DETROIT
759
DETROIT
the town 11 June, 1805, swept these away as well as
the church and priests' residence. So active were his
resourceful methods that within three years another
church was provided, tlie Catholic schools of Detroit
were again in operation, and tuition given in six pri-
mary schools and two academies for girls. He was
one of the founders of the l^niversity of Michigan,
which began with the act of the legislature passed 26
August, 1817, establishing "the Catholepistemiad or
University of Michigan" of which he was vice-presi-
dent and professor for six of the thirteen departments
of which its curricukmi was made up. In 1807 the
governor and other officials remiested him to lecture to
them and thus afforded him the opportunity to be the
first priest in the I'nited States to deliver a series of
religious lectures to non-Catholics. He spoke to them
on the general principles of religion and morality at
noon every Sunday in the Council House. Explaining
this action to Bishop (\irroll, he wrote: "As there
was no English minister here of any denomination, I
thought it might be of some utility to take possession
of the ground." The following year he went to Balti-
more and brought back type and a printing press
which he set up in Detroit. From this, on 31 August,
1809, he issued the Michigan Essay or Impartial
Observer", the first paper published in Michigan and
the first Catholic paper in the United States. It had
several columns printed in French and the rest in
English and had only one advertisement — that of St.
Anne's school. Between 1809 and 1812 he printed on
this press seven books of a religious and educational
character, one, "The Epistles and Gospels for all the
Sundays and Feast-dayS of the Year", being the first
publication in the Northwest of a part of the Holy
Scriptures.
The war of 1812 with England demoralized condi- tions in Detroit, which fell into the hands of the Brit- ish. Father Richard was arrested and kept a pris- oner in Canada during the contest. On being released he returned to his parish and was at once busy helping everybody to repair the ravages of the war. In 1823 he was elected a Delegate to Congress from Michigan Territorj', the only instance in which a priest has held a seat in the House of Representatives. He had five opponents at the polls, but many non-Catholics voted for him, which outweighed the bitter opposition of a number of members of his parish led by one of the trustees who had long been at enmity with him. He gave his salary for the improvement of the church. Just before he left for Washington he was put in prison by one of his parishioners who had obtained a divorce in a civil court and remarried. Father Richard declared him excommunicated, and the man sued for damages to his reputation and business and got a judgment of .SI, 11(1. This Father Richard re- fused to pay, and he was imprisoned imtil three of his friends gave a bond for him. The judgment was eventually reversed. In Congress he worked assidu- ously for the interests of Michigan, but the only not- able speech he made was that advocating the bill for the opening of a post-road from Detroit to Chicago. He sought re-election at the end of his term, but was defeated, mainly through the exertions of his trustee opponents, ^^'hen Bishop Fenwick was consecrated first Bi.shop of Cincinnati in 1822 Michigan passed from Bardstown to that jurisdiction. Father Richard prepared for him a statement of the condition of the Territory, in which he t lien est imated there were .about 6000 Catholics with five churches and two priests — himself and his assistant. An epidemic of cholera broke out in Detroit in the summer of 18.32, and the venerable missionary, while unstintingly devoting himself to the help of the suffering, fell a victim to the disease, of which he died, 13 September, 1832. Prep- arations had been under way even then to raise De- troit to a bishopric, of which, had he lived, he would probably have received the mitre.
Bishops. — (1) John Frederic Rkzb (the name is
also given as Reese in the German ecclesiastical rec-
ords), who had been a zealous missionary throughout
the territory, was appointed the first bishop 25 Febru-
ary, 1833, and was consecrated at Cincinnati 6 Octo-
ber of the same year. He was bom G February, 1791,
at Viennenberg, Hanover, and enjoys the distinction
of being the first German-born bishop of the American
hierarchy. Drafted into military service in his youth,
he served under Bliicher as a dragoon at the battle of
Waterloo. He was ordained in Rome, in 1822, and
emigrated to the American missions in 1825, affiliating
himself with Bishop Fenwick in Ohio. In 1827 he
was sent to Europe to secure German priests and finan-
cial aid for the stnim^lini; missions and returned in
a year, after succc-
ertions the famous
so much substanti;
States was foundei 1
in Austria in 182! t
When he took
charge of the Dm
cese of Detroit
there were eiglit
churches and tin
Ottawa Indian
mission within its
limits. Under his
auspices the Poor
("lares opened i
convent in Detroit
and a school at
Green Bay (18.33)
Holy Trinity
church was built
at Detroit, and
parishes estab-
irts. Through his ex-
Association that gave
' Church in the United
Gabriel Richard
iished at Monroe, Grand River, and Bertrand.
A hospital was opened in Detroit in 1834 during
an outbreak of cholera, where also St. Philip's Col-
lege, an orphan asylum. Trinity Academy, and a
house of the Ladies of Providence were established,
with several parochial schools. The bishop, however,
was attacked with softening of the brain and expressed
in a letter to the Provincial Council of Baltimore, in
1837, a wish to resign or transfer the administration to
a coadjutor. He was suspended from all episcopal
jurisdiction and went to Rome, where he remained
until the disorders in the city by the revolutionists in
1848, and then retired to his native Diocese of Hildes-
heim, Germany, where he dieil at the mother-hou.se of
the Sisters of Charity, 30 December, 1871, and was
buried in the cathedral of that place.
(2) Peter Paul Lefebre, another active and suc- cessful missionary of the Diocese of Cincinnati, was named as the coadjutor and administrator of Detroit, and consecrated titular Bishop of Zella, at Philadel- phia, 21 November, 1841. He was bom 30 April, 1804, at Roulers, near Ghent, Belgium, and, emigrat- ing to the United States in 1828, was ordained priest at St. Louis, 17 July, 1831. He was in Europe when he was appointed bishop, but returned at once for his consecration. He was a careful and conservative prelate, forecasting the future in his selection of church sites, and devoting himself actively to the ex- pansion of the facilities for the practice of the Faith in his diocese and the spread of sountl Catholic educa- tion. The Redemptorists and the Religious of the Sacred Heart were established in Detroit, and for the parochial schools the Christian Brothers, the Sisters of Notre Dame, the Sisters of Charity, and the Sisters of the Immaculate Heart of Mary were brought into the diocese. In 1844 the creation of the new See of Mil- waukee relieved the Bishop of Detroit of the care of that section and enabled him to devote more attention to his Indian missions, which were developed splen- didly. In 1857 the separation of the Diocese of Sault-
