Bishop Baraga House

Frederic Baraga was a lawyer, an artist and a Roman Catholic priest who came to the U.S. from present-day Slovenia in 1830. Baraga (1797-1868) served Native Americans in the Great Lakes region and wrote A Dictionary of the Otchipwe Language (Chippewa or Ojibwe), published in 1853. Named vicar apostolic of the Sault that year, he became bishop of Sault Ste. Marie in 1857, and transferred the See of the diocese to Marquette in 1866. Baraga lived in a part of this house that was later moved from behind the cathedral and attached to an existing house on this site. He continued working with native people and helped them collect annuity payments from the U.S. government. Baraga died in this house on January 19, 1868, and was interred in the crypt of St. Peter Cathedral in Marquette.