977.239 ShlSo ttC ©If ^incomes Cathedral AND s V IKO I miHIBS HISTORICAL SilKVEY IU1K0B BSTBRICAl SURVEY Digitized by the Internet Archive in 2012 with funding from University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign http://archive.org/details/oldvincennescathOOshak V\ %hz ©Id HBincennes Cathedral and 3ts ^ntiirons \ Pi The Old Vincennes Cathedral and Library THE OLD ^incomes Cathedral AND ITS ENVIRONS I v " i v PUBLISHED BY THE OLD CATHEDRAL ASSOCIATION ! 934 TH. /f/STont* Foreword This pamphlet was originally de- signed to outline a program of res- toration undertaken by the Old Cathedral Association of Vincennes, Indiana. In order that the reader might have a better comprehension of the importance and significance of the movement certain historical data was included. X his material was prepared for the Association by Mr. Curtis G. Shake of Vincennes. THE OLD VINCENNES CATHEDRAL n the shadow of the imposing granite memorial erected by the national govern- ment at Vincennes to commemorate the winning of the West in the War of the Rev- olution stands the Old Cathedral, one of the most interesting historic landmarks in the entire Mis- sissippi valley. The land that it occupies was granted to the Catholic Church by the King of France, who obtained it through his missionaries from savage Indian tribes. The present building, old as it appears to be, is the second to occupy the site. The original chapel, erected about the time Vincennes was founded, was a simple struc- ture of logs, set in the ground perpendicularly, the inter- stices filled with adobe. A single door afforded the only en- trance to the building, which was devoid of other openings, save a hole in the roof to allow the smoke from the log fire to escape. There were no windows, the only light ob- tainable issuing from tallow candles used on the crude altar and which cast faint shadows on the earthen floor and across the puncheon benches provided for the worshipers. Within the walls of this rude house of worship, Father Gibault, the Patriot Priest of the Old Northwest, admin- IO THE OLD VINCENNES CATHEDRAL The George Rogers Clark Memorial, on the Site of Ft. Sackville, Captured from the British, February 25, J/79 istered the oath of allegiance to the cause of American liberty to the French inhabitants of Vincennes, and before its door General Henry Hamilton surrendered his British red-coats to Col. George Rogers Clark, on February 25, 1779. This was the same Father Gibault who served as an emissary for Col. Clark preceding the latter's memorable campaign against Vincennes. Yet, in his declining years he begged in vain for the modest grant of four or five acres of land, so that he might enjoy the comfort and security of his own cottage, garden and vineyard. Truly, republics are sometimes most ungrateful! The present church was undertaken in 1824 but more than a decade was required for its completion. At the time THE OLD VINCENNES CATHEDRAL II of its dedication it was generally regarded as the finest building in the state. The erection of such a building was a monumental undertaking for the time and place. Many vicissitudes beset the task. In 1826 a hurricane of dreadful conse- quences, struck Vincennes destroying two walls of the unfinished structure. A resulting fire consumed much val- uable material. But with resolute courage and determina- tion the parish priest fitted out fiatboats, sought donations of corn and other products of the soil and had these trans- ported to the New Orleans market, fifteen hundred miles away. From this source sufficient funds were accumulated to complete the church. As the original log church will ever be associated with the patriotic services of Father Gibault, so the present Cathedral suggests the devotion and scholarly wisdom of Simon Brute de Remur, the first Bishop of Vincennes. When Bishop Brute arrived in Vincennes in 1834 he found the church far from finished. The classic steeple, which is its crowning glory, was his own conception. In 1838 he wrote: ". . . Then the steeple is to be got up — the wood already cut . . . and soon to sail up our proud Wabash, and go to tell the skies, not a lie, as the tall column in London, but the true love of Vincennes for the honor of God." Bishop Brute was a good and a great man. He received the advantages of a fine education before he left his native land. His ancestors were for generations printers to the 12 THE OLD VINCENNES CATHEDRAL Court of France. President John Quincy Adams, himself a great scholar, once wrote that Brute was "the most learned man