Charles Chiniquy - Illinois Schismatic: The First American Catholic Apostate

I lived in Kankakee County from 1975 until 1988. I was a teacher at Bishop McNamara High School in the City of Kankakee. The County is heavily populated with descendants of French Canadian Voyageurs of the late 18th Century and Immigrants from Canada lured to Illinois by a controversial and public relations savvy Catholic priest, Charles H. Chiniquy.

Bishop McNamara ( formerly St. Patrick's High School) was staffed by Clerics of St. Viator priests. This order was brought to Kankakee County expressly to combat the apostasy of Pastor Charles Chiniquy.

I worked with many talented scholars while at Bishop Mac, especially Father Jim Fanale,CSV. my Department Chair. Father Fanale and librarian Anne Chandler introduced me to Charles Chiniquy and his impact on the region. Father Fanale gave me a copy of a dissertation done by a gentleman named Barrett. This was a well-written and detailed study of Chiniquy. The dissertation was like a prose map of Kankakee.

To this day one can trace the exodus of Chinquyites from the Catholic Church out of Bourbonnais, St. Ann, Beaverville, Martinton, Papineau, E'lrable, and Kankakee township via the French names in the registers of the Presbyterian and Baptist Churches in Kankakee and Irqouis Counties.

In the late 1840's, Chicago Bishop James Oliver Van de Velde, SJ (1848–1853,a Belgian, sought to bring more Catholics into Illinois from Canada. The Bishop it seems wanted more literate, tractable, socially sophisticated and skilled French craftsmen and farmers to settle in Illinois and offset the tide of unskilled, illiterate, intractable and violent Irish canal workers.

Though Illinois was pioneered by French voyageurs in the 18th Century, Anglo-Protestant Americans shifted from the east during and immediately after the War of 1812. Protestant political power gripped the State of Illinois. The fledgling Catholic Diocese of Chicago was massive in terms of landscape but empty of people in the pews.

Canada's Bishop Bourget was appealed to by Van De Velde. As luck would have it Bishop Bourget had a popular, but troublesome priest in Charles Chiniquy.

Chiniquy was known throughout Canada as a brilliant preacher and wildly popular Temperance Advocate. Chinquy launched an anti-alcohol campaign that spread like wild-fire throughout Canada. The newspapers lauded this young fierce Temperance Apostle and helped Chiniquy's pamphleteering and public relations. However, the activist priest was accused by more than a few women in written complaints to Bishop Bourget of using the confessional to force sexual advances on them.

Chiniquy's talent for promoting emigration to Illinois and personal self-promotion made Illinois look mighty inviting. French Canadians knowing only of the Chiniquy the Temperance Priest followed him to Illinois.

Chiniquy was energetic and dynamic. He established churches in St. George, Bourbonnais, Beaverville and St. Ann and towns and villages sprung up around those churches. The farm land was rich and fruitful and the Illinois Central Railroad was linking Chicago to the Ohio River. The Railroad had a sharp lawyer - Abraham Lincoln.

Bishop Van De Velde and his Irish successor Bishop Anthony O'Regan (1854–1858) warred constantly with the fiery priest over property rights and over charges that Chiniquy was taking great liberties with women.

Chiniquy sued parishioners for slander and was himself sued by Peter Spink of Bourbonnais:

After the fall court term, Spink applied for a change of venue to the court in Urbana. Abraham Lincoln was then hired by Chiniquy to defend him. The spring court action in Urbana was the highest profile libel suit in Lincoln’s career. [2] The case was ended in the fall court session by agreement. [3]

Charles Chiniquy clashed with the Bishop of Chicago, Anthony O'Regan, over the bishop’s treatment of Catholics in Chicago, particularly French Canadians. He declared that O’Regan was secretly backing Spink's suit against him. Chiniquy stated that in 1856 O’Regan threatened him with excommunication if he didn’t go to a new location where the bishop wanted him. Several months later the New York Times published a pastoral letter from Bishop O’Regan in which O’Regan stated that he had suspended Charles Chiniquy and since the priest had continued in his normal duties as a priest, the bishop excommunicated him by his letter. Chiniquy vigorously disputed that he had been excommunicated, saying publicly that the Bishop was mistaken. Chiniquy left the Church in 1858. [4] He claimed that the Catholic Church is pagan, that Roman Catholics worship the Virgin Mary, that its theology spoils the Gospel and that its theology is anti-Christian. He also claimed that the Vatican had planned to take over the United States by importing Catholic immigrants from Ireland, Germany and France.

