USA > Indiana > History of the Catholic church in Indiana, Volume I > Part 13
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these villages, and, to his regret, he saw them begin to scatter. He had lived on Indian corn and acorns, had toiled and suffered, yet could feel that something had been accomplished. In April he ascended the Fox river, passed a Sac village with its fish weir, passed Kakalin rapids, threaded Winnebago lake, and kept on till he reached the crowded town of the Foxes, where he was greeted as a Manitou. The chiefs came to the council he convened, and there he explained the fundamental doctrines of Christianity, the commandments of God, the rewards and punishments of eternity. He consoled them for their recent losses at the hands of the merci- less Iroquois. They responded at a later council, and urged him to remain to instruct them. Thus began the mission of St. Mark, so named from the day of its first work.
Then he took to his canoe again, and, returning to lake Win- nebago, ascended Wolf river to the Mascoutin fort. Here he found a tribe ready to welcome a missionary. Returning from this excursion he found that by a short portage he could reach the great river Messi-sipi. He visited the Menomenees, with their cor- rupt Algonquin, and the Winnebagoes, whose language, of the Dakota stock, was utterly unlike any language he had yet heard. He set to work to study it, and to translate the Lord's prayer and the Angelical salutation, with a brief catechism, into their language. Such was the first announcement of Christianity in the heart of Wisconsin.
Father Allouez continued his labors around Green bay, greatly encouraged by his reception among the bands of Miamis and of Illinois near the Mascoutin fort. The gentle and sweet disposition of the great chief of the Illinois won the heart of the missionary, who built great hopes on the favor of one who could unite these traits with that of great valor in war. Father Allouez planted his little house and chapel at the Rapids des Pères, from which he attended the tribes on the rivers beyond the missionary station, whilst his companion, Father André, attended the tribes on Green bay.
In October, 1676, Father Allouez set out from Green bay to proceed to Kaskaskia, where Father Marquette had founded a mis- sion, but winter set in so suddenly that he could not proceed till
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February. When he reached Kaskaskia, at the close of April, he planted a cross, and began his labors.
Father Claude Allouez closed his long labors by a happy death on the 27th or 28th of August, 1689, in the seventy-sixth year of his age, having been nearly thirty years on the mission around lake Superior and lake Michigan, which he had created. There is suf- ficient evidence of his visits to the country now comprised in north- ern Indiana to claim for him the credit of being its pioneer mis- sionary.
Of Father Adrian Grelon, S. J., who probably visited north - ern Indiana, we find the following in the United States Historical Magazine, 1893:
The labors and sacrifices of the French Jesuits in North America during the seventeenth century have never failed to awaken admiration and interest. Among these heroic men was a certain Father Adrian Grelon. He was appointed to the missions among the Hurons, a great tribe living between lake Erie and lake Huron. In time the Hurons were almost exterminated by the five Iroquois nations of New York, who had obtained firearms from the Dutch. The surviving missionaries accompanied a band who went down to Quebec. Father Grelon was sent back to France. There he solicited the Chinese mission, and set out for the far east. It is probable that he crossed Spain to take passage at some Spanish or Portuguese port, and on the way, to his astonishment, discovered in a Spanish convent an Iroquois who had been sent to Spain, educated and ordained as a priest. On reach- ing China, Father Grelon was stationed at different missions, and labored with zeal. He wrote a book on China, which is a curious addition to the Jesuit relations of Canada, being by an old Canadian missionary. In time he penetrated Chinese Tartary, and there, to his great surprise, found in one of the camps a Huron woman whom he had known in America. She had been sold as a slave from tribe to tribe till she reached that place. Father Grelon reported this strange circumstance to his superiors and to the learned of Europe, and was the first to afford any proof that America and Asia at the north approached very closely, as was afterwards found by navigators to be the fact.
