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THE FOUNDING OF THE FIRST
CATHOLIO PARISH
ON LAKE SUPERIOR
by
David A. Gass , A.B.
A Thesis eubm1tted to the Faculty ot the Graduate School, Marquet.te {hrl.ve:r'81ty
in Partial PuJ.tlllment ot the Requirements tor the Degree ot
Master ot Arts
Milwaukee ,. WiSconsin April, 1955
/
Preface
Frederick Baraga bas justly earned the title or Apostle to the
Chippewa and. ottawa Indians. The com.plete story of his life has not
:ret been told. O~ in recent years have a mas8 ot documents bearing
on his lite beoome available to historians. Most ot these documents
were heretotore buried in European arohi ves. This study of Baraga' s
lit. COftrs a pe:r1od. or only eight ot the thint·eight years he spent
in suece.dlll labors among the Indians. During theBe eight )'ears be
establ1ahtd a minion that became the tiNt CathoUc parish in the
wilderness country ot Lake Superior. His remarkable $Uccess in the taee
ot many hardships and severe sectarian opposition has 80 tar been only
vaguely sketched by hi. biographers. Baraga' s wccess mirrored the un
quenchable zeal that motivated hie .eU-aacr1tloinlt labors tor the
aalYation or the Indian. during his entire missionary career.
I Wish to expr$.s JJJ7 dnaerest gratitude to ltr. Joseph Gregorich
ot Marquette, Miohigan, the historian or the Biahop Baraga Association.
W1t.hout hi' &u1clance, orit1ciam and in.piratlon this paper would not
have been posdbl.. I also wish to express Jq appreciation to the
Reverend R. N. Hamilton, S. J., ot Harquett. 11n1 versit)", tor his en
couragement abd understanding during the writing ot this paper. It. i8
illy bop. that thll sman work will be ot sOJlle use when the tinal ut.
of Frederick Baraga b written.
P.A.G.
11
/
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Page
lntroouct lon .. ~ ........... . if .. . ... til .. ... ' . . .... .. . -. • • • • • .. • • • • • • • • •• • • • 1
Ohap-t er ' One •• ' •.••••••••••••••••• • •• , e' •••• • ••••• • . •• " iii .. . ..... .. -. • 4-
Chapter '1'w • ~ •• ,; •• ' ••••• ' .. . .................... ' •• • ... • • .. • • • • • • .. •• 12
Chapter Thre.
Ohapter Four
Chapter Fl ••
• 4 .... , . .... .. .............. ' ............ . .... ., ...... ..
........................ , ••.......•.............
........................ ••• e' " ........... tI .................... .
34
41
5S
Chapter Six. ' .... ~. .. • .. • .. • • .. • . • • .. . . • .. • .. .. • • • • .. • • .. • .... • .. .. .. .. • • • .. .. .. .. .. •• 70
Cha.pter Seven ~ ... .. ............ ... .. .. . . .... ,.............. . ................ 76
B1b11ograPh7 ....... . ................................... ~ ............. -.• ' .... it 19
111
I
Introduction
Frederick Baraga W8a the ecion ot a modorately' wealthy tamUy ./
of noble ancestry, at least tro. his mother's side. He W8$ born on June
29, 1797 in the castle ot Mala Vas , pariah ot Dobernic, diocese or
Ljubga'Va. At that t1me this diocese encompaasecl the Austrian province
ot Camiola, now a part. ot YugoolaVia.
Atter a tew years under a private tutor, Frederick oontinued his
etud1es in the capital ctt:r ot Ljubgava, and later, in 1816, he entered
the Un1vera1t.,. ot Vienna to study law. In Vienna he came under the in
nuenee ot St. Clement Hofbauer who instUled in him & vocation tor the
priest.bood.., After he completed: his law eou:t:"se in 1821, he entered the
seminary ot Ljubgava. Two :real'S later, on September 21, 182), he re
ee! ved Ho17 Orders.
In hi_ pa.r1eb labors he felt shackled b:r the teneta ot Janeen!sm
whote innuence had apread throughout the Austrian Empin. He yearned
tor the IiI1s81onary field when he could exercise h1s zeal with greater
freedom. H. ~cogn.1lecl the call in 1829 when th. Leopoldine Foundation
was organized in Vienna tor the purpose ot help!mg missiOnaries among t.he
American Ind1ana. With the consent ot hie ordinary he appUed to BifJhop
Edward Fenwick 01 Oincinnati tor admittance to hie diocese. He received
a lavorable reply trota Bishop Fenwiok on Se;ptembcti" 22, 1830.
In a ahort t1me he began hi. jOl1me,. to the United States, and
he landed 1n Nft York on December 31, 18.30. He arzotved in C1ndnnat1
within a lev weeks, and Bishop Fenwiok assigned him to care tor the German
epeak1ng people there. Being an aCCOlIlpl1shed l.inq,u1st, he immedia.tely
set about 1Japroving his English and lea.m1ng the Indian language. As soon
1
2
.. the weath&r pe1"lllitted in the spring, Bishop Fenwick accompanied. him
to bie first. Indian IDise10n field .. Arbre OroQhe , now Harbor Springs,
Michigan.
i
Arb" Croche was already an established mission with several
hundred faithM Indians . Fat.her Baroaga implanted the Faith more !1rml.7
in the hearts ot the Indians, converted a rew hundred more and greatly
extended the boundaries ot the mission. In a little over two years, by
the fall ot 1893, Baraga was ready to tum the mission over to a successor
and venture 1h.to new territory.
Father Baraga, on the orders or his superior, then established a
mie~ion at Grand River .. now the eite of Grand Rapids , Michigan. A Prot
estant rni8sion1U7 who bad labored there unsuccesstully tor 8eV8J;'al years
attempted to use his 1ntluenc8 wit.h government offiCials to bave Baraga
removed, bUt he failed. Financial dttticultiee 1mpede<1 t.he construction
-of a ohurch, schOol and zoeoto:ry. The most serious problem .. however, was
the whiskey traffic Whicb threatened t.o demoralise the entire tribe of
Indians in that region.. Fearing the 1088 of t.heir profitable trade , the
whiskey peddler. instigated the Indians against Baraga and even threatened
hb ute. Once a drunken band ot Indians ,. incited by the traders and the
P1'Oteatant miss1ona17, nearly took Baraga' a life.. Uevert,heless , he
courageously remained at his post and surri. ved this "baptism ot tire."
Within sixt~ .• n months Father Baraga bad plant~ \he CT'OS8 firmly in the
valley ot the Grand Rive~.
Even while he was at Arbre Croche 'ather Baraga rece! ved plea.,
tor a Jdssionary 'I1s1t trom the Indians of take Superior. Theae pleas
alao reached the ears ot bis Ordlnaq, Bishop Frederick Rese ot Detroit.
As a relUlt, in Janua1'7 of 18'35, be appointed Father Baraga to the m1asion
on Lake Superior. By this time Baraga !was an experienced Indian mis
eionary, quite tamiUar with t.he language and. cust.oms ot the Indians .
Atter eight years ot labor at La Pointe, Lake Superior, to t.he
study of which t.bi" paper is devot.ed, Fat.her Baraga founded another
mission on Lake 'Superior at. L' Anse . Fran 1;.hitt station he made t.IIanY
mission.a.ry t.r ips in the Lake Superior country among the rAdians and
newly arrived copper miners. In 1853 he was named Vicar Apo:st.ol1c ot
3
j{/
the Upper Pen1ns\Ua. of Michigan with the seat of Me Vicariate at Sault
Ste . ?-farie . On J anua17 9 J 1857 Baraga wall made the tirst resident bishop
ot Sault Sta •. Marie . The cl10cese becaJ\\e the Diocese ot Sault Ste. Karie
and J.farquett,e in 1866 with the episcopal residence in Marquette . It was
there that B1ebop Baraga died, in almoet complete poverty, on January
19, lSOB.
Chapter One
La Polnt.e~ Wisoonsin . is the oldest settlement on Lake Superior.
It 1s today located on Madeline Island, one of the group known as the
Apostle hlanda, in Chequamegon Bay near the modern city of Bayfield.
For centuries this area has been the ancestral home or the ChiPJ)eW'd.
tribe ot Indians.
/
The French explorers, Radisson and De~ Grosaillier5~ $pent the
winter ot 1660 on this island. They- W9re the first white men t.o visit
it. Later in the century Jesuit lnise10naries came there .. among them were
Allouez and Mal"C).uette . More ..,mite men came in 1693 when Pierre I.e Sueur
established a trading post near the present site of La Pointe village.
Le Sueur founded this post during an attempt to open trade with the
IncH.ana of the Upper !K..issisesippi Hi ver. 1
1 Grace Lee Nute~ Lake SuperiQr (Indianapolis , 1944), 32.
Ear17 attempts to trade with the Indians around Lake Superior
proved too successful.. In 1696, because of talUng tur prices in Europ$,
Loui. XIV ot Fnnce stopped all of the Indian trade in the interior or
New France. Not untU 1719 did the French reestabUsh their post at La
Pointe. It remained in French hands untU the garrison etationed there
lett to fight the English in the Ohio Valley :tn 1759. 2
2 !2!!!., .34-3.6.
In 1791 a new era, brought a.bout by the Aln~r1can Revolution, began
tor La Pointe. Th$ estabUshment of a rut" trading poet at La Pointe by
It
5
John Johnston of the North West Ootnpany in that year marked the beginning
ot renewed activ.1ty for Lake Superior. 3 Before Johnston carne to La
3 ~., 4.8-49. Johnston was adesoendent of a well- to-do Scots .. Irish family and came to America to seek hie fortune. He began bis trading with the Indians at La Pointe, and theN he marrled a daughtdr of Chief White Fiaber of the Chippewa tribe.
/
Pointe in tbat year, the po:st had not boon abandoned, for it always had
remained a poet of much importance in tho fur trade in the Lake Superior
region. However, from 1791 on, La Pointe became liiIOre and more important.
until it ·eventually was the center of aU of the trade on the western end
of Lake Superior and tar inland in what is nowWieconsin and lttnnesota.
Michel Ca40tte arrived at La Pointe a.s an :1ndependont trader in
1795. He later worked for the Northwest Company a.ncl atter 1812 fot' the
American Fur Compeny. He reraa.ined '1110rk1.ng for the American Fur Compan,.
until his death in 1837. He married a Chippewa woman at La Pointe , and
she took the hame of Madeleine when she was baptized a OathoUc at Sault
Ste •. Mar1e . The island received its present name, Madeline .• from thi8
woman. 1+ Cadot.t.e still lived at La Pointe when Father Baraga an-iv.
4 HamUton Rose , The AwaUe Islands (no place, 19S1), 13. 'the journal of Michel Cadotte 1s p~eserved in the Archives 01 the University of Not" Dame.
there many Y"ars later, and he bee
first ·oongregation.
one of the tnembere or Baraga ' 8
Two of Cadotte' a daughters married prominent traders or the
period, L~ &nd TI'W/l8.n Warren, broth ere from Massachusetts . Lyman
later became the cbiel agent for the American Fur Company at La Pointe. ,
5 Gu7 M. Burnham, lIen Suptrior Qouptrz in HistorY and §tot'f
(Ashland , 1929) , 69. The Warren brothers were originallY independent traders , but they began lII'Orldng tor the American Fur Company in 1824 as clerkt at Mackinac.
The tirst Protestant missional'7 arriyed at La Pointe in 1830.
6
j
Frederick !:,er, a Presbyterian catechist stationed at Mackinac, came there
1n the tall ot 18.30 to start a small achool tor the children or the trad
ers at the post . He remainEld: there throughout the winter and returned to
Mackinac 1n the spring. Although not an orCilainecl 1,IIin!ster, h. was the
fir.t mdsllonar,v ot a Protestant religious group to visit La Pointe . ,
6 ~., 113.
When LJ!Wl Warren returned from his annual. trip to Mackinac in
l~l, he brotlght with him Sherman Hall, a Pre$byterian minister, and. his
wite. 7 · The American Board ot Commissioners tor Foreign Missions sent
7 Joumal ot Sherman Hall , August 30, 1$31, in the American Board. 2£ COJ!l!!!issi9nen tor Fgreim Missiom' . The tl"an8cripte of the Allerican Board. are located in the Ayu Collection ot the Newberry Library, Chicago. The origin&ll! are in BOl$ton. The American Board. collection consists ot jou%'na.le and letters or PirOtestant missionaries sent out by the Boa.rd. in Boston to the Board and. t.hose of the Board. to tbese missionaries . These letters and journa,ls are oatalogued by author and date only. This reterenoe will hereaft.er be eit.ed as !BCFM.
the Halls to La Pointe to establish a permanent mi~sion and sohool. S
6 Nut.e , Lake S'lP'rlor, 91. The AlnEtrioan Board was an organization ot PralJbyt$rians, Co~r&gatlonallsts an.d other Pro~estcmt seots founded in Boaton in 18)0 to establish and 8UPPO~ m1aatons ot these denoDd.nations in aU pa.~s or the world.
A daughter bom to MH. Hall in 18)2 was the first pure white child born
on Lake· Superior. 9
RolllS , Apostle Islends, 13.
7
The 88CoM ordained ilIinister sent out by the American Board ot
Commissioners , W1lliam T. Boutwell, a Congregat.ionalist , arrived at La. /
Pointe in 1832. He remained. only a short time and 800n went to the
mission nelds in present day Minnet5ota, but he still had a clooe connec
tion with Hall at La. Pointe. Later tMs sante Bout well married. Hester
Crooks , d.aughter or RaJg.sey Croon , president or the American Fur Oompany.
Another Protestant denomination was act! va on Lake Superior shortly
atter Father Baraga arrived there in the Bumtner ot 1835. During the win
ter ot 1S35 .. 36 two young Indians , both Methodist catechists , came to La
Pointe. One ot these r,nen , George Copway, wrote an interesting book ot
hil travels in which he mentioned hi$ stay at La Pointe with Shennan
Hall. 10 Copway and his companion had a ~s.ion at L' Anse on Keweertaw
10 c;,orge Oopwaf, The Life, H1ston and Trayelf of Kah;:Qe=Ga:Gab~ (Albany, 1947), 115: "During this winter I was with the Rev. Mr. Hall, at La POinte, an4 I aUisted him in tranalatillg the Gospel or St. Luke , and th. Aets of the Apostles , into the Ojebwa tongue."
Bay. thf site or Baraga's tuture labore.
Sherman Hall built thEt first permanent mallon buil.41ng at La
Pointe in l831.-$, a combinati.on re8ll.dence and school. 11 In spite ot
11 Bul""llhu, Icake Superior Country, 69.
this accO!DpUahment the Protestant mi.saiona.r1eo made little or no progress
at La Pointe in the years betore Father Baraga arrived. Soon after bis
arri"fal Hall wrote in his journals "I tee.l more convinced than ever that
a missionary to bsnefit these people, mllst possess their language. Uttle
can be 40ne by preaching the gospel, unless we tollow them in their
vandennga." 12 A short time later Hall again wrote in M, journal:
g,
12 Jourtlal ot Hali, Novab$r 7, 1831, hBCFM. /
"The Indians manifest. no desire to hear. They wlll not Gome to us, and
they are eo seat.t-ersd that we cannot go to them often. It 13 Attairs Clon ...
13 Ibid." January 29, 1832.
tlnued UDsueceestully tor the Protestant mission, because almost one year
~tter his arrival Hall CQuld still only write of failure in his journal,
If The Indians haft lost their 1nte~st in our rellgious exercises and very
few of them come to meeting. The 9abboth [s1eJ exercise 16 nearly deserted
except by the chUdren.iI 14
14 !S!!-, July 22, 18)2.
In the ye/U"5 betore Father Baraga oame to La Pointe, a strong
Catholic intluenoe remaiMd there tram the days of the early Jesuit
missionaries . The Indians of La Pointe remembered the stories of these
Blackrob,s that were handed down tram generation to generation. In
,ddition to this, the CathoUc Frenoh-Canadians had some influence with
the Indians . These people were ve~ much like the Indi~~s in thoir W&1
of life, a;.ld many of them had Indian blood in their veins, as the French
and Indians !requent.ly intermarried. This sll'loldering Catholic infiuence
had muah to do with tha failure of the Protestant rrt1esion.
The Protestant mission at La Pointe had ever~ prerequisite tor
l'JuQcen, yet success did not oome.. Even help from the United Statee Indlan
Agent tor that area, Henry Rowe Schoolcraft , did not advance their oause.
Schoolcraft used his official capacity to g1 ve any aid possible to the
Prote$tant mis$1onaries I and, at tbe tame t,1me ; be otten showed marked
9
disre$peot tor Catholic pr1$sts. 15 Hall ment!oned in his journal
/ 15 HebJ"Y' 8.. Schoolcraft to David Greene, Mackinac" Hovember 2, 1833,
ABCFM. Schoolcraft promised the AmericaD Board ohairman, GI"eene, orUc1al aid if he would. establish missions in his territol'7.
DavU ONene t.o Henry' R. Schoolcraft, Boston, Noventbftt' 2' , 18.36, 1PJ.9.. Gne:ne acknowledged the debt owed to SchoolCI"att by the Board tor all the taY~r. received.
