CHICAGO
653
CHICAGO
ago, of two (or three) powerful men (possibly Sha-
mans) who performed miracles and attempted to
teach the Indians a different mode of life. It is not
quite clear whether the names "Bochica", "Nem-
thequeba", and "Zuhe" apply to one or several
personages. Bochica. however, appears most fre-
quently in Chibcha folk-lore, and is represented as an
old man who came to Cundinamarca from the eastern
plain- of Venezuela and lived for a fabulous length
of time at Sogamoso on the plateau of Bogota.
The creed of the Muysca was the pantheistic fetishism of American aborigines in general. Human sacrifices were not uncommon, but most of the offer- ings consisted of gold, emeralds, and fruits of the field. Shamans, or Zeques, were numerous, and acted as medicine men, diviners, oracles. The Chibchas lived in villages, the houses being mostly circular, and of wood and thatch. In 1571 the popu- lation was approximately given at 1.50,000 souls. At the head of each tribe stood the usual council. guided by the oracular utterances of the leading shamans, while an elective war-chief (Uzaque) represented the executive. The clan system pre- vailed. Agriculture, the gathering of salt, limited hunting, and war — with their neighbours and among themselves were t he chief occupations. In certain cases plurality of wives was licit. Traditional lore lead- to the inference that, until the second half of t he fifteenth century, the tribe of Tunja was the most powerful one of the Chibchas. About 1470 the Indians of Bogota 1 rose, and when Gonzalo Ximenez de Quesada began the exploration of the mountains in 1536, the Indians led by the Zippa, or war-chief of Muequeta, bad to be encountered. By 1538 the Chibchas were virtually conquered, and considerable wealth in gold and emeralds was secured by the Spaniards at Tunja. Subsequent attempts at revolt on ii" part of the Chibchas proved ineffectual
A short mention (from early hearsay) of the Chibchas is
■i \N!'\'.i>v\, /r. /-/i-. ;t </. /.iv „,,..,,..,■ dr 1'idrarias
.i.iii ii.i i.lm,w iMa.lri.l, INL'ft); tr in Hack-
1S65I. XXXIV. Report of conquests
1>\ Lebreca and Ji vn de San Mvutin in Oviedo, Hist.
general y natural (Madrid, 1850), who also gives data obtained
.'. from Quesada Important is Pedbo Siuon, Noticiae
"> sections relative to Chihehas unpublished; Bishop PiedrahUa (Antwerp, 1688). The same may be said of Cabct llanos, Elegias (see Castellanos).
le, though very rare, is ZaMORA, Hist. '/< hi
1 nio del .v<<<o> /.'< »/»,> <!• t,'mrvida (Bar- celona, 1701) Gomara and especially Berrera have band infonnation on (lie irilies. Also second hand, ire the data in Lopez de Velasco, Oeografla u India* (written 1571— 1574; published
Madrid, 1894 Imong later works see Ht mholot, Vues des
Pans. 1M6) and Relation historiqve (Paris,
lsif, 1822); 1 -i? I .. ledades
Berlin, 1854); Joaquin Acobta, Compendia hietorico (Paris, 1848 : Bollaert, Antiquarian, Ethnological, I loi 18 >ti the Chibcha lan- guage, Frat Bernardo de Lugo, Oramdtica en la Lengua general 'a M Madrid, I6i9); Rafael
.n Bib I ing americaine; Uhle,
1888); Bkintox, T>„ Am,ri,,n, Kan (Phila- delphia, 1891); Ternaux Compans, /•'
i (Paris) Important, but very rare, i- Ocark, G ranada I Madrid, 187 1 6), only . i parts printed.
Air. F. Bandelier.
Chicago, Archdiocese at (Chicagiensis i; dioo created 28 \< vember, 1843; raised to the rank of an archdiocesi 10 September, 1880; comprises the State of Illinois, r. s. A., north of the south line ol White aide, Lee, Di Kalb, Grundy and Kankakee Counties, a territory of 10,379 square miles.
