visited this spot in 1811, and speaks of it in terms of
admiration : " Between St. Louis and the Missouri, with
but trifling exceptions, the lands are of superior quality ;
1 There was a "Maligne River" in Canada, so named, perhaps, by
the early missionaries. See this river as mentioned in the American
Magazine of History, vol. for 1878, p. 697. The name seems to have
been brought from Canada by some of the earlier settlers around Flor-
issant, and given to this little stream because, in heavy rains, it rises to
a great height, overflowing the adjacent lands and doing much damage;
besides, it is then dangerous to ford it, " the maligne " or wicked creek.
HISTORY OF THE ST. LOUIS UNIVERSITY. 23
there are some beautiful spots, as the village of Floris-
sant and the environs. No description can do justice
to the beauty of this tract." x
When this region was under the government of Spain,
or before the end of the last century, and till a short
while before it was transferred to the United States,
Florissant was for a time the home of the Spanish in-
tendant or governor. His dwelling, which was con-
structed of cedar logs, planted upright on sleepers, into
which they were firmly mortised, was torn down only a
few years ago, its timbers being still perfectly sound.
Its position was nearly in front of the present church at
Florissant, and at a distance from it of little more than a
hundred and fifty yards. This house was occupied by
the Trappist monks in 1809, who had that year closed
their two houses in Kentucky one in Nelson County,
the other in Casey County and removed to Missouri.
In 1810 these monks again moved, this time to " Look-
ing-Glass Prairie," on Cahokia Creek, Illinois, and set-
tled upon a mound, six miles from the present bridge
at St. Louis, on the Collinsville Plank-road, this mound
still bearing the name of " Monks' Mound." Sickness
and loss by death, together with misfortune caused by
fire, compelled the survivors to abandon this malarial
district in the spring of 1813, and they then returned
to France, whence they had originally come in 1804.
Their prior, Rev. Joseph M. Dunand, remained seven
years longer in America, or till 1820, residing most of
this time at Florissant.
Previous to the year 1805, or 1808, the French set-
tlers of Missouri lived in villages, and cultivated com-
1 Views of Louisiana, Book II., chap. 2.
24 HISTORY OF THE ST. LOUIS UNIVERSITY.
mon fields, a mode of living which they resorted to tor
better protection against the Indians. They established
separate and individual ownership of such property
soon after Anglo-American emigrants first began to
settle among them, and they were gradually intro-
ducing the new system when Breckenridge travelled
through this district in 1811.
A fragment of local history is here appended, which
may prove acceptable, however, even to the general
reader interested in what concerns the celebrated Mar-
quette.
Father Douay, belonging to the party of La Salle,
who passed this spot some eight years later than Mar-
quette did, cast suspicions on Marquette's narrative of
his discoveries, endeavoring to show that Marquette's
diary was a mere fiction, made up of what he had
learned by hearsay from the Indians about the great
lakes. Marquette described some figures which he ':aw
painted high up on a perpendicular cliff, just above the
mouth of the Missouri. Father Douay, Recollet, saw
paintings on a rock at what is now known as " Grand
Tower," below St. Genevieve, where the river passes
through a sort of gate in the original bluff. While there
seems to be no tradition that any of the first French
settlers of Kaskaskia, Prairie du Rocher, or Cahokia
ever saw or knew of this painting at Grand Tower, yet
the one seen by Marquette remained perfectly distinct
till the rock on which he saw it was quarried down, a
few years since. Father De Smet often stated that he
heard an aged chief of the Pottawatomies, at Council
HISTORY OF THE ST. LOUIS UNIVERSITY. 2$
Bluffs, in 1838, tell about this painting : it was a likeness
of the piasa, which the chief explained as being, the
bird that devours men. An island not far from Alton
still bears the name Paysa, or Piasa ; and, according to
the chief, it was a favorite haunt of this bird. He went
on to tell how, " many thousand moons before the ar-
rival of the white men, when the great mammoth that
was slain by Nanabush still roamed over the wide
grassy prairies, there existed a very large bird that
could seize and carry off a full-grown deer in his talons
as easily as a hawk could take up a wren. It once
pounced upon an Indian brave, bore him off to a deep
cavern under the neighboring cliffs, and there devoured
him. From that time forth it would feed on none but
human flesh'. In its voracity, it depopulated whole vil-
lages of Illinois or Peewareas, nor could hundreds of
stout warriors destroy it. At length a bold chief named
Outaga, whose fame extended beyond the great lakes,
was commanded by the great Manitou, who appeared
to him in a dream, to single out twenty warriors, with
bows and poisoned arrows, and by them the hungry
piasa should be slain. They found the huge bird
perched on the high rock that still bears his name and
figure. All aimed their arrows at once, and the fearful
bird, transfixed with twenty arrows, fell dead near the
feet of the brave chief Outaga. And to this day, in the
dark cavern near the rock Piasa, are heaped the bones
of many thousand Indians, whose flesh was food for
the insatiable maw of this winged monster."
