Appletons' Cyclopædia of American Biography/Krautbauer, Francis Xavier

KRAUTBAUER, Francis Xavier, R. C. bishop, b. near Bruck, Bavaria, 12 Jan., 1824. He received his early education in Regensburg, and afterward studied theology in the Georgianum in Munich. He was ordained priest, 16 July, 1850, and arrived in the United States in October of the same year, intending to devote himself to the spiritual welfare of his countrymen. After a short residence in Buffalo he was appointed in 1851 pastor of St. Peter's church, Rochester, where he also erected schools for boys and girls. In 1859 he went to Milwaukee to become spiritual director of the school sisters of Notre Dame in that city, at the same time attending the church of Our Lady of the Angels. He remained in this post for over ten years, and the mother house of the sisterhood was built under his direction. In 1873 Father Krautbauer was shipwrecked on Lake Michigan and narrowly escaped drowning. In 1875 he was nominated bishop of Green Bay and consecrated on 29 June of that year. He found the administration of his diocese a work of great difficulty, as his flock embraced people from every country in Europe. Some congregations were made up of English-speaking Roman Catholics, Germans, Frenchmen, Hollanders, Bohemians, Walloons, Poles, and Indians. He devoted special attention to the work of education, and in 1884 had forty-four parochial schools, attended by 5,292 children. The number of churches increased from 92 to 126, and the number of priests from 63 to 96.