USA > Ohio > Women of Ohio; a record of their achievements in the history of the state, Volume II > Part 11
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Since 1858, when the Sisters established their foundation in Ohio, more than 1300 women from Ohio and surrounding states have voluntarily given themselves to the services, which this Congregation of Religious carry on. Here in Ohio this service is administered through three general hospitals : St. Mary's, Cincinnati, their first hospital at Betts and Linn Sts .: St. Eliza- beth's at Dayton, Ohio, the first hospital for Montgomery County ; St. Francis hospital, Columbus; and in two hospitals for the chronically ill, St. Francis hospital at Cincinnati and St. Anthony's hospital, Columbus. A social service bureau is conducted at St. John's convent, Cincinnati.
The "Six Sisters" had scarcely become settled in Cincinnati when the Civil War broke out, and immediately they responded to the call for service
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to their adopted country. They were first placed in charge of the marine hospital in Cincinnati and later were transferred to the military hospital on Third St. The Sisters remained in service here from October 1861 until April 1862 and cared for an average of 100 soldiers daily.
During this period their foundress, Mother Frances Schervier, came from Germany to aid the Sisters in their work and to lay plans also for the estab- lishment of other hospitals; St. Francis in Columbus; St. Mary's, Hoboken, N. J. and St. Peter's in Brooklyn. Within the decade following the Civil war, hospitals were opened by these Sisters in New York City, Newark. N. J., and Quincy, Ill.
In May, 1862, Mrs. Peters accompanied five Sisters, who boarded the Steamer Superior, to answer a call for help at Pittsburgh Landing. Arriving there they found many wounded who had been given no care, and were re- ceiving none. This neglect spurred Mrs. Peters to action, and becoming im- patient with governmental red tape, she from her own funds, provided the necessary medical supplies, food and equipment, with which the Sisters set up an improvised camp hospital.
When the yellow fever broke out in Memphis, Tenn., in 1867, Sisters from Cincinnati again answered the call for service. On this occasion they cared for the sick in their homes. The influenza epidemic in Ohio in 1918 again found the Sisters meeting all emergencies in their own hospitals and in nurs- ing in private homes.
Meanwhile, as young women became acquainted with the self sacrificing services of the Sisters, they sought admission into the Novitiate which had been established in 1861, just three years after the arrival of the Sisters in Ohio. Mrs. Peters had given her large home at Third and Lytle Sts. for this purpose and reserved only two rooms for her own use. One wing and a chapel were added and here in the Peters home, the novitiate or training center for hundreds of Catholic women was begun and continued until the erection of the present St. Clare Convent and novitiate at Hartwell, Ohio in 1895.
Not all of the members of this religious congregation spend their time in active service. The congregation includes another group, members of which live the contemplative life. Mother Frances Schervier from the beginning of her foundation in Germany, visioned one company of her religieuse, living in retirement from the world, that by their prayers, sacrifices and penances, there would be drawn down from Heaven blessings of God on the external activities of the congregation.
In 1862 she sent three Sisters from Germany to Cincinnati to inaugurate the contemplative side of the congregation. Only those Sisters who had pro- fessed perpetual vows, and who during their religious life had given evidence of their inclination towards the contemplative life, are admitted to this group. These recluses or contemplatives in their turn keep continuous prayerful watch in the convent chapel.
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Four companions joined with Mother Frances Schervier in 1845 in serving the sick of Aix-la-Chapelle in their homes during a small-pox and cholera epidemic. An abandoned Dominican convent was later taken over by then to care for the incurably ill. Soon other women joined them, until they num- bered 22, all women of wide learning, of social prestige and of considerable financial means. They desired to forsake all of the pleasures which their posi- tion in society offered them and so begged Church authorities for the permis- sion to form a religious society, under the banner of St. Francis, and to be governed by his rules of poverty, humility and charity. This permission, after the necessary interviews and investigations was granted, and the name, "Sisters of the Poor of St. Francis" was given. These Sisters resolved to serve all who needed help, rich and poor alike. That rule adopted in 1845 still applies in its many institutions, with the added provision that special solici- tude be extended always to the sick poor.
The influence of the Sisters extended beyond the borders of Cincinnati, and attracted women inclined towards a religious life from neighboring cities. One of these, Mary Kemper of Dayton, became a member of the community in 1871, and through her, Dayton Catholics became interested in the establish- ment of a Catholic hospital, with these Sisters in charge.
