In this next installment of our series on the origins of Catholicism in the 50 states, we turn to Wisconsin, Minnesota, Iowa, North Dakota and South Dakota.
— Wisconsin —
As French explorers traveled the Fox and Wisconsin Rivers in search of valuable furs to trade in the eastern colonies and Europe, they passed through lands long inhabited by Native American peoples with Jesuit missionaries often accompanying them.
Among the first were Fathers René Ménard and Claude Allouez, the latter of whom in the late 1660s established a chapel near present day Ashland. They were followed by other Jesuit missionaries, most notably Jacques Marquette, who ventured farther inland.
Despite their zeal, however, these missionaries achieved only limited success in converting Native peoples or establishing a permanent Catholic presence.
By 1728, only one priest remained ministering in what would become Wisconsin. For nearly the next century, Catholic life was sustained by a small number of French-Canadian settlers and Native converts scattered across the region, who were served only irregularly by visiting priests.
After these lands west of the Great Lakes changed hands several times both politically and ecclesiastically, what would become Wisconsin was first placed under the jurisdiction of the Diocese of Bardstown, Kentucky, in 1808. In 1821, responsibility for the region was transferred to the newly established Diocese of Cincinnati and, in 1833, to the Diocese of Detroit. Civilly, the area became the Territory of Wisconsin in 1836, marking an important step toward its eventual admission to the Union as a state in 1848.
Amid these changing political and ecclesiastical circumstances, several priests came to the region to minister to its small and widely scattered Catholic population, but the Dominican Samuel Mazzuchelli had the greatest and most lasting impact.
Arriving in 1831, just one year after his ordination, he began his ministry in Green Bay, where he built a chapel and ministered among the Native peoples. In the years that followed, he established several parishes in the southwestern part of the territory and founded the Dominican Sisters of Sinsinawa, a congregation that continues its ministry today.
Thanks in large part to his labors, together with the rapid growth of settlements along Lake Michigan such as Kenosha, Racine and Milwaukee, Rome established the Diocese of Milwaukee in 1843 appointing the Swiss-born John Henni as its first bishop.
— Minnesota —
As in neighboring Wisconsin, the origins of Catholicism in Minnesota can be traced to the priests who accompanied 17th-century French explorers and fur traders, known as “coureurs des bois.”
In 1655, the first Native peoples were baptized near present-day Hastings, and in 1721, the first Mass was offered near what is now Frontenac. Although these early missionaries celebrated the sacraments and preached the Gospel, no permanent Catholic community would be established for many years to come.
After 1819, a growing number of white American settlers and European immigrants began moving into the region to establish farms. Their numbers increased steadily, leading to the creation of the Territory of Minnesota in 1849 and its admission to the Union as a state in 1858.
In 1840, Father Lucien Galtier arrived to minister to the French-Canadian settlers living in Pig’s Eye. The following year, with the help of local volunteers, he built a modest log chapel. Dedicated to St. Paul the Apostle, the chapel gave its name to the growing settlement, which soon abandoned the name Pig’s Eye in favor of St. Paul.
Thanks to the continued growth of both the region and its Catholic population, Rome established the Diocese of St. Paul in 1850 from the northern portions of the Dioceses of Milwaukee and Dubuque. The new diocese encompassed some 166,000 square miles, covering the entire Minnesota Territory, which included present-day Minnesota as well as the future states of North Dakota and South Dakota.
At the time of its creation, the new diocese was home to only about 3,000 Catholics, many of them French-speaking settlers and Native American converts.
As the federal government opened large stretches of the territory to settlement, Irish and German Catholic immigrants poured into the region, establishing hundreds of small farming communities. At the heart of these settlements stood the parish church (and often a school too), around which Catholic life and community identity quickly took root.
The rapid growth of the Church in Minnesota reached its fullest expression under John Ireland. Appointed bishop of St. Paul in 1884, he became its first archbishop when the diocese was elevated to an archdiocese four years later. One of the towering churchmen of his era, Ireland championed Catholic education, immigration and the settlement of Catholic farming communities throughout the Upper Midwest.
Under his leadership, the Church expanded so rapidly that, in 1889, St. Paul became the metropolitan see for the newly created dioceses of Duluth, St. Cloud, Winona, Jamestown (now Fargo) and Sioux Falls, laying the ecclesiastical foundation for much of the Catholic Church across Minnesota and the Dakotas.
— North Dakota and South Dakota —
Because of its distance from the Great Lakes and the principal routes of French exploration, there was little Catholic presence in the region that would become the Dakota Territory before the 19th century. In the northern part of the region, the first Catholic church was built at Pembina in 1821 to serve a community of French-Canadian settlers.
