1 10 8 https://www.scfederationarchives.org/files/original/1be67ddade34ad89c3391cda67932839.jpeg 952b04d5decbd93cef871fa446e3ab25 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Sisters of Charity of Seton Hill Physical Object An inanimate, three-dimensional object or substance. Note that digital representations of, or surrogates for, these objects should use Moving Image, Still Image, Text or one of the other types. Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Convent Kitchen Subject The topic of the resource Women religious Sisters of Charity of Seton Hill Sister Mary Francis Irvin, SC Religious life and customs Description An account of the resource Sister Mary Francis Irvin, a Sister of Charity of Seton Hill, was a dedicated religious, inspiring teacher, and gifted artist. While attending the Carnegie Institute of Technology during World War II, Sr. Mary Francis completed a precisionist-style painting entitled “Convent Kitchen.” The piece would go on to win second place in the 1943 Pittsburgh Associated Artists exhibition. “Convent Kitchen” not only reveals the hard work and comradery of women religious, but the painting’s style and perspective reinforce the subject’s simplicity in life and the idea of subjection of the individual identity for the good of the whole in community life. Conversely, the subject of women religious shelling peas is a juxtaposition to the more industrial precisionist paintings of the 1920s and 30s. In a continuation of the story, “Convent Kitchen” inspired a great benefactor of Sr. Mary Francis, helping to further her career as an artist. Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Sister Mary Francis Irvin Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived Sisters of Charity of Seton Hill Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available N/A Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1943 Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource N/A Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource Courtesy of the Sisters of Charity of Seton Hill, Greensburg, Pennsylvania. For permission for use or reproduction, please contact the Archivist at cbowser@scsh.org. Relation A related resource N/A Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource Oil on canvas Language A language of the resource English Type The nature or genre of the resource Painting Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context SMF_Irvin_01 Coverage The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant N/A https://www.scfederationarchives.org/files/original/874aa9d47942ea5ccea3e095ca4cbbb4.JPG b5cf9310a3a0f9700222ea4f78f76009 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Sisters of Charity of Seton Hill Still Image A static visual representation. Examples include paintings, drawings, graphic designs, plans and maps. Recommended best practice is to assign the type Text to images of textual materials. Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Motherhouse, Sisters of Charity of Seton Hill Subject The topic of the resource Convent Sisters of Charity of Seton Hill Description An account of the resource Motherhouse building on the campus of the Sisters of Charity of Seton Hill, Greensburg, Pennsylvania Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived Sisters of Charity of Seton Hill Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available N/A Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2022 Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource N/A Relation A related resource N/A Language A language of the resource Type The nature or genre of the resource Still Image Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context Caritas Christi 26 Coverage The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant Greensburg (Pennsylvania) Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource Courtesy of the Sisters of Charity of Seton Hill Archives, Greensburg, Pennsylvania. Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Sisters of Charity of Seton Hill Sisters of Charity of Seton Hill https://www.scfederationarchives.org/files/original/e326adab107fcceaf4ee0eda2d476b0a.bmp 896921d989d00d177f68cd573e6ebdb0 https://www.scfederationarchives.org/files/original/14e188096d5bea1f52951ed9aecffb00.mp3 31c74f83efb3ac22285704cef1bd5f46 https://www.scfederationarchives.org/files/original/fe864d63a0118e8db08163a1263c9950.mp3 599d83295d132ee582c0bdef18b2fef0 https://www.scfederationarchives.org/files/original/ac38fce177c1fb66c1df2e4482a71761.mp3 fe172d8870403337417736f0bad01a4c https://www.scfederationarchives.org/files/original/3abfbadcb496550d97523606a026bc5d.mp3 79109719c4d0010e76abb030c58e6fc5 https://www.scfederationarchives.org/files/original/979e4fc2acd592842fc1451c2c51c9db.mp3 3f5a6506e4d20f9bac55fbbca6e27e2a https://www.scfederationarchives.org/files/original/850a4a26ce82286681b3e211e54df638.mp3 62c0d6531ae3b0b5dd300960c9e4ec15 https://www.scfederationarchives.org/files/original/7f65f2d60fc575e71cad6f80b916cca2.pdf f5917ee275256b3ac135f1451c876b03 PDF Text Text Sister of Charity Oral Histories Interviewee: Sr. Francis Louise Honeychuck Interviewer: Sr. Marie Corona Miller July 15, 1987 This interview is being conduced as part of the Oral History program of the Sisters of Charity of Seton Hill. The interviewee is Sister. Francis Louise Honeychuck. The interview is being conducted by Sister. Marie Corona Miller at De Paul Institute. The date is July 15th, 1987. Sr. M: Good morning Sister Francis Louise Sr. F.L: Good morning, how are you today? Sr. M: I’m fine how are you. Sr. F.L: I’m fine thank you. Sr. M: All right sister I came here to today to talk to you about your life as a sister of charity all the many things you have done and the ministries you have been involved in. Would you like to begin with your date of birth? Sr. F.L: I was born in Mount pleasant October 23, 1914 I have one sister whose name is Helen she’s married she lives in Florida, clear water and um originally she lived in Greensburg and her children attended Cathedral school and she has 5 children and they are all married except one and um her oldest daughter lives in Westminster Colorado and her two daughters are attending Catholic university in Washington DC there first year in college first and second year in college they both have college scholarships very bright children and she has two other sons who are also very bright her next daughter her oldest boy is Regus who was a went to St. Vincent college for a scholarship and then he went to Pitt University and received his master degree in Chemical Engineering. And then later on he went on for his doctorate and now he worked at Westinghouse for many years and he moved to Lakeland because his wife had arthritis and she was recommended to go to a warmer climate. So they have 5 children also and the oldest daughter is ready for college this beginning of September. Jimmy is another son and he lives in Orlando and he also has his master’s degree in Engineering and the youngest boy is John he has a masters degree in Electrical Engineering. And I have a brotherFather Bob who was educated at St. Vincent’s college and he is the oldest in the family and he has gone been to Pittsburgh Diocese then it was split and then he went to Greensburg of course and he’s now retired and he lives at Polyment house. He’s my favorite brother of course and our brother Andrew lives in Cleveland and he has is married and has 5 children and they’re all married and I can’t begin to tell you all their relationships because it’s so many children ok and then Brother Johnny is my youngest one and he lives in Irwin and he was 5 children and they’re all married. �Sr. M: Which one is the nurse sister? Sr. F.L: And Larry whose the nurse and he lives in Mount Lebanon and he goes to our lady of Grace Parish and he has 2 children and they’re married. Ok that’s the extent of my family. My mother of course was a widow and she my father died in 1918 flu and so my mother had to work and she took in washings and all kinds of things in order to keep us together, and she was determined not to leave us go to any other families you know she kept us together and so we all survived under my mothers care and all grew up and I remember going into first grade and I attended St. Johns school and Sister Mary Eustice Mellon was my first teacher happy memories because I remember she asked us to say the sounds of the alphabet A “a” B “ba” C “ca” and I remember I use to do that at home when I was a little girl and I would look at the story books and she gave me a metal a beautiful little metal and she said you go to that other class because you remember all the sounds of the alphabet but the very first day I remember she went around saying what’s your name what is your name what is your name 60 children in a classroom you know we had 3 in a seat or 2 in a seat you know and she said what’s your name what’s your name what’s your name and after the 4th time I was tired of hearing say what’s your name I said I told you my name before and guess what I got a little crack. But anyhow I learned quickly to be quite you know. Sr.M: So what school was this? Sr. F.L: St. James, St. John the Baptist school in Scottdale. Ok now I remember some of the teachers we had after coming to 4th grade I had Sister Mary Martin Wit and in 5th grade Sister Perpetua Behe in 8th grade Sister Salome Kline and they were happy memories you know then I got into high school and then I had some wonderful teachers in high school I remember them very distinctly. Sr.M: And what High School is this? Sr. F.L: This is St. Johns St. Johns it was just the 3rd floor of the school and I had Sister Angelica Little, Sister Suzanne McIntire she taught me Spanish, Sister Joanna Gleeson was English, and Sister Bertha Shay and I remember her, very distinguished she talked in Latin and oh I love Latin and Sister Marie Anthony was my report teacher Sister Anthony and we had about 16 I guess 20 students in the class and a Sr.M: In the whole class? Sr. F.L: In in my class, in my class ok Sr. M: About how many were in the high school? Sr. F.L: About 90 maybe 100 all through and Sister Bertha was a favorite teacher of mine I liked her and Sister Marie Anthony of course taught the Geometry and the science general science classes. So I remained in high school until I was about till the �Junior year and it was then I was contemplating and I remember very distinctly I was eating I took my lunch to school and we Sister Marie Anthony was there watching the lunch hour they take turns, one day it was Sister Marie Anthony the next day it was Sister Suzanne they took something time. And we were eating our lunch one day and she said to me you know I dreamed about you last night and I said you did? Ya she said I dreamed you were a Sister of Charity and I said Oh I don’t know about that but I’ve been thinking about it, I’ve been thinking about it. And so then I began to pray a lot you know and think about what I would like to do I wasn’t quit sure but I just knew well I wanted to devote myself and I remember one day at home my brother Andy and I were playing a game and he said and you know you have to say what would you like to be would you like to be a sailor you like to be a nurse you like to be this and so a saint was there and I said I wanted to be a saint and he said no you be a saint I said yes I’m going to be a saint but anyhow I thought you know that I thought well I wanted to think about being my vocation. So I then after that I approached sister Marie Anthony and I said you know what I’m thinking about entering the community and she said I’m not surprised so Sister Germaine and Sister Richard Ann, Mother Richard Ann and Sister Mary Watson we were all thinking about it too so then not much was said except for ?? She said well where would you like to go and I said well guess I think you got to break the ice don’t all three go together she said that’s not good Sr. M: Were all of you in the same class? Sr. F.L: We were in the same class we were junior year and so she said I think you got to break the ice, so I said I think maybe March 25th would be nice so in the October before that I went to Seton Hill to petition and I can’t remember who I went with probably with Sister Germaine I’m not sure but Mother Eveline Fisher was the Mother general, so she said you’re from Scottdale and I said yes and she said when would you like to come? And I said well I think maybe March 25th and she said oh that nice she said we have quit a few but I think you’re the first one to apply for that date I think you’re probably the first one but she said threes a girl in college that’s thinking about coming and she didn’t tell me who that was, but later I found that was Sister Eugene O’Donnell, and so I went home and I told my mother that I wanted and she said you wanna go to the community don’t you wanna finish your high school and I said I think maybe I want to go now. So then I wrote a letter to Father Bob and he was at St. Vincent’s at the time and I wanted to get him opinion and he though well kind of young you know and so he did so then he wrote back and he said he didn’t know about that, but then he said yes you can by all means go he said you have my blessing or he said you know whatever I can’t remember what he said but he said ill pray that you enter the Catholic vocation and God be with you that was it. So then I remember we were getting ready, and Sister Marie Anthony said you need some clothes you need this you need that, Sister Joanne offered to make me a Kimona and I said well I already have one I already made one myself and she said oh you sew and I said yes. So then they had a party for me my class had a party so we went to Kate Sherman’s house and they presented me with a napkin ring so that I have a napkin ring for my napkin at you know on the table those days �you had your own napkin ring ok. So that’s what they gave me as a gift, we had nice evening had a nice party and I remember boys wanted to dance with me and I said ok it’s the last time we’ll dance so we danced and we had some music and so on and I came home and Larry brought me home cuz he was invited to the party and so March came and I kept thinking you know oh gosh it was midnight we got worried that I shouldn’t go until Easter Sunday because, March 25th in that year fell on Good Friday so they said do you think we should come on Good Friday wait till Easter Sunday. So Easter Sunday came and everything was bright and beautiful of course they had Easter candy all around and the bishop baskets you name it everything to make it look inviting. So I remember going up to the clothes room and the sister in charge was Sister Agnes Francina and she had a black dress for me and little black lace cap to put on my head and she said here I think this will fit you so we put it on and I said well ill go down to the parlor and see how everybody likes me so I went down to the parlor and Sister Marie Anthony was there and Sister Germaine and Mother Richard Ann Sr. M: They all went with you? Sr. F.L: They all went with me yes Sr.M: How did you all go? Sr.F.L: Sister Germaine’s father drove the car ok, my mother didn’t go she said goodbye to me at home and so they took me and so I went down and remember said how do you like me? They said well you look kinda nice, and name? looked at me and she said she kept thinking you know I guess I’ll be next you know because she was contemplating being in a spot in September and so we stayed for a little while and Sister Theodosia came down and took me up to the Bishop Sr. M: And she was the mistress? Sr. F.L: She was the mistress, she was the first mistress back then, we were the first novices ok her first novices. So I went up to the Bishop and I met Sister Jean Francis Peters, and she just got the white cap, and Sister Agatha, Sister Alice Marie and Theresa Martin and Margery and Anne Matthia and all that whole gang there was a whole good many. Sr.M: What Sister Margery was that? Sr. F.L: Sister Margery, she’s the one that just died from cancer a couple years ago. And so we went I went to the chapel and Sister Marie Anthony took me to the chapel after their incident, and she took me all the way up to the front pew on the Saint Josephs sides I remember distinctly, and she said now you’re here and you tell God you’re here to stay that’s what she said to me, you tell God you’re here to stay. And so I prayed for a while and she took me out and we went down to the parlor for a little while and we said goodbye to everybody and that was the end of that. Sister �Marie Anthony’s visit, and so they all went home and said goodbye. So then I went up to the Bishop and I didn’t know what to expect you know it was all such a big thing to me. Sr.M: Now where was the Bishop Sister? Sr.F.L: The Bishop is where the Sister’s community room is now. Ok, and the senior division used that room across the hall you know they had a piano in there and so that whole floor was really the Bishop floor. We use to go to the oratory you know right across from them. Ok I was taken up to the fifth floor and shown where my bed room was suppose to be, it was really a dormitory with curtains all the way around it. Sr.M: Now this is the administration building. Sr. F.L.: Administration building, and Sister Rose Irene Boggs was in charge up there and she was the senior in that room. Sister Clara Marie McManama was in that room and Sister Rose Irene, and she showed me where the washrooms were, and told me when to get up early in the morning five o’clock in the morning, and I thought oh dear and morning prayers etc. So while I was a postulant I remained in that area. And I remember distinctly after about a month’s time I got very very homesick Sr.M: Now were you the only postulant? Sr. F.L.: In that room Sr.M: Well I mean though in the group Sr. F.L.: Oh no oh no, I should tell you that five entered Sr.M: On that same day? Sr. F.L.: On that same day, and they wore, they were Mary Greeley from Johnstown and Sister Jean Seton she got the name from when she became a white cap, and I can’t remember her Baptismal name. Sister Ruthann Kronenberger, and Sister Eugene O’Donnell and myself. And Mary Ann Greely only stayed about two weeks, she got very homesick and decided she wanted to go home. Sister Jean Seton was in the community only six months, she got the white cap and decided she wanted to go home, but we didn’t know she was going it was all on the secret we just missed her and then sister asked if she was gone. So that left the three of us, Sister Ruthann, Sister Eugene, and myself. Now Sister Ruthann was missioned out west in various places, Scottdale and so on and she was a really wonderful companion, so was Sister Eugene. I remember being in class with Sister Ruthann we were studying American History and also Children’s Literature in summer school at Seton Hill. Sr. M: Who taught those classes? �Sr.F.L: Oh I can’t remember who they are. Sister Mary Ann Joseph was the Literature teacher and oh she was so exciting and wonderful, I just loved everything. Sister Mary Fidelis taught the American History. Well, I had so much work to do I had an awful lot of reading, Sister Mary Ann Joseph had all kinds of things that we had to read about which was very fascinating to me which I, and Sister Mary Fidelis had all kinds of assignments and I had to do an awful lot of reading and I have spent most of the time with history, because I had a test every week and I also had a test every week in the Literature. So we would go out on the swing, out in the yard and Sister Ruthann would say to me now Francine did you read this story and I said no I couldn’t have time I was doing history I was doing history I said I had to make this book report for history and I said I had to go to the library and think what I was gonna do for history make a pickery board. So I though I’ll go to the I’ll read this certain book, because I know the name, it was Ulysses Grant I knew something about him, I thought this is something easy I have to pick something easy because I don’t have time, I had so much preparation to do. It was just so much the assignments were so heavy. So sister Ruthann would say to me remember Moby Dick goes with this, and so and so goes with that remember this, so she would the night before the tests, she would tell me all these different things about this literature. Sr. M: Were you in the same class? Sr. F.L: The same class, and I said well I recall this and I recall this and I recall this, but I don’t have time to be studying this. So we took the test and low and behold we passed both of us but I thought oh how could I ever go through a summer like this again, I will never take two heavy classes again because each of those classes required so much reading and so much preparation. In fact it was so hard on me that I didn’t even go to recreation would you believe it. I couldn’t take time, and the sisters in the dormitory said Francis Louise you gonna come out and play basketball, you gonna come out and lets go swimming, lets go here, lets go and I said I can’t I have to study this I have to do this, I have to do this work for tomorrow I had no recreation it was awful. Sr. M: What about a charge, were you given a charge? Sr. F.L: Oh I had a charge; I had a big charge too Sr.M: Whatcha get? Sr. F.L: Well I can’t remember I think I had something over in the bathroom in Cannevan I had to do a bathroom in Cannevan that was an everyday requirement you know because you had to supply the needs you know that was required, and besides I’d mop it up once a week, but outside of that you know I was kept very busy it was a very busy summer. Ask me the question. �Sr.M: How long were you a postulant? Sr. F.L: I was a postuland for three months. And then I got the white cap, and I remember going to the oratory and the priest who was in charge of Seton Hill I can’t remember his name he was a chaplain well he blessed the well I guess it was a retreat master a retreat master. Sr.M: Now what year was this? Sr. F.L.: This was 1934 ok, so after we made may day retreat and I remember going to the chapel everyday and the place was packed with Sisters the whole chapels filled with Sisters everyday, they even had chairs on the side to accommodate you know people the Sisters who made the retreat. And I remember going to the chapel everyday and praying and then going to the retreat and we had our retreat exercises in Cecilian Hall, and the best part about that retreat was to go to bed in the afternoon and sleep. I tell ya because we get up at five o’clock every morning and I was always exhausted and I slept, did I sleep, and then I’d carry some my stocking to darn and downstairs I’d mend my stockings while the person was doing the reading and it was usually a profess Sister and I think it was Sister Ann Mckale Orielley who was doing the reading, and she had a beautiful powerful voice and she read for twenty minutes and after twenty minutes we’d disappear and so do our where we had to go and then we’d have a four o’clock conference and then early to bed in the evening which I welcomed; and that was a really restful time for me because it was something that I really thought I needed. Sr. M: And this was in preparation for your receiving the habit. Sr. F.L: Yes, so then the morning, the night before the novices were received, they announced the names of the candidates who were going to receive their habit, so the Sister up in the balcony in the Chapel after the prayers were over everybody hold their ears open you know listening who these names were gonna who the candidates were gonna be so they named them, and they said Emma Honeychuck would be named Sister Francis Louise; and I remember hearing that and I was delighted and Sister Ruthann of course got her name Sister Eugene. Sr.M: Now where did you tell me about the name Francis? Sr. F.L: Well I asked for the when I went to petition mother said to me would you have you would you like think of a name and I said well I’d like to have some form of Francis or some form of Louise, and she said oh I see, well she said we’ll think about it. Sr.M: Now why was that? Sr. F.L: That was probably maybe a month before I received the habit. �Sr. M: And why why did you want Francis and Louise? Sr. F.L: Well I know that Louise was connected with Vincent De Paul Sr. M: I see Sr. F.L: And I knew that and I petitioned on October 4th at least to Saint Francis, Francis of Assisi. So and I was surprised that I got those two names and I was happy. And so I remember the morning that I received the habit you know then we had a big celebration and you know and a Sr. M: With all the retreat Sisters? Sr. F.L: All the retreat Sisters and then of course you know we looked different in our white caps it was so tight you know with the bows tied and all that and I remember during the mission days I learned how to tie the white bows and then all be placed there and I tied the bows, and even when I got to De Paul Sister John Agnes McClory and Sister and all the Sisters here you know would said Fancis will you tie my bows will you tie my bows, even the black bows so I learned that quickly you know and that was kinda fascinating to me it was one of the old things I use to do. Sr. M: Who made your Habit? Sr. F.L: Well, Sister Agnes Francina had a Habit. Sr. M: What was her family name? Sr. F.L: I can’t remember her family name, but anyhow she well no we all went to class. We had to do some sewing we had to make our own white sleeves and of course I knew how to sew because I used to do a lot of sewing when I was little, and so we you know all got together and did that, so I remember making the white sleeves, and she would put our names on it and I remember we made our own collars, and white caps, and she taught us how to do that, and she helped us to make our Habits, so we had one good Habit for Sunday and one handy down for somebody else. Yes for your everyday Habit So we Sr. M: And what color were the Habit’s in those days? Sr. F.L: Oh