USA > Michigan > Marquette County > Marquette > History Of The Diocese Of Sault Ste, Marie And Marquette; Containing A Full And Accurate Account Of The Development Of The Catholic Church In Upper Michigan, With Portraits Of Bishops, Priests And Illustrations Of Churches Old And New, Volume 1 > Part 29
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"My time passes fast among these good natured children of the wilderness. We meet early in the morning in the church, Mass follows morning prayers and then an instruction to the neophytes and children which may last for two hours at a time. Upon a sign with a small trumpet these retire and the old men and women enter for their instruc- tion; in the afternoon a similar one is given for grown-up men. In the evening
they all come again. Many have learned the customary prayers either in Chip- pewa or Menominee and the number of those who have received baptism since (the 27th of) November of last year to the 30th of April, 1854, has reached one hundred thirty-two. I noticed right after the first instruction that children of six to eight years and even some adults do not understand Chippewa. I had, there- ' fore, the Our Father, the Hail Mary, and the Rosary mysteries translated in- to Menominee dialect and now, after six weeks, they can say the rosary in either clialect. I hope to acquire it myself in a short time. I am asking the savages how they call this or that thing, thus learning new vocabulary and the difficult pro- nunciation; but I know by heart all the prayers in their language.
"The Menominees are quiet and good natured people; among them are found many fervent Christians and they all hate intoxicating liquors, which virtue impels them most to embrace the Catholic faith. They dislike banquetings because they are usually connected with drunkenness. My Catholic Indians keep, however, one ban- quet in a year, that is on "Three Kings" day or Epiphany. The chiefs are called 'Ogimag'-Kings-in Indian, for this reason, in their simple way, they wish to celebrate the feast of their patron saints. Each year one chief prepares the enter- tainment to which his relatives also con- tribute and this Indian social event passes off in an orderly manner amidst of religi- ous song.
"I must say that the Menominees com- pletely renounce their hereditary idola- trous customs and jugglery ; they bring to me, right after their baptism bags-ful of
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village of Keshena. The site selected by Skolla for his mission was on the south side of the lake. where the shore is high and steep and commands a full view of the lake and the surrounding country. He in- duced the Indians to build a small church and parsonage at once. Both buildings were very primitive; no floor but the bare ground and the roof covered with bark; his house consisted of one room. Near the church was the cemetery (now no longer used), where about one hundred lie buried. In 1856 the second church was to be built in the village of Keshena. From November, 1853, until August, 1856, Father Skolla baptized three hundred and two Indians, one of whom was an old chief far over one hundred years of age. The neophytes were full of fervor ; every Sunday from twenty to thirty received holy Communion.
"To promote temperance among his Indians, Father Skolla had a picture hung up, depicting the evils of drinking and the beneficial effects of temperance. On the left, a drunken man with ragged clothes is seen striking his poor wife with a poker whilst she is clasping to her breast her poor infant child. A devil with a diaboli- cal laugh on his ugly face reaches to him a glass of brandy taken out of a jug label- ed, "Fourth proof brandy." The poor children crowd around their mother, cry- ing. On the right side is seen a fine gen- tlemen instructing his little son. A young daughter sits at a table full of nice things to eat. The happy mother holds a smil- ing baby on her lap whom she is lovingly caressing. The Indians used to look a great deal at this picture, which made a deep impression on their minds and in- duced two hundred and sixty of them to
take a temperance pledge; eighty took it for life and kept it faithfully.
"Although a man of great sanctity, Father Skolla, nevertheless became a vic- tim of vile slanders. Some malevolent, superstitious Indians used to lurk about his poor little shanty watching through the holes and cracks in the walls every- thing he was doing inside. He kept a cat and would, for a pastime, play with it, as he was staying all alone and had no one with whom to con- verse. He would then talk to the cat, and the Indian spies outside hearing him, but seeing nobody with him in the room, were convinced that he was talking to ghosts. In a similar manner, when they saw him play chess alone, as it is said he did at times, they imagined, perhaps, that the figures on the chess board were bad spirits with whom the Father had inter- course, or that the white figures repre- sented the whites and the dark colored ones the Indians; and their mutual strug- gle on the board typified the struggle of the two races for the mastery of the land. Moreover, they saw him sometimes in the evening walking in the grave yard or entering the church to pray. It is said that he spent much of his leisure time praying in the church. This pious cus- tom gave rise to a most horrible calumny. He was charged with opening the graves at night and taking out the hearts of newly buried corpses to make out of them "bad medicine" for injuring people.
