A history of St. Joseph County, Indiana, Volume 2, Part 1

Author: Howard, Timothy Edward, 1837-1916
Publication date: 1907
Publisher: Chicago, New York, The Lewis publishing company
Number of Pages: 887

USA > Indiana > St Joseph County > A history of St. Joseph County, Indiana, Volume 2 > Part 1

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A HISTORY

ST. JOSEPH COUNTY

INDIANA

BY TIMOTHY EDWARD HOWARD

PRESIDENT OF THE NORTHERN INDIANA HISTORICAL SOCIETY

VOLUME TWO

THE LEWIS PUBLISHING COMPANY :

CHICAGO

NEW YORK

1907

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THE NEW YORK PUBLIC LIBRARY 455472 ASTOR, LENOX AND R TILDEN FOUNDATIONS. 1909 L

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6 . . .

HISTORY OF ST. JOSEPH COUNTY

CHAPTER XII.

NOTRE DAME AND ST. MARY'S.

I. FATHER SORIN'S PREDECESSORS.

The University of Notre Dame, and St. Mary's Academy, sister institutions of learn- ing, situated in Clay township, St. Joseph county, were both founded by the Very Rev. Edward Sorin; the university, on the Lakes of Notre Dame, November 26, 1842, and the academy. on the banks of the St. Joseph river, a mile to the west, on April 24, 1855.

We have frequently had occasion, in the preceding chapters, to refer to the lakes at Notre Dame and to the missionaries who visited the redmen at that point, at Fort St. Joseph's, down the river, at Bertrand, and at other missions in the Parkovash. Father Sorin and the others who aided him in laying the foundations of the university and the academy, always looked upon this region as predestined missionary ground. In 1879, when a great disaster visited the establish- ment which he had spent a lifetime in per- fecting, the following words of encourage- ment were written, recalling something of these old chronicles and traditions :

"We are living on historic, nay, on holy ground. Not more than a mile from Notre Dame, now over two hundred years ago, the apostolic Marquette crossed Portage prairie Vol. II-1.

from the Kankakee, and embarked on the St. Joseph on that last sad voyage a little before his death. Near to this place La Salle wan- dered about the woods seeking to return to his companions on the St. Joseph river, on that night of which Parkman makes mention when the intrepid discoverer lost his way in the forest.

"After a time we have indications, more or less obscure, of the presence of the in- defatigable French missionaries. It is known that the venerable Allouez labored in this region, and even on the shores of these very lakes; and many missionaries of whom no record remains undoubtedly spent a part of their time on these grounds, by the winding St. Joseph and the crystal twin lakes, reclaim- ing the rude barbarians. Down the river a few miles, near the site of the old battle- ground, on a bluff overlooking the valley and the river, stands a huge wooden cross marking the resting-place of one of those saintly men who gave up his life for the red man. The labor was not unblessed, and 'St. Mary of the Lakes' (Ste. Marie des Lacs), the title given Notre Dame by the early missionaries, became the center of a Christian wilderness, extending over a large part of northern In- diana and southern Michigan. The baptismal

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HISTORY OF ST. JOSEPH COUNTY.

registers of those early churches are still pre- served at Notre Dame; and a mile southwest of here a memorial cross has been erected to commemorate the ancient burial ground of the Christian Indians. The bodies of two of the latest of those early evangelists, Father De Seille and Father Petit, now rest in the Church of Our Lady of the Sacred Heart. Father De Seille died here alone at the altar of his log church, where he had dragged him- self to partake of the divine banquet ere his departure. The venerable Father Louis Ney- ron, still living here (1879), but then pastor at New Albany, on the Ohio river, was sent for to prepare Father De Seille for death, and started immediately, on horseback; but before he had traversed the length of the state, Father De Seille lay already three days dead. Father Petit died beyond the Missis- sippi, where he had followed his 'dear In- dians,' on their removal from here by the government. His body was afterwards brought back by Father Sorin and now rests beside that of Father De Seille, his prede- cessor, and also that of his successor, Father Francis Cointet, who, except Father Sorin himself, was the last of those Indian mis- sionaries.