I learned from Mr. J. W. Wise, of Alton, that this
rock with the painting was at the upper end of Alton,
and it was quarried down for lime-kilns by a stone-
mason from St. Louis, in 1866 and 1867. He added,
26 HISTORY OF THE ST. LOUIS UNIVERSITY.
that " there was but one figure, a dragon ; it was painted
at the distance of about fifteen or twenty feet below the
top of the cliff, about sixty feet above the base, and the
base was some twenty feet above ordinary high water."
Mr. Henry Le Sieur, a native of Portage des Sioux, which
is eight miles above Alton, thus writes, December 13,
1873 : " My impression was that the figure represented
a griffin or dragon. Mr. Wise says that there was but
one figure, although some say that there was a small
figure in front of the large one ; I will add to his de-
scription, that it was a pale red. It was exposed to
the storms coming from the south-west, which must
have gradually washed off the paint ; besides, the face
of the rock was much marked with bullets. I have
heard my father, who often passed it in company with
fleets of Indian canoes, say that the Indians invariably
discharged all their guns at it when they passed. That
was in the latter part of the last century. None of them
at that time had any knowledge as to when it had been
made. They said it was a Manitou, and they seemed
to have a dread of it, as inimical to the Indian, vengeful,
and threatening evil."
This was, doubtless, the very painting seen by Mar-
quette in 1673 : an enduring proof of his truthfulness,
and that it was unjustly impugned by some of the early
explorers, who were over-anxious to win renown.
CHAPTER III.
THEY TAKE POSSESSION OF THEIR FARM SCHOOL
FOR INDIAN BOYS BEGUN PORTAGE DES SIOUX
AND ST. CHARLES THEY ARE INVITED BY BISHOP
ROSATI TO OPEN A COLLEGE IN ST. LOUIS, WHICH
THEY CONSENT TO UNDERTAKE.
FATHER VAN QUICKENBORNE and companions took pos-
session of their farm in June, 1823, Mr. O'Neil, mag-
istrate of Florissant, having moved from it for the
purpose, kindly ceding his right to retain it longer, al-
though his lease had not expired. The land lying north-
west of Florissant slopes gently upward from Cold
Water Creek, near the village, till it reaches the highest
table of the bluffs overlooking the Missouri River, two
and a half miles away. Commencing at the upland, a
mile from the river, and declining south-east towards
St. Louis, lay the pretty little farm now to be their
home, and on one of the highest and most lovely spots
of all of this scene of rich prairie and rolling woodland
stood the humble cabin which was to shelter them. The
prospect from this elevated position is both extensive
and beautiful, reaching far over the charming valley in
which the village is embosomed, to the town of St.
Charles, on the banks of the Missouri, seven miles dis-
tant, and to the white line of rolling cliffs, crowned with
trees, that stretch upward from Alton along the Missis-
sippi River. Throughout this entire Florissant Valley
(27)
28 HISTORY OF THE ST. LOUIS UNIVERSITY.
the soil is of inexhaustible richness, rewarding even
moderate care and industry with plentiful crops of corn,
wheat, timothy, and every variety of garden vegetables
suited to the climate ; moreover, it is not only a pleas-
ant district to live in, but it is very healthy, as the nu-
merous instances of longevity among the people there
spending their long lives conclusively show.
The dwelling given up to them by 'Squire O'Neilwas
a log cabin containing one room, which was sixteen by
eighteen feet in dimensions ; and over it was a loft, but
not high enough for a man to stand erect in it, except
when directly under the comb of the roof. This poorly
lighted and ill-ventilated l loft, or garret, was made the
dormitory of the seven novices, their beds consisting of
pallets spread upon the floor. The room below was
divided into two by a curtain, one part being used as a
chapel, and the other serving as bedroom for Fathers
Van Quickenborne and Timmermans. This main room
of the cabin had a door on the south-east side, or front ;
a large window on the north-west side, without sash or
glass, but closed with a heavy board shutter ; on the
south-west side it had a small window, with a few panes
of glass ; and finally, on the north- east side was a notable
chimney, with a fireplace having a capacity for logs of
eight feet in length. At the distance of about eighty
feet to the north-east of this dwelling were two smaller
cabins, some eight feet apart, one of which was made to
serve both as study-hall for the novices, and as common
dining-room for the community ; the other was used as
kitchen, and for lodging the negroes. These rude struc-
1 There was one opening, or little window, which had the appearance,
when seen from the outside, of a port-hole.