The Franciscan Father Lewis Hennepin, the explorer of the Mississippi, whose travels are described by himself in a work written for his friends in Europe, in his explorations must have touched the northern part of what is now the state of Indiana, as will be seen from the following condensed account:
Father Lewis Hennepin, a native of Holland, joined the Recollect branch of the Franciscan order, and belonged to the province of Paris, France. It was, as he himself says, the perusal
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of the accounts of the operations and voyages of the missionaries. of his order which awakened in him a desire to follow in their foot- steps, and he was especially charmed with the narrative of the missions in America, which, according to the statistics of the general chapter of the year 1621, had made 500 converts. In 1676 he was sent by his superiors as a missionary to Canada. He began "his first labors at the source of the St. Lawrence river at the foot of Lake Ontario, where he founded a church in the vicinity of Fort Frontenac. His genius was rather adapted to make grand explor- ations and discoveries than to be restricted to a stationary life. Leaving Fort Frontenac on the 5th of December, 1678, he sailed up lake Ontario to the mouth of the Niagara river, in a bark of ten tons burden, the grandest that had hitherto navigated these waters. Here further progress was obstructed by the great falls of Niagara, and he is supposed to have been the first European to. look upon this stupendous prodigy of nature.
Father Hennepin and his sixteen companions chanted the Te Deum in thanksgiving, and on the IIth of the same month he offered up the holy sacrifice the first time in sight of the great falls. They were now obliged to construct another vessel, at some point above the cataract, in order to continue their voyage on the waters. of lake Erie, and Father Hennepin had to carry his missionary outfit on his shoulders, around the falls, a distance of some twelve miles. They commenced constructing a new vessel at the mouth of a small stream, in the Niagara river, about five miles above the Falls, and the thousands who now yearly pass along the railroad from Buffalo to Niagara may hear the conductor, as he nears this locality, call out " La Salle " for the stream, and the place still bears the name of this companion of Hennepin. The vessel being completed, it was blessed according to the Roman ritual, and launched on the waters of the Niagara, accompanied with three salutes of cannon, the chanting of the Te Deum and shout's of joy.
Before proceeding on his voyage, Hennepin returned to Fron- tenac, and procured the assistance of Fathers Gabriel de la Ribourde, Valentine Le Roux and Zenobius Membré. Father Milithon accompanied them to Niagara, where he remained. All things being now in order, on the 7th of August, 1679, the little vessel, (138)
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Griffon, having on board the missionaries, La Salle and twenty- eight others, entered the waters of lake Erie and sailed to the westward. The Te Deum was again chanted, and the discharge of their artillery of seven cannon astonished the savages. They were then opposite the place where now stands Buffalo.
The Griffon was the first vessel which navigated the waters of lake Erie, and being sixty tons must have appeared of surprising dimensions to the Indians, accustomed only to their small canoes. The first cape which they discovered was named St. Francis. On the 11th of August, they entered the strait which joins lakes Erie and Huron, and as it extends itself midway, so as to form a small lake, was named St. Clair, which name it still retains. On the 23d of August, they reached lake Huron, in the vicinity of which the Recollects had carried the light of the gospel more than halt a century before. Here another Te Deum was sung in thanksgiving for the happy navigation of unknown waters and dangerous pass- ages. Not being able to proceed further on lake Superior on account of the falls of St. Mary, they passed to the Lake of the Illinois, now lake Michigan.
Contrary to the advice of the missionaries, La Salle now wished to send the vessel back, loaded with skins, in order to pay some debts; but it was wrecked, as is supposed, before proceeding very far. They were now compelled to continue their explorations in canoes, and, passing by many incidents, we note that in the pass- age from the lake to the Illinois river, they were obliged to make a journey of three leagues by land, carrying their baggage on their shoulders. On reaching the river they erected a fort, which they named Crevecœur, on account of the distress which they had suffered by the desertion of a portion of the company. Here they awaited for some time the return of the Griffon, but she never came, and La Salle resolved to continue the exploration, with the understand- ing that when he reached the Mississippi he should turn to the north.
