverend 11. Vandcr-
hende. Here the seminary remained until IS'.Xi, dur-
ing which period more than 700 priests were ordained
there. The building was then given over to the Sis-
ters of St. Joseph of the Diocese of Albany as a noviti-
ate and training-school, and, on 12 August,, 1896, the
the following year, reopened in Third Avenue near new Provincial seminary at Dunwoo.lie was solem^^^
Twelfth Street and finally located in West Sixteenth dedicated by Cardinal Satolh, then Apostolic delegate
StTeet in 18.50 Loyola School wius opened by the to the Unified States . 'h- -re of this seminar™
Jesuits in 1899 at Park Avenue and Fifty-third street, entrusted to the bulpician_Fathers, but these retired
