CHAPTER XII.

MISSION OF ST. FRANCIS XAVIER, MISSOULA.

The original area of the county has been placed in the neighborhood of 30,000 square miles. Its white population in 1880 numbered but 2,537. In the next official census, that of 1890, it had increased to 14, 427. Coming down to but one year from the closing of our chronicle, the figures just quoted may well be taken as a fair reckoning of the number of whites in the county at the time of our first writing. Since then, as all over the rest of the state, the population has been on a steady increase, so that three new counties, Ravalli, Flathead and Sanders, have been, in part at least, carved out of the original county of Missoula.

The name Missoula is beyond doubt of Indian origin, and no less significant than historical. It comes directly from the following Flathead word, Im-I-sul-e'tiku, which is composed of several parts, and goes to show the wonderful structure of the Flat Head language.

Its initial l is a preposition, standing for "in, near or by." the Kalispels and Spokanes use more commonly n in its stead. The ί is a prefix, meaning, "very, truly, altogether," and thus emphasizing the significance of the radical or root-wood, to which it is prefixed. The root-word or radical in the name before us is sul. Which means "cold, chilly" both in the literal sense, as "cold water, a cold room," and also metaphorically, as "cold chilled with fear." Hence emphasized by the prefix ί, ί-sul means "truly cold or very chilly' in the literal sense, whilst in its metaphorical sense it conveys the idea of grear feat, arising from danger of impending evil.

From the root-word sul the Flat Heads form two verbs, one intransitive or passive, the other, transitive. The former is o-chin-sul, meaning, "I am or feel very cold" in the literal sense; or "I m frightened, chilled with dread" in the figurative sense. The transitive verb is Y ess-el'em, and means, "to take by sur-

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prise, to chill with right," and whose future tense of nm-iss-u'lem. Note that s with the Flat Heads is always hard and equivalent to ss, as here written.

The last part of the Indian word under consideration is etiku, which signifies "water." The Flat Heads have two nouns for water, seulqu and etiku, using the former always by itself; whereas they never employ the latter, save in composition with other words. Hence it is frequently contracted in composition, that is, its first syllable alone e, but strongly accented, is appended to and made the ending of the compound, while the other two syllables, yiku, are dropped altogether. All this is gathered from the Dictionary of the Flat Head Language, compiled by Jesuit Missionaries, and which has been mentioned in Part I of this work.

As already stated, the letter l when used as a prefix, as in the present case, stand for "at, by , near." We have, then, lm-I-sul-etiku and im-I-sul-e, two forms of one and the same noun, the former entire, the other contracted. They are indifferently in constant use by the Flat heads, and the writer has heard them countless times from their own lips. The meaning, then, of the word in question, is, "by or near the cold, chilling waters." But in what sense did the Indians use here the term, literally, or metaphorically? For, as we have seen, it could be used in one way as well as the other. Did they intend to express the cool, natural property of some waters or rather the chilling experience which they had often encountered, and were liable to encounter again, near some particular stream?

There can be no reasonable doubt that the latter, and not the former, was their meaning. First, because the waters of mountain stream in this latitude, and vicinity, are all pretty much of the same temperature. Why, then, should any of them be specially designated by a property common to all?

But what places the point beyond controversy is the fact that Iroquois, half-breeds white trappers and traders who lived as mingled with the Flat Heads, and could not bur know what these intended to signify by the word, all understood and rendered it in French and English by "Porte d'Enfer" and "Hell's Gate." Who can question that by doing so, that is by translating the Indian term as they did, these people sought to express, after

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the white man's way, what was really meant by the natives, namely, a locality or "waters" of ill-omen, of danger and impending evil?

The place or "waters" so designated by the Flat Heads was the canyon, whose mouth or west entrance opens out a very short way from where the Rattlesnake enters into the larger stream, some few hundred yards from the center of the original townsite of Missoula. For the Flat Heads and other tribes west of the main range, the canyon was the natural gateway to the buffalo plains, east of the Rockies. But whilst so, it was also a dangerous piece of country for them to pass through, owing to its being the best vantage ground for their deadly foes, the Blackfeet and Piegans, to ambush them on their way to, or when returning from the buffalo chase. Today the canyon is bare of all available timber, whereas within the writer's own memory it was still thickly wooded and a real forest. Large war parties, on the occasions just mentioned, would be lurking in those woods, in the fastness and narrow passes of the long defile, to attack and oppose the Flat Heads and all western Indians from going through.

All this, as a matter of fact, is Indian history, albeit unwritten. And hence the name which our Indians gave the canyon and its waters. Lm-I-sul-e, and which is the equivalent of "Hell's Gate" or "Porte e'Enfer," as these expressions are often used and understood by the white man. Naturally enough, the ominous appellation passed to the first white settlement sprung up in the vicinity, some five miles from the mouth of the canyon. It was shared in by the river and bet the whole valley as well, in both its French and English renderings, one and all being still called after "Hell's Gate" and "Porte d'Enfer" by the old-timers.

Missoula, then, is the aboriginal lm-I-sul-e, only polished somewhat is euphemized. There can be no question about it. But whilst so, the meaning of the original Indian word has been entirely reversed. It first stood for a place of danger and evil omen, but it now means a favored spot, a thriving, hospitable community, with a bright, promising future ahead. It then meant wild, desolate surroundings, the haunts of deadly foes. It means today the "Garden City of Montana," a title indeed which it fully deserved at this time of our second writing.

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The beginning of Missoula dates from the winter of 1864-65, when C. P. Higgins, born of Catholic parentage, and Frank Worden, his partner in business, erected a sawmill, and soon after also a grist mill, on the present site of the town. Whence the first name of the place, Missoula-Mills, by which, however it went only a short time, since the Mills appendix was dropped very soon after. From the Hell's Gate village, some four and a half miles below, where they had been trading since the summer of 1860, C. P. Higgins and Frank Worden moved their store closer to the mills, and thus became the first permanent residents, as well as the real founders of the new community.