Father Hennepin, having as his companions Anthony Augille and Michael Ako, set out in a canoe on the 28th of February, 1680, leaving at Fort Crevecoeur Fathers 'Zenobius and Gabriel. After eight days they entered the Mississippi, but instead of turn-
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ing to the north, according to the desire of La Salle, who sought for himself the glory of exploring those regions, Hennepin was obliged, by the threats of his companions, to proceed first to the south, and then return to the north. On the 21st of March they encountered a tribe of Indians, called Taenzes, who treated then with great respect and kindness, and having passed the calumet of peace, with signs of joy, they commenced to pay them the same. honors which they rendered their chiefs. They also kissed Father Hennepin's habit, whence it was concluded that these Indians had some knowledge of the Spanish Franciscans in New Mexico, in whose vicinity they now supposed themselves to be. They halted on the 23d of March, which was Easter Sunday, and not being able to celebrate mass for want of wine, they kept the solemnity with pious devotions. Continuing their voyage, they reached the mouth of the Mississippi and the gulf of Mexico, where they found no. inhabitants whatever. Hennepin desired to remain here for some time in order to make observations, but his two companions, who cared little for such researches, obliged him to return. They raised a large cross of wood, twelve feet high, to which Hennepin attached his name and the names of his companions, together with a short account of the voyage, and, kneeling, they sang the hymn of the holy cross, Vexilla Regis prodcunt.
In the beginning of April they began to ascend the Mississippi, and for twelve days met with no mishap, being kindly treated by the different tribes of Indians along the river; but the thirteenth was an unfortunate day for Father Hennepin. He was taken pris- oner by a band of Sioux Indians and marched off to a neighboring village, where the Mississippi ceases to be navigable, on account of the falls, which he named the falls of St. Anthony, in honor of the great saint of his order under whose protection the expedition had been placed. He was kept a prisoner for three months, dur- ing which time he suffered much from the savages, and was more than once in danger of being put to death. Yet, he did not fail to. preach the great truths of the gospel, as well as his slight knowl- edge of the language would permit, and was at last in some meas- ure consoled by being able to secure the salvation of at least one- soul, having baptized a dying infant, to whom he gave the name of .. (140)
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Antoinette, in honor of St. Anthony of Padua. Finally, in the month of July, he was released from his captivity by the exertions of Duluth, who had the previous year explored the country of the Sioux and contracted friendship with them. On his return to Quebec, his religious brethren were greatly astonished. They had been informed of his death more than two years before, and had celebrated his obsequies with a requiem mass.
La Salle, the foremost pioneer of the great west, recognized the Wabash river as the great highway of western discovery. This is implied in his letters to Count Frontenac, written in the year 1682 or 1683, wherein he states that the route by the Maumee and Wabash rivers was the most direct way to the Mississippi. France claimed, under the title of New France, the entire valley of the Mississippi-everything west of the Alleghanies-a claim which gave rise to the French and Indian war, wherein Washing- ton gained his first laurels as a commander, and which closed with the treaty of Paris. Now the military commanders gave way to the traders, and through the great valleys of the west the mer- chant and the priest went forth together.
The first trading post was at Fort Wayne, the next at Vin- cennes, then, in subsequent years, came others between them, notably that of Ouiatenon, ten milessouth of the present city of La Fayette. On the west bank of the. Wabash was also another, about three miles north of the site of the city. By the treaty of peace, the Northwestern territory was] not recognized as part of the United States, but continued to be New France.
The first western American-born priest was born below the city of LaFayette, at the then Fort Ouiatenon. His name was Anthony Foucher. He was ordained, on the 30th of October, 1774, for the diocese of Quebec.
The ecclesiastical jurisdiction of all this western world resided in the diocese of Quebec. Under, this jurisdiction the territory of Indiana continued to remain until the year 1808. In that year, by a decree of Pope Pius VII, ther see hof (Bardstown, Ky., was constituted, the boundaries of which embraced the territory of Indiana. It extended northward to lake Michigan and lake Supe- rior, and westward to the Mississippiuriver. Through gradual
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changes its area was limited by political and ecclesiastical legisla- tion. In 1816 Indiana was admitted to the Union under an act of congress defining its present boundaries, but it was not until eight years afterward that it was established as a separate diocese.
The year 1834 brought the appointment of Bishop Bruté as the first bishop of Vincennes. His name worthily begins the series of prelates to whom, by Divine Providence, the spiritual interests of Indiana were confided. He succumbed to the rigors of the seasons and the burdens which his own tireless industry brought upon him, yielding his soul to heaven on the 26th of June, 1839, and leaving to earth his illustrious example and his revered name.
His successor was Bishop de la Hailandiere, consecrated bishop of Vincennes in 1839, at Paris, France. He resigned in 1847, and was succeeded by the Right Rev. John S. Bazin, conse- crated on October 24 of the same year. His promising adminis- tration was cut short by death on April 28, 1848.