of his day in America." He was a lover of books and had transported to this frontier outpost a most remarkable library of rare and interesting volumes. These were the nucleus about which was built the Old Cathedral Library, which is housed in a small brick building adjacent to the church. Here one may see beautiful old hand-illuminated parchments, the result of the patient labors of old monks of the middle ages, some of the very earliest examples of the printers' art, together with a great number of other interesting objects pertaining to early Vincennes and the Church. Bishop Brute's consecration to his faith and his fine philosophy of life is well illustrated by the following ex- cerpt from one of his letters to his brother, written near the close of his life: "I have seen the Emperor Napoleon. I have seen the Empress and the Archduke of Austria. I have seen two Popes and the grandeur of two centuries, but what is it all in comparison to the joy experienced by a priest at the altar or a good Christian at the reception of Holy Communion?" Under the altar of the Cathedral is a subterranean chapel where rest the remains of Bishop Brute and three of his successors in office. Adjoining the Cathedral and between it and the Clark Memorial is the old French cemetery. Here lie buried hundreds of the pioneers of the Old Northwest, Indian THE OLD VINCENNES CATHEDRAL 13 T 1 flF" ! t/T v *£ The First Church, Erected about IJJ2 maidens and braves, French adventurers, Spanish traders, British and American soldiers, and hardy backwoodsmen from Kentucky and Virginia, their strange differences of race and creed and caste all obliterated by an intervening century. Among those sleeping here is Father Rivet who, for an annual stipend of two hundred dollars granted by Congress upon the recommendation of George Washington, con- ducted the first public school in the Old Post, open alike to French and Indian children. His grave remains wholly unmarked. Another patriot who sleeps the eternal sleep in this hal- lowed spot is Major Joseph Bowman, second in command in the little army of George Rogers Clark. He received mortal wounds from the explosion of a cannon following the surrender of Ft. Sackville, February 25, 1779, when a battery of Clark's soldiers were firing the continental THE OLD VINCENNES CATHEDRAL View of the Old French Cemetery at Vincennes salute of thirteen guns. The echoes of that memorable sa- lute still reverberate through the pages of American history but the final resting place of the only American officer to make the supreme sacrifice in Clark's campaign is wholly devoid of the simplest headstone or marker. In the tall steeple of the old church still hangs a little bell, brought from France in 1742, that served the first log chapel. It called the inhabitants of Vincennes together THE OLD VINCENNES CATHEDRAL 15 when Father Gibault administered to them the oath of allegiance to the Continental Congress, and it announced to the world the surrender of Fort Sackville, which put an end to the dominion of England over the Mississippi valley and made possible the ultimate extension of our western frontier to the Pacific. It is, indeed, the Liberty Bell of the Old Northwest, second in historical interest and importance only to that other bell tenderly preserved at Philadelphia and known to every school child in America. The Liberty Bell of the Old Northwest," Brought from France in 1742 PIONEER EDUCATIONAL MOVEMENTS Centering About the Old Cathedral |olumes might be written about the educa- tional movements that were inaugurated in old Vincennes. While savage Indians yet lurked about the narrow winding streets of the Old Post there were a few noble souls who fully appreciated the necessity of establishing schools for the education of the youth. Conspicuous among these were three of the clergy connected with the old parish church of St. Francis Xavier, all of them of French birth, namely, Flaget, Rivet and Brute. Father Benedict Joseph Flaget, afterwards the first Bishop of Bardstown, was the first person in Vincennes, if not indeed in the Old Northwest, to dream of a broad and comprehensive scheme of liberal education. Arriving in Vincennes in company with Gen. George Rogers Clark, who came on a governmental mission, December 21, 1792, he found the community in a state of social and spiritual desolation. A vivid word picture of conditions as they existed at Vincennes is painted by Count Volney, a French nobleman, who visited the settlement in 1794. Writing of the Indian population he says: 16 THE OLD VINCENNES