Fitzgerald, Edward,Bishop of Little Rock, Little Rock, Arkansas, to Archbishop John Baptist Purcell, of Cincinnati, Ohio, 1873 December 7

A priest named Father John M. Ryan whom Purcell met at Fitzgerald's consecration in Columbus has been with Fitzgerald for 4 or 5 weeks. He is the one who filed the $25,000 suit against Bishop Thomas Foley in Chicago. He has lately at Fitzgerald's suggestion withdrawn the suit and is willing to make reparations for the scandal. Ryan offered his life as a physician freely during the fever epidemics at Memphis Tennessee . At the end of the epidemic he came to Fitzgerald, who knew him since 1866, seeking restoration to his priestly office. He is a graduate of Maynooth, but his friends say he was easily led away by bad companions— as happened in Chicago. Since coming to Little Rock he has made a retreat. Father James Edlen, O.P. says that Ryan seldom missed daily Mass when he was in Memphis. Fitzgerald thinks him at bottom good. He has no place for him in Little Rock and thought Purcell could find a place for him in the seminary or with another priest. He speaks French and Spanish and is gentlemanly in appearance, and will make good if given a trial. :: II-5-f A.L.S. 3pp. 12mo.