Chronicles of Notre Dame du Lac
Edward Sorin, CSC -- Translated by John M. Toohey, CSC, 1895

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1842-1843

pg 36        loam, is employed in making lime.
                  Without being very rich, the ground here was suitable for 
             raising wheat, corn, potatoes, clover, buckwheat, and all kinds 
             of edible roots.  The only residence was an old log cabin, 24 x 
             40 feet, the ground floor of which answered as a room for the 
             priest, and the story above for a chapel for the Catholics of 
             South Bend and the neighborhood, although it was open to all the 
             winds.
                  To this little cabin had been added some years before a 
             little frame building of two stories somewhat more habitable than 
             the first, in which resided a half breed with his family, who, 
             when necessary, acted as interpreter between the priest and the 
             savages.  Add to this a house 6 x 8 ft, and you have all the 
             buildings then in existence near the lake.

                           2.  Its Religious Condition, Its Past

                  There were at that time around this poor little sanctuary, 
             the only one in northern Indiana, about twenty Catholic families 
             scattered in a radius of two leagues.  Two leagues above South 
             Bend and also on the river is situated a little town noted for