Shawe Memorial High School - History of The Church in Madison

History of The Church in Madison

Long before that, Catholics in Madison had gone through several changes and setbacks, all beginning in the very early years of the 19th century.

The town of Madison, Indiana was first settled by traveling hunters in the early 19th Century. In 1809, the town was officially mapped out by Col. John Paul. It wasn’t until 1815 that residents of the town witnessed a Catholic Mass. Catholicism was not highly respected among the other religions in the city during this time and much of the 19th Century. Many Catholics in the town were driven away from their faith due to the animosity towards the Church in the town, and much of America, during that time in the nation’s history (Walsh).

Bishop Simon Gabriel Bruté de Remur of the Vincennes, Indiana Diocese was determined to bring the faith to Madison permanently and serve to the ‘hidden’ Catholics of the town. Bruté sent missionary priests through town occasionally, but eventually called upon an Englishman by the name of Michael Edgar Shawe to serve to these Catholics as their first resident priest.

As a British officer, Shawe had fought Napoleon Bonaparte’s men at the Battle of Waterloo in Belgium where he was wounded, then immigrated to the United States and was ordained the first Catholic priest in Indiana. Fr. Shawe would soon begin a community of faith that would grow and prosper throughout the next two-hundred years (Walsh).

Bishop Bruté wrote to Fr. Shawe at the beginning of Shawe’s time in Madison, telling him to “try with your usual, gentle and effective manner to make the best impression and beginning that you can in Madison” (Walsh).

Fr. Shawe practiced the Catholic faith to the few Catholics in the town’s old Masonic Hall and later at the Madison Hotel (now the site of the Jay C Store parking lot). Masons were typically anti-Catholic in those days; however the wife of one of the town’s more prominent Masons, Mr. Caleb Schmidlapp, was accredited with the arrangement of the Masonic Hall location for mass. Mrs. Schmidlapp, a Catholic, moved to Madison from Cincinnati and attended Mass regularly while Fr. Shawe was in Madison (Walsh).

With the building of the Madison-Indianapolis Railroad (one of Indiana’s greatest public works projects in the 19th century), came a vast amount of Irish immigrants to build it. Some of these Irish-Catholics included such prominent figures as William Griffin, a railroad contractor; and Francis Costigan, the highly renowned Baltimore architect whose buildings include the famous J.F.D. Lanier Mansion. An Irish-Catholic immigrant also in Madison at the time was Henry Dreier, another railroad contractor who later built the Broadway Hotel and Tavern (currently Indiana’s oldest remaining Hotel and Tavern) (Walsh).

Bruté was very interested in the development of the Catholic Church in the town. In the spring of 1838, the Bishop called upon one of Fr. Shawe’s assistant pastors to travel throughout the country and even parts of Canada to solicit funds for the building of Madison’s first Catholic Church, St. Michael the Archangel. Fortunately, a vacant lot for the church was donated by one of Madison’s Presbyterians, a Mr. McIntyre (Craig).

With the building of the church taking place, Bruté visited Madison a few short weeks before his death. In May 1839, the Bishop came through Madison. While Bruté was in Madison, he administered three distant sick calls to dying Catholics (he was a doctor as well). It is said that he administered these to people who “were not as near death as himself” (Walsh).

The Irish-Catholics in Madison continued their work on the railroad, especially the Madison incline on the west side of town. It is said that the cuts from the incline were used to build the walls of St. Michael’s. The Madison Incline was cut to bring the railroad, and all its passengers and products to downtown Madison’s commercial district. Reuben Wells, the famed train engineer designed a locomotive specifically for the M-I Railroad to make the trip up this incline, the steepest in the United States. The locomotive, named for Wells, used 12 tons of power to push, rather than pull, cargo up the hill. The locomotive is currently on display at the Indianapolis Children’s Museum. Another interesting feature of the church is its ceiling, which is designed to resemble an open Bible (Walsh, Children’s Museum).

Costigan, the afore-mentioned renowned architect and Catholic, is believed to have been the architect of the church. Costigan was only recorded as being a member of the parish during the construction, but details of the church building mirror his other buildings in Madison (Walsh).

In December 1839 St. Michael the Archangel Catholic Church was completed and due for its dedication, just in time for Christmas services.