Father Patrick O’Brien: Soldier, Citizen, Orator, Writer, and One of Toledo’s Eloquent Irish Catholic VoicesGood Shepherd Catholic Church, Toledo, Ohio Even though there is not a statue in downtown Toledo celebrating his life in concrete, Father Patrick O’Brien left an indelible mark on the history of Toledo and northwestern Ohio. Traces of his life can be found in old biographies, yellowed newspapers, archives, and parish histories.[1] During his life time he successfully pastored several Catholic churches in the area and helped to establish the Diocese of Toledo, but his life spilled beyond the altar and into the community and nation. Father O’Brien fought in the 21st Ohio Volunteer Infantry in the Civil War, making lifelong friendships and community connections with northwestern Ohio. He devoted many of the speeches in his oratorical career to championing the cause of Irish Freedom that his Grandfather had fought for in the Battle of Wexford in the 1798 Irish Rebellion against Britain. The Irish patriots won the battle of Wexford and on May 30, 1798 entered Wexford Town unopposed and declared Ireland’s first republican government even though they lost the overall war against Britain. William O’Brien, Patrick’s father, told Patrick and his brothers and sisters the story of Wexford and what it meant to Irishmen, inspiring them with the same love of Irish freedom. As well as being an orator, Father O’Brien developed considerable skill as a writer and poet and the newspapers in Toledo and the region regularly published his poetry and articles. His articles reflected a spirit of ecumenism and tolerance predating Vatican II by at least fifty years. He wrote for several Catholic newspapers, founded the ’98 Club, commemorating the Wexford Victory, helped found the Toledo Irish Association, and served as one of the founding fathers and presidents of the Catholic Total Abstinence Union, a local and national Temperance organization. Father O’Brien was a community activist, involving himself in the politics of East Toledo where he lived and the community at large for 55 years. The transcripts of his speeches and poetry in the yellowing Toledo and Catholic newspapers reveal that Father O’Brien was a passionate Irish Republican, an American patriot, a committed Catholic and an enthusiastic people person. When he died in June 1930 at age 86, Father Patrick O’Brien was the oldest priest in northern Ohio, including both the dioceses of Toledo and Cleveland.[2] Toledoans of his generation loved him, and those after his generation remembered him. His personality breathes life into old newsprint and gives twenty-first century people a glimpse of his importance to Toledo’s Catholic history. Born in Pilltown County, Wexford, Ireland on February 14, 1845, Patrick O’Brien enjoyed the beauty and culture of South East Ireland for thirteen years. He explored the wonders of Forth Mountain, and the magnificent view of the Wexford coast where on a clear day you can see Wales. He absorbed Irish names like Ferrycarrig Castle and Carrig Church and graveyard. He probably visited the grave of Colonel Jonas Watson. Patrick’s grandfather fought with the Irish rebels who shot Colonel Watson while he and his men attacked the Three Rocks rebel camp. The 1798 upraising did not bring positive political or economic change into Ireland and the lives of the William O’Brien family, so June1857, William and Bridget O’Brien and their children Patrick, Michael, and their two daughters immigrated to America. They landed in Quebec, Canada on June 21, 1857, then made their way to Lorain County, Ohio. The O’Brien family was part of the three phase Catholic immigration to Ohio. The first wave of Catholic immigrants to Ohio came between 1822 and 1842 and were predominantly German. The second wave, comprised of Irish and German people, with the Irish predominating and including William O’Brien’s family, took place between 1842 to 1865. The third wave started in 1865 and continues to the present day.[3] Irish workers came to Toledo to work on the canals, including the Miami and Erie and the Wabash and Erie, and later the railroads. People huddled together in the Irish shanty towns of Toledo and poverty and disease helped to earn the Irish a reputation for crime and squalor. Also, the Nativist American Movement spread across the country, symbolized by the Know-Nothings and other “America for the Americans” groups. These social forces that were in many guises solidified in the legal and criminal justice systems across America, caused many Irish immigrants to respond with violence and desperation fueled by a deep-seated hopelessness. Many of the Irish-Catholics turned to their religion for comfort, stability and affirmation and Catholic Dioceses grew accordingly.[4] Ten years before the O’Brien family came to Lorain County, Pope Pius IX granted a request from John Purcell, Bishop of the Diocese of Cincinnati, which would profoundly affect the life of the O’Briens, Patrick especially, and other Irish immigrants in Ohio. Father Purcell requested the Pope to divide the Cincinnati Diocese and create the new Roman Catholic Diocese of Cleveland. Pope Pius IX granted the request, thus creating the Roman Catholic Diocese of Cleveland and naming Father Amadeus Rappe, a French missionary priest, the new bishop of the new Diocese. Bishop Rappe had been working among the struggling Irish workers in the Toledo area since 1840. The Irish immigrants were digging the new canal connecting the Wabash River in Indiana with the Maumee River near Toledo and they loved Bishop Rappe who felt special concern for their problems. Bishop Rappe was prominent in Toledo’s Catholic history. He helped found St. Mary’s German Catholic Church and the Diocese of Toledo. In years to come, Father Patrick O’Brien himself would be instrumental in creating the Diocese of Toledo. When other Catholic clergymen opposed the plan, Father O’Brien corresponded with church officials in Cincinnati, Washington, and Rome and brought his campaign for a Diocese of Toledo to a successful conclusion.