CBHS 1871 – 2021

Milestones in the 150-year history of Christian Brothers High School.

If it weren’t for two seemingly unrelated (and unfortunate) events — the Great Chicago Fire and the demise of the Memphis Female Academy, it’s safe to say that Christian Brothers High School would not be celebrating its 150th anniversary.

In its long history, the faculty and students have been linked to the Chicago World’s Fair, the Industrial Exposition in New Orleans, and other national events. On these pages, space prevents a detailed history of the oldest all-boy high school in Memphis, but we focus on the major activities that, once stitched together, show how a tiny school without much hope for a long future evolved into the first-rate institution it is today.

In his book The Christian Brothers in Memphis: A Chronicle of the First 100 Years, W.J. Battersby writes: “As we look back over that stretch of time, we see those who founded the college involved in endless financial difficulties, plagues with disastrous epidemics of yellow fever, catering to a small student body, and wonder if each successive year would be the last. Few, if any of those valiant pioneers dared to envisage a development such as we see today, which is the direct outcome of their perseverance and efforts.”

The city came before the school, though, and it’s almost impossible to imagine the bleak conditions the founders of CBHS encountered. During the Civil War, Memphis was more fortunate than other cities. Union forces burned Atlanta to the ground and imposed a crushing martial law on New Orleans. This city’s only real involvement was a 90-minute battle between Union and Confederate gunboats in the Mississippi River. But in the years above: Christian Brothers College as it stood in 1886 on Adams Avenue in downtown Memphis. right: Brother Maurelian was the school’s first president and remained involved all his life. afterwards, Memphis languished behind other Southern cities trying to rebuild.

By 1871, the Bluff City lacked a sanitation department, sewer lines, and a source of clean drinking water. Most streets, even those in the downtown business district, were little more than dirt roads, with some paved with wooden blocks that quickly settled and rotted. The story goes that one day a mule tumbled into such a large pothole on Madison that it drowned. Considering these conditions, it’s probably no surprise that Memphis lacked any kind of organized educational system — public or private. Families who could afford it hired tutors for their children, or sent them to a cluster of private schools that rarely endured for more than a few years before bankruptcy closed them.

And then the Christian Brothers came to town. Established in France in 1681 by St. John Baptist De La Salle (16511719), as the Institute of the Brothers of the Christian Schools, the Brothers’ primary mission was education, and they eventually opened hundreds of schools and colleges in more than 80 countries around the world — with more than 50 of them in the United States.

Starting one of their schools in Memphis — and keeping it open — was a challenge. To the founders, celebrating its 150th anniversary would probably seem, in those early days, nothing short of a miracle.

1865

As the Civil War draws to a close, a local merchant, Michael Gavin, purchases an empty lot on Wellington Avenue that he hopes could be used for a new school. He is friends with the Rev. Thomas Powers, pastor of St. Peter’s Church downtown, who tries to persuade a religious order in Chicago, known simply as the Christian Brothers, to send a teacher for the facility, but no one is available. The property is sold.

1871

The Memphis Female Academy, founded in 1854 and housed in an impressive fourstory building on Adams, closes due to “adverse circumstances.” Owners of the property begin a wide-ranging search for a new tenant. Bishop Patrick A. Feehan, the Bishop of Nashville, knows about the Rev. Powers’ desire for a new school in Memphis. He contacts the Christian Brothers and offers to sell them this property, which local business leaders had purchased for $35,000 — an enormous sum at the time. The Brothers, a religious congregation with limited resources, again reply that no one is available.

1871

The Great Chicago Fire sweeps across the city in October, leaving businesses, homes, hospitals, and schools in ruins, with the Christian Brothers Academy burned to the ground. This tragedy for the Windy City is a lucky one for Memphis, because three teachers no longer have a school, and are sent here: Brother Anthony of Rome, Brother Clement Bernward, and Brother Luperius. The order summons Brother Maurelian from Pass Christian, Mississippi, to serve as president of the new school. He does so reluctantly, with the new school leader noting in his journals, “Although the terms of the sale were deemed excessive … the committee of citizens induced the Provincial to accept [the property], promising to give financial aid if needed. The Christian Brothers took possession on November 17, 1871.”

1871

Following a grand parade and dedication ceremony with Catholic leaders throughout the city participating and giving speeches, the new school opens, with only four students that first day. It will be called Christian Brothers College, although it includes an elementary school (which will close in 1926) and a high school division. From the beginning, finances are very limited. The school resorts to special paid events — a public lecture at the Grand Opera House, a Grand Union Picnic held at James Park — to raise funds. By both pages: The Christian Brothers Band, the Oldest High School Band in America, celebrates 150 years in 2022. Artifacts from its past line the halls of Christian Brothers High School today. the end of the year, attendance at CBC has increased to 87 students.

1872

The second session begins, with 147 students and a faculty that now includes 12 Brothers. Classes are offered in commercial and classic subjects, which include Latin, Greek, logic, rhetoric, history, science, elocution, and other coursework.

1872

Music professor Paul Schneider, with support from Brother Maurelian, forms the college band, a group of 24 students who would perform at school events and public activities, such as the dedication of the well-known fountain in Court Square (the school’s name is inscribed around the stone basin), the yearly parades presented by St. Peter’s Church, and a special visit to Memphis by Tennessee Governor John Brown. An accomplished musician who traveled the country with various orchestras, Schneider holds an unusual distinction: He was performing at Ford’s Theater in Washington, D.C., on the evening of April 14, 1865, when President Abraham Lincoln was assassinated.

1875

Christian Brothers College presents its first Bachelor of Arts degree to two graduates, both pages: More than a century ago, and our focus remains the same: to provide a student experience rooted in academic and athletic excellence!

Richard Odlum and Raphael Semmes. News accounts report that high school senior James F. Curtis receives a “commercial diploma,” making him the first graduate of Christian Brothers High School.

1877

The school’s financial situation is so dire that Brother Maurelian sets out on a “begging tour” of Europe, hoping to raise funds by selling artwork produced by the students and giving lectures. At home, the school resorts to carnivals, concerts, plays, and even bake sales to raise funds to keep the school open. In his unpublished history, Brother Joel McGraw observes, “When surveying the 150 years of history of the Christian Brothers in Memphis, there have been relatively few years of economic peace. Keeping tuition within range for