They had to steer their way with the compass, over trackless prairies,
often while the snow lay upon the ground, to blaze their way through the
forest or follow an Indian trail, carrying their provisions on their
backs, and when the claim shanty was put up and the provisions
exhausted, the new settler would often have to return twenty, forty,
sixty miles to some place where he could buy a few more pounds of flour,
and with this and perhaps half a bushel of potatoes to put in the
ground, he would again set off to his new claim.
But in all the privations they went through, those connected with
religion they felt the most. And, praise be to God, among the earliest
evidences of their growing prosperity was the erection of temples to His
worship, that to-day, on every side, ornament the State. Wherever in the
State there is a clustering of Catholic settlements, there you will find
a clustering of Catholic churches.