Samuel Mazzuchelli’s Memoirs: An Italian Dominican’s Perspective on Frontier Life in the Old Northwest Territory, 1830–1843

Abstract

In 1847, Samuel Mazzuchelli, O.P., founder of the Dominican Sisters of Sinsinawa, encouraged the sisters to “set out for any place where the work is great and difficult.” He instilled in them a love of learning and communal study, adaptability, and a spirit of flexibility—all which were necessary for ministry on the frontier. After his death in 1864, the Dominican community was curious about their founder’s early missionary experience on the American frontier. To their astonishment, they learned that Mazzuchelli wrote a memoir detailing his ministry among fur trappers and traders of Mackinac Island and Green Bay, and among the Ottawa, Chippewa, Menominee and Ho Chunk (Winnebago) peoples. When the Jacksonian-era Indian removal policies pushed Native Americans off their ancestral lands, he moved westward in 1835 to pastor the Irish and German immigrants and the early pioneers of the Upper Mississippi River Valley’s lead mining region. The Memoirs present a vivid account of the experiences of an Italian Dominican missionary in the Old Northwest from 1830 to 1843.