they were black of course they were black, and some were flannel the everyday Habit was a flannel Habit it was made of flannel material and the other was like a Panama which is a bit of quality it was a nicer, and so I used to remember that I learned quickly how to make the Habits because when I went to WestEnd I helped Sister, different Sisters to help fix their Habits I leaned by fixing, I’d rip an old Habit to see how it was done and how the pleats were fixed you had four pleats across the bodice and how they were turned, and I remember fixing a Habit one time for Sister Marie Faycott the pleats were in backwards so I had to I had to rip it �and I said I knew where the mistake was. So then after that I began doing a lot of sewing mending Habits and making Habits you know petti coats and all that kinda of stitching. Sr. M: Ok now that time when you received the Habit, is that when Mother Richard Ann entered in the following September? Sr. F.L: Following September Sr.M: In 1934 Sr. F.L: Ya, no yes 1934 no wait a minute no she entered I entered in 32 1932 and she came the September of 1932, see I came in March and she came the following September and I remember when she entered, she had long black hair and she Sr.M: So Sister Germaine had not come yet? Sr. F.L: No, she came the following September, she had graduated school. So then we started to you know take some classes in preparation for teaching and you know methods of different methods of you know you had to learn for preparation for classroom work. So I remember going over to the college and learning at night and completed my high school year. You know so then one day Annalise came to me one day and she said do you know you haven’t finished your science you need a credit in science, and she said Dr. Car will be teaching science this summer and there’s one young lady from Greensburg who was interest in taking this, and she’s paying for the course and she said there would just be two people in the class, would consider taking the science course with her, that’s college credit, and she said if you take this we would give you a credit for your high school as well, so I said I’ll try it. So we met Dr. Car and I remember Sister Marie Anthony Lavin was also teaching Chemistry, and she was teaching on the other side of the table, and she was doing experimentations with some Chemistry, and she would see us everyday, but she wasn’t aloud to talk to use cause we were I was a novice and you weren’t aloud to talk to novices to Profess Sisters even though she was my mother in religion. And so we got through the course and I passed it and I was very happy. So then when I went to Duquesne University to work for my degree, I learned that when they transferred my credits from Seton Hill that I had accreditation in college Chemistry and I wouldn’t have to take any science at Seton Hill, so I also got my high school and college for the one course because it was college credit. And that was all due to Sister De Chantal Leis, which I was very happy. Well then in the mean time I earned up a lot of credits for college, but I still wasn’t finished high school and I didn’t finish high school until I came to De Paul Institute. And I remember taking pre professional examinations and Sister Theresa Vincent Mahoney said to me you mean you’re gonna study this you going to study this you’re going to do this by yourself, and I said we have about a year to teach you this, and I said well if you just give me some regions books so I went to Sister Emanuel Manny, and she gave me some regions books, and she said what do you want, and I said well I want Economic �Geography and another aspect of Geography and so I studied these regions books, and I would read on that, and go to the library and get some reference material and then I would study these answers and so on. So I took the test, and I passed the test and they were the only two that I needed so then I got my certification though the state of Pennsylvania and finished my pre professional examinations and I got my certificate. Well then from then on I was able to go on to my college work, get the rest of it ok. I don’t know what I wanna say with the mission. Sr. M: Sister do you wanna talk a little bit about your novitiate days? Sr. F.L: Yes, um I’d like to say that the good number of Sisters entered with us there was a good crowd of Sisters there, I remember Sister Ligouri Steinmiller, Sister Theresa Martin Henry, Sister Ann Agnes, Kilkeary, Sister Rose Irene Boggs,, Sister Alice MarieCrates, Sister Caroline Joseph Wilson, Sister Helen Hart, Sister Jean Francis Peters, Sister Sara Marie O’hara, Sister Agatha Procter, Sister Clara Marie McManama Sister Helen Mary Laferty, Sister Mary Mildred Curry, and Sister Marie George Abbott. One particular day I remember that when I was very homesick Sister Alice Marie, and Sister Caroline Joseph took me out to the barn and they said all kinds of silly things about the cows and the chickens and the everything connected with the farm and they got me laughing, got me out of my homesickness which I was very grateful. Sr.M: Sister can you remember any other incidents during your novitiate days? Sr. F.L: Oh yes, I think I can remember another incident, I recall that you know we always had to wash the dishes after the meal was over, in the Sisters dining room and after serving and passing the pans and reading up and Sister Ligouri Steinmiller was at the sink at the time, and she was splashing around making a lot of soap suds and it was going everywhere and somebody got splashed and I said oh splash back and just then that Sister and I said Saint Theresa did and just at that moment SisterTheodosia walks in and she said Saint Theresa I never heard that, everybody laughed. Sr.M: Did you serve in the dining room? Sr. F.L: Oh yes we all had to serve we had to take turns carrying pans and serving the meals and we carried it on trays always the hot food was prepared in the kitchen and carried the serving dishes on the trays and carried them into the dining room and put them on carts and same with the dish pans the soap and the water and the mops and towels and all that. And after the meal several of us had to take care of the towels take them down and wash them out and then hang them down in the tunnel downstairs to dry for the next morning and the next day we’d collect them and some Sisters worked in the butter house they had to cut the butter and get prepared for the morning meal it would be breakfast. Other people had to get the pans ready count them all out get the coffee pots ready I remember two of our Sisters were �appointed to make coffee every morning, they’d go down to the kitchen and use the big urn you know and oh Sister Mary Terrence she’s the one that did that. One time. Sr.M: ? Sr.F.L: Sister Mary Terrence she was in our division too she’s long she’s dead Sr.M: What’s’ her family name Sister? Sr.F.L: Um Sister Mary Terrence Clancy. And I think Sister Clara Marie McManama went down with her they had to go early in the morning before the morning prayers that was around 5 you know, and so they had to make the coffee every morning, and by the time Sister Mary Terrence was laughing she said well I hope the coffee’s not too strong because I put too much in it I’m half asleep and I don’t even know what I’m doin. We all laughed about that. So everybody had chores to do you know for the breakfast and the lunch. We were responsible for a lot of things and we also had to take turns saying prayers nigh prayers morning prayers reading, and I just never had a turn for the morning prayers, I said the quarter prayers you know before the lunch but I didn’t have a turn for that the reading. So when I got on mission I Sister Theodosia said she remembered that I didn’t have a turn and she wondered how I was doing and Sister Levonnation said oh she’s doing ok she was my Sister servant. Sr.M: Sister what do you recall about the senior Sisters in the dining room, like you weren’t aloud to talk to them, but do you recall anything about the senior Sisters that you could remember? Sr.F.L: Hmm well I can’t remember Sr.M: How many tables were in the dining room when you were serving Sr.F.L: Oh I would say about maybe 8 on each side you know maybe 16 tables at least, well maybe not that many I guess yes I guess there were there were long tables and you had 8, 10 people at a table you know, we had white table cloths on all the time and we would take we every Wednesday we change the table we turned the table cloths over the dirty side went under the clean side went on top in those days why you then on Saturday you would clean them for the next week for the following week and we all had napkins and napkin rings and all that was in this place, and the dishes were in place, the silverware was there and the plates were turned upsidedown and the silverware was there, and you had to make sure that the sugar bowels were attended to have sugar and salt, pepper those kinds of things. And that was just the ordinary run of things. Sr.M: Now what about your charge on the steps you had an amusing story about the steps. �Sr.F.L: Oh that happened, when I was I guess I was a white cap then, and I remember well we all had extra things to do that day because some Sisters went on retreat or I can’t remember the incident but we all had extra work to do, and so Sister Feodosha appointed Sister Mary Celest Casalina and myself to do the stairways in the in the landing you know the chapel chapel landing and the floor near Cecilian Hall and then the one below that near the dining room was and I said to her you take one side and ill take the other side and we’ll meet you know downstairs, so we started work we had our mops and we had our dusters and we had to dust all the curlicues you know in those days we had banisters that were very ornate and they had a lot of you know things to put your finger through in order to get your finger all to get the dust off and with your cloth, and so we started and we worked for a while and about 15 minutes she came over to me oh Sister I think this is too hard, this is too much work and she said I think I ought to ask somebody for some help, and I said oh come on you do your side and I’ll do my side and we’ll get finished don’t worry about it. So we went back to work and about 20 minutes later she says did you find, did you go to Sister Feodosha and ask her if we could have some help, this is just too much can’t you can’t you you’re the senior you should go now you’re the senior you go ask Sister to get some help because I think this is too much. So I said no I’m not gonna go I said no we’ll get finished don’t worry about it. Well now are you gonna go or aren’t you gonna go, and I said no I don’t think I’m gonna go, well why not why not and I said well I’m not goin because I don’t think we have to go we don’t need any help. So we went back to work, and next thing you know she came back again did you find some help I think you ought a go. So I finally went to Sister Theodosia after much deliberation I went, so I explained what happened and she said well you tell Sister Celest that I want to see her. So Sister Celest began apologizing immediately she said Sister it’s my fault it’s my fault I urged Sister to talk to you and get help, she says it was my fault and I knew I shouldn’t have done that but I knew it was my fault. So anyhow that was the end of that. Sr.M: So did you get the steps done? Sr.F.L: Ya we got them done, sure we did we went back to work and they just sure we did. Sr.M: Did you have anything to do with the animals in the barn? Sr.F.L: No, oh no oh no no no no Sister’s didn’t do anything like that the men take care of that. Sr. M: Alright Sister then you went out on your fist mission Sr.F.L: Yes Sr.M: Ok, now where was that? �Sr.F.L: Ya now the first mission well first I would tell you that yes I went to Westend, and I was assigned to take third grade and the former teacher had that and she was told or asked to take fourth grade so I could have the third grade because I have never taught before. It was my first experience at teaching and Sister Generosa was in charge of the teachers in training at that time for the community. She was a supervisor you know. So she came around periodically and she had visits with all of us, and so I remember going into third grade, I had about sixty children in third grade. Sister Anastesia Mellon was in the second grade, Sister Ann Seton Boyle was in the first grade and between the two of them they really gave me a lot of help, especially Sister Ann Seton, and I spent a lot of time observing Sister Ann Seton when she was preparing her vocabulary work for first grade all the I was asking her many questions well how do you do this, and why are you doing this and she’d tell me this is the vocabulary for tomorrow and then she’d have printing on the board she’d have all kinds of art work ready for the children so that they would be have something to do while she was teaching on group and or another class another group, and a Sister Anastesia Mellon had second grade she had over sixty children in there she was kind of on the stern people you know everything was did at task, and Sister Ann Seton was well more innovative I would say because she was younger, and so I learned a good bit from both of them and I had to do all the studying on my own to try to prepare things so things went pretty well. And then the following year I was appointed to have fifth and sixth grade and I was kind of un eerie about that because it was going to be my first year of fifth and sixth level. It was a double grade and I think we had fourth children in that room. Sister Erma Sullivan was sixth grade opposite of me we were down stairs in the basement of the school, and it was during that year, it was 1936 that the Pittsburgh you know the Saint Patrick’s day flood occurred the famous Saint Patrick’s day flood oh I’ll tell you that was some experience. I remember, we went to bed at night well into the evening because Mother Egnasha was a little bit you know upset, not exactly upset but she was I can’t think of the word Sr.M: Concerned? Sr.F.L: Concerned, she was concerned because the water was rising and there was a creek behind the convent and she could see that water rising, and she was concerned about the blessed sacrament being on the first floor where the chapel was. So we all went to bed and she didn’t say anything but it was late when we get up in the morning there was no bell ring and I said what’s the matter no bell look how high it is, and we looked out the window and here this water was way up high above the it was even with the convent porch which was high it was the old convent, and the fence across the street which was next to the Thady Seton School was covered with water the picket fence six feet high and it was covered with water. Every place you look and there was a woman across the street yelling and she says help help help from the second floor trying to get out, So first thing we did well I got dressed and so did we and we opened the cellar door and here was the water just about at the doorstep and we could see the cans up in the air floating tomato’s, beans, all these cans were coming out of the cupboards floating on top of the water �ok, it was terrible. So we had to get out and the next thing I know a policemen came with three or four policemen in a boat, so we all got out and got into the boat and we went into the boat into a canoe all the way up to Stuben street if you can picture that that’s pretty high up we got out and went on Stuben street and we walked to the Devine Provence convent and they welcomed us somebody telephoned and said we were coming guessing Mother Ignatia did that or somebody and so they gave us breakfast and I remember specifically they gave us coffee and doughnuts and some cereal and some fruit they had apricots or what you know ready for us. Sr.M: Were they not flooded? Sr.F.L: They were not flooded because they were on a higher level ok so Sr.M: Do you remember the name of that convent Sister? Sr.F.L: Saint Martin’s, Saint Martin’s convent. Ok so it was there that Mother Ignatia had telephoned Mother Eveline finding out where we could go for the day. So we had to wait for about a half hour until everything was processed through and so they said well Hazelwood Saint Steven’s Hazelwood can accommodate five Sisters they don’t have heat, but they’ll take you ok there’s no heat in the convent but they’ll take you. So they decided to send Sister Veronica Scott, Sister Paula Moran, Sister Olivia Hamilton, Sister Ann Seton Boyle, and myself and they called us to find dionanies. And so we went to Hazelwood and Sr.M: In a boat? Sr.F.L: No, we went on a train and we got on the train and we went all across the city and you could see the water everywhere when we passed J & L steel building everything was flooded cars were covered and everything, it was terrible. So we finally got to Hazelwood going into the cold convent and Sister Mary Ann MacAfee was there and she was teaching there and some of the other sister, but I remember her because she was stationed her later at De Paul Institute. So it was the year after that that she came here. But so they accommodate us they serve us breakfast and everything and they had three tables in the dining room the place was cold but at least we had a bed to sleep in we were away from the water and we got our scripture reading there are our prayers and we served our meals and everything, so we were there for about a week, and then a telephone call came and said Mother Evalan called and said I would like Sister Ann Seton and Sister Francis Louise to go to Oakmont Saint… Sr.M: Now did they still carry on their school? Sr.F.L: Oh yes Sr.M: They had no problem with the flood? �Sr.F.L: No, they carried on their school. Ok, and they didn’t have everybody because everybody wasn’t able to get there but they took care of the ones who came. Ok so then we went to Saint Irenaeau and Sister Ann Seton was told to do the CCD work after school and I was to do to take fifth and sixth grade because Sister Mary Albert Short was ill I believe she had scarlet fever and she would be away for at least three weeks. And they thought of me because I had fifth and sixth grade before at Westend. So when I got there, I didn’t have any problem and I thought oh gee this is nice this is small class in compared to Westend, and there’s no flood no water and I’m on in the safe land and its warm and it’s cozy and oh it’s nice and it was homey they only had about six Sisters on mission there Sr.M: What was the name of that convent? Sr.F.L: Saint Ireneaus where Sister Mary Anna Mcsherry was the principal and also the Sister servant. And so we slept upstairs and everyday I went to school and everyday Sister Mary Anna would peep in the window to see how things was going in the classroom. So after about three days, she said to me I can’t believe it she said she says this is the wildest class in the school and she says you have control over these kids she said I wish I could keep you and I said oh I have to go back to Westend when they’re ready for me I’ll have to go back there I said it’s not up to me to stay I said you know, so I just smiled and didn’t say anything and I know they seemed to be out of hand at first but I was very commanding in the very beginning because they warned me that it was a hard class but I Sr.M: How many children did you have? Sr.F.L: There must have been about forty not as big of class as I had. But anyhow, I found they to be very very nice. So after the week was over, after the week was over I went back to Westend but, we were not aloud to go down to the basement where my school classroom was we had to make they had to make changes no body was to use that room that place downstairs for children for the rest of the year. They had libe all over the place the board of health came around said no it has to dry completely and they had to make sure that there’s no bacteria no germs you know debree anything that might be contagious for the children. So we didn’t go down there and so we had to use the high school they emptied the library and the high school classes had to go in the library conduct some of their classes there and they vacated one whole room for Sister Erma and myself so we had she had sixth grade and I had fifth and sixth grade so we put the two classes together and that was over past sixth kids. So we worked it out that we’d you know go hand in hand we couldn’t have two teachers in the room but she took part of the time then I taught part of the time and so things went, we had to keep a record of everything and she was wonderful with me she said be sure you have everybody whose absent down and it’s a good thing I did because you know we had some wintery days and one boy whose name was David Lennon was in an accident after school he was sled riding and he accidently bumped into a truck or the truck bumped into him and of course the parents were wanted to have a lawsuit. So the next thing I knew some gentlemen �stepped into my classroom and said hand me this note and said you’re ?? to court I couldn’t believe it and so then he explained this is all about David Lennon’s people wanting me to testify and so I went to Sister Erma immediately and she said oh Sister she said this is serious you’ll have to go, so then we told Sister Margret and Sister Margret said oh no you’re not going you not gonna go you’re not goin and Sister Erma said oh Sister we have to go we have to go or you’ll pay five hundred dollars. So we went Sr.M: Both of you went? Sr.F.L: We both went because we both handled him. So all I had to do of course was to take my register with me and testify the days they were absent and I had to say whether there was any preshable difference in his leaning you know capacity was he injured in any way that his leaning ability was you know demurred and of course I had to say that I didn’t see any difference in the child and so they won the case the family won the case, but I was very much unnerved because it was my first experience and I was a young Sister and I didn’t you know know what to expect. So it was hard on me but Sister Erma was very nice about it she went to the court with me I wouldn’t have gone alone you know which was nice. In those days we always went in two’s you never went by yourself you know you always went with a companion down the street or anywhere we just never went alone. Sr.M: Sister when the five of you went to Saint Eranas or Saint Steven’s where did the other Sisters from your house go? Sr.F.L: Well some of them went to Sacred Heart and some went different places ya I can’t remember just where they all went but Sr.M: And then you all came back together within a week Sr.F.L: Yes we did, yes we did. Then the following year Sr.M: What about um Sr.F.L: The following year we when the then there was a rumor that a flood was going to come back again you know the river was going to rise again but and it did rise to some extent but not like the Saint Patrick’s day flood. So father we had mass in the morning and Father Sheetie came over he’s the assistant pastor Father Gilman was the pastor at the time, but he was the assistant pastor and he said the rumor’s comin up you better get out and so we all decided to go somewhere while Sister Marie Ann to Sister Margret was in charge then and she said Sr.M: This is the second year? Sr.F.L: The year after 1938 ok no 1937 because the flood was 1936, 1937 it was the spring season and I can’t remember if it was in March or April but anyhow it was �probably March. So they said they had room for three at De Paul Institute, so Sister Olivia and Sister Ann Seton and myself went to De Paul ok and the others went to different places some people went to Carnegie and some other people went I can’t remember all the missions they were, but anyhow we left. And some people went to Seton Hill I think, and so when I came to De Paul it was my first experience with deaf children I really didn’t know anything about De Paul institute I had heard of it but I didn’t know what it was like or what to expect. So I remember observing the classroom during the day while the children were in session Sister Elizabeth Ann Mahonie at the time was a teacher over in the primary school and I remember seeing her and observing, and Sister Olivia and Sister Ann Seton came along and we just sat and observed. The children were having reading and speech and ? training and matching pictures and everything. And I distinctly I saw a Sally lou Sister, she was just a little girl, she’s one of our teacher aids now you know and when she grew up she went to Sacred Heart high school and then she went to Mercy college but she didn’t finish, so then she came here and got a job and she was home economics teacher for a while now she’s a teacher aid working with Mr. Hope. But anyhow I was astounded at what the children could do you know I was very interested I couldn’t believe that they were doing and not hearing what the teacher was saying. So I said to Sister Elizabeth Ann would you not talk loud so she said alright ill talk without voice, so she did and she was saying the very same things that she said before but using no voice and the children were doing carrying on everything and that’s when I was convinced that they were really you know lip reading and I though isn’t that amazing I just couldn’t believe that. So I tried to talk to some of the children but I found it difficult to understand some of them because I wasn’t use to them but so after that then of course we were here for a couple days and then we went back to Westend and resumed our teaching you know everything was normal by that time but in the following June or I guess it was June, August when the mission list was read we all went to the Cecilian Hall and Mother Marie Benedict Monahaign was the Mother at the time and she read out the names of the Sisters for the various missions and you would have to listen very