HISTORY OF THE ST. LOUIS UNIVERSITY. 2Q
tures were covered with rough boards, held in place by
weight poles ; the floors were " puncheons," and the
doors were of riven slabs, and their wooden latches were
lifted with strings hanging outside.
Such were the log cabins of the western pioneer,
which were now to be the home, the novitiate, the sem-
inary of the first Jesuits who came to Missouri. All
these priests and novices had been brought up in plenty
and comfort in their native land, and some of them in
affluence, with the accomplishments and refinements of
highly cultivated society. They renounced all in order
to become disciples of our Lord, and teach his saving
doctrine to the benighted savages roaming over the
prairies of the Far West ; and they prepared for this
evangelical work by imitating their Master's poverty
and humility. Their journey from Maryland had ex-
hausted their money, and but for the assistance given
them by the charitable Madame Duchesne, of the Sacred
Heart Convent at Florissant, who furnished them food,
bedding, and various objects most necessary for the
household, their condition would have been that of ex-
treme suffering.
In front of the house was an orchard of good fruit ;
beyond the orchard was a field containing about thirty
acres of cultivated land, and at the distance of half a
mile still further on was a second field of fertile land,
bordering on Cold Water Creek. The portion of the
farm to the rear, or north-west of the house, was still
covered with primeval forest, extending back to the
Missouri River, and the rest of the land was overrun
with hazel thickets, interspersed with clumps of stunted
oak, and here and there with lawns or small meadows
of wild prairie-grass.
30 HISTORY OF THE ST. LOUIS UNIVERSITY
Father Van Quickenborne saw at once the necessity
of providing more ample house-room. Accordingly, it
was resolved that a second story should be added to
the principal cabin, the entire house should be sur-
rounded by a gallery, the second story of which could
partly be made into rooms, and the work of building-
was to be done by themselves. It was determined also
that a two-story wing to the house, thus enlarged, should
be erected ; and they began to dig a cellar for this wing
on July 31, 1823. As the 3ist of July, feast of St.
Ignatius, is observed with special religious solemnity by
the Jesuit Society, they chose that festival for the cere-
mony of religiously inaugurating their work, in order
to place it under the auspices of their holy founder.
The day was begun with a High Mass in the parish
church at Florissant, which was well filled with people ;
and during the Mass, or after the gospel, an eloquent
panegyric of St. Ignatius was preached by Rev. Mr.
Niel, of the college in St. Louis, who had come out to
Florissant for that purpose on the preceding day. When
divine service was finished, the Jesuits, accompanied by
Fathers Niel and Lacroix, adjourned to the new home
at the farm, where they sat down to a plentiful dinner,
furnished mainly by kind Madame Duchesne, their refec-
tory being for that occasion the barn, their only spa-
cious room. In the afternoon, each person took one
shovelful of earth from the spot where the cellar was
to be commenced on the following day. It was sub-
sequently remembered, to the honor of Mr. Van Assche,
that he was the most skilful with the mattock and
shovel, while Mr. De Smet excelled all others with the
axe in felling trees and chopping logs in the woods.
They went to an island in the Missouri River, a short
HISTORY OF THE ST. LOUIS UNIVERSITY, 3!
distance above the Charbonniere, 1 to cut the timber for
their new house and for an additional story to the old
one. It was often mentioned afterwards, and even a half
century later, by Father Van Assche and others then sur-
viving, as a remarkable circumstance, that on the very
night after they had hauled away the last load of timber
needed for their buildings, this island was totally washed
away by the current of the Missouri, not a vestige of
it being left. 2 It is well known that this wonderful river,
especially when swollen with the waters of the " moun-
tain rise," often makes great encroachments on its banks,
forms new islands, and sweeps away old ones with sur-
prising suddenness.
