127336
of the Middle United States
GILBERT J. GARRAGHAN, S.J., Ph.D.
RESEARCH PROFESSOR OF HISTORY INSTITUTE OF JESUIT HISTORY LOYOLA UNIVERSITY^ CHICAGO
IN THREE VOLUMES
VOLUME I
NEW YORK
AMERICA PRESS 1938
ARTHUR J SCANLAN, SXD Censor Ltbrorum
Smprtmatur:
ATRICK CARDINAL HAYES Archbishop of New York
August I, Copyright, 1938, by THE AMERICA PRESS
PRINTED IK TKF U K I T K 3> STATBS Of A M ft It X C A *BY J. J, LITTI»B AN» IVBS COM^ANV^ W»W YORK
TO HIS PATFRNITY ^ THE VERY REVEREND WLODIMIR LRDOCHOWSKI * TWENTY-SIXTH GENERAL OF THE SOCIETY OF JKSUS ^ IN TOKFN OF THE HIGH REGARD AND DEEP VEN- I< RATION BORNE HIM BY HIS SONS IN THE MIDDLE UNITED STATES % WHO HAVE ENTERED INTO A GREAT TRADITION OF ZEALOUS WHOLEHEARTED EFFORT FOR THE COMING OF CHRIST'S KINGDOM %< AN INHERITANCE UNTO THEM FROM THE MKN OF THEIR ORDER WHO IN PIONEER DAYS OPENED THE WAY OF JKSUIT ENDEAVOR IN THAT SPLENDID AND FAR- FLUNG REGION
ON OCCASION OF THE IMPENDING QUADRICENTENNIAL OF THE FOUNDING OF THE SOCIETY OF JESUS IN 1540
PREFACE
This history purposes to tell the authentic story of the Society of Jesus m the Middle United States. That body, as other Catholic re- ligious bodies of men and women having international affiliations, is organized into administrative units or provinces, the Jesuits of the Middle United States constituting, during practically all the period covered by the present work, the province of Missouri with executive headquarters in St. Louis.* But the territorial extent of the province of Missouri has been of far greater sweep than the historic common- wealth the name of which it borrows. It embraced up to recent date fifteen states, lying severally in the upper Mississippi Valley or in the basin of the Great Lakes or in both. The term "Middle United States" consequently best describes the widely extended area which constituted the field of operations of the Jesuits of the jurisdiction named. That area, roughly outlined, included the territory lying between the forty- ninth parallel, Mason and Dixon's line, the Rocky Mountain Continen- tal Divide and the eastern boundaries of Michigan and Ohio.
The history of the midwestern Jesuits has now filled out a hundred years and more, crowded with every sort of ministerial and educational endeavor. Reaching out from St. Louis in this direction and that over the territory indicated, they have through the agency of schools of every grade, as also of parishes, mission-posts and other media of apostolic effort and enterprise, identified themselves with the religious and in a measure with the civil beginnings of most of the important localities of the central states. What lends special significance to the record before us is the circumstance that this particular branch of the Jesuit organi- zation grew up from rude beginnings to maturity fan fassu with the great expanse of territory on which its activities have been staged. Men of its jurisdiction were spending their energies in religious and humani- tarian service of various sorts in most of the great western cities of today at a period when the latter were but pioneer communities pain- fully struggling forward to their present growth. Furthermore, over the earlier chapters of the story hangs something of the romance and glamor of the Old Frontier. The paths of the first midwestern Jesuits
*In 1928 the Missouri Province territory lying east of the Mississippi River (Wisconsin and a part of Illinois excepted) was organized into a separate and independent Jesuit province with headquarters in Chicago. The history here set before the reader chronicles the activities of both provinces, Missouri and Chicago.
vi PREFACE
lay across those of many of the history-making figures on the stage of the advancing frontier. Van Quickenborne, their leader, had frequent business dealings with William Clark of the Lewis and Clark expedition, America's greatest epic of exploration, while their best known Indian missionary, De Smet, made personal contacts with John McLoughlm, "Father of Oregon." In fine, the Old Frontier, "the most American thing in all America," eloquent of every manner of daring and adventure, was in large measure the historic background against which the pioneer missionary and educational efforts of the Jesuits of the Middle West were set.
The material of this history has been derived from a great range and variety of sources, among them, m particular, the general archives of the Society of Jesus, the archives of the Jesuit provinces of Missouri, Maryland-New York, Northern Belgium, and Lower German), the Baltimore and St. Louis archdiocesan archives, the "Catholic Archives of America" (Notre Dame University), and the files of the Indian Office, Department of the Interior, Washington. But numerous other archival depositaries have also been drawn upon, an effort having been made to set the narrative at every stage of its development on a secure basis of first-hand documentary information. In fine, the absence, m general, of printed accounts bearing in any significant way on the history of the midwestern Jesuits made it necessary for the author to derive his material almost entirely from original and unpublished sources.
The problem of handling the great complexity of detail involved in such a comprehensive record as is here attempted has been met, wisely, it is believed, by adopting on the whole a method of treatment broadly topical rather than stiffly chronological. Hence, it results, the Kickapoo and Council Bluffs Missions, to cite these two instances by way of illustration, are disposed of m individual chapters, each present- ing a comprehensive and rounded-out treatment of the respective missions for the entire course of their history. This plan, while neces- sitating an occasional overlapping of content and a certain forward and backward movement among successive administrative periods, has the outbalancing advantage of making for unity and continuity of treatment m all important topics that come to hand. A merely chronological scheme has too many inconveniences to commend itself for adoption in a record like the present, set as this is against a frequently shifting physical background and presenting a very great diversity of concur- rent activities, missionary, educational and otherwise.
This history, as originally planned and written, did not extend beyond the Civil War period or the end of the sixties* I^ater it was thought advisable to continue the narrative so as to have it cover at least the first century, 1823-1923, of Jesuit activity in the Middle
PREFACE vii
United States and even more recent years But for the period subse- quent to the sixties no attempt is made at documentation. Here the treatment is necessarily sketchy, being only a brief survey of matters an adequate account of which is precluded by limitations of space. The dispatch with which many topics are thus disposed of can be no measure of the significance that is theirs in the Jesuit story here told. The out- standing gam achieved by carrying the narrative up to recent date is that it becomes possible on this plan to bring to the reader's notice the impressive development that has come to crown the efforts and sacri- fices, often of heroic degree, of the pioneer Jesuits of the Middle West.
Translations of letters and documents are the author's own unless otherwise indicated m the foot-notes. In all quoted matter, whether original text or translation, in all verbatim citations of documentary material, the original text is reproduced without change, except in rare instances where slight verbal alterations are introduced. In the case of translations the capitalization and spelling of proper names which obtain m the original are retained even though at variance with the style adopted in the text of the history. The spelling of Indian names con- forms to the usage of the United States Bureau of Ethnology.
For key-letters to archival depositaries and abbreviations of titles of periodicals, the reader is referred to Vol. Ill, pp 602, 614.
The author makes grateful acknowledgment to all, and their num- ber is considerable, who have m any manner assisted him m the prepara- tion of the work. In particular, he is greatly indebted to Reverend Laurence J. Kenny, S J , and Reverend William T. Doran, S J , for their careful and critical reading of the manuscript. A similar service was rendered by the late Reverend William Banks Rogers, S J Again, the author expresses cordial thanks for the courtesies shown in his regard by the keepers of archives, civil or ecclesiastical, whether in the United Str ° Canada or Europe, who have obligingly placed their treasures at h * ,r\l or otherwise aided him in his researches. Acknowledgment is likewu made to Reverend Alfred G. Brickel, SJ, and Reverend Gerald A. Pfczgibbons, S J,, who gave generous assistance on the proofs. Reverend Fraft^is X. Talbot, S J., and Reverend Francis P LeBuffe, S.J., lent valuable aid m attending to details of publication. A special measure of grateful appreciation is due to Reverend Charles H Cloud, S J , provincial superior of the Chicago Province of the Society of Jesus, 1930-1936, to whose enlightened enterprise is due the solution of the economic problem attending the publication of the volumes.
The sketch-maps illustrating the text at various stages are due to the technical skill of Reverend John P. Markoe, S J., and Reverend Jerome V, Jacobsen, S.J., whose services in this connection are acknowl- edged with many thanks.
Vlll
PREFACE
Finally, the author cannot but express the hope that the following pages may serve in some small measure to bring home to the reader the efforts of three generations of earnest men to pursue on the stage of the Middle United States the high ideals traced out for them by their religious leader under Christ, St. Ignatius Loyola.
THE AUTHOR
Loyola Umverstty, Chicago January i> 1938.
CONTENTS
INTRODUCTION THE JESUITS OF MID-AMERICA, 1673-1763
PART ONE
THE JESUIT MISSION OF MISSOURI
CHAPTER I. THE MARYLAND JESUITS
§ I The Maryland Mission, 9 § 2. Father Nennckx and his Jesuit recruits, ii. §3. The Belgian icciuits of 1821, 15 §4. Father Van Quicken- borne, 22, § 5. The White Marsh novitiate, 28.
CHAPTER II. BISHOP DU BOURG AND THE SOCIETY OF JESUS
§ I Bibhop Du Bourg, 35 § 2 Appeals for missionaries, 40 § 3 Negotia- tions with government, 45 § 4 Negotiations with the Maryland Jesuits, 55 § 5. Transfer of the novitiate, 72.
CHAPTER III. THE JOURNEY TO MISSOURI
§ I The Cumberland Road, 79. § 2 On the Ohio, 84.
CHAPTER IV. THE FIRST YEARS AT FLORISSANT
§ I. The Bishop's Farm, 92 § 2 Taking possession of the farm, 97. § 3 A period of distress, 108. § 4. Beginnings of the scholasticate, 125. § 5. The Muiyland superior at Florissant, 131. § 6. The Concordat, 138.
CHAPTER V. ST. REGIS SEMINARY
§ I. An educational venture, 147 § 2. Correspondence with government, *53' § 3- The school m operation, 161 § 4, Passing of the school, 165.
CHAPTER VI. FIRST MISSIONARY VENTURES AMONG THE INDIANS
§ i. Father Van Quickenborne and the Indian problem, 170 § 2. The first Catholic missionary to the Osage, 176. § 3. Van Quickenborne's excursions to the Osage, 182.
CHAPTER VII. EARLY PAROCHIAL MINISTRY
§ i. St. Ferdinand, 195, § 2 St. Charles, 203. § 3. Portage des Sioux, 218 § 4. Dardennc, 224.
IX
x CONTENTS
CHAPTER VIII. MISSIONARY EXCURSIONS IN MISSOURI AND ILLINOIS
§ I Central Missouri, 228 § 2 The Salt River Mission, 238 § 3 Western Illinois, 24.3 § 4 At the mouth of the Kansas, 254 § 5 The Platte Pur- chase, 264.
CHAPTER IX. THE BEGINNIGNS OF ST. LOUIS UNIVERSITY
§ i Bishop Du Bourg's invitation, 269 § 2 Bishop Du Bourg and the Col- lege Lot, 275 § 3 The new St Louis College, 282 § 4 Earlv struggles 294 § 5 The question of tuition-money, 303
PART TWO
JESUIT GROWTH IN THE MIDDLE WEST THE THIRTIES AND FORTIES
CHAPTER X. THE VISITATION OF 1831-1832
§ I The independent Mission of Missouri, 311. § 2. Father Kcnncv, \ isitor of Missouri, 317 § 3 The Visitor and St Louis College, 322 § 4 Close ot the visitation, 326.
CHAPTER XI. RECRUITING THE MISSION
§ I The first accessions, 331. § 2 A laj- recruiting agent, 338. § 3 St. Stanislaus Novitiate, 342 § 4, The Belgian expedition^, 350. § 5. Kailv benefactors, 361.
CHAPTER XII. THE KICKAPOO MISSION
§ i. The Indian Mission, 376 § 2. Preparation* for the Kiekapuo Mi^um, 386. § 3 The mission opens, 395 § 4 A slender harvest, 402* § 5. The passing of Fathci Van Quickenborne, 408. § 6* Verhuegen and the I mil an Office, 414 § 7 The mission suppressed, 418.
CHAPTER XIII. THE POTAWATOMI MISSION OF COUNCIL BLUFFS
§ i. The Potawatomi, 422 § 2 Negotiations with government, 425* § v Opening of St Joseph's Mission, 432. § 4* A short-In ed minion, f,^.
CHAPTER XIV. THE MISSION OF CENTRAL MISSOURI
§ i. St Joseph's residence, New Wtstphaha, 447. § z Missionary excursion*, 1838-1842, 455 § 3. Father HcJiaa at Haarville, 465. § 4. (Growth of the parishes, 473
CHAPTER XV THE SUCCESSION OF SUPERIORS, 1831-1848
§ i. Theodore De Thcux, 1831-1836, 482 §2. Peter Verhacgen, 1836- 1843, 487 § 3 James Oliver Van de Velde, 1843-1848, 504.
CONTENTS xi
CHAPTER XVI. JOHN ANTHONY ELET, VICE-PROVINCIAL, 1848-1851
§ i Father Elet's appointment, 1848, 513. §2 Father Van de Velde be- comes Bishop of Chicago, 515 § 3 The affair with Archbishop Kennck, 5 1 8 & 4- The Swiss refugees of 1848, 524 § 5 Recurring problems, 541 § 6 Closing days, 546.
PART THREE
JESUIT GRQWTH IN THE MIDDLE WEST THE FIFTIES AND SIXTIES
CHAPTER XVII. THE SUCCESSION OF SUPERIORS, 1851-1871
§ i Ovcreuger zeal, 553. § 2. William Stack Murphy, 557. § 3 John Bap- tist Druyts, 565. § 4. Ferdinand Coosemans, 571.
CHAP'I I'R XVIII. TRAINING THE PERSONNEL
§ i The novice-masters, 593 § 2 Noviceship life, 598. § 3. Novitiate buildings and farm, 604. §4 The junioratc, 620 § 5 The scholasticate, 623. § 6 The common scholasticate, 637 § 7 The tertianship, 645. § 8. Recruiting the workers, 647.
Church block, St. Louis, 1 8 23 Facing -page 9 1
Louis William Valentine Du Bourg 96
Charles Nermckx 9^
Charles De La Croix 97
Venerable Mother Rose Philippine Duchesne, R.S.CJ 97
St. Regis Seminary, Florissant, Mo, 1830 166
Church and rectory of St Francis Regis, Kansas City, Mo. 261
St. Louis University, original structure, 1829-1833 298
Peter Kenney, S J. 312
Kickapoo Mission, 1837 403
St. Joseph's Mission, Council Bluffs, Iowa 436
Ferdinand Helias, S J. 476
Peter Verhaegen, S J. 498
John A. Elet, S J. 514
William S. Murphy, S J. 564
John B. Druyts, SJ. 564
Ferdinand Coosemans, SJ. 564
Joseph E. Keller, SJ. 564
Isidore Boudreaux, S J. 606
"Rock Building," Florissant, Mo. 606
FACSIMILES OF DOCUMENTS
Letter of Du Bourg to Calhoun, March 10, 1 823 Facing page 54
Last page of letter of Calhoun to Du Bourg,
March 21, 1822 (1823) 55
First page of letter of B. Fenwick to Fortis Between pages 96-97
A Van Quickenborne report on the Indian school, 1825-1826
Between pages 166-167
Letter of Van Quickenborne to Cass, July 10, 1 832 Facing page 167
Record of marriage of Benjamin Lagauthene and Charlotte Gray 261
Letter of Van Quickenborne to Kenney, November 15, 1830 313
Letter of Verhaegen to McSherry, October 20, 1838 498
Page of memorial of Van de Velde to Roothaan, 1841 499
Part of letter of Elet to Roothaan, October 24, 1848 514
Page of memorial of Elet to Roothaan, 1847 515
Part of letter of W. S. Murphy to Roothaan, October 8, 1851 565
MAPS
Route followed by Van Quickenborne's party of 1823 Facing page 90
Four Missouri parishes 202,
Missouri River circuit 238
Salt River Mission 239
Van Quickenborne's missionary circuit Missouri, Illinois,
Iowa, 1832-1834 244
Missionary circuit, Missouri frontier 260
"The Indian Country," sketch by Van Quickenborne, I 402
"The Indian Country," sketch by Van Quickenborne, II
Between pages 402-403
Mission of Central Missouri, 1838-1867 Between pages 476-477
Mission of Central Missouri, sketch by Ehrensberger Fating page 477
INTRODUCTION THE JESUITS OF MID-AMERICA, 1673-1763
The arrival of Father Van Quickenborne and his Belgian novices at Florissant, Missouri, in 1823, marked the renewal after a period of forced interruption and not the actual beginning of Jesuit missionary enterprise in the Middle United States. That beginning was made at least as early as 1673 when Father Marquette in his historic voyage down the Mississippi ministered to the Indians along its banks and formed plans for evangelizing the region drained by the great water- way and its tributary streams. These plans were to be realized, if not wholly, at least in part. The work of religious and humanitarian service on behalf of the native red men inaugurated by Marquette was earned forward in the face of tremendous obstacles by successive members of his order, mid-America remaining a favorite field of Jesuit missionary activity down to 1763, when, as an incident in the general destruction of the Society of Jesus throughout the world, its missions m that section of North America were stricken down at a single blow. Between Marquette, the first Jesuit to traverse the watershed of the Mississippi, and Sebastien Louis Meurm, the last of his eighteenth-century successors to exercise the sacred ministry m that region, a long line of missionaries of the Society of Jesus devoted themselves to the formidable task of Christianizing and civilizing the savage population of mid-continental North America. It would not be in accord with the facts to say that their labors issued in complete success. Difficulties of every description were met with thwarting their pious designs and preventing them from reaping in proper measure the fruits of the harvest. But the work was nobly planned and heroically persevered in, and its written record, as we read it in the letters of Gravier, Gabriel Marest, Vivier and their associates, is a fascinating chapter in the history of Catholic missionary achievement in the New World. The group of Belgian Jesuits that settled on the banks of the Missouri in the third decade of the nine- teenth century were therefore not the first of their order to enter the great sweep of territory flanked by the Alleghanies and the Rockies. A path for civilization, no less than for the Gospel, had been blazed before them by their brethren of the seventeenth and eighteenth cen- turies; and, as grateful personal recollections of the earlier line of Jesuit workers still lingered in the memory of the oldest inhabitants when
2 THE JESUITS OF THE MIDDLE UNITED STATES
Van Quickenborne and his party appeared on the scene, the thread o£ continuity between the old and the new Society of Jesus in the Middle United States remained in a sense unbroken.1
Rounding out m 1936 a hundred and thirteen years of history, the midwestern Jesuits of the United States were in this year conducting establishments in the states of Missouri, Kansas, Nebraska, South Dakota, Wyoming, Colorado, Minnesota, Wisconsin, Michigan, Ohio, Indiana, and Illinois, as also m British Honduras and British East India. Moreover, they had in the past maintained houses m Louisiana and Kentucky and in the territory now comprised within the states of Mon- tana, Idaho, Washington, and Oregon. Their present field of operations may be said to comprise in the rough two great regions, one, the part of the basin of the Great Lakes lying south of the Canadian border and west of New York State, the other the upper Mississippi Valley, exclu- sive of its extreme northwestern reaches.14 The first Jesuit name to be associated with the upper Great Lakes region is that of St. Isaac Jogues, who, m 1641, in company with Father Charles Raymbault, planted the cross at Sault Ste. Marie in what is now the state of Michigan 5 the first Jesuit name to be distinctly connected with the Mississippi Valley is the historic one of Jacques Marquette, who with Louis Jolhet discovered the upper Mississippi River at Prairie du Chien, Wisconsin, June 17, 1673. With these memorable names, Jogues, the martyr-priest, and Marquette, the discoverer, begins the story of Jesuit activity m the great sweep of territory now cultivated by the Society of Jesus in the Middle United States.
No more engaging pages m history may be read than those which unfold the successive scenes in the gripping drama of discovery, explora- tion, and splendid pioneering that was enacted on the stage of mid- America by the French of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. The theme has been handled repeatedly by the historians, notably by Francis Parkman in his classic volumes and by Clarence Walworth Alvord in his Illinois Country. Two sharply contrasted groups of participants divide the action between them; on the one hand, the empire-builders, the colonial officials of whatever grade, the fur-traders, the adventurers by forest and stream and the sparsely scattered hab- itants $ on the other hand, the Church's representatives, more particu- larly the missionaries to the Indians, as the Franciscans and Jesuits,
1 The Trappist, Dom Urban GuiIIct, communicated to Bishop Carroll, Novem- ber 1 6, 1 8 10, a petition on the part of the people of the "Illinois country'* for a Jesuit missionary Baltimore Archdiocesan Archives
laThe Jesuits of the lower Mississippi Valley are organised as a separate ad- ministrative unit with headquarters at New Orleans.
THE JESUITS OF MID-AMERICA, 1673-1763 3
whose activities in evangelizing the native tribes of the New World are of lasting record. On the secular side the stage is crowded with figures whose names spell the very glamor and romance of history— the roll-call includes, among others, Nicolet, Radisson, Groseilliers, Frontenac, Jolliet, Tonti, Duluth, Perrot, Bienville, Iberville, Cadillac, and Laclede-Liguest. But outstanding ecclesiastical figures mingle with these, lending to the moving drama in which they shared just those elements of the spiritual and supernatural which, as much as anything else, probably more so, make of that drama a thing of perennial interest and charm
The incidents and conditions of whatever kind that entered into the highly significant action of which we speak do not merely con- stitute a phase of French colonial history on American soil, they mark also the historical beginnings of many of the middlewestern states. With these beginnings the Society of Jesus came in various ways to be identified. While detail is not pertinent here, even a meagre enumeration of particulars may serve its purpose, as suggesting the wealth of significant data left unnoticed In Michigan pioneer history the outstanding Jesuit names are probably Menard, Marquette, and Dablon. The first Mass on the shores of Lake Superior was said by Father Rene Menard at Old Village Point, Keenewaw Bay, on St. Theresa's day, October 16, 1660, and said by him "with a consolation," so he wrote, "that repaid me with usury for all my past hardships." 2 Eight years later, m 1668, Father Marquette opened at Sault Ste. Mane, on the Michigan side of the rapids, a mission-post that was to become the first permanent white settlement within the limits of the state 3 Then, m 1 670, came the establishment by Claude Dablon of the Ottawa Mission of St. Ignace at the straits of Michilimackmac or Mackinaw,, a long-standing center of Gospel light and Reading for all the region of the Great Lakes.4 In Wisconsin the earliest missionary endeavors on behalf of the Indian gather around the name of Claude Allouez On Chequamegon Bay near the modern Ashland, at De Pere, and at various points m the interior of the state, he set up mission-posts that became so many starting-points for the civilizing influences that he sought to bring to bear upon the children of the forest. His appointment to the post of vicar-general by saintly Bishop Laval, July 21, 1663, marked in a way the first organization of the Church in mid-America. From his pen came the earliest published account of the Illinois Indians,
* John Gilmary Shea, History of the Catholic Church m the United States (Akron, 1892), i: ^63.
* Michlgm Pionetr <mA Historical Collections, 35- 34.1 (1905-1906) *Atttoinc Ivan Rezek, History of tJw Diocese of Sault-Stt~Mant and Mar-
quttte (Houghton, Michigan), z:73*
4 THE JESUITS OF THE MIDDLE UNITED STATES
who were to give their name to the future state. No other figure at the dawn of Wisconsin history rises to a more commanding height If the name of Jacques Marquette stands apart m the fervor of its appeal to sentiment and the historical imagination, the name of Claude Allouez deserves to be remembered as that of the first organizer of Catholicism m what is now the heart of the United States 5
To come to Illinois of the colonial period, its best known Jesuit figure is Marquette. One thinks of his heroic wintering of 1674-1675 on the banks of the Chicago River, the opening episode in the life-story of the future metropolis, also, of his memorable Kaskaskia Mission on the Illinois River, destined to stand out m history as the spot where Christianity and civilization made their first rude beginnings m the Mississippi Valley. It is to the pen of Father Marquette that we owe the earliest descriptions of the streams and prairies of Illinois The expedition of 1673 led him along the entire western boundan of the state and then through its interior as he ascended the Illinois on his homeward course. His accounts of the upper Mississippi, the Illinois, and the Chicago Rivers are the earliest that we possess, and the record he has left us, whether of travel or missionary experience m the country through which they flow, is the first page m the written history of the commonwealth of Illinois.
Following Marquette, a succession of energetic Jesuit workers, among them Claude Allouez, Sebastian Rasles, Jacques Gravier, Juhen Bineteau, and Gabriel Marest, gave their services to the maintenance of his beloved mission. When m 1700 the Kaskaskia abandoned their settlement on the Illinois for a new one on the west bank of the Mississippi on the site of St. Louis, they were accompanied thither by their Jesuit pastors. The town of Kaskaskia, which grew up around a later village of the tribe on the banks of the Okaw or Kaskaskia River, became in time the most considerable settlement of the "Illinois Coun- try" and the center of a picturesque social life which survived the passing of French ascendancy in the basin of the Mississippi. Here, almost up to the third quarter of the eighteenth century, Jesuit priests relieved the spiritual needs of French and Indians alike, the entire group of French trading-posts and villages on either bank of the mid-Mississippi being brought withm range of their ministry. Sketching Jesuit mission- ary work in colonial Illinois, one may not omit mention of Father Pierre-Frangois Pinet's Mission of the Guardian Angel on the site of Chicago, very probably on ground which is now within the throbbing business center of the great metropolis. It ran its course in a few years
5 Shea, of. cit , I 269 Chrysostom Vcrwyst, CXF M., "Historic Site* on Che- quamegon Baj," Wisconsin Historical Collections^ 13.426-440
THE JESUITS OF MID-AMERICA, 1673-1763 5
(c. 1696-1702) , but authentic details about it survive in measure enough to enable us to realize the part it played in the frontier life of that re- mote day. Of contributions made by the Society of Jesus to the initial economic and social growth of Illinois two may be noted its mission- aries were the first growers of wheat on a large scale in Illinois and in their residences at Kaskaskia and other points were the earliest school- teachers of that same region.6
Missouri of the eighteenth century counted two Jesuit missions, one at the mouth of the Des Peres River within the present municipal limits of St. Louis, and another, of later date, at Ste. Genevieve.7 To a Jesuit, Scbastien Louis Meunn, belongs the distinction of having been the first priest to officiate in Laclede's settlement of St. Louis, destined to become very intimately linked with the history of the restored Society of Jesus in the Mississippi Valley. Few scenes became more familiar to the members of the Society than the physical aspect of the eastern edge of Missouri, which they came to know as they went up and down the Mississippi on their missionary trips. The first Jesuit to descend the mighty stream notes in his Recit the amazement that he felt when, for the first time, he gazed upon the Missouri River at the point where it mingles its current with torrent-like rapidity with the current of the Mississippi. "I never," Marquette wrote, "saw anything more terrible " 8 He called the Missouri the Pekitanoui; and, though he made no attempt to ascend it, he picked up much valuable information concerning the country through which it flowed. The map which he prepared prob- ably as an accompaniment to his Rectt shows the Missouri or Pekitanoui discharging into the Mississippi a short distance below the Illinois It shows, too, in most cases in the same localities m which they were found by the white settlers and travellers of a later day, many of the Indian tribes that were destined to play an important part m the early history of the West. To the west of the Missouri one finds indicated the country of the "Kmissoun" and "Ochages," or the Missouri and Osage, the two tribes most intimately associated with the pioneer stage
tt Gilbert J. Garraghan, S.J., TJte Catholic Church in Chicago, 1673-1871 (1921), pp. i-2i > Clarence W, Alvord, The Illinois Country, 1673-1818 (Spring- field, Illinois, 1920), pp. 198, 208 j Mtt-Amenca (Chicago), 13. 72, Mary Borgiat Palm, 8.N IX, The Jesuit Missions of the Illinois Country, 1673-1763 (Cleveland, 1933)'
r The tradition locating a Jesuit mission at the mouth of the River Des Peres, Missouri, has been authenticated by Laurence J. Kenny, S.J., St. Louts Cathokc Historical Rtvitt&, 1:151-156. Cf, also Garraghan, Chapters in Frontier History (Milwaukee, 1934)* fosslm* Francis J. Yealy, S.J., Samte Genevieve, The Story of Missouri's QUest Settlement (Sainte Genevieve, 1935).
• R. G, Thwaites (cd,)> The Jesuit Relations and Allied Documents (Cleve- land, 1896-1901), 59: 141.
6 THE JESUITS OF THE MIDDLE UNITED STATES
of Missouri history, while west of these tribes appears the country of the Pamassa, Kansa and Maha, or the Pawnee, Kansa and Omaha Indians.
But Marquette was not the only missionary of his order to put on record the wonders of the Missouri River and the country \\hich it drains. Fifty years after him, Father Charlevoix, the historian of New France and a trained observer of the wonders of the New World, found himself at the mouth of the Missouri and was equally moved by the spectacle before him "I believe this is the finest Confluence in the World," he exclaims with enthusiasm. "The two rivers are much of the same breadth, each about a half a league, but the Missouri is by far the most rapid of the two and seems to enter the Mississippi like a conqueror, through which it carries its white waters to the opposite shore, without mixing them, after which it gives its colour to the Mississippi, which it never loses again, but carries it quite down to the sea."9 To Father Louis Vivier, writing from Kaskaskia m 1750, the water of the Missouri seemed, to quote his glowing estimate, athe best water in the world," and the country drained by the Missouri, "the finest country in the world." 10
The land that is now Iowa shows no other link of association with the path-finding Jesuits of the Mississippi Valley except the circum- stance that Marquette and his party were the first white persons known to have set foot upon its soil.11 In Minnesota, on the west bank of Lake Pepin, Father Michel Guignas opened in 1727 his Sioux Mission of St. Michael the Archangel, while, within the limits of the same state, on Massacre Island, Lake of the Woods, the Jesuit Jean Pierre Aulneau was slain by Indians, June 8, I736.1- Kansas and Nebraska, as far as is known, never made the acquaintance of the old-time Jesuit missionaries 5 but their leading Indian tribes are named for the first time in history on the maps prepared by Jolliet and Marquette in connection with the eventful journey of 1673.
Returning now to the eastern section of the Mississippi Valley, one finds evidence of Jesuit ministerial work among the Miami and other Indians settled in the eighteenth century around the French post, Fort Ouatenon, near the present Lafayette, Indiana. The documentary rec- ords of the Catholic Church in this state begin with a marriage-entry,
9F X. Charlevoix, S J,, A Voyage* to North America (Dublin, 1766), z: X.
10 Thwaites, 69: 207, 223; Garraghan, op. cit^ pp« 51-72.
11 Laenas Clifford Weld, "Jolliet and Marquettc m Iowa»n /OCCM Jwritjl of History and Politics^ i: 3-16 (Jan,, 1903).
12 J. G. Shea, Early Voyages up and down the Mississippi-, "The Discovery of the Relics of the Reverend Jean Pierre Aulneau," Historical Records and Studies^ 5: 488; Nancy Ring, "The First Sioux Mission/* Mid-America^ 14: 344-351*
THE JESUITS OF MID-AMERICA, 1673-1763 7
under date of April 21, 1749, m the parochial register of the Church of St. Francis Xavier in Vmcennes, the officiating priest being Father Sebastien Louis Meurm of the Society of Jesus.13 In Ohio the oldest Catholic establishment within the limits of the state was apparently the Jesuit Wyandot mission on the Sandusky River, established about 175 1.14 Noteworthy as a contribution to the pioneer history of the same state is the journal of Joseph-Pierre de Bonnecamps, Jesuit scientist and mathematician of Quebec, who accompanied Celoron on his expe- dition of 1749 through the Ohio country. To Bonnecamps "Ohio owes the first map of her boundaries or outlines yet discovered." 15
The few facts assembled in the preceding paragraphs may serve to indicate at what an early date the missionaries of the Society of Jesus made their entrance into the Great Lakes region and the Mississippi Valley and how the story of their ministry became blended with the pioneer annals of most of the midwestern states. For more than five- score years they made resolute effort to uplift the helpless Indians to something like self-respect and a sense of moral responsibility and to introduce among them the ways of ordered and civilized life. The number of the missionaries was ever small and the tasks they attempted stood in pathetic contrast to the paltry resources at their command. They were still engaged m their self-denying labors when a deadly blow similar to the one which had fallen on their establishments in France was levelled at the lowly mission-stations they had raised at the price of untold sacrifices m the wilderness of western America. The Superior Council of Louisiana, veiling its actual motives under a profession of zeal for religion, decreed on June 9, 1763, the destruc- tion of all the Jesuit houses in the territory under its jurisdiction. The decree was carried out under circumstances of exceptional harshness, the lands and houses of the missionaries being confiscated, their chapels despoiled, their altar-equipment scattered and profaned, and they them- selves violently carried off from their various posts to New Orleans, whence, with one or two exceptions, they were deported to Europe. Thus was the work of the old Society of Jesus in the Mississippi Valley, memorable for the first exploration of the Mississippi and for a thousand beneficent activities among the Indian tribes that roamed its wondrous valley, brought to an abrupt and tragic end. The last of the pre- suppression Jesuits to survive in the West was the veteran missionary,
18 Garraghan, 9$. dt^ pp. 1-24.
M Shea, of. cit.> 1 : 63 1 ; W. Eugene Shiels, S J , "The Jesuits in Ohio in the Eighteenth Century/' MM~Am*rica> 18: 27 tt seq*
" Rufus King, QJUo: Tirst Fruits of the Ordinance of 1787 (Boston, 1888), p. 63. Bonnfcamps's map is in King's volume, p. 13. For Bonnecamps's journal cf, Thwaites, 69: 150*
8 THE JESUITS OF THE MIDDLE UNITED STATES
Sebastien Louis Meurm, who died at Prairie du Rocher, Illinois, Feb- ruary 23, 1777. His remains lie with those of the Jesuit founders of 1823 in the historic graveyard at Florissant, Missouri, a precious link of association between the old and the new Society of Jesus in the Middle United States.16
16 For a contemporary account of the expulsion of the Jesuits from Louisiana (Bannissement des Jesmtes de la Louisiana) by Fiancpis Philibeit Watrm, SJ, cf Thwaites, 70 211-301 The most satisfactory treatment of the topic is Jean Delanglez, S J , The Trench Jesuits in Lower Louisiana, 1700-1765 (Washington, 1935). Jesuit mission activities in mid-America of the colonial period arc treated in Mary Dons Mulvey, OP, Trench Catholic Mtwonaties in the Pie\ent United States (Washington, 1936)
PART I THE JESUIT MISSION OF MISSOURI
CHAPTER I THE MARYLAND JESUITS
§ I, THE MARYLAND MISSION
The hifctot> of the Jesuit Mission of Maryland begins with the name or Father Andrew White, who, with his fellow-Jesuits, Father John Altham and Thomas Gervase, a coadjutor-brother, was among the passengers that disembarked from the Ark at St. Clement's Island, Marj land, March 25, 1634. The "Apostle of Maryland," as Father White has come to be known, labored strenuously through fourteen years on behalf of the white and Indian population of the colony, leav- ing behind him on his forced return to England an example of mis- sionary zeal which his Jesuit successors sought to follow for a century and more down to the painful period of the Suppression. As a conse- quence of that event the former Jesuit priests of the Maryland Mission orgamyed themselves into a legal body known as the "Corporation of Roman Catholic Clergymen" for the purpose of holding by due legal tenure the property belonging to the Society of Jesus m Maryland and of restoring; it to the Society m case the latter should be canonically reestablished. a
During the entire period of the Suppression the Jesuits maintained a canonical existence in Russia. When in 1803 Bishop John Carroll of Baltimore and his coadjutor, Bishop Leonard Neale, both former Jesuits themselves, petitioned the Father General, Gabriel Gruber, to affiliate the Maryland ex- Jesuits to the Society as existing m Russia, the latter in a communication from St. Petersburg authorized Bishop Carroll to prepare the way for a Jesuit mission in Maryland by appointing a superior- On receiving this intelligence, Bishop Carroll summoned the one-time Jesuits to a conference at St. Thomas Manor, St Charles County, Maryland, in the month of May, 1805. The Fathers assembled on this occasion, five in number, were met by Bishops Carroll and Neale.
1 Under pressure brought to bear upon him by the Bourbon courts of Europe Pope Clement XIV suppressed the Society of Jesus in 1773. A brief account of the circumstances which brought about the measure may be read in the Cathohc Ency- rlopfdla^ 14.99* The act of suppression involved no condemnation of the Society as a whole or of any of its members, being a merely administrative measure m the interests of peace and not a sentence based on judicial inquiry. The Society of Jeau$ waa solemnly reestablished throughout the Church by Pius VII m 1814
9
io THE JESUITS OF THE MIDDLE UNITED STATES
The letter of Father Gruber was read to them and on the following day, May io, all five signified their desire to reunite with the Society and witnessed moreover that Father Robert Molyneaux, who was absent, had authorized them to declare his intention to do the same. Under authority of the General's letter of instructions Bishop Carroll named Father Molyneaux superior of the American Jesuits, his appoint- ment being dated June 27, 1805. Finally, on the Sunday within the octave of the Assumption, August 18, 1805, Fathers Robert Mohneaux and Charles Sewall renewed their Jesuit vows in St. Ignatius Church, St. Thomas Manor, thus reviving the corporate existence of the Society of Jesus in the United States 2 On the same occasion Father Charles Neale, who had been only a novice in the pre-Suppression Society , pro- nounced his vows for the first time.
The tenth of October, 1 806, saw the opening of the first novitiate of the Maryland Mission, no house of probation having existed in the mission m the period before the Suppression. On that day, sacred to the memory of the Jesuit saint, Francis Borgia, ten novices, eight of them scholastics or candidates for the priesthood, and two lay or coadjutor-brothers, assembled m a house opposite historic Trinity Church m Georgetown, D C , and there, under the direction of Father Francis Neale as master of novices, entered on the thirty da>s> retreat with which the Jesuit noviceship usually begins. Father Francis Neale was himself a novice, being admitted to the Society that same day, October io, 1806. Of the two lay candidates, one was John McEIroy, a young man of Irish birth, who, on showing capacity for preaching and other ministerial functions, was later advanced to the priesthood. The retreat having ended on November 13, the novices went after High Mass to Georgetown College where they took possession of the second story of the pioneer building erected some seventeen years before.3
Georgetown College continued thus to house the novices for about five years, when, in consequence of crowded quarters, the distracting
2 WL (Woodstock, Md ), 32 190* The restoration of the Society of Jesus in Maryland in 1806 was not a public and canonical restoration (m ff/to rxtttrw)) but an informal or private one The public restoration of the Society was effected only by the bull of Pius VII, Solli&tutlo omnium^ August 7, 1814.
3 Catalogue Mt wonts MarylanJtae, 1806, "Recollection^ of Father John McKlroy," WL> 16 161 These Recollections furnish a first-hand account of some of the circumstances attending the reestablishment of the Society of Je*u* in the United States Among the tests of fitness for the life of the order to which the Jesuit novice is submitted is that of a thirty-day period of intensive spiritual ex- perience and training known as a "retreat " The exercises peculiar to a Jesuit "retreat" are those outlined by St Ignatius Loyola in his classic manual for proper regulation of one's life, known as the "Book of Exercises."
THE MARYLAND JESUITS 11
presence of college students and the uncertainty of means of support, a change of place for the novitiate was found to be necessary. The support of the novices was provided for out of the revenue derived from the farms which the Jesuit mission owned in various parts of Maryland 5 but the revenue thus derived was quite unreliable and in some years amounted to almost nothing at all. An effort having accord- ingly been made to secure a more suitable house for the novices. White Marsh, a Jesuit estate in Prince George's County, Maryland, was selected for the purpose.4 Pending the preparation of suitable quarters at White Marsh, the novices were sent in 1812 to St. Imgoes, Maryland, where they remained but a half year, the War of 1812 making it necessary for them to remove from so exposed a position The presbytery at Fredencktown, Maryland, was then fitted up as a novitiate, but lack of proper accommodations here, together with the inability of the mission through lack of funds to build promptly at White Marsh, soon brought the novices back to Georgetown. Thence they went in 1815 to White Marsh, only to return to Georgetown at the beginning of 1818. But the following year the noviceship was again at White Marsh, where it remained until 1823. Father John Grassi, the energetic superior of the mission, had sought to solve the problem by the erection in Washington of a spacious building on F Street between Ninth and Tenth, but the building, though designed for a novitiate, was never used for that purpose. Under the name of the Washington Seminary it served first as a school of theology for Jesuit scholastics and later as an academy for boys, the first conducted by Jesuits in the city of Washington.
§ 2. FATHER NERINCKX AND HIS JESUIT RECRUITS
The Maryland Mission in the early decades of the nineteenth cen- tury counted among its members a number of Belgians attracted to the New World as a missionary field of extraordinary promise. The credit of securing to the mission the services of these zealous workers belonged under heaven largely to a single clergyman, himself not a Jesuit, but a priest of the diocese of Bardstown in Kentucky.
The name of Father Charles Nennckx is a distinguished one in the annals of the Catholic Church in the United States. A native of Herff elingcn, Province of Brabant, Belgium, where he was born October a, 1761, being the oldest of a Flemish family of fourteen children, he had a special calling to cultivate the wild and neglected field of the western American missions. The account he gives of the motives which induced him to leave his native Belgium and dedicate himself to a
* Infra, note 27.
12 THE JESUITS OF THE MIDDLE UNITED STATES
life of tireless missionary activity overseas is a precious human document, eloquent of the piety and zeal for souls that characterized him through life.
In accordance with the parable of the Gospel, "I first sat down and reckoned the charges that were necessary," counting my resources with the utmost circumspection, and after repeated meditations on the subject, I found the following motives for setting out
i The danger of my own defection from the faith, either b} being per- verted or by falling into error, if I remained at home, and the almost [stc] uselessness of my presence in Belgium in the actual state of affairs
2. The not unreasonable hope of promoting the honor of God under the severe menace "Woe to me if I have not preached the Gospel."
3. The inclination of the American people toward the Catholic religion and the want of priests
4. The urgent opportunity of paying my evangelical debt of ten thousand talents. A dignified sinner in my own land which abounds in advan- tages, I almost despaired of doing real penance and making due satisfaction Hence I concluded that I had to undeitake unavoidable toils and sorrows
5 The favorable advice of competent peisons without whose counsel I did not deem it prudent to act.6
A missionary inspired by motives such as these and scrupulously following out the course which they dictated could not but exercise a ministry fertile in results. When Father Nennckx first arrived in Ken- tucky in 1805, he found that the task of ministering to the Catholic population of the state was being discharged by a single priest, the Reverend Stephen Theodore Badm, first Catholic clergyman ordained in the United States. The sturdy Fleming threw himself at once into the endless round of missionary duties that awaited him, and his btal^ wart, imposing figure, mounted on his famous mare, Printer, soon became a familiar sight in every Catholic settlement of the state- His robust physical constitution, his steady disregard of danger and pnva- tion, his splendid faith, his zeal for souls, his constant practice of volun- tary mortification, made him an unusually efficient worker in the vine- yard of the Lord For one achievement in particular his name is destined to endure in the history of the Catholic Church in America* He founded1 and for many years directed the congregation of nuns which, under the name of the Friends of Mary at the Foot of the Cross, or the Sisters of Loretto, continues to our own day to achieve a notable work in the' cause of Catholic education.6
5 Maes, The Ltfe of Rev. Charles Ntrinckx (Cincinnati, 1880), pp. 31-32.
6 Anna C. Mmogue, Loretlo Annals of a Century (New York, 1912).
THE MARYLAND JESUITS 13
But Father Nennckx was not satisfied to sacrifice his own person only on behalf of the struggling Church of America, he sought to induce others of his countrymen to make a similar oblation. He twice faced the perils of a transatlantic voyage to discharge business connected with his congregation of sisters as also to secure in his native Belgium the men and means urgently needed for his Kentucky missions. While in Belgium on the occasion of his first European trip, he addressed to his friends in August, 1816, a Flemish pamphlet, the publication of which was attended with important results. "Many Fathers of the Society of Jesus, now venerable for their age and their labors on the mission," declared an Amencan prelate, "have assured us that they owed their vocation to the reading of this pamphlet and that this forcible plea m favor of the American mission was the instrument m the hands of Providence to bring them to the shores of the New World." 7 A paragraph from Nermckx's pamphlet of 1816 will serve to indicate its character*
Catholic Belgium has the enviable reputation, in Rome itself, of being for the last thnty years the vanguard of the Church against all heretical and philosophical innovations of these times, St. Francis Xavier expressed a de- cided wish to have Belgians for his East India missions and obtained some of decided ment. I am obliged to be satisfied with the want of them I learned with pleasuie that during my absence m Rome three of our neighborhood (environs of Nmove) left to join the Jesuits m Georgetown and that the Bishop of New Orleans succeeded in obtaining some in Italy and France, hut how little will he notice these few drops m our vast ocean. I have done what I could to induce some priests to accompany me and my con- science is at rest. May God dispose all things according to his holy will 8
The appeal of the "Apostle of Kentucky" met with response in many quarters. When on May 16, 1817, he embarked for America at the island of Texel near Amsterdam on the brig Mars, Captain Hall, he was accompanied by nine or ten young men, some m orders, eight of whom were to enter the Jesuit novitiate at Georgetown. Of these recruits, three, James Oliver Van de Velde of Lebbeke near Dender- monde, Peter Joseph Timmermans of Turnhout and Peter De Meyer of Segelsem, were afterwards to labor as Jesuits m Missouri, the first two as priests, the last-named as a coadjutor-brother of the Society of Jesus. Some details of this voyage of Father Nennckx and his com- panions, typical of the discomforts and dangers of a sea-passage in the early nineteenth century, were afterwards put on record by Mr. Van dc Velde:
T Maes, of. cit , p 307. p, 3*0*
14 THE JESUITS OF THE MIDDLE UNITED STATES
The passage was long, stormy and tedious. Scarcely had they entered the British Channel than a violent storm overtook them, and threatened to bury them in the deep One of the sailors was precipitated fiom the mast into the sea and drowned. All was fear and consternation on board This happened on Pentecost Sunday. For three days the vessel, without sails or niddei, was left to float at random, buffeted by the winds and waves During anothci storm she sprang a leak, which it was found impracticable to stop and for more than three weeks all hands had in turn to work at the pumps day and night without intermission Fortunately the captain had taken about a hun- dred German and Swiss emigrants as steerage passengeis, for without then aid it would have been impossible to save the vessel When thej, wei e neanng the banks of Newfoundland, the Mars was chased and finally boaided by a privateer The captain of this marauding schooner happened to be a Balti- morean by the name of Mooney, and far from manifesting any hostile intentions, seemed glad to have fallen in with one of his own townsmen As our provisions had become very scarce, Capt Hall bought sevcial bairels of biscuit and salt beef, some casks of fresh water, besides a quantity of dry fruits and wine, of which the privateer had an abundant supply, having but three days before robbed a Spanish merchant vessel that had left the West Indies for some port in Spam.
Neither the captain nor the mate of the Mars weie great piofiaents in navigation Their calculations were always at variance, m consequence of which, after having passed the Azores, they steered dnect toward the tropic and then discovering that they were too far south they veered about nml m a few days found themselves on the great bank of Newfoundland Sailing almost at random the vessel one fine morning was at the point of iimnmg ashore on the northern pait of Long Island Finally the Chesapeak Ba\ \*as reached on the a6th July, and on the 28th she landed in the luihoi of Baltimore.9
Father Nerinckx had thus m a spirit of disinterested zeal performed the functions of a recruiting-agent for the Society of Jesus* Passing through Georgetown in 1815 on his way to Europe, he had been asked by the superior of the Maryland Mission to procure subjects* for the Jesuit novitiate m America. The eight Belgians who now joined the Society of Jesus at Georgetown in 1817 was Nennckx's answer to the superior's request. The Kentucky missionary was at all times warmly sympathetic to the Society. In Rome in 1816 he had solicited admission among its members, but the superiors of the order judged that his true vocation lay in other paths. Remaining outside of the Jesuit body, he exerted himself to reenforce its thinned-out ranks. "Forgetful of his own needs and of the sad neglect of the poor diocese of Bardstown," says his biographer in speaking of the Jesuit recruits of 1817, "he
0 "Biographical Sketch of the Rt. Rev. Dr. Van dc Veldc," It/law Historical Review, 9: 59-60
THE MARYLAND JESUITS 15
cheerfully sent those robust laborers where he thought they would do the most good, notwithstanding the fact that he had written so many letters complaining of the dearth of priests in his own missions and the imperious necessity in which he was of securing help." 10
In 1820 Nermckx made a second trip to Belgium, the results of which were to be of the first importance for the expansion of Jesuit activity in the United States. When he returned in 1821, he had in his party most of the group of young men who two years later were to emigrate from Maryland to the West under the leadership of Father Charles Felix Van Quickenborne and there lay the foundations of the Society of Jesus m the Middle West. The story of the circumstances that united these devoted youths in the prosecution of a common desire and plan requires to be told m some detail
§ 3 THE BELGIAN RECRUITS OF I 82 1
In 1820 Father Nennckx, while on his way to Europe to collect funds for his Kentucky missions, visited Georgetown College in the District of Columbia, where he met the superior of the Maryland Jesuits, Father Anthony Kohlmann, who asked him to endeavor during his journey abroad to obtain recruits for the Society of Jesus in America, as he had done during his visit to Europe a few years before.11 Father Nennckx had the pleasure of meeting again at Georgetown on this occasion the young Belgian, James Oliver Van de Velde, who had accompanied him to the United States in 1817. On leaving the college he bore with him a letter from Van de Velde addressed to> Judocus ( Josse) Francis Van Assche of Saint- Amand-lez-Puers in West Flanders, Belgium, then a student m the yetrt semmavre of Mechlin. Van de Velde had been a tutor of young Van Assch^, who would gladly have accompanied him to America in 1817 if youth and lack of means had not at the moment stood in the way. But Van Assche by no means relinquished the idea of realizing his purpose to be a missionary m America though he kept the matter strictly to himself.
10 Maes, of, cit , p 342.
11 The account which follows is based for the most part on a manuscript narra- tive m the Missouri Province Archives and on Chap. XXVI of Maes's Nennckx. The narrative, from the pen of Father Peter De Smet, S J , appears to be largely an English rendering, with added details, of a Latin account of the origins of the Missouri Province (Historta Misstonts Missounanae) written by Father Peter Vcrhacgcn, S J. (A) . The account m Maes's Nennckx was contributed to that work by Father Walter Hill, SJ , who derived -his information at first-hand from Father Judocus Van Assche, an active participant in the events described. Additional de- tails concerning the mobilization of Nerinckx's Jesuit recruits of 1821 are in Laveille, Th* Life- of Father Peter De Smet (New York, 1915)* ChaP *•
1 6 THE JESUITS OF THE MIDDLE UNITED STATES
Father Nermckx delivered Mr. Van de Velde's letter not to the young seminarian himself, but to the parents of the latter at their home in Saint-Amand-lez-Puers, about twelve miles distant from Mechlin. Their first impulse was to say nothing whatever to their son about it, but on second thought the father, taking a different view of the matter, set out for Mechlin, where he visited his son and delivered to him the letter from America, reminding him at the same time that there was much good to be done at home and that, moreover, Van de Velde, being, so he alleged, of a roving disposition, was no safe guide in such a venture. The young man said little in reply to his father's appeal, but read and reread eagerly the letter from his friend, who informed him of Father Nermckx's visit to Belgium and of the opportunity thus offered of accompanying the missionary on his return to America.
During the summer vacation of 1820 Judocus Van Assche made
every effort to get into communication with Nermckx, who conducted
his affairs in Belgium under the veil of the utmost secrecy for fear of
arrest by the government. William I, a Calvmist, was the reigning
king of the Netherlands, which included at this period both Holland
and Belgium, and his government, hostile to Catholics, was especially
liable to interfere with any enterprise having for its aim the promotion
of Catholic missions abroad. Hence, Nermckx remained more or less
in hiding, though his presence in the country and frequent shiftmgs
of residence were known to a few trusted friends. In his search for the
Kentucky missionary young Van Assche was accompanied by John
Baptist Elet, a student in the grand semtnatre of Mechlin, and, like
himself, a native of Samt-Amand-lez-Puers. The pair first set out for
the house of the Rev. Mn Verlooy or Ver Loo, once a professor in the
^eUt senwnawe of Mechlin and subsequently its rector, who, it was
expected, would be able to acquaint them with Nerinckx's whereabouts.
On their way to the priest's house Van Assche revealed to his companion
the design he cherished of going to America. Elet at once declared
his intention of becoming a partner to the same adventure. Father
Verlooy, on being interviewed, was unable to direct the young men
immediately to Father Nerinckx's residence at the moment1 but he
made inquiries on their behalf with the result that the missionary was
finally traced to a hospital in Dendermonde or Termonde, over which
an aunt of his presided as superioress. Here Van Assche called alone
on Nerinckx and presented to him as a token of identification the letter
from Van der Velde which the missionary had himself carried from
America. To the young man's petition that he be allowed to accompany
the priest on his return to America, Nerinckx replied: "I can do nothing
for you. My situation is precarious. I am suspected by the government
authorities and I must be exceedingly cautious even to escape arrest and
THE MARYLAND JESUITS 17
imprisonment. However, if you are resolved on going to America, it is not for me to prevent you doing so The vessel in which I came will probably start on its return trip next May " 12
In September, 1820, Messrs Van Assche and Elet resumed their ecclesiastical studies in Mechlin Van Assche continued to keep his plans a profound secret even from the most intimate of his associates, but he finally divulged them to the three seminarians with whom he was lodging in a private house, the seminary buildings being taxed beyond capacity by the large number of students m attendance. One of the three who was thus made to share the secret, a M. Van Loo, had formerly been a pupil m a school in Turnhout conducted by a devout layman, Peter De Nef , he now urged Van Assche to visit the latter, assuring him that there was every reason to expect from M. De Nef the financial aid necessary to undertake the long voyage to America. De Nef had realized a large fortune as a linen-draper, but after the death of his wife, of whom he had a daughter now amply provided for, he with- drew from business to devote himself m some direct way to the service of God. He was a man at once of piety and culture and his first thought after his wife's death was to become a priest, a step he was dissuaded from taking by the advice of prudent counsellors. Abandoning, there- fore, the idea of entering the ranks of the priesthood, he determined to devote his energy and means to the noble work of preparing young men for that holy calling. He accordingly applied a portion of his wealth to the foundation and maintenance of a school m Turnhout, m which young men of slender means might receive the instruction needed m preparation for the more advanced studies of the seminary. In this school, the forerunner of the Jesuit College of St. Joseph in Turnhout, he himself discharged the duties of an instructor.
Lodging in the same house in Mechlin with Elet was John Baptist Smedts of Rotselaer, also a student in the grand sewMnawe. To him Elet communicated the purpose he and his friend, Van Assche, enter- tained of going with Father Nennckx the following spring to America. Smedts lost no time in signifying his willingness to accompany them. Van Assche, on learning that another recruit had been gamed in the person of Smedts of Rotselaer, determined to take him as companion on his anxiously awaited visit to M. De Nef in Turnhout. The pair had with them a letter of introduction from their common friend, Van Loo. The pious layman received the young men with great cor- diality. He expressed approval of their plan, but regretted that lack of ready money made it impossible for him to defray the entire expense of the journey, a thing he should be glad to do under other circum-
12 Maes, of. cit , p. 4.50.
1 8 THE JESUITS OF THE MIDDLE UNITED STATES
stances As it was, he gave them a generous contribution in mone\, besides furnishing them with letters o£ introduction to rectors of semi- naries and other pnests in Holland, from whom he assured them the} might expect willing and substantial aid Armed with these letters Van Assche and Smedts made a pedestrian journey to Holland, going first to the Seminary of Bois-le-duc, where they were kindly received by the rector, Father Van Gills, who spoke in their behalf to the professors and seminarians besides writing letters commendatory of their design to various pnests of his acquaintance. Some months later Van Assche and Elet canvassed the same district in Holland, but m spite of the energy they displayed m quest of funds, the amount they collected still fell short of what was required for the expensive transatlantic vojage.
The original two, now joined by Smedts of Rotselaer, began to be reenforced by new accessions. Peter Verhaegen of Haeght, a }oung professor m the petit semnawe of Mechlin, learning of the projected missionary expedition to America under Father Nermckx's auspices, resolved to accompany it. A little later Felix Livmus Verrej dt of Diest, Francis de Maillet of Brussels, Joseph Van Horsigh of Hoogstraeten, all of them students in the grand semmawe of Mechlin, and Father Veulemans, also a student in the same institution, were made partners to the enterprise At a still later date, Peter de Smet of Termonde or Dendermonde joined the others, thus completing the personnel of the missionary band. Father Louis Donche, a Belgian Jesuit, was to sponsor the expedition and introduce the young men by letter to the superior of the Jesuit mission in America.
At the corner of the rues Saint Jean and Des Vachcs m Mechlin was the house, bearing the sign Het Schip, of a wealthy tobacco mer- chant named Ketelaer, a friend of Nerinckx and his confidential agent.13 Ketelaer had business connections in Antwerp and Amsterdam and was thus kept informed regarding the ship in which Nenndcx intended to return to America. He also became the custodian of the money which Van Assche and his companions had gathered together and in his house they stored the baggage they were to take. About the middle of July word came from Ketelaer that the ship on which Father Nerincfcx was to take passage would sail from Amsterdam in August. At this news the aspiring missionaries left Mechlin behind them and set out at once in carriages in the direction of Antwerp. They travelled in different parties, one group being made up of Van Assche, Smedts, Elet and De Smet. A priest of Antwerp, Jean Baptiste Beulens, previously advised of their approach, furnished them with certain articles needed for the voyage, thus saving them the necessity of personally entering
"Laveille, of. ctt.} p. 16
THE MARYLAND JESUITS 19
that city. As it was especially necessary for the travellers to elude the vigilance of the police, who might upset all their plans by taking them into custody on pretext that they were evading military service, they made every effort on entering a town to conceal their identity. Not being provided with passports, which all occupants of public conveyances were required to present on entering a city, they alighted from the carnage in which they rode just before it reached the city gates, and swinging their sticks unconcernedly mingled with the people entering on foot. Finally, on July 26, they found themselves safe together in the appointed rendezvous in Amsterdam. Here, certain Catholic fami- lies, particularly four, by name Roothaan, Van Has, Van Damme and Koedijk, added to the funds which the missionary party had indus- triously gathered towards financing the journey overseas.
Meanwhile, the parents of the young men came to hear of their startling design. Peter De Smet had borrowed money from a friend, who promptly reported the circumstance to the elder De Smet, adding the purpose for which it was to be used The latter, greatly shocked by the news, at once sent his eldest surviving son, Charles, to Amsterdam with instructions to prevail upon Peter to give over what appeared to be an ill-considered and Quixotic adventure and return to his family. Charles, on arriving at Amsterdam, at once sought the police to solicit information at their hands regarding his brother's lodging- place. But this information it was not in their power to furnish 5 the last thing the young men had in mind to do was to report their presence in the city to the authorities. Charles now began to traverse anxiously the streets of the city in the hope of a chance meeting with his brother. Curious to relate, the haphazard search proved successful. As Charles was crossing a bridge one day he suddenly came face to face with his brother, Peter. The latter invited Charles to his lodgings and listened quietly to the message he brought with him from his father. Then taking up his own defense, he pointed out to Charles the futility of the reasons that had been alleged to make him change his resolution. So well did he succeed in this that the brother came around completely to Peter's point of view and, instead of opposing his design any further, made him a gift in money for the contemplated journey u
14 Idem^ p 19. The young men, some of them at least, left Belgium without taking formal leave of their families Laveille (p 15) comments thus: "It must be borne in mind, however, that they were driven by cogent reasons, a fact indicated by the words of Peter De Smet in a subsequent letter. cTo have asked the consent of our parents would have been to court a certain and absolute refusal.* (From a letter of Father De Smet written towards the end of his life). Thus, rather than jeopardize a well-defined vocation it appeared advisable to limit the leave-taking to farewell letters written before sailing Whatever attitude this course of action would seem to indicate, it is beyond doubt that all of the young
20 THE JESUITS OF THE MIDDLE UNITED STATES
The position of the party in Amsterdam soon became an uncom- fortable one, there was every reason to fear that their presence in the city would shortly reach the ears of the authorities. Consequently, after observing St. Ignatius day, July 31, with the Jesuit fathers at their residence m Knjtberg, they had themselves conveyed in a small boat to the island of Texel, situated a few miles off the north coast of Holland. The ordinary conveniences of travel were lacking in the poor little craft and as a result the hours spent in crossing the Zuyder Zee to Texel were not without distress A stop was made for a brief spell at the island of Wienngen, where the travellers visited a Catholic church, leaving an alms with the pastor for Masses to be said that the vo>age before them might be safe and prosperous.
Arriving at Texel, they found that arrangements had been made through Mr. Ketelaer and other friends to lodge them with a Catholic family. Meanwhile, Father Nerinckx himself had arrived incognito on the island, accompanied by Charles Gilbert, a Londoner, and James Vanrysselberghe, a Belgian, both of whom planned to become la>- brothers in a religious congregation in Kentucky. He put up at a house other than the one occupied by the young men of the party, with whom, to avoid publicity of any kind being given to their departure for Amer- ica, he declined to have any communication as long as the} remained on the island. Mr Verhaegen, however, on ascertaining where the missionary was housed, paid him a visit of courtesy. Though well meant, this proceeding elicited a reprimand from Nerinckx, who informed Verhaegen that he and companions by going about the island too freel} and talking aloud m an unguarded manner about their affairs, were exposing the enterprise m hand to failure.
On August 15, while returning from services at one of the churches, the group were informed by a pilot whom they met on the waj that the Columbia, on which they were to take passage for America, was neanng the island. They hastened at once to their lodging-place to pick up their bundles and parcels and were soon occupying scats in the pilot- boat that conveyed them across the shoal-water to the Colttwbw. On entering the pilot-boat they learned that Father Nerinckx had already boarded the vessel and was concealed at its end. Presently, after the Columbia was under way, Nerinckx emerged from his hiding- place. Not until then, so it seems, had any of the young men, with the
men were fully aware of the great sacrifice that was being impo cd on their parents. That Peter De Smct had a poignant rcali/ation of this we know from hh relative^ who tell us that to the end of his da\s the memorv oi hi** Jtpirturc remained like an open wound But, on the other hand, -we arc told tlut he wj« never beset by any misgivings, because he always felt that he had obcjcd an im- perative call of duty."
THE MARYLAND JESUITS 21
exception of Van Assche and Verhaegen, ever seen the missionary, so careful had he been while in Belgium to avoid all publicity and transact his affairs through intermediaries. Through the agency of Messrs Roothaan, Van Has and Schoop of Amsterdam berths for the travellers had already been secured on the Columbia. Moreover, an understand- ing had been come to with the captain as to the manner of taking them on board The C alumina was to put out slowly to sea under full sail and when she had made some distance, the pilot-boat, with Nermckx's party on board, was to come up to her. The arrangement was carried out successfully and on Assumption Day, August 15, 1821, all the members of the missionary party found themselves safe on the deck of the vessel that was to carry them to the shores of the New World. It was a source of lively satisfaction to these eager souls that their pious venture was launched under the auspices of the Virgin Mother.15
After a pleasant voyage of forty days the immigrants landed at Philadelphia on Sunday afternoon, September 23. The Negroes idling around the wharf proved a novel sight to them, they had never seen people of color m their native Belgium. Father Nermckx remained some time m Philadelphia, while the Belgian youths, after spending Sunday night on board the Columbia, took another boat the next day for Baltimore, which they reached on the same day. Here they were presented to Archbishop Marechal, who invited them all to remain m Baltimore, an invitation which was accepted by Father Veulemans and Mr. Van Horsigh. The remaining seven, Messrs. Van Assche, Elet, De Smet, Verreydt, Verhaegen, Smedts and De Maillet were bent on joining Mr. Van de Velde at Georgetown College, according to the plan conceived from the very first by Van Assche, who, on receipt of Van de Velde's letter, had taken the step which started the entire movement. Moreover, Father Nermckx in the course of the voyage had frequently advised them to become Jesuits as the surest means of realizing their ambition to become missionaries in America. They accordingly pro-
15 The following excerpt under the caption, "1821 Short Sketch of our Itinerary," is from De Smet's ms nairative referred to in note 1 1 . "23 of July we left Belgium foi Holland. On the 26th we reached Amsterdam, via Breda, Bergen, op Zoom, Gorcum, Utrecht We pioceeded, in a small sailing ship, on the 3rd of Augubt, to the island Texel, and visited on the island Wiermgen. On the 1 5th of August we passed the Helder in a fish-boat and, late at night, went on board the Columbia.
We came in sight of the Ferro Islands, belonging to Great Bntam From the North Sea we entered the Atlantic Ocean, (First Trip) crossed the New Foundland Banks Entered the Mouth of the Delaware nver and landed m Philadelphia, forty days after our departure from Texel. We proceeded to Baltimore by steamer — to Washington and Georgetown by stage, and hence to the Novitiate at White-March [Marsh] in Prince George's County, Maryland. Distance 4520 miles"
22 THE JESUITS OF THE MIDDLE UNITED STATES
ceeded in carnages from Baltimore to Georgetown College, \\here on October 5, 1821, they were admitted into the Society of Jesus bv Father Anthony Kohlmann, superior of the Maryland Mission, who had pleaded with Nennckx m 1820 to obtain recruits for him in Belgium
In the economic distress that prevailed at the moment in the Mar} - land Mission the admission of the newcomers required courage. It was in fact carried out against the advice of many of the Georgetown Jesuits, who saw in the arrival of the new recruits only a fresh financial problem added to the others which the mission was vainly trying to solve On the very day the candidates were accepted for the Society, Father Kohl- mann hastened to communicate the good news to the Father General
Rev Father Donche, a Belgian, has sent us seven missionaries fiom Mechlin who reached heie yesteiday. Today, after undergoing examination, they went to the novitiate They are physically robust and with the best dispositions of mind All have finished syntax and know Latin sufficient!} well, most of them have also studied Poetiy, Rhetonc and Logic for some years, while others again have applied to Theology foi one or more }eais All with the help of God will become useful workers. I am hoping that our truly good Master will supply proper means of suppoit for so many iccunts 10
The evening of the same day on which they left Georgetown behind them saw the candidates arrive at the Jesuit novitiate at White Marsh, Maryland Here on the morrow, October 6, 1821, they formal! j began the period of their probation. They found discharging the duties of superior and master of novices in White Marsh a fellow Belgian, Father Charles Felix Van Quickenborne, who had come to America a few \ ears before. By him and his socius or assistant, Father Peter Timmermans, one of Father Nermckx's earlier party of Jesuit accessions, the) were welcomed eagerly, and with something of ceremony, in the novices1 assembly room. For two days there was holiday in token of an event which seemed to promise so much for the future of the mission. A month was spent by the candidates in the Spiritual Exercises of St. Ignatius, after which they entered on the ordinary routine of novice- ship life
§ 4. FATHER CHARLES FELIX VAN QUICKFNBORNE
The town of Peteghem near Demze in the diocese of Ghent saw the birth on January 21, 1788, of Charles Felix Van Quickenborne. He
16 Kohlmann ad Fortis, October 5, 1821. (AA) [Fr. A. Kohlmann] "A gentle- man and a scholar of high icpute, the most affable Father I ever met. He received us with the most paternal affection. Every one of us, the one after the other, was called to his room," F. L Verreydt, S J, Memoirs (A).
THE MARYLAND JESUITS 23
studied first the classics and then theology in the Seminary of Ghent and after his ordination to the priesthood was assigned to the ^peUt semmawe of Rottanen to teach the "humanities," 17 Here he remained four years until, on the suppression of the smaller seminaries by Napo- leon, the institution closed its doors He then returned to the Seminary of Ghent, resumed for a while the study of theology, and was later appointed vicar of the Walloon or French-speaking parish in Ghent. Meanwhile, Father Henry Fonteyne, the chief agent in the restoration of the Society of Jesus in Belgium, had opened a novitiate at the chateau of Rumbeke near Roulers. On July 15, 1814, twelve priests and semi- narians, most of them former students of Roulers or the Seminary of Ghent, met at the chateau to inaugurate the first Belgian novitiate of the restored Society. They were joined on April 14, 1815, by Father Van Quickenborne, who had resigned his parochial charge to follow what he felt to be a special call to the foreign missions. At Rumbeke and later at Distellberge near Ghent, whither the persecuting policy of the Dutch government had driven the Jesuits, he spent the two years of his noviceship. At Roulers the Society opened a college in which Father Van Quickenborne was employed for a while as an instructor, having among his pupils Ferdinand Helias D'Huddeghem, with whom he was to be associated again in later years in Missouri.18 But the for- eign missions were still uppermost in his thoughts and so he petitioned the Jesuit General, Thaddeus Brzozowski, for permission to affiliate himself to the Mission of North America that he might preach the Gospel to the abandoned Indians. He had his wish, sailing from Am- sterdam and arriving at Georgetown College towards the end of 1817. Van Quickenborne was at this time but twenty-nine. A letter written to a Jesuit friend in the Netherlands shortly after his arrival at George- town throws an interesting light on the hopes and ambitions which then engaged him. A few extracts follow
Nothing would have pleased me more on my arrival than to have been able to address a letter to your Reverence and thus afford what I knew would be a gratification to you and to our friends But during my stay in Baltimore no opportunity offered, and after resting a few days at Georgetown, during which I followed the Spiritual Exercises, the duty of writing, much against my will, was again unavoidably delayed I earnestly beg Your Reverence not to take it ill that you have had to wait so long, and I trust that the good news I am fortunate enough to send will make amends for my tardiness.
In Helder I lodged in a Catholic inn at the sign of the "Sea-Castle,"
17 Ms, sketch of Father Van Quickenborne. (A) . The account in Peter De Smet, S J , Western Missions and Missionaries (New York, 1863), is brief, but the best available in print,
18 Lebrocquy, Vie du R. P Helias D'Huddeghem (Ghent, 1878), pp. 32, 160.
24 THE JESUITS OF THE MIDDLE UNITED STATES
and I was received most couiteously by the Rev pastor of the place in whose church I twice offered Mass On the 25th of October, 1817, a feast of the Blessed Virgin, we set sail under her protection We first sighted Amenca on Dec 15, the octave of her Conception On the iSth, the feast of the Expectation of the Dehveiy of the same Virgin Mother of God, we safel} arrived at Baltimore, and on the 20th, also sacred to our most holy Patroness, we were warmly welcomed at Georgetown
Great indeed is my debt of gratitude to God for the successful vojage with which he favored me Shortly after I embarked, it is tuie, the sea exacted its tribute, but this indisposition was succeeded by excellent health which still remains My fellow-passengers were unexceptionable, nor was I constrained to see or hear anything unwelcome save the blasphemies of the sailors and those but seldom What is more, I so won upon the Captain, who mingled with us on shipboard as one of ourselves, that he was alwajs at oui service In Baltimore he brought me to a Dutch acquaintance of his and a warm friend of the clergy Scarcely had I entered his house, when the pastoi of the neighborhood came m No sooner did he learn that I was a Jesuit than he took me by carriage to the Archbishop's house, where I found some of Ours So God's care of me was the greater the more destitute I seemed to be
The name of my present abode then is Georgetown The Society has heie a college for Ours, with fourteen scholastics in the first year of phi- losophy, and a boarding-school for studious youths, with about one hundred boarders Georgetown is a small city, distant only half a league from Wash- ington, the capital of the United States. A more beautiful site could not have been chosen The novitiate is at present in the same house, but it is to be removed shortly to Washington, where a suitable building has been erected
I found here seven of the nine companions of Rev. Father Nennckx. One of their number, Mr Van de Velde, is a young man of gieat promise. Rejoicing in their vocation, they all pursue the exercises of the novitiate most fervently to the edification of their brethren. The number of novices, reckon- ing also the coadjutor brothers, has risen to twenty-five, only txvo aio pnests It is my privilege to live with these dear brotheis of mine, and as I move among them I fancy that I am in the company of Aloysius, Stanislaus and Berchmans in our houses at Rome For I am in the midst of u'ligious brethren, whose rare modesty is a strong incentive to piety. And so great is the fervor of their devotion, so unfailing their exactness in the onsen ance of rules, so piompt the chanty with which they forestall one another, that one should deem the blessing of such companionship a marked favor from God. Your Reverence readily understands with what joy my soul is filled at sight of this religious spint. And my satisfaction was none the less thorough to note the fatherly anxiety of Superiors in securing a faithful compliance with religious discipline according to the Institute, and in furnishing the spiritual helps peculiar to the Society in behalf of their subjects who arc engaged in missionary labor away from home. This assuredly is not the least of the blessings found in the Society.
A circumstance with which I should acquaint Your Reverence, and which should rejoice every zealous heart, is the favorable attitude of non-
THE MARYLAND JESUITS 25
Catholics towards conversion and the excellent disposition of infidels for receiving the faith Consequently we may look to gathering fruit in plenty For the harvest is abundant and npe to fullness And so the favored spot which is blessed with a devoted laborer is the scene of many conversions Twelve years ago m Washington, instead of the present church was a large room merely, and there were but twelve of the Catholic communion. Now quite a handsome church has been built and the communicants number about three hundred There were hardly any Catholics in Georgetown twenty years ago Now there is a church, erected by Ours, which is nearly as large as the one at Kuilenburg, and too small for the number of the faithful There is absolutely no opposition from the Government. One may preach unmolested as often as he pleases. Neither is there any conflict with the secular priests In them and in the Bishops we find only friends . . .
But this is not the only region where abundant fruit could be gathered, were there but priests There lie open those vast tracts where dwell the Indians or 'savages', as we call them — fields once made fertile by the blood of many of our Fathers, but now ripe unto the harvest . . .
The Indians of other provinces are no less desirous Last Sunday we were visited here by a venerable old man with whom I had a long talk m French He had lived with our Fathers on the missions among the savages and was now transacting some private business with the Government For fifty years he lived with the Illinois, the Iroquois, the Hurons, and others, among whom our Fatheis Lallamant, Jogues and others were slam When the missions had ceased upon the death of our Fathers, he himself used to baptize the children of the Indians and collect them into his house on Sundays for instruction. "It was a pleasure," he said, "to hear with what affection they used to speak of their Fathers " However, his business concerns forced him to leave them and they were depnved of all help Not long since he journeyed through their country and visited them. They brought him to an island and showed him there on a rock some blood which could not be washed away It was the blood of a Father whose name I have forgotten, but who was killed by the Indians m the last days of the old Society The murderers, they told him, had all met with a wretched and unhappy death They were very anxious to have the Fathers with them The English Gov- ernor (for some, though not all, live in parts subject to the English) sent them Protestant mmisteis They were asked whether they had wives, and when they replied that they had, the Indians said "Our black gowns who were with us before had no wives." They sent word, therefore, to the Governor that they would like to have the holy Jesuit pnests.
Oh, when will that long desired time come when those many souls, ransomed by the precious blood, shall receive their liberty? It would be a work of zeal earnestly to beg their angel guardians not to cease praying to God that many pnests may soon come to set them free from their unhappy slavery and lead them to heaven.
A no less favorable oppoitumty lies before us in the cities of building colleges where ciowds of youth may throng to receive instruction in knowl- edge and at the same time m the Catholic faith. From these youths, some
26 THE JESUITS OF THE MIDDLE UNITED STATES
hereafter may be raised to the priesthood to be pillars of the churches already founded and the future apostles to the lands of unbelievers If }ou happen to have any youths with vocations, they could be of the greatest service here and will be gladly welcomed They should have all the qualities demanded by the Institute for admission into the Society. Those who wish to become priests should have finished their classics and be proficient in Latin If they would be temporal coadjutors, besides indifference, a ceitam amount of prudence is required and talent sufficient to learn English Let them not be old or weak in health.
If anyone should wish to make donations to help on our religion here, it would be above all for the greater gloiy of God that the money should be spent m the purchase of albs, of everything needed by priests, 01 of bells
As I never forget you m my prayers, poor though they bt, or m m} Masses, I beg that you also, Reverend Father, will be good enough to remembei m your holy prayers and sacrifices to God, one now far fiom you, upon whom, when he was with you, you lavished a wealth of kindness and affection For thus with the help of your many prayers, I am confident that I shall be kept from danger and so powerfully strengthened that I shall come to that place where there will no longer be any fear of offending God, and where we shall have it likewise m our power to praise our Creator for ages upon ages.19
Though a Jesuit barely four years. Van Quickenborne was named master of novices towards the close of 1818. Father Kohlmann sug- gested the appointment, which was made by the Visitor of the Mary- land Mission, Peter Kenney. Van Quickenborne filled this position in the last days of the novitiate at Georgetown and accompanied the novices on their removal to White Marsh, where they were installed on November 13, 1819. Here, besides discharging the duties of supe- rior of the house and novice-master, he found time, despite uncertain health, for a wide range of ministerial work. A handsome stone church built on the White Marsh plantation was one of the many fruits of his energy and zeal. Every other week he rode on horseback to Annapo- lis, fifteen miles away, there to celebrate Mass and administer the sacra- ments to the slender congregation. No inclemency of the weather ever held him back, so one of his novices wrote m later years, though he sometimes left the house in so weak a condition that he could scarcely keep his seat in the saddle and seemed to be on the verge of a collapse as he rode along. But it was noticed that he usually returned greatly improved so that people were often heard to say, "Father Van Quicken- borne is going on a trip to spite the fever." With funds diligently collected on all sides he was enabled to build a church at Annapolis, something no one before him had ventured to take in hand.
19 Tr m WL9 30' 83, from Latin original
THE MARYLAND JESUITS 27
It was a practice of Father Van Quickenborne to visit the houses of the non-Catholic neighbors of the novitiate with a view to interest them, in matters of religion. He was also a frequent visitor in the cabins of the Negro slaves and his ministry everywhere bore fruit. "We can- not state with accuracy/' wrote one of his White Marsh novices, "the number of souls whom he won back from heresy with the assistance of his Father Socius, Timmermans, but some idea of their number may be gathered from the fact that he ordered a feast to be spread for the novices, who were constantly praying for conversions, as often as the number reached a hundred, a result that was achieved at least once a year." Between the dates December 14, 1819, and April 6, 1823, Fathers Van Quickenborne and Timmermanns administered four hun- dred and eighty-five baptisms in and around White Marsh.20
Successful though he was in the field of the ministry, Father Van Quickenborne's inexperience as a Jesuit handicapped him in many ways as master of novices. Perhaps to be appointed such after only four years of Jesuit life was a tribute rather to the hopes entertained of him than to his actual qualifications for the office. In the spring of 1820 the Visi- tor, Father Kenney, gave this account of him to the Father General "He is pious and not unacquainted with our Institute, still, having been admitted to the Society but recently, he scarcely commands authority, a thing necessary for his office. He is of too vehement a temper and with little experience in governing others. He is an excellent religious, withal, and with time will become a spiritual father of great repute." Meantime, amid his varied activities at White Marsh Van Quicken- borne had never relinquished the hope of being sent to the Indians. He appealed to the General in December, 1821: "I use this occasion to beg of your Very Reverend Paternity that if you intend to send men to our Indians, you deign to make me one of the number So would you satisfy the desire which has been aglow in my heart almost from boy- hood and which I pray God daily may find its fulfillment " The answer returned by Father Fortis struck a note of prophecy, borne out by subsequent events, as to the future that awaited the Belgian novices at White Marsh "Meantime let your Reverence look upon your present station as your Indies and those lads of yours as little Indians, who are to be educated, not to a life of mere civilization and human culture, but to a life of holiness and perfection (a thing of greater moment by far) and to the spreading of God's glory and the empire of Jesus Christ. For so educated, these lads, whom I bless from afar with every
20 Histoiia Misstoms Missowtanae. (A) White Marsh Records (G). "Conver- sions are pretty frequent Since last July 65 have been received into the Church and more than 100 are being prepared now 9> Van Quicfcenborne ad Fortis3 De- cember 4, 1821. (AA).
28 THE JESUITS OF THE MIDDLE UNITED STATES
blessing, will become, so I hope, educators in their turn to numbers of Indians, while the fruit they gather in will be laid up to the merit of your Reverence " 21
§ 5 THE WHITE MARSH NOVITIATE
The hopes of the Maryland Mission for future development la\ in the little novitiate at White Marsh. But the course of that institution was running anything but smoothly Apart from the financial difficulties that were soon to disrupt it, the problem of recruiting was in no wa> of being solved. Candidates were indeed entering at intervals, but m many, if not in most cases, not of the type to pursue with success the Jesuit manner of life On one and the same day, November 12, 1819, five scholastic and three coadjutor-brother novices were admitted, all of whom subsequently withdrew from the Society. At the time of the arrival of the Belgian group of 1821 the novitiate counted six scholastic and four coadjutor-novices. Of the six scholastic novices, all of American birth, only two were to survive the customary two-year period of proba- tion. During the stay of the same Belgian group at White Marsh only a single accession to the novitiate, a coadjutor-novice of Irish birth, is chronicled, while at the time of their departure for the West m 1823 no other scholastic candidates except themselves were on the novitiate roll Only at a later period was the recruiting of Jesuit novices from the Catholic youth of the United States to meet with success 22
In December, 1821, Father Anthony Kohlmann, who had admitted the Belgian party to the novitiate, was succeeded as superior of the Maryland Mission by Father Charles Neale, called upon despite his advanced years and feeble health to undertake for the third time the duties of that office. In him the Maryland Jesuits found a living link with their predecessors of the eighteenth centurj, for Father Charles had entered the Society before the blow of the Suppression fell upon it In the capacity of chaplain he was now making his residence with a community of Carmelite nuns at Portobacco, St. Marys County, Maryland, some thirty-five miles distant from Washington To Porto- bacco, accordingly, went Anthony Kohlmann accompanied b\ Father Francis Dzierozynski, a Polish Jesuit lately arrived m America, to inform Father Neale of his appointment and to deliver to him the letters-patent from the General which Dzierozynski had brought with him from Rome. The latter, who was to become a conspicuous figure in the pioneer history of the restored Mission of Maryland, was sent
21 Kenney ad Bnzozowski, March 4, 1820; Van Quickcnborne ad Fortk December 4, 1821, Fortis ad Van Quickenborne, March 8, 1822* (AA).
22 White Marsh Records. (G).
THE MARYLAND JESUITS 29
by the Father General to America that he might eventually succeed Charles Neale m the office of superior. Already in May, 1822, Dziero- zynski was at White Marsh with the Georgetown rector, Enoch Fen- wick, as his socius or assistant, making the official visitation of the house under commission from Father Neale, whose failing health incapaci- tated him for the routine business of his office. A report of this visita- tion forwarded by Father Dzierozynski to the General, Aloysius Fortis, affords intimate glimpses of Van Quickenborne and his novices
Rev. Father Van Quickenborne, the Master of Novices, discharges the duties of his office with satisfaction. He is a man of solid virtue, familiar with the Institute and zealous for the spirit of the Society The novices go to him with confidence in their doubts and temptations and find consolation and strength in doing so Instructions and conferences he gives regularly, espe- cially on the proper understanding and practical observance of the Rules He knows the disposition, the conduct and the progress of his subordinates. He instructs the novices how to learn and teach the catechism He writes to his Superiors at the appointed times He is not as strong as Belgians are generally said to be ... The novices, praise be to God, make satisfactory progress. They love their vocation and the Society, m which they wish to live and die in that particular state and grade which Holy Obedience has m store for them. All the scholastics are endowed with the necessary talents Healthy and cheerful, they are m love with perfection, mortification and discipline. The recently arrived Belgians, about whom your Paternity already knows, are also a fine set, modest and fitted for apostolic labors They learn English quickly.
The farm on which they live is very suitable as a place for the novitiate. It has quite a pretty chuich close to the house, also an ascetery and dormitory not so uncomfortably arranged, a good garden and pleasant walks. They live indeed in poverty as to food and clothing, especially under the circum- stances m which all our tempoial affairs are now to be found, but they are learning to put up with it willingly.23
Not many months had elapsed since the arrival of the Belgians when White Marsh found itself tottering under a load of debt with almost no available funds to meet the living expenses of its inmates. "The novices," one of their number recalled in later years, "found themselves deprived of even necessaries in food and clothing. Often, when they sat down at table, there was scarcely food enough for half their number. Things came to such a pass that Father Rector was put to the necessity of begging flour and meat from the neighbors while the use of coffee and sugar was entirely given up."
23 Dzierozynski ad Fortis, May 12, 1822 (B). "Ascetery" is an assembly-hall for the novices.
30 THE JESUITS OF THE MIDDLE UNITED STATES
In September and again in December, 1822, Van Quickenborne acquainted Father Fortis with the situation at White Marsh.
Reverend Father Superior thinks that all the novices ought to be sent away, for, as he says, we haven't the means of supporting them. Father Marshall [procurator] says the same. But the execution of the plan is delayed until Reverend Father Superior receives an answer from your Pateinity. Mean- time, some of them will take their vows The novices have borne themselves remaikably well m all those privations though sometimes owing to the procurator's carelessness, not his lack of means, they had to go to bed hungry for lack of bread They have a very great love for the Society and a confidence in their vocation quite out of the common, and all of them are proceeding well m spirit.
When I wrote last there was a good deal of talk here about dismissing all the novices, especially the Belgians, owing to lack of means The no\ ices all asked money from their parents, Reverend Father Superior having so directed them, but none of them have so far received anything and I fear Reverend Father Superior will again get the idea of dismissing them The majority are excellent religious, although seven of them are foreigners, they now speak English very well. The novices at present number 8 altogether. All are scholastics of the second year, no one having been admitted this yeai, and there is scarcely any hope that anyone from our schools will apply for admission the coming year
On the ground that the Maryland Mission "had more members than it could support/' Father Neale had ordered that the novices, on completing the customary two years of probation, were not to be per- mitted to bind themselves by the usual vows. Owing, however, to entreaties made on their behalf by Van Quickenborne, three of the young men, one a scholastic, the other two coadjutor-brothers, were admitted to the Jesuit vows in i822.24
For the financial crisis that had thus supervened m the affairs of the Maryland Mission, the native American Jesuits saw an explanation in the alleged unskilful management of the mission's temporalities by Father Anthony Kohlmann during the four years that he held the office of superior. Moreover, Father Van Quickenborne appears to have been held accountable in large measure for the critical state of the temporal concerns of White Marsh. The mission debts, so Father Francis Neale explained to the General, "were incurred by members of the Society not accustomed to the country," who inconsiderately made large pur- chases of supplies on credit.25 On the other hand, incompetency was
24 Van Quickenborne ad Fortis, September 4, 1822, December 12, 1822. (AA).
25 Francis Neale to Fortis, March, 1824. (G). "Much of our debt is ascribable to them [the Belgian novices]. The present Superior, Father Charles, is out of all patience at it — and indeed he has reason to be so; for why should we be so liberal
THE MARYLAND JESUITS 31
alleged in the case of Father Adam Marshall, procurator of the mis- sion, and of some of the coadjutor-brothers associated with him in the management of the Jesuit properties It is difficult to determine with anything like precision the actual cause or causes of the economic crisis that was now besetting the Maryland Mission, if indeed it be worth while trying to settle the point at all.
Letters written at this period by Father Neale to Father Marshall afford intimate details of the situation that had developed at White Marsh. The superior gave orders to Van Quickenborne to leave the management of the farm entirely in the hands of Father Marshall and Brother Marshall, "and he being a good religious man," so the superior comments, "will no doubt comply with them."
[June 4, 1822]. I have written to Rev. Van Quickenborne for the novices to use their own clothes, that the Regulations of Father Kenney in oui distressed circumstances cannot be followed for the present, that you must judge of the necessities and provide as well as your means will permit you. . . I have desired him to dismiss the printer and Mr. Smith and that will mean two less to feed. ... As for taking any more lay-brothers it is out of the question unless they be very extraoi dinary members able to make their living and something more for ourselves
[June n, 1822]. I shall write to Rev. Van Quickenborne and forbid him to meddle with the plantation affairs, that you have the sole manage- ment and care of providing them with necessaries, that the novices must wear their own clothes and that they must apply the money they receive for Masses towards their own suppoit. You must visit them often and see what they ically want and not be too hard on them. As to sending every week to Annapolis for fresh fish, it cannot be allowed Let salt cod be procured from Baltimore, which with herrings and pudding and what fish they can catch with hook and line, which will be an amusement for his novices, will be a sufficiency for fasting days.
[July 8, 1822], I am as adveise to the banks as you are Never apply to them or let anyone under your control do it without the greatest necessity, such as the want of bread which cannot be procured otherwise Altho' on account of the foimer extravagances[?] W[hite] M[arsh] deserves nothing in reality, still I would have them supplied with a few quintals of codfish for fasting days
[July 22, 1822]. Do not be down-hearted If all the debts cannot be paid this year, they may next or the year after ... As for dismissing the novices, [it] is a point requiring much consideration
[July 30, 1822], I understand the scholastics at Georgetown are in want of clothes. Furnish them therefore and get them made and retain the
m receiving foreigners among us when we want the necessities of life even for our own native members — when we are adding daily to our debts and when there is scarcely a possibility now left of ever being able to extricate ourselves from them." Benedict Fenwick to George Fenwick, January 14, 1823. (B).
32 THE JESUITS OF THE MIDDLE UNITED STATES
amount from what you intended to pay the College. No handle should ever be given to our young men for want of necessities, it exposes them to loss of vocation.
[September 4, 1822] They must have some meat at the White Maibh, absolutely must Let some tobacco be sold for that purpose Ha\e they no live stock on the place? 20
Meantime, as the specter of want hovered over the White Marsh novitiate, the property on which it stood had become an object of con- troversy between the Maryland Jesuits and Archbishop Marechal of Baltimore. That prelate had taken the position that a considerable por- tion of the Jesuit property in Maryland had been given, by legacj or gift, not to the Society of Jesus in its individual capacity but to the Catholic Church in Maryland. Basing his contention on this and othei grounds, he accordingly preferred a claim before the Roman author ities for the White Marsh plantation, having selected this property because it was easy to reach from Baltimore. "If I have desired," the prelate wrote, "that the White Marsh plantation be conveyed to the see of Baltimore, it is not because the land at White Marsh is of greater fertility and value, but because it is only ten leagues distant from Baltimore, while Bohemia, St. Inigoes, etc , are situated near the limits of Maryland, that is, so far away that the Archbishop of Baltimore can make a visi- tation of these parts scarcely once a year. This the Sacred Congregation can see for itself by casting a glance at the map of Man land." J7 The
J6 Charles Neale to Marshall, June 4, 1822, etc (B).
27 Thomas A. Hughes, S J , Htrtoiy of the Sutiety of Jtw* ;/; Xutf/t 4m?nca, Colonial mid Federal, Documents, 1 550 White Marth wis axqmud in the Maryland Jesuits m 1729 as a legacy from James Can oil, kin-man of Chailes Carroll of Carrollton The following description oi the place is In Father Fidcle de Grivel, SJ, master of novices at White Marsh m the eaih thiitie "While Marsh, formerly called Cairoll's Burgh (Cairolshuig), is situated on a lull about one-hundred feel high, on the top is a fine church of stone, 95 h\ $6 feet Besides the church, theie are irame buildings for twenty No\ iee* and Uu> MI^HWUS with two spare looms for guests, kitchen, refectory, stable, an OK haul, a gat den, nothing else The top of the hill which is comenientl) planted \\ith trees nia\ be five hundred feet long and foui hundred wide — almost lound Fistwaul, at the foot of the hill, is a plain, from west to east, half a mile broad and a mile* and a half long, with meadows, fields of tobacco, some wheat, a lutle more ne, plcntt of Indian corn The soil is too sandy, fit only foi tobacco, coin and unejardsj kut of the last we have as yet none. By and by we will plant them and lhc\inc& will succeed. Half a mile from the hill, eastward and over the plain run* the Patuxent, from north to south, with a good wooden bridge called Priest's Bridge ; it i» on the road to Baltimore and Annapolis White Marsh is fouitcen milts irom the latter town, thirty-three irom the former, twenty-two from Washington westward, twenty-five from Georgetown, seventeen southwest fiom Upper Marlborough and eight from Queen Ann southward It has about four thousand aues, of which one thousand is a very pooi sandy soil." WLy 10 248
THE MARYLAND JESUITS 33
suit was referred by Pius VII to a commission consisting o£ Cardinals Castiglione, Fesch, and Delia Genga, who reported in favor of the Archbishop. A brief was thereupon issued by his Holiness under date of July 21, 1822, requiring the Jesuits to render up White Marsh, or as much thereof as did not exceed two thousand acres, to the Arch- bishop of Baltimore. The brief having reached America in the fall of 1822, its contents were at once communicated to the Maryland Jesuits. Induced by various considerations that appeared to militate against the validity of the document or at least the immediate necessity of executing it, the Jesuits resolved to follow a course which in good faith they judged to lie open to them and to suspend action in regard to it until an adequate statement of their side of the question could be presented at Rome. The merits of the controversy have been appraised by an official historian of the Society of Jesus.28 Here it suffices to note that the strained relations between Archbishop Marechal and the Maryland Jesuits which resulted from the controversy and other circumstances were to be reflected in the attitude taken by the prelate towards the project, soon to be mooted, of a Jesuit mission in the trans-Mississippi West.
As to the White Marsh novitiate, struggling painfully with the problem of material upkeep and located on a property thus become a subject of painful litigation, the closing of it, at least temporarily, seemed to offer the only avenue of escape from what was fast becoming an intolerable situation. The measure had been suggested as early at least as Father Dzierozynski's visitation of White Marsh in May, 1822, the opinion being expressed by him on that occasion that the step could scarcely be taken without permission of the Father General. Late in July of the same year the superior, Charles Neale, wrote to Father Marshall- "As for dismissing the novices it is a point requiring close consideration." Neale had already informed the General, Fortis, that unless permission were granted to receive tuition-fees from the students attending the Jesuit day-school in Washington, the novitiate would have to close its doors. The letter of the Jesuit rule requires that instruction be given gratuitously ; but conditions in the United States, as experience was to demonstrate, made it impossible to put the provision into effect and, with the approval of the Holy See, the acceptance of tuition-fees became the recognized practice in Jesuit schools in this country from the thirties on. In July, 1822, Father Neale explained the situation to Father Dzierozynski
So far I have received no letter from Reverend Father General. I have written to him twice that we are absolutely in need of a dispensation from
1 Hughes, of. cit , Doc. 2 1030 and
34 THE JESUITS OF THE MIDDLE UNITED STATES
the Supreme Pontiff for our Washington schools etc , that without such relief the House of Probation will have to be closed and the scholastics sent to his Paternity [?] or else to the fields there to piovide themselves food and clothing by their sweat and labor, that this is not a fable begotten of feai but so certain that before receiving his answer I cannot m conscience admit to the vows the novices who have finished their piotution, that the situation in non-Catholic countries is quite different from that m Catholic ones, for in the latter, kings, powerful princes and cities make foundations and alms are bestowed, whereas here all foundations have to be built up solely by our efforts and industry.29
Neale's appeal to the General for permission to accept tuition-monej was answered in the negative. Five years later the Washington Acad- emy conducted by the Jesuits closed its doors for lack of means to carry on the institution. Meantime, at least as early as the opening months of 1823, the decision had been taken to close the novitiate. "The reason that sufficed to close the novitiate," so Father Fortis, the General, was to write years later to a Maryland superior, "was distress, and well did Father Kohlman realize how acute that distress was when at White Marsh he had nothing else to live on but potatoes and water." 30 Fol- lowing close upon the determination to suspend the novitiate^ a new and unexpected turn was given to the entire situation by the appearance on the scene of Bishop Du Bourg.
29 Charles Neale ad Dzierozynski, July i, 1822 (B) Cf wftj > Chap IX, § 5
30 Fortis ad Dzierozynski, January 23, 1827 (B)
CHAPTER II BISHOP DU BOURG AND THE SOCIETY OF JESUS
§ I. BISHOP DU BOURG
Louis William Valentine Du Bourg, second Bishop of Louisiana and the Flondas, was the human agent chiefly instrumental in starting the Jesuits of the Middle United States on their way.1 At his invitation the charter members of that group made their first settlement in the trans-Mississippi country 5 from his hands they received as a gift the land which made that settlement possible, through his agency they came into possession of the property on which they built the first of the colleges that were to rise under Jesuit auspices m various localities of the Middle West. By wise counsel and fnendly encouragement, and, when his slender resources permitted it, by material assistance, he sought to tide the pioneer Jesuit colony over the period of distress that fol- lowed its entrance into Missouri in 1823. Nor did his interest in the missionary venture he had fathered come to an abrupt end when under the pressure of painful circumstances he withdrew in 1826 from his American field of labor and retired into France. As Bishop of Mon- tauban he sought with characteristic energy to enlist the aid of the court and ministry of Charles X in the work of the Society of Jesus in mid- America. In fine, he wrote from France to its superior in the United States that he would not consider the well-nigh fifteen years of his residence in the Mississippi Valley to have been ill-spent though he had nothing more to show for his labors in that part of the world than the successful issue of the Jesuit Mission of Missouri In 1827, only four years after the establishment of the mission, Bishop Du Bourg was being called its "founder" by the superior of the Jesuits in North America.2
1 Bishop Du Bourg often made use in his correspondence of the style "Bishop of New Orleans" and is so designated at times m papal documents The diocese of Louisiana, to which Florida was annexed by papal brief, was erected in 1793 with Rt. Rev, Luis Penalver y Cardenas as its first incumbent Rt Rev. Francis Porro, appointed successor to Bishop Penalver y Cardenas, died in Rome as Bishop-elect of Louisiana and the Flondas The diocese of New Orleans proper was erected only in 1826 conjointly with that of St Louis
2 "N'y tut il que cela d& gagnl, ;<? ne croirws fas avoir mal employe les 15 emnees que f ai passes daws ce pays-la." Du Bourg a Van Quickenborne, Montau-
35
36 THE JESUITS OF THE MIDDLE UNITED STATES
Louis Valentine Du Bourg was a native of Santo Domingo in the West Indies, having been born at Cape St Frangois in that island, February 14, 1766 At an early age he was sent to France to be edu- cated It was the last stage of the pre-revolutionary period and the social graces of the old regime, to which at a later date even confirmed radicals like Talleyrand were to look back wistfully, were still an actual educational influence. Upon Du Bourg the impress of his French train- ing was sharp and lasting, showing itself in an ardent piety as also in a refinement and courtesy of manner and an easy, tactful address that distinguished him in after life Having made his theological studies at the Seminary of St Sulpice in Pans and received hoi) orders, he was, though not as yet a member of their congregation, placed b> the Sul- picians at the head of the new institution begun by them at Issj near Pans. He was discharging the duties of this honorable position when the storm of the Revolution broke over his head, scattering the inmates* at Issy and sending him for shelter to his family at Bordeaux. Even here he was not safe from pursuit by the revolutionary officials, and so, taking counsel of prudence, he made his way out of France, going first to Spam, and afterwards to America, which he reached at Balti- more in December, 1794. Received here with open arms by Bishop Carroll, he found established m this American refuge his old friends, the Sulpicians, into whose ranks he was himself admitted the j ear after his arrival in Baltimore.3
ban, January 26, 1828 (A) "Hu/us mimonts fundafoi " D/ieio/\n4,i ad Foitis, May 10, 1827 (AA).
3R A Clarke, Lives of the Deceased Bishops of the Cat fain Chwth m the United States (New York, 1872-1888), I 205 et seq The account in the text of Du Bourg's career previous to his consociation draws chiefly on this *»ouiee, \\huh is based on contemporary notices m the Lyons ArmaJes and the CMhrJir Al/faw*<* Cf also Shea, Catholic C hutch m the Untied States (Akron, O, 1892), }* 670, and Herbermann, The Sulfiaans in the- United States. An illuminating portrajal of Du Bouig, the man, drawn almost entirely from contemporary letters and docu- ments, is available in a study by Charles L Souvay, C M , "Around the St. Lout-* Cathedral with Bishop Du Bourg, 1818-1820," Pastotal Bhtt (St. Louis), Januarj, 1918, p 8 et seq , also, The Western Watchman (St Ix>uis)> October, 1917 Other first-hand information regarding Du Bourg's American episcopate i^ con- tained in Souvay'b article, "Rosati's Elevation to the See of St Louis," Cstfaltt Historical Review (Washington), 3: 3, as also m notes supplied by the «amc scholar to the text of Du Bourg's letters m the St Louis Catholic Htsttoictl Rfrttee, passim. Souvay's pen-picture of Bishop Du Bourg notes "the wonderful amiability which shines forth fiom those kindly eyes of his, his genial countenance, his cordial courtesy, the very tone of his voice, soft, jet manly, and that uniailing tact — the infallible birthmark of one to the manner born — which naturally prompts him to say to every one, always in a most simple, unaffected, gracious language, sometimes tinged with a shade of the purest Attic wit, just the thing which every one likes to hear. He has truly, as Father De Andreis says, the donum
BISHOP DU BOURG AND THE SOCIETY OF JESUS 37
To the Abbe Du Bourg the education of youth was a field of labor particularly congenial and in cultivating it the first years of his residence in America were spent. For nearly three years, 1796-1798, he was president of Georgetown College, having been assigned to this post through the influence of Bishop Carroll, who was impressed from the first with the brilliant attainments of the young ecclesiastic. At Havana he attempted, in company with the Abbes Flaget and Babade, to found a Sulpician college The Spanish government looked with disfavor upon the project and he returned to Baltimore, there to open St Mary's School, the nucleus of the later St Mary's College The impression made by Du Bourg and his Sulpician associates on the best Catholic element of Cuba during their stay in that island now bore fruit. So many sons of Cuban planters flocked to the Baltimore school that in 1803 the Spanish government, fearful of the democratic tendencies of an education received under American auspices, sent a government vessel to the United States with orders for all the Cuban school-boys to return to their own country The institution survived this mishap, flourished for a while, and then declined Du Bourg's plans outran his means and financial embarrassment followed.
Educational projects did not by any means exhaust the energies of this enterprising clergyman. He found time to engage m controversy, taking issue on one occasion with the Presbyterian Synod of Baltimore, which had attacked St Mary's College and the faith it professed He took a lively interest in Bishop Carroll's project of a new cathedral, suggesting the choice of the present site and, when money was needed to purchase it, collecting ten thousand dollars m the course of a single week from the Catholic poor of Baltimore. He organized societies of mutual aid and benevolence among the Catholic men of the city and was active m securing proper spiritual care for the Catholic colored population, his efforts m this direction having much to do with the origin of the Oblate Sisters of Providence.
his French has, of course, the classic purity and sobriety of refined ecclesiastical French of the last quarter of the eighteenth century, and at the same time he has a most perfect command of Enghbh All, from Bishop Carroll — a good judge — down, have long held him as an accomplished orator When you look at his regulai features, you notice at once in his complexion much of that indescribable some- thing which the Italians call motbietezz.® — an untranslatable word, you realize that all that distinction, that perfect gentlemanlmess, that attractiveness, that amiable self-con tiol, natural as they are, are accompanied by a wonderfully keen sensitive- ness ; and no wonder, since the prelate is a native of San Domingo , he has inherited all the temperamental characteristics of the West Indies Creole He is naturally clever, as every well-born West Indies Creole is, and thanks to the thorough classical education which he owes to that prolific nursery of sterling clergymen — St. Sulpice, he is undoubtedly one of the most highly cultured men of America/'
38 THE JESUITS OF THE MIDDLE UNITED STATES
No achievement of the Abbe Du Bourg during his residence in Baltimore is more deserving of record than the part he took m the foundation of Mother Seton's Sisters of Chanty He met Mrs. Seton for the first time at St. Peter's Church in New York, where she acquainted him with her plan of going with her children to Canada and there entering a sisterhood. Suggesting to her the practicability of her realizing the same plan in the United States, he invited Mrs. Seton to come to Baltimore, received her two sons into St Mar>'s College and watched with paternal care over the little group that had gathered about her until in 1809 it was organized on his advice as a religious community. Du Bourg was appointed b} Archbishop Carroll its ecclesiastical superior and when Emmittsburg was chosen for its permanent home he went there in person to select and purchase the property. "The Rev. M. Du Bourg," Mother Seton wrote from Em- mittsburg in December, 1811, "has exerted himself continually for us and bestowed all he could personally give." 4
Eighteen years of educational and ministerial activity in the city of Baltimore had passed away when the scene of Du Bourg's labors shifted to the Mississippi Valley. That part of our national domain was then taking its first steps towards the splendid material growth that was to mark its future. No event in American historj, after the adoption of the Federal Constitution, has done more to direct and shape the destinies of the country than the act by which President Jefferson- acquired from France the magnificent sweep of territory known a*s Louisiana. With the Louisiana Purchase was born the trans-Mississippi West, and for the philosophy of our national history, as a distinguished student of that history has pointed out, one must look to the influence which the West has had upon the development of the American state/*
The state of religion in the Louisiana Territory at the period of its acquisition by the United States in 1803 was distressing. The diocese of Louisiana and the Flondas had been erected m 1793 with Bishop Penalver y Cardenas as its first incumbent. That prelate, disheartened by the ill-success of his ministry, withdrew in 1801 to Guatemala, to which diocese he had been transferred by the Holy See. During the period 1801-1806, two vicar-generals, Fathers Thomas Hassett and Patrick Walsh, were successively in authority at New Orleans. The dio- cese was subsequently placed under the jurisdiction of Bishop Can oil.
4 The most authentic account of Du Bourg's activities in connection with this institute of nuns is in Sister Mary Agnes McCann, History of Mothei S?ton*s Daughters > the Sisters of Chanty of Cincinnati^ Ohio (3 \ols,, New York, 1915- 1917)
5 Woodrow Wilson m Meie Literature (Boston, 1896), echoing prolvMy F, J. Turner's classic hypothesis on the significance of the frontier
BISHOP DU BOURG AND THE SOCIETY OF JESUS 39
Father John B. David, a Sulpician, and Father Charles Nerinckx were m turn nominated to the vacant see. Neither could be brought to accept the post, delicacy of conscience, it was reported, making them both shrink from the responsibility. Meantime the interests of religion in Louisiana became severely menaced by the prolonged vacancy in the episcopal see. In the crisis Carroll, now archbishop, turned to the Abbe Du Bourg. By virtue of Apostolic Letters he appointed him m 1812 administrator apostolic of the diocese of Louisiana and the Flondas. The brief for his appointment as bishop was not forwarded, as Pius VII, then a victim of persecution at the hands of Napoleon, had resolved to issue no more papers of the kind until he was free to take counsel with his cardinals. Du Bourg, m deference to the wishes of his venerable bishop, accepted the appointment and towards the end of 1812 arrived m New Orleans. "Religion was in a most deplorable condition," says a contemporary account, "but a few clergymen distributed over its vast territory, scarcely a church in which the faithful could assemble to hear the words of eternal life, no institution that offered an asylum to the innocent and penitent heart, no seminary of learning to dispense the blessings of classical and religious instruction, the child reared m ignor- ance and forgetfulness of duty, the adult debarred from a participation of the sacraments, all classes of society m a woful indifference upon the subject of their eternal welfare 5 such was the scene of desolation he [Du Bourg] was compelled to witness." 6
The opposition which the newly appointed administrator met with from recalcitrant priests and their abettors on his arrival at New Orleans made him slow at first to assert his position as head of the diocese. A circumstance that contributed not a little to commend his authority was the patriotic course he pursued on occasion of the battle of New Orleans. On December 18, 1814, he issued a pastoral enjoining public prayers m the churches of New Orleans and calling upon his flock to implore the protection of heaven, "while our brave armies, led by the hero of the Flondas, prepare to defend our altars and firesides against foreign invasion." After the battle a public service of thanksgiving was celebrated m the cathedral, the victorious General Jackson being met at the door by the administrator and welcomed in an eloquent address.
A residence of three years in New Orleans convinced Du Bourg that the priests, missionaries, and religious communities so sorely needed for the upbuilding of the diocese would have to be obtained from Europe. He therefore went abroad early in 1815. In Rome he laid the circumstances and needs o£ his diocese before the Sovereign Pontiff, Pius VII. Archbishop Carroll having requested Du Bourg's appomt-
6 Catholic Almanac, 1839.
40 THE JESUITS OF THE MIDDLE UNITED STATES
ment to the vacant see of which he was already administrator, the Pope named him Bishop of Louisiana and the Flondas, an honor \\hich the Sulpician accepted in a spirit of obedience. He received episcopal conse- cration in Rome on September 24, 1815. From that time until his departure for America Bishop Du Bourg was emploj ed in the difficult task of procuring men and means for his destitute diocese As a result of his efforts he enlisted a number of recruits, conspicuous among whom were a group of Lazansts or members of the Congregation ot the Mis- sion under the leadership of the saintly Father De Andrew, and five rehgteuses of the Society of the Sacred Heart with the Venerable Mother Philippine Duchesne at their head.
§ 2. APPEALS FOR MISSIONARIES
The story of Du Bourg's episcopate up to 1823 discloses repeated attempts on his part to secure the services of Jesuit cooperators. At least five such attempts, all, except the last, unsuccessful, are on record. As early as 1814, while apostolic administrator at New Orleans, he appealed for priests to Father Grassi, the superior of the MarjLmd Jesuits.7 In the following year, he was consecrated Bishop of Louisiana and the Flondas. Not a month had elapsed since his consecration when he procured from the Sovereign Pontiff, Pius VII, a brief, under date of October 16, 1815, commending his petition for missionaries to the General of the Jesuits, Father Thaddeus Brzozowski.8 Father Brzoztw- ski, however, did not find it possible to complj with this joint petition of Pius VII and the Bishop of Louisiana, honorable as it was to the Society over which he presided. That body had been restored through- out the Christian world only the year before, its pro\mees were unset- tled and undermanned, its General, refused permission bj the Russian government to go to Rome and unable to dispose frcch cither ot himself or of his subjects, could not from so remote a point as Polotsk in Russia administer properly the important spiritual interests entrusted to his hands. Father Brzozowski regretted, therefore, that he had onlj promises to make to the zealous prelate from America. Yet he did what he could. He issued instructions to Father Perelh, vicar for Itah, as also to Father Clonviere, provincial of France, to furnish Du Bourg with men if they had them to spare.9
7 Hughes, SJ , Hisfoty of the Society of Jesus in Notth Amfnt ;, C'Jwijl and Federal, Documents, 2 1008,
8 Idem, Doc , z 1010 TJiaddeus Brzozowski, born in KimelanJ, KLucnigsberg, East Prussia, October 21, 1749, entered the Society of Jesus \ugiM 26, 1765; Geneial of the Society fiom 1805 to hjs death in 1820, his uJmmistiation wit nos- ing the tiagic episode of Napoleon's invasion of Russia
9 Idem> Doc, 2' ion.
BISHOP DU BOURG AND THE SOCIETY OF JESUS 41
It was, it would appear, Du Bourg's desire to see in Louisiana a Jesuit mission independent of that of Maryland. He alleged as the reason for such separation the great distance between Louisiana and Maryland, but the true reason, so Father Fidele de Gnvel informed his General from Pans, was the fear entertained by the prelate that Father Grassi, superior of the Maryland Mission, might withdraw men for service in the eastern United States Meeting the Bishop in Pans, de Gnvel disabused him of some misconceptions he was under regard- ing the Society's methods of disposing of its members. "He is," de Gnvel commented in a letter to the General, "a man of God and one can easily come to an understanding with him." The Bishop agreed to pay the travelling expenses from Bordeaux to Louisiana of such missionaries as the General might send him, but m his poverty he could not undertake to pay their expenses from Polotsk to Bordeaux, a matter of seventy-five ducats for each traveller.10
Not disheartened by the failure of his first application, Bishop Du Bourg wrote again to the Father General with a request that he issue orders to the Jesuit provincials of Italy, France and Belgium requiring men to be supplied.11 Finally, on the eve of his departure from Bor- deaux, he again addressed himself to the General, requesting leave to take with him to America Father Barat, for whom he had conceived a high regard. The latter, a brother of St Madeleine Sophie Barat, foundress of the Society of the Sacred Heart, "yearns," in the Bishop's words, "for the foreign missions." Local superiors may protest; for this reason the Bishop has recourse to the General "It is to obviate such difficulties that your holy Founder wished all things to be regulated by a single individual, who not being influenced by the particular interests of this or that locality may pronounce upon the vocations of his subjects in a manner more conformable to the general interests of the greater glory of God." 12 But Father Barat was not to accompany the Bishop of Louisiana. After two years of fruitless negotiations with the Society of Jesus, the enterprising prelate, with a party of twenty-eight recruits, embarked at Bordeaux for America, June 17, 1817, on the French frigate Caravane, which the generosity of Louis XVIII had placed at his service.13
10 Idem> Doc ,2 1 01 1. Fidele de Grrvel, born at Cour St. Maurice m France, December 17, 1769, entered the Society of Jesus, August 16, 1803, master of novices at White Marsh m the thirties, died at Georgetown, District of Columbia, June 26, 1842
11 ldem> Doc., 2. 1012
12 Idem, Doc , 2. 1013. Louis Baiat, born at Joigny, France, March 30, 1768, became a Jesuit August 20, 1814, died at Paiis, June 21, 1845
13 F. Hoi week, Kirchengescfachte von $t Louis, p 23 Bishop Du Bourg was the bearer of letters from the Jesuit Father General appointing Father Anthony
42 THE JESUITS OF THE MIDDLE UNITED STATES
Bishop Du Bourg, returning now to America without the Jesuit missionaries he had so earnestly solicited, did not by anj means relin- quish the hope of some day seeing them settle in his diocese. About a year after he had taken up residence in St Louis, which he tem- porarily made his headquarters in preference to New Orleans^ he wrote to Father Anthony Kohlmann, superior of the Society of Jesus in Mary- land, inviting him to open a house in the town of Franklin, Missouri, now known as Old Franklin, to distinguish it from the present town of the same name.14 It was situated in Howard County, on the left bank of the Missouri River, opposite the present site of Boonville. Laid out in 1816 on fifty acres of land donated for the purpose, with streets eighty-seven feet wide, it soon became the most considerable town in the state after St Louis. The Missouri Intelligencer •, appearing at Franklin, April 23, 1819, made claim to be the first newspaper, after the Missouri Gazette of St Louis, published west of the Mississippi. The first steamboat to ascend the Missouri, the Independence, reached Franklin, the terminus of its historic trip, May 28, 1819, having been eight days out from St. Louis. But the glories of Franklin were bhort- lived In 1826 the encroachments of the Missouri River caused the inhabitants to abandon the town, the buildings being moved bodily or else torn down for the sake of the materials The site of the town was soon swept away entirely, the only part pertaining to it that now remains being the old graveyard, which lay beyond its limits.15
It was to this promising frontier settlement that Bishop Du Bouig was inviting the Jesuits of the Maryland Mission. But that mission of the Society was too slenderly manned to venture on a new establish- ment in the Far West and so the Bishop's invitation went unheeded. This outcome must have brought disappointment to Mother Duchcsnc m St. Charles, Missouri, whence she had written hoping "that at the town of Franklin, which was rapidly rising, the Society of Jesus would also found a college and by the gradual erection of small habitations extend their operations into distant localities where the word of God had not yet been preached " 1C
Kohlmann superior of the Maryland Mission "Sept 9, 1817 Rt R<n. Mr. Du Bourg came to the College having landed at Annapolis a few day* ago, \vjth about 3 I cccl. [esiastics] 5 of whom are priests He brought letter* for Fr, Kohl- mann from Rev Fr General Sept n, 1817 Fathci Kohlmann assembled all the religious in the refectory and read an extract of Fr. General's Icttei appointing him Superior (i c of Ours)," Diary of Fathei John McKlioj, SJ. (G),
14 Hughes, of ctt , Doc , 2 1013.
15 Howard L Conard, Encyclopedia of the History of Mtssauti (St. Louis 1901), art "Franklin"
10 Baunard, Life of Mother Duchesne> tr by Fullerton (Rochampton, England, 1879), p. 181.
BISHOP DU BOURG AND THE SOCIETY OF JESUS 43
Two years after the project of a Jesuit establishment at Franklin was mooted the Bishop was still in search of Jesuit recruits. This time he addressed himself to Cardinal Fontana, Prefect of the Congregation of the Propaganda. He regretted his inability to provide for the con- version of the savage tribes which abounded in "the upper parts" of his diocese, and he asked his Eminence to use his influence to have the General of the order grant him Father Barat and other French fathers as well as some of the members recently expelled from Russia. Five or six fathers would be enough if only the Maryland Mission would reenf orce the party with two or three more
So far I have scarcely been able to turn my attention to the conversion of the savages, who are in great numbers m the upper part of my diocese But even if I had been able to do so, there were no laborers For some time past I have been thinking, for this paramount work of chanty, of the Fathers of the Society of Jesus and have left no stone unturned m order to secure some of them. In this regard I was greatly aided by his Holiness [Pius VII], who went so far as to write to the Superior General with a view to indorse my wishes But hitherto our efforts have proved unsuccessful However, I understand that the Superiors of the Society are showing more willingness to undertake the work I have accordingly recommended to Father Inglesi to make use of every resource his intelligence and zeal could prompt m order to bring the project to maturity. I likewise beg most earnestly of your Eminence to second his effoits There is, in particular, one of the Fathers of the Society, Dr. Baiat by name, now m the Little Seminary of Bordeaux, whom I know to be most anxious to come here, m piety, knowledge and zeal he is second to none. I most earnestly pray the Vicar-General to give him to me, and beseech to this end the aid of your Eminence's most powerful influence With him some of the younger French Jesuits will be glad to come as also otheis of riper years, who came lately from Russia to France. Five, or six at most, would be sufficient, if to them were added two or three from Maryland — a thing most desirable on account of their knowledge of English, and also because, as these are well-off financially, they could supply the want of their brothers. With this help, the Gospel cannot fail to make headway among the numberless natives on both sides of the Mississippi and the Missouri. Your Eminence should make it his business to undertake so great a work Let him buckle manfully to the task If he do not, I am afraid the Protestant missionaries will wrest from us so desirable a palm of victory.17
In his answer to Bishop Du Bourg under date of June 2, 1821, Cardinal Fontana, after disposing of the question of a coadjutor for the Bishop of Louisiana, wrote apropos of the Indian missions-
17 Du Bourg ad Fontana, New Orleans, February 24. (25 ?)* 1821 SLCHR, 2: 136.
44 THE JESUITS OF THE MIDDLE UNITED STATES
Meanwhile, what your Lordship has no less at heart than the Sacred Congregation, concerns the conversion of the savages, who are m great numbers throughout Upper Louisiana and may easil) be brought fiom the darkness of error to the light of tiuth, provided theie aie Liboieis I indeed feel like yourself that no workers aie better fitted foi this task than the Fathers of the Society of Jesus, accordingly I will do m\ utmost to bung the Superior General to consent to your proposal, And not onl\ peimit Father de Barat, now residing at Bordeaux, to go ovei then, vuth othcis who came lecently from Russia, but also to see that two 01 thiee fiom Maryland be sent I shall without delay notify your Loidship of the iLStilt of this negotiation. But you ought to mention and specify exactly the places to be assigned to the Mission of the Jesuit Fathers in oidci to preclude all misunderstandings and conflicts for the future 1S
In fulfillment of the pledge it had given Bishop Du Bourg to do its utmost to secure him Jesuit missionaries, the Sacred Congregation of the Propaganda, through its secretary, Msgr Pedicmi, addressed a note to Father Fortis, who had succeeded Father Brzozowski as Gen- eral of the Society of Jesus
An answer is being returned to the pi elate that the Sacied Congiega- tion will lend all its services in obtaining from youi Most Re\. Pateimt\ the fulfillment of the desire expressed, and that, in the meantime, he himself should determine and circumscribe the limits of the mission to be placed entirely under the caie of the Jesuit Fathers, so that no collision 01 dis- turbance arise subsequently In pursuance of the oideis leienul fiom the Sacred Congregation, Pedicmi, the Secietaiy, piaysyoui Most Rev Patumtv, to take to heait a woik so conducive to the gloiy of God and the sahation of souls, and to let the undersigned know what you will be able to lesolvt upon with regaid to each of the points mentioned, so that he will he able to give the prelate a suitable icply 19
Father Fortis was not any better off in the matter of axailuble subjects for the foreign missions than had been his predecessor, Father Brzozowski. He therefore signified regretfully to Msgr. Pedium his inability to comply with Du Bourg's request. His letter^ bncflj sum- marized, enters in detail into the difficulties of his position
The scarcity of priests who are fit for active work and have 1 1 a ivi-d the formation of the Order, since the i eestablishment. Tht engagements ah tad} made, binding the General m conscience and honor to complete the istab-
18Fontana ad Du Bourg, Rome, June 2, 1821. SLCHR, 2. 143 19Pedicmi ad Fortis, Rome, June 2, 1821 Hughes, of. /*/., Doc., 2: 1014. Aloysius Fortis, born m Verona, Italy, February 26, 1748, entcicd the Society ot Jesus October 12, 1762, General of the Society of Jesus, 1820-18295 JaJ in Rome January 27, 1829
BISHOP DU BOURG AND THE SOCIETY OF JESUS 45
lishments founded by the Society in diverse states in Europe The urgency of so many European princes, who demand the return of the Order or its extension into their own countries, with the additional consideration that these same princes have distinguished themselves as protectors and great benefactors of the Society. The state of France, where many Bishops have placed the Jesuits under signal obligations and have been so liberal in allowing members of their diocesan clergy to enter the Order, "in the hope that they should receive a return in kind," by seeing the same as Jesuits lending their help m the ministenes proper to their new state What would they think, if, after being so frequently put off, they now saw their most strenuous workmen, who are actually in their service, withdrawn and despatched to America? 20
This unequivocal communication from the General of the Society to the Propaganda might seem to have quite cut off from Du Bourg all hope, at least for the moment, of securing Jesuit missionaries for his diocese. It was forwarded to that prelate by Cardinal Fontana with an accompanying note
Your Lordship's proposal concerning the erection of a mission in your immense diocese for the evangelization of the savages, under the direction and in care of the Fathers of the Society of Jesus, I did not fail to recommend warmly to the Supenoi General of the said Society But from the answer returned by him, a copy of which I enclose herein, you may easily under- stand that, by reason of the scarcity of laborers, he is for the present unable to undertake this noble work It accordingly devolves upon you to adopt other means to bring about the realization of your praiseworthy design, no woik, indeed, is holier and more apostolic than that of turning barbarous nations, plunged in the darkness of error, to the light of truth and the path of eternal salvation. What I know of your solicitude and zeal assures me that you will not neglect these means 21
§ 3. NEGOTIATIONS WITH GOVERNMENT
Towards the end of 1822 Bishop Du Bourg arrived in Washing- ton to transact with the federal government some business matters relat- ing to his diocese.22 To a friend in Lyons, France, he wrote on January
20 Hughes, of cit, Doc., ^ 1015.
21 Fontana ad Du Bourg, Rome, June 23, 1821. SLCHR, ^ 144.
22 In his letter of March 29, 1823, to the Cardinal-Prefect of the Propaganda (SLCHR, 3. 129), Du Bourg details the reasons that brought him to Washington. These fall under two heads, (i) the Ursuline property in New Orleans and (2) the Indian missions With regard to the property, on which was built the venerable Ursuline convent m New Orleans, Bishop Du Bourg sought and obtained from the government a confirmation of the old French or Spanish title by which the nuns held it, besides inducing the government to relinquish a claim which it had pre- ferred on some technicality to a third part of this same property. The Bishop's particular interest m the matter was due to the circumstance that the nuns having
46 THE JESUITS OF THE MIDDLE UNITED STATES
29, 1823, from that city apropos of the newly founded Association of the Propagation of the Faith
I am writing today to the [membeis of the] Association of the Piopaga- tion of the Faith Their plan is most excellent May they perse\ere and not permit themselves to become discouraged by difficulties' We have \ei) gieat ones of another kind to surmount, but if the Association is constant and endeavors to help us by all the means that such a pioject faithfully followed may produce, I have no doubt of the most consoling success Abandoned to our own resources, however, we can advance but slowly, and then onl^ provided the constant sight of the great needs which appeal to us clamoiousl) from so many quarters may not end by crushing our couiage I cannot tell you how much this project has already contributed to encouiagc mine. I see m advance churches building, the ignorant instructed, the savages e\angclized It is m part, the interests of the last which have called me to Washington The goveinment has received my request giaciously, but what it can do does not amount to much. Never mind, it will help, at least. The most difficult part as well as the most expensive m all great entu puses is the begin- ning, and when there is little or no money, it is enough to dim one mad -ij
A letter of Du Bourg bearing the same date as the preceding one and addressed to the officials of the Association of the Propagation of the Faith dwells upon the aid which that body in the first >car of its existence proposed to lend to the missions of Louisiana.
The plan of your Association, Gentlemen, docs credit to join judgement as well as to your piety. Your organization, so well adapted to facilitate col- lections and insure unity m the whole business, and yom intention to dis- tribute funds between the missions of the East, Louisiana and Kentucky, all seems to me perfectly conceived I do not doubt that He who has mspiud }ou with the courage to take up and the wisdom to conceive the plan, will give you also the perseverance to put it into execution* There will he difficulties of detail, there will be, too, an elaborate coi i espondencc to keep up, which might weary men less faithful, men whose intentions were kss elevated; but the remembrance of all that Jesus Christ suffeied for the redemption of your own souls, the happiness of working with him and his follow*. is foi the redemption of so many other souls which the want of pecimuiy help would leave eternally condemned to the privation of this happiness, are motives that
acquired a new site for their convent had engaged to turn the old site over to him as soon as the new convent buildings should be ready for occupancv. To secure a clear title to the old Umiline property was accordingly a mattei of moment to the Bishop.
28 Du Bourg a M, de Lyon, Washington, January 29, 1823, in Annales
de V Association de la Propagation de la Fot, 1 (no 2) 60 IV. in Recotdt of the American Catholic Historical Society, 14. 145 Bishop Du Bourg had a share in the creation of the great Catholic international society for missionary support, the Association of the Propagation of the Faith.
BISHOP DU BOURG AND THE SOCIETY OF JESUS 47
never lose force in hearts filled with Faith By giving a broad range to the object of your Association, you insure for it the support and interest of all who love God m France. The imagination, as well as the heart, is fired with the idea of carrying the torch of religion to the most distant points of the two hemispheres Nothing could be more truly Catholic than this wise thought and what pious soul, even in the poorest classes, would not esteem it an honor and joy, to procure, at the price of sacrifices so light, the glory of taking part in such a great work.24
In the negotiations with the government on which Bishop Du Bourg was presently to enter, John C. Calhoun, secretary of war under Presi- dent Monroe, took a leading part. The management of Indian affairs belonged at this period to the Department of War, but in the follow- ing year, 1824, a separate Bureau of Indian Affairs, with Thomas Lorraine McKenney at its head as commissioner, was organized, the bureau being made an appanage of the Department of the Interior. From 1821 to 1824, Calhoun, as secretary of war, gave to the Indian affairs of government his personal attention, displaying in the conduct of this branch of his administrative duties a grasp of the Indian question worthy of one to whom the impartial verdict of history has accorded high rank among American statesmen.25 That both President Monroe and Secretary Calhoun showed themselves sympathetic to the Bishop's plans was probably due to certain Catholic associations that had entered into their lives. Monroe had apparently made contacts with the Jesuits of Georgetown College. Calhoun, during his residence on Georgetown Heights or perhaps even before that period, was brought into friendly personal relations with the same Jesuit group.26 To one of their number, Father Levins, a mathematician of note, he offered a professorship at West Point. He apparently was not without some knowledge and appreciation of the Jesuits as missionaries, for he advised Bishop Du Bourg to secure the services of some of their number for the missions
24 Du Bourg a P Association, etc., Washington, January 29, 1823 Ann. Ft op, p 13 (ed Louvam, 1825). Tr. m RACHS, 14" 146.
25 "Upon the whole he advocated a policy towards these wards of the nation which it would have been well for all parties concerned to adopt and pursue with undeviating honesty. Even in our days his Indian reports might be profitably studied with regard as well to the cardinal mistakes committed in the Indian policy as to what ought to be done." Herman E Von Hoist, John C Calhoun (American Statesmen Series), 1888, p. 45.
26 "I have often heard old Jesuits say that Mr. Calhoun, who lived m George- town at this period in an elegant mansion on the heights, often interchanged neighborly courtesies with them and seemed to take much pleasure m his visits to the college " J Fairfax McLaughlm, College Days at Old Georgetown and other Papers (Philadelphia, 1899), p. 73 Calhoun was living on Georgetown Heights at least as early as the summer of 1823.
48 THE JESUITS OF THE MIDDLE UNITED STATES
which the prelate was now proposing to set up Negotiations with gov- ernment on this head began in January or February, 1823. Having met Calhoun m person, Du Bourg was directed by him to draw up and submit a definite statement of his missionary plans and the extent of aid he would expect from government to enable him to carry them out. The Bishop thereupon wrote to the secretary February 15, 1823
Encouraged by the fuendly attention with which you have been pleased to honor my advances for the establishment of Catholic missions among the native Indians of Missouri, I gladly meet your kind imitation m submitting some considerations on that important subject, which, if approved, ma\ serve as a basis for the concession to be made by government for the suppoi t of those missions . . .
I should then, with due deference, think that for those distant missions at least, the work of civilization should commence with harmonizing them by the kind doctrine of Christianity, instilled into their minds not by the doubtful and tedious process of books, but by familiar conversation, striking representations and by the pious lives of theii spiritual leadeis Men, dis- enthralled from all family cares, abstracted from every eaithly enjoyment, inured to fatigue and self-denial, living in the flesh as if strangeis to all sensual inclination, are well calculated to strike the man of nature as a supei- natural species of beings, entitled to his almost implicit belief. Thus become masters of his understanding, their unremitting chanty will easily subdue the ferocity of their hearts and by degrees assimilate their inclinations to those of their fellow-Christians
I would be for abandoning the whole management of that gieat work to the prudence of missionaries as the best judges of the means to be pi ogi es- sively employed to forward the great object of then own sacrifices Such at least was always the policy observed in Catholic Indian missions, the success of which m almost every instance answered and often sin passed cvciy piudent expectation.
Upon these principles I would be willing to send a fe\v missionaries b\ way of trial at least among the Indians of Missouri should Govnnment he disposed to encourage the undertaking The appropriation of monies foi that object, being, I understand, very limited and m a great measure already disposed of, I feel extremely delicate in proffering any specific demand I would only beg leave to observe that hardly a less sum than 200 dollars would suffice to procuie a missioner the indispensable necessities of life. With this abridged view of the subject I beg you will have the goodness to mfozm me. Sir, whether and to what extent, Government would be willing to favor my scheme. I. What allowance it would grant to each missionary? 2 To how many that support might be extended? 3. In case establishments could be made, what help would be made towards them either in money 01 lands? (H).
This letter of Bishop Du Bourg's brought from Secretary Calhoun a reply, dated five days later, February 20:
BISHOP DU BOURG AND THE SOCIETY OF JESUS 49
I have received your communication of the I5th instant and laid it before the President [Monroe], who has directed me to state to you in reply that the regulations established in relation to the civilization of the Indians have been relaxed with respect to the i emote tribes, that is, those tribes occupying the country beyond the Osages and the line of our military posts, and that the Government will contribute $200 annually towards the support of each missionary whom you may send out, not exceeding for the present, three; which will be paid quarter-yearly to your order, commencing from the time they shall actually set out in the prosecution of their duties, of which, and also of the names of the persons selected, you will be pleased to notify this Department. The Government will also contribute towards the expense of the buildings (of which an estimate must be submitted to this Department), which it may be necessary to erect for the accommodation of the Missionaries, m the proportion mentioned in the regulations, printed copies of which are enclosed.
An annual report, on the ist day of October, communicating information of the points selected for the location of the missionaries respectively, the progress they have made and the prospects of success and also any informa- tion in relation to the character and condition of the Indians and the sur- rounding country which may be thought useful to be known to the Govern- ment, will be required, which will enable the Government to judge of the propriety of extending further encouragement to the undertaking. . . ,27
Bishop Du Bourg's efforts to interest the federal authorities in his Indian missions had thus met with considerable success. He had been pledged an annual appropriation of two hundred dollars for each of the three missionaries whom he engaged to send among the Indians and had besides secured a promise of substantial aid towards the erection of buildings m which to house them But he was not content to put up with his actual gam so long as there was a chance of making it still more substantial. He asked and obtained from Calhoun a pledge that the government allowance promised in favor of three missionaries be extended to four. From the Visitation Convent at Georgetown he wrote on March 10 to Calhoun:
I left, thru mistake, m Baltimore, the message with which you lately favoured me m relation to the support granted, at my request, by Govern- ment to a few Catholic Missionaries for the Indian tribes of upper Missouri and Mississippi. In that message, you had confined encouragement to Three, but on a second verbal application from me, you were kind enough to promise to alter that word into Four. Now, Sir, I have to request of your kindness ist. a written authorization to make that alteration myself, on my return to Baltimoie — 2nd — a letter for Genl. Wm. Clark of St. Louis intimating to him the dispositions of Government respecting those four Missionaries,
27 Calhoun to Du Bourg, Washington, February 20, 1823 (A).
50 THE JESUITS OF THE MIDDLE UNITED STATES
and an invitation for him to assist m conveying them to their iespecti\e destinations
As I intend to leave this place on Thursday for Wheeling, Ma Baltimore, I take the liberty of soliciting an immediate answei, observing at the same time that m consequence of new arrangements, the departuie of the Mis- sionaries will be somewhat retarded in oidei to make the expedition more complete, and probably to afford a sufficient number foi the three posts designated by you, viz Council Bluffs, Rivei St Pierre, and Piaine Du Chien When this latter circumstance is fully ascertained, I will have the honor of addressing you for an extension of pationage 28
To this letter of Du Bourg's Calhoun replied on the following day granting the request made by the prelate and informing him that in compliance with his petition a letter had been forwarded to General William Clark, superintendent of Indian affairs m the West, directing him to furnish the missionaries with passports and otherwise befriend them in their missionary designs. "It is believed," sa\s the secretary in his letter to Clark at St. Louis, "that the missionaries \ull, besides preparing the way for their ultimate civilization, be useful in prevent- ing the commission o£ outrages and preserving peace with the tribes among which they may fix themselves," 28a
Thus far in the negotiations between the Bishop of Louisiana and the American secretary of state nothing had been said on either side in regard to an Indian school. The Bishop's plan, as presented to the government and indorsed by the latter with an accompanying pledge of financial support, did not go beyond the settling of a few missionaries among the Indian tribes of his diocese, it stipulated nothing what- ever regarding the education of Indian boys and, HI fact, made no mention of the topic at all. But between the dates March 10 and 17 circumstances arose which led to a radical change m the Bishop^s pro- gram as he had previously laid it before the government. What these circumstances were, the Bishop details in a letter written from George- town to his brother Louis, a resident of Bordeaux m France*
I am still here, my dear brother, although I had proposed in lca\ e before this I have delayed, partly on account of bad roads, hut moie especially in ordei to see the end of a negotiation which I had begun with the go\em- ment on the one hand and with the Jesuits on the other for the establish- ment of Indian missions on the Missouri and the Upper Mississippi.
Providence deigns to giant a success to this double negotiation far in excess of my hopes. The government bestows upon me two hundred dollars
28 (H) Government posts were established at this time at Prairie du Chicnt near the confluence of the Mississippi and Wisconsin Rivers, at the confluence of the Mississippi and the St Peter's, and at Council Bluffs on the upper Missouri.
28a Calhoun to Clark, March, 1823. (A),
BISHOP DU BOURG AND THE SOCIETY OF JESUS 51
a year for each missionary and that for four or five men, and it promises to increase the number gradually, which I am sure it will do
For an enterprise such as this it was essential that I should have men especially called to this work, and I had almost renounced the hope of ever obtaining such when God, m His infinite goodness, brought about one of those situations of which He alone can foresee and direct the outcome. The Jesuits of whom I speak had an establishment of theirs m Maryland and finding themselves exceedingly embarrassed were on the point of disbanding their novitiate when I obtained this pecuniary encouragement from the gov- ernment. They have seized this opportunity and have offered to transport the whole novitiate, master and novices, into Upper Louisiana and form there a preparatory school for Indian missionaries If I had my choice, I could not have desired anything better. Seven young men, all Flemings, full of talent and of the spirit of Saint Fiancis Xavier, advanced m their studies, about twenty-two to twenty-seven years of age, with their two excellent masteis and some bi others, this is what Providence at last grants to my piayeis
As for the rest, you have my permission, in fact it will even give me great pleasure to have you communicate this news to any who can aid m such a great woik, particularly the members of the Association of the Piopagation of the Faith. They will see with gratification how God makes the establishment of their Association in France coincident with the one forming for the heathen in Louisiana, as though He would have them undei stand that He destines the former for the support of the latter Now I shall tell you of my plan Near the spot where the Missouri empties into the Mississippi, outside the village of Florissant, already so happy as to possess the principal institution of the Ladies of the Sacred Heart, I have a very pretty pioductive farm, excellent soil, which if well cultivated, (which it is not at present), could easily provide sustenance for twenty persons at least, so far as the impoitant question of sustenance is concerned True, there is only a small house on the place, but m this country a big cabin of rough wood, such as will be suitable for the apostles of the savages, is quickly built It is there that I will locate this novitiate, which will be for all time a seminary especially intended to form missionaries for the Indians and for the civilized and ever growing population of Missouri,
As soon as the actual subjects are ready, we will commence the mission in good earnest. In the meantime, I propose to receive in the seminary a half dozen Indian children from the different tribes m order to familiarize my young missionaries with their habits and language and to prepare the Indians to serve as guides, interpreters and aids to the missionaries when they are sent to the scattered tribes. It seems to me that with the Divine assistance this plan, which presents itself so naturally, may in time develop. The first thing we have to do is to pray to God, the second to petition His servants on earth, not forgetting, however, those who are m heaven. I foresee still many difficulties, for we must build, we must buy provisions for the first
52 THE JESUITS OF THE MIDDLE UNITED STATES
year, the farm not being under sufficient cultivation, we must buy clothes, etc etc , but we will raise our eyes to Him who has but to open His hand in order to shower blessings upon His creatures, and I know that when our brothers and sisters in France hear of our undertaking and our needs they will come to our aid
I wrote some time ago to the Association of the Propagation of the Faith through its secretary at Lyons. I did not then expect this Indian Mission to take form so soon I prudently wished to have funds before seeking men, but behold ' the men arrive before the funds, because God has His own way of arranging matters which often upset the plans of our poor little human prudence May His holy will be done. Moreover, my young missionaries are not the men to recoil before difficulties I asked the master of novices the other day how they would travel, as I had no money to give them "Oh'" said he, " I have no uneasiness, we will walk and we will beg " 29
On the same day that Bishop Du Bourg penned the foregoing letter to his brother in Bordeaux he wrote to Secretary Calhoun informing him of the change m his plans occasioned by the offer he had just received from the Maryland Jesuits
The liberal encouragement which the Government has, at my request, consented to extend to Catholic Missions among the remote Indian tribes on the Missouri and Upper Mississippi, having induced me to bestow on that important subject all the attention to which it is entitled, I have the honor to submit to your consideration a plan of operation which the most serious reflections have presented to me as best calculated to insure per- manency to that establishment and to enlarge its sphere of usefulness
The basis of that plan would be the formation (on an eligible spot near the confluence of those two large streams) of a Seminary or nursery of Missionaries, in which young Candidates for that holy function would be trained in all its duties, whilst it would also afford a suitable letreat for such as, through old age, infirmity or any other lawful cause, would be compelled to withdraw from that arduous ministry. — The chief studies pur- sued in that Seminary would be: the manners of the Indians, the idioms of the principal Nations and the arts best adapted to the great puipose of civiliza- tion.— And, m order to facilitate the attainment of some of these objects, I would at once try to collect in that Institution some Indian youths of the most important tnbes, whose habitual converse with the Tyros of the Mis- sion, would be mutually of the greatest advantage for the promotion of the ultimate object m contemplation — The result of that kind of Noviciate would be a noble emulation among the Missionaries, uniformity of system, a constant succession of able and regularly trained Instructors, and a gradual expansion of their sphere of activity.
I am willing to give for that establishment a fine and well-stocked farm
29 Du Bourg a son frere, March 17, 1823 (Ann. Pioi> , i (no c) 37 et sea TrmRACHS,i4 149. *"
BISHOP DU BOURG AND THE SOCIETY OF JESUS 53
in the rich valley of Flonssant about one mile from the river Missouri and fifteen from St. Louis.
Seven young clergymen, from twenty-two to twenty-seven years of age, of solid parts and an excellent Classical education are nearly ready to set off at the first signal under the guidance of two Superiors and professors and with an escort of a few faithful mechanics and husbandmen to commence that foundation. I calculate at about two years the time necessary to con- solidate it and to fit out most of those highly promising candidates for the duties of the missions, after which they will be anxious to be sent in different directions according to the views and under the auspices of Government whilst they will be replaced m the Seminary by others destined to continue the noble enterprise.
So forcibly am I struck with the happy consequences likely to result from the extension of that same project that I hesitate not to believe that Government viewing it m the same light with myself will be disposed to offer me towards its completion that generous aid without which I would not be warranted to undertake it. ...
It has already condescended to allow $800 per annum for four mis- sionaries. But it was on the supposition that they would be immediately sent to the Missouri and in the proposed plan the opening of the missions would take place but two years after the opening of the Seminary Yet though not actually employed among the tribes, the missionaries, whilst yet in their novi- tiate, would not be the less profitably engaged in the cause; since besides having a number of young Indians to feed, to educate and maintain, they would be laying the foundation for far more extended usefulness for the future. . . .
The true object of this memoir is to demand that the allowance granted by government, to be increased, if possible, to $1000 per annum (on account of the great additional expenses incident on the present scheme) should be paid from the first outset, on my pledging myself as I solemnly do, that, at latest, in two years from the commencement, I will send out five or six missionaries and successively as many more as Government may then be disposed to encourage.
For the attainment of the object of collecting some Indian boys in the Seminary, it would be of great service, Sir, that you should please to invite Gen'l Clark and Col. O'Fallon to lend me their assistance.30
30 Du Bourg to Calhoun, Washington, March 17, 1823 (H). There are indi- cations that this letter, as also the one of Du Bourg's to Calhoun February 15, 1823, were drawn up by Father Benedict Fenwick General William Clark, asso- ciated with Menwether Lewis m the famous Lewis and Clark expedition to the Columbia River, 1803, was appointed by President Monroe in 1822 western super- intendent of Indian affairs with headquarters in St. Louis, an office he discharged with great credit until his death in 1838, Familiarly known to the Indians as Red Head, on account of the color of his long hair, he gamed a remarkable as- cendency over the native tribes of the West, his dealings with whom were char- acterized by prudence, humanity and justice. It was owing to his long-continued control of Indian affairs at St. Louis that this city became the recognized clearing-
54 THE JESUITS OF THE MIDDLE UNITED STATES
Calhoun's reply to the foregoing communication from Du Bourg is dated four days later, March 21
I have received your letter of the lyth instant and submitted it to the President for his consideration and direction, who has instructed me to inform you, in reply, that believing the establishment of a school on the principles which you have suggested, is much better calculated to effect your benevolent design of extending the benefits of civilization to the remote tribes, and with it the just influence of the government, than the plan you formerly pioposed for the same object, he is willing to encourage it as far as he can with propriety, and will allow you at the former rate of $800 per annum to be paid quarter yearly towards the support of the contemplated establishment No advance, however, can be made consistently with the regulations, until the establishment has actually commenced its operations, with a suitable number of Indian youths, of which fact and the number of pupils the cei- tificate of General Clark will be the proper evidence
A copy of this letter will be sent to General Clark with instiuctions to give proper orders to such of the Indian agents under his charge as you may think necessary, to facilitate the collection of the Indian youths to be educated, and to afford every aid m his power to promote the success of the establishment.31
President Monroe had thus accepted Bishop Du Bourg's project of an Indian school as a substitute for the former project of sending out missionaries at once among the remote tribes , at least there appears to have been no intention on the part of the government to subsidize both ventures, the Indian school and the dispatch of missionaries^ by separate appropriations. The terms of the President's offer, however,
house for all federal transactions with the Indians of the West and Southwest. Though not a Catholic, he had three of his children baptued by Bishop Flaget on the occasion of the latter's visit to St Louis m 1814 "Governor Clark [at this time Governor of Missouri Territory], the former associate of Lewis m the dis- covery of the Columbia river, paid him every possible attention He invited the Bishop to his house and prevailed on him to baptize three of his children as well as an orphan girl residing m his family. The Bishop stood God-father and Mrs Hunt God-mother of the children." Spaldmg, Sketches of the Life, Times &id Character of the Rt. Rev Benedict Joseph Flaget, Fust B^skof of Louisville (Louis- ville, 1852), p 135 General Clark's son, Julius, was a student with the Jesuits in Florissant and later in St Louis, where he was baptized by one of their numbeu
Benjamin O'Fallon (1793-1842), brother of John O'Fallon, St Louis philan- thropist, served many years as Indian agent on the Missouri River under Hit. uncle, General William Clark, the latter's sister Frances Jiavmg married Dr James O'Fallon, father of Benjamin and John Father John O'Fallon Pope of the Society of Jesus, for many years head-master of the Jesuit house at the University of Oxford known as Pope's Hall, was a grandson of John O'Fallon and a great-grand- nephew of General Clark.
31 Calhoun to Du Bourg, Washington, March 21, 1822 [1823] (A). This letter is dated 1822, obviously a mistake for 1823.
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BISHOP DU BOURG AND THE SOCIETY OF JESUS 55
did not completely satisfy the energetic prelate, who was determined to secure every possible advantage for the enterprise on which he had set his heart. To Calhoun's letter of March 21 announcing the Presi- dent's willingness to grant an annual appropriation of eight hundred dollars for the projected Indian school, Du Bourg replied on the same day, asking that the allowance of eight hundred dollars run from the actual setting out of the missionaries though it was not to be paid until the seminary should be in operation. "I suppose," writes the Bishop, "it is your understanding, for the establishment being considered by Government in the same light with all others, it should be assimilated to them in this respect — and in fact great expenses are necessary to pre- pare for the accommodation of the missionaries and of the Indian boys for which we ask nothing of Government. Then, until these can be collected, the missionaries must be supported and it is impossible to know how many months it may take to effect that purpose." 32
No answer from Calhoun to this final petition of Bishop Du Bourg seems to be extant, at all events subsequent developments indicate that it was not acquiesced in by the government.
§ 4. NEGOTIATIONS WITH THE MARYLAND JESUITS
Bishop Du Bourg's plan of Indian missionary enterprise in his dio- cese had thus been presented to the federal authorities in Washington and had been approved by them and even subsidized. We have now to retrace our steps for a space and learn what passed between the prelate and the Society of Jesus in Maryland in connection with the aforesaid plan. It was at the very crisis in the affairs of the White Marsh novitiate told above that Du Bourg came before the Maryland Jesuits with his petition for missionaries to labor in the West.33 At this juncture, however, the dissolution of the novitiate had already been determined upon by the Jesuit authorities. It was not the Bishop's appearance upon the scene that led to this drastic measure, his contribution to the de- velopment of events was to consist rather m saving the entire personnel of the novitiate to the Society of Jesus by providing it with a new home in another section of the United States.
From the first days of his arrival in the East towards the end of 1822 Du Bourg had been in close touch with the Jesuits of Georgetown College. A spiritual retreat of eight days closing on Christmas Day, which he made at the college, gave edification to the faculty of the institution.34 One of its professors, James Oliver Van de Velde, then
82 Du Bouig to Calhoun, Washington, March 21, 1823 (H).
83 Cf. stiff a, Chap. I, § 6
8* Hughes, of. at, Doc, 2 910
56 THE JESUITS OF THE MIDDLE UNITED STATES
a > oung scholastic and subsequently second Bishop of Chicago, claimed in later years the distinction of having been the first to suggest to Bishop Du Bourg the plan of recruiting the White Marsh novices for service in his diocese Doubtless the prelate took up with the Jesuits the ques- tion of missionary recruits at an early stage of his visit in the East, moreover, it appears likely that he did not approach the government on the subject of subsidies until he had received from Father Charles Neale, superior of the Maryland Mission, at least a provisional pledge of a few men to enable him to carry out his program The results of his negotiations under this head up to February 27, 1823, were embodied by him in a letter of that date addressed to the Lazanst, Father Philip Borgna, an assistant-priest at the cathedral in New Orleans, who was about to visit Rome and whom the Bishop commissioned to be his con- fidential agent with the Sacred Congregation of the Propaganda *3 After deploring the imprudence of which he had been guilty in allow- ing himself to be duped by a clergyman who was afterwards discovered to be an adventurer and imposter, the Bishop wrote to Father Borgna
In the midst of these great occasions of affliction, God has kept in store foi me extraordinary consolations The first is the success of the applica-
tion I made to the American Government for the establishment of an Indian Mission at Council Bluff [s], where there is a militaiy post made up mostly of Catholics 3b The Government grants $800 yearly foi four mis-
S5 Du Bourg a Borgna, C M , Washington, February 27, 1823 Tr in SLCHR, 3 123 The letter refers m these terms to Father Angelo Inglesi, whom Du Bourg ordained in St Louis "Make known to the Cardinal Prelect by what aitinces the notorious Inglesi magnetized me and Father De Andreis and all, both priests and lay-people, who knew him here Say that I acknowledge my mistake and deploze it, and that such is the confusion and the sorrow into which, this sad disclosure has plunged me that I have been several times tempted to beseech his Holiness ior permission to retire, in order that I may bewail this fault, that the sole fear of seeing my Diocese lost by that request prevented me, but that if his Eminence deem it fit to relieve me of a place of which I made myself unworthy b\ such a great imprudence, I am ready to resign and will be most thankful to him " \ sketch by Msgr F Holweck in the Pastotal Blatt (St Louis), February, 1918, "hm dunkles blatt aus Du Bourg's Episcopat," gives the facts of Inglesi's career
36 The present town of Council Bluffs on the western boundary of Iowa, directly opposite Omaha, Neb , takes its name from an older plade on the Nebraska side of the river about sixteen miles in a straight line above Omaha It is the older place to which Bishop Du Bourg refers The name originated with Lewis and Clark, the two explorers having on their way up the Missouri m 1804 met at this spot a. group of Oto and Missouri Indians, with whom they held a council Elliott Coues (ed ), Jouinal of the Lewis and Clatk Expedition (New York, 1893), * 66 A government post known as Fort Atkinson (or Fort Calhoun) was established here about 1819 and later, under Col Leavenworth, the commandant, moved to a site lower down the Missouri, where it took the name of Fort Leavenworth That most of the soldiers garrisoned at Fort Atkinson at this period (1823) were Catholics,
BISHOP DU BOURG AND THE SOCIETY OF JESUS 57
sionanes, and it will defray two-thirds of the ouday for the establishment and for the education of the young Indians.37 It has been my intention to give this mission to your congregation, but it is and shall be yet for a long time too poor in subjects to be able to take it. The Jesuits are going to take it; they are giving me for this purpose two excellent priests and two lay- brothers to teach catechism. Council Bluffs is situated at about a thousand miles [ ' ] from the mouth of the Missoun river The missionaries will start in two or three weeks . . .
Divine Providence brought me here to discover a veritable mine In order that these words may not be a puzzle to you and your Superiors, here is m plain and clear language what I mean The Jesuits, being overburdened by an enormous debt which obliges them to stop every expenditure, have determined to dissolve their Novitiate, which is made up of seven Flemish subjects, some of whom are quite remarkable, and they have proposed to me to take over those, who, unable to join their Society, would be willing to enter your own They offer to pay transportation expenses I am going tomoriow, or the day after, to visit the Novitiate and pick out three or four of the best
In this communication from Bishop Du Bourg to Father Borgna two important points of agreement m the negotiations between the Bishop and the Jesuits of Maryland, as they had developed at this stage, are disclosed. First, the Bishop had secured for his projected Indian mission at Council Bluffs the services of two priests and two coadjutor-brothers of the Society of Jesus, these being Fathers Van Quickenborne and Timmermans and Brothers De Meyer and Reisel- man.38 Secondly, the Flemish novices at White Marsh, who were to be dismissed m view of the impending dissolution of the novitiate, were to be given an opportunity of laboring in Du Bourg's diocese by be- coming Lazansts or members of the Congregation of the Mission established m Missouri since 1817. That this last proposal was actually laid before the novices by their superiors, there is nothing in the perti- nent documentary sources to indicate. In any case Du Bourg, if he did make the contemplated visit to White Marsh, did not broach the subject
as Bishop Du Bourg declares, is probably an exaggeration The actual distance of old Council Bluffs up the Missouri from its mouth at the Mississippi is six hundred and ninety miles, the dnect distance between the two points being about four hundred
37 It was only on March 1 1 that Calhoun raised the number of missionaries to be subsidized from three to four. There is nothing m the Du Bourg-Calhoun correspondence to indicate that the government had engaged to defray two-thirds of the expense of setting up the mission and educating the Indian boys, in addition to an annual federal appropriation of $800 for the support of the missionaries. It is likely that the Bishop misconceived the terms of the government offer.
38 Cf. infra, § 5-
58 THE JESUITS OF THE MIDDLE UNITED STATES
to the novices. Before leaving Baltimore, whither he had gone to lay before Archbishop Marechal the arrangements he was making with the Jesuits, he wrote to that prelate on March 6, 1823
I am returning to Washington and before leaving deem it proper to enter into a brief explanation
I have had the honor to inform you that I am not acquainted with any of the young men of White Marsh, and am absolutely unaware of the arrangements they have made They were unaware themselves at the time of my parting of the arrangements made by the Superiors in their regard This has prevented me from speaking either to you or to them of the affair which was proposed to me, but probably all is known to them by today and they must have made their decision Perhaps all, perhaps only a part of them will decide to follow their vocation to the religious state Perhaps also they will prefer to enter the ranks of the secular clergy. In the last supposition, I declare to you that I want none of them; but in the other supposition, I do not believe that you have the right to oppose their leaving. These young men are foreigners, they have cost the diocese as such nothing at all They came to America to be religious, they have persevered sixteen months m their determination. I do not see on what ground you have the right to claim them Nevertheless, I do not attach as much importance to the acquisition of a few subjects as to the preservation of chanty and, conse- quently, I stand only for what can be done without detriment to the union which ought to exist between us Be so kind then, as to let me know frankly whether you Insist that I have nothing at all to do with any of these young men or whether you see your way to a certain number of them, say three or four, accompanying me.
As to the priests already employed in your diocese, I have already had the honor to signify to you that I am disposed [ms ? ] to refuse their
services.39
It would appear that Archbishop Marechal made known to Bishop Du Bourg that not even a partial recruiting of the White Marsh novices for service in the West would meet with his approval. At any rate, Du Bourg on returning from Baltimore to Washington had his mind made up to break off further negotiations with the Jesuits. But during the interval March 10-13 the situation unexpectedly shifted. As the Bishop of New Orleans later explained to Archbishop Marechal, the Jesuits, using towards him "a sort of violence" (the expression is Du Bourg's), prevailed upon him to agree to the transfer of the entire personnel of the novitiate, novices and novice-masters, to Missouri. Here they were to set up a new mission of the Society of Jesus, which was to devote itself to the conversion of the Indians of the West,
89 Du Bourg a Marechal, Baltimore, March 6, 1823 Baltimore Archdiocesan Archives.
BISHOP DU BOURG AND THE SOCIETY OF JESUS 59
though other apostolic activities were not to be excluded from its range of work. To those most intimately concerned in the project. Father Van Quickenborne, the master of novices, Father Timmermans, his assistant, and the Belgian novices, the news of the proposed transfer of the novitiate to Missouri came as a surprise, though not an unwel- come one, as they now saw the way open before them to a realiza- tion of the hopes which before everything else had brought them to America.
Father Charles Neale, superior of the Maryland Jesuits, was at this juncture at Portobacco, St. Marys County, Maryland, where he was filling the post of chaplain to a community of Carmelite nuns whom he had been instrumental in bringing over from Belgium. Unable on account of the mortal illness which prostrated him to conduct with Bishop Du Bourg the negotiations for the transfer of the novitiate, he commissioned Father Benedict Fenwick of Georgetown College, the future Bishop of Boston, to discharge this task in his name. Taking advantage of their canonical privilege as a body of religious men exempt from episcopal jurisdiction to dispose of their men without consulta- tion with the diocesan authorities, the Jesuits had not advised Arch- bishop Marechal of the arrangements they were to make with Bishop Du Bourg. To a letter of inquiry from the Archbishop regarding the nature of these arrangements, Father Fenwick wrote to his Grace from Georgetown College on March 13, 1823-
Just returned from Mount Carmel where I have been on a short visit to F[r]. Charles, who has been and who still continues very ill. I hasten to reply to your Grace's communication which reached here in my absence and to afford every information in my power which it calls for.
The following aic facts which your Grace may rely on At the last meeting of the Board of Trustees held at Mount Carmel m consequence of the indisposition of the Superior, the whole state of our affairs was taken into consideration It was found that the former Superior [Kohlmann] had received into the Society more members than it could consistently support; and in consequence of this, a very considerable debt had been contracted, and that this debt could not be liquidated without suspending for the present the novitiate. Accordingly I was directed by the Supenor to write to some of the Rt Revd* Prelates of these States to know whether any, and if so, how many of the young men, now in their noviceship at the Marsh, they would be disposed to receive into their Seminaries for the benefit of their respective Dioceses. As soon as I had determined to execute the wish of the Superior in this particular, the Rt Rev Bp of New Orleans arrived here. I commenced with him and addressed him a letter on the subject. I was led to this, principally in consequence of his being on the spot, and could explain to him, <wua voce, the motives of the application and the urgent necessity that compelled it. About this time Mr. Secretary Calhoun had expressed his
60 THE JESUITS OF THE MIDDLE UNITED STATES
desire to the Bp to have some Jesuit Missionaries stationed at Council Blufts It immediately struck him that this mission, the expenses of which the United States would defray, might afford an opening to the Society, and answer the double purpose of diminishing our number here and consequently our ex- penses, and still of retaining the novices in the Society After various plans, some of which have been partially adopted and partially rejected, the follow- ing has been finally settled and has received the sanction of the Supenor Rev F F [Fathers] Vanquickenborne and Timmermans, the first being Master of Novices and the second his Socms, have received orders to start as soon as possible with all the novices, seven in number, and repair to St Louis and afterwards to Council Bluffs The young men are to be considered as novices of the Society and are to continue their noviceship under the direc- tion of the above-named Fathers, at the same time that they prepare them- selves for their future mission by studying the language, manners and customs of the country The Superiors have been led to accept of this new mission, in addition to the reasons presented by our present difficulties, by the earnest desire of both the Holy Father, the present Pope, and the Rev Father General who sent Revd Mr Vanquickenborne to this country ex- pressly for the Indian Missions It would seem indeed that D[ivme] Provi- dence has a hand in this business, for it was as unexpected to us as it has been promptly acted upon It is somewhat smgulai that the Secretary of War should make the demand of missionaries, just at the time when we could best spare them and offer a support for the same precisely when every other means has failed us Whatever the case may be, I can assuie your Grace that there is nothing clandestine in the affair — that if the transaction wore at any time the appeal ance of mystery, it proceeded from our unwillingness to let the world know our impoverished state and our embarrassments, the public acknowledgment of which might seriously have affected our credit But it was far, very far from our mind to wish to conceal anything fiom your Grace. The candour with which this letter was written will be sufficient evidence of the fact I do not think, either, that even the shadow of blame can attach to the Bp of New Orleans in consequence of any part he has taken in the promotion of this scheme. It originated entirely with us — it was a measure of our own — it was prepared by us and only accepted by him. Had he not accepted, the only consequence (as I now know, but of which I was ignorant then) would have been that these young men disappointed in then expectation of joining the Society m this country, would have returned to their own and sought to be admitted elsewhere So great is their desire of becoming Jesuits, that they would never have consented to lemam here as secular priests.40
40 Benedict Fenwick to Marechal, March 13, 1823 Baltimore Archdiocesan Archives The reasons for the transfer of the novitiate are indicated in a letter of Benedict Fenwick to the General, Mount Carmel ( For tobacco ), Mav 6, 1823 These reasons are summarized in Hughes, of cit , Doc, 2. 1025. "Four reasons for the transference of the novitiate, etc i Reasons from the side of Mr. Cal- houn, Secretary of War, who would otherwise have engaged Protestant missionaries, 2, The insistence of Mgr. Du Bourg who feared that his successor m the See might
BISHOP DU BOURG AND THE SOCIETY OF JESUS 61
Having made these explanations to the Archbishop of Baltimore, Father Fenwick busied himself with the drafting of an elaborate and carefully worded Concordat defining the respective rights and obliga- tions of the Jesuits and of the prelate who was to receive them into his diocese. There were precedents in the history of the Maryland Jesuits that made the framing of a written agreement an obvious step to take. Father Grassi, superior of the Maryland Mission, and Arch- bishop Neale had been parties to a concordat, while Bishop Conwell of Philadelphia had at one time proposed that the activities of the Jesuits established in his diocese be regulated by written agreement 41 Moreover, Msgr. Pedicim, secretary of the Propaganda, on endorsing Du Bourg's petition for Jesuit missionaries in 1821, had directed the prelate "to define and circumscribe the limits of the mission to be placed entirely under the care of the Jesuit Fathers so that no collision or disturbance arise subsequently." 42 The signing on March 19, 1823, of the agreement between Bishop Du Bourg and Father Charles Neale may be taken to mark the birth of the Missouri Mission 4S The text of the document, which is necessary for an understanding of subsequent events, is here reproduced
1823, March 19. A Concordat or Agreement
entered into by the Rt, Rev. Louis Wm. DuBourg, Bishop of New Orleans, on the one pait, with the Rev. Father Charles Neale, Superior of the Society of Jesus in the United States of America, on the other part, respecting the Missions about to be undertaken by the said Society in the Diocese of the said prelate.
The Rt. Rev Bishop of New Orleans, animated by the desire of propa- gating and extending the Gospel through his extensive diocese, and anxious to promote, as much as possible, the temporal as well as the spiritual welfare of the numerous savage tribes inhabiting the shores of the Missoun and its
not favour the Society; 3, The debts of Maryland, which rendered the Novitiate a burden on the eastern mission, 4 The unfitness of foreigners for Maryland and their fitness for Missoun " A fifth reason "which, might also have contributed some- thing to influence Father Neale's determination," is added by Father Fenwick, viz. a debire to procure an asylum for the Society in the West, m case the disagreement with the Aichbishop of Baltimore over the White Marsh affair should reach, an acute stage
41 Hughes, of cit , Doc, I 301, z 927
42 Idem, Doc., 2 1014.
43 The original of the Concordat (in Father Benedict Fenwick's hand and with authentic signatures) is in the archives of the Md -N Y Province, S J In the same archives is also the original draft, likewise in Fenwick's hand, with cor- rections and erasures, and inscribed "a true copy " A copy in Du Bourg's hand, signed by himself and Charles Neale, is in the St Louis Archdiocesan Archives. Benedict Fenwick was evidently the author of the Concordat
62 THE JESUITS OF THE MIDDLE UNITED STATES
tributary streams, by conferring on them the benefits and comforts of civiliza- tion and at the same time instructing them in the ways of God and opening their eyes to the truths of His holy Religion, as taught by Jesus Christ His divine Son and proposed by the Church, seizes with joy a proposal made to him by the Superior of the Society in the United States, to co-operate with him and to carry into effect so laudable a design, by furnishing him with a number of able and zealous missionaries, who shall immediately proceed to the work And, in order that a fair understanding may always hereafter subsist between the Bishop of New Orleans and his successors in the See and the Superior of the Society of Jesus and his successors, the following con- cordat or agreement is entered into, and has been signed by each of the parties, and when approved and ratified by his Holiness as well as by the General of the Society in Rome, the same shall be perpetually binding on them and their successors
I The Bishop of New Orleans cedes and surrenders to the Society of Jesus for ever, as soon and in proportion as its increase of members enables it to undertake the same, the absolute and exclusive care of all the missions already established and which shall be hereafter established on the Missoun River and its tnbutary streams, comprising within the above grant and cession the spiritual direction, agreeably to their holy institute, as well of all the white population as of the various Indian tribes inhabiting the above mentioned district of country, together with all the churches, chapels, colleges and seminaries of learning already erected and which shall hereafter be erected, in full conviction of the blessed advantages his diocese will derive from the piety, the learning and the zeal of the members of the said religious Society — Reserving, however, at all times to himself and his successors the right of visiting in charity said portions of his diocese, agreeably to the canons of the Church in such cases made and provided, also of requumg the removal of any member or members of the Society from any post or station in the ministry, when such removal for impropriety of conduct is deemed by him necessary; and also of requiring upon all occasions, when a Superior shall desire to withdraw a member or members from any post of the mission, the name of the individual or individuals he appoints to succeed him or them, in order that he (the Bishop) may judge of his or their qualifications, etc., and empower him or them to exercise jurisdiction accordingly.44
2 The Bishop, to enable the Superior and the Society to enter imme- diately upon the work so laudably undertaken by them, engages to cede and transfer to said Society all right and title to a tract of valuable land at Florissant, of which he is now legal propnetor, consisting of three hundred and fifty acres or thereabouts, with all its buildings and improvements, and to make over the same immediately in such way and to such peison or per- sons, in trust for the Society, as the Superior shall think fit 4C
M "And also requiring, etc." Father Fortis suggested a modification of thii item Cf mfra, Chap IV, § 7.
45 The signing of the Concordat was followed by a bond of conveyance dated
BISHOP DU BOURG AND THE SOCIETY OF JESUS 63
3. The Bishop furthermore pledges and hereby binds himself and his successors to support, encouiage and promote to the best of his ability, and with such pecuniary aid, collections and donations, as his circumstances and means will allow, the missions herein ceded to the Society and their respective establishments, colleges, seminaries, churches, etc., which are and which shall be hereafter made and erected, — and especially the seminary immediately to be commenced on the above mentioned tract of land at Florissant.
4 The Superior of the Society on the other hand engages himself to send immediately to Florissant, in the State of Missoun, two Priests of the Society of Jesus, with seven young men, candidates for the same, for the purpose of forming an establishment there, which shall serve for the present as a semmaiy of preparation for the objects above specified, — He promises more- over to send, with the above, two or three lay-brothers of the same Society, with at least four or five negroes to be employed m preparing and providing the additional buildings that may be found necessary, and in cultivating the land of the above mentioned farm
5 The Supei 101 also engages that, at the expiration of two years, count- ing from the time of their arnval, four or five, at least, missionaries duly qualified shall pioceed to the remote missions, (i e ) to the Indian settle- ments in the vicinity of Council Bluffs, and shall there labour towards the attainment of the gieat object specified above for the greater honor and glory of God.
6 The Superior pledges himself to foster and promote, as much as he is able, the above mentioned missions with their several departments; and, until it shall be deemed necessary for the gi eater good of the mission to fix upon some other site for the principal residence of the Society engaged in this mission, to retain at the establishment at Florissant at least two capable Fathers, whose chief care it shall be to superintend and to diiect the same, in qualifying the youth who shall offer themselves, and who shall have been
sant to Francis Neale, "ab the assign of said Charles Neale," "as soon as it shall have been duly notified to me that his Holiness the Pope has ratified the Concordat entered upon between me, etc " A statement from the Bishop, of the same date as the bond of conveyance, explains that the money consideration of four thousand dollars specified in the said bond is merely nominal, "the true consideration," to cite Hugheb's paraphrase, "being the articles of the aforesaid Concordat, which, if executed here by Ncale and approved by Rome must be considered full equivalent for the farm*" Hughes, of. cit , Doc., 2. 1024. In the deed of transfer of the Florissant property executed in favor of Father Van Quickenborne under date of May 25, 1825, the consideiation is specified as five thousand dollars, also a mere paper figuic.
Article l of the Concordat overstates the size of the Florissant farm The deed of transfer of May 25, 1825, describes it as "being four arpens wide and about sixty in length containing two hundred and fifty arpens or thereabouts," approxi- mately two hundred and twelve acres. The Bishop acquired the tract m two sec- tions, purchasing one section from Joseph James (1818) and the other from Father Joseph Marie Dunand, the Trappist pastor of Florissant (18x9) (A). Father Van Quickenborne estimated "its highest value, abstraction being made of our improve- ments" at two thousand dollars
64 THE JESUITS OF THE MIDDLE UNITED STATES
received there with the approbation of the Supenor, foi the puipose of the mission.
7 The Bishop of New Orleans m his desne of promoting the establish- ment about to be commenced at Florissant, and to benefit the mission at large, obligates himself and his successors to pay into the hands of the chief of the mission whatever sum or sums of money the United States Govern- ment shall think fit to advance, and to apply towards this object, and to transmit to the same whatevei sum or sums it shall hereafter appropnate, and as long as it shall continue to appropriate it or them, towards the fuitheiance of the work of God in this section.
In confirmation of this mutual agreement this instrument is signed by both parties
Geoige Town, Dist of Cla , March 19, AD, 1823
*L Wm DuBourg, Bp of N Oi leans
Chailes Neale, Supenor of the Mission of the Society of Jesus in the United States of America 46
The signing of the Concordat had now committed both the Society of Jesus and Bishop Du Bourg to the establishment of a new Jesuit mission west of the Mississippi. Two days after the event Du Bourg wrote from the "Monastery of the Visitation," Georgetown, to his Grace of Baltimore
After the painful explanations which passed between us at Baltimoie, wheie, despite the testimony of my conscience, I did not have the happiness of being able to convince you of my innocence in the affan of the Jesuits, I came here firmly [resolved?] to accept none of their propositions I so de- clared myself on my arrival to F[ather] Ben [edict] F[enwick]3 who left immediately to carry my decision to his Supenor. Two days latei I saw Father Van Quickenborne anive at my lodging He was on his way back from Port Tobacco and informed me to my inexpressible sui prise that lie had orders from his Supenor to start with his Socms and all his novices. At first I could make out nothing of what he said, from my previous knowledge that the plan of the Superiors was to break up the Novitiate He explained matters to me by saying that on the news of this plan i caching White Marsh the novices had declared that they would die rather than quit the Society and that m consequence the Superior had decided to keep them together and have them set out with their Master to go to open an establish- ment on the Missouri for the Indian Missions In vain did I speak against
46 In Du Bourg's bond of conveyance of the Florissant faim dated March 25, 1823, it is stated that the Concordat was "entered upon" March 19, 1823, at Mt Carmel (Portobacco), Md , where Father Charles Neale usually resided, the place deriving its name from the convent of Carmelite nuns whose spiritual direc- tion he took into his hands
BISHOP DU BOURG AND THE SOCIETY OF JESUS 65
the project Mr Van Q[uickenborne] answered me that he recognized only the voice of the Superior, to whom he had vowed obedience, that he would leave, and once arrived at his destination would abandon himself to Provi- dence for what was to follow Soon after F[ather] Ben [edict] F[enwick] arrived and confirmed the news of these arrangements
All this, Monseigneur, led me to leflect that since Providence seemed to be at work in this affau in order to procure for a horde of heathen nations scattered throughout my diocese the boon of Faith which I had no hope of procuring for them otherwise, I had no nght to set myself m opposition, that I had done nothing to obtain this assistance, unless it was to pray God to send me assistance, of whatever sort it might be I thought I saw m this disposi- tion of affairs the icalization of the words addressed to me by the Pope, when I had the happiness of seeing him for the first time and of laying before him the state of my Mission, "You have need of Jesuits " Then too, by a singular coincidence these words were repeated to me here by the Secretary of War, when he dealt with me in the matter of the Indian missions
On the other hand, it seems to me that the Jesuits have the right to dispose of their subjects m favor of a field of work for which they are par- ticularly destined And F[ather] Ben [edict] Fenwick assures me that the local Supenoi does nothing else m this affair but obey the orders of his General, who in several letteis has expressed his surprise that a beginning has not yet been made of these missions You are not unaware, Monseigneur, that it is the Society which laid the fiist foundations of the faith in the Illinois country, the tradition of their labois is still preserved there among the native tribes. How, then, could I resist the pressing offers which were made to me, or lather the soit of violence which the Jesuits are using today to force me to accept what I have always desned with the greatest eager- ness but which out of delicacy and regaid for you I had decided to refuse
I know, moreover, that they are so firmly resolved on this couise that any opposition of mine would be useless and that they would go and offer their services for the Indians of the Mississippi countiy who aie dependent on the see of Cincinnati rather than let slip the opportunity to devote themselves to this noble work, and so I should lose them for my diocese, while you would gam nothing for your own
Lastly, the Jesuits are already so numerous in young subjects, having 30 scholastics, besides 25 or 30 priests and novices, that I do not know how they can employ them all, unless by scattering them They allege that they cannot meet the expenses involved m the support of so many persons, a reason which certainly admits of no reply, for it is quite clear that they ought to know their own affairs. Your diocese will never be able to employ even those who will be left to you Accordingly, I cannot see in this affair any prejudice to its interests. Finally, all these young men are entire for- eigners, and have come to America only in the hope of being assigned to the Indian missions.
In view of all these considerations, Monseigneur, I have acquiesced in the wishes of the Society. I confess to you that in doing so I have felt keenly the pain of finding myself m opposition to your views. But persuaded on
66 THE JESUITS OF THE MIDDLE UNITED STATES
the one hand that m this affair I was not infringing on any of your rights and on the other that a calm and considerate examination of all the cir- cumstances would in the end convince you of the rectitude of my conduct, I surrender myself m all this to Divine Providence, beseeching it, as we are both looking to its greater glory, never to permit the bond of fraternal charity to loosen between us, a bond which ought especially to unite Pastors employed m different places in the same undertaking
The letter, extracts of which were read to me by Mr de Cl , has
reassured me in my fears on this score. I see in it with infinite consolation a charitable feeling such as I have always been led to expect in a heait as virtuous as your own, and it inspires me with confidence that the new arrangements which I have just communicated to you will not depuve of your friendship a brother who values it most highly 47
Evidence of the satisfaction which Bishop Du Bourg now felt over the happy termination of the negotiations extending over many years which he had carried on with the Society of Jesus with a view to procur- ing its services for his diocese comes to the surface m two letters which he penned at Baltimore on Easter Sunday, March 29, 1823, one ad- dressed to the Cardinal Prefect of the Propaganda and the other to the Father General of the Jesuits These letters throw so intimate a light on the sentiments of the zealous prelate at this juncture of affairs that they are here reproduced though both rehearse events with which we have already become familiar.
In a letter to Propaganda which accompanied the two copies of the Concordat forwarded to Rome the Bishop said
To develop Catholic Missions among the many Indian tribes which roam far and wide along the banks of the Missouri river, I have likewise obtained from the Government an annual subsidy of eight hundred dollais, with promise of an increase in proportion to the development of the work, and a hint was given me that the Government would be pleased to sec the Fathers of the Society of Jesus take up these missions, for every bod} knows what success in the past rewarded their labors for the civilization of the savage in the various paits of the world, and a tender remembiance of them has survived among the Missouri nations It appeared to me quite a remarkable coincidence that the opinion of our Protestant government men echoes so well that of his Holiness, for, when I was m Rome and described to him the condition of my diocese, he at once, as moved by the spmt of prophecy, added "Secure the help of the Fathers of the Society, you will find their services most useful in those Missions."
Now, by a stroke of Divine Providence, it happened that just at that time the Superior of the Society of Jesus in Maryland, overburdened by the number of his men and by debts, was thinking seriously of lightening by any means the burden of that Province. No sooner had he heard of
47 Du Bourg a Marechal, Georgetown, March 21, 1823 Baltimore Archdio- cesan Archives.
BISHOP DU BOURG AND THE SOCIETY OF JESUS 67
these far away Missions, and of the wishes of the Government, than he offered me two of his Fathers, with seven young men and a few lay Brothers, to start on the banks of the Missouri, a Seminary, that would take charge of these Missions Your Eminence is well aware of the efforts which I had made for seven years, in order to bring over the Society of Jesus, as I was all along firmly convinced that this was for me the only means that could enable me to help not only the infidel Savages, but also the numerous bands of farmers who are unceasingly moving to the banks of the Missouri from various parts of the United States. Your Eminence may then easily realize how pleasant to my ears was this proposal How- ever, to consolidate this foundation, and forestall all evils which might arise later on from vanous misunderstandings I have deemed it necessary to make a contract with the Society, herewith are two copies of this contract, submitted to the judgment of the S [acred] Congregation and of the Father General.48
Bishop Du Bourg's letter to the Jesuit Father General, Aloysms Fortis, which accompanied a Latin translation of the Concordat, details the circumstances that gave occasion to that notable document
Very Reverend Father
Although the answer of your Paternity to the Sacred Congregation of the Propaganda concerning the request I made for some subjects of your company for the missions of my diocese seemed calculated to extinguish any hope I may have had of obtaining them, there ever remained deep down m my heart enough of hope to encourage me to continue my supplications, at least before God I thought I heard in this connection the voice of J[esus] C[hnst] repeating to me "et si per sever averts pulsans propter improbrtatem autem dabunt" 49
Not in vain, so it seems to me, has God inspired me from my infancy with an affection for your Society which age has only deepened and which has kept alive m me, despite so many difficulties and obstacles, the most ardent desne of seeing it established in the diocese committed to my un- worthy hands, I was confirmed in these reflections by the recollection of the words addressed to me by his Holiness the first time I had the honor of prostrating myself at his feet, words which I have always looked upon as prophetic, as they expressed the very idea I was cherishing in the depths of my heart, but had as yet no time to disclose to him 50
Following up this intelligence, which I welcomed with the greatest eagerness, his Holiness deigned to give me a letter signed with his own hand for your predecessor of venerable memory, Reverend Father Thad-
48 Du Bourg ad Em Card. Praef , Sac Congr. de Propaganda Fide, Baltimore, March 29, 1823 Tr. m SLCHR, 313*-
*9 "And if you persist in knocking, they will hear your prayer on account of your importunity." A paraphrase of Luke, XI, 8.
50 Supra, Du Bourg a Marechal, March 21, 1823. Baltimore Archdiocesan Archives.
68 THE JESUITS OF THE MIDDLE UNITED STATES
dtus Bizozowski, earnestly recommending to him my mission I have several lettcis from the latter m which he promised to send me some subjects as soon as political conditions should allow of it Death, which took him off from your Society, put an obstacle in the way of his good designs, but did not dissipate my hopes In fine, Reverend Father, the divme goodness which avails itself of every means to ainve at its merciful ends, has, just at the moment I was least expecting it, realized all my wishes in this regard
Affairs of great importance for my diocese having made it necessary for me to come and pass the winter at the seat of Government, I thought it my duty to profit by the favorable dispositions which the leading officials showed in my regard to try to obtain some pecuniary assistance for the establishment of missions among the heathen Indians, who aie numerous in the upper reaches of my immense diocese My petition having been gra- ciously received, nothing remained for me to do but to procure some very devoted missionaries to undertake so difficult a task I spoke a woid on the subject to some of your Fathers of Maryland, who assured me that cir- cumstances favored my speaking about it to the Superior and that they had no doubt I should obtain my request and m a greater measure even than I could reasonably ask As a matter of fact, your Society m Maryland finding itself involved in debts as a consequence of having received too many subjects which it was obliged to support, the Superior and his council were at the time busily engaged over the design they had formed to dissolve the novitiate, which consisted of seven Flemish subjects of great piety, most of them highly talented and advanced in their theological studies The opening up of the Indian Mission altered this plan of dissolu- tion The Superior judged with reason that of all the subjects of the Society in this country, few combined in a higher degree than these young men the qualifications necessary to succeed in such an enterprise He accord- ingly made up his mind to offer them to me, as a step that would harmonize the interests of all concerned But as they cannot be sent immediately on the mission, since they have still six or seven months of novitiate and at least two years of theology to fill out, the conclusion was reached to send them under the conduct of their master of novices, Father Van Quicken- borne and of his socius, Father Timmermans, to establish in the neighbor- hood of the Mission a seminary of probation and preparation foi the missions.
To co-operate with the designs of the Superior I assumed the obliga- tion of giving to the Society for the establishment thereon of the seminary, a beautiful farm, which, properly cultivated, can suffice for the support of a sufficiently large number of persons The government adds thereto 800 Roman crowns [eight hundred dollars] a year Providence will supply the rest. And as I have grounds for hoping that the establishment will go on increasing, it was proposed, with a view to avoid disagreeable friction in the future, to draw up a concordat between the Superior and myself, which, on being confirmed by the Holy See and your Paternity, may regulate forever the respective rights of the Bishop and of the Society. The
BISHOP DU BOURG AND THE SOCIETY OF JESUS 69
Father Superior is to transmit to you an authentic copy of it written in English I have the honor of sending you the Latin and a copy of the same addressed by me to the Sacred Congregation of Propaganda I dare hope from the spirit which inspires you, my Reverend Father, that you will kindly give your sanction to this establishment, consider it as a house of the Society and extend over it, especially during its infancy, your vigilant protection Your Paternity will be kept informed as to its beginnings and progress so that you may be able to judge of the measures it will be proper to take in order to consolidate and maintain it in the true spirit of St Igna- tius and Saints Xaviei and Regis. What gives me most confidence is that the whole pious colony share the same ideas, being composed of subjects of the same nation, who are filled, all of them, with the desire of conse- ci ating themselves under obedience to the most trying labors
A yeai from now it may perhaps be necessary to send from Europe a proftssed father of the final vows, of talent joined with experience, to take in hand the dnection of the establishment, Messrs Van Quickenborne and Timmermans having as yet taken only their first vows I should be delighted weie your choice to fall on Father Barat, at present master of novices m your Pans house, who has always manifested the liveliest desire to come and die in this Mission 51
For the rest, I submit the articles of our Concordat with entire con- fidence to the wisdom of the Sacred Congregation, to the authority of the Holy See and to the enlightened judgment of your Paternity
I beg you to recommend me as also my flock to the Holy Sacrifices offeied in your Society and to the fervent prayers of the house of San Andica52
I am with deep veneration and smceie devotion,
Very Rev. Father,
Your veiy humble and obedient servant,
Baltimore, L William Du Bourg,
Easter Day, 1823. Bishop of New Oi leans C3
Preparations were at once made to set the western expedition on foot Though Bishop Du Bourg had engaged to furnish the Jesuit party with a home when they should have reached their destination, he had not engaged to defray the expenses of the thousand miles of travelling that lay before them. On the other hand, the Maryland Mission was unable to contribute adequate funds for the purpose Two hundred dollars was all it could spare from its almost depleted treasury. Hence, nothing remained for Father Van Quickenborne, who was named supe- rior of the party, but to beg the money which was available in no other way. But if the Bishop of Louisiana was not in a position to furnish
Cl Supra) note 12
52 San Andrea, the Jesuit novitiate in Rome
53 Du Bourg a Fortis, Baltimore, jour de Paques (March 29), 1823 (C).
7o THE JESUITS OF THE MIDDLE UNITED STATES
means for the journey to the West, he did his best to enable the Jesuit superior to secure them readily from others. On Easter Sunday, 1823, he penned a number of letters of introduction with which Father Van Quickenborne was to make the rounds of the principal cities of the East These letters, descending as they do to numerous particulars, are charac- teristic of the energetic prelate, who was never more in his element than when arranging on paper the details of some cherished plan. They were addressed among others to Bishop Conwell of Philadelphia, Bishop Du Bois of New York, and Father Roloff, pastor of the German congregation of Trinity Church, Philadelphia. In New York, Mr. Bernard Eyquem, whom Du Bourg commends as one of the most zealous laymen of the city, was requested by the prelate to accompany Van Quickenborne on his rounds In Philadelphia Father Roloff was asked to render a similar service. "I must claim of your chanty/5 the Bishop wrote to him, "to accompany and introduce him [Van Quicken- borne] to all houses (either Catholic or Protestant) of your city, where you may expect to get a mite. I am sensible that it is an unpleasant task, but I know your devotedness to the cause of religion, and that the dread of some rebuffs will not curb your zeal for its promotion " G4 As to Baltimore, the Bishop wrote to Van Quickenborne-
Do not fail on your return from Philadelphia, to offer your respects to the Archbishop, ask him humbly not to take it amiss that you continue your begging m Baltimore. Visit also the gentlemen of the Seminary I have spoken to Messrs. Robert and John Oliver, who have promised to aid you Mr. Caton will be able to give a list of the principal Protestant houses which it would be well to visit, perhaps he may have the kindness to introduce you at these places himself 55 I will ask it of him , do you make a similar request. As soon as you have collected $700 or $800, it will be proper, I think, to forward the same to Father Benedict Fenwick, so that he may dispatch your confreres at once. But for youiself, keep on begging as long as anything comes of it You will have great need of money in the beginning.56
The way thus prepared for him by Du Bourg, Van Quickenborne visited the principal cities of the East, collecting in a short time between nine hundred and a thousand dollars.57 Means for the journey were
54 Du Bourg to Roloff, Baltimore, Easter Sunday, 1823. (A).
55 The Mr Caton of the text was Richard Caton, an Englishman, son-m-law of Charles Carroll of Carrollton, last survivor of the signers of the Declaration of Independence.
50 Du Bourg a Van Quickenborne, Baltimore, St jour de Paques (March 2cA 1823. (A).
67 Van Quickenborne had $963 with him when he left the East for Missouri He had, besides, promissory notes to his credit to the aggregate amount of $432 50 which were to be paid to a Mr. Charles Hill and forwarded by him to Florissant.
BISHOP DU BOURG AND THE SOCIETY OF JESUS 71
thus at hand and there was nothing to delay its inception. Accordingly, on the morning of April n, 1823, Van Quickenborne and his party left White Marsh behind them and took the road to Baltimore on their way to Missouri.™ The superior carried with him a set of instructions drawn up by Benedict Fenwick in the name of Father Charles Neale
I — Rev Mr Van Quickenboine is desired by the Superior to take charge of the Mission enti listed by the Bishop of New Orleans, agreeably to the Concotdat lately signed by them mutually, to the Society on the Missouri.
2 — To set off with Rev. Mr. Timmermans, his Assistant, the seven novices at the Marsh, three brotheis, viz Bis. Stiahan, Henry [Reiselman] and De Meyci, with six negroes fiom the Marsh plantation, as soon as he possibly can for Flonssant.
3 — To wtite to him when ai rived at Wheeling, also at St Louis and also at Florissant.
4 — To show on all occasions the utmost deference and respect to the opinions of the Bishop of New Orleans into whose diocese he is about to enter, in all matters wheie the interests of the Mission are concerned and where the mteicsts of the Institute aic not infringed upon. His knowledge of the country, his talents, his piety and zeal will be a sure and safe guide, when doubts, difficulties and uncertainties arise
5 — To execute the Concoidat, as far as it belongs to the Society
6 — To ducct those entrusted to his care especially who are of the Society with prudence, chanty, wisdom and disci etion.59
It was inevitable that such a startling development in the affairs of the Maryland Mission as this western adventure should soon meet with comment in Jesuit domestic correspondence of the period. Some- thing of a mystery to those who heard of it from afar with no ade- quate knowledge of the circumstances that had prompted it, it was seen in most quarters m the light of a providential turn, from which much good was to issue in the future. "I congratulate them," wrote Father Kohlmann, the former superior of the Maryland Mission} "I am sorry for us, but may God's will be done, Who knows how to turn all things into good." °° From Italy, Father Grassi, another one-time supenor of the Maryland Mission, expressed to Kohlmann his wonder at the perplexing news, "Good Godf what news have I heard from a late letter of F[athcrJ D^icrozynski and Father Sacchu about the pitiful state of our affairs in America, The novices gone to the State of Missis- sippi [sic] at Council Bluffs! ! it is an enigma for me as well as many
**Htst. Mtss. Missounonae. (Ms.). (A).
" (A)-
60 Kohlmann ad Fortis, Washington, May I, 1823. (AA).
72 THE JESUITS OF THE MIDDLE UNITED STATES
other things." cl To Father Peter Kenney, recent Visitor of the Jesuits in America and now residing in Dublin, the measure seemed inoppor- tune and a wrong stroke of policy on the part of the Maryland superiors. "But," he reflected, "I have strong hopes that God will do much with the little band gone to Florissant." 62 On the other hand, Father Rant- zau, writing to the General from Maryland, was filled with appre- hension over the future lot of the emigrants "They could not live at White Marsh on three thousand acres How can they live there on three hundred? They trust in Providence But the ordinary means of Providence, men and money, are lacking there, since the region is but thinly populated " 63 The trust in Providence that upheld the partici- pants in the adventure was amply justified by the event.
§ 5 THE TRANSFER OF THE NOVITIATE
The incidents involved in the transfer of the novitiate need to be told with further detail if the episode is to be seen in its proper light. As to the part taken in it by Father Van Quickenborne, this is indicated
61 Grassi to Kohlmann, Turin, February 27, 1824 (B)
62 Kenney to McElroy, Dublin, September 4, 1823 (B)
63 Rantzau ad Fortis, May 2, 1823 (AA) The strained relations existing at this period between Archbishop Marechal of Baltimore and the Maryland Jesuits as a result of the controversy over the White Marsh property are reflected in the view the prelate took of the withdrawal from his diocese of the Jesuit contingent secured by Du Bourg for Missouri On March 15, only a few days after the trans- fer of the noviceship to the West had been agreed upon, he wrote to Father Anthony Kohlmann, at that time superior of the Jesuit theological seminary in Washington "I am more intimately convinced than ever that the good of religion in general and of my diocese and above all the interests of the Society demand that the projected emigration from Maryland be carried out in successive detachments without noise or parade This method of procedure will be just as efficacious and advantageous for Msgr Du Bourg and the Society as the plan suddenly concocted in secret between the prelate and [Rev ] Mr Ben [edict] FenwicL" Later, in April, Archbishop Marechal requested Father Kohlmann to use his influence to prevent Van Quickenborne and the rest of his party from going to Mi&soun, "at least some of them that it might not be said that the noviceship was transferred there for," he said, "the people will think that I am the cause of the Jesuits leav- ing the diocese " Moreover, to Father Robert Gradwell, rector of the English Col- lege in Rome, he wrote to express his disapproval of Du Bourg's action in the Missouri affair "Msgr Du Bourg's project is regarded here by persons of experi- ence as chimerical They think, and not without reason, that the real purpose of the prelate is to make a little display in the newspapers of Europe and under pre- text of the conversion of the Indians to make collections m Europe and elsewhere " Hughes, op cit , Doc , Part II There seems to be no reason to question Du Bourg's sincerity in his plans for the conversion of the Indians, though the undertaking, while not chimerical, was certainly beset with more difficulties than the sanguine prelate reckoned with.
BISHOP DU BOURG AND THE SOCIETY OF JESUS 73
in a previously cited letter of Bishop Du Bourg's and is still further elucidated in a brief statement of the affair which Van Quickenborne penned for the Father General According to this statement the closing of the novitiate had been urged upon Father Neale by Fathers Benedict Fenwick and Adam Marshall, by whose advice he was, so Van Quicken- borne alleges, principally guided in the whole transaction The superior had previously directed the novices to write to their families in Belgium for financial help They had done so but without result, and Father Neale thereupon issued an order, which was communicated to Van Quickenborne, for the closing of the novitiate and the dismissal of the novices. But no sooner was the order issued than the superior re- gretted his action and immediately dispatched a second letter revok- ing the instructions contained m the first, only a few days having inter- vened between the two communications The instructions first issued were to the effect that Fathers Van Quickenborne and Timmermans were to proceed to Council Bluffs on the Missouri River and there open an Indian mission, the novices being at the same time sent away. Van Quickenborne kept all this a profound secret from the young men, intending to visit the superior at Portobacco within a few days and there prevail upon him, if possible, to retain the novices at White Marsh.
Meanwhile, later designs were formed involving not the absolute suppression of the noviceship, but its transfer to another part of the United States. But Van Quickenborne hoped to suspend the execution of even this alternative plan and to maintain the noviceship at White Marsh He had it in mind to represent to the superior that while circumstances had made it necessary for the novitiate community "to live very poorly for a while," sufficient income had been received during the past half year from the pew-rents of the White Marsh church and from offerings of the laity to enable the community "to live as others, to wit, well provided with all things (de omnibus <)am bene prowst) " Moreover, there was every prospect that with funds promised by certain friends the present number of novices could be brought through their studies without expense to the Society.04
It is not unlikely that here was only another instance of Father Van Quickenborne's characteristic optimism in financial matters, an optimism that did not always commend itself to his associates. His man- agement of the White Marsh farm had been accounted, rightly or wrongly, one of the chief causes of the heavy load of debt that precipi- tated the present crisis. It was, therefore, scarcely probable that any sanguine view of his as to the practicability of continuing the novitiate
"Van Quickenborne ad Fort is, April, 1823. (AA).
74 THE JESUITS OF THE MIDDLE UNITED STATES
would induce Father Neale to reverse the decision he had already taken. As a matter of fact, when Van Quickenborne presented himself before the superior at Portobacco, Father Benedict Fenwick being pres- ent at the interview, he was not allowed to make any representations at all, but was told peremptorily that the decision for the transfer of the novitiate was final and that he and the novices must prepare to emigrate It is obvious, then, from Van Quickenborne's own account that his departure from Maryland was involuntary, but in the sense only that it ran counter to his own views as to what was the proper solution of the difficulties in which White Marsh was then involved. Acquiescing though he did in the mandate of his superior, he would nevertheless have preferably continued the struggle to maintain the noviceship where it was until the young men should have completed their studies and so qualified themselves for immediate service in the Indian mission field, the desire of which had never lapsed either in the master of novices or in the novices themselves.
Regarding the role played by the Belgian youths in a development which concerned them more intimately than anybody else, it would appear that they, too, had merely to acquiesce in a fait accompli The transfer of the novitiate had been determined upon independently of them and without their knowledge or consent, the superior having evi- dently judged that nothing in the circumstances required their previous agreement to the measure taken. One of their number, recording these events in later years, spoke of the outburst of approval with which they greeted the news, which apparently broke upon them suddenly, of the impending removal of the novitiate. "We left home and country for the Indians," they exclaimed. "The Indians are in the West. To the West let us go." 65 Moreover, to borrow Father Van Quickenborne's expression, the Belgian candidates had been "disposed of" by the ar- rangement made between the Bishop and the superior, and he later alleged this as a reason why special consideration should be shown to the group by admitting them to the Jesuit vows after the customary two years of probation had run its course.66 On the other hand, an apparently different version of the novices' relation to the affair is furnished by Father Van Quickenborne himself in the above cited report transmitted by him to the Father General. This report is to the effect that the migration of the novices turned on a spontaneous offer on their part to follow Bishop Du Bourg to the West. "But the novices, unaware of the measure under consideration and knowing that Bishop Du Bourg was asking for some of Ours for the Indian Mission, pleaded with Reverend Father Superior to be sent to the Indians at Council
*5 De Smet, History of the Missouri Mission (Ms ) . (A) . 60 Van Quickenborne to Dzierozynski, July 25, 1823 (B).
BISHOP DU BOURG AND THE SOCIETY OF JESUS 75
Bluffs To this he very readily consented, but he forbade them to take their vows without the permission of your Very Reverend Paternity." 67 This, it would seem, is the only bit of contemporary testimony to sup- port the explanation that the removal to the West was not so much imposed on the novices as permitted to them at their own request. Other statements of Van Quickenborne explain the affair in a different sense. In any case it is to be noted that the young men were to leave their White Marsh home with no sense of having been driven from its shelter but rather in a mood which Van Quickenborne described as one of "exultation," so fascinating was the prospect of missionary enter- prise in the distant West that now opened up before them.
As to the transfer of the novitiate and the negotiations with Bishop Du Bourg, it is evident that Father Neale acted without the explicit approval of the Father General. The proposal to dose the novitiate as the only avenue of escape from impending financial rum came orig- inally, it would seem, from Father Adam Marshall, procurator of the Maryland Mission.08 As already stated, Father Dzierozynski, on making the visitation of White Marsh in 1822, came to hear of the proposed measure, but declared that it might not be carried out without formal permission from the Father General.09 This permission Father Neale appears to have solicited, but without receiving a response. Successive letters of the Maryland superior to Rome had miscarried and for a year or two preceding the spring of 1823 he had been left without any word whatever from general headquarters. At this juncture the project of the new mission in the West suddenly loomed up and action upon it could scarcely be deferred. The opportunity of relieving the financial distress of the Maryland Mission which now presented itself could not reasonably be allowed to slip by. Moreover, the plan contemplated not the absolute closing of the noviceship, but its transfer to another part of the country Impossible, then, as he found it was to act in the affair concurrently with the General, Father Neale was led to negotiate with Bishop De Bourg on his own responsibility, hoping to obtain from Rome a subsequent ratification of the arrangement made by him. He proceeded, therefore, with the reasonably presumed per- mission of the Father General, a lawful mode of procedure when communication is no longer possible between subject and superior. The ratification of his act came promptly, being communicated by Father Fortis to Bishop Du Bourg in a letter of date as early as July 25, 1823. For some reason or other a similar communication was not conveyed to the Maryland superior himself 5 at least no evidence of such is to be
67 Van Quickenborne ad Fortis, April, 1823 (AA). «8&^*, Chap. V, §5. 69 Ibidem.
76 THE JESUITS OF THE MIDDLE UNITED STATES
met with in the General's letter-books. Father Fortis said m his letter to the Bishop of Louisiana
The approbation of the Sacred Congregation does not appear to me to be doubtful, but as affairs of this soit are always long drawn out, I do not wish to delay any longer, Monseigneur, m assuring you that for my part I enter most readily into your Lordship's views and accept with eagei- ness the project which you have conceived, a project the carrying out of which will result, I hope, in great gam to our holy religion The articles drawn up by your Lordship are all of them replete with wisdom and calcu- lated to prevent misunderstanding, always a source of unpleasantness I subscribe to the articles without the least difficulty and confine myself to the request that a clause be added, etc . . It only remains for me, Monseigneur, to witness to your Lordship my deep gratitude for the singular token of esteem and confidence which you have shown towards our Society m this mission It is through your enterpnsmg zeal that the door to new conquests for the Church of Jesus Christ is again to be thiown open to us and that we are to march in the footprints of our Fathers who have watered these lands with their sweat To announce the Gospel to the heathen is the proper work of our Institute, the work which our holy founder had most at heart What, then, must not be our indebtedness to your Loidship for furnishing us the means of taking up this work again? I legard it as an admirable disposition of Divine Providence that the state of our affans m Maryland has facilitated the execution of a project which was always an object of my desire, but m the way of which I saw a number of difficulties Believe me, Monseigneur, that this precious establishment which is going to take shape in Louisiana under your auspices will be the object of all my solicitude and I shall neglect nothing to make it prosper I do not know whether Father Barat, who has not himself taken his vows, can be sent within a year to take charge of this establishment, but I shall see to it that his depaituie be not put off too long or in case of unforeseen difficulty that some one else of equal usefulness be sent I need not recommend this infant foundation to your Lordship I have learned that all the individuals who are to make up its personnel started out courageously on that long and painful journey and at this moment have probably reached their destination rich in good will but in great want of other things But your Lordship will have a care of his weak and bring it to peifection, theieby acquiring fresh titles to our gratitude and to the prayers which we daily address to heaven for ow benefactois 70
It was suggested at the time in quarters not reputed friend!) to the Jesuits that the decisive reason behind the dispatch of the novices to the West was not financial distress but friction between the two groups, American and European, that made up the personnel of the Maryland Mission. Nothing in the pertinent documentary sources bears out this
70 Fortis ad Du Bourg, July 25, 1823 (AA). See mjra, Chap. IV, § 7, for further citations from this letter
BISHOP DU BOURG AND THE SOCIETY OF JESUS 77
interpretation of what occurred. The General, Father Fortis, in a casual reference to the incident, alleged economic distress as the obvious and self-sufficient reason for the closing of White Marsh.71 There is also the testimony of Father Kohlmann, himself a European of Alsatian birth
To the fact that the novitiate was suppressed on account of lack of means I am an eye-witness, besides, that the suppression was not due to domestic dissensions between the American and foieign Jesuits, is clear from the fact that the prejudices shown by the American Jesuits extended for more than twenty years back and still, during all that time, new foreign novices continued to be admitted, nor did Msgr Du Bourg take a hand m the affair before it had been decreed absolutely to dissolve the novitiate 72
It is true that a lack of sympathy was long shown by the native American Jesuits towards the recruits who came at intervals from continental Europe to reenforce their meagre numbers. This attitude had its origin, it may be conjectured, partly in a narrow nationalism, which in the wake of the War of Independence was widespread m the one-time English colonies, but it seems to have been also due to an impression, supposedly borne out by experience, that Jesuits from Con- tinental Europe, m view of their antecedents, imperfect knowledge of English and presumed lack of appreciation of American life and char- acter, were seriously incapacitated for working to good purpose among a people that was still overwhelmingly of Anglo-American stock Time was to demonstrate the unsoundness of this view, as the various immi- grant groups underwent a process of gradual Americanization, casting off racial idiosyncrasies and fusing together to a remarkable degree in the unity of a more or less common social type. But a hundred years ago the process of the melting-pot was still very much an untried experiment and one might not easily foresee the ultimate success m which it was to issue. It is therefore not altogether surprising to learn that the Ameri- can members of the Maryland Mission failed to see in the Belgian novices at White Marsh future efficient workers in a population such as was then to be found m the eastern United States. This, in fine, was a reason alleged among others by Father Benedict Fenwick for sending the Belgians to the West, where both among Indians and whites they could put their knowledge of French to good account and not be too seriously handicapped by their presumed unacquamtance with American
71 Fortib ad Dzierozynski, January 23, 1827 (B)
72 Hughes, of at. Doc, I 549 The Visitor, Father Kenney, also assigned the White Mauh debts as the reason for closing the novitiate "It had already [i e when Du Bourg arrived] been decreed to dismiss the novices, because White Marsh was encumbered at the time with debt and could not support them " Kenney ad Roothaan, February 22, 1832. (AA).
