Father
Augustine Tolton First Black Priest
Born
a slave, condemned to a lifetime of frustration and failure, and
even in death denied a burial spot all of his own -- this was
the story of Augustine Tolton, a native of Ralls County and the
first full blooded Negro Catholic priest in the United States.
It
was years after his death before this humble man was accorded
the respect that was denied him in life. He was buried in a plot
below the level of other graves in St. Peters Cemetery in
Quincy, Ill., so that eventually another priest’s coffin could
be placed above his. And his name is engraved on the back side
of the stone that bears the name of one of his white colleagues.
But time has brought him into his own, and the honor of having
his remains has become a matter of some dispute.
Father
Landry Genosky, O.F.M., a professor at Quincy College, has
become an acknowledged authority on Father Tolton’s life.
Recently there have been moves made in the Springfield, Ill.,
diocese, designed to have the Negro priest’s body exhumed and
moved to Springfield. “The people there,” Father Landry
said, “seem to think that because of the connection of
Lincoln, the emancipator, and Springfield this should be
done.’ But he emphasized that he felt the body should, and
will remain in Quincy, where the priest spent most of his life,
and where his vocation to the priesthood was nurtured.
Augustine
Tolton was born April 1, 1854, in the Brush Creek Community,
about 12 miles southeast of Monroe City. His parents, Peter Paul
and Martha Tolton, were slaves belonging to Mr. and Mrs. Stephen
Elliott. Martha was Mrs. Elliott’s (Savilla) personal slave,
having been brought from Kentucky when the couple migrated to
Missouri.
Many
descendants and relatives of the Elliotts still live in this
area, among them Mrs. Savilla Maddox, granddaughter and namesake
of Mrs. Elliott. Also related, though more distantly, is Mrs.
Alma Lindhorst. She grew up on the Elliott farm where Father
Tolton was born, now owned by Mr. and Mrs. Manning Thompson.
Mrs. Lindhorst can recall playing as a child on the foundation
ruins of the cabin where the Toltons lived.
Augustine
was baptised in St. Peter’s Church at Brush Creek with Mrs.
Elliott as his godmother. Father John O’Sullivan performed the
ceremony. Mrs. Lindhorst recalls that Mrs. Elliott gave the
small boy and his brother, two years his senior, religious
instructions.
Life
changed dramatically for the Negro boy when he was seven years
old. Father Landry tells two versions of the changes that took
place for the Toltons when the Civil War broke out. One version
comes from “west of the Mississippi,” chiefly from people
living in the Monroe City area, while the other version is told
by Quincy residents. The main facts are the same, but the human
interest element differs dramatically.
The
story, as told by local people, including Mrs. Lindhorst, says
that the Toltons were freed by their masters, and the father
left for St. Louis to join the Union Army. There he died of
dysentery.
Martha,
with her nine and seven year old sons and a 20 month old
daughter, fled to Hannibal, where she narrowly escaped being
taken as “Contraband.” According to this story, she was
assisted by a white neighbor, Constable Lee Hardy, in her
flight. Finding an old boat the frightened woman rowed across
the Mississippi and practically ran the 21 miles to Quincy which
was free territory.
The
Quincy version of Mrs. Tolton’s escape claims that the slaves
were not freed, but that they escaped their masters. Mrs.
Lindhorst doubts the veracity of the story, as she does one
which some people tell of the Elliott’s cruelty to their
slaves. One story written of the priest’s life tells how he
watched his mother being beaten, and to this Mrs. Lindhorst
says, “Nonsense. Cousin Savilla was known everywhere for her
kindness, and I know of no one who remembers such a story.”
Mrs.
Maddox agreed with Mrs. Lindhorst, recalling that her grandmother
was one of the gentlest persons she had ever known.
Augustine
went to work in Quincy when just seven years old. Along with his
mother and older brother, he found employment in a tobacco
factory. Later he was to work in a saddlery, as custodian of St.
Peters Church, and as a factory hand.
