The upper floors of St. Raphael's Hospital II were destroyed by fire in 1905. This was the sisters' third hospital in St. Cloud. With the failure of the hospital site (St. Raphael's I) east of the Mississippi River, the sisters had again faced the burden of financing a hospital; financial aid from the city was not available. In 1900 they had built this hospital of 2+ stories, large enough for 50 patients, next to the site of the first hospital on Ninth Avenue. It was again named St. Raphael's and often referred to as St. Raphael's II. The fire gave the necessary thrust, not only to restore the upper floors, but to expand the hospital. (Saint Benedict's Monastery Archives, McDonald, pages 257-258).
Early ventures in St. Joseph, Minnesota (1880-1890). About half of the student body of the academy in 1882-1883 (those in the photograph wearing medals) were prospective candidates applying for membership in the Benedictine community. Some members of this class who became sisters are identified as follows: Top row: 3. Susan (Sister Rose) Kilduff, 5. Josephine (Sister Adalberta) Gerard. Second row: 2. Margaret (Sister Eleanor) Irving. Fourth row: 1. Mary (Sister Felicitas) Knapp, 2. Margaret (Sister Ethelburga ) Farrell. Second from bottom row seated on steps: 3. Sophia (S. Ehrentrude) Wessel, 4. Mary Magdalen (S. Ursula) Hoffmann. Bottom row seated on steps: 2. Emily (Sister) Cherrier, 3. Bridget (Sister Magdalen) Walker (Saint Benedict's Monastery Archives).
Early ventures in St. Joseph, Minnesota (1880-1890). Students and faculty of the first academy class in the Haarman Building (1880-1881) are identified as follows. Faculty upper row: Sisters 1. Flavia Pokowsky, 2. Magdelen Enste, 3. Elizabeth Will (who later became Sister Julia), 4. Bede Linnemann. Faculty - 2nd row: Sister Anotolia Langsford. Faculty - 3rd row: Sister Irminia Kretzer. Students - 2nd row: Anna Burrell, Cecilia Beck, S. Farrell, Katie Rovischer, Emma Otto, Aggie Zingerly, Rose Weiner, Carrie Capser, Iona Owens, Lilly Miller, Katherine Riesgraf, Anna Kapsner. Students - lower 3 rows: Antonette Jennings, Virgina Gerard (later Sister Anastasia), Lena Schlick, Anna Waschenberger, Mary Phillip, Ella Egan, Jennie Kennedy, Katie Loso, Aloysia Zingerly, Adela Jennings, Clara Pottgieser, Lorrina Maurin, Tillie Maurin, Lizzie Beck, Josie Kapser. Because St. Agnes Academy was not flourishing in St. Cloud, Mother Aloysia Bath and the community decided in 1879 to build a new boarding academy at St. Joseph. When the basement walls were nearly completed, the cold weather halted construction; lack of funds prevented more building for another 2 years. The next prioress, Mother Scholastica Kerst, closed the St. Agnes Academy in St. Cloud and rented the Haarman Building across from the church and convent in St. Joseph to open a select boarding academy, St. Joseph's Academy. The Haarman Building was rented for only one year. Because the school was so successful, the earlier plans for a new academy building were immediately resumed and Cecilia Hall was rapidly completed for use in 1882. When the building was blessed, St. Joseph's Academy was renamed St. Benedict's Academy (Saint Benedict's Monastery Archives ; McDonald, pages 70-71, 99-100).
First floor plan of the residence of W. M. Nutting. Scale: 1/4 inch to 1 foot. Built in 1888 for the John Claudius and Calista (Morse) Nutting family, and given to Carleton College in 1970 by their granddaughters. Contemporary newspaper reports referred to the house as one of the finest in the city. It was named to the National Register of Historic Places in 1970 due to its status as the only remaining example of a brick home of this size and period in Northfield.
Schools in St. Cloud (1869-1909); St. Benedict's Monastery (convent), St. Joseph, Minnesota. The exact location of the convent in this photograph is not recorded, but the Holy Angels Parish records show that it took 25 years for the parish to build a convent for the sisters who taught in Holy Angels Grade School in St. Cloud. "The sisters moved around like nomads. For the first 11 or 12 years, they lived in St. Mary's Convent near the site of the old post office. Then they lived in Captain Taylor's house on Seventh Avenue North for one year; next the Grundman house on Eighth Avenue North and in the (St. Clotilde's) Music Academy. They also lived for a while in the Munsinger Hotel" (Saint Benedict's Monastery Archives, Voigt, page 54).