In hi. own book, 'l'b1rtr Years Amonf the I:nc:li!n! (Philadelphia, 18S1), Schoolcraft makes several 4iBreSp80 tui remarks about Bishop Reee ot Detl"01t and othel" priests ..
that on one ot his triP' t.o La Pointe ,Schoolcraft. showed Ms eagemess
to cooperate with the Protestant mi8$1on, whUe at the lIame t1!ne be did
llttle or nothing to promote the welfare €It tbe CathoUo missions. 16
16 Journal ot Hall, Mal" 24, 1$32, ABgfH, "Mr. S. appraised us ·01 his most cordial 'W1sh.s tOl" our success in g1 v1ng the gospel to the,. Indians, and o! his ~ad1n1t88 to Cooperate With us. We reoeived from him tevenl ft1uable present •• It
In .p1t. ot tru" advantages ot aid tJ"OIil the .AuMtrican Board and
t~ Schoolcraft.. other t.bings were against the success ot the Prote.tant
abdon. Hall mentioned in bies jO'tU'lt8l. that. he did not know the Indian's
language, and that he dtd not often go to the Ind1an, to preach. Under
such con4itiOftS it 11 not verr ~urpr1a1ng tba.\ the Indians did pot come
to him. One thins more that. worked aga.!ltet Hall's sueces. walS his taUure
to furnish the Il'lGliana with the clothes and other a1"\101e8 sent to him br
the Board tor that purpose. %natealll ot g1 ving theae thing. away he sold
them 0:" used tll_ to pq tor labor. 17Th. blame tor this cannot. be
17 SbeJil'lllm Hall to David Greene, J.a POinte, NOVfll'lber '1; .IS3), l'b1d; "If .. hay. 110re cl.otb1ng than we need, it if always better tban mone)' to pal" tor our labor and purchase 1lWl7 things lit$ have need for."
plaoed entirely on Hall, tor it vas David Greene'e idea.. Greene thought
10
that giVing thiilge to the Indians would make tbem 1al7 and unappreciative.
18 Hall ha4 another $ericu. burden that impaired. his work. He bad a
1S David Greene to Frederick Ay~r, Boston" Januar,y 17, 18)S, Ibid. , -'Vel!"! siokly wife, and JIluch of hie time was spent taking care of her when
he shoulCl have been working among the Indians. 19
(
"
19 Sherman Hall to Dav14 G~~f\8, La Pointe , Novelllber 7, 1833, ABCFll, Ibid~, Januar,y 20, 1934. In tnelSe letters Hall \014 Greene of Ih's .' Hall ' 8 illness and of her need tor his attention:
S1n48 it had est.ablished e: post at La POinte , the American Fur
COlllpany remained the IIlOst hpol'tant tlingle Wluence 1n t.he U ve. of tbe
inhabitants , for it had a monopoly ot the tur tra.cle. For JBan7 years the
tur trade, remained a source of profU to this eom~, but about 1630 the
)'ield ot tun began to decline in alann1ng &mOlUlts, and, at. tbe same time,
the JDarket pl"iee of t\trs fell to a new low. ft,amsey Crooks, then pres:1dent
of the Amerlc$n Fur Oompany, d.c1ded in 183 S that the Oompany would enter
the s • .mingly profitable field 01 commercial fIshing on Lake Superior.
Crooks wrote to Lyman Warren and made plans tor ex.pa:nding their modest
f1lhing taclliUes on the lake with La Pointe as the eent.er of aU opera
t.ions in the tuture. 20 This moYe bad a great. deal of lm)X)rt.ance tor
20 Ramse,. Crooke to L)'IIIIUl Warren, Nev York, Febra&17 18, 183',. Amerioan hE Qompamr PaJ!!tI . The t.ranscripts ot thes. papers are in the Bishop Bat-aga ColleCtion, Marquette , Michigan. Tbe originals are in the New York HiStorical SQciet;r, New York Cit;r. This source will hereafter b. cited ae AFcr. -the village or La Pointe. It. meant that iDOre than ever this small outpost
would become the leading settlement on Lake Superior, tor previously the
Company had. made La Point.e the main depot. tor all t.he tur trade to t.he
11
west of La.ke' Supedor. ' These two moves made La POinte the thriving
~ommun1ty it wae in lS3S ~ /
Th.Indlan. ot that area, the Chippewas;. lived in pea.ce ldt.b the
'White man. They bad Idgned a treaty with t.he Unit.ed States at Fond du Lac )
near present day ·Duluth, in 1826. This treaty was designed t.o l1'tBJ.ntain
peace between the Cbippewas and the Sioux but it. aleo gnnte4 to the
white Dlen the right to search tor and carry away JIl$tals or minerala on
any part. ot the lands of the Ohippewa tribe. It., dl<l not in any waT effect
the Indian' s tit.le to this land, nor d.id it, mention giving the white man
anr fishing rightfl in or around these lands. The Indian lands at tbis
time ineluded all ot the land around Lake Superior. 2l
21 Gharl •• J . Kappl er, lnd.ianAtta1n (Washington, 1904.), 2,26g..,73. This Two V01Ulli8 work contains tbe tats of all ot the lfidlan treaties ot the U.S. tl'Om 1789 to 1902.
When Pather Baraga arrived at La Poillte in the sunmer of 1835,
that "fillAS- had alr$ady booom the bude.stlettlement <>1'1 the lake. J.fa.n7
people emplo)"ed by the American Fur Company dWU there, Americans , French
Canadians and Indians. 22 The great gathering. or Indiana there mad. it
22 'th. American Fur Company had. •• La Pointe its main post on Lake Superior in 183·' . Th. ahip nJohn Jacob AlStorll bl'Ought supplies to La. Pointe fJ.'!OJl the Sault. ruSQved the rur trade" from the interior the long trip to the Sault tor their yearly 8uPPlie, .
an extrealy favorable missionary field . Although the Prote13tants pre
ceeded him by fi:ve years , they bad :made Uttle 01" no progress in convert, ...
ins thtl Indians . Upon suoh a scene oame Father 'Baraga. For almost four
years he had. l abored among tbe Indians of Michigan' 8 Lower Peninsula,
and now he ead t.o bring the WOr« cd God to, the pagan Indians along the
. shores ot majestic Lake Superior.
Chapter Two
(
Fath.r Baraga served as the pastor of a small parish at Cottrevtlle ,
Miohigan, a few miles north ot Detroit , for a ahort time belore he left
for his new mission on Lake Superior. While at Arbre Croehe several years '
betore this he had 'begged his ordinaI'7, Bishop Rese ot Detroit , to send
him to Lake Superior to sta.rt. a new mission. The French-Canadian Catholics
at LaPointe wilthed t.o have a Oatholic pr:ie!Jt to eounteraot the intluence
ot the Protestant.. The serious shortage ot priests in the pioneer diooese
ot Detroit made Baraga' IS appointment to this new mssion quite uncertain
tor a time . However, in the . summer ot la:35 he t1ftall.7 received lJennission
to leave tor Lake Superior with La Pointe as the destination author1~ecl
by his biehop. The ahortage ot priests caused Bishop Reae to make Baraga 18
appointment to La Pointe only temporary.
Soon atter he arrived at Mackinac Baraga wrote a pleading letter to
Bishop Relit beaging to be assigned p8l'1l!8nentl.;y to a Idsa10D at La Pointe. 1
1 Frederick Baraga to Frederick Rese, Mackinao, June 25, 1835, Archives ot the Universitz of Notre Dame. The or1g1na.la of many Baraga lettere are 1n this archives. It vUl hereafter 'be cited aa AUND. In this letter Baraga pointed out the Protestant dan.ger on Lake Superiors "The Protestant mint.ters are eo active to seduce the poor Indians there in their damnable errore, and we Catholios deter our2iel vee there tl'Oll one SUlI1II1EU' to the other from goin« to instruct these good children ot nature in the eternal truths."
Two days later he again wrote to Bishop Rese. In this letter he said:
"Now I again persuade you lIore that w met weU establish that msston
this SWlIler •. and I belleve that 1t ser'"J1 ai&1nst the wishes ot God and
against all good sense, to neglect a new establishment under conditions
12
13
so favorable and so consoling." 2
2 Frederick Baraga to Frederiok Rese, Mackinac, June Z7, la35, 1E!!!':
Father Baraga lett Mackinao on July 4, 18',. He decided to leave
betore he received a letter from Bishop Rese , beoause transportation,
always uncertain in that country, was available at that time I and the
weather was favorable for a voyage. He embarked on a small trading vessel
at Sault Slbe. Marie on July 10, and, after a long and tedious voyage of
eighteen da"" he a1"1"1 ved at La Pointe on July 27, la,3~. :3
I , 3 Frederick Baraga to the, Leopoldine Foundation, La Pointe , August
9., 1835, B.richte , 9.56. Jilany of Baraga' s letters and l'eports to this organisation were published in Vienna in a periodioal of the Leopoldine Foundation known as the Berichte. Translated transcripts of this _ter1&1 1s trom the Bishop Baraga Collection, and 1t will hereafter be cited a Bericht •• i'-\
When Baraga arrived at La Pointe it seemed as if hie dreams had
come true . For years he had wished to go to the $horee of Lake Superior
to tound a miSSion among the Indians . HoweVer, when he ftnal.ly did arr1 ve ,
he was a total stranger. Besides having no friends , he did not have a
bit of winter clothing to face the rigors of a Lake Superi or winter, for
his trunk containing these articles had not been shipped to him. Bishop
Rese , not realizing that he planned to spend. the winter at La POinte, had
failed to send Baraga ' s trunk there . On top ot all thilJ, Father Baraga
had only three dollars in hie pocket . 4
4 lE!!!.
The enthusiasm with which the people greeted him proved to be one
bright 8pot in an othel"Wise dark outlook £01" the missionary. The people
14
ot French-Oanadian descent 40uld not conceal their .101 O1fer the ai'ri val
of thei1" long-awalted priest. In a very short time almost the whole
population at the island bad come to welcome the missionary. ,
5 P. ChrysO$tomus Verwyet. O .F.M.~ The L~re ot Fred!r1ck Baraga (Milwaukee, 1901), 173.
Father Baraga lost no time alter his arrival in starting the
construction of a church. The enthusiastic people helped him great17
, i
in this task. Old Michel Cadotte was one of the tirst to donate material
for the new church. Even the American Pur Company's chief agent . L;vman
Warren. a Protestant J helped him. Warren probably helped him because so
many of tM COmpall1' $ employees were Catholic. Actual construction ot
the church began within a day or two atter Baraga' s arrival . 6
6 Bapiebte, 9s56.
Father Baraga also achieved immediate success in baptizing
Indiana. On bis third d.ay a.t La Pointe, a Sunday I he baptized twenty
five children and a tew adults who ha4 been inst:ructe4 by the half-breads
At the poat. Mor& In<Ult.lls oarne to hitu, so that enry ciay during the veek
following hie arrival he entered some names in his baptismal register. ?
7 Ibid . -Secause of the 1mn1ediatesuccess he bad in converting the Indians ,
Baraga did not have long to wait for Protestant opposition to manitest
iteeU. One week atter his arrival an attempt was made by the Protestant.
missionaries to remove him trom La. Pointe. In a letter to the Unit.ed
States Indian Agent for that area, Henry Rowe Schoolcraft, the Protestant
mi$sionaries wrote,
You may be aware that M.F • Baraga of the Roman Catholic order has vislted us and 18 now actively engaged in building with a view to a permanent 'location at this place. You are also doubtless awaN that the A. Board 1n sending out their missionaries , have long since adopted and strictly adhered to the principle, not to send their missionaries to locate where the ground has been preoocupied by other denominations . Thb is a IIII1tual understanding betwe~m ourselves and the Methodist Epiac: . denomination. We think the above princIple a. just one and rounded upon the Savior's gclden rule ot doing to others as we would they should do t o us. Now we are fully apprized ot the disposition ot our Govt.. to aid the Inds. in civilization, and tor which purpose appropriations have been we tor the benefit of this band and that of Yellow Lake. From our observations and knowledge of ' Ind, character , and the influence ~ich difterent sects are wont to expect, when they come in closer contact, differing so widely in doctrines and' practice as Presbyterians and Boman Catholics or other sects are licensed to violate the befol"8 ment.ioned principle upon which we a.ct, tha.t the object or our Govt . must in a great. measure be I$ubverted. The Wluenoe ot collision upon the Ind. character 1s pernicious in .V817 point ot view and we feel it gr~tly to be depreciated. W. wish therefore if pos$ible to avoid it, and tor this simple rea.son, 1!' there were no other I that there 18 lIIUcb ground already unoccupied where the:r may labor without interfering with our operations or we with th.1n. W. bave consulted some ot the gentlemen employed in conduo~ing the trade in this section ot your agency Who tully eoncur in t.he opinion of expediency, that. it might be tor the object of our Govt. when he calls for his license at residence in the country be advised to locate and confine his labors to 80me ot the fields not pre-oooupie4. We regard it not only in the light of duty, but feel it our ,rivilege, to cOnBult the ortio'1al agent of thl$ sect10n ot the oountry as to tht) d1f'tel"fmt situations which we wish to occupy and that previoua to our commencing operations . If thie principle be an erron.oua one. we ~~d thank you tor its correction. S
15
I
8 Frederiok Ayer, Et:llmu1d F. Ely, Rev. W. T • BoutweU and Rev. Sherman Hall to Henry R. Schooloraft , La POinte,. August 4, 193~, National Ar:chi"es, OffiC! ot IMian Atfair!!. Transcripts of all of the mat.erial ft'Om the Na.tional Arch! ves used in this paper from the Bishop Baraga Collection. This source will here alter be cited as NAOa.
Evidently not only the Protestant missionaries joined in this
attempt to remove Baraga, for the gentlemen of the trade mentioned. in
the lett~r 'Pl"Obably include Lyman Warren. Warren was an active ProtelStant ,
but his half-breed wife was a Catholic . His outward f'r1endl.1n~es to
Baraga might have concealed his inward desire to see the priest removed.
16
Warren neVGr came out in open opposition. to Bania. Nevertheless , this
letter to Schoolcra.ft faile« in its purpose . FathE!'!' Baraga did receive /
hie license, and he wrote on August 21, 1835, to the American Fur Com
pany agent at Mackinac,. Samuel Abbott: 11M}'. Francbere (Fur Company
agent at the Sault) informed me by a letter, that he obtained the li~
cense for me with your help and the Bishop ' S. I tbank you, Mr. Abbott ,
and requ$st you to give my most respectful thanks to Mr. Schoolcraft tor
bie kindness to me . " 9 Schoolcraft evident11 thought that open oppos1-
9 Fradel"lck Baraga to Samuel Abbott,. La POinte, August 21, 1835, !m.
tion to the Catholics by not granting Baraga a. license would cause h1lIl
some trouble . For the time being Baraga was safe from Scboolcraft' s
intervention.
Construetlon of Baraga ' s new Church had progressed so r apidly
that on August 9~ 1e$5 than two weeks after hi. arrival , he d$d.ieated it
to St. Joseph. This building, construoted ot hewn logs ; measured. titty
feet in length by twenty feet i n width. It had a large steeple in ~ch
hung a ama,1l bell. 10 This building was the first church ever ereoted
10 Berichte ., 9: 5S.
at La Pointe. The Protestants did not build a ehurch for several years.
The eJcistlng Protestant mission house combined a schOOl and residence ,
but it had no separate place tor use as a church .
A.lthough the Cathollc church bad very f~w furnishings , 1t served
the purpose tor the pre.sent . Pather Baraga had received many beaut:S.tul.
articles tor his church t>rom Europ~, but they had been left· at Detroit
with the rest of' hits personal belongings and did not a1'1'1.. untU the
11
tollowing year. He even lacked a chalice and paten f or saying Haas t 80
he had to use hie clbodum and a small altar cloth. In spite of these /
ahortagt. Father Baraga remained happy and content in hie mission at
La Pointe. II
II Frederick Baraga to Freder1ck Rese , La Pointe, August 29, 1935, AUND . -
Father Baraga complain$d in one of his letters to the Leopold1ne
Foundation that be suftered from the lack of proper supplies, not only
tor h1m8eU" but alao bec'auBe he could not g1 ... anytbing to the nMY
Indians. In tbis same letter to the Foundation, dated August 9, 183',
he told dt .tarting 'WOrk on a residence f or hWeU. This residence ,
however, waa never com.pleted. 12 Nevertheless , in 18.s than two weeks
12 Fredttick Baraga to Vincent Win, La POinte , February 25 , 1836, llWl·
atter his arrival, Baraga had constructed a church , started on a residence
for him.elf and baptized a total ot tifty Ind1anl .
Tbe Leopoldine 'OUl'ldation to 1IIhlob Barap. wrote so often in t.hese
yeara had been founded in Vienna, Austria on April U , 1~29 to g1 va aid
to missionarie. in North America . It took itit ~e to honor Leopoldine,
EmpreiS. of Brazil and. favorite daughter ot Emperor 'rands I ot Austria. 13
13 Benjamin J . Bi ted , AUltrian Aid 1o American CathoUc. (Mil 'WaUkee , 1944), 20. .
~lJUally it di d not maleegifts ot money direct17 to a priest , but it sent
mone,. to the bllhQP8 to distribute to the needy missionaries . Baraga ' s
reports to the Central COi!llll1tt •• ot the Foundation captured the hearts ot
18
many, and between 1832 and 1841 he received several hundred dollars from ,
them. 14 This ,moM1, however, was t.hat. which his friends and relatives/
1.4 Theodore Roemer, Ten Decades ot Alms (St . Louis , 1942) , 94-9' .
had. donated to him, a1'1d the Foundation 118"17 f orwarded it.
Father Baraga first mentioned his desire to Vie1t the small Indian
vUlap and trad1ng po.t. at. Fond du Lac , near the head of Lake Superior,
in hi. letter to the Foundation of August 9, 1835. At this early dat.e he
lready had cast his eye. about for new fields of converts . In this
letter h. wrote.
Ninet,. miles trom here i8 another Indian village, oalled Fond du Lac , where t.here are also many Indian. who wish to acoept the Oat.holic reUgion. Through a pious fur- trader they have bearti spoken about. the religion and priestl . As soon as I perform the moet urgent nt!.hlonary attatn here , I shall, it Qed vUl, go t.here and spend a few week. with th ... good. Indians 11l ord.er to includ.e them, through Fdth and Baptism, among t.he number of Chri.t ' . faithf'Ul sheep. l S
l' Berichte, 9.55-57.