[5] But still a teenager, unaware that he would someday unalterably change his Cleveland Diocese, thirteen-year-old Patrick attended the local schools in Cuyahoga County for three years, and when he turned sixteen, his father apprenticed him to a tailor. Then, once again, war changed the lives of the O’Brien family, this time, the American Civil War. America provided a crucible for Patrick to forge his Irish Republican ideas and shape them to fit the American oppressed class, the Negro slaves. He became an immediate Abolitionist, as ardent an Abolitionist as an Irish Republican. As a young man he was not overtly political, but the first vote he ever cast when first exercising his citizenship was for an Abolition candidate that the Republican party nominated. Although he opposed slavery, Patrick was proud of his American citizenship and venerated America as the land that offered asylum to him and his downtrodden countrymen. He considered his American citizenship better than a lordship or dukedom.[6] Patrick easily negotiated the ideological jump from Irish Republicanism to Abolitionism and fighting for the Union and joined the 21st Ohio Volunteer Infantry when he was 18 years old. His regiment was part of the 3rd Brigade, 6th Division, 14th Army Corps. The Regiment in March 1864 moved to Ringgold, where it performed severe duty constructing corduroy roads, pickets, and outposts between Ringgold and Chattanooga. On May 9th it moved on Dalton, Georgia, driving the enemy’s soldiers to Tunnel Hill where it encountered the enemy in force. The Regiment fought at Atlanta and lost heavily in officers and men. It also fought at Kennesaw Mountain in May and June of 1864 and finally participated in Sherman’s “March to the Sea” and though the Carolinas to Goldsboro and Raleigh. After Lee’s surrender, the Regiment went to Washington where it joined the Grand Armies of the Union in the Grand Review in front of President Lincoln and his cabinet. On June 15, 1865, the Regiment went to Louisville, Kentucky where it was mustered out. It left for home, reaching Cleveland, Ohio on July 14, 1865. Cleveland citizens enthusiastically received the Regiment and the men enjoyed several celebrations and orations before the Regiment was paid off and disbanded. A majority of its members reached Toledo on July 21, 1865. The citizens of Toledo received the veterans with admiration and thanksgiving. Patrick O’Brien probably stayed in Cleveland to be mustered out, because had definite plans for his future.[7] Patrick O’Brien had the inspiration and example of his grandfather who was a soldier in the Rebellion of 1798 and his father, William, born in May 1804, who was a soldier in the American Civil War, along with his son Patrick. Born amidst the battlefields of the 1798 Irish Rebellion and mingling for years with the survivors, William learned the history of the Rebellion from eyewitnesses and passed that knowledge on to his sons Patrick and Michael. After he immigrated and the American Civil War broke out, William decided that even though he was over fifty years old, he would play a part in it. He was assigned to the quartermaster’s department at Nashville, Tennessee, and served for three years. In 1883, William and his wife Bridget moved to Toledo and when Bridget died, William moved in with his son Father Patrick O’Brien on Orchard Street in the Fifth Ward. William lived with his son until his death. Time did not dim the ardor of the two O’Brien soldiers toward America or the flag. In January 1899, Father Patrick O’Brien appeared before the National Veteran Women of America at Memorial Hall in Toledo. The National Veteran Women had just formed their organization in Toledo a few months earlier, but already camps had sprung up in surrounding cities. Mrs. Eva Murray acted as chairman of the entertainment and a number of prominent ladies and gentlemen occupied the handsomely decorated stage with her. Honorable Charles Griffin explained the purpose of the Veteran Woman as helping aged and infirm soldiers and their widows spend their declining years together instead of the widow in the poor house and the veteran in the soldier’s home. Judge Griffin introduced Father O’Brien as the principal speaker of the evening and he endorsed all that Judge Griffin had said about the necessity of comfortable homes for soldier’s widows. He said that when soldiers go to war to battle for the flag, they should not have to worry about their families at home suffering from hunger or any other creature comforts. Father O’Brien then made some remarks that were controversial for 1899. He said that women were as brave and as willing as men to lay down their lives for their country, and that every woman who “places her life on her country’s altar” should be given a military funeral. He said: God bless those noble women of Toledo and the businessmen too who assist in maintaining our Toledo institutions, The Toledo Hospital, St. Vincent’s Hospital, the Old Ladies’ Home, the Little Sisters of the Poor, the Old Men’s Home, the Day Nursery, the Boy’s Home, and the Newsboys’ Association, all speak eloquently of Toledo’s Christianity. It is true religion whether it be Protestant or Catholic.