USA > Louisiana > Orleans Parish > New Orleans > Standard history of New Orleans, Louisiana, giving a description of the natural advantages, natural history settlement, Indians, Creoles, municipal and military history, mercantile and commercial interests, banking, transportation, etc. > Part 47
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STANDARD HISTORY OF NEW ORLEANS.
inmates, which is supplemented by that arising from property valued at many thousands of dollars.
St. Vincent's Infant Asylum, established in 1862, serves as the foundling asylum of the city. It is strictly for infants, who, at the age of seven, are trans- ferred, the girls to the Camp Street Orphan Asylum, the boys, to some other institution. This asylum, which is one of the most interesting, as well as dc- serving, in the city, is located on Magazine street, at the corner of Race. The building is a commodious brick edifice, and its nurseries, halls, and dormitories are models of neatness. It is supported by the State and city, and by private donations.
The Episcopal Home, situated at the corner of Jackson avenue and St. Thomas street, is an asylum for girls under the care of the Sisterhood of the Protestant Episcopal Church, and a well managed institution.
Other asylums for children in the city are :
Saint Alphonsus' Orphan Asylum (Catholic), Fourth, corner St. Patrick.
Orphan Girls' Asylum, Immaculate Conception (Catholic), 871 North Ram- part street.
Asylum of the Societé Française de Bienfaisance, Saint Ann, near Roman.
Mount Carmel Female Orphan Asylum (Catholic), 53 Piety street.
Saint Isidore's Institute (Farm School), North Peters, corner Reynes.
Asile de la Ste. Famille (for colored children).
Providence Asylum for Female Colored Children, Hospital, corner North Tonti.
There are also a House of Refuge for boys, established by the city authorities . in 1848, and one for girls, established in 1853, as reformatories for boys and girls not over fifteen years of age.
As early as 1839 an institution for the reclamation of fallen women was established by the Sisters of Charity under the management of a Lady Superior and a corps of twenty assistants. In 1868, at which time its inmates numbered 130, the Sisters of Charity retired, and the house was taken in charge by the Sisters of the Good Shepherd. The buildings, at the corner of Bienville and Broad streets, are of brick, and very extensive, comprising dormitories, working-rooms, chapel, etc. It is divided into two departments, one for girls who are placed there by their parents, and the other for those committed by the city magistrates. In addition to the household dutics performed by the inmates they are employed in various kinds of needle-work, and in laundry work for private families, hotels and steamboats.
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CONVENTS.
The French Ursulines, established at Paris in 1611 by Marie Lhuillier, was the first religious community to find a footing in New Orleans. This order originated in Brescia, Italy, in 1537, having been founded by Angela de' Merici, chiefly with the view of devoting itself to the education of young girls. As early as 1724 Bien- ville realized the necessity of providing some sort of educational advantages for the girls of the colony. He consulted Father Beaubois, the superior of the Jesuit missionaries, who had recently arrived from France, and who suggested the Ursulines of Rouen as likely to be able to supply religious teachers. Application was immediately made, and in September, 1726, an arrangement was concluded with Maric Françoise Tranchepain, known as Sister Augustine, and Marie Anne le Boulanger, known as Sister Angelique, by which they agreed, with the assistance of Mother Catherine Bruscoli, of St. Amand, and four other nuns of their order, to take charge of the education of the young girls of the colony, and to nurse the sick in the military hospital. According to the contract they were to reside per- manently in the colony, whither they were to be transported with four servants at the cost of the company, a gratuity of 500 livres being paid to them before depart- ure. They sailed from Port l'Orient in the ship Gironde, February, 22, 1727, and according to tradition had a most adventurous voyage. Not only were they beset by terrific storms, but they were chased by corsairs, and at one time, says the legend, all the ladies were driven "to assume male attire and man the ship to save her from pirates." In the Caribbean Sea they again encountered fearful winds; they were stranded on Dauphin Island, losing nearly all the ship's cargo, and only reached the shores of Louisiana in July. At the Balize they were transferred to pirogues for the journey up the river, which consumed fifteen days, the voyagers going ashore at night for such rest as the mosquitoes would permit.
At last, when their friends had given them up for lost they gained the scene of their future labors, the little village of New Orleans, which at this time pre- sented "no better aspect than that of a vast sink or sewer," fenced in by sharp stakes and surrounded by a broad ditch.
