Crawford County WI Archives Church Records.....St. Gabriel's Parish
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File contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by:
Joy Fisher sdgenweb@yahoo.com October 27, 2007, 10:22 pm

THE FOUNDING OF THE CITY OF ST. PAUL

   Apart from the interest attaching to it, we feel that an injustice would be
done Father Galtier if we failed to recount in some detail that upon which his
reputation popularly rests, namely, his founding of the city of St. Paul.
Besides, we have judged it fitting to let Father Galtier relate the absorbing
narrative in his own words. The details of the founding, as set down in one of
his letters, are the following:

   "April 26, 1840, a St. Louis steamboat arrived at Dubuque, bound for St.
Peter (Mendota) and Fort Snelling. Immediately Bishop Loras came to me and
expressed the desire to send me towards the upper waters of the Mississippi.
There was no St. Paul at the time; there was, on the site of the present city,
but a single log-house, and steamboats never stopped there.

   "The boat landed at Fort Snelling, then garrisoned by a few companies of
regular soldiers under command of Major Plympton. The sight of the Fort
commanding from the elevated promontory the two rivers, the Mississippi and the
St. Peter (Minnesota) pleased me; but my discovery that there were only a few
houses on the St. Peter side and but two on the side of the Fort, surrounded by
a complete wilderness, gave me to understand that my life henceforth must be a
career of privation and suffering, and required of me patience, and resignation.
I had before me a large territory, but few souls to watch over.

   "For about a month I remained at the house of the Indian interpreter, a
Scotchman, whose wife was a Catholic. Through their kindness, I had a separate
room for my own use, and made of it a kitchen, a parlor, and a chapel. In that
somewhat difficult position I remained for about a year. At the Fort I had under
my care, besides some soldiers, six families; at St. Peter, besides some
unmarried men in the employ of the company, five families.

   "No event worth noticing occurred, except some threatening alarms given by
the Chippewas to the Dakotas. During that year I was prostrated for nearly two
months by bilious fever and ague, contracted on a visit to some families at Lake
St. Croix. Were it not for the skill of a Doctor Turner at the military
hospital, I could not have recovered.

   "A circumstance, rather sad in itself, commenced to better my situation by
procuring for me a new station and a variety in my scenes of labor. Some
families from the Red River settlement had located themselves all along the
right bank of the Mississippi, opposite the Fort. Unfortunately, some soldiers
now and then crossed the river to the houses of these settlers, and returned
intoxicated, sometimes remaining out a day or two, or without reporting to their
quarter. Consequently, a deputy-marshal from Prairie du Chien was charged to
remove the houses. The settlers, forced to look for new homes, located
themselves about two miles below the cave. Already a few parties had opened
farms in the vicinity; and added to these the new accessions formed quite a
little settlement. I deemed it my duty to visit occasionally these families, and
set to work to choose a suitable spot for a church.

   "I objected to the first place offered. It was the extreme end of the
settlement, and being low ground was exposed in high water to inundation. The
idea of having the church one day swept down to St. Louis did not please me. Two
and a half miles up, another site was proposed; but neither did this place suit
my purpose. After mature reflection, I resolved to put up the church as near as
possible to the cave, it being more convenient on my way from St. Peter to cross
the river at that point, and being the nearest spot to the head of the
navigation, outside the reservation line.

   "Two good, quiet farmers, Messrs. B. Gervais and Vital Guerin, owned the only
ground that appeared likely to suit. They both consented to give sufficient land
for a church, a garden, and a small graveyard.

   "In the month of October, 1841, I had logs cut and prepared, and soon a poor
log church, that would remind one of the stable of Bethlehem, was built. The
nucleus of St. Paul was formed. On November 1, 1841, I blessed the basilica,
smaller indeed than the Basilica of St. Paul in Rome, but as well adapted as the
latter for prayer and love to arise therein from pious hearts.

   "The church was thus dedicated to St. Paul, and I expressed a wish that the
settlement be known by no other name. I succeeded. I had previously to this time
fixed my residence at St. Peter; and as the name of Paul is generally connected
with that of Peter, and the gentiles being well represented in the new place in
the persons of the Indians, I called it St. Paul. Thenceforth, we could consider
St. Paul our protector; and as a model of apostolic life, could I have desired a
better patron? With the great apostle I could repeat: 'When I am weak, then I am
powerful'—a good motto, I am sure, even for an apostolic bishop.

   "The name, St. Paul, applied to a town or city, seemed appropriate. The
monosyllable is short, sounds well, and is understood by all denominations of
Christians. When Mr. Vital Guerin was married, I published the bans as being
those of 'a resident of St. Paul.' A Mr. Jackson put up a store, and a grocery
was opened at the foot of the Gervais claim. This soon brought steamboats to
land there. Thenceforth the place was known as St. Paul Landing, and later on,
as St. Paul. When some time ago an effort was made to change the name, I did all
I could to oppose the project by writing from Prairie du Chien."

   Father Galtier visited St. Paul in 1853, and again in 1865; and thus had
opportunities of seeing what his little chapel of St. Paul had come to. He
loved, the city and the state dearly; and nothing afforded him more pleasure in
his old age than to meet citizens of St. Paul and inquire of them how the city
was progressing. In 1867 the city council of St. Paul named one of the streets
of the city for Father Galtier.


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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