John Hogan, priest and bishop, and Father James Fox remained
lifelong friends. Father Fox continued
his support of Hogan’s Ozarks settlement, sending cash and donating property. Hogan kept close accounting of the costs of building the wilderness settlement in a small pocket notebook, which rests now in the archives of the Archdiocese of St. Louis.
Hogan noted contributions for the construction of a log church in his Ozarks settlement. Father Fox was most generous ($17.00)- especially when you consider that the actual cash cost for the log church in the wilderness came to $85.31 for material and labor.
In addition to his cash contribution, Fox donated land for the church site.
“Fox was issued a land patent on September 1, 1859 for 320 acres in Oregon County. The Irish pastor of Old Mines and Potosi donated it for the colony’s use. On this site, a forty-foot square log chapel and priest’s quarters were built by Father Hogan. On May 17, 1879, the property was sold for back taxes. For a long time, the outline of the church’s stone foundation was a visitable feature in “the priest’s field.” Through the years, the rocks have been appropriated for other building uses or removed to facilitate plowing. It is today a fescue pasture."
Mystery of the Irish Wilderness is now $16.95 (regularly $18.95), postpaid.
On the Mission in Missouri and Fifty Years Ago: A Memoir ,which contains full text of both of Hogan's personal memoirs as well as additional biographical information, is now $18.95 (regularly $24.95), postpaid.
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