John Joseph Hogan
Bishop John Joseph Hogan was an Irish-born prelate of the Roman Catholic Church. He served as the first bishop of the Diocese of Saint Joseph in Missouri and the first bishop of the Roman Catholic [Diocese of Kansas City–Saint Joseph|Diocese of Kansas City] in Missouri.
Biography
Hogan was born on May 10, 1829, in Bruff, County Limerick, Ireland, and immigrated to the United States in 1847. He settled in St. Louis, Missouri, where he attended seminary. Hogan was ordained a priest by Archbishop Peter Richard Kenrick for the Archdiocese of Saint Louis on April 10, 1852 in St. Louis.Priesthood
After his ordination, the archdiocese assigned Hogan serve as a missionary to enslaved people in Potosi and Old Mines, Missouri in 1852 and 1853. He was then appointed pastor at Saint John Apostle and Evangelist Parish, then founded Saint Michael's Parish, both in St. Louis. In 1857, Hogan started a series of missions outside St. Louis, ministering mainly to transient Irish railroad workers and Catholic settlers. He ministered primarily in Chillicothe, Macon City, Brookfield, Mexico, and Cameron, Missouri.In 1859, Hogan founded a settlement of Irish immigrants in southern Missouri, but it was wiped out during the American Civil War; this area is now called the Irish Wilderness. The northern Missouri missions suffered greatly during the war due to attacks of bushwackers. The public school system collapsed during the war, and Hogan set up a school for two years.
After the war, Hogan was arrested for failing to take the Ironclad oath, a requirement of the Missouri Constitution of 1865; this provision was later declared unconstitutional by the Supreme Court of the United States.