Attacked by a Starving Wolf Four Sisters of St

James J. Hill and His Oriental Rugs: A Practical Millionaire Page 15

Winter, 2001 V olum e 35, N um ber 4

Attacked by a Starving Wolf Four Sisters of St. Joseph and Their Mission to St. Paul —Page 4

u .s j Fr .r .exp a s u í l w y s -4 7 &49 PARALLEL'S. g en e ra l r e p ORT — PLATE I.

SAINT . PAUL M. T.

St. Paul as it looked in 1853, two years after four Sisters of St. Joseph arrived in St. Paul. This colored lithograph was produced as part of a United States government survey of Minnesota Territory. Ramsey County Historical Society collections. RAMSEY COUNTY HISTORY Executive Director Priscilla Famham Editor Virginia Brainard Kunz

RAMSEY COUNTY HISTORICAL SOCIETY Volume 35, Number 4 Winter, 2001 BOARD OF DIRECTORS Howard M. Guthmann Chair CONTENTS James Russell 3 Letters President Marlene Marschall 4 Attacked by a Starving Wolf First Vice President Four Sisters of St. Joseph and Their Mission to St. Paul Ronald J. Zweber Second Vice President Sister Ann Thomasine Sampson, CSJ Richard A. Wilhoit Secretary 15 The Practical Millionaire: Peter K. Butler James J. Hill and His Oriental Rugs Treasurer Lou A nn M atossian W. Andrew Boss, Peter K. Butler, Norbert Conze- mius, Anne Cowie, Charlotte H. Drake, Joanne A. 19 Growing Up in St. Paul Englund, Robert F. Garland, John M. Harens, Rod Hill, Judith Frost Lewis, John M. Lindley, A Child With an ‘Eye Problem’ and Those George A. Mairs, Marlene Marschall, Richard T. Vision Classes in the St. Paul Schools Murphy, Sr., Richard Nicholson, Linda Owen, Marvin J. Pertzik, Glenn Wiessner, Laurie Zenner. John Larson EDITORIAL BOARD 26 Book Reviews John M. Lindley, chair; James B. Bell, Thomas H. Boyd, Thomas C. Buckley, Pat Hart, Thomas J. Kelley, Tom Mega, Laurie Murphy, Vicenta Publication of Ramsey County History is supported in part by a gift from Scarlett, G. Richard Slade. Clara M. Claussen and Frieda H. Claussen in memory of Henry H. Cowie, Jr. and by a contribution from the late Reuel D. Harmon HONORARY ADVISORY BOARD Elmer L. Andersen, Olivia I. Dodge, Charlton Dietz, William Finney, William Fallon, Otis A Message from the Editorial Board Godfrey, Jr., Robert S. Hess, D. W. “Don” Larson, George Latimer, Joseph S. Micallef, ur Winter issue presents three diverse articles ranging in time from Minnesota’s Robert Mirick, Marvin J. Pertzik, J. Jerome Territorial period to the tum-of-the-century and on to the 1930s. In our lead article, Plunkett, James Reagan, Rosalie E. Wahl, O Donald D. Wozniak. Sister Ann Thomasine Sampson recounts the story of how four Sisters of St. Joseph of Carondelet came to St. Paul in 1851 and began their missionary work at this lonely out­ RAMSEY COUNTY COMMISIONERS post high on the bluffs overlooking the Mississippi. Through her access to the details Commissioner Rafael Ortega, chairman found in the records of the Order and other sources, Sister Ann provides a compelling Commissioner Susan Haigh Commissioner Tony Bennett portrait of these four female pioneers, their religious loyalty and faith, and their persis­ Commissioner James McDonough tence in the face of great hardships. This is the story of the enduring influence of these Commissioner Victoria Reinhardt devoted missionaries on St. Paul in its earliest years. Commissioner Janice Rettman Commissioner Jan Wiessner From the poverty and hardships of the four Sisters of St. Joseph, the issue moves on to the opulence and splendor of the mansion that James J. Hill built on Summit Avenue Paul Kirkwold, manager, Ramsey County between 1887 and 1891. Writer and historian Lou Ann Matossian focuses on the Ori­ Ramsey County History is published quar­ ental mgs that Hill purchased to furnish his splendid home. By examining the available terly by the Ramsey County Historical records, Matossian shows that Hill, who could easily have afforded Oriental mgs of any Society, 323 Landmark Center, 75 W. Fifth Street, St. Paul, Minn. 55102 (651-222- cost, bought many medium-quality mgs that impressed visitors but showed that Hill 0701). Printed in U.S.A. Copyright, 2001, was what she calls “the practical millionaire.” The James J. Hill that emerges from her Ramsey County Historical Society. ISSN research is a man who spent only what he needed to on his mgs and avoided any that Number 0485-9758. All rights reserved. No might have qualified as works of art. part of this publication may be reprinted In our third article, John Larson’s “Growing Up in St. Paul” tells how he and his or otherwise reproduced without written permission from the publisher. The Soci­ family dealt with the serious eye ailment he had in the 1920s and ’30s. He also recalls ety assumes no responsibility for statements with detail and good humor his experiences as a member of the Vision Class at Webster made by contributors. Fax 651-223-8539; School. Within the St. Paul Public Schools of that time, the Vision Class consisted of e-mail address [email protected].; web site all the students at a particular school who were blind or had other serious vision prob­ address www.rchs.com lems. Although Larson tells his story matter-of-factly, his account is an understated tribute to the caring and well-qualified teachers who helped him (and by inference other students) succeed in their studies in spite of their medical problems. John M. Lindley, Chair, Editorial Board

2 RAMSEY COUNTY HISTORY Attacked by a Starving Wolf Four Sisters of St. Joseph and Their Mission to St. Paul Patience, Courage, Joyfulness in a Crude Log Cabin

