Smet, Peter John De

Smet, Peter John de, a Roman Catholic missionary, was born in Dendermonde, Belgium, Dec. 31, 1801. He came to the United States in August, 1821; entered the Jesuit novitiate at Whitemarsh, Md.; went to Missouri in 1823, and aided in founding the University of St. Louis, in which he labored until 1838. He was then sent to found a mission among the Pottawattomies, afterwards laboring among the Flatheads and the Blackfeet. Taking a general superintendence of these missions, he traveled to collect money for them. He died in St. Louis, May 23, 1873. His principal works are, Letters, Sketches, and Residence in the Rocky Mountains (Phila. 1843, 12mo): — Oregon Missions and Travels over the Rocky Mountains (N.Y. 1847): — Western Missions and Missionaries (1863, 12mo): — Reisen in den Felsengebirgen, etc. (St. Louis, 1865). See Appletons' Cyclop.; Allibone, Dict. of Brit. and Amer. Authors, s.v.