|
|
Cranbrook Herald
April 12, 1910
This is one of 633 historical articles from the 'Come With Me to Yesterday'
series done by Dave Kay and Dan MacDonald between 1963 and 1978, but which were
originally taken from early Cranbrook newspapers including the Cranbrook Herald
(1898-1919), the Cranbrook Courier (1919-1973) and the Daily Townsman
(1956-present).
This article is about early Cranbrook's churches and missionaries.
Article 7 of 52.
This article was supplied by the Cranbrook Historical Archives located at the
Canadian Museum of Rail Travel (compiled by Arlene Pervin, under a Job Creation
Program of HRSDC) and the Cranbrook Daily Townsman. |
 |
Early History of St. Eugene
Mission
In the first days of October 1874, Reverend Father Leon
Fouquet and Brother John Burns arrived at the place where the Mission stands
today.
They had left New Westminster early in July and spent three months on their
journey. They found the place as wild as nature had made it, except for a
trail that ran from Fort Steele to Perry Creek.
They set to work at once and armed with axe and saw, succeeded in building a log
structure two stories high, spacious and comfortable enough to serve them as a
lodging place. It may be of interest to state that some years later, this
old log building had the distinction of being the first (temporary) hospital at
the Mission, which distinction it retained from the 11th of December 1897 to the
1st of May 1898, when a more commodious hospital was completed under the
direction of the Sisters of Providence.
A livelihood had to be wrenched from the heart of stubborn nature and by dint
of unremitting toil, Father Fouquet and Brother John earned their scanty bread in
the sweat of their brows. Under the able supervision of Father Fouquet and
of Father Richard, who had been given him as a companion, conditions of life
rapidly took a change for the better. A piece of land was cleared;
seed-wheat (procured at great expense) was sown and a plentiful harvest reaped. A flour mill, which
proved an invaluable asset to the Mission was built and generally the way
opened for the efforts of those Fathers who came later on to take the place of
the pioneers and who improving on previous endeavours, made the St. Eugene
Mission the fortunate spot which it is at the present day.
Though material cares were ever so great and absorbing in those early days, the
best of the missionaries time was always devoted to the religious training and
social uplifting of the Indians. In one respect, they were singularly fortunate.
They found the Kootenay Indians not wholly deficient in religious knowledge.
True it is that this knowledge had become distorted and its application to the
affairs of life had become neglected. Still when the first resident priest
arrived amongst them, all the Indians with the exception of one old woman, had
already been baptized into the Catholic church.
Their conversion was due to the example of some of the French Canadians with
whom the Kootenay Indians had come in contact whilst disposing of their furs and
making purchases at Colville, a fort of the Hudson's Bay company, in whose
service those French Canadians were engaged. When therefore Father DeMers
and Blanchet, on their way from Winnipeg (or the Red River settlement) to
Vancouver, Washington, passed through this side of the country, they found the
Indians disposed to welcome the Black Robes with open arms and to give willing
ear to their words of salvation.
This was as far back as 1838. The two Fathers
preached to the Indians and baptized some of their children then they proceeded
on their journey after assuring the Kootenays that priests would in the future
visit them. From time to time, therefore, the Indians had visits from the
Jesuit Fathers, and this contributed not a little towards keeping their faith
from decay.
In this connection, it will be of historical interest to
state that Father De Smet, of the Jesuit Mission, travelled in 1845 among the
Kootenay Indians, teaching, baptizing and preaching to them in their own
language. It is said that he organized a great assembly of the whole tribe
at Canal Flats, at the south end of the Upper Columbia Lake, where having
baptized some hundreds of them, to commemorate the event, he erected a great
cross on top of a mountain, since called after him De Smet Mountain. It
was at the request of the Jesuit Fathers that in 1874 Bishop d'Herbomez of New
Westminster, in whose diocese the Mission lay, sent reside permanently among the
Kootenay Indians.
Gradually, inch by inch, in heavy labour and deep
anxiety, Father Fouquet gained a foothold at the Mission and gained confidence
of his new parishioners. A rude but very decent log structure with a cross
above a gable was erected for a church. This building, which was replaced
in 1897 by a larger and more commodious church, was to the Indians for nearly a
century the house of God. Then other buildings were successfully put up
until a visible something was accomplished.
After thirteen years of successful missionary labour at
the St. Eugene Mission, Father Fouquet was succeeded by Father Coccola, a truly
great priest and public benefactor. The standards of his worth can only be
guessed at by the abiding love, affection and manly regard in which his memory
is held by the people of the Kootenay country regardless of creed or class.
|
|