Editor s Note: Early in November, 1851, ten years after dedication of the small chapel that gave its name to St. Paul and only two years after Minnesota became a territory, four black-robed women stepped from a steamboat onto the town’s Lower Landing at the foot of Jackson Street. Not much has been known about these women, the vanguard of thousands of others called to service in what is now Minnesota, Wisconsin, and North and South Dakota. They taught, ministered to the poor and sick, cared for the orphaned, and es­ tablished schools, a college, and St. Paul’s first hospital. Their story has been pieced together by historian Sister Ann Thomasine Sampson of the Sisters of St. Joseph of Carondelet and drawn from her new book, Seeds on Good Ground, which has just been pub­ lished to commemorate the 150th anniversary of the Sisters of St. Joseph’s arrival in St. Paul. The author also describes her own jour­ ney through the scanty records that survived from a time when the Sisters felt their work was best done in obscurity, even secrecy, their letters and journals often destroyed upon their deaths. Sister Ann Thomasine Sampson, CSJ

he origin of the Order of St. Joseph houses ransacked; some of the Sisters ceptance, and courage. Looking back, lay in southeastern France, in the were imprisoned, and seven were exe­ one of their number would describe their Tsmall city of LePuy, near Lyon, cuted, two by guillotine. Others scattered mission to St. Paul as those “dear, sweet, where on October 15, 1650, six young to their families until the Reign of Terror holy, old times.” women donned habits which were pat­ subsided. As religious worship slowly re­ They had thought their first assign­ terned after the traditional clothing vived in France, the few remaining Sis­ ment at Carondelet would be to convert adopted by widows of the time—black ters of St. Joseph crept out of hiding to re­ the Indians. Instead, disappointed but serge with long, wide sleeves; a skirt with build their congregation. They little knew undaunted, they and those who followed pleats in front; a black veil; a white linen that within a few decades a growing in­ them taught French-Canadian farmers and band, cornet, and guimpe; a black brass- terest in “foreign missions” would create cared for orphans. Eventually the bonds bound cross; and a black rosary. Their new work for them. It would be in the with France were loosened, although the far-off United States which, by 1836, had letters patent were confirmed by Louis Sisters continued to look with pride to the become one of those “foreign missions.” Mother House in France. In the mean­ XIV and their first assignment was to Six Sisters, imbued with missionary time, Bishop Joseph Cretin, the first care for the orphans of LePuy. zeal for converting the Native Americans, bishop of the newly-formed diocese of The Constitution of the Congregation “poor persons, Protestants, Methodists, St. Paul, invited four of the Sisters to St. o f St. Joseph described the careful, rigor­ and all the unhappy sects,” sailed from Paul, to work among the “dear Indians.” ous process a young woman, scarcely Le Havre in January, 1836. Forty-nine They left Carondelet, again thinking they out of girlhood, underwent to become a days later, they landed at New Orleans were to establish an Indian mission. member of the community. First she was and proceeded up the Mississippi by Who were these young women? And examined in private as to her country, steamboat to the villages of Carondelet what did they experience as newcomers parentage, habits, health and other mat­ and Cahokia outside of St. Louis, Mis­ to the American frontier and to the rude ters. If accepted, she became a novice souri. Here would be their first perma­ settlement that lined the ninety-foot and received the habit of the Order. If she nent home in America and Carondelet bluffs rising above the Mississippi? Here passed through her two-year Novitiate would bestow upon them their title, the are their stories: successfully, she would make her profes­ Sisters of St. Joseph of Carondelet sion of the perpetual simple vows of Their experiences at Carondelet and H poverty, chastity, and obedience. Cahokia foreshadowed those in St. Paul For the next century, the Order spread fifteen years later—a crude log cabin, The weather was cold and ice was form­ throughout southern France until the few resources, no transportation, loneli­ ing in the Mississippi as the steamer St. French Revolution almost destroyed it. ness, frustration, but also joyfulness, Paul made its way through Lake Pepin, Their records were obliterated, their good humor and, above all, patience, ac­ upward bound for St. Paul. On board, the

4 RAMSEY COUNTY HISTORY recorded their experiences many years later for others who wished to write a community history: Sister St. Protais De- boille described the departure from Lyon, the voyage to America, and the years in Carondelet and Cahokia; Sister Frances Joseph Ivory wrote four letters about their journey up the Mississippi and the founding of what became St. Joseph’s Academy in St. Paul; in her annals, Sister Ignatius Loyola Cox recalled the first years at St. Mary’s Academy, which the Sisters established in St. Anthony (now Minneapolis); and in 1873 Mother St. John Fournier wrote a long letter to the superior general in Lyon in which she in­ cluded a short account of the trip to St. Sketch of Father Galtier’s Chapel of St. Paul as it looked in 1852, not long after the Sisters of Paul, the opening of their first school, and St. Joseph arrived in St. Paul. The chapel was built in 1841 and the addition at the back was added six years later. From a watercolor by pioneer artist and pharmacist Robert O. Sweeny. the living conditions there. Minnesota Historical Society collections. Old ledgers stored in the attic of St. Joseph’s Academy in St. Paul were an­ other fruitful source of information. In 1971, when plans were underway to close the 120-year-old school, I was asked to collect all archival material that had historical significance. I did a de­ tailed study of the contents of each of the five ledgers: expenses, receipts, and names of students, parents, and benefactors. This created a vivid picture of St. Paul during the years 1851 to 1853 and 1855 to 1860. I also wrote out some conclusions I drew at the end of each year. Other information came from the Generalate and Provin- cialate Archives in St. Louis and St. Paul and the official community history, The Sisters of St. Joseph o f Carondelet, pub­ lished in 1966.

