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The Early Work of the Lorettines in Southeastern Kansas

by Sister M. Lilliana Owens, S.L.

August 1947 (Vol. 14 No. 3), pages 263 to 276.
Transcribed by lhn;
digitized with permission of the Kansas Historical Society.

ST. PAUL, formerly old Osage Mission, is one of the most interesting spots in Kansas. [1] It is snugly tucked away in the midst of hills and valleys and the church with the adjoining monastery and school make one feel as if a bit of France had been translated in Kansas soil. The monastery belongs to the Passionist Fathers and is of recent date, but the magnificent Church of St. Francis de Hieronymo was built by the Jesuit Fathers.

Bishop Louis Du Bourg had but recently established his residence in St. Louis when he received the request from the Osages for missionaries. [2] As the matter was a serious one, the Osages had thought it better to hear the opinion of the people before taking any definite step. For this reason the chief of the Great Osages and the chief of the Little Osages met with their counsellors. The braves and the principal warriors, having discussed the matter for some time, unanimously decided to send a delegation to the bishop to request him to come to visit the villages and give them some priests to instruct their people, but above all to care for their children.

The delegation went, and being kindly received, they took courage and spoke out their minds freely, begging the bishop to send missionaries who would stay with them. They declared they would follow their advice and that they would become good Christians. Bishop Du Bourg was surprised by the earnestness with which they represented their condition. He formed a very favorable opinion of them and promised to comply with their wishes as soon as circumstances would allow him to do so.

Bishop Du Bourg applied to Father Kohlmann, S. J., then provincial of the Maryland province, Society of Jesus, for missionaries. Father Kohlmann was not, at the time, in a position to grant the request.

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Early in 1823 the bishop was in Washington and consulted government officials including the secretary of war, John C. Calhoun, on the subject of the education of the Indian children within his diocese. During this interview Mr. Calhoun suggested that they invite the Jesuit Fathers of Georgetown to furnish members of their society to assist in this work. Bishop Du Bourg then consulted the Rev. Charles Neale, S. J., who had in the meantime succeeded Father Kohlmann as provincial of the Maryland province. Father Neale accepted the offer.

About two years earlier Father Charles Nerinckx was in Europe and returned in September, 1821, accompanied by a colony of young Belgians who had come to America with the intention of devoting their lives to the missions. Among this group were Pierre Jean De Smet, later to become the "Grand Old Father of the Missions," Felix Verreydt and J. A. Elet. Six of this little band entered the Jesuit novitiate at White Marsh, Md., October 6, 1821. The Rev. Charles Van Quickenborne, a Belgian priest, who had come to the United States with the idea of becoming a missionary among the Indians, was master of novices at White Marsh. Both he and the provincial, Father Neale, saw the unsuitable conditions at White Marsh and decided to transfer the novitiate to St. Thomas manor in St. Charles county, Maryland.

Again Bishop Du Bourg appealed to the Jesuits for help in the Western missions. Father Van Quickenborne recognized this as an opportunity, and urging the acceptance of the offer, volunteered to go. The six young Belgian novices asked to accompany him. Their destination was Florissant, Mo., where they arrived on June 3, 1823, and where they established St. Stanislaus Seminary, the headquarters of the Jesuits in the West. In the meantime Bishop Du Bourg had appointed the Rev. Charles De La Croix, the chaplain of the Religious of the Sacred Heart at Florissant, to visit the Osages in western Missouri and what is now eastern Kansas.

Father De La Croix, a Belgian by birth, was the first missionary of record to visit the Osages in what is now Kansas. He was a secular priest who had been ordained at Ghent by Bishop Du Bourg, of St. Louis, and had sailed for America with the bishop. His first charge was the missionary work at Barrens, Perry county, Missouri. In December, 1818, he was assigned to Florissant. While at Florissant he made his trips to the Osages on the Neosho river. The first Christian baptism of which there is a record in the present state of Kansas was performed by him. The children were James

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and Francis Chouteau. [3] He was preparing to build a chapel among the Osages when his health failed him and he was obliged to return to Missouri. [4]

The Rev. Charles Van Quickenborne, S.J. [5] was the successor of Father De La Croix among the Osages. His first visit was made in 1827. Many of the Osages had known him in eastern Missouri before they had moved west and they gave him a warm welcome. He made other trips to the mission in 1829, 1830 and 1834. From a letter written by Father De Smet in 1857, we learn that he built a house and a chapel among the Kickapoos in 1836. It was he who pointed out the way for the establishment of the St. Francis Institute, the school established in Kansas by the Jesuits, and for the schools founded by the Sisters of Loretto and by the Religious of the Sacred Heart.

