Sinsinawa Miscellany
Gen. George Wallace Jones and Sinsinawa Mound before Father Mazzuchelli
Sinsinawa Mound’s first white settler was a man with an illustrious role in the history of the young nation and young territories, Gen. George Wallace Jones. Father Mazzuchelli was called upon by Jones and other Protestant civil leaders for various kinds of assistance, because of his learning and valuable experience, for instance in building. Father served as chaplain to the first Wisconsin Territorial Legislature. General Jones had proposed his lead mining plot Sinsinawa Mound as a potential site of Wisconsin’s new Capitol; this obviously did not come to pass, but Father Mazzuchelli had the opportunity in about 1944 to purchase the prominent hill as the site of a new college for Dominican friars, which he must have hoped would be a “capitol” of evangelization. General Jones recounted the story of his role in American history, at the Organization and First Reunion of the Tri-State Old Settlers Association of Illinois, Missouri and Iowa, held Thursday, October 2nd, A.D. 1884 at Rand Park, Keokuk, Iowa, which included many leading men of the day.
Read MoreEarly historical associations of Sinsinawa–and what is the real meaning?
The Wisconsin Historical Society’s Wisconsin Magazine of History, Volume 3, No. 3, March 1920, includes in its “Question Box” feature a Sister’s query. The Sinsinawa Dominicans have long held that Sinsinawa means “home of the young eagle”, and accordingly, Sinsinawa Mound’s St Clara Academy published a student periodical The Young Eagle in the late 19th and early 20th c. In the article below, the State Historical Society found a record USGS record (which may be from around 1903), that indicates the meaning as “rattlesnake.” The 1955 book Mother Emily of Sinsinawa says, “The name is either the Sac and Fox word meaning ‘clear water’, or the Siouan word for ‘home of the young eagle.” The book Indian Place Names on Wisconsin’s Map states “home of the young eagle” and “rattlesnake” are said by different sources to be based on the word jinawe, which “is the Ojibwe word for rattlesnake in [Father Mazzuchelli’s friend Venerable Bishop Frederick] Baraga’s dictionary, but it seems a poor match for Sinsinawa.” To make a long story short, we do not know exactly the meaning of Sinsinawa.
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Dominican priest and Missionary Apostolic
in Michigan, Wisconsin, Iowa, and Illinois
in pioneer times.
Builder of 20 churches, founder of 30 parishes,
founder of the Dominican Sisters of Sinsinawa.