The Right Rev. James Maurice d'Aussac de Saint Palais, fourth bishop of Vincennes, like all the early bishops of Indiana, had his origin in the fair land of France. Born there in 1811, he entered the Sulpician seminary, in Paris, in 1830, and was ordained priest in 1836. In the same year he came to America at the invitation of Bishop Bruté. Successful in church work in southern Indiana, he was, in the year 1839, sent to Chicago. He had to face a hard task there; persevering, however, he built St. Mary's church, which later became the first cathedral of that city. Afterward, successfully stationed at Logansport and Madison, he became vicar-general, and in the year 1849 was consecrated bishop. He induced the settlement of the Benedictines, Francis- cans and other orders in Indiana. An ardent, laborious, indefati- gable prelate, it was through his extensive travels and correspond- ence that the zealous and wealthy Catholics of France and other European countries first came to the banks of the Wabash and its tributaries. He died June 28, 1877.
The Jesuit missionaries that may have visited Fort Wayne when it was a mere trading post have left no record of their labors. The few Catholics that resided there were visited, for the first time on record, on the Ist of June, 1830, by the Rev. Stephen Theodore
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Badin, the first priest ordained in the United States. At that time the state of Indiana was within the limits of the diocese of Bards- town (now of Louisville), Ky., the bishop of which was the Right Rev. Benedict Joseph Flaget, consecrated November 4, 1810.
Stephen Theodore Badin was born in Orleans, France, on the 17th of July, 1768. He early developed mental gifts that were regarded by his parents as extraordinary, and they determined to give him a classical education. When of the proper age, he was sent to the college Montaigu, Paris, where he remained for three years, and where he acquired a thorough knowledge of classical literature. In the year 1789, having determined to devote himself to the sacred ministry, he entered the Sulpician seminary at Orleans, where he remained until the establishment was dissolved two years later. Three months later we find young Badin sailing the sea on his way to America. He came in the company of Rev. Benedict Joseph Flaget and Rev. John B. David, both of whom later attained the episcopal dignity in Kentucky. .
They reached Philadelphia on the 26th, and Baltimore on the 28th of March, 1792. On the 25th of May, 1793, the old cathe- dral church of St. Peter's, Baltimore, was the scene of an interest- ing ceremony -- the first of the kind that had taken place in the United States. On that day, and in the church named, Stephen Theodore Badin was raised by Bishop Carroll to the dignity of the priesthood. He was appointed by Bishop Carroll to the missions in Kentucky, who gave him for a companion the Rev. M. Barrieres, an older and more experienced priest, and appointed the latter vicar-general for the remote district.
Father Badin remained in Kentucky till 1819. His labors there fill a bright page in the history of the American Catholic missions, but the subject is foreign to this sketch. In the year named he returned to France, where he remained till the summer of 1828, when he returned to the United States, reaching New York about July of that year, whence he went to Detroit to visit his brother, the Rev. Vincent Badin, then assistant of the pastor, the Rev. Gabriel Richard. Over what length of time this visit extended we have no information, but we find him in Kentucky in the fall of 1829, and the early months of the following year. It is
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reasonable to suppose that he occupied some months in revisiting the scenes of his early missionary career, and that for weeks together he was the honored guest of one or another of his French compatriots in the villages of Shippingsport and Portland, near Louisville.
In August or September of the year 1830, Father Badin went to Cincinnati, where he stayed with the bishop, Right Rev. Edward Fenwick. It was probably during this visit that he arranged with this prelate to take charge of the Pottawatomie Indian mission, on St. Joseph's river, Ind. Hastening to Michi- gan, he was fortunate enough to find in Detroit a most efficient co-worker, Miss Campau, who was not only familiar with the Pottawatomie dialect, but who had already spent many years of her life in a nobly sustained endeavor to christianize that particular tribe of Indians. The two reached the seat of their future labors in August, 1830, where they entered at once upon their task of Christian charity. The abandoned Protestant missionary buildings were transformed into a church and school-house, and the young and old of the tribe were taught reverence for God and his com- mandments and precepts, and to speak and read English, besides their own language. Father Badin's connection with the Potta- watomie mission, interrupted by occasional visits to the surround- ing settlements of whites in Indiana, Michigan and Ohio, extended from the summer of 1830 to the spring of 1836. Logansport, South Bend and Fort Wayne, Ind., were regularly visited by him during the entire term of his pastorate among the Pottawatomies. It may be of interest to here give a copy from his own hand-writ- ing of the record of a baptism and burial, the first on record in the church annals of Fort Wayne. The record of baptism is trans- lated from the French, and reads as follows:
Fort Wayne, Diocese of Bardstown.
