Fr T.J. Linane, From Abel to Zundolovich, Vol. 2: Biographies of Priests on the Australian Scene up to 1900, 1980, pp 38-39:

Chevron, A. Joseph, SM, French, Visitor
The Apostle of Tonga
The main details are: born in the Belley Diocese 8 July 1808; professed on 14 June 1842; passed through Sydney on the way to Oceania in 1839; died in Tonga on 6 October 1884. Father Bernard Hosie S.M. gives colour to the bare details in his booklet "More Savage Than Tigers", published some years ago by the Advocate Printers, Burnie, Tasmania. Hence we reproduce in this volume the short biography that the booklet contains on the 'Apostle of Tonga'.

"Perhaps I'm a coward, Father, but I would prefer to go to the Missions immediately, and without telling anyone. My mother is a widow, and it would break her heart to have to say good-bye, knowing that she would probably never see me again..."

Father Chevron was talking to the Superior General of the newly formed Society of Mary - the Marist Fathers. Father Colin nodded sympathetically; many of the missionaries found the separation from their families the hardest sacrifice of all, and he well understood how Father Chevron felt. ...His mother heard that her son was leaving and came to meet him. Through her tears she begged him to promise that one day she would see him again: "Yes, Mother, we will meet once more". But sadly he added: "In Heaven" He never saw his beloved mother, or even his own native land, again. Father Chevron arrived in New Zealand in October 1839, and went first to Futuna, to work with Father Peter Chanel. It was a sad introduction to missionary life; years of patient toil and selfless dedication had produced almost no fruit at all. The growing hostility of the natives could be felt at every turn - a hostility which was to lead to the brutal murder of Father Chanel not many months after Chevron left Futuna. From Futuna he went to Wallis, to work with Father Bataillon on a mission field of extraordinary promise. His next assignment was to Tonga -the first Catholic missionary on an island which already had a Protestant mission. He arrived in June 1842, and spent forty-two years of unremitting work, never leaving the islands. The first five years were spent in Pea, where he and his sole assistant, Brother Attale, had considerable success. But it became only too clear that the natives placed tremendous store on the attitude and views of their own leaders, so Father Chevron turned to Mua. This was the home of the principal chief of the island, the Tui-Tonga. Four years later the Tui-Tonga was baptised, and the prospects for the conversion of Tonga seemed excellent. Then came tragedy. Ironically, the very success of the Catholics was one of the causes of their downfall. The real power in Tonga was passing from the hands of the weak and ineffective Tui-Tonga to the Protestant George Tubou, an able and crafty leader. He now saw the Catholics as his political enemies as well as his religious enemies, and set out to destroy them. In 1852 almost the whole country was in the hands of King George, and he now turned on Pea. After a bitter five month siege, the Catholic forces in Pea were completely destroyed. It was a crippling blow for Catholicism in Tonga. All the fine promise, and most of the fruits of ten years of labour were shattered. The whole work had to be begun again. In fact in many ways it was far worse than at the beginning, for the wars had left behind a legacy of hatred and suspicion; and for the simple natives, the success of the Protestant arms was sufficient proof of its truth; in any case who wants to be associated with a defeated cause? A lesser man might have wilted under the strain and disappointment, but not Father Chevron. His work was made the harder because of his indifferent health. He had never been a robust man, and the wearing toil had not helped. Yet he never used his ill-health as an excuse to shirk the hardships that were an inevitable part of the life of a poverty stricken and isolated mission. From the point of view of the preaching, administering the sacraments, winning the natives from the darkness of sorcery and savagery, bearing with the loneliness, the poverty and hardships - none of this is very spectacular, but important in the eyes of God. Nor were the material needs of the natives forgotten ... That is why Father Chevron acted as pharmacist, even as doctor; trying to instruct the natives, both personally and through the schools that he founded. Sometimes the missionaries are accused of neglecting this work. This is usually by people who do not understand the difficulties that they had to face. The amazing thing is that they were able to do so much. Even today with the resources of the richest nations being poured into the development of backward countries, a great part, often most, of the school and hospital work is in the hands of the missions. If the missions had one-tenth of these huge sums, there is no estimating what they could have done. Father Chevron began his mission with a few essentials and fifty francs. Never robust, the ageing missionary found the task of visiting the outposts increasingly difficult. In 1867, in his sixtieth year, he is beginning to wonder how much longer he can carry on. "It is three years since I visited Father Breton who lives alone at Vavau. He needs a visit. But I don't think I can go again. I have suffered so much during the crossings that I still tremble to think of it. But I will try once more. Perhaps the good God will grant me a calmer crossing, because of the deed I intend." In 1879, at the age of seventy-one, he gratefully handed over the burden of running the Tongan Mission to younger and stronger hands. But his work was far from done. The new Bishop Lamaze wisely left him on his old station at Mua, and we find Father Chevron writing: "I don't read the newspaper. I just haven't time, I am still the pharmacist, the doctor and above all, the brother cook. It is this last dignity which takes most of my time."

No one knew him better than Father Monnier (later in Sydney) who writes: "He has, of all the virtues, those which appear hardest to acquire; to work unceasingly, to rejoice at failure. He was never so calm as on that terrible day when the Catholics of Pea were deserting by hundreds. "It is today", he said, "that God teaches us what we can accomplish on our own". For him, all that mattered was the will of God. "If God so will" was the expression he used constantly. In 1884 the Apostle of Tonga died. It was fitting that the cords of his funeral pall should be held by Prince Gu, the President of the Chamber, Tugi, the Chief of Police (all three of them Protestants), and by a Catholic native chief."

(The whole of the above extract is a quotation from 'More Savage Than Tigers' by Father Bernard Hosie S.M.).
(Footprints, Vol. 2, No. 4)

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Fr. Michael Fitzgerald, SM and Fr. François Grossin, SM, Alive in Memory: A Biographic Necrology of Oceania Marist Province 1836-2011, 4th edition, Suva, 2011, pp 215, 295:

Fr. Joseph Chevron, d. 1884
Oceania Pioneer - Third Voyage
Pioneer - Tonga Mission
Tonga
He was born in Ain, France in l808. He became diocesan priest, but was of frail health. He applied to his Bishop to go to the Missions. The Bishop asked him to give 10 years to the diocese which he did. When the time was up, he went to Fr. Colin, who accepted him on the spot and sent him in 1839 with the third group of missionaries leaving for Oceania, one of his companions being the future Bishop Viard. He was to make his novitiate on the ship. After a short stay in New Zealand, he was sent to work with Fr. Peter Chanel on Futuna, leaving there only shortly before the martyrdom. He was then on Wallis Island for a year, before being the first Marist posted to Tonga in 1842. After 5 years at Pea he shifted to Mu'a, where the Tu'i Tonga was converted after 4 years. However, the leadership of Tonga quickly fell under the Protestant King George, who persecuted the Catholics, making his work difficult. He continued his work in Tonga for 42 years and at the time of his death there were 1,700 Catholics being served by 7 missionaries. He died at the age of 76 and is acclaimed as "The Apostle of Tonga".