Most Reverend Maurice F.  Burke
1887-1897

Maurice Francis Burke, born in Ireland and a priest of Chicago, was the first bishop of Cheyenne (1887-1893).  Upon his arrival in Wyoming, Bishop Burke found a diocese about the size of Great Britain, with 4 diocesan priests, a Jesuit priest and brother, 8 churches and 28 missions (soon to be 43), for about 450 families, or 7,500 widely scattered Catholics.  There were 21 religious women: Sisters of the Holy Child Jesus, who conducted an academy and school in Cheyenne, and Sisters of Charity of Leavenworth, who staffed a hospital and school in Laramie.  Bishop Burke faced attacks against the Catholic Church by members of the American Protective Association (“Know Nothings”), whose hostility eventually obliged the Sisters of Charity to leave Laramie.  Bishop Burke concluded that the diocese ought to be suppressed; but Rome rejected this proposal.  In 1893 the diocese of Cheyenne was attached to the ecclesiastical province of Dubuque and Bishop Burke was transferred to the see of St. Joseph, Missouri.  Fr. Hugh Cummiskey, pastor in Laramie, was appointed administrator of the diocese (l893-l897).