Santa Clara County
Biographies
COLLEGE OF NOTRE DAME
Few of the institutions of learning in our land are more beautifully located than the College of Notre Dame, in San Jose, which is in the heart of the Santa Clara valley, one of earth's choicest garden spots. The original institution was founded a little more than a century ago in France, by the venerable Julie Billiart, assisted by the wealthy and generous Viscountess Blin de Bourden. In 1809 the Mother House of the Order was removed to Belgium, where there are now more than fifty flourishing establishments including academies and training schools from which hundreds of teachers are sent into the world's great field of labor in both Liverpool and Edinburgh. The Sisters are also educating thousands of children in the common branches of learning, and are doing noted missionary work in Congo, Rhodesia and in the wilds of Africa.
For the higher education of women in the United States, Notre Dame has, in addition to the most noted, Trinity College, Washington, D.C., forty-five institutions between the Atlantic and Pacific coasts. In 1844, as the pioneer educational institution of the far west, Notre Dame College began its work in Oregon. Seven years later it was transferred to San Jose, Cal., and August 4, 1851, on the site of the present college, the school was opened, and from that day to the present time has been successful, beneficial and deservedly popular. June 11, 1858, the school was incorporated as an academy; June 20, 1868, it was chartered as a college; and in June, 1900, it was accredited to the State University. This, in brief, is a concise history of this noble institution of learning, which is numbered among the best colleges on the coast. Other schools for the education of women have been founded in different parts of California, there being beside the Notre Dame College of San Jose, the following named institutions: The Notre Dame College, Marysville, founded October 26, 1856; The Notre Dame Academy, Santa Clara, founded January 25, 1864; The Notre Dame College, San Francisco, founded July 17, 1866; The Notre Dame Academy, Alameda, founded March 28, 1881; The Notre Dame Academy, Redwood City, founded July 20, 1885; the Notre Dame Institute, at San Jose, founded July 16, 1893; and the Notre Dame Academy, Watsonville, founded October 19, 1899.
The buildings of the College of Notre Dame, San Jose, are of brick, and are commodious, well ventilated, well arranged, and of great architectural beauty, while its environments, natural or otherwise are unsurpassable (sic). In the suburbs of the city, on the Los Gatos river, the college has a well-improved farm, and an orchard of nine acres, from which the milk, eggs, vegetables and fruit used daily by the pupils are obtained, and absolute freshness and purity of these essential articles of food being thus guaranteed. The supply of water, being taken from deep artesian wells, is also of the purest, and proof against epidemic diseases of all kinds.
The standard of scholarship in this college is of a very high order, and its advantages facilities and equipments are notable. In its physical laboratory are found rare and expensive instruments, and all the necessary apparatus for efficiently illustrating the truths of physics and chemistry, while in its museum the cabinets are amply supplied with ethnological, geological, paleontological and entomological specimens, treasures indeed to the student. The college is furnished with globes, maps and charts for use in the teaching of natural sciences and natural history, and full sets of slides and astronomical photographs are of invaluable aid to the student of astronomy. The course of study in art and music is very thorough, proficient teachers being employed to give instruction in painting and drawing, also in plain and fancy needlework of all kinds. In music, to which much atention (sic) is paid, lessons are given on the piano, harp, violin, banjo, guitar, mandolin and zither. A conservatory of music was erected in 1899 and has been of immense value to the college. In the spacious assembly room the classes in physical culture are drilled. The mental and moral culture of each pupil is carefully looked after, and in the chapel connected with the institution the scholars and teachers gather daily for worship. The College of the Notre Dame having been founded, and since supported by the Catholics, the exercises of the religious worship are Catholic, but pupils of any denomination are admitted to the school, provided they are willing to conform to the prescribed regulations and rules of the institution.
The entire charge of the College of Notre Came is relegated to the Sisters, who also have the care of the Notre Dame Orphanage, located on South Second street. This building was formerly the residence of Judge and Mrs. Miles O'Connor, who gave it to the Sisters of Notre Dame for an orphanage, and endowed it with sufficient funds to pay its current expenses.
Two of the devoted band of Sisters that established a mission school in the Willamette valley, Ore., in 1844, came to San Francisco in 1851 to meet other Sisters of the order, who were to come by way of the Isthmus to assist in the mission work of the Pacific coast. These two Sisters, Sister Loyola of Brusselle, and Sister Mary, of Nismes, were compelled to wait some time for the arrival of the steamer from Panama, and during the time accepted the proffered hospitality of Martin Murphy, a ranch man at Mountain View. These Sisters were charmed with the natural scenery and advantages of the Santa Clara valley, and at the suggestion of Father Nobile, who was then laying the foundation of the Santa Clara College, and the urgent solicitations of Mr. Murphy and other citizens of prominence, they decided to establish an educational institution here. Choosing as a site for their building the ground on which the present College of Notre Dame is situated, Sister Loyola and Sister Mary purchased a tract of land 101¾ by 137½ feet. Very few improvements had then been made in the valley; San Jose had but twenty-six dwellings all told. The ground was grown up with mustard and weeds, through which the waters of a small ditch flowed slowly, and on the land they bought were standing three adobe walls, with a tile roof.
Beginning work at once, the Sisters employed the services of Mr. Goodrich, an architect and August 4, 1851, the College of Notre Dame was opened. Each year since improvements have been made, and the college, with its rapid and healthful growth, has become one of the foremost educational institutions of the entire Pacific coast. Sister Mary, or Sister Mary Catherine, one of the founders of this college, lived to a venerable age, dying here upwards of ninety years old. Sister Loyola was transferred to Cincinnati and spent her last years there, dying several years ago. Sister Mary Cornelia was Sister Superior of the college from 1852 until her death, in 1892. She was a native of Belgium, and a woman of rare religious devotion and personal worth.
A native of Ireland, Sister Mary Bernardine, the present Sister Superior of the College of Notre Dame, was educated in England. Immigrating to New England, she lived first in Salem, Mass., where she became attracted to the order with which she is now connected. Entering the Central House, in Cincinnati, Ohio, she was soon an active worker in the Order. For a number of years she was Sister Superior in Boston, Mass., and while there made several trips to Europe. With her study on the continent, and her great experience at the head of the Boston school, Sister Mary Bernardine is eminently qualified for her present position, which she assumed September 16, 1892. In addition to her duties as a Sister Superior of the College of Notre Dame, San Jose, she is also Provincial Superior of the other seven Notre Dame institutions of the Pacific coast, previously mentioned. In her efforts to continue the work here established, and in adding a new impetus to the growth of the college, Sister Mary Bernardine has spared no pains. Her labors have not been in vain, the college with its different departments being in a most satisfactory condition and its attendance most gratifying. Its pupils are gathered from all sections of our Union, including the eastern, middle and western states; from the Pacific coast and the mountain region; from the Philippines and Hawaiian islands; from British Columbia; and from the orient, Mexico and Central America.
Transcribed
4-29-15 Marilyn
R. Pankey.
Source: History
of the State of California & Biographical Record of Coast Counties,
California by Prof. J. M. Guinn, A. M., Pages 532-534. The Chapman
Publishing Co., Chicago, 1904.
© 2015 Marilyn R. Pankey.