ROOT, IRA Greve, Charles Theodore. Centennial History of Cincinnati and Representative Citizens. Vol. 1. Chicago: Biographical Publishing, 1904. Wessling, Jack. Early History of Campbell County, Kentucky. Alexandria, Ky.: Privately published, 1997.
Jack Wessling
ROMAN CATHOLICS. The eastern portion of Kentucky was part of the Diocese of Louisville in the middle of the 19th century. For a brief time, an area of Northern Kentucky extending three miles south of the Ohio River was placed under the jurisdiction of the Archdiocese of Cincinnati. Disputes between the bishops of the two dioceses resulted in a petition to the Vatican in Rome asking for the formation of a new diocese in Kentucky. As a result, on July 29, 1853, Pope Pius IX issued a papal bull creating the Diocese of Covington. George A. Carrell, S.J., was named the first bishop of the new diocese. Carrell began his tenure in the new diocese with little money, six parishes with numerous attendant missions, and only six priests for an area that extended to the Tennessee border and included the Appalachian area of Eastern Kentucky. Many new churches and schools were soon established. According to the custom during much of the 19th century, many of the parishes in Northern Kentucky were created for either German or Irish congregations. St. Mary Catholic Church, the diocese’s first cathedral, was built on Eighth St. in Covington in 1854 (see Cathedral Basilica of the Assumption). Several religious orders of women came to teach in the schools. They joined the Sisters of Charity of Nazareth, who were already present and who started La Salette Academy in Covington in 1856. The Sisters of St. Benedict came in 1859 and made Covington a foundation of their order. They started St. Walburg Academy in 1863. St. Elizabeth Hospital (see St. Elizabeth Medical Center) began in Covington in 1861, staffed by the Sisters of the Poor of St. Francis. Augustus Toebbe became the second bishop of Covington in 1870, two years after Carrell’s death. He brought the Sisters of Notre Dame to the diocese in 1874. They taught in many parish schools and opened the Notre Dame Academy in 1875. Toebbe established two diocesan orphanages, St. John for girls and St. Joseph for boys (see Diocesan Catholic Children’s Home). During Toebbe’s tenure, the diocese faced a major financial crisis: three parishes went bankrupt after their business ventures failed. The bishop helped solve the problem and made new rules for parish operations. The third bishop, Camillus P. Maes, who began in 1885, remained in office for 30 years. He was responsible for the construction of the current Gothic-style cathedral at the corner of Madison Ave. and 12th St., which opened in 1901. Maes also welcomed the Sisters of Divine Providence to the diocese in 1889. They started the Our Lady of Providence Academy in Newport in 1903. Maes oversaw the creation of many new churches and schools, including some in the mountain region of the diocese.
Ferdinand Brossart, a priest of the Diocese of Covington, became its fourth bishop in 1916. The German-born bishop had to deal with antiGerman prejudice during World War I. He established regular geographical parish boundaries in 1920 so that parishes would not be based on nationality. Brossart retired for health reasons in 1923. His successor, Francis W. Howard, made education his specialty. Arriving in 1923, he established the Covington Latin School that year (the present building next to the cathedral opened in 1949), the Lexington Latin School in 1924, and Covington Catholic High School in 1925. In 1928 he made Villa Madonna College in Covington a diocesan institution. It moved to Crestview Hills and became Thomas More College in 1968. During the Great Depression, the diocese founded Catholic Social Ser vices (see Catholic Charities) to help people through the financial crisis. Covington’s sixth bishop, William T. Mulloy, came to the diocese in 1945. He expanded the number of parishes and schools, especially in the growing suburbs of Northern Kentucky. He also started many rural-life programs. Mulloy was responsible for purchasing the Marydale property in Erlanger in 1946, on which he found a summer camp (closed in 1988) and a retreat house. On the same property, in 1955, he started a diocesan seminary, St. Pius X, which closed in 1987. Richard H. Ackerman was made the seventh bishop in 1960 and led the diocese through the challenging period following the Second Vatican Council of the early 1960s. Catholics had to adapt to many changes, including having the Mass said in English. The diocese had to adjust to the loss of priests and teaching sisters who left their ministries. Ackerman’s tenure also saw a decline in the number of inner-city Catholics, and as a result, several urban parishes and schools were closed. The St. Elizabeth Medical Center South was built in 1973. Ackerman retired in 1978. In 1979 William A. Hughes was installed as the eighth bishop of Covington. He greatly increased the number of diocesan offices, to fi ll many new functions of ser vice to the people of the diocese, and opened more ministries to the laity. A major change occurred in 1988 when the Vatican created the new Diocese of Lexington, reducing the 57-county Diocese of Covington to the 14 northernmost counties. Hughes continued the process of closing or merging parishes and schools that could no longer function as they were and moved the diocesan offices to the Catholic Center, the former seminary building in Erlanger. He also initiated the Diocesan Annual Appeal in 1983 to raise money for the needs of the diocese. Hughes retired in 1995. Bishop Robert W. Muench, installed in the diocese in 1996, sold a large part of the Marydale property, which was cut off from the rest by the new Houston Rd. extension, and started a large capital campaign to fund an extensive renovation of the cathedral that was completed in 2001. The following year, Muench was transferred to the Diocese of Baton Rouge, La.