Father Van Quickenborne died in 1837. Father H. G. Aelen [sic], S. J., [6] succeeded Father Van Quickenborne and he in turn was succeeded by Father Felix L. Verreydt, S. J.

From the time the Pottawatomies succeeded in getting a Catholic mission, the Osages wanted a similar one for the education of their children. At last receiving encouragement and assistance from several members of the American Fur Company in 1846, they sent a petition to President Polk. When the president failed to grant all their demands, the matter was referred to the commissioner of Indian affairs, who requested the Most Rev. Peter Richard Kenrick, archbishop of St. Louis, to provide for them. Archbishop Kenrick offered the new mission to the Rev. James Van de Velde, S. J., at that time the vice-provincial of the Society of Jesus. He placed the mission under the protection of St. Francis de Hieronymo and appointed Father John Schoenmakers, S. J., as its first superior. As Father Verreydt was well acquainted with the Osages, the provincial sent him to select a suitable place for the mission. [7] The choice of

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Father Verreydt fell upon the spot where St. Paul, Kan., is now situated. Here the Indian department placed two log houses at the disposal of the missionaries. [8] As soon as he received his appointment to this Indian mission, Father Schoenmakers lost no time in useless preparation. His first move was to visit the Indians at Osage Mission in the autumn of 1846, and in April, 1847, he established his permanent home there among the Osages. With the Rev. John Bax, S. J., as his assistant and three Jesuit brothers to aid him in his labors, he ascended the Missouri river as far as Westport Landing, [9] which then consisted of two or three little shanties along the river bank. From here they took a southwestern course, traveling by ox-team. [10] After several days of travel they at last reached the little mission, which was located "near to and on the east side of the Big Neosho, and immediately west of Rock creek." [11]

Father John Schoenmakers and his comrades took up their residence in the two cabins. They knew the importance of educating the Osages not only in religion and literature, but in manual training as well, and by May 10, 1847, the Osage Manual Labor School was in readiness. This first day there were only three half-breeds in attendance. By the end of the month there was an enrollment of fourteen Osage boys. [12] This increased to forty by September 1, 1848. [13] The branches taught were spelling, reading, arithmetic, singing, Christian morality, agriculture and domestic economy. [14]

Father Schoenmakers soon realized that the work would be incomplete without a girls' school. As soon as conditions permitted he confided the care of the mission to Father Bax, and set out for St. Louis to seek the services of one or the other of the communities of sisters living in that city. None felt, however, that they were in a position to undertake this work. The prairie priest was almost ready to admit that he was beaten in his first venture. Then he remembered that in the early years of Catholicity in Kentucky, when

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that state was as yet quite distinctly frontier in character, the Rev. Charles Nerinckx had established an order of sisters called the Friends of Mary at the Foot of the Cross who were accustomed to the struggles of pioneer life. Roughly clad, and in appearance no more than a weather-beaten farmer from the plains of Kansas, Father Schoenmakers made his way to the mother house of this community at Loretto, Ky. He pleaded with the ecclesiastical superior, the Rev. David Deparcq, for sisters to teach the Indian girls as he and his brother Jesuits were instructing the boys.

The tired and discouraged priest frankly told the sisters that living conditions at Osage Mission were nothing like the comforts of their peaceful mother house. He painted for them the beauty of the Kansas sunsets and the prairies, but he also felt compelled to tell them of the suffering they might have to endure from the droughts in the summer and the cold in the winter. He told them of the difficulties to be encountered on the way, feeling sure that when they heard of the many trials that would be in store for them few of the community would care to volunteer. But the spirit of the Maryland foundress was as vigorous in the Lorettines at this time as it had been in 1812 and they answered heroically. That very day several offered to start at any time. Father Deparcq praised them for their zeal and appointed four to take care of this mission-Mother Concordia Henning, superior, Sister Bridget Hayden, later known as Mother Bridget, Sister Mary Petronilla van Prater and Sister Vincentia Van Coal.

