Father Pierre François Pinet, S. J., and his Mission of the guardian angel of Chicago (L'Ange gardien) 1696-1699:

Google

This is a digital copy of a book that was preserved for generations on library shelves before it was carefully scanned by Google as part of a project

to make the world's books discoverable online.

It has survived long enough for the copyright to expire and the book to enter the public domain. A public domain book is one that was never subject

to copyright or whose legal copyright term has expired. Whether a book is in the public domain may vary country to country. Public domain books

are our gateways to the past, representing a wealth of history, culture and knowledge that's often difficult to discover.

Marks, notations and other maiginalia present in the original volume will appear in this file - a reminder of this book's long journey from the

publisher to a library and finally to you.

Usage guidelines

Google is proud to partner with libraries to digitize public domain materials and make them widely accessible. Public domain books belong to the
public and we are merely their custodians. Nevertheless, this work is expensive, so in order to keep providing tliis resource, we liave taken steps to
prevent abuse by commercial parties, including placing technical restrictions on automated querying.
We also ask that you:

+ Make non-commercial use of the files We designed Google Book Search for use by individuals, and we request that you use these files for
personal, non-commercial purposes.

+ Refrain fivm automated querying Do not send automated queries of any sort to Google's system: If you are conducting research on machine
translation, optical character recognition or other areas where access to a large amount of text is helpful, please contact us. We encourage the
use of public domain materials for these purposes and may be able to help.

+ Maintain attributionTht GoogXt "watermark" you see on each file is essential for in forming people about this project and helping them find
additional materials through Google Book Search. Please do not remove it.

+ Keep it legal Whatever your use, remember that you are responsible for ensuring that what you are doing is legal. Do not assume that just
because we believe a book is in the public domain for users in the United States, that the work is also in the public domain for users in other
countries. Whether a book is still in copyright varies from country to country, and we can't offer guidance on whether any specific use of
any specific book is allowed. Please do not assume that a book's appearance in Google Book Search means it can be used in any manner
anywhere in the world. Copyright infringement liabili^ can be quite severe.

About Google Book Search

Google's mission is to organize the world's information and to make it universally accessible and useful. Google Book Search helps readers
discover the world's books while helping authors and publishers reach new audiences. You can search through the full text of this book on the web

at |http: //books .google .com/I

n

51-8.31

G8S

A 403607

ier rierrc nran^ois Pmet, s. j.

aad his

Mission of the Guardian Angel
of Ctiicago

A. D. 1696/1699

FRANK R. OROVER

PRESENTED BY
THE SOCIETY

A, D. 16964699

FATHER PIERRE FRANCOIS PINET, S. J.

AND HIS MISSION

OF THE GUARDIAN ANGEL OF CHICAGO

I{L'Ange Gardien)

T

FATHER PIERRE FRAN9OIS PINET, S. /. AND

HIS MISSION OF THE GUARDIAN ANGEL

("L'ANGE GARDIEN") OF CHICAGO

A. D., 1696-1699.

The most interesting part of the history of any
locality in America, whether from the view point of the
writer or of the reader, is the simple annals of those
hardy and daring men who first penetrated the unknown
wilderness. This is not due alone to the interest which
the average American always has in enterprise and adven-
ture, but quite as much to the romance that will ever
surround the mental picture, painted anew with each
successive reading, of the primeval forests and prairies,
the lakes and rivers, and streams, as they were in those
far away and yet nearby days, when the Red-man, in all
his native simplicity, unchanged by the white man*s
civilization, held undisputed ownership. Still another
reason, is the fact that these men themselves possessed
such forceful qualities and individuality as to command
not only our interest, but our respect and admiration.
Every locality, however small, has its corps of explorers
and pioneers — its more or less ancient heroes.

Of no less interest are the sites where these men,
who will ever live in history, first established their per-
manent abodes, whether in building a rude fort for pro-
tection against savage tribes or encroaching colonists;
a mission house to spread the doctrines of Christianity,
or the humble log cabin of the Indian trader or the tiller
of the soil. And so the writers also give special promin-
ence to those few places where these men of iron and
enterprise first laid the foundations for the later mul-
titude.

155

167697

It is my purpose to tell you what I have been able
to learn of one of these men, a Jesuit missionary —
PIERRE FRANQOIS PINET, and of his Chicago mis-
sion, **The Mission of the Guardian Angel," where,
over two hundred years ago, near the western shore of
Lake Michigan, he began his labors among the Indian
tribes of our state.

Two and a half centuries form but a brief epoch in
the histories of many countries of the old world. A like
space of time not only covers the entire written history
of Illinois, but reaches into such remote antiquity that
we find no record. We all know that the written history
of Illinois begins with the expedition of Father Marquette
and Joliet in the year 1673. The histories of Illinois also
tell us that twenty-seven years later, in the year 1700,
the first permanent settlements in our state began with
the founding of two Catholic missions by Father Pinet
at Cahokia and Kaskaskia, but the writers fail to record
the fact that on the western shore of Lake Michigan,
which in these modern days of Chicago's greatness we
call **The North Shore, " and within two miles of the city
limits of Evanston, this same Father Pinet in the year
1696, twenty-three years after the first expedition of
Marquette, four years before Cahokia or Kaskaskia were
thought of, ninety-four years before the first perma-
nent white settler* built his log cabin at Chicago, and
over thirty-five years before the birth of Washington,
founded his first Illinois Mission among the Miami Indians
on the bank of what was then an inland lake and which
in these days we call **The Skokie," — with one exception
the oldest mission in the state of Illinois.

