March 28, 2024

Meet Pierre François Xavier de Charlevoix

April 22, 2016

While the exact dates may not be certain, the namesake is. Originally named Pine River, both the city and the county of Charlevoix were later renamed, sometime between 1836 and 1854, in honor of Pierre François Xavier de Charlevoix, a fascinating character whose name would carry on in northern Michigan, as well as across Canada.

RELIGIOUS STUDIES

Charlevoix was born in October of 1682 in Saint-Quentin, a Roman-founded city in the far north of France. He was descended from a line of lesser nobility, with ancestors serving in prominent positions; Charlevoix’s own father held the post of deputy attorney general. In 1698, at the age of 16, Charlevoix traveled to Paris to begin training as a prospective Jesuit. He would be ordained as a priest in 1713. However, Charlevoix wasn’t thought of as a typical man of religion. He avoided the uncompromising stance of a zealot, instead reportedly preferring study and observation, research and writings.

PROFESSOR CHARLEVOIX

Between 1705 and 1709, Charlevoix was sent to spend a segment of his training at the Jesuit College in Quebec, Canada, returning to Paris shortly thereafter to study at the Lycée Louis-le-Grand. Next, he would become a professor of belles lettres, or “fine writing.” As a professor, Charlevoix would find among his students a youthful François-Marie Arouet, better known by his pen name, Voltaire.

MAJOR JOURNEY

By 1715, Charlevoix had published his first complete written work, a complex piece on the presence of the Catholic Church in Japan. But it was his next project that would solidify him as a notable figure in North America and in northern Michigan. The French crown, having recently lost control of Hudson Bay (back when New France occupied much of North America), sent Charlevoix to North America with the goal of finding a Northwest route to the Pacific Ocean, otherwise known as the “Western Sea.” They equipped him with canoes, basic supplies and a few companions, and set him on his journey.

FINDING PATHS

Once Charlevoix arrived in Quebec in 1720, he next traversed the Saint Lawrence Seaway and the Great Lakes to Michilimackinac and Green Bay, trying to reach the Illinois River and, ultimately, the Pacific; at one point, it was thought that he stayed overnight on Fisherman’s Island back when it actually was an island, before the changing water levels in Lake Michigan transformed it into a peninsula. During Charlevoix’s journey through the Great Lakes by canoe, he kept compass readings, estimated distances, and wrote down notes on the coastline, which later assisted hydrographer Jacques-Nicolas Bellin to publish new maps of our region. This was all secretive, however, as Charlevoix had been instructed to “inquire about the Western Sea” but on a casual level, as no more than an interested traveler or missionary.

HISTORICAL WRITINGS

Scuttled by shallow water later in his trip, Charlevoix eventually made it to the Mississippi River, which he noted as a river “whose source is certainly not far from the sea.” He never made it to the Pacific, but he did travel the coast of Florida and was sent back on a second trip in 1722.

FAMOUS NAME

Many of Charlevoix’s written contributions are still studied today, including both Histoire de la Nouvelle-France and the Journal de Trévoux, which has been data-captured by the ARTFL Project (The Project for American and French Research on the Treasury of the French Language, based at the University of Chicago.) In addition to the Michigan locales named after him, his legacy also includes the region of Charlevoix near Quebec City, which covers a territory of more than 3,728 square miles; the Charlevoix Airport and Charlevoix Railway, also in Quebec; and the Charlevoix Station on the green line of the Montreal Metro Rapid Transit System.

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