Sacred Heart School (Ward, Washington) Records Finding Aid CONTENTS Overview of Records... 2 Historical Note... 2 Notes on Record Group Name... 4 Arrangement... 5 Administrative Information... 5 Box and Folder List... 7 History...7 Administration...7 Personnel...8 Sub-series: Teachers...8 Sub-series: Students...8 Local Community...8 Financial...9 Facility...9 Reports...9 Subject Series...9 Appendix... 10 Superiors, Sacred Heart School, Ward, Washington...10 Agents, Colville Indian Agency 1873-1921...10
Sacred Heart School, Ward, Washington 2 OVERVIEW OF RECORDS Repository: Providence Archives, Mother Joseph Province, Seattle, Washington Creator: Sisters of Providence, Sacred Heart Province and St. Ignatius Province Record Group Name: Sacred Heart School (Ward, Washington) Record Group Number: 45 Dates: 1865-2016 Bulk Dates: 1865-1926 Scope and Content: Contains records of the Sacred Heart School in Ward, Washington near Colville. Records document the education of children from the Colville Indian Reservation at the school from 1873 until 1921, as well as the schooling of white children from 1874 until 1921. Also contains records documenting the living conditions and working lives of the Sisters of Providence as well as their interactions with Jesuit missionaries in the area and the U.S. Bureau of Indian Affairs. Extent: 0.79 cubic feet (2 boxes) HISTORICAL NOTE Sacred Heart School was located in a tiny mission settlement in the northeast corner of Washington State. The mission was near Kettle Falls, about seven miles from the present town of Colville to the east, and about an equal distance from the Colville Indian Reservation across the Columbia River to the southwest. The school was initially founded to educate children from the Colville Indian Reservation, but later offered separate instruction to white children. The area around the mission had a long-standing Catholic presence due to the Hudson s Bay Company outpost, Fort Colville (sometimes spelled Fort Colvile), which employed a large number of French Canadians. The Hudson s Bay Company eventually left its fort some years after the establishment of the 49th Parallel as the United States boundary line in 1846. After the area became United States territory, U.S. soldiers built a fort several miles to the east in 1859, on the banks of Mill Creek. This fort was also eventually called Fort Colville. Father Urban Grassi, S.J., Superior of the Jesuit Missions in the Rocky Mountains, established the Mission of St. Francis Regis in the area between the two forts around 1869 and appointed four Jesuits to live and work there. From at least 1865, priests of the Society of Jesus (Jesuits) ministering to the Colville area were hopeful that the Sisters of Providence would send teachers to found a school near the Colville Valley. After the Colville Reservation was established by executive order of President Grant in 1872, the United States government mandated the education of children there as it did on all reservations. On reservations, schooling for Native American children was often contracted to either Catholic or Protestant religious missions for practical and financial reasons, since in many cases missionaries had already forged connections with tribes and set up missions near or on reservations. Congress appropriated funds to support these schools, called industrial schools, through a contract that obligated them to teach a certain number of children each year. This development in the political and financial situation was probably the reason that the Sisters of Providence agreed in 1873 to send three Sisters and a lay teacher to the Jesuit Mission of St. Francis Regis near Colville. Around this time, disparate tribes who had not signed treaties with the U.S. government, including the Colvilles, Spokanes, and Coeur d Alenes, were moved to the reservation. For many tribes, the reservation was far away from their traditional lands, the borders of which were revised and pushed to the western side of the Columbia River so that mining areas and other resources would not belong to the tribes. The town of Colville became the headquarters of the Bureau of Indian Affairs official, known as the Indian Agent, assigned to supervise the reservation. At the time of the Sisters arrival, the Indian Agent was John A. Simms.
