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The History of Saint Mary's Academy in Salt Lake City 1875-1926
The History of Saint Mary’s Academy in Salt Lake City
1875-1926
By ANDREA VENTILLA
Women’s role in the nineteenth century both in America and in Europe was shaped clearly: to be a good housewife and mother, a “true woman,” who was pure, pious, obedient and domestic.1 Accordingly, the early female educators used the “true women” philosophy as their basis for establishing a dedicated curriculum for women at the beginning of the century.2 This paradigm continued to be the foundation for the education of young women in the increasingly more numerous academies and seminaries for the rest of the century. One of these was the Saint Mary’s Academy located in Salt Lake City and established by the Holy Cross Sisters, which succeeded in its goal to be a premiere, high quality source of women’s education for Utah and its neighboring territories.
The Holy Cross Sisters came to America in 1843. Although their original aim was to do missionary work with the Indians and to be housekeepers for the priests of the Congregation, they soon realized the necessity for creating a novitiate to meet the needs of an educational establishment in the wilderness. 3 The Holy Cross Sisters opened Saint Mary’s Academy and Novitiate in order to train teachers for the Congregation in 1855. Saint Angela’s Academy, the first female institute to educate young women in the region opened up two years later in Illinois. From this time forth the number of such female academies, established and run by the Holy Cross Sisters, increased steadily.
Sister M. Rita (Louise Heffernan) a teacher at Saint Mary’s Academy.
Congressional Archives and Records, The Sisters of the Holy Cross, Notre Dame
Although various Catholic priests had ministered briefly in Utah, beginning with the 1776 journey of Franciscan Fathers Dominguez and Escalante, it was Father Edward Kelly who established the first permanent Catholic ministry in the territory in the fall of 1866.4 After purchasing a lot in Salt Lake City for the first Catholic Church in Utah, Father Kelly had to return to his home since the Archbishop of San Francisco proposed that this territory would be set up as part of a new vicariate. In 1868, Utah and Colorado were erected into a Vicariate Apostolic. In 1871, the first Catholic Church dedicated in the territory was named The Church of St. Mary Magdalene in Salt Lake City. Two years later, in 1873, Father Lawrence Scanlan came to Utah where he served as a priest until his death in 1915.5
By all accounts, Father Scanlan was inspired by a sincere desire to initiate a greatly needed program of Catholic education in Utah. In the spring of 1874 he wrote to Reverend Edward F. Sorin, supervisor of the Congregation of the Holy Cross, and requested Sisters to come and open a school.6 When the two Holy Cross Sisters, Mother M. Augusta and Sister M. Raymond arrived in Salt Lake City in 1875, there were approximately eight-hundred Catholics scattered in Utah and eastern Nevada. 7 The
Sisters’ original goal was to establish a female academy, but they soon realized the region needed a hospital as well.8
In the 1870s, the mining industry in its infancy continued to develop and construction of the Union Pacific crossed through the Utah region. As a result, an increasing number of Gentiles came to Utah, some bringing their families. The Sisters recognized the opportunity and visited all the mine camps and smelters in the Salt Lake Valley with vicar general, Father Denis Kiely.9 In the summer of 1875, the Sisters began to make arrangements for the construction of the Academy.
Saint Mary’s Academy, located on 100 West between 100 and 200 South in Salt Lake City.
UTAH STATE HISTORICAL SOCIETY
The Saint Mary’s Academy commenced on September 6, 1875, when Mother M. Augusta called her first class to order in a little adobe cottage on 100 West between 100 and 200 South even as construction of the Academy was not yet completed. Classes in session disregarded the plasterers and carpenters that worked in other parts of the building. The Salt Lake Tribune reported that, the Academy was “beautifully and healthfully located, with spacious play grounds, it was thoroughly ventilated and furnished with all the modern appliances conducive to the health comfort of its inmates.”10
In April 1876, the building of the Academy was barely completed when an explosion of forty to fifty tons of explosives in downtown Salt Lake City seriously damaged the building. 11 This accident broke nearly all the windows of the Academy and damaged the frames, doors and walls. The following year a violent storm caused additional damage to the building tearing off the tin part of the roof.12 However, persistent work and many donations brought the school back to its original condition.