On the 23d day of January, 1831, I, the undersigned missionary priest, bap- tized Peter David, born the 5th of October, 1830, of the civil marriage of Peter Gibaud and Mary Gibaud. The sponsors are John Baptist Becket and Theresa STEPH. THEOD. BADIN,
Duret, his wife.
V. G. of Bardstown and Cincinnati.
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His first record of burial is translated from the Latin and is as follows:
On the 23d day of January, 1834, I gave Christian burial to Richard Doyle, aged 40 years, a Hibernian from the diocese of Ferns, who died suddenly the day previous, six miles from this village. STEPHEN THEODORE BADIN,
Missionary Apostolic, Vicar-General of Bardstown.
On one of his visits to Fort Wayne, Father Badin induced a Mr. Colerick, afterwards a well known lawyer of that city, to accompany him on a visit he proposed making to an Indian encampment, most likely of the Ottawas, immediately south of lake Michigan. Arrived at their destination they found that the males of the tribe were out hunting. These soon returned, how- ever, bringing with them as many pigeons as they could well carry. A large kettle was placed over the fire, and into it went the pigeons, feathers and all. When portions of the mess were set before the visiting strangers, Father Badin began to eat with apparent indifference to the primitive mode of cooking to which the food had been subjected. Not so his companion, whose more fastidious stomach was in open revolt against the part he was expected to take in the performance. Observing his hesitation, Father Badin said to him: "Do not irritate and insult the red men; we might suffer from it. Strip the feathers from the legs and you will find them eatable." Mr. Colerick took the priest's advice and managed to escape censure for breach of savage etiquette.
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Of the details of Father Badin's labors among the Pottawato- mies little is known at the present time. That his ministrations were effective of manifold blessings to his charge is beyond ques- tion. That his own bodily energies were correspondingly weakened by the excess of his labors is equally certain. After five years of unremitting toil he found himself in such a state of physical pros- tration as to render him incapable of performing his pastoral duties with any degree of efficiency. Under the circumstances he could but ask to be relieved, and his bishop could do no less than sanc- tion his retiracy.
It was more than ten years after his withdrawal from the Potta- watomie mission that Father Badin was again given charge of a t
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congregation. His history during these years is that of a chartered peripatetic, free to go whither he would, to labor wherever and whenever there was work to be done, and to nurse his infirmities when he needed rest. Now Ohio was the theater of his spasmodic missionary efforts, now Kentucky and now Indiana. By the clergy everywhere, both bishops and priests, he was treated with marked consideration and respect. The same is to be said of the laity, and especially of such among them as had formerly profited by his instructions. Restless by nature and restless by force of habit, he was at one time to be seen taking charge of a congregation in the temporary absence of the pastor; at another dividing the labors of an overtaxed priest, and, at still another, rejoicing the hearts of a community of religious by making it possible for its members to hear daily mass, for a brief while at least. He had no need for an introduction, whether to priests or people. No matter where he was led by the spirit of unrest that seemed to govern all his move- ments, he found personal recognition from some, and hearty wel- come from all. This was especially the case in Kentucky, where many were still living to whom he had formerly borne the relation of pastor. For the greater part of the year 1836, and most likely for the early months of 1837, his nominal residence was Cincinnati.
Some time during the year 1837, through the solicitations, most likely, of Bishop Flaget and his coadjutor, Dr. Chabrat, Father Badin renewed his connection with the diocese of Bards- town, and accepted at their hands the office of vicar-general. This position was proffered to him, no doubt, with no idea that he would be able to attend to its duties, but out of regard for him as a most deserving priest, and in recognition of his past services to the Cath- olic people of Kentucky. Up to the date of his relinquishment of the office, two years later, his nominal residence was Bardstown, but it is doubtful if, whether during the period named or the six years of his after connection with the diocese, he considered him- self or was considered by others, a resident of any particular local- ity in the state.
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