Chiniquy claimed that he was falsely accused by his superiors (and that Abraham Lincoln had come to his rescue), that the American Civil War was a plot against the United States of America by the Vatican, and that the Vatican was behind the Confederate cause, the death of President Lincoln and that Lincoln's assassins were faithful Roman Catholics ultimately serving Pope Pius IX.

Chiniquy played the Ethnicity Card against Bishop Regan charging that the Mick Bishop was maltreating French Catholics; it worked for a few of his followers. Chiniquy took his tiny flock out of the Roman Catholic Church after several failed attempts to wrest Church property. Chiniquy began his own Church and later merged with the Presbyterians. That was a bumpy ride as well.

Chiniquy returned to writing fiery tomes and pamphlets culminating in Fifty Years in the Church of Rome in 1885. This work was cited by Cardinal Newman as one of the wilder anti-Catholic polemics that were used by Know-Nothings in Illinois like Joseph Medill to drum up ant-Catholic hatred in the newspapers.

Here is an example of Chiniquy's self-promotionfrom Fifty Years in the Church of Rome:

The next morning I went to table with the Bishop Prince, the coadjutor, who had invited me to breakfast.

He said to me, "M. Chiniquy, you look like a man who has spent the night in tears. What is the matter with you?"

I said, "My lord, you are correct. I am desolate above measure."

"What is the matter?" he asked.

"Oh! I cannot tell you here," I said. "Will you please give me one hour in your room alone? I will tell you a mystery which will puzzle you."

After breakfast I went out with him and said:

"Yesterday you paid me a great compliment because of the sermon in which I proved that Jesus had always granted the petitions of His mother. But, my lord, last night I heard another voice, stronger than yours, and my trouble is that I believe that voice is the voice of God. That voice has told me that we Roman Catholic priests and bishops preach a falsehood every time we say to the people that Mary has always the power to receive from the hands of Jesus Christ the favours which she asks. This is a lie, my lord-this, I fear, is a diabolical and damning error."

The Bishop then said, "M. Chiniquy, what do you mean? Are you a Protestant?"

"No," I said, "I'm not a Protestant." (Many times I had been called a Protestant because I was so fond of the Bible.) "But I tell you, face to face, that I sincerely fear that yesterday I preached a lie, and that you, my lord, will preach one also the next time you say that we must invoke Mary, under the pretext that Jesus has never refused any favour to His mother. This is false."

The Bishop said, "M. Chiniquy, you go too far!"

"No, my lord," I said, "it is of no use to talk. Here is the Gospel; read it."

I put the Gospel into the hands of the Bishop, and he read with his own eyes what I have already quoted, My impression was that he read those words for the first time. The poor man was so much surprised that he remained mute and trembling. Finally he asked, "What does that mean?"

"Well," I said, "this is the Gospel; and here you see that Mary has come to ask from Jesus Christ a favour, and He has not only rebuked her, but has refused to consider her as His mother. He did this publicly, that we might know that Mary is the mother of Jesus as man, and not as God."

The Bishop was beside himself. He could not answer Me.

I then asked to be allowed to put him a few questions. I said, "My lord, who has saved you and saved me upon the Cross?"

He answered, "Jesus Christ."

"And who paid your debts and mine by shedding His blood; was it Mary or Jesus?"

He said, "Jesus Christ."

"Now, my lord, when Jesus and Mary were on earth, who loved the sinner more; was it Mary or Jesus?"

And again be answered that it was Jesus.

"Did any sinner come to Mary on earth to be saved?"

"No."

"Do you remember that any sinner has gone to Jesus to be saved?"

"Yes, many."

"Have they been rebuked?

"Never."

"Do you remember that Jesus ever said to sinners, 'Come to Mary and she will save you'?"

" No", he said.

"Do you remember that Jesus has said to poor sinners, 'Come unto me'?"

"Yes. He has said it."

"Has He ever retracted those words?"

"No!"

"And who was, then, the more powerful to save sinners?" I asked.

"Oh! it was Jesus!"

"Now, my lord, since Jesus and Mary are now in Heaven, can you show me in the Scriptures that Jesus has lost anything of His desire and power to save sinners, or that He has delegated this power to Mary?"

