Volume 022-1 - March 1968 (2 pages)

No stranger to hardship even then, Sister Mary Baptist Russell had spent her years at the Irish convent caring for cholera patients, for the fourth vow taken by all Sisters of Mercy was to devote their lives to the service of the poor, the sick, andthe ignorant, Feeling it a privilege to undertake the tremendous job before her, Sister Russell managed to Impart something of her own brave spirit to the courageous souls traveling with her by ship from Ireland to the New Vorld, and on Decenher 8, 1854, the new supertor confidently herded her little covey of nuns ashore at San Francisco. By 1854, when gold production in California had begun to drop off somewhat, the greediler gold seekers were moving to greener pastures, In San Francisco the more stable residents stayed to build homes and to try to establish a sounder community. The population of more than 40,000 was made up of all kinds of people, few of them willing to help a handful of nuns with seemingly insurmountable task of establish a community of Sisters of Mercy in that bay city. But the nuns and their few fellow workers were persistent and by 1857 St. Mary’s Hospital was founded. It is stfll in operation today and is the oldest Catholic hospital extant in California, In July of 1857, feeling that the first objective had been reached and that the Sisters in San Francisco could get along without her for awhile, Sister Mary Baptist made her first trip up the river to Sacramento City, there to establish one more foundation for her Order. In the spring of 1862 a request came for the foundation of a branch house of the Order in Grass Valley. Only the hardiest survived the triale and tribulations of travel in that era, but in August of that year Sister Mary Baptist and two companion Sisters resolutely undertook the rigorous trip north to the thrivingmining town intheSierras to determine if the place were sultable. The three nuns boarded the San Francisco to Sacramento steamer with little anticipation of pleasure. Sister Baptist had already made the difficult trip to Sacramento once and she doubted that river travel had Improved much in those intervening five years. She always referred to the riverboat as that ‘miserable steamer”, and on this trip she found her worst fears justified, Although there was a certain beauty in the golden brown hills around the bay, In Mt. Diablo rising above them, and in the rich grain fields, the sloughs and marshes of Suisun Bay were desolate. The weather became intensely hot and the weary travelers were plagued by fleas, gnats, and other pesky insects throughout the trip up the river, The waters of the Sacramento River were ence clear and clean, but with the onset of furtous mining activity in the mountains above, the river became muddy and roily. Because of both the mining and the frequent floods, the river channel was becoming more and more shallow, Willows now grew on mud banks where deepchannels had existed only thirteen years before. Frequently steamers stuck on the bars to remain stranded for hours at a time until rising tides would free them, Although racing steamera had set a record of six hours between Sacramento and San Francisco, those trips were the exceptions and sometimes there were tragedies if the hollers exploded, The river, although low, was still some feet above the level of previous years for the effects of the recent flood were still to be seen not only in the river but in the valley itself. When the Sisters disembarked at Sacramento they found that city still partly under water. After resting briefly at the convent in Sacramento, the nuns boarded a coach for the little mining town that was their destination. Through the hot, dusty valley they traveled toward the hille that rose out of the horizon ahead of them. All that day they traveled, and in late afternoon they arrived in Grass Valley, It was Father Thomas J. Dalton, pastor of St. Patricks Church, Grass Valley, who had requested that the Sisters come to Nevada County. Upon their arrival fn the “primitive country place’’, the nune found thet Father Dalton had already completed a new brick church and a 120-pupil school. An orphanage was a vital necessity here as mining was a dangerous occupation and many men were killed in the mines, leaving their familHes without a provider. Although the nuns saw the great need for their services in Grasse Valley, the nuns returned to San Francisco after a few days, promising to return when Father Dalton could providea-modestconvent for them. Again tn August of 1863 Sister Mary Baptist, this time accompanied by a party of six Sisters, made the trip by steamer from San Francisco to Sacramento, taking a day anda night. The next day the Sisters set out by coach and arrived In Grass Valley in the late afternoon, Hot and tired, and with their heavy, dust-laden habits dragging, the weary nune were relieved to find that the priest’s sister, Kate Dalton, had a fine dinner awaiting them in Father Dalton’s house. Father Dalton turned his house over to the Sisters for their convent, On August 27, 1863, the new foundation received the name ‘Convent of the Secred Heart’’ but eventually came to be known as Mount St. Mary’s. The parish house served as a convent until March 20, 1866, when a new building was finally provided for the nuns. In Sept. 1863, Sister Mary Baptist Russell and her companion Sister returned to San Francisco from where, through the years, she would watch this foundation flourish and grow to include aday school, a boarding school, an orphanage for boys and an orphanage for ris. e The golden September