THE OHIO VALLEY-GREAT LAKES ETHNOHISTORY
ARCHIVES: THE MIAMI COLLECTION
It is noted that the following work from the Miami Archives should be read and
considered within the historical context in which it was 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 document was
published.
The St. Joseph Mission
(Due to length divided here into three parts)
Par, George in: Mississippi
Valley Historical Review,
vol. 17, pp. 24-54.
The Huron Mission, founded by Brebeuf in 1634, was the beginning of Jesuit missionary activity in the region of the Great Lakes. During the furious westward raids of the Iroquois beginning in 1648, it was utterly destroyed. No tribe could withstand the onslaughts of the fierce warriors from central New York. The Huron fled from Ontario to Mackinac, and then to northern Wisconsin. They were followed by the Sauk from the Saginaw Valley, and the Miami and Potawatomi from southern Michigan. Within ten years the southern peninsula was a No Man's Land, a depopulated barrier between the fury of the Iroquois and the swarming tribes that had sought refuge beyond the western shore of Lake Michigan.
The renewal of missionary activity, primarily a search for the dispersed Huron, brought Mnard and Allouez through the Ottawa River route into Lake Superior, and then westerly along its southern shore. But De Tracy and De Courcelles had scotched the Iroquois in 1666, and the refugees were gradually drifting back to their old haunts. They congregated along the St. Mary's River, teeming with whitefish, and in the curve of Green Bay where miles of wild rice soughed over the shallows. The two strategic mission sites became St. Ignace, and St. Francis Xavier at Green Bay. From these two centers the missionaries first worked southward, but always west of Lake Michigan, to develop what they called the Illinois mission field. When the tribes that had been expelled from southwestern Michigan felt that it was safe to return, the missionaries followed them and established the first Jesuit mission in the Lower Peninsula, the St. Joseph Mission.
Unfortunately, the history of this mission is only imperfectly known. The Jesuit Relations as a series were discontinued in 1672, and from that time we can only piece together such bits of (page 25) information concerning the mission as lie scattered about among contemporary writings. For its later history, we are fortunate in being able to draw upon the extant baptismal register.
The origin of the St. Joseph Mission must be sought in the return of the Miami and Potawatomi to southwestern Michigan. The first of these tribes in its flight from the Iroquois had apparently gone as far west as Iowa. Later the Miami removed to the upper Fox River in Wisconsin.1 Here they were visited by Allouez, to whose preaching they listened with eager interest.2 By 1679, a number of them had already been for some time in the vicinity of the upper St. Joseph River, for La Salle encountered them there while searching for the portage to the Kankakee on his first journey to the Mississippi.3
The Potawatomi, we are told in the Relation of 1671, "had been driven by fear of the Iroquois from the lands which lay between the lake of the Hurons and that of the Illinois [Lake Michigan]." They had settled first on some islands at the entrance to Green Bay, and later on the Wisconsin mainland, where Allouez came in contact with them as early as 1667. About the year 1680, they began moving southward around the end of Lake Michigan and into the valley of the St. Joseph River.4
There is no reason for doubting that there had been converts among these two tribes during their stay in Wisconsin, and that the missionaries kept in touch with them after their migration. But the identity of the first missionary to visit them in Michigan is as much a matter for conjecture as the time from which we can date a permanent establishment. That a resident mission was contemplated as early as 1686 is disclosed by the following land grant on the St. Joseph River made to the Jesuits by the government in Quebec, and confirmed by the French King.
The concession made to Father Dablon, and the other missionaries of the Society of Jesus established in the said region on October 1, 1686, by the Sieur Marquis de Denonville and of Champigny, of a (page 26) stretch of land of twenty arpents fronting on the River St. Joseph, heretofore called of the Miamis, which falls into the south of the lake of the Illinois and of the Outagamis, by twenty arpents in depth at a place they shall find the most suitable for the erection of a chapel and residence, and for the planting of grain and vegetables, to be held by Father Dablon and other missionaries above mentioned, their successors and assigns in perpetuity as their own property as is stated in the said concession.
|
Versailles, May 24, 1689.5 |
Today the St. Joseph River winds through the fertile farms and orchards of Berrien County. The natural advantages which the early American settlers were quick to perceive had been no less apparent to the Indians, and to the missionaries. Some unknown French scout reporting to the officials in Quebec, in 1718, was enthusiastic in his praise of the lands watered by the river.
