Joseph Marest was a Jesuit Missionary of the seventeenth century, and the first white man to live on the soil of old Washington County. He is recorded to have been in several other parts of the area now called Wisconsin. "Father Joseph Marest was with Perrot at the Sioux post in 1689, probably as chaplain of the expedition" (page 172 Wis. Hist. Coll., XI 35-36, French Regime in Wisconsin and the Northwest by Kellogg.) He was present at Fort St. Antoine, on the 8th of May 1689, when Perrot arranged an impressive pageant to awe the Sioux Indians. (P.241, Fr. Regime)

In 1711-12, Joseph Marest wrote, from Mackinac, Wisconsin, of trouble between the Fox and other Indian tribes in Wisconsin. (Wis. Hist. Coll. XVI, P. 289.)

"In the seventeenth century, two white men, Henry de Fonty and Jean Francois Buisson de St. Cosme, journeyed by water along the western shore of Lake Michigan. The latter, in 1699, found an Indian village at the mouth of a rivulet, probably that of Sauk Creek. There he learned that in a preceding winter, a Jesuit missionary had lived and worked among the Indians of the place, and the wooden cross which he erected was still up, in token of his labors." (P.29 - History of Washington County, Wisconsin, by Carl Quick - ert.)

Joseph Marest Chapter, when the Surgeons Quarters had been restored, offered to make carpeting for the attic floor. This was old-fashioned rag carpet in keeping with the period of the home. It required yards of material and was a tribute to the concern of the members for the state historical restoration.

The chapter was organized March 14, 1950; Mrs. William Nielsen was the organizing regent.

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Last updated on June 22, 2011