In 1878, Mother M. Charles became Superior of the Academy. As her funds allowed, she purchased an adjacent property and by 1887 the entire square belonged to the Sisters. At this time a steam house was erected, along with a new kitchen and a music hall. Saint Mary’s Academy moved into the steam house and the original adobe school became a dormitory and infirmary for the boys of St. Joseph’s School.13 By the end of the nineteenth century, the third story of the steam house was completed and furnished, bathrooms and electric lights were installed, classrooms and dormitories were extended and an infirmary was also provided within the house.14
Although Salt Lake City had only eight to ten Catholic families in total, by the end of the first school year in 1876, there were a hundred day pupils and twenty-five boarders.15 Later in the decade, from 1876 through 1879, the school averaged closer to one-hundred and fifty students, then increased to two hundred in the 1880s.16 Enrollment declined somewhat in the 1890s, returning to about one-hundred and fifty students per year after the turn of the twentieth century. The decline was probably due to the introduction of free public schools in Utah, which provided the opportunity for elementary-aged students to obtain their education without cost. The nation-wide Panic of 1893, when the mining industry experienced the closure of many mines, added to the decline of enrollment.17 As a result many people lost their jobs. The Sisters claimed to Father Scanlan that “they have scholars yet they are unable to support themselves owing to the fact that the parents of the children are not earning.”18
After the turn of the century, the number of students increased with about three hundred pupils by the 1910s.19 In 1920, for the first time in the history of the school, several students were rejected because of the lack of space in the schoolhouse and dormitory.20 Sisters kept busy with their regular day pupils and teaching instrumental and private vocal music lessons.
The Chapel at Saint Mary’s Academy.
Congressional Archives and Records, The Sisters of the Holy Cross, Notre Dame
At the beginning of the first school year in 1876, the institution had only two teachers, but with the increase in enrollment, the number grew to twelve. In a short time, the school averaged fourteen regular teachers and two or three music teachers. These instructors normally taught multiple subjects and assisted in such practical training as washing, cooking and ironing. Together with the ancillary sisters there was an average of twentyfive sisters volunteering their services.21 Many of the sisters were not from the United States, which made their experiences in Utah and the Far West even more unusual.
Sister M. Eugenie from France only planned on teaching French at the Academy in Salt Lake City for one year. Shortly after her arrival in Salt Lake City, the young Sister walked to a butcher shop in the downtown area. A few Indians on the street, attracted by the Sisters’ beads and cords, followed her and a companion. Sister M. Eugenie fled in terror and hid herself behind the butcher’s block. A year later, she was overjoyed when she returned to the mother house in Notre Dame.22
Students came to the Academy from Salt Lake City as well as other Utah towns including Bingham, Park City, Castle Gate, Stockton, and Eureka. Students from all over the Intermountain West including Idaho, Montana, Wyoming and Nevada, found their way to Saint Mary’s. They came from mining towns such as Silver City, Idaho, Anaconda, Montana, Pioche, Nevada, and Rock Springs, Wyoming, and railroad communities that includedBlackfoot, Idaho, Ely, Nevada, and Evanston, Wyoming. Students also came from military posts at Rawlins, Wyoming, and Fort Duchesne, Utah. A few came from Washington and California.
Students outside the Saint Mary’s Academy building.
Congressional Archives and Records, The Sisters of the Holy Cross, Notre Dame
According to the available student records, 68 percent of pupils were Catholic; some were first or second generation Irish-Catholics. In one remembered incident involving an Irish immigrant employed as a janitor at the Academy and whose devotion to the nuns was part of his Christian heritage, Mother Sienna recalled, the “Pat” was forever complaining in his delightful Irish brogue, “Mither, the pipes air lakin.” Finally convinced that some repair work was necessary, Mother Sienna sent for a plumber and when he arrived and asked what the matter was the directress said: “Sir, the pipes air lakin.”23
It is very difficult to determine the religious background of the remaining 32 percent of the non-Catholic students. Some were most likely Mormons even though the Holy Cross Sisters reported, “On the Sunday prior to the opening of school, the leading Mormon Bishop proclaimed from the pulpit that no Mormon would be permitted to send their children to the Sisters’ School under penalty of being cut off from the church.”24
Despite of the opposition expressed by the LDS bishop, there was little or no conflict between the Mormon community and the Catholic school. In fact, by the turn of the century the LDS church showed great respect toward the school and reported a complement of the fine education the Academy offered in the Deseret News:
Among Mormons who attended the Academy were Florence Pike, the daughter of Walter Pike, a popular Mormon physician in Provo, and granddaughter of Lorenzo Snow, the fifth president of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Some students suchas Emily Brooksbank Snelgrove, a young convert to Mormonism who attended Saint Mary’s in the 1880s, was excused from the Catholic devotional and did not participate in the Catholic rites. Instead, she was assigned to the study hall which gave her additional time to devote to her studies.26
The school was able accommodate non-resident students in its dormitory. On average, 35 percent of the students were boarders. The dormitory reached its full capacity of ninety-four boarders in 1900, and to accommodate other non-residents, students were allowed to live with relatives and acquaintances and in the Hotel Templeton, located in the downtown area not far from the school.27 This number became an average enrollment for the dormitory in the twentieth century.
