St. Leon
December 23, 1879
To His Greatness
Mgr. Alexander Tache
Archeveque of St.
Boniface
Monsignor!
Your Greatness will find an exact map of the current state
of the Mission of St. Leon. She will see that the choice we made of the point a
between the two lakes for the placement of the church is not only the most
beautiful and pleasant for the resident priest, but also the most advantageous
for the faithful. Point B, southeast of the small lake; for which one
petitions, is quite unsuitable, because from the coast is there is a marsh and
flows of almost a mile or one only wants to make a path to the sacrifice of
great works that are at the moment above our strength, in a way that must pass
, to get there to point F which is equal distance from A and B.
This place of real advantages for Joseph Charbonneau, Joseph
Landreville, and especially Olivier Lafreniere. The priest will be the
completely at the mercy of the latter. In all this history, Mr. Olivier
Lafreniere's conduct does not make me warlike. Mr. Messner and I had begged him
to cede 10 acres south of Point F, along the main road, which would not have
been for him a sacrifice more than the 10 acres he is worth giving in to point
B, and would have satisfied everyone, but he didn't want to. He has the
advantage of the store, the mill, and he wants to stuff the church to B again in
order to be able to sell on half a mile of the land that belongs to him the two
sides of the way.
Your Greatness can end this whole story by writing me these
words:
"My Father, I order you to rise up to your means, in the place I
told you to buy between the two lakes, a small building made of tree trunks
that can be used provisionally as a chapel and a priestly memorial."
I'll
read this little letter, and everything will be said. In the spring I would
have a small house, and you could look at every corner of St. Leon's territory
at leisure, to see if there is no more favourable point for raising the final
buildings, when the means will be able to do that. We will still be able to
sell the place between the two lakes much more expensively than we bought. I
have other terrain between the two lakes.
In the hope that Your Greatness will be willing to render me
this service so dreary His prudence. She thinks it is appropriate, I beg her to
agree the feelings of the deepest respect of His very humble and very
devout Servant on J. Ch.
Rev. Theobald Bitsche
Precious Song missionary
We have this morning
48 degrees below zero (Fahrenheit). For several days the thermometer (Fahrenheit)
is continuously around 20 degrees below zero. The wolves are so starving that
they come to the front of houses in broad daylight, and so weakened that
medium-sized dogs can strangle them sounds great effort. A large number of
families are still expected to come this winter and settle in the north of the
township 5 R. 9.
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