closely for your name you know as the mission was read so I was listening and listening and after it was all over I didn’t hear my name and I thought why I wonder where I’m going so after I started to go out to the end of the hall and I met Sister Margret and she said dearie where you going on mission and I said I don’t know I said I didn’t hear my name She said lets go to Mother and find out. Sr.M: Now this is Sister Margret Sr.F.L: Sister Margret McMan she was my Sister servant ok at Westend, so we went to the hall and Mother was talking with some Sister about Mother said you go to your mission go to your mission she said and you try it and if you if you contact me later that’s all I heard. So then Sister Margret says Mother where is this Sister going on mission and Mother looked at me and said oh she’s going to one of the Institutions and I thought well I’m not a nurse I can’t go to the hospital you know or maybe I’m going into and I going to send me to training or what so then I said you mean De Paul Mother and she said yes De Paul she said I want you come here she �said now look she said I want you to try it for a year and see how you like it she says now that’s not for everybody and I know and she said everybody wouldn’t like that type of work but she said you try it and then next June she says you come back to me and you tell me, well I tried it for a year and I was thinking I was going to Seton Hill at the end of June like we always do all the novices went to Seton Hill you know course I was profess then I was a profess Sister and I expected to go to Seton Hill like everybody else and take classes and do all the things everybody else does get a charge out there and have recreation with everybody and do everything that you do in the summer time well, first thing I know Sister Regatta Fitzpatrick and myself were sent to Wane State University, teacher in training for the deaf so I never got Sr.M: Sister can I back up a little bit Sr.F.L: Yep Sr.M: into an incident that happened in the dining room you had said to me something about Sister Marie Antonio Mclenen was in the dining room eating with Mother Sr.F.L: Oh ya Sr.M: Was it mother Benedict Sr.F.L: It was Mother Marie Benedict yes Sr.M: and you were serving Sr.F.L Yes I was serving the dining room and I just heard a conversation saying oh that’s the one she’s the one I knew they were pointing to me but I didn’t know what the conversation was Sr.M: So this preceded your assignment Sr.F.L This preceded my assignment so I presumed that that’s probably what they were thinking about you know sending me there. Well I just don’t know whether that’s just ya Sr.M: Now who was the superior in the… Sr.F.L: Well then when I came to De Paul well then when I came to De Paul Sister Marie Antonio Mclenen was here she was the Sister servant and Sister Theresa Vincent Mahoney was the she was the Sr.M: Now what year was that? �Sr.F.L: Was the principal, that was 1937 September 1937. So this is 1987 so guess what it will be fifty years in September. Well I had four years at Westend teaching and then I had forty nine years at De Paul in the classroom and so you add it up at it’s fifty three years in the classroom and while I was at De Paul I had many experiences many happy memories and I’ve learned a lot of things about the deaf and the children and from the very start I was you know asked to do teacher training and I there had been many many girls who have been here and one I cherish the most was Marlene Falco, she came from Connellsville and at that time they took the girls here and they resided in the school they slept here at the school and then they went on to Duquesne university for their education so they helped to teach during the day got their teacher training experience with the children with the with the model teacher supervising teacher and then they went to classes at night or after school you know at Duquesne and got their college credits that way. And so then after a certain number of years they were accredited to be able to go anywhere to teach you know they had got their certification from the state of Pennsylvania and so it was hard laborious work for them, but it was good for us too because we had somebody to rely on and they did a lot of things that we weren’t able to do because we had study hours and we had you know dining room you know duty we had to take care of the children while they ate their meals and there’s many activities, boy scouts, cubs you know brownies, and I had charge of the playmates Sr.M: And what were the playmates? Sr.F.L: They were a little group of children pre brownie group and we had Saint Agnes as out patron and I remember distinctly making the beanies they were made pink not flannel but pink felt and we make the beanies and then we had a lamb white lamb insignia to designate the patroness of Saint Agnes while was their patroness of the their playmate club and we had a playmate flag and it was pink and we had a big lamb on that also and periodically we had entertainment for the children and games and all kinds of activities for them plus health rules and citizenship rules all those kinds of things are necessary for little children and we dramatized the story of Saint Agnes and the children did that themselves one would be the Saint Agnes somebody would be the soldiers ect. So we use to use the stage in the what we use to call the boys hall and because we didn’t have Lady Victory hall then it wasn’t built yet. So we would invite the school and the children would participate from then on and I remember distinctly Mother Evan Fisher was living here at the time and when her birthday came around which was always around the feast of Saint Agnes she always wanted to see this play so we would put it on for her and Sr.M: How old were the children? Sr.F.L: They were six, seven, eight-year-old children they were growing really very active Sr.M: Now they would in those days those were the young children �Sr.F.L: They were oh yes oh yes they were maybe younger than that. Our six years olds were called we called them the babies you know because they were just beginners and so well I have been working with the deaf children almost all the time I’ve been here except period in 1949 I distinctly remember that I was asked to learn the brail and so I was sent to Colombia University with Sister Justine for summer course and Ms. Madeline Lumis was the author of the text book and the teacher and so when I first arrived there I was the only people that applied for this brail course and so the sue provider said well I don’t think we can really you know ask you to take this course you’re the old pupil we couldn’t pay the teacher you know just for one pupil that’s not customary we usually have ten fifteen people in a class and he says where you from and I said Pittsburgh, what part? De Paul Institute oh De Paul Institute well that’s where Sister Theresa Vincent Mahoney’s from I said yes well you’re gonna stay and we’re going to provide a teacher for you because I visited your school and I remember that Sister and I will do that for you, so in the mean time this person Ms. Madeline Lewis was sick they thought she had appendix she really was having cancer but they didn’t know it they thought it was appendix so she had this operation and I had a substitute teacher and I had a hard time with her because I she I knew that she wasn’t as equipped as I expected her to be and the thing is… Sr.M: This is a continuation of an interview being conducted as part of the oral history program of the Sisters of Charity of Seton Hill. The interviewee is Sister. Francis Louise Honeychuck the interview is being conducted by Sister. Marie Corona Miller at De Paul Institute the date is July 15th 1987 Sr.M: Sister you were talking about your training with the blind Sr.F.L: Yes, well at Colombia they coordinator of the program said that I could take the class so as I was saying I had to take the brail course and I was taught to use the slate and the stylus and that meant that I had to reverse the pattern in pricking the dots on paper which was difficult because it didn’t have the Perkins brail writer at the time we hadn’t purchased one yet this was all so new to me and so this was a six weeks course and after two weeks I was told that Madeline Lumis was ready to return when I was very happy to see her because everything was changed for me, she gave me a better understanding of this whole idea of brail and teaching blind children and I was thinking specifically of Ann Marie Jurard who was going to be our first blind student from Erie her mother had gone to Pittsburgh to consult with Bishop Derden to ask of it thee was any place that her child could be educated she wanted Ann Marie to have a Catholic education and there was no place provided in Erie there was no place in the Pittsburgh diocese and so Bishop Derden said well the only thing he knew that he could do would be Father Darley was building a new building our Lady of Victory Hall and he said maybe the Sisters of De Paul could provided education for her daughter and so in the meantime he consulted with Father Darley and said to specifically leave a classroom for the blind for the physical for the partially sighted and blind children and they mentioned Ann Maria Jurard so �when I was taking the course I was thinking of her doing the slate and stylus and then I knew that when I got back to school that I would we would purchase a brail writer and all the things that we needed in the mean time Agnes Stone who was a graduate from Mount Mercy was a blind women who knew the brail very well and she lived in Oakland at the time and we hired her Sister Theresa Vincent invited her to come out and to work with me and she started Ann Marie some of the things on the brail you know slate and stylus and then she we started to she didn’t stay any more than a year or a year and a half and so then after she left and I took over the whole program and we had students starting to come in and we had then after I guess several years after that I can’t recall which years but it might have been probably fifty-two but I’m not sure 1952 Sister Angelica Little came so it was Sister Angelica and myself who really engineered the blind department she started the music with the children and provided the brail dots for them to read music notations so they could play we had important piano recitals and among those students were Earl Nixon and Thomas Burgander and Marita Matthews and Candy Deet, Cindy Cudis, Denise MCcrilin, Terry McMahons, Cathy Webber, and the Wisemen twins Larry and Jimmy, Larry Mahoney which was a grandnephew of Sister Theresa Vincent, Regee Sullivan, and Timon Jackson and there was another child who came later and I can’t remember his name but he came from the North side and he had a he had a tumor on the eye and when they operated he lost his sight but I can’t remember his name and I’m sorry that I can’t. So Sr.M: Sister in you and Sister Angelica could go to Catholic University? Sr.F.L: Well Sister did yes and I did too but I got most of my training my beginning training at Colombia at Colombia and then later on I went to Catholic University yes and I took some courses there eye in eye conditions and a few other things that you know was required. Then it was several years after that that Dr.Peabody came from Detroit and he was starting a program for the physically handicapped for the blind and partially sighted at the university so he came to visit our class room and he saw the children in their atmosphere, and he invited Sister Angelica and myself to attend the class so that he could begin teacher training so he wanted us to get pointers on what to do to teach the teachers in training so we went to class every week for six weeks and Dr. Mary Moral still lived with us and she was the person who was in charge of the United Presbyterian church who brailed material for us if we wanted anything done for the children she would get a group of women to do the brailing and Sr.M: Were these women blind? Sr.F.L: These women were not blind no and they did the brail work because it was impossible to use all the textbooks, we did the Catholic textbooks Sister Angelica and myself and we tried especially religion books, but they provided the other books and they schlack them on the other side so that dots would not rub out and then they bound them with a big string shoe strings or cut shoe strings and tied and they had the books were huge they were about seven by fifteen you know in size and �they were cumbersome and heavy looking and thick and we had to provide story space for them in Lady Victory hall lockers and itemize everything everything we had . So we went every week to Pitt University and we offered our services and learned a lot too, and we had discussions about and these people came from the blind school and they came from other places that were going to start classes for the blind in the public schools just like they had classes for the deaf in public schools well it was unheard of to have deaf children then because this PL9142 wasn’t in existence then you know so after six weeks we finished our course but that was the beginning of the teacher training program at Pitt University we were invited to join in that you know work Sr.M: Sister I know that you had been very much involved in helping the children begin dressed for their production their theatrical productions here at De Paul. Can you tell us what you’ve been doing? Sr.F.L: Would you sake a theatrical productions Sr.M: Oh I think they’re theatrical Sr.F.L: Well Sr.M: What they can do Sr.F.L: Well anyhow Sr.M: Is marvelous Sr:F.L: It was a Christmas play well Sister Marie Stell and I both had a hand in that you know but lately I’d been doing most of it. In the beginning each teacher was responsible for getting her own costumes and sewing them and so I remember Sister Marie Michael Carol you know in years past needed a pair of pants for somebody and she just found two old pillow slips and sewed them together, but anyhow one point in time we had some material donated from the Altoona Silk Mills I can’t recall who sent them but we had boxes of them different colors of pinks and yellows and blues and you name it and it was boxes of that and I thought oh this would make nice costumes to make nice angel gowns and white you know would be nice for the angels you know Gabriel and so on and so after some time why we made you know people help make the wings and all kind of things and but recently I’ve been more or less commission to do the costumes for the cast so I guess the last six or seven years or so, maybe more than that. When the assignments were given to the teachers to dress the children you know each one had charge of certain groups, one would dress the soldiers and somebody else would dress Mary and Joseph and somebody else the Kings and somebody else the Shepard’s and so on, and Joseph and Mary and so I volunteered to dress them to prepare the costumes prepare the costumes so if any new costumes had to be made I went to the Altoona Silk Mill box and you know dug out some material and cut it up and tried to make costumes for �the children, and we do preserve them from year to year and we try to use them over and over again so when they have to be laundered and pressed and everything and hemmed and re hemmed and re stitched or what have you or lengthened or shortened why I’ve always taken responsibility to do that. Sr.M: Sister beside Christmas play, I know the children did other kinds of plays that happened before I came. Now the one I know that has been mostly talked about was the play To Our lady of Lords now what Sister was in charge of that? Sr.F.L: Oh, that was Sister Larita McGorie and Sister Mary Linus Hoak, they did that their classes it was for the upper class children and that was really magnificent and the children carry candles and it was really really beautiful it was like our you know Lords. Sr.M: Sister when you were a young Sister starting out here at De Paul the pattern of the young sisters going to Seton Hill in the summer was not done by you nor those who were young like you here at De Paul can you explain why? Sr.F.L: Well every summer you see in order to be trained for the teacher of the deaf we had certain number of credits to get and so Sister Brugetta and myself went to Wayne State University for three whole summers and Sister Scholastica Joyce and Sister Ramada Manean taught me this also and it was three long summers and I remember it was eight weeks at a time and the last no ten weeks ten weeks and then the next summer was ten weeks and then the next summer was ten weeks and the last the third summer was eight weeks and in addition to that we had to get our thesis written and had to be in on a certain date and also I took classes at Duquesne University and I went to Pitt University and Catholic University and tried to get as many credits as I could in order to get my state certification so in the end I was certified as an elementary school teacher in the dioceses of Pittsburgh and also deaf education and hard of hearing and in addition to that sight handicapped and blind and then later I was certificated to be a speech correctionist so in all those areas I had my certification. Sr.M: So you almost continued to go to school. Sr.F.L: Yes, Sr.M: All the summers Sr.F.L: Yes, yes it was a continuation practically every summer and then when I wasn’t doing that we were working on curriculum. Now this present the past two years I’ve been working on the curriculum, and the team for that each there are coordinators for each of the teams and for instance Sister Justina Drysockend and David Williams and Thomas Hogue and myself were the language, reading language curriculum of which I was the coordinator responsible for accumulating all the material and seeing that it was done you know properly. This was a must from the �state of Pennsylvania there were certain guidelines we had to do. We had to include our twelve goals of quality education and so we designed the curriculum the language reading curriculum so that any teacher coming in any person who wanted to learn about the deaf who expected to teach here at De Paul Institute would have something to have in hand so she would be able to follow in order to teach the reading systems, and we are presently using the Scott Forcemen series and we have been for sometime, we found them very valuable our children have scored very well in readings all the way up the line and they show progress so we know it’s a good program, and were not about to give it up and the Sister have preceded me have worked really very hard on that, Sister Helen Louise Connolly, Sister Florien Mcgorie and Sister Marylinus, and all those people and so I cant name everybody because there’s so many people involved but it just this year you know it has to be so in November were going to have an auditor is coming in and the state will evaluate our school, and so I’m not the only one this is not the only group we have to update our mathematics department, science Sister Jeremy has to do the science Sister Mary John is doing the mathematics they’re the coordinators of the speech Connie Mcgrogan and perception and all Sister Sara Marie and all the people down in the earlier you know preschool and readiness department they all have to do that. Sr.M: Sister now to go back a little bit further into at De Paul the community of De Paul would you just like you mentioned some of the Sisters who have come and are now gone many of the Sisters have died, like those in many other key positions other than teaching like I’m thinking of Sister Maureen Cogrus was here could you name some of them like some of the dieticians who were here who took care of the meals the nurses that were here. Sr.F.L: Well Sister Alice Elizabeth Nolan was here as a nurse Sister Equanatia Moore was here when I first came, Sister Ail Louise White took care of the laundry Sister Mary Louis Highland was in charge of the girls, Sister Benedicta and I can’t think of her last her family name she charge of the boys and Sister Lea Katy Mahallen was in kitchen she took care of the meals and we had other people also I can’t think of her their names Sr,M: Sister Theresa Marie Sr.F.L: Sister Theresa Marie Jenkins was in the kitchen, she came shortly after she had her hand cut you know she had an accident at Seton Hill and so she came here and I in fact I was her roommate at first over in the ? Sr.M: Well what about the laundry? Sr.F.L: Well Sister Mary Ali Louise White took care of the laundry she use to do my dusters for me and I never knew who ever took them so one day I found out that she was the one who was taking my dusters and washed them for me she was very kind. Sr.M: Well when did Swister come? �Sr.F.L: She was always here, she was here when I was here you know she was here the year I arrived. Sr.M: Sister Rose Gazada Sr.F.L: Yes, ya Rosa Gazada. She talked an awful lot about Germany and periodically she’d get little candles from Germany and we’d have them for our peace days or Christmas we’d light them put them on the table have our peace days all day celebrations and one year she ordered a crucifix from Germany and so we all admired it some of the Sister said they would like to have one you know beautiful hand carved you know beautiful and. Sr.M: Sister what about some of the children who needed some extra help Sr.F.L: Well there were always children who need extra help especially in the summer time. I recall Mark Partridge came and who was now when I first got him in my classroom he could hardly speak in sentences at all and I was surprised the other day he came to visit and he’s present living in Florida and he’s attending NTID college for the deaf and he’s majoring in photography and I was amazed to hear his speech, he was talking as well as you and I beautiful clarity beautiful work beautiful speech but this past year this is Persvel Walker who has been our on auxiliary a member of the auxiliary club for many years at De Paul Institute and who’s son attended here earlier when he was seven years old I had him in the classroom he was a deaf child and recently he had some eye problems he was unable to see so the mother’s desperate and she asks what we could do he had gone to guild for the blind and Sister Connie Ball talked with him and she tried to get him interested in brail and he was very uncooperative and they exactly she called Sister Calamida one day on the phone and said they didn’t know what to do with Robby they didn’t know how to teach him because he’s deaf and so Sister Calamida talked with me and I said oh bring him out here I know Robby I’ll take him and I said it’s been years since I’ve had the brails but I said I’ll do what I can. Sr.M: How Robert Walker graduated in what year? Sr.F.L: Oh I can’t remember what year I can’t remember it’s so long ago probably the 60’s. And so anyhow he came with his father and his father’s now retired and the mother said that the father would bring him everyday for as many times as I would take him. So he stated in December December the fourth and we started out with brail and first he was in the beginning he was reluctant to learn brail because he just didn’t want to be bothered with it but then he began to see that he couldn’t to realize that he just couldn’t do without it because he can’t see can’t hear he can’t properly learn from talking books he can’t hear the talking book and he can’t see the television and he can’t read and so he was just desperate he just knew he had to have the brail. So he started and he came everyday during the month of December and we got started. In January he had to go to Boston for an eye operation and he �saw a specialist there and it was really just a kind of preliminary to see what was what he could do and so after several weeks he came back and we resumed the brail lessons and I had him everyday I took him in the evening and I took him after school some days after school some days it was in the evening which ever time permitted on my schedule. So then during the month of May I didn’t hear from him they had gone to visit his sister in Long Island and they said they’d be away for a couple weeks, when they returned I called and said what happened and they said well there in the process of moving the mother and the father have felt that something has to be done for Robby and they didn’t they know they’re getting older and they didn’t want anything to happen to them without Robby being provided for so they decided to move to Richmond Virginia where they would be near her daughter. So if anything happened to the parents then the daughter would take over. And Robert is the type of person that was very clingy to his parents, he just can’t go without his parents and they realized that and so he’s very unsure of himself because this has happened to him. He was very outgoing in the beginning and he had a wonderful job as a proofreader in New York in Margs position and so it just the mothers just just crushed over this whole thing. So they broke the news to me that they were gonna move so I said alright I’ll take him everyday until he moves, which I did and he was getting along beautifully he began to read and was doing fine so then they had to leave and I said goodbye and I said I would keep in contact with them which I will, already sent a letter in brail to them and I guess it will be awhile until I hear anything because they have to get adjusted in their new home and moving and all that you know it takes time. So that’s that’s the present thing that’s happened. Sr.M: Sister would you like to comment as to the changes which the church as gone through since Vatican II and in turn our own community. How do you feel about those changes? Sr.F.L: Hmmm well when I think of Vatican II I think especially the liturgy. I really appreciate the liturgy in English it has been so meaningful to me. The epistles and the Gospels and the trend toward bible study, scripture, prayer