Lucian Galtier's Recollections of his mission to Minnesota

Your favor of the 4th inst., I received this week. To comply with your wishes, I will try to give you in a few lines an imperfect sketch of my short stay in what was then mostly Indian ground and now is the most conspicuous and most promising part of your flourishing Diocese. On the 26th day of April 1840, in the afternoon, a St Louis steamboat the first of the season arrived at Dubuque bound for St Peter, Mendota, and Ft Snelling. Rt. Rev. Dr. Loras immediately came to me and told me he desired to send me towards the upper waters of the Mississippi. There was no St. Paul at the time; there was on the site of the present city but a single log house occupied by a man named Phelan, and steamboats never stopped there.

The boat landed at the foot of Fort Snelling, then garrisoned by a few companies of regular soldiers under command of Major Plympton. The sight of the Fort, commanding from the elevated promontory the two rivers the Mississippi and the St Peter (Minnesota), pleased me, but the discovery which I soon made that there were only a few houses on the St Peter side and but two on the side of the Fort, surrounded by a complete wilderness and without any signs of fields under tillage, gave me to understand that my mission and life must henceforth be a career of privation, hard trials, and suffering, and required of me patience, labor, and resignation. I had before me a large territory under my charge, but few souls to watch over.

I introduced myself to Mr. Campbell, a Scotch gentleman, the Indian Interpreter to whom I was recommended by the bishop. At his house I received a kind welcome from his good wife, a charitable catholic woman. For about a month I remained there as one of the family. But although well treated by all the members of the house, I did not while thus living feel sufficiently free to discharge my pastoral duties, so 1 obtained a separate room for my own use and made of it a kitchen, a parlor, and a chapel. Out of some boards I formed a little altar which was opened out in time of service and during the balance of the day folded up and concealed by drapery. In that precarious and somewhat difficult condition I continued for over a year.

On the Fort Snelling side I had under my care besides some soldiers, six families: Resche, Papin, Quinn, Campbell, Bruce, and Resicko; and on the St Peter side, besides some unmarried men in the employ of the company, five families: Faribault, Martin, Lord and two Turpins. No event worth noticing occurred except some threatening alarms given by the Chippewas to the Dakotas. During that year too, in the month of August, I returned sick from a visit I had made to a few families settled in the vicinity of Lake St Croix. Prostrated by bilious fever and ague at the military hospital for nearly two months, I could not have recovered were it not for the skill of Dr Turner and the continued and kind attentions of his good lady. My grateful heart will never forget the relief I experienced at their hands. Both the officers and soldiers also showed me great respect and affection and twice some time after, although they had their chaplain, I had occasion to preach and offer the Holy Sacrifice in the Fort. What most grieved me while sick was the thought that no fellow priest was nearer than three hundred miles to me, but most unexpectedly God in his mercy sent me one whose visit seemed to me as that of an angel. Rt Rev Dr de Forbin Janson, ex-Bishop of Nancy France was then visiting the Northwest. He arrived at the Fort and hearing that I was sick alighted immediately from the boat, received my confession, and spoke to me words of consolation and comfort. This was in August 1840.

A circumstance rather sad in itself commenced to better my situation by procuring for me a new station and a variety in my scenes of labor. Some families, most of whom had left the Red River settlement British America, on account of the flood and the loss of their crops in the years 1837 and 1838, had located themselves all along the right bank of the Mississippi opposite the Fort. Unfortunately some soldiers now and then crossed the river to the houses of these settlers and returned intoxicated, sometimes remaining out a day or two or more without reporting to their quarters. Consequently a deputy marshal from Prairie du Chien was charged to remove the houses. He went to work assisted by soldiers and unroofed one after another of the cottages extending about five miles along the river. The settlers were forced to look for new homes. They located themselves about two miles below the cave. Already a few parties had opened farms in this vicinity, added to these the new accessions formed quite a little settlement. Among the occupants of this ground were Rondeau who had purchased the only cultivated claim in the place - that of Phelan, Vital, Guerin, Pierre Bottineau, Gervais and his brother, etc. etc - I deemed it my duty to visit occasionally those families and set to work to choose a suitable spot for a church.