The Protestants had already 8een the blportance of Fond du Lac as
a mission f!eld , and also the need for immediat.e ocoupation of that place
by" their missionaries . 16 Therefore, in 18)4, Edmund F. Ely' 8: oatechist
16 Sherman Hall. to DaVid Greene t La POinte , Octobl\lr 17, 1834, ABQ!!: "This place, in my View, present$ several facUlties tor a station and it hal s eemed to lie tor eOJae time deslreabl e that it 8hould be occupied, it the labourers could be tound . It this place 18 not occupied by the Board, it will be open for- sectarians , and it will be no un ... inviting field for Roman Cat holics , should they cOJllnenca operat.iona up the Lalce ••
and teacher, was sent to Fond du Lac by the American Board. Ely kept a
diary ot his years at Fond du Lac, and in this diary he told of the work
done by Pierre Cotte , the pioue trader that Baraga had mentioned before ,
in spreading the teachinp ot the OathoUc Church among the Indians. 17
19
17 Th. original ot the Ely Diary 18 in the Duluth Historical Society, Duluth, Minnesota . A photostat of a t.ranscript ot this diary is in the • Bishop Baraga Collection end is used in this pa~r.
Ely. s d.ial"1 revealed the losing tight that he wag«i against the
Oa.tholiC teachings of the la,man Cotte. Ely bad tbe habit of attendirtg
the meetings that Cotta held in his house tor the Indians . The Indians
aoonobject.ed to t.he presenoe ot Ely, and Cotte , urged 'by the Indians ,
reque.t.ed Ely to stop lea4ing prayer. at these meetings . Ely' s diary
entry tor that day .-ead: "They did not wish to learn a;o;y other prayers.
He (Oot1:.e) wished that the exercises might bEt as usual, except , that
when it was time fot' rtt:I accustomed praTer 1 shoUld retire and olter it
somewhe" els8. u 1$
18 Elt DiAry,· Ootober 1', 1834.
With .uch treatment trom the Indians El y soon lost his couragef
"I am drlveh to di8tress , to IA1' God . What rill He do witb .,uch teeble
and 'file means ... 1$ 1nde~ a myste17. The Wicked [Catholios] 8ft
Spreading Themselves like· a green Bay tree . · 19
19Ibi~., February 27, 1835.
Shortl y betore Baraga went to Fond du Lac Ely returned to La Pointe
for a aeetina ot the Prot.estant m1ssioZlarie~ l oca.t.ed 11\ that region. Tbere ,
in a joint ~poJ't to thft American Board, Elr and the others told ot the
bleak outlook tor the euccess ot the P1'Otestant misdon at Fond 4u Lac. 20
20 Report ot A7ell , E17 i Boutwell and Hall to nand G~nG, La POinte, September 12, 1935, ABCtHJ ·A ban Cathollc priest 18 now stationed at thia place , to counteract whose influence it b necessary to prosecute our work with as llUcb vigor as possible. He operates also at Fond du Lac,
20
who, togeth~r with t.he trader stationed at that place; (Who has for several yeara been ~lI'ting considerable Catholic influence on the Indians there,) will be like17 to counteract much ot the influence )boo E could / ' exert there,. unl.ees wetained by lItO" labourers. tI
When Pather Baraga arrived at Fond du Lao in September of IS; 5 he
found ma.ny Indians ready to be baptized because ot the work done with
them by Pierre Cotte. Baraga baptized twenty...one Indians on Septe~er 6
and thirty more on September 9. He regretted that there were still some
who would not Usten to anything about rellgiG>n, but he had high hopes
for the future of that place. 21
21 Bericbte, 9:59-60.
When Father Baraga returned to La Pointe he found the Protestant
in!luence still working against him. He knew t.hat he must not give
of'tana. to the Proteetants, tor any serious trouble with them might bring
Henr:y Schoolcratt openly to their aid. Baraga succeeded. in doing tbis,
tor when Hall Hporbed. on his activities to Greene he wrotea
You will probably expect me to say something in relation to Catholic inf'lueno. hen. But I bardlylmow what to sq. The aathollc priest is eUll here, and lsvery act! ve among the Indians. He bas persuaded. .everal ot them to be baptis«l. I clo not know tbat he has ~t attttmpt~ d.irectly to pr-.1uc11oe the Indians against us. His p0-lley ,ee1'll8 to be 80 tar., to leave an impreE!Sion on their minds, that there i8no areat d11'terence "t.ween hie religion and ours. I have not been able to learn from any ot bis converts that they know anything what baptism means or why they are baptized.. I have no doubt that I could have baptized any of hie converts months ago, 11 I had taken the course he has. But none give the smalleat eY.1.dence ot piety, and of course cannot. be admitted to a standing 1n our church. Some of them were a ldng time of tended. with me beoause I would not baptize them. Hoet ot those lIbom be bait baptbed have never appeared blQre willing to ll.sten to the gospel than tbey do at present. I do not expect the pl"1est "Will continue his present poUey very long. 22
22 SheJ'Jlllm Hall to David Greene , La POinte, January 1, 1836" ABaFK.
In answer to this letter Grefine wrote, ·You must not be amdoue or
2l
te~rif1ed by the efforts ot the Catholics. The spirit of the Lord can
counteract them and open the eyes of the Indians to all t heir errors
and artifices . Be kind and honest toward them, but still be watchful
ot their movements . II 23
23 David Greene to Sherman Hall, Bostoi'l, June 13, 1836, ~.
When the oQhooner, "John Ja.cob Astorlt J called at La Pointe in
October or 1835 on its last trip of the yaal", it did not bring Fa.ther
Baraga' s trunks containing hie winter clothing and other possessions .
This l$rt him to face the rigors of Lake Superior 'Winter with only his
sunlmerclothing. A hard winter fMed. the priest when he wrote t .o his
bishop: HI am in a situation disagreeable enough her$, without friends,
'Without acquaintances, so far removed. trom civilization,. and besides
deprived ot rrry trunk; may the Lord give me the grace and courage to
again endur$ this with patience. " 24.
24 Frederick Baraga to Frederick Reso , La Pointe, October ll, 1835, AUND. The last sentence reters to the ha.rd 'Winter8 he spent at Grand River the two preceding years.
I
A letter from Bishop Reee arrived aboard the schooner on this last
trip of the year, and in it be asked Baraga when he would return to the
misdon ot Arbt'e Croche, his first station as a missiona.ry_ Baraga imm .. -
diate17 and obed1ently answered bim: "Monsignor, aa soon as 70U command
me to go there, I shall without delay, I beg 10\1 sincerely, to either
order me dec1d vel,. t.o go to Arhre Croche or to coDtlrm me dec1el valy for
the mission on Lakit Superior." 25 No sooner had Baraga W1'lt.t.en this
25 Ibid. -
letter when he chanced to look on the back ot the letter from Bishop
Rase and found a note that informed him that he was to remain at La
22
l Pointe. He felt very happy about this. and in a poatcript to his letter
said; "A priest 1s very necessary here. It In that earne postcrlpt he
mentioned to Bishop Rese that he no longer bad need ot an interpreter
ae he had mastered the Chippewa tongue. He also mentioned that he had
almost eompleted a translation ot his Ottawa prayerbook into Chippewa,
and that he planned to have it printed eomeMme next. summer.
La Point.e went into hibernation dudng the winter months . Moat.
of the Indiana returned to the toreet,s for their Winter bunts, and the
trappe'ra and traders returned to isolate<i p.osts tor the winter's vork.
The only c.ontact maintained with the outside world was through a fu%'
company messenger Who made the long trip to the Sault on snowshoes a tell'
times during the winter. On J lUlUary 4., lS36, one of theSE! messengers
departed tor the Sault, and he carried with him a letter from Father
Baraga to the L~opold1ne Foundation.
In this report to the Foundation Baraga told 01 the progress ot
hie ndssion and fbi Bome ot the hardships he had to tace. He told ot how
he walked three miles each day for a month through the frozen woods to
an Indian camp. eo that he could teach them catechism. He walked this
dllttanoe ~lad only 11'1 hilS SUlIII'ner. clothes. HiB ettforts repaid h1m fully,
for on Christmas Day hEt baptl!!:ed twenty-two pagan8, among wbom only two
vere children. At the eJ14 ot his first. five months at La POinte be had
baptized a total of 194 pagans . 26
26 Ber1chte, 10 c 33 .. 37 •
Father Baraga aleo mentioned in this report the tact that only
23
one person ot his mission had died during the tirst tive monthe of hb
.tay. This proved. to be an extremely fortunat.e incident, beoause the /
Indians were v8q superstitious about Madeline Island . Many years before ,
t.he Indians wintering on t.he island had been threat~ed with starvation.
Their mediCine men decreed that the children must be kUl ed and eaten,
so t.hat the adults could live . Sinoe t.hat time the Indians believed. that
the i~land was haunted by the spirits of the murdered children. For many
years none ot the Indians 'Would. li". on t.he island , and eVen in Bai"aga' s
time that 8uPtrstition had not ent1.rely died. out. . 27 It many Indian
27 aueben Gold Thwaites , liThe Story of CheCNamegon BaT', WisO.ons:ln H!stocigal .Collecttotll , 13.404- 5.
deaths bad ocoured that winter, the Indian medlaine men certainly would
have caused Baraga a great deal of trouble .
In that. same report to the Foundat.ion Baraga told ot his inabUity ,
to establish a school as he wished: "A sohool 'WOuld be useful i n this
missi on, but it is utt.erly impossible for me to do both, keep school and
properly p$rforrn my frequent missionary obligations and visits t o the
sick, because very often I am all day in the huts ot the Indians where I
alvaya find something useful to do. " 28 However, be had not given up hls
28 Beriehte , 10:)3-7.
intention of someday having a school there .
During the long wint.er months of bi$ first year at La Pointe
Father Baraga wrot.e to hb sist.er in Slovenia, Antonia, a Widow, and said
that 11' she was still w1l.llng to eQllle to America, he had great need of
her services at La Pointe. She had planned several years betore to tollow
her brother to the mission fiel ds . He wished to have her t.each his school
214>
at La Pointe. He a.lso begged her to bring as muoh money and a.s many
religiou$ a.rtioles a.s possible, if she eam.6 to this country. He al$o (
" urged bel" to attenlpt to induee some eea1ou6prieats to come to the Indian
missions of North America.. 29
29 Frederick Baraga to Antonia Hoeffern , La Pointe, no date ( c . D.cembe~, 1835) , Dioee§an At'Chi'V'8S ot Ljubgava, transcripts in the Bishop Baraga collection. He:reattel" cited as DAL.
Father Baraga gave an interesting picture o.f the Protestant mission
ill a letter he $Emt to Bbhop Rese in January of 1836. In this revealing
letter he wrote:
My missionary affairs are making good progrefls . Since I have been here many Indians have al~a.dy been convert.ad. to the CathoUc religion, but not one has been converted to the Protestant sect. During the five year. that they have b$en here , the Presbyterians !:Jave won but one single tBJnil.y, and even that family was tron over to Pl"eabyteriaJ'li.Dl .. ather at the Sault where it once spent a winter, and now it re~ide, with the local minister beoause he supporte and clothes i t oomplete17. But even thb fSl:ld.l7 is not all Presbyteriant variOUs members of this famUy, come to us on Sunday for Kass , and very openly aa7 that the1' better underatand the inst.ructions which the priest g1 'VeS to the Indians atter Ma.e than the :instructions ot their minist er. One grown up gi:-l ot th1a family comes regularly on Sundays to our church. ! might almost say, like the Canadianel , "quf.u. vont b1entot tons rovirer. ft' It. 1s Q;tnme11 4eplorable, however, that ! mst continue this mi"$1on all alone and t.hat ! haTe not eTen a cent ot III¥ ow. 30
30 frederick Baraga to Frederick Rese, La POinte, January 2, 1836, AUND.
As the wintel" progressed Baraga :rea.l:hed that he needed financial
aasietance if he wished to cope with the problems ot his mission . His
stead1ly increasbl.g nock already made his mall church inade(tUate. He
needed a scbool and a more suitable re81denee tor himself . He wished to
be able to cloth the poor Ind.1ans , but he had no lIleans tor doing this.
On t op of all t his, be had tallen into debt to t he Amanaan Fur Company I
tor it. had advanced 111m eredit to enabl e him t.o purohaae ~he neoessities
25
of life after he had arrived almost penniless the preceding summer.
Bishop Rase was one of the main causes tot' Father Baraga' s lack ./
of funds . The bishop' 8 mismanagement of the diocesan funds lett very
little tor the missions. Even some of the monoy sent trom the Leopoldine
Foundation to individual priests did not get beyond Detroit . Bishop Rose
spent large sums of money on his cathedral and other diocesan buildings,
and, as a result, the missionaries suffered. 31
31 George Pare, The CathoUc Chute!) in Detro1:t:, . l7Ol-1BI!$ (Detroit., 1951), 423-32.
Early in the year 1936 Father Baraga decided that he mst go to
Eul"ope personally in order to raise inoney for his mission. He wrote to
his other 81ater, Amalia Gressel, and told her ot his intentions regard
ing the raisi ng ormonay among his tellow countrymen. He asked her to
tell the people ot his nailve land that he would be there to raise tunds
tor his mission . He a180 intended to ~a1t Vienna and Rolle on this trip.
He Wormed bis aieter that be would. br1ng witb hill the two Il¥lian pra;yel"
books he bad written, 80 that he oould have them printed in Europa.
Baraga felt that in Europe he could find S0I'lI8 seneroue benetaotor to
assume t.he cost. 01 printing. In Detroit the printing bill would come
to- nearly 8700.00._ and be never bad that muoh moneY'. The language of the
books wa$ as toreign to printers 1n Detroit as to those in Europe, 8.0 it
really made nc difference where the printing was done. 32
32 Fred.deE Baraga to AmaUa Greseel . La Pointe, February 24, 1836, DAt, -
Baraga planned to leave tor Europe in the tall ot 1836 and to
return the following sunmer. In the meantime much work remained. to be
26
done at La Pointe. P1er~ Ootte and bis wife oL Fond du Lac braved the
ice and snow of February to make the long and dangerous ninety mile trip , from that post to visit Father Baraga at La Pointe . They made him promise
to visit them as 800n as he oould in the spring. Thererore, in May, be
fore the ice aId. snow had oleared from Ohequamegon Ba;y, Baraga set out to
v1lit his converts at Fond du Lac. He arrived there on Ma;y 26, 1836. 3.3
33 Ely Dian, Kay 28, 1836.
The priest 800n learned that the Indians had kept the faith in
his absence . He baptized fourteen more of them who had been prepared tor
the sacrament b;y Pierre Cotte. Ely had returned to Pond du Lac the pre
ceding fall att er the meeting held at La Pointe. He etUl could make no
progresl among the Indians . In fact , most of the Indians had becOBlI
60mewitat ho.tUe towards him. The,. associated the Protestants more With
the American. , whom the;y diel1ked , than they did people l ike Baraga and
Cotte. 34 Dur ing this visit Baraga decided that 1t poseible , he would
34 Ibid., May 31, 1836.
like to "nd Father Francis Pierz , 35 another Sl ovenian missionary,
.3 5 Francis Xavier Pierz was bom in K8.IIIllik, Oarniola on November 20, 1785. He was ordained on Hareh 13 ,. 1813, in Ljubgava , Oarniola, then a part ot the Hapsburg Empire . He came to the United States on September 18, 18.35 in answer to an appeal for priests by Father Baraga. He remained in America until 1973 , working among the Indian. ot Michigan, Wisconsin and Minnelota. He died in hi8 native l and in 1800.
A recent but not completely reliable bi ography ot Father Pierz 115 William P. Furl an ' s book, In Charity Unteimed (S.t . Cloud , 1952) .
to Fond du Lac to establish a permanent mission there. )6
36 Berlchte, lOc40.
Shortly after Father Baraga lett Fond du Lac on this visit,
PieJTe Cotte and his 'Wife moved to Grand Portage, on the Minnesota ...
"" Canada border, to engage in fishing rp,r. the American Fur Company. These
operations proved to be very ISUccesstul, 80 800n most ot the Catholic
'Z7
i
Indians ot Fond du Lao moved after them to enjoY' the profits ot commercial
fishing tor the OompanY'. 37 This great exodu. or the Catholic Indians
37 Nute, Lake Superior, 175.
made Fond du Lac decline in importance tor a time as a mission field .
Father Piers later started a mission at Grand Porta«e where h$ had much
success.
The arrival ot the ,"John ,Jacob Astor" , on its first trip of the
year in June , brought great joy to rather Baraga. It had on board his
long-awaited trunk. Beside his winter clothes, which he no longer needed,
it also contained manY' furnishings tor his church and various religious
articles for the Indians . Baraga at last could properly turnish his
church and dist.ribute rosaries and cruc1t1Xes to his Indian converts . 38
38 Berichte , 10140.
The Protestant reaction to Baragat s distribution of the few things
h. bad in his trunk reTealed one reason wb7 the7 had 80 little success
among the Indians. Hall wrote to David Gre.nlu
It seems to be one part or the pollcy of the Reman pre:lst [sic] here to take advantage ot a particular trait ot Indian character, and draw the Indians into t.his favor bY' g1 ving them numerous small presents , such as fish hooke , Which though of small benefit to the Indians , they are much .alued by t.hem. I have not practieed this method generallY', choosing rather to assist them in that which 18 of more real value , and in such a 'W8.7 as to call forth their own ettorts to h~lp themselves . 39
28
. 39 Sherman Hall to David Greene, La Pointe , October 14, lJ3b, ABCFM.,
( .~
It evidently never oeourriifd to Hall that t.ne Indiane could posdbl,f be
1\10r8 eadly 'WOn over by men who treate them withldndnea. than by thoa.
who tailed. to under.tand them. 1.'he Indians were not well acquainted with
t.he ways ot ci viUzat1on, an4 usually they work"- on1:3' to get the bare
neces.it..ie. of 11te. Kost ot them would not work ~ry hard to get any
thing that Hall could offer t unl:es. they needM if, badly. Baraga realized
the true ohanct.r ot the Indians, am he did aU that he possibly could
to teaoh them the waye of civilieation. Hall ' s continual lllieundersta.tldlng
or Indian JUl.ture waS to a great extent reaponelble for the almost complete
failure of the Prot.estant mission.