Shortly after the little community was settled at their
farm-house, the Rev. Charles De Lacroix made over to
Father Van Quickenborne the new church of Florissant,
and he departed for Louisiana ; Father Van Quicken-
borne was, at the same time, made spiritual director of
the Sacred Heart community in the village. The cor-
ner-stone 3 of the church at Florissant had been laid by
Father De Lacroix, on February 19, 1821, and the stone
1 The Charbonniere is a bluff on the Missouri River, some two hun-
dred and fifty or three hundred feet in height, and it is little more than
a mile from the novitiate. It is so called from the fact that a stratum of
stone-coal underlies it; but as this layer of coal is nearly on a level with
the surface of the water in the river, and is also of inferior quality, it
has been little worked.
2 Just above the Charbonniere there is visible, in low water, a bed of
reddish stone, which extends far out into the river. On this rock, it
would seem, the island referred to may have been seated, or, at least,
lodged against it.
3 The corner-stone of a brick church had been laid in St. Louis on
October 18, 1818, by Bishop Dubourg, to replace the old post or log
church. The architect was Mr. Gabriel Paul; the carpenter, Hugh
O'Neil, senior. It was never plastered nor ceiled.
32 HISTORY OF THE ST. LOUIS UNIVERSITY.
for the purpose was presented by Madame Duchesne ;
it contained the following record, but it was expressed
in the Latin language: "On this February 19, A. D.
1821, I, Charles De Lacroix, by permission of Right
Rev. Bishop Valentine Louis William Dubourg, laid
the corner-stone of this church, dedicated to the Sacred
Heart of Jesus, under the invocation of St. Ferdinand
and St. Francis Regis ; Madame Duchesne, superioress,
having donated the said corner-stone, Madame Octavia
Berthold and Madame Eugenia Aude being present,
as also the pupils, and many persons from the village."
This church had not been finished in 1823; it was
finally dedicated by Bishop Rosati, on September 5,
1832. St. Charles 1 congregation and that of Portage
des Sioux had already been committed to the care of
Father Timmermans before the departure of Father De
Lacroix from Florissant. The first entry made by
Father Timmermans at Portage des Sioux was dated
June 13, 1823; on that day he baptized Francois Rive,
and on the same day he joined in wedlock John C.
Evans and Theresa Saucier. The first record at St.
Charles was that of a funeral, on July 14, 1823; the
first baptism, that of William Manley, July 29, 1823.
Mr. Francis Maillet and Brother Charles Strahan sepa-
1 There is a tradition that the now extinct tribe of Indians named
Missouri formerly had their chief village where the town of St. Charles
is at present. The Missouris, having learned that the Sioux were to
attack them, formed an ambuscade at the mouth of the Missouri River,
expecting their enemies to pass that point. The Sioux crossed the Mis-
sissippi at the place now called Portage des Sioux; then passing over
the portage, or narrow neck of land between the two rivers, destroyed
the village of the Missouris ; thence going down the river, they attacked
the ambuscade, and on this occasion the fierce Sioux nearly exterminated
the entire race of Missouris.
HISTORY OF THE ST. LOUIS UNIVERSITY. 33
rated from the Jesuit Society shortly after their arrival in
Missouri, and entered a different walk in life ; discour-
aged, it may be, by the hardships and the extreme pov-
erty endured at the new St. Stanislaus Novitiate, near
Florissant. 1 Father Timmermans died on June 1st of
the following year, or in 1824 ; and thus the number in
the community was reduced to nine members. In
1825, Father De Theux and Brother O'Connor, from
Maryland, were added to the little household ; the
former having been sent to teach theology and give as-
sistance to Father Van Quickenborne in various priestly
offices. In 1827, James A. Yates and George Miles,
both natives of Kentucky, were admitted as novices, and
they were the first novices received in the new mission.
No scholastic novice there entered till after the separa-
tion of the Missouri mission from the province of Mary-
land, which took place, by a decree of the General,
Father Roothaan, dated September 25, 1830, when the
Missouri mission was made subject immediately to the
General of the Jesuit Society. This new arrangement
was not actually perfected, however, till the beginning
of 1831, or on February 24th of that year, when Father
De Theux was installed superior of the Western mis-
sion.
It was manifest that before any important work could
be undertaken among the Indian tribes, it was neces-
sary first to train and educate the young men, now six
in number, for the priesthood. Yet Father Van Quick-
enborne was of opinion that, while pursuing their studies,
the young men could, not only without injury, but
1 In the immediate neighborhood this place still retains its original
name, "The Priests' Farm."