Father Sorin, the founder of the University of Notre Dame in Indiana, and Mother M. Angela, the superior and directress of Saint Mary’s Academy in Notre Dame, drew from the French ideal of Catholic Academies to create their American counterparts. Their “Programme of Studies for Academies and Select Schools” became the pattern for all Catholic academies, including the one in Salt Lake City.28 The ten-year long program consisted of three primary classes, three preparatory classes and four academic classes.
Table 1. Subjects taught in Holy Cross Academies according to the “Programme of Studies for Academies and Select Schools”29
Primary - Catechism, Spelling, Reading, Writing, Arithmetic, Geography, Grammar
Preparatory - Catechism, Spelling, Reading, Dictation, Arithmetic, Geography, Grammar, Bible History, US History, Map drawing/use of Globes, Physiology, Languages
Academic - Philosophy, Bible/Church History, Algebra/trigonometry, Ancient/Modern History, Rhetoric, Geometry, Etymology, Chemistry, Logic, Botany, Bookkeeping, Languages, Christian Religion, Astronomy, Literature, History of France/England, Geology, Criticism of Standard Authors
Every academy differed from this model to a certain extent, but each was able to adjust the program according to the number of students enrolled, which resulted in combined aged classes fairly regularly. According to the first bulletin of SaintMary’s Academy in Salt Lake City, the school offered instrumental, vocal and drawing lessons in the academic department apart from the regular “English branches.”30 The school accepted every qualifying applicant regardless of age or religion. Enrollment continued throughout the year, and the students tested into their classes according to the results of their admission scores. In the first few years of the Academy, the enrollment was not large enough to fill all the classes in the ten-year program. Although the school generally combined classes within the primary department, the four academy level classes were kept separate when possible. By 1881, the Academy had four academic classes with fifty students, two preparatory classes with eighty pupils and one large primary class with fifty “minims.”31 At the beginning of the twentieth century, different kinds of divisions existed in the academic department. Beside the
Clergy and students raising the flag at Saint Mary’s.
Congressional Archives and Records, The Sisters of the Holy Cross, Notre Dame
English and music and arts division appeared the scientific department, where the pupils were thoroughly familiar with chemistry, botany, physics, and mathematics. In chemistry classes the students conducted scientific experiments which were considered both somewhat dangerous and exciting: “The study of chemistry seems to be a favorite. The students’ success in making hydrogen sulphide needed no verbal report to the other departments of the house.” 32 In the botany class, students collected different kinds of plants and “every flower from wayside or garden that entered the gates being secured as a subject for botanical analysis.”33
The curriculum improvement is also reflected in the number of available subjects as well. In the third school year, private classes opened not only in music and drawing, but also in modern languages such as French, German and Italian.34 In the first school year, the Sisters taught only piano lessons as part of their musical education but by the 1890s students could also learn zither, organ, guitar, banjo, harp, mandolin, flute and violin. This was the case with the visual arts as well. At the beginning of the 1880s, the Academy offered the following subjects in the art department: drawing, painting in oil and water colors, plain sewing and ornamental needlework.35 A decade later these subjects extended to china and mirror painting, portrait drawing in crayon, sketching scenes in pastel, and Honiton lace-making.36
With the arrival of Mother Charles in 1878, the school’s academic program began to includecourses in history and astronomy. During her leadership, Mother Charles sought to apply the “programme” developed by Mother Angela and Father Sorin as much as possible. The variety of classes increased with time: students who enrolled after 1880 could learn about philosophy, chemistry, elocution and bookkeeping. Through the influence of Mother Charles, the school started to emphasize physical education. Calisthenics were taught for the girls in every department. The Academy had an outdoor tennis court and croquet plot, “with mallets and rackets neatly laid out, and a young soft-voiced sister to instruct and supervise.”37 As long as the weather permitted, the Sisters conducted physical culture classes outdoors.