Father Pinet, who founded this North Shore mission,
was a typical member of the Society of Jesus and of that
great company of Jesuit missionaries who played such
important parts in all the history of New France, and
especially in that of the Northwest. It will therefore.

^Antoine Ouilmette.

a

166

not be out of place, first, to consider in outline a little of
the life and a few of the characteristics of that illustrious
class of men, whose self sacrificing deeds are as imperish-
able as any of the great achievements of history, and
doing so will enable us to see in some measure the trials,
the hardships and the labors which were the daily lot of
this good Father in the wilderness, at the Mission of the
Guardian Angel on the North Shore, over two centuries
ago.

THE JESUIT MISSIONARIES

were for the most part, men of learning and refinement,
reared and educated amid the luxury and ease of con-
tinental Europe, often men of fortune and noble birth,
utter strangers to hardship and manual labor, but the
vows of the Society of Jesus, and their fidelity to its
cause put behind them forever all these things so dear to
the average ease-loving, selfish man.

The Society, bent upon spreading and perpetuating
the doctrines of the Church of Rome throughout the
world, undertook the gigantic and impossible task of
turning the savages of the far away land of North
America from the medicine man and the tom-tom to the
priest and to the cross of Christ.

The army of willing votaries and self-sacrificing vol-
unteers who promptly responded to this call have largely
written the history of New France and the Northwest,
during an epoch of over a century of time, and have for-
ever stamped their personalties, their achievements and
their adventures upon its pages, and their names indelibly
upon the maps of all our states.

The missionary of these days, of whatever creed,
sets out on his mission to foreign lands with all the ease,
comfort and dispatch that our modern civilization and
its swift means of transportation so richly afford; with
few exceptions he lives in comparative comfort and with
assured safety. Far different was the experience of these
Jesuit Fathers, who for weeks and often months were

157

tossed in crowded and slow sailing vessels by the winds
and waves of the Atlantic ocean, to lead at the end of
the journey, a life often too shortly terminated by a
martyr's death, amid hardships and dangers that no
writer can appreciate or describe.

The arrival at Quebec or Montreal was often but the
mere beginning of the journey, for long, weary days and
weeks and months must elapse with the hardest and most
constant toil at the paddles of the birch bark canoes,
amid sunshine and storm, rain and snow, up and down
rivers, skirting great lakes, crossing smaller ones; pack-
ing by hand, canoes, personal belongings and supplies
over long portages or around impeding cataracts; at
times fighting their way through the country of hostile
tribes, before the journey ended at last in the distant
wilderness, where the real labors of these men began.

After building with their own hands, from the raw
material of a prinieval forest, their wigwams, log cabins
or mission houses, they were confronted with the difficult
task of telling the story of the Christ and the Virgin to
pagan savages in an unlearned and difficult language
which was theirs to master. Though men of letters, the
many new problems in the great school of woodcraft had
to be solved and also mastered as by little children in a
primary school, e*er they could hope to further penetrate
with success the dark and silent forests, the endless and
often unexplored wildernesses, with their many hidden
dangers.

In imperfect imagination only can we follow them
in a very small part of their further trials and journeys,
feasting or starving with the particular Indians with
whom their lot was cast, enduring the filth and vermin
of an Indian village, accompanying the tribe on the
hunt, on the war-path, sometimes pursuers and sometimes
pursued, in dead of winter on long snow-shoe journeys
through the deep snow in quest of food, or to visit some
distant band or tribe, at all times striving to make savage
friends by giving material aid in sickness and in health,

m

while ministering to supposed spiritual needs, constantly
teaching the youth; in times of pestilence, famine or
other ill fortune in war, often facing the unrelenting
vengeance, born of savage superstition, which charged
the wearer of the black robe, as the sole author or source
of the particular misfortune; often paying the penalty
with their lives after enduring long and indescribable
Indian torture. Such was the lot of the Jesuit missionary
in the days of Father Pinet. For all this the Jesuit
counted himself amply rewarded if there were con-
verts, however few. At times the harvest seemed rich,
but more frequently the stolid curiosity of the idle Indian,
gathering in crowds to hear the word, was mistaken for
the working of the Holy Spirit.

PIERRE FRANQOIS PINET.

There is abundant evidence to show that Father
Pinet possessed such force of character, determination,
fervor and zeal as to face, endure and accomplish all
these hard and self sacrificing tasks. He came to Illinois
in the prime of young manhood, when he was bat thirty-
six years of age, and during the succeeding eight years
preceding his death at Cahokia, about the year 1704,
founded three missions, including the one here considered,
at least two of which were entirely successful from the
standpoint of the missionary.

During these eight years of unceasing toil and hard-
ship, he was ever at his post of duty, among the tribes
of the Illinois country and his field of labor covered very
much of the present confines of our state, for we read of
him not only with the Miamis at the Mission of the
Guardian Angel; at old Kaskaskia; with the Tamaroas
on the Mississippi, near the mouth of the Missouri, but
among all the tribes of the Illinois, along the intervening
rivers and streams.