78 THE JESUITS OF THE MIDDLE UNITED STATES
ways.73 But this failure of the native Jesuit group in Maryland to appreciate the possibilities of rapid Americanization that were latent in the members coming to them from overseas was short-lived. Within ten years of the setting up of the Missouri Mission, Benedict Fen wick, having become Bishop of Boston, was eagerly soliciting the services of priests of European birth for his diocese. Moreover, within the same period, the Maryland Jesuits were eager to enlist for their own mission a number of Belgian novices at White Marsh, whose original intention it was to affiliate with Missouri, but whose prospective valuable services their brethren of Maryland were reluctant to lose
73 Benedict Fenwick to Fortis, May 6, 1823 (AA)
CHAPTER III THE JOURNEY TO MISSOURI
§ I. THE CUMBERLAND ROAD
The party of Jesuits that left White Marsh early on the morning of April n, 1823, to open in the country beyond the Mississippi the first house of their order since its restoration in 1814 consisted of Father Charles Felix Van Quickenborne, superior, master of novices and gen- eral director of the expedition, Father Peter Joseph Timmermans, assistant master of novices, seven Belgian novices, Felix Livmus Verreydt, Francis de Maillet, Judocus Van Assche, Peter John Ver- haegen, John Baptist Smedts, John Anthony Elet and Peter John De Smet, and three coadjutor-brothers, Henry Reiselman, Charles Strahan, and Peter De Meyer. With the party were six Negro slaves, Tom, Moses and Isaac with their respective wives, Polly, Nancy and Succy, all of whom had been employed on the White Marsh plantation and were now assigned to service in Missouri.1
The first stage of the journey, from White Marsh to Wheeling, was made on foot. It was no preference on the part of the Jesuit emi- grants for pedestrian exercise that prompted this mode of travelling, -pedtbus apostolorum, as one of their number expressed it The meagre- ness of the means at their command left them no alternative. Yet, when one reads of the experiences of other missionary travellers westward bound who chose to patronize the stage-coaches of the day, the course taken by Van Quickenborne and his party does not seem to have been so very undesirable. In 1 8 1 6 Father De Andreis and his band of eleven Lazansts, among them Father Joseph Rosati, future first Bishop of St. Louis, journeyed partly on foot and partly by stage from Baltimore to Pittsburg. Their experience while travelling by stage was distinctly
1 The account of the journey of Father Van Quickenborne and his party to Missouri m 1823 as presented m this chapter is based mainly on a manuscript narra- tive m English by Father De Smet, one of the participants m the "expedition/5 as the ]ourney in question was often referred to m Jesuit letters and records of the day This narrative, of some eighty pages octavo, constitutes little more than the opening chapter of a history of the Jesuit Province of Missouri which the mission- ary in the last year or two of his life set himself to compile De Smet's narrative is not an original work, but a translation or paraphrase, with added details, of a Latin history of the early Missouri Mission written by Father Peter Verhaegen. (A).
79
8o THE JESUITS OF THE MIDDLE UNITED STATES
unpleasant The vehicle, which was without springs, jolted painfully over the rough road, was most uncomfortably crowded, and at intervals upset or broke down, on one occasion collapsing at night in the middle of a mountain torrent and during a drenching ram The following year, 1817, Bishop Du Bourg, while on his way west to take possession of his temporary episcopal see in St Louis, followed the same route over the Alleghanies as that taken by De Andreis and his party He, too, journeyed or began to journey by stage As the vehicle had repeatedly upset during the first two days, the Bishop, with his companion, Father Blanc, the future Archbishop of New Orleans, abandoned it altogether and made the remainder of the journey on foot Four vears later, in 1821, Father Nermckx, with seven candidates for the sisterhood of Loretto, set out by stage from Baltimore, but the conveyance having apparently collapsed on the way, the party had to walk the entire dis- tance over the mountains When experiences like these were frequently the lot of the stage-coach passengers of the day, journeying by foot, even over the Alleghany Mountains, had its compensations ~
The route taken by Van Quickenborne's party was the old Cum- berland Road. This, beginning at Cumberland on the Potomac, passed through Umontown, Brownsville and Washington m Pennsylvania and led across what was then Virginia to Wheeling on the Ohio. Together with the pike from Baltimore to Cumberland, it formed the chief line of overland communication between the East and West and was the favorite highway of emigrants to the Ohio Valley. The "National Pike," for the Cumberland Road was built and maintained by federal appropriation, was soon to figure in the great senate debates
2 Joseph Rosati, CM, Ltfe of the Vety Rev Fehx de Anfaeis, CM. (St Louis, 1900), p 126
Martin J Spaldmg, Sketches of the Life anl T^mes of the Rt Rev Benedict Joseph Flaget, Fnst Bishop of Louisville (Louisville, 1852), p 172 According to a letter of the scholastic, Van Assche, (Florissant, September i, 1825), ^e stage- coach fare from Baltimore to Wheeling was a dollar for every sixteen miles No charge was made for passengei's baggage under thirty or forty pound*, but excess baggage was charged for at regular passenger rates, e g. an excess of one hundred and fifty or one hundred and sixty pounds, the weight of the average man, cost a dollar per sixteen miles, the regular passenger rate
At a later period, 1837, Bishop Rosati and Father Vcrhacgen, travelling b> stage from Wheeling to Baltimore, were to meet with discomfort on the way, as Rosati tells in his diary "April 6, 1837 We arrived in the evening at Browns- ville two of the horses not yet used to pulling the vehicle refused to go, and, not to run any risk of an untoward accident, we got down from the vehicle after a mile [?] and finished the journey on foot "Vj^e supped in Umontown — near the summit of the height known as Laurelhill we alighted from the stage, for the road, all covered over with snow and ice, was too slippery and exceedingly dangerous for a distance of four or five miles we travelled on foot " Kcnnck Seminar) Archives (Webster Groves, Mo )
THE JOURNEY TO MISSOURI 81
over internal improvements and there are allusions to it in the memo- rable Hayne- Webster discussion of 1831. The condition of the pike in 1823, according to a contemporary report, was one of neglect and decay. The Postmaster General, after riding over it from end to end, declared "that in some places the bed was cut through by wheels, that in others it was covered with earth and rocks that had fallen down from the sides of the cuttings, and that here and there the embank- ment along deep fillings has so washed away that two wagons could not pass each other." 3
Having left White Marsh behind them and struck out on the country road that led to Baltimore, the Jesuit wayfarers reached the outskirts of the city before sunset of the same day Here, fatigued after their first day of travel, they readily put up with the inconvenience of taking their night's rest in a single room, on the floor of which they spread out the mattresses they had been at pains to provide themselves with for the journey. The next day they were in Baltimore, where Father Van Quickenborne took leave of Archbishop Marechal after obtaining of him an altar stone for the celebration of Mass 4
From Baltimore Van Quickenborne addressed to the Father General a brief account, already referred to, of the circumstances that had brought about the unexpected venture on which he was now embarked He notes that the affair is being sponsored by the government, a cir- cumstance which leads him to invest it naively with an importance which one can scarcely suppose it to have had in the public eye
As a consequence the eyes almost of the entire nation are fixed upon us If the venture succeeds, most abundant fruit can be hoped for. The novices are delighted at the prospect of the new mission I get the money for our travelling expenses by begging and today we begin the journey m exultant spirits under the auspices of the Blessed Virgin Mary, our Holy Father, St Ignatius and St Francis Xavier The Procurator of the Province gave two hundred dollars and Reverend Father Superior reenforced the seven novices with thiee brothers, so that now we are twelve in number. Although the affair has been settled m irregular fashion (irregulanter} on the part of some, I trust the Loid has used these means to open up for us a very vast field which is now barren but promises to become highly fertile with the yeais We are to put up a house in Flonssant, a place bordering on the Missouri and not far away from St Louis where up to the present Bishop Du Bourg has had his See.
Bishop Du Bourg, m his concern that the federal authorities in Washington be formally advised of the departure of the Jesuit party,
3 McMaster, History of the People of the Umted States, 5 149. * Hughes, of. ctt , Doc., 2 1017
82 THE JESUITS OF THE MIDDLE UNITED STATES
had requested Count de Menou, charge d'affaires of the French embassy, to inform Secretary Calhoun of the circumstance when it should come to pass. In compliance with this request de Menou trans- mitted to Calhoun a note dated Baltimore, April 15, 1823, which he had received from Van Quickenborne "I have the honor to inform your excellency that our band of Missionaries passed by this city today on their way to their destination on the Missouri."
The trunks and boxes that made up the baggage of the party were transferred in Baltimore to two large wagons, each drawn by six horses. These wagons, hired at the rate of three dollars and a half for each hundred pounds weight, were to transport the baggage all the way to Wheeling 5 Moreover, a light spring wagon had been secured at White Marsh in which to carry provisions and kitchen utensils as also the "altar trunk," which contained the vestments and other equipment necessary for the celebration of Mass On the same day that they arrived in Baltimore the novices and lay brothers left the city for Conewago in Adams County, Pennsylvania, where there was a Jesuit residence, while Van Quickenborne remained behind for two days to complete preparations for the journey overland to Wheeling After forty-eight hours on the way the novices reached Conewago in a state of exhaustion, their blistered feet giving evidence that they were yet unused to the difficulties of foot-travelling over country roads Brother De Meyer was so much the worse for his experience that he fainted before reaching Conewago and it became necessary to convey him the remainder of the way in a vehicle sent for the purpose by the superior of the residence. At Conewago, where Van Quickenborne came up to them, the novices spent five days, employing most of the time in copying out Father Plowden's Instructions on Rehgious Perfection, a task they had begun before leaving White Marsh. From Conewago they set out early in the morning for Taneytown where they arrived on the same day. Here the pastor, Father Zocchi, an Italian, lavished attentions on the travel- lers and with the assistance of some Catholic families of the place, provided them with shelter.
On the morrow, as they started out, their objective was Frederick or Fredencktown in Maryland on the high road between Baltimore and Wheeling. Here the heavy baggage-wagons, which had not made the detour to Conewago, were awaiting their arrival They were at Frederick before evening, sharing the hospitality of the superior of the local Jesuit residence, Father John McElroy, who had made the acquaintance of Van Quickenborne and his novices at White Marsh, where he con- ducted a retreat for them From the moment he first heard about it
5 Hughes, of, cit > Doc ,2 1017.
THE JOURNEY TO MISSOURI 83
Father McElroy was eagerly interested in the Missouri Mission now being set on foot. He presented Van Quickenborne with a roan horse, which, however, proved unserviceable on the way, as the recipient of the gift subsequently informed his friend, adding with a touch of uncon- scious humor that he would have sold the animal promptly had oppor- tunity offered. While at Frederick Van Quickenborne wrote to Father Dzierozynski, April 22 "We all arrived here in good health. Every- thing has proceeded well so far. We were most hospitably received at Conewago, had every need provided for and were sent off with one hundred and twenty dollars." The day the travellers spent with Father McElroy was the last they were to pass under a Jesuit roof until they were settled in their new home beyond the Mississippi. The little pres- bytery at Frederick was the farthest western outpost of the Society of Jesus in the United States.6
Beyond Frederick the party followed the National Pike. Each day had its customary routine described in these terms by one of the participants
The wagons went on before or behind them by day, and at night stopped at the same place. When they had made arrangements for the use of one or two rooms during the night, each one would look for his bundle of bedding in the wagon, loosen the rope that kept it folded and then would spread it out on the floor at the place assigned him for the night Next morning each one would replace his bedding in the wagon Before sunrise both Fathers said Mass Two meals a day were taken in the open air; after an early morning tramp and the discovery of a cool spring of water (pretty numerous on the public load), each one would set to work in accordance with the directions given him. Some kindled the fire, others brought dishes, food and water, others again dressed the food and when cooked served it around, a fallen tree or a slab of stone on the bare ground served them as a table T
Here and there the group had the satisfaction of finding one or more Catholic families at a stopping-place along the way. Not only was the constantly recurring problem of suitable lodgings thereby more easily solved, but they were assured a respectable place for the celebra-
0 Van Qmckenborne ad Dzierozynski, Frederick, April 22, 1823, (B). John McElroy, born in Brookborough, Ireland, May 14, 1782, entered the Society of Jesus at Georgetown College October IO, 1806, died at Frederick, Md , September 12, 1877 One °£ t^ie man7 services rendered by Father McElroy was the pains he took, while discharging the duties of procurator or treasurer of his province, to collect and preserve a large number of contemporary letters bearing on the early years of the Missouri Mission This correspondence, now in the archives of the Jesuit Province of Maryland-New York, is important material for the history of the Missouri Mission
7 De Smet, History of the Mtssouti Mission (Ms ) (A)
84 THE JESUITS OF THE MIDDLE UNITED STATES
tion of Mass The names of some of the Catholics who thus dispensed hospitality to the Jesuit party have been preserved At Williams, there was Mr Adams, at Hancock, where the Baltimore and Philadelphia high-roads came together, Mr. Gouldmg, near Oldtown, thirty-three miles beyond Hancock, Mr Bevens, at or near Cumberland, Mrs Timmons, a mile and a half beyond Umontown, Mr Peter McCann, at Brownsville, Mr. McSherry, at Washington, Pa, Mr. Blake, and seven miles from Wheeling, Mr. Thompson 8
At Cumberland the party were at the foot of the eastern slope of the Alleghany Mountains, over which the western highway was to lead them. Though not remarkable for mountain scenery, the Alleghames made a deep impression on them, they probably had never seen even a respectable foot-hill in their native Flanders They marvelled at the sights that now presented themselves as they left the lower levels for higher altitudes beyond Great yawning precipices flanked the sides of the roads, stately oaks and firs lifted their heads against the mountain- sides, while from the heights above streams of the purest water came rushing down. Nine days after leaving Frederick, having descended the western slope of the Alleghames and traversed the southwestern corner of the state of Pennsylvania, Father Van Quickenborne and his com- panions reached the house of a Mr. Thompson, where they lodged for three days, enjoying the hospitality of that excellent Catholic With Fathers Badm, Nennckx and other pioneer priests of America, Thomp- son's residence was a favorite stopping-place in their missionary journeys to and from the West. And now the arrival of Van Quickenborne and his band of emigrant Jesuits was an occasion of unfeigned pleasure to this devout layman One of their number having presented him with a small religious picture with the names of his Jesuit guests written on the back, Mr. Thompson sent the picture to his daughter, then attending school in Baltimore, at the same time writing her a letter in which he told of the arrival of the Jesuits and the object of their journey to Missouri. The daughter later became a rekgieuse of the Sacred Heart, preserving both picture and letter to her last day in grateful memory of an incident that had influenced her entire life.9
§ 2. ON THE OHIO
Wheeling was reached on May 7. The obvious way of pursuing the journey from this point was by steamboat down the Ohio But passenger and freight rates for the distance the Jesuits intended to travel were prohibitive in view of the slender funds at their command and so
8 Van Assche a De Nef, September i, 1825 (A)
9 Walter H Hill, S J , Historical Sketch of the Sf Lows University (St. Louis,
- 13
THE JOURNEY TO MISSOURI 85
they resorted to a less expensive manner of transportation.10 Two large flat-boats of a type common on the Ohio in the era of immigration and known as "broadhorns" were purchased, one to carry the missionaries and their baggage, the other, the Negro servants and horses. These flat- boats, securely lashed together, needed no propelling force apart from the current, with which they gently floated downstream.11
Having transferred all their effects to the "broadhorns," the party left Wheeling behind them early in the second week of May It was customary for emigrants journeying in this fashion to secure the services of an experienced pilot There were numerous bends in the river, islands large and small interrupted its course, shoal-places, snags and sawyers were frequently encountered, while the mam channel itself was not easily kept to as it often shifted its course capriciously, running some- times mid-stream, sometimes close to shore Piloting a flat-boat down the Ohio was not a task to be lightly undertaken by inexperienced hands. But Father Van Quickenborne could not afford to hire an expert for the business and so, purchasing a copy of the Riverman's Gmde to furnish the theoretical information needed for the venture, he com- missioned Brother Strahan, who claimed some proficiency in the art of navigation, to discharge the duties of pilot.
As might have been expected, not a few untoward incidents and narrow escapes from accident marked the voyage. More than once the boats were almost driven ashore by violent winds, twice they ran into a tangle of brushwood and fallen trees and could be extricated only with extreme difficulty; on more than one occasion they escaped by a narrow margin being rammed by passing steamers. The boats drifted with the current by night as well as by day, two of the young men being appointed to stay up through the night and keep a close watch at the helm for danger ahead. On one occasion, about two in the morn-
10 De Andreis and his party, twelve in number, also made the Ohio River stage (Pittsburgh to Louisville) of their journey west m 1816 by flat-boat in order to save steamboat fare, which would have been twelve hundred dollars for the party. Rosati, De Andrets (St Louis, 1900), p 130
11 «Tne flat-boat was the important craft of this era of immigration, the friend of the pioneer. It was the boat that never came back, a down-stream craft solely The flat-boat of average size was a roofed craft about forty feet long, twelve feet wide and eight feet deep It was square and flat-bottomed and was managed by six oars, two of them, about thirty feet long, on each side were known as 'sweeps' and were managed by two men each, one at the stern, forty or fifty feet long including its big blade, was called the 'steering-oar', a small one was located at the prow, known as the 'gouger.' " Hulbert, Historic Highways of American Travel, 9 119 Van Assche, apparently not with accuracy, gives the dimensions of the flat-boats as twenty-five feet long, five feet wide and seven deep (Van Assche a De Nef, Sep- tember I, 1825 ) In one of the boats were four horses, two belonging to the Jesuits and two to Bishop Du Bourg.
86 THE JESUITS OF THE MIDDLE UNITED STATES
mg, a steamer was heard coming upstream apparently at a very rapid rate The watchers on board the flat-boats began to shout "lookout" as lustily as they could, only to receive back from the steamer the alarming response, "we cannot avoid you " Presently the huge craft came sweeping by within some fifteen feet of the flat-boats, which were given a lively shaking on the great rollers left in the wake of the steamer. To swell the excitement, the Negroes suddenly awakened from sleep were seized with panic, and with loud cries of distress accom- panied by the neighing of the frightened horses on board the flat-boats, began efforts to save their lives One very dark night there appeared in the distance what seemed to be the large, flaming furnaces of an approaching steamer. Brother Strahan at once declared that a signal should be given from the "broadhorns," but in true nautical fashion. Father Van Quickenborne accordingly seized a blazing fagot and whirl- ing it violently around his head began to shout "Ship ahoy1 Ship ahoy'" with all the vocal power he could command, his resonant voice coming back in loud reverberations from the hills and dense timber-patches that lined the river-banks. But no change could be discerned in the course of the oncoming steamer. The occupants of the boats were soon agreeably relieved, when, as they moved further downstream, they discovered that the object which had excited their alarm was only the furnace of a saw-mill on shore at a sharp bend of the river.
Sails were no part of the normal equipment of an Ohio River flat- boat But, a few days after leaving Wheeling the travellers became of the opinion that the addition of a mast-head and sails might accelerate materially the speed of their slow-moving craft. Some members of the party accordingly put to shore m the little skiff which was earned on board and returned with several small-sized trees, one to serve as a mast-head, the others to be shaped into oars Soon a pair of large blankets were to be seen fastened to the crudely made mast and, when a favorable wind suddenly coming up caught the improvised sails fairly in the center, the boats began to move forward at an appreciable increase of speed, greatly to the delight of all on board, who thereafter never failed to set the grotesque sails to the wind as opportunity offered.
Meanwhile, there was but little interruption in the regularity of religious life to which the novices had become accustomed at White Marsh. There was Mass every day on board and a bell was rung for rising, meditation, examination of conscience and other exercises belong- ing to the routine of religious observance A neat little altar, suitably adorned and placed at a respectful distance from the boxes and baggage on board, served for the celebration of Mass. On the overland journey to Wheeling, candle-sticks had sometimes been wanting, and on such occasions two novices, each with a lighted candle in his hand, were made
THE JOURNEY TO MISSOURI 87
to stand on either side of the altar. But this inconvenience was remedied at Wheeling by the purchase of candle-sticks At Sunday Mass there was singing of hymns by the novices and a short address by the master of novices, the scene on such occasions suggesting the great Apostle of the East, St Francis Xavier, announcing the truths of salvation to his fellow-passengers on board the ship that was carrying them to the Indies
Provisions for table were purchased, as need arose, at the small towns passed on the way. For this purpose it was customary to dispatch two or three of the novices in a small skiff to make the necessary purchases. On one occasion, as three of them were returning from an errand of this kind, a sharp bend in the river hid them momentarily from view Father Timmermans, the assistant master of novices, who had been watching their approach intently, seeing them suddenly dis- appear from sight, was somehow seized with the apprehension that the boat and its occupants had sunk in the river Father Van Quickenborne, hearing the loud cries of his assistant, came rushing on deck and, greatly excited, at once imparted sacramental absolution to the young men in the direction where they had disappeared The boats were then hastily run to land and moored, after which the occupants immediately began to make along the shore in the direction of the supposed catastrophe But they had not proceeded far when the three novices, having rounded the bend, suddenly came in sight, plying the oars m high spirits and quite unconscious of the shock to their companions of which they had been the innocent occasion.
Though game abounded in the woods along the river-banks, the travellers seldom if ever succeeded in bringing any down, there being no skilful marksmen among them.12 Not once in the voyage did they have the satisfaction of regaling themselves on fresh venison, though deer were sometimes seen swimming across the river. On one occasion, a fisherman in his canoe came alongside the flat-boats to dispose of his catch of fish. He was standing in the canoe, holding on with one hand to the side of one of the flat-boats, when on a sudden a deer was seen swimming the river a short distance away. The fisherman at once put out m his canoe towards the deer while Father Van Quickenborne and three of the novices, jumping into the skiff, also made in the same direction The skiff outstripped the canoe in the race and was soon so close to the animal that one of the novices was about to put out a hand to grasp the deer by the antlers, and, if possible, hold its head sub- merged under the water until it drowned. But Van Quickenborne was fearful lest the deer should leap into the boat and upset it and so gave
12 Van Assche notes that bears, foxes, deer and wild turkeys were seen on the way
88 THE JESUITS OF THE MIDDLE UNITED STATES
orders that no attempt be made to seize the animal. As it swam away one of the young men shot at it with his rifle, but without effect The deer soon gained the shore and was seen to disappear promptly behind the timber, none the worse for its experience on the river
No stop was made at Cincinnati though Bishop Fenwick had ex- pressed a desire to his cousin, Father Enoch Fenwick of Georgetown College, that the party visit him in his episcopal city 13 The first stage of the river-trip ended at Louisville where the flat-boats were unloaded, the baggage of the party being transported thence overland to Portland, three miles below Louisville on the Ohio While at Louisville, Van Quickenborne and his companions had the pleasure of meeting again the venerable Father Nermckx, in whose company most of them had crossed the Atlantic in 1821 to become missionaries of the Society of Jesus in the New World He had come to the city to see safe on board a steamer a colony of Loretto Sisters bound for the Barrens in Missouri, and on learning that his Jesuit recruits of two years before were about to arrive in Louisville prolonged his stay in the city to await their coming.14 Between Louisville and Portland were the falls or rapids of the Ohio. A "falls-pilot" was engaged to bring the flat- boats over the rapids, the shooting of which was a hazardous venture in low water Several boats had been wrecked therein a few days before the Jesuits arrived and their occupants drowned Four of the more muscular of the novices, Van Assche among them, accompanied the pilot during the perilous passage, which was safely negotiated At Portland the horses, wagons, boxes and other effects of the emigrants were loaded again on the flat-boats, which now resumed their course down the river as far as Shawneetown in Illinois, which they reached on May 22 with no untoward incident to mark the way. Here they left the horses and as much of their baggage as was not necessary for a journey on foot, in charge of a trustworthy person, to be shipped by him to St. Louis on the first down-river steamer bound for that point. After a brief stay in Shawneetown, standing close together they said the Ittnet&nwn, as was their custom at the beginning of every stage of the journey.15 Then,
13 Bishop Edward Fenwick to Enoch Fenwick, May 7, 1823 (B)
14 Maes, Nennckx, p 504
15 In a letter to Dzierozynski, September 29, 1823, Van Quickenborne explains the circumstances under which he "suffered them to eat meat on a fast day. N B. I did so and it was my decided opinion that we could do it The day before I had sent all over town (Shawneetown) to find fasting victuals for the next day. We got some very dear, though yet enough, but by some negligence of some one they were lost the evening before the fast day The next morning at every house it was in- quired whether eggs or milk or butter could be got and we could not (get them) and had to walk and were fatigued of the preceding day's work in arranging our baggage and as several were not able to live on bread and water, I, having taken the
THE JOURNEY TO MISSOURI 89
leaving the Ohio behind them, they began the long tramp through southern Illinois to St. LOUISA one hundred and fifty miles to the north- west. They had with them the light wagon m which were carried the altar equipment, kitchen utensils and other things needed on the way.16
Two roads led from Shawneetown to St. Louis, one old and the other new. The new road, as being the shorter, was chosen 5 but it proved a distressing one to follow on account of its roughness and the veritable clouds of gnats and mosquitos that infested the way. Often the insects swarmed so thickly as to cause acute physical suffering. While on the march the travellers resorted to the expedient of swinging their arms and waving branches of trees in their hands, in order to protect themselves against the plague. When they camped, it was not until they had built fires with the damp, decaying trunks of trees, the smoke arising thence not being relished by the troublesome insects. Good drinking water was scarce along the road. Sometimes a rather suspicious looking creek was the only source of supply, and when a genuine spring was met with, the two casks carried on a pack-horse were forthwith filled with the precious water.
Young De Smet marvelled that human beings could be found to live m this malarial, mosquito-ridden country. Yet here and there settlers, most of them showing the effect of the unhealthy environment in their sallow, emaciated features, had built their humble cabins, in which, with a generosity typical of the American backwoodsman of that day, they dispensed hospitality to the passing Jesuits. There was no question of accommodating the latter together under a single roof. A group of four or five would stop at a cabin as evening came on and lodge therein overnight 5 another group would lodge m the next cabin on the road, and still another m a third, so that the members of the party sometimes found themselves separated from one another by a distance of four or five miles. More than once, as the wayfarers came up late m the evening to an isolated farm-house, the occupants, suspect- ing some evil design, refused to unbolt the doors until the strange visitors had explained satisfactorily the purpose of their arrival. In the morning, before taking to the road, they carefully noted down the names, if known to them, of the families with whom they were to stop overnight The novices who went ahead were careful to indicate the way to those that followed by planting sticks m the ground with bits of paper attached. Songs of a sacred character were often sung and tales of missionary adventure interchanged to relieve the tedium of the journey.
advice of those whom I knew most instructed, permitted them to eat meat, in which all agreed except F[ather] Timmennans " (B).
MDe Smet, Hist Missouri Mission (Ms.). (A).
90 THE JESUITS OF THE MIDDLE UNITED STATES
And so, covering on an average twenty-five miles in their daily march, the emigrants journeyed on in the direction of St Louis Some- times a bridge had been washed away in a freshet and m such cases they forded the water on horseback At length they reached the Ameri- can Bottom, a low-lying and quite level tract of country extending back for many miles from the Mississippi, which Dickens was at pains to picture in his Amencan Notes. The spring of 1823 brought with it an unusually high rise in the Mississippi, which overflowed its banks for miles on either side, when the Jesuit party entered the bottom-land, the flood-stage had already passed, though not without leaving a deep layer of mud on the roads and much back-water in the fields and inter- vening creeks, through which the travellers sometimes waded knee-deep for miles at a time. Finally, on Saturday, May 31, at about one o'clock in the afternoon, they descried in the distance the city of St. Louis, then a French-American settlement of some five thousand inhabitants. Mud, back-water and other obstacles to progress were of no great concern to the party now, who pressed forward in their eagerness to stand and gaze at close range at the city that was to mark their journey's end. When at length they reached the water's edge on the east bank of the great river, St. Louis, rising up from the opposite bank on a tier of ndges, with the Mississippi in the foreground, more like a broad lake than a river, made a charming picture to their eyes, as one of their number afterwards put on record.
Fifty-nine years had passed since Auguste Chouteau and his party landed at what is now the foot of Market Street in St. Louis and began to lay out the trading-post which the Sieur Laclede-Liguest had planned the year before. In the interval the trading-post had grown to the proportions of a fair-sized town In the first years settlers had come in large numbers from the French villages on the left bank of the Missis- sippi, eager to exchange the British regime for the kindly rule of Spam; for the territory west of the waterway, a French possession since the days of La Salle, passed to Spam in 1762 by the secret treaty of Fontamebleau, and remained so attached until its retrocession to France m 1800, followed by its transfer to the United States in 1803. Under a Spanish administrative regime for the thirty-four years preceding the American occupation, St. Louis was nevertheless during all that period and for some time later distinctly French m population, language, and social customs and manners. With the lowering of the Spanish colors and the unfurling of the American flag over the place, the English- speaking element began to increase m numbers and importance, and on the incorporation of St. Louis as a city in April, 1823, Dr. William Carr Lane became its first mayor.
Having crossed the Mississippi and set foot on the Missouri shore,
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the Jesuits had the sensation, so one of their number expressed it, of being transported to another continent The localities they had hitherto passed through on their long journey had been typically Ameri- can, now they were in something of an Old World atmosphere, as was presently brought home to them when they found it necessary to address the passers-by in French to learn from them the way to the cathedral. This was a longish and rather ugly structure of brick on the west side of Rue de PEghse (Second Street) between the present Walnut and Market Streets In the same square as the cathedral and close to it on the south were St Louis College, a two-story brick budding, and the cathedral rectory. Here resided Father Francis Niel, president of the college and pastor of the cathedral, together with his assistant-priests, who were also professors in the college, Fathers Saulnier, Michaud and Deys
Bishop Du Bourg, who had journeyed to St. Louis in advance of the Jesuit party, advised Father Niel of their coming with the result that when they presented themselves at the cathedral rectory they were given every attention at his hands. The morrow was the Sundav within the octave of Corpus Chnsti, on which day the transferred solemnity of that great feast in the Church's calendar was celebrated with eclat High Mass was sung and there was a procession through the cathedral grounds First went a cross-bearer, the cross in his hands a precious one of silver, then little girls strewing flowers, then thirteen clerics, includ- ing the newly-arrived novices, some in dalmatics, others in surplices, next the priests, six in number, and finally Father Van Quickenborne bearing the Blessed Sacrament, which was screened by a canopy. There was ringing of bells and booming of cannon, the whole ceremony, as Van Quickenborne wrote m a letter to the East, being the most impres- sive he had witnessed since he came to America.
CHAPTER IV FIRST YEARS AT FLORISSANT
§ I. THE BISHOP'S FARM
Some fifteen miles north by west of St Louis in the Common iiclds of the historic Franco-Spanish village of St Ferdinand de Florissant lay the property which the Jesuits had come to occupy. The oldest name under which the village appears in history is that of Flonzan, a Spanish rendering for Florissant or "flourishing/5 the apt name found by the first Creole habitants for the fertile valley some twelve miles by three or four which drains into St. Ferdinand or Cold Water Creek1 Some time about 1786 St Ferdinand de Florissant was organized into a village along Franco-Spanish lines by Frangois Dunegant under commission from the Spanish government as military and civil commandant, a post he held continuously until the American occupation. The first settlers were nearly all directly or indirectly of Canadian origin The French villages on the left bank of the mid- Mississippi contributed their quota while many came from the near-b) and older settlement of St Louis. The easy-going conservatism typical of the Creole population of the Mississippi Valley asserted itself from the earliest days in St. Ferdinand de Florissant The French merchant, M Pernn Du Lac, a visitor in the village as early as 1803, noted that its people would live m abundance, if they could exchange at a fair advantage the products of their farms for clothing, which they procured with difficulty. This they could do especially by raising tobacco, which the traders were obliged to obtain from lower Louisiana or Kentucky. But, comments Du Lac, "like all French peasants, they follow the routine of their forefathers and are the enemies of every innovation." 2 The ecclesiastical history of Florissant begins with the grant of a church-lot made about 1788 to the habitants by Dunegant, the com-
*A census of Florissant dating from 1787 bears the caption, H&vitaciones del Estabhcwmento del Tlonzan Cf G J Garraghan, St Fetdtnand de Floitssant the Story of an Ancient Parish (Chicago, 1923), for the available data in regard to Florissant origins
2 Pernn Du Lac, Voyage dans les Deux Lowsianes et Chez les Nations etc (Lyon, 1805), p. 192.
92
FIRST YEARS AT FLORISSANT 93
mandant.3 The lot was the southeast quarter of the block bounded by the Rues St Charles, St Ferdinand, St Dems, and St Louis Here, Hyacmthe Deshetres being the builder, were erected in 1789 a church and presbytery of logs. Father Bernard de Limpach, a Capuchin, resi- dent pastor at St. Louis during the period 1776-1789, very probably organized the parish, which was named for St Ferdinand He was followed in the spiritual care of Florissant by the Benedictine, Father Didier, the Recollect, Father Lusson, the Capuchin, Father Flynn, the diocesan priest Father James Maxwell, the Trappists, Fathers Guillet, Langlois and Dunand, and the diocesan priest Father Charles De La Croix Thus, the four religious orders of Capuchins, Benedictines, Recollects, and Trappists, as also the diocesan clergy, had cultivated this spiritual field before the arrival of the Jesuits 4
To St. Ferdinand de Florissant in the pioneer stage of its history were drawn not a few of the early residents of its more considerable neighbor, St. Louis. Here finally settled down many a sturdy pioneer who had been associated with Pierre Laclede and Auguste Chouteau in the founding of St Louis. Rene Kiersereaux, chorister and sexton of the first church m St. Louis, who often baptized and assisted at burials in the absence of a priest, died at St Ferdinand in 1798. Here also, or in its vicinity, died in 1826 Nicholas Beaugenou, Jr., nicknamed in his boyhood Fifi, who with his father came to St Louis in 1764. and from whom Fee-Fee Creek in St, Louis County derives its name.5 Madame Rigauche, who opened the first school for girls in St. Louis, later moved to St. Ferdinand where she spent her declining years On the occasion of Bishop Flaget's first visit to the place, July 8, 1814, two men of patriarchal age were presented to him to receive his blessing, one of them one hundred and seven, the other one hundred and eight years old. The older of the two was Antome Riviere, who in 1764 drove Madame Chouteau and her children in a French cart from Fort Chartres to Cahokia, whence she crossed the Mississippi to occupy the first house built in St. Louis. Two years after Bishop Flaget's visit, Antome Riviere passed away at the age of one hundred and ten. It has been asserted
3 Hunt's Minutes (Library of Missouri Historical Society, St Louis, Mo ) "Tradition runs to the effect that the church had its beginning in 1763 when Jesuit missionaries established Indian missions at this place " Conard, Encyclopedia of the History of Missouri, 5 427 "A Jesuit mission was established there by Father Meunn," Idem> 2 476 There is no foundation in fact for the statement that a Jesuit mission was established at Florissant by eighteenth-century Jesuits, nor is there any evidence that Meunn ever visited the locality
4 The burial records of St Ferdinand's parish date from 1790, the baptismal records, from 1792
6 Billon, Annals of St Louis in the Early Days under the French and Spanish Dominations (St. Louis, 1886), 416, 419, 423
94 THE JESUITS OF THE MIDDLE UNITED STATES
that the climate in the environs of St Louis at this period was pecu- liarly favorable to longevity, as numerous cases of extreme old age occurring in the district seemed to indicate.6
Adjoining St. Ferdinand on the west were the Common Fields, laid out, as was the custom m all the early French settlements of the Mississippi Valley, in long rectangular strips According to the tradi- tional explanation, scarcely, however, the correct one, this arrangement was made with a view to enable the settlers to keep together in groups and thus afford one another mutual protection against possible attacks from Indians. Here, then, in the Common Fields of St. Ferdinand, Bishop Du Bourg had acquired two strips of land, one on June 19, 1818, from Joseph James and Elizabeth, his wife, and the other on January 28, 1819, from the parish-priest of Florissant, Father Dunand 7 The two strips formed together a parallelogram, four arpents wide and sixty long, or two hundred and forty square arpents, a tract of land equivalent approximately to two hundred and twelve acres. The parallelogram, the axis of which lay N W. S. E., ran from Cold Water Creek to a line a few hundred feet beyond Big Branch or Sera- phim Creek, the latter a diminutive stream running along the western edge of the Florissant Valley
In acquiring this property, which came to be known as the Bishop's Farm, Du Bourg had hoped that its cultivation would prove a source of some little revenue to the diocese, though he also seems to have intended it as a place of rest and recreation to which his priests might withdraw on occasion after the fatiguing labors of the ministry. But a use was soon to be found for the farm very different from any the Bishop had first contemplated. In the summer of 1819 the Religious of the Society of the Sacred Heart, who under the direction of Mother Philippine Duchesne had opened their first American house the year before in St. Charles, Missouri, were invited by Du Bourg to establish themselves in Florissant.8 Here, under the superintendence of Father
6Spaldmg, Flaget, pp 133, 134
7 (E) "Fortunately, I have arrived in this country at a most fa\orable time, when lands are still at a low price and when the immense population moving in here every day from every other part of America is daily increasing their \alue I thought it my duty to profit by this circumstance to make some rather considerable acquisitions in land, I have sunk in these acquisitions the little money that remained to me and have even taken part of the land on long-time credit Among other pur- chases, I bought a fine farm of 260 acres four leagues from St. Louis, which is already considerably under cultivation and may be still further cultivated by a third This property alone will yield me, all expenses paid, at least 600O francs a year" Du Bourg a M. Le Sueur, St Louis, June 1 8, 1819. General Archives, Society of the Sacred Heart of Jesus
8 Baunard, Luchesne, p. 1 76
FIRST YEARS AT FLORISSANT 95
Dunand, pastor of the village church, a brick house, which was occupied by the Sisters of Loretto as late as 1915 and is still standing, was built to receive them The crudely made log cabins on the Bishop's Farm were placed by him at the disposal of the nuns until such time as the new convent in the village should be completed. On September 3, 1819, Madame Aude went by steamboat with the baggage of the community from St. Charles to the Charbonmere, the site of an abandoned coal- pit on the right bank of the Missouri about three miles from Florissant. The next day Mother Duchesne, on landing at the Charbonmere, met there Father Charles De La Croix, who had come on horseback to welcome her.9
Father De La Croix, a native of Ghent in Belgium, had offered his services to Bishop Du Bourg when that prelate was in Europe seeking recruits for his diocese.10 Coming to America in 1817, he was, shortly after his arrival in the West, stationed at the Bishop's Farm, where he directed the cultivation of the land, making besides occasional excur- sions to the Catholic settlements in the interior of Missouri. He re- mained at the Farm during the stay there of Mother Duchesne and her community. A chapel was fitted up at a trifling expense and here the Blessed Sacrament was reserved to the great happiness of the nuns and of Mother Duchesne in particular, who took occasion to note in her journal that "to possess Our Lord is to have all we can desire." n
Devotional exercises, household tasks, the care of the few little girls that had accompanied the nuns from St Charles, and various farm duties filled in the days that were spent by the Religious of the Sacred Heart on Bishop Du Bourg's estate. A goodly measure of privations fell to their lot. Food was scarce and to find some wild fruit in the woods was reckoned a piece of good fortune. Fire-wood could be had only in meagre quantities and every visit the nuns received exhausted their stock. "In this country," wrote Mother Duchesne, "people laugh at little fires, such as those we have in Pans, and so after burning their remaining logs in honor of a visitor, the nuns had to go into the forest and by dint of labor renew their store."
On one occasion when Father De La Croix left the Farm for a missionary trip to central Missouri, Father Felix De Andreis, superior of the Lazansts and vicar-general of upper Louisiana, came to supply his place. He was a man of known sanctity of life and a student of the writings of St. Theresa and St John of the Cross, whom he imitated in his love of prayer and mystical intercourse with God. The saintly
9 Idem, p. 192.
10Garraghan, St. Ferdinand de Florissant, p 155
11 Baunard, of. ctt., p. 196
96 THE JESUITS OF THE MIDDLE UNITED STATES
Mother Duchesne recognized m him a kindred spirit One day at the Farm Bishop Du Bourg requested the nuns to smg a hymn which the Jesuit, Father Barat, had composed m honor of the Blessed Virgin Mary. "Our good saint was present," relates Mother Duchesne of Father De Andreis, "and he nearly afforded us the repetition of what took place when St John of the Cross fell into an ecstasy whilst St Theresa and her Carmelites were singing. He so enjoyed the solitude of the woods that he always says that the happiest time he has known in America was here The songs of Sion sung in these deserts enrap- tured him " 12
It was this ground, sanctified by the erstwhile presence of the Vener- able Mother Duchesne and the Servant of God, Felix de Andreis, that the Jesuits were presently to occupy. The Religious of the Sacred Heart having withdrawn from the Bishop's Farm in December, 1819, to occupy the newly-built convent in Florissant, Father De La Croix fol- lowed them some time later to fill the post of pastor in the village church m succession to Father Dunand, who returned to France m 1821. On October 27, 1820, Bishop Du Bourg leased the farm for a period of ten years to Hugh O'Neil, Sr.13
On his return from Washington to New Orleans m the spring of 1823 Du Bourg passed through St Louis, where he made only a brief stay But he found time for a visit to Florissant, where he administered confirmation in the parish church To Mother Duchesne he brought the unexpected news of the coming of the Jesuits It was interesting news beyond doubt and she lost no time m communicating it to the Mother General in Pans, Madeleine Sophie Barat
The Bishop's huined departure is followed by that of many of his priests. . . Even our own priest has an idea of going down there saving it will be enough for us to have the Jesuits If you are as jet unawaie of what went on at Georgetown between the Bishop and the Jesuits, that last remark must surprise you He did not explain to us the details of this acquisition, an inestimable one for a country such as this, wheie the motto of the greater glory of God must be one's only riches and suppoit A priest told me that the Superiors wished to break up the Novitiate because theie were foreigners in it, that seven young Flemings full of ardor, zeal and devotion cned out loudly against the proposal and protested that having been called to America they would not leave the house unless they were placed in another house of the Society, whereupon the Superior decided to send
12 Idem, p 196 Decrees introducing the causes of the beatification and canoni- zation of Mother Duchesne and Father De Andreis were signed respectively by
Pms X, December 9, 1909, and Benedict XV, July 25, 1918. The decree de attesting the heroicity of Mother Duchesne's virtues, was issued by Pius XI, March
, 1935- 13
Louis William Valentine Du Bourg (1766-1833), Bishop of Louisiana and the Flondas and chief agent in the establishment of the Jesuit Mis- sion of Missouri, 1823
Charles Ncrmckx (1761-1824) pio- neer Kentucky missionary and founder of the Society of the Sis- ters of Loretto at the Foot of the Cross Influential in recruiting Bel- gian countrymen of his for the Jesuit missions of America.
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Venerable Mother Rose Philippine Duchesne of the Society of the Sacred Heart (1769-1852), benefactress of the pioneer Florissant Jesuits.
FIRST YEARS AT FLORISSANT 97
them to this state of Missouri with the Master of Novices and his assistants and with some Negioes and brothers They are coming, so it is said, on no other capital than Providence, but aie all the more content for that By the treaty made between them and the Bishop, the latter has given them his Flonssant house, with its horses and cattle, and as the house is too small for the twelve or fourteen persons coming, he told us that several of them would lodge in the rectory Unfortunately loof and floor are yet unmade and we haven't a penny to help along the work The cure carries it on slowly, also relying only on Providence There will be no furniture except what we shall try to give them, not wishing to yield to the good Fathers in trust in Providence The Bishop gives them the whole of Missouri to visit, St Charles and two other villages, which as considerable work for two priests, the novices not being in orders. I don't doubt that when they get to be numeious the Bishop will take some of them for a college in New Orleans, which he will establish in the convent of the ladies [Ursulmes] there, as soon as they vacate it 14
§ 2. TAKING POSSESSION OF THE FARM
It has been told on a preceding page how Father Van Quickenborne and his party on their arrival in St Louis, Saturday, May 31, 1823, were lodged and entertained at the cathedral rectory by the pastor, Father Niel The following Monday, June 2, the Jesuit superior, accom- panied by the parish priest of St. Ferdinand, Father De La Croix, who had come to town to meet him, rode out on horseback to the Bishop's Farm 1G On the same day, Brother De Meyer, with another coadjutor- brother, journeyed in a horse-cart to their new home, both getting thoroughly drenched with ram on the way. The novices followed in two groups. They made the entire distance on foot, stopping midway to rest, partake of refreshments and quench their thirst with the water of Maligne Creek On Friday, June 5, they found themselves reassembled in the village of St Ferdinand, where as the cabins on the farm had not yet been vacated by the tenant, Hugh O'Neil, they shared the hospitality of the Religious of the Sacred Heart. Mother Duchesne and her nuns outdid themselves in charitable attentions to the novices. They furnished the young men board and lodging, placing at their disposal a budding of theirs which had been in use as a day-school. While thus the guests of the nuns, the novices walked each morning to the Farm to assist their superior in the task of fitting up the new home and in the evening after supper returned to the village.
14 Duchesne a Barat, May 20, 1823 General Archives, Society of the Sacred Heart of Jesus.
15 Htstorta Mtsstoms Missourwnae (Ms ) (A) According to Hill, Historical Sketch of the St Louts University } p 21, Fathers Van Quickenborne and De La Croix went to Florissant Sunday evening, June I.
98 THE JESUITS OF THE MIDDLE UNITED STATES
While Father Van Quickenborne was still in the East, Bishop Du Bourg had written to him from Louisville, announcing that he himself m person or instructions from him would await the father on his arrival in St. Louis. Reaching his destination, the superior learned that the Bishop had departed a few days before for New Orleans leaving his instructions with Father Niel Van Quickenborne had been under the impression from the first that he was to enter on possession of the farm as soon as he arrived and with no stipulations to hamper him beyond those already agreed to by the Jesuit superior m Maryland To his great surprise he was now, on his arrival m St Louis, informed by Father Niel that, as a condition for obtaining immediate possession of the farm, he would have to pay four hundred dollars to the tenant who then occupied it and who had a ten-year lease on it, running from 1821 Father Van Quickenborne, in a letter written a few years later to Bishop Du Bourg, says of the incident "I had either to return, which our strength and want of money did not permit or to pay, which was equally impossible." The matter was compromised by Van Quicken- borne's paying the tenant one hundred dollars in cash and, in lieu of the rest of the sum demanded, promising him one-half of the crops to be raised, Hugh O'Neil, Sr., the holder of the lease, was a carpenter and builder, the lease having apparently been made in the interest of his son, Hugh O'Neil, Jr., the actual manager of the farm. The senior O'Neil had built Du Bourg's brick cathedral and was later employed on the carpentering of the church erected by Van Quickenborne in St Charles According to articles of agreement signed on June 6, 1823, between Father Van Quickenborne and Hugh O'Neil, Sr., and wit- nessed by Father De La Croix and Josias Miles, the Jesuit superior was to be given "peaceable possession" of the farm on or before June I0.16
In a letter dated "The Feast of the Sacred Heart," 1823, Van Quickenborne announced to Du Bourg his arrival at Florissant-
I feel rather ashamed to write to your Lordship seven days after out arrival at St Louis, where we were received with the greatest cordiality and affection by Mr. Neil [Niel] and the other gentlemen The reason why I delayed so long is that I was busy making an arrangement with Mi O'Neil, the farmer The arrangement is now made, Mr O'Neil is very well satisfied and so are we I pay him one hundred dollais and half the crop of the twenty-five acres which he had begun to cultivate and he is going to vacate the house tomorrow He leaves us all the live-stock and everything on the farm The liberality and generosity of your Lordship in our regard has been an agreeable surprise Four horses, a wagon, a cart, a couple of oxen and several cows, a good number of hogs and some tools
ie "Articles of Agreement, etc" (E ).
FIRST YEARS AT FLORISSANT 99
put us in a position to work the farm and make it yield something even this year I am hoping that in return for all these favors your Lordship will find in us ministers who will be a source of satisfaction to you and it is to this end and in order that heaven may heap its most precious gifts on our illustrious benefactor that we address our feeble prayeis every day to the Most High , All our men are m good health and quite well satisfied with their new situation May we have the happiness of soon seeing your Lordship m our midst.17
The buildings, if such they could be called, which Van Quicken- borne found on the premises when he arrived were three in number, a square-shaped cabin of hewn logs and two smaller cabins, also of logs. Father Walter Hill, who lived at Florissant as a novice (184.7- 1848) while these pioneer buildings were still standing, has left an account of them and the uses they were put to after the arrival of the Jesuits
The dwelling given up to them by 'Squire O'Neil was a log cabin con- taining one room, which was sixteen by eighteen feet in dimensions, and over it was a loft, but not high enough for a man to stand erect in it, except when directly under the comb of the roof This poorly lighted and ill- ventilated loft, or garret, was made the dormitory of the seven novices, their beds consisting of pallets spread upon the floor. The room below was divided into two by a cm tain, one part being used as a chapel and the other serving as bedroom for Fathers Van Quickenborne and Timmermans This mam room of the cabin had a door on the south-east side or front, a large window on the noith-west side, without sash or glass, but closed with a heavy board shutter, on the south-west side it had a small window, with a few panes of glass, and finally, on the north-west side was a notable chimney, with a fire-place having a capacity for logs of eight feet in length. At a distance of about eighty feet to the north-east of this building were two smaller cabins, some eight feet apart, one of which was made to serve as a study-hall for the novices, and as a common dining-room for the community, the other was used as kitchen, and for lodging the negroes These lude structures were covered with rough boards, held m place by weight poles, the floors were "puncheons" and the doors were riven slabs, and their wooden latches were lifted with strings hanging outside 18
Shortly after his arrival Van Quickenborne began to lay plans for more ample house-room. He decided to add a second story to the prin- cipal cabin and to surround the entire house with a gallery, the upper
17 Van Quickenborne a Du Bourg, Fete de la jour du Sacre Coeur [1823], Archdiocesan Archives of New Orleans On the farm January i, 1824, were eight horses, thirty horn cattle, ten milk cows, six oxen and eleven sheep. Status Tern- porafa (A)
18 Hill, of cit , pp. 28, 29 Hugh O'Neil was for a while justice of the peace in Florissant. Hence the name "Squire" by which he was known.
ioo THE JESUITS OF THE MIDDLE UNITED STATES
story of which could be partly made into rooms Moreover, the house thus arranged was to receive a two-story wing or extension. In making the wing ground had to be excavated for a cellar and foundation The first earth was turned on St Ignatius day, July 31, 1823, with some- thing of ceremony, as befitted what one of the participants described as "the inauguration of the first novitiate after the suppression of the Society in the great Mississippi Valley, which Marquette had dedicated two centuries before to the ever memorable Immaculate Conception of the ever glorious Blessed Virgin Mary, Queen of the Society of Jesus " 19 Each member of the little group, first Father Van Quicken- borne, then his assistant, Father Timmermans, and then the seven novices and three coadjutor-brothers, dug a spadeful of earth as the first step in the erection of the new building The occasion was graced by the presence of the president of St. Louis College, Father Niel, who had come from the city to preach the panegyric of the Jesuit founder in the village church and to be the guest of the community at dinner in the refectory, which had formerly done service as a stable. The next day, August i, work on the proposed addition was begun in real earnest. The cellar area was marked oil into four equal sections, the scholastics Verhaegen, Verreydt, De Smet and Van Assche being each assigned a section to excavate Van Assche, so the report went in later years, proved himself the most skilful of the party with the mattock and shovel, while De Smet, always of great muscular strength, excelled all others with the axe, of which there was constant need in the work of felling trees and chopping logs in the woods.
The cellar having been dug, the next step was to procure timber. This was obtained from an island in the Missouri River a little above the Charbonmere, the bluff on the right bank of the Missouri where Mother Duchesne's community, and before them the Trappists, had landed on their first arrival at Florissant. The work of cutting and hauling the logs was performed by the novices and Negro slaves and was not entirely finished until June, 1824. While engaged in the task, the novices walked to the island in the morning after breakfast and returned home shortly before night-fall De Smet put in writing in later years some details of this experience
Every day after breakfast the Rector led his little band, with cross-cut saw, and each one with an ax in his hand, to an island m the Missouri River, thiee miles distant, containing about a thousand acres of foiest trees of all sizes These were free to all comers, so that we had our choice of chopping and felling Hundieds of logs were secured and safely landed ashore and hauled to St. Stanislaus These logs were intended for the construction of two large cabins of hewn timbeis, for rafters, servant cabins,
19 De Smet, Hist Missoun M^ss^on (Ms ) (A)
FIRST YEARS AT FLORISSANT 101
stables and barns This immense forest-island, which was just above the Charbomere, shortly after disappeared in a great rise and freshet of the Missouri River, not leaving a vestige of tree or soil It stood on a flat, naked bed of lime stone rock, on which it had been forming perhaps for cen- turies as some of the largest trees seemed to indicate 20
A letter of Van Quickenborne to Dzierozynski under date o£ July 25, 1823, sketches the situation at Florissant a few weeks after his arrival
I have the satisfaction to let you know that our baggage has arrived in good order some days ago, the novices have begun the week before last their usual exercises, they have no longer any manual work and will have none any more, we all enjoy very good health I have written to Rev F[ather] Superior (f Charles Neale) to have some additional help of a father or two (say Fr F. Krukowsky or R F Du Buisson, or both together). In our present circumstances it is absolutely necessary to have a professor of Divinity and I can assure you that you will render me a great service by procuring for this house a good Superior We have four parishes to attend now and several congregations of Catholics scattered in the country . . . We all go in full Jesuitical dress at all times and m all places It gives great satisfaction and edification to the people The Brothers are extremely well pleased with their new habit We find as yet persons that were with our old Fathers here before the Suppression It is a pleasure to hear of their zeal and exertions m behalf of the Indians After a short time the novices, I think, will begin to study I hope youj rev will grant me my petition, if I ask you to send me the distribution of time, the school- hours, repetitions etc to be asked by [fiom] our students Give my love to R[ev] F[ather] De Theux and tell him that the labours of Maryland are nothing in comparison with those of the Missouri and if you can make for us some other little collections of money, it will be most thankfully received.
Circumstances had made it necessary for Father Van Quickenborne to press the novices into service for a more considerable share of manual labor than otherwise would have been deemed advisable. To Father Neale, the Maryland superior, he made the following explanation
As for the work the novices have done, these are my reasons, I When we came on to this place, no house or cabin was arranged, little was done on the plantation and I had not the means to hire hands.
2. I had just reason to fear that our baggage would not come soon and perhaps would have been lost We had not a single book to read or study, no table, no chairs, nor anything It was then for a time impossible to do our ordinary spiritual reading. All the time for meditation, recollec- tion, Flexona, examen, vocal prayers, beads and office of the B[lessed]
20 Idem
102 THE JESUITS OF THE MIDDLE UNITED STATES
V[irgm] M[aiy] we spent regularly as in the novitiate I thought that to let the men idle, would be very dangerous I had much to suffer from the tenant and many other difficulties came in the way To have the novices speak of and see all these things, I thought was dangeious Therefore, I endeavored to set before then eyes the prospect of a fine crop, such as, thanks be to God, we have Moreover, I concluded that if I could stand it the first year and, without making any debts, settle here comfortably, I would have obtained an essential point, and I hope I have obtained it There is no doubt we will be able to maintain ourselves here without making any debts at all Oui house will be comfortable and spacious enough to lodge two or three fathers more The novices agreed in all this and did the work willingly and joyfully 21
A letter of July 21, 1823, from Van Quickenborne to Father John McElroy, who had entertained the Jesuit party at Frederick m Mary- land, touches on the situation at Florissant at that early date. It is reproduced here though the greater part of it deals with the journey from the East'
It would have been a great satisfaction to me to wnte to your Reverence much sooner The zeal which your Reverence has shown for the success of our enterprise and the affection which you have always exhibited towards the novices required on my part a particular attention to this duty of mine However, having to write some long letters to the Superior giving an account of everything and the difficulties which ordinarily attend establish- ments like ouis, and in such circumstances as we are, it was out of my power to bnng my desires into effect. Our journey was prosperous After we separated from you at the marble quarries we walked easy and continued to do so the whole road At Cumberland, Hancock, Uniontown, Browns- ville, Washington and one other place on the road with a Mr. Sevens, we found Catholics who received us like Apostles and whose charity often made me shed teais In other places in taverns we were always well received though we spent but very little money I often had reason to repent having taken your reverence's horse More than once I in vain attempted to sell him Now he does very well, but won't work Mr Thompson at Wheeling received us as well as we could wish We stopped there four days for our wagons that had the baggage in, broke on the road and we arrived at Wheeling two days before them. At Wheeling we bought two flat-bottomed boats and having taken our hoises and two of the Bishop's and our provi- sions, we set off without a pilot. The site of the river and its banks was truly beautiful and charming The snags sometimes terrified us and once or twice a sudden storm gave us alarm We floated day and night The 22d of May we landed at Shawneetown. Till this time we had Mass every day Shawneetown is situated on the banks of the Ohio in Illinois from which we went overland to St Louis, a distance of 160 miles. Here we entered
21 Van Quickenborne to Francis Neale, September 29, 1823 (B) "Flexona," a half-hour of afternoon meditation or mental prayer practiced by Jesuit novices
FIRST YEARS AT FLORISSANT 103
on a truly horrid desert Never did we suffer more from the mosquitos and bad lodging Moreover, the water gave us another trial The Missouri at that time discharged its waters so freely into the Mississippi that the oldest people never before witnessed such an inundation The Bishop had left the city a few days before our arrival The day following we witnessed a procession on the occasion of the solemnity of Corpus Chnsti such as we had never seen before in America We were received by the Vicar-General of the Bishop with all possible attention, so that we soon forgot our little miseries of the water. St Ferdinand is the name of the place where we are, Flonssant being its nickname It is extremely healthy. Sixteen miles from St Louis Our habitation is one and a half miles from the church, as much from the Missouri. I have not as yet received a letter nor a cent from the Bishop The letter I wrote to him announcing our arrival was carried by Mr De La Croix on board of a steamboat for New Orleans The steamboat got fast on a sand-bar and remained there for three weeks Ouis all enjoy good health and are coming on as they did before, well The negroes are very well satisfied We have four parishes with church to attend and a good number of Catholics scattered through the country At a distance of 100 miles there are more than thirty families of them
P S We want absolutely a house before winter. Without assistance we are unable to do it The building of the church has taken much labor and money from the people so that there are no resources here. Will your reverence not find a soul animated with zeal to help us effectively? 22
On September 8 Van Quickenborne announced the arrival of his party at Flonssant to Father Joseph Rosati, superior of the Lazanst community at the Barrens (Bots Brule> Sylva Cremata)^ Perry County, Missouri. Father Rosati was at this time vicar-general for upper Louisiana.
It is a shame for me, Very Reverend Sir, not to give you notice of our ai rival until three months after it has occurred I left several opportunities for writing to you pass by, especially the one offered through the Rev Mr Dahmen, only because I hoped to be able in a* short while to go and see you in person The very great esteem I have for the Congregation of which you are the Superior and your title of Vicar General urged me strongly to undertake this journey, especially m the absence of the Bishop But however great has been my desire, I see it is impossible for me to realize it now. I am quite worn out with fever, while a multiplicity of occupations in connection with the building we have commenced does not allow of my being absent The difficulties we are under are considerable enough, but they begin to grow less and with God's grace I hope we shall be able to settle down here. Mr De La Croix has left the affairs of the parish in good order, besides, we have the consolation of having the Ladies of the Sacred Heart who work with tireless zeal and are excellently
22 Van Quickenborne to McElroy, Florissant, July 21, 1823 (B).
104 THE JESUITS OF THE MIDDLE UNITED STATES
equipped for giving a finished education to persons of their sex. In fine, the example of piety and holiness which they give and the Sunday school which they conduct give reason to hope that the cause of religion will win and piety take root Wishing you the giace and peace of our Lord Jesus Christ, I beg you to be assured of my very respectful attachment to your person and to believe me
Your very humble and devoted servant,
Cs. F Van Quickenborne 23
Meantime, at Portobacco in Maryland had occurred the death of Father Charles Neale Attended in his last moments by Father Benedict Fenwick, he passed away on April 27, 1823, having previously signed and placed in the hands of Father Dzierozynski a paper appointing his brother, Francis Neale, superior of the mission pending an official appointment from Rome. Two days later Father Dzierozynski in a communication to the Father General penned a brief tribute to the de- ceased superior CtHe was a man surely of no ordinary talent, prudence and constancy, and was the last remnant of the old Society, which he had entered in Belgium three years before its suppression He was among the first who worked with such strenuous effort for the recall of the Society to America. Two or three times did he fill the post of Superior of the entire Mission. The patience and high spirits with which he bore so cheerfully the cross and wholesome purgatory of his affliction give hope that even now he is enjoying eternal peace and joy " 24 Father Francis Neale, the provisional superior, had some time before suffered a paralytic stroke, from which at this juncture he had only partially recovered His tenure of office lasted until the winter, the decree of Father Fortis, the General, naming Dzierozynski superior of the Maryland Mission being dated November 7, 1823. The latter continued in office up to the arrival in 1830 of the Visitor, Father Peter Kenney, during all which period the Mission of Missouri was a depend- ency of Maryland.
Writing in October, 1823, to Father Charles Neale, of whose death in the preceding April he was not aware, Father Van Quickenborne noted that he had not received a single letter from any of his Jesuit brethren since he left the Marsh. The first letter to reach him from the East came from Father Benedict Fenwick It was dated September 23, 1823.
Your letter from St. Ferdinand reached me only yesterday. I hasten to acknowledge its receipt and also to felicitate you on your safe arrival and that of your pious and enterprising little troop Your long letter of the
23 Van Quickenborne a Rosati, Florissant, September 8, 1823 (C).
24 Dzzerozynski ad Fortis, April 29, 1823 (B)
FIRST YEARS AT FLORISSANT 105
June so interesting for its details which was addressed to Father Charles was received by Father Francis Neale, his successor m office and who still continues to be Superior. All your future letters on the subject of affairs should be directed to him at St. Thomas where he still resides Father Charles lived but a short time after your departure from Maryland. He often spoke of you and your mission during his illness and considered the opening of that new field to the Society as one of the greatest acts of his Supenorship and from which he promised himself the most happy results to religion The account you have given of the state of things on your arrival, though it seems to indicate that something will have to be suffered and some trials to be undergone for the cause of God m which you have so generously embarked; yet it equally points out the future expectation and leads one to hope that a year or two of prudent economy together with the succors Government will afford, will place you above want and insure the most favorable prospects. . . .
Relatively to the funds which the Bishop of New Orleans denves from France, I shall immediately address him a letter and endeavor to prevail on him to allot a portion of the same to your district He can certainly have no objection to do so, indeed I flatter myself that the very lively interest he takes m the success of your undertaking (of which I have a new evidence m his late letter on the subject of your affairs) will not suffer him to forget the situation m which he leaves you.
The Superior is greatly chagrined that Father Timmermans occa- sionally experiences a return of his former affliction, and the more so, as it will increase your difficulties if the same should continue. We hope, how- ever, for the best and that the Almighty will continue to protect his work. He will, at the same time that he prays for the continuance of the health of each of you, look about him and see whether he will be able to afford you another priest who shall be every way competent to the discharge of his duty He thinks he shall be able ere long to spare you one In short, very dear Father, the eyes of all are turned upon you and expect much from your prudent exertions We all wish you success and shall not fail, as soon as it is in our power, to give you assistance. Write often and let your letters be well drawn and as copious and particular as possible in all matters. Take great care that the information afforded be extremely exact and correct and that nothing may be said which may have a tendency to mislead the Superior m the measures he is to adopt upon them.25
Twelve days prior to the date of the foregoing. Father Benedict Fenwick had wntten to Bishop Du Bourg at New Orleans in regard to the missionary expedition which Maryland had sent out to Missouri:
26 Benedict Fenwick to Van Quickenborne, September IO, 1823 (A). Other paragraphs of this letter are cited elsewhere m this history Father Benedict Fen- wick, S J , cousin of Bishop Edward Fenwick, O.P , first Bishop of Cincinnati, was consecrated Bishop of Boston, November i, 1825 Van Quickenborne's letter of June 19, 1823, to Charles Neale is missing
io6 THE JESUITS OF THE MIDDLE UNITED STATES
At the same time that I received your Lordship's communication I was presented with a letter from Father Van [QuickenborneJ who, as your Loid- ship observes, is more satisfied with his prospect than with his present situa- tion I am not surprised at this, nor indeed ought he to have expected to find all at once a garden of Eden m the center of a wilderness He is much pleased, however, with the quality of the soil, the healthiness of the adjacent country, the goodness of the water etc He desired the Supenor (who is F Francis Neale till the General appoints another) to give him instruction on several points, viz ist whether he, being a Jesuit, can take charge of the "Dames du S Coeur," hear their confessions and attend to them as his immediate predecessor was accustomed to do The answer of the Su- penor to this was that he should take the earliest oppoitunity to acquaint the Father General with the circumstance and learn his pleasure upon it of which he should inform him (F, Van) m due time, but ad interim he authorized him to attend to the nuns du Sacie Coeur provided youi Lord- ship gave him the requisite powers to do so, stating that it was very desirable that as far as practicable those who labor in the same mission should be of the same order the better to preserve peace and harmony.
3dly. Father Van desires to know how he is to act in regard to those churches that have trustees, viz. at St Charles, at Portage des Scioux, at Dardenne etc The Supenor informs him that his study should be to gain them over by mildness and by proving to them by his zeal and esteem for the salvation of their souls that it is their interest to renounce all inter- ference even m temporals and surrender the same to the Society, that nothing is to be done by denunciations, but all by endeavors at conciliation, that the Faith of the people in those parts was as it were in the incipient state and too weak to be acted upon by strong measures.
Father Van, I know not upon what ground, begins to be somewhat solicitous about the stipend (two hundred dollars) the Government is to pay annually. I presume your Lordship has already regulated that matter and that no difficulty will be expenenced on that head. There is likewise another point on which it will be proper to say a word The contributions levied in France towards the support of the Indian missions in your Lordship's diocese, will not a reasonable portion of these be committed to Father Van to enable him to weather the storm and overcome the difficulties he is now struggling with? It is very desirable that as good a face as possible be put on the undertaking, which certainly is a very important one both to your Lordship's diocese and to religion at large, and that the Government should see that we are serious in the business On our part your Lordship may be assured we shall leave no stone unturned to promote it as far as our ability will allow as soon as we get in a condition to do it At present we are too shackled to afford any aid It may be that we shall be able to afford a priest or two in a short time. Father De Theux has not petitioned that I know of to go to that mission He may, however, do so hereafter. What- ever the case may be, members will not be wanting in a few years after the ship shall have got cleverly under way Hitherto she is only launched Let it be our endeavor to keep her from the present well afloat. I entertain
FIRST YEARS AT FLORISSANT 107
no doubts that a favorable gale will come in time which will waft her even beyond the Rocky Mountains 20
Meantime, the arrival and settlement of the Jesuits in his diocese had brought to Bishop Du Bourg a satisfaction proportionate to the efforts he had made to secure their services. He gave expression to his satisfaction in various letters to Europe
The acquisition which I have made of Jesuits for the Missouri causes me to feel singularly peaceful about these distant parts. These good fathers are in possession of my farm at Florissant. To reach it they walked more than four hundred miles, of which two hundred miles were through inundated country, where the water was often up to their waists, and far from murmuring, they blessed God for granting them such an Apostolic beginning.27 They were very agreeably surprised, not expecting to find such a pretty place, for it is my policy to speak only of drawbacks to those whom I invite to share my labors The superintendent of Indian affairs, upon whom depends much of the success of our missions to the savages, received them with an interest both kind and active, and shows himself in an especial way, their protector Moreover, the fathers, including their novices, are well calculated to inspire confidence An unlimited devotedness, which is proof against the greatest dangers and pnvations, is associated in them with rare goodness and talents of a high order They complain of nothing, they are satisfied with everything. Living m the closest quarters in a little house, sleeping on skins for want of mattresses, living on corn and pork, they are happier than the rich on their downy beds, surrounded by luxury, because they know happiness far more exquisite, and are not hampered by self- indulgence. It is my duty, however, to try to procure for them, at least, the necessaries of life, and also the means of exercising their zeal and extending their field of labor. It is in this that I hope to be seconded by the Association of the Propagation of the Faith 2S
It is to this end that I have worked from the very beginning to secure the help of the order of St Vincent de Paul, and that I have made every effort to induce the Jesuits to come here, the former order for the Seminary, the latter for the Missouri missions and more especially for work among
26 Benedict Fenwick to Du Bourg, Mount Carmel, Portobacco, Md., September u, 1823. Archives of the Archdiocese of New Orleans. Jesuits are precluded by their rule from undertaking, unless m exceptional circumstances, the spiritual direction of nuns The system of lay-trustees had given rise to serious abuses m the early days of the Catholic Church m the United States Hence there was a tendency to displace them as far as possible and vest the exclusive control of church tem- poralities in the bishops and parochial clergy The passage in the letter bearing on the Indian school is omitted. Cf. infra, Chap V, § I.
27 The distance travelled by the party through the inundated American Bottom is overstated.
28 Du Bourg a son frere, August 6, 1823 The letters from which these extracts are cited are in Ann. Ptop., I, II. Tr. in RACHS, 14 153-154.
io8 THE JESUITS OF THE MIDDLE UNITED STATES
the Indians The expense of all this has been great, but I am far from regretting it You can see by the letters of Father Van Quickenborne the progress made by the Jesuits in a very short time and with very small means I have been unable to assist them as substantially as I would have liked, having something to pay on the establishment which I have given them As soon as this debt is discharged, if our brothers in Europe continue to help as liberally as heretofore, I intend to spend a quarter, perhaps a third of these donations to aid the fathers m their important work They will also need more subjects, for the field which I have assigned to them is immense, but I believe that all will come in good time.29
§ 3. A PERIOD OF DISTRESS
During the summer of 1823 the seven novices were reduced to six by the withdrawal of Francis de Maillet, whom Father Van Quicken- borne thought unsuited for the Jesuit life and for whom he obtained a position as instructor in Bishop Du Bourg's college in St. Louis.30
29 Du Bourg a son frere, January 30, 1826 Tr in RACHS, 14 161.
30 I have had a very fine opportunity of placing Mr. De Maillet with the Rev Mr Niel [president of St Louis College] wlio was glad to have him, for at that time he stood greatly in need of a teacher He will not be dismissed unless your Rev. will write me to do so " Van Quickenborne to C Neale, September 23, 1823 (B) De Maillet's dismissal was subsequently authorized or ratified by the Father General Fortis ad Dzierozynski, March 25, 1824 (B). De Maillet, after ceasing to be a Jesuit, appears to have had some intention of joining the diocesan clergy, but nothing is known of his subsequent career "Wrote to Mr Demaillez [De Maillet] that if he has still the desire of receiving Orders, he should come to the Seminary." Diary of Bishop Rosati, November 16, 1825, SLCHR, 4 101.
Besides Mr De Maillet, the Florissant community lost Brother Strahan, who returned to Maryland m September, 1823 A plate-printer and engraver by profes- sion, he had entered White Marsh from Philadelphia m November, 1819, and there pronounced his vows before Father Van Quickenborne on November 13, 1821 Diary of Father John McElroy (G) He does not seem to have found con- tentment m his grade of coadjutor-brother owing apparently to the reason that he desired to be a priest The superior found him troublesome both at White Marsh and on the journey to Missouri. "He would have me name some of the company and himself too to make a Council by whose decision everything was to be done " Van Quickenborne to Dzierozynski, September 23, 1823 (B) Brother Strahan left Florissant for the East without the permission or even the knowledge of Father Van Quickenborne, begging m St Louis the money needed for the journey. How- ever, he appears to have taken the course he did on advice from his confessor that it was justifiable under the circumstances Arriving in Maryland, he lodged com- plaints with the superior, Father Francis Neale, against Van Quickenborne, who thereupon was sent a letter of reprimand by Neale. The complaints were probably similar to those alleged at the same time against the superior from another quarter — that in money-matters he was parsimonious, that he did not provide properly for the reasonable comfort of his community and that he employed its members un- necessarily in manual-labor. Very probably a measure of truth lay behind the com-
FIRST YEARS AT FLORISSANT 109
Meanwhile, as the young men were rounding out the two years of their noviceship, their superior had before him the question of admitting them to the vows ordinarily taken at the end of the Jesuit novitiate. To Father Dzierozynski he wrote July 25, 1823-
Y[ou]r. rev. knows that according to R[ev.] F[ather] Charles' last resolution, communicated to me, the novices cannot take their vows, except after having obtained express leave from Right Rev F[ather] General, before the expiration of their two years, which will be on the 4th of October next. It will be impossible to have his answer. Now should the novices not be permitted to take their vows on the very day of their two years expira- tion or at least thereabouts, it will cause among them great dissatisfaction, murmuring, diffidence in and aversion to Superiors, they are sincerely at- tached to the Society and great lovers of their holy vocation By the Concordat made with the Bishop, Rev. F[ather] Supenor has not only disposed of them for the present, but also for the future and they have known this m Maryland: they have obeyed, exposed themselves to a dan- gerous and difficult journey, the means for comfort being denied by the Society. They have submitted and that with pleasure, to be placed in a most perilous post in missions highly cherished by the Society they do not complain, are not dissatisfied, but at the time of their vows they must expect to be treated like beloved children of the Society and not like adventurers of whom it must as yet be decided whether they can stay in the house or are to be expelled. It is needless to mention to yr. rev many other reasons and considerations which could be added however, I must say that m my
plaints. Father Van Quickenborne was at this juncture but thirty-five years of age, had been a Jesuit only eight years, having entered the Society of Jesus as a diocesan priest, and had still much to learn in regard to the manner of government which it seeks to employ in regard to its members Moreover, severe towards himself, he was liable to show himself such towards others Baunard in his biography of Mother Duchesne gives some curious instances of Father Van Quickenborne's drastic treat- ment of that holy nun. But the real character of the man is revealed in the words he addressed to Father Dzierozynski on occasion of the complaints made against him "Thus I do not exculpate myself, for I acknowledge that I am guilty of many faults and imprudences and that I could have been more charitable towards my brethren and that it is an unhappmess for these young men to be under me I will endeavor to be more charitable and not only give what is necessary but shall also at times not suffer doucetws to be wanting and assuredly not put them to any more manualia. However, I could ask for the good of the Society [that it] would not let [stc] and never put me in any Superiority whatever All my ambition is to be sent to the Indians I hope that to suffer and die with them will make my happiness." Van Quickenborne to Dzierozynski, September 7, 1823 (B). Brother Strahan after his return to Maryland was employed for some time as an instructor in the day- school conducted by the Jesuits on H street in Washington. When that institution closed its doors m 1827, he joined Father Jeremias Kiley, another former member of the teaching-staff, in opening a school on Capitol Hill, having obtained his re- lease from the Society some time before.
no THE JESUITS OF THE MIDDLE UNITED STATES
humble opinion, the success of our mission here depends m a great part on granting them leave to take their vows at the usual time
In addressing this letter to Dzierozynski, Van Quickenborne had sought to secure his intercession with the superior of the mission on behalf of the novices Meanwhile the time for their vows was drawing nearer with no word yet received from the East. On October 8, 1823, Van Quickenborne wrote again to Dzierozynski, whom he apparently thought was at the moment acting-superior of Maryland "As the novices are at the term of the two years' noviceship, I shall let them take the devotional vows, not having power from your Reverence to admit them to the body of the Society. I hope your Reverence will approve it." Two days later, October 10, 1823, in the humble cabin that served as chapel of the first Jesuit novitiate in the Mississippi Valley, Peter Verhaegen, John Baptist Smedts, John Felix Verreydt, Judocus Van Assche, Peter John De Smet and John Anthony Elet bound themselves to the religious life by the three vows of poverty, chastity and obedience.31
At the beginning of 1824 Van Quickenborne had been a year and a half without receiving any word from general headquarters, as he informed Father Fortis
It must be a subject of great wonder to your Very Reverend Paternity if for a space of eighteen months you have received no letter from me and, if you have received my letters, I must be myself to blame if no answer has been returned During that time I have wntten six times to your Paternity, three times from here. But I am not discouraged, though some bit of a letter would cheer us greatly The day before yesterday a letter from Father Dzierozynski, our worthy Superior, and also one from the Bishop were delivered to me. My soul was filled with joy to learn from them that your Very Reverend Paternity approves of our coming here and has it in mind to send us a Superior. God grant that we may be per- mitted to see him soon and with a companion All of us here are doing well. The novices took their vows and are now studying philosophy A roomy house has been put up as far as the roof and as soon as the weather permits the roof will be added on and the house finished.31*1
The first winter at St. Ferdinand's was to be a trying one. "Were St. Ignatius alive," wrote Van Quickenborne to Father McElroy in December, 1823, "from the many sufferings I meet with, I think he would foretell that success is to follow my miseries. Through the grace of God I do not feel them very much, having a most strong confidence
31 Van Quickenborne to Dzierozynski, October 8, 1823. (B) Van Assche a De Nef, Florissant, April 29, 1824. (A)
31* Van Quickenborne ad Fortis, January 6, 1824. (AA).
FIRST YEARS AT FLORISSANT in
that the Blessed Virgin and her Divine Son have taken our establish- ment under their care I am full of hopes that the Almighty in his goodness will make use of us to promote his greater glory in this part of the world. I began a pretty large building of logs only, though the whole has an under-cellar, having a brick wall one and a half-foot above ground. It is not quite as large as the Seminary in the city. I have all the material ready but the weather prevents me from putting on the roof." 32
The new building was to remain roofless for some months to come and the community had to struggle through their first Missouri winter as best they could in the little cabins they had fitted up on their arrival. In February, 1824, Van Quickenborne informed Dzierozynski, the recently appointed Maryland superior, that it would be impossible to spend another winter in their present lodgings. He was still in doubt as to the future of the colony in view of a mystifying statement he had just received from the Father General to the effect that when the new superior came to St. Louis the colony might be disposed of in another way. What did the General mean? Is the Concordat to be broken? the farm not to be accepted? Are we to go to another place? Yet whatever the future had in store for his community, his mind was made up on one point, the urgent and absolute need of more decent quarters. He fears that his subordinates may lose heart and that, if any of their number fall sick^ the distressing conditions under which they live may be made a subject of complaint Even if the Concordat be not agreed to, it will not be easy to find another place before the coming winter. Moreover, the cost of a new house, stable and barn would be only four hundred dollars. Whatever happens, the Jesuits will remain at Florissant at least two years longer During that time two hundred dollars will be saved by the better storage for provisions afforded by the new buildings and if it be necessary in the end to move to another place, the improvements can be sold at a fair price. Such was Van Quickenborne's report to his superior of the situation in the West in the beginning of 1824. His representations appear to have had the desired effect and the new building, begun in the summer of 1823, was finished the following year.33
No news could have been more gratifying to the Jesuit community at St. Ferdinand's than the nomination of the Lazarist superior, Father Joseph Rosati, as Coadjutor-bishop of Louisiana. On receiving the news Van Quickenborne hastened to send Rosati a word of congratulation*
32 Van Quickenborne to McElroy, Florissant, December 12, 1823 (B).
33 Van Quickenborne ad Dzieroz/nski, Florissant, February 17, 1824 (B)
ii2 THE JESUITS OF THE MIDDLE UNITED STATES
Allow me to express to you my joy at the news of your nomination as Coadjutor to Bishop Du Bourg All good souls rejoice at it, particularly those who have the good fortune of being acquainted with your merits Certainly it is a great consolation to see how the Lord provides his flock with chief pastors according to his heart We consider ourselves to be henceforth under stricter obligation to pray for your worthy person, and if the Lord deigns to heas our feeble prayers, he will heap upon you the most precious of his graces All here are doing nicely. The log house which we began is not yet under roof We hope to finish it next Spring, at which time we expect reenforcements from Europe.34
Rosati was consecrated Bishop of Tenagra in ^rtibus by Bishop Du Bourg at New Orleans, March 25, 1824 He continued to reside with the Lazanst community at the Barrens until the September follow- ing his appointment m March, 1827, as Ordinary of the newly erected diocese of St. Louis, when he took up his residence in that city. In December, 1824, Bishop Rosati named Father Van Quickenborne his vicar-general for upper Louisiana, greatly to the surprise of the diffident Jesuit, who protested at once his incapacity for this responsible post-
The reading of your letter filled me with confusion. I know not what could have induced your Lordship to fix your choice on one like me. No doubt lack of pnests places you in embarrassing circumstances But I have every reason to fear the appointment will serve only to put me to shame I do not know how to express my gratitude to you for the interest you take in our establishment.35
The kindly attentions lavished by Venerable Mother Duchesne on the Jesuits when they arrived m 1823 were continued as long as economic distress made the position of the newcomers a difficult one In straightened circumstances herself, the devoted superior of the Society of the Sacred Heart still continued to secure substantial aid for her Jesuit neighbors. Kitchen utensils, blankets, linen, food were either begged from St. Louis friends or furnished out of her own meagre store. A gift of fifty dollars which she received was promptly placed in Van Quickenborne's hands. When he went forth on his missionary excursions he found the single horse that the convent could boast placed at his disposal while the chapel outfit he brought along had been pro-
84 Van. Quickenborne a Rosati, Florissant, January 6, 1824. (B).
S5 Van Quickenborne a Rosati, Florissant, January 9, 1825. (C). Bishop Rosati's appointment of Father Van Quickenborne as vicar-general is dated December 28, 1824. (A) Father De Theux was appointed by Rosati, April 14, 1830, acting vicar- general during Van Quickenborne's absence among the Indians and on March 2, 1831, vicar-general. Rosati's Diary. But De Theux's faculties in this office extended only to his Jesuit confreres.
FIRST YEARS AT FLORISSANT 113
vided for him by the attentive nuns. From a contemporary notice we get an intimate picture of Mother Duchesne pursuing far into the night her self-imposed tasks of making or mending the soutanes and parti- colored stockings of the Jesuit community. Meantime, the vicissitudes of the latter and the relations into which they were being brought with the nuns were ever-recurring topics in the letters that Mother Duchesne was sending from Florissant to her superior in distant Pans, Mother Madeleine Sophie Barat, now a canonized saint of the Church.
The more we see of the Father Rector, the more we appreciate his direction and recognize [m him] the spirit of his Father, St Ignatius I have found a Father-Master. I no longer do what I wish and still he is not content. He gave a retreat of three days for our entire house on the occasion of a clothing and a first communion, which took place on the I4th of this month, feast of the Holy Name of Mary. One could only wish it had been longer, he has the gift of persuading and touching Seeing your daughters m such good hands, I am quite at ease m regard to their interior guidance. . . . They [the Jesuits] are building at the Bishop's place. I have done all I could to induce them to build in the neighborhood of the church, but there is no way of bringing them to do so. They would not want to be close to us. (September 29, 1823)
Our fathers have learned with joy of the success of the [Jesuit] fathers of France and Sardinia They are in a season of trials These latter are of such a nature that I pray you again to bring the French houses to send them money, but directly to them The need is so great that I should be afraid of mixing up their interests with those of others The fathers have not been able to build before winter. They are just now exposed to wind and weather and all are turning carpenters and masons to close in at least one room which may serve for dormitory and study-hall. (November 27, 1823).
Do you doubt now that God wishes us to be here? By an unhoped for blessing, we have so near us a nursery of Jesuits, fervent as Berchmans, which like our own, is directed by a Father Rodriguez or Alvarez, he is one or the other. At present he is keeping at a distance from us ... his holding aloof does not come from a want of zeal but from fear of acting against his rule. There is much in his manner to suggest that of your holy brother. ... It would indeed be ungracious in me to try to pass for one in misery, seeing myself favored and supported by so many friends of God. (February 19, 1824).
It pains me among other things to see that our interests are entirely opposed to those of the Fathers. Their being at such a distance from the church makes their situation really painful. During the week the Father says Mass three times at home and three times here, but on Sundays, when he is obliged to come at an early hour to hear confessions, all the brothers have to come also, whether summer-heat, ram or the ngors of winter The creeks, which become swollen, make the passage difficult, dangerous and on many occasions impossible. Our house, which adjoins the church, is, as a
ii4 THE JESUITS OF THE MIDDLE UNITED STATES
matter of fact, what they need, but such is our poveity, we should lose the fruit of so many hardships [undergone] for the sake of our establish- ment, for we should have to begin all over again in some other place, and I find myself too slothful for that (Septembei I, 1824)
If you would use your influence to have him [Fathei Van Quicken- boine] come a little more often or to have the Father General give per- mission to some of the students here to be ordained, it would be a great boon for religion and for us One priest cannot suffice for four parishes, two communities and sick people at a great distance He is constantly risking his life Recently in crossing a river to come here the horse while swimming threw him into the water He held on to the bndle until he could touch ground On returning the water was still higher, and, al- though on horseback, he found it up to his neck, owing to the hoise tossing about in its efforts to get back The firmness of this holy minister displeases many, especially the Fiench, who say that he does not like them and that they would rather go to another [priest] This other has not yet appeared We no longer see any one but him, his children being always in retirement F[ather] Clonviere did not compaie with him in exactness. I see perfectly that a second [Fathei] would put hearts at ease. One cannot find greater merit, but sometimes [human] weaknesses need to be indulged (July 4, 1825).
As a postscript to these excerpts from the correspondence of Mother Duchesne, it may be added that the appeals made to Mother Barat by her local representative at Florissant on behalf of the struggling Jesuit community of the vicinity were not fruitless. On April 8, 1824, the saint wrote to Mother Duchesne "Mile Mathevon, sister of Lucille, has forwarded me nearly 600 francs for your good Fathers I do not know how to send them to you We are going to beg in our houses and if anything comes of it, we shall put all the collections together." Evidently Father Van Quickenborne realized that the superior-general of the Society of the Sacred Heart could be relied upon as a sympathetic friend, when he appealed on one occasion to the Father General for the dispatch of some recruits from abroad, it was in the hands of Mother Barat that he proposed to place the travelling-money which he was ready to provide for their journey overseas.35*
Exactly one year had passed since the planting of the Jesuit colony when it suffered an unexpected loss in the death of Father Timmermans. During nearly all his stay in Missouri he was in feeble health. On Ascension Thursday he was particularly indisposed, but was able to take a walk with the scholastics Van Assche and Elet. His condition
35a Notices sut la vie de Mere Duchesne en Amenque (Ms ) Lettres de Mme. Duchesne General Archives of the Society of the Sacred Heart "The nuns have offered me a gift of 200 doll I have accepted " Van QuicXenborne to Dzierozynski, September 29, 1823. (B).
FIRST YEARS AT FLORISSANT 115
improved the following days and on Saturday, May 29, he left the house to attend his mission at St. Charles The heat and fatiguing duties of the following day prostrated him so that he was barely able to con- duct the Sunday services After Mass he began to preach to the con- gregation but was unable to proceed. He rejoined his community Sunday evening about 9 o'clock, as Father Van Quickenborne, who planned to go to St Louis on Monday, had requested him not to remain overnight in St. Charles. Father Timmermans took medicine and retired for the night, not doubting that the indisposition would have vanished by the morning. But the morning found him no better. At half-past four Van Quickenborne celebrated Mass. Timmermans wished to rise and go to the chapel, but was dissuaded from doing so by the infirmanan He was in a sleep when the superior went to visit him. On being assured by the brother-mfirmanan that his colleague's ailment was nothing more serious than an acute attack of malaria. Father Van Quickenborne left the house for St Louis When Father Timmermans awoke, he felt himself to be worse rather than better and was thereupon advised by the infirmanan to occupy the superior's room, where it might be easier for him to rest He did so without any assistance. This was about ten o'clock m the morning. At half-past twelve Mr Van Assche on passing the window of the superior's room, which was in the same cabin as the chapel, a curtain being used to separate the two apartments, saw the sick priest seated on the bed and engaged in conversation with the infirmanan, who was preparing to bring him a little nourishment. About half an hour later the same scholastic with one of his companions heard the sick priest groan, as though in extreme pain. Hurrying at once to the room where he lay, they found him with his eyes open, gasping for breath and already m his agony. The rest of the community were hastily summoned and while the prayers for the dying were being recited by one of the scholastics, Father Timmermans passed away. It was the thirty-first day of May, i824-36
In the course of that same day Van Quickenborne, as he ap- proached the house on his return from St. Louis, heard the community bell tolling the customary knell for a departed soul. He had left the house in the morning without particular anxiety for his fellow-priest, who did not appear to be seriously indisposed, and now when he learned that the death-knell was for Father Timmermans, his heart sank under the shock. To the scholastics, whom he found greatly depressed over the event, he could only say that the Lord evidently wished the father to share no longer the misery of which there was so plentiful a store, and
86 Van Assche a De Nef, Florissant, June 5, 1824 (A) The date of Father Timmerman's death is erroneously given in some accounts as June i .
n6 THE JESUITS OF THE MIDDLE UNITED STATES
raising his eyes to heaven, he added, "Lord, it is your work at which we labor. F^at voluntas tua" 37
Thus died Father Peter Timmermans, with whose name begins the necrology of the restored Society of Jesus in the Middle United States. He was buried on Tuesday, June i, m the parish church of St. Ferdi- nand's under the epistle side of the sanctuary, and, in the words of Mr. Van Assche, "with all the ceremony that we could command." This young Fleming, then only twenty-four years of age, had been deeply impressed by the dead priest's piety "The memory of his virtues, par- ticularly his obedience and humility," he informed his friend, De Nef m Belgium, "will never be effaced from our memory." More than a year had passed since the father's death when Van Assche in a letter to a friend in Belgium again returned to the subject of Timmermans's edifying career. One word from the superior was enough to make him go anywhere without a penny m his pocket. Whatever his occupation, he made daily four or five visits to the Blessed Sacrament, apart from those that were made in common by the community, nor did he ever fail on leaving the house for a missionary trip to pay a visit to the chapel When he returned, it mattered not at what hour, nor whether he was drenched with rain or stiff with cold, he leaped from his horse, saluted the scholastics if they happened to be present and, without saying a word, proceeded at once to the chapel. Nothing but the most obvious danger would prevent him from crossing the Missouri to attend to his missions, which, beginning with St. Charles and Portage Des Sioux stretched westward across the state as far as Jefferson City.38
Three days after the death of his fellow-priest, Van Quickenborne dispatched to his superior in Maryland this simple note*
Painful as it is, I have to announce to your Reverence, the death of our beloved Father Timmermans. He died like a soldier with armor m hand on the field of battle m the actual exercise of his truly apostolical zeal. The day before his departure out of this life he celebrated Mass (as yet) at St. Charles, came home, and was the next day, the thirty-first, a corpse. His loss is deeply felt by all who knew him He has been buried in the church here and his funeral has been attended by a great number of persons. His death has produced the effect which is ordinarily produced by the death of a Saint.39
On the same day that Van Quickenborne penned these lines he sent a second letter to Dzierozynski asking him to make good the
37 French anonymous account m the Shea Propaganda transcripts, Georgetown University Archives
38 Van Assche a De Nef, Florissant, June 5, 1824 (A).
39 Van Quickenborne to Dzierozynski, Florissant, June 3, 1824. (B).
FIRST YEARS AT FLORISSANT 117
loss the mission had sustained by sending Father Dubuisson to Mis- souri. Anxiety over the increasingly difficult position in which he found himself by the death of Timmermans had begun to settle on the spirits of the Florissant superior. "It is a dreadful thought in moments of depression, to think oneself abandoned. Our difficulties must needs increase with the arrival of the Indians. Those that we have are quite sick. If we are to have with the Indians the success we look for, it is imperative that some father be sent to us and would to God that he may come as superior. I ask your Reverence to send us Father Dubuisson." 40
Two months later, in August, 1824, Van Quickenborne was still waiting for an answer to his appeal for help. "In the great distress in which I am at present," he again addressed Father Dzierozynski, "this is alarming. Has your Reverence not received my letter? I shall put my trust in the Almighty and hope that Father Dubuisson with Brother Mead have by this time started The Divine Providence is too watchful over us to suffer us to be discouraged by the trials which the Almighty is pleased to send us and therefore I shall supercede [mentioning] the absolute necessity of sending us assistance in persons." 41
The prayer of Father Van Quickenborne for relief was to remain unheeded for more than a year. In January, 1825, he was still pleading with the Maryland superior for assistance from the East. "Under the present circumstances what shall I write to you? Does your Reverence really think that we are entirely abandoned? I hope that your Reverence will show that it is not so. Your fatherly heart, your tenderness of a mother will not have been satisfied until by making some generous sacrifice, it will have found the person to be sent to us, a man of great mortification and resignation, otherwise in less than half a year he will say that the burden is above his strength." The voice of Bishop Du Bourg had already been raised in Father Van Quickenborne's behalf. He wrote September 15, 1824, to Father Dzierozynskr "The premature death of your excellent Father Timmermans has rent my heart with grief In compassion to him [Van Quickenborne] could you not send him a companion? I earnestly beg you will do it, if you will not expose him to fall a victim to his increased labors. What in that case would be the fate of that infant establishment? Do, for God's sake, send him one." 42
40 Van Quickenborne to Dzierozynski, Florissant, June 3, 1824. (B) A school for Indian boys was opened at Florissant in the spring of 1824 Cf mjra> Chap. V, "St Regis Seminary."
41 Van Quickenborne to Dzierozynski, Florissant, August 24, 1824. (B).
42 Van Quickenborne to Dzierozynski, January, 1825 (B). Du Bourg to Van Quickenborne, September 15, 1824. (A).
n8 THE JESUITS OF THE MIDDLE UNITED STATES
Meanwhile, Van Quickenborne, burdened with the spiritual charge of all the Catholic population of Missouri west of St. Louis, had to resort to various makeshifts to supply the place of his dead companion. There was no Mass at the Seminary on Sundays and festivals and on these days the scholastics were sent trudging through the wet grass to the village church of Florissant, where their superior offered the Holy Sacrifice. St. Charles and Portage Des Sioux were visited once a month, but on a week day, these two parishes remained without Sunday Mass for a year and a half. In the superior's absence, baptism, funerals and catechizing were occasionally attended to by laymen. Moreover, the scholastics Elet and Verhaegen repaired every Sunday to St. Charles, where they took turns in reciting French prayers for the congregation and even addressing it in catechetical instructions. Two other scholastics were assigned to similar duties at Florissant on Sundays and festivals As to the remote missions, such as Hancock Prairie, Cote-sans-dessem, Franklin, they appear to have been left unvisited altogether, except at rare intervals It is presumably to these outlying western stations that Van Quickenborne refers when he describes a missionary trip of two hundred and fifty miles, which he finished in the course of a single week in April, 1825 To reach these distant points, which he visited only once a year, he had to swim his horse across the swollen creeks with his own body immersed in water up to the neck. His strenuous zeal did not go without appreciation As he left a certain parish, the eyes of the people filled with tears at the thought that they were not to see a Catholic priest again for another twelvemonth.
The position, daily becoming more critical, to which Van Quicken- borne was now being reduced was reported by him to the Father General in March and again m June, 1825.
Although [it is the time for writing"3], I scarcely know how to do so, distressed as I am by the long silence which your Very Rev Paternity has maintained ever since we came here. Father Neale, the Superior at that time, promised that a priest would be sent from Maryland, for he was firmly convinced that two priests were not enough for doing what had to be done according to the concordat made with Bishop Du Bourg Then Father Timmermans, my companion, succumbed and since the 3ist of May of last year I am the only priest for six parishes distant fiom our Seminary, one 18, another 90, a third 120 miles. I am the only one to teach theology and govern the Indian Seminary. Numerous circumstances add considerably to the strain of these duties, as the rough, wretched roads, the big rivers, Missoun and Mississippi, which intersect these parishes, and the journeying I have to do for the Indian boys. . . .
Our men were greatly encouraged to hear that your Very Reverend Paternity entertains good hopes of our Seminary. There are six scholastics
FIRST YEARS AT FLORISSANT 119
and two coadjutor-brotheis Of the scholastics, two almost finished their theology before entering the Society and so repeat their theology privately and are present only at the explanation of cases of conscience Two others were one full year m the Seminary The remaining two finished only humanities All aie now in their second yeai of theology In a spnitual way they are all doing well, being great lovers of their vocation, although (I say it with sorrow) their ardor has cooled down from the fact that they believe themselves abandoned This situation weighs upon me heavily I am greatly alarmed as I look into the future However, as I have every reason to fear on account of my sins, I trust in the Lord that God, Who in His very great mercy has rescued us from many difficulties, will not abandon us, seeing that for His sake we have become almost exiles among barbarous nations But how can a weakling like myself carry on their education accord- ing to the Institute? In the beginning Rev. Father Dzierozynski tried to prevail upon Rev Father Neale, the superior at the time, to send three priests And yet we were only two when we set out from Maryland How- ever, Father Neale, on learning that the Father who died a year ago was sometimes subject to mental disturbances, wrote soon after that he would send a third Father able for any kind of work It is now more than a year since I have been the only priest Further, I have six parishes to attend to, which are cut up by numerous rivers and are widely apart from one another and from our Seminary I am often called to the sick In order to deliver my lectures and be at the service of Ours, I have often to swim the smaller rivers on horseback and to keep journeying on in the heat of the day or through the bitterly cold winter-night. These things it is impossible to keep up. There are special and very urgent reasons why I must go to all the sick in each of the parishes, reasons which it would take too long to set down here 4S
To Bishop Du Bourgj temperamentally sensitive and apprehensive, the situation at St Ferdinand's now became a source of grave anxiety. From New Orleans he sent this remonstrance to Van Quickenborne
I learn with sorrow that you are overworking yourself and to all appearances cannot hold out much longer What would then become of your establishment, what would become of the hopes built upon it, since your Reverend Father General certainly intends the fulfillment of his promise? What would he say were I to conduct myself in like manner? I believe that under the circumstances you ought to have a couple of young scholastics ordained and thus obtain relief from your crushing labors It is clearly a case of tempting God; and I beg you, my dear Father, to reflect on this matter and not to expose yourself to the danger of adding a crown-
43 Van Quickenborne ad Fortis, March 22, June 29, 1825 (AA) In his letter (supra) of February 17, 1824, to Dzierozynski, Van Quickenborne speaks of a com- munication already received by him from the General.
120 THE JESUITS OF THE MIDDLE UNITED STATES
ing misery to those which alieady weigh me down. Justice requires you not to treat this matter lightly.44
In November, 1825, Du Bourg returned to the same topic. From St Jean Baptiste in Louisiana he announced to the Jesuit superior the arrival at the Barrens of Bishop Rosati, begging the former at the same time to dispatch two of the scholastics to the Seminary at that place, which it would be necessary for them to reach before the December ember-days. With characteristic attention to details, he warned the superior not to dally in the matter, for the rainy season was at hand and the two little creeks that run between Ste. Genevieve and the Barrens might overflow their banks and thus make it impossible for the scholastics to reach the Seminary at the proper time 45
Some time previous to this juncture of affairs the Bishop in his anxiety to have Van Qmckenborne spare himself in the interests of the Jesuit group, had resort to a drastic measure to effect his purpose. He forbade the overzealous superior to exercise the sacred ministry beyond the limits of St Ferdinand, unless summoned by the sick, and accord- ingly withdrew from him the faculties which he had hitherto enjoyed for other parts of the diocese. The faculties were to remain thus revoked until two additional priests should have come to share the superior's labors, they were to be restored ipso jacto by the ordination of two of the scholastics to the priesthood.46
The expedient of ordaining some of the young Jesuits with a view to supply the pressing need of priestly laborers was one which Van Quickenborne himself commended to his superior in the East. In Janu- ary, 1825, the names of Smedts and Verreydt were forwarded to Dzierozynski as likely subjects for ordination. They had spent two years and a half in the seminary at Mechlin where they studied "divin- ity, chiefly the casus Conscientiae " They would be ready for orders in September, at which time Bishop Rosati was to be a guest at St. Ferdi- nand's. In case the Bishop left for Rome, whither he was expected to go in the likely contingency of his being declared titular Bishop of New Orleans, the young men would have to be sent for ordination to
44 Du Bourg a Van Quickenborne, May 25, 1825. (A) Dzierozynski had writ- ten to Fortis in 1824 for permission to have one or other of the Florissant scholas- tics ordained Dzierozynski ad Fortis, September 3, 1824. (B) It was seemingly the problematic outlook for the Florissant Jesuits that caused this matter to be referred to the Father General, as had also been done m the case of the novices* vows Per- mission for such vows as also for promotion to holy orders is ordinarily given by the superior of the Jesuit province or mission.
45 Du Bourg a Van Quickenborne, St Jean Baptiste, La , November o, 1825 (A).
46 Van Quickenborne to Dzierozynski, November 19, 1825. (B),
FIRST YEARS AT FLORISSANT 121
New Orleans, a trip that would entail greater expense than the slender funds of the mission could afford. Within little more than a year after this appeal, Messrs Smedts and Verhaegen were to be advanced to the priesthood.
Father Van Quickenborne's delay in presenting the young men for holy orders, was an occasion of chagrin to Bishop Du Bourg, who expressed his mind frankly on the subject m a letter to Father Dzierozynski:
New Orleans, July 10, 1825. Very Rev. and dear Father
By a letter from the Rev F [ather] Van Quickenborne I learn that the F[ather] General declines or indefinitely adjourns the execution of his solemn promise to send us a separate Superior for the Mission of Missouri, and that yr Rev[eren]ce still remains charged with its direction until fur- ther orders from Rome. I must therefore apply to your authority to enable F. Van Quickenborne to bear the enormous burthen which now rests solely upon his weak shoulders To this end I repeatedly urged him to get some of his scholastics ordained- He constantly eluded the question and now he writes me that the thing does not depend on him, without telling me on whom it does defend. — Now, my dear Father, it is evident to all, that this excellent man overstrains his strength by the intent and constancy of his labors Nothing short of a miracle can make him endure such a fatigue above one or two years What then would be the fate of that establishment, if he had no Priest to succeed him? Had he now a couple, there would be a great hope to preserve his valuable life for years to come. And yet you know what sacrifices I have made to secure the perpetual cooperation of your Society. Should it fail, would it be just the Diocese should lose the propei ty I have given you for that express purpose? F [ather] Van Q. has purchased another property in the rising and neighboring city of St Charles In the event of his death what will become of it? Would not the Farm of Florissant be in danger of being sold, and probably for a trifle, to pay for the house in St. Charles and for other debts?
In such a state of things, I confess to you that I live under continual apprehension, and I cannot comprehend the affected silence kept or the evasive answers given on so natural a demand, as that he should present for ordination two or three of his scholastics, who have already three or four years study of divinity. Were I a stranger to my Diocese, a stricter system of reserve could not be kept with me. It is not thus I proceeded with yr. Society, my dear Father, my conduct was and always will be marked with candour and frankness. I have kept whatever I promised and have done even more So indifferent a return is not calculated to warm my attachment or increase my confidence. Had I better reasons to be pleased with that \Ac\ of yr. Fathers, I think I could be of material service to themj I certainly feel disposed to it. But what can I do, when I see myself thrown at such a distance from the secret of their operations, and almost
122 THE JESUITS OF THE MIDDLE UNITED STATES
trifled with, in matters, in which, however, I think that my vote as bishop, should carry some weight.
I speak my sentiments as they are and you will make allowances for the natural solicitude of a Pastor, who, aftei all, has the fiist responsibility for his flock My devotion to yr Society has been eveiywhere known, ever since I could foim an opinion, but allow me to tell you that I nevei could approve that system of policy which everywhere shrouds all its steps in an impenetrable veil If I, a steady fnend, if ever you had any, feel shocked at it, what must be the feelings of its enemies, and what scope does not this deplorable atyearance of duplicity give them to justify their inveteracy against it? Surely, it is not the means of prepossessing any one m its favor
For Religion's sake, I adjure you to relieve me from that intolerable conflict between affection and distrust I also request anew, in the name of God, that a peremptory order may be forthwith issued for the immediate ordination of at least two or three of your scholastics in Missouri, by which Ffather] Van Qfmckenboine] be relieved of part of his oppressive charge and a hope of succession in that establishment be better secured against contingencies.
I send a copy of this letter to F. Van Q Be pleased to remember me most cordially to yr Rev Fathers and Brothers, and be assured that even what may bear the appearance of seventy m the above lines has been dic- tated by the sincere attachment and respect with which I profess to be, of yr revered Society, and of yr Reverence
The most affectionate & dev. servant
L Wm Bp. N Orl 47 [Louis William Bishop of New Orleans].
Father Dzierozynski's reply to this communication from the Bishop of New Orleans is not extant, but from a second letter of the prelate, presently to be cited, it may be gathered that the Maryland superior was not ready to accept as founded on fact the indictment that had been brought against his order. At the same time it is intelligible that the air of unnecessary secretiveness which Van Quickenborne contrived at times to throw around his affairs could readily give offense to so sensitive a person as Bishop Du Bourg It was indeed an idiosyncrasy which on more than one occasion elicited complaint from his own associates o£ the Missouri Mission Du Bourg's letter of October 24, 1825, to Dziero- zynski struck a note of regret not unmixed with a little bantering as he recalled his stern language of a few months before*
Your kind letter of August 27 last has reached me at this extremity [Natchitoches] of my diocese, where I have been on a mission for a month It would be difficult to express to you the pleasure it has brought me despite the reflections, pretty well deserved, it would appear, which you make on
47 Du Bourg to DzierozynsLi, New Orleans, July 10, 1825 (B).
FIRST YEARS AT FLORISSANT 123
my preceding letter Differences of this nature between persons woikmg for the same end and like yourself, my Rev Father, animated by the spirit of God are always easy to bring to an end, and with that in view you have taken a step which, were I capable of being seriously prejudiced against your Society, would have dissipated in an instant all my prejudices But the fact is that I have not ceased to esteem it, to honor it and to desire sincerely its establishment m my diocese, and the very heat with which I complained of the delays that have ensued in consolidating the Mission of St Ferdinand, proceeded (as you yourself have correctly judged) only from the fear of seeing prove abortive m its very germ an enterprise on behalf of which you and I, as well as your brethren of Missouri, have already made so many sacrifices Pardon me these sallies of a zeal perhaps a little too human, but what am I saying? Do you not give me the most convincing proof that you pardon me them, by informing me that you have already forwarded to Father Van Quickenborne an order for the ordination as soon as possible of two of his scholastics and further, that you have sent him a precious reenforcement of two subjects, one of whom is that excellent Father De Theux, for whom I have always felt deep veneration and esteem and for whom, if I mistake not, I particularly asked you. Behold, then, your dear Society consolidated m this destitute extremity of my immense diocese I am at ease today m regard to its future, and I feel the weight of my solicitude lightened by a good half I have often had the desire to see your Fathers charged with the parish and town of St Louis Mr. De Theux would appear to me a very proper person to undertake this charge, not less than Father Van Quickenborne. Possibly, however, until permission comes from Rome to ordain the 4 other scholastics, your Fathers will not find themselves in a position to take over this additional concern I leave the matter to you and them, expressing at the same time my desire to see speedily a consummation which cannot but bring honor to your Society and perhaps procure it new recruits.
Despite the pain which I share with you to see you threatened with the loss of Father Fenwick, who fills so worthily the post of President of your College of Georgetown, I cannot but rejoice and bless God for his nomina- tion to the See of Boston and to avow to you, that on my fart, I had begged it both of God and of Rome with the most earnest entreaties. I have done more I have asked for the union of the two Sees of Boston and New York in his person; and I have neglected nothing to have my colleagues, the Bishops, enter into my views; regarding, as I do, Father Benedict Fenwick as the only man who can heal the wounds of our churches of the East and establish the Episcopate in that quarter on a basis stable and honorable for Religion. I understand perfectly his repugnances and I praise him for the opposition he is making, but it will have to be that he yield, as so many others, to the will of the Supreme Chief, and devote himself to the good of the church. I exhort him as my one-time son and as my Brother to-day to place all his confidence m Him who, on sending his ministers, has promised to be always with them What could we do without Him? But on the
i24 THE JESUITS OF THE MIDDLE UNITED STATES
other hand with Him, is there anything of which our weakness is not capable ?
To return to our quarrel First, I must tell you that you did well to pardon me without waiting for my act of contrition, for, far from repent- ing of my great anger against you, I am on the contrary veiy glad of it, since it has led to such happy results I must add, however, that I should not have allowed myself to go to that length, had I known that permission to ordain subjects must come from Rome. But whose fault is it that I did not know it? Father Van Quickenborne had only to say one word on the matter, instead of returning vague answers to all my entreaties, I would have waited patiently and refrained carefully from complaining of him 01 of anybody; for I am very strong for the observance of rules, without it I would not give a penny for a religious Society And so, my dear good Father, we have explained ourselves each to the other and become as good friends as before, greater friends we could not be, for the Society has always been the dream of my soul and the idol of my heart Perhaps on that account I believe I have the right to [protest?] against it, when it is unwilling to listen to me Probably also a little French blood shows there, the warmth of which my sixty years have not yet allayed. Greater for all that ought to be your assurance of the liveliness of the respectful affection which I bear you and in the name of which I ask a share in your prayers and sacrifices 4S
The chronic fears of the Bishop for the health of the man who pre- sided over the only house of Jesuits in his diocese and for the distressing consequences which would follow his collapse had not been groundless The physical condition of Van Quickenborne went from bad to worse. Months after the crisis about to be told had passed, Elet, the scholastic, thought that it must be by a sort of miracle that his superior was able to be on his feet at all.49 In July, 1825, the intrepid missionary lay stricken anew with fever, awaiting what appeared to be the final sum- mons. All along he had reacted with uniform courage to the trials that came one by one to test his fortitude. But now his spirits seemed to sink under the strain. To his superior, Father Dzierozynski, he wrote.
More to comply with duty and the desire of Ours than anything else, I feel obliged to give you the following statement- About the beginning of last month I was taken with a bilious fever, proceeding from exceeding fatigue m going to the sick in the heat of the day and the dew of the night, almost without rest. The fever has left me. I am lingering and consider myself as going with rapid steps to the grave. Nothing however, of this, have I spoken to any of Ours or to others I think the time is come for your Reverence to make a sacrifice and send Father Dubuisson without delay. . . . The scholastics now without sacraments, Mass, etc. may suffer
48 Du Bourg a Dzierozynski, Natchitoches, October 24, 1825, (B)
49 "Et mvraculo factum dicete non dubito quod intolerabih oneii necdum succubuerit" Elet ad Dzierozynski, December 31, 1825. (B).
FIRST YEARS AT FLORISSANT 125
considerably and discouragement, yea, despair, thinking themselves aban- doned, may disband them A great odium will be laid upon the Society for treating in this way youths of great talents and just dispositions, after so many sacrifices made, etc What will the Bishop say? How will you stand before the government? Be sure, Reverend Father, I have committed no excess in labors of my choice I have gone to the sick when called only and that to such persons as were in extreme necessity I do not think that our house can be kept up by Ours here. My last will is in order I leave no debts The number of Indians amounts to nineteen. I have to write on most important matters but am not able to do so.50
Happily Van Quickenborne's illness did not take the fatal turn that he expected. Little by little his strength returned and he was able to resume his round of duties Four months after his letter to Dzierozynski he received this message from Du Bourg "I am extremely glad to learn of your recovery and beg of you always to have a care for your health. It is to the uneasiness which it occasioned me that you must attribute the rigorous measures which I have taken and which have caused you a chagrin I should like to have spared you." 51
§ 4. BEGINNINGS OF THE SCHOLASTICATE
The Jesuit novitiate at Florissant closed de jacto as well as de jure on October 10, 1823, when the six scholastics then in residence were admitted to their first vows 52 Thereupon for a space of several years there were no scholastic novices at all m training nor was Father Van Quickenborne authorized to receive any without permission of his supe- rior in Maryland. His letters to Dzierozynski at this period disclose repeated plans for the maintenance of "the novitiate to be opened here by your Reverence with the authority of Rev. Father General." 53 Instead of presiding over a novitiate the Florissant superior now found himself, though not having made his tertianship or pronounced his final vows, at the head of a Jesuit scholasticate or house of higher studies.54 "A few days after our noviceship," the scholastic Van Assche informed his friend, De Nef, in April, 1824, "we began the study of philosophy and after some months we shall take up theology." 55 Van Quicken-
60 Van Quickenborne to Dzierozynski, Florissant, August, 1825. (B).
51 Du Bourg a Van Quickenborne, New Orleans, November 9 [?], 1825. (B).
52 CfWe had a novitiate here It closed of itself for lack of novices." De Theux
-, April, 1831 Ann Ptof, 5 573
53 Van Quickenborne to Dzierozynski, December 19, 1825. (B).
64 The tertianship is a third year of novitiate spent by the Jesuit shortly after his ordination to the priesthood and before he is permitted to take the final vows which bind him to the order
55 Van Assche a De Nef, Florissant, April 29, 1824. (A).
126 THE JESUITS OF THE MIDDLE UNITED STATES
borne, now charged with the direction of the young men's studies, had no end of questions to propose to Dzierozynski, How much time is to be given to logic and metaphysics? May the scholastics be easily dis- pensed from fasting rattone studn (by reason of studies) ? How long should the Easter holidays last? Since fish is scarce in these parts, may the customary diocesan dispensation from the Lenten abstinence be taken advantage of by the community? May the scholastics be presented to the bishop for tonsure? 56 Hard put to it as he was to provide for the material support of his community, the superior was determined that no stress of poverty or hardship should prevent the Jesuit youths from enjoying the full round of study to which according to the Institute of the Society of Jesus they were entitled. "The period of their educa- tion," he wrote to Dzierozynski, "ought not to be shortened for the sake of temporal things." 57
The first session of the new scholasticate came to an end in August, 1824, with a public disputation in philosophy, for which invitations were sent to Father Niel, president of St Louis College, and General Wil- liam Clark. m With the following session, to begin October, 1824, the study of theology was introduced. The lack of priests now created a curious situation by placing some of the scholastics in professors' chairs Messrs. Elet and Verhaegen lectured three times a week for hour periods on dogmatic theology with Sardagna as a text Scripture was taught by Mr Verhaegen twice a week while a "circle" or defense of theological theses was conducted twice a week under Elet's direction Father Van Quickenborne himself took the classes in moral theology, lecturing four times a week to the scholastics, each of whom was pro- vided with a copy of Busenbaum's Medulla Theologiae and Ligoun's Homo Apostokcus.5*
It was scarcely to be expected that the expedient of thus raising young men, themselves m need of training and instruction, to the dig- nity of professors of divinity, would prove a success. Elet's conduct of the class was not without embarrassment to himself, while Verhaegen in spite of obvious ability and scholarship did not dispose of theological difficulties to the satisfaction of all. Elet on his part protested to Father Dzierozynski his unfitness for the task. "But who am I?" he exclaims "I was scarcely a pupil and now I am become a professor." "However, we shall go on," he continues, "but with what results? I will tell you. A little of everything but nothing thoroughly." 60 As to Van Quicken-
56 Van Quickenborne to Dzierozynski, Florissant, January i, 1824. (B).
57 Van Quickenborne ad Dzierozynski, Florissant, February 17, 1824 (B).
58 Van Quickenborne to Dzierozynski, Florissant, August 24, 1824 (B).
59 Van Quickenborne ad Dzierozynski, Florissant, January 10, 1825. (B).
60 Elet ad Dzierozynski, December 31, 1825. (B).
FIRST YEARS AT FLORISSANT 127
borne, ill-health and the pressure of temporal concerns forced him to relinquish his class in moral theology He was not only the superior of the little community, but its only priest. When forced to take to bed with illness, which was often, or when parochial duties called him away to Florissant, St Charles or Portage des Sioux, the scholastics were left without Mass, sometimes for a week at a time. The situation which developed became so distressing that one of the young men made bold to petition the superior m Maryland for another priest. In a letter to Father Dzierozynski Mr. Elet expressed himself' with feeling "Would that you could send us Father De Theux, a man remarkable alike for piety and learning. Then we would forget the past and make light of the discomforts created here by an oppressive climate, incessant rams and an unfinished house. We should gladly take upon ourselves the work of the house and even spend our recreation days outdoors in manual labor." And he concluded with the appeal, "da nofas ^patrem et suffice" ("give us a father and it is enough"). Urgent also was the appeal made by Mr. Verhaegen to the Maryland superior and by the latter forwarded to the General-
Doubtless, you are not unaware how weak is the health of our Rev. Father Superior. But it seems to me I have just reason to suspect that you do not know of his frequent spells of sickness, which will probably not dimmish but rather increase m number in the summer time unless the cause of them be stopped in due time To my mind he is unfit to discharge for any length of time the laborious duties incumbent on him, especially m this country of America, where not only the unsettled and suddenly shifting weather but also the hardships of the roads render a missionary's functions very trying. The care not only of one village but of all the Catholics in the neighboring places devolves on him alone When the last hour comes, they call for the priest He satisfies this desire of theirs and indeed burns to satisfy it worthily He is therefore necessarily led into truly difficult situations, but these his weak constitution could probably bear were not other difficulties added on For, besides, he teaches moral theology, has the management of our farm and is Spiritual Father, which duties seem to me to demand a man's entire attention Nay, some of them scarcely seem compatible with the functions of a missionary. For there are frequent inter- ruptions in the lectures in moral theology and whole weeks pass by without our being given a spiritual instruction. Allow me also to remark that he has to be absent from the house repeatedly, so that we can hear Mass scarcely three or four times a week. In view of these circumstances, I have thought it expedient, Rev. Father, to ask you in all earnestness to deign to send us a Father as soon as possible, who may at once relieve our Father Superior and, if it so please your Paternity, be a master and guide to us in our studies I feel convinced that all my confreres confidently expect to receive this favor and I am not afraid of doing anything to their displeasure
128 THE JESUITS OF THE MIDDLE UNITED STATES
if I say that this petition of mine expresses the common desire of them all If therefore you deign to accede to my request, you will put us all under the greatest obligation and if the new year which we begin entitles us to ask for any special token of your love in our regard, this one thing we ask and beg for For the rest we continue to be well and, as far as I may conjecture, all my companions are content m their vocation 61
The circumstances that had thus made it expedient, if not necessary, for the scholastics to report the true situation at Florissant to the supe- rior of the mission were indeed abnormal. There was no priest, other than the local superior himself, to discharge this duty and it was to be feared that he, in his excess of zeal, might picture things as much less serious than they really were. Only two Jesuit officials were authorized to send the needed help to Missouri, the Father General and the Mary- land superior. Both had been made acquainted with the situation, but it was some time before anything could be done by either to relieve it. Van Quickenborne, so Dzierozynski wrote to the General in September,
1824, "is the only priest at Florissant, he asks me for aid, which I cannot give unless I am ready to make a big hole in Maryland (mgens foramen m Maryland^ jacere). And yet I see that he cannot be left alone. . . * I should not consider it rash in the least to say to your Paternity that now is the very time to staff that seminary of ours at Florissant with competent Fathers and missionaries/7 The Maryland superior, on his part, was not to be left at rest as regarded the crisis that had developed m the West. This latter was the burden of repeated letters from Van Qtuckenborne and Bishop Du Bourg. Moreover, the scholastics had joined in the appeal for help, while even Mother Duchesne made an attempt to interest St. Madeleine Sophie Barat in the affair and induce her to take up with the Father General the ques- tion of having some of the scholastics promoted to the priesthood. But what proved decisive in all this correspondence was the letter of July,
1825, written by Van Quickenborne to his superior in the East under what he believed to be the shadow of approaching death. This letter Dzierozynski transmitted to the Father General to give him an idea of how things stood at Florissant while he wrote at once to Van Quicken- borne "How I felt on receiving your letter, you must keenly realize." Relief was no longer to be delayed and, accordingly, Father John Theo- dore De Theux and Brother John O'Connor were dispatched from Georgetown to join the somewhat disheartened colony in the West.
Father De Theux was a native son of Liege, in Belgium, where he was born January 25, 1789. His parents were of the nobility and dis- tinguished no less for Chnstian piety than social standing. After divinity
81Verhaegen ad Dzierozynski, 1825 (B)
FIRST YEARS AT FLORISSANT 129
studies in Namur he was raised to the priesthood June 21, 1812, and then immediately named vicar of the parish of St. Nicholas in Liege. Belgium lay prostrate at this juncture under the Napoleonic regime. The prisons and hospitals of Liege were full to overflowing with Spanish prisoners of war. In his eagerness to bring them spiritual re- lief the young priest set himself the task of learning Spanish The horrors of pestilence were soon added to those of captivity. Nothing daunted, De Theux went in among the prisoners, breathed the disease- laden air of their forbidding quarters, and in the end paid the penalty of his zeal by contracting the plague. He was nursed back to health under the roof of his parents, but not until the infection had passed to several members of his family, among them a brother, whose sickness terminated in death In 1815 he was appointed administrator of the diocese of Liege and in this capacity presided at the opening of the episcopal seminary, in which he discharged the duties of professor of dogmatic theology and holy scripture.62
But the scene of Father De Theux's life-work was not to be his native Belgium. That indefatigable missionary of Kentucky, Father Nermckx, crossed his path. Moved to the quick by the missionary's pathetic recital of the Church's needs in America, the young clergyman of Liege determined to follow his fellow-countryman overseas. He promptly communicated this design to his family, renounced the right of succession to his father's title in favor of his brother Bartholomew, later Count De Theux de Meylandt, minister of state of Belgium, and in March, 1816, left Antwerp for America with a single companion, Father Lekeu. The two sought and obtained admission into the Jesuit Mission of Maryland.63 On August 7 the doors of the novitiate at White Marsh opened to receive them and two years later, August 18, 1818, De Theux was admitted to his first vows.64 Six years of parochial service, chiefly at Holy Trinity Church in Georgetown, was the out- standing feature of his career in the eastern United States. Visible suc- cess attended his ministry. Mutual esteem and affection developed be- tween the congregation of Holy Trinity and its zealous pastor and the
62 Le Pete Theodore de Theux de la Comfagnie de Jesus et la Mission Beige du Missouri (Roulers, 1913) The only printed English account of De Theux is m De Smet, Western Missions and Missionaries A French ms. life containing tran- scripts of numerous letters written by De Theux to his family is in the Missouri Province Archives.
63 "Sfretis mundi illecebns et titulis abdicatis? "The allurements of the world having been spurned and his titles renounced." Inscription on De Theux's tomb- stone, St. Stanislaus Seminary, Florissant, Mo.
64 According to the French life, Le Pere Theodore De Theux, etc , p 40, the father arrived with his companion at White Marsh on September 6.
130 THE JESUITS OF THE MIDDLE UNITED STATES
circumstance made the relmquishment of his charge a trial keenly felt by both.
Early in September, 1825, Father De Theux set out for the West accompanied by Brother John O'Connor, a native of Tullamore m Ireland, and now in his forty-fifth year The two travellers followed in the path of Van Quickenborne's expedition of two years previous, taking the Cumberland Road, the usual highway of emigrant travel to the West. They journeyed by stage as far as Wheeling, where they took passage on a flat-boat for Cincinnati, the low-water stage of the Ohio putting steamboats out of commission Particulars of his overland trip to the Ohio are contained in a letter of De Theux's to Dzierozynski, dated "near Wheeling," September 24, 1825
We arrived m Wheeling last Thursday evening Fathei McEhoy will have told your Reverence that we were detained at Fredenckstown two days for want of room m the stage From fatigue and a kind of sickness at the stomach we stopped one and a half days with Rev. Mr Ryan in Cumberland, thence proceeded to Wheeling, whence, as there was no conveyance to Cincinnati, we walked yesterday afternoon to good Mr Thompson's, seven and a half miles from Wheeling Here I said Mass this morning, and will, Deo dantey tomorrow. He will then take us in his carryall back to Wheeling, whence we will immediately sail in a flat-boat for Cincinnati We hope to be there tomorrow week. The waters are too low as yet for steamboats Besides these little trials our jouiney has hitherto been very prosperous People have everywhere been kind and good to us Our stage-companions, though not of the household of the faith, were decent and in every way well-behaved people 65
Early in the journey to Wheeling, Father De Theux, while staying in a Jesuit residence on the way, probably Frederick, learned of the death of his father, Count De Theux, The superior of the residence, who had received the news some time before, withheld it from the priest till the morning after his arrival. Going to the latter's room, where he was engaged in prayer in preparation for Mass, the superior quietly said to him, "you had better say Mass this morning for your father's soul." De Theux received the news with characteristic equanim- ity. That same day he wrote to Father Dzierozynski and to friends at Georgetown, including the Visitation nuns, petitioning prayers for his father's soul. Nor did he forget his pious mother, to whom he wrote immediately on his arrival at Flonssant to lend her what consolation he could in her bereavement.66
65 De Theux to Dzierozynski, near Wheeling, September 24, 1825. (B) 86 Le Pert Theodore De Theuxy etc., p 82
FIRST YEARS AT FLORISSANT 131
§ 5« THE MARYLAND SUPERIOR AT FLORISSANT
With the arrival of Father De Theux at Florissant on October 10, 1825, the strain of the unpleasant situation there was palpably relieved. Van Quickenborne, now fairly recovered from his recent illness, wrote October 29 to the Maryland superior, thanking him for the dispatch of the two Jesuits from the East. "I have always had the highest esteem for Father De Theux and I expect much from him for our little mission." 67 Bishop Du Bourg likewise expressed his thanks to Dzierozynski for sending to Florissant "that excellent Father De Theux, for whom I have always entertained the deepest sentiments of veneration and esteem and for whom, if I mistake not, I asked you in particular." °8 And Mr. Van de Velde, Jesuit scholastic at Georgetown College, in a letter to his Flemish friends at Florissant of which De Theux was the bearer, wrote
The news which we have lately received respecting the impaired state of health of your worthy Superior has greatly afflicted us Whatever may be the result of his sickness, Providence will not abandon you, you have left much to enlist under the standard of Jesus Christ and he will not leave you destitute of the means necessary to enable you to fight his battles Father De Theux, the bearer of the present, is a man of exemplary piety and indefatigable zeal and the only one that could heal the wound which the death of Father Van Q would inflict on your heart. I do not praise him because he is a Belgian The tears that have been shed by almost all the members of his congregation that were present at his farewell address and that have not been dried since the moment that he announced his de- parture are the best testimony of his zeal and virtue You will find m him a father and a protector. . . . Everyone now looks upon St. Ferdinand with as interested an eye as they formerly looked upon the missions of Chile and Paraguay We all expect great things from you I hope that you will not disappoint us in our expectations.09
Father De Theux was quick to acquaint himself with the conditions that prevailed m his new home and three weeks after his arrival sent off to Father Dzierozynski a letter packed with informing de- tails. There was the same drink for all, in the morning, coffee with sugar and milk, at noon, cider mixed with water, m the evening, tea with milk. In this part of the country, De Theux observes, drink is never taken unmixed, not even at the best tables. Two hundred chickens furnish eggs for the community, an indispensable article of diet here, as fish is scarce, the Missouri River, so the report goes, furnishing none
67 Van Quickenborne ad Dzierozynski, Florissant, October 29, 1825. (B).
68 Du Bourg a Dzierozynski, October 24, 1825, (B)
69 Van de Velde to Verhaegen, Van Assche et al , April 25, 1825. (A).
132 THE JESUITS OF THE MIDDLE UNITED STATES
at all. Clothing and linen are made and repaired by the Ladies of the Sacred Heart.70 De Theux took up at once his duties as professor of dogmatic theology. But the long years he spent in the sacred ministry had withdrawn him too entirely from scholastic pursuits to enable him to score a new success in the lecture-hall Two months after De Theux's arrival at Florissant, Van Quickenborne reported frankly to the Mary- land superior that the new professor was slow of thought (tardae con- ceytioms est), adding a request that Mr. Verhaegen be retained as teacher of theology, since Father De Theux distrusted his ability to give all the lectures and, as a matter of fact, covered very little ground in an hour's class.71
The year 1825 was to run its course without seeing any of the scholastics raised to the priesthood, though permission to this effect had now been obtained The reasons for Van Quickenborne's delay in pre- senting the young men for orders are set forth by him in a communica- tion to Bishop Rosatr
I have received your letter written on board the steamboat It has re- lieved us from much uneasiness with the good news it brings concerning your health. I must thank you also, Monseigneur, for your kindness in sending us directions concerning the journey from our place to your seminary. I cannot express the pleasure it would have been to me to go and see you m company with two of our scholastics I was looking forward to this happiness even before winter, but the severe weather and the im- probability of getting across the streams have deprived me of all hope for this year.
The two young men would not have come with me, because m the case of one, I wish to obtain a decision from our Superior on an important point, and in the case of the other, I believe that a postponement will be to his advantage in regard to studies I do not need them just now as I feel myself strong enough with Father De Theux's assistance to manage my affairs; moreover, not having any Mass intentions to discharge and being determined not to station any of Ours in a place where his support will not be virtually guaranteed, I hope that the ordination of the young men at another time will lead to better results.72
Within a few weeks of the date of this letter, Messrs. Smedts and Verhaegen received major orders. Verreydt was one of the two whom the superior had first intended to present for orders, but the choice was subsequently altered and Verhaegen substituted m his place. Bishop Rosati was the ordaining prelate, the ceremonies taking place partly m
70 De Theux a Dzierozynski, November 13, 1825. (B). Fish, though not m quantities, is found m the lower Missouri
71 Van Quickenborne ad Dzierozynski, Florissant, December 19, 1825. (B).
72 Van Quickenborne a Rosati, Florissant, December 13, 1825. (C).
FIRST YEARS AT FLORISSANT 133
the seminary chapel at the Barrens, and partly in the parish church at the same place. Mr Smedts was the first of the two to be ordained. On January 22, 25, and 29, 1826, he received in succession the sub- diaconate, diaconate and priesthood, while on February 26, and March 5 and u, Mr. Verhaegen received the same orders in like succession.73 The promotion of the two young Jesuits to the priesthood, though it doubled the number of fathers at St. Ferdinand's, did not dispel the fears which Van Quickenborne entertained for the future of his community. The farm, the chief means of material support on which he could rely, gave him much concern. In October, 1826, he protested to the Maryland head of the mission that, if a stop were put to the improvements which were being made on the farm, the mission would soon decline into ruin. "Who will pay," he asks, "for the expenses at St Charles? Who will provide us with books? As it is, we have not even breviaries. Before long we shall have six newly ordained priests As no fixed revenue is provided for them, they will have nothing to begin on We began here m the greatest poverty and endured all things patiently Now they look for better things " Then follow details about the Seminary farm, which throw light on agricultural methods in Missouri in the early nineteenth century. The farm is not like those m Maryland, it is %n -fieri Something has been done on it but much remains to be done. The land is not even cleared.74 Income is derived from many small things which in Maryland would be scorned, for instance, wood is gathered m the Commons and sold to the nuns. The
73 Memorandum (B) "At 1045, m the church, solemn pontifical mass, dur- ing which, after a short talk to the people on the nature, offices and obligations of the subdiaconate, I promoted to that Order J. B Smedts, acolyte of the Society of Jesus, presented by his Superior, titulo paufertatts" Diary of Bishop Rosati, Janu- ary 22, 1826. "At half past ten celebrated solemn pontifical mass in the church, during which, after explaining to the people the nature and power of the order of the priesthood, and the ceremonies and rites of ordination, I promoted to that same order of the priesthood J B Smedts of the Society of Jesus " I£em, January 29, 1826 SLCHR, 4 169, 170 "I delayed ordaining Fr. Verhaegen a little more than you [Father Van Quickenborne] anticipated because I like to hold ordinations on the days appointed by the Church, we had, moreover, some candidates of our own Fr Verhaegen has edified us very much, as has done Fr Smedts, I congratulate you on getting this addition, and pray God to continue to give you increase." Rosati a Van Quickenborne, March n, 1826 SLCHR> 4 181
74 "In front of the house was an orchard of good fruit , beyond the orchard was a field containing about thirty acres of cultivated land, and at the distance of half a mile still further on was a second field of fertile land, bordering on Cold Water Creek. The portion of farm to the rear, or northwest of the house, was still covered with primeval forest extending back to the Missouri River, and the rest of the land was overrun with hazel thickets, interspersed with clumps of stunted oak, and here and there with lawns or small meadows of wild prairie-grass." Hill, History of the St. Lottis University, p, 29.
134 THE JESUITS OF THE MIDDLE UNITED STATES
farm is situated in the Common Fields of St. Ferdinand's, i e. for one field containing the farms of eighteen individuals, there is but one fence kept up in common by all 75 This is a wretched system, for the fields being open very often until May, it is impossible to raise any grain. It is true that this year we have raised upwards of two hundred bushels of wheat, but if the hogs had not destroyed the wheat in the common field, the crop would have been double that quantity. If the farm there- fore is to pay, it must be fenced in at once. Besides a fence around the farm, two other things are needed, a tobacco-house and a mill. Here there are no water-mills, but horse-mills. These cost very little. An out- lay of one hundred and fifty dollars will cover the expense. But without these three things, namely, a good wheat-crop, a tobacco-house, and a mill, the farm will do little towards supporting the community.76
The letter which contains the foregoing report of Van Quickenborne concerning the Seminary farm and the difficulties which its management entailed concludes with a pressing invitation to the Maryland superior to pay an official visit to his subjects in far-off Missouri. "If there is anything that I should urge upon you to do, it is to pay us a visit in the spring. This trip from Georgetown to St. Louis can be made m twelve days . . . believe me, Your Reverence does not know Mis- souri." 77 Father Dzierozynski, who for three years had followed with sympathy the vicissitudes of the little Jesuit group on the western frontier, as portrayed with graphic pen in Van Quickenborne's frequent reports to the East, felt with the latter that nothing less than a personal visit would enable him to see the situation there in its true light. More- over, and this was his principal reason for making the visit, he wished to preside at the examinations of the scholastics, who were now about to finish their theological studies. Dzierozynski's broad sympathies and deep religious piety endeared him greatly to his subordinates. One gets an impression of the reverence felt for him from the request made by the coadjutor-brother, Henry Reiselman, to a Jesuit correspondent* "My respects, if you please, to our holy Father Dzierozynski. Try to get some relic of him, be it only some of his hair and send it. I am much mistaken if he will not perform miracles before or after his death." 78 Again, there are the words of Father Benedict Fenwick writ- ten to Bishop Du Bourg "This much, however, I know, that however
75 As late as May 14, 1832, twelve of the "land-holders of the big field," signed a ten-year agreement to pay annually to Father De Theux sums aggregating $17 S?*4 "for the use of his fence" (A)
76 Van Quickenborne ad Dzierozynski, Florissant, October II, 1826. (B).
77 Ibut.
78 Henry Reiselman to George Fenwick, St. Charles, Mo, August 23, 1830 (B).
FIRST YEARS AT FLORISSANT 135
indulgent I may be deemed I act now at least under obedience, which is one long step towards the summit of that perfection which is recom- mended [by] and which is so completely exemplified in Father Dzierozynski." 79
On July 1 8, 1827, Father Dzierozynski arrived at Florissant, then the only Jesuit establishment in the United States west of the Alle- ghames.80 He was present at the examination in dogmatic theology which the young men without exception were required to undergo, now that they had completed their scholastic studies 81 De Theux and the visiting superior constituted the board of examiners, Van Quickenborne having petitioned earnestly not to be required to share this duty with them. The records of the day make but a passing mention of Dziero- zynski's stay in Missouri. "Our father superior arrived the 1 8th of this month [July]," Van Quickenborne informed Bishop Rosati, "and has to leave towards the beginning of August. He intends to go and present his respects to your Lordship before the end of this month I fear very much that he will take away some of our subjects, of whom he says he has a great need in Maryland " 82 Van Quickenborne's fears were not realized; the Maryland superior left the slender personnel of the Florissant establishment as he found it. "Rev. father superior speaks of leaving us the day after the feast of St. Ignatius [July 31]," Mr. Van Assche wrote in a letter to the East "We are hoping that he misses his chance of getting away, as in that case he shall have to remain with us a few days longer. We will hold him here by mam force unless he promises to return in two or three years. He has given us every possible satisfaction." Father Dzierozynski left Florissant behind him on August 2, arriving on the 30th of the same month at Georgetown, whence he wrote m December to the Father General
I shall not stop to tell of the chanty and joy with which I was received at Florissant by the brethren, with whom on reaching there I had much talk to the accompaniment of mutual embraces and tears, nor shall I speak of the aid I brought them in the shape of various offerings from Belgium and France forwarded to me for this mission and amounting in all to eighteen hundred dollars I should like, as far as I can do it, to picture this choice little farm to your Paternity's eyes Not in vain is the place called Florissant, though it is still m the wilderness and close to the Indians, for
79 B Fenwick to Du Bourg, September u, 1823 New Orleans Archdiocesan Archives Father Francis Dzierozynski, born at Orza in Russia January 3, 1779, became a Jesuit August 13, 17949 died at Frederick, Maryland, September 22, 1850.
80 Van Quickenborne a Rosati, July 21, 1827 (C)
81 Van Assche a De Nef, January 3, 1828 (A)
82 Van Quickenborne a Rosati, Florissant, July 21, 1827. (C).
136 THE JESUITS OF THE MIDDLE UNITED STATES
it glistens prettily upon a hillock like a flower setting off the fertile fields and far-flung meadows The Missouri and Mississippi Rivers water its environs It is only fifteen miles from St. Louis, the metropolis of Missouri and but two from the famous Spanish village named St Ferdinand Owing to the fertility of the soil and the abundance of live stock the Floris- sant farm, though not more than two hundred and forty acres in extent, is amply sufficient to support Ours, twelve in number, as also the thirteen Indian boys and the few slaves we brought with us from Maryland . . It was a special joy to me to find flourishing there religious discipline among Ours, piety and modesty among the Indian boys, diligence, sober and praiseworthy morals among the negro slaves.83
Immediately after the departure of Father Dzierozynski from Florissant the four scholastics who had not received major orders began to prepare themselves for that important step. The ceremonies of ordi- nation took place towards the end of September in the parish church of St. Ferdinand, the dates having been advanced so as to enable Bishop Rosati, the ordaining prelate, to leave in season for New Orleans, of which see he had been named administrator The Bishop spent three weeks on this occasion as a guest of the Jesuit community In St. Ferdi- nand's Church at Florissant Peter John De Smet, Judocus Francis Van Assche, John Anthony Elet and John Felix Livmus Verreydt received the subdiaconate on the seventeenth, the diaconate on the twenty-second and the priesthood on the twenty-third of September, 1827. The cere- monies over, Rosati departed for New Orleans. As an incident of his voyage to the South, the steamboat on which he had taken passage sank some miles below St. Louis, the Bishop barely escaping with his life.84
During the three months that followed their reception of holy orders, the young priests reviewed their moral theology, an examination m which they underwent at the end of December, i82y.85 This was the last stage in the process of scholastic training, such as it was, to which they had been submitted. After the examination in moral theology came the Christmas holidays and with their passing all the priests at St. Ferdinand's, including Van Quickenborne and De Theux, entered upon what St. Ignatius meant to be the final process in the spiritual formation of the Jesuit, the tertianship or third year of probation or noviceship. "On the 9th of last January," wrote De Theux to his mother, "I began with my six pupils the third year of probation under the direction of Rev. Father Van Quickenborne." 86
83 Van Assche a , Florissant, July 30, 1827. (A). Dzierozynski ad Fortis,
December 15, 1827 (AA)
84 Van Assche a De Nef, Florissant, January 3, 1828 (A)
85 Van Assche a De Nef, Florissant, January 3, 1828 (A). 88 De Theux a sa mere, Florissant, May 29, 1828 (A).
FIRST YEARS AT FLORISSANT 137
From a scholasticate or house of studies the establishment at St. Ferdinand's now became what is known in Jesuit parlance as a "house of third probation " At its head still remained the indefatigable Van Quickenborne, now bearing on his shoulders the additional duties of master of tertians. He not only guided the priests under his charge through the last year of their spiritual training, but, as the unusual circumstances permitted of no other arrangement, he simultaneously discharged his own as yet unfulfilled obligation of "making the tertian- ship." He directed the "long retreat" of thirty days, at the same time going through the exercises himself as an essential feature of the spirit- ual probation through which he was passing in company with his subordinates. The retreat began on January 9 and closed February 7, 1828. A few days after its termination the tertians were assigned for a period to various missionary and ministerial duties Elet was dis- patched on a missionary trip to the Salt River district in northeastern Missouri. De Smet gave the Spiritual Exercises to the Religious of the Sacred Heart in Florissant, while Van Assche gave them to the coad- jutor-brothers at the Seminary. Verhaegen and Smedts were sent, the one to St. Charles and the other to Portage des Sioux, to prepare the children of these parishes for first communion. De Theux was assigned to parochial duties at Florissant, while Van Quickenborne himself, tak- ing advantage of the momentary dispersal of his community, undertook a second missionary journey to the Osage Indians.87
With the reassembling of the young priests some time in March, the round of duties and exercises customary in the Jesuit tertianship was begun. There were instructions from Father Van Quickenborne a half-hour in length three times a week on the virtues necessary to a Jesuit, material for the instructions being drawn from the Constitu- tions, the decrees of general congregations and the letters of the Gen- erals There were, besides, half-hour lectures four times a week on the approved method of conducting the Spiritual Exercises of St. Ignatius. Two hours a day went to manual labor, an experience which the masters of ascetical training are generally at pains to enter on their programs Readings in Thomas a Kempis and Rodriguez had their appointed times and every day at half-past five P. M. there was a review, lasting half an hour, of the morning meditation.88
Numerous difficulties presented themselves to Father Van Quicken- borne as he thus discharged the important duties of master of tertians. But he was not above seeking counsel, and to the patient Dzierozynski
87 Van Quickenborne ad Dzierozynski, Florissant, February 12, 1828. (B).
88 Van Quickenborne ad Dzierozynski, Florissant, March 4, 1828 (B). The Practice of Christian Perfection by Alphonsus Rodriguez, S J., is tlie traditional text for spiritual reading in Jesuit novitiates.
138 THE JESUITS OF THE MIDDLE UNITED STATES
he proposed his difficulties with simple candor. He asks for certain instructions of Father Plowden, they would be of great assistance to him He asks, too, for more copies of the Constitutions, he and his pupils have been worrying along with a single copy He asks whether in place of a certain test or trial prescribed in the Institute, he could appoint one of the priests to take charge of the refectory and another to sweep the house for an entire month He would learn, too, whether the bulls of Julius III, Gregory XIII, Gregory XIV, and Pius V con- firmatory of the Society of Jesus have the same authority now that they had before the Suppression. He sees clearly that the bull of Julius III should be read, but he is not so sure of the others. He has no copy of the brief of Pius VII and would be pleased to receive one from Father Dzierozynski.89
In compliance with an order of the Maryland superior, the tertian- ship at St Ferdinand's, with three months of its normal course yet to run, came to an abrupt end on St Ignatius day, July 31, 1828.°° Van Quickenborne interpreted the order as signifying his superior's approval of the plans he had been maturing for some time for a college in St Louis, since, with the tertianship closed he was now in a position to make the necessary arrangements for that important undertaking 01
§ 6. THE CONCORDAT
The Concordat entered into between Bishop Du Bourg and Father Charles Neale played or was meant to play a highly important part in the affairs of the Missouri Mission The temporal status of the new establishment, the missionary activities of its members, the extent of spiritual jurisdiction to be conceded to them, and in general the scope, purpose and methods of the Jesuit enterprise centered at St. Ferdinand's were defined with more or less of precision in that remarkable docu- ment But the contract was to become operative and its provisions bind- ing on both parties only on condition of its formal approbation and acceptance by the Holy See and the Jesuit General.92 The approval of Father Fortis, the General, was promptly given, but that of the Holy See for some reason or other was never obtained. Yet the parties to the Concordat seem to have entertained from the first no doubt of its eventual ratification by the Roman authorities, since without waiting for notice of such ratification, they at once inaugurated the Missouri Mission, the Mission of Maryland, by sending out twelve of its mem-
89 Van Quickenborne to Dzierozynski, Florissant, March 4, 1828 (B) 9(>Same to same, September, 1828. (B) 91 Infra, Chap IX, § 3 " Supra, Chap II, § 4
92
FIRST YEARS AT FLORISSANT 139
bers, and Bishop Du Bourg by giving the twelve possession of the promised farm. And yet, even after the expedition had started for the West, Van Quickenborne expressed himself as though the enterprise he headed was merely provisional and tentative in character. From Frederick in Maryland on his way out, he reminds Father Dziero- zynski that, "if the general accepts the Mission," it must be given an efficient superior and a professor of theology.93
Father Fortis lost no time in signifying to Bishop Du Bourg his approval of the Concordat and of the negotiations which had been carried on under its provisions. In a letter written from Rome July 25, 1823, he acknowledges the receipt of the prelate's communication, which he transmitted at once to Cardinal Gonsalvi, Prefect ad vnt&nm of the Propaganda He is confident that the approbation of the Sacred Congre- gation will be given m due time He approves of all the articles of the Concordat, but on one point wishes a more explicit statement, which no doubt the Bishop really intended "It is stipulated," says Father Fortis, "that when the Bishop shall demand the withdrawal of an indi- vidual from the mission, the religious Superior must recall him immedi- ately, without the Bishop being required to give his reasons for recalling one of his missionaries. This is only just, but there ought to be a reciprocal right. That is to say, if the religious superior has reasons for recalling one of his missionaries, he ought to be able to do it with- out hindrance. He shall have to advise the Bishop of such step, but he ought not be obliged to disclose his reasons, of which he remains the sole judge. This reciprocity is evidently founded on justice and on reason." Father Fortis then goes on to observe that Benedict XIV formulated the same principles in his bull relative to the English mis- sions. He concludes by promising to send Father Barat to America, as the Bishop had requested, and by thanking the latter warmly for opening up to the Society the Indian missions of western America.94
Bishop Du Bourg was gratified with this communication from Father Fortis and at once acquainted Francis Neale, the Maryland superior, with its contents. He was ready to meet the General's wishes by making more explicit the point relative to the removal of subjects from the mission. "The difficulty arising, I suppose, from the extent of jurisdiction I was willing to abandon to the Society will be adjusted between your superiors in Rome and the holy Congregation of Propa- ganda. The moment we receive conclusive information from that quar- ter, I will execute the deed for the farm of Florissant in conformity to our agreement." 95 But the Bishop did not wait for the ratification of
93 Van Quickenborne ad Dzierozynski, April 22, 1823 (B).
94 Hughes, of cttt> Doc., 2 1025.
95 Idem, Doc, 2 1026.
140 THE JESUITS OF THE MIDDLE UNITED STATES
the Concordat before sending Van Quickenborne the title-deed of the Florissant farm. The property had been burdened with a mortgage of two thousand dollars held by John Mullanphy, whose insistence on its payment at the stipulated time caused Father Van Quickenborne no little anxiety.96 Fortunately a timely contribution from the Association of the Propagation of the Faith enabled Bishop Du Bourg to pay off the mortgage before the end of 1824 We find him in January of the following year promising to send Van Quickenborne the deed of the farm without delay.
At last, 1117 dear Father, I have just received a letter from you after having had to wait so long. This protracted silence has been a source of pain to me, as I wished to know whether you had secured the cancellation of the mortgage on the residence, as also to know what became of the two little negr esses whom I asked you to claim from Madame Haeffner Happily I learned that Msgr Rosati had taken them though he did not say a woid to me about it. You would have received the title to the property much sooner, had you only advised me that the property was disencumbered. I shall forward you the title by the first steamboat, together with the deed for the Dardenne lands and an interest-bearing mortgage on 800 arpents situated on the Salt River, which I fully make over to you.97 The Rev Father Dzierozynski in a letter recently come to hand appears to be under the impression that your General's delay in executing his promise is due to the circumstance that I have not delivered to you the deed for the propeity I declare to you, my dear Father, that this insinuation gives me some offense, as though there were reasons to fear that I am not ready to stand by my engagements If I have not done so sooner, your own delay in the matter or that of Mr. Mullanphy is alone to blame But even if I were the most knavish of men or were to die before the execution of the title, have you not a complete guarantee in the bond of conveyance which I drew up at George- town in March, 1822 [1823] and which I transmitted to your Father
96 Van Quickenborne to Du Bourg, Florissant, September 4, 1825 (B). Du Bourg had written the year before to Dzierozynski "I begin to grow rather impa- tient to see the accomplishment of yr Father General's promise to send us a Superior for the organization of our Missounan Mission Until then things will never take any consistency Perhaps indeed his Rev[eren]ce is detained by the delay of Propaganda m approving our Concordat I wish at least you would urge with him the necessity of pressing an explanation, the terms of which now entirely depend on the Court of Rome and Head of yr Society — You know that the title of the Florissant property is yet in me. I long to make it over, but I know not to whom and on what conditions Matters ought not to be suffered to remain thus m suspense, even m the interest of yr Brethren " Du Bourg to Dzierozynski, Septem- ber 15, 1824 (B).
97 Van Quickenborne later (Sept. 4, 1825), informed Bishop Du Bourg that the eight hundred acres were of little value "Could the eight hundred acres be found they are not worth 40 dollars to me. Mr Mullanphy bought last week 1500 acres of unconfirmed land, situated 6 miles from St Louis for 85 dollars." (B).
FIRST YEARS AT FLORISSANT 141
Procurator? 98 For my own part, I cannot believe that it is this circumstance which prevents your father-general from acting I believe it is rather the delay of the Propaganda in sanctioning the Concordat which I have made with the late Father Charles Neale and which has been submitted to the approbation of the Pope and the Father General According to stipulation, I was to await this double approbation before delivering the tide, but not doubting the approbation of the Pope, except perhaps on some incidental points, and having already secured that of your General, I do not hesitate to gratify your wish, relying implicitly on the good faith of the Society [to see to it] that if ever it finds itself reduced to the necessity of abandoning Missouri, it will leave the lands or the value thereof at the disposition of the Bishop."
In accordance with his engagement Bishop Du Bourg signed at New Orleans on May 25, 1825, and transmitted to Father Van Quicken- borne an indenture forever alienating and transferring "unto Charles Felix Van Quickenborne, his heirs and assigns forever, for the sum of five thousand dollars, the payment of which in full is hereby acknowl- edged, all that parcel situated in the St. Ferdinand's Common Fields, County of St Louis, State of Missouri, it being four arpen[t]s wide and about sixty in length, containing two hundred and fifty [sic] arpen[t]s or thereabouts."100 The Bishop, in thus transferring the Florissant property to the Society of Jesus, had fulfilled an important stipulation of the Concordat. But the financial aid, which according to article 3 of the same compact he had pledged himself to extend to the new venture, he could not render because of his own pecuniary em- barrassments. The Rev. Mr. Inglesi, whom the Bishop had taken into his confidence and raised to the priesthood, and from whose financial enterprise he expected, so the report was current, fifty thousand dollars
98 Hughes, of at, Doc, 2 1024 In Du Bourg's letter 1822 is obviously a mistake for 1823 The consideration of four thousand dollars specified in Du Bourg's bond of conveyance of March 25, 1825, is declared by him m a supple- mentary document of the same date, (Hughes, of ctt , Doc, 2 1024, C) to be merely nominal, "the true consideration being the articles of the aforesaid Con- cordat, which, if executed here by Neale and approved by Rome, must be consid- ered full equivalent for the farm "
99 Du Bourg a Van Quickenborne, New Orleans, January 1 8, 1825 (A).
100 (D) The size of the farm was overstated m Du Bourg's original convey- ance ("three hundred and fifty acres, more or less") It actually measured about 2126 acres Subsequent additions to the farm as originally conveyed by Du Bourg were chiefly as follows (i) May 26, 1827, Lachasse tract of about 25 acres, ad- joining the Du Bourg farm on the S W , (2) May 29, 1854, Creely tract of 144 J4 acres adjoining the Lachasse tract on the S W , (3) August 20, 1868, "St Joseph's Woods", 231 acres, running from near the west limits of the Du Bourg farm to the Missouri River, (4) October 4, 1871, Marechal tract of about 46 acres, adjoining Du Bourg farm on N,E.
142 THE JESUITS OF THE MIDDLE UNITED STATES
for the needs of his diocese, finally showed himself in his true colors as an adventurer and impostor. The Bishop's connection with Inglesi, to whom, curiously enough, is due some of the credit for setting on foot the Association of the Propagation of the Faith, left him in serious financial straits "The Bishop," Van Quickenborne remarks in a letter of December, 1823, to the superior in Maryland, "writes to Mr. Neil, who is constantly after him for money, that he is without a cent." 101 In St. Louis the Bishop's college and house and some nearby lots were sold in the autumn of 1823 by the trustees to pay the debts of the cathedral. There was a debt of four thousand, five hundred dollars on the brick cathedral which Bishop Du Bourg had built on Second Street. This money had been advanced by the trustees, Bernard Pratte and the two Chouteaus, Auguste and Pierre, who now demanded their money back, going so far as to secure from the state legislature a permit to sell as much of the cathedral block as would enable them to recoup their losses. Four lots of the block, all fronting on Walnut Street, were accordingly sold by the trustees, but brought only $1204. The pur- chaser was the pastor of the cathedral, Father Niel, who now deeded the lots back to Pratte and the Chouteaus. But the cathedral debt was not yet extinguished and Du Bourg, unable to secure financial aid from the Catholics of St. Louis, dispatched Niel to France in 1825 to collect the needed funds Niel was enabled to forward considerable sums of money to relieve the Bishop's embarrassment, but never afterwards returned to America. In view of these circumstances, it is not surprising that Bishop Du Bourg was unable to lend to the struggling community at St. Ferdinand the pecuniary assistance stipulated for in the Concordat.102
The failure of the Jesuits, on the other hand, to send out mission- aries to the remote Indian tribes gave rise to protest on the part of Bishop Du Bourg. According to article 5 of the Concordat, Father Charles Neale, "Superior of the Society of Jesus in North America," had "engaged that at the expiration of two years counting from the time of their arrival, four or five at least, missionaries duly qualified shall proceed to the remote missions, (i.e.) to the Indian settlements in the vicinity of Council Bluffs, and shall there labor towards the attain- ment of the great object specified above for the greater glory of God." In the summer of 1825 Bishop Du Bourg wrote to Father Van Quicken- borne urging upon him the fulfillment of this obligation, now that the two years of grace had expired. To the Jesuit superior, it seemed unfair, under existing conditions, that he be held to this onerous obligation
101 Van Quickenborne to Francis Neale, Florissant, December 12, 1823. (B). 102Holweck, "Vater Saulnier und Seme Zeit", m Pastoral Btatt (St. Louis), April, 1918.
FIRST YEARS AT FLORISSANT 143
and he wrote in this sense to the Bishop. It was only by the strictest economy and at the price of numerous privations that means of support could be found for the community at Florissant. How, then, would it be possible to pay the expenses of missionaries among the Indians? "Can it then be expected that with these means the Society shall have ordained four scholastics, have them sent on the mission or rather have them thrown out of the house without resource or means of subsistence ? When the Superior agreed to send three or four missionaries to the Indians, two years after our arrival at this place, it was on condition that the Government should pay the two hundred dollars yearly to each as promised and granted at first by the President." 103
The Concordat, therefore, by sheer force of circumstances remained inoperative m many of its provisions. With regard to its subsequent status Van Quickenborne observed in 1830 to the General, Father Roothaan, that he never heard whether it had been approved or not by the Sovereign Pontiff
A Concordat was made by Bishop Du Bourg with the Superior of the American Mission, Rev Father Charles Neale of happy memory, I doubt not that your Very Rev Paternity has a copy of this document The Con- cordat was accepted by the General, I have never heard that it was accepted by the Sovereign Pontiff Bishop Du Bourg, when he was here, told me he thought the Propaganda stood in the way. The present Bishop, Msgr Rosati, a man eminent for learning, prudence and virtue and highly thought of at Rome, as is evident from the issue of his affairs, adheres to the Con- cordat and would like religious communities to have their own districts where they can labor according to their own Institute in the vineyard of the Lord. He offered to obtain for me from the Sovereign Pontiff a confirmation of the Concordat. (Be pleased therefore, Very Reverend Father, to intimate what you wish me to do m this matter). Bishop Du Bourg observed the conditions well enough, the present Bishop observes them perfectly, not so ourselves although with the approval of Bishops Du Bourg and Rosati I say Bishop Du Bourg observed them well enough He failed in one point, but he made amends as quickly as he could. The matter was this. By the terms of the Concordat he should have given us at once the title to the farm where we are now living, but he had given a mortgage on the farm, and this [mortgage], since he had been imposed upon by the pseudo-priest Anglesi [Inglesi], he could not redeem until two years later, dunng which interval we were m continual danger of being evicted The money which he received from the Association of the Faith in France and with which he was under obligation to assist us m virtue of the Concordat, he used for redeeming the
108 Van Quickenborne to Du Bourg, September 4, 1825 Copy (B) The annual subsidy of two hundred dollars granted by the government to each of four or five missionaries was subsequently applied by it to the support of the Indian school a,t Florissant Cf . mjray Chap V.
144 THE JESUITS OF THE MIDDLE UNITED STATES
mortgage Meantime, as a matter of sheer necessity, we had to till the ground several hours almost every day for a whole year But he made abundant compensation for all this by giving us whatever he possessed, so that on leaving for France he spent his last 300 dollars for us in making perfectly secure the property which he gave us at that time in St Louis and on which the college has been built. . . .
We have not [as Bishop Du Bourg] lived up to [the Concordat] since the four missionaries who were to have gone out to the Indians to live among them two years after our arrival in Florissant did not go I am hoping that your Very Reveiend Paternity will so assist us that we shall find it in our power to supply one or other missionary and so do what we have been unable to do so far The Bishop was very anxious that some one of Ours should go to the Indians But our men were not yet priests at the time, besides, they were very young and not used to that exceedingly sharp manner of warfare, in fine, we were destitute of almost all necessaries and, in the last place, had never received from Superiors any order or encouragement to take up this work Your Very Reverend Paternity knows of course that Bishop Du Bourg when he was in France and Italy before his consecration and afterwards in Belgium made [ms ? ] begging for aid which he received and in ample enough measure As a consequence he was extremely anxious for us to be in a position to go, but we could not The above mentioned reasons (for not going) when they weie set before him, he approved, all except the last Whether we fulfill that condition at all depends on Father General, for without help from him m personnel, two men at least, we shall be able to accomplish only very little 104:
Nine years after the signing of the Concordat Father Peter Kenney, Visitor for the second time of the Jesuit missions in North America, was in St. Louis, where the important document was at once placed m his hands. From a study of its contents and from inquiries made as to its practical working out he was led to conclude that Bishop Du Bourg had carried out everything that he promised even at serious inconven- ience to himself. This judgment he reported to the Father General, at the same time sending him a Latin translation of the Concordat. Father Kenney was apparently of the opinion that the covenant was to be adhered to even pending its formal approval by the Holy See, which was understood by both the contracting parties to be an essential requisite for its validity. He noted, not with approval, it would seem, that the Jesuits had opened a college in St. Louis, "which is not in the district assigned [to them] since it is on the banks of the Mississippi", and for the same reason, namely, that it lay outside the territory assigned to the Society, which was the Missouri Valley, he ordered the little mission temporarily opened on Salt Creek m northeastern Missouri to be de-
104 Van Quickenborne ad Roothaan, September 9, 1830 (AA). Hughes, of cit , Doc., 2* 1028.
FIRST YEARS AT FLORISSANT 145
livered up to the Bishop of St Louis 105 While the Visitor was thus demonstrating his faith in the working character of the Concordat, at least in certain of its provisions, Father Roothaan, the General, was expressing his fears that the Society in Missouri, m not taking up resi- dent missionary work among the Indians, was falling short of the seri- ous obligation assumed by it in the Concordat. "The matter causes me no little anxiety," he informed Father Kenney, "since the Society seems to be bound in justice to lend its services to the Indians in that quarter." 106 In the event this consideration, as urged by the Father General, was to have its influence on the actual beginning a few years later of resident missionary work among the Indians.
As to the ultimate fate of the Concordat, it does not appear that the question of its approbation was ever again submitted to the Propa- ganda after the Congregation had examined it in the time of Father Fortis The last we hear of it is m connection with an inquiry made by Archbishop Kennck of St. Louis m May, 1 848, as to whether the com- pact had at any time received the approbation of the Holy See. The prelate was led to make this inquiry by the circumstance that the Jesuits, so it was alleged, were leaving the Missouri River stations, or most of them, unsupplied with missionaries The answer returned on this occa- sion by Cardinal Fransom, Prefect of the Propaganda, was that no certain evidence of any past ratification of the Concordat by the Con- gregation could be brought to light, but that, should circumstances seem to require it, some new adjustment of the situation that had given rise to the complaint might be attempted. There the matter rested nor did Archbishop Kennck concern himself further with the Concordat, which thereupon lapsed into final obscurity, no subsequent attempt, as far as known, being made by either of the interested parties to bring it forward as a practical issue.107
That the grandiose pact, conceived as it was, should have proved abortive as regarded certain of its provisions was inevitable. An arrange- ment that guaranteed to a single religious order at once the privilege and the burden of the exclusive spiritual care of the entire Missouri Valley necessarily fell to pieces with the rapid and unexpected growth of Catholicism in that vast inland empire, nor could any sanction, how-
105 Kenney ad Roothaan, February 22, 1832 (AA)
106Roothaan ad Kenney, October 23, 1832 (AA)
107 «Mons Kennck de St. Louis a ete formalise parceque nos missions tout le long du Missouri a 1'exception de quelques unes restaient sans missionaires II parait qu'il est resolu de ne plus respecter le contrat fait par le Pere Ch Neale avec Msgr. Du Bourg Que faire?" Elet a Roothaan, St Louis, October 24, 1848 (AA). Fransom ad Kennck, July 27, 1848 "Certainly the practice of both parties for the last twenty-five years, affords a solid basis for prescription, even though no appro- bation were given " Dzierozynski ad Brocard (? ), October 18, 1848 (A).
146 THE JESUITS OF THE MIDDLE UNITED STATES
ever solemn, extended to it by the Holy See, have made the arrange- ment a permanent one No amount of good will on the part either of the Society of Jesus or the prelates of the St Louis diocese could have made the result other than it was Both sides lent themselves with earnestness as also with naive miscalculation of the future to a program which no hostile influence or unkindly fate but the very development itself of western Catholicism promptly rendered impracticable. And yet, when all is said, the Concordat of 1823, initiating as it did the work of the restored Society of Jesus m mid-America, was an instrument of far-reaching results and may be counted among the historic factors which have shaped in a significant way the course of the Catholic Church m the United States.
CHAPTER V ST. REGIS SEMINARY
§ I. AN EDUCATIONAL VENTURE
The establishment of an Indian school at Florissant was to be the first step in the scheme of missionary enterprise which Bishop Du Bourg devised for his Jesuit recruits. "Pending the ordination of our Jesuit novices and their going forth as apostles," he wrote from Georgetown to his brother Louis, March 17, 1823, two days before the signing of the Concordat, "I propose to receive into the Seminary a half dozen Indian children from different tribes, so as to begin to familiarize my young missionaries with their manners and languages and in turn to prepare the children to become guides, interpreters and helpers to the missionaries when the time comes to send the latter forth to the scattered tribes." 1 "The Father of our Indian Seminary" is the title which Van Quickenborne bestows on the energetic prelate, who after apparently conceiving the idea of the institution had also secured for it a measure of government support.2 The school that was thus to owe its origin to the eager zeal of the Bishop of Louisiana appears to have been the second of its kind conducted under Catholic auspices in the United States.3
Various attempts to open Catholic Indian schools m the Mississippi country in the early decades of the nineteenth century are on record. Father Urban Guillet, superior of the Trappist community settled at Florissant in 1809-1810, moved his establishment thence to the neigh- borhood of Cahokia m Illinois, where he hoped to find the boys he needed for a projected Indian school. Father Donatien Olivier, active for more than half a century in the mission stations along the Missis- sippi, obtained from the chief of the Kaskaskia, at that time still inhabit- ing their old lands m southwestern Illinois, a promise of some Indian youths for the Trappist school, but m the event that institution was
1 Ann Prop (Louvam ed , 1825), 1.465. This chapter appeared originally in CHR, 4 452 et seq.
2 Ann Prof , 4 583.
8 The earliest known Indian school under Catholic auspices in the United States seems to have been the one opened by Father Richard in 1 808 on a site within the present city limits of Detroit Cf Sister Mary Rosalita, "The Spring Hill Indian School Correspondence," Michigan History Magazine, 14. 94 et sty.
147
H8 THE JESUITS OF THE MIDDLE UNITED STATES
conducted as a school for white boys with only a few Indian pupils in attendance 4 Some years later the Lazansts planned an Indian school in connection with their seminary at the Barrens in Perry County, Missouri. "The Jesuits have or will soon have a number of Indian children in their house," Father Odin wrote from the Barrens in August, 1823, "and in a few days our superior is going to meet the Indian agent to obtain some from him for our Seminary. We shall begin to study their language and instruct them so as to make catechists out of them or even priests." 5 It does not appear that the Lazanst plan for the education of 'Indian youths was ever realized, at least in the way of a regularly organized school. In the summer of 1824, a year later than the date of Odin's letter, Father Charles Nermckx, the pioneer missionary of Kentucky, died at Ste. Genevieve on his way from St Louis to the Loretto convent of Bethlehem situated at the Barrens He had just arranged with General Clark in St Louis for the reception at the convent of a number of Indian girls, for whose education the government had engaged to pay.6 The unexpected death of the mis- sionary frustrated the plan and the Indian girls were not sent A com- bination of circumstances made it possible for Father Van Quickenborne, carrying out Bishop Du Bourg's plan, to take up with more promise of success the experiment of Catholic Indian education in the United States.
Next to the problem of providing for the material wants of his community, the problem of setting on foot the Indian school was the one that most engaged Van Quickenborne's attention during his first years at St. Ferdinand's. Within ten days of his arrival in the West he had submitted a scheme of Indian education to General William Clark, associate of Menwether Lewis in their memorable journey to the mouth of the Columbia and now superintendent of Indian affairs at St. Louis. "I went to visit Governor Clark in St. Louis He gave me very special encouragement He approves the plan cordially and will write to Gov- ernment to have it on <a larger scale.7 He gave me directions that will prove very useful and thinks that m fall we shall have six Indian children. Apparently he is pleased to help us along and is interested m the success of our enterprise." 7
Some two months later Van Quickenborne wrote to Father John McElroy of Frederick, Maryland "We have not as yet any Indian
4 Ann Prop , 1 390,392 American State Papers, Public Lanlsy 2' 106.
5 Ann Prop, I (no 5) 70
6 Maes, The Life of Rev. Charles Nermckvy p 528 "Mr Nermckx wished to settle down near us and start an Indian college " Van Assche a De Nef , Florissant, September i, 1825 (A).
7 Van Quickenborne a Du Bourg, Jour de la fete du Sacre Coeur [1823], Archives of tlie Archdiocese of New Orleans.
ST. REGIS SEMINARY 149
children. I have seen several Indian chiefs. They have all promised to give their children, but it is an object with which they hardly ever part " In the summer of 1823 a deputation of Indians passed through St. Louis on their way to Washington where they were to negotiate for the formation of a confederacy, under government auspices, of six Indian tribes who had planned to exchange their lands east of the Mississippi for reservations in the Indian Territory At the head of the deputation was Colonel Lewis, a Shawnee chief and leading promoter of the pro- posed confederacy. On advice from Clark, Van Quickenborne visited Colonel Lewis in St. Louis and laid before him his plans for an Indian school. The chief expressed approval of them and promised to send three of his grandchildren to Florissant m the following spring Clark urged upon Van Quickenborne the opening of the school at as early a date as possible. The latter reported all these circumstances to Father Charles Neale, requesting him as also Father Benedict Fenwick to call upon Lewis when the latter should have arrived in Washington.8
A letter from Benedict Fenwick to the Florissant superior, written in September, 1823, m the name of the newly appointed superior of the Maryland Mission, Francis Neale, deals among other matters with the question of the Indian school*
On the subject of the education of the young Indians of whom you speak, the Superior requires that you act with the utmost prudence and circum- spection m that affair and that you keep yourself altogether within the Concordat. He wishes you to undertake no more than what is specified therein and what the Society has engaged itself to perform He has no wish to enlarge the sphere of your operations until adequate means be procured either from Government favoring such a design or from the quarters of which he will give you due notice. . . .
The Superior would have you cultivate in a particular manner the good esteem of the Governor and United States Agents as well civil as military, and whenever they speak to you of the education of the Indian youth to assure them of your willingness to undertake the same, but at the same time to let them know that such a thing will be quite impracticable without the aid of Government If it should, however, regularly pay you the stipend agreed upon and moreover hold out greater prospects provided you will undertake the education of a larger number of young Indians, it rests with you to weigh the matter and immediately communicate with the Superior and expect his advice on the same. In the meantime let the engagement as far as it goes which the Society has entered into be fully and completely executed. No one can blame you for not doing what the Society has never
8 Van Quickenborne to McElroy, Florissant, September 21, 1823 (B). Van Quickenborne to Charles Neale, Florissant, September 23, 1823. (B).
150 THE JESUITS OF THE MIDDLE UNITED STATES
engaged to do You have, I presume, a copy of that contract. Let that be }our Pole-star 9
In accordance with a federal regulation the subsidy which the gov- ernment had promised to the Indian school at Florissant was not to be paid until the school should have been in actual operation Van Quickenborne wrote on the subject to Father Francis Neale m Decem- ber, 1823
Regarding the education of the Indians, the Bishop has stirred a great sensation in St Louis about this affair and said everywhere that Government had allowed $800 as soon as we should have six of them General Clark told me that the Bishop had assured him Government had made such allow- ance but that, although he was the one who paid out such pensions, he was not authorized to pay anything to us. Before I received your Reverence's letter I expressed to Gen 01 Gov Clark (he is ordinarily called Gen ) my great desire to have Indian youths, made known to him our circumstances and offered to take some (under these circumstances) if he thought proper to do so and he were sure the Government would pay for them. He gave me to understand that it was absolutely necessary that we should begin with some before he could recommend our establishment, and that government would help us, if they thought proper, only after we had begun. This was a condition sine qua non He (has) the week before last encouraged me to take next Spring two Indian boys of about nine years, which he had offered me five or six weeks ago. To take any without being paid for it is a thing which forbids itself and except we have a number of Fatheis that are pre- pared to go out with them after having given them their education the care of such boys would not be productive of much, perhaps of any good This is the opinion of General Clark Before I can do more I must hear what has been done at Washington by Col. Lewis 10
Nothing having come of Colonel Lewis's projected Indian confed- eracy. Van Quickenborne petitioned his supenor in a letter dated New Year's day, 1824, for authority to open the Indian school m the follow- ing spring, adding that Clark was urging that a start be made n At length, in May, 1824, the father was summoned to St. Louis by the
9 Benedict Fen wick to Van Quickenborne, September 10, 1823 (A). The Con- cordat makes no mention of an Indian school
10 Van Quickenborne to Francis Neale, Florissant, December 12, 1823. (B). Bishop Du Bourg appears to have stipulated with the government for the education of only six boys He wrote July 2, 1824, to Van Quickenborne "You do not tell me whether General Clark has paid the $800 at last. I entered into contract for only six Indian boys I am going to write to the Secretary of War to have you paid as soon as you shall have the six " No reference to such contract has been met with in the correspondence between the Bishop and Secretary Calhoun
11 Van Quickenborne to Dzierozynski, Florissant, January I, 1824. (B). Father Francis Dzierozynski was at this period supenor of the Jesuit Mission of Maryland
ST. REGIS SEMINARY 151
General, who informed him that some Iowa Indians had just made an offer of boys and that he might have them if he wished Van Quicken- borne agreed to take them and word to this effect being sent at once to the Iowa chiefs, who were then visiting the city, they agreed to send four or six boys of their tribe to Florissant Meanwhile two Sauk lads, one eight and the other six years of age, had been received by the superior and with these as the first students the Indian Seminary was formally opened on May u, 1824, the feast day of the Jesuit saint, Francis de Hieronymo.
The next pupils to be entered at the Seminary were the Iowa youths who had been promised to Van Quickenborne at St. Louis Under the protection of a party of chiefs they started, five in number, from their homes on the left bank of the Missouri River in what is now the northwest extremity of Missouri The Sauk for some unknown reason dispatched a deputation from their tribe to dissuade the Iowa chiefs from sending their sons to the new institution. But the Iowa chiefs were not to be turned from their purpose. After some seventy miles of travel, two of the boys became ill and had to return to the Iowa camp while the three others with their parents continued on the way. On June n, 1824, the candidates, in company with their parents, an interpreter, and Gabriel Vasquez, United States agent for the Iowa, appeared at the Seminary The Indian youths did not submit without a protest to what must have seemed to them, accustomed as they were to the freedom of the forest, as nothing short of imprisonment. As their parents prepared to depart, they began to wail in true Indian fashion, whereupon one of the scholastics took up a flute and started to play. The music had the effect of quieting the lads and making them resigned, as far as outward indications went, to their new environment. But Vasquez, the agent, warned Van Quickenborne that a sharp eye would have to be kept on the boys, as flight was an easy trick for them Accordingly, Mr. Smedts, the prefect, rose at intervals during the first night of the Iowa's stay at the Seminary to see that his young charges were all within bounds, while another scholastic was also assigned to sentry duty But somehow or other the watchers were out- witted. About one o'clock in the morning the Iowa made a clever escape. Their flight was soon detected and immediately a party of two were on the track of the fugitives These were nimble runners, for they were five miles from the Seminary when their pursuers came up to them. They made no resistance to capture and returned, apparently quite content, though determined no doubt to repeat the adventure when opportunity offered, as Van Quickenborne intimates in his account
152 THE JESUITS OF THE MIDDLE UNITED STATES
of the incident, which he concludes with the comment, "et ent saef)e talis repetttio" ("this thing will happen many a time again") 12
Bishop Rosati, the newly consecrated Coadjutor of New Orleans, took a keen interest m the plans and prospects of the Jesuit group settled at Florissant. Only a few weeks after the opening of the Indian school he appealed to the Jesuit General to send help from abroad and so enable Father Van Quickenborne to carry on the institution success- fully and even open a college in St. Louis Touching the Indian school he wrote
Providence wishes no doubt to make use of the Society of Jesus to revive the well-nigh vanished work of the Indian Missions m those very parts of North Amenca where the sons of St Ignatius began them with the zeal which has always been the characteristic of his worthy sons and with results corresponding to their apostolic labors Their memory is still m benediction m various places of this very extensive diocese not only among civilized folk who profess the Catholic religion, but also among the natives who lead a wandering life m the woods A land already bedewed with the sweat of the evangelical laborers of the Society, over which your Very Reverend Paternity presides, might well appear to have some manner of right to call for a fresh supply of laborers By a truly admirable disposition of Providence, which seems to look upon this land with eyes of mercy, we find a little colony of Jesuits established for the past year here in this diocese m the parish of St Ferdinand I have had the pleasure of coming to know them while making the rounds of that locality after my conseciation Despite the small number of subjects, the two priests who a're there work with admirable ardor and the Lord pours out upon them his heavenly benedictions. The principal object of this establishment would be the conversion of the Induns The Govern- ment of the United States offeis us its protection and even pecuniary assist- ance General Clark, with whom I have spoken a good deal on this subject, has promised to cooperate m the designs of Government to the full extent of his power, a thing which will help us consideiably, since he is the General Agent of the United States m anything which concerns the Indians and exercises a great influence over them He would like to establish a house of education at St Ferdinand so as to enter therein six youths from each of the very numerous tnbes who inhabit these parts The missionanes at the same time that they teach the Indians to read and write would have the advantage of learning their language and would subsequently go out with them to evangelize the region to which they belong Father Van Q[uickenboine] has already begun to receive a few pupils and expects more; but what paralyzes in some way this very important work is the scarcity of subjects [i e. Jesuits] 13
• 12 Van Quickenborne ad Dzierozynski, June 12, 1824. (B).
13Rosati a Portia, June 24, 1824 (AA) In Italian Cf also Rosati's Diary, May 21, 1824 "Celebrated Mass in St Ferdinand's Church After taking break- fast with Mr Mullanphy we returned to St Louis before noon Then I visited
ST. REGIS SEMINARY 153
§ 2. CORRESPONDENCE WITH GOVERNMENT
The Indian school, which Father Van Quickenborne was to desig- nate in his reports to Washington as St. Regis Seminary, was now a reality, so that he felt justified m applying to the Indian Office for the financial aid it had pledged through Bishop Du Bourg. On November 21, 1824, he forwarded two reports on the condition of the school, one addressed to General Clark and the other to Secretary of War Calhoun. He wrote to Clark.
The Seminary went into actual operation the eleventh of May ultimo with two boys of the Sac [Sauk] nation On the eleventh of June three more were received of the Hyaway [Iowa] nation, thus since that time I have had five boys. The buildings are commodious and can contain from forty to sixty students. They are nearly complete and fifty-four ft long by seven- teen wide one way and thirty-four feet by seventeen feet the other way, three stones high, the lowest of stone, the two others of logs, brick chimneys and galleries all around. They have cost $1500, and when completed will cost $2000.
Van Quickenborne's report to Secretary Calhoun said m part
The Seminary is built on a spot of land remarkable for its healthiness and which on account of its being somewhat distant from the Indian tribes and its being sufficiently removed from town is possessed of many advan- tages . . I have pei sons belonging to the Seminary well calculated to teach the boys the mechanical arts such as are suitable for their condition, as a carpentei, a blacksmith, etc., whose names I do not place on the report, because the boys are not thought fit as yet to begin to learn a trade I have the comfort to be able to give my entire approbation to their correct com- portment and from the sentiments they utter I have strong hopes that they will become virtuous and industrious citizens warmly attached to the Gov- ernment that has over them such beneficent designs, I have been prepared these six months past to receive a considerable number more than what I have at present. The number of boys would have amounted to a few more had not some on account of sickness returned to their village, after having done a part of the way.
The report concludes by asking for the payment of the eight hun- dred dollars promised to Bishop Du Bourg "in your letter of March 21, 1822 [1823]." 14
General Clark, gave him the letters I had received from Bishop Du Bourg and talked over many things with him regarding the mission among the natives Having been received by him with the utmost courtesy, I am hoping the missionaries will not be without favor and aid from this man, whose influence with the natives is very great " Kenrick Seminary Archives
14 (H). At Van Quickenborne's request, General Clark certified to the accuracy of the superior's report, which according to usage he transmitted to Washington.
154 THE JESUITS OF THE MIDDLE UNITED STATES
Early in January, 1825, Van Quickenborne was still waiting for a response to his petition "It is now two months," he informed Bishop Rosatij "since I wrote to the Secretary of War and since General Clark sent him the certificate asked for I am waiting every day for a favorable answer and I think it better to defer writing to Mr Richard for a few days more. I fear there is something against us in St. Louis." 15
Meanwhile a bureau of Indian Affairs had been established in Washington in 1824 as an appanage of the War Department with Thomas Lorraine McKenney as its first commissioner McKenney's administration of Indian affairs was able and honest. He had long been interested in the native tribes of the country and it was chiefly due to agitation of his, as he declares in his Memoirs, that Congress was led to make an annual appropriation of ten thousand dollars for the civil- ization of the Indians. This was the origin of the so-called Civilization Fund, out of which the appropriation for St. Regis Seminary was to come. McKenney held the post of Indian commissioner until he was removed in 1830 by President Jackson, being the first government official, so it has been said, to fall a victim to the spoils-system inaugu- rated by that strenuous executive 16 It was from McKenney that Father Van Quickenborne received an answer in January, 1825, to the letter he had addressed to Calhoun in November of the preceding year
Your letter to the Secretary of War of the 2ist Nov. last in the form of a report of the condition of the Indian Seminary at Florissant has been received. I am directed by the Secretary to state that the number of children in the Seminary being only five, he cannot advance the sum of $800 as promised in his letter to Bishop Du Bourg of 2ist March, 1822 [1823], that letter having stipulated to pay $800 on the following conditions ist after the establishment should be m operation and 2nd with a suitable number of Indian youths The Secretary however directs that the most that has ever been allowed for the purpose be allowed to you, which is one hundred dollars for each youth, which will be increased at that rate 'till you shall have eight, when the increase of appropriation will have reached its limits, A remittance of five hundred dollars has been made to Genl. Clark to be paid to you m conformity with the above decision, and all future remittances, on account of the allowance made to the school of which you have charge,
"This is to certify that the Catholic Missionary Society at Florissant m the State of Missouri have established a school at that place for the education of Indian chil- dren and deserve the cooperation of the Government The progress of the boys has been very rapid and satisfactory Wm Clark "
16 Van Quickenborne a Rosati, Florissant, January, 1825 (C) The Mr. Rich- ard mentioned m Van Quickenborne's letter was the Rev Gabriel Richard of Detroit, at this period delegate to Congress from the Territory of Michigan. Cf. supra, note 3.
16 McKenney, Memoirs Official and Personal (New York, 1846), p. 35
ST. REGIS SEMINARY 155
will be made through Gen. Clark, unless you should wish them to be made differently.17
The government had thus discharged in all essential respects the obligations it had assumed towards the Indian school in the negotiations between Bishop Du Bourg and Secretary of War Calhoun The fears entertained both by Van Quickenborne and Du Bourg that the govern- ment was not disposed to stand by its engagement were apparently groundless, being due to a misconception of the terms under which the federal authorities were then lending financial support to Indian schools The apprehensive temperament of the Bishop comes to the surface in a letter addressed by him to Van Quickenborne in January, 1825, while the expected appropriation seemed to be hanging m the balance*
I am astonished at what you told me of the Government's breach of promise. Why do you not protest at Washington through one of your Fathers? I wrote lately to Col Benton, Senator of Missouri, requesting him to see the Secretary of War and remind him of his obligations It would be well for you to forward to Father Dzierozynski copies of the Secretary's letters which I sent you, with the request that he show them to the Secre- tary, together with the certificate from the Governor of your state to the effect that you have complied with the conditions of the contract I cannot believe that the Government is aware of the violation of its pledge. The matter should be attended to as soon as possible If, which is an impossi- bility, the Government should turn a deaf ear to your demands, the whole affair should be brought to the notice of the public. Such a breach of faith would compromise any government. I will myself write to Mr. Calhoun in the plainest terms.18
Bishop Du Bourg's letter to Calhoun ran as follows
Nve [Nouvelle] Orleans, Feb y 12th 1825 To the Hon.ble John Calhoun
Secretary of War. Honoured Sir,
Permit me to trouble you on the subject of the Indian Seminary, which I was induced to establish at Florissant near the junction of the Missouri and Mississippi nvers, by the written engagement on the part of Government to contribute for its maintenance the sum of eight hundred Dollars per annum, beginning from the day of its installation.
On the face of this sacred obligation, I encouraged eight or ten valuable missionaries to depart from the Distnct of Columbia for the banks of Mis-
17 McKenney to Van Quickenborne, Washington, January 28, 1835. (A).
18 Du Bourg a Van Quickenborne, January 1 8, 1825 (A).
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soun, and to encounter, besides the expence incident on such an immense journey, the incredible fatigue of wading, knee and often waist deep thro' an inundated country for the space of three hundred miles, without any help from Government I settled them upon a plantation which cost me four thousand Dollars, the title of which I surrendered to them for the benefit of the establishment, independently of the stock and farm utensils with which I abundantly furnished it They erected a building which cost them 7 or 800$ and would require 500$ more to complete it They began receiving Indian boys, whose docility promises to them the most satisfactoiy success, and yet after better than two years since their arrival in Missouri, they have not yet been able to obtain a single Dollar from Government, tho' letters to that effect were said to have been sent to the Supermtendant of Indian Affairs, in consequence of which failure the Missionaries are exposed to the danger of leaving the Establishment in a state of bankruptcy, and myself of forfeiting, to no purpose, a valuable property which may be sold to pay this debt
I have no doubt, Sir, that the fault of this bieach of contract lies some- where else than in yourself I thought it therefore highly proper and con- versant to your own idea of justice to call on you for redress Even m the supposition that this reclamation should reach your hand only after your promotion to a higher office, I trust that the Hon.ble J. Calhoun, Vice Presid. of the U S. will consider it a duty to redeem a solemn pledge given, with the sanction of the President, by the Hon.ble J. Calhoun, Secietary of War. And in that firm expectation I beg leave to renew the assurance of the high esteem and of the respectful regard with which
I have the honor to be Hon.d Sir,
Your most humble servant, L, Wm DuBourg, R.C Bishop of New Orleans 19 I solicit the favor of an answer directed to New Orleans, my actual residence.
19 Du Bourg to Calhoun, February 12, 1825 (H) As appears from McKen- ney's letter of January 28, 1825, the first remittance for Van Quickenborne's Indian school had already been forwarded before Du Bourg's letter of protest wat. written. The appeal made by the Bishop to Senator Ben ton of Missouri elicited the following note addressed by the senator to the secretary of war "Mr. Benton is requested by the Right Reverend William Du Bourg, Bishop of Louisiana, to call the attention of the Sec. of War to the Indian Seminary at Florissant, Mo He says that, upon an application to the Hon Sec the sum of $800 zn annum, out of the sum originally appropriated for the civilization of the Indians, was promised to that object, that the $800 first accruing (which was for the last year) had not been paid at the date of his letter, (9th December last) and Mr. Benton begs leave to call the attention of the Secretary to the circumstance. Senate Chamber, Feb 23 [?] 1825." (H).
ST. REGIS SEMINARY 157
The five hundred dollars which Calhoun had directed to be paid to Van Quickenborne at St. Louis was the first money appropriated by the United States government to a Catholic Indian school west of the Mississippi. As the number of boys at St. Regis had increased beyond eight , the appropriation in its favor for the years 1825 and 1826 was eight hundred dollars. In 1827, however, the appropriation was cut down to four hundred dollars, extra demands on the funds of the Indian Office, so it was explained, making a larger allowance impossible, and it remained at this figure until 1830 when the payments ceased altogether.20 The total amount of money paid by the government to the Florissant school during its brief career of six or seven years was approximately thirty-one hundred dollars. The cost of maintenance had been a little in excess of ten thousand dollars.21
Now that Father Van Quickenborne had obtained from government the proposed subsidy for his educational venture, he was anxious to obtain aid from the same quarter towards defraying the expenses of the school-house he had erected on the seminary grounds. The cost of this building, as noted in his report to General Clark of November 21, 1824, would be about fifteen hundred or two thousand dollars when completed. Van Quickenborne's application for aid in this connection was refused on the grounds set forth in a communication from Col. McKenney:
Your letter of the 23 ult. to the Secretary of War, requesting to have the plan of the buildings at Florissant approved and payment to be made according to the regulations of the 2Oth Feb. 1820 have been received. I have the honor by direction of the Secretary to state, in reply, that the allowance from the Civilization fund, towards the erection of buildings for Indian schools is considered applicable (as stated m the regulations of the 30th Sept 1819, of which those of the 20th Feb 1820 are additional) to such establishments only as may be affixed within the limits of those Indian nations that border our settlements. The buildings at Florissant not being
20 "You tell me that the number of your Indian boys is increasing If this be so, the government allowance ought to increase in proportion up to $800. Do not fail to protest in this matter." Du Bourg a Van Quickenborne, May 25, 1825 (A). M'Kenney to Van Quickenborne, Washington, February 9, 1827. (A) "Expenses of school for past year [1828], $1600. Government pays only $400." Ann. Prof ,
4 584-
21 Van Quickenborne account book (A) A statement made by Van Quicken- borne to the government under date of August 20, 1829, places the total disburse- ments for both boys' and girls' schools at $9,990 28 This figure includes expenses for tutoring, boarding, lodging of pupils and for "the visits and presents to the Indians and travelling to their villages."
158 THE JESUITS OF THE MIDDLE UNITED STATES
within such limits, but upon your own land, are not provided for m the regulations aforesaid.22
It was clear to Father Van Quickenborne that his efforts on behalf of the Indian boys would be largely wasted unless on growing up they could secure Catholic wives with whom to persevere in the practice of religion. A school for girls was therefore an essential factor in his scheme of Indian education and in his efforts to establish one he took counsel with Mother Duchesne. That truly apostolic woman, it is unnecessary to say, was watching with the liveliest interest the educational experi- ment to which her spiritual director had put his hand She took a maternal interest in the Indian boys, washing their linen and lending her personal services to keep them neat and tidy. The idea of a school for Indian girls to be conducted by her community appealed to her strongly and m June, 1824, a month after the opening of the boys' school, she wrote to the Mother General, St. Madeleine Sophie Barat, asking permission to open a similar institution for girls "They live on very little," she explained to her, "and we shall beg clothes for them We must neglect nothing for so interesting a work, so long desired and the special object we had in coming here." 23 Five weeks later she wrote again "I sometimes think that God has ruined our first establish- ment and our first work, the boarding-school, m order to promote the more interesting work of the instruction of the poor savages." 24
In the beginning of April, 1825, the ambition of Mother Duchesne was finally realized, "One evening whilst we were saying Office," Mother Mathevon recorded m her journal, "the Father Rector arrived and asked to see the Superior. To Madame Duchesne's great surprise he produced two little frightened Indian girls who were hiding them- selves under his cloak He had sent a cart to fetch them and he left them with us. So now we have begun our class for the natives." 2r>
On all things m and about the convent of the Sacred Heart at Florissant poverty was writ large. It had now to carry an additional
22McKenney to Van Quickenborne, Washington, April 28, 1825 (A) Van Quickenborne's letter of March 23, 1825, to Secretary of War Barbour requesting that the government defray the cost of the school building he had erected at Flo- rissant describes the latter m terms identical with those contained m his letter of Nov. 21, 1824, to General Clark "I submitted to your Excellency the following plan or rather a statement of buildings begun and nearly completed for the Indian School at this place I beg your kind indulgence for not having pursued the proper course and at the proper time I hope that my untimely acquaintance with the mode of observing the regulations at your Department will not be an obstacle to my being put on an equal footing with other establishments of the same kind "
23 Baunard, Life of Mother Duchesne^ p 264
24 Idem, p 264
25 Idem, p 264.
ST. REGIS SEMINARY 159
burden of expense in the Indian school, a burden heavier than Mother Duchesne had anticipated. The cost of maintenance for the first year amounted to five hundred and ninety dollars, doubtless a heavy dram on the slender resources of the nuns "For the expenses incurred by them/' Van Quickenborne wrote m December, 1825, "I have offered and given them i. Corn for the whole year, 2 Potatoes for the whole year, 3 Firewood for the whole year I doubt whether they will receive these things gratis They help us much in making and repairing clothes for us and the Indians " 26 There was no reason, however, why aid should not be lent to the female Indian school by the government, which was subsidizing similar institutions in charge of non-Catholic denominations and was a real if indirect beneficiary in the devoted labors of the nuns Accordingly, Van Quickenborne, with the approval of General Clark, though the latter expressed a desire that his name be not mentioned in connection with the affair, determined to apply to Washington for an appropriation for the girls' school. His petition to Secretary of War Barbour, dispatched on June 15, 1825, under the auspices of St Francis Regis, as he informed his superior, repre- sented that an annual subsidy of eight hundred dollars would enable the directors of the female Indian school at Florissant to continue the praiseworthy enterprise on which they had embarked
Encouraged by the paternal exertions of our most benevolent Govern- ment for the amelioration of the degraded state of the Aborigines, I take the liberty to leport to your department as follows
In our village there is a religious Society of nuns, members of the Catholic Church and known by the name of the Ladies of the Sacred Heart They dnect m this place a very respectable Academy, where many young ladies of the first families of St Louis and the adjacent parts of the country are educated Notwithstanding their being engaged in this laudable work, as they have many members, they would most willingly devote some of them to the exclusive education of Indian girls, as being very congenial with the spmt of their Society They have made already some steps towards this godly undertaking, having at present six Indian girls who have been placed under their care with great satisfaction of the parents Application has been made by several more to have their children also admitted, but their means not
20 Van Quickenborne to Dzierozynski, December 19, 1825 (B). "As the school for girls has been opened only this year, the beginning of it has necessanly been attended with greater expenses than will be required next year for an equal number Both boys and girls behave with great propriety. The strict morality which they observe m their conduct, their submission and obedience to the orders of their Superiors, their entire satisfaction and contentedness m their new state of life and finally their gratitude to their benefactors give the strongest hope that they will be useful citizens and be sincerely attached to the government that has m their regard such benevolent views " Van Quickenborne to Barbour, 1825 (H)
160 THE JESUITS OF THE MIDDLE UNITED STATES
being adequate to further expenses, they find it impossible to comply with the desire of all, a desire however which the Government likes to foster I therefore m their name most respectfully beg the assistance of Government in behalf of the Indians to be placed there The above mentioned ladies would wish to take from 40 to 60 pupils, a numbei which I have purposed to take in at our Seminary, and which will soon, I hope, be completed Their own funds and those coming to them from pious associations and a yearly allow- ance of Government of $800 would enable them to prosecute the work The advantages arising from their establishment would, in my opinion, be very important to the views of Government The education of Indian boys and girls m the same establishment is apt to be subject to very heavy incon- veniences as regards morality This contemplated establishment is about two miles from our Seminary The Indians of the Mississippi have more or less a confused knowledge of what has been done for them by religious Societies of the Catholic Church, and as far as I have been able to observe, when they hear of a convent, their difficulty m parting with their children m great measure disappears Nearly all of the metifs [mixed-bloods] have Canadian Frenchmen and of course Catholics for their parents, who will always prefer to place their children under the care of the members of their own Church. And should Congress adopt the plan suggested by the late President of the United States and adhered to by the present President in his inaugural speech, the two establishments m this place would be able m a very short time to give a solid beginning to the adopted plan, by placing with the consent of Parents, those of the boys who would wish to marry girls educated m the female establishment, m a given district with some assistance for husbandry, m which case I would offer to send two of our Rev gentlemen to reside among them These giving to their already known flock filled with confi- dence m their fathers the aid which the Catholic religion affords would be well calculated to maintain m them the spirit which they would have im- bibed in the Seminaries, a spirit of the fear of the Lord, a spirit of regularity, industry and subordination, a sincere attachment from principle and Re- ligion to our most beneficent Government m then behalf, and m case several distncts should be formed, from each of them a small and selected number might be sent to the establishment here, to be instructed more fully and fitted out for the important stations they might be called by the nation to fill.27
Father Van Quickenborne's petition to Secretary of War Barbour was denied on the ground of lack of funds to cover the appropriation
27 Van Quickenborne to Barbour, June 15, 1825 (H). "I have the honor to receive your letter of 15th. ult m which you represent the kind dispositions of the religious Society of nuns, members of the Catholic Church, near Florissant, towards the aborigines of our country, and their willingness to receive and educate from forty to sixty Indian children provided a yearly allowance would be made them by the Government of $800 Those dispositions of kindness towards these destitute children of the forest are appreciated, and I regret that the exacting demands upon the fund for civilization will not authorize at the present any further extension of it, not doubting but the means when applied to this charitable object of the Society,
ST. REGIS SEMINARY 161
asked for. As a consequence, Mother Duchesne's Indian school was destined to run its brief career without government support of any kind It closed its doors at about the same time that the neighboring school for boys came to an end.
As the only Catholic Indian school in the United States at the period, St. Regis Seminary and its pioneer labors were brought by Van Quickenborne to the attention of the Catholic public of France m the pages of the Annales de la Propagation de la Fot. Mention of the school also occurs in an appeal made in 1826 to the generosity of European Catholics by Father Gabriel Richard of Detroit*
At Mackmac last summer the Presbyterians put up a school-house about a hundred feet m length. In this school they have received a large number of Indian children, whom they feed, clothe and instruct gratis. The Catholics of America are m general poor and unable to build churches for their own needs . . It is then to the generosity of the Catholics of Europe that we must look for effective aid The ministers of error are quick to profit by the ample means placed at their disposal by their rich merchants who sub- scribe liberally for all their institutions Moreover, as they were on the ground before us, they make off annually with nearly all of the ten thousand dollars which the President of the United States is authorized to spend on the civilization of the Indians. There is so far only one Catholic school for the instruction of Indian children, that namely at Florissant, near St. Louis, this establishment receives a subsidy from the Government and this owing to the clever tact and engaging address of the Bishop of New Orleans, Mgr Du Bourg . . The Jesuits of France, England and Italy should come here and take possession of their old missions, the ruins of which cry out for them on all sides. . . . What would I not do to make my voice heard over all Europe' I would speak to it of the poor Indian m these terms "Parvuli fetierunt $anem et non erat qui ]rangeret eis" 2S
§ 3. THE SCHOOL IN OPERATION
Letters of the period afford occasional glimpses of what went on within the humble enclosure of the Indian school at Florissant. A year and a half after the institution had opened its doors Van Quickenborne, always an optimist over its affairs, wrote with obvious satisfaction to his superior in Maryland:
Plays are preparing for the Indian boys. These go on to the astonish- ment of us all. In the beginning we had to watch them like wild hares, they were weeping the whole day. The Ladies of the Sacred Heart have a forty
would produce lasting benefit to the children, whose good fortune it might be to partake of the instruction of its benevolent members " Harbour to Van Quicken- borne, July ii, 1825 (H). 28 Ann. Prop, 3=333-
1 62 THE JESUITS OF THE MIDDLE UNITED STATES
days devotion to St. John Francis Regis I have made a vow, if they [the boys] changed, to do what I could to have that Saint for the patron of our mission The boys aie entirely changed They observe order like a well- regulated college boy or like a novice Mr Smedts, their prefect, undeistands them We have had an interpreter for fourteen days They make regularly their visits to the Blessed Sacrament and behave to the great edification of us all They work two hours before dinner and two after dinner with the greatest satisfaction They all wept when the hoe was put into their hands for the first time.29
This report of Van Quickenborne to his superior ends with the request that he be allowed to make choice of St John Francis Regis as patron of the Missouri Mission There is no record of any action having been taken on the request
Van Quickenborne's satisfaction with his Indian pupils was further increased by an incident that took place during the first year of the school's career. "We received a visit here from chiefs and twelve war- riors of the Hyaway [Iowa] nation. . . . The boys appeared at St. Louis before these visitors while they had their talk with General Clark They were well dressed and behaved extremely well. On entering the city one of them drove the cart in which the others were, which amazed the Indian fathers exceedingly. They were highly satisfied and General Clark, I have been told, said after the talk was over, to the Agent 'I wish all the Indian boys were with Catholics J " 30
To spend the greater part of the day with a batch of Indian boys and at the same time contrive to snatch a few moments of time for the theological studies preparatory to ordination was not a comfortable manner of existence Mr. Smedts, the first of the scholastics to be appointed prefect of the Indian boys, had been succeeded in that capacity bv Mr Verreydt, who thus laid open to Father Dzierozynski the diffi- culty of his position
The boys rise in the morning during meditation and I am with them till half-past eight o'clock when they go to the field and return a quarter before twelve, at which time I am with them till two o'clock (after dinner), when they go again to the field till a quarter before five At this time I used to teach some to spell till half-past six, but since eight boys have left us so that we have at present but seven Indian boys and three French boys, our Reverend Superior has allowed me to employ this time in the study of moral divinity, the study of which I resumed since last Easter, On Sundays and Holydays I have to be with them the whole day, when it rams I have to be with them. They must be watched at night. I often sleep in the day in order to watch at night 31
29 Van Quickenborne to Dzierozynski, Florissant, April 29, 1825 (B)
30 Same to same, Florissant, January 10, 1825. (B) 81 Verreydt to Dzierozynski, Florissant, 1826. (A)
ST. REGIS SEMINARY 163
It had constantly to be impressed upon the boys that manual labor was not a thing to be ashamed of On an occasion when a band of some thirty Indians paid a visit to Florissant, one of their number was amazed to see his son, a pupil of the Seminary, carrying a bucket of water. All the pride of race rose within him and he asked the lad indignantly, "are you a slave?" To overcome the prejudice of the youthful Indians against work it became necessary for the directors of the school to set an example in their own persons of manual labor With this end in view, as for other reasons also, one of the community, either a lay- brother or a scholastic, worked longside the boys in the fields. At intervals, as in the potato and corn-planting season, the entire scholastic body joined them in their work. Moreover, the scholastics spent nearly the whole of the vacation period in labor of various kinds, as felling trees or making cider. "All this is necessary," Mr. Van Assche observes to a correspondent in Europe, "to encourage the Indians." Efforts were made to teach the youths to sing and even to play on musical instru- ments, not without some success. But on the whole their voices were found to lack singing quality though an Indian boy would occasionally please the worshippers at St Ferdinand's Church with a voice of unusual sweetness.32
To provide adequate and proper clothing for the children was some- times a serious problem. Van Assche wrote in 1825 to Pierre De Nef of Turnhout:
To increase the number of Indians and Jesuits as well, it is highly im- portant for us to try to improve our farm We have written to our parents and friends for clothing, as without such assistance, it is quite impossible for us to receive many pupils To feed sixteen or twenty is not such a great matter, but to clothe them is out of the question, for shoes, hats and Imen are very expensive Those who are coming to join us will perform a great act of chanty by bringing along with them as large a supply as possible of linen and other kinds of cloth, no matter of what color, provided of course it is worth the cost of transportation. If they bring pantaloons, cloaks, or other articles of wear ready made, they must know that the youngest of the twelve is only five and the oldest fourteen years old Most of the clothes on them now were brought by us from Europe 33
J2 Van Assche a De Nef, Florissant, May, 1827 (A) "F Vanquickenborn[e]'s [motive] in keeping these boys, though paid for, was no doubt to stimulate some of us to learn the language of the few Indian boys that were with us We learned a few Indian words and that was all Nobody had any inclination to go to the Indian country except F Vanquickenbornfe] who had no other thought than one day to establish himself among the Indians Napoleon like, he wanted to conquer all, white and red people" Verreydt, Memoirs (A).
