Sacred Heart of Mary Catholic Church

Chief Leopold Pokagon and his tribe of Potawatomi Indians built a log church here in 1838 and deeded the forty acres of land on which it stood to the Catholic Bishop of Detroit. Pokagon, who came to Silver Creek Township from his village outside of nearby Niles, was buried on this site in 1841. During the early 1840s the Holy Cross Fathers of Notre Dame in Indiana ministered to the Indians. In 1844 Father Theophile Marivault became the church’s permanent priest; he was followed by Father Louis Baroux who served most of the years from 1847 to 1870 and was buried here in 1897. In the mid-nineteenth century many Irish immigrants settled in the vicinity and attended this parish. The white frame church built in 1861 burned in 1886 and was immediately replaced by this present structure.