He
also started formal education, attending the segregated Lincoln
Public School for three months. Moving to St. Boniface Parochial
School must have given him an indication of the problems that
lay ahead,. for prejudice caused him to be taken out of this
school before one term was up. But then Father Peter McGirr,
pastor of St Lawrence Church, later to be changed to St. Peters,
admitted all the Tolton children to his school. There the young
Negro boy graduated with distinction and was confirmed.
For
some time Augustine was tutored privately by Quincy priests, who
sensed the beginning of vocation. The young man assisted the
priests in the spiritual care of Quincy’s Negro Catholics, and
expressed a desire to become a priest. But his efforts to enter
a seminary were thwarted by the same old enemy, prejudice. He
was even denied entry into a seminary whose white priests were
being trained to serve the American Negro.
Ironically,
the prejudice that prevented this brilliant young man from
studying for the priesthood in his own land was the cause of his
being sent to the foremost college of the Catholic Church.
Finding that he could not pursue his studies here, some of his
priest benefactors found channels through which he might be sent
to the College of Sacred Propaganda at Rome.
There,
after six years, of study, Father Augustine Tolton was ordained
a Catholic priest (1886). Receiving his priesthood from Cardinal
Parocchi in St. John Lateran in Rome, the young prelate was
informed that his mission was to be the Negroes of the United
States.
Returning
to Quincy, Father Tolton celebrated his first Solemn High Mass
at St. Boniface where he had served as an altar boy years
before. He was appointed pastor of St. Joseph Negro Church and
soon became quite well known in Quincy for his excellent
sermons, his splendid education, and his eloquent voice.
But
although the young priest succeeded in attracting many whites as
well as his own people to his services, the ugly face of
prejudice soon appeared again. The large number of people who
sought his classes of inquiry, the crowded Sunday Masses, the
coming together of people of both races in his church brought
down on him not only the jealously and scorn of some white
priests, but also the envy of some Protestant Negro ministers.
The
combination was too much. He bowed to prejudice and left Quincy,
accepting an invitation to found a Negro church in Chicago.
He
began his ministry there in the basement of “Old St.
Mary’s,” while laboriously building up a parish among the
entire Negro community. Four years after his arrival there, Mrs.
Anna O’Neil donated $10,000 for the building of a Negro
church, which was to be named St. Monica’s.
Success
of a sort appeared to be within the reach of this young man,
only 43 years old, after a lifetime of frustration caused
exclusively by the color of his skin. He had been invited to
preach in the Cathedral of Baltimore and had been sought by
Bishops and Cardinals who wanted him to establish Negro churches
in their dioceses.
But
on July, 1897 with Chicago in the grip of an intense heat wave,
Father Token suffered a heat stroke. His name appeared in
Chicago papers among lists of those thus struck down, although
there were a number of stories that circulated about his death.
It was said that he was killed by Chicago thugs and that he died
of tuberculosis, but newspaper accounts dispute these stories.
Father
Tolton’s remains were brought back to Quincy as he had
requested. He is buried there in a circular plot in the center
of St. Peters Cemetery.
Why
was his coffin placed so deep in the ground that another priest,
one who died early in the 1900’s could be buried above him?
Did the prejudice that plagued him in life follow him even in
death? Father Landry thinks so. Considering the racial
atmosphere of the country in 1897, he explained, it is
remarkable that Father Tolton was allowed a burial spot in a
white cemetery at all. Further service to prejudice is evident
in the fact that the inscription for Father Tolton is on the
back side of the large cross that marks the other priest’s
grave.
Father
Tolton spent only a few years in this area, leaving his native
Brush Creek when a lad. Yet Brush Creek claims him as its own,
and he is considered as one of it’s most illustrious sons.
Some
people think that the Taken families who live in Monroe City are
related to Father Tolton, the spelling of the name having been
changed over the years. Father Landry doubts this, as he has
found no evidence in his studies to indicate that anyone bearing
the name was left in Missouri. Yet there are local people who
insist that the relationship exists.
The
79 years since Father Tolton’s death have seen many changes in
the lot of the American Negro. But there is still a long way to
go before equality is more than a word. Father Tolton was
probably Northeast Missouri’s outstanding black citizen in the
19th Century. Although his efforts appeared to meet failure on
every side, his was a triumph of the spirit, and it paved the
way for other triumphs for his people.
|