by Roz Young
When Father Leo Meyer told the archbishop he had account with St. Joseph, he was speaking of a benefactor whose name was Henry Ferneding. The two had become acquainted when Ferneding was administrator of the Emmanuel parish.
Ferneding, in the hay, grain and malt business in Dayton, had bought a 12-acre, wooded tract of land north of Nazareth next to Woodland Cemetery. He paid $2,500 for the property and held it until Meyer could acquire it. He also supervised the letting of the contract for the new building and the details and supplies. He advanced $1,000 for wages for the workmen.
He also made a gift of $1,500 to Nazareth. Income from $1,000 of the gift was for prayers for his family and from the remaining $500 was for instruction of poor children. The Society said one Mass a month for the living and dead of the Ferneding family during Henry Ferneding's lifetime, and once a year after his death to the third generation.
As the Society of Mary grew, not only at Nazareth but in other parts of Ohio, as well as in Texas, Meyer appealed to the headquarters in France to send more brothers. Five brothers and one novice came, but when they arrived it was found they were not qualified to teach and were sent to work on the farm. They were dissatisfied. Three remained in the Society, three did not.
Meyer was able to pay the March and September installments to Stuart in 1853, because of the increased number of boarders at the school, the sale of garden produce and some financial help from the schools in Cincinnati.
He also opened a school at Emmanuel Church. Father Juncker, who had always been troublesome to Meyer, interfered in the teaching methods and after six months the Marianist brothers and Juncker parted. It was not until 1874 that they again took charge of Emmanuel School.
Trouble and dissatisfaction with the teaching methods of the brothers in the Cincinnati schools also flared up, and Meyer had severe administrative problems there.
Early in 1854, one of the brothers, Louis Curiec, fell ill and was not expected to live. Meyer thought he ought to provide a burial space for the dead and, after receiving authorization from the township, chose a spot of land south of the farmhouse at the eastern edge of the property. The property was blessed on All Saints Day, Nov. 1, 1854.
Curiec died in Cincinnati on Nov. 21 and was buried there, but in 1855 his body was moved to the cemetery at Nazareth.
The country experienced a depression in1854 and1855. The price of flour rose from $4 to $9 a barrel and the price of butter, beef and eggs doubled. Hundreds were out of work.
Meyer invited Father Juncker to assist at the blessing of the chapel constructed in the addition to the Stuart mansion. He refused to attend.
Meyer was still forbidden to hear confessions except for those living at Nazareth, but he continued to ask for permission to hear confessions of the dying and those who presented themselves at Nazareth for confession.
In August1855, Meyer experienced a high fever, which lasted for four months. Other brothers also developed a fever, and at one time 15 were in bed with it. Brother Damian Litz made a potion of something that looked like black coffee and tasted horrible. Everybody took two or three tablespoons of it. "The next morning there was no rising," wrote Meyer to Caillet, "but a general sitting. Brother Nicholas Bohn thought it was cholera and was ready to die, as he expressed himself. When Brother Litz came to me, I told him his medicine had no effect on me.
"He then said, 'You have a strong nature. You must take another dose.' The fact was I had taken for more than two months daily two or three doses of quinine. He gave me nearly a wine glass full and, in less than one hour, I was not anymore able to remain on my feet."
For several days Meyer was unable to work, but he then refused all kinds of medicine and put himself in the hands of God. From then on his health improved.
Some of the brothers thought that the Society of Mary was not prospering in America because Meyer held too much to the old routine of the way things were done in France. Brother Damian Litz wrote a list of complaints to Caillet. There were no awards to recognize excellence in the classrooms. The food was bad. The curriculum was not worthy of a college. Outsiders called the brothers "ignorant men." No order was evident at Nazareth. When complaints were made to Meyer, he made no effort to redress the evils.
"It is high time for you to help us with a competent personnel," he wrote. "Help us, I beg you; if you cannot, I would prefer to see our boarding school closed by your order rather than see it linger on as a caricature of a college ... " He ended his letter with a statement that Meyer was not the man to bring about prosperity to the community.
One other blow. When Meyer was ill, the clergy of Cincinnati sent a lawyer to Meyer to draw up his will.
He was forced to sign a will, leaving his estate, real and personal, to John B. Stintzi and Maximin Zehler.
Roz Young is a columnist, author, historian and lifelong Dayton-area resident. Address: Dayton Daily News, P.O. Box 1287, Dayton, Ohio 45402. Phone messages can be left at 225-2289.