St. Joseph Catholic Parish, Champion, Wisconsin 1862 – 2012 1 History of St. Joseph Catholic Parish, Champion In the 1850’s, times were very hard in the Country of Belgium. Over population had resulted in farms becoming smaller. The crops were suffering a reduction because of drought and diseases, including a severe potato blight (which lasted many years). Many farmers didn’t own their farmland, but depended on landlords for their income. Some of the workers depended on successful crops for their food, because for their labors they would receive a certain amount of a harvest. The peasants could not gain a decent living from the production of their land alone. So many of them found additional sources of income in rural industries such as distilling, brewing, sugar milling. Some home activities were cutlery, straw plaiting, and nail making. There was famine and epidemics of cholera and typhus, which caused many deaths. Some of the rural work force preferred to search elsewhere for more prosperous conditions. It is in this way immigration to the United States constituted a last hope. After Wisconsin became a state in 1848, the state government initiated a campaign to attract settlers. In 1851 a handbook called “The Emigrant’s Handbook and Guide to Wisconsin”, was circulated in Belgium. The campaign was advertised in European papers and urged people to move to Wisconsin, where land was cheap, along with freedom and opportunity. The major time period for Belgian Immigration was in 1855 and 1856, although many others came in later years. On May 18, 1853 the first Belgian Immigrants from Grez-Doiceau, in the province of Brabant, estimated at being 81 individuals, sailed from their homeland, heading toward the United States. The Immigrants had not made any decisions about their destination. Most of Wisconsin’s Belgians are from the Southern Provinces of Belgium are of Latin origin and speak Walloon (a very old form of French). The Flemish Belgians are from the Northern Provinces of Belgium are of German origin, and speak Flemish (a form of Dutch). Belgium does not have a language of its own. As it was, there was a bond of kinship between the Belgians and Hollanders, and the Belgian Immigrants of 1853 commonly sought Hollanders as neighbors. Therefore, on the ship, they became friends with the Hollanders, who were going to make their home in Wisconsin. They decided to join them. After braving several storms and sailing for 50 days, they landed in New York on 05 July 1853. The leader of this small group was a small farmer named Francois Petiniot. The heads of the other five families were Jean Martin, Phillip Hannon, Joseph Moreau, Etienne Detienne, Adrien Massy, Leopart Bodart, Joseph Jossart, Martin Paques, and J. B. Detienne. 1 When reaching Wisconsin, a child of Philip Hannon became ill and died. The Belgians made the journey to Green Bay for the funeral and burial. In Bay Settlement, Wisconsin, the Belgian Immigrants met Father Edward Daems, a French speaking Belgian Crozier Priest. (Father Daems is credited as being the founder of the Belgian Colony in Brown, Door, and Kewaunee Counties of Wisconsin.) Father Daems persuaded them to settle near Bay Settlement, where they would be near his church, and the French speaking community. The Belgian’s took his advice settling about ten miles northeast of Bay Settlement. They bought their land for $1.25 per acre, in lots of 40, 80, or 120 acres. Mr. Henrotin (Belgian council in Chicago) visited the Belgian colony. He wrote “The Belgian colonists have established themselves not far from Green Bay in Brown, Kewaunee and Door counties over an expanse of thirty to forty miles in vast forests along the shore of the Rev. Edward Francis Daems Green Bay. They have given the Belgian names of Grez-Daems, Rosieres Cesarville, Grand-Lez, Thiry Daems, Dykesville and New-Brussels to the different settlements. It is estimated there are about 10,000 Belgians in this colony and among these a few French-Canadian and Irish Families.” The area was called "Grez-Daems", from 1853 to 1862 after the Belgian Priest Father Daems, who is credited with being the founder of the Belgian Colony in Wisconsin. In 1862, the community became known as "Aux Premiers Belges" (The First Belgians). The same area was also known as Robinsonville, after Charles D. Robinson, editor of the Green Bay Advocate, an early newspaper started in 1846. The name Robinsonville was given prominence by Adele Brice’s apparitions of the Blessed Virgin Mary in 1858 which is now the site of Our Lady of Good Help Chapel in Robinsonville. At that time the mail was brought to the different offices in the country by horse. There was an office one mile