Crawford County WI Archives Church Records.....St. Gabriel's Parish
************************************************
Copyright.  All rights reserved.
http://www.usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm
http://www.usgwarchives.net/wi/wifiles.htm
************************************************

File contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by:
Joy Fisher sdgenweb@yahoo.com October 27, 2007, 8:13 pm

UNITED STATES TERRITORY
Prairie du Chien—Mission of Baltimore and Bardstown

   In the designs of Providence, the harvest at Prairie du Chien was to be
reaped by other priests than those of the European or Canadian Missions. A full
century and a quarter after Marquette had bestowed his blessing upon the
locality, now known as Prairie du Chien, we find mention of it for the first
time as one of the far missions attached to the See of Baltimore.

   When, in 1793 the United States Territory was erected into a diocese, and the
Rt. Rev. John Carroll became its first bishop with an episcopal residence at
Baltimore, one of his earliest appointments to what may be called the 'home'
missions was that of a Father Gabriel Richard, whom he sent as a sort of
vicar-general to Detroit. (Previously, all priests in the French settlements
within the United States Territory received their appointments from the bishop
at Quebec.) Then, in the first decade of the nineteenth century, the far-flung
territory of the Baltimore See was divided. The country lying west of the
Appalachian mountains was formed into a separate diocese; and in 1808, Rev.
Joseph Flaget was made its first bishop, with the episcopal See at Bardstown,
Kentucky. It is in a letter of Bishop Flaget that we find the reference to
Prairie du Chien, mentioned above. He speaks of it as one of "four French
congregations settled in the midst of the Indians" on the extreme borders of his
diocese. Incidentally, it is interesting to note that among the four
congregations he includes one "in the place called 'Chicago'."

   It was Bishop Flaget, too—though indirectly, who was the first of the bishops
to come to the aid of the Catholic congregation at Prairie du Chien. The
Trappist Fathers, who, through his influence, had settled in Kentucky in 1804,
later established themselves at 'Monks Mound,' near the present East St. Louis,
Illinois. Shortly afterwards, however, the new establishment at the mound was
discontinued; but, fortunately for Prairie du Chien, one of the Trappists,
Father Marie Joseph Dunand, remained behind. It is he who became later on the
first priest to minister directly to the mission at Prairie du Chien.

   From Florissant, Missouri, where he had established himself, Father Dunand
set out in March, 1817, for his long trip of six hundred miles up the
Mississippi. After an arduous journey of thirty-four days in company with six
men he reached the settlement, he tells us in his account of his visit, "where
until that time there had never been a priest." Naively he describes the hearty
welcome given him on his arrival at the 'Prairie' by Catholic and non-Catholic
alike.

   In detailing the 'ingredients' that went to the making of that early
population of Prairie du Chien, Father Dunand's 'diary' becomes of historical
importance. What he saw and accomplished during the short month of his visit, we
shall let the zealous Trappist tell in his own engaging way:

   "I administered holy Baptism to a great many, large and small, among whom
there were many half-breeds and savages. In short, all day I was occupied in the
exercises of the holy ministry. Three persons only failed to profit by my visit.
Protestants came every day to the instructions; even Jews were converted. The
savages of different nations were exact in attendance at Mass; the savage women
brought their children in groups, some to be baptized, others that they might
behold a 'Makita Courage,' that is to say, a 'black-robe' who speaks to the
Master of Life. . . . I will say, in a word, that God blessed my work,
notwithstanding my unworthiness, far beyond what I had hoped for."

   Further particulars of Prairie du Chien and its inhabitants at this early
date are given in a memoir of a later missionary and serve to supplement the
data of Father Dunand's account. The writer tells us that the village of Prairie
du Chien, named for an Indian chief called the 'Dog,' whose tribe inhabited the
vast prairie for miles along the Mississippi, had been for about a century a
trading-post of great importance, inhabited for the most part by Canadians from
Quebec and Montreal.

   It is an earnest of the zeal of Father Dunand that he recounts more of what
he did than of what he saw. His baptisms, marriages, and even the blessing of
the cemetery —all are duly recorded in his precious diary- One thing we miss: a
computation of the number of Catholics of the first congregation at Prairie du
Chien.


Additional Comments:

Extracted from:

Centennial History of St. Gabriel's Parish
PRAIRIE DU CHIEN WISCONSIN
1836       1936
DR. P. L. SCANLAN, M. D.


File at: http://files.usgwarchives.net/wi/crawford/churches/stgabrie13gbb.txt

This file has been created by a form at http://www.genrecords.org/wifiles/

File size: 5.2 Kb