Anthony Church and the Belanger Settlement - by Robert Kubec - 1999
The Belanger Settlement is a community of homesteads which had its beginning in 1882, when Frank Belanger Sr. By mid-1890s, several other families had joined them. The new settlers, like the Belangers, had some Indian ancestry. Throughout the years, the people of the Settlement have maintained their ties to the nearby Red Cliff and Bad River reservations. But, this particular band of settlers chose to establish a community apart from the reservations and nearby white towns. In those days, extinguishing Indian culture was an official policy of the federal government. Indian boarding schools were established wherein speaking a native language was punished and learning Indian traditions was discouraged. And the territory which had been set aside for the reservations contained land which was too poor to support a small family farm. Because the settlers were of mixed blood, they were considered citizens of the United States, and, unlike their full-blooded relatives on the nearby reservations, they had a legal right to establish homesteads. And, homesteading was the only way they could achieve their goal of living independently and sustaining their families on small farms in the wilderness. Thus, the Belangers and the families who followed them formed a community with a mixed Ojibway and white heritage, perhaps the only successful off-reservation community of its kind in the country at that time. During the 1880s and 1890s, the settlers cleared enough of the land to establish their small farms. And, it was during that era that the great logging boom in northern Wisconsin was flourishing. While the small farms provided sustenance for the families and sometimes even enough agricultural products to sell at the market in Bayfield, the logging companies provided opportunities for employment, and most of the men worked as loggers during that time. More families, relatives and friends of the Belangers and the others who were the first homesteaders, came to the newly successful community to share in the bounty afforded by the jobs available in the timber industry. Toward the end of the 1890s, Frank Belanger Sr. decided the new community needed a church and a school, and he donated two acres of his land for a school and ten acres on which a church was to be built, behind which there would be a cemetery. The church was located on a rustic road which is now called Star Route and which leads through the heart of the settlement from east to west. It was built directly across from his log cabin. The community looked to the Catholic Franciscan mission at Red Cliff for its spiritual foundation, and the building of the new St. Anthony Church was completed in 1899 under the supervision of a Franciscan missionary, Father Chrysostrom Verwyst. Every family in the Settlement had put their backs into the work of felling the oak and pine which was then milled and hammered into place to form their new church. From the heavy oak timbers and rocks which formed its foundation to the pine siding on the steeple, all the material came from the forest from which the church site had been carved. And, all of the sweat came from the brows and hands of the families who would use that place as their spiritual home for the decades to come. In the early 1900s, it was not an easy journey for a priest to travel the 15 miles from the Red Cliff mission to say Mass and minister the sacraments. It was an all day trip, and the priest would stay overnight in a little room at the rear of the church. He took his meals at the homes of local residents. Because of the distance from Red Cliff, the priest could only visit once a month. During the rest of the month, the local residents held weekly services themselves and instructed the children in the catechism. This arrangement continued for several decades. The last Mass was said in St. Anthony's in 1961. In addition to being the spiritual heart of the community, the church served the people in another way. The steeple bell was tolled on many occasions to warn residents of the approach of a calamity of one kind or another, such as a forest fire or a tornado. And, when a hunter was lost in the forest, it was rung in order to give the person a point of reckoning to guide him home. There is also a more somber significance for the church. A small grassy road leads past the east windows of St. Anthony's to the little cemetery in the woods. If a person stands at the far end of the cemetery next to the large white cross which was made from logs and looks south, the church can be seen through the trees, standing like a sentry at the entrance to the cemetery road. Yet, in that most peaceful setting, where one is surrounded by the untouched stands of oak, maple, birch, pine, and aspen, where one gently treads on sacred ground among weathered wooden crosses, the old church in the distance looks as natural in its place as the hills and forest. Through the years, Settlement residents maintained the church and the cemetery grounds. A major renovation of the church building was completed in 1935. Father Oscar Rascher was the visiting priest at Red Cliff at the time. An anonymous donor funded a new roof, a stone foundation, and the refinishing of the priest's room at the rear of the church. There was also enough money to purchase some pews, build a new chimney, and buy a cross of metal for the steeple. The basic structure today, both inside and out, is the same as it was in 1899. The Belanger Settlement prospered during the early 1900's. In addition to its fine church, it had a school, a small grocery and sundries shop, and even its own orchestra. But, it wasn't long before the logging companies had razed most of the timber in northern Wisconsin. The logging companies then moved on, too far away for the homesteaders to follow. By 1915, vast tracts of the northern woods had been reduced to stumps and slashings. Yet, the homesteaders stubbornly held on. There was still some logging to do, albeit on a lesser scale. Some trapped, some fished to augment what their little farms could produce. The land and climate were unforgiving. By 1930, of the eleven children in one family, eight had been laid to rest in the little cemetery behind the church. The event which changed the Belanger Settlement more than any natural occurrence, was World War II. After 1945, improved roads and the enticement of jobs and a modern life in the cities lured many young people away from the Settlement. By 1961, the population had dwindled to a point that the Diocese no longer considered the church viable, and it was de-activated. For some years after that, the residents of the Settlement made occasional use of the building for a wedding or other family gathering. And the cemetery is still being used. But the years took their toll. Despite valiant volunteer efforts to maintain the building, it needed major work. There is something very special about the place called the Belanger Settlement. If you spend a little time there, you will be transported back in time. If you look hard enough at the little St. Anthony Church, you can imagine the doors bursting open and the homesteaders spilling out to picnic on the lawn on a sunny day under the huge trees to celebrate a baptism or a wedding. An abandoned house might make you wonder what became of the family who lived there. A walk through the cemetery could make you think of the scores of life stories under the wooden crosses, now still. Now there are just a few families left in the Settlement. Yet, many people who once lived there, and even their children who never lived there, consider it to be their place of origin, their home. Each year, the first weekend in July, a homecoming picnic is held in the Settlement, and people who are now scattered from coast to coast, come home to visit. Closer to home, there are many families throughout Bayfield and Ashland counties who have family ties in the Settlement. It was through the support of all of the people who have bonds with the Settlement that the most recent crisis for St. Anthony Church was bridged. During the last 1980's, the mission at Red Cliff informed Settlement residents that the Diocese could no longer carry the old church on its property rolls. Numerous attempts to find a solution to save the church failed. Finally, the Diocese advised that it was thought best to raze the Church, and it was scheduled to be burned to the ground during the winter of 1993-1994. However, the weather created a hazardous environment for burning for a short period of time during February 1994, forcing a postponement of the building's destruction. Ironically, the harsh weather which had battered the old church for so many years, had now come to its rescue. Some Settlement residents used the reprieve to establish the Belanger Settlement Historical Society, a non-profit organization, which persuaded the Diocese to deed over the church to the Society whose goals are to restore the church and use it for civic and cultural purposes and to make it available to the public as a very worthy historical monument to a distinctive way of life and a successful blending of Native American and white culture. Thanks to the help of over 100 people from the area, the restoration of St. Anthony Church was virtually completed by the summer of 1999.
