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Belgians in the Civil War

Emigrants arrival

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BELGIANS IN AMERICA:    Biographies of Belgian settlers  

GLORIEUX, Alphonse Joseph, R.C. bishop, was born in Dottignies, West Flanders. Belgium, Feb. 1, 1844. He was graduated in classics at the College of Courtrai in 1863, and in theology at the American college of Louvain in 1867. He was ordained a priest at Mechlin, Belgium, Aug. 17, 1867. He emigrated to the United States in December, 1867, and became missionary priest at Roseburg, Ore., from which place he established and conducted missions in thirteen stations in Douglas county. He was transferred to the church of St. John the Apostle, Oregon City, and thence to St. Paul's church, St. Paul, Marion county, the cradle of the church in the archdiocese. His duties here extended to the spiritual oversight of St. Paul's academy, conducted by the sisters of the Most Holy Names of Jesus and Mary. In 1871 he was made the first president of St. Michael's college, which he had helped to found at Portland. He attended the third plenary council at Baltimore in 1884, and on April 19, 1885, he was consecrated titular-bishop of Apollonia and vicar apostolic of Idaho by Cardinal Gibbons and was transferred to the newly created diocese of Boisé, Aug. 26, 1893. Under his vicariate the Catholic population grew from 2300 (including 800 Indians) to 9100 when the see was created, and in 1898 he had seventeen priests, thirty-three churches, fifty-five stations, nine academies and parochial schools, and a Catholic population of 10,000.
Source : The Twentieth Century Biographical Dictionary of Notable Americans
1870 Census