Jewels from Jane, Feb. 7

Gillick Bros.
Contractors
319 W. Steins St.
St. Louis, Mo.

Telephones
Victor 901
South 978


February 7, 1910

Sisters of St. Joseph, City.

Reverend Mother: [Agnes Gonzaga Ryan]

We propose to furnish all material and labor necessary for the construction of Power House & Laundry building, alterations and additions, to be located at St. Joseph's Academy, Kansas St. [Holly Hills] & Minnesota Ave., St. Louis, Mo., according to Plans and Specifications as follows:

For the construction of Power House & Laundry building and alterations to Minnesota Ave. Building and Fence Wall, including demolition of old Boiler House & Laundry building, for the sum of Sixty-Two Thousand Four Hundred Twenty-Four Dollars ($62424.00).

For the facing of Ironing Room and Wash Room with Enamel Brick, add to the above amount the sum of One Thousand Four Hundred Thirty ($1430.00) Dollars.

In case walls of Ironing Room and Wash Room are plastered, add to the first amount the sum of Four Hundred Forty Five ($445.00) Dollars.

For the construction of Tunnel between proposed Power House and Minnesota Ave. Building, add to the first amount the sum of Three Thousand Seven Hundred Eighty ($3780.00) Dollars.

Respectfully submitted,

Document in Motherhouse file

Jewels from Jane, January 27

Office of Gillick Bros.
7925 Minnesota Ave.
St. Louis, Mo.

January 27, 1906

Sisters of St. Joseph, City.

Reverend Mother:

We propose to refloor the connecting Corridor between Convent Building and New Chapel on first floor with Maple and Black Walnut flooring alternating and filled and varnished for the sum of Four Hundred and Thirty ($430.00) Dollars.

Respectfully yours,

Gillick Bros.

When the "new" chapel (present Holy Family Chapel) was finished in 1899 it was free-standing. A connection was later built from the 1865 building to this chapel. The outside porch was enclosed and staircases added so the sisters could get to the chapel without going outside. The above letter refers to the flooring in the connection outside the old Priest's dining room.

Jewels from Jane, December 29

St. Louis, Mo.,

December 29, 1921

Academy of St. Joseph
6400 Minnesota Av.

To Max Risch Dr.
Real Estate, Loans & Insurance
Rents Collected
6220 Michigan Ave.
Riverside 302W

Aug. 28 1 Holstein cow & calf $125.00
Nov. 23 1 Holstein cow 75.00
Total $200.00

Paid 1/13/22
Max Risch
Thank you


Handwritten document in Motherhouse file

Jewels from Jane, November 24

St. Louis Post-Dispatch November 24, 1929

WORLD CURIOS IN MUSEUM AT CARONDELET CONVENT
Eagle, Stuffed and Mounted, Which Survived 36 Civil War Engagements, Is Chief Attraction

"'Old Abe,' who went through 36 engagements in the Civil War unscathed as mascot of the Eighteenth Wisconsin Infantry, perches today, stuffed and mounted, near the ceiling in a museum in the convent of the Sisters of St. Joseph, 6400 Minnesota Avenue.

"'Old Abe' was a golden eagle, and is now the principal exhibit in the unusual collection of bird life which is the feature of a collection of curios gathered from all parts of the world by the Sisters of St. Joseph since the founding of the convent in Carondelet 88 years ago.

"The story of the founding of the museum has been forgotten, according to Sister Lucida [Savage], who is now in charge of the exhibits. Soon after the original convent was built in 1841--at that time it was a one-room [two-room] log cabin--a small bunch of wool, sheared from a lamb near Jerusalem, was received from a man visiting the Holy Land, and since that time the collection, entirely gathered by the nuns, has increased until an extra room soon will be needed to hold all the exhibits.

"Besides the collection of bird life, the museum contains a collection of wood specimens and marbles, two large cases filled with specimens of Indian basket weaving, and exhibit of corals and semi-precious stones, a stamp collection, relics from the Holy Land and oddities from various parts of the world.

"One of the most interesting exhibits is a three-foot lattice-work cross, made entirely of pieces of cigar boxes, which was made by a convict during his two-year incarceration in Joliet, Ill. Prison.

