Crawford County WI Archives Church Records.....St. Gabriel's Parish
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UPPER LOUISIANA—DIOCESE OF ST. LOUIS
Parish of St. Gabriel —Prairie du Chien
Rev. Samuel Charles Mazzuchelli, O. P.

   With Father Mazzuchelli, the centennial history of St. Gabriel's church
properly begins. The circumstances, attending his choice as pastor of Galena
with its outlying missions of Dubuque and Prairie du Chien, are so unusual that
we may well look upon his appointment as providential.

   The name of Father Mazzuchelli is closely interwoven with the growth of the
Church in the Upper Mississippi regions. Indeed, it would be quite possible,
with him as central figure, to compose an historical biograph, treating of the
rise and development of a half dozen dioceses of the Northwest. In his
comparatively short career, he was associated with the dioceses of Baltimore,
Cincinnati, Detroit, St. Louis, Dubuque, Milwaukee, and St. Paul.

   Born in Italy of wealthy parents, he had come to America in 1828, equipped
with a thoroughly classical education, and was immediately assigned by Bishop
Carroll of Baltimore to the diocese of Cincinnati. After two years of
preparation for the priesthood, he was ordained by Bishop Fenwick, who sent him
first to Mackinac and later to Green Bay. Here, within two months of his coming,
he established a flourishing school among the Menomonees. This first decisive
move towards organization was an earnest of the energetic character of the man,
and gave early promise of what his future career would give unmistakeable proof:
His exceptional powers of organization.

  It was from Green Bay that he set out in company with a Judge Doty for his
first visit to Prairie du Chien. He made the journey by horse, and after eight
days' riding he reached his destination, September 21, 1832. The fact that his
coming coincided almost to the day with the death, of Bishop Fenwick and of his
vicar-general, Father Gabriel Richard, is significant. For whatever permanency
the little congregation at Prairie du Chien might boast of at the time could be
said to be due, in great part, to Father Badin, who had received his appointment
through Father Richard, then vicar-general at Detroit. As for Bishop Fenwick,
the Catholics of Prairie du Chien should remain eternally grateful to him, if it
were for nothing else than that he had made possible this first visit of the
great Dominican, who was to do so much for them and their Church in later years.

   The impressions made upon Father Mazzuchelli by Prairie du Chien and its
surroundings, as recorded by him on his first visit, make interesting reading.
From the outset the place and its setting captivated him. "Here we are at
Prairie du Chien," he writes enthusiastically, "that immense prairie which
follows the Mississippi for many miles, with a chain of hills on the east."
Indeed, it needed but a slight stretch of the imagination for him to see in them
the vine-clad hills of his native Italy.

   Yet pleased though he was with the site itself, he was anything but pleased
with the spiritual condition in which he found the place: "The poor people
wandering about without a shepherd were dying of that hunger of the soul which
destroys life." At once, his practical sense dictated a course of action, and in
his usual energetic way he set himself to carry it through. The zeal of the Lord
was eating him up.

   He wrote immediately to the Bishop of St. Louis, recommending that he appoint
a priest to take up quarters there permanently. To that end he promised to
procure a house to serve as temporary chapel and as a residence for the pastor.
He assured the bishop that the people were well-disposed to help with the work;
indeed several lots already had been offered for a church. He had gone so far,
he said, as to draw up plans for it: it would be of stone, as that was cheaper
and stronger than a frame church would be. He ended his letter
characteristically: "Next spring, if nothing prevents me, I intend to come here
. . . and give a good start to the making of a new and interesting parish."
Throughout the letter he urges upon the bishop the necessity of making of
Prairie du Chien a foundation of a certain magnitude, since "in the opinion of
the public the Prairie will become a considerable place in the new Territory
(Wisconsin). On the establishment of a good and edifying congregation here it
depends, in great measure, what the future state of religion in this Territory
will be and what success the conversion of the Indians will have."

   Clearly Father Mazzuchelli was unaware that, a month before his letter was
written, Bishop Rosati had appointed (as we have already mentioned) Father John
McMahon for the parishes of Galena and Prairie du Chien. However, of one thing
he is fully aware: the urgent need of a permanent foundation at the settlement,
if any effective work was to be done for its spiritually under-nourished
congregation of Catholics. This need is emphasized by his mention of the
tentative efforts of Fathers Badin and Lutz, who had preceded him. He knew of
the late work of Father Lutz among the Menomonees, and he speaks of him kindly
as of one "whom the people esteemed."