A significant turning point came in 1847 with the arrival of Father George Belcourt, a priest from Quebec who spoke both English and French and had also learned several Native languages during his missionary work in Manitoba. Concerned for the welfare of the Native peoples, he devoted himself to ministering not only to French Canadian settlers but also to the Métis, people of mixed Native American and European ancestry.
To support this ministry, he founded a congregation of religious sisters to serve the Métis community. Belcourt also became a leading advocate for temperance, especially among Native Americans, and successfully petitioned the U.S. Congress to curb the illegal trafficking of alcohol across the Canadian border.
Following the Dakota War of 1862 in neighboring Minnesota, many Dakota people were forced westward into the newly created Dakota Territory.
The construction of railroads across the territory between 1873 and 1888 transformed the region, bringing thousands of settlers, many of them Catholic immigrants from Germany, Ireland and other parts of Europe. They established farming communities across the northern plains, with parish churches at the center of their community life.
When North and South Dakota entered the Union in 1889, the Church was organized to meet the needs of this rapidly growing population. On Nov. 10 of that year, Pope Leo XIII established the Diocese of Jamestown to serve the entire state of North Dakota. In 1897, the diocese was renamed the Diocese of Fargo.
By that time, it included 60 churches, 33 priests, 14 schools and one hospital. The influx of German Catholic immigrants from South Russia in the decades surrounding the turn of the 20th century fueled the rapid growth of the Church in North Dakota. As a result, Rome established the Diocese of Bismarck in 1909, encompassing the western half of the state.
Like North Dakota, the history of Catholicism in South Dakota grew out of the vast Dakota Territory, where missionary efforts among Native peoples were later joined by the rapid growth of immigrant farming communities.
Among the most important missionaries was Pierre De Smet. Renowned for his extensive work among Native American tribes throughout the American West, this Jesuit priest made 14 missionary journeys into the region between 1839 and 1870, baptizing more than 1,500 people.
As the Catholic population gradually increased, permanent institutions began to emerge. In 1867, St. Peter’s Church in Jefferson (near present-day Sioux Falls) became the first Catholic church in the Dakotas, established to serve a growing community of French-Canadian settlers.
As the Catholic population of the territory continued to grow, in 1879 Rome established the Vicariate Apostolic of Dakota and appointed Martin Marty, abbot of St. Meinrad Abbey in Indiana, as its first apostolic vicar. Since the monk-bishop devoted much of his ministry to the Lakota Sioux, the Hunkpapa Lakota gave him the name “Black Robe Lean Chief.” His missionary work among Native peoples, together with the rapidly growing immigrant Catholic population, helped lay the foundation for the establishment of the Diocese of Sioux Falls a decade later in 1889.
As the Catholic population of western South Dakota continued to grow, in 1902 Rome established the Diocese of Lead (then a booming mining town in the Black Hills), comprising all of the state west of the Missouri River. In 1930, the see was transferred to Rapid City, where it remains today.
— Iowa —
Before eastern Iowa was opened to non-Native settlement, few Europeans had ventured into the region. Among the first Catholic missionaries was the Dominican Samuel Mazzuchelli, who began ministering to the small Catholic community near Dubuque in 1833. Two years later, he built St. Raphael’s Church (now Cathedral), which remains the oldest congregation of any Christian denomination in the state.
At the Third Provincial Council of Baltimore in 1837, the American bishops petitioned Rome to establish a new diocese to serve the Upper Mississippi Valley. Later that same year, the Diocese of Dubuque was erected, whose vast territory included all of what is now Iowa, most of Minnesota and the part of the Dakotas east of the Missouri River.
At the same time, the French-born Matthias Loras was appointed its first bishop. Upon his arrival, Bishop Loras discovered that his sprawling diocese contained only about 12,000 Catholics, served by just three churches and a single priest, Father Mazzuchelli.
To help meet the pastoral needs of his vast diocese, Loras received a tremendous boost in 1843 when the Sisters of Charity of the Blessed Virgin Mary relocated from Philadelphia to Dubuque. They soon opened a school for girls and went on to become one of the largest communities of women religious in the United States, numbering more than 2,000 sisters at their peak in the mid-20th century.
With the creation of the Diocese of St. Paul in 1850, the Diocese of Dubuque was reduced to the boundaries of the state of Iowa, which had entered the Union four years earlier in 1846.
Father Anthony D. Andreassi, a priest of the Brooklyn Oratory of St. Philip Neri, holds a doctorate in history from Georgetown University. His research and writing have focused on the American Catholic community. After spending many years in Catholic secondary education, he is on the staff of the Oratory parishes of Assumption and St. Boniface in Brooklyn, New York.