They left the mother house in September, 1847, [15] and under the charge of Father Schoenmakers went on to St. Louis. Here they remained a few weeks to prepare for their journey. They embarked on the steamer J. J. Harden on September 20, 1847. After many delays on the sandbars of the Missouri, they reached Westport, the western end of civilization. Here the sisters found great kindness and hospitality at the home of Mrs. Francis G. Chouteau.

That their journey through the vast and largely uninhabited Kansas prairies might be less tedious to the sisters, Father Schoenmakers provided them with a comfortable lumber wagon [16] and placed them under the care of a Mr. Jarboe, a Kansas City merchant. [17] For eight days they endured the slow-moving oxen, the monotonous plains and the camping out every night. On the tenth of October,

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just a month from the time they left Loretto, they reached the mission.

All that was known by those at the mission concerning Father Schoenmakers and his party was that they would reach their destination some time during the fall of that year. Father Bax, [18] did not like the idea of being taken by surprise. To prevent this he had posted several Indian boys on the look out. On the morning of October 10 the boys discovered smoke on the hill about five miles north of the mission where the old Kansas City road used to cross Flat Rock creek. After studying it very carefully they concluded that the long expected party was approaching. In less than an hour they were confirmed in their opinion when they discovered at a distance the white tops of the prairie schooners slowly advancing toward them.

Father Bax, accompanied by a dozen little boys all dressed in their Sunday clothes, went out to welcome the party. As they reached the first wagon the boys rushed at it, anxious to get a glimpse of Father Schoenmakers. The missionary, pleased by this manifestation of affection from his Osage children, caressed the smaller children and after thanking them for coming to see him, added: "Now boys, go to see the Sisters who are coming in the wagon and try to behave nicely." They all bowed respectfully to the sisters, who wondered at the sight of so many polite little Indian boys. The sisters were then taken to their new convent, which was made of hewn logs, two stories in height. They at once became the object of curiosity to the inquisitive Indians who had never before seen an attire like theirs. The beautiful red hearts which the sisters wore at this time as a part of their habit no doubt attracted the notice of the savages. [19] They would come every little while to stare through the numerous crevices with which the poorly constructed houses abounded.

The sisters had been in their new home but two hours when four little girls were brought to Father Bax to be their first boarders. [20] Of these, one was a full-blood Osage and three were half-breeds.

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The boarding school was opened with these four boarders on October 10, 1847. In spite of a manifest willingness on the part of the Indians, they were not so amenable to Catholic teachings. In a letter written to Father De Smet by Father Bax we learn something of the trials through which the sisters had to pass: Their sufferings, their trials, and their privations were very great. They were obliged to sleep in the open air. That did not hinder two other Sisters from coming to join them a little after in their heroic enterprise. Their patience, their kindness, their courage, and their perseverance have gained the esteem, affection, and love of every one. They are succeeding: they have already produced a considerable change, and are doing great good. The talents displayed in the direction of their school, and the rapid progress of the children are admired by all the strangers who visit this community. [21]

It was the wish of the Indian department that the school be a manual labor school and accordingly special hours were set apart for manual training as well as for literary studies. The girls were taught to cook, wash, iron, bake, sew, knit and the like, and their industry soon provided trousers, vests and garments for the boys to replace the ragged blankets which were their only attire. They considered it a great privilege to work for the altar and make laces, albs and vestments. Later on when the churches were built in the neighboring villages the girls took great delight in furnishing articles for them.

The Indian children were not used to confinement and for this reason the missionary priests had to give their charges many free days. Not only were the parents of the children surprised at the success of the missionaries, but the United States agents and commissioners who visited the school at regular intervals wondered at the readiness of those children in answering the questions put to them either in grammar, arithmetic or geography. [22] What they most admired was their love for the school and for the teachers-school spirit we would call it today. The literary compositions and needlework done by these children attracted much attention.

