The Catholic bulletin. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1911-1995, 1915-05-15

1ctI1lUEyt sAuuISn Va Inc <ASSuAhPSAOA'
This settlement is composed of 500
half breeds from Red River. Rev.
Geo. Ant. Bellecour and Rev. Albert
Lacombe. These two clergymen at
tend several Indian missions in those
remote northern regions"
Second Parish at Mendoza.
The next settlements were those
around the military post of Fort
Smelling formed of colonists from the
Red River valley at st. BOniface or
Pembina. Matters did not prosper
with those early pioneers on the
banks of the Red River. Floods, early
frosts, grasshoppers and other similar
calamities destroyed their crops and
thus forced them to seek other more
advantageous locations. Beginning
with the year 1927 several parties,
composed chiefly of Swiss and
French Canadians, came down further
south, and settled on land situated
near the confluence of the Mississippi
and the st. Peter or Minnesota Rivers.
Some of them put up quarters on the
military reservation of Fort Smelling,
some on the right bank of the Mime
sofa River, near what is now Men
dota, and some others along the east
ern side of the Mississippi. In the
spring of the year 1887 Major Plymp-
ton, then the commanding officer at
the Fort, expelled all the settlers from
the reservation, on the ground that
the Government property was intend
ed only for military purposes, and
that some of the settlers demOralized
the soldiers and the Indians gather
ing at the Fort, by the sale of liquor
to them. Most of the colonists thus
expelled, crossed the Mississippi
River and settled along it's eastern
bank. With those that preceded them
in the same locality, and with those
that followed soon after, they became
| the earliest inhabitants of what was
to become the city of st. Paul. Be-
sides these three settlements OF Penn
bina, Mendoza and ST. Paul, others,
smaller ones, were formed around the
Falls of st. Anthony, (known after
wards as Minneapolis), in Little Can
ada. Long Prairie, Point Douglas and
Wabasha.
Pioneer Catholic Laymen.
May l here be permitted to
| insert the names of a few of those
early Catholic pioneers, who took up
quarters on the ground, or in the
neighborhood of what was to become
in later years the metropolis of Min
i, nesota. Their memory deserves to
be perpetuated, and they are entitled
to mention in this paper, because
they form so to speak, the link be-
tween the voyageurs of old, and the
present day generations. Jean Bap
tiste Faribault lived on Pike Island
in the Mississippi River, and in Men
dota for a number of years. beginning
with the year 1919, and died at fari
bault in 1860; Abraham Perret, q
Swiss colonist of the Red River came
to Fort Smelling in 1927 and after
wards moved to the site of the pres
ent city of st. Paul; Antoine PepiI
was another refugee at Fort Smelling
who with Ferret and others was
driven out in 1897; Vital Guerin was
Ianother refugee at the Fort, and after
wards a citizen of st. Paul, who do
mated part of the ground, on which
the first chapel of st. Paul was built
BENJAMIN and Pierre Gervais were
both refugees at Fort Smelling, the
first of whom gave the other half O
the ground for st. Pauls chapel
Joseph Turpin, at first refugee a
the Fort, afterwards lived at Men
dota; Joseph and his son, Isaac La
bissonnierre, came from Pembina tt
the site of st. Paul in 1887, and helped
afterwards in building the log chape
of st. Paul; Pierre Bottineau wal
born in Lord Selkirk's colony, AM
came to Minnesota in 1887; William
H. Forbes came to Minnesota in 1873
and was employed by the American
Fur Company; August Larpenteu
came to st. Paul in 1S49 and is still
: with us; Louis Robert was born il
Missouri and came to st. Paul in 1874
Charles Bazille came to st. Paul il
1874, and donated the block of Ian,
occupied by the first State Capitol
Organization of the Church.
With the erection of the Diocese O
Dubuque in 1897 the scattered CathC
lies in what was to become Minnesot
came under the jurisdiction of tn
Bishop of Dubuque; and thus begin
} ming was made of an ecclesiastical
5 organization. During the summer o
r the year 1889 the Right Reveren
/, Matthias Lovas, the first Bishop Q
: Dubuque, accompanied by Father Ar
, thony Pelamourgues, made a vista
2 ton among the members of his foe
: at Fort Smelling and Mendoza; an
: the year after, in 1910, he sent t
f them a resident priest in the perso
3 of Father Lucien Galtier Father Ga
2 tier labored among the early CathC
l lie pioneers with great zeal and SUI
l Ecess; in 1841 he erected a log chape
t the first chapel in what was to BIZ
] come st. Paul, and the following yea
in 1912. he built one in st. Peter, o
= Mendoza. In 1914 he left these nortf
5 ern missions and went down tn
4 River again to take charge of COZ
: gregation located at Keokuk, lows
He was succeeded in st. Paul an
i Mendoza by Father Augustine Ravou1
!, who at the time when st. Paul wa
!, made a Diocese, July 18th, 1850, wa
! fho only nrinct in tho new Jurisdiction