south by a line from the mouth of the Maumee River until said line intersected the Mississippi; in other words all of which is at present Michigan and Wisconsin, part of Minnesota, and a small portion of what is now Illinois, Indiana, and Ohio, as may be seen from the accompanying map, which has been copied from one issued by the Society for the Propagation of the Faith in 1835. Father Reze was consecrated Bishop of Rt. Rev. Dr. Brute, in Cincinnati, October 6, 1833, seven days before the consecration of the late Archbishop Purcell. He immediately left Cincinnati for the Second Provincial Council of Baltimore, held that year; after which he came to Detroit and labored indefatigably for the welfare of the diocese committed to him. To be brief. The great work and care of this large province from 1833 to 1837 proved too much for the physical strength of the Bishop. The exhaustion was so great that he was unable to attend properly to the business of the diocese for at least a year before the assembling of the Third Council of Baltimore, in April, 1837. He determined to surrender the charge which had made him a physical wreck. On the assembly of that body he declined to sit at its private sessions till his resignation would be acted on. It was as follows: "Most Reverened Fathers, in Provincial Synod assembled: "It is known that I reluctantly accepted episcopal consecration, and as I soon learned by experience, that the erection and administration of the new diocese, with its numberless difficulties and cares springing up on every side, were a burden too great for me to bear, I have accordingly frequently entertained the intention of resigning my diocese into the hands of His Holiness, the Sovereign Pontiff, or at least soliciting a suitable coadjutor from the Holy See. This intention I desire to carry out by these presents, and for this purpose I have empowered my actual vicars-general Rev. Messrs. Baden and DeBruyn, to exercise joint jurisdiction in my absence and until further arrangements are made. ** I beg you to aid to the fullest extent in your power to obtain the successful realization of my desires, if it shall seem good to our Lord. Your brother, etc., * # "FREDERICK REZE, The council resolved unanimously to recommend the acceptance of his resignation to the Pope, and made provisions, in case of its acceptance, for a successor. Rome refused to accept the resignation, and ordered Bishop Reze to Rome to state his reasons in person for so requesting. He obeyed the order and arrived in Rome in very feeble health in 1839. A softening of the brain was threatened, or had already set in. On seeing the condition which he was in, Rome immediately retired him, but never took away his title as Bishop of Detroit. Although he lived for more than thirty years thereafter he was ever Bishop of Detroit. He remained in Rome with his mind so shattered that he was hardly able to attend to any business till the revolution of 1849. He then returned to his home, where he died in 1871, a lunatic. He was cared for at the expense of his diocese. Rev. J. M. Odin was appointed bishop administrator of Detroit in December, 1840, but a position that had crazed a worthy man was not to be thought of by him. He positively refused it. The Bulls, so tradition says, were sent to another whose name I have not been able to learn, who also declined. They were sent for a third time to Rev. Peter Paul Lefevre, a zealous, worthy missionary, with a premonitory order that no refusal would be entertained at Rome. He governed the diocese prudently and well for nearly thirty years. During his reign several divisions were made without weakening the parent diocese. He died universally beloved in 1869. Father Hennaert ruled the diocese well during the interval from the death of Bishop Lefevre till the advent of the present incumbent, Rt. Rev. Dr. Borgess, a native of Prussia, who came to this country when a child, and is so thoroughly imbued with American principles that we may consider him to the manor born. The Diocese of Detroit has grown wonderfully under his management. A native priesthood has been introduced, the diocese divided, many new churches and institutions erected, and we have learned the great lesson of being able to take care of ourselves. No foreign money is now being used whatever. To-day Detroit stands in the front rank, and no more prosperous or less burdened diocese exists in the United States. The children that have gone out from her in the shape of new dioceses have prospered amazingly and reflect new glory on their honored old mother, Detroit, for whom they have the kindliest feeling, and of whom they have good reason to feel proud. Bishop Lefevre, although governing Detroit for more than twenty-eight years, was never Bishop of Detroit, only Bishop administrator. Bishop Borgess was consecrated Bishop administrator, but succeeded to the title of Detroit on the death of the first bishop in 1871. The seal of the diocese consists of an A and M interwoven, surmounted by a cross and the usual episcopal insignia, the letters meaning "Under the protection of Mary." The personal seal of the first Bishop of Detroit were the emblems of faith, hope, and charity; his motto, the words. Bishop Lefevre used only the official seal. When Bishop Borgess was consecrated, the remarkable coincidence occurred of adopting as his seal the same emblems and