Door County, Wisconsin - Chapter 7: Jesuit Missionaries in Door County, 1917

One of the most inspiring visions of American history is the noble self-sacrifice and sublime devotion of the Jesuit missionaries in carrying the gospel of salvation to the savage cannibals of the western forests. They counted not their lives dear but forsook kindred, friends, the comforts of home and the blessings of civilization to devote their lives to the uplift of a savage and degenerate people, a thousand years behind them in manners, morals and intelligence. They followed the Indian to his hunting grounds, threading forests, swimming rivers, bivouacking with them in the somber wilderness, "in weariness and painfulness, in watchings often, in hunger and thirst, in fastings often, in cold and nakedness." "The supposed conversion of a single Indian to the doctrines of the Catholic faith, the baptism of a single infant, seems to have been to them an ample reward for all their labor, for all their toil, and for all their suffering. From the slight memorials which have come down to us, of the labors of love of these venerable, intellectual and devoted sons of the church, it is evident no sacrifice was too hazardous, no toil unendurable, which led to the accomplishment of the great object upon the success of which they had periled their all in this life, and sought that crown of glory in the next, which they felt sanguine would be the reward of their apostolice labors here. 'I have been most amply rewarded for all my trials and sufferings,' says one of the lowly followers of Jesus, after having, for six days, lived on a certain kind of rock moss and a part of an Indian moccasin, given him by a squaw. 'I have this day rescued from the burning an infant who died from hunger, its mother's resources in the general famine, having failed her; I administered to the dying infant the sacred rites of baptism; and thank God, it is now safe from that dreadful destiny which befall those who die without the pale of our most holy church.' With us in the latter days, differing as many do, in religious opinions from this school of ecclesiastics, it is almost impossible to do them justice." prise were like the first discoverer of fire, morally certain of bringing wrath on their own heads, and of being condemned to have their vitals gnawed by the flame of the funeral pyre, that surrounded them in the solitude of the desert, with no eye to pity, no arm to save, and supported alone by that enthusiasm, courage, self-devotion, and patience under their sufferings, which so eminently characterized these good and holy men. Death for them had no sting, the grave no victory. Kissing the symbol of their faith - that sign which they well knew must sooner or later conquer even the Red Man of the forest - they literally gave their 'dust to dust, and ashes to ashes'; put off mortality to put on immortality; and with the Te Deum laudamus issuing from their parched lips they laid down their lives in the wilderness - their requiem the crackling of fagots, their funeral anthem the war-whoop of the Indian." '

Among these intrepid missionaries one of the most capable and successful as well as one of the earliest was Father Claude Allouez. Only one missionary had preceded him, the pathetic figure of Father Rene Menard who in 1660 made an unsuccessful attempt to establish a mission on the shores of Lake Superior. He perished a year afterward in some unknown spot of the Wisconsin forest, but whether by privations or perfidy is not known. Father Allouez was his successor and succeeded in establishing a mission on Chequamegon Bay, near the present City of Bayfield. A large concourse of Indians was gathered there one fall, among them being 300 Potawatomies from the islands at the mouth of Green Bay. These Potawatomies begged him to return with them; not so much because they wished to hear the gospel but because they desired his help in dealing with certain grasping fur traders who were among them.

Allouez accepted their invitation and in 1669 made his journey to the present Door County. Here he found the Potawatomies scattered all the way down the peninsula while mingled with them were villages of Sauks and Outagamis (Foxes). He found eight French fur traders among them who had already begun to exert a corrupting influence on the Indians. He describes the Potawatomies as being the most docile and generous of all the Indians he has met. "Their wives and daughters are more modest than those of other nations They observe among themselves a certain sort of civility, and also show it toward strangers - which is rare among barbarians. Once

1Quoted from Judge John Law's brilliant address delivered before the Young Men's Catholie Literary Institute, Cincinnati, Jan. 31, 1855, and reprinted in W. H. S., Col., TII, pr. 89-111.

when I went to see one of their elders, his eyes fell upon my shoes, which were made after the French fashion; and curiosity moved him to ask leave to take them, in order to examine them easily. Upon returning them to me, he would not permit me to put them on myself, but obliged me to allow him to perform that service - even insisting on fastening the thongs, and showing the same marks of respect that servants do to their masters upon rendering them this service. Kneeling at my feet, he said to me, 'It is this way that we treat those whom we honor, "

Allouez was so hopeful of his work among the Indians of the peninsula that he established a mission among them. 'This was the Mission of St. Francis Xavier, the first permanent mission west of the Great Lakes. On his map made in 1670* he shows the misson to have been on the east shore of Green Bay. As he states that it was about a day's journey down the bay from the mouth of the Fox River it must have been in the vicinity of Red River near the Door County line. This mission was moved to the site of the present city of DePere a year later (1671) where a substantial chapel was built.

