Will County IL Archives Biographies.....McGovern, Rev James J, D D 
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Deb Haines ddhaines@gmail.com October 3, 2007, 1:53 am

Author: Genealogical and Biographical Record of Will County

REV. JAMES J. McGOVERN, D. D., pastor of St. Dennis Roman Catholic Church at 
Lockport, was born March 25, 1839, in Chicago in a log house standing near 
where the court house now stands. His father, a native of Ireland, was a large 
contractor on the canal and had the contract for the Chicago water works. He 
was at the head of a large immigration company organized for the purpose of 
bringing Irish peopie to this country and giving them a good start. For about 
thirty-five years he was the principal confidante and helper of the bishops in 
Chicago, and he always held a very prominent place among Roman Catholics 
there. He died in that city when eighty-two years of age, having made his home 
there from 1836 until his death. His wife was also a native of Ireland and 
died in 1899, when eighty-four years old. They were the parents of eight 
daughters and four sons, who, under their teaching, were reared for positions 
of usefulness and honor and were early devoted to the service of the church.

The subject of this sketch was one of the first pupils in the public schools 
of Chicago. In September, 1844, he entered the old Mortimer school, opposite 
McVicker's theatre on Madison street, and occupying the first school building 
put up in the city. In 1849 a Catholic school was established in the city, 
which he attended. For two years he was also a student at St. Mary's of the 
Lake. In August, 1853, he was sent to the Propaganda College, Rome, to spend 
ten years in preparation for holy orders. He was ordained June 14, 1862, and 
afterward remained in Rome a short time as priest and acting private secretary 
to Cardinal Barnabo, Prefect of the Propaganda. On returning to the United 
States in 1863 he was made vice-president of St. Mary's of the Lake and rector 
of the collegiate seminary, which position he held for five years. He then 
bought and improved church property in the parishes of Fulton, Rockland, 
Bloomington and Lake Forest, Ill. In 1880 he came to Lockport, where he 
completed the large church building, established the schools and built the 
parsonage. This parish was founded in 1849 by Father Dennis Ryan, who  served 
it until his death, October 21, 1853. In  1877 the present large church 
building was started, which was completed by Father McGovern, its total cost 
being about $40,000. It has a membership of about one hundred and twenty-five 
families.

In addition to his pastoral work, Father McGovern has also done considerable 
literary work. For several years he was co-editor of a Roman Catholic paper, 
the Catholic Home, and for a year was its editor-in-chief. In 1865 he 
published The Monthly, a Catholic periodical, the first in the west. He 
published, as the author, the "Life of Bishop John McMullen," of Davenport, 
Iowa, and a work entitled "The Souvenir of Archbishop P. A. Feehan's Silver 
Jubilee," in which he gave the only  church history of the Catholic Church in 
Chicago and the state of Illinois. Up to the time of its publication he was a 
co-author of the "Royal Scroll," an illustrated history of the Bible, with a 
biblical catechism, and a most extensive history of the Catholic Church in the 
state of Illinois published in the new world A. D. 1900. In recognition of his 
successful course of his theological studies, the degree of D. D. was 
conferred upon him before he returned to this country.

Additional Comments:
Genealogical and Biographical Record of Will County Illinois Containing 
Biographies of Well Known Citizens of the Past and Present, Biographical 
Publishing Company, Chicago, 1900


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