Sacred Heart School, Ward, Washington 3 On September 21, 1873, three sisters and one lay teacher arrived at the mission: Sisters 1 John of the Cross (64), Mary Aurelia (235), and Marie Hyacinth (175) and Mary Jane Goyner (later Sister Mary Alexander (406)). Since a convent or school had not yet been built, they occupied the large house formerly used by the Jesuits. The priests had moved to small cabins previously occupied by Native Americans. In November 1873, the teachers began classes for Native American children at Sacred Heart School. By January 1, 1874, the school had 30 boarders and 12 day students. Later, six other students became boarders, giving the school a total of 48 students. In March, Indian Agent John Simms informed the teachers that no appropriation of funds had been made by Congress and that the school would need to close. In order to continue teaching, the Sisters decided to give up their own salary and feed the children on some funding provided by Simms. In July, fortunately, they heard that $1500 had been appropriated for the 1874-1875 school year. During fall 1874, due to a request from local officials, the Sisters took charge of the district school for white children. Sisters Marie Augustin (190) and Bernardine of Sienna (195) were sent from Providence Academy, Vancouver, Washington to take charge of the white children s schooling, which was conducted separately, probably for fiscal reasons because of the strict accounting required for the industrial school as well as the racial prejudices prevalent at the time. More than 30 white children began studying at the school, and 14 of them became boarders. Some younger boys were probably included in the enrollment of day students over the years, as the Jesuits taught the older boys and felt the younger male children needed the care of women; however, the school s records indicate that most of the students were girls. In September 1878, the Jesuits opened an industrial school for boys at St. Francis Regis Mission. The focus of industrial education for Native American girls and young women was to learn housewifery skills so that they could later maintain a household, in addition to what Indian Agent John Simms called the regular branches of an English education. The regular education probably included reading, writing, catechism, arithmetic, music and singing. A report by Indian Agent Hal J. Cole in 1892 notes that the girls were taught fancy work, such as knitting, crocheting and embroidering as well as cooking, butter-making, gardening, and the care of flowers. The white girls who studied at the school, sometimes referred to as an academy, were taught subjects such as catechism, English, spelling, history, mathematics, singing, drawing, sewing, cooking, writing, reading, physiology, and geography. Congressional appropriations to the school varied. If the total number of Indian students fell below the number established by the government contract, or if attendance forms were not filled out exactly as required, funding would be ceased or delayed. The Bureau of Catholic Indian Missions, established in 1874 for the support of Catholic mission schools, also gave varying amounts of financial support to the school. White students at the school paid tuition fees. In the early years, the Sisters were often paid for the white students education in the form of farm animals or produce, since some parents could not afford to pay in dollars. According to the school s Chronicles, the first train on the Spokane Falls and Northern Railroad through Ward arrived in the spring of 1889. The train greatly improved the ability of sisters, students and visitors to reach the school. The train tracks were situated between the Sacred Heart School and the St. Francis Regis School. 1 Any reference to a Sister will be indicated with the placement of Sister or Mother before her name. Unless otherwise indicated, these Sisters can be assumed to be Sisters of Providence. Men and women religious who are members of other religious communities are identified by the initials of that community. Sisters of Providence each receive an identifying number upon professing their first vows; this number is indicated in parentheses after each Sister s name.
Sacred Heart School, Ward, Washington 4 Another aspect of the Sisters life at the Colville Mission was to minister to the sick. The Sisters visited tribal members nearby during times of sickness, and sometimes sick children were sent to the school for medicines and advice. Contagious disease struck at the school several times, including the Spanish Influenza. In the late 1800s and early 1900s, as documented in the Annual Reports of the Commissioner of Indian Affairs for those years, there was a political shift toward secular government-run schools to provide Native American education. In 1896, Congress severely decreased the funding to mission schools, and in 1900, the U.S. Government stopped funding sectarian schools entirely. All public funding for education went to government-run reservation schools. In some areas, Indian students also began to attend public schools. As of 1900, funding for the Catholic schools came solely from the Bureau of Catholic Indian Missions and from whatever other sources of income were available at individual schools. The Sacred Heart School operated based on funding from the Bureau and on tuition fees from the white students. The school closed in July 1921 due to very limited enrollment of Native American students that year and a generally poor financial condition. In the Chronicles for 1920-1921, the annalist writes that due to high food prices, the school asked Native American parents to pay a small amount for their children s board, which sum would not amount to more than ten dollars. This displeased the Indians so they