This stereo photograph shows the interior of the Church of the Holy Communion in St. Peter. The church is located on the west side of Minnesota Avenue between Broadway and Chestnut street.
Congregation standing in front of church; address of Jacoby's Artistic studio listed as 252 Nicollet Ave; donor identified church as First Free Baptist Church which was erected in 1871 and taken down 1891; it was located on Washington Ave near 1st Ave. N (not located on 1887 city atlas); cannot verify that any churches listed on verso of card were the church on the stereographic card.
Contributing Institution:
Hennepin County Library, James K. Hosmer Special Collections Library
Early years in St. Joseph, Minnesota (1863-1880). Mother Aloysia (Helen) Bath, the first American-born prioress of St. Benedict's Convent, was born in Addison, WI in 1849. Helen entered the community of the Sisters of St. Agnes in Baron, WI, in 1864 and was given the name Sister Agatha. She transferred to the community in St. Joseph, MN in 1871, changed her name to Aloysia, and professed vows there in 1875. Two years later, she was appointed prioress of the community in St. Joseph by Abbot Rupert Seidenbusch, to fill out Mother Antonia Herman's term. Mother Aloysia resigned shortly before her term ended. However, nine years later, she was elected by the community to serve another term as prioress. Though of frail health, Mother Aloysia led the community in beginning the construction of a new convent and academy building in St. Joseph, in accepting four new schools in Minnesota, the American Indian mission in White Earth, MN, and a school in Bismarck. ND. She was an experienced teacher who had been in charge of several schools, including the large school in St. Joseph's Parish in Minneapolis. Mother Aloysia's greatest efforts were spent staffing schools in the face of school controversies and in developing a teacher-training program in the community so that young sisters would be sent out as certified teachers. Her contemplative spirit inspired the sisters to work for a balance in their work and prayer (Saint Benedict's Monastery Archives; McDonald, pages 73-78, 89).
The St. Johannes Kirche or St. John's Evangelical Lutheran Church was located in Nicollet County, Minnesota, on the west side of county road 27 in Section 1, T111N, R32W.