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Note: CHRISTMAS IN THE GROSSE POINTE (Michigan) OF LONG AGO
I would like to begin this story of this area's early settlers by going to Detroit and telling of the marriage of one FRANCIS VAN ANTWERP to PAULINE VERNIER at the old church of Ste. Anne, which stood on the site of the present Greyhound Bus Depot. They were united in marriage by one of the founders of the University of Michigan, the Rev. Father Gabriel Richard, in the year 1830.
Of this union were born three sons and a daughter. The youngest son, Michael, married and brought his bride, Mary, to a new log home far in the country at Grosse Pointe to the site at Mack and Vernier Road on land given him by his mother, which was part of the John B. Vernier strip farm, which had extended from the Lake (ed: St. Clair) to Gratiot Road. These strip farms were long and narrow, fronting on the Lake, as was the manner of the early French farms in this area.
Farm life was hard in this time of long ago and raising a large family had its joys and privations, quite a little privation, but much family happiness, being content with such things as the Lord had given them.
What is today known as Grosse Pointe Woods was settled by families largely of the French background and customs. However, there were also some Belgians and people of German extraction and they lived together in harmony, being mostly all bilingual. English was spoken by nearly all, along with their mother tongues.
The winters were long and hard and the inhabitants were more or less isolated during this period of the year to the immediate country around them. The holidays wre always looked froward to with great anticipation. Christmas was a very holy day and celebrated with much solemnity at the small church of St. Paul on the Lake. Michael Van Antwerp and his wife, Mary, were more than busy this Christmas morning, preparing for the long trip to St. Paul Church, with their growing family, to celebrate with their neighbors the Feast of the Birth of the Christ Child.
There were the usual chores to be performed on their small farm and the excitement of the children to be dealt with as they awoke in the cold upstairs bedrooms to find their stockings, which they had hung at the foot of the bed the night before with much expectation, filled with the few small pieces of hard candy and nuts and perhaps an orange if they were available this year out of their meager budget. Finally, having the children dressed in their warm winter clothing, they were ready to find their palces in the cutter. Wrapped in buffalo robes, they were about to start on their trip through the deep snows. This morning they would have to take the long way around, along the lakeshore, because Mack Road, being nothing more than two ruts or wheel tracks, was impassable due to the heavy snowfall. The route was along Vernier Road to the lakeshore and proceeding along Lake Shore Road. They would meet and greet many of thier neighbors who were heading for the same destination.
Arriving at the church, they were anxious to quickly get inside and find their pew before the start of this Christmas Mass. The simple replica of the nativity scene, which was brought from France by old Father Bebroux, the first pastor at St. Paul, was in its usual lovely setting in the sanctuary. The small frame church on the shores of Lake St. Clair was soon filled with the sounds of Christmas as the small choir sang the beautiful hymns of Christmas.
The celebrant of this Mass was the new young pastor from Detroit, Father Francis F. Van Antwerp, the nephew of Michael, who greeted the family warmly after Mass, as well as the rest of the people who were all part of this happy celbration. Among those present, we of this area would seem quite familiar, when we recognize the names we hear as those posted on the street signs throughout Grosse Pointe. People whose descendants still populate some parts of Grosse Pointe - the Renauds, Cooks, Verniers, Kerbys, Morans, Beaufaits, Tromblys, Beaupres and many others. After a short time of greeting and well-wishing, the family returned to the cutter for the ride back home, where Mary and the older girls would prepare the holiday meal to be enjoyed by the family as a climax to this Christmas day.
My mother was one of the daughters of this family. Her names was Pauline, who was born on December 12, 1875 on the site where now stands Parcells Middle School.
EDWARD W. TREANORE, CHRISTMAS 1968 Commentary:
The MARY in this article is my Great Grandmother. My Mother (Madeline Cecilia Blaney, nee Sloan) always referred to her as MADELINE & her Grandfather as Michelle. I believe her name must have been MARY MADELINE.
"ED" was "big" on family history. He told me he had done some tapes & they were at the Grosse Pointe Public Library. Ed's health is not good and his memory is poor. He's at the Bon Secour Retirement Home.
In 1896, the land (Ed: in Deerfield) our house was built on was owned by a Loren S. Van Antwerp & his wife Rosamond.
MAUREEN THERESE (nee Blaney) IOTT, Deerfield, MI, March 22, 1997 "Father George (Harold) Kerby (Ed: a descendant) also quotes Miss La Fleur in her memory of hearing Mrs. Francis Van Antwerp, a member of one of the earliest families here, tell that when she first came to Grosse Pointe, there was no chapel. Instead on the same site there was a large crucifix, 20 feet high. the life size Corpus, according to Mrs. Van Antwerp, had been carved by an Indian. Early settlers gathered there on Sunday to pray."
A Brief History of St. Paul's Parish by Msgr.Francis X.Canfield, 1973
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