According to some accounts, Bienville gave up his own residence, a flat-roofed, two-story building, with many windows, covered with linen instead of glass, which stood in the midst of a "deep forest," on the square now bounded by Customhouse, Bienville, Decatur and Chartres streets,-to the use of the nuns, but others, with more probability, say that the military hospital, which was then situated at the corner of Chartres and Bienville, was placed at their disposal, and that they resided there
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until their own dwelling was made ready for them. A tract of land with a frontage of eight acres on the Mississippi, and a depth of forty acres, was conceded to the hospital as a plantation to supply the wants of the nuns, and to afford them a sufficient remuneration for their services to the sick, and soon after their arrival the foundations of a nunnery were laid on the lowest square of the city, on Condé (now Chartres) street, between Barracks and Hospital, and a military hospital was built near it. The edifice was completed by the latter part of 1730, and was imme- diately taken possession of by the nuns, who continued to reside there until 1824, when they removed to their present more spacious and delightful retreat on the banks of the river below the city. Up to the time of the construction of the new convent the old one was the largest house in Louisiana. In 1831, the State House having been destroyed, the old convent was taken possession of by the Legis- lature as an assembly room, continuing to serve in that capacity until 1834, when the legislative body removed to the building formerly occupied by the Charity Hospital. The convent, which is the oldest building in the city, is now used as the residence of the Archbishop.
The new Convent of the Ursulines, on North Peters street, near Poland, con- sists of a number of buildings connected with each other, with a chapel at the lower end. The main building, a long, white structure facing the river, is a con- spicuous landmark to persons approaching the city by steamboat. It is surrounded by a grove of magnificent oaks and pecan trees, and large gardens, and continues to enjoy the patronage of the Creoles, for whose benefit it was established, as a school for their daughters. The order is a cloistered one, and some of the nuns who reside there have never been outside the convent walls since their entrance upon the religious life.
The Discalced Carmelites (Descalzos, or barefoots) have but four convents in the United States, and one of these is located in New Orleans, on Barracks street, between Burgundy and Rampart. This, it will be remembered, is the Reformed Order of the Carmelites, established by Saint Teresa, at Avila, Spain, for the purpose of reviving the austere rules prescribed by its founder, Albert, Patriarch of Jerusalem (1209). These rules, which had been relaxed by Pope Eugenius IV., in 1431, enjoined "strict seclusion, solitude, the plainest dress, the most ascetic diet." Teresa did not wish that the sisters should be entirely "shoeless." "A barefoot," she said, "makes a poor beast of burden." They were allowed to wear sandals made of rope, but were "to be confined to the cloister strictly, to eat no meat, to sleep on straw, to fast on reduced allowance from September to Easter; they
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were to do needle-work for the benefit of the poor, and they were to live on alms, without regular endowment." "With all this," says Froude, "she had been careful of their health, imposing no greater hardships than those borne without complaint by the ordinary Spanish peasants. The dress was to be of thick undyed woolen cloth, with no ornament but cleanliness. Dirt, which most saints regarded as a sign of holiness, Teresa always detested. The number of sisters was to be thirteen ; more, she thought, could not live together consistently with discipline." When Teresa, with the consent of the Provincial of Avila, removed from the Carmelite Convent of the Incarnation to the little Convent of San Josef, which she had secretly founded, the only luggage she took with her was "a straw mattress, a patched woolen gown, a whip and a hair-cloth shirt," and this slender outfit sums up the personal belongings of those who to-day observe her rule. "Their dress," says a writer, speaking of the convent in New Orleans, "is of the coarsest brown serge; they wear no linen, and their under- garments are also of serge, even their pocket handkerchiefs being of brown cloth. Square picces of hempen cloth are tied with bits of rope upon the feet and ankles, and sandals of knotted cord are worn upon the feet.
