Marquette University High School - Flambeau Yearbook (Milwaukee, WI)

Page 9 text:

the hundred years

Page 8 text:

The first bishop and later archbishop of Milwaukee The Most Reverend John Martin Henni H843-l 881 l, truly the Patriarch of the West, was instrumental in the establishment ofthe Jesuit school in Milwaukee.

Page 10 text:

l the hundred years ONE HUNDRED YEARS of service: Such is the record of Marquette Uni- versity High School from its humble beginning in 1857 as the first school of secondary education in Milwaukee to its present position of esteem and prom- inence as one of the leading private schools for boys in the nation. Its years of dedicated service began in a small, two-story wooden structure on Third and Michigan or, more ac- curately, as a prayer in the soul of Mil- waukee's first bishop, that zealous man of action, John Martin Henni. When he came to Milwaukee in 1835, it was little more than a frontier town, lacking not only the conveniences of the large eastern cities but also their cultural at- tainments and moral and spiritual re- finements. His soul was disheartened neither by the foul smells of the sewer- less mud roads of the vilage which had become his See nor by the uncouth man- ners of its habitants, little schooled in the ways of the Christian gentleman. For his was a life of devoted service to Christ and His Church. While studying in Rome he had volunteered to serve as a missionary in America, and the soul of a missionary can brook no discour- agement. He set about to improve conditions in the frontier town. Churches, hospitals, schools in increasing number began to dot the bluffs that were Milwaukee. But after a decade of fervent prayers and toil, his major objective was not yet a reality. What the Bishop wanted more than anything else for his people and his dio- cese was a college which would inspire and train the youth in Christian leader- ship and set a high moral and cultural tone for the growing, restless commu- nity. He turned to the Jesuits. Peti- tion after petition he sent to the Gen-