"It is little wonder, therefore, that when Father Stephen Theodore Badin, 'the proto- priest of America,' first came amongst these Christian Indians and found himself upon the banks of a river named after St. Joseph, and by the twin lakes of St. Mary and St. Joseph, he should have felt inspired to secure the beautiful and sacred spot 'as the site of a future Catholic college,' as he expressed it.

"It would seem, indeed, when we strive to gather up the scattered threads of our local history, that Notre Dame was pointed out from the beginning by the hand of God for great things, and it behooves us to guard well and foster the sacred inheritance which has been left to us. It has descended to us from the saints. From the November day, now nearly forty years ago, when Father Sorin first stood upon these grounds and

Icoked upon the snow-covered landscape-an emblem of virginal purity, as it seemed to him-even to the present hour, there have never wanted earnest souls who have looked upon the ground as the consecrated abode of religion and learning."

That the unheralded labors of those sim- ple and self-forgetting missionaries were re- warded by a blessed harvest, we may know from the fact that almost all the Indians of northern Indiana became devoted believers in Christ, loving as their teachers and fathers, the faithful priests who spent their lives in the obscurity of the wilderness that they might bring Christianity and civilization to the children of the forests.

In Nevin's "Black Robes, or Sketches of Missions and Ministers in the Wilderness and on the Border," it is said that, "The first attempt at the erection of a mission in southern Michigan, according to the testi- mony of the few of the tribe of the Potta- watomies still to be found on the spot was made, perhaps, as early as 1675. The suc- cessful achievement of the project was accom- plished in 1680. Father Allouez, in that year, attended by Dablon, after having coasted Lake Michigan from Green bay, entered the St. Joseph river, so called in honor of the patron saint of Canada, and making advance against its tide, proceeded, until some twenty- five miles (fifty by the river) from its mouth, he reached the locality now the seat of the inviting town of Niles. About half a mile up stream from the heart of the town-a nar- row belt of lowland lying between it and the river-rises a semi-circular bluff, at the base of which, and through the soil of the marshy level, runs a brook which empties its slender contribution of supply into the St. Joseph. On this bluff, up till within twenty-five years since, if not now, the traces were plainly distinguishable of a fortification, the cross planted at the time of its construction, and still to be seen, in the rear of it, indicating by whom, and for what use it was built. Here, conveniently established between an en-

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campment of Miamis on one side of the river, peals for priests to instruct their children in and three several settlements-one at Poka- the faith of their fathers. gon, a second on the shores of what are now One of those earnest supplications has been preserved to us in the words of the great Pottawatomie chief, Pokagon, ancestor of the present chief, Simon Pokagon, whose eloquent speech at the World's Fair in Chi- cago in 1893 in vindication of his people at- tracted so wide attention. known as the Notre Dame lakes, and the third and principal one, close by the fort of the Pottawatomies on the other-Allouez built a chapel and near by a log cabin for his own accommodation. His labors were carried on successfully, and without the occurrence of any extraordinary event to invest them with In 1829 Pokagon, at the head of a deputa- tion of Pottawatomies, visited Detroit, then the residence of the distinguished Father Gabriel Richard, vicar general of the bishop of Cincinnati. Father Richard had then been for thirty-five years a missionary at this point, having charge of the missions through- out Michigan and west to the Mississippi river. This remarkable man, who may be considered the apostle of Michigan, had won the love and respect not only of the Indian and French Catholics of this vast region, but was looked upon by all the people as a wise and patriotic citizen, the mainstay of civilization in the new territory, then recently acquired by the Union from Great Britain. special interest. After a faithful service of several years, he died in the summer of 1689. His ashes repose in the graveyard of the mission at Niles. The establishment was kept up, part of the time under the ministry of Chardon, 'a man wonderful in the gift of tongues, speaking fluently nearly all of the Indian languages of the Northwest,' un- til 1759. In that year the French garrison at Fort St. Joseph's was attacked by a party of English soldiers, the engagement resulting, after a fierce contest, in the defeat of the French. The survivors of the garrison, in- cluding the priests, were carried away pris- oners to Quebec. The mission, thus violently dissolved, was not reorganized for nearly a Father Richard had been elected to con- gress in 1823, being perhaps the only Cath- olic priest that was ever thus honored by his fellow citizens. There he won the respect and esteem of his colleagues and of the other officials of the government. Henry Clay was his particular friend. After his service in congress he returned to his mission at De- troit, where he continued his labors until his death, in 1832. hundred years. In 1829, Father Stephen T. Badin came to the vicinity, to revive the faith among the Pottawatomies, built a chapel on the little St. Mary's lake, near South Bend, bought a section of land, which, conveyed to the bishop of Vincennes, through him was dedicated in the interests of education to the church, and is now the seat of that nota- ble institution of learning, the university of Notre Dame."