Previous to tbis Hall blamed the increase in the French..canadian
population tor the IUccess of the CatholiC ~8.1onl
At present the Catholics exert. themselves to J)~jud1ce the Indians aga.irlst us , and to ch"aw thliW away from our Wlllenee. Tbis lntluence is $Xerted principally throu8b the French popqlation. lou are aware that. the illr COJllpallll' bas b1'Ought a large number ot Catholic, from Canada to this count.ry, the,. being bet.ter adopted. to the kind or labor t"equired ih the trade, than American. . The.e have been conneeteci by marriage with tbe lnd.1ans and are 80 nearly assimilated in habit.s , that. they are almost identified with them. They are 8carcely e].evat«l above the Indian, in any respect.. They are generally too ignorant and cue too Uttle about reUdol) wben lett to themselvesJ but when pUt rorward and direct.e. by a prieat. , they oan be, and are made a powertul au:d.Uary to the cau.. of Romaniem. 40
40 Shel"Jll&:n Hall to David Greene, La Pointe, August 9, 1836, Ibid.
In the mail brought by the schooner on it. flrst. tnp Baraga
rece1 veil sou small 8was ot mol'ley which had been collected and sent by
hils·tstel' Amalia. He U!lIed this money to c&l"l"y' out one ot his pet projects i
t.hat ot building some small houses tor' hits Indians. He believed that this
29
would help them learn the ways ot civillzation. The Protestants also
saw the advantage. 01 this idea, and H~ augested 1t to Greene_ How- ( "
ever., Ha.ll intended to build and only lend the housea to the Indians,
while Baraga gave the houses to them. 41
41 I'oid .
The ,ohooner also brought with it a man named Anthony Merlak. He
came to work as a. servant. for Father Ba.raga. Baraga' s sister, Amalia,
had interested Herlak in this work, and on his arrival he relieved the
priest ot his hou8ehold ehores, cultivated a garden and helped to instruct
the Indians in the ways ot c1viUzat1on. 42 --------~--~.-.-, -------;-~
42 Frederick Ba.raga to Amalia Gressel, La Pointe, June 17, 1836, ~.
Aftnirs went along Smoothly tor Father Baraga the ~ .. t of that
year, but the Protestant mission did . not tare qui,te ao well. Dissension
orept, into that mission , and, 1n a revealing letter, Joseph Towne , 8.
teachea- a1'l 1'Ihe Protestant m1ssion school, told of the trouble. In his
letter ot resignation he wrote:
From the Utu ! f'1l"St ar:rived at La Pointe , there has been one fruitful source ot d1lsaatisfaotion, which bas kept my mind constantly in doubt as to my duty, Jff¥ trial 11 this r Br. Hall bas alwars had his hand. or head or heart '0 .tull ot 'Goular or dome.tic cares that he has never .ince IIij" alTiftJ. in September 1834 round t.ime to t-rtOl'lll the appropriate duties ot a Mis8ionary. 43
43 Joseph Towne to Dav14 Greene, La POinte, October 14, 1836., ABOFM.
HaU, the leader ot the mission, did. not have the attribute8 that
make a sueees8M m186iona1'7. He was very consclentiou$, but possibly
hi_ New England r8 •• r.,.e p:revented him trom being completely ettective in
hi. attempts to civilise the lftdiana. He had great ability as a carpenter
30
and cabinetmaker, and his finest contributions were ma.cie 1n the field ot
e.rehitecture • . His: letters ant! art.icle~ describing local architeoture /
of that periQd and place, effpecially the voyager type of dwelling and
ch1nmey conetruct10n" are hle main e~mtrfbution8 t .O PQsterity. 44
44 Mut.e" tM! Syperior, 91.
In aU fairness to the Protestants, the missionaries themselves
must be underetood. to explain some of their dltf'icult1es nth the Indians •
.Moet of them .brought theb wttrep with them to this wilderness, and in
addition to their duties as lIlisBionaries I ther bad the additional task
of caring for and raising f!Ul1iUes on tb. trontier. Hall, Ely and
Boutwell all had thb Game problem. HaU' . pX'Ob1em va, much 'WOrse tban
the othet'IS, top he batt a trery sickly wite to look atter, and much ot
hie! time had to be spent taking care of her. 4S These problems of the
4., EllJ?ian, October 19, 193': 11 ••• wt Sister Hall was t.aken Sick on Sat\U"C!ay, wh [1.c] h rendered. it ne<::'l5$&1.7 that Br. S [proat] .rematn in \he Sohool, in :place ot H188 Cook. whoae hal, would otherwise be needed. II
Deliah Cook to David Greene .• La Pointe, January 19, 1837, ADeFK. Hiss Cook, a teacher, asks to l"8sigi\ in this letter, because she h&\ to spend too JllUcb of her t'.Ile acting a8 a nur8e to IIrs. Hall.
Protestants eontrasted sharply with Father aaraga t .6 pol'lit1on. The priest
had only himeeU to look af'ter, and hie personal needs were wry meagre
to say th" least.
The Indians had signed a treaty with the United States in Waah
ington,. D . O ~ on March 28, 1836. The Secretary ot War had invtttd the
Chippewas and Ottawa. to Wa8hington to Msot.1ate for the purchase ot
land. in Michigan. 46 '1'ht8 treaty ceded to the United States aU ot the
46 Henry R. SchoolC.raft to Ratneey Crooks; WaShington, Decembel" 26, 183', MOP.
:n
remaining Indian lands in tbe Lower Peninsula. of Micbigan and all of
those in the Upper Peninsula east of tbe Cbocolate [Chocolay] River, a ..
$bort ai.stance east of the pr6sent oi ty of Marquette; f or a l arge stun of
money to be ·paid in annual payments . In addition it allowed the Indiana
$5,000.00 per year for a period of twenty yeare to be used for education,
t ea'chere, schools and books in the Indian language. It alao set asi de
$3 ,000.00 annually for twent.y years to be divided among the Ind.ian
missions . It included. also a sum of $150 ,000.00 to be divided among the
half .. breedsoti the sections of land af':t'ected by the treaty. 47
47 Kappler, Indian Atta!.r., 2;450-S6.
Thi·s treaty did not directly affect t.he lndians at La Pointe , but
it. became a :!lourelS ot contention between Bishop Rese anQ Henry R. School-
craft . The CathoUc miSsions had grown until they contained t housands
of Indian children in mission schools in the territory at!acted by the
treaty. The Ca~holie share in the $3 , 000.00 annual payment eame to only
$750.00. Bishop Rase wrote to Schoolcratt" who was the Indian ag~t tor
this territory and 'Idle had much to say about the ctUtribuUon of this
mone,., and prot.est8d. this unfair d1str1butiono! mo.ney. He sent Father
Baraga to Sohoolcraft with t his letter as his agent . 4$ A few months
4,8 Freeterick Res. to Henrr R. Schooloratt, Detroit, Augu.st 24, 18)6, NAOIA: lilt WOUld appear unjust thatb,. the laat Treaty large allowances ' should 'be made bY' ;you tor one mbs:1on a'\i, Grand River because ot it being Protestant, a.nd none for the other beca.use it :is. a CathoUc medon, pan1eularly when it b weU known that t1:9 protestant miss.ien there hal been supported by government monies iNti< i ts V8~ cOlllllletlc·ementO' It should not be said that I had no agent .in Wash-tngton , beoause the Indians have asked indenlnit.ies to; the Catholic mission. I have been requested to make a tull Q:pOS8 of tbe subject matter, but I abstain until I mow your own Views on the subject.
later the bishop felt cGInpelled to 'Write to the IMian Agent in Wa.shington,
32
c. A. . Harris . In this letter Bishop Rese pointed out that the Catholics ,
i with ftleven missions in the territory, received only one- fourth of the
3, 000. 00: "As much i8 given tor e missions as .ona Prot.estant misi310n
rece! ves ~ although aome of them have neither Converts nor Indian Ohl1dren
at sehoolL, lihUe we have thousands 01 young and old at our soboole . " 49
49 FrtMlerlck a ••• to C.A. Hams, Detroit, Apl"il 20, 1837 , .J'ibid.
It took many years fer the Cathelic missions to rece! ve anything
like their fair shar.$ of the treaty money • Much of the blame for this
ca.n be traced to Sehool.craft \-mo, as In<tian Agent . ., had much influence on
the £ina.l dividon of !urds am<>ng the malton.. The t.l!'IlI8 ef this treaty
concerned mostly the Indians of the Lower Peninsula, and the Catholic
missions the" suffered the most . Sohoolcraft never made an attempt to
tii vide these :funds fairly. 50
50 C.A. Harris to Henry R. SohOQlcrart, Washington., September 5. 183S, !bid. In this letter Harris gives Schoolcraft complet.e power in dividtng tbe funds tor the misaiefiS.
~----~----~--------------------------------~----~----------------------~----The summer drew to a close at La POinte, and mO$t of the inhabit.
ants began to tl'iiclde into the f orests tor the wint'er. Father Baroaga
told of his progress fOr his f i rst year on Lake SUpc!irior in hi.e: last
report o.f the ;year to t he Leopoldine Foundation. He had baptized a total
pf 2" persQns in a year, most Qf tbem adults. His congregation had
grown '0 large that a new church was neoessary:. He told of the briWlt
futureot the misdon, if' he only had the 1I\0ney to carry out some ot his
plans . He pl/inne<i to coUect this needed mon.11ft Europe , ao that he
could JTake aU of t he",e needed improvements in his mission. Many things
would be clonl; be adds "It God pres." •• rq Ute so that I shall happUy
return tram Europe." Sl
33
51 B*richt. j 10:41-2.
After fourteen months of successful labors on the shores of Lake
Superior Father Baraga l eft f or Europe. His mission had grown from
nothing to the largest on that lake. The future 'looked bright for this
untiring missionary, if only his trip to Europe 'WOuld bring him enough
money to incre-8.se his means f or taking care of hi8 beloved Indians .
i
35
Superior and work in the missi on with Baraga . Father Baraga and his
companions landed i n Uew York on June ~2 . 1837, a.fter a l ong a.nd s t omy /
pa.ssage . Because tIle shi p oa.rrying his supplies had not yet arrived,
Baraga r'emained in }~ew York and a.ssisted the pastor of a Ge~ parish
until his things arri'Ted and he could continue hie trip to La Pointe . :3
, Frederick Baraga to Amalia Gressel, Sault 8te . Marie , Sept.ember 26, 1937, ~.
An blportant event t ook place in the Lake Superior country while
.
Baraga remained in New York. On July 29, 1837, at St. Pet~r'$, Minnesota,
t.he Chippewa India.i'lS signed a t reaty with the Un1t.ed States. This in
famous Treaty of 1837 called for the Indiana to cede a. large tract of land
south .. west ot Lake Superior. The Indiana in return were to reed ve
$9,500.00. in cath and. t19,OOO.eo in goods each ~r for a period ot twenty
years. The hal.t-breecll "ceived $100,000.00 in P&7IIent tor any clailu
they might have on the land. The filth arUcle of the treaty, tho most
important ot all, read: liThe privilege of hunting, t1shing, and gathe1"1ng
the wild rice, upon the lands, the ~ivers and the lakes included in the
territory ceded, is guaJ!'anteed to the Indians, during the pleasure o.t the
President ot t.he Uldted States.- 4
4 Kappler, IM-1an !rtal.", 2:491-3.
Evidenoe showed that. the Ir¥iians diri not. understand the treat.y to
mean What it really did. A young fur trader, Benjamin G. Annstrong,
attended this treaty council as an onlooker. Governor Dodge of the
Wisconsin t.erritory was one of the treaty com.dasioners. Armstrong
olaimed that the treaty comm1edon_re mat- groa. miarepresentations to
the Indians 1!i o1"der to conclude the treaty quickly. The Indians thought
36
they had JIlerely gi Yen up their tilnber and mineral rights and had not
ceded the land. The Indians did not realize that they bad sold the land ,-. until they were asked to move from it in 1849. S
5 Benjamin G. Am.etrong, Early LYe Among the 1n119.n5 (Ashland , 1$92), 10-12.
In 1864 t he Chlp}:ewa Indians sent a petition t o Washington. This
petition contained all of t heir grievances over the trea.ties signed by
t.hem to that tinte. George \1ar1'en , an educat'ed b&l.f-breed, wrote this
petition. or the Treaty of 1837 it said:
There also came another lrord from our Groat Father: that he desired us to attend another Council t o be held at St. Peter' s . There the words ot our Grea.t Father were repeated t o us . Behold, It was to make a tnaty and buy t he Pine Timber that is so abunctan1; on the land. It IRIS lor the Use ot his )'OUng men to build bouses with.
It was promised that there should be an arulUa.l payment made ot Twelve, Thousand Five Hundred Dollars in OOin, ~lv. Thousand Five Hundred Dollars in Goods and Fl ve Thousand Dollars in :hovisions and Ammunition. These pa.yments to eont.inu.e tor Twenty Five YeBl"s . These are <t.he promises that were made to the India...Yl. That they were to be paid once a year for Twenty FtYe Yeare.
Again they were told , ;your Great Father agrees and promises, that it 70U •• 11 b1Ill th. Pine Tiabel', Ninety thousand Dolla.rs rill bepatd you, to be dispOsed of by you as you ma.y see fit.
I do ftO~ make you a pre.s.nt of this, I merely lend it to you.. This 1s illy answer. My Great Father is gna.t, and out of respect to him I will not refu.e him, but as an exchsnge of clvUity I must a •• and teel the bene,£tt 1»£ this loan, and the promi3es fulfilled. 6
(;, wa.J:!'ren hen, W!eoona1n Historical Sqo1ety, Madison . Th. original of this dOOUlllent i& in both Chippewa and English. It was written in 1864 fot' the Indians by a.Qrge Warren, a halt-breed. Other papers in the oollection atttlst to the character of Warren, especial.ly some l etters written by Dodge .•
The annual payment8 under this treaty w~re to be made at La. Pointe.
Since the Ind1a.ns did not at fir8t real1ze the treaty' s full significance,
they cs.used little serious trouble dur.ing the first few years after it
went into effect. 7 The annual payment '1lould bring thousands of IJJiians
37
., re!!! •
to La Pointe each SUlIIlU91", adding greatly t.o the :1Jnportanee of that sett.le-
ment aa a trading post and as a rioh field tor the missionary labors of
Father Baraga.
The ship carryin~ Baragats books and religious articles finally
arrived in New York about a month later than expected. A near disaster
off the c08.at of France almost CBUSed the ship to sink, and forced it back
into port . Atter clearing his goods through customs and paying what he
thought a heavy dut.y, he prepared to continue hie trip to Lake Superior. 8
8 Frederiek Baraga to Ama.Ua Gressel, Sault Ste. Marie, September 2S , 1837, D~. -
Before he left New York Ba.raga depoldtEld $1,600.00 vlith Rameey
Crooks of the American Fur COIIlpany to be credited to his account. Thie
.um of .one,. was some of that which he had eollEleted in Europe for hie
mission. By- depoaiting it with the Company he could purchase all of his
n8$ded supplies at La Pointe and have the amount. deduetEld from his account.
Crooke informed Lyman Warren at La Pointe and others to advance Baraga
credit on the same t.erms as to the Protestant miseiona1'1es. 9 On this
9 Ramsey Crooks to Lyman M. Warren, New Yorle, August 8 , 1837, ~.
se.mevis1t to Crooks Ba.re.ga arranged with him to sell soma wine l'mich be
had been given to help support his mission . A very interesting story lies
behind this wine.
During his stay in Pari$ a wedthy wine merehant, tI'Ol!l near Epernay
in tbei ehampe.gne district of Franee, had beeome interested in his ''fOrk
among the Indiane. This man, Lois.on, offered t.o ship wine to America to
38
be sold for the benefit or his mission. Baraga at tirst re.tue~, be-
caUS8 he, hirtJ:eeU a teet otaler, did not think 1t right. to ~upport a
mission by the sale of 1ntorleat1ng beverages . l.o1880n insisted on
s ending t he wine, and finally Baraga consented. 10
10 Grace Lee Nut., "Papers ot t he American Fur Company" , American HistoriQal Beli'!, 32:529-30 J April , 1927.
Loi8IJon sent the fi rst shi pment of wine before the end ot 1837.
Baraga and Crooks exchanged many letters about the sale of the wine . At
i
first the w1ne did not sell very well because of t he poor state of business
in the U.S. at that time, l1 but even Loisson wrote t o Crooks and urged
-------.----~----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------11 Ramsey Crooks to Frederick Bar aga , New York J l'ray 5, l8)S, }J'CP;:
nyou will see by the a/ sales that only 1 basket of your wine was sold., and that to ~elf, up to the end ot the year, but we have l at el y disposed of .l4 JIIO" @ $10, and we shall do all we can to sell the remrlnd,er wen the times improve ar.d people can afford to drink chrunpa,gne again.
"K!'. Lotsson your good friend at Bpemay you w111 see made good hie premise and sent 1200 instead of 1000 bottles .-
him to do hie best toseU the wiM. He promised to send more I:". soon a.