meaningful to you to me to all of us. I have learned to be more spiritual in that area because I feel more prepared than I was at the time when we talked in Latin I mean Mass was in Latin and I am particularly happy to be at De Paul Institute for the liturgy because Father Convoy’s our present chaplain and he has certainly offered many many spiritual assets to our community by his homilies he always has very very touching homilies you know when you leave the chapel you always have something there. Although Fathers been with us so many years at least well I guess its thirteen fourteen years, and he has never repeated one ? and he everything is special when he’s estimation he takes each day as it comes liturgy and he plans everything. He also plans very carefully when we have parent days and also our facility meeting our facility mass meeting that’s at the school and he’s been very much of an inspiration to all of us and we’re very happy to have Father Convoy. And he certainly makes it very meaningful. As far as the clothing is concerned well I think I welcome the change. First I was reluctant to losing the habit and the rosary and the cap and all that but I �can see it’s very beneficial in lots of ways you know Polyester can in to being and we had easier ways of taking care of your clothes and Sr.M: And you did you have done lots of sewing Sr.F.L: Oh yes Sr.M: In the meantime Sr.F.L: Lots of sewing for many people Sr.M: Helping them get into the tradition SR.F.L: Yes yes and ripping the old habits and I remember I ripped the old habit from scratch and made myself a modified dress in the beginning and then when polyester came in I grabbed the chance to do that because from you know stores on sales and to make my own clothes so I do make my own clothes I make my own suits everything my own caps and I offer to make caps for other people and Sr.M: You’ve always been generous Sister Sr.F.L: And so I you know I welcomed that because I liked to sew I’ve always I’ve been sewing a long time even since I’ve been a little girl. I would make baby doll clothes and Sr.M: Did you ever take a sewing class? Sr.F.L: No not really not really but I used to examine how things were made and I would read books and listen to people talking or you know one time Sister Shela was here and she talked about something and Sister Scholastica would talk about something and I’d be listening to them and pick up a lot of things like that and so you know it was more or less a hobby with me I feel relaxed when I sew it’s a hobby for me and some people have I like to do things with needle work too you know for instance last year I made craft work for the De Paul card party Noels for the Christmas items and God loves you, and Sister Mary Bazel Youngling graciously gave me the patterns and taught me how to do that. One day one December when I was on retreat I met her and I happened to spot something she was doing and she says come on and I’ll show you well after a few lessons I was able to do it and so she offered to give me the yarn and things I needed at the time and I recently I made a visit to Carnegie and she gave me some new patterns. So last November the first we had our De Paul card party and those items were presented at the party and you know on sale and so we expect to do some more this year. Sr.M: Sister what about the Sister dolls that you dress for the community �Sr.F.L: Oh well Sister, Mother Victoria after the Vatican II changes and the habit she came here and visit me and she said I like you to do something for me she said could you consider would you consider dressing a doll that we could use for the archives and she said I know that you have done you have dressed many dolls for the Seton Hill festival and they use to raffle them off. Every year we’d have a doll raffled off Sister of Charity doll and I guess I did about ten of them and each year we would and I was in instrumental in getting these dolls through Sis Mrs. Cathy Mrs. Mrs. Webber she was the mother of of a blind student who was here years ago when I taught and she lives in the north side in Pittsburgh. So she would purchase the doll and I would get the material and I would try to get panama from our capes and discarded capes and aprons and anything that was up around anybody that wanted to offer anything were pretty good I would wash them and press them try to use them and so she would buy snaps for me she would you know then particularly remember the last doll that I did. She went to Currner’s especially to try to get a rosary that was long enough that had a preshable number of chains you know between the beads so it looked like our community rosary. So I remember particular that I I really put my heart and soul in it because I felt that was gonna be the last one that I would dress. Sr.M: This was still in the traditional habit? Sr.F.L: It is still in the traditional habit. And so I dressed that one and a woman from West end happened to be the winner at the festival, and she was delighted to be the winner and so she took it home and we never heard from her until last year or two years ago. Sister Sara Louise approached me while I was on retreat and said did you ever dress Sister of Charity dolls and I said yes I did and we laughed and she said well you know there’s a women at West end who won this doll at the festival and she’s had it for a number of years and she decided that she didn’t need it anymore and didn’t know what to do with it so she went to the Sisters of Saint James and asked what to do with it and they recommended that it be sent to Seton Hill so they directed it to me and Sister Sara Louise and here my name was on the outside of the box De Paul Institute it said. So she said would you consider you know she said I know that you dress a Sister of Charity doll for Mother Victoria, which is at the archives right now and she said the mother has gone through the trouble of making a special glass case for that and it stands on a stand and it’s covered so it’s preserved and she says Well Sister Sarah Louise said I know that you have you know dressed this doll for Mother Victoria Mother Victoria’s request now I would like to ask you if you would consider changing the black cap on this doll and putting on a white cap So we will have a white cap Sister of Charity and we’ll have a black cap Sister of Charity for the archives and I said ok I’ll do that I’ll do that. She Sr.M: Now did you already done that Sr.F.L: I’ve done it two years ago two years ago I made the white cap but I thought after I got the doll, I said I don’t even remember how to make the white cap it’s been so long since we wore a white cap and and I even Sister Agnes Theresa and those people around here don’t have any lose you know �Sr.M: So what did you do? Sr.F.L: So I finally I didn’t have a pattern I didn’t have a pattern but I measured the head forehead to the back cross here to see how many inches I’d need across here and then I measured this part and I remembered that the pattern is cut into a like a an oval shape because you have to have more for over the ears ok so I cut it out of a piece of paper first newspaper and put it on her head and then put paper clips to hold it to the hair and then I started a pleat back there to see how it would go and I found out that I didn’t have enough over the ears so I thought this isn’t right I’ll cut more so I cut another pattern out and then I cut an old sheet and tried it on an old sheet first an old piece of muslin to see how that would work and I found it was gonna be workable. So then I got some white material and Sister Sarah Louise said do you need material and I said no I I’ll have something I’ll have something. So I made the white cap for her and then I took the sleeves out and I put new sleeves in it and I took the collar out and put a new collar in it made a new collar and then I took all the clothes off and washed them and pressed it so she was all done up freshened up and then I put her back in the box ah first I had her on the stand and I showed everybody and Sister Sara Marie wanted to take it to school and I said oh no you don’t the kids aren’t gonna touch this doll I don’t want it fingered I said it’s going to the archives. So so I sent it back to her and then I got a beautiful letter from Sister Sara Marie Sara Louise thanking me for doing that. So that was but I I I couldn’t do a doll anymore I just don’t have the patience and I don’t my fingers are not nimble enough to do the fine work that I’d like to do you know very tiny hems it’s really tedious work so that’s it. Sr.M: So Sister is there anything else that we left out that you want to tell me Sr.F.L: I think I’ve said everything I wanna say Sr.M: Well I really appreciate spending this time with you reminiscing about this the days here at De Paul and a lot of the things that I didn’t know that you went through before you came to De Paul. I just wanna say that community is very grateful for the time you’ve given and this will be a part of our archival collection for the oral history program. Sr.F.L: Thank you Sr.M: Thank you Sister God bless you A correction is needed to indicate Sister Francis Louise’s appointment for her first mission at Westend. Was given by Mother Rose Genevieve Rodgers instead of Mother Marie Benedict Manahon. �Sr.F.L: Correction also was given the date of reception of the habit was not 1934 it was 1932 June 1932. Another correction navicent sisters who were with me in the first year of the navicent Sister Alice Marie Crates instead of Sister Alice Marie Moran. Thank you Sister of Charity Oral Histories Interviewee: Sr. Francis Louise Honeychuck Interviewer: Sr. Marie Corona Miller March 19,2004 This interview is being conduced as part of the Oral History program of the Sisters of Charity of Seton Hill. The interviewee is Sister. Francis Louise Honeychuck. The interview is being conducted by Sister. Marie Corona Miller at Caritas Christi. The date is March 19,2004. This interview is a revision of one given at DePaul Institute with Sister Francis Louise on July 15,1987. Sr.M: Good morning Sister Francis Louise Sr.F.L: Good morning Sister Sr.M: I am happy to be with you again so that we can do a revision of your history. So do you want to begin you personal history? Sr.F.L: Yes, I was born in Mount Pleasant October 23,1914 and baptized on November 1 at visitation church Mount pleasant PA. My name was given the given name was Emma Marie. My father died on October 12,1918 during the flu epidemic after his death my widowed mother and her six children Robert age 10, Andrew age 8, Laurence age 6, myself age 4, Helen age 2, and John who was born three weeks after my fathers death moved from Mount Pleasant to Scottdale Pennsylvania. It was my mothers responsibility with her great faith and trust in God her life in prayer to raise us together as a united family. My mother went to work each day cleaning offices taking in washings and whatever she could find to earn the money to support and provide for our home and needs. She insisted upon having a good education for each one of us. We were fortunate to be educated at Saint John the Baptist school Scottdale PA by the Sisters of Charity of Seton Hill. I attended elementary education at Saint John the Baptist school Scottdale PA 1921 to 1929. I also attended high school at Saint John the Baptist school until my junior year. I recall some memories before school age how I had to keep my Sister Helen and my little brother John sitting on chairs all morning until my mother came home from work each day. We never thought of going outside or leaving the door open at anytime or making any noise while we were at home. We patiently waited for our mother to come home. Walking one and a half miles to school in the morning and coming home for lunch and back again to school in the afternoon gave me the exercise and the fresh air that �I needed to keep me healthy. On rainy days I rode the streetcar the fare was three cents for a ticket. I recall when I was young I became interested in trying to sew baby doll clothes I cut the patterns from newspaper to make to try to make the clothing fit my doll, I remember going to Millers big store on Pittsburgh street Scottsdale PA. I looked all the patterns that were for sale on the rack I wanted especially to know how to make a dress with a flared shirt for my doll. After at looking at all the patterns about a cent in my pocket I came home and cut out a pattern. Since I was too little to peddle my mother’s sewing machine I sewed everything by hand. On Christmas morning Santa brought me my own sewing machine later I heard that it cost about five dollars, I was happy to get it, but after several tries I found out that it really did not satisfy me very well. So I naturally turned to my mother’s sewing machine. When I was in high school I made a dress for my sister Helen and one for myself. On Saturday mornings I helped my mother do the cleaning at the Casket factory Scottsdale PA. My job was to clean the sinks the toilets and to mop the floor with soap and water while my mother did the same to the rest of the building. I recall picking up oodles of straight pins off the chairs, floor, anywhere. They had been dropped by the ladies who used the pins to make while silk lining inside the coffins. Since I had to take care of Helen and John at home, I was almost seven years old when I started to go to the first grade at Saint John the Baptist school in Scottsdale PA. All my teachers were the Sisters of Charity of Seton Hill. When I entered high school at Saint John’s I began to take my lunch because the lunch hour was shorter and I had to be in class on time. It was during my junior year that I began to consider what my vocation might be in the future. At age 17 I entered the Sisters of Charity of Seton Hill navicent on November 25,1932 actually it was Easter Sunday March 27th because Good Friday fell on March 25th the feast of annunciation in the year and I was told to come on Easter Sunday. I became a posolant to receive the black lace cap to cover my hair and a simple black dress with a short with a black short-sleeved cape and of course black cotton stockings to wear there. After six months and making a silent retreat for six days, I received my long black habit including a black surged pleated apron and cape a white starch collar and white cap with detachable bows under my chin. I also received a long black rosary to be worn at my left side. A new name was given to me now I was called Sister Francis Louise. One year later I made another silent retreat for six days, at the end of the retreat I received my first black silk cap and bows, I also received a new black habit pleated surge apron and pleated cape. One year later I pronounced my simple vows of poverty chap obedience. I renew them yearly until years later I pronounced vows for life. I attended classes in preparation for navicent training as well as methods of teaching technique and remained a Seton Hill navicent until 1934. Then I was assigned to begin teaching third, fifth, and sixth grade students at Saint James school Westend Pittsburgh PA from 1934 to 1937. During the Saint Patrick’s day flood 1936 all the Sisters in the convent were evacuated by boat to Divine Provence convent, we were welcomed there to eat our breakfast. Mother Evan Fisher told us to get to any convent and they would be able to take care of us. I went to Saint Stevens’ convent with four other Sisters’ by train to stay until the flood stages were over. Within a week I was asked to go to Saint Iranians Convent Oakmont PA with Sister Ann Seton Boyle. I was asked to substitute teach students in �the fifth and sixth grade because the teacher was sick. I stayed there for two weeks, then I returned to Saint James school Pittsburgh PA and taught students on the second floor near the library because the basement classrooms were not useable. After teaching third, fifth, and sixth grade in elementary education at Saint James school Westend in Pittsburgh PA, I went to the DePaul Institute in 1937 to being the service training for the hearing impaired students. During the years I worked with severely deaf students ages six to twelve with six or seven students in the class with emphasis on teaching speech reading lip reading from blind to facial expression lip reading and speech and language development using the oral no sign language method of instruction for all elementary subjects. Many of these students didn’t have the educational background needed for success namely because they were transferred from other schools or just didn’t experience personal achievement in their early education. The ultimate mission of De Paul Institute was to prepare students for success in a hearing and speaking world. Since I had some experience in teaching hearing students at Saint James School, I realized that quality education was needed for a student to transfer to a regular school. I had to provide guidance and direction to make the most of the gifts and talents of the students and to advance them to there fullest potential so that they would make the transfer successfully, it was a hard laborious job but it was very rewarding in time. Many students have attended high school and college and have successful careers. During the years 1949, 1970 a new direction came to my teaching career. Bishop Diren of the Dioceses of Pittsburgh had requested De Paul Institute to begin teaching blind and partially sighted students the history of these years can be found in the archives of the Sisters of Charity and also the De Paul Institute archives. I was asked to take a course at Colombia University and to become certified in transcribing brail using the perpins brail writer. There were a number of blind partially sighted students who attended during those years. Other teachers and especially Sister Angelica Little were involved in teaching these children. I recall the many years that students from the University of Pittsburgh, Duquesne University, and the Indiana University of Pennsylvania came for a period of six to ten weeks for their in-service training in education for the deaf. The students welcomed the opportunity to use their lip reading skills in a variety of experiences, in which the in service training of the teachers provided for them. The students always enjoyed taking part in Christmas plays singing Christmas carols and patriotic songs. They had the advantage of being taught everything that a hearing student could experience in a regular school program, even joining boy scouts and Girl Scout activities. They were always eager to put on their costumes that were prepared for them by the Sisters of De Paul Institute. They loved to display their talents to please their parents who were proud of their accomplishment. After full time teaching, I spend five years tutoring students at De Paul Institute. This was done on the private basses for students who needed special individual help for reading and language development to further their success in joining other students in daily classes provided by the De Paul Institute curriculum. The parents were grateful for their accomplishment. For the next two years I volunteered recording individual speech records for students during the school hours. This consisted of a grant at De Paul Institute the teachers were required to record the minutes of each student for speech analysis rating them �I for improvement N for no improvement. Papers were collected each week and recorded. The total number of papers for each month were recorded and given to the schools psychologist and were sent to the state of Pennsylvania for evaluation. Money was granted for the results of this money and it was used for to buy computers and other equipment for the use of the De Paul students. �� Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Sisters of Charity of Seton Hill Oral History A resource containing historical information obtained in interviews with persons having firsthand knowledge. Interviewer The person(s) performing the interview Sister Marie Corona Miller Interviewee The person(s) being interviewed Sister Francis Louise Honeychuck Location The location of the interview De Paul Institute Pittsburgh (Pa.) Original Format The type of object, such as painting, sculpture, paper, photo, and additional data Audio cassette tape Duration Length of time involved (seconds, minutes, hours, days, class periods, etc.) 31:54 31:55 31:52 07:54 01:02:34 Bit Rate/Frequency Rate at which bits are transferred (i.e. 96 kbit/s would be FM quality audio) 96kHz Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Honeychuck, Sister Francis Louise Oral History Subject The topic of the resource Sister Francis Louise Honeychuck Description An account of the resource An oral history of Sister Francis Louise Honeychuck, a Sister of Charity of Seton Hill from 1932 until 2017. The interview was conducted by Sister Marie Corona Miller and was also partially self-taped. Sister Francis Louise Honeychuck - born Emma Marie Honeychuck on October 23, 1914 - entered the Sisters of Charity of Seton Hill in March of 1932. She received a bachelor's degree in education from Duquesne University in 1947 and a master's degree in education from Wayne University in 1955. She taught at St. James School in West End from 1934-1937 and at De Paul Institute from 1937-1997. From 1948-1970, she helped to develop and oversee De Paul's services for blind children. Having learned Braille through Columbia University, Sister Francis Louise submitted a Braille translation of the book Black Beauty in order to complete her program. She received a Volunteer Braille Transcriber certification from the Library of Congress in 1962. Sister Francis Louise died on April 29, 2017. Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Sisters of Charity of Seton Hill Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Archives of the Sisters of Charity of Seton Hill Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1987/07/15 1997/02/17 2004/03/19 Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource All rights belong to the Sisters of Charity of Seton Hill, Greensburg, Pennsylvania. Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource Audio cassette tape Language A language of the resource English Type The nature or genre of the resource Oral history Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context OH-65 https://www.scfederationarchives.org/files/original/e976a825d0e9ddfc48c6e1987cbe429c.jpg 82dc7acda5480823fcce065bd5635542 https://www.scfederationarchives.org/files/original/fef430a1a97f2724f739b028a3bf03fa.mp3 c889980d1a5afef874daa1489466ae3f https://www.scfederationarchives.org/files/original/c13ac725586c9573c5d37e38d8ffdb16.mp3 355e0c45caaa5286e79a1088b58fb646 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Sisters of Charity of Seton Hill Oral History A resource containing historical information obtained in interviews with persons having firsthand knowledge. Interviewer The person(s) performing the interview Sister Sara Louise Reilly Interviewee The person(s) being interviewed Sister Dorothy Marie Quigley Original Format The type of object, such as painting, sculpture, paper, photo, and additional data Audio cassette tape Duration Length of time involved (seconds, minutes, hours, days, class periods, etc.) 31:32 31:33 Bit Rate/Frequency Rate at which bits are transferred (i.e. 96 kbit/s would be FM quality audio) 96kHz Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Quigley, Sister Dorothy Marie Oral History Subject The topic of the resource Sister Dorothy Marie Quigley Description An account of the resource An oral history of Sister Dorothy Marie Quigley, a Sister of Charity of Seton Hill from 1941 until 1993. The interview was conducted by Sister Sara Louise Reilly on June 3 and 10, 1984. Sister Dorothy Marie Quigley was born on July 15th, 1912 in Erie, Pa. Daughter of William James Quigley and Florence Elizabeth Flanagan, Dorothy May Quigley entered the community on March 25th to May 18th, 1938. Then, she re-entered on September 8th, 1941 at the age of 29. Sister Dorothy Marie was an elementary teacher from 1944 to 1952 at Cathedral, Altoona. She went on to teach in the Home Economics Department at Seton Hill College in 1955. During the summer sessions of 1960-1964 and 1974, Sister Dorothy Marie taught Child Care in the Home Economics Department at Seton Hill College. She directed the Seton Hill Day Care, and by 1978 there were four federally centers and four state-funded centers. This was the first head start program in Westmoreland County; Seton Hill Day Care Incorporated. They received federal funding in 1966 to start the Seton Hill Day Care Inc., which was the country's first Head Start early-education program for children. Sister Dorothy Marie served as the Director of the program for 17 years and she supervised its expansion to include 12 day and home care centers throughout the city. Sister Dorothy Marie received her B.S. in Home Economics from Seton Hill College in 1954. Then, she went on to Cornell University to receive her M.S. in Home Management and Foods in 1960. In 1983, she coordinated the PACT - Pregnant Adolescent Child Care Training. Sister Dorothy Marie Quigley passed on September 7th, 1993 at the age of 81. Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Sisters of Charity of Seton Hill Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Archives of the Sisters of Charity of Seton Hill Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1984/06/03 Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource All rights belong to the Sisters of Charity of Seton Hill, Greensburg, Pennsylvania. Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource Audio cassette tape Language A language of the resource English Type The nature or genre of the resource Oral history Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context OH-92 https://www.scfederationarchives.org/files/original/860b27f9dde58114933d58eea56ee9b8.jpg 232c1f3c84b90482b2e674d5545298eb https://www.scfederationarchives.org/files/original/c20e7fb452c0ffbeaf7eed5489025030.mp3 a0ba874e349ea1d53be503426107bc21 https://www.scfederationarchives.org/files/original/8b081432ba509028dc4b55a90f994c4b.mp3 41d7ffe8286236078d3d82bbc3de5606 https://www.scfederationarchives.org/files/original/39382842de8ab479d2b354efcfdec40d.mp3 9f4d109d3fe518322c06098646191b40 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Sisters of Charity of Seton Hill Oral History A resource containing historical information obtained in interviews with persons having firsthand knowledge. Interviewer The person(s) performing the interview Sister Marie Corona Miller Interviewee The person(s) being interviewed Sister Mary Janet Ryan Original Format The type of object, such as painting, sculpture, paper, photo, and additional data Audio cassette tape Duration Length of time involved (seconds, minutes, hours, days, class periods, etc.) 31:56 31:56 20:57 Bit Rate/Frequency Rate at which bits are transferred (i.e. 96 kbit/s would be FM quality audio) 96kHz Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Ryan, Sister Mary Janet Oral History Subject The topic of the resource Sister Mary Janet Ryan Description An account of the resource An oral history of Sister Mary Janet Ryan, a Sister of Charity of Seton Hill from 1935 until 2017. The interview was conducted by Sister Marie Corona Miller on May 11, 1988. Sister Mary Janet Ryan was born on May 31st, 1918 in Pittsburgh, Pa. Daughter of Alexader Ryan and Josephine Dalton, Jeannette Ryan entered the community on September 8th, 1935 at the age of 17 as Sister Mary Janet Ryan. Sister Mary Janet taught intermediate for 3 years, upper elementary for 15 years, secondary for 12 years, and college for 7 years. She was a History Professor at Seton Hill College from 1965 to 1979. She taught history in the summer sessions at SHC in 1953, 1955, 1956, 1958-1960, 1962, and 1975. She taught in Louisiana Schools as well as in the Pittsburgh Diocese. Sister Mary Janet received her B. Ed. in Secondary Education from Duquesne University in 1947. Then, in 1953, she received her M.L. in Geography from the University of Pittsburgh. Sister Mary Janet Ryan passed on September 15th, 2017 at the age of 99. Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Sisters of Charity of Seton Hill Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Archives of the Sisters of Charity of Seton Hill Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1988/05/11 Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource All rights belong to the Sisters of Charity of Seton Hill, Greensburg, Pennsylvania. Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource Audio cassette tape Language A language of the resource English Type The nature or genre of the resource Oral history Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context OH-88 https://www.scfederationarchives.org/files/original/a7556e4dc3c2489aa33a791d0b1215f3.jpg cfcaaded973ef9fa0945152e7c689bc0 https://www.scfederationarchives.org/files/original/3fc3f8f174dae1d5c268f4c88ca5021b.pdf d03ffbc8aa0bcbf7f9034e997e02bf3a PDF Text Text OH-84: Sister Mary Agnes Carey This interview is being conducted as part of the Oral History Program of the Sisters of Charity of Seton Hill. The interviewee is Sister Mary Agnes Carey. The interview is being conducted by Sister Mary Noel Kernan at St. Joseph’s School, Kangjin, Korea. The date is April 23, 1987. SMNK: Sister Mary Agnes, have you always wanted to be a missionary? SMAC: I think I can say yes to that. When I was little, I always went to a Catholic school, always was attracted to religious life. I thought I would be a Sister someday, but what community…no thought of that. This was in grade school, I can remember Sister at one time asking, what do you want to be when you grow up? I remember I really longed to be a Sister. This might have been a fake. I even said, I am trying now to be nice to little children, but I guess I had to be nice to little children because there were others at home. There were three younger than I. SMNK: How many were in your family? SMAC: There were seven of us. Just five boys and two girls. But anyway, this missionary question. My first younger brother, Jimmy, was two years younger. We were in from 5th grade on at Cathedral School. If I was in 5th grade, he would have been in 3rd because we were only two years apart. We would walk to school so that we could get there in time to go to the 8 o’clock Mass at the Cathedral and we were right across the street to get to school. You had to be in school by 8:30, as I recall. I remember, after Communion, we wouldn’t receive Holy Communion, we would have had our breakfast first. We didn’t like to be late. We would have been in trouble if we were late. We got to school on time, but often walking to school or walking home – it was about a half an hour walk from our school to our home. We would talk about what we were going to be and we were both going to be missionaries. Go to a foreign country and all that. Jimmy, when he got to high school – he went to Central – after the second year, he was fussing that he wanted to be a Brother. So my parents let him go, but he knew that he was welcome back home if he went and didn’t like it. He actually was a Brother for 35 years. During that time, I remember I was at Seton �Hill, it was in the 1940s, he wrote to me a series of letters. He felt he should be a priest. In order to be…there are no priests in the Christian Brothers, so if he would be a priest, he would have to leave that. Yet he loved the Brothers. He put it in the hands of his superiors and eventually they told him they thought his vocation was to be a Brother. I remember the last letter – I received one and about two days later, I received another one. That one said, thank God, it’s decided I will stay with the Brothers. He stayed. He was actually a Brother for 35 years. At the time, when he decided he wanted to be a priest, he was Provincial. I think one Brother every year was selected to make a second novitiate in Rome and he had that opportunity and so on. He had been in charge of their Scholasticate for a number of years. It must have been an awfully hard decision to make and yet, he was getting older and this was what… and as a child, he had always said that before he ever heard of Brothers. I think it must have been his teachers up to that point had been Sisters and most of the people in Pittsburgh didn’t know anything about Brothers until they came. I remember my mother sort of fighting that battle for years. Why doesn’t he go the whole way and become a priest? That’s actually the way it turned out. By the time he became a priest, both my parents were dead. In fact, my father, he died just a month after Jimmy went to the seminary. That seminary, when he decided to be a priest, he went to Baltimore. That’s where he had been all of his religious life, in Baltimore. He had never come back to Pittsburgh to teach there. The Cardinal of Baltimore asked him what seminary he would like to go to. He gave him two choices. In Baltimore, St. Mary’s Seminary or Emmitsburg. He said he chose Emmitsburg. I wonder sometimes, it was probably his association with Sisters of Charity. The Cardinal told the Rector, who was Father Flynn at that time, that when he felt that Jimmy was ready for ordination to let him know and he’d ordain him. He went to the seminary in January of 1970. At Easter time, he was made a deacon and in May, he was ordained with that class. The boys at the seminary had a great time with him. They said, well, we have heard of instant soup and instant coffee, but this is the first time we have heard of instant priests! So that’s Jimmy. He didn’t become a missionary. Anyway, back when you were talking about missionary. My mother, when we had anybody broach this idea of being a missionary, she always said - a missionary term meant foreign missionary, you know. It did to us, too. She always said, there’s enough work to be done at home. Home missions. Lord rest her. She died in 1955. It was 1960 when I came here. I think maybe she was rooting for me up there. She saw a global picture by that time, perhaps. As far as our family was concern, my mother had great faith, I think and my father was a great guy, too. Not as religious in the sense of devotional as my mother, but I remember hearing him say one time, the two great devotions are the Sacred Heart and the Blessed Mother. If you have those, you can’t get in trouble. He was faithful. One thing I remember, right before I entered, my mother told me – and I think she never told me before that because she thought it might influence – She said, before each child was born, she offered the child to go, but asked God to give the child good health and good morals and if the child could learn to get along. I think God answered her prayers because I became a Sister and Jimmy was a Brother and then a priest. My brother, Tom, is now pastor in Pittsburgh at St. Simon and Jude Church and on June 14th, we will celebrate his Golden Jubilee ordination. She had her answer, I think. SMNK: There were other children? �SMAC: Yes, there were five boys. Frank, the oldest, died in 1985. Father Tom was next. And Joe. Joe is in East Liberty now. A faithful parishioner there. I came next. There were three boys ahead of me. Then Jimmy that we just talked about. Bill who lives in Lancaster now. Grace is in Florida. The other day when I was cleaning out the drawer, trying to get ready to go to the States. I came across a retreat notice that I had and as I looked, I could see Jimmy. Jimmy had said to me at one time, right before I was making retreat, we didn’t know what good hands we were in when growing up. I remember him talking to mother about retreat and meditation. He was telling her about it and she was telling him how when she washed us, fed us, and took care of us that she was praying for us all the time. He said, wow, we didn’t know all that was being done for us even before we were able to remember. About that missionary business. Since my mother, she wanted us – as I said before, she certainly prayed that if God wanted us in His service, she would gladly give. She was a little hesitant on foreign mission things, you know. She used to say, there is enough work to be done at home. I guess there still is, always is. I remember thinking when I was in high school, I should think about home missions. The Sisters of the Blessed Sacrament hadn’t been founded too long before. I remember at school the Mercy Sisters telling us that Mother Drexel had made her novitiate there and not Mercy in Pittsburgh. But I never got around to writing and I suppose, I hope, the Lord had in mind that I could fulfill that wish somewhere, somehow, some other way. SMNK: And you’ve done that. SMAC: I hope. I’m here, anyway. I am trying to think, that first year when we were in Mokpo, none of us knew the language, but Sr. Alice had really looked a little harder at it before we came. She has a good ear. A music teacher. Very good ear. She picked up a good bit. One day when we were working, somebody came to the door and I went. The man started talking to me and I started answering him, but he left. Sr. Alice laughed and she said to me, Sister, if you would have spoken to him in English, he might have understood you. I said, wasn’t I speaking Korean? She said, no, you were speaking Spanish! I guess it had to be a foreign language and the only foreign language I knew a little bit about was Spanish, so that was it. Father Tom Lacey was here the other day and he had somewhat the same experience. He was talking about that. When he thinks of a foreign language, he thinks of Spanish and sometimes he is saying something in Spanish. That year, we could talk with each other and we knew what was going on there. Somebody was always coming in and having something funny to tell, especially with words, with language. One of the Caritas Sisters used to come over in the evenings. They shared with us. They gave us half their house, the better half, I think. One Sister, she wanted to learn some English. She would have questions and one night she kept saying “Hogan.” She would say something and say “Hogan.” She would say something else. This “Hogan,” because it was an Irish name, was sort of getting to us. We wondered what in the world “Hogan” was. Whatever she was saying, none of us could make out what “Hogan” was. The next day, a teacher we had was talking and she said, “Hogan.” We jumped at her. Everybody said, what’s “Hogan.” It just meant or. O-R. This Sister was saying, you could say it this way or this way. We knew neither one, so it didn’t make any sense at all. I remember one day, we had gotten our stove. Just gotten it. Things had come from the States. We had a kerosene stove. We were going to celebrate that night. We were going to have a party, I guess. Sr. Mary Noreen was making cocoa and she asked me for the sugar. What I thought, maybe it was marked sugar. I took it and gave it to her. After she makes it - [tape cuts out] We knew we couldn’t drink �it. We threw it away. Where are we going to throw it? We opened the sliding doors and we threw it out in a big pile of snow. That sliding door we opened was on a passageway from a little room we used as a dining room into our kitchen. Would you know, that snow melted, but that cocoa..that salty cocoa was there and everytime we passed we’d say, my sin is always before me. SMNK: So the language gave you many interesting things and then you also learned to share community those years? You got very close like that, very much. SMAC: Speaking of language, it wasn’t always the Korean language, it was also the English language. You see, the people, the missionaries we knew were the Columban Sisters and there were 2 American Sisters among the ones there. Most of the Irish priests. There were some American Columbans, too. I remember one day the pastor came down and he said to me, we had been there just about a month and everyone was helping us, too. Where you could get this and try to find a cook for us and so on. He came down and he said, Sister, you never paid me for that paraffin. We didn’t buy any paraffin. And he said oh, you Americans, call it kerosene. We had. We paid him really quick for the paraffin or kerosene, whatever you have. We went to a picnic with the Columban Sisters one day and one of them said…Mother Mary Lucy said, and now we’ll take flasks with us. Flasks? Flasks meant to us something in your back pocket, you know. They called a thermos, a flask. A Sister sent over one time and she wanted gum. We didn’t know…gum, chewing gum. The Irish would say, we hadn’t a clue what she wanted. It turned out to be paste. We never called it gum. SMNK: A moment ago, I was thinking how close you seemed in community. The American Sisters seem to know each other, to know one another and one another’s family’s and one another’s interests very much. Much more so than I see in the United States. How would you account for that? SMAC: I think we were isolated and we could speak English. Incoming mail was a big event. I’ve read stories of little town’s where the children went out to watch the train pass by. This was a daily something. We had to talk about something. The thing we knew most intimately are our people. A letter would come and you wanted to share it with the others. Everybody seemed interested and you began to know the names of each of the family and different things about them. Funny things. Sr. Alice would say, her mother used to say, if you haven’t head your ‘nough, you’ve had your share. Things like this. We’d begin to quote some of these things that each one had found at home. Then when we went home, you’d call… Sr. Alice’s mother. We met her. We had dinner at her home before we came. There was some kind of meeting there. You would just naturally go home and you’d be sure to call everybody’s mother and father or somebody in the family or this kind of thing. Really, it was like our extended family. As it goes now, this is coming with the Korean Sisters. As you get to know them, the ones you are more familiar with, the ones you’ve lived with, you feel close to their families, too. As you’ve noticed, I think, this year we’ve had a number of deaths in the family’s of the Sisters. Well, you know what death means. As families too, as we begin getting older and you’re experiencing this. I think that life and death brings us together in this way. I had much the same experience out West. When it was isolated, when it was far away. When you went out there, you didn’t know when you were going to get back. It was the same thing here. When we came, the thought was we would go home every seven years. Well then, I think when Sister Mary Noreen, she was, perhaps, she was here seven years before she got back. I had to �go to a Chapter, even though I wasn’t elected to it, Bishop Connare said we were supposed to have a representative from here. I just went and sat there and finally, Sr. said I could say something, so they asked me to talk about Korea. I really think that maybe the people who went first to Bethesda or Glyndon, they probably had something of that feeling. You were more united because it was like family. Really and truly like a family because you had to talk. The most likely thing would be what you knew best. SMNK: One of our concerns when the Sisters first went to Korea was that you would have a great many physical hardships to endure. Do you have any comment on that? SMAC: One of the worries, I know, before we came, people were thinking about the food. That we wouldn’t be able to eat the type of food they have here, but from the very beginning, Archbishop ____ and the Columban Sisters could get things at the commissary, the foreigner’s commissary, so anybody that was going to Seoul, any of the communities would ask what you wanted. For example, for breakfast, we were always able to get bread, so we could have toast. You always could get eggs. No problem with that. You could buy jellies. Jams. Things we would have at home like for lunch where you would have lunchmeat or something like that, that wasn’t…you could get sometimes get cans of Spam. You can eat too much Spam, you know, sometimes. We were careful. People had warned us about kimchi that this was very hot, spicy. For your own healthsake, it would be wise not to indulge too much. Some of the priests thought they wanted to go Korean all the way, but they did too much too soon in the line too soon and they really ruined themselves. We, certainly, were never tempted to do that. We were interested in eating as much as we could of what people were eating and the Koreans were always saying to us, what do you eat? They could see we were healthy. I don’t know whether I mentioned this before, but one time when Sr. Alice was teaching…we used to divide the English conversation classes. We would take 45 children and three Sisters would take 15 a piece. We should have been able to do something with them and we did, I suppose, because at least their pronunciation was alright. Sister Alice, one day, she went in after 7th period, which was sometime late in the afternoon, and she had 15 of these little girls who couldn’t learn Korean very well even. They said to her, Sister, of course they were talking in Korean, tell us about America. She said, in English? They said, oh no, no. She said, what do you want to know about America? You ask me questions and I will answer them. They said, what do you eat? She said, for breakfast we have toast. Well, what’s toast? She explained what that was. Toast, coffee, and fruit, and eggs. One little girl said, no rice and kimchi? And she said, no. Well, for lunch? What do you have for lunch? She said, well you usually have a sandwich. Do you know what a sandwich is? No. So she explained what a sandwich is and they were interested. Then maybe soup. In those days, we couldn’t get milk either. We could get powdered milk, but it didn’t taste very good when you mixed it up. This same little girl says, No rice and kimchi? And Sister said no. So they got to evening meal and I guess the children were really hoping she could get some rice and kimchi. So she explained what an evening meal would be. Mashed potatoes, some meat, and vegetables, and tea and coffee and, perhaps, some cake or fruit for dessert. And, you have the question, no rice and kimchi? And she said, no. And the little girl said, Oh, I never want to go to America! We told this to our cook and she laughed because she knew we were eating very well, but most of those little girls were eating that. �Gradually then, as we began to have Korean Sisters in the community, we wanted to be sure they were eating Korean meals, but they even agreed that it would be good to keep the breakfast a Western breakfast and most of them have no trouble with that at all. Occasionally, if a Sister isn’t well, she might want a porridge for breakfast that’s made of rice. Any of them that would feel the need, there is no problem with them having that. The trouble is, it’s easier to get our breakfast ready to get theirs. The cold. We heard early that it was cold. We did what the Koreans do. We put on more clothes. You put on, instead of one undershirt, you have a couple. One is thermal or something. It’s very warm. You put on two or three pairs of stockings. This makes trouble for the kind of shoes you wear, so you have some boots and some other things, but eventually, you get used to how to manage it. The house, we would have the kerosene stove. We would be warm enough when you were in a certain room. When you experienced this summer, we even have coal stoves in the rooms where we gather as a community. It’s not as convenient as central heating, but we manage. I think that we didn’t have as many colds as the Sisters back home would have. I don’t understand it exactly except that you get so used to it, you cope with it. If you were looking to see how do you keep warm enough and if somebody got a good idea. For instance, in ______, the Columban Sisters used to…they would heat bricks and put them in the bed. That’s what we did. We would have a regular brick and put a towel around it. It would be very hot. That would be still partially warm in the morning, but once you got to sleep, there was no problem. That, too. Anyone who found any way…when some of the Sisters were up in language school, somebody discovered if you had an electric blanket, it would solve a lot of your night problems. You wouldn’t need to bother with that brick, you know. So we began that. A number of the Sisters had that. If you left it on too long, your skin dried out, sort of. Some didn’t want that. It was easier to put on an extra blanket, an ordinary blanket or something, to keep warm. What else do you have besides food and cold? SMNK: Well you surprised me when you said electric blanket. I was under the impression that there was no electricity in Korea. SMAC: Oh, that’s always interesting. We had electricity, but you were never sure when you were going to get it. In Mokpo, we used to laugh. If we have visitors, the electricity goes off. It wasn’t consistent. I think some of the machines were sort of broken because the current coming in was not consistent, but we had electricity. One of the problems was, with the machines you had, like a tape recorder, record player, iron, and these things, it was when they broke, you couldn’t get them fixed. We had brought them from America and the local companies weren’t too busy making all of these things. Once they did, the Koreans can copy like anything. If they get hold of something, they can figure how it works and they can fix things. Now, it may not last too long, but they’ll get it working for you. In the house, we didn’t have too many plugs. Electric switches. We found out early on, whether you used them…you’d think it would be nice in a room to have two or three. SMNK: Oh, outlets. SMAC: Outlets. That’s it. You have to pay for everyone. A certain amount every month for every outlet you had. And the builders will tell you that, so when you are building, you know, you think, put one here. It would be nice because you have your desk here or you have one there or you want �to change your desk over to here. We ended up getting all kinds of extensions, so you didn’t have to pay for all of these. SMNK: And you still do that? SMAC: We still do, yeah. The water situation. When we came to Kangjin, there was a well on the property and then when the built the first part of the school, they dug a deeper well. We found out later that the people used to say, if the Sisters’ well runs dry, we are in trouble. It was apparently a very good well and we never had any problem with the water that time. The well was good. It produced a lot of water. When we built it, there was a tank above the staircase and the water supply was good. When we built the convent, that water was piped over to here still. SMNK: Could you drink the water? SMAC: We could but a Maryknoll Sister, Sister Augusta had said to us, she said the water is good. But well water is very good, but you don’t know about the pipes. They aren’t used to piping water so much and she said it may be there would be rust and other things in those pipes. She said, at least for your drinking, you should boil the water. Until we got our ultra pure now with that… [END OF TAPE 1-A] � Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Sisters of Charity of Seton Hill Oral History A resource containing historical information obtained in interviews with persons having firsthand knowledge. Interviewer The person(s) performing the interview Sister Mary Noel Kernan Interviewee The person(s) being interviewed Sister Mary Agnes Carey Original Format The type of object, such as painting, sculpture, paper, photo, and additional data Audio cassette tape Bit Rate/Frequency Rate at which bits are transferred (i.e. 96 kbit/s would be FM quality audio) 96kHz Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Carey, Sister Mary Agnes Oral History Subject The topic of the resource Sister Mary Agnes Carey Description An account of the resource An oral history of Sister Mary Agnes Carey, a Sister of Charity of Seton Hill from 1934 until 1993. The interview was conducted by Sister Mary Noel Kernan on April 23, April 24, and May 5, 1987. Sister Mary Agnes Carey - religious name of Sister Thomas Aquinas - was born on January 18, 1916 and entered the Sisters of Charity of Seton Hill in September of 1934. She received a bachelor's degree in Latin from Seton Hill College in 1940, a master's degree in Spanish from Middlebury College in 1956, and a doctorate from the University of Madrid in 1958. She was part of the first group of Sisters sent to Korea in 1960. Prior to that she taught at SS. Peter & Paul in Arizona and at St. Luke's in Carnegie. She was also part of the Spanish department at Seton Hill College. She was Principal of St. Joseph in Kang Tjin, Korea, from 1960-1971. Sister Mary Agnes died on October 12, 1993. Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Sisters of Charity of Seton Hill Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Archives of the Sisters of Charity of Seton Hill Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1987-04-23 1987-04-24 1987-05-05 Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource All rights belong to the Sisters of Charity of Seton Hill, Greensburg, Pennsylvania. Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource Audio cassette tape Language A language of the resource English Type The nature or genre of the resource Oral history Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context OH-84 Coverage The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant Gwangju Kwangju-si (Chŏlla-namdo, Korea) 1916-1987 https://www.scfederationarchives.org/files/original/2c5137a235bbc718bea8544bb32b79c7.jpg d6edd7ab745c1b697489d43680d3fb47 https://www.scfederationarchives.org/files/original/8e698839c5332ed8d95c206d7bf4f972.mp3 dcfb9a6b6e9bba236abd813305fb8736 https://www.scfederationarchives.org/files/original/02322b4a0f5bfc99b89f57d0c873343a.mp3 3a2a1acd7f5a2da2a567c1f8867ea1ec https://www.scfederationarchives.org/files/original/de107ab72e4fe0781656265e4523c088.mp3 f3a15bae36c4b8cb571edf7ce5ef582d Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Sisters of Charity of Seton Hill Oral History A resource containing historical information obtained in interviews with persons having firsthand knowledge. Interviewer The person(s) performing the interview Sister Miriam Jane Hollowood Interviewee The person(s) being interviewed Sister Mary Schmidt Location The location of the interview Seton Hill College Transcription Any written text transcribed from a sound OH - 81 Sr. Mary Schmidt Side I of Tape marked I and II OH I and OH II SMJH: This interview is being conducted as part of the oral history program of the Sisters of Charity of Seton Hill. The interviewee is Sister Mary Schmidt ,formerly known as Sister M. Thecla, and the interviewer is Sister Miriam Jane Hollowood. The interview is being conducted at Seton Hill College on July tenth, nineteen hundred eighty-four. SMJH: Sister Mary, will you tell us something about yourself before you came to Seton Hill? SMS: I am the oldest of six children. · My father was Henry Schmidt, who was a professor at Carnegie Mellon University. My mother was a teacher of Speech, what they then called Elocution, Unfortunately, I didn' t imbibe any of the things my parents had specialized in. I went to Sacred Heart Grade School and High School. I'm sure that's where I got my greatest feelings for the Sisters of Charity . SMJH: Who were some of the Sisters that you knew at that time? SMS: I suppose the ones I had in high school were the most memorable. I had my name from the marvelous Sister M. Thecla Carroll, who was a Latin and Mathematics teacher. Sister Thecla died very suddenly at the age of forty-four when I was a sophomore at Sacred Heart. This was my first experience with death. At that time, Mother Rose Genevieve Rodgers knew I was going to enter and she said she would like to save that name for me, so she did. The person who was ' most influential with me at Sacred Heart was Sister M. Claudia Glenn, who later became Mother M. Claudia Glenn. She taught English for the four years I was at Sacred Heart High School. She was really the first to note I am sure that I was going to become a Sister of Charity. When I was twelve or thirteen, a freshman in high school, I remember one day of being struck beyond words when Sister Claudia said: "Mary, I know that you are going to be a Sister." I said: Well, how did you know that?" I realize now that she could see it. Those were the two people who were most influential. Of course, there was a teacher, Sister Rose de Lima Henry, whom I had the pleasure of having for Latin for four years. There were others. However, if you are asking for the highlights, those are the highlights. SMJH: When Mother Claudia said that she knew you were going to be a Sister, did you know? SMS: Yes, that's why I was so surprised. It was just around that time when I was in the eighth grade going into high school that I simply realized that I was to be a Sister. At that time I thought it was rather glamorous, but I also knew that it was a way of devoting my entire life t·o some thing. This may sound naive, but I always knew that I had to devote my entire life to something. It couldn't be any less. That's why I didn't want to marry, not meaning anything derogatory about marriage. I remember how I was very drawn to praying in Sacred Heart Church. They had Exposition of the Blessed Sacrament on Fridays when'I was in grade school. I was always running back and forth between the church and home. We didn't live very far away. I also kept saying to mother: "I won't be away long. I'll be back soon. She of course didn' t mind. Then fortunately, or unfortunately, I realized that I wasn' t in any big hurry. My father, of course, just took it for granted that one went to college. I had no problem with that. I was delighted to go to college. Obviously, I went to Seton Hill. I had studied piano with my father for a number of years. He was very interested in my not being very good at it. He said: "If you are really interested in becoming a religious, I don't want you to become a piano teacher." He had seen too many of them who didn't have enough to do but listen to little children. I had nothing to do with it, but I have always been grateful to him since. He said: "I don't want you to learn any more piano if you are determined to do this." Before I went to college, that was the idea. It is also true that my first preference has been English, both reading and writing it. I really don't think I ever had any trouble with anything. I had an extraordinarily happy childhood and home. I look back on that as being very helpful to me. My mother was a convert, and had no great feeling for my wanting to be a Sister. She also had some problems with some of the sisters when my brothers were altar boys and choir boys. That wasn't important. She came to be very happy with the whole thing. That's pretty much in a nut shell what my early years were like. SMJH: Now, you said your Father was a Music Professor. Didn't he also teach at Seton Hill College? SMS: Well, he did along with his teaching at Carnegie Mellon. He didn' t teach at the college while I was a student. I know he was here while I was a white capped novice. He never left Carnegie Mellon. He only came up to Seton Hill College two days a week. This was during depression times when the younger students at Carnegie Mellon and at Seton Hill were not so numerous as they had been, and consequently he was able to condense his work at Carnegie Mellon into three days a week and teach at Seton Hill the other two. He was here for four or five years. I remember that Mother M. Evaline Fisher was the Mother Superior and also chair­ man of the Board of Directors for Seton Hill College. She wanted to get my father to be chair­ man of the Music Department, hoping that the connection with Pittsburgh might be influential in getting more students to come to the college. My Father and Doctor Reeves were great friends, and my father enjoyed his time at Seton Hill. I believe that it was difficult for my father and he should only have been at Seton Hill for a short time. Anyhow, he went back to Carnegie Mellon until he retired. All of his friends were there. It was like in the Henry James era. If you wanted to study music a lot, you went to Europe, and so he did. Many of his friends went to Europe also and when they came back they were the pioneer faculty of the Fine Arts at Carnegie Mellon University. This was about nineteen hundred ten. We were faculty children, and we went to the swimming pool and music classes, and Dr. Baker' s Christmas parties for faculty children. That's my recollection of it. It was kind of a nice thing. We enjoyed it. SMJH: That' s good, and he got to be part of our faculty at Seton Hill. You graduated from Seton Hill with a Bachelor's degree in English and then went to Pitt to obtain a Master' s degree in English. SMS: Yes, I graduated from Seton Hill in nineteen thirty-two, and again wasn't in any hurry to leave home, so I went to Pitt and graduated with a Master's degree in English in nineteen thirty­ four. My father was also in favor of this. He thought it was better for one to get as much college work as possible, as he had some insight to some of the problems people had. SMJH: So, you entered the Community then in nineteen thirty-four. What was the Community like at that time? I'm sure it was different for a woman entering with a Master's degree, which was not common at that time. SMS: It was difficult. I was the first one. People thought that you might become a snob. I was a great substitute in the fourth grade, about which I knew nothing, and I have never to this day set my foot inside a high school as a teacher. I understand this. It was the mentality of religious life at that time, and it would not happen today. I knew that here I was, I belonged, and never doubted for one second. I was extremely happy in the community. The first thing I did when I didn't let them decide was to go to Altoona to teach the seventh grade. Where upon I fell with a terrible case of scarlet fever. That ended my career as a mission sister after a few months. They really wanted someone as a seventh grade teacher. They felt that you would know so much more because of having a master's degree. Then I came back to Seton Hill. I was a black cap novice. For a time, I was not doing anything as the scarlet fever left me with a heart involvement, which evaporated later on, but I had it then. It was Christmas week. I had not made my vows yet. Behold, Sister Victoria Brown, who was an English teacher took a trip to the hospital and was retained for a while. So, here I was with a Master' s Degree in English. There must have been a great commotion among the powers. about my doing anything. Some of them felt it was the kiss of death for me to do anything. There they were, and here I was with this degree, so anyhow I did it. I became a part time teacher in the college the Spring Semester of . nineteen thirty-six. Somehow, I got a much better feeling for the sisters than what I had when I was in college. They seemed so much better. I didn't come to the community because I thought the sisters were marvelous. I came because I knew that was what I had to do with my life. I was presumably destined to be an English teacher. Sister Victoria, who was the treasurer decided that I should go to Oxford University in England for a degree. They didn't give a doctorate, but they gave a Master's, which they feel is superior to our American Doctorate. I was indeed supposed to go. All preparations were made. In the late summer of nineteen thirty;.e ight; there was a big scare in this country that the war was immanent. Well, it was decided that it wouldn't be good to send a young sister off into a war. So everyone said: "We' ll wait·until next year. War was declared on September fourth of nineteen thirty-nine, so I never went. At that same time since I was already to go somewhere, they packed me off to New Haven, Connecticut in September of nineteen thirty-nine. I was there until January of nineteen forty-three, which was four years. I stayed with the Sisters of Charity in New Jersey. They were near the University. They were so nice, but didn't understand what on earth I was doing. I enjoyed that life, that scholarly life I guess you would say, very much...being on my own. However, I knew I belonged in the community, so I hurried back to Seton Hill. SMJH: What did you do your dissertation on? SMS: I did my dissertation on Sir Thomas Moore. It turned out to be a very small subject within a great field. I knew that ifl was going to spend a year or year and a half on anybody, I wanted it to be someone I could feel some sympathy for. I wanted to take someone who had a religious mentality. I thought ifl took Alexander Pope or somebody like that for that length of time, I couldn' t take it! So, even though I had no course work in Tudor English, I took it on.....Sir Thomas Moore. I enjoyed it very much ...going through books, transcribing in black letters which was the way it was then. It has only been in the past twenty-five years that things were printed in ordinary letters. During all this time, the war was going on. I still wonder now why I didn't know more about the war, even though I read the New York Times every Sunday. I still want to know why I didn't know more. I think you become very engrossed and very selfish in a way while during library work. It' s very demanding! There were only four women working on their graduate work, but they too were talking about their work, and not the war. Men were at the age where they were drafted into the war. I'm certainly no expert on the second world war. SMJH: No, but you' re an expert on Thomas Moore. You have published some papers on Thomas More. SMS: Yes, I also have a very good experience of the generosity of this Community. When I finished there, I had all sorts of things that I came across while I was doing my dissertation. The dissertation on Thomas Moore was recognized on Thomas Mooore's use of St. Augustine as his English polemical work. It was certainly nothing anyone should be bored to death by reading it. But, while you are doing this you run across fascinating things which you want to pursue. So, it was the most natural thing in the world to want to write about these things, and.I did. I had many summers, one after the other when I went back to New Haven and did this writing. I got it into print, not anything marvelous. The first thing I had printed was an essay on St. Patrick because that was enlarged in nineteen forty-five shortly after I was back. SMJH: Why did you do St. Patrick? SMS: Well, again, there was a large group of women, possibly from the A.O.H. They wanted a speech, and I was asked if I would give this speech. They wanted something relative to the pious nature. It was in March, and I was asked to speak about St. Joseph or St. Patrick. I knew little about St. Joseph, and I knew that.St. Patrick had a lot of historical things. I made this great discovery that Patrick was a staff (couldn' t make next word out) character. So I got together some of these things and gave my speech. They were things that perhaps they had heard, but claimed they were all news to them. I got this speech sent to the magazine "America" for publication. Then after that I did other articles like St. Thomas Moore , The Medieval Devil and other funny things like that, which were also published in "America", and "The Catholic World". In those days, they were the only magazines that would print things with background, at least that I knew of. There was one article published in the "Scholarly Journal" and others were published in different places. (She didn't name these places). SMJH: Did you also have some poetry published? SMS" Yes, some short ones, which were also published in "America". SMJH: Did you want to say anything about coming back to Seton Hill and being on the Faculty? SMS: Yes, those years when I was teaching were probably the best years of my life. SMJH: That's great, and we'll continue this interview sometime later! SMJH: This is a continuation of the oral history interview with Sister Mary Schmidt. (Sr. Miriam Jane didn't give any date here). Sister, when you returned from Yale University, you became a full time member of the English Department at Seton Hill. What were some of the courses that you taught? SMS: Well, I taught Writing. We all of course taught Freshman English, and I happened to like that very much. I also enjoyed teaching Writing. We also had a course in "Advanced Composition" we called it. English Majors were required to take it. At least they did. Then I taught Shakespeare, Literary Criticism, and sometime later, I'm not sure exactly when, but I taught Twentieth Century English Literature. I never was an American literature person. I didn' t have any advance work in it and didn't have a feel for it. As I recall; we , especially young teachers, took for granted that we taught whatever.needed to be taught. It didn' t matter how many hours it happened to be. One became the advisor for the publications that would be corning in and for the "Quarterly," which at that time was a rather active thing. It came out three times a year and included a commencement issue. Many marvelously talented girls whose things I value very much, and have never thrown out were printed in it. The other thing, of course, was that you were appointed to be a class advisor, as I was, pronto, by Sister Victoria Brown, who was the young Dean at the college. I wanted to write and do all these things, but I became a class advisor immediately. So, the class came in the Fall of nineteen forty-three (some of what she said here is disconnected for want of a way to put it), right when I was getting started. I was the class advisor for the class of nineteen forty-seven. I put on the Freshman show " Anne" of? (couldn't understand what she said). ·The Freshman show had something to do with frogs. I don't remember what it was. A lot of the people laughingly remember some of the songs in it. I do remember how desperately hard it was to get the girls together to get the show together, while at the same time having many other responsibilities. You still had large charges. SMJH: When you say you had large charges to do, what exactly does that mean? SMS: You had a lot of manual stuff which you had to do. You were responsible for cleaning one of the classrooms. You did this for quite a number of years. Some of my dear friends used to come and help me clean. It was in Room 236. They would shove the chairs around, etc. SMJH: Was that your weekly charge? SMS: You cleaned the blackboard every day. Only once a week did you do the marvelous pushing the mop around. These are funny little things, but as faculty members, you were expected to do all these things. You were primarily a good sister, and after that a faculty member. I don't say that with any bitterness. It was just a funny situation, and that's the way it was! Even the chairman of our department, Sister Electa Boyle felt this, and she had done the same. So, there wasn't anything the matter with this. She had no feelings as to the number of things people had to do. You see, it all came through alright. I don't think I became any less the teacher. I think you're young enough. You rise to the occasion! You have good health, and it's expected. SMJH: In addition to your full time teaching, advising, and doing all these other things, you were also responsible for all your community activities. You took time out to go to Quarter Prayers, and did you go to recreation with the community? SMS: Why of course! I skipped recreation as often as I could. There were many evening meetings which I had to attend. I was never very fond of recreation. I think it was a contrived thing! It wasn't really recreational. However, you did all those things. You rose at five-fifteen AM even though you lived on the floor with the students and were responsible for them. I distinctly remember that when Mother Maria Benedict Monahan was confronted with the fact that the college sisters were not getting enough sleep because we had charge of the floors. In other words, they were supposed to be quiet, but not until eleven o'clock. If they weren't quiet, you took care of it, but you still got up at five-fifteen. Mother Maria Benedict said of course that this was fine because we could always catch up on sleep during the time we had between classes. I think that this was her sincere view of the matter. I remember getting very exhausted, and was relieved once I no longer had this responsibility. I really never enjoyed floor duty. SMJH: Did you say that the girls were to be silent at eleven o'clock? SMS: They weren' t silent. They just weren't supposed to shriek, etc. I slept on Fifth Canevan next to a floor of double decked beds. SMJH: Double decked beds? SMS: Yes, they were all double decked beds. We had more students than we had room for. We didn' t have Brownlee or Havey then. They would merrily jump from top to bottom and laugh and laugh. Of course, I made some of my best friends that way too. The only thing is as I think back on it was that it was an arduous life. I don't think it made me a wretched teacher. I think you rise to the occasion , and you can do it. However, I would not ask anyone else to do it. SMJH: As adviser to the Setonian, you probably kept late hours too. SMS: Well, I suppose so. I don't seem to remember much about whether I did or not, but probably did. SMJH: When you were adviser to the Setonian, who was your Printer, do you remember? SMS: Yes, Mr. George Berrry. He had been Adviser to the Setonian when I was Editor during my years in college. He was such a dear man, and a wonderful friend. I remember when I was a Senior, he brought the paper into my house in Pittsburgh. It had just come out . It was during the Summer. I suppose there was a change in Printers. I don't have any recollection of when George Berry died. I didn' t keep the Setonian for years and years. I had it before I went to Yale, and sometime after that. The other thing that I began to do was "The Alumni Quarterly", so every vacation that you had, you're down in the office typing up the news for the next "Quarterly." Here again, with all my ambitions to write, and here I was typing class news. However, I did go away many Summers , and this provided me with opportunity to write. I have never loved anything so much as being a teacher in the classroom. Consequently, it was announced to me in February of nineteen fifty-seven ,by Mother M. Claudia Glenn , that I would not be teaching any longer. This was a great blow to me. I was very unhappy about this. SMJH: Now, you were not to teach any longer, and for what reason? SMS: It was because I was to be in the President's office. I was to be the Assistant to the President of the college per Mother M. Claudia Glenn. I was Assistant, and not Vice President, because she thought I was too young to have this title. I was only forty! I didn't know what I was going to do. The big thing I wanted to do was teach. I said: "But I have courses, and Mother Claudia said:" They will be taken care of." I kept one course going for three years. I also had the honors course, and I kept it up after I got into the office. To a degree I would have evening seminars for the honor students. That's how I came to know Mary Ann Crenner (sounded like) and others. SMJH; Who was the President of the college at that time? SMS: The President at that time was: Father William Granger Ryan. We were always kind of friendly. He used to put his head in the window by the Canevan arch where I had my office. I would be facing the window and suddenly there would be this large head looking at me in the window, laughing. I knew I would never, never, ever learn the alphabet system of that kind of office. It was like another world. Father Ryan was marvelous to work with, so that made up for a lot of other things. That job just grew in a topsy turvy fashion. From the first moment when I talked to Father Ryan that lovely February morning in nineteen fifty-seven, I went right to Mother Claudia. She said: ''Now, Father Ryan expects that you will go over to his house." I went, and there he was wearing a neck brace because he was having so much tension. He would be away and come back this way. So, without any direction from Mother Claudia, because she was most evasive, Father Ryan talked to me. He told me that whenever he was away, he would support me in any decisions, right or wrong, which I made in his absence. I thought...what am I going to decide? So, he was stuck with the assistant title too. We never had a bad moment in thirteen years. SMJH: What were your responsibilities as assistant to the President? SMS: Well, I started out by going through the mail when he was away. That' s when I had very little to do. He didn't quite know yet what to.do with the assistant to the President. That's why I went to the Archives at that time to help Sister M. Electa Boyle. Things began to grow. For one year I could teach one class. When Father Ryan was home, he worked very hard at indoctrinating me to the job, but he was away a good bit of the time. It wasn't a clear cut job. I don't understand it myself, but that's the way it was. Father Ryan was stuck with the assistant title for some time. He wasn't permitted to say what my title really was. At one point he called me "Dean" of the faculty, which I didn't understand either. Then, after a long time, we did get around to my being Vice President. It was an experience which he and Sister Muriel Flamman made quite bearable. The thing that' s so wonderful about this is, that Sister Muriel as Dean of the college was next in line as President...ex