Catholic Colonization in Minnesota: Revised EditionCatholic Colonization Bureau
History
Catholic Colonization in Minnesota: Revised Edition
Catholic Colonization Bureau
Agriculture -- Minnesota; Catholics -- Minnesota
"I must not forget to say that we have good water in abundance; my own
well is sixteen feet deep, with as fine, pure water as ever was found.
"And now to tell you about our little village, Graceville, named in
honor of our revered Bishop, the Right Rev. Thos. L. Grace. It is
beautifully situated on the north shore of one of the two large lakes
known as Tokua Lakes, and has three general stores, one hotel, one
blacksmith and wagon shop, a very handsome little church and the
priest's residence attached. Around the lake is a fine belt of timber
which adds much to the beauty of the place. The village is 26 miles due
east from Morris, on the St. Paul & Pacific Railroad, but the Hastings &
Dakota Railroad, now built close to the line, will run through our
county next summer; by and by we will have a cross road running through
the colony lands.
"Our resident pastor is the Rev. A. V. Pelisson, a veteran missionary,
who is doing a wonderful deal of good, temporal and spiritual, among his
people, and is 'the right man in the right place,' full of energy and
zeal.
"The Holy Sacrifice of the Mass is offered up in our church every day,
and on Sundays we have High Mass, for Graceville has a sweet church
choir.
"It is most edifying to see the crowd of men, women and children who
flock in from all points of the compass to church on Sundays. Father
Pelisson had the first temporary church taken down and in its place he
has erected one of the prettiest and neatest churches in the State; a
credit both to the good father and his people who so cheerfully assisted
in its erection, under many difficulties.
"From the roof of the church I can count to-day over 70 houses where
last March there was nothing but a bare prairie. If God prospers our
people next season with good crops, they will be over their
difficulties, in a fair way to prosperity."
We do not know that we have anything to add to Col. King's very graphic
and truthful statement in regard to Graceville Colony and the prospects
of its settlers, very many of whom were so poor when they went in, that
it required Western pluck to face the prairie. The building of the
Hastings & Dakota Railroad last summer, giving them employment, was a
great help.
No doubt they had and will have a rough time of it for a little longer,
but, they are toiling with hope, with the hope of an honest independence
in the future. And with this hope in his heart, the settler toils and
feels himself "every inch a man."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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