Father Baraga's Mission Church

Father Baraga's Mission Church. . , The first Catholic Church in the Grand River Valley, St. Mary's Indian Mission at the Grand River Rapids, was dedicated just a few yards west of this spot by missionary Father Frederic Baraga on April 20, 1834. Baraga (1797-1858) had come here in September, 18333, the first resident priest in the area. The Odawa/Ottaawa Indians whom he had primarily come to serve lived on the west side of the river. Baraga first held services on this site in a large old fur storage shed belonging to trader Louis Campau. , During the winter of 1833-34, that building was skidded across the river to the east side on the ice by Barney Burton and others, and for many years was known as "The Old Yellow Warehouse." Meanwhile, Baraga set about having a suitable church built on land which the U.S. government had granted for the Catholic mission. The building, pictured here in a sketch from the Bureau of Indian Affairs, was 50 feet long, 30 feet wide, and 12 feet high. Father Baraga soon moved on to the north, eventually becoming the first bishop of the Upper Peninsula Diocese of Marquette. He is noted for his extensive work with the Odawa/Ottawa and Ojibwa/Chippewa peoples, including authoring the first grammars and dictionaries of their languages. His successor, Father Andreas Viszoczky (1796-1853), continued to use the chapel here until the church sold the 65 acres of land in 1847. He guided the mission into its present state as St. Andrew's Cathedral parish, and oversaw the building of a large river limestone church on the southeast corner of what is now Monroe Center and Ottawa. , By 1856, the German Catholics had become numerous enough to have a parish of their own, and acquired land at First and Broadway. On October 10, 1856, the new congregation, coincidentally also named St. Mary's, paid Richard Butterworth $23.75 for "moving of the church." At its new location, later the site of St. Mary's rectory, the old mission chapel was considerably refurbished. It was used as the parish church until 1873, then as a hall, a school, and a home for the sisters. In 1907, it was disassembled and rebuilt as a school for the new St. Anthony's parish at Richmond and Hamilton, then finally demolished in 1962 when that parish was relocated three miles to the west to serve the expanding city., Placed with grateful acknowledgment of , Bishop David J. Walkowiak , John A. Wisniewski , Kevin J. Vachon , Tim Brouwer , Edmund and Jacqueline Preston, and Family Archives of the Diocese of Grand Rapids , Easter Sunday, April 20, 2014 , The 180th anniversary of dedication, Grand Valley State University