It was not alone these physical privations and hard-
ships that Pinet was called upon to face and endure, but
after all of his labors in founding this successful Mission

159

* «

of the Guardian Angel, he was obliged also to face the
capricious antagonism and opposition of the Count
de Frontenac, Governor of New France, who, as it is
claimed by the Jesuit authorities, unfairly and without
any just cause deprived and drove Father Pinet from this
mission thus founded and so dear to his heart. And
indeed it seems to be entirely clear that if this opposition
of Count Frontenac had not been encountered. Father
Pinet*s labors would have been continued here instead
of being in part diverted to the missions later founded
by him at Cahokia and Kaskaskia, and the present site
of Evanston, or at least its near suburb. Gross Point
Village, would long before this have borne the historic
distinction, to which it even now is in some measure
entitled, as the earliest permanent settlement in the
state of Illinois.

Very much has been justly written of that kind,
gentle and godly man. Father Marquette. No higher
compliment can be paid Father Pinet than to say that
in character and temperament he was very much like
this worthy predecessor, and though lacking the lasting
reputation attained by Marquette on account of his
exploration of the Mississippi Valley with Joliet, there
are many reasons to justify that statement and com-
parison.

While it is to be regretted that we find little, if any-
thing, written by Pinet himself, still in the Jesuit Rela-
tions and elsewhere we find him quite frequently spoken
of by his associates and superiors, which enables us to
form a fair idea of his character and how highly he was
esteemed.

From some of these contemporaries and others, I
quote as follows:

In a letter by his superior, Father Claude Chau-
cheti&re, noting the first arrival of Father Pinet from
France at Quebec, dated Ville Marie, September 20th,
1694, he is thus spoken of:

160

I have seen Father Pinette, who has just come out
from our province; he is quite well and remained only
6 days at Quebek; he came up at once, remained 2 days
at Montreal and went to a place 500 leagues from here.
We are greatly edified by his zeal and abnegation.'*
Ues, Re I., 64:147.)

From a letter dated Ville Marie, August 7th, 1694,

by Father Claude Chaucheti^re to his brother, I quote

as follows:

**I saw Father pinet while he passed through here,
but he remained only a night and a day; from here he
went to the sault, to wait for his canoe, which was to
cross the river to get him.'* (Jes. ReL, 64: 139.)

In a letter written September 20th, 1698, by Father
Jacques Gravier, Pinet's predecessor and superior in
Illinois, to Bishop de Laval, the latter is assured that
* 'Father Binteau ... as well as Father Pinet will
do themselves the pleasure of rendering" to Saint Cosme
and Montigny, the Catholic priests . . . who visited
the mission of the Guardian Angel that year "every
kind of service."

In the collections of the Chicago Historical Society
is a copy of another very interesting letter from the
archives of the University of Laval, written by Father
Gravier to Laval which also appears in the Jesuit Rela-
tions (Vol. 65, p. S3), from this I quote as follows:

"Monseigneur:

I beg Your Grace to pardon the liberty
that I take in asking once more for your blessing, which
will call down upon me that of God, to enable me to
reach my beloved Mission in safety after so long an exile.
Nothing has more comforted me, Monseigneur, than the
kind manner in which Your Grace was pleased to mani-
fest to me, during the visits I took the liberty of paying
you, that You felt an interest in that mission. If Mon-
seigneur of Quebec has the same Sentiments for us, as
We all hope, We shall perform our duties in our Outaoais
Missions more peacefully than we have done for some
years. We shall also be safe from the threats of Monsieur
the Count de Frontenac to drive us from our Missions,
as he has already done from that of I'Ange gardien of the

Miamis at Chicagwa, — the charge of which Monseigneur
of Quebec had confided to me, by his Patents giving me
the care of the Missions to the Ilinois, Miamis and
Scious, and confirming the powers that Your Grace has
conferred upon Father Marquette and Father d'allou6s,
who were the first missionaries to those Southern nations.
If Monsieur the Count de Frontenac had learned that in
our missions we had done anything unworthy of Our
Ministry, he could easily have applied to Monseigneur
The Bishop or to his grand Vicar. But he could not
otherwise than by violence drive us from Our Mission of
Chikagwa, and we hope that Monseigneur of Quebec will
not suffer such violence, which is so prejudicial to his
authority. And if your Grace will be good enough to
speak to him of it, he will reinstate and confirm Father
Pinet in his Mission, that he may there continue his
duties, which he has so auspiciously begun . . . .'*

*Jacques Gravier, S. J.*'

AtVille-Marie'*

the 17th of September, 1697.'*

From a letter written in January, 1699, near the pres-
ent site of Peoria, by Father Julien Binneteau, who was
closely associated with Pinet, often visiting him at his
North Shore home, to a Father in the same Society, I
quote as follows:

**After having told you about the missions, I shall
say a few words, my Reverend Father, about the mis-
sionaries" . . . **There is another missionary sixty
leagues from here, who comes to see us every winter*'
. . . **his name is Father Pinet*' . . . **he has
had the happiness to send to heaven the soul of the
famous chief Peouris and those of several jugglers and he
has attracted to our chapels various persons who, through
their fervor, are patterns to the village" {Jes, ReL^
65: 71.)

In a letter written by St. Cosme to the Bishop of
Quebec, March 7th, 1700, the writer says:

**Father Pinet who has abandoned his Mission of
Chicagu wrote me that he ought to come here (/. ^., to
the Tamaroas)."

And in another letter to the Bishop dated March

27th, 1700, he further says:

Father Pinet arrived at the Tamaroas the 7th of
March.''

