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Note: N6158 Father William A. Meriwether
Atlanta Tribune (Atlanta, GA), 7 February 1922
Father Meriwether, Aged Priest, Dies At Hospital Here
Rev. Father William A. Meriwether, 88, one of the first five students in the American college at Rome, and instrumental in the establishment of that college, died at 10:15 o'clock last night at St. Joseph's hospital. He was a descendant of the famous Meriwether who came down from Virginia to Georgia and took an active part in the state's life after the revolution, a county being named for him.
Father Meriwether had been under the care of a physician since the night of the burning of St. Stanislaus college, in Macon, to which he was greatly devoted, having spent twenty-three years of his life there as treasurer, and later as chaplain of the institution. On that night it was necessary for firemen and students to force him away from the building, as he endangered his life by trying to rescue a number of his rare old books. He is said to have been one of the greatest students of the Jesuit order.
Before he became a priest, approximately fifty years ago, he was a physician. Converted to the Catholic church, he studied at home and abroad in Rome. Returning, he took parishes until twenty-five years ago, when he entered the Jesuit order. He was at Galveston, Texas for three years and then came to St. Stanislau. He was regarded as the dean of priests at that college.
Funeral arrangements had not been made Monday night, though the body will be taken to Macon Tuesday.
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Note: N6159 William A. Meriwether
Macon Daily Telegraph (Macon, GA), 8 February 1922
Rev. Fr. Meriwether Will Be Buried Here
Funeral of Former Chaplain of St. Stanislaus Academy Will Be Held This Morning
The body of Rev. Fr. William A. Meriwether, 88, who died late Monday night at St. Joseph's Hospital in Atlanta, will be interred this morning in the grounds of St. Stanislaus, which he loved so well and served for twenty-three years as treasurer and chaplain. The funeral will be held at St. Joseph's Church.
The body of the aged priest arrived yesterday afternoon from Atlanta and was taken to Hart's undertaking parlor on Mulberry street, where it was prepared for burial.
Rev. Father E. Bernard, of the college will conduct the services, assisted by Rev. Father William A. Wilkinson of St. Joseph's Church, and Rev. Father Patrick A. Ryan, pastor of the Sacred Heart Church of Augusta. Requiem mass will be celebrated.
The pallbearers for the funeral will be Thomas Castel, A. McLaughlin, John Casson, John McAffee, John Tooney and Dennis Curren.
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Note: N6160 Father William A. Meriwether
State (Columbia, South Carolina), 13 February 1922
Father Meriwether Dies In Georgia
Former Chaplain of Ursuline Convent Passes Away In Eighty-eighth Year
The death of the Rev. Father Meriwether at St. Joseph's hospital in Atlanta as announced in the Georgia papers, recalls to many of Columbia's older generation the priest who for many years previous to his becoming a Jesuit was chaplain for the Ursuline convent at Valle Crucis, now Heathwood. He was a descendant of the famous Meriwether who took such an active part in the life of Georgia after the Revolutionary War.
Father Meriwether was a convert to the Catholic faith and gave up the practice of medicine to enter upon his studies for the priesthood, which were begun in this country and completed in Rome. He was instrumental in establishing the American College in Rome and was one of its' first five students, having been ordained for the diocese of South Carolina. While chaplain for the Ursuline convent he at the same time attended to the missions for miles around. He left this field of labor about 35 years ago to enter the Jesuit order. He was at Galveston, Texas, for a few years and later transferred to St. Stanislaus college, Macon, Ga., where he remained up the time of its burning a few months ago. It was in this catastrophe that Father Meriwether contracted the illness which ended with his death on last Monday night. It was with difficulty that he was induced to leave the burning building, for although in his 88th year and physically decrepit, his mind was alert and he was keenly alive to the urgency of the occasion to save some rare books from the ravages of the flames, and in trying to do so produced a nervous shock from which he never recovered. He died in the fullness of years, having served faithfully, giving up comfort and ease to become a priest.
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