Three points were offered. The first was La Pointe Basse or Pointe Leclair (now on account of a sand bar in its vicinity commonly known as Pig's Eye bar) I objected to this place it was the extreme end of the settlement and being low ground was exposed in high water to inundation. The idea of having the church one day swept down to St Louis did not please me. Two and a half miles further up on his claim a Catholic named Charles Mousseau offered to me an acre of his ground, but neither did this place suit my purpose. I was indeed looking ahead to the future as well as to the present time. Steamboats could not stop here; the bank was too steep and the space on the summit too narrow; communication would be difficult with the places of the other settlers up and down the river. After mature reflection I resolved to put up the church as near as possible to the Cave, it being more convenient on my way from St Peter to cross the river at that point, and that being the nearest spot to the head of navigation outside the reservation line. Messrs B. Gervais and Vital Guerin, two good quiet farmers, owned the only ground that appeared likely to suit. They both consented to give sufficient land for a church, a garden, and a small grave yard. I accepted the extreme eastern part of Mr. Vital's claim and the extreme west of Mr.Gervais'.

In the month of October 1841, I had, on the above stated, place logs cut and prepared and soon a poor log church that would remind one of the stable of Bethlehem was built. The nucleus of St. Paul was formed On Nov 1st, 1841. I blessed the new Basilica smaller indeed than the Basilica of St. Paul in Rome, but as well adapted as the latter for prayer and love to arise therein from pious hearts. The church was thus dedicated to St. Paul and I expressed a wish that the settlement should be known by no other name. I succeeded. I had previously to this time fixed my residence at St Peter and as the name of Paul is generally connected with that of Peter and the Gentiles being well represented in the new place in the persons of the Indians, I called it St. Paul . Thenceforth we could consider St. Paul our protector and as a model of apostolic life could I have desired a better patron. With the great apostle I could repeat, "When I am weak then I am powerful," a good motto I am sure even for an apostolic bishop.

The name St. Paul applied to a town or city seemed appropriate. The monosyllable is short, sounds well, and is understood by all denominations of Christians. When Mr. Vital Guerin was married. I published the banns as being those of a resident of St. Paul . A Mr. Jackson put up a store, and a grocery was opened at the foot of the Gervais claim. This soon brought steamboats to land there. Thenceforth the place was known as St. Paul
Landing and later on as St. Paul . When some time ago an effort was made to change the name, I did all I could to oppose the project by writing from Prairie du Chien.

The families which I have mentioned as being on the Fort side at the time of my arrival there had afterwards to leave; only two remained. I could not do much good by continuing to reside there; The St Peter Trading Post was the only ground left me. I removed thither, determined to remain steadfast as a rock. Mr. Faribault, the oldest pioneer of the place, a true gentleman, offered me a small house which I accepted; it was repaired and I made of it my chapel contented to reside in a small corner of it until more favorable circumstances. I visited St. Paul regularly and occasionally, St Croix Settlement (then called Willow River and now if I am not mistaken Hudson). In 1842, June 5th, Bishop Loras gave confirmation to a few persons. During a short absence of mine Father Ravoux, being at St Peter, an accident threatened his life One night while soundly sleeping in my little room he was suddenly aroused by a tremendous cracking of the main beam that supported the whole roof. Fortunately he was not hurt; calling for help, he removed everything to the house of Mr. Faribault. Once more we had to make a mere room a temporary place for the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass. Hearing of the accident I left St. Paul , went to St Peter, and at once took means to go to Chippewa Falls in order to get the lumber needed for a new building. On my return I put men to work and on the 2d day of Oct 1842 I blessed the first church of St Peter. From that time up to the day of my removal, nothing deserving of notice happened save the passage of the venerable Bishop of St Boniface, Mgr Provencher, who for the first time, but not without much danger, went via St. Paul and the US to Canada, a new route hitherto unknown. On the 29th of Oct the little bell of St Peter's chapel was blessed. On the 25th of May 1844 I was leaving to better hands the yet barren field of my first mission, not without feeling deep regret - not without leaving friends behind me.

From the "Collections of the Minnesota Historical Society, Volume III (1870-1880)

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