'Tis a spot the best adapted of any to be seen for purposes of living and as regards the soil. There are pheasants as in France; quail, and perroquets; the finest vines in the world, which produce a vast quantity of very excellent grapes, both white and black, the berry very large and juicy, and the bunch very long. It is the richest district in all that country.6
Somewhere in this earthly paradise the missionaries selected a spot for their house and chapel. We have no reason for believing that the location was other than the one visited by Charlevoix in 1721. According to his reckoning, it was twenty leagues, about sixty miles, from the mouth of the St. Joseph to the mission. This must be understood as the actual distance traveled by his canoe in following the tortuous course of the river. Upon leaving the mission, he gives the distance to the portage by which the Kankakee may be reached as six leagues, about eighteen miles. The portage, first used by La Salle, began about two and three-quarters miles northwest of the center of South Bend.7
From these data we must conclude that the mission was situated on the river anywhere from one to three miles south of the present city of Niles, Michigan. Even though the locality has (page 27) been carefully gone over, the site of the mission has not yet been accurately determined. From Charlevoix's account, we gather that the Miami had a village on one side of the river, and the Potawatomi one on the other, and that the chapel and residence of the missionary were in the Potawatomi village. At the time of his visit in 1721, Fort St. Joseph had been in existence for many years, and this too, he tells us, was on the Potawatomi side.8 In Bellin's map of 1744, which accompanies the first edition of Charlevoix's works, the fort is located on the southern bank of the river.9
When did the Jesuits begin their establishment on the St. Joseph? Who was the first priest to labor in this new field? It is impossible to give a satisfactory answer to these questions in the present state of our knowledge. Much has been written upon the matter so fanciful and unreliable as to be useless. It is commonly stated that Father Allouez was the founder of the St. Joseph Mission, but the statement rests more upon inference than upon evidence.
Father Claude Allouez left Three Rivers in 1665 to begin his missionary career in the West. Four years were spent along the southern shore of Lake Superior, and his first visit to Green Bay occurred in December, 1669. Meanwhile, Dablon and Marquette had come into the field; and the next year saw the beginnings of the establishment at St. Ignace. Father Allouez was now definitely assigned to the Indians of Wisconsin, where he remained for six years with headquarters at another mission which he founded in the neighborhood of Lake Winnebago. In 1676, he was ordered to the promising field which had been opened by Marquette's journey to the Mississippi, but which had been left vacant since his death. He spent a few months with the Kaskaskia and Illinois Indians, and then returned to Wisconsin. A second visit to the Illinois country, in 1678, was prolonged until (page 28) 1680, and followed by a return to the northern missions.10 Here we lose sight of Father Allouez until 1683.
In that year, the Jesuit Superior in Quebec, Father Beschefer, forwarded to his provincial in France a report upon the Jesuit missions. The Ottawa mission is thus described. "In The Outaouc missions we include not only the outaouacs or upper Algonquins. . . We also include the hurons who reside at st. Ignace. . . the Pouteouatamis along the bay des Puants . . . the Makoutens and the ouiamis; the Kischigamins, along Lake Ilionis; and The Ilinois themselves, as we more nearly approach the south. We have houses with chapels at sault de ste Marie, at st. Ignace, at st. francois de Borgia, and at st. francois Xavier. . . The missionaries frequently go on journeys among the surrounding nations. . ."11 Speaking of Father Allouez the report continues: ". . . his special mission is among the Miami and the Illinois where he labors with as much ardor as if he were in the prime of life." He follows the Indians into the woods on their hunting trips, is deterred by no hardships, and has succeeded in erecting a chapel. But Father Allouez is soon to be withdrawn for, "we shall be obliged to discontinue that mission because the Iroquois have gone to continue the war with more ardor. . ."
The report, dated October 21, was written with evident knowledge of what was taking place in the West. La Salle and his faithful lieutenant, Tonty, hearing rumors of an Iroquois invasion, had begun in December, 1682, the building of Fort St. Louis near the present town of Utica, Illinois.12 The fort was completed in March of the following year, and Tonty was left in command while La Salle returned to France. A year later the Iroquois advanced as Father Beschefer had predicted, besieged the fort for six days, and then withdrew. From Tonty's memoir we gather that Father Allouez had meanwhile been recalled to Mackinac.