And the Bishop answered, "No."

"Then, my lord," I asked ' "why do we not go to Him, and Him alone? Why do we invite poor sinners to come to Mary, when, by your own confession she is nothing compared with Jesus, in power, in mercy, in love, and in compassion for the sinner?"

Then the poor Bishop was as a man who is condemned to death. He trembled before me, and as he could not answer me, be pleaded business and left me. His "business" was that he could not answer me.

Chiniquy became a stalker of his lawyer, Abe Lincoln. Though the Spink trial which was settled out of court gave Lincoln some notoriety, the Rail Splitter and Chinquy were anything but fast friends. Chiniquy after his break with Catholicism went uninvited to see President Lincoln during the Civil War. The meeting was more than brief, but Chiniquy used that entree to further promote himself and his war on Catholicism. Chiniquy claimed, twenty years after the assassination of Lincoln, to have warned the President of the Pope's plot to kill him -

"My dear President I answered, it is just that letter which brought me to your presence again. That letter is a poisoned arrow thrown by the Pope at you personally; it is your death warrant. Before the letter, every Catholic could see that their church as a whole was against this free Republic. However, a good number of liberty-loving Irish, German and French Catholics, following more the instincts of their noble nature than the degrading principles of their church, enrolled themselves under the banners of liberty, and have fought like heroes. To detach these men from the rank and file of the Northern armies, and force them to help the cause of the rebellion, became the main object of the Jesuits. Secret pressing letters were addressed from Rome to the bishops, ordering them to weaken your armies by detaching those men from you. The bishops refused; for they would be exposing themselves as traitors and be shot. But they advised the Pope to acknowledge, at once, the legitimacy of the Southern republic, and to take Jeff Davis under his supreme protection, by a letter, which would be read everywhere. That letter tell every Roman Catholic that you are a bloodthirsty tyrant fighting against a government which the infallible and holy Pope of Rome recognizes as legitimate. The Pope, by this letter, tells his blind slaves that you are outraging the God of heaven and earth, by continuing such a bloody. By this letter of the Pope to Jeff Davis you are not only an apostate, as you were thought before, whom every man had the right to kill, according to the canonical laws of Rome: but you are more vile, criminal and cruel that the horse thief, the public bandit, and the lawless brigand, robber and murderer. And my dear President, this is not a fancy imagination on my part, it is the unanimous explanation given me by a great number of the priests of Rome, with whom I have had occasion to speak on that subject. In the name of God, and in the name of our dear country, which is in so much need of your services, I plead that you pay more attention to protect your precious life, and not continue to expose it as you have done till now."

The man can prose.

Chiniquy wrote a pamphlet accusing the Pope, Jesuits and Bishops of America for the assassination of Lincoln.

Chiniquy claimed that he was falsely accused by his superiors (and that Abraham Lincoln had come to his rescue), that the American Civil War was a plot against the United States of America by the Vatican, and that the Vatican was behind the Confederate cause, the death of President Lincoln and that Lincoln's assassins were faithful Roman Catholics ultimately serving Pope Pius IX.

After leaving the Catholic Church, Chiniquy dedicated his life to trying to win his fellow French Canadians, as well as others, from Catholicism to the Protestant faith. He wrote a number of books and tracts pointing out the errors in the faith and practises of the Roman Catholic Church. His two most influential works are Fifty Years in The Church of Rome[5] and The Priest, The Woman and The Confessional.[6] These books raised concerns in the United States about the Catholic Church. According to one Canadian biographer, Charles Chiniquy is Canada’s best-selling author of all time. [7] These books were written at a time when Americans were suspicious of foreign influence, as typified by the Know-Nothing movement.

He died in Montreal on January 16, 1899.

Charles H. Chiniquy is the first example of American Apostasy. There have been others like the African-American Catholic Association Breakaway black Roman Catholic group who have rejected Catholic doctrine barring abortion, remarriage after divorce and ordination of women and married men. Here are other breakaway churches:

American Catholic Church in the United States

Ancient Apostolic Communion

Arian Catholic (The Holy Catholic and Apostolic Church)

Brazilian Catholic Apostolic Church

Catholic Apostolic National Church United States

Catholic Apostolic Church

Catholic Apostolic Church in North America (CACINA)

Celtic Catholic Church

Charismatic Episcopal Church

Chinese Patriotic Catholic Association (Patriotic Catholic Association) Parallel Catholic Church in China that appoints its own bishops and answers to the Chinese government, but adheres closely to the rites of a traditional Catholic Consecration, began after China broke ties with the Vatican when the Communists gained power in 1949.

