Rev. Fredrick Houck served as pastor of Toledo St. Ann’s (now St. Martin de Porres) for 37 years, beginning in 1914, and guided construction of the church. He was also known as an author, writing books such as “Fountains of Joy, or By Water and Blood,” “Palace Beautiful, or the Spiritual Temple of God,” “Our Palace Wonderful; or Man’s Place in Visible Creation,” “Our Friends and Foes, or, the Angels, Good and Bad,” and “The Life of St. Gerlach.” (He must have been fond of subtitles.)Here is a poem from “Fountains of Joy,” with a local flavor:
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5 comments:
His obituary info says he was born in Tiffin in 1866, so there might be a connection. There was also a Rev. George Houck, native of Tiffin, who was chancellor of the diocese of Cleveland in the late 1800s and wrote histories of the Cleveland diocese.
"Retirement" wasn't something most people did, back then. It's another innovation of the 50's.
Rev. Frederick Houck was my Great Uncle, as was Rev. George Francis Houck who was his half brother. Their father, John Houck, was my Great Great Grandfather. They were both born in Tiffin, Ohio.
Hello
I was very interested to read your "unknown" reader's comments about their great uncles, the two Fathers Houck, George and Frederick. Along with another Ohio priest native to Tiffin, Father Anthony S Siebenfoercher, they have been part of my research into the life of an Irish missionary priest, Fr Constantine M Scollen.
The Wikipedia page I created for Fr Scollen describes his extraordinary life particularly his time in the Canadian Northwest territories from 1862 living amongst the first nations peoples. In the 1890s, Fr Scollen wrote his autobiography describing in detail, his experiences during Thirty five years on the prairies. It was never published.
In 1898, after leaving Canada to work among the native people of the Dakotas, Montana, Wyoming, Kansas and Nebraska he arrive in Dayton Ohio to take up parish work. Fr Siebenfoercher became a great friend. Fr.Scollen died in Dayton in 1902 and is buried there in Calvary cemetary. Fr Siebenfoercher took into his care, the precious manuscript along with all of Fr Scollens, papers, diaries, journals and letters. He too died in Dayton , in 1908, and was buried in his old parsish in Kenton, Ohio. His funeral was conducted by his old friend Fr George F Houck. I am hoping that Fr Houck also took into his care, the papers of Fr Siebenfoercher which will have included those of Father Scollen.
Perhaps, Fr Frederick took all of these papers along with Fr George's papers when he died in 1916. Frederick died in 1954. I have been looking for the papers for 30 years and am hoping that they have survived, perhaps lying on a dusty Ohio shelf, uncatalogued.
Hopefully, one of your readers might be able to help or even one of the Houck family.
Thank you very much for taking the trouble to read this.
Best wishes
Ian Fletcher
Seaham, Co. Durham, England
Greetings Ian Fletcher,
John Houck (1823-1889) is my great-great-great grandfather. I am currently doing research on the Houck genealogy. I'd love to exchange info/documents if you're interested. Feel free to email me at jthouck@asu.edu.
Kind regards,
Jeff
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