16
HISTORY OF THE CATHOLIC CHURCH
dangerous. Father Schneider was the great peacemaker and was
summoned
wherever trouble was brewing between the factions. Both factions
respected and obeyed him implicitly.
When Father Simon Sanderl came to Waterloo
County in March, 1844, Father
Schneider left the county in charge of the new arrival and confined his
ministrations to the west from Stratford to Goderich, where he made his
home And remained till 1869.
He came back to Waterloo after Father Sanderl took Guelph,
from March 29, 1847 to June 15, 1847, and also served New Germany and
Guelph and other places at the same time. Both he and Father
Sanderl went to Toronto this year during the prevalence of the ship
fever there. Father Sanderl seems to have stayed there longer and
Father Schneider attended Guelph during the absence of Father Sanderl.
St. Paul's Register, Toronto, contains quite a number
of baptisms and burials by Father Schneider at this time of typhoid
fever. On Father Schneider's return to Goderich he explains his
long absence from there by saying that he had to go to Waterloo County
and to Toronto, where the Bishop and his few priests were unable to
meet the emergency alone. Bishop Power was himself as zealous as
any of his priests in visiting the sick, and fell a victim to the
prevailing epidemic Oct. 1, 1847. Having resigned his charge of
Goderich and the neighboring Missions in 1869, Father Schneider
returned to Europe, travelled extensively, studying Hebrew, and then
retired to some institution at Vernaison, near Lyons, France, where he
died July 30, 1880.
Bishop De Charbonnel in his private notes
about his priests, says of Father Schneider: "This man has kept
the torch of faith burning alone for many vears throughout the Huron
Tract and far beyond." He certainly deserved this praise, and more.
If anyone, he should have a more extended sketch of his iife by
someone interested in this kind of work. The Rev. Dr.
Kilroy, former pastor of Stratford, is said to have published a sketch
of Father Schneider. Thus far the writer has not been able to
discover it, although he made a diligent search for it in many places.
Next Page
Page
Index Picture
Index List of
Places