83 Van Assche a De Nef, Florissant, 1825. (A). The generosity of benefactors helped to solve later on the problem of clothing the Indian boys. "For their sup-
1 64 THE JESUITS OF THE MIDDLE UNITED STATES
What occurred on a certain occasion when a group of Indian parents visited their sons at the Seminary is told by the coadjutor-brother. Peter De Meyer
We opened a school for Indian and half Indian boys They were taught to wear clothes, to eat with knives and forks, to say their prayers in English and to work in the fields I worked several summers with them in the corn-fields and chopped fire-wood with them during winter m the woods Once their fathers and their attendants, for they were chiefs of different tribes, came to see them on their way to Washington to transact business with the President of the United States for their nation. On their arrival towards night we made great preparations to receive them well We killed a large ox by candle-light in the orchard and were going to lay a table with knives, forks etc But their interpreter, who was a Frenchman and knew their language well, said, "not so, give them a large pot and meat and let them cook for themselves in the woods " So a large kettle was taken out of the wash-house and a quarter of an ox was given to them and then they retired into the woods about thirty yards from the house . They made
a big fire, cooked and ate their bellyful. They also took some snaps which they earned with them in long canes. Then they began to dance around the fire, singing their war-songs. These lasted till a very late hour Some of Ours feared they were about to do some mischief, but it was all fun. They at last lay down and slept till morning. When they got up, they began to eat again, for their kettle was not yet empty. Shortly after, they started off." 34
For a while Van Quickenborne's Indian school seemed destined to a prolonged and useful career. From the Indian Office came approval and appreciation of its work.35 Also, there was commendation from Father Dzierozynski on the occasion of his visit to Florissant in the summer of 1827-
The Indian school has one teacher, a lay-brother. Thanks be to God, it makes excellent progress alike in morals, letters and manual labor m the fields, where every day, both morning and afternoon, the boys spend some
port (40 Indian boys) we have and will receive from the chanty of the faithful whatever is necessary Last week we received from Europe 95 shirts, 135 handker- chiefs, 2 soutanes, I cloak, 2 surtouts, 35 pair boots and a number of stockings and flannel jackets, all m good order " Van Quickenborne to Dzierozynski, Florissant, September I, 1828 (B)
34 Reminiscences of Peter De Meyer, S J , 1867. (A)
35 "Your letter to the Secretary of War of the 4th ultimo inclosing your report of the state of the Indian school under your supermtendency is received. I am directed to acknowledge it, and to convey to you the Secretary's approval, and the expression of his hopes that your benevolent labors for the enlightening of a por- tion of our Indians may be more and more prosperous " McKenney to Van Quicken- borne, November 3, 1826 (A)
ST. REGIS SEMINARY 165
hours with their instructors. The boys number only thirteen, but the house cannot accommodate any more There is a similar school for Indian girls in the village of St Ferdinand, a famous old Spanish settlement This is in charge of the Ladies of the Sacred Heart The pupils number as many as in the boys' school, their education being looked to by the Ladies, their support by the Rector of the Florissant establishment, who by dint of alms and the produce of his farm, endeavois to the best of his ability to supply them with food and clothing, however poor these may be I was highly pleased to hear the Indian girls recite their catechism. Who made you? Who redeemed you? Who sanctified you? To all such questions they icplied with childlike sim- plicity. A more elaborate exhibition was given by Ours at Florissant. St Ignatius day was celebrated with a solemn high mass and panegync in St Ferdinand's church, some of the Indian boys singing with Ours in the choir After dinner in a sort of rustic amphitheatre festooned with flowers and greenery the Indian boys underwent an examination in their studies, the best of them being awarded prizes After the specimen, one of their number of more than usual capacity and diligence came to my room very quietly so as not to be seen by the others and asked me to take him along with me to Georgetown College. "If I remain here, I shall go to the bad " I encouraged him with the assurance that grace to preserve his innocence would not fail him m Missouri He took me at my word and went away satisfied 36
§ 4. PASSING OF THE SCHOOL
In the event St. Regis Seminary failed to realize its early promise. Father Van Quickenborne's management of the school had not com- mended itself at all times to his associates in the educational venture, but there was never reason to doubt that he was guided at any time by other motive than zeal for the best interests of the institution. "It is clear to me now," wrote in later years one who had not seen eye to eye with him in the affairs of the school, "that he always acted as he thought best under the circumstances and always had before his eyes Ad major em Dei glonam"^ As to Van Quickenborne's conduct of the school, it was alleged that he was unnecessarily severe in his treatment of the boys, that he worked them too strenuously in the fields, that, while reluctant to believe evil of them, he was unwarrantably Spartanlike in the punishment he inflicted on convicted offenders. Young De Smet, as he looked on m amazement at the whipping administered by his superior to an Osage pupil guilty of a serious breach of the moral law, felt in his heart, though the event did not justify his fears, that the managers of the school had compromised themselves with the Osage tribe for a generation to come Yet the fact is that a genuine tenderness of heart underlay whatever seventy showed itsejf in the outward
86 Htstoria Mtssioms Missoumanae (Ms ) . (A) .
87 Elet ad Dzierozynski, Florissant, May 20, 1835 (B).
1 66 THE JESUITS OF THE MIDDLE UNITED STATES
manner of the sturdy Fleming who against heavy odds was going doggedly ahead with his experiment of an Indian school With the superior in Maryland he pleaded thus on an occasion when, contrary to his own wishes in the matter, he was required to expel some of their number from the institution
The boys expelled by me are not discouraged. All are highly praised I say only what was said to me One made his first Communion under Father De Theux and goes to the Sacraments every month and was first m cate- chism. Maximus, son of the loway chief, is in St Charles and is spoken of highly by Father Smedts The third is in Portage and works hard and behaves himself The other two are so small that they can scarcely do any- thing When I met one of them scarcely six yeais old and saw him whom I had received as a son now being treated as a little slave by his new master, my feelings got the better of me and I almost fainted. I think that your Reverence with a knowledge of the circumstances would not have given the orders you did and I ask you that we may be permitted to act more gently with these little creatures whom we have only yesterday rescued from the wild beasts of the forest However, I am prepared to obey the orders of Reverend Father Superior.38
The last report forwarded to Washington by Van Quickenborne was for the year ending September 30, 1830. At the end of that year there were only two pupils in attendance. A letter written by him at this period to Secretary of War Eaton discloses his intention to dis- continue the school
With a view of locating an establishment nigher to the Indian villages, I have ceased to admit pupils in the Indian school of this place I am con- vinced that the youth of the aborigines stand in need of as much perhaps more assistance after they have left the school than when they actually enjoy its advantages I hope to be able perhaps m the course of another year to afford that assistance according to the plan I have had the honor to lay before youi excellence and of which I have obtained the verbal approbation of our venerable President [Jackson] a few months ago I conducted home 4 sons of the principal chief of the Osages, who had received their education at our establishment. Whilst in their village I proposed the subject of the plan in full council with the approbation of the Agent and the previous leave of the President They have unanimously expressed a most ardent wish to see it put into execution. I will deem it a great favor if the allowance hitherto given to the school of this place could be applied to the new estab- lishment as soon as it will go into operation.39
38 Van Quickenborne ad Dzierozynsh, Florissant, 1830 (?). (B).
39 Van Quickenborne to Eaton, Florissant, December 30, 1830 (H). Van Quickenborne's plans for resident missionary work among the Indians are out- lined in the following chapter
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ST. REGIS SEMINARY 167
Two years were now to pass without further school-report from St. Regis Seminary or even application for the usual annual allowance Finally, in May, 1832, Elbert Herring, who had succeeded McKenney as commissioner of Indian affairs, wrote to Van Quickenborne inquiring "Is the department to infer from your having ceased to draw from the sum allowed or to transmit the required report, that you no longer claim any aid from the Government?33 The superior's reply, dated July 10, brought a second letter from Herring
The Department cannot with any propriety continue to bestow a part of the Public Funds entrusted to it in aid of an Institution which the Prin- cipal himself represents to have had hardly an existence for more than two years It cannot therefore permit you to expect, as you request, that youi allowance for the past year and the current year will be paid If you should succeed in reestablishing the school, your communication of the fact will meet with prompt attention and you will receive such assistance as the circum- stances seem to demand.40
With this communication from the commissioner of Indian affairs business relations between St Regis Seminary and the Indian Office came to an end The last Indian boy had left June 30, 1831, and with him the institution passed into history.41 That it was a successful Indian
40 Herring to Van Quickenborne, Washington, July 24, 1832 (A)
41 «j The establishment was at too great a distance from the Indian villages 2 The punishments inflicted on some of the Indian boys were too severe 3 The hours of school were too few and those of work too many 4 Their dress was often ragged and uncomfortable" (Contemporary ms memorandum). (B). The boys m attendance were not for the most part of pure Indian stock Their number, which during the entire life of the school did not go beyond thirty m all, in- cluded ten full-blooded Indians of five different tribes, Osage chiefly, and twenty metifs or half-breeds Almost one-half of the half-breeds were illegitimate All the full-blooded Indians, with the exception of two who were dismissed for breaches of morality, were taken away by their parents Van Quickenborne was dis- appointed both in the number and quality of Indian boys furnished him by the Indian agents and with a view largely to obtain suitable pupils for the school made personal visits to the Osage m their villages along the Neosho River An account of his conducting two little Indian "princes" from the Osage country to Florissant in 1828 is in the Ann Prof , 4 578 "We have all the sons of the Osage chiefs of competent age to be placed m school " Report of St Regis Seminary for year end- ing September 30, 1829 (H) "Four Indian boys have been lately received Two of these are boys about eight years old, sons of the chief of the Osage Twelve of this kind, as Father De Theux has often observed, not mixed with those miserable metifs and properly taken care of, would be calculated to do something one day towards the conversion of the Indians " Elet ad Dzierozynsh, December, 1828. (B)
Fathers Elet, De Smet and Verhaegen were decidedly of the opinion that the school had been a failure as far as the conversion of the Indians was concerned. Thus Verhaegen, writing to the superior, Dzierozynski, August 20, 1830 "I sup-
1 68 THE JESUITS OF THE MIDDLE UNITED STATES
school no one conversant with the facts will venture to maintain. Too remote a location from the Indian villages, apparently certain mistakes in the management of the school, lack of proper financial support, but especially the poor quality of the students supplied to it were among the reasons for the failure of the institution to realize its purpose in any serious way. Yet one may not conclude that the labors of the men who through seven years maintained the school under depressing handi- caps had gone for nothing. The author of the Annual Letters of the Missouri Mission for 1830 notes that many of the former pupils of the Seminary were living among the white and continued to receive the sacraments monthly. About one of them in particular there was something of personal sanctity and the holy end he made as a mere boy was the admiration of all who witnessed it.42 On occasion, too, Jesuit missionaries of later years were to find a foothold for some missionary enterprise in the sympathy and good will of one-time pupils of the Florissant Indian school Thus, when Fathers De Smet and Verreydt ascended the Missouri in 1838 to open a Potawatomi mission at Council Bluffs, they were welcomed at a stopping-place by Francis, the Iowa chief, whom De Smet had instructed at St. Regis Seminary and who would gladly have kept his former teacher to minister to his people 43 As to Father Van Quickenborne, he did not live to see the day when
pose your Rev, knows that our Indian College has definitely ceased to be I am surprised, not that it ended, but that it continued as long as it did Didn't I pre- dict that it would avail nothing towards the conversion of the Indians?" Cf also the statement of the Father Visitor "Schola Indumorum, miseie ordtnata, duobus abhinc anms miser e pewit" Kenney ad Roothaan, February 22, 1832 (AA).
42 Litterae Annuae Missioms Missouranae, 1823-1834. (A). The names of five Indian children attending the schools, four boys and one girl, are entered in the Baptismal Register of St Ferdinand's church, Florissant Mother Duchesne was godmother to Elizabeth due Lisette Banelle, baptized April 2, 1825. The child's parents, Banelle and Shannoquoi, were Menommee (Folles Avomes) Indians Stan- islaus, aged 10, and Peter, aged 13 (the latter a son of a principal chief of the Iowa known as Le Grand Marcheur), were baptized June 5, 1825. Joseph and Louis, Sauk, were baptized October 3, 1824, by Bishop Rosati, John Mullanphy and his daughter, Mrs Chambers, being sponsors. Other Indian pupils were pos- sibly baptized by Van Quickenborne at the Seminary This would account for their names not appearing in the church register
43 Hiram Martin Chittenden and Albert Talbot Richardson, Life, Lettets and Travels of Father Piet re-Jean De Smety $Jt, 1801-1872 (New York, 1905), I 152 Cited subsequently as CR, De Smet. Two sons of Pahuska or White Hair, head Osage chief, then names Cleremont (or Clairmont) and Gretomonse, the latter head chief of the tribe in 1852, were pupils at St Regis where they were baptized. So, according to the Osage Mission Register (Archives of Passionist Monastery, St. Paul, Kansas) However, the names of Cleremont and Gretomonse do not occur in the Baptismal Register of St Ferdinand's Church, Florissant, Mo , where some of the Indian pupils were baptized. Cf note 42.
ST. REGIS SEMINARY 169
his fellow-workers in the West were enabled to set on foot the two highly successful Indian schools which they maintained through many years on behalf of the Potawatomi and Osage tribes , but he had helped to blaze the way in the field of Catholic Indian education in the United States and the praise of the pioneer and pathfinder is his
CHAPTER VI
FIRST MISSIONARY VENTURES AMONG THE INDIANS
§ I. FATHER VAN QUICKENBORNE AND THE INDIAN PROBLEM
The school at Florissant by no means limited the range of Father Van Quickenborne's interest in the native tribes of the West. He busied himself at intervals with plans for a systematic Chnstiamzation of the American red men by methods similar to those which had been em- ployed by the Jesuits of Paraguay and he undertook a number of trips to the Indians of the Missouri border, chiefly the Osage. It is the pur- pose of this chapter to sketch these activities of his on behalf of the Indians up to the period when he was able to realize his plans in a fashion by the establishment of the Kickapoo Mission
Ways and means of ameliorating the condition of the red men were a frequent topic of discussion between Father Van Quickenborne and General William Clark, superintendent of Indian affairs in the West. To his superior in the East Van Quickenborne wrote July 26, 1824
I visited the Governor [William Clark] before I saw yr. [your] rev's [Reverence's] letter. He told me yr. rev. had visited him together with Mr. Richard [Father Gabriel Richard]. If what is said here be true, and I think it is, he is not to be Superintendent Gen Clark will continue m his office, but Mr. McNair, together with Gen Claik are appointed Commissioners to act with all the power the president can give, with the Indians in all that countiy that is beyond the limits of this State and the Arkansas Territory The natives of Ohio, Kentucky etc. intend to make a settlement on the Missouri after the manner of civilized nations (something like in Paraguay). They may by and by form a state and send their representatives and Senators to Congtess The President is inclined to adopt this plan and Gen Clark will endeavor to execute it He has communicated to me all his sentiments on the subject and has recommended us to these natives to take us for their missionaries and fathers I think that the time is not far off when great things will be per- formed in behalf of the civilization and spiritual welfare of our truly miser- able Indians Now is the moment, believe me, Rev Father, to furnish our Seminary with duly qualified fathers If they are not here when the estab- lishments will commence, Protestants will trust [thrust] themselves in. Give what you can and write to R[ight] R[ev ] F[ather] Genferal] to send us
170
FIRST VENTURES AMONG THE INDIANS 171
a supply of 12 fathers I will pay all the expenses of their journey He has only to indicate to me the name of the person to whom I shall send the money and to begin I will put 200O francs m the hands of Madame Barat, Supenor of the Dames du S Coeur at Pans, to be employed foi the fatheis that are to come to this mission Pray R. father, do not fail m using all yi exertions in obtaining this favour from R[ight] R[everend] F[ather] Gen1
Clark's own plan for the systematic civilizing of the Indian tribes was outlined by Van Quickenborne in a letter to the Maryland superior. A tract of land, presumably west of the Missouri state-line m the present Kansas (but according to Van Quickenborne only two hundred miles distant from Florissant) was to be set aside for the Indian tribes The tract was to be divided into districts and m each district four or five tribes were to be allowed to settle down A school house with resident missionary was to be provided for each district, while outside the limits of the entire region there was to be a sort of central Indian school to which about six boys and as many girls from each district were to be sent The St Regis Seminary, with a department for girls to be conducted by the Ladies of the Sacred Heart, was considered as likely to answer all the requirements of this central school. "But," Clark observed to Van Quickenborne, "if I put a Methodist m one district, a Presbyterian m another, a Quaker in a third and a Catholic in a fourth, you will be constantly at war, and instead of giving them peace will only create confusion in the minds of the Indians I should like to give the districts to one Society and I think that yours is more competent for the work than any of the others." Van Quickenborne replied to Clark that he thought his order had men sufficient for all the districts. To the eagerly apostolic superior the superintendent's scheme appeared indeed to be a dispensation of Providence for renewing the missionary glories of the older line of Jesuits "Who does not see here," he writes with enthusiasm to Dzierozynski, "the beginning of another Paraguay ? It would indeed be a miracle if the other missionaries were displaced and ours substituted in their stead. But this is the age of miracles. Oh ' if our Very Rev. Fr. General were to send us a Xavier, a Lallemant, a John Francis [Regis] and you, Father, four or five well- formed brothers. Sed gmd ego mtserl" 2
Some weeks later Clark returned to the subject of Catholic mission- aries He informed Van Quickenborne that the Catholics were not
1 (B) In the opinion of one of his superiors Father Van Quickenborne was more successful in initiating plans than m carrying them out "[Aptus] ad ex- colendas misstones et ad tnchoandas res "fere quascumque non tamen ferfictendas" Catalogus secundus (A).
2 Van Quickenborne ad Dzierozynski, Florissant, April 29, 1825. (B).
172 THE JESUITS OF THE MIDDLE UNITED STATES
asking for missionary posts and that these were now nearly all assigned, the Methodists having been particularly insistent in their demands.3 Finally, in the fall of 1825 he invited the father to visit the Kansa Indians, promising to pay for the boys the latter should obtain from that tribe. The land formerly held by the Kansa Indians within the limits of Missouri had been ceded to the United States government in 1825. One township was reserved to be sold for twenty thousand dollars and this sum was to constitute an education fund to be applied by the President to the maintenance of a school in the Kansa village. At five per cent the capital would yield an annual income of a thousand dollars. Clark urged Van Quickenborne to apply for the Kansa school with the accompanying appropriation. The treaty, so the General informed him, awaited confirmation by the Senate, but, that obtained, immediate appli- cation for the new school would be made by some Protestant denomina- tion. Van Quickenborne wrote to his superior reporting Clark's offer and suggesting that the affair could be negotiated in Washington by Father Dzierozynski himself, or else by Father Dubuisson S J. or Father Matthews, the pastor of St. Patrick's Church. But nothing came of this attempt of the superintendent to engage Jesuit missionaries for the Kansa Indians.4
In the course of the year 1825 Van Quickenborne, at Clark's solicita- tion, drew up and submitted a plan for a general systematic civilization of the Indian tribes "The Superintendent of Indian Affairs," the father wrote to Bishop Du Bourg, "has had me put in writing my ideas on the best way of civilizing the Indians. He previously laid before me his own plans as well as his good intentions in our regard It is only two days since he broached the subject and I have not found time to perfect my plan. I send it to you, however, such as I have been able to make
3 Van Quickenborne ad Dzierozynski, Florissant, June 30, 1825 (B). "Wishing to stir me to acteon, he [Clark] deprecated politely the fact that Catholics do not sufficiently exert themselves to obtain those places " Van Quickenborne ad Dziero- zynski, April 30, 1825 (B)
4 Van Quickenborne to (?) Dzierozynski, Florissant, December 19, 1825. (B). In 1828 Father Joseph Lutz, a diocesan priest of St Louis, with authorization from Bishop Rosati and General Clark, resided for three months in the Kansas village on the banks of the Kaw River some sixty-five miles above its mouth He was the first Catholic priest to attempt resident missionary work m the territory which is now the state of Kansas. For a letter of his on this episode cf. Ann Prop , 3 556. The SLCHRy 5 183 et seq , has a well-documented sketch of Lutz by F. G. Holweck Cf . also Garraghan, Cathohc Beginnings in Kansas Ctty, Missouri (Chi- cago, 1919), p 30 Rosati's Diary has this entry, July 23, 1828 "Mr Lutz arrives, having been requested by Mr Clark to betake himself without delay to the Kansas Indians not only because they eagerly desire to have him but also because a Metho- dist pseudominister has offered himself for that mission, the establishment of which can be delayed no longer " Kennck Seminary Archives
FIRST VENTURES AMONG THE INDIANS 173
it in so short a time, hoping that your Lordship will make whatever changes you may deem advisable " 5 The plan was as follows
1. Our little Indian Seminary should continue to support the present number of boys from eight to twelve years of age, while the Ladies of the Sacred Heart m our neighborhood should bring up about as many girls of the same tribe. They should be taken young, from eight to twelve, to habituate them more easily to the customs and industry of civil life and im- press more deeply on their hearts the principles of religion
2. After five or six years' education, it would be good that each youth should choose a wife among the pupils of the Sacred Heart before returning to his tribe.
3 Within two or three years two missionaries should go to reside m that nation to gam their confidence and esteem, and gradually persuade a number to settle together on a tract of land to be set apart by government Agricultural implements and other necessary tools for the new establishment to be furnished.
4. Soon as this new town was formed, some of the couples formed m our establishments should be sent there with one of the said missionaries, who should be immediately replaced, so that two should always be left with the body of the tribe, till it was gradually absorbed in the civilized colony.
5. Our missionaries should then pass to another tribe and proceed suc- cessively with each m the same manner as the first
6 As the number of missionaries and our resources increased, the civil- ization of two or more tribes might be undertaken at once The expense of carrying out this plan might be estimated thus
The support of 16 to 24 children m the two establishments $1,900 Three Missionaries 600
Total $2,500.°
Ingenious and promising though Van Quickenborne's plan appeared to be, it was never carried into execution. General Clark promised to lay it before Secretary of War Calhoun on the occasion of a visit he was to pay to Washington but failed to do so, alleging m explanation that the secretary, who was soon to relinquish his office, was unwilling to discuss measures the execution of which would devolve upon his suc- cessor.7 From this time on, the plan recurs repeatedly m Van Quicken- borne's correspondence as m this letter of June 29, 1825, to his General-
A matter of the highest importance is about to be taken in hand by our government A region will be designated near the Missoun River where
6 Ann Prop, 2 396.
6 J G. Shea, History of the Cathohc Missions among the Indian Tribes of the United States (New York, 1854), p 406 The original document is m the files of the Indian Office, Washington, D C
7 Van Quickenborne to Dzierozynski, January 10, 1825 (B).
i74 THE JESUITS OF THE MIDDLE UNITED STATES
such of the Indians as agree to it will be brought together to live under laws made foi them by the government, practice farming and live after the manner of civilized nations This region will be divided into districts and each family will be given a portion of land to be cultivated. In every distuct there will be missionaries or a school of some kind All these missionaries live on government money The superintendent of Indian affairs [William Clark] told me that he wished the missionaries to be all of the same icligion and that he prefened us to all others, but it is necessary that we offer our services to the Government. In any event we shall have one district, which we can organize in the following manner As soon as any of our youths are ready to marry girls who have been educated heie, they will be settled m that distnct, where a farm will be given them by the Government, also farming implements and stock Two of Ours will go along to live and work with them and these Indians will be joined by otheis fiom the tribes still roaming in the woods It is by all means necessary that some such plan be tried For why educate youths in our Seminary if after two or three years they must return to their tribesmen, who are still sunk in barbarism? And how can they otherwise practice the religion they have been taught while with us? Or how, in fine, shall the barbarous tnbes be won over unless by seeing that such are the effects of Christian education This we have to do 01 else give up altogether our work for the Indians The Society has always had at heart the conversion of the Indians Then, too, how your Very Rev Paternity spurred me on to that work when I was still at White Marsh with the novices, of whom you said, the words are your Paternity's own "I hope those young lads, after being educated in this fashion, will become m tuin the teacheis of great numbers of Indians " 7<l
Four years later, in the spring of 1829, Father Van Quickenborne called on President Jackson in Washington and laid before him sub- stantially the same plan for the civilization of the Indians as that outlined above. The President gave his verbal approval. The plan is sketched in a letter which Van Quickenborne addressed to Secretary of War Eaton in October, 1829
In the latter part of last Spring I had the honor of proposing to our venerable President, General Jackson, the plan for the civilization of the Indians, which I now take the liberty of laying befoie your excellency. Should Government approve of it, I would buy in this state six or seven thousand acres of land The Indian boys and girls educated in our institu- tion, after being married would go thither to settle upon a tract of 25 acres, which I would give to each of them in fee simple, with some resti ictions, however All of them could make application as foreigners do for citizenship I would be inclined to receive into our Seminary only such youths as declare through their parents, their willingness and desire to become citizens of the United States, and of living according to the laws of the countiy. Upon
7* Van Quickenborne ad Fortis, June 29, 1824 (AA)
FIRST VENTURES AMONG THE INDIANS 175
making such declaration such grown Indians as would be willing to be married according to our laws and begin immediately a farm would also be received. The new settlers would adopt the English language Two reverend gentlemen of our Society would reside with them, be their pastor and offi- ciate in the church to be built If any assistance should be given by Govern- ment, it would be most gratefully received The President has verbally approved the plan 8
The government's decision in regard to Van Qmckenborne's plan was communicated to him by Commissioner of Indian Affairs McKenney.
Your views in relation to the Indians and especially the Indian children educated at your school, are considered highly commendable, and it is very gratifying to find that you are disposed to engage so earnestly in the cause of Indian improvement Your plan, as far as it goes, is considered good, but as the subject will be taken up by the Executive and a general plan foi the civilization and improvement of the Indians submitted to Congress at the next session, it is not deemed advisable, in the meantime, to extend the aid of the Government to any partial plan for the same object *
Though Van Quickenborne could not, in view of the policy thus announced from Washington, rely upon any financial assistance from that quarter in the prosecution of his plan, he did not by any means give up the hope of seeing it realized, especially as the Father General now gave it his formal approval Father Roothaan addressed him November 21, 1829
I very gladly agree to your beginning the education of the Indians according to the plan you described and to this end I shall send some alms at my disposal, I hope a thousand dollars. Only let nothing be done incon- siderately and hastily, but use such foresight as will assure you a well- grounded hope of finishing and perpetuating the work. I think you should be particularly at pains to keep out of the settlement of Indian converts persons who would feign conversion and eventually wreck the whole affair It behooves your Reverence to ascertain and follow as far as possible the methods employed of old by our Fathers in Paraguay, for these have been tried and found most successful.10
8 Van Qmckenborne to Eaton, Florissant, October 4, 1829 (H) 9M'Kenney to Van Quickenborne, Washington, October 27, 1829 (A). Presi- dent Jackson in his first message to Congress (1829) proposed the removal of the Indians to lands west of the Mississippi In May, 1830, Congress passed an act authorizing the necessary exchanges and purchases of lands from the indigenous tribes west of the Mississippi Schoolcraft, Histoty of the Indian Tribes of the Umted States, 6 430
10PfX, 25 354. A detailed exposition of Van Quickenborne's program of cul- tural and religious work among the Indians is contained in a letter addressed by
176 THE JESUITS OF THE MIDDLE UNITED STATES
§ 2. THE FIRST CATHOLIC MISSIONARY TO THE OSAGE
The story of the Osage sums up the fate that has overtaken the one-time Indian occupants of the territory that is now the United States.11 Once a powerful and influential nation, they had been gradu- ally pushed backward by warring tribes until one finds them occupying lands m the western part of what is now Missouri. In 1808, by the terms of a treaty against which they later protested as fraudulent, they ceded to the United States government forty-eight million acres of land, which included all their holdings in what is now the state of Missouri with the exception of a strip of territory included within the western boundary of the state and a line running from Fort Clark, thirty-five miles below the mouth of the Kansas River, due south to the Arkansas River. Nor was this last fragment of their former vast possessions to remain long in their hands. In 1825 General Clark nego- tiated with the Great and Little Osage a treaty which extinguished their title to the remnant of their Missouri lands and sent them south-
him to Father Rozaven, March 10, 1829 Published in the Ann Prop , it was obvi- ously meant to stimulate the generosity of European Catholics m behalf of his favorite project Referring to his ideas on the civilization of the Indians, Van Quickenborne wrote on a later occasion (about 1832) "It is this plan that was proposed to the President of the United States m a conversation and verbally approved by him, and he at the same time assured me that the Indians could become citizens He promised his support to the plan and gave me leave to propose it m his name to the Indians. I have done it m two full councils in two different villages and it was unanimously pronounced to be the thing they wanted, and great anxiety was exhibited to see it commenced immediately" WL, 25 354.
11 Osage is a corruption by the French traders of Wazhaxte, the tribe's name m their own language The Osage are of Siouan stock and have been classed in the same group with the Omaha, Ponca, Kansa and Quapaw, with whom they are supposed to have originally constituted one body See Frederick Webb Hodge, Handbook of American Indians (Bureau of American Ethnology, Washington, 1912), 2 156 Lieut Zebulon M Pike, who visited the Osage in 1806, found them separated into three bands, the Grand Osage, the Little Osage and those of the Arkansas "The Arkansaw schism was effected by Mr Pierre Chouteau, ten or twelve years ago as a revenge on Mr Manuel De Sezie [Liza or Lisa], who had obtained from the Spanish government the exclusive trade of all the Osage nation, by way of the Osage river, after it had been in the hands of Mr Chouteau for nearly twenty years The latter, having the trade of the Arkansaw, thereby nearly rendered abortive the exclusive privilege of his rival " Elliot Coues (ed ) , Lieu- tenant 7*ebulon M Pike's Journal of Travels, p. 529 Pike found the Grand Osage occupying as their principal village a site on the Little Osage just below the mouth of the Marmiton Six miles above on the opposite or west side of the Little Osage, the Marmiton coming in between, on the site of the present Ballstown, was the village of the Little Osage Indians Both villages were within the limits of what is now Vernon County, Missouri.
FIRST VENTURES AMONG THE INDIANS 177
west, where they found new homes on the banks o£ the Neosho and other tributaries of the Arkansas.12
The Osage were distinguished among the other tribes for their splendid physical appearance. Washington Irving in his Tour on the Prmnes records the impression made upon him by a group of Osage warriors whom he met on the banks of the Neosho in the fall of 1832
Near by there was a group of Osages stately fellows, stern and simple in garb and aspect. They wore no ornaments, their dress consisted merely of blankets, leggings and moccasins Their heads were bare, their hair was cropped close, except a bristling ridge on the top, like the crest of a helmet, with a long scalp-lock hanging behind They had fine Roman countenances and broad, deep chests, and, as they generally wore their blankets wrapped around their loins, so as to leave the bust and arms bare, they looked like so many bronze figures. The Osages are the finest looking Indians I have ever seen in the West. They have not yielded sufficiently as yet to the influence of civilization to lay by their simple Indian garb, or to lose the habits of the hunter and the warrior, and their poverty prevents them indulging m such luxury of apparel 13
The Osage were the first of the western tribes after the acquisition of Louisiana by the United States to apply for Catholic missionaries. The tradition of the earlier Jesuit workers in the Mississippi Valley persisted far into the nineteenth century. Father Van Quickenborne relates that he and his men after their arrival at Florissant met Indians who had known these predecessors of theirs in this western field 14 Father Odin, the future first Bishop of Galveston, tells in a letter of 1823 of an Indian woman, more than a centenarian in years, who remembered being present at services conducted by eighteenth-century Jesuits. It may, therefore, have been the recollection of the earlier Catholic missionaries which led the Osage to prefer their petition for spiritual aid to Bishop Du Bourg. In the very first issue of the Annales de la Propagation de la Fot that prelate relates a visit which he received in 1820 from seven Osage chiefs. At the head of the deputation was
12 Best short account of the Osage is in Hodge, Handbook of American Indians, sub voce Cf also Kansas Historical Collections 9 26, 27, 245 et seq, Return Ira Holcombe, History of Vernon County, Missouri (St Louis, 1887), William O. Atkeson, History of Bates County, Missouri (Topeka, 1918), Elliott Cones (ed.), Lieut. Zebulon M. Pike's Journal of Travels, Tixier, Voyages aux Prairies Osages, Louisiana et Missouri, 1839-1840 (Pans, 1844) , Cortambert, Voyage aux Pays Des Osages (1837), Lucien Carr, Missouri (Boston, 1888), pp. 100-106
is "They [the Osage] are the tallest and best proportioned Indians m America, few being less than six feet " Kansas Historical Collections, 9 246
14 Van Quickenborne to Dzierozynski, July 25, 1823. (B) For French con- tacts with the Osage, cf. Grant Foreman, "Our Indian Ambassadors to Europe," Missouri Historical Society Collections, 5. 109-128 (1928)
1 78 THE JESUITS OF THE MIDDLE UNITED STATES
the orator, Sans-Nerf. Proud in the possession of a medal and a crucifix which the Bishop presented to each of them, the chiefs departed, after having obtained from their host a promise to visit their villages in the following fall 15
Not finding it possible to carry out his engagement to visit the Osage in person, Bishop Du Bourg, who in the meantime had changed his residence from St. Louis to New Orleans, deputed Father Charles De La Croix, the parish-priest of Florissant, to discharge the mission in his stead Mounted on horseback, this devoted clergyman had met Mother Duchesne and her sisters on the crest of the Charbonniere bluff on their arrival from St. Charles in 1819 and had conducted them thence to their temporary lodgings on the Bishop's Farm, four years later he had welcomed Van Quickenborne and his party to St Ferdi- nand's, subsequently delivering his parish to the Jesuits to retire to another field of labor. Father De La Croix's first visit to the Osage took place in May, i822.16 At that time the tribe was still occupying
15 Ann Prof , I 438, 482
16 For De La Croix's Osage visits cf G J Garraghan, S J , St F& dmand de Florissant the Stoty of an Ancient Pansh (Chicago, 1923), pp 171-183 Con- temporary notices of these visits appeared in Ann Prop, I 450, 484 The date 1821 in Father Michaud's account of De La Croix's first visit (1*484) is an error for 1822 These visits took place, the first in May, the second in August of the same year, 1822, as the missionary's letters to Father Rosati and his baptismal rec- ords clearly indicate (De La Croix a Rosati, June 18, 1822, November 4, 1822 C ) De La Croix's baptisms were transcribed from his ms memoranda into a large folio volume that afterwards served as the first baptismal and marriage register of the Catholic Osage Mission on the Neosho River The transcript was made about 1839, apparently by Father Herman Aelen (Allen), Jesuit missionary resident at the Catholic Potawatomi Mission of Sugar Creek This Osage baptismal register is now in the archives of the Passiomst Monastery, St Paul, Kansas It bears the title, Libei Eaptismahs necnon Matmmomahs Natioms Osagiae, and will be referred to subsequently as the Osage Register
Father De La Croix's Osage baptisms, nearly all of French half-breeds, are dated May 5, 1822 (15), May 7 (3), May 12 (2) — first visit — and August II (12), August 1 6 (i) — second visit The total number of baptisms was thirty- three. The first name in the list of the baptized is that of Antome Chouteau, born in 1817 "Le 5 Mai, fai baptise Antoine Chouteau, ne en i8ij Le pan am Ligueste P Chouteau (Signe) Chs* de la Croix " It has been asserted, errone- ously, as will appear, that these baptisms of May 5, 1822, took place on the site of St Paul, Neosho Co, Kansas. Thus, L Wallace Duncan (publisher), Htstoty of Neosho County, Kansas, 1902 "On May 5, 1822, Father De La Croix baptized Antoine Chouteau (born 1811 [1817]) at St Paul, Kansas This is the first known baptism withm the limits of the County [Neosho] and probably the first within the limits of the country now occupied by the state." For the names of the children baptized by De La Croix m the Osage country, cf infra, Chap XXVII, note I
De La Croix's own letters indicate clearly that on the occasion of his first visit
FIRST VENTURES AMONG THE INDIANS 179
its lands along the Osage River m Missouri, its chief village being near the present town of Papmville in Bates County 17 De La Croix was
to the Osage he did not go beyond the Chouteau trading-post or the principal vil- lage of the tribe, both of which were located eabt of the Missouri state-line "But as they [the other Osage chiefs] were three days' journey from Mr Liguebte Chouteau's, I was unable to go and see them" De La Croix a Rosati, June 18, 1822 Ligueste P Chouteau (m the Osage Regutet, Paul L Chouteau) was United States sub-agent for the Osage and also Indian trader, apparently m the employ of the American Fur Company His trading-post was on the left bank of the Obage about two miles below its junction with the Marais des Cygnes (U S. surveyor's map of Prairie Township, Bates County, Missouri, in Atkeson's History of Bates County, Missouri) See, however, the statement m the Journal (Atkinson, of cit ) of the Harmony missionaries that they came to the Chouteau establish- ment on their way up the Marais des Cygnes after passing the Little Osage According to De La Croix's own statement (De La Croix a De Smet, June 25, 1855) his baptisms of May, 1822, were performed at the Chouteau post and there- fore within the limits of Missouri No evidence is available that they took place on the site of St Paul, Kansas, or anywhere along the Neosho Antome Chouteau's baptism by Father De La Croix, May 5, 1822, is rather the earliest administration of the sacrament on record for western Missouri, beyond Cote-sans-dessem in Calla- way County, where baptisms were performed by De La Croix m 1821 (Cf Bap- tismal Register , St Ferdinand's Church, Florissant, Mo )
As to Father De La Croix's baptisms of August, 1822, on occasion of his second visit to the Osage, no evidence is at hand to determine definitely the place where they were administered This time he visited "all the Osage villages," spending ten days in making the circuit, and even, according to one account, probably an exag- geration, extending his journey three hundred miles beyond the Osage country into the lands of other Indian tribes (Ann Piopy I 450, 484) "This time I have seen the whole nation" (De La Croix a Rosati, November 4, 1822) A careful study of the entries in the Osage Register seems to indicate that De La Croix's eleven baptisms of August 12 were performed at or not far from the same place where he performed those of the preceding May Paul Ligueste Chouteau and Pierre Melicour Papm figure as sponsors in both series of baptisms The record of De La Croix's baptisms m the Osage Register is introduced by the statement that he visited the Osage while they were still living m the state of Missouri (invisit Nationem Osagiam etianmum in Btatu Mtssoutiano degentem)
At all events, it does not seem likely that the baptisms of August 16, 1822, took place among the Osage of the Neosho Father Van Quickenborne states dis- tinctly that his Miss of St Louis's day, August 25, 1827, was the first ever cele- brated among the Osage of the Neosho (Infra, § 3) The inference would seem to be warranted that De La Croix had never visited that part of the Indian territory or at least had never performed there any solemn rites of the Church, as those of public baptism In any case, Van Quickenborne's seventeen baptisms of August 27, September 2, 1827, administered "a Niosho (ftuuius in Terntono Indico) chez Mt Ligueste Chouteau" are the earliest actually recorded for the territory which has since become the state of Kansas.
17 Papmville, named for Pierre Melicour Papm, pioneer Indian trader, is seventy-seven and a half miles south in a straight line from old Fort Osage, now Sibley, Mo , and two miles above the Marais des Cygnes, where it enters the Osage Harmony Mission, established by the Presbyterians in 1821, was on the left
1 80 THE JESUITS OF THE MIDDLE UNITED STATES
received with enthusiasm. Years after the event he wrote to Father De Smet from Ghent in Belgium, where he spent his last days, describ- ing this first recorded visit in the nineteenth century of a Catholic priest to a trans-Mississippi Indian tribe
The opening of the mission among the Osages m 1822 m the name of Mgr. Du Bourg and on behalf of the Jesuit Fathers was an event which has always made me rejoice m the Lord In the second tup I surely expected to leave my bones m that country. I am always interested in news from that mission Has the son of White Hair succeeded his father? 18 White Hair, who became chief shortly before my arrival, showed me every honor and accompanied me everywhere He gave me a grand reception as the fhst envoy from the gieat Bishop The day after my arrival he called the chiefs together in council. A place of honor was reseived for the black-robe, while
bank of the Marais des Cygnes about one and a half miles northwest from the site of Papmville and about three miles from the junction of the Marais des Cygnes with, the Marmiton As to the location of the principal village of the Great Osage before the body of the tribe moved west of the Missouri state-line m the 'twen- ties, it was apparently on the east side of Little Osage River, near the mouth of the Marmiton in Vernon County, Missouri, at a distance of eight or nine miles in a straight line from Harmony Mission. (Letter of Francis La Fleche, Smithsonian Institute, Bureau of Ethnology, m Atkeson, History of Bates County, Missouri, 1918, p 977) This location, the one indicated by Maj Pike, who visited the Great Osage m 1806 (Coues, Pike, p. 529), is accepted by Holcombe m his History of Verizon County and is vouched for by Van Quickenborne "Four years ago the great village of the Osages was but eight miles from this establishment [Harmony Mission] " Van Quickenborne to Dzierozynski, October 21, 1827. (B) On the other hand, W, O Atkeson contends in his History of Bates County , Missoun, p. 62, that "everything points to its site about a mile down the Marais des Cygnes from Harmony Station or practically right where the village of Papmville is now situated . . So, whatever may be thought of Pike's maps or wherever the prin- cipal village may have been in 1 806, it is certain that the mam body of the Grand Osage dwelt about a quarter-mile north of the present village of Papmville and about three-quarters from the Mission school and other buildings on the Marais des Cygnes river at least three miles north of the head of the Osage river m Bates County m 1821 and thereafter until they moved to their new country further west "
18 Pahuska, (White Hair, Cheveux Blancs) , chief of the Great Osage, figures m Pike's Journal and other early records and books of travel According to one account he died a Catholic. (Holcombe, History of Vernon County , Missouri). His successor, Young White Hair, who died in 1833, was chief at the time of De La Croix's visit (Cf. Grant Foreman, Indians and, Pioneeis the Stoty of the- Amencan Southwest [New Haven, Conn, 1930], p, 22) According to the treaty of 1825 the Osage reserve was laid out as a strip fifty miles wide extending westward from White Hair's village, which was situated on the west bank of the Neosho about six miles below the present town of St Paul. Kansas Hist Coll., 8 77 George White Hair, son and successor of White Hair II as chief of the Grand Osage, was baptized by Father Bax, S J , on May 29, 1851, and died January 22, 1852 (Infra, Chap XXVII, § 3).
FIRST VENTURES AMONG THE INDIANS 181
Mr Chouteau, U S sub-agent, was at my side 19 After thanking the great chief and all the other chiefs, among whom was the famous Sans-Nerf, for the extraordinary reception accorded me and assuring them that I would inform our great father at St. Louis of all this enthusiasm, I proceeded to explain the object of my visit They consulted with one another for a space and then the gieat chief White Hair rises, comes toward me, grasps my hand, draws me in among the group of chiefs and pronounces with great dignity the following words "My Father, I am delighted to see you here, I am sorry that you did not come sooner, but come and you will speak the truth " He gave me his hand again and then withdrew to his place Mr. Chouteau and the interpreters told me that they had never heard an answer of that kind, "you will speak the truth," that is to say, "everything that you say will be done " After conveying our thanks we invited them to come the next day to Mr Chouteau's place, where I had prepared a pretty altar, so that they might assist at the Divine Sacrifice and at the baptism of a number of persons I began by explaining in French for the benefit of the many persons present who undei stood that language, the ceremonies of the Mass and afterwards those of Baptism ; I told the chiefs through an interpreter that I was going to speak to the Master of Life and that I would speak to Him for them "Ouai, Ouai," they all answered The services were per- formed without interruption. After Mass I baptized fifteen or twenty persons with all the ceremonies Then Mr. Chouteau called the great chief and all the others according to rank I placed around their necks a beautiful medal and ribbon and also presented each with a fine ivory crucifix When all had returned to their places, I told them that the whites held these objects in great veneiation and that I hoped they would also be satisfied "Ouai, Ouai'" So astonished were they and eager to go and show these articles to their wives and children that they forgot all about dinner.20
19 The Chouteaus became identified at a very early date with the Osage Indian trade Jean Pierre Chouteau, Sr , enjoyed a monopoly of the Osage trade under special license from the Spanish government, but subsequently lost it in large measure to Manuel Lisa Auguste P Chouteau, oldest son of Jean Pierre Chouteau, Sr., was an Osage trader and also U S agent to the tribe in the thirties, dying in 1839 at his trading post on the Verdigris branch of the Arkansas, five miles from Fort Gibson, in what is now Oklahoma His brother, Ligueste P. Chouteau (al Paul Ligueste) was sub-agent and trader among the Osage at the period of Father De La Croix' s first visit of 1822, the principal government agent for the tribe at that time being Maj Richard Graham. Associated with Auguste P Chouteau in the Osage trade was his cousin, Anstide A Chouteau, eldest son of Auguste Chou- teau, Sr All three, Auguste P , Ligueste and Anstide Chouteau are named as sponsors in the De La Croix and Van Quickenborne baptismal records Half- brothers to Auguste P and Ligueste P Chouteau were the trio, Francis Gesseau, Cyprian, and Frederick Chouteau, pioneer Indian traders in the Kaw Valley, the trading post of Francis G Chouteau at the mouth of the Kaw having been the starting-point of Kansas City, Missouri
20 De La Croix a De Smet, June 25, 1855 (A) Though the point remains a little obscure, the incidents narrated in this letter are probably to be referred to De La Croix's first Osage visit rather than to his second Though written more than
1 82 THE JESUITS OF THE MIDDLE UNITED STATES
Such, in the words of Father De La Croix, was the inauguration by him of Catholic missionary enterprise among the western Indian tribes in the nineteenth century In the following August he made a second visit to the Osage Leaving Florissant July 22, he journeyed for twelve days by forest and stream. According to Father Michaud, a priest of the St Louis diocese, who obtained his information direct from Father De La Croix himself, the Osage "were delighted to see him again All the horsemen turned out to meet him . . The head chief and six of his principal officers offered to conduct the missionary to the other villages. Ten days were thus spent, the missionary being every- where received with the same enthusiasm. In one of these villages more than two hundred horsemen, all covered from head to foot with their favorite ornaments, came out a great distance to meet him " 21 Although this second visit was of short duration, the missionary suc- ceeded in making the rounds of all the villages. According to a con- temporary account from Father Odin, the Lazanst, De La Croix pursued his second missionary excursion of 1822 to a distance of a hundred "leagues" (from two hundred and fifty to three hundred miles) beyond the Osage country and into the territory of other Indian tribes 22
§ 3. VAN QUICKENBORNE'S VISITS TO THE OSAGE
Five years after the opening of the Osage Mission by the parish- priest of Florissant, Father Van Quickenborne, following in his footsteps, undertook in the summer of 1827 his first missionary visit to the people of White Hair and Sans Nerf, who had in the meantime moved from Missouri into what is now southeastern Kansas. The chief object of this visit was to secure Osage boys for the Indian school at Florissant. Van Quickenborne had been assured by General Clark that the only way of supplying the school with the desired number of pupils was
thirty years after the incidents recorded, the account appears to be trustworthy and supplements the meagre notice of the visit of May, 1822, contained m De La Croix's letter of June, 1822, to Father Rosati
21 Ann Prof , I 484 (Louvain ed )
22 Idem , I 450 That Father De La Croix extended his missionary trip of the summer of 1822 three hundred miles beyond the Osage country is improbable The missionary's own brief contemporary account (De La Croix a Rosati, Novem- ber 4, 1822, in Garraghan, Sf Ferdinand de Flonssant, p. 182), does not indicate that he journeyed west such a considerable distance It has been asserted that in the course of one of his Osage trips he visited the French settlers at the mouth of the Kaw on the site of Kansas City, Mo,, the assertion cannot be substantiated by any evidence, contemporary 01 otheiwise Cf Garraghan, Catholic Beginnings in Kan- sas City, Missouri, p 26
FIRST VENTURES AMONG THE INDIANS 183
to visit the Indian villages and negotiate in person with chiefs and parents for the education of their children
This visit [of the loway chiefs] and other circumstances have made me see much better than before how little we can rely on Indians or on the efforts of Indian agents in behalf of our Seminary You must remember what the Secretary of War said to Bishop Du Bourg, viz that he wanted Jesuits Now, Rev. Father Superior, we must go out and make a choice of Indian boys Let the Indians know us Agents have told me this and Gen- eral Clarke is dubious of the success of the undertaking unless we do it 23
Writing to the Father General in June, 1825, Van Quickenborne emphasizes as the chief advantage of a personal visit to the Indians the opportunity it would afford, not of recruiting the Indian school, but of baptizing a number of native children
It is now going on four years since I have been m the neighborhood of the Indian villages without being allowed to go and bring them spiritual aid There aie three tribes really friendly to us Every year 120 children die among them and these children we could, by visiting the tribes once a year, regenerate in baptism and so secure for heaven Two of those tribes are only a four days' journey away from us, the third an eight days' journey The secular priest who had charge of this parish before we came paid an an- nual [?] visit to one of these tribes On the last occasion he baptized 76 persons We have had to forego all this by obedience and we obeyed.
And now, though most unworthy to be called your son, suppliant and prostrate at the feet of your Paternity, and in the names of the Saints, Ignatius, oui Fathei, and Xavier the apostle of the Indians, I ask and be- seech you. Very Reverend Father, to grant me permission to go myself or send some one of Ours once a year to these three tribes It is impossible to keep up our Seminary unless we meet these tnbes at least occasionally in their villages We shall in this manner obtain every year the salvation of 120 little ones and sometimes more Not seldom, too, old people, sick or dying might be brought over to Christ and so disposed for a pious death
But to accomplish this, at least in part, we need to be helped by your Very Rev Paternity. The government is now considering what we are going to do If we are left to ourselves, there is great reason to fear that we shall spoil everything. There would have to be one father to visit the Indian tribes, cultivate their friendship, conduct the boys to our seminary, attend the councils which are held in St Louis in presence of the General Superin- tendent and cultivate our friends m the Indian country Moreover, one [father] at least would have to be sent to hold command in a district It will be his duty to govern all the Indians living m the district, not only in spirituals but also in temporals since his support will come from the Govern- ment and since the Indians will be governed by American laws and will be
28 Van Quickenborne to Dzierozynski, Florissant, January 10, 1825 (A)
1 84 THE JESUITS OF THE MIDDLE UNITED STATES
aided considerably by the Government in temporals He will have to deal with government officials and will accordingly have to stay sometime in our Seminary to learn the laws and language of this country There will also be need of two lay-brothers up in farming to teach the Indians to woik In all these things he will meet with many difficulties Your Very Rev Paternity sees, therefore, what kmd of men are desired here. I think it would be rash to expose our young men to such serious danger without some grave man of God24
It was not until the visit of the Maryland superior to Florissant in the fall of 1827 that Van Quickenborne's petition to be allowed to visit the Indians in person was granted On August 7 of that year he set out from Florissant on his first excursion to the Osage Indians. This visit had its significance, marking as it did the formal opening of the missionary activity of the Missouri Jesuits among the Indian tribes of the West. For details concerning it we shall reproduce Father Van Quickenborne's own narratives, contained in two letters, one of them addressed to Father Dzierozynski and the other to Madame Xavier, a religious of the Sacred Heart. The letter to his superior, which is in English, is taken up largely with his experiences at the Harmony Presbyterian mission near Papinville, Bates Co., Missouri, through which he passed on his way to the Osage villages on the Neosho.
I started, as your Reverence knows, on the octave of our holy Father St. Ignatius [August 7] in company with Mr Hamtramck, who has been always very kind and obliging to me 25 The first night after my departure from home, I lodged at St, Charles, where Mr McKay, the mason who built part of the church, came to see me, threw himself on his knees and said that he would stick to the articles of agreement Of course the business is settled with him and I paid him what I [had] offered to him He was very glad to come off so easy. I travel as a missionary, having with me my chapel I had to take moreover my tent, mosquito bar and blankets for my bed and some little presents, which made my burden rather heavy. The distance is about 350 miles, which we travel in 1 6 days In those parts of the country, this is the way of travelling At night the horses are let loose, hobbled how- ever, and they must look out for themselves, for all the way from Jefferson City to the Neosho, there is no corn to be had In the morning, the first thing
24 Van Quickenborne ad Fortis, June 29, 1825 (AA)
25 John F Hamtramck, son of Col John Francis Hamtramck, the latter a dis- tinguished soldier in the American Revolution Col Hamtramck died in Detroit, of which place he had been military commandant Hamtramck, a Detroit suburb, is named for him and he figures in a bit of Detroit romance (Hamlm, Legends of Detroit). General William H. Harrison was guardian of Col Hamtramck's chil- dren Billon, Annals of St Louis in its Territorial Days, p. 172. A daughter of John F* Hamtramck, Jr., Mary Rebecca, was baptized in St Ferdinand's Church, Florissant, Mo., by Bishop Du Bourg, July 19, 1822.
FIRST VENTURES AMONG THE INDIANS 185
is to catch the horses. Saddling and packing being done, the day's journey begins, and this always before sunrise Betwixt ten and eleven o'clock the march stops, the horses are unsaddled, unpacked and permitted to feed. At this hour breakfast and dinner is taken About three o'clock you start for your place of encampment, which is always taken about nvers or woods with springs; water has always been a plenty The bed consists of a skin which covers the ground (and) two or three blankets, the whole is covered by the mosquito bar, and I can assure you that I slept as comfortably as I ever did on a bed of down Until the Neosho we had no river to swim. Harmony is a place on the Osage river 26 Here the Society of Presbytenans of Boston have a missionary establishment called by them Harmony. It is about 120 miles from the City of Jefferson (seat of government of this State) and as many from Lexington on the Missouri Four years ago the great village of the Osages was but eight miles from this establishment Two or three years ago the Indian title to this land has been extinguished and now Harmony and the old site of the Osage village are within the limits of the state . In consequence of the sale of their lands, the Indians [Osage] have removed their village to the banks of the Neosho nver about 70 or 68 miles further m a southwest direction.27 Here (on the Neosho within 20 miles) the whole nation is gathered in four villages, one called the great village (to this Clair- mont's band must join itself next spring), another called the village of the Little Osage. There are besides two small ones of little importance The site of these villages is not likely to be removed,
1st, because the government with a view of preventing it, has built them
26 For location of Harmony Mission see sutpray note 1 7
27 Though the body of the Great Osage had removed to the Neosho Valley before 1827, many of the tribe were at this time still living in Bates and Vernon Counties, Missouri "Four years ago the great Osage village was only eight miles distant from this establishment [Harmony], but at present it is seventy miles, the Indians having sold their lands to the United States Still, many among them have been unable to make up their minds to quit the locality which has seen their birth and where they have been reared They continue living in the neighborhood, and in their midst it is that I began my mission " Van Quickenborne a Madame Xavier, Nov 6, 1827, in Ann Prop, 3 512 Osage bands were living on the Neosho before the mam body of the Great Osage moved there from Missouri in the twenties G C Sibley, factor at Fort Osage (now Sibley, Mo ) in a letter to Thomas L McKenney, October i, 1820, distinguishes three divisions of the Osage, exclusive of those of the Arkansas or Verdigris (i) the Great Osage of the Osage River, living in one village on the Osage River, seventy-eight miles due south of Fort Osage and numbering about twelve hundred souls, three hundred and fifty of them warriors and hunters, fifty or sixty superannuated, the rest women and children, (2) the Great Osage of the Neosho, and numbering about four hundred souls, about one hundred of them warriors and hunters, the rest aged persons, women and children, (3) the Little Osage living in three villages on the Neosho and numbering about a thousand souls, about three hundred of them warriors and hunters, twenty or thirty superannuated, the rest women and children. Kansas Hist. Coll., 9 26.
1 86 THE JESUITS OF THE MIDDLE UNITED STATES
three houses and very good and laige houses, too, for the three principal chiefs 3
2d, in consequence of this expense ($6000), the agent will not be per- mitted to let them move elsewhere,
3d, here the government has also fixed two blacksmiths and one faimer and is now building for each a house,
4th, the site and countiy is beautiful, healthy, well- watered and ex- tremely liked by the Osage,
5th, the nation has now only fifty miles in width left them
Where lines are run, other nations join them south The State line is northeast [east] and this they may not approach within 25 miles 2S West are very strong nations with whom the United States have had as yet no intercourse, so that, although they could wish to move, they cannot The Agent, Superintendent and Secretary of War think there are 20,000 Osages Some think they are not so numerous The principal chiefs have invited me to their lodges, have been very kind towards me and promised to send me their boys They are, I believe, good Indians You will have an opportunity to see them next winter at the college, if you choose I would be glad of it
Metifs or half-breed Indians Some fifty years ago two or three Canadian Frenchmen from Canada, came to this nation, married Indian women, had children, and their children have remained with the nation and have also married Indian women (Inter nos most of the traders have also such women) Some of these children have lived for a few years, some at St. Charles, some at Cote Sans Dessein and some at Florissant, where they have been instructed in the true religion Most of these metifs have been baptized by Catholic priests and all of them have an aversion for the Protestant religion. They neglect, however, the practice of their own re- ligion with few exceptions They all wish to have a Catholic priest and if they could give their children to our school, they would take them from the missionary school at Harmony To twenty-three of these metifs Government has given a tract of land.29
28 The east line of the Osagc reserve zan parallel to the Missouri state-line and twenty-five miles west of it "The reserve was fifty miles wide and extended westward from White Hair's village, an Indian encampment which is supposed to have been situated on the Neosho river about six miles below the present city of St Paul " The treaty provided that the western boundary should be a line "run- ning from the head source of the Arkansas liver south waidly through the rich Saline — probably as far West as the Osages had ever dared to assert an occupancy- claim " Annie Heloise Abel, "Indian Reservations in Kansas and the Extinguish- ment of their Title" m Kansas Hist Cofl , 8 77 With a view to prevent hostile contact between Indians and whites, the treaty of 1825 creating the Osage reserve set up a "buffer state" twenty- five miles m width between the east boundary of the Osage reserve and the Missouri state-line This narrow strip, acquired by the Cherokee from the federal government m 1836 after the extinction of the Osage half-breed title, became known as the Cherokee Neutral Lands
29 The names of these metifs or mixed-bloods are listed m the text of the Osage treaty of June 2, 1825 Cf Kappler, Indian Laws and Treaties, 2 219. The names occur passim in the De La Croix and Van Quickenborne baptismal
FIRST VENTURES AMONG THE INDIANS 187
The establishment at Harmony
The establishment is governed as to the general concerns by a board of Commissioners The Reverend gentlemen at Harmony aie of the Presby- terian persuasion They have an establishment at Harmony, a station on the Neosho and anothei at Union on the Arkansas nver near Clairmont's band Each receives from Government $600 30 The Superintendent at Harmony is called Dodge. This gentleman of very common abilities has a pretty numerous family. A certain Mr Hasten with his numerous family makes out another part of the establishment By the Indians, Superintendent of Indian Affairs, Geneial Clark, agents and tiaders they are despised and ill-spoken of to excess, and represented as self seeking people, seeking foi nothing but money The Indians call Mr. Dodge Tabosca, a name they gave also to me. It signifies a man with a white neck, they gave this name because the first priest that went to them appeared in a white surplice No metif or Indian would listen to their doctrine or join them, so that they have not made as yet a single convert. Their reprehensions and accusations made out of season to and about the traders and agents render them odious Towards me they have been extremely kind At Harmony I was invited by Mr Dodge to lodge in his house, (of) which offer I accepted, since Mr Harntramck lodged there too and intended to make a stay of two days Previous notice
records Early in the thirties Van Quickenborne projected a sort of "reduction" or model settlement on the Marmiton River, to which he was willing to admit such among the half-breeds as promised to live in a Christian way "Se\eral metif s and Frenchmen living with Indian women expiessed an ardent wish to come to the new establishment, promising to lead there a Christian life " Commenting on this Father Paul Ponziglione, S J , resident missionary at the Catholic Osage Mission for forty years, writes "In regard to this point, I feel proud to be able to say, that having personally known many of these people when I was living at the Osage Mission, the majority kept the promise they had made, and not only did they show themselves good Christians, but were of great assistance to us in bringing the full-blooded Osages to embrace Christianity" WL, 25 359
30 The first missionary post established among the Osage of the Neosho was Union Mission, begun m 1820 on the west bank of the Grand or Neosho by the United Foreign Missionary Society (Associate Reformed and Reformed Presby- terian Dutch Churches in the United States) In 1824. another station (Presby- terian) was established on the west bank of the Neosho north, of Shaw A third mission, "Boudmot" (also Presbyterian) was opened by Rev. Nathaniel B Dodge in 1831 It was located on the east bank of the Neosho River near Four Mile Creek (The above dates differ from those indicated in Kansas Hist Coll , 9 571) These early missionaries did not make a success of their ventures among the Osage and withdrew from the field The records left by them are of importance for the pioneer history of "the Osage country" (Cf. Foreman, Indians and, PtoneetS) p 92 et seq ) As regards Harmony Mission, Atkeson writes in his Htstoty of Bates County, Missouri, p 75 "All the evidence obtainable of results at Harmony Mission school in this county goes to show that the ten years' earnest effort that was put forth m their behalf was poorly rewarded Indeed, it may be said that the school was a flat failure "
1 88 THE JESUITS OF THE MIDDLE UNITED STATES
was given me that they attacked every one that came to their house on the score of religion After supper the whole family was pleased to be in the unusual company of a priest and as a matter of course Mr. Dodge, having his brother minister, the Rev. Mr Jones at his side, broached the subject of religion After he had put me some questions, among others this, "what sect are the Jesuits ?" — which I answered to his satisfaction, I observed that our faith ought to be leasonable, that to be so, sufficient motives for believing were required and that to captivate our understanding and believe a mystery nothing short of the authority of God could be a sufficient motive and that in order to be obliged to believe that mystery an infallible witness was neces- sary which with infallible certainty should assure us that God had revealed that mystery. The gentlemen agreed to all this, for I had spoken of the Unitarians and I applied these things to them We all agreed that the Unitarians had no reasonable faith As the gentleman had put me some questions, I used the same liberty, and asked whether he believed in the Trinity? R[eply] Yes.
Qfuestion]. Can you give me sufficient reason for believing m the Trinity?
R The Bible
Q But we have seen that the Unitarian proves from his Bible that there is no Trinity. What reason have you to prefer your bible to his bible ? R. The spirit.
Q. In Holy Scripture mention is made of two kinds of spirit, the spirit of lies and the spmt of truth. What reason have you to believe that you have the spmt of truth and not the spirit of lies? R. The spirit
Q. I observed that since he had no reason why he should believe his spirit to be the spirit of truth, he had no sufficient reason to believe m the Trinity The gentleman replied, "but what reason have you?" I answered that I would give my reason after we should have settled the first point He began then again to attempt to prove that he had a reason to believe m the Trinity But a sufficient reason was required — he could not give it. I was again asked why I believed m the Trinity. I promised again to give my reasons after the first point would be settled He tried for a third time to give a sufficient reason for believing in the Trinity but could not. The conclusions bi ought m against him were [i] that he had no reasonable faith, 2, that since he had no sufficient reason to believe in the doctrines of his church, he was not allowed to preach these doctrines, 3, that under pain of eternal damnation he was required to inquire into the matter. The gentleman could make no objec- tion to this I then gave my reasons. His only objection was that our church had changed its doctrines, but when proofs of this objection were asked he was stopped short. Before we retired, I told him that I knew what Indian children he had m his school, for I was their pastor, "for" I said, "they are members of our church and I have charge over them." Consequently I hoped he would have no objection that the next day they would attend the divine service I was to give at the United States factory, a pretty large
FIRST VENTURES AMONG THE INDIANS 189
building a few hundred steps from Mr Dodge's and the use of which was given me by the agent 31
R. I have no objection
Q Mr Dodge, there are several others whom I know that have not as yet been baptized but wish to be baptized. Will you be so kind as to let them also come?
R. No, sir
Q Mr. Dodge, I know the parents of these children and have spoken to them on the subject. If in any wise you prevent them from following the religion of their choice, they will surely withdraw their children
R. I will let them go if their parents come for them
Of course I went to their parents and the next day they all came with their children to my chapel The church vestments which Mr. De La Croix had used there had been given to the care of Mr Dodge and were found in good order They are nicer and richer than any we have at home In- stead of an altar piece, I had a banner of fine silk elegantly embroidered and bearing a fine engraving of the Blessed Virgin 32 I can say that my altar was well fixed. Early m the morning the place was ciowded with Indians. The first that came to confession was an Osage of twenty-one years old, who knew a little of the French language I was extremely pleased with his modest behavior About the hour appointed for Mass I began to baptize those whom I had prepared Mr. Dodge and Mrs. Dodge, with the Rev Mr. Jones and Mr. Hasten with all their families came to Mass, sermon and the ceremony of baptism In their presence I baptized about one-third of their school, m all eighteen, but of these eighteen, several, perhaps six were not of their school.33 The families of these gentlemen seemed to be pleased with the explanation of the ceremonies and some even of the ladies offered themselves to be god-mothers. After Mass there re- mained as yet six grown boys and girls to whom I wished to give some more instruction before I began with them Rev. Mr Dodge begged leave of me to address the congregation Although his intentions were very good, no doubt, I did not think proper to grant it, giving for reason that it was against the rules of our church. The building could not by far contain the
B1 The authority cited m Atkeson, History of Bates County , Mtssouti, is seemingly in error m locating the United States factory a mile away from Harmony Mission.
32 "The day for baptizing having come, I fixed up my altar as well as 1 could The chief ornament was a handsome banner from Madame Duchesne, showing a beautiful picture of the Blessed Virgin, embroidered by the young ladies of the Sacred Heart boarding-school. It was an object of delight to the Indian women" Ann. Prop, 3 5*3-
33 The record of these eighteen baptisms performed by Van Quickenborne at Harmony Mission, August 21, 1827, is entered m French in the missionary's own handwriting m the baptismal register of St. Ferdinand's Church, Florissant, Mo. (Eafteme des Qsages a harmony le 21 aout 1827) For the names of the children baptized on this occasion, nearly all Osage half-breeds, cf mfra, Chap. XXVII, note I.
1 90 THE JESUITS OF THE MIDDLE UNITED STATES
Indians who wished to be present All the time of divine service, they be- haved lemarkably well To all those whom I baptized I gave a medal or a crucifix I told the grown boys and gnls of Mr Dodge's school that they were not allowed by their icligion to join him in religious worship and that if they should preach to them, they should not listen to their preaching Nothing more was necessary to make a talk Children cannot keep a secret and in fact there was none No sooner had they returned home but they told their teachers cthe priest has said that we should not listen to you ' Mr Hasten to my great satisfaction came to me and asked whether I had reallv said so After he had heard my explanation, in which I remarked that it was my duty to tell them so, he was satisfied as were also the rev- erend gentlemen whom I called to be witnesses of my explanation The next day Mr Dodge invited me to visit his school and there I saw my little and big fellows whom I had baptized, with their medals and crosses on their necks
On my return I was again received most kindly and they even went so far as to piepare provisions and comforts for my travelling They appeared to me to be moial, industrious, peaceable and good-natured people They related to me how much they had to suffer m the beginning, what privations they had to undergo, how many days they had been without bread and corn, how many days they had to live in tents34 On my return I met several Americans [ms ? ] the Osage village, some hunting after their strayed horses and some after bees Among the Osages lives a farmer to teach them how to make a faim, and two blacksmiths to mend their guns and hoes When will the time come that we will have at least as much courage as these men? If your Reverence cannot give me a Superior or companion, I am willing to go alone
Miserculus tuns
C. F Van Quickenborne " 35
From Harmony Mission Father Van Quickenborne travelled south- west to the Osage villages on the Neosho What befell him in the Osage country is told in a letter of his to Madame Xavier 36
From there [Harmony] I set out for the great village situated on the bank of the Neosho river, two days' jouiney from Harmony About a hundred Indians came out to meet the agent in whose company I was. We put up at Mr Chouteau's place I had the happiness of saying on the feast of St Louis, August 25, the first Mass ever said in this country. It was a Saturday and the following day I proclaimed a jubilee for the few Creoles living among the Osage Three days after our arrival, I was invited
34 Details of these distressing experiences are recorded in the journal of the Harmony missionaries reproduced in Atkeson's history
85 Van Quickenborne to Dzierozynski, Florissant, October 21, 1827 (B). The Latin tmserculus tuus may be freely rendered, "yours in great misery *'
36 A nun of the Society of the Sacred Heart.
FIRST VENTURES AMONG THE INDIANS 191
to dinner by the chief of the great village, and two days later by the chief of a village of the Osage twenty miles farther up the Neosho I was de- lighted with the reception they gave me as well as with the dispositions they manifested. I remained with them two weeks and baptized seventeen persons37 The three principal chiefs have said that they would send their children to the Seminary and I am inclined to think that they will do so When I walked through the village, my religious garb easily maiked me off from others, and a troop of youngsters followed me Nothing could have given me greater pleasure, but as soon as I turned around to say something to them, off they would scamper and hide behind the first house on the way However, two little fellows, sons of the chief, having each received a medal from me ran off at once to show themselves (with their new decoration suspended around their neck by a pretty ribbon) to their companions, who thereupon were ready enough to approach me How gladly I should have taught them some catechism' But not knowing their language, I could only give them the little presents I carried with me, while praying their guardian angels to obtain for them soon the favor of becoming members of the Church of Jesus Christ I was strongly urged to build a church among them and I have hopes of seeing soon a parish composed of Indians Sixteen square miles of land have been given to the metifs at a distance of fifty miles from the great village, besides twenty-three square miles at a distance of seventy miles. They are anxious to settle on these lands provided they can have a priest to instruct them and their children Let us pray the Lord of the harvest to send good workeis 3S
Father Van Quickenborne's visit to the Osage in 1827 was followed by a report to Father Dzierozynski on the difficulties of missionary work on behalf of that tribe
Obstacles to the conversion of the savages.
I. To make Christians of them you ought first to make them men They must abandon then savage manner of living which, as practiced by them, is one continuation of mortal sins [i.e. objectively, without raising the
37 These baptisms, "a Ntosho ch&z Mi Ligueste Chouteau^ the earliest of explicit record as having taken place within the limits of Kansas, were entered by Van Quickenborne m the register of St Ferdinand's Church, Florissant, Mo , immediately after his return from the Neobho The names of the baptized, nearly all of them Osage half-breed children, are Henry Mongram (son of Noel fete and of Tonpapai, aged two years, sponsor, Mr Liguebte P Chouteau), Julie Mongram, daughter of Noel, Antome [Vasseur], Basile Vasseur, Frangois Mongram, Pierre Mongram, Louis Alexander Chouteau, John Francis Chouteau, Pelagic Chouteau, Angehque Quenville, Joseph. Mongram, Pelagic Mongram, Alexandre Ligueste Chouteau, Clemence Williams, Paul Mongram, Julie Mongram, daughter of Basile, Christophe Mongram Sponsors in these baptisms were Ligueste Chouteau, P M Papm, Major Hamtramck, Louis Peltier, Alexander Peter, P. L Mongram and Christophe Sangumet.
38 Ann. Prof, 3 513
192 THE JESUITS OF THE MIDDLE UNITED STATES
question of subjective guilt] A change of the whole nation would have to take place either by the influence of the chiefs or agent or missionary, but neither of these can do it sepaiately, but to do it in concordance is impos- sible (moially speaking) Several most influential individuals find it to their interest to keep the Indians in the state in which they are The chiefs by themselves have not power to make laws or regulations binding on the nation, to forbid, for instance, things essentially contrary to a civilized life, neither has the agent The American eye could never behold a Catholic pnest directing or influencing both agent and chiefs and superintendent and secretary of war to make laws of his own liking. However, without some laws it is impossible to live with them
2. The fickleness of agents. These like the tiaders, are mostly keeping Indian women. To my certain knowledge, Mr. Hamtramck has none, yet since some time he has left off the practice of his religion. A missionary living in the nation would easily offend them Once offended they have it in their power to make the situation of the missionary so cruel that he could not stand it. The Protestant missionary who lives at the Indian village gets nearly every week a good flogging from some or other Indian fellow.
3. The plurality of wives and the barbarous custom relating to them. The riches of an Osage consists in having many wives, many girls and many horses. If he has many wives, he has many slaves, if he has many girls, he has many objects which he can sell very dear, for every wife must be bought. When a father thinks his daughter has not a good husband, he takes her away to his lodge and sells her.
Plan to be pursued in conversion of the Osage nation.
Begin an establishment near Harmony on the land of the metifs Buy one quarter section of land of some of them and build a church and house for two missionaries and one or two brothers One might keep a school, but only a day-school Good families (Indians whom I know) may be found where the boys and girls, separately however, shall be kept, that would not have their paients near the establishment. The expense would be $3,000.
Advantages l) The land belonging to the metifs is an object of attrac- tion to them 2) Attraction of church and school. 3) Site of old village — hence many Indians go there. 4) From this establishment missionaries can ride in one day to the great Osage village 5) A whole township of late Osage land is to be sold for school fund; we would receive a part of the fund for our school, as General Clark told us.
Disadvantages The place is rather nigh to the Protestant missionary establishment. If we should destroy their school by drawing their children to ours, we would incur their indignation.
I most earnestly wish that your Reverence explicitly approve of this establishment and name the two Fathers and brothers whom you destine for it. I offer myself, not to be Superior but as one that will carry their baggage and be his whole life time their servant. Father De Smet would be proper
FIRST VENTURES AMONG THE INDIANS 193
to go and I am very willing to take him as my Superior. Next year it should be commenced.39
In the settlements along the Mississippi the adventurous trip of the Jesuit superior to the Osage in their homes beyond the Missouri state-line stirred a more than ordinary interest. Father Odin wrote from the Barrens to his parents in France relating the incidents, while Father Bouillier in a letter from New Orleans containing a brief account of the excursion commented "At the present writing Father Van Quicken- borne is on the point of going to the Osage for the second time, his zeal is indefatigable." 40 In the spring of 1828 the latter found the oppor- tunity for a second excursion to the Indian country. Early m that year the recently ordained priests at St Ferdinand had begun the exercises of the tertianship under the direction of Father Van Qmckenborne. At the close, on February 7, of the retreat of thirty days, they were assigned to various missionary and ministerial duties which necessitated their absence from the Seminary. The superior, thus left free to pursue missionary work of his own, set out from Florissant for the Osage country in the spring of 1828.
Visiting first the Harmony Mission on the Marais des Cygnes, where he renewed acquaintance with the Osage children he had baptized the preceding year, he continued his journey thence to the Great Osage village on the Neosho. Here and in other Indian villages m the vicinity he discharged his ministry, preaching and administering the sacraments. He performed seventeen baptisms m the course of this second Osage excursion, of which, however, no record has survived Many adult Indians were eager to be baptized; but of the number he found only five or six worthy of the grace, the loose, savage ways of the average Osage adult being an effectual barrier to the practice of a Christian life. When Van Quickenborne set out on his return journey from the Neosho, he had in his company a little Osage "prince," who, with some display of Indian ceremony, had been delivered to his charge to be educated in the Indian school at Florissant.41
In 1830 Father Van Quickenborne paid a third visit to the Osage. His route brought him first to their villages along the Marmiton River m what is now Bourbon County, Kansas, not far from the present Fort Scott. From the Marmiton he turned to the southwest, it has been said, visiting on his way all the Indian lodges on the Neosho as far as its junction with the Saline, about forty miles north of Fort Gibson and establishing missionary stations m the Osage settlements on the Chou-
89 Van Quickenborne to Dzierozynsh, Florissant, October n, 1827. (B).
40 Am. Prof, 3 $19, 535
41 Ann. Prof.y 4 572.
194 THE JESUITS OF THE MIDDLE UNITED STATES
teau, Pryor and Cabin creeks. This would have led him far within the limits of what is now Oklahoma and made him probably the first priest to exercise the ministry in that part of the West 42
42 The Osage Register throws no light on Van Quickenborne's itinerary of 1830 except to indicate that he was near the Marmiton and Marais des Cygneb Rivers on the Missouri bolder The particulars of this itinerary as given in the text are supplied by Father Paul Ponzighone, S J , veteran Osage missionary, from what source is not known, they cannot be verified WL, 13 19 Van Quicken- borne's Osage baptisms of 1830, as entered in the Osage Register , comprise three on June 8, "Done at the house of Francis D'Aybeau near the banks of the Marmi- ton n\er, opposite the place where formerly was the village of the grand Soldat," and six on June 9, "Done at the house of Joseph Entaya near the Marais des Cygnes " Moreover, there ib a record in the same register of three marriage cere- monies which the missionary performed at the house of Francis D'Aybeau on June 8 These nine baptisms and three marriages are the only rites recorded for the trip of 1830 The marriage entries are as follows "1830, Jum 8, the 3 Publi- cations having been dispensed with, I have received the mutual consent of and given the nuptial blessing according to the rites of our holy Mother, the Catholic Church, to the three following couples
I, Francis D'Aybeau, akas Brugiere, a Frenchman, and Mary, an Osage woman
2 Joseph Brown, alias Equesne, a Frenchman, son of Stephen Brown and Acile Giguiere, and Josette D'Aybeau, daughter of Francis D'Aybeau, a Metif girl of the Osage nation
3, Basile Vasseur, son of a Basil [e], who was a half-breed of the Osage nation, and Mary, an Osage woman, daughter of Kanza Shmga
The witnesses have been Chnstophe Sangumet and Louis Peltier Done at the house of Francis D'Aybeau near the banks of the Marmiton river, 8 Jum, 1830
(Signed) Chs F Van Quickenborne, S J "
Particulars about the three above named couples are contained in a report of Van Quickenborne's dated £ 1833 relative to his plans for a "reduction" or Chris- tian settlement among the Osage half-breeds of the Missouri border "When I was last time in that country, June, 1830, three good families, by my aduce, had removed from the villages and had actually commenced a life of civilized persons and good Christians as far as they knew One more family was expected eveiy day The heads of two of these families were metifb, or three quarteis Indian blood, the third is a Canadian, a truly well disposed man, fit to be an interpreter, the fourth is a half-metif . the place where these four families live is called Le Village du Grand Soldat on the banks of the Marmiton nver, about 300 miles from St Charles m a southwest direction These should be visited immediately and made acquainted with our final resolution of remaining among them The place where the four families live is not proper for the new establishment — they wish to remove and therefore should have timely notice — the fathers must abso- lutely live where these families are, not only to instruct them, but to learn the Indian language." WL, 25 354 The location of Big Soldier Village has not been identified by the writer If west of the Missouri state-line near the site of Fort Scott m Bourbon County, Kansas, as Father Ponzighone seems to intimate, then Van Quickenborne's three marriages of June 8, 1830, are the earliest certified church marriages in the state of Kansas
CHAPTER VII EARLY PAROCHIAL MINISTRY
§ I ST. FERDINAND
A contemporary memorandum in the St Louis archdiocesan archives records that "St. Charles, St Ferdinand, Dardenne and the other mis- sions were given to the Jesuits on June 3, 1823 " Later, in September of the same year, Father Van Quickenborne informed the Jesuit su- perior in Maryland that Bishop Du Bourg approved his taking charge of St Charles and the other parishes 1
The assertion, a gratuitous one, may be met with that Father Sebastien-Louis Meurm, last survivor of the eighteenth-century Jesuits in the Mississippi Valley, was the first priest to exercise the ministry in the Creole settlement known as St. Ferdinand de Florissant, but more generally as St. Ferdinand or Florissant. Thirteen years after the pass- ing of Father Meurm (1777) the church records of Florissant open with the interment in the parish-cemetery, November 9, 1790, of Hyacmthe La Mere (Lamaire), the ceremony taking place "en presence de -plusieurs de cette parotsse " Very likely the organization of the parish was due to Father Bernard de Limpach, Capuchin pastor of St. Louis, whence he withdrew to another field of labor in the November of I789.2 Already m 1789 a church and presbytery had been erected3 On August 5, 1792, the Benedictine, Father Pierre Joseph Didier, then resident at St. Charles, baptized Claude Pallet, this being the first entry in the parochial Registre de$ Baf femes Father Didier was fol- lowed m the care of the parish by the Recollect, Leander Lusson, the Capuchin, Thomas Flynn, and the diocesan priest, James Maxwell. None of these clergymen, however, with the probable exception of Father Didier, made their residence at any time at Florissant.4 The
1 Van Quickenborne to Neale, Florissant, September 23, 1823. (B)
2 J Rothenstemer, "P Bernard von Limpach und die Anfange der Kirche in St Louis," Pastoral Blatt (St Louis), 52 113
3 The first St Ferdinand's church, which continued to stand after the erection of the second church, the present one, was destroyed by fire m the summer of 1836.
4 According to testimony given by Hyacmthe Deshetres, builder of Florissant's first church, before Recorder of Land Titles Theodore Hunt in 1825, Dunand owned and cultivated a lot in Florissant about 1795. Hunt's Minutes, I 6. (Library of Missouri Historical Society, St. Louis )
195
196 THE JESUITS OF THE MIDDLE UNITED STATES
first resident pastors appear to have been the Trappist monks who arrived there in the spring of 1809, but departed thence some months later for Illinois where they settled at the well-known Big Mound on the outskirts of East St Louis. From there Father Dunand and his brother priests made periodical visits to Florissant, Dunand continuing them after the departure of the Trappist group from Illinois, at which time he went to reside at St Charles In 1814 he took up his residence in Florissant. Here, endeared to the village folk, to whom he was familiarly known as the Father Prior from the circumstance that he had filled that post in the Trappist community, he continued to discharge the duties of pastor until April, 1820, when Father Charles De La Croix took charge of the parish.
Dunand's pastorate at Florissant saw the erection there under his superintendence of a convent of the Religious of the Sacred Heart. The building, which stood on an out-lot of the town between two creeks and on the line of St Frangois Street prolonged, was first occupied by the nuns in December, 1819. Two years later was built a new church, which adjoined the convent on the southwest. On February 19, 1821, Father De La Croix laid the corner-stone, which was a gift from Mother Duchesne. Florissant's second house of worship, dedicated to the Sacred Heart of Jesus under the invocation of St. Ferdinand and St. John Francis Regis, was solemnly blessed November 21, i82i.5 With the church of red brick that thus arose under Father De La Croix's enter- prising direction, Mother Duchesne had intimate associations. "During my illness," she wrote in her journal, "I felt sorry to die before I had erected a public oratorv in honor of the Sacred Heart. I spoke of it to the Bishop and he decided that the church he is going to build at Florissant should be dedicated to the Sacred Heart, and to St. Ferdi- nand only in a secondary manner." The fervent nun had taken to heart the words Mother Barat had spoken to her on her departure for America: "If in the country where you are going you were to do no more than erect one altar to the Sacred Heart of Jesus, it would be enough for your happiness in eternity." 6 The choice of the Jesuit saint, John Francis Regis, as one of the patrons of the new church, was likewise made in deference to Mother Duchesne, who had solicited this favor of Bishop Du Bourg.T It is noteworthy that devotion to St. John Francis Regis had appeared at a still earlier period in the American West. Father Gravier, seventeenth-century Jesuit missionary
5 Garraghan, St Ferdinand de Florissant, p 167.
6 Baunard, Lije of Mother Duchesne, p 215.
7 The history of Mother Duchesne's devotion to St John Francis Regis is traced by her m a letter to Mother Barat, 1818 Marjone Erskme, Mother
Duchesne (New York, 1926), p. 346 et seq
EARLY PAROCHIAL MINISTRY 197
in the "Illinois country," found a relic of the saint the most potent of preservatives against malignant fever
The transfer of St. Ferdinand parish to the Jesuits was effected as soon as circumstances allowed. Father De La Croix administered his last baptism in the church on June 4 and Father Van Quickenborne his first on June 19, 1823. On June 12 De La Croix noted in the baptismal register that after paying out six thousand dollars for the new church he had still three hundred and fifty-five dollars in debts, "which Mr. Van Quickenborne has the goodness to assume." Moreover, there were owing to the church some three hundred and eighty dollars which were to be paid m the course of the following year. "Mr. De La Croix left the affairs of the parish in good order," witnessed Van Quickenborne in the first letter sent by him from Florissant to Father Rosati, vicar-general for upper Louisiana. De La Croix must have left Florissant about the middle of June. He carried with him to the South a letter from Van Quickenborne announcing to Bishop Du Bourg the safe arrival of the Jesuits at Florissant.8
The parish of St. Ferdinand's was not conspicuous at this particular period for fervor or regularity of Catholic practice. The testimony of pioneer ecclesiastical observers points to no high level of Catholic life in most of the Creole settlements of upper Louisiana.9 A nonchalant attitude towards the prescribed observances of the Church coupled with the almost total spiritual neglect in which the settlers were left through long periods of time owing to scarcity of priests had borne their fruits. Within a year after his arrival at Florissant the scholastic, Van Assche, wrote to his friend, De Nef, in Belgium that the manner of life led by the Catholics of the neighborhood was not in harmony with the faith they professed At the same time there were many conversions and a better state of things could be hoped for. In particular, the Creole passion for dancing had considerably abated as a result of the severity with which Father Van Quickenborne had inveighed against it.10 That the priests of the Jesuit community were beginning to make an impres- sion on the villagers is further witnessed to by Mother Duchesne. "The revivals preached by the Fathers bring into the Church and then to the sacraments almost all the village. One hundred and sixty men have made their Easter Communion [1824]. On the feast of Corpus
8 Van Quickenborne a Rosati, September 8, 1823. (C)
9 Bishop Flaget on his visit to St Louis m 1814 was painfully impressed with the religious apathy of the people Spaldmg, Life of Btshof Flaget, p 134.
10 Van Assche a De Nef, Florissant, 1824 (A). Balls and dancing, the favorite diversions of the Creoles, met with general disfavor from the clergy of the period. Bishop Flaget preached vehemently against the practice at Ste Genevieve, Sep- tember 21, 1814. Spalding, of. ctt.y p 138.
198 THE JESUITS OF THE MIDDLE UNITED STATES
Chnsti the procession followed by all the parishioners went along the streets and through the fields The Blessed Sacrament rested on an altar erected in our oat field These Fathers would convert a kingdom " n A contemporary account of the Fete-Dieu or Corpus Chnsti proces- sion of 1825 in Florissant was penned by Mr. Van Assche
The following was the older of the procession One of the Indian boys cained the cross, and then came four in surplices carrying little bells, and after them the rest The Indians were followed by the boys of the Sunday schools and these by the women, next came the girls of the Sunday schools conducted by the nuns, then the boarders followed by their teachers and the other nuns, then the clergy, our Father Superior carrying the Blessed Sacrament and attended by deacon, sub-deacon, two chanters in copes and a master of ceremonies To add to the beauty of the procession statues were earned by the children, who scattered flowers along the way while sacred hymns weie sung alternately by the nuns and the scholastics In the midst of a field adjoining the church an altar was fitted out with the finest deco- rations we could procure It was guarded by more than twenty soldiers, several of them Protestants, who discharged their muskets before, during and after the Benediction During the High Mass Rev Father Superior explained the significance of the ceremonies and proved the doctrine of the Real Presence, at the same time exhorting the Catholics to show by then conduct the reality of their faith in the Blessed Sacrament So moved were the Catholics by the preacher's words that they would have thrown a Prot- estant over the fence for not taking off his hat, had the fellow not taken to flight. That day our church was altogether too small Some of the Protestants were so captivated by our ceremonies that they assured one of the Fathers they would never fail to be present on similar occasions The procession would have marched through the village were it not that we feared some act of irreverence on account of so many Protestants living here For this reason it took place on the property of the Ladies of the Sacied Heart, all Protestants being required to uncover their heads before the Blessed Sacrament 12
Eight years later, on the Sunday within the octave of Corpus Chnsti, July 12, 1833, another Fete-Dieu procession took place, the details of which have come down to us Father De Theux, superior of the Missouri Mission, was celebrant of the Mass, with Father Van Lommel, deacon, and Father Van Assche, sub-deacon. De Theux preached a French sermon and Van Lommel one in English. "I preached in English," the latter informed a friend, "for almost an hour, proving the Real Presence (i) from the promise in John, VI, (2) from the promise fulfilled, (3) from the faith of the primitive church and of all
11 Baunard, of ctt , p 261.
12 Van Assche a De Nef, Florissant, September I, 1825. (A).
EARLY PAROCHIAL MINISTRY 199
centuries down to the sixteenth, which I confirmed by the words and admissions of Luther. (4) This faith is still that of all Christians, except the seventh part. Mass began at ten o'clock It was two o'clock when we returned to the church. All of course were tired, but we did not mind the fatigue, so glad were we that everything passed off in so orderly a manner." 13
An incident of note in the early church history of Florissant was the consecration of Father De La Croix's brick church by Bishop Rosati on September 2, 1832. The building of the edifice in 1821 had exhausted the slender resources of the parish and it was not until about eleven years later, in the spring of 1832, that the work of plastering was taken in hand. It was due largely to the efforts of Father De Theux, when superior of the Missouri Mission, that the church was brought to completion. He informed a friend in Europe:
The church of St Ferdinand was built almost twelve years ago, but except for its windows and doors, altar and pews, it was more like a barn* than a church It has just been plastered and solemnly consecrated on Sep- tember 2nd last by Mgr. Rosati, our venerable Bishop It has cost us to finish it $760, of which $580 was furnished by a subscription made up by the Bishop, the Ladies of the Sacred Heart and the people, the remainder of the sum was paid by the Jesuit Fathers Unfortunately the weather on the day of consecration could not have been worse, still, everything was carried on according to the Pontifical and in the best of order. Quite a number of people were in attendance, but we are convinced that more than two thousand would have been present had the weather not been so unfavorable.14
The ceremony of consecration was complete m every rubrical detail. It began at eight in the morning and ended at three m the afternoon. Despite a steady downpour of ram which lasted all day., crowds had come for the occasion from St. Louis and St. Charles All the priests of the Missouri Mission were present with the exception of Fathers Van Quickenborne and Verreydt, who were absent on missionary duty, and Father De Smet, who remained in St. Louis to look after the students of the college. A decorative device much in vogue at the period was utilized by Fathers Elet and Van de Velde in their efforts to beautify the newly finished church. They hung the walls with scrolls displaying Scripture texts, conspicuous among which was the one, "It is written, my house shall be a house of prayer." Father Van Lommel had been announced as the English and Father Verhaegen as the French preacher for the occasion, but the length of the ceremonies made it
13 Van Lommel ad Dzierozynsh, St Louis, July 12, 1832. (A)
14 Ann Prof , 7 120.
200 THE JESUITS OF THE MIDDLE UNITED STATES
necessary to omit the set sermons. But Van Lommel at Bishop Rosati's request made a brief address, pointing out, with his customary fondness for orderly presentation, that the solemn dedication of a church is conformable to reason, to the precepts of the Old Law, and to the practice of the primitive church 15
The first Jesuit pastor to take up his residence at Florissant was Father Van Assche. He began to attend the parish in 1829, the first baptism there registered by him being dated April 19 of that year. At first he resided at the Seminary, walking to the village on Sundays to conduct the services and then walking back to the Seminary for breakfast, only to return on foot to the church for Vespers. This trying routine, which seems to have been insisted upon by Father De Theux, when superior of the mission, was done away with m 1832 by the Visitor, Father Kenney, and thenceforth Father Van Assche resided at Florissant.16
The presence of a pastor in their midst did not forthwith awaken the village-folk from their spmtual nonchalance. The mission chronicler for 1836, after observing that the truth of 'history demands that the failures as well as the successes of the ministers of religion be faithfully recorded, declares regretfully that the spiritual harvest gathered in at St. Charles and St. Ferdinand falls short of the harvest which the missionaries are blessed with at stations visited only at rare intervals during the year. In 1836 Bishop Rosati confirmed at Dardenne with great splendor of ceremonial and display of faith and piety among the people. The two following days he confirmed at St. Charles and St. Ferdinand, %ut owing to the usual indifference and tepidity of the people the same pomp of ceremony and splendor of divine service had very few spectators." 17
In September, 1835, Father De Theux opened a school for boys, which was taught by Brother De Meyer. At the same time the Religious of the Sacred Heart were providing education for girls, both boarders and day-scholars, the school for boys which they opened about 1824 having apparently been discontinued. Wetmore's Gazetteer of Missouri, 1837, refers to the boarding-school as "tastefully and beneficially man- aged by nuns, whose peculiar fitness for the pursuits to which they
15 Van Lommel to Dzierozynski, September 20, 1832 (B)
16 Hill, HistoncA Sketch of the St. Loms University, p 40
17 Lttterae Annuae, 1836 The annalist deprecates especially the religious indif- ference of the male members of the parish, who associate with non-Catholics and spend nearly all their lives "rtmerando et n&D^gand^Q " However, Houck, A History of Missouri (Chicago, 1908), 2 279, gives a rather favorable view of the morals of the French Canadian voyageurs and coureurs des bois, saying that few of them drank to excess Alvord adverted to the civic virtues of the early French habitants of western America. "Cahokia Records" (Ilhnots Historical Collection*) XIX).
EARLY PAROCHIAL MINISTRY 201
have devoted themselves has secured to their institution well-deserved celebrity " The contemplated withdrawal of the Religious of the Sacred Heart from St Ferdinand m 1836 led De Theux to pen a protest to Bishop Rosati
Permit me, Monseigneur, to commend to your consideiation an affair of very deep concern to the parish of St Ferdinand Madame Barat, so it appears, wishes to suppress the house of her Ladies at St. Ferdinand, but, according to what I have been told, she would first know your sentiments on the subject I believe it accordingly to be my duty, seeing that the village is committed to the care of our Society, to observe to you that the suppression of the house would work very serious harm to the village of St. Ferdinand unfortunately perverse enough already, and yet destined by its situation to develop shortly into a place of importance We should lose beside the prayers and good example of these Ladies and the day-school, which they decided to keep up regularly for the future and which, together with the boys' school that I opened last September, ought to give the Father Missioner a great ascendancy over the whole parish In fine, who will keep up the church as neatly as they do? And what will their house be used for if they go? A tavern? I will not insist further Fiat voluntas Dei et swfyenorum 18
Meantime, religious conditions in the village continued to be un- satisfactory as late as 1837. Father De Theux wrote in that year.
In St. Ferdinand there were twenty-six first communicants, of whom three were converts — but unhappily, First Communion over, the boys gradu- ally leave off, at least m the course of the second year, approaching the Holy Table and even hearing Mass. Hence your Reverence may easily draw the consequence, unless a miracle of grace takes place I see no means of reclaiming these unhappy people. Thank God things go better m every way in our other parishes.19
The Annual Letters of 1837 corroborate the account given by De Theux:
Florissant m its pioneer days had long been without a resident priest. Abuses accordingly crept m and the education of the children was totally neglected. People grew to adult and even to extreme old age with scarcely a trace of religion about them. Such fathers of families cannot be expected to have the religious education of their children at heart. Unless the mothers, for the most part pious enough, bring the children to church, the bad example of the fathers will spoil them. At the same time all are glad enough to receive the last sacraments The reformation of the parish must therefore begin with the children. As to the Madames' school, its pupils are easily distinguished from the other children by their perseverance in virtue.
18 De Theux a Rosati, Florissant, March 15, 1836. (C)
19 De Theux a , Florissant, July 1 6, 1837. (A).
202 THE JESUITS OF THE MIDDLE UNITED STATES
The school for boys taught by a lay-brother might have more pupils, but the families live at a distance from the church, while the children are often without decent clothes and are needed for the farm and housework Hence, after making their First Communion, they stay at home "God commanded of old that Jeremias, the prophet, should stand at the gateway and harangue the people, saying to the sons of Israel, 'Hear ye the word of God ' Alas, m this place the preachei must needs issue forth from the church and visit taverns and houses and even explore the woods to find an audience " 20
During the period May, 1835, to August, 1836, Father Van Assche was pastor at St. Charles, his place at Florissant being taken by Father James Busschots, SJ After a stay of fifteen months at St. Charles he returned to Florissant, where he remained in charge of the parish until April, 1838, when he was called to be rector and master of novices at the novitiate. Meantime, the pastorate of St. Ferdinand's passed into the hands, first, of Father Victor Padlasson (May, i838-September, 1838) and then of Father John Gleizal (September, i838-September, 1840).
Under Father Gleizal, who at this period was still a novice, having entered the Society as a priest in 1837, St. Ferdinand's parish felt within itself the pulsations of a new spiritual life A two weeks' mission preached by him and a companion Jesuit in the course of 1838 marked the turning-point "Father Gleizal," wrote Bishop Rosati m his diary, June 24, 1838, "gave a mission and quite a number returned to the practice of religion." Confessions were heard m large numbers and the dancing craze (furor chorearum), a typical Creole weakness, subsided notably Among the results of the mission was the establishment of a Congregation of Our Lady of Mount Carmel as also of a Sodality of the Blessed Virgin for the pupils of the convent school. At the reception of the sodalists on the first Sunday of Lent Bishop Rosati himself presided In 1839 another mission was preached with similar success. In former
20 Littetae Annuae, 1837 "A critical sense will keep one from making stric- tures such as these the basis of unwan anted deductions One can easily understand the unfavorable impression made by the parishioners and their nonchalant ways upon men like Fathers Van Quickenborne and De Theux, by whom the robust religious practice of the Catholic peasantry of their native Belgium was taken as a matter of course Circumstances, while not excusing, often palliate the moral fault involved m neglect of the Church's commandments, in regard, for example, to the reception of the sacraments and attendance at Mass, and it is mainly in this connection rather than for serious breaches of morality that the parishioners are called to task As regards the social virtues that make for security m life and property, for freedom from crime and general civic happiness, Florissant was at this period as at others as exemplary a community as could be found in the state " Garraghan, St. Ferdinand de Florissant, p. 222.
EARLY PAROCHIAL MINISTRY 203
years scarcely two hundred made their Easter duty, this year the number of Easter communicants reached eight hundred. The Congre- gation of Mount Carmel a year after its inception numbered six hundred. In 1839 a Lady's chapel was built into the church on the southwest side, the five hundred dollars or more needed for its construc- tion being contributed by the women-folk of Florissant and St Louis Thus did the parish awaken to a new life. As evidence of the increased concern of the parishioners for their religious welfare, the annalist for 1840 points to the circumstance that when m that year the pastor of St. Ferdinand, Father Gleizal, was assigned to the college about to be opened in Cincinnati, they were eager to retain his services and promptly signed their names to a petition to that effect addressed to the vice-provincial. Gleizal was succeeded at St Ferdinand's in September, 1 840, by Father James Cottmg. In the following December Father Van Assche, who in the meantime had been transferred from the rectorship of the novitiate to the post of pastor in Portage des Sioux, St. Charles County, Missouri, returned once more to Florissant. Here, except for an intervening four-year tenure of the pastorate of St. Charles, he remained in charge of St. Ferdinand's parish until his death in i877.21
§ 2 ST. CHARLES
Of the Missouri parishes which the Jesuits took over in 1823 that of St. Charles was the most considerable St Charles, then a growing frontier town on the left bank of the Missouri twenty-one miles from its mouth, was founded at some unascertained date by a colony of French trappers and traders under the leadership of Louis Blanchette, known as Le Chasseur > "the hunter." For some years it went by the name of Les Petites Cotes, "The Little Hills," modified later into Village des Cotes, the "Village of the Hills," from its location on rising ground a short distance back from the Missouri.22 At least as early as 1792 it was known as St. Charles, which name had become general by the time of the American occupation in 1 804. As in the case of most French and Spanish settlements in America, the religious history of the place reaches back quite as far as its civil history. It has been conjectured on no very solid grounds that Father Meurm, last survivor of the eighteenth-century western Jesuits, exercised his priestly
21 Ltttera* Annuae, 1 8 3 8, 1 8 3 9, 1 840 (A)
22 The census of 1787 calls the village "establwnwento de las Pequenas Cuestasj* "establishment of the Little Hills " Houck, History of Missouri, 2 80 A note of November 7, 1791? at the beginning of the burial register refers to the place as "Village de $f Charles^ paroisse de St. Louis aux Illinois?' Archives of St Charles Borromeo Church, St. Charles, Mo
204 THE JESUITS OF THE MIDDLE UNITED STATES
functions m Les Pentes Cotes.2* At a later period Father Gibault, "patriot-priest of the West/3 in all likelihood included St. Charles in the wide-sweeping circuit of his ministry. Then came a succession of Capuchins, Fathers Valentine, Hilary or Hilaire de Genevaux, and Bernard de Limpach, of whom the first and third resided in St Louis but made periodical visits to the outlying posts. During Father de Limpach's incumbency, which extended, at least in St Louis, over the period 1776-1789, was probably built (c. 1780) the rude structure of upright logs that was the first chapel in St. Charles.24 In 1789 Father Le Dru dtt Jacobin succeeded him m the care of the parishes of St Louis and the neighborhood. After Le Dru came Father Pierre Joseph Didier, the first Benedictine to exercise the ministry m the United States, Appointed prefect-apostolic of a vast district, which was to include the French colony of GallipoLs on the Ohio River, he retired after a short residence at Gallipolis to the West, probably to St. Charles It was apparently about the time of Didier's arrival in the West that the com- mandant of the village, Blanghette, replaced the first church, built some eleven years before, by a new church, also of logs, which stood on the west side of Main Street near Tompkms 25
Before the end of 1793 Didier had shifted his residence to St Louis where the withdrawal of Le Dru had left a vacancy m the local
23 J J Con way, S J , Historical Sketch of the Church and Pansh of St Charles BortomeOj St Charles, Mo , 1892, pp 17, 18, discusses the evidence ior Meurm's presence at St Charles
24 Conway, of cit , p 23
25 Conard (ed ), Encyclopedia of the Htstory of Missouri, 5 421 But the church built by Blanchette c 1790 seems to have been only an enlargement of the original one Father Verhaegen says in a ms account (A) that Blanchette renewed and enlarged the original church three times and that the original church was still standing in 1825 Though Didier in the first baptism entered in the Florissant register signs himself Cute de St Charles, in the baptismal entries immediately following in the same register he signs himself Cwe de Sf Feidmand The writer has met with no conclusive evidence that Didier on his arrival m the West took up his residence at St Charles and not at Florissant The St. Charles Baptismal Register opens with the baptism by Didier of Peter Beland, July 21, 1792 The first Catholic church in St Charles stood on block 28, between Jackson and Tompkms Streets, about twenty-five feet west of Mam Street. The church lot, which was a grant from the Spanish civil authorities, measured one hundred and sixty by two hundred and seventy feet The cemetery, west of the church on the same block, was dedicated December 7, 1789, by Lieut Governor Manuel Perez
According to Conard, of citt> 5 422, the Blanchette chapel was of frame Verhaegen in his account cited above says distinctly it was of logs. Very probably the logs were clapboarded Lot 15 immediately east of Jot 28 and bounded on one side by the river was also included m the grant of land made to the Catholics of St Charles for church purposes The original grant was confirmed by public record, May 18, 1825
EARLY PAROCHIAL MINISTRY 205
pastorate. In 1798 St. Charles again received a resident pastor in the person of the Recollect, Father Leander Lusson. He was to be one of the twenty-three priests laboring in Louisiana who preferred to retire with the Spanish forces on the cession of that territory to the United States After his withdrawal St Charles had no resident priest until the arrival there about 1813 of the Trappist, Father Dunand. During the nine or ten years that intervened the spiritual needs of the village were supplied successively by the visiting priests, Father Max- well of Ste Genevieve, Missouri, the Capuchin, Father Thomas Flynn, of St Louis, and the Trappists, who from Florissant and later from Cahokia Mound in Illinois visited St. Charles during the years 1809- 1813. Dunand did not accompany the mam body of Trappists on their return to the eastern United States in 1813, but took up his residence in St. Charles where he remained a year or two, subsequently moving to Florissant, from which place he made periodical visits to St Charles. Father B Richard was resident pastor there in 1819, retaining this charge until about 1822, when he was transferred to Louisiana
Bishop Du Bourg, when he first came to St Louis, which was in 1818, thought St. Charles had a great future before it. "He put before us," said Mother Duchesne in August of that year, "the great advan- tages possessed by St Charles, which he expects will become one of the most important cities of North America, as it is situated on the Missouri River whose banks become daily more populated and which is about to give the name to a new state of the Union." The following month Mother Duchesne was writing from St Charles in a similar strain "The Bishop, whose gaze is ever on the distant future, considers this place as important, since it is the largest village on the Missouri and some miles from the junction of this river with the Mississippi. The Americans, who flock here from the East and are a restless people, hope that St Charles will be a great link of commerce between the United States and China, because the Upper Missouri is near another river which flows into the Pacific Ocean at a place whence the crossing to Asia by sea takes only two weeks." This dream of commercial great- ness for St. Charles never came true and the place is today less impor- tant relatively than it was in the days of Bishop Du Bourg and Mother Duchesne 26
The first Jesuit to officiate in St. Charles, apart from Father Meurm, whose connection with the place is highly problematical, was Father Peter Timmermans, who attended the place from Florissant two Sun- days every month. He baptized for the first time in St. Charles on July 29, 1823, William Manly being the recipient of the sacrament.
2eErskme, Duchesne, pp 166, 180.
206 THE JESUITS OF THE MIDDLE UNITED STATES
On January 19, 1824, he married Jean Baptiste Magdelame and Susanne Corbeille On Sunday, May 30, 1824, after conducting services in Blanchette's little chapel, Timmermans returned ill and exhausted to Florissant and on the next day was dead. The only Catholic priest now remaining in the immense territory west of St. Louis, Father Van Quickenborne, heard confessions and baptized twice a month at St. Charles and Portage des Sioux, not, however, on Sundays but on a week day. As a consequence, for almost eighteen months or until the ordination in 1826 of Fathers Verhaegen and Smedts, the people of these two parishes were without Sunday Mass. During the interval Messrs. Verhaegen and Elet, not yet priests, took turns in visiting St Charles on Sundays, where they recited the Mass-prayers in French and delivered a short instruction to the congregation. Baptisms and funeral rites were often performed by laymen, while as for sick calls Van Quickenborne held himself in readiness to answer every sum- mons 27 Ordained to the priesthood in March, 1826, Father Verhaegen was immediately assigned as visiting missionary to the parishes of St Charles and of Portage des Sioux and to three stations besides. His new duties were neither light nor pleasant. To cross the Missouri in a fragile skiff and ride over the country sometimes for a distance of thirty miles in answer to a sick call was an experience which he found it hard, so he declared, to describe adequately in words. In a letter to the Father General, Van Quickenborne sets forth the reasons why two of the young Jesuits shortly to be ordained should be stationed at St. Charles
From a letter of Rev. Father Superior I infer that our scholastics, who are now theologians of the fourth year, are to be 01 clamed about the end of the year. I venture again earnestly to beg your Very Reverend Paternity, as I have done before, to allow two of our men to be placed at St Charles St Charles is a town situated on the left bank of the Missouri River, nearly all the inhabitants being Catholics There are three other congregations at a distance of 10 or 12 miles from St Charles. These congregations contain about 300 souls Our seminary is situated off at one extremity, we are sepa- rated by a river, the roads are very bad for six months of the year and it is dangerous to cross the river At St. Charles we are in the center with respect to the other congregations A church will be built, the pew-rent will amply
27 For data on Catholicism in St Charles prior to the advent of the Jesuits cf Conway's above-cited monograph The burial-register of St Charles Borromeo's Church records burials conducted by laymen between August 2 and November 7, 1824 In 1824 Father Van Quickenborne had contracts at fifteen dollars a year with. Pierre Le Compte and Louis Bordeau (Borda), the latter of St. Charles, by which they engaged to ferry him across the Missouri m his ministerial trips, which service they were also to render to all such as had to cross the river to summon a priest.
EARLY PAROCHIAL MINISTRY 207
suffice for the support of two priests and from this place, furthermore, the smaller congregations to be organized can be visited from time to time. The priests now lose all their time m making trips to bring the sacraments to the sick, and also rum their health for they often have to go through deep water For the same reason the children in those families cannot be properly in- structed The people complain that they have to come so far to call us for the sick and crossing the river makes these trips expensive both for them and us 28
As to the spiritual condition of St. Charles at this period, both Mother Duchesne and Father Verhaegen are one in deploring the careless, irregular ways of the townsfolk. The holy nun was shocked during her first stay in the place at the sight of drunken Indians, with their starving squaws and children, and of dissolute women parading the streets. The mixed bloods united in themselves the frailties of both races. The Creoles were nonchalant and pleasure-seeking, often leaving their children unbaptized and without religious instruction. "A few years ago," Mother Duchesne wrote m 1819, "the scenes this country presented resembled the Bacchanalian orgies of pagan days. Men and girls spent their time m dancing and drinking whiskey. Now appear- ances are improved, but the lives they live are as immoral as those of the savages." 29 "I do not hear regularly more than twenty confessions a month," wrote Father Verhaegen m 1827, at a time when the Catholic population of St. Charles was about five hundred, "and I do not see how, without a change m circumstances, this number will increase. The French spend the spring, summer and fall on the nver, finding thus their only means of support. During their absence, their wives almost perish of hunger and are often without decent dress, while the children are in a miserable state. When the voyageurs return, a mass of debts contracted during their absence has to be paid. I am convinced it will require a miracle for our missionaries to gather in anything like a spirit- ual harvest. For if, according to the old saw, occasion makes the thief, here navigation makes the devil. There are few men of genuine piety m this locality. So general indeed is the corruption among the river- men, that there is little room left for the good seed." 30 Even in 1836, thirteen years after the arrival of the Jesuits, the Annual Letters deplore
28 Van Quickenborne ad Fortis, October 24, 1826 (AA).
29 Baunard, Duchesne^ p 182.
50 Verhaegen ad Dzierozynski, Florissant, November 7, 1827 (B) Verhaegen's account of the loose morals of the voyageurs or river-men finds corroboration m other sources. Thus John M Peck, New Guide for Emigrants m the West (Boston, 1836) "The boatmen were proverbially lawless at every town and landing and indulged without restraint m every species of dissipation, debauchery, and excess." See, however, for a different estimate, Houck, History of Missouri, 2- 279, cited sup-a, note 17
208 THE JESUITS OF THE MIDDLE UNITED STATES
the fact that the ministry of the fathers in St Charles results in a smaller spiritual harvest than those gathered in remote stations, which they visit only at intervals during the year. The perverse disposition of the inhabitants is assigned as the chief cause of this spiritual barrenness The men spend their time "in journeys by land and water" (itmerando et nawgando}. The preaching of a mission, especially in the winter, when the men are home, is suggested as a thing which may bring them to their senses, though unfortunately no such remedy can be applied on account of the small number of the fathers.
Among the means employed by the Jesuit pastors to raise the level of Catholic life in St. Charles was the erection of a new church Blan- chette's log chapel, which stood near the corner of Main and Tompkins Streets and was the second Catholic church in the town, dated from about 1792 When Father Timmermans began to hold services in it in 1823, it was falling to pieces as were also the parish-churches of Portage des Sioux and Dardenne, though the last two were of comparatively recent construction. The poverty of the early settlers, Van Quickenborne commented in explanation of the fragile character of their early churches, did not permit of their erecting more solid and lasting struc- tures The scholastic Van Assche wrote to his friend, De Nef, in Sep- tember, 1825:
The churches of St Charles and Portage, to put the matter as briefly and accurately as possible, are barns, not of stone but of wood, without founda- tion of any kind except a few stones placed under the joists to keep them from rotting . . . Our Superior has begun to make preparations for a new chuich of brick, but being still alone, he has so much to do that it will take him long to finish it, for the church will have to be built with alms, which at present he has not time to beg It is, however, a real necessity as we fear that some fine day the old church will come down on our heads I do not think that Messrs Verhaegen and Elet will preach m it during the winter on account of the cold, for the windows are now without glass 31
Early in January, 1825, Van Quickenborne signified to Bishop Rosati his desire to build a new church at St Charles:
If I receive money from Europe, as I expect, I shall buy m the town of St. Charles a piece of property nine acres m extent, together with the house in which the Ladies of the Sacred Heart formerly resided In that case I will build a church there and lease the land on which the old church now stands, if your Lordship approves the plan and the parishioners con-
31 Van Assche a De Nef, September, 1825 (A).
32 Van Quickenborne a Rosati, January 9, 1825 (C).
EARLY PAROCHIAL MINISTRY 209
Some weeks later Van Quickenborne was able to report to the Bishop that the consent of the parishioners to his new plan had been obtained
I have the pleasure of informing you that at a parish-meeting in St Charles the trustees and all ptesent named me sole administrator of the property of the church, to lease or rent it, the income to go to the cure, without there being any trustees in the future The materials of the old church will be utilized m the construction of the new one, which will be built on ground belonging to Mme. Mane Louise Duquette and purchased by me They have all promised to subscribe. The church will be in bnck or stone 70 feet long and 40 feet wide May the Lord bring this to pass I propose to go today to get their subscnptions 33
Not long after his ordination to the priesthood in 1826 Father Verhaegen was commissioned by Father Van Quickenborne to super- intend the building of the new church at St Charles, a task which he took in hand without delay. The circumstances attending the erection of this, the third Catholic church in St. Charles, which before the build- ing of Bishop Rosati's new cathedral was reputed the most imposing sacred edifice in the diocese of St. Louis, are set down in an English narrative by Father Verhaegen
The old church made of logs was much too small for the Catholics and so nckety that it was unsafe to sit on the floor, which was rotten, and neither the roof nor walls could protect the interior from the rain and snow The necessity of constructing a new church was of course most urgent. But how could the means be raised? The Catholic families, mostly French, were poor and we were equally so Rev. Father Van Quickenborne, full of con- fidence in Providence, called a meeting of the Catholic families He re- minded them of the ruinous condition of their church and promised them to purchase a site for a new one on condition that they would cede to him the ground granted by the Spanish Government for church purposes at St Charles, and contnbute their respective mite towards the erection of the new sacred edifice. This proposition being accepted and carried into effect, he purchased the eligible property where the church now stands. The work of the building, to be eighty by forty feet exclusive of the Sacristy, was soon
33 Van Quickenborne a Rosati, February 28, 1825 (C) Mane Louise Duquette conveyed to Father Van Quickenborne four squares or nine arpents which, her husband, Francois Duquette, had acquired by grant from the Spanish Commandant, Zenon Trudeau, December 22, 1795 This property, now city blocks 64, 65, 94, 95, is bounded by Second, Fourth, Clark, and Decatur Streets On the Second Street frontage of the property, about midway between Clark and Decatur Streets, Van Quickenborne built his stone church, which faced the river Adjoining the church on the south the Religious of the Sacred Heart built their second convent in St. Charles
210 THE JESUITS OF THE MIDDLE UNITED STATES
after commenced. The Catholics and even many of the Protestant popula- tion made contributions in money and time and labor, but their combined subsidies did not amount to one thousand dollars, and the church was to cost upwards of five thousand Strange to say the money came in proportion as it was needed, and in 1828 it was so far ready that it admitted of the divine service being celebrated within its walls and being solemnly dedicated by the Right Reverend Bishop Rosati Whence Father Van Quickenborne received the funds is a secret, but it is supposed that he devoted to this undertaking a considerable portion of his patrimony, and was much aided by Belgian benefactors, so that he was enabled to pay off all the debts he had contracted. While the building was progressing towards completion he purchased a lot with a two story frame building situated on the banks of the river and about two hundred and fifty steps from the hill on which the church stands.34 This dwelling was paitially at least prepared for the dwelling of two of our Fathers The disagreeable mission of Father Verhaegen was brought to an end and he returned to the house of St. Stanislaus 35
It needed a man of Verhaegen's resourcefulness to overcome the difficulties that beset the building of what was for that period so elabo- rate a structure. First, there was the question of funds, to secure which he begged m St Louis, collecting in one day sixty dollars. He "cast aside all timidity/3 so he wrote to the Maryland superior, with the added comment, "these and similar experiences are a poor missionary's recrea- tion and delight" Governor Miller of Missouri, then residing at St Charles, the seat of the state government, subscribed ten dollars with
34 "All the consultors thought it was better to buy a house at St. Charles for Ours than to build one In consequence, I bought one through Father Verhaegen The house was examined by men of the profession They said it was built of the best of materials, well framed and the mason's work in good order Stone wall three feet above ground all around The under story is plastered, the upper story is not finished, for it is only eight or nine years since it was built Lot is 150 x 60 or 70, title indisputable, (and such is the one of the college lot ) It stands opposite the new church and is not farther from it than the old college [Georgetown] is from the house where Father De Theux used to live It cost $300 I have paid them. The house has six rooms and a very fine garret " Van Quickenborne to Dzierozynski, November 27, 1827 (B) July 25, 1828, Van Quickenborne ac- quired two strips of property making a frontage of one hundied and thirty-three feet on Mam Street and running back three hundred feet to the Missouri River between Lewis and Decatur Streets This tract (city block 6) apparently included the lot of which Van Quickenborne speaks in his letter cited above In later years a house and school, both of brick, were built on the property. The priests' house stood about twenty feet from the curb of Mam Street and ten feet from the line of Lewis The school, twenty-five by sixty, stood on the N W corner of the same block The site of both priests' house and school was later covered by the shops of the American Car and Foundry Company. « (A).
EARLY PAROCHIAL MINISTRY 211
a promise of more 36 Besides the collection of funds, there was the problem of securing labor for the completion of the work. Verhaegen, physically robust man that he was, worked with his own hands on the construction The Jesuits were indeed to a great extent their own archi- tects, masons and builders 3T The difficulties that are wont to hamper building operations in our own day were not unknown to Verhaegen, who wrote to Father Dzierozynski November 7, 1827:
The church is to be roofed in a few days. No one who has never gone through the experience would believe how beset with difficulties is building in the State of Missouri. Now one is without workingmen, now without wagons, now without materials. I bespeak a stock of patience for one who undertakes a similar task in the future. When I think, however, how much this little church is going to do for this town, ad majorem Dei glonam, I make light of past unpleasantnesses and by anticipation rise superior to those which are to come.
The energetic pastor witnessed at length the completion of his task The church, begun in 1826 and roofed in 1827, was ready for occu- pancy in the fall of i828.38 "It was built of stone and was very beauti- ful for the place. The fagade was of cut stone, surmounted by a pretty cornice, which rested upon four handsome pilasters. The structure was
36 Verhaegen ad Dzierozynski, Florissant, November 7, 1827 (B). In the fall of 1827 Bishop Rosati made his first episcopal visitation of St Charles The old church on Mam Street was renovated for the occasion and the walls decorated with scrolls and scripture texts The Bishop administered confirmation to seventy- two persons, some of them adults Verhaegen ad Dzierozynski, Florissant, Novem- ber 27, 1827 (B)
37 Baunard, of. at , p. 293 Patrick McKay and Hugh O'Neil, the latter the builder of Bishop Du Bourg's cathedral in St Louis, had contracts with Van Quickenborne for part construction of the church.
38 Even as late as March, 1828, Van Quickenborne was in doubt whether the church could be finished before the end of that year "They have begun to work on the church at St Charles, but I don't know whether it can be finished even this year unless aid comes from some quarter." Van Quickenborne a Rosati, Floris- sant, March 22, 1828 (C) The cost of the church was reckoned by Van Quick- enborne at $6455 and was met as follows
Contributions in cash from the Missouri Mission $3597°°
" " " " " laity 85800
Money value of labor rendered by the fathers 150000
« " " " " " " parishioners 50000
A munificent donation from friends of the Missouri Mission in France came at an opportune moment through Father Godmot, a French Jesuit "I received the $155900," Van Quickenborne wrote to Dzierozynski, November 17, 1828, "just at the moment that I closed up the accounts of the church at St Charles There- fore there is a fine and solidly built church and a fine house bought, and no debts, but $272 oo ahead" (B). Cf , however, the letter cited below of Van Quicken- borne to Fortis, December 3, 1828.
212 THE JESUITS OF THE MIDDLE UNITED STATES
eighty feet long, forty wide and twenty-nine feet high, and the only church in the diocese which was plastered." a9
On September i Father Van Quickenborne requested Bishop Rosati to fix a day for the consecration
The two paintings together with the precious gift of the body of the holy martyr Adeodatus reached us safely The paintings will make a fine appearance They will be abiding tokens of your kindness and of the obliga- tions we are under in your regard. I have delayed writing to you so as to have the pleasure of announcing to you that the church of St Charles will, without fail, be ready for consecration four weeks from now, the workmen tell us two or three weeks. The old church will be moved today and placed alongside our house where it will seive as a school Fathers Smedts and Verreydt will be stationed at St Chailes and open there a free school foi externs, in which Brother Henry [Reiselman] will teach catechism, reading, writing, grammai, arithmetic and some little geography P S We should be pleased to have your Lordship fix the day for the consecration so that we may be able to publish it at least two weeks in advance 40
The consecration of the new edifice by Bishop Rosati, October 12, 1828, was celebrated with all the splendor of ceremonial the infant church m the West could command. Nine priests from the various missions, two seminarians, six Jesuit lay-brothers and a large concourse of the laity were in attendance. Mother Duchesne, who was present with Mothers Berthold, Mathevon and O'Connor, was deeply im- pressed with the event and sent news of it to Bishop Du Bourg in France
On the 1 2th of October, the day your Lordship appointed to honor the Holy Angels, I assisted for the first time in my life at the consecration of a church It was that of St. Charles, built by the Jesuits, who have consumed in its erection all the funds which they had received for their own support It looks upon the Missouri and is built upon the site of your former garden, and just over the spot, from which you helped with your episcopal hands to pull up a young sapling. Mgr [Rosati] perfoimed the ceremony, assisted by all the Jesuits, two Lazansts and several young seminarians. Fathers De Theux and Dusaussoy preached, one in English and the other in French, to a vast concourse before the church door. I never saw so grand a spec- tacle Your beautiful dalmatics were used on the occasion The following day his Lordship confirmed sixty-six persons, and preached with wonder- ful fruit among the Protestants who listened to him 41
**Awi. Prof, 4 582
4:0 Van Quickenborne a Rosati, Florissant, September I, 1828. (C) 4:1 Ann. Ptof, 3 572 Father Dusaubsoy was a nephew of St Madeleine Sophie Barat, foundress of the Society of the Sacred Heart,
EARLY PAROCHIAL MINISTRY 213
With the idea, as he avowed, that his success at St. Charles with nothing to begin on might lead the Father General to authorize him to begin the long-delayed mission among the Indians, Father Van Quickenborne informed Father Fortis of what had been accomplished
At St. Charles we have the prettiest church in the whole diocese. It is made of cut stone . , . and is the first and only consecrated church in this diocese It is built on our property and everything is ours The Trustees have no claim to it They exercise their duties, but dependently on us in all things The place is very healthy Across from the church we have a roomy house, the finest in the whole city Next to this house and also on our property, a school-building has been put up With the consent of Rev. Father Superior I have stationed there two Fathers and one Brother. . No doubt it will not be unpleasant news for your Paternity to hear how Divine Provi- dence came to our aid When we began we did not have a penny. I bought the very large piece of property on which the church is built On returning home the same day from St Charles, I found on my table almost the full amount of money needed to pay for the property. Of course I knew where it came from I let the contract for the building of the church and again I received on the same day a good sum of money as I also did still again from France and Belgium When the work was all finished, I found on casting up my accounts that I was $1222 m debt and just at that very time the Bishop came with the news that he was going to receive exactly that sum from France from the Society of the Propagation of the Faith instituted there under the auspices of our illustrious benefactor, Bishop Du Bourg 42
With the completion of the church Father Verhaegen retired to Florissant, and on August 15, 1828, Father John Baptist Smedts was installed as the first superior of the St. Charles residence. Some subse- quent incidents of interest in the parish are detailed by Verhaegen in his manuscript narrative:
Fathers J. B. Smedts and Felix Verreydt were the first permanently stationed at the St. Charles Residence. The former attended the St. Charles congregation, and the latter was principally employed in visiting the remote missionary stations, being absent on sacerdotal duty, at a distance of from twelve to twenty miles from home, during several weeks many times in the year Father Smedts with most laudable zeal perfected by degrees what had been commenced at St. Charles He improved the interior of the dwell- ing by providing it with decent furniture and he made a handsome vegetable garden, embellished by the planting of fruit trees and flowers in many spe- cies In process of time, after causing the usual pews to be made and elegantly painted, he adorned the altar by having stately pillars erected three on each side to support a wooden architrave and super-structure in the center of which a radiating black polished plate contains the word, Jehovah, in gilded
42 Van Quickenborne ad Fortis, December 3, 1828. (AA).
214 THE JESUITS OF THE MIDDLE UNITED STATES
Hebrew letters He also caused a beautiful pulpit and baptismal fount to be constructed and among other improvements which it would be too long to mention, he procured an excellent organ. The logs of the old church were conveyed to the lot where the dwelling stands, and with them were made two apartments, one to serve for a kitchen, and the other for a school room The school from that time on until now has been generally taught by one of our Lay-brothers Father Van Quickenborne saw the necessity of providing for the religious education of the girls of the parish. Having obtained three members of the Society of the Sacred Heart, he gave them the use of the large but old frame house which stood on the north of the rear of the church, and there they commenced their humble but useful labors With his usual energy he soon after commenced collecting means for the construction of a large two-story brick building, and when ready, he made over to them not only the building but enough ground necessary for a flower garden m front, a spacious vegetable garden by the side and an extensive garden in the rear, and adjoining to it an orchard and a field of about two acres. To the first building the Ladies of the Sacred Heart afterwards added another two-story brick building, connecting their establishment on the south with the sanc- tuary of the Church. Their community has increased to twelve members, their boarders are upwards to forty in number and their day scholars have averaged almost from the beginning sixty per year To their care, under God, must be ascribed in a great measure the existence of the pious mothers of pious female children that are found in the parish and as they take care of the cleanliness of the church and sacristy, they have considerably promoted the beauty of the house of God.
In 1828 the Religious of the Sacred Heart had resumed their work in St. Charles after an interruption of nine years. Mother Duchesne, then at Florissant, records m her journal, March 25, 1828, that Father Van Quickenborne, just prior to his departure for his second excursion to the Osage, sent her a deed of donation of the house formerly occupied by the nuns at St. Charles, which he had recently bought for them, and which he now invited them to occupy.43 The Mother General, St. Madeleine Sophie Barat, anxious over the unpromising outlook for her society in France, accepted the invitation. She wrote, June 6, 1828, to Mother Duchesne- "We are threatened with great calamities. In case they overtake us, we shall send you subjects. This is an additional reason for accepting St. Charles." On June 15 Bishop Rosati, Father Van
43 Baunard, of tit., p 293 The house and "two lots" deeded to the Religious of the Sacred Heart by Father Van Quickenborne were purchased m the first instance with money furnished by them for the purpose, so he informed his superior in the East. Hence there was no question of a donation in the proper sense of the term. The real nature of the transaction, however, remains somewhat obscure Van Quickenborne to Dzierozynski, August 10, 1826. (B).
EARLY PAROCHIAL MINISTRY 215
Quickenborne, sand Mother Duchesne met in St Charles to arrange for the opening of the new residence. In October Mothers Berthold and Mathevon of St Louis joined Mother Duchesne at Florissant, whence the three nuns proceeded to St. Charles in company with Bishop Rosati and his party, which included Van Quickenborne with some other Jesuits, and three diocesan priests On the twelfth of the month the Bishop consecrated the church and on the Sunday following he blessed the new home of the nuns.44
In 1833 Van Quickenborne, while superior of the St. Charles resi- dence, undertook to collect funds for a new building of brick to replace the old one of frame which the Religious of the Sacred Heart had been occupying since their return to St Charles in 1828 Father Verhae- gen said in a letter "Our good Father Van Quickenborne is stationed at St Charles. He is active as a bee Madame Lucille's building is going to rack and rum and he is determined not to prop it. He will have another house for this very useful community." 45 In August of the following year, Van Quickenborne acknowledged to Bishop Rosati the receipt of fifty Mass stipends to go to the building of the new convent: "They arrived just in time for we hadn't money enough to pay the bill for the scantlings. We now have the brick on the ground and have the lime, sand, boards and large timber all paid for. I have been danger- ously ill for a week and have not succeeded yet in throwing off a little fever, which seems to be quite malignant." 46
The building of a new convent at St. Charles now raised the ques- tion whether colored girls might be admitted as boarders in the insti- tution. In September, 1834, Van Quickenborne, on behalf of the nuns, laid the matter before the Bishop.
[Rev ] Mr. D'hauw, cure of Natchitoches, offers to do all he can to send some colored girls to the convent of St. Charles, and according to what he says and what Father Elet has told me, there is no doubt that he can succeed m getting them in numbers large enough to fill the house of Madame Lucille [Mathevon]. I take the liberty of proposing the question to your Lordship would it be prudent to receive them and shall the offer be ac- cepted? Madame Lucille desires nothing better. Madame Eugenie [Aude], when she was here, gave her approval (but she made no definite arrange- ments as regards St Charles) Madame Lucille assures me that Madame Barat will send some subjects and a little money. If the colored girls come, there will be no question of getting any white girls The house would be exclusively for the former. However, the school for day pupils could be kept up separately. Moreover, they say you can scarcely notice anything
44 Baunard, of. ctt , pp 293, 294.
45Verhaegen to McSherry, October 16, 1833. (B).
46 Van Quickenborne a Rosati, August 7, 1834. (C)-
2i 6 THE JESUITS OF THE MIDDLE UNITED STATES
peculiar about these girls, as mulattoes have veiy little color. Your Lord- ship's decision in the matter will relieve me of some embarrassment.47
The education of colored girls by the nuns was not attempted, prob- ably because Bishop Rosati did not lend his approval or because more mature consideration of the plan showed it to be impracticable. The Religious of the Sacred Heart, having thus resumed educational work in St Charles, where they had opened their first American house in 1818, have continued it there down to our own day
Among the contributions made by Van Quickenborne to the progress of Catholic education was the opening of a parish school in St Charles, probably the first west of the Mississippi Catholic primary education in Missouri is of eighteenth-century origin St. Louis since 1774 had its private elementary school, for all purposes a Catholic institution, which as late as 1818, when Bishop Du Bourg opened his academy, was still under the management of its first teacher, Jean Baptiste Truteau.48 The Religious of the Sacred Heart opened in St Charles in 1818, besides an academy and boarding school, a free school for girls At Florissant, whither they removed in 1819, they had in 1824 two free schools in operation, one for girls and the other for boys About this same period the Jesuit scholastics, then pursuing their divinity studies at the Semi- nary, appear to have conducted something like grammar-school classes for the boys of Florissant. Wrote Mr. Van Assche m September, 1825 "Only three of us can attend the High Mass on Sundays, two to teach catechism and conduct the Sunday School and one to accompany the Indians. The Sunday School which is taught by two of our number is free to all the lads of the village on all Sundays and feast days of the year. Instruction is there given in reading, writing etc."
A free school for boys as an adjunct to the new church of St. Charles was a project long cherished by Father Van Quickenborne. Now that the church was finished, he solicited from Father Dzierozynski permis- sion to open the school, at the same time suggesting Brother Henry Reiselman as a suitable teacher.49 Brother Reiselman was a member of the pioneer Jesuit group that came to Missouri in 1823. He had belonged to the migratory Trappist community settled in 1809 in Florissant, but had withdrawn from it at Cahokia Mound and made his way to Maryland, where he became a Jesuit. Under his direction, accordingly, the parish school of St. Charles Borromeo opened its doors
47 Van Quickenborne a Rosati, September II, 1834 (C).
48 J. Thomas Scharf, History of St Loms and County (Philadelphia, 1883), I 823
49 September i, 1828, Van Quickenborne informed Bishop Rosati that Brother Reiselman was to teach in the proposed school.
EARLY PAROCHIAL MINISTRY 217
with some thirty-five pupils It was in successful operation as early as November, 1829, according to a report made by Van Quickenborne to the Maryland superior
Our deaiest Bi other Henry began to be troubled again with his old complaint, so that he was unable to teach the boys This lasted, I think, three months, during which time the Brother was with us at Florissant Father Verreydt thought himself unqualified to teach the boys English If the school had been interrupted, all of the boys would have gone over to the Protestant teacher or preacher I ordered him to teach He obeyed with alacrity to the great satisfaction of the pupils, and their remarkable progress Now our good and zealous brother is restored to health. The average daily attendance of his school is never less than twenty-six 50
Father Van Quickenborne, touching on the situation in Portage des Sioux in 1829, expressed his mind to the Maryland superior on the sub- ject of Catholic elementary schools After saying that the people in Portage desire the same advantages as those enjoyed by St Charles, to wit, a new church, a community of nuns, a school and a resident pastor, he proceeds:
All of our Fatheis are of the opinion that schools like Brother Henry's are of the greatest importance, and without them the young in this poor region cannot be raised Catholics Father De Theux has urged me almost to vexation to arrange with you for a school at Florissant, which I should like to do by all means, but cannot without your permission In Portage two priests with a Brother for the school could subsist. Two Fathers in St Charles would visit the panshes in Missouri, and two in Portage the parishes on the Mississippi There are Irishmen who could be admitted as brothers among you and sent here after their novitiate to teach school These schools would be for the smaller, the colleges for the larger boys, and all the youths would be instructed I saw somewhere in the history of the Society that one of our Generals declared this to be in accordance with the spirit of the Institute.51
The success of the parish school at St. Charles encouraged the fathers to open a similar school in Florissant in 1835. These two institutions, the first, taught by Brother Michael Hoey with an attend- ance of forty pupils, and the second, by Brother Cornelius O'Leary
50 Van Quickenborne to Dzierozynski, November 13, 1829 (B) Ann Prop, 5 574 The new school-house at St Charles was not quite finished in November, 1828. It was a "bolid frame building" thirty-five by twenty-five feet and one and a half stories high Van Quickenborne to Dzierozynski, November 17, 1828 (B)
51 Van Quickenborne to Dzierozynski, November 13, 1829 (B).
2i 8 THE JESUITS OF THE MIDDLE UNITED STATES
with an attendance of twenty, were, it would seem, the only parochial schools for boys in 1836 in the diocese of St. Louis 52
With the building of the new church, the opening of the parish school, the return of the Religious of the Sacred Heart and the resump- tion of their educational work, religious conditions m St Charles began to improve. At Christmas, 1829, there were one hundred and fifty com- municants. "A great part of the good done there/' Father Van Quicken- borne reported to Bishop Rosati, "must, under God, be attributed to the schools." 53
§ 3. PORTAGE DES SIOUX
The physical aspect of the region in the vicinity of St. Charles in Missouri points to the fact that at one time the Mississippi and the Missouri Rivers met much closer to that town than is the case today, the junction of the two streams having since gradually shifted to its present position. As a result of this change there has been left between the two river-channels a long narrow strip of land, the soil of which, ever since man began to cultivate it, has been notably fertile. The view that may be obtained of this low-lying bottom-land from the two conical mounds which rise on the outskirts of St. Charles and were named by the fanciful Creoles Les Mcmelles or "The Breasts" is one of panoramic sweep and beauty. Mention of it is frequent in early gazetteers and books of travel. Timothy Flint, Protestant clergyman and author of frontier travel-books, who resided m St. Charles before 1820, wrote of it. "Here is presented an imposing view of the course of the Mississippi and Missouri rivers with their bluffs and towering cliffs, their ancient meandering banks, the Marais Croche lake, the mouth of the Illinois river and the vast prairie dotted here and there with farm-houses." 54 According to a standard gazetteer of the thirties, a traveller in the West who did not visit the Mamelles was considered "unfashionable." 55
On the right bank of the Mississippi in the tongue of land between that river and the Missouri and about twelve miles northeast of St. Charles is located the village of Portage des Sioux. Eight miles below on the opposite or Illinois side of the great waterway is the town of Alton
52 Cathohc Almanac, 1836. Cf also Ann. Ptop, 8 285.
53 Van Qmckenborne a Rosati, January 5, 1830 (C) Between 1827 and 1839 there were three hundred and forty first communions and three hundred and eighty confirmations in St Charles. As late as 1839 preaching was both in French and English, while there was a German sermon once or twice a month.
54 Flint, Ten Years Residence in the Mississt-pp Valley
155 Cf Alphonso Wetmore, Gazetteer of Missouri (St Louis, 1837), P 249> for a description of the Mamelles A glowing account of the country between St Charles and Portage des Sioux may also be read in Flagg (Thwaites [ed ], Early Western Travels, XXVI, 272 et seq )
EARLY PAROCHIAL MINISTRY 219
while a few miles below Alton the Missouri empties its muddy tide into the Mississippi Originally a Creole settlement. Portage des Sioux came to lose most of its Creole characteristics, American, German and Irish settlers having supplanted to a great extent the pioneer stock. Tradition connects the name of the place with an incident of early Indian war- fare. A band of Sioux, who were at war with the Missouri, having come down the Mississippi in their canoes on a pillaging expedition, the latter lay in ambush at the mouth of the Missouri River expecting the invaders would pass that point. But the Sioux by a clever manoeuver landed on the site of Portage, carried their canoes across the narrow tongue of land, a distance of about two miles, launched them in the Missouri, descended it and surprised the Missouri Indians in the rear. The attack met with success and the Sioux laden with spoils returned, as they had come, by way of Portage The date of the occurrence, if indeed it be historical, cannot be ascertained, though it has been placed shortly before the founding of St. Louis in 1764.
The village of Portage des Sioux dates from the early spring of 1799 when Francois Saucier at the instance of Lieutenant-Governor Trudeau had the village laid out and fixed his residence therein with a colony of Creoles, who secured land grants from the Spanish authorities. Frangois Saucier, who had been a resident of St. Charles, was appointed commandant of the new post, a position he held until the cession of Louisiana to the United States.56 His daughter, Birgitte, whose birth took place in 1800, was the first white child born in the settlement.57 Few data concerning Catholicity in Portage during the period prior to the arrival of the Jesuits are available. The first church, a rude wooden structure, was built in 1813 or more probably some years later, appar- ently through the efforts of Father Dunand, the Trappist pastor of Florissant. Father Gabriel Richard, the well-known pioneer priest of Michigan, visited Portage m 1821 subsequent to a stay of some days in Chicago, whither he had gone on behalf of the Potawatomi Indians to take part in the treaty proceedings under General Cass. Wishing to return to Detroit, but hearing that no boat would leave Chicago for that point before forty or fifty days, he determined to make the journey by way of the Illinois, Mississippi and Ohio Rivers. "I hoped to reach Detroit sooner by this route than by waiting for a boat. They sometimes descend the Illinois river in six or seven days 5 it took me seventeen and I arrived at Portage des Sioux only on October 4 at eight in the morning. I found there an excellent missionary, an Italian Lazarist, M. Acquarom, who made me sing High Mass and preach the panegyric
56 Houck, Missouri, 2 89*
57 Conard, Encyclofedia of the History of Missouri, 5. 195 Elliott Lusby was the first white child born in Portage according to Houck, of. at , 2 91.
220 THE JESUITS OF THE MIDDLE UNITED STATES
of St. Francis of Assisi, the patron, I believe, of his newly erected church ?"58
Immediately on their arrival at St. Ferdinand the Jesuits assumed charge of the congregation at Portage The first baptism they adminis- tered there was that of Francois Rive, on June 13, 1823. The officiating priest was Father Timmermans, who on the same day married John C. Evans and Therese Saucier. Timmermans during the single year of his ministry in Missouri said Mass at Portage every other Sunday. After his colleague's death Van Quickenborne was accustomed to visit the place once a month on some day other 'than Sunday, so that the congre- gation was left without Sunday Mass until Father Smedts, the first Jesuit ordained in Missouri, was able to serve it, first from the Seminary and then from St. Charles. With the opening of the St Charles resi- dence in 1828 the mission of Portage des Sioux was served regularly from that quarter until in 1835 it received its first resident Jesuit pastor in the person of Father Verreydt.
Though the Jesuits took spiritual charge of the Portage congrega- tion from the first days of their arrival in Missouri, it was not until 1827 that they were given possession of the church and presbytery. "I go to Portage once a month," Van Quickenborne informed Bishop Rosati early in 1825. "Things there go very slowly, but I do not despair " 59 Reluctance of the trustees to allow the temporalities of the parish to pass out of their hands appears to have been at the root of the trouble But a settlement was reached in February, 1827. "The people of Portage, of their own accord," Van Quickenborne was able to report to the Bishop, "have all submitted to the propositions I made them. They agree that we take possession of the church, presbytery and cemetery." 60
The mission annalists, who often deplore the lack of religious spirit in other Creole parishes, are unanimous in recording its presence m Portage. Father Van Quickenborne described the place in 1829 as an entirely Catholic settlement, its inhabitants excelling m religious fervor and scarcely one of them failing to discharge his Easter duty.61 "Here
58 Ann Prof , 3 347, 5 575 Father Richard's words indicate a date for the building of the Portage des Sioux church not long before 1821 "The people of Portage still speak of him [Acquaroni] with the greatest praise The effects he has produced by his instructions and his edifying ways must convince any one that he was a man of God He must have taken particular care to instil piety into the hearts of youths for we had no mission in Missouri where the now old people of Portage were as well instructed m their religion and as pious as they are." Verreydt, Memoirs, (A)
69 Van Quickenborne a Rosati, Florissant, November 9, 1825, (C).
60 Van Quickenborne a Rosati, Florissant, February 6, 1827 (C).
61 Van Quickenborne a Dzierozynski, November 13, 1829. (B).
EARLY PAROCHIAL MINISTRY 221
if anywhere in Missouri/3 witness the Annual Letters for 1837, "the life of the first Christians is reproduced. None can be called rich and there are few who do not have to toil for a living Perhaps it is this circum- stance which prevents vice from entering in and preserves the innocence of the inhabitants. A Father attended by a lay-brother is stationed here. He is poor among the poor but he is fortunate for all that seeing that those committed to his charge are rich in virtue." 62
The priest of Portage des Sioux must have been hard put to it at times to provide even for his physical wants. Referring to conditions in the parish in 1835, Father De Theux said that its pastor lived for the most part on the charity of benefactors, as the annual revenue of the church did not amount to fifty dollars. Under such circumstances it is surprising that any attempt should have been made to build a new church, which a contemporary account describes as surpassing in beauty almost every other sacred edifice in the diocese of St. Louis.63 The first church, a structure of frame, had outlived its usefulness in a few years.64 In 1825 Mr. Van Assche had this to say about it in a letter to De Nef .
The churches of Portage and St Charles . . are barns, not of stone, however, but of wood, without other foundation than a few stones placed under the joists to keep them from rotting The appointments of the Portage edifice consist of some benches, a hole in the wall between the sacristy and the choir to serve as a confessional and behind the altar a picture, the meaning of which I cannot make out for you, it is so badly disfigured The choir was at one time entirely hung with paper, at present, however, scarcely half of the paper remains on the walls. There is no pulpit and so you must preach from the altar steps So shabby are the vestments, that you would not be allowed to use them m Flanders, and, to conclude, there is no chalice65
Already in 1829 Van Qmckenborne in a report to his superior, Dzierozynski, was commenting on the desire of the people of Portage to have a new church and a resident pastor.66 By 1835, the old church had so fallen into decay that it had to be demolished and Mass was thereupon said in the presbytery. Meanwhile Van Quickenborne, in- stalled as pastor of St. Charles, August 15, 1833, with the mission of
62 Litterae Annuae, 1837. (A). According to Father Van Assche, Portage surpassed in piety all other places in the neighborhood and would serve as a model for the villages of Catholic Flanders. Van Assche a De Nef, Florissant, September 4, 1828 (A).
63 Litterae Annuae^ 1836 (A)
64 Ann. Prof, 5 575
65 Van Assche a De Nef, Florissant, September I, 1825. (A).
66 Van Quickenborne ad Dzierozynski, November 13, 1829. (B)
222 THE JESUITS OF THE MIDDLE UNITED STATES
Portage to attend, began to gather the materials for a new edifice, a task he soon relinquished into the hands of Father Verreydt, who on April 6j 1835, was appointed the first Jesuit resident pastor of Portage des Sioux.67 On May I of the following year the cornerstone of the new church, dedicated like its predecessor to St. Francis of Assisi, was solemnly blessed by Bishop Rosati, the Mass on the occasion being celebrated in the open air.68 Work on the edifice, which was of brick and forty by eighty feet in dimensions, was at first delayed owing to the lack of carpenters and masons, but church and parochial residence, both of which were started at the same time, were practically finished in i839.69
Father Van Assche in a letter to Belgium described m glowing terms the Holy Week and Corpus Chnsti services of 1828 at Portage, where he spent the Lent of that year in company with Father Smedts. The Holy Week services were m imitation of those at the cathedral of Mechlin. On Holy Thursday and all through the night till Good Fri- day morning, there was adoration of the Blessed Sacrament, the pious parishioners taking their turns before the altar. Voyageurs, years away from the sacraments, returned to their religious duties, won over chiefly by the example and solicitations of their wives and children.70 The Fete-Dieu or Corpus Christi procession of 1828 was another notable affair at Portage. Three altars richly decorated were erected for the occasion, a thing entailing much labor and, as Van Assche observes, sup- plying proof, if any were needed, of the piety of the people. A sermon by Van Quickenborne on the Real Presence made a deep impression on the Protestants who were present.71 Noteworthy also m the annals of Portage was the reception given by the inhabitants to Bishop Rosati on the occasion of his first visit to the village, September 26, 1827. On the outskirts of the place a platform was erected and here the people gathered to greet the prelate as he approached. They welcomed him with salvos of firearms, a usual accompaniment of public religious cele- brations in the early Creole villages, after which one of the parish boys mounted a platform and delivered an address of welcome in the form of "French verses elegantly composed." Father Smedts with two other ecclesiastics then offered the customary rubrical homage tendered to a
67 Ann Prof.y 8 284 "For the last six weeks I have been staying here in the old presbytery, rather uncomfortable quarters indeed, superintending the erection of the church" Van Quickenborne ad Rosati, February 19, 1835. (C).
68 Lttterae Annuae, 1836. (A).
*g Litterae Annuae, 1839 (A) The brick church m Portage des Sioux erected by the Jesuits, 1836-1839, was destroyed by fire in 1878
70 Van Assche a De Nef, Florissant, September 4, 1828 (A) (A).
EARLY PAROCHIAL MINISTRY 223
bishop on his visitation of a parish, whereupon the Te Deum was in- toned and the procession moved towards the church Here the parish- ioners had spent their best efforts to make the decorations worthy of the occasion. Festoons and garlands of wild flowers hung on all sides, while Scripture texts placarded at intervals suggested the sentiments of respect and loyalty due to the successors of the Apostles 72
Father Felix Verreydt was succeeded at Portage des Sioux m the summer of 1837 by Father Van Quickenborne, who had returned from his Kickapoo mission in a state of declining health.73 The latter, of whom much still remains to be told, was but a few months at his new post when he died, August 17, 1837. He was succeeded by Father Aegidius Debruyn. Like his predecessor, Debruyn was to see only a brief incumbency at Portage. He was a Belgian by birth and a man of lively apostolic zeal. He had entered the Society of Jesus in Switzer- land, but circumstances made it necessary for him to withdraw from its ranks. Coming to America, where he made most of his studies in a diocesan seminary, he was admitted to the novitiate at Florissant in 1832 and ordained a priest in 1837. He had long been a sufferer from a chronic intestinal disease, which his superior hoped might be relieved by the horseback riding and plentiful outdoor exercise of a missionary- priest. But his condition did not improve at Portage. On September 5, 1838, while in the throes of a severe attack of his ailment, he was sum- moned to a sick person five miles away from the residence. Wretched as was his own condition, he started off in the oppressive September heat, attended to the call and was returning home when increasing illness forced him to dismount. He tied his horse to a tree and lay down on the ground, where he was found by a man driving a cart in the direc- tion of Portage. For some unaccountable reason, the man refused Father Debruyn's request for a seat in the cart, though he engaged to let the people of the town know of the father's condition. Some friends soon hastened to the priest's relief and brought him home in a conveyance. He lingered five days, preparing with edifying fervor for the end, which came on September 10, 1838. On the morrow he was buried at St. Charles alongside of his predecessor, Father Van Quickenborne.74
Father Debruyn's place was not permanently filled until the fol- lowing summer when Father Van Assche, who on June 15, 1839, was succeeded as rector and master of novices at Florissant by Father De Vos, took up his residence at Portage. In the matter of health the
72 Van Assche a De Nef, Florissant, January 3, 1828. (A) Rosati's Diary. Kenrick Seminary Archives.
78 Van Quickenborne had lived a few months at Portage m the first part of 1835 preparing the materials for the new church.
74 Litter ae A nnuae, 1838 (A)
224 THE JESUITS OF THE MIDDLE UNITED STATES
experience of the Jesuit pastors of the place had not been a happy one Van Assche's two immediate predecessors at Portage had died there not long after their arrival., while he in turn, as well as his companion, Brother Donahoe, were in constant ill-health Father Verhaegen wrote to Bishop Rosati in August, 1839:
I have just received a letter from Reveiend Fathei De Vos, who informs me that the health of good Father Van Assche is so unsettled that there is great probability he will not be able to resume the exercise of the ministry for several weeks This circumstance puts me in a very embarrassing situa- tion. I have no one to replace him at Portage and Alton Besides, it is certain that this Father has conceived prejudices against a place where two of our men have died and two others are frequently sick. I dare not send him back there and I think that this parish can be attended from St Charles This can be done conveniently enough by stationing another Father at the latter place But as for Alton, Monseigneur, I shall have no one at all And yet this is one of the most important posts m your diocese The inhabitants desire to have a priest among them and will provide for his support. Peimit me, then, Monseigneur, to recommend the place to you m a very special manner.75
Father Verhaegen's plan to close the residence at Portage des Sioux and have the parish attended from St. Charles was carried out in the course of 1840 To meet the expenses of the priest who was to visit them twice a month, the Catholics of Portage stipulated to pay annually one hundred and fifty dollars.76 The parish of St Francis of Assisi was thus attended from St. Charles until m 1875 it passed out of Jesuit hands into those of the diocesan clergy.
§ 4. DARDENNE
The village of Dardenne, situated nine miles west of St Charles, takes its name from Dardenne Creek, a small tributary of the Missis- sippi.77 The name has been explained as being a corruption of Terra
75 Verhaegen a Rosati, August 4, 1839 (C) Alton and Graf ton in Illinois were both visited from Portage, the first-named place once a month Verhaegen wrote to Rosati, August 19, 1836, "It seems the work I began at Alton proceeds very slowly Some of the Catholics discouraged at seeing themselves without a church have left the town. I regret it — but shall do for Alton everything I can." (C)
76 Litterae Annuae, 1840 (A) Father Peter De Meester was sent to take charge of Portage September 3, 1875 Two weeks later a diocesan priest was appointed resident pastor, holding services for the first time on September 26, 1875
77Wetmore, Gazetteer of Missouri^ 1837, llsts Dardenne as a post-office in St Charles County, Mo , but does not enter it m a list of settlements or indicate its position on the accompanying map From Van LommePs account cited below, one gathers that there were very few houses in proximity to the church. Most of the parishioners were scattered along Dardenne Creek, on which, according to
EARLY PAROCHIAL MINISTRY 225
tflnde (dmdon?}, "Turkey-land," from the circumstance that wild turkey was at one time plentiful in the neighborhood. More probably the name is derived from the Dardenne family, early pioneers in upper Louisiana 78 The first church, which was of wood and dedicated to St Peter, was built m 1 8 19 at the instance of Father Dunand, the Florissant pastor, and, like those of St. Charles and Portage des Sioux, was after a few years of service badly out of repair.79 The Annual Letters for 1827 note that one had to pick one's steps carefully from the doorway to sanc- tuary as so many boards of the flooring had fallen through. The Jesuits took charge of the parish in succession, though not immediate, to Father Richard, resident pastor at St. Charles, where his priestly virtues met with the admiration of Mother Duchesne.80 Father Timmermans, whose energetic ministry was cut short by premature death, May 31, 1824, visited the place as often as a fifth Sunday occurred m the month and also on festivals of obligation not occurring on Sunday. He was the first Jesuit to serve the parish of Dardenne. The name of Father Felix Verreydt occurs more frequently than that of any other pnest of the Missouri Mission m connection with the parish. As second o^eranus at St. Charles, he made bi-monthly visits to Dardenne during the years 1828 and 1829 and later from 1832 to 1835, and it was largely through his efforts that a new church was erected in 1835 to replace the old one, which was m a ruinous condition.
A letter of Father De Theux's touches on the new church in Dardenne.
Father Verreydt has succeeded in finishing his church of St Peter, at least to the extent of being able to say Mass in it on the agth of last March [1835]. A great number of persons assisted at the services Ten children, very modest and well-prepared, made their First Communion, while two grown-up children, brought up in negative infidelity, together with a Prot- estant child were baptized on the same day Since then the church has continued to be highly useful to a population scattered over five square miles (almost two of our leagues). The Holy Sacrifice is offered there once a month. It is possible that with time the needs of the people and the growing number of Catholics will requne that a resident pnest be stationed there The church is of wood, but well constructed and when plastered will be a very handsome one for Missouri It is strongly built too, and has already cost more than $700 I suppose $300 more will finish it.81
Wetmore, the best timothy m the state was made. De Theux m 1831 speaks of Dardenne as "ce petit milage "
78 Houck, of at , 2 97.
79 Ann Prof, 5 575
80 Baunard, of ctt , p. 1 84
81 Ann Prof., 8 285. In 1836 Dardenne was being visited twice a month from St. Charles.
226 THE JESUITS OF THE MIDDLE UNITED STATES
Among the few incidents of the early history of the Dardenne parish that have been left on record is that of a three days' mission preached by Father John Van Lommel. This promising young Belgian priest, whose premature death was a deeply felt loss to the Missouri Mission, arrived in St. Louis in 1831. In the summer of the following year he gave evidence of his zeal by asking Father De Theux to assign him some missionary task, preferably m the most forlorn and spiritually destitute corner of the diocese. Whether De Theux meant the appoint- ment which followed to be a literal response to the father's petition, one cannot say, but at all events the latter was directed to conduct a three days' mission in Dardenne. The exercises began on Saturday eve- ning, August 13, as had been announced. Van Lommel never saw a more dreary spot A few cabins scattered here and there made up the settlement, while the church had the appearance of a stable rather than a place of worship. But there was compensation in the circumstance that the fresh air coming in freely from all sides tempered the oppres- sive August heat.
After picking out a cabin m which to lodge, I entered the church. There was no need of a key for the door was wide open Spying a small bell I began to ring ft to see if I could summon one or other person. Father Verreydt had announced that the tnduum would begin Saturday evening After ringing the bell at intervals I gathered about fifteen hearers, partly French and partly Americans I said to myself, this will never do. But remembering St James' experience in Spam I took courage and began to preach in English, and as well as I could m French, a thing I never attempted before I announced the regulations of the tnduum, firmly re- solved to speak three times a day in French and English even though there should be but a single hearer. But God, who does not place too great a strain upon the weak, came to my assistance at once The next day there were about seventy, among them many Protestants; this was not so remark- able, but it was remarkable that on Monday and Tuesday the same gather- ing of about seventy should be present at the three exercises There were thirty-eight communions (never so many before in Dardenne), fifty con- fessions and three baptisms of converts. I need not say that I returned from the excursion in high spirits 82
The population of Dardenne during the years that followed Van Lommel's mission went forward quickly. In 1831 there were scarcely ten families in the place; in 1837, there were sixty, numbering about four hundred souls. The increase was due chiefly to the tide of emigra- tion, chiefly German, which rolled over St. Charles County during the thirties of the last century. The need of a better and larger church for the people of Dardenne was met, as recorded above, by the erection in
82 Van Lommel to Dzierozynski, September 20, 1832. (B).
EARLY PAROCHIAL MINISTRY 227
1835 of a new frame edifice surmounted by a steeple. Towards the cost of it the Missouri Mission contributed nine hundred dollars. In 1840 the interior of the church was finished and new pews were installed. Two years after its erection the church was found too small for the crowd of worshippers who flocked to it The Catholic settlers in the Dardenne district were indeed a church-going people, and it was a matter of regret to Father Verhaegen, superior of the Missouri Mis- sion, that he could not for lack of priests accede to their petition for a resident pastor. The piety of the parishioners is a matter of frequent comment m the Annual Letters of the period. In the Corpus Chnsti procession the men carried torches before the Blessed Sacrament as it was borne through the fields, while the roads were swept for the occa- sion and strewn with wild flowers and leaves.83 Dardenne continued to be served by the Jesuit priests of St. Charles until 1850, when it was taken m charge by the diocesan clergy
83 Litter ae Annuae, 1836-1840 (A) A visit paid by Bishop Rosati to Dardenne m 1838 is recorded in his diary "We arrived at Dardenne where Father De Bruyn had also gone from Portage Some of the parishioners came three miles from the church on horseback to meet us and conduct us thither, the company formed near Mr Frmdley's house, welcomed us with salvos of cannon, led us to the church and there the cannon saluted us again Mass was sung by the pastor, Father Walters, at the end of which I preached m English and after the singing of the hymn Veni Creator I confirmed twenty-three faithful of both sexes Then I preached m French and gave the [usual] admonitions We dined at Mr Fnndley's and returned to St Charles after visiting Judge Spencer" A Jesuit, Father Frederick Hubner, was resident pastor m Dardenne for some months in 1849.
CHAPTER VIII MISSIONARY EXCURSIONS IN MISSOURI AND ILLINOIS
§ I CENTRAL MISSOURI
The four parishes of St Ferdinand, Portage des Sioux, Dardenne and St. Charles, all taken over by Father Van Qmckenborne in 1823, formed but a small portion of the field worked by the Jesuit superior and his associates.1 The entire state of Missouri, exclusive of St. Louis and the southeastern counties, fell to their spiritual care Moreover, as many of the western counties of Illinois were for a period under the provisional jurisdiction of the Bishop of St Louis, these also came to be cultivated for a while by Jesuit workers. Hence, three distinct areas of Jesuit missionary enterprise in the West in the late twenties and early thirties of the last century came to be recognized, one stretching to the west for an indefinite distance along the banks of the Missouri, another lying along the Salt River Valley in northeastern Missouri, and a third comprising a wide sweep of Illinois territory with boundary points set roughly at Alton, Qumcy, Springfield, aftd French Village Each of these areas has its own record of zealous endeavor on the part of the Missouri Jesuits for the spreading of the Faith.
The missionary activities of the fathers assumed considerable pro- portions only with the establishment in 1828 of the St. Charles resi- dence. Up to that date they had extended their ministry in periodical visits westward as far as the mouth of the Osage River and northward to the Salt River districts and the adjacent counties, but lack of priests and the difficulty of crossing the Missouri River reduced their visits to a minimum by no means adequate to relieve the spiritual destitution which they encountered. The presence of two fathers at St. Charles altered the situation essentially To one of the two, called generally in the mission catalogues, oferanw secundus or missionaries excurrens, was assigned the duty of systematic visitation of the mission-stations scattered along the Missouri and Salt River Valleys. Hence, it came about that during the decade 1828-1838, or up to the opening of the Westphalia and Washington residences, St. Charles became a base of operations from which went forth periodically on regular missionary cir- cuits the only Catholic priests that western and northern Missouri knew
1 Supra, Chap VII.
228
MISSIONARY EXCURSIONS 229
during these years. This extra-parochial activity of the Jesuits resident in St Charles overshadowed their local ministry in importance and spiritual results
Early m the nineteenth century a tide of immigration began to roll up the valley of the Missouri The settlers came from Virginia and the Carolmas, later from Illinois and Kentucky, and, as early as the thirties, from Germany. Even before Missouri came into the Union in 1821 after a memorable political contest which was to find its closing chapter only in the Civil War, a few white settlements had risen on the banks of her great internal waterway Franklin, Boonville, Columbia, Jeffer- son City and Liberty had all been started on their career before Van Quickenborne and his party crossed the Mississippi. The return of peace after the war of 1812 gave a new impetus to western immigration. So great was the rush into Missouri of settlers from Kentucky, Tennessee, Virginia and the Carolmas that the Missouri Gazette of October 26, 1816, declared "that a stranger witnessing the scene would imagine that those states had made an agreement to introduce the territory as soon as possible into the bosom of the American family." As many as a hundred persons passed through St. Charles in one day on their way to Boone's Lick (Old Franklin), Salt River or some other point of attraction, many of the immigrants bringing with them a hundred head of cattle, besides horses, hogs, sheep and from three to twenty slaves.2 In December, 1823, Van Quickenborne informed Father Benedict Fen- wick that the population of Missouri was rapidly increasing "Some times last fall as many as thirteen families passed through St. Charles 1 Franklin and Missounopolis, where the seat of government will be, are growing fast. The land is as yet very cheap. In my opinion this is the time for settling ourselves here." 3
By a right guaranteed to them in the most formal terms by the Concordat entered into between Bishop Du Bourg and Father Charles Neale, the Jesuit missionaries were to have exclusive spiritual charge of what was practically the whole watershed of the Missouri River. Article 10 of that remarkable document may be cited again
The Bishop of New Orleans cedes and surrenders to the Society of Jesus forever, as soon and in proportion as its increase of members enables it to undertake the same, the absolute and exclusive care of all the missions already established, and which shall be hereafter established on the Missoun River and its tnbutary streams, comprising within the above grant and cession the spiritual direction, agreeably to their holy institute, as well of all the white population as of the various Indian tnbes inhabiting the above mentioned district of country, together with all the churches, chapels, col-
2 Carr, Missouri, p. 117.
3 Van Quickenborne to B Fenwick, December 12, 1823 (A).
23o THE JESUITS OF THE MIDDLE UNITED STATES
leges and semmanes of learning already erected and which shall hereafter be erected, in full conviction of the blessed advantages his diocese will derive from the piety, the learning and the zeal of the members of the said religious society.4
The provisions o£ the Concordat were to become operative only after their confirmation by the Holy See and the General of the Society of Jesus That confirmation, however, could not be expected till after the lapse of months, if not of years, and might not, in the issue, be obtained at all. The Jesuits, on the other hand, were on the ground and the extent of their actual jurisdiction called for immediate deter- mination. Accordingly, shortly after their arrival at Florissant they were charged with the care of four parishes m the neighborhood of the Seminary and with the mission-stations up the Missouri. No limits were set to the range of their ministry in this direction, in a word, they found themselves assigned to a field of operations as impressively broad and far-reaching as that defined m sweeping terms m the Con- cordat. "It begins," Van Quickenborne explained to the Father General m September, 1830, "at the spot where the Missouri flows into the Mississippi, or rather the Mississippi into the Missouri, distant from Florissant eight or ten miles, then it extends westward to the head of the same river Missouri " 5
Here was a great spiritual field of operations stretching in solitary grandeur from the outskirts of St. Louis to the Rocky Mountains A dozen dioceses and more with a Catholic population of many hundreds of thousands have since been organized within its borders. The care of this vast ecclesiastical domain by any single religious order must, in the nature of things, have soon become impracticable. Yet it was this domain that had been tendered in all seriousness and with every hoped- for guarantee of canonical effect to the Society of Jesus. The fact is significant as showing the inability of even far-sighted prelates like Bishop Du Bourg to realize the swiftness and extent of the expansion the Church was to undergo west of the Mississippi.
To cultivate this great sweep of territory Fathers Van Quicken- borne and Timmermans were at first the only hands available. Already in December, 1823, the Florissant superior was informing Benedict Fenwick that Timmermans, besides attending to the parishes of Portage des Sioux, St. Charles and Dardenne, visited Hancock Prairie six times and Cote-sans-dessem four times a year.6 At Hancock Prairie a log
4 For complete text of the Concordat, cf supra, Chap. II, § 4.
5 Hugh.es, History of the Society of Jesus ^n North America, Doc , 2' 1028.
6 Van Quickenborne to B Fenwick, December 12, 1823 (B) "Sphere of our operations. Florissant, which congregation I attend regularly St Charles, Portage In both of them Father Timmermans keeps church twice a month. In
MISSIONARY EXCURSIONS 231
church was in course of construction.7 The sermons which Timmermans wrote out carefully while in Maryland are indorsed with the names of the localities m which they were now preached. Some of them are marked "Cote-sans-dessem," indicating that the missionary put them to use on his visits to that Creole settlement.8 "Father Timmermans' mis- sion," wrote Mr. Van Assche in 1824, "is about thirty leagues from here. He would go farther if it were possible, for there is no priest between us and the Indians though many Catholics. It is sometimes a dozen days before he arrives at a lodging place."9 After his colleague's death. Van Quickenborne made an occasional circuit of the western stations, which in 1827 were again visited with something like regularity, this time by Father Smedts. In 1827 Van Assche informs a correspondent that "Father Smedts has four small missions, the farthest is about forty-four leagues from here. All these places are daily growing in popuktion. In no country in the world do people change their habi- tation as often as here, some because they have to, others with a view to gain. You must know, my dear friend, that there are immense tracts of land here belonging to the government. Permission is granted to work this land and even to build on it, with the understanding that, if some one buys the land, you may carry away only what belongs to you, such as a log cabin. Others sell their farms in Maryland, Kentucky and other states, which are well populated, and come here to buy three or four farms for the same money. Our state, as a consequence, will in a few years be as populous as others, probably one day one of the
Portage only one family not French Dardenne, where Timmermans keeps church every 5th Sunday of month and on all holidays not coming on Sunday Hancock Prairie, where there are several pious Catholic families and where at this time Father Timmermans thinks a log church has been erected and finished. These families are visited once every two months They live eighty miles from the Seminary Cote-sans-dessem Father Timmermans goes there four times a year, if possible."
7 Hancock Prairie, m southeastern Callaway County, Mo Two baptisms of Van Quickenborne at this place, September 7, 1827, are recorded m the Florissant register
8 Cote-sans-dessem m Callaway County, Mo., on the left (north) bank of the Missouri two miles below the mouth of the Osage. "It was first settled by French emigrants in 1808 and was once a populous village. Its name (signifying a chill without a design') is derived from an isolated limestone hill, some six hundred yards long and very narrow, standing in the bottom, which, it is thought, some convulsion of nature separated from the Osage Bluffs on the opposite side of the river." Campbell, Gazetteer of Missouri, p 96. Cf. also Ovid Bell, Cote Sans Dessem (Fulton, Mo), 1930 The first priest to visit Cote-sans-dessein (1819) was Father Charles De La Croix, pastor of St. Ferdinand's Church, Florissant, Mo Garraghan, St. Ferdinand de Florissant the Story of an Ancient Parish^ pp 158-160.
9 Van Assche a De Nef, April 29, 1824 (A).
232 THE JESUITS OF THE MIDDLE UNITED STATES
most flourishing of all because of the two rivers Mississippi and Mis- souri." 10 Father De Theux made a missionary excursion to central Missouri in the spring of 1827. "Easter Monday I left for a mission [Cote-sans-dessem] situated forty leagues from our Seminary. There are settlements scattered here and there which have not been visited for three years through lack of priests. I was cordially received, baptized ten infants, and had I prolonged my visit every one of the settlers, I am sure, would have come to confession In this short excursion I saw squirrels, wild-turkeys, prairie-chickens and ducks, all within pistol- range. All these kinds of game are common, as are also panthers and bears, which are harmless provided you let them alone The flesh of the latter is quite good to eat. On my way I passed over a prairie eighteen miles long and broad in proportion Almost all the country I traversed is in prairie or wood. If the distance were not so great, I would invite some millions of my fellow-countrymen to come out to Missouri, where I believe they could do wonders." n
In the autumn of 1828 Father Verhaegen made a missionary excur- sion as far west as Jefferson City. He was the first Catholic priest whose name is distinctly connected with the capital of the state.12
The establishment of the St Charles residence in 1828 removed many of the difficulties which had hitherto attended the visitation of the outlying stations. To Father Verreydt, assigned to that residence at its opening, fell the duty of performing at fixed intervals the two con- siderable mission-circuits of central Missouri and the Salt River district. Verreydt was to prove himself an efficient missionary, whose labors were to carry him in successive periods of his career over a great range of territory extending from northeastern Missouri to Council Bluffs in Iowa and Sugar Creek and St. Mary's in Kansas. As a seminarian, still pursuing his studies, he had, owing to certain peculiarities of character, been a source of anxiety to Father Van Quickenborne, who felt reluctant
10 Van Assche a De Nef, Marcli i, 1827 (A)
11 De Theux a sa mere, May 13, 1827 (A) April 19, 1827, Father De Theux baptized at Cote-sans-dessem James Roy, born November 9, 1826 Seven baptisms were performed by the father at the same place on the following day The earliest recorded baptisms ("a Cote-sans-dessein et dans ses environ?'} were ad- ministered by Father De La Croix May 6, 1821, Alexis Faille, May 13, 1821, Jean de Noyer, Jean Baptist Roy, April 21, 1822, Paul de Noyer, Celeste Renaux, Agnes Faille, Martha Nash Dillon Baptismal Register, St Ferdinand's Church, Florissant, Mo The Catholic population of Cote-sans-dessem m 1836 was sixty- three
12 Van Quickenborne to Dzierozynski, November 17, 1828 (B) The writer has been unable to find any earlier reference than this to the exercise of the sacred ministry in Jefferson City According to a ms. memorandum (1838) in the St Louis archdiocesan archives Father Verhaegen preached m Jefferson City in 1827, probably a mistake for 1828.
MISSIONARY EXCURSIONS 233
for a while to recommend him for ordination. Subsequently Van Quickenborne was able to report o£ Verreydt to the superior in Mary- land "That good Father has won a great victory over himself and has been a great consolation to me All these places he visits three times a year with the greatest labor, zeal, consolation on his part and fruit on the part of the faithful." In 1829 Father Verreydt was evangelizing both banks of the Missouri up to a point beyond Franklin in Howard County. A trip in this direction, one hundred and sixty miles beyond St. Charles, lasted six weeks and brought him through Hancock Prairie, Cote-sans-dessem, the crossings of the Gasconade, Jefferson City, Frank- lin and Boonville. These and other river settlements had their little groups of Catholic residents, who eagerly welcomed Verreydt into their midst three times a year. In 1833 Father De Theux informed a cor- respondent in Europe that Verreydt was still cultivating this same mission-field of central Missouri
Rev Father Verreydt, mtsstonatre ambulant of the Society of Jesus, whose missions extend for more than a hundred and sixty miles into the south- west of Missouri, left St Charles, his place of residence, May 2O, 1832, and returned the 23rd of the following June. In this short interval of time he made the rounds of nearly all the towns and villages of which he has charge You can judge for yourself the extent of his labors in those places when I tell you that he preached fourteen rimes, gave sixteen instructions, baptized fifteen infants, heard fifty confessions and distributed the bread of life to forty persons, nine of whom were children who had never received it before. I indicate here only the fruits of the Father's first mission, not having taken note of the results of the two or three other missions which he carried on in the same localities during the course of the year 1833 He is accustomed to visit all these stations two or three times a year, a thing which requires health and strength, as you see, for although these good people receive you kindly, you must, when you are on a mission, know how to put up with anything Still another inconvenience is that these trips have to be made in summer, for during the winter the roads are impassable, being cut up by creeks, the bridges of which are often swept away from their foundations 13
Every phase of the work earned on at this period by the Missouri Jesuits meets somewhere with minute description in Van Quickenborne's correspondence with the Father General. In a letter of September 9, 1830, details are furnished concerning Father Verreydt's missionary excursions in the interior of Missouri and the conditions there existing among the Catholic settlers-
18 Van Quickenborne ad Dzierozynski, November 13, 1829. (B). Ann. Prop, 7 117. In August, 1830, Father Van Quickenborne was called to a sick person one hundred and twenty-five miles away, Father Van Assche not going for fear of getting lost m the woods
234 THE JESUITS OF THE MIDDLE UNITED STATES
The circuit is very trying and is made m the following manner As there is no church, everything has to be done in private houses These are, as a matter of fact, merely cabins of the poorest kind, being made of trees usually forty feet long, cut square and placed one on top of the other. One such house answers every need. The priest on his arrival is cordially received by the family, who are glad to have him m their midst. Pork, coffee, if there is any, and bread from Spanish wheat (corn-bread) make up his dinner and supper The Catholics of the neighborhood are given notice to approach the sacraments on the next day. The Protestants also like to be informed so they can come to the sermon In the evening prayers and rosary are recited in common Then the dining-room is changed into a dormitory In the morn- ing, prayers again in common, after which all the beds are removed from the room The priest prepares the altar and begins to hear the confessions These ordinarily last till 10 or 12 when Mass is celebrated, during which there is a sermon and a practically general communion After thanksgiving the altar is taken away and kitchen preparations begin. Meantime, on nearly all these occasions a number of Protestants are calling on the priest to have points not well understood cleared up and doubts solved. The priest is thus kept busy sometimes late into the night The Catholics on hearing the objec- tions of the Protestants refuted so effectively are strengthened m the faith and encouraged to imitate the priest m taking issue with error. Protestants are mentally convinced and seeing the piety of the Catholics their hearts are drawn to imitate them All this business having been attended to, the priest starts off for another house 20 or 30 miles away, where the same routine is repeated and so on until the whole district has been visited. This Father [Verreydt] is absent from home on these circuits almost eight or nine months of the year, he rests for a few weeks after each circuit.
This state of poverty does not last always The Catholics, seeing how unseemly it is to have everything done m one place, as soon as they are able to do so, build the priest a room out of logs Then, as their numbers increase, they think of putting up a church, also of logs, and after some time do so When it is built, services are no longer held m the houses of the vicinity and the Catholics flock to the church. Greater decency is thus possible m the celebration of the sacred mysteries For the convenience of the congregation this church is located centrally with reference to the houses of the Catholic settlers and as these houses are at first very sparse it happens that a forlorn church is sometimes found right in the woods, 3 or more miles from any house. After some years, as the population increases, what was formally a center ceases to be so. Moreover, cities are built up, some of them solidly and, as far as appearances go, to last for ever. People flock m great numbers to take up residence in them and business prospers Other cities are started, of which some die out almost immediately, while others develop, but slowly* . . .
Why this region is so quickly populated. A great quantity of land m this state is very rich and fertile and is sold cheap by the government at $1.25 an acre, whereas in Maryland and Kentucky the same land would be sold for 15, 20 and 40 dollars an acre. Therefore, when a paterfamilias who
MISSIONARY EXCURSIONS 235
owns a farm of 200 acres m the aforesaid states sees his family growing considerably in numbers, he sells his 200 acres, comes here and buys 3000 or 4000 acres and so can settle all his sons and daughters. These generally marry very young Last year 3000 families came into our district from Kentucky, Virginia, North Carolina, Tennessee and Alabama Among them were 14 Catholic families If we do not receive help, how can we attend to all these people? In order that they may be cared for more easily in a spiritual way by the priest, these families on the advice of Ven. Bishop Flaget of Kentucky have settled close to one another. They are good Catholics and many more are to come this year.14
One would not expect the religious welfare of the few Catholic settlers of the Missouri Valley m these pioneer days to be a matter of concern to the Jesuit General in distant Rome. And yet we find the latter bringing to the attention of Father De Theux a report which had reached him that these settlers, whom, the Jesuits were under obli- gation to look after, were being neglected. Father Verreydt, to whom appeal was naturally made for information on the subject, denied that any Catholic family in the district m question had been left unvisited by him, with the exception of a single one living a hundred miles or so apart from the others. Even this family, he declared, he would have seen, had a guide been available, though they were very indifferent Catholics indeed and had received him with scant courtesy on occasion of the single visit he had paid to them. In March, 1835, Van Quicken- borne was appointed to succeed Verreydt as "rural missionary for both banks of the Missouri River," being cautioned on this occasion by his superior, Father De Theux, not to build or even contract for log cabins without his permission. The reasons for thus providing this territory rather than others with a missionary, so De Theux made known to the General, were fourfold: it was to be ceded to the Jesuits according to the Concordat, had been cultivated by them since their arrival m Missouri, offered many promising locations for new centers of Jesuit apostolic work and, finally, was the open door to the long-contemplated Indian mission. As late as 1847 Archbishop Kennck of St. Louis was repre- senting to the Propaganda, on what grounds is not known, that the Missouri River stations were not being adequately served by the Jesuits and he made a move apparently to reopen the entire question of the Concordat, with what result has been recorded above.15
The total number of Catholics m the Missouri River district in the twenties and thirties of the past century was not considerable When Father Van Quickenborne, while on his way to the Osage m the sum-
X4Van Quickenborne ad Roothaan, September 9, 1830 (AA). 15 De Theux ad Roothaan, September 5, 1833, June 28, 1835. (AA). Sufra> Chap. VII, § 7.
236 THE JESUITS OF THE MIDDLE UNITED STATES
mer of 1827, passed through the interior of Missouri for the first time, he found with the aid of a Catholic settler only six members of his own faith, which number, he further declared, had in 1829 increased to one hundred and eighty.16 Here, however, he was referring to attend- ance at so-called "reunions," which were seemingly impromptu gather- ings of the Catholics in the country districts to meet the itinerant mis- sionary, so that his figures scarcely include the Catholic population of all the river towns But they do not differ widely from those given by his fellow-Jesuits for the entire Catholic population of "central Missouri" at this period Father De Theux calculated the population for 1831 as only between two and three hundred But by 1836 according to a census made at the time by the Jesuit missionaries, the number of Catholics in the nineteen towns visited by them between St. Charles and Columbia was five hundred and six.17 The total Catholic population of central Missouri for that year is estimated by the compiler of the Annual Letters at about six hundred.
While the spiritual harvest gathered in by the missionaries as they went up and down the interior of the state was considerable, it was soon felt that the difficulty of reaching the Catholic population settled there was a serious check on the results of their ministry As a missionary center, St Charles was found to be too remote from the field of actual operations, a more central headquarters for the fathers who ministered in the Missouri River towns had now to be looked for The Annual Letters for 1836 suggest that two priests be stationed in the town of Mary Creek, Gasconade County, whence they could easily visit the sta- tions lying twenty or thirty miles away. The overarms of St Charles in his last excursion up the state administered fifteen baptisms, four of them to adult converts The results, however, scarcely answer to the labor expended as the missionary can remain only a few days at each station. What good could not be accomplished were a father not merely to remain m a station a few days, but live permanently with a com- panion in the interior of the state? 18 This was the plan eventually carried out. With the establishment of the Westphalia residence in 1838 by Father Ferdinand Helias begins a notable chapter in the history of Catholicism in central Missouri
16 Father De La Croix eaily in 1819 found twenty-two Catholic families m Cote-banb-dessem and fifteen Catholics, all told, m Franklin, Howard County, Garraghan, St Tetdmand de Florissant, p 158
17 Status Misstonum S J , 1836 (C)
18 L^tterae Annuae> 1836 (A) Status Mtsnonum S J, 1836 (C) "Mary Creek — locus afttmmus Rend&ntiae " Mary, now Mancb Creek, it, an affluent of the Osage The town of Mary Creek, later New Westphalia or Westphalia, on the right bank of Maries Creek four miles above its mouth and about fifteen miles southeast of Jefferson City Infra, Chap XIV.
MISSIONARY EXCURSIONS 237
The Annual Letters for 1837 haye preserved a carefully drawn up statement of the numerical status of Catholicism m the interior of Missouri at that date. With its reproduction may be concluded this account of the ministry of the Jesuit fathers m the district named during the years 1823-1838 The number of Catholic inhabitants fol- lows the name of the town visited
On the right bank of the Missouri ( I ) Manchester, I o A great crowd of non-Catholics, many of them well disposed towards the faith, also attend the services (2) Mernmac, 14 (3) Washington, 118 The people here are building a church for us, 30 by 40 feet, and have given us ten acres of land (4) Buibus, II (5) Bailey's Creek, 22 Preparations aie here being made for a church (6) French Village, 24 (7) Mary Creek, 80 The people wish to build a church The place seems suitable for a Residence. (8) Jefferson, 9 (9) Boonville, 20 On the left bank (10) Fayette, I (n) Columbia, II (12) Chanton, 2 (13) Rocheport, 26 A church here is projected (14) Cote-sans-dessem, 63. (15) Hancock Prairie, 14 (16) Portland, 14 (17) Lay Creek, 34 (18) Marthasville, 3 (19) Mount Pleasant, 30 On a single circuit of these stations, about 150 confessions were heard and 115 Communions administered.19
19 Manchester, St Louis Co On the Manchester Road, eighteen miles west of St Louis Mernmac, Jefferson Co , eighteenth-century French-Canadian settle- ment beginning at about Fenton and extending to mouth of the Mernmac Wash- ington, Franklin Co On the south bank of the Missouri, fifty-four miles west of St Louis Burbus (Bourbois), Gasconade Co Twenty- four miles southeast of Hermann, seat of Gasconade County. The Bourbeuse (French for "muddy") Creek, a branch of the Mernmac, flows through Franklin and Gasconade Counties, Bailey's Creek, Osage Co Eight miles northeast of Lmn French Village, Osage Co On or near the site of Dauphme, subsequently Bonnot's Mill, on the south bank of the Missouri, a short distance east of the mouth of the Osage and twelve miles east of Jefferson City Mary Creek, Osage Co German settlement later known as Westphalia Jefferson, Cole Co State capital, on the south bank of the Missouri, one hundred and twenty-five miles west of St Louis Boon-ville, Cooper Co On the south bank of the Missouri one hundred and eighty-seven miles by rail from St Louis Chariton, Chanton Co Near the mouth of the Chariton River, about two miles above the present town of Glasgow Fayette, Howard Co. Thirteen miles north of Boonville Columbia, Boone Co "The great western mail-route runs through Columbia and the post-coaches pass tn-weekly through this town " Wetmore, of cit , p 44 Seat of the State University Rocheport, Boone Co On the north bank of the Missouri, fourteen miles west of Columbia. Cote-sans-dessem, Callaway Co On the north bank of the Missouri, two miles below the mouth of the Osage, opposite Bonnot's Mill Hancock Prairie, m south- eastern Callaway Co North of Portland, crossing line between Callaway and Montgomery Counties Portland, Callaway Co On the Missouri River twenty-five miles southeast of Fulton Lay Creek. Not listed m Wetmore or Campbell Marthas- ville, Warren Co On north bank of the Missouri opposite Washington m Franklin Co Mount Pleasant, now Augusta, St. Charles Co On the Missouri, thirty-six miles above St Charles Robert A Campbell, Gazetteer of Missouri (St. Louis, 1874), Alphonso Wetmore, Gazetteer of the State of Missouri (St. Louis, 1837).
238 THE JESUITS OF THE MIDDLE UNITED STATES
§ 2. THE SALT RIVER MISSION
In the twenties and thirties of the last century two principal high- ways of immigrant travel led out of St. Charles in Missouri. One ran westward for some distance and then bent in towards the Missouri River, meeting it opposite Jefferson City, the other, taking a north- westerly course, brought the traveller through Lincoln, Pike, Rails and Marion Counties and beyond. Along the latter road were a number of small towns, chief among them Troy, Alexandria, Bowling Green, New London and Palmyra, none of which has since achieved any notable measure of growth or commercial importance. And yet to the Jesuit missionaries of the period 1825-1835, the northeastern counties of Missouri, designated by them "the Salt River district," from the name of an affluent of the Mississippi which meets the latter at Loui- siana in Pike County, appeared to be one of the most promising sections of the state both in an economic way and for the prospects it seemed to offer of future Catholic development.20
In December, 1827, northeastern Missouri received its first recorded visit from a Catholic priest in the person of Father Felix Verreydt. He was sent m response to a petition from the eighty Catholics settled there, who in 1826 had written to Father Van Quickenborne to obtain the services of a missionary priest. At the beginning of 1828 Van Quick- enborne wrote to Bishop Rosati, who was looking forward to a reported influx of Catholics from Kentucky.
Father Verreydt is back from his mission on Salt River. He had thirty- two communicants there. The Catholic families aie so scattered that he has not been able up to this to fix on a meeting place. Instead of the forty families who were to have followed those settled there last year, or rather two years ago, only four came All we can say to the Gentlemen of Ken- tucky is that three or four times a year a priest visits the Catholic families residing along Salt River in the vicinity of Palmyra and Louisiana.21
In February, 1828, Father Elet was sent by Van Quickenborne to northeastern Missouri. He was, according to the latter, "the first in that
20 Troy, Lincoln Co. Fourteen miles northwest of Wentzville, St. Charles Co. Alexandria, Lincoln Co Five miles north, of Troy Bowling Green, Pike Co The county seat, about ten or twelve miles southwest of Louisiana, the latter town, on the Mississippi, being the largest town in the county. New London, Rails Co. Contained in 1837, "a brick Court House, five stones, four grocery-stores, and one tavern, a church, a clerk's office, and a jail — which is of little use." (Wet- more). Palmyra, Marion Co In 1837 "a flourishing town of about fifteen hundred inhabitants " (Wetmore) .
21 Van Quickenborne a Rosati, January 2, 1828. (C).
JH I-H
O PS
iO
B + 30
TS a,
a s
MISSIONARY EXCURSIONS 239
region to say Mass and preach " -- The statement is a puzzling one in view o£ Father Verreydt's recorded visit of three months before, it is probably an inadvertence on the part of Van Quickenborne. The sixteen days that Elet spent on this mission of February, 1828, brought a har- vest of sixteen baptisms, thirty-six confessions, seventeen communions and twelve conversions of adults. He found on his arrival that, one family excepted, the children of the Catholic settlers had been baptized by Protestant ministers. One instance of heroic Catholic faith among these settlers, nearly all of whom were recent immigrants from Ken- tucky, deserves to be recorded A Mrs. Shields, whose husband was a Presbyterian, journeyed more than once with her daughters all the way from northeastern Missouri to Kentucky for the purpose of there receiv- ing holy communion, not being aware that there were English- speaking priests in St. Louis. An account of Father Elet's mission of February, 1828, in the Salt River district was drawn up in English by Van Quickenborne and sent to Dzierozynski, the Maryland superior.
Father Elet has three stations, (i) Buffalo Creek, (2) at Mr. Shields near Louisiana on the Mississippi, (3) at Mr. Leake's in the vicinity of New London and on Salt River, about one hundred and forty miles from the Seminary. On Buffalo Creek there is but one Catholic family, whose house was not prepared to say Mass in. Another one very spacious was selected, belonging to a Protestant
Father Elet said Mass there and preached before 130 Protestants and 20 Catholics The room was so filled with people that after Holy Com- munion he could not turn himself to say Dommus Vobiscum All the hearers were highly satisfied. He explained the meaning of each of the sacerdotal vestments He gave an English missal to one, who showed the prayers to the others These were found by them to he very good. He preached during Mass for three-quarters of an houi and after Mass was forced to yield to an unanimous request to preach another sermon, which was done to their great satisfaction. Late m the afteinoon Father Elet sat down at a very sumptuous table and after dinner retired. At the second station (Mr. Shields') he said Mass and preached before an audience of thirty persons, chiefly Protestants Here thirteen persons went to Holy Communion. You can easier imagine than I can express how Mrs Shields now rejoiced, she who had been led to this country by her Protestant husband and had gone several times a distance of 800 miles to obtain the happiness which was now brought to her home From this place Father Elet set off with Mr. Shields m search of the Catholic families living, as was supposed on Spencer's Creek and whose names he did not know, for they were newcomers At the end of their first day's journey, they had not as yet found any, and when late m the evening they did not even find a house, upon Father Elet's saying to Mr Shields that he had steel, etc,, to get fire, they were on the point of alighting
22 Van Quickenborne to Dzierozynski, March 4, 1828 (B).
240 THE JESUITS OF THE MIDDLE UNITED STATES
from their horses to pass the night in the woods without having had a dinner or a supper, when Mr. Shields going about to reconnoiter the place, saw at a distance a cabin Thither they went, but on their arrival they found the cabin was abandoned. Father Elet observed to Mr Shields that it was alieady some comfort to have a roof, but Mr. Shields going still to recon- noiter the place from a high hill, saw lights at the great distance and, though it was now very late in the night, they resolved to go thither The cabin was inhabited by a poor settler who, however, received them with cordiality They got dinner and supper at once and the bed of the settler was put up straight against the wall to afford room to lie on the floor, so small was the cabin Here they heard that some newcomers had settled at a small distance Before breakfast they repaired to the spot pointed out and found a settle- ment just begun They asked whether they could get breakfast R[eply] "Yes, such as we have " Father Elet being covered by his great white coat could not be distinguished He saw some books m the cupboard and found they were all Catholic books. He asked the man m a tone of surprise, "Are you a Catholic"5" "Yes, sir, we are Catholics." "Do you know me?" con- tinued Father Elet "No, sir'" "Then," said Father Elet, "I will pull off my great coat and you will know me " When he had done so, the man cried out, "You are a Catholic priest'" and such a transport of joy was he m that he left everything and ran off to his wife, who was at her sugar-camp at some distance from the house The man, coming to the camp, found his wife sitting on a log m great melancholy, thinking within herself that she would be perhaps forever deprived of the holy sacraments This thought had made her sick for several days past. Upon his seeing her, the man said, "Nelly, guess four times and you will not tell me who is at our house " R[eply]. "Who can be at the house but some fnend from Kentucky"5" "No." "Who then?" "A Catholic priest." As soon as the words had dropped from the lips of her husband, she ran as quick as she could to the house and seeing Father Elet, she threw herself at his knees, crying and shedding many tears "Father, give me your blessing' Father, give me your blessing'" The man said, "Father, I would give everything I have for your presence. Come, sit down' Breakfast will be prepared." The name of the family is Leake They came out from Kentucky last fall, three families They went at St Louis, all of them, to their Easter duty Father Elet says he has never seen finer Catholics than they are. They all communicated again. They are well off. Have several negroes and are settled in a very good part of the country, this spring seven families more must come and they come with the intention of bringing out forty families, being told in Kentucky that they would have a pnest. They offer to build a brick church — as also at Louisiana, a very thriving town. Such also is Palmyra on Salt River. Father Elet says it is the finest country he has seen — land like about Florissant, well-timbered, watered, and having many very fine sugar-camps They sell their produce as high as about St. Louis, because they are con- venient to the Lead Mines m Fever River, and send their stock of cattle to New Orleans by water 23
23 Van Quickenborne to Dzierozynski, March 4, 1828 (B)
MISSIONARY EXCURSIONS 241
With the visit of Verreydt to the Salt River district in December, 1827, followed by that of Elet in February, 1828, began a Jesuit missionary activity in that quarter that continued until the arrival in 1833 of Father Lefevere, future first Bishop of Detroit. In 1829 Verreydt from his headquarters at St Charles was making apostolic expeditions three times a year to the northern counties of Missouri, spending six weeks on the circuit The stations visited included Moscow, Troy, Alexandria, Bear Creek, Louisiana, Palmyra, New London, and the houses of certain settlers on the Salt River. The district thus evan- gelized by the Jesuit missionaries was visited by them in default of other priests and not in discharge of any duty devolving upon them by the Concordat, as was the case in the Missouri River towns. Writing May 6, 1823, to the Father Prior in Rome, Father Rosati, then superior of the Lazanst community at the Barrens, says that Bishop Du Bourg had assigned to the Lazansts the territory along the Mississippi, as he had assigned to the Jesuits the territory along both banks of the Missouri. Four missionaries from each body were to be placed as soon as possible in their respective fields of labor and Father Rosati petitions the Father Prior to send the subjects necessary to discharge the obligations thus assumed by the Lazansts.24 It does not appear that the latter group, presumably through lack of missionaries, ever worked the part of their Mississippi River district lying north of St. Louis, though the part south of the metropolis enjoyed for years the fruits of their ministry. We find Bishop Rosati offering in 1830 to the Society of Jesus the spirit- ual charge of northeastern Missouri. "The day before yesterday," Father Van Quickenborne informed the General, September 9, 1830, "our Bishop told me that he desired much to have the Society take charge of the district lying on the right bank of the Mississippi, begin- ning at the confluence mentioned above and extending northward thence as far as the limits of this state, that is, about two hundred and fifty miles.57 25
No formal transfer of the Salt River territory to the Society of Jesus was made by the Bishop of St. Louis in the sense implied by Father Van Qmckenborne's words, namely, an exclusive cultivation of the territory by Jesuit missionaries similar to that which the Concordat secured to them in regard to the Missouri Valley. Yet, as a matter of fact, the Missouri Jesuits worked this promising field freely and alone during the years 1827-1832 and more than once devised plans for a permanent residence within its limits. On September 2, 1829, Van Quickenborne made a proposition to one of the Salt River congregations to enter government land to the extent of one hundred acres and to
2* Hughes, of cit., Doc 3 2 1018
25 Van Quickenborne ad Roothaan, September 9, 1830. (AA)
242 THE JESUITS OF THE MIDDLE UNITED STATES
build a house, church, kitchen and stable If the house were ready by March, 1830, and if nothing unforeseen occurred in the interval, the congregation was to receive a resident Jesuit pastor. The plan, however, like many other plans of the sanguine superior, was not realized. "We ought," so he suggested to Father Roothaan, "to have a residence at Franklin and another at Louisiana [Pike Co , Missouri] and in each two priests and a brother, the latter to teach school, that is, reading, writing, arithmetic, English grammar and geography. We now lose too much time in travelling — our men are too much exposed to disease — we cannot visit Protestants and have private talks with them on religion — we cannot build churches, for the people do not contribute for these unless the priest lives in the place. But what would they live on? I answer, as at St Charles, on the pew-rents and yum stolae In accordance with episcopal statute Catholics pay something on occasion of a marriage, burial or funeral " 26
Father Van Quickenborne, it would appear, had so far committed himself to the project of a Jesuit residence in northeastern Missouri that his successor, Father De Theux, felt it necessary to attempt to carry it through. "I have hopes," says the latter in 1831, "of beginning a new establishment one hundred and twenty miles from Florissant near New London, some distance from Louisiana on the banks of the Missis- sippi " 27 However, the following year, 1832, it was ruled by Father Kenney, the Visitor, that all plans for the proposed residence should be abandoned, as the venture would delay still further the inception of the Indian mission, which was a matter of far greater urgency for the Jesuits of Missouri "This cogent reason," Father Kenney declared in his Memorial, "united with the wish to relieve the wants of St. Louis College induced the Visitor to adopt the advice of the consultors and desire that the contemplated Mission on the Salt River should not be undertaken. He felt the less regret in being obliged to withdraw our priests from this work of charity and utility, because the mission assumed
26 L^ber Consul tationumy January 8, 1830 (A) Van Quickenborne ad Roo- thaan, September 9, 1830 (AA)
27 De Theux a sa mere, Florissant, October 12, 1831. (A). Father Verre>dt when at the Salt Rivei in 1831 was assured by Mr. James Leake of board and lodging at his house until the proposed church and presbytery should be eiected "This proposition appeared to me to be veiy helpful towards the establishment I have in view and the spiritual well-being of these few Catholics I hastened to inform Mr Leake that if he persevered in the offer he had made to Father Verreydt, I would in future send one of the two Fathers I had assigned to them " De Theux a Rosati, February 26, 1832 (C) In a note addressed to Van Quick- enborne, January 12, 1831, James Leake acknowledges the Superior's letter prom- ising to send him "Mr Varite" or some other clergyman "I will make them as comfortable as we can I need not tell you that we want a guide " (C)
MISSIONARY EXCURSIONS 243
a new burthen, without fulfilling by it any of the obligations contracted by the Concordat between Rt. Rev Bishop Du Bourg and Rev F Charles Neale, and as the Salt River is not within the sphere assigned to the Society by that instrument, to begin a mission there before we were invited to do so by the Bishop might have the appearance of unnecessarily taking to ourselves a mission that could be supplied by the secular clergy."
Early in 1833 the Salt River stations were taken over by Father Peter Lefevere, through whose efforts the settlers of St Paul's, Rails County, were brought to complete a modest church edifice, in which Mass was said for the first time in June, i834.28
§ 3. WESTERN ILLINOIS
Shortly after retiring from the office of superior of the Missouri Mission in 1831, Father Van Quickenborne was assigned a Latin class in St. Louis College "After such an active life as he has led since com- ing to America," wrote Father De Theux at the time, "it is astonish- ing to see how well this employment agrees with him " 29 But the ministry was the proper field of the tireless missionary In the spring of 1832 he began a series of missionary excursions through northeastern Missouri, western Illinois and easternmost Iowa which made him a pioneer apostle of the Faith in those parts. The diocese of St. Louis, until the erection of that of Dubuque in 1837, included all of the Louisiana Purchase north of the Louisiana state-line, moreover, by pro- visional arrangement, it included the western counties of Illinois until 1843, when these became part of the newly erected diocese of Chicago. Van Quickenborne's baptismal and marriage register for this circuit, neatly and accurately kept, records at least six missionary excursions dur- ing the years 1832, 1833, and i83430 The first of these, made during May and June, 1832, resulted in forty-two baptisms and a number of marriages The missionary visited Lincoln, Pike, Rails, Marion, and Monroe Counties in Missouri, the localities visited including Bowling Green, New London, Leake Settlement and Pans. This was the Salt River circuit visited, as has been seen, in December, 1827, by Father Verreydt, and perhaps earlier even by Father Elet. A second excursion, from August to December, 1832, was marked by eighty-eight baptisms. Van Quickenborne on this occasion covered a wide sweep of territory. Crossing over into Illinois, he exercised his ministry in Edwardsville, Wood River, Springfield, Lick Creek, Brush Creek, Bear Creek, Flat Branch, South Fork of Sangamon River, Indian Creek, Head of the
28 Ms memorandum (C)
29 De Theux a sa mere, Florissant, October 12, 1831 (A)
80 These registers are in the archives of St Mary's College, St. Marys, Kansas.
244 THE JESUITS OF THE MIDDLE UNITED STATES
Rapids, Crooked Creek, Keokuk (Iowa), Fort Edwards and Qumcy. Returning to the west side of the Mississippi, he revisited the Salt River district, including Florida in Monroe County, Palmyra and Louisiana. A third excursion, February and March, 1833, was confined to Illinois, chiefly to Calhoun and Schuyler Counties, with a harvest o£ twenty-two baptisms. A fourth excursion during May and June, 1833, took the missionary through St. Clair, Madison, Sangamon, Montgomery, and Shelby Counties. A fifth excursion in July, 1833, Wlth twenty-five bap- tisms to its credit, included visits to Galena, Dubuque, Mill Seat, and Gratiot's Grove. The baptismal and marriage records of these ministerial trips of Van Qmckenborne's are in all probability the earliest extant for numerous localities in northeastern Missouri, Iowa and western Illinois. Among the earliest incidents of Catholic history m Dubuque, Keokuk, Springfield, and Edwardsville are to be reckoned the visits paid to these towns by the zealous missionary from Missouri.31
31 Van Quickenborne's first recorded
Mis sow i.