In 1866 Missoula became the county seat, which gave the embryo town a decided impulse toward substantial growth. Necessarily, however, its progress could be only gradual, owing to its distance from the mines, and its being situated in the least settled part of the territory. Still, the advantage of its location otherwise, that is, with regard tot he country south, west and north of it, all rich in varied and virgin resources, and of which it is the natural centre, cannot fail to make Missoula in the near future one of the most prominent communities of Montana. At this time of our first writing it has a population of some 5,000 souls, with every prospect of doubling and trebling the number in the short space of a few years.

The beginning of the local history of the Missoula Mission may also be traced from the Hell's Gate settlement.

Here, as previously related, a church for the white settlers was erected in 1863, by Father U. Grassi, at the time in charge of the Indian Mission of Saint Ignatius. In the spring of 1866 two Fathers from the Mission of Saint Peter, and whose closing we chronicled in part I, were appointed to this new field, the Hell's Gate district, at least for the time being. Someone recorded the fact at the time added in prayerful humor: A porta inferi erue, domine, animas eorum (From the gate of hell, O Lord, deliver their souls). Record-books were still scarce in the Indian Missions, at that date, as the entry just quoted appears in the /register of Baptism for the Mission of St. Peter.

The two Fathers assigned to Hell's Gate were Anthony Ravalli and Camillus Imoda, but as they were hardly a week there when Father C. Imoda was recalled and sent to Helena, Father Ravalli

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is properly the one entitled to the credit of being the first resident priest on the Hell's Gate and Missoula Mission. There he resided about three years, doing much good both as zealous missionary as well as a skillful physician. In the former capacity, he went about looking for souls to save, in the latter, he was more frequently sought after, people coming or being brought to him from near and from afar to be relieved in their bodily ailments. His abode, a little log cabin by the church, was thus frequently turned into an infirmary, and may be said to have been the first private hospital in this part of the country. Hardly one entered it who did not come out improved, repaired, mended and sometime, if we can use the expression, make all over, both body and soul.

While on this field, one of his first recruits was Mrs. Sims, a convert, whom he baptized in the little log church of St. Michael, October 1, 1866, General Thomas Francis Meagher and wife being the sponsors. An imperial folio would not suffice to detail all that is implied in this brief historical item.

It is here well to relate, that, though assigned to St. Mary's from its first reopening, Father Ravalli did not move thither till some two years after, till a dwelling had been provided, as nothing of the kind had bee left on the place. Father Giorda and Brother Claessens lived much of that time ina small cabin, the home of an Indian, who turned it over to them for their temporary use.

During his stay at hell's Gate, Father Ravalli dispensed the ministrations of religion, not only to the few Catholics of that settlement, but also to those at the lower end of the valley, our Frenchtown people, and likewise to a couple of families at Missoula, at this time still in its infancy. On his moving up to St. Mary's, the spiritual care of the whole district fell to Father Menetrey, who off and on, held it for a number of years.

Missoula, in the meantime, was gradually forging ahead, and by 1868-69 it had outgrown both the hell's gate Village, from which it had spring, as well as Frenchtown. But somehow, to these older settlements had fallen the privilege of having, not only churches, but also a Father to attend them, and whose residence was located in the first of the two place just mentioned. Hence services continued to be held in those older com-

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munities, and, as a consequence, for several years the Catholics of Missoula, had no other church facilities than St. Michael's, at Hell's Gate, where a few of them, who were able to do so, would occasionally congregate to hear Mass on Sunday.

This proved a great inconvenience for them, and became more so as their number increased. But neither could matters be remedied, these being, as they seem to have been, the necessary result of unavoidable conditions. Priority, as well as possession, substantiated in churches already built, insufficient numbers of laborers in the field, higher authorities, very chary of any new step apt to weaken or hamper missionary work among the Indians, and lastly, the nearness of the two localities, Missoula and Hell's Gate, being only some four miles apart, and, consequently, near enough to be both attended without having to provide new and special facilities in favor of Missoula--all seemed to combine to hinder and retard giving our people in the latter locality better advantages for the practice of their religion.

The first more in this direction was made in 1872-73, and seemingly by contraband, as it were, but yet not without clear indications of its having been disposed and prompted from on high, we will now be seen from the narrative.

Mother Caron, the Mother General of the Sisters of Providence, in 1872, came from Montreal to Montana to visit the colony of her Sisters at the Indian Mission of St. Ignatius, where, as narrated in the first part of out chronicle, they were established since the summer of 1864. The good Mother felt deeply impressed by the environment, and above all, by the isolation of the little community in the heart of the Rockies and so far away from any other House of the Order. It was, further God's disposition that she should meet here with a serious mishap, which forcibly accentuated that first impression, since the accident made her realize by her own personal experience, much more vividly, the disadvantage of the isolation.

Whilst helping in the kitchen as she was standing between the stove and an open trap-door that led into the cellar beneath, on stepping backward without advertence to the treacherous opening, the Reverend Mother fell through and broke her arm in the fall.

This untoward occurrence, which happened December 7, 1872,

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compelled Mother Caron to pass the whole of that winter at St. Ignatius, and her long stay in that solitary spot made her feel more and more keenly the lonesomeness of her Sisters, and the many drawbacks attendant thereon. If only another House of the Order could be located within a reasonable distance! It would then be practicable for their members to meet occasionally, or to be relieved by a timely change, and the like.

All this, and much more implied therein, will be easily understood when it is known that no letter correspondence short of sixty days could then be had by the Sisters at St. Ignatius and the Provincial House at Vancouver, Wash., whereas, they could correspond in less time by about one-third with the Mother House at Montreal, although more distant by many hundred miles then Vancouver.

The writer, at the time in charge of the Mission, fully coincided with Mother Caron's views about the matter, although the realization of any such plan appeared very far off indeed under existing conditions. Still, it occurred to him that Missoula, a new and promising community, would be the right place where the contemplated branch-House could be established. He felt, besides, that if the thing came to pass it would also bring to our Missoula Catholics, without fail, what they stood much in need of, the services of a resident priest.

Entering into the project in real earnest, Mother Caron laid the matter before her Councilors in Montreal, and also before Father Giorda, the Superior of the Missions. The former fully approved the plan, whilst the latter, without disapproving it, thought its executions premature. The reason was obvious, the going of the Sisters to Missoula would require at once the services of a resident priest, and there were not in Montana Fathers enough to locate one in the new town. Still, as he declared, "all concerned in the project were left to the wisdom of their counsels."