days of 1888 found Sister Mary Baptist Russell enjoying her last visit to Nevada County, Although she had a vigorous constitution, a recurring throat condition caused her doctor to order her to vacation in the "beneficial pine district” of the Slerra Nevada foothille, The air was clear and bracing here and there was no hare at all. The seascos were well-defined, and the climate was considered good, especially helpful for anyone with weak lungs. The hills were covered with pines, oaks, and occasional madrones, The fertile earth was conducive to the growth of good fruit and vegetables in abundance and the foundation Sisters found it as economical to buy their vegetables as to grow them. Walking and resting in the forests (that to the good Sister seomed almost primeval) she and her companion Sisters enjoyed the privacy of the empty woods for they had a freedom in sparsely-populated Grass Valley that would have been impossible elsewhere, Surely Sister Mary Baptist, despite her ingrained humility and self-forgetfulness, must have felt a little inward giow of satisfaction as she watched the orphans happily playing ball under the pines or watched the Sisters teaching well-attended classes in the schools she had had a part in creating. It was on this visit, too, after 34 years in California, that she saw a gold mine for the first time. She visited the Idaho andthe North Star Mines and marveled at the shafts and amount of labor involved in extracting gold from the bowels of the earth. In a letter to her brother she commented that mining was a dangerous, laborious job, in some mines quartz was quarried from 1600 feet below the surface, For the first time, also, she learned about the gentle art of highgrading. She was amazed that miners were required to change all of thelr clothes at the end of each shift because some unscrupulous men hid gold in their garments. with her health restored, her vacation ended, and Mother Mary Baptist Russell (for she was Mother Superior now) returned to San Francisco where she served another ten years, Sho died August 6, 1898, having completed an oft-times difficult but surely a rich and spiritually rewarding lifo as the Pioneer Steter of Mercy of California. As hor memortale stand San Francisco’s St, Mary's Hospital, Grase Valley’s Mt, St. Mary’s, and all the other Mercy foundations in California that are alive and enduring to this very day. SOURCES: Archives of Mt, St. Mary's, Grass Valley, California, IN MEMOR! AM Mr. Ernest E. Sowell Mr. Mark Nesbit Mr. W. W. Kallenberger Mr. O. T. Littleton Mr. Perley OD. Pingree Mrs. John Elliot Mrs. Ruth Rector Mrs. W. WM. Gracey Mr. Colin Smith COMING EVENTS APRIL 25th, 1968 NEVADA COUNTY Citizen of the Year Awards Banquet * ek Kk Kk & Gala Opening of the MINING MUSEUM OF GRASS VALLEY June 14, 15 and 16 1968 Plan NOW to Attend

No stranger to hardship even then, Sister Mary Baptist Russell had spent her years at the Irish convent caring for cholera patients, for the fourth vow taken by all Sisters of Mercy was to devote their lives to the service of the poor, the sick, andthe ignorant, Feeling it a privilege to undertake the tremendous job before her, Sister Russell managed to Impart something of her own brave spirit to the courageous souls traveling with her by ship from Ireland to the New Vorld, and on Decenher 8, 1854, the new supertor confidently herded her little covey of nuns ashore at San Francisco. By 1854, when gold production in California had begun to drop off somewhat, the greediler gold seekers were moving to greener pastures, In San Francisco the more stable residents stayed to build homes and to try to establish a sounder community. The population of more than 40,000 was made up of all kinds of people, few of them willing to help a handful of nuns with seemingly insurmountable task of establish a community of Sisters of Mercy in that bay city. But the nuns and their few fellow workers were persistent and by 1857 St. Mary’s Hospital was founded. It is stfll in operation today and is the oldest Catholic hospital extant in California, In July of 1857, feeling that the first objective had been reached and that the Sisters in San Francisco could get along without her for awhile, Sister Mary Baptist made her first trip up the river to Sacramento City, there to establish one more foundation for her Order. In the spring of 1862 a request came for the foundation of a branch house of the Order in Grass Valley. Only the hardiest survived the triale and tribulations of travel in that era, but in August of that year Sister Mary Baptist and two companion Sisters resolutely undertook the rigorous trip north to the thrivingmining town intheSierras to determine if the place were sultable. The three nuns boarded the San Francisco to Sacramento steamer with little anticipation of pleasure. Sister Baptist had already made the difficult trip to Sacramento once and she doubted that river travel had Improved much in those intervening five years. She always referred to the riverboat as that ‘miserable steamer”, and on this trip she found her worst fears justified, Although there was a certain beauty in the golden brown hills around the bay, In Mt. Diablo rising above them, and in the rich grain fields, the sloughs and marshes of Suisun Bay were desolate. The weather became intensely hot and the weary travelers were plagued by fleas, gnats, and other pesky insects throughout the trip up the river, The waters of the Sacramento River were ence clear and clean, but with the onset of furtous mining activity in the mountains above, the river became muddy and roily. Because of both the