Wisconsin man hopes finding keepsakes of 'Brother Dutton' helps his sainthood cause

By Graham Mueller

(OSV News) -- A Wisconsin Catholic hopes his discovery of long-lost keepsakes of Joseph Dutton can help further the sainthood cause of the layman who ministered to people with leprosy in Hawaii alongside St. Damien de Veuster and St. Marianne Cope.

This past June, Steve Skelly, of Janesville, found long-lost letters, photos and other personal belongings of Dutton in the basement of the St. Jude Parish rectory in Beloit.

The discovery was a long time coming, but it wasn't Skelly's first encounter with the man. He has been interested in Dutton's story for 40 years, learning about him through his interest in local history and the American Civil War.

A native of Vermont, Dutton moved with his family to Wisconsin when he was a child, and he later served in the Civil War.

"(Growing up) I really enjoyed reading and hearing stories about the Civil War, and somehow, Dutton showed up," Skelly told the Catholic Herald, newspaper of the Diocese of Madison.

Years later, Skelly's daughter played basketball at the Brother Dutton School in Beloit. "I started reading more about him (at that point), so Dutton's always been in the back of my mind, but now he had been brought to the forefront," he said.

This started a search for Dutton's keepsakes and to learn more about the incredible man, whose sainthood cause was initiated by the Diocese of Honolulu in 2015, giving him the title "Servant of God."

Dutton, who was born in Stowe, Vermont, in 1843, moved to Janesville with his family four years later. In 1861, at age 18, Dutton enlisted in the 13th Wisconsin Infantry Regiment at the beginning of the Civil War. After the war, Dutton continued to work for the government, identifying bodies of soldiers and giving them proper burial in national cemeteries, and he entered a dark decade of his life, becoming a self-described "functioning alcoholic."

Dutton was received into the Catholic Church on his 40th birthday following his conversion and life-long commitment to abstain from alcohol. Upon his reception in the church in 1883, Dutton sought ways to make amends for the mistakes in his past and answered a call in 1886 to volunteer with Father Damien on the Hawaiian island of Molokai.

It was there, on the island of Molokai, where Father Damien affectionately gave Dutton the title of "Brother" for his work supporting men, women and children with Hansen's disease -- more commonly known as leprosy. Over the next 44 years of his life, Dutton would never leave the island, always serving the Kalaupapa settlement.

"I started reading about him and thought, 'This guy should be a saint,'" said Skelly, explaining how he learned more about Dutton and started looking for keepsakes. "When Father Damien became a saint (in 2009), I was thinking, 'Well, why isn't (Brother Dutton) a saint?' I came across the Joseph Dutton Guild in Hawaii and I thought, 'OK, now I'm really going to push to get this done. There's got to be something here to take and help. There's got to be something in Janesville or Beloit or somewhere in Rock County that will help the process to sainthood.'"

The Joseph Dutton Guild is an organization that advocates for the beatification and canonization of Brother Dutton. (St. Marianne Cope was canonized in 2012.)

Skelly is working with the guild by helping the team from Hawaii understand Dutton's childhood in Wisconsin, collecting and sending Dutton artifacts to Hawaii, and spreading the word about the life and mission of Dutton.

Rumors had circulated that there was a lost stash of Dutton's keepsakes in Beloit on the St. Jude Parish grounds, which housed the Brother Dutton School. However, "I had no connection there," said Skelly.

That is until his daughter, Erin Skelly-Olver, started a job as director of religious education at St. Jude Parish. She asked her father to help clean out the parish rectory; Skelly focused on the rectory's basement, where "nothing had ever been thrown away," he said. "There was room after room after room of stuff that needed to be sifted through and cleared out."

While digging, Skelly found informational posters that someone created in the 1980s, photostatic copies of Dutton's letters, and copies of pictures of Dutton. At first, Skelly thought he found the lost stash.

But "the more I looked at it, the more I thought, 'Is this all there is?" he recalled.

Feeling a little disappointed, Skelly moved on to the next space and worked on cleaning out the coal chute. The chute had a large steel door, low ceiling and, importantly, was waterproof, which meant it housed precious parish items.

Skelly was carrying boxes out of the space when "I hit my head and busted the light out. We got a new light bulb and put it in, but glass was on the ground." While Skelly was sweeping up the glass, he "looked over and saw these boxes that said 'personal belongings of Joseph Dutton'. Inside, I went, 'bing, bing, bing, bing, bing'. I could barely talk because there they were," said Skelly. "We've been looking for 30 years -- we, meaning the world -- looking for more information for the sainthood (of Joseph Dutton) and here they are."

Steve Skelly, granted the responsibility for the boxes for safekeeping, immediately called his cousin Pete, an avid historian who shares Steve's love of Dutton, and told him "to come over here and see this."

After seeing the content of the boxes, Pete said, "I spent two weeks in what I'm calling 'history heaven.' There were lots of pictures of Dutton when he was a young boy that no one had seen before. There were 13th Wisconsin regiment pictures that people hadn't saved."

Among the most notable pieces of information were photos of Dutton's funeral in Hawaii. When these were sent to the Joseph Dutton Guild, "they said they'd never seen any of those pictures before," Pete continued. "There were letters he wrote. Dutton was a prolific writer and had lots of friends back in Janesville. He would write to his old army buddies."

From those letters back home, "Steve and I managed to piece together a few extra visits to Janesville (Dutton) made before Hawaii and after the Civil War. (We know) he loved his mother; he came back (to Janesville after the Civil War) when she was baptized. It's small potatoes to some people, but to local history and the bigger 'Dutton picture,' it adds color and substance to who he was. Everything to make a fuller picture of this man is in (those boxes)," Pete added.

The collection phase of Dutton artifacts is coming to an end. Some of the artifacts found by Steve Skelly are being submitted by the Diocese of Honolulu to Rome for evaluation to advance Dutton's cause.

The next major step in the cause would be a Vatican declaration of Dutton's heroic virtues, giving him the title "Venerable." Next would be beatification and then canonization. In general, these steps each require verification of a miracle haven taken place through the sainthood candidate's intercession.

The cousins said, "It makes us feel really cool. We're adding to the big picture that will be sent to Rome. It might not be the 'thing' that makes it official, but any little tidbit helps."

In 2024, Steve and Pete will travel to Hawaii at different times of the year. Steve has been asked to visit in honor of his work with the Joseph Dutton Guild. Both have been granted special permission to visit the island of Molokai, which continues to house residents in the Kalaupapa settlement.

Visiting Molokai and the grave of Brother Dutton are lifetime goals of the cousins.