CATHEDRAL 17 "The men and women roamed all day about the town, merely to get rum, for which they eagerly exchanged their peltry, their toys, their clothes, and at length, when they had parted with their all, they offered their prayers and entreaties, never ceas- ing to drink till they had lost their senses. Hence arise ridicu- lous scenes. They will take hold the cup with both hands, like monkeys, burst into unmeaning laughter, and gargle their beloved cup, to enjoy the taste of it the longer; and about the liquor with clamorous invitations, bawl aloud at each other, though close together; seize their wives and pour liquor down their throats, and, in short, display all the freaks of vulgar drunkenness. Sometimes tragical scenes ensue; they become mad or stupid, and falling in the dust or mud, lie a senseless log till next day. We found them in the streets by dozens in the morning, wallowing in the filth with the pigs. It was rare for a day to pass without a deadly quarrel, by which about ten men lose their lives yearly . . . They dwell separately, in mistrust, Little Chapel, Used by the Students of the College of Vincennes and St. Clare's Convent THE OLD VINCENNES CATHEDRAL jealousy and eternal animosity. With them, what they want they have a right to, and what they have strength enough to seize is their own." His description of the life and habits of the white set- tlers is almost as uncomplimentary: "They know nothing at all of civil or domestic affairs: their women neither sew, nor spin, nor make butter, but pass their time in gossiping and tattle, while all at home is dirt and dis- order. The men take to nothing but hunting, fishing, roaming in the woods and loitering in the sun. They do not lay up, as we do, for winter, or provide for a rainy day ... If they trade, they try by exorbitant charges to make much out of little; for little is generally their all, and what they get they throw away upon Indian girls, in toys and baubles. Their time is wasted too in trifling stories of their insignificant adventures to town to see their friends. Thus they speak of New Orleans, as if it were a walk of half an hour, though it is fifteen hundred miles down the river." Such were the sordid conditions with which Father Flaget found himself surrounded when he took up his duties as parish priest at Vincennes. The situation with reference to his church was equally as disheartening. The building, already old, was neglected, open to the weather and almost tottering. Out of a membership of nearly seven hundred souls he was able, with all his zealous efforts, to induce a mere dozen to approach holy communion during the Christmas festivities. Father Flaget resolved to adopt the same methods that had been used among the degenerate Portuguese by the patron saint of his parish, St. Francis Xavier; he would seek to reach the hearts of the parents through those of THE OLD VINCENNES CATHEDRAL 19 All that Remains of the College of Vincennes, Founded in 1837 the children. He accordingly opened a school for the latter, in which they were taught, along with the rudiments of learning, the principles of the catechism and the prayers of the Church. He also formed a singing class, and those of the children who had the best voices were exercised in singing French canticles. He encouraged agriculture and domestic manufactures. He had looms made, and pur- chased a house with lands, adjoining, with a view of train- ing up youth to the different trades. His success might have been complete had he not been recalled to Baltimore by his Bishop at the end of two and a half years. He went away consoled by the reflection, however, that his labors had not been in vain. Whereas, only twelve adults could 20 THE OLD VINCENNES CATHEDRAL be found to approach holy communion upon his arrival, at the time of his departure there were probably not more than that number in the entire village who were not pious communicants. His place in the field of education is unique. He was the father of vocational and musical education in the West. Father Flaget had a worthy successor in the person of John Francis Rivet who came in 1796 and remained until his death which occurred in 1804. Inspired by the example of his predecessor, he took up the work and carried it forward with enthusiasm, assuming at the same time the roles of parish priest, village schoolmaster and missionary among the Indians. His good work attracted the favorable notice of the federal government and, on the personal recommendation of George Washington, the Congress of the United States granted