Gabriel Richard
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Father Gabriel Richard (October 15, 1767 – September 13, 1832) was a French Roman Catholic priest who became a Delegate from Michigan Territory to the U.S. House of Representatives.
He was born in La Ville de Saintes, France and entered the seminary in Angers in 1784 and was ordained on October 15, 1790. In 1792, he emigrated to Baltimore, Maryland. He taught mathematics at St. Mary's College, in Maryland, until being assigned by Bishop Carroll to do missionary work to the Indians in the Northwest Territory. He was first stationed in what is now Kaskaskia, Illinois, and later in Detroit.
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[edit] Work in Detroit
He came to Detroit to be the assistant pastor at St. Anne's Church. In 1804 he opened up a school in Detroit, but this was destroyed by the fire in 1805 which destroyed the city. This is when Fr. Gabriel Richard wrote the city of Detroit's motto: Speramus meliora; resurget cineribus; We hope for better days; it shall rise from its ashes. In 1807 he was invited by a Protestant congregation to act as their clergymen. He did so successfully by concentrating on the elements of Christianity where they could agree. He had the first printing press in Detroit and published a periodical in the French language entitled Essais du Michigan as well as The Michigan Essay, or Impartial Observer, in 1809. He was strongly in favor of the War of 1812 and trading with China. He was also one of three co-founders of the University of Michigan.
[edit] Political career
Father Richard was elected as a nonvoting territorial delegate to the House of Representatives for the 18th Congress, and was the first Catholic priest to be elected to that body, serving a single term, 1823-1825. He was an unsuccessful candidate for reelection in 1824.
In 1832, Gabriel Richard died of cholera in Detroit and was buried in a crypt in St. Anne's.
[edit] Legacy
There are at least two schools near Detroit named after Fr. Gabriel Richard. One is Gabriel Richard High School in Riverview. The other is Fr. Gabriel Richard Regional Catholic High School in Ann Arbor. The motto that he first penned is still used by Detroit today.
[edit] References
- Biography at the Biographical Directory of the United States Congress
- The Political Graveyard
- Pargellis, Stanley McCrory. Father Gabriel Richard. (Cass Lectureship Series, 1948). Detroit: Wayne University Press, 1950.
- Famous Americans page
- The Detroit Almanac: 300 Years of Life in the Motor City. Ed. Peter Gavrilovich and Bill McGraw. Detroit: Detroit Free Press, 2000.
[edit] External links
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| Preceded by Solomon Sibley |
United States Representative 3rd of 8 Delegates from Michigan Territory 1823– 1825 |
Succeeded by Austin Eli Wing |