refused to send their children. A few faithful Indians corresponded, still we never reached a greater number than eight children during the entire year. The Sisters of Providence sold the property to the Jesuits in 1926. In 1934, the Dominican Sisters of Spokane bought the property and established Our Lady of the Valley Convent which served as their provincial administration and novitiate. After the Dominican sisters closed the convent, the Circle Bar Youth Ranch purchased the property in 1972. During the early 1980s, the property passed into private ownership and the main building was remodeled. Later, in the 1990s, it was used as a bed and breakfast. NOTES ON RECORD GROUP NAME Official references to the name and location of the school have varied, partly due to the evolving landscape of the area as it became more populated. This variation caused inevitable inconsistency and confusion in the record keeping of the Sisters of Providence, and in the descriptions provided over the years by Providence Archives. This has led to the school s location being listed as Fort Colville/Ward. The policy of Providence Archives is to refer to each institution by the name it currently holds or held at closing; therefore, Providence Archives has now chosen to refer to the school as Sacred Heart School, Ward, Washington. The following notes attempt to provide some clarity on the history of the name and place name of this school. Name of the School Firstly, the school is mistakenly described as the Mission of St. Francis Regis in some historic documents because that was the name of the Jesuit mission nearby, and the main building originally belonged to the Jesuits. Government contracts with the school were made on behalf of the sisters by priests in the Diocese of Nisqually, and perhaps the priests referred to the mission s work as a whole under the name of St. Francis Regis. In a few instances in Chronicles and other documents, the school is called Sacred Heart Academy rather than Sacred Heart School. It seems logical that the upper level students attended the academy whereas the elementary students attended the school. It is also possible that the white students attended the academy, while the Native American students
Sacred Heart School, Ward, Washington 5 attended the school. To add further confusion, there is a two page information booklet about the school for white students in which the Sisters advertise the school as Sacred Heart Convent, Ward, Washington, ninety-five miles north of Spokane, with a train station on the Great Northern Railroad called Mission. It is also sometimes described as Ward Academy. Location of the School The mission s location was initially listed as Colville when it was established in 1873, probably because of its proximity to the old Hudson s Bay trading post, Fort Colville (sometimes spelled Colvile). Through the Chronicles ending July 1, 1904, the school s location is written as Colville, Washington Territory or Colville, Washington after statehood. After 1904, title pages for the school Chronicles either do not list a location for the school or refer to the location as Ward, Washington. In 1904, according to Edmond Meany s Origin of Washington Geographic Names, the post office for the St. [Francis] Regis Mission School and Sacred Heart Academy in the west central part of Stevens County was named Ward in honor of Thomas Ward who had died that year; previously the post office was named Goodwin. The settlement of Ward contained the church and residence of the Jesuit priests, the building which served as both convent and school for the sisters, and probably also the residences of a small number of white settlers and Native Americans. Ward, Washington is now classed as a Populated Place by the US Geological Survey, which means that it is not an incorporated place with an official federally recognized name. Fort Colville: Two Forts, One Name Some of the confusion with place names must date back to the history of the name Fort Colville. The first Fort Colville, often spelled Fort Colvile, was established between 1825 and 1826 by Hudson s Bay Company. It was a trading post with 340 acres of farmland near Kettle Falls. The Hudson s Bay Company finally left the trading post in 1871. The historic site of the Fort was submerged in 1942 by Lake Roosevelt, the reservoir created by the Grand Coulee Dam, and the famous falls disappeared along with it while the town of Kettle Falls was relocated. In 1859, a few miles east of the current town of Colville, the U.S. Army set up a fort commanded by Major Pinkney Lougenbeel. It was also soon called Fort Colville, and the small settlement across Mill Creek to the west was called Pinkney City or Pinkneyville. In 1868, however, the Territorial Legislature renamed the town Fort Colville, giving it the same name as the military fort which still existed across the creek. Gradually the town and the fort of Fort Colville seemed to merge together, as merchants from the town moved across the creek near to the fort. In September 1882, the U.S. Government closed the fort, and the town there declined as well until there was nothing left of it. A town nearby was platted in 1883 and named Colville. This is the town of Colville which exists today; it is about seven miles from the Sisters school at Colville or Ward. During the later years of the school, the closest large town was Colville. ARRANGEMENT The record group is divided into eight series: History, Administration, Personnel, Local Community, Financial, Facility, Reports, and Subject Series. ADMINISTRATIVE INFORMATION Restrictions: Providence Archives is a private repository. Access to some records is at the discretion of the archivist. Preferred Citation: [Title of cited item]. [Series Name]. Sacred Heart School, Ward, Washington. 45..