[8] He added that he was proud of Toledo’s Christianity, the new Methodist church on Madison Street and the new St. Patrick’s church, commenting that he hadn’t built his church yet, but it would be a sight to see. Then he spoke of the noble Catholic men and women who were working among the lepers of the Sandwich Islands, discussing the horrific conditions that the lepers endured. He said that American women in nun’s garb had gone to work among the lepers knowing that they themselves would almost certain to contract the disease. Father O’Brien closed by reciting a patriotic poem, “Up with the Flag,” that he had written to express his feelings about America. He presented the same poem at a party given at the Ford Post of the G.A.R. in Coad’s Hall in East Toledo, in November 1899, with just a slight change in the title: Up with Old Glory Up with the old flag, let it float o’re the land! Divided we fall, united we stand, Up with the old flag, long may it wave, O’re the land of the free and the home of the brave, ‘Tis the flag of our fathers, O raise it on high, And swear by its memories to do or to die. “Tis the flag that our sires triumphantly bore, In defense of our freedom through channels of gore, ‘Tis the flag that floated o’re Washington’s head, When the Redcoats, defeated, ingloriously fled, ‘Tis the flag that waved o’re the brave boys in blue, When they fought for the Union, and saved it too. ‘Tis the flag that waved o’re Manila Bay, When Dewey’s brave sailors did conquer the day, “Tis the flag that floated over Hobson that night, When the Merrimack sank in the enemy’s sight. ‘Tis the flag that now waves o’re Cuba’s fair land, Where Roosevelt’s Rough Riders made their brave stand, ‘Tis the flag of our country, O yes! Let it fly! Who dares pull it down let the vile traitor die! ‘Tis the flag of no section, party or clan, ‘Tis the flag of Sherman, Grant, Sheridan, Let it fly o’re the Philippines from steeple and mast, Let its folds to the breeze o’re fair Cuba be cast, Lift it up! Lift it up! Let its folds be unfurled! ‘Til it circles the globe and waves ‘round the world.[9] The remainder of the program for the evening included contests for the young people with Miss Olive loop winning a gold watch, Miss Maggie Hollister a gold ring, and Charles Boetsch a meerschaum pipe. Dancing until the wee hours of the morning rounded out the evening. The patriotism of the veterans and their generation and the entertainments, prizes, and dancing of the younger people provide an interesting contrast in the story illustrates how time-even a short period of time – changes the nature and practice of patriotism. Judging from his actions and words, Father O’Brien spent his entire life practicing patriotism without changing the content and substance of his attitudes toward Irish Republicanism and Abolitionism, but the flame flickered and varied in intensity in the next generations and Father O’Brien struggled to keep it steadily burning. Captain George Scheets who lived to be 86, a regimental comrade of Patrick O’Brien, felt the same intensity about his Civil War experiences. Captain Scheets wrote a book about the Civil War experiences of members of the Ford Post G.A.R. and served as a member of the Soldiers’ Relief Commission. When he died in February 1929 at age 86, his funeral services were held at the Good Shepherd Church in Toledo and his comrade Reverend Patrick O’Brien assisted at the services. Just over a year later, Father O’Brien also died at age 86.[10] But in 1865 at the end of the Civil War, death for Patrick O’Brien stretched 65 years ahead and after his discharge from the army, he began his education for the life that he wanted to carve out for himself. Patrick entered the preparatory seminary at Louisville, Stark County, Ohio to study for the priesthood at the age of 21 and remained there for four years. While he worked through his courses, he also operated a tailoring business part time to earn money for college expenses. In 1869, he entered the Catholic Theological Seminary at Cleveland, Ohio, and Right Reverend Richard Gilmour ordained him to the Catholic priesthood on July 21, 1872. After his ordination, Father O’Brien served in the Diocese of Cleveland, first in Youngstown for a year, and then at Rockport in Cuyahoga County for two years. Father O’Brien Meets Toledo In August of 1875, Father O’Brien arrived in Toledo, Ohio to become the pastor of the Church of the Good Shepherd on the East side of the city. Reverend Robert A. Byrne had organized the congregation and build the Church of the Good Shepherd in 1873 and Father O’Brien succeeded him in August 1875. Father O’Brien had this to say about his new church. According to a 1964 historical overview that one of his parishioners wrote, Father O’Brien said that when planning for the church began in the late 1800s, there were few houses in East Toledo. He said that “Corn, hay field pastures, and woods surrounded the church, and it presented a rather wild appearance at that time,” the priest was quoted as saying. “I do not believe the whole population of the East Side was more than 2,000 in 1875.”