officio. All of a sudden here is this other office created between, so I took precedence. She made me feel so welcome. It was the most beautiful experience. It gave me an insight into her which of course extended into several years. I don't know of any other person who could not only make you feel welcome, but was also so gracious. When I say that we never had any bad moments in the office, I don't mean that we didn't have numerous bad moments together. We had numerous, different kinds of people confronting us. We worked two against the world a great deal of the time. I don't remember a great many details in those early years. Father Ryan was doing a great deal of pioneering in the Pennsylvania college organization. He and other independent college presidents, besides universities, really did more in those years for the status of colleges in Pennsylvania, for the scholarship program, for the whole scene of private colleges in Pennsylvania. These were the men who did it all...back scene. There is a section here that is very difficult to hear. Sister's speech is not clear...too fast and words are run together. Suffice it to say, that I believe what she is saying here is that she didn't have a clue about what needed to be done regarding the area of accomplishing the goals that she attributed to Father William Granger Ryan and other college presidents. Sister says again that she had to learn everything from Father Ryan. Her own words were: The Presidents were always very remote. I knew Father Reeves well, but would never just walk into his office. As a faculty member, there was no relationship at all. It was an "on the job" learning experience. Looking back, I don't think I would have asked to be relieved of this job because Father Ryan was such a good priest and educator that I would not have voluntarily left. SMJH: Weren't those also important years in the college in the new arrangement of the board of trustees? Did that happen during those years? SMS: I'll tell you what happened. This was one of the many things which Father Ryan knew he had to accomplish. It was a strange system retained by women religious communities, not sure about men, by which their Mother General and her Officers were in the primary control of the college. Now, "The Middle States' , had been confronting them for some time on this, realizing that they needed larger ranging support in their board. They needed people who understood finances and all kinds of things. These Sisters of course, with all good will did not understand. They were very fearful, not only ours, but there were many others. They were very fearful of losing control. They thought people would run away with the money bags or something like that. They would choose to let anything happen which did not include them primarily. So, Father Ryan got together a board, which was an advisory board. It met for the first time on March twelfth, nineteen hundred fifty-seven, just after I appeared in the office. They were some of the best people to have in Greensburg. SMJH: Who were some of the people? SMS: Well, you had: Chuck Lynch, Tom Wentley (if spelling is correct), Ed Brinker, representatives from the banks... the general people who were knowledgeable and acceptable in Greensburg. Father himself had some friends from elsewhere. There was: Mrs. Helen Cutting, who was a very wealthy woman from New Jersey. She came to all the board meetings from New Jersey. There were others. Oh, I forgot, Jack Coulter was on it. They didn' t really have authority, but they did have a title "Board of Trustees", which was very cunning (believe this is the word she used), but no-one seemed to object to it. They all knew that they were not really a trustee board. So, the Sisters, the Council would meet with them. They did a great many things for us....using their influence financially, getting the city to do things, etc. Sometimes advice was welcome, sometimes not. However, they were there to support and help. They could never get the "Go Sign", to make that Board a legal body, which was really in control of the college, until finally twelve years later, under Mother M. Victoria Brown's leadership in office. She knew what had to be. By this time, "The Middle States" began to be rather insistent about it. So. She and her Council agreed to it. We had a long process of dissolving and incorporating...couldn't understand everything Sr. Mary was saying here. Pat Pacello (if spelling is correct) is and has been our attorney for years. He helped us to get things resolved. He worked in the courts. He even offered to go around to the various communities and explain to the Sisters that we were not giving anything away. We were simply strengthening our Organization. It was determined therefore that there would be fifteen sisters and fifteen lay people on the Board. This was in nineteen sixty-nine, and that is still true. At this time, Father Ryan's health was very poor. He was completely worn out. He got this Board started December of 1969, and announced to them that due to his declining health, he was retiring. He left in June . The Board was finally an accomplished fact. That was his greatest accomplishment for the college. SMJH: We want to talk about your years as President of the college. That will be the topic of our next session. Tape ill Begins Here July 4, 1984. SMJH: This is a continuation of the oral history program with Sister Mary Schmidt. The date is: Wednesday, July fourth, nineteen eighteen-four. Sister Mary was named acting President of Seton Hill College by the Board of Trustees in May of nineteen seventy, and elected to the office of President in nineteen seventy-one. She held that office until her resignation in June of nineteen seventy..se ven. In a newspaper article from "Westmoreland's Wednesday," dated June first, nineteen seventy-seven, the reporter says: "The entire academic world was in turmoil in nineteen, seventy-one, the year that Sister Mary Schmidt was made President of Seton Hill. Student and faculty dissension that arose during the height of the Vietnam conflict continued. Declining enrollments were plaguing all but a few colleges and universities . The image of institutions of higher learning had never been lower. Graduates from colleges all over the country faced a depressed job market. Vocational schools cut into a traditional student school, and career minded young men and women began to seek specialized technical training. Seton Hill was not spared the repercussions of these problems. Happily for the college, the woman who walked into the President's Office in nineteen seventy-one was equal to the task that lay ahead." End of quote. SMJH: Sister Mary, we know that this is true. Will you tell us how you were able to confront the problems and issues of the seventies? SMS: Well, I should say initially that the woman who walked into the President's office at that time had no convictions as to whether she could take care of these things. Neither had she any vision of what was to come. We were, I would say immediately plunged into a horrendous despot in the Summer of nineteen seventy-one. We had, without any warning a smaller freshman enrollment that we had ever dealt with before. The Board, my very attentive and careful Board, immediately said that we could not afford to carry deficits of this sort. The only way we could save money to stabilize (couldn't clearly hear) the College budget was to cut the Faculty. Since the student enrollment was smaller, it was of course assumed that a smaller number of faculty would do. Simplistically of course that wasn't true, but it turned out that I had no choice. I was faced head on with the need to make a study of class size and Faculty members. So, we made a careful view of the whole thing, so that we had at least a reasonable case. Then came the dramatic announcement to terminate three or four young faculty members. This, at the time, was a kind of bombshell, since the unrest of both family and students had already been felt across the country in large universities. It's always later in reaching the smaller, conservative women's campuses. All these faculty members and students were well aware that their time had come. And so, the announcement of the termination of these faculty members, caused quite a commotion, but it resulted shortly thereafter in the Pennsylvania Labor Union being invoked. We therefore were informed that our Faculty had shown that they had desired membership in our college in view. That, of course, threw us into a very bad state, because a labor union in a college of our size, would be fatal. The demands were very high for salaries, etc. It would have been the end of the college. (There was the roar of what sounded like a train here, preventing me from getting what Sister Mary had to say). So, without going into the gruesome details, I would say that we had to go through a period of trying to do everything that we could to help to confront this problem. We were facing an election by our Faculty as to whether or not the college would be accepted. SMJH: Were the Sisters on the Faculty permitted to vote? Were they part of that? SMS: No, the Sisters, normally were not permitted to vote. There was a great deal of feeling among the Sisters. They too felt very keenly about their salaries and conditions, etc. However, the National Relations Board in Pittsburgh, advised that we have a lawyer, and they had a lawyer to determine the Sisters right to vote. It turned out in our favor. They didn't have a vote. We were having this vote then by the lay Faculty, and while you were permitted to talk individually to the Faculty members and Administrator, you couldn't have a meeting. So, it was very draining, and a wretched experience all the way around. Finally, the day came when the secret ballot was to be cast, and this was done at the end of the day to the consternation of the other members who had been brought in from the Pennsylvania Labor Union. The vote was two or three in favor of the Union, but the others were against it, but before that, you had no idea how people were going to vote on a secret ballot. You may have had pleasant conversation or so, but you don' t know how they are actually going to vote. This had been triggered by the termination of those young faculty members, and they lost. This was still in nineteen seventy one-seventy­ two. We were also scheduled for a Middle States exhibit (too difficult to hear), which as you know comes every ten years. We had a special case study that year. It took much more time than the one you had in nineteen eighty-two. Very able administrators from a number of colleges come. I happened to be in the office the night before they were to start their work. " You may find that there is more entertainment on our campus, because our students are going to demonstrate that we are really a wretched Organization because we terminate faculty members and we don't do anything that's right!" Of course, they all laughed. The only thing is that I'm afraid they will never do it because they are ultra conservative. I just want you to be ready for it. Nothing of course happened. Things went on. We didn't have to terminate any more faculty members the following year. The enrollment began to pick up. I think, we have a note here, that at some point in nineteen seventy-seven, we had seven hundred ninety full time students, whereas in nineteen seventy, we had six hundred. For us, that was a rather large growth figure. That was not because of me, that was simply the time ( couldn't understand...sounded like stanzika...never heard the word) perhaps in which we were able to get back on our feet. Perhaps it wa-s becauseof all the turmoil we had in the beginning. Things really cleared the books were cleared, and the budget was cleared, and we could go forward. The national situation which you referred to in the newspaper article you read meant that no one going into any kind of office in nineteen seventy-one could go in starry eyed. Everyone knew that faculty and students were no longer satisfied with the status quo. Everyone knew that the plans presented for growth in the nineteen sixties had to be scrapped. It was a lovely plan, beautiful building, but we could not afford it, anymore than we could afford the fine arts building. In other words, instead of dreaming for these wonderful things, you had to begin to work on campus with the people involved in consolidation. You had to realize that the only building you were going to do thereafter, was replacement, and I think that has been true. We did fix up a Music wing while I was in office. That was done with a grant from "The R. K. Mellon Foundation." SMJH: That was an interesting building, was it not? Wasn't it the old laundry building? The institution no longer provided laundry service for the students or the sisters living here. SMS: Yes, that is all true, and I think that the architect was very clever also in leaving a solid stone foundation on the building. Then when the state dictated that we could no longer use St. Mary's for classrooms or for indeed much of anything, we had to replace that building, and we did. The original Stokes Mansion was caving in on itself. The whole building had to go. ·We had the option of spending a couple of million dollars of rebuilding it as a monument, but we didn't choose to do that. We were then able to sell it. ( Sister Mary said something else about this, but it was garbled). The Home Economic Department came up here after much commotion. People came up here, and they were happy not to be running up and down the hill. The building which took its place is a lovely building. There was concern at the time, that it wouldn't be too nice because there is not much sun shining in that area. However, that wasn't the case. It turned out to be quite satisfactory. I have heard people later on remarking how well the building blends in with the other buildings on the campus. The Security members said how wonderful it is that the building fits in with the structural harmony of the other buildings. My point in bringing this up is to say that instead of going ahead with grandiose building plans, one had to made do, and we've been making do ever since. SMJH: So, the Music and Home Economic Buildings were put up during your time in office? SMS: Yes, the plans for the Music Building were done before that per the grant from the "R. K. Mellon Foundation"as said earlier. Then I went to the "Kresge Foundation" in Detroit following . the arrangement Sister Dorothy Jacko had made with them. They gave us a large sum of money which was used for the Home Economic Building. I don't think you would have received money during those years to put up something lovely ..e.g. a student union building. It would have been difficult to prove that you were going to use the facility within a certain time limit. I believe I think of those years on the negative side. It seemed like you were constantly fighting for something. I do remember a couple of things which I was very pleased about. We began the Campus Ministry Program some time during those years. I don't recall exact dates. My memory is all I'm going on. Perhaps someone would like to look it up in the files. I remember that the students' response to the initiation of the Campus Ministry was tremendous! Most ofus were 12 very happy, because it was difficult in the sixties to find students attracted to a program that was altruistic and outgoing. They were too concerned with running around in their bare feet, wearing cut off jeans, wondering why they couldn't have this or that etc. The reception the students gave to the concept of campus ministry and the actuality of it was a remarkable thing. We also found among the Faculty a great cooperative spirit, usually because there is an obvious need, to see how to see what could be done about bringing (not the word she used, but after several tries couldn't understand) the Academic and Liberal Arts Departments to some additional thing which would make them clearly oriented without destroying their liberal arts tenor and caliber. We knew we couldn't think what to say in regard to our liberal arts stance and quality. We also knew that we had to show some practicality. It seemed wonderful to me, that our Faculty, one· after another, would come up with many acceptable things, which seemed to tide us over in that period when people needed to be shown that their education could be practical. The things, of course, which appealed to me personally, were the outside activities Membership and meetings which we were obliged to attend at the Pennsylvania colleges and the middle states areas, and national meetings. Those 'were things which broadened your horizons for your work at home. They were very good, although they took a lot of traveling. Other things which one feels more constructive about was going around seeking funds from people. It seems to me at least, that the responses from directors of Foundations, and from small Corporations, and people that you went to talk to, was always quite positive and pleasant, if not in dollars, at least in attitude. Those were things which I found myself enjoying more than fussing around with why someone did or did not do what they were supposed to do. It' s a matter of temperament. I apologize, can't help it. I also found it to be very important to make the college well known in Greensburg. Father Maida (sounds like) did a very good job of doing this. To keep that going was something too to be visible, belong to the Chamber of Commerce, where Seton Hill was a place instead of a mysterious element on the Hill. I don't know, but I believe that's enough, don't you? SMJH: I think it is very impressive and interesting. I would like to quote from the newspaper once again. When you left the Office in nineteen seventy seven, the paper said: "Sister Mary leaves the Office of the President, having established programs that respond to the needs of the Seton Hill student body. She has built working relationships that will endure. The college is financially sound. Enrollment is at an all time high. Structures and systems of working are established that will benefit Seton Hill for years to come." Sister, we know that all these things are true, and they are true because of your enthusiastic leadership. Original Format The type of object, such as painting, sculpture, paper, photo, and additional data Audio cassette tape Duration Length of time involved (seconds, minutes, hours, days, class periods, etc.) 27:04 28:25 26:45 Bit Rate/Frequency Rate at which bits are transferred (i.e. 96 kbit/s would be FM quality audio) 96kHz Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Schmidt, Sister Mary Oral History Description An account of the resource An oral history of Sister Mary Schmidt, a Sister of Charity of Seton Hill from 1934 until 1993. The interview was conducted by Sister Miriam Jane Hollowood on July 10 and 18, 1984. Sister Mary Schmidt was born on June 26th, 1911 in Pittsburgh, Pa. Daughter of Henry K. Schmidt and Mabel Green, Mary Jeannette Schmidt entered the community on March 25th, 1934 at the age of 22 as Sister Mary Schmidt. Sister Mary Schmidt was a professor of English at Seton Hill College from 1936 to 1957. She served as the Executive Vice President of Seton Hill College from 1957 to 1970. Then, the following year Sister Mary Schmidt served as President of SHC from 1971 to 1977. Sister Mary Schmidt received her B.S. in English, Psychology, and Philosophy from Seton Hill College in 1932. Then, she received her M.A. in English from the University of Pittsburgh in 1934. Sister Mary Schmidt went to Yale University for her Ph.D. in English Language and Literature in 1943, where she would pursue her postdoctoral research at both Yale and Columbia Universities. Sister Mary Schmidt passed on April 26th, 1993 at the age of 81. Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Sisters of Charity of Seton Hill Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Archives of the Sisters of Charity of Seton Hill Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1984/07/10 1984-07/18 Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource All rights belong to the Sisters of Charity of Seton Hill, Greensburg, Pennsylvania. Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource Audio cassette tape Language A language of the resource English Type The nature or genre of the resource Oral history Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context OH-81 Subject The topic of the resource Sister Mary Schmidt Education Sisters of Charity of Seton Hill https://www.scfederationarchives.org/files/original/e8c59061e3e0fa2ae5af45cc6ba3d2e7.jpg 361b88b60b969cfccc607917b91908c7 https://www.scfederationarchives.org/files/original/58e4c8a44332fa5db0fae282c3e00b66.mp3 0e020638c3d727517d0cba4918b3c0c8 https://www.scfederationarchives.org/files/original/045f7aa37546c9397a36f69f0c18b3df.mp3 727129a4d3c3943936de32d8e383edef https://www.scfederationarchives.org/files/original/762e825369eb9648027b19035211a85f.mp3 804b0be7f0608d179982c55921a7dc2d https://www.scfederationarchives.org/files/original/26c192ca65c5f2d784d38c9a712f6df5.pdf 183230482c4e0430f945b94bb92fe1ca PDF Text Text 1 · TOH 31 - 1 Sr. Alexine Beam This interview is being conducted as part of the Oral History Program of the Sisters of Charity at Seton Hill. The interviewee is Sister M. Alexine Beam. The interview is being conducted by Sister Marie Corona Miller at Greensburg Faculty House. The date is January twenty-ninth, nineteen eighty-seven. SMCM: Good morning Sr. Alexine! I'm happy to be with you today to talk about your personal history and your history as a Sister of Charity. Would you like to tell us some things? SAB: I was born in Allegheny General Hospital on February twentieth, nineteen seven, the oldest of three children. I have a sister, Hilda, who is thirteen months younger, and a brother, William, who is three years younger. My father was not a Catholic, so I was raised in a semi-Catholic, Lutheran environment. My mother ruled our religion. My father's people were definitely Lutheran. I remember my father coming home one time with papers to become a Mason. At that time, Masons were very hostile toward the Catholic religion. I was only about four years old, but I remember them talking in the living room. We had a big coal fire in the living room. They were talking so seriously. Being curious, I needed warmed up in there. He had a paper in his hand, and he said: "Kitty, (that's what he called my mother), my brothers are all Masons, and I'd like to join." She took the paper and she said: "George Beam, select now between me or the Masons. You know they have no love for my religion." He walked over to the coal fire and threw the paper in. SAB: There was no Catholic School in Crafton at the time when we moved there. My sister, brother, and I had to go to the public school for the frrst couple of years. St. Philip's was built in nineteen sixteen, but my Dad died that year. I was only nine years old. My mother had three of us to raise. My grandfather really raised us. SMCM: Was that your father's father? SAB No, it was my mother's father. My father's people were not very close. I wouldn't say that they didn't love us. In those days, where there were two religions, they were diametrically opposed to one another. His father was wonderful. He loved us, and we loved him. His mother did not like my mother at all. There was no love lost between them. Even when my Dad died, they didn't come down to our home. In those days, the body was brought to the home, not the funeral home. His parents did not come the night before the funeral. I want to tell something very interesting. I was only nine years old. My Aunt Annie came and kept house for us while my mother was at the hospital. A call came late (couldn't determine when as there was a loud crashing sound) that my Dad was dying, so my mother and my Aunt Annie went to the hospital, but when they got there, he was already dead. They were going to bring his body home that evening about four o'clock. Father Kelty came up to the house. He went up and sat beside my mother, who was in bed, as she had been up all night. They brought Dad's body home. Father Kelty took me by one hand and put his arm around my mother. I never forgot that man. He stayed with her until she cried out completely. SMCM: Was Father Kelty pastor at St. Philip's at that time? �2 SAB: Yes, he was. Then we went to St. Philip's School. My mother had us transferred from the public school to St. Philip's. I had some marvelous teachers. I had Sister Hyacinthe Ryan, who was an absolute perfect teacher. Then there was Sister M. Adele McCullough, Sister Francis de Sales Connelly II, Sister M. Dorothy Hess, Sister Generosa, and Sister Sara Fidelis Boyle was the eighth grade teacher. I went to St. James High School. I switched from the Academic to Commercial. I didn't like the Commercial Course. I went to the first day ofthe "commercial", but it was not for me. In going home, I just stayed on the streetcar, and went all the way home to Father K elty. I told him I didn't know what I was going to do because I didn't want Commercial work. He said to me: "Well, are you sure you want to become a Sister?" I was surprised he even thought I was thinking about it. So, he sent me over to Sister M. Aquinas O'Brien, who was the Sister Servant. She took me over and talked to me. She took me to Seton Hill and I entered November first, nineteen twenty-three. I had not finished High School, but did complete it at the Academy. Sister Theodosia Murtha and Sister Anne Elizabeth Regan were also at the Academy. There were others, but I've forgotten their names. SMCM: Who entered with you? SAB: Sister Alberta Sweeney entered with me. We got the habit on the second ofFebruary. The following September, both ofus were sent to St. Benedict's to teach. I was very frightened, as I was just seventeen at the time. Sister Charlotte Judge taught the sixth or eighth