Free Catholic Church

Liberal Catholic Church

Mariavite Church

Old Catholic Church

Palmarian Catholic Church

Latin Episcopal Church of Brazil

Philippine Independent Church

Polish National Catholic Church

True Catholic Church

http://www.reformation.org/lincoln.htmlhttp://books.google.com/books?id=RIcYDKw9W1oC&pg=PT289&sig=jpAHmcu3sd3_vOQc97vpm0SLPCA&hl=en#v=onepage&q&f=false
http://www.google.com/search?sourceid=navclient&ie=UTF-8&rlz=1T4GGIH_enUS268US331&q=Charles+Chinquiy#q=Charles+Chiniquy&hl=en&sa=X&pwst=1&rlz=1T4GGIH_enUS268US331&biw=975&bih=533&prmd=ivnsbo&tbs=tl:1&tbo=u&ei=Bli5TdnuHafk0QGF2bnhDw&oi=timeline_result&ct=title&resnum=18&ved=0CHEQ5wIwEQ&bav=on.2,or.r_gc.r_pw.&fp=710f75bbac2df164

Herscher, Illinois - Farmer Saved in Grain Elevator Nightmare

Farming is a dangerous livelihood. Several years ago my late wife's uncle was killed in a farming accident in Herscher, Illinois. In my many years in Kankakee County as a high school teacher, I learned to respect and admire the courage and conviction of America's farmers. Many of my colleagues, Jim Frogge, Jerry Krieg, Terry Granger and others were farm boys. I de-tasseled corn and walked beans with them. I have been inside grain elevators and respect the inherent danger of flash fire and worse - the shift of product.

Today, a farmer in Herscher, Illinois was rescued from a grain elevator accident.

May 24, 2010 (HERSCHER, Ill.) (WLS) -- A farmer who was rescued from a grain bin is going to be OK, according to Herscher fire officials.

The farmer became trapped in the bin and surrounded by grain while emptying it. Other farmers and emergency crews from the small town and other community agencies responded. They were able to pull the farmer from the bin.

Herscher officials said they have trained for the situation for many years and that training led to the man's rescue. The man remained awake and talking throughout the ordeal.

He is now being checked out at a local hospital, but is expected to be OK.

Neighboring farmers are helping clean up the grain.

(Copyright ©2010 WLS-TV/DT. All Rights Reserved.)

God Bless the Volunteers, and neighbors! God keep safe all who work the soil.

Sauger Fishing the Illinois River - Beer Drinking with Patriots

Waters of the Illinois River are colder than a mother in law's kiss and with this year's snap from God's Freon Lines (aka -Global Warming) YEOW! I read a scrotum shrivelling saga in this morning's Tribune. God be praised a gent knocked from his barge after a collision with a bridge was pulled from waters near Coal City* - a town I love so well. The Illinois River is formed by the mighty north flowing Kankakee and Des Plaines Rivers and pushes west through Morris and Ottawa where it picks up the Mazon and Fox Rivers and later the Vermillion and eventually spikes southwest to the Mississippi River. That's a hell of a lot of water to all you hydrology fans.

The waters are damn cold. Colder than the reception too many south side gents will receive, following the their decisions to cap off the office Christmas Party with a nightcap and a nightgown at Franklin Tap before boarding the Metra (Rock Islands). Frigid, Bridget!

The Illinois River is the Sauger Capital of the World. The Sauger is a Pericidae ( Perch family and great eating) and the smaller more athletic cousin of the Noble Walleye. There have been some instances where Sauger and Walleye mate and a spawn hybrid freak -Dysfunctional Walleye - the Saugeye appears. I believe that to be more agrarian legend, like the Yellowhammers of Custer Park - folks said to be so in-bred that they live along the banks of the Kankakee River along Route 113. Oh, they be there, Meryl.

Sauger fishing, in late November and early December, requires a genuine Illinois River Scout - a man steeped in River Traditions, Folkways and a River Piety toward the piscene quarry and also a man thoroughly marinated in Peach Schapps and Pabst Blue Ribbon - or, if unavailable, Blatz. I like Drewrys.

