Roman Catholic Archbishop Of New York

Immigrant Success Story.

When John Joseph Hughes was born in Ireland, his parents were farmers and linen weavers with sufficient income to send their children to school. When the Napoleonic blockades wiped out the linen export trade, Hughes's parents apprenticed him to a gardener. Hughes moved to the United States in 1817 and obtained a job gardening at Mount Saint Mary's Seminary. There he made the acquaintance of the head of the institution, John DuBois, and thus got himself into the school. Ordained a priest on 15 October 1826, he served in Philadelphia until 7 January 1838, when he was appointed coadjutor, auxiliary bishop with the right of succession, to DuBois, at that time the bishop of New York. In 1841 he help found Saint John's College, later Fordham University. By then DuBois was elderly and ailing, and Hughes became the main force in...