Johannes Bernardus Weikamp

John Bernard Weikamp

Johannes Bernardus Weikamp (born April 5, 1818 in Mussum , † March 19, 1889 in Cross Village , Michigan ) was a German missionary in the United States .

Life

Johann Bernard Weikamp was baptized in the parish church of St. Georg in Bocholt in the name of Johannes Bernardus. He grew up on a farm and wanted to be a missionary from a young age. In preparation for this, he therefore devoted himself to studying several languages.

In 1843 he entered the Franciscan monastery in Dorsten . While still a seminarian , in 1849 he asked the Vatican Congregation for the Propaganda Fide and Pope Pius IX to be sent to the mission . At an audience he impressed the Pope not least with his language skills. Since the recently established suffragan dioceses of the Archdiocese of St. Louis were looking for missionaries to serve the Indians of North America at this time, Johann Weikamp was sent there on a recommendation from the Pope.

In 1850 Father Weikamp came to Chicago . Bishop James Oliver van de Velde of Chicago appointed him pastor at the local St. Peters Church. Weikamp founded a cooperative of Franciscans - Tertiaries , who joined many families. As Chicago and the community grew rapidly, he built St. Francis Church in 1853 and pastored both churches after it was completed. In 1855 he was finally able to accept an invitation from Bishop Frederic Baragas of Michigan and, with the approval of the Bishop of Chicago, move to the as yet undeveloped Indian region of the Great Lakes together with the members of his “started” cooperative from Illinois .

The group took the sailing ship up Lake Michigan and finally anchored at Harbor Springs . Since there was only one harbor for small boats here, the cattle that Weikamp had already kept for his cooperative in Chicago and carried on the ship had to swim ashore. As a farmer's son, he immediately recognized that the land provided by Bishop Baraga was too sandy for cultivation. So he moved with his cooperative to the place he later called Cross Village. Here the land met his requirements because it was very fertile. In addition, many Odawa lived there (at that time mostly written "Ottawa") whom he helped with his work and whom he wanted to lead to the Christian faith. Father John B. Weikamp, ​​as he was now called, acquired 2000 acres (8 km²) of state land from the state, most of which consisted of forests. At that time it was only possible for the “white man” to buy land. With this land purchase, Weikamp got ahead of other whites who would otherwise have had the opportunity to drive away the Indians living there. Together with the brothers, sisters and families of the Franciscan Cooperative, Weikamp cultivated 80 acres (32 ha) himself. He made the vast majority of the 1920 acres available to his Indians as a protected habitat (hunting and residential area). The foundation provided itself and the Indians living there with the abundant income and grew over time.

In addition to the monasteries - one for the brothers and one for the sisters - a church, farms, hospital and an orphanage, schools for Indians and whites as well as facilities for learning crafts etc. were gradually built, so that Bishop Baraga on the occasion of one of his visits wrote in his diary: “There are many things that make Father Weikamp a good name, he is a man of remarkable personality, extraordinary energy, and I must say that his Indians have already gained the greatest respect from the government because they are very willing to learn and helpful Weikamp was not only superior of the monasteries, but also a recognized advocate of the Indians in all matters and as such (honorary) chief of the Odawa.

Weikamp translated liturgical texts and prayers into the language of the Odawa. In 1880 he published the first prayer book in their language.

On March 18, 1889, Father John B. Weikamp was riding to “his” Indians when his horse suddenly shied. He tried to hold it, but the animal dragged him a little across the floor, causing serious internal injuries. He died of it the next day.

Fonts

• (with Frederic Baraga): Katolik anamie-masinaigan. A Catholic prayerbook and catechism in the Otchipwe-Indian language . Benziger, New-York / Cincinnati / St. Louis 1874.

literature

• Paul Muszelewicz OFM: A Remarkable Man and ... His Remarkable Work . In: Franciscan Herald , vol. XVII, June 1929, p. 252
• Klemens Vlaswinkel: The Indian missionary John Bernhard Weikamp - a farmer's son from the Münsterland . In: Our home. Yearbook of the district of Borken , year 1989, pp. 243–249.
• Klemens Vlaswinkel: Johann Bernard Weikamp (1818–1889), Indian missionary . In: Ingeborg Höting, Ludger Kremer, Timothy Sodmann (eds.): Westmünsterländische Biografien , Vol. 1. Bredevoort, Vreden 2015, ISBN 978-3-933377-24-1 , pp. 141–148.

Web links

Commons : John Bernard Weikamp  - Collection of pictures, videos and audio files

• Father Weikamp (English)

Footnotes

1. ↑ Finbar Kenneally (Ed.): United States Documents in the Propaganda Fide Archives. A Calendar , Vol. 4. Academy of American Franciscan History, Washington, DC 1973, p. 164.
2. ↑ ^{a b c} Klemens Vlaswinkel: He became a friend of the Indians. 200 years ago Johannn Bernard Weikamp was born in Mussum near Bocholt. In: Kirche + Leben , April 8, 2018, p. 12.
3. ↑ JC Bürgler: History of the Catholic. Chicago Church 1833–1889. With special consideration of the Catholic Germanness . Wilhelm Ruhlmann, Chicago 1889, p. 64.
4. ^ Margaret Beattie Bogue: Around the Shores of Lake Michigan. A Guide to Historic Sites . University of Wisconsin Press, Madison 1985. p. 289.
5. ↑ Quoted from Klemens Vlaswinkel: He became a friend of the Indians. 200 years ago Johannn Bernard Weikamp was born in Mussum near Bocholt. In: Kirche + Leben, April 8, 2018, p. 12.
6. ↑ James Constantine Pilling, Wilberforce Eames: Bibliography of the Algonquian Languages , 13th Edition. US Government Printing Office, Washington 1891, p. 29.
7. ^ John Wright: Early Prayer Books of America . St. Paul 1896, p. 9.