May 20, 1832, " 23, 1832, « 30, 1832, " 31, 1832, June 8, 1832, 1832, 1832,
baptisms in the following localities.
Lincoln County, Bowling Green 3 New London, Leake Settlement, Monroe County, Paris, Monroe Co , Louisville, Lincoln Co.,
Dec
Oct
Florida, Mulder Prairie,
Marion Co., Palmyra, Louisiana, Iowa. Keokuk, Fort Edwards, Dubuque,
llhnois* Edwardsville, Beardstown, Morgan
Co.,
Springfield, Brush Creek, Montgomery
Co, Qumcy, Adams Co., Oct
NOV 22, 1832,
6
12,
1832, 1832, 1832,
1832, 1832,
July 10, 1833,
Aug 23, 1832, Eligius Lobe,
Maria Joanna Galloway, Mary Magdalena Rule, Julia Ann Boarman, Stephen Benedict Eliot, Joseph Addison Abell, Edward Holden, Enoch Cryder, Ottonianna Penn,
John Reynay,
Joseph Stephen Angevine,
Elizabeth Delphma Mudd,
Maria Louise Fraiser, Anna Maria Allndge, Henry Monaghan,
Sept
cc
24, 1832, Marie Elliot, 6, 1832, Mane Helen Alvey,
Gratiot's Grove,
9, 1832, Mary Anne Simon, 14, 1832, William Edward Stebbms, July 23, 1833, Charles Gagnard,
1 8 days
20 "
35 " 51 «
3 mos
4 "
3 days 32 «
7j^2 rnos
6 wks.
14. rnos
lyi
5 wks 8 mos.
^2 mos.
2 yrs 14 mos
3 "
6 wks
21 mos
Mill Seat, Michigan
(Territory), July 22, 1833, James Murphy, i6mos.
Father Vincent Badm's baptisms in Galena antedate those of Father Van Quicfcenborne for that town. Moreover, diocesan priests from St. Louis were in
MICHIGAN TERRITOR
I L L I N O
Father Van Quickenborne's missionary excursions in Missouri, Illinois, Iowa, 1832- 1834. Places indicated on the map were included in the circuit. Compiled by G. J Garraghan, drawn by J. P. Markoe.
MISSIONARY EXCURSIONS 245
One interesting item to be found in the Van Quickenborne records may here be noted. On October 5, 1832, he baptized at Crooked Creek, Hancock County, Illinois, two children, Benjamin and Abraham Mudd, the god-parents being Abraham and Elizabeth Lincoln The Lmcolns of Hancock County were a collateral branch of the family line to which belonged President Lincoln. Many Hancock County Lmcolns were Catholics. The Abraham Lincoln who was sponsor at the two baptisms administered by Van Quickenborne was a son of Mordecai Lincoln, a brother of Thomas Lincoln, father of the President, and was accord- ingly a first-cousin of the latter 32
Here and there in these missionary rounds Van Quickenborne was instrumental in having the Catholic residents set about building churches in their respective localities Thus, in July, 1833, building committees were formed in Galena and Dubuque. On July 19, "at an aggregate meeting of the Roman Catholics living at the Dubuque Mines," resolu- tions were passed for the erection of a "hewed log building 25 ft by 20 and jo or 12 ft. high." On the building committee were James McCabe, Thomas Fitzpatnck, Patrick O'Mara, N. Gregoire and James Fanning, the last named being appointed treasurer. In his hands accord- ingly Father Van Quickenborne left a copy of the resolutions passed at the meeting In Galena, Illinois, a tract of five acres was purchased on July 19, 1833, f°r two hundred dollars from Patrick Gray, payment to be made when the amount should have been collected from the con- gregation. The property lay "near Galena, sown in timothy and clover, being bounded east by the road leading to Meeker's farm, south by Martin Gray's claim, west by the burial ground, north by the public land." According to Van Quickenborne's memorandum, a block-house, which apparently stood on the property, was to furnish the timber for the proposed church, which was to be of frame and twenty-five by thirty- five feet in size. Nicholas Dowlmg was appointed treasurer of the build- ing committee and was to collect from the congregation the money needed for the purchase of the property and the erection of the church, the specifications of which were agreed upon before Van Quickenborne left Galena.33 Thence the missionary passed over into Wisconsin, then
Sangamon and other Illinois counties before Father Van Quickenborne. Cf. SLCHR, 5 193 et seq
32 St Louis Globe-Democrat, Februar7 9, 1909, "The Lmcolns of Fountain Green" , Lee and Hutchmson, The Ancestry of Abraham Lincoln, p 84, Garra- ghan, The Catholic Church in Chicago, 1673-2871, p. 69.
83 Details of the arrangements sanctioned by Van Quickenborne for the building of churches in Galena and Dubuque are contained in a memorandum of his in the St Louis archdiocesan archives "Churches should be built at Galena, Dubuque and Lower Rapids, as the funds can be raised very easily Churches might be built at Lower Alton and at Springfield/'
246 THE JESUITS OF THE MIDDLE UNITED STATES
a part of Michigan Territory, where we find him baptizing at Mill Seat, July 22, 1833. Certain difficulties attending the exercise of the ministry in this new field occurred to him, as he notes in a memorandum. "It will be necessary for the clergyman living there [Galena] or visiting to see the Catholics of a part of Michigan Territory since the line of Illinois goes only six miles above Galena, and of course he must have the necessary powers Is meat allowed on Saturday there? how is Lent kept? which are the holy days? the fast days? days of abstinence? Was that country under Canada when in 1764 the dispensations were given about marriages?"
Missionary circuits such as Van Quickenborne was now engaged in were the very thing needed at the time to save the faith of the neg- lected Catholic settlers in the rural Middle West. The circuits were financed, in part at least, by Bishop Rosati out of the funds allotted to him by the French Association of the Propagation of the Faith. It was in fact the Bishop himself who secured the services of the Jesuit as a means of relieving in some measure the spiritual distress prevalent in great stretches of his diocese where there was not a single resident priest. The General wrote to Father De Theux-
That Father Van Quickenborne acts as a missionary for the Bishop throughout his diocese does not prevent him from depending on your Rever- ence, as he ought to. And yet it is proper that we deal generously and liberally with the Bishop in this matter as in others. Certainly Father Van Quickenborne in those excursions is doing a work by no means to be re- gretted In general, when a service of this nature on behalf of the abandoned faithful or others can be rendered by the Fathers without neglect of their own duties (and it is said this can be done conveniently even by the Fathers who reside in parishes), the opportunity should not be allowed to pass by nor should we expect and much less demand of the Bishop a subsidy for meeting the expense of such excursions since the necessaries are usually supplied by the faithful and in abundance.34
In a lengthy letter to the Father General, January 16, 1 834, Father Van Quickenborne pleads with customary ardor that the Jesuits be made to enter in a larger way into this new ministry, which by his own experi- ence he had found at once so necessary and so effective
Since by the will of Superiors I have traversed the region watered of old by the sweat and blood of our Fathers but now m a state of most pitiful neglect, I thought it might be agreeable to your Very Rev. Paternity were I to write you such particulars as may seem useful concerning this region and the immense fruit which may be gathered in by the ministry of two rural missionaries In so doing I shall find some relief in bearing the really
34 Roothaan ad De Theux, Ma/ 24, 1833. (AA)
MISSIONARY EXCURSIONS 247
bitter grief of soul which is stirred within me by the abandoned state of this region in regard to spiritual aid, for it is my hope that your Reverence in his charity towards all may sooner or later send assistance At least I hope that I may certainly contribute something towards letting your Reverence know what kind of ministry is calculated above all others in these parts to bring forth the most abundant fruit I therefore greatly desire your Very Rev. Paternity to know that there is a well founded hope that if two rural missionaries were to take in hand the canvassing of one state, going through towns and villages, visiting families, preaching the word of God everywhere m public buildings and private houses and administering the holy sacraments, they could in a short time with the grace of God convert a great multitude of persons in these western states And since this is new country, houses could be founded resting on a solid foundation, and that at little expense compared with elsewhere, and this expense would transmit its fruit to future generations at the highest possible rate of interest Non-Catholics are very active m this field of endeavor So necessary is this ministry of the rural missionary that without it religion cannot be here set up at alL And that this may be made still more evident, I shall tell of conditions among the people, of their ways, of their preachers and the manner in which the latter exercise their ministry in the particular halves of the states of Illinois and Missouri which I lately canvassed for about 12 months and which the Bishop is anxious for Ours to canvass and where he would be delighted to have us settle as he has witnessed to me himself,
Van Quickenborne's shrewd analysis of conditions in pioneer Illinois and Missouri as he saw them is not here reproduced m extent o, but one passage is cited for the light it throws on the phenomenon of leak- age in the Catholic population of the United States in the early decades of the last century. He is enumerating the evils due to lack of priests, the numbering of separate heads in an argument or exposition of facts being a favorite literary device with him,
I. Catholics dare not declare themselves. In the second town I visited in Illinois, after I had left, a minister in a sermon publicly called me Anti- Christ, a man of sin, whom no one should allow to enter his house and he said this with so much bitterness that his own people condemned him In the third town my host, a non-Catholic, did not dare to keep me in his house any longer, as his business would otherwise have suffered. In the fourth town the two Catholic families did not even dare to receive me in their houses. 2. Calumnies against the Catholics are spread about and are accepted by many as true 3. Many become apostates. I shudder to think of what I have seen in this matter I had on my list 26 apostate families, namely, where the father or mother fell away from the faith and the whole family were living as non-Catholics, having joined some sect. One of these persons had even become a minister, and several Catholic women had married preachers, thereby losing the faith. 4. Boys and girls at school do not dare to say they are Catholics. The teachers indoctrinate them with the principles of the
248 THE JESUITS OF THE MIDDLE UNITED STATES
Protestant religion From childhood on not only do they learn to be ashamed of their own religion but by means of principles contrary to it they are grounded m a false religion 5. According to civil law marriages must be contracted either before a minister of some or other religion or before a magistrate They generally take place before a minister as the more respect- able way of the two When no priest is at hand, people marry before a preacher, in case one party is Catholic and the other non-Catholic, and no stipulation is made as to the education of the children in the true faith 6. The sick are placed in a deplorable position Though it is possible for them in certain cases to obtain a priest from a distance, they do not venture to send for one on account of the rather considerable expense involved and often, too, for fear of being recognized as Catholics When the parents die under such circumstances, the children are wont to have no regard at all for religion But what does this excessive fear come from? From the fact that many of the Protestants have this conviction regarding the Catholic religion Catholics look upon the priest as God, without him no remission of sms is possible When present, he forgives all sins for money, without any contrition on the part of the one receiving forgiveness The priest even goes so far as impiously to sell a license for committing sin in the future To prove all this they have a Roman table which indicates the sum of money to be paid for each sin.
The only remedy for this distressing condition of things, so it seemed to Father Van Quickenborne, was to have the Catholics of the rural districts visited at intervals by a priest. How he himself conducted such visits and with what results is told in a contemporary account by Father De Theux
Such was the state of things in the section of Illinois traversed by Fathei Van Quickenborne He knew there were Catholics living there but had definite knowledge of only some dozen families. But what are a dozen families over a stretch of country such as he had to visit? Crossing the Mississippi on the way to his mission, he knew not whom he was to visit or whom he was to lodge with on that very day. He enters the first village he comes to, announces himself for a Catholic priest, and inquires whether there is any Catholic family in the place. This question at first provokes astonish- ment, but soon to the emotion of surprise succeeds one of curiosity, for the person addressed is one of those good people who have never yet seen a priest Finally, learning that he is to preach in English, they allow themselves to yield to the desire of hearing him Ministers, just as curious as the people, come to hear him, it has happened at times that they were on either side of him while he was preaching. "I come," he would then proceed to say, "to speak to you of the oldest of all religions, but one which has been disfigured in your eyes by the most atrocious calumnies." He then develops the principles of the Catholic faith, establishes them by good proofs within the grasp of his audience, and finishes by refuting the falsehoods which he knows to be the stock-m-trade of the ministers. As these are personally
MISSIONARY EXCURSIONS 249
unknown to him, he challenges them to prove m his presence the charges they are accustomed to level against the Catholic religion It is rare that the ministers fail to keep silence The people conclude they are afraid of the missionary, while the missionary himself concludes that the Catholics and their religion have been calumniated He adds that perhaps the ministers have spread their calumnies about without examining them, but just here is the height of imprudence, for they brand their fellow-citizens without being sure they are guilty Hence, in the future they ought to abstain from all assertions of this sort or take upon themselves the obligation of proving them At these words the Catholics take courage and invite the Father to come to their houses, while the Protestants ask one another how it is possible that after so many violent attacks against the Catholic religion, their ministers have not dared to defend themselves They come to the missionary, ask him for explanations and then go off to attack the ministers themselves, reproach- ing them for their systematic calumnies The Father preached regularly once a day and that frequently m town-halls or other public buildings In the course of a single year he travelled 4373 miles, baptized 213 persons, 83 of whom were Protestants, discovered more than 600 Catholics in Illinois and more than 700 m a part of Missoun where eight or nine years before he knew of scarcely more than eight35
Despite the prevailing bigotry there was on occasion a readiness on the part of the non-Catholic residents to receive a Catholic priest cor- dially, strange and unfamiliar figure though he was among them This is illustrated by an incident that occurred m the spring of 1832. In Car- rollton, Greene County, Illinois, a Catholic, James Sullivan by name, was under sentence of death for the murder of Samuel Loftus He declined the services of a non-Catholic clergyman who sought to console him, but begged earnestly for a priest Governor Reynolds of Illinois, hearing of the condemned man's desire, wrote at once to Bishop Rosati requesting that a priest be sent from St. Louis "There has been a person sent to Portage des Sioux but I am informed there is no priest resident at that place The above man is much distressed for his situation and wishes religious consolation, which I hope will be afforded him. I take the liberty of informing you of the above, so you can send to him a priest to console him in his dying moments " 36
Familiar as he was with the country on the Illinois side of the Mississippi from his repeated missionary excursions in that direction, Van Quickenborne was promptly sent on this errand of mercy Arnving in Carrollton he was at once invited to become the guest of a leading
ss Ann. Prop, 18 282 The statistics of Van Quickenborne's Illinois ministry, as given by De Theux, cover the period May 1 6, 1832, to July 16, 1833. Van Quickenborne memorandum (C) .
36 Reynolds to Rosetta (Rosati), April 10, 1832 (C). Cf also Iltmots His- torical Collections, Governor? Letters, 1818-1834 (Springfield, 111, 1909).
250 THE JESUITS OF THE MIDDLE UNITED STATES
citizen of the town, who showed him every attention and courtesy as though he were an old-time friend. So also the sheriff, a Mr. Colkey, showed himself very obliging to the missionary and eager at the same time to render the prisoner every facility for the exercise of his religion. There was only a single Catholic in the town, but some of the Protestant residents provided a place for the celebration of Mass, which the father had the consolation of saying every day before a considerable gathering of persons, all of them very attentive and respectful during the sacred rite. On Easter Sunday he preached in the town-hall on the object and nature of Catholic belief.
Meantime the condemned man, in whom the vitality of a one-time active faith now reasserted itself in the face of death, was making edify- ing preparations for the end. He made his confession and prayed earnestly and at frequent intervals by day and night On the eve of the execution he asked three favors of the sheriff, that arrangements be made to have Mass said the next morning in the jail, that he be per- mitted to go all the way to the gallows on foot, and that he be dis- patched as soon as possible after reaching there, which favors the sheriff promised to grant. But so many of the townspeople were eager to attend Mass the following morning that the sheriff felt called upon to request Father Van Quickenborne to perform the service in the town-hall, whither he engaged to conduct the prisoner and preserve proper order. It was a reasonable request and the father acquiesced in it without difficulty. During Mass the man bore himself devoutly and m a manner to repair as best he might the scandal he had given. He held in his hands a rosary and a crucifix, on which he steadily fixed his eyes, praying earnestly all the time. This gave the father an opportunity to explain to the large audience before him the use of the crucifix. "You see for yourselves," he told them, "that the crucifix is an excel- lent book, full of the most beautiful instruction, of which unlettered persons like the prisoner before you can avail themselves as readily as the educated." During Mass the prisoner received holy communion, after having recited aloud acts of faith, hope, charity and contrition and asked pardon from all present for the scandal he had given. Imme- diately after Mass Father Van Quickenborne delivered a sermon on the justice and goodness of God. Directing it partly to the prisoner, he sought to awaken still further in his heart sentiments of sorrow and con- trition for his sins and of confidence in the infinite mercy of the Saviour. He recalled to him that the God Who was about to judge him had deigned to come down from heaven to save him and he cited the words of Scripture, "Come to me all you that labor and are heavily burdened and I will refresh you." In conclusion he pointed out to his hearers that the man was very happy indeed m dying in the Catholic Church,
MISSIONARY EXCURSIONS 251
for he found therein not only whatever means of salvation he might have found elsewhere, but in addition a well-grounded hope of the remission of his sins in the sacrament of penance, and of life eternal in partaking of the Body and Precious Blood of Jesus Christ, in fine, the certainty of being in the true way which leads to life On the way to the scaffold the prisoner, still clasping the crucifix in his hands, per- formed the Catholic devotion of the "Stations of the Cross," the guards and accompanying throng of people stopping with him at each of the fourteen stations to allow him to pray, which he did with obvious recol- lection and compunction. On the scaffold his suffering seemed to last but an instant and he died with the crucifix in his hands. The execution took place April 26, 1832 37
One would not suppose that the Springfield of 1835, with its two thousand residents, of whom not more than nine were Catholics, was a promising place for a college under the auspices of that religious denom- ination.38 And yet the hope of such an institution in the future capital of Illinois appears to have been entertained at this time by Bishop Rosati. Father De Theux reported to the Bishop in March, 1835, in regard to the question of a college in Springfield that Father Verhaegen and him- self were opposed to the venture, deeming it impracticable in the exist- ing straitened condition of the Missouri Mission as regarded both men and material resources. In any case, the Indian mission would have to be opened first, as the Father General and even the Sacred Congregation of the Propaganda were urging that a start be made m this important field of labor as yet untouched by the Missouri Jesuits. And yet the Indian mission could not be started, as men and money were lacking
As a consequence, all that remains for us to do m regard to Springfield is to write to the Father General and to pray, in union with your Lordship, that God may deign to give us the strength necessary to cooperate every- where and in every detail with the ardent zeal for the sheep of your flock with which you are devoured So to do, Monseigneur, we shall ever regard as a genuine honor and an integral part of our happiness In the meantime, believe me, Monseigneur, that if only we be permitted to go our humble way quietly and according to the measure of our strength, we shall, Deo dante tem^ore suo, be of real help to your immense diocese; contrariwise, push us and we shall accomplish nothing that is worth while It is to the desire of doing more than it was able to do that they attribute the state of languor in which the Society spent its first thirty years in Maryland.39
87 Ann. Prof, 7 105-108
**Ped?s New Guide for Emigrants (1836), p. 305 "It [Springfield] is a flourishing inland town and contains about 2OOO inhabitants " 39 De Theux a Rosati, Florissant, March 28, 1835. (C).
252 THE JESUITS OF THE MIDDLE UNITED STATES
In April of the following year, 1836, the question of a college in Springfield was again before De Theux and his consultors Conditions for the step, so it was thought, would not be ripe for the next ten years. No conclusion was therefore reached except that the matter be referred to the Father General.40 The following month, however, Father Ver- haegen journeyed to Springfield with a view to obtaining first-hand information as to conditions in that rising town He took with him all that was necessary for the celebration of Mass in case he should find opportunity during his visit to perform the sacred rite, and before leav- ing solicited from Bishop Rosati a grant of faculties or spiritual jurisdic- tion. "I believe Springfield is in your diocese." 41 Shortly after return- ing to St Louis, his stay in the town having lasted but a few days, he let Bishop Rosati know of his experiences, trying at times, in a region which he described as only one-fourth civilized "I am well satisfied with my visit to Springfield Everything appears to be highly favorable to the progress of our Holy Religion. I saw all the gentlemen of influ- ence m the town and all, with one accord, are anxious to have a college established there, on a decent and limited plan but susceptible of pro- gressive improvement." However, writing to the General later, July 16, 1836, Verhaegen expressed himself as not in favor of accepting any invi- tation at all to settle in Springfield, if indeed such invitation was ever to be tendered. As a matter of fact, he had found the townsfolk ambi- tious indeed to see a "literary institution" set up in their midst but divided as to what religious denomination should be asked to take it in hand. Some favored the Methodists, others, the Presbyterians, still others, the Episcopalians, some, finally, the Catholics, who, however, could claim only nine adherents m the place Moreover, Springfield, not yet the state capital, was a hundred miles from St Louis, and the road between the two towns was well-nigh impassible. The lapse of more than a century has seen the metropolis of Missouri and Abraham Lincoln's town brought together by a pleasant auto or railroad ride of a few hours But m 1836 a journey between the two was not an agreeable adventure as Verhaegen undertook to inform the General, taxing in the effort all the resources of his copious Latin vocabulary for vivid description. An English version of the graphic narrative may be attempted:
I set off m a public stage. There were seats m it for six persons and we were nine. As a result, much crowding. The road runs now over high hills, now across the prairies, to which the eye can see no limit. So steep aie the hill-sides that, though a wheel of the coach was chained, it seemed to me that
40 Verhaegen a Rosati, Ma/ 15, 1836 (C) 41Verhaegen a Rosati, May 22, 1836 (C)
MISSIONARY EXCURSIONS 253
I was not rolling along but flying. Such things, however, have no tenois for the half-savage drivers, but for me and my fellow passengers they were, I must confess, a subject of constant alarm The state of Illinois is still very slightly cultivated The cabins which you see along the way give every evidence of extreme poveity and, indeed, travellers can scarcely find in them what they need in the way of food There is no better drink than good water, but this is a great rarity up there while the water that does abound is scarcely fit to drink The way over the prairie is not any too pleasant. Swarms of gnats besiege the stage-coach and the stagnant waters that lie across the road make it necessary for the passengers to proceed on foot through horrid places if they would not see the coach sink in the mire At the same time the prairies are not without features agreeable to the eye Deer running about here and there in the grass, prairie chickens, so they call them, on the wmg, large-sized snakes coming out of the thick of the grass and crossing the road, wolves running from the farm-houses, flowers of almost every kind and color lifting their heads above the meadow, if one would gaze on sights like these, he will find an abundance of them in the summer-time amid those prairies But when you have to put up for the night, all the other miseries of the journey pass out of memory I had to spend the first night m a room about 20 feet long by as many wide In it were four beds m which, besides myself, seven men had to sleep, two of them, who were sick, occupying the same bed. I was allowed to choose my companion for the night and lying on one of the beds with my clothes on I passed three hours dozing Moreover, the room being filled with an un- pleasant odor from various drugs suggested an apothecary's shop At three m the morning the horn blows, everybody makes ready for the journey and the coach starts off in the shades of night. A cow with a bell around its neck was lying down on the road The coach going at its usual speed drives straight for the cow One of the four horses falls, the cow catches its horns m the harness of the fallen horse and in the trappings of the coach and is badly wounded by one of the wheels The suffering animal groans and sets the bell a-nngmg The horses become terror-stricken and we are all in danger of our lives The driver shouts out that he can't keep the horses m any longer We all leap from the coach and seizing the horses5 bridles do our best to hold the foaming steeds until the coach is out of trouble and we are able to resume the journey. Other discomforts along the way I omit to mention
Nothing ever came of this early project of a Catholic college in Springfield. One or two years later, on the arrival of Father George Hamilton, the first resident priest of the town, the Catholic population of the place numbered only five families besides some seven or eight single persons In 1839, when the number had grown to thirteen or fourteen families with between forty and fifty single persons m addi- tion, a church was yet unbuilt despite the efforts of Father Hamilton to erect one. One wonders how the idea of a Catholic college m so
254 THE JESUITS OF THE MIDDLE UNITED STATES
unlikely a center for such an institution as Springfield at this period surely was ever came to be seriously entertained.42
§ 4. AT THE MOUTH OF THE KANSAS
How itinerant Jesuit missionaries, mtsstonant excurrentes, with head- quarters first at Florissant and afterwards at St Charles, evangelized both sides of the Missouri River as far west as Boonville in Cooper County, has been told above. The circuit, which embraced nineteen towns, most of them situated on the river, was covered as a unit in missionary trips of four or six weeks' duration up to 1838, after which date most of the stations were visited from the newly founded resi- dences of Washington in Franklin County and Westphalia in Osage County. It remains to sketch with brevity the ministry of the Jesuit missionaries on the Missouri border during the decade 1835-1845, when they were the only priests serving the Catholic settlers in that part of the West.
On June 30, 1835, Father Van Quickenborne, whose name is a conspicuous one in the story of the pioneer Church on the Missouri border, arrived for the first time at Independence, a town in Jackson County three miles south of the Missouri River and ten miles east of its junction with the Kaw or Kansas River. Laid out as the seat of Jackson County in 1827, Independence four years later became the eastern terminus of the Santa Fe trade. The goods were shipped from the East in wagons over the Alleghames and then by water to Blue Mills or Independence Landing on the Missouri. They were next trans- ported in wagons drawn by mules or oxen or on pack-mules over the historic Santa Fe trail for a distance of eight hundred miles to the city of Santa Fe, then within Mexican territory. Independence prospered on this commerce, but only for a brief spell, the source of its wealth being soon diverted to enterprising little Westport with its better landing-place on the Missouri. When Independence saw its own landing- place at Blue Mills washed away by the great flood of 1 844, its dream of great commercial expansion vanished forever into thin air.
To this bustling frontier town, then in the hey-dey of its short- lived prosperity, Van Quickenborne came in the June of 1835, being on his way to the Indian country to prospect for a mission-site among the native tribes. "As I found five or six Catholic families in this place, I stayed there a few days. A lady offered me her house for a chapel. I preached, celebrated the holy mysteries and had the consolation of seeing nearly all the Catholics avail themselves of the occasion to make
42 Hamilton to Rosati, July 7, 1839. (C).
MISSIONARY EXCURSIONS 255
their Easter duty." 43 Van Quickenborne was at Independence again in March, 1837, in the course of one of his periodical missionary excur- sions from the Kickapoo residence, which was opened in 1836. On this occasion he baptized John Birch and Mary Pollard, the latter condi- tionally, as she had previously been baptized by a Baptist clergyman 44 In June, 1838, Father Verhaegen passed through Independence on his way to the Kickapoo and Potawatomi and on his return journey preached there one evening at the request of the residents, his topic, "Why I am a Catholic." 45 Father Aelen, on his way to Sugar Creek Mission, which was opened in 1838, baptized at Independence on May 26, 1839, Mary Anne Cosgrove and Marcella Davy, Verhaegen stand- ing sponsor for the last named.46 The following year Father De Smet, en route for the first time to the Rocky Mountains, baptized Lucille, a Negro slave belonging to Dr. Dillon of Independence.47 Father Nicholas Point, during his stay at Westport from November, 1840, to April, 1841, attended to the needs of the few Catholics at Independence Subsequent to his departure from Westport, they were looked after by the priests of the Sugar Creek Mission. Father Verreydt, superior of that mission, visited Independence in July, August and December, 1 844, and in March and October, 1 845.48 With the arrival of Father Bernard
Prop, 9 96. Van Quickenborne was not the first priest to visit Inde- pendence Father Lutz had been there in 1828 and Father Roux m 1833* Garra- ghan, Catholic Beginnings in Kansas City, p. 63
44 Kickapoo Baptismal Register The Kickapoo and Sugar Creek mission registers are in the Archives of St Mary's College, St Marys, Kansas
45 Verhaegen a M , June 20, 1838 (A)
46 Sugar Creek Baptismal Register, 1838-1850. (F).
4)7 Kickapoo Baptismal Register Cited generally as Kickapoo Register. (F) 48 Diary (Dianum) of Father Christian Hoecken This is in the archives of St Mary's College, Kansas For a translation of the Latin original cf the Dial, 1891, a student publication of St Mary's College When Father Roux first arrived in Independence in November, 1833, he found there but two Catholic families, both named Roy. (Roux a Rosati, November 24, 1833 [C]) According to O'Hanlon, Life and Scenery in Missouri, 132, Thomas Davy settled in Inde- pendence m 1824. Father Roux's records make no mention of Independence as the locus of any of his baptisms The first recorded baptism for the place is that of John Birch, administered March 19, 1837, by Van Quickenborne (Kickapoo Register). On October 24 of the same year was baptized, also at Independence, Sarah, daughter of Cornelius Davy and Sarah Haskms Wakefield The Kickapoo Register contains three and the Sugar Creek Register eight Independence baptisms for the years 1837-1841 The names of Catholic residents of Independence found in these records include those of Cornelius Davy, Sarah Hoskins Wakefield, Anthony Cosgrove, Brigetta Gilchnst, Thomas McGuire, Maria Pollard, Dr. Dillon, Eliza- beth and Jane Montgomery, and Lucilla and Sally Davy. The baptism, April 19, 1843, of Susan May, daughter of James McGill and Catherine Sanders, took place in Independence, Father Verreydt being the officiating clergyman.
256 THE JESUITS OF THE MIDDLE UNITED STATES
Donnelly in the town in 1845, the care of its Catholic residents passed into the hands of the diocesan clergy, the first Catholic church there, which bore the name of the Most Holy Redeemer, being erected in 1 849 under his supervision 49
Ten miles west of Independence, near the confluence of the Missouri and Kansas Rivers, had arisen the thriving town of Westport. It was laid out in 1833 by John Calvin McCoy, a surveyor, whose father, Isaac McCoy, was a Baptist minister conspicuous in early missionary enterprise along the Missouri frontier McCoy settled down at about the intersection of the Independence-Santa Fe road with the present Grand Avenue of Kansas City. The town soon assumed importance as an outfitting station and "jumping-off place," eventually wresting from its neighbor, Indpendence, the coveted prize of the Santa Fe trade. It had an excellent landing on the Missouri, known as Westport Landing, four miles to the north at the present foot of Grand Avenue in Kansas City. As late as 1 846 when Francis Parkman passed through Westport to begin his journey over the Oregon Trail, it was still a typical frontier town "Westport was full of Indians whose little shaggy ponies were tied by dozens along the houses and fences. Sacs and Foxes with shaved heads and painted faces, Shawnees and Delawares, in calico frocks and turbans, Wyandots dressed like white men and a few wretched Kanzas wrapped in old blankets, were strolling along the streets or lovmging in and out of the shops and houses " 60
Only for a brief spell did Westport hold the prize of the Santa Fe trade. It was doomed to relinquish the booty into the hands of its younger rival, Kansas City. As early as 1821 Francis Gesseau (Jesse) Chouteau, a son of Pierre Chouteau, Senior, of St. Louis, established an agency of the American Fur Company opposite Randolph Bluffs on the right bank of the Missouri a few miles below its junction with the Kaw. Other Frenchmen, chiefly traders, trappers, laborers and voya- geurs, with their families, soon joined Chouteau, thus forming the first permanent white settlement on the site of Kansas City In 1828 a land office was opened in Boonville, Cooper County, and settlers began to purchase farms. In 1831 Gabriel Prudhomme, whose daughter Father Point, the Jesuit, was in later years to marry to Louis Turgeon, entered 271 77 acres of government land The tract passed out of possession o£ the Prudhomme family m 1838. By an order of the Circuit Court of Jackson County, issued m August of that year at the petition of Prudhomme's heirs, his farm was advertised for sale m the Missouri Republican of St. Louis and The Far West of Liberty. It was sold to a stock-company for forty-two hundred and twenty dollars. The land was
49 St Louis News Letter, May I, 1847
co Parkman, Oiegon Trail (Boston, 1882), p. 4.
MISSIONARY EXCURSIONS 257
at once subdivided into lots and called Kansas (later, at successive inter- vals, Town of Kansas, City of Kansas, Kansas City) But the town- building project lay dormant until 184.6 when the stock-company dis- posed at public sale of one hundred and twenty-four lots at an average price of about fifty-five dollars each. The town started at once to develop rapidly, reaching within a few months a population of four or five hundred. It was first officially organized May 3, 1847 The chief cause of its early development was the Santa Fe trade, which had been diverted almost entirely from Westport as early as 1850, during which year six hundred wagons started westward from the Town of Kansas to the ancient Spanish capital. In 1889 the Town of Kansas adopted the style "Kansas City" and in 1899 it absorbed Westport within its corporate limits.51
The first Catholic priest to visit the locality which is now Kansas City and there exercise the sacred ministry was Father Joseph Lutz of the diocese of St. Louis, who in 1828 resided for a while as a missionary among the Kansa Indians at their village on the banks of the Kaw River some sixty-five miles above its mouth.52 After Father Lutz came Father Benedict Roux, also of the St Louis diocese, who arrived at "Kaws- mouth" November 14, i833.53 Roux lived with Francis and Cyprian Chouteau, brothers of Frederick Chouteau, at their trading house on the Kaw River about ten miles above its mouth until the summer of 1834 when he moved into a small dwelling-house situated two miles from the chapel.54 The chapel, a house located somewhere on the site of the future Kansas City, was rented in the beginning of February, 1834, by the Catholic congregation, which consisted of twelve French, two American and two Indian families. Already on Christmas Day, 1833, Father Roux, vested in cassock, surplice and stole, had preached to the assembled Catholics in the house of an American resident placed at his disposal for the occasion. On the second Sunday of Lent, Febru- ary 23, 1834, he performed his first baptisms, thirteen in number, the names of the first four children baptized being Martha Roy, Adeline
B1 Garraghan, Catholic Beginnings in Kansas City, pp 13-21, Conard, En- cyclopedia of the History of Missouri, 3 486 A later settlement than Francis Chouteau's, consisting largely of Indians and half-breeds who came down from the Rocky Mountain region, was formed at Kawsmouth or West Bottoms on the low level ground that skirts the right bank of the Kaw at its junction with the Missouri. Barns, Commonwealth of Missouri^ p. 749
52 The SLCHR, 5 183, contains an account from original sources of the "Abbe Joseph Anthon/ Lutz" by F S Holweck A letter of Lutz's in the Ann Prof, 3*556 (English tr. in SLCHRy z 77) is the earliest record extant of the exercise of the Catholic ministry along the Kansas River, 1828
53 Garraghan, of cit , p. 43
54 Kansas Historical Collections, 9* 573-574
258 THE JESUITS OF THE MIDDLE UNITED STATES
Prudhomme, Martha Lessert and Amelia Roy.55 On the following Easter Sunday he said Mass publicly for the first time before the con- gregation Meantime, property was acquired by Father Roux as a site for a church and presbytery. On this property some time after his departure from the West in the spring of 1835, a log church, twenty by thirty feet m size, with presbytery, was erected, largely with money furnished for the purpose by the Chouteaus, a circumstance which led to its being called "Chouteau's Church." 56 This pioneer shrine of Catholic worship on the Missouri border stood a few yards from the site of the Catholic cathedral in Kansas City, at what is now the intersection of Pennsylvania Avenue and Eleventh Street.57
Father Roux, after being in charge of the Catholic settlers at the "mouth of the Kansas" from November, 1833, to the spring of 1835, was transferred to Kaskaskia His baptisms on the Missouri border range from February 23, 1834, to April 25, 1835. They were forty-eight in number, thirty-six of whites, seven of Negroes and five of Indians March 15, 1834, he baptized Elizabeth Boone, and on April 19, 1835, Eulalie Boone, daughters of Daniel Morgan Boone, son of the pioneer Daniel Boone, and reputed first white settler on or near the site of Kansas City.58
Within a few months after Roux's departure for St. Louis, Father Van Quickenborne, on July 3, 1835, appeared at the French settle- ment at Kawsmouth in the course of the same prospecting trip of which mention was made in connection with Independence.59 It was the first recorded visit of a Jesuit priest to the locality which has since become Kansas City. On July 15, 1835, he baptized in "Chouteau's Church," Louis, son of Clement Lessert and Julie Roy, the god-parents being Benjamin Chouteau and Therese Tullie. On July 18, he baptized Cyprian, son of Cyprian Ternen and Louise Valle, the god-parents, Gabriel and Marie Prudhomme.60 With the establishment of the Kicka-
55 Transcript of Roux's baptisms, Kansas City Diocesan Archives, Kansas City, Mo
56 The log-church had been built prior to 1837 Garraghan, of cit , p. 66
57 For description of the church see St Louis News Letter, May 1 , 1 847 "The church measures thirty feet m length by twenty in width, of a proportionate height and is surmounted by a humble imitation of what was designed for a cupola with a cross above " This pioneer house of Catholic worship m Kansas City, first designated in contemporary baptismal records as "Chouteau's Church at the mouth of the Kansas River," was known as early as 1839 under the title of St France Regis. For a drawing of the church by Father Point cf Garraghan, 0$. ctt , p 102.
68 Transcript of Roux's baptisms. Kansas City Diocesan Archives.
59 Ann Prop, g 96
60 Kickafoo Register (F). Garraghan, of «*., 93, 94
MISSIONARY EXCURSIONS 259
poo Mission in 1836 the French Catholics at the mouth of the Kaw were visited at intervals from the mission-house.
In July, 1836, Van Quickenborne was again at the mouth of the Kaw baptizing and marrying. The records of the ceremonies he per- formed on this occasion are entered in his own hand in the Ktck&poo Register. On July 1 8 he baptized fourteen mixed-blood Indian children, omitting the non-essential ceremonies because the holy oils were not on hand. Of these, some were Flatheads, others Kutenai, still others Iroquois, all belonging, it would appear, to the group of Rocky Moun- tain Indians and mixed-bloods who had come down the Missouri in 1831 or earlier and settled at the West Bottoms on the right bank of the Kaw near its mouth.61 On the same day he performed two marriage rites, the earliest recorded in the history of Kansas City "July 18, 1836, dispensation having been given in the three publications for just rea- sons, I have received the consent of marriage of Benjamin Lagauthene, son of Victor, and of Charlotte Gray, daughter of John and Marianne [Gray], both Iroquois, and have given them the nuptial blessing accord- ing to the rites of our Holy Mother, the Church, in presence of Louis Monn and Marianne Gray. Done at the mouth of the Kansas River, State of Missouri, July 18, 1836. Cs. F. Van Quickenborne, S. J." "July 1 8, 1836, Clement Liserte [Lessert] and Julie Roy renew con- sent of marriage contracted some years before, when there was no resident priest." November 22 of the same year Van Quickenborne married Prosper Marcier and Mane Louise Prudhomme. "Faite a Veglise de Mr. Choute&u a P entree de la nviere des Kans, dans Vetat du Missouri" On March 19, 1837, he married Pierre Penalt and Mar- guarette [sic] Desnoyers of the Kutenai nation, the record of the cere- mony being in English. "Done at Chouteau's Church at the mouth of the Kansas river, State of Missouri " 62
Father Van Quickenborne's last recorded visit to Kawsmouth oc- curred on May 28, 1837, on which occasion he administered three baptisms. Altogether he had administered forty-one baptisms in "Chou-
61 Van Quickenborne m a letter dated Kickapoo Village, October 4, 1836 (Ann Prop, 10 144) has the following account of the settlement in West Bot- toms. "Twelve families have lately come down from the Rocky Mountains They are living at present at the junction of the Kansas and Missouri, about 40 miles from our village I have visited them twice, they came with the intention of not returning and of looking to the salvation of their souls At my first visit they all asked to be married according to the Catholic rite I thought their baptisms and marriages should be deferred on account of their inconstancy and lack of instruction, but on my second visit I found them all sick and, in despair of being able to live here, they were talking of going back to their mountains "
62 Ktckafoo Register. (F) . No record of marriages by either Father Lutz or Father Roux at Kansas City is extant
260 THE JESUITS OF THE MIDDLE UNITED STATES
teau's Church/3 all duly entered by him in the Kickafoo Register. After his withdrawal from the field the Catholic Creoles at the mouth of the Kaw still continued to be served by the fathers resident at the Kickapoo Mission. Van Quickenborne's successor as superior of the mission, Father Christian Hoecken, administered eight baptisms in "Chouteau's Church/7 one on October 2, 1837, and seven on May 27, i838.63 In the same church Joseph Papin and Mary Cave were married October 25., 1837, by Father Verreydt. The last baptismal entry in the Ktckwpoo Register for "Chouteau's Church" is dated September 8, 1839, the offi- ciating minister being Father Anthony Eysvogels, third superior of the Kickapoo Mission, under whom it was closed in the autumn of 1 840 64
The first series of missionary visits to the Catholics at the mouth of the Kaw, carried on by Jesuit priests from the Kickapoo Mission, was followed in 1839 by a second series carried on from the Sugar Creek Potawatomi Mission as center, and lasting until 1 846, when the diocesan priest, Father Bernard Donnelly, shifted his headquarters from Inde- pendence to the site of Kansas City. The Sugar Creek Register shows a number of baptisms for that locality Four are recorded for as early a date as June 2, 1839, "in ecclesia prope opftdum cm nomen Westyort" ("in the church near the town called Westport").
The historic log building erected on the property purchased by Father Roux and first designated in the records as "Chouteau's Church" was soon to bear the title of one of the Catholic Church's canonized saints. Under date of September 25, 1839, Father Herman Aelen, superior of the Sugar Creek Mission, in a communication to Bishop Rosati, submitted the following points of inquiry "What was the title of the Church formerly administered by the Rev. Mr. Roux in West- port? Should the new church m that place be dedicated to God under the same title? If no title existed, may the present structure be dedi- cated under the invocation of St. Francis Regis?" 65 Though no answer from Rosati to these inquiries is on record, it may reasonably be inferred that the prelate acceded to Father Aelen's request that the church be named for St. Francis Regis At all events, within less than two months of his communication to the Bishop, Aelen began to designate the West- port church by the title, St. Francis Regis In an entry dated November
63 Father Christian Hoecken, born February 28, 1808, at Tilburg in Holland, entered the Society of Jesus at White Marsh, Maryland, November 5, 1832, died of cholera on a Mississippi steamer near Council Bluffs, June 21, 1851 Remterred in the Jesuit cemetery, Florissant, Mo
64 Father Anthony Eysvogels, born at Oss, Province of North Brabant, Holland, January 13, 1809, entered the Society of Jesus, December 31, 1835, died at New Westphalia, Osage Co, Mo, July 7, 1857.
«• (C).
District served during the decade 1836-1846 by Jesuit missionary priests resident at the Kickapoo, Council Bluffs or Sugar Creek Indian missions Places indicated on the map were among those where the missionaries exercised their ministry, as attested by their baptismal and other records With the arrival m 1 846 of Reverend Bernard Donnelly at Independence and of Reverend Thomas Scanlan at St. Joseph the district was thereafter served by the diocesan clergy. Compiled by G J Gar- raghan, drawn by J P Markoe
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The church and rectory of St Francis Regis ("Chouteau's Church") on site of Kansas City, Missouri. The city's first house of worship Sketch by its pastor, Nich- olas Point, S J 3 in his Souvenirs des Montagnes Rocheuses, Archives of St Mary's College, Montreal
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Record of the marriage of Benjamin Lagauthene and Charlotte Gray. Apparently the earliest recorded marriage within the limits of what is now Kansas City, Mis- souri From the Kickafoo Mission Register^ Archives of St Mary's College, St Marys, Kansas.
MISSIONARY EXCURSIONS 261
J7> l839? m the Sugar Creek Register he writes, «m ecclesia S. F. Regis fro^e ofpdum Westfort" ("in the church of St Francis Regis near the town of Westport") Thenceforth references to the log church under that title are frequently met with in the ministerial records of the period. Thus the Kickapoo Register records a marriage per- formed by Father De Smet April 20, 1840, "dans Veglise de St Francis Regis a Westyort" while the Sugar Creek Register records a baptism administered by Father Aelen May 9, 1841, "m ae&ibus S. Francisci Regis prope offidum Westyort " Aelen baptized on this occa- sion Emilie, daughter of P. P. McGee, the god-parents being Benedict Troost and Madame Therese B Chouteau.
In 1 840 Westport again had its own resident Catholic pastor though his stay there lasted but a few months. The Annual Letters of the Mis- souri Mission for that year note that a priest had long been needed to minister to the white settlers along the Missouri border. To Father Nicholas Point was now assigned this important duty He was a native Frenchman attached to the Jesuit Mission of Louisiana, which had been incorporated into the Missouri Mission in 1838, and he had been founder and first rector of St. Charles College at Grand Coteau in Louisiana. Early in 1840 he was relieved of his rectorship and sum- moned to St. Louis, where Father Verhaegen appointed him a com- panion to De Smet m the projected Rocky Mountain Mission. Pending the return of De Smet from his prospecting tour to the mountains, Point was assigned to parochial and missionary duty at the mouth of the Kansas. He left St. Louis October 24, 1840, and arrived November i, at Westport Landing, where he took in charge the parish of St. Francis Regis, established by his predecessor, Father Roux. Point remained at this post until May 10, 1841, when he joined Fathers De Smet and Mengarim on their way west to establish the first of the Catholic Oregon missions The months that he spent at Westport were crowded with works of charity and zeal, of which he has left a record in his memoirs.66
I was sent to Westport to exercise the holy ministry there until the return of Father De Smet. The district in which I took up my abode was peopled by an assemblage of twenty-three families, each family group com- prising a Frenchman with his Indian wife and half-breed children 67 Imme- diately upon my arrival these people found a place m my sympathies, for
66 Kickapoo Register. (F) Father Point, after spending six years in the Rocky Mountain Mission, was recalled by his superior to Canada, where he died at Quebec^ July 4, 1868. For his career m the Rocky Mountains cf, infra. Chap. XXVI, § I, Mid-America^ 13 236 For extracts from his memoirs, cf WL, 12 4-22, 133-137.
67 In Father Roux's time (1833-1835) the French families numbered twelve. Roux a Rosati, June 27, 1834. (C).
262 THE JESUITS OF THE MIDDLE UNITED STATES
albeit veiy poor they had somehow contrived to build themselves a church, and again and again they had asked for a priest before succeeding in getting one It was well enough that I had sympathy to spare, there being no lack of ills awaiting cure at my hands What with the ignorance of some, the drunkenness of others, the sensuality of almost all, there was misery enough to inspire zeal m the most laggard of missionaries
I went to work with great confidence, the more so, because I had found the sovereign remedy for ills of this sort lay m a little good will and in the use of one's common sense Another consideration also had much weight m animating me with confidence, — who could tell but that in God's provi- dence this town, small as it now was, might some day attain to distinction' Even as it was, Westport was the gathering point for all expeditions to Mexico, California and the Rocky Mountains, and it was no uncommon thing for travellers to sojourn there for weeks and weeks together Easter time generally brought great numbers of people hither, and I often thought, if only the Easter holidays had been kept as by right they should have been, what an influence for good had been gained over the travellers and through them over the savages.
I landed at Westport on All Saints' day just as cold weather was setting m The cold of winter, by the by, lasts until Easter, and at times it was so intense as to freeze the chalice even when the altar had a chafing-dish full of live coals placed at either end Yet neither the severe cold, nor long dis- tances, nor bad roads were obstacles formidable enough to prevent the people from coming to church, where on Sundays and festivals you could make sure of seeing them crowding the little house not only at the time of Mass but also during the other services
Meanwhile, one of my chief cares was to keep my ministry high m repute with all To this end I tried to be as slight a burden as possible on the community.
As the children's piety depends greatly on that of their mothers, I under- took to increase the store of piety of the latter by establishing a sodality of married women in honor of Our Lady of the Seven Dolors Soon after I formed another for young girls under the patronage of Mary Immaculate These young girls I found to be very modest, and so remarkable for natural piety and goodness ... It is a fact that m all the twenty-three families living here, there was not a young girl whose moral conduct was not above reproach, and this marvel took place m a section where man's licentious nature brooked no bounds A few of these young persons, encouraged by the example of a pious widow, took it upon themselves to make some artificial flowers for the church and I can say with truth that the work of their hands was not to be despised
Before Lent it happened that I made mention of the prayers of the Foity Hours Devotion, immediately, men, women, children, all offered to make in turn their hour of adoration and during the three days several persons were constantly before the Blessed Sacrament The novena m honor of St Francis Xavier, the patron of our parish, had also a large attendance of people, it consisted in having evening prayers and an instruction m the
MISSIONARY EXCURSIONS 263
church At the close of this novena, as was also the case at Christmas, two- thirds of the congregation received Holy Communion.
On the Sunday before my departure, all the married women belonging to the sodality of the Seven Dolors, the members of the young women's sodality, and all the children who had made their First Communion, ap- proached the Holy Table In the afternoon there was the blessing of beads, medals and pictures, the premiums for catechism were distributed Benedic- tion of the Blessed Sacrament followed, and finally a large cross was erected in the grave-yard. In the evening I administered the last consola- tions of religion to a man who had given to his wife and children the most beautiful example of faith and resignation during his sickness, and whose last recommendation was an expression of the most tender confidence in the Blessed Virgin. The day befoie, for the first time since my arrival at West- port, I had caused the consecrated earth to be opened in order to receive the mortal remains of her who had been first prefect of the sodality She had had the consolation during the course of the last year to see all her children and grandchildren approach the Sacraments.
Only three marriages took place while I was at Westport, but they were in truth marriages, where the contracting parties were all in those disposi- tions which it is to be wished that the children of the Church should ever possess 68 Thus from the first day of my new career, did God still support my feeble steps by giving me new proofs of the care which He takes of those who put their trust in Him.
With the departure of Father Point from Westport, the duty of visiting the parish devolved upon the Sugar Creek missionaries, who thus attended it up to the arrival in 1846 of Father Bernard Don- nelly of the St Louis diocesan clergy. The priest whose name appears most frequently in the Westyort Register during this period is Father Verreydtj superior at Sugar Creek from 1841 to 1848. Ministerial visits of his to Westport are recorded for July, August, and December, 1 844, and for March and September, 1845 His name is almost the only one signed to Westport baptisms from October 7, 1841, to September 28, 1845. He was there as late as April, 1846, when, at the request of Bishop Barren, he came up from Sugar Creek to enable the French settlers at Westport to discharge their Easter duty.69 Verreydt was virtually the pastor of Westport during the interval between the depar- ture of Father Point and the arrival of Father Donnelly. In November,
68 The three marriages are entered by Point in the West fort- Register. (F). Names and dates are as follows. Moise Bellemaire and Adele Lessert, January 7, 184.1, Jean Baptiste de Velder and Marie Frangoise Cadron, February 8, 1841, Louis Turgeon and Marguerite Prudhomme, April 29, 1841.
89 Father Hoecken's Diary (Dtarum). (F) Bishop Barron, Vicar-apostolic of the two Guianas, was at this time making a confirmation tour through Missouri under commission from Bishop Kennck of St. Louis
264 THE JESUITS OF THE MIDDLE UNITED STATES
18465 Father Donnelly was installed at "Chouteau's Church" (St Francis Regis) as resident pastor and with his arrival the pioneer Jesuit ministry at the mouth of the Kansas came to an end,70
§ 5 THE PLATTE PURCHASE
During the period 1836-1840 the Missouri counties lying along the western limits of the state and north of the Missouri were visited periodically by the Kickapoo missionaries. In a trip through Clay, Clin- ton, Platte and Jackson Counties in 1838 one of their number heard sixty confessions, administered twenty baptisms and prepared twelve children for their first reception of the Eucharist.71 Liberty, the seat of Clay County, contained at this time fourteen stores and four groceries and had a newspaper of its own, the Far West™ The first Catholic priest known to have visited it was Father Joseph Lutx, which he did in 1828 He was followed by Father Benedict Roux, who arrived in the town for the first time on November 4, 1833 Roux performed seven baptisms in Clay County in June and September of 1 834 73 On Novem- ber 22, 1837, Father Christian Hoecken, then resident at the Kickapoo Mission, baptized at Liberty, William Riley, Ann Virginia Curtis, and Josephine Esther Curtis.74
The counties comprised m what was known as the Platte Purchase owe the earliest exercise of the Catholic ministry within their borders to the Jesuits of the Kickapoo and Sugar Creek Missions. When Mis- souri came into the Union in 1821, the straight line that forms its west- ern boundary south of Kansas City continued due north. The triangular strip lying between this original western boundary of the state, the Iowa line, and the Missouri River, was formerly a part of Iowa Terri- tory, though inhabited by Iowa, Sauk and Fox Indians, who claimed its ownership. The Potawatomi Indians, before occupying their reser- vation in the Council Bluffs district, settled for a while on this tri- angle.75 Here, in their camp opposite Fort Leavenworth, they were visited in January, 1837, by Van Quickenborne, who found their pnn-
70 Additional details concerning the ministry of the Jesuit fathers in early Kansas City are in Garraghan, Catholic Beginnings in Kansas City, Missouri.
71 Litterae Annuae, 1838 (A) .
72 Wetmore, Gazetteer of Missouri, p. 59.
73 Transcript of Roux's baptisms Kansas City Diocesan Archives
74 Kickafoo Register. (F) When Father Roux first visited Liberty in 1833, Mrs Benoist with the families of her two sons-in-law, Messrs Riley and Curtis, were the only Catholic residents in the place. Father Lutz m 1828 found only one Catholic in Liberty, Mrs Curtis.
75 Charles H Babbitt, Early Days at Council Bluffs (Washington, 1916), p. 26.
MISSIONARY EXCURSIONS 265
cipal business chief, William or "Billy" Caldwell o£ Chicago, as also a number of his tribesmen, to be Catholics.76 Nature had been lavish of her gifts in this wedge-shaped section of land. The soil was excellent, game abundant, timber not scarce. To the pioneer farmers of the border counties, who saw themselves cut off by this intervening agricultural paradise from easy access to the Missouri River, it offered a tempting bait. Moreover, the Indians were troublesome neighbors and their re- moval beyond the Missouri seemed imperative for the white man's peace In response, accordingly, to a petition from the Missouri counties adjacent to the lands of the Sauk and Foxes, a bill, framed and intro- duced by Senator Benton, was passed by Congress in June, 1836, author- izing the purchase of the triangular strip from the Indians and its subsequent annexation to the state of Missouri. Treaty negotiations with the Iowa, Sauk and Foxes for the transfer of their lands were success- fully conducted by General William Clark of St Louis The Platte Purchase, so called from a river of the same name which flows through northwestern Missouri into the Missouri River (not, therefore, identical with the larger Platte River of Nebraska) contained over three thou- sand square miles, which were organized between the years 1838 and 1 845 into the six counties, Platte, Buchanan, Andrew, Holt, Nodaway and Atchison.77
More than half the population of these six counties is concentrated today in the city of St. Joseph, the founder of which was Joseph Robi- doux, a native St Louisan and merchant fur-trader by occupation On his way up the Missouri to trade with the Indians, this successful man of business of the frontier period noted that at Blacksnake Hills, as the Indians named the place, there was a crossing of the river where the natives were accustomed to hold their pow-wows. Here he established in 1827 a trading post at what is now the intersection of Jule and Main Streets in the city of St. Joseph. In 1830 he acquired all the land on which the future city was to rise. Robidoux's Landing, the name the trading-post originally went by, attracted so many settlers that Robidoux had a plat made out for a town to be called St. Joseph, which he sent to St. Louis, where it was duly recorded in 1843. The founder of St. Joseph, dying in 1864, had lived to see it a town of twenty thousand inhabitants.78
The history of the Catholic Church in the Platte Purchase begins with the visit of Father Van Quickenborne to a Potawatomi camp opposite Fort Leavenworth in the present Platte County, Missouri. There, on January 29, 1837, he baptized fourteen Indian children, the
76 Kickafoo Register. (F)
77 Carr, Missouri, pp 185, 1 86
78 Conard, Cyclopedia of the History of Missouri, 5: 4.39.
266 THE JESUITS OF THE MIDDLE UNITED STATES
first of the number being Susanna, the daughter of Claude La Fram- boise and a Potawatomi woman This would seem to be the earliest recorded baptism in the territory known as the Platte Purchase. The first recorded Catholic marriage in the Purchase also took place in the Potawatomi camp, where on May 13, 1837, Van Quickenborne joined in wedlock Michael La Pomte and Mane La Framboise "of the Pota- watomi nation " Concluding the marriage-entry in the Ktckapoo Register is the missionary's attestation, "Done at the Potawatomi Camp opposite Fort Leavenworth in the State of Missouri." 79
Catholicism in St. Joseph, Buchanan County, the metropolis of the Platte Purchase, may be said to date its beginning from the visit in May, 1838, of Father De Smet, then on his way up the Missouri with Father Verreydt to open a mission at Council Bluffs. "We stopped for two hours at the Blacksnake Hills. There I had a long talk with Joseph Robidoux, who keeps a store and runs his father's fine farm He showed me a great deal of affection and kindness and expressed a wish to build a little chapel there if his father can manage to get some French families to come and settle near them. The place is one of the finest on the Missouri for the erection of a city." 80
The first Mass on the site of St. Joseph was said in the house of Joseph Robidoux by a visiting Jesuit missionary, probably Father Eysvogels, some time m the course of i838.81 Eysvogels is the first Jesuit whose name is distinctly connected with the exercise of the Catholic ministry in Buchanan County. He was in or in the immediate vicinity of Buchanan County at least as early as 1839. On May 30 of that year he baptized Sophie Hickman, the place of the ceremony being described in the Ktckapoo Register simply as "the Platte." The next day, May 31, he united in marriage John Byrne O'Toole, son of James O'Toole and Abigail Wilson, and Sophie Weston Hickman, daughter of Thomas Hickman and Sara Prewett. The marriage appar- ently took place, though of this circumstance there is no direct evidence, at the bride's home m Buchanan County. Father Eysvogels notes in the record of the marriage that after the ceremony Mass was celebrated.82 James O'Toole, father of the bridegroom, was one of the earliest among the Irish settlers of the Platte Purchase. A pen-picture of him has been left by Canon O'Hanlon, author of the scholarly Lives of the
79 Kickapoo Register. (F)
80 CR, De Smety i 151 Young Joseph Robidoux, whom Father De Smet met on this occasion, was a student at St Louis University during the years 1829-1833.
81 Catholic Encyclopedia, 13 356
82 Eysvogels's marriages in Buchanan County were entered by him in the Kickafoo Register.
MISSIONARY EXCURSIONS 267
Insh Samts, who, while yet a theological student, spent the winter of 1846-1847 at St Joseph m search of health 8*
What was probably the earliest marriage in St Joseph (originally Blacksnake Hills) by a Catholic priest was that of a Miss Marechal, March 12, 1841, the bridegroom's name not being recorded On March 14 followed the marriage of Caesar Ducas and Clarice Ducas, Father Christian Hoecken, then stationed at Council Bluffs, being the officiating priest on both occasions.84
Father Eysvogels was again in Buchanan Count} , baptizing and performing other functions of the ministry, in October, 1839, March, 1840, and February, 1841. In March, 1841, he was at Weston in Platte County. In a missionary trip which lasted from Julj 8, 1842, to November 20, 1842, he administered twentj-two baptisms, visiting on this occasion Clay County, English Grove in Holt County, Blacksnake Hills, Buchanan County, Third Ford of the Platte, Kickapoo Village, Platte County, Fishermg River in Ray County, and Lexington, Mo. In 1843 Father Christian Hoecken baptized eleven persons between May 28 and July 9, the locus for all these baptisms being recorded as the "Platte Purchase." 85
The first mention of St. Joseph in the Catholic Almanac occurs in the issue for 1845. It is there stated that a church was in course of erection, the attendant priest being Father Anthony Eysvogels, who also visited Irish Grove, German Settlement, Liberty and Weston 86 More- over, the register of the Missouri Vice-province for 1845 records a mission at St, Joseph (Mtssio ad S. Joseph) , with Eysvogels in charge and with Westport, Weston and Independence as visited stations. It is not likely that Eysvogels ever actually resided at St. Joseph. It was decided at St Louis by Father Van de Velde, the vice-provincial, and his consultors, April n, 1844, that nothing could be done at that time for the "new church and congregation of St. Joseph at Blacksnake Hills," though possibly a determination may have been reached later on to station Father Eysvogels at St. Joseph. At all events, the first Catholic church in St Joseph, if not actually begun, was completed only after the arrival m the town m 1 846 of the diocesan priest, Rever- end Thomas Scanlan. An account of the church, which stood at Fifth and Felix Streets and was dedicated by Archbishop Kennck June 17,
83 O'Hanlon, Life and Scenery in Missouri Reminiscences of a Missions y Priest (Dublin, 1890), pp 127-132
^Council Bluffs Mission Register. (F). In the marriage of Miss Marechal, Father Hoecken made use of a dispensation from the matrimonial impediment disfantas cultus, the bridegroom having, it would seem, been unbaptized
85 Sugar Creek Register. (F) Cf mfra, Chap XXIII, § 7
86 Irish Grove, now Milton, Atchison Co , Mo German Settlement, probably Deepwater, Henry Co , Mo Weston, Platte Co , Mo.
268 THE JESUITS OF THE MIDDLE UNITED STATES
1847, was penned by the seminarian O'Hanlon, who was residing in St Joseph at the time of its erection
Among the most enterprising and intelligent traders in that town, Mr John Corby, an Irish Catholic and a native of Limerick, had started a successful business house, well stocked with general merchandise and having large stores for country produce provided for export and import goods He was then unmarried, and he proposed to maintain a resident priest in his house until a Catholic church was built, and a parochial dwelling could be provided Mr Robidoux was willing to grant an eligible site, and accordingly, application having been made to the Bishop of St Louis, the Reverend Thomas Scanlan, a native of Tipperary, was selected to open a mission and there to reside A small but handsome brick church was soon commenced and the work of building proceeded very rapidly, while a temporary place of worship was provided in the town 87
Father De Smet was a visitor in St Joseph while Father Scanlan's church was in process of erection. "Eastward and at the foot of these hills [Blacksnake] stands the town of St Joseph. We reached there on the 23 of November, 1 846, and paid a visit to the respectable curate, Rev. Mr. Scanlan. In 1842 [?] St. Joseph did not exist, there was only a single family there. To-day there are 350 houses, 2 churches, a city hall and a jail, it is in the most prosperous condition Its population is composed of Americans, French Creoles, Irish and Germans." 88
With the arrival in 1 846 of Father Donnelly at Westport Landing, the future Kansas City, and of Father Scanlan in St. Joseph, the work of the pioneer Jesuit missionaries among the Catholic settlers of western Missouri came to a close It had extended over a period of eleven years, beginning with the first visit of Van Quickenborne in 1835 to Inde- pendence and the mouth of the Kansas River.
87 O'Hanlon, of cit , p 1 06 Though O'Hanlon says plainly that the first church in St Joseph was commenced only after Father Scanlan began to reside in the town (1846), the contemporary notices cited above would seem to indicate that a Catholic church of some kind was in course of construction in St Joseph before that date Probably the notices refer merely to plans and preparations for a new church that were carried out only at a later date
88 CR, DeSmtt, 2 612
CHAPTER IX THE BEGINNINGS OF ST. LOUIS UNIVERSITY
§ i. BISHOP DU BOURG'S INVITATION
In a letter dated May 24, 1823, exactly one week before Father Van Quickenborne and his party crossed the Mississippi and entered St. Louis for the first time, Father Rosati, at that time superior of the Lazanst seminary at the Barrens in Perry County, Missouri, wrote of the little band of Jesuits who were just then toiling along the muddy roads of southern Illinois "We are expecting them every day. The colony will be a nursery of missionaries for the Indians and perhaps in the course of time a means of procuring for the youth of these parts a solid and Christian education." x Six years later the hope entertained by Rosati that the Jesuits would take up and promote the cause of Chris tian education in the West was realized.
It was felt no doubt from the beginning both by the superior of the Maryland Mission and by Bishop Du Bourg that the group of Jesuits settled at St Ferdinand were destined to exercise their zeal and energy before no long time in the field of education. The question of a college, it is safe to say, had been among the matters discussed be- tween them at the time the Missouri Mission was formally set on foot. The Concordat, however, stipulates nothing in regard to education as it did in specific terms in regard to the Indian missions, though it does contain the sweeping declaration that "the Bishop of New Orleans cedes and surrenders to the Society of Jesus for ever, as soon and in proportion as its increase of members enables it to undertake the same . . . all . . . the colleges and seminaries of learning already erected and which shall hereafter be erected" on the Missouri River and its tributary streams. Already in 1819 Bishop Du Bourg had proposed to the Maryland Jesuits the opening of a college at Franklin in Missouri.2 Now that the Society of Jesus was established in his diocese, he was quick to broach the subject of a school under its auspices in the chief city of Missouri.
1 Ann. Prof. (Louvain ed), 1:476. This chapter appeared in part in the SLCHR, i 85-102
2 Hughes, History of the Society of Jesus %n North America, Colonial and. Federal, Doc, 2 1013.
269
270 THE JESUITS OF THE MIDDLE UNITED STATES
What appears to be the earliest utterance of the prelate on the matter in question is in a letter of November 27, 1823, addressed to the Maryland superior. Father Francis Neale
I would feel disposed to give your Society two beautiful squares of ground m the city of St. Louis and to help in the erection of a house for an academy as a preparation for a college, if you thought you could spare a couple of jour Maryland brethren, even scholastics, to commence the estab- lishment, m which case I will shut up the one that is now kept by some of my priests on the Bishop's piemises
The Bishop then proceeds to offer the furniture of his little college and all its appurtenances, as also three hundred dollars towards defray- ing the travelling expenses from Maryland of the necessary professors.3 At about the same time that he wrote to Neale, Du Bourg entered into communication with Van Quickenborne, repeating his offer and engag- ing himself to close his own college m St Louis in case the Jesuits should open an institution of higher education m that city Again, in a letter written on January 7, 1824, to Father Dzierozynski, after tender- ing him felicitations on his appointment as superior of Maryland, he assures him of his desire to give the Jesuits a piece of property m St Louis with a view to their taking over the direction of the college "established in that city under my auspices." 4
In a letter dated New Year's Day, 1824, in the very heart of the severe winter that followed his arrival at St. Ferdinand, Van Quicken- borne informed Dzierozynski of the Bishop's offer, adding his own view of the proposition Father Niel, rector of St. Louis College, was not able to support himself and his professors m the "Episcopal Col- lege," as it was sometimes called, and had placed the institution m the hands of a Protestant (?) layman. There were only nine boarders in attendance and no more were to be looked for. The erection of a new house or college would cost much as labor in St Louis was dearer than m Maryland. "On the other hand," Van Quickenborne obseives, "the city is the principal one of the State and near other rising towns m Illinois. If our men were there, many day-scholars would attend school, of these, some would enter the Society, especially if, according to the Institute, we teach gratis"5 In July, 1824, the Jesuit superior and
3 Hughes, op ctt., Doc, 2 1026. Father Francis Neale was acting superior of the Maryland Jesuits for a brief period after the death of his brother, Father Charles Neale
4 Van Quickenborne ad Dzierozynski, Florissant, January I, 1824 (B) Du Bourg ad Dzierozynski, New Orleans, January 7, 1824 (G)
5 Van Quickenborne ad Dzierozynski, January I, 1824. (B). The principle of gratuitous instruction embodied in the Jesuit rule became impracticable in the
THE BEGINNINGS OF ST. LOUIS UNIVERSITY 271
his community had the pleasure of entertaining as a guest at St Ferdi- nand Father Charles Nermckx, to whom the Society of Jesus was greatly indebted for his generous recruiting efforts on its behalf. "We are sorry," wrote Van Quickenborne to Bishop Rosati, "that our vener- able guest cannot stay somewhat longer with us and entertain and edify us by his presence, which is so dear to us I have begged him to com- municate to you, Monseigneur, my ideas on the establishment of a college in St. Louis." 6
Only a few weeks before Rosati had, in fact, warmly commended to the Jesuit General the two projects which Van Quickenborne sought to take in hand, the Indian school and the college in St Louis. Re- garding the latter he wrote
It would, moreover, be necessary to establish a college of the Society m St Louis There is already property there to be used for this purpose, a considerable number of scholars and prospects of success The city of St Louis is already one of importance and becomes more so every day A respectable body of scholarly religious is absolutely necessary there to main- tain religion m good repute, to defend it against the attacks of heretics and to quicken the fervor of the Catholics A college at St. Louis could be of great help to the establishment at St Ferdinand for the Indian agents reside there, and there, also, are held the councils of deputies from the various Indian nations who come to treat with the Amencan Government To say all in a word, were I to have the good fortune to see a college of the Society established m that city, the interests of religion therein would be fully assured, so I believe. Bishop Du Bourg is of the same opinion and has charged me to appeal to your Very Reverend Paternity in all earnestness, and in his name also, to be so good as to interest yourself in this Mission and send it subjects To this end I renew my plea for an undertaking which will certainly not fail to make for the Greater Glory of God. In doing so I do nothing more than discharge the duty incumbent on me of procuring by all means m my power the welfare of the people committed to my care. Kmdly grant me the favor of a reply, which, I trust, will not be of a nature to disappoint my hopes. I think it unnecessary, in conclusion, to assure you that on my4 part and that of Bishop Du Bourg, everything possible will be done to cooperate toward the success of the above-mentioned establishments, which I most earnestly desire to see brought about 7
The "Episcopal College" of which Father Van Quickenborne speaks as being in a precarious condition in 1824 owed its origin to Bishop Du Bourg. The first year of the Bishop's residence in St. Louis, 1818, saw
United States owing to the fact that the Society's colleges there established, being with one or other exception unendowed, are dependent on tuition-money for their support. See mfra, § 5.
6 Van Quickenborne a Rosati, Florissant, July 30, 1824. (C)
7 Rosati a Fortis, June 22, 1824 (AA). In Italian
272 THE JESUITS OF THE MIDDLE UNITED STATES
the opening under his auspices of a Latin school for boys known as St. Louis Academy Classes were begun on November 16 of that year in a stone house of one story with a gallery which belonged to Madame Alvarez and stood at the northwest corner of Third and Market Streets. The management of the Academy was entrusted to Father Francis Nielj assisted by three other priests, all members of the diocesan clergy and attached to the cathedral of St Louis. The academy prospering was soon transformed into a college, for which a site was found in the cathedral block on the west side of Second Street between Market and Walnut. Here, on or immediately alongside the ground once occupied by the first church m St Louis, a two-story brick building adjoining the cathedral on the south was erected by Bishop Du Bourg and in this building in the fall of 1820 St Louis College held its first session. Though it stood high in public regard, the inability of the diocesan clergy conducting the college to find time amid their pressing minis- terial duties to give it due attention hampered its success With the end of the session 1826-1827 the institution closed its doors. Its register included names rich in historical associations of early St Louis and the pioneer West, among them those of Joseph Robidoux, Chauvette La- beaume, Marcellin St. Vram, Alexandre Bellesime, Charles Sangumet, Vital Beaugenou, Louis Pnmeau, Francis Bosseron, Philip Rocheblave, Toussamt Hunaut, Francis Cabanne and Auguste Delassus.8
8 W. H. W Fanning, "Historical Sketch of St Louis University" (St Louis University Bulletin, December, 1908), pp 6-12 Elihu H Shepard, professor of languages in St Louis College, 1823-1826, records some facts about the institution in his Autobiography (St Louis, 1869) As early as June 24, 1824, Bishop Du Bourg wrote concerning the western Jesuits to his brother at Bordeaux in France "They will take over the College of St Louis, this is the means to assure its sta- bility." Ann Prof, I 474 Du Bourg' s repeated requests in this connection to- gether with other circumstances, e g. the identity of name attaching to the two institutions, point to an organic continuity of descent from the old to the new St. Louis College, later St. Louis University. Cf St Louis University Bulletin, December, 1908. Numerous side-lights on the career of the old St. Louis College on Second Street are to be found m the correspondence of Father Edmund Saulnier, preserved in the archdiocesan archives of St Louis Cf. an article based on this correspondence, F. G. Holweck, "Vater Saulnier und seme Zeit," Pastoral Blatt (St. Louis), April, 1918. Saulnier was pastor of the St. Louis cathedral during the period 1825-1831 and virtual head of St Louis College from the departure from St. Louis of its first president, Father Francis Niel, March, 1825, to the close of the institution. He had been attached to the college as professor of French from December, 1819 In November, 1822, there were four priests on the staff, Fathers Niel, Michaud, Deys and Saulnier. But there were few students and great disorder prevailed, the lay professors being for the most part young and inex- perienced. In November, 1825, the college had so run down that Saulnier feared it would go under. A layman, Mr Brun (Le Brun), was the president and Elihu Shepard, a non-Catholic, was professor of languages, but the income of the
THE BEGINNINGS OF ST. LOUIS UNIVERSITY 273
The difficulties that beset St Louis College made Bishop Du Bourg all the more anxious to have the Jesuits enter the educational field. Reaching St. Michel, Cote d'Acadie, in November, 1825, on his way back to New Orleans from a visit to Natchitoches, he wrote to Van Quickenborne repeating his offer of two squares in St. Louis At St
school fell short of their meagre salaries ($200 and $400) In January, 1826, Father Saulnier took over the direction of the school, though Brun apparently remained as nominal president Van Quickenborne wrote to Bishop Rosati January 17, 1826 "Mr Saulnier is still weak and has fever from time to time He told me that while placing Mr Le Brun at the head of the College and paying a salary to him as also to [Rev ] Mr Odizzi [Audizio], he has retained a sort of general superintendence To Mr Le Brun and Mr De Thier [?] is joined Mr Welsh, a worthy Irishman, who teaches English. There are students to keep the college going and I hope everything will proceed well " (C) At the end of May, 1826, Father Leo De Neckere, later Bishop of New Orleans, was sent to St Louis by Bishop Rosati at Father Saulnier's earnest request to teach m the college and also preach English sermons in the cathedral De Neckere had to leave St Louig owing to ill-health a few months after his arrival Bishop Du Bourg, on his last visit to St Louis, May, 1826, was disappointed with the condition of the college, his own creation, and tried to have it closed "Lastly, I think I have obtained the suppression of this sorry school so ridiculously called a college The lay professors are all gladly quitting There is only Mr. Brun who seems to be still kept [here] by certain considerations, but he will see himself constrained by the responsibility to procure teachers and this amalgam, which is to the Church's discredit, will disappear [ms ? ] I don't think anybody in town will disapprove of this measure which is required as much by necessity as by the proprieties " Du Bourg a Rosati, May n, 1826 Kennck Seminary Archives. St Louis College, however, was somehow kept up, though in February, 1827, it had practically ceased to exist Only one professor, a Mr Servan, with some ten or twelve students m attendance, was left But Father Saulnier did not give up hope of seeing the college reopened If only Bishop Rosati were to send him Father Chiaveroti, with the latter's services, Servan's and his own, he could keep up the college without difficulty On July 23, 1827, he informed Bishop Rosati that the Jesuits were willing to reopen the college on Second Street, probably an unfounded report, as Father Van Quickenborne was already considering the Connor property at Wash- ington Avenue and Ninth Street as the site of his future college As late as June, 1828, Saulnier was still hoping to be able to reopen St. Louis College with him- self, Servan and the cathedral clergy in charge The session 1826-1827 would seem to have been the final one in the history of the institution. In September, 1828, Father Van Quickenborne reported to his superior in Maryland that St Louis did not have a single Catholic school By that time some of the former students of St. Louis College had registered at Florissant, where the Jesuits held classes for them pending the erection of the new college building on Washington Avenue In 1832 Bishop Rosati converted the old college building on Second Street into a church (St. Mary's Chapel) for the Catholic Negroes of St. Louis On May 6 of that year the chapel was blessed by Father Verhaegen. Later, m 1834, Father Anton Lutz began to hold services in it for the German Catholics of the city. Bishop DuBourg's college building thus ended its career by serving as the first house of worship for the Catholic Negroes and later for the German Catholics of St. Louis. SLCHR, 4. 6.
274 THE JESUITS OF THE MIDDLE UNITED STATES
Michel he learned that Rosati, his Auxiliary, was ten leagues below, at St. Jean Baptiste, waiting for an up-river steamer He hastened there- upon to meet Rosati to confer with him on the ordination of the Jesuit scholastics and the projected college in St Louis, and sent through him from St Jean Baptiste a second letter to Van Quickenborne, dated two days later than the one written from St. Michel
If Mr De Theux has arrived, I ask you to accompany your scholastics so that you may confer in person with Msgr , to whom I have communicated several matters of intimate concern to yourself
First m importance among these matters is your establishment of St. Louis To forward it and give it all desirable stability and independence, I offer you two fine squares in Connor's addition to the city on the same conditions on which they were given to me, to wit, that a college should be built upon one of them (it does not matter which) and that it should be in operation withm seven years of the date of the bond of conveyance, which was made over to me in the year 1819 or 1820, I do not remember which, but as the bond is on record m St Louis, you can easily venfy its date On the less favorable supposition, there still remains sufficient time to put up a small house, either of log or frame, for as the dimensions and material of the building were not specified in the bond, any kind of structure suited to receive some thirty day-scholars or even fewer will meet the requirements I foresee two difficulties in the way of your acceptance, ist the expenses and 2nd your rules As to the first, I am persuaded that you will receive aid from the inhabitants, if you make the rounds of the city for such purpose I will myself contribute one hundred dollars. As to the rules of your Society or the difficulty of your taking in charge the direction of the school, there is nothing to prevent you, while these hindrances last, from putting the school m the hands of some master, to whom you can lease it or even lend it gratis I regard this property as too precious a thing, m view of the future interests of religion and of your Society, not to urge you to make every effort to assure yourself of its possession, moreover, as the time is approaching after which regrets will be useless, I am persuaded that you can go far in this matter on your own responsibility, with the understanding that, m view of the urgency of the case, you cannot fail to obtain subsequently the approval of your superior 9
9 "I forgot in my last, my Reverend and very dear Father to speak to you of two very fine squat es which I hold m St Louis under condition that within a year or two from now (the period can be ascertained) there shall be a college on one of the two, that is to say, a school erected and in full operation . For the rest, it would appear to me to be very important to your Society to secure possession of this property, which may one day enable you to establish yourselves m St Louis on a very independent footing Mr Saulnier will be able to show it to you " Du Bourg a Van Quickenborne, St. Michel, Cote d'Acadie, November 7, 1825. (A) Du Bourg a Van Quickenborne, St. Jean Baptiste, La, November 9, 1825 (A).
THE BEGINNINGS OF ST LOUIS UNIVERSITY 275
Van Quickenborne's reply to the foregoing communication from Du Bourg is dated some weeks later
As to the establishment of a college m St. Louis, I wrote about the matter to Father General more than eighteen months ago He gave me permission to buy out of my own patrimony one thousand arpents of land for the support of Ours who shall be sent there. I shall receive for myself very little or perhaps nothing at all from this patrimony You did well to write about the offer to the Father Superior of Georgetown You must let him decide on it as also on the parish you have offered me It will require a miracle to give us a college at St Louis, such as our institute demands, namely, one which is free for day-pupils and which for that reason must have an adequate revenue Still I dare to hope it of the divine goodness 10
§ 2. BISHOP DU BOURG AND THE COLLEGE LOT
The two squares which Bishop Du Bourg offered to Father Van Quickenborne were a gift to him from Jeremiah Connor, a native of Ireland, who came to St. Louis in 1805 from Georgetown in the Dis- trict of Columbia, where he had engaged m the business of auctioneer He followed the same business in St. Louis where he quickly came into prominence, being appointed by Governor Wilkinson sheriff of the vil- lage within a year after his arrival He has been described as a man of retiring and even eccentric habits, never marrying and living alone m the rear of his place of business on Second Street He was one of the witnesses to the last will and testament drawn up by Menwether Lewis, of the Lewis and Clark Expedition, on the eve of the latter's departure from St. Louis shortly before his tragic death. The Erin Benevolent Society, of which he became president, was organized at his house in 1818, while he was also the founder with John Mullanphy and others of the Irish Immigrant and Corresponding Society. He died September 23, 1823, aged about fifty, and his estate, coming under the sheriffs hammer, soon passed into various hands.11
No other citizen after John Mullanphy was more actively interested in the promotion of Catholic interests in early St. Louis than Jeremiah Connor. He contributed a thousand dollars towards repairing the old cathedral presbytery and putting it m readiness for the arrival of Bishop Du Bourg m i8i8.12 Moreover, his name appears on a document
10 Van Quickenborne a Du Bourg. Ann Prof. (1827) By "patrimony" Van Quickenborne understood certain family property in Belgium to which he had fallen heir
11 Billon, Annals of St Louis m its Territorial Days, pp. 67, 194, 379 "An intelligent, liberal gentleman," is Billon's estimate of Connor
12 Memorial Sketch of Bishop William Louis Du Bourg and What his Coming Meant to St. Louis St Louis, January, 1918 Of the $4,271 75 collected m 1818
276 THE JESUITS OF THE MIDDLE UNITED STATES
signed by about one hundred and twenty of the French residents of St. Louis, with Auguste Chouteau at their head, which guaranteed Bishop Du Bourg the use, free from all molestation, of the cathedral presbytery yard as a building site for St. Louis Academy.13 But Jeremiah Connor was not content with this evidence of collective goodwill on the part of the Catholics of St Louis towards the educational venture of their chief pastor. He resolved to do something personally for the cause of Christian education Accordingly, on March 8, 1820, he signed an instrument binding himself, his heirs and assigns, to convey to the Rt. Rev. Louis William Du Bourg m fee simple "two squares in Connor's addition to St. Louis, the one bounded south by an eighty foot street, west by a sixty foot street, north by the land of William Christy, east by a sixty foot street, which separates the same from the half-square I sold this day to said L. William Du Bourg — the other lying south of the former, from which it is separated by said eighty-foot street, bounded as ditto east and west, and on the south by the St. Charles road, each of said squares containing two hundred and seventy feet counting from east to west, by one hundred and fifty from north to south, be the same more or less. The condition of the above obligation is that a college shall be built and used as such within seven years of this day on either of said squares, the deed, however, to be executed as soon as possible." 14
for Bishop Du Bourg's brick cathedral, $1,172 was collected by Jeremiah Connor, the rest by Thomas McGuire St Louis Pastoral Blatt^ January, 1918
13 Billon, of. crt , p 422
14 The history of Connor's addition to St. Louis belongs to the romance of real estate development m that city. Before the date of the Louisiana Purchase and for some time after, the western boundary of the village ran along the line of the present Fourth Street, turning m towards the river at about Convent Street on the south and Morgan Street on the north Fourth Street was not yet laid out and within the village there were three principal streets, all running north and south, Main Street or Rue- Royale (also Rue Prmctfale) , Second Street or Rue de PEghse and Third Street or Rue des Granges To the northwest of the village, which was encircled by pickets guarded at intervals by stone forts or bastions, were the Common Fields, while to the southwest were the Commons, two customary adjuncts of the Creole settlements of upper Louisiana The Common Fields were divided off into oblong strips, forty arpents long and one arpent wide, which were assigned to the townsfolk m numbers proportionate to their ability to cultivate them
On August 12, 1766, only two years after the founding of St Louis, the Spanish government granted to Julien Le Roy, one of Liguest-Laclede's associates, a forty-arpent strip in the Common Fields, lying between similar parallel strips, the one to the north being held by Joseph Tayon and the one to the south by Frangois Bissonet Le Roy soon lost his strip, which was again merged into the Common Fields, May 23, 1772, a fresh grant of it was made by the Spanish government, this time m favor of Gabriel Dodier, also one of Laclede's companions Twenty-one years later, July 14, 1793, Dodier conveyed the strip for a consideration of eighty
THE BEGINNINGS OF ST. LOUIS UNIVERSITY 277
Early in May, 1826, Bishop Du Bourg visited St. Louis on his way to Europe, whither he was believed to be called by important business
dollars to Esther, a mulatto -woman, \\ho had been manumitted that same jear by her owner, Jacques Glamorgan The deed of conveyance described the property as being "one arpent m front by forty in depth, situated in the rear of the town on the adjoining prairie, bounded on the east by the fence set there to protect the wheat fields from the live-stock, on the west by his Majesty's domain, on the north by land hitherto and also now m the possession of Sr Tayon, pere, on the south by the King's highway (Rue Royale), which leads to the villages of St Charles and St Ferdinand " (Dodier's deed of conveyance of July 14, 1793, is in French Cf St Louis Republic^ April 23, 1911, p 10) Within a year after acquiring the arpent, Esther, the mulatto woman, transferred it September 2, I794> to her quondam master, Jacques Glamorgan The latter held it until July 8, 1808, when, to meet a judgment, it was put up and bold at public auction by Jeremiah Connor, sheriff of St Louis The purchaser was Alexander McNair, subsequently the first governor of Missouri McNair held the property a little over a month, conveying it on August 13 of the same year, for some unknown consideration, to Jeremiah Connor himself
Meanwhile Esther had been advised that her transfer of the arpent to Glamor- gan m 1794 was null and void On the ground, therefore, that she was still legal owner of the property, she made over her rights and title to the same to Wilham C Carr, June 15, 1809 Finally, April 28, 1812, Carr sold the property for six hundred dollars to Jeremiah Connor, who thus stood possessed of the forty-arpent strip by a double title derived from Esther through Glamorgan and from Esther through Carr (Abstract of title of College Lot m St. Louis University Archives ) Though Dodier's deed to Esther describes the tract as having a frontage of only a single arpent, it actually measured three hundred and eighty feet from north to south, which would give it a frontage, according to United States govern- ment surveys of the period, of about two arpents, taking the latter unit as a linear measurement equivalent to one hundred and ninety-two and a half English feet The arpent of Esther's deed was accordingly a double arpent of three hundred and eighty feet, and hence Connor's property was usually described as made up of two forty-arpent strips or lots Beginning at Third Street it ran west to about the line of Jefferson Avenue, a distance of nearly a mile and a half, between the property of Maj William Christy on the north and that of Judge J B. C. Lucas on the south. Sometime before 1820 these enterprising citizens laid out their suburban tracts into so-called additions to St. Louis and Connor did the same with his forty-arpent strip Through the center of the property he laid out a street, eighty feet wide, which he relinquished to the public without consideration, thus leaving to himself only one hundred and fifty feet on either side The eighty-foot street, named Washington Avenue as early as 1821, was destined to become the most important business thoroughfare of St. Louis The name of Jeremiah Connor, its donor, should be assured a place of distinction in. the annals of the city. (Billon, Annals of St Louts m its Territorial Days, p. 195).
In Connor's bond of conveyance to Bishop Du Bourg, March 8, 1820, of two squares lying north and south of Washington Avenue between Ninth and Tenth Streets he intimates his intention to procure for the Bishop from William Christy a deed in fee simple to fractional pieces m Maj. Christy's addition so as to com- plete two whole squares on the north side of Washington Avenue Accordingly, on June 2, 1820, Christy conveyed to Bishop Du Bourg for seven hundred dollars
278 THE JESUITS OF THE MIDDLE UNITED STATES
affairs connected with his diocese. As a matter of fact, he was going abroad for the purpose of laying his resignation before the Holy See He imparted, however, to no one, not even to Bishop Rosati, his inten- tion of resigning his episcopal charge in America, deeming it no doubt more prudent m the unsettled state of the diocese to observe absolute secrecy regarding the step he was about to take. In a letter addressed to the Ami de la Religion of Pans shortly after his arrival in France, after declaring that his resignation was not due to reasons of health, he writes*
The motives, then, of my resignation are of a higher order, and they were presented to the Holy See, to which they appeared so just that his Holiness the Pope did not hesitate a moment, when they were submitted to him, to dissolve the sacred ties that bound me to that important but laborious mission But m ceasing to be the head of it, I have not ceased to feel the most tender solicitude for it What do I say? It is that solicitude which forced me to leave it, inasmuch that on the one hand it was evident my presence there would be more prejudicial than useful, and, on the other hand, I did flatter myself to be able from Europe to render that mission more important services 15
a tract seventy-five by two hundred and seventy feet, being the part of the square between Ninth and Tenth Streets bounded by Connor's line and Green Street Moreover, on November 15, 1822, Christy also conveyed to the Bishop, for eight hundred dollars, a tract seventy-five by two hundred and seventy feet, being the part of the square between Tenth and Eleventh Streets limited by Connor's line and Green Street Again, on September 5, 1820, Jeremiah Connor sold to the Bishop for a thousand dollars the western half of the square between Eighth and Ninth Streets on the north side of Washington Avenue Finally, on October 15, 1821, Connor transferred to the Bishop for two thousand dollars, 1st the whole square in his addition between Tenth and Eleventh Streets (with the privilege of Tenth Street) and between Washington Avenue and Christy's (Connor's ? ) line — and 2nd the eastern half of the square between Eighth and Ninth Streets, north of Washington Avenue. Bishop Du Bourg, as a result of these purchases, now held the two squares on Washington Avenue between Eighth and Ninth Streets and between Tenth and Eleventh Streets limited by Christy's line (Green Street), besides holding for educational purposes Connor's original donation of two squares lying respectively north and south of Washington Avenue between Ninth and Tenth Streets
15 Clarke, Lives of the Deceased Bishop of the Catholic Church in the United States, i 235 CHR, 3 173 "The public prints are filled with news of Bishop Du Bourg's resignation from his bishopric and of the acceptance of the resignation I am the more astonished at the news, as everything which Msgr said to me before his departure and everything he wrote to me since has led me to believe that he would return" Rosati a David, October 29, 1826 Letter-book of Bishop Rosati, II. (C). "You know how the Right Rev. L. Du Bourg has left us He deserved, no doubt, some peace and rest m his old age and his new flock of Mon- tauban will appreciate his merit more than the one he has left " Rosati to Bishop Edward Fenwick, December 5, 1826 Idem. (C)
THE BEGINNINGS OF ST. LOUIS UNIVERSITY 279
During the few days that Bishop Du Bourg remained in St. Louis he endeavored to dispatch some business matters of importance, among them the tangled question of the college property Unable for lack of time to visit Florissant, he wrote twice from the city to Father Van Quickenborne, reporting to him the results of a conference he had with Luke E. Lawless, a distinguished member of the St. Louis bar.16 The Bishop on reaching St. Louis was surprised to find that one of the two Connor squares donated for college purposes in 1820 had been sold to meet a judgment against the property and that possession of the other was now in jeopardy. Taking counsel with Lawless he was advised to have the remaining square, which lay on the north side of Washing- ton Avenue, between Ninth and Tenth Streets, and had come to be known as the College Lot, sold by order of the court and with this end in view Lawless obtained a judgment of a hundred dollars against the Connor estate. Van Quickenborne was thereupon to buy the property in his own name m the expectation that no one would outbid him, as the danger of becoming involved in a lawsuit would, so it was pre- sumed, preclude interference from other parties.17
Du Bourg left St Louis for Louisville on the steamer Ocecm Wave, May 10, 1826 The day of his departure he penned a brief note to Van Quickenborne at Florissant. "Just one word of remembrance, my dear Father. Msgr. Rosati will tell you the rest. You will see how much I am taken up with your affairs. I wish you to acquiesce in everything he may ask of you on behalf of St Louis and religion Circumstances de- mand that you make some sacrifice I will on my part do all I possibly can for you " Again, writing from Louisville, May 15, 1826, to Father Saulmer in St. Louis, the Bishop adds in a postscript- "Tell Father Van Quickenborne to write me often and in detail, if he wishes me to work effectively for him m Europe." 18 From Cincinnati, Pittsburgh and
16 The Hon Luke E Lawless, Judge of the Circuit Court, was a native of Ireland, having come to the United States after the Irish rebellion of 1798 in which he was implicated He was Thomas Benton's second in the duel in which Benton killed Charles Lucas, son of Judge J B C Lucas References to Lawless's career in St. Louis are in John F Darby's Personal Recollections^ St Louis, 1880 "Ne manquez pas de voir de temps en temps le Col Lawless C'est un homme a menager et dont vous fenez aisement un ami utile a votre estabhssement et a celui de nos Dames Lui et sa femme et la mere de celle-ci m'ont temoigne le plus grand desir d'aller visiter ces deux maisons Faites leur tout voir Le Col peut vous servir a Washington et en beaucoup d'autres occasions." Du Bourg a Van Quickenborne, May 10, 1826 (A).
17 O'Connor's bond of conveyance of 1820 was not put on record until July 22, 1824. This delay of four years, during which Connor died, may have caused the loss of the forfeited square
18 Du Bourg a Van Quickenborne, St Louis, May 10, 1826, Du Bourg a Saulmer, May 15, 1826 (A). "The Jesuit Fathers are delighted over my trip
280 THE JESUITS OF THE MIDDLE UNITED STATES
finally from Havre at the end of his transatlantic voyage, he dispatched letters to the Maryland superior, Father Dzierozynski He wrote from Cincinnati:
The important interests of my diocese call me to Rome Among them is your dear Society I hope to make a number of arrangements with a view to extend its means of usefulness It would give me great pleasure to be made the bearer of a letter from you to your Rev Fr General Finding myself unable to solicit it in person, I ask you to address it to me at Bordeaux I come from St. Louis and Florissant Your Fathers and Brothers there have quite surpassed all my expectations There is nothing I am not ready to do to second the zeal and devotion of such cooperators I hope that God will bless my efforts. Pray that He may do so 19
The plan proposed by Col. Lawless for saving the College Lot does not appear to have succeeded if indeed it was ever tried "Tell him [Van Quickenborne]," Bishop Du Bourg had advised Father Saulmer from Louisville five days after his departure from St. Louis, "to see Col Lawless so as to press the sale of the property called College Lot I have written to him. If he does not see the matter clearly, the Colonel will explain it to him." 20
Within a year after the Bishop's withdrawal from his diocese, Jere- miah Connor's entire estate came under the sheriff's hammer, March 21, 1827. Robert Simpson, sheriff of St. Louis, announced his intention to sell the property of Jeremiah Connor, deceased, viz. "a tract of two arpents from eastwardly 40 feet, bounded south by the St. Charles road, west by land of John O'Fallon, north by William Christy and east by Third street, to be sold for cash on Thursday, I2th of April between the hours of nine and five to satisfy etc." The purchaser was to be Col. John O'Fallon, who by sheriff's deed dated April 16, 1827, acquired possession of the Connor estate On April 28 of the same year, O'Fallon, now owner of the College Lot, sold it for two hundred and ten dollars to Jesse G. Lindell.21 As a consequence, this property, Jere-
to Europe They augur on the head of it good things for the future of the diocese and their Society The step being thus approved by all whom I had a duty to consult, I am leaving with confidence" Du Bourg a Rosati, May n, 1826 Souvay Coll., Kenrick Seminary Archives
19 Du Bourg a Dzierozynski, Cincinnati, May 18, 1826, Pittsburgh, May 24, 1826; Havre, July 2, 1826 (B). With his Havre letter Du Bourg sent a letter which Van Quickenborne had entrusted to him for Dzierozynski and which, "m jest^nat^one rttnens*' he forgot to post from Wheeling or Pittsburgh.
20 Du Bourg a Saulmer, Louisville, May 15, 1826 (A).
21 Abstract of title of College Lot (D). On May 8, 1849, Col John O'Fallon gave a quit-claim deed to St. Louis University for any interest he might have had in the University property on Washington Avenue The Colonel's one-time ownership of the College Lot together with the fact of a quit-claim having been
THE BEGINNINGS OF ST LOUIS UNIVERSITY 281
miah Connor's gift to Catholic education in St. Louis, seemed to have been diverted forever from its intended use "I regret exceedingly the College Lot," wrote Du Bourg from his episcopal see of Montauban in France to Van Quickenborne in Florissant, "not for its own sake but because of the importance I attach to your having an establishment in St. Louis. Try by all means to secure a site as central and as spacious as possible." 22
Scarcely a year had passed since Jeremiah Connor's estate had been disposed of at public auction, when Father Van Quickenborne, by an exchange sale with Jesse Lindell, owner of the College Lot, was at length enabled to recover that property and reserve it for its original use. The lot had a frontage of two hundred and seventy feet on Wash- ington Avenue, running from Ninth to the east line of Tenth Street As attorney for Bishop Du Bourg, Van Quickenborne now conveyed to Lmdell in exchange for the lot the same number of feet on Wash- ington Avenue, but in two sections, one section being the unsold portion of the Bishop's square between Eighth and Ninth Streets, and another section of equal size being the portion (limited by Eleventh Street) of the Bishop's square between Tenth and Eleventh Streets.23
To Dzierozynski in Maryland Van Quickenborne now reported with something of elation this final adjustment of the question of the College Lot, quickly dropping from Latin, in which he begins his letter, into English. "In Sti Ludowci, [sic] obtinw College Lot [I got the College Lot m St. Louis] The agreement is written and signed by both parties, Mr. Lindell and myself. The title will be delivered next week and then I, as agent of Bishop Du Bourg, and conformably to his private
delivered by him in connection with it probably gave rise to the erroneous state- ment to be met with in some accounts (e g Conard, Cyclofefaa of the City of St. Louis, art. "John O'Fallon") that he and not Jeremiah Connor was the donor of the College Lot
22 Du Bourg a Van Quickenborne, Montauban, January 26, 1828 (A).
23 Abstract of title of College Lot. (D). The deed of transfer of the College Lot from Lmdell to Van Quickenborne is dated August 29, 1828. "Our house is very well built and they say it is one of the most imposing edifices in St Louis. For its foundation your lordship gave me all the land belonging to you in Connor's addition to St Louis." Van Quickenborne a Du Bourg, November 20, 1829 Ann. Prop., l83l>p 590 "To arrange the matter for the lots for a college in St Louis the Bishop Du Bourg gave me a power of attorney for all his estate, which consists only of two lots more — all the rest I may, with his given permission, make over to Rev. Father De Theux R F. De Theux thought I could not refuse the power of attorney One of these two college lots belongs now to us absolutely without any obligation except that of gratitude to the donor (Bp D B ) The title is one of the surest that can be. It contains 250 ft. by nearly 300 To secure it to us the Bishop has sacrificed when here $550." Van Quickenborne to Dzierozynski, Florissant, August 10, 1826. (B).
282 THE JESUITS OF THE MIDDLE UNITED STATES
directions will make the deed to your Reverence I pay nothing but give the same quantity of land to Mr. Lindell and that quantity I take from lots belonging to Bishop Du Bourg, but placed at my disposal. Your Reverence will find a sketch on the back of a piece of paper. When I was at the Barrens two years ago. Bishop Rosati told me that in case he should be titular bishop of St Louis, he would be glad that we should have on that College Lot, a college with a parochial church When he was here, he adhered to the same resolution. I wish from my heart we had it and you have only to say, have it." 24
§ 3- THE NEW ST. LOUIS COLLEGE
The beginnings of St. Louis University as a Jesuit institution may be dated from the period at which white students were first received into the seminary at Florissant. As early as the second half of 1825, Father Van Quickenborne had four white boys in residence there, two of the number receiving board and lodging free in consideration of domestic services rendered to the house and two paying each fifty dollars a year.25 The two boys for whom payment was being made were Hubert and Charles Tayon of St. Charles, Mo., admitted at Florissant Novem- ber 6, i825.26 It seems to have been the superior's purpose in the be- ginning to receive only such youths as gave promise of a religious vocation, for thus in his sanguine way did he hope to solve the vexed problem of recruiting the novitiate.27 Father De Theux, shortly after his arnval at Florissant, in October, 1825, gave it as his opinion that no more white pupils ought to be received, and indeed, with an Indian school on their hands, theological studies to get up and the painfully cramped accommodations of the log buildings to hamper them, the young men of the Jesuit community were scarcely in a position to give anything like frequent or systematic instruction to the handful of white boys that registered After the Tayons came Pierre Bellau, admitted August 27, 1826. No more white students seem to have registered until June 12, 1828, when Charles Pierre Chouteau, a grandson of Pierre Chouteau, Senior, was admitted to the school. Five additional students registered m the course of the same year, Francis Cabanne (July 10), Edward Paul (July 22), Julius Cabanne (August 7), Du Thil Ca- banne (August 12), Thomas Forsyth (August 16), Francis Bosseron (September 3), and John Shannon (October 16) On January 7, 1829, Bryan Mullanphy, a future mayor of St. Louis and founder of the
24 Van Quickenborne to Dzierozynski, February 12, 1828 (B) Van Quicken- borne's certificate of power of attorney for Bishop Du Bourg is dated May 5, 1826
25 Van Quickenborne to Dzierozynski, December 19, 1825 (B).
26 Van Quickenborne account book (A) .
27 Infra, Chap XI, § I
THE BEGINNINGS OF ST LOUIS UNIVERSITY 283
Mullanphy Emigrant Fund, was enrolled, followed m the course of the same year by Paul Etienne Fremont De Bouffay, Alexander La Force, Charles Capdeville, Edward Chouteau, Julius Clark (son of General William Clark), and Howard Christy. The last name was enrolled July 25. The charge for board and tuition was twenty-five dollars a quarter, raised in the course of 1829 to thirty-five dollars. It was there- fore only during the session 1828-1829 that what could properly be called a school for white boys was conducted at Florissant; and the school was, it is plain, nothing more than a make-shift or accommodation pending the opening of a Jesuit college in St. Louis*28
From the first moment that the project of a college at St Louis was taken up Van Quickenborne was at pains to secure for it the explicit approval of his superiors. As early as January 6, 1824, he informed Father Fortis, the General, of Bishop Du Bourg's insistent desire that the Jesuits open a school m the Missouri metropolis, for which the prelate was ready to provide a site besides pledging a personal sub- scription of a hundred dollars, A few weeks later Father Dzieroxynski was also reporting Du Bourg's wishes to the Father General, at the same time petitioning that Van Quickenborne be allowed to purchase a thou- sand acres of land for the support of the future college. But in Decem- ber, 1827, the Maryland superior advised the General that the idea of a college in St. Louis was altogether premature. Van Quickenborne was without money to purchase "even the first stone," Dzierozynski wrote, as he was also without the men to staff the college and there- fore had been instructed to make no further move before obtaining the approbation of the Father General. The preceding February Van Quickenborne had written to Father Fortis: "I should like to be able to make preparations to open a college [in St. Louis] in which we should teach gratuitously, and to make announcement to our friends to this effect." No response to this petition was to come from Rome 29
At length, to an inquiry made by Van Quickenborne to the Mary- land superior m 1828 as to whether he might seriously set to work preparing for the new college, the latter replied that the tertianship, in which all the Jesuit priests at Florissant were then engaged, was to be brought to an end on July 31, 1828, and that Van Quickenborne
28 Van Quickenborne account book (A) Charles P Chouteau m his testimony m the suit "The City of St Louis vs. The St Louis University" (October, 1881) over the attempted opening of Tenth Street through the University property claimed to be the first student registered at Florissant (1828). The claim was open to dispute as the Tayons and Pierre Bellau had preceded him, the former by almost three years However, these three were admitted before the opening of the school proper m 1828
29 Van Quickenborne ad Fortis, January 6, 1824, February 6, 1827, Dziero- zynski ad Fortis, February 6, 1824, December 15 (?), 1827. (AX).
284 THE JESUITS OF THE MIDDLE UNITED STATES
might assign the priests in view of the coming scholastic year whatever duties he saw fit. This answer was interpreted by Van Quickenborne and all his advisers but one as a virtual authorization to begin at St. Louis if funds for the purpose were available. Announcement was accordingly made to the public that the work would be promptly taken in hand To a subsequent request made to Father Dzierozynski that he declare his mind more explicitly, the latter replied that he had not indeed granted permission "in clear terms" to begin at St Louis, but neither had he restricted the Missouri superior from so doing if the necessary means were within reach "For Very Reverend Father Gen- eral had previously given you permission to acquire land for a college in St. Louis. If, therefore, you have the means at hand, you may make the necessary arrangements, not on my authority but on that of Father General." As late as December, 1828, Van Quickenborne was still peti- tioning the General to put the formal seal of his approval on the new St. Louis College "After we began, Reverend Father Superior injected some sort of doubt though he ordered us to go ahead. . . . We thought that the Superior was thus giving permission to begin at St. Louis and that he did so under instructions from Very Reverend Father General. ... In fine, we thought ourselves acting clearly according to obedience throughout the whole affair." It is likely that Van Quickenborne's final petition never came into the hands of Father Fortis, for the latter died January 27, 1829 But his successor, Father Roothaan, gave the approval so long and anxiously solicited. He wrote to Van Quickenborne Novem- ber 21, 1829 "I approve of the incipient college in St. Louis . . . but beware of taking more in your hands than you can well attend to " As to the superior in Maryland, there could be no doubt of his sincere sympathy with the venture. Already in November, 1828, he had noted in a communication to Father Fortis that the college was in process of erection, adding that the "eight Jesuit priests in Missouri were doing the work of double their number and that God was extending to them His singular protection." 30
A statement in detail of the circumstances under which Van Quicken- borne was led to commit himself by public announcement to the project of a college in St. Louis is contained in a letter written in English which he addressed September I, 1828, to Father Dzierozynski.
I. Several years ago I stated to your Reverence as also to our Rev. Father General the reasons why we should have a college in St Louis Father General approved of them by allowing me to buy 1000 acres for the future support of Ours m St. Louis.
30 Dzierozynski ad Van Quickenborne, August 27, 1828, Van Quickenborne ad Fortis, December 3, 1828, Dzierozynski ad Fortis, November 28, 1828. (AA).
THE BEGINNINGS OF ST. LOUIS UNIVERSITY 285
2 Your Reverence when here [1827] was willing to receive the deeds of the lots left by the Bishop for a college Of course you were willing to assume the obligation of opening a college when convenient.
3 Some months after your Reverence leaving here, all the consultors thought it advisable to secure a college in St Louis and were of opinion that except that were done soon, we would be kept out of it forever They deemed an establishment there almost of absolute necessity, because when a religious body has m a country the worst and most difficult posts, the poorest and least populated places, its members are apt to become discouraged, disgusted. No candidates almost will offer for such places and almost none of talents Hence, the members of the body would seek for changes and the body deprived of the possibility of propagating itself, yea of maintaining itself At that time I wrote to your Reverence about it Your Reverence answered "For the present finish the third year of probation. We shall return to your inquiry later "
4 Many complaints were made to me by the inhabitants of St Louis about not having a single Catholic school and many solicitations I received to open a school with promise of a liberal support. These complaints and solicitations were also made to the Bishop this summer whilst he was in St Louis. He saw a numerous and promising youth abandoned to Protestant masters, several of whom made their pupils learn by heart the Protestant catechism The Bishop answered that he would endeavor to open a school and with that view sent a Rev. Mr. Dusaussois, but still his Lordship told me that he would stick to his word given to me about the college and church.31 He wanted our resolution which I could not give Again, all the consultors, I may say, urged the matter with me, I wrote to your Reverence stating how it was now the time to say yes or no, stating how it could be done, what persons could be employed, that provided we made known to the public our determination to open a college, we would raise a subscription and have the building completed this winter to begin at the end of our 3rd year, observing at the same time that the plan required that some of Ours should go occasionally to St. Louis.
5 Your Reverence in answer to this letter says' "In nomine Domini finish the third probation on the feast of St. Ignatius. Let your Reverence make out the appointments for Florissant for the corning year, only let me know to what office and where each one is assigned." At the first reading of this answer, I had no doubt in my mind but your Reverence wanted me to begin at St. Louis for what other reason, finish the third year before its time ? I had proposed the disposition of offices and persons to your Rever- ence; for what purpose leave it to me but to signify that your Reverence approved it, by saying quid offid et ubl} indicating several places Your Rever- ence sees us eager and in good earnest asking permission to begin at St. Louis and grants power to place in any office and where I shall think proper; how
81 Father Dusaussoy was first stationed at the St Louis cathedral in August, 1828. He left St. Louis die following year for France.
286 THE JESUITS OF THE MIDDLE UNITED STATES
could St Louis be excluded, since particular mention was made of it m our demand? and could your Reverence think that we should not begin, if your Re\erence left it to us to place where we should think proper? If St. Louis is to be excluded, this should have been explicitly mentioned When I wrote to your Reverence last, I had doubts for this only reason, that I should not assume any power unless it were evidently given me But the Consultors answer that nothing more explicit could be said and that if a Superior could not proceed upon such answers, there could be no longer any safe transmis- sion of business by letteis Only Fr De Theux had some doubts . . 32
Your Reverence sees that we must now go on. I have a beautiful square 270 ft by 215 [225] ft belonging to me of which I shall send the deed to your Reverence The Bishop must and does approve it, I have no doubt but a fine church will be built also for us in process of time Mr Saulmer, Dusaussois, Loisel, priests at St Louis, also approve it The people demand it and are willing to subscribe for the building They highly cry for a church where sermons m English are preached The Fiench want the present church for themselves 33 The Bishop is willing, i e has given me his word that not only is he pleased that we should have a church but also a parochial school for the Americans The Bishop has waited now for two years If we do not do it, the people will expect it from him and he should and would do it St Louis (that is, an establishment there) is necessary for our Indian mission I There we can easily and with all possible advantage see and treat with the chiefs of every nation. 2 There we can easily know every event of importance concerning affairs connected with the Indian mission. 3 There reside the Superintendent of Indian Affairs and all the agents and traders whose good will we must cultivate. 4, There we must transact most all our affairs to begin, continue and support our establishment in the Indian coun- try. 5 By opening a free school we oblige those very men whose assistance m the Indian country we want and gam a good share of popularity 6 St Louis' fate is decided as to its becoming a large and very important city m the West. From this place we may4 expect a succession, as the classical educa- tion of a child will not be expensive to the parent and as there are many families truly pious who would be glad to see their children embracing a religious life. 7 The choice of a proper place for our establishment is of the highest impoitance About St. Louis being the proper place there can be no doubt, and the time of making the choice is now and precisely and only now.
As to the means of supporting Ours, let me, Rev Superior, bring to your recollection the poor state in which we came out Great improvements we are making on our farm m conformity with (not further than) your Reverence's instructions and when they will be finished, I will give an accurate account of them. We have a fine new church in St. Charles, a fine
82 Van Quickenborne to Dzierozynski, September I, 1828. (B) 33 Father Edward Saulmer, rector of the St Louis cathedral, 1825-1831. Father Regis Loisel, an assistant at the cathedral, was the first native St Louisan raised to the priesthood. As to efforts made by the English-speaking Catholics of St. Louis to nave some English preaching at the cathedral, cf Holweck, "The Language Question at the Old St Louis Cathedral," SLCHR, 2 4-17.
THE BEGINNINGS OF ST. LOUIS UNIVERSITY 287
house, the whole worth $10,000 and with no debts Ours in St Louis will be supported in the following wa}< From our farm which will be fully com- petent to support eight persons in St Louis and twthe novices in Florissant, moi cover, forty Indian boys, for their support we ha\e received and will icceive from the charity of the faithful whatever is necessary Having a negio family there, the produce of our farm will sell much higher, as we would be enabled to attend market to our advantage Our faim has given now a surplus of $1000 yeail), and we hope that it will continue to do so and that the Almighty will not dimmish his liberality We have now a very fine and large crop of corn, wheat and potatoes
Twelve boarders could be and I dare say almost should be kept, paying for board and tuition $100 This would put us on the advance and help towards paying for the future chinch This once built, the pew-rent would give from four to five hundred dollars a year The intentions of Masses and alms which we get now regularly from St. Louis and which amount to $120 a year would surely not be diminished.
At present two Fathers would do at St. Louis to begin and two would remain for the Indian mission I would place at St. Louis Frs Verhaegen, Elet and De Smet with Rev. Fr. De Theux, whom, however, I would not fix at St Louis, in my absence among the Indians, he should be at Florissant At any rate I would not fix more than two Fathers to teach at the college so as to have one or two to spare for emergencies Some offer [themselves] for lay brothers who seem to be pretty well calculated to teach after their noviceship, spelling, reading, writing, arithmetic, and in that case we would gam a father. The mam point will be to have one who would give a reputa- tion to the college, would maintain strict religious discipline among Ours and have things in the school go on with great regularity. Of the two, Frs De Theux and Verhaegen, I would give the preference to Fr. Verhaegen For my part, if I cannot go to the Indians, I would be very willing and satisfied to teach for the remainder of my days a grammar class.34
On September I, 1828, Father Van Quickenborne announced to Bishop Rosati his intention o£ opening a college in St Louis
In response to your solicitations as well as those of Msgr Du Bourg, we have decided to do the same thing here, namely, to open as soon as possible a college m which day-scholars will be taught free of charge. I have made an exchange for the College Lot, donated by Mn Connor and it is there that I propose to erect a building such as the subscriptions will allow. By order of our Superior the 3d year of probation carne to an end on the feast of St. Ignatius, so that now we are entirely free 35
34 Van Quickenborne to Dzierozynslu, undated, but belonging to the summer or fall of 1828 (B).
35 Van Quickenborne a Rosat:, September I, 1828 (C) The St. Louis Re- fublicony September 2, 1828, published the following notice "College m St Louis, Mo. Having been for several years earnestly solicited by the Right Rev. Dr. Du Bourg, late Bishop of the Diocese, and the Right Rev Dr. Rosati, his
288 THE JESUITS OF THE MIDDLE UNITED STATES
The people of St. Louis had pledged Van Quickenborne their aid in the building of the new college, and it was chiefly his reliance on their pledges that determined him to go ahead 36 He was not to be disap- pointed By the middle of November, 1828, the subscriptions amounted to three thousand and forty-nine dollars, about three-fourths of the cal- culated cost of the structure.37 Before that date the contracts had been
successor, and his other respectable friends of all denominations, to open a college in this city, the Rev Mr Charles F Van Quickenborne deems it his duty to inform the pibhc at large that he will soon have it m his power to comply with the repeated entreaties that were made to him " This was followed by another announcement m the Republican dated the 2 8th of the same month "College at St. Louis In a former publication I have acquainted the public with my desire of opening soon a college m this city The expression of this desire, I am assured, has met with the satisfaction and approbation of friends The branches of literature that will be taught in the institution may be reduced to the following general heads the Greek, Latin, English and French languages, philosophy, mathematics and the use of the globes, to which will be added reading, writing, book-keeping, etc , and should it be desired by any parents, lessons m music and drawing will be given The education of youth being essentially linked with the study of re- ligion, which is to form their hearts to virtue, while their rnmds are polished to arts and sciences, the learning of profane history will be interwoven with the study of sacred and divine objects. In religious opinions, no undue influence shall be exercised on the mind of any pupil A certain number of boarders will be received, these will have to pay a pension and conform to the rules and condi- tions that will be specified in the prospectus But as the primary view of the institution is to extend the benefit of a polite education as far as possible, day- scholars will have a free access to the classes and none shall be excluded but upon the reasonable grounds of a blemished character The spot which has been pitched upon for the described establishment is known by the name of College lot, situated in Connor's addition to St Louis " "I stayed overnight with the Jesuit Fathers and told them about the 6,325 francs which they are shortly to receive I learned from the Father Superior that the Jesuits will soon build a college m St Louis They have received subscriptions to the amount of three thousand silver pieces [dollars] " Rosati's Diary, Florissant, November 22, 1828. Souvay Collection, Kenrick Seminary Archives. As indicated by the letter m the text Van Quicken- borne had earlier, September I, 1828, brought the project of the college to Rosati's notice
36 Van Quickenborne ad Dzierozynski, Florissant, November 17, 1828 (B).
37 "The list of subscribers has unfortunately been lost — but the names of Pierre Chouteau, Sr , Bernard Pratte, Maj Thomas Biddle, John Mullanphy and Col John O'Fallon were afterwards mentioned as having contributed most gen- erously " (Ms memorandum) (A) An incident connected with Van Quicken- borne's efforts to collect money for the new college is told by John F Darby, mayor of St Louis during the years 1835-1837, in his Personal Recollections, p 258. "A dinner party was given by Maj Thomas Biddle, at which I had the honor of being a guest The dinner was over and the company were sitting at the table m pleasant conversation when a servant announced to Maj. Biddle that a gentleman in the parlor desired to see him The major desired the company to keep their seats and excused himself for a moment, and soon returned to the table,
THE BEGINNINGS OF ST. LOUIS UNIVERSITY 289
given out.38 The building, fifty by forty feet and three stones in height above the basement, was to stand on the College Lot, "the place I showed your Reverence," Van Qmckenborne informed Dzierozynski and, "in the opinion of the inhabitants, no more suitable spot for a college." Everything, except flooring and plastering, was to be done for forty-three hundred dollars, and the building was to be delivered August i, 1829. Payments of a thousand dollars each were to be made before January, April and June, 1829, and the balance on com- pletion of the building. Besides the money obtained through subscrip- tions, there were prospects of aid from other quarters. Father De Smet came forward with an offer, subject to the General's approval, of his inheritance money, amounting to three thousand dollars, while Father Van Quickenborne was ready to contribute his own patrimony, which he estimated at four or five thousand dollars. Bishop De Bourg had engaged at one time to provide a foundation for the permanent support of a faculty of eight, but was subsequently unable to realize his good intentions.39
It was at this juncture, while preparations were being made to open the new St. Louis College, that the name of Senator Benton appears for the first time in connection with the institution.40 When Bishop Flaget visited St. Louis in 1817, Thomas Hart Benton was among the citizens to welcome him on the occasion.41 Twelve years later he became interested in the projected Jesuit college in St. Louis as we learn from a communication of Father Van Quickenborne to his superior. "Col. Benton, our Senator, of his own motion has offered his services to me to petition Congress to allow our College in St. Louis, 48,000 [23,040] acres of land which is called a whole township. He says he will get them. General Clarke tells me the same. The land would have to be
bringing with, him Father Van Quickenborne, who was introduced to the company and took his seat at the table The reverend father soon made known his business, which was that of asking subscriptions to build the 'college' as it was first called He promised that any gentleman who subscribed should not be called upon for the amount of his subscription until the proposed edifice should have reached the second story. Some gentlemen good-humoredly remarked, cOn these terms we can all subscribe, for I think it doubtful whether the proposed structure will ever reach that height ' The gentlemen all laughed, the reverend solicitor of funds joining in, and presently said that he would very readily take the subscriptions on those conditions "
88 The firm of Morton and Lavielle were the contractors of the college They also did the construction work on the St. Louis cathedral, finished in 1834.
39 Van Quickenborne ad Dzierozynski, August, 1824.. (B).
40 Thomas Hart Benton was personally known to Fathers Verhaegen and De Smet The latter received his son, Randolph, into the Catholic Church. Cf . De Smet, Western Missions and Missionaries.
41 Spalding, Flaget, p. 171.
290 THE JESUITS OF THE MIDDLE UNITED STATES
sold and the product of the sales would be applied to the College. The fund so raised would have to be managed by a Board of Trustees, but the Colonel assured me that these could be taken exclusively from among ourselves and the petition we would have to carry to the inhab- itants to put their names to, which they would do All the Consultors are in favor of it. I do not know what to say, but an answer must be returned to Col. Benton Please do not lose time." 42
Writing from Georgetown College not quite three weeks later, Father Dzierozynski signified his approval of Senator Benton's plan on the ground that "whether it succeeds or not, we run no risk " At the same time certain directions were furnished Van Quickenborne for nego- tiating the affair, the superior being insistent that the petition, if pre- sented at all to Congress, should be presented in the name of Senator Benton and the signers of the petition, and not in the name of the Jesuit proprietors of the college43 In November, 1829, Van Quicken- borne sought an interview with the Senator at his residence in St. Louis, but did not find him at home. Benton had requested him to obtain signatures to the petition from the French residents of St. Louis, Floris- sant and other towns in the locality, while he himself engaged to secure names m the "township," as Van Quickenborne expressed it, though the significance of the term is not clear.44 Almost a year later, the whole affair was dropped and nothing further is heard of it until some years later when it was finally brought to a vote in the United States Senate 45
Meanwhile, work on the new building had proceeded far enough to permit the housing of the students Accordingly, on November 2, 1829, the college was formally opened with an enrollment of ten boarders and thirty externs or day-scholars. Within a few weeks the boarders increased to thirty and the day-scholars to one hundred and twenty, or one hundred and fifty students in all With an unfinished budding and a cramped, inadequate one at that, many discomforts were encountered in the beginning. For the first few months the faculty and student-body dined in a common refectory and as late as February 27, 1830, on which day Peter Poursme, the first student from Louisiana, entered the college, communication between the different floors was made by ladders.46
42 Van Quickenborne to Dzierozynski, Florissant, August 22, 1829. (B). A township is 23,040 acres
43 Dzierozynski ad Van Quickenborne, September 9, 1829. (B)
44 Van Quickenborne to Dzierozynski, Florissant, November 13, 1829 (B).
45 For the final issue of Senator Benton's measure, cf infra. Chap. XXXIV, § I.
46 Hill, Historical Sketch of the St Lows University, p 41 The rate charged the boarders was one hundred and twenty dollars a year Father Verhaegen thought this excessive and so informed the superior m the East The Bishop's seminary was charging only eighty dollars This difference, so Verhaegen maintained, was an
THE BEGINNINGS OF ST LOUIS UNIVERSITY 291
At the head of the institution, when it opened its doors, was Father Peter Verhaegen, whose learning, administrative capacity and social gifts eminently fitted him for the position. But as a matter of fact the institution was practically under the management of Father Van Quick- enborne himself, as he publicly explained to the assembled faculty, he had appointed Verhaegen neither rector nor president, but merely his representative to preside over the college until the Maryland supe- rior should have made a permanent appointment. Van Quickenborne thought it a more prudent course to retain for a while control over the institution which he had set on foot, for there were creditors to be paid and these might at any moment urge the payment of their claims and thus jeopardize the very existence of the infant college. He accord- ingly travelled once a week from his residence m Florissant to St Louis, there to confer with his official advisers on the affairs of the college Father Elet was named procurator or treasurer. "Still," Van Quickenborne wrote, "since there is no one else [besides Elet] to act as Prefect of the boys and since the two offices are incompatible, I would take upon myself all the external duties of Procurator and even the keeping of the books." Father Peter Walsh, who had entered the Society in Maryland and had been promised to Van Quickenborne two or three years before the opening of the college, was made prefect of studies, and, besides, gave instruction in English, geography and his- tory. Father De Theux, as minister, was in charge of the domestic affairs of the establishment, he was, moreover, professor of French and spirit- ual director of the students The lay brothers John O'Connor, James Yates and George Fitzgerald were assigned to various domestic duties Brother Yates later conducted an English class with much success The services of three boys were also employed, Beauchemm, an orphan, as sacristan, Charles Tayon as porter, and a third as an assistant in the dormitory. "Three excellent boys," Van Quickenborne describes them. Finally, two Negro slaves transferred from the Florissant farm, Ned and Thomas, were employed, the first as cook and the second, whom Van Quickenborne calls "an intelligent and trustworthy Negro/' as buyer and superintendent of the hired help.47
obstacle to success Missouri was too poor to send many boys at this price But Van Quickenborne was of another opinion Verhaegen to Dzierozynski, St. Louis, January 18, 1830 (B)
47 Van Quickenborne to Dzierozynski, November 13, 1829 (B). "We have a fine dormitory — the cots are placed at a proper distance — there are no curtains — we can place m our study-room 120 desks We dine (the community) at the same hours with the boarders, but in different refectories However, for these few days we are together — All the fathers have thought that we could and should make the boys sing vespers on Sundays and holidays. Of course in the beginning we have to help them "
292 THE JESUITS OF THE MIDDLE UNITED STATES
A staff of four professors at the most was not a very numerous one with which to man a college Van Quickenborne realized this from the beginning and before the publication of the prospectus was for opening an elementary school only without any announcement being made of a classical course. But he deferred to the judgment of his advisers, who were agreed that the institution, at its outset, should come before the public as a college offering the traditional classical course In the event, however, St. Louis College during the session 1829-1830 hardly rose to the level of a well-equipped grammar school Latin was not taught at all There were in reality but two classes, Higher and Lower English Higher English, taught by Father Walsh, was open to boys who had learned to read and could study grammar. Lower English, taught by Father Verhaegen, was for those who, as Van Quickenborne himself expressed it, "have never studied English grammar, are learning their ABC and reading " Among the text-books used during the first session were Webster's Spelling Book, Murray's English Reader, Murray's Small Grammar, Murray's Large Grammar, Pike's Arithmetic, Hut- ton's Mathematics, Smiley's Geography, Reeve's History of the Bible, Goldsmith's Greece at$d Rome, and Levizac's French Grammar 48
Latin was first taught m the session 1830-1831 and Greek in the session 1832-1833, Father De Theux was the pioneer professor of Latin
48 Van Quickenborne to Dzierozynski, November 13, 1829 (B). There is extant a set of regulations which Van Quickenborne forwarded to Dzierozynski for approval The document is in Van Quickenborne's handwriting, who probably himself drew it up Some extracts follow
"i Studies are held m the Common Hall. One of the Professors presides and one or more tribunes according to the number of students
2 The Tribunes are charged with what regards good order and discipline in the Study-hall and the same obedience is to be paid to them, in what- soever has reference to their office, as to the Professor This post is filled by the most exact and diligent
3 The first studies of the day are commenced by morning prayers, the others by Vem Sancte Spiritus and Ave Marta and close with sub tuumy etc.
4 After prayer, each student takes from his desk whatsoever he may want during studies At the expiration of three minutes the first Tribune will give the signal to shut them During the time of school it will be permitted to open them once or twice at a given signal, but independently of those occasions it will not be allowed and every infringement will be noted by the Tribune unless permission for so doing has been granted
5. Profound silence must reign during the time of studies The 1st tribune has an elevated and a distinguished place, having a sheet of paper divided into several columns before him In one are inserted the names of those who talk or are noisy, the second will contain the names of such as are idle, the 3d of those who move from their place or open their desks, the 4th of such as having been three times marked as idlers, or talkers 01 noisy continue to merit the same reproach In the last place the tribune
THE BEGINNINGS OF ST. LOUIS UNIVERSITY 293
and, though proclaimed superior of the Missouri Mission m February, 1831, continued to teach his class until the end of the session. He was superseded in October, 1831, by Van Quickenborne. "I thank >ou for the Greek books," wrote Father De Theux to his mother, the Countess De Theux of Liege m Belgium. "They will begin to teach this branch m St. Louis College at Easter or the following October [1832]. Father Van Quickenborne replaces me at St, Louis m Latin. ... He has a good class of almost fifteen. Last year I sometimes had only two or three pupils." 49
A document forwarded to the Father General in January, 1832, presents a carefuly prepared survey of academic and other conditions in St Louis College at this period.
The school began November 2, 1829 The pupils at present [January, 1832] are boarders, 29, half-boarders, 6, day-scholars, 117 Total, 152 The first pay $120 a year and $10 for entrance, the second, $60 a year and $5 for entrance. Of the boarders 25 are Catholics, of the half-boarders, 5, of the day-scholars, 71. Total number of Catholics, 101. Protestants boarders, 4, half-boarders, II, day-scholars, 46. Total number of Prot- estants, 51.
Besides morning and evening prayers the boarders have Mass every day, spiritual reading for a quarter of an hour, rosary, and (m the lower classes) Christian Doctrine daily On Sundays they have an exhortation m the chapel and after dinner Christian Doctrine m common The Protestant boarders are ^ always present at religious exercises and listen to Christian Doctrine when it is given to the Catholics though they do not learn it Ques- tions are sometimes proposed to them and this even m the case of the Protestant day-scholars The Protestants, however, are not admitted to Mass and exhortation unless the parents expressly ask for it. The Catholic day- scholars are present at Mass every day according to rule, on Sunday they
shall go to the place of the delinquent and place thereon these words, Sigmtm figritiae, to which he affixes the delinquent's name The culprit is to present this note to the Rector at the end of evening studies. 6. They must attend to the lectures [i e reading] during meals, which is per- formed m turn by the best readers and they are to be prepared to give an account of it when the presiding person shall require it.
The students walk three by three and talk in a moderate tone of voice until they arrive m the country Then they are allowed to confound their ranks when the Prefect gives the sign They resume their ranks when they draw near the city and no one shall take or admit of any other companions than those ap- pointed At the head of the band is a conductor, ordinarily one of those who have the crosses of diligence No one can precede him nor must they have a great interval between the ranks
To go to grog-shops is forbidden under pain of dismission " (B)
49 De Theux a sa mere, October 12, 1831 (A)
294 THE JESUITS OF THE MIDDLE UNITED STATES
must be piesent at Mass, exhortation and Christian Doctrine However, m wmtei ftw come on Sundays and fewer on the other days
In the preparatoiy Class there are 50 pupils, m the Third English Grammar, 30, m Second, 29, in First, 30, m Rhetoric, 13, Total, 152. The course of studies aims to give the youths a good knowledge of English, as far as required for commercial pursuits There are 5 classes, each having its own teacher. One of these is a layman of the world. The classes are so many not by reason of diversity of studies but by reason of the number of pupils
The boys are taught to spell, that is to say, to form words fiom the letters of the alphabet, and to read, also they are taught some geography In the three higher classes they are exeicised m composition, eg they write letteis, stones, etc The highest class, called Rhetoric, studies Jameson's Pre- cepts of Rhetonc, also a compendium of Blair. Three times a week they write amplifications or else compositions on an assigned theme There are 13 pupils in this class Father Vice-Rector [Verhaegen] teaches a class m Fiench an hour every day and also a class m natural philosophy in the afternoon of recreation days and on Sundays Of the total number of pupils, both boarders and day-scholars, only eight take Latin Two hours daily are given to the study of this language except on Tuesdays and Thursdays, when only one hour is given. The students read Cornelius Nepos, are practiced m grammar and tianslate simple sentences from Latin into English and vice-versa Noth- ing is so far given m Greek There is no immediate hope of introducing a course of studies according to standards obtaining in the colleges of out Society. Time devoted to study three hours m the morning, including the time for penmanship, taught by three masters, and three hours in the after- noon Moreover, lectures m natural philosophy are given three times a week, as noted above. In natural philosophy the various phenomena of Natuie are explained without any application of algebra or calculus 50
§ 4 EARLY STRUGGLES
The meagre staff with which the college started was soon reenforced by accessions from the East. On October 12, 1831, Father John Van Lommel and Mr Judocus Van Sweevelt arrived from Georgetown. They were followed twelve days later, October 24, by Father James Oliver Van de Velde, who had made the journey from the East m com- pany with Father Peter Kenney, Visitor of the Missouri Mission, and the latter's socms or assistant. Father William McSherry. Father Van
50 Descnptio et status Collegn Sti. Ludovici, mense Januano, 1832 (A A) The student-body, classified according to occupation of parents, numbered as follows (January, 1832) farmer, 14, carpenter, 24, store-keeper, 22, hunter, 13, blacksmith, 7, Indian trader, 6, tavern-keeper, 6, leather-dealer and shoemaker, 4, inn-keeper, 4, confectioner, 3, mason and brick-layer, 3, soap-maker, 2, baker, 4, butcher, 2 , surveyor, I , physician, I , lawyer, I , miller, I , gentleman, I , saddle- maker, I, day-laborer, 7, dress-maker, 9, laundrywoman, I.
THE BEGINNINGS OF ST, LOUIS UNIVERSITY 295
Lommel was better equipped to take up the duties of a missionary priest than those of a college instructor, but circumstances made it necessary for him to fill a gap for a while in the college faculty Shortly after his arrival in St. Louis he wrote to Father Dzierozynski in the East "Father Superior told me I was not for the College. However, as Father Van de Velde had not yet arrived and Bro Yates was sick, he sent me back till further order , the next day, i e. Friday, I began to schoolmaster and was at it seven hours a day." 51 Van Lommel, after a few weeks of class-room experience, was assigned to missionary duties in the neighborhood of St Louis.
"You recollect the old proverb, Inadtt m Scyllam etc.," wrote Van de Velde to Father George Fenwick at Georgetown. "It is applicable to me m its fullest extent. When at Georgetown I was only up to the waist in schoolmaster's business, I could throw my arms about a little, but here I am m it up to the ears All I can do is to keep my head half above water. It is all but drowning Father Van Lommel is by this time galloping on an old bare-bone nag through St Charles and its vicinity." In the same letter written to the East Van de Velde details some typical scenes of the day on the western frontier
The Missouri (which I have not yet seen) is said to be still more im- petuous To give you an example of it There was, but a few years ago, whilst all Ours lived at Florissant together, an island m the neighborhood of that place — at least a mile long and J^ a mile wide, in which it was supposed there grew about 12,000 large trees and on which there were two dwelling houses — the whole of this disappeared in less than two days — all was swept away Another object of curiosity to us three wise men from the East at least [Fathers Kenney, McSherry, Van de Velde], is the almost continual influx of strangers from other States, the public road which leads to the interior of this State passes before our College and along it you may see every day, men, women and children on foot or in wagons and other vehicles, cows, horses, wagons, carts, emigrating westward and forming a complete procession. Whole bands have to wait at the ferry-boat, which is a pretty large steam-boat and is almost always crowded Others to arrive from Pittsburg, Wheeling and other places on the Ohio, especially Louisville, in steam-boats and flat-boats Even this morning, iyth of November, a part of an Indian tribe has arrived here from the limits of Canada via Pittsburg and the remainder of the tribe is soon expected — they are all civilized, dress like white men and are going to form a settlement in the Arkansas Territory I would suppose that they are Catholics Tell Father Dzierozynski that his friend, the Rev. Mr. Saulmer has just packed up to go and establish himself somewhere [Post Arkansas] among the Indians in that territory One of the recently ordained priests [Father Beauprez] is to accompany him Mr. Chouteau [Pierre Chouteau, Jr , Cadet], the most respected gentleman of
51 Van Lommel to Dzierozynski, St. Louis, December 2, 1831. (B).
296 THE JESUITS OF THE MIDDLE UNITED STATES
our whole city is on his way to Georgetown with his lady — he has a daugh- ter at the Academy — they left here last Monday — it was Mr Chouteau who placed the two Jarrots at the College and his younger brother Louis Phara- mond, who died last spring I have given him an introductory letter to Father Mulledy He is a very great friend of Ours — his son [Charles P Chouteau] was the first boarder at this college. The Hon. Mr Benton too will leave in a few days He is a special friend of Father Verhaegen and of the institution 52
In 1832 and again 1833 St. Louis was visited by the Asiatic cholera. When the plague was at its height, the boarders were removed from St Louis University to the novitiate at Florissant. No member either of the faculty or student body fell a victim to the disease, though the death rate throughout the city ran high.53 "The cholera is still at St Louis," Verhaegen wrote to the East, June 23, 1833. "Almost four or five persons die of it every day. The disease, however, causes no longer any alarm among the citizens. As every case of sickness is an attack of cholera at present, people seem to have come to the determination not to mind whether they are exposed to the danger of dying of cholera or of bilious fever as they formerly were. We had no case of the epidemic at the institution but we have all felt (and do sometimes yet feel) some unusual oppression in the breast or some other premonitory symp- tom. We are continually on the alert. A few days ago one of the boarders seemed to be taken with the disease. I undertook to cure him as the doctor could not be had immediately and by rubbing him hard with camphor dissolved in brandy and wrapping him in six or seven blankets,
52 Van de Velde to George Fenwick, St. Louis, November 1 6, 1831. (B).
53 Ann Prop, 7 174 "Under my own eyes, at St Louis, while, out of a population of some six thousand inhabitants about two hundred individuals suc- cumbed m the short space of three or four weeks, St Louis University, which contained at the time about one hundred and twenty persons, and the Convent of the Ladies of the Sacred Heart with their boarding-school of young ladies [on South Broadway near French Market] . did not within their enclosures present a single one of those lugubrious scenes which without and up to their very doors spread desolation and alarm " De Smet a Madame de Theux, February 1 8, 1834 "Of all the members of the Society, none appears to have been attacked by cholera, although all the Fathers made it their duty to attend the cholera patients entrusted to their care, Catholics as also Protestants when they desired it, during the whole duration of the epidemic, that is, for three months and through- out night and day Many non-Catholics, at least ninety, adults and children, en- tered the Church's fold, a happiness they owe principally to Fathers Smedts and Van Quickenborne " Letter of De Theux in Ann. Prof, 7 173 In July, 1833, a destructive tornado lasting four or five minutes visited St. Louis and its environs At the University a panic which seemed imminent among the students m the dormitory was averted by the presence of mmd of Father Verhaegen, the rector, who quickly rushed among them and allayed their fears
THE BEGINNINGS OF ST. LOUIS UNIVERSITY 297
succeeded in removing the apparent signs of the sickness." In August of the same year Father Verhaegen wrote again "We have a great deal of sickness at St. Louis The cholera left the city but the bilious fever sweeps our citizens off as fast as the cholera could do. We have had as many as twenty burials a day, and regularly almost twelve die of the fever every twenty-four hours From the letter received from Louisiana it appears that New Orleans is quite healthy at present, but the interior of the country is still sickly and this circumstance continues to check the growth of our house." 54
The original building had been found inadequate from the first days of the institution and additions to it were soon made. An east wing, forty by forty, was begun in the spring of 1832, and a west wing, forty- two by forty, was constructed in the summer of 1833. The same year saw the construction of an infirmary, a two-story brick building with basement for kitchen, and of a brick house for the servants.55
The very slender proportions of the teaching-staff of St Louis Col- lege during the first few years of its career had the inevitable result that the professors were overwhelmed with scholastic duties. In 1833 Father Verhaegen, the rector, was spending four and a half hours daily in the class-room. Brother James Yates was teaching an elementary English class six hours a day, besides discharging the important duties of mfirmanan. The strain proved too great for his feeble constitution and he succumbed to consumption, dying February i, 1833, at the age of twenty-six. The strenuous service of a life absorbingly devoted to the ministry of teaching was crowned with the peace and resignation of a holy death. His place in the class-room could not be supplied and twenty of the students were thereupon dismissed. If Verhaegen had not feared
54 Verhaegen to McSherry, St Louis, June 23, August 23, 1833 (B). Father Roothaan wrote to St Louis that none of the numerous Jesuits engaged in at- tending the cholera-stricken in Austria, France, Belgium, England, and elsewhere m Europe had succumbed to the disease. He also noted that drinks of sugared water, hot or cold, taken until perspiration was induced had been found to be a remedy for the cholera. Roothaan ad Van Qmckenborne, Oct. 23, 1832 (AA). For details of the cholera epidemic of 1833 in St Louis, cf. Stella M Drumm (ed), Gltmfses of the Past (Missouri Historical Society, St. Louis), 3.45 et seq.
(1936).
55 Verhaegen to McSherry, August 17, 1833. (B). "We commenced building the infirmary, it will be a 3 story building 25 2 20 ... I agreed with Mr. Darst also for the addition of the other wing Both buildings must be up on the 1st of next September This wing will be 42 feet long. Hence the buildings of the new wing will be 131 ft. long on the 1st of the above month. What do you say of that? But, my friend, we are in debt and you know what it is to be m that situation. We rely on Providence and hope that the Lord will again provide for us." Verhaegen to McSherry, St. Louis, June 23, 1833. (B).
298 THE JESUITS OF THE MIDDLE UNITED STATES
to offend the patrons of the institution, a larger number would have been sent away Father Roothaan urged the college authorities to hire lay professors and servants and thus relieve the strain on their own men, but lay help was expensive and the low state of the college treas- ury forbade much outlay in this direction.56 Moreover, it was difficult to secure satisfactory laymen for the class-room In February, 1833, three young men were teaching English in the lower classes, but Father Verhaegen was unable to say how long they would remain at their posts "If there is any place in the world," he laments to the Father
56 Father De Smet, appointed procurator or treasurer of St Louis College in 1830, became alarmed over the financial outlook for the institution "What troubles me most is a heavy debt of upwards of 300 dollars to the bank of St Louis to be paid within two months and about the same sum to individuals in St Louis Considering our scanty means and a general want of almost everything, it will be almost impossible to cancel them without succour from other quarters " De Smet to Dzierozynski, October 4, 1830 (B) The following year an inviting prospect of relief seemed to be held out by an endowment-fund of five thousand dollars offered by John Mullanphy The gift, however, was subject to onerous conditions
1 I ) Five boys were to be educated at the college on the annual interest of the fund
(2) They were to be provided with everything necessary to keep them on a level with the other boarders of the institution (3) They were to be selected by the rector of the college from the orphans attending the orphan asylum to be opened in St Louis under the superintendence of the Sisters of Charity (4.) The college was not to be obliged to keep them should they prove immoral or unfit to receive a classical education (5) When of age to learn a trade, the rector was to be authorized to bind them to some mechanic for the purpose of having them learn a trade. On first consideration (November 28, 1831) the college board of consulters unanimously recommended the acceptance of the Mullanphy offer pro- vided the obligation to be assumed under number 5 could be modified On the occasion of a visit which he paid in company with Father Kenney, the Visitor, to Mr Mullanphy, Father Verhaegen, so he thought, had convinced the philanthropist that three was the maximum number of orphans which the endowment would support However, when the latter died m 1833, his will revealed that the original number, five, had been retained Even then Verhaegen was for accepting the bequest on the ground that, with a large number of boaiders, the expenses for five addi- tional ones would be negligible Moreover, the trust could be surrendered any time it was found too burdensome Verhaegen ad Roothaan, November 12, 1833 (AA) On the other hand, Father De Theux opposed acceptance of the trust, as the expenses of each orphan, so he declared, would come to eighty dollars annually Further, in case the Jesuits declined the bequest, it was to go to St Mary's College at the Barrens, the president of which was reported to be willing to accept it, so that the education and support of the orphans would in any case be provided for In the end neither institution accepted the Mullanphy trust For St Louis College the matter was definitely settled by Father Roothaan "Mr Mullanphy's legacy cannot by any means be accepted with that condition To take care of orphans in this number would be an excessive burden not only financially, but from the standpoint of conscience Going off at twelve years of age to learn a trade, as they would, what advantage would these boys derive from education at our hands?" Roothaan ad De Theux, February 15^ 1834 (AA).
St Louis University Original structure, Washington Avenue and Ninth Street, St Louis Middle section erected, 1829, east wing, 1832, west wing, 1833 Photo- graph taken by Father Charles Charropm, SJ, shortly before the building was razed
THE BEGINNINGS OF ST. LOUIS UNIVERSITY 299
General, "where fickleness lords it over the souls of the young, it is America." 57
The great majority of the day-scholars came from poor or moder- ately circumstanced families. They greatly outnumbered the boarders the first two or three years, counting about eighty per cent of the regis- tration in January, 1832. Somewhat two years later, in May, 1834, the proportions were decidedly reversed, the day-scholars numbering only twenty and the boarders one hundred and forty or nearly ninety per cent of the registration. This rise in the number of boarders was due mainly to two causes, the increased capacity of the college for this class of regis- trants through the addition of two wings to the original building and the yearly practice, begun in 1832, of sending a father to the southern states for the purpose, though not exclusively so, of canvassing for new students On the other hand, the fallmg-off in the number of day- scholars appears to have been due, among other causes, to the opening of new day-schools in St. Louis and the circumstance that the course of studies m St. Louis College was arranged chiefly with a view to the boarders.58 Moreover, fusion between boarders and day-students in the class-room and on the play grounds, as had been the custom since the college was opened, was thought to result in a lower moral tone among the boarders, always reputed the more select body of the two. A pro- fessor reported that while morals were running at a low ebb in St Louis, letters, objectionable books and town-talk reached the boarders through the medium of the city boys, with whom they were associated daily. The one remedy for the evil seemed to be a separate class-building for the city boys and also separate play grounds.
Commenting on the situation m a letter of May, 1834, to the General, Father Verhaegen noted that the number of day-scholars had been reduced to twenty, all of them under twelve years of age and diverting themselves less than an hour a day in the college yard. This was too small in area to allow of division. As to separating the two groups of students, this might have been done successfully by Van Quickenborne m the beginning. Now it could not be attempted without being misinterpreted by the public and giving rise to protest on the part of St. Louis citizens who had subscribed for the original building and were now sending their sons to college. That the boarders were favored in everything regarding instruction at the expense of the day- scholars had never been the case, so Verhaegen declared, though he admitted that complaint on this score was a partial reason at least why numerous day-scholars had been withdrawn.59 In 1838 a day-school
5T Verhaegen ad Roothaan, St Louis, February 14, 1831. (AA).
68 Hill, of. cit , p 42.
69 Verhaegen ad Roothaan, St Louis, May 9, 1834 (AA).
300 THE JESUITS OF THE MIDDLE UNITED STATES
was opened in a separate building, but it was only in the middle forties that the courses for the day-students were placed on a satisfactory foot- ing.60 Both for material upkeep and prestige the institution had always to place its chief reliance on the boarders, a circumstance that militated for many years against the building up of a strong day-department. In this connection. Father George Carreli, a future rector of St. Louis University, protesting against the practice of sending a father to the South to canvas for students, was to express himself as follows "Father Van de Velde, who is now on his tour, is to extend his visit to Havana, so that we traverse Louisiana and even go outside of the United States to look for scholars, whilst we are living in the suburbs of one of the most thriving and public spirited cities of our noble republic and yet do nothing to advance her children m science and virtue. We have scarcely 12 day-scholars and these among the poorest and most ragged of the town " 61
The initial years of the educational work of the Society of Jesus in St. Louis were naturally beset with the difficulties that attend pioneering of any sort. One would not therefore expect its members to consider seriously the opening of another college when they were so hard put to it m men and means to maintain the institution actually in hand And yet such proved to be the case. An invitation from Bishop De Neckere of New Orleans to the Jesuits to extend their educational activities to his diocese was received with eagerness at St. Louis Early m 1831 Father Verhaegen was seeing little prospect of any notable increase of students in St Louis "We live," he wrote to the General, "in the youngest of the United States Year by year there is a great mpourmg of settlers from all sides. All things in the State seem to take on a character of infancy and change and instability On this account we cannot hope for that solid zeal for letters which is elsewhere in evi- dence and only when this flow of things material subsides will solid love for the sciences spring up in the youth of Missouri. Such, however, is the situation of our college that m my opinion it will not soon, if at any time, have a large number of boarders. . . . Our only hope of increase is in Lower Louisiana." 62
Verhaegen's apprehensions as to a chronic meagre registration of boarders at St. Louis proved groundless within the space of two or three years ; but he still cherished the hope of an affiliated Jesuit school, as he called it, in Louisiana. In August, 1832, he was writing to Rome
opened a day-school m a separate building Thus far we have but 1 5 pupils in it They pay at the rate of 50 Dls a year " Verhaegen ad McSherry, St Louis, October 20, 1838. (B).
61 Carrell to Roothaan, St. Louis, February 15, 1838^) (AA)
62 Verhaegen ad Roothaan, January 15, 1831 (AA).
THE BEGINNINGS OF ST. LOUIS UNIVERSITY 301
that, were the General to send him three men capable of teaching Latin and French, he could, with some shifting about of the St Louis personnel, set up a school in Louisiana On the other hand, Father Walsh, of the St. Louis faculty, was advising Father Roothaan that it seemed to him quite impossible for the Jesuits to begin a new institution "We can scarcely and, not even as much as that, supply all the needs of this college of St Louis." 63 Walsh's view of the situation was no doubt the correct one Accordingly, when Van de Velde pleaded with the General that the Mission of Missouri be authorized to seize what seemed an exceptional opportunity to advance the cause of the Church in Louisiana by establishing a college in that state, the latter sounded a timely note of warning "For the rest I cannot too earnestly recom- mend that if you must at all costs hasten, you hasten slowly, lest by undertaking too many things you be unable to carry on and, in fine, succeed in building nothing but rums. And let us never forget that it is better for us to do a few things well than many things badly. There are pressing needs, I admit But God does not require us to do what cannot be done properly, and after those most holy aspirations 'hal- lowed be thy name, thy kingdom come,3 we are taught to add imme- diately, cthy will be done,' the Divine Will being therefore the last and surest rule of everything that is good." 64
Side-lights of interest on St. Louis College in its opening years are to be found in letters written by Father Verhaegen to Father McSherry of Georgetown College. Verhaegen had been installed as rector of St. Louis College on September i, 1831.
There is no possibility, dear Father, that this institution will ever be able to cope with your far celebrated establishment The East has too many advantages over the West, and as you have perceived, education is not much attended to here Should our Very Rev Father General enable us to open a college in Louisiana, and should this be, as it were, the Mother house, then the two places might in process of time be both very flourishing . . . Our exhibition succeeded very well As we had not a room large enough to accommodate our visitors on that day, we constructed a spacious tent m our yard. This afforded much gratification to the people, the weather being extremely hot Gen'l Atkinson sent us ten of the best musicians of his band and these gave a great deal of life to the performances . . Mr Fremon delivered a long oration at the court house, and Mn Thomas Taylor, your cousin, addressed the audience on the Declaration of our Independence, which he read St Louis was enraptured by our students 65
63 Walsh ad Roothaan, February 15, 1833 (AA).
64 Roothaan ad Van de Velde, June 18, 1833. (AA)
65 Verhaegen to McSherry, St. Louis, August 17, 1833 (B).
302 THK JtbUlTfc OF 1HE MIDDLE UNITED STATES
Our n^w w ncr & now '•eadj to receive the roof Our workmen in Mis- *oun are nvritt slow, Tk\ alwajs promise, they never refuse, but without any ceremom on the.r pait, the) let us wait. We have now come to the resolution of s^toppin^ impimmg our place till we get out of debt Hence, ^hen I will ha\t eiectcd, constructed, raised, pit up and completed a smoke house, the expense of \vhch may not reach $150, I must consign all my otner plans to the daricnt^ of ont of the drawers of my desk, there to lie, HI they shall be called into action again 66
We had latcl} a little fray here but it did not last long Owing to different weighty reasons, I dismissed Mr Eaton, one of our lay-professors Four of h*$ favorite pets could not bear the step I took with him, it was quite unceremonious They started with him and attempted to draw several other students with them They went down to Louisiana and strove to prejudice several parents against us. Happily, they are firm and go hand in hand with me and far from losing ground by this occurrence we increased the confidence of those who ha\e their children with us . 67
You are not unacquainted with the severe tnals we experienced here and certain it is that they have been the means used by Providence to crown our labors with a success which five years ago we did not anticipate Father Elet started for Louisiana on the I4th mst He will spend the winter in the South and try to collect what is due to the institution. Times are hard at St Louis, and money is scarce . . . Before next April we shall have our full number, 150 boarders This is the ne plus ultra Our buildings cannot accommodate more. Thank God I have at present very able and edifying secular professors They assist at Mass with the students every day and they regularly frequent the sacraments, . . .68
The number of boarders somewhat decreased owing to a circumstance which we anticipated and which we can control No Father was sent to Louisiana last fall and parents do not like to send their children up the river unless accompanied by a trusty person. Quod dtffertur non aujertur We have at present 126 boarders, se\eral half-boarders, and more day-scholars than we can accommodate, forty or fifty. We are obliged to refuse some every week. We have commenced a building 80 ft. by 30. The basement will be a storeroom, the second story an exhibition hall and study hall, and the third story a dormitory. When ready, I will be ready to lodge more boarders and then it will be time for one of us to make an excursion to Louisiana.69
66 Same to same, October 16, 1833. (B).
57 Same to same, November 5, 1834 (&)•
68 Same to same, i834(?). (B).
69 Same to same, May 14, 1836. (B) Father Van de Velde, who was usually designated to canvass the Louisiana field for students, received his first appointment to this duty with great diffidence. "Father Verhaegen has intimated to me that I have been appointed by the higher powers at Florissant to perform the expedition to Louisiana" Van de Velde to McSherry, St. Louis, February 12, 1832 (B) "We have some prospects from that quarter. He [Van de Velde] has [?] boys engaged, but he mentions in his last letter that Georgetown College enjoys every-
THE BEGINNINGS OF ST. LOUIS UNIVERSITY 303
§ 5- THE QUESTION OF TUITION-MONEY
According to the letter of its rule the Society of Jesus may not assume the management of a college unless it be provided with an endowment adequate enough to meet all current expenses and so make it unnecessary to require tuition-fees from the students In this manner St. Ignatius sought to realize the principle of free instruction in all institutions under Jesuit control "All that are under the obedience of the Society must remember that they are to give freely what they have freely received, neither demanding nor admitting any reward or alms/' whereby any of the Society's ministries "may seem to be recom- pensed." 70 In the Society of the pre-Suppression period, with adequate endowments at hand bestowed by princes and other individuals of wealth, the principle was successfully applied, but the new or restored Society of Jesus, at least in English-speaking countries, found itself facing an entirely different situation. The ample material means of the former age were no longer available. The endowed or founded college was the exception. The financing of Jesuit schools became therefore a pressing problem, to be solved only by the obvious expedient of requiring the students to pay for their education or, more correctly, for the current expenses of the institution which they attend. The prob- lem touched the day-schools principally, there being obviously no objec- tion to the boarding-schools exacting payment for the support of their inmates. Tuition-money became eventually a recognized means for the maintenance of Jesuit schools in English-speaking lands, but the Gen- erals held out long against the innovation and it was permitted only after all other means of solving the problem had been put to the test and failed.
In the United States the issue became acute with the establishment of the Washington Seminary. This institution, opened in the national capital September 29, 1820, primarily for the education of Jesuit theo- logical students, was so hampered by lack of means to ensure its upkeep that on September 8 of the following year a day-school, "with classes up to syntax," was opened in connection with it, the theological students being employed as teachers and so deriving their support from the tuition-fees of the students. The day-school seemed to be a happy expedi- ent to enable the Jesuit scholastics at once to pursue their studies and meet the expenses of livelihood. But Father Fortis, the General, stood
where in Ln* the highest respect, which it is not only our duty, but also our intention to sustain, because they are kind enough to associate us in some measure with the Georgetown institution, both colleges being conducted by members of the same Society55 Van Lommel to Dzierozynski, April 30, 1832. (B). 70 Rules of the Society of Jesus (Roehampton, England, 1863), p. II.
THh JLM1TS OF THE MIDDLE UNITED STATES
agaimt the acceptance of tuition-fees, declaring that he could rot -n conscience tolerate the practice as being openly at variance with the rel'gious povertj enjoined b> the Jesuit rule It was his mind that the iibtitut^on be either continued as a free school or closed In vain Father Kohlmann, the Maryland superior, represented that in the United States the support of Catholic pastors and teachers could be guaranteed in no other \\a\ than by fees or stipends, and that, more- over, so strong was the prejudice against free schools that people with social pretensions refused to patronize them for the education of their children.71 A plan to use the revenues of the White Marsh plantation for the upkeep of the Washington school seemed to promise the neces- san relief, but this plan not being carried out, resort was had to another measure, namely, the transfer of the institution to the Reverend William Matthews, pastor of St. Patrick's Church, Washington, who conducted it m his own name, the Jesuit teachers being provided by him \\ith board, lodging and clothing This plan, however, does not appear to have been successful, and Father Fortis, not being minded to rescind his prohibition against the charging of tuition-fees, the Wash- ington day-school was definitely closed September 25, 1827 Three years later Father Kennev, the Visitor, under instruction to see that the regu- lations of Father Fortis were rigorously carried out, reported from Georgetown to Father Roothaan that the alleged prejudices against free schools did not exist or if they had existed were no longer in evidence, and he expressed the opinion that the existing legislation in regard to tuition-money should not be modified.72
At St Louis Father Kenney found the Jesuits charging the day- scholars five dollars a year, "which," so he reported, "though a mere pittance, is still real tuition-money [Mmervale] deriving from a legal contract and is far in excess of the expenses incurred on their [the day- scholars] behalf, if the teachers be left out of account." But the Visitor deprecated any interference with this arrangement on the part of the Father General until further information reached him73 That the income from tuition-money did not cover the living expenses of the teachers becomes evident from the financial statement of St. Louis Col- lege submitted by the Visitor to the General. According to this state- ment the total receipts from tuition-money from the opening of the college, November 4, 1829, to February 25, 1832, was only $777.25. This sum, however, curious to say, sufficed "not only to keep the house clean, whitewash it, paint doors, windows, etc , but also to provide the
71 Kohlmann ad Fortis, February 19, 1826 (AA)
"Kenney ad Roothaan, July 3, 1830. (AA) For Kenney's visitation of the Missouri Mission cf. infra, Chap X
73 Kenney ad Roothaan, April 25, 1832. (AA).
THE BEGINNINGS OF ST. LOUIS UNIVERSITY 305
class-rooms and some of the living-rooms with stoves and fire-wood for the same, all during a space of nearly three years. Moreover^ these expenses being met, there remained a surplus of $67 62^." 74
In Father Van Quickenborne the principle of free instruction had always found an ardent supporter He had been at Florissant but a few months when, the project of a college m St Louis beginning to occupy his attention, he wrote to his superior in Maryland that a school in the city would probably draw recruits to the order, especially if "according to the Institute" the Jesuits taught "gratis." 75 Again, in August of the same year, 1824, he expressed to his superior his sentiments on the same subject "I must say that I rejoice at the resolution your Reverence has taken not to permit money to be received for teaching boys at Wash- ington. The more we shall stick to the orders of St. Ignatius, inspired by God in writing them, the more we shall draw down the blessing of God on our undertakings If your Reverence sees anything that we do here against holy poverty, let me know and I will change it imme- diately." 76 Yet despite his commendable zeal for the system of gratui- tous education to which the Society was committed by historical prece- dent and rule, Van Quickenborne, as he prepared to open the new college in St. Louis, found himself facing a perplexing situation. Some pertinent inquiries were addressed by him to the superior:
Allow me to propose a few questions
1. Is it lawful to require from parents who send their boys to school in St Louis or St Charles a fee m money with which to meet the cost of the building ? In St. Louis many subscribe on condition that they pay for the education of their children. I answered — if they wish, they may — I should receive the money as a donation or alms You certainly cannot live, if you receive nothing, and if you labor for us, it is our duty to support you
2. Is it lawful to receive such donation or alms? All the consultors answered affirmative to both.
3. Since m these parts there is need of a fire in school, is it lawful to demand something m payment for the wood?
4 Also for the making and use of the benches?
Van Quickenborne was clearly at cross-purposes between some very insistent conditions and his conscientious regard for religious poverty. He rounds off his list of inquiries with the significant reflection, "de- siderawMs $uwtatem yawpertatis," "we desire poverty in all its genuine- ness." 77 In the event St. Louis College opened with a nominal charge
74 Descrtptto et status College S Ludovici, mense Jonuanoy 1832. (AA)
75 Van Quickenborne ad Dzierozynski, January i, 1824 (B)
76 Van Quickenborne ad Dzierozynski, August, 1824 (B)
77 Van Quickenborne ad Dzierozynski, November 17, 1828. (B).
300 THE JESUITS OF THE MIDDLE UNITED STATES
required trom the da> -scholars. "We began on November 4th [1829], Have r r boarders and 30 da> -scholars, who pay $5 a year for fuel and
The attempt to maintain the college on what was practically a basis of gratuitous instruction was soon found to be impracticable The rector, Father Verhaegen, pointed out to the General early in 1833 that five hundred dollars, the annual salary of a single lay-professoi , absorbed the tuition-fees of a hundred students.79 Moreover, Catholic parents were not rare \\ho preferred to send their sons even to non-Catholic insti- tutions rather than have them attend a free school with its alleged note of social inferiority. The Jesuit law of free instruction was there- fore working against the very intention of the lawgiver by denying in effect the advantages of Christian education to the children of the well- to-do. The situation thus brought about became necessarily a matter of grave concern, not to the Jesuits only, but to Bishop Rosati of St. Louis, who was interested in seeing a flourishing Catholic college grow up m his diocese. It is altogether likely that the matter was seriously discussed between the Bishop and the St Louis Jesuits, including the Visitor, Father Kenney, but there is no direct evidence pointing to this fact in the correspondence of the day. At all events, it was the head of the St Louis diocese and not members of the order who finally peti- tioned the Holy See for a dispensation from that point of the Jesuit rule which forbade them to receive money or be otherwise compensated in a material way for the instruction they imparted. Two letters of Bishop Rosati dealing with the affair, one of date May 10, 1832, ad- dressed to Father Roothaan, the other dated three days later and addressed to the Congregation of the Propaganda, were brought by a diocesan priest of New Orleans, Father Jeanjean, to Rome, where they appear to have arrived only late in the same year.
Early m January, 1833, the Secretary of the Propaganda, Msgr. Castracane, requested from the Jesuit General an expression of opinion on the question at issue. Father Roothaan replied by communicating to the secretary a copy of the letter which he had received from Bishop Rosati and which contained a fuller statement of the case than was to be found m the letter addressed by the prelate to the Propaganda. Moreover, he petitioned that his Holiness, Gregory XVI, declare what course, in view of the circumstances, the Jesuits were to pursue In other words, Father Roothaan did not ask for the dispensation in question or express the opinion that it ought to be granted. To ask for such dispensation was, as a matter of fact, forbidden to him, as he expressly declared, in virtue of the special vow taken by all professed members
78 Van Qmckenborne to Dzierozynski, November 13, 1829 (B).
79 Verhaegen ad Roothaan, February 4, 1833 (AA)
THE BEGINNINGS OF ST. LOUIS UNIVERSITY 307
of the Society of Jesus according to which they are not to permit any mitigation of the rule in matters regarding poverty. But the answer of the Holy Father was decisive In an audience of January 13, 1833, he granted the dispensation as being absolutely necessary under the cir- cumstances and he commissioned the Father General to determine the precise terms under which it was to be applied. The grounds on which this departure from Jesuit law was authorized were two-fold inability of Jesuit schools to support themselves without tuition-fees and pre- vailing prejudices, at least among certain classes of people, against free schools. Bishop Rosati, so Father Roothaan promptly informed the Missouri superior, "wrote to his Holiness asking that the Society be allowed to receive school-money [Mmeruale] in view of the peculiar circumstances obtaining among you as also in Ireland and England, to which petition his Holiness has graciously assented. As a consequence there is no longer any difficulty on this score and it is well, indeed, that the petition did not come from the Society." 80 And to Bishop Rosati the General wrote at length announcing the issue of his affair with the Holy See and concluding with the wish that "St. Ignatius may not take it amiss that in a matter which he had so much at heart and recom- mended to us so warmly, we turn aside for the time being [from the straight path] May he protect his sons from any evil consequences that may possibly result from the change." 81
Father Roothaan's Ordtnatto de Mineruali, a body of practical direc- tions for putting the concession of the Holy See into effect, is dated February i, 1833 It enjoins that the tuition-rates are to be adjusted to those obtaining in other reputable day-schools of the country 5 that poor boys are not to be turned away or in any way neglected through inability to pay 5 that lawsuits are never to be instituted to recover tuition-fees, and that the income derived from tuition-fees is to be spent on the support of the Jesuit teachers and on school equipment, including furniture and libraries, and that no part of said income may
80 Roothaan ad De Theux, January 22, 1833 (AA).
81 Roothaan a Rosati, February 21, 1833 (AA). In Italian. In January, 1836, Father Roothaan expressed to Father Verhaegen his serious doubt as to the validity of the dispensation de Mvnervah, seeing that the principal plea alleged to obtain it was the refusal of parents or many of them to send their children to free schools. This condition, so the General learns, does not actually exist, as is proved by Father McElroy's free school at Frederick, Md. Verhaegen in his reply mam- tains that there is no parity between the Maryland school and St Louis College Moreover, "the number of boarders falling off, the college may have to depend on day-students and then we shall see whether decent boys (fueri decentes) will come to a free-school." Verhaegen ad Roothaan, May 8, 1836 (AA). The present practice of Jesuit schools in accepting tuition-fees is based mainly on the circum- stance that these schools are, with rare exceptions, without adequate endowment and therefore may accept tuition-fees, which are a virtual endowment.
303 THE JESUITS OF THE MIDDLE UNITED STATES
be lawfull\ expended for the subsistence of the Jesuit teachers m the contingency, that expenses under this head can be adequately met from other sources Since the issue of Father Roothaan's Ordmatoo of 1833, whatever prejudices against free schools mav have then existed in the United States have practically disappeared, except, it may be, in narrow circles of the socially exclusive, but the financial position of Jesuit schools still makes it necessary for them to rely as a rule upon tuition- mone} as their ordinary means of support The endowed or founded institution continues to be the Jesuit ideal; but the pay school represents with an exception here and there the type of Jesuit school actually in operation today.
PART II
JESUIT GROWTH IN THE MIDDLE WEST THE THIRTIES AND FORTIES
CHAPTER X THE VISITATION OF 1831-1832
§ I THE INDEPENDENT MISSION OF MISSOURI
In the evolution of the Missouri Mission into a fully organized province of the Society of Jesus the first decisive step was its release from the jurisdiction of Maryland and its settmg-up as a self-governing unit in direct relations with the Father General.1 This transformation was contemporary with the presence in the United States of Father Peter Kenney, a member of the province of Ireland, charged twice with the duty of visiting on the part of the Father General the few scat- tered houses of the Society of Jesus then existing in North America. As an orphan-boy running about uncared for in the streets of Dublin he had attracted the notice of an eighteenth-century Jesuit, Father Betagh, who provided for his education and otherwise put him in the way of utilizing for the Church the unusual gifts of mind and heart with which he was endowed.
Father Kenney himself was conspicuous as an administrator in Ireland, for his one year of service m the direction of the National College of May- nooth left a double imprint on ecclesiastical education and spiritual life. He was the leading adviser of Edmund Ignatius Rice in the development of the first Christian Brothers, he had great influence in the early direction of the lush Sisters of Charity. He preached the first jubilee m Dublin since the sixteenth century, that of 1825, and rendered signal service as a witness for Catholic Ireland before both the Royal Commission on Education and the House of Lords Inquiry of 1825-1826. His fame as a speaker brought Henry Grattan, though practically a free-thinker, to the little chapel at Hardwicke Street, which preceded the opening of St. Francis Xavier's church close by, and if another hearer on occasion, Thomas Moore, did not relish Father Kenney's periods, it was because the preacher availed himself of the poet's presence to point out the dangers of evil literature m the plainest
1 In the Jesuit administrative system the unit known as a mission is generally attached to a province, being an integral part of the same and subject to the jurisdiction of its provincial, only in exceptional cases do missions of tlie Society- stand unattached to any province and in immediate dependence on the Father General.
2T. Corcoran, S J., The Clongowes Record, 1814 to 1832, with introductory
3"
3i2 THE JESUITS OF THE MIDDLE UNITED STATES
In 1819 Father Kenne\ arrived in America as Visitor of the Mary- land Mission His engaging personalit} made an impression in Jesuit circles and outside of them. Testimonies on this head are numerous in the correspondence of the period "Never was there a clergyman in this countrv more universally esteemed, particularly by the native Americans and indeed b\ foreigners/' wrote Father John McElroy to the former superior of the Maryland Mission, Father John Grassi, then resident in Rome. CtH:s perfect knowledge of the English language, his peculiar talent for government, his amiable and unassuming manners, has en- deared him to all persons to whom he has been introduced." 3 In a let- ter also to Grassi, the actual superior of Maryland, Father Anthony Kohlmann, had likewise words of eulogy.
He [Father Kenney] is a great man indeed, and has, I think, a won- derful talent for governing and [for] the pulpit He preached on the occa- sion of the tradition of the pallium to our Archbishop and in Washington at the funeral services for the Duke of Berry In both places he was gener- ally declared to be the best orator that ever was heard in this country On the latter occasion the audience was perhaps the most respectable that was ever assembled in Washington City. All the foreign ministers, the heads of our government, Qumcy Adams and most members of our two houses of the legislature were present and highly pleased R F father] Visitor, I know, will do much good, wherever he may happen to be, but I doubt whether his presence can be an} where else as useful as here, were he to do nothing else but to preach at Washington in time of Congress He would bring much honor on the Catholic religion all over the Union 4
In 1820 Bishop Du Bourg, then resident in St Louis, was petition- ing Rome to appoint Father Kenney to the see of New York, at the
Chaptetf on- Irish Educators (Dublin, 1932), p. 107. Peter Kenney, born in Dublin July 7, 1/79, entered the Society of Jesus September 20, 1804, died in Rome No\ ember 19, 1841.
3 McElroj to Grassi, June 7, 1820 (AA)
4 Kohlmann to Grassi, Georgetown, April 8, 1820 (AA) Father Nermckx m an account of his journey to Europe in 1820 has this reference to Father Kenney "Whilst here [Washington] we went to see St Patrick's Catholic Church which, upon my first arrival m America, consisted of a square frame building m very poor condition, it is now a handsome church of free-stone, accommodating three thou- sand people. The funeral services for the Duke de Berry had just been held m the presence of all the foreign ambassadors and the most prominent members of the United States Congress, which was just then holding its sessions Rev. Father Kenney, Visitor of the Jesuits, and an Irishman of uncommon eloquence, preached the funeral oration to the admiration and delight of all present " Maes, Life of Rev Charles Nennckx, p 428. Bishop Spaldmg, referring to a retreat conducted by Father Kenney for the clergy of the Bardstown diocese (1832) wrote "The impression made by this truly eloquent man of God was deep and lasting." Spaldmg, Life of Bishop Flaget, p 271.
\
\
it
Peter Kenney, S J (1779-1841), Visitor of the Jesuit houses in the United States From a contemporary portrait.
//
'
A letter of Van Quickenborne to Kenney, November 15, 1830, welcoming him on his arrival as Visitor in the United States Archives of the Maryland-New York Province, S ].
THE VISITATION OF 1831-1832 313
same time requesting Bishop Plessis of Quebec to support his petition. To the latter he wrote "I find all the qualities which so difficult a commission requires united in Father Kenney, provincial or visitor of the Jesuits in Maryland. He is an Irishman, a thing essential to turn aside national jealousies, and, if I am to believe all the reports about him, he is a man of rare talent, vigor and prudence. Your Lordship must surely have heard him spoken of I have had the assurance to write about him to Rome." Already in Ireland attempts had been made to secure Father Kenney for the coadjutorship of Kerry and the see of Dromore, and now, following upon Du Bourg's petition to the Holy See, Archbishop Marechal of Baltimore was making efforts, so it was reported, to have the Jesuit appointed to the vacant see of Phila- delphia. Fear that this ecclesiastical dignity might be fastened upon him was among the reasons, as he explained to the General, which led him to bring his visitation of Maryland somewhat abruptly to an end and return in 1820 to Ireland Father Kohlmann and his consultors, as also Archbishop Marechal, were thus disappointed in their expectations, for all had petitioned the General that Father Kenney be directed to remain in America as regularly constituted superior of the Mission of Maryland.5
Eight years later Kenney arrived in America for the second time, again as Visitor of the Jesuits in the United States, His commission from the General, Father Roothaan, was dated May 29, 1 830, and he was formally installed in his new charge at the community din- ner of Georgetown College on November 14 of the same year. The Polish Jesuit, Father Dzierozynski, for seven years the devoted superior of the Maryland Mission, had not been notified from Rome that he was to be superseded in that post by the Jesuit from Ireland The two offices of superior of the mission and Visitor, not being identical, were not necessarily merged in the same individual, and a doubt was ac- cordingly raised as to whether Father Kenney came as Visitor only or also as superior of the Maryland Mission 5 but meeting his consultors, Dzierozynski impressed upon them his own belief that he was suc- ceeded in office by the Visitor and announcement to this effect was ac- cordingly made at the ceremony of installation. In Father Kenney's letters-patent from the General were to be read the words, "we make choice of you as Visitor of the American Mission with the powers of superior of the same mission.55 6
On the day following that on which Father Kenney took up at Georgetown his duties of Visitor, Father Van Quickenborne indited
5 Des Bourg a Plessis, August 26, 1820. Quebec Archdiocesan Archives Kohl- mann ad Fortis, April 10, 1822 (?) (AA).
6 Memorandum (B)
;rj. 7HK JKsUITS OF THE MIDDLE UNITED STATES
to him from distant Florissant a cordial letter of welcome. Briefly, but pomtedh he laid before the new superior the pressing needs of the Missouri Mission and his o\\n vehement desire to be sent among the Indians uWe are all of that disposition of mind/' he is speaking of the \\esttrn Jesuits general!}, "that we desire to be obedient in all things and m the fullest possible measure and we trust that by God's grace we shall continue always to be of that mind. We are hoping that the \isitation will result not only in a more than ordinary measure of good but also in an increase in our numbers . . As the hart pants after the fountains of waters, so does my soul long to look upon you." 7 About a \ear later Kenne\ arrived in the West to pursue there his work of visitation Meantime Van Quickenborne had been superseded as superior b\ Father De Theux and the Mission of Missouri had been separated from that of Maryland.
The withdrawal of the western Jesuits from the jurisdiction of the Man land superior and the erection of Missouri into an independent mission, having its o\\n superior and through him direct relations with the General, had been contemplated even in the time of Father Fortis. The distance between East and West and the resulting difficulty in epistolan and other communication between the two sections of the countrv created problems of administration which would presumably disappear with Missouri looking after its own affairs. Almost within a \ear, accordingly, of his election as General, Father Roothaan put the proposed change into effect On September 23, 1830, he made official announcement by letter both to Father Kenney and Father Van Quickenborne of the separation of the two missions and five days later, September 28, he communicated to Father De Theux the same ne^s as also the latter's appointment to be superior in the West. The General's letter to Van Quickenborne has much of the formality of a decree "Taking counsel with myself how I might dispose of your portion of the American missions with a view to more ready adminis- tration and greater growth, I have decided to separate this mission (bounded namely by the limits of Missouri and including the houses of St. Louis, St. Charles and Florissant) from the rest of the missions and to place it, after being thus withdrawn from the jurisdiction of the Superior of the latter, under a superior of its own, immediately dependent on the General, as I have this very day written to the Visitor of America, Father Kenney." s Father Roothaan's communica- tion to De Theux, after announcing the division of East from West, continues:
7 Van Quickenborne ad Kenney, November 15, 1830 (B)
8 Roothaan ad Van Quickenborne, September 23, 1830 (AA).
THE VISITATION OF 1831-1832 315
It seemed incumbent on us to consult in this manner the good of the Mission, which, on account of distance and what resulted therefrom, the long-continued absence of the Superior and the difficulties of correspond- ence, has suffered inconveniences of no small degice I appoint \ou the Reverend Father Superior of your Mission, having in the Loid a ver) gieat confidence m your probity and prudence The mles \\hich "jour
Reverence must follow in his office are those which aie pi escribed for Pro- vincials, although the Mission has not as yet all the elements that aie re- quired for a regular Province You shall choose from among the graver of the Fathers four consultors, who, as your Reverence also, wilt have to corre- spond with the General, as the rule prescribes . . If candidates present themselves, the appointment of a competent master of novices must first be looked to.9
Finally, Father Roothaan made known to De Theux that he had instructed the Visitor to transfer to Missouri certain subjects of Belgian birth employed at the time in the Mission of Maryland These were five in number, Fathers Lekeu, Peeters, Van de Velde, Van Lommel and Mr. Van Sweevelt, a scholastic. Moreover, the expediency of extending his visitation to Missouri, if circumstances so permitted, was suggested to the Visitor by the Father General 10
Father Roothaan's letter o£ September 28, 1830, to Father De Theux was delayed an unaccountably long time on its way to St. Louis, having come into the latter's hands only on February 24 of the follow- ing year. Two days later, February 26, 1831, the announcement it con- tamed of the erection of Missouri into an independent mission was com- municated by the newly-appointed superior to the fifteen members that made up the Society of Jesus m the West.11 By the latter the news was received with satisfaction, relieving them as it did of the awkward situation involved in dependence on the East. "This new arrangement of our affairs," so Father Verhagen, rector of St Louis College, ex- pressed himself to the General, "is a source of great consolation to all of us, and as it seems to me, will make not a little for the greater glory of God." 12 The installation of Father De Theux as superior of the independent Mission of Missouri is officially dated February
27, 1831-
To the Maryland Jesuits, on the other hand, the news of the sepa- ration of Missouri from the East came as an unpleasant surprise. Only a few years before the feeling was widespread among them that the recruits arriving from Belgium and other countries of continental
9 Roothaan ad De Theux, September 28, 1830 (AA)
10 Roothaan ad Kenney, September 23, 1830 (AA)
11 De Theux ad Roothaan, March 17, 1831 (AA). Verhaegen ad Roothaan, April 4, 1831. (AA),
12
316 THE JESUITS OF THE MIDDLE UNITED STATES
Europe were unfitted for service in the East but might be usefully employed m the less meticulous West. But now, with a complete reversal of feeling on this head, the prospect of losing their Belgian fellow-workers, whether m the East or the West, was alarming. The Father Visitor consenting, letters of protest against the detaching of Missouri from the East were written at once to the Father General b> the Maryland consultors The reasons alleged against the measure were, among others, that fraternal charity might be jeopardized, that a spirit of nationality might develop, presumably if the Belgians were to be grouped together in a mission of their own, and that Maryland could not dispense with the services of the few Belgians at that time employed m its houses Writing in Italian, Father Mulledy, rector of Georgetown College, laid particular stress on the last of these points "Van de Velde is very useful and almost necessary in this college as teacher of French and calligraphy, things highly esteemed in this country. Further, he is an excellent preacher in English. ... In fine, I don't see \\hat we shall do if we are to lose these four very fine subjects " 13
Father Roothaan on his part was not minded to rescind the meas- ure he had earned out. "There are Belgians who have gone to Amer- ica," he explained to Father Dubuisson of Georgetown College, "to work in Missouri and sums of money have been spent on the same object. It is said that men and money have been detained in Mary- land. What I have had in view is that care be taken to fulfil all jus- tice. If you wish to keep the Belgians for Maryland, well and good, but then let Americans be sent to Missouri. It is all the same, it is even better." 14 And to Father de Gnvel the General wrote: "As to what concerns Missouri, it would be a great mistake for anyone to suppose that the Fathers in that region asked for their separation. They never gave evidence that they had even the least idea of it. In that matter I have done nothing else but follow out the plan which the Father Assistants had already suggested to Father Fortis with a view to greater convenience in the government of Missouri." 15 Father Roothaan was especially anxious to dispel the suspicion that the separation of the mis- sion had been decreed at the instance of the Missounans, as he made clear to Father Kenney "Lest, then, such surmise be the occasion of even the slightest cooling off of charity, I will say, what is the actual fact, that nothing was ever either said or done by the fathers of Mis- souri to bring about this arrangement or even indicate that they wanted itj it came rather as a surprise as well to them as to the fathers
13 Mulledy a Roothaan, January 28, 1831 (AA)
14 Roothaan ad Dubuisson, May 3, 1831 (AA)
15 Roothaan ad Gnvel, December 22, 1831. (AA).
THE VISITATION OF 1831-1832 317
of Maryland, nor were there any other reasons for it than that the mission in question might be administered with greater convenience " 16 In accordance with Father Roothaan's instructions that certain Bel- gian members be transferred from Marjland to Missouri as ^properly belonging" to the latter mission. Father Van Lommel and Mr. Van Sweevelt were sent by Father Kenne> to St. Louis, where they ar- rived on October 24, i83i.17 The departure of Van Lommel was keenly felt by the Catholic residents of Washington. After a residence of only a few years in the United States he spoke and wrote English with remarkable ease and was a ready preacher in the language of his adopted country, but he was in declining health, with consumption rapidly gaming upon him, and he survived only by two years his arrival in the West The Visitor lavished encomiums on him in a letter to the General, at the same time indicating the impression which his transfer to Missouri was making upon the public
A lovable man, a sterling religious, a most zealous pastor, Father Van Lommel has carried the hearts of all away with him All the Catholics of this city, who number about two thousand, lament his departure bitterly, and I know that it is not at all pleasing to the Archbishop The complaint is made that we are running off to Missouri, and abandoning Virginia, of which he has the administration I have placated the prelate in the
most respectful terms, saying it is not in my power to detain any longer the Fathers sent to Missouri, that many of them have come here with the express purpose of passing on to the West and that the Bishops of those parts are anxious for the coming of the fathers and have even written to Rome to obtain others.18
§ 2. FATHER KENNEY, VISITOR OF MISSOURI
Within a week of the arrival in St. Louis of Father Van Lommel and Mr. Van Sweevelt, these two Belgians were followed October 24, 1831, by a third. Father Van de Velde, of Georgetown College, to- gether with Father Kenney himself and his socius or assistant. Father William McSherry. On the eve of their departure from the East Kenney and his companion had the pleasant experience of being enter- tained by the venerable Charles Carroll of Carrollton at his mansion, Doughoregan Manor, Howard County, Maryland The incidents that
16 Roothaan ad Kenney, June 2, 1831 (AA). Roothaan's statement has been borne out by a careful examination of the correspondence of the Missouri Jesuits with the Father General during the period 1823-1830 No instance has been dis- covered of any petition on their part for the separation of the missions.
17 "Profrie pertinent ad, Missouri" Roothaan ad Kenney, January 18, 1831 (AA)
18 Kenney ad Roothaan, September 15, 1831 (AA).
3i3 THE JESUITS OF THE MIDDLE UNITED STATES
betel! the part} on the \\a> were put on record by Father Van de Velde :n a series of letters that make a contribution of interest to the literature of earh \\ebtern tra\el ™ From Florissant, whence "there is post only once in the ueek," the Visitor some months after his arrival there in- formed Father McElro\ of Fredencktown that the long journey from the East had been a most unpleasant one, warning him at the same time against exaggerated accounts of the glories of the West
The \er> recent information sent us by F[ather] V Lommel was quite incorrect and we came the worse way of the two after all We should have gone to Pjttsburg, where theie was water enough for the smaller boats and we found no other at Wheeling — Most miserable, dirty, crowded, dan- gtious boats they weie. There is less danger in going to Ireland than in coming to St Louis Pray for us and make every one pray that we may get safe to Gto\vn [Georgetown] and do not believe the loth part of what }ou hear of the glories of the western waters or the richness of the soil or the beauty of the sceneiy of the western states There is no doubt some- thing of all this, but the loth of what is said exceeds the truth of what is found But of all this we give a better account m talking than in writing 20
During his stay of half a year with the Jesuits of the West Father Kenney had every opportunity to study thoroughly the conditions that obtained among them, and he was able in consequence to frame vari- ous wise regulations looking to the better government and general wel- fare of the newly organized mission. He arranged for the transfer from Father Van Quickenborne to a board of trustees consisting of Fathers Verhaegen, De Theux and Walsh, of the few parcels of real-estate \\hich the Society of Jesus was then holding in Missouri. He ordained, m this matter carrying out the express wishes of the Father General, that the Jesuits should lend their devoted friend, Bishop Rosati of St. Louis (praesulf Soaetatts amanfrssimo) , every possible assistance in his solemn services at the cathedral, that as often as he pontificated some of their number should be in attendance, and that twice a month one of the fathers should be sent to the cathedral to preach in English. He ordered the transfer to the Bishop of a new residence projected by Father De Theux in the neighborhood of Louisiana in Pike County, Missouri, both because the mission was pitifully short-handed in men and because the proposed residence lay outside the territory assigned the Jesuits by Bishop Du Bourg's Concordat.21 One regulation of Father Kenney's was after a brief trial found to be impracticable and in deference to the wishes of Bishop Rosati and the laity was allowed
19 WL, X.
20 Kenney to McElroy, St Ferdinand, February 9, 1832. (B)
21 Brief report (Latin) on Kenney's visitation of the Missouri Mission (AA)
THE VISITATION OF 1831-1832 319
to lapse This was that High Mass was to be sung not oftener than twelve Sundays in the year in the churches of Florissant and St. Charles, the only parish-churches then served by resident Jesuit pastors In fram- ing the regulation the Visitor had said with characteristic vigor of phrase "We are repeatedly admonished m the Institute that High Masses and similar functions which occupy the time and distress the chests of our priests and scholastics are no duty of our vocation. The circumstances of this country alone could justify us in thus employing our missionaries and therefore the frequency of these functions is to be limited strictly to the necessity of the place High Mass 10 or 12 times a year is as much as this necessity requires and therefore in no church must it be oftener allowed." Though Bishop Rosati did not interfere with this arrangement, he looked upon it, so it became known, with disfavor. The practice of High Mass on all Sundays of the year was accordingly renewed at Florissant and St Charles 22
From the beginning of the mission it had been customary for the Jesuits of Missouri to wear the cassock or religious garb not merely within their own houses, but also whenever they left them to appear m public "A white drab great coat is used in winter, in summer noth- ing over the habit " When Father Verreydt, garbed m soutane, entered Columbia, Missouri, the people, so he recalled in later years, "won- dered and stared at him." "One old lady took me for the head-man of the Freemasons." At a meeting of Father De Theux and his consultors, November 29, 1831, presided over by the Visitor, it was decided that this practice of wearing the cassock in public should be discontinued* The sentiment among the fathers was decidedly in favor of the change; only Fathers Van Quickenborne and De Theux stood for a continuance of the existing custom. To Van Quickenborne especially the innovation was most unwelcome and he is reported to have said that he would have died rather than permit it had the matter rested with him alone. As for Father Kenney, with the discernment that came to him from a wide acquaintance with men and things, he was quick to sense the disadvan- tages of maintaining m a non-Catholic country a usage that might be adhered to with advantage m countries that had long known the Faith. Even before the Visitor left the East, Father Verhaegen had written to him pleading that the wearing of the cassock outside the cloister be abandoned j and now that he was in St Louis, the reasons that mili- tated against the custom were earnestly laid before him. The fathers were subject to discourtesies, not to say physical molestation at times on the streets of St. Louis 5 the leading lay Catholics of the city looked with disfavor on the practice 5 the student-boarders were reluctant to
(AA).
320 THE JESUITS OF THE MIDDLE UNITED STATES
accompany the cassocked prefects through the public streets, m fine, the mmibtr} and the educational prestige o£ the fathers were being daily compromised* Father Kenney, in his report to the General, pictures the grotesqueness of the figure cut by a Jesuit missionary in Missouri as, mounted on horse-back, he wore a Roman soutane tucked around his bod} and an American hat, a manner of dress neither strictly clerical nor strictly laj , but only a luckless attempt to meet the exigencies of both. Cunousl) enough, the wearing of the cassock was inevitably associated in the minds of the Indians with the beloved black robe and Father De Smet and his generation of missionaries made it a point never to appear among the red men except so garbed The ordinance of Father Kenney regulating the use of the cassock ran as follows
The Visitor ha\mg considered the weighty reasons proposed to him by almost all the Fathers, enacts that in future none of our Religious shall wear the cassock or am pait of the dress which has eventually become peculiar to the Society, in the public roads or streets of towns or cities, or m general outside of the precincts of our own habitations The priests and scholastics uJl in this pomt conform to the 2jth decree of the Provincial Council of Baltimore as practiced m the Diocese of St Louis In actual circumstances to dress like Secular Priests appears more conformable to our Institute than to wear that form which is used in countries where the Society is acknowl- edged as a religious body b} the laws of the country The Institute lays it do\*n as a principle that we have no peculiar dress and admonishes the Provincials that their duty is only to see that in our dress the three following conditions be observed i° That it be respectable, 2° that it follow the style in common and approved use among the clergy of good standing of the locality in which one lives, that it be not at variance with the profession of poverty which we make The lay-brothers and novices aie not to dress like priests, but, whatever dress they wear, it must realize the first and thn d conditions- when the novices are Priests, of course they dress as Priests do 23
The principal service which Father Kenney rendered to the Mis- souri Mission was the uniformity of daily routine which he introduced into its houses. He succeeded indeed in placing the details of domestic economy and internal discipline on a working-basis that stood the test of time and has endured more or less unchanged to the present day. His ordinances in this connection were embodied by him in a memorial dated May 8, 1832, the day on which he departed from St. Louis for the East. Filling about sixty pages of an octavo-sized note book and written m clear and forceful English, this document enters into almost
2S Memorial left mtk the Superior of the Mission m Missouri by Rev Father Peter Kenney, Visitor of the Missions of the Society in the United States 1832 (A).
THE VISITATION OF 1831-1832 321
every detail of Jesuit domestic life Some extracts from it will serve to indicate its character
The rules of the Prepositus and Rector establish only three points as certain and fixed in the daily distinction of time ist — That seven hours intervene between the time of going to bed and the hour of using, 2° that an hour be given to recreation ever} day after dinner and supper The 4th, yth and gth Congregations ha\e also respectively decided, that besides Mass and two examens of conscience daily, all should make an houi Js pra} er, and should spend the quarter of an hour before the night examen in prepa- ration for the next morning's meditation, and spiritual reading The gth Congregation also approved the custom already established of reading every day the litany of the Saints, and ordered that the Ave Maris Stella, sub tuum fraestdium et defende, quaesumus, should be added to them The loth Congregation made the fuither addition of the prayer, Deusy qui glomficantes etc and more recently the Litanies of the Blessed Virgin were prefixed to those of the Saints and the prayer of St Joseph annexed To this, General Brzozowski added the prayer of the Sacred Heart. Provided these duties are daily performed and the time allotted given to them, all the details of the daily distribution are left to the Provincials and local Superiors to be arranged according to the customs of the countries and the exigencies of the duties to be performed and of the persons who are to perform them When, however, conformity to the general usage of the country can exist without any serious disadvantage, it should always be pre- ferred And therefore the following distribution shall be observed in the Mission of Missouri, as being the more general usage of the Society at present, and the only one adapted to places where the days and nights are much about the same length as m Missouri.
Rising f]/2 Supper and Recreation
Meditation 9 Litanies
Mass 9J4 Preparation for Meditation Breakfast
Examen 9^2 Examen
12^ Dinner 9^4 Bed 2 End of Recreation
The Superiors of the Residences are bound to have great care of the Missioners who are liable to be called out at night to travel great distances in bad weather They should be furnished with good, safe, strong and swift horses, strong, warm clothing and a good watch which is really necessary to direct them m their lonely journeys, to arrange their stations, spiritual duties etc.
On the sacred duty of chanty to the sick who are under our care but especially to those of the Society, the Superior ought to have ever present to his mind the words which the Institute uses on this subject, ff$ro re$a-
3i2 THE JESUITS OF THE MIDDLE UNITED STATES
j sin id itJttitdine Itivantur ipatta charitatis in Societate" With them the Lp,tunu commences p 4 6 8 Sect 2 , which contains the substance of ufut ,s ordued in the luks of the mfirmanan and prefect of health The local Supei or \\ill considtr tht piactice of every iota therein prescribed as a bacred dut\ imposed on his conscience
When a physician is called in, the mfiimarian should carry with him to the chamber of the sick his book with pen and ink and cause every pre- scription and direction of the ph}sician to be therein noted by the m- firmanan that no mistake may ever occur, or be supposed to have occurred Gi cater attention to cleanliness, nay neatness and ventilation should not be found even m the Sanctuary than the infirmary, and when the sick pel son is able to take food, no care is too great which can be given to the food which he tats, to the delicate manner of preparing it, and the neatness and rcgubntj with which it should be served, a napkin should be given him and another spiead before him, or one used large enough for both purpobtb, such condiments given him as are allowed and such changes of plate etc as the diversity of food may require. On this subject it is impos- sible here to enter into details the rules already quoted are sufficient direc- tion, but more powerful than any laws will be that chanty which for the sake of a suffering brother in Xt "omma suffert, omnia sustmet Chantas fatten* est} bemgna est " Wo to the Superior through whose fault the life of any member of the Society is shortened, his health diminished or its rtco\ery retarded. That the Visitor may not have any share m so awful a malediction, he ordeis that an infirmary, on the limited plan proposed to him b} Fathei Verhagen, Rector of St Louis College, be immediately built, that it may be in a state to be occupied befoie the icturn of the sickly season -4
§ 3. THE VISITOR AND ST. LOUIS COLLEGE
At the time of Father Kenney's arrival in the West St Louis Col- lege had scarcely rounded out its second year as a Jesuit institution. It was now, as from the beginning, making a painful uphill fight for bare existence and, inevitably perhaps, made an unfavorable impression on the cultured inspector from overseas. Educational conditions are largely a reflex of social and economic conditions and St. Louis at this period had all the earmarks of a crude frontier-town, being in fact America's last considerable outpost of civilized life towards the setting sun. The recorded impressions of the Father Visitor, the impressions, one might say, of an educational expert, are not without interest to the historian of college education west of the Mississippi The Jesuit father, John Mc- Elroy, was at this time making the experiment of a classical school for boys in Fredencktown, Maryland, and for his information Father Kenney put on paper a rather realistic account of conditions in the sister institution in St. Louis He noted that religious instruction was receiv-
24 Idem. (A).
THE VISITATION OF 1831-1832 323
mg a due measure of attention, even the non-Catholic students, who numbered fifty-one out of a total registration of one hundred and fifty-two, not being neglected on this score. "But/3 he continued, "I am sorry to say that the object next in importance, which is that of a clas- sical education, is very far from being realized, nor is there any imme- diate prospect of this department being more flourishing.55 He depre- cated the "great flourishing in the Prospectus about Rhetoric, Phi- losophy, classics etc" and "the glowing hopes and brilliant course of studies found m the pages of a Prospectus or in the reports of an Exhibition, but for which we seek in vain a -parte rei* It is said that high sounds and a little boasting does much in this country. If it do, it will not last long. Such mists disappear as the sun rises.'5 The rather ambitious program of studies announced m the first prospectus of St. Louis College was, it is clear, an ideal to be worked up to rather than a goal actually achieved. "To teach 12 boys is Mr. Van de Velde's sole occupation I with the exception of Mathematics 3 times in the week 5 which, however, is included in his 5 hours per day, the limit now fixed to the Master's labours. . . There is a class of French taught by Mr. Verhaegen the rector 3 times a week and good F. V. Quicken- borne spends his 2 hours every day with 8 Latin scholars, who, being also half-rhetoricians and therefore give [stc] only I hour to Latin, threaten to revive the Augustan age with their proficiency m Cornelius Nepos." 25
Passing from the topic of the classics and the unpromising outlook before them m St. Louis College, the Visitor in a report to the Father General broached the larger question whether after all it was worth while for the members of the order to conduct institutions of a type such as the one he had come to know on the banks of the Mississippi. The presence of the Belgian fathers m St. Louis was admittedly a source of great satisfaction to the Bishop. Moreover with an industry and success beyond all praise they had learned to understand, speak and write the English language and had endeared themselves to the English-speaking Catholics of the city. After the completion of the cathedral, then in process of erection, they were to have a church of their own and from this as a center, even should the college collapse (quod Deus wvertat)^ they could minister with the greatest fruit to the spiritual needs of the English-speaking residents of St. Louis. On the other hand, there was the disconcerting fact that the education of one hundred and fifty boys, fifty-one of them non-Catholics, was engaging the energies, well nigh to the point of exhaustion, of a staff of seven fathers, one scholastic and three brothers. Of the entire number of
25Kenne7 to McElroy, February 9, 1832 (B).
324 THE JESUITS OF THE MIDDLE UNITED STATES
students, moreover, only eight were taking Latin It was open to doubt \\htther the results measured up to the energy expended, a considera- tion all the more urgent "in these United States where, turn where a man will, he finds Catholic families scattered here and there m very great numbers, who have neither Mass nor sacraments, sometimes not t\en baptism itself. How many non-Catholics, too, would not seven priests of the calibre we have here bring to our holy faith, were they to occupy themselves in serving missions. The excellent Father Peeters, whom I cannot mention without tears, learned English and m the space of two years, m one of two missions which he attended, converted 30 non-Catholics In what length of time shall 30 be brought over to the faith out of the 50 non-Catholic students in whose instruction 7 priests are every day employed?" The situation would indeed offer no ground of complaint if circumstances of time and place only permitted the faculty to impart a more serious type of education. But "the young men go forth superficially educated m every way. They speak proudly of eloquence, rhetoric, and of its figures, but of the Greek and Latin authors there is ignorance profound. . . To my mind, then, the greatest drawback of all results from the nature of the education which is demanded in the day-schools of small towns and even in the boarding- schools, where any better training does not commend itself to the par- ents In these western parts everything is m the cradle. A fairly large registration, more populous cities and material resources are required for the cultivation of letters and the sciences, but I don't know what fatality has so far driven the Jesuits to avoid the better-known cities and take in hand the cultivation of this stubborn soil. ... I should not readilyr advise that colleges of this kind be opened by Ours in similar localities, for I doubt whether the results would answer to the labor entailed. Is it in the interest of the common good that our priests wear out their strength and spend their days in the management of colleges such as this?"26
In the same letter from which quotation has just been made the Visitor requested the Father General to impress upon the St. Louis Jesuits the necessity of promoting the study of Latin and Greek This they were not doing for fear that parents as a result of solicitations m this direction might withdraw their sons from college altogether. Re- acting to the representations made by the Visitor, Father Roothaan, as in his letter of October 25, 1832, to Father Verhaegen, made a strong plea for classical education as a practical ideal even in the uncongenial environment of the American West. "I should wish, however, that the
2CKenne> ad Roothaan, April 25, 1832 (AA) Father John Peeters, a Belgian, died at Frederick, Md , m 1831 at the age of thirty-one
THE VISITATION OF 1831-1832 325
education and instruction imparted be brought into closer alignment with the standards of the Society and that the Latin and Greek lan- guages be better cultivated For to give the majority of the students only those subjects which are everywhere given equally well by junior clergymen and even laymen is not an affair of such great moment that so many of our priests should spend their time and strength m occu- pation of this sort, especially when the scarcity of apostolic men is so great and the harvest so vast. You ought to see whether persons cannot be found among you willing and able to teach schools of this kind under our direction." To the Visitor, Father Roothaan was revealing at the same time (October 23, 1832) his disappointment over the unpromis- ing outlook at St. Louis. "The College of St Louis I What is to be done' It certainly cannot now be abolished and so must be tolerated. Meantime the Fathers there are to be urged to come nearer by degrees to our system of studies and especially to give more attention to Latin." The St. Louis Jesuits were, as a matter of fact, merely facing a situa- tion which for the moment they had no means of bettering The classics have never been a marketable commodity in a frontier settlement The education based upon them simply had to bide its time. The time came and with it St. Louis College made of the classics of the ancient world the staple of the education which it offered to the public. Meantime, Father Verhaegen was careful to acquaint the General with the diffi- culties that beset for the moment any insistence on high educational ideals* "We are placing on the pursuit of letters just that degree of emphasis which the state of our infant country allows. Things here, Reverend Father, are all new and must be moulded into shape. The study of languages, if you except English and French, has no great attraction for the young. This defect will be remedied only in the course of time, namely, when the family affairs of the inhabitants be- come more settled and an end be put to all these changes and shaftings of residence" At the beginning of the session 1833-1834 the students taking Latin numbered thirty as compared with eight in January, 1832, while the Greek class showed a membership of eight. By July, 1834, the Greek class had ceased to be, the students previously in attendance having withdrawn from the class or perhaps from college altogether, while other students could not obtain permission from their parents to take up the study. Three years was the average term of a boy at col- lege, and so, Verhaegen observes, "since they know scarcely anything when they come to college, few are permitted to finish the classical course, as it is called." Only at a subsequent period did circumstances allow of a more respectable position for the classics and a more satis- factory organization of the entire scheme of studies as shall be seen at a later stage of this history.
320 THE JESUlTb OF THE MIDDLE UNITED STATES
£ 4 CLOSE OF THE VISITATION
The winter of 1831-1832 was of exceptional seventy, greatly to the discomfort of Father Kennev, who suffered from chronic asthma and seemed peculiar! v sensitive to the idiosyncrasies of Missouri weather. "Was it a friend or an enemy/5 he puts the question to Father Dziero- z\nski, "who counselled us to come here in the winter-time?" Writing from Florissant to the Father General, he enlarges on the same topic of Missouri weather or climate, which, to judge from the prevailing good health of the western Jesuits, seemed to be of a rather wholesome sort after all-
I am living m a solitude. I have it on hearsay that the world goes on as usual, hut outside oui domestic walls I see nothing at all but the sky, which is veiv often clouded, or the snow or the earth, sometimes frozen, sometimes drenched with rain, such have been the fluctuations of weather from the beginning of December to this very day A bnsk wind is almost constant!} blowing from the Northwest and it nearly freezes one's blood At St. Lotus the great Mississippi River, which flows with a swift current of 3 [ ? ] miles an hour, was so thoroughly frozen over for almost two months that whatever came to market from the opposite or Illinois shore, fall commodities for the provisioning of the town come from that quarter), was carried across in wagons drawn by horses or oxen And these things happen at 30 degiees North Latitude, the same to wit, as that of Palermo, where it is ever pleasant, where winter is only another placid summer and where even the Sirocco is scarcely felt And yet all our men here, 21 m number and grouped in three houses, enjoy good health, though subject to bilious fever, all except Brother Henry Reiselman, who, I fear, is wearing out with slow disease and work.27
During Father Kenney's stay m the West his services as a preacher w ere m frequent requisition. "Father Visitor has preached often m our mission especially m St. Louis," we read in a contemporary letter, "the people are m rapture when they speak of him " 28 Bishop Rosati was especially drawn to Kenney, m whom he recognized one who might render great services to the Church in the United States. A present of a set of breviaries made by the prelate to the Jesuit elicited a note of acknowledgment
I embrace the opportunity offered by the visit of Father Rector to acknowledge the receipt of your kind note accompanying your most es- teemed gift of a new set of breviaries They would have been under any
27Kenney ad^Roothaan, February 22, 1832. (AA) Father Kenney had made his seminary studies m the Jesuit scholasticate at Palermo in Sicily 28 Van Lommel to Dzierozynski, April 30, 1832 (B).