Mother Concordia Henning, the first superior,[23] spent the greater part of her life sacrificing for the Indians. Many Indian papooses were bought by her for a few yards of calico and baptized in their last moments. She was born with the nineteenth century, received the religious habit in 1826, and died on August 5, 1899, being then

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in her hundredth year. War excitement, failure and success all combined to make her life at the mission an interesting one. Drought, grasshoppers, disease and many other afflictions had to be overcome. Sometimes it was an epidemic like black measles. In 1852 a traveling Indian stopped for the night at the mission. He was infected with this dread disease and communicated it to the boys at St. Francis Institute. Soon it spread to the girls' division. More than half the girls became ill. As soon as the Osages heard of it they ran to the convent, wailing and accusing the sisters of having neglected the children. Many of them snatched their sick children from their beds and rushed with them to Flat Rock creek where they bathed them. In consequence some of them died. This caused the excitement of the Indians to become greater and it reached such a pitch that they threatened to kill the sisters and the priests and set fire to the mission. Father Schoenmakers had some brothers watching constantly. But soon the Indians noticed that the children whom they had left with the sisters had recovered, whereas many of those they had removed had died. Their confidence in the sisters gradually returned and they brought back the children. By May 1 order was again restored and work was resumed. [24]

As soon as the ravages of the epidemic disappeared the mission school again began to prosper. The season of 1853 was favorable and soon the financial condition of the manual labor school was reassured. More pupils were enrolled and several buildings were added.

Two years before the measles epidemic, the Quapaw Indians had applied for permission to send their children to the school. Limited quarters and low resources caused Father Schoenmakers to refuse permission at first, but when they again petitioned him he told them he would not act until they had obtained the consent of the Osages. The Osages were willing that the permission be given. Father Schoenmakers then took up the matter with the commissioner of Indian affairs on May 20, 1853. [25] In the report sent by Father Schoenmakers on September 1, 1853, to Maj. A. J. Dorn, Neosho Indian agent, we read that the United States government did transfer the Quapaw school to the Osage Manual Labor School with good results. [26] In a later report, September 1, 1854, Father Schoenmakers expressed his regret that "the Quapaw parents do occasionally call

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their children home, without sending them back to school at the stipulated time; these have not made such advances as might be rightfully expected, if they had regularly attended school. . . ." [27] In the annual report of August 25, 1857, from Father Schoenmakers to Major Dorn we find an interesting list of the names of the female Osage and Quapaw children in attendance at Osage Mission Manual Labor School at this time. [28]

The discipline at the Osage Mission school was often a problem. To give a correction meant trouble. One day Sister Mary Bridget Hayden was trying to conquer an Indian girl, when the father of the child appeared. The child was glad to see her father at that moment, feeling it meant triumph for her, but when she saw him take out his tomahawk to use it on the Lorettine she was frightened and begged him not to hurt her loved teacher. The child explained that she had misbehaved and that the sister was trying to correct her for her misdemeanor. The Indian replaced his tomahawk, assuring the sister that he would never hurt her for trying to make a good girl of his child. [29]

Sister Mary Bridget succeeded Mother Concordia Henning as superior of the mission in 1859. She was Margaret Hayden, the third daughter of Thomas and Bridget Hart Hayden. She was born in Kilkenny, Ireland, on August 26, 1814. Her first mission was at Ste. Genevieve, Mo., and later she was missioned at Loretto, Ky., where she was stationed in 1847 before going to the Kansas mission.

The first two years of her superiorship passed off in a quiet way, but in 1861 she found herself and her community in a very dangerous position on account of the Civil War. The mission stood exactly on the line dividing the two belligerents. The nearest town to which they might have applied for aid was 40 miles distant. Guerrilla parties passed almost daily in front of the mission and frequently called on the sisters either for food or medicine. At times, made bold by the mission's unprotected position, they were rough, insulting and threatening.

The Osage Manual Labor School, insofar as the Osages were concerned, began to decline with the opening of the Civil War. Major Dorn, the former United States agent among the Osages, and a friend of Father Schoenmakers, was a Southern man and tried to persuade the Osages to join the Southern armies. Father Schoenmakers was intensely loyal to the Union and tried to hold the

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Osages for the North or at least to have them remain neutral. Many of the Osage warriors who lived near the mission and who came under its influence enlisted in the Union army. Those of the Black Dog band that went south lived on the Verdigris and farther West. [30]

