Catleolic Educational Endeavors
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of more than four hundred students. Another parochial school was opened in 1908 in Rhineland, Texas, which has developed from a one-teacher and thirty-two students to a three-teacher school, with some sixty students. For a few years they taught a parish school in Nazareth, Texas, which was given up because of the distance from the Motherhouse. Summer schools are taught in Henrietta, Nocona and Montague, Texas, for Spanish-speaking children. 96 Siste1·s of th-e Holy Family, r898. The Congregation of the Sisters of the Holy Family was founded in New Orleans on November 21, 1842, but the first Sisters who came to Texas arrived in Galveston in 1898. It is one of two congregations of women whose members are Negro and its main purpose is the education and the care of the needy among- their own people. Under the direction of the Reverend Etiene Rousselon, Vicar General of the Diocese of New Orleans in 1842, four zealous Negro women: Josephine Charles, Harriet Delisle, Julietta Gaudin (Cuba) and Mlle. Alcot, a community was founded in New Orleans for the purpose stated. Mother Harriet Delisle was the first Superior. Bishop Anthony Blanc, who became the first Archbishop of the famous Creole City and was a good and close friend of Bishop Odin of Galveston, took great interest in the new Congregation. As the community grew, the Sisters of the Holy Family participated in both educational and charitable work in Ne,v Or- leans. Located in the old Orleans Ball Room, its convent and chapel, a memorial to Tommy Lafon, Negro philanthropist of the city, the Con- gregation has spread its work throughout Louisiana, Texas, Florida, and Alabama. 97 They came to Galveston in 1898, at the invitation of Bishop Gallagher, and took charge of the Holy Rosary parish school. This church, together with that of St. Peter Claver, were built independently the same year, 1888, and were the first built specifically for Catholic Negroes, and the first to establish Catholic schools for Negro children. 91 The school was first tended by the Dominican Sisters, until 1898, when it was turned c,ver to the Sisters of the Holy Family of New Orleans. It was then re- organized as both a grammar and industrial school. In 1927 a high school was added to the general program and the following year, in September, 96 From a summary sent to Author by Sister M. Theresina, O.S.R., Sacred Heart School, Muenster, Texas, July 9, 1951. Copy in C. A. T. 9 7 Dehey. op. cit., 268-27 I. 98 Diocese of Galveston, Centennial, 1847-1947, p. 44. It is erroneously stated that this was the first. St. Peter Claver's was contemporaneous.
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