George L. T. Widerin
George L. T. Widerin, pastor of St. Patricks, North Madison, Indiana, is a native of Louisville, Kentucky. He was born June 20, 1847. His father, Christian Widerin, was a native of Austrian Tyrol; and his mother, Mary Ann Meder, a native of Bavaria.
Father Widerin was about fourteen years old when his father, a tailor by trade, enlisted in Company A, Twenty-third Indiana Volunteer Infantry; being disabled was discharged in or about 1863.
George L. T. Widerin was a private of Company A, One Hundred and forty-fourth Indiana Volunteer Infantry. He was educated at St. Meinrads, Spencer County, Indiana, excepting one year course at Indianapolis, Indiana.
In May, 1877, he was ordained priest at St. Meinrads, Spencer County, Indiana, by the Rt. Rev. Bishop Maurice De St. Palais.
His first charge was Haubstad, Gibson County, Princeton and Abertsville, Indiana. In 1882, was removed to North Madison, Jefferson County, Indiana, attending to St. Anthony's Church, China P.O., and to Immaculate Conception, Vevay, Switzerland, County, Indiana.
The parish of North Madison, as by late census taken, shows up seventy-six Catholic families, the parish of China P. O. fifty, Vevay thirty-eight.
The North Madison Church was established March 22, 1853. The first pastor proper was Father Hypolite Du Pontavice, residence at Madison.
At time of building of the church, the congregation numbered over one hundred and twenty-five families. The J., M. & I. car shops, and other important enterprises, removed from North Madison, families also removed. the church is a brick building, forty by ninety feet; parsonage a comfortable stone cottage; the school buildings and Sisters' residence is a frame building. Sisters of Providence, of St. Marys of the Woods, Vigo County, Indiana, are conducting the boys and girls school.
Source: Biographical and Historical Souvenir for the counties of Clark, Crawford, Harrison, Floyd, Jefferson, Jennings, Scott and Washington, Indiana. By John M. Gresham & Co., 1889.
