Theodore J. van den Broek

The second child of Abraham van den Broek and Elisabeth de Meijne, he was born in Amsterdam, Netherlands in June 1784.

His paternal grandparents were Abraham van den Broek and Alida Verhaar from Uden, North Brabant, Netherlands.

Hearing of the condition of the Native Americans in Michigan (now Wisconsin), he obtained permission from John Baptist Purcell, Archbishop of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Cincinnati to go to them, and arrived at Green Bay on 4 July 1834.

He completed the church and priest's house begun by Samuel Charles Mazzuchelli, and devoted himself to the Indians during an epidemic of cholera, aided by two Sisters Clara and Theresa Bourdalou.

He taught the use of tools and agriculture, and with Native American help he built a church seventy feet long, which he dedicated to St. John Nepomucene.

[2] As the mission at Green Bay was for some time without a resident priest, van den Broek frequently said Mass on Sundays at each place, walking the intervening distance of twenty-two miles.

In Green Bay van den Broek also met Morgan Lewis Martin, who was in charge of the local canal project.

[3] In that same year, 1836, the Menominees signed the "Treaty of the Cedars" which required them to give up title to the local land and move beyond the Wolf River to the west.

The results were immediate and, by 1848, three wooden sailing vessels left for America carrying van den Broek and about 900 Dutch settlers.