In 1835, Father Jean Baptiste Proulx came to St. Anne's church, Penetanguishene, as its first resident pastor. His attention was soon drawn to the Jesuit remains in that vicinity; and in June, 1845, he purchased, for the sum of £43. 15s., (old Canadian currency), the east half of lot no. 16 in the third concession of the Township of Tay (100 acres), on which are situated the ruins of Fort Ste. Marie-on-the-Wye. On account of its associations with the pioneers of their church in Canada, this property is still owned by the Jesuit Society.
Father Felix Martin, S. J., visited, in 1845, the ruins of Fort Ste. Marie-on-the-Wye, and the mission sites whose exact positions were then known with certainty. His descriptions of these appear in his edition of Bressani's Relation, and in his Life of Jogues. The former work contains a reproduction of Creuxius's map (1660), which includes his "Chorographia Regionis Huronum."
Rev. Geo. Hallen, an Episcopal clergyman resident at Penetanguishene after 1840, contributed tracings of the two mission forts (one on the Wye, the other on Christian Island), to Father Martin's Bressani.
During two years of service as staff assistant-surgeon at Penetanguishene (1846-48), Dr. Edward W. Bawtree examined six large Huron ossuaries, the first found in the district. He described these at some length in an article, "Indian Sepulchral Pits in Canada" (see reference to this article in note [61], ante). Bawtree's collection of Huron relics is in the Museum of the Army Medical Department at Netley, Eng.
Within the first six years after his appointment to the chair of history, in Toronto University (1854-60), Sir Daniel Wilson made several visits to the Huron country, to examine village sites and ossuaries, and his publications concerning the Hurons were numerous, not only during this period but throughout the rest of his lifetime. His visits after 1860 appear to have been less frequent, probably because Taché's survey had covered the ground. Wilson made a special study of crania; and of his archæological memoirs his best known is "The Huron Race and its Head-form," in Canadian Journal, 2nd series, vol. xiii. (1871-73), pp. 113-134, in which he compares the Huron skull with that of the mound-builder.
While Dr. J. C. Taché held the chair of physiology in Laval University, Quebec (1860-64), he devoted his summer vacations to explorations in the Huron country, and attempted, by examination of the published records and maps, to identify the sites of the missions. In this period he carefully examined some fourteen village sites and sixteen ossuaries, his identifications of which are adopted by Parkman and Laverdière. Taché drafted a map of the Huron country, which, together with the records of his explorations, is in the Museum of Laval University, besides many Huron relics secured by him. With the exception of some extracts from letters to the historians just named, and to a few others, scarcely anything appeared from his pen on the subject.—See Hamel's sketch of Taché in Annuaire de l'Université Laval (Quebec, 1894), pp. 98-103.
Prof. Henry Montgomery, of Trinity University, Toronto, visited, during 1876-78, twelve Huron ossuaries. He minutely examined one of these, as well as several village sites and earthworks, in the immediate neighborhood of St. Louis, at which town Brébeuf and Lalemant were captured in 1649. He gave a short account of his investigations in an article, "Indian Remains in Simcoe and Muskoka," (Toronto Globe, August 3, 1878); and he donated the principal part of his collection of Huron relics to the Toronto University museum, since destroyed by fire.
Charles A. Hirschfelder, Toronto, in a paper, "Anthropological Discoveries in Canada" (Toronto Mail, Dec. 2, 1882; also, Proceedings of Brit. Assoc. for Adv. of Science, Montreal, 1884, pp. 915, 916), described the Huron ossuaries and other remains which he had examined. He made, in the Huron country and in other parts of Ontario, a collection of four thousand specimens, which are preserved in the museum of the Dominion Government at Ottawa. In the course of his work, he investigated the sites of the missions of St. Joseph, St. Ignace, and Ste. Marie, on Christian Island.
Rev. J. W. Annis, M. A., of the Methodist Episcopal church, while residing in the district (1884-87), made a collection of Huron relics, many of them from the sites of the mission towns. Since his death, this collection (400 specimens) has been placed in the Provincial Archæological Museum at Toronto. His investigations extended to the sites of St. Ignace, St. Louis, Ste. Marie-on-the-Wye, and Wenrio.
James Bain, Jr., librarian of the Toronto Public Library, has thrown some light on the subject of the Huron missions. A paper read by him before the Canadian Institute in April, 1885, on "The Present Condition of the old French Fort at St. Marie," of which an abstract appears in the Proceedings, 3rd series, vol. iii. (1886), pp. 278, 279, describes, from personal inspection at different times, the razing of these ruins during the previous thirty years.