'This mission proved so fruitful that Father Louis Andre was sent to assist Father Allouez in his work, the latter laboring with the tribes around Lake Winnebago while Father Andre spent his time with the Indians dwelling between DePere and Washington Island. Here the two missionaries worked for years faithfully and were rejoiced to see hundreds of savages turn from their sun worship and evil practices to the Christian faith. In the meantime, however, large numbers of French fur traders invaded the region and established settlements at different points on the peninsula and at the mouth of Fox River (Green Bay). These traders almost invariably sought to corrupt the Indians with strong drink and much disorder and bloodshed followed. The missionaries were often hard put to quell threatened uprisings against the traders.

In the fall of 1676 Father Allouez set out to visit the Illinois Indians in the present State of Illinois. This journey is of great interest to Door County readers because it caused the father to spend another season within the borders of our county. He started out in a canoe in the last days of October, but the season must have been unusually severe as the bay froze over before he had gone very far. The following is his own account of the journey: it was toward the close of the month of October, 1676 - I embarked in a canoe with two men, to attempt to go to winter with the Illinois. But I did not go far, for the winter had set in so early that year that, the ice overtaking us, we were compelled to go into camp, and wait until the ice was strong enough to bear us. It was not until the month of February that we began our voyage - a very unusual mode of navigation, for, instead of putting the canoe into the water, we placed it upon the ice, over which the wind, which was in our favor, and a sail made it go as on water. When the wind failed us, in place of paddles we used ropes to draw it along, as horses draw carriages. Passing near the nation of the Potawatomies, I learned that a young man had recently been killed by bears. I had, in times past, baptized him at the Point of St. Esprit* and his parents were of my acquaintance, which constrained me to go a little out of my way, that I might console them. 'They told me that bears, having taken on fat during autumn, retain all winter and even increase, their bulk, although they eat nothing, as naturalists have remarked. "They sleep in the hollows of trees - especially the females, to bring forth in them their young - or else they sleep on the branches of fir trees, which they break off for the purpose of making a bed of them upon the snow. This they do not leave all winter, unless hunters discover them by means of their dogs, which they train to this.sport. This young man, having described one of them on these pine branches, discharged at it all the arrows in his quiver; but the bear, feeling itself struck, although not by a deadly blow, rose up and sprang upon him, tore off his scalp, and disemboweled him, mangling and dismembering the entire body. I found his mother in great distress. We said together the prayers for the departed; and although my presence had renewed her grief, she wiped away her tears and consoled herself by saying to me: 'It is Paulin who is dead; it is the good Paulin whom thou camest always to call to prayers."

"Afterward, by way of avenging, they said, this death, the relatives and friends of the deceased went to make war on the bears while they were still in good condition - that is to say, in winter; for in the summer they are thin, and so famished that they eat exen toads and snakes. 'The war was so successful that, in a short time, they killed over 500, of which they gave us a share, telling us that God delivered the bears into their hands as satisfaction for the death of that young man who had been so cruelly treated by one of their nation.

entered a very deep bay, from which we carried our canoe through the weeds as far as the Great Lake of Illinois; this portage extends about a league and a half." *

It appears from the above that Allouez did not return to his mission at DePere after he started on his journey. He says, "We were overtaken by the ice and compelled to go into camp and wait until the ice was strong enough to bear us." From this it seems that while they were camping on the journey the ice closed up around them. This indicates that they were camping in some sheltered spot where the ice formed early, which leads us to believe he had reached Sturgeon Bay which usually freezes up early. Had it occurred much nearer to the mission he would in all probability have returned and stayed in greater comfort. On Sturgeon Bay are several village sites. It is therefore probable that Father Allouez camped here instructing the Indians in Christianity.

In view of the father's indefatigable zeal it is therefore not improbable to assume that here within sound of the present imposing Church of St. Joseph was heard the Pater Noster and the Ave Maria, first chanted by this sturdy pioneer of the cross 240 years ago.

The village "twelve leagues" away where the great bear hunt took place was probably at Shanty Bay in Peninsula Park. 'The remains of a village have been unearthed here. Another village was at Fish Creek, but as this village is less than twenty miles from the mouth of Sturgeon Bay it seems rather too close for Allouez' estimated distance of twelve leagues (about thirty miles). It may also have been on the west shore, near the present sites of Oconto or Pensaukee, but as it was a village of Potawatomies it is more probable that it was in Northern Door County. He probably remained here during the remainder of the winter as five hundred bears were killed while he stopped here.