One day a messenger brought word that soldiers were on their way to burn the mission and kill Father Schoenmakers. [31] The priests and sisters went to the church to pray for protection. A heavy rain came which continued through the night, allowing Father Schoenmakers time to make his escape as far as Humboldt, Kan. Many of the church articles had been removed to St. Mary's, Kansas-for safe-keeping. The Religious of the Sacred Heart had invited the sisters to live with them until the trouble abated; but they preferred not to abandon their Indian children. When the rain ceased another company of soldiers came to rob the mission. After they had looked around one of the men said: "Oh, come away, there is nothing here but poverty." The parting gift of the soldiers was smallpox. Among the girls 39 were down at one time. Notwithstanding the long hours the sisters spent nursing these stricken children, they were never infected. [32] Many of the Osages who farmed near the mission, seeing that the troops respected no property, packed up and went farther west, leaving the sisters and the priests to their fate. Twice one party attacked the other on the sisters' premises. Although all the Indian missions existing between Osage Mission and Texas were destroyed Father Schoenmakers' village was spared.

By the treaty which the Osages made with the government in 1865 they gave up a large portion of their lands in Kansas and agreed to move to a new reservation in the Indian territory, now Oklahoma. At that time most of the Indians withdrew their children from the manual labor school. The priests and sisters were not allowed to follow the Osages, and the school came to an end.

For 22 years they had lived in poor but comfortable log houses, to which Father Schoenmakers had kept adding as the years went on. The first building of any pretensions was erected in 1869. It was a two-story frame building known as St. Francis' hall. The lower story was used for a library and reading room. The second

Catholic mission

Catholic Mission in 1865, from a sketch made from memory by
Charles Beechwood, from a white pupil at the school

St Francis parish

St. Francis Parish at Osage Mission (now St. Paul) fifty years ago

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story was used as an assembly hall. In later years this building became a parish school for girls who were not financially able to attend the academy. After St. Francis Institute, locally known as the college, was suspended, it was used as a local school for boys. Today it forms a part of the barn which houses the cattle on the Passionist Monastery farm. [33] Later, as the country became settled, Father Schoenmakers built a stone house 75 by 50 feet and three stories in height. In 1870 he deeded this to the Sisters of Loretto, together with 100 acres of land and the animals and implements necessary to run a large farm. [34]

In 1871 the stone building which was to be used as the home of the Jesuit Fathers was begun. It was four stories high, built of gray sandstone and for many years was considered the finest building in southeastern Kansas. The fourth floor of this building was used as a dormitory. The stone college building was begun in 1872 and opened in 1873. In this building were the classrooms of the St. Francis Institute. After the institution was closed in 1891 the building remained vacant until the burning of St. Ann's Academy in 1895, when it became the temporary convent for the Sisters of Loretto. Later it became the parochial school for boys and girls and served this purpose until it was destroyed by fire in 1922.

On August 17, 1870, the Sisters of Loretto organized to incorporate their institution as St. Ann's Academy. [35]

The Rev. James H. Defourq has this to say of the work that was done in the Catholic manual labor schools in Kansas:

In September 1855 Right Reverend Bishop Miege took to himself Father Hieman, [36] who had now been for six years at the Mission. During this time he bad so well organized the schools that the children were the delight of all who saw them. Their modesty and good behavior, along with their progress was remarkable. Twice a year they gave public exhibitions, that were well attended by all the Indians and Whites. . . [37]

Arthur Thomas Donohue says:

The schools at the Osage Mission were well established and prosperous in the year of 1854. The Indian girls took peculiar delight in all kinds of needlework, drawing and fancy work. They were more industrious than the boys,

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and always manifested a willingness to do any kind of work required by their teachers.

After the Indian girls had remained two years at school, their manners had improved greatly. They were more amiable, paternal love and affection had increased. But while the parents and relatives took pride in the acquirements of these children, they often withdrew them from the school to use them as interpreters, to glory in their improvements, or to receive imaginary services from them. During a few days absence from school they would grow indolent, and some would resume their original mulish dispositions. Their pride being increased by the flattery of relatives, they would return, disobedient to parents and teachers, and would abandon school before having obtained an education. . . [38]

Of the work of Mother Bridget, Father Ponziglione wrote to John R. Brunt:

