They have carried the Gospel and the principles of better living into the community centers of the land of their adoption. Others have come and gone but left behind them a memory of service. And always side by side or perhaps a little in advance of the men, were the good women of the west. The mothers who know that the spiritual inspiration planted in the minds of her children will make them better people in the years that follow.
Father Byrne's Activities While the Catholic church was one of the three great institutions that responded to the call of the western wilderness in the thirties of nearly one hundred years ago ; while Father Peter DeSmet probably saved thousands of lives along the great trails that went through the North Platte valley, by impressing the Indian mind that it was "The Great White Medicine Road ;" while he performed the marriage ceremony of Lucien Fontenelle (the first man in charge of the first trading fort in the present limits of Scotts Bluff county, and his Indian woman) the Catholic church failed for many years to follow the lead of this great man. It was not otherwise a pioneer in religious activity as it was in so many other sections.
It remained for Father T. C. Byrne's energy and vision to do much of the church building of that denomination, and it was after the substantial character of material progress had reached a stage that none need ■ doubt the valley's future. Father Byrne came to Scottsbluff in October, 1912, a little over a year after he was ordained priest. The following churches were built while he was in charge. St. Teresa at Mitchell; St. Gants at Lisco ; St. Elizabeth at Oshkosh ; St. Mary's at Bridgeport ; and St.