. . . The winter passed, and on March 20, 1684, being informed that the Iroquois were about to attack us, we prepared to receive them and dispatched a canoe to M. de la Durantaye, Governor of Missilimakinak for assistance in case the enemy should hold out against us a long time. . . M. de la Durantaye, with Father Daloy, a Jesuit, arrived at the fort with about sixty Frenchmen whom they brought to our assistance, and to inform me of the orders of M. de la Barre to leave the place. . .13
The next mention of Father Allouez comes three years later. After the death of La Salle, a remnant of his followers succeeded in finding the Mississippi and returned to Quebec. From March 19, 1687, the date of the assassination, the little party slowly struggled northward, and it was not until September that they reached Fort St. Louis. Joutel, who wrote the journal of their wanderings, thus describes their entry.
. . . On Sunday, the 14th, having resumed our journey. . . about two in the afternoon we arrived at Fort St. Louis where we greatly surprised those who were there, since they were not expecting us. . . After the usual greetings, we went up to the fort, where we found the Frenchmen under arms, and they fired several volleys on our arrival to show their delight. As soon as we entered the fort M. Cavelier asked the location of the chapel in order to render thanks to God for having so happily conducted us. . .14
At the fort, and seemingly acting as chaplain, Father Allouez lay ill. Joutel describes him as being fearful of La Salle's return because of some intrigue which Allouez had set on foot against him. This passage has been used to confirm the story of Jesuit opposition to La Salle. Joutel was strongly partisan, and the accusation is sufficiently refuted by the fact that Tonty, commanding at Fort St. Louis, was no less devoted to Father Allouez than to his chief.
The survivors, always pretending that La Salle was still alive and would come on later, prepared to resume their journey towards Quebec at the end of February, 1688. Joutel writes:
I have before recounted that the Jesuit Father had been alarmed by our telling him that M. de La Salle might arrive at the fort according to what he had said when he left us. The Father was afraid of meeting him there, perhaps because something had occurred between the gentlemen, as I think I have stated, which was injurious to the Sieur de La Salle. . . In fine, the good Father fearing to be found there, preferred to take precautions by starting first. . .It troubled us to see that these gentlemen were to be left without a priest; but we had decided to keep our secret, and so there was no help for it. Although M. Cavelier told the priest that he could remain, he left seven or eight days ahead of us. . .15
Here we have Father Allouez returning to Mackinac in the spring of 1688. Of his subsequent movements we know practically nothing. Shea thinks it likely that he was at Fort St. Louis in 1689.16 What we do know is the date of the missionary's death, found in a letter of Father Claude Dablon to his superior, and dated, Quebec, August 29, 1690. It is an admirable summary of the great missionary's activities. He had carried the Faith to more than eight nations. He had instructed more than one hundred thousand Indians, and had baptized more than ten thousand. He was in truth a second Francis Xavier. The letter goes on to describe his last moments.
One of our servants who was with him testified that the stricken Father, having made frequent acts of contrition, tried to make a spiritual communion as his viaticum; that he next addressed himself to St. James to obtain through this Apostle the salutary effects of Extreme Unction; that finally having thrice pronounced the holy names of Jesus and Mary to obtain the indulgence of the Society he quietly expired the night of the 27 to the 28 of August, 1689. It is the seventy-sixth year of his age, the forty-seventh of his entry into religion, and the beginning of his thirty-ninth since his arrival in Canada.17
Unfortunately, the letter says nothing concerning the place of Father Allouez' death; it simply states that he died on the Ottawa mission. As we have seen, this term included practically all missionary activity in the western country; only later was the Illinois mission spoken of as a separate field. There is yet to be (page 31) found a contemporary statement to the effect that Father Allouez died on the banks of the St. Joseph River.
