Claude Jean Allouez was Jesuit missionary born Haute-Loire, France. He studied at Toulouse and was ordained in 1655.

In 1658 he arrived in Canada and served as a missionary for two years in the vicinity of Quebec. In 1664 he was appointed to the Ottawa mission in the Lake Superior region, and in 1665 arrived at Chequamegon Bay and conducted a mission near the present site of La Pointe on Madeline Island, Bayfield County.

In 1669 Allouez left to establish a mission among the Potowatomie in the Green Bay area. He founded several missions in this region, one of which was the Mission of St. Francis Xavier near the present site of Oconto. While traveling in the Lake Winnebago and Fox River area, he collected information that aided Marquette and Jolliet on their famous voyage to the Mississippi River in 1673.

In 1671 Allouez moved his mission to the present site of De Pere, where he built a house and chapel. This mission soon became the center of Jesuit activities in the Wisconsin area. In 1675, on the death of Marquette, Allouez was appointed to carry on his work farther south. He journeyed to Illinois in 1677 and soon settled permanently among the Miami Indians in southern Michigan. 

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[Source: Dictionary of Wisconsin biography]