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The Story of Notre Dame
Notre Dame: Foundations, 1842-1857 / by John Theodore Wack


Notes 1.2

1 Ledger A, UNDA.

2 Ibid.; de la Hailandiere to Sorin, November 15, 1842, PAHC. This agrees with Sorin's statement that he arrived at the new site with about two thousand francs (about $370), "Chronicles," p. 44.

3 "Chronicles," p. 44. The disposition of these funds is uncertain; the account book is not at all clear concerning them. On November 21, 1842, three hundred dollars more from the Delaune funds were recorded as received by the community, but these funds undoubtedly went to the support of those who remained temporarily (as it proved) at St. Peters, since Sorin was well on the way North by that date. Again, $190 was received on January 7, 1843. There is no record of the exact date of payment by the Bishop to Sorin of the money received from the Propagation of the Faith, but it must have been soon after the arrival of Sorin's party at Notre Dame, since it is listed in the account book ("$494.00 from the Propagation of the Faith") as having been paid to them by the Bishop in 1842. Other sums must have been received from the Bishop from the Delaune money at various times and not recorded, since, on January 7, 1843, the account book shows that a total of $1,832.50 had been received from the Bishop on this account, but the individual entries total only $1,195.14. The inaccuracies of the account book are well illustrated by the fact that, in the final summation of accounts in 1847, the total income from the Delaune collection is listed at $1,760. Ledger A, UNDA.

5 Father Chartier was the former Superior of the diocesan seminary at Vincennes (which would mean that he was also quite familiar with the College of St. Gabriel), who had become attracted to the group at St. Peters and had entered with them as a candidate for the Auxiliary Priests. His relationship with the Bishop was a hostile one (to the Bishop, his move to St. Peters must have appeared as a desertion), and, as a result of this, his stay with the community was a brief one. In February of 1843, he left St. Peters and the Diocese of Vincennes. As Sorin said of him, "he was a man of talent, but too hot-headed." His presence at the time of Sorin's departure was opportune, since it enabled Sorin to leave his Brothers in the care of a priest. "Chronicles," pp.32, 314. Sorin to Moreau, Notre Dame du Lac, December 5, 1842, Circular Letters of the Very Reverend Basil Anthony Mary Moreau (Notre Dame, Indiana: 1943), I, 58-65.

6 "Chronicles," p. 35.

7 Sorin to Mother Theodore Guerin, near Terre Haute, November 20, 1842, translated copy of the letter in UNDA. Mother Theodore was the foundress of the Sisters of Providence settlement at what was later to become a Catholic women's college, St. Mary's-of-the-Woods, near Terre Haute, Indiana. She was a friend and benefactor of Father Sorin, probably coming to know him through their mutual friendship with Samuel Byerley. On Sorin's arrival at St. Peters, she had sent the new community a valuable yoke of oxen. Cf. the Diary of Mother Theodore, entry of December 1, 1841, as quoted in a letter of Sister Mary Theodosia to the Reverend Thomas T. McAvoy, C.S.C., St. Mary's-of-the-Woods, Indiana, September 30, 1941, UNDA.

8 See Appendix I for a discussion of the controversy surrounding the exact date of arrival. One wonders whether Sorin was accompanied by just the four Brothers who had traveled with him or whether the remaining three had caught up with him.

9 Sorin to Moreau, Notre Dame du Lac, December 5, 1842, Circular Letters of the Very Reverend Edward Sorin (Notre Dame, Indiana: 1894), I, 259.

10 Ibid.; Scholastic, V (December 6, 1871), 4.

11 "Chronicles," pp. 35-36; Scholastic, V (December 6, 1871), 4.

12 "Chronicles," p. 35.

13 Hope, Notre Dame, pp. 38-39. For the latest work on the life of Father Badin, see J. Herman Schauinger, Stephen T. Badin; Priest in the Wilderness (Milwaukee: 1956).

14 Petit was one of the young men recruited in France by Bishop Bruté. Information on this mission and on these men may be found in Thomas T. McAvoy, C.S.C., The Catholic Church in Indiana, 1789-1834 (N.Y.: 1940), and William McNamara, C.S.C., The Catholic Church on the Northern Indiana Frontier, 1789-1844 (Washington, 1931). The removal of the Potawatomi and the heroic work of Father Petit can be found in The Trail of Death; Letters of Benjamin Marie Petit, ed. & trans. by Irving McKee (Indianapolis: 1941).

15 McAvoy, op. cit., pp. 186-187.

16 Photostat of deed in St. Joseph County Deed Book B, 161, UNDA.

17 Photostat of deed in St. Joseph County Deed Book F 2, 519 UNDA.

18 Photostat of deed in St. Joseph County Deed Book F 2, 520, UNDA.

19 Sister Mary Elizabeth Haggerson, "The History of the Diocese of Mobile, 1826-1859," (1942). Unpub. M.A. Thesis.

20 A photostat of the title indenture is in UNDA.

21 "Chronicles," p. 36.

22 Ibid., p. 41.

23 Ibid., p. 36.

24 Logan Esarey, A History of Indiana from its Explorations to 1922 (Dayton, Ohio: 1918-1923), II, 604-605.

25 Ibid.

26"Chronicles," pp. 36-38.

27 Ibid.

28 There is no satisfactory history of South Bend or of St. Joseph County. The best is an old one, Timothy E. Howard, A History of St. Joseph County, Indiana (Chicago: 1907), in two volumes.

29 "Chronicles," p. 38.

30 Ibid., pp. 36-38; 41-42.

31 This enthusiasm of Sorin was shown in a letter which he wrote to Moreau, very shortly after Sorin had arrived at the new site in northern Indiana. This letter was an explanation of his decision to remove his community to the Lakes, to "the excellent piece of property . . ." which "Providence permitted that we be offered." He continued, "Notre Dame du Lac was given to us by His Lordship only on condition that we establish here a college or boarding school of the earliest opportunity. As there is no other school within more than fifty leagues [over one hundred miles], this college can not fail to succeed, even if it receives only little help from our good friends in France. Before long, it will develop on a large scale because, in the whole United States, it is evidently the one college whose location offers it most chances of success." A rather exaggerated claim, one must admit, of the potential of success for a college being established in a raw frontier area. Sorin to Moreau, Notre Dame du Lac, December 5, 1842, Circular Letters of . . . Moreau, I, 61.

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