C!'Qoks could sell it. 12
12 Loia8on to Ramsey Crooks, Pierry Pres Epernay, October 24, 1838, ~., May 17, 1839.
Although the wine shipment s continued to arrive 1.n New York , Crooks
protested to Baraga that he emll d not sell it. Me e1aimed that the Wine
was not of the bes t grade , and t.he market for it at this tilrle was too
poor. 13 131' the end of 1839 t he price ot ~hem.ne had fallen to six
13 Ramsey Crodks to Fnderick Baraga, N .. York, June 1, .18:39, Ibid.
----.-----dollars a basket, and Crooks had over three hundred be.skete of i t in his
39
warehouse in New York. 14
14 Bamaey Crooks to Frederick Baraga; New York, December 31, 1839, ./ ll2i!l.
In desperation Baraga authorized Crooke to dispose of t he wine as
be.st he could. 15 Crooks still olaimed that he could not sell t he wine ,
1$ Fred.erlck Baraga to Rameey Crooks, La Pointe, March 14, 1840, ~.
yet he wrote to Lois.on and gave him suggestions about t he best way to ship
more wine. 16 Crooke, in a later and more lengthy letter to Lois.on, went
16 Ratuey Crooks to Loisson, New York , Septembe.- 24, 1840, ~.
to great pains to 'xplain in detail just how to package and ship the wine,
when to s:end more and. what type to sa. 17
17 Ramaey Crooks to LoisBon, New York, Nov_ber 10 , 1840, Ibid.
About a year later Baraga wrote to Crooke and asked whatever became
of the wine . He accused CrOoks of keeping it until it spoiled and could
not be sold. ' He told Orooke that he needed the money f rom the sale of the
wine to pay his debts to the Company. 18 Crooks answered thi8 accusation
18 Frederick Baraga to Ramsey Crooks, La Pointe, October 1, leu, Ibid .
by stating that he had done and would continue to do his best to try and
sell the wine f or him. He also intormed Baraga that as ot that date he
had a balance in his favor in his account of .509.08. 19
19 Ramee,. Crooks to Frederick Baraga, New York, December 6 , 184l, l.iJ4.
40
The le~ter8 between Crooks and Baraga and between Crooks and
Loiseen tell an interesting story. The wine was a hoped for source of j
income upon Which Baraga occasionally relied. L018son sent comparatively
large amounts ot wine to Crooks in epite of the poor market claimed by
him. Crooke protested that the wine could not be sold , yet he went to
great lilmgtlia to request more and discus. the whole probl em with Loisson. ,
In the l ast 8XQhange of l etters . concerning the wine Crooke in£o~ed Bar~ga
that he had a balance 1n his favor 1n his account f 'a strange thing for
some wine that could not be sold. Crooks may or may not have had the best
interests ot Baraga at heart . It will be eeen later t hat Crooks ' inability
or r~luctanc. to sell the wine caused Bar aga muoh anxiety and grief. In
the end it all turned out for the beet as tar as the missionary was con
cerned . Enn today, however, the r eason behind. the contradictory l ett ers
of Ramsey Czoook. remains somewhat of a mystery. Further study may pro<iuce
an answer.
Father Baraga and hie t wo companions set out for Lake Superior in
August ot 1837 after he had straightened out his aftairs in New York. The
l ong trip back to La POinte, up the Hudson, over the Erie Canal, and
through the Great Lakes, has been d.scribed in a charming and highly
ob.enant manner by Baraga'. d ater Antonia. 20 Finally, after two
20 Antonia Hoeftem to the Baumgartners, Erie Canal, August 10, 1837, ~, ~., Antonia Hoeflem to Amalia Gressel, Maokinao, Oct.ober 6, 1837.
months of traveling, Father Baraga returned to his mission among the
Indians about the first of October, 1837, atter an absenee of one year.
Chapter Four
Father Baraga decided t o leave hi s sister Antonia at Mackinac for
the winter~ because he knew t hat he would not have t he time to prepar e a
8ui t able dwelling pl ace for her at La Pointe before t he cold weat her set
in. She sta78d with the famil y of Samuel Abbott, the agent for t he
American Fur Oompany at Macki nac. He was a convert to Catholli'ciam and a
good friend ot Baraga. 1 It 18 doubtf'ul if Oesirek, hi 8 servant, ever
1 Antonia Hoeft'em t o Amalia. Gressel, Mackinac, September 8, 1837, ~.
did go to La Pointe.
The schooner that Baraga saUed on from the Sault mad. a stop at
Grand. Portage. He was glad of the chanoe to Vie1t his old f riends t here,
t he. Cottes, and. also to be able to work among the Indians in the vicinity.
A busy little village h&d sprung up there aa a result of the fishing
operations of the AIlerican Fur Company. 2 'nle Indiana ot Grand Portage
2 Solon J. Buok, The Story Of Grand PorlaS! (nnneapolis, 1931) no page number. in this booklet.
had written to Father Baraga and asked him. to visit them if he could. He
received this letter While he waited at t he Sault for a ship. Baraga, as
Vicar-General ot the Northwest Territory, promised to send Father Pierz to
Grand Portage as a permanent missionary. 3 The aMp made only a brief
:3 Frederick Baraga to Prederick Rese, Parils, Hay 9 and 12, 1837, ~. In thts letter Baraga acknowledge. his appointment as Vicar-General tor the Northwe.t Territory.
stop at Grand Portage, and 800n 1t lett for La. Pointe. 4
41
42
4. Frederick Baraga to Amalia G"sse1, Sault Ste. Marie ,. September 26 , 18:37 ,~. In t his letter Baraga told his sister of his plans for his i
trip to Grand Portage.
The Catholics in the little mission of St. Joseph at La Pointe had
"mained faithful to their religion during Baraga I s absence . Dur ing t he
year that Baraga was any from the mission the Protestants reported a
lessening i:n Catholic; influence, but t hey could report nothi ng dee. 5
5 Sherman Hall to David Greene, La Polnte, August a, 1837 , ABCF1'(: "The Catholic influence exerted hera this summer is not as great as it was last. The priest, who has been stationed here , has been absent since l ast fall . " Letters from Sproat and Boutwell to Greene report the S8.llle t hing tor the summer. .
L.ss t han two months later Ha.ll Could only report pessimistically to Greene:
'nte probability 1s that we must meet a strong current of Catholic !nauence in this country, and especially at this place. The business at thil place is constantly drawing more and mo" ot the Canadian French here, who are all attached to the Roman faith. These by their inter-marriage with the Ind.1ans, can exert much influenoe against true religion. They do this in two ways. by prejudicing the Indians against us, and by a pronigate life. The priest "mo has been absent from this place the past year, has now returned, I suppose, to prosecute his purposes with more zeal. The Lord reigns, and thb delusion of the deTil can destroy no more souls than he permit. it to. (, ,
6 She1'lll&n Hall to David Greene, LaPointe, October 1, 1937, Ibid.
The Catholic influence continued to grow atter Father Baraga's
return. The baptismal register of St. Joseph mission showed the growth
in the wake atter h. oame back to La pointe. 7 In addition to this the
7 Ica Point. Baptismal Register, Original at the Franciscan Rectory, Bayfield, Wiac., Photostats in the Bishop Baraga Collection.
letters of the Protestant missiona.ries showed. that the Catholic influence
43
among the Indians had not diminished after the return of the priest . In
December Hall reported: "The Catholics are vigilant [ sic] and are exei"t7
1ng all their tntluence to draw the Indians atter them." 8 Something
8 Sherman Hall to David Greene , La Point., December 9, 1837, ' ABOFI4 •
•• emed to be lacking in the Protestant mission. The Catholic influence
had grOlm from almost nothing les8 than three years ago into the most
act! ve religioua influence in that 'Whol e section or the country. Hall
knew this, but his letters to Greene showed that he was il1capabl e of
tighting thtl innuence himself. The problem was beyond anything he could
possibly do. He had been at La Pointe over .ix yeal"S 'When he wrote to
Gr.enes
As to religioul interest in our station there has been no material change', sin~e I last wrote you . The meetings among the members ot the Ohureh aft attended. with domestic interest, though there is not the etzoength of religiouB feeling which eXisted last 'Winter. The disposition ot the IDliane r emains the lame that it has been. They are disposed to treat us friendly, but th.re is no moving yet among the dry bon... We need very much the mighty energy of the Holy Spirit. Without hi. intluences, the hearts ot t hese degraded heathens never will be t.oUched. 9
9 Sherman Hall to David Greene , La Pointe, January 2, 1938, Ibid.
t~o eT1dence haa come to Ught to show that Hall actively pursued his
missionary duties among the Indians . There can b. no doubt about his
sincerity , but the results of his yean at La' Pointe leave no doubt about
hi. failure.
A great change had taken place in La Pointe since the previous
~. As Hall mentioned in one ot his letters, & great number of French
Canadians had settled at La Pointe. The increased 8COpe ot t he Amerioan
Fur Company's fbhing enterprize ~ountec1 for this. Baraga's baptismal
44
register showed a great many conversions of Indians f rom places many
miles distant . Many of t hese Indians came to La POinte to reeal ve pay- . ,,;
ment under the Treaty of 1837, and m.any came to trade or work tor the
fur canpany. All in all, La Pointe had become a moh more important
center of activity t han it was when Father Baraga left on his trip to
Europe.
The deoision of t he American Fur Company to increase its activ-
1ties in the field of commercial f ishing came as a result of the a.l.arm1ng
decline 1n the fur market . The Company hoped to be abl e to salvage its
fortunes with a monopoly of the fishing business On Lake Super ior. This
was almost a i&8t-diteh tight for the Canpany. 10
10 RaIIIIe,. CroOKS to William Brewster, New York, June 5, 1837, !!]f. Brewster was an agent for the Company at Detroit.
Although fishing meant more prosperity for La Pointe, in the end
the fishing venture proved to be a miserable failure tor the American Fur
Compatly. One of tbe greatest mistakes made by the Company was its failure
to correctly judge t he markets for its fish . The "38&1" 1837 marlced the
beginning ot a widespread depression in the United States. It also marked
the beginning 01 the years ot the greatest fishing activity by the Company.
The catch inoreased, and t he ma.rket deoreased. Thousands or barrels of
fish piled up in Detroit warehouses and OD the docks of La Pointe. Finally,
by about 1841, the American Fur Company had to discontinue most of its fish
ing operations. A profitable market could not be lound for the fish. 11
11 Nut_ , Lake Superior, 179-00.
The inexperience of many employees of the Company caused /BUeh
45
waste anclextraYagance. Care~esa packing of the fish and the insufficient
use of salt reeulted in many barrels ot urunarke"ble fish reaching Pet~~t.
Most of the blame for this carelessness fell on L;yman \'iarren of La Pointe,. 12
12 Ramaey Orooke to Lyman Warren, New York, June 2h, 1837, !l£f..
The tailure of t he fur trade, increa.sing competition, and the
failure of commercial fishing eventually caused the downfall of the
American Fur Company. However, in 1837 a1¥i l.S3S, the fishing enterprise
had just begun to reach its peak, and La Pointe still remained the hub ot
all this aotiVity. To such a scene on the frontier Father Baraga returned
in the fall of 1837.
Baraga labored among the Indians and balt~br.eds unceasingly all
during the first winter atter his return. His first tuk in the spring
consisted ot building a new residence for himself and a larger church
f or his nock. The residence included a large room downstairs and two
rOoms in the a.ttiC, one for himself, and one for Antonia who had arrived
early in the spring of 1838. 13
13 Antonia Hoeffern to Amalia Gressel, La. Pointe , October 4, 1$38, DAL.
Baraga encountered some difficulty when it came to buUding hie
new church . Skilled workmen were at 8. premium on that wilderness front
ier, and Baraga had. to offer them top wages. The only labor available,
even at that price, did not have the training for skilled construction
work. The half-breed. that Baraga did get to work .tor htm had to be
wat.ched very carefully, not only because they had no training, but also
because they tended to be indolent and unsteady workers. Father Baraga,
himlelt, knew quite a bit about carpentry by that time, so h& worked
alongside hil hired laborers. 14
46
14 Freduiek Baraga to the Leopo.l dine Foundation, La Pointe , September 17, 1838, Bericbt. , 12171. i
On the first Sunday of September, leJS, Ba,raga solemnly dedicated
his second ehurch. He deecribed, t his church in a repol't to the Leopoldine
Foundation:
It i.composed. entirely of 'WOOd, neverthele86, the interior appeare as if built of masonry dnae it :is plastered and whitewashEKi. To the tnterlor decoration, 1l1Uch is contributed. particularly by the 18 beautiful 011 paiDt.ing$ , which represent the Life of J asue from His amtunciaticn and Birth" to His death and His Ascension into heaven. These plctureB serve not only as decorations for his church; but also to facilitate the instruction of the Ind.lans on the Life of our Sattor and in explaining the my'Steries of our religion . The altar piece is rul8Xcellent large picture, painted hy Langue of Ljubljava, which represents 5t.. Joseph at work in his workshop. St. 'Mal'Y sits on one sieie, sewing, and the boy Jesus stands near his toster-tather, watching h1m 'WOrk. This piot'UN 18 very appropriate for an Indian mission church; since the Indians, by nature, a" incl1n~ to indolence. 'lbe milSs10nary very often .lIiUst exhort the Indiana to work and (:me cannot place berol"8 their eyes a more sublime p1ctu~ of !ndustry than that of the Holy Fa.m.Uy. 15
15 Ibid., 13 :69.
The building of this beautiful enureh, together with Baraga's
boundless generosity to th$ Indiana, caused him to go into debt. By
October this situa.tion forced him to borrow lIlOney bom Grooks on his un-
80ld wine . Ramsey Crooks Visited La Pointe that summer, and, 1n spite of
the poor oondition of business , he must hs.ve had faith in the missionary
f01' he advanced him credit. 16
16 Ramsey Crooks to Stephen A • Halsey, La. Pointe ,October 15, 1838 , !FOP .
Father P1e~ vidted La. Pointe that summer and gave an interesting
picture of Baraga's unworldliness and generosity. In a letter to Baraga ' a
deter h. wrote:
47
Frederick is too spiritual to engage in anything but ;mat will lead souls to Heaven. I also advi$ed him to plot a garden just in front of his house in order to obtain refreshing food for the ldtohen .and provide himself with wholesome reoreation and innocent pleasure, • in addition, I offered to aot as gardener tor several. days. His reply, howeTer, was that at the time he was concemed with nothing but the oonstruction of his church and t he oonversion of the still numerous pagans. His sister, on the other hand, promised me to carry out my suggestions at the earliest possible moment.
His boundl$ss gene.rosity will always prase". him in apostolic poverty. The considerable Bum of gold he brought with him l ast year from Europe" has already been spent J cOOs8Cluently he will $oo.n lufter fro.m a laok of means and subsistence. The building of his church whloh will be completed in Iii. few da,-s, cost him a great deal of money, since everything is so very dear here. 17
17 Francis Pien to Amalia Greasel, La. Pointe, June 21, 18.38, Yugoslav Archins, Transcripts f rom these archives are in the Bishop Baraga collection.
In }.ugust of that year Baraga heard 1;bat Biahop Rets. had returned
hom Europe. He believed it too late in the year for him to visit. La Pointe,
but he wrote the Bishop that he must visit him next year without fail. 18
18 Frederick Baraga to Frederick Rese. La POinte, August 16, 1838, }.UND.
Much to everyone's surprise. Bishop Res. arrived at La Pointe on
the evening ot Sept.ember .,. All of theCathaliCB of La Pointe hurried to
meet Biehop Rese and receive his blessing. Most 0£ them had never seen a
bishop betore. Bal"aga had prepared many of his converts for Confirmation,
and on September 9, atter a Pontifical High Mass, the Bishop administered
t he Sacrament of Confirmation to one hundred and t wlve persons. The
Bishop had to leave on that same day because ot other visitations on his
schedule, and Baraga claimed that it he could haye remained langeI' over
two hundred persons would have been confirmed. 19
19 BePicht., 12171.
48
villUs the Bishop was at La. Pointe he appointed Father Baraga as
his Vicar General for t he Terri tory of irli;sconsin. In 18;36 Wisconsirt had / ,:
become a. territory and was no longer a pa.rt ot the ol d Nort hwest. Territory.
Bishop Rese merely changed the titl e of Baraga 's former appointment. 20
20 ~.
Howeyer, som.cpriests in southern Wisconsin did not com.e under Baraga ' s
authority, but territori a.l limits did not mean too much in those days , as
often they were quite indefinite. 21
21 Henry Dodge va. appointed Territorial Governor and Superintendent of Indian Affairs in the new territor,y. It was no longer under the authority ot Henry Row Schoolcraft ls Indian District.
During the spring of 1$38, La Pointe became a sub-Ind;1.an agency
with a ree1dent agent. Daniel P. Bushnell received the political appoint-
ment to this office. Bushnell' 8 actions showed that he did not tully
Ufldersiand the nature ot his task. In a letter to Governor Dodge be re
commended that the government dlsconti,nue its support to Indian Missions
am. schools. Instead be proposed that this education money be used to
buy the Ind1.an3 provisions, &IlD'I'llUl1tion, etc., eo that they could live in
their customary manner. H. believed it better to allow tbe Indians to
live and die by thel!!Selvea on their own lam. 22 Bushnell had not taken
22 Daniel P. Bushnell to Henry Dodge, La POinte, August 18, ].838, NAOIA.
into account the fact that man,. wh1.te men coveted the Indian l..BJ'lds, and
that the Indians ne.er would have been lett undisturbed on their own lands.
In an earlier letter to Dodge Bushnell untioned that three schools
49
were locat.ed within M.e jurisdiction, two at La Pbinte and one at Fond du
La·c. At this time he did not know if all of these schools received aid . . . from the government . Schools that did Nceive a.id trom the government
were required to file reports on the state of the s chool.s with the Indian
Agent . 23 Hall reported that until April , 1838, attenda.nce averaged
23 Daniel Po- Bushnell to Henry Dodge , La POinte , ~..ay 10, 18)8, 1l)1d .•
about twenty- tl<10 pupils in his school, and that since then it averaged
about. fourteen or fifteen . All but three or four of these children had
varying degrees of native blood in them. 24 On the other hand, when
24 Sherraan Hall to Daniel P. Bushnell, La Pointe, August 14, 1838, ~.
Bushnell asked Father Baraga for a report on his sQnool, Baraga refused
t o gi'l'* it, becaulle he rectd.ved. no government aid and was not, therefore ,
l"8fil1.lired t o give any report.. 25 The Catholic oongregation bad by far
25 Daniel P .. BushMll to Henry Dodge , La POinte , August 18, 1838, Ibid.
the largest number of peoplEt. The Protestante 1n 1838 had only six oon
verts, yet they reo81 wei IJlOney for the support of t.heir school. 26
26 Sherman Hall to Da'rtd Greene" La Pointe, August. 16, lS3S, ~: tlWe have now in co1ll'i!lilnion with us six indiViduals of nat.ive eXtraction. Two of th~8eha.ve recently united with us" one by pl'Ore8sion of t.he faith, the other had former17 been a member or the Baptist Kiss10n Church at the Sault Ste . }.!ar1e."