3
34 HISTORY OF THE ST. LOUIS UNIVERSITY.
even with some advantage to themselves, devote a por-
tion of their time to teaching Indian boys; and since
the United States government had agreed to allow a
compensation in money for each Indian boy boarded
and taught, this occupation would, at the same time,
increase their scanty means of living. Accordingly,
two Indian boys, Aloways, were received from St. Louis
in 1824; and a little later, three others from the wild
tribes in Missouri were placed under their charge by the
superintendent of those tribes. In order to provide for
a still greater number, Father Van Quickenborne erected
a two-story frame building, about forty by thirty feet
ii dimensions, for the exclusive use of Indian boys.
An arrangement was also made with the Ladies of the
Sacred Heart, in Florissant, to take charge of Indian
girls; and thus, in the year 1825, two schools were
opened for the reception of Indian children, wherein they
might learn the principles and the manners of civilized
and Christian life. In 1827 there were fourteen Indian
children at the seminary for boys ; and there were about
an equal number of Indian girls with the Ladies of the
Sacred Heart, at Florissant. The majority of these chil-
dren were half-breeds, and they belonged to the Chero-
kee tribe, bands of which still remained around Portage
des Sioux and St. Charles. 1
Messrs. J. B. Smedts and P. J. Verhaegen were raised
to the priesthood near the beginning of 1825, at the
Seminary of the Barrens, in Perry County, Missouri, by
Bishop Rosati; and in September, 1827, Messrs. P. J.
1 Kenry Schoolcraft, on his way to Chicago, in 1821, where Gov.
Cass was to meet the Pottuwatomie and Ottawa Indians in council, to
form a "treaty" with them, found a large number of the Fox Indians
encamped near Portage des Sioux, on August 4, 1821.
HISTORY OF THE ST. LOUIS UNIVERSITY. 35
De Smet, J. F. Van Assche, J. A. Elet, and F. L. Ver-
reydt were ordained priests by the same prelate, in the
church at Florissant. As there were now eight priests
at St. Stanislaus Novitiate, it was decided that Fathers
Verreydt and Smedts should reside at St. Charles,
where a new stone church, begun in 1825, had just been
completed ; and from this residence they were to at-
tend Portage des Sioux, Hancock Prairie, Dardenne,
and other small stations. During this year, 1 827, Father
Van Quickenborne went on his first missionaiy excur-
sion to the Osage tribe of Indians, beyond the borders
of Missouri, and at an estimated distance of five hun-
dred miles from Florissant. He subsequently paid two
other visits to this tribe, one in 1829, and the other in
1830, with a view of starting schools and a missionary
residence among them. It was not till the spring of
1847, however, that the Jesuits actually began to reside
among the Osage Indians. They then founded a school
for Indian boys, and one for the girls, of which the
Sisters of Loretto in Kentucky took charge. This mis-
sion was established by Rev. John Schoenmakers and
Rev. John Bax, with three lay brothers, first arriving
at the spot on April 29, 1847.
In the year 1827 the Provincial of Maryland, Father
Dzierozynski, made an official visit to the house near
Florissant ; he was most favorably impressed with the
prospect of the " Indian Seminary," and the similar
school for girls conducted by the Ladies of the Sacred
Heart in Florissant, and he commended both of them
highly to Father Van Quickenborne, and in his letter
to the General of the Society, Father Fortis. A few
of the most respectable white families of St. Louis, as
36 HISTORY OF THE ST. LOUIS UNIVERSITY.
well as some of other localities, sent their sons to the
"Indian Seminary" in 1828, for want of any better
school accommodations at that period. But both these
schools for Indian children had already reached the
acme of their prosperity. Despite all their persevering
efforts to make these Indian schools a success, there
were never more than fourteen children in either of
them at one time. As they rather declined than im-
proved after the year 1828, the one for boys was finally
closed for good in the year 1830.
Though the special purpose of Father Van Quicken-
borne and companions in coming to Missouri had been
to spend their lives in the work of civilizing and Chris-
tianizing the Indian tribes dwelling within the Territory,
under the spiritual jurisdiction of Bishop Dubourg, yet
a few years sufficed to convince them that no great or
permanent results could ever be accomplished among
the indolent, wandering, and indocile aborigines of the
woods and prairie, which would at all compensate for
sacrificing all their energies and resources in exclusive
attention to the savages. They came to the conclu-
sion, therefore, that more solid and lasting good might
be done among the white population than with the