Trails-to-the-Past-Minnesota-LacquiParle-Biographies-Progressive-Men

Minneapolis Journal 1897

THOMAS JAMES McELLIGOTT A combination of Irish descent and American birth and influences, has produced some of the foremost members of the bar in this country. Such a combination is found in Thomas J. McElligott who, though a young man, has already taken a place among the successful lawyers of western Minnesota. Mr. McElligott was born in Milwaukee on July 28, 1870. His parents were both of Irish birth but came to America in the forties and are now living on a farm at Glencoe, Minnesota. James McElligott, like so many of the Irish-Americans, made his way successfully. He is now in easy circumstances and was able to give his son a good education.

The family moved to Glencoe when Thomas was seven years old. Until thirteen years of age the boy attended the district school and then went to Stevens seminary at Glencoe from which he graduated with honors in 1888. During this school life he was obliged to walk four miles each day to and from the farm. A year’s teaching, combined with hard study, fitted the young man to enter the state university. He decided to take the scientific course and became a member of the freshman class in 1880, and in 1882 he concluded to study law and took up work in the law department. For nearly two years the studies of both departments were kept up but in the spring of 1893 Mr. McElligott was obliged to drop the scientific course in order to secure his diploma from the law department. He had, however, virtually finished the senior year.

During his college life Mr. McElligott developed a talent for debating and represented the Delta Sigma Debating Society in three annual debates. He was also the leader of the Minnesota debaters in the first intercollegiate debate between the universities of Minnesota and Iowa. The Theta Delta Chi and Delta Chi (law) fraternities claim him as a member. After his admission to the bar, immediately after graduation in June, 1893, Mr. McElligott went to Appleton, Minnesota, where he became associated with the Hon. E. T. Young in the practice of law. A year later he removed to Bellingham, Minnesota, and went into practice alone. During his college life he had worked his way, among other things carrying papers—that common resort of the ambitious college youth. This or some other influence predisposed Mr. McEIligott to an interest in the press, and at Bellingham he found an opportunity of indulging his talents. He became half owner of the “Bellingham Times” and conducted the editorial department of the paper until the summer of 1895.

An opening presented itself in Madison, Lac qui Parle County. Mr. McElligott moved there in March, 1895, he formed a law partnership with Frank Palmer, under the firm name of Palmer & McElligott. They have been very successful and are understood to have the largest practice of any law firm in that section of the state. Mr. McElligott has not taken, as yet, any active part in politics. His first vote was cast for Grover Cleveland in 1892, but since then his leanings have been toward the Republican party, and in his editorial capacity on the “Bellingham Times” in 1894 he supported the Republican ticket. He has been devoted to business and has shown himself qualified for a successful career as a lawyer. Commencing with, as he puts it. “but two dollars and a half to my name,” he has become financially independent. Even though his first case was won. Though beaten in the district court he appealed to the supreme court and got a decision for his client.

While in Bellingham, on November 15, 1894, Mr. McElligott was married to Miss Maud Wright, of Appleton, Minnesota. They have one child, a boy. Mr. Mc Elligott was born into the Catholic church, and yet belongs to that denomination, but he takes an interest in all Christian churches and is liberal in his religious beliefs. The only secret society to which he belongs is the order of the Knights of Pythias. He is secretary of the Board of Education of Madison.

REV. FATHER PETER ROSEN one of the best known priests in the United States, was born December 15, 1850, at Orsfeld, in the parish of Kylburg, near Treves, Germany. The parents of Father Rosen gave the boy as good an education as they could afford, from the age of twenty-two to that of twenty-five he served in the German army as artillerist.

In the spring of 1876 he embarked for the United States and arrived at Philadelphia on the opening day of the Centennial Exhibition. Devoting a few years to studies at the University Notre Dame, Indiana, he returned to Europe and finished his preparation for the priesthood at Louvain, Belgium. On March 30, 1882, he was ordained priest at Simpelveld, Holland, by the former Bishop of Luxemburg, Msgr. Laurent.

On September 3, he arrived at Deadwood, South Dakota, to take charge of the parish there and the numerous missions in the Black Hills, His zeal and energy found ample room in a missionary district covering about fifteen thousand square miles. He had to share the ups and downs of a new mining country, but stood at his post for nearly eight years, and no man in any sphere of life could have worked harder than he did a friend of the poor, the orphans and the homeless. Father Rosen was charitable almost to a fault. Many a broken down miner or poverty-stricken tenderfoot is indebted to him for a safe return to home. The “grip,” with its serious consequences so injured his health that, in 1890, he was compelled to look for an easier field of labor, and he came to Minnesota. The work done in the Black Hills and the affection he had gained in the hearts of his people remained, and when, in 1895, the episcopal Sec of Sioux Falls became vacant by the transfer of Bishop Marty to St. Cloud, it was the unanimous desire of the people of the Black Hills that Father Rosen should return as their bishop.

In Minnesota Father Rosen was put in charge of St. Andrew’s congregation at Fairfax. Here he stayed for over four years, organized the congregation and made many improvements. He does not believe that the influence of the clergy should be confined to the church and sacristy, but the clergy should be all to all. So, when all efforts failed to drain the numerous sloughs around Fairfax and thus make the county healthier. Father Rosen superintended the digging of the ditches and the grading of roads, till the sloughs were a thing of the past. In the fall of 1894, Father Rosen made a trip through Europe and visited Rome, and, at an audience with the Holy Father, he is said to have asked for a final decision in regard to the standing of the members of secret societies in the Catholic church. Being assigned to Heidelberg, Le Sueur County, he made use of the free time thus gained by compiling and publishing an historic volume of six hundred and forty-five pages, called “Pa-ha-sap-pah,” or History of the Black Hills of South Dakota. He also published a description of his trip through Europe under the title, “Hundert Tage in Europe” (Hundred Days in Europe), or a trip through Ireland, England, France, Switzerland, Italy and Germany. The book contains three hundred and seventeen pages, and, besides the author’s impressions of travels, a large number of observations on timely topics. The book finds favor with the class of Catholics who are interested in the secret society question. A pamphlet of forty pages, published in 1895, gives the personal reasons for his standpoint on this question and explains the standpoint of the Catholic church in the matter. In the spring of 1894, Father Rosen published a short history of Fort Ridgley, Minnesota. He is now Stationed at Madison, Lac qui Parle County, Minnesota. In the questions agitating the Catholic church in America he has taken a prominent part, and many of his views are diametrically opposed to those of Archbishop Ireland. A firm believer in parochial schools, he objects to any intermingling of public and parochial schools.

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