Hancock County IL Archives Biographies.....Schurz, Father John Christian January 6, 1843 - 
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Sandy Morrey sandymorrey@yahoo.com November 9, 2009, 7:50 pm

Source: Hancock, McDonough and Henderson Counties, Illinois
Author: Unknown

FATHER JOHN CHRISTIAN SCHURZ, 
who has charge of the Catholic Church of 
Warsaw, was born in the city of Bonn, 
Rhenish Prussia, January 6, 1843, and is a son of 
Henry and Anna M. (Sneider) Schurz, the former 
of whom was a store-keeper. Our subject was their 
sixth and youngest child. His education was ac- 
quired in his native city, and he was graduated 
from the famous Bonn University in 1866. With 
a couple of fellow-students he then went to Eng- 
land, but the father of one of his friends, a Cap- 
tain in the army, was ordered to the East Indies, 
while the son died of consumption. Mr. Schurz 
was left a stranger in a country whose language 
he could hardly speak. He did not wish to re- 
turn to Germany, for he would then have to serve 
in the army. Having to provide for his own 
maintenance, he began working in a Spanish 
bakery in Liverpool, where he remained for three 
years, when he secured a very good position as 
Professor in a grammar school in that city. There 
he engaged in teaching Latin, Greek, German 
and geometry, and was thus employed until the 
spring of 1865. In that year he was joined by 
his eldest brother, and with him came to America. 
The brother pleaded, "Let us go to the United 
States, for our cousin, Carl Schurz, and his parents 
are there and the advantages there are better than 
here." So Father Schurz severed his connection 
with the school, and in May, 1865, they landed in 
New York, from whence they went to Watertown, 
Wis., the home of Carl Schurz. There they found 
Jacob Jussen, a brother of Carl Schurz' mother, 
who had formerly been Mayor of a German city, 
and was then serving as Postmaster of Watertown. 
A vacancy in the postoffice was offered John, 
which he filled for two and a-half years, when a 
change in administration caused him to lose his 
position. 

The successor to Jacob Jussen offered to con- 
tinue him in the postoffice at an increase of wages, 
making his income $60 per month, but the posi- 
tion he declined. He then went to Milwaukee, 
and on to Chicago, St. Louis, New Orleans, Kan- 
sas City,' and to the State of Kansas, where he 
bought one hundred and sixty acres of land. He 
knew nothing about farming, but he built a house, 
had his land broken, and there began studying 
with a view to entering the priesthood. He 
prosecuted his studies under the tutelage of 
priests in Topeka, and after a year and a-half be- 
came a student in St. Francis Theological Semi- 
nary, of Milwaukee, Wis. 

Father Schurz was ordained February 18, 1874, 
as a priest for the diocese of Leavenworth, Kan., 
and was stationed at Emporia, as assistant to Rev. 
Joseph Perry. After six months he was made 
first resident priest at Wichita, and was in that city 
during its great boom. He there remained for four 
and a-half years, during which time the nearest 
priest to him was ninety miles away. A large scope 
of territory was under his supervision, including 
thirty-two stations. In 1878 he was given an as- 
sistant. About this time, Father Schurz was 
thrown from a buggy and dislocated his shoulder, 
besides sustaining internal injuries. While in poor 
health he took a trip to Europe, where he had two 
conferences with Pope Pius IX., and brought 
home with him as a relic an autograph and por- 
trait of the Pope. After four months he returned 
to this country. At Wichita he had many pleas- 
ant experiences. He found only twenty families 
there at first, but through his untiring labors he 
built seven churches in a missionary district, two 
presbyteries, two schoolhouses, laid out cemeteries 
for each church, and organized three colonies, two 
German and one Irish, called respectively St. 
Mark's, St. Joseph's and St. John's. 

In 1879, Father Schurz removed to St. Mark's, 
where he remained until 1882. For two years he 
had sought to sever his connection with the Leav- 
enworth Diocese and join the Diocese of Peoria, 
Ill., which he succeeded in doing in the spring of 
1882. He was assigned by Bishop Spaulding to 
Danville, Vermilion County. In 1885, he again 
went to Europe to settle up the estate of his father, 
who died in 1884. In October, 1886, he was sent 
to Ottawa, Ill., but the following June resigned 
at that place and was appointed to take charge of 
the church at Warsaw, where he has remained 
since March, 1887. He also has charge of a mis- 
sion at Hamilton, with fifteen families. He placed 
the church in working order and it is now in a 
thriving condition. Father Schurz is a great lover 
of flowers, and has many rare specimens in his 
collection. He is a social, genial gentleman and 
has the high regard of all with whom he has been 
brought in contact. 

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