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Great Plains Quarterly Great Plains Studies, Center for

Winter 2000

The Influence of Willa Cather's French-Canadian Neighbors In Nebraska in Death Comes For The Archbishop and Shadows on the Rock

Kathleen Danker South Dakota State University, [email protected]

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Danker, Kathleen, "The Influence of Willa Cather's French-Canadian Neighbors In Nebraska in Death Comes For The Archbishop and Shadows on the Rock" (2000). Great Plains Quarterly. 2178. https://digitalcommons.unl.edu/greatplainsquarterly/2178

This Article is brought to you for free and open access by the Great Plains Studies, Center for at DigitalCommons@University of Nebraska - Lincoln. It has been accepted for inclusion in Great Plains Quarterly by an authorized administrator of DigitalCommons@University of Nebraska - Lincoln. THE INFLUENCE OF WILLA CATHER'S FRENCH .. CANADIAN NEIGHBORS IN NEBRASKA IN DEATH COMES FOR THE ARCHBISHOP AND SHADOWS ON THE ROCK

KATHLEEN DANKER

You see, there are all those early memories; one cannot get another set; one has but those. Shadows on the Rock'

~lla Cather's high regard for French tradi­ Comes for the Archbishop and Shadows on the tions and culture is reflected in many of her Rock as her French Catholic novels because of writings, including the novels 0 Pioneers! the heritage and faith of their main charac­ (1913), One of Ours (1922), The Professor's ters. Edith Lewis, Cather's long-time compan­ House (1925), Death Comes for the Archbishop ion, recorded that, for Cather herself, writing (1927), Shadows on the Rock (1931), and her the second of these two books served as a kind last, unfinished narrative set in A vignon. Of of continuation of the "Catholic feeling and these works, readers sometimes think of Death tradition" of the first. 2 French culture can be seen not only in the religious beliefs of the characters and the ar­ chitecture of their churches but in the domes­ tic: life Cather portrays in these two works. The devotion of the main characters to their families and to the traditional arts of garden­ Kathleen Danker teaches at South Dakota State University. She has published on the works of Elizabeth ing, preparing food, and keeping well-ordered Cook-Lynn, Linda Hasselstrom, and Willa Cather. households, and the zest with which they share Ms. Danker is currently working on translating the food, wine, stories, and celebrations with Winnebago trickster tales of the late Feliz White Sr. of friends and neighbors, reveal the influence of Winnebago, Nebraska. their Gallic background. Along with their descriptions of French Catholicism and culture, Death Comes for the [GPQ 20 (Winter 2000): 35-541 Archbishop and Shadows on the Rock are similar

35 36 GREAT PLAINS QUARTERLY, WINTER 2000 in that both appear to be exceptions to Cather's her pastor, John Mallory Bates, the rector of well-known statement that "most of the basic Grace Church in Red Cloud. material a writer works with is acquired before However, Cather's experience of pioneer the age of fifteen."3 It seems that the subjects life in Nebraska during her youth was not con­ and settings of these novels derive entirely fined to the town of Red Cloud. Indeed, it is from sources Cather encountered and places likely that some of the childhood memories she visited after leaving Red Cloud, Nebraska, that informed her writing of Death Comes for in 1890 at age sixteen: from historical texts, the Archbishop and Shadows on the Rock were from her study of literature, art, and music, more directly French. W oodress characterizes and from her adult travels in France, Quebec, Cather as "a Francophile since early child­ and the southwestern United States. hood" and cites as sources of this early attrac­ Therefore, it is something of a puzzle that tion stories she heard about France from Mrs. Cather referred to writing Death Comes for the Love in Virginia and Mrs. Wiener in Red Archbishop as "like a happy vacation from life, Cloud, novels she read by French authors, and a return to childhood, to early memories"4 and "the joie de vivre of the French Canadian settle­ that Edith Lewis, in describing the genesis of ment north of Red Cloud. "9 Shadows on the Rock, recalled that at her first This settlement of immigrants from the view of Quebec Cather was "overwhelmed by province of Quebec was located only four miles the flood of memory, recognition, surmise it northwest of the homestead where Cather and called Up."5 To what memories and recogni­ her family first lived in Nebraska, so Cather's tions do these accounts refer? acquaintance with it probably dates from her The architecture of Quebec no doubt re­ earliest years in the state. Considerably before minded Cather of that of northern France, but the age of fifteen, she could have begun to there are other possible interpretations of acquire memories and material from this source Lewis's remarks. Cather biographers E.K. about French Catholic pioneers and their Brown and James Woodress have noted that church, clergy, community, and traditions on both Death Comes for the Archbishop and Shad­ which she could draw to enrich her later writ­ ows on the Rock reflect Cather's continuing ings about the French experience in North interest in pioneer experience such as she first America. encountered in Nebraska, what Brown calls Between the mid-1870s and mid-1890s, "the story of man's capacity to establish do­ over sixty French-Canadian families, prima­ minion over the immutable."6 Brown also feels rily from villages around Montreal, emigrated that Cather's depiction of Quebec and its in­ to homesteads in an area of south central Ne­ habitants in Shadows on the Rock is colored by braska straddling the county line between her nostalgia for the family life she had known northwestern Webster and northeastern as a child, that the "novel in which Willa Franklin counties, close to the head of the Cather traveled farthest from Red Cloud drew Little Blue River. Part of a widespread move­ most of its emotional power from her memo­ ment to the United States from the province ries of life there."7 of Quebec in the nineteenth century, they left Similarly, L. Brent Bohlke has written that their country primarily because of a scarcity of "although [Death Comes for the Archbishop] is land and employment opportunities.lo set in the American Southwest, it has many One such early settler, Desire Genereux, deep roots in the Nebraska of Cather's early came to Nebraska in 1874 from the vicinity of years."8 In particular, Bohlke believes Cather's St. Ambroise de Kildare in Quebec. He made portrayal of Bishop Latour in the novel to be the last part of the trip in a covered wagon in influenced by her admiration and affection for which he continued to live until he laid claim two Episcopalian clergymen: her bishop, the to a homestead south of the Little Blue River Right Reverend George Allen Beecher, and in Webster County's Harmony township. CATHER'S FRENCH-CANADIAN NEIGHBORS 37

