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Surnames: Geary, Vinton, Dwenger, Suit, Walters
Classification: Death
Message Board URL:
http://boards.ancestry.com/mbexec/msg/rw/Hi.2ADI/2080
Message Board Post:
Fort Wayne Daily Gazette, February 11, 1884, Fort Wayne, Indiana
JAMES GEARY, a railway employee at Lafayette, Indiana, killed himself with a revolver in
the presence of several friends who were helping him to hang pictures in his room.
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Fort Wayne Daily Gazette, February 16, 1884, Fort Wayne, Indiana
A change of venue has been asked in the case of GEARY at Lafayette, in the matter of
burial in consecrated ground of the corpse of young GEARY who shot himself there a few
days ago. JUDGE SUIT of Frankfort tries the case today. It appears from our Lafayette
exchanges that the better class of people in and out of the church, the newspapers and
public opinion generally, all agree with FATHER WALTERS who refused to issue the burial
permit.
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Fort Wayne Daily Gazette, February 24, 1884, Fort Wayne, Indiana
THE GRAVEYARD CASE
Another Change of Venue Granted in Lafayette Graveyard Contest Case - The Boy Buried in a
Protestant Cemetery.
In the Lafayette Superior Court week before last, the injunction case of BISHOP DWENGER,
of the Fort Wayne diocese of the Catholic church, to restrain JOHN GEARY, of that city,
from burying his son JAMES in consecrated ground of St. Mary's Catholic cemetery, near
this city, was transferred from JUDGE LARUE, on a change of venue to JUDGE SUIT of
Frankfort. The case first came up before JUDGE SUIT Saturday, the 16th, and a motion to
strike out the amended complaint, filed before the clerk of the court, was made and
overruled. Then the plaintiff filed an amendment to the complaint, to which complaint the
defendants demurred; and after argument on the demurrer, the court took it under
advisement, and Friday afternoon took up the case. He sustained the amended complaint,
filed on the 16th.
After the ruling, the defendants made a motion to dissolve the restraining order. Pending
a ruling on this motion, the plaintiffs asked leave to amend their complaint and were
granted until six o'clock last evening, to put in writing the proposed amendment. On
court reassembling in the evening, the affidavit of REV. E. P. WALTERS, pastor of the
Catholic church was filed for change of venue from JUDGE SUIT, which change was granted,
and Hon. DAVID P. VINTON, judge of the Tippecanoe circuit court, was called, and the same
set down for hearing on Monday morning next, at nine o'clock.
JOHN GEARY, who is now contesting in the courts the right to enter the body of his son
JAMES on consecrated ground in St. Mary's cemetery, has bought a lot in the Greenbush
Protestant cemetery, and will bury the decaying body of the dead boy therein.
Nevertheless, he will contest his right to the disputed lot in the St. Mary's burial
ground to the bitter end.
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Fort Wayne Daily Gazette, March 3, 1884, Fort Wayne, Indiana
THE GEARY CASE.
The Celebrated Religious Controversy at Lafayette Involving the Roman Catholic Bishop of
Fort Wayne.
The celebrated GEARY graveyard case of Lafayette, so often alluded to by the city papers,
has been decided against the prelate of Fort Wayne, as stated Saturday. JUDGE RABB'S
decision will be read with interest. It is as follows:
"No power was vested by the deed of trust in the trustee to appoint a successor in
office, and without this the trustee has no such power. I am therefore of the opinion
that all claims of the plaintiff, DWENGER, to the title of trustee, must fall to the
ground."
"Nor will his alleged authority as bishop of the diocese and custodian of the
property of the church therein make him the trustee of this property of rights he asks the
court to protect. This property and right does not belong to the church and never did.
In no sense is the church or any particular congregation thereof, a beneficiary under the
trust deed set up in the complaint. The conveyance is not to the church, nor in trust for
the church, but to the individual, JOHN H. LEURS and in trust for the church, but to the
individual Catholics of the city of Lafayette. It might be that the trustees named in the
deed would have the right to settle and determine who were Catholics of Lafayette within
the meaning of the deed. I do not decided that he would; but if he did, this would not
change the nature of his trust, nor confer upon him the power to appoint a successor.
There is no pretense in the complaint anywhere that either of these plaintiffs are
beneficiaries in this t!
rust deed. For ought that appears from the complaint, the city of Lafayette, having the
right of interment in the cemetery in question, is willing and consents to the interment
by the defendant of the body of his deceased son in the cemetery, and I can see no ground
upon which others who have no such right can complain. The facts set up in the complaint
do not operate as an estopple upon the defendant."
The Lafayette Courier says:
"BISHOP DWENGER, FATHERS WALTERS and GUENDLING, and FATHER DEMPSY, of Lebanon, were
present in the court room.
"BISHOP DWENGER was this morning appointed trustee of the St. Mary's Catholic
cemetery by JUDGE VINTON, of the circuit court, thus perfecting his title to the
trusteeship. It is probable that a new injunction will be filed by BISHOP DWENGER as
trustee, when the real merits of the case touching the title to the land will probably be
entered into. This decision of JUDGE RABB does not touch the merits of the case whatever.
The court merely denied the competency of the complainants to bring the suit, but now
that the incompetency has been removed by the legal perfection of the title, there can be
no doubt as to the ultimate result of the case. The courts have ruled but one way, and
that in favor of the church.
It is more than probable that GEARY will be excommunicated by the bishop, probably next
Sunday. The laws of the church are such that no other course is left for him. The right
reverend gentleman could not be reached this afternoon, hence we are unable to speak
authoritatively as to his future course. The rumor that GEARY intended to bury his son in
Greenbush next Sunday is believed to have been a ruse to throw the bishop and FATHER
WALTERS off their guard. This is but the beginning of the end."
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Fort Wayne Daily Gazette, March 4, 1884, Fort Wayne, Indiana
BISHOP DWENGER has excommunicated JOHN GEARY and family, of Lafayette. The bull of
excommunication was read from the pulpit of St. Mary's Catholic church by FATHER
WALTERS, on Sunday morning. No members of the family can be received back into the church
without first acknowledging their wrong and asking the forgiveness of the church.
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Fort Wayne Daily Gazette, March 5, 1884, Fort Wayne, Indiana
THE DWENGER-GEARY CASE
The "Man About Town" of the Lafayette Sunday Times, has this to say of the
Bishop Dwenger-Geary cemetery case:
"It is understood that BISHOP DWENGER and FATHER WALTERS propose following the body
and with pick and shovel disinter it - remove it from the sacred precincts. Why? Not
because GEARY was dissolute, but because he had failed during a certain period to attend
church. It is not claimed that GEARY was not a Catholic, nor that he did not believe in
every essential of the church, but only that he was - like the great body of Catholics
throughout the world - lax in the performance of certain non-essential church forms. And
this fact should be kept in mind. The murderer with the priest by his side as he swings
from the gallows receives Catholic burial, but young GEARY, who never injured the hair of
moral head - excepting possibly his own - is to be buried like an outcast. I tell you,
BISHOP DWENGER and FATHER WALTERS, that this doctrine will not do. You now propose to
remove the body of young GEARY for the non-performance of 'duties.' Suppose you
apply the rule to all bodies!
interred in your cemetery? How many will you have left? Don't you know that a large
number of the bodies there interred equally failed in the performance of their
'duties?' And do you propose making flesh of one and fowl of another?"
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A biography and portrait of Bishop Dwenger:
http://www.ipfw.edu/ipfwhist/cathchur/dwenger.htm