[11] He quickly established a reputation as a top pulpit orator and lyceum lecture and won the love of Toledo people, especially Irish Catholics. After a short time at Good Shepherd, Father O’Brien was transferred to Immaculate Conception Church where he served for eleven years from 1876 until 1887. He served at St. Patrick’s Church in Cleveland for four years, and at St. Anne’s in Fremont for another four. In 1897, twenty-two years after he left Good Shepherd in Toledo, he returned to build a new church and take over the pastorate from Father Barry who had died. He served at Good Shepherd until he retired, and then as a Chaplain at Notre Dame Academy in Toledo. When Father O’Brien left Immaculate Conception in Toledo in 1890 to become pastor of St. Anne’s Church in Fremont, Ohio he gave a farewell address in which he thanked his congregation for the gem-studded chalice that they had given him as a parting gift. He said: Whenever I shall use it in celebrating the Holy sacrifice of the Mass, the highest and most solemn rite of the Catholic worship, I will call down upon your heads, and upon the head of every citizen of Toledo, Catholic, Protestant, and Jew, for I love them all, the abundant mercies of the Great God.[12] Father O’Brien thanked the Grand Army, and the medical and business colleges, and his fellow German, French and Jewish and other citizens for the gift and expressed regret at having to leave Toledo after fifteen years of pastoral work in the city. He ended his address by saying, “Farewell, Toledo, the city of my love, my own sweet home.”[13] Father O’Brien served as pastor of St. Anne’s Church in Fremont for four years, 1891-1894, but he was also active in the Catholic Total Abstinence Union and in the Ninety-Eight Club both of which he helped create. Temperance had long been an issue in American culture, but became more important after the Civil War with the influx of immigrants in the 1880s and 1890s. The population of Lucas County in 1880 was 67,377 and Germans numbered 8,267 and Irish 3,284 of the county’s foreign-born inhabitants.[14] Irish and German immigrants, especially, brought their drinking customs to America with them and the church leaders grew alarmed at what they considered the Irish intemperance and the German custom of opening their beer gardens on Sundays. Father O’Brien fervently believed in and advocated temperance work but from the very beginning opposed the idea of Temperance by law. A total abstainer from liquor and tobacco, he denounced alcoholism and intemperance from hundreds of lecture platforms, but he never agreed that temperance could be ushered in by legislation. In 1930, he called the 18th amendment “one of the greatest curses that has come upon the country.[15] Combing his ideas about temperance with his ecumenical outlook, Father O’Brien made southern trip in the interests of the Catholic Total Abstinence Union in April 1895 while he still was pastor of St. Ann’s Church in Fremont, Ohio. During a visit to Knoxville, Tennessee, Father O’Brien conferred with several Protestant ministers about Temperance work. Reverend T.C. Warner pastor of the First Methodist Episcopal Church of Knoxville told his congregation about his visit with Father O’Brien. Some Protestants in Knoxville complained about cooperating with Catholics and Reverend Warner addressed this attitude from his pulpit: You doubtless all remember the visit, a short while ago of Father O’Brien of Fremont, Ohio, to this city, in the interest of the total abstinence movement in his church and the big temperance rally at the opera house on that occasion…I have no apology for having improved the opportunity to take Father O’Brien by the hand and wish him God speed in the temperance work in which he was engaged. I only wish I had the opportunity to do so every day in the year. [16] Reverend Warner pointed out that clergymen of both the Catholic and Protestant faiths occupied the platform together and pledged to work together in the Temperance cause. He said that working together would promote understanding between the two religions and that Father O’Brien had spearheaded this movement. Continuing his temperance travels, Father O’Brien journeyed to New York in August 1895 as the guest of honor at the New York meeting of the Ninety-Eight club and also as a delegate from the Catholic Total Abstinence Union. Thomas Barrett, President of the Ninety-Eight Club of New York, presented Father O’Brien with an embossed speech which celebrated the sturdy sons of Wexford willing to follow in the footsteps of the heroic actions of their forefathers at Wexford almost a century ago. In 1898, the Ninety-Eight club pledged to celebrate the Wexford centennial in a fitting manner. In the middle of the hearty Irish cheering that surrounded the acceptance of his plaque, Father O’Brien reiterated his attitude toward America and Ireland: There is no honor except the honor of the holy priesthood that gives me more pleasure than being enshrined in the hearts of the men of Wexford. Your ancestors and mine are gone but they left us a legacy: the spirit of ’98 still lives. It will never die until Ireland is free. We love America and are ready to die for her as our foster mother; and Erin our mother we are also ready to die for.[17] While Father O’Brien served as pastor of St. Anne’s Church in Fremont, he also held the office of State President of the Catholic Total Abstinence Union of Ohio, part of the national Catholic Total Abstinence Union. Since the 1870s, the Catholic Total Abstinence Unions throughout the country had been crusading for Temperance and joined with organizations like the Women’s Christian Temperance Union and the Young Men’s Christian Association. A look at Father O’Brien’s Temperance activity in 1895 reveals its scope and breadth. On June 21, 1895, Father O’Brien issued a call for the 24th Annual Convention of the Catholic Total Abstinence Union on July 8, 1895 in Warren, Ohio. St. Ann’s Cadets accompanied Father O’Brien to the convention. Since issuing the June Official Bulletin, Father O’Brien reported that the creation of the Father Elliott Society of Youngstown with 140 members and St. Mary’s Society of Conneaut, with 35 members and he expected quite a number of new societies to join the Catholic Total Abstinence Union before the convention.