Genereux's wife, Cordelia, and oldest child, edition for "Alphonsine") indicates that she Joseph, came to join him the next year, and he had learned at least some of them orally.15 shortly thereafter built a blacksmith shop and There were also French Canadians around a sod house. By 1883, when nine-year-old Wheatland named Uklid, Cecelia, Clutilda, Willa Cather moved with her family from Vir­ Pierre, Jean Baptiste, and Alphonse, the same ginia to neighboring Catherton township, or variants of names that Cather used for fic­ Genereux had constructed a frame house for tional characters in Shadows on the Rock. 16 his growing family, and there were about thirty­ One of the most striking aspects of Cather's five other French-Canadian families in the treatment of the French Canadians in 0 Pio­ area. Many homesteaded close to Genereux in neers! is her picture of French community and a settlement that came to be called Wheatland personal life ordered around the Catholic after the name of the nearest post office.ll Church-its faith, its celebrations, its build­ How well did Willa Cather get to know her ings, and its clergy. Historical accounts, church French-Canadian neighbors? There is little records, newspaper files, and family stories direct evidence. She told an interviewer in about the French Canadians in Nebraska re­ 1915 that as a child she spent time visiting veal the historical bases of this aspect of the with the immigrant families in her area and novel. These accounts also depict religious would ride home in what she termed "the most values and cultural traditions similar to ones unreasonable state of excitement," feeling as Cather portrayed again in Death Comes for the if she "had got inside another person's skin."12 Archbishop and Shadows on the Rock. And in an essay published in the Nation in Both of these later novels emphasize the 1923, she wrote that on Sundays during her importance of the church and clergy, espe­ youth it was possible to drive to churches where cially French clergy, to Catholics in frontier services were conducted in Swedish, Danish, societies. In Death Comes for the Archbishop, Norwegian, German, or Czech, or to "go to Bishop Latour organizes a new vicariate in New the French Catholic settlement in the next Mexico, an area of the Southwest that has county and hear a sermon in French."!3 When long been neglected by Rome. Similarly, Fa­ Cather died, the town newspaper in that settle­ ther Vaillant is called to serve the gold rush ment printed an announcement of her death camps of Colorado where "young men were that said she had been "well known by some of adrift in a lawless society without spiritual the pioneers in this community. As a young guidance" and "old men died from exposure girl she visited many homes in the French, and mountain pneumonia, with no one to give German, Bohemian and Scandinavian com­ them the last rites of the Church."17 The two munities."14 men succeed in laying the foundations of strong Beyond this meager information, however, Catholic dioceses in these areas through tire­ there is indirect evidence that Cather was quite less work and dedication and because, as a familiar with the French Canadians living in Spanish cardinal and an American bishop Webster and Franklin Counties. This evidence agree in the novel's prologue, French priests appears in the picture she gives of the village make the best missionaries, being "great orga­ of Sainte-Agnes and its inhabitants in her 1913 nizers" (9). novel 0 Pioneers! Cather took the majority of In Shadows on the Rock, Cather symbolizes the French names she used in this novel, in­ this French ability to create an ordered spiri­ cluding those of Amedee Chevalier, Xavier tual life for the faithful in an untamed envi­ Chevalier, Hector Baptiste Chevalier, Mo'ise ronment in the person of Quebec's Bishop Marcel, Raoul Marcel, and Doctor Paradis, Laval. When he faithfully rises from his bed from a mix of first and last names of actual every day to ring the bell for five o'clock mass, inhabitants of the area; and her use of pho­ the old bishop begins "an orderly progression netic spellings (e.g., "Alphosen" in the 1913 of activities and [holds] life together on the 38 GREAT PLAINS QUARTERLY, WINTER 2000 rock, though the winds lashed it and the bil­ Father Rhullier left in 1884, and St. Ann's lows of snow drove over it" (lOS). reverted to being a mission. In 1885, its pa­ Cather describes the church of Sainte­ rishioners created a record of the importance Agnes in 0 Pioneers! as giving similar mean­ they placed on the services of the clergy when ing and order to the life of the young seventeen of them signed a letter to their French-Canadian farmer Amedee Chevalier. bishop requesting that another French-speak­ It is "the scene of his most serious moments ing pastor be sent to them as soon as possible. and his happiest hours. He had played and They pointed out that there were now forty­ wrestled and sung and courted under its shadow two Catholic families and eight single men ... had proudly carried his baby there to be (almost all of them French Canadian) in the christened" (226). This depiction in the novel parish, that they lived thirty-five miles from of the importance of the Catholic Church to the nearest priest in Hastings without good the lives of the French Canadians in Nebraska telegraph or rail connections, and that "people is true to life. The church and missionary in such a situation could die without the Sac­ priests that served these settlers played an es­ raments."Zl sential role in their community. Like Father Vaillant, who as Bishop of Den­ Like Father Duchesne in 0 Pioneers!, who ver sleeps on a mattress of straw and takes his comments in French on Marie Shabata's suc­ meals on oilcloth-covered planks (Death, cess at telling fortunes for a church fair, most 260), Bishop Latour, who discovers his epis­ of the priests who served in the early years of copal residence in Santa Fe to be "an old the parish spoke the language of their parish­ adobe house, much out of repair" (Death, 33), ioners. When Wheatland became an indepen­ and Bishop Laval, who lives "in naked pov­ dent parish in 1880, it received as its first erty," having given away his possessions and resident pastor a French-speaking clergyman, revenues to needy people and parishes (Shad­ Rev. Emmanuel Rhullier. Prior to that time, a ows, 73), the early priests of St. Ann's en­ missionary from Hasti,pgs, Nebraska had trav­ dured rough conditions and sacrificed their eled to the area around twice a year to say personal comfort and fortunes for the good of mass in Desire Genereux's sod house. With the parish. the coming of Father Rhullier, the families in Father Rhullier received a salary of around the area built the first Saint Ann's church twelve dollars per month in 1883, lived in the (originally spelled Sainte Anne) at Wheatland tiny church, and ate his meals at the Genereux in 1880. A 20- by 30-foot frame structure, it farm. His successor, Rev. O. M. Turgeon, also was erected on a windswept prairie hill, part of boarded with parishioners and lived in the five acres Genereux donated to the diocese18 church until he built himself a sod house in (79). 1886. At the same time, he enlarged the church This small church became the focus around building, had a confessional made, and bought which the French-Canadian community grew. a bell. The next pastor, Rev. S. Arpin, was In it, babies were baptized, first communions given a salary of approximately twenty dollars and confirmations were celebrated, marriages a month in 1888 out of which he paid church were performed, and funerals were held. 19 In as well as private expenses. He also loaned the 1885, the post office was renamed St. Ann church $100 of his own money which was never and transferred to a general store owned by repaidY Similarly, around 1891, Rev. E. Jean Baptiste LaPorte that was located near Cusson and his relative Francois Payette prom­ the church. In addition to this store and ised to provide what the parishioners could Genereux's blacksmith shop, the Wheatland/ not raise to build a new frame St. Ann's church St. Ann community also boasted a doctor who in the nearby town of Campbell. Father Cusson practiced out of a small office on an adjoining said that "he did not care whether the money farm. zo was ever going to be paid back as it was well CATHER'S FRENCH-CANADIAN NEIGHBORS 39 employed for the honor of God in the successor, Father Arpin, did not say mass in Campbell church."23 this new building; it was used thereafter as a Moving the location of St. Ann's church to social hall, perhaps for functions like the sup­ Campbell had been a matter of controversy in per, fair, and auction described in 0 Pioneers! the parish since 1886. At that time, the as taking place in the basement of the church Burlington and Missouri Railroad had bypassed of Sainte-Agnes. 27 the Wheatland/St. Ann settlement as a site People from the Wheatland area, some of for a depot as it expanded its tracks westward whom Cather likely knew, may have regarded along the south side of the Little Blue River. Father Turgeon in the same way that she de­ Instead, it established a station just over the scribes Euclide Auclair feeling about Bishop Franklin County line to the northwest of de Saint-Vallier in Shadows on the Rock: "He Wheatland and named the new village that did not doubt the young Bishop's piety but he grew up around it Campbell after a railroad very much doubted his judgment. He was rash superintendent. Campbell soon had a sizable and precipitate, he was volatile .... He liked number of French-Canadian residents but was to reorganize and change things for the sake of never entirely French. From its beginnings, it change, to make a fine gesture. He destroyed was comprised of around a third French Cana­ the old before he had clearly thought out the dians and a third German Russians, with the new" (122). remaining third made up of Scandinavians, Like Father Turgeon of St. Ann's, Bishop Irish, Czechoslovakians, Americans from back Latour in Death Comes for the Archbishop en­ East, and others.24 Nonetheless, it is clearly counters difficulties in enforcing his pastoral Campbell, rather than the predominately authority. When he first reaches Santa Fe, the French Wheatland, that Cather used as the seat of his diocese, "his flock [will] have none model for the village of Sainte-Agnes in 0 of him" until he goes to fetch his credentials Pioneers! from the Bishop of Durango (20). Later, when After 1886, Father Turgeon and some pa­ the Mexican priests Padre Martinez and Fa­ rishioners living north of the Little Blue River ther Lucero form their own schismatic church (a bridge had been built at Campbell) came rather than accept his reforms, most of their out in favor of moving the church to the new congregations follow them in defying the town, while those south of the river, including French bishop (159). those at Wheatland, opposed it.25 From the The cathedral that Bishop Latour builds in resulting dispute, Cather may have first learned Death Comes for the Archbishop was modeled that the establishment of the Catholic Church on the French-style cathedral constructed by in frontier areas entailed disagreements and the historical Bishop Lamy in Santa Fe. But power struggles such as she later described in before Cather learned of the existence of this Death Comes for the Archbishop and Shadows on cathedral or of Bishop Laval's seminary in the Rock. She must have known about the con­ Quebec, she was aware, from the example of troversy embroiling the French-Canadian the parish of St. Ann in Nebraska, what a community because it was reported in the Red strong significance church buildings held for Cloud Webster County Argus on 25 August pioneer Catholic communities and clergy. She 1887, which stated that the situation had "cul­ knew from her youth how much drama was minated in a small riot ... when the priest had involved in establishing the house of God in a about a dozen of his parishioners arrested on new land. the charge of assault."26 The story of church construction in St. Father Turgeon went ahead and built a new Ann's parish continued after Cather left the church in Campbell in 1887, but the majority area to attend college in 1890, but it is clear of his parishioners refused to attend it, and he from her description of the architecture of the left St. Ann's before the year was over. His church of Sainte-Agnes in 0 Pioneers! that 40 GREAT PLAINS QUARTERLY, WINTER 2000

