CHAPTER II.
EARLY LIFE OF FATHER DE SMET.
Ancestry and youth - Choice of missionary career - Leaves Belgium for America - Enters Whitemarsh Novitiate - Goes to St. Louis - Helps found Novitiate and University - Returns to Europe - Sends contributions to University - Returns to America - Goes to Council Bluffs - Work at the Potawatomi Mission - Visits the Sioux Country - Describes evils of liquor traffic among the Indians.
Pierre-Jean De Smet was born in the village of Termonde, Belgium, at the very beginning of the 19th century (1). His family, which has been traced back to the beginning of the 17th century, was one of the most respectable in Belgium, and the young De Smet came into the world in circumstances that assured him a satisfactory beginning in life. The parents, too, found in their offspring all the promise which they could well desire. He was a well-formed, healthy, and handsome child, and as
(1) Entry in the baptismal register of the Church of the Blessed Virgin Mary of Termonde, copied by C. L. Tede, the present dean or chief pastor, 1902.
" In the year 1801 on the 30th day of the month of January, I baptized Pierre-Jean, born this morning at about five o'clock, and Coleta Aldegunda, born at a quarter after five, twin children of Judocus De Smet of this parish and Joanna Maria Buydens, of this parish, his wife; the sponsors were John Baptiste Kollier of Smerrebe and Coleta De Saeger of Bottelière.
(Signed) J. C. Ringoot, Pastor of B. V. M. of Termonde."
The father of Father De Smet was Josse-Arnaud De Smet, born April 28, 1738, and died February 15, 1827; was twice married - first to Jeanne-Marie Duerinck, by whom he had six children; and second, to Marie-Jeanne Buydens by whom he had nine children, Pierre-Jean being the fifth. Two of his brothers, Charles and Francis, grew to adult years, and both were men of character and distinction in their native land.