[18] On February 6, 1895, Reverend O’Brien delivered a lecture in the Opera House at Greenville, Darke County, Ohio. Among those attending were all the ministers of the different Protestant churches and many of their parishioners. The members of the local branch of the W.C.T.U. came in a body. The crowd received the lecture with pleasure and approval, and twenty charter members organized a Catholic Total Abstinence Society. Father F.J. Brummer of Grenville and J.A. Burns of Marion, Ohio, assisted Father O’Brien and Burns also delivered a short address.[19] The Official Bulletin reported that on October 12, 1895, the organization met in Youngstown and held a daytime parade and an evening rally in the opera house which was only able to seat about one-half of those attending. Reverend Patrick O’Brien addressed the rally. On Thanksgiving evening 1895, the Fremont societies held a grand rally in the city hall. Honorable Thomas McSheehy acted as chairman and Father Patrick O’Brien was speaker of the evening.[20] The Official Bulletin of the Catholic Total Abstinence Union of Ohio for December 18, 1895, noted that on the second Sunday of February 1896 the Niles Catholic Total Abstinence Union would hold a joint meeting in the hall occupied by the Young Men’s Christian Association. Professor F.J. Roller, Superintendent of Public Schools, a noted scholar and Temperance Advocate, would be chairmen, and President of the Ohio Catholic Total Abstinence Union, Father Patrick O’Brien would be the featured speaker. Before he left St. Ann’s Catholic Church in Fremont to return to Good Shepherd in Toledo in 1897, Father O’Brien traveled for Temperance throughout the East and South and Mid-Atlantic states and a year later, he traveled to Europe, including Rome to see the Pope and to Ireland, his homeland. Father O’Brien sent letters to his sister Ettie and her husband Frank Tiernan of Collingwood Avenue in Toledo. He wrote them from the R.M.S. Germanic on his voyage to Europe in January 1893 that the weather was fine but the seas were very rough, so rough that even a man who had rounded the Cape of Good Hope eight times suffered seasickness. Father O’Brien wrote that he was “feeling splendid” and looking forward to his journey.[21] In February 1893, Father O’Brien wrote to his sister Ettie and brother-in-law Frank Tiernan that he was pleased that the Catholic Universe Newspaper of Cleveland was printing his letters every week. He told them that he thought it best “not to write to the Toledo Blade as requested because it might offend the proprietors of the Universe. As my letters are Catholic in tone they would not set so well for the Blade.”[22] The letters that he wrote from Rome and the Holy land reveal the depth and conviction of his Catholic faith. Writing from Rome he described his audience with Pope Leo XIII and his visit to St. Peters in terms that probably would have been too religious for the secular Toledo Blade. The papacy can exist without Rome but Rome cannot exist Without the papacy…I was amazed at the grandeur of the great St. Peters, the most magnificent temple thus far erected to the creator of the world. O, how I wish that every Catholic could behold this grand edifice before passing out of this life. Taking a position under the dome, and looking around the church, the eye is delighted and the soul rejoices with the ravishing beauty of this house of God.[23] In September of 1897, the Fremont Daily News carried the entire text of Father Patrick O' Brien's farewell sermon. He was leaving St. Ann’s at Fremont to return to Good Shepherd Catholic Church on Toledo’s East Side. People overflowed St. Ann’s Church and many wiped tears from their eyes as Father O’Brien preached his farewell sermon. In his sermon Father O’Brien revealed his human as well as priestly side when he said: If in the fulfillment of my pastoral duties I may have Hurt the feelings of anyone, I now ask pardon… If I sometimes have acted impatiently in money Manners, forgive me. I do not like the business Affairs of my profession, but duty compels me To attend to financial business as well as my Spiritual duties. Pardon me if I have given you The least scandal by the quickness of my temper. I am blest (if I may call it so) with a quick temper. I wish that I were more patient than I am, but I Am as God made me and I have a heart that can Hold no ill against anyone nor has the sun ever Gone down upon my anger.[24] Father O’Brien also expressed high regard and appreciation for the non-Catholics of Fremont and thanked the non-Catholic press of the city for being so kind to him. He left Fremont on the late train for Mt. Clemens, Michigan, where he planned to rest for a week before assuming his duties in Toledo. Several hundred of his parishioners and friends gathered at the station to say goodbye to him.[25] The Toledo Blade ran a two-column story and picture about Father O’Brien’s return on Saturday September 18, 1897, speaking about his zealous labors for the Immaculate Conception parish and his lifting of a large debt from the parish. The story said that he took a prominent part in Toledo public affairs and had gained a reputation not only as a pulpit orator, but as a lecturer and public speaker. The article said that the citizens of Toledo were delighted about Father O’Brien’s return to Toledo and that no clergyman ever held a warmer place in the affections of a community. In a separate editorial, the Blade said: As will be noted by an article in the local columns Of today’s issue, Rev. Patrick O’Brien returns to Toledo as the pastor of the Church of the Good Shepherd. Not only his co-religionists but citizens of Toledo Of every other faith and his comrades of the Grand Army Will most heartily welcome him back to the city After his eight years’ absence.