* The Carmelite fasts from the 14th of September (the Exaltation of the Holy Cross) until Easter of each year. * * She sleeps in a bare little cell containing a table, a chair, and two low benches, upon which are laid two planks. These planks, covered with straw, form her resting place, and her only covering is a sheet of serge. In the early dawn she rises from this poor bed, and in the still chapel begins her prayers. The morning until 11 o'clock is spent in meditation, prayer and work. * *
* Not by so much as a sup of water does she break her fast until 11 o'clock, and then the little band of brown-robed women meet for the midday meal. They never eat meat ; the order forbids it, and they sit at a low, narrow table, eating from the coarsest yellow plates, and with an iron spoon and fork. The food is generally rice, beans, other vegetables, and soup made without meat. Everything is cooked in the plainest way, and lard is not used except when they are too poor to buy oil. This meal is plentiful, and each person eats what is put upon her plate, particu- larly of those things she does not like. * * * During this long season of fast, cight hours a day are spent in repeating the services of the church-the Carmelite nuns re- peating the same service daily that the priests do, and, like the priests, receiving com- munion every Sunday morning." Self-flagellation is also practiced, as by the founder, Saint Teresa.
The Carmelites have been established in New Orleans only about twenty years.
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The sisters all bear such names as Mary, Dolorosa, etc., which are given them when they take the final vows. Many of them were young and gifted, with beautiful faces and many accomplishments, and all were women of wealth when they gave up the world to find happiness and the peace that passeth understanding in the re- ligious life.
The Convent of Perpetual Adoration, Marais, between Mandeville and Spain, shelters another order which has but recently appeared in this country. Readers of Victor Hugo's masterpiece, "Les Miserables," will recall the description of the con- vent at No. 62 Petite Rue Picpus, in which was performed what they call "the repar- ation." "The Reparation," says Hugo, "is prayer for all sins, for all faults, for all disorders, for all violations, for all iniquities, for all the crimes which are committed upon the earth. During twelve consecutive hours, from four o'clock in the afternoon till four o'clock in the morning, or from four o'clock in the morning till four o'clock in the afternoon, the sister who performs the reparation remains on her knees upon the stone before the Holy Sacrament, her hands clasped, and a rope around her neck. When fatigue becomes insupportable, she prostrates herself, her face against the marble and her arms crossed ; this is all her relief. In this attitude, she prays for all the guilty in the universe. As this act is performed before a post on the top of which a taper is burning, they say indiscriminately, to perform the reparation or to be at the post. The nuns even prefer, from humility, this latter expression, which involves an idea of punishment and abasement. The performance of the reparation is a process in which the whole soul is absorbed. The sister at the post would not turn were a thunderbolt to fall behind her. Moreover, there is always a nun on her knees before the Holy Sacrament. They remain for an hour. They are relieved like soldiers standing sentry. That is the Perpetual Adoration."
This order was originally cloistered, but the adverse legislation in France, where it has been domiciled since 1653, by which it has been stripped of all means of maintenance, has compelled the sisters to engage in some vocation that will yield a revenue. They have accordingly added the vow of St. Joseph to their other vows, and have become a teaching order, with the privilege of leaving the convent, and of traveling from place to place, as do the sisters of St. Joseph.
The Convent of Sisters of the Holy Family has quite an interesting history. It dates back to the early forties, to 1842, to be exact-at which time three young colored women of means and education, agreed among themselves to embrace the religious life, and to devote themselves to charitable works among their own people, to help the helpless, to care for the old and infirm, to counsel and befriend the young,
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and especially the young and unprotected girls of their own raee, to teach the cate- ehism, and to prepare young and old for the sacrament of the communion. Their number was recruited by a fourth young woman of good family and education, and Juliette, the eldest of the four was selected for Mother Superior. Their first estab- lishment was a humble little house in an obscure neighborhood near Bayou St. John. During the war they suffered many hardships and diseouragements, and its close threw upon their care a large number of the poor and siek, but they struggled through, and even found means to establish a sehool, to open two braneh houses in the country, and to assume eharge of an orphan asylum.