I had the honor of teaching with such an Illinois Voyageurcoureurs des bois - Jacques Martain**! Clam! Jack was known by that apellation following his capture of an Illinois Clam the size of a hubcap - Baby Moon Buick Sized.

Jack lived in Streator and drove to Kankakee Bishop McNamara High School ( distance of about sixty-five miles each way) and never was late nor missed a day of teaching History.

Voyageur Martain introduced me, Charlie Olson and Dead-eye Brett Fraser to the delights and dangers of Sauger fishing. The Key- don't get so brain-boiled on beer that you end up the main course for Mr. Gar under the river bed.

The absolute best time to take Sauger is in February prior to the spawning run near Starved Rock, IL. The next best is November and December when the shad take to depths of eight to twelve feet. To quote River Reporter Dan Vinovich:

" As late November and December arrive, water temperatures drop into the 50 degree range. This drop in water temperature seems to merge the smaller schools of fish into large wolf packs interested in one thing, eating! Fall, in my judgment, is one of the best times to catch full stringers of big fish. Locating these packs of hungry walleye and sauger is fairly simple. When you find the food, you find the fish. Shad is the main forage base in many of our midwest lakes and rivers. In the fall, millions of shad move onto shallow mud flats to feed on the remaining invertebrates in the water column. As the invertebrates in the water column start to deplete, the shad start sifting through the silt on these flats for the remaining food, much like the American Indians followed the buffalo across the plains. The walleye and sauger follow the shad, stopping to gorge themselves on the plentiful food supply before moving into deeper holes to hold up during winter. So for fantastic fall river fishing, look for shallow flats in the 10 to 12 foot depth range. "

This is all too true and Dan's simile is dead-on! Saugers form wolfpacks like the Nazi Subs off the Atlantic Coast in hunt of shad rather than Allied shipping.

In 1984, at about this time of year, Jacques "Clam" Martain lured Charlie, Brett and me out to Streator and off to the Illinois River in pursuit of of these Sauger wolfpacks. We took off from Triple K in Brett's tan Chevy van armed with Zebco's, Illinois Fish & Game Licenses, Peach Schapps and a case of Blatz cans ( 'Outta Pabst Boys! No More 'til Monday. Hickey - You gotta be Some Kind of Mutant - Drewrys!') from Box & Norm's Liquors on Station Street.

The Kankakee Trio ( Olson,Fraser & Hickey) picked up Clam in Streator at 5:30 A.M. and drove to Starved Rock - the site of the Illinwek Masada - the Illinwek tribe murdered a great number of Potowatommi and their Chief Pontiac in 1760': a bit of Advocacy History painted over by Ward Churchills. Genocide has nothing to do with honkies - this was Injun on Injun****. Starved Rock is an Illinois Treasure - get thee there!

We did and there was a beautiful blanket of snow - the temperatures were 25 Degrees. The swift waters of the Illinois River confluence and wet-confederation fired coal black swirls and ripples that caressed rock and bridge pilings, as we wadded, very carefully, in spots that Clam Martain had scouted and was sure that no shifts in the river bedding of limestone would snag his three colleagues.

Jacques (Jack) "Clam" Martain was a riverman - any and every River. Clam waded and so did we. With good rubber waders and thick thermals grabbing our butts, nuts and uppers. Clam was our coureur des bois! There are many of my generation and younger who learn to steep themselves in the better nature of man by respecting and tussleing with Nature. No WIs or Nintendos for such Patriots! Clam was no armchair historian either - he waded into history!

In the classroom he never once raised his voice which had a four generation Illini French tang of Gascony yet. Mr. Martain taught Illinois History and made it come to life -especially the French Heritage. Parts of Northern Illinois are remarkable for the Gallic magic that inflects the speech of people in Papinueau, rural Kankakee, Martinon, St. Anne, L'Rable, Hennepin, Minooka, Peru, and Ottawa. Clam liked nothing better than teaching history and then popping open beers while he fished and his three pals were devout communicants of this church as well.

Clam is convinced that somewhere in his French lineage is some Pontiac blood. He ordered each of us to sacrifice a lure of some value by tossing it into the Illinois river. "Before we take from the waters we must give to the waters!" Brett Fraser was passing some steaming used Blatz and Peach Schapps into the Illinois from the bank, but Clam said that was not a fitting gift.