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Asked by Mother Caron whether the sisters, if they went to Missoula, could have one of the Fathers visit them at least once a month, until more for them could be done in this regard, Father Giorda was understood to answer in the affirmative, although a monthly visit, he felt, would not suffice, and could be no adequate provision.

All in all, a look of hopefulness seemed to light up the plan. And hence it was deemed advisable to secure, as soon as convenient, a site whereon the projected institution could be located, when the proper time to start it should arrive. Accordingly, the writer took himself to Missoula and purchased of W. J. McCormick and wife a parcel of ground in the west end of the townsite, the ground consisting to two regular blocks, each of them being further augmented by six lots additional, which made the ground purchased equivalent to two and one-half blocks. Pine Street, running between the two parcels, was not yet open. But its prolongation might likely be required at some future date, and that before long. Hence a clause covering this point was made part of the conveyance.

With the ground went also a good frame building, which stood on the block south of the street line, where it had been erected for a private residence some two years before. But though finished, it had never been tenanted. The structure was roomy, comparatively new, and ready for occupancy at any moment. The property was secured for church, school and hospital purposes, at a cash consideration of $1,500 in round figures, the amount being less, as it would seem, then the house along had cost the owners.

Later on, by agreement of all concerned, both parcels of ground were deeded over to the Sister of Providence, one whole block being required for the hospital and the other for the academy. The Sisters substituted in exchange another church site, the block across the way, and a little nearer to the center of town.

When securing the location, the writer did not so much as dream that things would so soon take the turn which they now did. But Mother Caron, after much deliberating over the project, had determined on its speedy execution, and she herself would see it carried through before leaving Montana. That such a

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determination on her part was highly commendable has always been the writer's conviction.

Communities of religious women given to an active life and endowed with a missionary spirit are one of the brightest glories of God's Church in the more recent times of her history, and their influence and services in the cause of religion and education, or in behalf of suffering humanity cannot be overrated. Praying or teaching, at home, or in the public street on their errands of mercy, nursing the sick or caring for the waifs of humanity, these valiant women, because of their saintly lives and eve by their very garb, everywhere led souls to the knowledge, love and practice of Christian virtues.

That this must be particularly the case in new missionary fields becomes evident when one reflects that the lack of good example is here the greater, so, too, the conduct of those pious women must needs prove that much more exemplary. One individual light where many are glowing will hardly be noticed, whereas, if it be shining alone, and in the dark of the might, it will attract the attention al all. The following incident is to the point:

Early one morning, here in Missoula, whilst going to say Mass at the hospital, the writer heard loud sobbing, as of one in distress. Hastening in the direction of the sounds we found standing in the vestibule of the church a tall, rugged fellow, who looked a very picture of grief. That the name was in the lacrymose stage of a "bender" was the first though that crossed our minds. But on inquiring what aided and distressed him so, "Father," said he, "I cannot stand it any longer. I have been in the mountains the last twenty-five years, and have not seen a priest nor a church the whole while. I have just come to pass the winter in this town, and as I was going by yesterday morning at the break of day, I saw the good sisters from yonder plodding through the snow to come and pray in this little church. The sight stunned me, and I have not slept a wink since. Please, Father, hear my confession my pile is large, but with the help of God and the example of these saintly souls, I want to mend my ways and be a good Christian."

If so much is true of good example which, after all, is, so to say, but the shadow, or, if you please, the perfume and fragrance

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of virtue, what is to be said of the substance itself? Of whose lives unsparingly and heroically spent in the service of God, and in behalf of youth or suffering humanity, in places, particularly, where piety and religion are hardly known; where educators are few, and where ills and wants abound, but scarce are the remedies and comforts?

It is true, however, that as these opportunity of doing good are due in great measure to the lack of spiritual helps which follows the dearth of priests, they who will labor in such field must feel at times the spiritual poverty of their environment; that is, they will have to forgo, now and then, some of their ordinary spiritual comforts, as daily Mass, frequent Communion, and the like. Nor can it be doubted, that for souls whose main object in life is to glorify God by sanctifying themselves, such spiritual privations prove much harder to bear than material ones. Piety is, of necessity, somewhat selfish.

But what hence? Is God's hand shortened, that He cannot provide for the spiritual wants of His loyal servants in some other way, best known to Himself? Or can it be imagined that either a greater service appeals to Him less? Or that he can be more pleased to have us enjoy His company than see us quit it for His sake, and to do His bidding? So, also, if to expect His help in ordinary circumstances by other than the means of His appointing, would be, on our part, intolerable presumption, can it be less culpable not to hope for and count on His special assistance in special emergencies?

Hence the writer's conviction that Mother Caron's determination to locate Sisters at Missoula, whether timely or not in the eyes of human prudence, was none the less prompted from on high and, so to day, providential. For it is God's own way to workout frequently His designs, not only by setting at naught men's prudence, but by making use of our very imprudence to encompass the ends of His infinite wisdom.

But let us return to our narrative.

Having, then, resolved to carry out her project, Mother Caron named the Sisters whom she destined to found the house at Missoula. They were sisters Mary Victor, her traveling companion--gone since to her rest--and sister M. Edward, transferred from St. Ignatius; the first named being in charge of

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the new foundation. The Reverend Mother had arranged to leave Montana in the spring, and, as Missoula lay in her course, had also set that time for the sisters to go thither, as she desired to see them installed in their new home.

Accordingly, soon after Easter, Mother Caron and her little band, with the writer and Sister M. of the Infant Jesus in there company, set out for Missoula. In the narrowest part of O'Keefe's Canyon the roadbed--a stretch some fifty yards--was found still covered over with an unbroken sheet of ice, and there being no way of getting round it, the travelers were confronted with a rather ticklish problem. Owing to her weight, advanced years, and her arm till partly bandaged and in a sling, the spot was extremely perilous for the Reverend Mother, as a slip might prove disastrous, and the course being considerable on the incline, there was danger of slipping at every step. With a stout staff in his free hand as a support, and to steady their footing, arm in arm, the writer and the Mother went over the ice without mishap, helped safely across by their Guardian Angels. The rest of the party got over the troublesome spot as best they could, but happily also uninjured, although not without some ludicrous occurrences.

