USA > Missouri > Encyclopedia of the history of Missouri, a compendium of history and biography for ready reference, Vol. II > Part 23
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The Ursuline Convent was founded in 1848 by seven Ursuline Sisters, who came
over from Germany upon an invitation from the archbishop. Founded under the direction of Very Rev. Joseph Melcher, V. G., its first location was on Fifth Street, below the French Market, in a house bought by the Sisters. In 1849 the King of Bavaria do- nated a large sum of money to the Ursuline Sisters, which enabled them to erect a building of their own in St. Louis. They then purchased the ground on Twelfth Street, between Russell and Ann Streets, and erected a building on it in 1850. In 1857 the chapel was built, and in 1866 the north wing was added. The buildings now cover an entire block. The convent has never been incor- porated.
The Convent of the House of the Good Shepherd is conducted under the auspices of a very old Catholic sisterhood. In 1542 there was erected in the city of Rome an institu- tion known as "The House of St. Martha," where women of evil lives who wished to reform might find shelter. This work was the outgrowth of the zeal of St. Ignatius of Loyola, the founder of the Jesuit Soci- ety. In it he was assisted by some of the highest-born matrons of Rome, chiefly by Donna Lenora Osario, the wife of Juan de Vega, ambassador at Rome from Charles V. of Spain. The work met with much oppo- sition, and it is presumed that, lacking proper support, it was abandoned. ( One hundred years later Father John Eudes, a zealous priest of Normandy, France, resumed the work. A house was rented and the penitents installed in it, November 25. 1641. Thus originated the order known as that of "Our Lady of Charity of the Good Shepherd." For many years the church authorities refused to countenance this order, but Father Eudes finally succeeded in obtaining church ap- proval January 2, 1666. In 1843 the order was introduced into the United States by the Rt. Rev. B. J. Flaget, the first house being opened at Louisville, Kentucky. From the Kentucky colony, Sisters were sent to St. Louis in 1849. They came by invitation of the Most Rev. Archbishop Kenrick, who placed at their disposal a suitable house on Ninth and Marion Streets, which was opened for penitent women January 25th of that year. This house they occupied until De- cember of 1852, when they took possession of the building erected for them on Seven- teenth and Pine Streets by the munificence
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of the archbishop, the site having been do- nated by Mrs. Anna Lucas Hunt. In 1869 the institution was incorporated under the laws of the State of Missouri as the Convent of the Good Shepherd. The business of this institution is transacted by a directory com- posed of professed members of the order stationed in the city of St. Louis. It is under the control of the members of the Catholic Church, but the inmates not of that faith never have their religious beliefs in- terfered with. In 1892 Mr. Adolphus Busch gave to the Sisters thirteen acres of ground situated on Gravois Avenue, 600 feet west of Grand Avenue. New buildings have been erected on this site, which will cost, when finished, $400,000. The institution comprises at the present time-1898-four separate de- partments: The convent, occupied by the re- ligious, who number 85; the Magdalen Asy- lum, which shelters 58 Magdalens; the Reformatory, in which at present there are over 190 girls and women, and the Pro- tectorate, or Industrial School, which num- bers 37 young girls and children. The Sis- ters moved to the new buildings from the old convent on November 25, 1895.
St. Joseph's Convent of Mercy had its origin in St. Louis in the year 1856, when Rev. Father Damen, S. J., who was pastor of St. Xavier's Church, applied to the parent house in New York for the establishment of a branch of the Order of Mercy in that city. On the 24th of June of that year six Sisters. accompanied by Rev. Father Ryan, now arch- bishop of Philadelphia, left New York and arrived there on the morning of the 27th. Their, first house was at the corner of Tenth and Morgan Streets. On the Feast of the Visitation, July 2d, the Sisters began their works of mercy. February 13, 1857, the in- stitution was chartered. In 1861 the Sisters found their house at Tenth and Morgan too small for their work, and they removed to Twenty-second and Morgan Streets, where the institution at present stands. The site of the new convent was given by the archbishop. In May, 1871, the Sisters con- verted their school building into a female infirmary, which developed into a hospital for both sexes. (See "St. John's Hospital," under heading, "Hospitals, St. Louis.")
