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                          ,,,.ROMAN CATHOLIC MISSION.                   
                                              ,
I       ATHOLIC MISSION among the Menominees was founded by Rev. Claude Allouez,
a French Jesuit, in 1669, when these Indians resided principally in the
      region adjoining the Green Bay and Menominee River. During the two
centuries following, while the Menomninees were shifting their hunting grounds
gradually
southward, various missionaries made passing visits to them. The first missionary
making a permanent abode with them was the Rev. Florimund Bonduel. In 1843
he
came to the Menominees who had then settled on a reservation adjoining Lake
Poygan, and remained with them when in 1852 the tribe removed on their present
reserva-
tion in Shawano County. Thus Rev. Bonduel was the first Catholic missionary
laboring in Shawano County, the whole Catholic population of which depended
then on
   his ministry. Of his successors up to 1880, special mention should be
made of Rev.
Father Skolla (1853-'57), and Rev. Amand Masschelein (1875-'80), whlose names
are
ever present to the memory of the old members of the Menominees.
     In 1880 the mission was given in charge of Franciscans, who have labored
therein uninterruptedly for these past eighteen years. In 1883 they started
the
Catholic Mission School at Keshena, an industrial boarding school with a
present
             THE ROMAN CATHOLIC CHURCH OF KESHENA
capacity for accommodating upwards of 150 pupils. For the maintenance of
the
school, the missionaries depended at first solely upon donations collected
from
friends of the mission. In 1884 Government aid was obtained by a contract
given
the school; this has continued until now, with a gradual decrease, however,
dur-
ing the last five years. Giovernment compensation being alone insutficient
tor the
support of the school, charitable help was needed all along to supply the
deficiency.          THE MISSION SCHOOL AT KESHENA
     Twice the mission suffered terribly by fire. In 1884 the first school-house
burned down, together with the old mission church built towards the end of
the fifties. Another school-house, built on the site of the old one, fell
a prey to the flames il
1891. But again a larger and more commodious building was erected, which
is an ornament to the mission, and answers its purpose far better than the
two foregoing
buildings. A new church, the present one, was built in 1886. The present
head and director of the mission is the Rev. Blase Krake, who has been laboring
among
the Menominees since 1882. He succeeded in his capacity as superior the Rev.
Odoric Derenthal, well known to the business men of Shawano City, who had
filled that
office from 1885 until August, 1897, when he was transferred to the Chippewa
Missions in the northwestern part of the State.
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