FIG. 1. New Saint Ann's church and rectory, 1910. From Eglise Sainte Anne Centennial]ubilee, 1883-1983. Campbell, Nebraska: n.p., 1983, p. 6.

she kept up her acquaintance with St. Ann's this problem, attendance at mass fell off to the when she came back to Red Cloud for lengthy extent that in November 1896, Father Santerre summer visits. When Father Cusson success­ locked up the church and parsonage and went fully accomplished the move into town in the back to Canada. Before leaving, he entrusted early 1890s, the Wheatland church was dis­ some of the church and household goods to mantled and its lumber used to construct a the care of an area farmer, parishioner Alexis parsonage beside a new frame church in Forest. Four months later, Rev. August Rausch Campbell. The site of the Wheatland church received permission from the Bishop to re­ reverted back to Desire Genereux, but most of cover these articles from Forest. 29 This retrieval it was purchased from him shortly thereafter is reminiscent, in miniature, of the scene in to become St. Ann's Cemetery.28 In 0 Pio­ Death Comes for the Archbishop in which Fa­ neers!, Cather describes this cemetery, where ther Vaillant "restore[dl to God" parapherna­ Amedee Chevalier's friends see Pierre Seguin lia of the mass which has been kept for digging the young man's grave, as "the grave­ generations in the safekeeping of a family of yard half a mile east of the town [where] the Pima Indian converts in Arizona (207). first frame church of the parish had stood" About 1902, Father Rausch convinced his (227). congregation, which had grown to sixty-five The next two French pastors at St. Ann's, families, nearly all of them French Canadian, Rev. Louis Poitras and Rev. F. X. Santerre, to replace Father Cusson's frame structure with like Father Vaillant in Colorado, ran into dif­ a large red-brick church, one intended "for ficulty over church finances. As a result of the future," as Bishop Latour says of his plans CATHER'S FRENCH-CANADIAN NEIGHBORS 41 for his cathedral (Death, 244). Father Rausch stained glass windows and stations of the cross, apparently was like Cather's Father Vaillant titled in French, adorn the walls."34 This new in his ability to endear himself to his flock. building, inscribed "Eglise Sainte Anne" over Parishioners described him as a "kindly old the front door, was finished in 1910. pastor," who "left a good and enduring record Cather could have used either the first or of kind deeds and fine accomplishments." Like the second brick St. Ann's church in Campbell Father Rhullier and others of his predecessors, as the model for that of Sainte-Agnes in 0 and like the priests in Death Comes for the Pioneers!, which she describes as a "high, nar­ Archbishop and Shadows on the Rock, he not row, red-brick building, with tall steeple and only served his own parish but engaged in pe­ steep roof, [under which] the little town of riodic journeys out to minister to missions Sainte-Agnes was completely hidden away at without resident priests.3D the foot of the hill" (189). She would have Misfortune seemed to plague Father had ample time to visit the first church in Rausch's new church, however. In October either 1905 or 1907 during the summer months 1903, its general contractor, Louis Soucie, that she spent in Red Cloud.35 She could have was killed when he fell from a scaffold while seen the second church in the summer of 1912 constructing the steeple.3! Father Rausch him­ during the five-week visit to Red Cloud in self died in January 1904 shortly before the which, watching a wheat harvest, she was in­ church was completed and was buried within, spired with the idea for the story of Emil and like Bishop Latour in his cathedral. Also like Marie's ill-fated love.36 Latour, who in his old age dictated informa­ Although the church on which Cather tion about the early missions of his diocese, modeled the one in 0 Pioneers! was not built "facts which he had come upon by chance until after she was an adult, some of what she and feared would be forgotten" (Death, 276), describes happening in it dates from her child­ Father Rausch in 1898 wrote a history of St. hood. The bishop's visit to Sainte-Agnes to Ann's which preserved a record of the early administer the sacrament of confirmation is days of the parish for later generations.32 apparently based on an occasion that took In January 1909, five years after Father place in 1881 when Bishop James O'Connor Rausch's death, fire destroyed the St. Ann of Omaha, the Apostolic Vicar of the recently church and parsonage. All that Rev. J. A. created vicariate of Nebraska, traveled to the Sirois, the pastor at the time, was able to res­ first, frame church of St. Ann at Wheatland to cue from the flames were the blessed sacra­ confirm twenty-five French-Canadian adults ment and some church records, perhaps and children.37 This 1881 confirmation cer­ including Father Rausch's history, which, at emony was a memorable event in the early any rate, survived. The parishioners, aided by days of St. Ann's, and it seems likely that some of their non-Catholic neighbors, began Cather may have heard about it as a child at once to rebuild. Father Sirois announced, soon after her arrival in Webster County in "Far from being discouraged, we look forward 18B3. to the day when a new church, more beautiful Cather set her confirmation ceremony in even than the former one, shall rear its spire the late 1890s in a red-brick village church, proudly above the town of Campbell."33 the prototype of which was not actually built According to a local history, "the rebuild­ until the twentieth century. Her model for the ing of the church began immediately on the occasion probably was the 1881 confirmation same walls that remained and the sacristies, ceremony in Wheatland because of the detail larger sanctuary and a brick tower were added. of the bishop's carriage being escorted into It was built on a French model and on the plan Sainte-Agnes. In 1881, Bishop O'Connor of a Latin Cross. A graceful spire circled by 4 could have taken the train from Omaha only smaller spires adorns the belfry. Beautiful as far as Blue Hill, a village some seventeen 42 GREAT PLAINS QUARTERLY, WINTER 2000

miles to the east and north of Wheatland. son, and delicate perceptions all have their Railway service to Campbell was completed effect; and that [on the frontier] a man of much six years later in 1887, shortly after the town rougher type would have served God well itself was founded, so an episcopal visit taking enough" (Death, 253-54). place after that date would not have required Like Bishop Latour's, Bishop O'Connor's travel by carriage.38 vicariate was enormous. From 1876 to 1885, One of Cather's most vivid visual images in while he was Apostolic Vicar, this see extended o Pioneers! is that of "the cavalcade of forty from the Missouri River west and north to French boys who ... out among the wheatfields include both of the Dakotas, Wyoming, and in the morning sun ... [on] galloping hoofs Montana, as well as Nebraska. Bishop ... five miles east of Sainte-Agnes ... met the O'Connor not only frequently visited small bishop in his open carriage attended by two rural parishes to administer confirmation, but priests. Like one man the boys swung off their in his first year as vicar, accompanied by a hats in a broad salute, and bowed their heads Jesuit priest, he made a hazardous 4000-mile as the handsome old man lifted his two fingers round-trip journey by rail, stage coach, open in the episcopal blessing. The horsemen closed wagon, and foot to the most remote part of his about the carriage like a guard" (225-27). In terrirory-the Flat Head Indian Mission of Death Comes for the Archbishop she creates a Saint Ignatius in western Montana. There he strikingly similar scene. When Bishop Latour was visited by a continual stream of Salish­ goes to make an official call on Padre Martinez speaking tribesmen. One of the chiefs offered in Taos, Cather writes that the padre and "a to provide an escort for his trip home but with­ cavalcade of a hundred men or more, Indians drew the offer when he was informed that the and Mexican, [rode] out to welcome their distance was over 2000 miles.39 Bishop with shouting and musketry. As the If Cather did hear stories in her youth like horsemen approached, Padre Martinez him­ this about Bishop O'Connor, perhaps they self ... rode up to the Bishop and reining in helped engender her abiding fascination with his black gelding, uncovered his head in a pioneer Catholic churchmen. When later she broad salutation, while his escort surrounded read about the missionary journeys and expe­ the churchmen and fired their muskets into riences of Bishops Lamy, Machebeuf, and the air" 041-42). Although each is specific to Laval, they would have seemed, in some ways, the narrative in which it appears, the two pas­ familiar. Perhaps Cather even drew on memo­ sages contain distinct correspondences that ries of stories about Bishop O'Connor's con­ may have had their genesis in an oral account firmation visit to St. Ann's when she created of Bishop O'Connor's 1881 visit to Wheatland her description of Bishop Latour's sojourn in told to Cather in her youth by parishioners of Agua Secreta, where he "performed marriages St. Ann's. and baptisms and heard confessions and con­ It is possible that Cather may have heard firmed until noon" (Death, 30). more than this one story from her Catholic Why did Cather set her fictionalized ac­ neighbors concerning the learned, aristocratic, count of Bishop O'Connor's confirmation handsome Bishop O'Connor who in 1876 had ceremony in a building based on the early­ helped found the American Catholic Quarterly twentieth-century brick church in Campbell Review in Pennsylvania before reluctantly ac­ rather than on the frame St. Ann's at cepting the vacant see in Nebraska. Of him it Wheatland where it actually occurred? Per­ could be said, as Cather later wrote about haps she made this change because there was Bishop Latour, that "it would have seemed little either impressive or distinctively French that a priest with [his] exceptional qualities about the earlier rude wooden structure, while would have been better placed in some part of the brick church was an imposing edifice based the world where scholarship, a handsome per- on a French design. She writes that Sainte- CATHER'S FRENCH-CANADIAN NEIGHBORS 43