"This charge was supported by an old pagan Chippewa, who was on a visit with the Menominees. This Indian knew Fath- er Skolla and came one day to see him. Skolla had a box in which he used to put his things. The Chippewa sat on the box,
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memories of the past. The sun rose as brilliant as ever over the Styrian valley, nature was as verdant, the flowers as frag- rant as in the days when he wended his way to the monastery as a postulant ; the sonorous voices chanting the divine of- fice now also are heard from the choir, but they are voices of a younger genera- tion-there were but few then in his Province of the Order who knew him be- fore he went to America. He therefore seldom spoke of his missionary life. Now and then he preached, otherwise was al- lowed to make use of the time according to his own good will. His skill at draw- ing not even old age impaired. For the amusement of novices he often drew pic- tures from what he had seen in the world. The 'harmonica' which had been a faith- ful companion in all his missions. was made to produce, under his skillful fing- ers, the sweetest melodies in honor of the Blessed Queen of Heaven and then he would sing to her glory in German, Eng- lish, French, Italian, Slovenian, Chippe- wa or Menominee, as his good humor would suggest.
His superiors always showed him a fit- ting respect. In 1868 out of consideration for his health, to give him the benefit of a milder winter he was transferred to Tersat, near Fiume. There in the time honored monastery over-looking the Ad- riatic, our Father Skolla spent the even- ing of his life. The last years his mem- ory had failed him completely. He died on the 24th day of April, 1879.
A small cross marks the grave of this great Indian missionary bearing the ordi- nary inscription.
To his memory we record here these words which he penned himself :
"Jesus, Kije-Mainito Wegossimig! Ki gidapine tchibaiatigong epitchi sagi- iian. Enigokodecia ki wawiiawamin. Iawenumi-chin, wakwing wabamina. Je- sus, Son of God! You died on the cross, because you so much loved me. I thank you with all my heart. Have mercy on me, that I may behold you in the heavenly kingdom.34
REV. LAWRENCE JOSEPH DUNNE
Father Dunne was the first priest adopted for the Diocese of Sault Ste. Marie and Marquette, then only a Vicar- iate Apostolic. Immediately after his con- secration, November 1, 1853, Bishop Ba- raga went to Europe to recruit priests and also to obtain means for his new charge. On his way he passed through Ireland and when in Dublin called on the Most Reverend Archbishop Paul Cullen with a view of probably obtaining some ecclesiastics from All Hallows. But none were available. Only Father Dunne, when learning of the American Bishop's pres- ence and the purpose of his visit, proffer- ed his services ; he was accepted, and came to America with Bishop Baraga in the summer of 1854.
Father Dunne was born in Dublin, Ire- land, in about 1824. He was a graduate of All Hallows and was also ordained priest there at the age of twenty-two for the Foreign Missions. He accompanied the bishop with five other young priests to South Africa and spent five years on the missions among the Kaffirs. Poor health compelled him to return. When he met Bishop Baraga he had been actively en- gaged over thirteen years in the missions of Scotland.
In Upper-Michigan Father Dunne was 34 P. F. Hrovat, O. S. F. in Cvetje 1890.
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to their faith. The report of the agent for the year 1873 was: "The only purely religious work among the Menominees has been done by the Romanists, who now have a priest at Keshena." And Father Čebul's work during 1874 is best mirrored in the report of the same official who says: "The efforts of the Catholic priest among the Menominees have been remarkably successful. He. however, thwarted the attempts of the agent and employes to supplement his labors by holding temperance meetings at the Coun- cil House and the school house upon Sun- days." Father Cebul understood what those "temperance meetings" were in- tended for, and the fact that the agent was dismissed on account of drunkenness, shows that his warning was timely. "Next to God," writes a missionary, "it is due to the vigilance and fiery zeal of Father Cebul that the efforts of bigoted proselytizers were baffled and the faith of the Menominees preserved."
While Father Cebul was fighting for the faith of his adopted children, he was much missed and his absence mourned among his former missions on Lake Su- perior. He received from them a memor- ial of their love and lonesomeness for him. "Mekatewikwenaie gaie nossinan John Čebul" they wrote, "We hope you will not have forgotten your children at Lac-Superior entirely. How anxiously did we desire to see you back again amongst us whom you have favored so many years with your paternal care and love and spiritual instructions ! More than ever we feel now how much we have lost in you and we acknowledge with sor- row, that we have not sufficiently appre- ciated all the labors and troubles you had
with us. But have mercy on us and for- give us dear Father. We promise you to be in future good and grateful children. We entreat you with all our hearts to come back again to your old Mission, where you have labored with so great a blessing nearly all the time of your priest- ly life. This we hope and desire the more being left in a few days by our present priest, Rev. Father Pfaller, who is going to Bad River to stay there for good. We hope and pray to God that you will favor the subscribers with the fulfillment of their most fervent desires and wishes." This expression of attachment was signed by Father Pfaller, John B. Bono, Fran- çois Belanger, Sr., Peter Richard, H. H. Picard, N. LaBonte, Nelson Boutin, Frank Boutin, J. Boutin, Patrick Hanley, Louis Bachand, George Höferle, Benoni Boutin, Thomas Stahl. John Stahl, Sam- uel Bennett, Narcisse Cadran, John Jus- tice, George A. Stahl, Peter Steffes and P. Ley. The same in Ochipwe was first signed by Father Pfaller as François Xavier Wassegigig, Mekatewekwenaie, then, after the two chiefs, John Buffalo and Joseph Chigoge, follow one hundred and twenty seven names.