THE VISITATION OF 1831-1832 327
circumstances a most acceptable present, but the donation is rendered tiuly invaluable by the hand that offers it and the motive in which the beneficent deed originated Be pleased, then, Rt Rtv and \try dtar Sir, to accept my most grateful thanks for this Vade Mecum with which \ou have supplied me foi the remainder of my dajs M} poor ejes shall begin with this* Spnng Quarter to enjoy the chanty of your \aluable consideration and t hut fore I shall have in my hands thuce a day this pleasing memento of m} man) obligations of praying for so respected a friend and so kind a benefactor The consolation and edification which I ha\e received at witnessing the progress of Religion in this diocese have interested me \ei) much in e\er}- thmg connected with this grand object which you have so much at heart I deeply participate in the gratitude which, I am sure, the whole flock feel to the Holy Father for his munificent donation to tht Cathedral, and already on that account I have celebiated many Masses for the long and happy pontificate of Gregory i6th in spite of all the Carbonari and philos- ophers that Italy or France can produce 29
On May 8, 1832, Father Kenney, having finished his visitation of the Missouri Mission, departed from St. Louis for the East That same day Father Verhaegen wrote to Dzierozynski: "We are all doing finely, but alas' in losing today our excellent Father Visitor, we lose a treas- ure " 30 And some months later he informed the General "The visita- tion of Rev. Father Kenney was of the greatest utility to our mission He taught us a number of things which concern the spirit of our Insti- tute and left with us a memorial of regulations. As long as we lo}ally keep to it as we are doing now, everything here will go on well." 31
Some months later than the departure of Father Kenney the ques- tion of advancing the mission of Maryland to the status of a vice- province came under discussion At a meeting at Georgetown College, August 28, 1832, attended by the consultors as well of the college as of the mission, and presided over by the Visitor, it was agreed to petition the Father General that Maryland be erected into a province rather than a vice-province and that at the same time the Missouri Mission be made an integral part of the new province, which was to cover territorially the entire Union and to be known accordingly as the
29 Kfcnney to Rosati, May, 1832 (C) "You will allow me to discharge the pleasing duty of manifesting the very grateful feeling which I entertain for the kindness and attention which on so many occasions I experienced from jou during my stay m the Missouri Were there no other benefit derived from my visit to that part of these states than the advantage of a personal acquaintance with the Bishop of St Louis and of extending a due and cordial cooperation with him from every member of the Society In his diocese, I should not esteem time lost or labour useless" Kenney to Rosati, June 29, 1832. (C)
30 Verhaegen to Dzierozynski, St. Louis, May 8, 1832 (B)
31 Verhaegen ad Roothaan, August 25, 1832 (AA)
3^3 THE JESUITS OF THE MIDDLE UNITED STATES
province of North America or of the United States of North America. Further, request was made that, if Missouri was not to come in, the proposed province be extended west at least as far as to take in Ohio and Michigan Territory and even Kentucky, in case the French Jesuits settled in the last-named state should withdraw to another field Kennej, while forwarding the petition of the Maryland Jesuits to Rome, declared to the Father General that his duty as Visitor of the Missouri Mission, of which office he had not yet been relieved, did not permit him to indorse so important a step as the reunion of Missouri \vith Maryland before the superior and consultors of the western mis- sion had been sounded out concerning it. Moreover, he was personally of the opinion that the proposed reunion was not the expedient thing under the circumstances and would not promote the Jesuit objective of God's greater glory. *- The protest voiced by the Father Visitor had effect, and when in 1833 the province of Maryland was erected, with Father William McSherry as first provincial superior, the status of Missouri as an unattached and independent mission remained un- changed.
An episode growing out of Father Kenney's visit to the West finds place here. Passing through Cincinnati in September, 1831, on his way to St. Louis, he was there entertained by the Dominican, Bishop Ed- ward Fenwick, who was so favorably impressed by him that he made efforts to obtain his appointment as Coadjutor of Cincinnati. From Detroit August 23, 1832, he communicated to Bishop Rosati his desire in this regard
I ha\e solicited the holy Father to grant me Father Kenney, Superior of the Society of Jesus in the United States of America for coadjutor at Cin- cinnati— his talents, piety, experience and other eminent qualities are well known and sufficiently recommend him. If stationed at Cincinnati as Bp , he would no doubt much promote the cause of our h [oly] reli- gion in the western countries, the honour and propagation of the Society of Jesus which I respect and admire much as one of the most meritorious and useful religious Societies to the church and the world at large In case I can obtain him for the above purpose I would make a veiy sensible or trying and great sacrifice of my very best and affectionate Vicar Gen'l Reze for Detroit m Michigan, where he is much esteemed and venerated — possessing the full confidence and respect of all the clergy of Michigan — more so than m this But to part with him before he is replaced by Father Kenney at Cincinnati would occasion my death, perhaps immediately, and the ruin of my diocese. You will please to weigh these reflections and be so kind as to second my petition to the H [oly] Father and Cardinal Pedicini in the manner I have expressed myself. I do not know the baptismal name of Fr
32 Kenney ad Roothaan, August 28, September 9, 1832. (AA).
THE VISITATION OF 1831-1832 329
Kenney, you will please to express it in your letter to Rome Write soon, favor me with an answer about ist of October, endoise on the letter Soh after my name in order that my Vcr [Vicar] G[enera]l may not open it in my absence
With this request o£ Bishop Fenwick the Bishop of St. Louis promptly complied, recommending to the Cardinal Prefect of the Propaganda the appointment of Kenney as Coadjutor of Cincinnati "He needs no commendation for it is clear enough and even abun- dantly so, to judge from the office assigned him by the superiors of his Society, that he must be a man of no ordinary mark For the rest, I had ample enough opportunity to become acquainted with his learning, piety, prudence, singular eloquence and suavity of manner when dur- ing the past year, while visiting the houses of his Society, he spent sev- eral months with us to the very great edification of all. Eligible, there- fore, as he is m every respect, I deem him most worthy of being raised to the episcopal dignity." 33
Within a few weeks of this correspondence Bishop Fenwick, sud- denly stricken with cholera while making a visitation of his diocese, was carried off from the scene of his ever-growing usefulness to the Church in the West. Meantime, Bishop Rosati had taken up with the Propaganda and with Archbishop Whitfield of Baltimore the matter of Kenney's appointment to the see of Cincinnati The Archbishop showed himself unfavorable to the proposal, preferring an Amencan- born bishop to fill the vacancy. Moreover, having conferred with Father Mulledy, rector of Georgetown College, he was informed that Kenney had already declined the coadjutorship of Dublin and, moreover, being a professed Jesuit, could not accept the appointment unless so ordered by the Holy See.34 Still, Kenney's nomination to Cincinnati was sub-
33 E Fenwick to Rosati, Detroit, August 23, 1832. (C) Soh, a Latin term signifying that the letter is for the addressee alone Rosati ad Pedicmi, September 5, 1831. Kennck Seminary Archives
34 Whitfield to Rosati, December 12, 1832 (C) Somewhat later Archbishop Whitfield proposed Father Stephen Dubuisson, a French Jesuit of Georgetown, ab digmssimus m a terna for Cincinnati which he sent to Rome. "The Superior, Father Kenney, has written to the General at Rome and desired me to do all in my power to prevent his election And indeed I have mentioned his reluctance and his asthma, as he desired, and expressed my opinion to be conformable to his, that his health might be a good reason to excuse him " Whitfield to Rosati, March 19, 1833 (B) Kenney had written to Archbishop Whitfield, December 30, 1832, expressing his "utter repugnance and insurmountable dread of the episcopal charge
. My age, infirmity, my want of knowledge of everything in the diocese, clergy, laity, and country, etc. If the case be thus exposed to them I am confident that they will not advise the pope to force me by a precept of obedience to accept of such a charge."
330 THE JESUITS OF THE MIDDLE UNITED STATES
mitted to Rome and would have been acted upon favorably were it not for the earnest intervention of Father Roothaan It was a happy cir- cumstance for the nominee that Father McSherry, who had been Ken- ne\'s ass'btant or socius m the visitation of Missouri, chanced just then to be m Rome, whence he \\as shortly to return as the first provincial of the newh erected province of Maryland. Writing to McSherry, Kenney urged among other objections to the appointment the condition of his health u\Vhen I think of all that you could suggest to the General to oppose this measure, it appears to me quite improbable that the Pope \\ould be induced to force me by a precept of obedience into this new, arduous and most responsible situation m my 54th year, afflicted with an asthma which m the winter of this cold climate is very annoying and must prevent that exertion which such a charge in this country will ever require." ''3
A note of keen satisfaction over the issue of the affair runs through the lines m \^hich Father Roothaan advised Kenney that he had been spared the threatened dignity
After celebrating Mass today as also yesterday in thanksgiving for the escape of your Re\erence and of the Society from the danger of the Cin- cinnati bishopric, I begin this letter by congratulating your Reverence and ourselves and especially jour own Ii eland, which certainly would have taken it \er} hard to be deprived of your Reveience forever. The danger was certainl} \er\ serious and quite imminent, and although, when I first came to hear, in No\ ember, if I mistake not, that something was going on, I did not fail in my duty under the circumstances, still in these last days the matter was pressed more earnestly than before and the Holy Father left me little hope. But finally, in the Congregation held before his Holiness on the 25th of this month, the reasons which I had presented shortly before m writing had their effect, namely, about your Reverence's health and Ireland's longing for 3 ou, for it never ceases to call your Reverence back Thanks be to God, Who has rescued us and m Whom is our hope that He will rescue us still again.36
Father Kenney survived this incident eight years, dying November 1 8, 1841, in Rome where he was attending a congregation of Jesuit procurators as a representative of the vice-province of Ireland. A cold taken on the way to Rome complicated with the ailment that had stood successfully between him and the see of Cincinnati hastened his death, which came with suddenness. He had assisted at a session of the con- gregation in the morning and on the evening of the same day was dead.
35
Kenney to McSherry, January 14, 1833. (AA) 86 Roothaan ad Kenney, February 28, 1833. (AA)
CHAPTER XI RECRUITING THE MISSION
§ I THE FIRST ACCESSIONS
When Father Van Quickenborne led his company of eleven Jesuits westward in the spring of 1823, it was with the assurance of his superior that additional helpers from Maryland were soon to lend their services to the newly founded mission. The first letter to reach him from the East after his arrival at St. Ferdinand announced that at least one more father would probably be ordered to Missouri at as early a date as possible.1 Then came the unexpected death of Father Timmermans, followed, as has been told, by repeated appeals from the Florissant superior for help from the East. Only after painful delay were these appeals answered at length by the arrival at Florissant on October 10, 1825, of Father Theodore De Theux and Brother John O'Connor Father De Theux found the young men who had set out from Mary- land as novices now bound by the customary Jesuit vows. Not only were there no novices in the new establishment but the superior was without authority to receive any. Both de ^ure and d,e jacto the Jesuit novitiate, which had run its brief course at Florissant from June, 1823, to October of the same year, had ceased to exist. The question of re- opening the novitiate was therefore a pressing one when De Theux arrived upon the scene. Grasping the situation, he hastened to urge upon Father Dzierozynski the necessity of taking action in this im- portant matter*
Every day the doors open ever wider not only to the Americans who are flocking here from all sides, but also to the Indians Providence, too, holds out the assurance that a number of missionaries may easily find means of support among us. I therefore earnestly beg your Reverence to give some thought to the opening of a novitiate in this place, not necessarily at the present time, but after a while. It may be that some will offer themselves either as scholastics or coadjutor-brothers. Your Reverence, on examining them, might let them know the difficulties they shall have to put up with Several young men, among them some in major orders, have written from Belgium to Ours of this house, saying that they are eager to go to a country where they should be free to enter the Society. I am sure that if
1 B Fenwick to Van Quickenborne, September 10, 1823. (A).
332 THE JESUITS OF THE MIDDLE UNITED STATES
ont of Ouis ttcre to \ibit Belgium he would in no long time obtain con- bdenibk recnfoi cements both in supplies and personnel 2
Not long after De Theux had thus expressed his views on the re- cruiting of the mission. Van Quickenborne himself laid before the Maryland superior a plan looking to the same end which he had thought out:
Here m Florissant some youths would have to be admitted of good character and giung hopes of a icligious vocation . The Society would incur no expense till they are received into the novitiate As an experiment I ha\e recerved two excellent boys They are bound to me, my heirs and assigns till the age of twenty-one They are to do whatever work we may en join them I am obliged during that time to teach them only reading and wnting and give them food and raiment, and I may send them off when and for whatever reason I please. They are kept on the same footing as the Indians and treated alike with them m all things They behave remark- ably well The parents, however, are let to understand that should the children begin well and should our means permit it and should we think proper we would teach them Latin to give them a chance of becoming priests I have received two more of the same disposition They are on the same footing as the Indians, but are not bound to me and pay fifty dollars a year. (Several parents wish to place their children with me the same way ) I have deferred receiving them, awaiting the approbation of your Rever- ence If five or eight were received, they would not take our scholastics awa} from their studies any more than now. Certainly some would persevere. Our farm here can support twelve scholastic novices and as many (priests and brothers) A seminarist from the Barrens has asked for admission; another says he will apply next year when of age . . , Many wish to come from Belgium and the seminary of Lyons Messrs. Veul[e]man[s] and Van Horsigh, Belgian pnests, who are said to be seeking admission into the Society, might come to us All these could be educated in the novitiate to be opened here by } our Reverence with authority of Rev Father General.3
Four projects above all were before the mind of Van Quickenborne during the eight years that he guided the destinies of the Missouri Mission- an Indian school, an Indian mission, a novitiate, and a col- lege in St. Louis. Of these he succeeded m setting up the Indian school and the college, the novitiate and the Indian mission became realities only under his successor. But Van Quickenborne never ceased in his correspondence both with the Maryland superior and the Father Gen-
2De Theux ad Dzierozynski, November 13, 1825 (B).
3 Van Quickenborne to Dzierozynski, December 19, 1825 (B) Fathers Veul- emans and Van Horsigh had accompanied Nermckx's Jesuit novices of 1821 to America. They were at this time (1825) attached to the archdiocese of Baltimore
RECRUITING THE MISSION 333
eral to urge that those two vitally important undertakings be taken in hand. From the very first. Father Fortis, the General, cherished on his part the hope that Florissant would eventually become a dynamic center of Jesuit apostolic enterprise. A little over a year after the arrival of the colony in Missouri he had written to Van Quickenborne
I do not doubt that our Divine Master has had great designs in that extraordinary occurrence which resulted in your having a house on the banks of the Missouri I am hoping that it will become a training-school from which will go forth many apostolic men who, walking in the footsteps of the Xaviers, the Anchietas and the Breboeufs, will carry the name of Jesus Christ "before nations and kings " Courage, then, my dear Father, (and I say the same to your little troop), "fear not, little flock, for it has pleased the Father to give you a kingdom " Do not be discouraged by difficulties, for you serve him who has said, "have confidence, I have overcome the world " I feel a particular interest m your establishment and will
not fail to give proof of it from time to time 4
In the event Father Van Quickenborne's repeated appeals to the Maryland superior for permission to open a novitiate at Florissant were not to prove successful. Father Dzierozynski feared that means would be lacking to insure its upkeep, moreover, the Maryland novitiate, suppressed m 1823, was to be restored at White Marsh or elsewhere in Maryland and one house of probation would suffice for East and West. Disappointed thus in his hopes of being allowed by his immediate superior to receive novices directly at Florissant, Van Quickenborne took the matter up more than once with Father Fortis, as in this instance:
The novitiate having been transferred from White Marsh to this place by our departure thence and coming hither, I have asked Reverend Father Superior for permission to admit novices. He answered that the novitiate was to be opened m Maryland, not in Missouri I venture now, on the advice of Father Consultor [De Theux] and with all due submissiveness to your Very Reverend Paternity, to write to you on this subject, setting forth the reasons why it seems to be very much to the interest of the Society that a novitiate be opened here. i. There are several suitable candidates for the Society, among them two priests. 2. The Bishop allows his priests to enter the Society here, but not m Maryland 3 For candidates to go from here to Maryland would be very expensive, as much so as if they were to come here from Europe. 4 The population of these parts has increased enormously these last few years, with all the greater hope of a succession of novices 5. We have the means of educating them, at least to the number of 12, and afterwards of bringing them through all their studies. 6. We are
4 Fortis ad Van Quickenborne, August 14, 1824 (AA).
314 THE JESUITS OF THE MIDDLE UNITED STATES
\er) much in need of coadjutor-bt others to woik with the Indian boys and teach them a trade Moreo\er, the proximity of the novitiate and the example of the other bi others would serve as attractions to those inclined to take up this manner of life 7 The land here where we are living \ields four times as much as that of Maiyland Should your Veiy Reverend PaterniU so wish, we ha\e persons here competent to be at the head of the no\itiatt, as Fathers De Theux and Verhaegen Our scholastics finish their course of moral theology this year and since they are already third-year theologians the} could finish their course in scholastic theology next year and could then make their third year of probation in the novitiate undei Father De Theux as instructor.3
That Father Van Quickenborne's appeal to the Father General was not without effect, though it did not elicit formal permission to begin a novitiate at Florissant, is indicated by the subsequent words of Fortis to the supenor of Maryland: "It is impossible that young men who seek admission into the Society in a region [Missouri] so far away from } ou3 should go to you with anything like convenience " Moreover, the General at the same time withheld his approval for the time being of a novitiate even in Maryland "The reason for the suppression of the former novitiate by Father Neil [Neale], your Reverence's prede- cessor, was distress Does this state of things continue or not?"6
Two later appeals made to the Father General, one in 1827 and another m 1830, show Van Quickenborne still pleading for a house of probation at Florissant.
I beg to be allowed to open a novitiate. I do not know what Reverend Father Superior has determined m this matter, though he wntes us that he is going to send us, as soon as the cold weather is over, the Mr. Van Lommel who was lately received into the Society. I don't know what we can expect from Maryland, nor is it seemly that Maryland expect any members from us There will be some postulants from this neighborhood, but they haven't the money to undertake so long a journey, nor are the parents willing to furnish it, nor can the Society pay it out in such doubtful cases We must, with the divine help, support ourselves and increase our numbers as best we can by our own efforts, under the auspices of your Very Reverend Paternity Perhaps you will see fit to send one or other [candidate] at intervals from certain parts of Europe This we might add, that if, in writing to Europe we held out even the slightest hope of their being received here, many young priests, and of distinction too, would come But we abstain cautiously from doing so. . . J
5 Van Quickenborne ad Fortis, May 2, 1826. (AA).
G Fortis ad Dzierozynslu, January 28, 1827 (AA).
7 Van Quickenborne ad Fortis, February 6, 1827. (AA).
RECRUITING THE MISSION 335
The Bishop, the Rt. Rev Joseph Rosati, an Italian, now resides in St Louis [He is] a man of the greatest learning and prudence, to whom Rome accordingly entrusts the negotiation of affairs of the utmost dehcac) and importance to the Christian commonwealth, a trul) religious man and a sincere fnend of Ours He has three secular priests living with him. The Catholics of St Louis number about 4000 The Bishop has a seminaij, with 23 seminarians, m a place called the Barrens eighty mile& distant from St Louis The seminary is directed by the Lazansts, men following closely in the footsteps of their founder, St Vincent They ha\e, besides, in the same place and apart from the seminary a college with 80 boarders Few parents in this state of Missouri are able to keep their sons at college man} years Hence these good priests take the seminarians in when they are beginning to read in the vernacular and educate them gratis or almost so until they have made some progress in Latin, Greek, etc The} teach and study at the same time so that their personal expenses are rather light There have been only two priests from this region for a space of nearly 12 years. But a number of young men from Europe, France and Belgium have made their theological studies at the place in question, 26 have become priests, of whom two are now bishops, while Mr Rosati, who was their superior, is a third These priests have done a great amount of good especially m the diocese of New Orleans where owing to them the face of things has changed entirely for the better I mention these things because for several years back several students m Belgium, some of them m theology, have been writing to us, and M De Nef of Turnhout, our greatest benefactor, has also written on behalf of some, asking whether they would be received here into the Society, in case they came over They write to us here because when we came hither we came with the entire novitiate from Maryland and so they were under the impression that the novitiate was still kept up heie We proposed the matter to Reverend Father Superior He answered that we had no right to call anybody here since we could not promise any one admission. As a consequence we have advised nobody to come nor made promises to anybody Still, some came after all and coming by way of Georgetown were kept there Reverend Father Supenor wrote at once that they had arrived, were admitted and were excellent subjects But they have not yet reached Florissant and that "not yet" still continues Now I have no intention of sending for or working upon persons, but to the simple question they put, namely, whether they could be received, I should have wished to answer that young men having the requisite qualifications could be received here for the novitiate and that, moreover, there was a Congrega- tion of Priests of the Mission which received candidates Now we humbly ask your Very Reverend Paternity whether we cannot proceed (in the future) in this manner." 8
In the same month, the September of 1830, that Van Quickenborne penned this letter to the Father General, the latter dispatched from
8 Van Quickenborne ad Fortis, September 9, 1830. (AA).
336 THE JESUITS OF THE MIDDLE UNITED STATES
Rome the decree announcing a new superior for the Missouri Mission The first Missouri superior accordingly laid down the burden of admin- istration without seeing his long-cherished dream of a novitiate at Florissant become a reality. But he did succeed in obtaining authoriza- tion to admit into the Society a few candidates for the grade of coadju- tor-brother who had applied at Florissant. Writing in English m Au- gust, 18265 he thus presented their case to his superior in Maryland
There arrived at our house three young men petitioning to be received into the Society as lay-brothers. They being eminently qualified, I have kept them in the house as hospites [guests] (well understood that I pay nothing fur the work they may do) wishing to know your Reverence's orders One is an Irishman of about thirty years, the two others Americans of about eighteen }ears, all of them known to us for these three years past and during all that time frequenting the Holy Sacraments. They are all three shoemakers, the two younger are also rough carpenters The Irishman would be fit to teach our Indian boys reading, writing and arithmetic They are \ery docile, well used to work, ready for everything they may be put to Rev. Father De Theux and all in our house are extremely pleased with their modesty and religious comportment and consider their coming to us as a stioke of Divine Providence m our behalf We stand greatly in need of them. Brother H [enry] is getting old. Brother O'Connor is unfit to have the management of the Indian boys in their work I am obliged by govern- ment to teach them the practical knowledge of farming, thus some must be in one place and some m another, on account of the difference of age Each band must have a guide. None but brothers can be given Moreover, as all our scholastics will not always stay together, a great number of brothers will become absolutely necessary Another has applied for admis- sion, also a shoemaker, a youth of twenty-one years old, the most pious and edifying in the parish, I may say a rare example of youth and very docile For these four I humbly beg of your Reverence to admit them and to let them make their novitiate with us. A fifth one has applied, a carpenter, but unknown to me People have given him a good character. The parents of the Irishman are dead. The other three are boys of pious families in which parents, brothers and sisters, frequent the Holy Sacraments regularly once a month and when the priest does not go to the place where they live, they have been several times seen to travel ninety miles to come to church The parents rejoice m the vocation of their children They are healthy and strong There is no difficulty for the militia 9
The three young men who had thus offered to serve the Society o£ Jesus in the capacity of coadjutor-brothers and whom Father Van Quickenborne had received as "guests" under the Florissant roof were
8 Van Quickenborne to Dzierozynski, August, 1826 (B) "Militia," i e , the army or military service.
RECRUITING THE MISSION 337
Peter McKenna, James Yates and James Shannon. Father Dziero- zynski at first declined to authorize the admission of the three novices though in Van Quickenborne's quaint language "far from expelling them from the house, he congratulated us on having obtained such excellent workers." 10 Probably the Maryland superior merely meant that the applicants were to undergo the preliminary period of trial known in the language of religious orders as a "postulancy" before being regularly admitted as novices. But permission so to admit them later came from the East to Van Quickenborne, who, in the meantime had "interceded" for them, to use his own expression, with the Father General The first name in the official register of novices admitted at Florissant is that of James Yates, born at Springfield in Kentucky, who was later to render valuable service as instructor in the first years of St. Louis College. His entrance into the Society of Jesus is recorded for April 4, 1827. No date of entrance is on record for either Shannon or McKenna though that the latter was actually admitted is indicated by his subsequent dismissal from the Society in May, 1829. As to James Shannon, he had probably withdrawn from Florissant before official permission to receive candidates came into Van Quickenborne's hands After parting with the Jesuits he was received into Bishop Rosati's seminary, but did not pass on to the priesthood. He is to be identified, it would appear, with the James Shannon who was a son of a pioneer Insh Catholic settler of Hancock Prame in Callaway County, Missouri, and brother to a distinguished nun of the Society of the Sacred Heart, Anna Josephine Shannon. Father Van Quickenborne made the acquaintance of this excellent family in the course of his ministerial trips into the interior of Missouri and it was at his suggestion that the future nun was sent to be educated under Mother Duchesne at Florissant.11
A native of Bardstown in Kentucky, George Miles came of that sturdy Catholic stock whose simple and vigorous faith was largely the result, under God, of the zealous ministry of Father Nerinckx. His parents emigrated first to Spanish Lake in St. Louis County, Missouri, and later to St Ferdinand, where their little farm adjoined the Jesuit property on the north. Among Brother Miles's recollections in later years stood out sharply that of the eventful day when it was an- nounced in the parish church that a group of Jesuits would arrive on the morrow to take possession of the Bishop's Farm. From his father's field the youthful George watched with eager curiosity the arriving clergymen as they made their way along the wretched road that led
10 Van Quickenborne ad Fortis, October 24, 1826. (AA)
11 Vie de la Rlv&ende Mire Anna Josephine Shannon rehgieuse <lu Sacre Coeur, 1810-1896 (Roehampton, 1920), p 13
•^B THE JESUITS OF THE MIDDLE UNITED STATES
to the log-cabins on the knoll, feeling, on that occasion, it may well have been, the first stirring of a desire to be admitted into their adven- turous compain 1J After living some months with the Jesuit com- munity George Miles was admitted as a novice coadjutor-brother on December 26, 1827 13 He was to outlive all his Jesuit contemporaries of the Missouri Mission at this date, dying fifty-eight years later April i, 1828, saw still another accession to the Jesuit group at Florissant in the person of William Fitzgerald, who also entered as a coadjutor- brother If to the names so far recorded be added that of Father Peter Walsh, who arrived from Maryland early in June, 1829, to serve as instructor in the newly opened college in St Louis, the list of accessions to the Missouri Mission during the years of its dependency on Mary- land \\ill be complete
To sum up, then, the changes in the membership of the Missouri Mission during the period it remained subject to the eastern superior, that is, up to February 27, 1831, there was one death, that of Father Timmermans, three accessions from the East, Fathers De Theux and Walsh and Brother O'Connor, four new novices, all of them coadjutor- brothers admitted at Florissant, Brothers Yates, Miles, Fitzgerald and McKenna, and three defections, the scholastic, De Maillet, and Brothers Strahan and McKenna The mission at the date it was released from the jurisdiction of the parent-mission of Maryland counted nine fathers and six coadjutor-brothers or fifteen members in all.
§ 2. A LAY RECRUITING AGENT
Thus far Belgium had sent none of her sturdy youth to reenforce the Belgian colony planted at St. Ferdinand. Efforts, however, to secure recruits from that quarter were made at an early date though it was onlv after the Missouri Mission had been placed on an independent basis (1831) that the stream of Belgian novices began to flow in.
With this project of recruiting the Jesuit mission in the trans- Mississippi West from the Catholic Netherlands the name of M. Pierre- Jean De Nef, director of St. Joseph's College, Turnhout in Bel- gium, stands in very intimate connection Messrs. Van Assche and Smedts on the eve of their journey overseas had presented themselves with a note of introduction before this singularly zealous layman and received from him a generous donation in money. From that moment
12 The Incident was related by Brother Miles to Brother Matthew Smith, who died at Florissant in 1912
13 "I hope we shall soon have a novitiate here, there has been a young American with us for about seven months waiting for the opening of the novitiate to become a novice, some in our neighborhood have the same intention." Van Assche a De Nef, March i, 1827. (A).
RECRUITING THE MISSION 339
the interest of M. De Ne£ m the missionary enterprise of his youthful countrymen never ceased. A correspondence was maintained between them, and De Nef proved himself m the event probably the most effective helper the western mission was to know during the pioneer period of its history. In fine, Father Van Quickenborne in a letter to the Father General did not hesitate to designate the Belgian layman as "our greatest benefactor." For a while Mr. Van Assche performed the functions of a sort of intermediary for M De Nef m his benevolent designs towards the mission. Letters written by the young Jesuit throw an interesting light on the zealous activities of this lay apostle of Turnhout In April, 1824, Van Assche m a communication to De Nef gives a graphic account of the journey from Whitmarsh, expressing at the same time his thanks "for the services you have rendered, which I shall remember all the days of my life, seeing that God has made use of you as an instrument to procure me so great a happiness." 14
As early as March 9, 1825, De Nef had written to Van Assche, ask- ing him whether certain young men of whom he made mention could be received at Florissant. "I have spoken to my superior about them," answered Van Assche, "and I am able to assure you to my great satis- faction that, if they have the qualities which the Society demands of them, they will all be welcome " 15 The candidates in whose behalf
14 Van Assche a De Nef, April 29, 1824 (A) Pierre-Jean De Nef was born November 16, 1774? at Gierle, near Turnhout m Belgium, where he died November 13, 1844 He was active m the Belgian Revolution of 1830 and sub- sequently won distinction as an able supporter of the national cause. On the death of his wife he interested himself in the education of young men for the priesthood, especially for the American Jesuit missions, and started a Latin school at Turnhout, subsequently St. Joseph's College, which institution he conveyed m his will to the Jesuits The first pupil of his to go to the foreign missions was Father Peter Tim- mermans, who died at Florissant, 1824, a brother of the latter, Father John Timmermans, a secular priest, assisted De Nef on his death-bed "De Nef's appearance had much distinction about it and there was something majestic en- veloping his whole person He was eloquent by nature. Modest and reserved, he habitually kept his looks cast down. When he spoke, his eye was all afire and he could put so much clarity and enthusiasm into his conversation as to captivate all who dealt with him Although he had never mixed with the wicked world, he had a perfect knowledge of men. His glance was so penetrating, his judgment so sure that he was rarely deceived as to the aptitudes of the subjects, numerous as they were, of whom he had to form an opinion m the course of his life" (Droeshout). De Nef's career and that of his institution at Turnhout have been told by a one-time student of his, Pere Charles Droeshout, S J , in the ms. Histotre <&* College de Turnhout, 1817-1895 (1895). Copy in the possession of Thomas Hughes, S J , Rome
15 Van Assche a De Nef, March 9, 1825. (A). The assurance given by Van Assche to De Nef belongs to a period when the Maryland superior had not as yet declared himself decisively against the admission of scholastic-novices at Florissant.
340 THE JESUITS OF THE MIDDLE UNITED STATES
De Nef had made inquiry fit took four months for his letter to make its long journe\ ) did not reach Missouri and in all probability did not leave Belgium at all It appears from a communication of Van Quicken- borne to Dzieroz\nski in 1829 that De Nef had pledged himself to send annually t\\o novices to the mission "If your Reverence ap- proves it, the two novices promised yearly by M. De Nef could be supported at our expense wherever you wish. I say this to obtain per- mission from the Reverend Superior to promise these young men my help in procuring money How will the expenses be paid? From the thesaurus of our Procurator." 16
If Pierre De NePs early efforts to secure novices for his Jesuit friends m Missouri were without result, in the matter of furnishing material aid to the mission he was more successful. In May, 1827, Mr. Van Assche received a number of boxes of miscellaneous articles sent by the Turnhout benefactor to Florissant by way of New Orleans and the Mississippi, as overland transportation would have been too expensive. A duty charge of two hundred and fifty-eight dollars was laid upon the boxes j but an effort was made by the authorities of Georgetown College, with what success is not known, to have the duty cancelled The consignment was sent overseas in charge of Father Van Lommel, who on his arrival m America at once entered the Society of Jesus at Georgetown College. He brought with him a liberal donation of money from M De Nef. "The money," Van Assche informed De Nef, "was given to Rev. Father Provincial [of Maryland] I believe we shall have a share in it, if not, it will be because they need it more than we do." 17 De NePs inquiry through Van Lommel as to whether it was preferable to buy a considerable quantity of cloth or a lesser quantity and send the difference m money elicited detailed information on the point from Mr. Van Assche
It depends on circumstances. If you have to pay high duty and "post" freight, many things would cost more than they are worth On the other hand, if you can take advantage of some one or other who comes to join us and if the goods should come m free of duty, then a greater quantity of goods would be the proper thing As to duty and freight, I know nothing about the rates On the other hand there are many things which you must in any case buy in Europe, either because you cannot buy them here or else be- cause the difference m quality is so great that you gam by buying them in Europe At times it will be better to buy fewer articles and send us the unused money, to build churches and buy land, for it seems to be the will of God that we build strongholds here from which to attack and overcome the prince of
16 Van Quickenborne to Dzierozynslu, November 13, 1829 (B)
17 Van Assche a De Nef, March I, 1827. (A). In 1833 De Nef sent Father Kenney fifty-eight hundred dollars to be divided between Maryland and Missouri
RECRUITING THE MISSION 341
darkness with the countless loyal followers of his that swarm about us. Under other circumstances I should be ashamed and afraid even to ask you for additional things, but seeing from Mr, Van LommePs lettei that your chanty is boundless and that you are sincerely anxious to know how you can help us most, I will specify some articles which would prove very acceptable to us at present Here is a list of books very few of which aie sold here and these only at an extremely high price . seimons of Massilon and Bourdaloue, Berger's Dtctionnaire Theologique, Oeuvres De Bossuet) Homo A^postohcus of Blessed Ligono (6 copies) etc . . As to church furniture we have only two censers without boats The candlesticks in our churches are of wood and are of no account We are very poorly provided with chasubles If you will be good enough to have some made, better by far to have two or three fine ones than a half-dozen poor ones, for such things are put to use chiefly on feast days and such like occasions when Protestants come to see our decorations and ceremonies. I have spoken to you in my letters of the church of St Charles It is consecrated to the Blessed Virgin, St. Francis Regis and St Charles Borromeo Here are a few things we stand in need of two censers with boats, two black chasubles and two made in such a way as to serve for red and white, six copper candle- sticks about three feet high, a picture about eight feet high representing the Blessed Virgin, Calvary or the institution of the Blessed Sacrament, an altar for the new church of St. Charles If you could include an organ by way of good measure, we should have a church to match the cathedral of Antwerp Cloth for vestments, linen and black "cassock" material can be purchased at an advantage only m Flanders As regards other things which pious persons may wish to send us, I think the letter which I intend to write to you m three or four months will prove more pertinent . As to
church ornaments, it would be better to send few but of good quality than to send many used ones. The former edify the Protestants and give them a high idea of our holy religion whereas the latter expose us to ridicule.18
M. De Nef was thus establishing on solid grounds his title to the name which Mr. Van Assche bestowed on him, "our great benefactor." The failure which met his first attempts to secure novices for Missouri did not dampen his zeal. In October, 1830, he announced to Father de Smet the contemplated departure for America of a band of mis- sionaries:
I count on despatching an expedition every year in the beginning of October. For the expedition of this month, I have the pleasure of sending you four gentlemen all well disposed. These gentlemen will bring you the news with all particulars of the Belgian insurrection, which began on the 25th of last August. ... I have been advised by the Very Rev. Father Provincial Dzierozynski that for the greater good of religion it would be proper to consign to him the entire contents of the shipment which I am accustomed to send. He knows the wants of all the American missions and
18Van Assche a De Nef, May, 1827. (A)
342 THE JESUITS OF THE MIDDLE UNITED STATES
i> theufore m a position to distribute the amount of the consignment in prupoit'on to rtal and present needs I have deemed this request so reason- able and so helpful towards the gieat end I have in view, the propagation of our holy faith m America, that I gave my consent to it before your welcome communication came into m\ hands However, the Reverend Father Pro- uncal has Itt me know at the same time that far from being opposed to particular intentions, he should be glad to forwaid to their respective destina- tions whatever things I shall have maiked with a special address 10
Meantime, as an objective for the missionary aid freely dispensed at this period by Belgian Catholics, Florissant was now achieving some measure of renown. To Father Van Quickenborne, the superior in Mary- land wrote in 1827 "Rev. Mr. Van Lommel has come from Belgium with mam boxes and riches for celebrated Florissant, otherwise St. Ferdinand."
The four candidates that made up the personnel of M. De NePs proposed October expedition of 1830 either did not leave Belgium at all, or? if they crossed the Atlantic, failed to attach themselves to the Mission of Missouri It was not until the second stage m the history of the mission, that in which it stood in direct dependence on the Father General, that the movement of recruits from Belgium really began
§ 3- ST. STANISLAUS NOVITIATE
The true creator of the Jesuit novitiate or "house of probation" at Florissant was Father De Theux. On being named by the General becond superior of the western Jesuits, he wrote to his mother, Madame De Theux of Liege "It has pleased the Reverend Father General to name me Superior of the Mission of Missouri By the same letter this
19 De Nef a De Smet, October 12, 1830 (A). "The vestments and other ornaments which you had the goodness to send us by the last expedition were sent to destitute missions, where they -were received with much joy and gratitude You have also supplied means for reducing the debts of our college, which bore heavily upon us and were going on increasing every year Your name will be in benediction as well m the college as in the numerous missions where the effects of your bounty have been felt." Dzierozynski a De Nef, January 24, 1830 Archives of the Jesuit Province of Belgium De Nef was authorized by the Jesuit superiors to admit candidates for the Missouri Mission, though of course such admission was not of a canonical character "Following the instructions given to me by your predecessors," he wrote to De Theux, "I have admitted several young men who will be received into the Society of Jesus m America I know their sterling qualities and have been struck with the fortitude which they have shown m abandoning parents, friends, country and a life of ease to face every kind of hardship and privation with the sole object of winning men to God I rejoice in sending them to you and I am confident that our poor Americans and Indians will find m them support and consolation We lose them now only to find them again in heaven, surrounded by blessed souls saved through their labors" (Letter of De Nef, October 16, 1833). Laveille, De Smet^ p 64
RECRUITING THE MISSION7 343
mission is detached from our other missions of America. My appoint- ment was made towards the end of last September [1830], but the letter reached me only on the 24th of February [1831]. I continue to conduct my classes in our college as usual, but I think that in vacation I shall fix my residence at Florissant in order to direct the novitiate which I count on opening there " The status of Missouri as an inde- pendent mission had, m fact, brought with it the privilege of having its own novitiate It was not necessary for the new superior to appeal to the Maryland superior, as Van Quickenborne had done, for per- mission to establish one. In the very letter of Father Roothaan's ap- pointing him head of the mission, Father De Theux was informed that if candidates presented themselves, a competent master of novices was to be provided for them 20 In the May following his appointment De Theux was already acquainting the General with his plans for a novi- tiate A few candidates were in sight Edmund D'Hauw, a Belgian, who had studied some theology, having been in Bishop Fenwick's semi- nary m Cincinnati, and was now being put to preliminary trial as a lay helper m St. Louis College, Rev. L. J Rondot, a one-time Jesuit m Europe, for many years attached to the St. Louis diocese; and Michael Hoey, of Irish birth, who looked to becoming a coadjutor- brother. With these and such others as might seek admission, De Theux proposed to open the novitiate on Saint Francis Borgia day, October 10, 1831, some five months later than the date of his letter to the Father General 21
For novice-master the choice seemed to be restricted to three, Fathers Van Quickenborne, Verhaegen and De Theux. The nomination of the first would probably not be ratified by the Father General, while the second, as rector of St. Louis College, was not easily to be replaced m that position Hence, Father De Theux, by advice of his confessor, took upon himself the office of master of novices. He constituted him- self, besides, procurator of the mission, the duties of which office, as he explained to the Father General, involved nothing more than re- ceiving and distributing the alms that came on occasion from Europe. To Father Roothaan it seemed dl-advised that the superior of the mis- sion should fill the two additional posts of novice-master and procurator and he therefore counselled him to refer the matter to the Father Visitor, when the latter should have come to St. Louis. In the event De Theux was permitted to carry out his original plan, discharging in per- son the duties of all three offices.22
20 Roothaan ad De Theux, September 28, 1830 (AA)
21 De Theux ad Fortis, May 15, 1831 (AA).
22 For account of De Theux as superior of the mission, cf *#//<?, Chap. XV,
344 THE JESUITS OF THE MIDDLE UNITED STATES
A punctuality and precision that partook in a measure of the me- chanical was characteristic of Father De Theux. Probably the exactness with which he carried through his plans for the opening of the novitiate is an instance in point Five months in advance he had announced his intention of inaugurating it on the festival of St. Francis Borgia, the novitiate began its career on that very day As he had acquainted Madame De Theux of his hopes in this connection, so now he advised her of their happy fulfillment. "Last Monday [October 10, 1831] I opened the novitiate here with a single novice, an Irish lay brother [Michael Hoey] I count on two or three of different nationalities in the autumn.71 23 There were no novices, whether scholastic or lay, at Florissant when De Theux became superior of the mission* The co- adjutor-novices admitted by Father Van Quickenborne had either fin- ished their period of probation or been dismissed "We had a novitiate for some time in our house at Florissant," wrote De Theux in April, 1831. "It closed of itself for lack of novices." 24
With the entrance, therefore, of Brother Michael Hoey the house of probation at Florissant, to be known from 1835 on as St. Stanislaus Novitiate or Seminary, was re-established It was Father De Theux who named it for the Jesuit novice-saint and he did so after having asked and obtained the approval of Father Roothaan to that effect.25 Brother Hoey was followed eight days later, October 18, 1831, by Ed- mund D'Hauw, who was the first scholastic-novice to be received at Florissant. Then, on November 14 of the same year came John Tracy to try the life of a coadjutor-brother, in which he did not perse- vere. On October 23 of the following year, 1832, the name of Father Aegidius Debruyn was entered on the novitiate register as a scholastic- novice He had previously been in the Jesuit novitiate of the prov- ince of Upper Germany, but had found it necessary for some or other reason to withdraw. He was the first scholastic-novice to enter the Mis- souri Mission at Florissant and remain a Jesuit to the end, Edmund D'Hauw, who preceded him as a novice by a full year, having returned to secular life seven months after his admission to the novitiate.
Debruyn was joined March 25 of the following year, 1833, by Louis Pm. "Some time ago," wrote Father De Theux to a friend in
28 De Theux a sa mere, October 12, 1831 (A) "Opened the novitiate with one candidate, Michael Hoey, an excellent Irishman, I think, who for the last two ^ears has solicited admission Semper sibi sinnlis, nisi quod de die in diem proficere vtsus fuent" De Theux to Dzierozynski, October 1 1, 1831 (B).
** Ann Prop, 5-573
25 Ad quatesitum utrum domus Probations Missourianae S. Stanislai nomine decoran possit, responds Rev A dm P N se ultra permittee et suadere tit Patronus titularis illius habeatui . Accept, n April, 1835, T. De Theux. (A).
RECRUITING THE MISSION 345
Europe, "there came to me a }oung Frenchman, once a theologian m the seminary of Aix m Provence, named Louis-Mane Pin I have ad- mitted him to the novitiate I have also admitted a French priest named Le Clerc, who must, however, remain some time longer in St Louis. I give you their names in order that their parents ma> know where they are and what they are doing*" 26
Meanwhile, recruits had begun to arrive from Maryland. In the fall of 1831, Fathers Van de Velde and Van Lommel and the scholastic, Judocus Van Sweevelt, reached St Louis They had all been attached for some years to the Maryland Mission and wrere now assigned to duty m Missouri at the order of the Visitor, Father Kenney. A few days before the departure of the latter from St. Louis, the question was raised by the mission consultors whether all future novices for the West should not be sent to Maryland until such time as their number war- ranted a novitiate at Florissant, where only two or three candidates had so far been entered. No decisive solution of the question seems to have been arrived at, though the Visitor gave assurance that he would admit in the East for Missouri all candidates from Europe who offered themselves for that mission and that whatever funds or material they brought with them would likewise be applied to Missouri.27
What appears to have been M De NePs first detachment of candi- dates for the Jesuit missions of America set sail from Antwerp on September 5, 1832. It consisted of Fathers Paul Kroes, Christian Hoecken, John Blox, Matthew Sanders and Joseph Sterckendnes 2S In November of the same year Father De Theux brought before his consultors the question, "whether the young men who had arrived m Maryland for the Society and of whom three 01; four are said to be destined for Missouri should come West if possible " They should come, was the opinion expressed.29 As things turned out, only one of the candidates, Christian Hoecken, reached Missouri. Writing to M. De Nef, February 18, 1833, Father De Theux expressed the disap- pointment he felt on hearing that all of the recently arrived candidates had determined to remain m Maryland. "I would have made it my duty to answer your letter immediately on its arrival, but I was expect- ing the arrival of the gentlemen whom you announced and it is only a
26 De Theux a Olislagers, Apnl 29, 1832, m Ann. Prop., V De Theux ap- parent^ refers to Father Le Clerc m a letter to his mother of March 27, 1832 "My three novices are doing very well and I count on admitting a fourth, a great preacher " Le Clerc did not enter the novitiate, being unable, it would seem, to obtain from Bishop Rosati his release from the diocese.
27 Liber Consultationum Missionis Missounanae (A)
28 Le Pere Theodore de Theux de la Comfagme de Jesus et la Mission Beige du Missouri (Roulers, 1913)9 p 105
29 Liber Consultationum Missionis Missourianae* (A) .
&6 THE JESUITS OF THE MIDDLE UNITED STATES
little \\h:Je ago that I learn that all of them had decided to remain in Mar} land I will not conceal from you the fact that this decision caused me considerable pain, not onl) because you have been generally fortunate in \our choice of subjects but also because we attach so much importance to the growth of our novitiate For the rest, may the name of the Lord be blest1 Perhaps we shall see the incident turn out some da\ to the good of the Mission " 30
The \ear 1833 witnessed the first expedition of novices from the restored White Marsh novitiate to Missouri On October 9 of that \ear Fathers James Busschots and Christian Hoecken and Mr. John Baptist Emig, all of whom had begun their noviceship in the East under Father Fidele de Gnvel, arrived at Florissant. Of the three, only Father Hoecken had been of the number of De NePs recruits of 1832 Father Busschots, formerly vicar of the Church of St Pierre m Lou- vain, had accompanied Father Helias D'Huddeghem to America in 1833 and entered the Society at White Marsh in June of that year.31 Mr. Emig, of Bensheim, Hesse-Darmstadt, Germany, the first candi- date of German birth to join the Missouri Mission and a future rector of the colleges of Louisville and Bardstown, had been a novice over a year.
Father Verhaegen, rector of St Louis University, wrote m pleasant vein to Father McSherry., the Maryland provincial, of the arrival of the party in St Louis:
Your last favor was handed to me by the Rev Mr. Buschotts [Buss- chots], who with his two companions reached this place on the yth instant You can easily conceive with what joy we received them Mr Buschotts was m the Seminary of Mechlin with Fatheis Elet and Smedts When old acquaintances meet after a lapse of twelve or thirteen years, you know how they chat. The three novices went to Strmgtown en Voiture on the eve of the feast of St Francis Borgia They let me know that they are well pleased I am of opinion that our good Father Gnvel could hardly have made a better choice Videntur bont Israelitae 32
The anticipations of Verhaegen with regard to the three novices were to be realized m the fullest measure. All showed themselves in
30 Le Pere T le Theux, p 112
31 Lebrocquy, Vie de R P Helios D'Huddeghem, p no
32 Verhaegen to McSherry, October 16, 1833 (B) The three novices were sent from White Marsh to Florissant pursuant to instructions to that effect com- municated to the Maryland superior by the Father General "Certainly, Reverend Father, it cannot be denied that considerable aid has been vouchsafed you from Belgium on account of the Fathers of the Missouri Mission, and this not merely in supplies but also in personnel So too, what you received last year from that distinguished benefactor, M De Nef, you must consider as having been received
RECRUITING THE MISSION 347
the sequel highly efficient members of the mission, Hoecken among the Indians, Emig m the colleges and Busschots in the parochial ministry. Father De Theux appreciated the courtesj sho\\n tn Man land to the West and a few dajs after the arrival of the novices informed Father McSherry that a novena of prayers, for such intention* as he should have in mind, would be begun at the novitiate on St. Stanislaus' da\? November I3.33 "It grieves me to think," he had written to him a few weeks before, "that m order to accommodate us, you have to part with subjects for whom you have much employment, but I hope that what St. Paul promised the liberal Corinthians will prove true also m jour regard » 34
The next reenforcements from Maryland arrived in June, 1834, when Fathers John Schoenmakers and Cornelius Walters and the scholastics, John Baptist Druyts and John Baptist Duermck, all of whom had entered the Society of Jesus at White Marsh on January 16 of the same year, were transferred to Florissant33 They came from M. De NePs school at Turnhout, having embarked at Antwerp Octo- ber 28, 1833, and were the second group of Jesuit candidates sent out to America by that edifying layman.36 A letter addressed to him by Father De Theux on this occasion reveals the fact that a choice was offered to the four of remaining in Maryland or attaching themselves to Missouri. "A few days after I received two letters from Maryland, one from the Rev. Father Provincial, the other from the new Procura- tor, Father Vespre, both full of charity and courtesy. They inform me of their intention to send me soon my share, accurately determined,
for the Belgians resident in Missouri. Most indeed of the Belgians who ha\e gone to America, have gone with a view to the Missouri Mission, though, after crossing over, nearly all of them for some reason or another have remained with you I therefore earnestly desire and recommend with all the insistence I can that vour Reverence despatch thither as soon as possible three members who will prove useful in Missouri A burning desire for the Missouri Mission possessed at one time Father Haverman, Canssimes Van De Wardt, Balli, Lancaster, Barbelm — Father Lekeu also and Brother Christian de Smedt Make a choice then from these, or select others as may seem best, only send men who will be of service" Father Roothaan adds that if the Belgian benefactors see that their candidates and goods remain in Maryland exclusively, they will find a waj of sending future contribu- tions by way of New Orleans, thence to be dispatched to Mibsoun alone. Roothaan ad McSherry, June 18, 1833. (B). See infra, note 41.
38 De Theux to McSherry, October 23, 1833 (B)
34 De Theux to McSherry, September 13, 1833 (B)
85 De Theux to McSherry, June, 1833 (B)
36 Le Pere de Theux y p 125. Three of the party were Belgians Schoenmakers from Waspiek, Druyts from Merxplas and Duermck, a cousin of Father De Smet's, from St Gilles-Waes Walters, from Wilderer, diocese of Munster m Germany, does not appear to have travelled to America with the other three
3^3 THE JESUITS OF THE MIDDLE UNITED STATES
of the alms, and to see to it most carefully that the young men are Ittt full libert\ to choose between Missouri and Maryland Mr. Duer- mck, it seemb, will decide for Missouri. The master of novices. Father Gnvel, \\ntes me that he is unaware as yet what the others will do. Ma\ God be pleaded to bring them all to Missouri, if they are to labor here m a higher or at least an equal degree for His greater glory. Such, my dear friend, is the desire of your servant, and, I doubt not at all, of the entire little mission which he represents. Such also is the desire which we have expressed in letters to the young men and which we shall not cease to recommend to the Divine Master of the Vineyard, until the} shall have made their final decision. I shall have the honor of acquainting \ ou with the result when all is settled " 37
In February 1834, De Theux was still m doubt as to how many of the Belgian novices at White Marsh would decide for Missouri. "I wrote Father Schoenmakers," he said m a letter to Father McSherry, "not indeed to persuade any of them to choose this mission but simply to let them know our want of persons etc. Then whatever will be their choice, we v^ill take as from the hand of God." 38 By Easter, however, De Theux was expecting the arrival at Florissant of all four candidates and was somewhat at a loss to explain their protracted stay in the East. At length, towards the end of June, 1834, Fathers Schoenmakers and Walters and Messrs Duermck and Druyts were welcomed at Florissant. De Theux hastened to inform McSherry of their arrival: "I sincerely thank your Reverence for the interest you have taken in the welfare of the mission, for your very fair division of the goods and your kind- ness to the four lately arrived.39
There still remained at White Marsh some Belgian novices to whom the Missouri superior could lay no certain claim In the course of the year 1 834 Father De Theux was informed by Father Roothaan that three new subjects were to be sent to Missouri by Father Mc- Sherry.40 Who these were De Theux did not know, though Father Schoenmakers and his party reported on their arrival m the West that it had been given out at White Marsh that Fathers Helias and Sanders and Mr. Blox were to go to Missouri.41 As McSherry protested his in-
37 Le Pete T. tie Tkeux, p 127.
38 De Theux to McSheiry, February 12, 1834 (B).
39 Same to same, June 29, 1834. (B)
40 Same to same, December 5, 1834. (B)
41 Same to same, December 5, 1834 (B) It having been reported to Father Roothaan that certain Belgian novices were being detained m Maryland against their wibhes, Father de Gnvel, the novice-master, wrote in explanation that the novices in question had deliberately chosen to remain m Maryland rather than go to Missouri, as was their original intention, even making a written declara- tion to that effect. The reason for this change of plan, according to de Grivel,
RECRUITING THE MISSION 349
ability to part with any more men. Father Roothaan advised De Theux that the matter would have to be settled by him directly with the Maryland provincial, whose houses were soreh handicapped in their work for lack of sufficient members
One at least of this party of Belgians was to be secured for Missouri Father Helias D'Huddeghem, member of a noble Belgian family and eighteen years a Jesuit, two of which had been spent in Maryland, arrived m St. Louis August 25, 1835. He had been expected more than a twelvemonth by Father De Theux, who wrote in June, 1834, to Father de Gnvel at White Marsh "I should be delighted with the arrival of Father Helias and his six companions. It will be the means of placing our little novitiate on a respectable footing and consequently making it worthy the attention of young men who may have a voca- tion." 42 Objection having been raised to the detaching of Father Helias from the Maryland Mission, Father De Theux was determined that if he came at all his coming should be at no sacrifice of honor or justice. "No," he protested to the Maryland provincial, "not for ten men would I deprive my neighbor of the services of a man to whom he may have a right by the will of Superiors." 43 The matter was referred for decision to the Father General, who advised the transfer of Father Helias to the Missouri Mission, in which advice the Maryland pro- vincial promptly acquiesced.
The few accessions from Maryland thus far noted, novices they were for the most part who could not be pressed immediately into active service, did not by any means raise the teaching and missionary forces of the Missouri Mission to a level with its needs. The mission was still notably undermanned and Father De Theux, keenly conscious of the fact, was eager to receive help from whatever quarter it might be offered him. He noted in a letter, with great satisfaction at the news, that Bishop Du Bourg, now occupying the see of Montauban m France, was preparing to send a band of missionaries to his relief. He asked Bishop De Neckere of New Orleans to employ his kindly offices to se-
was that the young men had no vocation for the Indian mission and, having seen White Marsh and Georgetown, were quite satisfied to remain in the East. (De Gnvel ad Roothaan, December 9, 1832. A A) Roothaan agreed that the Belgians, if they freely chose to do so, might remain in Maryland, but he was sure that the Maryland and Missouri superiors could arrange all things amicably, which they succeeded in doing. (Roothaan ad McSherry, August 23, 1834. AA). As to Helias, Sanders and Blox, Roothaan had at first insisted that they be sent to Missouri, on the ground that they desired to go there, later, on representations made by McSherry, he agreed to their remaining in Maryland though he strongly counselled Helias's transfer to the West
42 De Theux to Gnvel, June 22, 1834. (B)
48 De Theux to McSherry, April i, 1835 (B).
350 THE JESUITS OF THE MIDDLE UNITED STATES
ore candidate* for the no\itiate In a letter addressed m August, 1833, tu his brother in Liege, he said:
You often set the \\oith} Bishop and his excellent Vicai -General, my friends of ioirrui da\s, ut \\hom I always had a high esteem When you find tJu oppoitunit} pitsent my rcspectb to both and say to the last-named th it it he finds among his seminarists an} with a vocation for our Society, I shall esteem it a fa\or if he stnd thtm to us But you know it is no light matter to undertake a journey of this soit You might yourself be able to p'ck out some \oung men who would be suitable for me either without studies, as brothers, or after making their studies, as priests Foi the rest, let them undeitake nothing without having taken counsel of God and a prudent confcssoi and given the rnattei due reflection44
De Theux's efforts to build up his little novitiate were not without some measure at least of success He could write to Father McSherry in August, 1835 "I have the pleasure to add that this small colony is also increasing much beyond our deserts and expectations. By the late [recent] arrival of Rev George Carrell, the number of novices is again thirteen." 45
§ 4. THE BELGIAN EXPEDITIONS
The period has now been reached when successive parties of candi- dates for the Society of Jesus were dispatched from Belgium directly to Florissant "Why did you not awaken the dormant zeal of some more Belgian jouths?" was the question Father Verhaegen put to Father McSherry after the latter's return in 1833 from Europe. "There are many, who, I know, desire to be Jesuits and many who wish to devote their labors to the salvation of souls m a distant clime. But they want a leader and their former fervor is to be revived." 46 A leader for the "Belgian expeditions," as these detachments of novices from the Catho- lic Netherlands came to be known in the correspondence of the period, was soon to be at hand in the person of Father Peter John De Smet.
Father De Smet had long suffered from a cutaneous malady, prob- ably eczema, which became aggravated during his first years in Mis- souri. While involving no danger to life, it threatened to spread over the hands and face and so seriously to impair his usefulness on the missions Father Kenney, after meeting him in St. Louis, reported his condition as pitiable. The doctors could hold out no prospect of a cure except through a return to his native air. De Smet accordingly petitioned the Father General, m March, 1832, for permission to return to Europe,
44 De Theux a son frere, August 22, 1833 (B).
45 De Theux a McSherry, August 23, 1835. (B)
46 Verhaegen to McSherry, June 23, 1833 (B)
RECRUITING THE MISSION 351
not, however, particularly to Belgium His letter bore a cordial indorse- ment from Father Kenney, who preferred that the matter be taken up directly with the General and independently of Father De Theux, superior of the mission, as it was feared that the latter would oppose Father De Smet's return to Europe.47 Probably some other considera- tions besides anxiety over health were influencing De Smet at the mo- ment He appeared to be restless and in a somewhat unsettled state of mind as to his future, though likely enough this mental attitude was nothing more than a reflex of the physical ailment from which he suf- fered. Hence the Father General directed that his final vows as a spiritual coadjutor of the Society, which he had been instructed to take on September i, 1833, should be deferred until such time as he de- veloped more steadiness in his calling as a Jesuit.48 The Visitor, now given complete discretionary powers by the General to settle the ques- tion of De Smet's return to Europe, wrote to St Louis directing that the father be sent overseas at once with the added caution that the Missouri superior was to consider himself as bound in conscience to execute the order Meantime, the situation had been complicated by the assurance given Father De Smet by a competent physician that the Missouri climate would after all agree with him quite as well as any he should find in Europe. But Father De Theux, in view of the per- emptory orders received from the Visitor, at once directed De Smet to put his accounts in order, for he was treasurer of the college, and make ready to depart He left St. Louis in September, 1833, accompanied by Father J. M. Odin, the future Bishop of Galveston, who was likewise to journey to Europe. He bore with him a letter from De Theux to the Maryland provincial, McSherry, in which the writer noted with prophetic anticipation of the future "It is with great regret that we part with the worthy bearer, I mean, according to nature, for many a past accident of the most painful nature has proved useful to the Mission, from whence I infer that this loss will also turn to our wel- fare." 49
How keenly the departure of De Smet was felt by his fellow- Jesuits in St. Louis is revealed in the words of Father Verhaegen writ- ten to the General "Father De Smet is to leave here in a few days. His ailment does not grow much worse and does not show. As a matter of fact, he is the most robust of all our men here. If he is not cured in Belgium and if there is no hope that he is going to be cured, I earnestly beg your Paternity to be so good as to send him back after some time
47 De Smet a Roothaan, March, 1832 (with indorsement by Kenney). (AA).
48 De Theux a Roothaan, May 30, 1833 (AA).
49 De Theux to McSherry, September 13, 1833, April 5, 1834 (B) A will made by De Smet is dated St. Louis, September 23, 1833. (A).
352 THE JESUITS OF THE MIDDLE UNITED STATES
to the Mission Here he can be most useful, here he wishes to labor and hither he will alwavs desire to return, should he find no relief in his own land." Some weeks later Verhaegen again wrote to the General "I don't doubt that his [De Smet's] return to Belgium is going to help this mission of ours m many ways. For he is a man full of zeal and ven much attached to Ours. What a flood of tears he shed when he bade us good b>e! If that trouble of his be completely cured in Bel- gium, or if it cannot be cured or alleviated in that country, with what joy \\e should welcome him back " 50
Scarcely had De Smet arrived in Pans, December, 1833, when he wrote thence to Father Roothaan soliciting permission to return to Mis- souri, a favor, which next to his entrance into the Society, he would regard as the greatest which could possibly be granted him m life He made kno\\n at the same time the doctor's opinion that m the matter of health he would be as well off in Missouri as elsewhere. In fine, his withdrawal from the mission, so he represented, had been involuntary and had been imposed upon him as an act of obedience. "As a conse- quence, I had to leave despite my regrets and my wishes to remain " 51 A few weeks later Father Roothaan's reply reached De Smet m Pans, "You know, Reverend Father, that permission to change provinces for the sole reason of health is given only m cases where this reason actually exists and that if it does not exist or if the doctors judge a change of province useless, the permission must be looked upon as non- existent, I can attribute it only to a misunderstanding that this reflec- tion did not occur to you before your departure. Now that you desire to return to Missouri and that the shortage of men there is consider- able, I willingly grant you a request so worthy of a member of the Societ} ." 52 At the same time Father Roothaan was expressing to Father De Theux his surprise that the permission granted by him should have been thus interpreted as a precept, "especially since the whole reason for the permission did not exist " "Still, God will turn this affair to his glory and something, so I hope, will be gained for the Mission of Missouri." D3 As a matter of fact, the question of De Smet's return to Europe had been settled independently of Father De Theux by the Visitor, Father Kenney.
Though leaving Amenca, to all appearances without hope of return,
50 Verhaegen ad Roothaan, September 12, 1833, November 12, 1833 (AA)
51 De Smet a Roothaan, December 12, 1833 (AA). De Smet wrote from Pans, December 19, 1833, to Father Ryder of Georgetown "I have had good success in Pans A society is now af ormmg to assist the Jesuits in the West " Georgetown University Archives.
52 Roothaan ad De Smet, January 4, 1834. (AA).
68 Roothaan ad De Theux, February 15, 1834.. (AA).
RECRUITING THE MISSION 353
Father De Smet counted on rendering from Belgium important aid to the Jesuits of Missouri At his departure from St. Louis he offered his services to Father De Theux as procurator or agent in Belgium for the Missouri Mission, but the latter did not see his wa\ to grant- ing him a commission of this nature, as De Smet would not longer be under the jurisdiction of the Missouri superior. While in Belgium De Smet interested himself in a suggested union of the Missouri Mission with the Belgian Province of the Society. "I leave you free to defer your return as long as you judge good for the welfare of the mission," De Theux wrote to him June 4, 1834, "and I authorise \ou, if Father Van Lil does not object, to depart for Missouri. You know its needs ? you know that the University has almost 15,000 francs of debt and that if we had men and means the Society would not fail to establish new missions especially among the Indians in the vast territory en- trusted to it. . . As to the project of uniting with the Belgian Prov- ince, that is Father GeneraPs affair. I thought it my duty at the time to refrain from asking for the separation of the Mission of Missouri from that of Maryland. I am likewise of opinion that it is better to leave to Providence the task of reuniting it to the Belgian Province, if such change enter into the designs of Almighty God." 54 This letter De Smet transmitted to Madame De Theux with the comment- "I have just received from our Rev Father Superior, jou dear son, a letter, a copy of which I enclose You will see by it that he will not ask for the union of the Missouri Mission with the Belgian Province. I believe, however, that he will not oppose it, and that at the petition of all the other Fathers, the Father General will see his way to grant- ing it. You may, then, cherish the hope of seeing your son again in Belgium, for we shall need here a man of his ability and experience to watch over the interests of America." 55 Father Van Lil, the Belgian provincial, gave the plan his approval and encouragement, as it seemed to promise advantages to his own men as to those of the mission.56
At St. Louis the plan met with general favor, only Father De Theux being opposed to it. "The reasons advanced in favor of this union seemed to me to be very strong," wrote Father Elet to the General. "The only reason against it was the disapproval of Father Superior, who said he feared lest such a proposal might meet with your Paternity's displeasure." Father Verhaegen, rector of St. Louis
54 De Theux a De Smet, June 4, 1834. (A).
65 Le Pere T de Theux, p. 138.
56 Laveille, De Smet, p. 67 De Smet exchanged letters with Father Van Lil in regard to the incorporation of the Missouri Mission into the Belgian Province "It is," he says, "the consensus of opinion among those familiar with the situation that this is the most certain way to assure the future of the Mission "
354 THE JESUITS OF THE MIDDLE UNITED STATES
Uni\ ersitj , affirmed that he and the other fathers of the house de- bired to bee the union brought about The following year, when he had become superior of the mission, he pressed the matter further. uDue confederation ha\mg been gnen to the benefits which the Bel- gians have lavished upon this mission, (whatever it received it owes in largt measure to them), and information having been given us that a college of the Society is shortly to be established in Louisiana, \\hich undoubtedly, as I have often represented to your Paternity, will reduce the number of our boarders to a few and work harm ac- cording!} to the finances of our college, I have spoken lately with some of our Fathers about petitioning your Reverence for the aforesaid union. To them as to me this annexation is agreeable and therefore I have decided to ascertain }our Paternity's opinion " The only objection Ver- haegen saw to the project was the distance and the diversity of customs that separated Belgium from the United States.57 Father Roothaan's attitude in the matter was apparently unfavorable. In the end nothing came of it except, if indeed the circumstance had anything at all to do with the proposed union, that the Missouri Mission register for the period 1837-1842 was issued as a supplement to the register of the province of Belgium.
After a stay of nine months in Belgium, Father De Smet prepared to return to America with a party of young men, five m number, whom he and M De Nef had recruited for service on the Missouri Mission These were Peter Verheyden, Herman Aelen, Maurice Van den Eycken and the future coadjutor-brothers, Theodore Lohman and Charles Huet. The expenses of the expedition were to be met by De Nef and De Smet was to conduct it m person On July 20, 1834, the latter wrote from Termonde to Madame De Theux "My journey has been post- poned to the end of next month to enable me to accompany the ex- pedition of M. De Nef of Turnhout, which this time is exclusively for our poor mission." °8 It was the first contingent of M. De NePs recruits to be dispatched directly to Missouri.
Father De Smet's appeal to the charity of Catholic Belgium in behalf of the Missouri Mission during the nine months he had thus far spent in his native country had met with success. The money col- lected by him and his companions in Belgium and Holland, together with the sum netted by the commercial ventures of M, De Nef, amounted to 39,442 francs. Moreover, a collection made in Antwerp yielded 3,150 francs.59 In addition to money collected, there were nu- merous boxes of vestments, altar furniture, books, paintings and scien-
57 Verhaegen ad Roothaan, February 28, 1837 (AA) GS De Smet a Madame De Theux, July 20, 1834 (A) 59 Le Pert T de Theux, p 138.
RECRUITING THE MISSION 355
tific instruments. The paintings, thirty in number, were of considerable merit The books included the library formerly belonging to the Augub- timans of Enghien "I counted on being with you before Easter," De Smet informed his brother, "but Providence stood in the way. Some trifling business called me to Enghien An hour there was all I needed By the merest chance, I fell in with a certain priest The conversation turns on books He tells of a place where I shall be sure to find some We go there and I am given the entire library, Baronms in twenty-two volumes folio, the Bollandists in forty volumes, all the Councils, the great dictionary of Moreri, a History of the Church, a large number of the Fathers and many good books besides." 60 Again, finding himself near the old Jesuit college of St. Acheul in France, which was closed after the Ordinances of 1828, he indulged a feeling of curiosity to visit the venerable institution. To his surprise he was offered the physical scientific apparatus at a nominal price "I purchased the entire physical cabinet, a mineral collection included, for 3,500 francs. It cost more than 15,000 francs" 61 The gifts had been gathered in every part of Belgium. The Archbishop of Mechlin contributed two fine paintings and a chalice. Msgr. Van Bommel, Bishop of Liege, showed himself a generous giver as did also Madame De Theux. At Louvam, Father De Smet's friend of long standing, the Abbe De Ram, future rector of the University, was not behindhand m substantial chanty. In Namur alone Father De Smet visited fifty families. From Namur he pro- ceeded m quest of alms to Mons, Tournai, Brussels, Erps, Querbs, Aaerschots, Montaigu, Diest, Sandhoven and Antwerp, collecting in the last named town alone the sum of three thousand francs.62
Toward the end of October, 1 834, the six members of M. De Nef s first direct expedition of novices to Florissant met at Antwerp, from which port they were to sad on the brig Agenona for America. On October 28 of that month De Smet sent off a letter to Verhaegen in St Louis informing him that he was taking along with him the physical cabinet of the college of St. Acheul, but that rough weather and unfavorable winds were detaining him in Antwerp. At length, on November i, the Agenona put out to sea. She was to land the Jesuit candidates safely in New York fifty days later, but unaccom- panied by their leader, Father De Smet So seriously ill had he become in consequence of a violent storm that overtook the party in the North Sea that the captain of the vessel put m at Deal on the English coast to await his recovery. Then, hearing from the physicians that the father
60 Laveille, Le Per* De Smet (1801-1873), p 85
61 ldemy p. 86
62 Idem, pp. 66, 67.
356 THE JESUITS OF THE MIDDLE UNITED STATES
ttould not be able to travel for a fortnight or perhaps a month, the captain decided to continue his voyage without him.63
Thus under the necessity of abandoning the voyage on which he had started, De Smet relinquished his charge into the hands of Peter Verhe\den, who was to see the candidates safely arrived at their desti- nation" On December 23 the party reached New York and on February 3? 1835, Van den E>cken, Aelen, Huet and Lohman were at Floris- sant.04 Verheyden joined his companions at the novitiate only on March 9, having remained in St. Louis probably to await the arrival of the scientific equipment, which was received at the University on the 7th of the same month. Father De Theux was prompt to communicate to M. De Nef the impression made upon him by the candidates. "I have the honor to thank you and your zealous co-operators most humbly for the subjects >ou have sent me. The four already here are genuine men and I don't doubt that Mr. Verheyden is of like stock." 65 The letter of exchange for thirty thousand francs which the travellers brought with them for the superior of the Missouri Mission came at a most opportune juncture, as a part of the mission funds had recently been lost on account of the suspension of a bank m Georgetown, D. C. With the splendid contributions just received from Belgium it became possible to proceed to the erection of the St Louis University chapel on Washington Avenue.66
As to Father De Smet, he was now to withdraw for a while from the Society of Jesus. The English doctors were unable to assure him any such restoration of health as would enable him to return to Amer- ica. Thus at thirty-four he saw the opportunity of prosecuting what he had fondly hoped would be his life-work suddenly swept away. The result was that before leaving London, where he spent some days of con- valescence in the Jesuit residence, before returning to Belgium, he had resolved on attaching himself as a secular priest to the diocese of Ghent. His letter to Father Roothaan petitioning his release from the Society of Jesus was dated January 22, 1835. On March 4 following the Gen- eral held a consultation with his assistants in which it was decided that the reason alleged by De Smet for his dismissal, namely, a stubborn malady, which, so he thought, threatened to render him a future burden on the Society, was satisfactory and that the release might be granted. On March 31 the General wrote to De Smet.
I have delayed answering your letter of January 22 because its con- tents are very grave and have not failed to give me great pain on your
63La\eille, De Smet, pp. 88, 89.
** Idem, p 90 Catal Prov Mzssour., July, 1835. (A)
65 Le Pere T. de Theux, p. 139.
66 Idem, p 14.0.
RECRUITING THE MISSION 357
account After so many toils— after so many sacrifices — to leave the So- ciety? 1 — and yet I see the reasons }ou allege aie grave ones Here then is my decision after I confeired on the matter with the father assistants . . . The present state of your health, supposition being made that theie is no hope of a cure, is such, yes, that on one side and the other, namely, on }our side and on the side of the Society, it may be an advantage that }ou be released from your engagements in its regard Now, as for the Society, whatever be the state of your health, my good Father, never would I agree to dismiss you against your will, never, never Not in such fashion can this good mother treat her children. But since you ask for your dismissal, I give my consent, expressing to you at the same time my desire to see you pre- serve the spirit of your first vocation by the performance of your spiritual exercises, by the practice of zeal in the position }ou find }ourself in outside of the Society, and by a cordial union with its members, towards which it will help if you keep up a certain correspondence with Ours, both m Mis- souri, where certainly you will be greatly missed, and m Belgium
We shall not fail to give notice of this decision to Father Provincial de [Van] Lil.67
To Van Lil, the Belgian provincial, Father Roothaan repeated m a letter of April 9, 1835, what he had written to De Smet, to wit, that he would not send the latter out of the Society against his will, no matter how serious his infirmity might become. "Your Reverence may there- fore give him dismissonals, in which mention must be made of the motive of health as also of his petition. It is unnecessary to recom- mend to your Reverence as also to all the brethren of your Province that every token of charity be shown that good man as occasion offers." Father De Smet's release from the Society of Jesus bears date May
67RootKaan a De Smet, March 31, 1835. (AA)
68 Roothaan ad Van Lil, April 9, 1835 (AA) An official record of De Smet's withdrawal from the Society of Jesus assigns no other reason for it than poor health Petrus de Smety scholasticus sacerdos, dtmtssus 8 Matt, J&35) Gandavi ob valetu- fonem. Postea reassumftus A letter [French] of Father Remi de Buck, Brussels, June 3, 1879, nas tne following account communicated to him by Father J B. Wiere "He [De Smet] had returned [from America] to Belgium because he was sick While living with his family he asked Very Reverend Father Roothaan in a moment of discouragement to be relieved of his religious vows. Almost immediately after he regretted the step he had taken. Meanwhile he was called by the superiors of the Society to the residence of Ghent, where dimissorial papers from Very Rev- erend Father Roothaan were sent him As soon as he opened the letter he began to weep and to ask whether the affair was now settled Father Wiere told him that it was settled, that the petition having been made and granted there was no retracing his steps Father Wiere rebuked him for not having confided to him that he had taken this measure, he would have advised him not to accept the letter and to write to Very Reverend Father General that he withdrew his request. But it was now too late. Both wept together for quite a while. Father De Smet told me
353 THE JESUITS OF THE MIDDLE UNITED STATES
father DC Smet's interest in his Jesuit friends in America and their implicit confidence in him did not cease during the period he remained outride the order Shipments of minerals, fossils and other material of the kind from St Louis to the Belgian Jesuits were addressed "in care of the Abbe De Smet " Correspondents kept him au courant with cur- rent happenings in his former field of labor, while Father Verhaegen, superior of the Missouri Mission m succession to Father De Theux, looking more favorablj on the project than did his predecessor, made Irs former fellow-novice his confidential agent in Belgium to promote a union of the Missouri Mission with the Belgian Province. Significant also is the fact that in August, 1837, the Abbe De Smet was authorized b\ the trustees of St Louis University to obtain a loan of one hundred and t\\ent\-five thousand francs for that institution The money was obtained from the Baroness de Ghyseghem nee the Countess de Bobiano, and her daughter, Elizabeth, both residents of Termonde, De Smet's native town.
Two other expeditions of Belgian recruits belong to this period, Fathers Theodore De Leeuw, Anthony Eysvogels and Bartholomew Krjnen, with Henry Van Mierlo, Peter Arnoudt, Francis (Peter?) Steurs and William Claessens were a party of candidates that reached Florissant at the end of December, 1835, after an eventful voyage of four months 60 Two of the number, Claessens and Steurs, entered as coadjutor-brothers The year 1837 saw stl^ another detachment of novices make the long journey from Belgium to Missouri The mission register records the admission at Florissant on February 24, 1837, of Angelo Maesseele, Charles Truyens, William Crabeels, Mark Boex and a coadjutor-brother candidate, Francis Van der Borght 70 The long pro- tracted journey was an occasion of anxiety to the Jesuits of Missouri, who were awaiting their arrival. "We are very uneasy," Verhaegen wrote to the East early in February 1837, "about the fate of six young gentlemen who left the port of Antwerp on the 2Oth of September last. The vessel on which they sailed was to take in freight at Bremen m Germany, but how is it possible that she should have been detained so long. Not a word concerning them came to us since the 26th of September last. The Lord have mercy on them." 71
During the two years Father De Smet spent m Belgium as a priest
himbelf that it was in a moment of discouragement caused by his sickness that he had been so stupid (the expression is his own) as to ask to be dismissed " Archives of the Province of North Belgium, S J.
69 A ms account of the voyage written m Flemish by Mr Krynen has been preserved (A)
70 Le Pere T. de Theux, p 152.
71 Verhaegen to McSherry, St Louis, February 9, 1837. (B).
RECRUITING THE MISSION 359
of the diocese of Ghent his health remained uncertain This was so much the case that he made no attempt to exercise the parochial minis- try. He was content to lend his services as chaplain to an orphanage and a convent of Carmelite nuns, both of them in Termondc His efforts to promote the last-named institution were particularly successful and were remembered with gratitude in after years b} the inmates When a new Carmelite foundation was projected in Alost, it was Father De Smet who took it in hand and dispatched the business details involved Meanwhile his thoughts were ever turning to the little colon\ of Bel- gian Jesuits overseas. "During the two years that he directed our Com- munity," said the prioress of the Termonde Carmelites, "he often begged our prayers that God would restore his health and so permit him to return to the Indians." Moreover, he felt more keenlj everj day that the Society of Jesus was his proper place "I could not," he witnessed to his brother Francis, "find rest and interior quiet except by fulfilling my duty"72
Three distinct expeditions had gone out from Belgium to the Jesuit mission in western America since De Smet's return to his native land He was now to gladden the hearts of his former associates by turning his steps in the same direction. A fresh expedition to Florissant was planned in the summer of 1837 and De Smet, having obtained his re- lease from the diocese of Ghent as also an assurance that he would be readmitted into the Society of Jesus, resolved to accompany it. In the party, besides De Smet, were Father John Gleizal, a Frenchman, and the Hollanders Arnold Damen, Francis d'Hoop and Adrian Hen- dnckx, the last named a lay-brother candidate. Before embarking at Havre, the travellers made a short stay in Pans. Here either an acute recrudescence of Father De Smet's former malady or some other illness suddenly seized him and two physicians of repute declared that it would be fatal for him to attempt to sail. Happily, the crisis passed and he was enabled to continue the journey with his companions.
On October 26 De Smet and his party reached New York. On the 22d of the following month, Father Gleizal, Messrs Damen and d'Hoop and Brother Hendnckx began their novitiate at Florissant. They were followed in a few days by Father De Smet, his readmission into the Society being dated in the mission register, November 29, i837.73 ccWe had a very short and pleasant voyage of twenty-six days, in a fortnight we arrived at St. Louis from New York. I found every- thing much improved, the prospects of our holy Society brighter m all directions and the true light of the gospel beginning to dawn upon the
72 Laveille, De Smet> p 96.
73 Father De Smet on being received a second time into the Society of Jesus was not registered as a novice in the mission register.
360 THE JESUITS OF THE MIDDLE UNITED STATES
poor savages " The welcome accorded to the Florissant pioneer of 1823 on his return to the scene of his early labors is revealed in the Annual Letter for 1837, which record as the crowning happiness of that year the return of Father De Smet, "fellow-campaigner of ours who has deserved highl} of the Missouri Mission "
A \ear later than his return to Florissant Father De Smet wrote from Council Bluffs to the General
I have been intending foi some time to write your Paternity a bit of a letter to thank )ou for all yow kindnesses m my regard, especially for ha\mg deigned to leadmit me into the Society I am, then, once moie one of \oui nun, m) deai Fathei, not in hope only, but in reality . . Oh, how great is the difference between exercising the sacred mmistiy within the Societ} and outside of it The experiences I have gone through is one reason more to cling as close as possible to my fiist vocation. I shall then love the Societ\, cherish it as a kind mother, and endeavor both out of duty and gratitude to neglect nothing, absolutely nothing, that I may have the unspeakable happiness of dying in its bosom 74
In the course of 1838 only two scholastic-novices were received at Florissant, John Verdin, of American birth, and Florence Riordan, a native of Ireland, the latter of whom died October 8 of the same year. The novitiate had been almost depleted of novices when towards the end of 1839 a fresh contingent of recruits from the Netherlands ar- rived at Florissant. The novitiate diary for November 30 has this entry "There arrived from. Belgium eight novices, one of whom is a priest, namely the Rev. Father Sautois, who made a part of his novice- ship m Belgium. He is a Belgian as are also Canssimes Peter Kmde- kens, John Roes, John De Blieck. There are two Hollanders, Adrian Hoecken, a deacon, and Adrian Van Hulst, a Frenchman, Louis Du- mortier, and a German, Francis Horstman. They met with a hearty welcome, bringing as they did, a new lease of life to our almost de- serted novitiate. So it was with full hearts that we sang the Te Deum."75 The travelling expenses of the party amounting in all to eighty-five hundred and seventy francs were borne by the seminaries of Bois-le-duc and Breda, the former contributing twenty-four hundred and the latter six thousand francs.76
Thus far the recruiting of the Missouri Mission had been effected almost exclusively from abroad. Up to 1840 only four native Ameri- cans had been received among the scholastic-novices. The first of these
74 De Smet a Roothaan, November, 1838. (AA).
75 The date of entrance at Florissant of the party of eight novices is recorded m the mission register as December 2, 1839
76 Le Pere T de Theux, p. 170.
RECRUITING THE MISSION 361
was Father George Carrel, the future first Bishop of Covmgton, who was born in Philadelphia in the old William Penn Mansion on Market Street He was educated at Georgetown College, spent two \ears in the White Marsh novitiate, which he left to enter the diocesan priesthood, passed some years in the parochial ministry at various posts, and then sought readmission into the Society of Jesus m Missouri. He was re- ceived at Florissant, August 19, i83J77 Father Carrell was followed July 17, 1836, by Isidore Boudreaux, the first student of St Louis University to become a Jesuit. The author of the Annual Letters for 1836 felt that the entrance of an American college student into the novitiate was an event important enough for formal record. "From the Sodality, contemning the joys of the world, there came to the Society Isidore Boudreaux, the first candidate from Louisiana, and one of no uncertain promise." With young Boudreaux, whose praise as master of novices was to be heard in later years, entered on the same day, Francis O'Loghlen, a native of Ireland, who had been a student in Bishop PurcelPs seminary m Cincinnati. To the names of Father George Carrell and Isidore Boudreaux as American novices received at Floris- sant before 1840, were added those of John Verdm and his brother Joseph, students of St. Louis University, who were received in the novitiate, the first on April 25, 1838, and the second on September 8 of the following year.
§ 5. EARLY BENEFACTORS
Any record of the benefactors of the Missouri Mission must begin with the name of Bishop Du Bourg. In a sense he began it inasmuch as he was the chief agent in bringing about the emigration from Mary- land to Missouri of the group of Jesuits that formed the nucleus out of which the mission grew. As long as he remained at New Orleans he followed with sympathy its pioneer struggles and even after his final withdrawal from America, he continued to manifest an active interest in its affairs.
The correspondence of Du Bourg set before the reader in connec- tion with the prelate's persistent and finally successful efforts to intro- duce the Society of Jesus into his diocese is evidence enough, if other were wanting, of the esteem which he entertained for that religious body. To Father Dzierozynski he confided, "the Society [of Jesus] is the dream of my soul and the idol of my heart." One must, perhaps,
77 "I now have an excellent English teacher here, Father George Carrell He was formerly a novice of the Society in Maryland under Father Van Quickenborne, but left of his own accord because he thought himself unequal to the studies of the Society He was readmitted last August 19 (1835), conducts himself very well and preaches splendidly" De Theux ad Roothaan, August 19, 1836 (AA)
302 THE JFSUITS OF THE MIDDLE UNITED STATES
m appraising the attitude ot this eminent ecclesiastic towards men and things make due allowance for a somewhat sentimental exuberance of expression to utvch he fell heir \\ith his West Indian birth. Yet there 2s nothing in the correspondence which came from his pen to indicate that h $ repeated protestations of regard and affection for the sons of St Ignatius \\tre gestures onl) and did not express the genuine senti- ments of his heart. True, the all too facile proffers and promises of material assistance into which his enthusiastic Creole temperament sometimes betrayed him gave color to the suspicion that one could not too confidently pin faith to his assurances m this regard.78 But there could be no question of insincerity $ it was only that in moments of emotional and imaginative ardor engagements were sometimes lightly entered into which later were found to be impracticable The good Bishop saw things in the large, his plans were never on a meagre or contracted scale, on the contrary, they often ran into the grandiose. But the difficulties that might reasonably be expected to attend the execu- tion of his plans as well as other aspects of practicality were liable at times to escape him No better characterization of the prelate was ever penned than the one which his spiritual daughter and devoted admirer. Mother Seton, compressed into a sentence "Rev. Mr. Du Bourg — all liberality and schemes from a long custom of expending " 79 On the other hand. Father Van Quickenborne, shortly after his arrival at Florissant, had this warning for the superior in Maryland "Allow me to say here that Bishop Du Bourg is not a man we can rely upon for temporalities. He loves us and would wish to have us everywhere, but we cannot easily trust his promises when they concern the giving to us of material things " 80 In justice to the Bishop it must here be said that at this particular turn he was in no position to lend financial aid to anybody in view of distressing pecuniary embarrassments of his own. Two } ears later, in a communication to the Father General, Van Quickenborne was to witness to the prelate's substantial generosity
78 An instance in point was the impression under which Du Bourg apparently left Van Quickenborne that he would be given immediate possession of the farm at Florissant without payment of any kind having to be made As a matter of fact, the farm was being managed for the Bishop by a tenant on a fifty-fifty basis The tenant was protected by a ten-year lease, of which seven years were yet to run, given him by the Bishop and he refused to vacate the farm in favor of Van Quickenborne except on payment of four hundred dollars or its equivalent See sztfra, Chap IV, § 2. The Bishop, it would seem, had apprehended no attempt on the part of the tenant to press what after all was his right according to the lease.
79 Sister Mary Agnes McCann, History of Mother Stton's Daughters (New York, 1917), i 52
80 Van Quickenborne ad Dzierozynski, January I3 1824 (B).
RECRUITING THE MISSION 363
Bishop Du Bourg, who is trulj a \eiy devoted friend of ouis, will pci haps present this letter to your Very Reverend Pateinit) He will, so he says, endeavor after his return [to Europe] to send sufficient revenues for founding a college m St Louis and I do not doubt that he will do so What he promised in the Concoidat, he has performed He has delnered to us the title to the farm, as also to the church in this \illage [Florissant] and to a piece of property in another village He lately ga\e us $400 m monej He offers, about which matter he is going to speak to }our Very Rev Paternity, a tract of 200 acres situated m Opelousas m lower Louisiana He wishes to give the Society an entire district there as large as he ga\e here This is an excellent proposition The Bishop, moreover, has changed his mind in regard to a parish church m St Louis 81
In November of the same year, 1826, Van Quickenborne wrote to Bishop Rosati apropos of a letter received from Bishop Du Bourg "He says nothing about his present situation, but tries to console us for his absence with the hope that he is going to be doubly useful to us m France. He and [Rev.] Mr. Niel have visited our Fathers m Pans to beg assistance for us." 82 Four years later the Florissant superior, m a communication to the General, again dwells on Du Bourg>s generosity. After writing that the prelate had failed to deliver immediately the title to the Florissant farm, as there was a mortgage on the property, he continues "But he made abundant compensation for that by giving us whatever he had, so that on leaving for France he spent his last 300 dollars on us m making perfectly secure the property which he gave us at the time in St. Louis and on which the college is built. Every year he gives us 100 dollars out of his own pocket and he recommends us everywhere to the liberality of the Association of the Faith and of his best fnends He writes us letters full of affection." 83
Within a year after the Bishop's return to France, where he was occupying the see of Montauban, he remitted to Father Dzierozynski a handsome gift in money, which act of generosity the Maryland superior did not fail to report to Father Fortis "Bishop Du Bourg, the founder of this Mission [of Missouri], though he has left our America and returned to France, shows himself a dear Father toward this little daughter of his, seeing that he has but recently sent me a thousand [dollars] . Last year, on his departure from America, he wrote me two very charming letters, in which he solemnly declared that in Europe he would be of greater service to our Society than [he had been] in America. And he has proved it within the first year of his departure*" 84
81 Van Quickenborne ad Fortis, May 2, 1826 (AA).
82 Van Quickenborne a Rosati, December 26, 1826. (C).
83 Van Quickenborne ad Fortis, September 9, 1830 (AA).
84 Dzierozynski ad Fortis, May IO, 1827 (AA).
364 THE JESUITS OF THE MIDDLE UNITED STATES
In his efforts to secure help for the Jesuits of his former diocese Bishop Du Bourg was to go to high quarters He took the matter up with the Due de Riviere, governor of the young prince, the Due de Bordeaux. The latter, a grandson of Charles X, was later known as the Count de Chambord, around him as the prospective Henry V were to gather for 5 ears the hopes of the French legitimists for the restora- tion of the Bourbon throne. In a letter from the Bishop to Van Quick- enborne one gets a momentary glimpse of the prince as he presented himself to the French court attired m the Indian costume which had come all the way from Florissant But nothing came of this ingenuous attempt at publicity on behalf of a good cause, as the Bishop informed Van Quickenborne
It is now quite a while. Reverend Father, since I have written to you, not indeed from an) lack of affection or steady remembrance in your regard, for I can assure }ou that my heait and soul are turned towards you habitu- ally and that I find no sweeter consolation than to occupy my thoughts with the good you are doing or with the great harvest which your estab- lishment is destined to gather m Did my pecuniary position permit of my cooperating with you, be altogether convinced that I should find the greatest enjoyment m doing so. So far the initial expenses for my establishment here and for the poor have made it necessary for me to go even beyond my means, but if God lends me life, it will not be always so I am trying to procure for you from one quarter and another all the assistance I can, but so many good works are to be provided for, and, besides, so perceptible is the coolmg-off of chanty that to obtain such assistance becomes more diffi- cult from day to day. I am very glad that you received the thousand dollars, and still more glad that Father Kohlman[n] has written to you of the kindly attitude towards your establishment of the Father General as also of }our fathers m France But these latter are persecuted, oh, with how much violence' I do not think, however, that it is possible to harm them so long as the Charter remains in force The progress you are making is a proof that God is with you And in such case what can be wanting to you? Dominus regit me et whil miht deent ["The Lord ruleth me and nothing shall be wanting to me"] He it is who goes about disposing the hearts of men to assist you, and if at times He leaves you in distress, this can only be to add to your merits those of submission and confidence
Your little Indian-chief costume has been a source of delight to his Lordship, the Due de Bordeaux, who rigged himself out m it on its arrival, giving great amusement on the occasion to all the court Yet I am astonished that the affair has brought no results for your Mission despite the interest which the Due de Riviere, the prince's governor, promised me m its favor I wrote him on the arrival of the costume an engaging letter, which has been left without an answer. I propose to return to the charge, but this must be done with great discretion, especially on the part of a French bishop. I am ever cherishing the firm hope that before my death God will grant
RECRUITING THE MISSION 365
me the favor of seeing 3,0111 establishment firmly grounded and in great repute See, you are eight priests, who by your union are worth sixteen* I should wish to see you multiply in numbers It is astonishing that as }et you have no novices At least you say nothing to me about them I shall also be greatly pleased to learn of the progress of your church m St. Charles, which according to your hopes of last June ought to be under roof b) today The increase m the number of Easter communions is a veiy consoling thing, and the 120 baptisms of Protestants or unbelievers m so few years offers grounds of hope foi a very rapid increase m the number of proselytes to the Faith Here indeed is a fine beginning of the harvest, m which I rejoice as much as yourself, and which ought to encourage all the friends of religion to interest themselves m your labors Your fourth year of probation will soon be finished You will then number eight Professed Fathers, a fine beginning 85 If God has sent me great trials and permitted great reverses to settle on several undertakings of mine in my former diocese, the unex- pected success which he has granted to }our undertakings compensates me for them amply. Though that were the only gam to show, I should not consider as badly employed the fifteen years which I spent m that country And yet I hope that the establishments of the Lazansts and the Ladies of the Sacred Heart likewise count for something I see with pleasure that the new Superior-General of these gentlemen is taking their work in America to heart He is going to send them three French subjects Little by little then Society also will develop stability. Nothing is more to be desired For in those parts and indeed all over the United States it is my firm conviction that one can do nothing except through bodies, such as yours and theirs, which have maintained themselves m their primitive spirit and have a large and unyielding base of support in Europe. Individuals are too few and scattered to be relied upon, and we may not hope from them that unity of interests and of action which is the source of all strength.
Write to me from time to time and m great detail. You will always find m me a tender fnend ready to do everything m your behalf.86
85 Through lack of familiarity with the Jesuit rule the writer falls into some inaccuracies "Third" should be substituted for "fourth" m the reference to the year of probation which Van Quickenborne and the young priests under him were about to complete In Jesuit parlance the term "profebscd" is applied only to such priests of the order as "take" what are called "solemn vows" Moreover, the mere discharge of the third year of probation, ordinarily called the tertianship, does not constitute a Jesuit a "professed father," as the Bishop's words imply
86 Du Bourg a Van Quickenborne, Montauban, January 26, 1828. (A) Com- menting on Du Bourg's liberality Van Quickenborne wrote in the course of the same year (1828) to the Maryland superior "Bishop Du Bourg, when here, promised to give what was necessary for the foundation of the new St Louis College, i.e, for the support, present and future, of eight professors Your Reverence sees from his own actions how he intends to stand by his promises Those 6000 francs came from the Society of the Propagation of the Faith at his solicitation Moreover, he has commended our work, so he writes to me, to the Due de Riviere He is truly a friend" Van Quickenborne ad Dzierozynski, November 17, 1828. (B).
3',0 THE JESITIS OI< THE MIDDLE UNITED STATES
To t^is tAprtbbion uf Du Bourg^s continued cordial interest in the M'bsoun Mibs? on ma\ be added some passages of a like tenor which ixcar n letters addressed b\ him m 1829 and 1830 to Bishop Rosati >£ St Louis
I hop^ L if ti tne ->Upt> \\ill be taken in Belgium to obum aid for your Ktrti> or M wjun Sucn imagines will accuie to the solid and lasting good of yi^r di»)ces«-, of uhich I consider them the mam support for the vast d'sti ct \\h,ch has fallen to them I ha\c kaincd with much pleasure that thuir chuich r.nd ic^uknct in St Chailes have hecn completed, without t r!, th:> \vll lucnmt ? ccntei foi much good I lejoice no less to see them take in hand the college of St Louis, which cannot but prove a success and \\hn-h Uill renl'/L all \our foimci plans in behalf of the youth of that town
A detachment oi four good pnests, your Lordship, is depaiting hence to reentni^e tne cltijn ot our brother of New Orleans [Bishop De Neckere] Aeeompinvng them are four Jesuits, destined for the college of Bardstown, a precious acquisition foi Mgr Plaget, which will set him at ease as to the futuic r/f that fine establishment I presume this last contingent will not fail to be followed b\ another I am at v\oik organizing a party for Father Van Qu'ckenboine \\ith which, I believe, both he and yourself will have every reason to be satisfied You ma\ speak to him about the matter.87
No information is at hand concerning the candidates whom Bishop Du Bourg was thus preparing to send to Van Quickenborne. No group of novices from France is known to have affiliated with the Missouri Mission at this period and it would seem accordingly that the ardent prelate's design miscarried. As a final word from the former Bishop of Louisiana in regard to the religious order he had helped to establish m Missouri m 1823, some lines from a letter addressed by him to Bishop Rosati, Ma> 19, 1831, may be cited. After the passages already quoted with their uniform note of cordial approval and sympathy for the work of the Missouri Jesuits, the lines which follow may seem to throw some measure of weight into the other scale The reference made by the Bishop to the separation of Florissant from Georgetown bears on the release of the mission in 1831 from the jurisdiction of the Maryland superior:
I am \erj well pleased to learn of the separation of Florissant from Georgetown and the appointment of [Rev ] Mr De Theux to the Superior- ship of your establishment. He is less rigid than his predecessor and will manage better with }ou, a thing very important even for public edification I must say that all the rebuffs you have had to suff er from that quarter have diminished greatly the interest I took in these gentlemen. You may, if you judge it apropos, say this to [Rev,] Mr. De Theux, who cannot take too
87 Du Bourg a Rosati, October 27, 1830 (C).
RECRUITING THE MISSION 367
much to heart the word of St Paul, that the letUr killeth This letter has not m effect been made foi all places and cncumbtancts Hence the dis- agieement it has given buth to in the missions, t\erj time that it has not been modified by charity 8*
The allusion here to Father Van Quickenborne's failure, as alleged, to cooperate with the Bishop of St. Louis has reference m all prob- ability to the difference of opinion which arose between the two as to the extent to which the Jesuits might reasonably be expected to lend help to the Bishop m his cathedral services Particulars about this pass- ing disagreement are reserved for a later section of this narrative (Chap. XXXIV, § 2), m which will be detailed the circumstances attending the first exercise of the ministry m St Louis by the Society of Jesus. As to Du Bourg's stricture on Van Quickenborne that he was disposed to pursue too straight-laced and mechanical a course in his management of affairs, it was not altogether devoid of foundation No man could have been more well-meaning or self-forgetting, more energetically zealous than this sturdy son of Flanders who inaugurated the work of the restored Society of Jesus in the American West But tact m dealing with others was an art in which he sometimes failed as he also fell short on occasion of the breadth of mind which knows how to temper the literal exactions of the law m deference to pressing circum- stances.
As to Bishop Du Bourg, he continued to the end, one may be sure, to feel towards the Society of Jesus m Missouri the same kindly sympathy of which he had left so many obvious tokens strewn along his troubled way. He died Archbishop of Besangon, December 12, 1833. When the news reached Florissant, the superior of the Missouri Mis- sion, Father De Theux, announced to Bishop Rosati his intention to say Mass "for the repose of the soul of the great benefactor of your diocese and of our little Society m Missouri." 89
Among the benefactors of the midwestern Jesuits the French Asso- ciation of the Propagation of the Faith holds a distinguished place. Though not the actual founder of this great international society for financing Catholic foreign missions, Bishop Du Bourg appears to have conceived as early as 1815 the original idea out of which it was evolved. The existence of the association as at present organized dates from May, 1822, when the Reverend Angelo Inglesi, vicar general of Bishop Du Bourg, in cooperation with a committee of laymen, drew up at Lyons
88 Du Bourg a Rosati, May 19, 1831 (C)
89 De Theux a Rosati, Florissant, 1832. (C). The aid extended by Mother Duchesne and her nuns to the Florissant Jesuits m 1823 and subsequent years has been recorded supra, Chap. IV, § 3.
368 THE JESUITS OF THE MIDDLE UNITED STATES
:n France a plan for voluntary material aid on the part of the laity to Catholic foreign missions throughout the world 90
Set up within a \ear of the birth of the Association of the Propaga- tion of the Faith, the Jesuit Mission of Missouri shared in the very first disbursement made b> the new agency in 1823 in favor of the United States. In the course of that j ear the association distributed the modest sum of twenty thousand francs, its first appropriation on behalf of the foreign missions. The entire sum \\as divided between Bishop Flaget of Bardstown, Bishop Du Bourg of Louisiana, and the missions of the Orient. Du Bourg's share, seven thousand francs, was applied by him to the reduction of the debt he had incurred m acquiring the Seminary property at the Barrens and the Florissant farm which he had trans- ferred to the Jesuits. It was in this manner that the Jesuits of Missouri became beneficiaries m the first money to come to the United States from Catholic Europe through the Association of the Propagation of the Faith "The succeeding appropriations," Du Bourg assured the Central Bureau of the association, "will be applied faithfully and entirely to the maintenance of these two establishments of the Lazansts and Jesuits, on which rest the hopes of religion in this vast region." In January, 1826, shortly before his permanent withdrawal from Amer- ica, the prelate wrote to his brother in Bordeaux "I have been unable to assist them [the Jesuits] as substantially as I should have liked, having still something to pay on the establishment which I have given them. As soon as this debt is discharged, if our brothers in Europe continue to help us as liberally as heretofore, I intend to spend a quar- ter> perhaps a third of these donations to aid the Fathers in their im- portant work. They will also need more subjects, for the field which I have assigned them is immense $ but I believe that all will come m good time."91
"Our worthy Bishop [Rosati]," wrote Father De Theux in 1831, "has sent me a remittance of 2000 francs on the part of the Association of the Propagation of the Faith 5 they came at an opportune time." 92 The same Father said m 1832 "Father General advised me that the Society of the Propagation of the Faith assigned me 1000 dollars. So far the money has not come; but I am patiently expecting it It seems that everything done in behalf of this Mission must meet with contra- diction," 93 De Theux's patience was not tried indefinitely. The subsidy came in the course of 1832. In September of that same year Bishop
90 Edward J. Hickey, The Society for the Propagation of the Faith, 1822- 1922 (Washington, 1922).
91 Ann Prof. ^ 395. Translated m RACHS, 14 161
92 De Theux a sa mere, January, 1831 (A)
93 De Theux a ses freres et soeurs, May 29, 1832 (A)
RECRUITING THE MISSION 369
Rosati thanked Archbishop Du Bourg, then occupjmg the see of Besangon in France, for his kindly offices with the directors of the association and asked him to continue them Of the sixty-six hundred dollars received from the association, one thousand were to go to the Jesuits. Specifically, one hundred dollars were for the church m Floris- sant, one hundred and fifty for the expenses of Father Van Quicken- borne's missions in Missouri and Illinois, fifty for St Louis College and fifty for the St Charles church. "I will add 500 for the College, 100 for Florissant and 50 for St. Charles I believe I shall thus have discharged the intentions of the Association m regard to the two estab- lishments [i e of the Lazansts and Jesuits]."04 In 1843 the mission, now become the vice-province of Missouri, received thirty thousand francs from the association and in 1846, 56,820 francs, of which 44,900 were specifically for the Rocky Mountain Missions05 In 1848 the ap- propriations were suspended and so continued for a few years, the re- ceipts of the association having notably diminished m consequence of the revolutionary troubles in Europe. The appropriations had been resumed at least by 1855, m which year Father De Smet (m the name of the vice-province of Missouri) thanked Canon De La Croix of Ghent, an official of the association, for alms received.96
Most of the houses of the vice-province shared at one time or an- other in the funds distributed through the association. St. Stanislaus Seminary, St. Xavier College, Cincinnati, the St. Charles residence, and the Indian missions were all on occasion assisted from this quarter.97 "We cannot pass over m silence," Father Duerinck reported from St. Mary's Potawatomi Mission in 1 849, "the aid afforded us m our misery by the Association of the Propagation of the Faith. Their chanty, which embraces the whole world, gave us 600 dollars." 98 The Annales de la Propagation de la Fot published interesting and edifying reports from the missionary field, and through its pages the work earned on by the Jesuits of Missouri among the Osage, Potawatomi, and Rocky Moun- tain Indians was brought to the notice of the Catholics of France, and, through the medium of translation, those of other lands.
What the association had done for the diocese of St. Louis is told by Bishop Rosati in a communication, May 20, 1832, to a Belgian bene- factor, M. Olislagers.
94 Ann. Prop, 7 109.
95 Catholic Almanac, 1844, 1848.
96 De Smet, Western Missions and Missionaries (New York, 1863), p. 378.
97 "November 1 1, 1836. Received from the Association for the noviceship — $420" Mission ledger (A).
98 De Smet, Western Missions, p. 330
370 THE JESUITS OF THE MIDDLE UNITED STATES
I beg1 \ou to thank the Ccnti.il Council of the Association in my behalf for tht a,d the} h»\c supplied me thiough \oui intervention We shall never iorgu our benefactor of Fin ope whose chanty passes be}ond the seas and concerns itself \\ith Uie welfiic and propagation of itligion in lands where e\er\th"ng is still to IK done, still to be created To the pious liberality of the fa-thful in Emope, Catholic Amenca will owe in great part her religious establishments, wh.eh ait the most effccti\e suppoits of the Faith Had my pooi diocese been abandoned to its own lesomces, it would be without priests, coments, colleges, seminanes. We have now in this diocese, thirty-six priests, SA convents of lehgious, an oiphan asylum and a hospital, con- ducted b} the Sisters of Chaiiti, two colleges, one of which has a hundred boarders and the uthei a hundred and fifty pupils, mostly day scholars, and finalh se\enteen chuiches already built and eight in course of erection 01 about to be 90
Coming later into the field and more restricted in the range of its benefactions than the French Association of the Propagation of the Faith was the Leopoldme Foundation of Vienna It owed its origin largely to Father Rese, the future Bishop of Detroit, who, as vicar-general of the diocese of Cincinnati, visited Austria in 1827, where he succeeded in engaging the interest of influential Catholics, especially in court circles, on behalf of the needv German parishes and missions of the United States. With a view to furnishing financial aid to the latter an association on the pattern of the French Association of the Propagation of the Faith and named for Leopoldme, the favorite daughter of Francis I of Austria, was thereupon established in that country under the im- perial patronage. Its funds continued for years to be distributed among various American dioceses, the German parishes served by the fathers of the Missouri Mission sharing often in its benefactions. The reports of the association (Berichte der Leopoldmen Sttftung) contain letters from Fathers Van de Velde, De Smet, Cotting and Helias, in which grateful acknowledgment is expressed for aid received 10°
In general the bulk of the European pecuniary aid received by the Missouri Mission, at least in the first decade or two of its history,
00 Ann Prop*, 7. 103
100 Theodore Roemcr, O M Cap , The LeofoUine foundation and the Church in the United States, 1820-1830 (United States Catholic Historical Society, New York, 1933). The Catholic Historical Review^ I 51-63, 175-191, lists the con- tents of the organ of the Leopoldme Foundation, Betickte der Leofoldmen Stiftung vn Kaiseithume Qesteneich Aid to the German parishes in Missouri was furnished on occasion by the Ludwig-Missionsverem of Munich The Satestanum, (St. Francis Seminar}, St. Francis, Wisconsin), XXV, no 4, p 42, T. Roemer, The Ludwig- Missionsveretn and the Church in the United States, 1838-1018 (Washington, 1934)-
RECRUITING THE MISSION 371
came from Belgium.301 When Bishop Rosati \vas in Europe in 1841, he received from Father Verhaegen the advice to visit Belgium, wher- ever else he might go, "for the Belgians/' Verhaegen assured him, "are the most generous people m the world when there is a question of spreading the religion they profess " lu- Added to the nati\e generosity of the Belgian people was the circumstance that the first members of the Missouri Mission were, almost without exception, of Belgian origin. The families of the latter were thus led to take a direct interest in the apos-
101 An occasional benefaction came from other than Belgian sources "Marchion- ess Wellesley has given a secular priest from Missouri a chalice ior Fr Van Quickenborne " Kenney to Dubuisson, Clongottu* Woods, Ireland, Juh 2, 1826 (B) The Marchioness Wellesle), granddaughter of Charles Carroll ol Carrollton, had aided Van Quickenborne in his missionary work m and around White Marsh "It would certainly give great pleasure to R[e\ J F[athcr] Yin Quickenborne to hear that his old friend and benefactnce Mrs Patterson is by this time Vice-Queen of Ireland, as she was to be married to Lord Wellesle\, Lord Lieut of that country Nothing w*s wanting for this marriage to take place but the King's permission and in case he should refuse it, the said Lord offers his resignation of his Vice-royalty and to marr} this lady You may tell him I have this news from her father, Mr Caton . I wish also that Fr V Q should write to Mrs
Ann Patterson, giving her an account of his labors there and send the letter to me or to old Mr Carroll [Charles Carroll of Carrollton] " Beschter to Dzierozjn- ski, November 25, 1825 (B)
The Countess de Maistre (Madame de Montmorencj) showed an acme in- terest m the Missions of Maryland and Missouri, collecting on their behalf m 1833 among her titled friends the sum of 7,822 lire for the purchase of church equipment and other supplies The articles, after being put on exhibition at the residence of the Marquis de Montmorency in Turin ("on dit que c'etait un beau spectacle"), were sent to the United States for distribution between Marvland and Missouri "She has begged, worked and had others work for this object. You must write and ask her to thank the benefactors, and you must also thank her yourself, sending along at the same time the relation promised so long ago " Roothaan a Dubuisson, January 9, 1834 (AA) In the list of subscribers to this fund are found the names of the King and Queen of Sardinia, the Queen Dowager Mane, the Queen of Hungary, the Queen of Naples, Count de Maistre, Marquis Eugene de Montmorency, Lord Clifford, the Archbishops of Geneva and Turin, the Religious of the Sacred Heart of Turin, etc
In 1848 Bryan Mullanphy, then mayor of St Louis, In recognition of the education he had received at the hands of the Jesuits "both at Stonyhurst in Eng- land and at St Louis University m the United States," presented a thousand dollars to Father Roothaan, who was in great difficulties owing to the outbreak of the Roman Revolution The money, put on deposit m St. Louis to the General's credit, was turned over by him to Father Elet, the vice-provincial
The last letter written by Father Elet to Father Roothaan was one intro- ducing to him at Rome Mr. L. A. Benoist of St. Louis "one of our friends, who m more than one situation has rendered great service to us in his quality of banker." Elet a Roothaan, March 20, 1851 (AA). 102 Verhaegen a Rosati, December 1 6, 1840 (C)
372 THE JESUITS OF THE MIDDLE UNITED STATES
tol'C \\ork which their sons \\ere carrying on in the wilds of America. From his sister Coletta Van Quickenborne received frequent gifts in mone\ , on a particular occasion he was enabled thereby to cancel a very anno\ ing debt. Verhaegen's mother remembered her son in substantial \\a\s, uhile De Theu\'s entire famih worked together to relieve the needs of the little missionary colony in far-away Missouri A mission ledger records frequent donations in money from Madame De Theux of Liege, while her daughter, Cecilie, came forward on different occasions with substantial gifts. A remittance from the latter of four hundred flonns m favor of Father Verhaegen enabled him when president of St. Louis University to liquidate a portion of the debts that hung over the institution 1<M Cecilie De Theux could show her thoughtfulness in other wa\ s. "The surplice which my sister Cecilie has been so good as to knit for me is verj handsome," commented Father De Theux, "I surelj behe\ e the good people of Florissant have never seen the like of it before, not even when their bishops have honored them with a visit." 104 To complete her benefactions, Cecilie De Theux left a legacy of thirteen hundred and twelve dollars to the Missouri Mission.105 Another Jesuit to be favored with liberal alms from his family was Father Helias D'Huddeghem. His little church of St. Francis Xavier at Taos near Jefferson City was so greatly indebted to the benefactions of his mother, the Countess of Lens, that, as he somewhere notes, she had ever} title to be called its foundress
Outside the families of the Flemish Jesuits attached to the mission numerous benefactors were also to be found among the Catholic laity of Belgium. Next to M. De Nef, the most conspicuous of these lay-bene- factors was a resident of Antwerp, M. Guillaume Joseph de Boey. He was a friend of Father De Smet and it was through regard for the latter, it would appear, that he was led to take a lively interest m the labors of the Missouri Jesuits. He applied to De Smet m Septem- ber, 1837, just on the eve of the latter's departure for America to re- join the Society of Jesus, for information as to the best method of for-
103 Le Pere T. de Theux, p 105.
104 Church goods were very difficult to obtain m western America at this period , hence gifts in this line from Europe were particularly welcome In 1835 Father De Theux received from Italy twehe chasubles, and from Belgium twenty-nine albs, four surplices, twenty-six cinctures, two amices3 fifteen corporals, fifty-four punficators, two silver chalices, and six candlesticks, together with several missals and sets of breviaries, all these articles being new There were, moreover, in the shipment from Belgium twenty-two used chasubles, half of which number were given to Bishop Rosati as being better than the ones actually m use m many of the poor churches of the diocese. Some of the new chasubles received were also presented to the Bishop. De Theux ad Roothaan, February 17, 1835
106 Mission ledger. (A)
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warding his contributions. Should they be sent in specie or m bills of exchange?, and if m specie, is not French money to be preferred? loc On October 16, 1837, the bark Paolt, Captain Rangard, left Antwerp for America having m its cargo eleven bcxes consigned to St Louis University.107 Insurance was carried on the consignment to the amount of forty-four hundred francs Seven of the boxes were the gifts of M* De Boey The articles they contained were of the most varied descrip- tion, including books, geometrical instruments, porcelain vases, band instruments, flutes and violins. There were, besides, albs, chasubles, sur- plices, chalices and crucifixes. Conspicuous among De Boey's gifts was a richly embroidered silken banner, le drapeau, d'Harmonte, valued at nine hundred francs, behind which the students of St. Louis University were often to march m procession through the streets of the city.108
It was largely with money contributed by the same Belgian bene- factor that the first University chapel was erected in 1836 on Wash- ington Avenue 109 In 1842 Father Van de Velde in the course of a busi- ness trip through Belgium received a loan from De Boey of a hundred thousand francs. Dying in 1850, before the loan was payable, the lender in his last will and testament transferred his claim to the debt to Father Roothaan, who annulled the debt. But the most notable of all De Boey's benefactions was the seventy-five thousand francs which he conveyed to Bishop Henm of Milwaukee as a fund for the establishment of a Jesuit college m that city. Transferred by the Bishop to the vice-province of Missouri, the fund made possible the college that was later to develop into Marquette University, of which great Catholic institution of the Middle United States the munificent M. De Boey may justly be con- sidered the founder.
Other laymen engaged in pious endeavors to finance the missionary enterprises of their Belgian countrymen in America were MM. Le Paige, Van de Ven, Van Dyck, Van Hoydonck, Caers, Olislagers, the last a cousin of Father De Theux from Marsenhoven, and the Proost brothers of Antwerp.110 The Proost brothers formed a partnership with MM. De Nef, De Boey and Le Paige to raise funds lor the Missouri Mission by methods that were distinctly modern. They proposed to speculate m stocks, the profits of their ventures to go to the mission. "For the benefit of our dear missions m America," De Nef advised Father De Theux in 1833^ "I have formed a sort of company with my
106 De Boey a De Smet, September 2, 1837. (A)
107 Joseph Proost a De Smet, October 1 8, 1837. (A)
108 Lrtterae A nnuae, 1837 (A) .
109 Lrtterae Annuae, 1837 (A) M De Boey's contribution toward the erection of the chapel was ten thousand florins.
110 Le Pert T. le Theux, etc., pp HI, 127.
3^4 THE JESUITS OF THE MIDDLE UNITED STATES
honorable friends, MM. De Boe}, Le Paige and the Proost brothers of Antwerp. The plan ib this we buy stocks in different countries on the understanding that the loss, if such there be, shall be borne entirely bv ourbdves, and that a good part of the profits, if any result, shall go to our dear Mission in America, so that our speculation, with this end in \ie\\, ma\ produce great fruit to the glory of God." U1
The generositv of Belgium towards the Missouri Mission was not confined to the Belgian laitj Many sincere benefactors were likewise numbered among the clergv In this connection the name of Msgr Van Bommel, Bishop of Liege, calls for mention. In 1832 he sent Father De Theux an alms of a thousand francs. The following year he ordered a collection in his diocese for the Missouri Mission, which netted three thousand francs112 In 1835, when De Theux's funds were at a low ebb, so that he experienced serious difficulty m boarding his thirteen no\ ices, Bishop Van Bommel, on being advised of his distress, sent him a generous donation. Other ecclesiastics who deserve mention in this connection are Msgr. Barret, vicar-general of the diocese of Liege, who on his death in 1834 left a bequest of twelve thousand, five hundred francs to the Missouri Mission, and the Rt. Rev Bishop of Namur, whose legacy to St. Louis University went to defray the expense of furnishing the new university chapel.113 The travelling expenses of the eight candidates who set sail from Antwerp on September 20, 1839, f°r Florissant were paid by the two seminaries of Bois-le-duc and Breda in Holland.
Among other early benefactors of the Missouri Mission note must be taken of Father Charles de la Croix, who was parish-priest at St. Ferdinand at the time of Van Quickenborne's arrival in 1823. He had greatly at heart the success of the missionary and other enterprises of his Jesuit countrymen in western America. He devised a plan for a society in Belgium similar in scope to the French Association of the Propagation of the Faith, but meant solely for the support of the Bel- gian missionaries in America. In reporting the details of this plan to Father Dzierozynski (1829), Van Quickenborne was careful to disclaim any responsibility for that feature of the proposed society which was to limit its charitable aid to priests of Belgian birth. He speaks of Father De La Croix as "bonus ille amicus noster? "that good friend of ours," and observes that he has brought to the notice of others the Indian missionary labors of the Jesuits of Missouri. The funds collected by the proposed association were to be forwarded to a committee of four priests m America, Fathers De Neckere, the future Bishop of New
111 /</«#, p. 105. 112Lto#, p. 118 113 Litterae Annuae^ 1837 Mission ledger, p 13 (A).
RECRUITING THE MISSION 375
Orleans, Maenhaut, De La Croix and Van Quickenborne To avoid interference from the bigoted government then ruling over the Nether- lands, the real purpose of the association was to be concealed under a non-committal name Finally, the publicity necessan for the success of the venture would be provided for by the publication at the hands of the General Director of letters received from the missionaries m Amer- ica. Such was to be Father De La Croix's projected Belgian Association of the Propagation of the Faith114 For some or other reason it re- mained a project only, or, if it ever was actually set on foot, could not have achieved any large or conspicuous measure of success In later years, however, De La Croix, as a Belgian official of the French Asso- ciation of the Propagation of the Faith, was enabled to secure at least one considerable appropriation of money for his Jesuit friends in Mis- souri.
114 Van Quickenborne ad Dzieroz}nski, No\ ember 13, 1829 (B) A^ociations with a view to aiding the Missouri Mission \\ere actualh begun in Belgium and Holland in the thirties See tnfta, Chap XV, § 3
CHAPTER XII THE KICKAPOO MISSION
§ I. THE INDIAN MISSION
"It was the Indian mission above everything else that brought us to Missouri and it is the principal point in the Concordat." 1 The words are those of Father Van Quickenborne and express the idea that was uppermost in his mind during the fourteen years of his strenuous activit\ on the frontier. With a singleness of purpose that never wavered he sought to inaugurate resident missionary enterprise among the Indians as the real objective of the Jesuits of the trans-Mississippi West In a document presently to be cited, which bears the caption "Reasons for giving a preference to the Indian Mission before any other," he detailed the weighty considerations that made it imperative for the Society of Jesus to put its hand to this apostolic work. It was primarily for the conversion of the Indians that the Society had been established in Missouri, it was with a view to realizing this noble pur- pose that pecuniary aid had been solicited and obtained from benefac- tors in Europe, and the tacit obligation thus incurred, to say nothing of the duty explicitly assumed in the Concordat, could be discharged only by setting up a mission m behalf of one or more of the native American tribes. Even the new college in St Louis commended itself to the eager Van Quickenborne chiefly as a preparatory step to what was to him the more important enterprise of a missionary center among the Indians. "All these things come by reason of the Indian mission," he wrote in November, 1828, to the Maryland superior, Dzierozynski, with reference to certain contributions received from abroad. "Don't let >our Reverence fear therefore to make an establishment m the Indian country or close to it. But why a college in St. Louis? Because that college is necessary for the Indian establishment." Why a college in St. Louis was necessary for the Indian establishment we learn from the same communication of the Missouri superior. There the mission- aries could meet the government Indian agents as also the deputations from the various tribes and in general promote missionary interests by standing in close touch with the tide of busy life that was beginning to
1 Van Quickenborne ad Roothaan, January 3, 1832. (AA).
THE KICKAPOO MISSION 377
flow between the Missouri metropolis and the farther reaches of the West.2
At Florissant, as early as 1826, Van Quickenborne's zeal was stirred by the prospect of a missionary post among the Sauk
I had the honor of writing to jour Reverence [Anthony Kohlmann] last Summer Since that rime it has pleased Divine Providence and our Rev Superiors to send our very beloved Father De Theux and dear Bro O'Connor, both of them very well suited for our place.
I write this to yr. rev. fatigued from an excursion I made to Baptiste, an Indian man, whom I found truly well disposed This happens from time to time Our Indian youth at our Seminary continue to behave remarkably well Our attention at present is much taken up with an establishment on the Mississippi and nigh to the river Les Momes [Desmoines] amongst the Saucks, a very numerous nation, say 12,000 souls About 30 families amongst them, half-breed and nearly all of them baptized, ha\e obtained from Congress for themselves and posterity forever, a most beautiful tract of land, of about 20 miles square nigh to the great Sauck village. On that land they are now settling I am well acquainted with the principal chief of them, who wishes very much, and so do they all, that some of us should come among them This man is already a Catholic and has great influence among the whole Sauck nation We are also invited to make an establishment with the Kansas and also with the Shawnees. Things are changed and quite different from what they were when our fathers went out to them first To our great misfortune there will be no more shedding of our blood. The American government begins effectively to prevent the Indians from waging bloody wars, one nation against another nation, and from hunting upon land not their own This in some degrees confines them to a smaller tract of land than what they used to wander over formerly By little and little they will see themselves compelled to follow husbandry or to cease to be a nation 3
In 1831 Father Van Quickenborne retired from the office of su- perior of the western mission without having realized his cherished plan of a Jesuit residence among the Indians. But his release from the bur- den of authority now brought with it an opportunity to realize his life- long ambition to be employed as a simple missionary among the red men, and this, so he informed the General, was the liveliest satisfac- tion he felt m relinquishing his position of command. He immediately proposed to the new superior that he be allowed to go to the Osage and in his own person fulfill the promise he had made to them in 1830, inconsiderately perhaps, that a resident missionary priest would soon be stationed in their midst. But Father De Theux, not seeing his way
2 Van Quickenborne to Dzierozynski, November, 1828 (B). 8 Van Quickenborne to Kohlmann, January 21, 1826. (AA).
*7& THE JESUITS OF THE MIDDLE UNITED STATES
to make tre venture, directed Van Quickenborne to inform the Osage t^nt peculiar} means \\ere lacking, at least momentarily, to make the promised misbion a reality To the General, Van Quickenborne com- municated at once the disappointment he felt over this decision
Whit I heio set down I earnestly wish should not be understood as thmign I vumld foicc the consent of my Supenoi, for that would be to spoil the win »le affair But I \\nte as follows only that I may afterwaids be at e.i^ n«> inndxr what the decision be m my regard For a number of Indians (some 70 among the Osage) ha\e I begotten in Christ Jesus I trust that }our Vtiv Rt\crend Patemity has received the relation of my last visit to the Osige Chiefs, leaclus, councilors, wainois and common people as- sembled in council I set befoie them the plan as appioved They received it with a demonstiation of approval, as is their manner But they were skeptical of its execution I gave them every assurance that it would be cained out I think it much to the gloiy of God that my communications vuth this tube be not broken oft I have the liveliest hope that an abundant harust is to be gathered into the Lord's granaries from among these natnts Some heie wish that the missionary be first provided for, that he ha\e comfortable lodging and living and be made secure against the bar- barous temper of the Indians But surely such persons are not minded to go among the Indians. Some, again, wish that none be sent except other Xa\iers, but even the Society has had but one Xavier and yet she has exposed man) another (of her members) to similar dangers and with happy results, though not m so extraordinary a measure. Others, in fine, laugh at am concern at all over the conversion of the Indians, saying their conversion is impossible But what would they have said of the Apostles at the time the latter began their pi caching? It is plain that so sorry a creature as myself is quite unworthy to be granted leave to be employed m so glorious an enterprise But since in the exceeding mercy o£ God my mind has been fixed upon this sort of endeavor almost from boyhood and since in God's \vondcrful Providence I had gone so far as to be on the point of taking up the work m leal earnest, (feaimg much on account of my sins and recog- nizing the lack within me of that intimate union of the soul with God which is so necessary), nevertheless, putting my trust m the infinite goodness of God and the intercession of the Blessed Virgin Mary and the assistance of the Guardian Angels, I still venture to hope that your Very Reverend Paternity will assign me, I do not say, to the conversion of the Indians, but to the labors which must perforce be undergone in the beginning as a preparation of the way.
Under De Theux, Van Quickenborne's immediate successor in the office of superior, the Indian mission was indeed finally started on its way 5 but the credit for the result was largely due to the persistency with which the latter continued to interest himself in the project and to urge upon the Father General the necessity of carrying it into effect.
THE KICKAPOO MISSION 379
The Visitor sent to Missouri in 1831, Father Peter Kenney, reported that ardor for the Indian missions had died out among the \\estern Jesuits. He even expressed the rather curious surmise that Van Quick- enborne had been prevailed upon b> the younger Jesuits around him to open a college in St. Louis in order that work among the Indians might thereby be made impracticable. The fact is that the new college had been persistently urged upon the Jesuits by the two Bishops, Du Bourg and Rosati, and was inevitable as the first big opportunity for Jesuit enterprise that lay to hand. At the same time it is intelligible that the failure of the Indian school had its reaction in a decline of missionary spirit among the younger members of the mission. But Father Kenney, while noting the phenomenon, is careful to make an emphatic exception in favor of Van Quickenborne. "As far as I can judge, he is afire with the most ardent zeal to shoulder this burden." 4 But it was not without a measure of pressure put upon him by the Father General that De Theux was brought at last to take the work seriously in hand. "In almost all his letters," the latter made known to a correspondent in December, 1834, "his Paternity insists on my be- ginning the Indian Mission, but by what means or by what persons seems to me a problem not easily to be solved except by Him who can do all things and has already done great things for this, the least of the missions of the Society." 5 Lack of men and material means was therefore delaying the inception of the Indian Mission But another reason even more decisive, so Van Quickenborne assured the General, was to be held accountable for the delay, and this was Father De Theux's supposed lack of sympathy for Indian missionary work as such.6 The superior, as he frankly admitted to Father Roothaan, felt no desire himself to enlist in the service of the red men. At the same time, however, as he also declared, he had for eight years been offering him- self for this very ministry, feeling that it was probably m the designs of Providence that he be so employed.7 Father De Theux, so it was alleged, entertained the opinion that little could be accomplished among the Indians except by some exceptional and miracle-working apostle of the type of Xavier, a view which Van Quickenborne sought to refute by pointing out that the Jesuits have had but a single Xavier.8 What- ever were De Theux's actual sentiments regarding missionary enter- prise among the Indians, there would seem to be little doubt that in the matter of health and temperament he was himself quite unfitted,
4 Kenney ad Roothaan, April 25, 1832. (AA).
5 De Theux to McSherry, December 5, 1834. (B).
6 Van Quickenborne ad Roothaan, June 28, 1835 (AA). 7De Theux ad Roothaan, January 28, 1832. (AA).
8 Van Quickenborne ad Roothaan, January 3, 1832, (AA).
3So THE JESUITS OF THE MIDDLE UNITED STATES
excellent religious though he was, to work to good purpose in this very trjmg ministry.
Not onh m the early thirties but in later years also this view as to the mtagre results attending the efforts of missionaries to win the aborigines over to Christianity met with occasional support Father De Smet \\as in later \ears to protest against the view as without founda- tion in fact and especial!} as out of harmony with the apostolic and missionarj spirit which has always been traditional m the Society of Jesus. To the General, Father Roothaan, it also seemed imperative that the western Jesuits should foster confidence in the good results to be achieved by devoting themselves to the Indians and he deprecated an} such pessimistic expressions of opinion as would tend to discourage enterprise in this field. Yet excellent and well-meaning men were to be found who were asking themselves at the moment whether much should be attempted for the Indians when so much had to be left un- done for the whites. Of interest in this connection is an incident related by Father John Smedts, one of the pioneer Jesuit party of 1823 9 As pastor at St. Charles, Missouri, he was host on one occasion to the two distinguished bishops, Rosati of St Louis and Brute of Vincennes, the latter, so Smedts comments, "a very learned and exceedingly pious man," an estimate that was equally true of the other. Father Smedts ha^infj made reference to a desire he entertained for the Indian mis- sions, Bishop Brute observed "The souls of the whites are as pleasing to God as those of the Indians." Then Bishop Rosati, addressing himself to Smedts alone, spoke as follows
My dear Father, consider the immense good that has been done m this country for the last thirty years, it is now time that we make efforts to fortify our holy religion. I know well enough that we all came to this country to work for the conversion of the Indians I came myself with that very intention But must we leave a certain for an uncertain good? Very many Catholics are left abandoned by priests and yet they earnestly desire to have them. We are first obliged to take care of them, being of the house- hold of the faith (domestic* fidei), before going off to labor among strangers. So many Catholics come from all parts of our diocese to ask for priests, saying "if you don't send us priests, our children will become Protestants, having no churches of their own, they will go on Sundays to the Protestant churches/'
As a significant comment on these words of the first Bishop of St. Louis, it may be noted that a few years subsequent to the time they were spoken, he himself pleaded with the Jesuit General to send reenforce- ments from Europe for the opening up of the first Catholic Indian
9 Smedts ad Roothaan, January 3, 1832 (AA)
THE KICKAPOO MISSION 381
mission m the Rocky Mountains. Evidently he \\as not of the mind that in the effort to save the whites the Indians were to suffer complete neglect.
The circumstances that led up to the actual beginning of the Indian mission must now be detailed. It was stipulated in the Concordat that in 1825, which was two years from the date of that instrument, the work was to be taken m hand at Council Bluffs on the Missouri. Two years passed, however, without anything being attempted. In 1832 Father Kenney had to report to the General that the prospects for starting the Indian Mission were less encouraging than they had been in 1825 10 The Missouri consultors were indeed agreed that the Jesuits were m justice bound to open a missionary post somewhere among the Indians, but, with the single exception of Van Quickenborne, they judged that the moment had not come for actually embarking on the enterprise. The former superior was insistent, especially m consultations at which the Visitor was present, that the work be inaugurated without delay, contending as he did that personnel and means enough were at hand to carry it on. At a meeting held in St. Louis on January 9, 1832, it was the opinion of all the consultors, Van Quickenborne among them, that De Theux's project of a new Jesuit station in the Salt River dis- trict of northeastern Missouri should be definitely abandoned as the measure would delay still further the beginning of the Indian mission This view was shared by Father Kenney, who wrote m his Memorial "Though the Visitor m the actual circumstances of our houses in the Missouri does not at present wish to give any direction on the subject of the Indian mission, which the fathers had chiefly in view on their first arrival in the country, yet he cannot approve of any new mission or measure being adopted or obligation contracted that would preclude the hope that it so justly and laudably entertained of achieving that great object. This declaration must be a rule of conduct with Superiors until V[ery] Rev. F. General's special commands are received on the subject."
Immediately after the consultation of January 9, 1832, Van Quick- enborne forwarded to the General a detailed statement of the reasons why the Indian mission should be immediately begun. What appears to be a contemporary English version or summary, apparently Van Quickenborne's own, of this statement bears the caption, "Reasons for giving a preference to the Indian Mission before any other." It was presumably communicated by him either to the Maryland superior or the Visitor.
10Keime7 ad Roothaan, February 22, 1832. (AA).
382 THE JESUITS OF THE MIDDLE UNITED STATES
1. The Indian mission was the chief object of the establishment of the Sooet} in Missouri
2. Without the aid receded from the Indian mission, the scholastics would not have the opportunity of going thiough their studies
3 The Societj b} the General's acceptance of the Concordat has obliged itself to send missionaries to rtsidt in the Indian country and has re- ceived the faim at Florissant on that condition and [stc] Bishop Du Bourg's recommendations to the se-veral Associations m Europe
4 With the knowledge and (I dare say) with the approbation of Father General it has been announced to the Associations in France, Belgium, and Austria through the letters sent to them by Fathers Rosaven and Kohlman that the Society had commenced the Indian mission and perhaps $4185 or at least $3050 had been received for this purpose.
5. By the advice of the Supenor, Mr. Van Quickenborne announced to the Government of the United States that the Indian Semmaiy was kept by the Society of Jesus and received $3300 or $3500
6. Contributors to these sums of money look eagerly for an account of our success The Indians ardently wish for the execution of the plan pro- posed, praised by our Government, approved by our President and to which he is willing to lend his support Mr Van Quickenborne solemnly promised the Indians that he would execute it when he had means.
7. The present time is more propitious as the Indian tribes scattered over the several states are removing by order of Government to our neigh- borhood (i e. to frontier of Missouri)
8 By the ad\ice of Father De Theux, (who told Bishop Rosati in 1827 that we would not and could not do anything for the Indians besides what we were doing then and that it would be so for ten years), the Bishop thought himself obliged to commence on the Missouri a mission for the Indians. This he abandoned when he understood from Mr Van Quickenborne that we would begin one in the neighborhood and that there would be some inconvenience m having them so close to- gether.
9, Otheis meet with admirable success Cf Reverend gentlemen of Ohio
10 Nothing is more desired by Ours m Europe, nothing more likely to attract subjects and pecuniary assistance than to learn of the apostolic labors of Ours with the Indians
11 The General has given his approbation, 21 Nov i829.10a
That the Father Visitor did not himself urge the immediate incep- tion of the Indian mission was a disappointment to Van Quickenborne, now impatient of all delay in the carrying out of his cherished design. To Father Roothaan he expressed himself with feeling:
10a (B). "The Reverend Gentlemen of Ohio," probably the priests in charge of the Indian missions at Arbre Croche and St. Joseph's m Michigan Territory, which was part of the diocese of Cincinnati
THE KICKAPOO MISSION 383
Rev Fathei Kennej has pio\idcd well for the College He has pro- vided well for the Novitiate as also for our house m St "diaries and the station m Flonssant But what provision has he made for the Indian mission, for the first of our undertakings, the primau one in our intentions, one, too, for which we have tectned so much aid, — contracted so great an obligation? He has left everything to be done by }our Vciv Rev. Pa- ternity with a view, so I hope, to the whole being carried out with more permanence and on a larger scale He piomised me that he will act as advocate for the Indian mission with \our Very Reverend Paternit} and in the Congregation that will soon be held Meantime I shall pray fenentlj to the Blessed Virgin Mary, she who is the mothet of the afflicted and the outcast, to make you, Very Rev Father, more and moie of a mind to lend abundant aid to these poor creatures
The Visitor, though he took no action himself regarding the Indian mission, referred the matter to Father Roothaan, at the same time sending him a copy of the Concordat, which document the General was to read for the first time, as the copy sent to the Jesuit curia m the time of Father Fortis had apparently been mislaid. In the mind of Father Roothaan the opening of the Indian mission at once took on the gravity of a matter of conscience. The farm at Florissant, so he was assured, had been given and sums of money from various quarters contributed with a view to facilitating that design "I am not a little anxious over the matter," he writes to Father Kenney, "since the Society appears to be bound in justice to render that particular service to the Indians of those parts " He then requests the Visitor to make further inquiries in this delicate matter.11 The following year, 1833, t^e Second Provincial Council of Baltimore petitioned the Holy See that the Indian missions of western America as also the Negro missions of Liberia be committed to the care of the Society of Jesus.12 With this development the issue now became more acute. "Of those two missions," so the General in- formed De Theux, "the former, namely the one to the Indians, ought to belong ^ure suo to the Fathers of Missouri, and is really incumbent on them " 13 And somewhat later the General again wrote to the Mis- souri superior. "I have been invited by the Sacred Congregation of the Propaganda to accept this undertaking. I don't see to whom to assign the evangelizing of the Indians if not to the members of your Mis-
11 Roothaan ad Kenney, October 23, 1832 (AA).
12 "Censuerunt Patres saluti Indorum (qui extra Provmcias Foederatas et Terntona jam designata atque omnium quae hactenus erectae sunt dioeceseon himtes constituendi sunt ex civilis potestatis auctontate) prospiciendum, eorum curam Societati Jesu demandando, quapropter Sanctam Sedem implorandam duxerunt ut haec ei Missio concedatur." Concilia Provmciaha Baltimore 1829-1849 (Baltimore, 1851), p. 104.
18 Roothaan ad De Theux, Ma/ 10, 1832, (AA).
384 THE JEbUITS OF THE MIDDLE UNITED STATES
sion " 14 The Missouri superior was to make choice of suitable workers among the Indians and report their names to the General. Significantly enough, the General stipulated that Father Van Quickenborne himself was not to be of the number, but was to be retained in the duties he had been discharging with excellent results since he ceased to be su- perior, the duties, nameh, of "rural missionary" (missionaries rwaUs) to the scattered Catholic white settlers of Missouri and Illinois.
The truth is that "good Father Van Quickenborne," as his Jesuit associates were fond of characterizing him, was a difficult person with whom to work His zeal was boundless, with much about it of the heroic, his devotion to the cause of the Indians, unflagging j his per- sonal piety, obvious to all; but along with his in certain respects sur- passing equipment as a missionary went limitations of temperament that unfitted him in many ways to work successfully by the side of others In the social virtues he was often deficient. Silent, secretive, de- pressed and often gloomy m countenance, with a tendency to melan- choly , despising personal comforts and refusing them to others, difficult and exacting in business relations, not inviting confidence and seldom winning it, he stood m many ways isolated from his fellow workers, a somewhat lonely figure m the little Jesuit world in which he moved. Father Lefevere, subsequently the first Bishop of Detroit, who took over from Van Quickenborne the pioneer parishes m northeastern Mis- souri, was unable to obtain from his predecessor any information re- garding them. "He seemed to know everything," so Lefevere wrote, "under secrecy." 15 As superior, he showed himself not seldom exacting and unsympathetic towards his dependents The accounts of him that reached the Father General laid frequent stress on the seventy that seemed an outstanding trait m his personality Father Kenney observed of both Van Quickenborne and De Theux that he had never known Jesuit superiors to be so severe m dealing with their subjects 16 Father de Gnvel, reviewing Van Quickenborne's career in Maryland, charac- terized him as "hard on himself, hard on others " When the Indian mission was about to be opened, there were protests to the Father Gen- eral against his probable appointment to manage it, mention being made of his ngor, his inability to secure cooperation, and his tendency to become absorbed in the economic and merely material side of things to the neglect of the spiritual 17 And yet, such was the penury of men m Missouri, such, too, the unique position maintained by Van Quicken-
14 Roothaan ad De Theux, August 23, 1834 (AA).
15 Lefevere to Rosati, January 23, 1833 (C)
16 Kenney ad Roothaan, January 27, 1832 (A A)
17 Gnvel ad Roothaan, 1833 (0> Helias ad Roothaan, December 3, 1835 (AA).
THE KICKAPOO MISSION 385
borne all along as the ablest and foremost promoter of the Indian mis- sion to be found among the Jesuits of the West, that the work when it finally came to be attempted was placed in his hands Besides, the fact remained that for initiating a difficult enterprise, for getting together the funds and other material means necessary to launch it, ioi pioneer- ing amid discouraging conditions, no member of the Missouri Mission was better qualified than Van Quickenborne. A contemporar> official estimate of him notes that he was "excellent for initiating almost an} kind of work, but not for seeing it through." Be this as it ma> , the ven- ture into the missionary field now to be undertaken called, if it called for anything, for unselfish exertion and endurance, and of these virtues Van Quickenborne was always a conspicuous example "My health," he assured the Father General, "though not robust, puts up to a degree with the strain of labor." No man could have preached more eloquently by his own example the gospel of work, and with few hands to labor and endless opportunities for achievement starting up on every side, work was the paramount need of the hour among the Jesuits of the frontier.
Meanwhile, Van Quickenborne's desire for the Indian mission waxed livelier as time went on. It runs through his correspondence with the General, breaking out on occasion in pathetic appeals, as in these lines.
See, Father, how many there are who beg for the bread of eternal life and there is no one to reach it to them' They hear there are Jesuits m the neighborhood and yet none visit them. (Among the Indians "neighbor- hood" is taken to cover a range of two or three hundred miles). I hope your Paternity will at length allow me to be employed entirely in this work. Pardon me, excellent Father, if I give expression to my sorrow How great is my distress when I sit on the banks of the Missouri and see many a boat going upstream, laden with merchandise and crowded with passengers, who rejoice over the prospect of future gain as they make their way to those [Indian tribes] which are visited by not a single priest. . . . But the apostles never raised a question about money The fewer the human means, the more plentiful the grace of God Do you, Reverend Father, only send, whether by yourself or by another, and the "Behold I send you" will furnish in due season money and other necessanes 18
There were others besides Van Quickenborne ready to enlist in the projected Indian mission. Fathers Verreydt, Christian Hoecken, Busschots and De Theux had likewise volunteered their services while De Theux advised the General that a school among the Choctaw or
18 Van Quickenborne ad Roothaan, January 16, 1834. (AA). Father Roothaan sent Van Quickenborne a thousand dollars in 1829 for the Indian mission.
386 THE JESUITS OF THE MIDDLE UNITED STATES
Osage, to be manned b> Fathers Van Quickenborne and Christian Hoecken and Brother Miles and with the prospect before it of a gov- ernment appropriation, could be opened in the course of i836.19 "Surely, should such undertaking prosper, there can be no doubt that the So- cieU \\ould acquire considerable credit thereby and that all our mem- bers in the United States would take new courage and become better qualified to promote the conversion as well of non-Catholics as of un- worthy children of the faith, of whom there is no lack among us." 20
§ 2. PREPARATIONS FOR THE KICKAPOO MISSION
A letter from Father Roothaan to De Theux, under date of Jan- uar\ 5, 1835, deprecated any further procrastination m regard to the Indian mission
Your Reverence writes that a school has been offered by the Govern- ment with suitable support If this school be located in the midst of the Indians and the site appear to be satisfactory, it might be accepted — but in any case I earnestly wish that a stait be made of the expedition which is now expected of us not only by the Church m the United States, but also by the Apostolic See itself. As to the members to be sent upon it, they must necessarily possess great prudence, also very great chanty and a sufficiency of learning. It is moreover to be desired that they be of a quiet frame of mmd, otherwise, if they be of too lively an imagination, they will soon turn their attention to various grandiose schemes and so become oblivious of their real purpose, which is the conversion of the Indians I shall gladly recommend this affair to the Lyons Association [of the Propagation of the Faith] as soon as I learn that the expedition has been set on foot, and I shall even take the matter up with the Sacred Congregation de Propa- ganda
This communication, so Father Van Quickenborne noted in a letter to the General, was decisive in determining Father De Theux to set about seriously to make the necessary preparations for the long deferred mission among the Indians. This should be established, so De Theux believed, preferably among the Choctaws, an offer of a school on behalf of this tribe having been made, or among one of the tribes evangelized by the older line of Jesuit missionaries, as the Kickapoo, Kaskaskia, Peona or Potawatomi. Father Benedict Roux, the first resident Catholic priest on the site of the future Kansas City, returning from that post in the spring of 1835, acquainted Van Quickenborne with conditions along
19 The Choctaw Indians had been recently removed from their homes m Mississippi to the Indian country.
20 De Theux ad Roothaan, January 28, 1835. (AA)
21 Roothaan ad De Theux, January 5, 1835
THE KICKAPOO MISSION 387
the Missouri frontier, stressing, it would seem, the prospect for evan- gelical work among the Kickapoo, whom he had personally visited.22 Before making definite choice of a site for the projected mission, some first-hand acquaintance with the field to be cultivated was seen to be necessary, hence, Van Quickenborne was commissioned by his superior to undertake a prospecting trip to the Missouri frontier and there ascer- tain by personal inspection which of the tribes appeared to offer the best prospects for a missionary center. The Kickapoo were especially to be visited. This tribe, whose village was at the confluence of the Mis- souri River and Salt Creek, a few miles above Fort Leavenworth, were under the influence of a religious leader, Kennekuk or Kenekoek by name. This "prophet," as he was called, having picked up various frag- ments of Catholic doctrine and practice, had woven them into a religion of his own, and by means of it, so it was reported by traders and gov- ernment agents, had brought about some measure of moral improve- ment in the tribe.23 Van Quickenborne, having left St. Louis in June,
22 Father Stephen Theodore Badm, the first priest ordained m the United States, came in contact with a band of Kickapoo on the outskirts of Chicago in October, 1830 "I found there another band from the Kickapoo tribe, who live in an immense prairie in Illinois along the Vermilion River at a distance of about one hundred miles from Chicago Some time before these good people had sent their compliments to chief Pokegan, telling him at the same time that they envied him the happiness of having a pastor" Ann Prof , 6 154 Father Roux's visit to the Kickapoo m their village near Fort Leavenworth, November 1 8, 1833, was narrated by him m a letter to Bishop Rosati of St Louis, dated a few days later. CHR, April, 1918 Father Roux's letter of March II, 1834., to Bishop Rosati contains the text of Kennekuk the Prophet's address to the mis- sionary on the occasion of his first visit to the tribe "Rapport des propres paroles du Kenekoeky ou Prophet e, des Kokapooks donne en Poos [Potawatomi] par Thtthoe> rendu en langue Ktkapook per Mechouet, et interprets, en francais par Laurent Pinsoneau a Mr B Roux pretrey en presence de Penave, Nochetcomo, Pechoassi, Pekouak et Paschal Ptnsoneau, le 22. o Ire [Nov.] 1833 " Roux visited the Kickapoo Prophet on January I, 1834, and shortly after baptized an infant of the tribe at the Chouteau trading-house on the Kaw River. "Mr Pmsoneau, who trades with the Kickapoo, has been here for some weeks, he tells me that these good Indians eagerly desire me to come and baptize their children " Roux a Rosati, March II, 1834. (C). Roux returned from his mission among the French Creoles at the mouth of the Kansas, where he had been residing since November, 1833, to St Louis in April, 1835, a few months before Van Quickenborne under- took his first missionary trip to the Kickapoo. The favorable reports concerning the tribe which had reached the Jesuit missionary came to him probably at first- hand from Father Roux. For a brief account of Father Roux's visits to the Kickapoo, cf. Garraghan, Catholic Beginnings m Kansas Cttyy pp. 49, 50, 53, 54
28 Though named Keokuk in some early accounts, the Kickapoo Prophet is not to be confounded with the Sauk leader for whom the town of Keokuk in Iowa is named. Details concerning the Kickapoo Prophet may be read in Van Quickenborne's letter in Ann. Prop, 9.94, also in Chittenden and Richardson,
388 THE JESUITS OF THE MIDDLE UNITED STATES
1835, was at the Kickapoo village on July 4. On his way west or, as he phrases it, "on his waj to the Indians" (m timer e ad Indos}, he sent off a letter to the Father General, again protesting against the opinion which had been expressed that "the Indians were not to be con- verted except by men who could work miracles." 24 He was particularly earnest in petitioning the General to place the new venture under the auspices of Our Lady "But I ask as a very particular favor that your Paternity place the Mission under the protection of the Mother of God and that the churches there to be erected be consecrated to God m her honor, as she is the Mother of Mercy. I hope she will show by the outcome that she is the Mother of the Indians." For the incidents that attended Van Quickenborne's first visit to the Kickapoo village we have his own graphic account
To get to the Kickapoo it was necessary to cross the Kansas River. I was not a little surprised to see that the Delaware Indians had established a ferry there in imitation of the whites We arrived at the Kickapoo village July 4, a Saturday, the day consecrated to the Blessed Virgin The next day I said Mass m the trader's house, where the prophet, who was anxious to see me, put in an earl) appearance 25 After the first exchange of courtesies, he at once brought up the subject of religion "What do you teach?" he asked me "We teach," I answered, cthat every man must believe m God, hope m God, love God above all things and his neighbor as himself, those who do this will go to heaven, and those who do not will go to hell." "Many of my young people believe that there are two Gods How do you prove that there is only one and that he has proposed certain truths to us to be be- lieved?" I said m the course of rny reply "God spoke to the Prophets, and the Prophets proved by miracles that God had spoken to them " He at once interrupted me, saying "This is the very way I got to be believed when I began to preach. I raised the dead to life There was a woman," he con- tinued, "who, so every one thought, could not possibly recover her health, I breathed on her and from that moment she began to improve and is now in good health. Another time I saw an infant just about to die, I took it m my arms and at the end of a few days it was cured " I said in reply that there is a great difference between a dead person and one who is believed to be at the point of death; that in the two cases alleged he had merely
De Smef, 3. 1085, and J. T Irving, Indian Sketches (London, 1835), p 8l "The Prophet was a tall, bony Indian, with a keen, black eye and a face beaming with intelligence . . There is an energy of character about him which gives much weight to his words and has created for him an influence greater than that of any Indian in the town From the little that we saw, it was evident that the chief yielded to him and listened to his remarks with the deference of one who ac- knowledged his superiority." (Irving).
24 Van Quickenborne ad Roothaan, June 28, 1835. (AA).
25 Laurent Pmsoneau, the Kickapoo trader, figures often as god-father in the baptismal records of the Jesuit missionaries on the Missouri border m the thirties.
THE KICKAPOO MISSION 389
done what any one else might do, and that, since on his own admission those two persons were not dead, he had not as a matter of fact brought them back to life
My answer irritated him greatly and he remarked that no one had ever dared to contradict him m this fashion or give him such an answer Seeing him in anger, I kept silent Then my interpreter, a friend of the piophet, told him it was wrong of him to become angry when he could not answer the remarks made by the Blackrobe and that this only showed that he de- fended a bad cause After some moments of silence he softened and admitted himself to be worsted. "I realize," he said, "that my religion is not a good one if my people wish to embrace yours, I will do as they." The fol- lowing Sunday he repeated in assembly what he had often said before, that he should not be deceived in his hope and m the pledge he had given them that the Great Spirit would send some one to help him complete his work God alone knows whether he spoke sincerely. On Monday I received a visit from several of the inferior chiefs, all expressed a desire to have a Catholic priest among them I was unable on that occasion to see the head chief, who had gone on the hunt and returned only ten days later
I paid him a visit immediately on his return and explained to him that I had made this journey because I heard it said that his nation wished to have a priest and I was eager to ascertain if such was really the case; that in his absence the other chiefs had sought me out to assure me of the truth of what I heard; but that before speaking of the affair to their grandfather (the President of the United States), I desired to know how he himself regarded it. "Have you a wife?" he asked me I answered that he ought to know that Catholic priests do not marry and that I was a Blackrobe. At these words he manifested surprise mingled with respect and excused himself by saying that, as he had just arrived and had not as yet spoken to any of his people, no one had informed him of the fact that I was a Blackrobe. He then added that m a matter of such importance he wished to hear his council and would return his answer m St Louis, whither he proposed to go. He did not go there, however, but sent me his answer by a trader. It was couched m these terms' "I desire, as do also the principal men of my nation, to have a Blackrobe come and reside among us with a view to instruct us." 26
On his return to St. Louis from the West Father Van Quickenborne reported in favor of the proposed mission being opened among the Kickapoo Directed by Father De Theux to submit a plan of operation.
29 Ann. Prof, 9 99 Van Quickenborne baptized in "Kickapoo town" July 2, 1835 (the earliest recorded baptism for the locality), Lisette (Elizabeth), ten- month old daughter of Pierre Callieu, a Canadian, and Marguarite, a Potawatomi woman The ceremonies were omitted "ob suferstitiomm a&stantium? ("owing to the superstition of the by-standers") . July 12 following he baptized, also in "Kickapoo town," a son of the Kickapoo Indians, Thakamie and Nikioniche. The ceremonies were omitted "ob aegntufanem infant^ ("owing to the child's sick- ness"). Ktckafoo Baptismal Register* (F).
390 THE JESUITS OF THE MIDDLE UNITED STATES
he now suggested that a father and coadjutor-brother be assigned to the mission proper, and that another father and coadjutor-brother be stationed on a section of land which was to be purchased and converted into a farm for the support of the mission The land was to be selected just east of the Missouri state-line and the father residing on it was to serve the neighboring parish at the mouth of the Kansas where Father Roux had purchased a property of one hundred and twenty acres, which he was willing to turn over to Van Quickenborne De Theux declared himself against the idea of a farm, but was ready to assign Van Quickenborne and Hoecken and a coadjutor-brother to the mission with a promise to provide three additional missionaries at the expiration of fifteen months from January I, 1836. The proposal that the missionaries go into farming as a means of financing the Indian mission was characteristic of Van Quickenborne In connection with the very project now to be launched, fear was entertained that his "known propensity to agriculture33 might divert him from the ministerial activi- ties proper to the mission. Both at White Marsh and Florissant he had given what was thought to be, in view of his other duties, a dispropor- tionate measure of attention to the novitiate farm, often working it with his own hands, yet never, so it was alleged, achieving any success in its management* But overdue solicitude for the temporal side of religious undertakings is a temptation that may beset even the most apostolic of men and against such temptation Father Roothaan was at this time cautioning the zealous Van Quickenborne. "I recommend to your Reverence that you have as example the simplicity and modesty of our Saints . . . and by no means the ostentation, the parade and the noise of Protestant missionaries. For religion is to be propagated now by no other means than those which planted it m the beginning." 2T Decision having thus been reached to open a mission among the Kickapoo Father Van Quickenborne was sent to Washington to nego- tiate with the federal authorities for government aid on its behalf. From Georgetown College he wrote on September 17, 1835, to Secre- tary of War Lewis Cass:
In answer to your favor of the i6th inst., I have the honor to state-
1. That I am prepared to open a Mission with a school in the Indian country at the following places — 1st. On the land of the Kickapoo in the vicinity of the Cantonment Leavenworth
2. I have three Missionaries, including a teacher, to commence the Mission and School immediately in the Kickapoo Nation. I am induced to commence with this tribe by the circumstance of it having expressed to me, through their principal men and chiefs, including even the prophet Kennekuk,
27 Roothaan ad Van Quickenborne, June 28, 1836 (AA).
THE KICKAPOO MISSION 391
a desire of having a Catholic establishment among them The reason they alleged was that they had for many jears lived m the. ntighboihood of French settlements, that they had, in some degree, become acquainted with their religion and that now the) wished to be instructed in it. The prophet said that he had always hoped that a Black-gown, by which name he designated the Catholic priest, would be sent by the Gieat Spnit to help him m instructing his people and teaching them the truths he did not know. Besides the three Missionaries mentioned above, the Catholic Missionary Society of Missouri, m whose name I act, has placed at mj disposal for this year, commencing at this period, a sum of one thousand dollars It is my in- tention to take into the school as many pupils as it will be m my power to collect and to add to the numbei of teachers, in proportion as the number of scholais will mciease, as far as will be in my power, and I hive the stiongest assurance that aid will be given me by the same Society. For this establishment I should be grateful for every aid the Depaitment can afford, either in the way of raising the necessary buildings or pa\mg part of the salary of teachers 01 for the suppoit of Missionaries
Father Van Quickenborne's appeal to Cass in behalf of his Kickapoo Mission was answered by Commissioner of Indian Affairs Elbert Herring-
Your letter of the iyth mst. to the Secretary of War has been referred to me and I am instructed to answer the propositions it contains.
I. In regard to a school among the Kickapoo Indians, the Treaty of 1832 provided for an appropriation of Five Hundred Dollars annually for the term of ten years, for the support of the school. This sum is now applied m the manner thus directed and diversion of it to any other institution is considered inexpedient at present.
2 You ask an allowance from the appropriation for civilizing the In- dians The Secretary of War has directed that the sum of Five Hundred Dollars shall be paid to you or to an authorized agent of the Catholic Mis- sionary Society of Missouri whenever information is received that a school has been established among the Indians. This information must be accom- panied by a certificate of the agent of the tribes, that a building has been erected suitable for the purpose, that a teacher is ready to enter upon his duties and that there is reason to believe that it will be well attended by Indian children. I enclose an open letter for you to General Clark 2S
On the same day that Van Quickenborne received the foregoing communication from the commissioner of Indian affairs he wrote to Bishop Rosati of St. Louis advising him of his success.
28 Van Quickenborne to Cass, Georgetown, September 17, 1835. (H) Herring to Van Quickenborne, Washington, September 22, 1835. (A). In his letter of September 17, 1835, to Secretary Cass, Van Quickenborne also petitioned for government aid m behalf of a Potawatomi mission Cf. *#/ra, Chap. XIII, § 2
392 THE JESUITS OF THE MIDDLE UNITED STATES
It is an honor and an inexpressible pleasure to me as well to be able to announce to you that today I concluded my affair with the Government We ai e going to begin an Indian mission and school among the Kikapoo. I have obtained as an outfit Five Hundred Dollars When the school shall be in operation, circumstances will deteimme the amount of aid which the Govern- ment will fumish My offer in behalf of the Pottowatomies has also been favorably received and we are fully authorized to begin woik among them also when the} shall have moved to their new lands in Missouri in the neigh- borhood of Council Bluffs May your Lordship pardon me if I ask you to be so good as to communicate this news to the Ladies of the Sacred Heart in St. Louis and to commend me earnestly to their prayers as to those of the Sisters of Chantj/. . I have made an important acquisition for the mis- sion. Father McSheiry gives me a Brother of robust health, who is at once carpenter, doctor, etc Many of the Fathers here manifest a lively desire to go and woik among the Indians29
Meantime an incident had occurred at St Louis which threatened for the moment to bring to nothing all of Van Quickenborne's care- fully laid plans for a mission among the Kickapoo. In December, 1835, there amved in that city an Iroquois Indian, Ignace Partui by name, who solicited on behalf of the Flatheads on the further side of the Rocky Mountains the services of a resident Catholic priest Father De Theux, on meeting him, was so impressed with the prospects for evangelical work among the Flatheads that he wrote at once to Van Quickenborne, suggesting that he arrange, if possible, with the govern- ment to begin the missionary experiment among the Rocky Mountain tribes rather than among the Kickapoo. This change of plan did not commend itself to Van Quickenborne, who, being free to act as he thought best under the circumstances, decided to carry out his original design of a mission for the Kickapoo. He now set himself to solicit financial aid for the undertaking from the Catholic public of the eastern United States and Canada. Some fifteen hundred dollars were col- lected, Archbishop Eccleston of Baltimore and Bishop Kennck of Philadelphia being at particular pains to second his efforts At Montreal the SuJpicians were generous in hospitality and material aid. While a guest in their seminary Van Quickenborne copied out almost the whole of an Algonkm grammar which he hoped would be of service to him among the Kickapoo, who were of Algonkm stock.30 With characteristic ardor he was now ready to start at the first call from the expectant Kickapoo. "Should the Indians, however, want my presence," he wrote from New York to Father McSherry, the Maryland provincial, "I am
29 Van Quickenborne a Rosati, Georgetown, September 22, 1835 (C) Father William McSherry was superior of the Maryland Province. 80 Van Quickenborne ad Roothaan, April 21, 1836 (AA).
THE KICKAPOO MISSION 393
determined to come immediately."31 The hospitality shown him by the Maryland Jesuits elicited the cordial thanks of his superior, De Theux, who assured McSherry. "I need not add that we will be happy to return you or any of yours the kindness shown our Indian Mis- sionary, should any of yours take a trip to Missouri " i2 Some months later, April 12, 1836, De Theux again expressed his thanks to McSherry, this time for sending him Brothers Andrew Mazzella and Edmund Barry, who were to accompany Van Quickenborne to the Kickapoo village*
Your favor of the 15 ult i cached me on the 8th inst. It afforded me a new proof of the kindness of Providence and the kind concurrence of Supe- riors in regard of this least Mission of the Society Whenever }our Reverence sends Brother Mazzella and his companion, they will be very welcome and all your Brethren here will look upon them as a new reason for gratitude towards your Reverence and the Maryland Province 33
Father Van Quickenborne returned to St. Louis from the East in the May of 1836. Father Verhaegen, who in the meantime, March, 1836, had become superior of the Missouri Mission m succession to De Theux, wrote to McSherry on May 14.
Your Reverence's affectionate favor of the aoth ult has been handed to me by our good Father Van Quickenborne The voyage to Missouri has been very prosperous, he and his two worthy companions arnved in good health and fine spirits They are now preparing for their arduous under- taking I do not know what success they shall meet with, but it requires no great penetration of mind to see the numerous obstacles which they will have to encounter. May the Almighty bless their glorious efforts I cor- dially thank your Reverence for the kind assistance you have given Father Van Quickenborne and hope, Reverend and dear Father, that you will
31 Van Quickenborne to McSheny, December 2, 1835 (B).
82 De Theux to McSherry, Florissant, December 13, 1835. (B).
33 De Theux to McSherry, Florissant, April 12, 1836 (B). Brother Mazzella had been destined by the General for the Mission of Mt Libanus and to equip himself for that field had for some months studied medicine and surgery He was, besides, a competent cook. "What is most important of all, [he is] an excellent religious He is now conceded by me to America where he can be employed at first m the college kitchen, since the college [Georgetown] needs help of this kind, but it is my mind that he be later assigned to an Indian mission, just as soon as a mission of this kind shall have been opened up." Roothaan ad McSherry, June 1 8, 1833. (B). "I earnestly desire that Brother Mazzella be also included among the brothers [promised to Father Van Quickenborne] since he was sent to America for the precise purpose of being assigned sooner or later, in accordance with his own wishes, to a mission of this sort " Roothaan ad McSherry, December 10, 1835. (AA).
3Q4 THE JESUITS OF THE MIDDLE UNITED STATES
continue to fa\or as much as aitumstances will allow a Mission upon the success of which the honor of our deai Society considei ably depends34
As to Man land's share m starting the Indian mission the testi- mon\ of Father Van Quickenborne himself deserves citation. "His [McShem's] kindness towards me will always be gratefully remem- bered. Without Maryland we should have done nothing in Missouri, nothing for the Indians May the Lord reward you a thousandfold'" 35
The Indian tribe among whom the western Jesuits were to make their first experiment in resident missionary work were not unknown to their predecessors of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. The Kickapoo (the name appears to be a corruption from a longer term signifying uroamers") were of Algonkm stock, showing a close affin- ity in language, customs and ceremonial forms to the Sauk and Foxes. Their first known habitat was south central Wisconsin, whence they shifted their position to the lower Wabash upon lands seized from the Illinois and Miami As early as 1669 Father Allouez come in contact with them at the Green Bay Mission of St. Francis Xavier. Upon his fellow-laborer, Father Marquette, they made a distinctly unfavorable impression. Though professing loyalty to the French, in 1680 they killed the Recollect friar, Gabriel de la Ribourde, a member of La Salle's party, on the banks of the Illinois. In 1728 the Jesuit missionary, Father Michel Guignas, falling into their hands, was condemned to the stake, but his life was spared and, being adopted into their tribe, he brought them by his influence to make peace with the French.36 In the conspiracy of Pontiac the Kickapoo were allied with the famous Ottawa chief and took active part in the general destruction of the Illinois tnbes that followed upon his death. In the Revolutionary War and the War of 1812 they fought with the British. They suffered heavily in these conflicts, especially the second, and by a series' of treaties beginning with that of Greenville, August 3, 1795, after Wayne's decisive victory, and ending with that of Edwardsville, July 30, 1819, ceded all their lands m Illinois and Indiana. The United States government, having agreed to pay them two thousand dollars a year for fifteen years, assigned them a large tract on the Osage River in Missouri. From there they moved west of the Missouri River to what is now Atchison County m northeastern Kansas in the immediate vicinity of Fort Leavenworth. In 1822 only four hundred of the twenty-two hundred members of the tribe were living in Illinois. By
24 Verhaegen to McSheny, St Louis, May 14, 1836 (B). 36 Van Quickenborne to Vespre, May 15, 1836 (AA)
™Cathohc Encyclopaedia, art "Kickapoo Indians," Hodge, Handbook of American Indians (Bureau of American Ethnology), 1.684
THE KICKAPOO MISSION 395
the treaty of Castor Hill October 24, 1832, provision uas made for schools by an annual appropriation of five hundred dollars for ten years. This appropriation was applied to the Kickapoo school conducted since 1833 by the Rev. Mr. Berryman of the Methodist Episcopal Church.37
On the whole these Algonkm rovers showed themselves unfriendly to the white man and civilization and the fruit of missionary labor among them was doomed to be small But Van Quickenborne was not without hopes of a happy issue of the venture as he stepped on board a Missouri River steamer at St Louis May 25, 1836 News of his departure was promptly communicated to the East by Father Verhaegen
Father Van Quickenborne left this place on the 25th ult, with Brothers Mazella, Bany and Miles. Father [Christian] Hoecken, who is still on the mission, is to join him m a few weeks Since his departure I have received no news from him His health had much improved and he was full of courage Everything appears favorable to his great and laborious under- taking The Indian agent [Laurent Pmsoneau] is a French Creole and much attached to him General Clark took him under his protection and Messrs Chouteau and Co will procure him all the advantages and comforts which his new situation will require 3S
§ 3. THE MISSION OPENS
The incidents attending the opening of the Jesuit mission among the Kickapoo were detailed by Van Quickenborne in an account, in English, which he sent to the Maryland provincial
We arrived here on the ist mst [June, 1836] precisely thirteen years after we arrived in Missouri the first time, when we came to commence the Indian Mission — better late than never. The steamer on board of which we came up brought us to the very spot where we intended to build We met with a very cordial reception from the principal chief and his warriors and
87 Castor Hill (Marais Castor, "Beaver Pond"), a tract of land now within the city-limits of St Louis, lying north of Natural Bridge Road between Union and Goodfellow Avenues Missouri Historical Society Collections, 3 409 Here, m October, 1832, General William Clark, with two other U S. commissioners, negotiated treaties with the Kickapoo, Wea, Piankeshaw, Peona and Kaskaskia Indians For spelling of Indian names, cf. Chap. XIII, note I.
88 Verhaegen to McSheny, June 2, 1836. (B). Andrew Mazzella, b Procida, (Naples), Italy, November 30, 1802, entered the Society of Jesus In the Neapolitan Province, November 4, 1823, d. St. Mary's Potawatomi Mission, Kansas, May 9, 1867* Edmund Barry, b Ireland, February 24, 1803, entered the Society of Jesus in Maryland Province, August 6, 18325 d. Bardstown, Ky., December 10, 1857 George Miles, b. Bardstown, Ky, September 13, 1802; entered the Society of Jesus m Missouri, December 26, 1827; d. St. Charles, Mo, January 23, 1885.
396 THE JESUITS OF THE MIDDLE UNITED STATES
from the prophet himself There are two towns among the Kickapoos about 1 1/2 or 2 miles apart, which are composed of the two bands into which the nation is divided Pashishi, the chief, is quite proud of the circumstance of our coming at his paiticular invitation and for this reason wished me to build near his town, on the other hand the Prophet expressed a wish that we should do as much for his band as for the others. He said he had always told his people that a black-gown (priest) would come and help him, that he felt disposed to join us and to persuade his followers to do the same By the agreement of the chief we intend to build between the two towns on a spot nearly equally distant from both As I did not like the expression of the prophet (of our helping him), I made him acknowledge that he had not received authority from the Great Spirit to preach and that his religion was not a divine religion. He readily did it and added that a black-gown had given him a paper and had told him to advise and direct his people to the best of his knowledge. Afterwards he brought me the paper, — it contains nothing but part of a hymn Time will show whether he is sincere, of which I ha\e great reason to doubt General Clark has not as yet com- municated to the Agent the letter from the War Department of which I was the bearer. This circumstance is the cause that the Agent cannot give us the help he would otherwise He has no evidence of my having made an arrangement with the War Department for a school in the Kickapoo nation There can be, however, no doubt but he will soon receive an answer from General Clark on the subject, as he has written to him and so I have done also Father Hoecken and Brother Miles have been added to the number of those who started from St Louis 39 Father Hoecken is getting sick The others enjoy good health, except myself being as usual very weak Our accommodations are rather better than I had anticipated Mr Pamsonneau [Pmsoneau], the one who keeps a store for the nation, has had the kindness to let us occupy one of his old cabins It is 1 6 feet square made of rough logs and daubed with clay Here we have our chapel, dormitory, refectory, etc. We have to sleep on the floor Brother Mazella is really a precious man, by his very exterior countenance he has been preaching all the time of our travelling He cooks, he washes and mends our linen, bakes and does many little things besides. He is truly edifying. Brother Barry is a famous hand to work, but he is not used as yet to the Western country Whilst on board of the steam boat, the water of the Missouri made him sick Here the salt provisions do not agree with him, but I have the consolation to see that he bears all this with courage After a while the Indians will bring in venison and even now and then we have a chance to get some. It would be a great consolation to me if all our work could be done exclusively by our Brothers. I do not know what we could have done here if we did not have the Brothers from Georgetown. I hope that your Reverence will receive an
88 Father Christian Hoecken, a Hollander, had been employed on the mission- circuit of the Missouri River towns for a few years immediately prior to his assignment in June, 1836, to the Kickapoo, among whom he began his career as an Indian missionary.
THE KICKAPOO MISSION 397
ample reward for your liberality towards us and that the increase of the number of good subjects will allow your Reverence to treat with Father General for sending us some more, — a teacher for the schoolboys will be very necessary Father Hoecken and myself hope to be able to learn the language We are making now something like a dictionary. This will help those that will come afterwards Since my arrival here I have seen the Potawatomie Chief Caldwell 40 He is a Catholic and wishes to have a Catholic establishment among his people If we make this, as I have promised to the Department by order of our Superior, several Brothers more will be necessary.41 Father General has recommended the Indian Mission to Father Verhaegen in a particular manner. Your reverence will not be surprised if I do not write about news. We live here, as it were, out of the world Our good Master affords us a fair opportunity for leading an interior life, if we only be faithful to His grace. I earnestly beg of your Reverence to remember us m your holy sacrifices and prayers It is one thing to come to the Indian mission and another to convert the Indians Father Hoecken and the Brothers present their best respects to your Reverence and wish to be remembered to the Fathers and Brothers with whom they have lived, — and myself in particular to Rev Father Rector and Father Vespre and to all inquiring benefactors 42
Van Quickenborne's ambition had at length been realized. A Jesuit residence had been opened in the Indian country, the first in the history of the new midwestern mission. The Annual Letters for 1836 preserve some interesting details of the arrival and first experiences of the missionaries in the Kickapoo village. On the eve of Corpus Chnsti (June i) the Missouri River steamer that had carried them from St. Louis put in at the landing, only a stone's throw distant from the Kickapoo wigwams. No sooner did the Indians catch sight of the boat than they flocked down to the river bank to welcome the missionaries. Pashishij the chief, came at once to pay his respects, expressing himself in terms that raised the hopes of the latter to a high pitch. The log cabin placed at the disposal of the Jesuits by the trader, Laurent Pmsoneau, was fitted up without delay as a chapel and in this im- provised temple the Holy Sacrifice was offered up on the feast of Corpus Christi in the presence of the wondering Kickapoo. They
40 William ("Billy") Caldwell, business chief of the Potawatomi, emigrated with the tribe from Chicago m September, 1835. Cf. Garraghan, Catholic Church in Chicago, p. 40. CaldwelFs band of Potawatomi, before settling on the reserva- tion near Council Bluffs assigned them by the government, occupied for a while part of the triangular strip of land in northwestern Missouri known later as the Platte Purchase. Here they were visited by Van Quickenborne. Cf. infra. Chap XIII, § ^.
41 The reference is to the projected mission among the Potawatomi of Council Bluffs
42 Van Quickenborne to McSherry, Kickapoo Mission, June 29, 1836, (B).
398 THE JESUITS OF THE MIDDLE UNITED STATES
crowded into the cabin, eager with the savage's ingrained curiosity to know the meaning of the crucifix, the pictures, the priestly vestments If ever the ultimate success of a missionary venture seemed assured by the difficulties that beset its beginning, it was the case now among the Kickapoo Besides the alleged unfriendly attitude of the agent. Major Richard W. Cummins, which will presently call for comment, there was the sudden and critical illness of the superior of the mission, Father Van Quickenborne, who lay helpless for a month. Moreover, there were rumors of a Sioux invasion, which threw the Kickapoo village into a panic. The Sioux were reported to be on the warpath with their steps directed towards the lodges of the Sauk and Iowa on the east bank of the Missouri River about a day's journey from Fort Leavenworth A Sauk warrior started the excitement by reporting to the Kickapoo chief that he had seen the enemy on the march. The next day another Sauk announced that the Sioux were close at hand and begged the Kickapoo to send relief immediately. The third day still other mes- sengers hurried in from the Sauk with the identical news and the identical petition The government troops at Fort Leavenworth were also appealed to for assistance. Seventy Kickapoo warriors at once took the field in support of their Sauk allies. The day after their departure the report was spread that the soldiers sent from the fort had been routed by the Sioux and the Sauk village burnt to the ground and that the victorious enemy was moving fast m the direction of the Kickapoo village and the fort Excitement now ran high. The fathers, after consultation, decided that as soon as the Sioux appeared, a priest and one of the coadjutor-brothers should make the rounds of the wigwams and baptize the children. Father Hoecken and Brother Mazzella offered themselves for the task. But the war scare ended as suddenly as it began, diligent search having made it certain that there were no Sioux whatever in the neighborhood.43
The suspension of work on the mission buildings in pursuance of an order received from the agent gave the Jesuit community a chance to perform the exercises of the annual spiritual retreat of eight days All, both fathers and brothers, discharged this duty in common. The exercises were held in the only place available, Pmsoneau's log cabin, the door of which could not be closed both on account of the sweltering heat and in deference to Indian etiquette. The Indians were now treated to a novel spectacle. They would enter the cabin, and squat on the ground directly before one of the missionaries as he was engaged in prayer, with gaze nveted upon him and without as much as a syllable falling from their lips, when the novelty of the sight had worn off,
48 Ann. Prof.y 10. 130.
THE KICKAPOO MISSION 399
they would rise and leave One day, while the retreat was in progress, a deputation from six tribes arrived in the Kickapoo village to negotiate a friendly alliance. The deputies were bent on seeing the black-robes' chapel and went there in a body, arriving during the time of pra}er. They first stood at the door, eyeing curiously the praj ing figures within, but not venturing immediately to enter, for with all the members of the missionary party present there was scant room for other occupants. In the end, however, one after another of the braves stepped over the threshold, offered his right hand to the priests and brothers, and then withdrew, the whole ceremony taking place in the profoundest silence. During the eight days that the missionaries gave themselves up to prayer and recollection, no Indian ventured to interrupt or disturb them.44
A letter addressed by Father Van Quickenborne to Father McSherry tells of the difficulty that arose with the Indian agent, Major Cummins
Your Reverence will be somewhat astonished that we are as yet m the same log-cabin into which we went the first day of our arrival. Soon after I wrote to you last the Agent took into his head to advise or rather to order us to stop until he could get some further understanding. The letter I brought from the War Department requested Gen Ckrk and Gen Clark requested the Agent to give me all necessary aid towai ds establishing a school among the Kickapoo He could not understand the phrase. However, Gen- eral Clark, to whom he had referred the case for decision, has decided that this phrase is imperative and has advised the Agent punctually to comply with the order given Since that the Agent has changed and has written to me that any assistance he can afford will be cheerfully rendered. We have been thus stopped for about two months I had to send off the workmen I had engaged and break the contracts I had made and pay all the expenses. The Chief and principal men are favorable to us — we will not be able to go into our house this winter — it will be a log-house 48 ft long, 20 ft. wide and 1 6 ft high — Brother Mazella is a treasure. I have, since I am here, had another spell of sickness Father Hoecken has been also sick, but again we are all in good health. The Kaskaskias, Peonas, Weas, Piankeshaws, whom I visited two weeks ago, wish to have a resident pnest. I have baptized about forty Indian children and as many more would wish to be baptized, but being grown persons, they stand in need of instruction. I have ktely received a letter from Father General — he is extremely well pleased that your Reverence let me have Brothers that will be so useful. On account of opposition made by the Agent I have no good opportunity to have an answer from our Rev Father Superior concerning the Brother your Reverence promised last spring. Perhaps the good Brother is already on his way to the Kickapoo village. Father Hoecken makes great progress in the Indian lan- guage; the Indians are astonished at it. He is able to converse with them
44 Lttterae Annuae, 1836, p 10. (A).
400 THE JESUITS OF THE MIDDLE UNITED STATES
almost on any subject. Upon the whole, the persecution we have suffered has been of sen ice to us 45
Conflicting accounts leave somewhat in doubt the real motive be- hind Major Cummms's order to Van Quickenborne to stop work on the school building. A letter of the major to be quoted presently im- plies that the consent of the Indians to the new school had not been duly ascertained and put on record with the customary formalities. Van Quickenborne's correspondence, on the other hand, seems to imply that some personal prejudice or ill-will on the part of the agent was the real motive of his opposition. The letter from Gen. Clark acquainting the agent with the missionaries5 authorization from the Indian Office to build a school among the Kickapoo was unaccountably delayed in transmission and this delay will explain why Cummins, in pursuance of instructions issued for the Indian agents generally at that period, did not allow building operations to begin at once. But he seems to have withheld his consent even aften Clark's communication came into his hands. Under date of July 12, 1836, he wrote to Van Quickenborne
I have received a letter from the Superintendent of Indian Affairs, also received a copy by him of a letter from the Commissioner of Indian Affairs on the subject of your establishing a school among the Kickapoo After a careful examination of both, I am of the opinion that the War Department as well as the Superintendent expect the consent of the Indians and fairly given in the usual way before you can establish among them I would there- fore advise you not to proceed until a further understanding can be had I would be pleased to see you at my house and will show you the letters above alluded to.46
The trouble was eventually smoothed out by General Clark, to whom Cummins had applied for fresh instructions. The Major was directed to allow the missionaries to go ahead with their building and even to assist them m the affair as far as lay m his power After this nothing more is heard of opposition on the part of the agent. It is not unlikely that the latter was without blame in the matter and that
45 Van Quickenborne to McSherry, Kickapoo Mission, October 10, 1836 (B)
46 (A). This letter of Major Cummins, though dated July 12, reached Father Van Quickenborne only on August 4 It is indorsed thus m lead-pencil in the latter's hand "Received from Mr. Keene [?] 4th of August, who said he had received it from Major Cummins the day before." Van Quickenborne acknowl- edged the agent's note, August 18 "Your letter of the I2th ult came duly to hand on the 4th inst As I had the pleasure of seeing you since and as in our conversation you alluded to it, I have not deemed it necessary to answer immedi- ately, the more so as you were expected here before the time my answer would reach you You advise not to proceed until further understanding can be had To this advice I have submitted. I would be pleased to hear from you on the subject " (A)
THE KICKAPOO MISSION 401
Father Van Quickenborne misinterpreted his insistence that official formalities be duly complied with As early as October 24, 1836, Van Quickenborne was able to forward to the secretary of war the follow- ing certificate-
I do hereby certify that under the authority of a lettei from the Office of Indian Affairs of September 2, 1835, the Catholic Missionary Society of Missouri has erected on the Kickapoo lands a building for a school, has a teacher prepared to enter upon his duties and that there is a prospect of the school being well attended by Indian pupils 4T
The situation at the mission a few months later, February, 1837, was described by Van Quickenborne in a letter to Bishop Rosati
Your favor of January 5th reached me on the 3Oth of the same month The interest which you: Lordship takes in the success of our establishment
47 On December 3 Commissioner o£ Indian Affairs Harris acknowledged the receipt of this certificate, adding "As soon as the agent's certificate required by the letter to you is received and which is indispensable, the final action in the subject will be communicated to you " A subsequent letter from Commissioner Harris dated March 23, 1837, announced that the promised Government subsidy was at hand. "I have received your letter of the I3th ult enclosing the certificate of Major Cummms relative to the completion of the Kickapoo school-house and the employment of a teacher I have now the pleasure to inform you that these papers are entirely satisfactory and that the sum of five hundred dollars, out of the fund for the civilization of Indians, has this day been remitted to Captain E A Hitchcock, military disbursing agent at St Louis, with instructions to pay it over to you upon your draf t " On June 7, 1837, Van Quickenborne wrote to Commissioner Harris <CI have now the gratification to inform you that my draft upon Captain E A Hitchcock for the above amount ($500) has been paid I hope I shall have it in my power to give you a satisfactory account of the operation of the school at the proper time " (H) A description of the school-house erected by Van Quickenborne is contained in Cummms's certificate "At the request of the Rev Mr Van Quickenborne on behalf of the Catholic Missionary Society of Missouri, I have this day [January 5, 1837] examined a school-house erected by him among the Kickapoo of my agency, which is of the following description, viz School-house 16 ft long and 15 ft wide, wall of hewn logs, one story high, cabin roof, one twelve z eight (tight) glass window and one batten door, the house pointed with mortar made of lime and sand, the under floor of puncheon and the upper floor of plank I certify on honor that the school-house as above described is ready for the reception of Indian children and that the Rev. C. Hoecken, teacher, is ready to commence the school and that there is reason to believe that if the Agent of the Catholic Church and the teacher will use the proper means, the school will be well attended by the Indian children*
P S — It may not be amiss to state that the Rev. Mr. Van Quickenborne has a dwelling on hand 49 ft. by 1 8 ft the wall of which is two-story high and covered in with shingles, which, when finished, is sufficiently large to accommodate a great many persons, — also other buildings, which he does not wish reported until finished."
402 THE JESUITS OF THE MIDDLE UNITED STATES
consoles and encourages us This establishment is situated in the neighbor- hood of Fort Le<-utnworth on the nght bank of the Missouri about 150 leagues from St Louis 48 A post office is to be found there and letters for us should be addressed. Fort Leavenworth, Missouri For lodging we ha\e had, up to this writing, only a cabin 16 feet by 15 We hope to say M«?ss in oin log house of 48 by 20 feet m a few weeks It is exceedingly difficult to secure woikmen, especially such as find the place to their liking We ha\e paid as high as $1.50 a day A carpenter of the kind they call here a rough carpenter receives up to $2 00 a day Our expenses already amount to more than $2000.00 Fiom our establishment we make excur- sions to the Kansas n\ei among the Weas, Peonas, Kaskaskias and Poto- \\atomies It is a \*cll known fact that the Indians in general are predis- posed in favor of Catholic Blackiobes Father Hoecken speaks the Kickapoo language well, but it will be necessary to leain three or four moie to be able to speak about religion to our neighbors, and then comes the difficulty of translating the Catechism into their language But, with the help of God and with patience we can go far Fathei Verhaegen can mfoim your Lord- ship better than I can as to the hopes we have of starting another estab- lishment lo
§ 4. A SLENDER HARVEST
What success the missionaries met with m their work among the Kickapoo remains to be told. It soon became evident that the conversion of the tribe was a highly difficult task At the end o£ 1836 the Catholic Church among the Kickapoo counted but two members and these were children. Better success attended the missionaries on their occasional visits to the neighboring tribes. Fifty miles from the Kickapoo village they baptized fourteen Indian children, performed one marriage cere- many and admitted nine, nearly all adults, among the catechumens.50
48Wetmore's Gazetteer (1837) £lves ^e distance from St Louis to Fort Leavens orth by the Missouri River as 431 miles (143 2/3 leagues)
40 Van Quickenborne a Rosati, Kickapootown, February 22, 1837 (C) 50 Lttterae Annuae> 1836 (A). It is interesting to note that Van Quicken- borne*s missionary activities extended to the Kaskaskia Indians, among whom Marquettc established in 1675 on the Illinois River the historic mission of the Immaculate Conception, the protomission of the Society of Jesus in the Mississippi Valley Journeying overland, July i, 1835, from the site of Kansas City, Missouri, to pay his first visit to the Kickapoo, Van Quickenborne was agreeably surprised to find that the first Indians he met on the way, a Shawnee and his wif e, a Wyan- dotte, were both Catholics (Ann. Prop, 9 97). Further on he met some Kaskaskia squaws, who, as evidence that some relics of Catholic practice had survived among them, were able to make the sign of the cross. They were eager to have a black- robe visit their village and revive the Catholic life which had flourished among their ancestors, but which had now virtually disappeared, owing to the fact that no priest since the passing of Father Meurin had been able to deal with them m their own language They informed Van Quickenborne that the entire tribe now
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THE KICKAPOO MISSION 403
The cry was soon raised among the Indians that the Catholic school was not needed The> had a school already that conducted b\ Mr Berryman, the Methodist. Why open another Nevertheless, the Catholic school was opened in the spring of 1837 in the log house which Father Van Quickenborne had built for the purpose, and at the end of the academic }ear it counted twenty pupils.51
In June, 1837, Father Verhaegen made an official visitation of the Kickapoo Mission Under the caption, Relation d'un voyage chez les Kickapoo , a detailed account from his pen of this visit appeared in
numbered sixty souls, all of them with one solitary exception being mi \ed-bloods (General William Clark m hi& dian gnes the number of Ka^ka^kia, when the} passed through St Louis on their \\zy to the West, as only thirt\-one "July 23, 1827. The Kaskaskia arrived The -whole remnant of this great nation conbibts at this time of thirty-one soles [sic] , fifteen men, ten women and six children") The pledge which Van Quickenborne ga\ e these stra\ Kaskaskia to \ issit them at the first opportunity was redeemed the following year in an excursion from the Kickapoo Mission (Ann Prop, 10 140). Accompanied by a Wea chief, a Catholic, as interpreter, the missionary on September 24, 1836, reached the Kaskaskia village situated along the Osage Rrver about ninety miles south of the Kickapoo The Kaskaskia were now fused with the Peona, a tribe also evangelized by Marquette The entire body of the Peona, so it appears, and two Kaskaskia had gone over to Methodism, alleging in explanation that they deemed it better to practice some form of Christianity than none at all, as they should be constrained to do m default of a Catholic priest Both Kaskaskia and Peona, having made an earnest appeal for the services of a priest, were encouraged by Father Van Quicken- borne to bring to the notice of the government agents their desire that provision might be made for the support of a resident priest In the course of this missionary trip Van Quickenborne baptized twenty-five infants, refusing the sacrament to a number of other Indian children who had attained the age of reason but were without the necessary previous instruction. In Kickapootown and the Kansa camp he baptized on May 18 and 19, fourteen Kansa children, all under seven years of age Kickapoo Mission Register. (F)
31 "Report of the teacher for the Kickapoo," signed by P J. Verhaegen, Super- intendent of the Mo. Cath Miss. Society, m Report of the Commissioner of Indian Affairs, 1837. (Hereinafter cited as RCIA). Annual cost of the school, about fifteen hundred dollars, cost of the school-house erected between the two villages of the nation, about a thousand dollars, money received from government since opening of school, five hundred dollars, from other sources, three thousand and eighty dollars, school unencumbered by debts. Three teachers in the school and two other persons employed m connection with it, viz Rev Ch Hoecken, Superior and teacher of English, Rev* F. Verreyedt, teacher of music, G. Miles, teacher of penmanship, C Mazzella, cook and J Barry, farmer. "These five gentlemen devote their attention gratis to the school " Twenty (? ) pupils regis- tered, among them Kiakwoik, Uapakai, son of the chief, Kikakay, Mmakwoi, Papikwon, Akosay, Pemmoaitamo, Fataan, Fetepakay Nimoika, Moshoon, Kammay, Nematsiata, Baptist "Among them Kiakwoik, Nenopoi, Wapatekwoi and Nimoika distinguished themselves by their progress, especially m penmanship and bid fair to be qualified for any employment of civilized life."
404 THE JESUITS OF THE MIDDLE UNITED STATES
the Annales de la Propagation de la Foi™ Another account is to be found in an English letter addressed by him to Father McSherry
I returned a few days ago from my excursion to our Indian Mission M\ trip has been short and delightful I left St Louis on the I4th ult and arm ed at the Kickapoo village on the eve of the Feast of St Aloysms [June 21 ]. The boats that na\igate the Missouri generally do not run during the night on account of the numerous snags and sand bais which render its navi- gation dangerous e\en in daylight, but when I started, the water was so high and the moon shone so bright that our captain anticipated no danger from a delation of the general rule We struck, however, some banks and rode some snags, but without any damage to the boat I did not know, my dear Father, that the state of Missouri possessed such a prodigious quantity of fertile soil I regret that you were not with me, you would, I am sure, have been pleased uith the truly enchanting pictuies which both sides of the river present to the travelers Do not speak of the farms situated on the bluffs between St Louis and St Charles, good as they are, when compared with those of Maryland, on which you pointed out some prairie grass to me as we rolled along on the cars, they sink mto insignificance when contrasted with the lands of our Upper Missouri When I was in the East, the beauties and improvements of which I do intensely admire, I anxiously looked for one respectable tree and one eminently fruitful spot, but in vain, in Missouri, I am now more convinced than ever, trees and spots of the kind are so numerous that in order to avoid seeing them, one must fly to Maryland What shall I say of the beauties of nature to the eye? I thought that the lofty rocks and sublime hills which the canal and railroad between Phila- delphia and Pittsburgh afforded to my sight could not be equaled by any prospect in the West, but even in these, Missouri is not surpassed by the East I know your Reverence thinks I am enthusiastic m my account. I pardon the impression under which you labor, because to any one who has not seen Missouri, my description must appear incredible Vem et vide The landing is about a mile and a quarter from the Mission house. Father Van Quickenborne having been informed of my arrival by a couner, came to see me on board the boat and I accompanied him to the Indian village on horse- back. The site of the building is one of the most beautiful that could be selected In the rear the land is well timbered On the right the chief has his village and the ground is cleared, on the left lives the Prophet with his band and in front there is an extensive valley formed by a chain of hills on which Ft. Leavenworth stands. Our missionaries have a field of about fifteen acres on which they raise all the produce which they want They are about five miles from the Fort and have, of course, every necessary opportunity to procure at that post such provisions as their industry cannot yield. Many of the Indians among whom they live are well disposed toward the Catholic religion and several of them have expressed a desire of being instructed. However, most of them are still averse to a change of their superstitious
82 Ann* Prop., II 468 et scq.
THE KICKAPOO MISSION 405
practices and vicious manner Of the 1000 souls that constitute both vil- lages, hardly thirty regulaily attend church on Sundays. Man) come to see us on week days and b} the instruction which they receive during these visits are insensibly to be pre\ ailed to come to hear the word of God Father Van Quickenborne has made but little progress in the Kickapoo language. He labors under man} disadvantages and at his age he will never conquer them, but Father Hoecken speaks the Kickapoo admirably well The savages call him the Kickapoo Father, a compliment which no Indian easily pays to a missioner — to be entitled to it, he must speak his language well When I was at the Kickapoo village, I assisted at one of Father Hoecken's instruc- tions. The sound of his horn drew about forty to the chapel at 1 1 A.M. , but all did not enter it at the appointed time They are a set of independent beings; they will have their own way m everything to show that they do not act from compulsion There were in the chapel benches enough to accommodate a hundred persons, some few preferred them to the floor They all kept silence well and behaved modestly. The Father in surplice knelt before the altar and intoned the Kyne Eleison of the Litany of the Blessed Virgin, the choir, consisting of Father Van Quickenborne, the three Brothers and two workmen, joined him, and the whole Litany was sung with a tone of variations too refined for my ear. Father Fenwick himself would have failed m an attempt to keep the time and hit the notes.53 Such per- formances suit the Indians, happily they love and admire a mixed and confused kind of music The instruction lasted upwards of half an hour I heard the words "piano," "mane," "miquo,"— I heard "pas," "pasa," "pan," and "oikia" and I was tempted to believe that the Kickapoo language was a mixture of Latin and Greek. Unfortunately, on inquiry, I discovered that the sounds expressed none of the ideas which they convey m other language In the course of a few days I will, Deo dante, write to my good Father Mulledy, and together with several interesting items relating to the customs of the Indians whom I have visited, I will send him the Our Father and the Hail Mary m their language.54 Father Hoecken has composed a grammar and is now preparing a dictionary which will be of great advantage to such as will henceforth join him in the glorious work which Ours have commenced. Much good can be done among the savages west of the state of Missouri The Potowatomies are now on their way to the land which they have to inhabit. They are more than 5,000 m number; more than 400 already Catholics, and they (and especially their chief who is a Catholic also) are very anxious to have a Catholic missioner established among them I must beg of your Reverence some assistance to comply with the request of those unhappy people. The Maryland province has already one Brother Mazella, who distinguishes himself by his zeal, holiness and success> for by his endeavors, by his good example and by his attention to the sick, he has been instrumental m procuring baptism to more than 50 children Would it be impossible to obtain from you three or four more laborers on that
53 Father George Fenwick, 1801-1857, member of the Maryland Province, SJ.
54 Father Thomas Mulledy, 1794-1860, member of the Maryland Province, SJ.
406 THE JESUITS OF THE MIDDLE UNITED STATES
extensile and feitile vineyard which is now offered to the Society? Dear Father, reflect on the condition of the poor aborigines of your country and I am sure that your sympathy for their distress will urge you to do something more for their relief 55
The Annual Letters of 1837 dwell on the unpromising outlook for missionary work among the Kickapoo. So many obstacles had thwarted the labors of the fathers that it was plain the mission must have suc- cumbed long ago but for the very manifest intervention of Divine Providence. The Prophet had roused his followers to more than one unfriendly demonstration Even Pashishi, the chief, who had invited the missionaries to the Kickapoo village and brought them his eldest son, Washington, fourteen years of age, for religious instruction, as- sumed for a while a hostile attitude. In the beginning curiosity at- tracted man> of the Indians to the chapel. Now the novelty was worn off and few of them were seen around the mission-house They said. "We want no prayer [their term for religion], our forefathers got along very well without it and we are not going to feel its loss." Even the children showed a marked aversion to every form of religion. It was not a desire for instruction, but the hope of food, raiment and presents in general that brought them to school Were these to stop, their presence in the schoolroom would be at an end. "Who does not see," exclaims the chronicler, "that obstacles like these are to be brushed aside only by Him who changeth the hearts of men." What, then, had reduced the Kickapoo to this wretched condition ? The prox- imity of the whites, from whom they purchase whiskey and with it the open door to every manner of vice.56
55 Verhaegen to McSherry, St Louis, July 10, 1836 (B) Letters of Vcrhaegen to M De Nef about the Kickapoo, Aug 3, 1836 (i837?), and July 10, 1837, are in the archives of the North Belgian Province, S J
66 Litterae Annuae, 1837. (A). The account given of the Kickapoo by Maj Cummins, U S agent, in his annual reports to Washington (RCIA> 1837-1841) is more favorable to the tribe than accounts emanating from the missionaries As late as 184.1, he reports the Indians as given to agricultural pursuits and fairly prosperous In his report for 1838 he writes "Keanakuck or the Prophet's Band, that constitute the largest portion of the tribe, have improved rapidly in agricultural pursuits the last four years. . . This band of the Kickapoo are making great improvement and are approaching fast to a system of farming and government among themselves not far inferior to white civilization They profess the Christian religion, attend closely and rigidly to their chuich discipline and very few ever indulge in the use of ardent spirits." Rev Isaac McCoy, Baptist missionary, protests in his Annual Register, 1836, against the designation of the Kickapoo as Christians "If the success [of the Kickapoo Mission] has not corresponded to the labor and expense, it is owing, first to the presence and opposition of a Methodist Minister who lives among them, to the vicinity of the whites and to the difficulties which always attend the commencement of such establishments, for instance, the absence
THE KICKAPOO MISSION 407
Now that he was realizing the dream of a life-time by actually residing among the Indians, Father Van Quickenborne, always a facile letter-writer, was careful to inform the Father General at inter- vals of the progress of the experiment. He recurred to his favorite plan of an Indian reduction modeled after the famous Jesuit reduc- tions of Paraguay. A few Kickapoo families wished to separate from their savage kinsfolk and these recruits for civilization he would organ- ize into a Christian village or reduction while teaching them to farm and otherwise helping them to get on in a material way. He was especially anxious to open additional missionary-posts, as among the Osage> the Potawatomi, and the Rocky Mountain tribes. The last- named made a particular appeal to him as appears from his letter of May 22, 1837, to Father Roothaan:
It seems that a great field for the spreading of the faith is now opened up in the Rocky Mountains I have heard from quite a few reliable men that there are several nations m that region highly susceptible to religion and that they have sent twice to St Louis to ask for Catholic priests I have written this before but it is now still further borne out by new witnesses Last year a Protestant minister went there, this current jear another. Can nothing be done for the Indians? If only they could be visited by one of Ours with hope held out to them of a resident pnest . . All these things, Very Reverend Father, we submit to your judgment, not wishing to do anything except through obedience But the hope is often with me that it may please God to employ our services m a number of places For why so many societies in Europe for the propagation of the faith? And why did the bishops of the United States wish this work entrusted to the Society ? Why, in fine, did the Sovereign Pontiff second this wish? Why do those nations send deputies to obtain Catholic priests with the avowal that they do not want Protestants?
It was noticed in Father Van Quickenborne that he had a tendency to leave tasks half-finished in a sort of impatience to take up something new. Probably this was the point in the official estimate of him already cited which declared him to be excellent for undertaking almost any kind of work but not for seeing it through. With the mission among the Kickapoo scarcely begun, he was now characteristically turning his attention to other fields of labor. Father Roothaan, who was no stranger to his peculiarities of temperament, sounded a timely note of warning in a letter of May 22, 1837:
Although the personnel of the Mission shows a satisfactory increase in number for the last two years, there is a great deal wanting to it before
of all the facilities for the acquirement of the language, etc." Verhaegen, Refort on the Indian Missions to the Most Rev. Archbishop and' Right Rev. Bishofs m Provincial Council assembled (Baltimore, 1841).
408 THE JESUITS OF THE MIDDLE UNITED STATES
it can take on the real character of the Society Much, too, is to be desired m the oigamzation of studies Now, with deficiencies of this sort nothing can be solidl} begun and much less can beginnings be brought to perfection Though I gi eatlj desire that one or other station and even a number of them be opened up among the Indian tribes, still I should think that we ought to make haste quite slowly and not take another station m hand before the first has been firmly established I see well enough the necessity of cultivating a little farm, I have only this one recommendation to make, that the labor spent upon it be not greater than necessity requires, so that our missionaries will not m any way, as far as possible, be diverted by cares of this nature fiom their spiritual ministry
§ 5. THE PASSING OF FATHER VAN QUICKENBORNE
During his stay among the Kickapoo m June, 1837, it became known to Father Verhaegen that things were not running smoothly m the little Jesuit group settled m that remote corner of the frontier. What had been feared by many had come to pass Father Van Quicken- borne's idiosyncrasies of temperament had set him at variance with those under his authority. Even Brother Mazzella, whom Van Quicken- borne himself called a "treasure" and to whose obvious virtues he gave eager testimony, found it a perplexing problem to carry on with him. Furthermore, the hired help at the mission were m discontented mood, while, so at least it was alleged, the good-will and sympathies of the Indians were being forfeited. Yet Father Verhaegen, m reporting the situation to the General, pays tribute to the more than ordinary per- sonal virtues of Van Quickenborne.57 At all events the best interests of the mission seemed to demand the latter's recall and to this measure Father Verhaegen, after returning to St Louis and there conferring with his consultors, decided to proceed. The minute-book of the con- sultorial board for July 9, 1837, records that the burden of the com- plaints received m writing from all the members of the missionary-staff among the Kickapoo was Father Van Quickenborne's "despotic manner of government."
Having received from Verhaegen peremptory orders to report in St. Louis, Van Quickenborne acted upon them with a promptness that left nothing to be desired in the obedience expected of him on the occasion. The earliest known letter from his pen, cited in a previous chapter of this history, drew an enthusiastic picture of the prospects of Indian missionary enterprise m the New World, it is significant that the last in his extant correspondence strikes the same note of zealous concern for the conversion of the Indians. It was written from Fort Leavenworth to the Father General:
'Verhaegen ad Roothaan, July 18, 1837. (AA)
THE KICKAPOO MISSION 409
I received this letter yesterday fiom Reverend Father Superior.
"After mature delibeiation and prayer to God and after asking the opinion of the consultois of the Mission, I ha\e decided to iccall \our Rc\er- ence to this university. I am indeed commccd that there is no need of a command foi your Reverence to obey this wish of mine, but that jou ma) have the merit of holy obedience, I order your Re\eience to proceed on horseback to the town of Liberty within two da}S after the receipt of this letter I expect here of your Reverence an accurate statement of all
money received and spent "
Submitting to the command of my Superior, I started on the way the day after receiving the letter.