Father Baraga did not protest this arrangement. His missionary
duties had become flO hes.yY that he did not have the time to conduct a
sohool h1Jn!eli., a.nd I11s sist.er had not yet learned the Indian language
well enough to conduct i t . In orde!" to gi.,e the ~blldren SOlIe schooUng,
50.
Baraga agreed to perm!t the children to attend Hall's school on the oon-
ditton that no religious instruction be given. Hall agreed to this . Z7 /
Z7 ~.
In "bhis manner Hall could gi VEl a fa verable report to Bushnell and guarantee
hig school continued government support, and Baraga could give his children
t he education they needed . Although no formal a.greemer.t 'l'Tae made in t his
case, the arrangement worked out sat i sfactorily for some time . Bar E..ga
agreed to this because it l'laS t he only ,-my he could give his children an
education a.ndstl11 attend to the1l" religious training. He and Hall were
st111 worlds apart on rel1gioulS natters . 1<:veo though the s chool situation
workecl out quite well, the Protestants still kept olose track of the
progress of the Catholic mission. 2a An dement of fear also crept into
2S Sherman Hall to David Greene, La Pointe , October 7, la3a, ABCPM: "The Catholics at this pl ace are beCOming considerable numerous, and ar. dOing what they can to draw souls into the vortex of their error."
Hall ' s letter when he told Greene of the possibility of the vacancioa in
the La Pointe poet of the American Fur Company gOing to Cathollas. If
this happened" he said: ''Our prospects of 3uceees would be much dimin
i shed." 29 If such a situation had occurred~ Hall feared that they
29 l2l!!.
might spread the Catholic religion. Eight years before the Warrens,
employees ot the Company t had urged the Protestants to set up a school and
mtls10n at La Pointe, and eventually they did. However, Hall ls fears of
CathoUos taking chal"ge of the Company post at La Pointe never materialized.
By the time Baraga had f'1nished his church, all of the goods he
51
had b1"ought with him from Europe had been given away or used in the
church, and he owed money to the American Fur Oompany. The Protestants ,/
continued to receive goods from the East , )O and instead of giving it
30 Radey Crooks to Sherman Hall, New lork, May 5, 18.38, AFCP. Crooks notified Hall that sixteen boxes of goods were being shipped to him.
to t he Indiana, Hall as betore, sold it to them. .31 The Protestant
.31 Sherman Hall to David Greene , La Pointe , January 9, 18)8, }.BCFK, "You may supply us with all such things as you may have , though they may not be in all respects sueh a8 I have mentioned. either in quantity or quality. Such articles of clothing of every kind as have been sent us heretofore , have tOW¥l a good market."
, M:re . Florantha Sproat , wite of a. teacher at La POinte, to her mother in Massachusett8, La Pointe, Septcber 20, 1838, in "La Pointe LetteJ'8," I: W1.condn Hl$t.01jY, September, 1932, 88s ItKr. Hall says it WOIlld be usele.. to try to maintain the mission were it not tor donations trom f~1end.. Tho8e little trock. were soon 80ld tor high prices. Oalico trocks, bed quilts, comiorto:re, Skirt8 and woolen 8tockings tind a ready market at high prices. EverJthing made or whit e cloth t he people do not l1ke to buy."
mission rece.1 ved aid trom the government as well as DI&J'IY provisions am
sums of money from the American Board. They had, in 18.38, only six con
verts in eight years of labors among the Indians . In .pite ot t his Hall
claimed he needed to sell goods to support. the mission. All ot t his
showed that sOJIlethi ng was not right in his milsion. It he needed so much
to support so few, it 1s quite. evident that he and hie colleagues had a
greater interest in their own perscmal. welfare and comtort than they did
in that ot the Indians.
Banp had a busy summer in l S3S. He built his residence and
church and administered to an increasing con~gation. Yet he still had
time to uke a trip t.o FoRd du Lac. 32 Not aan;r Catholics remained at
32 ABCF)h
Frederiok Ayer to Dayid Greene, Fond du Lao, October 18, 18.38, "Catholicism i. dying out. The Priest visited here la8t sUlIlIIler
probably tor the last time. A chief here in whom the priest has placed. great confidence shook ott his allegiance and returned to pagan13m."
52
Fond du Lac. tor most of them had moved with Pierre Cotta to Grand Portage,
while others moved to La Pointe. Since Cotte moved away, no one remained
at Fond du Lac to keep alive the faith of the Indiana. In addition to
this the Indians had become increasingly hostile to the white men. This
hostility culminated in the murder ot the halt-breed son ot William
Aitkin, the agent of the American Fur Oompany at Fond du Lac. 33 Aitkin
33 Ramsey Crooks to William Aitkin, New York, May lS, 1836 , AFCP.
demanded the surrender ot his son t s murderer, and when the Indians refused
to give him up, Aitkin refused to trade with them any longer. This caused
trouble, not only with the Indians, but also with Aitkin's superiors. 34
34 Ramaey Crooks to Lyman Warren, New York, June 26, 1838 , Ibid. -Finally, the situation became so bad that Crooks discharged Aitkin. 35
. 35 Ramsey Crooks to Stephen A. Halsey, River St. Petera, November 20, 1838, 11:>14.
The damage had been done. No 10l1lercould fond du Lac be considered
f riendly to white.. Baraga found INch a td.tuatlon at Fond du Lac when
he made his trip there that sUDIIler.
The Protestant a ta1red no better at Fond du Lac. The Indians
associated the Protestant missionary more with the United States govern-
ment, because they received govemment aid tor their school. Frederick
A18r, now at Fond du Lac with EdrmmdEly, reported no progreea made at
Fond du Lac, but tram the la.t part of his letter it appeared that Baraga
dld ha"l. some success at Fond du Lac. 36 Baraga wrote nothing or t his
53
36 Frederick Ayer to David Greene, Fond du Lac, October 31, 18)8, ABCFM:"';['heir hostility e:Jdl~bits itself j,n eJqJressing t heir unwillingne~ to have the word of God read or explained in their lodges and by evading conve!1!atlon pn ~ligious subjects. "'hey maniteat their indifference by keeping aloof from religiou8 meetings and putting themselves in the way of religious instructions. The few who will evt'lr listen with respectf'ul attention reel " that they are ent.itleti to a fee for it. There is but one
" individual in the Band now who makes this , his home who manifests the least desire fol' reUgious instructions. This is William. Talcott who was hopefully converted winter before last. He at present shows too lit tle regard for the word and ordinances of God. ' The demorallzing influence of Popish doctrines 18 llUeh felt here . Those wo have apostaUzed from the Catholic Church think they have tried the white man's ~l1gion and it is no better than the Indians ."
trip to Fond du Lac, and only the letters of the Protestant missionaries
told of his visit there, bu,t he must han had soae success among the
Indians if' the "demoralizing influence of Popish doctrines" was much
felt there .
That same sUJlIDler marked the f!ret p&1IItent to the Indians under the
'l'reaty of 1837. By the end of J uly over three thousand Indians had made
t heir camps around. La Pointe. Some of them came from as far away as three
hundred miles. 37 Baraga found this a wonderful oppOrtunity to preach
37 Ramsey Crooks to Lyman Warren, New York, July 30, 1838, AFCP .
and administer to many of the Indians and halt-bre4i)ds that he could not
see during the ,-ear. 38
38 Berichte, 12169.
The ,P&7JIlent fbally made to the Indians in that year did not
nearly meet their needs nor was it even sufficient to sustain them until
the following year. They prepared to cede I'l)Ore land to avoid hunger dur-
ing the cOlling winter, but the treaty commissioner had not arrived at
La Pointe b7 October, so the IJ¥iiana were forced to return to their
54
hunting grounds for t he winter hunts. 39
39 Ram .. ;r Crooks to Stephen A. Ha.lsey, La Pointe, October 4, 1838, ,; ~.
In a. report. to Leopoldine Founciat!on, Father Pierz, who had neited
La Pointe during the summer of ·18J8, wrote from there of Baraga's success
in his less than three yea.rs at La. Pointel
Here 1s the ,aeat of a large trading canpany and therefore an &Ssembly' place tor many Indians and French-Canadians, but who, before the arriTal of Father Barag~, lived like pagans. At first, this pioue ai.donary had to battle here with many adYer8ities and with privation. But with his per ,severing industry .in this tdld vineyard of the Lord, and with his praiseworthy apostolic zeal, out of orude, wild barbarians he soon ,established a very npmberous Christ~an community, which through new cpnversione still increases daily. To bis not trin1.n$joy, he has jus,t now completed, by means ot the support he brought with him from Europe, the erection of a beautiful new church, 'besides a respectable residence. He tea.chss da.ily in the church aM in the lodges of the Indians, but on Sumays he preaches 1"1 Te times in three or fO'.lr languages. Here he 1s exceedingly beloved, and lives with hilS happy nock of his faithful lambs llke a father among his beloved Children, very satisfied and enjoying the beautitul fruit of his blessed sweat in eweetest consolation. He had atraordinary luck and lJfI10h evidence of blessing from God in connrting the heathen.. • • • Here in La Pointe one's heart iBt.oucbed when he hears the nevly converted believers sing the praises of God with their priest in the magnificently deoorated church, and sees them pray l'8specttully t.o the Creator of all tohe wopld. In regard t.o his personal Virtues and strict regulation of life, I shall not. describe for pubUc knowledge. I only wish that the Lord will keep him long for the salvation of the Indian. and for a nice example to all missionaries" and t.hat He will ble •• all hls undertakings! I also mention with satisfaction the excellent books which Father Baraga had prepared and has had printed la.t year in Paris. This interCitsting work ,vas distributed gratis in all the IB1ian missions and accepted with much joy. It g1 vee riee to lively religious zeal and lays the found.ation for Irtdtan schools. The great usefulness and blessed results for t.h..trengthening ot the Ohristiansand the conversion of the heathen. is certainly for tohe present and the tuture moat gratifying to the Im1a,ns, inclined to learn and sing. 40
40 Francis Pierz to the Leopoldine Foundation, La Pointe, July 13, 183B, Berlchte, 13:42-45.
Chapter Fi ve
When Bishop Re~e visited La Pointe i n September of 1839, t he same., ,:
I!Ihip also calTie<i Ramsey Crooks and William Brewster I the Amer ican Fur
Company agsnt at Detroit . Crooks came to investigate t he rumor s that Warren
had not been acting in the best interests of the Company in his conduct of
businel!ls at La Pointe. 1 Crookl!l found condition. much worse t han expect ed .
1 Ramsey Crooks to Stephen A. Halsey, Sault 8te. Marie , Septe~ber 5, lSJS, !fQE.
Not l ong after hil!l arrival at La Pointe , Lyman Warren was dischar ged because
of tmmoral condUQt and mis~agement of the Company' s business . 2 Crooks
2 Ramsey Crooks to Stephen A. Hal sey , La Pointe, September 20 , 1838, l.2!4.
t hen appointed Doctor Charles Borup as the Chiel Agent f or the Northern
Outfit with headquarters at La Pointe.
In .pite of Warren' s mismanagement, La Pointe had continued t o grow
throughout the years . With the new agent, Doctor Borup, it continued its
growth uninterrupted. Doctor Borup was a. Dane by birth ,. and a. well-educated
physician. 3 Although a devout Protestant , he became a good friend to
) Nut., leake Superior, 71.
Fat her Baraga.
Ra.m.aey Crooks al so changed the situation at Fond du Lac somewhat on
this trip to Lake Superior. After he discharged William Aitkin ae his
agent there, he appointed James P. Scott to that post. 4 Crooke had no
~----------------------------------~------------------------------------------------------.~ 4 Ramsey Crooks to Stephen A. Halsey, River St . Peters, November 20,
l S3a, AFCP.
55
56
i ntention of giving up a valuable post at a time when t he Company' s
business was at a new l ow. .. The Protestant miasionaries at Fond du Lac, in spite of the grad
ually improving conditions there , became discouraged and wished to abandon
t he mi.sion. El y and Ayer wrote to David Greene from Fond du Lac and gave
f our reasons why the mission should be discontinued . They gave as their
reasons ., the hostility and indifference of the Indians to the Gaspe.l, the
general indltference of the Indians to schooling their children , the
prejudice against the Americans which had increased since the Treat y of
1837, and the movement of the I ndians away trom this post because of the
American Fur Company's fiahing venture. 5
5 Frederick Ayer and EdlIllUld F. Ely to David Greene , Fond du Lac, October 31, 1838, ABCFM.
She.rman Hall disagreed with this proposed idea and said t hat fear
of Catholios prompted it. 6 His plea feU on deaf ears, for in the
6 Sherman Hall to David Greene f La Pointe, October, 1838, Ibid.1 "It the country is abandoned by the Churches, it 1s virtually given up to the Catholics. If we lose the footing we already got here , it will not be easy to gain it again. I fear some of my brethren are more discouraged by the efforts of the Ca.tholics than they OUght to be . They seem to lose all hope of success when the latter have a foot ing. I do not think it is right."
spring of 1839, David Greene gave p:el"lIl1ssion to abandon the mission at
Fond du Lao. 7
7 David Greene to Edmund F. El y , Boston, May 13, 1939, Ibid.: "I had little hope of the Fond du Lae station from the beginning , though I hardlT know what reason to aSSign for' it, except t he strength of papal influence there."
Baraga, atter an absence of t wo years, with the Catholic nucleus
57
of his mi ssion stati on moved away, and i n t he faoe of Indi an hostil i t y
to t he whites and Protest ant opposi t i on t o himsel f , had '\\,"On over enough .
pagan Indians at Fond du Lac to believe a permanent missi on des i rable
ther e . I n June of 1839 he wrot e t o Bishop Rese and a sked him t o gand a
priest there to establish a. pel"lllanent mission. 8 Although the Protestant s
S Frederick Bar aga t o Frederick Rese ; La POinte , June 24., 1839, AUND .
moved a~~y, Baraga t hought t hat Fond du Lac was jus t beginning to become
important as a mission f ield .
By t he time 1839 began, Fat.her Baraga had very littl e news t o r e-
pOrt about his mi s sion at La Poi nte . In his report of January, 1~39, t o
the Leopoldine Foundation, Baraga wrot e:
If I ever could say truthf'ully that I have nothing interest.ing t o write , then it is t his time . To private individuals I still find something to write about , but f or a report to t he Reverend Di r ectors , intended f or publication , I really do n.ot have any more material now, (espeoially during the lOResome wintertime.) Firstly , I have included everything in regard to t he I ndians t hat I could say was at least half- way interesting in the booklet: nThe history of the Indians, etc. ,It and now I find nothi ng more to report on this sub ject. . And what concerns my present mi ssion , 1n which I am now in my fourth year, I must confess that it me.y already be eonsidered IOOre like a r egular smal l parish than a wission . The baptizing of adult I ndians , especially now in ,dnter, seldom occurs; because those t o whom the grace of God has gi van t he call to t he Faith , and who have answered the call, have nearl y all been converted. The stubborn ones ~ however, who , until now have offered resistance to the call of God ' s grace are becoming even mor e s tubbor n and seem to be determ.i.ned to persist. in their stubborness until the end .
Now t he mis. ion of St . JoseJil i s really an orderlY and well regnl ated small parish. I have a neat and very large church, entl1'el y completed, '4th a beautiful pulpit, a separ ate row for my three ushers and another separate pew for my singer s in t he choir whose leader is generally esteemed and paid by the parish. I have a respectable rectory, a eemeter'J al ready laid out near the church ; I have two adult Mass servers for Sundays and hol ydays , a sexton, with one word, I have everything t hat 1s necessary in a r egular parish. All these services are provided by the Freneh..Qanadians among whom there are sene worthy of great respect , especially the three ushers.
I regret t ha.t I oannot now submit any report t o t his Rever end body, but I cannot hel p it. Lie I will not , becaus e it i s a sin,
(even the so-called pious lies are Sinful,) and it is t o be regretted that with honesty I cannot report anything interesting or worthy of gratit ude. However, I am. not lIlUeh dteturbed over thiS , beoause I always have t he comforting feeling in ~ heart that " wit h God ' s help and by means of a donation of my European b.enefactors, I have established in t his wild country, where, before my arrival , it was dismally sad for relig1on , a regul ar s~all parish which I now l ead forth on a beaten path. If I should l ea.ve this place and go \3omewhere else, then I could again find s ome interesting material for L~ reports, but only probably, because I do not. know now with ~er~ainty of any place where I could be more useful than here . I 8.lli convinced that I am. necessary here in order to properly maintain thi s est ablished small parish and to maintain it . And here, of necessity, must be a priest who can preach in Indian , Fre.nch and English because otherwise he must negl ect a part o.f his parisbl .oners . Therefore, in God 's name , I shall remain here, and I am al so very f irmly resolved tp end here t he days of my life . 9
58
..
9 F~el"ick Baraga to t he Leopoldine Foundation , La P~inte , Janu."I.ry 25, 1$39, Beri~hte, l 3 s39-42.
Thu8 Father Baraga modestl y r eported on the oondition of his
parish to Vie.nna . In less t han four full years he had established a
regul ar parish in the wilderness . He had done much to bring a semblance
ot elY1l1zation to t his outport of Lake Superior. Regardless of his
modesty , Bar aga had many years of hard work ahead of him on the shores
of t his oold and forbidding fre.sh water sea.
