Miscellaneous Notes In The Mackinac Registers

In the original Mackinac Register these are scattered through the register, in the neighborhood of entries on other subjects. They are here brought together under one head.

July 22, 1787, 1 after invoking the enlightenment of the Holy Ghost, we, the undersigned, elected by a majority of votes, as church wardens of the church of Ste. Anne de Michilimakina, messieurs Ch. Chaboillé 2 and Daniel Bourassa, who formally promised and undertook to care for the interests of the Said Church as their own and on their soul and conscience.

In testimony whereof they have signed with us.

Payet, missionary priest.

Chles Chaboillez; Dl. Bourassa; Bte. Guillory; 3 Marchenau; J. B. Barth; L. Carignan; Pr. Grignon; Etne Campion; Jean Beeves; G. Cotte; 4 Laurent Ducharme; P. Thierry; Al Laframboise; Bte. Tabeau; P. Tabeaux.+

Note—In the Notarial Register of Monsieur Adhemar, page 164, 13th August 1788, is an Acknowledgment by Charley Chaboiller, residing at fort St Joseph, or the new fort, for the sum of sixty livres belonging to the church of Ste Anne de Mikili Makina.

Gabriel Richard, missionary priest.

1813, 4 February. 5

This day, the 5th of the month of August 1821, the Inhabitants of the Parish of Ste Anne du Michilimakinac, assembled in the usuel manner, appointed as Church-wardens of this Parish, to remain in office until a new nomination: Mr. William McGulpine, Mr Eloy Bourassa 6 and Mr Joseph Rollet. They were specially instructed to take care of the movable property of the Parish consisting chiefly of Church linen, vestments, &c &c. and to take an inventory of the same.

In testimony whereof we have signed

Gabriel Richard, parish priest of Ste Anne du Detroit, president of the meeting.

John Dousman; E. Bourassa.

This day, the 15th of the month of August 1821, the inhabitants of the parish of Ste Anne de Michilimakina, assembled in the usual manner, having learned that Mr de Rollet has refused to accept the office of Church-warden, appointed as third church-warden Mr. John Dousman received into the catholic church on the 13th of the same month. And the church-wardens are instructed to get a petition signed asking Congress for a lot East of the village, on which to build the church of stone.

Gabriel Richard, parish priest of Ste Anne du Detroit.

John Dousman; E. Bourassa.

N. B. The second meeting was held on the 10th of the month of August, 1821.

Citations:

1. A parish meeting was held July 23, 1786, wherein Jean Baptiste Barthe and Louis Carignan were elected churchwardens. As this was, in the original, entered among the marriages, it will be found in Wisconsin Historical Collections, xviii, p. 493.[↩]
2. Charles Chaboillez was a prominent trader, with large interests in Lake Superior. He appears to have retired with the British to St. Joseph’s Island, possibly as early as 1788 (see next entry), in anticipation of their removal. In 1802 he was appointed storekeeper at the post and in that capacity served several years.[↩]
3. The Guillory (Guyari) family were of long-standing and well- known at Mackinac, coming originally from Montreal. Joseph was married at the former place in 1747; Wisconsin Historical Collections, xviii, p. 474. Antoine was in Lake Superior in 1738 (Wisconsin Historical Collections, xvii, p. 290), and married (1735) Anne Villeneuve, eldest half-sister of Charles Langlade. Antoine had died before 1745. Of the second generation, Jean Baptiste appears to have been most prominent. In 1778 he was a St. Joseph’s trader, and the same year signed a petition to the governor-general for a missionary at Mackinac. A man of the same name was interpreter for the troops, and lieutenant in the Indian department during the War of 1812-15, and accompanied Anderson to Prairie du Chien; see Wisconsin Historical Collections, ix, p. 234 et seq.[↩]
4. Gabriel Coté (Cotte) belonged to a well-known Canadian family of Kamouraska, and came out early to the Northwest, where he was married in 1768; see Wisconsin Historical Collections, xviii, p. 487. He seems to have traded largely in Lake Superior and the far Northwest. In 1783 he took charge of an expedition to the country north of Lake Superior, wherein four of his men perished, and he found the Indians dying of hunger; see L. R. Masson, Les Bourgeois de la Compagnie du Nord-Ouest (Quebec, 1889), i, p. 13. In 1800 Coté removed his home from Mackinac to the British post on St. Joseph’s Island, where he was recommended by the Commandant for a magistracy. Voyageurs of the name of Coté reside in Tiny, Ontario – probably his descendants; Ontario Historical Society Papers, iii, p. 152.[↩]
5. The circumstances of this entry at this date do not appear from the register, nor is it known that Father Richard was in Mackinac in 1813. The entry stands on the second page of the register of baptisms, directly after the title.[↩]
6. Eloy, younger scion of the prominent Bourassa family of Mackinac, was an employee of the American Fur Company, trading in 1818 to the island of La Cloche, in Lake Huron, at an annual salary of $3,000.[↩]