Mission to America How those first six Sisters of St. Joseph happened to come to America in 1836 is an interesting story in itself. In 1835 Bishop Joseph Rosati, a member of the A map of Minnesota Territory, showing its original counties in 1849-1851. Minnesota Histori­ religious Congregation of the Priests of cal Society collections. the Mission (also known as the Lazarists) and prelate of the newly-created diocese of St. Louis, was seeking Sisters to work little band of four included Mother St. Francis Joseph Ivory from Pennsylvania. in his diocese. It was an area that em­ John Fournier, their superior, and Sister Only Sister Philomene was among the braced the present states of Missouri, Philomene Vilaine, both of whom had first six Sisters of St. Joseph to come Kansas, Iowa, Arkansas, and western Illi­ been bom in France; Sister Scholastica from Lyon to St. Louis in 1836. She left nois. Rosati, who also was responsible Vasques, bom in St. Louis and a Creole, no letters, diaries, or annals of her for the spiritual welfare of the Indians in a descendant of the French, Spanish and twenty-five years as a missionary, but his diocese, wrote Father Charles Col­ African settlers of Louisiana; and Sister four other Sisters who lived with her leton, spiritual director of the Sisters of

RAMSEY COUNTY HISTORY 5 St. Joseph, in Lyon. Colleton also had in Martinique; and at Havana, where yel­ contacts with the Society for the Pro­ low fever had broken out. pagation of the Faith, an organization A violent storm near the Gulf of Mexi­ founded by a Frenchwoman, Pauline co threatened to destroy the ship, but at Jaricot, who encouraged French working last, after a five-month journey that in­ women to contribute a franc each week to cluded forty-six days at sea, they dis­ support foreign missions. Specifically, embarked at New Orleans on March 5. Rosati needed both money and help in Bishop Rosati welcomed them there, his establishing a school for the deaf in St. fears at rest that the Sisters had run away Louis. Colleton suggested the Sisters of with some of the 400 soldiers and offi­ St. Joseph who already enjoyed an excel­ cers traveling with them aboard ship. He lent reputation for their work throughout explained that three of the Sisters (Del- France, and he contacted Mother St. phine, Felicite, and Philomene) would go John Fontbonne, superior general of the to the village of Carondelet on the south­ Order, about the request. Mother St. ern outskirts of St. Louis and three (the John was not sure she could help because two Fontbonne Sisters and Sister Protais) of limited finances and the fact that no to Cahokia, across the Mississippi in Illi­ one among her Sisters was trained in nois. Two weeks later they all boarded sign language. the steamer George Collier for St. Louis, Meanwhile, a wealthy benefactor, the Sisters clad in secular garb because of Felicite de Duras, Countess de la Roche- the lack of respect shown by a number of jacqueline, had learned of the great need Countess Felicite de Duras, Countess de la “non-Catholics and bigots” in the south­ for missionaries in the Mississippi Val­ Rochejacqueline. From the archives of the ern and western sections of the region. ley. She greatly admired Mother St. John, Sisters of St. Joseph. Carondelet in 1836 and had financed some of her work. In a letter to Rosati, dated June 10, 1835, the Also known as Vide Poche (Empty Pocket) countess expressed her desire “to send appointed superior; Sister Marguerite- because of the poverty of its residents, six Sisters of St. Joseph to North Ameri­ Felicite Boute, known later as Sister Carondelet was situated on a bluff over­ ca to convert the savages [and] to teach Felicite, in honor of the countess; Sister looking the Mississippi where it was pre­ their children and those of Protestant St. Protais Deboille; and Sister Philo- served from the periodic floods Cahokia families.” Expressing much of the fervor mene Vilaine. The others, Sisters Celes- experienced. Most of Carondelet’s in­ of that time, she continued: tine Pommerel and her cousin, Sister St. habitants lacked interest in both religion John Fournier, were to study sign lan­ and education, and the village had no It seems to me that if I succeed in establish­ guage in France for a year before leaving school. The Sisters’ experiences at this ing the Sisters of St. Joseph in your Ameri­ for America. Mother St. John’s nephew, time, and later in St. Paul, reveal a period ca, near the savages, and near so many Father James Fontbonne, was chosen to in American history when life often was heretics in your diocese, I shall have done accompany them and work in the St. bleak and beset with tragedy as many during my life something pleasing to God to Louis diocese. families struggled to settle the frontier. win his mercy for my sins. I know what I Their first home, a log cabin, had two have given is not enough, but I will give The Voyage rooms on the ground floor, one room serv­ more. I will help; only say, my Lord, what Sister St. Protais later wrote a lengthy ac­ ing as a refectory, parlor or dormitory, the you think is necessary for the beginning. count of their departure and journey. In other as a classroom by day and a sleeping Rosati was impressed and wrote to January, 1836, they traveled by stage apartment for the girl students at night. Mother St. John that he was delighted from Lyon to Paris, where they stayed Overhead was a small attic reached by an with the prospect of obtaining six Sisters. with the Sisters of St Vincent de Paul, outside ladder. Two crude sheds were He also expressed the wish that two oth­ then continued on to Le Havre where constructed. Furniture was sparse, and ers be included who would work with the they were the guests of a wealthy widow their mattresses were filled with straw. deaf. Now that Mother St. John knew her who also contributed to the mission. On The Sisters belonged to the Church of Sisters would be welcome and supported January 17, they boarded The Heidelberg Our Lady of Mount Carmel (later known financially, she called for volunteers for a for North America. It was a long, diffi­ as Sts. Mary and Joseph parish) where mission that she stressed would involve cult journey during which the Sisters they assisted at mass and devotions and physical and spiritual hardships. A large tried to maintain as much as possible the served as sacristans. The pastor, Father number volunteered; those chosen were routine of convent life and observe the Edmond Saulnier, informed them of the Mother St. John’s two nieces, Sisters Del- Lenten fast. They endured periods of church’s dire financial circumstances and phine and Febronie Fontbonne, who was waiting at Brest in France; at Fort Royal told them he was in no position to help