[26] When Father O’Brien assumed the pastorate of Good Shepherd Catholic Church for the second time in 1897, his charge included building a new church, which he successfully completed two years later. The Toledo Review noted that “ground was broken for this noble edifice on the morning of March 17, 1899 on St. Patrick’s Day, one of Father O’Brien’s favorite holidays. A copper box containing the names of church and secular officials and Catholic and secular newspapers including the Toledo Bee and Catholic Universe of Cleveland was placed in the cornerstone. The cornerstone itself was inscribed, “Church of the Good Shepherd, July 2, A.D. 1899.”[27] The East Side of Toledo was busily engaged in building, transforming itself from a swamp to a community. In June 1899, Eastsiders considered building a new bridge from the foot of Jefferson Street to the intersection of Utah and First street. The city on both sides of the river was so situated that the present bridges did not sufficiently accommodate the traffic. The Cherry Street bridge was congested from early morning on with wagons, street cars and vehicles of all kinds. Traffic was so heavy that it was necessary to use the sidewalks for bicycles to lessen the risk of someone getting hurt. The Fasett Street bridge further up did not help the majority of Eastsiders and when the Ford Glass Company finished building their plant, the company would appropriate the bridge for its own use. A bridge crossing the Maumee at Oak Street would help stimulate business growth on the East Side. If the city council will not help raise the capital to build the bridge, then business men of the city would be justified in building and operating a toll bridge. Father O’Brien, a zealous East Toledo booster, tried to reconcile the two sides and get another bridge built across the Maumee River.[28] It wasn’t until 1929, the year before he died, that Father O’Brien enjoyed the satisfaction of speaking at the ground breaking of Toledo’s new high-level bridge slated to be built the next year.[29] During the second term of Toledo Mayor Samuel Milton “Golden Rule” Jones, Father O’Brien warned the East Side against the proposed city charter that he felt would concentrate political power on the West Side of the Maumee River. In a newspaper article, he pointed out that under the proposed measure the West side of the city would hold a disproportionate amount of power. Father O’Brien stated: There is no use in denying the fact that there is a prejudice on the West side against the East side having very much power in the city government, and if the residents of the East side allow the power of government to be centralized on the West Side, we will not doubt get left as we have in the past in several instances. I do not believe in placing the power that the charter delegates into the hands of any one man for mayor. The power is too great and too autocratic, and not in accordance with the Republican way of doing business. Now a body of seven men cannot run this city better than twenty or thirty men who represent every ward in the city. [30] In disagreeing with the mayoralty of Golden Rule Jones, Father O’Brien opposed a fellow immigrant who came to America with his family from Wales in 1846, the same Wales that the O’Brien family could glimpse from Wexford on a clear day. Samuel Milton Jones born in North Wales on August 3, 1846, immigrated to New York with his family when he was three years old. At age eighteen, Samuel worked in the oil fields of Titusville, Pennsylvania, and learned different methods of oil production, to becoming a producer himself in 1870. After his first wife died, he moved to Ohio and in 1886, he made a big oil strike in Lima. In 1892 he married Helen W. Beach from a prominent Toledo family and they settled in Toledo.[31] Mayor Jones, elected in 1897, 1899, 1901 and 1903, earned his nickname “Golden Rule” by operating his Toledo factory, the Acme Sucker Rod Company, on principles of paying employees a fair wage and treating them according to the Biblical Golden Rule. Progressive in city government as well, Mayor Jones preached Christ’s teachings, supported the ideal that men are equal, and solved some of Toledo’s problems of poverty and unemployment.[32] Throughout his life, Father O’Brien carried his Irish pride as high as his clerical hat. The Toledo Times published a letter to the editor from F.J. Scott, son of Jesup W. and Susan Scott who was the editor and part owner of the Toledo Blade. F.J.Scott sought to improve the metropark system and in 1873, helped his brother William H. write a bill requesting the establishment of a public library.[33] Among others, F.J. articulated and wrote an article in the Toledo Blade, containing the old charges that “half savage sons of Erin” dug the canal between the Maumee and the Ohio and implied that all Irishmen were in needed of civilizing. Father O’Brien published a passionate reply to F.J. Scott in which he said that he did not deny that there were drunken and lawless Irishmen in the early days as there were in the present, but he protested maligning an entire race because of the drunkenness and lawlessness of a few of its number. He took issue with what he termed as Scott’s patronizing remarks that he as an Irishman should be proud of the rapidity of the advancement in civilization of the Irish race since coming to America instead of finding fault with him for calling attention to their former ‘barbarism.’ Father O’Brien considered Scott’s statement an insult instead of a compliment. He declared that the Irish did not need to come to America to become civilized and that “Ireland is one of the most civilized and law-abiding countries in the world, notwithstanding centuries of brutal persecution.”[34] Father O’Brien pointed out that Mr. Scott was a traveler in foreign lands like he was and that Scott would bear him out when he said that the crimes of rape and burning at the stake were unknown in Ireland. He said that the “white glove” was often given to the judges of the courts because there were no criminal cases to be tried, but that “the judges of Lucas County courts or any other country in America would never get a “white glove” on those conditions.[35] Father O’Brien continued his letter by asking Mr. Scott that if the old Irish canal diggers were as “barbarous” as he said, how could many of them purchase homes from their meager earnings in the city and farms in the surrounding countryside? The priest pointed out that many of the early Irish settlers were alive and would resent his unjust charges. Father O’Brien was not flattered by Mr. Scott’s reference to the “good he had done in Toledo since he arrived in the city.” Father O’Brien waxed incredulous at F.J. Scott’s statement that the early Irish immigrants, of whom Father O’Brien numbered himself, “were thoroughly barbarous and lawless” and he even placed them below the Chinese and the scum of Naples, Italy. Father O’Brien said that he had been in Naples, Italy, which made him feel the insult more intensely. According to Father O’Brien, F.J. Scott compared a Christian people to the “heathen Chinese” and placed the latter above the former, and still Scott wondered why Father O’Brien should feel insulted? Father O’Brien felt that Scott should apologize to him and his Irish brethren and scorned the idea that his Irish priestly presence was needed to help civilize the Irish in Toledo. Father O’Brien pointed out that when he came to Toledo, he found a flourishing Irish colony of thrifty, law abiding honorable citizens living there, excepting the drunkards and criminals “you will find among all races.” He concluded: Their churches and schools built in the early days were then monuments of their civilization and Christian character. Since then as a class, they have maintained their good standing in this community, and today, no residents of our city, not even the wealthiest can point to such magnificent monuments of Christian civilization as the church of St. Patrick on the West Side and the church of the Good Shepherd on the East Side. There is a colony of 10,000 Irish and their descendants In Toledo who are among the most peaceable and law-abiding people of our flourishing city. No class for their means, has done more to build up this town than the Irish.[36] Father O’Brien’s rousing defense of his Irish race and heritage is ironic in that defending the honor of Irish people he is highly insulted at the thought of F.J. Scott comparing the Irish to “the heathen Chinese.” In 1901, American churches and American policy considered Asians to be the “yellow peril”, needing to be civilized by missionaries and economic evangelism, but there is something tragically assimilated American about Father O’Brien’s defending his Irish ethnic group by calling the Chinese heathen or pagan. He was an American of his time, considering that he technically he was still a first-generation immigrant. For the remainder of his career, Father O’Brien remained at Good Shepherd Church on Toledo’s East Side. When he retired, he served for a time as Chaplain of Notre Dame Academy. In his later years he still continued to write and speak and helped found the Toledo Irish Association. An article in the Toledo Blade in June 1929, just a year before he died, spoke of his involvement in the Irish Association. The Blade noted: Father O’Brien has been a good patriot. At the same time he has never let his love of old Ireland fade from His memory and his heart. It was to be expected that He would be one of the founders of the new Toledo Irish Association.[37] The Blade article said that the purpose of the Toledo Irish Association was to unite Irish men and women in Toledo and in the vicinity of Toledo in a bond of common interest and sentiment. According to the Blade, Father O’Brien displayed fine tolerance by cordially inviting men and women of any religious faith to join the Irish Association. Father O’Brien sought men and women of all religious denominations, those who love Ireland and who are sincerely interested in her general welfare. The article concluded by saying that Father O’Brien was far advanced in years, “but the candle of his spirit burns with the brightness of youth.”[38] The candle of Father O’Brien’s spirit went out a year later, on Sunday June 22, 1930. He died in St. Vincent’s Hospital at age 86, close to the Maumee River which he loved equally as much as he did the river near his Irish home in Wexford. Father O’Brien wrote one of his poems about the Maumee River which he dedicated to the Webster Literary Society of Toledo High School. His poem distilled his feelings about his new home in Toledo: The Maumee River Come with me on a summer’s day, Where Maumee’s waters gently glide, Up the river and down the bay, No fairer scenes in the world wide. I’ve seen fair rivers o’re the sea, In lands through which I once did roam, By dearer far than all to me, Is the river flowing by my home. I’ve seen the Nile and Jordan roll, Their muddy waters toward the sea, Though their history stirred my soul, They’re not so fair as our Maumee. O, lovely sweet, romantic stream, How gently dost thy waters glide, It seems like vision in a dream, To glide on thee to Erie’s tide. Thy emerald glens and wooded shores, Are pleasing to my raptured eye, I’ve scanned thy beauty o’re and o’re, And on thy banks, I wish to die.