Stories from the First Cathedral 5: Church of the Good Shepherd

As I promised, I will end the Bashaw story from Bishop Whipple's words found in his autobiography, Lights and Shadows of a Long Episcopate.

"Bashaw was one cousin to the celebrated Patchin. He was a kingly fellow and had every sign of noble birth, --a slim, delicate head, prominent eyes, small, active ears, large nostrils, full chest, thin gambrels, heavy cords, neat fetlocks, and was black as a coal. He was my friend and companion for over fifty thousand miles, always full of spirit and gentle as a girl. The only time I ever touched him with a whip was on the brink of a precipice where the path was a sheet of glare ice and as the wagon began to slide I saved us both by a lash, but the blow hurt me more than it did Bashaw. He saved my life when lost on the prairies many times. In summer heat and winter storm he kept every appointment often by heroic effort."

When Bishop Whipple was making his trips around the state, there was a church building that served Faribault called the Church of the Good Shepherd. The church was built and raised up by pre-Whipple clergy such as James Lloyd Breck, Timothy Wilcoxen, Solon Manney, David Sanford, and George Dubois. The Church of the Good Shepherd was a 21 by 50 ft building, constructed a few blocks West of the First Cathedral (A picture of the structure is in The First Cathedral, page 22.) As Bishop Whipple cared for his flock with the help of Bashaw, people worshipped at the Church of the Good Shepherd while the First Cathedral was being built from 1862-1869. When I was Dean of the First Cathedral we always started our Annual Meeting by opening with the Church of the Good Shepherd, closing that meeting and then beginning the meeting for the First Cathedral!