Rev Carl James Merkle
History of
Kentucky, five volumes, edited by Judge Charles Kerr,
American Historical Society, New York & Chicago, 1922, Vol. V, p. 252
Campbell Co.
Rev Carl James Merkle, pastor of St. Francis de Sales
Catholic Church at Newport, has given all his time and service to the Catholic
Church, especially in Kentucky, since his ordination as a priest.
He was born at Dayton, Ohio, June 16, 1891, and
acquired his elementary education in the Emmanuel parochial school. He
spent six years in his classical studies of Assumption College, Sandwich,
Ontario, and five years as a student of philosophy and theology in St. Mary
Seminary , at Baltimore, Maryland. He was ordained in the Catholic
University at Washington, D.C., by the Apostolic Delegate, Archbishop Bonzano,
June 23, 1915.
Father Merkle was for five months assistant pastor of
the Sacred Heart Church at Bellevue, Kentucky; for two and a half year assistant
pastor of the Immaculate Conception Church in Newport; than for two and a half
years pastor of St. John Church at Carlisle; and and in November of 1920,
returned to the scene of his earlier labors at Newport, as
pastor of St. Francis de Sales Church.
This parish was established in 1911 by Rev. Stephan
Schmid; the new brick church and school was dedicated in October of the
following year with Rev. Ed. G. Klosterman as pastor. He erected the
handsome brick rector in 1916, at 10 Chesapeake Avenue, in Ingalls Park, and
later purchased a residence for the teachers. In 1921 a necessary addition
was made to the school and to the Sisters' house.
Father Merkle is the third son and fourth child of Michael Merkle, who was born in Bavaria, Germany in 1851, of Nicholas Dauben-Merkle and Magdalene Zeitler. In 1863 he accompanied his widowed mother to America, locating at Erie, Pennsylvania, where he learned the shoemaker's trade.
As a young man he
went to Dayton, Ohio, and was a retail shoe merchant there until 1901, after
which he developed an industry for the manufacture of overalls, barbers' and
waiters' coats and similar garments, continuing active in business almost until
his
death in 1909. He was a very sincere Catholic and loyal citizen. His
first wife, whom he married at Dayton, was Caroline Worman, a native of that
city. She died with her third child, leaving two others: George, a
traveling salesman, who died at Charleston, West Virginia, at the age of
twenty-five; and Leona (Sister Providentia), a member of the congregation of the
Sisters of Divine Providence, now Directress of Mount Saint Martin Young Women's
Institute at Newport, Kentucky.
The second wife of Michael Merkle was Catherine B.
Loges, who was born of Joseph Loges and Philomena Hortsman at Dayton in 1862,
and is still living in that city. She is the mother of nine children:
Robert a plumber at Dayton; Rev Carl James; Olivia, now Mrs. Wagner; Raymond and
Victor, draftsmen; Irene and Florence, stenographers - all living in
Dayton; Joseph and a younger brother died in infancy.