by Roz Young
When John Stuart in Europe heard of the fire at Nazareth, he became concerned that Father Leo Meyer would not pay him for the property. Meyer had not made the first payment on the principle.
"Now as I realize that it is useless for me to write to Father Meyer," he wrote, "since he pays not the slightest attention to my desires, I will be obliged to protect myself by other means." He asked a Dayton lawyer to represent him and proposed that Nazareth should be sold at public auction.
Meyer, of course, vigorously opposed the selling of Nazareth, and asked the archbishop for a loan to reassure Stuart. With the loan he sent Stuart $1,000 in 1856 on the principle and was able to pay the semi-annual interest on the remaining debt on time.
Father Henry Juncker allowed Meyer to make a collection in the Emmanuel parish to help with the cost of rebuilding. Meyer refused to make the rounds during services asking for money, but he stayed in the sacristy if anybody cared to look him up.
By the fall of 1856, the rebuilding program saw the walls under roof. "We have made some doors and windows so as to be able to live in it this winter," Meyer wrote to Father Georges Caillet in November. "We have plastered only the room that is to serve as the chapel. The house is 80 feet long and 40 wide. We were able to use the bricks of the old mansion and have bought only 3,500." Other costs were for the masons, $690; carpenters and joiners, $400; wood dressing, flooring, window frames and doors, $300. He needed at least $600 more to make the building in condition to receive boarders. One class for day scholars opened. The brothers did much of the work of rebuilding. The south wing "was put up by two bricklayers. The brothers mixed and carried the mortar," Meyer wrote to Caillet, "notably Brother Nicholas Bohn. With the horse cart and barrel, he scooped up water from the brook and filled several hogsheads and carried them to the bricklayers. After breakfast, all hands went to the brick piles, formed two rows, and pitched the bricks from hand to hand and deposited them in heaps along the wall. When they reached the second story, Brother Peter Lenert, a big, strong man, tossed up two bricks at a time with a long-handled shovel.
"When they got to the third floor, they made a heap of bricks on the second floor and then tossed them up to the third floor. Two-thousand bricks were enough for one day. Then all hands went to their different occupations. Brother August Motzung and a postulant went to the brickyard on what is now Chambers Street, near Woodland Avenue, and hauled bricks to the building.
"Good, solid saw logs were hauled from our woods, a few feet north of the present gymnasium, to Mr. Patterson's sawmill down near the canal. He sawed them, cut them to the required size, and our team brought them to the building. With a town carpenter, Mr. Lempert, the brothers did the carpentry work. Of course, the doors, sashes, etc., were made at the sawmill. Providentially, one brother, a Hollander named Martin, was a plasterer, and he did a good job."
In March of 186l, Father Meyer was able to pay the last of the money owed to John Stuart for the property. Stuart wrote to Meyer on March 29: I have had this day the pleasure to cancel the mortgage at Nazareth. ... I now congratulate us both for bringing this long account to a close and wish you and your brothers every prosperity and happiness at Nazareth and long life to enjoy it.
"I feel much obliged for your kind offer for part of the farm and to build me a house thereon. I am now, however, getting old, consequently not able to work as I used to when at Nazareth. I at the same time offer you many thanks for your kindness. ..."
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.