Another vague reference to the missionary's death is found in a letter of Father Gabriel Marest to Father Germon, dated November 9, 1712. Speaking of the beginning of the Illinois mission, he says: "It was Father Dalos who took it upon himself; he knew the language of the Oumiamis which somewhat resembles that of the Illinois; however he made a very short stay there because of the opinion that he would accomplish greater results in another district where indeed he ended his apostolic life."18 One could read into this passage the supposition that Father Allouez died in his Wisconsin missions, for he had greater opportunities there than with the relatively insignificant number of Indians living along the St. Joseph at the time.
Supplementing these unsatisfactory contemporary references to Father Allouez is the positive statement of Father Charlevoix that the great missionary died on the St. Joseph River.19 There is no denying the weight of his assertion. Upon the occasion of his visit to the mission in 1721, he must have become thoroughly acquainted with its history. Moreover, when writing the record of his travels, it is safe to assume that he had access to documents and sources which are now lost. It is true that there are blunders in his History and General Description of New France, published more than twenty years after his return to France; but it seems improbable that he was mistaken in locating the death of a member of his own society whose greatness was apparent even to his contemporaries.
There is another bit of evidence in this matter which must not be ignored. The Indian had a tenacious memory. The first white settlers in the vicinity of Niles mention a large wooden cross standing on a bluff near the river. They were told by the Indians that it marked the resting-place of a missionary, and that it had been replaced as often as it had fallen from age and decay.20 We have enough details about every Jesuit missionary (page 32) in the western country, with the exception of Allouez, to eliminate the possibility of any one of them dying in this locality. This holds true for all the missionaries down to the time when they were forced to withdraw. There is, hence, a strong presumption that if the cross guarded a missionary's grave, it was the grave of Father Allouez.21
Beginning with the year 1690, we are on more solid ground. According to Ferland, Father Claude Aveneau was sent in that year to labor in the St. Joseph Mission.22 He gives no authority for his statement, but he doubtless relies upon a letter of Vaudreuil to the home government, dated November 15, 1708. The Governor was annoyed by Cadillac's constant diatribes against the Jesuits, and by his high-handed attempts to remove the Jesuit missionary from the St. Joseph Mission. He complains to the Minister that "the Sieur de Lamothe, on his own authority and without any reason, had taken away from the Jesuits their mission among the Miamis; he has ordered the retirement of a missionary [Father Aveneau], who has been with these Indians for eighteen years, and who knows their language and customs, in order to replace him with a Recollect who knows neither. The Sieurs Vaudreuil and Raudot are convinced that if this Jesuit missionary had remained with the Miamis that nation would never have attempted what it did this year against the French."23
This letter would justify placing the coming of Father Aveneau in 1690. Still, the matter of his term of service is complicated by the obituary notice found in a letter of Father Germain, dated November 5, 1711.
Two fathers also died in this college. [Quebec] . . . One was Father (page 33) Claude Aveneau who labored for more than 25 years in instructing the miamis. . . This year he was attacked by a complication of several diseases, which did not permit him to continue his apostolic labors; and our fathers among the Outaouats thought it advisable to send him down to Quebec in a canoe, hoping that he would find there more remedies to restore his health, for his mission was at the river St. Joseph, 300 leagues from here. . .24
We know that Father Aveneau was sent to the West in 1685, and according to Father Germain's letter his service among the Miami must have begun in 1686. However, it is not difficult to harmonize this account with Vaudreuil's statement if we remember that not all the Miami were on the St. Joseph, but only one or two bands. There were many more in the Illinois country, and on the Maumee and Wabash rivers.25
As for the mission itself, there is nothing to indicate its location prior to 1693. In that year, Frontenac sent Courtemanche to build a military post on the St. Joseph to prevent the Iroquois from corrupting the loyalty of the Miami, and the English from trading with them.26 Whether Courtemanche selected his own site for the fort, or whether he located it where the missionary was already settled, cannot be determined. In all likelihood the spot visited by Charlevoix in 1721 had been, since 1693, the actual site of the mission.
Father Aveneau pursued his apostolic work alone until a helper was sent him
in the person of Father Jean Mermet.27 He arrived
in Canada in 1698, and seems to have been sent directly to the Ottawa Mission.