FIG. 2. St. Ann's altar, Christmas 1945. Top Center: statue of St. Ann with child Mary. Right: statue of St. Joseph with child Jesus . Left: statue of Mary . From Eglise Sainte Anne Centennial]ubilee, 1883-1983. Campbell, Nebraska: n.p., 1983, p. 7.

Agnes "looked powerful and triumphant there edifice. Cather could have used the generosity on its eminence ... and by its position and of the French-Canadian congregation as a setting it reminded one of some of the churches model for that of the Mexicans who made built long ago in the wheat-lands of middle donations to Father Vaillant's church in Den­ France" (211). In Death Comes for the Arch­ ver. Like them, dozens of St. Ann's parishio­ bishop, Cather again celebrates the building of ners dug into their pockets to sponsor a French church in the New World by her stained-glass windows. They held an ice cream positive portrayal of Bishop Latour/Lamy's party and a church fair like the one in 0 Pio­ choice of French Midi-Romanesque architec­ neers!, netting some $375. The altar society ture for his cathedral in Santa Fe. This was a raised over $650. Even the children in the preference that dismayed her friend and fel­ Sodality of the Children of Mary and the low writer Mary Austin, who advocated the Guardian Angel Society made contributions.41 local Mexican culture and architecture.4o The statues installed in the new church The church rebuilt in Campbell in 1910, indicate how devoted members of this French­ which still serves the parish today, reveals a Canadian community were to the Holy Fam­ great deal about the character and beliefs of ily, an extended Holy Family including the the community that created it. Previous divi­ saint for which the parish had been named in sions had been forgotten as parishioners ral­ 1880. A large statue of St. Ann with the child lied to contribute their time and money to Mary was placed high on the center of the tall, rebuilding, expanding, and furnishing this beautifully carved white and gilt altar and, as 44 GREAT PLAINS QUARTERLY, WINTER 2000 late as the 1940s, the priest and parishioners groups were moving, families and friends in in Campbell "had great faith in St. Anne's little flocks, all going toward the same goal,­ healing power and ... were constantly praying the doors of the church, wide open and show­ the novena in her honor."42 Cather may well ing a ruddy vault in the blue darkness" (113). have been reminded of this statue of St. Ann Bernice Slote wrote that to the young Willa when she saw the one in the church of Notre Cather "the music of organ and voices at the Dame de la Victoire in Quebec, which she Catholic Church was art-beautiful and rich describes in Shadows on the Rock (65-67).43 with the past."45 The architecture, altar, win­ Below the statue of St. Ann in Campbell, dows, and statues of St. Ann's, as well as its on either side of the altar, were another figure music, may have been early sources of the con­ of Mary and one of Joseph holding the infant nection Cather drew between art and religion, Jesus. This grouping is reminiscent of the little a theme she later elaborated in Death Comes chapel kept by Madame Pommier in her home for the Archbishop and Shadows on the Rock in on Holy Family Hill in Shadows on the Rock her descriptions of the reactions of her char­ which she shows to Cecile and Jacques, ex­ acters to churches, statues, paintings, medals, plaining to them, "Monseigneur Laval himself and music. When Cecile Auclair and her friend has told me that there is no other place in the Jacques study the altar of the Notre Dame de world where the people are so devoted to the la Victoire, their "own church ... the church Holy Family as here in our own Canada. It is of childhood," they are comforted to think something very special to us" (10 1). that "the Kingdom of Heaven looked exactly It seems probable that it was among the like this from the outside," while the glow of parishioners of St. Ann's in Nebraska that candlelight on the painted flowers of the statue Cather first became aware of this French-Ca­ of Sainte Anne inspires Jacques to ask, "Cecile, nadian attachment to the Holy Family and, all of the saints in this church like children, especially, to the holy mother Mary, who plays don't they?" (Shadows, 63-67). Similarly, Fa­ such an important role in the spiritual lives of ther Latour in Death Comes for the Archbishop Bishop Latour and Father Vaillant in Death gives the old Mexican charwoman Sada a sil­ Comes for the Archbishop. There were two more ver medal of Mary to serve as a "physical sign large statues of Mary on display at the front of of Love" and, kneeling beside her in church, St. Ann's in Campbell, one of them an almost feels "the preciousness of the things of the life-sized pieta donated by Alexis Forest and altar to her who was without possessions; the his wife. tapers, the image of the Virgin, the figures of Versions of "Ave Maria," the solo piece that the saints, the Cross that took away indignity Cather has Raoul Marcel perform at the con­ from suffering and made pain and poverty a firmation mass in 0 Pioneers! , continued to be means offellowship with Christ" (217, 219). featured at St. Ann's at midnight mass on Of Quebec, Cather wrote in Shadows on the Christmas Eve at least through the 1950s, when Rock, "When an adventurer carries his gods it was sung by Carmelita LaPorte Danker, the with him into a remote and savage country, granddaughter of Louis Soucie, the general the colony he founds will, from the beginning, contractor who had lost his life building the have graces, traditions, riches of the mind and original brick church. In the early to mid-twen­ spirit" (98). She could well have seen an ex­ tieth century, just about everyone in town, ample during her youth of this richness of tra­ Protestants included, would attend midnight dition and spirit in the French-Canadian Christmas Mass at St. Ann's to hear the beau­ settlement she knew in Nebraska. United by a tiful music.44 The experience of going to this common language, religion, and culture, this church on a cold and snowy Christmas Eve in family-oriented rural and village community Campbell was very like the Christmas Eve continued many of its French ways into the scene in Shadows on the Rock in which "black second and third generations. According to CATHER'S FRENCH-CANADIAN NEIGHBORS 45 one local history, these settlers "retained much in the Campbell/ Wheatland area were large, of their French-ness, the chic and poise of the close, and interrelated. Between 1895 and Old Country, although their roots were sev­ 1910, for instance, four of Desire and Cordelia eral hundred years and many generations sepa­ Genereux's eleven children married four of rated from France."46 the thirteen children of Isreal and Adelle Father Rausch's account of his parish writ­ Chartier, who lived three miles to the north­ ten in 1898 states that "the people of St. Ann east. According to one of their descendants: receive the Sacraments often but all the Ca­ "At that time, it was almost unheard of for the nadian French, young and old insist on mak­ French not to marry French."48 ing their confessions only in their French Joseph Genereux and Eliza Chartier, the language. Many of the children do not go to first of these couples to marry, were said to be school at all so do not know any English, and "very devoted to their community, their therefore the elements of the Catechism are church, and their family. Eliza was very proud held in French repeatedly, just as well as the of her French heritage .... [One of her sons sermons in French are as necessary as in En­ said] that his mother always asked him if his glish."47 girlfriend was French, and then asked if she Along with their language and religion, the was Catholic."49 When they started out their French Canadians in Nebraska also clung to married life farming in the Campbell area, French traditions in their domestic and social Joseph and Eliza Genereux lived in a lean-to lives: in their housekeeping, gardening, food with dirt floors and had to make do with mea­ preparation, generosity, and celebrations. ger resources. When other meat was scarce, They enjoyed singing, fiddle playing, danc­ they lived on quail, prairie chicken, and, like ing, making and drinking wine, entertaining, the Auclairs in Shadows on the Rock, doves. and other customs brought with them from French Canadian families in this area preserved Canada. Their love of tradition did not neces­ meat for the winter the same way the Auclairs sarily conflict with their pioneering spirit, did doves, by packing them in tallow or lard.50 however, and a number of them were known Eliza likely learned how to keep house from for their enterprise and openness to innova­ her mother, Adelle, who appears to have been tion. When Cather wrote about some of these similar to Cecile Auclair and her mother in same types of traits and customs in her depic­ Shadows on the Rock in the use she made of the tions of French characters, culture, and beliefs tools of domesticity to create civilized family in Shadows on the Rock and Death Comes for the life on the frontier. Madame Chartier made Archbishop, she may well have drawn on her all the family's clothes, wove carpets, and knowledge of her Nebraska neighbors. served as a local midwife. She also helped pre­ Veneration of the Holy Family among the serve the family's food. "A week before New Nebraska French was just one manifestation Year's, all of the family would get together to of a love of family that could also be seen in slaughter hogs. They scalded them in an iron their secular lives. They were like Father kettle and scraped off the hair. The celebra­ Vaillant in Death Comes for the Archbishop, tion began on New Year' s Eve and usually who remained attached throughout his life to lasted for three or four days," during which his sister in France, Pierre Charron in Shadows they would "sing their old French songs."51 on the Rock, for whom "the family was the first According to a history of the community: and final thing in the human lot," one "en­ grafted with religion" (174), and Amedee New Year's was the most important social Chevalier in 0 Pioneers!, who extolled mar­ holiday of the year. The French had parties ried life as "the greatest thing ever" and hoped and dances on New Year's Eve, with every­ to "bring many good Catholics into this world" one participating ... families within the (145). Many of the French-Canadian families community provided music with their 46 GREAT PLAINS QUARTERLY, WINTER 2000