The Sisters de Notre Dame first came to this country from Munich, Germany, and established a house in Baltimore, Maryland,
in 1847. In 1850 several of the Sisters went to Milwaukee, Wisconsin, and established a house there. From Milwaukee, Sisters came to St. Louis and located on Eleventh Street, between O'Fallon and Cass Avenue, at what is known as St. Joseph's School, in 1858. From there the Sisters established mission houses in the different parishes in the city, and in 1898 there were eleven mission houses in St. Louis. These houses do not belong to the Sisters, but to the parish in which they are located. In the fall of 1894 the Sisters purchased thirty-one acres of ground front- ing on the Mississippi River and running south from Railroad Avenue, between Caron- delet and Jefferson Barracks. In the spring of 1895 the erection of the convent building was begun, and it was completed and blest on the 7th day of July, 1897. The building is a large and handsome structure of stone and brick, and fronts on the river. This house is called the mother house of the Southern Province, being the third mother house in the United States. This convent is used ex- clusively for the Sisters, novitiates and can- didates. The Sisters have mission houses at the following places: 1918 South Eighth Street, 1204 North Grand Avenue, 1363 Hamilton Avenue, 1521 North Market Street, College Avenue, near Linton Avenue, Mag- nolia Avenue, near January Avenue, 742 South Third Street, and 1423 South Eleventh Street.
The Convent of the Franciscan Sisters was founded in 1865 by four Sisters of the Order of St. Francis, who came from Germany and built a convent near Carondelet, south of the River des Peres. This was burned in 1877, and the Sisters removed to St. Louis, pur- chasing from Father Henry, of St. Lawrence O'Toole's Church, the lot on which the con- vent now stands, at the southeast corner of O'Fallon and Fourteenth Streets. The Sis- ters who first came, in 1865, returned to Ger- many, but not before others had come to supply their places. In 1877 Sister Bernarda Passmann, banished from Germany for po- litical reasons, came to St. Louis, and was made mother superior. In January, 1878, the order at St. Louis was chartered, with Sisters Bernarda Passman, Alfonsa Cor- inann and Cecilia Harwig as incorporators. Their house was erected in 1878-9, and was opened January 1, 1880. The Sisters also have charge of Pius Hospital.
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The Convent of the Carmelite Nuns, at Eighteenth and Victor Streets, was built in the year 1877. This community was incorpo- rated under the name of "The Carmel of St. Joseph," in the year 1873. The incorporators were Louise J. Roman, Jane B. Edwards, Mary J. Smith, Ella M. Bolland, Elizabeth Dorsey, Mary Eliza Tremoulet, Anna M. Wise and others. The cornerstone of the present building was laid in 1873. Previous to 1877 the nuns occupied the country resi- dence of Archbishop Kenrick, west of Cal- vary Cemetery. They elect one of their number as prioress every three years. The present mother prioress is Mother Mary Joseph.
The Convent of the Immaculate Concep- tion was established by the Sisters of St. Joseph in 1885, on the northwest corner of Eighth and Marion Streets. It was com- pletely destroyed by the cyclone of May 27, 1896, and has never been rebuilt.
Maria Consilia Deaf Mute Institute was opened in 1885 for the education and indus- trial training of deaf mutes as far as practi- cable. Thus far it has been supported by the efforts of the Sisters of St. Joseph, who have it in charge. This institution was trans- ferred from Hannibal, Missouri, and is con- nected with the Convent of Our Lady of Good Counsel, at Eighteenth Street and Cass Avenue, which is also in charge of the Sis- ters of St. Joseph. Girls only are received at this institute.
The Convent of Our Lady of Good Coun- sel was established in 1885 by the Sisters of St. Joseph, and is situated on Cass Ave- nue, near Eighteenth Street. This is called the Center House, the mother house being in Carondelet. The property was given the Sisters by Bishop Kenrick.
During the period of revolution of the negroes in the West India Islands, Mother Louise, under whose guidance the first Ob- late Sisters' House was founded, was brought to Delaware as a child and raised in the fam- ily of a Mr. Garesche. She was selected to be mother of the first institution, which was opened under the guardianship of the Rev. Father Youbert, a priest of the San Sulpice Order. The sisterhood was founded in the city of Baltimore, in 1829, and approved October 2d of the same year by His Holi- ness Gregory XVI. A branch house was opened in St. Louis October 13, 1888, at 709
North Sixteenth Street, under the direction of Rev. Father Panken, S. J., and with the approval of Archbishop Kenrick. Their next place of abode was 14II Morgan Street, where they now have a boarding and day school, which is called St. Elizabeth's Acad- emy. The St. Frances Orphan Asylum, on Page Avenue, was dedicated in May, 1887, and is also conducted by the Oblate Sisters of Providence. The asylum is supported by charity.
