McMenomy, Bernard P.

MCMENOMY

Posted By: Karon Velau (email)
Date: 9/22/2019 at 17:25:38

Bernard P. McMenomy

(From the 1891 Biographical History of Pottawattamie County, Iowa, p.483)
REV. BERNARD P. MCMENOMY. The St. Francis Xavier Catholic Church of Council Bluffs was one of the first societies formed in this part of the country, even so far in the past as when the Indians had full sway here; and the first priest or pastor was Father DeSmet, the great missionary. His people erected a small log church on the bluffs, where the first priest in charge was Father James Powers. Father Doxacher succeeded him. They resided at Omaha, to which diocese the congregation at the Bluffs belonged. The first Iowa resident priest at Council Bluffs was Rev. Bernard P. McMENOMY, who came in November 1869 from Georgetown, Monroe Co., Iowa, but previously from Missouri. He is a native of County Donegal, Ireland, born in August 1830; was educated at St. Columb's College at Londonderry, Ireland, which institution he entered at the age of 15 years, continuing there until within a short time before he emigrated to America in 1849.

He first settled at St. Louis and continued his studies there for four years in a seminary under Archbishop Peter R. Kenrick. Then February 24, 1854, he was ordained and sent to North Santa Fe, in northeast Missouri, where he took charge of a parish. He laid out the town of St. Marysville, and by his own efforts obtained the establishment of a postoffice there, which he named St. Patrick. After an engagement there of four years, he was removed to Edina, Knox Co, Missouri, where he had charge of a parish for seven and a half years. Then he came to Georgetown, this state, and from there in 1869 to Council Bluffs. While at Georgetown he erected some four or five churches, a large stone building being the Georgetown church. The others were at Melrose, Chariton (Lucas Co), Woodburn (Clark Co) and one near Leon in Decatur Co; and along the line of the Chicago, Burlington & Quincy Railroad for some 200 miles, he erected many churches. He has been very zealous in church work. Since his residence in Council Bluffs, he has erected the St. Francis Xavier Church at the corner of Sixth St and Fifth Avenue, a large and handsome edifice 60 X 120 feet in dimensions, completing it in 1888, at a cost of over $50,000. Also he built the St. Francis Xavier Academy, in the rear of the church, where there are 25 Sisters in charge of a large number of pupils, about 65 boarding pupils and 250 day pupils. He also erected the St. Joseph Academy, for boys, a good brick building opposite the church. The St. Bernard's Hospital, conducted by the Sisters of Mercy, is a large, substantial brick building, where the sick and infirm are received without distinction of creed or color. The priest's residence is a handsome brick structure erected also by him, between the church and the Sisters' Academy. Under Father McMenomy's administration here, the membership of the parish has increased from about 500 to over 2,000. His assistant in parish work is Rev. T.A. Maloy.