FIG. 3. Four members of the Desire Genereux family married four members of the Isreal Chartier family. Back row (left to right): Charles Qenereux and Aurore (Chartier) . Second row: Alfred Chartier and Stephanie (Genereux) , Pat Genereux and Mary (Chartier), andloe Genereux and Eliza (Chartier) . Front row, parents : Desire Genereux and Mary Louise (Soucie) and Isreal Chartier and Adelle (Guillotte) . From Along and Beyond the Little Blue, Campbell, Nebraska: Campbell Centennial Book Committee, 1986, p. 158.

fiddles and other instruments, spelling each vided the music for the French-Canadian wed­ other off during the evening so that every­ ding dances in Nebraska, which were "joyous body could dance, the performers splitting occasions" sometimes lasting as long as two the pot of pennies the non-performing ones days. 53 In 0 Pioneers!, Marie Shabata badly contributed. Although few of the French­ wants her husband Frank to take her to such Canadians had formal musical training, they an occasion, the wedding dance of Amedee had native talent and a love of music . .. and Angelique Chevalier, and hopes that he [and were} enthusiastic, graceful dancers, will be tempted to attend the wedding supper so that dancing was an integral part of their because of the food provided by the bride and non-working lives. 52 groom's numerous relatives (79). Early mass on New Year's Day at St. Ann's Dancing was a major form of entertainment was followed by family festivities including on weekends and at weddings, as well as on the exchange of presents and feasting on New Year's. Like Giorgio Million's grandfa­ dishes such as tourakeya, a meat and raisin pie ther, who plays the flute at country weddings in a rich crust, well-seasoned with onion and in Shadows on the Rock, local talent also pro- garlic. Garlic, onions, celery, and many other CATHER'S FRENCH-CANADIAN NEIGHBORS 47

ingredients called for in their favorite recipes wine. They grow lettuce in their cellars in the were grown in the families' gardens. 54 One cook fall and winter and import the wine they drink who ranked highly in the memory of her fam­ with their dinners from France, or like Jean ily was Angelina Gangner, who on New Year's Baptiste Harnois, the smith of Saint-Laurent, Day would prepare roast duck or goose, spiced make their own from wild grapes (47, 187). "black" potatoes, filled cookies, and a red fruit Cather probably first became acquainted salad served in a cut-glass bowl. The French with French gastronomic traditions from the Canadians in the Campbell area were also French-Canadian settlers of the Campbell/ noted for their soups, especially pea soup, a Wheatland area, who took pride in their cook­ staple made of cracked peas, onions, and a ing and, in spite of the hardships of the fron­ ham bone, that could, if necessary, be eaten tier, cultivated gardens of vegetables and salad cold and while traveling.55 greens. They also maintained the French tra­ Cather uses soup as a symbol of French civi­ dition of drinking wine with their meals, a lization in a scene in Death Comes for the Arch­ custom that, in the early twentieth century, bishop in which Bishop Latour compliments set them apart from some of their "dry" Prot­ Father Vaillant on a Christmas dinner of estant neighbors.56 One such settler, Arsene roasted chicken, sauteed potatoes, and onion L'Heureux, who moved from Canada to a farm soup that he has prepared: in the vicinity of Wheatland in 1879 when he was fifteen, was described by a descendent as "Think of it, Blanchet; in all this vast "a true Frenchman [wholloved his wines. Each country between the Mississippi and the year he made several barrels which he allowed Pacific Ocean, there is probably not an­ to age for a few years. He used choke-cherry, other human being who could make a soup wild grape, rhubarb, or whatever could be like this." found to make good wine."57 Arsene L'Heureux "Not unless he is a Frenchman," said Fa­ was a strong influence in the lives of his grand­ ther Joseph. He had tucked a napkin over children, remembered by them for being "an the front of his cassock and was wasting no excellent cook" and for having "all the family time in reflection. in for large dinners at his big house a number "I am not deprecating your individual of times a year-always on New Year's for the talent, Joseph," the Bishop continued, "but, traditional New Year's merriment."58 when one thinks of it, a soup like this is not In Death Comes for the Archbishop, there the result of one man. It is the result of a may be a reflection of the New Year's celebra­ constantly refined tradition. There are tions of Cather's French-Canadian neighbors nearly a thousand years of history in this in the New Year's party that Bishop Latour soup." and Father Vaillant attend at the home of Don Antonio and Dona Isabella Olivares. Although Cather also portrays this sense of a civilized Don Antonio is Mexican and his wife an French tradition of food in the importance American born in Kentucky, Cather describes placed on dining in the Auclair household in Dona Isabella, who had been raised in Louisi­ Shadows on the Rock. Like Vaillant, Cecile ana, as French in culture: "She was pretty and Auclair fixes a meal of soup and roasted accomplished, had been educated in a French chicken for her father, who regards his dinner convent, and had done much to Europeanize as "the thing that kept him a civilized man her husband .... She spoke French well, Span­ and a Frenchman" (9-10,17). And like ish lamely, played the harp and sang agree­ Vaillant, who misses the salad garden and vine­ ably" (176). Influenced by his wife to greater yard he left behind in Ohio when he moved to "refinement of his dress and manners," Don New Mexico, the French Canadians in Shad­ Antonio liked "French wine better than ows on the Rock value their salad greens and whisky" (178). 48 GREAT PLAINS QUARTERLY, WINTER 2000

