St Xavier High School - Tiger Yearbook (Louisville, KY)

Page 9 text:

BRO. PAUL, C.F.X. The first principal of St. Xavier. or milk fcalled 'mush'i. lt was a very popular dish. Neither was the school year a short one: ln 1865 we opened school on the first Monday in August . . . we closed on June 30th. As the Battle Hymn of the Republic faded into the past, new chapters began to be written in the chronicals. By 1870 the Brothers had taken over nine parochial schools in the city as well as the Institute St. X was the small- est of their schools with an enrollment of 60, St. Boniface was the largest with 575 boys. lt was that same year that saw the beginning of the General Competitions at St. X: the six best boys from each of the Brothers' nine schools were tested in reading, 'sums,' gram- mar, penmanship and composition. The chronicals note that on Feb. 7, 1870, the young scholars were given a half-day free to see the opening of the Ohio Bridge. The care- lessness of Mrs. O'Leary's cow in Chicago was the big news at the opening of the school year in 1871. But news of a more somber sort sent at :ii. W, g,..,+,i,1,Q,,,.pts-141 xi .pi .i..'4-ai-.qw s 5- itVip,1ii:sgWvg5ipfigiii-,A4, -Uwe: -M1 Wfs:1 ,iss-.gi 1 'Wii- sl mwjmr Eiffiiff35:31:T523fif.f,iif 'fifzfixzfiiiSwiftfl.fgffiiiifizi2?ggiifZ.aLLJiri-.!3gisi.ff!!tsJ1.f'f.'!4f.!Q.ff' Qi ..' .,, ..,.., ..i..s-Q si.f i .,---: We s,-f it1-+i,1fwi....Yffexi4i,w-2.1-iffi ,.., ii if.. .,,.t,i,.-iffsiw--1 V- -A--iff--is fi''yfii--wiiigifuii.:ffi:sQ:irfigi- f,gf.ii,isQ, iggif5i5'iapLr1i '1wHf+ -ff -jgwipiwi- 7 aitrfag 2 ai-r iitfsfpg ififfig,iftrfi?-litiaweasFfigififfffiis2fi?i3istffi?E3ssfff2f,.5f1??'i!1'i,1:gSf1rfff1i?P-3921 J .,:. ii. T.,-.. ,,i' ...Lif.g-. ,,,.--e.,i,f.i-W' ,,',,.,.aiJi,f-iiaiw . .ii 4, W . ,,. if.mi.i.4,M.,,,..i.1ii ii isa .1 f v ,f.. , .1 ,.,.i..,-, , ......, wi... ,,. ..,, iw. .., 'ifficiiizis3?p521252itlifimiiwigir,ifiiifiemiisiiigeragaefafzauwasifieiiaiiefisgpwsiisgei zimiixisziiasiwfsfsifas tiss iaaazfwfiafeaiiiigcifIsis2iQe2f1s4aiiasii2i+.Q.i1Maasfgriifezsfi . . . like one big hospital was the way Bro. Philip described the city of Louisville dur- ing those hectic days. Thousands upon thou- sands of Civil War casualties were treated here. School, however, went on with a business-as- usual attitude. Food was scarce and expensive. In- stead of coffee we had to use parched or roasted rye-nicknamed Lincoln Coffee. The average meal consisted of bread with molasses, or cornmeal seasoned with molasses 6 the school into mourning, when on Dec. 21 of that year, Theodore James Ryken, the humble and saintly founder of the Brothers, went to meet his God. On New Year's Eve of '72 pipe-smoking was introduced among the brothers when the su- perior bought a dozen white clay pipes for 1.10. Ten cents was big money in those days . . .how dimes have changed!