   The first visit of Father Mazzuchelli had lasted but fifteen days; yet,
during those fifteen days, he had accomplished more in a constructive way than
his predecessors had been able to effect in as many years previously.

   After leaving Prairie du Chien he went directly to visit his Indians at Fort
Winnebago. The Indians, it seems, had a special attraction for him, and his
heart went out to them. He referred to those at Prairie du Chien as "those poor
beings who have been neglected to this day, notwithstanding their good
disposition." With winter coming on, his visit at Fort Winnebago was necessarily
brief, but we find him there again the following spring, 1833. That same year,
by special appointment of the bishop of the new diocese, of Detroit, he was made
'Missionary to the Winnebagoes.' In a remarkably short time, with the aid of an
interpreter, he mastered the Indian language; and before the end of the year, he
was able to publish at Detroit a catechism in the Winnebago, tongue. Meanwhile,
Prairie du Chien was left unvisited by priest or prelate from the day of his
departure in 1832 till the day of his return in 1835.

   The apparent unconcern of the Church authorities for the 'little Indian
settlement', on the Upper Mississippi may well have tended to make it somewhat
resentful. Since the days of Marquette, full seven generations, it had hardly
been accorded the cold comfort of a passing glance. The generation then living,
accordingly, expected little more than had been meted out to the generations of
the past. It is true, they had fared better than their forbears; but we cannot
be surprised if Father Mazzuchelli found that the neglect had left its mark upon
the sheep of the fold. The wonder is, rather, that after a century-and-a-half
tradition of such neglect there should be any trace of the Faith left among the
Catholics of Prairie du Chien.

   Father Mazzuchelli had planned to continue with his project of building a
'stone' church at the Prairie in the spring of 1833, when he proposed to make
another missionary excursion t« that part of the Territory. But Providence, as
we have seen, had disposed otherwise. Now, once again, that same Providence was
to lead him back by devious ways to finish the work that It had first inspired
him to begin.

   After a three years' absence, the zealous missionary returned to his flock at
Prairie du Chien, in the winter of 1885. Meanwhile he discovered that the
newly-formed Territory of Wisconsin had become definitely attached to the
diocese of St. Louis, a situation which entailed- upon him the necessity of
writing to the bishop of that diocese for permission to exercise his priestly
functions at Prairie du Chien. In his letter to the bishop he says: "I have
started an association for the building of a church; the men pay fifty cents
each month, and the women, twenty-five cents. But my church will not be built
without the assistance of a priest." His purpose, clearly, was to convince the
bishop that the presence of a resident priest was essential to insure the
building of the church.

  On this, his second visit, he had come from Fort Winnebago, traveling by
sleigh over the frozen river to Prairie du Chien, where he remained three
months. He left some time in April, 1835, going down the Mississippi in a
steamboat to inspect the missions in the vicinity of Fever River, namely, Galena
and Dubuque.

   It should be noted here that Father Mazzuchelli was attached to the diocese
of Detroit, since its erection in 1833. From the days of Bishop Carroll, Detroit
had served as a sort of outpost for the eastern dioceses of Baltimore and
Bardstown. Later, Bishop Fenwick, too, had a vicar there to care for the
scattered missions of Michigan Territory. When Father Mazzuchelli first came to
Prairie du Chien, he was under the direction of the bishop of Cincinnati; when
he came again in 1835, for his second visit, he was directly under the bishop of
Detroit. Prairie du Chien, though territorially a part of the diocese of
Detroit, had been canonically attached to the diocese of St. Louis since 1824,
and still remained under the jurisdiction of the ordinary of that place, Bishop
Rosati.

   After his tour of inspection in the Fever River district, Father Mazzuchelli
paid a visit to the mother-house of his order at Somerset, Ohio, apparently to
get an extension of time for missionary work in these parts. It was during this
visit that he received from Bishop Rosati his appointment as pastor of Galena
and Prairie du Chien, June 24, 1836. That he took up his duties as pastor of
Galena immediately, we know from a letter dated at that place, July 27, 1835, in
which he mentions that illness has prevented him from reaching Prairie du Chien.
It is interesting to note, besides, that already he had arrangements well under
way for the building of churches at both Galena and Dubuque. It would seem,
however, that the new pastor did hot arrive at his mission of Prairie du Chien
until the following February, 1836. It was during this, his third visit, that
Father Mazzuchelli, with characteristic energy and foresight, proceeded to carry
out his darling project of building a Catholic church 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.


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