Sacred Heart School, Ward, Washington 6 Acquisition Information: Records were transferred to Providence Archives, Seattle from the St. Ignatius Province Archives, Spokane after St. Ignatius Province merged with Sacred Heart Province creating a new province, Mother Joseph Province, in 2000. Related Record Groups and Other Collections: The following record groups contain information relating to this collection: Sacred Heart Province Provincial Administration records, St. Ignatius Province Provincial Administration records, Sister Personnel records, Mother Joseph Personal Papers Collection, and Washington Corporation records. In addition to the paper records for the school, Providence Archives holds a photograph collection and artifact collection. Records related to Native American students of Sacred Heart School are held by the National Archives, in the Bureau of Indian Affairs records (Record Group 75). The personal papers of John A. Simms, Indian Agent for the Colville Reservation, are held by Washington State University s Manuscripts, Archives and Special Collections. Processing Information: Records arranged and described by Elizabeth Russell, Associate Archivist; completed in 2016.
Sacred Heart School, Ward, Washington 7 BOX AND FOLDER LIST History This series contains information about the history of the convent and school. Chronicles are the annual narratives written by personnel to document significant events. Three copies of Chronicles were prepared by institutions, one to be kept on site, one to be sent to Provincial Administration, and one to be sent to General Administration in Montreal. The two volumes of bound Chronicles in these records hold two copies of Chronicles between 1880 and 1918; however, the entries are not word for word copies and appear to have been written or copied out by different individuals. The volumes duplicate each other for 1880-1918 [missing from vol. 2: 1892-1895]; however, volume 1 includes the earliest entries 1873-1880, and Volume 2 contains entries until 1921, the year of the school s closure. Entries 1873-1918 in Vol. 1 have been scanned and are saved to the archives electronic records repository. This series also contains a handwritten English translation of the 1873-September 1876 Chronicles by Sister Anne Marcelle Lemay (4690). Translated and transcribed entries for 1901-1921 are available in the archives electronic records repository. Languages of Chronicles 1873-July 1901 French July 1901-July 1904 English July 1904-July 1906 French July 1906-1921 English A folder of general history contains various notes and articles about the history of the convent and school and related historical background. Notes include those of Sister Mary James (741), probably for her book, Providence. These materials also include excerpts regarding the school from the Providence Academy, Vancouver Chronicles translated by Sister Flore Marguerite Heroux (3080). 1 1 Chronicles, Vol. 1, 1873-1918 2 Chronicles, Vol. 2, 1880-1921 3 Bound, handwritten translation of 1873-September 1876 Chronicles by Sister Anne Marcelle Lemay (4690), undated 5 General history, 1873-2016 Administration This series contains correspondence between Sisters of Providence administrators in Vancouver, Washington and school superiors, in addition to letters from Father J.B.A. Brouillet (Vicar General of the Diocese of Nisqually), Jesuit administrators, and the Colville Indian Agency concerning administration of the school. Significant correspondence includes letters from Jesuit Fathers Joseph Ménétrey and Joseph Giorda, petitioning Mother Joseph and later Mother Praxedes to send Sisters to the Colville mission. Other correspondence concerns the financial footing of the school: Some of the correspondence is related to congressional appropriations for industrial schools, to the contractual responsibilities of the school in order to receive funding, or to the payment of government vouchers. Correspondents include Father J.B.A. Brouillet, and Father J.M. Cataldo, S.J., and administrators of the Bureau of Catholic Indian Missions. Also of interest in this series is the correspondence with John and Lucy Simms. John Simms was Agent at the Colville Indian Agency from 1873-1883. He and his wife were Catholic and seemed to be on good terms with the Sisters,