Conway .- An incorporated village, in the southwestern part of Laclede County, sixteen miles southwest of Lebanon, on the St. Louis & San Francisco Railroad. It was founded upon the building of the road to that place. It has a good public school, four churches, a flouring mill, five general stores, two drug stores and a hotel. Popu- lation, 1899 (estimated), 450.
Conway, Joseph .- One of the early American settlers of St. Louis District, known as Captain Conway because of his association with Daniel Boone in the Indian warfare in Kentucky, from which both came. Captain Conway came in the year 1798, about the same time with Boone, or following shortly after. He settled in Bonhomme and opened one of the first farms, if it was not the very first, in that part of St. Louis Dis- trict, on a grant of land made to him by Governor Zenon Trudeau. He was born in Virginia, in 1763, and while a boy was brought to Kentucky, where he took an active part in the Indian fighting in that State. He fought under General Harmer and General Wayne, was shot three times, tomahawked and three times scalped, and once was taken prisoner and forced to march barefooted, with bleeding feet and bleeding scalp, from the Ohio River to Detroit, the only favor he received on the painful journey being the gift of a handkerchief for binding up his head from a white woman who was a fellow prisoner. He was held prisoner for four years, enduring incredible hardships, but was finally released and allowed to re- turn to Kentucky. After he settled in St. Louis District he was prompt to respond when the settlers were called on to go on excursions against roving bands of Indians who were threatening to attack the settle- ments. John F. Darby, whose father and
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Captain Conway were neighbors in the Bon- homme region, says in his "Personal Recol- lections": "Often when I was a boy, when Captain Conway would come into the house, would I, in my boyish curiosity, creep around his chair to get a good look at the back of his head to see where the Indians had taken off the scalp from his head." He died, in 1830, on the farm where he had set- tled and lived for thirty years, leaving a large family. Several of his sons held county offi- ces of trust and honor, and one was elected to the Legislature, and the name is held in something like reverence in the Bonhomme neighborhood to this day.
Cook, John D., lawyer and judge of the Supreme Court, came to Missouri and settled at Cape Girardeau in the Territorial days, and in 1820 was chosen one of the forty-one del- egates to the first convention that formed the first Constitution of the State. In 1822, two years after the admission of Missouri into the Union, he was appointed by Gov- ernor McNair judge of the Supreme Court of the State, but held the position only a little over a year, when he resigned to accept the position of circuit judge of the Tenth Judicial Circuit. He was very popular in southeast Missouri, and was placed in nom- ination for United States Senator in the first State Legislature, along with Benton and Barton. His friends were accustomed to say that if his enterprise had been commensu- rate with his abilities he would have risen to the highest places in the State. But his habits were indolent and he was destitute of ambition. His features were extremely homely, but he was a thorough lawyer, a most agreeable conversationalist, of large heart and benevolent nature, and prompt to assist the younger members of the profes- sion.
Cook, John D. S., lawyer, was born November 21, 1834, at Pine Hill, Ulster County, New York, son of John Ames and Harriet (Shepard) Cook, both of whom were natives of Connecticut. His ancestors were among the earliest settlers of New England, and some of them of considerable distinc- tion in Colonial history. He is eighth in de- scent from Aaron Cook, who emigrated to America in 1631, one of the small band of settlers who founded, in 1632, the town of
Windsor, Connecticut. The second, also named Aaron, was for twenty-five years a magistrate and representative in the General Court of Massachusetts. The fourth, who resided at Hartford, was a lieutenant of Cap- tain Wadsworth's company of militia, and the records of wills and deeds of that town show that he married Hannah, the youngest daughter of his captain. This Captain Wads- worth was he who concealed the charter of the Colony in the Charter Oak when its sur- render was demanded by King James II, through Governor Andros. It remained con- cealed until after the Revolution of 1688, when it was restored and remained the basis of the liberties of the Colony. Mr. Cook is thus directly connected with one of the most interesting and important events in Connecticut history. Several of the family took an active part for the country in the Revolutionary War. On his mother's side Mr. Cook is directly descended from Edward Shepard, a ship-owner and master mariner, who, literally, in the language of the New England proverb, "did not come over in the Mayflower, because he has a ship of his own." He settled in Cambridge, Massachusetts, in 1639. In the fourth generation one branch of the family removed to Newtown, Connecti- cut, where Mr. Cook's mother was born. John D. S. Cook, at the age of twelve years, began a course of study preparatory for col- lege in the Delaware Literary Institute, in Franklin, New York, where his grandfather's family had settled, and four years afterward, his father having moved to Wayne County, Pennsylvania, he made his home there, and having completed preparations for college, engaged for several years in teaching in northeastern Pennsylvania to accumulate funds for his college course.