Miss Kemper's brother, Philip Kemper, became one of the early bene- factors. Rev. J. H. Hahne, pastor of Emmanuel Church in Dayton became interested, and in 1878, St. Elizabeth's hospital of Dayton was opened in a two story brick house, most unpretentious in appearance. It had a 12 bed capacity. Within two years, the Sisters had given care to 1100 patients and of this number less than eight per cent paid anything towards their care. Proof, indeed that the rule of the foundress, for special solicitude for the poor, had been carried out faithfully.
Two eminently qualified Sisters, Sister Emilie and Sister Columba, who had nursing and hospital administration experience, were placed in charge of the new hospital. They evidently succeeded in winning over the many Dayton citizens who were opposed to the establishment of a "pesthouse" within the city limits, because in 1882, just four years after the arrival of the Sisters, Dayton citizens contributed $30,000 towards the erection of the first wing of the present group of buildings which form St. Elizabeth's hospital on Hopeland St., Dayton. Adjoining property had to be bought to meet service needs in 1884 and in 1891. In 1892, a wing for contagious diseases was erected ; in 1903 another wing, which doubled the capacity of the hospital, was built, followed in 1910 by another addition and in 1916 by the erection of the St. Ann's Maternity unit, which had to be enlarged in 1922.
One of the first pathological clinics in Ohio was established in St. Eliza- beth's hospital in 1891. Its first X-Ray apparatus was installed in 1898.
In 1929 the hospital opened a new home for nurses. Its School of Nursing is staffed by college graduates who have received their training in the Sisters'
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School of Nursing of Our Lady Help of Christians at St. Mary's Hospital, Cincinnati and in other accredited schools. Ward management and hospital administration is included in the curricula, and its graduates are engaged in the public health field, in government hospitals, in schools of nursing with the Red Cross and even as airline nurses. The nursing school is affiliated with the University of Dayton and the College of Our Lady of Cincinnati.
St. Elizabeth's hospital was the first hospital to be opened in Montgomery County. This despite the fact that the city suffered greatly in the war of 1812, when according to "The Centinel," an early Dayton newspaper, 700 soldiers, sick and wounded, returned to Dayton to receive care that was sadly lacking.
"Their solemn procession into town," the news item read, "excited emo- tion which the philanthropic bosom may easily conceive, but is not in our power to describe."
Charlotte Reeve Conover in "The Story of Dayton," writes of other eras in Dayton history, in 1833 and again in 1843 when cholera epidemics swept the city. "In 1833," she writes, "The Cincinnati canal packet brought up a load of passengers that Dayton could just as well have done without. All were suffering from some digestive disorder, and one had died on the way. The 25 afflicted people were taken into one house and into one room, in complete ignorance of the first necessity of infectious cases-isolation. A doctor and two nurses volunteered to care for them. In two days the nurses died, and the doctor was severely stricken. Each day saw one or two of the original party carried into a general grave and it became quite plain that the mysteri- ous sickness which had crept into Dayton was nothing less than the dreaded cholera."
Of the 1843 epidemic she wrote: "Many stories were told of the dreadful suddenness of the illness. People quite well at breakfast time, desperately ill at noon, and dead before sunset. People were frantic with terror, as well they might be with a death list of 216 out of a small village in one short summer."
It was to a city undergoing these horrors that the Sisters of the Poor of St. Francis came in 1878. It must have been a relief to Sister Emilie and Sister Columba, to welcome as their first patient, an injured railroad worker.
The Ladies society of Emmanuel Church, whose pastor was Father Hahne, gave the first large donation to the Sisters-$750.00 and down through the years, this group which has developed into a city-wide hospital auxiliary known as St. Elizabeth's society, has been a great source of moral and finan- cial support to the hospital.
The house to house begging of the early days has changed to the pledged support from benefactors, from the Community Fund and Montgomery County, in addition to the income from private room service.
Miss Margaret Strattner was among those who begged from door to door for the Sisters and their work. She later became a member of the religious
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community, and was given the name of Sister Felicitas. The hospital of 1878 with its 12 bed capacity has developed until it is today the largest hospital in Montgomery County and has a bed capacity of 400 patients.