From a letter by M. Bergier dated June ISth, 1702,

the following extract is quoted:

' 'Father Pinet left on the 14th June for the Katz"
(Kaskaskias).

And in a subsequent letter by Bergier dated March
1st, 1703, Father Pinet's death is announced in the fol-
lowing words:

* 'Father Pinet died the second of August (1702) at
the Village of the Katz/'

[Rev. John Bergier was a priest of the Seminary of
Quebec; came to the Illinois country in 1700; after
Pinet's death labored faithfully among the same tribes
until failing health required his giving up the work;
he died in 1710.]

Mr. John G. Shea, in "The Catholic Church in

Colonial Days," p. 537, thus speaks of Pinet:

"Father Pinet founded the Miami Mission of the
Angel Guardian at Chicago where there were two vil-
lages containing in all some 300 cabins, and where he
converted the Peoria Chief, who had resisted Father
Gravier's exortations. Yet the Count de Frontenac of
Canada compelled Father Pinet to abandon his mission
until the influence of Bishop Laval enabled him to re-
sume his gospel labors.'*

Mr. Shea also further speaks of Pinet in his "Catholic

Missions,** p. 420, as follows:

"In 1704 Pinet died, having founded the Tamaroa
Mission and obtained such benedictions of heaven by his
zeal and labors that his Church could not contain the
crowds that flocked to it.'*

In Thwaites* edition of the Jesuit Relations ("Vol.

64, note 22, p. 278>) appears the following sketch of

Father Pinet*s life:

"Pierre Francois Pinet was born at P6rigueux,
France, November 11th, 1660, and entered the Jesuit no-
vitiate at Bordeaux, August 29th, 1682. He was an in-
structor at Tulle, P6rigueux and Pau successively from
1684 to 1690; he then completed his studies at Bordeaux
and departed for Canada in 1694. He was at first sent

V

1

to Michillimackinac; but in 1696 he went to Illinois
and founded the mission of the Guardian Angel at Chi-
cago, among the Miami bands located there. This mis-
sion was broken up in the following year, according
to Jesuit writers, through Frontenac's hostility. But
Laval's influence procured Pinet's return thither. The
latter went probably in 1700 to the Tamaroas, an Illinois
tribe located on the Mississippi not far from the mouth
of the Missouri — a place known later as Cahokia. By
letters patent of May, 1698, St. Vallier deprived the
Jesuits of this mission bestowing it upon the priests sent
out by the Seminary of Missions. This proceeding was
strongly opposed by the Jesuits, and they did not con-
sent to the change until 1701. Meanwhile Pinet re-
mained with the Tamaroas (by order <5f his superiors, ac-
cording to Rochemonteix) until probably the spring of
1702, and then labored among the Kaskaskias. Accord-
ing to Shea {Mississippi Voyages^ p. S3, note)^ he died
at Cahokia about 1704.

**Rochemonteix's account of Pinet's yi.\ssioii(J^esuites
t. Ill pp. 550-554, 568-572>) differs in some points from
the above; we have followed allusions in contemporary
documents and Shea's account as given in Church in
Colonial DaySy pp. 537-539.'*

Thus lived and toiled and died Pierre Francois
Pinet — a modest and a great man, sadly neglected in
those early annals of Illinois, in which he played such an
important part. It would be a pleasing reverie to review
jn imagination his hopes and aspirations, not only for
the spiritual kingdom for which he so nobly labored and
spent his life, but for the earthly empire that we now en-
joy — that rich heritage for our children, but leaving
these speculative suggestions without further comment
let us consider briefly a little of what the writers tell us
of the savages for whom this mission was founded.

THE MIAMI INDIANS.

There is little doubt that at one time, prior to the
exploration of the Mississippi Valley, they were a branch
of that great nation — the Illinois — from which our state
takes its name. The Illinois were a kindly people, hos-
pitable, affable and humane; they welcomed the explorer

104

and the missionary, and they thought more of peace,
their cultivated fields and of their ideal hunting grounds
than of all the pomp and glory of the war-path. The
Miamis, however, were a far different people. Mr. Hiram
W. Beckwith, in his admirable account of the tribes of
Illinois and Indiana [Fergus Historical Series No. 27]
thus speaks of them:

**With the implements of civilized warfare in their
hands, they maintained their tribal integrity and inde-
pendence and they traded with and fought against the
French, British and Americans by turns, as their inter-
ests or passions inclined: and made peace or declared
war against other nations of their own race as policy or
caprice moved them. More than once they compelled
the arrogant Iroquois to beg from the governors of the
American colonies that protection which they themselves
had failed to secure by their own prowess. Bold, inde-
pendent, flushed with success, the Miamis afforded a
poor field for missionary work and the Jesuit Relations
and pastoral letters of the French Priesthood have less
to say of the Miamis than of any other westward tribe,
the Kickapoos only excepted."

Referring to their military powers. General William

Henry Harrison, who had the best possible information

and chance of observation, says:

* 'Saving the ten years preceeding the Treaty of
Greenville (1795), the Miamis alone could have brought
more than three thousand warriors in the field; they
composed a body of the finest light troops in the world,
and had they been under an efficient system of discipline
or possessed enterprise equal to their valor, the settle-
ment of the country would have been attended with
much more difficulty than was encountered in accom-
plishing it and their final subjugation would have been
for years delayed."