I sincerely tender you, Very Reverend Father, m} most cordial thanks for your very great solicitude m beginning this Indian Mission, for which ever since I was a boy I have steadily felt and feel even yet a great desire I shall never forget m how fatherly a manner your Reverence has always acted in my regard and I do not know what better token to give of m) grateful sentiments than to offer myself for whatever duties your Reverence may deign, through my Superior, to assign to me Meantime, I shall not fail to pour forth my prayers to God that, enriched with all spiritual gifts, you may continue, Very Reverend Father, to promote and develop this Indian Mission, and I still venture to hope that out of your boundless chanty in my regard, you will assist me with your prayers and sacrifices so that I may obtain before God forgiveness of my sins, which certainly are the cause of this interruption, if I may call it such, and that I may receive a fuller measure of grace to walk worthily according to my vocation.58
Father Van Quickenborne, now only in his fiftieth year, but with health shattered by the hardships of his strenuous career, arrived at St. Louis as the July of 1837 was drawing to a close. After a stay of two days at St. Louis University he repaired to the novitiate where he went through the exercises of his annual retreat, edifying all by his pious demeanor and by the public penance which he performed in the refectory. To a novice who asked him what was the best prepara- tion to make for the Indian mission he made the characteristic answer that the best preparation was the practice of self-denial. From the novitiate he proceeded to St. Charles and thence to the residence of St. Francis of Assisi m Portage des Sioux, where he assumed the duties of superior m succession to Father Verreydt, who in turn replaced him among the Kickapoo. "Charity and gratitude impel me/' Father Verhaegen informed the General, "to see to it that in his advanced age and feeble health, he lack nothing which this locality can supply for his consolation and the relief of his frequent indispositions." 59 To add to his comfort, a coadjutor-brother, William Ckessens, was put at
58 Van Quickenborne ad Roothaan, July 22, 1837. (AA). 69 Verhaegen ad Roothaan, August, 1837 (AA).
410 THE JESUITS OF THE MIDDLE UNITED STATES
his service. But Van Quickenborne had been only a few days in Portage when a bilious fever seized him and, finding no resistance from his outworn constitution, reduced him to the last extremity. The services of a skillful physician were secured, while Father Paillasson, who him- self had some knowledge of medicine, was sent for from the novitiate. The last sacraments were administered to the patient, who received them with simple piety and resignation to the Divine Will. He met death without anxiety or fear and, recorded Father De Theux, "to the great edification of all." About twenty minutes before the end, having called for a mirror, he gazed into it and then returned it with the words, "pray for me." They were the last he spoke. He expired without agony at half-past eleven on the morning of August 17 while Father Paillasson and Brother Claessens were praying at his bedside. The remains accompanied by many of the parishioners were borne the next day to St. Charles, where they were interred at the foot of the cross which marked the center of the Catholic graveyard. They were later transferred to the novitiate cemetery in Florissant where they rest today with those of the other valiant pioneers who were associated with him in the founding of the work of the Society of Jesus in the trans-Mississippi West A simple record on the tombstone sums up the story of his life.60
While Father Van Quickenborne lay dying at Portage des Sioux he sent for Father De Theux, then at the novitiate, begging him "for the love of our Lord Jesus Christ," to hasten to his side The father having answered the summons, Van Quickenborne confided to him that before he left Maryland he had received an interior assurance from on high (ab alto) that he was to begin the Indian mission, that his own brethren would fail him, but that shortly after something would happen to vindicate his course in the whole affair, after which the Indian mission was to flourish. Further, he asked that in the event of his death this information be conveyed by De Theux to the Father General, a request which was faithfully carried out.61 Whatever the nature of the assurance Father Van Quickenborne had received, the failure of the missionary experiment among the Kickapoo was, as a matter of fact, followed closely by the successes scored by the Jesuits among the Osage and the Potawatomi of the Kansas border.
60 Historia Misstoms Mtssourtanat. (A), CCISH [stff] Rev. Pater Carolus F Van Quickenborne, Soc Jesus Sacerdos Professus, Natus Gandavi in Belgio, die 21 Junn [?], 1788, Soc. mgressus 14 Apr,, 1815, Post Restitutam Societatem, Missioms Missourianae, Primus Superior Constitutus, die 14 Apr, 1823, Post multos et arduos labores, in vinea Domini exantlatos, Obnt in pago Portage des Sioux, die 17 Aug., 1837.'* For an allegedly miraculous cure wrought at his tomb, cf. Laveille, Le P. De Smet, p. 103 n.
61 De Theux ad Van Quicfcenborne, August 24, 1837.
THE KICKAPOO MISSION 411
Three days after Van Quicfcenborne's passing, the Venerable Mother Duchesne made this entry m her journal.
Feast of St Bernard [August 20, 1837] News of the death at Portage des Sioux of the holy Father Charles Van Quickenborne, ist Superior of the Jesuits in Missouri He had entered the Society of Jesus in Flanders and went to Maryland[?] with several subjects of his own nationality, of whom he was master of novices. Bishop Du Bourg drew him with his eight novices to the diocese of St Louis and gave him his residence in the pansh of St. Ferdinand. All things were born under this skilful administrator, who created everything for the good of the Society in Missouri It is owing to him that, with no other resources to draw on than Providence, the poor cabin of the residence was changed into an agreeable dwelling-house, the church of St. Charles built, the college of St. Louis founded and the ist Indian mission set on foot.62
Father Roothaan's last letter to Father Van Quickenborne was an acknowledgment of the one written by the latter from Fort Leaven- worth on his way back to St. Louis. It left Rome at the end of September, 1837, some six weeks after the missionary had passed away.
I have received your Reverence's letter sent to me from the Indian mission as also your last note in which you announce to me, regretfully but with resignation to the will of God, your departure from the mission as obedience would have it. This last act of virtue has indeed been a source of great consolation to me, a something worthy of a son of the Society, which cherishes the memory of her Xavier, ready as he was at the very first letter which bore the name of his father Ignatius to halt in the course of his apostolic labors. I cannot but approve the action of Father Superior in re- calling your Reverence. However, he has not ceased to concern himself for the Kickapoo Mission nor for the further mission which is to be taken up among the other Indians, nor shall I permit what has once been started to be abandoned lightly Let your Reverence find joy in his obedience and cherish daily in the Holy Sacrifice the memory of the mission which by God's will he has relinquished. Doubt not that your services will be usefully employed elsewhere to God's greater glory. The obedient man will speak of victories.63
Nature and grace combined to render Father Van Quickenborne admirably fitted for the career of religious pioneer and travelling mis- sionary which he followed for fourteen years in a new and unsettled country on behalf of whites and Indians alike. He had a clear and
62 General Archives, Society of the Sacred Heart. Bishop Rosati wrote in his diary August 17, 1837: "The Reverend Father Charles Van Quickenborne who had returned from the Indian Missions on account of health, died today at 11^2 o'clock in the town of Portage des Sioux."
6SRoothaan ad Van Quickenborne, September 30, 1837. (AA).
412 THE JESUITS OF THE MIDDLE UNITED STATES
orderly mind, stored with a knowledge of Catholic theology as ready as it was accurate, a talent for controversy, valuable for one called on to deal with the grossest religious prejudices, and a happy command of the vernacular, which he put to good account m his sermons and expositions of Catholic doctrine. Though his health was chronically uncertain, his bodily constitution was in many respects a rugged one, suited to endure prolonged bodily exertion and fatigue To mere physical discomfort, to physical suffering even, he was steadily in- different. As an instance of his fortitude in this regard, it is recorded that on one occasion while he and his novices were engaged in cutting timber for the new building erected by them soon after their arrival at Florissant, one of the young men, who was eagerly squaring a log with an ax, had the misfortune to let the tool stake on the father's foot. Though the wound was a severe one, Van Quickenborne remained at his work, it was only when loss of blood made him about to faint that he consented to take a seat and have the wound bound with a handkerchief. He attempted to return on foot to the novitiate, almost three miles distant, but was unable to proceed and allowed himself to be set on a horse which had been sent for him. Burning with fever^ he had to keep to his bed for several days, then, recovering sufficient strength to walk, though by no means a well man, he was back again with his novices preparing the timber for the new structure.64
Together with the patient endurance of physical discomfort and pain there went in Van Quickenborne a great store of natural energy. It was by persistent personal effort that he succeeded m collecting the money needed to finance his various works of piety and zeal The journey of 1823 from White Marsh to Florissant, the building of the St. Charles church and of St. Louis College and the establishment of the Kickapoo Mission are instances in point. At St. Charles he per- sonally solicited funds towards the erection of a new house for the Religious of the Sacred Heart. "Sure of $30000," said Father Ver- haegen, "he will get the rest though he should wear out six pair of shoes by running through St. Louis on begging expeditions." 65
But it was supernatural rather than natural virtue which supplied the dynamic to Van Quickenborne's tireless career. "Our Father Superior," so Verhaegen portrayed him to the Maryland superior, "is a man of exceeding piety, full of zeal and most persevering, m a word, dowered with every good quality," 66 Like all men of supernatural out- look, Van Quicfcenborne felt that unless the inner life of the spirit be kept at a high level, mere external occupations may starve rather than
64 De Smet, Western Missions and Missionaries, p 466.
65 Verhaegen to McSherry, St Louis, October 16, 1833 (B)
68 Verhaegen ad Dzierozynsld, St. Louis, January 18, 1830. (B).
THE KICKAPOO MISSION 413
strengthen the soul. "I am ver> well pleased with the trip I have made," he wrote to his superior on returning to Florissant from his first Osage excursion of 1827, "and have been ampl) rewarded b> the divine goodness, which has pleased to give me a great desire of fraternal charity, obedience and mortification, I dare entreat \our pra\ers that these desires may be brought into effect." *'7
The result of this spiritual viewpoint steadily maintained in the midst of the most absorbing ministerial labors was a singleness and sincerity of purpose that is ever the first point in the missionary's equipment. A certain severity of manner to those under his charge detracted in no small measure from the success of his administration, but the severity, more temperamental than deliberate, never obscured what was patent to all, his thorough devotion to the best interests of religion. A father who m writing to a superior had expressed himself m unfavorable terms of Van Quickenborne's government of the mis- sion declared some years later. "Father Van Quickenborne has become very dear to us all. ... I am now convinced that, all things con- sidered, he acted according to the best of his ability and always had before his eyes, Ad Majorem Dei Glortam"
In the death of Father Charles Felix Van Quickenborne the group of Jesuits who in the eighteen-twenties began to till anew the field opened by missionaries of their order in the preceding centuries lost their most valued and successful worker and the chief organizer of their pious enterprise. Under his administration of the new Jesuit mission in the West and dunng the few years of labor that remained to him after retirement from office, much was accomplished m the way of successful pioneering. The foundations of the Missouri Province
67 Van Quickenborne to Dzierozynski, Florissant, September 13, 1827, (B) Cf also the following revealing letter "Yr. favor of loth of Jan last came duly to hand That Mother Abbess was cleaver only on paper, but yr Rev has been so in the purse for this and many other favours I return you my sincere thanks and hope to be grateful, will yr. rev. have now the patience to learn how cleaver a son you have m me? I took yr. letter out of the Post Office when on the road to St. Louis whither I was called by a prisoner condemned to death, but since re- prieved, having read a few lines of it, as it were, unable to proceed, I put it back m my pocket and began my meditation having considered that I came to Religion to enjoy the happiness yr. rev afforded me by telling me of my faults, I re- sumed courage and, as I thought, prepared for something more, I opened the letter again and read a few lines more of it, and after I had got that something more, not having courage to read further, I shut it again and resumed anew my meditation, at the end of which I read the whole and was convinced that nothing could more oblige me to yr rev than the reception of such infallible marks of true Xtian love. I beg therefore yr. rev not to omit them on account of my exceeding weakness, but rather to consider that I stand the more m need of them." Van Quickenborne to Dzierozynski, February 12, 1828. (B)
414 THE JESUITS OF THE MIDDLE UNITED STATES
of the Society of Jesus were laid, an Indian school at Florissant was opened and maintained for several years, St. Louis University was started on its career as a Jesuit institution, many of the outlying parishes of St. Louis were built up. Catholic missionary work among the western Indian tribes was taken up m occasional excursions to the frontier and by the establishment of the Kickapoo Mission, while the comforts of religion were brought periodically to the little knots of Catholic set- tlers scattered over western and northeastern Missouri and western Illinois. We conclude with a testimony from the historian of the Catholic Church in the United States, John Gilmary Shea "To Father Van Quickenborne as the founder of the Vice-Province of Missouri and its Indian missions, too little honor has been paid His name is almost unknown, yet few have contributed more to the edification of the white and the civilization of the red man, to the sanctification of ail." 6S
§ 6. VERHAEGEN AND THE INDIAN OFFICE
Information of interest both as to conditions in the Kickapoo Mission and the attitude towards it of government officials may be gleaned from the correspondence of Father Verhaegen with Washington in refer- ence to the modest share of public money appropriated to the school. Transmitting to the secretary of war his first report on the mission- school, he wrote
From the several letters which I have received from our missionaries dur- ing the last three months, it appears to me that it is more than probable that man} of the Kickapoos will leave ere long the land which they occupy and repair to the Red River. The Chief had several conversations with the Rev. C[hnstian] Hoecken, during which he stated that his main reason for wishing to move is that his men commit many excesses in drinking spirituous liquors Intoxication, said he, prevails to such a degree among them that in a few years it will destroy all my people. I would prefer, Honorable Sir, to see our gentlemen employed among tribes that live at a distance from our frontier and I am decidedly of the opinion of our missionaries that the work of civilization would be promoted among such tribes in a more effectual manner. I mention these things m order that the Department may fully know what obstacles we have to surmount at present If, therefore, our services will be accepted, we are ready to go and labor among the remotest Indian nations at any place that may be assigned to us . If the Kicka- poos go away, what will become of the buildings which we have erected and the improvements which we have made? Considering the manners and the inconstancy of the Indian tribes, I think that to effect any lasting good among them, it is necessary that those who labor among them should con- form as much as possible to their way of living and that expensive buildings
68 Shea, Catholic Indian Missions of the United States, p 466.
THE KICKAPOO MISSION 415
should not be constructed on their lands before they arc permanently settled on farms. 69
The allowance in behalf of the mission-school does not appear to have been a permanent one so that Father Verhaegen could count upon it annually. In March, 1839, he inquired of Commissioner of Indian Affairs Harris, first, whether he might draw upon the department for the balance of the five hundred dollars allowed him when he was in Washington in the spring of 1838, and secondly, whether he could rely upon further aid from the government in behalf of the Kickapoo school-
Before I conclude I will barely remaik to }ou, Honorable Sir, that we have at present three schools among the Indians and that, should all govern- ment aid be refused to me, I would be under the painful necessity of carrj ing on the work with private means alone No account of the Kickapoo School was sent to the Department last year for this only reason, that I could add nothing new to the exhibit already forwarded and that, far from increasing, the number of pupils, owing to the unsettled and wandering condition of these Indians, has averaged but eight during the year.70
To the Indian Office an average attendance of eight appeared to indicate too slight a measure of success to warrant a continuance towards the school of government support. Accordingly, a communication from Mr. Kuntz of the Indian Office to Father Verhaegen in the summer of 1839 informed him that the appropriation of five hundred dollars in behalf of the Catholic Kickapoo school would thenceforth cease In his distress at this intelligence Verhaegen turned to his friend, Senator Benton of Missouri-
When I had the satisfaction of enjoying your presence during your recent visit at the University, I took the liberty of mentioning to you that for some reason or other the Department of Indian Affairs refused to pay me a balance of $250 due to our Kickapoo school and that I had been informed that all further aid towards same establishment would cease with the expiration of the last half year. I have now the pleasure to state, Honorable Sir, that Major Pilcher has had the goodness to settle my account up to the 1st of July. This is, of course, as it ought to be. But, Honorable Sir, I cannot help thinking that the whole Catholic population of the United States has reason to complain of the withdrawal of the little assistance which Government had hitherto lent me in conducting schools among the Indians. The words "whole Catholic population" may perhaps surprise you. I will therefore ex- plain myself. You recollect that about two years ago all the Bishops of our
69 Verhaegen to secretary of war, St Louis, November 5, 1837 (H).
70 Verhaegen to Hams, St, Louis, March 28, 1839. (H).
4i 6 THE JESUITS OF THE MIDDLE UNITED STATES
Church assembled m Council at Baltimore. They represent this population Now it is well known that during their session they unanimously requested the Society of which I am a member to embark m the work of the civiliza- tion of the Indian nations west of the State of Missouri. In consequence of their appeal to us, we undertook the work and the present Superintendent of Indian Affans at St Louis is acquainted with the success that has attended our exertions. I need not enter into more details, Honorable Sir, to convince }ou that while other denominations are patronized m their efforts to ameli- orate the condition of the savages, it would prove exceedingly painful to my fellow Catholics to hear that they are entirely excluded from a share m the funds created by the Government for education purposes I candidly men- tioned m one of my letteis to the Department that our school among the Kickapoos is badly attended and behold, a circumstance which exists, I believe, m ever} school of the kind, is assumed as the ground on which the annual allowance is withdrawn It does not belong to me. Honorable Sir, to dictate to the officials of the Government the course which they are to pursue, but if I be compelled to give up my labors among the Indians for want of public encouragement, I trust that you, m particular, will not be offended at mv stating to the world the cause of my proceeding.71
Father Verhaegen's protest was submitted by Senator Benton on November 7 to Commissioner of Indian Affairs Crawford with the senator's indorsement m favor of the continuance of the grant. In the meantime Major Joshua Pilcher, superintendent of Indian affairs at St. Louis, had also intervened in behalf of the Catholic Kickapoo school, writing as follows to Crawford:
In looking over the correspondence between him [Mr. Verhaegen], Major Hitchcock and the Department on the subject, I found with regret a letter from Mr. Kuntz to Mr Verhaegen discontinuing the little allow- ance of Five Hundred Dollars to the Catholic Mission for civilizing the Indians, and without questioning the correctness of Mr Kuntz' motive, I beg leave to assure both you and him that it has been done under a mistaken apprehension of the relative degree of usefulness of the different missionaries among the tribes, as, from personal observation, I am enabled and will take the occasion to state that the Catholic missionaries are operating more effectu- ally than all the missionaries I have seen north of Ft. Leavenworth, and that so far from being abandoned by the Government, there is no Society more deserving its patronage and protection And under these circumstances (with due deference to Mr Kuntz whose decision seems to have been based upon a report of Mr. Verhaegen relative only to the Kickapoo school, m which he was honest and candid), I would respectfully recommend that he be reinstated m his allowance and if it be not wholly incompatible with other permanent allowances out of the civilization fund, that the allowance to the Catholic mission be doubled. These gentlemen go into the country with no
71 Verhaegen to Benton, St. Louis, August 10, 1839. (H).
THE KICKAPOO MISSION 417
other view than that of furthering the bene\olent ohjccts of the government, they carry with them no little "notions" for tiaffic, neither do they sell the accumulation of property, and however the effoits of all may fail, it is obvious that to effect a great change in the moral character of the Indians is the constant aim of the Catholic missionaries and that their present effoits are directed to that single object without regard to personal comfort or emolument.72
The representations of Major Pilcher and Senator Benton had the desired effect. Father Verhaegen was informed by Commissioner of Indian Affairs Crawford that the allowance of five hundred dollars would be continued for another year, but that a further continuance of this appropriation would depend on the future success of the school. Verhaegen, in acknowledging the commissioner's favor, was too honest to promise a success which he could not count on:
Permit me. Honorable Sir, to tender you my cordial acknowledgment for the favor conferred on the Missouri Catholic Association by the Depart- ment My endeavors shall not be wanting to render the school more pros- perous than it has been last year, but as this cannot be effected without the cooperation of the Indians and may, of course, be impeded by circumstances beyond my control, I cannot predict what will be the result of my efforts. At all events I will state the truth m my communication to the Department, let the consequence be what it may.73
As a matter of fact, the truth was stated without reserve by Father Verhaegen in a letter to Crawford:
I promised to acquaint you with the success of this establishment and made the necessary inquiries. I learned from the Missionaries who conduct said school, that in the course of last year from twenty-five to thirty pupils have frequented it; but I am bound in justice to add that the number of those who regularly attended averaged only ten. You conceive, Honorable Sir, that my expenses for a small Indian school are just as great as they would be for a large one, since the teacher is equally to be supplied. Hence, should the Department decide that the allowance is to be discontinued, it would not belong to me to object to the decision; but I would be unable to meet the expenses. Consequently, Honorable Sir, on the decision of the Department will depend the continuance or discontinuance of our exertions for the civili- zation and instruction of these Indians.74
72 Pilcher to Crawford, St. Louis, August 19, 1839. (H). Joshua Pilcher (1790-1843) was appointed by President Van Buren to succeed General Clark as superintendent of Indian affairs at St. Louis on the death of the latter in 1838. Billon, Annals of St. Louis tn its Territorial Days, p. 254.
78 Verhaegen to Crawford, St. Louis, December 15, 1839. (H).
7* Verhaegen to Crawford, St. Louis, September I, 1840. (H)«
4i 8 THE JESUITS OF THE MIDDLE UNITED STATES
§ 7. THE MISSION SUPPRESSED
The government appropriation to the Catholic Kickapoo school was finall} withdrawn towards the end of 1840 and with the passing of that \ ear the Jesuit mission among the Kickapoo closed its doors. When in Ma\, 1838, Father Verhaegen visited the mission for the second time, he met the chief Pashishi, who besought him not to remove the mis- sionaries for at least another year. "It is I who invited you to come here. I send my children to your school You have done more good here in a year than others have done in five or six. You have cured our children of smallpox, you have befriended us m our needs, and you have been kind even to the wicked. The storm which makes the thunder roar above your heads will not last forever. The Kickapoo will change their conduct. Wait at least for another year and then I shall tell you \vhat I think." Within the year Pashishi himself, vexed at the annoyance he had to suffer at the hands of the Prophet and his band, moved with some twenty families to a locality about twenty miles distant from the mission. With the departure in 1839 °£ Pashishi and many of his people, the band favorably disposed to the mission was practically dispersed and there remained only the Prophet's follow- ing from which the fathers could expect nothing but ill-will and even persecution.75
About the Christmas of 1840 Father Herman Aelen of the Potawatomi Mission at Sugar Creek passed through Westport, near the mouth of the Kansas River, on his way to the Kickapoo Mission on business connected with the closing of that establishment. He found a fellow- Jesuit, Father Nicholas Point, residing in Westport as temporary parish priest of that frontier settlement and invited him to be his companion on the journey. Point was shocked at what he saw m the Kickapoo village. "Here had our missionaries been laboring for five years in their midst," he exclaims, "and yet on Sunday during Mass you could scarcely see more than one of them m attendance at the chapel." He found Kennekuk, the Prophet, still lording it over the Kickapoo. "By his cool effrontery and persevering industry, this man, who is a genius in his way, succeeded in forming a congregation of three hundred souls, whoni he used to assemble in a church which the United States Government had built for him, and palsied all the exertions of four missionaries of the Society." The Indians listened open-mouthed to the charlatan as soon as he began to speak of his revelations. The proof of his mission was a chip of wood two inches
75 Lttterat Annuat> 1838. (A),
THE KICKAPOO MISSION 419
wide and eight long, which was inscribed with outlandish characters symbolizing the doctrines he undertook to teach.™
The failure o£ the Kickapoo to respond to the missionaries' efforts m their behalf gave the latter opportunities to exercise their ministry abroad. Besides making frequent excursions to the Indian tribes south of the Kansas River, they said Mass and administered the sacraments regularly at Fort Leavenworth, five miles from the mission, where a number of Irish and German Catholics were to be found among the soldiers. On such occasions music was often furnished by the soldiers' band, which was likewise heard at the greater church festivals in the Kickapoo Catholic chapel. Such an occasion was the Christmas of 1838 when the Prophet himself deigned to be present at the Catholic services Besides attending Fort Leavenworth the fathers frequently crossed the Missouri River on missionary excursions through Jackson, Clay, Clinton and Platte Counties in western Missouri.77
The question of continuing or suppressing the Kickapoo Mission was frequently before Father Verhaegen and his consultors in St. Louis. At a meeting of the board, April 23, 1838, it was resolved not to abandon the mission, even though the Kickapoo moved away. But during the next two years so unpromising a situation developed that it was decided September 19, 1840, to close the mission. Father Eysvogels and Brother Claessens were directed to go to Sugar Creek and Brother O'Leary to the novitiate. Just a month earlier Verhaegen had written to the General reporting that the Kickapoo Mission was "utterly sterile" and intimating his intention to close it. He proposed that Sugar Creek be organized into a central missionary residence from which periodical visits could be made both to the Kickapoo and to the Potawatomi of Council Bluffs.78
76 "Recollections of the Rocky Mountains," tr. in WL, Vol. XII, from French ms original in archives of St. Mary's College, Montreal.
77 Kick#poo Baptismal Register, (H), contains numerous entries of baptisms administered by the Kickapoo missionaries in Independence and Liberty, Mo , among the French settlers at the mouth of the Kansas and in the counties of western Missouri organized out of the Platte Purchase.
78 Verhaegen ad Roothaan, August 19, 1840 (AA) The Kickapoo school con- ducted by the Methodist Episcopal Church was apparently closed about the same time as the Catholic school, being supplanted by the Shawnee Manual Labor School under the direction of Rev. Thomas Johnson and J C Berryman. The 1839 report of the Kickapoo school is signed by Miss Lee, one of the teachers "The school numbers sixteen scholars and has averaged that for a year or two past These are tol- erably regular, though of late through the detrimental influence of the prophet and others, we have found it difficult to keep the children m regular and orderly attend- ance, and It seems to me that at present it is almost impracticable to keep the school under good discipline and management, while the children can, at any moment when they become dissatisfied, abscond and go home with impunity." RCIA> 1839.
420 THE JESUITS OF THE MIDDLE UNITED STATES
The final incident in the history of the Kickapoo Mission was put on record bj Father Point
On the first of May, 1841, Father Point went from Westport m order to consume the last Sacred Host which remained in the tabernacle of this poor mission. He arrived at the Kickapoo village towards sunset The first news that he heard upon dismounting from his horse was that about a mile from there a pagan was at the point of death, and consequently in great danger of losing his soul He obtained an interpreter without delay and pro- ceeded in haste to the house of the sick man., whom he found in despair as legaids both body and soul, for the only words he uttered were these "Ever} one deserts me." "No, my brother, everyone does not desert you since I, who am a Black-gown, have come to help you, and this is certainly by the will of the Great Spmt Who wishes to save you " At these words the dying man rallies, confidence springs up in his heart, the minister of divine mere} speaks to him as is befitting such circumstances, and most satis- factory replies are given to all his questions I helped him to repeat the acts of faith, hope and chanty, and as death might take place at any moment, I asked myself why should I not baptize him without delay. The remem- brance of St. Philip and the eunuch of Queen Candaces came to my mind, and regarding this as an inspiration of the Holy Ghost, I proceeded forthwith to the administration of Holy Baptism On the morrow, he exchanged this perishable life for, as I hope, that life of bliss which will last forever Was not this the sweetest bouquet which the missionary upon his first entrance into the field of labor among the Indians could offer to the Queen of Heaven, on the very day when the month consecrated to her honor begins? But how inscrutable are the judgments of God' This same day was the last of a mission which had been plunged into the deepest abyss of moral degradation by the scandalous conduct of people who pretend to civilization.79
Thus ended in failure the Kickapoo Catholic Mission set on foot by Father Van Qmckenborne as the beginning, long delayed, of Jesuit missionary enterprise among the western Indian tribes. In 1846, six years after the fathers withdrew, Francis Parkman, the historian, visited the Kickapoo village as he started from the frontier to pursue the windings of the Oregon Trail*
The village itself was not far off, and sufficiently illustrated the condi- tion of its unfortunate and self-abandoned occupants. Fancy to yourself a little swift stream working its devious way down to a woody valley, some- times wholly hidden under logs and fallen trees, sometimes spreading into a broad, clear pool, and on its banks, m little nooks cleared away among the trees, miniature log houses, in utter rum and neglect. A labyrinth of narrow, obstructed paths connected these habitations one with another. Sometimes we met a stray calf, a pig, or a pony, belonging to some of the villagers,
79 "Recollections of the Rocky Mountains," WL, 12 321.
THE KICKAPOO MISSION 421
who usually lay in the sun m front of their dwellings and looked on us with cold, suspicious eyes as we approached 8o
A year later, 1847, an incident occurred which relieved in some measure the discouraging issue of the mission among the Kickapoo. The principal chief of the tribe, on occasion of a visit with his two sons to the Jesuit Potawatomi Mission of Sugar Creek, related that a lady and a black-robe had appeared to him and bidden him embrace the religion of the black-robes The chief was Pashishi, who had be- friended the missionaries during their sta} among the Kickapoo. In obedience to the vision which he claimed to have had he forthwith set out for Sugar Creek, but falling sick on the way, put up for a while at the Shawnee Methodist Mission where efforts were made to make him a Protestant. The missionaries in charge at Sugar Creek, Fathers Verreydt and Hoecken, were absent when the chief arrived there, but a diocesan priest, Father Bermer, who happened to be on the ground, conferred baptism on him as he earnestly requested. The Kickapoo chief was apparently in the best of dispositions to receive the sacrament and entered the church singing some hymns which he had learned for the occasion. "I should like to have seen Father Van Quickenborne at this moment," wrote Father Verreydt when reporting the incident to the General, "for he it was who began this mission amid so many contradictions." 81 In later years Jesuit missionaries were occasionally brought into touch with the Kickapoo. In November, 1861, a father from the Potawatomi Mission of St. Mary's made a visit to the tribe, who received him kindly, while during the sixties a number of Kickapoo boys were in attendance at the mission-school of St. Mary's But after the end in 1841 of the missionary experiment inaugurated by Father Van Quickenborne, resident work among the Kickapoo was not again undertaken by Jesuit hands.
80 Parkman, Oregon Tiatl, p. 4 The mission-house built by Father Van Quickenborne in "Kickapootown" stood on the farm of C A. Spencer, by whom it was occupied as a residence until 1920, when it was demolished "The old Mission was built of immense native walnut logs, hewn square, notched at the ends and fastened together with wooden pegs The walnut still is considered valu- able for it is in a perfect state of preservation and so thorough was the work- manship of the builders that the building was in a good state of repair up to the time workmen recently began to raze it After its days of usefulness as an Indian Mission had passed, the old building was used as a hotel in 1854 under pro- prietorship of a man named Hays. The same year A. B. Hazzard published one of the first Kansas newspapers, "The Kansas Pioneer" there In "border war" days it was headquarters for the famous organization, "The Kickapoo Rangers," and m 1857 a United States Land Office was opened under its roof, the office being moved to Atchison in 1861." Lawrence (Kansas) Journal^ 1920 (month and day missing) .
81 Verreydt ad Roothaan, April 23, 1847. (AA).
CHAPTER XIII THE POTAWATOMI MISSION OF COUNCIL BLUFFS
§ I. THE POTAWATOMI
The earliest known habitat o£ the Potawatomi was the lower Michigan peninsula Driven thence by Iroquois invaders, they settled on and about the islands at the mouth of Green Bay, Lake Michigan, where they were met in 1634 by Jean Nicolet, reputed the first white man to reach Wisconsin. Later they moved south, displacing the Miami and occupying both shores of Lake Michigan from between about Mamtowoc on the west and Grand River on the east and settling southward as far as the Wabash Their lands comprised territory in Wisconsin, Illinois and Michigan, with some fifty villages, including those on the sites of Milwaukee, Chicago, and Grand Rapids 1
Of Algonkm stock, the Potawatomi were blood-relations of the Ottawa and Ojibway or Chippewa, with whom they appear to have formed at one time a single tribe.2 The Potawatomi ("fire-makers," "people of the fire-place"), may thus owe their name to the circum- stance that they separated from the other two tribes and built a new "fire," which m Indian parlance is to set up as an independent tribe. They were in the mam hunters and fishers, tilling the ground but sparingly and this only for a meagre harvest of maize. They were, moreover, a fighting race and as a consequence frequently in conflict with the whites and with the other tribes. They supported the French against the British in the great struggle between the two powers for
1 James Mooney in Catholic Encyclopedia, J2 320 The spelling of Indian tribal names, except in cited passages and documents, will conform to government usage as exemplified in Hodge, Handbook of American Indians North of Mexico (z v., Bureau of American Ethnology, Washington, 1912) In most Indian tribal names, as in Kickapoo, Potawatomi, Kansa, there is only one form for both singular and plural. The official "Potawatomi" is of uncommon occurrence m print, usage favoring the spelling "Pottawatorme," as "Pottawatomie County, Kansas "
2 "According to the tradition of all three tribes, the Potawatomi, Chippewa and Ottawa were originally one people, and seemed to have reached the region about the upper end of Lake Huron together Here they separated, but the three have sometimes formed a loose confederacy, or have acted m concert and in 1846, those removed beyond the Mississippi, asserting their former connection, asked to be again united " Hodge, op. cit , 2: 289
422
THE POTAWATOMI MISSION OF COUNCIL BLUFFS 423
Canada and the West and under the picturesque hero Pontiac, son of a Chippewa mother, and an Ottawa by adoption, they continued the struggle against the British until 1765. On the other hand, in the Revolutionary War they made common cause with England, as they also did, under their leader Tecumseh, in the War of 1812.
Between the Potawatomi and the seventeenth-century Jesuit mis- sionaries there were numerous contacts from the first arrival of the latter m the Middle United States St. Isaac Jogues and Father Charles Raymbaut, the first Jesuits to penetrate as far west as Sault Ste. Mane, Michigan, 1641, met representatives of the tribe Marquette also made acquaintance with the Potawatomi in the course of his journey from Green Bay to the Illinois country. In 1669 Father Claude Allouez opened near the head of Green Bay, Wisconsin, the Mission of St. Francis Xavier for the neighboring Potawatomi, 'Sauk, Foxes and Winnebago, while many years later, if one may credit tradition, for documentary evidence is lacking, he founded on the St. Joseph River near the Indiana-Michigan line the most important of all the old-time centers of evangelical effort on behalf of the Potawatomi. Here on the St. Joseph Jesuit missionaries continued to minister to this favored tribe well into the second half of the eighteenth century. Later years saw the mission restored at the hands of diocesan priests.
By the treaty of Greenville, 1795, the Potawatomi agreed to sell to the United States a tract of land six miles square lying at the mouth of the Chicago River, a tract destined to become the territorial core of the great metropolis of the Middle West.3 On August 7, 1826, only thirty-one years later than the treaty of Greenville, occurred the first election in the history of Chicago. The names of the voters on this occasion, thirty-five in number, indicate that fully three-fourths of them were Indians and mixed bloods. The names include those of Daniel Bourassa, Antome Ouilmette, Francis Lafromboise Sr., Francis La- fromboise Jr., Joseph Lafromboise, Claude Lafromboise, Joseph Pothier, Jean Baptiste Beaubien, William Caldwell, and Alexander Robinson.4 The names have significance in the present history, for they recur at a later period in the ministerial records of Jesuit missionaries on the western frontier. By the treaty of Chicago, concluded September 26, 1833, and ratified February 21, 1835, the united bands of Chippewa, Ottawa and Potawatomi (or the United Nation, as they came to be called) ceded to the government all their lands along the western shore
8 The Potawatomi of St. Joseph on their removal to the Osage River district (1838) and later to the Kaw River reserve (1848) again came under the care of Jesuit missionaries.
4 These names occur fassim in the Sugar Creek and 5t» Mary's mission registers.
424 THE JESUITS OF THE MIDDLE UNITED STATES
of Lake Michigan, five million acres in all, receiving in consideration about a million dollars in promised annuities, educational funds and other monies and, m addition, a grant of five million acres of land on the left bank of the Missouri River.5 To this new home, represented on the map of today by a considerable section of southwestern Iowa bordering on the Missouri, the Indians agreed to move immediately on the ratification of the treaty, or, as regarded their lands north of the Illinois state-line, after a term of three years.6
In 1835 a delegation of Potawatomi under the conduct of a Mr. Gordon visited the Iowa reserve. They found it more remotely situ- ated than they had supposed and rather uncomfortably close to the Sioux and other bellicose tribes of the upper Missouri 7 In consequence of the unfavorable reports of the prospectors, the emigrant bands of the United Nation, on leaving Illinois and the adjacent states, took a southwesterly course that brought them towards the junction of the Kaw and Missouri Rivers and even beyond the latter stream into the Indian country proper. About four hundred of them, who had emi- grated with the Kickapoo, and about seventeen hundred later emigrants were in 1837 m an unsettled, and most of them in a miserable condi-
5 The text of the Chicago treaty of 1833 is in Kappler, Indian A fours and Treaties, ^ 402. A discussion of its terms and of the circumstances which attended its signing may be read m Quaife, Chicago and, the Old Northwest, 1673-1835 (Chicago, 1913), pp. 348-368 But cf. also James Ryan Haydon, Chicago's True Founder, Thomas J. V Owen (Chicago, 1934) The Chippewa, Ottawa, and Potawatomi were together officially designated m government reports as the United Nation However, as an Indian agent at Council Bluffs observed, the designation was a misnomer, the fact being that the group of Indians described collectively as the United Nation were almost exclusively of Potawatomi stock Reports emanating from the Indian Office at this period distinguished carefully between the United Nation (Council Bluffs Potawatomi) and the Potawatomi of Indiana (St Joseph and Wabash bands), who were settled during the period 1837-1848 on the Osage River reserve The Council Bluffs Potawatomi also went frequently by the name of the Prairie band, while their kinsmen of the Osage River reserve were called Potawatomi of the Woods (Potawatomi des forets) In 1848 both Osage River and Council Bluffs reserves were abandoned and the two sections of the Potawatomi tribe gathered on a common reserve on the Kaw River a few miles above Topeka The commissioner of Indian affairs in his report of November 28, 1848, refers to the United Nation or Council Bluffs Potawatomi as the "Chicago Indians," many of their leading men having come from Chicago or its vicinity.
6 Roughly, the new Potawatomi reserve extended about ninety-five miles north from the Iowa line along the Missouri River and about the same distance on an average along an east-west line.
7 McCoy, The Annual Register of Indian Affairs within the Indian (or Western Territory}, (Shawnee Baptist Mission House, Indian Territory, May, 1836), p. 20.
THE POTAWATOMI MISSION OF COUNCIL BLUFFS 425
tion.8 It was not until 1837 that the Potawatomi emigrants finally reached and settled down on their proper lands. Two detachments of them arrived that year by Missouri River steamboats at Council Bluffs, followed not long after by the mam bod} of the nation, who moved up the east bank of the Missouri from their first halting places in the neighborhood of Leavenworth and the Blacksnake Hills9 The last parties of the United Nation to join their fellow-tribesmen on the new reserve arrived in i838.10
§ 2. NEGOTIATIONS WITH GOVERNMENT
In the course of his western prospecting trip of 1835 Father Van Quickenborne made his first acquaintance with the United Nation. The meeting was a providential one, for it was to lead to the opening of a mission on their behalf.
I had the consolation of falling in with a party of Pottowatomies sent by their nation to inspect the new lands which the Government had given m exchange for the old The Pottowatomie, Chippewa and Ottawa Nations having inter-married on a large scale, go at present under the name of the United Nation of the Chippewas, Ottawas and Pottowatomies Under this name they have made a treaty with the United States Government that obliges them to go and reside on the left bank of the Missouri a little above the Kickapoos They were formerly dispersed over a vast territory out of which have been carved the states of Illinois, Indiana and Michigan Our Fathers had several posts among them, two of which, St Joseph and Arbre Croche, are still in existence. The last named prospers highly. Fre- quent mention is made in the Annales de la Propagation de la Fol of the mission as also of the virtues of the tireless missionary who presides over it In the deputation I met were several Catholics, one of them being the chief (of the nation) They told me it would be highly beneficial to them to have a mission in their new country, that they could not all go to Arbre Croche, that the lands assigned them by government were their only means of subsistence, that there the annuities would be paid and the protection of the government secured to them Once the mission was established, other Catholic Indians would come and join them Friends of ours in a position to judge impartially of the real condition of things, far from challenging these reasons for the mission in question, supply new ones. According to
1837, p. 23.
8 RCIA, 1837. The report of the commissioner of Indian affairs was not issued separately at this period, but was embodied in the senate documents for the respective years
10 RCIAy 1840 According to this source the emigration of the "Chicago Indians" (i e , the United Nation of the Ottawa, Chippewa and Potawatomi) began in 1835 and terminated in 1838. The entire number of Indians in the Council Bluffs sub-agency prior to 1 840 was 2,734.
426 THE JESUITS OF THE MIDDLE UNITED STATES
them, we should thereby render a distinct service not only to the natives, but to the entire Catholic church of the United States 11
In September, 1835, Van Quickenborne was in Washington to secure government subsidies for his projected Kickapoo and Potawatomi schools. His petition was addressed to Secretary of War Lewis Cass and, as far as it referred to the Potawatomi, read as follows
In answer to your favor of i6th mst. I have the honor to state
I. That I am prepared to open a Mission with a school in the Indian country in the following places I. on the land of the Kickapoos m the vicinity of Cantonment Leaven worth 2. on the land assigned to the united nations of Chippewas^ Ottawas and Pottowatomies at such places as the nations ma} choose as sites for their villages. . . .
3. I will be enabled to have the school opened for the Pottowattomies and commence a missionary establishment as soon as they shall have removed to their own country, & after 15 months from the 1st of January next I will have it in my power to reinforce the new establishment with an additional number of three Missionaries, which number will justify the opening of several schools in that numerous nation, at those places that may be considered most eligible
The hope is fondly entertained [ ? ] that the Catholic establishment will, in a great measure, subserve the views of Government in relation to the removal of the Indians from Michigan. A number of Chippewas, Ottawas and Pottowatomies was converted by French Catholic missionaries to the Catholic faith, to which they continue to be strongly attached This new establishment will be conducted by clergymen of the same faith. The fact of a Catholic church being built for them on the borders of the Missouri river and of a Catholic Mission and school well attended will, it is supposed, at once remove the difficulties which the Pottowattomies of St Joseph's and some Chippewas have made to the last treaty, in which, on account of their religion, they objected to go to the West, & wished to settle around Arbre Croche merely because of the Catholic establishment there existing
I am confirmed in this statement by what I was told by the deputation of the Pottowatomies, whom I saw at Cantonment Leavenworth last sum-
II Ann. Ptop, 9 101 The Potawatomi mission on the St Joseph River stood on the river bank a few miles north of the Indiana line and close to the town-site of Niles, Michigan (Cf. Pare, "The Mission of St. Joseph," Mtsstsstfp Vallty Historical Review >3 June, 1930.) The mission was reopened in 1830 by Father Stephen T. Badm, a large number of converts being made among the Indians The Ottawa mission at Arbre Croche was on the east side of Lake Michigan some distance below Mackinaw The Potawatomi met by Van Quickenborne in 1835 were of the group of "Chicago" Indians assigned to the Council Bluffs reserve under the treaty of 1833. The Catholic chief that figures in the missionary's ac- count was Alexander Robinson. He did not remain with the Potawatomi in the West, but settled on his reservation on the Desplames River near Chicago, where he died*
THE POTAWATOMI MISSION OF COUNCIL BLUFFS 427
mer when they came visiting the tract of land assigned to them Those of the deputation that were Catholics, and Robinson, their chief, was of that number, said, that if a Catholic establishment were made in their new place of residence, it was their opinion that those of St. Joseph's and the Catholic Chippewas and Ottawas would come and join them, to which circumstance they seemed to look with great fondness, stating, erroneously howe\ei, that if they did not come they would ha\e no share in the annuities.
The same assistance from Government is respectfully asked for this establishment as for the first and as in the treaty with the united nations of Chippewas, Ottawas & Pottowatomies a school fund has been created, it is respectfully requested that the proceeds accruing to them of the west, be appropriated to the establishment.12
This petition of Father Van Quickenborne's was referred by the secretary of war to Commissioner of Indian Affairs Elbert Herring, who replied a few days later, granting an appropriation m favor of the Kickapoo school, but refusing the one asked for on behalf of the Potawatomi:
In regard to a school among the United Nations of Chippewas, Ottawas and Pottawatomies
The treaty of September, 1833, which was ratified in February, 1835, provided for the appropriation of seventy thousand dollars "for purposes of education and the encouragement of the domestic arts." In accordance with the wishes of these Indians, this sum has been invested m stock This stock bears an interest of five per cent, of which the first payment will be made m January next. As the sum must be expended West of the Mississippi, the Department considers it proper that the interest, which shall accrue prior to the settlement of these Indians m their own country, shall also be in- vested. As the emigration will not probably be completed within two years, no definite arrangements will now be made for the application of this fund. At a proper time the Department will determine what part of it shall be applied for the support of schools, and what part to the other objects, indicated by the general clause, "the encouragement of Domestic arts." The wishes you have now expressed on the subject will then be respectfully considered.18
The Kickapoo mission and school having became a reality in 1836, Van Quickenborne, while residing there, again came into contact with the United Nation. He visited them in their camp on the east bank of the Missouri opposite Fort Leavenworth, where on January 2,9, 1837, he baptized fourteen children of the tribe, all under four years of age. The first child to receive the sacrament was Susanne, daughter of Claude Lafromboise and a Potawatomi woman, and she had for
12 Van Quickenborne to Cass, Washington, September 17, 1835.
13 Herring to Van Quickenborne, Washington, September 22, 1835. (A).
428 THE JESUITS OF THE MIDDLE UNITED STATES
godfather the business chief of the tribe, William Caldwell, the Sau- ganash or Saukonosh ("Englishman"), a conspicuous figure in early Chicago history.14 Caldwell stood sponsor for two other infants Other sponsors on the occasion, their names duly recorded in the baptismal register of the Kickapoo Mission, were Claude Lafromboise, Toussaint Chevalier, Joseph Chevalier, Francis Bourbonnet and Michael Arcoite As a matter of fact, though the circumstance, if he knew it, could scarcely have impressed him as particularly significant, the missionary had before him a group of ex-citizens of Chicago, some of whom appear on the poll-book of the election of 1826, the first in the history of the metropolis.15
Father Van Quickenborne died without having realized his plans for a Potawatomi mission. But the project was not suffered to lapse. Father Verhaegen, superior of the Missouri Mission, wrote under date of August 5, 1837, to the secretary of war.
While at Washington m September 1835, the Rev Mr. Van Quicken- borne solicited the favor of forming an establishment among the Pottawa- tomies and stated what the Society would be able to effect towards the accomplishment of the benevolent views of the Government for their civiliza- tion The application was then premature I believe it is no longer so Permit me therefore, dear Sir, to renew the petition which was then made I am ready to send to them two missionaries with a teacher. General Games held lately a council during which the subject of this my application was dis- cussed by the chiefs and the principal men of the nation, they expressed a great desire to have a Catholic establishment among them and they will shortly send you a petition detailing the grounds on which they base their application.16
14 Garraghan, Catholic Chwch in Chicago, 1673-187$) pp. 39-41 Cf. also Haydon, Chicago's True Founder ', Thomas J. V. Owen (Chicago, 1934), passim
15 Father Van Quickenborne's baptisms among the Potawatomi near Fort Leaven- worth in January, 1837, were entered by him in the Kickapoo Register now m the archives of St Mary's College, Kansas The location of the Potawatomi camp was within the limits of the triangular strip of land along the east bank of the Missouri subsequently known as the Platte Purchase Though this tract was not included in the reserve assigned the Potawatomi by the treaty of 1833, the tribe on leaving Chicago were conducted thither by the contractors in charge of the emigration, presumably because the Indians could not be induced to occupy their Iowa lands, which report had led them to believe were undesirable The Potawat- omi, however, were never anything but trespassers on the Platte Purchase territory and were compelled at length (1837) to vacate it and move up into their officially assigned reserve m southwestern Iowa. Cf. Babbitt, Early Days at Council Bluffs (Washington, 1916), p. 26 For data concerning the religious status of the "Chicago" Potawatomi, see Garraghan, of ctf , pp 59-60.
16 Brigadier-General Edmund Pendleton Games, active m the War of 1812 and the Indian wars in Florida. Father Verhaegen had made his acquaintance m St. Louis.
THE POTAWATOMI MISSION OF COUNCIL BLUFFS 429
Col Benton promised me to la} before the Department several ques- tions on which I consulted him I trust, dear Sir, that, actuated bv the earnest desire which the Government has always manifested for the welfare of the Indian, you will have the goodness to consider the subject17
The petition of the Potawatomi chiefs read as follows-
To his Excellency, the Secretary of the War Department
The petition of the undersigned chief and warriors of the Pottowatomie
nation respectfully represent
I. That in the course of a few months everything necessary for their per- manent location m their new lands will be procured and that agreeably to the benevolent intentions of the Government they are disposed to better their situation by the introduction of the domestic arts and educa- tion among them.
2 That a school being necessary for the instruction of their children, they wish to see one established among them with the least possible delay
3, That they desire this school to be conducted by missionaries sent to them by the Catholic Missionary Society of Missouri, because many of the nation have embraced the Catholic religion and will by this arrangement be enabled to enjoy the comforts of their religion
4. That the common feeling of the nation is in favor of the Catholic clergy, who, speaking the English and the French languages, can fully second the execution of the plan which the Government proposes to itself for the amelioration of their nation
Signed m the presence of
B D. Moon, Capt. ist D
Wm McPherson
B. Caldwell
B R. Hunt, Agt
Wa Bon Su Pierish Le Claire [10 signatures] Fountain Blue on the East Side of the Missouri near Council Bluffs, 1 2th September,
17 (H). Thomas Hart Benton, United States senator from Missouri, 1821-51, had several years earlier come into relations with the St. Louis Jesuits through his efforts to obtain for St Louis University a township of land to serve as a basis for an endowment fund See Chap XXXIV, § I.
18 (H). The Catholic Missionary Society of Missouri was a name occasionally attached in official papers and correspondence of the period to the Jesuit Vice- Province of Missouri, which, however, was never legally incorporated under this name
Wa Bon Su (Wah-bon-seh, Wabansia) and Pierish (Pierre) Le Clair (Le Claire, Le Clerc) were chiefs prominent in Potawatomi history. Wa Bon Su remained
430 THE JESUITS OF THE MIDDLE UNITED STATES
The Potawatomi petition, duly marked with the crosses of the chiefs, was sent to Father Verhaegen, who in turn transmitted it to the secretary of war. Months passed by without any answer coming from Washington. Meanwhile, Father Christian Hoecken of the Kicka- poo Mission was advised from Council Bluffs that the Indians were anxiously awaiting the missionary. The materials for a church were at hand. A tract of land was promised to the fathers and the old fort or government issue-house offered to them for a residence by the commanding officer, Col. Kearney. The author of the Annual Letters for 1837 noted that everything, as far as concerned the Society of Jesus, was ready for the opening of the mission. The only thing lacking was the sanction of government.19
For some reason or other the sanction of the government continued to be withheld At length Verhaegen, not brooking any further the delay at Washington, determined m the spnng of 1838 to press the business in person at the capital. Two days before setting out he ac- quainted Bishop Rosati with the purpose of his journey:
I have just arrived here [St Louis], with the intention of going on to Washington, to leave for Louisville. The interests of the Indian Mission make this trip absolutely necessary. I have written to the Government of- ficials, but to no purpose; these gentlemen know how to keep silence, when their plans require it. More than seven hundred Indians who have become Catholics urgently demand a Catholic establishment in their midst. The Government promised it to Father Van Quickenborne and now the letters I wrote to the Secretary of the Indian Bureau remain without an answer.
at peace with the whites in the Black Hawk War of 1832 He was one of the orators of the Potawatomi delegation that went to Washington in 1845 to negotiate favorable terms for the cession of the Iowa reserve. "Stately old Wah-bon-seh, with the snows of eighty winters on his head," so he is described by Richard Smith Elliott, the Indian agent who conducted the delegation to Washington Elliott, Notes Taken in Sixty Years (St. Louis, 1883), P J98. Piensh Le Clair, a half-breed, was present at the Fort Dearborn (Chicago) massacre of 1812 and in the capacity of interpreter negotiated the terms of the surrender. A daughter of his, according to Elliott, was educated in the Sacred Heart Convent of St. Louis Le Clair was also one of the Potawatomi orators that appeared in Washington in 1845 to discuss the cession of the Iowa reserve to the Government "Piensh Le Claire, m Indian lingo, was to refer to some former treaties, the promises of which had not been kept by the government, and was to expatiate on the charms of the country about Chicago, where the frogs in the marshes sang more sweetly than birds m other parts — SL land of beauty which they had ceded to the government for a mere trifle, although it had been their home so long that they had traditions of Perrot, the first white man who ever set foot upon it, two hundred years before." Elliott, of. cit., p 208 Piensh Le Clair died on the Kaw River reserve, March 28, 1849, attended in his last moments by a Jesuit pnest from the Potawatomi Mission of St. Mary's.
19 Litterae Atmuae, 1837. (A).
THE POTAWATOMI MISSION OF COUNCIL BLUFFS 431
I shall make the ears of the guilty ones tingle a bit Besides, experience has convinced me that without many privileges, the work of spreading the Faith among the Indians cannot succeed These privileges I shall trj to obtain ~°
The season of navigation had scarcely opened when on March 10 Father Verhaegen left St. Louis for the East. The Mississippi River steamer that carried him had her wheels roughly used by the ice-floes that continued to move down stream. From Wheeling he travelled by stage over the Alleghames. There were three feet of snow in the moun- tain districts and the stage-driver was hard put to it to keep to the obliterated highway. At length on March 23, thirteen days out from St. Louis, Verhaegen was safely lodged at Georgetown College.
Without loss of time he set himself to the business that had brought him to Washington. With his friend, Senator Benton, for escort, he presented himself with a carefully drawn-up petition at the Wai Department. But the secretary of war was ill at his residence, and an interview with him could not be arranged. The two Missounans pro- ceeded then to the White House and here Benton introduced his Jesuit friend to President Van Buren, who conversed pleasantly with him for half an hour. Joseph N. Nicollet, well-known French scientist and explorer in the United States government service and a visitor at St. Louis University in the course of his western travels, took a lively interest m Verhaegen's plans.21 He tried several times to arrange a meeting between the father and the secretary of war, but the latter's illness continued to stand in the way. But he did succeed in inducing Brigadier-General Gratiot to take a hand in the affair.22 Accompanied by the General and bearing a letter of introduction from Benton, Verhaegen now called on Commissioner of Indian Affairs Crawford and laid before him his plans for a Potawatomi mission. A communica- tion from the commissioner dated the following day informed the superior that his petition had been granted. In particular, he was to be allowed to establish a mission-post among the Potawatomi and to visit either personally or through his subordinates all the tribes settled within the limits of the Indian territory. In one particular only did
20 Verhaegen a Rosati, St Louis, March 8, 1838. (C).
21 Joseph Nicolas Nicollet, born in Cluses, Savoy, July 24, 1786 Explored the valleys of the Red, Arkansas, Missouri and upper Mississippi Rivers, of which last-named stream he determined the sources Letters addressed by him to Father De Smet are m Chittenden and Richardson, De Smet, 4: 1549, 1552
22 Brigadier-General Charles Gratiot (1786-1855), soldier of the War of 1 8 12, and member of one of the pioneer families of St. Louis. He was for a period inspector of West Point and chief engineer of the army engineering bureau in Washington. It was under his direction that Col. Robert E. Lee constructed certain works on Bloody Island in the Mississippi to protect the harbor of St. Louis.
432 THE JESUITS OF THE MIDDLE UNITED STATES
his negotiations fail His petition for a subsidy on behalf of a Potawat- omi school was denied on the ground that the tribe had not as yet occupied the land assigned to them by government treaty
§ 3. THE OPENING OF ST. JOSEPH'S MISSION
His mission thus accomplished. Father Verhaegen started at once for the West. An incident of common occurrence in steamboat travel- ling before the Civil War marked his homeward journey. The steamer on which he was a passenger was one hundred and ten miles from St. Louis when one of its boilers burst. Fortunately the engineer's presence of mind enabled him to give warning of the impending danger and the accident passed off without loss of human life, the disabled craft being towed to shore by passing steamers. On April 25, only six weeks since his departure from St. Louis for the East, Father Verhaegen called a meeting of his official advisers. Fathers Elet, De Theux and Van de Velde, in St Louis University and laid before them the results of his visit to Washington. All were of opinion that a Potawatomi mission should be started without delay at Council Bluffs, and Fathers Verreydt and Paillasson with Brother Mazzella were named for the initial staff. Later, at De Theux's suggestion, privately communicated to the superior, Father De Smet was substituted for Paillasson.23 The altered choice had significance, for it marked the almost accidental entry into the Indian mission-field of the United States of one destined to become perhaps its most conspicuous figure. General William Clark, always sympathetic to the Jesuit Indian missions, lent encouragement and support to the new venture He at once prepared the passports necessary for whites entering the Indian country and instructed the sub-agent at Council Bluffs to lend the fathers all possible protection and aid them to the best of his ability to make their enterprise a success.24
23 Liber Consuttationum, May 2, 1838 (A) "Father De Smet had lived almost six months in the novitiate with complete satisfaction to all and was burning with a desire to go among the Indians In the opinion of the Fathers it did not seem possible to choose anyone better fitted for that new undertaking I accordingly chose him and in order to inspire him with greater constancy in taking up and carrying through so arduous a work, I permitted him on the advice of Fathers De Theux and Elet to make his vows before his departure " Verhaegen ad Roothaan, July 20, 1838 (AA) First vows in the Society of Jesus are rdgularly taken only after the expiration of the two years of probation De Smet apparently was admitted only to what are called "vows of devotion," binding on the individual but with no reciprocal obligation assumed by the Society.
24 His issue of passports to Verreydt and De Smet was the last service General
THE POTAWATOMI MISSION OF COUNCIL BLUFFS 433
Preparations to equip and send out the missionary party were now made with surprising rapidity. Only eight days had elapsed since Verhaegen's return from Washington when he left St. Louis, May 2, 1838, on the steamer Howard, in company with Fathers De Smet, Helias, Eysvogels and Brother Claessens, Of the party De Smet was the only one bound for Council Bluffs. Helias was on his way to the vicinity of Jefferson City, there to inaugurate a period of missionary and parochial activity extending over thirty-five years. Eysvogels was to replace Verreydt at the Kickapoo village, while Claessens was to replace Mazzella at the same post. The voyage up the Missouri was not without incident. On the fourth day the steamer's engine broke down, with the result that the engineer had to leave his disabled craft and return to St. Louis to repair the broken fitting* Meantime, Sunday came and the passengers, about a hundred in number from various parts of the United States, asked Father Verhaegen to preach for them in the ship's cabin. He agreed, inviting them at the same time to suggest a text. They gave him the words of Ecclesiastes (XI, 3), "If the tree fall to the south or to the north, in what place soever it shall fall, there shall it lie." The father was not disconcerted. "Like a good soldier in the field/' he says m narrating the incident, "I had my arms with me." He adjusted his text to the subject of purgatory and preached for an hour to an interested audience. After a delay of several days, the engineer was again with his boat, which once more started up stream. She had made about forty miles, when the machinery collapsed a second time. There was no way out of this fresh predica- ment but for the engineer to return again to St. Louis with the fitting that had caused all the trouble. Fathers Verhaegen and Helias got off the boat at Independence, while Father De Smet and his two com- panions were left on board to watch the baggage and continue their way by water as far as Fort Leavenworth. From Independence Helias returned to Westphalia, near Jefferson City, while Verhaegen, having purchased a horse, made his way overland to Fort Leavenworth. He arrived there four days after leaving the steamer and somewhat later the steamer herself put in at the fort. Leaving Father De Smet to superintend the landing of the parly's baggage, he proceeded with Father Eysvogels and Brother Claessens to the Kickapoo mission-house. Early the next morning he sent a horse to the fort for De Smet, but the latter in his eagerness to reach his colleagues had started off on his own account, only to lose his way in the tangled woodland. It was De Smet's introduction to the perils of the Indian country. Late in the
Clark was called upon to render to Catholic missionaries, as he died shortly after, September, 1838.
434 THE JESUITS OF THE MIDDLE UNITED STATES
afternoon he found himself to his great relief at the Kickapoo mission- house, only some five miles distant from the fort25
There was doubt at first whether the two fathers and the brother assigned to the Potawatomi would be able to find a steamer to take them the rest of the way to Council Bluffs Fortunately, the Wilming- ton, a government transport, was soon to leave Fort Leavenworth for the upper Missouri. On May 25 the missionary party accordingly left Fort Leavenworth on board the Wilmington and arrived at Council Bluffs on the afternoon of May 31. On their way up stream they had passed through the country of the Kickapoo, Sauk, Iowa and Ottawa The physical aspects of the region as well as the characteristics and manners of the Indians fell under De Smet's accurate observation. He was, indeed, a born observer with a talent for literary portrayal sur- prising in one who never made a profession of letters. The account which he wrote to Father Verhaegen immediately on his arrival at Council Bluffs was the first in the long series of descriptive and narra- tive sketches of Indian missionary life that were to be read with eager interest by thousands on both sides of the Atlantic
We arrived among the Potawatomies on the afternoon of the 3ist of May. Nearly 2,000 savages, in their finest ngs and caiefully painted in all sorts of patterns, were awaiting the boat at the landing I had not seen so imposing a sight nor such fine-looking Indians in America, the lowas, the Sauks and the Otoes are beggars compared to these Father Verreydt and Brother Mazelli went at once to the camp of the half-breed chief, Mr Caldwell, four miles from the river We were far from finding here the four of five hundred fervent Catholics we had been told of at the College of St Louis. Of the 2,000 Potawatomies who were at the landing, not a single one seemed to have the slightest knowledge of our arrival among them, and they all showed themselves cold or at least indifferent toward us. Out of some thirty families of French half-breeds two only came to shake hands with us; only a few have been baptized. All are very ignorant concerning the truths of religion; they cannot even make the sign of the cross nor say a pater or an ave. This, as I suppose, is the cause of their great reserve toward us They change their wives as often as the gentlemen of St. Louis change their coats.
A fortnight after we arrived we discovered one single Catholic Indian; he came to see us and asked our blessing. We tried to get him to stay with us; he knew his prayers well and could serve us for a catechist.
Mr. C[aldwell?] though far advanced in years, seems to be a very worthy honest man; he is well disposed towards us and ready to assist us. The half-breeds generally seem affable and inclined to have their children instructed, and we receive many tokens of affection from the Indians them-
25 Account in French by Father Verhaegen dated St Louis, June 20, 1838, and reproduced m abridged form in the Ann. Prop., 1838.
THE POTAWATOMI MISSION OF COUNCIL BLUFFS 435
selves, they come to see us e\er} da}. The chief has given us possession of three cabins and we have changed the fort which CoL Kearnej has given us into a church 2C
26 CR, De Smet, i 157, 158 (The edition of De Smet's letters by Chittenden and Richardson is hereinafter cited as CR, De Smet) CaldwelPs village was distant about four miles north slightly by east from the steamboat landing, which was in a deep bend of the Missouri The straightening out of this bend some years later brought Lake Manama into existence and left the river-bank at a further distance from the village of two or three miles CaldwelPs camp or village was laid out within the present town-limits of Council Bluffs and, it would appear, around the government block-house as a centre This block-house was built under in- structions from Col Kearney of Fort Leavenwrorth, by Company C of the First Regiment of Dragoons, Captain D B Moore in command, sometime between August and November, 1837, for the purpose of affording protection to the Potawatomi from hostile tribes to the north The block-house, having served for a while as an issue-house for government supplies, and being found no longer necessary for the purpose for which it was built, was turned over by Col Kearney to the Jesuit missionaries, who converted it into a chapel, the first house dedicated to Catholic worship m western Iowa In Charles H. Babbitt, Early Days at Council Bluffs (Washington, 1916), p. 59, is a supposititious picture of the "Old Block- house " "By this picture attempt is made to depict the old blockhouse as it probably appeared when completed by Captain D P. Moore in 1837, together with the blunt nose of bluff whereon it stood No portholes are shown because there was no reason why any should have been originally provided United States troops did not ordinarily employ cannon m the control of the Indians at that early day, and it is not probable that the same was furnished the Potawatomies for their protection The building was a bimple hewn-log structure, twenty-four feet square, without openings on the north and west sides except loop-holes for small-arms fire After it came into the possession of the Jesuit missionaries small windows were cut m those sides, which were afterwards taken by some to have been portholes for cannon fire. The folly of such belief is apparent upon consideration of the size and character of the building, and what would probably have happened to the occupants had a large gun been fired from within No frontier block-house, even at the largest of the government military posts, appears to have been constructed with a view to firing cannon from within. When cannon were provided for such posts they were usually mounted outside the buildings m bastions especially designed for the purpose " Besides the block-house, the missionaries were in possession of three little cabins, the gift of Caldwell. "We have a fine little chapel, twenty-four feet square, surmounted with a little belfry," De Smet wrote July 20, 1838: "four poor little cabins, besides, made of rough logs; they are fourteen feet each way, with roof of rude rafters, which protect us from neither rain nor hail, and still less from snow in winter " In 1839 the chapel was enlarged and in the same year a new house was built by the missionaries*
The location of the block-house and other mission-buildings has been definitely ascertained. The "Old Fort" or "Mission House" with other buildings used for mission purposes stood upon the west half of the southwest quarter of section 30, township 75 north, of range 43 west, fifth principal meridian. Babbitt, of. at., p. 57 Francis B Cassilly, S.J , Creighton University, Omaha, who investigated the site at the end of 1916, writes m his monograph, The Old Jesuit Mission of Council Bluffs (Omaha, 1917)? p. 2: "Our story is concerned with this spur of
436 THE JESUITS OF THE MIDDLE UNITED STATES
On August 20, 1838 Father De Smet communicated to Verhaegen further particulars on the progress of the mission
I think I told you, the first time I wrote you, that I had already bap- tized twenty-two persons Today the number of those upon whom I have had the consolation of conferring holy baptism amounts to seventy-six, among whom I reckon thirty-four adults of ages from twelve to sixty years I am sure your Reverence would be touched to see with what fervor these good Indians assist at the holy sacrifice and with what docility they listen to our instructions For my part, I assure you that I see the work of God in it, and that I feel penetrated with gratitude toward those who, by their prajers, cease not to obtain for us from heaven these unexpected successes One of our first conquests for Jesus Christ was the spouse of the head chief of the Potawatomi nation She enjoys the greatest consideration among the Indians, and I venture to hope that her example will have a great influence upon the rest of her compatriots. Since I could not at the beginning express myself with sufficient facility, I was obliged for several weeks to make use of an interpreter. As soon as I found her well enough instructed and dis- posed, I admitted her to the sacrament of regeneration, which she received with all signs of the liveliest faith and the most ardent piety. Eight other persons, who had imitated her example, shared her happiness
A short time afterward, on the Qth of August, a young person of eighteen years of age, who had long been sick, came over six miles to see me She seemed in a state of extreme exhaustion when I saw her m the church "Father," she said, "I have a great presentiment that my end is near, I know that you are the Great Spirit's minister, and I have made a great effort today to come and beg you to show me the road that leads to heaven " I spent several hours in instructing her in the most essential dogmas of our holy religion, and as I found her fully disposed to receive holy Baptism, I thought it my duty to bestow it upon her at once. I have never seen a person so self-possessed, so modest, so deeply touched during the administration of the holy sacrament. After the ceremony she said to me "Oh' now, until
land, which may well be called a sacred spot, for on it tradition and reliable his- torical documents tell us rested the first church and school of Council Bluffs and Western Iowa. The location of the mission buildings and attached graveyard was mainly in the two blocks now bounded by Broadway on the north, Voorhis Street on the south, Union Street on the east and Franklin Avenue and State Street on the west Pierce Street intersects the site No doubt the graveyard, which is mentioned by Father De Smet in his correspondence, and which continued in use after the abandonment of the mission, overlapped these boundaries, as the finding of bodies indicates On the northern block the Clausen residence, an old-time building, stands approximately on the site of the old mission-church, the rear block is now occupied by the Pierce public school." Very close to the mission-site was a spring, probably the one still existing at the foot of the hill a few feet southwest from the corner of Broadway and Union Streets. The Catholic mission at Council Bluffs appears under the name "St. Joseph's" m letters written thence by De Smet In a letter of his of much later date (1867) the mission is referred to as "St Mary's," no doubt by mistake.
St. Joseph's Mission, Council Bluffs, Iowa. The buildings (old blockhouse and fort) as they appeared m 1855. Sketch by George Simon in Annals of Iowa, 2:594 (1896).
THE POTAWATOMI MISSION OF COUNCIL BLUFFS 437
my last breath, I shall love the Great Spirit with all my heart, and shall honor his good Mother with a daughter's love Oh1 I am happ} in this moment '"
On the 1 3th of the same month, an Indian woman bi ought me her little child, who was sick, praying me to baptize it. "Alas ! " said the poor woman, "I had another son, and he died without having received this fa\or, and it would break my heart should this one be likewise exiled from the paiadise of the Great Spirit " Among those whom I have baptized are a Protestant lady and her child, she is now one of the most fervent of Catholics, all the others are Indians or half-breeds, who do not know even the name of oui holy religion* There are a few families besides who are preparing to receive the same favor My companion. Reverend Father Verreydt, lately visited a village belonging to the mission, where they promised to let him baptize all the little children.
The feast we have just been celebrating in honor of the assumption of the glorious queen of heaven will never be forgotten in this mission, it was celebrated in a poor wooden church, but I can assure you that no place in the world ever offered a more consoling spectacle nor one more agreeable to the Almighty and his most holy mother.
In the afternoon of that day I baptized eleven adults and a little Indian girl who was sick Three of these adults had already reached their fiftieth year, five were twenty, and three about fifteen years old* All exhibited during the ceremony a great deal of piety and fervor. Afterward we sang together several canticles to praise and bless the Lord's mercies At the close of the ceremony, four couples received the nuptial benediction according to the Catholic rite All who were present were so touched with what they had seen and heard that, yielding to the grace of the Holy Spirit, they demanded urgently to be instructed Among this number was an old Indian woman belonging to the great medicine band, who, as soon as she reached home, immediately destroyed her medicine bundle Going toward evening to visit a newly converted family, we were agreeably surprised and edified to find all the adults and several others besides assembled to recite in common the most fervent prayers, and to thank the Lord for the signal favors that he had granted them that day I cannot conceal from you, dear Father, that in no circumstance of my life have I ever felt, myself, more joy and con- solation than m this happy moment.27
27 CR, De Smety i, 168. Schools for the Potawatomi children were maintained by the missionaries, but without government subsidy. Expenses of the mission as recorded by Verhaegen in his Report on lnd*an Missions (Baltimore, 1841), were $1,47678 for 1838 and $1,34260 for 1839 "We have opened a school,'* De Smet informed Father Roothaan a few weeks after the arrival of the mis- sionaries, "but for the lack of larger quarters we are only able to receive some thirty children Twice a day we give an instruction to those whom we are pre- paring for baptism." CR, De Smet, p 164 The Annual Letters for 1839 Sive a rather glowing account of the results obtained m the school The boys, as everybody acknowledged, were changed into entirely new beings. People marveled to see so many boys studying from morning to night, singing hymns composed
438 THE JESUITS OF THE MIDDLE UNITED STATES
To his mother in Belgium Father Verreydt, who was superior of the mission, wrote informmgly about his Potawatomi flock He de- plored particularl} their uncleanly habits for they never bathed and vermin was rampant among them At the same time they showed cer- tain excellent traits which might well put even the most polite of white people to the blush. They never got out of temper in conversa- tion or argued or interrupted others or obtruded themselves into other people's affairs. As a result, the tribe seemed to enjoy a virtually un- broken peace and long stretches of time were known to pass without a single quarrel taking place among its members The one menace to this happy condition of things was drink, the effects of which upon the Indians were so revolting as to beggar description In their drunken orgies and brawls they made for one another's noses, and Father Verreydt affirms that more than a hundred of the Potawatomi were lacking this important member. What appalling evils the Indian abuse of liquor brought in its train shall presently be seen with more detail.28
§ 4. A SHORT-LIVED MISSION
In the event the Catholic missionaries among the Potawatomi of Council Bluffs were not to achieve any substantial measure of success.
by the missionaries, reciting the rosary, and assisting at religious instructions twice a day. So tenacious was the memory of the boys that they could remember prayers heard only twice. A choir made up of forty of their number sang hymns in English, French, Latin and Potawatomi No other school except the Catholic one was kept on the reserve Sub-agent Cooper's report dated in the fall of 1840 has the following "Schools there are none here under the authority of the government There are two Roman Catholic priests residing within my agency, of good moral character, who set a good example to the Indians and half-breeds They have a chapel, and school and teacher, and have several young Indians in the school, who are coming on pretty well " Senate document, 26th Congress, 2nd Session, vol. i, page 397 A letter of Cooper's to Joshua Pilcher, superin- tendent of Indian affairs at St Louis, reporting that he was unable to secure any boys from his agency for the Choctaw Academy in Kentucky, as he had been requested by the Indian Office to do, makes complaint that Potawatomi parents were averse to patronizing any but Catholic schools "I then urged strongly the cause of objecting, but was not able to draw it from them I feel it my duty to give, in my opinion, the cause of the opposition I have met with in the case It is the undue and unbounded influence of the Catholic religion among the people — they being all Roman Catholics and determined not to patronize any- thing that is not of that persuasion — I have tried to pick up the boys throughout the country, but have met with an entire failure" Cooper to Pilcher, May 14, 1840 Letter Book of the St. Louis Supermtendency of Indian Affairs, Kansas Historical Society, Topeka, Kansas. The Choctaw Academy plan met with disfavor from non-Catholic missionaries also Cf infra, Chap XXII, note 65.
28 Verreydt a Madame Verreydt, October 26, 1838 Archives of the North Belgian Province, Society of Jesus.
THE POTAWATOMI MISSION OF COUNCIL BLUFFS 439
The drink evil assumed frightful proportions in the tribe, frustrating the labors of the missionaries and making it unlikely that permanent good could be effected Graphic accounts of the havoc wrought among the Indians by liquor are to be found in a journal of Father De Smet, whose testimony on the subject is corroborated by testimonies of like tenor from Father Verreydt and the Indian Agent, Stephen Cooper.
May 30 [1839] Arrival of the steamer Wilmington with provisions A war of extermination appears preparing around the poor Potawa- tomies Fifty large cannons have been landed, ready charged with the most murdeious grape shot, each containing thirty gallons of whiskey, brandy, rum or alcohol. The boat was not as yet out of sight when the skirmishes commenced After the fourth, fifth and sixth discharges, the confusion became great and appalling In all directions, men, women and children were seen tottenng and falling, the war-whoop, the merry Indian's song, cries, savage roarings, formed a chorus Quarrel succeeded quarrel. Blows followed blows The club, the tomahawk, spears, butcher knives, brandished together in the air. Strange' aston- ishing' only one man, in this dreadful affray, was drowned in the Missouri, another severely stabbed, and several noses lost. The prom- inent point, as you well know, the Potawatomies particularly aim at when well corned.
I shuddered at the deed A squaw offered her little boy four years old, to the crew of the boat for a few bottles of whiskey
I know from good authonty that upwards of eighty barrels of whiskey are on the line ready to be brought in at the payment.
No agent here seems to have the power to put the laws in execution
May 31 Drinking all day. Drunkards by the dozen Indians are selling horses, blankets, guns, their all to have a lick at the cannon Four dollars a bottle' Plenty at that price' Detestable traffic
June 3. A woman with child, mother of four young children, was mur- dered this morning near the issue-house Her body presented the most horrible spectacle of savage cruelty, she was literally cut up
June 4. Burial of the unhappy woman Among the provisions placed in her grave were several bottles of whiskey. A good idea if all had been buried with her.
June 6 Rumor. Four lowas, three Potawatomies, one Kickapoo are said to have been killed m drunken frolics.
June 1 8. Arrival of a sub-agent, Mr. Cowper [Cooper] His presence seems to keep the whiskey sellers in some awe. (Don't know what he might or will do ) Secure the liquor in cages The many murders com- mitted act powerfully upon the minds of the Indians They begged the agent m council to prevent the poison being brought among them.
Aug. 8. Arrival of the St Peter's with the annuities
Aug. 19. Annuities $90,000. Divided to the Indians Great gala Won- derful scrapings of traders to obtain Indian credits.
440 THE JESUITS OF THE MIDDLE UNITED STATES
Aug. 20. Since the day of payment, drunkards are seen and heard m all places Liquor is rolled out to the Indians by whole barrels, sold by white men even in the presence of the agent Wagon loads of the abominable stuff arrive daily fiom the settlements, and along with it the very dregs of our white neighbors and voyageurs of the mountains, drunkards, gamblers, etc , etc Three horses have been brought to the ground and killed with axes Two more noses were bitten off and a score of other horrible mutilations have taken place. Two women are dangerously ill of bad usage 20
In a letter written in July, 1839^ to a Carmelite nun, superior of the Orphanage in Termonde, Belgium, Father De Smet's native town, the missionary recurs to the never-failing topic of the Indian's fatal weakness for liquor:
Our congregation already amounts to about 300 At Easter we had fifty candidates for first communion I recommend, in a very special manner, these poor Indians, that they maintain their fervor The dangers and scandals which surround them are very great I have remarked in one of my preceding letters that one of the principal obstacles to the conversion of the savages is drinking. The last boat brought them a quantity of liquors Already fourteen among them are cut to pieces in the most barbarous manner, and are dead A father seized his own child by the legs and crushed it, in the presence of its mother, by dashing it against the post of his lodge. Two others most cruelly murdered an Indian woman, a neighbor of ours, and mother of four children We live m the midst of the most disgusting scenes.
The passion of the savages for strong drink is inconceivable They give horses, blankets, all, in a word, to have a little of this brutalizing liquid. Their drunkenness only ceases when they have nothing more to drink Some of our neophytes have not been able to resist this terrible torrent, and
2& From a letter to a "most dear friend" dated Potawatomi Nation, Council Bluffs, December, 1839. Text m CR, De Smet, i 171 "The civilization of these tribes has made but little progress within the last year There is neither farmer nor school-teacher employed by the Government m this agency, and but one blacksmith and his assistant, a half-breed They cannot supply near all the wants of the Indians, and their shop and buildings are in bad condition, the Government having furnished no means for the erection of these buildings The principal reason of these people not progressing farther in civilization is ardent spirits, which are kept along the line of the state of Missouri, and conveyed into the Indian country by the half -breeds. The whiskey trade has increased double this season and cannot be prevented by your Indian agents, unless they can have aid from the Government. The Indian will sell anything for liquor, not infre- quently bartering off His horses, guns and blankets for whiskey This practice is increasing rapidly, and the ruin of the nation certain unless a stop can be put to the introduction of spirituous liquors." Report of Peter Cooper, October 2, 184.1 For Father Verreydt's testimony see mfra in this same section.
THE POTAWATOMI MISSION OF COUNCIL BLUFFS 441
have allowed themselves to be drawn into it I wrote an energetic letter to the Government against these abominable traffickers Join your prayers to our efforts to obtain from Heaven the cessation of this fnghtful commerce, which is the misery of the savages in every relation so
In the same letter from which the preceding extract is cited Father De Smet records the sinking of a steamer within sight of Council Bluffs with considerable supplies on board for the missionaries and the Indians
First I will narrate to you the great loss that we experienced towards the end of April Our Superior sent us from St Louis, goods to the amount of $500, in ornaments for the church, a tabernacle, a bell, and provisions and clothes for a year. I had been for a long time without shoes, and from Easter we were destitute of supplies All the Potawatomi nation were suffer- ing from scarcity, having only acorns and a few wild roots for their whole stock of food At last, about the 20th of April, they announced to us that the much-desired boat was approaching Already we saw it from the highest of our hills I procured, without delay, two carts to go for our baggage I reached there in time to witness a very sad sight The vessel had struck on a sawyer, was pierced, and rapidly sinking in the waves The confusion that reigned in the boat was great, but happily no lives were lost. The total damage was valued at $40,000 All the provisions forwarded by Govern- ment to the savages were on board of her Of our effects four articles were saved a plough, a saw, a pair of boots and some wine Providence was still favorable to us With the help of the plough, we were enabled to plant a large field of corn, it was the season for furrowing We are using the saw to build a better house and enlarge our church, already too small With my boots I can walk m the woods and prairies without fear of being bitten by the serpents which throng there And the wme permits us to offer to God every day the holy sacrifice of the Mass, a privilege that had been denied us during a long time. We therefore returned with courage and resignation to the acorns and roots until the 30th of May That day another boat ar- rived. By that same steamer, I received news from you, as well as a letter from my family and from the good Carmelite superior 31
On April 29 Father De Smet took passage on the St. Peter's a steamboat of the American Fur Company, then making its annual trip to the Yellowstone to carry supplies to the Indians and bring
80 CR, De Smet, i. 184.
81 Idem, 1*183. Chittenden and Richardson conjecture that the wrecked steamer was the annual boat of the American Fur Company to the mouth of the Yellowstone Though its name cannot be identified in the list, "Steamboat wrecks on the Missouri River" m the Annual Report of the Missouri River Commission for 1897, ft was Ver7 probably the Pirate, which was reported by the St. Louis Reptbhcan under date of May 6, 1839, as having been snagged and lost seven miles below Council Bluffs. It would appear that the boat was subsequently raised.
442 THE JESUITS OF THE MIDDLE UNITED STATES
dcrtvn their furs in return. His plan was to visit the Yankton Sioux in their village some three hundred and sixty miles above Council Bluffs, there to do a little missionary work as also to attempt to bring about relations of amity and peace between the latter and the Potawatomi, who ever since their arrival at Council Bluffs had lived in mortal dread of their aggressive neighbors to the north. De Smet found on board the boat an old acquaintance, Joseph N. Nicollet, who had lent his services to Father Verhaegen during the latter's visit to Washington to secure government aid for the Potawatomi mission.32 Nicollet was then on his way to the upper Missouri region, having, during the pre- ceding year, made an exploring trip with great success to the sources of the Mississippi. Accompanying him were Lieutenant John C Fre- mont, the "Pathfinder," and Charles A Geyer, a German botanist of distinction in the scientific world De Smet had a high regard for the ability and scholarly attainments of Nicollet, but not more than the facts seemed to warrant. "His work will be a treasure for the literary world. He is a very deeply learned man and a liberal Catholic at the same time, who examines his subject on the spot and spares neither time nor pams nor his purse to go to the bottom of the matter he writes upon. He made me a present of several instruments, thermometers, barometers, compass, etc , to take observations during the summer, to aid those he was making in the upper country." 33
Having in the course of the voyage instructed and baptized on board the steamer a woman and her three children and heard the con- fessions of a number of voyageurs bound for the Rocky Mountains, De Smet arrived May n at the Yankton village. Here he met the Yankton chiefs and warriors in council and was hospitably entertained by them at a feast, at which he took occasion to discuss with them the principal object of his visit, which was the establishment of a durable peace between them and his spiritual children, the Potawatomi. His
*2 Supra, note 21.
33 In his "Re-port intended- to illustrate a map of the Hydtograpkic Basin of Upper Mississippi River, made by J. N. Nicollet while in employ under the Bureau of the Corp Topographical Engineers" (Senate document No 237, 26th congress, 2nd session), Nicollet testifies to the accuracy of the barometric observa- tions made by De Smet at Council Bluffs "The station at Camp Kearney, Council Bluffs, was occupied by the venerable missionaries, Rev. Messrs De Smet and Verreydt. I furnished them with a barometer, well compared with that of Dr Engelman at St Louis, and my own and delivered it at their missionary-station m good condition, Mr De Smet, with whom I had passed some days of travel on the Missouri, soon made himself acquainted with the manner of taking observa- tion, and proved it, in furnishing me with a four-month series, made with a care that the most scrupulous examination could only confirm and embracing the period between the iyth of May and ijth of September, 1839, an interval during which I was exploring the Northwest "
THE POTAWATOMI MISSION OF COUNCIL BLUFFS 443
efforts met with success. He persuaded the Sioux to make presents to the children of the Potawatomi warriors they had killed and to agree to visit the Potawatomi and smoke with them the calumet of peace. In the evening of the same day on which the council was held, he explained the Apostles3 Creed to the Indians and baptized a number of their children His mission thus accomplished, he seized the first opportunity of returning to Council Bluffs, making the down-stream voyage m the only craft he found available, a dugout, or hollowed-out log, ten feet long by one and a half wide. Guided by two skillful pilots, and travelling from four o'clock in the morning to sunset, the frail bark covered the three hundred and sixty miles to Council Bluffs m three days.34
From the baptismal and marriage registers of St Joseph's Mission at Council Bluffs may be gathered data concerning the ministry of the fathers during the three years the post was maintained. The baptisms during this period number three hundred and eight. The first recorded is that of Elizabeth Catherine Bourbonne, a Potawatomi, June 9, 1838. She is the first person whose baptism at Council Bluffs is attested by documentary evidence. All baptismal entries up to February 8, 1840, are m Father De Smet's handwriting Caldwell, principal business chief of the nation, was god-father to John Naakeze, baptized December 29, 1838, at the age approximately of one hundred and two. The last baptism in the mission-register is in Father Eysvogels's hand and bears date July 17, i84i.35
The first entries m the marriage-register are dated August 15, 1838. On that day Father De Smet joined m Christian wedlock Pierre Cheva- lier and Kwi-wa-te-no-kwe, and Louis Wilmot (Ouilmette) and Maria Wa-wiet-mo-kwe.36 These are the earliest certified marriages m Council Bluffs. The marriage ceremonies performed by De Smet at the mission numbered twenty m all, the last being dated January 5, 1840. Father Christian Hoecken, the founder in 1838 of the Catholic mission among the Osage River Potawatomi, after a stay of several months at the novitiate whither he had returned from his Indians broken down m
84 CR, De Smet, i 190
35 The Council Bluffs register is m the archives of St. Mary's College, St Marys, Kansas While stationed at Council Bluffs, De Smet baptized the Omaha chief Logan Fontanelle, then a child, and his mother, daughter of the Omaha chief, Big Elk CR, De Smet, 4 1532.
88 Louis Wilmot (Ouilmette) discharged for a while the duties of government interpreter for the Council Bluffs sub-agency. His relative (probably father), Antome Ouilmette, whose name is perpetuated m the Chicago suburb, Wilmette, has been reputed that city's earliest white settler, having settled there according to his own account in 1790, concerning which claim, however, doubts have been raised
444 THE JESUITS OF THE MIDDLE UNITED STATES
health, was attached to St. Joseph's Mission in the summer of 1840. Four marriages are credited to him in the mission-register, the earliest dated August 6, 1840, and the last January 28, 1841.
In the summer of 1839 arrived at Council Bluffs two young Flat- head braves. They were making the long journey from their homeland west of the Rocky Mountains to St. Louis for the purpose of securing Catholic priests. It was a challenge to De Smet's adventurous zeal, and, disappointed as he was with conditions on the Potawatomi reserve and the prospects of future missionary labor in that quarter, he eagerly offered himself to answer the signal of spiritual distress that came at this opportune moment from the remote Northwest. Father Verhaegen, superior at St. Louis, having determined to ascertain what were the hopes held out by the new missionary field thus opened up to his order, dismissed the Flathead delegates with a promise that a missionary would be sent out to their tribe on a prospecting trip early m the coming spring. De Smet now returned from Council Bluffs to St. Louis apparently with a view to seeking medical aid for an ailment that was causing him distress. Having arrived there on the last day of February, 1 840, he was commissioned by Verhaegen to undertake the trip to the Flatheads. His status as resident missionary at Council Bluffs had thus come to an end and he entered upon the career of missionary effort on behalf of the Oregon Indians with which his name is espe- cially identified. He left Westport at the mouth of the Kansas for the Rocky Mountains in April, 1840, discharged satisfactorily the object of his visit to the Flatheads, whom he found eagerly awaiting the arrival of Catholic missionaries, and returned home by the Missouri River, making a stop in November at Council Bluffs. Here he found that during his absence conditions had taken on a more discouraging aspect than ever:
The very night of our arrival among our Fathers at Council Bluffs, the river closed It would be in vain for me to attempt to tell what I felt at finding myself once more amidst our brothers, after having travelled 2,000 Flemish leagues, m the midst of the greatest dangers and across the territories of the most barbarous nations I had, however, the gnef of observ- ing the ravages which unprincipled men, liquor-sellers, had caused in this budding mission; drunkenness, with the invasion of the Sioux on the other hand, had finally dispersed my poor savages While awaiting a more favor- able turn of events, the good Fathers Verreydt and [Christian] Hoecken busy themselves with the cares of their holy ministry among some fifty families that have had the courage to resist these two enemies I discharged my commission to them from the Sioux, and I venture to hope that in future there wfll be quiet in that quarter.37
87 CR, De Smet, 1:158.
THE POTAWATOMI MISSION OF COUNCIL BLUFFS 445
In the summer of 1841 the situation at Council Bluffs from the viewpoint of missionary endeavor was still discouraging. Writing in July to Father Van Assche at Florissant, Father Verreydt dwells on the conditions which were to result in a few weeks in the definite abandonment of the mission
Our people here like us very much, but they do not want to listen to our good counsel Getting drunk is the only fault they have, otherwise, we would live here in Paradise. But now, m the condition they are, it is indeed very disagreeable to live among them As you are at home in the charming business, could your Reverence not give me a means to make these fellows here sober men and sober women; for women, as well as men, get tipsy whenever they have a chance. Oh, my friend, it looks very bad to see these poor creatures often like hogs wallowing m the mud I think you have done very well not to have come out to these frontier places, where almost every- body is trying to delude and impose upon these poor creatures. Liquor is brought in here with whole cargoes, which reduces our Indians to extreme poverty, which is, as you know, the mother of all vice Such is our position here You may of course pray hard for us all. We cannot help it, patience will not cure the evil, I fear.38
The United Nation or the Prairie Potawatomi had thus disappointed the hopes once entertained of their progress in the ways of upright and Christian living. On the other hand their kinsmen of Sugar Creek, the Potawatomi of Indiana or the Forest Potawatomi, were steadily ad- vancing to the condition of an orderly and edifying Christian com- munity. The conclusion was therefore reached to abandon Council Bluffs as a center of resident missionary endeavor and transfer the fathers stationed there to Sugar Creek. <<We have had to abandon the mission of the Potawatomies at Council Bluffs," Verreydt informed the General, "on account of the drink with which the poor Indians are constantly becoming intoxicated and also on account of the war be- tween the Sioux and the Potawatomies." 39 In pursuance of instructions received from St. Louis Fathers Verreydt and Christian Hoecken, to- gether with Brothers Mazzella and Miles, bade farewell to Council
88 Verreydt to Van Assdie, Council Bluffs, July 2, 1841. (A). Father Verreydt in a letter to the Belgian benefactor of the Jesuit missions in America, M. De Nef, Dec 6, 1839 (Archives of the Belgian Province, S J*), speaks of drink as the supreme evil among the Potawatomi, "their rum, their destruction, the greatest obstacle to their salvation If it were not for this unfortunate weakness, they would be converted en masse. ... A pnest doing nothing else than baptize the Indian children is well employed, he saves an innumerable number of souls, for their manner of life and the great wretchedness which prevails among the Indians causes them to die in great numbers."
89 Verreydt ad Roothaan, April 6, 1842. (AA).
446 THE JESUITS OF THE MIDDLE UNITED STATES
Bluffs in August, 1841, and journeyed to Sugar Creek, which they reached on the 29th of that month. Thenceforth the Iowa Potawatomi were without spiritual aid except for an occasional visit of Father Hoecken from Sugar Creek. In April, 1842, the latter administered four baptisms at Council Bluffs In November, 1844, he administered twenty more at the same post, all to Indians or half-breeds In May, 1846, he was again with the United Nation, baptizing on this occasion thirty-eight infants and a dying squaw* This was apparently the last visit of a Catholic priest to Council Bluffs before the closing of the Potawatomi reserve.40 Two years later the Indians were removed to their new lands on the Kansas River assigned them under the treaty of 1846. Here they were united with the Sugar Creek division of the tribe and here they came again under the spiritual care of Jesuit missionaries.
10 Sugar Cfeek Baptismal Regutet (F) Richard Smith Elliott, Indian agent at Council Bluffs, in his Notes Taken in Sixty Years, p. 180, records his having in 1844 "solemnized the first civil marriage in all Southwest Iowa" The parties to the marriage were the half-breed, Joseph Lafromboise, United States interpreter for the agency, and a Miss Labarg(e) "The Priest [Father Hoecken] had made his annual trip in May and about ten months would elapse before he would come again "
According to Babbitt, of at , p 57, the Catholic mission-property at the time application was made for the entry of the town-site of Council Bluffs became the subject of controversy between Mrs S T Carey and the Catholic ecclesiastical authorities The evidence adduced in the long-drawn out controversy before the Indian Office and the Land Department is on record m the files of the Indian Office, Department of the Interior, Washington Father De Smet, when ques- tioned on the subject in 1867, could give no definite information "All I could learn of the subject is Several years after the last missionary among the Potawat- omies left that location, he was applied to by the Catholic bishop of Dubuque and ceded to him all the right to the mission claim " CR, De Smet, 4. 1534
CHAPTER XIV THE MISSION OF CENTRAL MISSOURI
§ i. ST. JOSEPH'S RESIDENCE, NEW WESTPHALIA
In the autumn of 1837 Father Verhaegen, superior of the Missouri Mission, while returning to St Louis from the Kickapoo station, visited a colony of German immigrants, most of them from Westphalia, who had settled not far from Jefferson City, Missouri, on the Maries River, about four miles above its confluence with the Osage.1 Here he found residing with the immigrants a Catholic priest, the Reverend Henry Meinkmann, who had accompanied some of them from Germany, but without having obtained an exeat or written release from the bishop of his diocese Moreover, having failed to apply to the Bishop of St. Louis, in whose territory he was now residing, for "faculties" or a license to exercise the sacred ministry, he was disqualified for ministerial func- tions and, as a matter of fact, made no attempt to engage in them, but confined himself to the simple duties of school-teacher to the chil- dren of the immigrants. Shortly after his return to St. Louis Verhaegen presented Father Meinkmann's case to Bishop Rosati, who in Novem-
1 According to a manuscript note in the aichdiocesan archives of St Louis, the first priest to visit New Westphalia settlement was Father Christian Hoecken, S J , who celebrated Mass there probably as early as 1835 However, the baptismal records for his central Missouri excursions of 1835 and 1836, though revealing his presence at Jefferson City and Cote-sans-dessem in June, 1835, show no bap- tisms among the German settlers on Manes Creek. Registre ties Baftemes four la Mission- du Missouri, 1832 (A) Father Cornelius Walters, S J, one of the "travelling missionaries" of St Charles, Mo , is also mentioned as having followed Hoecken in ministering to the settlers named Apart from Father Meinkmann, the first priest whose presence among them is vouched for by contemporary record is Father Verhaegen, whose visit in the autumn of 1837 is referred to in the text "The Germans are most numerous in the neighborhood of Jefferson City. People have assured us there are almost fifty Catholic families there. They are pious and in better circumstances than those of Washington " Verhaegen a Rosati, November 17, 1837- (C)
The first recorded death in the Liber Defanctorum (A) of St Joseph's parish, Westphalia, is that of Gasper Anthony Linneman, December 4, 1836 The burial was in St. Louis on December 6. Mary Josephine Lmneman died February 3, 1837, and, in default of a Catholic cemetery, was buried in unconsecrated ground. The first burial-entry signed by Father Helias is for Richard O'Connor, who died in Jefferson City, September n, 1838, and was buried there on the same day.
447
448 THE JESUITS OF THE MIDDLE UNITED STATES
her, 1837, granted the priest permission to exercise the ministry as resident pastor of New Westphalia Settlement, the latter having previ- ously written to his former superior, Bishop Droste of Munster, for an exeat. Father Meinkmann thereupon assumed spiritual charge of the Westphalia Catholics, who built him a small wooden chapel, named for St. John the Baptist, on the south side of the Manes River.2
In 1835, two years earlier than the incidents recorded in the pre- ceding paragraph, a party of Catholics from Westphalia in Germany, many of them of some education, had come up the Osage River and settled on one of its tributaries, the Maries (Big Maries). Dr. Brims, a physician, together with a brother of his, located at the bend of the Maries, where the town of Westphalia was later laid out, while the families Nacke, Hesse, Schroeder, Gramatica, Kolks and Kaiser took up land in the immediate vicinity. They were followed in a few months by the families Zellerhoff, Fennewald, Schwarze, Westermann, Bart- mann and Geisberg Some of the immigrants, it would appear, had hoped to establish or associate themselves in some way with an institu- tion of learning in central Missouri 5 but the primitive conditions they encountered soon disillusioned them and some of their number re- turned to Germany. Among these was a Mr. Hesse, who in 1838 sketched a valuable map of the Manes River region indicating the respective places of settlement of the German immigrant families In the course of 1836 Dr. Bruns and a Mr. Bartmann opened the first store m the locality, a picture of which appears on the Hesse map.3
2 Father Henry Meinkmann of the diocese of Munster m Germany was ordained in 1829 at Lucerne in Switzerland For three years prior to his coming to America in 1836 he exercised the ministry at Hmsbeck m Munster On relin- quishing this post he obtained commendatory letters from the cure of Hmsbeck, but on soliciting a document of like tenor from the vicar-general of the diocese of Munster, he was assured by that official, apparently m good faith, that no credentials other than those furnished him by the cure of Hmsbeck would be found necessary m America Meinkmann applied to Bishop Rosati for faculties in April, 1837. Helias, who became acquainted with the peculiar circumstances m which Meinkmann was placed and who speaks of him as "that Israelite in whom there is no guile," induced Verhaegen m November, 1837, to lay the case before Bishop Rosati "The Germans of Westphalia, such is the name they give to their colony, said many fine things about the good priest of whom Father Helias speaks: but those of more influence among them observed to me that he would not suit, as he could not wield over them the authority and influence which the sacred ministry requires and this for the reason that he has resided so long among them without the usual powers of a priest, merely as a school-teacher, etc " Ver- haegen a Rosati, November 17, 1837 (C) Cf also Meinkmann ad Rosati, April I3> 1837 (C), Helias a Verhaegen, November 15, 1837, Litterae Annuae. 1838, (A)
8 History of Cole, Momteau, Morgan, Benton, Miller, Maries, and Osage Counties (Chicago, 1889), p 679. "From the mouth of the Maries up the follow-
THE MISSION OF CENTRAL MISSOURI 449
The project of a Jesuit residence in the interior of Missouri had been under consideration for some time previous to the visit of Ver- haegen to the Wesphalia immigrants in the autumn of 1837. The eighteen or more Catholic stations scattered along the two sides of the Missouri River as far as Boonville above Jefferson City were, dur- ing the period 1828-1838, visited at intervals during the year by the Jesuits of St. Charles in missionary circuits averaging from four to six weeks' duration. But such arrangement was not by any means calcu- lated to meet effectively the spiritual needs of the territory in ques- tion, it was, perforce, provisional only, pending the establishment of a centrally located headquarters for the missionaries. Already m 1836 the author of the Annual Letters of the Missouri Mission pointed to the Catholic settlement of eighty souls on "St. Mary's Creek," (Maries River), the Westphalia settlement above referred to, as a likely place for a Jesuit residence Partly, therefore, to supply the spiritual wants of the growing Catholic immigrant population of Osage and Gasconade Counties, and partly to secure a missionary center for the fathers from which they could conveniently attend the various Catholic stations of central Missouri, Father Verhaegen, with the consent of Bishop Rosati, decided to open a residence on the Manes. At a meeting of the su- perior with his official advisers, April 23, 1838, it was determined that "Father Helias and Brother Morris be sent to the station generally known as Westphalia settlement near Jefferson City."
Ferdinand Benoit Mane Guislam Helias d'Huddeghem, scion of a noble Flemish family, was born August 3, 1796, at Ghent in Belgium in the Pnnsenhoj, the same house in which the Emperor Charles the Fifth had also made his entrance into life 4 As a student at the Jesuit college of Roulers in Belgium, he had Father Van Quickenborne among his professors. He entered the Society of Jesus in his native
ing names appear Dohmen, Messerschmidt, Scheulen, Hoecyway, Colson, Kuner- mann, ZellerhofF, H. Huber, Hocker, Hesse (now Bossen), Geisberg, Gramatica, Dr. Brims (at site of Westphalia) , on the west fork, David Brims, Herman Brims, Fellups and Hilt> on the east fork, Ahrez, Huber, Linnemann, Cons, Hesler, and Schwartz in the west uplands, Ahrez, Clarenbach, Zurmegede, Chipley (Shipley), Carl Huber, Nacke and Fennewald on the northeast uplands, F Schwartze, Wilson, Lee (Smith's Postoffice) and the McDamels It will be seen that those to the northeast on the map are Americans On the map, too, is a cut of the first loghouse at Westphalia, built by Dr Bruns" Idem, p 635 A copy of Hesse's book, Das westhche Nordctmerika in besondere Beztehung auf die deutschen em- wanderer vn ibren landuwrthschafthchen, Hondels-und Gewerbeverhaltmssen (Paderborn, 1838), is in the library of the Jesuit residence of St Joseph's, St. Louis
* Auguste Lebrocquy, S J , Vie du R P. Hehas D^Huddeghem de la Compagnie de Jesus (Gand, 1878), p. I For particulars about Helias's transfer from Mary- land to Missouri, cf. sufra, Chap. XI, § 3
450 THE JESUITS OF THE MIDDLE UNITED STATES
town, Ghent, finished his novitiate at Montrouge in France, and was transferred thence to the college of Bneg in Switzerland. From there he came in 1833 to the United States, where he spent the two follow- ing years in the newly erected Maryland Province, being employed in various charges, among others that of assistant-master of novices. Assigned to the Missouri Mission m 1835, he arrived at St. Louis Uni- versity August 22 of that year Here in the course of the three fol- lowing years, he taught French, German, and on occasion canon law and moral theology, and was, besides given the charge of pastor of the German Catholics of North St. Louis, whom he began to organize into the future St. Joseph's parish.
Father Helias left St. Louis for his new destination May 3, 1838
A domestic diary of St Louis University chronicles the event.
x
May 3 Father Helias set out from this house to take in hand a mission in a place called Liel-town, a German settlement 5 In that man burns a truly divine zeal, for he has accepted with courage the task imposed on him, an arduous one withal, as there are heartburnings and dissensions to be healed before any good can be accomplished among the people A church and presbytery, both of logs, have been erected m the place
Father Helias was accompanied on his journey up the Missouri River by Fathers De Smet, Eysvogels and Verhaegen, and the lay brother, William Claessens.6 De Smet was on his way to Council Bluffs, Eysvogels and Claessens were to work among the Kickapoo while Verhaegen was to make an official visitation of the Kickapoo Mission. Among the fellow-passengers of the Jesuits was Captain Sutter, noted Santa Fe trader and future discoverer of the California gold-fields. The steamer coming to a dead stop at least twice owing to the complete col- lapse of her machinery, Father Helias at length took to land and made the last stages of his journey on horseback. He arrived on May n at Cote-sans-dessein, a Creole settlement on the left bank of the Missouri in Callaway County near the mouth of the Osage River,, and said Mass there in a private house. The Sunday following, May 13, the fourth
s "In 1831 Benjamin Lisle started a settlement named after him, Lisletown, at the head [mouth J of the Maries Creek. The first post-office m Osage County was here Owing to the growth of the neighboring Westphalia, Lisletown proved a failure " Conard, Encyclopedia of the Histoty of Missouti, 6 449 The post- office was transferred about 1838 from Lisletown to Westphalia, Dr Bernard Bruns, the Catholic doctor of the place, being appointed post-master
6 Helias, Memoires du Rd P Ferdinand Hehas D'Huddeghem petre mis- stontme de la Compagnte de Jesus en Amenque (Ms ) (A) Contains a prefatory letter addressed to Father De Smet, 1867, from St Francis Xavier's, Taos, Cole Co, Mo. According to a contemporary account by Verhaegen (June 20, 1838, Ann Prof, n 468), the date of the departure from St Louis of the missionary party was May 2.
THE MISSION OF CENTRAL MISSOURI 451
after Easter and feast of the Patronage of St Joseph, he celebrated Mass in Westphalia and was duly installed as pastor of the German Catholic congregation 7 To the log church which his parishioners had begun to build the year before he gave the name of St. Joseph Several considerations determined this choice, so his memoirs declare First, there was the circumstance that his devoted friend, Bishop Rosati of St. Louis, had Joseph for his given name Then, Helias had always cherished a particular devotion to the foster-father of the Savior, as being the patron of his own Belgium and, so he said, of the Holy Roman Empire of the middle ages. Finally, even under the Spanish regime the district laid out as Gasconade County had been organized into an administrative unit known as the "Parish of St. Joseph," with headquarters at Cote-sans-dessem.8
Father Helias at once took in hand the cultivation of the extensive spiritual field entrusted to his care, Father Memkmann at first assist- ing him in his labors. The latter appears to have been a man of excel- lent intentions, but less tactful than was necessary in dealing with the numerous parties of German immigrants that made up his rather motley congregation. Among the grievances voiced was that he confined his ministrations to the group of Rhmelanders whom he had accompanied from Germany and neglected the other portions of his flock, the West- phalians in particular taking umbrage at the line of action followed by their pastor. As there seemed little prospect of healing the differ- ences between Father Memkmann and the parishioners of New West- phalia, Bishop Rosati transferred him in 1839 to the newly estab- lished parish of St. Francis Borgia in Washington, Franklin County.9
Although the colony of Westphalian immigrants planted on the Manes went by the name of New Westphalia Settlement prior even to the advent of Father Helias, the beginning proper of the town, known first as New Westphalia and later simply as Westphalia, seems to have been made in 1838 under the immediate direction of Helias himself 10 In that year Fathers Verhaegen, De Theux and Smedts ac-
7 Lebrocquy, op cit , p 185 " i$a M<m Dominica IV a Post Pascham> Testum Patrocinii Sti Joseph titular W ' estpkaltae instalavi me 'primum hums Paroeciae Pastorem frimumque Saaum dixi " Memorandum of Father Hehas indorsed "Dies Memorabiles F Manae Hehasy S J " (A)
8 Lebrocquy, op cit , p 206 Hehas's statement that a civil district or parish named for St. Joseph was laid out in central Missouri under the Spanish regime cannot be verified
9 fiesid 'entitle Sti Francisci Xavern C entrails Exordium et Progressus, 1838- 1848, p 3 Ms. (A) Hehas refers to Memkmann as "vtr ceteroqum simplex et cordatus "
10 Memkmann's letter of April 13, 1837, to Rosati is dated from "New Westphalia Settlement."
452 THE JESUITS OF THE MIDDLE UNITED STATES
quired from Francis Geisberg for a nominal consideration of five dol- lars forty acres of land on the left bank of the Maries River. Shortly after his arrival Helias, with his superior's approval, after reserving fourteen acres to himself as a means of support, divided the remaining twentj-six into lots, which he offered to the artisans and laborers of the German colony, farmers being excluded from the offer. The re- cipients were to be given a ninety-nine year lease to their respective lots, which they were to hold rent free the first five years, and after- wards on an annual payment of two or five dollars, according to the value of the lot. The money derived from this source was to go to the maintenance of the church. Subsequently, to remove all ground of in- vidious gossip, the lots were deeded over to the tenants in fee-simple. Such was the beginning of the town of New Westphalia 11
The log church which served the needs of the Catholics of New Westphalia until the construction of a solid stone church in 1 848 was an architectural makeshift, including both church and presbytery under the one roof. Bishop Rosati blessed it on the occasion of his first visit to New Westphalia October 14, 1838, on which occasion he admims-
11 Lttterae Annuae> 1838 The deed of transfer of the Westphalia property from Francis Geisberg to P J Verhaegen, Theodore De Theux and J B Smedts under date of June 25, 1838, was recorded at Mount Sterling, Gasconade County, on July 5 of the same year According to the account in Goodspeed (publisher), History of Cole ) Moniteau, Benton, Miller an£ Osage Counties (Chicago, 1883), Geisberg entered 200 acres of public land on the Maries, forty of which he subsequently donated for the erection of a Catholic church Cf, in this connection Helias>s verse, Atque novae jundamina fiximus Urbts Westphahae. ("And we laid the foundations of the town of New Westphalia").
The forty acres conveyed by Francis Geisberg is described in the deed of transfer as the n e % of sw J4 °f section 26, tp. 4.3, range 10 w A forty-foot street (Mam) cut it diagonally from southeast to northeast. The lots appear to have been originally leased to the settlers for a ninty-nine year term (1839-1938). The conditions of the lease were recorded by Helias in the baptismal register now preserved among the records of St. Francis Xavier Church, Taos, Cole Co , Mo According to this document, the town of Westphalia was laid out in two divisions, the second being the property of a Mr Gramatica Father Helias's forty acres did not therefore comprise the entire town-site of Westphalia The tenant of Father Helias's lots promised "to keep his house m good condition, to build a post-fence m a straight direction along the street and to hold in his house or on his messuage no people of bad morality reputed as a nuisance and a public disturber of the peace/' All of the forty acres appear to have been sold by Helias with the exception of one acre, on which the old church, subsequently used as a school-house, was standing m 1861. The property on which stand the present church, convent and school was repurchased from various parties The present stone church was built on a lot acquired September 18, 1847, from Mrs. Gertrude Evens, a widow, whose skilful nursing saved Helias's life, when the doctors had given him up. , '
THE MISSION OF CENTRAL MISSOURI 453
tered confirmation to thirty-eight members o£ the parish.12 The prelate preached on this day in English as did also Father Verhaegen, his companion in the visitation of the diocese then in progress. A school- building, like the church, of logs, was put up within a year or two of Helias's arrival. The duties of school-teacher were discharged for a while by Father James Busschots, who arrived on the scene July 27, 1838 Busschots remained in New Westphalia until September 23 of the following year, when he was transferred to the new Jesuit residence of St. Francis Borgia in Washington, Missouri. Father Helias was then left without an assistant priest until the arrival in 1 846 of Father James Cotting.13
Bishop Rosati's Latin diary (Ephemendes Pnvatai) affords inter- esting glimpses of Catholic life m Missouri in the pioneer period. The account of his visit to Father Helias's missions in October, 1838, is a typical passage:
October 10, 1838, Wednesday. About noon we reached the banks of the Missouri river opposite Jefferson City II miles from Bloomfield and dined at Yount's We crossed the Missouri not without some trouble and arrived at Jefferson City. Here by chance the first person to meet us was Mr Withnell, who built the fagade and tower of our cathedral of squared, highly polished stone, as also the portico. He offered us his house and there we lodged To Father Hellas, who lives in New Westphalia fifteen miles from here, Father Verhaegen wrote at once, as he found a man who would deliver the letter the next day
1 1 . Thursday. Did not celebrate for there was no chalice. There are two hundred Catholics in Jefferson City, part German and part Irish Fathers Helias and Buschotts visit them. The church is not yet built and Mass is celebrated in the dining-room of a public tavern, the proprietor of which is a Catholic. Shortly, with God's help, will be built a stone church sixty feet long and forty feet wide I have pledged a hundred dollars towards its construction. We visited the capitol, which Mr Withnell is building of squared polished stone, the structure being 1 80 feet long and 80 feet wide, and from the portico to the opposite end 150 feet wide [sic]. We visited Mr. Hill, the English architect who is superintending the building, and he showed us most readily all the plans of the building.
12 "From Jefferson City we went to New Westphalia, 15 [12] miles, in Gasconade Co , a German congregation, F Helias with F. Buschotts resides there and takes care of the Congregation of Jefferson City and others I blessed the church last Sunday, gave confirmation to 26 persons, blessed the Graveyard and gave confirmation the next day to 9 persons more " Rosati to Timon, October 20, 1838 (C) Cf Lebrocqiry, op «A, pp 204-207, for some interesting details in connection with the blessing of the church "Le souvenir de cette gran.de <journec ne fefaga jamais de la memoire du P. Heltas."
18 Rtndentwt St. Franctsci Xa0eni> etc^ p. 8. (A).
454 THE JESUITS OF THE MIDDLE UNITED STATES
Father Helias arrived about midnight foi the man sent by Father Verhaegen lost his way and was late in reaching Westphalia. Oct. 12 Early in the morning Father Helias notified all the persons he could that confirmation would be conferred, heard their confessions, and at 9 o'clock celebiated Mass, at which I was present, in the afore- said dimng-hall After Mass I gave a sermon on the sacrament of con- firmation and administered it to eleven faithful of both sexes, a sermon being given before confirmation, and after it, the [usual] exhortation Many more would have come had they been given notice
About II o'clock we started off m a wagon procured for us by Mr Withnell, in which were two chairs such as we use at home. Father Helias came with us We crossed the Moreau river five miles from Jefferson, not far from it live two excellent Catholics from German}, we got out of the wagon and paid them a visit. We con- tinued the journey, crossed the Osage nvei at the confluence of Marys [Manes] river, where is situated the village called Lisletown, [and] at length arrived at New Westphalia where we were received with joy by Fathers Helias and Buschotts, who reside there.
13. Saturday Celebrated Mass in St. Joseph's church, which is built of wood I lodged m the sacristy, Father Verhaegen, with Fathers Helias and Buschotts, m a house which has been put up for a school Mr Bruns, a physician, who lives only a short distance from the church, paid us a visit, we dined with him. There are about three hundred Catholics living here.
14. XIX Sunday after Pentecost Said Mass at 8 m the church and gave communion to the people. At ten we assembled m the church, which I solemnly blessed according to the rite set forth in the Roman Ritual Then Father Buss[chots] celebrated Mass solemnly After the Gospel I preached in English, as most of the Germans understand this lan- guage and many American Protestants were present After Mass and singing of the Veni Creator I administered the sacrament of confirma- tion to 26 faithful of both sexes, and exhorted them to perseverance. At the end, Father Verhaegen delivered a sermon in English on the Catholic religion
At three in the afternoon we assembled m the church and went from there to the adjoining cemetery, which I blessed according to the solemn rite of the Roman Pontifical. Having returned to the church, I spoke to the people about the blessing that had taken place, about the pious thoughts which the sight of a cemetery should stir m the minds of Catholics and about the persons who are denied ecclesi- astical burial; and I asked Father Helias to repeat in German what I had said in English, which he did. At the end, to return thanks to God for the blessings bestowed upon the parish, we sang the Te Deum laudamus.
15. Celebrated Mass in the church. Confirmed 19 of both sexes We dined with Mr Bruns At 4 pm we set out, were brought by Mr. Bruns and others to the Osage river, which we crossed, and came to the
THE MISSION OF CENTRAL MISSOURI 455
house of Mr. Williams, whose wife, a Catholic, had come to the church She had sent us an invitation through Mr Bruns, for the public stage stopped at her house very early in the morning and we were to travel by it the rest of the way We were leceived as guests with the utmost kindness and they asked us to stay with them whenever we chanced to pass that way 14
Economic conditions among the German settlers of Osage County in its pioneer period were extremely crude.15 The journey to America had depleted the purse of most of the immigrants , as a consequence, they were often without capital m money or tools with which to begin the struggle for existence in the New World. They were thus forced to borrow, but they found the American settlers who had proceeded them into the wilderness ready to lend. "I have heard," a West- phalia pastor. Father Nicholas Schlechter, S. J., wrote in 1884, "several German families saying that when they came to the county they were in great poverty and obliged to beg, and that for entire weeks and months, but they invariably added 'The Americans were good, they never grew tired of our asking, but simply said: ctake it ' " 16
Good strong wagons were the thing the farmers needed most of all. Though these could be obtained in St. Louis, money was scarce and the cost of shipping the wagons all the way to Westphalia and other settlements in Osage County was prohibitive. Necessity suggested there- fore to the farmers the invention of a type of home-made wagon which for years answered all their needs of transportation. Not a nail or bit of iron was used in the construction, wooden bolts held together beam, cross-beam, shaft and axle-tree. But the wheels were the most charac- teristic feature of this singular conveyance. These were of one piece, being circular-shaped slices from the trunks of huge sycamore trees. One may well believe that these curious wagons, as they were drawn along by plodding oxen, made a hideous clatter, proverbial throughout the county long after the pioneer stage of its history had come to an end.
§2. MISSIONARY EXCURSIONS, 1838-1842
Father Helias had scarcely arrived at New Westphalia when he began from there, as a base of operations, the series of periodic mis- sionary excursions which were to mean much for the upbuilding of Catholicity in central Missouri. Eleven counties, Franklin, Gasconade, Osage, Cole, Momteau, and Cooper on the south side of the Missouri
14 Rosati's Diary, 1838. Kennck Seminary Archives
16 Osage County was organized out of Gasconade County, January 29, 184.1 16 T7X, 13 358 Father Nicholas Schlechter, SJ, was pastor m Westphalia, 1882-1883, and in Loose Creek, 1883-1884.
456 THE JESUITS OF THE MIDDLE UNITED STATES
and Warren, Montgomery, Callaway, Boone, and Howard on the north side were included in the area traversed.17 He said his first Mass
17 A manuscript account compiled by Helias in 1838 (Excursiones Missionis Centiahs] contains a census of the Catholic stations along the Missouri with the names in man/ cases of the persons m whose houses divine service was held The figures indicate the number of families South side of the Missouri Man- chester, St Louis Co, 10, Washington, Franklin Co (Uhlenbrouck's house near the town), Il8, Burbus, Franklin Co, II, Henry Reed's Settlement, Franklin Co, 5, Bailey's Creek, Gasconade Co. (Jh Logsdon), 22, French Village (Louis Leblanc's house near the Osage River), 24, Loose Creek (Aug Pequignot) , Cadet [Cade?] Creek (J B Bonnot), 25, (services in these two places generally held in the district-school-house), across the Osage at Herman Nieters, Liberty Township, 20, Jefferson City (Henry Haar's tavern {ptblica taberna}, the mis- sionary lodging with Mr Withnell, architect of the capital) , Barry's Settlement, Cole Co (P. Barry), 10, Moniteau River (F. Joseph Weber), 40, Boonville (Anthony Fuch's [Fox] and Peter Joseph), 12, Pilot Grove (on the prairie at Romersbergers [Anthony Remsperger]), 15, near Georgetown, Pettis Co (Dr Bruhl) North side of the Missouri Fayette and Chanton (Mr. Post), 5, Colum- bia, Boone Co (Mr. Lynch, Jr, and outside the town, Mr Lynch, Sr.)5 13, Portland (Priestly Gill), 8, Hancock Prairie (John Shannon), 10, Cote-sans- dessem (Widow Roy), 20, Rocheport, 26, Lay Creek, 34, Mount Pleasant, 30, Martmsville [Marthasville] opposite Washington, 3.
In another list mention is made of a congregation of Irish, perhaps Barry Settlement, near Marion, Cole Co , not to be identified, it would seem, with St Patrick's congregation, Hibernia Pisgah, Cooper Co. (house of John Fay), also occurs as one of the stations visited by Father Helias
Helias's census of Catholic families in central Missouri for April I, 1839, *s a document of value It does not, however, include all the stations in the mis- sionary's circuit It is reproduced in the Missouri Historical Review , 5 87
Westphalia Bernard Bruns, Doctor of Medicine, Geisberg, Brockmann, Ottens, Gramatica, Walters, Schmitz, Otto, Debeis, Eppenhof, Oldenlehre, Huber, Nacke, Bartmann, Ecfc, Knueve, ZellerhofT, Juchmann, Bose, Eckmeier, Kolks, Vennewald, Lueckenhofl, Meierpeter, Schuelen, Krekel, Dohmen, Stiefermann, Hagenbrock, Boessen, Linnemann, Goetzen, Artz, Brockerhoff, Kern, Wilhaupt, Schwartze, Hasslog, Holtermann, Sudhoff, Borgmann, Kuess, J Schater
Jefferson City. Kolkmeyer, Richters, Hart, Withnell, Hannan, Buz, Kramer, Tellmann, Monaghan, Ryan, Gilman, Corker, Bauerdick, Brand, Doherty.
Loose Cieek Monnier, Valentin, Cordomer, Bnchaud, Besson, Saulnier, Stoffen, Farrell, Reed, Burbus.
French Village Peter Goujon, Louis Goujon, Angelica Mercer, widow, Gleizer, Picqueur, Vincennes, Denoyer, Luison, Leblanc.
Cote-sms-dessem Roy, Faye, Arnould, Nicholas, Renaud.
Bailey's Creek Logsdon, Simon, Welch, Howard, Folgs, Serpentm, Miller, Heth
Portland Priestly Gill
Hancock Prairie- Joseph [John? ] Shannon, Thomas Flood, Anna Catharina, widow of John Preis.
Columbia Lynch and Kitt.
Boonwlle* Fuchs, Weber, Fis, Pecht, Foy, Morey, Dr Heart, Rockwie, Briel
New Frmklin: Matthias Simon.
THE MISSION OF CENTRAL MISSOURI 457
at New Westphalia May 13, 1838. On May 24, Ascension Day, he officiated at French Village and the day after at Cote-sans-dessem, where a number of adults made their first holy communion. Saturday he was at Hiberma or Hibernmm, some five miles to the northeast of Jefferson City.18 The next day, Sunday, May 27, he celebrated Mass for the first time m Jefferson City, the state capital, where the first house had been built m iSig.19
Nowhere was the missionary given a heartier welcome than in Jef- ferson City. The Catholic population of the town consisted of about one hundred and fifty souls, chiefly German and Irish immigrants, most of whom were employed as laborers on the new capitol building
18 Dies memoiabiles, etc. (A) Wetmore's Gazetteer of Missouri lists Hibernia as a post-office of Callaway County ("Holt's Settlement, Hiberma, on the C and A R R 20 miles south of Fulton " Campbell, Gazetteer of Missouu, p 97) The Hibernium visited by Helias, May 26, 1838, appears to have been only a few miles distant from Jefferson City According to a "status anim&rum" for the mission of Central Missouri compiled by Helias, "St. Patrick's Congregation in Hibernium" counted only ten souls m 1838-1839, a number which had dwindled to five m 1849 On August 12, 1827, Father Van Quickenborne administered four baptisms at "Hibernia near Jefferson," among the recipients being Francis Pomponius Atticus Dillon, son of Patrick M and Anne C. Nash, born June I, 1824. Registre des Baf femes, St Ferdinand's Church, Florissant, Mo
18 The first Catholic priest mentioned in contemporary records as having visited Jefferson City is Father Verhaegen, S J , who preached a mission there m 1828 Sup-a, Chap VIII, § I There is every reason to suppose that he said Mass there on that occasion A manuscript memorandum m the Archdiocesan Archives, St Louis, states that he said Mass in Jefferson City in 1836. According to a sketch of the Catholic Church in the Missoun Volksfreund, October 7, 1896, the first Mass m the place was celebrated by Father Felix Verreydt, S J, m 1831 Father Helias in his Dies Memorabiles seems to lay claim to the distinction of celebrating the first Mass in Jefferson City, May 27, 1838 Services on this occasion were held "m the large hall of the German Boarding House of Mr Henry Haar" (Memorandum, St Louis Archdiocesan Archives), probably the house 325 High Street, still standing m 1896 Missouri Volksfreund, October 7, 1896 The house of Gebhard Anthony Kramer "near the Capitol" is also men- tioned by Father Helias as a place where he held services m his early visits to Jefferson City. (There is no doubt that Father Verhaegen preceded Fathers Verreydt and Helias in Jefferson City, having very probably also celebrated the first Mass there m 1828).
The earliest recorded baptisms in Jefferson City were the two performed by Father Christian Hoecken on June 18, 1835, when he baptized George, son of Patrick Ward and Mary Dillon Ward, and Charles Julius, son of Casper and Julia Haebert Registre des Baptemes four la Mission du Missouri, 1832 (A) Hehas's first baptism in the town was that of Edmund Dougherty, son of Andrew and Helen Dougherty, May 26, 1838 The earliest Catholic burials m Jefferson City, as entered in the Westphalia Liber Defunctorum (A) , were those of Richard O'Connor, September n, 1838, and John O'Brien, September 15, same year, Helias having been the officiating priest on both occasions.
458 THE JESUITS OF THE MIDDLE UNITED STATES
then in process of construction.20 Father Helias spent a few days among these good people and afterwards revisited them regularly once a month Before the close of 1838 sixteen hundred dollars had been col- lected among the Catholics for a church and school to be dedicated to St Ignatius Loyola Mr, John Withnell, architect of the capitol and personally known to Father Helias, offered his professional services for the new edifice at a nominal charge. The Irish and German work- men engaged in the construction of the capitol also volunteered their help. The only difficulty that beset the venture was the lack of a suitable site. Charles Dwyer of St. Louis offered Helias one of the twelve lots which he owned in Jefferson City, but the property was too remote from the heart of the town to serve the purpose intended A happy solution of the difficulty presented itself and this from a rather unex- pected quarter. The old capitol building, become unnecessary for pub- lic business by the construction of the new one, might perhaps be turned over to the Catholics for a church The idea was taken up by some of the Catholic residents of Jefferson City, who secured a large number of signatures to a petition to this effect, even among the non- Catholic citizens The petition was presented in due course of time to the legislature. Here a resolution in its favor was carried in the senate by a unanimous vote, but going before the lower house, was defeated by a majority of four. It was necessary to look for another site. During all this time hope was entertained by the Catholics of Jefferson City of having a Jesuit college or academy in their midst But Father Ver- haegen declined to take any step in this direction, being too much pressed by the difficulties of the existing institutions of the Missouri Mission to engage in any such perilous educational project But a church was a distinct need of the Catholics of the town and so, ground for a site having been purchased, a frame structure under the invoca- tion of St. Ignatius Loyola was erected in 1841 and dedicated Easter Sunday, 1843. It continued to be served by Father Helias until the arrival in July, 1 846, of Father James Murphy, the first resident priest of Jefferson City.21
20 Annuae Litter ae, 1838 Residential S Francisci Xaverii C entrails Exordium et Progressus (Helias Mss ) Bishop Rosati, assisted by Father Verhaegen, admin- istered confirmation m Jefferson City m October, 1838 "I gave confirmation in the Hall of an Hotel in Jefferson City to 1 1 persons on a week day there are two hundred Catholics, not yet a church, but we have begun to make arrange- ments to have a decent one m stone Mr Withnell, who is building there the Capitol, very kindly received us in his house he will be of great service m the building of the church " Rosati to Timon, October 20, 1838 (C)
21 The Status Animatum, etc, 1848-49 (Helias Mss), gives the date 1841 for the building, at least in its initial stage (jundatio temfli), of the Jefferson City church. Father Helias's Memoires (A), p 54, fixes the date as 1842. The
THE MISSION OF CENTRAL MISSOURI 459
Father Helias was the first Catholic priest to minister to the in- mates of the state penitentiary in Jefferson City 22 An instance, occur- ring in 1839, of his success in dealing with the prisoners is recorded A young Englishman, Henry Lane by name, of aristocratic connections and a one-time college student, at least so report had it, was under sentence of death. His desperate antecedents promised small hope of any spiritual impression being made upon him. Father Helias, however, undertook to prepare him for death with the result that the young man underwent a complete change of heart and went to his fate with the most edifying sentiments of faith and repentance The crowd who gathered to witness the execution looked for a struggle on the part of the criminal when brought to the gallows. To their surprise, nothing of the sort occurred. On the contrary, he walked to the scaffold without handcuffs and with a crucifix in his hand, while the words of warning which he addressed to the spectators on the vice of drunkenness brought tears to the eyes of many. The breaking at the last moment of the hangman's rope when it was already around the neck of the condemned man failed to unnerve him. He persevered to the end in his pious senti- ments, the sacred names of Jesus and Mary rising to his lips in the brief spell of agony that preceded death23
In the Creole settlements of Cote-sans-dessem and French Village Father Helias found the fruits of his ministry meagre enough owing to the habitual religious indifference of the people.24 He notes in his record for 1838 certain sudden and unhappy deaths among the more obdurate of the Creoles One of their number felling an oak on Christ- mas Day was crushed to pieces under the falling tree in the presence of his wife and mother. The Sunday following, a bitterly cold day, two men returning home from a tavern late at night in a drunken condition lost their way and were obliged to crawl along the ground on all fours in an effort to find the road One of the men was frozen to death, the other nearly so, so that it was necessary to amputate his fingers and toes to save his life Again, a woman of disedifymg
Status Ammo/rum, compiled not later than 1850, is probably a safer guide on this point than the much later Memottes The church was dedicated Easter Sunday, 1 843 "On Easter Sunday the neat frame church erected by Father Helias, S J , in the city of Jefferson was dedicated to Divine worship under the invocation of St. Ignatius of Loyola " Catholic Cabinet (St Louis) , I 60 Father Helias is the only authority available for the statement that the Catholics of Jefferson City petitioned the legislature for the use of the old capitol building and that the petition was rejected
22 Status Ammarum, etc (Helias Mss).
23 Litterae Annuae, 1840.
24 Dauphme, later Bonnot's Mill, was a sort of second growth of French Village St Francis Regis was patron of the Cote-sans-dessem congregation.
460 THE JESUITS OF THE MIDDLE UNITED STATES
life who had listened to Helias preaching on the certainty o£ death, but without being moved to any attempt to mend her ways, was, on the very day after the sermon, suddenly stricken down The lesson taught by these and other examples of what looked like summary divine punishment was not altogether lost on the inhabitants of French Village and Cote-sans-dessem. In pleasing contrast to the nonchalant frivolous ways of the latter was the strong faith and practical piety of a group of recently arrived French-Canadians of whom Helias makes mention, and who proposed to start a settlement of their own to be known as New Besangon There is no record of such intention having been carried out.25
A higher level of Catholic faith and practice prevailed in the other stations, near and far, which Father Helias was accustomed to attend in his missionary circuit. The stations nearest to Westphalia he visited monthly, the more remote ones, twice and three times a year. Typical of the eagerness of the pioneer Catholic settlers of central Missouri to welcome a priest in their midst was an incident that occurred at Port- land, Callaway County, a town on the north bank of the Missouri some miles below Jefferson City. Here one day the Catholics of the vicinity began to assemble m a private house to listen to a sermon which Father Helias was announced to preach. So many, however, had gathered for the occasion that there was no possibility of accommodating them within the four walls of the house. The entire congregation thereupon with- drew to an adjoining field and here under a scorching August sun the missionary conducted divine service. The people of Portland were so impressed by Helias's visit on this occasion that one of their number was dispatched to St. Louis to offer Father Verhaegen, in the name of the rest, a purse of two thousand dollars together with five acres of land, as an inducement to the superior to establish a Jesuit college in their town.26
Something of a clan-system developed among the German settlers as a consequence of their having arrived in Missouri in successive parties and from different districts of Germany. The immigrants from West- phalia and Hanover clustered together in and around New Westphalia in the western part of Osage County Those from the lower Rhine settled in the northern parts of the county around Loose Creek as a center. Finally, the Bavarians took up land in the southern part of the
25 Htstoria Westfkdtae, p. 8 ResidenUae te Francisc* Xavern Centralis Exor- dium et Progressus, 1838-48 (Helias Mss )
26 Littcrae Annuae, 1839 Father Christian Hoecken, SJ, baptized at Port- land, June 30, 1835, Mary Ann, daughter of Priestly Gill and Mary Norris. Registre £es Baftemes four la Mission du Missouri, 1832 Portland is twenty-four miles southeast of Fulton, Callaway County.
THE MISSION OF CENTRAL MISSOURI 461
county near the Gasconade River, their principal settlement being named Richfountam by Father Helias on account of the abundance of clear spring water found in the neighborhood. Besides the settlements named, all of which were within the limits of Osage County, there was a colony of Belgian and Hanoverian immigrants, numbering in all about two hundred souls, west of the Osage River in Cole County. It was here that Father Helias, in 1 840, built his second church, St. Fran- cis Xavier's.
The first visit of Helias to this locality, where he was destined to make his home for the greater part of his career in central Missouri, was on May 28, 1838, when he celebrated Mass m the house of one of the settlers, Herman Nieters, there being no church at the time in the place.27 Having secured ten acres of land centrally situated with reference to the German farmers of the neighborhood, he began to lay plans for the erection of a wooden church. But the site did not commend itself to a certain group among the parishioners, who advo- cated the purchase of a tract of government land forty acres in extent. Father Helias insisted on the choice already made. The property he had secured lay within easy reach of both Westphalia and Jefferson City, was near a public highway, and had the advantage of an agreeable position on rising ground, with a fine spring of the coolest water at hand. Moreover, there was land enough for a presbytery and cemetery, both of which would have to be provided for soon To the counter- proposition to build the church elsewhere was the further objection that the site suggested, besides being undesirable as a location for the church, would have to be bought, and that the money for this purpose would have to be borrowed, and, so Father Helias observed, "borrowed money and a foolish purchase make a sorry combination." The advocates, how- ever, of a new site were insistent and even carried the case to St. Louis to Father Verhaegen, at that time administrator of the diocese in the absence of Bishop Rosati in Europe. Happily, the controversy was ad- justed and Helias succeeded in building the church in 1840 on the site he had chosen.28
The village which grew up in the course of time around the Church of St. Francis Xavier owed its origin, in a measure, to Father Helias. As the ground on which the church stood had been acquired by him
27 Dies Memorabiles (Helias Mss )
28 Lttterae Awwtae, 1840 The church property, a tract of ten acres, was conveyed by Henry and Gertrude Haar, June 5, 184.0, the consideration being five dollars, to Fathers Verhaegen, De Theux and Smedts. It was in n e J^ °f n w % of section 6, range I o, township 43 The church and residence stood close to the south side of the Versailles state-road The graveyard, one and a half acres, was purchased October 1 9, 1 849, from John Anthony Eck.
462 THE JESUITS OF THE MIDDLE UNITED STATES
from Henry Haar, a contractor and builder, the village went for a while by the name of Haarville.29 Later, it took the name of the post- office of the district, Taos, the post-office quarters being alongside the church. Taos was three miles from Lisletown at the junction of the Osage and the Maries Rivers, six from the Missouri River and five from Jefferson City.30 Father Helias thus describes the place in his Memoires. "There are no bilious fevers here as elsewhere while the parish buildings are more pretentious than in the other residences estab- lished by the missionary [Helias] j in a word, the place makes a much better appearance. Moreover, the settlers succeed better here owing to the nearness of the state capital and of the railroad, by which they are enabled to ship their produce to all points in the state. The land has all been taken up and old farms sell at a high price, while the soil is less broken up and much more productive than on the other side of the Osage River." 31
The same year, 1840, that saw the Church of St Francis Xavier built in Taos in Cole County saw also the erection of the Church 01 the Sacred Heart at Richfountam, the picturesque name which Father Helias gave the Bavarian settlement near the Gasconade River.32 Mass was said by him m the new church for the first time December 3, i84O.33 In 1842 or earlier two hundred and fifty families, who had emigrated from Bavaria to escape the oppressive marriage laws there m force, settled in Richfountam.34 Many couples among them were not joined in lawful wedlock at the time of their arrival in America,
29 "Haarville, Cole Co , St Francis Xavier — Rev Ferdinand Helias He visits also once a month St Ignatius, Jefferson City, St Joseph's, Westphalia, Sacred Heart, Richfountam, Conception of the Blessed Virgin, Cade's Creek, and occa- sionally the Assumption of the B V. Manitou Creek, Booneville, Pilot-Grove, Columbia, Hybernium, Cote-sans-dessem, French Village, etc " Metropolitan Catholic Almanac, 1843.
30 "Taos, a post-office 5 miles south east of Jefferson City " Campbell, Gazet- teer of Missouri, p. 1 6 8. Helias, Memoires, p 53 (A)
^Memoires, p. 53 Family-names of children confirmed at Taos by Bishop Rosati m the early forties include those of Schneider, Thessen, Kolb, Wolken, Hoffmejer, Laux, Schwaller, Hoecken, Schell, Roecker, Ihler, Schulte, Neumeyer, Prenger, Rakers, Kerperm, Nieters, Bekel, Motschmann, Sannmg, Rohlmg, Hermann, Schmeders Missouri Historical Review, 5.85
a2 "Un endroit qdil baftiza a cause de ses fortes jets iPeaux, Riche Tountaine " Memoires, p. 53 The land on which the church was built, near his farm and opposite the "riche fontame," was conveyed by John Stumpf and Elizabeth, his wife, February 2, 1843, for the consideration of five dollars to the authorities of the Missouri Vice-Province. The land was originally entered by a John Burns during the thirties Cf. Histoiy of Cole . . Counties, p 682
83 Dies M emorabtles Memoires, p 53 Helias Mss (A).
34 Thus the Memoires, p. 54. Two hundred and fifty for the number of immigrant families is probably an overstatement
THE MISSION OF CENTRAL MISSOURI 463
government restrictions at home having made it impracticable for them to conform to the marriage laws of the Church Father Helias on learn- ing this state of affairs promptly rectified the defective unions of the immigrants. The parish of the Sacred Heart at Richfountam attained in the sequel a degree of piety and regularity of Christian practice which made it, m Helias's own words, "a model for all others " 35
The first years of Helias's life as a missionary priest in central Mis- souri were crowded with adventure and thrilling incident. The country he moved about in was just emerging from a state of primitive nature It was thinly settled and poorly provided with roads. To reach the stations yawning ravines and swollen streams had frequently to be crossed It was no uncommon thing for the missionary to lose his way in the woods and spend the night in the open Once, while riding m the dark, he and his horse fell headlong into a ditch, both, however, coming out of the accident without injury of any sort. Another time, crossing a stream together with his horse in a leaking boat, he had perforce to work desperately with the boatman to bale out the water and only the heroic efforts of the two kept the wretched craft from being swamped. A kindly Providence seemed ever on the alert to save the man of God from bodily harm36
A fellow- Jesuit who entered into Father Helias's labors in Osage County has sketched the tradition of the tireless missionary which he found current in the eighties:
Father Helias was a remarkable man I have often heard old people speak of him with enthusiasm In their feelings towards him there is the reverence of the priest blended with the warmth of the fnend He, the man of noble birth, must have been possessed of great kindness so that his aristo- cratic manners became winning m the eyes of the simple peasantry, and his severe virtue must have been blended with great cordiality, so that people remote from asceticism were cheered by his conversation, while they were instructed 37
Helias's actual residence m New Westphalia lasted only four years from his arrival there in May, 1838 In the spring of 1842 he closed the church and presbytery and returned to St Louis. The year 1841 had been a particularly trying one. There was considerable sickness in the settlement, an epidemic of some or other contagious disease hav-
85 Memoir eS) p. 54.
86 Lrtterae Annuae, 1840
87 Father Nicholas Schlechter, S J., m WLy 13 360 Father Murphy, vice- provincial, sketched Father Helias m this wise "Sui generis vir homo solitarms, parvo contentus, suis venerabihs, acceptissimus Fervidi atque inordmati mgenn, in multis puenhs "
464 THE JESUITS OF THE MIDDLE UNITED STATES
mg lasted four months and left behind it numerous victims. Further, there occurred a severe and protracted drought, which entailed loss of crops and reduced the settlers to dire want During these calamities Helias did his best to bring his stricken parishioners all the spiritual and temporal aid he could command, travelling sometimes one hun- dred and twenty miles to bring the dying the consolations of religion. Added to these trials was the opposition to his ministry which he had to endure from some of his Westphalian parishioners. In 1842 a suit to recover seventy dollars was brought against him by a physician, ap- parently Dr. Bruns, of Westphalia, on the ground that the priest en- gaged him to attend a sick man who was too poor himself to pay the bill. Father Verhaegen went twice to Westphalia, a distance, he notes, of a hundred and twenty miles, to help Helias in his difficulty. The doctor, having lost his suit and considerable money besides, made efforts to oust Father Helias from the pastorship. "The people of the con- gregation did not stand by their pastor as they should have done," declared Verhaegen. "Hence we resolved m consultation to transfer the Father, whom I summoned here, to the church of St. Francis Xavier, about ten miles distant, and to keep his residence as a station to be visited once a month. For these people are unworthy of special favor, seeing they have treated the Father so unworthily or permitted him to be so treated. But would that this good man would learn dis- cretion in his words." 38 Caution in speech, it would appear, was a virtue in which Father Helias was liable at times to fail. It is likely enough that in the present instance some casual words of his were seized on by designing persons and turned against him At all events he recorded in his Htstona WesfphaUae that some of his most devoted parishioners who had formerly stood by him in his difficulties were at length won over to the opposition, intimidated or bribed, he knew not which. He now took a distinctly pessimistic view of the future, de- claring that the only hope of saving the Faith in central Missouri lay in the two parishes of the Sacred Heart at Richfountain and of St. Francis Xavier in Cole County. Summoned by Father Verhaegen to
38 Verhaegen ad Roothaan, August 22, 1841, September i, 1842. (AA). A sort of anti-clerical party or faction existed for a number of years among the German settlers of Missouri They were sometimes dubbed the "Latinians" or "Latin farmers" from the circumstance that they had, so it was said, studied Latin in German gymnasia before coming to America. Probably a group of Latinians were involved in the trouble fomented against Father Helias (WL, 13: 23). "The epithet 'Latin farmers' has commonly been applied to the scholarly German settlers who became quite numerous about the revolutionary period of 1830 and 1848, a class of cultivated men, yet frequentty unpractical, for whom manual labor proved a hard school of experience." Albert B Faust, Tfie German Element in the United States (Boston, 1909), I 442.
THE MISSION OF CENTRAL MISSOURI 465
give up his post at New Westphalia and return to St. Louis, he did so after affixing to the church door a Latin distich of his own composi- tion*
Ardua qm quaen,t> rubros cur curnt ad Indos Westyhaltam <vemat) ardua cwncta dabwnt?^
"Meanwhile/5 reads Helias's vivid narrative, "the church of St. Joseph stands deserted and closed against the wolves, a reproach to those who, though of the number of the sheep, have by contentions, subtlety of speech and ambition for things beyond them forced the pastor to retire, reluctantly withal and for only a brief spell-— but Westphalia has ceased forever to be a residence." And after these words follows the colophon "Here ends the sad history of the colony of Westphalia which I founded. May 11, i842."40
§ 3* FATHER HELIAS AT HAARVILLE
The pessimistic forecast of the future of Catholicity in central Mis- souri which Helias was led to make in consequence of his difficulties in New Westphalia failed to be justified by the event. The years were to smooth away the frictions of the moment and bring to a golden ma- turity the harvest which he had sown in travail and bitterness of soul. When he withdrew in the spring of 1842 from Westphalia to St. Louis, he was not to abandon altogether the spiritual care of the distnct that had been assigned to him. From St. Louis he made occasional visits to the parishes he had started m and around Jefferson City and finally in the beginning of September, 1842, again took up his residence in central Missouri. This time, however, at the instance of his superior, he made his headquarters not in Westphalia, where the opposition to him was still active, but in Haarville, subsequently Taos, Cole County, where in 1 840 he had built the church of St. Francis Xavier. Here the missionary was destined to remain until his death in i874.41
The years immediately following Father Helias's return to his be- loved mission were marked by the erection at his hands of several new churches. Though some obscurity veils the beginnings of the Church of
89 "Why should the man who covets hardships hie to the dusky Indies ? Let him come to Westphalia and he will find hardships aplenty"
40 Histona Westyhalw^ p. 27.
41 The transfer in 1 842 of the headquarters of the Mission of Central Missouri from Westphalia to Haarville (Taos) is emphasized by Helias in the Latin title prefixed by him to the Westphalia Burial Register: "Liber Defunctorum Residentiae Sti Josefht Societatis Jesu m nova Westphalia Comitatus Gasconade Status Missounani Americae Confoederatae borealis ab anno Domini 183? Modera- torum consensu atque exfressa voliwtate Residents Centralis ad Sti Franasci Xavern translate est in Cole County, Mo , A D. 1842."
466 THE JESUITS OF THE MIDDLE UNITED STATES
St. Ignatius Loyola in Jefferson City, 1841 appears to have been the year m which its construction was begun Certainly the church was in use for divine service in 1843 42 As only the churches o£ St. Joseph in Westphalia, St Francis Xavier in Cole County and the Sacred Heart at Richfountam had been built prior to Helias's retirement from West- phalia in the spring of 1842, one may designate the Jefferson City edifice as the fourth of the seven churches built by the zealous priest up to the end of 1 845 43 A fifth church, that of the Assumption, at the present Cedron in Moniteau County, was built in March, 1 843 44 On April 6, 1 844, the corner-stone was laid of the new Church of St. Francis Xavier m Haarville The edifice, sixty by thirty-eight feet, could claim the distinction of being the first Catholic stone church to be built m the interior of Missouri. It was occupied for the first time on May n, 1845, Father Helias on this occasion addressing the con- gregation m English, German and French.45 Towards the end of 1 844, the Church of St. Thomas the Apostle was built at Indian Bottom, Cole County, near a bend m the Osage River.46 Finally, on Ascension Day,
42 Supra, § 2
43 Cf Helias's Latin epigram (Mem&tres, p 58)
Flandna nos genuit docuit nos Gallia, Roma, Teutoniae Helvetiaeque sinus peragravimus omnes, Post vanos casus, terraeque mansque labores, Sistimus, atque novae fundamma fiximus Urbis Westphaliae, septemque dicatas Nummis aedes
44 Htstona Westphaliae , p 28 However, the Memoir esy p 55 (as also a Helias ms dated about 1870) assign the building of this church to 1845, while the Status Animat um places it as early as 1841 The dates given in the Memoir es do not always tally with those in the Historia Westphaliae The writer has followed generally the latter source as being more or less contemporary with the events recorded The church of the Assumption referred to here is in the present Cedron, Moniteau Co , Mo A second church of the Assumption was built by Father Helias m 1857 for a German congregation in Cole County, one mile south of the present Wardsville The property of the Assumption church (Cedron) was acquired March I, 1843, for a consideration of four dollars from Ignace and Barbara Becker. It consisted of two acres in n e % of section 4, township 46, range 15 of Cole County (Moniteau County not yet organized) The church had been built at the time the property was transferred
45 Littetae Annuae, 1845. A tract of four acres, including the site of St Thomas's church, was conveyed, September 8, 1848, to the church authorities by Henry Strumpf and Christina, his wife The consideration was five dollars The tract was m sw corner of n e J4 of section 22, township 42, range 12 w, Cole County
46 Memorandum by Helias Historia Westphaliae, p 28 The dates 1843 and 1846 for the erection of the Indian Bottom church are also found in Helias records. (Memoir es, p 55, Htstona Westphaliae, p. 28) He was led to choose St Thomas as the patron of this church m deference to the tradition, admittedly of slender historical value, which credits the apostle with having preached the
THE MISSION OF CENTRAL MISSOURI 467
May i, 18455 the Church of the Immaculate Conception at Loose Creek m Osage County, on the mam public road between Jefferson City and St. Louis, was opened for divine service." 47 Thus by the middle of 1845 churches had been built at Westphalia, Haarville, Richfountam, Jefferson City, Cedron, Indian Bottom, and Loose Creek. These seven churches, attesting the progress Catholicity had made in central Missouri, were among the results of Father Helias's first seven years of labor in that part of the St. Louis diocese.48
The range of his ministerial activities at this period is revealed in his routine itinerary for 1843. On the first Sunday of the month he officiated at St. Francis Xavier's in Haarville 5 on the second Sunday at St. Ignatius Loyola's m Jefferson City, on the third Sunday in Loose Creek, where, as the church building was not yet ready for use, services were held in the public school, on the fourth Sunday at the Sacred Heart Church in Richfountam, on the fifth Sunday, or, m default ot that day, on some ecclesiastical feast occurring during the month, at St. Joseph's in Westphalia. Besides this monthly round of visits, ser- vices were held three or four times a year at the Assumption on Mom- teau Creek, at St. Thomas the Apostle, Indian Bottom, Cole County, and at Holy Cross in Pilot Grove, Cooper County. Moreover, visits were paid once or twice a year to Boonville, Columbia, Hiberma, Cote- sans-dessein and other stations.49
As there was little money among the settlers, Father Helias had to rely largely on the charitable donations of friends in Europe for the means necessary to build and equip his numerous churches. Thus St. Francis Xavier's at Taos, where he spent the last thirty years of his life, was built and furnished largely through the munificence of his
Gospel m America Lebrocquy, Vie du P Helias, p 228 "The first pastor. Father Helias, came to the place when there were but three or four families " Goodspeed, History of Cole, Montteau . „ Counties, p 302.
47 Dies Memorabiles (Helias Mss ) , Memotres, p 54 The deed of conveyance of the Loose Creek church property, September 28, 1843, f°r a consideration of five dollars, from Louis Auguste Pequignot and his wife Josephine to Fathers Verhaegen, De Theux, Smedts, describes it as a "certain tract of land on which the Roman Catholic Church of the Conception and Graveyard is situated " The tract was of six acres and began "at the north of the State Road of St Louis to Jefferson City by Bolden's ferry to the North-east corner of the N E quarter of N.W. quarter, Section 5, Township 43, Range 9, West "
48 The log church at Westphalia, though begun m 1837, was finished under Helias's direction. He always enumerated it among the seven churches built by him in central Missouri: "Septem extantes ecclesias tfse aedtficemdas cur am "
^Historic* Westfhaliae, p. 35. The congregation of the Holy Cross, Pilot Grove, Cooper County (12 miles southeast of Boonville) was at this period (1843) still without a church. Helias in a letter of January 6, 1845, contributed to the Berichte eter Leofoldinen Sttftung (Vienna), 19 66-76, gives a summary of his
468 THE JESUITS OF THE MIDDLE UNITED STATES
mother, Mane Helias d'Huddeghem, nee the Countess of Lens. A remittance o£ two hundred and twenty-eight dollars made to her son in 1845 and another of one hundred and eighty-eight dollars in 1846, are recorded among the frequent contributions she was wont to make for this purpose. The countess died December 8, 1848, enjoining in her will that her heirs were to provide out of her estate whatever should be necessary for the complete furnishing of the church, of which, m the opinion of her son, she deserved to be called the foundress As such she was entitled to the special gratitude of the parish and Father Helias accordingly announced in 1845 that the litany of Loretto would thereafter be recited every Sunday before services in her behalf and a Mass said annually for the same intention. After her death the obligation of an annual requiem Mass for the dead benefactress was placed upon the church.50
From the Leopoldine Foundation of Vienna, the object of which was the support of German Catholic missions m America, the vice- province of Missouri received in 1844 the sum of eighteen hundred and seventy-five dollars. Of this sum three hundred and seventy-five dollars went to Father Helias for the churches he had built or was about to build. The father was particularly anxious to receive aid from outside sources as he was thereby relieved of the necessity of relying on his parishioners for support.
Thanks to help of this kind, we can more effectively and with greater liberty announce the Gospel freely, and, what we have freely received, freely give. Indeed, among the substantial of the [Jesuit] Institute, a gratuitous ministry is not by any means the last nor is anything more detrimental to the good of souls than Iscanot-like avarice Moreover, having what to eat, for Christ Himself has commanded us to eat what is placed before us, to what
ministry in the various parishes and stations of central Missouri for the period 1838-1844
1838 1839 l84° ^41 1842 1843 ^44
Number of souls 620 700 950 1500 2000 2000 2500
Infant Baptisms 23 36 37 125 150 149 175
Easter Communions 423 560 700 1094 1090 iioo 1300
First communions 9 15 16 20 60 90 100 Conversions 3454434
Marriages 3 3 14 26 23 27 36
Burials 12 9 17 24 19 50 155
50 Historic* Westphalia*, pp 38, 45, 46. "Marta Carolina Gmslena Comes de Lens et Rom. Imferti Hehas ePHuddeghem Fundatrix domus et ecdestae jus habet quotannis ad Anmversarium " Others who helped Helias to build and furnish the church at Taos were the Ladies of the Begumage of Ghent, his cousin, Mile Rodriguez d'Evora y Vega and the Canon De La Crok of Ghent Lebrocquy, Vie du P. Helias, p. 256.
THE MISSION OF CENTRAL MISSOURI 469
purpose are superfluities? Ought the Lord's work to be given over on this account ? Many indeed are most ungrateful But let us remember that chief among the concerns of Ignatius was Germany He founded a college in Rome for German students He was ready to recall St Francis Xavier from distant India to send relief to the North. Of his first nine companions he gave five to Germany. Nay, he ordered his children, wheresoever scat- tered over the face of the earth, to say a Mass every month for the northern countries Let us therefore not fall below the lofty sentiments of so great a father.51
An incident occurring in 1842 is recorded by Helias in terms that reveal the disappointment of which it was the occasion. Father Van de Velde on his return from Europe in that year brought with him a great quantity of altar furniture for the needy missions administered by the Jesuits. Helias was counting on his share of the treasure and already in anticipation saw his poor chapels decently provided with all the accessories of divine service. But the steamer bearing the precious cargo, when almost in sight of St. Louis, caught fire and sank, a complete wreck. Nothing of Van de Velde's shipment appears to have been saved. To Helias the mishap proved a real blow, retarding seriously as it did the progress of his parishes by depriving them of sorely needed equip- ment for the proper celebration of Mass and other sacred functions.52
The year 1844 was a calamitous one for the Belgian missionary The Missouri River flood of that year, the greatest, it would appear,
51 Htstoria Westphahae, p. 37. Bettchte ler Leofollmen Stiftung, 19 66-76, 1846 Light is thrown on Helias's early struggles by his account-books, which he kept with painstaking accuracy and neatness For the first eight years honoraria in the shape of baptismal and marriage offerings, mass-stipends, etc , which lie received from the congregations under his care, amounted to the sum of one hundred and eighty-four dollars. In 1844 he received from his parishioners ninety dollars, the first money which they contributed directly to his support "From the beginning the Congregation promised to pay $200 OO as annuities, but could never do it" In his first year at New Westphalia, 1838, his income amounted to $725 I2j<2, of which sum ten dollars came from Mother Duchesne, superior of the Religious of the Sacred Heart, and the rest from the estate of Msgr. Barret of Liege, who had remembered the Jesuit missions of Missouri in his will. "What the good Father receives from his parish would suffice for his support, if your Paternity would allot him some money every year for buying clothes" Verhaegen ad Roothaan, August 22, 1841. (AA) From 1839 on he received almost annually generous donations from his family in Belgium, while occasional appropriations from the Lyons Association of the Propagation of the Faith as also from the Austrian or Leopoldme Association, and the Ludwig Mis- sions-Verem of Munich helped towards the financing of his numerous parishes and stations. Sometimes money was received for some specific purpose as this under date of February 16, 1841, "Thro P. J. Verhaegen for an expedition to Lexington, where I lost my horse, $20."
52 Historta West$hahae> p. 37.
470 THE JESUITS OF THE MIDDLE UNITED STATES
on record, followed by a protracted drought brought widespread sick- ness in its wake.53 There was no house without its patient and in most houses all the inmates were down with the epidemic at the same time In one dwelling which he visited Father Helias found no fewer than twenty persons in the last stages of disease The one compensating cir- cumstance was that it was a season of divine grace for many of the victims, who found their way back to God as the shadows of death crept upon them Helias himself was not to escape the consequences of the great physical strain and constant exposure to infection put upon him by the exercise of his ministry at this critical time. His health broke down and he began to waste away, his skin, as he expressed it in Scriptural phrase, cleaving to his bones. The doctors could do nothing for him and despaired of his recovery. And yet he passed through the crisis, regained his strength and was able in time to take up again his burden of missionary duties. The next year, 1845, he was repeating his experience of the past year, wearing himself out with attendance on the sick and running every risk of infection. A second collapse fol- lowed and the father lay on what seemed from every human outlook to be his death-bed. The most skilful physicians in the county pro- nounced him beyond reach of medical aid. For some days he lay in a coma, a cold sweat bathing his forehead and the extremities of his body stiff with the icy rigors of approaching dissolution. Funeral arrange- ments began to be made and the parishes were notified to send their quota of pall-bearers. But at the last moment the skill of a worthy widow, Gertrude Evens by name, saved the priest's life. She succeeded in forcing a long reed tube between his firmly clenched teeth, with the result that some needed medicine was successfully administered. He rallied, grew steadily stronger and in a short while was again per- forming his customary round of labors.
But the health of Helias was at best a precarious thing, liable to break at any time under the strain of his ministry. And still he kept at his post, declining the offer made by the superior to allow him to return to Belgium. The minutes of the meeting, April 16, 1846, of the consultonal board of the vice-province of Missouri, contain this item "Father Helias declines to return to Belgium, desiring to consummate the sacrifice of his health and life. Let him remain, then, where he is." But his superiors determined now to send him an assistant-priest, a step that would have been taken earlier had the very meagre personnel of the vice-province permitted. Accordingly on December 19, 1846, he
53 Barns, Commonwealth of Missouri (St Louis, 1877), has an account of the Missouri River flood of 1844 Burials for the period 1838-1846 in the various parishes served by Father Helias were as follows 1838, 12, 1839, 9, 1840, 17, 1841, 24, 1842, 19, 1843, 50, 1844, I55> 1845, 106
THE MISSION OF CENTRAL MISSOURI 471
was joined at the little Jesuit residence m Haarville, Cole County, by Father James Getting, a Swiss, who had been employed in the vice- province in various parochial charges since his arrival in Missouri in 1 840. He was a man of robust health, with energy and zeal to match, in Helias's words, "an exceeding zealous and active young missionary." The older father found him an admirable companion and, so he re- corded, was cheered up more than words could tell by his sympathetic charity and the effective service he rendered m the ministry. From June up to the arrival of Cottmg in December, Helias had been subject to a chronic and troublesome fever, but on the arrival of his companion, the fever disappeared and thenceforth he enjoyed the best of health.54
Even prior to the arrival of his colleague Helias had begun to enjoy some measure of relief, when, in 1846, the parishes of Jefferson City and Momteau were taken over by a diocesan priest, the Reverend James Murphy, according to an agreement entered into between Bishop Ken- rick of St. Louis and Father Van de Velde, the Jesuit vice-provincial. With Cottmg now at hand to share his labors, the position of the pioneer missionary was vastly improved Semper et 'per'petuus in equo mobiUsy "forever moving about on horse back," is the descriptive detail with which he seeks to picture the kind of man he had for assistant. From the first Father Cottmg won the favor of the Westphalia parish- ioners by at once pushing forward the building of the new stone church, which they had already begun at the instance of Father Helias. The corner-stone of the church was laid on March 19, 1848, with all the ceremony Westphalia could command. The weather was superb and a great throng of people, Catholic and non-Catholic, gathered for the occasion. A few pieces of cannon, trophies fresh from the Mexican war, broke the slumbers of the townsfolk at early dawn with their jubilant booming. Services were held in the old church from which there was a procession to the site of the new edifice, where Father Helias blessed the corner-stone with solemn rite.56
One would not expect to find an anti-clerical faction m the simple immigrant population of Westphalia. And yet something of this sort were the so-called "Latmians," or "Latin farmers," who made preten- tions to a larger measure of education than was usual among the immi- grants and were frequently at odds with their pastors. This disaffected group became involved with Father Cottmg, whose authority they sought to undermine by calumny and abuse. Unfortunately a circum-
** Htstorta Westfhahae, p. 52.
** Idem, p. 6 1. Father Cottmg appears to have resided at Taos with Father Helias for the greater part of his stay in central Missouri It was not until the pastorate of Father Ehrensberger that Westphalia again assumed the status of an independent residence.
472 THE JESUITS OF THE MIDDLE UNITED STATES
stance occurred that put the father, who was quick-tempered and frank of speech^ at a disadvantage. Some hasty words that he let fall con- cerning the scandalous conduct of one of his parishioners was eagerly seized on by enemies and turned against him. A riotous disturbance which occurred in Westphalia on February 2, 1848, was laid to his charge. A law-suit followed at Jefferson City in which the father ap- peared as defendant. The suit went against him and only the interven- tion of Father Helias with some of the public officials saved the priest from the payment of a heavy fine. Threatened with a second suit, Father Cottmg was withdrawn by his superior. Father Elet, from Westphalia, which place he left on January 18, 1849 His connection with the Missouri Vice-province ceased a few months later and he spent the remainder of his days as a member of the Maryland province of his order.56
Clotting's place at Westphalia was filled by Father Andrew Ehrens- berger, a Bavarian, one of the exiled German Jesuits who found a home in the vice-province of Missouri in 1848. He began to re- side at Westphalia on November 17 of that year. From this time forward there were two independent residences in central Missouri, namely, Westphalia and Taos. Ehrensberger gave much of his time and attention to the little Bavarian settlement at Richfountain.57 Some little skill which he possessed as a painter he turned to good account by decorating the parish church. Helias's estimate of Ehrensberger's capabilities as a pastor of souls was high He calls him a "capital preacher," optimus concionator, and sums up his record as a pastor of Westphalia m the words, "that redoubtable companion of Christ has so acquitted himself that no one can speak ill of him without untruth." Father Ehrensberger left Westphalia September 17, 1851, to take up the duties of professor in St. Xavier College, Cincinnati.58 He was subsequently recalled to Germany where he achieved distinction as a missionary and preacher. He was succeeded as superior of the West- phalia residence by Father Francis Xavier Kalcher of the province of Austria. Helias styles him "an excellent oferanus** or worker in the ministry. After him the line of superiors at Westphalia down to the period of the Civil War comprises the names of Father Joseph Brun- ner, Anthony Eysvogels and John Baptist Goeldlm. Other fathers at- tached to the residence as assistants during the same years were James
p. 58. Elet ad Roothaan, March 4, 1849 (AA)
57 He "helped greatly to render the Mission of the Sacred Heart, settled by his Bavarian countrymen, a model mission by reason of the piety and fervor which distinguished it from all others "
58 Father Ehrensberger returned to Westphalia as superior in 1852, remaining there, however, not more than a year
THE MISSION OF CENTRAL MISSOURI 473
Busschots, Joseph Weber, James Bruhl, John Schultz, William Nieder- korn, and Henry Van Mierlo, while aiding the fathers in the domestic concerns of the house were the coadjutor-brothers Sebastian Schlienger, Caspar Wohleb, Joseph Prassneg, Wenceslaus Kossnar, Daniel Kochen- doerfer and Michael Schmidt.
§ 4. GROWTH OF THE PARISHES
During the ten or fifteen years that preceded the opening of the Civil War the mission of central Missouri prospered greatly. The course of events in the more important of the parishes during that period will be briefly sketched.
The steeple of the new stone Church of St. Joseph in Westphalia was not finished until some years later than the dedication of the edifice, a circumstance which seemed to lend point, according to the author of the Annual Letters, to the Latin inscription over the church door, placed there by the architect
Concordta res crescunt discordia dtlabuntur.
Happily the mischief-making tendencies of a part of the congregation during the early period of its history had been corrected, so that Father Goeldlm, superior of the Westphalia residence, could write in 1862 "The spirit of the people is, in general, good. They have learned that in annoying and contradicting their priests there is neither peace nor the blessing of God." 59
At Loose Creek, six miles to the north of Westphalia, was the Church of the Immaculate Conception. The name Loose is usually explained as a corruption of the French TJour$y ccbear." 60 The parish was composed partly of German Rhmelanders and partly of Creoles, which latter element appeared to display no very active interest in the affairs of the congregation. From 1851 on Loose Creek had its Sunday Mass by one of the fathers from Westphalia. In the cholera years 1853 and 1854 the epidemic found its way into the interior of Missouri. Among the Irish laborers employed in the neighborhood of Loose Creek on the construction of the Missouri Pacific Railroad there were
59 Mtssto Missourtensis centralls comprehend ens Comttatus Osage^ Cole, Miller, Manes, 1853-1862 (Ms). The author is apparently Father John Goeldlm, su- perior of the Westphalia residence during the period 1857-1872 The present summary of affairs in the central Missouri parishes during the decade or so of years immediately prior to the beginning of the Civil War is based largely on this source.
60 See note 17, supra, for list of families in Loose Creek, April I, 1839, showing the Creole element in the majority at this period The German settlers came in later.
474 THE JESUITS OF THE MIDDLE UNITED STATES
numerous cases of the dread disease These were attended to by the Westphalia pastors, but not without difficulty, as the latter were hard pressed to care for the numerous cholera patients in Westphalia itself. In recognition of the charitable services of the fathers the Irish laborers on the railroad contributed generously in 1855 to the interior decora- tion of the Loose Creek church, besides donating the two side altars of the Blessed Virgin and St Joseph.
At Richfountam, some eight miles southeast of Westphalia, the little frame Church of the Sacred Heart, built in 1840, was enlarged m 1854 to the dimensions seventy-five by twenty-four feet and topped off with a steeple The village physician, a converted Lutheran, com- posed what the annalist calls a "chronographus" for the church-bell, which was consecrated to the Immaculate Conception of the Virgin Mother in memory of the solemn promulgation of the dogma by Pius IX m i85461
In 1849, when the cholera was at its height, the congregation of the Sacred Heart vowed an annual exposition and adoration of the Blessed Sacrament to last ten hours Everyone in the parish escaped unharmed by the scourge Accordingly, every year on the Sunday within the octave of the feast of the Sacred Heart, the people were wont to fulfill their vow with great devotion. Years after, when cholera again broke out m central Missouri, no case was reported from Rich- fountain^ an indication, as the author of the Annual Letters comments, of how pleasing to the Lord was the pious faith of the congregation. Another instance of the piety of the Richfountam folk was the annual solemn high Mass for a successful harvest. The Mass stipend was made up by small contributions from the farmers. It is related that one of their number ridiculed the idea of a collection taken up for this pur- pose and refused to contribute, saying jocosely that he would share in the blessings showered upon his neighbors' crops. The harvest of this season surpassed expectation. The skeptic's wheat, cut and stacked to a great height m his field, made his heart rejoice. But one day, on a sud- den, a storm came up and scattered his wheat far and wide, leaving nothing of the splendid crop except the straw. At the same time the wheat in the adjoining fields lay untouched. The lesson was not lost on the light-minded farmer. Thereafter, he came forward every year unsolicited with a generous contribution for the "Harvest Mass."
61 Sacrati Domim Cordts quae nomine gaudet
Ad d^t^s statio -parvula fontis aquas Camfanam kancce, Maria ubt^ quo consecrat anno Quod fia credtderat, credere jussa fuif: Peccati exsortem solam te 'frotofarentem Conceftam patrts consiho esse Dei.
THE MISSION OF CENTRAL MISSOURI 475
Though poorer in economic ways than the other parishes of the mission, Richfountam surpassed them m its zeal for Catholic education. The old school becoming too small for the needs of the parish, a new one of stone, thirty-five by twenty-five feet, was built m 1858 close to the church. Shortly after the erection of the school-house, the property on which it stood was claimed by a disaffected Catholic, who proposed, however, to leave it in the hands of the parish on condition that the new building be used as a public school. Though the claimant found many to stand by him, most of the parishioners rejected the proposal and fought the case m court, with the result that both school building and property were saved to the parish. But the litigation caused a slight rift m the harmony that generally obtained among the Richfountam Catho- lics, while for years after the debt incurred by the erection of the new school-house lay as a heavy burden on the seventy families that made up the congregation.
Sixteen miles southwest of Westphalia, at Indian Bottom near a bend in the Osage River, was the Church of St. Thomas the Apostle 62 In 1844 when the first log chapel was built, the families numbered seven. This number had trebled m 1853, when a frame church, thirty by twenty-six feet, was put up, the old church being utilized as a pres- bytery. But the location of the church proved unsatisfactory, for the only approach to it lay through the property of an ill-humored farmer, who threatened all the rigors of the law against the church-goers. Hence both church-building and presbytery were moved in 1856 to a more accessible site, where a settlement named St. Thomas was grad- ually formed. In 1860 the parish counted no more than thirty-five families, many of the former parishioners having moved down to Miller County where fertile land was in abundance.
Twelve miles south of Westphalia was a settlement originally known as St. Boniface, from the name of the parish-church, and later as Koeltztown, from the name of the chief property-owner of the lo- cality. In 1856 the sale of public lands south of Westphalia at attrac- tively low prices induced many of the parishioners of St Joseph to move m that direction. A Protestant lady, Mrs Koeltz, who had purchased several thousand acres of land in the locality m question, conceived the idea that the best means of attracting settlers would be the erection of a Catholic church. She accordingly offered ten acres of land for this purpose and, besides, promised to contribute generously to the build- ing-fund. In 1857 Father Goeldlm, then superior at Westphalia, was invited to come down to the new settlement to superintend the rearing of the proposed structure. The father was at the moment under strict
1 Supra, note 46.
476 THE JESUITS OF THE MIDDLE UNITED STATES
orders from the vice-provincial to open no more stations, besides, he wished first to see the site which had been offered, as an imprudent choice of location had quite recently made it necessary to move the Church of St Thomas to another place at considerable expense. But the promoters of the new church at Koeltztown were impatient of delay and sent a delegation to Archbishop Kennck of St. Louis to offer him the church property, which he accepted. Foundations for an elaborate stone edifice, which was to eclipse St Joseph's in Westphalia, were immediately laid and in June, 1858, Father Goeldlm, at the Arch- bishop's request, laid the corner-stone. But a young carpenter, who had ventured to play the role of architect of the new church, finding him- self incompetent to prosecute his task, made off with a considerable part of the buildmg-funcL The original plan was thereupon abandoned and a modest log structure erected more m keeping with the humble cir- cumstances of the settlers.
The difficulty of securing a pastor for the new church had now to be met. The Archbishop of St. Louis had no one to send. The Jesuits were again petitioned to assume charge of the station, but found it necessary to decline Finally, an arrangement was made between Arch- bishop Kennck and Father Coosemans, the Jesuit vice-provincial, by which Koeltztown was to be attended from Westphalia until a diocesan priest could be found for the post. Accordingly, in June, 1861, the place began to be visited by one of the Westphalia fathers every second Sun- day of the month.63
Twenty-three miles south of Westphalia in Maries County was the town of Vienna, which could boast its own Catholic church, St. Mary's In the beginning of the fifties Vienna was a wilderness. A widely ad- vertised sale of public lands at a low figure attracted settlers to the locality, among them a number of Irish Catholic families from the cities. These were soon planning to secure to themselves the blessing of a church and pastor. As the settlers were scattered over a consider- able stretch of territory, two stations were formed for their accommo- dation. The settlers in the town and its immediate vicinity were the first of the two groups to build a church, which was named St. Mary's. The second station, eight miles distant from St. Mary's, was after 1862 visited every two months from Westphalia. The neat little St. Mary's Church, a frame structure forty feet long, was attended by about thirty- five families Father Goeldlm remarks in the Annual Letters that when a new station is formed, all things have, so to speak, to be created anew. Not only does lack of money retard the work, but the parish- ioners, however devoutly they may have lived in the cities, are not
68 "Koeltztown was named after the first merchant, August Koeltz " Goodspeed, History of Cole . . . Counties.
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Ferdinand Helias, S J (1796-1874), pioneer missionary of central Missouri. From Lebrocquy, Vte <lu R P Hehas D'HuJdegkem (Ghent, 1878).
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THE MISSION OF CENTRAL MISSOURI 477
easily brought to put up with the inconvenience of bad roads The parishioners of Vienna, continues the father, are chiefly Irish, who give promise of becoming not less fervent than the rest of their countrymen, nor less generous, provided Heaven blesses their efforts and brings their good intentions to fruition.64
Towards the close of 1861 the Jesuit pastors assumed charge of another station, about sixteen miles east of Westphalia, known as St Isidore's, where a group of French settlers had put up a little church. The site had been chosen and the building begun without consulting the fathers of Westphalia. Unfortunately the location of the church was a poor one. Moreover, the church was destitute of proper furni- ture and vestments, while, the Annual Letters note, "it will require great zeal and labor and a considerable measure of divine grace to bring forth any fruit." About the same time that St. Isidore's was taken in charge, two additional stations, one six and the other about twelve miles south of St. Isidore's, were started and thereafter attended from Loose Creek.65
At Taos, where Father Helias resided ever since his withdrawal from Westphalia in 1 842, he had the satisfaction of seeing his parish of St. Francis Xavier grow steadily in loyalty to its pastor and regard for ecclesiastical authority. The old attempts at schism on the part of a small but aggressive faction, which had provoked warning letters to the con- gregation from Bishop Rosati and his successor, Archbishop Kennck, were no longer renewed. The material condition of the colonists like- wise went on improving. Many of them who had enlisted in the Mexican War shared in the bounty of the government, which settled
64 Among the first Catholic settlers of Vienna were a Mr Felkner, Thomas and Dennis Fennessy and Michael Owen The first church was built as early as 1859
65 The church property at St Isidore, near Linn, a tract of three and a quarter acres (s w J4 of n e j4 of section 33, township 44, range 8, w), was conveyed February 18, 1860, by Irene Curtit to the Jesuit fathers for twenty-five dollars The church erected by the French was of logs. The parish of Maria Hilf (Mary Help of Christians), near Isbell station on the Missouri Pacific R R some ten miles north of Westphalia, was organized in 1862 by Father Busschots, SJ The church property of two acres (sections 2 and II, township 44, range 9) was acquired May 26, 1873
St Ignatms's parish, Bailey's Creek, was established by Father Busschots in 1858. Father Verhaegen, visiting the place in the fall of 1837, found there some ten or twelve families, all Americans Verhaegen a Rosati, November 17, 1837 (C) The church property, six acres (n w J4 of s w J^ of section 22, township 44, range 7 w.), was acquired for a consideration of five dollars, June, 1859, from Peter and Catherine Jordan. A log church was built in 1859 Bailey's Creek is twelve miles northeast of Westphalia.
St. George's parish in Linn, the county seat of Osage County, was organized by Father Goeldlin in 1867.
478 THE JESUITS OF THE MIDDLE UNITED STATES
a quarter-section of land on each of the volunteers when they were dis- charged from the service at the end of the war. The arrival in the fall of 1847 °f a Party °£ £^7 Belgian immigrants from the neighborhood of Ghent, who came highly recommended by M. Beaulieu, Belgian minister at Washington, boded well for the future of the parish. They had probably been attracted to central Missouri by a report published at Brussels by the Baron Van der Straten-Ponthoz, who had made a trip through Osage and Cole Counties in 1845 to ascertain by personal observation the prospects they held out to Belgian immigrants. Clad m a heavy buffalo-robe, for it was the depth of winter, and accom- panied by Father Helias, who was similarly protected, he visited the various stations of the mission, entering the farm-houses and chatting pleasantly with the occupants on the success, or perhaps the lack of it, that had attended their efforts. Much useful information was m this way gleaned for the benefit of such of his countrymen as might care to try their fortune in the New World.66 The actual arrival m Cole County m 1847 °f the. party of Belgian immigrants above referred to gladdened the heart of Father Helias •
The Belgian farmers make themselves favorably known in Missouri as everywhere else by their industry, methodical habits, perseverance, love of hard work and incomparable neatness. An air of prosperity hangs over their places which might serve as model farms for all the immigrants When I ask our Flemings how they are satisfied here, they answer that "they are as happy as King Leopold on his throne "
I am delighted with the new parishioners, they are good Catholics and always ready to render me a service. Mr Pierre Dirckx, my nearest neighbor, is a constant visitor at the presbytery and shows me every attention To- gether with his partner, Mr Charles Beckaert, he runs a successful farm of which he is the owner and which yields him a handsome income Their hired men Edouard Van Voeren, Frangois Steippens, Frangois Goessens, et d y are mostly Belgians. These young fellows are all equipped with trades, not only useful but highly lucrative in a country like this which has just been thrown open to civilization For example, Frangois Goessens is an excellent maker of wooden shoes People come from twenty miles around to fit themselves out at his shop He has been known to sell as many as five hundred sabots in a single day It's a smooth business for wood here costs nothing or almost nothing 6T
The year following the arrival of the Belgians, Taos had its first Corpus Chnsti procession, of which Father Helias gives an account-
I had invited for the occasion the Governor of the State and the prin- cipal officials of Jefferson City, our state capital They all assisted at the
66 Htsforta Wesphahae, p. 47 (A)
67 Lebrocquy, Vie du P Helws, p 254
THE MISSION OF CENTRAL MISSOURI 479
ceremony Note that these honorable functionaries are all Protestants I had a repository fitted up m front of the presbytery The decorations of this improvised altar, the order and pomp of the procession, the beauty of the sacred chant, the piety of the Catholics, everything went to charm and edify at once our separated brethren
The Governor of Missouri is extremely well affected towards me and whatever favor I ask of him, even though it be the life of a condemned man, he is always ready to grant it But I avoid mixing up in politics m this country where they do not involve religion, and I occupy myself only with those matters that concern the kingdom of heaven 68
The cholera of 1853 left numerous orphans in its wake. In the absence of asylums Helias exerted himself to find homes for these un- fortunate children m families of his parish. To set an example, he adopted, with the permission of his superior, a young Belgian orphan, Pierre Labat. The future of the boy was a matter of grave concern to him, and he sought to interest his family in Belgium in the case
The cholera has just carried off the parents of a young Belgian lad from the neighborhood of Eecloo I am his tutor and young Pierre has become my adopted child If God should call me away, this orphan boy would be m a sad plight He has nothing here, nor anything, I believe, to look for m Belgium However, Deus <providebity I rely on Providence I commend this child to your care, m the event of my death . . . My young com- panion is only nine years old He renders me a thousand little services, and is a source of much amusement to me by his naivete He has a quick and open mind Perhaps we shall make a disciple of Gretry out of him, as he shows remarkable talent for music 69
Pierre Labat lived for several years m the priest's house at Taos and when old enough to earn his own living was found employment through the efforts of Father Helias. In 1858 the latter while on his way to Jefferson City to lay the corner-stone of the new Church of St. Peter met with a serious accident. His horse shied, and the priest, ih his effort to quiet the animal, lost his balance and fell to the ground, sustaining serious internal injuries. He was taken to St Louis where a double surgical operation was found necessary 5 but he regained his health after the operation and was able to resume his labors in Taos.
In 1858 Father Helias made an appeal, characterized by his usual warmth of feeling, to the General, Father Beckx, on behalf of the Ger- man Catholics of central Missouri. The superiors of the Missouri Mis- sion were hard put to it trying to solve the rather insoluble problem of meeting all existing needs with the mere handful of men at their
68 Idemy p. 255.
69 Idem, p. 263.
48o THE JESUITS OF THE MIDDLE UNITED STATES
disposal And yet to Helms, looking only to the particular needs of his spiritual charges, it seemed that more could and should be done for the people of his own and the neighboring parishes. He had an appre- hension that the stations built up by him in central Missouri would not survive him "There is only a single step," he wrote, "between myself and death." Then followed a glowing tribute to the religious fervor of the German Catholics, whom he held up as a pattern to other na- tionalities. Piety, simplicity, sobriety, loyalty to their pastors, a fond- ness for fine churches and impressive services, these traits, among others characterized them. Moreover, they built their own hospitals, orphan- asylums and parish-schools.70
This account of Father Helias and his ministry at Taos may be brought to a close with the words in which he pictures the condition of the parish in the decade immediately preceding the Civil War
While m so many localities both of the Old and New World, corrup- tion, the fruit of wicked doctrines, makes incessant headway, the moral condition of our settlement recalls the beautiful days of the primitive church Here one may, without the slightest risk, go away from his house, leaving the doors right open You need have no fear of theft or trespassing of any kind. Irreligious or licentious publications fail to reach our excellent people. Libertinism is unknown God's name is not, as elsewhere, the object of profanity. My priestly heart experiences a joy ever new in seeing our churches crowded on Sundays and feast-days, with throngs of faithful souls who emu- late one another in singing the praises of the Lord 71
Thus did the course of things in the Jesuit parishes of central Mis- souri run on placidly down to the dark days of the Civil War, when they had to face the invasion of political passion and strife Helias's Histona Westfhdiae ends about 1861 with an apostrophe:
O Ferdinand, why so dumb ? Everything proceeds A M D G and with- out change, as from the beginning Why therefore should I repeat? Of one thing, however, I must make mention A M D G , to wit, the singular favor wrought by St. Francis Xavier, who cured suddenly my friend and guest, Charles Louis Bekaert, a settler of sixty years, of a cancer which had fairly
70Hehas ad Beckx, June 29, 1858 (AA)
71 Lebrocquy, of ctt , p 264 The Mission of Central Missouri, as described in the Annual Letters (1853-1862), had an area of twenty-five hundred square miles lying between the Missouri, Osage and Gasconade Rivers and a line fifty miles south. It took m all of Osage County and parts of Manes, Miller and Cole Counties. The Catholic population numbered three thousand The residence of St. Francis Xavier at Taos with its dependent stations lay outside the limits of the Mission of Central Missouri proper, the headquarters of which were at Westphalia. Here there were generally three fathers attached to the residence, a fourth being added in 1860
THE MISSION OF CENTRAL MISSOURI 481
eaten through his hand, and besides, freed me m an instant of acutely pain- ful rheumatism Moreover, I have experienced over and over again and hereby gratefully acknowledge A M,D G, the most visible assistance of my Guardian Angel O God' Thou hast given thine Angel charge over me that he may keep me in my ways 72
72 Father Murphy, vice-provincial, communicated to the General, Father Roothaan, March 3, 1852, his opinion that "Westphalia or some other central point should become a residence like St Charles and (that) the other small isolated stations should be merged together to form a single community of mis- sionaries " But this arrangement could not be effected until a new residence was built at Westphalia, the existing one being "a miserable affair and a menace to health " In 1855 Fathers Brunner and Eysvogels were living at Westphalia, Father Goeldlm at Richfountam and Father Busschots at Loose Creek In 1862 the new residence at Westphalia was built with four fathers stationed there, two of them serving the local parish and outlying minor stations, as St. Thomas and St Isidore, and Fathers Busschots and Van Mierlo going every Thursday or Friday to their respective missions, from which they returned on Monday At a later period Richfountam, Loose Creek and Lmn had resident Jesuit pastors, who, however, remained under the jurisdiction of the Westphalia superior, whom they were required to visit personally once a week
CHAPTER XV THE SUCCESSION OF SUPERIORS, 1831-1848
§ I. THEODORE DE THEUX, 1831-1836
It is proposed in this and one or other following chapter to trace the more general lines of development in early Jesuit growth in the Middle West with special reference to the succession of superiors and the more outstanding incidents of their respective terms of office.
On February 27, 1831, Father Theodore De Theux succeeded Father Van Quickenborne as superior of the Missouri Mission. The career of Van Quickenborne, who as organizer and first superior of the mission was the central figure in its initial activities, has already been detailed. As to De Theux, his nomination to the post of superior of the mission was taken by his fellow-Jesuits as an earnest of increased prosperity for their labors in the West. <cWe promise ourselves," Father Verhaegen wrote on the occasion, "many blessings from the prudent administration of Rev. Father De Theux." Attached to the Missouri Mission since October, 1825, he had been brought during his five years and more of residence in the West into intimate touch with its members, whose esteem he enjoyed as a man of high spiritual purpose, minute observance of religious discipline, and whole-souled loyalty to the Jesuit ideal of life.
And yet Father De Theux's admirable traits as a religious were offset in a measure by idiosyncrasies not in keeping with the spirit of the Jesuit rule. As minister in St. Louis College he showed unnecessary seventy of manner in the discharge of his official duties. The students were irritated and the Jesuit members of the institution put to a pro- longed and painful trial of patience. At the same time behind the austerity of manner and the untactful insistence on the details of re- ligious observance was a transparent uprightness of intention which won for De Theux the esteem and deference, if not at all times the affection of his associates. It was evidence enough of the virtue of those associates, as one of them pointed out to the Father General, that they were always loyally submissive to as exacting a superior as was Father De Theux. Verhaegen, rector of St. Louis College, could deprecate De Theux's severity and write at the same time to the Father General "For the rest, I look upon him as the model of our house by reason of
482
THE SUCCESSION OF SUPERIORS, 1831-1848 483
his regularity and love of God, and I revere him as such.35 * Again, he is characterized by Verhaegen as "a man solidly pious, most ob- servant of religious discipline and most scrupulous in exacting it and therefore a treasure to us."
The fears entertained that Father De Theux's austere ways would work to his prejudice as superior of the mission did not prove to be groundless Father Kenney observed of him and Father Van Quicken- borne that he had never known Jesuit superiors to be so severe. He found De Theux a man of excellent intentions but unbending judg- ment, almost unaware of his bias to rigorism, and even, it would ap- pear, with an untenable philosophy of government, as though a re- ligious superior must rule less by ways of sympathy and conciliation than by a steady and obtrusive show of authority.2 To Father Kenney's strictures on the Missouri superior Father Roothaan made answer: "I have admonished him most earnestly (as I did so often, and in the beginning, it would seem, not without result) m regard to mildness in government. Bone Deus, that men who are bearing the heat and burden of the day should be treated sot Excellent man though he be, he is by no means a good superior." 3 Later, in 1833, Roothaan had this counsel to give De Theux- "Seeing that even thoroughly religious men are liable to become faint-hearted, I cannot sufficiently recommend to your reverence to encourage and support them. In a word, a man of the Society ought so to bear himself, that, even if he must refuse what is asked for, he will send everybody away entirely satisfied." 4 When the first three years of De Theux's administration had slipped by, Father Roothaan would have removed him from office had a suc- cessor been available. As it was, he continued to hold up to him the "suaviter m modo" as indispensable to the Jesuit ideal of government and he enjoined him in scriptural phrase not to attempt to rule with a rod of iron, "in virga jerrea."
It is obvious that among the gifts which nature vouchsafed to Father De Theux was not included the savoir faire which goes a good length to the making of the successful manager of men. Father Smedts, who knew him intimately, observed that he was a capital companion so long as he was not filling a position of authority.5 Temperament had much to do with inclining De Theux to severity 5 but early training was in all probability the chief factor in giving him a bent in this direction. The opinion of one of his novices on this head will be cited presently
1 Verhaegen ad Roothaan, January 13, 1831. (AA).
2 Kenney ad Roothaan, January 27, 1832 (AA). 8 Roothaan ad Kenney, May 12, 1832 (AA)
* Roothaan ad De Theux, November 9, 1832. (AA) 5 Smedts ad Roothaan, July 10, 1835. (AA).
484 THE JESUITS OF THE MIDDLE UNITED STATES
Testimony to the same effect comes from Father Ferdinand Helias, ac- cording to whom De Theux was brought up from his earliest years as a "ngonst" 6
The most important of the tasks taken in hand by Father De Theux during his administration of the mission was the opening and gradual organization of the novitiate He was also at pains to provide itinerant missionaries to the Catholic settlers scattered in small groups up and down Missouri and Illinois and he made the preliminary arrangements for the opening of the Kickapoo Mission. It is enough to record here that the years he spent as superior of the mission were crowded with various duties and occupations with the result that often little leisure remained to him after discharging the official routine of business. He wrote to his mother towards the end of 1834 "You will readily excuse my silence towards you all, for, think of it, it is now three months and a half since I have written to our Very Rev. Father General. I am in confusion over it, but what can I do? After the fashion of old sinners, I have been putting the thing off from day to day by reason of a multi- plicity of occupations which have taken up all my time since the end of November." 7
That De Theux kept up a steady correspondence with his mother, Madame De Theux of Liege, brings out the interesting circumstance that this man of rigid, unelastic views and austere habits of life was by no means without his human and appealing side Grace does not elimi- nate nature but perfects it and the highest reaches of asceticism are compatible with all the depths and tenderness of human sympathy. Not a few of his associates, as De Smet and Elet, felt towards De Theux as towards one who had supported them in seasons of trial and by his considerate care in their regard earned from them a lasting return of gratitude.8
As superior of the mission Father De Theux was often in corre- spondence with Bishop Rosati His letters, stiff and formal in manner, and marked by recurrent pious sentiments, are a true reflection of the writer's personality. Affairs of business relieved now and then by a note of familiarity make up their contents. Thus he reminds Rosati of his promise "to come and breathe the good country air of Florissant under the roof of St. Stanislaus", requests him to give the tonsure and minor orders to the novices at Florissant, but a few days later addresses him again to say that on referring to the Institute of the Society he finds that scholastics are to be presented for tonsure only after their first vows, writes to the prelate when the latter was in the East for infor-
6 Helias ad Roothaan, February, 1838 (AA).
7 Le Pert Theodore De Theux. (Ms ) (A).
8 Elet ad Roothaan, July 14, 1835. (AA).
THE SUCCESSION OF SUPERIORS, 1831-1848 485
mation as to the missing baggage of three novices who had lately ar- rived at Florissant.9
On being relieved of the charge of superior of the mission in the spring of 18365 De Theux continued to discharge for a while the duties of master of novices, after which he was called to the professorship of dogmatic theology in the scholasticate newly opened in St. Louis Uni- versity. Verhaegen had considered him for moral theology but feared to entrust this subject to him in view of his well-known tendencies to rigorism De Theux was subsequently employed at Grand Coteau in Louisiana, Cincinnati, and St. Charles in Missouri. At Cincinnati Father Elet, rector of St Xavier College, expressed more than once to the Father General his appreciation of the services rendered by the former superior. "We are fortunate m having with us saintly Father De Theux and he on his part seems quite well satisfied to find himself m Cincin- nati. What happiness for me that I can show him gratitude for the care he formerly took of me. And what shall I say of good Father De Theux, who by his exemplary piety has succeeded in winning the co fidence of all who know him1 Were he to treble himself, he could not answer all the calls made upon him by those who wish to profit by his good advice. He continues to attend the hospital, which is a mile from the college, moreover, he is chaplain to the boarders with the Sisters of Notre Dame, besides visiting once a week the boys' orphan asylum and that of the girls. In the college he is spiritual father and minister of the scholastics and with all this he is ever m good humor. In this respect he is much improved." 10
In Cincinnati Father De Theux was held in high veneration by Bishop Purcell When that prelate, alarmed over the anti-Catholic agi- tation of 1 844, asked advice of the Jesuit as to what measures had best be taken under the circumstances, the latter, who was notably devout to the Blessed Virgin, suggested that he join with the other American prelates in soliciting from the Holy See permission to add the word "Immaculate" to "Conception" m the Preface of the Mass. The petition was made and granted.11
In 1843 Vice-provincial Van de Velde and others were suggesting to the General that De Theux be reappomted master of novices.12 "All seem to regret," wrote Father Carrell, the future Bishop of Covmgton, "that Father De Theux, a truly venerable and holy man, does not fill
9 In the St Louis Archdiocesan Archives are numerous letters from De Theux to Rosati
10 Elet ad Roothaan, September 15, 1842, April 29, 1844. (AA).
11 Sketch by Thomas Hughes, S J , in Jesuit menolog7 (A) The original source for the statement m the text cannot be ascertained.
12 Carrell to Roothaan, August 2, 1 844 (AA)
486 THE JESUITS OF THE MIDDLE UNITED STATES
the all important office of master of novices.'3 Father Roothaan at first demurred, suggesting Father Mignard for the position, but later ac- quiesced m the preference expressed by the fathers of Missouri. For some or other reason there was delay m the appointment Meantime, De Theux died at St. Charles, Missouri, February 28, 1846, having lived fifty-seven years. His death, Father Van de Velde wrote to the General, was that of the saints. It took place on a Saturday in accord- ance with his life-long desire to pass away on a day especially conse- crated to the Blessed Virgin The struggling little group of western Jesuits could ill afford to lose the services of so inspiring a figure among them as was Father De Theux. Father Roothaan, on his part, was quick to appreciate the loss which his passing entailed on the vice-province of Missouri. "Look' you have a lost a man," so he expressed himself to Father Van de Velde, "who above all others walked m the spirit," and he could wish that more men of the same type were found among the Jesuits of the West 1S
A pen-picture of Father De Theux, drawn by a novice of his, Father Isidore Boudreaux, himself a distinguished master of novices in his day, deserves reproduction
Father De Theux had a great apprehension of the judgments of God This fear influenced more or less the details of his life The seminary where he made his theological studies had not yet adopted the ideas of Saint Liguori, holding to the rigorism of Dens and other authors of the same stamp When he sought subsequently to conform to the milder doctrines followed in the Society, it was difficult for him to rid himself of his first impressions On the other hand, he was of a timorous conscience, excessively so, perhaps So education and natural disposition worked together to incline him to rigor This tendency showed itself especially when he was superior. The thought of responsibility frightened him and the seventy with which he could be reproached, perhaps on good grounds, had its source here.
For the rest, the adage "noblesse oblige" was realized m him The staple of his character was straightforwardness. He was literally incapable of insincerities One might easily suppose that a man of this temper was devoid of feeling. Far from it, under an exterior which breathed authority, he had a sympathetic heart His spiritual children had only to consult him in their troubles to expenence the full range of his kindness and chanty
Father De Theux was eminently a man of God His whole exterior breathed asceticism. Those who lived with him could see that this union with God was rarely interrupted His piety was remarkable. He generally said his breviary on his knees before the Blessed Sacrament. During the celebration of the holy mysteries, he gave evidence of the profound respect that dom- inated him He was a man of profound humility. He never made the least allusion to his family, which was of high rank m Belgium. . . .
18 Roothaan ad Van de Velde, June I, 1846 (AA)
THE SUCCESSION OF SUPERIORS, 1831-1848 48?
Physically, Father De Theux was a remarkable man An imposing build — masculine traits — an aquiline nose — m a word, a noble figure for all its austerity. One would have thought oneself in the presence of an old Roman
A portrait? There is none anywhere But an engraving which represents Saint Liguon in prayer — a profile — resembles him perfectly This is the opinion of many who knew Father De Theux There is a copy of it in our college m Detroit The saint is there represented in prayer, almost in ecstasy. So did Father De Theux appear m his moments of intimate union with God ... I have always congratulated myself on having had him for master of novices The mere recollection of him still does me good 13a
§ 2 PETER VERHAEGEN, 1836-1843
On March 26, 1836, Father Peter Verhaegen, executive head of St Louis College since its inception as a Jesuit institution in 1829, took up the duties of superior of the Missouri Mission in succession to Father De Theux. Verhaegen's success in administering the affairs of the col- lege had been obvious to all and plainly recommended him as one to whose hands the more responsible charge of governing the mission might be safely entrusted. Of the group of Jesuits associated in the founding of the mission, he was the most conspicuous for literary and scientific attainments. Foreign-born and foreign-educated up to his twenty-first year, he acquired a mastery over written English that left little to be desired in accuracy and idiomatic propriety and ease. Latin, on the other hand, he wrote with the grace and finish so often acquired by ecclesiastics trained m the seminaries of Europe. To literary attain- ments he joined, moreover, a fund of scholarly information on a wide range of subjects, and his opinion, particularly on all matters of ecclesi- astical lore, was valued highly But Verhaegen was not typically a book- man or scholarly recluse. His temperament inclined him rather to action and social intercourse and a man of affairs we accordingly find him all through his career m the Society of Jesus, which utilized his executive abilities in one superiorship after another. To the social quali- ties of the man, his tactful address and genial, pleasant companionship there is frequent witness on the part of contemporaries. He made nu- merous friends among clergy and laity, conspicuous among them, Bishop Rosati and Senator Benton As theologian of the Bishop of St. Louis he was present at the Third Provincial Council of Baltimore in 1837. "I say nothing," wrote Father Roothaan m authorizing his pres- ence at the council, "of the manner of dealing with the chief pastors of America, or of the humility and reverence with which our men
18a Boudreaux a Kieckens, September 5, 1881. Archives, College St Michel, Brussels.
488 THE JESUITS OF THE MIDDLE UNITED STATES
should conduct themselves [on such occasions] Your reverence knows how Fathers Laynez and Salmeron bore themselves " 14
Verhaegen's tenure of office as superior of the mission was marked by a succession of new undertakings on the part of the Missouri Jesuits, who with increase of numbers found themselves in a position to extend more and more the range of their activities. Under him a start was made in resident missionary work among the Indians, which more than anything else was the motive behind the establishment of the Missouri Mission. The Kickapoo Mission, 1836, was followed in 1838 by the two Potawatomi missions at Council Bluffs and Sugar Creek. These apostolic ventures, none of which was to meet with particular success except the one centered at Sugar Creek, were followed by the inaugura- tion m 1841 of the Oregon or Rocky Mountain Missions, by far the most ambitious and far reaching in results of all the missionary enter- prises taken in hand by the Jesuits of St. Louis. While thus setting up centers of resident missionary endeavor on behalf of the Indians, Ver- haegen was mindful not to neglect the field for ministerial effort that lay closer to hand in the groups of Catholic settlers rapidly forming m the interior of Missouri St Joseph's Residence, opened m 1838 m New Westphalia, Gasconade County, and St. Francis Borgia's Resi- dence, opened m the same year m Washington, Franklin County, were destined to develop into two important foci of parochial and missionary activity resulting m the establishment of numerous Catholic parishes in the counties on either side of the Missouri River as far upstate as Chan- ton County. Finally, in the field of higher education, limited at the time of Verhaegen's accession to office to the single college of St. Louis, important advances were made by the transfer to the jurisdiction of the Missouri superior of St. Charles College, Grand Coteau, Louisiana (1838), and St. Xavier College, Cincinnati (1840).
To maintain effective oversight of these varied interests missionary, parochial and educational, and to visit periodically in person, as his office required him to do, these widely scattered centres of Jesuit ac- tivity, were tasks to strain m no slight measure the physical powers of the superior, especially at a period when facilities for travelling were still m the pioneer stage of development. To Verhaegen m particular, a large, portly man, travelling over such vast stretches of territory as the mission embraced might appear to have presented almost insur- mountable difficulties. Yet the extent and frequency of the journeys he undertook in discharge of the duties of visitation and other business, as recorded in the Annual Letters, afford evidence that such was not the case. We find him, for instance, setting out from St. Louis for
"Roothaan ad Verhaegen, December 6, 1836. (AA).
THE SUCCESSION OF SUPERIORS, 1831-1848 489
Washington in the spring of 1838 to negotiate with government for the opening of the Council Bluffs Mission. The journey consumed thirteen days, today it is a matter of some twenty-two hours by rail and many fewer by air. Having returned to St. Louis, Verhaegen departed thence after a brief respite to visit the Kickapoo Mission near Fort Leaven- worth and also to ascertain by a personal tour of inspection the pros- pects for a missionary center among the Potawatomi of the Osage River. A Missouri River steamer brought him to the Kickapoo. From them to the Potawatomi travelling was by horseback with more than one night spent in the open on the wind-swept prairie. From the Potawatomi Verhaegen journeyed on horse all the way back to St. Louis, a distance of several hundred miles, with stops at Westport, Independence, West- phalia and other points. A rest of several weeks in St. Louis followed, after which he was again in motion, this time accompanying Bishop Rosati on a confirmation tour through the interior of the state. Return- ing to St. Louis he found awaiting him a decree from the Father General attaching the Jesuit houses in Louisiana to the Missouri Mis- sion and enjoining the superior of the latter to undertake at once the visitation of his new territory. So, in November, 1838, Verhaegen boarded a Mississippi River steamer bound for the South. Truly 1838 was a year of strenuous journeymgs by land and water for the superior of the Missouri Mission. It may here by noted that while Fathers Van Quickenborne and De Theux resided at the novitiate during their incumbency as superiors of the mission, Father Verhaegen on assuming the supenorship in 1836 continued to reside at St. Louis University, which has remained almost without interruption the administrative headquarters of the Jesuit province of Missouri down to our own day.15 In the first year of Father Verhaegen's administration the total membership of the Missouri Mission was only forty-five, of which num- ber eighteen were pnests, thirteen scholastics and fourteen coadjutor- brothers. Three years later, at the beginning of 1840, the number had risen to seventy-one. Having thus notably increased its numbers in so short a period and given other evidences of substantial growth, the mission was ripe for transformation into a vice-province. Shortly after his accession to office Verhaegen had appealed to the Father General for information as to the requirements necessary for the status of a vice- province. The answer stated the requirements to be these: i° a fitting number of members (comp#tens soctorum num&rus)^ 2° a satisfactory organization of studies as regarded both the Society's own students and outsiders (externi) in accordance with the Ratio Studiorum; 3° a still greater zeal on the part of the older members of the mission for the
15 For a short period Verhaegen, while superior of the mission, resided at Florissant where he discharged also the duties of master of novices
490 THE JESUITS OF THE MIDDLE UNITED STATES
cultivation of the interior spirit of the religious life and for the ob- servance of the rules.16 Three years later Father Roothaan had satisfied himself that the requirements thus laid down had been or were being met and he issued accordingly under date of September 24, 1839, a decree erecting the mission of Missouri into a vice-province. The decree dwelt on the expansion the mission had undergone in recent years through the accession of new members and the union with it of the college of St. Charles recently established m Louisiana. There were now in the mission seven stations or residences (evangehcorum oyeran- orum stationes] and two colleges with a large attendance of students, giving hope that the mission would eventually grow to the proportions of a province. "Therefore, with a view to gratify the wishes of the Jesuits engaged with strenuous zeal in cultivating this toilsome vine- yard of the Lord, to give them a token of his confidence in their regard and to bring them into closer touch with the head of the order by the holding of triennial congregations and the sending of a procurator to Rome, the General, in agreement with his assistants raises the mission of Missouri to the rank of a vice-province and appoints its present superior, Father Peter Verhaegen, vice-provincial of the same" The decree of erection was promulgated at St. Louis University on March 9, 1840, which date is accordingly to be reckoned the birthday of the vice-province of Missouri 17 Its personnel at the moment consisted of twenty-three fathers, twenty-three scholastics and twenty-five coadjutor- brothers, or seventy-one members in all "Behold, the second step to a Province!" the General wrote on this occasion to a father m St. Louis. "Here is a new incentive to carry on God's work with renewed ardor and fervor." In the capacity of vice-provincial Father Verhaegen was to retain for three years the direction of the midwestern Jesuits.
