St. Louis Cultural History Project—Spring 2021
Brother Henry Eils, S. J. (1839-1916):
Tireless University Librarian
by John Waide, M.A.
Brother Henry Eils, S. J., spent 27 years at the Jesuit University in Saint Louis. Few University students knew much about him, from the day he first came to the University as a librarian in 1889, shortly after the school had moved to its Grand and Lindell campus, until he passed away in 1916. During the time that Brother Eils was a librarian, most American university libraries were considered more as repositories for rare and unique books rather than as interactive places where students went to retrieve items for their studies. At many American universities during the late 19th century, including at Saint Louis University, the formal university library was intended for the use of the faculty, while the students were expected to use other collections. Saint Louis University’s catalog for the 1880/1881 academic year reads:
The Students' Library was established to encourage useful reading, and to supply the sources of information for original compositions and for debates. A choice collection of over 4,000 volumes, on various subjects, is accessible to the members. This library is independent of the Sodality libraries, which are of a religious character.
Although few people saw Brother Eils at his work, the bearded brother did meet many students during his regular afternoon walks to the St. Louis Cathedral Chapel on Newstead Avenue and then later to the St. Louis Cathedral Basilica (New Cathedral) on Lindell Boulevard. Brother Eils was ready to carry on long conversations with those who shared one of his varied and unusual interests. These interests included ecclesiastical history, a perpetual calendar, and Esperanto. Esperanto was an artificially constructed international language which first attracted interest during the early years of the 20th century. Brother Eils was so interested in this new language that he clipped twelve lessons on the language from a local St. Louis newspaper and mounted them on heavy boards so that he might teach Esperanto to others. He also subscribed to a magazine devoted to the language and carried on a correspondence with other Esperanto devotees.
So who was this little Jesuit brother who worked in the University’s libraries for so many years?
Henry F. Eils was born of Lutheran parents in the Province of Oldenburg, Germany, on June 25, 1839. Several years before the American Civil War, his family moved to America and they settled in New York. As he was a religiously serious young man, he attended a presentation by a Jesuit home-missionary, probably the famous Father Francis Xavier Weninger. Partly because of what he heard at the mission, Eils decided to come to St. Louis and to ask for instructions in the Catholic faith. He was baptized in 1860, and almost immediately he sought to be admitted to the Jesuit’s St. Stanislaus Novitiate in Florissant, Missouri.
Father Ferdinand Coosemans, the Jesuit superior, was not sure that Eils was quite ready to enter the Jesuits, so he advised him to consider teaching for a year at St. Ignatius College in Chicago and then re-apply to the Jesuits, at which time he would be admitted. But at the end of the school year, the Father Coosemans suggested a second year of teaching for Eils. But the young and determined Eils would not consider another year of teaching and told Father Coosemans, I kept my promise. Now you keep yours.
The Provincial relented and admitted Eils to the novitiate in late August, 1861.Rather than pursue the priesthood within the Society of Jesus, Eils felt the call to be a co-adjutor brother rather than a clerical novice. After finishing his novitiate, Brother Eils taught for many years in parish schools around the Missouri province including in St. Charles and in Milwaukee. Eils also taught for some time at the Jesuit’s Detroit College. Brother Eils took his final vows as a Jesuit on February 2, 1872.
In 1889, Brother Eils returned to St. Louis and joined the staff at Saint Louis University at its new campus at Grand and Lindell. Although Brother Eils’ formal title was Assistant Librarian,
, in reality he was the only
librarian. He certainly did most of the work in the library! The practice at American Jesuit universities was for a priest to hold the title of Librarian
but it was truly an honorary one. Several of these Jesuit librarians at Saint Louis University were eminent historians, including the noted Father Thomas Hughes. Brother Eils would often discuss ecclesiastical history with Father Hughes and the other Jesuits.
During his library career at Saint Louis University, Brother Henry Eils catalogued and classified more than 50,000 books! And his cataloguing efforts were not those of an untrained, but well-meaning, amateur. Brother Eils was the first Missouri Province Jesuit to receive professional library training. He attended the St. Louis Public Library’s School of Library Science, which was then being directed Mr. Frederick Crunden. Crunden was the head of the St. Louis Public Library and a nationally recognized expert in library science. Crunden even served a term as president of the American Library Association (ALA), and he was responsible for bringing the ALA convention to St. Louis in 1904 during the World’s Fair.
Brother Eils implemented the new Dewey decimal classification scheme for the books in Saint Louis University library, and he also developed a clever scheme for the classification of books about the Society of Jesus. Brother Eils meticulously produced each of the more than 50,000 library catalog cards by hand. The University’s main library, Pius XII Memorial Library, continued to use the Dewey system for cataloguing its books until the mid –1960s, while many of Brother Eils’ catalog cards remained in the public catalog in to the 1990s when the Library finished automating all of its cataloguing systems and began using a completely on-line catalog.
Brother Henry Eils, who worked tirelessly yet without fanfare, passed away quietly in St. Louis on February 28, 1916, at the age of 76.