The lush and fertile Upper Mississippi River Valley attracted settlers by the thousand throughout the 19th century. They came to fish, farm, work at the lumber mills and build new railroads. They came from eastern states, but they also came from Germany, Ireland and all of Europe. They came with their children, their languages, their religions - often Catholic - and even their diseases.

The Catholic bishops and clergy who were already here needed help ministering to their growing flocks and called on Catholic Sisters for assistance. Would they help provide education, healthcare, and care for the elderly and orphans?

Sisters came by steamship, train and covered wagon to the hardscrabble frontier. Often their log homes also functioned as schoolrooms, orphanages and workrooms. Community archives tell stories of Sisters rolling up their bedding to make room for their pupils every morning. They also tell of making meals for the children; providing washing and bedding for boarding students; giving medical attention when needed; doing farm chores and caring for livestock. Sometimes they had to dispatch snakes under their floorboards and outwit wolves at the door.

Although they faced greater hardship than most had ever experienced in their lives, the Sisters forged a new beginning, doing what needed to be done for all who needed help. They built schools and hospitals and orphanages. They shared their meager provisions with the hungry. They put one foot in front of the other, attending to chores, fitting in prayer as they worked.

When the Benedictine Sisters arrived in Nauvoo, they stayed in this house, originally a Mormon armory. They followed the Rule of Benedict, written in the 6th Century by the founder of the order.

BVM Sisters

The first group of Sisters arrived in Dubuque in 1843. Docking along the banks of the river at Dubuque, five BVM Sisters climbed out of the boat from Philadelphia and, "gathering their skirts," scaled the sandy hill, past crude shacks and untethered livestock, toward the Cathedral. Irish townspeople were "hard pressed to understand the influx of women they could not take to wife, yet who wore no habit and kept no cloister."

Dominican Sisters

Across the Mississippi River in 1847, a few pioneer daughters of local miners and farmers formed the new Sinsinawa Dominican Sisters. The young women began teaching students as they themselves took classes to learn how to be teachers.

Mercy Sisters

1867 saw the arrival of five Sisters of Mercy in DeWitt, two years after the end of the Civil War. Although they began teaching immediately, one of their members had helped nurse the "Irish Brigade" of the Union Army. Soon a request came from downriver: Davenport was in great need of a hospital to provide care to the poor and mentally ill. Would the Sisters consider establishing one? In December 1869, Davenport's Mercy Hospital opened on Marquette Street. Soon, patients with urgent conditions were seeking admission.

There has been an increase in the number of cholera cases in the city. ... The list of dead now numbers about twelve. ... Will the cholera death-roll lengthen or grow shorter within the next twenty four hours? We know not. - Davenport Democrat, Sept. 2, 1873

Franciscan Sisters of Perpetual Adoration

Upriver, the Franciscan Sisters of Perpetual Adoration arrived in LaCrosse, Wisc., in 1870, braving harsh northern winters to care for orphans and serve as teachers. Back in Dubuque, a request from Dubuque's Bishop John Hennessey to "help bring education and culture to the city" was met with the arrival of the Visitation Sisters in 1871.

The Benedictines' first Academy classroom was in an old billiard hall! This building came nearer the turn of the century.

Benedictine Sisters

Three years later, the Benedictine Sisters came ashore to teach young women in the area of Nauvoo, Illinois. An old armory served as both home and school, and classes were held in what was once a billiard hall. Despite the efforts of some townsmen to denounce "these nuns on the plea of public nuisance," by the turn of the century, the Benedictines were "making a thriving city out of a deserted Illinois town." (St. Louis Post Dispatch) Read more of our history!
This slender leather-bound catalogue contained information about the Benedictines' Academy for young women.

Presentation Sisters

Many Sisters arrived along the River Valley during intensely cold and snowy winters, and the young Irish Presentation Sisters were no different. Dubuque was piled with "snow several feet deep," when they arrived to teach Irish immigrant children. Settling in perhaps the poorest section of the Cathedral parish, West Hill was riddled with open mineral shafts, making travel dangerous at best. Beginning with 20 students, the new school's enrollment swelled to 80 within months. The children who could escape or postpone labor in the neighborhood saw mills by attending school were fortunate indeed.

Sisters often worked for free, meaning they had to find other means of income. During hard times, one Presentation Sister sold rags and stockings, while others worked in public schools for a salary when possible.

Dubuque Franciscan Sisters

Following hostility toward Catholics in Germany, a group of Franciscan Sisters emigrated to Dubuque in 1878 to establish an orphanage. Together with a growing number of orphaned children, the Sisters lived in the woefully small old Holy Trinity Church.

The Dubuque Franciscan Sisters had to beg for funds to support both the orphans and the needy elderly who soon occupied the orphanage. Times were hard. When asked for money to buy meat for dinner, Mother Xavier looked in her purse and found 30 cents. She handed half to the Sister cook. "It would not be prudent to spend everything. Here is who came to their door, Mother Xavier said simply, "One beggar must help another."

Clinton Franciscan Sisters

Another Franciscan community was entered the Valley when 21 Sisters, 11 novices, one postulant and a dog arrived in Dubuque on December 3, 1890. They would eventually become the Clinton Franciscan Sisters. Staying for a time with the Dubuque Franciscans, the new Sisters began teaching and operating hospitals throughout the area immediately. By 1893, they had purchased property and established their motherhouse and an academy for girls in Clinton.

Humility Sisters

The number of needy and abandoned children grew dramatically following the Civil War and outbreaks of cholera, smallpox, diptheria and other infectious diseases. The Humility Sisters arrived in Davenport in 1897 to open and staff St. Vincent Home for orphaned children, on farmland off West Central Park. There, they also raised crops and livestock for feeding their young charges.

In January, 2 more communities arrived along the shores of the Mississippi River. We'll tell you about them, and share stories from the first half of the 20th Century.