Just at the time the vice-province was starting on its career Ver- haegen received from Bishop Rosati a request that he discharge the duties of vicar-general and administrator of the diocese during the prelate's impending absence from St Louis. The Fourth Provincial Council of Baltimore was to convene and after attending its sessions Rosati was to make his ad, Imwna visit to Rome. Verhaegen first sug- gested that some other priest of the diocese be appointed to the post, but neither his own nor the Bishop's efforts to find a satisfactory sub- stitute met with success He finally acquiesced in the petition, but not before stipulating that the southern part of the diocese be administered by the superior of the seminary at the Barrens in Perry County and that the temporalities of the diocese be looked after by a lay man, a
16 Roothaan ad Verhaegen, September 20, 1836 (AA).
17 Decretum erectioms Vice-Promnwae Missounanae Dtarmm Umvemtatis S. Ludovict. (A).
THE SUCCESSION OF SUPERIORS, 1831-1848 491
duty which the Bishop assigned to Mane Le Due. Father Verhaegen's note of acceptance was brief
I have given mature consideration, Monseigneur, to the office the duties of which you ask me to discharge. I dare not say no, and I am afraid to say yes I wish, with all my heart, that Monseigneur could find some one else to take his place so that I might have nothing whatever to do with the affair, at the same time I should not wish by my refusal to prevent his journey. In this case I offer to take on myself whatever duties Monseigneur may wish to confide to me and shall do everything in my power to meet his expectations I have written these lines, Monseigneur, to relieve you of the anxiety you must naturally feel in regard to this important matter which must be settled before you take your departure 18
On April 24, 1840, Father Verhaegen took up his residence in the Bishop's house on Walnut Street and a few days later Rosati left St. Louis, whither in the designs of Providence he was never to return.19 Once a week the administrator of the St. Louis diocese spent the greater
18 Verhaegen a Rosati, March 13, 1840 (C) Bishop Rosati, who ordained Verhaegen, came to know him when he was pastor at St Charles and later when he used to come at intervals to the cathedral to preach "The sermon preached by Reverend Father Verhaegen delighted everybody. One would like to get it that it may be printed" Rosati a De Theux, July 4, 1832, Kennck Seminary Archives Rosati frequently had Verhaegen with him on visitation and confirmation trips and other occasions Thus the two were at Gravois (now Kirkwood) "fourteen miles from St. Louis," July 8, 1838, Father Aelen, S J , celebrating Mass and Verhaegen preaching "The Church could not hold the people " Rosati's Diary The account of the diocesan visitation of September-October, 1838, in which Verhaegen accom- panied Rosati, fills several pages in the latter's diary. (Cf. supra, Chap. XIV, § i). Verhaegen also accompanied Rosati to the Third Provincial Council of Baltimore, 1837 "1837, March 28 Left St. Louis at 3 p m on the Ontario with Reverend Father Peter Verhaegen, Superior of the Missouri Mission of the Society of Jesus, whom, according to a custom introduced in preceding councils with the common consent of the Fathers, I had invited to the Third Provincial Synod of Baltimore " Rosati's Diary. The first diocesan synod of St Louis, which opened April 21, 1839, began with a four-day retreat to the assembled clergy conducted by Ver- haegen, who also composed the pastoral letter read in all the churches of the diocese after the synod Rosati's Diary, April 9, 1839 Four days before Rosati left St. Louis never to return, he made his will, naming as his heir Father Verhaegen and, in default of him, Father Timon, and, in default of the last- named, Father Elet Diary, April 21, 1840 It is interesting to note that Bishop Rosati's final entry (Rome, December 14, 1840), m his diary brings him into connection with the Jesuits "Vesp ad Te Deum in Eccl Soc Jesu " ("In the evening to the Te Deum m the church of the Society of Jesus")
19 Dtarium Univ. S. Ludov (A) "April 26, [1840], Sunday after Easter. I have designated the Reverend Mr Peter Verhaegen Vicar General and Superior of the Episcopal Residence m which for the future he will reside until my return from Europe " Rosati's Diary.
492 THE JESUITS OF THE MIDDLE UNITED STATES
part of a day at St. Louis University, attending there to the duties that continued to devolve upon him as vice-provincial.
Somewhat later Verhaegen acquainted Father Roothaan with the circumstances that had led him to take upon himself responsibilities foreign to the vocation of a Jesuit priest-
The Very Reverend Bishop, who is most devoted to our Society, has left for Baltimore to be present at the Provincial Council I did not go to it because in my opinion the money that would have to be spent can be used to better purpose and also because some of Ours will attend the said council and so our Society is going to be properly represented. But a still more serious reason has detained me here. When the council is over, the Bishop is to go to Europe and although, by reason of the parishes committed to the care of Ours I have already to exercise episcopal powers and that with the utmost solicitude, he asked me so earnestly and so insistently to take upon myself the entire burden during the full period of his absence from the diocese that, on the recommendation of the older fathers whom I consulted, I could not refuse this service to our excellent prelate I resisted as far as I prudently might . . . With tears in his eyes the Bishop begged me re- peatedly to sacrifice myself for some months for the good of religion, unless I did so, he could not by any manner of means, so he said, undertake that journey which he considered to be so necessary to the diocese and which could not be given up without considerable harm as a result.20
Father Verhaegen was to prove himself a faithful correspondent, keeping the Bishop fully informed down to the least details on the affairs of the diocese. As he had expected, he found his new office not altogether free from embarrassment.
I try as far as possible to satisfy everybody, but that cannot always be done, no matter in what community. As for myself, I have my own short- comings and notions, others, I believe have theirs So, if Mr F — , with all his good qualities, is not always satisfied with me, this must not appear surprising. There are different ways of seeing and judging And yet there is ordinarily only one best way, and the man who adopts it according to his lights follows the only course which prudence dictates. When Monseigneur was here, criticism fell on him; now it is only fair that it fall on his sub- stitute. So far I have made no changes in the order of the house or the administration of the cathedral. My intention, Monseigneur, has been to restore things into your hands on your return just as I found them when I came here.21
Some further extracts from Verhaegen's correspondence with Rosati follow:
20 Verhaegen ad Roothaan March 18, 1840. (AA).
21 Verhaegen a Rosati, July 8, 1840 (C)
THE SUCCESSION OF SUPERIORS, 1831-1848 493
Here at the Bishop's house everything goes well Our enclosure is perfect We have started a Sunday-school in the old chapel and, with certain good people to stand the expense, have fitted up two rooms nicely. The lower room, which has no connection with the one above, is occupied by the small boys who are taught by four or five gentlemen of town, the upper room is for the little girls, who are instructed by the Sisters of Charity assisted by some pious ladies 22 About 250 children attend the school, which is doing incalculable good Our Catholic children no longer think about the sectarian schools and, as far as I can judge, the parents are delighted with the prog- ress their children have made m the short space of two months The exterior of the cathedral is in good shape. The roof is considered a masterpiece The architect of the court-house insists on getting Brother Huet to cover the roof of that building with copper 23 It has been a costly piece of work, but I dare say that with the painstaking labor of the good brother it would have cost one-third as much again. The clock keeps perfect time ever since I had new copper hands made, with gilding by Brother Huet The weights which the wheels had formerly to drag often damaged the mechanism and were very weanng on it This defect has been remedied The tower is really fine and the dial painted black with gilt figures makes an excellent effect . Our poor furnaces' I tried on one occasion to heat the church and used up a great quantity of wood and coal in the attempt, but all in vain No heat was perceptible in the church Mr Le Due has promised to go and look at those in the Episcopalian church, which are a perfect success 24 ... As to piety I think I can assure you there has been considerable improvement Every Sunday we have from 50 to 80 communions in the Cathedral and on All Soul's day [Rev,] Mr Renault counted 350 25
You know, Monseigneur, that during this winter, which still holds on, no work on the church of the Holy Trinity has been possible I had the walls covered with boards to protect them from ram, snow and hail. What did they do? They stole the boards and not content with that, as the houses are not rented, they earned their boldness so far as to make away with the doors and windows Mr Le Due has put things in order again, by allowing a man to occupy one of the houses free of charge, but on condition that he take care of the others When I speak to this good gentleman of going ahead with the work on the church, he shrugs his shoulders and answers that the means at his disposal do not allow him even to think of it.26
22 The Mother Seton Sisters of Charity, whose mother-house was at Emmits- burg in Maryland They came to St Louis m 1828 to assume charge of St Louis's first hospital, founded by John Mullanphy They also conducted an orphan asylum which stood immediately west of the cathedral.
28 Brother Charles Huet, S J Born August 26, 1805, became a Jesuit February 3j 1835, and accompanied De Smet to the Rocky Mountains, where he died in 1856.
24 Marie Philippe Le Due, born in Pans, France, 1772, died m St. Louis, 1842 He was real estate and financial agent to Bishop Rosati,
25 Verhaegen a Rosati, St. Louis, 1840 (C)
26 Verhaegen a Rosati, St. Louis, February 26, 1841. (C) The Holy Trinity
494 THE JESUITS OF THE MIDDLE UNITED STATES
So you ask me, Monseigneur, to suggest some ways m which your jour- ney may be made most useful to the diocese You know how deeply I am interested in everything that can contribute to its prosperity, I believe it would be well for you to procure a good French preacher for the cathedral and two good preachers for the Americans 2° Bring a few good priests along with you, for I do not see where you can place them to advantage unless they know English 3° Bring only what is absolutely necessary Believe me, money is worth more to you than articles, which, however beautiful, useful and suitable they may be, will cost you very dear when delivered here Exfertus loquor 4° Get rid of all shame m the good cause m which you are engaged, — ask, beg, knock everywhere, et a^erietur vobis 5° Do not forget to go to Belgium. The Belgians, pardon my frankness, are the most generous people in the woild when there is question of propagating the holy religion they profess 27
In choosing Verhaegen to be administrator of the diocese Bishop Rosati had no intention of resting there 5 he had it in mind also to secure the Jesuit's appointment as his successor in the see of St. Louis. Two days before leaving the city he sent to Rome a list of three names, technically called a terna, from which a selection might be made for a coadjutor-bishop of St. Louis with right of succession. Arranged m order, with Latin words indicating the degree of preference, were the names of Peter J. Verhaegen, S. J., dignissimus, John Timon, C. M , dignior, and J. M. Odin, C M , dtgnus. Five years before, in 1835, Bishop Rosati, even then seeking the appointment of a coadjutor, had drawn up, if not actually submitted to Rome, another ternay the names being the same as in the list of 1840, but m this order, Timon, Odm and Verhaegen.28 In the event none of the ecclesiastics named on the lists of 1835 and 1840 was to be Rosati's successor, they being all passed over in favor of the Reverend Peter Richard Kennck, a young priest of Irish birth attached to the diocese of Philadelphia.
Kennck, who was a brother of Bishop Francis Patrick Kennck of
Church (never completed) was m the block bounded by Marion, Carroll, Eighth and Ninth Streets The corner-stone was laid in 1839 by Bishop Rosati 27 Verhaegen a Rosati, St Louis, December 16, 1840 (C) 2B$LCHR, 2*15 Rosati ad Franzom, May 9, 1835 Transcript m Kennck Seminary Archives A letter from Bishop Rosati to Bishop Dubois, July 7, 1835, gives the Ufna as Timon, Verhaegen, Pise Cf also Archbishop Eccleston of Baltimore to Bishop Blanc of New Orleans, February 25, 1841 (CAA) "I should presume from the tenor of a letter from Bp Rosati that he has informed all the Bishops of the Province that he has proposed another list of names for the coadjutorship of St Louis Revd Peter Kennck V. Revd F Verhaegen, SJ — Rev Ed. Purcell. Had not Revd Mr Kennck shown so strange a vacillation of mind relative to his design of entering the Society of Jesus, I would have felt little hesitation about the nomination, particularly as I hope that the Ven Bishop will yet be long spared to govern his noble diocese."
THE SUCCESSION OF SUPERIORS, 1831-1848 495
Philadelphia, was in 1837 pastor of St. Mary's Church in that city as also director o£ an incipient diocesan seminary. It was apparently in that year that Rosati first made his acquaintance. He was highly impressed with him from the start "Father Kennck," he wrote in his diary, May 12, 1837, "a priest, nwnens omnibus solutus." Another entry, May 27, 1840, reads "Here [in Philadelphia] I saw his [the Bishop's] brother, the Reverend Mr Peter Richard Kennck, and admiring more and more his piety, learning, modesty and other virtues, I was all afire with the desire of obtaining him for my coadjutor." A biographer of the two Kenncks is authority for the statement that Rosati questioned the Bishop of Philadelphia as to the fitness of his brother for the dignity in question. The information which he received being favorable, Rosati, on arriving in Rome, solicited from the Holy See the appointment of Father Kennck to the coadjutorship of St. Louis.29 It so happened that Kennck had himself been in Rome the preceding year, and he was there for the purpose of seeking admission into the Society of Jesus, having brought with him commendatory letters to the Jesuit General from his brother, the Bishop of Philadelphia.30 The step which the young priest proposed to take did not meet with the approval of his friends m the diocese of Philadelphia, which they feared would suffer severely by his withdrawal Father Michael O'Connor, subse- quently the first Bishop of Pittsburgh, which dignity he was ultimately to surrender to become a Jesuit, made serious efforts to dissuade him from his purpose. "I would not venture," he wrote to Father Kennck, November 23, 1839, "to urge any reason that I would not think capable of standing the most strict scrutiny of anyone fresh from even the third, aye even the fourth week of the exercises of St. Ignatius." 31 To Father Cullen, through whose hands he communicated his letter of pro- test to Kennck, Father O'Connor wrote "If Mr. Kennck has entered the Jesuits, destroy this. If not, give it to him and impress its contents on him. It will be a most foolish thing for him to abandon Philadelphia — the diocese will suffer severely." In June, 1 840, Bishop Kennck con- fided to Cullen "My brother has just published the Life of St. Ignatius and is engaged in preparing that of St. Francis X[avier], You see where his heart lies. Those works have delayed the execution of his pur- pose but I fear not changed it." 32 In the end Kenrick was definitely turned aside from his purpose. It has been asserted, but on no docu- mentary grounds, that Father Roothaan himself was responsible for this development, having presumably judged that the young priest's talents
29 John J Shea, The Two Kenncks (Philadelphia, 1904), p 275 80 Shea, of at , p 273. *1RACHS, 7:343 82 Idem, 7: 306.
496 THE JESUITS OF THE MIDDLE UNITED STATES
would be employed to better purpose in the ranks of the diocesan clergy.
Bishop Rosati, having succeeded in securing Father Kennck as his Coadjutor, left Rome to return to America The Coadjutor-elect re- ceived episcopal consecration in Philadelphia at the hands of Bishop Rosati November 30, 1841, Bishops Kennck of Philadelphia and Lefevere of Detroit being the assistant prelates. This important event having been announced by Rosati to his flock in a pastoral letter issued from Philadelphia, Bishop Kennck arrived in St. Louis m December, 1841, and was there given a cordial welcome on all hands. Verhaegen had already conveyed to Rosati June 4, 1841, his satisfaction at the news of Kennck's appointment "You may imagine, Monseigneur, how glad I was to hear of the nomination of my excellent friend, the Rev Mr. Kennck. The choice could not have been better. May he come soon to take my place at the Bishop's house. His zeal will find there everything it could desire While regretting that we are to be deprived for a still longer period of your presence, I cannot refrain from blessing Providence for having committed to your hands so important a nego- tiation. I expect the happiest results from your mission. For this inten- tion fervent prayers will be addressed to the Most High throughout your diocese Let us labor, Monseigneur, your remark is so true, 'we shall rest in heaven ' " 33
On Kennck's arrival in St Louis Verhaegen was at once relieved of the charge of administrator. To Father Roothaan he expressed the satisfaction he felt at being thus made free of a "disagreeable burden " "Taught by experience I now know practically with what prudence our Institute provides that we be excluded from every ecclesiastical dig- nity." 34 Bishop Rosati died in Rome September 25, 1843, after havmg accomplished with success on behalf of the Holy See a delicate diplo- matic mission to the republic of Hayti. In him the Jesuits of St. Louis lost a sympathetic friend and supporter. Writing to Archbishop Kennck of St. Louis in 1850, Bishop Van de Velde of Chicago paid the deceased prelate an affectionate tribute.
He did on all occasions all he could to encourage and aid us [the Jesuits] and to extend our influence m his Diocese. It was he also who first sug- gested the plan of building a small church in the neighborhood of the farm and who advised, encouraged and urged us to build the present church of St. Francis Xavier [St. Louis] He was ever looked upon by all Ours (if I may call them so) as a kind Father and generous Benefactor and I feel sure that his memory will always be held m benediction by the Fathers of the Missouri Province You will pardon my weakness if I state that the
33 Verhaegen a Rosati, St Louis, June 4, 1841 (C) 8* Verhaegen ad Roothaan, December 6, 1841. (C).
THE SUCCESSION OF SUPERIORS, 1831-1848 497
tears roll down my cheeks while I trace these lines I was a particular favorite of his, and never, never shall his affectionate kindness towards me and my religious brethren be obliterated from my mind 35
At intervals, normally every three years, the provinces (and some- times by concession lesser administrative units) of the Society of Jesus elect one of their members to sit m a council or congregation under the presidency of the Father General. The chief matter brought under discussion on these occasions is the question whether circumstances justify the convoking of a general congregation of the order. The mission of Missouri, having been raised to the rank of a vice-province, was now accorded the privilege of sending a representative, called a procurator, to these triennial congregations, a privilege which it exer- cised for the first time in i84i.36 A congregation of procurators being summoned to meet in Rome in the fall of that year, a quasi vice- provincial congregation was held in St. Louis on August 12 of that year. When the rules regulating such assemblies were applied, it was found that only seven fathers were qualified to vote on this occasion nor were all seven actually present, the votes of the Louisiana fathers being obtained by mail. This makeshift assembly went on record as opposed to the convoking of a regular vice-provincial congregation during the current year but in favor of sending a procurator to Rome. The choice for this office fell on Father Van de Velde, rector of St. Louis University, with Father Mignard as substitute. On August 20, with seven fathers in attendance, Verhaegen, Van de Velde, Elet, Smedts, De Vos, Van Assche and Mignard, another meeting was held in St. Louis for the purpose of determining on the so-called postulata or specific petitions which the procurator was to present to the General in Rome. The postulata agreed upon were ( i ) that the right of a seat in the vice-provincial congregations thereafter to be held be accorded to the superiors of the major residences, as St. Charles, Sugar Creek,
85 Van de Velde to Kenrick, February 28, 1850 (A) Bishop Rosati wrote in a letter of October 20, 1826, to Father Baccan "Certainly no jealousy on our part (witness what I did to establish and strengthen the Jesuits) " SLCHR, 5 67.
S6 According to the Jesuit Institute only the provinces have strictly the right to be represented in a congregation of procurators However, Father Roothaan in the decree of erection of the vice-province, as cited above, makes particular mention of the election of procurators. A provincial congregation, if convened for the election of a procurator to Rome, has a membership of forty, if convened for the election of deputies to a general congregation, a membership of fifty Those entitled to a seat in a provincial congregation include the provincial, ex- provincials, the procurator (treasurer) of the province, local superiors appointed directly by the General, and the professed fathers of solemn vows, the latter being admitted according to seniority in the profession and in numbers sufficient to make up the numerical strength of the congregation, whether forty or fifty.
498 THE JESUITS OF THE MIDDLE UNITED STATES
the Rocky Mountains, (2) that such Jesuits in Belgium as desired to come to America be allowed to do so, (3) that a procurator or financial agent of the Missouri Vice-province to hold office for three years be stationed in Belgium, (4) that the French fathers of the provinces of France or Lyons residing in houses of the Missouri Vice- province be either permanently attached to the same or be not recalled before five or six years, in this latter case an option to be given to them to remain if they so desired 37
Father Van de Velde, who had been temporarily replaced as rector of St Louis University by Father Carrell, sailed from New York on September 16, 1841, in company with Father Dubuisson, the procurator from Maryland. Meeting the procurators of England and Ireland in Pans, the two American Jesuits set out in their company for Lyons and Marseilles, arriving in Rome on November 3. The congregation opened on the i4th. While it was in session the sudden death occurred of one of its members, Father Peter Kenney, the one-time Visitor of Missouri. During his stay in the capital of the Christian world Van de Velde had several audiences with the Sovereign Pontiff, Gregory XVI, who showed himself deeply interested in the Jesuit missions of western America. Besides transacting the official business committed to him as procurator, Van de Velde busied himself m securing what aid he could for the vice-province both in recruits and financial help. He petitioned the Father General that as compensation for the Belgian members said to have been retained m Maryland despite their desire to go to Missouri, certain Maryland subjects, as Father Samuel Barber and the scholastics, John Blox and James Ward, be transferred to Missouri either permanently or for a time. No action was taken on this petition except m the case of Mr. Blox and this not till several years later. A few Jesuits of the province of Rome signified to Van de Velde their desire to go to Missouri, among them Fathers Manfredim and Passaglia and a scholastic, Joseph Finotti. To impress on the Father General the exceeding meagreness of the Missouri personnel, Van de Velde pointed out to him in a written memorial that a staff of only forty-five men were conducting three colleges, St. Louis, Cincinnati, and Grand Coteau, while at the same time Georgetown alone could count a faculty of fifty-seven.
As to Missouri finances, Father Van de Velde, who knew them intimately, having been for years treasurer of the mission, represented their condition at the moment as alarming. Debts amounting m the aggregate to i??01 6 francs or $3,190.62 were being carried. These rep- resented, it would appear, interest dues on certain loans, among them
87 Liber Consultattonum (A)
Peter Verhaegen (1800-1868), pioneer midwestern Jesuit
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THE SUCCESSION OF SUPERIORS, 1831-1848 499
those from the province of Belgium for the new church in St. Louis., as also a loan from the Ghyseghem family in Belgium in favor of St. Louis University. There was no prospect, so Father Van de Velde maintained, of discharging this burden of debt unless the Father Gen- eral permitted him to seek aid in Belgium, as Father Verhaegen was most anxious for him to do Permission to this effect having been ob- tained from the General, subject to the Belgian provincial's approval, Van de Velde left Rome on December 16 for Belgium where he re- mained until July of the following year.38
From Belgium Van de Velde forwarded to Father Roothaan a further statement of the financial problems he was earnestly endeavor- ing to solve. At his departure from St Louis the rector of the novitiate, Father De Vos, had asked him to do his utmost to secure help for that hard-pressed institution, where the novices, more numerous than ever before, were still housed, uncomfortably so, in the original log build- ing. Moreover, since his arrival in Belgium Van de Velde had received fresh word from Father Verhaegen concerning the poverty of the novitiate. "It is absolutely necessary that we build a new house at the novitiate/' urged Van de Velde, "the old one built of wood by the first novices — Fathers Verhaegen, Elet, De Smet, Van Assche, Smedts and Verreydt, threatens to go to ruin and although the novices two years ago made bricks with their own hands for the construction of another building, so far it has not been possible to begin it for lack of means. Hired labor is exceedingly dear there and the number of novices for the last two or three years has been so great that we bad to incur debts to support them, and yet, even with the help they were able to render, they have had to suffer much." 39 Besides the novitiate, the scholasticate, opened in December, 1841, at the College Farm, was urgently in need of aid. As to St. Louis University, its income was not meeting the living expenses of the faculty, which in a brief time had grown in numbers from twenty to thirty-five.
To add to Father Van de Velde's perplexities an important source of revenue on which the Jesuits of the American West had been relying for some years back now seemed about to disappear. About 1836, a confraternity or association under the name of St. Francis Xavier was organized in the province of North Brabant, Holland, with the object of collecting funds for the Belgian Jesuits of western America. A few years later it was proposed by the officers of the Lyons Association of the Propagation of the Faith that this Dutch association amalgamate with their own. This the officers of the smaller association agreed to
88 These data are found in a written memorial addressed by Van de Velde to tie General (AA)
89 Van de Velde a Roothaan, March 28, 1842. (AA).
500 THE JESUITS OF THE MIDDLE UNITED STATES
do, on condition, however, that the funds they collected would con- tinue to be applied to the Jesuit Mission of Missouri. The Papal inter- nuncio at The Hague, Msgr. Fernen, assured Father Van de Velde that the Lyons officials would raise no difficulty on this score, and would see to it that the funds turned m by the Association of St. Xavier were not diverted from their original purpose But Van der Velde, who undertook a journey to France to take the matter up personally with the General Council of the French association, was in- formed in the name of the latter by its treasurer, M. Choiselot-Gallien, that the question would have to be referred to Father Roothaan, who personally distributed all the monies allocated by Lyons to the Society of Jesus The union between the French and Dutch associations, thus delayed for a while, was later effected on the understanding mentioned above, after Van de Velde had written to officials of the Dutch associa- tion advising that no opposition be made to the proposed union. Up to September, 1841, the money thus collected m the Catholic Nether- lands for Missouri, about four thousand florins or sixteen hundred dollars annually, had been regularly placed m the hands of the Mis- souri procurator m Belgium, Father Van Ryckenvorsel, who used as much of it as was necessary to defray the travelling expenses of novices going to Florissant, the surplus being taken along with them and de- livered to the procurator of the vice-province m St. Louis. The ex- penses, however, of the Florissant novices leaving Europe m October, 184.1, had to be met by Father Van Ryckenvorsel with borrowed money, as the funds of the Association of St Francis Xavier were apparently not available at the moment. Some twenty candidates had offered them- selves to Van de Velde for Missouri before March, 1842, but he de- clined to receive them, having no means at hand to meet the expenses of their journey to America.
Father Franckeville, the Belgian provincial, at first raised no ob- jection to Father Van de Velde's collecting money within the limits of his province, but he subsequently withdrew his consent, engaging at the same time, however, to obtain a loan of one hundred thousand francs on behalf of Missouri from M. De Boey, who had on previous occasions made substantial gifts to the Jesuits of Missouri. The affair was negotiated personally by Franckeville, Van de Velde not meeting De Boey until all the details had been satisfactorily arranged. The loan, which was to run for fifteen years, with interest at five per cent, was intended to cover the cost of construction of the new "College Church" in St. Louis, then m process of erection. The debt thus as- sumed proved later to be distinctly burdensome for the vice-province, which was unable at times to meet the interest dues, these being on several occasions paid by Father Roothaan himself. Efforts were made
THE SUCCESSION OF SUPERIORS, 1831-1848 501
by Van de Velde when he became vice-provincial to have De Smet pre- vail upon M. De Boey to remit the debt, at least in his will. Mean- time, though the fact never became known to the authorities of the vice-province during De Boey's life-time, the latter in his will assigned to Father Roothaan his claim to the borrowed money. When De Boey died in 1851, Father Roothaan remitted the debt in favor of the vice- province.40
On the whole Van de Velde did not consider his visit to Belgium to have been successful as regarded its main purpose, which was to secure financial aid for urgent Jesuit needs. "Our fathers in Missouri," he wrote disappointedly to the General, "were thoroughly persuaded that, being a man of affairs, I should succeed in all my undertakings for the good of the province " 41 Only a few weeks before he had, as on other occasions, confided his worries to Father Roothaan "If I suffered alone, I would keep silence, it is the lot of my brethren and especially of our dear novices that I deplore when I compare it with the lot of the novices of the Provinces which I have visited. . . Ought we to start new stations or residences? We haven't a single chasuble, not an alb, nor a chalice, nor a missal is left us. Here there is a superabundance of everything and everything is rich and precious.41'
No doubt Father Franckeville had excellent reasons for not allow- ing Van de Velde a free hand in soliciting financial aid from the Bel- gian public. The following year, De Smet, being in Belgium on a similar mission on behalf of the vice-province, obtained the permission in ques- tion and was successful in obtaining aid Yet Van de Velde did not leave Europe without something to show for his visit abroad. He had received by way of donations a considerable quantity of church goods, including altar furniture and linen, paintings, rosaries and crucifixes. These supplies were destined for the churches of the vice-province, especially for the new "College Church" in St. Louis. Unhappily, the entire shipment of fifteen or sixteen boxes was destroyed in the burning of a Mississippi River steamer between New Orleans and St. Louis. The articles had been insured in New Orleans at two thousand dol- lars (?), half their estimated value.
Returning to St. Louis October 22, 1842, Van de Velde resumed his duties as rector of the University. The erection of the first Jesuit church in St. Louis, which under the name of St. Francis Xavier or the "College Church" stood for almost half a century at Ninth Street and Christy Avenue, led to financial embarrassment. The plans for the
40 For a sketch of De Boey, cf. infra, Chap. XXXVII, § 2, cf also Chap
XVI, §5
41 Van de Velde a Roothaan, April 28, 1842 (AA)
42 Van de Velde a Roothaan, March 28, 1842 (AA).
502 THE JESUITS OF THE MIDDLE UNITED STATES
new edifice, drawn by the pastor-in-charge, Father Peter Verheyden, "skilled in architecture/5 so Father Verhaegen assured the General, met with approval from the officers of the University. The cost, as figured by Verheyden, was not to go beyond forty thousand dollars. Of this sum approximately ten thousand dollars was covered by popular sub- scription, the prevailing dull times not permitting of a larger contribu- tion from the public Later, as construction proceeded, it was found that the church would cost some fifty-five thousand dollars. But, as Verhaegen observed to the General, this could scarcely be considered an extravagant outlay when one bore in mind that "the clock was made, the bells were bought and the structure was equal in size to two ordi- nary structures." 4<J Miscalculation of building costs is a pitfall not always avoided even by men of the profession But an excess cost of fifteen thousand dollars bringing with it, as it did, new and unexpected obligations helped, with other circumstances, to precipitate a financial crisis. At a meeting of the vice-provincial consultors, January n, 1843, it was decided that pews, to be sold or rented, should be installed as quickly as possible in the lower church, that the pastors should canvas the city for new subscriptions or payments on old ones, and that, if possible, a loan should be negotiated with a view to finishing the upper church at the earliest possible date. Finally, Father Verheyden, the innocent cause of the critical situation, was assigned to the remote mission-post of Westport on the Missouri frontier, the management of the church funds being thereupon placed entirely m the experienced hands of Father Van de Velde. The debts now to be liquidated had been contracted during his absence in Europe through a desire, ill- advised, so it seemed to him, to hurry the church forward to comple- tion. The first step he took towards retrieving the situation was to issue time-notes to the creditors. "We ran the risk," he wrote to Father Roothaan, "of seeing our church attached by the creditors." There was danger too, of the University being taken over and sold, or as an alternative, of Van de Velde's going to a debtor's prison All told, the debts contracted amounted now to forty-five thousand dollars.44
Meantime, Father De Smet had been commissioned by Father Ver- haegen to arrange m Europe for a loan of ten thousand dollars. The memorial on the subject which he was to present to the Father General and which was drawn up by Verhaegen represented that money could not be obtained in St. Louis except at ten or fifteen per cent and was obtained with difficulty even at that. The church had been begun in fairly prosperous times when the college was laying aside three or four thou- sand-year, which money, it was expected, would go to the liquidation
43 Verhaegen ad Roothaan, January 20, 1843 (AA)
44 Van de Velde a RootJiaan, May 3, 1843 (AA).
THE SUCCESSION OF SUPERIORS, 1831-1848 503
of the church debts. At present, the college was scarcely self-sustaining. In fine, the church, if it carried no debts, would have sufficed for the support of the novitiate and scholasticate. "Meanwhile," wrote Ver- haegen to the General after De Smet's departure from St. Louis, "I beg your Paternity to deign to be as generous as possible towards our Vice-Province in financial help this year at least, and not to refuse the requests which under stress of extreme necessity I have made to you through Father De Smet. ... I do not see how the creditors can be satisfied unless Father De Smet be authorized to collect or borrow money either in Belgium or England" A loan of seventy thousand francs which De Smet succeeded m obtaining in Belgium tided over the crisis m St. Louis. Six years later the church debt, estimated then at forty thousand dollars, was still being carried by the vice-province Finally, in 1850 the church, with all its obligations, was transferred to the University and the vice-province was thus rid of an mcumbrance which it could not contrive to carry with ease
When Father Verhaegen took over the administration of the Mis- souri Mission m 1836 the latter was apparently free from financial embarrassment of any kind Father De Theux was conservative m money matters and allowed no disquieting burden of debts to develop. No attempt at expansion is to be credited to him with perhaps the single exception of the Indian Mission, which indeed he inaugurated only under pressure from the Father General. Under Verhaegen there was development in many directions, but there were also disconcerting finan- cial worries. To Father Roothaan it seemed that much of the responsi- bility for the economic difficulties in which the vice-province had become involved attached to Father Verhaegen himself In the opinion of those around him the latter was not at his best m the management of tem- poralities. Father Roothaan, dependent for the most part on the in- telligence that reached him confidentially from the vice-province, called him to task for lack of prudence and foresight.45 Before the financial situation had cleared up Father Ve'rhaegen was given a successor, a relief which he himself had more than once petitioned for. "Father Verhaegen has often asked us to be relieved of office," the General wrote to the new vice-provincial, Father Van de Veldej "besides, he has been carry- ing that burden, an exceedingly heavy one m all conscience, far beyond the period usual m the Society." 4e Father Verhaegen was in his eighth year of office as superior of the vice-province of Missouri when on September 17, 1843, he was succeeded in the charge by Van de Velde. During Verhaegen's administration the Jesuits of the West made many substantial gains. Among other constructive measures, he
45 Roothaan ad Verhaegen, March 9, 1843. (AA).
46 Roothaan ad Van de Velde, July 17, 1843 (AA).
504 THE JESUITS OF THE MIDDLE UNITED STATES
established the Society in Cincinnati and opened up the Rocky Moun- tain Missions, probably the most important missionary enterprise on behalf of the American red men taken in hand by the Catholic Church in the United States On relinquishing his post as superior Verhaegen was assigned the pastorate of St. Charles, in which quiet Missouri town he sought to enjoy for a spell at least the "blessed tranquillity," as he phrased it, which he could not find amid the engrossing cares of office. But his retirement to the ranks was not for long The confidence which Father Roothaan continued to repose in Verhaegen as a superior is indicated by the circumstance that only a few months after the close of his administration in Missouri he was named superior of the Jesuit province of Maryland. Here his term of office covered the period 1844- 1 847, after which he returned to the West to become first Jesuit rector of St. Joseph's College at Bardstown, Kentucky.
§ 3. JAMES OLIVER VAN DE VELDE, 1843-1848
Father Van de Velde was installed in the office of superior of the vice-province of Missouri at St. Louis University, on September 17, 1843. Me was at this time forty-eight years of age, having been born in Lebbeke, on the outskirts of Termonde, Belgium, April 3, 1795. While a candidate for the priesthood m the Grand Seminary of Mech- lin he had come under the spell of the heroic Father Nerinckx, then in Belgium in search of financial aid and clerical workers for the destitute missions of Kentucky. It was agreed between the two that Van de Velde should accompany the missionary on his return to America and complete his theological studies in Bishop Flaget's seminary at Bards- town Accordingly, in company with Father Nermckx and a party of clerical recruits, among them several young Belgians on their way to the Jesuit novitiate at Georgetown College, he crossed the Atlantic in the spring of 1817 in the brig Mars, Captain Hall. Before their de- parture from Belgium Nerinckx had advised Van de Velde to become a Jesuit as the likeliest way of realizing his ambition to be a missionary m the New World, but the young man demurred resolutely to any such proposal, having conceived some lively prejudices against the So- ciety of Jesus. The voyage to America was an eventful one. The ship's captain and mate seem to have possessed no knowledge of navigation beyond the most rudimentary with the result that she was taken ab- surdly out of her course At last, more by a lucky chance than by any skilful management on the part of the ship's officers, the Mars found her way into the harbor of Baltimore. During one of the storms met with on the way Mr Van de Velde had been thrown violently on the deck of the vessel, the shock rupturing a blood-vessel and inducing a
THE SUCCESSION OF SUPERIORS, 1831-1848 505
fever which for a while seriously impaired his health. On the day after his arrival in Baltimore Father Simon Brute, the future Bishop of Vmcennes, had the kindness to visit him on board the ship, from which he was conveyed in a carriage to St. Mary's College, of which institution Brute was president.
By this time young Van de Velde had undergone a complete reversal of feeling towards the Society of Jesus. One day in the course of the voyage now happily ended he took into his hands, for want of some- thing more interesting to read, the Dtctionnawe Geogra.'pbique of the Abbe De Feller and began to peruse its pages. The author's account of the missions of the Society of Jesus in Asia, in Africa, m the New World, interested him keenly. Above all he was deeply impressed by De Feller's observation that the enemies of the Jesuits will generally be found to be the enemies of the Church. A serious tram of reflection was started in his mmd with the result that, seeing his former prejudices against the Society of Jesus to be groundless and conceiving now a very high regard for its character and manner of life, he resolved to become a Jesuit himself at the first opportunity. After a few weeks' stay at St. Mary's College, Baltimore, where he recovered from the effects of the accident he had met with on board ship, he was received into the Jesuit novitiate at Georgetown College, August 23, 1817. He remained fourteen years at Georgetown, where he was raised to the priesthood in 1827 and where he discharged various duties, among them those of professor of belles-lettres and librarian of the college. The last named occupation was particularly congenial to him and he notes in a memoir, with evident satisfaction, the circumstance that he found the library of Georgetown College, when he assumed its management in 1818, a mere handful of some two hundred books and left it m 1831 a great collection of twenty thousand volumes. In that year Van de Velde was attached by the Visitor, Father Kenney, to the teaching staff of the newly opened Jesuit college in St. Louis.47
In St. Louis Van de Velde discharged successively various offices of distinction in the college, — professor of belles-lettres, vice-president, president. Engaged though he was through a long period of years in various executive duties, his tastes were typically those of the student and scholar. His aptitude for languages was remarkable, a contemporary official record of his attainments noting his acquaintance with English, French, Flemish, German, Spanish and Italian. In his easy mastery of English he gave striking proof of the success with which Jesuits of Bel-
47 Biographical Sketch of the Rt. Rev Dr Van de Velde, second Bishop of Chicago, Illinois, and subsequently second Bishop of Natchez, Mississippi (23 pp. Ms ) (A) Van de Velde himself wrote the sketch It is reproduced in the Illinois Catholic Historical Review, 9 56 et seq. (1926).
506 THE JESUITS OF THE MIDDLE UNITED STATES
gian origin settled in America acquired the language of their adopted country. As a preacher he was much before the public in the pulpits of the 'cathedral and St Francis Xavier Church, St. Louis, while as a speaker on civic occasions his services appear to have been also in demand Whatever the immediate effect of his spoken utterances may have been, his addresses on these occasions read impressively in printed form.
In his letter of July 17, 1843, appointing Father Van de Velde vice- provincial the General of the Society called attention to the nationally diversified character of the membership of the vice-province. "Since the Society among you is recruited from various nationalities, its personnel being marked accordingly by differences in training and studies, the superior's first concern should be for chanty to the end that all in the house may be of one mind, that there be equal solicitude for all and that the manner of living be uniform and common in all respects " Nothing indeed could better illustrate the extent to which the Catholic Church in the United States at this period was drawing upon Europe for the needed ministerial help in its parishes and schools than the complexion of the Missouri Jesuits from the standpoint of origin. The quotas for the various countries represented on the membership list for July i, 1846, were as follows. Ireland, forty-five, Belgium, forty-two, Holland, sixteen, United States, sixteen, Germany, thirteen, Italy, eleven $ France, nine; and Spam, two. Of the forty-five Irish members, all but five were coadjutor-brothers. The dominant element was the Belgian. The eighty-seven fathers and scholastics included thirty-three Belgians, thirteen Hollanders, thirteen Americans, eight Frenchmen, seven Italians, six Germans, five Irishmen, two Spaniards. Founded and recruited by Belgian Jesuits and supported largely during its early stage of development by Belgian material aid, the Society of Jesus in mid-America long bore the impress left upon it by its pioneer members of that nationality. All the superiors, whether of the Missouri Mission, Vice-Province or Province, up to as late a date as 1870, were, with the single exception of Father William Stack Murphy, of Belgian birth. It was noted of the early Society of Jesus that native sons of various lands of Europe were often to be found working harmoniously together in the same house in a broad spirit of international chanty. The same phenomenon was repeating itself among the Jesuits of the Middle West. ccWe have," wrote Van de Velde, "French, Belgians, Americans, Spaniards, Irish, Germans, Hollanders 5 but all live together as if they were of the same country."
Shortly before assuming the management of the vice-province Father Van de Velde had been requested by Father Roothaan, who declared himself ready to lend what aid he could, to forward him an
THE SUCCESSION OF SUPERIORS, 1831-1848 507
exact statement of its debts and of the interest dues that had to be met. On October 12, 1843, Van de Velde accordingly addressed the General on the financial situation that confronted him as he entered on the duties of vice-provincial "A few weeks ago I sent your Paternity a statement of the debts etc of our new church The loan made us by the Belgian Province came just in time to stop proceedings against us on the part of the banks. But the finances of our vice-province are still in a very sorry condition. . . . There is nothing left in the bank. I have just borrowed $100 to meet travelling expenses from St. Louis [to Louisiana] and I am afraid that nothing will be sent us this year from the allocation [of the Propagation of the Faith]." The usual appropriation from this source, so Van de Velde explained, would re- main in Belgium to pay the interest on the Belgian debts The rest would probably remain in Pans to pay the expenses of a party of mis- sionaries destined for the Rocky Mountains.48
For some years the interest on the De Boey and Ghyseghem debts was paid, it would appear, by Father Roothaan, but the aid he was in a position to furnish did not relieve altogether the fiscal distress of the western Jesuits. In 1846 Van de Velde was still urgently appealing to him for help, and he expressed the startling apprehension that the Jesuits might have to sell all their property, which on account of the war with Mexico would not bring half its real value, and leave Mis- souri.49 His fears were happily not verified by the event. But the straitened condition of the finances of the vice-province continued all through his years of office despite his steady efforts to remedy it. At the same time skilful administration on his part averted anything like actual collapse. On being relieved of the office of vice-provincial he was directed by Father Roothaan to retain that of procurator "Con- tinue, therefore, to fill this post with the same industry and success with which you have filled it up to this " co
The Association of the Propagation of the Faith was still engaged in its historic work of financing the growing but materially destitute Church in the United States. Its liberal appropriations in favor of the Missouri Vice-province continued to be a most important factor in making it possible for the latter to maintain its varied activities in operation. St. Louis University appears to have been about the only Jesuit house of the western group that was not sharing in its benefac- tions. "While the two other colleges [Cincinnati and Grand Coteau]," Father Van de Velde wrote in 1843, "and all the residences and mis-
4&Van de Velde a Roothaan, October 12, 1843 (AA)
49 Van de Velde a Roothaan, July 4, 1846 (AA)
50 Roothaan ad Van de Velde, March 16, 1848. (AA)
508 THE JESUITS OF THE MIDDLE UNITED STATES
sions have received assistance from the Propagation of the Faith, St. Louis has never received a single penny." 51
In accordance with the distribution by the Father General of the thirty-two thousand francs appropriated in 1843, twelve thousand francs were applied to the payment of interest on the debts contracted by the vice-province in Belgium, and five thousand to the scholasticate, novi- tiate, and Potawatomi Mission apiece, while the same sum was placed at the disposition of the vice-provincial. The amount allotted to the Potawatomi Mission appeared somewhat excessive to Van de Velde, who ventured to make the matter a subject of mild protest to Father Roothaan. It is the function of the general superior of a religious order to call subordinate superiors to task when they give evidence of losing sight of the high ideals which should inspire their management of affairs. On this occasion Father Roothaan did not fail to recall to Van de Velde the deep concern for missions among the heathen that has always characterized the Society of Jesus "This would be indeed to have a wrong understanding of the actual needs of the Vice-Province and to fulfill improperly the end of the Society " The General was even fearful that some token of divine disfavor might be visited upon the vice-province if the Indians were to fall back into their old-time habits for want of material help, or if the good dispositions of the uncon- verted Indians were not to be encouraged.52
In 1 846 a change of policy was announced by the Association of the Propagation of the Faith. Theretofore the mission or vice-province of Missouri as such had been regularly listed among its beneficiaries, but it was now decided to make appropriations only to the Indian missions conducted by the vice-province, the colleges and other houses being thus left without aid from this particular quarter. This arrangement, cutting off as it did a highly important source of material help on which he had been accustomed to rely, elicited a protest from Father Van de Velde-
When your Paternity made known to me the resolution taken by the Directors at Lyons to drop the Vice-Province of Missouri from their list, I explained to you how Count Von Vrecken and others, acting in the name of the directors of the concern, had finally succeeded m prevailing upon the Associations of the Diocese of Ghent and of North Brabant (Holland) (where that of St Francis Xavier had been established expressly and exclu- sively to serve the urgent needs of our Province) to unite with the Asso- ciation of the Propagation of the Faith after having been assured by explicit and frequently reiterated promises that the funds to come from those quarters
51 Van de Velde a Roothaan, August 23, 1843 (AA) But see supra, p. 360. "Roothaan a Van de Velde, April 25, 1844 (AA)
THE SUCCESSION OF SUPERIORS, 1831-1848 509
would not be diverted from their destination. It was after the meeting of the Pans Council, which took place April 28 or 29, 1842, and in which the promises made by M. Van Vrecken were confirmed, that I wrote myself to M. Van Vrecken, just then appointed vicar-apostolic of Breda, and to M Kuyten, president of the Semmaiy of Bois-le-Duc, who were the head officials of the Association of St Francis Xavier, to induce them to overcome the repugnance they have long felt towards union with the said Association of the Propagation of the Faith The union took place somewhat later, but on the condition indicated above, namely, that we should not suffer thereby, and now these Gentlemen, after having drained all our resources, refuse to come to the assistance of our province as such and are willing only to appropriate a rather modest sum to our Indian missions So the debts of our Province, far from diminishing, will only increase from year to year They amount now, including the new debts in France and Belgium, to 86,1 1 8 dollars or 459,262 francs And so I, the Provincial of Missouri, perhaps the only one in the whole Society who has not a single cent of income whatso- ever, and no resources except what comes to me from the chanty of the faithful of Europe, shall have nothing for the support of our young scholas- tics, not a penny for the support of the novitiate, where they have begun to build a house, (the old one of wood built by Fathers Van Quickenborne, Verhaegen, De Smet, Elet, and the others with their own hands now falling into rums), and I shall see myself forced to dismiss the novices, as your Pater- nity has already permitted me to do I shall have nothing now for our rural missionaries who almost all have recourse to me and some of whom will have neither clothes to cover them nor bread to eat unless they go and beg it As to myself, I shall have nothing with which to meet the incidental ex- penses of my office as provincial, not even the means of buying myself clothes and other indispensable things .
All our consultois are of the opinion that we ought to write to the Bishops of Belgium and to the Vicars Apostolic of North Brabant to let them know our state of distress and induce them to separate from the Association of Lyons and Pans and to form again a special society to relieve the needs of their compatriot missionaries as is done by the Leopoldine Association of Vienna Last year Belgium alone contributed 177,686 francs and North Brabant 36,873 francs, in all 241,560 [214,559] francs Of this sum it seems that they have allotted us scarcely one sixteenth, although most of our fathers and scholastics are of these two countries and although their number here in our vice-province is perhaps greater than that found in all the other foreign missions combined For we have here 22 Fathers and n scholastics who are Belgians, 9 of them being from the diocese of Ghent and as many again from the diocese of Mahnes, moreover, we have 9 Fathers and 4 scholastics from North Brabant, besides 12 coadjutor-brothers from these two countnes, which makes 58 members from these two countries [Holland and Belgium], while the personnel of our vice-province numbers 154 Of the Fathers 32 are missionaries, 14 of them among the Indians.53
53 Van de Velde a Roothaan, July 4, 1846. (AA)
5io THE JESUITS OF THE MIDDLE UNITED STATES
The proposal put forward by Father Van de Velde that a Dutch- Belgian aid association on the lines of the Leopoldme Association of Vienna be established evidently did not meet with the favor of Father Roothaan, who preferred to intervene with Lyons m Father Van de Velde's behalf. His intervention seems to have borne fruit, for on June 25, 1847, the president of the Lyons Association wrote to Father Roothaan expressing the willingness of that body to remove whatever restrictions had been previously set on the funds appropriated to Missouri.
The year 1847 found the vice-province still lacking by a large margin the number of fathers normally required to fill out a regularly constituted congregation for the election of a procurator to be sent to Rome. A meeting of procurators was announced for the fall of that year. Accordingly a congregation by way of consultation ('per modum considtationum) was held at St Louis University on August 3, 1847, with only six fathers in attendance, Van de Velde, Smedts, Van Assche, Carrell, O'Loghlen, and Elet Besides Van de Velde, Elet was the only professed father of solemn vows present, there being in fact at that time only two members of this grade m the vice-province, as Father Verhaegen was at the moment occupying the post of provincial of Maryland. Father Joset, superior of the Oregon Missions, who was entitled to a seat in the congregation, was at too great a distance from St. Louis to attend. The choice of the quasi- congregation for procurator fell on Elet, with De Smet, then in Bel- gium, as substitute. It was, moreover, voted that the vice-province would likewise send the substitute procurator to Rome. This last deci- sion, however, was negatived by Father Roothaan, who objected to De Smet's going to Rome on account of the expense which the journey would entail.54
Besides taking part in the deliberations of the congregation of procurators, which was held in the fall of 1 847, Father Elet went over carefully with Father Roothaan the condition of affairs in the vice- province he represented. In a memorandum presented to the latter he notes that he has secured a small batch ($auci omntno) of recruits for Missouri, including two coadjutor-brothers from the Roman Province, two fathers, three scholastics and a brother or two from the province of Turin, a father from the Belgian Province, and a scholastic from that of Switzerland. Of these only six actually found their way to Mis- souri, Fathers Miege, Ponziglione, and Charles Elet, a brother of the Missouri procurator, Messrs. Messea and Schuster and Brother Bettim, who seems to have accompanied Father Elet on his return to America
64 Ltler ConsultaUonum (A)
THE SUCCESSION OF SUPERIORS, 1831-1848 511
Brother Serafini of the Roman Province, a painter of merit, for whom Father Elet had already set aside a thousand francs to procure him painting-materials and other necessaries, was on the list but remained m his province. As to the number of men he might rely upon from the dispersed province of Switzerland, Elet was especially anxious to be informed on this head so that a conclusion might be reached m re- gard to the college of Bardstown, which Bishop Flaget had offered to the Society. Further points in Elet's memorandum touch the qualifica- tions most to be desired in recruits for Missouri as also the question of the scholastics' studies.
Those speaking German or French are more serviceable ceterts fanbus than those who speak only Italian. Those who have passed thirty experience, generally speaking, great difficulty in learning English, consequently younger men, even scholastics, are to be preferred to Fathers somewhat on m years
The following ought to be set studying theology m the scholasticate the next scholastic year, seeing that very much is to be hoped from them Fathers Maessele, Van den Eycken, Druyts (already rector of St Louis University), and O'Loghlen, and the scholastics De Blieck, Verdm, Smanus, Fastre. With the arrival of the new scholastics from Europe and the return of our own from Louisiana, matters can be so adjusted as to allow time to the rest [of the scholastics] for studying philosophy or theology in the college even though a beginning be made with the Bardstown College
The new house of St. Stanislaus, which is very roomy, would suit per- fectly for a scholasticate. The air is very wholesome, the gardens quite extensive and the farm would provide all the necessanes of life It is a place remote from all noise and occasion of distraction, they [the scholastics] could live apart from the novices 55
In January, 1848, Father Elet was in Lyons, having with his com- panion, apparently Brother Bettini, met, it would seem, with severely cold weather on the journey from Rome. "It was fortunate that I had been at pains to bring my travelling-companion a hooded cloak with a good lining, and that the diligence was well filled. Rev. Father Jourdan received us so hospitably that we soon forgot all our miseries and how should we dare to complain with the sight before us of our exiled brethren of Switzerland, poorly clothed and showing, some of them, signs of the distressing experiences through which they had passed." 56
A call at the general headquarters of the Association of the Propa- gation of the Faith in Lyons resulted only in Father Elet's learning that the amount of the appropriation for Missouri could not be deter-
85 It was probably after his departure from Rome that Elet drew up these memoranda (in Latin) for the General 56 Elet a Roothaan, January, 1848. (AA).
512 THE JESUITS OF THE MIDDLE UNITED STATES
mined before April and would depend on the volume of the receipts. The Prefect of the city was also visited, this functionary having had, it would seem, some government money at his disposition for the for- eign missions, but nothing came of this appeal for secular aid. From France Elet passed to Belgium, which was not to be spared by the revolutionary ferment now making itself felt over the entire continent. Conditions in Belgium soon became so uncertain that he made hasty preparations to leave for America, "Poor Europe," he wrote m a letter, as he turned with relief from the turmoil of the Old World to the peace and security that awaited him in the New He arrived m St Louis at the end of May, having made the transatlantic voyage in company with Father De Smet.
Under Father Van de Velde, whose administration of the vice- province was now drawing to a close, a number of new constructions had been taken in hand and carried forward wholly or in part to com- pletion. These included the churches of St. Joseph m St. Louis, St. Francis Borgia at Washington and St. Joseph at New Westphalia, all in Missouri. Moreover, most of the work on the so-called "Rock Build- ing" of the novitiate at Florissant was carried on during his incumbency. Finally, he negotiated with the Indian Office for the subsidizing of a school among the Osage Indians, an educational experiment which was to issue in a measure of success remarkable m the history of Indian schools of the period. A member of the vice-province characterized Van de Velde's administration as "mild " The same epithet fitted the man himself He was of an easy, affable temper and had a liveliness of man- ner that was not typically Belgian. In the handling of business affairs he showed capacity of no mean order Father Roothaan in pointing out to the officials of the Association of the Propagation of the Faith the loss sustained by the Missouri Jesuits when Van de Velde was raised to the episcopate, affirmed that of all the members of the vice- province he was the one who best understood its temporal concerns.57 As a Jesuit he was distinguished by a most affectionate attachment to his order, as was indicated by the extreme reluctance with which he left its obedience to enter the ranks of the hierarchy.
"Roothaan a MM, etc, Feb 16, 1849.
CHAPTER XVI JOHN ANTHONY ELET, VICE-PROVINCIAL, 1848-1851
§ i. FATHER ELET'S APPOINTMENT, 184.8
On June 3, 1 848, the government of the vice-province of Missouri passed from the hands of Father Van de Velde into those of Father John Anthony Elet A native of St Amand in Belgium, where he was born February 19, 1802, Elet had made his classical studies in the college of Mechlin and later entered the ecclesiastical seminary in the same city At nineteen he left the seminary to accompany Nennckx's party of ,1821 to America, where he entered the Society of Jesus at White Marsh, Maryland, going thence to Missouri with Van Quicken- borne's pioneer party of 1823. Ordained priest by Bishop Rosati at Florissant in 1827, he discharged various offices of trust in the Society and on Verhaegen's accession to the supenorship of the mission in 1836 succeeded him as president of St. Louis University This office he held until 1840 when he was transferred to the presidency of St. Xavier College, Cincinnati, which had just been conveyed to the Jesuits by Bishop Purcell.
Father Elet's administration in Cincinnati covered the period 1840 1847. The institution which he headed became firmly intrenched m his affections, m a letter to Purcell he called it "the child of my predi- lection." * And yet, while giving himself whole-heartedly to the duties of his actual position, he was steadily looking West to the Indians as the particular field of service in which he sought above every other to be employed. Already in January, 1840, being then president of St. Louis University, he had petitioned the Father General to be assigned to the Indian mission-field, avowing that he had pledged himself, a pledge conditioned obviously by the approval of his superiors, to labor to his last breath for the conversion of the red men.2 In 1842 he was petitioning Father Roothaan to be allowed to accompany De Smet to the Rocky Mountains. He had a tendency to consumption and always experienced more or less of difficulty amid the restraints of a sedentary life, moreover, an affection of the liver from which he suffered was due, so a physician declared, to lack of bodily exercise. But the sub-
^•Elet to Purcell, July 8, 1844. Cincinnati Archdiocesan Archives. 2 Elet ad Roothaan, January 22, 184.0. (AA).
513
514 THE JESUITS OF THE MIDDLE UNITED STATES
stantial motive behind his desire for the missions was wholly spiritual. "To labor among the Indians was the one thing I had m view when I left for America, only for that I should have asked to be received into the Society m Europe where I should have a thousand advantages I can never find here " 3 Again, in 1845, he was still pleading for the Oregon Missions, to which, so he wrote to Roothaan, God had never ceased to call him He hoped to be allowed to leave from Antwerp the following spring for Oregon in company with Archbishop Blanchet.4 "For myself, I am ready for everything, but I prefer to work in the Oregon Mission under Father De Smet's direction rather than be his superior there/' 5 Elet was aware that efforts had been made by De Smet to secure him as his successor m the direction of the Oregon Mis- sions Father Roothaan himself looked approvingly on the proposed appointment As a matter of fact he assured De Smet on the occasion of the latter's visit to Rome in 1843 t^at he would recommend strongly to Van de Velde, the vice-provincial, that he assign Elet to this charge, though he would not direct him positively to do so. In the event Van de Velde declined with the approval of his consultors to send Elet to the Indians, among other reasons because there was no one to replace him as rector in Cincinnati.
In 1847 Father Elet, as has been told, represented the vice-province of Missouri at a congregation of procurators m Rome Here he met and dealt with Father Roothaan on the affairs of the vice-province, and here he appears to have renewed his petition, but without result, to be sent among the Indians. Even before he left Rome, the General had very likely considered naming him vice-provincial. At all events the letter appointing him to this charge was forwarded to him while he was still in Europe, being addressed to him at Ghent. But the letter reached him not at Ghent, but at St Louis shortly after his return from abroad. He was installed in the office of vice-provincial in succession to Van de Velde at St. Louis University June 3, 1848, and four days later made acknowledgment to the Father General of the letter of appoint- ment: "Rev Father Van de Velde has put into my hands your billet- doux of March 15 which gives me a provincialate instead of a mission among the Indians. Non recuso laborem. I shall do everything that depends on me to put into effect the points you have so earnestly recommended: i° liquidation of the debts in Belgium; 2° organization of the scholasticatej 3° a good understanding with the bishops and secular clergy; 4° religious charity which knows no distinction of coun- try or nation but cherishes all alike as brothers in Jesus Christ." Father
8 Elet a Roothaan, December 27, 1842 (AA). *Elet ad Roothaan, October 8, 184.5. (AA) 8 Elet a Roothaan, October 25, 1845. (AA).
Father John Anthony Elet (1802-1851), pioneer midwestern Jesuit
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JOHN ANTHONY ELET, VICE-PROVINCIAL, 1848-1851 515
Elet entered on his administration with optimistic outlook. "Soon we shall have everything we need and more," he assured the General, "and the only thing lacking will be to have your Paternity in the midst of us." 6
§ 2. FATHER VAN DE VELDE BECOMES BISHOP OF CHICAGO
On April 10, 1848, the Rt. Rev William Quarter, first Bishop of Chicago, was suddenly stricken by death at the early age of forty-two after four years of distinguished service rendered to the infant diocese committed to his care. Under date of December 14 of the same year his brother, Father Walter Quarter, who had been appointed adminis- trator of the diocese on the Bishop's death, wrote m his diary: "i4th. Received a letter this morning from the most Rev. Archbishop of Bal- timore stating that Very Rev J. Van de Velde, of St. Louis, is ap- pointed Bishop of Chicago in place of my brother, the Right Rev. Dr. Quarter. Glory be to God' May his Episcopal reign be such as will give glory to God and peace to the church is all I have to say, I re- joice, however, that the Very Rev Mr. Van de Velde is the person appointed." 7
In an autobiographical memoir Van de Velde recounts the cir- cumstances under which this appointment became known to him and the course pursued by him on the occasion
In the beginning of November of the same year (1848) F. [Father] Van de Velde went to New York to transact some business of importance for the V[ice] Province On his return he passed through Baltimore, where on the very day of his arrival the news had reached that the Holy Father had nominated him to the vacant See of Chicago This intelligence was communicated to him by the Very Rev. L R Deluol, Supenor of the Sulpicians, and was contained in a letter which the latter had just received from Right Rev Dr Chanche, Bishop of Natchez, who was then in Pans and had obtained official information of it from the Apostolic Nuncio, Mon- signor F[T^]ornan Van de Velde left Baltimore the same day before the news of his nomination was known to any of his friends, and out- travelled it till he reached Cincinnati, where a telegraphic despatch announc- ing it had been received from the Archbishop of Baltimore on the morning of his arrival On his way to St Louis he visited Bardstown to consult the Rev F Verhaegen, then President of St Joseph's College, concerning the manner m which he should act under the circumstances m which he was placed It was agreed that he should decline the nomination unless com- pelled by an express command of his Holiness He reached St Louis in the
6 Elet a Roothaan, June 7, 1848 (AA)
7 McGovern, History of the Catholic Church in Chicago (Chicago, 1891), p. 92.
5i 6 THE JESUITS OF THE MIDDLE UNITED STATES
beginning of December There all was known and the Brief with a lettei freeing him from allegiance to the Society of Jesus and appointing him to the vacant See of Chicago arrived but a few days later It bore the superscription of the Archbishop of Baltimore, who by letter urged him to accept Not long before we had been informed by the papers that Rome had fallen into the hands of the Socialist rebels, and that the Holy Father had fled in disguise from the holy city. Hence F. Van de Velde, who was anxious to return the package, knew not whither to send it, and kept it for several days unsealed as he had received it In the meantime he wrote to the Cardinal Prefect of the Propaganda and to the General of the Society, who had also left Rome, endeavoring to be freed from the burden which it was intended to impose upon him In his perplexity he went to consult the Archbishop of St. Louis, to know whither he should send the Brief of ap- pointment, m case it should arnve, for no one yet knew that he had received it The Archbishop, before answering the question, insisted upon knowing whether the Brief had been received. On being answered in the affirmative, and having the package presented to him, he immediately broke the seal and examined its contents He gave it as his opinion that the letter, if not the brief, contained a command to accept and used his influence to prevail upon F. Van de Velde to do so and to be consecrated without delay The nominee asked for a delay of six weeks to reflect on the matter, hoping that in the meantime he would receive answers to the letters which he had written to Rome and to France. Unwilling to accept the nomination and distrusting his own judgment, he referred the matter as a case of conscience to three theologians, requesting them to decide whether the words of the letter contained a positive command and whether in case they did, he was bound under sin to obey Their decision was in the affirmative and he submitted to bear the yoke. He was consecrated on Sexagesima Sunday, nth of February, 1849 m tne Church of St Francis Xavier, attached to the University, by the Most Rev. Peter R Kennck, assisted by the Bishops of Dubuque [Loras] and Nashville [Miles], and the Right Rev. Dr Spald- ing [of Louisville] delivered the consecrating sermon.8
In a letter of December 17, 1848 which Father Van de Velde ad- dressed to the General immediately on receiving the news o£ his appointment to the see of Chicago, he revealed his distress of soul at the prospect of having to sever his connection with the Society of Jesus. He deplored the fact that after thirty-one years spent in the Society he was now to be torn from the bosom of that excellent mother and doomed to pass his old age in bitterness of soul. But the memory of her would ever abide with him as a precious possession. He would follow her always and everywhere with an affectionate love, which would also be poured out on such of her children as might reside in his jurisdiction. "I cannot decide what I ought to do," he said in
8 Garraghan, Cathohc Church m Chicago (Chicago, 1921), p. 140.
JOHN ANTHONY ELET, VICE-PROVINCIAL, 1848-1851
another letter written three days later "I hesitate between the obe- dience due to the Sovereign Pontiff and that due to the Society I dare not trust my own judgment and there is danger in delay." 9
At Rome Father Roothaan made efforts to prevent the nomination, but, as he wrote to Father Elet, the efforts came too late. The nomi- nation had already been duly ratified by the Holy Father. The General now left the question of acceptance or refusal entirely to Father Van de Velde's own decision, addressing himself, however, not to the Bishop- elect, but to Father Elet. The letter from the Sacred Congregation made use of the phrase, "cum opportunis derogatiomlms" the inter- pretation of which was open to doubt. Unless a precept was imposed, Father Van de Velde could not in conscience accept the appointment, being bound by his vow as a professed member of the Society of Jesus not to accept of ecclesiastical dignities unless "coerced by obedience." Father Roothaan went on to say
The whole question is whether the Holy Father really imposed a precept. Perhaps some one will gather this from the wording of the bull? Whether this should suffice for Father Van de Velde, it is not my business to say . . . Unless a precept be imposed, he still remains free to refuse or protest If we look to the mind of the Holy Father, it is a likely conjecture that he wished also to command, but whether the conjecture suffices and prevails over the vow, I would not venture to decide I leave the matter to the conscience of the father-elect. Perhaps if he protests, a precept will follow . . For the rest, Father Van de Velde's sentiments of filial affection are a consolation to me Though he be cut off in body from the Society, he will remain at- tached to it m spirit I0
Early m March, 1849, Father Roothaan, not yet aware of Van de Velde's consecration, personally laid his case before Pius IX, then an exile in Gaeta. His Holiness listened kindly to the objections the Gen- eral urged against the appointment; but his answer was that the ap- pointment was mandatory, the brief having contained a formal precept of obedience, "At once," so the General informed Msgr. Fioramenti, the secretary of the Propaganda, "I wrote to the father concerned in the sense of His Holiness, namely, that the dispensation mentioned in the brief means a $rece$t. Perhaps, as I have already written you, the father has already interpreted the brief in this sense on advice from
9 Van de Velde ad Roothaan, December 17, 20, 1848 (AA)
10 Roothaan ad Elet, January 3, 1849 (AA) Father Roothaan was under the impression that Van de Velde, if he accepted the "titular" see of Chicago, would cease to be a Jesuit As a matter of fact, Van de Velde as Bishop remained a member of the society. Cf . infra. Chap XXI, § 4
5i 8 THE JESUITS OF THE MIDDLE UNITED STATES
the Archbishop of St. Louis How it consoles me that the Holy Father listened to my reasons'" al
Father Van de Velde's own account of the circumstances under which it was decided in St Louis to proceed to his consecration has al- ready been set before the reader. Father Elet reported them to the General as follows
Since the receipt of your esteemed letter of December 22 last I wrote to you twice, as did also Very Rev Father Van de Velde, who is pained at the silence you maintain in his regaid The good Father was consecrated Bishop of Chicago on February II, having hoped up to the last hour before his consecration to receive some news from your Paternity which would have dispensed him from it Archbishop Kennck, his Vicar-General, Mr Melcher, and Mr Burlando, Superior of the Lazansts at St Louis, after having read the letter of Cardinal F ransom, decided unanimously that he was obliged to accept the appointment and his Grace even indulged in a little humor on the occasion For my part, though I could not see any formal piecept, I refused, merely through prudence, to express any opinion and left the whole thing to Pi evidence When the good Father five days before his consecration came to render me his account of conscience, he wept and sobbed, I consoled him as much as I possibly could The Society has made a sacrifice in him, but the good father has made a much greater one, for his diocese, and he is not unaware of the fact, is in a very sad state As his diocese lies in part along the other bank of the Mississippi, he makes trips over there and then returns to the University, where by his own wishes he enjoys almost no distinction, wearing the habit of the Society, following the daily order and performing the penances in the refectory like the rest of the community 12
Bishop Van de Velde was installed in his episcopal see of Chicago on Palm Sunday, April i, 1849.
§ 3- THE AFFAIR WITH ARCHBISHOP KENRICK
On being appointed vice-provincial Father Elet had promptly signi- fied to the Father General, as one of the cardinal points of the policy he proposed to follow, his intention to cultivate the best of relations with the members of the hierarchy. In Cincinnati circumstances, the nature of which is not clear, had brought about a temporary interruption in the cordial relations that had previously existed between himself and Bishop Purcell. When the two met at the Council of Baltimore in 1849 the trouble had already blown over. At the council Elet was honored with the chairmanship of two committees, one on ecclesiastical
11 Roothaan a Fioramenti, March 7, 1 849 (AA)
12 Elet a Roothaan, March 4, 1849
JOHN ANTHONY ELET, VICE-PROVINCIAL, 1848-1851 519
affairs in California and the other on the question whether Pius IX was to be petitioned to declare the Immaculate Conception an article of faith After a visit to Georgetown College Elet left in company with Bishop Purcell and Archbishop Kennck for the West. "The first [Pur- cell] made excuses to me for the misunderstanding of which I had been the victim, assuring me that I had his entire confidence, appointing me Vicar General for Ours etc. Post nebulas Thabor. The Archbishop of St. Louis is changed for the better m our regard, and I can assure your Paternity that not one of the 25 bishops assembled at the Council let slip a single word against the Society all the time of the sessions." As evidence of this sympathetic attitude of the hierarchy towards his order Father Elet mentions the circumstances that, when the question of a Catholic university in the United States was broached in the council, the bishops suggested the Society of Jesus as the best prepared body under the circumstances to take it in hand.13
Among the western Jesuits the belief was current for a while that Archbishop Kennck of St. Louis was ill-affected towards the Society of Jesus and religious orders generally. The circumstance is a peculiar one in view of that prelate's well-known early admiration of the order founded by St. Ignatius and his attempt at one time, as was chronicled above, to be admitted among its members. Yet his sentiments, as indi- cated by Elet early in 1850, were now to the effect that while he had a high esteem for the Jesuits, seeing that they did an immense amount of good, he did not like them as a body nor the other regulars in gen- eral, and this for the reason that they formed a group apart and exer- cised too great an influence, which it was his intention to reduce to proper limits. The success attending the Gentlemen's Sodality estab- lished by the Jesuits at the College Church in St. Louis had led un- fortunately to certain misunderstandings and criticisms, in the troubled atmosphere of which efforts were said to have been made to alienate the Archbishop from the Jesuits of his diocese. It is pertinent to relate here an episode occurring in Elet's administration, the final issue of which disclosed the fact that no real unfriendliness to the Society of Jesus had actuated the conduct of the Archbishop of St. Louis.
In 1849 ^e authorities of St. Louis University came to a decision to execute a plan conceived many years before for the transfer of the boarding-school to the University property known as the College Farm This suburban property of some four hundred acres located on the northern outskirts of the city and occupying the major portion of the area lying between the river, Grand Avenue, the Fair Grounds and O'Fallon Park, was acquired in 1836, at which time the encroachments
13 Elet a Roothaan, June 13, 1849. (AA)
520 THE JESUITS OF THE MIDDLE UNITED STATES
of business in the Washington Avenue district threatened to render the existing University site unsuited to its purpose. Bishop Rosati gave his approval for the transfer of the institution to the new site and excava- tions were made for a new structure on the suburban property. Then supervened the financial crisis of 1837 with the result that all prepara- tions for the removal of St. Louis University outside of the city came at once to a standstill. Now, after a lapse of twelve years, the project was again to be taken up, the chief reason dictating the change of site being the interests of college discipline, which were thought to suffer by the association of the two classes of students, day-scholars and boarders, on the same premises. The day-school would continue to be maintained in the old quarters. In the mind of Father Druyts, president of the University, and his consultors the contemplated change involved "not the foundation of a new college, but only the separation of the boarders from the day-scholars (the fusion of these [departments] in St. Louis University being open to grave disadvantages), and the trans- fer of the former to a suburban site belonging to the same Univer- sity." 14 Taking, therefore, this view of the matter Father Elet con- cluded that the project in question could be lawfully carried through without referring it for approval to the diocesan authorities. But Arch- bishop Kennck on coming to hear of the proposed change of location for the boarding-school at once interposed objection, contending that the canon law of the church and in particular a Constitution of Urban VIII required that no step of this nature be taken without approval of the Ordinary of the diocese. The Jesuits of St. Louis then appealed to certain privileges of long standing emanating from the Holy See which apparently authorized them to proceed in such matters independently of diocesan authority. Archbishop Kennck, on his part, and by agree- ment with Father Elet, so it appears, carried the canonical issue at stake to the Sacred Congregation of the Propaganda in Rome. At. the request of the vice-provincial Bishop Van de Velde of Chicago ac- quainted the Archbishop of St. Louis, February 28, 1850, with certain past circumstances concerning the College Farm property, of which, as having been procurator for many years of the Missouri Vice-province, he had first-hand and intimate knowledge
I received a letter from Rev F[ather] Elet written when he was going to start for Cincinnati He states m it what I already knew from others, that a difficulty had occurred between yr Grace and himself concerning the building of a College for Boarders on the property formerly bought of Maj". Lfewis] M [enwether] Clark, — that you refused to give your consent to build it, referring to a decree of the Council of Trent and that you had
14 Memorandum, August 16, 1850. (AA)»
JOHN ANTHONY ELET, VICE-PROVINCIAL, 1848-1851 521
appealed to me or rather to the authority of the Bishop of Chicago to corroborate the principal grounds on which his Grace bases his refusal or rather prohibition of removing the Conwctus to the place selected for that purpose many years since, i° the fact of our having converted the former chapel into a tavern 2dly, the fact of our having entirely given up the idea of separating the Boarders from the day-scholars, — 3dly the fact of Bishop Rosati's having given his consent to the commencement of the Convictus [boarding-school] in the county, on the supposition that the College in the city would cease to exist.
As to the former chapel on the College Farm having been con- verted into a tavern, Van de Velde explained that the so-called chapel was only "a private room, neither built nor blessed for the purpose of being permanently used as a chapel but only while the scholasticate ex- isted there." The building, having been leased for five years to a Mr. Weishaupt, was, so it seems, used by him without a licence for tavern purposes and this against the protest of Van de Velde, who, however, was informed by the lawyers he consulted that no legal action could be taken against the tenant with any prospect of success, seeing that the lease made no restriction as to the use that might be made of the build- ing. As to the second point Bishop Van de Velde maintained that "it cannot be said that the idea of establishing a Convictus or College for Boarders on the farm (or in case the farm were sold, somewhere else m the neighborhood of the city,) was ever abandoned" In regard to the third point Van de Velde simply said: "Rt. Rev. Bp. Rosati, as far as my knowledge extends, never made any restrictions or conditions. On the contrary, he was overjoyed when I informed him that we had obtained the means of paying for the farm without sacrificing the prop- erty in the city." The Bishop of Chicago then proceeded to say that when vice-provincial he had more than once observed that "yr. Grace manifested a kind of distant coolness towards the F F. [Fathers] of the Socfiety] in Mo. Yet I take God to witness that I endeavored to do all I could not to give yr. Grace the least cause of dissatisfaction in any thing, — that I impressed this upon the minds of all those over whom I had authority and chiefly of those who had the care of souls. Still this cold reserve on your part continued, and to all appearances, has since increased." 15
The event was to prove that the Archbishop of St. Louis in appeal- ing the controversy to the Roman tribunal intended merely a friendly suit for the settlement of a technical point of law. The reserved and unsympathetic attitude towards the Jesuits which Bishop Van de Velde deprecated in him was probably more apparent than real. At all events
10 Van de Velde to Kenrick, February 28, 1850. (A).
522 THE JESUITS OF THE MIDDLE UNITED STATES
neither then nor at any other time did Archbishop Kennck seem dis- posed to interfere with the Society of Jesus m the exercise of its canon- ical rights. But to Father Elet, unduly apprehensive over the situation, a crisis of the first magnitude seemed about to develop To Father Roothaan he expressed himself with feeling "Excuse me if I give ex- pression to a thought that refuses to leave me and if I say that we did wrong to surrender the rights which Bishop Du Bourg had given us. The man who converted the desert into towns deserved to have his au- thority respected. If we always yield we shall end by yielding every- thing, even the A.M.D.G If the Holy See does not protect us, what shall we have that is permanent? A Kennck will take away what a Du Bourg or a Rosati begged us to accept " 16 Father Roothaan in his reply to Elet counseled patience and, above all, due respect to the ecclesias- tical authorities. "It is plain," he wrote, "that the Bishop cannot prevent you from building on your property to rid yourself of such a grave inconvenience. I have spoken about the matter to Bishop Timon, who told me that perhaps the Archbishop fears you may fall again into new debts." This fear the General himself took to be a prudent one on the part of the Archbishop though his Grace might be informed that, thanks to the legacy of the recently deceased Chevalier De Boey, there was a considerably lighter burden of debt to carry. "What is most important is that you act, all of you and at all times, with respect and humility towards his Grace and his clergy. I am afraid something is lacking among you in this respect, and this, owing to impatience, which is the spirit neither of the Society nor of God." 17
In June, 1850, the Father General was requested by Propaganda to furnish information touching the controversy in St. Louis "The Archbishop requires that according to the tenor especially of the Con- stitution Romanus Ponttfex of Urban VIII his consent, which he shows himself disposed to grant, be asked for, and yet it seems that the re- ligious wish to proceed to the foundation of the college without such consent." 18 In July the General communicated to the Propaganda the desired information. Writing about the same time to Elet, he expressed the opinion that the case, if decided according to the principle involved, would go against the Jesuits, seeing that Urban VIII had revoked all privileges of whatsoever kind authorizing religious orders to build mon- asteries or colleges without the Ordinary's consent. On the other hand, if the case were decided in the light of concrete circumstances, as, for instance, that the suburban property was already built on and that
16 Elet a Roothaan, January 15, 1850 (AA) "Roothaan ad Elet, April 16, 1850 (AA).
is "peraitro sembra che 1, Rehgiosi senza tali hcenza vogltano frocedere alia •fundasuone del Collegia" Propaganda a Roothaan, June 26, 1850 (AA).
JOHN ANTHONY ELET, VICE-PROVINCIAL, 1848-1851 523
Bishop Rosati had given his approval to the erection thereon of new University buildings, then it was possible that Propaganda would ren- der a decision favorable to the Society. In any case it was difficult for Father Roothaan to believe that the Archbishop would refuse the de- sired permission if it were asked of him. Meantime, he awaited the decision of Propaganda. But as to the expediency of erecting new college buildings the General stood precisely where he had stood from the beginning. "Where shall you find the men, you who are overburdened with engagements?"10
It is likely that Bishop Van de Velde's letter to the Archbishop of St. Louis setting forth the Jesuit side of the matter in dispute had made an impression upon the prelate. Already m June, 1850, Father Elet was finding him more cordial than before. Then followed, in July, a personal letter from the General to Kennck But already in mid- June, so it appears, the Archbishop had let it be known that, whatever the decision of Propaganda, he would gladly assent to the erection of the proposed new college. Moreover, he made acknowledgment of Father Roothaan's letter in a kindly reply written in French under date of August 28, 1850
I have the honor to acknowledge the receipt of your obliging letter of July 30 and I beg you to believe that I appreciate its contents which are an added reason for esteeming you and the Society of which you are the head Despite the differences that have arisen between Father Elet and myself in regard to the college which he is going to build, I am happy to be able to assure you that I have every reason to be satisfied with him and that he has always shown me respect I make bold to commend myself to the prayers of your Paternity, whom I had the happiness of knowing in Rome eleven years ago and whom I have never ceased to venerate.20
Father Elet had written to Father Roothaan some ten days before.
As to the Archbishop, I mentioned in one of my preceding letters that he appears to have recovered entirely from his prejudices against us, and that he made me an amende honorable for the expressions he had made use of in regard to the regulars I went to dine with him with Veiy Reverend Father Van de Velde, to whom he showed much gratitude for his frankness towards him in our defense, and to whom he gave a superb enameled chalice. As to me, he overwhelms me with his tokens of friendship He sent me for examination the decrees of the Synod which will take place in the course of this month, he has asked me to preach at its opening, to act in the quality of Promoter, to appoint a Father to give a retreat to the secular clergy, as also to appoint other Fathers to give retreats m 8 religious com-
19 Roothaan ad Elet, July 19, 1850 (AA)
20 Kennck a Roothaan, August 28, 1850, (AA)
524 THE JESUITS OF THE MIDDLE UNITED STATES
munities I refused nothing He comes to see us quite often as a good friend He dined at the Univeisity the day of St Louis Gonzaga and came to Flonssant expressly to celebrate St Ignatius day with us 21
No decision in the matter under dispute between the Archbishop and Father Elet was rendered by the Propaganda, or if it was, it did not become public. On the other hand, the idea of moving the Uni- versity to the College Farm property was abandoned, apparently for financial reasons, and the institution continued to occupy the original site on Washington Avenue until the erection of the Grand Avenue building in the late eighties. As a final commentary on the controversy now happily ended Father Roothaan pointed out to Father Elet that the whole affair was to be a lesson for him, he should have gone to the Archbishop in the beginning and requested permission to proceed to build.22 Thereafter, relations between Archbishop Kennck and the Jesuits were distinctly cordial. A St. Louis diocesan statute of 1850 commended earnestly to pastors the services of Jesuits for missions in the parishes Father William Stack Murphy, Elet's successor in the office of vice-provincial, informed Father Roothaan in 1852 "Mon- seigneur Kennck is full of kindness for us and one can say as much of all his clergy." Four years later, in 1856, Murphy wrote again "The Louisville and St. Louis prelates continue to be favorable to us." 23 Father De Smet records m November, 1852, that Archbishop Kennck has had the Moral Theology of Father Gury adopted in the diocesan seminary while in 1854 his Grace offers the western half of his diocese to the Jesuit, Bishop Miege, at the same time inviting him to fix his see at St. Joseph, Missouri, as a more likely center for his activities than the isolated Indian Mission of St Mary's on the Kansas prairies.24
§ 4. THE SWISS REFUGEES OF 1848
Scarcely had Father Elet entered on the duties of his office when he was called upon to tender hospitality to nearly two scores of Swiss and German Jesuits, fugitives from Europe in consequence of the revo- lutionary troubles of 1847-1848. Members of the province of Upper Germany, also called the Swiss Province from the circumstance that most if not all of its houses were situated in Switzerland, they had re- tired precipitately from that country as they saw their very lives in danger on the victorious advance in the fall of 1847 of the Protestant forces of the Sonderbund. The provincial, Father Anthony Minoux, see-
21 Elet a Roothaan, August 17, 1850 (AA)
22 Roothaan a Elet, 1850 (AA)
2S Murphy ad Roothaan, August 23, 1856 (AA) 24 Miege a Roothaan, February 8, 1854 (AA).
JOHN ANTHONY ELET, VICE-PROVINCIAL, 1848-1851 525
mg his flourishing scholasticate of Fnbourg thus suddenly closed, at- tempted to get the scholastics together again and continue the process of their education, first at Chambery in Savoy and later at Oleggio in Pied- mont, but neither attempt proved successful In his distress he next sought to domicile at least a part of his personnel in other provinces both in Europe and America Father Elet, who was then in Europe, having just attended a congregation of procurators in Rome, and who had a commission from Father Van de Velde to pick up recruits wher- ever possible, petitioned the Swiss provincial for some fathers and scholastics, as also for coadjutor-brothers who were masters of a trade, declaring that all such would be found useful m Missouri. "If I have not answered sooner," Father Mmoux replied, "it is because I was expecting certain and definite directions from Rome on the subject of America in general and my province m particular Nothing having yet arrived, I have taken it upon myself to entrust to Rev. Father Jourdant [provincial of Lyons] a good number of fathers and coadjutor-brothers and 4 scholastics, praying him to arrange with you in regard to the dis- tribution of these subjects between yourself and him and the dispatch- ing of them to their destinations. ... I hope to be m a position in the fall to do more for you, at least I most sincerely desire to do so " 25 At Lyons m January, 1848, Elet met the party of exile Jesuits, shabbily clothed and bearing on their persons not a few tokens of the distressing experiences through which they had passed.26 The names of those among them, if any, who were enlisted by Elet on this occasion have not been ascertained At all events, a group from the province of Upper Germany, including Fathers Francis Xavier Wippern, Joseph Weber, Peter Tschieder, a scholastic, and the lay brothers Anthony Perroud, Joseph Huss, Anthony Toelle and Joseph Becker, landed at New York on April 1 8, 1848, whence they proceeded to the West On March 20, 1848, Minoux had written to Elet at Antwerp "Fathers Brunner, Hubner, Behrens, will go to join you sooner or later, Father Hubner has some thousands of francs for your voyage. Among the Brothers I have chosen the most suitable in view of the circumstances in which you are. Brothers Wohleb and Tschenhens I thought very suitable ... A number of the scholastics desire to go to America. I wish them to finish this year in course, meantime, some of them are looking for money for the trip." 27 Fathers Hubner and Brunner arrived in St. Louis June n, and Brothers Wohleb and Tschenhens about the same time, the two latter having probably accompanied Elet on his return from Europe.
*' Mmoux a Elet, January 22, 1848 (AA) 2eElet a Roothaan, January 10, 1848 (AA), 27 Minoux a Elet, March 20, 1848 (AA).
526 THE JESUITS OF THE MIDDLE UNITED STATES
Meantime Father Minoux, unable to find an asylum for his scholas- ticate anywhere in Europe but determined at all costs to keep this most important of his communities together, conceived the design of des- patching it en masse to the United States where he hoped with the support of the American superiors to provide it at least with a tem- porary home. The plan was put into execution before awaiting word from the other side as to its practicability with the result that it proved abortive. Father Roothaan, on the testimony of Mmoux, "was fearful that the enterprise would not run smoothly in the American provinces though he did not oppose it." Anthony Anderledy, one of the scholas- tics in the party whose adventures are about to be recorded, and subse- quently General of the Society of Jesus, testified in later years for the benefit of a Jesuit historian that "m the expedition to America they went a little hastily without ascertaining the means necessary to make it a success. Very Rev. Father Roothaan accordingly complained about it m a letter which I have seen." 28 Again, Father Behrens, at the end of the voyage was to write to Father Mmoux "If your Reverence had held to your original idea of sending a few fathers to investigate etc. and then after definite information of having the rest to follow, many things would perhaps have turned out differently. But the good Lord has so permitted it, He wished to tram us and He could not have chosen a better opportunity " 2fl Still, an emergency had arisen and it was diffi- cult to determine which way to turn. The step taken by Father Mmoux seemed in his perplexity the only one that held out any promise of relief, as he explained in his own account of the episode*
Our Fathers m France were themselves obliged to fly, to go into hiding, to betake themselves from one town to another Those whom I sent to Austria returned by Silesia to Prussia and demanded of me where they were to stay. In the general distress the lot of my scholastics was on my mind more than anything else. How long was it to last? Rome m revolution, Italy upside-down, France aflame, Belgium threatened, Germany m a storm, princes and kings dnven out, taking to flight, tottering on their thrones; the peoples of Germany constituting themselves at Frankfort into a national assembly and decreeing the exclusion of the Jesuits from all the German states (this decree was revoked a few days later m consequence of an interpellation from a Jew, a deputy to the Frankfort Parliament, who found it in contradiction to the era of liberty they came to establish) ; I could not see what was to be the issue of so many disasters, America alone seemed to offer an assured asylum. I had already sent a colony to New Granada, some Fathers to Rev. Father Brocard [Maryland provincial], others to
28 Res-ponse du R P Anderledy a quelques questions que lw wait addresses le P Essewa Archives of the Province of Lower Germany, S J.
2& Behrens an Mmoux, August 9, 1848. Arch Prov Low Germ., SJ.
JOHN ANTHONY ELET, VICE-PROVINCIAL, 1848-1851 527
Rev Father Boulanger m New York Other Provinces had likewise dispatched thither a certain number of their Fathers. The thought came to me to found a house of our province there and from the very beginning to fit out a scholasticate like St. Sebastian in Spam for the Province of Lyons and of Brugelettes in Belgium for that of Paris. I prayed, I consulted, I wrote about the affair to Very Reverend Father General and to the Rev. Father Provincial of Belgium No one could offer me anything better I saw no opening that promised permanency anywhere in Europe. The reso- lution was then taken to execute the plan and I put my hand to the work Rev. Father Hessels found me an agent at Antwerp, the lowest rates for transportation were fixed on, New York was to be the landing-place Father Souquat [socius] was sent to Frankfort to draw out a considerable amount of our stocks which were in the care of Mr. Bernon[?], I wrote to the Fatheis, scholastics and Brothers whom I had destined to make up this colony, instructing them to report in the course of the month of May at Antwerp, whither I forwarded everything I was able to withdraw from Switzerland m the way of books, linen, bedding, altar- equipment and sacred vessels
I had Fathers Hubnei and Brunner leave a few weeks ahead so as to come to an understanding with the Amencan Piovmcials and prepare a house for the reception of the colony I notified them in time of the arrival of the boat, so that they might come to meet the travellers and conduct them to the place selected for their home
I went myself to Antwerp to direct the expedition God in His goodness favored me with encouraging prospects on the financial side and this through the medium of our Fathers and scholastics.
I drew up the list of appointments for the new house It counted 45 persons, including Father Miege. There was Rev. Father Superior, Father Minister, Father Procurator, the Spiritual Father, professois of rhetoric, philosophy and theology, a class-schedule, brothers for the house-woik. The Fathers of the 3rd year were to continue with their exercises.
I gave the most detailed instructions m writing to Rev Father Superior to serve him as a line of conduct in America
Contrai y winds delayed the departure. Finally, on June 3, 1848, on Saturday, I led our Fathers-, Scholastics and brothers to the boat, "the Providence," and the craft put out from port into the Scheldt To tell you how I felt at that moment is impossible. It was heait-rendmg Four days before the embarkation Rev Father Provincial Franckeville came to tell me that he would be able to keep the entire party. If these overtures had been made to me fifteen days sooner, I might have been able to come to an understanding with the ship-owner and we should have remained m Europe. But on the eve of departure this was not to be thought of 30
30 Hist Ptov. [Germ. Super] a 1847-1849, auctore P Mtnoux Arch. Prov. Low Germ, SJ Mmoux's own passenger-list of the Providence, dated June I, 1848, contains forty-four names (nine fathers, twenty-nine scholastics and six coadjutor-brothers) Fr Behrens, superior, Fr Aschwanden, minister, Fr Spicher, procurator 5 Fr, Fnednch, prefect of studies, Fr Knackstedt, prefect of churches,
528 THE JESUITS OF THE MIDDLE UNITED STATES
The most precise instructions m writing were given by Father Mmoux both to Father Henry Behrens, who was to conduct the party across the Atlantic, and to Father Joseph Brunner who was to be its superior in America A Latin memorandum for Father Brunner said
My chief objective is to place my young ichgious m a position of safety and to tram them m every spiritual and scientific detail according to the spirit of our Society But since it is altogether out of the question to oiganize them into a community m Europe, I have deemed it necessary to make the attempt in America and to dispatch the scholastics thither Now, in order that they may be assembled there into one body and directed aright, a Su- perior must be set over them I therefore, in virtue of the powers granted to me by oui Very Rev Father, so appoint you, Joseph Brunner, Superior General and Rector as well over those, whether fathers, scholastics or missionaries, who are now arriving, as over those who will arrive later on, excepting such as I have ceded to the other provincials
Father Brunner was then instructed to endeavor to get possession of a college, but a college only and not a so-called primary school. At most a preparatory school might be accepted. If there were a shortage of men, a beginning might be made with an incipient college (col- legium mchoatum), having only one or other class of lower grade. As to the scholastics, they were not to be distributed among the colleges of the American provinces unless this were unavoidable, m which case Brunner was to ascertain by personal inspection of the houses where the scholastics might be most satisfactorily placed 31
The instructions issued to Father Behrens, written in French and comprising sixteen points, covered every contingency that might befall the expedition up to the moment he was to meet Father Brunner, the permanent superior, when he was to deliver his charge into the latter's hands. All would be required to study English. Arriving at New York, if no one were at the dock to meet him, Behrens was to leave his party on board the boat and proceed with one or other companions to St.
Frs Eck, Cattani, Bapst, Miege, Theology, 3rd year, Messrs Anderledy (deacon) Depuey(? ), Charmillot, 2nd year, Messrs Villiger, Iten, Goeldlm, 1st year, Messrs. Fruzzim, Loretan, Kluber, Wiget Moral Theology* Messrs Schultz (subdeacon), Meyer Philosophy 2nd year, Messrs Haenng, Lachat, 1st year, Messrs Hafelyn, Nussbaum, Lagger, de Travers, Bauermeister, Bauer, Schuster Rhetoric* 2nd year, Messrs Wiesend, Rummele, Schmitt, Simeon, Gentinetta, Willi, Girsch, 1st year, Dionysms. Coadjutor-brothers Lambrigger, Bruckmann, Menke, Evers, Lottng, Schopps Father John B Miege, of the province of Turin, was the only one of the forty-four not of the province of Upper Germany
31 Instruct™ P Mmoux Prov. P. Brunner Superior* omnium m Amencam froficiscentium. Antuerpi 22 Man, 1848*
JOHN ANTHONY ELET, VICE-PROVINCIAL, 1848-1851 5*9
John's College, Fordham, and there make arrangements for the housing of the emigrants during the few days they expected to remain in the metropolis. If all had to disembark immediately on arriving, he was to find lodging for them in small groups m the hotels of the city. After paying his respects to Father Boulanger, superior of the French Jesuits then in charge of Fordham College, he was to get into touch either by letter or personal meeting with Fathers Brunner, Hubner and Ehrensberger and ascertain from them in what direction and to what point the immigrant party was to continue its journey. Finally, Father Behrens was instructed not to part with any of his companions, it mat- tered not m whose favor, excepting Fathers Knackstedt and Bapst, who were to remain at the disposition of Father Brocard, the Maryland provincial, himself a Swiss from the Jesuit province of Upper Ger- many.32
Mmoux's final word to Elet before the party sailed from Antwerp was written from that city
Father [Andrew] Ehrensberger arrived to-day as advance-guard of a party of forty-two to forty-five of our men who are to leave here on the 26th of this month or thereabouts. Father Ehrensberger will rejoin Father [Frederick] Hubner without delay, m order to acquaint him with my plans and to take measures with him, as Father Hubner in turn will take measures with you, for the reception and further transportation of my colony It is nearly my entire scholasticate with its professors and spiritual father My plan is to reassemble them somewhere so as to preserve their religious spirit and enable them to pursue their studies in due form. It is a matter of supreme importance and I must realize my puipose at all costs I count fully on help from on high Heaven will come to my aid, as it came to my aid in fur- nishing means of transportation for so numerous a colony 83
The exiles, forty-one in number, left Antwerp June 3, 1848, on board a sailing-vessel, the Providence , which had been chartered for the voyage. It had been used for freight service only and, as a consequence, suitable accommodations for the travellers were lacking, the hold being hastily fitted out for their use. The captain, a Belgian, was found to be inexperienced and the crew was rough and unreliable, while at the outset a drunken pilot nearly ran the vessel on a rock as she put out from the Scheldt. The Providence was forty-six days m covering the distance between Antwerp and New York. That was a longer stay on the ocean than the captain had counted on, and, as a result, the food supply ran low. Down in the hatches the scholastics fell sick one after another until the place took on the appearance of a general hospital.
82 Exfulsio ex Helvetia Arch Prov Low Germ , SJ 88 Mmoux a Elet, May 16, 1848. (A)
530 THE JESUITS OF THE MIDDLE UNITED STATES
Father Behrens outdid himself m unselfish, unwearying attention to the sick and suffering. He had laid m a stock o£ dried fruit on his own account before the vessel left Antwerp and was thus enabled out of his private store to relieve m some degree the distress caused by the meagre and unhealthy diet provided by the ship's cook m the last days at sea To add to the wretched experience, there were violent storms m the ship's path, in one of which her mam-mast was carried away At length, at noon of July 19 the Providence docked m New York harbor. On reaching land most of the crew deserted, which made it necessary for four of the scholastics to stand guard on the wharf to watch the vessel and its contents. None of the party seems to have known any English and Father Behrens was hard put to it trying to get trunks and cases through the custom house.
On July 4 Father Brocard wrote to Father De Smet in St. Louis "A numerous party from the Province of Upper Germany is on the water bound for America. They will be at New York before this letter reaches you, consequently it is useless to ask if you know their destina- tion It is said they intend to organize an independent colony, but no one seems to know where." Soon came an urgent call to Brocard from the rector of St John's College, Fordham, to hasten to New York. Father Ehrensberger on his arrival m that city had announced the coming of the exiles Fordham, however, was without housing facilities or pecuniary means to accommodate so numerous a party and it was hoped that the provincial of Maryland would be m a position to tender them hospitality. On landing m New York Father Behrens succeeded m getting m touch on the same day with Father Brocard, from whom he was expecting definite directions for the execution of the Swiss provincial's plan In this he was disappointed. Both Brocard and Bou- langer were of the opinion that it would be impracticable to set up a separate scholasticate independent of the American provinces. More- over, no letters of instruction were on hand from Fathers Brunner and Hubner, who had already arrived in St. Louis to negotiate with the Missouri superior for the opening of a separate house of studies for the exiles. At St Louis as at New York such a project was deemed premature and for the time being impracticable, with the result that Fathers Brunner and Hubner were both assigned to parochial duties. "We arrived m St Louis June 1 1 at 4 in the morning/' Hubner wrote the next day, the I2th, to the rector of Fordham. "As for myself I shall leave at once for St Charles to assist our Fathers there in their ministry among the Germans and at the same time study English while waiting for an answer from Europe "
The only word from St, Louis awaiting Father Behrens m New York was from Father Elet, who had signified by letter his desire that
JOHN ANTHONY ELET, VICE-PROVINCIAL, 1848-1851 531
the refugees should come at once to Missouri, besides sending a tele- gram to the same effect, the first instance recorded of the use by the Missouri Jesuits of this newly introduced method of communication. Father Mmoux's cherished plan of a separate scholasticate having thus apparently fallen through, no alternative was left Behrens but to accept for his men the hospitality tendered by the American provin- cials. At first he hesitated to take this step, as his explicit instructions were to keep the scholastics and their professors together, but later, on the unanimous advice of his four consultors, who pointed out that Father Minoux's instructions were predicated on the possibility, now seen to be illusory, of an independent German house in the West, he decided to divide his personnel between Maryland and Missouri. Father Brocard proposed at first to receive into his province the entire group and this offer Father Larkm, rector of the Jesuit college of St Francis Xavier in New York, urged Father Behrens to accept, but finding in the mail a few hours later a request from the Roman pro- vincial that he give shelter to certain members of his own province of Rome, now also dispersed before the fierce onset of the revolutionary storm, Brocard withdrew his first offer and contented himself with accepting for Maryland eighteen of Behrens's party. A scholastic, Evers, was left at Fordham while the rest of the refugees, twenty-five in number, set off by the fast mail-train for Cincinnati, whence they later proceeded to St Louis. Arrangements for the journey were perforce made hastily under the circumstances and proved a costly affair The money, commented Father Behrens, went quite as fast as the train. The four days that he spent in New York disposing of his men in various directions were days of mental strain, almost of bewilderment Finally on July 22 he saw the last of his charges off from New York.34
Thus relieved temporarily from a painful situation, Father Behrens remained some weeks in the metropolis, whence he wrote several times to Very Rev Walter Quarter, administrator of the diocese of Chicago, inquiring under what conditions he would allow him to open a house in that city. "Next to Illinois," he informed Minoux, "lie Wisconsin, Michigan etc. It is said that everywhere there are many Germans but no priest, that would be the best location for us." 85 Then he proceeds to caution his provincial to be prepared, in case they settled there, to send some English-speaking fathers, for without English nothing was to be accomplished. The administrator of Chicago appears to have made an offer of some kind to Behrens, as Father Anderledy testified to
84 This and the preceding paragraph are based on letters (German) addressed by Father Behrens to his provincial, July 23 (New York), and August 9 (Cin- cinnati), 1848 Arch. Prov. Low. Germ, SJ
85 Behrens an Minoux, August 9, 1848.
532 THE JESUITS OF THE MIDDLE UNITED STATES
having seen the house in Chicago which the German exiles were invited to occupy, a very diminutive structure, he declared, that might house a small family but surely not a Jesuit scholasticate 36 About the beginning of September Behrens went on to Cincinnati and later to St. Louis to negotiate with Elet about the ultimate disposition of his men. It was only on returning to Cincinnati that he actually met the vice-provincial, with whom he failed to come to an agreement regarding the execution of the plans entrusted to him by Father Mmoux Thereupon he deter- mined to return at once to Europe and there lay the situation by word of mouth before his superior This step he took, so he said, only after prayerful deliberation and after applying the well-known rules of St. Ignatius for coming to a prudent decision in important matters 37 Mean- time, in September, 1848, sixteen of the German scholastics, under the direction of three of their own professors, had taken up their studies in theology and philosophy at St Louis University From Issenheim in Germany, where a novitiate had been opened, Mmoux wrote to Elet
I must have caused you a good deal of tiouble by the arrival of so large a party This elaborate and extemporized expedition was brought about by circumstances which it was scarcely in my power to control Your prudence and chanty will devise means with which to clear up this chaos of things and persons I thank you immensely for the offer made to Father Hubner to give us two of your scholastics to help us in case we settle down m Milwaukee and to admit some twelve of my scholastics into your seminary As I cannot give up Europe, I always look to having a mother-house whence I can draw at need the necessary help Has God other designs'5 I submit to them in all reverence Mgr Henni of Milwaukee has offered me his hospital as a resi- dence and place of shelter for my children. Is this agreeable to you? I have seen Very Rev. Father General and our assistant, Father Villefort. It might be desirable to find a point of conjunction with the Rocky Mountains. Would that be possible from Wisconsin Territory? 38
Another letter from Mmoux to Elet followed September 5
It is sad news indeed that I have about the arrival of my last contingent in New York. A very distressing voyage with suffering and every sort of privation and a landing more distressing still However, quod factum est mjectum fien nequtt Special circumstances led me to send out this numerous party before receiving Father Hubner's lettei. Father Ehiensberger gave him personal instructions as to their departure and the approximate time of their arrival Meanwhile Father Brunnei arrived. I was hoping that, once the party were on their way, at least some preparation would be made
36 Cf supra, note 28
87 Behrens an Mmoux, September 26, 1848.
88 Mmoux a Elet, July 29, 1848, (A).
JOHN ANTHONY ELET, VICE-PROVINCIAL, 1848-1851 533
to icceive them and direct them to some paiticulai place, seeing that Father Brunner and also Father Hubner had judged my plan to be impracticable. Happily Father Brocard had compassion on my poor wayfarers and received a goodly number of them Perhaps I came too late with my measuies Father Hubner must have laid my plan before you I thought it a very modest one I merely had in mind to establish a scholasticate under my chaige, say in Chicago or Milwaukee, and thus be free to recall my scholas- tics to Europe as soon as the need should arise, then in the course of time would follow a small college and some missions With Father General's authority and consent, I had made Father Brunner supeiior of this coloniz- ing project and had piovided the scholastics with good professors, spintual fathers, etc What has become of the project? God seems to will otheiwise and my will is His.39
Though Father Mmoux's idea of an American Jesuit house of studies under his jurisdiction could not be realized for the moment, it was not entirely abandoned by him nor did Father Elet oppose its execution as soon as circumstances should justify it. In fact, as shall subsequently be seen, he lent his aid to make it a reality. "In the present position o£ affairs," so the General advised Father Mmoux August 3, 1848, "the chief thing to be looked to is that our men in America have whereon to live and a place to live m, afterwards, inquiry must be made whether it is possible to open somewhere a house for the exclusive use of the newcomers." 40 Three weeks later the General wrote again to the Swiss provincial, who was greatly disappointed over the issue of his plans for America* "Let Father Mmoux try to understand his true position before the superiors of the other provinces. In view of the plan adopted for the dispatch of the colonists (coloni) and the position of Fathers Elet and Brocard, the latter were within their rights m doing as they did The necessary thing now is to provide for the welfare of our colonists quietly and with a perfect dependence on those who tender hospitality." 41 In the sequel, the Swiss Jesuits were to attempt with Elet's cooperation to open a college in Milwaukee with funds for that purpose placed at their disposal by the Belgian philanthropist, M, de Boey. Meantime, efforts were being made by the Missouri superior to domicile his European guests m a house of their own. He wrote to Father Mmoux:
This is the 4th time I have had the honor of writing to your Paternity, without knowing, however, whether a single one of my letters has reached you. Fearing I may be mistaken in the address, I thought the wisest course was to send the letters to our Very Reverend Father [General] to be for-
80 Mmoux a Elet, September 5, 1848. (A). 40Roothaan ad Mmoux, August 3, 184.8. (AA). 41 Roothaan ad Mmoux, August, 1848 (AA).
534 THE JESUITS OF THE MIDDLE UNITED STATES
warded to you I hope you have received at least one of them by this way If you are still anxious to have a foothold m the United States with Very Reverend Father General's permission I will turn over to you the college of Bardstown, where there are at present 80 boarders and 60 day- scholars, and the Louisville day-school, both in the state of Kentucky There you will have more work than enough for a beginning
As regards the subjects of the Swiss Province, the Institute will be ob- served in all things in their regard as far as possible and I shall always be ready to submit my conduct to the judgment of Fathers Brunner and Spiecher, m whom I recognize the spirit of St Ignatius I forgot to men- tion that my predecessoi, Veiy Rev Father Van de Velde, has just been consecrated Bishop of Chicago m Illinois and will offer us his college, now conducted by secular priests, when we shall have professors to send. That would be far preferable to Bishop Henm's offer All your childien are in good health and the scholastics are pursuing their studies in regular order Father Anderledy has received his points for his examen ad gradum Father Schultz is finishing his third year of probation I shall consult Very Rev Father General about Father Anderledy's third year of piobation with a view to modifying the exercises, seeing that the lobs of Father Van de Velde has left us in great straits I have been forced to accept a new and very extensive mission among the Indians If I had delayed the government would have sent Pi esbytenans there, I need 2 Fathers at least foi this mis- sion and laborers are few 42
The offer made by Father Elet to the Swiss provincial of the Bards- town and Louisville colleges was reported by him some days later to the Father General
I begin by assuring your Paternity that I shall do everything that de- pends on me to meet your wishes and assure to the dispersed Swiss Province a home in the United States I have already done more than was expected of me by offering Rev Father Mmoux the Louisville day-school and the college of Bardstown, two establishments that prosper beyond all expectation and where they could put by money for the support of a novitiate and scholasticate As to professors of English, I would procuie such for them and I would give the same attention (provided they wished it) to those establishments and take the same interest in them after the cession as I do at present . , In the proposition I have just made relative to our establish- ments in Kentucky, I have two things in view i ° to aid the Swiss Province m generous fashion, 2° to put myself m a position to send some of our men to the scholasticate at the end of this year43
In a letter of April 28, 1849, Father Mmoux conveyed his thanks to Father Elet for the offer of the two Kentucky houses and for the
42 Elet a Mmoux, March I, 1849.
43 Elet a Roothaan, March 10, 1849
JOHN ANTHONY ELET, VICE-PROVINCIAL, 1848-1851 535
hopes held out by Bishop Van de Velde of Chicago, but before making a decision he referred the entire matter to Father Roothaan for an expression of opinion. Louisville, which according to Father Elet, had a German population of six or eight thousand, appeared to be a prom- ising field for Mmoux's men to cultivate as a venture, but the classical school begun there by the Missouri Jesuits was a doubtful experiment never positively sanctioned by the Father General, who now discoun- tenanced the suggestion that the Swiss Jesuits take it in hand.44 As to Bardstown, he did not oppose its acceptance by Mmoux, but he pointed out to him that in taking over the college he should also have to as- sume its debts and other obligations Moreover, it would have to be ascertained whether the transfer of the institution to a body of Euro- pean Jesuits would meet with the approval of the Bishop and his clergy, while there remained the difficulty of providing the necessary staff of English-speaking teachers.45 In the end Father Mmoux, addressing the Missouri superior, declined the offer of Bardstown
As I announced to you in my last letter, I communicated to Very Rev- erend Father General the generous offer you had the goodness to make to me of the college and boai dmg-school of Bardstown After duly weighing all the obseivations which he made to me on the subject, 1 am m a position to declare that I feel myself absolutely incapable of an undertaking as con- siderable as this But I must express to you, withal, my due appreciation of the generous offer you have made me, you have had the good will to be of service to me. What shall we do next? The Bishop of Chicago pictures in harrowing terms the pitiable condition of the Germans in his diocese, on the other hand he declares frankly that a college is out of the question, as he is absolutely without funds. He asks foi at least twelve evangelical la- borers, who, however, must tiavel at their own expense, but he hopes that the chanty of the German Catholics of his diocese will not suifer them to die of hunger. The Bishop has written to this effect to Very Rev Father General, The latter m turn appeals to my province As for myself, I refer the matter to your prudent chanty. . . To return to Chicago, I may find it possible to send one or more 'fathers, I am going to write to Rev Father Pierling and through him to Rev Father Bawaroski; they may perhaps have some one to send.46
Nothing came of these attempts to employ the Swiss Jesuits in American fields of labor. Father Mmoux's first duty was after all to his own province and instead of sending additional men to America he was soon recalling his expatriated subjects thence to answer the calls
44 "Uofre du College de Bardstown qtfd a fait a la Province Smsse pourratt aller, mens non fas four Louisville" Roothaan a Elet, April 28, 1849 (AA).
45 Roothaan a Mmoux, May 2, 1849 (AA). 48 Mmoux a Elet, Ma7 26, 1849 (A).
536 THE JESUITS OF THE MIDDLE UNITED STATES
for ministerial aid that were now coming in from every quarter in Germany.
Meantime, the precise status of the Swiss Jesuits domiciled in Mis- souri as regarded dependence on their superior in Europe presented a problem which gave rise to a momentary misunderstanding Father Elet touched on the problem in a communication to the General
The expenses I have had to incur for lodging, clothing etc for oui poor exiles of Switzerland have been considerable enough, but divine PJ evidence has come to our assistance If some alms could be sent us from Euiopt1, we shall dispose of them without difficulty, but if there is nothing to hope for from that quarter, your Paternity need not worry, we shall not die of hunger The only thing which bothers me and which must sooner or later give rise to difficulty, is to have m my province a numbei of persons who think they depend on a provincial in Europe But this matter I leave to your wisdom 47
To the Missouri vice-provincial Father Roothaan now explained that there could not be two provincials in the same province except in the sense that the provincial of the exiles remained their "proprietor ($ropnetariMs) and true Father/3 although for the time being they were under the direction of another provincial.48 Moreover, "the prov- ince whence each individual exile comes has a right to him," and, again, "the right to a scholastic belongs to the province that has incurred the greater part of the expenses of his education." 49 It was obvious then that Father Mmoux had a claim to such of his men as were resident in Missouri and could recall them at his option, but he was not to do so without giving due notice to the Missouri superior. "Father Elet has been advised," the General wrote to the Maryland provincial, "that the incorporation of the exiles into his own province cannot take place." 50
The advent of the German exiles to the United States had indeed been welcomed by Father Elet as bringing with it, so it seemed to him, a providential solution of many of the difficulties under which the Missouri Vice-province had long been laboring. It was pitifully under- manned and the tasks it was attempting were out of all proportion to the size of the staff engaged. There was more than an offhand hyper- bole in Elet's statement that every man of his jurisdiction was doing the work of four. To shortage of men were added pressing economic problems. Father Behrens on landing m New York had heard
47 Elet a Roothaan, October 24, 1 849 (AA)
48 Roothaan ad Elet, April 7, 1849 (AA).
49 Roothaan ad Elet, February 17, 1849 (AA).
50 Roothaan ad Brocard, March 5, 1849.
JOHN ANTHONY ELET, VICE-PROVINCIAL, 1848-1851 537
that the Missouri Vice-province was on the way to bankruptcy and this circumstance, so he declared, had much to do with his decision not to quarter his entire party on the western Jesuits. However, though the arrival of the refugees m St Louis added considerably to the problem of subsistence, the unexpected presence in the vice-province of so many men trained in the best traditions of the order and ripe for apostolic work was regarded in the light of a welcome stroke of good fortune Almost at once Elet destined Father Spicher to be master of novices Fathers Loretan and Fruzzim, who had just completed their divinity studies in St. Louis University, he would make professors of theology. Others of the fathers were installed as pastors, Brunner at St Charles, Hubner at Dardenne, Ehrensberger m Osage County, Missouri, Wip- pern and Weber m Cincinnati, Gailland among the Indians. Additional helpers from Europe were also asked for, "Father Behrens would like to return1" Elet wrote to the Swiss provincial, July 15, 1849 "Let him do so and quickly. I shall receive him with open arms. . . . We have just lost another Father, the best mathematician in the vice-prov- ince [Maesseele], He died of the cholera, which at the moment is making terrible ravages m this country. In St. Louis 5000 have died of it in the last 2 [ ? ] months. How many Catholics die without seeing a priest, as there is a shortage of priests everywhere' Think of us and send us some apostolic men." 51
In still another communication dated a few months before the hard- pressed Father E]et portrayed for the Father General the difficulties that beset him
I am awaiting the Spanish Fathers and some scholastics of the same nationality with the greatest impatience Their coming depends on your Paternity and the glory of God is so much concerned in this affair' Send good Fathers Irissan and Parrondo, who speak English as well as Spanish, the last-named especially, who left America with such keen regret. . . The personnel of our Vice-Province discourages me. Father Van de Velde gone Father Nota has left the Society. Father Cottmg is in another province Father Arnoudt is hors de combat Fathers Druyts and O'Loghlen are in ruined health Your Paternity told me that we cannot count too surely upon the Swiss fathers, who so far have been occupied principally with their scholastics ... I have almost no trained subjects and if I cannot count upon the Swiss for three or four years to replace some of our men I must renounce the idea of having any [trained subjects] in the future. And yet if my efforts were seconded, I should be able before the end of my provmcialate to put everything on a good footing both as to material things and personnel.62
51 Elet a Mmoux, July 15, 1849 (AA)
52 Elet a Roothaan, March 1 6, 1849
538 THE JESUITS OF THE MIDDLE UNITED STATES
In his efforts to secure recruits Father Elet, as was seen, made over- tures to his Swiss guests to affiliate themselves permanently with Mis- souri From lines written at this time by Father Anderledy to his pro- vincial in Europe it may be learned in what light he and his associates regarded their position m the vice-province*
The province possesses three colleges and, if possible, two more are to be built next year The Americans, so it seems, wish to create employment in order to keep us newcomers occupied, so that returning to Euiope, if this step should come to be considered, will be all the moie difficult They seem to wish us to pass over for good into then province. In my case the rumor is afloat that I have been already transferred. If the question is put up to me definitely, my answer shall be I am ready to die wherever it shall please you, my Provincial, Father Mmoux, but I shall never forget what my province has done for me and so shall not pass over into any other '3
Another comment on the same situation is found in a memoir drawn up in French by Father Fnednch, who after a year's stay in St. Louis as professor of dogmatic theology returned to Europe.
The provincial, Father Elet, received us in St, Louis with great eager- ness, and from the fiist moment of our arrival judged us destined by Provi- dence to reenforce his feeble province. According to him, the Swiss Jesuits, that is to say, the Jesuits of Upper Germany, ought to forget entirely and at once their former Province, since a much vaster field of labor opens up before them in America, which is probably destined by God to become the asylum of liberty and of religion in place of Europe already grown old and decayed. . . Pius IX has manifested his desire that Ours, generally exiled and persecuted in Europe, should sail for America and devote themselves to the service of the Church in a land where, as Father Elet adds, you are received with open arms Let no one think any more of returning to Europe, for it is threatened with impending dissolution All the signs of the times announce for it a total overthrow of the existing order, the epoch of kings and princes is about to end and God avenges Himself on them for the injustices they have committed by the rum of kingdoms, which He will replace by republics 54
Little by little Father Mmoux succeeded in reorganizing his scat- tered province. Before the dispersion its activities had been restricted to Switzerland. Now a vast new field of labor opened up before it in Ger- many itself, awakening to new and vigorous life after the revolution of 1848. All of Elet's hopes for retaining his European visitors perma- nently or at least for several years on his staff vanished as the pro- vincial of Upper Germany began to summon his men back to Europe.
53 Shmmen aus Maria Laach, 42 249
54 Quelques notices sur PAmenque Arch. Prov Low Germ , S J.
JOHN ANTHONY ELET, VICE-PROVINCIAL, 1848-1851 539
Our account of the episode may be brought to an end with some perti- nent extracts from Father Mmoux's letters to Father Elet
Brussels y July 24, 1849. Father Ehrensberger would be of great help to me, m fact would be almost indispensable in Westphalia, where a vast field for missionary work has just been opened up If you could replace him, what an immense service you would do me'
Issenheirriy August 28y 1849 I hoped to see Father Anderledy arrive with Father Fnednch, once moie I urge upon you my request that you send back those who cannot become acclimatized
Strasburgy November 30, 1849 Your beautiful map of the United States of America is hung up in the corndor of the Novitiate of Issenheim
1 already wrote to you that we are working in Westphalia and that we are in lack of workers. Now we are called to the Grand Duchy of Baden Already a mission has been given there and others are asked for. We are truly in straits and cannot meet so many demands
Strasburgy January 29, 1850 In Germany we are gaining ground, but we shall need a greater force than we now possess I miss Father Ehrens- berger.
Strasburgy May 5, 1850 My hopes in America vanish more and more Westphalia, the Giand Duchy of Baden, the principalities of Hechmgen and Sigmanngen, the kingdom of Wuitemberg, claim all my forces, I dare say that with all my subjects together we should not be able to supply the needs that confront us in these parts Moreover, my young people ought to apply themselves to German , I fear that m America they may forget it some- what This Germany of ours, so long at the mercy of Protestantism, may be compared to your own country You have proof of what it is like m the emigrants who reach you from here Do not think that you receive the lefuse merely, not at all, and I make bold to say on this occasion, the little thieves get hung, the big ones, well, let no one dare to lay a finger on them You are distressed for lack of subjects, we are going to be m like case To meet the situation, I must take measures m time Still, I should not like to be charged with parsimony or avarice. I shall be as generous as I can, due re- gard being had for the rule about sending subjects to the foreign missions. Here then are my arrangements i. I agree to leave m America such as believe themselves called thereto after
mature consideration on their part of this calling m the Lord, as also
those who, while still m Europe, asked of Very Rev Father General
to be sent to America.
2 So much conceded, I call back the Juniors and recently ordained priests, as Father Anderledy and others.
3 The theologians shall make their theology en regie, after theology they shall come to Europe to make their third yeai.
4. Fathers and Brothers alike shall have the opportunity of looking into their vocation for America, and those who find themselves without such [vocation], shall return in due season. This provision will comfort many hearts and confirm vocations.
540 THE JESUITS OF THE MIDDLE UNITED STATES
5 I except in eveiy case those who have gone to America at their own petition or have been assigned to it by our Very Rev Father General For the rest, I rather believe that parting with these subjects will not pio\e so disagreeable to you, seeing that my men find it difficult to fall in with American ways
Munster, West-phaha, June ny 1850 In recalling Father Anderledy, I take for granted you are able to find a substitute for him from among youi own subjects Father Ehiensbeiger will also have to come back, his ktteis lead me to the conclusion that he will be of the number of those who, unable coram Domino to decide for America, will return to Europe I should be very much distressed weie you to have taken m hand new enterprises in reliance on my men who are priests or will become such I always said I wished the door left open for their recall
Strasburg, October 24, 1850 I have just received your letter of Sep- tember 3 It affords me veiy great pleasure with the news it contains that next year you will be m a position to get along without my subjects and that you will be good enough to send back to me all that have no vocation for the foreign missions and all who ask to return, Fathers, Scholastics and Brothers . . I should be veiy ungrateful weie I to forget the very great chanty you showed in receiving my scholastics, I shall always be infinitely giateful for it.
Strasburgy January 7, 1851 (To Bishop Van de Velde of Chicago ) I received m good time youi letter of the ayth of November past I thank you for it The heart and soul of a Bishop speak therein unmistakably, the honor of the Church and the salvation of souls are your only concern Would that I were able m every way to respond to your views and plans But it seems that the words of our Lord Jesus Christ must be verified at all times and m every place, messis qutdem multa, operam autem fauci. The sudden and unexpected changes that have occuned in Germany, which is my province, have modified my plans m America to a considerable degree. On all sides I meet with reproach for having sent away such a force of men, now they offer me money to bring them back, and even appeal directly to the Holy Father to obtain perforce what I was not ready to grant. All the parishes, the most important of the towns, which only two years back were the resort of the proletariat and the hot-bed of agitators, are now asking me for missionaries The fight for liberty of education is on, if it ends happily, then indeed we do not know which way to turn. Where are we to find missionaries and professors? You see, then, my embarrassment (A).
Only a minority of Father Mmoux's exiled subjects, whose final status he was thus endeavoring to arrange with the vice-provincial of Missouri, eventually remained m America. Of the thirty-eight resident in the West m 1848, fifteen were remaining in 1854 and this number decreased still further in the next few years. In the group that definitely cast in their fortunes with the middlewestern Jesuits were Fathers Wip- pern, Goeldlm, Schultz, Weber, Gailland, Tschieder, Nussbaum and
JOHN ANTHONY ELET, VICE-PROVINCIAL, 1848-1851 541
Haermg. They proved a valuable accession to the vice-province of Missouri and their ministry was lavished for years with splendid results on parishes and schools in various points of the Middle West.
§ 5- RECURRING PROBLEMS
The finances of the vice-province, in a critical state at the time Father Van de Velde began to fill the post of vice-provincial, had been put by him on a sound basis before he was succeeded in office by Father Elet. Writing to Archbishop Kennck from Chicago, where he was now Bishop, Van de Velde expressed his objections on economic grounds to the proposed transfer of St. Louis University to the College Farm "Had he [Father Elet] thought proper to consult me on the subject, I certainly would have dissuaded him from doing so, for fear of seeing the province again involved in pecuniary difficulties. God only knows how much I have had to work and how much I have suffered (men- tally) to extricate it from its former difficulties and how much I would pity any one who should have to go through the same process." 55
A letter written by Elet to the General early in March, 1849, dwells on the economic status of the vice-province at that date
The novices passed a very dreaiy winter m the old novitiate house, the roof of which has rotted and no longer offers any protection against the ram With 1500 dollars or 8000 fiancs I can have the new house finished so as to make it habitable, but where shall I find them? St Louis University, having paid the Madame de Ghyseghem debt and owning still the bettei part of the farm from which it is just now deriving an annual revenue of 3000 francs and having more than 150 boarders and 60 day-scholars, finds itself in abundance. The church, which should belong to the University, be- longs to the province, since the latter carries the debt of 40,000 dollars The free-school attached to the church is still a burden upon the province, and not upon the University and costs annually 800 dollars Next, there is the support of the scholasticate and the novitiate, and to meet all this I have Tax on the University 1,000 dollais
Do on the College of Cincinnati 1,000 "
Revenue from the church, expenses deducted 1,500 "
Bardstown College 600 "
Intei est on 6,000 dollars at 3 per 100 180 "
Support of the scholasticate
" " novitiate Interest on 40,000 dollais Contingent expenses for travelling etc. Free school of St. Louis
6,500
B5Van de Velde to Kenrick, March 4, 1849. (A)«
542 THE JESUITS OF THE MIDDLE UNITED STATES
Deficit to be supplied by alms, 2,200 dollars, almost 12,000 francs So far your kindness has provided for the payment of the interest dues m Belgium, thus leaving a smaller deficit to be supplied here by alms, but your kindness is not all powerful Could not the University take over the church or at least assume the expenses of the free-school by applying to it the tuition money of which it has no need, in view especially of the number of boarders? This is only a suggestion Your Paternity will decide and can write on the matter to the rector of the University With all that I shall still be without a penny to give to the missionaries, but I am hoping the [Associa- tion of the] Propagation [of the Faith] will resume its activities If I knew that the rough outline I have set down would cause your Paternity any anxiety, I should be strongly tempted not to send it. It is evident that the University by selling the other half of the faim could have more than is necessary to pay the entire debt on the church, even independently of such sale, it could do the same by various economies 56
Elet's apprehension that the idea he endeavored to convey to the Father General of the financial situation m the vice-province might inspire the latter with some unnecessary alarm was borne out by the event. A few months later he was expressing the fear that Elet, as Verhaegen before him, was involving the vice-province m pecuniary embarrassment Father Elet hastened to explain to Father Roothaan that, as a matter of fact, debts were being liquidated and would be liqui- dated still further if only he were authorized to transfer the College Church in St. Louis from the vice-province to the University. The building of the church had been financed through loans obtained by the vice-province from the Belgian Jesuit province and M. De Boey, the expectation being that the surplus revenue of the church would go far towards the support of the novitiate and the scholasticate. It was now proposed by Elet that the University in taking, over the church should assume its debts. If he was able to finish the new building at the novitiate, so he informed Father Roothaan, it was to him he owed it. The General had in fact paid the interest on the Belgian debts and had forwarded to Elet a thousand dollars which had been sent him as a gift by Bryan Mullanphy of St. Louis. With the above mentioned debts extinguished, the vice-province would be free of any financial incumbrance, besides possessing a capital of fifteen thousand dollars for the support of the scholastics.57 The loan from M. De Boey was for twenty thousand dollars. At his death, which occurred early m January, 1850, title to this loan was transferred in his will to Father Roothaan, who m turn cancelled it in favor of the vice-province of Missouri "I have the honor to inform you," Father Roothaan wrote to Elet April
57
a Roothaan, March I, 1849 (AA) Elet a Roothaan, June 13, 1849.
JOHN ANTHONY ELET, VICE-PROVINCIAL, 1848-1851 543
1 8, 1850, "that M. De Boey having left at my disposition the claim which he had on the Province of Missouri, I remit it entirely in your favor, on condition that you spend the equivalent of the revenue of this sum for the benefit of the Indian missions immediately dependent on you, either by lending them effective [financial] aid or by training up recruits for them 58
The transfer of the College Church to the University was effected in the course of 1850, the latter agreeing to pay to the vice-province annual interest on a sum equivalent to that which the latter had ex- pended on the church. Even with this substantial aid the procurator of the vice-province, Father De Smet, found it a problem to carry on. A financial statement from him for the year ending November i, 1850, showed an endowment-fund of $48,900, which at five per cent yielded an annual revenue of $2,445. This sum scarcely sufficed for the support of the novitiate, especially m view of the buildings already erected or in process of erection. These included a house for the nineteen novitiate Negroes, a barn, a stable, a bakery, and a butcher-shop, besides fences etc "Everything there was m a state of dilapidation." Firewood and lumber had been exhausted and so a fine strip of woods, one hundred and twenty arpents in extent, was purchased for two thousand dollars, one-half of its actual value. "The number of novices is 33 Allowing only 50 dollars a year for food and clothing for each novice, (the farm supplying many things), the sum needed for their support has been 1650 [dollars] . Then comes the scholasticate now in part at the University As many of the scholastics have only an hour of class a day and as none of them teach more than two hours so that they may have leisure time to apply to *heir own studies, the vice-province undertakes to pay the University 50 dollars for each of them for his annual sup- port.'7 50
In the decades of the nineteenth century that saw the great influx of Catholic immigration from Europe the Gospel maxim that the har- vest is ripe but the laborers are few was being verified m appalling fashion Catholic schools and priestly workers were everywhere the need of the hour and these could not be supplied in anything like measure adequate to the demand. The result was that the Jesuits of the Middle West found themselves involved in a measure of minis- terial and educational endeavor altogether out of proportion to the slender personnel at their command. The Maryland superior visiting his western subjects m 1827 reported to Rome that they seemed to be doing the work of twice their number, a quarter of a century later Father Gleizal declared that his associates were each carrying burdens
58Roothaan a Elet, Apnl 18, 1850. (A) Cf also Chap XV, § 2. 59 De Smet a Roothaan, November i, 1850 (AA).
544 THE JESUITS OF THE MIDDLE UNITED STATES
which should ordinarily be shared between three "Many of them, I admit/' wrote Elet to the General, "have not the learning of the Euro- peans It is not their fault nor the fault of their superiors. Stress of circumstances is the cause of it After all they know enough to exercise with profit the functions of the sacred ministry. They are men ready to bear the heat and the burden of the day as the two Hoeckens, Schoenmackers, Bax, D'Hope, Dnscoll, Damen, De Coen etc." 60 The lot of the Jesuit scholastic teacher was not an easy one More often than not he was engaged at the same time in getting up his philosophy and theology What made Father Behrens in 1 848 hesitate to domicile his men in American scholasticates was the fear, as he explained it, that they might be educated m American fashion, teaching and studying at the same time It was indeed, and regrettably so, the American fashion at the moment, but circumstances had made it such. In 1850 with a staff of only some two hundred the vice-province was conducting three boarding-colleges, a day-college and nineteen residences. When the time came for the scholastics to be normally advanced to their studies in divinity they could not be withdrawn from the colleges for lack of substitutes 61 Hence the makeshift practice of requiring them to study while still employed m the absorbing duties of the class-room. That a situation so abnormal should escape the notice of or pass without protest from the vigilant and far-seeing Jesuit who sat in the GeneraPs chair in Rome, John Roothaan, was not to be expected The more work, the fewer the chances of literary and scientific development for the men, with the result m the long run of a gradually deteriorat- ing personnel Against this evil Father Roothaan inveighed unspar- ingly. "I am sometimes afraid," he wrote to Father Elet, "that the thing I have been combating for 20 years back in American Superiors, generally without success, may happen also to you, letting yourself, namely, be engaged entirely in external activities (through zeal, this of course I understand), while losing sight of the importance of giving proper training to the young men of the Society." 62 Again "I do not cease to regret the enfeeblement which this interesting vice-province is undergoing as a result of the inordinate output of energy imposed upon it right along by its new establishments For the rest, I am not oblivious of the labors in the thick of which the vice-province was born and has grown up even till now." 63 And again "The vice-province of Missouri despite the continued advice and protests of the Father General has gone on charging itself with new engagements. No new colleges, no
60 Elet a Roothaan, August 17, 1849 (AA)
61 Infra, Chap XVIII § 5, fasstm
62 Roothaan a Elet, July 15, 1849 (AA)
68 Roothaan a Elet, November 14, 1850. (AA).
JOHN ANTHONY ELET, VICE-PROVINCIAL, 1848-1851 545
new missions." 64 To these protests from headquarters Father Elet made answer by disclaiming any present intention to extend the range of his activities "As to new undertakings, Your Paternity has nothing to fear on that score. I should need a very explicit command to bring myself to any such step. The Bishops of Vmcennes, Detroit and Chicago have made me magnificent offers. I answered that we could not consider them before five years." 65
Within a half year of the time these lines were written Bishop Spalding of Louisville communicated to Father Elet his earnest desire that the Jesuits assume charge of his college of St. Mary's m Lebanon County, Kentucky. It would appear that the vice-provincial, m referring the petition to the Father General, as he did, cherished no serious desire himself that it meet with a favorable response. At all events, even before the General's letter arrived from Rome, he had signified to the Bishop through Father De Smet his inability to accede to the request.60 But Father Roothaan was of the mind that the proposition should not have been entertained even for a moment and he expressed himself on the subject with feeling
I am astonished that you should even have given this matter serious consideration as though there were any possibility of yo'ur assuming new obli- gations when those you already carry are so overwhelming and when it threatens nothing less than the entire ruin of your Vice-Province, as I have warned you repeatedly before this I see in it all zeal indeed, but a blind zeal, which makes no provision for the future How can the Vice-Province subsist when time is not allowed for training its men, when the immature and such as lack the necessary knowledge are employed m the sacred min- istry, with really serious and almost inevitable danger of going wrong in many things whether m the pulpit or confessional, to say nothing of your poorly equipped teachers with so many schools to teach Pressed by con- science, I absolutely forbid you, Father, to enter on negotiations for the acceptance of any new college or residences. For well-meaning bishops who make demands on us there is a ready excuse hommem non habeo In vam will affairs of this kind be thrown back on me I cannot, I cannot, I cannot, as a matter of conscience, nor shall I probably be able to do anything, even though I am to carry this heavy burden of the generalate for ten years longer, unless things happen m Europe which certainly are not to be de- sired 6T
But Father Roothaan deprecated any misunderstanding of his words, not wishing the impression to be left that he doubted even for
64 Roothaan a Elet, July 30, 1850 (AA) 05 Elet a Roothaan, August 17, 1850 (AA) 60 De Smet to Spalding, April 12, 1851 (A). 67 Roothaan ad Elet, April 9, 1851. (A).
546 THE JESUITS OF THE MIDDLE UNITED STATES
a moment of the thorough good-will of the members of the vice- province and especially of its superiors or was unmindful of the many excellent things that he knew were being accomplished in their midst It was only against the excesses of what he considered a mistaken zeal that his words of warning were directed68
§ 6 CLOSING DAYS
Father Elet's active tenure of the office of vice-provincial lasted scarcely three years, but brief as it was it saw important steps taken towards the expansion of the vice-province. In the very first months of his incumbency he was called upon to negotiate the transfer to Jesuit control of St. Joseph's College in Bardstown, Kentucky, a business handled in its initial stages by Father Van de Velde. To him also fell the task of setting on foot the new college of St. Aloysius in Louis- ville, Kentucky, which opened its doors in 1849. The transfer of the flourishing Potawatomi mission from Sugar Creek in the present Linn County, Kansas, to a site on the Kansas River later occupied by St Mary's College was also carried out during his administration The routine visitation of the scattered houses of the vice-province set at points as far apart as Cincinnati and the Osage and Potawatomi missions of eastern Kansas, involved a strain which would have taxed the physical forces of one many times more robust than Father Elet. Some casual lines of his to the Father General reveal the hardships he was called upon to undergo in this connection "I have a good many things to communicate to you in regard to the Indian missions, but I am forced to put off doing so as my table is covered with letters and I feel tired and worn out after a journey which obliged me to spend 9 nights in the open on the hard ground and to live almost all the time on a little meat hastily cooked in the open air and on biscuit as hard as brick. Still, I am only fatigued, not ill." C9
Elet had all along been constitutionally delicate, an affection of the lungs having manifested itself while he was still young, though by dis- creet and careful living he had managed to preserve a measure of health sufficient to enable him to be of valuable service to his order m posi- tions of trust ever since his ordination in 1827 In the autumn of 1850 his health took a decided turn for the worse, he undertook nevertheless a business trip to New Orleans, from which he returned to St. Louis m January, 1851, weakened to such a degree that it was necessary for him to take to bed Though rallying for a while from this spell, he never afterwards regained the measure of health he had previously enjoyed
68Roothaan a Elet, August 20, 1851 (AA) 69 Elet a Roothaan, October 13, 184.9 (AA)
JOHN ANTHONY ELET, VICE-PROVINCIAL, 1848-1851 547
but thenceforward suffered a gradual decline. On June 6 his socius, or assistant, Father De Smet, left St. Louis to attend the "Great Indian Council" near Fort Laramie, the government having requested that he endeavor to promote the interests of peace by his personal presence at that important gathering. Deprived thus of the services of his assistant at a time when declining health incapacitated him for the discharge of his official duties, Elet found it necessary to call to his aid the master of novices, Father Gleizal, to whom he entrusted the temporary man- agement of the vice-province. In June 1851, Father Gleizal undertook an official visitation of the houses east of the Mississippi, in the course of which he had the painful duty of reporting to St Louis the sudden death of one of the most capable members of the vice-province, Mr. Julius Johnston, who, though not yet a priest, had been filling the post of prefect of studies in St. Xavier College, Cincinnati.
Some important steps looking to normal Jesuit procedure in the vice-province were taken during Father Elet's administration. For the first time in years it was arranged to have a considerable number of the younger men begin their studies or resume them after previous inter- ruption and delay. At the opening of the session, 1851-1852, a group of nine, six of them priests and three scholastics, were registered at Georgetown College as students of theology It is significant of the extent to which members of the vice-province had to be employed at this period in important posts without previous normal preparation that two of the number, Fathers De Blieck and Oakley, had already been at the head of colleges in the capacity of rector. Besides thus beginning to solve the long perplexing problem of the education of the young men of the Society, Father Elet, through his substitute Father Gleizal, also managed to push forward various other matters of business which the Father General had been pressing upon his attention. At a meeting of the rectors of the vice-province held in St. Louis in August, 1851, a carefully drawn up body of regulations regarding college administra- tion and studies as also disciplinary and religious life was promulgated Elet's concern for the well-being of the Society he loved so well did not abate even while the sands of his earthly career were running out. "I am greatly distressed over the serious condition of your health," Father Roothaan wrote him a week before his death, "but I congratu- late your Reverence all the more than even with bodily strength worn out you have had the will to take in hand and bring to a happy issue for God's greater glory the business which you have brought to my attention." On the whole, however, Father Elet's administration failed to meet with the approval of the Father General with the result that the latter proceeded to relieve him definitely of his charge. On August 25, 1851, Father William Stack Murphy of the province of France
548 THE JESUITS OF THE MIDDLE UNITED STATES
arrived in St. Louis as Visitor and vice-provincial of Missouri. On the following day he proceeded to Florissant to confer with his predecessor, who had been removed thither from St. Louis University.
Father Elet was now struggling with the fatal malady that had already wrought havoc among the members of his family, his brother, Father Charles Louis Elet, of the Missouri Vice-province, and several sisters having died before him of consumption. On August 15 he was informed by the rector of the novitiate that his condition gave no hope of recovery. "Good news," he answered, "good news, better I could not receive." During his last illness his devout religious nature came constantly to the surface and all around him were deeply impressed by his edifying piety On one occasion, when hardly able to walk, he dragged himself to the chapel and there remained some ten minutes in devout adoration before the Blessed Sacrament On October i toward evening the Viaticum was administered to him Though he was scarcely able to breathe, his lips frequently moved in prayer and he pronounced most affectionately the holy names of Jesus and Mary. To a prayer in honor of the Immaculate Conception, which was not at the time a defined dogma of the Church, he added the words, "credo, credo, Domme Jesu." One of the last requests he made was that no solemnity should accompany his funeral services though he expressed a wish that the students of the University be asked to offer one holy communion for the repose of his soul He had been especially drawn to intercessory prayer to the Guardian Angels and when rector m St. Louis had en- joined the fathers of his community to offer Mass in their honor so as to obtain their special protection over the house. He now expressed an earnest desire to die on the morrow, the feast of the Holy Angels. The next day his strength steadily declined and toward midnight it was proposed to give him the last absolution. He assented, saying, "yes, it is time." Some minutes later a beautiful prayer of St Charles Borromeo was read to him. At the passage where the saint acknowledges that he has sinned, but adds that "he had never denied the Father, Son and Holy Ghost," Elet exclaimed, "never, never" He then affectionately kissed the crucifix for the last time and two or three minutes before midnight, while the last absolution was again pronounced, he quietly expired.70 It was the second day of October, 1851, Six days later the new vice-provincial, Father Murphy, announced the passing of his predecessor to the Father General
Would to God that the telegraph reached to Rome as it does to Louis- ville and Cincinnati. Good Father Elet would have had the advantage of your prayers a few hours after his death, which took place at Florissant
70 Contemporary account apparently by Father Gleizal (A).
JOHN ANTHONY ELET, VICE-PROVINCIAL, 1848-1851 549
Tuesday List at midnight No agony, piayer on his lips up to the last sigh, and a smile, which even death did not take away . Three weeks before my arrival he had received the last sacraments, but improvement soon became so sensible that we hoped to save him He was a pious man and full of faith He rests by the side of his brother not far from Father De Theux and Father Meunn of the old Society, whose remains have been transferred to Florissant Though it has pleased God to call him, I thank Him for having left the Father ample time to put me in touch with the affairs of the vice- province I am counting much on his prayeis71
To Father Elet belongs the distinction of having introduced among the Missouri Jesuits the practice of public prayer and devotion in honor of the Sacred Heart of Jesus. He encouraged the pious custom of re- ceiving holy communion on the first Friday of the month and also of attendance on that day at a special service consisting chiefly in an act of reparation recited by the priest during Benediction of the Blessed Sacrament. Those who were aware of his very great devotion to the Guardian Angels and to the Sacred Heart of the Redeemer could not but note the happy circumstance that his death took place on the festival of the Holy Angels as also on the eve of the first Friday of the month.
•Murphy a Roothaan, October 8, 1851 (AA)
PART III
JESUIT GROWTH IN THE MIDDLE WEST. THE FIFTIES AND SIXTIES
CHAPTER XVII THE SUCCESSION OF SUPERIORS, 1851-1871
§ I. OVEREAGER ZEAL
Father Elet was taken to task by Father Roothaan, as has been seen, for attempting a larger program of work than was warranted by the slender resources at his command. The General laid it down as a principle that Providence does not desire of its earthly agents any effort or enterprise for which the adequate human means are not at hand, to attempt a work when the necessary conditions for its success are not available bespeaks a zeal that is not ad sobnetatem and is in a sense a flying in the face of Providence. "If God does not supply the means/7 he pointed out, "it is a sign that He does not desire, at least for the present, the end in view, however good this may be in itself, and so on this score our minds ought to be quite at rest " 1 At the same time, there were actual pressing needs m education and the ministry that called or seemed to cal] for immediate relief and the urge to provide for them when it was at all possible to do so and leave to Providence the task of meeting future needs in properly trained men was apparently too great at times to be resisted. Thus the future was, in a measure, mortgaged for the sake of the present. As Father Roothaan saw it, the sacrifices which the western Jesuits ought to have made for the training of the younger members with a view to their greater efficiency in later years were made rather m favor of students in schools and colleges of whom, prior to their admission, thete was no real obligation on the part of the Society to provide. This was not a policy, it is plain, of prudence and foresight, but at worst it was nothing more than mistaken zeal or the defect of a virtue, the virtue being a whole- souled and unhesitating altruism. The matter was put pointedly by Father Druyts when he wrote to Father Beckx "What else could we
1 Obviously the General did not mean to discountenance all pious ventures made on a basis of trust m Providence and without apparent adequate human means to support them Monumental works of chanty and zeal are often begun, to use an Americanism, "on a shoe-string " What Father Roothaan deprecated was such a multiplication of activities *as under the circumstances was really ill-advised from any standpoint of prudence, human or divine Roothaan ad Van de Veldea June 2, 1844 (AA)-
553
554 THE JESUITS OF THE MIDDLE UNITED STATES
have done when distressing appeals for help were being heard on every side?"2 At all events, with a truly generous, if shortsighted, disre- gard for their own domestic interests, the Jesuits of the West were giving lavishly of their energy and devotion in class-room, parish and Indian mission alike
At the risk of some repetition it may be of interest to recall here the situation in the vice-province of Missouri in Father Elet's time as it was graphically set before the General by Father Gleizal m his capacity of consultor
A thought has been pursuing me for some days, I cannot of myself decide whether it comes from on high or from some other source I think I can do no better than communicate it to you precisely and simply, your Paternity will do about it as he thinks fit. The one thing above everything else that determines me to take the present step is the greater glory of God, the good of our Society, and in particular the good of our Vice-Province
I must first of all speak out a truth which will in no way displease your Paternity, it is that with all our ignorance of the Institute and the very imperfect state of our Vice-Province, there reigns among Ours, m my opin- ion, a spirit of union, of devotion and of sacrifice altogether worthy of admiration. There is no one here when there is question of work and suffer- ing for the good of the Society who lags a single step behind, but with all that it is possible to see that we do not make a single step forward whereas in this country everything moves with giant steps and even with the rapidity of a steam engine The entire body of our young men is being sacrificed to the very imperfect instruction given in our colleges. I say very imperfect seeing that studies are made so superficially and m such fashion that one is sometimes tempted to ask one's self whether in some of our colleges it is possible to point out any difference between one of our American universities and a European noimal school Catalogue m hand, I can name from 20 to 29 scholastics who have been m the Society for 10, 12, 15 years, and yet have made none of the Society's studies or have made them very im- perfectly The method of studying here consists in giving several hours to teaching or prefecting and the rest of the time to preparing for or attending some or other class So much for those who are regarded here as being applied to their studies The others are plunged up to the neck in teaching. The result is that of all of Ours who have been educated m the Vice-Province there is not a single one who has passed through the mould of the Society and can be called a trained Jesuit.
Is it not deplorable, Very Reverend Father, to see such a state of things, especially when you consider that you have in the Vice-Province 79 priests and 47 scholastics (these numbers include, it is true, those from other Prov- inces); moreover, among our young men there are quite a number of talented subjects, and some of them are of.bnlhant parts and would match any subjects, it makes no difference which, from the other Provinces if
2 Druyts ad Beckx, May 19, 1858. (AA).
THE SUCCESSION OF SUPERIORS, 1851-1871 555
only they had the advantage of being trained If only there was hope of soon getting out of this labyrinth, one might say, patience for a while' But any hope of this kind is without foundation Reverend Father Provincial Elet speaking to me a few days ago of the novices who will take their vows next year told me that Ours of the Province of Germany having to leave us soon, he would be obliged to do with them [the novices] as was done before with the others, namely, throw them into teaching without making them pass through the Jumorate The cause of the evil which I point out is m my opinion* I, that we have too much work on our hands, 2, that we have taken up ministries which are foreign to the Society, such as the government of parishes and teaching in schools which elsewhere would be conducted by the Brothers of Chnstian Schools, 3, that we have subjects raised to the priesthood who ought to continue to be students, we do not do enough for the training of our men, i e , we neglect the Jumorate after the Novitiate as also the last probation Here I am nearly 14 years m the Province and I don't know a single member who has made his 3rd year of probation m due form
In the present state of things it seems to me that with some good will m the matter the evil is not without remedy I, we could and we should give up the administration of parishes. At a single stroke we should have at our disposal 1 6 Fathers, the majority of whom might be able to render service in our colleges Moreover, his Grace, the Archbishop of St Louis, who for sometime now has seemed so devoted to us and who knows very well what ministries the Society should take m hand and what it should reject, would be edified to see us endeavoring as far as possible to draw close to the spirit of our Institute He would besides admire our generosity were he to see us put into his hands well organized parishes with churches and rectones in good condition, all of which he could forthwith dispose of in favor of his priests, some of whom are in a state of real poverty. The secular priests . would employ us all the more readily m missions and retreats, which oui Fathers give elsewhere with so much success for souls and for the good of the Church. In one of the diocesan statutes issued by his Grace, the Archbishop, after his last synod, the secular priests are earnestly invited to employ Ours for giving retreats in their parishes on the plan of those given m Euiope I know that some of them have shown and still show a sort of repugnance to ceding churches and the annexed property owned by us in the parishes which the Society administers under the pretext or rather for the reason that we ought to have a care for the goods of the Society and not sacrifice them If I am not mistaken, I believe it is by means of funds coming from the parishes or from the Association of the Propagation of the Faith or from other alms that these goods have been acquired with the exception perhaps of some of the churches of Father Helias. However it be, it seems to me that the Society by ceding these goods to the bishop would lose nothing thereby. As to his Grace, the Archbishop of Cincinnati, I know that he is very sensitive and that a change of policy such as I speak of and for which he might not be prepared might perhaps displease him. Yet, as he is an eminently virtuous man, if your
556 THE JESUITS OF THE MIDDLE UNITED STATES
Paternity were to write to him on the subject to make him realize that the good of the Society demands such a change, I believe that he would readily yield, the more so as I know that his Grace has the greatest esteem foi and confidence m your Paternity
I would suggest the transformation of the boarding-school at Cincinnati into a day-school, holding out at the same time hopes to the people of the town that a boarding-school will some day be opened in the neighborhood of Cincinnati. This town with its laige population would furnish for the time being a sufficient number of pupils Our Fathers [there], though less numer- ous than they are now, would make themselves more useful to the faithful than they do at present and the drawbacks of the location would thus be remedied, for the college building and the playgrounds are entirely too small for a boarding-school in a town such as Cincinnati With this arrange- ment how many subjects we should be able to save and apply to studies and Jesuit training, which after all is the capital point for us^ ...
My idea is that as long as we haven't at the head of the Province a man who has himself passed through all the stages of the Institute and at the head of the scholasticate two or three professors who are first-class men exclusively engaged m teaching, it will be difficult to make the improvement which the Province stands m need of I fear that our young men seeing themselves occupied so long as schoolmasters without hope of ever making the studies required by the Institute may become disaffected little by little and be tempted to abandon their vocation, although up to this nothing of the kind has hap- pened. On the other hand, should it chance that we are given a Superior not well acquainted with the country, he might do harm with the best will m the world Men like a Father Brocard or a Father Larkm are lare 3
The policy of exhausting the resources of the vice-province on im- mediate needs without looking to the future was, it is unnecessary to say, seen m its true light by Father Roothaan as also by more than one of the Missouri Jesuits themselves. What Father Gleizal thought on the matter has just been seen. Following up his remonstrances with Elet on this head the General took occasion to express himself again on the matter in the letter of June 15, 1851, addressed to Father Murphy, in which he appointed the latter successor of Elet and Visitor of the midwestern Jesuits.
Certainly this Vice-Province born of true heroism on the part of its first founders has had neither time nor opportunity to shape itself in conformity with the Institute, the knowledge and especially the practical knowledge of which is lacking among its members. What is worse, there is lacking any effi- cacious will to acquire this knowledge and this practice. As a result there are many miseries, and serious ones too, mingled with an amount of virtue,
8 Gleizal a Roothaan, October 28, 1850 (A) As to Father GleizaFs statement that the "government of parishes" is a ministry "foreign to the Society," cf. tnfra, Chap XIX, note i.
THE SUCCESSION OF SUPERIORS, 1851-1871 557
generosity, and admirable devotion amid activities multiplied to excess. But there is no order in these activities, for too much has been attempted and the limits of capacity have been passed.
Nearly ten years later Father Isidore Boudreaux wrote in a similar strain: "The radical defect which one might charge against our Vice- Province is that it did too much for others and too little for ourselves. It was founded by novices or, to speak more correctly, by men who never made what might properly be called a novitiate. They saw an amount of good to be done on every side. They wanted to do all the good that offered itself, they devoted, sacrificed themselves and sacri- ficed those who came to join them. Not knowing precisely m what the training of a Jesuit consisted, they had no adequate regard for such training and thought it was enough to devote themselves to the salva- tion of souls without troubling themselves too much about spirituality or studies. They have formed a generation of men in many respects inferior to themselves. The bulk of the Vice-Province is composed of men who, apart from the graces that always accompany religious, do not surpass good secular priests in learning or virtue." 4 At about the same time the situation among his brethren was moving Father Keller to these reflections. "Though excellent men possessed of solid virtue are not wanting among us, still we have come to this pass that, after steadily taking on during nearly all the forty years the Vice-Province has been founded more work than we could properly acquit ourselves of according to the Institute and after hurrying our young men through their education, we are in the end merely a handful and lack com- petent men." 5
§ 2. WILLIAM STACK MURPHY
Father Elet's administration of his office issued m the end in such a measure of dissatisfaction that Father Roothaan resorted to the expedient of supplanting him by a Visitor with all the powers of vice- provincial. Petitions had m fact reached the General from the vice- province that such a measure be taken and Father Murphy was pro- posed by some of the petitioners as a desirable incumbent of the office in question. Father Roothaan in appointing him Visitor, June 15, 1851, let him know, for his encouragement, so he said, that his services had
* I. Boudreaux a Beckx January 27, 1 860 (AA) .
5 Father Beckx himself summed up the situation m these words' "There are many excellent men among you whose only shortcoming is that without any fault of their own they were unable to procure adequate formation They have done too much for others and too little for themselves. . . . overborne as they were by activities beyond measure."
558 THE JESUITS OF THE MIDDLE UNITED STATES
thus been asked for.6 Father Murphy arrived m St. Louis August 24, 1 85 1; his predecessor's death following a few weeks later.
Though Father Murphy did not by any means solve the many vexing educational and other problems which beset the vice-province, he gave at all events a decisive impetus to the better organization of which it stood in need. Father Gleixal ventured in 1854 the prediction that Murphy's administration would mark a turning-point in the his- tory of the midwestern Jesuits 5 and so in many respects it proved to be. None of his predecessors from Van Quickenborne to Elet had succeeded in governing to the complete satisfaction of the Father Gen- eral 5 they had all on one occasion or other been called to task for not measuring up to the Ignatian ideal of the Jesuit superior. Father Murphy's management of affairs, on the other hand, appears never to have elicited anything but commendation from headquarters. It was his advantage, as it had not been that of his predecessors, to have passed step by step through all the normal stages of Jesuit training and this in a well organized province of the Society. It could not be said of him as was said by Father Roothaan in 1844 °f the Missouri personnel, that it consisted entirely of men who had never seen the genuine Society of Jesus in action.
Father William Stack Murphy, a native of Cork in Ireland, was at this time in the prime of his powers, being forty-eight years of age.7 He had made his classical studies at the Jesuit college of St. Acheul near Amiens and entered the Society of Jesus in the province of France in the same year, 1823, that saw the arrival of the Jesuits at Florissant. In 1835 he was assigned to the faculty of St. Mary's College, which the French Jesuits were conducting near Lebanon, Kentucky, and in 1839 was made rector of the institution. He left Kentucky with the French Jesuits in 1 846 when the latter took over St. John's College at Fordham, New York, where he was employed as professor at the time of his summons to Missouri.
6 In the official registers of the vice-province Murphy's term of office is dated from August 15, 1851 Cf also Murphy to Archbishop Blanc, September 9, 1851 "It has pleased Divine Providence that I should take his [filet's] place on the isth. ult. having been transferred by my Superior from New York " (I) Father Murphy had taken the vows of a spiritual coadjutor, but on being made Missouri vice- provincial was raised to the profession of the four vows August 15, 1851. Pere Vivier in his Jesuit necrology, 1814-1894 (Pans, 1897, p. 329) has 1852 for 1851, evidently a mistake Jesuit law requires that all major superiors in the Society be solemnly professed On the completion of their training, Jesuit priests are assigned to one of two permanent grades in the Society, the spiritual coadj utors and the professed of four vows, the fourth vow being one of special obedience to the Pope.
7 William S Murphy, born April 29, 1803, entered the Society of Jesus August 27, 1823, died in New Orleans, October 23, 1875.
THE SUCCESSION OF SUPERIORS, 1851-1871 559
Impressions made by Father Murphy on contemporaries are here and there on record. Benjamin Webb, Kentucky's pioneer Catholic journalist, admired him greatly "Like other members of his family he was possessed of a ready wit, conjoined to an amicable disposition. I have met with few men who could render themselves more charming in conversation. He had a great store of anecdotes and these he was m the habit of repeating at proper times much to the interest and amusement of his intimate friends. He was an effective preacher and a pleasing one. In the matter of literary taste and classic scholarship he had few equals. He had much distinguished himself in France in the ancient classics especially in Latin authors. . . . He was a complete master m English literature. It is doubtful, indeed, if there was another m the country at the time who knew better the capabilities of his vernacular." 8 Another estimate of Father Murphy comes from the pen of John Lesperance, a one-time Jesuit and subsequently a figure of distinction in Canadian journalism
A better read classical scholar I never met and his residence at Rome and Pans had made him a master of the Italian and French languages. Father Muiphy could be a man of the world when he liked and his dry wit was racy of the soil, but his character was essentially mtrospicient and his temper that of an ascetic. The book that he knew by heart and constantly meditated was the Imitation The adaptations to the various needs of life which he got out of this little book were marvelous He often told me that if you opened a Kempis with a point of a pen-knife you would be sure to find a passage suited to your then condition of mind, and he frequently startled his friends by apt citations from the mystic volume. I remember on one occasion when a very woithy
8 Webb, of cit^ p. 393 As an example of Murphy's Latin style the following account of the historic Kansas-Nebraska Bill of 1854 in its bearings on Bishop Miege's vicanate is cited. "Vicanatus Revmi Miege m terram frequenter habitatam celernme excrebcit. Scilicet tota Indica regie m duas Provmcias [Kansas and Nebraska] nuper est divisa, Singulis colonis 150 jugera publice assignantur Infinita horn mum multitude in dies eo immigrant; jam conventus agunt, jam sub arbonbus edunt Duria Motus vero ac tumultus mox futuri. Scilicet plane contra pacta conventa anni 1820 [Missouri Compromise] inter status omnes in quibus servitus aethiopica existit et reliquos res geritur, quippe lege cautum erat ne ultra lineam quandam geographicam novae provmciae demceps instituendae mancipia admit- tcrent Nuper vero lex eatenus mutata est ut smgulis statibus nte administrate hccat ex colonorum suffragiib istiusmodi servos habendos vel probihendob mtra fines suos statuere. Inde fit ut qui legem ita mutatam mdignantur nullum non movcant lapidcm quo major evadat mancipia respuentium numerus cum ad suffragia ventum fuerit. Qum etiam, data pecunia, in dies efficiunt ut coloni mox suffragia ex sententia laturi crebernmi adventent. Missouriani vero Kentuckiani alhque qui secum servos adduxerunt arma ac vim parant negantque se mancipia ejici passuros Interea Indi misernmi, irruentibus Americanis, sibi abeundum esse perspicmnt nee tamen quo se conferant satis sciunt cum omnia undique ab nsdem occupentur." Murphy ad Beckx, September 14, i854»(AA).
560 THE JESUITS OF THE MIDDLE UNITED STATES
person had lepoited to him the results of an important work which he had undertaken and unaccountably failed in, Father Murphy threw up his silver- bound glasses on his forehead, raised his finger-nails close to his eyes (a habit with him when very reflective) and murmured these oracular words, Passione mtcrdum movemur et zelum futamus — "We are sometimes swayed by pas- sion and fancy it is zeal." These words have haunted me through life and how often have I tested their truth.9
Some words of Judge Robert A. Bakewell of St. Louis spoken in 1879 are also pertinent "Who that knew them can forget De Smet or Murphy?— fine gentlemen, as the French say, to the end of their finger nails, men of distinguished families who left country and home to plant the flag of Christian education in what was then considered the outskirts of civilization." 10
Father Murphy's reception by his brethren in the West was a cordial one. "They have given me the best possible reception every- where and so far I have met only with respect and affection. I would not attribute it all to the novelty [of the thing]. The bishops have shown me much kindness. As far as I can judge, domestic discipline is on a pretty good footing." u "Father Murphy's arrival," wrote Gleizal to the General, "has been a very pleasant one and everybody received him with open arms. He was not himself expecting what he found among us He is truly the man we needed for superior and I am convinced that the little Vice-Province of Missouri under his ad- ministration will be a source of consolation There are many imper- fections among us but there is also much good will." 12 Gleizal had been acting superior of the vice-province during Elet's illness and Murphy should like to have retained his services in the capacity of socius, but his residence at Florissant, where he was rector and master of novices, made it impracticable for him to take on this additional office "Florissant is only six leagues away," so Father Murphy on his arrival in St. Louis informed Father Roothaan, <cbut what a road!" 13 De Smet, Elet's socius, continued to serve under Murphy in the same office and uniform mutual understanding and sympathy marked at all times the relations between the two. Before the end of his first year in St. Louis the new vice-provincial had written to the General:
9 St. Louis Republican, September 13, 1879.
10 l£em> June 25, 1879.
11 Murpli7 a Roothaan, 1851 (AA) Roothaan had written previously to Elef "I have been consoled to see that the choice of Father Murphy has been m keeping with your wishes. He is indeed, so it seems to me, the man that suits the circum- stances I hope he will have the confidence of all as he has of yourself." Roothaan ad Elet, September 24, 1851. (AA).
"Gleizal a Roothaan, October 7, 1851. (AA). 18 Murphy a Roothaan, September 4, 1851.
THE SUCCESSION OF SUPERIORS, 1851-1871 561
With the help of God and as far as my meagre store of energy and judg- ment allows, I am setting myself to put the affairs of the Vice-Province on a good footing. I flatter myself that my successor will find every facility for action. I believe that the religious spirit is gaining more and more I am organizing the annual retreats in a way to make them most effective, but what shall I say of the studies of ours? Everything possible must be done for the young men, the priests and the scholastics who are along m years shall have to content themselves with what is strictly necessary One thing gives me some little consolation, namely, that one can get along here more easily and with infinitely less m the way of attainments than is required in Europe There are books of instruction and of controversy in English and these leave nothing to be desired, our men exploit them admirably Metaphysical and scholastic questions never come up here and as to moral [theology] there are helps enough What people sometimes say, inter caecos beati unocuh ["blessed are the one-eyed among the blind"], finds application here Accord- ing to this standard the Vice-Province is not unworthy of its mother I am not afraid to say that in the eyes of the people it shines to the greater glory of God m respect both to virtue and learning. I do not maintain that sti angers who have seen things en passant have always been deceived, here as else- where there will always be things to correct and reform, but they have never laid aside the spectacles and standards of their own country and consequently their views and calculations have often been short-sighted, narrow, inexact Ita judico in Domino ["So do I judge in the Lord"].14
To the GeneraPs suggestion of January 7, 1852, that the scholastics engaged m their divinity studies devote themselves to these exclusively, Father Murphy replied that this could not be done and for two reasons: first, their places in the three colleges, all of them boarding- schools, could not be supplied 5 secondly, a great many teachers had to be employed in the colleges m view of their varying qualifications for the tasks on hand. Some handled Latin effectively, but not Greek $ some were excellent m the languages but not m other subjects "As a result scholastics sometimes have enough time at their disposal to give themselves to study and in this way they combine the two things as far as circumstances permit and for the most part with satisfactory results. It is certain that foreigners pick up the language of the country and a knowledge of practical things in amazing fashion." At the same time, however, Murphy declared his intention of assigning a few of the more promising youths entirely to study without other occupations to embarrass them.16
There was no lack of earnestness and good will among the men of his jurisdiction, so the new superior was quick to realize. "How
14 Murphy a Roothaan, July 2, 1851 (AA).
15 Murphy a Roothaan, April I, 1851. (AA).
560 THE JESUITS OF THE MIDDLE UNITED STATES
person had reported to him the results of an important work which he had undertaken and unaccountably failed in, Father Murphy threw up his silver- bound glasses on his forehead, raised his finger-nails close to his eyes (a habit with him when very i effective) and murmured these oracular words, Passions interdum movemur et zelum futamus — "We are sometimes swayed by pas- sion and fancy it is zeal " These words have haunted me through life and how often have I tested their truth.9
Some words of Judge Robert A. Bakewell of St. Louis spoken in 1879 are also pertinent "Who that knew them can forget De Smet or Murphy ?— fine gentlemen, as the French say, to the end of their finger nails, men of distinguished families who left country and home to plant the flag of Christian education in what was then considered the outskirts of civilization." 10
Father Murphy's reception by his brethren in the West was a cordial one* "They have given me the best possible reception every- where and so far I have met only with respect and affection. I would not attribute it all to the novelty [of the thing]. The bishops have shown me much kindness. As far as I can judge, domestic discipline is on a pretty good footing." u "Father Murphy's arrival," wrote Gleizal to the General, "has been a very pleasant one and everybody received him with open arms. He was not himself expecting what he found among us. He is truly the man we needed for superior and I am convinced that the little Vice-Province of Missouri under his ad- ministration will be a source of consolation. There are many imper- fections among us but there is also much good will." 12 Gleizal had been acting superior of the vice-province during Elet's illness and Murphy should like to have retained his services m the capacity of socmsj but his residence at Florissant, where he was rector and master of novices, made it impracticable for him to take on this additional office. "Florissant is only six leagues away," so Father Murphy on his arrival in St. Louis informed Father Roothaan, ccbut what a roadl" 13 De Smet, Elet's socius, continued to serve under Murphy in the same office and uniform mutual understanding and sympathy marked at all times the relations between the two. Before the end of his first year m St. Louis the new vice-provincial had written to the General:
9 St. Louis Republican, September 13, 1879.
10 Idem, June 25, 1879
11 Murphy a Roothaan, 1851 (AA). Roothaan had written previously to Elet: "I have been consoled to see that the choice of Father Murphy has been in keeping with your wishes. He is indeed, so it seems to me, the man that suits the circum- stances I hope he will have the confidence of all as he has of yourself ." Roothaan ad Elet, September 24, 1851. (AA).
12 Gleizal a Roothaan, October 7, 1851. (AA). 18 Murphy a Roothaan, September 4, 1851.
THE SUCCESSION OF SUPERIORS, 1851-1871 561
With the help of God and as far as my meagre store of energy and judg- ment allows, I am setting myself to put the affairs of the Vice-Province on a good footing I flatter myself that my successor will find every facility for action I believe that the religious spirit is gaming more and more I am organizing the annual retreats m a way to make them most effective, but what shall I say of the studies of ours? Everything possible must be done for the young men; the priests and the scholastics who are along in years shall have to content themselves with what is strictly necessary One thing gives me some little consolation, namely, that one can get along here more easily and with infinitely less in the way of attainments than is required in Europe There are books of mstiuction and of controversy in English and these leave nothing to be desired, our men exploit them admirably Metaphysical and scholastic questions never come up here and as to moral [theology] there are helps enough What people sometimes say, inter caecos beati unocuh ["blessed are the one-eyed among the blind"], finds application here Accord- ing to this standard the Vice-Province is not unworthy of its mother I am not afraid to say that in the eyes of the people it shines to the greater glory of God in respect both to virtue and learning I do not maintain that strangers who have seen things en passant have always been deceived, here as else- where theie will always be things to correct and reform, but they have never laid aside the spectacles and standards of their own country and consequently their views and calculations have often been short-sighted, nanow, inexact. Ita yudico in Domino ["So do I judge in the Lord"].14
To the GeneraPs suggestion of January 7, 1852, that the scholastics engaged in their divinity studies devote themselves to these exclusively, Father Murphy replied that this could not be done and for two reasons: first, their places in the three colleges, all of them boarding- schools, could not be supplied j secondly, a great many teachers had to be employed in the colleges in view of their varying qualifications for the tasks on hand. Some handled Latin effectively, but not Greek, some were excellent in the languages but not m other subjects. "As a result scholastics sometimes have enough time at their disposal to give themselves to study and m this way they combine the two things as far as circumstances permit and for the most part with satisfactory results. It is certain that foreigners pick up the language of the country and a knowledge of practical things in amazing fashion." At the same time, however, Murphy declared his intention of assigning a few of the more promising youths entirely to study without other occupations to embarrass them.15
There was no lack of earnestness and good will among the men of his jurisdiction, so the new superior was quick to realize. "How
14 Murphy £ Roothaan, July 2, 1851. (AA), "Murphy i Roothaan, April i, 1851. (AA).
562 THE JESUITS OF THE MIDDLE UNITED STATES
many places to fill and what a dearth of subjects' What need for study and what a desire for it' Thank God' there is a hunger and thirst for justice The interior spirit increases and will increase This is a good deal." 16 Yet, despite his insight into the problems before him and his desire to settle them in the right way, Father Murphy found out as his predecessors had found out before him that circumstances are inexorable things and often play havoc with the best laid plans. "Every year," he commented m 1854, "some mishap occurs to disarrange all our plans for the literary and religious education of our men." 17 His first thought was always to build up a properly trained and efficient personnel, under him the expansion of the vice-province into new fields of endeavor received a definite check. Conservative by temper, he was also so by design and this, if for no other reason, in obedience to the peremptory instructions of Father Roothaan, who was convinced that premature and exaggerated expansion was the cause of all the existing difficulties of the vice-province. Even without any such direc- tion of his policy from headquarters, Father Murphy would not easily have made new ventures in the enterprising, not to say daring manner of Fathers Verhagen and Elet. In the management of business matters of moment he was not indeed at his best Gleizal observed that his talent lay in the internal and domestic government of the Society, not in the conduct of its external affairs, while De Smet noted m his handling of an important piece of business in Louisville a shiftiness and indecision which did not help to clarify the situation. Further, Father Murphy stood out m opposition to all his consultors against the acceptance of Milwaukee as a new field of work, and was brought to take it over only by the positive wish of the Father General. How- ever, as internal organization, not outward growth, was the peremptory need of the vice-province in the fifties, he proved to be the very type of superior which the circumstances then demanded.
Father Murphy was to show himself a shrewd and penetrating observer of current situations and events. He wrote m 1852: "As for myself, I prefer to do business with the native American bishops rather than with the European ones. In matters of business, they lay their dignity aside, they want to deal as equal with equal, the rule with them is vemam j>etmw$ damusque. Niceness, sentiment, conventionalities, and other such things are not in fashion m America." 18 The splendid pos- sibilities of America often elicited comment. "Clearly this country be- comes every day more important and interesting. One would say
16MurpJiy a Roothaan, April 23, 1852 (AA) 17 Murphy a Beckx, July 23, 1854 (AA) 18Muipliy a Pierlmg, November 15, 1852 (AA).
THE SUCCESSION OF SUPERIORS, 1851-1871 563
Providence desires it to occupy the first place. Everything the Society will do to establish and put itself on a good footing here cannot but contribute to the prosperity of the Church in general. Perhaps one day Catholicism will come to take refuge here as did the ancestors of the Marylanders." 19
The Know-Nothing movement came and went during Father Murphy's administration Like most Catholics of the day he was alarmed by it more than circumstances warranted. He wrote in 1854 "The Secret Societies are seeking to destroy the church. Their political influence is so great that they govern the elections German emigration is becoming more numerous than the Irish. It is claimed that the Secret Societies are going to lay a heavy hand on the Catholics. It is probable that they will soon give a President to the United States and will make the laws. Then will come the reaction " 20 Later came the attack on the Apostolic Nuncio, Msgr. Bedim, and his consequent withdrawal from the country, "Father Wemnger has had the honor of being hung with him in effigy. . . . The plottings and violent demonstrations of the German refugees do not permit him [Bedim] to continue on his rounds." In these circumstances Father Murphy regretted much the appearance and circulation in the country of a letter written by a Neapolitan Jesuit to the King of Naples on the ticklish question of absolute monarchy.
The Louisville not of 1855 proved to be the death-knell of Know- Nothmgism. "It is marvelous," commented Murphy, "what excitement has been caused by this Louisville not. That day of slaughter and pillage will, so it is hoped, utterly destroy the anti-Catholic faction, which is already m collapse. The attempt to unite the native non- Catholics and separate the Germans from the Irish has been futile These latter, as always, are being cultivated by the American Democrats, who, so it seems, will soon get the better of their non-Catholic op- ponents. The native American Catholics see at length that they will not be safe unless they support their European brethren for they are in one and the same boat. . . . Father Stonestreet writes, 'the Ameri- can Catholics have finally but very reluctantly withal gone over to the Democrats.' " 2l
The more important facts of Father Murphy's administration of the Missouri Vice-Province meet with mention on other pages of this history. An idea of what he managed to accomplish in the gross may be gathered from the words of Father Gleizal written to the General
19 Murphy a Roothaan, December 8, 1852 (AA),
20 Murphy a Roothaan, July 8, 1854 (AA).
21 Murphy ad Beckx, August z, 1855. (AA).
564 THE JESUITS OF THE MIDDLE UNITED STATES
on occasions when report was current that the vice-provincial was about to be relieved of office. "It would be a misfortune for us to be deprived of Reverend Father Murphy who has succeeded so well in winning the confidence of the entire Vice-Province and who so far has been able to give to our little boat only a slight push ahead. Retained in office sometime longer at least., he would help us in the best of fashion to make great strides forward" "The thought of our Provincial's leaving us fills me with alarm. He has succeeded so well in acquiring an absolute ascendancy over all his subjects with so much kindliness and at the same time so much forcefulness that his government will make an epoch in the Vice-Province. The religious spirit has been [ms.?] pre- served and increased in a stnbng manner in each and every one of us. It may be very difficult for his successor to do what he has done with so little noise and so much success." 22 Again, Gleizal wrote in 1856. "We owe all possible thanks under God to Rev. Father Provin- cial, whoj whether by his choice of competent men to govern after his own example or by his appeals in public and private, has so marvelously promoted throughout the whole Province progress m spirit and the pursuit of virtue So m the colleges and practically all the houses there is shining forth a love of spiritual things, fraternal chanty, regular discipline, and a certain spirit of happiness which the Holy Ghost alone can pour into the heart." 23
The New York-Canada Mission, to which jurisdiction Father Murphy belonged, had been set up by French Jesuits and was accord- ingly short-handed in members conversant with English. It was this circumstance in particular that accounted for his recall to the East after five years of service in the West. "Under pressure of this need," Father Beckx wrote to him. May 10, 1856, "I must give my consent to your returning to that part of the country. I am hoping the Missouri Vice-province will suffer no harm by your departure and that someone else may be found to continue and perfect what your Reverence has begun for the progress of that Province." Two months later the General announced to Father Murphy the appointment of Father John Baptist Druyts as vice-provincial. "For the rest, I thank your Reverence most cordially on this occasion for the zeal and earnestness with which you have promoted the welfare of the Vice-Province. It gives me great joy of soul to be able to say on the report of Ours that your Reverence has been of great service to the Vice-Province. I hope that your successor will preserve and even enlarge the good results that have been achieved."24
22Gleizal a Beckx, August 12, 1854., June 10, 1855. 23Glekal ad Beckx, February 4, 1856. (AA). 24 Beckx ad Murphy, July 17, 1856. (AA).
William Stack Murphy, S J (1803-1875)
John Baptist Druyts, S J (1811-1864.)
V >i
I '' ' ' J J
Ferdinand Coosemans, S J, (1823-1878)
Joseph E. Keller, SJ. (1827-1886)
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Page of a letter of W. S Murphy, S J , to the Father General, John Roothaan, October 8, 1851. General Archives of the Society of Jesus, Rome.
THE SUCCESSION OF SUPERIORS, 1851-1871 565
§ 3. JOHN BAPTIST DRUYTS
The selection of Father Druyts for vice-provincial had been made in 1854, at which time it was planned to retire him from the presidency of St. Louis University and give him a year or so of relief from executive duties During this period he was to make his tertianship, an abbre- viated one, after the fashion of the day. Father Murphv wrote at the time to the General "That he is a little deaf is something of a draw- back, but the trouble, so it seems, is of a nature to embarrass him much less as provincial than as rector and this latter office he has filled ever since 1847 to the utmost satisfaction of all. Meantime, and this is the most important thing in his case, he will have almost a complete rest in mind and body for a year and will come out at the end in good health and entirely restored. This will be a source of great joy to all of Ours for it is a marvel how acceptable he is to them and deservedly so. We must also be glad that the master of novices will remain in office for we scarcely have anyone to succeed Father Gleizal." 2"' In the event Father Druyts did not assume the duties of vice-provincial until the summer of 1856. "On the receipt of your Pa- ternity's letter/5 Murphy informed the General, August 23, 1856, "Reverend Father J. B. Druyts became Vice-Provincial to the joy of all May God be with him m all things so that, if his predecessor has left anything good behind him, this may grow m power and if anything evil, this may find a remedy." 26
The new superior of the midwestern Jesuits, a native Belgian like all his predecessors m this office except Murphy, was now in his forty- sixth year. For seven years, 1847-1854, he had filled with distinction the post of president of St. Louis University. What won him the affection of all was the obvious sincerity and goodness of his life, his self-effacement, his readiness to be at other people's service. Numerous testimonies from his associates stress the fact that he was a man of more than ordinary virtue. "Clearly," wrote Father Wenmger, "a man according to God's own heart, a sterling character and perfect in his way." Father Isidore Boudreaux's words are equally emphatic- "I believe God helps him greatly with His lights, for he appears to me to be a man completely mortified, who never seems to seek himself m
25 Murphy ad Beckx, October 30, 1854. (AA). Father Druyts was admitted to the solemn vows of the professed October 30, 1854, on ground of his "talents for governing and preaching."
26 Murphy ad Beckx, August 23, 1856 (A A). Father De Smet wrote on the occasion to Father Duerinck, August 17, 1856. "A change has long been expected as the FF. [Fathers] in New York were constantly urging the return of Reverend Father Murphy. The most disappointed has been the appointed himself — all his endeavors will be to make us all happy in our holy vocation!" (A).
566 THE JESUITS OF THE MIDDLE UNITED STATES
anything." 27 John Lesperance, who knew Druyts intimately, portrayed him in this manner
The man who did most to continue and consolidate the work of the pioneers was Father Druyts, whose term in office marked the turning-point in the history of the University. He was eminently practical, a financier, a builder, and a skillful administrator generally. In this skeptical age we must use our words gingerly, but of Father Druyts's virtues, the true denomination is that they were heroic He was a saint, single-minded, utterly without guile, unconventional, firm as a monolith where there was need, and like Wolsey,
"to those men that sought him Sweet as summer."
He presented a combination of rare qualities which go to make up the excep- tions among men . . . The last years of his life were a martyidom, but he died in harness.28
The tasks that fell to him as vice-provincial Father Druyts dis- charged with a vigorous hand. He gave the initial impulse to the Society's work m Milwaukee, sending thither its first Jesuit community though acceptance of the field had already been negotiated by his predecessor. He also inaugurated Jesuit enterprise in Chicago, sending Father Damen in 1857 to ^at rapidly growing center. His efforts to provide for the education of the scholastics culminated in the establish- ment of a house of studies at the College Farm on the outer edge of St. Louis. Probably the outstanding feature of his management of affairs was his unalterably high-minded and spiritual outlook. "It has pleased God this year," he wrote to Father Beckx in 1859, "to visit many of Ours with infirmities. May the name of the Lord be blessed J" 29
In the beginning of 1861 Father Felix Soprams, whom the General had appointed Visitor of all the houses of the Society of Jesus in North America, was in the vice-province in the discharge of his official duties. Meantime Father Druyts, whose chronic headaches were finally re- sulting in softening of the brain, was becoming incapacitated for the duties of his office. "For quite a while," said Father Isidore Boudreaux in a letter to the General, "his affliction has apparently deprived him of the free use of his faculties. I have proposed Father Coosemans as his successor. In my opinion he is the only one of our Vice-Province whom it is safe to designate."30 Dmyt's condition at this time was apparently not so very critical, as Father Boudreaux recommended that he be made assistant to Father Coosemans, to whom he would
27 1 Boudreaux a Beckx, May 12, 1859. (AA). ^ St. Louis Reptbhcan, September 13, 1879
29 Druyts ad Beckx, April" 1 8, 1859. (AA).
80 L Boudreaux a Beckx, January 15, 1861. (AA).
THE SUCCESSION OF SUPERIORS, 1851-1871 567
prove a valuable aid in view of his intimate acquaintance with the affairs of the Vice-province The Visitor did appoint Coosemans vice- provincial but only temporarily and until such time as Father Murphy, the erstwhile incumbent of the office, could be sent for from New Orleans, where he had gone after a serious illness at Fordham Father Murphy took up for the second time the duties of Missouri vice-pro- vincial in February, 1861.
On June 18, 1861, Father Druyts passed away. De Smet on re- turning to St. Louis in April had found him paralyzed. "He recognized me and wished to communicate with me about a number of business affairs and transactions. Several times he made efforts to do so but each time after a few words became confused and lost. Still I have been able to straighten out a number of things with the notes which he left behind " 31 Father Coosemans in reporting his death to the Gen- eral affirmed that a certain saintly person in St. Louis maintained she knew by divine revelation that Father Druyts had gone directly to heaven without having passed through the purgatorial fires. "Is this a trick of the imagination? I really do not know. But this is certain, — during life he was remarkable for his humility as for his patience in suffering and constancy m work More than once have I heard some one exclaim, cbut how humble he is'' Father Van Hulst, who was his con- fessor during the last years of his life, declared to me that during all the time he was the confidant of the interior secrets of his heart he does not think that Father Druyts was ever guilty of a deliberate venial sin. Prefoosa in conspectu Domtntf"*Q Father Murphy, too, m his incisive way paid tribute to the memory of the deceased
Reverend Father Druyts died on June 18 quietly and calmly, having received the sacraments two days before. It is not certain whether he was in possession of his senses or was conscious of the approach of death. A man truly meek and humble of heart, lovable, venerable, of angelical countenance even m the coffin, of quick and penetrating mind but without learning for he never had opportunity to study Owing to his deafness he scarcely shared in recieation of any kind for several years past. Moreover, he took on himself all sorts of business and beyond measure, as a result brain fag and m the end an incurable lesion.88
In 1862 Father Murphy was made defendant in a suit brought against him in the Circuit Court of St. Louis by Cornelius O'Brien,
S1 De Smet a Beckx, October 2, 1861 (AA). *2 Coosemans a Beckx, June 25, 1861. (AA).
88 Murphy ad Beckx, August 14, 1861. (AA) "No Superior was ever more generally loved than was Father Druyts, a paragon of charity, prudence, and prac- tical good sense." Diary of Father Walter Hill. (A).
568 THE JESUITS OF THE MIDDLE UNITED STATES
a one-time Jesuit scholastic, to recover compensation in money for services rendered by him while in the order. O'Brien, a native-born Irishman, had been received as a scholastic-novice at Florissant, July 13, 1850, being then twenty-two years of age At the end of twenty months he was pronounced by Father Gleizal, the novice-master, to be unsuited for the Society and was sent to the vice-provincial, who placed him provisionally as a teacher in the Jesuit school recently opened in Louisville, Kentucky. Having succeeded fairly well in the duties as- signed him, he was allowed in answer to his own earnest pleading to take his vows, which he did at Bardstown. He taught subsequently at Bardstown, Milwaukee and St. Louis, did a year of philosophy in St Louis and also two years of moral theology, the latter at the College Farm scholasticate His ill-success, however, in the examinations he underwent was so pronounced that it was concluded he could not con- sistently be advanced to the priesthood Moreover, this circumstance, together with his general unfitness for the Jesuit life, induced Father Murphy, with the approval of Father Soprams, the Visitor, to release him from his vows. Mr. O'Brien acquiesced in this step, having pre- viously declared his unwillingness to remain in the order if his superiors were of the opinion that he had no genuine call to it. The date of his dismissal was July 21, 1861.
Bishop Miege of Kansas having signified his willingness to accept Mr. O'Brien for his jurisdiction, apparently in the hope that the young man might later qualify for the priesthood, the latter Jeft St. Louis at once for the West, but within a month or so he had returned to St. Louis. Here he put in a claim for money in compensation for the years he had spent as a teacher in Jesuit schools, overlooking the fact that he had for years been receiving education and support in the Society of Jesus gratis Having failed to extort the money from Father Murphy, he carried out the threats he had made to bring the matter into court. He retained two non-Catholic lawyers while the vice-pro- vincial engaged as his attorney Alexander Garesche together with the firm of Glover and Shepley. The trial began March 21, 1861, and a verdict was rendered five days later. The plaintiff demanded in all $7?253-33> this amount covering what he alleged was due him for four years of teaching at a thousand dollars a year, for two years and a fraction of prefectmg at twelve hundred dollars a year, for twenty months of servant's work as a novice at twelve dollars a month. Counsel for the defense produced in court O'Brien's signature to a document which he had signed as a novice to the effect that he had read the Jesuit rules, approved of the same, and was willing to live according to their provisions Counsel then proceeded to point out that these rules and especially the Jesuit's vow of poverty withdrew from the
THE SUCCESSION OF SUPERIORS, 1851-1871 569
plaintiff all personal right to any pecuniary compensation from the Society for services rendered m teaching or other occupations. Alexander Garesche's closing address to the jury was an effective presentation of the case for the defense, the speaker declaring his pride that he had this opportunity to plead for justice on behalf of an organization of men to whom he himself as a product of its training was a thousandfold in- debted. The two-hour speech of the prosecuting attorney which brought the trial to an end made scarcely any attempt to rebut the evidence produced by the defense, it was nothing more than a frank and im- passioned appeal to the religious prejudices of the jury. The Society of Jesus was criticized, its rules and vows were held up to ridicule, and the thread-bare calumnies of its enemies duly rehearsed. The jury, reduced to ten by sickness, was divided, though from the beginning six held out strongly for the defense. Two who wavered for a while were won over to their side leaving two who were so firmly bent on rendering a verdict for the prosecution that nothing could be done except to agree on a compromise. This was done by the jury's finding for the plaintiff, but awarding him only one cent of compensation, a verdict which relieved him of the necessity of paying costs There was general dissatisfaction shared even by the judge over this miscarriage of justice m view of the obviously worthless nature of the case pre- sented by the prosecution and Father Murphy's attorneys were eager to enter motion for a new trial. But he objected to any such step, especially m view of the fact that the verdict was after all a virtual victory for the defense and was so interpreted by the public. Neverthe- less, his attorneys, apparently on their own account, entered motion to have the Court assess the costs on the plaintiff, which it did by a decision rendered April 2, 1862. The Judge declared on this occasion from the bench "that the thing was as clear to him as noonday 5 that the signed statement of Cornelius [O'Brien] was sufficient to deprive him of all rights to compensation 5 that, even apart from this document, the peti- tioner had willingly and knowingly renounced all hope of reward from the beginning and accordingly had no reason for claiming it now 5 that therefore he ought to be condemned and is hereby duly condemned to pay the costs." 34
Father De Smet wrote the following account of the case to a corre- spondent:
The famous law-suit gave us some little trouble and uneasiness — it lasted five days and terminated in a one-cent verdict in favor of O'Brien. It is cer- tainly more than the individual deserved. In justice the verdict should have
84 The account in the text follows a Latin statement of the case drawn up by Father Keller for the General. (AA).
570 THE JESUITS OF THE MIDDLE UNITED STATES
been m favor of the Society, but even such as it is we have reason to be satisfied We might have got a new trial, but the Archbishop, Alexander Garesche, the public in general declared it a triumph for us Mr Glover, our Protestant lawyer, wished to call for a new trial, but as we did not consent, he at least [m] of his own accoid, pleaded that the costs (about $25 oo [ ? ] ) should be paid by O'Brien I know not how this terminated The juiy was reduced by sickness to ten, all Protestants except one Jew, all the Catholics having been rejected. Eight of the jurymen were on our side, two against us, of the blue stocking Methodist gentry led on by the bitterest of anti- Catholic feeling, which they openly manifested — after five houis discussion among themselves it was agreed to give the fellow instead of $7300 oo a verdict of one cent, that he might not be obliged to pay costs His lawyer has given to understand that he had been deceived in respect to the nature and circumstances of the case Poor O'B. did not appeal after the second day in court and lawyer Glover said m his speech "that thei e was yet some hope for O'B since he was not dead to shame " We must pity the man and pray for him J5
It had been the Visitor's idea in calling Murphy to St. LOUISA where he arrived in February, 1861, to retain him for a second term as vice- provmcial, an arrangement which was well received on all sides. "It is a very special Providence for the Vice-Province/7 observed De Smet m October of the same year, "that, on the loss of our very worthy Father Druyts, Father Murphy had recovered his health so as to be able to return to St. Louis to replace him. As he knows the Vice- Province through and through, his arrival has been a consolation to everybody. We are hoping to keep him among us quite a while longer."36
Father Murphy had apparently not quite recovered from the dis- order, seemingly of a nervous or cerebral nature, which had temporarily afflicted him at Fordham. Moreover, his return to St. Louis occurred in the first year of the Civil War and the acute political situation m Missouri and especially in St. Louis, so Father Verhaegen surmised, reacted upon him, making him unduly fretful and apprehensive. "His government as far as I can judge,'3 Father Coosemans as a consultor of the vice-province wrote to the General, "is what the rule demands — spiritual, mild, exact. Still for all that I find that he is not the man he was before his illness. His mind lacks its old time steadiness and I sometimes fear that he is threatened with a return of the infirmity which
85 De Smet to Oakley, April i, 1852 (A). "We have been advised to prepare a legal document m English which can be produced at any time. It is a sad necessity, but such is poor human nature that we are obliged to take this precaution " De Smet to Paresce, March 27, 1861. (A).
86 De Smet a Murphy, October 20, 1861. (AA)
THE SUCCESSION OF SUPERIORS, 1851-1871 571
obliged him to leave New York " 37 Father Sopranis, having solicited an opinion from Murphy's consultors, was advised by them that the latter's state of health was such as to require his removal from office. This step was soon taken. Father Ferdinand Coosemans being installed as vice- provincial on July 1 6, 1862 Father Murphy, after spending some time at Florissant as professor of the juniors, was permitted at his request to go to New Orleans, which he did by steamer from New York. He wrote thence to Father De Smet November 15, 1862: "Things are prosperous here at Fordham and in the city and likely to continue. My old acquaint- ances protest against my cadaverous photograph. Father Visitor did not recognize me, Father Thebaud says that it makes me a man of eighty, another says that it is a sitting corpse. So you see you have murdered your friend at parting. Too much kindness kills people sometimes. . . . 999 affectionate things to F. [Father] Provincial, F. Socius, F. Rector and the community. There is no possibility of their being forgotten or your Reverence by a grateful brother in Xt." 38
Father Murphy spent the remainder of his years in ministerial work in New Orleans, dying there at seventy-two. In the history of the midwestern Jesuits he is a figure of mark, lending them, as he did, his invaluable services at a critical turn in their affairs and giving them what circumstances had made it difficult for them pre- viously to enjoy — a manner of government in accordance with Jesuit ideals and demands.
§ 4. FERDINAND COOSEMANS
When Father Coosemans took m hand the management of the vice- province he was only thirty-nine, having been born in the same year, 1823, that saw the arrival of Van Quickenborne and his novices at Florissant. He was a native of Brussels, entered the Society at Floris- sant in 1842, and there also, in the chapel of the recently finished
87 Coosemans a Beckx, October 25, 1861. (AA).
86 In New Orleans Father Murphy was confessor to the Sisters of Mercy of that city. "They [the nuns] noticed that he had a great love for that book of books, the 'Imitation of Christ' . . . Naturally he was reputed a most skilful Director, equally suited to silks 01 rags, though he preferred the latter Persons of higher gifts of intellect found him specially adapted to them. Brownson, the great Reviewer, was wont to say that he never met anyone who could see through the windings of his soul like Father Murphy Fourteen years of his priestly life were spent in New Orleans, the Indian summer of a beautiful career He was loved and trusted by his brethren in no common degree and few men had and retained so many sterling friends. He had to no small extent the dangerous gift of winning hearts, but he won them only for his Creator. ... In any company Father Murphy would be distinguished." Mary Theresa Austin Carroll, Lewes from the Annals of the Sisters of Charity (New York, 1895), 4:37.
572 THE JESUITS OF THE MIDDLE UNITED STATES
"Rock Building," was ordained in 1851 to the priesthood by Bishop Van De Velde. Bishop Miege was eager to secure the services of the fervent young priest for the Indian missions, for which he had volun- teered, but Father Schultz was sent instead. Father Murphy wrote at the time "Father Coosemans does considerable good among our pupils [in St Louis] , he is meek and humble of heart, but his physique is scarcely suited to the hardships and privations of the desert."39 In 1852 Miege again asked for Coosemans and was again put off, Father Van Hulst being assigned to him. This time Coosemans could not be replaced in his Spanish class at the University. At thirty- one the youthful Jesuit was vice-rector at Bardstown, which post he occupied exactly three years, not, however, with distinction, he be- came involved in difficulties with the student body and was thereupon relieved of office. A better success in administration awaited him in St Louis where he was rector of the University from 1859 untll his appointment as vice-provincial in 1862.
Ferdinand Cooseman's virtue had something striking about it and could not go unnoticed by his religious brethren. Father Murphy de- scribed him as "rather youthful in appearance and bodily build, but modest withal and edifying, straightforward, forceful, diligent, teach- able, very spiritual, a good and fervent preacher." Again, Murphy wrote of him, "a man of truly fervent piety and angelical life, with whom I do not deal except with a sort of reverence. If only years are granted him, he will, so it would seem, attain to eminence." 40 Father Soprams characterized him as "a man simple, upright, very humble, and close to God." Still another account notes his "wonderful prudence, confidence in God, and charity towards those under his charge."
Father Coosemans, having made scarcely any divinity studies what- ever in course, had been admitted to the body of the Society of Jesus in 1859 in the grade of spiritual coadjutor. In view of the fact that Jesuit law requires all major superiors to be "professed," it was neces- sary for him on becoming vice-provincial, as had also been the case with Father Murphy, to be advanced to what is known m the Society of Jesus as the profession of the four solemn vows. This was accordingly arranged by the General, Father Coosemans pronouncing the vows in
39 Murphy a Roothaan, November 10, 1851 (AA). "There is also a scholastic, 29 years of age, (Brother Coosemans), who desires the missions with ardor and who seems to have everything necessary for a good missionary." Micge a Roothaan, February 13, 1851 (AA). Elet had engaged to send Coosemans to the Indians if the General would allow him to be ordained before finishing his studies. He could, Miege urged, complete his theology as easily while learning an Indian language as while teaching and prefectmg m a college.
40 Murphy a Beckx, August 14., 1861. (AA).
THE SUCCESSION OF SUPERIORS, 1851-1871 573
question on the same day, July 16, 1861, on which he was installed at St. Louis University as vice-provincial. Two days later he wrote the General, Father Beckx:
I send your Paternity enclosed herewith a copy of the vows which in spite of my unworthmess the Lord in His goodness permitted me to take on the Feast of oui Lady of Mt Caimel May His Holy Name be blessed for this grace as also for the cross which he sent me at the same time This same day, July 1 6, it was announced m the refectory that your Paternity had named me Vice-Piovmcial of the Vice-Province of Missouri I know, in a measure at least, my incapacity, very Reverend Father, and I know that this opinion is shared if not by all at least by others besides myself in the Vice- Pi ovmce Still this does not discourage me for it is not in my weakness but in the Lord that I place my confidence and I do not at all call into doubt what our Holy Foundei says in his letter on obedience, namely, that the Lord will supply whatever may be wanting in his minister whether it be virtue 01 other good qualities.41
In proposing Father Coosemans to the General as vice-provincial the Visitor at the same time proposed Father Joseph Keller as socius, an office held the preceding twelve years by Father De Smet. "In this manner," reflects Father Soprams, "we shall look to the present needs of the Vice-Province for he [Keller] will supply what is lacking in Father Coosemans as regards knowledge of the Institute, and we shall look to its future needs also, for with this arrangement he will one day become competent to fill the same post himself." 42 Father Soprams's expectation that Fathers Coosemans and Keller would make a good working pair was borne out by the event. Some years later, when Coose- mans had fully demonstrated his capacity for office, Father Isidore Boudreaux wrote with a note of enthusiasm, "I believe we have never had a like provincial in Missouri," and he commented on "the combina- tion of sanctity and wisdom if not in the same person, at least m the same administration." 43
Father Keller, a Bavarian, now not quite thirty-five, had made his classical studies at St. Louis University. From the first he gave promise of excellent service to his order. Noviceship ended, he was sent by Father Van De Velde to Rome for his divinity studies. In 1856, at which time he was prefect of studies in Cincinnati, Father Gleizal singled him out for mention in a letter to the General "His talents
41 Coosemans a Roothaan, July 18, 1862. (AA) The four provincial consultors, Fathers De Smet, Keller, Verhaegen, and Isidore Boudreaux, made a sworn state- ment that Father Coosemans in their judgment was competent to govern the province.
42Sopranis ad Beckx, March 21, 1862 (AA).
48 I. Boudreaux a Beckx, July 1 6, 1868 (AA).
574 THE JESUITS OF THE MIDDLE UNITED STATkb
for study are so outstanding that I venture to say without being rash that he will one day become an ornament of the Society in these parts."44 Father Murphy, always a shrewd appraiser of character, thought him too exacting. He descnbed him as "scholarly and talented, forceful and prudent, but rather a severe judge of men and things and hence testy and impatient of other people's mediocrity. The streak of hardness in him will be eliminated by degrees." 45 Another estimate of Father Keller belongs to the same period "His general outlook on things is admirable, but he is too much given to seeing the defects of persons and things and does not look enough at their good side. He looks straight at his ideal and cannot suffer mediocrity. He has great keenness and penetration of mind, but relies too much on his own judg- ment" These estimates of character were made when Father Keller was still young and before he had filled a supenorship of any kind though he had been prefect of studies. With time the youthful limita- tions were corrected and he showed himself eventually an acceptable and altogether efficient superior according to the Jesuit ideal. He was a genuine person, simple and without pretense When the time came for him to take his final vows, he petitioned, in view of his meagre theological studies, to be designated a spiritual coadjutor but was di- rected by Father Beckx to make the profession.
Of particular note about Father Coosemans was his steady pre- occupation with prayer and things of the spirit amid all the cares and distractions of administration. Father Isidore Boudreaux, always happy in portraying his Jesuit confreres, wrote of him after he had been vice- provincial a little over a month "He seems even more united to God than in the past and shows clearly that he counts not on his own wisdom but on light from on high At the same time, he is busily taken up with affairs of administration. He enters on office under circumstances that could not be more trying, but what assures me is that he is a man of God." 46
At the moment Father Coosemans became vice-provincial the Civil War was a little more than one year old His administration covered, therefore, the subsequent years of the great conflict as also the critical period of reconstruction Through these eventful times with the difficult problems they begot, as those of the military draft and the various test- oaths, Father Coosemans piloted the little bark of the midwestern Jesuits without disaster or untoward incident of any kind. Though his associates were entirely satisfied with his conduct of affairs, he was never in the least satisfied with himself but looked forward yearningly to
44 Gleizal a Beckx, February 4, 1856. (AA)
45 Murphy ad Beckx, August 14., 1861. (AA).
46 1. Boudreaux a Beckx, August 20, 1862. (AA).
THE SUCCESSION OF SUPERIORS, 1851-1871 575
the moment when he should be allowed to return to a private capacity in the order. At the beginning of his third year, as also of his fourth year in office, he inquired of Father Beckx whether he might not for- ward names for a successor "If I could only, and that right soon, go back again to the life of obedience, of entire dependence on the will of a local superior." Again, on concluding his fifth year as provincial, he appealed once more to the Father General. "Yesterday evening, while I was making my adoration before the Blessed Sacrament, the thought struck me that I might without displeasing our Lord recall to your Paternity that in a few months I shall have finished five years as provincial. If you judge it well to name my successor, I shall return thanks with all my heart to our Lord and to your Paternity. However, let the good pleasure of our Lord be accomplished in all things and always." 47
A council of the ecclesiastical province of St. Louis, to convene in May, 1864, having been announced, Father Coosemans sought to absent himself with the approval of the General on the ground that, not having made adequate theological studies, he would perforce render a very unsatisfactory account of himself before the assembled prelates and so bring discredit on the religious body which he represented. But Father Beckx entertained no such fears and instructed the Missouri superior to attend the council, which in the sequel did not convene. Perhaps the severest shock which Father Coosemans's diffidence ever had to endure came m 1864 when he found himself under consideration as successor to Bishop Spalding in the see of Louisville. In a meeting of the consultors of the Louisville diocese held before the departure of Bishop Spalding for Baltimore, of which see he had been named archbishop, the names of two or three Jesuits were proposed as suitable incumbents of the see about to be vacated. Father Verdm, superior at Bardstown, who was among those present at the meeting, protested the nomination of the Jesuits, alleging a pledge given by the Holy Father that members of the Society would no longer be called upon to accept ecclesiastical dignities. The Jesuits were thereupon struck off the list and two diocesan priests together with a Dominican substituted instead, after which the list was sent to the bishops of the ecclesiastical province of Cincinnati as the choice of the Kentucky clergy for a new Bishop of Louisville. At Detroit, where the bishops met, the selection made at Louisville did not please in all respects and for the clergyman who was third in the terna was substituted Father Coosemans That a Jesuit should after all be put on the list is probably to be explained by the circumstance that, as Bishop Spalding was not present at the
*T Coosemans a Beckx, January 19, 1865, February 7, 1868.
576 THE JESUITS OF THE MIDDLE UNITED STATES
Detroit meeting, Father Verdm's protest against the naming of Jesuits was not brought to the notice of the prelates there assembled. Father Coosemans, when word of his nomination reached him, hastened to inform the Father General of his embarrassment "I continue to renew the simple vow on the subject of ecclesiastical dignities, for the rest I abandon myself with confidence and without reserve to our Lord and to your Paternity, being well aware that you are taking care of me " Father Beckx, who was asked by Cardinal Barnabo, Prefect of the Propaganda, to supply information regarding Coosemans, presumably advised against his appointment and the diocesan priest, Father Peter Joseph Lavialle became the eventual choice of the Holy See for Louisville.48
The simplicity and humility of the saints were thus uniformly in evidence in the personality of Ferdinand Coosemans A further instance in point, as revealed in some lines of his written to the Father General, will be in place
As I was m the chapel here in the Residence [Chicago], the thought came to me to ask your Paternity to be so good as to give me a year of study in theology when you shall find it proper to name another Provincial foi Missouri This thought came to me four or five years ago, but I rejected it until now Faithful to the recommendation of our Holy Father, Saint Ignatius, I earnestly prayed our Lord the next day, which was the feast of the Holy Name of Jesus, to be pleased to enlighten me as to whether I was to make the request or not I have since then done the same thing from time to time and as I still feel the same desire I do not hesitate to lay it befoie your Paternity I could during this year make up a little of what I am lacking in by studying or at least reading attentively a good abridgment of Dogmatic Theology, a little Canon Law, and Ecclesiastical History, and by repeating Moral [Theology] You know, Veiy Reveiend Father, that I have nevci had a single year entirely to myself for Philosophy or Theology, and this lack of acquaintance with things which every Jesuit is supposed to know has often hampered me and exposed me to compromising the reputation of the Society before others. So far, I have taken refuge m silence and obscurity.48
Father Felix Soprams's visit to America as the GeneraPs repre- sentative resulted in certain wise enactments affecting Jesuit domestic life and, in general, made in numerous ways for the better organization of the Society of Jesus m this part of the world. Notice will subse- quently be taken of the negotiations he was drawn into m connection with the proposed common scholasticate for the North American prov-
48 Coosemans a Beckx, August 7, 1864., October 4, 1864. The professed mem- bers of the Society of Jesus make a special vow not to accept ecclesiastical dignities except under an order of obedience from the Holy See
49 Coosemans a Beckx, February 12, 1869, (AA).
THE SUCCESSION OF SUPERIORS, 1851-1871 577
mces and missions and with the problem of the Bardstown college. As to the general position of Jesuit affairs in America Father Sopranis re- ported to headquarters that there was something wanting in the Society here from Canada to California, for which circumstances he assigned two causes first, a lack of the special spiritual and academic training which the Jesuit Institute prescribes for its members, and, secondly, a too ambitious program of work 50 One especially significant comment he made on American Jesuits. They were forward, he said, in urging opinions as to their own affairs with the Father General, but, once the latter had spoken, they acquiesced in the decision without a murmur* This, after all, was an attitude well within the limits of the Jesuit spirit and rule, adjusting, as it did, the demands of obedience to free repre- sentation of personal opinion to superiors.