When first heard of by white men they lived beyond
the Mississippi and imigrated from thence eastward
through Wisconsin, northern Illinois and around the
southern end of Lake Michigan to Detroit and thence up
the Maumee and down the Wabash, and from there both
eastward through Indiana into Ohio as far as the Great

165

Miami, and westward again into the Illinois country.

(Beckwith in Fergus Hist. Series 27. )

Mr. Beckwith further says of them, **In the year
1684 at LaSalle's colony at Starved Rock, they had
populous villages and thirteen hundred warriors. . . .
At a later day, 1718, a village at Chicago, but being
afraid of the canoemen (the Pottawotbmies and Chippe-
was), left it.'*

Father Charlevoix, writing from this vicinity in
1721, says: "Fifty years ago the Miamis were settled on
the southern extremity of Lake Michigan, in a place called
Chicago, from the name of a small river that runs into
the lake."

History is replete with instances of their prowess
and their fearless disregard of the most savage tribes.
The Iroquois from the distant forests of New York, and
the Sioux from their far away western prairies, both, in
turn, fled in terror at the peal of the Miami war cry.

The rise and fall of both civilized and savage nations
has ever been a favorite theme with historical writers.
The history of the Miami Indians, so far as it can be as-
certained, presents another forceful illustration of that
theme. History first locates them west of the Missis-
sippi river — a strong and warlike people. Their fearless
warriors turning their faces with bouyant expectancy to-
wards the rising sun boldly advanced through and oc-
cupied parts of Wisconsin and Illinois at about the time
Father Pinet founded this mission, advancing further
around Lake Michigan, they occupied in turn the best
parts of Michigan, Indiana and Ohio, reaching the zenith
of their strength, importance and power about the mid-
dle of the eighteenth century when Fort Wayne was
their capital (Beckwith supra). With the Treaty of
Greenville in the year 1795, at which Little Turtle, their
greatest orator made his historic speech, so often quoted,
began the cession of their wide domain and with it
their inevitable decline. During the next half century, by
subsequent treaties, they were from time to time still

further divested of their valuable lands. The remainder
of their, history is that of all their race. In the year
1845} decimated by drink and disease, their lands occu-
pied by the ever advancing white Pioneer, we see them
turning their faces toward their setting sun, and crossing
again and for the last time, in their westward journey,
the gnreat River which Marquette and Joliet first explored
at the dawn of our written history — to the land from
whence their warlike ancestors first came, nearly two
centuries before.

These were the Indians who inhabited the three
hundred wigwams that surrounded the humble Mission-
house of this plain missionary who came on the thank-
less errand of bringing them tidings of the Man of Peace
and Good Will.

I now direct your attention to the location of

THE MISSION OF THE GUARDIAN ANGEL.

Many writers, have, first and last, referred to it as
Father Pinet's **Chicago Mission,'* stating almost with-
out exception, when the site is referred to at all, that
they are unable to say where the exact location was.
They generally agree that it was not right at the city
of the present day, but in that vicinity. {See Andreas'
Hist, of Chicago^ vol. 1, p, 66; also Shea's Early Voy-
ages Up and Down the Mississippi^ p. 52; Hurlbut's
Chicago Antiquities^ pp. 167, 168, with references to
authorities in foot notes; also p. 382).

The missionary of the seventeenth century in New
France was not only an explorer, but often a most ac-
curate writer of history, and consequently it is no un-
common thing to find that his account of his voyages
and travels constitutes all that can be ascertained regard-
ing many times and places of which there is no other
record.

To the account of a voyage by one company of these
men we are indebted for accurate information regarding
the site of this mission.

• • •*

1«7

Rev. Jean Francois Buisson de Saint Cosme* was
one of the priests of the Seminary of Quebec, a Catholic
order, which was the outgrowth of the Soci^t^ des Mis-
sions Etrangferes at Paris. By authority of letters
granted by St. Vallier, the second Bishop of Quebec,
dated July 14th, 1698, Saint Cosme with two other priests
of the same order, viz.: V. Rev. Francis Joillet de
Montigny and Rev. Anthony Davion, set out to found
new missions on the Mississippi River. (Shea's Catholic
Church in Colonial Days^ vol. 1, p. 539). On the way,
as will be seen, they visited Father Pinet at the Guar-
dian Angel Mission, who later joined them for a part of
the way on their journey down the Illinois River, going
as was his custom each year, to spend the winter with
his Miamis, when they moved from their summer resi-
dence at Chicago to their winter hunting grounds in
central Illinois.

If a digression may be pardoned, it is certainly
gratifying to know that truthful historians as early as
the year 1698 recognized Chicago and Evanston as suc-
cessful summer resorts.

The letter of Saint Cosme to Laval Bishop of Que.
bee, written probably in 1699,t describing this voyage
(Shea's ^^ Voyages Up and Down the Mississippi)^ is
generally quoted as giving the most reliable information
regarding this mission. So explicit is this letter that it
would appear that the failure or neglect of the later
writers to locate the site of the mission is probably due
almost, if not entirely, to the lack of attention to the
topography of the North Shore and the very near vicin-
ity of Chicago, or to ignorance of it.

*Saint Cosme was bom at Quebec, in February, 1667, did
missionary work at Mines, Acadia, before going to the Illinois
country, and was murdered in the year 1702 by savages, on an-
other voyage down the Mississippi River. (Jes. JfoL 65, p. 262.)

tAn exact copy of this letter from the original ms. in the ar-
chives of the University of Laval, was recently made for the Chi-
cago Historical Society by Abb6 Gosselin, Archivist, and begins,
**AuxAkangas ce 2 me Janvier, 1699 . . ."

