REV. DANIEL H. O’DWYER.
BY JOHN J. LENEHAN, ESQ., CHAIRMAN OF MEMBERSHIP COMMITTEE.
The Rev. Daniel H. O’Dwyer, an esteemed member of the American Irish Historical Society and pastor of St. John’s Church at Kingsbridge Road and 232d Street, New York City, died on Sunday, November 14, 1909, of apoplexy, at the home of his mother, 122 Fordham Road West, New York City. His death occurred in the very room in which his father died on the previous Thursday night, at the age of 81 years.
Father O’Dwyer was a brother of Chief Justice Edward F. O’Dwyer, of the City Court of the City of New York; also a member of our Society, and a son of John O’Dwyer and Catherine Ryan, who came from Ireland to America in the early part of the last century.
Father O’Dwyer was born in New York City, in 1862, and was forty-seven years of age at the time of his death. He was educated at St. Francis Xavier’s College, West 16th Street, and entered Fordham University in 1882, graduating from the latter institution two years later. After graduation he entered St. Joseph’s Seminary, Troy, and was ordained on December 22, 1888.
From 1890 to 1893 Father O’Dwyer labored as assistant priest in St. Raphael’s Church, West 40th Street, and later went to the Church of the Blessed Sacrament, where he remained until 1903, when he became pastor of St. John’s.
He found St. John’s Church a frame building, unimposing and unattractive. His first effort as pastor was the establishment of a church fund to improve the place of worship of the fast growing congregation. St. John’s had been established in 1870 as a mission to the parish of St. Elizabeth at Fort Washington and was made a separate parish in 1886, sixteen years after. He immediately set about improving the parish generally. He changed and renovated the old church and began the erection of a new one. The new church, built on the site of the old one, was begun about four years ago. At the time of his death it had been finished but not yet dedicated. He devoted himself without reserve to the work of raising this splendid monument and labored tirelessly for the accomplishment of his great purpose. The result was a structure magnificent for the surrounding territory, and worthy of this great Metropolis. A spacious chapel occupied the basement, and in the rear was a Lyceum or club for boys, with athletic apparatus and other attractions for entertaining the youth of the neighborhood.
This soon became a social center. The young men found themselves in possession of a club with pleasant adjuncts and friendly companionship. He organized numerous societies for both men and women and threw his great energy into the effort to make the hall a center of interest, with such force and vigor that it soon became the meeting place for the youth of the vicinage and elevated the moral and social conditions of the parish, which grew and strengthened with his success, kindling ambition and toning up the character and bearing of the neighborhood. That parish ceased thereafter to be listless or easy-going. It blossomed with animation and interest. He called the hall St. John’s Lyceum. The new church, with its various attachments, cost in the neighborhood of $200,000; but there was entertainment and amusement for all the young men and women of his parish; and as they saw it grow in beauty and utility, witnessing the excellence of his ideas and the splendid manner of their execution, they knew their pastor worked unselfishly for them, and the amelioration of all conditions in his parish, uniting entertainment and instruction in his devoted purpose.
To aid the speedy completion of the church, he sought the help of a host of lifelong friends. Willing responses to a cheery appeal brought assistance from every side; and the work, ordinarily of years, grew to fruition within a few short seasons. His tireless efforts probably undermined his robust constitution. But loving his work and his people with all his golden heart, he cast himself with streaming courage into the battle, to win, in one brief spell, a victory that was fitting crown for a lifetime’s labor.
Everywhere Father O’Dwyer went he endeared himself to all with whom he came in contact. In appearance a striking figure, handsome, tall, well-proportioned and instinct with nervous force, he was a charming companion and a delightful speaker, versatile, amusing, instructive or learned as suited his varying purposes or the needs of the hour. Jovial and sympathetic in ordinary intercourse, he never forgot the necessity of inculcating at the proper times the sterner duties. Yet he was always the same wholesome force for the cheerful as well as the simple life.
As sunshine broken in the rill,
Though turned aside, is sunshine still.
An enthusiastic admirer of athletics he ever sought to perpetuate and assist in the games of his college as well as of his parochial school and the Lyceum.
He was elected President of the Fordham University Alumni Association for two terms, 1899–1901, and materially aided the work of the Association with his usual irrepressible zeal.
The funeral took place from St. John’s Church on Wednesday, November 17, 1909. His Grace, the Most Rev. Archbishop Farley, celebrated a Solemn Mass of Requiem. The church was packed to its utmost capacity and a multitude unable to gain admittance lined the outer roadway. A large attendance of clergymen and well-known laymen included many members of our Society, among them being Hon. John D. Crimmins, Justices Edward E. McCall, and John W. Goff. Monsignor Mooney preached a touching sermon wherein he spoke eloquently of Father O’Dwyer’s zeal and attainments. Many were visibly affected to tears. He said that although a comparatively young man his work was of the highest and most praiseworthy order.
“Today,” said the Monsignor, “a mourning people and weeping children, all must send up not the exultant song of fondest hopes fulfilled, but the low, sad plaint of sorrow for the soul of him who was their pastor kind and true. Twenty-one years ago he came forth with anointed hands from St. Joseph’s Seminary at Troy to begin the work that was appointed for him. His first labors were served in St. Raphael’s, where he spread the seeds of Christianity—seeds which quickly took root. None of the vigor and zeal of that manhood were lost which characterized his early work when he was transferred to the Blessed Sacrament church. A thread of gold seemed to run through his life. It was in the city of his birth that the whole years of his labors as a priest were spent. Six years of unabated toil marked his pastorate at St. John’s—six years spent in constant labors of love till God called him forth. He gave the best that was in him, he did the best for you, while he was permitted to remain with you. All the splendid manhood he brought with him when he came—his excellent equipment of mind and heart—he used to foster in his congregation the love of God. He knew no bounds in his devotion to you and your little ones. The anguish of that awful morning was so deep, so sudden, that as yet we are not able to take in its full realization.
“It was not deigned by heaven for him that he should ascend this altar and offer sacrifice—alas!—the first ceremony enacted within these walls was over his own remains. His life labors are done; well did he perform them. The God of Justice called him away, but you shall never forget him, his memory will be to you a proper inheritance till time shall call you on into eternity, where united with him there shall be no suffering in the everlasting Trinity of the Father, the Son and the Holy Ghost.”