Fraering, Father Eugene, Gretna, Louisiana, to Bishop Francis Xavier Leray, New Orleans, Louisiana, 1880 January 8

Fraering would like to speak about his recount of the Catholic population of Gretna but he still cannot tell him how many families there are; he thinks he can conclude this task immediately after the ecclesiastical retreat. As for the marriages, here is an exact account Married by the Protestant minister - William Johnson, Catholic, to Marguerithe White, baptized; George Westermann, Catholic, to Dorothy Bringenworth, baptized Protestant; John Brown, Protestant of doubtful baptism, to Barbara Fleckinger, Catholic; Frederick Fell, Protestant of doubtful baptism, to Marguerithe Schmitt, Catholic; George Hahn, Protestant of doubtful baptism, to Maria Ann Hammerschmitt, Catholic; Bernhardt Glasser, Catholic, to Dorothy Catherine Hahn, baptized Protestant; Louis Adam, baptized Protestant, to Catherine Mass, Catholic; Joseph Sutter, Catholic, to Marguerithe Pfister, baptized Protestant; William Dierner, Protestant of doubtful baptism, to Catherine Adams; William Come r, Protestant or Methodist, to Emily Bergen ; married by the Judge - Martin Gugel, baptized Protestant, to Catherine Boehm, Catholic; Jacob Walter to Elizabeth Christopher, Catholic; George Steinbrun, baptized Protestant, to Louise Heil, Catholic; George Adam, to Catherine Hass, both Catholics; Marx Buehler to Priska Oberlé both Catholics. Not married are Mathias Eiswirth and Agatha Foret, both Catholics. Herman Jenes, a Protestant, was married to Catherine Poutz, a Catholic, by the Judge. Poutz left her first husband to whom she had been married also by the Judge. As Leray had asked, he informs him of the debt of $520 which the church of Ville Platte owes to Xavier Morrell . On May 24, 1878 Fraering was named pastor of St. Joseph's Church at Gretna. Father Joseph Marie Millet, then the vicar general, required him to sign a note for the $2,000 debt that the Gretna church owed to the archdiocese and he was obliged to recognize all the other debts owed by the Church. The entire debt was $3,000. There was a general law which said that, if a priest were changed, he left the debt of the parish where he had been and accepted the debt of the parish to which he was named. His successor at Ville Platte was named in January 1879, and despite Archbishop Napoleon Joseph Perché 's directive, Father Gustave A. Rouxel did not require Father P.L. Pensier to sign the note for $520 owed to Morrell. The latter went to Father Hyacinth LeCozic, but, as he has no right to settle temporal affairs, he merely promised that it would be settled. Nothing being done, the holder of the note threatened to have the church sold. Fraering prevented this by promising to take the jus cathedraticum in order to pay it. He owes $68 to the archdiocese as jus cathedraticum. He notified Le Cozio, telling him that the authorities should be required to conform to the established laws and that it was ridiculous to have required him to sign the note for Gretna, a parish lost by a scandalous priest, without imposing the same law on his successor at Ville Platte. He appeals to Leray's fairness. He bought forty acres of land which he donated to the church at Ville Platte. Today, it is one of the best parishes in the country side. :: VI-3-b A.L.S. French 9pp. 12mo. 43