The school placed great emphasis on educating its students about cleanliness. The Sisters taught it in every department. When an epidemic broke out in Salt Lake City in the winter of 1899, the Board of Health closed down every educational institution except for Saint Mary's.38
In 1890, the school began to offer bookkeeping classes. At the beginning of the twentieth century, in order to respond to the modern world’s challenges, the school also announced a commercial training program. 39 Bookkeeping, shorthand, letter writing, typewriting and stenography were among the subjects of the commercial course. The students of the commercialcourse also learned music and literature, proving that the “spirit of commercialism and the literary arts may be fostered simultaneously.”40
In January 1916, professor Mosiah Hall, inspector of Utah State High Schools, spent a day at the Academy and observed the work of the various classes, especially the academic courses. He sent the following letter to Joseph T. Kingsbury, president of the University of Utah:
Later that year President Kingsbury visited the school to finalize the accreditation that insured that every student who fulfilled an academic course and graduated from Saint Mary’s could transfer to the University of Utah as a sophomore.42
The Sisters sought to provide the highest quality education possible with the resources at hand and that they could secure. Mother Angela wrote and edited books for the Sisters of the Holy Cross, as they were unable to use the textbooks from France, except for teaching the subject of French for which Sister M. Eugenie had texbooks shipped all the way from France to her students. 43 Copies of French newspapers were provided to students throughout the school year and during vacations as well. Sister Eugenie also wrote French letters to her students during semester breaks.44
The faculty’s dedication was also reflected in the extra time they spent outside of class time teaching and developing personal relationships with their students. Sister M. Eleanore, who became a philosophy teacher at the Academy in 1886, was typical. The student body loved her for her justice, strictness and her willingness to help with the subject matter at any time “Even when her teaching days were over, she held court on a bench on campus, where the pupils sought after her company as well as her knowledge about nature, but even more after her knowledge of God and his Justice.”45
After graduation students sought assistance and advice from the Sisters. Mother M. Sienna, an excellent musician who played the harp, piano, and violin, loved to help her former students who turned to her for help quite often.46 They acknowledged important events for students such as when Emily Brooksbank married one year after her graduation and the Sisters sent her a friendship book with warm wishes. 47 The Sisters also kept parents well informed of their child’s progress through quarterly reports that detailed both academic and social accomplishments.48
The 1919 graduating class of Saint Mary’s Academy at the Cathedral of the Madeleine.
Congressional Archives and Records, The Sisters of the Holy Cross, Notre Dame
Basic tuition for one session of five months was $125, which included board, bedding, and washing. Music instrumental lessons were an additional thirty dollars and languages ten dollars. Students who wanted to take private vocal or drawing lessons paid an additional twenty dollars.49 Tuition was high by comparison with Brigham Young Academy (BYA), which opened just a year after Saint Mary’s, where students paid eight dollars for a semester, one dollar additional for language classes and five dollars more for musical instruction.50 However, Saint Mary’s Academy also provided financial assistance for its students. Principal Mother Charles arranged for partial and full tuition waivers. She believed that every Catholic child had a right to be educated in a Catholic school. She made concessions to the daughters of the worthy poor, and arranged with students to repay the tuition after graduation when they had an earning capacity of their own.51
By the 1910s, as the school’s financial situation became more stable, 30 percent of the students received free tuition.52 Groups, like the Knights of Columbus, supported the school “by the foundation of a reward to be bestowed on the student of Saint Mary’s who distinguished herself by her effort for intellectual advancement and ladylike deportment.”53
At the end of every school year the institution held Exhibition Days or Commencement programs for visitors, during which the students demonstrated their newly developed skills and knowledge. Programs included musical numbers from operas and other musical works. As part of the performance, some of the students showcased their skills in calisthenics. The students also demonstrated their level of literacy in the matters of literature and philosophy by reading literary works (such as poems, drama excerpts, and even their own essays), which they also presented, at times, in foreign languages. Gold medals were awarded to the best students in Christian doctrine, penmanship, studies, drawing, painting, vocal and instrumental music, plain sewing and ornamental needlework. In addition to presentations, the event included exhibitions of needle work, paintings, maps and class work of papers in mathematics, history, grammar, languages and book-keeping. Commencement activities might include picnic trips such as to Lake Point in 1876.54
In 1898, Mother Lucretia introduced another annual event—the May Procession. On the last day of May, school children carried banners and sang hymns as they passed in procession through the Academy grounds to an outdoor shrine, where the Sodality president crowned the Lady “Queen of the May.”55
As the women’s club movements intensified throughout America in the nineteenth century, the students of female academies also formed cultural, literary, military and athletic associations. At Saint Mary’s, students organized Saint Angela’s Literary Society in 1900. Members studied the standard authors and other literary works and composed papers about how to interpret them. Students from the Literary Society presented several interesting programs during the years. Senior students observed “Longfellow Day” by reading from their newly edited Saint Mary’s Journal 56 The participants of the program interspersed the readings with vocal and instrumental musical selections. The students published their literary papers not only in the Academy’s manuscript journal, but also in the area’s
Catholic newspaper, the Intermountain Catholic. 57 By 1921, the Academy had two different literary societies, one for the elementaryaged children, The Little Flower Literary Circle and Dante Literary Circle for the advanced students.58
The Academy regularly held lectures on interpreting music and literature inviting teachers from different universities to speak. One of the most popular lecturers was Maude May Babcock who was a regular guest at the Academy. She taught elocution and gave reading programs a few times during the school years.59
Sisters of the Holy Cross on the Saint Mary’s Academy tennis court. From Left to Right: Sister Bennidetta, Sister Nunseo, Sister Corola, Sister Wilma, and Sister Josepha.
