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Louis Hennepin

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Occupation
  
Priest, Missionary

Role
  
Priest

Name
  
Louis Hennepin


Religion
  
Roman Catholic

Died
  
1705, Rome, Italy

Louis Hennepin Hennepin Louis c1640c1701 MNopedia

Full Name
  
Antoine Hennepin

Born
  
May 12, 1626 (
1626-05-12
)
Ath, Spanish Netherlands (present-day Belgium)

Books
  
A new discovery of a vast country in America

Organization
  
Franciscan Recollets

Niagara falls history tour the story of father louis hennepin


Father Louis Hennepin, O.F.M. baptized Antoine, (12 May 1626 – 5 December 1704) was a Roman Catholic priest and missionary of the Franciscan Recollet order (French: Récollets) and an explorer of the interior of North America.

Contents

Louis Hennepin Louis n Antoine Hennepin Connatre la Wallonie

Biography

Louis Hennepin Niagara Falls

Antoine Hennepin was born in Ath in the Spanish Netherlands (present-day Hainaut, Belgium). In 1659, Béthune, the town where he lived, was captured by the army of Louis XIV of France. Henri Joulet, who accompanied Hennepin and wrote his own journal of their travels, called Hennepin a Fleming (i.e. a native of Flanders).

Louis Hennepin FileFather Hennepinjpg Wikimedia Commons

At the request of Louis XIV the Récollets sent four missionaries to New France in May 1675, including Hennepin, accompanied by René Robert Cavelier, Sieur de la Salle. In 1678, Hennepin was ordered by his provincial superior to accompany La Salle on an expedition to explore the western part of New France. Hennepin was 39 when he departed in 1679 with La Salle from Quebec City to construct the 45-ton barque Le Griffon, sail through the Great Lakes, and explore the unknown West.

Hennepin was with La Salle at the construction of Fort Crevecoeur (near present-day Peoria, Illinois) in January 1680. In February, La Salle sent Hennepin and two others as an advance party to search for the Mississippi River. The party followed the Illinois River to its junction with the Mississippi. Shortly thereafter, Hennepin was captured by a Sioux war party and carried off for a time into what is now the state of Minnesota.

Louis Hennepin httpsuploadwikimediaorgwikipediacommonsthu

In September 1680, thanks to Daniel Greysolon, Sieur Du Lhut, Hennepin and the others were given canoes and allowed to leave, eventually returning to Quebec. Hennepin returned to France and was never allowed by his order to return to North America. Local historians credit the Franciscan Récollet friar as the first European to step ashore at the site of present-day Hannibal, Missouri.

Two great waterfalls were brought to the world's attention by Hennepin: Niagara Falls, with the most voluminous flow of any in North America, and the Saint Anthony Falls in what is now Minneapolis, the only waterfall on the Mississippi River. In 1683, he published a book about Niagara Falls called A New Discovery. The Regionalist painter Thomas Hart Benton created a mural, "Father Hennepin at Niagara Falls" for the New York Power Authority at Lewiston, New York.

Legacy

Places named after Hennepin are found in the United States and Canada:

Illinois:

  • The city of Hennepin, Illinois
  • Hennepin Room at Starved Rock Lodge and Conference Centre in Utica, Illinois

    • Michigan:

  • Point Hennepin, the northern tip of Grosse Ile, an island on the Detroit River south of Detroit
  • Hennepin Street in Garden City, Michigan
  • Hennepin Road in Marquette, Michigan
  • Hennepin, significant as the first self-unloading bulk carrier. Wreckage is located west of South Haven, Michigan.

    • Minnesota:

  • Hennepin County, Minnesota, whose seat is Minneapolis
  • Hennepin Avenue, in Minneapolis
  • The Father Louis Hennepin Bridge, across the Mississippi River in Minneapolis
  • Father Hennepin State Park, in Isle, Minnesota
  • A Great Lakes wood-hulled steamer built in 1888 which sank in 1927
  • The city of Champlin, Minnesota, the site historians report where he first crossed the Mississippi in 1680, holds an annual Father Hennepin Festival on the 2nd weekend of June that includes a reenactment of Father Louis Hennepin crossing the Mississippi River.
  • Hennepin Island is in the Mississippi River at St. Anthony Falls. Although it is no longer an island, it extends into the river and houses the Saint Anthony Falls Laboratory at the University of Minnesota, a five-unit hydroelectric plant, owned by Xcel Energy, and the Main Street substation – serving downtown Minneapolis.
  • Father Hennepin Bluffs Park lies on the east bank of the Mississippi River adjacent to Hennepin Island. It is administered by the Minneapolis Park and Recreation Board and features picnic areas, a bandshell, and Heritage Trail plaques.
  • Hennepin Room at the Minneapolis Hilton
  • The Father Hennepin Memorial stands on the grounds of Saint Mary's Basilica in Minneapolis.

    • New York:

  • Hennepin Road in Grand Island, New York
  • Hennepin Avenue on Cayuga Island in Niagara Falls, New York
  • Hennepin Room at the Niagara Falls Conference Center in Niagara Falls
  • Hennepin Park, a park located on the corner of 82nd Street and Bollier Avenue in Niagara Falls
  • Hennepin Hall, a residence hall at Siena College, Loudonville, New York
  • Hennepin Park, a park located in the East Lovejoy neighborhood of Buffalo, New York
  • Hennepin Parkway, also known as Hennepin Street, a street on the north side of Hennepin Park in the East Lovejoy neighborhood of Buffalo
  • Hennepin Farmhouse Saison Ale (beer) from Brewery Ommegang in Cooperstown, New York

    • Niagara Falls, Ontario:

  • Father Hennepin Separate School
  • Ontario Historical Plaque at Murray Avenue and Niagara River Parkway
  • Hennepin Room at Sheraton Fallsview
  • Hennepin Crescent

    • Books by Hennepin

    Hennepin authored:

  • Description de la Louisiane (Paris, 1683),
  • Nouvelle découverte d'un très grand pays situé dans l'Amérique entre le Nouveau-Mexique et la mer glaciale (Utrecht, 1697), and
  • Nouveau voyage d'un pays plus grand que l'Europe (Utrecht, 1698).
  • A New Discovery of a Vast Country in Voyage America (2 volumes); reprinted from the second London issue of 1698 with facsimiles of original title-pages, maps, and illustrations, and the addition of Introduction, Notes, and Index By Reuben Gold Thwaites. A.C. McMlurg & Co., Chicago, 1903.

    • The truth of much of Hennepin's accounts has been called into question — or flatly denied — notably by American historian Francis Parkman.

    Hennepin has been denounced by many historians and historical critics as an arrant falsifier. Certain writers have sought to repel this charge by claiming that the erroneous statements are in fact interpolations by other persons. The weight of the evidence is however adverse to such a theory.

    References

    Louis Hennepin Wikipedia
    (Text) CC BY-SA