Upon the occasion of its golden jubilee in 1928, Francis C. Gray, M. D., F. A. C. S., chief of the surgical division of the hospital, predicted that "the institution will continue its development, will enlarge its usefulness in a pro- gressive way, and in the years to follow will prove its worth to the unfortunate and to the community. Since it has served so long and so well, and has done so much for disabled humanity, we can safely predict that it will continue the good work indefinitely, its chief aim being to care for the poor crippled mortals whom we may always expect to find among us." Of the Sisters, he wrote in the Jubilee brochure, "Individuals who voluntarily withdrew from the follies and fallacies of a sin-cursed world live lives of abnegation, and devote all their days to the charitable care of others, do a noble work, and merit the applause of all good people."
SISTERS OF ST. FRANCIS OF PENANCE AND CHRISTIAN CHARITY
Mother Frances Schervier, who had sent her Sisters to Ohio in 1858, and who followed them here a few years later to aid in organizing new hospitals and battlefield service during the Civil war, returned to Germany, there to lead and to organize groups of her Sisters for nursing service in the Austria- Prussia war of 1866 and later in the Franco-Germanic war of 1871-1872. In this latter war, she led a unit of 125 of her Sisters who cared for the sick and wounded in a manner that won for them governmental gratitude and a letter of personal appreciation from Empress Augusta.
In 1875, she was to lend encouragement, and to bid God-speed to another follower of St. Francis, Mother Aloysia, superior of the Sisters of St. Francis of Penance and Christian Charity, which religious community was founded in Heizthuisen, Holland in 1825 by Catherine Daemen, a daughter of the poorest of poor peasants, who lived in the province of Limberg.
When in May 1874, Mother Aloysia was embarking for America with three of the Sisters to establish a foundation in Buffalo, N. Y., Ohio was not in her dreams. Nevertheless, Ohio was to gain considerably from this capable reli- gious leader. Like Mother Frances Schervier, she saw service on the battle- fields of Europe. On three different occasions within a period of seven years, she captained nursing staffs, first in Prussia and Austria's war against Den- mark in 1864; in the war between Prussia and Austria in 1866 and in 1871 in the Franco-Prussian war.
In the war of 1866, she did not await a call for service, but volunteered with 15 of her Sisters. Their battlefield hospitals consisted of granaries, cow sheds and barns. In one granary she found 200 wounded soldiers who had lain there for several days, without attention of any kind. Mother Aloysia immed- iately took charge. The soldiers called her "mother" as they died in her arms.
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It is not be wondered that cholera swept this camp, with the dead un- buried, the sick and wounded uncared for. Two of Mother Aloysia's helpers died victims of the cholera. Sister Adriana was the first to be stricken and realizing the imminence of death, refused any service from the Sisters but bade them, "Leave me to my God, you can do nothing for me; go and attend to the wounded. I am ready."
The next day soldiers from nearby regiments sounded taps as her body was lowered into the grave. Sister Ida, one of the strongest of the company of Sisters, stood at the grave. The very next day, taps were sounded for her.
On one battlefield, 7300 wounded had been cared for. When Mother Aloysia was asked to send Sisters to another battlefield, where there were many French soldiers, she obliged with five Sisters, one of whom could speak French. "The French soldiers, she believed, would be more inclined to listen to a Frenchwoman and to trust her more." She called this group, "The Minis- try of the Interior."
Mother Aloysia and many of her nursing Sisters were native Hollanders, vet their service to humanity transcended nationality lines, and extended to wherever there was a suffering soul.
It was such a woman, with her remarkable qualities for leadership and administrative ability, and her high ideals of service, who came to Ohio in 1874 for a visit only. This visit however paved the way for the beginning of a service in Ohio, which started with work among the orphans in St. Vincent's orphanage, Columbus in 1875, and extended itself to include education, hos- pital service and other activities. The visit perhaps was providential, for at that time the May laws of Bismarck's Kulturkamp were becoming effective in Germany; convents and monasteries were being closed and their members dispersed. Some of the German refugee Nuns were drafted for the new missions in Ohio.
Mother Aloysia and her three companions were destined for Buffalo. N. Y. and arrived there. The foundation was established in Buffalo as planned. The provincial house is now located at Stella Niagara, N. Y.
