Springfield-Greene
County LibraryVERY REV. FATHER MAURUS ECKSTEIN, who has recently established a valuable educational institution in Springfield, St. Joseph's College, deserves move than a passing notice in our work. He is a product of German soil, born in Landenbach, Baden, March 5, 1852, and received a college education at Mainz, Germany, and Engelberg, Switzerland. When twenty years of age he crossed the ocean to America and continued his studies at Conception, Mo., at the New Engelberg Abbey, where he studied philosophy and theology. In 1880 be was ordained priest by Bishop J. J. Hogan, of Kansas City, and shortly afterward he was appointed professor of mathematics in the New Engelberg College, and in 1881 superior or prior. He was also engaged in missionary work throughout northwest Missouri. In the year 1892, after the death of Father L. Porta, Father Maurus was temporarily appointed to take charge of the church of the Immaculate Conception of Springfield. While engaged in these labors Mr. Charles Heer, a prominent merchant of Springfield, proposed to give $10,000 in property at the corner of Jefferson, and Chestnut Streets, to found a college for young men, and Father Maurus was appointed superior. Five thousand dollars in addition was donated for the improvement of the buildings and the college was open for instruction October, 1892. The first class numbered twenty-five students. The curriculum will embrace the regular collegiate studies as well as a commercial course, and the institution is meeting with satisfactory success. Besides these duties Father Maurus is -pastor of St. Joseph's congregation. He is yet a young man, highly educated, with unassuming and kindly manners, is devoted to the noble work in which he is engaged and in the cause of improvement among the people of his charge. He is interested in establishing an educational institution in Springfield that will rank with the best. He is a clear thinker, a logical reasoner, an expressive talker and a man respected by all classes in general. Father Maurus has for an assistant in the college Prof. Basil Odermatt, of Conception, Mo.
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