motto of the first bishop, of which at the time he was entirely unconscious. The Diocese of Detroit at the present time comprises the counties of the Lower Peninsula south of Ottawa, Kent, Montcalm, Gratiot, and Saginaw, and east of the counties of Saginaw and Bay. It has 156 churches, one bishop, 133 priests, a Catholic population of about 110,000. A retrospective glance of what Detroit was when it set out for itself as a new diocese in 1833, and what it is, or rather what the territory it occupied at the start, is, to-day, as far as the growth of Catholicity is concerned, may be comprehended better by a few statistics. In 1834 we had in the diocese of Detroit one bishop, 30 priests, and 20,000 of a Catholic population. In 1885 we had in the territory comprising the diocese of Detroit in 1833, two archbishops, nine bishops, 920 priests, and a Catholic population of 802,000. This growth will be a matter of astonishment to many, but it is as near accurate as can be got at. The hundred fold yield of the good seed sown has been more than realized. CONVIVIAL HABITS OF THE PIONEERS OF SAGINAW BY JUDGE ALBERT MILLER One object of these publications is to give some idea of the manners and customs of the pioneers of Michigan, and of the lights and shadows of pioneer life. In former articles I have mentioned the propensities of the pioneers of the Saginaw Valley for social enjoyments; but there were rougher sports participated in only by the male portion of the inhabitants which deserve notice. Aside from the few families located at the fort and vicinity there were a number of employés of the Messrs. G. D. & E. S. Williams and of the American Fur Company that were an element in the community that must have their recreations. Christmas in the west, especially that portion of it that was earliest settled by the French, has always been observed as a holiday to be celebrated in a manner that is congenial to the tastes of those celebrating. My brothers-in-law, Jewett and Rumrill, as well as myself, had been raised in New England, in a locality where but little attention was paid to Christmas, Thanksgiving day being the great holiday of the season in that locality. On Christmas day, 1833, we had been at work till near the close of the day, when we took a large canoe and paddled down the river two miles, from Green Point to Saginaw or to the Fort (as Saginaw City was then usually designated), where we had business at the store of Messrs. G. D. & E. S. Williams. On entering the store we found we were in for it. We had no sooner passed through the door than it was locked and a guard placed to prevent our egress. Jewett, understanding the situation at once, gave us the wink to be ready to escape the moment an opportunity presented. On looking around we found that all the male portion of the inhabitants, after carousing all day, had gathered in the store to have a night of it. We entered into their sport with such pretended zest that they soon relaxed their vigilance over us, and we stood together at the door when it was opened and we darted out and ran for our canoe. We were no sooner outside of the door than a dozen men were after us, and the foremost one was about laying his hand on the prow of our canoe as we shoved off the shore, and being determined to prevent our escape he waded into the water in pursuit till it reached his waist, which, under ordinary circumstances, at that season of the year, would not be considered very fine holiday sport, but, failing in his attempt, a large canoe was soon maned and started in pursuit of us; no steamboat had ever disturbed the placid waters of the Saginaw at that time, and I will venture to say that no water-craft had previously passed over the two miles' space in a shorter time than those two canoes on that Christmas night. It was an even race, we keeping the start we had gained at the outset, and when we landed, instead of going to our houses we ran to the woods, where we remained till the noise of our pursuers frightened the inmates of our houses, when we came out and faced them. I had recently built a frame house, and one of the party seized a club and commenced hammering the siding, calling to me to come out or he would tear my house down, it would only cost him five or six hundred dollars. They undertook to force us into their canoe to carry us back to finish the night, but we entered into a good natured scuffle with them, and after a while that, with the exercise of paddling their canoe, sobered them, so they were willing to enter their canoe without us; and they returned to their respective homes, where they peacefully retired to spend the balance of the night in repose, instead of making it hideous with their orgies. That was my initiation into the mysteries of a Saginaw "train," as those drinking bouts were usually termed, but between that time and 1838 I witnessed many scenes of conviviality, usually participated in by a more select party, whenever there might be a seeming occasion for them. The arrival in the place of some friend of a resident, or of a distinguished stranger, or of some individual contemplating settling there, an advantageous sale of property, etc., were considered fit occasions for convening a champagne party. They were not entered into so much for the love of drink as for a desire for social enjoyment, and for keeping up the reputation of the place |