Your favor of the 25th inst. came at hand this morning, all that I can say in reply is that I first got acquainted with Mother Bridget in the summer of 1851, when I reached Osage Mission, and since that day I saw in her but the same enterprising, intelligent and devout lady she proved herself to be all her lifetime. The good Mother had an untold amount of labor and suffering, which she might of well avoided, but she taxed herself willingly with them for the sake of the poor Indian girls entrusted to her care. She did at all times show herself a mother to them, and indeed a most affectionate one. All her energy was devoted to remove from them their evil and wild habits, and remold, as it were, their hearts, excite in them most pure and noble inspirations, in a word trying to inspire in them a part of that great love of God of which her own heart was full, and praise be to truth, surely she was a great part. I say a great part, for it is not preferable in speaking of the education of wild children, one may change or better the nature of all those who are brought to be educated, but in spite of all this she always had a powerful influence over them all, even the most wild, whom if she could not correct, at least she kept from becoming worse. The knowledge and culture which through her indefatigable care was imparted to the Indian girls she did raise is now producing its fruits in the intelligence, good manners, cleanliness, and good religious spirit, which this very day can be noticed in the many Osage half-breed ladies living on the different nice settlements this nation has formed in the Indian Territory. The ladylike behavior which those, once her pupils, do show at present prove to evidence that her labors were not lost.

To what concerns her enterprising spirit, I do not need to say any thing, the nice buildings, and the elegant grounds that surround St. Ann's Academy speak for themselves, and are a living monument of the great genius she had, and show how able she was for the charge of Superior she held for so many years over her flourishing Convent. She has now gone. May her beautiful soul rest in peace. Her remains shall moulder in the Convent's cemetery, but her memory-O, this shall last for many years to come, and her name shall be a home name to a great many not only in Neosho County, but way yonder in the Indian territory, and from both places for many years loving lips shall

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pronounce her name with gratitude, and devout hearts will offer up fervent prayers for her soul. [39]

Noble L. Prentis visited Osage Mission in 1870. When Mother Bridget died in 1890 he recalled this visit and paid the following tribute to the co-worker of Father Schoenmakers and Father Ponziglione:

She was a woman of commanding look, and spoke in a firm, resolute but quiet way, as one should, accustomed to impress herself on human creatures brought to her as wild as any bird or beast in all their native prairies; this she had done and more-she had gained their affections. The conversation which she held at once took a religious turn, and the listener would be very ungrateful if he did not remember that Mother Bridget, as well she might from the privilege of her years, spoke to him like a mother indeed, not of churches and creeds, but of the necessity of personal righteousness. [40]

It is interesting to note the pleasant relations that existed between the Sisters of Loretto and the Fathers of the Society of Jesus. The baking for both establishments was cared for by the sisters. [41] Four times a year the fathers went in a caravan to St. Louis for provisions and dry goods. In 1888 the Jesuits received word to concentrate their forces, but the final arrangements to withdraw were not made until August 14, 1892. On this date Osage Mission was turned over to the care of the Right Rev. Bishop Fink of Leavenworth, who placed two secular priests in charge. A few years later the mission again changed hands, when the sons of St. Paul of the Cross, the Passionists, established themselves there. The advance guard comprising Fathers Sebastian and Raymond took charge on February 11, 1894. A few months later the community was recruited by Father Boniface and *several other members of the Order.

In September, 1895, the school opened with what seemed to be the most promising prospects in its history. But on September 3 it caught fire, and in a few hours what had cost thousands of dollars and many years of labor and sacrifice was a mass of smoldering ruins with only $16,000 insurance to cover the loss. This was a staggering blow to the sisters and they did not feel able to rebuild the academy [42]

During the years the Lorettines labored in the mission, [43] seven-

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teen of their members died and were buried in a little cemetery back of the academy. The Passionist Fathers, who had come to St. Paul in 1894 [44] while the Sisters of Loretto were still there, felt that the graves of the sisters were deserving of more honor than could be shown them where they were resting. It was decided to obtain permission to disinter the bodies and to move them to a plot in the parish cemetery. [45] This was done in 1930. The remains were carefully dug up by the men of the parish, the identity of each was noted and the bones were placed in separate caskets. The first sister had been buried in 1867 and the last in 1895. Little remained of the bodies except the bones. The diggers found evidences of many habits with the red scapulars formerly worn by the Lorettines sewed on the front. In only one case was the habit in a condition to be taken up. This one exception was the body of Mother Bridget Hayden. The lower part of her casket remained and her body was in a remarkable state of preservation. The remains were taken to the basement chapel of the parish church and for two weeks the people came from miles around to view them. A plate of false teeth found in one of the graves was a curiosity, especially for the dentists, for it looked as though it had only recently been made. In one grave was found preserved the brains of a sister, darkened and shrunken but otherwise intact. Some of the skulls were whole while many were in pieces.

