John George Alleman

John George Alleman (December 3, 1804 – July 14, 1865) was a missionary Catholic priest who served in the states of Ohio, Iowa and Illinois. He served as a priest in the Dominican Order from 1834 to 1840, after which time he was expelled from the order. He then served as a secular priest in the Diocese of Dubuque from 1840 to 1851, and in the Diocese of Chicago from 1851 to 1863. During his hospitalization in St. Louis, Missouri, (1863–1865) he was accepted back into the Dominican Order.

Biography

Early life and ministry Details of Alleman's early life are sketchy. It is known that he was born at Attenschwiller, Alsace, France, on December 3, 1804. He immigrated with his family to Ohio as a child. In his formative years he became fluent in his native German, French, and then English. Little is known of his early education, but in 1832 he was studying for the priesthood at St. Rose Priory in Kentucky. He was ordained to the priesthood by Bishop John Baptist Purcell of Cincinnati on June 11, 1834.

Alleman is described as a large man who possessed great physical strength and a gregarious personality.

The second St. Joseph's Church in Fort Madison, Iowa, constructed under the leadership of Father Alleman in 1847. In 1840 Alleman established St. Joseph Church with the assistance of the few Catholic residents of the city. He resided in the basement of the small church building. He took his meals in homes of parishioners or at a local boarding house. He started a school in the church building, where he would teach the children whenever he was in town. By 1847 the small church was replaced by a larger structure. He also planned to build a rectory and a school building, but they were never built in his time there. Alleman continued to live in the basement of the new church. It was not all work for the priest; he also enjoyed gardening. He raised flowers, fruits and vegetables in his garden. He was credited with breeding the "Alleman Rose". A Mormon building was used for Mass, and rock was quarried from the Mormon quarries for the second St. Joseph Church.

In May 1851 Alleman arrived in Rock Island, a town in western Illinois on the Mississippi River. There he established its first Catholic Church, St. James (now St. Mary's Church). He would visit the Rock Island Arsenal once or twice a week and he would send food to the sick soldiers he had made friends with on the island. The cornerstone for the new church was laid in August 1851 and it took two years to build the church. He also built a school and rectory there. Records show that in 1851 there were 18 baptisms and four marriages at St. James. By 1856 the numbers swelled to 169 baptisms and 54 marriages. That year he received the Rev. John Donelson as his assistant. In 1857 the first Catholic Church in Moline, named St. Anthony's, was established. He also organized churches in East Moline, Hampton, Coal Valley, Rapid City, and Edgington, and was responsible for the church in Nauvoo and its mission in Warsaw. He spent most of his first year assigned to Rock Island in Nauvoo, where he appears to have spent the winter of 1852. He traveled regularly to Fort Madison.

Later life and death The heavy work load and constant traveling eventually took its toll on Alleman's health. Toward the end of his time in Rock Island he was described as "a very peculiar man" who "lived a very secluded life and lived much to himself," which was not in character with the gregarious man of his younger days. He was assigned to the pastorate in Collinsville in 1862, in the Diocese of Alton. Here he would be close to better healthcare facilities in St. Louis.

Both his physical and mental condition grew worse and in 1863 he was admitted to St. Vincent's Sanatorium in St. Louis. He was diagnosed as having melancholia, now referred to as depression. Toward the end of his life he was received back into the Dominican Order. When he heard the news, he responded, "The special vocation of the Dominicans is teaching and defending the truths of the faith. They preach devotion to the Rosary. I have lived up to these ideals all my life. I was always a Dominican at heart."

Alleman died from apoplexy in the sanatorium on July 14, 1865, at the age of 60. He was buried in an unmarked grave in Calvary Cemetery in St. Louis.

Legacy Many Catholic parishes in the region credit their existence to the missionary labors of the priest. Those parishes formed the nucleus that would become in time the Diocese of Peoria in 1875 and the Diocese of Davenport in 1881. When Catholics in Rock Island County established a new central high school in 1949 they named it Alleman, in his memory.