'• : 168

Any reader of Saint Cosme's account of his voyage
as quoted by Mr. Shea, who has intimate knowledge of
the North Shore (a present choice suburban residence
district of Chicagoans), and who will read Saint Cosme's
letter (as set forth by Mr. Shea in this work) with any
care at all, will have an accurate account and reliable
information of its exact location. I therefore direct
your attention to the circumstances and some of the de-
tails of his most interesting account of this voyage that
forever fixes, with more than reasonable certainty, the
exact site of Father Pinet*s early labors, and that seems
to demonstrate beyond chance of contradiction that here
on the North Shore, over two centuries ago, within two
miles of the city limits of Evanston, and about five miles
from the present City Limits of Chicago, was located
*The Mission of the Guardian Angel.''

It was September 14th, 1698, that Saint Cosme,
Montigny, Divion and Vincennes, with the faithful
Henry de Tonty as protector and guide, set out on what
would have been a long and tedious journey, even in the
summer time, from old Michillimackinac to the far away
waters of the Illinois, Mississippi and Arkansas. The
eight birch canoes were heavily laden and it was no
easy task to make the long journey down the entire west-
ern shore of Lake Michigan ; across the Chicago portage
into the Desplaines and down the Illinois and the Mis-
sissippi to the Arkansas, so many hundred miles to the
South.

The fact that they started so late in the season that
when they reached the Illinois River they encountered
in November the snow and ice of approaching winter, is
not only important to show the length of the journey
and its hardships, but is very important also to demon-
strate what appears throughout the entire account of the
journey, that, starting so late in the season, they had no
time to loiter by the way, or to go to the out-of-the-way
places where some of the later writere have undertaken

160

to locate the Mission, for instance, Lake Calumet {see
Hurlbut's Chicago Antiquities, p. 168), as Saint Cosme
says in one place: **We were pressed by the season."
They took the direct route along the western shore of
Lake Michigan, which Marquette, Allouez, Hennepin
and LaSalle had taken before them, and along this di-
rect route, near the western shore of the Lake, some five
leagues or about fifteen miles north of the Chicago
River, they found and visited Father Pinet and found
with him Father Binneteau, who evidently was also pay-
ing Pinet a visit.

This visit, which Saint Cosme and his companions
paid Father Pinet, was a mere incident of the voyage,
and was due to the fact that the Mission was so near the
lake shore and on their direct route from Racine to Chi-
cago. Quite probably also to the storm on the lake
which compelled them to land and stay at the Mission
four days, until the wind went down.

October 7th, 1698, Saint Cosme and his party
reached Milwaukee (**Melwarik''), and October 10th the
present site of Racine, designated by the river there,
called by Saint Cosme **Kipkawi*' and **Kipikuaki,'*
which they found so dry that they abandoned a previous
intention of going to the Illinois by this route and the
portage into the Fox River. Saint Cosme says, upon
finding the river dry, **This obliged us to take the route
of Chicagu, which is about twenty-five leagues from it."

Saint Cosme then describes leaving Racine and
there parting with Vincennes, and then- arrival three
days later at Father Pinet 's Mission. I quote from
Saint Cosme's letter as given in Shea's Early Voyages,
as follows:

**On the 10th of October, having left Melwarik early
in the morning we arrived in good season at Kipikawi,
which is about eight leagues from it. There we parted
with Mr. Vincennes and his party, who continued their
course towards the Miamis" . . . We avoided this
river ... as there was no water in it . .

170

we should have had to make nearly forty leagues of the
way as a portage. This obliged us to take the route of
Chicagu, which is about 25 leagues from it. We re-
mained five days at Kipikawi.

**We left it on the I7th of October and after having
been detained by wind the 18th and 19th we cabined on the
20th five leagues from Chicaqw. We should have reached
it early on the 21st, but the wind, which suddenly sprung
up from the lake obliged us to land half a league from
Apkaw. We had considerable difficulty in getting ashore
and saving our canoes. We had to throw everything
into the water. This is a thing you have to take good
care of along the lakes especially on Missigan . . .
The canoes are in risk of going to pieces and losing all
on board: Several travellers have already been wrecked
there. We went by land, Mr. de Montigny, Davion and
myself, to the house of the Reverend Jesuit Fathers, our
people staying with the baggage. We found there Rev.
Father Pinet and Rev. Father Buinateau, who had re-
cently come in from the Illinois and were slightly sick.

**I cannot explain to you, Monseigneur, with what
cordiality and marks of esteem these Reverend Jesuit
Fathers received and caressed us during the time that we
had the consolation of staying with them. Their house
is built on the bank of the small lake, having the lake on
one side and a large fine prairie on the other. The Indian
Village is of over ISO cabins and one leaugue on the river
there is another Village almost as large. They are both
of the Miamis, Rev. Father Pinet makes it his ordinary
residence, except in winter when the Indians all go hunt-
ing and which he goes and spends at the Illinois. We
saw no Indians there. They had already started for their
hunt. If we may judge of the future by the little while
Father Pinet has been in this mission, we may find that
God blesses the labors and zeal of this holy missionary,
there will be a great number of good and fervent Christ-
ians there. It is true that little fruit is produced there
in those who have grown up and hardened in debauchery,
but the children are baptised and even the medicine men,
most opposed to Christianity, allow their children to be
baptised. They are even very glad to have them in-
structed ... So that it may be hoped that when
the old stock dies off there will be a new Christian
people'* ....

