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


Notes 6.2

1 "Chronicles," p. 178.

2 Ibid., p. 179.

3 Ibid., p. 180.

4 Catta, op. cit., I, 415, and II, 4.

5 Ibid., II, 7-8.

6 Ibid., II, 9.

7 "Chronicles," p. 180.

8 Ibid. The Minor Chapter went so far as to agree "that P.R. Ch[appé] should be engaged to leave the place as soon as possible." Minor Chapter Book, entry of September 10, 1853, PAHC.

9 "Chronicles," p. 181; Catta, op. cit., II, 11.

10 The Cattas insist that Chappé, like Drouelle, was taken in by Sorin who artfully misled them both. Yet it is strange that those who came to America, Drouelle, Chappé, and, to some extent, Moreau in a later visit, all saw things a bit differently when they departed. Perhaps Sorin was eager for them to see Notre Dame du Lac through his eyes, but this was hardly skillful deception. Cf. Catta, op. cit., II, 11.

11 Ibid., II, 14-15. There is no record of such an incident in the papers of Notre Dame du Lac.

12 "Chronicles," p. 183.

13 Ibid., p. 182.

14 The Cattas (see op. cit., II, 11-21) are not at all satisfied with the honesty of Sorin's submission or with the success of Chappé's mission. They write: 'Father Drouelle had visited America in 1848, turning his journey into something of a pleasure trip. In 1853, Father Chappé's mission had failed." (Cf. Ibid., I, 276). They also claim that Sorin hid behind his Chapter (which Sorin specifically had denied in his "Chronicles," p. 181); finally, the Cattas show alarm that Sorin held all the land titles of Notre Dame du Lac in his own name, wondering if they might not have been instead put under corporate title. But, as the Cattas correctly surmised, Section 1 of the Charter of the State of Indiana to Notre Dame specifically forbad the corporation to hold property valued at over the amount of thirty thousand dollars and this clause was not changed until 1872 (cf. Scholastic, IV (February 25, 1871), 4; and W. W. Butterworth to the President of Notre Dame, December 7, 1872. UNDA.

15 "Chronicles," pp. 184-185; Minor Chapter Book, entry of February 4, 1854, PAHC.

16 Minor Chapter Book, entry of February 4, 1854, PAHC.

17 Ibid., entry of June 12, 1854, PAHC.

18 The Commencement Program for 1854 (there was no catalogue) claims that a total of 165 students enrolled in the course of that year, but this must be mistaken, for the total enrollment for the next year was only 110, and the figure did not reach 165 for three years (cf. Annual Catalogues, 1855, 1857). There is no mention elsewhere in the records of so startling a jump in enrollment.

19 Ibid. Twenty-seven Senior students received premiums in 1854 compared to eighteen in the previous year.

20 Records of the St. Aloysius Literary Society, 1850-1861, UNDA. It is possible that the club was not organized in 1854-1855 because of the epidemic that year.

21 Louis Letourneau to his brother, Charles, Notre Dame, June 22, 1854, UNDA.

22 Neal H. Gillespie to his mother, Mrs. U. M. Phelan, Notre Dame, February 21, 1852, UNDA.

23 Thomas D'Arcy McGee to Eugene 0'Callaghan of the St. Aloysius Society, notre Dame du Lac, July 4, 1854, UNDA.

24 Rt. Rev. George A. Carrell, Bishop of Covington, to Sorin, Covington, Ky., February 21 and March 21, 1854, UNDA.

25 Annual Catalogue, 1855.

26 Louis Letourneau to his brother, Charles, Notre Dame, June 22, 1854, UNDA; Granger, Book of Ceremonies, PAHC. Edmund Kilroy to Gillespie, Rome, May, 1855, UNDA.

27 Letourneau to his parents, Rome, August, 1856; Letourneau to his sister, Emily, Notre Dame du Lac, September 6, 1857, UNDA.

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