Background
Gabriel Richard, born at Saintes on October 15, 1767, was the son of Francis Richard, a civil servant of Rochefort, France, and Geneviève Bossuet, who was of the same general family as the famed pulpit orator.
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Gabriel Richard, born at Saintes on October 15, 1767, was the son of Francis Richard, a civil servant of Rochefort, France, and Geneviève Bossuet, who was of the same general family as the famed pulpit orator.
Educated at the College of Saintes and the Sulpician seminaries at Angers and Issy.
He was ordained a Sulpician priest, October 15, 1791, and remained to teach mathematics at Issy where he was associated with Benedict Joseph Flaget and Louis G. V. Du Bourg, later bishops in the United States. Without an opportunity of visiting his family, he fled France of the Revolution (April 2, 1792) with Ambrose Maréchal, François Cicquard, and Francis Anthony Matignon and arrived in Baltimore, June 24, 1792.
As his services were not required at the infant seminary, he was assigned by Bishop John Carroll to work among the French, half-breeds, and Indians with missionary centers at Prairie du Rocher, Kaskaskia, and Cahokia. Here his zeal and courage were equally tested by the hardships of the frontier, lack of companionship, the impiety of the settlers and furmen, and the danger of roving tribesmen. In June 1798 he arrived in Detroit with John Dilhet, S. S. , as an assistant to the aged missionary, Michael Levadoux, who had labored painfully in this primitive trading center.
On the latter's retirement to France, Richard succeeded as pastor of St. Anne's Church and became vicar-general of the whole region. As vicar-general he became an institution in the territory, a man of austere life, an eloquent preacher even in English, a reformer of common sense, and a picturesque figure of sepulchral bearing marked by a livid scar received in escaping a Revolutionary mob. He ministered to the Indians of the whole area at Sault Ste. Marie, Mackinac, Arbre Croche, Georgian Bay, and other fur posts; he compromised their difficulties, held French traders in check, and fought the evils of liquor.
In 1802 he opened a primary school and two years later an academy for young ladies, in which he himself sought to train teachers. In 1801 he had about 520 parishioners prepared for confirmation which was performed by Bishop Denault of Quebec. In 1805, when Detroit was burned out, he led in relief work and conducted services in a tent until his church was rebuilt.
In 1809 Richard obtained from Baltimore a printing-press and a printer.
On August 31, 1809, there appeared the first and possibly the only issue of the Essai du Michigan ou Observateur Impartial, the first paper printed in Detroit. Before the War of 1812 silenced his publishing venture, he edited a child's spelling book, several devotional books, a volume of selections from the French poets, a Bible for Indians, and the laws of Michigan. In addition to books and an organ from France, he imported carding machines, spinning wheels, and looms in an effort to stimulate local industry.
A thorough American, a former official chaplain on invitation of the governor, Richard refused an oath to the king and was held by General Brock as a prisoner of war at Fort Malden near Sandwich until his release was demanded by Tecumseh.
He is reputed to have prevented a massacre of prisoners through his influence with the Indians. On his return to Detroit, he engaged in relief work among the destitute who had been impoverished by military and Indian raids. Long interested in higher education, he was one of the founders of the Catholepistemiad or University of Michigania (1817), which he served as vice-president under President John Monteith, a minister, who had been graduated from Princeton. He also served as a trustee of the incipient university (1821) and became a charter member of the Michigan Historical Society (1832).
In 1821, on an order of Bishop Flaget, Richard had excommunicated a divorced parishioner who had remarried, and, on suit in the superior court, he had been assessed $1, 116 as damages. Refusing to pay, he was sent to jail but released when he was elected a delegate to Congress (1822) - the only priest to serve in that body - over John Biddle, a brother of Nicholas. Biddle contested the seat, but the committee on elections upheld Richard. He was later advised by such lawyers as Woodward, Clay, Webster, Tyler, and Sampson that the libel suit was unconstitutional. As he donated his salary to St. Anne's Church, even his austere friend Demetrius Augustine Gallitzin was somewhat reconciled to a priest in politics.
In Congress he presented petitions relative to school grants, streets in Detroit, and western roads, and on Speaker Clay's request he gave his views upon the desirability of a road connecting Detroit and Chicago. In 1824, when he was defeated for reëlection by Austin E. Wing, he returned to Detroit to give full attention to his extensive missions, the building of a larger Saint Anne's Church, and to civic affairs. He died of the cholera contracted during his ministrations among victims of the plague.
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