poverty. The abbot finally yielded in the matter of sending the Benedictines to Kansas and Father Lemke deeded over all his property to the Benedictines, except a tract of about eight. hundred acres of land in Clearfield Township, Cambria County, Pa., which was in litigation, and which was for this reason allowed to stand in his own name. This happy result was brought about sometime during the summer of 1856. On August 10, 1856, Father Lemke wrote to Mr. Johnson : "Bishop Miege has regulated all matters to mutual satisfaction. He is truly one of the most amiable men I ever came in contact with. There is nothing of the Irish character about him nor of the German pedantry. He is a real warmhearted Frenchman. He is a very learned and pious man, but at the same time as merry and guileless as a child and shows in every respect and under all circumstances the French savoirfaire. He seems to think a great deal of me. When I first hesitated to enter upon the abbot's conditions, viz., to strip myself of everything in order to get his leave to stay with Bishop Miege, he said, 'Never mind, I make quite another man of you, than they ever could,' for said he in his playful way, did not I tell you that I would divide my diocese with you and give you a district at least three times as large as the whole diocese of Pittsburgh with thousands of Indians and buffaloes."

Father Lemke's first year in Kansas was indeed a very hard one, and no doubt gave him the bitterest cup of sorrow of his life. Kansas itself was not in reality what it had been pictured to him in graphic letters, and during that very year it was the scene of riot and bloodshed. Besides, he himself was under a cloud; for whatever provocation he may have had to spur him on to his precipitate act of leaving Carrolltown, he and all the world recognized that he was in a state of rebellion against authority, and was a truant to duties which he had voluntarily assumed. He also recognized that his friends could do nothing for him as a priest until he had become reconciled with his canonical superior. Bishop Miege was most desirous of helping him, but without Abbot Wimmer's co-operation could not secure for him even the most humble priestly standing.

Fortunately, however, after a little while the bishop succeeded in arranging matters so as to be able to give him faculties to exercise priestly functions in the diocese, thus materially alleviating his sufferings. Father Lemke was nevertheless very much depressed, and in the depth of his sorrow wrote to his friend and legal adviser that he was ready to give up everything in this world, and hide himself in the prairies as a hermit to eke out the few days that were still left him. Although he still possessed his real estate in Cambria County, he could not realize on it, and as he had gone away from home with barely enough money to take him to Kansas, he was beginning to feel the pangs of poverty in addition to the mental distress from his embarrassing position. In the midst of all his sorrows, when the heaviest clouds hung over him, he was stricken down with Kansas fever, which prostrated him for a long time, and brought him to the very verge of the grave. He finally recovered, however, and with his second year in Kansas the white lining of his cloud of sorrow appeared.

As far as I have been able to discover, Father Lemke's first stopping-place in the far West was at Westport, Missouri, from which he wrote on December 27, 1855. In the early part of 1856 he was at Lecompton, Kansas, where his friend William Rodrique had the contract to build the state capitol for one of the rival factions in authority, and he wrote from there on February 4, 1856. It was there that he had the fever, and was so seriously ill. On April 14th, of the same year he wrote from Independence, Missouri, where he had gone, in all probability, to assist during Holy Week. He wrote from Kansas City, Missouri, on May 6th, and from Leavenworth, Kansas, on July 5th. After this he was sent by the bishop to Doniphan, matters now having been settled between him and his abbot, where he had a permanent position, as his letters beginning with one August 10th seem to indicate. At Doniphan he rented a small shanty for a dwelling and used a lawyer's office* for a chapel. With this temporary arrangement he shifted

*Father Lemke in his autobiography says he used an abandoned carpenter-shop for a chapel, but in a letter written from Doniphan at the time and now in the archives of the AMERICAN CATHOLIC HISTORICAL SOCIETY, he says he used a lawyer's office.

along, until, with the assistance of the bishop, he was able to build a small church on a lot in the town, which had been purchased by the bishop. He devoted himself with all his energy to this undertaking, and even with his own hands assisted in making mortar and laying the foundation. As his parishioners were very poor he had difficulty in raising means for even the humble structure which he was putting up, and he was compelled to cross over to Missouri to seek financial aid in some of the larger towns. During his ministrations in this humble place he recovered his equanimity of mind to a great extent and began to make new plans of life. On one of his sick-calls, far out upon the prairies, he learned of some unclaimed land in a section where a number of Catholic families had taken up claims, and in the hope of ultimately seeing the Benedictines established in Kansas, he, together with a young man who showed an inclination for religious life, took up the claim and complied with the necessary requirements to secure deeded title. They built small shanties on their selected plot; put the requisite amount of land under tillage, and had their names entered in the land office as the legal owners. For means to accomplish this Father Lemke drew upon his friend, Mr. Johnson, who had charge of his affairs in Cambria County, and who had made every effort to realize something for him on land which he still owned there. young associate remained on the claim and looked after it, whilst Father Lemke attended to his priestly duties in Doniphan.

Meanwhile Abbot Wimmer had well considered the suggestion made by Father Lemke of establishing the Benedictine Order in Kansas, and had decided to undertake the project. He sent Father Augustine Wirth and Casimir Seitz, a young man in minor orders, to Kansas, on April 2, 1857. Father Wirth located at Doniphan with Father Lemke and after a short time took charge of Atchison, which he attended from Doniphan. Later on he moved to Atchison and established a priory there. Father Lemke sojourned in Kansas about three years, at the end of which time, namely, in 1858, a complete reconciliation had taken place between him and the abbot, and he returned to St. Vincent's.