Munsee Chrétien Eugène of Humbert, while not canonized by Rome, came to be knows as St. Munsee, a moniker earned while exploring the lands drained by the Ohio River with La Salle. Munsee accompanied Robert Cavalier Sieur de La Salle in his historic explorations of the US Great Lakes, Ohio River Valley and Mississippi River explorations. Eugène, a novice in the church, sailed with La Salle to New France in 1666. La Salle’s main desire was not to stay and settle in New France but to travel and explore the western regions and claim any new lands he found for France.
In 1669 La Salle started to explore the areas around the Great Lakes. He traveled south of Lake Erie until he found the White River in what is now East Central Indiana. La Salle established the first fur trading post in the region and wintered there. Munsee recognized the area as prime wheat and barley growing ground because it was much like his native town of Humbert in Belgium. The White River flood plain made the level ground fertile. While La Salle busied himself with fur trading, Munsee set about constructing the first brew house and replenishing expeditions’ dwindling beer supply. The first batch, produced and consumed on June 5th 1670, was made from potatoes, corn, sorghum, acorns, and assorted pine cones. The entire party judged the batch as “surprisingly good.” La Salle himself declared the quality brew cobbled out of such meager ingredients to be Munsee’s first miracle. After a long night of drinking the miraculous brew, La Salle vowed to personally use his influence with the King to recommend canonization for Munsee. La Salle however was a devout Protestant and upon regaining his sobriety the following morning, retracted his offer. Munsee was undaunted by the setback and canonization was soon set out of his mind as he continued his pursuit of transforming the area into the best beer producing French New World territory.
Munsee remained at the post while La Salle and most of the expedition continued on to the Ohio, Mississippi river, and eventually the boggy forsaken swamp area La Salle, ever the prankster, would call New Orleans in a misunderstood dispatch sent back to France. Munsee built a larger brewhouse the following year. In 1674, he received two mammoth copper kettles from New France after sending bottles of his heady, now barley based beer to the seat of French power. The magistrates in New France demanded no payment for the kettles but bid Munsee to send a portion back up river annually in return for the equipment.
In 1676, Munsee began digging a well through the limestone basin under his fertile fields in an effort to find better flowing water for brewing. While digging, Munsee tapped into a deep artesian well and flooded not only his well tended barley fields, but also the magnificent brewhouse he had constructed with his own two hands. The large hand-hammered copper kettles remain to this day at the bottom of what is now known as Prairie Creek Reservoir. Munsee remained in the area the remainder of his days working toward the goal of establishing a fine brewing tradition in the New World. Some say if you sail out to the middle of the reservoir on a still and quiet night, you can still hear the kettles boiling in the deep and catch the faint aroma of malt in the wind.
