The son of Prussian Polish immigrants, Rev. John A. Lemke, born in Detroit on February 10, 1866, was the first native-born Roman Catholic priest of Polish descent to be ordained in America. He was baptized at St. Mary Roman Catholic Church (1843), at the corner of St. Antoine and Croghan (Monroe Street), on February 18, 1866, attended St. Albertus for his primary education, and studied at Detroit College (now the University of Detroit Mercy), where he received a bachelor's degree in 1884. After attending St. Mary's in Baltimore, he completed his theological studies at St. Francis Seminary in Monroe, Michigan, and he was ordained by Bishop John Samuel Foley in 1889. His added confirmation name was Aloysius.