him an annual salary of two hundred dollars, to aid him in his educational work. Thus, he became the first public school teacher in the territory. It would be a most fitting tribute if the school children of Indiana would undertake a "penny" fund to erect a suit- able memorial at his unmarked grave. Years rolled by and Flaget, the humble village priest, became a great Bishop. Ever mindful of the needs of his old parish on the Wabash, he resolved to do something for it. In 1 81 8 he dispatched F. Jeanjean, one of his most brilliant young priests to Vincennes with instructions to establish a Catholic college there. The plan failed through a lack of local support, but, during his brief stay, Father THE OLD VINCENNES CATHEDRAL 21 Jeanjean served for about a year as the head of the strug- gling Vincennes University. In 1823 Bishop Flaget sent to Vincennes four Sisters of Charity from Nazareth, Kentucky. They founded a school for young ladies, called St. Clare's Convent and Female Academy, and successfully conducted it until 1834, when they were recalled. The year of their departure was the year of the arrival of Simon Brute de Remur, first Bishop of Vincennes, and with his coming the cause of education took on a renewed impetus. Four years later he procured from Emmitsburg, Maryland, four Sisters of Charity of a different community. When they came it was with the understanding that they would conduct St. Clare's Con- vent only until such time as the Diocese should have a sisterhood of its own. Accordingly, they withdrew in 1843 and on October 23rd of that year, St. Mary-of-the-Woods gave out of her own scant personnel a small colony of Sisters of Providence to take over the school at Vincennes. This marked the end of St. Clare's Convent and the be- ginning of St. Rose Academy. In 1837 Bishop Brute founded the College of Vincennes and, in connection therewith, a theological seminary for the training of young men for the priesthood. These insti- tutions were entrusted into the care of the Eudist Fathers, with the Rev. J. A. Vabret as president. A remnant of one of the buildings they occupied still stands on the Cathedral grounds. In 1839 the College of Vincennes, through the Bishop, purchased the old building north of THE OLD VINCENNES CATHEDRAL town, which was the first home of Vincennes University and the name of the former was changed to St. Gabriel's College. It was closed in 1845 by an order of the Superior- General of the Eudists and the old building became the home of St. Rose Academy. It was replaced by the present structure in 1884. This is but a brief outline of the pioneer educational movements associated with the Old Cathedral at Vin- cennes. The sketch would not be complete, however, with- out mention of the fact that two of the most outstanding Catholic institutions of higher learning in America today had their inception in the Bishop's house at old Vincennes. These are the College of St. Mary-of-the-Woods and the University of Notre Dame. St. Clare's Convent and Female Academy, Founded in 1S23 PIERRE GIBAULT The Patriot Priest of the Old Northwest "For a time he carried buttoned within his cassock the fate of the American republic." Pierre gibault was a French-Can- adian, born in Montreal, April 7, 1737. He was educated in the Semi- nary and College at Quebec and was ordained a priest March 19, 1768. Soon after he set out for the Mississippi valley, then called the ''Illinois Country," as a missionary. His first charge was at Kaskaskia. Prior to the revolution he traveled about from post to post, following the streams and old trails and carrying the gospel to the settlers and savages. He suffered many pri- vations and hardships, having been three times captured by hostile Indians. When George Rogers Clark arrived unexpectedly at Kaskaskia and captured the British Commander without the firing of a shot, on July 4, 1778, Father Gibault was on the scene. Clark soon learned that the good priest was not only well informed about the affairs of the territory but that he also enjoyed the full confidence and esteem of the French settlers throughout the valley. The young 23 24 THE OLD VINCENNES CATHEDRAL colonel immediately resolved, therefore, to win his sup- port and, if possible, his active assistance. Father Gibault was not a person to make so serious a commitment with- out a full understanding of the principles involved. Clark therefore went into great detail with him, not only explain- ing the causes that had led up to the Revolution, but also the lofty provisions of the Declaration of