The first burial had been made from a hurriedly-built mission church. The second burial took place on September 15, 1930, from the structure that rears its steeple above the prairies, a living monument to these early Jesuit missionaries. The priests and people present were proud to take part in the event which they felt was a belated honor to the group of religious who had not only endeared themselves to the people of Kansas but had made Catholic History in the West.

Notes

SISTER M. LILLIANA OWENS, S. L., native of St. Paul, Kan., is on sabbatical leave from St. Mary's Academy at Denver. She has a Ph. D. degree from St. Louis University and has written several articles and books on phases of Catholic church and school history.

1. This article is based on ch. 6 of the unpublished doctoral dissertation, "The History of the Sisters of Loretto in the Trans-Mississippi West." All appendix references may be found in this manuscript which is also on microfilm at St. Louis University, St. Louis, Mo. Microfilm copies are available from University Microfilms, Ann Arbor, Mich.
2. See "Interesting Memoirs Collected From Legends, Traditions and Historical Documents." by the Rev. Paul M. Ponziglione, S. J., ch. 6, p. 62 et seq., in the archives of St. Louis University, St. Louis, Mo. (Hereinafter cited A. St. L. U.)
3. The first entry on the pages of the old register now in the archives of the Passionist Monastery at St. Paul, Kan. The old register is often consulted by Osages from Pawhuska, Okla., for one reason or another, often to establish the legitimacy of an Indian child whose inheritance to oil riches is being disputed.
4. W. W. Graves, Life and Letters of Fathers Ponziglione, Schoenmakers and Other Early Jesuits at Osage Mission (St. Paul, 1916), p. 142. (Hereinafter cited as Early Jesuits at Osage Mission.) See, also, Sister Mary Paul Fitzgerald, S. C. L., Beacon on the Plains (Leavenworth, 1939), pp. 31, 33, 39, main entry 241, 242.
5. Father Van Quickenborne was also the founder of St. Louis University, St. Louis, Mo. In 1824 he wrote to the father general about opening a college in St. Louis.-Cf. Annals of the Propagation of the Faith, v. 2, p. 401. The college was not actually started until the autumn of 1828.-Cf. Walter Hill, S. J., Historical Sketch of the St. Louis University, p. 39 et seq.
6. The records at Osage Mission give the name as Allen-but the Jesuit Fathers have no record of a Father Allen as a member of the community at this time.-See Graves, Early Jesuits at Osage Mission, p. 143; see, also, Fitzgerald, Beacon on the Plains, p. 61.
7. Cf. Father C. Hoecken, "Journal 1837-1847," entry dated September 16, 1844. This manuscript is in the archives of St. Mary's College, St. Marys, Kan.
8. Prior to 1845 no definite action was taken. On April 25, 1845, the sum of $3,456 was placed in the hands of Thomas H. Harvey, superintendent of Indian affairs, at St. Louis, to be used in the erection of two schools and the necessary outbuildings, one of the schools to be used for the Osage boys and one for the Osage Indian girls.-See Graves, Early Jesuits at Osage Mission, p. 143.
9. Now Kansas City, Mo.
10. "Necrologium," p. 57, A. St. L. U.
11. Report of the Commissioner of Indian Affairs, 1848, Letter No. 16-A, p. 547.
12. See "Account Book" of Osage Manual Labor School, in archives of the Passionist Monastery, St. Paul.
13. Report of the Commissioner of Indian Affairs, 1848, pp. 544-549. See, also, Owens, op. cit., documentary appendix, sec. IV, ch. 6.>
14. The numerous letters of Father Schoenmakers on file at the Indian bureau indicate that the missionary remained in close correspondence with the federal authorities during the years of this interesting venture. See appendix, Owens, ibid.
15. See Ponziglione, "Interesting Memoirs," bk. 2, ch. 12, p. 152 et seq. >
16. A lumber wagon was at this time a real luxury.
17. See Ponziglione, "Interesting Memoirs."