In 1881 prosperity began to smile upon them, and they were able to purehase the site of the old Orleans street ball-room, and to build thereon a neat and substan- tial house of briek. At that time the adjoining ground, where formerly stood the old Orleans theater, was oceupied by a cireus, whose musie and uproar broke in upon their prayers and vigils with peeuliarly discordant effeet, and the flames which at last rid them of the nuisance no doubt seemed to them Heaven-sent. Immediately Mother Juliette coneeived the idea of purchasing the ground, and so seeuring future indemnity from obnoxious neighbors. She had no money, but she had faith to be- live that it would be provided, and so it was. The ground was bought, and a timely bequest from a benevolent man of her own raee, who, in dying, divided his wealth impartially among white and black, Protestant and Catholie, objeets of charity, en- abled the sisters to build a chapel where the annoying eireus had stood. The be- nevolent colored man was Thomy Lafon, and in proper reeognition of his philan- thropy the Legislature of the State ordered that his bust be earved and ereeted in some publie plaee, the only man of African raee who has been so honored in Louisiana.
Many relies of the old ball-room are preserved within the eonvent walls. The dancing floor may still be seen, made of three thicknesses of eypress boards, and re- puted to be the best daneing floor in the world. There is also the baleony where, in the intervals of the danee, the gentlemen led their fair partners for a promenade, and beneath it a seetion of the banquette where belligerent beaux awaited the ap- pearance of the sueeessful rivals who had alienated from them the favor of the ladies of their ehoiee.
The community consists of forty-nine sisters who follow the rule of St. Augus- tine. They serve a novitiate of two years and six months, and during ten years their vows are renewed annually. After that time they are considered as perpetual. Orphans are received from every State in the Union, as well as from South America, Central America and Mexico. Their pay pupils also come from all quarters.
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St. Henry's Convent, on Constance street, between Milan and Berlin, is the home of the Sisters of Christian Charity. This order was founded in 1849, by Pau- line Mallinckredt, in Paderborn, Westphalia. The special work of the sisterhood was the Christian education of youth and the care of the blind. Many' branches of the order were founded in Germany, Denmark, Austria, and other countries of Europe between 1849 and 1873. In this last named year the decree of Prince Bis- marck was issued expelling certain religious orders from Germany, and among them the Sisters of Christian Charity. By invitation of the Archbishop of the diocese, the foundress, with forty or fifty of her nuns came to New Orleans, where they were warmly welcomed and placed in charge of the parochial school of St. Henry's Church on Berlin street. The humble house which first sheltered them has given place to a handsome convent, and another has been founded within the twenty-six years that have elapsed since their landing. On the 21st of August, 1899, the sisters cele- brated in a quiet manner the golden jubilee of the founding of their order.
The other convents of New Orleans are :
Convent de Ste. Famille-172 Hospital street.
Convent of Mt. Carmel-Olivier, corner of Eliza ( Algiers).
Convent of the Benedictine Nuns-630 Dauphin street, between St. Ferdinand and Press.
Convent of the Good Shepherd-Bienville, between North Dolhonde and Broad.
Convent of the Redemptorists-Constance, between St. Andrew and Josephine. Convent of the Sacred Heart-96 Dumaine.
Convent of the Sisters of Notre Dame-Laurel, between St. Andrew and Josephine.
Mt. Carmel Convent-200 Hospital street.
St. Alphonsus Convent of Mercy- St. Andrew, between Constance and Maga- zine.
St. Joseph's Convent-St. Philip, corner North Galves.
HOMES FOR THE INDIGENT.
Conspicuous among the charities of New Orleans is the handsome three-story brick building at the corner of Prytania street and St. Mary, familiar to all as St. Anna's Asylum. This institution, designed as a retreat for poor gentlewomen, was projected by Dr. W. N. Mercer, who offered to give $30,000 toward its establishment and maintenance upon condition that an equal amount be raised from other
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source's, and that it be called by the name of his only daughter. These conditions being complied with, the house was built, and in 1850, the Widows' Home, as it is most frequently called, stood ready for its destined inmates. The home is man- aged by a board of twenty directresses, including its officers, there being also a real estate committee of seven men. Its resources are derived from dues, subscriptions, donations, and the proceeds of the industry of the inmates. In 1867 the State donated to its fund the sum of $3,500, and its total receipts for the year were $4,800. It can accommodate 100 persons.
The Widows' Home, on Laharpe street, between Johnson and Prieur, is a Catholic institution established in 1851. Although called a "Widows' Home," both children and old men are admitted, and at one time, some thirty years since, there were in the house forty-seven women, twenty-five aged and infirm men, and twenty-four children. It is managed by a committee of women who style them- selves "Ladies of Providence." Being without endowment, its support comes from the city and State, supplemented by work done by the inmates, and by private charity. It is nevertheless constantly in debt, it being impossible to accommodate the expenditures to a budget of such uncertain proportions.
