unday Bel
PART T7IHEF.
HALF-TONE
PAGES ONE TO FOUR.
FOR ALL THE NEWS
THE OMAHA BEE
BEST IN THE WEST
The Omaha
VOL. XL NO. 44.
OMAHA, .SUNDAY MOKNIMJ, APRIL 16, 11)11.
SI NULL COPY FIVE CENTS.
Omaha is , Well Equipped in High-Class Schools for Girls
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.MAHA has iincp the earlleBt day offered
high-cluaa facilities for the education of
girls and young women, in denomina
tional schools. From the academies for
young women conducted hers thousands
of well-trained and soundly educated
women have gone out to rule over homes
of their own In Nebraska and other states. Some of
them have, in their turn, established other schools,
or become teachers in similar institutions, while others
have taken their places In various walks of life some
as missionaries, some in religious orders equipped by
their early training to make a decided and a favorable
impress on the minds and characters of the pupils
coming under their sway.
There is not a school In Omaha devoted to the
special education and training of young women but
has on its rolls names that reflect honor and glory
on alma mater; and among the hundreds now in the
classes of these schools are personalities of similar
lai pa promise.
Brownell hall, the Episcopal school for young
women, has been located at two other points In the
city before making its permanent site at Tenth and
Worthington. Dishop Talbot established the original
hall at what was then known as Saratoga, north of
Omaha, controlled by the Saratoga Townsite company.
A structure bad been erected, about 1858, for a hotel
at the site of the mineral springs, which were looked
upon as Bure to develop the nucleus of a future health
resort, and Bishop Talbot secured the building In
which, to start his new school, the other enterprise
having proved a failure. The first students took
possession of the building In 1862, but it was not until
1868 that the corporation wfls legally perfected. Of
the Incorporators Judge George W, Doane, Henry V.
Yates and R. C. Jordan are still living in Omaha,
Recalling Once Familiar Names,
The first principal was Rev. O. O. Dake, followed
by Rev. Samuel Herman as rector and principal. A
property was Indicated, by the sale of this ground for
$25,000 in 1887.
When the school was moved from Saratoga, Mrs.
P. O. Hall, became the principal, and five years later
Rev. Robert Doherty assumed the duties of rector and
principal, officiating for almost twenty years.
In 1886 Herman Kountze donated to the corpora
tion the present site on South Tenth street, and with
a large number of other people he contributed to the
building fund for the erection of the present school
building. Mrs. S. II. Windsor became principal of
the new building, having been associated with the
institution for a good many years.
Brownell hall graduated its first class in 1868
Miss Helen Ingalls, afterward Mrs. Flemon Drake,
and Miss Helen Hoj, who married Horace Burr. Since
the graduation day of the two Helens the list of
Brownell hall graduates has been enlarged by a goodly
number every year, the young women coming from all
over the west and taking home with them the high
anibitlonsi and deep lessons inculcated by a very elabo
rate and enlightened curriculum.
1 Brownell Is duly accredited to about all of the
large Easter colleges for women.
Start of Convent Schools.
In 1858 the residents of Omaha were stirred by the
news of the coming of a Cathollo bishop to establish
here his see. With a lively Interest in the possibilities
of this event a committee of the city council made a
report urging the donation of certain city property,
and among other things said:
"The schools established under the auspices of the
church in Iowa have given it a wide educational cele
brity, bringing scholars from all parts of the state, as
well as Minnesota, Wisconsin and Illinois. Of its
10,000 Cathollo citizens, known for their wealth, so
briety and industry, it cannot be doubted but a large
portion have been attracted by the same influences
Twenty-fourth and St. Mary's arena e, the first Cstho
11c school for young women erected in Nebraska. He
lived to see a fine development of the enterprise be
fore his death in 1874.
Old St. Mary's academy flourished at its first loca
tion, in a frame building, from 1864 until a different
location seemed desirable, in 1887, when Its present
home' was built,' at Fifteenth and Castellar. This
school Is conducted by the Sisters of Mercy, who have
been engaged in good works in Omaha for almost fifty
years. The same order has charge of St Rita's (for
merly St. Catherine's) at Eighteenth and Cass, and
of St. Berchman'a academy and St Catherine's hos
pital, now in the old Kountze home, at Tenth and
Arbor. '
Sacred Heart Academy a Leader.
Sacred Heart academy, at Thirty-sixth and Burt,
is under the supervision of the Religious of the Sacred
Heart. This school Is accredited to the Nebraska State
university, and has taken high rank among the con
vent schools of the west. The special object of the
Religious of the Sacred Heart is to train the char
acters of their pupils and to ground them in solid
religious principles. At the same time they spare no
pains to cultivate the minds of the young women in
their class rooms and to teach them the various accom
plishments required by their position in society.
Needlework and deportment receive particular atten
tion, and the study of French is obligatory on all
pupils. To make this study effective, special oppor
tunities are given for conversation In French.
Aside from the thorough grounding in the or
dinary branches of education, pupils receive a com
plete course of Christian doctrine. They also are
taught the elements of Christian philosophy and are
drilled in ancient and modern history, special' empha
sis being laid on sacred and church history. Study of
literature, ancient and modern, goes with the study of
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and are a happy and pleasing group to see, in the class
rooms and at play. The sisters of this order now have
twenty-five convent schools In le United States, and
several In Canada. '
St. Mary's and St nerchman's.
