John George Alleman
John George Alleman (December 3, 1804 – July 14, 1865) was a missionary Catholic priest who served in the states of Ohio, Iowa and Illinois.
Alleman is described as a large man who possessed great physical strength and a gregarious personality.
As a Dominican, Alleman served parishes in Canton, Zanesville, and Somerset, Ohio.
His vicar general was a Dominican priest by the name of Samuel Charles Mazzuchelli, who may have been influential in bringing Alleman to Dubuque.
It seems unlikely that Loras would have accepted a priest into the diocese, knowing the rigors that were required, who was expelled from his religious community and unfit for ministry.
He was assigned by Loras to serve the German Catholics of the Diocese and he made Fort Madison, Iowa, his base of operation.
John Larmer, a contemporary of Alleman's, said: "After looking over northeastern Missouri, and the adjacent portions of Illinois and Iowa, Father Alleman resolved to establish his permanent mission at Fort Madison, a beautiful site above the first rapids on the Upper Mississippi.
His object in settling, so to speak, at this point, was to have a permanent 'shanty' in a central location, whence he could more effectively perform the great work, which his former experience as a missionary, told him lay before him.
During his years there he served missions in Sugar Creek (now known as St. Paul), West Point, Montrose, Burlington, Iowa City, St. Vincent's Church in a rural area west of Riverside, Keokuk, Augusta, Dodgeville, Bakers' Point, Farmington, Primrose, and Franklin, all in Iowa, and Nauvoo, Illinois.
[2] One of the people Father Alleman struck up a friendship with was the leader of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, Joseph Smith.
Alleman was granted access to Smith's barge to cross the river, and space in the Mormon Temple where he and other priests could baptize their own people.
[1] Joseph Smith at one time told Alleman that next to the Latter Day Saints, Catholicism was the best religion.
"For the priests attend to their people faithfully and mind their own business, whereas the other preachers are continually bothering the Latter Day Saints."
"[4] Bishop Loras was the son of a wealthy mercantile family, and he tended to run his diocese as though it was a business.
If the parish borrowed money to build the church, Loras held the pastor responsible for the debt.
In 1847 Alleman fell into debt with construction projects at both Fort Madison and West Point.
At this time Alleman attempted to sue the Dominicans for payment for the six years he served as a priest while in the community.
[2] He was also involved in a controversy to close the church at Sugar Creek and have the parishioners attend the parish at West Point.
He has promised to secure a German speaking priest for that area, and a new field of work will be a challenge.
"[5] In May 1851 Alleman arrived in Rock Island, a town in western Illinois on the Mississippi River.
The heavy work load and constant traveling eventually took its toll on Alleman's health.
Both his physical and mental condition grew worse and in 1863 he was admitted to St. Vincent's Sanatorium in St. Louis.
When he heard the news, he responded, "The special vocation of the Dominicans is teaching and defending the truths of the faith.
When Catholics in Rock Island County established a new central high school in 1949 they named it Alleman, in his memory.
