Father J. B. Genin Correspondence

Collection

Identifier: SC 1640

Staff Only

Scope and Contents

This collection contains two correspondence that discuss Father Genin. One is from the librarian of the State Historical Library in Bismarck, North Dakota to the Reverend Vincent Wehrle, the Bishop of Bismarck. The second is the Bishops response. Both are dated from December of 1933.

Dates

1933

Creator

Wehrle, Vincent, 1855-1941. (Person)

Access

The collection is open under the rules and regulations of the NDSU Archives.

Copyrights

Copyrights to this collection is held by the NDSU Archives

Biography

Jean Baptiste Marie Genin was born November 4, 1839 in Saint-Alban-de-Roche, France to Jean and Marie Genin. He began his novitiate at the Notre-Dame de l’Osier in 1858. He took his vows on June 23, 1860 and was sent to Canada. While in Canada, he taught at Ottawa College from 1860-1865. He was ordained as a preist on June 19, 1864 by Bishop J. E. Bruno Guigues, the bishop of Ottawa. In 1865, Genin went to the missions of Mackenzie where he worked at Fort Chipewyan and at Fort Providence. He returned to France in 1867 but it did not work out. He was expelled from the Isère congration by degree issued by Father Fabre on September 8, 1876.

Father Genin did missionary work at Fort Totten, North Dakota in 1865, 1867 and 1868. The Father Genin mission house on the Red River north of Fargo was established in 1866, which was until 1872 the only place of regular Christian worship. He also practiced ministry at Fort Ransom in 1867. In that same year, he also stayed at McCauleyville, Minnesota where he lived until 1873. He founded the mission at the confluence of the Red and Wild rivers in 1870. It burned in the spring 1871 and when it was rebuilt it was the start of the third oldest Catholic parish in North Dakota – St. Benedict of Wild Rice. In addition to building churches and parishes, he helped influence a treaty between the Chippewa and Sioux tribes in 1870 at Fort Abercrombie. He established the first Catholic church in Bismarck in 1873, the Church of the Immaculate Conception (St. Mary’s).

He eventually moved to the Sacred Heart Parish in Duluth, Minnesota and stayed through until 1880. He also built a chapel in Cloquet, Minnesota in 1880. It seems that Father Genin was not well liked in many Catholic circles and there is no information on his whereabouts between 1882 and 1888. He is eventually “found” again in Michigan City, North Dakota in 1888 and as the missionary apostolic to Bathgate, North Dakota (which he held from 1890 to 1900). In addition to those places, he was doing ministry in Cavalier, North Dakota between 1893 and 1900.

Jean Baptiste Marie Genin died in Bathgate, North Dakota, on January 19, 1900.