However, if Sister Leonarda, one of her companions, had not become ill and in need of hospital care, Ohio may never have come to know of these Sisters, or to have had the benefit of their devoted service.
Mother Frances Schervier, out of friendship for Mother Aloysia. had sent word to Mother Vincentia in charge of St. Mary's hospital at Cincinnati, and superior of all of the convents in America of the Sisters of the Poor of St. Francis, that Mother Aloysia and three companions were coming to America. and that it was her wish that the Sisters of the Poor of St. Francis extend the newcomers every courtesy. In obedience Mother Vincentia and a companion journeyed to New York. Arrangements were made for them to be taken on board a small custom-house boat, that would go out to escort the incoming European ship, upon which Mother Aloysia and her companions were pas-
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sengers. It was a surprised group of Sisters on board ship who saw in the distance, two brown-robed nuns standing in a small boat, and waving greet- ings of welcome to New York and to America.
The Sisters of the Poor of St. Francis in their New York convent ex- tended hospitality to the immigrant missionaries. Two of the Sisters were then sent to St. Michael's hospital, Newark, N. J. where other Sisters of the Poor of St. Francis were engaged, and to remain there as guests while the Hollanders tried to acquire an English vocabulary.
The sea journey began at Antwerp, May 18, 1874 and ended in New York, June 5, 1874. Sister Leonarda kept a diary of the sea journey, and also of the early days of the Buffalo and Ohio missions. Their missionary work really began on the boat, according to her diary, as she relates, that children among the steerage passengers, dirty, neglected and poorly clad, became the objects of their solicitude. They begged cotton and linen garments from the pas- sengers and formed a sewing circle on board ship to make clothing for the children.
Mother Aloysia and Sister Leonarda continued their journey to Buffalo. It was only natural that Mother Aloysia should think of her new found friend, Mother Vincentia in Cincinnati, when it became known that Sister Leonarda was in need of hospital care. They boarded a train for Cincinnati. They found the train overcrowded and Sister Leonarda had to sit perilously on the arm of a seat, while Mother Aloysia steadied her, as she stood in the aisle. It was an all night ride to Cincinnati from Buffalo.
As if this suffering was not enough, upon their arrival in Cincinnati, they discovered that they did not know the name or the location of Mother Vincentia's hospital. Having but slight acquaintance with the English lan- guage, it was a distressing moment for them. Happily the driver of the cab which they hailed spoke German, and he saved the day for the Sisters. Soon they were safely in the care of Mother Vincentia in St. Mary's hospital, Cincinnati.
It was during this visit in Cincinnati and during the convalescent days of Sister Leonarda, that the possibility of service in Ohio became known.
At the insistence of Mother Vincentia, Mother Aloysia visited Columbus to offer the services of her Sisters to Bishop Sylvester Horton Rosecrans, a native of Homer, Ohio, and the first bishop of the diocese of Columbus, which had been established in 1868.
This offer of service was a timely one, as Bishop Rosecrans had in mind the establishment of an orphanage and the development of the parish school system in his new diocese.
His acceptance of Mother Aloysia's offer necessitated more recruits from Europe and three came from Germany to begin work in St. Vincent's orphan- age. These three arrived Dec. 22, 1874, and were given hospitality by the Sisters of the Poor of St. Francis until the orphanage was made ready for
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them, which was not to take place until the following February. Eight orphaned girls formed the first group at St. Vincent's orphanage. Today, an average of 200 children receive care.
Today there are 48 Sisters at work in St. Vincent's orphanage. Two other Ohio missions, Sacred Heart School, Columbus and the St. Aloysius academy, day and boarding school, New Lexington, were supplied by German convents. Mother Sophie and companions came to Sacred Heart school, and Mother Gonzaga, superior at the Konitz convent in Germany, headed the staff for the New Lexington mission. There are now 38 Sisters at New Lexington.
Members of this religious community also teach in St. Peter's school, Columbus, opened in 1899; St. Leo's school since 1904 and St. John's school since 1906.
The boarding school at New Lexington, in its beginning, was regarded as "an unknown and inaccessible spot" and Mother Gonzaga received little encouragement from anyone, particularly from pastors from whom she hoped to receive much support in obtaining students. It was an ugly square brick house without doors or windows, when first she viewed it. It was surrounded on all sides by weeds and not a tree or blade of grass was to be found for miles around.
