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Belgians in the Civil War

Emigrants arrival

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BELGIANS IN AMERICA:    Biographies of Belgian settlers  

In the summer of 1861 the Rev. John De Rose, ordained priest at Cleveland, Ohio, arrived in Portland and was attached to the cathedral chapel, and received the appointment of chancellor of the diocese. In 1872 he returned from a visit to his aged mother in his native Belgium, and in the month of March, 1873, like the true shepherd that lays down his life for the flock, in the act of administering the last sacraments of the church to one dying with the smallpox, this humble and self-sacrificing priest contracted the loathsome disease, of which be died in a few days, lamented by bishop, priests, and people; and sadly, in the dead hour of night, his corpse was hurried through the deserted streets of the city, followed by a few of his associates in the sacred ministry, to Calvary Cemetery, and there above the grave, in the light of the moon, they intoned the office for the dead. Soon after the death of this good priest the Catholics erected in memoriam a figure of Faith, cue out of pure white marble, standing on a pedestal of like material artistically designed and of superior workmanship, supported upon an hexagonall granite base, the whole rising twelve feet high, placed in the western aisle of the cathedral.

Source : Clayton, W. W. : History of Cumberland Co., Maine : with illustrations and biographical sketches of its prominent men and pioneers.; Philadelphia: Everts & Peck, 1880, 595 pgs.