Jewels from Jane, January 7, 1867

Kanzas City, Mo Jan. 7th, 1867

Mother Agatha [Guthrie],

Madame,

I presume Mother Francis [Joseph Ivory] told you all about our educational prospects in Kanzas City, especially about our Grand Festival by which, I think, 1,500 dollars will be realised. The only partial difficulty on the part of the people, that I dread, will arise on account of the rigid enforcement of a Rule excluding boys of twelve years and upwards from the boys school. I apprehend this difficulty for the following reasons. The members of my congregation have contributed some $15,000 to the convent building with the hope that their children would there find a catholic education. The Sisters have now about 150 parochial children at one dollar per month some 75 are boys, eight of whom are aged from 12 to 14 years. Now, Mother Francis informs me that all the boys from 12 upwards must be dismissed. That is, dismissed already out of the building which their liberality has just completed, and for no other cause but for the misfortune of being 12 years of age. Mother Francis gives me as a reason, that they apprehend trouble in governing or correcting these larger boys. The sisters inform me that these very boys have given no trouble yet, on the contrary, that they are quiet innocent children. So say the Sisters. My own experience enables me to say that I found boys of 14 less troublesome by far than boys of 8 or 10 years of age. What makes the matter worse for us just now is the fact that we have neither teacher nor schoolhouse for these boys. I had, until lately a catholic teacher but the high rent of schoolhouse and difficult times caused him to discontinue. I have now no other chance for them but the convent school if they be excluded from that, then they will run wild about the streets, -- it will be impossible to get them to church on Sundays or to attend at catechism etc. This I am very sure will be the consequence. The parents will express their indignation in the presence of the children, everyone will say that they have been disappointed etc. etc.

I felt so trouble-minded over the announcement that I concluded to address you, -- requesting you to authorise the Mother here to suspend this Rule, for a time at least, and give me the time of next Summer to provide for the larger boys. If this request be not granted, then, I fear, my hopes regarding the first communion and other religious practices of these children will be sadly disappointed.

Please send me a reply as soon as possible. -- I have begged the sisters not to dismiss anymore until I will have heard from you.

Most respectfully yours etc.,

Bernard Donnelly

Parish children were taught at St. Teresa's Academy at this time.

It was written in the Custom book of this time that the Sisters were not allowed to teach older boys.

Mother Agatha Guthrie was assistant to Mother St. John Facemaz.

Jane Behlmann, csj
Province Archivist
Sisters of St. Joseph of Carondelet
6400 Minnesota Avenue
St. Louis, Missouri 63111-2899
Phone: 314-678-0320
FAX: 314-481-2366
email: jbehlmann@csjsl.org

Jewels from Jane, Dec. 8

"On December 8, 1854, the first foundation of the Congregation of Saint Joseph in New York State was made at Canandaigua, sometimes called 'Sleeping Beauty.' In response to an appeal made by the Right Reverend John Timon, Bishop of the newly erected See of Buffalo, a band of four Sisters--Mother Agnes Spencer, Sister Frances Joseph Ivory, Sister Petronella Roscoe and Sister Theodosia Hageman--had been sent from Carondelet to make this new establishment. Early in January, 1855, the Sisters opened an academy and free school and took charge of the orphans. A novitiate was established and postulants were received into the community. The ceremony of profession took place in Saint Mary's Church until 1858.

"In 1857, Bishop Timon asked the community to open an institution for deaf-mutes in Buffalo, N.Y. Three Sisters who had studied, in France, the most recent methods for this work, were sent from Carondelet. In 1865, the Sisters addressed a petition to the New York Legislature, asking that the Le Couteulx Institute might be included among those to which the State annually made appropriation for the education of the deaf and dumb. A bill to that effect was passed on April 28, 1875. The foundation in Buffalo was under the care of the motherhouse in Canandaigua until 1861 when the administration was transferred to Buffalo, N.Y.

"In 1864, a band of Sisters opened an orphanage in Rochester, N.Y., primarily to care for those children who had lost their fathers in the Civil War. In 1868 the Buffalo diocese was divided. The new Diocese of Rochester was erected under its first bishop, Right Reverend Bernard J. McQuaid, and the affiliation of the Sisters with Buffalo was dissolved. The new bishop selected the community as the teaching congregation of his diocese and established their motherhouse at Rochester."

From Mother Saint John Fontbonne: A Biography translation adapted from the original French edition by a Sister of Saint Joseph Brentwood, New York

Picture of Mother Agnes Spencer attached

Jane Behlmann, csj
Province Archivist
Sisters of St. Joseph of Carondelet
6400 Minnesota Avenue
St. Louis, Missouri 63111-2899
Phone: 314-678-0320
FAX: 314-481-2366
email: jbehlmann@csjsl.org