Into the River we tossed, twister tails, hulu poppers and silly shads.

Charlie, Brett and I were told what crank baits to use and where to toss and how to play them -" Take 2 & 1/2" dull color shads -pop them out about fifteen past your target beyond the flow and play it fast -Sauger get pissed when shad dart by. Shad are bony cousins of the Atlantic or the river herring. Saugers love them.

My take for the day was four two and two and half pound Saugers. All were under the "14" limit and I had to let them go. As I mentioned, I like Drewrys and therefore was skunked. Blatz lovers Charlie, Brett, and Clam had stringers full of wiggling and pissed off Saugers. We cleaned, cooked and ate the fish and wrapped some for our wives when we made room in the coolers as good husbands by draining them of cans of Blatz.

I took a pass on the Peach Schnapps as did Charlie and we took turns driving back to Clam's house in Streator.

When we hit Route 113, we noticed a rainbow behind us in the side door rear view mirrors. Charlie Olson, 6'4" Black Haired Viking who taught Business and coached Tennis, took this as an omen. I concurred and we pulled into Custers Last Stand for Drafts, Darts and demitasse du jour
. We took much from the Illinois River. It was cold and warm at the same time.

The barge men pulled a fellow crewman from the icy Illinois River waters. I hope the rescued bargeman returns to that bridge and tosses in something of value. Jacques "Clam" Martain would demand no less .



*

December 12, 2009 6:07 AM | No Comments | BREAKING STORY
An unidentified man was rescued from the icy waters of the Illinois River near Coal City Friday night.

At about 9:30 p.m., a barge traveling on the Illinois River struck a Canadian National Railway bridge pier about a half mile from the Dresdon Lock and Dam. The collision caused a man working on the barge to fall overboard into the river, according to Coal City Fire Chief Harold Holsinger.

The barge crew lost contact with him in the darkness for approximately 45 minutes until he was found about a half mile downstream, Holsinger said. After about a 15 minute rescue operation he was pulled from the water by personnel from the Dresdon Lock and Dam.

The man was transported to Morris Hospital, his condition is unknown. Chief Holsinger indicated that the man was alert, conscious but very, very cold. The Coast Guard is investigating the incident.



John Loboda, WGN-TV

**

Voyageur strength hauled more than goods; it also allowed explorer Louis Joliet and missionary Father Jacques Marquette to search for a route to the Gulf of Mexico. These men became the first Europeans to see and map the Mississippi River along with many other natural landmarks. As they returned northward through the Illinois Territory, news reached them of a faster route back to the Great Lakes: the Illinois River. Joliet and Marquette would continue to the current site of Chicago, and Father Marquette would return to start the first Christian Mission in Illinois near Starved Rock. Today you can follow the strokes of Father Marquette when you paddle into the Illinois River at Starved Rock State Park.


The Illinois River retains the trade value and adventurous spirit from the Voyageur days. If you get the opportunity to travel this river or the byway that follows its shores, consider how the work and sweat of the Voyageurs helped shape Illinois history.

***
T

he Illinois Natural History Survey Mollusk Collection contains over 105,400 catalogued specimens, most of which were collected in Illinois and the southeastern United States. The collection is 90% freshwater species (mussels, fingernail clams, and snails) and 10% terrestrial species (snails). Most of the specimens were collected as a result of various faunal surveys conducted by INHS biologists from the late 1800's until the present. The early collections were made by such naturalists as John W. Powell, Robert Kennicott, Richard E. Call, William A. Nason, Frank C. Baker, Robert E. Richardson, and Charles A. Hart.

The snails are divided between terrestrial (13%) and freshwater (5%) species, most of which were collected more than 50 years ago. The largest and best documented collection of snails at the Survey was compiled by Thural D. Foster and organized by Frank C. Baker as part of his study on the "Landsnails of Illinois" published in 1939. The Baker snail collection numbers 1632 lots containing 11,970 specimens.

**** From a paper written by a high school teacher -

"In 1492, Columbus sailed the ocean blue" . . . and made the first contact with the "Indians." For Native Americans, the world after 1492 would never be the same. This date marked the beginning of the long road of persecution and genocide of Native Americans, our indigenous people. Genocide was an important cause of the decline for many tribes.