Independence. In the end, Gibault was completely won over and cast his lot without reservation on the side of the colonies. In August (1778) Father Gibault set out for Post Vin- cennes on an important mission, while Clark impatiently marked time at Kaskaskia. After a few weeks the Father returned with the happy news that he had administered the oath of allegiance to the French inhabitants of Vin- cennes and that the American flag was floating over Fort Sackville there. This would have brought to an end Clark's campaign in the west had not Governor Henry Hamilton, the British commander at Detroit heard of Gibault's "treachery." Resolved not to be so easily dispossessed of the rich Mississippi valley, Hamilton organized a detach- ment of Royal Redcoats from the famous King's Own Regiment and moved down to Vincennes. In due time Clark learned that what had been accom- plished single-handed, almost, by Father Gibault, would have to be done over again by force, if Vincennes were reduced. With the good priest's blessing ringing in their ears Clark's little army plunged into the icy waters of the flooded Illinois prairies and struck out boldly for the post on the Wabash, on February 5th, 1779. Twenty days later Fort Sackville surrendered and soon afterwards the proud THE OLD VINCENNES CATHEDRAL 25 British Governor was on his way to Williamsburgh, the capital of Virginia, in chains. All of this was made possible by the fact that the French settlers at Vincennes, upon the advice of their priest, refused to go to the aid of the British garrison. Most of them remained idly in their homes while the battle raged, apparently unconcerned about the result, while a few, more bold than the rest, supplied Clark's little army with dry powder from their own scant supplies, or otherwise aided in the attack on the fort. Historians quite generally agree that Clark's brilliant success was due, in a very large measure, to the patriotic services of Pierre Gibault in winning the sympathy of the French inhabitants at Kaskaskia, Cahokia, and Vincennes. It is certainly a fitting tribute on the part of a great and powerful nation, therefore, that a statue should be erected at public expense to this pioneer patriot priest in the memorial grounds at Vincennes, immediately in front of the old French church that he served so loyally. But, un- fortunately, Father Gibault did not live to know that history would accord him so prominent a place in the annals of the republic. He humbly petitioned his govern- ment for the grant of four or five acres of land— out of the millions he had helped to win — to the end that he might enjoy the comfort and security of "a dwelling with a yard and an orchard," during his declining years. Denied this modest request, he removed to a place beyond the Missis- sippi, now known as New Madrid, Missouri. There, neg- lected and forgotten, he died in 1804. Even his place of burial went unnoticed and it is presumed that his grave was washed away by the floods of the Father of Waters. SIMON BRUTE de REMUR The First Bishop of Vincennes "The most learned man of his day in America ." j r\ a — John Quincy Adams Simon brute, first bishop of the diocese of Vincennes, was born at Rennes, in the Province of Brittany, France, March 20, 1779. He came from a family which had been wealthy but which suffered serious reverses on account of the French Revolution. His father was director of the finances of his native province and the family resided in a wing of the Palace of the Parliament. As a youth, Brute enjoyed the advantages of the best schools in the country. After finishing at the College of Rennes with all the honors, he entered the medical school of the University of Paris. Three years later he graduated from this famous institution at the head of a class of 1 100 students. His proficiency in the science of medicine attracted the notice of Napoleon who tendered him an appointment as a physician to the First Dispensary in Paris shortly after his twenty-third birthday. Much to the disappointment of his friends who foresaw for him a brilliant career as a physician, he declined the appoint- 26 THE OLD VINCENNES CATHEDRAL ment and announced that he had concluded to minister to the souls of men, rather than to their bodies. Accordingly, he forthwith entered the seminary to prepare for the priesthood. A year later he enjoyed a rare privilege which afforded him a happy and lasting memory. The Holy Father, Pius VII, came to Paris for the coronation of Bonaparte and, during his stay there, granted the young student a private audience. Brute