The Home for Jewish Widows and Orphans was founded by the association for the Relief of Jewish Widows and Orphans, a society incorpo- rated March 14, 1855. The corner stone of the first building erected by the society was laid August 7 of the same year, and the edifice, which stood at the corner of Jackson avenue and Chippewa street, was dedicated January 8th, 1856. This build- ing, a three-story structure, 86x41 feet, served until 1887, when, more room being re- quired, a location was selected at the corner of St. Charles and Peters avenues, and a new home was built, three stories high in front, and two stories and a basement in the rear. The cost of ground, building and furniture was $100,000.
Since 1885 the home has been devoted exclusively to children, the widows being accommodated at the Touro Infirmary, though still supported by the association. Manual training for both boys and girls has been recently introduced, the girls being taught all varieties of needlework and housekeeping, the boys carpentery and other trades. The institution is supported by membership fees from 787 members, and the interest on a permanent fund ; the trust fund and the reserve fund together amounting to $65,569.35, and the total net assets of the association amounting to $180,339.35, besides a small farm of 40 acres in Rapides Parish, the gift of Mrs. F. Sohmalinsky, of Alexandria, La.
The total expense of conducting the institution for the year ending March 4,
Yourstruly
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1899, was $36,934.19. Applicants are admitted from the day of birth, if neces- sary, up to any age, according to conditions and circumstances, and remain as long as is required in each case. They come from all the Gulf States, and from Ten- nessee and Arkansas.
The Fink Asylum is the beneficent gift of Mr. John David Fink, a native of the little town of Winnenden, Kingdom of Wurtemburg. Mr. Fink was born in 1785, and came to this country in childhood. New Orleans became his home, and here he spent his long life, dying in 1855, nearly seventy years old. He had never married, and in his will, after setting aside a fair proportion of his estate to a sister and other relatives and friends, and making provision for his slaves, whom he also liberated, he willed as follows:
"It is my wish and desire, and I do hereby declare the same to be my will, that after the payment of my just debts and the several legacies herein above mentioned, that the proceeds of the whole of my estate, property, rights and credits, be applied to the erection, maintenance and support of a suitable asylum in this city to be used solely as an asylum for Protestant widows and orphans, to be called the Fink Asylum."
The heirs at law made an attempt the following year to have this clause of the will declared null and void, but the Supreme Court of the State de- creed that the charity created was to be legally administered by the city corporation of New Orleans. Acting under this decree, the Common Council in 1860 appointed the first Board of Commissioners, and ordained "that when the capital from all sources shall amount to the sum of $200,000, then the Board of Commissioners, under the direction of the Common Council, shall purchase a site, and erect upon it the buildings and establish, furnish and organize the Fink Asylum." In 1874, after disposing of all the real estate, etc., willed by the donor, the commissioners found themselves in possession of $215,349, and there was appointed a Board of Commissioners or Directors, to supervise the erection of the asylum and to attend to all affairs pertaining to it. These commissioners were representative men from all the leading Protestant churches of the city. In 1875 a square of ground bounded by Camp, Amelia, Chestnut and Antonine streets, was purchased, with the buildings thereon, at a cost of $10,000. At present this property, with the improvements, is worth $50,000, and the funds hold premium bonds the market value of which is $272,767, while the magnificent sum of $135,600 has been expended for the main- tenance of the institution with its more than seventy regular inmates.
The Little Sisters of the Poor, an order founded by Abbé le Pailleur, at St.
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Malo, in 1840, have an asylum for the aged and infirm at the corner of Johnson and Laharpe streets. The asylum has no revenue save from charity and bequests, yet with these uncertain means the sisters have been able to erect extensive buildings occupying nearly a square of ground. The rules of the order forbid all luxury, and the plain little chapel which forms the center of the group of buildings, boasts no organ, or decorations of either painting or sculpture. The asylum is divided into two departments, male and female, and the only condition of admittance is that one is poor, old and helpless. The Little Sisters gather up daily, from the markets and restaurants, the surplus of the well-to-do, which would otherwise be thrown away, and thus manage to feed their houseful of helpless dependents.
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