[39] Father O’Brien got his wish. He died on the banks of the Maumee instead of the River Shannon in his native Ireland. Toledoans and people all over northwestern Ohio and beyond mourned the passing of Father Patrick O’Brien. A letter from the Lucas County Treasurer, written on June 23, 1930, a day after his death, expressed how people felt. Father O’Brien’s sister Ettie, Mrs. Frank Tiernan of Collingwood Avenue, received a letter from Grant Northrup, Lucas Country Treasurer. Northrup wrote: To you, I am unable to find words that will express the sympathy of Mrs. Northrup and myself. We can only point to Father O’Brien’s fine character and his long useful life which was his devotion to Country, Church, City and State and in these we pray for your comfort…”[40] In his farewell sermon that he preached when he left Fremont to return to the Church of the Good Shepherd in Toledo, Father O’Brien said that he loved Toledo…” I love its people Protestants and Catholics…”[41] Toledo’s Protestants and Catholics felt the same way about Father Patrick O’Brien. END NOTES [1] Under the guidance of Father Paul Kwiatkowski, Immaculate Conception Church of Toledo transferred its records for microfilming to the Center for Archival Collections at Bowling Green State University, Bowling Green, Ohio. Father Patrick O’Brien is included as part of the church history, the years of his pastorate there being from about 1878-1889. [2] Toledo Blade, June 23, 1930, Death Claims Father O’Brien, Leader for Many Years in Toledo Religious and Civic Affairs Succumbs at 86. [3] The Catholic Encyclopedia, Volume XI (Robert Appleton Company) Online Edition, http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/11225d.htm [4] Carleton Beals, The Brass Knuckle Crusade: The Great Know Nothing Conspiracy, 1820-1860 (New York: Hastings House, 1960) [5] Toledo Blade, June 23, 1930, Death Claims Father O’Brien. Leader for Many Years in Toledo Religious and Civic Affairs Succumbs at 86. [6] The Biographical Encyclopedia of Ohio in the Nineteenth Century, Reverend Patrick O’Brien, http://moa.umdl.umich.edu [7] Clark Waggoner, History of Toledo and Lucas County (New York: Munsee & Company, 1888) p. 1-38. [8] Toledo Blade, January 19, 1899. Never Lower the Flag. Brilliant and Patriotic Address of Toledo’s Popular Priest Before National Veteran Women [9] Toledo Blade, November 23, 1899, “Poem A Feature” [10] Obituary, Captain George Scheets, Toledo-Blade, February 9, 1929. Perrysburg Journal, February 8, 1929, p. 1. [11] Parishioner History, 1964. Toledo Blade Article, Closing of Good Shepherd Church, https://www.toledoblade.com/Religion/2015/07/13/Good-Shepherd-Parish-to-close-Aug-24-join-with-nearby-church.html [12] Reverend Father O’Brien’s Farewell Address. Typescript, St. Mary’s of the Assumption Archives, St. Mary’s Catholic Church, Toledo, Ohio. [13] Ibid. [14] Clark Waggoner, History of the City of Toledo and Lucas County (New York: Munsell & Co. 1888)p. 740. [15] Toledo Blade, June 23,1930, “Death Claims Father O’Brien.” [16] Toledo News Bee, April 26, 1895. “Liberal-Minded Men. Preachers of the Methodist Church who Deprecate Fanatic Hostility to Rome.” [17] Catholic Union, Cleveland, Ohio , August 11, 1895. “The ’98 Club’s Outing. Grand Reception to Rev. Patrick O’Brien-Rousing Addresses.” [18] Toledo News Bee, July 18, 1895, Official Bulletin Catholic Total Abstinence Society. [19] Ibid. [20] Official Bulletin, Catholic Total Abstinence Union of Ohio, Office of the State President, Fremont, Ohio, December 18, 1895. [21] Father Patrick O’Brien to Ettie and Frank Tiernan, Toledo, Ohio, from aboard the H.M.S. Germanic, Friday, January 20, 1893. [22] Letter from Reverend Patrick O’Brien to Frank and Ettie Tiernan, Toledo, Ohio. February 7, 1893. [23] The Catholic Universe, Cleveland, Ohio, October 1, 1893. Travels Abroad. [24] The Fremont Daily News, September 13, 1897. “Farewell, Father O’Brien Delivered a Touching Farewell Sermon.” [25] Ibid. [26] The Toledo Blade, Saturday, September 18, 1897 “Father O’Brien Returns” [27] The Toledo Review, Volume I. No. 19, Toledo, Ohio, June 30, 1899, “Good Shepherd New Church.” [28] The Toledo Review, June 30, 1899 [29] Toledo Blade, June 23, 1930, “Death Claims Father O’Brien, Leader for Many Years in Toledo Religious and Civic Affairs Succumbs at 86.” [30] Toledo News Bee, Toledo’s East Side News, Father O’Brien Warns East Side Against New Charter, February 1901. [31] Morgan Barclay and Charles Glaab, Toledo: A Gateway to the Great Lakes (Tulsa: Continental Heritage Press, 1982), p. 84. [32] John Killits, Toledo and Lucas County, Ohio 1623-1933, vol 1 (Toledo: S.J. Clarke Publishing Company, 1923), p. 307. [33] Toledo’s Attic, Woodlawn Cemetery Necrology, William H. Scott. http://www.attic.utoled.edu/att/WOOD/SCOTTw.html [34] Toledo Times, Letter to the Editor, “Father O’Brien Insists, Toledo, October 18, 1901 [35] Ibid. [36] Ibid. [37] Toledo Blade, June 13, 1929. Call to Toledo Irish Men and Women [38] Ibid. [39] Toledo Blade, January 20, 1899. “The Maumee River,” Poem by Father Patrick O’Brien. [40] Letter, Treasurer Lucas County, Grant F. Northrup, Treasurer, June 23, 1930 [41] Fremont Daily News, September 13, 1897, “Farewell, Father O’Brien Delivered a Touching Farewell Sermon.”
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