It seems to slip the memories of many Americans that the prime motivation for exploring and settling what would become the United States was to spread the gospel. We can think of places like St. Augustine or San Francisco as places that were founded as Christian mission posts. But Chicago? On December 4, 1674, Jacques Marquette began building a small log cabin at the site that would grow to become Chicago. He had mastered speaking the Algonquin Indian language and managed several missionary posts before heading to Lake Michigan.