171

The letter then states that on the 24th of Octobei
they started for **Chicaqw."

Saint Cosme*s remarkable accuracy in stating dis-
tances between places from Milwaukee to Chicago is of
g^reat importance in locating the Mission, as will be
shown later, and demonstrates that his estimates of dis-
tances and the location of places can be relied upon.
His account too, while in some respects indefinite, is very
clear and explicit in several important particulars, which,
with a knowledge of the topography of the North Shore,
can lead us almost to the exact spot where Father Pinet
had **his ordinary residence, except in winter'* — **The
House of the Reverend Jesuit Fathers.'*

These important particulars are (l)**We cabined on the
20th five leagues from Chicaqw,** which makes clear the
fact that it was in the neighborhood of fifteen miles North
of the Chicago River where the party landed the canoes
with such difficulty on the Lake Shore; (2) **We went
by land ... to the house of the Reverend Jesuit
Fathers, our people staying with the baggage,** showing
that the Mission was not on the lake shore and that Saint
Cosme, Montigny and Davion went inland, leaving their
canoes with their assistants; (3) ^'^ Their house is on the
banks of the small lake, having the lake on one side and
a fine large prairie on the other. * * There is not the
slightest doubt that this **small lake** was our modern
swamp lands known as **The Skokie,** which then, espe-
cially in the fall of the year, as in these later days, can
be designated a small lake. Indeed even now there
are seasons when it is a body of water of considerable
size. But fifty to sixty years ago **The Skokie** was in
fact an inland lake of such proportions that the volume
of water discharged through its outlet — the North
Branch of the Chicago River, was sufficient to furnish
water power for a saw mill, built by a pioneer by the
name of Miller, that stood for many years on the River,
directly west of Evanston, about 300 yards south of the

m

• V

>

southern bonndary of the Glen View Golf Club, and which
was operated the year round, even in dry seasons. At
this mill the lumber was sawed for many of the early
Chicago buildings and it was, it is said, for a long time,
the only saw mill near Chicago. (Authority Mrs. Charles
Grain, a relative of the Miller family and other old
settlers of Evanston. ) There are several old maps that
entirely corroborate this statement, regarding the extent
of the Skokie Lake, and which show this old mill. (See
J. H. Rees' Map of 1851 of Cook and Adjoining Coun-
ties,* whereon this mill is desiginated **Millers Mill".)
The fact that there is no other inland lake or body of
water anywhere on the North Shore, within fifty miles
of Chicago, near Lake Michigan, or within ten miles of
it, is entirely conclusive that the Lake referred to by
Saint Cosme was **The Skokie."

The further statement of Saint Cosme that on the
opposite side of the Mission from the lake was **a fine
large prairie" makes it very clear to the observing resi-
dent of the North Shore where this site was, as will be
seen from even a slight study of the natural surroundings.
The Skokie runs north and south about a mile west
of and parallel with Lake Michigan from a point about
two miles North of Evanston, almost to Waukegan, a
distance of some twenty miles. The land between it and

*XNDEX TO SECTION OF J. H. REES* MAP (1851).

1. Probable site of Mission of the Guardian Angel. 2. Gross
Point Catholic Church. 3. **The Skokie*', formerly an inland
lake. 4. ** Miller's Mill". 5. Ouilmette Indian Reservation,
now in Wilmette Village and the city of Evanston. 6. Indian
Boundary Line (see p. 178 et seq,). 7. Reservation of ** Billy Cald-
well" former chief of the Pottowattamie Indians (elected chief at
Prairie du Chien July 29th, 1829). 8. Reservation of Alexander
Robinson, also- former chief of same tribe, and also elected chief
at Treaty of Prairie du Chien, July 29, 1829. 9. Indian Camps
and Village sites as located on a map published (1901) by Albert
F. Schart.

Note. The Township of "Ridgeville" as shown on this map
covers much of the present site of the city of Evanston, all of the
village of Rogers Park and the north three miles of the city of
Lake View (the latter two being now incorporated in the city of
Chicago).

173

Lake Michigan is and has been for centuries heavily
timbered as any one can see by the size and apparent
age of the remaining large oak trees. At the south end
of the Skokie, however, and extending from there
through the Village of Gross Point and Niles Center, a
distance of some four or five miles to the south and ex-
tending eastward towards Kenilworth, is not only an
open prairie, a mile or more in width, but the indications
are that it has been an open prairie for very many years,
as there are few trees indicating any considerably age.

The statement of Saint Cosme that **one league on
M^ r/z;^r there is another village almost as large" is a
further corroborating circumstance, referring without
doubt to one of the many Indian camps or villages that
were located all along the North branch of the Chicago
River, of which the Skokie was and is the head waters.
Indeed it seems very probable that Pinet in reaching the
Indian population about Chicago and the North Shore
used this waterway, instead of trusting to the waves and
breakers of Lake Michigan, for along this North
Branch were the great Indian village at Bomanville,
west of the present site of Rose Hill Cemetery, and
several others, as already stated, and there is little doubt
that the North Branch of the Chicago River was a
favorite water highway for the Indian population, be-
tween Chicago and these various camps and villages
along its course, leading also to the fine hunting grounds
that are well known to have existed in this locality.*

There is no way af telling what St. Cosme means by
the expression **the wind . . . obliged us to land
half a league from Apkaw.*' If ''Apkaw'' (in one trans-
lation **Elpikagiou'') was the name of one oi these Indian
villages he mentions, it would tally exactly with the dis-
tance from the Lake Shore to the **Skokie.** If it has

*For description of these Indian camps and villages see ** Indian
Land Marks of the North Shore** in Chicago Historical Society
Collections, also History of Evanston, pp. 45, 46, 47, also **Our
Indian Predecessors the First Evanstonians.** £v. Hist. So. Colls.