Congressional Archives and Records, The Sisters of the Holy Cross, Notre Dame
With the invention from local movie theater, the educational tools broadened for the Academy. In 1921, the school received its first motion picture machine. In the movie theater, “not only comedies but also educational themes were presented, such as the invention, development and practical demonstration of the X-ray, the history of navigation, and many others, thus combining pleasure and profit.”60
The leadership of the Academy established Saint Mary’s Athletic Association in 1913. It sponsored a basketball and baseball team, tennis players, and a classical dance group. Later students participated in archery, fencing, and military marching.61
The institution provided excellent education, offered practical training, and emphasized good manners and religious activity. One former student remembered her time at the Academy:
Students at Saint Mary’s Academy.
Congressional Archives and Records, The Sisters of the Holy Cross, Notre Dame
Campus life for the students of Saint Mary’s Academy was not just about studying subjects but it became a determining factor for the character and lifestyle of its students.
Seeing the example of commitment shown by the Sisters, some of the students later joined the Holy Cross Congregation. Among the first graduates was a young woman, Louise Heffernan, daughter of Fort Douglas Commander Brigadier General JamesHeffernan. She became the first postulant to enter the novitiate from the West. She received her holy habit in 1878 and made her profession in 1881.63 Louise Heffernan, later known as Sister M. Rita, completed her graduate studies at Harvard University and became the head of the English department at the Saint Mary’s Academy in Notre Dame, Indiana. The year 1894 was another successful year as three of the graduate students united the Sisters of the Holy Cross: the Bruneau siblings, Alice, later known as Sister M. Dorothea; Eugenia, later known as Sister M. Bernice; and Helen MacFadden, later known as Sister M. Denyse. Sister M. Bernice served in the Sacred Heart Academy in Ogden as a music and biology teacher. Sister M. Denyse served as a book-keeper and accountant at Saint Mary’s Academy in Notre Dame, Indiana. Adeline DuChene, a student in the class of 1900, became Sister M. Clotile and taught music and French at the mother house, Saint Mary’s Academy in Notre Dame.64 In the twentieth century, an additional ten students entered the Congregation. 65 All of them became educators, most of them music teachers. Some returned to their alma mater to teach.
Saint Mary’s Academy in Salt Lake City was the first female academy in the Intermountain West operated by the Holy Cross Sisters. 66 The institution was most attractive to those students that aspired to a liberal education of the highest quality, one that would “best qualify them for active participation in the affairs of every-day life … to embellish their characters with the refinement of art, and above all … make them noble, God-fearing women.”67
The success story of the Academy continued in the twentieth century making necessary a move to a new building. The search for a new location began in 1921, and in 1923 with a three-hundred thousand dollars loan from The Travelers Insurance Company, the Sisters bought four hundred acres of land at the foot of the Wasatch Mountains on Thirteenth South and Thirtieth East in Salt Lake City.68 The new and larger facility made possible the addition of a college department.69 The College of Saint Mary of the Wasatch opened in 1926, with a full liberal arts college program and a pre-nursing program taught in cooperation with Holy Cross Hospital.
The enrollment of the students began to decline in the late 1940s.Both Saint Mary’s Academy and the College of Saint Mary of the Wasatch were unique institutions, having educated girls and young women to liberal arts programs, sciences and female professions for almost a hundred years. Saint Mary of the Wasatch closed down in 1970. Neither the Sisters nor the diocese had the resources to provide the major renovations the facilities required and in 1972 the building was sold. A powerful Catholic school and symbol sadly disappeared from Salt Lake City.70
NOTES
Andrea Ventilla is a PhD candidate in the Department of History of Education at the University of Pecs, Hungary. She wishes to thank Sister Bernice Marie Hollenhorst in the Congregational Archives and Record of the Sisters of the Holy Cross in Notre Dame, Indiana; Gary Topping in the Archives of the Diocese of Salt Lake City; Annette Marston, Steven Pratt and Gabor Ventilla for their assistance.
