1. John Martin Henni was a Swiss-born Catholic prelate who served as the first Archbishop of Milwaukee from 1843 until his death in 1881.
13 Facts About John Henni
1. 2.
John Henni was born on June 15,1805, in the village of Misanenga, municipality of Obersaxen, in the canton of Graubunden in Switzerland.
3.
John Henni received his early education in St Gallen and Lucerne.
4.
John Henni was ordained to the priesthood for the Diocese of Cincinnati by Fenwick on February 2,1829.
5.
John Henni was named to the faculty of the Athenaeum, the Jesuit college in Cincinnati, to teach philosophy to seminarians.
6.
John Henni was recalled to Cincinnati In 1834 to become pastor of Holy Trinity Church, another German parish.
7.
John Henni organized the St Aloysius' Orphans Aid Society in the Bond Hill section of Cincinnati.
8.
On November 28,1843, John Henni was appointed the first bishop of the newly erected Diocese of Milwaukee by Pope Gregory XVI.
9.
John Henni received his episcopal consecration on March 19,1844, from Purcell, with Bishops Michael O'Connor and Richard Pius Miles serving as co-consecrators.
10.
John Henni brought the Sisters of Charity religious order from Maryland into the diocese.
11.
In 1850, John Henni brought a contingent of the School Sisters of Notre Dame from Bavaria to Milwaukee to open a mother house; they would begin teaching in parish schools throughout the diocese.
12.
In 1875, the Diocese of Milwaukee was elevated to the Archdiocese of Milwaukee and John Henni became its first archbishop.
13.
Two days after the opening of Marquette University, John Henni died on September 7,1881, in Milwaukee.