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Shawe Memorial High School
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Shawe Memorial High School
Father Michael Shawe Memorial Jr./Sr. High School is a private, Roman Catholic high school in Madison, Indiana. It is run by the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Indianapolis.
Founded in 1952, the first class of freshman students was taught in the former St. Michael's Elementary school building, until 1954 when the new facility on Madison's hilltop opened. The school was named for Father Shawe who had founded Madison's first Catholic church, St. Michael the Archangel Church in 1839. But in 1951, the dream of a Catholic high school in a town of less than 10,000 people seemed almost impossible. Back then the hilltop of Madison was mainly all farmland, some of which had been donated to the local Catholic Church (St. Patrick's) years before.
Adding to the city's downfall of the 1850s, new railroad companies were formed throughout the Midwest, competing with the Madison-Indianapolis Railroad. Eventually, fewer and fewer people were visiting Madison, as stated in the following citizen's journal. “Everyday, families are leaving, and every day Madison is growing quieter. You cannot imagine what excitement it causes in our house now if guest comes, for now no travelers pass through Madison any longer. Madison is daily growing more monotonous and quiet and soon not a soul, except of course ourselves, will be left here”.
Father Shawe left St. Michael's in 1842 to become the Professor of Rhetoric at a new university in the growing Northern Indiana town of South Bend. Fr. Shawe laid the cornerstone of the University of Notre Dame on August 26, 1843. His teachings were very successful; the Golden Jubilee History of Notre Dame states, “soon came the eloquent and polished Father Michael E. Shawe, the promoter of Rhetoric and English Literature and the founder of the literary societies at Notre Dame … Here his memory is preserved with enthusiasm as one who gave to the university its first tendency towards that high literacy excellence to which it has attained”.
Fr. Shawe's dedication to Catholic education was the foundation to Madison's own Catholic education system. With his dismissal from St. Michael's came the founding of Madison's first parochial schools.
It was the arrival of Father Shawe that led to the building of St. Michael the Archangel Church in 1839 and this grew into four separate churches. Since then they have become one again.
In 1951 after the priests of the area were told at a meeting in North Vernon that the Mother Superior of the Ursuline Sisters in Louisville, Kentucky, was willing to staff a Catholic High School in Madison. The catch: the two parochial grade schools would have to combine into one. This was a great step in uniting the two churches.
"Looking Back: The Story of the Hilltopper" was written to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the school which benefited the student newspaper, The Topper Tribune.
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Shawe Memorial High School
Father Michael Shawe Memorial Jr./Sr. High School is a private, Roman Catholic high school in Madison, Indiana. It is run by the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Indianapolis.
Founded in 1952, the first class of freshman students was taught in the former St. Michael's Elementary school building, until 1954 when the new facility on Madison's hilltop opened. The school was named for Father Shawe who had founded Madison's first Catholic church, St. Michael the Archangel Church in 1839. But in 1951, the dream of a Catholic high school in a town of less than 10,000 people seemed almost impossible. Back then the hilltop of Madison was mainly all farmland, some of which had been donated to the local Catholic Church (St. Patrick's) years before.
Adding to the city's downfall of the 1850s, new railroad companies were formed throughout the Midwest, competing with the Madison-Indianapolis Railroad. Eventually, fewer and fewer people were visiting Madison, as stated in the following citizen's journal. “Everyday, families are leaving, and every day Madison is growing quieter. You cannot imagine what excitement it causes in our house now if guest comes, for now no travelers pass through Madison any longer. Madison is daily growing more monotonous and quiet and soon not a soul, except of course ourselves, will be left here”.
Father Shawe left St. Michael's in 1842 to become the Professor of Rhetoric at a new university in the growing Northern Indiana town of South Bend. Fr. Shawe laid the cornerstone of the University of Notre Dame on August 26, 1843. His teachings were very successful; the Golden Jubilee History of Notre Dame states, “soon came the eloquent and polished Father Michael E. Shawe, the promoter of Rhetoric and English Literature and the founder of the literary societies at Notre Dame … Here his memory is preserved with enthusiasm as one who gave to the university its first tendency towards that high literacy excellence to which it has attained”.
Fr. Shawe's dedication to Catholic education was the foundation to Madison's own Catholic education system. With his dismissal from St. Michael's came the founding of Madison's first parochial schools.
It was the arrival of Father Shawe that led to the building of St. Michael the Archangel Church in 1839 and this grew into four separate churches. Since then they have become one again.
In 1951 after the priests of the area were told at a meeting in North Vernon that the Mother Superior of the Ursuline Sisters in Louisville, Kentucky, was willing to staff a Catholic High School in Madison. The catch: the two parochial grade schools would have to combine into one. This was a great step in uniting the two churches.
"Looking Back: The Story of the Hilltopper" was written to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the school which benefited the student newspaper, The Topper Tribune.
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