On their arrival at Missoula, in the afternoon of the same day, April 18, the Sisters took possession at once of the new home, which they found gorgeously hung, draped and festooned from cellar to garret, with an incredible wealth and wondrous display of all manner and variety of spider work. Apart from two small boxes, there was not in the whole house a single stick of furniture of any kind, and Poverty's own home could never be richer in wants than this new abode. The same evening, as best they could under conditions, the Sisters cleaned out one of the rooms in the west end of the building, and fitted it up as a chapel, where the writer said Mass the next morning. The little oratory was the first place of Divine service in Missoula, and served as such for several months.

The first to call on the sisters was Mrs. Thomas MacNamara, who came to greet them and bade them welcome with a basket of eatables, a gift timely indeed, and twice acceptable, because needed.

The advent of a Sisterhood in Missoula would doubtless appear

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to have been an occurrence of some importance in the history of the town. It is therefore not a little surprising that in his Chronology of Missoula from 1870 to 1880, one S. Barbour should have ignored the fact completely. Yet it is so, and from that document the historian of a hundred years hence may prove to his own satisfaction that no such thing as a Sisters' Community existed in Missoula with that period.

Mother Caron, a true lover of poverty, appeared delighted at the utter destitution of the new home, and would have preferred to remain, and share it with her daughters. But the pressing duties of her high office were calling her elsewhere to look after the general good of the Order, in whose furtherance she had been considerably handicapped by her long stay in the mountains. Hence the next day she took her departure from Missoula and Montana, and on bidding farewell to her daughters, she bade them also be of good heart, and put all their trust in God and His loving Providence. She would send other Sisters to help in the work as soon as they should be needed, and, felling as she did very hopeful for the future of that new foundation, she would do the best she could to advance it.

At Corinne, Utah--then the western terminus of the railway heading toward Montana--Mother Caron met some members of the Order who were coming west from Montreal. One of them was a young sister, brimful of life, Mary Julian, the present Mother General, whom Mother Caron now assigned to join the Sisters at Missoula. She thus became a member of the new colony, and must therefore be counted as one of its founders.

Two other Sisters, Jane de Chantal and Odille Gignac, the latter a Tertiary or Coadjutrix, were also in the band, and they were assigned to St. Ignatius. Sister Jane lived there a number of years, and thither she is returned after being sent for a time to do duty at De Smet, Idaho, whilst Sister Odille has continued at her post since her first arrival, nearly forty years ago, proving herself all the while a good religious and a hard workers. Indeed, it would be difficult to tell which distinguishes this good Sister more in her humble capacity, her wonderful simplicity or her industry and usefulness in the branches of domestic economy. It is but truth to say that she has filled along the parts of several for years, and that in the niceties of

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excellent dairying, according to connoisseurs, she could hardly be surpassed.

Here, incidentally, may also be mentioned another Coadjutrix, Sister Magnan, whose practical turn and industrious make-up place her above the common of her sex. She came to our mountains in the eighties when, with Mother Mary, the first provincial of the Sisters of Providence in Montana, she went to Fort Benton. In 1890, she was transferred to the Academy of the Sacred Heart, Missoula, where she has been residing eve since. Sister Magnan is an expert mechanic, and whilst at home in house-painting and carpentry, she can handle almost all manner of tools with the ease and skill of a professional. The altar, a neat piece of work, as well as the pews, in the Academy chapel, are all her work. So, too, the Sisters' Infirmary in the same Academy' plans, details, and practically all the rest, are her work.

A settlement still new, as Missoula was at this early date, could not but lack many of the conveniences of older and larger communities. Kerosene lamps and tallow candles still furnished the light. As to water, however, there was any abundance in the river running along the south side, and in the creek, called the Rattlesnake, shirting the east end of the town. But for domestic uses it had to be fetched in the old primitive fashion with pail or bucket, and not always without some trouble. The Sisters in this regard were worse off than anyone else of the town people; they lived farthest away from the creek, and though close enough to the river, it was no easy task to get water there from, the river banks nearby being both high and steep.

This drawback was partly remedied during the summer. C. P. Higgins, besides building the big race to run the mills, had also brought water on the town flat for irrigation purposes. Having been asked the favor, he kindly allowed the Sisters the use of his water-right. But the water had to be taken from a point near and opposite the present brewery site, and brought down to the Sisters, quite a good distance off. At this date, however, the stretch between the two points just indicated, and, mostly all north of Spruce Street, was as yet "no man's land," that is, no fence or structure of any kind stood upon it. Hence, owing to the lay of the ground, it was comparatively an easy task to run a surface ditch the whole length of the way.

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So it was done with the help of a pair of horses and a plow. With his eyes fixed on the hospital, and stepping straight in the visual line, the writer pointed out the course by simply walking ahead of the team, whilst some squaws followed the man at the plow and cleaned out the furrow with hoe and shovel. Thus within a day or so, the sisters had water running by their premises. It was a great convenience, beyond doubt, but short-lived, because it was certain to be cut off as soon as freezing weather set it. Hence during the winter, there was no alternative but to get water for domestic use, as best could be, from one or the other of the two streams, or by melting snow when it happened to be at hand. It was several years before Missoula had a city water supply, and longer still before the mains were extended as far as the hospital.

That the good Sisters had no easy time at their starting in Missoula may well be imagined. Apart from what has already been indicated, everything needed for housekeeping had to be provided, stove, furniture, beds, bedding and all the rest. Many articles, such as sheets, pillow-cases, towels, and the like, were made by their own hands. But difficulties notwithstanding, they soon had two private room, and a small ward ready and comfortably furnished for the accommodations of patients, whilst the rest of the premises had also been put in the best of order, every nook and corner being made available and turned to some useful purpose. They named the hospital after St. Patrick, the apostle of Ireland, and in connection with it, they also managed to conduct a small school for children.