6 RAMSEY COUNTY HISTORY managed and how students should be novice, the four deaf girls, and five or­ classified. It included a detailed graded phans. Since theirs was the only school course of instruction for first through for the deaf in the area, Bishop Rosati eighth grades and suggestions for teach­ and several influential citizens in St. ing catechism, spelling, arithmetic, gram­ Louis prevailed upon the Missouri legis­ mar, geography, history, and writing. lature to approve a grant of $2,000 a year There were charts of alphabets, syllables, to pay the tuition of any student who was numerals, vowels, consonants, and punc­ a resident of Missouri and had been a tuation, and a listing of twenty-four pupil in the school for six months. prayers each student was expected to learn during catechism class. And Across the River On October 1 a destitute father brought The Sisters in Cahokia, in the meantime, his two motherless daughters to the Sisters, were operating a successful school (its ini­ who cared for them. Two weeks later, tial enrollment was thirty), but not without after two orphans were brought from St. difficulties. The area was swampy, the Louis to Carondelet, the convent school climate inhospitable, and the Sisters began to take on the aspect of an orphan­ contracted a malignant fever (perhaps age. The Sisters’ work was expanding, malaria). Nevertheless, their little school Mother St. John Fournier, who led the little and so were their sources of support. A grew and several benefactors helped them band to St. Paul. Archives of the Sisters of year later the village established a free erect a small chapel. Father Fontbonne St. Joseph. school for girls, with each Sister receiv­ served as spiritual director for both con­ ing a salary of $375 a year, an arrange­ vents, but his appointment proved to be a ment that remained in place for the next mixed blessing. He loved his two sisters, them. Knowing the Creole people, many ten years. That fall, Sisters Celestine and at one point he appointed Delphine of whom were woodcutters, he said the Pommerel and St. John Fournier arrived superior at Cahokia and Febronie superior Sisters would have to ask the families for to teach the deaf. They brought letters, at Carondolet. It seems, however, from the food they needed. He was an abrupt equipment, clothing, and supplies for a letters written at the time that Father Font­ man, an alcoholic, who meant well but chapel. Countess de la Rochejacqueline bonne and Sister Delphine were strict ad­ was to cause the Sisters much trouble. had sold some of her jewelry to raise herents to the letter of the law. Some of the Later he was replaced by Father Font- 3,000 francs for their journey. Sisters resented what they did and refused bonne, who was serving as an assistant in The following spring, four deaf girls to obey them. Letters about the situation the Cathedral parish of St. Louis. Seeing arrived at the enlarged convent which went back and forth among Bishop Rosati, the Sisters’ poverty, Father Fontbonne now could accommodate six Sisters, one Father Fontbonne, and Father Saulnier. sold some of his new vestments to buy % necessities for them. Bishop Rosati, also in impoverished straits, bought cloaks for the Sisters to wear during cold weather, ■ and the Sisters themselves often worked CO as seamstresses during the evening after classes. < Classes began on September 12,1836, a week after their arrival. The doors were H open to anyone who wished to attend, and o enrollment quickly reached twenty. Pupils CO provided their own desks by bringing a Ili stool, log, or box on which to sit. Their parents gave the Sisters food and wood. There was little contact with St. Louis be­ cause of the lack of transportation. 2 Although formal training of teachers lay in the future, the Sisters had come pre­ pared. They brought with them to Ameri­ ca a Manual of Instruction published in Lyon in 1832 and containing information Map prepared by Father Augustin Ravoux of the church properties between Third Street (now on how schools should be planned and Kellogg Boulveard) and Bench Street. Sisters of St. Joseph archives.

RAMSEY COUNTY HISTORY 7 A viewofSt. Paulin 1851. Off in the distance, First Baptist Church stands on Baptist Hill, now Mears Park. Minnesota Historical Society collections.

It’s apparent that the Sisters were caught in bishop of the newly-created diocese of among “infidel” and “heretic” alike, em­ a dilemma, with a legalistic spiritual direc­ St. Paul on January 26, 1851. His new barked for St. Paul. tor (Fontbonne) in charge of them, a pastor diocese included all of the recently estab­ (Saulnier) who resented and disliked Font- lished Territory of Minnesota, as well as Mother St. John Fournier bonne, and a superior (another Fontbonne) the region that later became the states of Julie Alexise Fournier was bom Novem­ who was an imperious autocrat. North and South Dakota, stretching as far ber 12, 1814, to John Claude Fournier In addition, when Cahokia was west as the Rocky Mountains. In his an­ and Marie Ramsoz in a little town in Ar- flooded, the school had to be closed and nual report to the Propagation of the bois, France. She had five older brothers. the Sisters had to return to Carondelet. Faith, he listed the population as about Not much is known about her early life, Eventually, all of them were withdrawn 3.000 Catholics, 700 “heretics” and but in April, 1828, a few months before from Cahokia; Sister Delphine was re­ 30.000 “infidels.” He had three priests her fourteenth birthday, she left her home placed; Father Fontbonne returned to and five seminarians to help him, but he and traveled to Lyon to enter the contem­ France, and so did Sister Febronie who also wrote to Mother Celestine Pom- plative community of the Immaculate had become ill. She died a few years later merel begging for some sisters. On Octo­ Conception where she made her simple at Chagny. ber 28, 1851, the four Sisters of St. vows on April 19, 1832. It was from the Father Joseph Cretin was consecrated Joseph, imbued with the desire to work Countess de la Rochejaqueline, whose

