The St. Joseph Heritage Museum and Cultural Center will be hosting a presentation next month on the history of the Catholic Church in Berrien County.
According to museum director Dennis Szymanski, the history dates back to the 1600s, when the first French settlers moved to the area, bringing with them priests.
“La Salle came with four Jesuit priests and met with the Pottawatomie Indians,” Szymanski said, “and they established a church mission on what is now the Whitcomb River. They called it Fort Miami, but it wasn’t until many years later that the river was named after St. Joe. At the time it was called the Miami River because the Miami Indians lived there.”
The French were pursuing the fur trade and were looking for a route to India via the Mississippi River when they first came to the region, Szymanski said, and also were trying to convert the Potawatomi to Catholicism.
The first Catholic church in the area was St. Joseph Catholic Church, established in the 1800s at its current location, although originally in a separate building.
Szymanski said the Heritage Museum is working on an exhibit about local churches and, as part of that, wanted to give a talk about one aspect of the area’s development.
The presentation will be held at the Heritage Museum on August 1st at 7pm. Attendance is free and a Zoom option is available. More information can be found on the Heritage Museum website.