1 Barbara Smith Solomon, In the Company of Educated Woman (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1985), 95.
2 For example Emma Willard, Katherine Beecher, Almira Phelps, Mary Lyon. Please see additional details about this subject in: Thomas Woody, A History of Women's Education in the United States (New York, Octagon Books, 1974).
3 Sister Maria Concepta, The Making of a Sister-Teacher (Notre Dame-London: University of Notre Dame Press, 1965), 16.
4 Before 1866, Catholic visits to the area had been sporadic and transitory, consisting of traders, explorers, mountain men and soldiers and the occasional priests who came to minister to them. For a good summary about the history of the Catholic Church in Utah see, Bernice Maher Mooney, Salt of the Earth. The History of the Catholic Church in Utah 1776-1987 (Salt Lake City: Catholic Diocese of Salt Lake City, 1992).
Father Edward Kelly belonged to the Vicariate of Marysville, California. He had first travelled to Utah in May 1866 in response to a sick call he had received in Nevada. He remained to celebrate Mass at Fort Douglas and baptize a dozen children, and he was so impressed by the enthusiasm of the tiny Catholic community that he sought and was granted permission to purchase land in the city on which to build a church and a school. Garry Topping, “Mormon-Catholic Relations in Utah History: Early Years,” (unpublished paper, copy in the author’s possession).
5 Robert J. Dwyer, “Pioneer Bishop: Lawrence Scanlan, 1843-1915,” Utah Historical Quarterly 20 (April 1952): 135-58. For more details about Father Scanlan see, John Bernard McGloin, S.J., “Two Early Reports Concerning Roman Catholicism in Utah, 1876-1881,” Utah Historical Quarterly 29 (October 1961): 33346; Francis J. Weber, “Catholicism Among the Mormons, 1875-79,” Utah Historical Quarterly 44 (Spring 1976): 141-48.
6 Denis Kiely, “Brief History of the Church in Utah,” manuscript written in 1900, MSS A 2397, Utah State Historical Society.
7 Sister M. Georgia (Costin), Mother M. Augusta (Anderson), “Doing What Needs Doing,” in Worth Their Salt: ed. Colleen Whitley (Logan: Utah State University Press, 1996), 33. For a detailed summary about Catholic school see, Robert J. Dwyer, “Catholic Education in Utah,” Utah Historical Quarterly 43 (Fall 1975): 362-79.
8 For a more detailed description about the Holy Cross Hospital, see Marilyn C. Barker, The Early Holy Cross Hospital & Salt Lake Valley (Salt Lake City: Holy Cross Hospital, 1975).
9 The purpose of this visit was to raise funds for the school and recruit. Centenary Chronicles of the Sisters of the Holy Cross 1841-1941 Superior Generals Vol. II (Paterson, NJ: Saint Anthony Guild Press, 1940): 79.
10 “Saint Mary’s Academy,” Salt Lake Tribune, September 1, 1875.
11 “Terrible Disaster,” Deseret News, April 6, 1877.
12 Ibid.
13 St. Joseph’s School was established two months after the opening of Saint Mary’s Academy. It was an elementary school for boys operated by the Holy Cross Sisters in the same building as Saint Mary’s Academy until the Academy moved to the new steam house. St. Joseph’s School was discontinued in 1903. Centenary Chronicles of the Sisters of the Holy Cross 1841-1941. Vol.V: 4.
14 Centenary Chronicles of the Sisters of the Holy Cross 1841-1941. Pioneers and Builders. Vol. III (Notre Dame, IN: St. Mary of the Immaculate Conception, 1941): 82.
15 Sister M Georgia (Costin), “Doing What Needs Doing,” 39.
16 All of the statistical data published in this article are based on the student records of Saint Mary’s Academy in Salt Lake City between 1888 and 1910. See Congregational Archives and Records of the Sisters of the Holy Cross, Notre Dame, Indiana, and The Accounts of Saint Mary’s Academy between 1916 and 1926, the Archives of Diocese of Salt Lake City.
17 The Holy Cross Sisters faced financial difficulties when the Society for the Propagation of the Faith did not provide funds for either the diocese or the academy. See “Annual Reports of the Progress and State of Catholicity in the Territory of Utah, United States of America to the Society for the Propagation of the Faith 1873-1894.” Reports, Propagation of the Faith, 1873-1894, Archives of Diocese of Salt Lake City.
