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Belgians in the Civil War

Emigrants arrival

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BELGIANS IN AMERICA:    Biographies of Belgian settlers  

After the abandonment of the ancient missions on the St Joseph River, but little endeavor was made here on the part of the Catholics to advance their religion until the advent of Father Louis De Seille, who, about 1832 or 1833, left Belgium and its wealth of literature, art, science, and all that the cultivated mind holds most dear, to become a missionary in this far-off land among the Indians. He was the first resident Catholic missionary in this section of country in this century, and his territory embraced Indiana, Michigan, and Illinois. The Indians' favorite camping-grounds were in the valley of the St. Joseph River, and five Pottawattamie villages were but a short distance from the river, and near the Parc aux Vaches, the Bertrand trading-post.
Father De Seille soon became a favorite with the Indians, and labored earnestly with them until his death. Shortly after his death the Indians were sent West […],
To him is given the credit of founding Notre dame settlement. Services were held first in a log house of two rooms, near where the college now is. A log church was erected early at Bertrand trading-post, and in 1837 the brick church was erected at that place, which was organized as St Joseph church

Source : (collective work) : History of Berrien and Van Buren Counties, Michigan : with illustrations and biographical sketches of its prominent men and pioneers.; Philadelphia: D.W. Ensign & Co., 1880, 678 pgs.