Vinoent Roy, an Indian contemporary of Father Bar aga ; left an
interesting description of this great miseionary:
I remember him as a man of medium height , about 5 r eet 4 inches, ani weight about 150 pounds . He waa stoutl y built; his legs were ver y disproportionately short in comparison to hi s body. His hair was da rk brown and he al ways wore it long and i n curls , as his pioture will show. His speech 'Wa.s slow, 0001 and powerful, and he poss essed a well-modulated voice and distinct enunci ation. His movements were very deliberate and dignified . 10
10 Verwyst, Lit'e of Baraga, 196.
Although the wint er of l S3a-39 seemed l onesome for Baraga , he did
59
not remain idle. He devoted his leisure time to writing another book
for the Indians . This book contained excerpts from the Bibl e history i
of the Old Test ament and artioles from the hist ory and epistles of the
Apostl es . It was nearly two hundred pages long . He intended to have it
pri nted at Green Bay because of its closeness to La Pointe . There he
coul d proof' -read it to prevent any serious errors . 11
11 Berichte, 13 :39-42.
The summer of 1839 marked the second payment to t he Indians under
the Treaty of' 1837. The government officials had purchased more goods
than the t reaty stipulated , and , as a resul t , t he cash payments had to be
reduced. 12 Over two t housand Indians traveled to La. Pointe for t he pay-
12 Henry R. Schooloraft t o J . H. Crawford , Commissioner of' Indi an Affairs in Washington, Mackinac, August 6, 1839, NAOIA.,
ment i n August, but the cash did not arrive until September. The Indians
had arrived at La Pointe in great need of provisions and cash , 13 and
13 Ibid.
Lucius Lyons to Henry R. Schoolcraft, La Pointe , August 18, 1839, Lyons was an Indian agent sent to make the payment at La Pointe .
the del ayed payment did not hel p t heir needy condition. In addition to
the goods , eaoh Indi an reoeived only about a dollar and a half in cash . 14
14 Ramsey Crooks to stephen A. Halsey, La Pointe , August 19, 1839, ~, 1E.!&., September 6, 1839. '
At the eame time about' three or four hundred half- breeds each received
almost twenty-five times as much cash as the Indians in payment of their
share of t he $100 , 000. 00 8et aside in the treaty for them. Of the total
cash paid to both the I ndians and hal f - breeds , Ramsey Crooks managed t o
obtain $59, OOOrOO for t he Amerioan Fur Company as payment of claims
against t he Indians and others . 15
15 RamBey Crooks to Stephen A. Hal sey, La Pointe , September 30 , 1839, ~.
In the spring of 1839 Bi shop Rese left for Rome after he had r e-
oeived a summons to appear t here . He never returned to t he Diocese of
Detr0it . The removal of Bishop Rese fran Detroit still remains somewhat
60
of a myst.~ t o this day. He did hot have muoh success as an administrat or,
and the diooeslt had not made much progress during his years as Bishop. 16
16 Pa.re, Catholic Church in Detroit, 439.
Money sen.t to Baraga through Bishop Rese often never reached him. I f it
were not fOr the l etter s he received f rom Europe which told of the money
bdng sent to him, Ba.raga may never have known of the generosity of his
benefactors . 17 Whatever t he reason for Bishop Rese ' s ul timate resi gDa-
17 Frederick Ba:t"aga to Vincent Badi n ,. La Pointe , April 27 , 1840, Aurm.
t ion , Baraga did not l oam of this resignat.ion until "t;.he summer of 1840. 18
18 Frederick Baraga to Vincent Badin, La Pointe , August 25 , 1840, ~.
Baraga received another dIsappointment when his sister Antonia de
cided t o leave La Pointe~ I n a l etter to her s i ster Amal i a she told of
a severe cold, which she caught while nsiting an Indian sugar camp. This
instance showed that the col d climate of Lake Superi or proved too much for
this trail young woman. 19 In the fall Baraga had arranged , throuEb
19 Antonia Hoeffern to Amalia Gressel, La Pointe , April 5, 1839, ~.
61
Ramsey Crooks , a pas sage back to. Eurepe f er Anto.nia . 20 A year l ater
20 Ramsey Crooks to. Stephen A. Halsey, La Pointe , September 16, 1831, ~.
Antonia had net left America , for Bar aga asked Cr ooks to. gi ve her a manu-
s cript of his to. t ake back to. Europe , u.- she ~-as to. l eave scon. 21 Antonia
21 Frederick Bar aga to. Ramsey Creoks J La POinte , September 26 , 1840, Ibid .
remained in the United Stat es for several years .
A most interesting descriptio.n of La Pointe i n 1840 had been given
by Bela Hubbard ~mQ Visited t here as a young man that year with Dcuglass
Houghto.n , the famous geolegi st . In describi ng La Pointe Hubbard wrote :
La. Pointe at t hat per iod was one of those peculiar gr01.-rtha kno.wn only t o. an era. which ha!1l long passed a.way, or been banished to. regions still more remote. ltlhat is called the company' s "fert ll consisted of two large stores painted red , a long warehouse f or fish , at t he whar f , and a row of neat f rame buildings painted white. The la.tt er were occupied by t he half dozen families in the company' s empl ey. These dwellings, with the t ""'O stores , formed oppesite sides of a broad street , in the center square of wh.i eh was planted a. l arge f lag-pole. Upon this street also clustered sundry smaller and unpa.inted l og t enements of t he French and half-breeds . Halt a mile from t he f ert were the Protestant and Catholic missi ons . The f ormer boast.ed of a good frame mansion of t wo. stories , attached to which W/3,S 8. s chool, number ing thirty s chol ar s . The Catholic mission had a l lU'ge number of f ollewer s , including French and Indi ans . I n all , the settlement contained about f ifty permanent t enements . Besides t hese were perhaps an equal number of Indian l odges, irregula.rly disposed in vacant sl)aces, and adding to the size and picturesque character cf' the village. Several hundred Indians usua.lly found constant employ i n the tieheries at t his pl ace .
The mot ely population, the unique village , the fisheries and furs. the Indian dances and pow- wows , the mixture of civilization and barbarbm, t he iso.lation, broken only by occasional and irregular arrivals from t he worl d below, .. made up a scene for which we were little prepared, which will not be easily forgotten , but of which I can gi ve only the meagre description . 22
22 Bella Hubbard , Memorials of a Half- Century (New Yerk , l S87) , 60-61.
62
Hubbard wrote this almost fift y years after he had visited La Pointe . He served for several years as an assistant to Douglass Houghton .
In addition to t he interest.ing desoription he lef t behind ,
Hubbard ' 8 visit to La Pointe had a very important effect on the history
i
of Lake Superior. With Hubbard came young Douglass Houghton , the geologist
for the State of Michigan . Houghton had been ordered to make a survey of
mineral s in the Lake Superior r egion, especially copper , and to determine
the possibilities for commercial mining operations . In a l·eport published
in 1841 he confirmed the rumors of t he great depos:tts of copper along the
shores of Lake Superior. 23 The publication of Houghton ' s report changed
23 Nute , Lake Superior, 165 .
t he enUre course of history on the Lake. Houghton' s discovery did not
change lif e al ong the southern shore of t he lake immediately, but event-
ua.1ly the mining operations that resul ted f rom this report made Michigan
the l eadi ng copper producing area of the nation. 24
24 t i en.
I bid. From 1850 to 1877 Miohi gan led the nation in copper produc--The Prote8tant mission had never had a church at La Pointe . In
1840 they decided to build one . Hubbard did not mention a Protestant
church in hie description of La Pointe when he visited t here t hat summer,
but Hall wrote to Greene that he was building a church. 25 They compl eted
25 Sherman Hall to David Greene , La Pointe , Karch 16 , 1940, ABCFM: "I am requested ~y our friends here to write you to s end us a small bell for a small pl ace of worship which is now bullding here . We ha.ve heretofor~ had not [sic] place to hold public worship in, but a small l ow room in whioh our school 1s kept . "
the church that year , a.lmost ten years after the first Protestant mie-
63
eionary had settled at La Pointe.
Fa.ther Baraga also decided to buil d a new church in 1840. His ...
congregati0n had grown 50 l arge t hat the need f or a new ohurch became in-
creasingly serious . In addition to this, although the ohurch had been
built only t wo year s before , the ol d churoh had serious defect s t hat
Baraga bl amed on poor vlO rkmanshi p . 26 The real r eason for a new church
26 Ber i chte , 1.4t 72.
probably ~~8 t hat the old one had not been built on suitable ground . It
stood On low soggy ground , and water seepage had undermined it . Z'/ Pro-
27 Mr. Joseph Gregorich , by personal reeearch, has confirmed that the sit. of Baraga' s second church was poorly chosen, and that water seepage 'tlas a serious problem at that particular l ocation.
babl y all of t hese r easons comb1ned to influence Bar aga to construct a
new church.
Baraga first mentioned his proposed new church in a letter to
Ramsey Crooks:
You saw at La Pointe the miserabl e condition of t he Cat holic Church . We need and want a better one . I made a bargain with Mr . Borup to build a new church on an elevated spot behind your smithshop.
The reason I write you about this is that we need a new l ar ge bel l , 400 pounds . Please buy one for us . 28
28 Frederiok Baraga to Ramsey Crooks , La Pointe, May 2, 1840, ~FCP.
Fat her Baraga gave a f ew more details about hi s proposed church in
a letter t o Father Vincent Badin of Detroit,
I propose t o build a neW church , next Spring, i f t he good God oonserves my life , because this one that. we have now, it i s badly constructed , and also too small . The Catholic congregati on has grown all these years , more by t he conversion of Indians than by the establishment of Oanadians i n t his place , s inee there was a Catholio church here. I have made a formal contraot with our Company here ,
to build a new Church ; and the costs are estimated at $1,100.00. (All the pl anks of t he ol d church will serve in the new, it is ~ny the costs are so moderate . ) I have already paid $1,018. 00, ( counting the $250. 00, that you remitted to Mr. Brewster for me . ) Before the Company squares the first bit of wood for t he new church , it will already be paid . 29
64
..
29 Frederick Bar aga to Vincent Badin , La Pointe , August 25 , 1840, AUND .
Baraga brought out two interesting points i n this l etter. One ,
that his parish had grown largely because of an increase in the conversion
of the Indians . Aooording to the letters of Hall the Catholic oongrega-
tion had gr own because of the increase of the Catholic French-Canadian
workers of t he American Fur Company and not because of t he conversion of
the Indians. 30 Regardless of t his difference of 'oJOrds , the Indians and
30 This di8crepancy can possibly be explained by a definition of terms . Hall conSidered all half- breeds as French-Canadlans , while Baraga often considered halt- breeds as Indians . Quite often these hal f - breeds had much les~ than one-half white blood.
hal f - breeds at La Pointe far outnumbered the Amer i cans and French- Canadians .
Expansion of Baraga ' s parish by the a.rrival of French-Canadi an worker s had
its l imits . For a mission t o expand into a parish and require three
churches in five years time could only have been a ccomplished by a large
increase in the number of Indian converts .
The s econd point, brought out by Baraga, t he price of and pa'YJl1~t
for 11 new church , caused him lllOre trouble and anxiety than his lette'l"
would indicate he expected . Baraga considered that he had two separate
debts with t he American Fur Company. One was the debt he owed to the
Northem Outfit for the expenses he incurred on the new church. The
second debt was f or the char ges on the wine . Lois80n donated the wine ,
but Baraga had to pay t he transportation, duty and storage charges .
In May of 1638 Baraga had a balance in his favor in his account
05
with the Amerioan Fur Company that t otal ed $1 ;420 . 60. 31 By June 1,
31 Ramsey Cr ooks to Frederick Baraga, r.few York, May 18 , 1838., AfcP . i
1939, t his bal ance had changed so that Bar aga owed t he Company $754. 54. 32
32 Rameey Crooks t o Frederick Baraga , New York , June 1 , 18)$, Ibid .
The f i r st amount i ncluded the money he brought back with . him from Europe .
He used t his to pay bis debt s a.nd f or t he new church. The deficit. resulted
f rom the char ges on t he Vli ne before it wa.s sold. Thi s debt Baraga still
considered separ ate . Crooks estimated that t he charges on each bottle of
wine came to about $2. 00 bef ore it was Bold . 33
33 Ramsey Crooks to Loieson, New York , Decembel' 31, 1839, Ibid.
On top of this debt , Baraga ordered a l arge bell and cont r acted
f or t he construction of a new church . The debt t hat he owed Crooks
worried Father Baraga, fOr he \'./I'ote to Crooks in July of 1840:
I do not know your sentiments, sir, on this subject. I beg you not to think that I am making too great expenses, which will involve me i n debts with you. Don ' t be afraid of that, my dear sir . Your agent, Mr. Borup, can tell you that 1 have no debts at all with the N [orthern1 Outtit at this t ime , and t hat I already pai d $600. 00 in advance for t .he new church which is computed at $1,100.00 . All the boards of t he old church will be employed 1n the new one; that will save me a great deal of money. I will certainly pay the remaining $500 .. 00 in the space ot one year and a half from this, without relyi ng Qn your wine, which does not sell much rapidly , aa I see. 34
34 Frederick Bar aga to Ramsey Crooks , La. POinte , Jul y 26 , 1840, Ibtd.
The fact t hat Baraga coul d pay aa much as he did on the church was
due to the releas8 of his European donations from Detroit . Father Baraga
had received nI8llY letters f r om Europe telling him of the money colleeted
there and sent to him. He had received almost none of this money . In
66 .. his five years at La Poi nte Bishop Rese had given hlm only $200. 00.·
Now with Bishop Rese reca.lled to Rome , Ba.raga ' s l eiters to Father Badin , ,:
t he Vica r General for Lower Miohigan , resulted in much of that money
being released and deposited in his aocount with the American Fur Oompany
a t Detroit . 35 For this reason Baraga could pay so much on his new
35 Frederick Baraga to Vincent Badin, La Pointe , April 27, 1840, A!lli!!, Ibid., June 14, 11340.
church . He consi dered his account in New York f or the wine separately from
that which he owed the Northern Outfit , probabl y because he bel ieved the
wine woul d eventuaUy pay f or itself and possibly make a profit f or him.
In spite of hie debt , Crooks evidently beliaved Fat her Baraga
would be able to pay '11hat he o\,led , f or in August he sent Father Baraga the
l arge bel). he had ordered for his new church , al though the letter that
informed Baraga of his shiJ.1llent was slightly sarcastift
It 1s larger than you ask for , but we could find nothing nearer the weight, unless we bought one considerabl y under 400 pounds and we presume the Siz8 will be no serious objection as you a.entad so anxious to have the full wei ght you mentioned, or even more . Knowing how difficult it is to haTe it properly mounted, we also provided t he most material part of t he fixture, so that what is still wanting can be easily made at La POinte, and we sincerel y hope it will call many sinners to rep$otance. At all events , we a·ra quite eure t hat i f it depends upon your zeal in the good cause, you will greatly improve the morals of your community , and we sincerely wish you compl ete suocess. 36
36 Ramsey Crooks to Frederick Baraga,. New York, August 17, 1S40, ~.
Because of his success in paying for moet of the new church , Crooks
asked Baraga to pay somet hing on his wine a ccount . '37 By September of
37 ~.
1$40 Baraga owed t he Amerioan Fur Company a total of $1,408.11. 38 Baraga
67
38 ~.
Ra.!nsey Crooks to Freder ick Baraga, New York , September 29, 1840 , , i
still worried more about paying for his new church, as he still t hought
the wine would eventually pay for itself. Hi s letter in August to Father
Badin, that stated he had pai d over $1,000. 00 of t he $1,100. 00 for the
church, seemed overly opt imist i c, for in a letter to Crooks in September ,
he wrote:
I am sorry to see that you cannot get your payment by my wine . I advised you 1n one of my l etters to send that wine in the inland , I suppose, here in our West it would sell better than in New York for there is such an abundance of all things . Send it to Maokinac, t o t he Sault, to Greenbay, Mil \-/aukee , Chicago, Praire du Chien. The expense of t he transport cannot be high , and t he wine will probabl y sell t here . I am unable to pay you otherwise , being obliged to bear the expenses of our new church all al one . I paid already to Mr. Borup before the end of August $SOO. OO, and sinee that I collected (from Borne debtors) above $100. 00 . The whol e amount ' of the expenses will be about $1,100. 00. I hope my good old f r i end L01880n will sand us some champagne t his fall. If you then sell it only one shilling a bottl e ; it will pay you. 39
39 Frederick Baraga to Ramsey Crooks, La Pointe , September 14, 1840, lQ1!!.
Baraga showed that his main interest was to pay for t he new ahurch. The
wine could easily pay f or i tself , and here he indicated t hat he wi shed to
at least break even on its sale . ACCOrding to this l etter, the only way
in which Crooks eould obtain pa;ym.ent for the wine ';JOuld be to sell it f or
at least the expenses incurred by it after the customs , transportation
and storage charges had been paid .
Finally, after many l etters from Crooks t hat decl ared hi s inability
to sell the wine , Father Baraga l ost hi s patience, and in an attempt to
sell the wine and to clear hi s debt , he ordered Crooks to ship his wine to
Mackinac, Green Bay, Mil waukee and Prai re du Chien. 40 Baraga must have
6a
40 Frederiok Baraga to Ramsey Crooks .. La POinte , October 1 , l S4{) , Ibi d • •
t hought or known t hat the wine would have a better chance to be sold in
the West than in New York.