18. Father Bax was a real martyr of charity. After devoting himself to the nursing of the Osages, who were afflicted with the scurvy, he himself contracted it and died August 5, 1852, being but 35 years of age.-See "Western Mission Journal," No. 7, A. St. L. U.; see, also, Fitzgerald, Beacon on the Plains, pp. 17, 19, 77, 79, 84, 87-89, 128, 130, 141, 142, 151, 154.
19. In 1847 the Sisters of Loretto at the Foot of the Cross wore a black veil wired in the front with two red hearts embroidered, one on either side of the front of the black serge veil. This was discontinued when the new veil, the one worn at present, was adopted in 1909.
20. Paul M. Ponziglione, "The Osages and Father John Schoenmakers, S. J.," bk. 2, ch. 12; Ponziglione, "Interesting Memoirs."
21. The Rev. P. J. De Smet, Western Missions and Missionaries (New York, 1859), p. 360, Letter XXVIII.
22. Report of the Commissioner of Indian Affairs, 1850, pp. 35, 36, 1853, p. 381; see Owens, op. cit., appendix, sec. IV, ch. 6.
23. Graves, Early Jesuits at Osage Mission, pp. 273, 274.
24. See letter written by Father Ponziglione to Sister Coaina Mongrain, "Interesting Memoirs," bk. IV, 1852, A. St. L. U.
25. Report of the Commissioner of Indian Affairs, 1853, p. 378; W. W. Graves, Life and Letters of Rev. Father John Schoenmakers S. J. (Parsons, 1928), pp. 40, 41.
26. Report of the Commissioner of Indian Affairs, 1853, pp. 256, 378, 380.
27. Ibid., 1854, p. 333.
28. Ibid., 1857, p. 209; see, also, Owens, op. cit., appendix, see. IV, ch. 6.
29. See Anna C. Minogue, Loretto; Annals of the Century, pp. 132, 133.
30. This and other events affecting the school are told in the official report of w. G. Coffin, superintendent of Indian affairs, southern superintendency, October 15, 1862, in Report of the Commissioner of Indian Affairs, 1862, p. 137.
31. Ponaiglione, "Interesting Memoirs."
32. Account on file in the archives of the Loretto mother house. Hereinafter this will be cited A. L. M.
33. According to Graves, Early Jesuits at Osage Mission, p. 204, and the word of the parishioners who were living at the mission at this time this was the first public library established in Neosho county, and perhaps in southeastern Kansas.
34. See "Indenture" made on October 3, 1870, in appendix, see. IV, ch. 6, Owens, op. cit.
35. State of Kansas, Secretary of State, "Corporations," v. 2, pp. 572, 573, in Kansas Historical Society archives. See "Deeds," bk. C, pp. 423, 424, register of deeds, Neosho county; see, also, appendix, sec. IV, ch. 6, Owens, op. cit., under document of separation (in handwriting of Father Schoenmakers, S. J.).
36. See Sister Mary Paul Fitzgerald, S. C. L., "John Baptist Miege, S. J., 1815-1844," in Historical Records and Studies (New York, United States Catholic Historical Society, 1934), v. 24, p. 322.
37. See "Papers of Mngr. Jos. A. Shorter," Holy Epiphany Convent, Leavenworth.
38. "A History of the Early Jesuit Missions in Kansas," pp. 93, 94, manuscript in the archives of the University of Kansas, Lawrence; microfilm copy in Kansas Historical Society.
39. The letter was preserved by Mr. Brunt. At the time of his death it was given to W. W. Graves of St. Paul. A copy of it appeared in the St. Paul Journal, September 18, 1930.
40. Kansas Historical Collections, v. 9 (1905-1906), p. 23.
41. See appendix, sec. IV, ch. 6, Owens, op. cit.>
42. Correspondence on file in A. L. M. See, also, the letter written by Father Raymond O'Keefe to J. J. Owens, dated May 21, 1897, now on file in ibid.
43. There have been more than 200 religious vocations from the little town on the banks of the Neosho river and 72 of these are Lorettines.-See appendix, sec. IV, ch. 6, Owens, op. cit.
44. The name Osage Mission had been changed to St. Paul soon after the arrival of the Passionist Fathers. It was done in order to boom the town, business men felt that the name Osage Mission carried the idea that the town was still surrounded by red men.
45. Correspondence on file in A. L. M.