The raising, December 3, 1863, °f the Missouri Vice-Province to the rank of a province was mainly due to the personal initiative of Father Sopranis During his stay m the vice-province he came to know that more than one of its members was cherishing the hope that the Father General might see his way to granting this favor. Father Gleizal, always eager m his ardent way to see the Society of Jesus prosper m the Middle West, had appealed to Father Beckx m 1856 "Pardon me, your Paternity, if I be rash in petitioning that you deign to raise our vice-province to the grade of province after the pattern of the Mary- land Province, the membership of which is not much in excess of ours." 51 Father Sopranis, however, was not at first disposed to recom- mend any change in the status of the western Jesuits, m one of his reports to the Father General he even criticized the erection of the vice-province in 1840 as premature, a view contested by one of the General's assistants, Father Villefort, who undertook to show (1862) that the erection not only of the Missouri Vice-province but of a number of new provinces besides had been attended with the happiest results.
But Father Sopranis was not wedded to his opinion, in fact, on his own initiative he finally proposed to Father Beckx that Missouri be erected into a province, writing as follows
There is one matter left which I don't think should be passed over in silence with your Paternity Here and there in this Vice-Province, as I found out moie than once, there is cherished m all earnestness the desire that your Paternity do away with the "Vice" in the Vice-Province and decree that Missouri be a province. Last year when I was Visitor here a certain individual wished to persuade me that this ought to be done, but I answered him that a business of this nature would have to be left to the Father General Now,
50 Sopranis ad Beckx, April 15, 1862. (AA). 81 Gleizal ad Beckx, February 4, 1856. (AA).
578 THE JESUITS OF THE MIDDLE UNITED STATES
of my own accord (motu frofrto) I piopose this matter to your Paternity's consideration Were this to be done, so I judge, it would help mightily to raise the spirits of those Fathers, who, without any fault of their own indeed, are destitute of higher studies but not of a genuine love of the Society and of an efficacious will to devote themselves heart and soul and this even beyond measure to the A M D G according to the spirit of the same Society 52
The General's answer, which is dated a month later than Father Soprams's communication, declared that the reason why Missouri had not been made a province sooner was the prevailing shortage of properly trained men. "This shortage has not yet been corrected, though it begins now to be so, and therefore to foster this good will I am ready indeed to grant this favor. But does not the uncertain state of the country suggest delay?" 53 These words were penned while the Civil War was m full swing.
Meanwhile, Father Coosemans had himself written to Father Beckx on the subject "I also intended to ask your Paternity for another favor, that of being so good as to look on us with a favorable eye and eliminate the (prefix) "Vice" from the Vice-Province so that it may become the Province of Missouri pure and simple. But perhaps the time has not yet come to grant us this grace 5 this is why I leave the matter entirely m the hands of our Lord and of your Paternity." 64
Though Father Beckx m his answer to Father Coosemans's letter of May 30, 1863, had suggested that the change in question be postponed until the end of the Civil War, it was actually carried through before the year was over On November 7, 1863, tne General wrote to Coose- mans: "I have forwarded to your Reverence the decree of erection of the Province of Missouri, which will abundantly make manifest to you how greatly I love you in the Lord and how eagerly I desire the prog- ress of all of you in every manner of perfection. Let your Reverence make this decree known to his entire Province and signify to the mem- bers that it is my very earnest desire that they cooperate faithfully with God's grace and, by close observance of religious discipline, show them- selves worthy companions of Jesus and sons of St. Ignatius." 55 On December 3 following, "at the instance of Father Visitor," so it was declared m the decree of the General read on the occasion, formal an- nouncement was made at St. Louis University of the erection of the province of Missouri. In a communication addressed to the General two weeks later Father Coosemans said "The eve of the Feast of St. Francis
52Sopranis ad Beckx, March 2, 1862 (AA) 63 Beckx ad Soprams, April 2, 1862. (AA).
54 Coosemans a Beckx, May 30, 1863
55 Beckx a Coosemans, November 7, 1863.
THE SUCCESSION OF SUPERIORS, 1851-1871 579
Xavier on my return from Westphalia and Washington, Missouri, where I had made my annual visitation, I learned from Reverend Father Sopranis the happy news that on November 7 your Paternity had the kindness to sign the decree of erection of the Province of Missouri. I tender you my very humble thanks, Very Reverend Father, in the name of all the members of our little province for this remarkable favor which you have had the goodness to grant. I pray our Lord through the intercession of His Holy Mother to shed on your Paternity an abund- ance of His heavenly lights and graces in order that you may continue during long years to govern m the joy of the Lord and with success the Society of Jesus, of which we have the happiness to form a part." 56
In the summer of 1868 the first provincial congregation of the Missouri Jesuits since the organization of the province convened in St Louis. Father Isidore Boudreaux sent an account of it to Father Beckx
Oui Provincial Congregation took place on June 30 and the two follow- ing days It was the first to be held m our province It was a very consoling sight for all to see this happy beginning, God seems to bless our little province, which grows more and more every day and which gams not less in regard to numbers than regularity. For those who have seen our humble beginnings m Missouri and who have followed step by step our progress for the last 45 yeais theie can be only one feeling — that of giatitude to God For it must be remembered that our Province was not begun by trained Jesuits but by untrained novices, who remained for years strangers to the customs of the Society. In the beginning few things were done in accordance with the Institute. Studies especially were neglected and weie almost nothing at all. It is now scarcely fifteen years since they opened their eyes to the necessity of having the young men study. But if it is permitted us to regret that our beginnings were not more in conformity with the customs of the Society, we cannot deny ourselves a sentiment of respect and gratitude toward those who have founded the Province. Their toils were long and faithful, they were devoted men. Several have gone to receive their recompense; others of them still live on and have the satisfaction of seeing the tree which they planted extend its branches from the great Amencan Lakes to the Rocky Mountains and beyond. According to all appearances, our province is called to do great things. That whole region which I have just spoken of is inhabited by people the majority of whom are ignorant of our holy religion, but who show themselves more and more disposed to listen to the voice of our mis- sionaries— it depends then on us to fill the role which Providence seems to assign us.
In connection with the Provincial Congregation it will not be out of place to speak to your Paternity of the persons who composed it.
Father Provincial [Coosemans] presided worthily. On the occasion of his journey to Europe he had procured a 'praxis congregations frovinctahs, which
56 Coosemans a Beckx, December 1 8, 1863. (AA).
580 THE JESUITS OF THE MIDDLE UNITED STATES
was followed to the letter. Everything which the good Father said whether in his little opening address or during the Congregation or at its close seemed to me very apropos I did not think him capable of doing so well The one who shone most in the congregation was Father Keller Appointed secre- tary, he drew up the minutes with a readiness of diction and an accuracy which evoked the admiration of all present He was elected procurator almost unanimously. Every time he spoke in the congregation he gave proof of a great deal of judgment Father O'Neil, ex-rector of St. Louis University, showed as much judgment, if not more. Then came in my opinion Fathers Smanus, Wenmger and De Blieck, especially the first, everything he said always seemed to me deep, sensible and clear. I think we could form another class with Fathers Verdm, Wippern, Nussbaum, Hill, Stuntebeck and Garesche Father Verdm spoke a good deal but perhaps not with the same appropriateness as those mentioned above With much more reason could one say the same thing of Father Garesche. The others in this class did not say anything of note As to Father Hill it was rather thi ough modesty that he refrained, for he is a man of depth Finally, came those of the left, namely Fathers Schultz, Tehan, and myself We said nothing worthy of remark 57
One of the surviving founders of the province, identified in various intimate ways with its early history, was missing from the provincial congregation of 1868. This was Father Verhaegen who, while the con- gregation was sitting m St. Louis, lay on his death-bed at St. Charles. A letter from Father Coosemans to the General has these lines:
I announce to your Paternity the death of Father Verhaegen, who passed 47 years of his life working for the greater glory of God in this new world After having filled the Society's most important posts in the Province he was sent to St. Charles where for some years subsequently he exercised the sacred ministry Towards the end of his life his patience was tried by his finding it impossible to leave the house and go to the church, which is some distance from the residence. He suffered this trial with resignation and spent his time, most of it at least, in study and prayer for he did not know what it was to be idle. Less than a month ago he had an attack of brain fever from which he never quite recovered, he could not endure the excessive heat we had during this month and on the 2ist instant about half past nine in the evening he peacefully gave up his soul into the hands of the Lord 5S
The choice of the provincial congregation of 1868 for procurator to Rome fell on Father Joseph Keller, who discharged the commission assigned to him.59 On his return voyage aboard the Pereire in company
57 1. Boudreaux a Beckx, July 16, 1868. (AA).
58 Coosemans a Beckx, July 26, 1868 (AA).
59 "On his arrival in Rome he will give your Reverence an exact and detailed account of the personnel and affairs of our Province." Coosemans a Beckx, October 2, 1868. (AA).
THE SUCCESSION OF SUPERIORS, 1851-1871 581
with Father Joseph O'Callaghan, the procurator from Maryland, and a Jesuit coadjutor-brother he met with a tragic experience A storm almost wrecked the vessel in mid-ocean and several of the passengers lost their lives, among them Father O'Callaghan. The Per eve was brought back by its captain to Havre and Father Keller returned to America on another boat. On landing m New York, he wrote at once to Father Coosemans
I am still badly bruised I can scarcely write Your Reverence will excuse this letter, which is not just what I desire, but something must be said on so sad a subject At half past two on January 21 [1869] a mountain of water fell upon the boat and shattered the bridge The water and debris struck the passengers, knocked them over, threw them about, injured and killed them, and the boat was on the point of going to the bottom Eight killed, twenty injured Father O'Callaghan, who was seated near a table, had his spine broken and his chest driven m They say he breathed for ten minutes after he w<is got free from the wreckage As for myself, I was crushed by the water and left unconscious It was only the next day that I learned what happened Father O'Callaghan had already been thrown into the sea with the rest of the dead A Canadian Abbe had conducted services at an altar of some kind while the frightful tempest went on raging. Brother Berardi will have his leg amputated and when cured will go to Pans to await orders f \ om his Superiors t>0
News of the occurrence was promptly forwarded by Father Coose- mans to the General: "We are very grateful to our good Master and to His holy Mother for thus restoring to us our dear procurator while the poor province of Maryland has had to deplore the loss of its own. We have not failed to call for Masses and rosaries of thanksgiving. I am happy to be able to announce to your Paternity that good Father Keller is entirely cured of the injuries he received on aboard the Pereire. He has a healthier and more vigorous look than ever." 61
The province m its opening years saw its ranks invaded frequently by death. A brief notice of these losses was generally communicated to the General by Father Coosemans or some other one of the fathers Mr. Conrad Broekeland, a Missouri scholastic, died at Georgetown College July 12, 1864, having just completed his second year of phi- losophy. "He died resigned to the will of God/' wrote Father Coose- mans, "and happy to be called from this world the day of the feast of our Lady of Mount Carmel." "On St. Ignatius7 day/7 continued Coose- mans m the same letter to Father Beckx, "died in Cincinnati the
60 Keller a Coosemans, January 26, 1 869. (AA) . Brother Salvatore Berardi of the Jesuit province of Naples did not recover, but died at Havre, February 2, 1869. 01 Coosemans a Beckx, 1869 (AA).
582 THE JESUITS OF THE MIDDLE UNITED STATES
coadjutor-brother Francis Van der Borght. He was a very hard working brother, full of zeal, and despite the multiplied distractions and occupa- tions of his charge [sacristan] an exact observer of religious discipline. After suffering some ten days from typhoid fever he gave his last sigh during the pontifical Mass which was being celebrated m the church for the consecration of the mam altar."
The career of Father Francis Xavier Horstmann, who died at the novitiate on May 26, 1865, "in great sentiments of peace and happiness after being fortified with all the sacraments of the Church," was an interesting one. For fifteen years he had been a sufferer from asthma and a year before had contracted dropsy, which was the immediate cause of his death. A few days before the end he confided to Father Bou- dreaux, rector of the novitiate, that his call to the Society had been a re- markable one. Overcome with a strange sadness as he was hunting one day with a friend, he heard what seemed to be a child's voice coming from out a tree and telling him that, if he wished to find peace of soul, he must enter the Society of Jesus. Numerous obstacles, above all the affection of a very devoted mother, arose in his way, but he surmounted them all and became a Jesuit. "He preserved consciousness," wrote Father Boudreaux, "as also his habitual gaiety up to death . . . His beautiful death proves that in entering the Society he had chosen the better part." 62
Towards the end of the sixties the Jesuits of the province of Ger- many succeeded in organizing a mission in the United States with the cordial approval and cooperation of Father Coosemans. When the pro- ject was first broached to him in Rome in the summer of 1867, it failed for some reason or other to engage his sympathy5 only on his return to America, when he met Father Perron, superior of the New York- Canada Mission, m New York and heard him enlarge on the merits of the project, did he determine to lend it his support. As Coosemans saw the matter, the Church had very much to gain were the German Jesuits enabled to open residences of their own in America dependent on their own province of Germany. Accordingly, on his return to St. Louis he laid the matter before his consultors, November 19, 1867. They ex- pressed their approval, the territory of the projected mission to be, as the minutes of the board expressed it, "the Lake region from the city of Buffalo to the state of Wisconsin." Father Coosemans then reported the affair to the General:
A German Mission or Vice-Province of this sort could be set up without prejudice to the existing provinces and missions by taking for territorial limits
62 Coosemans a Beckx, August 7, 1864, Boudreaux a Becfac, Tune I, 1 865. (AA).
THE SUCCESSION OF SUPERIORS, 1851-1871 583
certain dioceses of the ecclesiastical provinces of New York, Baltimore and Cincinnati On the supposition, then, that the German Fathers begin by establishing themselves in Buffalo, they could extend thence to the West and settle in Toledo m the diocese of Cleveland, where they would be received by the Bishop with open arms. Toledo is on the confines of the state of Michigan (diocese of Detroit), m which so far there is no house of the Society. The new mission might with time take the name of this state and would have for territory the dioceses of Buffalo in New York state, of Cleve- land and Fort Wayne m Ohio [stc], of Detroit in Michigan, and even the dioceses of Erie, Pittsburgh, and Wheeling in Pennsylvania [stc], which be- long at piesent to the Province of Maryland63
The plan of a German mission m the United States did not com- mend itself immediately to Father Beckx and he reserved it for more mature consideration. Not the least of the difficulties m the way, so it appeared to him, was the likelihood that the Jesuits temporarily at- tached to the Missouri Province but still technically dependent on the superior of the German Province would be withdrawn from Missouri to help staff the proposed mission. Having received the approval of his consultors, February 2, 1862, Father Coosemans wrote the following day to the provincial of Germany, Father Roder:
1 received your esteemed letter of January 4 After taking advice with my consultors on the subject of a new mission m the United States to depend on the German Province, I am happy to be able to answer to the different points which you piopose.
I. I should be very well satisfied to have you come and establish your- selves in this country There are places enough and there is an immense amount of good to be done
2 The most favorable localities are the states of Michigan and Wisconsin because the German element is more numerous there and emigration con- tinues to head more in that direction than in others. As to Kansas, the Father Consultors believe, and rightly so, that you would be disappointed m your expectations °4 Besides, as the Province of Missouri already has three estab- lishments m the state, namely, Leavenworth, St Mary's among the Pota- wotomies, and the Catholic Osage Mission, I do not think that another province could well start a mission there without mutual embarrassment In Wisconsin we have a residence in Milwaukee, a city where Bishop Henni,
08 Coosemans a Beckx, November 22, 1867. (AA)
6* Bishop Miege had come to leam of the German provincial's idea of settling his men m Kansas and on his own account had extended him a cordial invitation to do so. "I know nothing that would give me so much consplation as the estab- lishing of the German Province in Kansas. . . . Nothing now remains for me to do except assure you that if you send your good Fathers to Kansas, I shall do everything I possibly can for them." Miege a Roder, February 7, 1868. Arch. Prov. Low. Germ.
584 THE JESUITS OF THE MIDDLE UNITED STATES
who is of German or Swiss origin, has his see It is proposed to cede this residence to you so that you could make of Milwaukee a center from which you might spread out into Minnesota, which is west of Wisconsin, and into Michigan, a state lying to the east As we should have to start a house in some other place, I should expect you to reimburse the Province for the money it would expend therein in building the residence and acquiring a new site 65 I should also expect you not to deprive us of subjects belonging to your Province as Fathers Tschieder, Weber, Goeldlm, and others, who aie so necessary for keeping up the German residences m our own Province.
Bishop Henm has long been anxious for us to build a college on the property he bought with the money given him for this purpose, but up to the present we have not met his wishes for lack of men and means What we have there just now is a parish school, which numbers 360 pupils With the exception of two Fathers and two scholastics, the professors are laymen. The language spoken in the school is English, seeing that nearly all the parish- ioners are Irish. However, most of Milwaukee is German Before proceeding further, I must tell you that on passing through New York on my return from Europe, I had a conversation with Father Perron on the subject of a new mission, following which I wrote to Father General to propose to him a plan to this effect His Paternity found a number of difficulties m it and thought the time for it had not arrived Perhaps m view of this new proposi- tion he might change his opinion and not hesitate any longer to give his con- sent. It is for you, Reverend Father, to obtain it from his Paternity. In case you succeed, I would advise you to send here as soon as possible one 01 two prudent and experienced Fathers to explore the country, come to an under- standing with the Bishops, and make purchases and all necessary arrange- ments before you dispatch the group of members destined to begin the new mission In this way we should avoid misunderstanding and things would adjust themselves to the satisfaction of those most concerned (A. M D G )
P S — I forgot to tell you that Father Perron, Superior of New York and Canada, proposed to cede to you Buffalo at the extreme west of New York state, where there are one or two German residences
In the states of Minnesota and Wisconsin land is sold they say at 50, 100 and up to 500 francs an acre according to its location 66
The suggestion made by Father Coosemans that the provincial of Germany send a father to the United States to negotiate the affair in hand was acted upon without delay Father Peter Spicher arrived in New York September 17, 1868, as Father Roder's special representative
65 Coosemans wrote the General that in the event of Milwaukee being given to the German mission, he would be in a position to accede to the wishes of Bishop Hennessy of Dubuque, "a great friend of the Society, and start a residence in his diocese and so take possession [i e as a held of religious work] of the state of Iowa, which it seems, would naturally constitute a part of the Missouri Province "
66 Coosemans a Roder, February 3, 1868 Archives of the Province of Lower Germany.
THE SUCCESSION OF SUPERIORS, 1851-1871 585
to organize the contemplated mission, which in the meantime had re- ceived the General's approbation. "The news of his arrival," Father Coosemans hastened to inform the German provincial, "and of the im- pending establishment of a new mission in the vast country has filled us with joy. There will be no difficulty in finding a considerable district where you will have a free field Next week I shall have an interview with Father Spicher on the subject and I can assure you that I shall lend him cordial cooperation for the success of the enterprise on behalf of which he has been sent here." 6T
The last week of September Father Spicher was in St. Louis, where he was no stranger, as he had resided there a while with his German fellow-exiles of 1848. "I have signified to him in writing," Father Coosemans assured the Father General, "that on our part there is no difficulty or obstacle in the way of the German Fathers establishing themselves in the diocese of Cleveland and m the states of Michigan, Wisconsin, and Minnesota." 68
In August, 1868, Father Coosemans m company with Father Wip- pern was in conference m Milwaukee with the Bishop-elect of La Crosse, the Right Reverend Michael Heiss. The prelate was desirous of ob- taining several German-speaking Jesuits either for Prairie du Chien or for any other place in his diocese which they might deem more de- sirable. "His offers," so Coosemans informed the provincial of Ger- many, "are very advantageous, it would seem." 69 What the offers were does not appear but apparently there was question among other things of opening a college.
At the request of Father Spicher that he express his mind on the Prairie du Chien proposal, Father Coosemans wrote December 23, 1868, to Father Roder saying that it would be wiser to start, not with a college, but with a residence for missionaries on the plan of the Chicago residence for the fathers engaged m preaching English mis- sions. "While the missionary Fathers would give missions not only in Missouri but in the other states of the Union to which the bishops would not fad to invite them, other Fathers could be stationed at Prairie Du Chien to provide for the spiritual needs of the faithful, and of the children, for whom it would be necessary to establish a good parochial school. After some time they could commence a college for the day scholars and boarders. A day-school only on the plan of the Ratio is out of the question, I believe, seeing that Prairie Du Chien would never furnish scholars enough for a classical course." Fear had been expressed by one of the Father Coosemans's consultors that a "college at Prairie du
67 Coosemans a Roder, September 18, 1868. Arch. Prov. L G.
68 Coosemans ad Beckx, October 2, 1868. (AA).
69 Coosemans a Roder, August 12, 1868. Arch. Prov. L. &
586 THE JESUITS OF THE MIDDLE UNITED STATES
Chien would react unfavorably on the boarding-department of St Louis University, but Father Coosemans did not share this apprehension. "I believe that, as the country continues to grow more and more in population., there will be enough children to fill the two establishments, so that no harm will result on either side " 70 For the moment the German Jesuits declined the opening thus within their reach at Prairie Du Chien. In July, 1869, Father Damen reported to St. Louis that Mr. John Lawler, a resident of that historic Wisconsin town, was ready to convey to the Jesuits in fee-simple a spacious property with a budd- ing located thereon as also a church to be erected at his expense.71 Circumstances precluded the acceptance of this generous offer though in the sequel the Jesuits of the Buffalo Mission were to see themselves in 1880 in possession of Mr. Lawler's gift and conducting, thanks to it, a successful school for boys, the Campion College of later days.
Though the Buffalo Mission, as it came to be called, had been es- tablished in 1869 and within a year had opened residences in Buffalo and Toledo, it was not until the midsummer of 1871 that its territorial limits were finally determined upon. In a letter addressed to the Mis- souri provincial, April 17, 1871, Father Beckx had expressed his desire that this important matter be arranged by mutual agreement between the superiors of the American provinces and the missions and to guide them in reaching* a conclusion he laid down the principle. "It seems expedient that there be not m the same diocese and never m any case in the same city houses belonging to different provinces.77 Father Coose- mans and his council deliberated on the affair June 19, 1871. After adopting the General's principle that anything like an impermm in imfeno was to be avoided, they agreed to allow the Buffalo Mission "the dioceses of Cleveland, Fort Wayne, Detroit, and also, if the Buffalo Mission so desired, the whole state of Wisconsin, not excluding the city of Milwaukee and this because of the large German population of the state m question" Finally, at a meeting held at Woodstock College, Maryland, August 3, 1871, and attended by the provincials of Maryland and Missouri, the superiors of the New York-Canada and the Buffalo Missions, and the ex-provincials, Fathers Coosemans and Perron, it was agreed to designate the territory of the Buffalo Mission as follows: "The dioceses of Buffalo, Erie, Fort Wayne, Rochester, Cleveland, Detroit, Marquette, St. Paul, La Crosse, Green Bay and one station in Milwaukee or else m Racine or Madison." The agreement was subscribed to m writing by the superiors present and was later rati- fied by Father Beckx. The Buffalo Mission, having in the course of time established colleges in Buffalo, Cleveland, Prairie Du Chien, and
70 Coosemans a Roder, December 23, 1868 Arch Prov. L G
71 Liber consultahonum (A).
THE SUCCESSION OF SUPERIORS, 1851-1871 587
Toledo, a novitiate at Parma on the outskirts o£ Cleveland, and resi- dences in Boston, Mankato and Burlington, Iowa, was maintained until September i, 1907, when it was dissolved by decree of Very Reverend Father Wernz, its territory and personnel being divided between the provinces of Maryland — New York and Missouri.72
The appointment in 1869 of Father Keller as provincial of Mary- land was not a pleasant bit of news to Father Coosemans, who had been expecting that his alert assistant would shortly become his successor m the office of provincial. "Yesterday I received your letter of July 10 with the decree appointing Father Keller Provincial of Maryland. Deus dedity Deus abstuUty sit nomen Domini benedtctum. When deploring the loss of Father O'Callaghan, I rejoiced that my successor had been preserved. But homo propomt, Dew dis-ponrt" 73
Father Keller served Maryland in the capacity of provincial during the years 1869-1877 He was subsequently rector, first of St Louis University and then of Woodstock College, and spent his last years as assistant to the General for the English-speaking countries "He was," says an historian of Woodstock College, "a man of God, suave, ap- parently cold but fatherly, with a warm heart, not soft but exact m the maintenance of discipline. The community was startled to see him ap- parently so stoical burst into tears as he said the last prayers over the grave of his old friend Mr. Lancaster in the little cemetery of Wood- stock. He was an accomplished linguist and could address each member of the community correctly and fluently m his own tongue whether English, German, French, Spanish, Italian, Flemish or Dutch."74 Father Keller's services in every post he filled were of the highest order, his own province of Missouri being especially m his debt for the mspira-
72 In 1873 the Buffalo Mission sought to be authorized to open a house m Iowa. The Missouri authorities demurred, their objection being sustained by the Father General, who, however, later gave his consent but on condition that the house be transferred to the Missouri Province as soon as the latter was in a position to staff it. The residence thus established by the Buffalo Jesuits in Burlington, Iowa, was maintained down to 1890. The only Iowa house at any time under the jurisdiction of the Missouri Jesuits was the Potawatomi Mission of St Joseph at Council Bluffs In 1887 Archbishop Heiss offered the superior of the Buffalo Mission the direction of his diocesan seminary of St. Francis on the outskirts of Milwaukee The Missouri provincial and his consultors were favorable to the plan, but obj'ection having been enteied by the local authorities of Marquette College, it was not carried through Detroit as being m Michigan was originally in the Buffalo Mission territory, hence Bishop Borgess when he wished to introduce the Jesuits into Detroit, first addressed himself to the Buffalo fathers. They de- clined the invitation and subsequently authorized the Missouri provincial to accept it, which he did, Detroit College being opened by him in 1877.
78 Coosemans a Beckx, August 5, 1869. (AA).
™WL, 56:16.
588 THE JESUITS OF THE MIDDLE UNITED STATES
tion he was to scholarship and all things else that belong to the Society of Jesus at its best.75
After occupying the office for what in Jesuit government was the unusually long period of nine years Father Coosemans was at length relieved of the provmcialship, Father Thomas O'Neil succeeding him June 27, 1871. "I cannot pass over this occasion/5 wrote the General to Coosemans on the occasion, "without thanking you sincerely for the fidelity with which you have discharged the office of provincial for nine years and steadily made effort to promote the good of the Province." 7e The seven years of life that remained to him were spent in Chicago
75 Father Keller died February 4, 1 8 86, at the Jesuit General's headquarters in Fiesole in the environs of Florence, Italy His health, never robust, did not adjust itself to the peculiarities of the Italian climate He wrote in 1883 to the Missouri provincial, Father Bushart "Winter is not good in Italy You don't see much of winter, but you feel it I have a stove, but it don't warm me. My hands are swollen and sore from cold, but on the whole my health is better than it was I am a fish out of water, but as long as it lasts I intend to face the music, and do all I can to perform my duty So you need not spare me " In 1885 Father Keller was cautioned by his physician not to remain m Italy during the winter "My opinion is that the only thing to be done is to get away from here entirely, so as not to come back. The whole affair is a puzzle, and as yet I see no way out of it except to die soon though the Doctor says that m a suitable climate I ought to have ten or twenty years ( ? ) ." For some reason or other Father Keller remained at Fiesole An account of his last moments was communicated by Father Alexander Charnley to Father Bushart "Just a week before his death he had another seizure (of paralysis), which was more complete, and he had to be put to bed For a few days there was some improvement and hope of a partial rally, but on Tuesday February 2, after taking some food he found himself incapable of throwing up phlegm which gathered m his throat — he began to choke He had received Holy Communion after midnight that morning and now he expressed, as well as he could, his desire to receive Extreme Unction, which was given to him at once. We all thought he was dying, and in the presence of the entire community, the prayers were said for the agoniz- ing. He remained, however, m much the same state, in great suffering, a long and terrible agony, unable to eject the phlegm, unable to take any nourishment, yet quite conscious for over 50 hours During the last hour or so the breathing was easier and he passed calmly and peacefully away. For some time he had prayed earnestly for death — conscious of his inability for further exertion, and convinced that his case was hopeless. Sad as his loss is, for all appreciated the clearness and soundness of his judgment and admired his great patience and resignation under sufferings so cruel and so prolonged, we could hardly have wished to have him live longer in the state to which he was reduced. I am sure he will be much lamented and much prayed for in his dear Province of Missouri. This morning we all said the Office of the Dead for him — he will be buried to-night or to- morrow along side of two other venerable Assistants." Charnley to Bushart, Feb- ruary 5, 1886. (A). Father Felix Sopranis, one-time Visitor of the Jesuit houses in America, was one of the assistants buried m Fiesole, where he died May 4, 1876, at the age of 77
76Beckx ad Coosemans, July 19, 1871. (AA).
THE SUCCESSION OF SUPERIORS, 1851-1871 589
where he died February 7, 1878, at the comparatively early age of fifty- five. The circumstances of his death are recorded in a letter addressed by Father Rudolph J. Meyer to Father Coosemans's brother in Bel- gium. The writer was at this time prefect of studies in St. Ignatius Col- lege, Chicago.
You were happy to have had a brother who for all his deep and even excessive humility was so distinguished, but you are still happier now in having a powerful intercessor m Heaven. His death will not surprise you. Everybody was long expecting it. He did not suffer, he even thought himself stronger than ever; but we knew very well he could not survive another seizure of paralysis, the disease that attacked him three years ago.
On February 7, the very day of the death of Pius IX, to whom he was so devoted during bfe, he also took his flight to Heaven as he had desired. After confessing a number of nuns, he had returned about eleven in the morning of February 6 in high spirits to the College and on entenng good- naturedly rallied the brother-porter, who had recently been ill "Well, well," he said, "you wanted to die, but did not succeed " He then went with the community to the refectory, sat at my left, took his soup, and began to par- take of some bits of meat and other dishes But suddenly he found himself unable to go on His right hand had lost its strength. As soon as this was noticed, he was led to my room, which is the one nearest to the refectory, and there he remained about two hours Ever since I have regarded with a sort of reverence the bed on which he lay. He was then carried to his own room. He was no longer able to speak, but expressed himself as well as he could and made a short confession, which otherwise was unnecessary for one who had gone to confession in the morning and whose whole life was nothing else but a continual preparation for death. Finally, he received Ex- treme Unction and lost the use of his senses. He continued m this condition all during the night and the next day until twenty minutes past six m the evening when he gave his last sigh without any effort or even change of countenance His lips bore the same smile that was so natural to him during life. The body did not give the impression of being a corpse, it was regarded rather as a relic.77
Father Coosemans even amid the pressing duties of rector or pro- vincial spent much of his time by day and night in the chapel, habitually saying there on his knees the entire divine office of the day. "He pre- sented," m the words of an official obituary, "an ideal of piety, modesty and humility, to which God added the grace of a transparent samtliness of feature."
Now that an attempt has been made to sketch the personalities of the men who for twenty years directed the destinies of the midwestern
n Meyer a M. Coosemans, February 27, 1878. Archives of the Province of North Belgium.
590 THE JESUITS OF THE MIDDLE UNITED STATES
Jesuits, it will be pertinent to indicate here, however briefly, one or other particular trait of this group of Catholic workers m education and the ministry Probably what was most characteristic about them was an absorbing devotion to work, a readiness to spend and be spent in the service of the neighbor. The Maryland superior, Father Dzierozynski, after a visit to Florissant in 1827, informed the Father General that the Jesuit priests he found employed there on the western frontier were doing the work of twice their number Father Gleizal witnessed in 1850 that every member of the vice-province seemed to be doing the work that ordinarily might be expected of three, and Father Murphy noted a similar condition.78 On the other hand, Father Roothaan pointed out that these charges of his in western America were a somewhat uncon- ventional body of men, not particularly concerned to follow the beaten path of Jesuit precedent and tradition. But the explanation of the phenomenon was at hand, as Father Roothaan himself plainly recog- nized. The pioneer Missouri Jesuits had not themselves undergone normal Jesuit training, to paraphrase the GeneraPs words, they had never seen the Society of Jesus functioning in due manner, as it was actually functioning at the time m some at least of the well organized Jesuit provinces of Europe. As a matter of fact, literal Jesuit prescrip- tions had sometimes to be modified to suit frontier conditions though very probably the modification was on occasion carried farther than need required.
The saving grace of this situation was the evident good will that animated all, superiors and subjects alike "There are many defects among us," Father Gleizal observed in 1851, "but there is also much good will." The same idea found expression m the words of Father Aschwanden, one of the exiled German Jesuits who found a home in the Missouri Vice-province in 1848. "The spirit can be good though many things be lacking on the surface and I really believe such is the case here." 79 Father Elet put the matter still more unequivocally when he wrote m 1850 "The spirit of prompt obedience, of sacrifice, of abne- gation has been the very soul and life of this Vice-Province from the beginning." 80 It will be of interest to cite in this connection the witness of two European Jesuits who had opportunity to know the Jesuits of the West from residence m their houses. Father Joseph Brunner, a German refugee of 1848, who did noteworthy missionary work at Green Bay and other localities in Wisconsin during the fifties, expressed him- self thus to Father Beckx:
78 Gleizal a Roothaan, January 22, 1850 (AA).
79 Aschwanden ad Roothaan, August 28, 1848 (AA).
80 Elet ad Roothaan, 1850 (AA)
THE SUCCESSION OF SUPERIORS, 1851-1871 591
Of the nine years approximately that I lived in America, I spent almost four in Missouri and five in Wisconsin, and on my return journey I visited Ours m Cincinnati and New York Now, wherever I went, our men were a source to me at once of consolation and edification by reason of the fervor and zeal with which they devoted themselves to their own salvation and that of their neighbor Religious discipline flourishes in the houses, so also mutual charity, union of hearts, and that genuine spirit of the Society, which, as it despises nothing, so likewise shrinks from nothing, provided it makes in some way or other for the greater glory of God. Certain it is that the Fathers of the college of St Louis, Missouri, all during the summer vacations, apart fiom the time spent in making their own retreats and despite the circum- stance that they were tired out with the work of the class-room, were engaged m giving sacred missions everywhere with notable success and fruit 81
Father Nicholas Congiato on leaving Kentucky for California in 1854 after his rectorship at Bardstown wrote from New York to Father Beckx
Speaking of the Province of Missouri, I cannot refrain from saying that I have left it with the utmost regret I loved this Province and loved it because I saw flourishing in it the true spirit of the Society. I shall never forget the good example in every kind of virtue which I received therein in the space of six years There is regular observance, zeal for the salvation of souls, and the glory of God, obedience, docility, self sacrifice, and all that in a more than ordinary degree May the Lord continue to bless it 82
To these spontaneous testimonies from competent observers as to the existence among the Jesuits of the Middle West of a thoroughly sound religious spirit may be added the witness of the Visitor, Father Soprams. He summed up his impressions by letting the Father General know that he found among these men "a genuine love of the Society and an efficacious will to spend themselves entirely and even beyond measure for the greater Glory of God." The veteran Verhaegen, who had assisted at the birth of the Jesuit province of Missouri thirty-eight years before, was delighted to hear the spirit which prevailed among his associates commended by the General's representative. "In his [Sopranis's] last exhortation to the Fathers and scholastics, I heard him speak of the spirit which flourished in the Province as being not merely good, but effectively so." 83 The tradition of sacrifice and zeal in the
81Brunner ad Beckx, October 26, 1856. (AA).
82 Congiato a Beckx, October 8, 1854 (AA).
88Verhaegen ad Beckx, January 15, 1861 (AA) Father Sopranis, who had arrived in New York October 25, 1859, began his visitation of the Missouri Vice- province July 31, 1860, continued it until the end of August, when he went to Frederick, Md*? to give the Tertians the "long retreat," which he did m Septem-
592 THE JESUITS OF THE MIDDLE UNITED STATES
vineyard of the Lord set up by Van Quickenborne and his confreres had in truth been steadily maintained and was to be a precious heritage passed on from one generation to another of the Jesuits of the West.
ber, and then returned to the Middle West in October, finishing with his duties there in December, when he left St Louis for New Orleans. He returned to Rome in the summer of 1861 to report on his visitation of the American houses to the General and in October of the same 7ear left thence for the United States to complete the work of the visitation, remaining there until January, 1864.
CHAPTER XVIII TRAINING THE PERSONNEL
§ I. THE NOVICE-MASTERS
The succession of masters of novices at Florissant down to the period of the Civil War and beyond comprises the names of Fathers Van Quickenborne, De Theux, Verhaegen, Van Assche, De Vos, Nota, Smedts, Gleizal and Isidore Boudreaux. Van Quickenborne was m charge of the novices at White Marsh and later at Florissant, but he received no scholastic-novice after he came to the West and was at no time entered in the mission register as novice-master. De Theux's tenure of office covered the period October 10, 1831, to October 4, 1837, on which day Verhaegen, superior of the mission, replaced him both as rector of the novitiate and master of novices. Of Father Verhaegen's six novices, the first, Francis McBnde, was received November 4, 1837, and the last, Father Peter De Smet, a novice for the second time, November 29, 1837. On April 25, 1838, Father Van Assche was in- stalled as novice-master in succession to Verhaegen, his first candidate, John Verdm, being admitted on the same day. Van Assche's term of office lasted a little over a year.1 He was succeeded June 15, 1839, by Father Peter De Vos, of the province of France, and a member of the first staff of St. Charles College, Grand Coteau, Louisiana.2 Sixty-six candidates entered the novitiate during his incumbency, which lasted until April 18, 1843, when he gave place to Father Leonard Nota and left Missouri for the Oregon missions. On October 3 of the same year, 1843, Father John B. Smedts, one of the pioneer group of 1823, was installed as rector and master of novices. The occasion was marked by the presence at the novitiate of the recently appointed vice-provincial, Father Van de Velde, who was accompanied by Judge Bryan Mullan- phy, afterwards mayor of St. Louis During Father Smedts's term of office fifty-five candidates were received at Florissant On July 22, 1 849,
1 Florence Riordan, first scholastic-novice deceased in the Missouri Mission, died October 8, 1838, Born in Ireland, January I, 1811, entered St. Stanislaus Semi- nary, Florissant, January 24, 1838. The printed register of the mission has the erroneous entry June 24, 1838
2 Peter De Vos, born m Ghent, Belgium, September 27, 1797, entered Society of Jesus December 9, 1825, died at Santa Clara College, Santa Clara, California, April 27, 1859*
593
594 THE JESUITS OF THE MIDDLE UNITED STATES
at the conclusion of the evening prayers recited in common in Jesuit houses, he announced to his community that a new novice-master would be inducted into office on the following day. This was Father John Gleizal, who held the position until July 3, 1857? when he was su<> ceeded by Father Isidore Boudreaux, who remained master of novices for twenty-three years.
Of the earlier novice-masters much has been said elsewhere in this history and there is no need to portray them further. All the days that remained to Father Van Assche after being relieved of the care of the novices he spent in the parochial ministry and this, with one or other brief interruptions, at St. Ferdinand's in Florissant, where he greatly endeared himself to the congregation.3
Father Leonard Nota, of the province of Naples, one of the pro- fessors supplied by Father Roothaan to Missouri in the early forties, became involved m difficulties with his superiors in the West and spent his latter years in the Maryland Province, in which he labored to ex- cellent purpose as professor of philosophy, dying at Holy Cross College, Worcester, m 1870* Father Smedts was a man of simple, ingenuous character, but he lacked, so it was alleged, the shrewdness one looks for in a trainer of the young. As novice-master he fell short of expecta- tions and in 1849 was given a successor by Father Elet. He spent his remaining days in Cincinnati and St. Louis, m which latter place, while filling the office of spiritual father, he died on February 19, 1855 Father Murphy, writing to the General some time after, commended Father Smedt's "innocence of life" and noted that though a great fear
8 "A good fisher with the line, but not a good hunter One always finds him at home when one has need of his ministry, he will go, too, as faithfully by night as by day to administer the sacraments to the sick, but he doesn't seem to know what it is to go in search of his wandering sheep, if such neglect their religious* duties He says that the experience of long years has proved this to be usclesb with the class of people he has. Perhaps he is right " Coosemans a Beckx, November 28, 1868 (AA)
* Father Van de Velde, Nota's superior, said of him that he had a "warm Italian imagination." (Van de Velde to Purcell, September 24, 1847, Catholic Archives of America, Notre Dame University) "Good Father Nota teaches Latin and Greek with great success to such novices of the second year as have given satisfaction If only he knew English well enough he would be given care of the novices and with great advantage . . . The American temperament is rather phlegmatic, hence that Italian ardor, which breaks into flame at the slightest provocation, must be moderated Taught by experience, I always distrust men of lively imagination I prefer a restrained zeal which slowly but with a sure step consecrates itself to the works of God, for wolenta non durtmt " Verhaegen ad Roothaan, September i, 1842 (AA), Vivier, Nomina Patrum rt Fratrum etc. (Pans, 1897), p 272, gives November 13, 1849, as date of a second admission of Nota into the Society.
TRAINING THE PERSONNEL 595
of death had followed him through life he met his end with edifying composure.
Avignon, the city of the Popes, saw the birth of John Gleizal, who at eighteen entered a Jesuit novitiate in France, but found it necessary to withdraw for reasons of health. He was subsequently a student at the seminary of Viviers, was advanced to the priesthood at an early age, and served for a while at la Louvesc, where rest the remains of the Jesuit saint, John Francis Regis. Here, while meditating one day at the tomb of the saint, he resolved to try again the life of a Jesuit. Father De Smet was at this time about to return to America to re-enter the Society, from which he had himself withdrawn two years before Father Gleizal with Arnold Damen and another candidate, Adrian Hendnckx, were his companions on the journey, the party arriving at Florissant in the No- vember of 1837. As pastor Father Gleizal gave tokens of enterprising zeal in successive charges in Florissant, Cincinnati, and St. Louis. At the College Church in St. Louis he introduced two important parish organi- zations, the Archconfratermty of the Immaculate Heart of Mary for the Conversion of Sinners and the Young Ladies Sodality. He was an effective preacher and director of retreats though he was already m the priesthood when he set himself to the task of learning English. In New Orleans in 1 848 he attracted widespread attention by his sermons and missions so that an attempt was made to retain his services per- manently for that city.5 For eight years he was master of novices, filling the office with marked satisfaction to all concerned. Like Father Bou- dreaux after him he was an admirable letter-writer, his communications to the General in the capacity of consultor reflecting vividly the hopes and aspirations as also the difficulties and problems of the struggling group of Jesuits resident in the West. In the summer of 1857 he was obliged by a weakness of the lungs, which developed into consumption, to discontinue his work at Florissant, and he thereupon returned to St Louis, where he engaged again m pastoral work but only for a brief spell. When informed, three weeks before it came, that the end was not far distant he began to make fervent preparations for death. On six o'clock on the morning of August 6, 1859, he received Holy Com- munion at his own request and expired immediately after. At the solemn funeral services in the College Church Archbishop Kenrick spoke in high commendation of the virtues of this "holy priest," as he did not hesitate to call him.6 An appreciation of Father Gleizal by one who had every opportunity to know him will bear reproduction. Requested to
5 Father Gleizal had come down from St Louis for some temporary engage- ments in New Orleans churches.
* Western B&imer (St, Louis), August 8, 1859,
596 THE JESUITS OF THE MIDDLE UNITED STATES
say whether he had noticed certain traits in the latter, whose minister he was at Florissant, Father Charles Messea replied in these terms
Is it true that Father Gleizal is of fickle temper, singular in certain things and not fond of taking orders?
To this I say that Father Gleizal is very vivacious and eminently French in temper, but he is a prudent man and one of more than ordinary virtue and has such control of his natural disposition as not to allow it to influence any actions of his of consequence unless it be for the better. I do not recall all the time I have been minister under him any singularity in his manner of acting Nor do I recall that he did not like to listen to advice while I have sometimes seen him follow the advice of his consultors in preference to his own opinion however opposed it was to theirs Moreover, I always found him affable and patient when I had anything to propose to him, I can say of Father Gleizal that he is a man who naturally, and perhaps as a result of his earlier education and studies, inclines to rigorism, and who, although exceedingly exact in his own practice, is gentle, affable and discreet. I think I can safely say that the manner m which Father Gleizal has governed this Novitiate from the moment he was chosen to be its Rector and Master of Novices is such as to render him altogether deserving of this Vice-Province 7
Father Isidore Boudreaux passed from St. Louis University, where he was a student, to the novitiate, being the first candidate for the So- ciety to present himself from any of the western Jesuit colleges. He was one of a family of nine orphans of St Michel, Louisiana, of whom five were boys. Four of the number, Eustache, Arsene, Isidore and Florentine were sent by friends to St. Louis University, Isidore thus owing his education at least m part to Bishop De Neckere of New Orleans. At Florissant Isidore made his noviceship under the stern direction of Father De Theuxj but in the methods which he himself followed as master of novices there was little of sternness, but rather the engaging mildness that wins confidence and inspires affection. He was at all times what the Society of Jesus would have every member of it become, a man of prayer. One saw him on his knees in the novitiate chapel for one, two, three hours at a time, a radiant smile playing over his spiritualized features as he held prayerful converse with his Master in the Blessed Sacrament. To a novice who was about to pronounce his vows he recommended above everything else the practice of union with God. Father Coosemans wrote of him thus to the General: "Good Father Boudreaux has certainly the grace of his office for he succeeds very well with the novices and juniors, forming their hearts and direct- ing them along the path of perfection."
It is not customary for Jesuit novice-masters to communicate to the Father General individual pen-pictures of their novices. None of Father
7 Messea a Beckx, August 17, 1854. (AA).
TRAINING THE PERSONNEL 597
Boudreaux's predecessors in the office had done so, but he, for some years at least, put down on paper for the eyes of his superior m Rome the salient traits, good and less good, as it might be, of each and all of the young men committed to his care. His sketches show insight and he was happy in individualizing his subjects as some instances may serve to indicate.
Canssimus {Rudolph} Meyer entered the novitiate July 12, 1858 and is now going on nineteen He was born in St Louis of German parents, made his studies at the University and asked to enter after Rhetoric for fear, said he, of becoming proud at college, wheie he met with success He was very small for his age when he entered but has grown a good deal since He is robust and enjoys excellent health. His talents are of superior order. Besides Gieek, Latin, English and German, he knows French and a little Spanish He has an admnable memory and an excellent judgment I believe he is no poet and will be a little cold as an orator. In his case the intellect seems to get the bettci of the heart. Although his conduct as regards his companions is irreproachable, he has not the art of winning their affection He has set himself to acquire perfection. One may scarcely reproach him, so I think, with not having made every effoit to profit by his novitiate, which is going to finish the I2th of next month
Canssimus [ Hugh} Erley He is the angel of the novitiate He was born in America of German Protestant parents, whom he lost while still a child. It was the will of Providence that he be taken for a Catholic child and received into the orphanage as such He was brought up in the fear of God and in piety. It was only after his fust communion that it was learned he had never been baptized, at least as a Catholic The Superiors of the orphanage sent him to a college kept by the Benedictines, where he received a fairly complete education. Father Provincial made some difficulty about receiving him on account of his frail and delicate constitution, but since he has been here, which is now nearly a year, he has improved a good deal physically One admires in him a noble heait, an angelic piety and an attraction to the interior life. But he is still a child and the good God seems to have dealt with him up to the present only as such. Trials may make him appear m a less favorable light,
Eugene Brady y an American born at Bardstown in Kentucky, 22 years old. He received the degree of A.B. from St. Louis University. He regrets the haste with which he made his studies, having skipped some classes He has less judgment than liveliness of disposition, which makes him critical. He has much ardor for his spiritual progress, but is inclined to carry things too far. Entered July 26, 1860.
John Stephens ; born in Ireland, educated in Cincinnati, aged 17 He is our Benjamin, His talents are of a high order. He made his studies at our college of St, Xavier and, though he left them unfinished, he is distin- guished for an excellent taste in matters of literature. But he is still more remarkable for the frankness and uprightness of his character. Though of
598 THE JESUITS OF THE MIDDLE UNITED STATES
rare beauty, he has nothing effeminate about him He appears to neglect nothing to acquire perfection I place the greatest hopes in him Entered August 6, 1860
Brother Brady , our miller, bears on his features the imprint of some- thing or other angelical A fine figure, in which there reigns a modesty and a serenity quite heavenly, that have the effect of a beautiful eulogy on virtue and the religious life He is very simple During the Long Retreat I was afraid his weakness of head might not be able to endure the fatigue of the exercises, his mmd seemed to stagger a bit, but I think nothing serious is to be feared on this score What I have said of his beauty of countenance and his modesty can be applied in great measure to Brother Lenz, our cook, but he has more mental stamina than Brother Brady I am well pleased with all the novice-brothers, they are quite devoted and woik with all their strength from morning to night 8
Father Beckx wrote on one occasion to Father Boudreaux that on reading his letters the men and things of the province seemed to pass before his mind in vivid procession. The passages cited from the novice- master's correspondence are typical of his graphic manner. Father Bou- dreaux had the direction of the novices for twenty-three years (1857- 1880). At the time of his death he was spiritual father at Marquette College. He was taken ill on a visit to Chicago and died there Febru- ary 8, 1885.
§ 2. NOVICESHIP LIFE
From the beginning the exercises of the Florissant novitiate fol- lowed the customary routine observed in Jesuit houses of probation. It was a distinct advantage that the masters of novices from the first days of the mission found at hand, carefully drawn up by the skilful hand of Father Peter Kenney, the Visitor, a memorandum covering the substance and many of the details of the day's program m the noviceship. The document bears the caption, "Distribution oj time for the enure year m the Novitiate made by Rev. Father Kenney > Visitor of the Mission m 1832" The hour of rising was set at 4:30 A. M , that of retiring at 9 P. M. The only time reserved for study appears to have been between the period 10:15 and 1 1 -30 A. M., when the novices were to apply themselves to the composition of catechetical instructions or to learning English or some other language, as the master might ap- point. On twelve of the principal feasts of the year High Mass was sung.
The twelve days mentioned are appointed rather by a dispensation in favor of this missionary country than by any prescription of the rules or prac- tices of the Society. This number cannot be increased, as it appears quite
8 Boudreaux a Beckx, June 21, 1860, April 20, 1861. (AA).
TRAINING THE PERSONNEL 599
sufficient for the edification of the faithful and the knowledge which our priests ought to have of functions which are not the proper object of our institute. The prescribed number seems even too often for a small number of novices when they are the principal singers The Rector will not then allow High Mass so often, when it is attended with inconvenience In fine, there is no custom with which he may not freely dispense, and he should often caution the scholastic novices never to introduce on the missions the practice of singing High Mass every Sunday nor even every holy-day. Such custom, though pious and a cause of edification in the parochial churches of Catholic countries, would bring an intolerable burden on our missionaries, whose lungs and whose time St Ignatius wished to be otherwise employed Q
The problem of educating the younger members of the order with a view to their efficiency in the colleges was a perplexing one for the superiors of the mission. Father Roothaan demurred in 1835 to a pro- posal that some of the novices, after completing the first year of their noviceship, should be attached to the teaching-staff of St. Louis Uni- versity, but he suggested to Father De Theux, as a compromise, that such of the candidates as gave evidence of solid piety and fervor might be set in the second year of their probation to repeat or continue their studies.10 Again, in the course of the same year Father Roothaan urged on De Theux the necessity of advancing the scholastics in their studies by the usual stages, so as not to hurry them forward precipitately with a view to utilize them in the functions of the Society. He was certain, indeed, that such was not De Theux's manner of procedure, he merely suggested the means to be employed against "the temptation," as he called it, if such should arise.11 It was indeed only by slow degrees that the full requirements of the Jesuit Institute in regard to the education of candidates could be realized at Florissant Father Roothaan was especially insistent that the novices should not be withdrawn to the colleges before the period of their probation was complete. To Father De Theux he wrote in 1836
Now that the number of subjects increases daily, your Reverence's first thought ought to be, not of multiplying houses, for nothing new ought to be set on foot, but of bringing the novitiate up to the requirements of the Institute and of ordering the studies of our young men in accordance with the Ratio. Let them not be withdrawn from the novitiate before the two years are up. Those who give satisfaction in all details may indeed, in the
0 (E) . Custom and in cases episcopal prescription have militated against Father Kcnney's directions and there are perhaps few Jesuit parish churches today m the United States in which Sunday High Mass is not the rule Cf sufra, Chap X, § 2.
10 Roothaan ad De Theux, (received) July 4, 1835 (A).
"Roothaan ad De Theux, October 13, 1835- (A).
6oo THE JESUITS OF THE MIDDLE UNITED STATES
second year of their probation, be made to repeat their studies, especially Rhetoric and Grammar, and Theology too, m the case of those who went through a theological course before their entiance into the Society As far as possible, they are to be put to teach only at the end of their Philosophy and after the usual examinations. Your Reverence ought to be of the conviction that nothing will tend more to strengthen the Missouri Mission than to observe the customary steps in the education of its members Members of a premature growth are dangerous everywhere, but especially on the missions 12
But the General's caution not to withdraw the novices from Floris- sant before the two-year period of their probation had run its course was not always duly observed. In the eyes of the supenors circumstances now and then appeared to warrant a lapse into the contrary practice, as when in 1836-1837 a group of novices, including Father George Carrell and Messrs. Aelen, Van den Eycken and Verheyden, were on the teaching-staff of St. Louis University. The mission register of that year enters them under the caption, "Novices residing at the University." The compiler of the Annual Letters for 1840-1849 noted with regret that lack of men had forced superiors thus to interrupt the noviceship of many of the candidates and assign them to the colleges. He called the practice an evil, but a necessary evil withal.
When Father Gleizal took up the duties of novice-master in 1849 he set himself firmly against the practice of calling out the novices for service m the colleges. He brought to Father Elet's attention an ordina- tion of 1842 in which Father Roothaan had renewed his previous in- junction against the practice. "No scholastic or brother is to be with- drawn from the Novitiate before the end of the bienmum [two years] ." "Since 1842," Gleizal declared in a letter to the General, "there has been considerable deviation from the above-mentioned regulation and, knowing things as I know them, I dare say that your wishes in this regard will not be long observed unless your Paternity gives an order m virtue of holy obedience. At the very moment I write this letter there is talk at St. Louis College of taking a scholastic novice [Julius Johnston] out of the Novitiate and sending him to the University. Besides, he is an American novice, very pious no doubt, but here [in the novitiate] only one year and a Catholic only 2 or 3 years. For quite a while back the abuse I point out has existed in this Province." 13 In replying to Father Gleizal the General let it be known that he himself had long protested against the same irregularity. The instruc- tions of 1842 were still in force and Gleizal must enter protest when-
12 Roothaan ad De Theux, June 28, 1836 (A).
13 Gleizal a Roothaan, September i, 1849. (AA).
TRAINING THE PERSONNEL 601
e\er the) are contravened. "We let ourselves be carried away by the desire of meeting somehow or other present needs, which we have our- selves created by inconsiderately accepting new engagements." 14
Conditions, spiritual and otherwise, at the novitiate m the first decades of its history meet with occasional comment m the Annual Lettets of the period The annalist for 1837 observed that the fervor of the novices kept pace with their growing numbers. At the end of 1836 they were only six or seven, a year later their number had risen to twenty. The more numerous they were, the more frequent the op- portunities to practice virtue. Catechetical instruction in the Creole cabins ot the neighborhood was the novices' golden opportunity to practice zeal tor souls. They visited the cabins to give catechism lessons, pri- marily to the childrenj but the older folk were sometimes glad to lend an eai to the instruction. The Creoles were not a church-going people, Poor roads, poor clothes, poor weather, not to say frank indifference, combined at times to set up a barrier between them and the parish church. To visit them in their humble quarters was theiefore the only way to reach them for the purpose of religious instruction and appeal. Sometimes this outside ministry of the novices assumed more serious proportions as when in 1838 two of their number began to instruct sonic poor cottagers living in the Missouri bottoms. Their audience grew from Sunday to Sunday until finally a pulpit was improvised for the preacher and benches for the people. The congregation numbered about a hundred souls and many of them, long estranged from religious practices, were recovered for the Church,
But it was not necessary for the novices to leave the immediate precincts of the novitiate to bring the word of God home to Catholics ot the neighborhood. They could appeal to them in the novitiate chapel. Here the families of the vicinity were permitted to attend Mass and evening devotions and here they listened to sermons preached by the novices* As a rule, only some six of the more mature candidates were commissioned for this delicate and important duty. Moreover, there was a sermon by a novice every Sunday in the parochial church of the village. In connection with these efforts of the youthful Jesuits at sacred oratory, it is in place to mention the sermonette, known as a Marianum^ which was delivered in succession by the novices on Saturday evenings in the common refectory. Its theme was invariably some incident of his- tory, public or private, attesting the value of devotion to Our Ladyj hence the name. It was first introduced at Florissant in January, 1842, at which period it was delivered in English or French by the novices of the first year and in Latin by those of the second. The French Ma-
14 Roocluuti u tttafeftl, January 3, 1850. (AA).
602 THE JESUITS OF THE MIDDLE UNITED STATES
nanum, as the need for that language in the colleges and parishes be- came less urgent, was later discontinued.15
For physical exercise and diversion the novices had their semi- weekly tramps through the woods or along the country lanes of the vicinity. Sometimes these pedestrian trips were extended beyond their customary limits as when Father Smedts would invite the novices to visit him en masse at St Charles, or Father Van Assche would dispense hospitality to them in Portage des Sioux. Father Smedts, when in charge of the novices, once conducted them to the College Farm in North St. Louis, where they visited the adjoining garden of Colonel John O'Fallon and saw, among other objects of interest in that well- known pleasure-spot of the day, now O'Fallon Park, its locally famous peacocks Portage des Sioux, m St. Charles County, Missouri, site of a Jesuit residence, was but eight miles distant from the novitiate, but to the young men, unfamiliar with the topography of the neighborhood, it seemed romantically remote. An oft-told adventure was the one which the novitiate diarist records under date of January 2, 1840 "The novices, with Brother O'Connor, walked to Portage des Sioux, which they reached at a late hour, after losing their way in the trackless snow. They had to spend the night here, though m the little house there was scarcely room for them to lie on the floor." Sometimes the scene of the misadventure was nearer home as m the incident recorded for Febru- ary n, 1840. "Canssimes Hoecken, Kindekens and Brother Joseph Specht lost their way in the woods about three o'clock in the afternoon. Having kindled two big fires, they passed the night m the open. Mean- while Father Rector sent some of the Negroes to find them and had the large bell rung steadily for a while, but all to no purpose. The next day the wanderers came back just before dinner together with the other novices who had been sent out to search for them." A walk attended with no untoward incident was recorded by Father Verhaegen, when he was superior of the mission and master of novices
I took a walk to the Missouri on the 2nd instant. Father De Smet was our leader, carrying a hammer The novices were armed with various imple- ments Axes, spades, shovels, hoes, etc., were made the order of the day On the loftiest hill of the renowned Charbomere (I do not recollect whether you saw it) there is an Indian mound and this mound we undertook to explore We dug a hole in its centre and found human bones, but no Indian curiosities We will try the mound again Our walk, however, was not un- profitable. We discovered a large rattle-snake near one of the crevices of the rocks that form the bank of the river. It was alive but benumbed and unable to move. This fellow we secured and carried home in a handkerchief. When
15 Historw Domus Probations S. Stamslat. (E).
TRAINING THE PERSONNEL 603
in a laige bottle he was still motionless, but when a shower of whiskey began to fall on his back, he stnied and played a tune foi us with his nine rattles 1C
The cassock or religious garb was worn by the novices only while on the noMtiate premises, on their walks and excursions they doffed it for a secular dress In the first years of the mission, as has been re- corded, the cassock was worn on the streets of St. Louis and in public general!} until Father Kcnncy, the Visitor, abolished the custom in 1832. Father Van Quickenborne, a few weeks after his arrival at Floris- sant, wrote to the superior in Maryland that the novices went about in their Jesuit garb much to the edification of all. But this garb was not ahvajs in the best of condition, as the scholastic Van Assche wrote back to Belgium-
With ictfiiid to chess, we wear a habit of the pattern you must have seen in piLtuics oi St. Louis de Goir/aga. We have two habits, one fen winter and one foi summei. When new, they look black, by the time they are ready foi lepaus, the} have taken on two 01 thice diffeient colors They are patched ovu and over again, hut we go about just as if they weic new, with our beads hanging fiom a emetine of two or thiee pieces tied together by knots Oui hat is all \ou umltl desiie for summer, being full of holes which let in the fush aii, but in wmtei we have to put a handkerchief m it to keep the rain fiom pouring down on oin heads17
Jesuits from St. Louis and friends of the Society, clerical or lay, were often welcomed at the novitiate gates. There is a note from Bishop I)u Bourg to Father Van Quickenborne to the effect that Judge Lawless of St. Louis and his wife had expressed a desire to visit the novitiate and that it would he well to receive them with all due hospitality 1H Bishop Rosati was a frequent and welcome guest. On May 26, 1839, he ad- ministered confirmation in the Florissant church and then proceeded to the novitiate where he addressed its community in the domestic chapel. In December, 1843, Bishop Kenrick came to make a retreat. He cele- brated the community Mass on December 8, feast of the Immaculate Conception, and preached thereat on the great religious dogma com- memorated by the Church on that day* A program of compositions in prose and verse was arranged by the novices in honor of the dis- tinguished guest, who, during his stay at the novitiate, so the diarist is at pains to note, conducted himself in all things as one of the com- munity* The intent students of St. Louis University were sometimes taken on a brief visit to Florissant j but Father Roothaan disapproved of
ie Verhaegen to MeSherry, January 4* 1838, (B).
17 Van Anichc i De Nef, Floriasant, September i, 18x5, (A),
** Du Bourg i V^n Qaickenbome> May 10, J8fc6t (A).
6t>4 THE JESUITS OF THE MIDDLE UNITED STATES
the practice on account of the distractions it caused the novices. On occasion, however, the University students lodged for a while at the novitiate as during the cholera epidemic of 1833 and, it would appear, the summer vacations.19
§ 3. NOVITIATE BUILDINGS AND FARM
The earliest addition to the original cruciform group of log build- ings that dated from 1823 was made in 1828 when Father Van Quicken- borne began to build a frame structure meant to provide better accom- modations for the Indian boys.20 This unit was completed only in 1833. "The novitiate has also been improved by the plastering of the new frame building and kitchen," Father De Theux informed a correspon- dent j "the upper story will give a nice and roomy chapel, considering the number of those who are likely to frequent it. Besides the kitchen we shall have in the lower or basement story a fine refectory into which by means of a small window the dishes will pass warm and only at the proper time." 21
The structure described by Father De Theux, containing a refectory on the lower and a chapel on the upper floor, continued with the log buildings to serve the needs of the Jesuit community until the comple- tion in the summer of 1 849 of the massive rock structure which forms at present the center-piece of the novitiate group. The annual influx of novices increasing notably in the late thirties, it was determined to build a new chapel to meet the growing needs of the community. Ground for the purpose was dug on a site immediately adjoining on the north the site of the later "rock building" and the corner-stone of the projected edifice was laid August 17, i839.22 The chapel, however, never rose above the foundations, work on it being suspended as soon as the de- cision was reached to erect a substantial stone structure adequate, so it was hoped, for all the future needs of the novitiate. Work on the new building was begun June 12, i840.23 The walls were to be of hewn rock lined with two or three thicknesses of brick. This was to be manu-
i» "The boarders who on account of the too great distance or from other motives do not return to their paternal homes during the vacation, will be allowed to enjoy, during that time, the country air, at Florissant, a place well known for its wholesomeness and rural charms." Prospectus of St. Louis College issued by Father Van Quickenborne, October 20, 1829. (A).
20 "We are busy building for our poor Indians " Van Quickenborne to Rosati, January 2, i8z8. (B).
21 De Theux to McSherry, September 13, 1833. (B). The building referred to by De Theux was in later years used by the juniors as a villa or house of recre- ation. It was demolished in the nineties to make room for the "tertians' building."
**Hist.Dom S. Stan. (E). 28 Idem.
TRAINING THE PERSONNEL 605
factured on the novitiate premises. On July 21, 1840, Father De Vos, the rector, m presence of the assembled community, moulded the first brick. B> October 23, sixty thousand brick had been cut and the process of baking them began under the skilful direction of Peter Kindekens, a scholastic novice. While the bnck-makmg was in process, the Right Reverend Faubiere de Janson, Bishop of Nancy in France, was a guest at the novitiate. As the preparations then going forward for the new building were the chief topic of interest at the moment, the prelate did not fail to visit the scene of the brick-making, where he gave the enter- prise his episcopal blessing. The corner-stone of the new building was laid in 1844 by Father Smedts. The annalist for the period supplies these data.
All the stone had to bo blasted out of the solid rock at a considei able distance from the novitiate, hauled over well-nigh impassible roads and then cut and set in place. Steady rains fiom spring to autumn had swollen the creeks and washed out the loads. And yet, besides performing this labor, the brothers had to till the fields and gardens, clear the underbrush from land hitherto unworked and build an addition to the villa to accommodate the increasing numbet of subjects. Yet this year, thanks to the persevering labor of the brothers, the foundations of the new house rose above the ground. And this seemed all the more remarkable to Superiors, in view of the fact that owing to stagnant water and unwholesome air, the number of sick both among Ours and the slaves was so great that scarcely any were left to wait on them. The scholastics from St. Louis University coming here to spend the autumn holidays, as is their custom, had to return to St* Louis m the same conveyance that brought them out. Our people almost to a man were taken down with malignant fever**4
Work on the new building proceeded slowly enough and it was not until the midsummer of 1849, nmc years after ground was first broken, that it was ready for occupancy. Father Elet wrote of it with enthusiasm to the General, "The best building in the whole state of Missouri for solidity, convenience and elegance." 25 It was three stories
24 Lttteraf Annua^ 1842-1849* (A)*
-*In 184.3 thc Religious of the Sacred Heart offered to sell their convent in Florissant to the Jesuits, Some of the latter advised its purchase as the old novitiate was falling to pieces. Nota i Roothaan, June 16, 1843. (A A). "As to the Novitiate building the work proceeds slowly, it is true, but solidly. You would be very well satisfied with it, if you could see 5t The walls arc European — all in good stone; they will soon begin the third floor. So far it has cost little as all the work was done by Ours; but for the roof and interior we shall need means, which just now we do not possess." Smedts I Roothaan, September 29, 1846. (AA). "The novices . . . spent a very gloomy winter in the old novitiate building, the roof of which is decayed and no longer affords protection against the rain. With 1500 dollars or 8000 francs I can have the new building finished so as to make it habitable j but
606 THE JESUITS OF THE MIDDLE UNITED STATES
in height with a basement, and measured one hundred and twenty feet in length by forty in breadth. On July 29, 1849, Mass was celebrated for the first time in the chapel, which occupied the southern end of the first story and was dedicated to the Immaculate Heart of Mary and St Stanislaus Kostka. On August 3 the scholastics moved into their new quarters, and on August 4 the tearing down of the old log buddings was begun. The significance of the occasion did not escape the writer of the Annual Letters. "The old building, the cradle of the Society, built, as I said, by the hands of the pioneer Fathers, is now in great part de- molished and levelled to the ground. They have preserved a portion of it in everlasting memory of that remarkable enterprise and converted it into a chapel for the Negroes, where the latter receive instruction from one of our Fathers, who is charged with their spiritual care " The house thus left standing was the one -Van Quickenborne began to build in 1828. It served in later years as a chapel for the neighbors, dormitory, study-hall, and finally recreation-place for the juniors. It remained standing until the early nineties, when it was torn down to make room for the "tertians' building."
The new "rock building," to this day a conspicuous and impressive land-mark as it rises on a knoll at the western edge of the Florissant Valley, was to provide a home for the refugee Swiss and German scholastics, whose adventures have already been told. They spent the session, 1848-49, at St. Louis University, where they continued their philosophical and theological studies. During the session, 1849-1850, they were at Florissant, where the newlv built edifice at once assumed importance as the home of a scholasticate. The conferring of sacred or- ders now began to take place in the domestic chapel. Bishop Van de Velde of Chicago noted in his diary for August 16 and 17, 1849. "Or- dained Mr. John Meyer, Deacon, and went to Florissant, celebrated pontifically in the Chapel of St Stanislaus, near Florissant, and con- ferred Minor Orders on three Scholastics of the Society, and raised Rev. John Meyer to the Priesthood." Another entry in the Bishop's diary, dated July 27, 1850 "Celebrated Mass in the new Chapel of the Noviti- ate, gave confirmation to Edward Fansh, a convert from the University, and conferred Minor Orders on Messrs. Charles L Vertongen, Cor-
where shall I get them?" Elet a Roothaan, March 4, 1849. (AA). "Besides 6 rooms, each of them forty-five long and broad in proportion, 2 large dormitories, and the attic, which contains the clothes-room, there are 20 rooms, 8 of which are 20 [feet] long by 16 wide The building can lodge comfortably 50 novices and as many scholastics without mixing them up Two things are lacking here, a chapel 60 feet by 30, and a house of retreats of the same dimensions, but divided into three stones, each of which would have 5 rooms The two buildings would cost me 1 1,000 dollars," Elet a Roothaan, November 14, 1849,
},'tl
**&. '
*f.
II
r
Boudzeaux, SJ (1818-1885), mas- tor of novices at Florissant for twenty-three years*, 1857-1880.
The "Rock Building,11 St. Stanislaus Seminary, Florissant A dignified structure of fortress^likc solidity dating from the forties. Built of Missouri lime-stone from near-by quarries* it* walls being lined with thicknesses of brick made on the prem- ises by the hands of novices,
TRAINING THE PERSONNEL 607
nelius Daniel Swaggermakers [Swagemakers] and William Niederkorn, Scholastics of the Society of Jesus " Still a third entry, July 27, 1851 "In the course of the evening the Bishop returned to St. Louis with his companion, Rev. Father Busschotts, and next morning after Mass left for St. Stanislaus, near Florissant, where, on the same day he con- ferred the tonsure on Mr. Paul Limacher, of the Diocese of Chicago On Tuesday morning the Minor Orders were conferred on the same gentleman, after which Messrs. Emmanuel Costa, John Roes, John Verdin, Anthony Levisse and Ferdinand Coosemans, all of the Society of Jesus, together with Mr. Limacher, were ordained subdeacons. On Wednesday the MX gentlemen just mentioned were promoted to the order of Deaconship, and on Thursday, Feast of St. Ignatius, founder of the Society of Jesus, they were raised to the holy order of Priesthood. At a later hour, High Mass was sung by the Rev. P. J. Verhaegen, assisted by Rev. J. F. Van Assche, Deacon, Rev. A. Levisse, Sub-deacon, and Rev. F. Nussbaum, Master of Ceremonies." 2C
Father Van Quickenborne in his sanguine way used to look to the farm as the chief if not the only means of support of the novitiate com- munity. But at no time did the farm ever achieve this result. Other means of support had to be drawn upon. From the very meagre funds at their disposal Fathers Van do Velde and Eiet, when vice-provincials, annually assigned the novitiate the modest sum of a thousand dollars In 1850 Father De Smet, allowing only fifty dollars for each of the thirty-three novices, found that the novitiate needed an annual appro- priation of sixteen hundred and fifty dollars.27 It was, obviously, in an economic way a non-productive institution. The fathers in the parishes could look for support to their parishioners, as the professors in the colleges could look for their support to student-fees; but the novices as also the fathers and brothers having care of them had no such sources of maintenance. Yet a kindly Providence provided at all times the really necessary means of subsistence. In 1851 the Belgian M. De Boey left Father Roothaan a legacy of one hundred thousand francs or twenty thousand dollars, which the latter directed should be deposited with St. Louis University with an obligation on that institution of paying the novitiate annual interest on the sum at the rate of five per cent. For a period of years, however, half the resulting revenue or five hundred dollars went, by direction of the General, to Bishop Mi6ge. The De Boey legacy proved a welcome prop to the always precarious finances of the novitiate, a foundation in fact, as Father Boudreaux described it, though clearly it was very far from providing for the upkeep of the
** Diary of Bishop Van dt Veldt in McGovern, History of the Catholic Church in Cktcafto (Chicago, 1891), p, 153.
** De Smet a Roothaan, November I, 1850. (AA).
608 THE JESUITS OF THE MIDDLE UNITED STATES
house of probation. On occasion the inheritances, none of them very con- siderable, of members of the vice-province went to the novitiate, which thus received seventeen hundred dollars in 1 848 from Father Smedts's patrimony, as it was called, and nineteen hundred and seventy-one dollars in 1850 from Father Verhaegen's.28 In 1848 Bryan Mullanphy, mayor of St. Louis, in appreciation, as he declared in a Latin letter ad- dressed by him to the General, of the education received by him at Jesuit hands at St. Louis University and at Stonyhurst College in Eng- land, made a gift to Father Roothaan of a thousand dollars, which money the recipient bestowed on Father Elet, who in turn applied it to the novitiate.29 But occasional gifts of money, however helpful, by no means balanced the novitiate budget or relieved it of the neces- sity of looking to the procurator of the vice-province for aid in solving the problem of subsistence. In 1860 Father Boudreaux, the novitiate rector, wrote to Father Beckx. "So far the land we bought m 1853 [Le Pere farm] hasn't yielded us much, but it is to be hoped that in the course of time it will repay us for the loss we incurred in acquiring it. The produce of the farm does not suffice for the support of the com- munity. It was noticed that the biggest account was always the butcher's. For this reason we began about two years ago to raise stock and we succeeded all through the year 1859 m getting along without a butcher. On the other hand we had to sow less wheat in order to get pasturage 5 further, expense had to be incurred in buying the stock. But there is every ground to hope that we shall in the sequel do considerably better."30 Strangely enough, in 1869 Father Boudreaux reported to the General that the novitiate was then self-supporting, the means serving thereto being the farm, the Mass stipends received by the fathers of the community, and revenue from the grist-mill. This was apparently an exceptional state of affairs and one not generally met with m the subsequent history of the institution.31
28 Vice-province account-book (4-)*
29 B Mullanphy ad Roolhaan, October 13, 1848 (AA).
80 The La Pere farm, a few miles southwest of the novitiate, was acquired in 1853 for $8970 It was subsequently found a burden and disposed of. Boudreaux a Beckx, March 30, 1860. (AA)
81 Boudreaux a Beckx, November i, 1869 (AA) The grist-mill was an important adjunct of the novitiate farm In 1826 Father Van Quickenborne in- formed the Maryland superior that the lack of a mill was sorely felt at Florissant He was under the necessity of sending his corn and gram to a neighboring mill to be ground, which was inconvenient, not to say expensive Van Quickenborne ad Dzierozynski, October II, 1826 (B). The first novitiate mill was set up in 1831, in which year Brother De Meyer purchased two mill-stones in St Louis at a cost of thirty dollars Somewhat later than that date Father De Theux wrote to Madame Thiefry, superior of the Religious of the Sacred Heart in St Louis, regretting that he had no corn meal or bran to send her, as she had requested. ccWe can not grind
TRAINING THE PERSONNEL 609
The novitiate or seminary farm was located m the Common Fields of St. Ferdinand, which were laid off m long narrow rectangular strips running from the left bank of the Cold Water Creek (Riviere L'eau Froide) towards the Missouri River The Common Fields, a usual adjunct of the Creole settlements of the colonial period, took their name from the circumstance that though allotted to individuals out of the King's Domain, the> were enclosed by a public or common fence. This system, as exemplified m the seminary farm, elicited in 1826 this com- ment from Father Van Quickenborne "The farm is situated in the Common Fields of St. Ferdinand's, i.e , for one field containing the farms of eighteen individuals there is but one fence kept up m common by all. This is a wretched system, for the field being open very often until May, it is impossible to raise any grain. It is true that this year we have raised upwards of two hundred bushels of wheat, but if the hogs had not destroyed the wheat m the common field, the crop would have been double that quantity. If the farm therefore is to pay, it must be fenced in at once." 3a In 1831 the "big field," which included the seminary farm, was surrounded by a fence put up at the expense of the novitiate, the neighboring farmers or "landholders of the big field," paying the latter annually a small sum for the use of the fence. Open as it was to serious inconveniences, this system soon gave way to the present-day arrangement of private or individual fences.33
corn at present without stopping the ploughing which would be a serious injury to the field.*' A more elaborate milling outfit was installed m 1840, when Ira Todd and Son of St Lou us sold to the novitiate a pair of thnty-four-mch French burr mill-stones at a price of one hundred and ten dollm. The new stones were used for the first time on St, Stanislaus day, November 13, 1840 During the jear feubijtquent to that date, 3000 bushels of corn and wheat were ground, while for 1X42-1843 the number was ^758 (Account-book, St. Stanislaus Scmmaiy Ai chives ) The mill at thih period stood on the site of the present wine-house, power being furnished by o\en working a tread-null. The farmers of the neighbor- hood patiom/cd the mill and it was no unusual sight to see a line of boys on horseback with sacks of wheat and corn waiting their turn at the dooi About a fourth or a third of the corn and a sixth of the wheat was asked as the toll for grinding* A third mill, a large brick structuie with steam for power, was later on built in a hollow at some distance south of the community buildings and opened for Ube in April, 1865. To an inquiry of Father Boudreaux as to whether it was licit to buy wheat and giind it into flour to sell, Father Bcclac replied, January 14, 1872, that such procedure had about it "a semblance of trading," and hence was for- bidden to members of the Society. Jesuit legislation goes beyond general Church law in restraining member* of the order even from any "semblance of tiadmg (sptdes negoti&tlonif) ,w
** Van Quickenborne ad D'/Jerozynski, October n, 1826. (B).
*8 Garraghan^ Saint Ferdinand fe Florissant^ p* 34. Tke nucleus of the novi- tiate farm was a Spanish grant made about 1785 by Francois Dunegant, founder of Florissant, to Pierre Devaux,
6io THE JESUITS OF THE MIDDLE UNITED STATES
The novitiate farm was worked largely by slave-labor. The first group of middlewestern Jesuits came directly from Maryland, a state where negro slavery as a legally established institution was something recognized on all hands and taken quite for granted. Moreover, they found themselves on emigrating to the West in another slave-state, Missouri, where free-labor for the cultivation of farms was often diffi- cult to obtain.34 The Church of the apostolic age, it may here be recalled, did not adopt towards existing Roman slavery an attitude of outright condemnation, however much it may have been out of sym- pathy with it as an institution j it looked rather to the gradual emanci- pation of the slaves by a process extending over a wide range of time, In like manner in the United States in pre-Civil War days Negro slavery never came under the ban of the Catholic Church.35 Apart from the fact that slavery was not held by Catholics generally to be a variance m 3e with the law of nature, Negro slavery appeared to most of them to be so interwoven with the economic system of the country that any attempt to remove it must have seemed impracticable. A statement made by Bishop England in 1837 probably reflects the prevailing atti- tude of most of his coreligionists toward Negro slavery as an actual problem. "I have been asked by many a question which I may as well answer at once, viz . Whether I am friendly to the existence or con- tinuation of slavery? I am not, but I also see the impossibility of now abolishing it here. When it can and ought to be abolished is a question for the legislature and not for me." 3e
"The Catholic Church," says an historian in reference to the institu- tion particularly as it existed in Missouri, "considered slavery as a part of the patriarchal life of the old French settlements. ... [it] was the special guardian of the bondman." 37 The position of slaves owned by the clergy appears to have been more comfortable than the position of slaves in the hands of layfolk In Maryland m the colonial period the term "priest's slave" connoted a contented and well-cared for if not particularly efficient type of Negro, while in Missouri, according to the author just quoted, the Catholic clergy who held slaves "did not govern them very strictly." 38 When the British ships hovered along the Mary-
84 "White labor was not to be had in some counties and was scarce in all/* Harrison A. Trexler, Slavery m Mtssoutt (Baltimore, 1914), p. 54.
85 Catholic Encyclopedia, 14:39
86 The Works of the Right Rev. John England (Baltimore, 1849), 3-I9*. Cf. also RACES, 35 33^ * seq , John T. Gillard, S S J , The Catholic Chwch and the American Negro (Baltimore, 1929), pp. 10-30, "Bishop England on Do- mestic Slavery" in The Monthly (Chicago), 2'll8 (1865); Arnold Lunn, A Saint in the Slave Trade Peter Clover •, 158 1-1654 (London, 1935).
87 Trexler, of. cit , p. 86.
88 "A priest's negro is almost proverbial for one who is allowed to act without
TRAINING THE PERSONNEL 611
land coast during the War of the Revolution, large numbers of slaves on the adjoining plantations took occasion to desert to the invaders, but the "priests' slaves," preferred to remain with their masteis rather than seize the opportunity for freedom that came within their reach.39 That the Negro as well as the white man has a soul to save was the funda- mental fact that determined the relations between the Christian master and his slaves As early as 1749 Father George Hunter, a Maryland Jesuit, expressed the fact in these terms "Charity to negroes is due from all, particularly their masters. As they are members of Jesus Christ, redeemed by His precious blood, they are to be dealt with in a charitable, Christian, paternal manner, which is at the same time a great means to bring them to their duty to God and therefore to gain their souls." 10
The Jesuit plantations in Maryland had long been cultivated by slave labor and any other way of engaging in agriculture, at least on a considerable scale, must under the circumstances have seemed impracti- cable. Father Van Quickenborne on setting out from one slave-state, Maryland, to take over a farm in another slave-state, Missouri, was accordingly assigned six Negro slaves, these being the legal property of the corporation that controlled the Jesuit plantations in Maryland.41 As agent of this corporation, Father Adam Marshal], SJ , signed at Washington, D, C., under date of April 10, 1823, a deed of transfer which reads: "I hereby deliver up to Rev. Charles F. Van Quicken- borne the six following Negro slaves, (viz.) Tom and Polly, his wife, Moses and Nancy, his wife, Isaac and Succy, his wife, all of whom are the property of the above corporation. I also hereby appoint the Rev. Charles F- Van Quickenborne my Sub-Agent to govern and dispose of said slaves as he thinks proper, and to sell any or all of them to humane and Christian mastets who will purchase them for their own use, should they at any time become refractory, or their conduct grievously im-
controul." Words of Father John Cairoll in a controversial tract. Hughes, History of the Society of Jesus in North Amenta^ Colonial and Federal, Text, 2:565, Tiexler, ';/>. <*/.> 86. For an interesting discussion of slavery, especially as the system operated in Kentucky, cf. Augustus J* The*baud, S.J., Forty Years m the Unltel States of America 18^^1840 (United States Catholic Historical Society, New York, 1904), p. 6$ ft sty.
8* Hughes, op. clt^ Text, 2:565. However, some of the Florissant novitiate slaves seem to have deserted when the opportunity came.
40 Hughes, of. <*>., Text, 2:559.
41 Article 4 of the concordat between the Jesuit superior, Father Charles Neale, and Bishop Du Bourg (supra, Chap. II, § 4), provides for the transfer to Florissant of "at least four or five negroes to be employed in preparing and providing the additional buildings that may be found necessary and in cultivating the land of the above mentioned farm."
612 THE JESUITS OF THE MIDDLE UNITED STATES
moral " 42 One curious result of this removal of the six Negroes from White Marsh was that it elicited a protest, as being an unwarranted depreciation of that estate, from Archbishop Marechal of Baltimore. This protest was embodied in a report which the Archbishop addressed to the Congregation of the Propaganda in Rome detailing the grounds on which he laid claim to the White Marsh property.43 The six slaves had, it is obvious, a commercial value, reckoned by Father Van Quicken- borne at about two thousand dollars 44
Down to the period of the Civil War the Negro slaves or, as they were generally called, the blacks, were familiar figures on the Florissant farm.45 Their numbers, except through natural increase, grew but little. In 1829 there were still the three adult male Negroes from Maryland, Tom, Isaac and Moses, with a later accession, Protus, each with his family.46 Still later accessions were Jack and Augustine with their families In 1859 the Negroes totalled twenty, namely seven men, two women, two boys and nine girls. Brother Kenny, the novitiate farmer, penned in his diary an epitaph for Moses, who died March 2,6, 1862 "Good and faithful servant old Moses, who died yesterday evening, aged about 85 years." 4T Big Peter was bought by Father De Theux at St. Charles in 1832 from Louis Barada, the price paid being five hun- dred and thirteen dollars. He proved a source of annoyance to the other Negroes at the novitiate and m 1849 was sent Wlt^ his W1^e to St. Joseph's College, Bardstown, Ky. Here, within a few weeks of his
42 Hughes, of at, Doc, 2 1024..
48 Idem, 2 521.
44 Van Qmckenborne to Du Bourg, September 4, 1825 (B)
46 "The missionaries seem to have avoided the term Slave * The namcb used were 'servant men,5 'servant women/ 'the family/ 'creatures/ 'labourers,' 'ne- groes'." Hughes, op. wt , Text, 2^560 This was the eighteenth-century Mar/- land practice. Father Van Quickenborne almost invariably used the teim "negroes." "Servants" occurs in Father De Theux's correspondence, in Brother Kenny's Diary are found the terms 'blacks/ 'servants' and also 'slaves '
46 Protus was still to be seen around the novitiate premises in the early seventies.
47 Brother Kenny's Diary. (D) An incident in connection with Moses comes to light m some early correspondence Father Dzierozynski being at Florissant in 1827 gave Moses permission to visit his family m Maryland, at least Moses so declared Van Quickenborne, to absure himself, wrote to Dzierozynski inquiring whether such permission had actually been granted. If so, then he would go along with Moses, for he would be afraid to let him travel alone, not because he would attempt to run away, but because "wicked men" were said to be on the lookout for slaves to kidnap and liberate them Moses's little affair hung fire for some years In 1831 Father De Theux made exactly the same inquiry to Father Dzierozynski in regard to Moses's permission to travel to Maryland. He is a good fellow, this Moses, Father De Theux writes, but he prefers to have his word in the matter corroborated by the superior's. Whether the Negro ever succeeded in visiting the East is not on record De Theux to Dzierozynski, October u, 1831. (B).
TRAINING THE PERSONNEL 613
arrival, he appears to have been sold, the money thus obtained being emplojed to purchase a wife for Augustine, another novitiate Negro. Isaac had a son, Little Peter, so-called to distinguish him from Big Peter Little Peter vias destined to be the last survivor of the Negro colon} at the iarm, lodging at the novitiate up to within a short time of hib death, \\hich occurred as late as 1907 In the dark daj/s of the Ciul War he \\ab Brother Kenny's chief aid in working the farm. The Brother's diarj for September ro, 1862, has an entry that tells its own tale "Ram Nothing a doing. Hands all scattered on account of the war or sick. Only Peter to work." Peter's honesty was proof against all temptation and no sum of money was too great to entrust to him for deliver} in St Louis He was a deeply religious man, who knew his Imitation of C/;;/j/. He was married in January, 1863, to a Negress named Margaret, purchased by the novitiate at an outlay of eight hun- dred dollars tH Strangely enough, the date of the purchase, Decem- ber 27, 1862, followed b> some months President Lincoln's Emancipa- tion Proclamation; but slavery in Missouri was not abolished until 1865 and this onlj by act of the state legislature, the Emancipation Proclama- tion not having affected the status of slavery in such states as remained m the Union.
While the purchase of slaves to meet actual needs was not dis- countenanced, the sale of them was forbidden by the Jesuit superiors except under circumstances of peculiar gravity. Father Dzierozynski was especially insistent on this point and, as a result of certain com- plaints lodged against Father Van Quickenborne, required him to solicit his express permission before disposing of any slaves belonging to the mission. At the same time, the purchase of more slaves seemed the natural step to take when there was need of additional help.40 In June, 1824, Van Quickenborne offered the Maryland superior six hundred dollars for Jack and Sally with their child, these being a White Marsh
4h Iftst. Dvm, S. Stan. (K).
40 Van QuUfcenborne ad D/iero'/,ynski, June $, 1824. (B)» Father Dziero- zymki put the question to the General, Fathci Fortjs, February 12, 1822, whether it was lawful to «?11 Negro slaves "who are truly their masters1 bondmen and are sold without any scruple even In Catholics and other pious people in this country. I very humbly ask for a solution of this difficulty, the supposition of course being that the seller is under some grave necessity and that the individual sold be not placed in a worse condition especially as regards religion; it is allowed by the government and U an old practice even with the bishops/' (AA), What answer, if any, Father Fortis returned to this query is not available; but Father Roothaan (<r. 1832) wrote (in Latin) in his own hand on the margin of a document, apparently in answer to a similar question as to whether slaves might be sold: "Such a* are scitndalmi* and immoral, yea — after admonitions and corrections— these can be sold in case they are incorrigible, but only if the thing can be done safely and m every case only to Catholic masters* (AA).'*
6i4 THE JESUITS OF THE MIDDLE UNITED STATES
family of Negroes. Of the Negroes then at Florissant, one woman was sick, another had a young child and could not leave the house, while a third did the washing. One of the three adult male Negroes was em- ployed on the new building, leaving only two to obtain food for fifteen persons50 Again, in 1827 the Florissant superior petitioned Father Dzierozynski to have Mr. Notley Young of Prince George County, Maryland, buy a family of Catholic Negroes and send them by steam- boat to St. Louis, care of "[Rev.] Mr Saulmer." "[He] will advise me at once of their arrival. I shall pay all expenses. Your Reverence ought to reflect that we need them most urgently. Two of our men and two of our women are old and cannot perform heavy labor. I think only the annual first plowing of our land." 51 None of these efforts of the Florissant superior to obtain additional blacks from Maryland were successful. Only in 1829 did he succeed in obtaining a Negro family from the East, and this family he personally conducted from Maryland to Missouri. Later, in 1834, Father De Theux is found inquiring of Father McSherry whether he may have Ned the blacksmith, his wife and two or three of the smaller children and at what price. "We do not stand in need of additional slaves unless we make a new establishment either among the whites or the Indians." 52
Most of the Jesuit houses in Missouri before the Civil War appear to have made use of slave labor at one time or another. In 1835 there were two Negroes attached to the St. Charles residence. When that house lost by death a Negress valued at two hundred dollars Father De Theux offered to secure another in her place with a gift of money then in his hands In 1846 Molly, a Negress, was assigned to the residence in Florissant. St. Louis College at its opening in 1829 was given two Negroes, Ned and Tom, from the novitiate farm. The serv- ices of Ned as cook and Tom as overseer of the hired help were rated highly by the college authorities. By 1847 the slaves had disappeared from all the houses of the Missouri Vice-province, the novitiate alone continuing to possess any and this mainly on account of the farm. At the Bardstown college, which was acquired by the Jesuits m 1848, slaves were employed down to 1856, when they were replaced by hired labor*
We may now cast a glance at the system of slave labor as it worked itself out on the novitiate farm.53 First, the blacks, as the property before the law of their legal owners, were not free to choose the kind
50 Van Quickenborne to Dzierozynski, 1826. (B).
61 Van Quickenborne to Dzierozynski, November 7, 1827. (B).
52 De Theux to McSherry, December 5, 1834. (B). Mary, a Negress, was purchased by the novitiate m 1859 for $603,
58 The following paragraphs embody data found in account-books and other contemporary material in the novitiate archives.
TRAINING THE PERSONNEL 615
or place or duration of their labor. They were subject to certain regula- tions, the violation of which was punished by docking their time of leisure or recreation. They were to begin work promptly at five o'clock in the morning and were not to stop working before "the blowing of the horn13 in the evening They might not make use of a horse for them- selves \\ithout permission except to plough their gardens, nor might the} sow or plant any kind of grain, though they might raise vegetables such as potatoes, turnips, etc. None were to be away from the premises after hours, i e , after nine o'clock at night without leave. On the other hand, they could earn money of their own by working overtime or per- forming certain tasks, and this money they might spend m buying extra victuals or in other ways. Thus, for breaking a colt or yoke of oxen, they received a dollar. The novitiate account-books contain numerous entries like the following
1 8 $8 M*uch 7 To Little Peter for partridge
" " Isaac foi partridge and two rabbits 68
" " Big Peter for cabbage 2 oo
" " Nancy for making hay m her own time 27//2
1839 Dec. 6 " Little Peter for making a bioom 12 " Sept. 10 " Succy for raising poultry 2.00
1840 June " Moses for working for the house i.oo
" Peter and Geep for hauling hay in their own
time .25
On four or five of the great Church feasts, as Christmas, Epiphany, Easter, Whitsunday and the Assumption, the blacks were given, as a contemporary record expresses it, "a little treat." This amounted in money-value to about twenty-five cents for each adult. Thus at Easter, 1836, Jack's family received three chickens, nine Ibb. of sugar, a gallon of cider and twenty-five eggs, the cost of the whole being about a dollar and a half. The other families received in proportion.
As to clothes, the Negroes made what they wore, cloth being fur- nished to them for the purpose. For winter use, shirts were of cotton Osnaburg lined with brown domestic, coats of blue pilot-cloth and trousers of so-called Negro cloth. In summer, shirts were either of cotton Osnaburg or simply of brown domestic. On special occasions an extra grunt of cloth was made. Thus in 1836, when Little Peter and Gcep received their first holy communion, they were each given, be- sides a cap, two yards of cloth for pantaloons, two and a half for jackets and half a yard for vesting. Blankets were allotted every three or four years. In 1848 Jack's family received five, Protus's four, Isaac's two and Moses's one-
Most of the farm-labor was performed by the male-blacks, the
616 THE JESUITS OF THE MIDDLE UNITED STATES
women-folk having their household work and garden-patches to attend to. On occasion the latter were called upon to render direct service to the Jesuit community, as when Succy was called in on some feast-day to prepare the community dinner or Sally made a cassock for one of the fathers, for which she received a dollar. A Negro was frequently sent to St. Louis on horseback to carry messages and bring back such mer- chandise as he could find room for m his saddlebags The Negro mes- sengers, however, even the best of them, often failed, not on the score of honesty, but of competence. "I must also desire your Reverence," wrote De Theux to a correspondent in St Louis, "to communicate with me in writing as the servants are apt to misunderstand and even to forget" Father Elet, procurator at St. Louis College in 1829, found that the house Negro whom he was required to employ as buyer, "sel- dom made purchases at a medium price and hardly ever at the lowest price." And Father Verhaegen, rector of St. Louis College, wrote in 1 834. that "greater economy would result if the duties of Brothers were not performed by the slaves, whom one can scarcely trust." 54
The slaves brought from Maryland appear to have been orderly and well-behaved. In 1847 complaint was made to Father Roothaan about alleged misbehavior on the part of the novitiate blacks. Father Van de Velde insisted m reply that the report was without foundation. "For a long time none of them have been living in this college [St. Louis] or m any other house except the Novitiate and these are well-instructed and well-behaved, so as to be patterns for others by their industry, piety and regularity." 55 Yet the management of the blacks was not always without its difficulties. At the beginning of 1856 the Bardstown Jesuits ceased to employ Negro help, male or female, as the Negroes "had always been a source of trouble." 5fl Even at the novitiate discontent among the Negroes was not unknown. In 1856 it was determined to allow some of the disaffected ones among them to hire out to other mas- ters on condition that they behaved themselves properly and indemni- fied the novitiate by the payment of a stipulated monthly sum.
On the whole the bondmen attached to the novitiate and other houses of the vice-province would seem to have had no ground for com- plaint on the score of unfair treatment. When in 1827 Father Dzie- rozynski was making the visitation of Florissant, it was brought to his notice that the Negroes were without suitable living-quarters 5 he gave orders at once that the need be supplied. In the early thirties one Brown, a superannuated slave at St, Louis College, filed complaint with the
64 Elet ad Roothaan, January 12, 1829, Verhaegen ad Roothaan, January 20, 1834 (AA).
ceVan de Velde a Roothaan, August 14, 1847 (AA). 86 Coosemans a Beckx, February i, 1856. (AA).
TRAINING THE PERSONNEL 617
Maryland superior that the lodging provided him was highly uncom- fortable and he offered to purchase his freedom for seventy-five dollars, "all these old bones are worth," as he wrote pathetically.57 But cases like this were rare. "The Negroes are perfectly cared for, soul and body," wrote Father Murphy in i85i.58 In 1860, just before the slave system fell to pieces, Father Isidore Boudreaux, the Florissant rector, informed the General "We have a house for our Negroes and work- men. Each Negro family has a separate apartment. We have some thirty Negroes, men, women, children and old people. All do not stay here, there are some in St. Louis and other places who send us a certain sum every month 5 the rest of what they earn is their own. I am sometimes apprehensive about our slaves and doubt whether we always fulfill our duties in their regard." 59
At the novitiate, whatever is to be said of Missouri in general in this regard, slavery as an economic institution failed to justify itself. Father Arnoudt, author of the devotional classic, The Imitation of the Sacred Heart) who was interested in ministerial work on behalf of the Negroes, looked upon the system as an obvious failure.00 Brother Matthew Smith, who at one time had been a slave-overseer on his brother's plantation in South Carolina and as an assistant to Brother Kenny dealt much with the blacks on the novitiate farm, while disposed to look kindly on the system as conducted thereon, admitted it never- theless to have been expensive and troublesome. The blacks with their wives and children had to be clothed and fed and they had to be pro- vided for m sickness and old age. Back in Maryland the Jesuit brother, Joseph Moberly, had characterized the system in highly uncomph-
CT Father Van Quickenborne was sometimes charged by his associates with treat- ing the slaves harshly. On one occasion m 1830 after an unpleasant incident on the farm he ordered four of the slaves put on a wagon and taken to St. Louis where they were to be imprisoned and then sold 5 but on then way to the city Brother De Meyer prevailed upon them to agree to return to the novitiate and "ask Father Van Quickcnborne's pardon." De Theux ad Roothaan, January 1 6, 1831. (AA).
fis Murphy a Roothaan, October 8, 1851. (AA). Cf. also Father Kcnncy's "Memorial," Florissant, 1832. "The Visitor takes this occasion of recording the satisfaction which he experienced and the edification which he received on witnessing in each of our houses of the Missouri, the good-conduct, industry and Christian piety of all the coloured servants of both sexes. He considers that aa a matter of credit to our Fathers and of much edification to the faithful m general; and it is the more appreciated by the Visitor as our houses of the Missouri are the only ones where no complaints have been made of the slaves. To preserve so great a good he exhorts the fathers to preserve everywhere the same paternal and yet vigilant conduct towards those creatures whose happiness here and here- after 80 much depends on the treatment they receive from their Masters,*' (E).
w Boudreaux I Becfcx, March 30, 1860. (AA),
*° Reminiscences of Brother Matthew Smith, SJ. (A).
618 THE JESUITS OF THE MIDDLE UNITED STATES
mentary terms "In this life they [the masters] are impoverished by keeping slaves, their lives are filled with cares and vexations, their prospects of happiness are marred, and when they die, they lose all forever. Who then would possess a slave?" 61 The Maryland provincial, Father McSheny, presumably because he realized the economic weak- ness of slavery, advised Father Verhaegen in 1836 to work the newly acquired College Farm in St Louis with white labor as the more profitable plan, advice which the recipient put into effect.62
The question what to do with the slaves, keep them or get rid of them, exercised the wits of the fathers not a little. Father Van de Velde wrote in 1845: "Political agitation over the abolition of slavery has given rise to a fanatical faction and many slaves in this state of Missouri either escape of their own accord into free states or are secretly abducted. Citizens here and there, not to be exposed to lawsuits and expense, are selling their slaves into other states at a safe distance from the free states, for between us and the free state of Illinois the only thing inter- vening is the Mississippi river. Many of Ours are of the opinion that it would be expedient to sell our slaves to Catholic owners in Louisiana or some other state." 63
Interesting views on the question were expressed in 1854 by Father Messea, minister for some months at Florissant. He believed the no- vitiate farm could be worked more profitably by an American or Ger- man fanner with slave-labor than with hired help, but the Jesuits could not make the farm more productive than it was at the moment, chiefly for the reason that they could not "conscientiously get out of the slaves all the advantage which an American would get." But if it was unprofit- able to work the farm with slaves, why not get rid of them and employ day-laborers ? iCWe should lose more than we gained. We should de- prive ourselves of servants who are good and faithful Christians, (though others may think differently in the matter), and whom we can manage as we please in order to take [in their place] others who would
61 Hughes, of ut , Text, 2.565.
62McSherry to Verhaegen, September 22, 1836. (B) Father Verhaegen had previously asked McSherry (June 25, 1836) to procure him some slaves in Maryland.
68 Van de Velde a Roothaan, April 16, 1845. (AA). In this same letter Van de Velde referred to the General the case of two female slaves married to Negroes belonging to other masters. They lived accordingly separated from their husbands and it was feared they would attempt to join the latter and escape with them and their children from Missouri. Father Roothaan left the matter to be deter- mined by Van de Velde himself. "With regard to the servants let your Reverence decide as prudence and charity will suggest. Certainly it should be seen to that they are not separated from their husbands or incur any other risk to their salva- tion." Roothaan a Van de Velde, June 24, 1845. (AA).
TRAINING THE PERSONNEL 619
leave us at the first notion that came into their heads." Besides, the washing and mending were being done by the female slaves, and the expense for the day-laborers would be greater than the income from the capital obtained through sale of the slaves. "In fine, whatever ad- vantage the sale of the slaves would bring, I do not think we could in conscience sell slaves who do not deserve it for the little pecuniary advantage that might perhaps be derived." On the same day that Father Messea penned this letter to Father Beckx, Brother Kenny, manager of the Florissant farm, chanced to be in St. Louis and was questioned by Messea as to the slaves. "The slaves," said the brother, "were never in a better state as regards their religious duties than at present. I do not deny that our slaves are not as industrious or diligent as those of our neighbors owing to our indulgence towards them and that our neighbors blame us for being excessively kind and indulgent masters." ct ,
In 1859 Father Boudreaux assured the General that most of the slaves at the novitiate did not earn their own living, being women or children or superannuated. There were, in addition to the slaves, four hired workmen 5 more were needed but no money was at hand for pay- ing their wages. Three years later Father Murphy put on record the final verdict of the Jesuits of Missouri on the system of involuntary servitude in which by the pressure of circumstances and despite them- selves they had become involved: "There are no abolitionists in this state who, as is the case elsewhere, demand that the slaves be freed right away and without recompense. But there are not a few Emancipationists, who want them redeemed at full expense. Slave-holders would perhaps agree to this if the slaves on being emancipated could move away from here, but they are thrust back by the neighboring states. We should willingly send away our twenty-four slaves of both sexes and all ages if the law allowed, for they are a detriment and a burden," C5
The Jesuit slave-owners of Missouri had no regrets, one may be sure, on seeing "the peculiar institution," definitely pass away. Economic necessity alone had made them a party to it and they welcomed a state of things in which such necessity no longer made itself felt. In the end the Civil War gave the death blow to slavery, which was becoming extinct in Missouri even before its formal abolition by the state legisla-
** Messea I Roothaan, August 17, 1854. (AA).
*• Murphy i Bcckx, June, x86a. Just what law, federal or state, forbade the manumission of slaves, does not appear. Trcxler (of, <?*/., p, 65), discussing the question whether slavery in Missouri was economically worth while, declares the evidence to be too conflicting to warrant one in drawing conclusions either way. "After the Civil War the advantages of free labor were realized, but not in slavery days/' On the status of slavery in Missouri at the close of the Civil War cf . Earl J* Nelson, "Slavery in Missouri," 5n Missouri Historical Review^ 28:260-274
620 THE JESUITS OF THE MIDDLE UNITED STATES
ture in 1865. An entry in the novitiate diary, April 30, 1864, is sig- nificant: "Some of the brothers rise at four o'clock ; workmen are scarce and the slaves are leaving us." When even the novitiate bondmen pre- ferred freedom to the company of their indulgent masters, it was plain that the system, independently of the attacks made upon it from with- out, could not endure.
§ 4. THE JUNIORATE
The Jesuit noviceship is followed by a period of literary training designated as the jumorate and generally lasting at least two years. The name derives from that of the junior scholastics, the younger mem- bers of the order fresh from the two-year probationary trial and bound by the customary religious vows, for whom as a distinct group m the Society special legislation began under Acquaviva in the Sixth General Congregation (1608). The staple of instruction in the juniorate is litera- ture, classical and vernacular, the junior compasses his own develop- ment along the lines of general culture, mostly of a humanistic type, and at the same time equips himself for the coming duties of the class- room. As was the case with other stages of Jesuit training, the proper organization of the juniorate on the plan laid down by the Institute was a matter of slow growth in the vice-province of Missouri.
As early as September 9, 1841, Father Roothaan had written to Father Verhaegen. "It is to be desired that Rhetoric be taught at the novitiate according to old-time usage and that the Juniors be applied to it directly they have pronounced their vows. They thus remain the longer under the shadow of the novitiate and become, as a consequence, better grounded. If any of the second-year novices are found to give satisfaction to their master in all respects, they may, with the Pro- vincial's dispensation, study Rhetoric with the others." 66
Father Roothaan was not content with an empty expression of solicitude for the studies of the younger Missouri members; he secured for them the services of four professors, two of belles-lettres and two of philosophy and theology. These were Fathers Di Maria and Nota of the province of Naples and Fathers Parrondo and Irisarn of the prov- ince of Spain. The Neapolitan fathers destined by Father Roothaan for the projected juniorate at Florissant were not to be subject to recall by their provincial unless for reasons of health j the Spanish fathers were merely lent and that for a term of only three years.67 Fathers Nota and Di Maria with the coadjutor-brothers, Romano and Lincetti, also from Naples, arrived at St. Louis University December 21, 1841.
08 Roothaan ad Verhaegen, September 9, 1841. (AA). 67 Roothaan ad Verhaegen, September 23, 1841. (AA).
TRAINING THE PERSONNEL 621
Father Nota proceeded at once to the novitiate, where it had been planned to open the class of rhetoric some time previous to his arrival $ but his tardy coming, together with the circumstance that the novices had not as yet made the prescribed retreat of thirty days, necessitated delay with the result that the class of rhetoric was actually begun only on January 24, 1 842 68 It was made up entirely of novices of the second year so that Father Roothaan's desire for a juniorate in the proper sense of the term, what Father Murphy was to call a juniorate en regie, was not yet realized. But the General had the matter very much at heart, as he wrote again to the vice-provincial July 12, 1842, enjoining not only that the novices were not to be withdrawn from the noviceship before the end of the biennium or two-year period of probation, but also that when that moment came they were not to be employed in the colleges "before finishing the juniorate, as it is called." 60
Father Roothaan's wishes, however, did not create a juniorate. Circumstances still stood in the way and some years were to pass before its actual inception. Father Gleizal, master of novices, reported in 1849 that both scholastic- and coadjutor-novices were being withdrawn from the novitiate before the expiration of the bienmum. "Of the fourteen novice-brothers one is at St. Charles, another in Cincinnati, still another in St Louis." 70 The turn of the tide came with the administration of Father Murphy. A normally trained Jesuit himself, he was keen for the scholastic training of the younger members of the vice-province. With him the juniorate made an actual beginning. "We think we have done wonders this year (1852-1853) m finally beginning the juniorate. Shall we be able to continue 5t?" 71 It was a misgiving the vice-provincial
Dom. S. Stoat. (E)«
n0 According to contemporary registers there would seem to have been no juniorate properly so-called in Father Nota's time. The scholastics referred to in the following account as being taught by Nota were probably second-year novices "The novices, on the completion of the biennium, were being sent to the colleges* But when at last the need of their pursuing their studies was realized, the Juniorate was established. Accordingly, Fathers Nota and Zerbinatti took in hand the in- struction of 5 scholastics, on the plan usually followed in Rome, Father Zerbinatti was first made Superior of the scholastics but, on his being assigned to the Rocky Mountains* Father Nota discharged with repute for efficiency and virtue the duties both of Minister and Professor of the Juniors and Socms to the Master of Novices. He was sent eventually to the residence at St. Charles." Ms. memorandum. (A).
70GleifcaI a Roothaan, September i, 1849, (AA).
n Murphy 2, Roothaan, April I, 1853* (AA). Murphy had written to the Gen- eral a year before: "The novices Konig (*7 years), Noguez (29 years), Galvin (19), McGill fa years), all very solid [in virtue] and fairly good humanists under Father Arnoudt'a direction will finish their two years about the time classes resume* May I diflpoae of them [in the colleges] and in this way manage to have the same number of elderly scholastics [in the colleges] go on to their studies? I
622 THE JESUITS OF THE MIDDLE UNITED STATES
might well entertain. When in 1856 the members of the Swiss province temporarily attached to Missouri were being recalled to Europe, Father Gleizal became fearful lest the loss of their services might bring with it the suspension of the jumorate. Then one would have to do with the scholastics "as was formerly done with the others, namely, throw them into teaching without making them pass through the jumorate. We neglect the jumorate after the novitiate as we do the last [third] pro- bation." 72 As a matter of fact, from Father Murphy's time on the jumorate was steadily maintained except for the period 1858-60, though not a few scholastics were permitted to slip through from novitiate to the colleges without sharing its benefits. The Visitor, Father Soprams, was insistent that so critical a stage of training be not neglected. "It is quite necessary," he declared in 1860, "that the young men on complet- ing the noviceship be held for the study of literature and eloquence. I think this is a principle on which the very welfare of this vice-province depends." He expressed himself again on the subject m 1862: "The few who enter are generally so backward in their studies that not a few years are required if they wish to be trained according to the norm of the Institute." 73 The stimulus that came from the presence of Father Soprams in the vice-province soon made itself felt. "The Jumorate of St. Stanislaus," Father Coosemans was happy to inform the General in August, 1863, "is in a flourishing state. Those engaged in it give us much hope for the future." 74 Examinations, in which all the juniors met with success, are recorded for July, 1864 Two years later Coose- mans was again able to report favorably to the Father General: "The Jumorate proceeds very well under the direction of Father Coppens, who seems to possess all the qualities which his position calls for." 75
When the jumorate started on its career in the scholastic year 1852- 1853, rt had as lts only professor the Belgian, Father Peter Arnoudt, a man of refined literary taste, who had to his credit the authorship of the well-known classic of devotional literature, The Imitation of the Sacred Heart. He was a Greek scholar of merit, a distinction all the more noteworthy in a day when proficiency in the language of ancient Hellas was less common in the vice-province than it subsequently be- came. A minister of the novitiate at this period, Father Messea, paid him this tribute. "Father Arnoudt is a holy man, exceedingly exact in
make this request as there was question of a juniorate after the novitiate.'* Murphy a Roothaan, April 13, 1852.
72 Gleizal a Beckx, October 25, 1856. (AA)
73 Soprams a Beckx, September 20, 1862 (AA).
74 Coosemans a Beckx, August 18, 1863 (AA).
75 Coosemans a Beckx, February 20, 1866 (AA). June 3, 1867, the provincial consultors voted that examinations be made a feature of the juniorate program.
TRAINING THE PERSONNEL 623
regular observance and exemplary in conduct." 76 But more or less per- sistent ill-health impaired his efficiency and he died at fifty-four. In 1856 Father Joseph Fastre succeeded him as professor of rhetoric at Floris- sant, the conventional label under which the bulk of jumorate studies was described. Like his predecessor Fastre had a flair for literature. As so many others of his Belgian countrymen in the vice-province, he came to write English with idiomatic propriety and ease. This mastery of the vernacular he put to account in an English rendering of Father Ar- noudt's devotional book, which first appeared in a Latin version. Follow- ing Fastre in the single professorship maintained on behalf of the juniors were Fathers Ignatius Panken, John F. Diels, Joseph Keller, and William Stack Murphy, the last-named being thus engaged imme- diately after his retirement from the office of vice-provincial m 1862. The scholastic year 1865-1866 saw Father Charles Coppens directing the jumorate, a post he retained for ten years Under him the humanis- tic training of the scholastics at length took on something like per- manence and proper organization. He was m a sense the creator of the juniorate. Alien though he was, for he was a native son of Flanders, he came to speak and write the language of his adopted country with obvious success. Of this mastery of English he gave evidence in the compilation of two excellent manuals, An Introduction to English Rhe- toric and Oratorical Composition. The ideal of rhetoric which they embody is the aristocratic and now old-fashioned one of Hugh Blair and his school, which saw in this subject of the curriculum the art of refined and elegant expression. Our more democratic age conceives of rhetoric as a device or set of devices making for expression that is above every- thing else effective. Effectiveness, not elegance, is the watchword of the new rhetoric. Yet Father Coppens's books, though they echo a departed tradition in the pedagogy of English, are still found by not a few teachers to be of excellent service in the class-room.77
The juniorate staff was later reenforced by additional professors and is at this writing (1937) organized as the Normal Department of St. Louis University.
§ 5. THE SCHOLASTICATE
Like other elements in the Jesuit organization in the West the scholasttcate developed slowly and by degrees, A Jesuit scholasticate, it may be explained here, is a seminary m which the younger members
"Messea a Bcckx, February 17, 1854. (AA).
77 Charles Coppens, SJ., Practical Introduction to English Rhetoric (New York, 1886) ; Art of Oratorical Composition based, upon the Precepts and Models of the Old Masters (New York, 1886). There is a sketch of Father Coppens in the Dictionary of American Biography, 4:432.
624 THE JESUITS OF THE MIDDLE UNITED STATES
of the order pursue their studies in philosophy and theology. The first appearance of such an institution in the West was at Florissant, where the novice group from White Marsh, after taking their first vows in the autumn of 1823, began at once the study of philosophy. A year later a class in theology was organized, with Messrs, Verhaegen and Elet, not yet ordained, as professors of dogma and Father Van Quickenborne as professor of moral theology. In the fall of 1825 Father De Theux arrived from the East to take in hand the class in dogma. This proto- scholasticate may be said to have been discontinued at the end of 1827 when the divinity students, all priests by that time, underwent their final examinations in theology. From 1829 to 1834 the mission registers make no mention of a professor of theology. Father Kenney's Memorial of 1832 has only this to say of the studies of the scholastics. "The good of this mission imperatively demands that those who have not yet made their degree be not detained in any occupation that will prevent the necessary preparation. The completion of his theology is, however, conceived to be quite reconcilable with the office of minister, and per- haps (if such duty be absolutely necessary), with a class that will not occupy more than one hour a day and will require little previous study on his part."
For several years subsequent to 1827 there was not a sufficient number of scholastics in the West to warrant a class of philosophy or theology on their behalf. To afford the necessary guidance to the one or other of the group who chanced to be ready for the prosecution of his studies, as in the case of Mr. Van Sweevelt, whom Father Kenney mentions by name m his Memorial, one of the St. Louis University fathers, beginning with 1835, was named professor of moral and dog- matic theology. Thus, m that year Father Verhaegen, rector of the university, was lecturer on moral theology. On becoming superior of the mission in 1836 he was succeeded in his professorship by Father Van de Velde, who appears in the mission register for 1837 as professor of dogmatic and moral theology. Communicating with Father Verhaegen in 1836 Father Roothaan touched on the subject of the scholasticate:
I desire your Reverence not to take upon yourself any teaching duties whatever, for you have enough and more than enough to keep you busy. You will not be at a loss to find some who are competent to teach Ours Theology and Philosophy, e g Fathers Elet and Van de Velde. As to where the scholasticate ought to be fixed, I am at a loss to say; but if it be started m St. Louis College, your Reverence will see to it that neither professors nor students suffer annoyance in their studies Be convinced that the welfare of the Mission is altogether bound up with the proper formation of its mem- bers Only have patience and in a few years things will run in a smoother course and all the more so that we have taken pains to lay a solid foundation.
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I should gladly send a man to tram your scholastics, but we are besieged on all hands by so many petitions, and so much needs to be done in the European provinces that I cannot think of any one to assign you.78
The question of a location for the scholasticate was finally settled in favor of St. Louis University, where in the session 1837-1838 a class in divinity was conducted for the first time. "Changes1 Changes' Changes1" Father Verhaegen exclaims in a letter to a Jesuit friend. "I am at the noviceship and Father De Theux is stationed at the Col- lege. The change is owing to a letter which I recently received from head-quarters. The scholasticate must be formed and good Father De Theux presides over it and teaches Divinity. I feel that our Very Rev. Father is determined to go ahead and make us follow him. Deo Gratias." 70 The faculty of this second scholasticate in the West in- cluded, m addition to Father De Theux, Father Carrell, lecturer on metaphysics, and Father Van Sweevelt, lecturer on physics and mathe- matics. The scholastics following the courses, namely, Emig, Druyts, Van den Eycken, Verheyden and Duennck, were all at the same time engaged as teachers in the University. In the session 1838-1839 there was, besides a class of second-year theologians, a group of four making a first year in philosophy. In the session 1839-1840 Father Mignard from Grand Coteau College, Louisiana, replaced Father De Theux as prefect of higher studies in the University. That same year there was a class of theology of the third year and two of philosophy, each, how- ever, of the classes having only two members. Thus, a group of scholas- tics had been brought through three years of theology.
On November 4, 1841, Father Stephen Parrondo of the province of Spain arrived at St. Louis University and a class in moral theology was thereupon begun.80 As Missouri was poorly equipped with pro- fessors of the advanced studies, Father Roothaan had assigned to it in addition to Parrondo, Fathers Nota, Di Maria and Irisarri. With competent professors now at hand, an attempt was made in the session 1842-1843 to separate philosophers from theologians. Under Father Parrondo*s direction, five scholastics studied moral theology at St. Louis University, The philosophers, six in number, were housed at the so- called College Farm on the northern outskirts of St. Louis, where Father John Schocnmakers was superior, Father Irisarri, professor of elementary mathematics and Greek, and Father Di Maria, of phi- losophy.'*1 The school of philosophy at the College Farm was main-
TSRoothaan ad Verhaegen, July 23, 1836* (A),
f*Verhacgen to McSherry, October 17, 1837. (B).
**Diari**m Unfotrtitetis $. LuJovici. (A).
M A tract of land approximately four hundred acrc/s in extent, the estate of
626 THE JESUITS OF THE MIDDLE UNITED STATES
tamed but a year, being transferred in 1844 to St. Louis University. In October, 1843, a class °^ philosophy, taught by Father Nota, was started at the novitiate, but lasted only a year, the students continuing their course in St. Louis, In 1 844 Father Parrondo was sent to Grand Coteau College as professor of moral theology and philosophy to the scholas- tics attached to the teaching-staff of that institution.
Such in brief outline was the story of the attempt made during twenty years and more to provide for the ecclesiastical studies of the Missouri scholastics. It may be of interest now to retrace our steps awhile and follow the same story anew as it is told with Jiving detail in Jesuit correspondence of the day.
In July, 1835, the situation, as it then stood, was set before the General by Father Elet. The scholastics of the mission, all of them engaged in teaching m St. Louis University, numbered only five. Ot these Mr. Van Sweevelt was being taught dogmatic theology by Father Verhaegen. Two of the number were studying metaphysics and two moral theology, but they made little progress as class-room duties stood in the way. Moreover, their professors could give them scant attention as they likewise had other business on their hands and so came to class unprepared or late or in some cases not at all. Father Elet made the urgent suggestion that some of the young men be taught mathematics before taking up theology. The only St. Louis Jesuit knowing mathe- matics and physics was Father Van de Velde. And yet "the Americans set great store by these sciences," which are taught at the University by lay-teachers, "a thing not to our credit." 82 Five years later Father Van de Velde recorded that among the scholastics, all now gathered in St. Louis under Father Mignard as superior, there was "a better organiza- tion and a new eagerness for study." But they were too much taken up with occupations of the class-room to apply themselves to study with anything like profit. There was accordingly a consensus of opinion that the scholasticate should be set up elsewhere than in St. Louis. Yet in the actual shortage of men it was impossible to find a remedy for "this unpleasant situation." 88
Father Roothaan was thus not being left in the dark as to the diffi- culties that beset the Society in the West in its efforts to secure the proper 'education of its members. In the August of 1840 Father Elet,
Lewis Meriwether Clark, son of General William Clark, was acquired by St. Louis University in 1836 with a view to making it the future site of the University, a plan that was never carried into effect The property, located in what is now North St. Louis, became known familiarly as the College Farm. Cf. infra* Chap, XXXIV, § 3.
82 Elet a Roothaan, July 14, 1835. (AA).
88 Van de Velde ad Roothaan, August 22, 1840. (AA).
TRAINING THE PERSONNEL 627
president at this time of St. Louis University, again brought the press- ing subject of studies to his attention:
There is talk now and then of starting a new college in Cincinnati and a residence in New Orleans A very broad field presents itself in both places with promise of a most abundant yield But workers are lacking and will be lacking m the future unless some thought is given to a Seminary for Ours entirely separate from the college [St Louis] The St Fiancis Xavier farm or rathei a fouith part of it would suit the purpose from eveiy point of view. Unless this be done we shall never have men such as the Society desires What happened to us lately shall happen to us again, namely that young men of talent will ask to be admitted not into our own but into some other Province and this precisely because no opportunity is given the scholastics here of perfecting themselves m such things as equip us for our ministry. Let some of the older Fathers as Gleizal, de Sautois, Van Sweevelt etc, be called back to the college and teach until the scholastics have finished their course of studies. All this can easily be put into effect piovided your Paternity assign us two men of maiked virtue and Icaming and provided nothing new be started. Believe me, Fathei, unless this be done, this Vice-Province, which promises such a fine harvest of good, will go to rum and be a discredit to the Society.81
In the course of the scholastic year 1841-1842 the five teaching scholastics, Druyts, O'Loghlen, Maesseele, Arnoudt and Damen, after doing their philosophy in the compendious fashion of the day under Father Mignard, went on to moral theology, their instruction in this subject being limited to three one-hour lectures a week by Father Verhaegen. This duty was taken over by Father Parrondo on his arrival in St. Louis. "The five youths named/' the words are those of Ver- haegen written to the General in February, 1 842, "have almost reached their thirtieth year and most of them have lived about eight years m the Society. Moreover, from the time they finished their novitiate they have been laboriously and steadily engaged in the instruction of youth. They cannot be taken out of their classes because there are no sub- stitutes to replace them. So we think it necessary that they go through the whole of moral theology before beginning to study dogma," Father Verhaegen then went on to say that the five scholastics, on knowing enough of moral theology to take the step, were to be ordained, after which they would study dogma as long as necessary, meanwhile dis- charging their assigned duties in the class-room. Moreover, there was Mr. d'Hoop at Grand Coteau and Messrs. Van den Eycken and Duer- inck in Cincinnati, all of whom had nearly finished their studies in moral and were shortly to be ordained- They were then to go to
**Elet ad Roothaan, August 25, 1840, (AA),
628 THE JESUITS OF THE MIDDLE UNITED STATES
St. Louis and join the five scholastics there in the study of dogma. "From what I have written above, your Paternity will see that there exists in the Vice-Province the nucleus of a scholasticate and if the novices, who in the mam are highly promising youths, persevere in the Society, within two years everything touching the scholasticate will be duly organized according to the Institute " 85
The College Farm scholasticate of the early forties proved to be only an experiment and an unsuccessful one at that. The account which Father Van de Velde gave of it to the General in August, 1843, a&er it had been in operation for a year, was not a flattering one. The main- tenance of the scholastics entailed a debt on the farm of a thousand dollars, which the vice-provincial had no means of paying off. The proposal was made to transfer the scholasticate to the University, but the financial situation would not improve with the change The revenue of the University was scarcely adequate to the support of the actual staff. How could it maintain the scholastics besides? Moreover, the location of the College Farm seemed to be an unhealthy one, as nearly all the young men studying there had fallen ill. The gravest stricture passed by Van de Velde on the scholasticate was that it was made up of only the least competent of the scholastics In Cincinnati Father Elet, rector of St. Xavier% was at a loss for substitutes to replace Father Pin, who had left the Society, and the Bishop's seminarians, who had formerly lent their services as ^teachers in the college. With authoriza- tion from the vice-provincial, Elet now took Mr. Kernion from the scholasticate and conscripted, besides, the novices Smarms and Fastre. "A scholasticate run in. this fashion," concludes Van de Velde, "will become only a burden on the Vice-Province." 86
Not more than a few weeks had slipped by since Father Van de Velde penned the above cited letter when he himself became vice-pro- vincial and the problem of the scholasticate now looked to him for solution. The venture at the College Farm ended in failure 5 there were no scholastics studying there after the summer of i843«87 Seeing no hope of setting up the scholasticate again in the vice-province, Van de Velde decided to send at least the more promising of the young men
86Verhaegen ad Roothaan, February 12, 1842. (AA)
86 Van de Velde a Roothaan, August 23, 1843 (AA).
87 From a letter of Verhaegen's to the General (November 10, 1843) !t appear that an attempt was made to start a scholasticate, presumably in St. Louis. "At length a beginning has been made with our Scholasticate. And we are fol- lowing m it, in almost every detail, practically the same program which Father Di Maria brought from the Roman Province. The affair began with only three stu- dents, but m a short time their number grew to six and before the end of the year it will grow to nine,"
TRAINING THE PERSONNEL 629
abroad for their studies. Accordingly in the August of 1 846 the scholas- tics Thomas O'Neil and David Shepperd and the novices Frederick Garesche and Joseph Keller set out from Florissant for Rome, there to begin their philosophy in the venerable Jesuit institution known as the Roman College. "I hope," wrote Smedts, the novice-master, to the General, "that you will be pleased with them and that they will one day become the ornament of the Vice-Province." 88 Father Roothaan was in the event pleased with the young men. "To judge by the 4. young Missounans whom we had in Rome, material is not wanting among you. Everything depends on the care we take to give it shape. Poor lads, who are treated so often as fruit which one shakes down and gathers in before it is npel" 89 The revolutionary troubles that ensued in 1848 cut short the Roman studies of the Missounans and in the June of that year they had returned to St. Louis
Father Roothaan's first letter to Elet on his succeeding Van de Velde in the office of vice-provincial urged upon him the starting of a scholasticate. The difficulties that beset such a venture were set forth by Elet in the answer which he returned:
I am expecting the Spanish Fathers and a few scholastics of the same nation with the utmost impatience Whether or not they come, depends on your Paternity, and their coming is a matter that conceins so much the glory of God Send good Fathers Inssan and Pai rondo, who left America with such keen regret When I think of the thousands of souls who have been lost here or aie now being l(\st every day, of the apostasies without number among the emigrants from Europe because there is no one to break to them the bread of life and of the indifference to the missions which the Piovmcials and other Superiors in Europe have shown in my regard almost everywhere, I cannot help regarding the persecution against the Society m Euiope as a just punishment. Quantum tnutata ab dla. The personnel of our Vice- Province discourages me. Father Van de Velde [now Bishop of Chicago] has left us Father Nota has quit the Society. Father Cotting is in another Province. Fathei Arnoudt is hors du combat. Fathers Druyts and O'Loughlm are in broken health Your Paternity tells me that I cannot count upon the Swiss Fathers, who so far are chiefly taken up with their scholastics and several of whom do not care to apply themselves to English I have almost no trained subjects and if I cannot count on the Swiss for 3 or 4 years to replace some of Ours, I must give up the idea of having any later on. And yet, were I only supported, before the end of my provincialate I could put everything on a good footing as regards both material things and personnel.00
86Smcdts a Roothaan, September 29, 1846. (AA).
80 Roothaan I Gleizal, January 3, 1850* (AA).
00Klet a Roothaan, March 16, 1849. (A A), Father Elet's strictures on the European superiors for not answering his appeal for recruits were not well founded. The Jesuit provinces in Europe were themselves greatly short-handed in men.
630 THE JESUITS OF THE MIDDLE UNITED STATES
By far the most ambitious attempt at a scholasticate yet seen in the West was made in the fall of 184.8 when courses m philosophy and theology under competent professors were opened at St Louis Uni- versity. The circumstance that made the step possible was the arrival in St. Louis of the party of refugee Swiss and German Jesuits whose stirring experiences have been already chronicled As a matter of fact, the scholasticate now opened m St. Louis was an enterprise rather of this group of exiled Jesuits than of the vice-province of Missouri. The newcomers furnished not only the students, almost without exception, but also the entire teaching-staff Studies were under the direction of Father Francis Xavier Fnednch, who was also professor of dogmatic theology, while Father Joseph Aschwanden filled the chair of moral theology, Hebrew and sacred scripture. Among the students in attend- ance was Anthony Anderledy, a future General of the Society of Jesus, who was raised to the priesthood m the St. Louis cathedral by Arch- bishop Kennck September 29, 1848. As conditions in St. Louis did not prove satisfactory, the scholasticate was transferred in the summer of 1849 to Florissant, where the new "rock building," begun as far back as 1839, was hurried forward to completion so as to provide quarters for the scholastics. It was reckoned that their health would improve with the opportunity for country walks now within reach 5 moreover, they would not be disturbed as they had been in St. Louis by the pres- ence of noisy students on the University campus. At Florissant, Fathers John Baptist Miege, Christopher Genelli and Peter Spicher made up the faculty. But in September, 1850, the students of theology were brought back to St. Louis, those of philosophy and rhetoric remaining at Florissant. Finally, at the end of the academic year 1850-1851, this promising scholasticate, housed partly at St. Louis, partly at Florissant, passed from the scene as a result of the recall to their own province of the European scholastics who made up its classes.
Obviously the plan of having the scholastics teach in the colleges and do their divinity studies at the same time was only a makeshift, which nothing but the meagre handful of men available in the vice- province could serve to justify. Both Father Verhaegen and, to a certain extent, Father Elet, as was seen, sought to remedy the situation by setting up regularly organized seminaries, which, however, achieved only an ephemeral career. Father Van de Velde made no attempt at all, at least no successful one, to organize a scholasticate but contented himself with sending a few candidates for the priesthood to Rome, This was the first time the vice-province had sent any of its members outside of its own limits for study. But it was the obvious thing to do if the young Jesuits could not be properly educated at home. Shortly before his death in 1851 Father Elet adopted this plan, as Van de Velde had
TRAINING THE PERSONNEL 631
done before him, by entering six fathers and three scholastics, all of them theologians, at Georgetown University, where the Maryland province was conducting a seminary for Jesuit students.91 In view of the prevailing acute shortage of professors in the colleges this was con- bidered a courageous move on the part of Elet and as such elicited commendation from the Father General. It was not possible, however, to continue to send all the young Jesuits for their studies to a regularly organized scholasticate During the session 1852-1853 such of them as were doing moral theology were, the majority at least, in St. Louis, two were at Bardstown and others m Cincinnati.
A scholasticate conducted by French Jesuits at Fordham on the out- skirts of New York was at this time m successful operation and ready to receive students from other parts of the country. Some Missounans, but never more than three or four, were m residence there during the period 1852-1857, among them John Verdm, Cornelius Smarius, Fred- erick Garesche and Thomas O'Neil, all of whom were later to render eminent services to the Society m the West. "I find," wrote Father Murph) in 1853, athat the course of study there f Fordham] is of a quality sufficient to make good theologians. Assertion is made that at Georgetown too much stress was laid on questions of slight utility," Father Murphy, as a member of the New York-Canada Mission, which conducted the Fordham seminary, was probably partial to it as a house of studies though in no reprehensible way. The scholastics on the other hand were said to favor Georgetown as they found the "good" French fathers of Fordham too French and with slight inclination to take on such American customs as might under the circumstances be desirable. But Father Murphy denied the prevalence at Fordham of what he called "Gallicism" and cited the experience of Father Verdm, Amer- ican*born, who .spent a year in the New York house without being awaie of the presence of any such spirit about him. Finally, in 1864 Father Soprani* was finding Fordham "a little too French" and George- town "too American." 0a
At the beginning of 1855 classes for the philosophers were opened in St. Louis, where, besides, one or other scholastic was instructed in dogma by Father l)i Maria, whose classes were suspended m August, 1857, by his appointment to parochial duties in Terre Haute, Indiana. He was replaced by Father Verhaegen, who retained his post only a few months, being transferred at the beginning of 1858 to St. Charles, Missouri His lectures m theology at the University had been followed
91 They were Father* De Blieck, Oakley, Mcarns, Verdin* Salari, Costa and Me^r * CueiKit, IV M center and HaerSng.
a Bcckx, April 6, 1864* (AA),
632 THE JESUITS OF THE MIDDLE UNITED STATES
among others by the four scholastics recalled in August, 1857, Fordham to St Louis. The assignment of Missouri scholastics to eastern houses of studies had never been viewed with favor by certain fathers of the vice-province, especially by De Smet, who wrote to Father Beckx in May, 1856 "One may see the danger there is m Ours being sent either to Maryland or Fordham. The fine big towns of Washington, Baltimore, Philadelphia, New York, Boston, etc , offer great attractions and so our men there lose their attachment to their poor Vice-Province. This has been the case with several " 93 However justified Father De Smet's apprehensions on this score may have been, it is certain that no such undesirable result followed the education in later >ears of large numbers of western scholastics at the Maryland seminar) of Woodstock. All during his incumbency as vice-provincial Father Murpfn made energetic efforts to promote the studies of the scholastics In 1855, when he had been governing four years at St. Louis, Father Gleizal petitioned the General to prolong Murphy's term of office so that he might con- tinue the efforts he had so happily begun to insure the proper "forma- tion" of the younger members 94 Father Murphy was ever a shrewd observer of conditions and the views he communicated to the General touching the educational needs of the American Jesuits are replete with insight. To Father Roothaan he expressed himself thus on the subject
Unbelief and heresy are not erudite m this New Woild Let Outs get their Perrone and Gury with what ecclesiastical history and New Testament study is necessary and they will find themselves in the first lank In ecclesiasti- cal and canonical questions the Dictionnatre of Ferraris is the oracle Father Gury's work circulates more and more among the clergy. I believe it will become the universal Vade Mecum 95
He recurred to the same subject the following year
And yet studies have made a step forward every year. Perhaps one has failed to consider that in this Vice-Province it was necessary to destroy hefot e one could build and that it was impossible to build securely and pei manentl) while accidents, (deaths, illnesses,) dismissals, unexpected departures, ill- timed obligations taken on, while such things, I say, came at every moment to interrupt the work, to throw it back, sometimes to stop it altogether. For two years now we have had a jumorate en regie, this yeai we count on beginning a scholasticate in philosophy Three subjects are destined for the New York theologate [Fordham], six Fathers for Third Probation and three for the German Missions alone, and yet we do not flatter ourselves that we
98 De Smet a Beckx, May 13, 1856 (AA) 94 Gleizal a Beckx, June 10, 1855 (AA) 85 Murphy a Roothaan, April I, 1853
TRAINING THE PERSONNEL 633
shall be able to lealize all our plans Our Europeans [Swiss] can be recalled an} day and in that case we are pushed back again, handicapped, disappointed I admire the virtue and devotion of so many Fatheis and scholastics who glow old with no hope of being able one day to study They agiee frankly that there is no remedy for this state of things In effect the first and second generations have been sacrificed in this icspect Effoits must be made to have the third pass through the icgular stages of the Institute But while waiting for our studies to leach an absolutely supenor level, I can assure your Paternity that youi sons meet eveiy demand in respect to theology and belles- lettres. It has been wntten [to you] that the ancient languages do not flouiish in America Controveisy, such as you find it tieated m good English books, is moie than sufficient in our dealings with heresy In England one stands more in need of patnstic and biblical learning American preachers scaicely ventuie into this field for very good reasons The question only is how to justify religion from a social, political, progressive point of view, to pio\e its compatibility with true liberty and the real welfaie of the people God be thanked, Ours are not behindhand in this polemical arena As to Moral Theology, it leaves nothing to be desned. We have the necessary men and books.™
Father Murphy, however, for all his interest in the adequate train- ing of the Jesuits under him never succeeded m restoring the scholasti- cate, if indeed he ever attempted to do so 1>7 His successor. Father Druyts, made the attempt and succeeded In August, 1857, he recalled the four Missouri scholastics from Fordham to St. Louis where they continued their studies under Father Verhaegen. The following October he advised the General, Father Beckx- "It is our intention not to send our scholastics elsewhere but to educate them all at home. At least we shall make a strong effort to do so, unless your Paternity judge other- wise." °8 A month later he wrote: "We confess once more that studies in philosophy and theology are not yet properly organized. This year out of eleven theologians and five philosophers of the first year living in St. Louis College there is scarcely one who is not employed in teach- ing the lower classes, I shall try so to arrange things next year that some of the scholastics will not be engaged in teaching and to make the thing a success I shall without fail take a certain number of them out of the colleges and begin the scholasticate (on a small scale) in the country house built lately by St. Louis College [University] m the environs of the city*" ™ This arrangement, added Father Druyts, was the only
H Murphy I Beckx, July 8, 1854. (AA).
*7De Smct informed the General, May 13, 1856, that Father Murphy had bought aixty acres of land two leagues from St, Louis for a scholasticate. »* Druyts ad Beckx, October 6, 1857. (AA). MDniyts ad Beckx, November 16, 1857. (AA)»
634 THE JESUITS OF THE MIDDLE UNITED STATES
one that would safeguard studies effectively. Strangely enough, even the scholastics sent in 1856 to Belgium for their philosophy had class- room duties occasionally imposed upon them while they were pursuing their studies A similar thing happened at Fordham where Fathers Smarms and Garesche, sent thither for courses m theologj , were pressed into service as instructors respectively in rhetoric and drawing.
The scholasticate now projected by Father Druyts was to occup\ the same suburban property of St. Louis University known as the College Farm which had witnessed Father Verhaegen's venture or. a philobo- phate in 1842-1843 It opened its doors on September 10, 1858, with a faculty of three professors and an attendance of eight theologians and as many philosophers, all of whom, so Druyts informed the General, seemed "to be quite absorbed in their studies and to live in great con- tentment m the new house, fitted out very imperfectly though it be." Moreover, he thanked the Father General for requiring a certain mis- sion to pay its debts to Missouri, which was sorely in need of money, especially for the scholasticate, which, very insignificant though it might be m the eyes of others, would "occasion no slight anxiety and diffi- culties not a few." 10° Father De Smet, procurator or treasurer of the vice-province, had calculated that between three and four thousand dollars were needed for the annual support of the scholastics. m
The superior of the seminary was Father Francis Xavier \Yippern, who taught sacred scripture and philosophy Associated with him on the faculty during the session 1858-1859 were Fathers Thomas O'Neil and Adrian Van Hulst, the former lecturing on dogmatic theology, the latter on physics, mathematics and canon law. The faculty for 1859- 1860 consisted, in addition to Father Wippern, of Father Di Maria, professor of dogma, and Father Mearns, professor of moral, with Father Verreydt as spiritual director. In view of his office as superior of the scholasticate, Father Wippern was, at his own petition, advanced on February 2, 1862, from the grade of spiritual coadjutor to that of professed of the four vows. He had made his divmit} studies in Switzerland and m his teaching of philosophy was said to follow the system of Father Rothenflue, a Swiss Jesuit, whose views, it was alleged, were not always m harmony with those of the recognized ex- ponents of scholasticism. "I note," observed Father Beckx to Wippern in 1859, "that Father Rothenflue has pledged himself to be ready to teach
100 Druyts ad Beckx, October 10, 1858. (AA).
101 De Smet a Beckx, January 7, 1858 (A) The fund a\ailahlc for tht< sup- port of the scholastics amounted annually to thirty-three hundred dollars and was derived from fifteen hundred dollars interest on the fifteen thousand dolhw loaned by the vice-province to Chicago, a tax of four hundred dollars levied on St Louis and Cincinnati each, and an odd thousand dollars from othct
TRAINING THE PERSONNEL 635
in such wise as not to implicate himself in any of the censured proposi- tions." 10~ As to Father Di Maria, he was apparently never at ease in a professor's chair, for which he was eminently qualified, but preferred the duties of a pastor of souls, having been assured by Father Roothaan, so he maintained, that he was to be employed chiefly in this occupation. As a matter of fact, he was given charge of parishes successively m Marshall, Missouri, Bardstown, Kentucky, and Terre Haute, Indiana Finally, at his own petition, he was allowed to attach himself to the province of Maryland, where as one of the attending pastors of old St. Joseph's Church, Willing's Alley, Philadelphia, he was greatly beloved by the congregation.10^ In August, 1861, when he was about to leave the West, Father Murphy wrote of him to the General "Father Di Maria is about to pass over to Maryland A first-class theologian and philosopher and one born to teach, but he yearns for the external ministry. Not very acceptable to our own folk, he pleases men of position amazingly by something or other in the way he deports himself, which is at once frank and forceful, and by his bodily bearing, which has something military about it and noble."101
Among the scholastics studying at the College Farm was Father Walter Hill, who in a diary tells pleasantly of his experiences at this period-
I began the study of philosophy, ethics, with Dmowski as text-book, Fr Wippei n, ttMchei ; and logic and metaphysics, Rothenflue as text-book, Fr. Nussluum, piofessor. I thus made two years in one. In 1857 I began moral and dogmatic theology with Father Verhaegcn as professor, text-books, Busenbnum and Perrone Early in the spring of 1858 Fr. Druyts resolved to establish a seholasticate In 1857 a brick house, narrow and high, was built at College Hill as a summer-i esort for the college 5 we took possession of it in 1857, July; and the first night a frightful storm nearly blew it down In the following spring it was doubled m its width by a solid addition in order to fit it for the scholasticate The scholastics began then coinse there on September nth, 1858, Father Wippein being Superior. Fathei Thos. O'Neil was professor of dogmatic theology and he selected and ordered from London an excellent collection of works. There were seventeen scholastic students m all, the first year. With plenty of good books, Father Wippern being very kind and fatherly, I spent the two happiest years of my life there Fathei Druyts often encouraged us with his presence and gave us excellent instruc- tions now and then. Early in the spring of 1859 we laid out the garden according to a plan which I proposed; it was fenced in, the walks, the mound
103Beckx ad Wippern, November 12, 1859. (AA).
103 Father Di Maria's Philadelphia career is sketched in Eleanor Cecilia Don- nelly, Memoir of Fathtr Felix JowpA Kar&eltn, $J. (1886), m Murphy ad Beckx, August 14, 1861, (AA).
636 THE JESUITS OF THE MIDDLE UNITED STATES
at the centre were made and Father Druyts gave us a hundied dollars worth of shrubbery, the rest we got chiefly at the novitiate.
We proposed to make a walk up the hill, but this pioved too much foi us and an engineer from Calvary cemeteiy had to do it
Oui annual vacation was spent at College Hill with tups to the "Spanish Pond," to Mr. Z Chambers' hospitable dwelling, to the college, etc
My chief difficulty in study was want of suitable books of philosoph} , this I partially remedied by Billuart and Gotti
When Father Druyts was laying plans in the spring of 1858 for housing the scholastics at the College Farm, the vice-province unex- pectedly came into the possession of three hundred and twelve acres of land situated near Carlyle, Illinois, at a distance of forty-seven miles from St. Louis A Mrs Tighe of St. Louis was the generous donor. Father Druyts thought of this property as "a promising site" for the scholasticate and wrote without delay to the General to secure his ap- proval Meantime, however, so he added, "we must begin our young and modest little scholasticate near the city of St Louis, for we have no means to build and must incur no debts.73 10D The College Farm, the property of St. Louis University, was reported to be worth at this time some two thousand dollars an acre, while the valuation put on the Carlyle tract was between one hundred and two hundred dollars an acre. It was not a seemly thing, commented Father Druyts, to ask the University to reserve twenty or thirty acres of its valuable property for the purposes of a scholasticate In the event the latter was not located at Carlyle, the property acquired there being later disposed of. A de- scription of it occurs in a letter of De Smet's:
On the 3oth [Maich, 1858] in company with Biothei Martin j Hasler] I paid a flying visit and took a stealthy peep at Carlyle Mansion — the situa- tion is beautiful — the land is very good — there is a beautiful orchard on the place — a very fine lane of Locust trees leads up to the house, which is situated on a high eminence from which you can see the country all around for ten or fifteen miles distance — there are about thirty acres of tolerable timber — there is a quarry and a coal mine on the place The house, I must say, is not much — it might answer for some little purposes, with some little repair, for it has been much neglected for these several years past; it certainly cannot answer for a scholasticate and it would be absolutely necessary to build should it be finally determined to place it at Carlyle. Carlyle is a thnving little place, with a court-house, a stone jail and a Catholic Church — it is prospering. The 140 acres are of course intended as a gift, sine oncie — there remains about two hundred acres which Mrs Tfighe] will leave us, under very favorable conditions — all she desires is to liquidate her debts, amounting to about $9,000, which she has three years to settle — by selling yearly a few
105 Druyts I Beckx, April 18, 1858. (AA).
TRAINING THE PERSONNEL 637
acres in town lots that sum, it is said, could easily be obtained All this, of course, must lequire some further consideration, explanation and planning.106
§ 6 THE COMMON SCHOLASTICATE
Though the Jesuits of the Middle West had put their best foot forward in the College Farm scholasticate, this earnest attempt to solve the problem of the education of the scholastics can hardly be said to have issued in success But the institution would in all probability have continued to exist beyond the two years that rounded out its career had it not been for the arrival m the United States of the Visitor, Father Soprams, with instructions from the Father General to arrange for a common house of studies for the various divisions of the Society of Jesus in North America. On July 27, 1860, Father Coosemans wrote from St. Louis to the General "I am very glad that Father Visitor, who arrived here last week, has taken the matter m hand and established [ ? ] a common scholasticate where the young men of the Vice-Province may receive the education prescribed by the Institute." 107
The idea of a general seminary as the only remedy for the unsatis- factory condition of things then prevailing in the ecclesiastical training of the scholastics of the Society was in the air at least a decade or two before circumstances gave it concrete shape. In 1850 Father Aschwan- den, a Swiss refugee of 1848, who had been teaching theology in St Louis University, communicated to Father Roothaan his opinion that it would be advisable for "the young men of the Province in question [ Missouri 1 to make their entire course of studies in the same college with the >oung men of the Province of Maryland, as it would be also advisable for the young Fathers of both Provinces [to make their Ter- tianship | m the same house of Third Probation. For these things will never be done properly in either Province alone, especially in Missouri, for it is too small and the superiors there have taken in hand too many petty houses and missions." l08 In 1852 Father Murphy expressed his mind on the subject: "A general scholasticate for the Provinces and missions might be formed more easily here at home than elsewhere, for instance at Bardstown, where everything is on a good footing. We should need a few professors and a good Minister." 10° A year later he wrote again on the same subject: "If it be possible to have a scholasti-
xtmDe Smet 5 Druyts, Apiil 2, 1858. (A) The common scholasticatc was to serve the needs of the Maryland Piovmce, the Missouri Vice-Province (province in 1863), the New Orleans Mission, the California Mission, the Canada-New York Mission.
m Coosemans a Beckx, July 27, 1860. (AA).
108 Aschwanden ad Roothaan, August 13, 1850. (AA).
*°* Murphy a Roothaan, November 15, 1852. (AA).
638 THE JESUITS OF THE MIDDLE UNITED STATES
cate for all America, Frederick, Md., might suit, but m this case the Italian Fathers should be left there They are said to be wedded to less essential matters as also to the customs of their own Province. This is perhaps a good defect in America where everything tends to independ- ence and to latssez-aller, besides, these good Fathers will soon arrive at a proper mean both as regards local discipline and choice of studies." 110
The case for a common scholasticate was put with characteristic neat- ness by Father Isidore Boudreaux "In my opinion one could do nothing more substantial or effective for the good of the Society in America than to establish a single scholasticate. It is the preferable plan both as regards the professors, of whom a better choice could be made, and as regards the students, who would show more emulation and be better disciplined and more effectually separated from the world.77 But the decisive reason in favor of a common scholasticate, so Father Boudreaux judged, was that Missouri would never solve its educational problems without it. Different locations for it were suggested, Bardstown, also Frederick in Maryland, and Cincinnati, where the Jesuit property known as the Purcell Mansion seemed to Father Verhaegen excellently adapted to the purpose. But this last suggestion did not commend itself to Father Stonestreet, the Maryland provincial, who saw m the alleged unfriendly attitude towards the Jesuits of Father Edward Purcell, the Archbishop's brother, an objection to the Jesuits7 locating a general house of studies in Cincinnati.111 In the event the experiment of a com- mon scholasticate was first to be made in Boston.
The one great evil which the plan of a common house of studies sought to remedy was the practice of requiring the scholastics to act as instructors in the colleges and at the same time get up the studies preparatory to ordination. This was surely no substitute for the normal course of Jesuit training.112 Though the matter has already been dealt with, one or other further instance m point will not be out of place. "What profit could [the scholastics] half-asleep and fagged out after their long day spent in teaching possibly derive from lectures, however learned?77 The query was put to Father Ffrench, the English assistant,
110 Murphy a Roothaan, April i, 1853. (AA)
111 Murphy a Beckx, October 5, 1855. (AA) (p).
112 Curiously enough, even in Father Murphy's eyes the practice did not work on the whole to the serious prejudice of the scholastics. "As a result some have enough time at their disposal for study and m this way they combine the two things [study and teaching] as far as circumstances allow and for the most part with satisfactory results Murphy a Roothaan, April I, 1853 (AA), But other superiors, among them at a later period Murphy himself, regarded the practice in question as an evil justified only by unavoidable circumstances.
TRAINING THE PERSONNEL 639
by Father Francis O'Loghlen of St. Louis, who had himself been through the ordeal.1 ia Father Kenney in his visitation of 1832 had ruled that not more than one hour a day of teaching should be required of scholastics or fathers still pursuing their studies, but under stress of circumstances the period had lengthened out to several hours daily. At Bardstown in 1852 the rector. Father Emig, proposed to limit the teaching hours of the scholastics on his staff to two and a half hours dailj so as to allow them leisure for their divinity studies, an arrange- ment which he apparently thought an indulgent one in their regard. How the system worked out is illustrated in the case of Father Van de Velde He had begun his theology at Georgetown in 1825. At St Louis University, nine years later, he was absorbed in various occupations with theology still unfinished. He was at once minister, prefect of studies, professor of mathematics and Spanish, and for a period treasurer of the University. Obviously there was no leisure amid this formidable round of duties for dipping into books of theology. "What is to be done," he asks in a bewildered sort of way of Father Roothaan, "in this scarcity of personnel when every one has on his hands all that he can possibly do?" And so the situation persisted unchanged for some four or five jears longer until finally, without having had time even to look at the examination-papers, as he declared, he presented himself before an exammmg-board and, it is pleasing to record, came through the test successfully.114
Father Cooseman's experiences in the matter of studies were set down by him in a letter to Father Beckx.
All the time I have been in the Society I have been occupied with duties without having had a single year free for study. During the second year of mv novitiate I repeated my Rhetoric. While still a novice I was sent to a college where, completely immeised in prcfcctmg as also in teaching some four hows n day, I studied philosophy for the space of two years This study amounted to little mote than copying out Father Martin's notes, we had no printed text of philosophy. Fortunately I did not have much to foiget when Father Martin's system was piohibited m the Society,115 My study in moral was confined to Gury, which I studied for a year and a half without having time to consult other authois; I was at the same time prefect of the students and professors. For one year only did I study Dogma, hut I failed in my examination partly for lack of talent, partly because of the distractions occa- sioned by my protecting and teaching. I was ordained priest that same year.
mO'Loghlcn & Ffrench, January, 1858, (AA). M4 Van dc Velde i Roothaan, 1834. (AA).
n* Father Martin had apparently become involved m the erroneous system known aa omologism. Burnichon, La Compagnie de Jhus en fiance^ 1814-1
640 THE JESUITS OF THE MIDDLE UNITED STATES
Superiors no doubt did not forsee that I should one day find myself in m} present position [of Provincial] 116
Father Coosemans's experience was entirely typical. In 1859 Father George Watson was petitioning the General to be allowed to devote himself, free of other duties, to theology, alleging his previous inability to find adequate time for that important study On this petition the vice-provincial, Father Druyts, commented
Your Paternity recalls how the philosophical and theological studies of a great number of the Fathers of this Vice-Province have been conducted as a matter of sheer necessity Up to a certain time not very far distant from the present at least 30 Fathers (the Vice-Provincial among them), if the} were to give an account of their studies in the Society, would be obliged to tell a story similar to the one Father Watson has told your Pateinity. If they fail to do so, it is because they see the impossibility of gaming anything by it. The Vice-Province has taken charge of three colleges and a number of mis- sions The greater glory of God demands that we do not draw back, on the contiary that we go forward, a thing we might be able to do even with our little number if it were not for the double course of studies (classical and commercial) in our colleges, in consequence of which we aic forced to employ a great number of professors m
On arriving in America early m 1860 Father Soprams at once took up with the Maryland provincial and his consultors the preshing ques- tion of a general house of studies. Before March of that year the deci- sion was reached by them to build for the purpose at Conewago in Pennsylvania at the common expense of all the American divisions of the Society.118 Meanwhile a temporary general scholasticate was to be opened at Boston. In view of the circumstance that it had its own scholasticate already in operation at the College Farm, Missouri was not required to share in this arrangement. Yet Father Druyts hastened to inform the Father General. "Before Father Visitor's arrival and not- withstanding the permission granted us to keep our scholastics where they are, I had written to Father Sopranis and to the Reverend Father Provincial of Maryland of my intention to send twelve scholastics to Boston to continue at the beginning of September the studies they had begun in Missouri." 119
A report made to Father Beckx by the Visitor, May 13, 1860, dis- closes the fact that Missouri was at first disappointed that preference had been given to the Maryland province as the home of the projected
116 Coosemans a Beckx, March 16, 1866 (AA).
117 Druyts ad Beckx, January i, 1860 (AA)
118 Sopranis ad Beckx, March 8, 1860 (AA).
119 Druyts a Beckx, August i, 1860. (AA).
TRAINING THE PERSONNEL 641
seminary in common. Missouri had its own house of higher studies in fairly good running order. Moreover, a certain prejudice against send- ing the scholastics to the East for their studies continued to exist, on the ground, among others, that Missounans educated in the East appeared to lose, so it was said, their affection for the vice-province which claimed them as its own. This untoward outcome was verified, so it would seem, in one or other case 5 it was really negligible as far as the bulk of the scholastics was concerned At all events, locating the scholas- ticate was an issue which Father Soprams felt he would have to settle in somewhat peremptory fashion. "As the Maryland Province and the Canadian-New York Mission can be brought to send their scholastics to the Missouri Vice-Province by authority alone, so by authority alone can the Missouri Vice-Province be brought to send its scholastics to Maryland Laying aside all partiality, so I think, I give it as my opinion that the latter course should be preferred." The Visitor's reasons for his opinion were twofold. First, the plan proposed would reduce travelling expenses to a minimum. It was more reasonable that Missouri should be inconvenienced than both Maryland and Canada-New York. Sec- ondly, and Sopranis says this was the decisive reason for the choice he made, "the elements for organizing a good scholasticate do not exist in the Vice-Province of Missouri as they do in the Province of Mary- land.7' iao The Visitor concludes his report to the General by asking whether he should proceed to execute the ordination requiring the American superiors to support the common scholasticate to be opened temporarily m Boston. The ordination was eventually put into execu- tion though, as already stated, Missouri was dispensed from its observ- ance, a dispensation which it waived, sending twelve scholastics to Boston for the session 1860-1861.
The superior of the Boston scholasticate, which was installed in buildings adjoining the Jesuit Church of the Immaculate Conception in Harrison Street, was Father John Bapst, who had the unique experience of being one time tarred and feathered by a fanatical Puritan mob. The faculty comprised seven professors, including the rector, and the stu- dents numbered forty-nine, of whom four were priests.121 Owing to inadequate quarters, the alleged severity of the climate, which seems to have proved a hardship to some of the westerners, and other reasons, the issue of the new house of studies was not as favorable as had been hoped for. De Smet reported to the General that the sentiment of the Missouri fathers was in general against the Boston venture and he cited Archbishop Kenrick of St. Louis as saying that the New England metropolis was no likely place for a scholasticate. More than anything
140 Sopranis ad Beckx, May 13, 1860. (AA),
642 THE JESUITS OF THE MIDDLE UNITED STATES
else, however, the difficulty of financing the institution, especially amid the economic difficulties precipitated by the Civil War, brought about its suspension m 1863. Although he greatly regretted the passing of an establishment so very necessary to the Society in North America, so Father Coosemans assured the General in August, 1863, still he could not but be glad that another home would now be found for Messrs. Lesperance and Coppens, whose delicate health could not adjust itself to what he called "the rough climate of Boston " 122 However unfounded may have been the opinion thus entertained as to climatic conditions in the Massachusetts metropolis, it was an opinion shared by Father So- prams himself as his report to the General indicates
At the end of 1861 the Visitor had returned to Rome where he submitted to the General a report on the Boston scholasticate. For academic and disciplinary conditions in the house he had only words of praise From a comparison with other scholasticates, as he had known them, in St. Louis, Georgetown, Montreal, he was led to conclude that the existing spirit at Boston was good nor was there any reason on this head why the provinces and missions should regret having sent their young men thither. "What I have said of the spirit must also be said and that very positively about the studies. The professors spare no labor and to their solicitude the scholastics on their part make ever} effort to respond." He had been present at scholastic disputations earned on by the philosophers and theologians. Both groups, but the first particu- larly, did notably well Father Sopranis then proceeded to point out certain objections to continuing the scholasticate where it was, first among which came the excessive cost of maintenance l~* Moreover, "the seventy of this climate and the lack of a garden or yard of any kind in which the scholastics can move about in the open work to the prejudice of their health and make this house rather disagreeable and in the case of some very disagreeable indeed " Further, there were moral dangers occasioned by the urban environment but protection against them was assured by fresh precautions now in force. Father Paresce, the Mary land provincial, had been over the ground at Conewago in Pennsylvania, where the Jesuits had been established many years back. A scholasticate could be built there at no considerable outlay and the students sup- ported at moderate expense. Sopranis was ready, as far as the matter depended on him, to start work at once. But the Maryland province should shoulder all the expense and m this view Father Paresce himself concurred. "For the rest, if it be done now, that is to say, if a start be made on the building without laying any burden on the other houses
122 Coosemans a Beckx, August 18, 1863. (AA).
128 The annual cost of maintenance was reported to be seventeen thousand dollars
TRAINING THE PERSONNEL 643
or Missions, our people will rest easy in mind and the success of the enterprise will be assured It is an enterprise which truly makes for the glory of God for on it the very life of our Society in this country depends." lli4
In the early fall of 1861 Father Beckx in conference with his assist- ants and Father Soprams determined on certain points which he would embodj in an ordination to be drawn up on the basis of the Visitor's report and communicated to major superiors in North America. One of these points regarded a common house of studies. This was to be main- tained, where it had been provisionally commenced, at Boston, but only so long as the Civil War continued, and superiors were to send to it their students of philosophy and theology except such as were restricted to a compendious or three-year course of theology and such also as had finished their studies and needed only a short time for review. On his return to America in October 1861 Father Soprams undertook to com- municate to the American superiors Father Beckx's ideas and wishes concerning a common scholasticate and for this purpose he called a meeting which was attended by all major superiors in the United States with the exception of the head of the New Orleans Mission. At this meeting, which convened m Boston in July, 1862, the plan of a general house of studies met with unanimous support. Moreover, acceptance was also assured of an offer made by the provincial of Maryland to erect a building for this purpose on condition that the other American divisions of the Society send their scholastics to the East for a period of fifteen jcars. Meantime, the Boston scholasticate had closed its doors with the session 1862-1863, the minutes of the Missouri board of con- suitors recording that "the calamity of the War had made it impossible to provide means for its support." The Missouri theologians were thereupon entered at Fordham and the philosophers, at Georgetown Later, the philosophers were provided for at St. Louis University, Father Cooscmans having petitioned the General to approve such arrangement. "I am happy to be able to inform you," he says in a letter to Father General Beckx, "that our little scholasticate of eight phi- losophers is in successful operation. The religious spirit, domestic order, the separation prescribed by the Institute, studies, etc., proceed wonder- fully well to the satisfaction of superiors, professors and pupils." 125
1S* Soprani* ad Beckx, December 23, 1861. (AA). Father Druyts in a letter to Soprania, May 16, 1860, gives the reason why a common seminary for the scholas- tics was necemiy to the continued existence of the Society in America: "I hope this deficiency, the lack, namely, of adequately trained and well-informed teachers, which has been visible for many years back, will be corrected little by little through the scholasticate which your Paternity wishes to establish m the United States."
m Coosemam 1 Beckx, February 18, 1865* (AA). Coosemans writes again to the General, March 9, 1865, expressing the hope that the St. Louis scholasticate
644 THE JESUITS OF THE MIDDLE UNITED STATES
The months wore on but Father Paresce, the indefatigable provin- cial of Maryland, had not yet succeeded m finding a satisfactory location for the proposed scholasticate Conewago, the first choice, had been rendered undesirable through developments of the war, though in what precise way does not appear Antietam had been fought at no great distance away and Gettysburg was in the immediate vicinity of the little Pennsylvania village. A property at Mt. Washington, seven miles north of Baltimore, came under consideration, but on inspection was deemed unsuited for the purpose. In the interim Father Paresce had been anxious to secure from Missouri formal and definite support m his plans for a common scholasticate. It does not appear that the western province was holding out at this stage against the idea of a common house of studies for American Jesuits It had signified its indorsement of the plan at the Boston meeting of superiors and nothing indicates that it subsequently went back on the endorsement then given. But the details of the plan had not been submitted to it for approval and this step Father Paresce was now desirous to take. At Cincinnati he met Father Coosemans, to whom he presented a written proposition cover- ing all important particulars of the arrangement to be entered into between Maryland and Missouri as to the education of the scholastics. On his return to St. Louis Father Coosemans laid the proposition before his consultors, May 15, 1865, with the result that it was found satisfactory m all particulars. Assurance was thereupon given Father Paresce that the Missouri scholastics or such of them at least as were to undergo the normal process of training m the Society would be sent to the new house of studies.
Heartened by the support now guaranteed from the West, the Maryland Provincial continued his search for a satisfactory site. Success soon met his efforts. At Woodstock in Maryland, twenty-five miles from Baltimore, a property of one hundred and thirty-nine acres was acquired January 24, 1866, for the modest sum of forty-five hundred dollars. An adjoining tract of one hundred and ten acres was purchased some three months later.126 The ground ran up some two or three hundred feet from a diminutive stream, the Patapsco, topographical features were attractive and even picturesque, building-sites were available, and everything indicated that the choice was a happy one. Father Coosemans on the occasion of the Second Plenary Council of Baltimore in October, 1866, was a visitor at Woodstock where building operations were al- ready in progress. "I hope it will be for many years the common scholasticate of North America We were greatly pleased with the site.
may continue at least until "such time as we shall enjoy anew the advantages of a common scholasticate for the Jesuits of North America " 126 WL, 56 5
TRAINING THE PERSONNEL 645
It offers every advantage desirable for our young scholastics and the building, which is already in course of erection, leaves nothing to be desired." IJ7
On September 23, 1869, Coosemans with a contingent of Missouri scholastics was again at Woodstock, this time to participate in the solemn inauguration of the new seminary. "It was a day," he wrote, "full of happincbb and hope for the future " 1J8 Another Missouri Jesuit, his erstwhile assistant, Father Joseph E Keller, was also in attendance in the capacity of provincial of Maryland, which office he had taken over from Father Paresce on August 15 preceding The distinction of preach- ing the inaugural sermon on Woodstock's birthday fell to Father Keller, who chose for his text the words of Ecclestastes, "wisdom hath built herself a house." It was a neatly phrased and uplifting discourse, strik- ing happily the keynote of the occasion and the impression it made was long ti easured up by its Jesuit hearers of East and West 12<) Thus came about the happy culmination of long continued efforts on the part of the Society of Jesus in the United States to provide an institution adequate to the schooling of its younger members in ecclesiastical studies. No more decisive turning-point in the story of Jesuit development in Amer- ica is chronicled than the opening-day of Woodstock College. And yet one sees in retrospect that the theological equipment of the pioneer western Jesuits, for all its shortcomings, had been on the whole ade- quate to the needs of time and place. This was a point made by Father Murph}7 who, coming as a stranger among them m 1851, found them everywhere working in the sacred ministry and m the schools with excellent results and enjoying the ebteem of the public "m respect both to virtue and learning,"
§ J. THE TLRTIANSUIP
The tertianship or third probation is a third year of novitiate which the Jesuit Constitutions require from the clerical as distinguished from the lay members of the order before they take what are known as their final vows and are finally admitted into its body. Like other normal stages in Jesuit training it yielded to the pressure of circumstances that beset the pioneer Society in the West and suffered neglect, being either curtailed or omitted altogether. In FJonssant in 1828 Father Van Quickenborne had put his newly ordained priests through the exercises of the tertianship. Father Gleizal, as he looked about him in the vice- province in 1850, did not know, so he observed to Father Roothaan,
Beckx, September ^^ 1866. (AA). mCooH*nuns !1 Beckx» October 5, 1869. (AA).
12tt Fathci Keller's Woodstock sermon was printed in pamphlet form in Balti- more.
646 THE JESUITS OF THE MIDDLE UNITED STATES
of a single father who had made the tertianship in due form. Mean- while, the more mature and better organized Maryland province had opened "a house of third probation" in Frederick, Maryland, in which seven Missouri men were entered during the period 1852-1 855. lio Not until 1859 were fathers of the West again sent to Frederick for the "third year." In the interval some of them, as Fathers Damen, Smarms and Druyts, made an informal sort of tertianship at Florissant. In order to satisfy the wishes of the prelates of the ecclesiastical Province of Cincinnati for Jesuit preachers of missions, Father Drifts asked the General in 1858 to dispense with the normal period of the tertianship on behalf of Fathers Smanus, Damen, Dnscoll and Goeldlm. This would enable him to supply more readily the two or three missionaries he had promised. "We are not ready as yet to give these missions, but who can look on idly and unsorrowmg at the appalling loss ot souls which is going on, as all the missionaries bear witness ?" Other fathers besides the four mentioned cannot be assigned to the tertianship this year "unless with great inconvenience and loss, the harvest in this country is indeed great, but the laborers are few I therefore ask >our Paternity to have patience with me in this matter. I promise to give it every possible attention " 131 Again, in i860, Father DruUs was peti- tioning Father Soprams that in the case of some at least of the fathers "a monthly recollection made in the Novitiate under the direction of Father Boudreaux" be allowed as a substitute for a tertianship en regie. 132
In the interim, at the instance of Father Sop ran us Frederick in Maryland had begun to serve as a common house of third probation for all divisions of the Society of Jesus in the United States and Canada, The year 1859-1860 accordingly saw four Missouri tertians at Frederick. In 1862 the tertianship was transferred to Fordham, New York, but the next year was back again in Frederick, where six Missouri fathers were in attendance. In this manner the needs of the West for the forma- tion of its men in the final stage of their spiritual training were supplied by Maryland until such time, many years distant, when it was to find itself in a position to open a tertianship of its own at Florissant* The result of this inability of the Missouri vice-province to provide its mem- bers in season with a year of tertianship as a prescribed stage m their process of training was that the final vows of the fathers were generally delayed long beyond the period when they are normally taken, A letter of Father De Smet in this connection contains pertinent details. It was
180 These were Father De Blieck, Mearns, Salari, Haermg, Kmig, Wrdin, and Maes
181 Druyts ad Beckx, May 19, 1858 (AA).
132
Druyts ad Soprams, December 24, 1860 (AA).
TRAINING THE PERSONNEL 647
addressed to Father Anthony Levisse, a Hollander, then a member of the Bardstown college-staff. Beginning with the remark that he hoped hib correspondent would take his words in good part, De Smet con- tinued-
1st You complain of being kept twenty yeais fiom yom last vows, but this, ouing to uuumstances, is the case with several others, viz F[athers] Rocs (22 }uus), HoistitLin (22 years), Dumortici (22 years), Kermon (20 u,us), Rot'loff (20 yeais), Bcckwith (20 yeais), Ackmal (20 years), Watson (21 VIMIS), to say nothing of those who, like Father Tiuyens took then urns finally aftei twenty yeais 01 moie, and yet they never complained
2nd. As to jour Teitianship, you ought to rely entnely upon yom Supe- nois. Moreover, I might add that your Rev(>(i has been favored in that respect like the lamented Fathers Dtuyts, Isidore Boudreaux, etc who had no other Tci tranship than the office of Minister duiing a yeai in Flonssant, while Fathers Damen, Rotloff, Smarms, Tschreder, Goeldlm, Drrscoll etc have had hut one month and yet they never complained.
{uL As to studies you me not worse off than the vast majority of our Pnests, as jou well know. Owing to the circumstances of the Vice-Province like them you have acquired enough to pi each usefully and exercise the ministry in general, with satisfaction and fruit.m
Obvioubl) Father Levisse's grievances rested on no very solid grounds. Later, in 1863, he was allowed for reasons of health to sever his connection with the Society. It was not till the closing decades of the centurj that an end was made of the abnormal delay which had long prevailed in bringing the members of the Society of Jesus in the West up to the period when they could take what are technically called their "final vows" and be admitted, in Jesuit language, "into the body of the Society."
$ 8- RucRurnNO THK WORKERS
A capital handicap under which the Catholic Church in the United States carried on its work during much of the nineteenth century was the great scarcity of American vocations to the priesthood and religious life. Time has worked a remarkable and even revolutionary change in this respect. The Church in America commands today an imposing army of well trained and efficient native-born auxiliaries both m the ranks of the diocesan clergy and in the religious communities of men and women devoted in various ways to humanitarian and social service, What did not exist a hundred, not even seventy-five years ago, namely, a wide-spread sentiment and tradition m favor of the religious life, exists today with the result that Catholic families are gratified to see themselves represented by one or other members in the ranks of the
m I)e Srnct to LCV'IMC, October 14, 1861* (AA),
648 THE JESUITS OF THE MIDDLE UNITED STATES
devoted religious, male and female, of the country In this impressive movement of American Catholic youth towards the life of renunciation embodied in the practice of the religious vows, the Sooet} of Jesus has had and continues to have a proportionate share In almost every sec- tion of the country its membership is yearly recruited with numerous earnest and high-minded youths, the majority of them fresh from the halls of Jesuit high-schools and colleges The contrast between this situa tion and that which obtained among the midwestern Jesuits up to the last decades of the past century is striking. Formerly, recruits for the Society from the native-born youth of America were comparatively rare, practically all candidates came from Europe and in particular from Belgium and Holland Why it was that so few novices were found coming from the youth of the country and especially from the student- body of Jesuit colleges where the Society could be seen, in a measure at least, at close range and something learned of the life pursued by its members, was naturally a matter of concern to Jesuit superiors. In 1843 Father Roothaan appealed to Father William Stack Murphy, when the latter was rector of St Mary's College, Lebanon, Ky., for an explanation and was answered thus
You ask me, Very Reverend Father, why there are so few vocations at St Mary's. I think one can assign seveial reasons for this I* The small number of Catholic [students]. 2 They are pooi and scaicely remain more than one or two years except the Creoles, who aie soft and sensual and arc brought up at home without religion and m the midst of slaves.1'*4 J The Americans m general like independence too much and from the cradle the children do almost what they like, thinking [only] of making money and one day having a home in some far-away locality, the best among them want to make a trial of the world, of business, and of bbeity before settling down. This year three or four pupils will leave here for the seminaries, I think they are all suited for the Society, but they dread a career of teaching and, besides, are still to be disillusioned of the liberty of the country and their eailier educa- tion, which is so much at variance with the religious life and even the ecclesi- astical state 135
As to the view expressed by Father Murphy that American youths were too independent and for this and other reasons were poorly qualified for the religious life and the Jesuit life in particular, it was not, though shared by others besides himself, by any means general among Jesuits resident in the United States. The Frenchman, Father
184 The term "Creole" was generally applied to persons of French or Spanish blood born in the United States Cf Beckwith, The Cteotes of $t Louts. The Creoles attending St Mary's and Bardstown were mostly from the South.
IBB Murphy a Roothaan, July 10, 1843. (AA).
TRAINING THE PERSONNEL 649
de Gn\el, master of novices at White Marsh, Maryland, in the thirties, \\as of a different opinion as he informed Father Roothaan
Oui mniccb aic good. They told me m Europe, and the English espe-
cialh beliae it, that the Amencan chaiacter is not suited to the Society As I
see it, the) aic deceived It is more docile than the English as this is moie
docile than the Fiench [chaiactei] I attribute this to two reasons (i) pater-
nal authonn is more inspected, (2) the icsult of Political Liberty such as
exists hen and m England is to mspuc more respect for the laws than in
the absolute monaichies or even m such as are tempered as was France before
1780 It is a unifoim fact What is the reason of it? Perhaps it is because
the J'nglish and the Amencans make 01 think they make their own laws.
However this m.ij be, I have seen the pupils of Stonyhurst and Georgetown
submit without the least difficulty to the rules of the college and the novices
of Hoddei and Wlntemaish to those of the Society. They say, it is the law
(the nil**) and that settles it1'*0
When Father Murphy assigned an economic reason, namely the
poverty of the average American Catholic family of the day, to account
for the prevailing lack of vocations to the priesthood and religious life,
he went far towards explaining the phenomenon. Other reasons there
umiouhtedl) were, but unfavorable or distressing home conditions of
an economic order must necessarily tend to discourage young people
from devoting themselves to the service of the Church It is further
to be noted that at the period of Father Murphy's letter the great tides
of German and Irish immigration that were later to prove so decisive
a factor in building up a native Amencan clergy had not yet set m. The
bulk of Catholic students, apart from the Creoles, registered at St.
MarvV College were very probably of Maryland or Kentucky stock
or Minihir American strains,
DC (fnvcIVs good opinion of the American novices was shared by
another French novice-master, Gleizal, who had this to say to Father
Beckx of the candidates at Florissant* "In general, the American novices
arc talented and most of them are pious and docile j they owe it no
doubt to the education they have received m our colleges." I3T On
American youth in general as material for the Society he made this
further comment. "It is idle to say that Americans educated in our
colleges and entering the Society are as yielding as the young men of
other nationalities. On the contrary, in my opinion they have a fund
of Ability which you rarely find in our youth of Europe." 188 At the
same time, as between European novices and those born in the United
States of American stock, preference was given as late as the sixties to
Roothaan,
Roewhaan, May 15, 185*. (AA). «*C5H?i'/.aI i Beckx> February 6, 1856. (AA).
650 THE JESUITS OF THE MIDDLE UNITED STATES
the former. "Experience proves," said Father Coosemans in 1864, "that these [Belgians and Hollanders] suit best and in many respects are preferable to candidates from this country" An explanation was at- tempted by Father Isidore Boudreaux, himself American-born "I find the Europeans, all things being otherwise equal, preferable to the Americans The latter m general are little inclined to the interior life and have a fund of independence which accords poorly with the re- ligious spirit. I mean to speak especially of Anglo-Americans. But one finds noble exceptions The Europeans have in general a livelier faith, a more tender piety and a more submissive spirit I find in general little difference between the Europeans and those born in America of Euro- pean parents." 139
As the candidates were coming neither from the colleges nor from any other quarter on the American side of the water, at least in adequate numbers, they had to be sought m Europe. The result was that the majority of novices entering at Florissant down to the period of the seventies were of other than American stock "Heretofore the Missouri Province," wrote Father Rubillon in 1856, "has had a personnel made up largely of Europeans and every year it receives recruits [from abroad] " How the Missouri Jesuits were thus recruited almost entirely from Europe during the period preceding the mid-forties has been told at a preceding stage of this history.140 Subsequent steps m the process of securing reenforcements are recorded here.
Father Elet's Memorial submitted to the General m Rome m 1 848 has this paragraph
The novitiate in Missoun is about empty No one comes any more from Belgium where good Fathei Van de Velde spoiled things A little. Subjects are wanting everywhere m our far-flung but feeble Vice-Province, Let your Paternity then permit those who ask for it and who have the Required qualities to leave for Missoun, among others. Father Van Derkes of Brussels, who speaks English, De Vos of Lou vain, who speaks English, Ponzighone of Genoa, Baboz of Chambery, the coadjutoi -brothers Beyens, Van Dumme of Brussels, and Van Houtvelt of Antwerp
That none of the individuals named except Father Ponzighone reached Missoun was due probably to the inability or reluctance of their provincials to part with them As a result, however, of the efforts of Fathers Elet and De Smet, while m Europe in 1848, to receive recruits, a party of five arrived that year m St. Louis, Father Charles Elet, brother of the vice-provincial, and four scholastic-novices, Louis Heylen, Charles Vertongen, Daniel Swagemakers, and William Niederkorn.
189 Boudreaux a Beckx, April 25, 1863. I405u?ra, Chap XI
TRAINING THE PERSONNEL 651
Scarcely had Father Elet been announced as vice-provincial on his return to St. Louis in the June of 1848 when he was confronted with the problem of providing for a] most fifty members of the province of Upper Germany, who sought refuge with their brethren of the Middle West after the revolutionary upheaval on the Continent some months before. Within two or three years most of these refugees had returned to Europe, but some of their number, as Fathers Schultz, Tschieder, Weber, and Wippern, attached themselves permanently to the Missouri vice-province, which they were to serve for many years with noteworthy efficiency and zeal Some of these accessions were of German, others of Swiss or Alsatian stock, together they formed the most considerable group of German-speaking Jesuits that had yet lent their services to the Society in the Middle West. The presence in the vice-province of the refugees of 184.8 eased considerably the disagreeable situation created b\ the lack of sufficient subjects and enabled superiors to withdraw a few at least of the scholastics and younger fathers from the colleges and set them to pursue belated studies in philosophy or theology. In view of arrangements made in the expectation that the services of these European Jesuits would continue to be available for several years at least, Fathers Elet and Murphy protested their recall to Europe, but this btep had finall) to be acquiesced in since the group in question belonged on every reasonable ground to Germany, where their aid in educational and other work was imperatively demanded.
To no one did the problem of recruiting give greater concern than to the novice-master, Father Gleizal, who touched upon it repeatedly in hib correspondence with the Generals. He was especially insistent that some one be sent to Europe with a view to enlisting candidates. A communication of his to Father Roothaan reads:
A word now on out poor little Novitiate It is composed of 12 scholastic- novices and 13 coadjutor-novices Among the scholastic-novices arc found 4 Americans, the oldest of whom is not yet 20, All 4 have good talent and virtue and arc veiy agreeable characters. [There arc, besides,] 2 Germans, 2 Frenchmen, I Hollander, and 3 Irishmen. So far I have every reason to believe that they have a true vocation to the Society and aie corresponding to the grace of their vocation But, after all, what is this handful of workeis still in embryo in the face of needs of which Europe can form no idea? I tremble for these poor lads when I think that in view of the state of our humble Vice* Province it will piobably be necessary to make them gallop through the studies and tests of the Society, while here more so even than elsewhere, they should be made to pass through all the stages of the Institute. I do not mean to say by this that we have no need of foreign subjects. I do not think that the United States can provide for the spiritual needs of a population such as ours without foreign auxiliaries, at least for some time to
652 THE JESUITS OF THE MIDDLE UNITED STATES
come And so I don't cease repeating to our Reverend Father Piovmcial that it is of the first necessity for us to send some one to Europe for the purpose of making choice of good subjects with a genuine vocation to the Society 141
Four years later Gleizal expressed himself again on the same topic to Father Beckx
I have formed a judgment for some years back which cveiythmg I see and hear only goes to confirm and corroborate It is evident that America is not yet self -supporting , it still needs a gieat many European subjects The Society is m the same fix, it also needs Euiopeans But how is it possible to draw these youths to America and m numbei sufficient foi our needs if no one of Ours is brought into immediate contact with them The Vicar-General of the Archbishop of St Louis on returning from a visit to Germany assured our Fathers that if some one of Ouis were to visit Europe, he would find a great number of subjects foi this country; but foi this it is necessary to see these young people and speak to them It is idle to say that Europe has need of its own subjects, most of these young men would prefer America if the means of emigration were easier and were better known This seems to me a point of the utmost importance and one which demands attention.142
In the event GleizaPs oft-repeated recommendation was acted upon and that more than once, the outstanding figure in this movement being Father Peter De Smet.
Since 1847 no applicants for the American missions had presented themselves from the seminary of Bois-le-duc in North Brabant, which had previously furnished many vocations for this distant field. Com- plaint was made that numerous seminarians who had offered themselves for America had been detained by the provincials of Holland and Belgium The result, as alleged, was that after 1847 seminarians who could not be diverted from their desire for the American missions either joined the Redemptonsts or came over as diocesan priests.1 13 But the stream of novices from the Low Countries, thus interrupted for some years, began to flow again m 1853, m which year Father De Smet personally conducted overseas a party of eight, the scholastic Joseph Van Leugenhaege and the novices Charles Coppens, John Schoensetters, James Miller, Polydore Moreau, Henry Goosens, Everhard Brandts, and Joseph Van Zeeland.144 While the party was on its way, Father Murphy was writing to the General*
14lGleizal a Roothaan, May 15, 1852 (AA). 142Gleizal a Roothaan, February 6, 1856 (AA). 148 De Smet a Beckx, January 5, 1854. (AA).
144 Miller, Brandts and Moreau severed their connection with the Society, the first two as novices, the last named as a scholastic.
TRAINING THE PERSONNEL 653
We await with impatience the arrival of Father De Smet with his little troop, he was to embark on November 23 at Havre on the Humboldt We have just learned that the ship foundered near Halifax, Nova Scotia, but without being wrecked This reenforcement will later on put us very much at ease If the new Belgians and Hollanders succeed as well as their prede- cessors, the Vice-Province will have good reason indeed to congratulate itself on the trip made by Father De Smet This good Father is highly pleased with the treatment accoided him by our folk in the two Provinces which he traversed. We pray heaven and our Father St. Ignatius to recompense them a hundredfold, we even flatter oui selves that they will adopt us anew and aid us in all sorts of ways as foimerly,145
Father De Smet's visit to Belgium and Holland in 1853 had awak- ened, notably so, he declared, "the spirit of the Missions"; the eight candidates he brought back with him were not the only indication of this result. Again, on a visit to the Low Countries in 1856-1857 he enlisted seven young men, all of them Belgians, for Missouri Leopold Buys- schaert (Bushart), Peter Leysen, Ignatius Panken, Aloysius Laigned, Francis X. Kuppens, Leopold Van Gorp and Angelus Pattou. They had all been admitted into the Society in Belgium and, accompanied over- seas by De Smet, reached Florissant in the May of 1857. Ctf the num- ber Buysschaert was a junior scholastic, having entered the Society in 1854. "Vocations continue to be rare in America," De Smet wrote in i860, "we must pm our hopes on receiving accessions [from abroad], especially from Belgium and Holland." 14° In 1861 he returned from Europe with three candidates "of excellent promise," as he described them, Aloysius Lambeir (Lambert), Theophile Van der Moortel, and Theophile Servais.147
In April, 1863, the Civil War being just two years old, Father Isidore Boudreaux expressed his concern over the unpromising outlook for the novitiate:
But there is one thing which touches us very closely and which I attribute to the war; it is that no more novices arc coming to us. We have only eleven scholastic-novices, four of whom will presently finish their novitiate. Of the others, one must leave shortly as he has an impediment [to admission]. Our colleges promise us very few subjects. They may perhaps send us two or three this year, but we are not sure of a single one. Our only hope is the trip to Europe which Father Smarms will soon undertake. I hope the number of
145 Murphy & Becbc, December 8, 1853, (AA).
w*Do Smet a Bcckx, February 4, i860. (AA).
UT Theophile Servais left the Society as a novice, May 12, 1861. Theophile Van der Moortel and Aloysius Lambeir (Lambert) became priests but subsequently withdrew from the Society, the former in 1879, &* lattcr in
654 THE JESUITS OF THE MIDDLE UNITED STATES
novices he will bring back will answer our needs May he succeed I am buoyed up by the hope of having a good number of European novices 14S
Father Smarms, who had gone to Europe in 1863, returned with only a single novice, though he left two other candidates behind him in Belgium where they were to continue their studies The following year Father De Smet crossed the Atlantic for the fourteenth time, land- ing at Liverpool in October and subsequently visiting England, Bel- gium, Holland, Luxemburg and Ireland. In August of the same year, 1864, Father Coosemans penned a letter to the General, having the day before admitted to the noviceship a student of St. Louis University, Ferdinand Weinman, a native son of Louisville, Kentucky .
Vocations are raie, he [Weinman] is the only scholastic I have icceived since March For all the efforts we have made to interest St Joseph in oui favor, we have scarcely succeeded Heaven seems to be deaf to oui prayers We console ouiselves with the thought that we do not penetiate the futuie and that the Lord, fiom whom nothing is hidden, disposes all things for his greater glory and for our good Father De Smet might obtain some good subjects in Belgium and Holland,149
Coosemans's hopes were not to be deceived When De Smet returned to St. Louis from Europe June 30, 1865, he had with him eleven new members for Missouri. These were the scholastic James G. \Valt»he7 and the scholastic-novices James J. O'Meara, Edward A. Murphy, Constan- tme Lagae, William Aerts, Francis J. Luytens, Peter Van Loco, John Van Krevel, Michael Van Agt, James F. De Young and Theodore W. Oldenhof 15° Father Boudreaux was delighted and hastened, while the party was still on the way, to convey the news to Father Beckx. "Father De Smet is now en route with 13 new novices, to wit, 4 Belgians, 4 Hollanders, and 5 Englishmen and Irishmen. It is the largest number that ever came from Europe to Missouri. May all be animated with the very best spirit and become useful workers for the Gospel.** ir>1
148 Boudreaux a Beckx, April 25, 1863. (AA), "Still I do not doubt that his [Smarms's] visit to the various colleges and seminaries will do good and con- tribute to encourage the pupils to remain faithful to the \ocation which the Lord may subsequently give them for the dibtant missions, not do I doubt that some day we shall have the happiness of garnering a part at least of the fruits to be produced by the seed which he has just now planted/' Coosemans a Beckx, August 16, 1863. (AA)
149 Coosemans a Beckx, August 7(?), 1864 (AA).
150 Gnetens on De Smet's list is apparently for Luytens, in which form the name occurs in the official register Of the 1865 party Murphy, Aerts, Luytens and De Young separated from the Society as novices and Oldenhof a< a Scholastic O'Meara, the last Jesuit survivor of the group, died at Flons>sant> January 3, 1933.
151 Boudreaux a Beckx, July i, 1865. (AA).
TRAINING THE PERSONNEL 655
In 1867 Father Coosemans was summoned to Rome by Father Beckx to give information on the question at issue between the Society and the Bishop of Louisville over Bardstown. At the Jesuit novitiate of Roehampton in England he was permitted to appeal to the novices for volunteers to accompany him back to America. He depicted the scanty resources of the Missouri Province in men and the alluring field it presented for self -sacrificing apostolic work. Two of the young men of the novitiate presented themselves, Thomas Hughes and Thomas Knowles. The latter withdrew from the Society shortly after reaching Florissant, the former still lives (1937) at an advanced age, having achieved distinction as the scholarly historian of the Society of Jesus in North America. By 1868 the number of novices had dwindled again to the grave concern of the General, who advised Father Boudreaux that he was to use all the greater care in training the few he had. "I am glad to see that more have gone to you this year and these indeed of such a type that they seem truly called to the Society, but I regret that they are still too few to meet the very pressing needs of your province " In October, 1868, Father Coosemans was writing again on the subject to Father Beckx:
At St. Stanislaus the number of scholastic novices is very small A candi- date fiom St. Louis and another fiom Cincinnati and that is all Fathci Damcn promises only tlnec 01 foiu fiom Holland After all, when thcie is question of recruiting foi the Novitiate it is Father Do Smet who has always succeeded be$»t HI obtaining good subjects and these in numbeis, as also money for the PIOVIIKC and missions How giateful I should be to oui Loid were He to inspire your Pateinity to send him an order or else a permission to go again to Km ope, where, especially now that his successful expedition to the Indians has become known, he might he useful to our Fathers in Belgium, at least indirectly, as also to our own little Province.152
Father Cooscmans's wishes were realized. Father De Smet under- took a fresh journey overseas, crossing the ocean for the seventeenth time and arriving at Liverpool m December, 1868. When he returned in June of the following year he had with him two sons of the independ- ent Duchy of 1 .uxemburg, John Peter Fneden and Nicholas Schlechter, the former of whom was destined to render conspicuous administrative services to the Society, occupying in turn the posts of rector of Detroit College, provincial of Missouri, superior of the California Mission and rector of St. Louis University*
But now had come the long-expected turning-point m the fortunes
152Cooseman8 a Beckx, October 2, 1868 (AA). Father Damcn in company with Father Van Goch had gone to Holland in 1868 to try to secure a loan with which to finish the college he had begun m Chicago*
656 THE JESUITS OF THE MIDDLE UNITED STATES
of the novitiate. It began to be recruited not so much by accessions from abroad as by vocations from the colleges. On November i, 1869, Father Boudreaux, the novice-master, was happy to inform the General that sixteen candidates had been received for the scholastic year, 1868-1869, nearly all of them products of Jesuit education in St. Louis or Cincin- nati. The last-named city had been especially liberal in supplying candi- dates, the novitiate counting no fewer than eleven Cincmnatians. Father Boudreaux expressed to the Father General his satisfaction with these numerous recruits and noted that some of them were equipped with talent above the ordinary.153
While the colleges up to this period had by no means met reasonable expectations in the number of candidates furnished by them to the novi- tiate, it must be pointed out that they were not entirely unproductive in this regard. Prior to 1860 some at least of the Florissant novices had come from Jesuit colleges of the Middle West. The list of such includes among other names those of Isidore and Florentine Boudreaux, Thomas O'Neil, Joseph Keller, Frederick Garesche, John Venneman, Henry Schaapman, John Lesperance, Francis Stuntebeck, Thomas Miles, Joseph Kermon, Edward Higgms, Phillip Colleton, Thomas Chambers, Rudolph Meyer and Andrew O'Neill. What is to be noted about these names is that they represent a surprisingly large proportion of Jesuits of future distinction in administrative and other capacities.
Notwithstanding the gratifying proportion of Amencan-born and Jesuit-educated novices received m 1869, the need of maintaining a steady influx of candidates still kept the hopes of the province authori- ties fixed in a measure on the Old World, which had been so generous in the past In 1871 Father Coosemans was again petitioning the Gen- eral for leave to dispatch a father to Europe to recruit for novices.154 Father De Smet as usual was the choice for this commission, which he discharged successfully, returning to St. Louis m the spring of 1872 after having crossed the Atlantic for the nineteenth and last time. He brought with him a party of eight recruits Father John Van Leent, already a Jesuit, Michael Kennedy, a scholastic, and six scholastic- novices, Father John Condon and Ambrose D'Arcy, Hugo M. P. Finne- gan, John De Schryver, Louis Jacquet and Theodore Schaak, the last named a Luxemburger m Father Boudreaux had written to De Smet while he was still in Europe- "I learn with pleasure that you have two
158 Of the novices at this time, two, Frieden and Fitzgerald, were subsequently provincials of Missouri, Michael Dowlmg and James Hoeffer, rectors of colleges, Father Frederick Hagemann, rector of the novitiate and master of novices, and Michael O'Neil, assistant-provincial
154 Coosemans a Beckx, May 31, 1871. (AA).
185 A Guidi included in the De Smet list of recruits for 1872 docs not figure
TRAINING THE PERSONNEL 657
Luxemburgers for us It has always been my opinion that even one good subject sufficiently repays a trip to Europe. Who would not cross the ocean for a Buysschaert, a Coppens, a Zealand and so many others that >ou have brought over." 15G
The only considerable contingent of foreign-born novices to be regis- tered at Florissant after Father De Smet passed away arrived there in 1874. Of the twenty-two scholastic novices admitted in that year, fifteen came from Europe, most of them being Frenchmen or Belgians In the late seventies and following years the percentage of American-born novices went on increasing until by the nineties a foreign-born novice was a rarity.157 The United States had ceased to be a missionary country and the ranks of the clergy, secular and religious, were being recruited from the native-born youth of the land In this happy consummation the Catholic schools came to play a notable part, the Society of Jesus
in any of the official registers. Altogether Father De Smet had brought over on his various return-trips from Europe eighty- four accessions to the Society in the Middle West Though his autograph libt gives this total with names, it would appear that some of the candidates listed did not actually enter the novitiate Under the caption "Memorandum oi the contributions and expeditions made in Belgium and Holland in favor of our Mo Piovmce from 1832 till 1872 April 1 i," De Smet drew up an itemized account of all monies collected by him between 1832 and 1872 in the countries named, together with a list of all the recruits he secured in Europe for the American missions The monies, which included a cash valuation set on material of various sorts obtained by De Smet in Europe, aggregated 1,225,53641 francs, approximately $245,107, the recruits numbered eighty-four The current tradition that he brought over more than a hundred notice* is not quite accuiate
150 Boudreaux to De Smet, October 29, 1871. (A) Father De Smet's recruiting was confined to scholastic-novices or candidates for the priesthood In his time lay or coadjutor-bi others could be obtained in the United States with comparative ease. During the period 1850-1862 forty per cent of all candidates received at Florissant were lay brothers, approximately half the number being of Irish birth For the period just indicated, 1850-1862, the lay brothers were distributed as follows according to nationality Irish, thirty-six, German, twenty-nine, Dutch, three; French, one, Austrian, one, American, one Strangely enough no Belgian is found in the list. The first of that nationality to be admitted as a novice-brother after 1846 was Leo Sinner, July 8, 1862* So numerous were the coadjutor-brothers at one time that the advisability of admitting no more was seriously taken under consideration But the percentage of this class in the total membership of the vice- province or province of Missouri has steadily declined In 1847 ** ^ood at 50%, falling to 44% in 1853, 30% in 1880 and i$% in 1928 A number of booklets explanatory of the life of the Jesuit lay brother are in print, e g , William Mitchell, SJ., Why Not If (1919)5 Matthew Germing, SJ., Go ye also into my Vineyard (1924), id^ SMI / be a Jesuit? (1924)5 Edward J Meier, SJ, Unknown Soldiers of CAnst; How Jesuit Brothers Aid in Extending Chnsfs Kingdom (t* 1930) , The Making of a Jeswt Lay Brother (1932).
w Of the class of eighteen scholastic-novices admitted at Florissant in 1890 only two were foreign-born.
658 THE JESUITS OF THE MIDDLE UNITED STATES
in America being now almost entirely reenforced with candidates from its own high-schools and colleges
Though various foreign racial strains had thus combined to make up the membership of the Jesuit body at work in the middlewestern states, there could be no doubt of the essential Americanism of the resulting amalgam At St. Louis, Cincinnati, and Bardstown, Jesuit educators, seizing sympathetically the American point of view, were leading young men along the paths of civic loyalty while they sought to give them an academic training in keeping with the needs of time and place. As has been pointed out more than once in this narrative, the Dutch and Belgian groups were specially happy in their facile acqui- sition of English and their instinctive readiness to adjust themselves to the American milieu. At Florissant in 1856 Gleizal, the novice- master, marvelled at the linguistic cleverness of young Henry Schaap- man. "Though born in Holland, (he was educated m St Louis), he speaks English with the facility of an American " The single Belgian member of the novitiate at this moment was also quick to pick up the vernacular. "Even now he speaks English with a perfection that amazes us." 158 So it was that Gleizal when appealing in 1855 to Father Beckx to send reenforcements to Missouri could write "Would it be an indis- cretion to ask you to look m the direction of Belgium, the children of which know so well how to adjust themselves to American customs and to the American character?" 15° Father De Smet had expressed the same idea the year before "The Reverend Father Provincial of Belgium has just sent us a good novice [Henry Roest], a distinguished pupil of the college of Turnhout We have great hopes that Belgium and Hol- land will procure some novices for us every year. The Belgians and Hollanders become used very quickly to the climate and wajs of the country." The readiness with which these groups became Americanized explains much of the success they met with as well in the ministry as m the field of education Father Walter Hill said of Father Van Assche, one of the Florissant pioneers of 1823 "He greatly admired the gov- ernment, civil character and manners of the American people; he always spoke and felt as one of them and he judged this to be the true spirit of our rule " 16°
Belgium and Holland were not the only European countries to fur- nish recruits. In the forties a few Italians as Fathers Di Maria and Nota, as also one or other Spaniard, as Fathers Insarri and Parrondo, were to be found m the West, but none of them remained there beyond a few years with the exception of Father Di Maria, who after several
158 Gleizal a Beckx, February 6, 1856 (AA).
159 Gleizal a Beckx, June 10, 1855. (AA)
100 De Smet a Beckx, August 9, 1854 (AA) Diary of Walter Hill, SJ. (A).
TRAINING THE PERSONNEL 659
years spent in the Missouri Vice-province passed at his own request to the Maryland Province. In 1 848 Father Elet was petitioning the Gen- eral to send him some Spanish fathers to aid the Mexican students then resident in numbers in the colleges or else to labor in the contemplated California mission, which he could not himself provide for out of his own meagre resources in men. The German or Swiss group of 1848 quartered for a space m Missouri houses remained practically detached from the vice-province and were subject at any time to recall by their superiors in Europe. In the sequel the majority of them were m effect recalled to their own province and sooner than the Missouri superiors were expecting with the result that the latter found themselves seri- ously embarrassed in the management of their affairs But the Swiss Provincial, Father Minoux, had at no time given assurance to the Mis- souri superiors that his men were to remain for any considerable period and much less permanently in the vice-province
A similar situation arose in 1854 when a contingent of four Pied- montese Jesuits from the province of Turin, Fathers Congteto, Messea, Caredda and Brother Nobili, who had been employed m the Middle West for some years previously, were rather unexpectedly summoned to California by their own superior. " [The Piedmontese] with some of the Swiss Fathers," De Smet informed the General, "are the only ones who have known how to appreciate the position of the Society m America Most of the others returned to Europe with great prejudices against the country, the people, the climate and several here lost their vocation, and, it is much to be feared, their faith. These arrivals from Kurope and precipitate returns certain] y worked harm to our Vice- Province." 11JI To Father Accolti, superior of the Oregon Mission, De Smet wrote August 17, 1854: "It is useless to tell you what a feeling is created by the sudden departure or recall of several of our best men. . . , Revd, F[ather) Prov1 (as F. Ponza states m his letter to F Con- giato) did indeed propose to you an exchange of subjects, that is, lay brothers, but soon after he wrote to F. General that it was not advisable to do so. We, of this Vice-Province are far from finding fault with the recall of subjects by their Superiors, we are thankful for the services rendered to usj we say in particular of the Italian Fathers that they have adapted themselves to circumstances and have given great satisfac- tion 5 but owing to the very great inconveniences and disappointment caused by the sudden departures of the last three years, F. General has been written to that it is by no means desirable to send European Jesuits to this country, unless to Missions belonging to their own Prov-
im DC Smet * Beckx, August 9, 1854. (AA)
660 THE JESUITS OF THE MIDDLE UNITED STATES
nice. I am sure your Revce will see things in the same light." 162 Some- what later the provincial of Turin, to which province California was attached, petitioned Father Murphy for men for California, offering to send him m exchange some professors for the colleges. The offer was not accepted. "Even though we had men to send meanwhile to Cali- fornia/3 commented De Smet, "there is reason to fear these newcomers may not get along so well in Missouri, a thing which I regret to say is true of so many exiles " 163 The truth of the matter, then, is that, apart from the Belgians and Hollanders who came to identify them- selves with the country and to live in it permanently, most of the European Jesuits who lent their services at one time or another to the Jesuit body in the Middle West achieved only a passing connection with it. The situation was summed up by Father Boudreaux in 1861 . "Ever since our Vice-Province has been in existence, we have had men from other provinces, very few of them took root among us Most of them went away after having suffered much themselves and caused suffering to others." 164 As the Church does not attain to mature growth without a native clergy, so the Society of Jesus in tfie United States was not to see its normal development until it could recruit its membership from American youth And this day, long delayed, came at last with the eighteen-seventies
162 De Smet to Accolti August 17, 1854 (AA)
163 De Smet a Beckx, February 25, 1855. (AA)
164 Boudreaux a Beckx, January 15, 1861 (AA).