During the sad period from the destruction of the missions, in 1759, until the arrival of Father Badin, in 1829, although but an oc- casional missionary visited them, neverthe- less the poor Indians preserved the memory of their faithful Black Robes and their belief in the Christian religion. The chapels of logs and the various articles of the sacred service of the church were, in numerous places, guarded by the bereaved Christians, and often and often they made touching ap-

Sec. 1 .- POKAGON" .- Six miles north of South Bend is the site of the last of the Pottawatomie villages. It was the home for many years of old Chief Pokagon, and the birthplace of the present chief, Simon Poka- gon, who is now engaged in writing his fa- ther's biography. There is nothing about the spot to indicate that it was ever the place of human habitation. In a valley running back from St. Joseph river about a mile to the

a. From "Maudlin," a correspondent of the In- dianapolis News.

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west, at the head of a rippling, winding little brook, surrounded by hills and on two, sides by heavy oak forests, it lies, a peaceful, pic- turesque little nook of farmland, rarely ever cultivated, and seldom visited .except by the farmer's boy going to bring home the cows grazing, where a half a century ago the wig- wams stood, or the relic-hunter, who knows its history. It is hidden from the highway, and not a trace of the old town is left. How old it was no one now living can tell. The few log huts occupied by Pokagon and his followers with their families looked to the settlers who first saw them sixty-seven years ago as about ready to tumble down, and they had probably been built seventy-five or a hun- dred years before. Probably an Indian vil- lage had stood around the bubbling spring that formed the source of the little brook for many generations. The numerous relics of stone and copper found in the vicinity point to this.

Pokagon was a pious Indian. On one of the hills overlooking the village was a log chapel where he and his followers wor- shiped, according to the rites of the Catho- lic church, taught them by their fathers. How long the chapel had been built is not known, but it may have been one of the missions established by Father Claude Al- louez more than two hundred. years ago, he being. the pioneer missionary of the region, whose ashes are reposing somewhere along the St. Joseph river. The exact spot of his burial is not known. In 1759 the English drove the French out of this region, and took possession, dissolving all the missions. They were not re-established for nearly a hundred years afterward, but, although the Indians were deprived of the care and in- struction of the priests, they did not forget the forms of the church. In the latter part of the twenties, Pokagon made a pilgrimage 'to Detroit to implore the church authorities there to send a "black robe" (the Indian name for a priest) among his people.

His speech to the vicar general of the region.

bishop of Cincinnati, Father Gabriel Richard, on this occasion, is on record. It was an earnest and effective plea. "I implore you," he said, "to send us a black robe to instruct us in the Word of God. If you have no care for us old men, at least have pity on our poor children, who are growing up in ignor- ance and vice. We still preserve the man- ner of prayer as taught our ancestors by the black robe who formerly resided at St. Jo- seph. Morning and evening, with my wife and children, we pray together before the crucifix in the chapel. Sunday we pray to- gether oftener. On Fridays we fast until evening, men, women and children, according to the traditions handed down to us by our fathers, for we ourselves have never seen a black robe. Listen to the prayers he taught them, and see if I have learned them correctly."