18 Letter from Father Scanlan to Alexander Guasco, February 24, 1894, Reports. Propagation of the Faith 1873-1894, Archives of Diocese of Salt Lake City
19 Accounts of Saint Mary’s Academy Salt Lake City, 1916-1926. Archives of Diocese of Salt Lake City.
20 The Catholic Monthly (Salt Lake City), December 1920.
21 Ancillary sisters were not teachers in the school, but helped run the school by fulfilling several responsibilities, including cooking, ironing, doing the laundry, secretary work and bookkeeping.
22 Centenary Chronicles of the Sisters of the Holy Cross 1841-1941. Vol. III: 164.
23 Ibid., 90.
24 Archives Narrative of Saint Mary's Academy, Salt Lake City, Utah, 1875 – 1908, 2. Congregational Archives and Records of the Sisters of the Holy Cross, Notre Dame, Indiana. The handwritten account of this event in “The Big Book of Accounts” says the leading Mormon bishop; however, the transcribed manuscript leaves out the phrase “leading” and only says “a Mormon Bishop.”
25 “St. Mary’s Academy,” Deseret News, June 16, 1900.
26 Emily Elizabeth Snelgrove Davey and Irene Mecedese Snelgrove, comps., Higgins Charles Richard Snelgrove and Emily Brooksbank Snelgrove, Their Ancestry, Life, and Descendants (Bountiful: Family History Publisher, 1990), 59.
27 Data were retrieved from analysis of student lists of the Saint Mary’s Academy in Salt Lake City. See Congregational Archives and Records of the Sisters of the Holy Cross, Notre Dame, Indiana.
28 Sister Maria Concepta, The Making of a Sister-Teacher, 64.
29 Ibid. This represented a no-frills curriculum emphasizing the arts, languages and humanities, very similar to Catholic schools’ curricula even today.
30 The name English branches meant upper, academic classes. First Bulletin of the Academy of St. Mary’s of Utah. 1875. Congregational Archives and Records of the Sisters of the Holy Cross, Notre Dame, Indiana.
31 “St. Mary’s Academy,” Salt Lake Tribune, April 23, 1881. The word “minim” is referring to elementaryaged children.
32 Intermountain Catholic (Salt Lake City), November 18, 1911.
33 Ibid., May 4, 1912.
34 Those students who would have liked to have additional education in certain areas (such as music, drawing, foreign languages) were able to do so by paying an extra fee for the added lessons, “St. Mary’s Academy,” Salt Lake Tribune, November 4, 1877.
35 Eighth Annual Commencement of St. Mary’s Academy, June 27, 1883. Congregational Archives and Records of the Sisters of the Holy Cross, Notre Dame, Indiana.
36 Honiton lace is one of the most delicate of the English bobbin laces. The lace is made using pairs of slender pointed bobbins unique to Honiton lace. The lace maker would prick out a design on parchment which was then pinned onto their lace pillow. A small round firm pillow was stuffed with oat straw or sawdust. Using the pins to support the design they then plaited and wove the threads from the bobbins to make motifs.
37 Ann Bassett Willis, “Queen Ann of Brown’s Park,” Colorado Magazine 29 (April and July 1952): 286.
38 Centenary Chronicles of the Sisters of the Holy Cross 1841-1941. Pioneers and Builders.Vol. III: 83.
39 Intermountain Catholic (Salt Lake City), January 9, 1904.
40 Ibid., April 17, 1909.
41 Copy of the letter in Congregational Archives and Records of the Sisters of the Holy Cross, Notre Dame, Indiana.
42 The Catholic Monthly(Salt Lake City), December, 1920. Because of the growth of the student body of the University of Utah, school officials raised entrance requirements in 1907. Applicants for admission to the freshman class were required to present evidence of having successfully completed a full high school study of four years. The university introduced additional requirements and restrictions in 1922. Every freshman had to have had three years of high school English beside the regular four years of high school training. They also had to pass a mental test.The university’s acknowledgment was reflected in this agreement, in that the graduate students of the Academy were able to begin their sophomore class immediately upon admission to the University of Utah. Ralph V. Chamberlain, The University of Utah. A History of Its First Hundred Years 1850 to 1950 (Salt Lake City: University of Utah Press, 1960).
43 Sister Maria Concepta, The Making of a Sister-Teacher,70.
44 Centenary Chronicles of the Sisters of the Holy Cross 1841-1941. Vol. III: 166.
45 Ibid., 180.
46 Ibid., 91.
47 Davey and Snelgrove, Higgins Charles Richard Snelgrove and Emily Brooksbank Snelgrove, 64.
48 Ibid., 60.
49 First Bulletin of the Academy of St. Mary’s of Utah. 1875. Congregational Archives and Records of the Sisters of the Holy Cross, Notre Dame, Indiana.