grade. She came down to my classroom once or twice everyday to show me how to teach. We had on the job training. She showed me how to teach Reading and Arithmetic. SMCM: What grade was that? SAB: It was First Grade. We were Novices. Sister M. Clarissa Cunningham was there too. In those days, we walked to school. SMCM: From Seton Hill? SAB: Yes, from Seton Hill. We walked every day. The only time we didn't walk was ifit was raining too hard. SMCM: How long did it take you to walk to school? SAB: It took about fifteen minutes, except when there was snow. Being young people, we took our time in the snow, and ofcourse, we were wet when we got there. We did get a ride home from school everyday. SAB: Then I was sent to Sharpsburg. SMCM: What was the name ofthe parish? SAB: It was St. Joseph's Parish. I was there for a couple ofyears and was then transferred to the old Sacred Heart down on Center Avenue. I had first grade there. Sister Mary Felix Clarey was there. She helped in guiding me what to do in my teaching. I had some very good teachers when I first started out. They really showed you how to do it correctly the first time. SMCM: So, you stayed in primary? SAB: I was in the primary department for fourteen years. SMCM: What grade did Sr. Mary Felix have? SAB: Sr. Mary Felix had third grade, and I had frrst. We had two frrst grades, because we had �3 about one hundred children. Sister Mary Hugh Bridge had one, and I had the other. I think we had two sessions, because we had forty or fifty children at a time in each session. SMCM: Did you have that many seats in your classroom? SAB: No, we had to divide the class in half....one session from nine AM until Noon, and a second session from one PM until four PM. Sister M. Victorine Ellsworth was Principal when I fust went to Sacred Heart. Sister Rose Vincent McNulty replaced her. She was an excellent school woman. Someone usually went out visiting in the evening. This particular evening, Sr. Mary Felix asked me if I would go with her to visit a very sick child in the Highland Avenue Apartments. The Highland Avenue Apartments face Fifth Avenue and Highland at the comer. We went in there and were taken to what would seem like the basement, but it was really the first floor and was very nicely arranged. The child was the daughter of the maintenance man of the apartment complex. When we entered the apartment and saw the little girl, we realized that she was quite ill. Sister Mary Felix said to the mother: "Do you mind ifl call Father Kennedy?" The mother said: "No, but she isn't that sick." So, Sr. Mary Felix called Father and he came right away. The mother told her husband that we felt Father Kennedy should come and bless her. We had their other children, two sons in school. We asked if they had candles, which they did, but didn't have any holy water. We sent one of the boys up to the church to get holy water. The mother took her crucifix off her rosary and put it on the table. Father brought the Blessed Sacrament. He heard the little girl's confession and anointed her. I heard him say to her: "Mary, when you see God, tell him that Father Kennedy loves Him very much." Just as soon as we got in the door at the convent, the call came that the little girl had died. Next, I went to St. John the Baptist. Sister Aquinas O 'Brien was the Sister Servant. She was also Principal of the High School. I don't know who was the Principal of the Grade School. While I was there we had the nineteen thirty-six flood. SMCM: What do you remember about the flood? SAB: All I know is that I had an eye doctor appointment and Sister M. Alacoque McHale was supposed to be my companion. It was in downtown Pittsburgh, but we couldn't get there because there was too much water. By the time we got back to St. John's the electricity had been turned off, so we didn't have any heat. Then Father Wrigley opened up what they had that were like Quansett Huts for the High School. We brought in the children from around Butler Street because they were :flooded. They were all Negro. We brought them in and put blankets around them as they were without clothing. They kept them in what we called the "Ark." Sister M. Hildebert Mudler, Sister M. Honora Steiner, and a couple of other Sisters went over and cleaned the place. I think the Army brought in some cots. Some of the adults were there also. I believe she said they were there for a week. There was a fire built in the place, so it was nice and warm. Every morning a great, big sailor came to the door with a bucket of prunes. I'll never forget it. Sr. Hildebert and Sr. Honora did the cooking. I'm going to tell you, I've never found more courteous men than those Negro men. They would not let us pick up a broom. We had them there for several days. SMCM: How long did this last? SAB: I guess it was about two or three days, maybe a week. All of the schools were closed. There wasn't any heat. It was quite a while before the waters went down. They couldn't get into their homes while the water was going down, because their homes were full of dirt, etc. I �4 remember Father brought a white man in who was very ill. Father put a screen around him because he had pneumonia. Father Wrigley anointed him there and then had him sent up to St. Francis H ospital. He died. After the flood was over, the people went back to their own homes and we lost track of them. SMCM Did the flood water destroy anything in the school? SAB: No, the water didn't come up that high. The water came up to about the old Iron City Brewery. Some of the parents couldn't find their children. The Sisters helped to find them. SAB: At the end of the year, I went to Seton H ill. When the mission list was read out, I wasn't missioned. I spent a few unholy hours as they were looking for an "Angel" for the Academy, and I didn't want to be it. Finally, Sister Marie Cecily Chartener was chosen to be the Angel. So, l was relieved. I met Mother Rose Genevieve in the hall and she said: "Can't you find anywhere to go?" Go over to see Sister M. Eucharia O'Hagan and get a college schedule. I was very fortunate in that I got my full college in at Seton Hill without interruption. SMCM: How many years did it take you to do that? SAB: Well, I did have some college work. I lost almost two years of work. I had to start all over again. I was put in to science. The educational courses you had to have, I had. I graduated in nineteen forty. SMCM: Sister, where did you get the previous college work? SAB: I got it at Seton Hill and by going to Saturday classes. We had to go all the way to St. Peter's on North Side and to St. John's, Liberty Avenue. SMCM: Sister, St. Peter's North Side, Saturday School. Was that taught by our Sisters? SAB: No, the lay teachers from Seton Hill helped out. SMCM: That's the frrst time I ever heard that. SMCM: So, were your credits all from Seton Hill College? SAB: No, after I finished my High School in the Academy, and my College work at Seton Hill, I was sent to the University of Pittsburgh.· I received a Master's Degree in Science in nineteen forty-three. In nineteen fifty-three, I was sent to St. Mary's Notre Dame, where I received a Master's Degree in Theology in nineteen fifty-five. I had a National Science Fellowship to the University of Notre Dame. I was there for three summers. Then in nineteen forty, I went to St. James West End for eight years. I was in science from that time on. SMCM: What kind of science? SAB: When you started out in the parish schools, you taught all three sciences. When you. taught Chemistry and Physics, you taught the whole works. If you didn't have enough, you also taught Math. You had a full schedule. At West End, Sister Irma Sullivan was there. I remember that we taught in the day time and went out visiting in the evening after School up through Elliott and those places. Those older Sisters really went out.. ..visiting the sick, going to the poor, etc. Very rarely were they not out after school. SMCM: What did you do on these visits? SAB: Most often, she did most of the work. I was just tagging along. Sister Mary Eunice Clark used to collect things for the people we visited. Mother Maria Benedict Monahan was Principal at St. James High School. She was an excellent school woman and was very fair. �5 SAB: After my stay in the West End, I was sent to St. Luke's in Carnegie. SMCM: Was this in the High School? SAB: Yes, my teaching now was all in the High School. While at St. Luke's, Sister Rosalie O'Hara, Sister Mary Reginald Farrell, and I went to Oakdale every Saturday to teach Sunday School. We caught the eight o'clock bus on Main Street and taught until two o'clock. Every Sunday, Sister M. Joanna Gleason and Sister Mary Helen Meyer went to Morganza. SMCM: Where did you teach when you went to Oakdale? SAB: It was in the church. I believe the name of it was St. Patrick's. Sister Reginald Farrell took care of the First Communion Class. I had children from third, fourth, and fifth grade. Then Sr. Rosalie O'Hara taught the older children. There were a couple of young women who came to our Community from the class Sr. Rosalie taught. SMCM: Do you remember who they are? SAB: [Unintelligible] After St. Luke's, I was transferred to Sacred Heart in East Liberty. SMCM: Was this your second time back at Sacred Heart? SAB: Yes, this time it was to be in the High School. Sister Mary Helen Meyer and I had Biology. Sister Francina Skergan taught the Physics. Sister Mary Helen and Sister Mary Edmund Speer taught the Chemistry. SMCM: What year was it when you went back to Sacred Heart? SAB: I think it was nineteen fifty-four. SMCM: Were the Sisters living on top of the school at that time? SAB: Yes, we were living there. It was called a Penthouse. There were fifty Sisters there. SMCM: Who was the Sister Servant? SAB: Sr. Rose Vincent McNulty was the Sister Servant. Sister Marion McKelvy (formerly Sr. Marie Magdalene) was Principal of the High School, and Sister Mary Donald Cusick was Principal of the Grade School. Both of the schools were quite large. Of course, there were just girls in the High School. SAB: That brings us up to when I was transferred from Sacred Heart to Greensburg Central. That was in nineteen seventy. I have been here ever since. SMCM: Sister, is your specialty in science, mostly biology? SAB: Well, yes, but I have taught all three sciences. I taught them until I came to Greensburg Central. I also taught Religion until I came here. Sr. Alexine OH 31-1 Tape I Side 2 Sister, would you tell us something about your first year in the Community? SAB: I entered on November first. Sr. Alberta Sweeney entered with me. We received the habit on February second. Then the following September, we were given the black cap.We taught at St. Benedict's as novices. In the evening, we had classes. �6 Sister Marita Murphy was teaching us singing. It was a hot day. There were no screens on the windows. The next classroom was across from the novitiate, which is now the present day Community Room at Seton Hill. The June bugs were getting in. The Sister on the end caught the June bugs and passed them along, and we threw them out in the hall. Then we started giggling. Sister Marita reported us to Mother Mary Francis who was the Mistress then. The next morning, Mother Mary Francis called everybody, even we who were going to St. Benedict's. She asked every person down the line what they were doing. We were perfectly alright until the German Sisters began to talk in their broken English. The giggling began. Mother Mary Francis put the whole novitiate in silence for a full day. She asked Mother Rose Genevieve to give the other Sisters recreation during the noon and evening meals. The rest ofus had to sit in silence. So we called it "The June Bug Retreat!" SMCM: Sister, What did the German Sisters do? SAB: They had classes for them. Sister Teresa Clare taught them English, Sr. Mary Felix taught them how to read. Otherwise, they worked like we did...in the kitchen, the scullery. They didn't do the hallways. We had to do all ofthem. We also worked in the Infirmary. The Infirmary was the fourth floor ofSt. Joseph's Hall. Sister Margretta Bernlohr, one ofthe German Sisters, worked in the Infirmary. SMCM: What was your charge as a Novice? SAB: Mostly, I worked down in the Mens' Dining Room. SMCM: Where was their Dining Room? SAB: It was part ofthe kitchen, which was located on the first floor ofthe Administration Building. I also had the Priests' Dining Room for a while. Sister Mary Leonard Bums was in charge. SMCM: Who were the priests at that time? SAB: Father Sullivan was there when I first went there. After he died, Father Reeves came. Dr. Reeves (Father) was President ofthe College while I was there. SMCM: Sister, can you tell me who the Mother Superior and Council were when you entered? SAB: When I first entered, Mother Mary Raymond Creed was the Mother Superior, but I entered in November and she died the following March. The Council members were: Sister M. Victorine Ellsworth, Sister Jane Elizabeth Smith, and Sister Rose Vincent McNulty, who was the Assistant Mother. SMCM: Do you remember any ofthe senior Sisters who were at Seton Hill during your Novitiate? SAB: I remember the old nurse, Sister M. Justina Stevens. You didn't have to read your mail, because she always read your cards for you. Ifshe met you in the hall, and you had received a card, she would say: "You received a card, and they want you to know this......!" Sisters M. Liguori and Mary Agnes Gillespie were there. Sister Francis Joseph Malloy was there too. She was also with me at St. James in the West End. �7 SMCM: Who was the Infirmarian at that time? SAB: Sister Grace Barr was in charge ofthe Infirmary. She was the only one. Ofcourse, Sister Alberta Sweeney had full charge ofSister Marion Stephen, who required constant care as she was so crippled. Sister M. Estelle Hensler was the senior Novice. SMCM: Sister, where did you live as a Novice? SAB: We were on the Fourth Floor ofthe Administration Building. First, we were on the Sixth Floor, but there was a problem with the water. It would freeze up. SMCM: Did you serve in the Dining Room? SAB: The Novices always served the entire year. The older Sisters were always interested in you. They would ask you, who you were, where you were from, etc. You never meet the young Sisters now. You never see them. In fact, I don't even know ifthey are Sisters or not when I do meet them. At that time, you knew the Community was one! We had lots offun. We used to go sled riding down the main road. We borrowed the sleds which were used by the girls in the Academy. SMCM: Were there any other Sisters in the Novitiate who had to finish their High School in the Academy? SAB: There was another Sister, but I forget who it was. SMCM: What did you do for recreation besides sled riding? SAB: We had plays, I guess you would call them dumb, little things. We enjoyed each other....did lots oflaughing. In the summer, we were near the Grotto and we could use the whole lot to play ball or whatever. We had apple peeling sessions which were enjoyable. We peeled vegetables for the next day. SMCM: What did they do with the apples? SAB: Sister Francis Joseph Malloy made applesauce. Sister had a very large vat. We took our turns stirring it. We also picked strawberries which were down over the hill where Havey Hall now stands. When I first entered, there was a lake down by the road. It had boats on. The Sisters used to go out to catch frogs for the biology lab. You only went at night, because you used a flashlight to bring them out. When we went home in the summers we taught Sunday School. Sister Alberta. Sister Rose Marie Schneider, I and there was a fourth person left Seton Hill at six o'clock in the morning on Sundays. We went out to Avonmore for Mass, taught Sunday School at Avonmore, had a little lunch there, broke up, and two went to Tintown, two to Saltzburg, and someone went to Kiski. When I was at the college, we went out every Saturday. Sisters M. Maurice and Mary Thaddeus McManama, Sister Helen Cecilia Dwyer and I went over to West Newton. We broke up in the afternoon and went to a tiny place called Reduction. SMCM: How did you travel to these places? SAB: The Sisters didn't drive then, so someone from the parish or sometimes the priests would come for us and bring us home. One time a man from West Newton was transporting us. When we were returning home, another car forced us off the road. The car rolled over. We had to crawl out the top ofthe car. SMCM: Was anyone hurt? SAB: No, the driver was able then to get the car righted. �8 SMCM: Sister, were you ever involved in teaching any ofour Sisters in the Extension Courses which we had? SAB: Yes, I taught in the Summer Sessions for about twenty-two years at Seton Hill. It was an eight week course for some ofour Sisters. The courses ran from eight o'clock in the morning until one o'clock in the afternoon. When I was at Sacred Heart, I believe it was Sister Brigid Marie Grantley and I went to the Hill District to teach the Negro children at the House ofMary a couple ofevenings a week. Sister Marcella Mary Burgunder came for us. We left the dinner table in order to begin tutoring the children at six PM for about two hours. I taught them Chemistry, and Sr. Brigid Marie taught them English. SMCM: Who would you say was influential in your becoming a Sister ofCharity? SAB: I think there were two things. Remember, I told you the story ofFather Kelty being with me when my father died. For me, the sun rose and set on my father. I believe the association I had with Father Kelty, and just being around the Sisters greatly influenced me to become a Sister ofCharity. SMCM: Would you like to make any comments on the changes in the Community? SAB: I think we needed to change. I'm not so sure that the drastic change we have gone through was necessary. I can't go along with Sisters saying we have a lack ofvocations because ofthe times. The Felicians, The Daughters of St. Paul are getting them by the hundreds. Something is missing! I don't know what it is. SMCM: How have you been able to adjust to our new prayers? SAB: I'm glad we changed to the Office, because it is the prayer ofthe Church. Ifthe Church tells me to do something, I will do it, but I cannot take everyone's innovations. Some people decide we should do this or that. I can't swallow that. When the Church tells you to do something, do it, but not overdo it. I'm just wondering ifwe are not getting vocations because we are not religious enough. We have to be different, and I don't think we are too different from the secular teachers we're working with! [Unintelligible] SAB: I retired from the actual classroom teaching at Geensburg Catholic in nineteen eighty-six. The student body gave me a marvelous send off. They were having Honors Day, the day the students get their awards. We don't give them on Graduation Night because it takes too long. SAB: I remember on Graduation Night, Sister M. Germaine Helwig was beside me and when the Procession came in, behind Father Booklighter, the Ministers at the Altar, Sr. Donna Marie Lyden, Principal, etc., there was Bishop Connare. I said to Sr. Germaine: "What is he doing here?" She said: "I really don't know?" Then she said: "They're talking about you. Get up there!" I walked up. I never heard such an ovation in all my life. Everyone stood up and clapped. Every class gave me something. I ended up with eight hundred dollars. The lay faculty gave me a check for sixty-five dollars and my own department had a dinner for me out at Mountain View Inn, and they gave me about sixty dollars. Bishop Connare gave a nice talk. I said to him: "Well, I started my teaching in the Greensburg �9 Diocese and am ending it in the Greensburg Diocese." He said: "Sister, you started in the Greensburg Diocese, but you're not ending it now." Right now, I have a research group of about fifteen youngsters. I wanted to get them out of the text book into doing the actual work. I have to take them at their own time...on their study periods, etc. The first part of the course I taught them how to use all the apparatus....machines, spectroscope, how to take proper measurements, etc. Now this semester, they are doing their own research because they know how to use everything. Sister Ann lnfanger supplies them with flies. SMCM: Does that take your whole day? SAB: Yes, it takes my entire day. They're doing their research now. I'm teaching them the proper way to record and be sure that things are left in order for the next person. I'm having them write a Research Paper as it should be written by a true Research S cientist. They must be turned in to me the first week in May. SMCM: Do you enjoy doing this kind of work? SAB: Yes, I do and they get a half of a credit for it. That's my day. Tape II Side I SMCM: This is a continuation of an interview being conducted as part of the Oral History Program of the Sisters of Charity of Seton Hill. The interviewee is Sister Alexine Beam. The interview is being conducted by Sister Marie Corona Miller at the Greensburg Faculty House. The date isJanuary twenty-ninth, nineteen eighty-S even. Good afternoon, S ister. We're at it again. I think we're going to add some footnotes about the works that you have done in the line of science and the recognition that has been given to you as a Teacher of the S ciences. Would you like to share some of those with us? SAB: The first was a Teacher's Certification from the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. That was for the outstanding Science Teacher of the state. The second was from the Biology Teacher's Association Award.Then I had the H.J. Heinz Company,Jones and Laughlin Steel, The Master Brewers, The Medical Society, The Veterans of Foreign Wars, The United States Air Force, and The Analytic Chemists S ociety. I also had some publications. They were large group discussions, which were published in "TheJournal of Catholic Education," and "The Pennsylvania Catholic EducationalJournal." There were publications on the teaching of Biology in "The Catholic Educator." I have made or published over eight hundred transparencies in Biology. SMCM: Sister, what is on these transparencies? SAB: They cover the entire biology course. There are drawings, graphs, diagrams, various things, etc. The public schools in Pittsburgh use these transparencies. SMCM: Sister, in order to get these awards, what did you have to do? SAB: The biology teachers in the state had to submit their entire academic background, their years of teaching, what you taught, and people came and observed your teaching. They looked at all of your work.... .like the transparencies. They went all through them. �10 SMCM: What about the award from the United States Air Force? How.did that come about? SAB: Pretty much the same way. The Veterans of Foreign Wars first had a meeting. I think Sister Mary Eudes Clougherty came to the meeting also. They gave the award to the outstanding teacher. They sent you a list of questions to answer. You had to have people vouch for you....like I had the Superintendent of Schools. Sister Marion McKelvy wrote on my behalf. SMCM: Was science your choice, or were you selected for it? SAB: I was selected for it. In those days, you didn't choose what you were going to teach. SMCM: Do you intend to continue your work at Greensburg Central teaching research as long as you can? SAB: Yes, I would like to do that. I think it's better to keep going and perhaps be of some use to somebody. SMCM: Is there anything else you would like to tell us? SAB: No, I don't think so. This group I have now are all Research Scientists. One is up in Buffalo, New York doing cancer research. She's a graduate of Seton Hill, by the way. I have others doing research in other places. SMCM: Sister, thank you for giving me your time and so much wonderful, valuable information. The Community is grateful. � Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Sisters of Charity of Seton Hill Oral History A resource containing historical information obtained in interviews with persons having firsthand knowledge. Interviewer The person(s) performing the interview Sister Marie Corona Miller Interviewee The person(s) being interviewed Sister Alexine Beam Location The location of the interview Greensburg F Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Beam, Sister Alexine Oral History Subject The topic of the resource Sr. Alexine Beam Description An account of the resource An oral history of Sister M. Alexine Beam, a Sister of Charity of Seton Hill from 1923 until 1999. The interview was conducted by Sister Marie Corona Miller on January 29, 1987. Sister M. Alexine Beam - born Margaret Beam on February 20, 1907 - entered the Sisters of Charity of Seton Hill in November of 1923. She received a bachelor's degree in science from Seton Hill College in 1940, a master's degree in science from the University of Pittsburgh in 1943, and a master's degree in theology from Saint Mary's College in 1955. She taught science in Pittsburgh and Greensburg, serving at - among other locations - Saint James High School, Sacred Heart High School, and Greensburg Central Catholic. Some of her educational transparencies were bought and published by Holt, Rinehart and Winston, Inc. She died on November 6, 1999. S.C. (1907-1999). Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Sr. Alexine Beam Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived Sisters of Charity of Seton Hill Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1987 Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Archives of the Sisters of Charity of Seton Hill Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource All rights belong to the Sisters of Charity of Seton Hill, Greensburg, Pennsylvania. Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource Audio cassette tape Language A language of the resource English Type The nature or genre of the resource Oral history Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context OH-31 Education Sisters of Charity of Seton Hill