Reminscences of a pioneer missionary

The author of these memoirs, Chrysostom Verwyst, was an immigrant from North Brabant, Holland, who arrived in Boston in 1848 at the age of seven. His family had migrated with a group of fellow Catholics who had heard about the lands available in Wisconsin from a missionary priest returned home for a visit; however, the family was stranded in Boston without the funds to complete the trip. Almost half of Verwyst's narrative is taken up with the tale of how his family made its way to Hollandtown, Wisconsin, and carved a farm out of the woods and meadows of Brown County. These memoirs contain accounts of festive celebrations, costumes, agricultural practices, and local community life. Verwyst became a Catholic priest, attending seminary near Milwaukee during the Civil War. He served several Wisconsin communities during the second half of the nineteenth century: New London, Keshena, Hudson and environs, Seneca, Bayfield and La Pointe, Duluth and Superior. After joining the Franciscan order in 1883, Verwyst continued to attend communities in the Bayfield and Ashland areas. He also played a key role in establishing the Catholic Church as an active institutional presence in Washburn and Hurley. Following a three-year sojourn in St. Louis and Los Angeles, Verwyst returned to Ashland to attend missions in the Chippewa and St. Croix country. Finally, retiring to Bayfield, Verwyst spent his last years studying and composing works in the Chippewa language. The second part of his narrative examines not only his own life but the accomplishments of Catholic missionaries working among the diverse populations of northern Wisconsin.