8 RAMSEY COUNTY HISTORY protégé she had become, that she first as we often called her, could make it learned of the mission being planned by presentable.” Another Sister recalled the Sisters of St. Joseph at Lyon. Re­ that Sister Philomene “formed the choir sponding to a deep call to work among along with Sister St. John [Fournier] in the American Indians, she transferred to the church, cared for the altar, swept out the Sisters of St. Joseph. Her second the church and responded at Mass for the novitiate was made at St. Etienne, about pastor. . . did everything but perform the seventy miles southwest of Lyon, and she office of grave digging.” received the habit in the chapel of Char­ Another described her as a Sister with treux on June 16, 1836. Mother St. John “a heart without guile” and well-liked by Fontbonne gave Julie her own name “in the other Sisters. “Sister Philomene was order to remind these missionaries that the Sister we always loved to have with her heart did not forget them.” us at our evening recreations and we Soon Sister St. John and her cousin, would assist her in washing dishes in Sister Celestine Pommerel, were sent to order to have her with us sooner.” She study with the Sisters of St. Charles, the evidently taught some of the school- only community in the Lyon diocese en­ children. “During the hours of manual gaged in teaching the deaf. Completing labor, she might be seen in the midst of her her training and half of her novitiate, she little workers teaching them in the kind­ and her cousin left France for St. Louis est tones and the gentlest ways how to dis­ where they both would begin their work. charge the various duties of housewifery, She completed her vows on December Bishop Joseph Cretin. Minnesota Historical an art in which she herself excelled.” 31, 1837, in the Church of Our Lady of Society collections. One can conjecture that she cared for Mount Carmel in Carondelet. the small boarding students. Some re­ Trials and misunderstandings tested missionary among the deaf, minority called that “many a night we retired to her. The living conditions and harsh cli­ groups, the poor and the sick. She would our beds shaking with fear from the hor­ mate played havoc with her health and spend the years between 1847 and 1851 rid ghost stories and fairy tales with then there was the friction among the two serving in an orphanage for boys in which she entertained us.” A fair sum­ Fontbonne nieces and their brother. Philadelphia before embarking on her mary: she liked work of all kinds, loved Mother Delphine seemed totally unaware mission to St. Paul. children, and cherished her community of the effect her imperious and austere whom she knew how to entertain. nature had on the small community. Sis­ Sister Philomene Vilaine ter St. John’s health problem was re­ Anne Marie Vilaine, the daughter of Jean Sister Francis Joseph Ivory solved by a transfer to St. Louis where Vilaine and Claire Bochard of LePuy was Two of the four Sisters of St. Joseph who she spent several months in rest, prayer, bom on April 13, 1811. When she was arrived in St. Paul in 1851 were Ameri­ and the study of English with the Reli­ twenty-five, she entered the convent of cans, and Eliza Ellen Ivory was one of gious of the Sacred Heart. the Sisters of St. Joseph in Lyon. She re­ the two. She was bom in Loretto, Com- Back in Carondelet, she taught French ceived the habit and the name Philomene brie County, Pennsylvania, on September to the boarders at Mother Celestine’s on January 4, 1836. She too was greatly 16, 1824, the daughter of Jeremiah Ivory school, helped with the instruction of the interested in American foreign missions, and Sarah Ann Shirley, who were of Irish deaf, and visited the sick and the poor in so much so that the day after her reception ancestry. She was baptised by the famous their own homes. In 1845 she was as­ she left Lyon with the other five Sisters. missionary and Russian prince-convert, signed to open St. Joseph’s School for She pronounced her simple vows on the Reverend Demetrius Gallitz. On June the Colored where daughters of free January 3,1838, completing her two-year 12,1847, when she was twenty-three, she African-Americans were taught elemen­ novitiate. entered the novitiate of the Sisters of tary subjects, French, and needlework Vivid descriptions of Sister Philomene St. Joseph at Carondelet. The following while the children of slaves were taught can be found in the archives. Except for a October 30 she received the habit and her catechism only, after school hours and on year in Cahokia, she lived in Carondelet. name, Francis Joseph, chosen for her de­ Sunday. When Mother Celestine Pommerel su­ votion to St. Francis Xavier, the Jesuit Prejudice and bigotry soon put an end pervised the construction of the first per­ missionary who was patron of missions. to the school. The following year she be­ manent building in what became the Sister Francis, in a sense, followed in came head of an asylum that cared for Motherhouse, she noted that “the plaster his footsteps. The most adventuresome of seventy-five homeless boys. In ten short left a mess in the new north building these pioneering Sisters, she traveled ex­ years, this young nun had become an ed­ [now the 1840 wing] and no amount of tensively, helped establish four missions, ucator, administrator, and a social service scrubbing on the part of ‘our Philomene,’ and wrote letters filled with details about

RAMSEY COUNTY HISTORY 9 her experiences and the people she met, including a vivid account of the journey to St. Paul in 1851 and the first St. Paul m ission. Her reminiscences create a color­ ful picture of how primitive life was for these young women who brought educa­ tion and religion to the rough frontier. Sister Francis recorded her memories of the early history of St. Joseph’s School in Carondelet, the forerunner of the St. Joseph’s Academy the Sisters later founded in St. Paul. It was, she recalled, “a very good academy.” Although the “accommodations were very poor, they had about one hundred nice young ladies in the small house. All slept in the garret and the beds were peopled with thou­ sands of smaller inhabitants. The fare was very indifferent.” One of the Sisters made all the pens. (“We used quills at that time.”) She added that “Many of our fine French Ladies of St. Louis in Caron­ delet were members of the . . . school. . . there were few schools around at that time. We had pleasant retreats. The num­ ber was not so great, and we were all very pious___” In 1848 she was sent to Cahokia to re­ St. Joseph’s Academy in 1851. The building was once the little Chapel of St. Paul. Sisters of open the mission, then to St. Louis to St. Joseph archives. help establish the boys’ asylum and teach some sixty girls. She remained there until about 8 p.m. Tuesday [October 28, 1851], Colonel Abram Fridley, agent for the she was chosen for the mission to St. We traveled on but a few short steps as the Winnebago, and his family. They arrived Paul. weather was cold and ice forming on the at St. Paul during the night of November river. We arrived in Galena Friday evening, 2 and that morning the Sisters’ caught the Sister Scholastica Vasques the 31st of Oct. We stopped all night, put up first glimpse of their new home. It was Celestine Vasques was also an American. at Mr. Dowling’s, who was Mayor of the dismaying. Perched on the bluff ninety She was bom in St. Louis on January 1, city that year. His lady was a Catholic and feet above them was Father Galtier’s 1829, to Hippolite and Marie Louise very good to us. The following morning, Chapel of 1841, with an addition at the Vasques and educated in St. Louis. Her being the Feast of All Saints, we heard Mass back that had been built six years later. mother died when she was very young and received Holy Communion in the chapel To the left was a log shanty occupied first and she entered the Sisters of St. Joseph of the Sisters of Mercy. After breakfast we by missionary and priest Father Augustin convent in Carondolet on April 1, 1847, went aboard the Steamer, and resumed our Ravoux and then by Bishop Cretin as his when she was eighteen. She received the journey. We made about an hour or 2 delay “palace.” Strung out along the bluff were habit and the name, Scholastica, the fol­ at Dubuque. We got off and went up to see the settlers’ cabins. lowing August. Two years later, on Octo­ the Sisters who had been there but a short “It looked very dreary,” Sister Francis ber 15, 1849, she made her perpetual time. We then resumed our journey, the recalled. “The hills were covered with vows. She was described as a cheerful [weather] being chilly and damp. We did snow. The lady who provided our first young woman with a beautiful singing enjoy the scenery very much. dinner was Madame Turpin, a widow voice and fluent in French. During a short delay at Prairie du Chien, who had only one daughter, and she Father Lucien Galtier, who had named was Mrs. [Louis Robert], the wife of a Sister Francis Joseph left the most de­ the settlement of St. Paul for the chapel wealthy Indian trader. She proved to us a tailed account of the Sisters’ journey he established there in 1841, came on friend indeed. Mrs. [Auguste] Larpen- from St. Louis to St. Paul: board and traveled some distance with teur, a Baltimore lady and her husband We went on board the Steamer St. Paul the little band. Also on board was and family were also good friends.”