His first experience as a teacher illus- trates the primitive character of the country school in that section fifty years ago. The district where he first taught contained about thirty children of school age. The only text- books were the spelling book, English reader and Daboll's arithmetic. The "master," in teaching writing, was expected to make, or teach his pupils to make, their own pens from goose quills brought to school for the pur- pose. He "boarded round" among the farm- ers who patronized the school, and received for the first term the munificent salary of ten dollars a month. Most of the boys could
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"lick the master," and it was only by inge- niously interesting some of the older scholars in studies of which they had never heard, such as geography and history, that he suc- ceeded in maintaining discipline and carried the school through the term. All his expe- riences, however, were not of this character, and before he gave up the employment he had acquired a good reputation as a teacher, and was employed in some of the principal towns and cities of that part of the State. In 1855 he entered Union College, at Schenec- tady, New York, then under Dr. Nott, for sixty years its president, and was one of the last class instructed by that famous teacher. He graduated in 1859, in a class of eighty, and received one of the honor appointments at commencement. Immediately after grad- uating he was engaged as the first assistant in an academy at Kingston, Ulster County, New York, and commenced studying law with one of the older lawyers of that city. From there he took the course of the law school at Albany, New York, where he graduated in May, 1861, and was admitted to practice. After spending the summer as managing clerk in the office of his preceptor at Kingston, he, in September of that year, enlisted in the Twentieth Regiment of New York State Militia, which had already served three months under the first call of the Pres- ident, and was then reorganizing for the war, and was afterward known as the Eightieth New York Volunteers. The regiment joined the Army of the Potomac in October, 1861, and served in McDowell's, afterward the First Army Corps, until after the battle of Gettysburg, when it was assigned to special duty with the headquarters of the army, under the immediate command of the provost mar- shal general. On October 10, 1861, Mr. Cook was commissioned first lieutenant, and March 3d, 1863, promoted to captain. During his service with the regiment it took part in eleven battles, and at Second Manassas, and again at Gettysburg, lost more than half the entire force engaged. In the first day's fight- ing at Gettysburg more than two-thirds of Captain Cook's company were killed or dis- abled, and on the third day they were in the front rank of the troops who received the famous charge of Pickett's division. Cap- tain Cook has still as a trophy the sword belt of a Confederate colonel who had gal- lantly led the charge to within less than a
hundred feet from where he was standing in the line of Federal troops who received the desperate attack. In December, 1864, Captain Cook resigned and was honorably discharged. He returned home and settled up the estate of his father, who had died shortly before, then married, and started out to establish himself in the West. He first lo- cated at Kingston, in Caldwell County, Mis- souri, where he remained five years. During part of that time he was assistant assessor of internal revenue. In 1870 he removed to Kan- sas City. In 1874, on the recommendation of the leading members of the bar, Chief Justice Waite appointed him register in bankruptcy, an office he held while the Bankrupt Act of 1867 continued in force. He has never aspired to any other public office. In 1880 Mr. Cook was employed by some Eastern and foreign investors to ex- amine titles for loans and attend to the col- lection of defaulted mortgages, and gradually made this the most important part of his practice. He has represented, and still rep- resents, some of the oldest and most impor- tant investment companies in England and Scotland, as well as agencies in the Eastern States. This has engaged him in important litigation in the State and Federal courts of Kansas, Nebraska, Texas and Colorado, as well as in this State, with creditable suc- cess. His first appearance in the Supreme Court of Missouri was in 1869, in Fugitt v. Nixon, 44 Mo. Reports; in the Supreme Court of Kansas, in 1873, in Gulf Railroad v. Miami County, 12th Kansas Reports, and about the same time in Thayer v. Johnson County, in the Circuit Court of the United States. He has presented briefs in a num- ber of cases in the Supreme Court of the United States, the first being in Croft v. Myers, 13th Wallace, in which his former partner, Judge Cobb, was counsel, and which has become a leading case on the question involved.