We can only conjecture the date of his coming to the St. Joseph Mission, but it
was probably some time in 1699. Along with Father Aveneau, he became a target
for
____________________________
1 Louis Phelps Kellogg, The French Rgime in Wisconsin and the Northwest (Madison, 1925), 99.
2 Relation of 1671.
3 Pierre Margry, Dcouvertes et tablissements des Franais (Paris, 1876), I, 463, hereafter cited as Dcouvertes.
4 Kellogg, op. cit., 271.
5 Margry, Dcouvertes, V, 35.
6 E. B. O'Callaghan (ed.), Documents Relative to the Colonial History of the State of New York(Albany, 1855), IX, 890.
7 For a description of the portage, see George A. Baker, The St. Joseph-Kankakee Portage (South Bend, 1899).
8 For details regarding Fort St. Joseph, see Michigan Pioneer Collections, XXVIII, 179 ff.; XXXV, 545 ff.; XXXIX, 280 ff. The site of the fort is marked by a huge granite boulder, unveiled July 4, 1913. It may be well to remind the reader that this fort must not be confused with the one built by La Salle at the mouth of the river. This was called the Fort of the Miami, and was destroyed a few months after its erection.
9 Charlevoix's writings relating to New France were first published in Paris in 1744.
10 See sketch of Allouez in John G. Shea, Discovery and Exploration of the Mississippi Valley (New York, 1853), 67.
11 Reuben Gold Thwaites (ed.), Jesuit Relations and Allied Documents (Cleveland, 1896-1901), LXII, 193. The St. Francis Borgin Mission was situated a short distance from the Huron Mission at St. Ignace.
12 See Francis Parkman, La Salle and the Discovery of the Great West (Boston, 1880), Appendix to chap. xvi.
13 The Memoire or Relation is in Margry, Relations et Memoires Indits (Paris, 1867), 1-36.
14 Journal of Henri Joutel in Margry, III, Dcouvertes, 91-535. For this passage see pp. 477-79. The M. Cavelier referred to was the Sulpician brother of La Salle. The other priest in the party was Father Anastasius Douay, a Recollect who left France with La Salle on his ill-fated expedition.
15 Ibid., 499-500.
16 Shea, op. cit., 70. "I am inclined to believe from a deed which fell into my hands that he [Allouez] was at Fort St. Louis in 1689."
17 Margry, Dcouvertes, I, 63.
18 Lettres Edifiantes (Toulouse, 1810), VI, 269-70.
19 Shea (ed.), P. F. X. de Charlevoix, History and General Description of New France (New York, 1871), V, 132. Cf. also 202 where, speaking of Father Aveneau, the writer states that this missionary's influence over the Indians was as great as that of his predecessor, Allouez.
20 Mich. Pio. Colls., XXXV, 546; XXXIX, 289.
21 Just a short distance south of Niles, on the Low Road, an imposing granite cross has been erected to replace the last wooden one. It bears the following inscription: "To the memory of Father Claude Jean Allouez, S. J., whose intrepid courage won the admiration of the Indians, and whose apostolic zeal earned for him the title of the Francis Xavier of the American missions. Father Allouez was born at St. Didier, France, in 1622, and died near this spot August 27, 1689.
Erected by the Women's Progressive League of Niles, Mich., 1918."
22 J. B. A. Ferland, Cours d'Histoire du Canada(Quebec, 1865), II, 336.
23 Camille de Rochemonteix, J. S., Les Jesuites de la Nouvelle-France au XVII Sicle (Paris, 1895-96), III, 526. While Cadillac may have desired to have a Recollect at the mission, there is no evidence that one was ever there.
24 Thwaites, Relations, LXVI, 213-15. The letter goes on to state that Father Aveneau died on the seventh day in the octave of the Nativity of the B. V. M., that is, on Sept. 14, 1711.
25 For further details concerning Father Aveneau, see Rochemonteix, op. cit., III, 479, 513, 526; and his Les Jesuites. . . au XVII Sicle (Paris, 1906), I, 67-70. This indispensable history of they Jesuits in North America devotes three volumes to the Jesuits of the 17th century, and two volumes to the Jesuits of the 18th century down to the suppression of the Society. To simplify matters, the volumes will be cited in this article as a continuous series.
26 Emma Helen Blair, Indian Tribes of the Upper Mississippi Valley and Region of the Great Lakes (Cleveland, 1911), II, 16.
27 Rochemonteix, op. cit., III, 513, 548; Thwaites, Relations, LXVI, 339.
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