10 RAMSEY COUNTY HISTORY The old cathedral,, built in 1852. Mother St. John Fourier was on her way to mass here when a starving wolf attempted to attack her. Daily mass then was held at the convent. After a new Cathedral, right, was built, the old building became a schoolhouse. Ramsey County Historical Society collections.

We took our first meal, supper [Nov. 3rd] in Miss Mary Ellen Rice [a niece of Henry M. the roof, we (like the man in the gospel) the vestry of the old log church. We had dif­ Rice]. We fixed up an old shed. . . Mr. Rice would take up our beds and walk, but only to ficulty to get enough water to make our tea as furnished her room with a good bed and rest in the water on the second floor. We there was but one well in the town and that made it very comfortable. The next month took our meals prepared by ourselves in the was locked up. We rested in the vestry... we we received a second boarder for our new vestry of the old log church. We all enjoyed then took possession of our new home. academy, Miss Mary Fridley, daughter of the novelty of our position; as there was only Opened school [the] following Monday in Colonel Fridley of the Chippewa [Win­ one well, and that generally locked, we had the vestry. nebago] Agency. The young ladies did very often a long wait for our coffee in the morn­ well and seemed happy.. . . In March we re­ ing. I having nothing to eat for a day when Their new home was that low frame shanty ceived a third pupil, Mary Bottineau . . . Mother [St. John Fournier] surprised us with “palace” just vacated by the bishop, their from St. Anthony. a portion of a small loaf of bread. furniture a few old mattresses spread out on the second floor. They named their We had a small stove on the first floor, the Sister Francis Joseph described Min­ school St. Mary’s. (It would not been pipe of which was set upright through the nesota Territory that first year as “an In­ known as St. Joseph’s Academy until roof. Around this opening we could count dian camping ground.” The “chief set­ 1859.) That week they received their first the stars. In the spring, rain storms were fre­ tlers,” she wrote, “were Indian traders, no boarder, quent. When the rains poured down through farms had yet been planted. No public

RAMSEY COUNTY HISTORY 11 conveyance [during the winter].” The only road to Prairie du Chien and Dubuque, 500 miles away, was the frozen Mississippi where “the wolves often at­ tacked travelers as they traveled over the ice.” She remembered the coming of a northern spring and the first steamboat to dock at the levee:

As the steamer, the City of St. Paul, came steaming up the excitement was intense. Every individual in town was on the river bank with a loud welcome for the friends who brought them all comforts. . . . The spring was charming, the prairies all in bloom. Wild ducks were plenty on the river and lakes. The settlers were coming in from all quarters.. . . Once in awhile we received a present of venison, bear, deer or smaller animals, also fish, all very acceptable. Living conditions that first year undoubt­ edly reminded the Sisters of Caron- delet—poverty, lack of necessities, isola­ tion, unfavorable weather, a frame shanty where they lived, a log chapel. Sister Philomene taught French; Sister Francis Joseph, who was in charge of the school, taught English. Mother St. John con­ Three Sisters. Ellen Howard (Sister Celestine), center, and Ellen Ireland (Sister Seraphine), tacted merchants, parents, and others who right, were the first graduates of St. Joseph’s Academy. Eliza Ireland (Sister St. John), left, could help, and was responsible for see­ founded St. Agatha’s Conservatory of Music and Art, still standing in downtown St. Paul as ing that the Sisters lived a community life the Exchange Building. Ellen and Eliza Ireland were sisters of the future Archbishop John Ire­ under the Constitution of the Sisters of land; Ellen Howard was their cousin. From the Archives of the Sisters of St. Joseph. St. Joseph. Ledger “A,” which the Sisters kept, nets, red chintz and fringe, calico, shirt­ Bishop Cretin. For the fifteen months reflects their activities. School, the ing, ticking, sheeting, flannel and cotton. between October 30, 1851 and Decem­ ledger noted, “opened on the 17th of School supplies included blank books, ber 31, 1852, expenses totaled $589.06; November, 1851... under the title of St. gum arabic, books and paper, dictionary receipts $587.01. Mary’s School.” The expenses “of the and ink. All Sisters on a small mission engaged House” that year totaled $40. Lists of They paid a washerwoman, a grocer, in housework, cooking, community prayer expenditures for food and its preparation and recreation and teaching. During the revealed what the Sisters and the board­ and Bishop Cretin for supplies, and they winter, they trudged through mounds of ing students ate: bread, lard, hops, pota­ sent money, shoes and yam to the mis­ toes, commeal, molasses, salt, pepper, sion at Long Prairie. A Mr. [Joseph E.] snow to attend daily mass at the Cathedral mustard, ham, vinegar, butter, fish, eggs, Fullerton [merchant] received money for on Wabasha and Sixth Street. After a sugar, coffee, cheese, flour, and allspice. sheeting and calico and from a Mr. Du- starving wolf attempted to attack Mother Other supplies included china, soap, fast [William Dugas?] they purchased St. John Fournier, the bishop came daily wire, wash basins, medicine, indigo, flour. They had masses offered for de­ to the convent for mass. starch, a stove, flatirons, postage, spoons, ceased Sisters, and they gave alms for There were changes as the months tins, candles, sewing thread, wood, Lent and a jubilee. At one point they moved along. Enrollment at the school water, windows, glass, hartshorn [ammo­ apparently kept a horse because they increased steadily. The names (some­ nia], pan, bell, shovel, tongs, turpentine, bought oats and hay. times misspelled) of either parents or oil tapers, washtubs, needles, brooms, a students—the Territory’s pioneers—are rat trap (and poison!), a bedstead, zinc, Attack by a Wolf listed in the ledger with the amounts nails, and a lock for a well. They spent $3 Receipts and expenditures were care­ they paid: E. Cox, Robert, Mehegan, for the use of a carriage. They bought fully noted in their ledgers, which then Lytte, Vadnais, Dufast, Larpenteur, shoes, shawls, ribbon, muslin, silk, bon­ were examined and “found correct” by Buchanen, Bottineau, Dumphy, Dorsaire,

