1 Howard, A History of St. Joseph County Indiana I. 55-56.
3 The patents and deeds for the Notre Dame property are in the Accounting Office Archives of the University.
4 St. Joseph County Deed Book B, 161, Recorder's Office, South Bend. The actual transfer was made at Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, where Badin met Bishop Bruté, who was on his way to Europe.
5 Recorded Dec. 31, 1857, in St. Joseph County Deed Record Y, 179.
7 St. Joseph County Deed Book P2, 519. Bach soon dropped the idea of building a college in Northern Indiana for Bishop Forbin-Janson, co-founder of the Fathers of Mercy with whom Bach was travelling in America, bought Spring Hill College near Mobile, Alabama, from Bishop Porttier of Mobile, and made Father Bach president and superior of it. Cf. the thesis of Sr. Mary Elizabeth. The History of the Diocese 4 Mobile, 1826-1859, 1942, University of Notre Dame Library.
8 St. Joseph County Deed Book F2, 520.
9 The deed is in the Accounting Office Archives, Notre Dame.
11 Sorin, Chronicle, 28-30; Sorin to Hailandière Jan. 24, 1843, Sorin Corr. II, Prov. Arch.
12 Sorin, Chronicle, 30; Sorin to Hailandière Jan. 24, 1843. Sorin Corr. II, Prov. Arch.
13 For this account of the trip from St. Peter's to Notre Dame, cf. Brother John to Moreau, March 20, 1843. Gen. Arch. 1843.
15 The meticulous Brother Gatian gives briefly the list of the first students as follows:
"At Notre Dame du Lac University Anno Domini 1842-43 Names Arrival Departure Remarks C. Reckers Winter '42-43 August, 1845 Paid in work Theodore Alexis Coquillard Winter & Spring Spring Did not board Perhaps a few others came whose names have been forgotten and who never paid."Boarders' Ledger No. 2, ii. Archives of the Prefect of Discipline, Notre Dame. This Ledger was started in 1849, but is preceded by several pages giving the lists of students from 1841 (at St. Peter's) to 1848. Brother Gatian remarks that he has taken this information for the first seven years from the "old register of the University, and from recollection and books where no exact date is given." The claim of Reckers is strengthened by the remarks of Brother Gatian in his Chronicle: "He was the first boy who came to the community during the first winter of 1842-43. He was for some time numbered among our postulants and afterwards became a boarder. He was always a model of piety and good conduct but unfortunately very changeable. He left in 1845 after the distribution of premiums and went to Cincinnati (Br. Gatian's Chronicle, UNDA). In 1878 Reckers asked Bishop Dwenger to help him recommend his son for the Manual Labor School. Dwenger wrote Granger, Dec. 10, 1878: "Mr. C. Reckers, who claims to be your first student, was here yesterday stating that he would like to send his boy to the Manual Labor School for three years commencing, as I understood him, next summer or fall. Reckers is a very good man, but in poor health and not very well off." Granger papers, 1877-78. Prov. Arch.
16 The two priests: Fr. François Cointet and Fr. Theophile Marivault. François Gouesse was the seminarian. Brother Eloi and four Sisters, Mary of the Sacred Heart, Mary Bethlehem, Mary of Calvary, and Mary of Nazareth completed the group.
17 On the trip of the second colony Cf. Ann. Gen. S. C. 298, Gen. Arch.; Cointet to Moreau, July 16, 1843; Etr. Spirit., 1844, 104-110; an English translation of this letter is given in Brosnahan, Sr. M. Eleanore, On the King's Highway, 1931, 107-122. Cointet to Moreau, August 11, 1843, in English translation, ibid., 122-125; also Marivault to Moreau, August 3, 1843. Gen. Arch. 5, 31.
20 Due to a misunderstanding and delay this money was not received for nearly a year, much to Sorin's embarrassment.
23 Minutes of the Council of Professors. Arch. of Notre Dame. No. 30. Prov. Arch.
24 Bulletin of the University of Notre Dome, XXXV, No. 3, 1939-40, 46. 25 There is a copy of this issue of the South Bend Free Press in the Northern Indiana Historical Museum, South Bend. Leeper, op. cit. gives only a fragment of it. 26 The story of John Smith from Fort Wayne is fictional. However, it is typical of financial arrangements not at all uncommon to the early days of Notre Dame. For a factual record of such a transaction, vide Notre Dame Alumnus, IV., 101.
27 Sorin, Chronicle, 43. Five of these orphans were sent by Mr. Fresnaye of Philadelphia, Hailandière's business agent in that city. They arrived at Notre Dame in Sept., 1843, and were only 10 and 11 years old although Sorin thought they would be 14, "but this made me feel a more keen desire than ever to have here one day an establishment for little orphans." Sorin to Hailandière, Sept. 29, 1843, Sorin Corr. II, Prov. Arch. This is a copy of the original. 28 Ibidem.