Gabriel RICHARD, Congress, MI (1767-1832)

RICHARD Gabriel , a Delegate from Michigan Territory; born in La Ville de Saintes, France, October 15, 1767; pursued classical studies; studied theology in the seminary of Augers, France, and in Paris, and was ordained as a priest on October 15, 1790; immigrated to the United States in 1792 and settled in Baltimore, Md.; professor of mathematics in St. Mary's College, Maryland; sent by Bishop Carroll as a missionary to the Indians in the Northwest Territory and was stationed in what is now Kaskaskia, Ill., and later as a missionary in Detroit, Mich.; published a periodical in the French language entitled ``Essais du Michigan''; was elected to the Eighteenth Congress (March 4, 1823-March 3, 1825); unsuccessful candidate for reelection in 1824 to the Nineteenth Congress; returned to Detroit and officiated as grand vicar; died in Detroit, Mich., September 13, 1832; interment in the cemetery of the Roman Catholic Church of St. Anne.

Bibliography

Pargellis, Stanley McCrory. Father Gabriel Richard. (Cass Lectureship Series, 1948). Detroit: Wayne University Press, 1950.

Source: Biographical Directory of the United States Congress, 1771-Present