174

reference to the former Indian village at Gross Point and
on the bank of Lake Michigan, immediately north of the
Evanston Light House, this would indicate that the
canoes were landed at the present site of Wilmette Village,
the northern limits of which are almost directly east of
the south end of the Skokie.

It is more than probable that the Indian village des-
cribed by Saint Cosme as **of over ISO cabins'* was the
one located on the North line of the present Village of
Gross Point.

All the authorities seem to indicate clearly that
the Mission of the Guardian Angel was first founded in
the year 1696; temporarily abandoned in the year 1697;
early the following year, 1698, again resumed and oc-
cupied and that Pinet there pursued his labors until the
close of the year 1699, possibly until early in the year
1700, when the mission was permanently abandoned.

The most prominent existing landmark that can be
referred to as being in the very near vicinity of the site
of this Mission house of Father Pinet's is the recently
constructed Sanitarium directly west of Kenilworth,
built, I am told, by Dr. Sanger Brown, the well
known Chicago specialist.

Still another and more fitting land mark is the old
Catholic Church of Gross Point Village, standing on the
same highway and within a few hundred yards of the
place where it is reasonable to suppose was the site of
this Mission. It is certainly appropriate that two hun-
dred years after Father Pinet's death, the lofty spire of
this modern structure should stand for the same faith
which he espoused, and its musical chimes call the living
worshipers to the same altar where he so often stood.

It is respectfully suggested that on Ridge Avenue,
formerly an Indian trail, at a point due west of the Kenil-
worth railway station, at the site of the former Indian
Village in that locality, which in all probability is the
site of the Miami Village in question. The Evanston His-

175

torical Society erect a suitable monument, bearing in sub-
stance the inscription:

Near this spot, in the year 1696,
Pierre Francois Pinet, a Jesuit mis-
sionary, founded: *The Mission of
the Guardian Angel of Chicagou'
among the Miami Indiams — ^with
one exception the first Catholic Mis-
sion in the State of Illinois."

where the modern traveler along this ancient highway
may pause and read and know of this good Father and
the place where he so unselfishly labored.

In conclusion I further direct your attention to

THE OLD LOG CHURCH AT HIGHLAND PARK—
ST. MARY'S OF THE WOODS.

There is a tradition among the old settlers of Lake
County that is plausible, but not corroborated by any
satisfactory evidence, that the old log Catholic church,
formerly at Highland Park, was located on the identical
site of Pinet *s mission, and some of the children of these
old settlers in an awkward attempt to perpetuate the
tradition have preserved photographs and paintings of
this old log structure, which they have labeled * 'Mar-
quette's Church. * *

While the tradition seems to have little merit and
this labelling of these pictures much less, still the history
of this old church is of itself a very interesting one.
There is hardly an old resident of the North Shore but
will remember its quaint and ancient appearance and
surroundings, the most striking of which was a large,
plain wooden cross some thirty feet high, standing in the
church yard, a little wooden cross on the apex of the
roof, the neglected cemetery in the church yard and
above all the old log building itself, which from its ap-
pearance might have been standing for centuries of time.

170

It stood, as many of us remember, beside the Green
Bay Road, about a mile south west of the Northwestern
Railway depot, at Highland Park. It was erected by the
Catholic families of that neighborhood in the year 1846
and was called **St. Mary's of the Woods.** It was first
built at a temporary location in that neighborhood.
Later a Mr. J. Recktenwald, a German farmer, donated
the land for the later and permanent site and the logs
were taken down and the church rebuilt of the same
logs, where it stood for nearly fifty years, until it was
torn down in 1893.

The wooden cross was such a striking and unusual
feature that it not only attracted the attention of every
traveler along the Green Bay Road, but had much to do
with keeping alive the erroneous tradition that it was
erected by early Jesuit missionaries. The fact is that
this large cross was made at Gross Point of a black wal-
nut tree, presumably by faithful members of the Catholic
Church; hauled to its destined location with an ox team
and erected with imposing ceremonies on August ISth,
1853, Father Weyninger, a Catholic missionary, who
some say made the cross, officiating at the actual erec-
tion of it by the congregation in the church yard, while
Father Forthmann, the pastor, at the same time was
celebrating mass inside of the church. It is also said by
the old settlers who attended the ceremonies that when
the cross was raised to its upright position, a salute of
guns was fired.

This old land mark has passed away; a few neg-
lected graves alone mark its former site. It served both
as church and school house; it was one of the oldest
churches of the North Shore and stood as a monument
for fifty years of time, to the fidelity and enterprise of
the Catholic pioneers. I am indebted to Miss B. T.
Bower of Waukegan and to Miss Mary Dooley of High-
land Park for the history of this church. But to the
old, rude, tall, weather-beaten cross, which I first saw in

177