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Chapter Two

Early Days

John Noll had his roots firmly planted deep in the rich Indiana soil. The Noll family had settled in the then sleepy little farming community of Fort Wayne in 1834, when his grandfather, George Johannes Noll, a tailor, emigrated from Germany. The family rode in a wagon from Detroit, Michigan, over an almost impassible road, as there was no railroad or waterway to get to Fort Wayne.

His father, John George Noll, one of three brothers, was born in Fort Wayne in 1841. John’s mother, Anna Ford, was born in 1843 in London, England, of Irish parents. She came to America as a young girl and married John George about 1864. The young couple immediately began to raise a family. John George held a number of occupations: he ran a haberdashery, worked as a grocer, and at one time was a bookkeeper on the staff of the comptroller for the city of Fort Wayne. He also served as a city councilman. Anna had her hands full with the care of the babies who arrived almost annually: Mary Elizabeth, Catherine, George, William, little Eugene (who died as a baby), John, and Loretto.

John was born January 25, 1875, in a house on East Lewis Street, next to the house where his father had been born. A week later, baby John, the sixth child of the lively Noll brood, was baptized at the Cathedral church in Fort Wayne, where his own father had been baptized thirty-four years previously.

When little Johnny was a baby, the Noll clan dominated East Lewis Street. Since his grandfather arrived two decades before, the family had grown to the point that, by the 1860s, the Noll name took up nearly half a page of the city directory. John’s grandfather lived in the corner house; and on the other side his two uncles, Martin and Frank, lived with their families. A solidly Catholic family, John’s first cousin Raymond (Frank’s son) also entered the priesthood and became the Vicar General of the Archdiocese of Indianapolis. John’s stepsister Evelyn became a Sister of Providence.

Baby John, 1875

When Johnny was only three and a half years old, his mother died of consumption (tuberculosis) at the early age of 32. The youngest of the six surviving Noll children, Loretto, was only five months old at the time. John George knew that his children needed a mother’s care and married his housekeeper within a year, in 1880. His second wife was young Mary Josephine McCleary of Bluffton. Seventeen years younger than her husband, and only seven years older than her oldest stepchild, she was to have a large influence on little Johnny.

Mary had been educated by the Sisters of the Holy Cross at Sacred Heart Academy near Fort Wayne. Earlier a Protestant, she converted to the Catholic Church and became known for her mature faith. It is probable that her Protestant background influenced young John’s later lively interest in explaining the faith to non-Catholics. He had a lifelong interest in conversions and was always happy to bring a new soul into the Church. Mary and John George had eleven other children: Joseph, Effie, Walter, Thomas, Melissa, Gertrude, Muriel, Georgia, Marcelline, Evelyn, and Velma.

Johnny started school at age five, at the Cathedral Elementary School taught by the Brothers of the Holy Cross. At the end of his eighth grade year, when he was thirteen years old, he made his First Communion and was confirmed, May 20, 1888. (First Communions were celebrated later in that era.)

That June, he took a job at the M. Frank Dry Goods store, working from 6 A.M. to 6 P.M., Monday through Saturday, for a salary of two dollars per week.

For some time, young John had been thinking of a vocation to the priesthood. Although several of the others boys in his class had talked abut this lofty ideal, it was an intensely personal subject to John, who kept his thoughts to himself, thinking it was possibly only a youthful dream. For several years he had been a faithful altar server, and as he joined in the center of the Catholic liturgy, he thought more and more about his own vocation. Although he didn’t speak of becoming a priest, others noticed his attitude.

During the summer after his graduation, John often served Mass for Fr. Thomas O’Leary, the assistant at the Cathedral who had prepared him for First Holy Communion. One day the priest asked him if he had ever thought of studying for the priesthood. Thoughtfully, John replied, “Yes, I have thought about it often this past year. Honestly, I have just been waiting for someone to tell me how to arrange it and where to go.”

Immediately, the priest set about making arrangements to get John ready to leave the first week in September for St. Lawrence of Brundisium Minor Seminary in Mt. Calvary, Wisconsin, conducted by the Capuchin Fathers. Although John had never seen a Capuchin, he had heard of the austerity of their life and the rigorous program at the seminary. He was willing, however, to face any hardship to reach his goal of the priesthood.

Archbishop Noll’s coat of arms, featuring his motto Mentes Tuorum Visita. Taken from the hymn Veni Creator Spiritus, the words literally translate as an invitation to the Holy Spirit to “visit [or appear to] the minds of your people.”