But what little, unpretentious affairs were not hospital and school at their commencement! It is, however, God's way to have small beginnings made great endings, and this, too not by leaps and bounds, but rather gradually and almost imperceptibly. The present is a clear and striking instance in point. Those good Sisters went to Missoula, not only unheralded, but not even noticed, and if they found a roof over their heads, they had nothing else with which to begin their noble work, save their bodily strength, an earnest good will, and great confidence in God and His Providence. The results are to be seen by all and speak for themselves.

Large, imposing piles of brick and stone replace today the

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little frame structure of 1873; and the embryo-hospital and embryo-school of the same date have grown and expended into three institutions which, as to buildings, appointments, accommodations, equipment and personnel, no less then as to efficiency and success in their respective lines of work, are deservedly reckoned today among the best of their kind in Montana. In St. Patrick's Hospital from eight hundred to a thousand patients are annually treated and cared for, while the pupils of the two schools, the Academy of the Sacred Heart for young ladies, and St. Joseph's, a day and boarding school for boys under fourteen, number close to five hundred, some three hundred of these being boarders and coming from different points in Montana, and a few also from adjoining states.

And who will estimate, even approximately, all the good, religious, moral, intellectual, social and physical, that these three institutions have brought and daily bring to the whole surrounding country, and Missoula particularly? No, western Montana people especially, and, more specially still, those of Missoula and vicinity, can never be grateful enough for al they owe in this regard to saintly Mother Caron and her loyal daughters, the Sisters of Providence.

Whilst the writer was having his hair cut one day, there entered the barber shop a stranger, who, however, appeared to be well known to the tonsorial artist, for they greeted each other with noticeable warmth. "Yes, Fred," said the stranger, "I have just come down from the upper country, the biggest mining camp on god's green earth, and have brought my two sons to St. Joseph's School, conducted by the Sisters. I have seen several boys come home from there perfect young gentlemen, though to my personal knowledge they were far from well behaved when they entered. That is the school for my boys, said I to myself. And they are, and shall remain, so long as their age will not bar them."

But let us proceed and see how, with the coming of he Sisters to Missoula, the local history of that church may also be said to begin.

With the first visits of the Father to the hospital, some of the town people came to hear Mass, and for their accommodation an adjoining room had to be made part of the little oratory

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described above. Sometime after, more space being needed for their work, the Sisters put up a small addition to the original building. More room became likewise necessary for the increasing number of Catholics who attended services, and so the whole length, was converted into a fair-sized chapel where from twenty to thirty grown-ups could be comfortably seated. The altar stood at the north end, with folding chairs in front and neat it, so that with these closed, the place could be used for school purposes. With the doors closed it became a chapel, where the faithful of Missoula worshipped till the building of a church.

Early in November f the same year, 1873, the writer was assigned to Helena, his place at St. Ignatius being taken by Father L. Van Gorp, to whom fell also the spiritual care of the Sisters at Missoula. He visited them periodically for about three years, though they were visited occasionally also from St. Mary's and St. Michael's or Hell's Gate.

These periodical visits were indeed a great boon for both, sisters and people, but whilst sufficient perhaps for the latter, they were not so for the former. To be two, three weeks, ad sometimes a whole month without Mass or Holy Communion, proved to the sisters the hardest cross to bear. But this very difficulty had been foreseen and pointed out by Father Giorda, when discouraging, as premature, their going to Missoula. And since the stationing of a resident priest in the place did not exactly belong to him, but to the higher authorities in Europe, there was nothing left for the sisters but to put up, as best they could, with their lot, till some relief should be foredooming in God's own time. And come it did, and from a source undreamed of by any one. It is again history, and worth recording.

Although Hell's Gate had dwindled into nothing, services still continued to be held there, just as before, and this because there stood the church and the priest's house. It now came to pass, that with the surveying of that section by the Government, church, priest's residence and a neighbor's house, one and all, were found to be in the same forty. Though the Fathers had the first right of entry, owing to priority of occupancy and

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Improvements, theirs antedating the neighbor's by several years, Father Menetrey waived his right, and consented to the forty in question being entered as part of the man's claim, but, by mutual agreement, the man was to relinquish and deed over to the Fathers that fraction of the forty on which stood the church and residence. No sooner, however, had that good neighbor secured the patent for the ground than he ordered Father Menetrey off the premises bag and baggage, and no pleading, no entreaty availed to bring the sharper to a sense of equity and fairness.

As a consequence, Father Menetrey was now directed to move to Missoula, and make St. Patrick's Hospital his quarters, for the time being, while Father Folchi received instructions to report also thither, and thence attend Frenchtown. Thus, by God's disposition, the meanness of a man was instrumental in giving to Missoula resident priests, just as an accident and the broken arm of Mother Caron had given it Sisters.

Father Van Gorp had both buildings, church and rectory taken down and all the material hauled to Missoula. The timbers that had formed the priest's house were now sawed up for firewood, but those that went into the construction of the church were put again together, and set up near the hospital, made a suitable class-room for the boys. Sometime later it was moved to the Academy side, across the way, and has since been converted into an infirmary, for emergency cases among the schoolchildren.

Damaged by fire a short while ago, there it stands, dwarfed into a toy house by the palatial structures near and round it, but a silent witness of the progress that has been made.

The first baptism on record in the books of the Missoula church is that of Lucinda Pattee, daughter of David Pattee, whom Father Van Gorp baptized in the wee chapel of the Sisters, March 17, 1874. As e stated a little before, Fathers Menetrey and Folchi were the first priests to reside in Missoula. The latter, however, remained there hardly a year, and during the while had the spiritual care of the Frenchtown Catholics for his special missionary duty, whereas Father Menetrey, now

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alone, now assisted by one or another of his confreres, was the Pastor of Missoula for several years.

In the beginning of his pastorate Father Menetrey fenced in a cemetery site, a two-acre plot, or thereabouts, at the foot of the hill, just north of the town, but with no other title to the ground than occupancy and improvements. It is still serving its object as a resting place for the departed. Part of it, however, has been found ill-suited for graves, because quite rocky, save a thin crust of earth on the surface. Owing to this, and also to the fact that with the increase of the congregation, the cemetery would soon be inadequate, steps were taken by the writer, sometime later one, to have it enlarged by the addition of some seven acres to the original site. And furthermore, title to the whole plot was acquired and made secure by patent.