Any historical sketch of the Archdiocese of Chi- cago, however brief, must commence with the name
of the intrepid Jesuit missionary .lames Marquette,
who on 25 October, 1674, set out with two attendants from the station ol St. Francis Xaxieron Green Bay. to found a mi- ion OD the Illinois River. This was in pursuance of a promise he had made to the Illinois
whom he had met at their village of Kaskaskia when
returning from his voyage down the Mississippi tha
year previous. On the 4th of December he reached
on his journey the mouth of the Chicago River. With
his two companions he pushed his way over the
frozen surface of the river, following the South Branch.
Having proceeded about, four miles, he was obliged to
halt because of sickness. Here he built a cabin, tin
first white habitation, it, would appear, erected on the
site of the city of Chicago. After Marquette many
of the French missionaries ami voyageurs traversed
the land now covered by that municipality, lather
St. Cosme in all probability passed this way in 1699.
Father Gravier was there in the year following, In
1 7'. i.> the Pottawotomies by the treaty of Greenville
ceded to the United States a tract of land six miles
square at the mouth of the Chicago River. Here, in
1804, Fort Dearborn was erected, and about this garri-
son settled the Catholic pioneers. The Rev. Gabriel
Richard of Detroit preached at the fort in 1821. In
1822 Alexander Beaubien was baptized there by
Father Badin, the first priest ordained within the
limits of the original thirteen of the United Slates.
As far as known this was the first case of the adminis-
tration of baptism to a white person in the vicinity of
Fort Dearborn. In 1833 a petition was addressed to
the lit. Rev. Joseph Rosati, Bishop of St. Louis and
Vicar-General of Bardstown, in which latter diocese
the State of Illinois then lay, praying for the appoint-
ment of a resident pastor. The petition declared
that there were about one hundred Catholics in Chi-
cago and was signed by thirty-eight men representing
one hundred and twenty-two souls. In answer to this
request Bishop Rosati appointed Father John Mary
Irena'iis St. Cyr to take charge at Chicago, ami he
celebrated the first .Mass in Mark Meaubion's loo cabin
on bake Street, near Market. 5 May. 1833. Shortly
thereafter Father St. Cyr secured a lot near the corner
of Lake and State Streets and put up a church build-
ing twenty-five by thirty-five feet, at a cost of four
hundred dollars. This modest structure was dedi-
cated in October. 1833. A little later, when Bishop
Brute, the first Bishop of Vincennes, visited Chicago,
he found there a congregation of four hundred souls.
The growing necessities of the missions in Northern
Illinois soon demanded the services of more than one
priest. So, at the solicitation ol Bishop Rosati, Bishop Unite sent thither Fathers Fischer, Shaefer, St. Palais and Dupontavice. The (asl named was
appointed to Joliet. Father St. Cyr was recalled in
1837. He was succeeded as pastor of the English- speaking congregation by Father O'Meara, who re- moved the church building erected by Father St. Cyr to Wabash Avenue and .Madison Street. After the departure of Father < I'Moaia, Father St. Palais built on this site a new brick structure. To the priests already mentioned the names of Fathers Plunketl
and Gueguen should lie added as having rendered good service in the first period of the ( lmrch's history in Chicago.
Creation of Diocese. — The needs as well a abilities of the Catholic settlement about Fori Dear- born and its vicinity were recognized to be such that the Plenary Council ol Haiti more recommended, in May. 1843, the formation of the new See of Chicago Home acted favourably upon the advice, and in 1844 appointed as first bishop of the see the Rev. William Quarter of \™ York He was born in Killurine, Kings Co., Ireland. 21 January, 1806. After aclassi cal course made in private academies, he attended Maynooth College. He emigrated to America in
1822, where, soon after his arrival, he entered Mt. St.
Mary's College at Emmitsburg, Maryland. Ordained priest, 19 September, 1829, he laboured thei with marked auccess m the Diocese ol V» York, until summoned to the new Bee ol the H st, for which he was consecrated bishop in St. Patrick'- i lathedral New York, by the Rt. Rev. John Hughes, 13 March,