was ordained a priest on June 10, 1808. Again, Napoleon sought to confer honors upon him by offering him an appointment to the Imperial Chapel. Again, he declined and, instead, accepted the post of pro- fessor of theology in the diocesan seminary of his native town. While serving in that capacity he met Father Bene- dict J. Flaget, who had served for a time as the village priest at far away Post Vincennes on the Wabash and who had recently been designated as the first Bishop of Bards- town, Kentucky. A strong friendship grew up between the two and Father Brute concluded to accompany the newly appointed Bishop to America. Lincoln Memorial Bridge, Old Cathedral and Clark Memorial as Seen from the Wabash River 28 THE OLD VINCENNES CATHEDRAL Father Brute arrived at Baltimore in August, 1810, after a voyage of two months. Soon afterwards, he accepted the chair of philosophy at St. Mary's Seminary, the parent foundation of the Sulpician Fathers in the United States. From 1 815 to 1818 he was president of St. Mary's College at Baltimore. On May 6, 1834, the reigning Pontiff, Gregory XVI, issued a papal bull creating the Diocese of Vincennes and appointing Father Simon W. Gabriel Brute de Remur as the first Bishop of the new See. The bishop-elect was con- secrated at St. Louis and arrived at Vincennes on Novem- ber 5th, of the same year. The Diocese comprised the whole of the State of Indiana and the eastern part of Illinois, including the 'Village of Chicago." What a perplexing problem his new responsibilities must have presented to Bishop Brute! From the cloistered at- mosphere of the seminary and the college, where he had taught philosophy and theology and enjoyed the constant companionship of his books, he found himself literally transplanted to a rough western outpost. The church at Vincennes had been unable to adequately support a parish priest, much less a Bishop. The cathedral was unplastered and far from finished. The Bishop's palace resembled a peasant's cottage of two modest rooms. The zealous Bishop, eager to accomplish every possible good, began work immediately. He completed the cathe- dral, taking an especial interest in designing its stately steeple. He traveled about the Diocese, directing and en- couraging his scattered priests and their struggling con- gregations. In 1835, he returned to France for the purpose THE OLD VINCENNES CATHEDRAL 2 9 Lincoln Memorial Bridge, Marking the Place Where the Great Emanci- pator Crossed the Wabash on His Migration to Illinois in 1830 of procuring young priests to aid him in his work. Among those whom he brought back with him were two that were destined to become his successors, Father Celestin de la Hailandiere and Father Maurice de St. Palais. Bishop Brute left an indelible imprint not only upon the community where he had his residence but upon the entire Diocese as well. His profound wisdom and keen interest in the cause of education were noteworthy. Amid the ar- duous duties of his high office he found time to enjoy his precious books. His library was not only extensive in the number of its volumes but also comprehensive in the lan- guages and subjects embraced. This magnificent collection is preserved intact in an appropriate building on the Cathedral grounds at Vincennes. Students of civil and ecclesiastical history have found it a rich mine of informa- tion. It is open to the public and is annually visited by thousands of tourists. 3o THE OLD VINCENNES CATHEDRAL The first Bishop of Vincennes died at his rectory on June 26, 1839. The sense of loss to the community was profound. No citizen of the Old Post ever enjoyed such universal respect and esteem. There persists to this day a tradition that illustrates the cordial relationship that ex- isted between him and his fellow townsmen. One day the beloved Bishop, wet and muddy from a tiresome journey, alighted from his horse in front of a store on the main street of the village. Entering, he went directly to the proprietor and, tossing a bag of gold on the counter before him said: "Will you keep this for me, Adam, until I have need for it?" As the Bishop started to leave the merchant called to him, "Wait, my good man, will you not count your money before you intrust it to me?" "No," replied the Bishop, "you may attend to that; besides, there is always more when you count it alone." The storekeeper was none other than Adam Gimbel, father of the Gimbel brothers who became the famous merchant princes of Milwaukee, Philadelphia, and New York. The Old Cathedral in 1836 from a Pen Sketch by Bishop Brute