Today, that once unlovely spot is a beautiful sylvan retreat among the hills of Perry County. Shady trees are in abundance. Sister Euphemia, one of the pioneers, wrote for the archives of her community, in explaining the presence of trees.
"The trees ! Ach-ja we planted them, every one," she wrote.
In the meanwhile Mother Aloysia established a novitiate or training cen- ter in Buffalo, and no sooner was this done than Catholic young women of Buffalo and nearby towns sought admittance to the Religious community. Mother Vincentia sent Miss Julia Schirck of Cincinnati to remain with the Sisters there, and to prepare them for teaching. Miss Schirck was in the novitiate of the Sisters of the Poor of St. Francis at Cincinnati and had been a public school teacher before taking up the religious life. She remained with the Buffalo Sisters for a year, instructing them in English and in the fundamentals of class room teaching in American schools.
Miss Schirck did not come to Buffalo empty handed. Shipped on the train with her was a large box, which when delivered to the Buffalo convent revealed a large supply of staple needs for the convent larder-rice, flour, tea, coffee, and also some utensils for housekeeping needs-a gift from Mother Vincentia.
Among the first Buffalo recruits for this new religious congregation were three who were destined to spend most of their religious life in Ohio. Miss Ethelburga Hardy was one of the first to seek admission, and as Sister Rose spent 46 years in the classrooms of Sacred Heart School, Columbus. She died in 1923.
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Victoria Hoesl became Sister Margaret and Mary Lux became Sister Josepha. These were in the first class to be professed. Both were qualified to teach because of their educational attainments, but Sister Margaret asked for the most laborious of service, and was given the household tasks and gardening at the New Lexington academy. Sister Josepha was given the work she longed to do-caring for orphans. She served 38 years in St. Vincent's orphanage.
Many young women who found inspiration for religious life in their asso- ciations with these Sisters, and who are now members of this religious order, are serving in their various institutions in the Dakotas, in Nebraska, Cali- fornia, Montana, Oregon, Washington, Colorado and New Jersey. Forty-three of their members work with the Indians in the Dakotas. Hospitals, nurses training schools, elementary, high and commercial schools, orphanages, day nurseries are among some of the activities which they sponsor.
A school for Japanese children in Sacramento, Calif., is one interesting type of work. A matter of great interest to the American foundation is the establishment this year of a novitiate in Java, in the East Indies. In this new novitiate only Javanese aspirants to the religious life will be received.
From the very humble beginning in 1825 of this religious community. which had for its foundress a peasant girl whose only worldly goods consisted of a small table, a chair, a stove and a wooden box, the community has ex- panded into Germany, the East Indies, North and South America, and Africa.
Catherine Daemon, the foundress, known in religion as Mother Magdalen Daemon, overcame all obstacles, and all objections to projecting any program that was to benefit humanity, with the simple answer of Faith-"God will provide." That statement was on her lips constantly. It continues to be the motivating power for expansion of the work of this distinguished order of religious.
SISTERS OF THE THIRD ORDER OF ST. FRANCIS OF PENANCE AND CHARITY
Five years before Ohio was to welcome the Sisters of St. Francis of Penance and Christian Charity, Tiffin, Ohio, became the home of a religious community, almost similar in name-the Sisters of the Third Order of St. Francis of Penance and Charity.
This religious society was formed in 1869 and its founding is somewhat unique in that it had for its organizers, a widowed mother, her daughter and a sister-in-law, all of whom were members of the Third Order of St. Francis.
Their pastor, the Rev. Joseph Bihn, a Bavarian immigrant, was the inspiration for this unusual religious community. He had come to Cleveland in 1845 with his parents, and upon completion of his studies for the priest- hood in St. Mary's Seminary, Cleveland, in 1856 he was ordained a priest. His first assignment was to Tiffin, Ohio. Here he had an opportunity to work
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towards the fulfillment of his life's dream-special care for orphaned and dependent children and homeless aged people.
In 1867 he laid the groundwork for the fulfillment of this dream, when he purchased a 56 acre farm for the sum of $5,000. John Greiveldinger, a parishioner and widower, tenanted the farm. His widowed daughter, Mar- garet Schaefer, her two daughters, and a sister-in-law, Josephine Schaefer, lived with him, and helped with the farm work.
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