Then the old chief fell on his knees and made the sign of the cross and repeated the prayers of the church with the Our Father, the Hail Mary, the creed and the ten com- mandments in the Pottawatomie tongue. The result of this plea was the sending to this re- gion of Father Stephen Theodore Badin, the first Catholic priest ordained in the United States, who came here in 1829, and for sev- eral years had charge of all the missions in northern Indiana and southern Michigan. He established a mission two miles north of South Bend that eventually developed into Notre Dame University. He was the reli- gious instructor of Pokagon and his people during the remainder of their sojourn in the old village, and many of the earlier settlers heard Father Badin preach in the old log church on the hill. The church itself has long since disappeared, but its founda- tions are still visible. Down the valley near the river was the old Pokagon town burying ground, and the old cedar cross, with its horizontal arm gone, is still standing in a good state of preservation. It was there when the first white settlers came to this

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Pokagon is represented by some historical writers as the leader of a band of Potta- watomies in a battle with the Shawnees in the days before the whites, but this can be classed as fiction, as Pokagon was wholly averse to war, and his sole purpose was to keep his people from fighting. Again, he is said to have been at the massacre of Fort Dearborn as a peacemaker, and to have been the one who assisted Captain Heald and his wife to escape. This is not believed to have been true by some of the older settlers, who were intimately acquainted with him, as he was never heard to say any such thing, though he said he used all his efforts to keep the Pottawatomies in this region from being in the massacre; and went himself to per- suade Topinabee from taking part in the wars. Pokagon was, no doubt, at St. Joseph with Topinabee when the massacre occurred, and was one of those who assisted Captain Heald from St. Joseph on to Detroit and Mackinac.

The most authentic records of the massacre give the credit of assisting him to escape to John Baptiste Chandonia, a nephew of To- pinabee, who died in South Bend in 1837, and was buried in the city cemetery, though his grave is now unmarked and unknown. Pokagon, after the treaty of 1833, the sign- ing of which almost broke his heart, as it scattered his people broadcast over the land and deprived him of the home of. his birth- place, remained at the old town for several years, and then went over into Cass county, Michigan, where he established another vil- lage, and built another church. He died a few years afterward and was buried under the church, which is located on the banks of a picturesque and charming little lake.

Sec. 2 .- STEPHEN THEODORE BADIN .- It seems fitting that these missions, destined to prepare the way for this great Catholic uni- versity, should have been revived by the re- nowned Stephen Theodore Badin. Father Badin was ordained at Baltimore May 23, 1793, by Archbishop Carroll, being the first

priest ordained within the United States. Notre Dame thus traces her spiritual lineage, through the proto-priest of America, to the first of American bishops and to the seat of the American primacy at Baltimore and the original Catholic colony of Maryland. Fa- ther Badin re-established the mission at St. Mary of the Lakes, Ste. Marie des Lacs, as it was called, building the little log chapel which Father Sorin found still on the spot on his arrival.

So pleased was Father Badin with the beauty of the location, undoubtedly also in- fluenced by a divine inspiration, that he pur- chased from the United States government the section of land containing the two little lakes of St. Mary and St. Joseph, intending, as he said, that this should be the site of a great university. The hand of Providence was in this. The work of the holy mission- aries, from the days when Marquette and La Salle moved upon the waters of the St. Joseph and over the portage from the Kankakee, was to be continued. Their labors were to be blessed, not only in the multitude of In- dian souls which they had led to God, but even more, in the untold multitudes who have since and shall yet go hence to bless the world and to be themselves blessed forever with those saintly confessors in the presence of Him who is Himself the reward of those who toil single-hearted and unknown, but for His glory and the welfare of their fellowmen.

