Biographical Sketch of J. A. Connolly, Jefferson County, Missouri

>From "History of Franklin, Jefferson, Washington, Crawford and 
Gasconade Counties", Biographical Appendix, Goodspeed Publishing 
Company, 1888.

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Rev. J. A. Connolly, pastor of St. Rose of Lima Catholic Church, was
born July 13, 1855 in County Mayo, Ireland.  His father, Joseph Conn-
olly, immigrated to the United States in 1857, and settled in Potosi,
Washington Co., Mo., where he still resides.  Father Connolly was 
reared in Potosi, receiving there, in the public and private schools,
his early education.  His classical and theological education was
received at St. Vincent's College, Cape Girardeau, Mo., where he com-
pleted his studies in 1876.  Being under the canonical age, twenty-
three years, required for ordination to the priesthood, in the fall 
of 1876 he entered St. Francis Seminary, near Milwaukee, Wis., for 
the purpose of learning the German language.  On June 18, 1878 he was
ordained priest in St. John's Church, St. Louis, Mo., by Bishop P. J.
Ryan, now Archbishop of Philadelphia, Penn.  Immediately after ordi-
nation he was appointed temporary pastor of St. Columbkill's Church,
South St. Louis, where he remained five months; he was then appointed
to New Madrid, Mo., where he was pastor three years and four months.
Whilst there he attended missions over an extent of country 140 miles,
among them Charleston and Texas Bend, Mississippi Co., Mo., Gayoso,
Caruthersville and Couter, in the swamps of Pemiscot County, Mo.; and
by request of the Bishop of Little Rock, Ark., he also attended Osce-
ola, Mississippi Co., Ark.  Sometimes in order to meet his engagements
at the different missions in Pemiscot County, he would have to ride
nearly all day in a "dug-out," experiencing a few of the difficulties
the early missionaries had daily to contend with.  In May, 1882,
Father Connolly was transferred to the Church of the Immaculate Con-
ception, B. V. M., St. Louis, where he remained more than one year as
assistant pastor, and was thence transferred to the same position at 
St. Bridget's Church, St. Louis, where he was three and one-half years.
In November, 1886 he was appointed by Archbishop Kenrick, of St. Louis,
to his present pastorate, in De Soto, where his labors have been succ-
essful in reducing the church debt and ministering to the increasing
Catholic congregation.

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