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The current bishop, Roger J. Foys, came in 2002. He had to respond to the clergy sexual-abuse crisis and the large class-action lawsuit that resulted from it. Foys met personally with many persons who had been abused. As a result of the settlement, most of the rest of the Marydale property was sold. He decided to move the diocesan offices from the Catholic Center to the third floor of St. Elizabeth Hospital North in Covington. To meet the needs of the growing Latino population (see Latinos) in Northern Kentucky, Foys in 2003 created the Cristo Rey Parish, and it utilized part of the former Catholic Center. In 2007 the 14-county Diocese of Covington was home to 92,250 Roman Catholics with 47 parishes and 6 missions. Ryan, Paul E. History of the Diocese of Covington, Kentucky. Covington, Ky.: Diocese of Covington, 1954. Tenkotte, Paul A., David E. Schroeder, and Thomas S. Ward. To Be Catholic and American in Northern, Central, and Appalachian Kentucky: The Diocese of Covington, 1853–2003. Forthcoming. Ward, Thomas. “The Bishops of Covington—Meeting the Challenges of Their Time,” Messenger, July 19, 2002, 33A.
Thomas S. Ward
ROOT, IRA (b. May 4, 1806, Piermont, Grafton Co., N.H.; d. February 12, 1868, Newport, Ky.). Ira Root, one of seven children of Ephraim and Vashti Birge Root, was one of Campbell Co.’s most influential citizens. He was a lawyer, a state representative, a delegate to the 1849 Kentucky Constitutional Convention, an antislavery advocate, an educator, an orator, and a veteran of the Newport Home Guard at the first battle of Cynthiana. Root attended Miami University of Ohio and studied law in Newport. After being admitted to the Kentucky bar, he practiced law until his death. He married Sarah Ann Perry in Newport on December 25, 1834. They had four children who survived childhood, and their three sons (Oliver W., Albert, and James) all became distinguished attorneys. At the 1849 Kentucky Constitutional Convention, Ira Root was one of the main advocates for making a state school system part of the new constitution. He was not successful in his attempt to insert an antislavery clause into the same proposed constitution. He remained an antislavery advocate for the rest of his life. Root served under Capt. John Arthur in the pro-Union Home Guard at the battle of Cynthiana, and his son Oliver W. Root was in that same Civil War unit. Ira Root, a much-soughtafter orator, spoke at a meeting of the Friends of Emancipation at the Newport Courthouse on February 18, 1864. Four years later he died. He was a member of the fift h generation of the Root family in America. Ira Root’s wife, Sarah, died on January 12, 1909, in Newport. At the time of Sarah’s death, she was reported to be the oldest native-born resident of Newport. The Root family members are buried at Evergreen Cemetery in Southgate. “Death Notice,” CE, February 13, 1868, 3. Evergreen Cemetery Records, Southgate, Ky. “Obituary,” CTS, January 12, 1909, 7.