Glenn

THE OHIO VALLEY-GREAT LAKES ETHNOHISTORY ARCHIVES: THE MIAMI COLLECTION
It is noted that the following works from the Miami Archives should be read and considered within the historical context in which they were composed and printed. The opinions expressed and the language used do not reflect the opinions or standards of the Glenn A. Black Laboratory of Archaeology, but are, rather, indicative of thought in that historical moment during which the documents were published.

ST. JOSEPH'S MISSION (continued - part 5 of 6, manuscript pgs. 47- 52)
From THE MISSISSIPPI VALLEY HISTORICAL REVIEW
written by George Pare

The following summer the British conceived an ambitious project for a comprehensive assault upon the American and Spanish strongholds in the West. While most of the program miscarried, a large British-Indian force attacked St. Louis, and although beaten off, caused much distress and considerable loss to the defenders. The British offensive provoked a prompt counterstroke which was to involve the fortunes of Ft. Joseph. In the autumn, a wrench force under La Balme was launched against Detroit from the Illinois towns, and another raiding party from Cahokia, led by Jean Baptiste Hamelin, was directed against St. Joseph.

Hamelin arrived early in December, when the Indians were absent on their periodical hunt. In their absence he overpowered the traders, loaded their goods on packhorses, and with a score of prisoners beat a hasty retreat in the direction of Chicago. But the raiders quickly came to grief, for Lieutenant Dequindre, a British officer, reaching St. Joseph shortly after their departure, rallied the natives and set out in pursuit. Somewhere in the vicinity of modern Michigan City, he overtook the Cahokians killed or captured most of them, and recovered the plunder.

A second and more formidable expedition against St. Joseph, however, was promptly launched, this time by the Spanish governor in St. Louis. Alarmed over the plans the British were making for a renewed attack upon St. Louis in 1781, and inspired, possibly, by the example of Clark's brilliant campaign of February, 1779, against Vincennes, governor Cruzat at the beginning of January, 1781, dispatched a small body of soldiers against St. Joseph. At Cahokia they were joined by twenty townsmen, eager for plunder and revenge, and en route by a dozen additional Spanish soldiers and a large party of Indians. The motley array ascended the Illinois River in boats as far as Lake Peoria, and there, the river having frozen, began their overland midwinter march of three hundred miles to St. Joseph. Their sufferings from cold, hunger, and other privations on the three-weeks' wilderness journey only the imagination can picture. On February 12, 1781, St. Joseph was occupied without resistance from the Indians, the traders were plundered anew, and a large supply of corn, gathered for the use of the British in the coming attack upon St. Louis, was burned. The Spanish flag had kissed the winter breeze for twenty-four hours when the invaders, their work of destruction completed, began their return journey, reaching St. Louis in early March without the loss of a single man. Governor Cruzat sent to distant Madrid a somewhat imposing relation of his bloodless conquest, and this report, duly published in the Madrid Gazette, became a factor in the involved peace negotiations between Spain and France, Great Britain, and the United States which attended the termination of the Revolution. (For opposing views of the Spanish capture of St. Joseph, and its significance, see Clarence W. Alvord, "The Conquest of St. Joseph, Michigan, by the Spaniards in 1781," Missouri Historical Review, II, 195-210; and Frederick J. Teggart, "The Capture of St. Joseph, Michigan, by the Spaniards in 1781" ibid., 214-2l8).

Through all these turbulent times the little colony in the neighborhood of the fort lived on. Deprived of the ministration of a priest, perhaps even of a chapel, it is easy to believe that they met for prayer and worship under the guidance of some one of their number. At least, in some rude cabin was sheltered the precious baptismal register against the coming of a missionary, for its final pages are signed with the grandiose signature of Pierre Gibault.

It will be remembered that following the expulsion of the Jesuits from the Illinois mission, Father Meurin remained alone. At the end of 1766, there were only three priests in the entire western country: the Recollect chaplain in Detroit, Father Potier in Sandwich, and Father Meurin. (for sketch of Father Sebastian Meurin, S.J., see Charles H. Metzger, "Sebastian Louis Meurin," Illinois Catholic Historical Review, III, 241-59; 371-88; IV, 43-56). How could he alone suffice for the demands made upon him? When the Bishop of Quebec, under whose jurisdiction the territory remained, named him Vicar-General in 1767, the venerable missionary penned these mournful lines:

 
I would almost wish that my self-esteem might prevent me from
telling you, Monseigneur, that I am unworthy as anyone can be of 
the honor which you confer on me; and more than ever incapable of 
such an office, of which I know but the name. I have never been 
acquainted with any jurisprudence, either notarial, pontifical, or 
any other. I have been too long left to myself, and I barely know 
the duties of a simple priest....
My letters of last spring must have omitted to inform you of my 
age, and of my weakness of body and mind. I retain only a small 
portion of weak judgment, have no memory, and possess still less 
firmness. I Need a guide for the soul and for the body; for my eyes, 
my ears, and my legs are likewise very feeble. I am no longer good 
for anything but to be laid in the ground... (Ibid., III, 385).

Moved by the aged missionary's urgent request for assistance, Bishop Briand took stock of his seminarians. A hardy, zealous, trustworthy man was needed. Pierre Gibault, thirty-one years old, and a native of Montreal, suited the emergency. The Bishop advanced his ordination, fortified him with extraordinary faculties, and sent him off as Vicar-General of Quebec in the Illinois country.