"Another featured curio is a 200-year-old altar-bread iron, reputed to have belonged originally to a family by the name of Wilhelm, which for many generations supplied altar bread in the diocese of Speyer, Germany. It is said that in the sacking of the town by French soldiers in 1792, when thye attempted to take the iron, its metal claws caught in the crevices of the wall and resisted all attempts to pull it loose.

"Another interesting wood specimen is 10-inch oak cross, a copy of the famous Muiredach Cross, the original of which is in Monasterboice, Ireland.

"Most forest trees of North America are represented in the wood collection. Bits of their bark surround a small piece of wood from the chapel built by Pierre Marquette at St. Ignace in 1671. Other odd bits include a splinter from one of the beams which supported one of the guns at the old Spanish fort in New Orleans; a wooden pin seven inches long and one inch in diameter which was used in place of a spike in the building of a frame house in Ste. Genevieve, Mo., about 1820, and a piece of bark from a coffee tree planted by Thomas Jefferson on the grounds at Mount Vernon.

"Among the marbles is a small [?] on a base of unpolished quartz.

"A copy of Raphael's 'Madonna of the Fish,' carved on a small piece of hardwood, is a featured curio. Every feature of the painting is perfectly reproduced in the carving. It was given to the Sisters by the Marchesa Ferrari."


The Museum was located on the third floor of the 1891 classroom building - West wing, Minnesota Ave.
Note picture attachments.
Also attached is a more detailed description of the Museum.

Jewels from Jane, Nov. 21

Office of Gillick Bros. Bricklayers, Builders and Brick Manufacturers, 321 West Stein Street St. Louis
Nov 21, 1896

To Sisters of St. Joseph

We propose to furnish all material and labor necessary to build a chimney sixty feet high, 13" x 13" on inside and 3'3" x 3'3" on outside lined with fire brick twenty five feet high with proper foundation for the sum of two hundred and ninety two ($292.00) dollars and if lined with fire brick to top add thirty two ($32.00) dollars, this bid includes the iron pipe connections between kiln and stack also clean out door.

Respect
Gillick Bros.

P.S. This bid includes painting

[Just something fun from the Motherhouse file.]

Jewels from Jane, Oct. 24

St. Joseph's Mother House
6400 Minnesota Avenue
St. Louis, Mo.

Mark 50th Anniversary of Laying of St. Joseph's Chapel Cornerstone; Bishop of Marquette Pontificates

"The Most Rev. Thomas L. Noa, Bishop of the Marquette (Mich.) Diocese, pontificated at Mass on Wednesday morning, October 15, at the St. Joseph Mother House, 6400 Minnesota Avenue. The date marked the 50th anniversary of the laying of the cornerstone of the present chapel and the 297th aniversary of the founding of the Congregation of St. Joseph in Le Puy, Velay, France. He was assisted at Mass by the Rev. Leo Ohleyer, O.F.M., chaplain.

"Among the members of the Mother House community with whom the Bishop visited are two postulants who left his See city for St. Louis a few weeks before he was installed on September 24: Mary Jean Desrochers [S. Mary Baraga] and Elizabeth O'Donnell. The Bishop on the day following his visit to St. Joseph's Mother House was present at the consecration ceremonies in Belleville, Ill., for the Most Rev. Joseph M. Mueller, who succeeds Bishop Noa as Coadjutor Bishop of the Sioux City Diocese.

"The Sisters of St. Joseph teach in the grade and high schools of the Cathedral of Marquette, having been invited there by the saintly Bishop Baraga. They also are in charge of schools in Negaunee, Ishpeming, Kingsford, L'Anse, and Hancock, Mich., and conduct a hospital in Hancock."

Reprinted from THE CATHOLIC HERALD October 24, 1947

The cornerstone was laid in 1897. The building was finished in 1899.

Jewels from Jane, Oct. 13

Mother St. John Facemaz died at seven p.m. on the thirteenth day of October, 1900 at our Mother House, Carondelet, in the seventy-fifth year of her age and the fifty-sixth of her religious life.

Born of, and brought up by pious and thoroughly Christian parents, her whole life was stamped with that strong and enlightened faith which is the heritage of the Saints. From her earliest years her aspirations were for the religious life. To the ordinary sacrifices made by a religious on quitting the world, in order to become the Spouse of Jesus Christ, Mother St. John felt called to add another, perhaps even greater - that of leaving the cradle of her religious life in France and placing the great ocean between herself and those near and dear to her, in obedience to a strong attraction she had for a missionary life.

