MICHIGAN TALES : Marquette

Father Marquette (Pere Marquette in French)
Photo by J. Moyer December 2017 Ludington, Michigan

We see his name everywhere in Michigan: Pere Marquette River, Pere Marquette Railroad (and trail), Pere Marquette Beach, the County of Marquette (both in Michigan and Wisconsin), as well as the town of Marquette. But why is he given such an honor as having his name revered all over Michigan? What did he do that was so remarkable that he even has a statue of him at Statuary Hall in the U.S. Capitol?

Image from aoc.gov
Architect of the Capitol

The age of exploration was set in full motion when Jacques Marquette was born in the northern town of Laon, France on June 1, 1637. During this time, France was already settling colonies and sending missionaries around the eastern area in Canada known as New France. Trois-Rivieres, now Quebec, was just founded a few years earlier before Marquette's birth. Jean Nicolet was on an expedition through the Great Lakes in hopes to find a Northwest Passage to the Pacific Ocean being the first European to the area.

At the young age of 17, wanderlust Jacque Marquette joined the Jesuit order. The Jesuits is a Roman Catholic missionary organization that helps, not only with missionary, but also educational and charitable services. Their main calling, in that time era, was to help convert the Native American's to Catholicism. The Jesuits were known by the indigenous people as "Black Robes" because they would wear black robes as they proselytize in new areas. They were easy to spot out among the Europeans and was usually the go-to person between the Europeans and the tribes. As a Jesuit, Marquette took vows of poverty, chastity, and obedience.

Marquette set sail to New France when he was 29 years old. Under the leadership of Father Gabriel Druillettes, Marquette learned many indigenous languages, such as Algonquin, Iroquois, Huron as well as a few others. He was quick to pick up on the languages, learning them in about 2 years. Doing well with his myriad of languages, he was assigned to a mission at Sault Ste. Marie for about a year in 1668, having it become one of the first European settlements in Michigan.

He was assigned a new mission to replace Father Claude Allouez, on the far west side of Lake Superior at La Point du Saint Esprit, near Chequarnegon Bay, Wisconsin and found himself among the Huron and Ottawa tribes. In 1658, this was one of the first sites in Wisconsin to be occupied by Europeans. It was from the Huron tribe that Father Marquette learned about a great river that flowed south that the Hurons, themselves, didn't know where the river ended. He became very curious about the river and the other tribes, such as the Illinois tribe, that live along its route and longed to set up a missionary there.

However, in the spring of 1671, the Sioux tribe was making an advancement upon the Huron and Ottawa tribes. Huron and Ottawa tribes fled east and the Ottawa tribe resettled at Manitoulin Islands and Marquette went with the Hurons and settled at Mackinac Island for a short time before they realized the soil there was not good for planting.

On Mackinac Island, with the fort in the background.
Photo by J. Moyer July 2019

Example of what the chapel may have looked like on Mackinac Island
Photo by J. Moyer July 2019

A closer look at the building structure similar to what Father Marquette may have built.
Photo by J. Moyer July 2019

The image show the locations of the Missions of Father Marquette in the Straits.
Photo by J. Moyer July 2019

They moved on north to St. Ignace, which Father Marquette named after St. Ignatius Loyola. It soon became a popular fur trading village between Green Bay, Wisconsin and Sault Ste. Marie.

Historical marker in honor of the St. Ignace Mision
Photo by J. Moyer July 2019

Statue of Father Marquette at his memorial site in St. Ignace
Photo by J. Moyer 2019

Father Marquette's knowledge of the variety of indigenous languages had finally paid off. In 1672, Louis Jolliet, a French-Canadian explorer and skilled voyageur, had orders for Marquette to join him in exploring the mighty river, which was rumored to be the famous waterway to the Pacific Ocean. They made a perfect pair for such an exploration; Marquette being a spiritual leader wanting to proselytize and could interpret many languages; Jolliet, representing France for expansion for economical and settlement purposes.

On the morning of May 17, 1673, the two men, along with 5 others, set sail in two canoes made from birch bark. They made their way west across Lake Michigan, into Green Bay, down the Fox River, over to Wisconsin River before making their way to the mighty river, known as Mississippi in a month's time. They met up with an Illinois Tribe and they camped with them for a few days. The tribe gave the explorers a calumet to show the other tribes they come across that they are meaning no harm to others.

Calumet is an ornamented ceremonial pipe of the American Indians
Image and defination used from Merriam Webster online dictionary.

They made their way as far south as near present day Arkansas. They came upon a few tribes, some unfriendly and tried to charge out at the canoes but the current was too strong for the Native Americans. They got word of a hostile group of Spaniards living further south down the river. It was well known, by that time, that the river flows north and south, and does not flow west to the Pacific Ocean like once thought. To avoid any conflicts the group decided to head back north. They were only 435 miles from the mouth of the Mississippi River. From the Native Americans, the group learned it would be easier to head east across the Illinois River towards the bottom of Lake Michigan. Father Marquette made his way back to a mission in Green Bay, Wisconsin while Jolliet ventured back to Quebec to share the news of his findings to the governor of New France, Count Frontenac. Unfortunately, on the way back, Jolliet's canoe capsized and his maps and journal were forever lost to the river of St. Lawrence. The notes used for the territory was based upon Marquette's notes from his journal and from the memory of Jolliet.

Painting of Marquette and Jolliet meeting with the Native Americans
(could be the Illinois Tribe on their way exploring the Mississippi River)
Photo by J. Moyer December 2017 in Ludington, Michigan

In 1675, Father Marquette ventured again towards the south end of Lake Michigan in Illinois Territory to set up a missionary with some of the Native American's he had met during his exploration with Jolliet. His health was fading fast from dysentery he received on his way back from the Mississippi River excursion. He would become the first European to stay the winter, which is now, the city of Chicago. The harsh winter cold did not help his health condition at all.

Knowing his life was near its end, Father Marquette wanted to go to a place he dearly loved, back to St. Ignace. He knew it was going to be a long journey but he prayed God would see him though the trip. Two boatmen (I have read Frenchmen and I have read Native American converts) accompanied him on his voyage along the eastern side of Lake Michigan towards St. Ignace. Coming upon present day Ludington, between Pere Marquette Lake and Lake Michigan, Father Marquette knew he wasn't going to live much longer. He asked to be taken ashore, and there the two boatmen created a small shelter and lit a fire and tried to make things as comfortable for him in his last hours.

On May 18, 1675, at the age of 38, Father Jacques Marquette peacefully passed away. The boatmen buried him there in the dunes and made a cross to be placed on top of his grave. Two years later, members of his converts from the Huron tribe in St. Ignace, came down to the burial area and dug him back up. As custom to their heritage, they removed his skin, bleached his bones by the sun, and may have even broken up some of his bones as a way of honoring Marquette as one of their own. They put his remains in a birch bark box and sailed back to the mission at St. Ignace.

The mission was set on fire shortly after 1698, when Antoine de Lamothe Cadillac (aka Mad Anthony Wayne), commander of the fort that was built there and persuaded the Native American's staying there to follow him to Fort Pontchartrain, which is now present day Detroit. The other Jesuit priests burned it down so other Native Americans would not desecrate it.

Two hundred years later, in 1877, the Mission foundation was discovered just under the soil with some old vegetation covering the top, on the property of Patrick Murray, as he was clearing off his land for farming. He hired Joseph Manly to come out and investigate the findings and discovered 35 fragments of bone, largest one about two inches in length. Those remains are believed to be of Father Marquette.

In 1882, the village board of St. Ignace resolved the issue to have a memorial park created, with a grave marker in place to honor Father Marquette and all that he has accomplished.