REV. A. J. SCHULTE
Rev.
A. J. Schulte is a pastor of St. Mary's Catholic Church at Iowa City.
This is a magnificent structure, with a seating capacity of sixteen
hundred, and its slender spire reaching heavenward is surmounted by a
golden cross. The gentleman of whom we write, and who is a
popular and conscientious pastor of his flock, was born in Ft. Madison,
Iowa, September 17, 1858. His parents, H. Joseph and Maria H.
Schulte, are yet living, and both are natives and old pioneers of
Missouri, having settled at Ft. Madison in 1856.
The boyhood of
Father Schulte was passed in Ft. Madison, where he attended the schools
of the place until twelve years of age. He was then sent to St.
Francis Seminary, of Milwaukee, Wis., where he remained for four years,
and at the end of that time, on account of failing health, went West
for a time. He subsequently entered St. John's University at
Collegeville, Stearns County, Minn., where he became identified with
the Benedictine Fathers. He finished his theological studies at
Dubuque and in 1881 was directed by the Diocese of Dubuque to be
transferred to the Davenport Diocese. Later he was ordained at
Davenport by Bishop John McMullen.
On the 28th of December,
1881, our subject was appointed Assistant Priest at St. Margaret's
Cathedral at Davenport, and was soon afterward appointed by Bishop
McMullen to open St. Ambrose Preparatory Seminary in two rooms of the
St. Margaret's School. He was a successful teach in that
institution until 1884, when new ground was purchased on Lucas Street
and a fine building erected, which was named St. Ambrose College. He
was President of the college until September 17, 1891, when, at the
request of the Rt. Rev. H. Cosgrove, D.D., he was transferred to St.
Mary's Church at Iowa City.
During the last year the fine
parochial residence was erected of brick and in a thoroughly modern
style. The corner stone of the new St. Mary's school building was
laid on the same street September 11, 1892, and when completed it will
be one of the finest buildings of the kind in the city. The
Ladies Altar Society comprises a membership of eighty; the Young Ladies
Sodality has a membership of one hundred and twenty-four; the
Gentlemen's Sodality, a membership of seventy-eight; the Children's
League two hundred and fifty; League of the Sacred Heart, a membership
of about six hundred and seventy; St. Joseph's Benevolent Society, a
membership of ninety-six. The branch here, No. 3, of the Iowa
Catholic Mutual Protective Association has a membership of one hundred
and forty-two. A library has recently been started in connection
with the church. There are two hundred families who are regular
attendants and members of St. Mary's Church, and to their welfare the
Rev. Mr. Schulte is most devoted and is a conscientious exponent of the
faith that is in him.
Source: Portrait & Biographical Record of Johnson, Poweshiek and Iowa Counties, Chicago Chapman Bros 1893
|
