Culver's John Houghton to Speak at First 2023 Brown Bag Lunch Event March 10th

Wednesday, March 6, 2024 at 9:09 AM

The Marshall County Historical Society Museum is sponsoring its first Brown Bag Lunch Event of the year on Friday, March 10. The Brown Bag begins at noon at the Museum located at 123 North Michigan Street in downtown Plymouth.

When Father Louis De Seille, a Roman Catholic missionary to the Potawatomi in northern Indiana, died in South Bend, on September 26, 1837, Simon Bruté de Rémur, the Bishop of Vincennes, had few choices to replace him: he ordained Benjamin Marie Petit, a 26-year-old who had been practicing law in Rennes, France, as recently as 1835, and who had been a deacon for less than a month. So began a ministry that would end with the exile of Fr. Peitit's flock to Kansas, and the young priest's own death in St. Louis on February 10, 1839.

The Very Rev. John Wm. Houghton, Ph.D., Dean Emeritus of the Alumni Chapel of The Hill School, Pottstown, PA, has been speaking and writing about Culver history since 1974, and his fantasy novel trilogy, The Thaumaturge of Annandale, is set in a fictional version of the town, founded by his family in 1844. He has represented his four-times-great uncle John Houghton and Bishop Simon Bruté in the Marshall County Historical Society Ghost Walks and spoke at a Brown Bag last year on "The Tangled Legacy of Emma Lord." A life member of the Marshall County Historical Society and of the Society of Indiana Pioneers, he serves on the board of the Wythougan Preservation Council and is Vice President of the Culver Historical Society. Dean Houghton is a 1971 graduate of Culver Military Academy and holds degrees from Harvard, IU, Yale, and Notre Dame. He and his dog, Beda, live in the house he grew up in, on Houghton Street in Culver.

Come and hear about the history of Marshall County on Friday, March 10th at noon. Pack a lunch and join the fun!