Vilatte seminary at Sturgeon Bay facts for kids

The proposed Vilatte seminary at Sturgeon Bay was a plan for a religious school in Sturgeon Bay, Wisconsin. This project is famous for changing how people in the area felt about a man named Joseph René Vilatte.

History of the Seminary Plan

In March 1887, Joseph René Vilatte, who was a pastor, visited a newspaper office in Sturgeon Bay. He told them he had collected thousands of dollars to start building a seminary. A seminary is a school where people study to become religious leaders. He said plans were being made in Chicago and that construction would begin in June.

In April, another local newspaper, the Door County Advocate, reported that Vilatte was looking for a good spot for his school. Even though he had said construction would start in June, by the end of May, he was only saying he would build the seminary if the local people donated the land. A kind person, called a benefactor, gave one acre of land.

By July, land was bought with money donated by citizens for the college. Work on the buildings was supposed to start in September. The city council even let Vilatte and his family live in an empty school building. He was meant to run a school there until his seminary was finished.

A Change of Plans

In October, Vilatte traveled to cities along the East Coast of the United States. He was looking for more money to build the seminary. He was away for several months.

But a week after he came back, Vilatte surprised everyone in Sturgeon Bay. His planned seminary would not be built there after all. The Independent newspaper wrote about this, asking, "Can this be true?" The newspaper was very upset, saying the reasons for the change were "extraordinary."

Vilatte wrote a letter to Chris Leonhardt, who was the president of the Business Men's Association. This group had helped Vilatte get the land. In his letter, Vilatte said that his family members had been insulted in Sturgeon Bay. He felt he needed to protect his students from such "unpleasant occurrences." He also mentioned that another place had offered him a large property with buildings and a library for a seminary. Because of this, he felt forced to leave Sturgeon Bay.

Local Reaction to the News

The people of Sturgeon Bay saw Vilatte's letter as a very bad description of their town. The Independent newspaper wrote that the city was trying to grow and attract new businesses. They felt losing the seminary was bad because it would have brought a lot of money to local businesses and farmers. But even worse, they felt it was being said that their "bigotry," bad manners, and "uncivilization" had driven the seminary away. The newspaper called this a "foul blot" on Sturgeon Bay's reputation.

Doubts About Vilatte's Plans

By 1889, people started to see Vilatte's plans as a trick. He was seen as a dishonest person. The Door County Advocate newspaper wrote that Vilatte kept saying he would build a college or something similar, first in one place and then another, but never actually built anything.

The newspaper compared him to a business person who promises to build a factory, gets land from the citizens, and then tells them their town isn't good enough. They said Vilatte did the same thing in Sturgeon Bay. He got land for a college, then used that success to get other towns to offer him even more. The newspaper said that if a regular business person did this, they would be called a fraud.

Emma de Beaumont, whose husband was a priest helping Vilatte, also wrote to the Door County Advocate. She said that nothing had been built "elsewhere" since a man named Brown died. She explained that she and her husband had come to Sturgeon Bay to help with the new college. They had waited for over ten months, spent their own money, and suffered a lot because of Vilatte's many changes.

She also mentioned that Vilatte planned to turn a place called Little Sturgeon into a monastery (a home for religious people). But she thought this was just another one of his "utopias," or unrealistic dreams. She said Vilatte had told them he was giving up the work, but then immediately started building a new church somewhere else. She warned that people shouldn't trust what he said because he was so changeable. She wanted everyone to know that there was no college anywhere and that any claims otherwise were false.

The seminary project in Sturgeon Bay was never built. The land that had been donated was given back to the people who had given it.