Page:Catholic Encyclopedia, volume 9.djvu/547

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MAOKSNZIK


504


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was consecrated first Bishop of Aleth. It is remark- able that St. Brendan also laboured at Aleth, and had a hermit's cell there on a precipitous rock in the sea, whither he often retired. In olcl age the disorder of the island compelled St. Machutiis to leave, but the people soon begged the saint to come back. On his return matters were put right, and the saint, feeling that his end was at hand, determined to spend his last days in solitary penance. Accordingly he proceeded to Ar- chambiac. a village in the Diocese of Santes, where he passea the remainder of his life in prayer and mortification. His obit is chronicled on 15 Nov., in

the year 618, 620, or 622.

O'Hanlon, Lives of the Irish Saints (Dublin, s. d.); O'Dono- OHXTE, St. Brendan the Voyager (Dublin, 1895); Moran, Irish SainU in Great Britain (Callan. 1903).

W. H. Grattan-Flood.

Mackensie, Vicariate Apostolic op. — ^This vicar- iate which was detached from the Athabaska-Macken- zie Vicariate in 1901 and intrusted to Mgr Gabriel Breynat, Titular Bishop of Adramytus, consecrated 6 April, 1902, is bounded on the west by the Rocky Mountains, on the south by 60® latitude, on the east by the water-shed and is unlimited on the north tow- ards the pole. It comprised the Yukon, which was not erected into a prefecture Apostolic until 1908. Through this immense territory, which has an area of over half a million square miles, are scattered six nomad tribes:^ the Montagnais, the Slave, the Flat- dog-side, the Hare Indian, the Loucheux, and the Eskimo, making a total population of 6000 souls. Leaving out the Eskimo tribe which is still pagan and nearly four hundred Protestant red-skins, all the other tribes embraced the Catholic Faith which was intro- duced by the Oblates^ who began mission work here in 1858. The difficulties of Chnstianizing this land of perpetual snow and long winters, when the thermom- eter sometimes falls to 68® below zero, are readily understood when one knows that the only means of travel are dogs trained to harness and that the heavens are the only roof. Means of commumcation are so poor that from September to July there is but one mail delivery in Lower Mackenzie and provisions are brought by steamboat but once a year. Hence the difficulties of travel, the absolute lack of local re- sources, the severity of the cUmate contribute to make this vicariate the poorest in the wjiole world, living on charity, more especially on pecuniary help sent from France by the Propagation of Faith. Owing to this assistance the vicar Apostolic with his twenty Oblate fathers and twenty-one brothers can maintain twelve missions where the Indians gather every year. In 1867 the Montreal Gray Nuns came and shared the hardships of the missionaries, establishing an orphan- age at the Providence ^fission, where they are now teaching seventy-six children under their care. In 1903 they opened another orphanage at the St. Joseph Mission, Fort Resolution, the vicar Apostolic's resi- dence, where forty-five children are being instructed. There are twenty-one nuns working in the mission.

PiOLET, Les missions cathoHques, VI (Paris. 1903), 51-130; TxcHi:, Vingt annSes de missions dans le Nord-Ouest de VAmS- rique (Montreal, 1866); Idem, Eaquisse sur le nord-ouest ds VAmirique (Montreal, 1869), tr. Cameron (1870); Annates des missions de la congrigation des Oblats de Marie- ImmacuUe (1862-1910); Catholic Directory (Milwaukee, 1910).

C. H. A. Gmoux.

McLoTi£fhliii, Jopf, phvsician and pioneer, b. in the parish of La Riviere du Loup, Canada, 19 Oct., 1784; d. at Oregon City^ 3 Sept., 1857. He is the great hero of Oregon's pioneer period. His paternal grandfather was bom m the parish of Desertegney, Jjeland. He emigrated to Canada and married there, and his son John was the father of Dr. John McLough- Hn. The maiden name of the mother of the latter was Angelique Fraser, bom in the parish of Beaumont, Canada. Her father was Malcolm Fraser, a Scotch Ilighlandor, who went to Canada in 1769 with the


army of Wolfe. Dr. McLoughlin's father died while his son was a lad. He was brought up in the home oi his maternal grandfather, and educated in Canada and Scotland. He became a physician while quite young, but did not practise long. He became a partner of the North-West Company. When that compimy coalesced with the Hudson Bay Company in 1821, he was in charge of Fort William on Lake Superior, which was then the chief depot and factory of the North- W^est Company. In 1824 Dr. McLoughhn was sent to Fort George [Astoria] near the mouth of the Columbia River. He soon moved the head-quarters of the company to Fort Vancouver, on the northern side of the Columbia River, There he ruled for twenty-two years as the absolute but kindly autocrat of what is known as the Oregon Country. He had no military force, but by his own personality and the aid of his officers and employes, he estabushed order and maintained peace so' that persons unaccompanied by escort could travel over the country without danger from formeriy hos- tile Indians. There were no Indian wars in the Ore- gon Country until after he resigned from the Hudson Bay Company. The Methodist. Presbyterian, and Catholic missionaries he aided ana protected, although at that time he was an Anglican. In 1842 he joined the Catholic Church, and became a devoted Catholic, being created a Knight of St. Gregory in 1846. In 1843 the first of the Oregon home-buildmg immigrants ar- rived in Oregon. Dr. McLoughlin fed and clothed them and cared for the sick, he supplied them with seed and farming implements, and loaned them domestic ani- mals. He gave similar assistance to the immigrants of 1844 and 1845. As he furnished most of this aid on credit, and did not discourage the settlement of Ore- gon by citizens of the United States, he was forced to resign by the Hudson Bay Company in 1846. For the rest of his hfe he resided at (Jregon City. Prior to 1840 he had taken up a land claim, but there was no legal way to acouire ownership of land in Oregon before the Oregon land law of 27 Sept., 1850. This land claim was at Oregon City, which he founded and named, and where there is a fine water power. He de- veloped this power, and erected flour and saw mills which he personally operated. It was asserted that as he was a British subject, he was not entitled to take up a land claim. But tnis was merely a pretext, for un- til 1846, when the treaty between the United States and Great Britain settled the ownership of the Oregon Country, a convention between the two countries ex- isted, providing for the joint occupancy of the Oregon Country by Americans and British, both having equal rights. Some of the Methodist missionaries and their f(Sowers-~all of whom had been befriended by Dr. McLoughlin — started this action against him. It was continued until in the donation land law a section was inserted which deprived him of his land claim, and gave it to the territory of Oregon for the establishment and endowment of a university. It was restored to his heirs by the legislature of Oregon five years after his death. The effect of this law was that Dr. McLough- lin lost nearly all of the large fortune which he had accumulated. He died a broken-hearted man, the vic- tim of mendacity, and ingratitude. He was buried in the churchyard ot St. John's Catholic church in Oregon City, where his body has lain ever since. By com- mon consent he has become known as the Father of Oregon.

Frederick V. Holman.

MacMahon, Marie-Edm^-Patrice-Maurice de, Due de Magenta, Marshal of France, President of the French Republic; b. at Sully, Sa6ne-et-Loire, 13 July, 1808; d. at Montcresson, Loiret, 16 October, 1893. BUs ancestors were Irish, and had been settled in France since the time of James II, having applied for naturalization in 1749. MacMahon took part in the eiq>edition to Algiers in 1830 as aide-de-camp to Gen-