In July, 1768, Father Gibault arrived at Mackinac. The voyageurs, some of whom had not been to confession for years, eagerly availed themselves of his ministry, as did the Ottawa who had lived in Father Du Jaunay's mission. Although every possible inducement was held out to him to remain at Mackinac, Father Gibault, in obedience to his orders, tarried but a few slays, and then resumed his journey.

The French settlement on the St. Joseph now claimed his attention. His first entry, dated August 17, 1768, records the baptism of a child born five years previously. (In the register as published in the MISS. VAL. HIST. REV., Father Gibault's first entry is erroneously given, on account of a misreading of the manuscript, as April 17, 1768.) Two days later, he performed seven baptisms, five of them conditionally. One of these, in the ease of a child born in 1762, indicates that no priest had officiated at the post since the time of Father Potier's Visit.

Father Gibault went on to the Mississippi and fixed his residence in Kaskaskia. We cannot here go into the long story of his priestly life, of his missionary journeys from Vincennes to Mackinac. On March 7, 1773, he was again in the little colony on the St. Joseph, signing himself "Vicar-General of the Illinois country and surrounding territory." He/performed a few baptisms, and witnessed two marriages. His last entry is dated March 21, 1773. It is the final entry in the register of the mission, and is symbolic of the fate that had overtaken old Mission St. Joseph. It is the record of a burial.

We cannot dismiss Father Gibault without alluding to the title by which he deserves to be known in American history, "The Patriot Priest. " By his influence over the French population in the Illinois country, he made it possible for George Rogers Clark to bring the Northwest Territory under the American flag without bloodshed. He induced his people to furnish supplies to the Americans, as he did himself, in return for worthless Continental paper instead of the Spanish dollars which were current. When many of the "Big Knives" themselves deserted Clark because they had not been paid, Father Gibault enlisted a company of his own people for the retaking of Vincennes from Governor Hamilton.

In later years when he and his people were poverty-stricken, Father Gibault petitioned the government to which he had given such whole-hearted allegiance for some recompense for his losses. There is no evidence that the petition was ever granted. He retired to New Madrid on the western side of the Mississippi, and there he died, it is commonly supposed, about the year 1804. (The reader will find an exhaustive account of Father Gibault in the several volumes of the Ill. Catholic Hist. Rev. Every volume, beginning with the first (1918) should be consulted. For a short account, see the American Catholic Historical Society, Records, XII, 452 ff.)

We have sketched the history of the St. Joseph Mission, and of the priests who ministered in it. It is not out of place to ad some details of the population to which they ministered. The French inhabitants were typical of many a frontier post. In the beginning there were a few soldiers and their wives. However the number of soldiers stationed at the fort at any time must have been insignificant compared to the colonists and traders, who came in increasing numbers.

Between 1740 and 1750 there were probably about fifty-five families living in or near the post. The register records the baptism of seventy-nine French children, and mentions the canoes of thirty-five French couples. Other names of both men and women scattered throughout the entries indicate the presence of a considerable floating population.

The register is filled with the names of the hardy adventurers, who making for some time at least their headquarters at the mission, roamed up and down the western country in quest of furs. Starting out from the towns along the St. Lawrence, their trails crossed in all the outlying posts of the lake region. Later on, they and their families settled down to form the nucleus of the little communities that lay dormant until another people urged by landhunger really began the development of the great West.

There are doubtless hundreds of French-Canadians living in Michigan at the present time who are descendents of ancestors who lived clustered around the St. Joseph Mission. Glancing over the ancient register, we notice Louis Metivier, the master carpenter, Francois Menard, the interpreter, Jean Le Fevre, the farmer. Antoine Deshetres moved, to Detroit in 1751. Rene Bourassa followed him in 1765 with a large family. Louis Dequindre, who later became a colonel of militia in Detroit, lived for some years on the St. Joseph. The names Chevallier, Leveque, Dumay, Hamelin, frequently occur in the register. Little by little, after the British occupation, the number of French inhabitants declined. In 1780 there were eight families comprising forty-one persons, and seven individuals, " each one in his house," (Mich. Hist. Colls.,XIII, 58-59).

During the palmy days of French influence the place of honor at the post was held by the commandant, who had other duties than the keeping of Indians under subjection. He was in great demand as godfather, and on many occasions conferred baptism in the absence of the missionary. The register names seven officers who were in command for varying terms from 1720 to 1755. One of them, the Sieur De Muy, was a botanist as well as a soldier, and on a visit to France he carried with him a collection of the flora found in the valley of the St. Joseph. He later commanded at Detroit, where he died in 1758. His epitaph is found in the records of Ste. Anne's: "He died after having received the sacraments with all the piety we could desire, at the end of a life that was always most useful," (Ibid., XXXIV, 335).

Another noted figure was Coulon de Villiers, in charge of the post from 1725 to 1730. (For the history of this family, see l'Abbe Amedee Gosselin, Notes Sur La Famille Coulon de Villiers Levis, 1906.) He had married in 1706, Angelique, the sister of the heroine of Verchares. (The story of this young girl's heroic defense against a band of Iroquois can be read in Parkman's Count Frontenac and New France under Louis XIV Boston, 1880, chap. xiv.) From this union were born seven sons and six daughters, a goodly family that made its mark from Acadia to New Orleans. When the sire was appointed to Fort St. Joseph, he brought his sons along to initiate them into the profession of arms. They were mere boys, the oldest being seventeen. In the campaign of 1730 against the Foxes, engineered by their father, the sons saw active service. Three years later at Green Bay, when De Villiers himself was killed fighting against the Sauk, a son fell with him.

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