St. Michael the Archangel

French trader Médard Chouart des Groseilliers spent the winter of 1654–55 in Jacksonport, then a Potawatomi/Ottawa village known as Mechigan and home to more than 3,000 people. After returning to Quebec, he reported the abundance of the area’s resources and the multitude and character of its people. Invited by the Potawatomi to visit, Catholic missionaries asked permission to plant the cross of their faith within the village and called their first prospective mission St. Michael, chief of the Archangels. More than two hundred years later, Jacksonport’s Catholic church took the name St. Michael the Archangel. Before the church was built, Catholic residents held Mass in nearby homes. In 1875, John Reynolds was the first recorded baptism in Jacksonport at a place referred to as St. Michael’s, and construction of the church began the following year. The Charles Reynolds family donated the lakefront location, including the cemetery site. Early member families included LeClair, Londo, Cardy, DesJardine, LeMere, Butler, Campbell, O’Brien, LaPlante, Lautenbach, Orthober, and Searth, and many of these families still have a presence in Jacksonport. Leona (Cote) Grovogel attended Mass there for one hundred years, from 1899–1999.

Jacksonport, Wisconsin · United States