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The Centennial Stor . . . a Proud Past The Xaverian BroThers landed for The firsT Time in America in New York on Aug. 4, 1854. ThaT was To be The beginning of a long and prosperous life for Them in This counTry, a life which was To be considerably brighTened by The rise of ST. Xavier High School of Louisville as one of The naTion's ouTsTanding schools. By Aug. 16 of ThaT same year The BroThers had arrived in Louisville. The firsT home of The Xaverians in This ciTy was ST. PaTrick's on 13Th ST. lmmaculaTe ConcepTion was To be Their second. The conveniences of comforTable mod- ern living ThaT we Take so much for granTed was noT parT of Their loT. From a iournal kepT by old Bro. Philip we lisTen To one man's com- menT on Their siTuaTion. We had no such luxuries as gas, ToileTs or baThs. Candles and coal oil lamps were used for lighTing pur- poses. Small sToves for heaTing apparaTus. The waTer supply was in Two cisTerns-The rain wafer had To be carried To The baTh. For drinking waTer we had To geT The supply from The public sTreeT-pumps. CondiTions for The BroThers sTeadily pro- gressed, and in 1863 They founded ST. Aloysius SelecT School-The beginning of The ST. X we know Today. In 1864 The BroThers moved To Their fourTh home in Louisville, This Time on FourTh ST. IT was here ThaT ST. Aloysius School was renamed ST. Xavier's lnsTiTuTe. Bro. Philip Tells of his reacTion To The change: The communiTy of sevenTeen mov- ed from Green ST. To FourTh ST. on The eve of The AssumpTion, Aug. 14, 1864. Oh! how happy we were. EveryThing was in our favor: in The cenTer of The ciTy, finesT sTreeT, fine surroundings, large house, on a loT 70' x 200', gas and waTer, no ora- Tory, buT someThing beTTer Than all -a beauTiful chapel wiTh The Blessed SacramenT. When ST. Xavier officially opened in Sep- Tember of 1864, There were seven subiecTs of- fered To The sTudenTs: caTechism, Bible hisTory, geography, bookkeeping, algebra, geomeTry and French. Such sfudies as calculus, physics or chemisTry were noT To be inTroduced for many years.

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The first portraits of the graduates were not taken until 1874. But one interesting item occured on Sept. 3, 1883. The absentee rec- ords tell us that many were afflicted with sud- den but brief illnesses. The fact that Barnum's Circus' came to town that day was probably no more than a mere coincidence! In '84 the year of the Ohio River flood, the School day went from 8:30 to 1:00 with a short recess at 10:00. It was on July 9th of that same year when the Alumni Society started. It elected St. Xavier's first grad, Francis A. Mann, as its president. The young school boys of those days heard their elders talking about names like Carnegie, Rockefeller and Vanderbilt, and of the yellow iournalism of Pulitzer and Hurst. A man named Edison was soon to begin toying with the idea of light without flame, and a Mr. Ford had some crazy notions of a buggy without a horse. Cramped in their Fourth St. location and un- able to expand, the Brothers bought the New- comb estate in 1890. This property extended from Broadway to Jacob St. On Jacob, a brick stable was torn down and replaced by a build' ing which contained eight classrooms. But the gaunt old man with the scythe labeled 1900 was unceremoniously ushered out by a bounc- ing baby replete with banner proclaiming the arrival not only of a new century, but of what has become known as the Good Years. By 1900 a new building appeared on the lawn of the Newcomb estate. This was the new St. Xavier, and it included a gymnasium and a swimming pool in the basement. These were eventually replaced by science labora- tories and a cafeteria. This original building was a rather impressive one, consisting of six- teen recitation rooms, eight on each floor. On the third floor was the auditorium with a ca- pacity of 1200, it was the largest in Louisville. This, too, was eventually replaced by class- rooms when further expansion became nec- essary. The schoolboy who set out for 118 W. Broadway wore knickerbockers and carried his books slung over his shoulder with a leather strap. His mother could buy a shiny brass- rimmed bed for 353. His father went about the house all day grumbling about something called the CW income tax. The newspapers spoke about the Boxer Rebellion, the Big Stick and Bigger Business. The North Pole became an important part of his map, and he heard many stories about the different ways a hatchet BRO. JAMES, C.F.X. The principal of St. X for nearly twenty-five years. THE FIRST FOOTBALL TEAM-VINTAGE 1910