50 Circular of the Brigham Young Academy . 1877, L. Tom Perry Special Collection, Brigham Young University. BYA offered foreign language classes in German and French. Music classes were only available in piano and organ for several years.
51 Centenary Chronicles of the Sisters of the Holy Cross 1841-1941. Vol. III: 52.
52 Accounts of Saint Mary’s Academy Salt Lake City. 1916-1926. Archives, Diocese of Salt Lake City.
53 Intermountain Catholic (Salt Lake City), October, 24, 1908. Reverend Michael McGivney founded the Knights of Columbus as a Catholic men’s fraternal organization in Connecticut in 1883. In 1901, thirtyseven charter members organized Council 602 of the Knights of Columbus in Salt Lake City, representing the first unit west of the Rocky Mountains to join the national organization. They have four degrees of membership, upholding the ideals of charity, unity, fraternity and patriotism. Their aim was to serve the men and women of the Diocese of Salt Lake City and the civic community. For a good summary about the Knights of Columbus in Utah see, Frank J. Becker, Knight in Utah 1901-1986. A Record of the Knights of Columbus in Utah, (Utah State Council, Knights of Columbus,[1987?]. The Knights of Columbus had a good relationship with the Academy. They not only awarded some of the students with scholarships, but occasionally sponsored lectures at the Academy. One of the recurrent lecturers was the Grand Knight, William H. Leary, who was also the dean of the law school at the University of Utah. The Knights of Columbus participated in some of the school’s activities as well, for example the commencement programs or holidays, especially the celebration of Columbus Day: “The next public function was the presentation, by the Knights of Columbus, of the Flagstaff and the blessing of the flag each October 12 - Columbus’ Day. The Bishop, vested in Episcopal robes, blessed the flag and addressed the representative Knights, the faculty and students.” Saint Mary of the Wasatch Archive Academic Class Narratives 1908-1921, Congregational Archives and Records, The Sisters of the Holy Cross, Notre Dame, Indiana.
54 “St. Mary’s Academy,” Salt Lake Tribune, July 2, 1876.
55 Ibid. Both the Sodality president and the “Queen of the May” were students.
56 Archives Narrative for Saint Mary's Academy in Salt Lake City 1903-1904, Congregational Archives and Records, The Sisters of the Holy Cross, Notre Dame, Indiana. The name of the journal was changed to Blue and Gold in 1920. The society named the day after the poet, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (18071882), who was one of the five Fireside Poets. Intermountain Catholic (Salt Lake City), March 5, 1904
57 Intermountain Catholic (Salt Lake City), February 24, 1900.
58 Saint Mary’s Annual Book, 1921, Congregational Archives and Records, The Sisters of the Holy Cross, Notre Dame, Indiana.
59 Intermountain Catholic (Salt Lake City), May 4, 1912.
60 The Catholic Monthly (Salt Lake City), February, 1921.
61 Intermountain Catholic (Salt Lake City), September 26, 1914.
62 Willis, “Queen Ann of Brown’s Park,” 286.
63 Centenary Chronicles of the Sisters of the Holy Cross 1841-1941. Vol. III: 170.
64 Centenary Chronicles of the Sisters of the Holy Cross 1841-1941. Vol.V: 17.
65 These students were: Ellen Shea (Sister Eusebia), Ethel Frisbee (Sister Claremina), Philomena Griffin (Sister Geraldine), Julia McCue (Sister Majella), Marian Bruneau (Sister Marie de Lourdes), Mary Conroy (Sister Ineen), Geraldine Gibbons (Sister Francis Joseph), Emily Bond (Sister Anne Catherine), Agnes Ryan (Sister Teresa Joseph), Marie Carrig (Sister Basilla).
66 In 1878, a secondHoly Cross institution, Sacred Heart Academy was established in Ogden. There existed a friendly rivalry between the two Utah academies. The next Holy Cross Academy, St. Theresa’s Academy, started in Boise, Idaho, in 1889.
67 St. Mary’s Academy. Twenty-first Annual Commencement, June 18 and 19, 1896. Congregational Archives and Records of the Sisters of the Holy Cross, Notre Dame, Indiana.
68 Letter from The Travelers Insurance Company to the Sisters of the Holy Cross, June 1, 1931. Archives, Diocese of Salt Lake City. The land was purchased from the Salt Lake Country Club.
69 Saint Mary’s Academy, Salt Lake City, Utah. Resident and Day School for Girls. Conducted by the Sisters of the Holy Cross. Pamphlet, 1926, Congregational Archives and Records of the Sisters of the Holy Cross, Notre Dame, Indiana.
70 Bernice Maher Mooney, Salt of the Earth, 150.
