The Irish standard., 1891-04-11
A SENATOR ON HIS STATE.
Hon. William F. Villas Writes An
Article on the State of
Wisconsin.
GREAT CREDIT GIVEN CATHOLICS

lnEhi OnCUll OiyEN VA FTULIOu
Among the Explorers and Missionaries BE
Mentions Nlcollet, Brebeuf Marquette
and Others
One of the most notable characters
tics of the admirable article which Hon.
William F. Villas has written for the
current Harper's Magazine ON the state
whose Legislature RECENTLY elected him
to the United States Senate, is the gem
erous and far tribute it pays to those
Catholic explorers and missionaries
who were the first to establish settle
ments within the limits Of the territory
now comprised in the state Of Wjscon-
sin. After describing how the great
Northwest territory came into possess
sion Of the United States in conse-
Que1lce of the cessiOns made by the
treaty of Paris. and good d~naturedly
complaining that, in the subsequent
division of th1s territory into states,
Wisconsin, the youngest Of northwest
ern commemorative then formed, was
granted rather scanty portion, Mr..
Villas, accepting the results of the best
students into the annals and antiquities
of the state, gives to Jean Nicollet, the
French Canadian Catholic hunter, the
credit of having been the first white ad-
venturer to penetrate Wisconsin,; he
mentions the Jesuit Father Brebeuf as
accompanying him part Of the way. and
he attributes to two other Jesuits,
Peres AlIouez and Dablon, the honor of
erecting in Wisconsin the first house
built by the hands of white men, while
that later great Indian missionary IN
wisconsin, Father Baraga, who subse
quently became the first bishop of the
see of Sault- Sainte- Marie.
Jean Nicollet, as MIR, Villas spells the
name of this French explorer, was one
of those ardent souls who Followed
Champlain to Canada, where he at once
became hunter and adventurer. prose
cutting his calling among the Hurons
who dWelt on the shores of Lake Nip
issing, From these aborigines he heard
of another tribe that dwelt On the mar
gins of "a big sea,'' as the Indians de-
scribed the great lakes. and laboring
under the mistaken notion that India
lay some where to the westward. Nicol-'
let. after leaving Pere 3rebeuf at his
destination, pushed his canoe westward
until be reached Green Bay and was
there welcomed by the Winnebagoes.
A year later found him back at Quebec,
the place whence he started; but Cham.
plain was then diving and che adventur-
GUS Nicollet could find none to accom-
pany him back to Wisconsin and pos.
sess themselves of the desirable local
tiles he described. His name has been
perpetuated in G anada by being linked
to an episcopal CITY in the province of
Quebec, and impartial history accords
him the honor of having been the first
white man TO penetrate the great North
west.
According to Mr., Villas, it was not
until twenty years later that Nicollet
had any followers as far westward as
Wisconsin, and then his imitators were
two traders in quest Of furs, Yet other
historians tell us that in 1910 the Jesu.
it's, John Brebeut and Joseph Chau-
monor, coasted along the northern shore
of the state Of Ohio and the eastern
boundary of Michigan, as far as the
straits of Mackinac, that is to say nine
teen years before the two hunters Sena-
tor Villas puts next in order to Nicollet
went westward that far. In fact, five
years before Pere All0uez, to whom
Senator Villas gives, and rightly. too,
the credit of having erected the first
house built by white men in Wisconsin.
another Jesuit. Father Rene Menard.
Of whom he makes no mention, as he
also neglects Pere Chaumonot, is credit
ed with having penetrated to the south
erlv shore Of Lake Superior, and is said
to have established mission on the
Bay of CheQuamegon where Pere Al
louez, In 1865. founded the mission of
the Holy Ghost. AS Father Menard re.
NAMED but q brief time at this place.
returning eastward to the Hurons. the
credit of establishing the first enduring
mission in Wisconsin is not improperly
perhaps, given to Pere AllOuez. Certain
it is that the latter missionary estab
lished the mission of the Holy Ghost at
the western extremity Of Lake Superior,
and there taught his Indian flock, COM
posed Of ChippeWas, Hurons, Sacs, Fox
and Dacotahs. Mr.. Vilas says that the
house which he built there, and which
was the first white dwelling erected in
Wisconsin, was sided and matched with
bark, and he asserts that the mission he
founded at Lake Chez WAS
abandoned sir years later. and not re-