As the replacement to Bishop Simon Bruté, Bishop Celestine De La Hailandière dispatched Father Hippolyte Du Pontavice to Will County in December of 1839. His was the Bishop's first ordination. It occurred at Vincennes on the 30th of November 1839.
Father Du Pontavice arrived in Joliet on the third of February 1840. While there is a question as to whether Father Hippolyte came to take leadership of the congregation of Will County Catholics from Father John Plunkett, the point was mute the following month with the tragic death of Father Plunkett.
Born in Rennes, France, in 1810, Hippolyte had achieved deacon status prior to embarking to America. He made the voyage over the Atlantic in the company of John Guéguen and Francis Joseph Fischer. They, too, would find their way to the Illinois Canal missions. Deacon Hippolyte and his companions reached Vincennes on the 21st of October 1839.
Newly ordained, Father Du Pontavice departed for northern Illinois with Father De St. Palais in December of 1839. His mission covered a large territory. The first chapel at Bourbonnais was erected by him, as was the church at Dresden Heights.
Father Hippolyte was responsible for organizing the mission at Corkstown near Athens (present-day Lemont, Illinois). The Diamond Jubilee of the Archdiocese of Chicago gives the following account: "He [Father Du Pontavice] superintended the erection of a log church in the neighborhood of the present corner of State and Main Streets." [Joseph J. Thompson. 1920 Diamond Jubilee of the Archdiocese of Chicago. Des Plaines, IL. 1920, p. 199]
The April 14, 1900 edition of the 'New World', the archdiocese newspaper, in an article entitled "The History of the Church in Illinois", credited the construction to Father John Plunkett. Whoever commissioned the building, it is apparent that by 1840 the mission used and visited most frequently was at Corkstown, with Haytown, Sag Bridge, Summit and others receiving less frequent visits. This was borne by the 'Catholic Directory' of 1840, which registered Father Hippolyte at Joliet with visits to Dresden and Corkstown. "Father DuPontavice, however, at Joliet worked very successfully among them [Irish canal workers] especially at making, as he said, "cold water men", and to further the cause of temperance, both he and Father Guéguen gave up the 'vin rouge', which the French people drink so generally with their meals, and the "excellent beer which we get here for nothing", and confined themselves to tea and water."[Sister Mary Borromeo Brown. History of the Sisters of Providence of Saint Mary of the Woods, Vol.1. New York. 1949 P.314]
Reasons for the development of the mission at Corkstown could have been numerous. The slowdown of work on the canal would have forced the workers to seek another source of income thereby driving many from the camps. Many of the laborers moved back towards the canal terminus at Hardscrabble (Bridgeport) or into Chicago proper. Athens was developing other industries, one being its famed quarries. With Athens just a few miles east of Haytown, and Sag Bridge but a few miles east of Athens, it was easier to scheduled more frequent services at the Corkstown (Athens) Mission.
The mission at Corkstown had financial and moral support from one of the areas richest men, Nathaniel Brown. Brown had amassed a substantial sum from contract work on the canal only to lose greatly in the cessation of work along the waterway. Brown was not a Catholic but with the bulk of his workforce being Catholic he knew that supporting the canal missions ultimately worked in his favor. He requested that a chapter of Father Mathew's Temperance Union be established along the canal zone and the priests obliged him. The Fourth Provincial Council of Baltimore of 1840 had encouraged temperance societies for parishes across the United States. "Temperance societies grew to be a necessity along the canal, however, as the very conditions of the work led to intemperance. The "jigger man" went up and down the line all day handing out the jiggers of whiskey included in the wages of the crew, which rendered the heavy labor bearable. One writer on the subject records the query, "Then all the canals were dug by intoxicated men?" and the reply that no else would dig a canal. The unequal distribution of these jiggers was one of the causes of the terrible canal wars which broke out from time to time. These wars however died out gradually, though not till long after Bishop Bruté had induced Bishop John Hughes in 1838 to prevent the Irish immigrants in New York from joining the secret oath-bound societies which involved them in battles between 'Fardowns' or Connaught men and 'Farups' or Corkonians." [History of the Sisters of Providence of St. Mary of the Lake. P.314-315]
By 1840 the population at Lockport was growing at a much slower pace than originally anticipated in 1836. The nationwide financial crisis of 1837 and the related work stoppage on the Canal were instrumental in this development. People in Lockport and its immediate vicinity went to St. Patrick's Church in Joliet at this time, which was Father Du Pontavice's headquarters. Haytown was an occasional stop. Many attended services in individuals homes when the priest was in the area or when he traversed the distance to Corkstown.
By the fourth of July 1841, Father Du Pontavice had resolved all the debt accumulated at Corkstown. He stayed in Will County until the Diocese of Chicago was created. He submitted a summation for the missions in the area for the new diocese. As September of 1844 unfolded Father Du Pontavice, along with Fathers De St. Palais, Fischer and Guéguen traveled back to Vincennes and a new chapter in the lives of the "Holy Tramps".
On his recall in 1844, Father Hippolyte proceeded to St. Simon's Church in Washington, Daviess County, Indiana - just 19 miles east of Vincennes. While there he would call at St. Patrick's Church in Daviess County. The three-year period at St. Simon's coincided with Father Du Pontavice's duties as superior of the seminary at Vincennes.
From 1848 until 1852 Father Du Pontavice acted as vicar general of the Vincennes Diocese. He was one of the two attendants at the consecration of his old friend Father Maurice De St. Palais as Bishop of Vincennes. Afterwards he inherited the pastorship of St. Michael Church of Madison, Indiana, from Father De St. Palais, which he assumed for 27 years until his death. Father Hippolyte Du Pontavice died on the 27th of May 1874, at 64 years of age. " He seems to have been typical of the early American pastor - zealous, eloquent, strong in character, with a heart keenly alive to the troubles of his parishioners, and generous even to the point of depriving himself of the necessaries of life. Old parishioners of Saint Michael's still speak of this generosity - how he used to dispense medicine and prescriptions gratis. For he had studied medicine in Europe before taking up his theological studies, and he put this knowledge of medicine to good use during his long pastorate in Madison. His only possessions when he died were thirty dollars and a few Spanish coins. It is said that the procession at his funeral extended from St. Michael's down to the lower end of town. There is a tradition to the effect that he was a nephew of Bishop St. Palais. This has never been verified, so far as we know." [The Sesquicentennial (1837-1987) of St. Michael's Church. Private printing. 1987. Madison, Indiana] He was buried in the cemetery at St. Patrick's in Madison, Indiana.