This decided Father Cebul to leave Keshena, and he would have returned to Lake Superior if his sight had not com- menced to fail, and if he did not have the interest of the Menominees so close at heart. To remain in their vicinity he ac- cepted the Marinette parish which had been without a priest for some time. With customary activity he finished at once the church begun years before by Father Pernin, and induced the Sisters of Notre Dame to open the parochial school. This pastorate so auspiciously begun,
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them, for he was as simple as a child and had no ambitions for ecclesiastical prefer- ences, but he did jocosely pride himself on the fact that he was elected justice of the peace in one of his small missions on Lake Superior.
May his memory be blest! We close his biographical sketch with a composi- tion of his own. He had it printed and used to give or distribute it among the children.
THE CROSS
If e'er my dear,
Thou be distressed, With grief and fear Thy mind be press'd Through bitterness thy heart be torn; If wretchedness or hopes forlorn Should fill thy soul with tribulation, Behold the blessed Tree of consolation. Behold the Sign
Of th' happy tree
Where the Divine
Expired for thee;
To save the mind
From desolation; To save mankind From its damnation. Oh Cross! Oh! Ensign of Salvation! Oh! sweet'n my soul in tribulation; To thee I'll fly in ev'ry grief, In these I'll seek and find relief. Thou tell'st me all my Savior did for me; When suff'ring utmost pangs He died on thee, Oh, Cross! Oh wonderful! Oh happy tree!
REV. HONORATUS BOURION.
The subject of this sketch was born in the diocese of St. Die, France. June I, 1840. He finished his course of philoso- phy and part of that of theology in Paris. His uncle Rev. Sebastian Duroc, who was pastor at Waverille, diocese of Verdum, department de la Meuse, made the ac- quaintance of Bishop Baraga in 1853 and through his invitation came to Amer- ica in 1856. Four years later his nephew followed him. Being accepted as student of the diocese, he was sent for one year to the Cincinnati Seminary for the purpose
of learning the language of the country as well as for finishing theology. On ac- count of scarcity of priests Honoratus was ordained, with apostolic dispensation, at the age of twenty one, on December I, 1861.
Retained at the Cathedral at the Sault, Father Bourion did parish work until May I, 1862. At his own request he was sent to Negaunee to establish a new par- ish which he carried out very well. In 1868 he commenced the building of the new St. Paul's church, and a year later that of St. John's in Ishpeming. This undertaking involved him in considerable indebtedness and at the attempt of clear- ing it. his health broke down and on March 18, 1871, Bishop Mrak gave him permission temporarily to leave the dio- cese. He went to Central City, Colorado, where his uncle held a parish, and after the return of the latter to France in 1873, succeeded him in his charge. In 1877 he removed to Bellefontaine. Ohio.
The Third Plenary Council laid down certain laws about the incardination of priests. Not to lose the prestige in his diocese by limitation of time Father Bour- ion returned to Marquette and was given the St. John's parish at Ishpeming. He remained there from February 17, 1889, till August 1890 when he was transferred to Iron Mountain. Losing his church by fire he commenced building a new one but was removed to Menominee, in June 1893, before he could finish it.
In Menominee ran the last chapter of Father Bourion's life. His labors were mixed up with a good deal of sickness, from which he seemed to rally in the sum- mer of 1890. On October 28th he at- tended in St. Paul, Minn., the consecra-
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tore down the old one. With the stone piled up from the clearing of the land he built a house for himself and in 1881 the boys' orphanage. God evidently blessed the undertaking as all this was accom- plished without incurring a debt.
Until 1872 the Mission church was the only one on the Keewenaw Bay; the peo- ple from both shores attended Mass there. To make it more convenient for the people of the east shore Father Terhorst erected a small frame church at what is known today as L'Anse. In 1886 he built a church at Baraga and relinquished the charge of that in L'Anse. From that time on he said Mass on Sundays and festivals in Baraga and at the Mission. Thus he
labored in his unassuming way to the end of his day, October 4, 1901.
We do not know of another priest in this diocese who worked so long in one place as Father Terhorst did. Forty years of his life have ebbed away among people, White and Indian, whose grati- tude or recompense he never sought. He worked for the greater glory of God and for the betterment of his fellow-men. How many orphans he housed, fed and clothed, how many tears he dried, God only knows. There, in the time-honored cemetery, among the chiefs of old, he took his place, his grave marked only by a wooden cross, just as he wished it.
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