Under Father Badin, and under his suc- cessor, Father Louis De Seille, the saintly Belgian missionary, who succeeded him, about 1832, and whose heroic death at the altar we have related, the missions flourished won- derfully; or, rather, they revived; for, as we have seen, this had been a Christian wil- derness a hundred and fifty years previous to this time, even from the days of Allouez.ª

Sec. 3 .- THE REMOVAL OF THE INDIANS .-

a. See "The Removal of the Pottawatomies," by the Hon. Daniel McDonald, Chapter 2, Subdivision 6, of this History.

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On the southern shores of Lake Michigan, and to the east and west, as late as 1835, multitudes of red men, many of them sav- ages only in name, who had accepted Chris- tianity, and the civilization which grows out of it, continued to dwell. But the govern- ment had determined that all the Indians, civilized and savage, should be gathered on a territory of their own, to the west of the Mississippi. By the end of 1836, some by treaty and others by force, had abandoned the hunting grounds so dear to them, and taken up their abode in the Indian territory.

The Pottawatomies, however, still lingered in their ancient habitations. Many of them, as we have seen, were Christians: they were attached to the soil where they and their fathers had heard the glad tidings of salva- tion; and they trembled at the prospect of a removal to a distant and strange land. But their hopes were vain. In the spring 838 came the order which to them was as a decree of banishment from all they held dearest in life their home and their re- ligion. This last misery, however, was to be spared them. They had for their priest then Father Benjamin Mary Petit, the youthful successor of Father De Seille; and he de- termined to accompany "his dear Indians" to the far west.

Father Petit was a young lawyer of Rennes, France, when, in 1835, at the age of twenty-four years, he felt himself called to a religious life, and sailed for America, where he placed himself under the charge of the Right Rev. Gabriel Brute, the saintly bishop of Vincennes. On the day of his or- dination, October 14, 1837, he wrote to his mother: "I am now a priest My hand is now consecrated to God. How my lips trembled this morning at my first mass. Within two days I start hence all alone on a journey of three hun- dred miles-and yet not alone, for I shall journey in company with my God, whom I shall carry on my bosom day and night, and shall convey with me the instruments of the

great sacrifice, halting from time to time in the depths of the forest, and converting the hut of some poor Catholic into the palace of the King of Glory. My heart is so light, so happy, so contented, that I am a wonder to myself. From mass to mass, to go forward even to heaven! You recollect that I often said that I was born happy. I can say the same still. I had always desired a mission amongst the savages; there is but one such in Indiana, and it is I whom the Pottawato- mies will call their 'Father Black Robe.'"

And well did this young priest deserve the appellation! It is thus he described his first visit to his beloved Indians:" "I remained three weeks among them, and our time was spent as follows: At sunrise the first peal was rung; then might you see the savages moving along the paths of the forest and the borders of the lakes. When they were as- sembled the second peal was rung. The catechist then, in an animated manner, gave the substance of the sermon preached the evening before; a chapter of the catechism was read and morning prayers were recited. I then said mass, the congregation singing hymns the while; after which I preached, my sermon being translated as I proceeded by a respectable French lady, seventy-two years old, who has devoted herself to the missions in the capacity of interpreter. The sermon was followed by an Our Father and a Hail Mary; after which the congregation sang a hymn to Our Lady and quietly dispersed. The next thing was confessions, which lasted till evening, and sometimes were resumed after supper. At sunset the natives again assembled for catechism, followed by an ex- hortation and evening prayers, which fin- ished with a hymn to Our Lady. I then gave them my benediction-the benediction of poor Benjamin! Many practice frequent com-

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A history of St. Joseph County, Indiana, Volume 2, Part 1

Author: Howard, Timothy Edward, 1837-1916 Publication date: 1907 Publisher: Chicago, New York, The Lewis publishing company Number of Pages: 887

Author: Howard, Timothy Edward, 1837-1916
Publication date: 1907
Publisher: Chicago, New York, The Lewis publishing company
Number of Pages: 887