Crawford County WI Archives Church Records.....St. Gabriel's Parish
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Joy Fisher sdgenweb@yahoo.com October 27, 2007, 9:07 pm

ST. GABRIEL'S CHURCH—DIOCESE OF DUBUQUE
Bishop Loras

   In 1837, while Father Mazzuchelli was at Green Bay, his progressive mission
of Dubuque was erected into a diocese, and the Rev. Mathias Loras of Mobile,
Alabama, became the first bishop of the new See. Immediately, Prairie du Chien
was detached from St. Louis and incorporated with the diocese of Dubuque. The
fact that Father Mazzuchelli was made vicar-general upon the Bishop's arrival at
his episcopal See, April, 1839, necessarily delayed for a time the carrying out
of his building program at the Prairie. But, by July of that same year, the work
on the church was sufficiently advanced to permit the ceremony of laying the
corner-stone. The presence of Bishop Loras on that memorable occasion added
solemnity to the celebration as well as a bit of color.

   The people were delighted, he tells us, at seeing a bishop among them for the
first time, and urged him to tarry with them several days. He not only complied
with their wishes, but' conducted a series of spiritual exercises, combined with
a thorough course of instructions, which lasted eleven days. The Catholics,
almost seven hundred souls, nearly all French, availed themselves of this rare
opportunity for spiritual guidance and consolation. As a result, eighty-six were
led to the table of the Lord, fifty-two were confirmed, nineteen baptized, and
twenty-four marriages rectified.

   Then, on a Sunday afternoon, following the Benediction service in a house
which served as a chapel, a procession was formed which moved in a long line
toward an open and elevated space. There, on the ground which Mr. Powers had
donated to the congregation, the corner-stone of St. Gabriel's church was laid.
The bishop concluded the ceremony by giving a talk in the English and French
languages. A collection, taken up on the occasion, amounted to $i05. The Bishop,
too, made his contribution, a gold coin. How much it represented in money value,
we are not told; but whatever its monetary value, it was a gracious gesture in
itself, as it served to indicate both his approval and encouragement of the
cause for which it was given.

   With the departure of the bishop, the work of building the church was
undertaken at once; and so rapid was the progress of the zealous builders, that
Father Mazzuchelli was able to report three weeks later, August 15, 1839, "the.
walls are twenty feet above ground." The details of the building operations may
best be given in the words of the architect himself, Father Mazzuchelli:

   "The stone work is done by Mr. L. R. Marsh, who deserves much credit for his
exertions. The carpenter work is in the hands of a good son of Erin, Mr.
Benedict F. Manahan, whose zeal for the temple of God knows no obstacle, and
whose knowledge of the trade will be sufficiently praised by his work. The
undersigned is the superintendent of the building.

   "This church measures 50 feet in width, by 100 feet in length. The walls are
two feet thick above the base, built of the good and light stone, found in
abundance on the hills which encircle the majestic prairie between the junction
of the great Wisconsin River and the Father of Waters.

   "The style of the church is a chaste Gothic: the front is all hammered range
work, ornamented with .a-marble inscription and niche. The fact that it is being
built on a gentle swelling of the prairie adds much to the appearance; the
houses and farms, scattered up and down, east and west, on the vast fertile
plain receive already a peculiar beauty by the presence of God's holy
tabernacle, and remind us of the plains over which the Ark of the Covenant
traveled, surrounded by the tents of the children of Israel.

   "It is noteworthy that the first church built in the oldest settlement on the
eastern boundary of the Wisconsin Territory, that is, at Green Bay, was a
Catholic one; and the first one on the western boundary is a Catholic one also.
The Cross of Christ has within the last four years been planted in many places
on the west shore of the Mississippi, and most certainly advancing with a divine
step through all the beautiful regions of the Territory of Iowa, will soon, like
a new star, make its glittering appearance on the shores of the Upper Missouri.
Let us pray God to send many good laborers into His vineyard."

   With the building of the church the activities of Father Mazzuchelli at
Prairie du Chien may be said to have come to an end. His other cherished hope,
that of providing a resident pastor for its Catholic congregation still remained
to be realized.

    As for the name, St. Gabriel, which the parish bears, it is thought that, as
Father Mazzuchelli had named the congregations at Galena and Dubuque Sts.
Michael and Raphael, respectively, it was he, too, who chose St. Gabriel for the
congregation at Prairie du Chien, thus to complete the trilogy of archangels.
Originally, since the days of Father Dunand, the parish had borne the name, St.
John the Baptist; and was so referred to in the first report of the parish made
by Bishop Rosati.

   The labors undertaken single-handed by Father Mazzuchelli are almost
incredible. Alone, he ministered to a scattered population numbering three
thousand souls in the vast territory, north of Missouri to Canada and west of
the Mississippi to the Missouri River. Apart from his work at Prairie du Chien
he had, within four years, built three churches in Iowa: St. Raphael's Cathedral
at Dubuque; another at Davenport, and a third at Sugar Creek, Lee county. Today,
in that same territory, the Catholic population numbers one million souls. A
record of his work in Illinois territory forms by itself an extended chapter of
heroic labors: of even greater magnitude than he had undertaken elsewhere. The
foundation at Sinsinawa Mound, midway between Galena and Dubuque, alone
represented the purchase of eight hundred acres of ground; and though originally
intended as the site for a monastery of Dominican priests, it was later occupied
by a Dominican sisterhood. To supply, the necessary funds he had returned to his
native Milan; and there is little doubt, that the money he secured, was in great
part his own private inheritance. The last work of the great builder was the
erection of a church at Benton, Wisconsin, where in 1852 he had been sent as
pastor. While there, he established an order of Sisters that eventually
conducted the educational institution at Sinsinawa Mound, of which Rosary
College, River Forest, Illinois, is a later outgrowth. At Benton he remained as
pastor till his death in 1864.


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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