This, she hoped might be realized, when in 1818, shortly after her profession, the first colony of Sisters of St. Joseph set out from Annecy to Visagapatan in the East Indies. Most fervent prayers were offered for the accomplishment of God's will in this respect. The realization of this her most ardent desire, seemed almost within her grasp, when in 1854, Mother St. John Croissat, then Superioress General of the Congregation of Chambery, resigned her charge to follow the urgent appeal coming from Visagapatan in India. Those sent in 1848 failed to reach there, having been prevailed upon by the French settlements in another province of that vast empire, to remain among them. The Community was looking for recruits and our dear Mother St. John had strong hopes of being one of the chosen companions of this devoted religious. The Lord, however, had other plans in her regard, for toward the end of the year 1854, she, with three other sisters was sent to the aid of the American missions which were then multiplying in all directions.

A few months after her arrival she was chosen to fill the office of Mistress of novices at the Mother house, and on the death of our dear and much-lamented Mother Celestine, Mother St. John was appointed to succeed her.

For fifteen years, during which our dear Mother guarded with zealous care the cherished interests and devotedly guided the destinies of St. Joseph's children, the Congregation of Carondelet had abundant opportunities to be edified by her many virtues, especially by her devotedness, her spirit of obedience, prayer and her zeal for religious discipline. More edifying still, was the touching example of her humility, obedience, charity, and her reverence for Superiors, after she had laid down the burden of authority and retired to the rank of a simple religious.

It pleased our Lord to employ Mother St. John as His faithful instrument to push forward and to see realized the long-formed and ardently-desired project of obtaining the approbation of St. Joseph's Institute and Constitutions from the Holy See. Three times she journeyed to Rome for this object; the last time, when she went as companion with Reverend Mother [Agatha Guthrie], she saw all past efforts crowned with final success.

God alone, the recompence of all sacrifices, and the generous rewarder of every good deed, will know how to repay her faithful labors in behalf of the Congregation, which owes her an eternal debt of gratitude.

As gold is refined in the fire so was our dear Mother tried and purified in the crucible of suffering, especially during the last five years of her life, all of which she bore with admirable patience, humility and fortitude.

Fortified by the last sacraments, and repeatedly favored with the blessings of Holy Church, she sweetly passed to her reward.

from the Necrology

Attached you will find a prayer service which may be used to celebrate Mother St. John's death anniversary. It was written by Carol Campbell, CSJA, a member of the Celebrating Our Heritage Committee.

Jewels from Jane, May 31

"The Sisters of St. Joseph had at their Mother House in Carondelet a Novitiate of their Order, an Academy with 130 pupils, an Asylum for the Deaf and Dumb and an Orphan Asylum containing twenty-eight orphans. Sister Celestine was in charge as Superior with seven professed Nuns. In St. Louis they conducted a day-school near St. Vincent's Church with three Sisters and two novices, and one hundred and twenty pupils.

"Another House of the Community in St. Louis had under its direction the diocesan Orphan Home for boys of whom there were one hundred and twenty. Sister Felicite [Boute] with five professed Sisters formed the community:

In 1849 the Sisters stationed at St. Vincent's Convent, having closed their school, "fearlessly gave themselves to the relief of the sick and dying neighbors."[during the cholera epidemic] Two of their number, Sisters Frances Nally and Justine Mulhall, were seized with the dread symptoms of cholera. Sister Justine was but eighteen years of age "a young woman of rare innocence, and extraordiary personal beauty," in the agony of dying had but one wish, that of renewing her vows on the morning of the Visitation [May 31]. Archbishop Kenrick remained at her bedside until after midnight that her dying wish might be fulfilled. On July 28th, 1849, the Archbishop wrote to his friend Mark Anthony Frenaye in Philadelphia:...Eleven religious women are among the victims, two of the Sisters of Charity, two of the Sisters of St. Joseph, one of the Visitation and six of the Sacred Heart.

"...There is another Sister of St. Joseph mentioned in the Catholic Directory of 1850, as having died of the cholera at St. Joseph's Orphanage, Sister M. Antionette Kincaid."

from History of the Archdiocese of St. Louis by Rev. John Rothensteiner c1928