Page:Appletons' Cyclopædia of American Biography (1900, volume 2).djvu/171

Rh  court of Nova Scotia. He was clerk of the assembly in 1773, and appointed councillor in 1788.

DESHA, Joseph, soldier, b. in Pennsylvania, 9 Dec, 1708 ; d. in Georgetown, Ky., 18 Oct., 1842. He removed to Kentucky in 1781, served in the In- dian wars under Gens. Wayne and Ilarrison in 1794, and fought at the battle of the Thames in 1813 as a major-general. He was at one time a member of the Kentucky legislature, and was elected to congress, serving from 26 Oct., 1807, till 3 March, 1819. He was governor of Kentucky from 1824 till 1828.— Plis brother, Robert, soldier, b. in Pennsylvania ; d. in Mobile, Ala., 8 Feb., 1849, removed to Tennessee in early life, served in the war of 1812 as captain of the 24th infantry, was brevetted major for services in the attempt to cap- ture Fort Mackinaw. 4 Aug., 1814, and promoted brigadier-major in the following October. From 3 Dec, 1827, till 3 March, 1831, he was a represen- tative in congress from Tennessee. He afterward became a merchant in Mobile, Ala.

DESHON, George, missionary, b. in New Lon- don, Conn., 30 Jan., 1823. He was graduated at the U. S. military academy in 1843, being class- mate and room-mate of Gen. Grant. He had stood next to the head of his class, and after graduation was for some time instructor in mathematics and ethics. Pie reached the rank of captain in the arnay, but left it on his conversion to the Catholic faith in 1851. He studied theology in Cumberland, Md., and was ordained priest in 1855. Having joined the Redemptorist order, he was sent on sev- eral missions, and was very successful in making converts. He took a leading part in founding the congregation of St. Paul, of which he has since been a member. He has superintended the erec- tion of the church of St. Paul, New York, which is the largest, save one, in the United States, at- tending to all the engineering work himself. Father Deshon is the author of a " Guide for Catho- lic Young Women " (New York, 1860), which has had the most extensive circulation of any Catho- lic book ever published in this country.

DESIREE, sister superior, b. in Janaph, Bel- gium, in 1815; d. in Lowell, Mass., in 1879. She received a thorough education in her native place, and entered the congregation of Sisters of Notre Dame at Namur. After taking her vows in 1845, she came to the United States, and was stationed at Cincinnati until 1852, when she was sent to Lowell to found a convent and schools for Catholic girls. During the twenty-seven years that she re- sided in Lowell she erected four large brick edi- fices for the accommodation of her pupils.

DESJARDINS, T. C. Alphonse, Canadian jouriudist, 1j. in Terrebonne, province of Queliec, 6 May, 1841. He was educated at Masson college and at Nicolet seminary, was admitted to the bar in 1862, and practised in Montreal until 1868, when he abandoned law for journalism, and be- came one of the editors of "L'Ordre." In 1872 he was appointed editor and one of the directors of " Le nouveau monde," retaining this connection for four years. In 1882 he was elected president of Le credit foncier du bas Canada, in 1883 di- rector of the Richelieu and Ontario navigation company, and in 1885 vice-president of the Mon- treal and Western railway company. He took an active part in organizing the Canadian papal zouave contingent, which went to assist the pope in 1868. and in 1872 was created a knight of the order of Puis IX., in recognition of this and other services to the church. He was one of the authors of the "Programme Catholique " (1871), proposed as a basis upon which the opposing sections of the conservative party might agree. He was first re- turned to the Dominion parliament for Ilochelaga, province of Quebec, in 1874, was re-elected in 1878, and still continues to be a member.

DE SMET, Peter John, missionary, b. in Termonde, Belgium, 31 Dec, 1801 ; d. in St. Louis, Mo., in May, 1872. He studied in the Episcopal seminary of Mechlin, and while there he felt called to devote himself to the conversion of the Indians. When Bishop Nerinx visited Belgium in search of missionaries, De Smet, with five other students, vol- unteered to accompany him. The government gave orders to stop them, but they escaped from the offi- cers and sailed from Amsterdam in 1821. After a short stay in Philadelphia, De Smet entered the Jesuit novitiate at Whitemarsh, Md. Here he took the Jesuit habit, but after two years the house was dissolved, and he was about to return to Belgium, when he was invited by Bishop Dubourg to Floris- sant, where he completed his education and took his vows. In 1828 he went to St. Louis and took part in establishing the University of St. Louis, in which he was afterward professor. In 1838 he was sent to establish a mission among the Pottawatta- mies on Sugar creek. He built a chapel, and beside it the log-huts of himself. Father Verreydt, and a lay brother. He erected a school, which was soon crowd- ed with pupils, and in a short time converted most

of the tribe. In 1840 he begged the bishop of St. Louis to per- mit him to la- bor among the Flatheadsofthe Rocky momit- ains. When it was represented to him that there was no money for such an ex- pedition, he said that sufficient means would assuredly come from Europe, and set out on 30 April, 1840, from Westport, with the annual caravan of the American fur company, whose destination was Green River. He arrived on 14 July in the camp of Peter Valley, where about 1,600 Indians had assembled to meet him. They had retained traditions of the French missionaries of two centuries before, and De Smet found it easy to convert them. With the aid of an interpreter, he translated the Lord's prayer, the creed, and the commandments into their language, and in a fortnight all the Flatheads knew these prayers and commandments, which were afterward explained to them. During his journey back to St. Louis he was on several occasions surrounded by war-parties of the Blackfeet, but as soon as they recognized his black gown and crucifix they showed the greatest veneration for him. He thus laid the foundation of the extraordinary influence that he afterward exercised over the Indians. In the spring of 1841 he set out again, with two other missionaries and three lay brothers, all expert "mechanics, and, after passing through several tribes, crossed the Platte and met at Fort Hall a body of Flatheads. who had come 800 miles to escort the missionaries. On 24 Sept., the party reached Bitter-root river, where it was decided to form a permanent settlement. A plan