By Tim Wenzl

Diocesan Archivist

Top on my list of unfinished business was locating the grave site of Father Felix Prosper Swembergh, the itinerant missionary priest who established and nurtured many parishes in what is now the Diocese of Dodge City.

When doing research for Father Swembergh’s biographical sketch in "A Legacy of Faith," I became fascinated with this man who served in southern Kansas from 1873 to 1884.

Father Swembergh, a native of France, was a prime promoter of Catholic colonization to the West. He served as president of the St. Dominic’s Colonization Society, wrote articles for eastern publications, and worked assiduously with the Santa Fe Railroad to encourage Catholic colonies to locate in western Kansas.

St. Mary Parish in Newton was Father Swembergh’s base of operation from 1877 to 1884. The history of that parish notes: "In 1884 he transferred his missionary work to Florida where he died in 1887 of yellow fever."

This is correct, but only partially. Father Swembergh goes to Florida only after spending some time in Europe. The reason Father Swembergh left Kansas is still somewhat of a mystery. In May 1884, Bishop Louis Mary Fink, O.S.B., of Leavenworth appointed him assistant of Assumption Parish in Topeka.

Father Swembergh’s health may have been a factor in his returning to Europe rather than accepting that assignment. However, he returns to the United States and becomes the "first resident Catholic priest in Orlando" when he is appointed pastor at St. James Parish, Orlando, Florida, late in 1885.

Sacramental records in Newton and Orlando help to provide a time frame of how long Father Swemberg spent in Europe. His last recorded baptism in Newton was May 21, 1884; his first recorded baptism in Orlando was Jan. 15, 1886.

Knowing that Father Swembergh died in 1887 of yellow fever in Florida was an important clue in locating his grave. However, I still needed his death date and the city in which he died. I began "surfing" the internet for information about Florida’s yellow fever epidemic of 1887.

A history page for the Diocese of St. Petersburg was one of the web sites that came up. That’s when I read this: " After a serious outbreak of yellow fever in Tampa in 1888 that killed three of the four priests there, Bishop Moore of the Diocese of St. Augustine in desperation turned to the Jesuits from New Orleans for help." The source for the history page was "Catholic Parish Life on Florida’s West Coast, 1860-1968," by Fr. Michael J. McNally, Ph.D.

The year in the paragraph was not the same year of Father Swembergh’s death, as recorded in the Newton parish history, but I wanted to know if he was indeed one of these priests who died of yellow fever in Tampa. I then looked on the St. Petersburg web site for the name of the archivist and e-mailed Lisa Mobley with these questions:

• Do you know the names of these three priests?

• Is Father Felix Prosper Swembergh listed in the index of McNally’s book?

Mobley wrote back and Father Swemberg was one of the priests listed as having died of yellow fever. And he was in the index of McNally’s book. She shared this paragraph from Page 87:

"Father Charles Peterman, St. Louis’ (parish) much respected pastor since 1881, contracted yellow fever on Oct. 24, 1887. Upon hearing the news, the Bishop of St. Augustine, John Moore, sent Orlando’s pastor, 40-year-old Fr. Felix P. Swemberg to Tampa to tend Peterman at the parish. Swemberg was ordained for the Vicar Apostolic of Kansas in 1868. Moving to Orlando in late 1885 he founded St. James parish. Reaching Tampa October 27, Swemberg discovered Peterman died. Only four days later, Fr. Swemberg too expired from yellow fever."

This paragraph provided the information I needed to complete Father Swembergh’s biographical sketch for "Legacy."

Only recently was I able to return to what has become a quest to locate Father Swembergh’s grave site. I looked in the Official Catholic Directory for the parishes in Tampa. I was looking for St. Louis Parish because Father Swembergh went to assist Father Peterman, the pastor there. I was disappointed to find no St. Louis Parish listed for Tampa.

However, I thought if this was a closed parish, perhaps it had a cemetery. Again I went to my computer and typed "St. Louis Cemetery, Tampa, Florida" into the search engine. A website came up for Oaklawn St. Louis Cemetery in Hillsborough County, Tampa, Florida. The web site listed names of Confederate soldiers buried there and this note at the bottom of the page: "St. Louis represents the section of Oaklawn acquired by the Catholic Church."

I pulled out the Official Catholic Directory again to look for parishes in Tampa. There are 16. Fortunately, the founding year of the parish appears in parenthesis after each. I looked for the oldest parish and discovered Sacred Heart (1860). That’s when I picked up the phone and called the parish secretary. I asked Marcelle Dunbar if she knew of St. Louis Cemetery. She said it was just a couple of blocks from the church. It was then she told me the parish had been renamed when the present church was dedicated in 1905.

I told her I was looking for the grave of Father Felix Swembergh, a Kansas itinerant missionary who died in Tampa of yellow fever in 1887. "Oh yes, he’s there," she replied. Dunbar, who is also the parish archivist, gave me the e-mail address of Elaine Carbonneau, a lecturer who gives tours of their historic church. I contacted Carbonneau to ask if she could send photographs of Father Swembergh’s grave site and record any inscriptions on the tombstone.

When I e-mailed Carbonneau in September, she replied that she was in Vermont and would not be returning home until the middle of October. Recently she e-mailed me the photos of Father Swembergh’s grave, this description and the inscriptions on the tombstone:

"The marker is shared by Fr. Swembergh and Fr. Charles Peterman, who died Oct 27, 1887 at the age of 44 years. The south side of the marker reads: ‘Rev. Felix Swembergh died Oct 31, 1887 aged 40 years.’ The east side bears a badly worn inscription: ‘The good shepherd giveth his life for his sheep.’ The west side is blank."

Father Felix Swembergh is an important figure in Kansas Catholic history. He was the first resident pastor of Wichita and cared for a mission district that extended to the Colorado state line. In what is now the Diocese of Dodge City, he attended the Catholics at Fort Larned, Fort Dodge, Dodge City, Great Bend, Pierceville, Sargent (now Coolidge), Medicine Lodge, Pawnee Rock, Garfield, Ellinwood and Kinsley.

In October, while reading microfilm of the "Wichita Diocesan News," I found Father Swembergh’s obituary in the Jan. 20, 1888 issue. This is obviously several months after his death, but it is included in that issue of the newspaper, Vol. I, No. 1, because the editor felt it important. The obituary hints that Father Swembergh’s "fast failing health" was reason for his leaving Kansas.

How ironic then, he should die of yellow fever. How noble though he should die while attending those dying in the epidemic. How fitting his epitaph: "The good shepherd giveth his life for his sheep."