12 RAMSEY COUNTY HISTORY Oliver, Robert, Desnoyer, Fridley, Creek, Alexander, Walters, Weaver, Quinn, Bruce, Lampert, Rice, Egan, Fairbanks, Sloakes, Keep, O’Neil, Brenan, Dayton, Dorsay, Sweeney, Kittson, Gregor, Wa- lerien, and Fridley. By September, 1852, a two-story brick building the bishop had built for the growing school was ready for use. The lower floor housed two airy classrooms and the upper floor served as a sleeping room for the boarders. The Sisters used the log church as their chapel. The years between 1852 and 1855 were difficult for Bishop Cretin. He ne­ gotiated with officials in the Territory and in Washington for government sup­ port of a school. He felt it was a duty of conscience to promote the spiritual and Little Crow’s summer planting village, known as Kaposia, on the M ississippi across from temporal welfare of the 25,000 Native present-day South St. Paul. The Sisters had hoped to work among “the dear Indians. ” Americans living within Minnesota. He Minnesota Historical Society collections. wrote countless letters to the Society for the Propagation of the Faith in Paris, and The Honorable Henry Rice promised to give open sleighs or wagons heaped with bar­ the 37,500 francs the Society eventually land for the building, and a Sioux chief who rels of flour, pork, and other supplies the sent to St. Paul made possible the Sisters’ was then occupying the present site of Min­ teamsters were hauling from St. Paul to school, hospital, orphanage, and a school neapolis promised to give lumber from his Long Prairie. for Indians. The bishop’s appeals to the forests, and Mother St. John promised the Sis­ A Sister who made the trip during the federal government for financial help ters would be the caretakers. winter two years later recalled that after resulted in a five-year contract for the traveling all day, the train would pause school for the Winnebagos on their reser­ It was just in time. In the summer of 1854, cholera, a highly contagious and for the night at a log house with little or vation near Long Prairie, 100 miles north no accommodations. Once a driver took of St. Paul. He was to be paid $75 a year much feared intestinal disease spread by infected water, milk, and raw food, ap­ pity on her plight, put her into his sleigh for each child over five and under eigh­ and covered her with buffalo robes and teen enrolled in the school. The money peared in epidemic proportions in St. Paul. Many were dying and the Sisters of blankets to protect her from the cold. Sis­ was never sent. The Indian Bureau was St. Joseph converted their log church into ter Scholastica remained there for the slow in answering letters. The officials of a temporary hospital to care for them. winter, living with a family named the Indian Agency raised many difficul­ When the new hospital was completed on Lequier. Their oldest daughter helped her ties, even refusing at times to deliver Exchange Street, where it remains today, with the classes she conducted to prepare food and clothing to the children. There it was given into the care of the Sisters. the Indians for their first communion. was constant friction, but the entire pro­ The novitiate was transferred there and a Sister Francis Joseph remembered that ject came to an end in 1855 when the free school for girls was opened in a Sister Scholastica “told us thrilling tales Winnebago Indians were moved to Blue small brick building on the hospital about her school of grownup men and Earth in southern Minnesota. grounds. Later the school was transferred women. Sometimes the men would drink and then she was obliged to hide.” The Cholera Epidemic to the basement of the Cathedral, named the Cathedral School, and opened to both In 1853 construction began on a new boys and girls. Mission to St. Anthony building that would become St. Joseph’s Throughout the 1850s, the Sisters’ The story of the four Sisters of St. Joseph Hospital. Looking back in 1891, Sister missionary work increasingly moved be­ during the remaining years of the 1850s Francis Ivory wrote: yond St. Paul. Within two months of Sis­ is one of much travel and changing chal­ I know the Hospital was proposed the Spring I ter Scholastica’s arrival in the Territory, lenges as the work of the Order began to was there [1852]. I heard the first attempt. A she was sent to Long Prairie to begin the spread and they were called to help else­ French doctor, a friend of [Mother St. John] religious instruction of the Indians at the where. told [us] that many of the immigrants coming Winnebago reservation. It was a four-day In 1853 Sister Philomene was trans­ at that time were taken sick and some died for journey for the twenty-two-year-old Sis­ ferred from Long Prairie to St. Anthony lack of care. He looked about [for] what to do. ter. She traveled it alone in a train with Falls [now East Minneapolis] to open a