Bishop Latour and Father Vaillant enjoy Auclair and of other tradesmen such as baker visiting the Olivares "to be able to converse in Nicholas Pigeon, shoemaker Noel Pommier, their own tongue with a cultivated woman ... and blacksmith Jean Baptiste Harnois in Shad­ to eat a good dinner and drink good wine, and ows on the Rock . listen to music .... Madame Olivares liked to The first banker in Campbell, Mederic sing old French songs with [Father Vaillant]" Catudal, was apparently a leading citizen in (177). On the night of the New Year's party the early days of the village. He was chairman when Don Antonio announces that he will of the group that presented the petition to give Bishop Latour the money with which to incorporate the town in 1890 and served as build his cathedral, his wife wears "a French trustees until the first election was held. Ac­ dress from New Orleans" and plays her harp cording to local legend, he began the Bank of and sings (181,186). Cather's description of Campbell in 1886 with only $800 in capital in their house that evening as "full of light and a small building with family quarters in the music, the air warm with the simple hospital­ rear, a living arrangement similar to that of ity of the frontier" could have been that of a the Auclairs in Shadows on the Rock. This was French-Canadian family in Nebraska on New a common form of housing among the early Year's Eve (180). shopkeepers in Campbell.60 The French settlers in Nebraska extended A few decades later, the major bankers in their hospitality and generosity beyond holi­ town were Joseph Chevalier and Arsene day celebrations. In the early days, some lent L'Heureux, president and vice president of the money to neighbors from their own pockets, First National Bank when they erected a fine and others opened up their homes to newly new stone bank building on Main Street in arrived families from Canada until they could 1909.61 Other early French-Canadian mer­ find land and construct their own lodging. 59 chants included grocers, milliners, implement Once Campbell was founded and some of the dealers, general merchandisers, draymen, well­ French moved there to become merchants, diggers, and hardware dealers. Although there they welcomed the surrounding farmers when is no record of a French druggist or baker in they came in to town. Cather provides a pic­ Campbell, there was a French shoe repairman ture of this practice when the rural families and a number of French blacksmiths and sa­ come in to Sainte-Agnes for the confirmation loon keepers.62 ceremony at the church in 0 Pioneers!: "The One main way in which Cather's French­ housewives had much ado to tear themselves Canadian neighbors in Nebraska influenced away from the general rejoicing and hurry back her writing can be seen in her development of to their kitchens. The country parishioners the personalities of some of her French char­ were staying in town for dinner, and nearly acters. Cather gives to both Father Vaillant in every house in Sainte-Agnes entertained visi­ Death Comes for the Archbishop and Pierre tors that day. Father Duchesne, the bishop, Charron in Shadows on the Rock certain per­ and the visiting priests dined with Fabien sonality traits that she first expressed in the Sauvage, the banker. Emil and Frank Shabata character of Amedee Chevalier in 0 Pioneers! were both guests of old Moise Marcel [the sa­ All these characters share traits of courage, loon keeper]" (229-30). enterprise, zeal for new challenges, capabil­ There were French bankers, saloon keep­ ity, friendliness, loyalty, disregard for bodily ers, and other merchants in Campbell from its comfort, strong family ties, faith in the inception in the 1880s, some of whom quickly Catholic Church, personal or fiscal reckless­ attained positions of importance in the town. ness for a good cause, great vitality contained It seems possible that Cather drew on their in slight bodies, and a type of passionate en­ example, as on that of Red Cloud merchants, gagement with the world. Although Father when she developed her portrait of Euclide Vaillant has a historical prototype, I think it CATHER'S FRENCH-CANADIAN NEIGHBORS 49 likely that Cather developed some aspects of was relentless when he hated, and quickly his character, like those of Chevalier and prejudiced; but he had the old ideals of clan­ Charron, according to impressions she had loyalty, and in friendship he never counted formed of French-Canadian pioneers she met the cost. His goods and his life were at the in her youth. disposal of the man he loved or the leader Joseph Vaillant is a short, skinny man who he admired. Though his figure was still boy­ 'like[s] almost everyone," with a face full of ish, his face was full of experience and sa­ "kindliness and vivacity" and a mouth "always gacity; a fine bold nose, a restless, rather stiffened by effort or working with excitement" mischievous mouth, white teeth, very (37, 38, 227). He is an excellent cook and strong and even, sparkling hazel eyes with a companion and loved wherever he goes. He is kind of living flash in them, like the sun­ a "truly spiritual" man who, in spite of several beams on the bright rapids on which he was serious illnesses and injuries, performs ardu­ so skilful. (171-72) ous missionary labors and courageously trav­ els "mountain ranges, pathless deserts, yawning According to Cecile Auclair, Charron has canyons and swollen rivers ... to carry the "authority, and a power which came from Cross into territories yet unknown and un­ knowledge of the country and its people; from named" (41, 226). He is also "passionately at­ knowledge and a kind of passion" (268). He tached to many of the things of this world," has a reputation for "courage and fair dealing" including his "close-knit family," his garden among the Indians of the Great Lakes and has and vineyard, good dinners, wine, and mu­ friends among woodsmen, townsmen, and sail­ sic-he has a "pleasing tenor voice" and sings ors alike. He gives a fine dinner party for the old French songs (39, 177,204,228). A man captain of a ship from France and cooks a of "fierceness, fortitude and fire," he is ener­ haunch of venison for the Auclairs when they getic and persistent, "with the driving power are short on supplies, drinking with them a of a dozen men in his poorly-built body" (38). bottle of French wine, since "good wine was In his "hopeful rashness" and zeal for the put into the grapes by our Lord, for friends to church, he "borrow[s] money to build schools share together" (267). Although the loss of and convents, and the interest on his debts his childhood sweetheart to a convent has em­ [eats] him up" (223, 287). bittered him somewhat against the clergy, he Cather describes Pierre Charron, like Fa­ remains a good Catholic out of regard for his ther Vaillant, as a true pioneer, the epitome of mother, visits his confessor regularly, and has a French frontiersman: "He was not a big fel­ yearly masses said for the soul of Madame low, this Pierre Charron, hero of the fur trade Auclair (174-75). and the coureurs de bois, not above medium Amedee Chevalier, the best friend of Emil height, but quick as an otter and always sure of Bergson in 0 Pioneers!, is similar in some ways himself" (170). To Euclide Auclair and his to both Vaillant and Charron. Cather describes wife, this "restless" young fur trader hill). as friendly, enthusiastic, energetic, and hard-working. He is "a little fellow ... boyish who shot up and down the swift rivers of in appearance; very lithe and active and neatly Canada in his canoe ... seemed the type made, with a clear brown and white skin, and they had come so far to find; more than flashing teeth" (144). As a pitcher for the anyone else he realized the romantic pic­ Sainte-Agnes baseball team, he is "renowned ture of the free Frenchman of the great for­ among the county towns for his dash and skill" ests which they had formed at home on the (144 ). banks of the Seine. He had the good man­ In his love of life and passion for new expe­ ners of the Old World, the dash and daring riences, be they marriage and fatherhood or of the New. He was proud, he was vain, he the running of new farm equipment, Amedee 50 GREAT PLAINS QUARTERLY, WINTER 2000 is like the rest of the "spirited and jolly" French which carried "a large inventory of dry-goods, boys in 0 Pioneers! whom Cather describes as clothing, shoes, groceries, furniture, carpets, "predisposed to favor anything new" (192). and burial caskets" and "pioneered a new idea Similar to the way that these boys bid reck­ in merchandising by operating on a volume lessly at a church auction, "once satisfied that basis and selling for cash." This store was best their extravagance was in a good cause" (195), known, however, for its unusual "overhead Amedee buys an expensive new header to cut cash and package carrier system which ran from his wheat, an implement that his wife hopes the first floor to the office located at the head he will be able to rent out to their neighbors of the stairwell on the second floor."63 In later to help allay the cost. Watching his friend years, Gaudreault paid $50,000 for a Texas direct the harvest of his grain with $3,000 bull and fifty-six purebred Hereford cows in a worth of new machinery, Emil admires and well-publicized transaction intended to im­ envies "the way in which Amedee could do prove his herd and to bring in favorable ad­ with his might what his hand found to do, and vertising and prestige. However, the bottom feel that, whatever it was, it was the most im­ fell out of the purebred cattle market shortly portant thing in the world" (217). thereafter and he lost most of his investment.64 Caught up in the press of the harvest, Like Pierre Charron who, after marrying Amedee bravely, if rashly, ignores the pain of Cecile Auclair, becomes "well-established in an attack of appendicitis until it is too late. the world" and builds a "commodious house in After he dies, his companions remember how the Upper Town" of Quebec (278), Hilaire important the church of Sainte-Agnes had Gaudreault, Arsene L'Heureux, and other been to him throughout his life and do "not French-Canadian pioneers prospered in their doubt that that invisible arm was still about adopted land and eventually built large homes Amedee; that through the church on earth he in Campbell for their families. During the first had passed to the church triumphant, the goal decade following their marriage at St. Ann's of the hopes and faith of so many hundred church in Wheatland in 1886, Arsene years" (226). L'Heureux and his wife Clara Choquette Records concerning the early French-Ca­ L'Heureux had lived in a two-room sod house nadian settlers in the Campbell area show and, when that became uninhabitable, in bins considerable similarity to Cather's portraits of in their granary. From sod busting with one Amedee Chevalier, Pierre Charron, and Fa­ horse and an ox, Arsene L'Heureux went on ther Vaillant. The records cite these settlers' to acquire "vast land holdings" and become pioneering spirit and accomplishments, their president of two banks, two grain elevators, commitment to their church and community, and a telephone company. While serving as their hospitality and generosity, their joie de Campbell mayor, he started a "massive tree vivre, their close family ties, their love of music planting program all over town" and estab­ and cooking, their skill at gardening and wine­ lished a park.65 making, and their enthusiasm for innovations Along with his enterprise and energy, in farming and merchandising, sometimes with Arsene L'Heureux was similar to Cather's por­ unfortunate financial results. traits of Father Vaillant and Pierre Charron in A local history credits one early farmer and his love of family, cooking, and wine, and in "progressive businessman" named Hilaire his skill at storytelling. Like them, too, he was Gaudreault with introducing both alfalfa and known for his travels. He used to take his fam­ wood-stave silos to the area and with donat­ ily to the mountains where they gathered rocks ing a telephone system and other civic im­ that they brought back to Campbell for a rock provements to the town of Campbell. He also garden, and for a number of years he went on constructed its largest and most innovative an annual camping trip to the Dismal River in store in 1900, the People's Department Store, western Nebraska with James Kinney, another CATHER'S FRENCH-CANADIAN NEIGHBORS 51 early Campbell pioneer. He toured Canada French main characters, favoring their per­ and much of the United States and went to spectives over those of other ethnic groups. Europe, where in addition to visiting France As viewed through Latour's eyes, Father and Germany, he had an audience in Rome Martinez in Death Comes for the Archbishop, with the Pope, who blessed rosaries for him to for example, seems unrefined and nearly inhu­ take back to his family.66 man, a man whose "broad high shoulders were From families such as the L'Heureuxs, the like a bull buffalo's" and whose "mouth was Gaudreaults, the Genereuxs, the Chartiers, the the very assertion of violent, uncurbed pas­ Soucies, the LaPortes, and others in the sions and tyrannical self-will; the full lips thrust Wheatland/Campbell area, Cather could have out and taut, like the flesh of animals dis­ derived many of the attributes of French cul­ tended by fear or desire." Latour judges ture she later she used to bring to life the Martinez to be, like the buffalo, a man whose French characters and traditions in Death "day oflawless personal power was almost over, Comes for the Archbishop and Shadows on the even on the frontier, and this figure was to Rock. Perhaps Cather's familiarity with the him already like something picturesque and French-Canadian settlers in Nebraska reveals impressive, but really impotent, left over from itself most clearly in the world view she es­ the past" (140-41). Similarly, Latourfinds the pouses in these novels. It is a point of view inhabitants of Acoma pueblo to be remnants grounded in a firm belief in French cultural from antediluvian times: values, as transplanted into the New World, and in a missionary Catholic Church through He was on a naked rock in the desert, in the which the presences of God and the saints stone age, a prey to homesickness for his manifest themselves in that New World. own kind, his own epoch, for European man Cather was not a Catholic herself, but the and his glorious history of desires and French Canadians she knew as a child could dreams. Through all the centuries that his well have conveyed to her just such a view of own part of the world had been changing life through their culture and stories. In a 1921 like the sky at daybreak, this people had interview for Bookman, Cather herself ac­ been fixed, increasing neither its numbers knowledges the formative impact on her art of nor desires, rock-turtles on their rock. the oral stories of her immigrant neighbors: Something reptilian he felt here, something that had endured by immobility, a kind of I grew fond of some of these immigrants­ life out of reach, like the crustaceans in particularly the old women, who used to their armour. (103) tell me of their home country. I used to think them underrated, and wanted to ex­ Although Latour is determined to bring the plain them to their neighbors. Their stories Mexican priests of his diocese under the con­ used to go round and round in my head at trol of ecclesiastical law, he generally seems to night. This was, with me, the initial im­ prefer Mexicans to some of the Americans in pulse. I didn't know any writing people. I New Mexico, such as the murderer Buck Scales had an enthusiasm for a kind of country and the Smith family, people of "low habits and a kind of peopleY and evil tongues" who oppress their old Mexi­ can servant woman and are "leaders of a small Early exposure to the stories and world view group of low-caste Protestants who took every of her neighbors from Canada could help ac­ occasion to make trouble for the Catholics" count for the cultural orientation in Death (216). Comes for the Archbishop and Shadows on the Not all of Latour's judgments of people dif­ Rock. Cather presents people and events in ferent in background from himself are nega­ these novels from the point of view of her tive, however. He forms an immediate 52 GREAT PLAINS QUARTERLY, WINTER 2000 friendship with the American Kit Carson and sionaries at the hands of the Indians, favorite values the hospitality of Don Antonio and stories of Cecile Auclair. Dona Isabella Olivares. For his Pecos Indian Shortly after Frichette speaks with Mon­ guide Jacinto and his Navajo friend Eusabio, sieur Auclair, Father Hector arrives at the Father Latour feels considerable affection and Auclairs' home to enjoy a dinner of fish soup, admiration, and he compares the Navajos fa­ wood dove and mushroom casserole, and wild vorably to Europeans in their greater respect rice, served with "a bottle of fine old Bur­ for and harmony with the land (234). Speak­ gundy which the Count [Frontenac] had sent ing for Latour in third person, Cather writes [the Auclairs] for New Year's" (147). After that "travelling with Eusabio was like travel­ dinner, Father Hector tells Cecile and her fa­ ling with the landscape made human," and ther how he has been inspired to remain a her imagery describing Zuni runners encoun­ missionary in Canada by the example of a Fa­ tered by the two friends, although couched in ther Chabanel who was killed in an Iroquois terms of animals, is nonetheless positive: raid but whose "martyrdom was his life, not "They coursed over the sand with the fleet­ his death." According to Father Hector, ness of young antelope, their bodies disap­ Chabanel was a highly educated Frenchman, pearing and reappearing among the sand "fond of the decencies, the elegances of life," dunes, like the shadows that eagles cast in who had not been able to accustom himself to their long, unhurried flight" (232, 235). the language, housing, customs, or food of the Even more so than in Death Comes for the Huron Indians he was attempting to convert. Archbishop, Cather presents the Native Ameri­ Their boiled cornmeal nauseated him as much cans in Shadows on the Rock through the eyes as the flesh of dogs. Contemptuous of his fas­ of her French-Canadian characters, since no tidiousness, the Huron converts amused them­ Natives appear directly in the novel. The few selves at Chabanel's expense by feeding him mentions made of them occur in stories told meat out of a kettle from which they later by or about the French: The menial Blinker pulled a human hand (150-52). has been "warned in a dream that he would This Huron soup stands in striking contrast be taken prisoner and tortured by the Indi­ to the one Cecile has just served Father Hec­ ans," and his fear of them, "one of the by­ tor. Undoubtedly prepared from an old French words of Mountain Hill," causes him to avoid recipe using the saffron her father packages the forest surrounding Quebec (16). In con­ and sells to flavor fish stock, Cecile's soup is trast to this avoidance, "an old story in part of a meal that stands for French civiliza­ Montreal" has it that Pierre Charron, after tion and home to the priest. Thanking Mon­ being disappointed in his love of Jeanne Le sieur Auclair for his hospitality, Father Hector Ber, took to the woods to trade for furs with says: the native trappers. "He had learned the In­ dian languages as a child, and the Indians Yes ... these are great occasions in a liked and trusted him, as they had his father" missionary's life. The next time I am over­ (173 ). taken by a storm in the woods, the recollec­ On a visit to the apothecary shop, the tion of this evening will be food and warmth woodsman Antoine Frichette tells Monsieur to me. I shall see it in memory as plainly as Auclair how he and Father Hector were saved I see it now; this room, so like at home, this from starvation during a winter storm in the table with everything as it should be; and, forest by a generous Indian hunter who shared most of all, the feeling of being with one's his food with them and led them back to shel­ own kind. (148) ter (144). However, this positive portrayal of a Native American is overshadowed in the What is said about Native Americans and novel by tales of the martyrdom of Jesuit mis- other non-Frenchmen in Death Comes for the CATHER'S FRENCH-CANADIAN NEIGHBORS 53