south and one and a half miles west of the St. Joseph Church called Robinsonville after the postmaster, Mr. Robinson. The people, however, wanted the post office to be more centralized so a petition was sent to Washington, indicating the office should be in the store and tavern of Mr. Delvaux. Mr. Delvaux, however, didn’t want the office named after him. One day, when there was a crowd in the store, Sister Adele Brice, from the Chapel came in, and was asked what she thought about the name. She suggested the Sister Adele Brice name “Champion”. When asked why, she replied it was the name of a little village near Wavre in Belgium. There was a convent and school there which was conducted by the Ursuline Sisters, Adele had intended to join that sisterhood but could not since her parents immigrated to America. So the post office was called Champion. Pioneering always means suffering, loneliness, and poverty. It requires daring and initiative. The suffering of the Belgian Immigrants was unbelievable. Not being used to providing for harsh northern winters, their homes were completely unfit. Made roughly of logs and brush, the cracks in the walls and roofs freely admitted the harsh winter winds while their floors were nothing more than the ground itself. Besides the starvation, they faced the danger of freezing. Life for the women was not one of luxury and ease. Along with their daily chores of cooking, cleaning, making the families clothing, and taking care of the children. They had to work in the fields, preparing the soil for planting with the most primitive hand tools, carrying grain on their heads to the mill a distance of many miles, and preparing shingles for the market. 2 The first year, they suffered much from cholera and other ailments. Seven people had died that year. The immigrants had great optimism, and self-reliance. They looked upon the hardships as a challenge. In 1854, every little log house was crowded with new arrivals. However, with the arrivals came the deadly disease of Asiatic cholera. Many of the new emigrants died and among them the hospitable hosts. It was a horrendous disease. Strong men apparently well at night, would be found dead in the morning, their faces turned black and their eyes sunk into their sockets. Most of the victims were buried back in the woods, usually without coffins and without the rites of a church burial. Several years went by before they changed their methods of burial. Until they were provided with cemeteries of their own, men had to carry the dead in handmade coffins many miles to Bay Settlement for a Christian burial. The immigrants found they were faced with uncultivated lands covered with a dense forest. The entire country side was virgin woods without meadows or prairies. The soil was covered with enormous trees and still greater pines. The forest was so dense, the roots were interwoven and it was impossible to set a foot on bare ground. The Ground was so stony that it would be foolish to blast. However, the immigrants decided to stay because of the great trees. They thought they would make money on the oak and pine trees. In spite of fatigue, fevers, dysentery, and cholera, they set to work clearing their lands. As time went by, the lands were changed into rich farmland ready for sowing. The felled trees were transformed into shingles and transported to Green Bay, where they were sold for a good price. This trade permitted them to buy a few head of cattle and later farming equipment. With a mighty effort of will, the Immigrants transformed a wild country into a prosperous farming State. Due to the hardships of life of the early settlers, a church was not immediately built. In a letter written on July 5, 1855, by the Rev. John Perrodin (a missionary of Green Bay) to Rev. Charles Hanerum in Gottechain, Belgium, it is written: “No church has been erected as yet in any place, although petitions, for building a church and cemetery at Grez Daems have been forwarded to Mgr. Henri, Bishop of Milwaukee, in whose Diocese we are located.” (The Diocese of Green Bay was not founded until 1868). Rev. Perrodin also stated services were held in the house of Philip Hannon (whose child had died on the journey) at Grez Daems. By 1862, a church had been built on 5 acres of land donated by Jean Joseph Delveaux. St. Joseph "the mother of all the Belgian Parishes of the Door Peninsula" had been founded, named in honor of St. Joseph, the Patron Saint of Belgium. Its parishioners consisted of both Flemish and Walloon Belgians. The first parish records are the baptismal records dated September 21, 1862, of Celia Godi the daughter of Charles Godi and Stephanie LeLous, who was born on August 21, 1862, and M.J.