St. Mary's Mission, Red Lake Indian Reservation (Red Lake Nation). The Benedictine monks and sisters were preceded in the Red Lake mission by Fathers Francis Xavier Pierz and Lawrence Lautischar. These two missionaries had founded the mission in the 1850s and Father Lautischar remained there as its first pastor. After his untimely death in a snowstorm, Father Lawrence was succeeded by Father Ignatius Tomazin, the Yugoslav missionary who was removed from White Earth for antagonizing government agents at that reservation in1878. In 1883, his zeal for the rights of the American Indians once again brought the soldiers from Fort Snelling to the reservation to remove him. For the next five years, the Red Lake mission was without a priest. In 1888, when the Drexel sisters* paid a visit to the reservation and heard the Ojibwe's plea for priests and sisters, Katherine begged the abbot of St. John's Abbey to take over the mission. She offered to pay the traveling expenses and to rent temporary buildings for them. The following year in November 1889, two priests, Fathers Simon Lampe and Thomas Borgerding from St. John's Abbey and Sisters Amalia Eich and Evangelista McNulty from St. Benedict's Convent made the arduous trip to Red Lake; the last lap from White Earth to Red Lake was by lumber wagons. St. Mary's Mission in Red Lake began in some empty buildings on the reservation. The sisters converted an abandoned Hudson Bay Company's warehouse into a school. In spite of its poor condition, the school opened with an enrollment of 25 day pupils. Years later when Sister Amalia was asked how they kept warm in that drafty house, she replied that they didn't keep warm; they froze. The next spring they took in 27 boarding pupils in addition to the day students. St. Benedict's sent two more sisters and a candidate to help. The candidate, Jane Horn, who later became Sister Marciana, was a former pupil of the sisters at White Earth. She was a helpful bridge for building understanding between the missionaries and the Ojibwe at Red Lake. (*Katherine Drexel and her two sisters, daughters of a wealthy banker in Philadelphia, engaged in charity for the American Indian and African American missions.) [SBMA McDonald, pp. 246-249 Sister Owen Lindblad, OSB, FULL OF FAIR HOPE: A History of St. Mary's Mission, Red Lake, (Park Press Quality Printing, Inc., Waite Park, MN, 1997), pp. 15-17, 34-39]
The new observatory opens in 1887; it is named for Charles M. Goodsell in 1891. Foundation plan of Goodsell Observatory. Scale: 1/4 inch equals to one foot.
Front elevation of Goodsell Observatory. Scale 1/4 inch equals to foot. The new observatory opened in 1887. It was named for Charles M. Goodsell in 1891.
St. Benedict's Academy (1883-1909). By the end of the 19th century, another large wing (Gertrude Hall) was added to St. Benedict's Academy. The academy had been incorporated with the Sisters of the Order of St. Benedict in 1887. It was one of the oldest secondary schools in Minnesota and one of the few Catholic "finishing schools" in the 1880s unique in its contribution to education in Minnesota's rural areas. The academy was well accepted because the concept of a convent boarding school was familiar to the early pioneers from Germany where the Benedictine sisters taught schools within the confines of their convent enclosures. The academy courses outlined in the catalogue, very similar to those offered in today's secondary schools, included Elocution, Algebra, Church History, Religion, Physical Geography, Ancient History, Hygiene, Rhetoric, Music and Art. Some textbooks used, still preserved in St. Benedict's Archives, include: Dr. Joseph Martindale's, First Lessons in Natural Philosophy, published by Elredge Brother of Philadelphia in 1879 (for science classes); J. C. Smith's history book published by J. B. Lippincott and Co., Philadelphia; and A. S. Barnes' GENERAL HISTORY, 1883. St. Benedict's Academy lost its position as the only finishing school in its territory in the 1890s. However, the academy can take credit for giving birth to the College of St. Benedict. By 1909 plans were underway to add college courses to the academy curriculum. In 1914 the College of St. Benedict was established -- one of the few women's colleges in Minnesota. It is unique in its cooperation with the men's St. John's University in Collegeville located a few miles from St. Joseph (Saint Benedict's Monastery Archives; McDonald pages 100-108; Sister Grace McDonald, "A Finishing School in the 1880s," Minnesota History, June 1946).
The grading plan for Carleton College shows the location between Nevada Street, First Street, and Second Street. Dated April, 1921. Scale 1 inch equals to 40 feet.
The group plan shows: 1) main quadrangle at the left, and 2) women's quadrangle at the right. Right top and right bottom corner is torn. Caption on the left top: "Complete scheme of heating to all campus buildings on main and women's quadrangles." Scale: 1 inch equals to 50 feet. Drawing number 3, March 1, 1917.
Group plan of Carleton College was hand-illustrated and drawn. The plan shows: 1) main quadrangle at the left, and 2) women's quadrangle at the right. Right top and right bottom corner were torn. Caption on the left top: Complete scheme of heating to all campus buildings on main and women's quadrangles. Scale 1 inch equals to 50 feet. Drawing no. 3, March 1, 1917. Revised March 29, 1919 & April 25, 1919.
The group plan of Carleton College shows: 1) main quadrangle at the left, and 2) women's quadrangle at the right. Drawing number 3, March 1, 1917, received March. 29, 1919. Scale: 1 inch equals to 50 feet.