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, 9:13 pm ST. GABRIEL'S CHURCH—THE FINISHING First Pastors [Engraving of MSGR. A. RAVOUX ] Owing to a scarcity of priests, the new parish, had to content itself, for almost a year, with the intermittent visits of missionary priests from Dubuque. Fortunately, when Bishop Loras came to his diocese in 1839, he brought with him four seminarians who had completed their studies at Emmetsburg, Maryland. In January, 1840, they were ordained by the. Bishop at Dubuque; and thereby, incidentally, shared the distinction of being the first to be raised to the priesthood in the territory, northwest of the Missouri River. However, our interest in these young levites lies in the fact that all of them were destined, for a longer or shorter period, to minister to the spiritual needs of the new St. Gabriel's at Prairie du Chien. The distinction of being the first regular pastor of St. Gabriel's parish, under the Bishop of Dubuque, belongs to Rev. Augustine Ravoux, who later became a noted Indian missionary of the Catholic Northwest. With the sacred oils of ordination still fresh upon his hands, he took up his pastoral duties. The first baptism recorded by Father Ravoux, that of an Indian woman, Marie Louise, aged 35, bears the date, March, 1840. The last entry in the record, signed by him1, is that of a John Lawless, whom he baptized at Patch Grove in the family home, September, 1841. That same month, rather abruptly, he left Prairie du Chien to assume the post of 'Missionary to the Sioux,' among whom for a short period he was associated with Father Galtier, the founder of St. Paul, Minnesota. During these years we find that his zeal led him back on one occasion to his flock at Prairie du Chien. In April, 1843, down the ice-bound river from the north he came—with the mailman, and arrived on Easter morning in time to celebrate Mass and the day of the Resurrection with the happy congregation. The particular interest of this visit for us is that the first publication to see the light of day at Prairie du Chien—a Church-History and Catechism in the Sioux language—was its direct outcome, as it was also the sole purpose of Father Ravoux's. unheralded coming. Father Joseph Cretin, who in 1841 had succeeded him as pastor, provided the printing-press and a thirteen-year-old boy, as printer's devil—both press and printer's devil, undoubtedly the earliest in the settlement; and with their combined assistance Father Ravoux's precious little work was duly printed and published under the Indian title, 'Wakantanka Ti ki Chanka' (Path to the House of God). Rev. Joseph Cretin, the immediate successor of Father Ravoux at St. Gabriel's, had come to America from France with Bishop Loras, who before he came to Dubuque had gone to Europe to gather recruits for his diocese. He served as vicar-general for eleven years, dividing his time between his Winnebago mission near Fort Atkinson, Iowa, and his more official duties at St. Gabriel's and Dubuque. Here was a priest, according to Father Mazzuchelli, who did more spiritually for St. Gabriel's parish than any that had preceded him. His last record as pastor is dated April 7, 1844. In 1851, he was made first bishop of St. Paul, and died there six years later. During his pastorate, the youthful and promising Father Petiot made St. Gabriel's his headquarters as missionary to the Indians in the vicinity. [Engraving of MSGR. J. CRETIN] The Reverend Florimond Joseph Bonduel, esteemed by all for his scholarship and familiarly known among non-Catholics as 'the elegant Frenchman,' followed the saintly Father Cretin at St. Gabriel's. Like Father Mazzuchelli before him, he had seen service at Mackinac and Green Bay, and like him too, was sent from Detroit to visit Prairie du Chien and its surrounding missions, Patch Grove, Kickapoo, the Bluff, the Chippewa settlement. At this point of our narrative it will be of interest to note that, when in the early 'forties the question of selecting a See for Wisconsin was discussed, the most prominent among the places mentioned for the distinction was Prairie du Chien. The following are some of the determinants which caused authorities to turn to' it as a possible candidate for the honor. As far back as 1836, along with other towns in the lead region, which early had attracted immigration to the southwestern part of the state, Prairie du Chien was given prominent mention as a location for the future state capital. A decade later, a plan was set on foot to make it the terminus of a railroad, with Milwukee the starting point, a project that, we know, was finally carried to completion in 1856. Perhaps, too, the fact that St. Gabriel's church was at the time the largest and most important in Wisconsin came in for consideration. Prairie du Chien, however, had to reckon with two worthy rivals in the race for the coveted See, namely, Green Bay and Milwaukee. It is matter of history that the projected diocese at the junction of the Wisconsin and Mississippi rivers vanished into thin air, when the since well-known Father Kundig tilted a favorable balance of authoritative opinion towards the choice, of Milwaukee. His organization, the Wisconsin Total Abstinence Society, in a remarkable celebration on the first anniversary of its founding, held March 17, 1843, in Milwaukee, gave that city a desired publicity in the newspapers throughout the country; and incidentally, it is believed, definitely impressed ecclesiastical authorities. At all events, Milwaukee was designated as the See for Wisconsin in the Fifth Provincial Council of Baltimore, May 17, 1843. At the time, the population of Milwaukee numbered 7,000; that of Prairie du Chien, at most 700. How it would have affected the growth of its population, had Prairie du Chien been selected as the episcopal See, must always, of course, remain problematical. The Council decided for Milwaukee; and as future developments have clearly proved, it chose, not only well, but wisely. 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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