Ottr C at!tolic Heritage in T ezas
88
lishment of the Prefecture in 1840, the most urgent need for the growth and development of the Church had been personnel. Both Timon and Odin had strained every nerve to increase the painfully inadequate ranks of the laborers in the field. Before Odin set out on his long jour- ney to Baltimore and while Timon was still in New Orleans in the spring of 1843, the Vicar asked the Visitor to interview a "Rev. Mr. Urquhart," an applicant for work in Texas. While great was the need of workers, Odin was unwilling to sacrifice principles to expediency. Timon was instructed to make it clear to the candidate "that the country is ex- tremely poor, and that zeal, pure disinterested zeal alone should prompt" the candidate. It had been the intention of Odin to assign Urquhart to Fort Bend, Liberty, and Harris counties as a replacement for the lamented Haydon, but Timon found the candidate, probably the Rev. John D. Urquhart, former assistant at St. Patrick's Cathedral of New York City, unsuited to the work. 48 While in Portland, Kentucky, Timon and Odin had discussed the needs of personnel. It was probably agreed then that at the first op- portunity a Vincentian house, similar to that in San Antonio, should be established in Galveston, with two English-speaking priests and a Lay-Brother to care for the Galveston-Houston parishes and bay shore stations. Odin was anxious to secure an Irish Vincentian to serve as his Vicar-General and suggested Reverend Michael Collins, who at this time was ministering to the congregations at Cape Girardeau, Mis- souri and Cairo, Illinois. In Timon's opinion, however, Collins was a good parish priest but would never make a good vicar-general." Odin had been expecting the arrival of two Alsatian seculars, a Mr. Schneider, about forty years old, and a Mr. Oge, about thirty-six, "Providence has sent these welcome gentlemen," the Vicar wrote Blanc enthusiastically on July 24, 1843. "Of the two one speaks French and German and the other is an ex-chaplain of Versaille." Both Schneider and Oge were zealous and eloquent. The first spoke German fluently and knew some French, the other spoke both languages well and soon learned English. They had agreed to come to work among the faithful in Texas in return for just living and traveling expenses. They arrived in October and by early November were laboring faithfully in Galveston and Houston. 50
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"Odin to Timon, February 1, 1843, C. A. T. 49 Bayard, o'J. cit., 310. 50 0dln to Blanc, July
24, and December 16, 1843, C. A. T.
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