Mount St Mary's academy long ago gained a repu
tation for thoroughgoing work in the training of its
pupils. It is also a boarding and day school, and
drawa its patrons from a wide extent of territory.
Muslo Is featured in this school, and some of the
regarded as almost of a class apart, since the basic,
never-changing essentials of correct living and think
ing are particularly and continually inculcated. Pro
ficiency In music, love of poetry, a high appreciation
of the good and the beautiful, excellence In art, skill
in needlework all these must inevitably add to the
capacity and the power of those who are to manage
homes and be leaders in social affairs; who will la
their turn train youth and direct it aright, as mother,
or teachers. -1
Practical to a degree are the exclusive rirls'
little later Bishop Clarkson held the place of rector your committee are anxious to add to those which English in all its branches; but Latin, mathematics graduates have taken high rank through the training schools of Omaha today; lyet they emphasise, as they
and Miss EllzaBeth Butterfleld, recently deceased, be
came principal.
Many of the older residents of Omaha-will remem
ber the erection of the first Brownell hall in the city
proper, at Sixteenth and Jones streets; and many yot
on the sunny side of middle life will recall that struc
ture. One of the two lota was donated by Herman
Kountze and the other was bought from him for the
have already made Omaha the metropolis of Nebraska,
which. Influences will follow the settlement of the
bishop at this place."
As the matter, eventuated the Cathollo church got
no lots, for the reason that the bishop, James M.
O'Gorman, declined to make any hard and fast agree
ment as to permanent improvements. Bishop O'Gor
man it was who established Mercy hospital (now 8t.
and the natural sciences are also given their proper
weight in the curriculum.
Sacred Heart academy now has one of the finest
buildings for its work that is to be found in the whole
western country, a new addition having been erected
last year. The grounds are commodious and laid ont
with excellent taste. Boarders and day pupils are
taken, the boarders being very largely from out-of-
ajim of $1,600. The great Increase la value of Omaha Josepha. and also built &. M-Ji'a convent, at, Kboaft town tamine Iu puplla range from Little girls up
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received here.
St. Berchman's academy devotes special attention
to the higher arts, painting, muslo and the like. It
caters to day students only, but Its list of graduates
comprises some of the cleverest women who have been '
educated in the convent schools of Omaha, and Its
position as an educational institution of the very high
est class Is well established.
St. Rita's Is now devoted to the purposes of a
high-grade home for young women, under the care
of the Sisters of Mercy.
1
Larjre Influence on Modern Life.
The term, "convent schools," does not today con
vey exactly the same meaning that it had in former
times; nor does it have the same significance here,
perhaps, that attaches to it In France, for instance.
Imbued with the American spirit of democracy, those
in charge of such schools in the United States have
accepted the view that the great desideratum today
is to arouse and deepen in the minds of the pupils a
large interest in the vital problems of life, at the same
time that the routine of required study Is pursued.
With the investigation of history the training for
modern life goes hand in hand. Literature of the
ages is studied with a Close view to Its bearing on
latter-day economic and social questions, since the
girls of today are the women of tomorrow, with a
most potential Influence for developing the best things
wherever their lot may be cast. Teaching of the
sciences la carried on with a breadth of view that can
not fall to be reflected profitably in the later lives of
the young women now so earnestly working In the
confinement of the class room. Resourcefulness, self
reliance, the power to analyze, are developed as most
important elements of an education that shall be fully
Useful in the field outside the convent walls.
In all ages the convent-trained woman has been
always have, the finer things of Christian education.
Largeness of vision and widening of ctvlo interest
flow naturally from the basic elements so carefully '
inculcated; and this having been proven to the satis
faction of thoughtful parents who have seen th
splendid effect of such training In the graduates et
other years, the opening; of each term sees girls from
widely scattered homes- converging to Omaha to secure
the advantages offered in such large measure by the
schools pictured on this page. They make op a group
of which any city In the country can offer no superior.
Physical Improvements of the buildings and surround
ings are lavishly made as required, and the teaching
staffs are maintained in a state of efficiency that
leaves little to be desired. From them go out every
year groups of young women excellently equipped
mentally to fill with honor any position In life. If
they have large intellectual Interests as a result of
their thorough schooling and development of tnlnd
they Lave even larger grasp of the great things com
mitted to the modern educated woman a mother, as
housekeeper and as citizen.
At present between 4 00 and 600 small children
and young women are being educated in the primary
and higher grades of these s hools. About all of the
younger pupils are day students only, while a very
large proportion of the older girls are boarders. These
boarders come from mauy other states besides Ne
braska to take advantage, of the educational oppor
tunities offered in Nebraska. Brownell hall has stu
dents from as far away as Texas, and many from the
Intermediate territory. Sacred Heart has young
women from South Iakota, Illinois, Wyoming, Mon
tana, Iowa and Missouri. Mount St. Mary's has about
twenty-five primary students who reside in Omaha, "
while some thing like fifty of the total enrollment are
boarders, from various parts of Nebraska, Iowa, Kan
sas, Colorado, South Dakota and other westers states.