From 1856 to 1880 Mr. Cook was a busy Republican and prominent in the conventions of that party. Since then he has taken no. active part in politics, except to vote inde- pendently for such candidates as his judg- ment approved. He has been a member of Grace Church in Kansas City for many years, and of the Kansas Commandery of the Loyal Legion since its organization.
He was married, in 1865, to Rosalie E.
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Barlow, of Scranton, Pennsylvania, the daughter of a prominent clergyman. She died in 1887, leaving four children, of whom the eldest, a daughter, is married to J. B. Lippincott, a distinguished civil engineer at Los Angeles, California ; the second to Sam- nel B. Moore, of the firm of Lathrop, Mor- row, Fox & Moore, of Kansas City; the third (a son) is chief clerk of the purchas- ing department of the Kansas City, Fort Scott & Memphis Railway, and the fourth, after graduating at Trinity College, in Hart- ford, is studying for the ministry in the Gen- eral Theological Seminary in New York. Mr. Cook is held in esteem by a large circle of friends, and, as he looks back upon the varied scenes of a long and busy life, says he thinks he will fulfill Daniel Webster's famous definition of a lawyer as "a man who works hard, lives well and dies poor."
He has been a credit to the bar of Jack- son County, and merits the regard bestowed upon him by those who know his worth as a man and a student, not only of the law, but of general literature, history and social science.
Cook, Samnel Baker, editor, was born at Front Royal, Virginia, January II, 1852, son of William and Sarah (Kelley) Cook, both natives of Virginia and descendants of Scotch-Irish ancestry. When Samuel B. Cook was a small boy his parents removed from Virginia and located in Atchison County, Missouri, and at the close of the Civil War they took up their residence on a farm near Marthasville, in Warren County, where both lived until their death, which oc- curred a few years after they settled in their new home. At the age of thirteen years Samuel Baker Cook was an orphan, with little capital other than that with which na- ture endowed him, on which to make his way through life. He worked as a farm hand during three seasons of the year and attended the public schools during the winter. This he continued to do until he was twenty years old. Of a naturally studious turn of mind, his mental qualities were developed fully as much outside the school as in, and his fac- ulty to easily acquire and digest knowledge, to discern the fundamental principles of a proposition almost by intuitive analysis, re- sulted in a substantial practical education that equipped him for his subsequent successful
career. From his boyhood having been compelled to support himself by his own work, upon reaching manhood his self- reliance, combined with an indomitable will, controlled by his calm reason, was one of the corner stones of the foundation he has laid for success. That his youthful days were not wasted, is shown by the confidence reposed in him by the people of Warren County, who, when he was only twenty-six years of age, elected him for their sheriff and collector on the Democratic ticket, in a county which usually gave a Republican majority of 1,000; and that he was an effi- cient and highly successful officer is evi- denced by his re-election to the office at the expiration of his term. In 1880 he purchased the "Warrenton Banner," at Warrenton, which paper he edited until 1885. He was as successful as an editor as he was as a public officer, and under his management and editorial direction the "Banner" was one of the strong Democratic weekly papers of Mis- souri. In 1885 he sold the "Banner," and purchased from Colonel John E. Hutton, then a member of Congress, the daily and weekly "Intelligencer," at Mexico, Missouri, which paper he published and edited until the autumn of 1900, when he disposed of it to give attention to public duties. As an editor, Mr. Cook's great ability is recognized throughout Missouri. While deprived of a collegiate course and educated in the com- mon schools, where there were no preten- sions of teaching "English as she should be taught," Mr. Cook is, nevertheless, a master of elegant diction and pure English, and his writings appearing in the pages of his paper rank high as examples of editorial lucidity and erudition. As an exponent and champion of Democratic principles, his paper wielded great influence throughout the State. In 1892 Mr. Cook was elected a member and appoint- ed secretary of the Democratic State commit- tee, and in 1895 was chosen chairman of that body, which position he held until nomi- nated by acclamation by his party for Secretary of State. At the election in Novem- ber Mr. Cook carried the State by a hand- some majority, running ahead of the national ticket. His prestige is not alone an impor- tant factor in Missouri politics, but in national affairs as well. At his home, in Mex- ico, and throughout the State where he is known he is recognized as one of the most
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