In 1877, the establishment of a military fort, some four miles to the southwest, while adding to the material prosperity of the town, increased somewhat, also, the congregation, several of the soldiers being Catholics. Some four years later the approach of the Northern Pacific Railway from both east and west began to bring into Missoula quite a number of new-comers, and now steps were taken by Father Menetery to build a church. For up to December, 1881, our Missoula Catholics had worshipped down at the Sisters', in the hospital chapel, as we related above.

The new church was opened and dedicated under the title of St. Francis Xavier, December 11, 1881. It was a frame structure, costing close to three thousand dollars. On its completion, Father Menetrey, who since his first coming to reside in Missoula had been quartered at the hospital, moved up to the church and roomed in the sacristy for some two years, that is, until he built a small residence that cost about $2,000.

Sometime after the erection of the new St. Patrick's Hospital, the old landmark that at one and the same time has served for church, hospital, school and Sisters' dwelling, was turned over toe the McCormick's, its original owners, who have moved it to the corner of Owen and Warren Streets. And there it stands, as it was years go, but minus the little porch over the front door. Strange to say, the little porch appears,

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somehow, even more conspicuous in the writer's mind by having ceased to be, than it did when extant!

In the summer 1879, Western Montana had its first Episcopal visitation. The Metropolitan of Oregon--at this time Administrator also of the Vicariate of Idaho, which took in Western Montana--deputed his Coadjutor, the Most Rev. Charles J. Seghers, to visit that whole jurisdiction. Accompanied by Father J. M. Cataldo, S. J., the Superior of these Missions, the distinguished Prelate came over the Coeur d'Alene Mountains by the Mullen Road, and tarried several days in Missoula County, visiting Frenchtown, Missoula and the two Indians Missions of St. Ignatius and St. Mary. he administered Confirmation in each of these places, except Missoula. The small percentage of Catholics in the community--hardly one to seven at this time--and also the fact that Father Giorda, who was empowered by Apostolic indult to administer that Sacrament with his jurisdiction, had confirmed eight persons there on July 4, 1875, account for Archbishop Seghers' finding no one to confirm on his first visit.

He returned in 1882, and on June 23 confirmed seven Missoula people in the little frame church.

On this second visit to Western Montana, the Archbishop and the superior of the Rocky Mountains Missions, Father J. M. Cataldo, S. J., entered into a mutual agreement, pursuant to which, as soon as could be, the Jesuit Fathers were to be relieved of the spiritual care of both Missoula and Frenchtown. This agreement, however, was subsequently modified with respect to Missoula, the fathers were to continue in the spiritual charge of this community, as will be seen more opportunely when we shall speak of the erection of the Helena Diocese.

Some two years after the second visitation of Archbishop Seghers, the little Missoula church witnessed a rather unusual and striking occurrence.

When speaking of the Deer Lodge Mission we referred to John Maguire importing Robert Ingersoll to deliver lectures through Montana. Bishop Brondel felt very indignant over the matter, and happening to be at the time in Missoula in the discharge of his pastoral duties, in an outburst of zeal one Sunday morning he denounced John Maguire, and excommunicated him

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by name from the altar and before a congregation. This created quite a sensation, not only in Missoula, but throughout the whole of Montana, and perhaps elsewhere in the West. The more so, that the subject against whom the censure had been fulminated was rather popular with the miners and western people in general. John Maguire's faith had become dormant, somewhat, at the time. But later on he seemed to repent of his course, and there appears to be no doubt that he was shriven before his death.

In June, 1888, Father Menetrey, whose health had begun to break down under the weight of years and cares, was relived from active missionary duty, and his charge now fell to Father Alexander Diomedi, S. J., whose shoulders were well fitted for the burden. For he is a man of grit and uncommon energy, or, to use a Western expression, a genuine "rustler," a can be seen by his work. He has put under roof a spacious an fine church edifice, in brick and stone, measuring 54 X 122 feet, outside dimensions, the largest and costliest church today for the whites in Montana. W say for "the whites"; as the church being erected at the Indian Mission of St. Ignatius, likewise of brick and stone, is on a somewhat larger scale, although by no means more than a few feet.

Doubtless the new Missoula church will be a lasting monument of Father Diomedi's zeal and enterprise, no less than of the earnestness and generosity of the people of the town and vicinity, who have generously cooperated in its erection. The cornerstone was blessed and laid August 19, 1891, by the Ordinary, who likewise, and but a little over one year later, on October 9, 1872, opened the new St. Francis Xavier for Divine service.

But though used continuously from this date, the interior remained unfinished, being simply roughcast, until it was frescoed and given the elaborate and artistic appearance which it presents today. Its paintings and mural decorations, a work of considerable magnitude and much admired are all from the brush of J. Carignano, a coadjutor Brother of the Society of Jesus, who devoted to the task some sixteen months of unremitting study and arduous labor. The fourteen Stations of the Cross, in oil, are also from his brush, and were executed

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by him under very peculiar and decidedly uninspiring circumstances for an artist. He painted them when chef at Gonzaga College, Wash., and whilst he was cooking for a community of over one hundred persons. Having screened off a little corner from the rest of the kitchen and turn it into a studio, he there spent some four years over these canvases, devoting in them every minute of time that he could possibly steal from his pans and pots.

Yet, despite these unfavorable conditions, the oils are not without artistic merit, and, though not entirely original with him in conception, they still manifest the ability of a true artist in their execution. And this the more so, when it is known that the Brother's work is the result of native talent, as he never had the opportunity and advantages of any professional training.

Here, incidentally, may also be mentioned that whilst handling the brush with more than ordinary skill, the Brother was likewise a noticeably quick worker and prolific in his art productions. For besides the work just spoken of, he has decorated with fescoings the large church at the Indian Mission of St. Ignatius, and several other churches and chapels in Idaho, Washington and Oregon; whilst single pieces by him or groups in oil are to be seen here and there, not only over altars, but in institutions, classrooms an even in private houses.

And now returning to St. Francis Xavier, if not quite an artistic jewel, as time and again intelligent visitors have been pleased to call it, it is, all in all, a devout and finished church, of which Missoula people have reason to be proud.