Archbishop and Shadows on the Rock is filtered 6. E. K. Brown, Willa Cather: A Critical Biogra­ through the voices of Cather's French charac­ phy (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1953), p. 261; James Woodress, Willa Cather: A Literary Life (Lin­ ters who perceive them, whether friends or coln: University of Nebraska Press, 1987), pp. 404, foes, to be people other than their own kind 426. and somewhat peripheral to the main story of 7. Brown, ibid., p. 286. their civilization of the New World. It seems 8. L. Brent Bohlke, "Willa Cather's Nebraska likely that the point of view from which Cather Priests and Death Comes for the Archbishop," Great Plains Quarterly 4 (fall 1984): 264. wrote these novels reflects some of the "basic 9. Woodress, A Literary Life (note 6 above), material" that she "acquired before the age of p.160. fifteen," that she may have developed the voice 10. Campbell Centennial Book Committee, of some of her most powerful stories, at least Along and Beyond the Little Blue (Campbell, Nebr.: in part, from memories of the voices of the Campbell Centennial Book Committee, 1986), p.5. 11. Ibid., pp. 4, 11, 206. French-Canadian neighbors she listened to as 12. Mildred Bennett, The World of Willa Cather a child. Apparently, early exposure to oral sto­ (Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1961), pp. ries told by such neighbors, as well as by friends 169-70. and family, had a lifelong effect on Cather's 13. Willa Cather, "Nebraska: The End of the creativity. First Cycle," Nation 117 (1923): 237. 14. Campbell (Nebr.) News, 2 May 1974, p. 1. Most of the content of Death Comes for the 15. Campbell Centennial, Along and Beyond Archbishop and Shadows on the Rock derives (note 10 above), pp. 79, 148, 158, 177,206,268, from historical sources Cather read concern­ 269,289. Also see "Notes on Emendations" in Willa ing the southwestern United States, Quebec, Cather, 0 Pioneers! Willa Cather Scholarly Edi­ and Europe. However, before Cather became tion, ed. Susan J. Rosowski and Charles Mignon with Kathleen Danker (Lincoln: University of acquainted with this history or the distinctive Nebraska Press, 1992), p. 378. Further citations to landscapes in which she would set her novels, o Pioneers! are given in parentheses in the text. she already was familiar with the type of story 16. Campbell Centennial, Along and Beyond those sources and landscapes would reveal. (note 10 above), pp. 148, 149, 268, 281. Memories from her youth, including ones 17. Willa Cather, Death Comes for the Archbishop (1927; New York: Vintage Books, 1971), p. 247. about her French-Canadian neighbors in Ne­ Further citations Death Comes for the Archbishop braska, helped her to imbue the characters are given in parentheses in the text. and history in these novels with passion and a 18. Campbell Centennial, Along and Beyond sense of immediate humanity. They formed an (note 10 above), p. 79. essential part of the mix of experience, re­ 19. Father August Rausch, "History of the Catholic Church of Campbell and Missions from search, and imagination that she transmuted Earliest Times" [1898], in Eglise Sainte Anne Cen­ into the gold of her art. tennial Jubilee, 1883-1983 (Campbell, Nebr.: n.p., 1983), pp. 2-4. NOTES 20. Campbell Centennial, Along and Beyond (note 10 above), p. 11, 33. 1. Willa Cather, Shadows on the Rock (1931; 21. Eglise Sainte Anne Centennial Jubilee, 1883- New York: Vintage Books, 1971), p. 181. Further 1983 (Campbell, Nebr.: n.p., 1983), p. 9. citations to Shadows on the Rock are given in paren­ 22. Rausch, "History of the Catholic Church of theses in the text. Campbell" (note 19 above), pp. 2, 3. 2. Edith Lewis, Willa Cather Living (New York: 23. Ibid., p. 4. Alfred A. Knopf, 1953), p. 155. 24. Donald Danker, interview by author, 3. L. Brent Bohlke, ed., Willa Cather in Person Campbell, Nebr., 28 May 1995. (Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1986), 25. Rausch, "History of the Catholic Church of p.20. Campbell" (note 19 above), p. 3. 4. Willa Cather, Willa Cather on Writing (New 26. Webster County Argus (Red Cloud, Nebr.), York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1953), p. 11. 25 August 1887, p. 8. 5. Lewis, Willa Cather Living (note 2 above), 27. Rausch, "History of the Catholic Church of p. 153. Campbell" (note 19 above), p. 3. 54 GREAT PLAINS QUARTERLY, WINTER 2000