As f!lentioned in a previous chapter, the sale of Baraga ' s wine by
Ramsey Crooks i s shrouded in somewhat of a mystery. No evidence has come
to light to show t he true reason for Crooks' i na.bility or refusal to sell
the wine . Baraga could never have pai~. ~. !'pr t he wine , as he had all he . .
could do to pay for his new church and his meagre living expenses . Crooks
muet have known t his, and doubtl ess he was surprised When Baraga t old him
of his desire to build a new church . In spite of all of this he advanced
more credit to Bar aga , until he owed Crooks OV'er $1,, 400. 00 , a considerable
sum of mQriey for a poor missionary. Of this amount , only about $400 •. 00
we.S owed to the Northern Out fit , which Baraga considered himsel f able to
pay. The rest of the debt came f rom the char ges on the wine . Possi bly
he wished t o involve Ba r aga in heavy debt, or possibly he hl\d his best
interests at heart . No evidence to support either contenti on exists . Two
things , however, must be remembered . William T. Bout well, Ii Protestant
missionary and a c0mpetitor of Baraga 's was Ramsey Crooks ' son-in-law. On
the other hand , Crooks ' wife , a half- breed, was a Catholic. These two
facts may have had an influence on t he a ctions of Ramsey Crooks , one way
or the other, but nothing exists to confirm or refute the inf luence of
either. At any rate ., by the end of 1$41, Baraga had a balance in his
f avor of $509.08 with the American Fur Company. 41 This fact woul d lead
41 Rameey Crooks to Frederick Baraga, New York , December 6 , 1841, ~.
one to believe that possibl y Ramsey Crooks did have Fat her Baraga 's i nterests
69
at heart . The wine eventually "laS sol d in the West and Baraga not only
cleared hi. debt , but he was l ett with a small profit . i
As f ar as Baraga ' s payment for the new church was concerned , he
did r eceive enough money to pay it in full befor e t he workers of the
Company had completed it . By the end of 1840 Bar aga had received enough
money from the Leopol dine Foundati on, t hrough Father Badin, to pay his
expenses on the church in full. 42
42 MelDOrandum in the Leopol dine Foundati on Collection, c. May 3, 1841, Bishop Baraga Col l ect i on Microfilms .
The l ast two years had been eventful ones in the life of Father
Baraga . Plagued by the i ncreasing hostility of t he Protestant missionaries ,
as well as by a.1most unsurmountabl e f inanci al probl ema , he nevertheless
increased· t he s ize of his congregati on and prepared to bll1ld a new and
l arger church. Left alone by hls sister , Antonia , and put into f i nanci al
diffi cul t i • • by his recal l ed Bi shop, he l ooked to the future and put
aside personal disappointments . His f l ock at La POinte, t he most act ive
vi l lage on Lake Superior , needed his guidi ng hand t o l ead them to a bett er
and rioher life t hrough his teachings of t he word of God .
Chapt er Six
The yea.r 1841 started quite favorably f or Father Baraga . He had.'
recel ved enough money t.o pay for his new church , and it appeared that the
vine woul d f i nal ly bri ng hi m a l ittle profit . Fat her Baraga began to
receive more money from Europe in 1841, 1 so t hat during this year his
1 Frederick Baraga to Ramsey Orooks , La POint e , March 4 , 1841, !EQf. Baraga. informed Crooks t hat $600. 00 had been deposited for him in various New Yor k bank, by Father Iva Leviz , a newly arrived Slovenian prieElt .
finanoial condition improved greatly. As we have seen , by the end of 1841
Baraga had paid for his new church and had money in his account with the
American Fur Company.
The most important event of 1841 was the oonstruction of Baraga ' s
t hird churoh during the six years he had been at La Pointe . The old
church was torn down to provide material for the new one . In a simpl e
ent ry in a bapti smal record , Baraga noted the compl eti on and dedicati on
of his neW church:
In the year 1841 the undersigned m1se1onar y caused a new church to be const ructed (the old one being destroyed by him, which had been t oo badl y constructed), and that t he same time he pl aced i t t here Where it was neal" to t he great er part of t he CathoUc congr egation. I n the month of July of the same ;.year this church was finished , and on the f i rst Sunday of August the under signed missi onary dedicated it to God under t he name of the same St. J oseph. 2
2 La Pointe Baptismal Regist er.
His new church res.bl ed the old one. It was cOn$tructed of wood
and plastered i nside . I t was somewhat l arger and beautifull y decorated
with t he pe.1nt l ngs he brought back with him f rom Europe. In lat er years
th1. beautiful church in the wil derness became a lamous touri st attrac-
70
71
tion. .3
3 Burnham, Lake Supe~10r Country , 222-3 . In later years such paopl~ as Mrs. Abraham Lincoln and General Sherman visited La Pointe to see this church.
The construction of t his new church marked the peak of Baraga ' s
success at La Pointe. For over six years he had labored unceasingly
among the Indians of Lake Superior . He had converted hundreds of therrn,
and remained to build a regular pa~ish in the wilderness. He did all of
this under many difficulties and hardships . He often f ell into debt , but
his faith in the future enabled him to build and progres8 despite all
obstacles . The oppositi on he faced finally fell in defeat , while he
continued on to greater bei ghts .
The American Fur Company occupied an unusual position with respect
to Father Baraga. They did not seem to offer the same open opposition
that they showed to some other missionaries . Some of t he agents of the
Company had been unfriendly to him, but some, 11ke Doctor Borup and Samuel
Abbott, had been very friendly and hel pful, and othen, llke Ramsey Crooks ,
seemed friendly but had questionable motives . When Baraga first arrived
at La Pointe the American Fur Company had a monopol y on almost everything
and exerted great influence with the government Indian agents . No misslon-
ary could succeed against its wishes . Baraga appeared not to receive a
great amount ot open opposl tion from the Company, probably becau.se so many
of the French-Canadian employee.8 of the Company were Oatholic. On the
other hand , a$ mentioned before , Ramsey Crooks TIlAY have tried to remove
or at least embarrass Father Baraga When he allowed him to run up a large
debt and then asked for payment . In the end , the American Fur Company
lost prestige and finally went out of business on Lake Superior. After
72
t he depression of 1837 the Company £a11OO· 4 It l ater regained some of
4 Nute , Lake Superior, 197.
t he ground it lost , but never again did i t reach t he heights it attained
in the late 1830' s . By 1850 the operati ons of the American Fur Company
on Lake Superior had practically ceased to be of any importance. 5 For
5 ~., 280 .
many year s after this , Baraga oontinued to l abor 9~ng the Indians and
miner s of Lake Superior. One of the strongest forces on the Lake had
failed, but Father Baraga went on to become the first Bi shop of t he
dioaese that he had founded .
The other f orce that had so long opposed Baraga, the Protestants ,
also fell by the wayside whil e Father Baraga continued his work with in-
creasing success. In 1841 t he Protestants had been at La Pointe f or
el even years. Only the year betere had they started to build a church.
The number of converts at t hat time had not increased. to any sizeable
number. In the year of 1841 t he American Fur Company sent one of its
agents , James P. Scott, to check on t he progress of t he posts along the
lake. His reports to the agent at Detroit, Robert. Stuart , t old the true
story of the .$ituation in the Protestant mission at La Point e .
or the mission in general Scott wrote ,
They have now been some 10 or 12 years in t hat portion ot the country, and I ask, What have they done? What are the fruits of their labor? ! answer nothing. and t he fault is theirs. And they may remain yet fifty years among the nat! ves, and nothing further wiU be done towards the conversion of the savage, than is already accomplished, which is nothing. 6
..
6 J ames P. Scott to Robert Stuart, Detroit, December 25 , 1841, ABCFM.
Scott also reported on the sale of the clothing t hat had been
sent to La Pointe by the American Board :
Our missionaries receiva annua.lly great quantities of clothing and other art.icles , whioh are colleeted and sent on by different institutions, :which I always supposed were sont on for charitable purposes . These articles are all sold by them at enormous prices , but this may all be right . 7
7 ill!!.
Finally , about Sherman Hall, Scott wrote :
Mr . Hall is not the man calculated to do good among us - wba.t ha might do in a civilized world I would not venture an opinion, but with us he is not t he man required - we want someone who w.l.ll at l east pretend to f eel an interest in the future wel.f'are of our Indians . It has always been a quiery [sic] with me , how Mr . Hall can ma.l{e out satisfactory reports to t he Board, of his proceedings and success with the Indians. 8
s .rua.
Not only did Hall have a bad report writteh. about him by one of
the agents ot the American Fur Company, which had usually been friendly
to him, but Robart. Stuart wrote to David Greene and told him that the
Company wished the removal of Hall, because he had become unsatisfactory
to the Company. 9
9 Robert Stuart to DaVid Greene , Detroit, December 27 , 1841, ~.
73
i
Regardless of what had been said to Hall, be remained at La Pointe
for several years more . The story of this mission after Father Baraga.
left in H~43 was the same as before, nothing accomplished. Finally , in
1953 , the same year that Father Bara.ga was congecrated a Bishop, Sherman
Hall lef t La Pointe for a new mission on the upper Mississippi in Minnesota ,
where most of t he Indians had moved . 10 The most active opposition Father
74
10 Nuts , Lake SuperiQr, 270 . i
Baraga faced had not endured . Despite all attempts to remove him, in the
end it was the Protestant mission that failed in its primary objective,
'While Father Baraga I s mission 11 ved on under other pastors .
With the (lonstruction of his nel., church Baraga1s work at La Pointe
had just about been completed. Within two years he had moved to start a
new mission . The first hint he gave about leaving La Pointe eame in 1840
in a l etter to t he Leopoldine Foundation:
Moreover, I have now a plan to start this fall a new mission at Lake Superior in a place one hundred and eighty miles from here , which , I hope , will be for t he salvation of many souls , accorQing to the prondses and assurances made to me by pagans II Ving there .
Here in La Pointe conversions of pagans are now rare . Hence I desire to preach elsewhere the gospel to t he poor pagan Indians . I am cer tain of gaining more of them there Where I intend to 5tart a new mission t han here . Ah, What a consolatt ort , What unspeakable joy to gain immortal souls fOr Jesus Christ . II
11 Frederick Baraga to the Leopoldine Foundation , La Pointe , October 7, 1S40. Berichta, 15150.
One of t.he reasons Baraga lett La Pointe was the Treaty of 1842.
In tha.t t reaty the Indians gave up their claims to t he rest of the land
around Lake Superior, but remained on t he land subject to removal at the
plealSure of t he President of the United States . 12 This meant t hat
12 Ka.ppler, Indian Affairs , 2:542-45.
eventually most of t he Il¥iians at La Pointe would move to new lands in the
'''lest . This in turn woul d result i n rewer I ndians cOming to La. Pointe and
a lesser chance for converting many mora . This fact , together with the
fact that he had already done as much as he could at La Pointe, decided
him t o move to a new missi on at t he head of Keewenaw Bay at L' Anse . He
15
left La Pointe on October 4 , 1843. 13 He did not intend to l eave his
13 Verwyst, Life of Bara.ga, 209. ...
parishioners at La Poi nte without a priest . A priest was promised to r a
, l ace him, but this priest, Otto Skolla , did not arrive until 1845.
Baraga made several more visits to La Pointe , one in 1844 when
his new bishop, Bishop John Martin Henni , made a visit . The year before
La Pointe had become a part of the new diooese of Milwaukee . The bishop
confirmed one hundred and twenty-two Indians and Canadians on this
visit . 14 But by t his time , Ba.raga' s mai n interest was in his ne;l{
14 .!lli., 212- 213 .
mission at L' Anse . The mission he started there in 1843 still stands
today as the Indian Orphanage of Assinins , near the small tOl'm of Baraga ,
Michigan.
Chapter Seven
On January 19, 1868, on the Feast ot the Holy Name of Jesus J i
Bishop Frederick Baraga died in his residence in Marquette , Michi gan. For
almost forty years t his saintl y man had labored among his beloved Indians .
He died penniless and with only one priest in attendance . On the day of
his funeral a general day of lOOurning was deelaFed in the small city of
Marquette , and Protestants and Catholics alike paid their l ast respects
to thi8 great and holy man. His remains rest today i n a crypt in the
beautiful cathedral in t1a.rquett",.
In looking back over those years Ba.raga worked at La Pointe ,
several important things must be remembered . When he arrived at La Pointe
be had already been tested in the Indian mi8si0n8 by almost four years
spent among the Ottawa Indians at Arbre Croche and Grand River in Lower
Michigan . He overcame many difficulties there, especially at Grand River ,
but in the end success crowned his efforts . By the time he arrived at
La Pointe in .1835, Father Baraga had gained much wisdom in the ways at the
Indians and also the white man. A man with le85 experience could never
have accompU shed as much as Father Baraga did in the face of such ob
stacles . Doing Christ Ie 'Work along the barren shores of Lake Superior
required a man like Frederick Baraga .
Before this time l ittle attention has been given to the ~~rk that
Father Baraga. did while at La Po.inte . Even some books published in recent
times do not give complete credit to the work of Father Baraga. Now we
know that he converted hundreds of pagan Indians. and he did this in the
face of much opposition. The years he spent at La Pointe wer e marked in
other parts of the country by riots and open oppos1tion to the Catholic
76
77
church . The open opposition he received from the Protest.ant missionaries
was not strange when considered in the light of what was happening in
other parts of t he United States at t hat time. Yet , despite all t he
Protestants could do , Father Baraga continued to build and i ncrease his
floek until finally he formed the first complete Catholic parish on the
shores of Lake Superior .
i
One of Father Baraga ' s accomplishment s that is often overlooked
is his success in t he l iterary f ield. He wrote several prayer books in
his native tongue before he came to America . These books are still
trea.sured and used there today. He also wrote a history of t.he American
Indians that he had published in German on his trip to Europe in 1836- 37 .
He wrote several works in the Indian tongues of Ottawa. and Chippewa. Not
only did he wri t e prayer books , but his Chippewa grammar is today the
standard work tor that tongue . Baraga devised this Chippewa grammar
using French phonetics , and it 1s t he onl y method that eomes close to
the true pronunciation of the original l anguage .
Baraga al so had a great gift for l inguistics . He spoke and wrote ,
in addition to his native Slovene , German , French ,. English , Latin, Italian,
Greek , and the Indian dialeots . His writings can be found in all of these
languages . His mission duties required him to preach most of his sermons
in Frenoh and I ndi an, and quite often al so in Engl ish. On his way back
to Europe in 1837 he hel ped out for several weeks in a German parish in
New York . The mastering of all these various tongues is indeed a great
achievement.
When the compl ete life story of Bishop Frederick Baraga i 8 tol d ,
it \nll be the story of a most remarkable man . This brief study of a few
years of his l ite shows a few of the difficulties and obstacles he had
78
t o o'lferoome while doi ng his great work among the I ndi ans of Lake Superior.
His whole lif e is one of a hol y and pious man. frederick Baraga, the
Apost l e of the Chippewas , wa.s t ruly a great man in the history of Lake
Superior and in the History of the Catholic Churoh in I\meri.ca .
.:
8ibllo&raphY
Pritnan Sources
Amerl,can Board. of Cotnmisaioners for Foreign Missions. The ori ginals of these letters and journals are in the Massachusetts Histor i cal Sooiety I' Boston. The references used in this paper are f rom transoripts in the Newberry Library 1 Chicago ~ Ayer Collection.
Amerioan Fur Company Papers. The original s of these papers are in the new York Historical Society , New York, New York. The references used 1n t his paper are f rom transcripts of microtil.ms in the Bishop Ba r aga Collection, Marquette ,. Michi gan.
Archives of .the Univer$lty of Notre DamEP. The references used are f r om the Bishop Baraga Collection transcripts.
Armstrong, Benjamin G., Early Lif e AmOng t he Indians . Ashl and , 1892.
i
Copway, George. The Life , History, and Travels of Kah-Ge-Ga- Gah-~. Albany, 1847. .
Dio~esan Arcb1'11'8S of LJU'ogava. The orig1na.ls of tbese archives a.re in Yugoslavia. The references used here are transla.tions of transcripts of microfilms in the Bishop Baraga. Collection.
El y Diary. The original of this diary is in the Duluth Hi stori cal Soc1ety, Duluth, Minnesota. The references used are from. a photostat.ic transcr ipt in the Bishop Baraga Collection.
Hubbard, Bela. Memorials of $. Halt-Century. New York, l ea?
Kappler, Ch~rle5 J., Indian Affaire. Two volumes. Washington, D.C., 1904.
La point.e Baptismal ReAeter. The original of this register is at the Fl"&noiscan Rectory, Bayfield, Wisoonsin. The references used are from a photostatic copy in the Bishop Baraga Colleotion.
Leopoldine Foundation Collection. The original of this collection of letters and reporte of North American Indian missionaries is in Vienna , Austria. The relerences used are from translations of microfilms in the Bishop Baraga Collect ton.
NII-tional Archives. Office or Indian Attain_ The reterenees used are fl"OlD transcripts of microfilm 'in the Bishop Baraga Collection.
RePOrts of the Leopoldine Foundatlon. The original of these reports as pubUshed in the IIBerichte" are in Vienna, Austria. The references used and footnoted as Berichte are translated transcripts from the Bishop Baraga Collection.
79
80
SchoolCl't\ft , Henry Rowe. Thirty Years Among the Indi ans . Philadelphia, 1851.
... Wa~ren Papers . The o~iginal of these pape~s a~e in the Wisconsin
Historical Society , · Madison and were used in this pape~ .
Yugoslav Archives . The references used are f~om t.he transcripts in the Bishop Baraga Collection.
1944.
Secondary Sources
Books
Blied, Benjamin J ., Austrian Aid to American Catholics. Milwaukee ,
Buck , Solon J ., The Story of G~and Portage. Minneapolis, 1931.
Burnham, Guy M., Lake Superlor CountrY in History and in Story. Ashland, 1929.
Furlan, William P., In Charity Unfeisne4. St. Cloud , 1952.
Gr egorich , Joseph. The Apostle of t he ChiJ?pewa.e. Lemont , I llinois , 1932.
Nuts, Grace Lee . Lake Superior. I ndianapolis , i944.
Pare, George . The Catholic Church in Detl"Oit . 1701-1888. 1951.
Roemer, Theodore. Ten Decades of AlJu . St. LOUis , 1942.
Rosa, Hamilton. The Apostle Islands . No place, 1951.
Verwyst, Rev . P. Chrysostomus. Th. L:l.fe of Frederick Baraga . Milwaukee, 1901.
periodicala
Nute, Grace Lee . liThe Papers of t he American Fur Company." American Historical Review, XXXII (April, 1927).
Thwaites, Rueben Gold. "The Sto~ of Chequamegon Bay." W18COne1n H1stodcai Collections . XIII.
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