It is, therefore, to be hoped that its tasty and devotional character will not be detracted from by innovations and incongruities, such as misdirected devotion is seldom wont to bring into our church, at the expense not of good taste only, but also of piety itself. For after all, good taste is but conformity with order and the fitness of things, the lack of which, if anywhere repugnant, is never more so than in the realm of religion and piety. Since, directly occupied as these virtues are with the honor and service of god, where can order and the fitness of things be better demanded than in whatever belongs to them? It follows that whatever foes not harmonize with order, good taste of the fitness of things, is necessarily also at variance with

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true religion and piety, and can be nowhere more out of place than in God's own house. Still people seemingly pious and devout want not this, now that devotional object in a church, where no suitable place for it is to found. The result is that at times real oddities are on exhibition in some of our churches.

As too much light would have son damaged and ruined the fresco work, especially where exposed to the direct rays of the sun, another improvement became now necessary; the original plain windows had to be replaced by other of stained glass. And these are readily and cheerfully provided by the congregation at an outlay of some $1,600. Harmonizing with all the rest, the stained glass adds much to the completeness of the interior and set it off to the best advantage. Each window is memorial.

A pipe organ of moderate size, but first class and up to date in every particular, is amore recent addition tot he equipment of St. Francis Xavier. It is the make of Hook & Hastings, Boston, Mass., whose instruments are reckoned among the best in the country, and is actually a duplicate of the organ which at the Chicago World's Fair was awarded the First Prize for excellence. It has cost, set up and ready for use, nearly $6.000. Its action is pneumatic throughout, while the bellows are operated by a modern elect motor. The organ was purchased as a memorial of the Fiftieth Anniversary of the Definition of the Immaculate Conception.

We may well recall here and do recall with unalloyed pleasure the anniversary just referred to and its fitting celebration by our Catholic people of Missoula. Entering into the spirit of the occasion, they approached the Holy Table in goodly numbers, and with true and simple piety paid honor to God's Holy Mother. In the evening, the statue of Our Lady, escorted by fifty little girls in spotless white and carrying white lilies in their hands, was borne in procession within the church, and Benediction of the Blessed Sacrament closed the function.

A feature of the celebration was the lighting up of the church tower by electricity the evening of the vigil and the feast. The illumination was, indeed, remarkably conspicuous, it being seen from a considerable distance over the whole valley. Even non-Catholics were thus led into paying some honor to our Lady,

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if no more than by wondering at and admiring what Catholics were doing in her homage.

Still another improvement in the line of church furnishings, and the last to be mentioned, is a large new bell weighing a ton and something over, exclusive of mountings. It was cast by the St. Louis Bell foundry, St. Louis, Mo., and carries the following inscription:

LAURENTI, BENEDICTE, FRANCISCE, IONATI
O COELITES, MISSOULAE FAVETTE
LAUDO,. MONEO, FLORO
D. O. M.
VIVIS, DEFUNCTIS
QUAM AUREUM PASTORIS IN S. J. JUBILAEUM MIHI ATTULIT
LIBENS VITAM IMPENDO.

The inscription was suggested by the adjuncts of place, time, persons, to all of which it makes due reference. It is, therefore, historical, and we add here its meaning for the benefit of anyone who may have forgotten his Latin. In the first and second lines, St. Laurence and St. Benedict, whose names are given the writer in Baptism, then St. Francis Xavier, the Patron of the Church, and, lastly, St. Ignatius, the Founder of the Society of Jesus, are invoked in behalf of Missoula. In the third line, the bell is made to express its chief functions, celebrating feast days, warning the living, and mourning the dead. It further declares in the remaining lines that to the honor of God, the Best, the Greatest, as well as to the good of both the living and the departed, it gladly devotes the life or being which it received on the occasion of the Pastors Golden Jubilee, as a member of the Society of Jesus.

The last words bring out the fact that the purse, which friends tendered to Pastor on the fiftieth anniversary of his religious life, was employed in securing such an object which, whilst doing honor to God, should benefit also the community at large, but especially the members of the congregation, living and dead. The bell cost a little over $1,000, all incidental expenses included, and was blessed by the new Ordinary of the Helena Diocese, the Rt. Rev. J. P. Carroll, February 18, 1906.

Here let us note that with the installation of the new bell the old and smaller one did not end in the discard pale, nor go out

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of commission simply by being silenced. It was transferred to the Academy of the Sacred Heart, across the way, and has lost none of its sweet tome, except perhaps to the ear of some tardy and slothful youngster. It has been swinging and sounding all along as ever before, but now it summons the children to school, whereas it formerly called both the young and their elders to church.

Continuing our narrative, there comes before us something quite different from any of the happenings chronicled in the last few paragraphs, a sad occurrence indeed, that deeply grieved the whole congregation, to the shedding of tears on the part of several of its members. It was about this time that burglars entered St. Francis Xavier's in the stillness of the night and carried off what they thought of value. Forcing open one of the small windows in the basement, they ascended to the upper part of the building by the back stairway, which leads to the rear of the altar and to the sacristy. They took the chalice that served on ordinary days, and a ciborium that stood besides it on the vestment table, and with these, they took also the small britania box, contain large altar breads. The ciborium was filled particles, ready for consecration in the morning, it being the first Friday of the month, when a large number of devout people are wont to receive Holy Communion.

But the mot horrible part of the robbers' work was to break open the tabernacle--which they did from the rear--and to take and carry off ciborium and lunette with their sacred contents.

Good Brother Lynch, as he went to unlock the church shortly after five o'clock in the morning, beheld with horror what had been done in the night. Some large hosts were picked up from the floor, others on the steps of the back stairway and neat the window through which the burglar's had come in and made their exit. A pile of particles was found on the vestment table, and as these were more than either ciborium could contain, it was naturally inferred that the thieves had thrown there together on one pile the contents of both ciboriums. In this predicament there was no alternative but to consecrate the particles under condition, as the writer did at the next Mass.