RAMSEY COUNTY HISTORY 13 mission there. A small frame church had The Sisters broadened their curriculum as superior in 1858. It was a difficult as­ been built in 1852 and property secured into classes in sacred and profane history, signment in a poverty-stricken commu­ on which to build a convent. It was the elements of astronomy, chemistry, bot­ nity with no markets, and no butcher first permanent foundation sent out from any, literature, and music, in addition to shops, so that fresh meat, virtually un­ the Sisters’ school and convent in St. Paul. reading, writing, arithmetic, grammar, procurable, was “one of our rarest luxu­ The Catholics in St. Anthony Falls geography, sewing, and needlework. ries.” Her health impaired by the harsh­ were not very numerous and they were Ledger “A” contains information of in­ ness of life at Long Prairie and St. exceedingly poor, but next to St. Paul the terest during the years Sister Philomene Anthony, she was sent to the more genial community was considered the most im­ taught French at the Academy. It could climate of Sulphur Springs, Mississippi, portant village in the territory. The im­ well be that she also was bookkeeper when where the Sisters of St. Joseph staffed a mense water power around the Falls was one finds such words in the ledger as “riz, school and convent. She was so ill, how­ beginning to be tapped and immigrants towls, candels, pore, onyions, Scholas- ever, that she died on July 26, 1859, at were coming into the territory in great tique, and Helene Howard.” Besides buy­ the age of twenty-eight. numbers. Father Denis Ledon, a zealous ing large quantities of groceries from Au­ In 1854 Sister Francis Joseph Ivory and energetic French priest stationed guste Larpenteur, they also bought music, was assigned to establish a mission in there, foresaw a great future for St. An­ music books, and a piano, which they Canandaigua, New York. Two years later thony and he hastened to put in place his tuned frequendy. For the first time, “things she was sent to Rochester, New York, to plans for a school for the children of his for drawing and painting” were recorded. open a school. In 1858 she founded a parish, which was increasing numerically The Sisters sponsored a St. Patrick’s Day mission in Buffalo and she worked with every coming year. When he ap­ Supper and they made scapulars. among the Indians at Baraga, Michigan, plied to the bishop of St. Paul for Sisters, On one page there appears this note but around 1859 she seems to have re­ his request was granted, and the mission from 1857: “I gave Rev. Ravoux to buy turned to Carondelet. In 1866 she headed was opened. a piece of land $400.” The Sisters were a pioneer band of Sisters who left St. An old frame house that had been purchasing lots on St. Anthony Hill Louis for Kansas City where they built a used by fur traders was rented and fitted [present-day Summit Avenue], then on convent school. Similar assignments up as a school and dwelling. In Ledger the outskirts of the town, for a large took her to Glens Falls and Binghamton, “A” dated October 3, 1853, the book­ school and convent. The following note, New York. She eventually retired to keeper noted that $32.50 was given to dated 1859, was pinned to the last page of Loretto Convent in Glenmore, New York, the Sisters at St. Anthony and a stage­ the ledger: where she died on February 4,1902. She coach for two Sisters to travel to St. was seventy-nine years old. St. Paul January 13th 1859 I certify that Anthony cost $4. Sister Philomene re­ Mother St. John Fournier, who led the Mother Seraphine has paid in full the note she mained there until Sister Scholastica ar­ little band of four Sisters to St. Paul in made to the Rt. Rev. Bishop Cretin for the rived from Long Prairie to become supe­ 1851, remained there until May of 1853, house or lots [on] St. Anthony, on which her rior and teacher, then returned to St. Paul when she left for Philadelphia. For the Sisters keep school. The note was of two hun­ to teach French. next twenty-two years she helped de­ dred dollars $200.00. 1 paid this money on Many changes followed in the next six velop an outstanding parochial school this day.... According to the settlement of years. St. Joseph’s Academy’s first grad­ system, organize a nurse corps of twenty- our account for the free school kept by the uates, Ellen Ireland and her cousin, Ellen four Sisters who served during the Civil Sisters, I owe them fifty dollars. A. Ravoux. Howard, entered the convent in 1858, War, and build other new institutions. taking the names of Sisters Seraphine and Paid in full by Rev. Mr. Ravoux $50 She taught French and she translated Celestine. Sister Seraphine became di­ Sister Seraphine a number of French classics into English. rector of St. Joseph’s Academy and her She died in Philadelphia on October 15, brother, John Ireland, became the first Another note records Father Ravoux’s 1875, when she was sixty-one years old. archbishop of St. Paul. Sister Celestine payment to the school for a keg of syrup founded St. Agatha’s Conservatory of and a half keg of molasses. St. Joseph’s Sister Ann Thomasine Sampson, CSJ, has Music and Art in downtown St. Paul. Academy still stands on St. Anthony Hill written several histories of the Sisters of Bishop Cretin died in 1857 and when as a majestic collection of limestone St. Joseph and their work in Minnesota, the Reverend Thomas Grace succeeded buildings. The southwest section dates including Care With Prayer, a history of him in 1859, he immediately made plans from 1863 when the Academy first St. Mary’s Hospital in Minneapolis, pub­ to improve the overcrowded conditions opened as a country school for some lished in 1987; Guide to Places of CSJ of the Sisters and students in the seven- twenty boarders. Interest in Minnesota and North Dakota, year-old brick building and the patients In 1860 Sister Philomene returned to and Mother Fournier: Wellspring of In­ in the hospital. He transferred the pa­ the Motherhouse in Carondelet where spiration. Her history of St. Agatha’s tients to the school on Bench Street and she died in 1861 at the age of fifty-two. Conservatory appeared in Volume 24, the students to the hospital. It was the Sister Scholastica left St. Anthony in Number 1 of Ramsey County History, third home for St. Joseph’s Academy. 1855 but returned to finish out her term published in 1989.

14 RAMSEY COUNTY HISTORY A sketch based on one of the oldest photographs of pioneer St. Paul as it looked in 1851 when the Sisters of St. Joseph arrived there. The log house on the right stands at Third and Robert Streets. Minnesota Historical Society collections. See article beginning on page 4.

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