Recollections of My Life and Reflections on Times and Events During It: A Memoir by Father W. J. Howlett Main Menu Introduction Table of Contents Page 1 Page 2 Page 3 Page 4 Page 5 Page 6 Page 7 Page 8 Page 9 Page 10 Page 11 Page 12 Page 13 Page 14 Page 15 Page 16 Page 17 Page 18 Page 19 Page 20 Page 21 Page 22 Page 23 Page 24 Page 25 Page 26 Page 27 Page 28 Page 29 Page 30 Page 31 Page 32 Page 33 Page 34 Page 35 Page 36 Page 37 Page 38 Page 39 Page 40 Page 41 Page 42 Page 44 Page 45 Page 46 Page 47 Page 48 Page 49 Page 50 Page 51 Page 52 Page 53 Page 54 Page 55 Page 56 Page 57 Page 58 Page 59 Page 60 Page 61 Page 62 Page 63 Page 64 Page 65 Page 66 Page 67 Page 68 Page 69 Page 70 Page 71 Page 72 Page 73 Page 74 Page 75 Page 76 Page 77 Page 78 Page 79 Page 80 Page 81 Page 82 Page 83 Page 84 Page 85 Page 86 Page 87 Page 88 Page 89 Page 90 Page 91 Page 92 Page 93 Page 94 Page 95 Page 96 Page 97 Page 98 Other Writings by Father W. J. Howlett Timeline Howlett Family Tree William J. Howlett Family Tree Maps and Geography: Howlett's First Trip West Fr. Howlett moved with his family to Denver when he was a child, and then moved to St. Thomas Seminary in Bardstown, KY several years later. This map recounts the path he took to get to both places. Maps and Geography: Howlett's European travels Fr. Howlett traveled far and wide during his trip to Europe. Here is a map of the places he recorded visiting. Maps and Geography: Howlett in Paris, 1872-1873 This map shows the locations that Fr. Howlett mentioned visiting while in Paris, France. Maps and Geography: Howlett in London, 1874 This map shows the locations that Fr. Howlett mentioned visiting while vacationing in London, England Maps and Geography: Colorado Missions with Terrain Fr. Howlett's Colorado mission locations, with Colorado terrain. Index Acknowledgements Contributors' Biographies HIST 394 at CUA, Spring 2020

Page 43

36192
January 6, 1868, I arrived in Louisville, Kentucky, too late for the train to Bardstown, and had to wait until afternoon, and the long day was spent near the station for I did not want to get lost in a strange city.

          That evening I reached Bardstown and stopped at the Murphy House. There was another hotel called the Hynes House, but the other sounded better to me and I went there. I might have gone to the old Cathedral church and had been welcomed by the Jesuits who were in charge at that time, but I knew nothing of him, although I visited the Jesuits in St. Louis and met Father O’Neil, the President of the University, and Father Stunteback, and heard mass at their church, the old St. Francis Xavier’s at Ninth and Green Streets. Green Street was afterwards called Christy Avenue.

          The next morning I went to St. Thomas, which was about four miles out from Bardstown, to begin my studies. It was raining, but the road was a toll road and kept in fair order. It also was picturesque winding around hills, crossing the Beech Fork on a long covered bridge and lined with substantial looking houses. I felt that I was in the South even if it was not sunny at the moment, and I watched at every turn to meet an old “Uncle Tom” or a band of Kkluxes, (at that time the Kukluxes were not of the modern brand, but a Southern band of nightriders with far different aims and principles), but I met none and arrived without incident at the Seminary.

          Father Chambige received me kindly and gave me in charge to the student prefect who was at leisure that month. There were two prefects; one on duty each month, and this one was Edwin Drury who labored well and fruitfully in Kentucky in after years as a model priest; the other was Michael Ronan of Boston, whose work in the ministry in that diocese, and especially at Lowell in Massachusetts has kept him in holy memory. I think I may say that Mr. Drury was the first person with whom I ever got acquainted in Kentucky. No thought entered our heads then that he would spend years in the very room where I am now writing his last years of a fruitful life directing the good sisters of Loretto, or that I would succeed him in that work and put in twenty years as his successor, with his tomb in plain sight only a few rods away and a reservation close by for my own remains to await with his the call to immortality.

          The transition from one manner of life to another may suggest sacrifice and pain, and in no doubt there is much of both in such changes generally. In looking back now I do not see that there was very much of either in my cases. I had been absent from home for some time anyway, and then I never did consider the West to be my home. My father was dead, the older members of the family were doing for themselves, or planning to do so, and it was only a question of a short time when many families would replace the old original one. The old order had shaken itself off and a new one was before me. Would I become a priest? I did not know but I was going to give the preparation a trial. If I could not succeed in going through to the happy end I might get so far as to be able to try to teach in some college, and thus have a settled career. It was with these feelings that I began the new era. If I had a vocation I did not feel it. I reverenced the priests, I liked their company, I was pleased to serve mass and I

View Original Here​​​​​​​

This page has paths:

  1. Table of Contents Rebecca Lemon

Contents of this path:

  1. Original Page 43