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Volume 074-3 - July 2020 (8 pages)
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Page: of 8
NCHS Bulletin July 2020
The Sisters of Mercy were committed to prayerful
service. In 1843 the first Sisters arrived in America on
the appropriately named sailing ship Queen of the West.
As additional Sisters arrived from Ireland small groups
began moving westward to establish branches in remote
areas of the frontier states and territories. Eight Irish Sisters arrived in San Francisco in December 1854. Led by
the then twenty-five year old Mother Mary Baptist Russell, they arrived just in time to nurse the city’s residents
through a raging cholera epidemic. St. Mary’s Hospital,
which they established in 1857, still serves the city today.
In 1855 Father Thomas Dalton, an Irish priest, was
appointed to oversee the vast parish of Grass Valley,
which then included all of Nevada County, Sierra
County, and parts of Plumas County and Placer County. Father Dalton embarked on an ambitious building
program, constructing parish churches throughout the
region, including in Grass Valley at the corner of what
is now South Church Street and Chapel Street. The
original wooden church was soon replaced by a brick
building. The old building was converted to a school,
which had 120 pupils by August 1862.
But Father Dalton’s most pressing concern was the
care of an increasing number of children who were
made orphans, or half orphans (children of one parent
who could not care for them) from mining accidents
and other causes. He envisioned establishing a house
of the Sisters of Mercy to serve this need in the region.
Father Dalton wrote to Mother Mary Baptist in San
Francisco to request members of her community to
serve in Nevada County.
After a successful exploratory visit to Grass Valley in
August 1862, Mother Mary Baptist Russell agreed to
send five Sisters from San Francisco to Grass Valley:
Sisters Mary Theresa King, Mary Joseph O’ Rourke,
Josephine Denis, and Felix Carr. She also sent a
twenty year-old postulant, Miss Caroline Cody, who
would later be professed as Sister Mary Peter Cody. In
anticipation of their arrival Father Dalton purchased a
piece of property fronting South Church Street, where
he planned to build a convent.
The group arrived on Wednesday, August 20, 1863.
The following Sunday a special collection for the
Sisters was taken up at the Sunday masses, and Sister
Mary Theresa King waas appointed Superior. Father
Dalton turned his Rectory over to the Sisters to operate as the Sacred Heart Convent. The first family of
four orphans arrived on April 2, 1866 from Sierra City,
followed by another family of four “blind, lame and
poverty stricken” children from Shasta County. * Within the first two months the Sisters had welcomed thirty
orphans into their care.° The arrival of large families
of orphan children was a pattern that continued into
the 20" century.°
Father Dalton immediately departed for Ireland to