Nick Novich - Entertainment Empire -Educated Entrepreneur

Nick's on Halsted and Armitage was a breakthrough saloon in 1977. While Disco lounges proliferated in the suburbs and on the urban fringes, and faux cowboy barns lured in the Urbane Cowboys ( why is it that only lawyers seem to wear the goofball cowboy hats while wearing Hickey-Freeman suits and Johnson-Murphy tasseled loafers?), Nick Novich - English Teacher, Football Coach, Serbian-American Jazz Cat - established what would become the 'spot' for the hep and those who have the good sense to listen to the hep.

Nick was my mentor as a baby teacher at Bishop McNamara High School in Kankakee, Illinois. Nick established the football program that Rich Zinanni would drive to five State Football Championships, following Novich's foray into Liquid Refreshment and Alternative Conversation Entertainment.

Nick Novich is one of those people that God blesses all of us with by putting his/her talent, soul, intesity, courage, confiction,humor and loyalty into our paths at times in our lives. I have been blessed to meet many such talented people - Max Weissmann, Terry Sullivan, Mike Joyce, Boz O'Brien, Bernard Callahan, Carlos Nelson, Mike Holmes, Marquis Ball, Thomas Hayes, Lonny Newman, Tom Kotel, Billy Higgins, Marty Tully, Jack Higgins, Rose Keefe, Richard Lindberg, Steve Rhodes, Jim Frogge, Paul Tutt, Willie Winters, and Terry McEldowney to name just a few. Nick Novich could command this regiment of talented people - singers, writers, coaches, artists, boxers, pipe-fitters and saints.

The original Nick's Place had been a bust-out joint of the filthy Old Style sign variety, where gents in full need of an alcoholic topping off could be assured of Sunnybrook and ten ounce domestic beer. Physics teacher and football coach Jim Frogge and I took a trip up to the DePaul area one Saturday and helped Nick toss some of the old fittings and were rewarded with cold Ale at Glascott's Grogery.
It was here that Nick laid out his strategies for alternative entertainment - "Music - the jukebox can not be dominated by what WLS tells people to listen to - I am the Captain of my bar and we will listen to Dr. Horse, Etta James, Sun Ra, Stanley Turentine, Blossom Deary, Curtis Mayfield and the Impression, anything that Jerry Butler sings, piano concerti by Glenn Gould, . . ."

I asked, "Any Planxty, or the Dubliners?" Nick, looked at me with hopeful tolerance, " In time, my Son, you will grow into the man I hope you can become. Eat your vegetables and read your Yeats."

Nick's was not a 'Fern-Bar' it was a clean, well-lighted place where actors, artists, politicians like the great and visionary Danny O'Brien who would die in a Michigan accident, and school teachers with nickels and dimes could congregate, converse, consume Imported Beer on tap, as well as hand-crafted Wisconsin ambrosia's like Point and the absolutely heavenly Eau Clair All Malt - from the Chicago Keeley's Half & Half recipe.

Nick commanded a welcoming house of Hep. Bigots, loud-mouths, louts, skanks, pests and sharks were solidly shown the door.

Ten Years ago Nick moved to his current Milwaukee Ave. location and has opened a wonderful place in Uptown.

This past December, Nick hosted a gathering of writers Richard Lindberg, Rose Keefe and others for a talk about Chicago Crime figures and Nick was thick in the soupy mix of facts and legends concerning Big Mike McDonald, Bathhouse John Coughlin and the legendary Paddy Bauler. Nick knows the 42nd and 43rd Ward histories. Nick lives literature and history.

Last night, Nick and I caught up on the phone to discuss the sorry state of American Education, how bullies flourish in an institutional setting like Notre Dame, and the power of music to sensitize and spark the best in the human species. "Have your boy lie on his back with eyes closed and listen to Coltrain, or Miles Davis and he will emerge a different person."

Nick could lead people to a great watering hole but getting a horse of a former St. Rita football player who has subsisted on a diet of LaLaPalooza?'

Go to Nicks! Go to Flat-Iron! Go to Nick's in Uptown! Get better.
Entertainment.

Contact - Nick!
Nick's Beer Garden
1516 N. Milwaukee Ave.
Chicago, IL 60622 773-252-1155 http://www.nicksbeergarden

http://www.nicksbeergarden.com/