28. Ibid., p. 4. 47. Rausch, "History of the Catholic Church of 29. Ibid., p. 4. Campbell" (note 19 above), p. 4. 30. A. J. Gaudreault, "Some Early History of 48. Campbell Centennial, Along and Beyond Campbell, Nebraska," typescript, p. 14, Nebraska (note 10 above), p. 206. State Historical Society, Lincoln. 49. Ibid., p. 207. 31. Campbell Centennial, Along and Beyond 50. Ibid., p. 6. (note 10 above), p. 366. 51. Ibid., p. 158. 32. Eglise Sainte Anne Centennial (note 21 52. Creigh, Tales from the Prairie (note 46 above), above), p. 4. pp. 43-44. 33. Gaudreault, "History of Campbell" (note 30 53. Ibid., p. 45. above), p. 15. 54. Ibid., p. 44; Gaudreault, "History of 34. Campbell Centennial, Along and Beyond Campbell" (note 30 above), pp. 23-25; Donald (note 10 above), p. 80. Danker (note 24 above). 35. Woodress, A Literary Life (note 6 above), 55. Donald Danker (note 24 above); Campbell pp. 181, 198. Centennial, Along and Beyond (note 10 above), p. 36. See "Historical Essay" in 0 Pioneers! Willa 144. Cather Scholarly Edition (note 15 above), p. 285. 56. Donald Danker (note 24 above). 37. Rausch, "History of the Catholic Church of 57. Campbell Centennial, Along and Beyond Campbell" (note 19 above), p. 2. (note 10 above), p. 275. 38. Campbell Centennial, Along and Beyond 58. Clayton Heinrich, interview with author, (note 10 above), pp. 13, 80. Blue Hill, Nebr., 28 May 1995; Donald E. L'Heureux, 39. Sister Loretta Gosen, c.PP.S., History of the "Family Record of Arsene (Rameald) L'Heureux and Catholic Church in the Diocese of Lincoln, Nebraska, Clara (Poulin) Choquette L'Heureux and Descen­ 1887-1987 (Lincoln, Nebr.: The Catholic Bishop dants," typescript, pp. 1,4, Clayton Heinrich, Blue of Lincoln, Inc., 1987), p. 38. Hill, Nebr. 40. Woodress, A Literary Life (note 6 above), p. 59. Campbell Centennial, Along and Beyond 395. (note 10 above), pp. 144, 158, 270. 41. Eglise Sainte Anne Centennial (note 21 60. Ibid., pp. 14, 27- above), p. 8. 61. Ibid., p. 27. 42. Annette Balthazor, letter to author, 21 Sep­ 62. Ibid., pp. 29, 51-52, 340; Bessie Danker, tember 1995. "Campbell History," in Bicentennial History Book 43. The charm of St. Ann's church was greatly and Alumni Directory of Campbell, Nebraska spoiled by the dismantling and removal of its origi­ (Campbell, Nebr.: n.p., 1976), p. 12. nal altar in the early 1980s by the pastor at the 63. Campbell Centennial, Along and Beyond time., Rev. Philip Rauth-an alteration that dis­ (note 10 above), p. 32; "Settlers Roamed Campbell mayed mnay parishioners as it doubtless would have Area," Hastings Daily Tribune, 20 April 1972, p. 12. done Cather had she lived to see it. 64. Gaudreault, "History of Campbell" (note 30 44. Donald Danker (note 24 above). above), pp. 23-25. 45. Bernice Slote, Willa Cather: A Pictorial Mem­ 65. L'Heureux, "Family Record" (note 58 above), oir (Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1973), pp. 1-4. p.24. 66. Ibid., pp. 3, 5; Donald Danker (note 24 46. Dorothy Weyer Creigh, Tales from the Prai­ above). rie, vol. 4 (Hastings, Nebr.: Adams County His­ 67. Bohlke, Willa Cather in Person (note 3 above), torical Society, 1979), p. 45. p.20.