mining and the frequent floods, the river channel was becoming more and more shallow, Willows now grew on mud banks where deepchannels had existed only thirteen years before. Frequently steamers stuck on the bars to remain stranded for hours at a time until rising tides would free them, Although racing steamera had set a record of six hours between Sacramento and San Francisco, those trips were the exceptions and sometimes there were tragedies if the hollers exploded, The river, although low, was still some feet above the level of previous years for the effects of the recent flood were still to be seen not only in the river but in the valley itself. When the Sisters disembarked at Sacramento they found that city still partly under water. After resting briefly at the convent in Sacramento, the nuns boarded a coach for the little mining town that was their destination. Through the hot, dusty valley they traveled toward the hille that rose out of the horizon ahead of them. All that day they traveled, and in late afternoon they arrived in Grass Valley, It was Father Thomas J. Dalton, pastor of St. Patricks Church, Grass Valley, who had requested that the Sisters come to Nevada County. Upon their arrival fn the “primitive country place’’, the nune found thet Father Dalton had already completed a new brick church and a 120-pupil school. An orphanage was a vital necessity here as mining was a dangerous occupation and many men were killed in the mines, leaving their familHes without a provider. Although the nuns saw the great need for their services in Grasse Valley, the nuns returned to San Francisco after a few days, promising to return when Father Dalton could providea-modestconvent for them. Again tn August of 1863 Sister Mary Baptist, this time accompanied by a party of six

Sisters, made the trip by steamer from San Francisco to Sacramento, taking a day anda night. The next day the Sisters set out by coach and arrived In Grass Valley in the late afternoon, Hot and tired, and with their heavy, dust-laden habits dragging, the weary nune were relieved to find that the priest’s sister, Kate Dalton, had a fine dinner awaiting them in Father Dalton’s house. Father Dalton turned his house over to the Sisters for their convent, On August 27, 1863, the new foundation received the name ‘Convent of the Secred Heart’’ but eventually came to be known as Mount St. Mary’s. The parish house served as a convent until March 20, 1866, when a new building was finally provided for the nuns. In Sept. 1863, Sister Mary Baptist Russell and her companion Sister returned to San Francisco from where, through the years, she would watch this foundation flourish and grow to include aday school, a boarding school, an orphanage for boys and an orphanage for ris. e The golden September days of 1888 found Sister Mary Baptist Russell enjoying her last visit to Nevada County, Although she had a vigorous constitution, a recurring throat condition caused her doctor to order her to vacation in the "beneficial pine district” of the Slerra Nevada foothille, The air was clear and bracing here and there was no hare at all. The seascos were well-defined, and the climate was considered good, especially helpful for anyone with weak lungs. The hills were covered with pines, oaks, and occasional madrones, The fertile earth was conducive to the growth of good fruit and vegetables in abundance and the foundation Sisters found it as economical to buy their vegetables as to grow them. Walking and resting in the forests (that to the good Sister seomed almost primeval) she and her companion Sisters enjoyed the privacy of the empty woods for they had a freedom in sparsely-populated Grass Valley that would have been impossible elsewhere, Surely Sister Mary Baptist, despite her ingrained humility and self-forgetfulness, must have felt a little inward giow of satisfaction as she watched the orphans happily playing ball under the pines or watched the Sisters teaching well-attended classes in the schools she had had a part in creating. It was on this visit, too, after 34 years in California, that she saw a gold mine for the first time. She visited the Idaho andthe North Star Mines and marveled at the shafts and amount of labor involved in extracting gold from the bowels of the earth. In a letter to her brother she commented that mining was a dangerous, laborious job, in some mines quartz was quarried from 1600 feet below the surface, For the first time, also, she learned about the gentle art of highgrading. She was amazed that miners were required to change all of thelr clothes at the end of each shift because some unscrupulous men hid gold in their garments. with her health restored, her vacation ended, and Mother Mary Baptist Russell (for she was Mother Superior now) returned to San Francisco where she served another ten years, Sho died August 6, 1898, having completed an oft-times difficult but surely a rich and spiritually rewarding lifo as the Pioneer Steter of Mercy of California. As hor memortale stand San Francisco’s St, Mary's Hospital, Grase Valley’s Mt, St. Mary’s, and all the other Mercy foundations in California that are alive and enduring to this very day. SOURCES: Archives of Mt, St. Mary's, Grass Valley, California, IN MEMOR! AM Mr. Ernest E. Sowell Mr. Mark Nesbit Mr. W. W. Kallenberger Mr. O. T. Littleton Mr. Perley OD. Pingree Mrs. John Elliot Mrs. Ruth Rector Mrs. W. WM. Gracey Mr. Colin Smith COMING EVENTS APRIL 25th, 1968 NEVADA COUNTY Citizen of the Year Awards Banquet * ek Kk Kk & Gala Opening of the MINING MUSEUM OF GRASS VALLEY June 14, 15 and 16 1968 Plan NOW to Attend