Father Leonz ZUMBUEHL was born in Luzerne, Switzerland, May 11, 1846, where he passed his boyhood years, roaming amidst the beautiful scenery of that romantic land, and breathed, while obtaining his fundamental training, its pure air of freedom. Later he entered St. Mary's college in Schwitz as a preparation for the famous university of Freiburg, Baden. Here he graduated with honor in the philosophical course, choosing the ecclesiastical profession. We next find him studying theology in the seminary at Chur. April 19, 1870, he was ordained for the missions of the United States. The same year he sailed for the field of his future labors with Rt. Rev. Amadeus RAPP, the first bishop of Cleveland. He was appointed to the professorship of philosophy in the seminary of that city, which position he satisfactorily filled until 1877, when he was called by the newly consecrated bishop of Peoria to fulfill pastoral duties in this diocese, then greatly in need of priests. Bishop SPALDING appointed him to the pastorate of Warsaw, where he soon cleared the church of a burdensome debt. Later he labored faithfully at Richland, Kickapoo and Ottawa. For the past seven years he has been in charge of St. Mary's, Henry, where with his usual zeal, he has succeeded in paying off several hundred dollars debt and renovated the church by painting it on the outside and frescoing it within. He is now endeavoring to raise a fund to build a handsome church edifice, and no doubt this, his crowning work, will soon be accomplished, if he is spared to labor a few more years.
Extracted July 2011 by Norma Hass from Past and Present of Marshall and Putnam Counties Illinois, 1907.
| Bureau Putnam La Salle | |||
| Stark |
 |
||
| Peoria | Woodford | ||