On the sacrilegious outrage being announced to the congregation in the morning and again the following Sunday, not a few

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wept, and one of the members coming forward of his initiative, claimed the privilege of replacing, as he did, at his own expense, the sacred vessels that had been stolen. As an act of public reparation, the Blessed Sacraments was kept exposed a whole day during the week and this brought out a noticeable and edifying manifestation of faith from our people and emphasizing likewise their sorrow at the sad, deplorable occurrence.

The civil authorities found no clue to the perpetrators of the outrage. But there seemed to be no doubt that they were strangers and old hands at entering and desecrating churches for plunder. For, as reported by the public press at the time, several places of worship, all the way from the Pacific Coast to Montana, were entered and burglarized in similar fashion. Only a few days after the deed just recorded the same individuals or pals of theirs, gained an entrance into the Sisters' Academy across the street, bent, as it was generally believed, on plundering the chapel. Some of the Sisters became aware of the burglars being in the house, but were too frightened to stir. Unmistakable signs of the robbers' presence were found here and there in the hall and in some of the classrooms the next morning. But, somehow, they failed to locate the chapel and decamped the way they had entered, by one of the small windows in the basement.

What the burglars took from the church was never recovered, except the silk covering of one of the ciboriums. It was picked op some weeks after the burglary by some one who found it a short distance from the east end of the railroad bridge spanning the Rattlesnake.

It was about this time that San Francisco was visited y the destructive earthquake and consequent conflagration, which threatened its very existence. Even young people in far-off Montana had been much impressed by the appalling calamity and were often heard discussing it among themselves. It is what here in Missoula, over at St. Joseph's School, two little youngsters, between eight and nine, were doing one day, shortly after St. Francis Xavier's had been desecrated by burglars. One of the Sisters happened to overhear the lads and became quite interested in their discussion. "Yes, I do tell you," said one, "that what was done here in Missoula the other day was a much greater evil, a greater misfortune than the big earthquake and

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fire of San Francisco." "That cannot be," replied the other. "It is," insisted the first, "in San Francisco the hand of God was on men; here in Missoula, the hand of men was on God."

The little fellow had heard from the altar that the smallest venial sin is a much greater evil than any material misfortunes whatsoever, were it even the destruction of the whole world. Evidently, this truth of faith, utterly ignored by the vast majority, of our fellow-beings, had entered and struck root in the boy's mind.

But right here a world of explanation is in order, nay, demanded by the last few items, which, as the reader could not fail to notice, being down closer to date by some fifteen years the local history of the Missoula Church. Why this? And why such partial extension only, instead of bringing right up to date the fact what with the appearance of Indian and White in the Northwest, in 1894, the writer was assigned to duty in the state of Washington, where he spent several years, after which he was sent back to his former camping grounds in Montana. Put once more, at least partially and for a time, in touch with Montana happenings, he could incorporate them in their proper place, extending thus, as he did, the local narrative of the Missoula Mission. But to bring the whole book, or any other port even down to our own day was a task beyond the writer's power, shorn as he was of every facility to accomplish it. And this is what he as alluded to in the Preface of this Second Edition.

After this necessary explanation we may now proceed, or rather retrace our steps, since, first of all, we must return to the earlier or "ancient" history of the Missoula Church and close its narrative with a brief reference to its former dependencies.

With the closing of ST. Mary's Mission, whence not only the Flat Head Indians, but also the whites throughout the whole Bitter Root Valley were attended, the spiritual care of the latter passed to the Jesuit Fathers residing in Missoula, who now began to visit at stated times the principal centres, Florence, Stevensville, Hamilton and other smaller settlements, Lolo, Victor and Corvallis.

At Florence a frame structure that had been erected for a hall was purchased by Father Diomedi and converted into a

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place of Catholic worship. Bishop Brondel blessed it, naming it after St. Augustine.

Old St. Mary's is where the faithful of Stevensville and vicinity convene for Divine worship. Fifty years ago none but Indians met there to honor and praise God, their Creator and Savior. Thirty years later, a sprinkling of pale faces, a few straggling whites, appeared among the chlordane of the forest. Today the aborigine is no longer seen thereabouts and his church, together with his lands, are occupied by the white man. Since our first writing Stevensville has grown into a thriving community which, as years roll by, bids fair to keep growing.

Hamilton, beginning at the time of an entirely new community, whose beginning at the time of our first writing was quite recent, but ere long it may surpass many another place in this part of Montana. Father Diomedi, whose bodily eyes are weak and rather poor, but who is keen and far-sighted otherwise, has secured in the new and promising settlement a desirable site where a church will shortly be erected. And all this has come to pass since out fist writing. For, a we revise our first edition, Hamilton numbers some three thousand souls, and is become the chief and leading place of the whole Butter Root Valley. The name of Marcus Daly has been associated with that community from its first beginnings, and that remarkable man's activities and enterprise may be said to have largely contributed to its growth and development.

The Hamilton church has been named after St. Francis, the Poverello of Assisi. It is a good-sized frame structure, though peculiar, somewhat, in architecture. Hamilton has had a resident priest for some year, and, as a consequence, the various places which formerly were attended by the Jesuit Fathers from Missoula, are become part of his pastoral charge.

Another dependency was Bonner, which lies some eight miles east of Missoula, and where some forty Catholic families, mostly French Canadians, are living, the men being generally employed in the saw and planing mills, and sash factory established in that locality. It is only a few years hence that Father Loiseau, S. J., who had charge of and took great interest in that industrial settlement, erected there a neat frame church on ground kindly

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donated for the purpose by the Anaconda Cooper Mining Company. It has been named after St. Ann, and Catholic members of the community vied with each other to have it complete and furnished as best they could. Possibly because of the language, Bonner has become an annex of Frenchtown, whence it is regularly attended.

Horse Plains, which is not simply Plains, and Thompson Falls, both to the northwest, were also for sometime dependencies of the Missoula Mission. But they have ceased being such now a good long while, so long in fact that it is like ancient history to refer to them in this connection.

And no less like ancient history will appear at this date the following figures, which give the number of Baptisms and Marriages held in the Missoula Mission the last three years preceding the first appearance of Indian and White in the Northwest. They were taken at the time from the records of St. Xavier's and are as follows:

There now remains to resume and bring to completion the local history of the Frenchtown church, which we shall do in the next chapter.