Sacred Heart School, Ward, Washington 8 with the exception of a property dispute with Sister Olivier (109), superior at the school from 1876-1881. Other correspondence between Lucy Simms and Sister John of the Cross (64) (founding superior of the school who by 1878 was in a provincial administrative position at Vancouver, Washington) relates to the foundation of the new school at Coeur d Alene, also run by the Sisters of Providence and under the supervision of the Colville Indian Agency. General correspondence concerns day to day finances and other administrative matters, and contains an undated shopping list for various medicines addressed to Mother Praxedes. 1 6 Correspondence between Mother Joseph and Father Joseph Ménétrey S.J., 1865-1866 7 Correspondence between Mother Praxedes and Father Joseph Giorda, S.J., 1871-1872 8 Re: funding for the school, 1876, 1879-1880 9 Correspondence with John and Lucy Simms, 1876, 1878 10 Re: education of Indian boys, 1878, 1880-1881 11 Correspondence from Bureau of Catholic Indian Missions, Washington, D.C., 1920-1921 12 General Correspondence, 1883 Personnel Contains records of teachers and students at the school. Sub-series: Teachers 2 1 Class notes of Sister Mary Esther (2469), circa 1915-1921 Sub-series: Students Contains some of the attendance register forms for Native American students that the school was required to send each quarter to the Indian Office. These forms contain the attendance records of the Colville and Spokane girls at the school. It is unclear why these attendance registers remained in the school records since they were meant to be delivered to the Superintendent at the Indian Office; it is possible that more than one copy was prepared for the school s record-keeping. A binder of school records contains correspondence between the teachers and the United States Indian Service mostly regarding financial expenditures for student expenses as well as several applications for expenditure of individual Indian money. These applications were required to be submitted in order to obtain the funds allocated to each student. The sub-series also contains a notebook containing grades for students in 7 th -10 th grade classes; these grades are probably those of white students at the school. 2 2 Records of school interactions with United States Indian Service, 1914-1917 3 Attendance registers for Native American students, 1916-1917, 1920 4 Grade book, 1915-circa 1921 Local Community The term local community refers to the community of sisters at a convent or institution. This series contains the Procès-Verbal, handwritten reports of the regular official visitation of the provincial superior, superior general, or their representatives. The reports of these visits contain the recommendations of the visiting sister official to the personnel of the institution, including both commendations and suggestions or requirements for improvement. Also see Acts of Council in the financial series for some community decisions related to work assignments, etc.
Sacred Heart School, Ward, Washington 9 2 5 Register of Official Visits (Procès-Verbal), 1881-1920 Financial This series contains Acts of Council. Acts of Council document decisions made through deliberation of the Local Council, the administrators of the Local Community. Many of these records provide summaries of monthly meetings in which financial account books are reviewed and approved. The deliberations are submitted to the Provincial Council for approval and, occasionally, to the General Council in Montreal, Quebec. There are also six typed Acts of Council noted as approved by the Provincial Council. 2 6 Deliberations of the Local Council, 1909-1920 7 Acts of Council approved by Provincial Council, 1917, 1919-1920 Facility The property records in this series include deeds, correspondence and other records. The records document purchases, leasing of the property after the closure of the school in 1921, and the eventual sale of the school property in 1926 to the Pioneer Educational Society, the legal organization of the Society of Jesus (Jesuits). 1 13 Property records, 1877-1926 Reports Personnel and Works Reports document the annual statistics of the institution, including the number of staff and students and the financial condition of the school. These two sets of bound reports overlap in dates and contain slightly different reporting formats for the same years. 1 14 Personnel and Works Reports, 1873-1904 15 Personnel and Works Reports, 1873-1923 Subject Series In this series is contained general information about the two closest towns to Ward: Kettle Falls and Colville. A folder on the Colville Indian Reservation contains printed inventories of Bureau of Indian Affairs Records (Record Group 75) in the National Archives. The subject files on My Parents Estate Bed and Breakfast and Pratt House contain news clippings and other information on school building ownership during the 1980s and 1990s. 2 8 Colville, Washington, undated 9 Colville Indian Reservation, 1965-1966, 1973 10 Kettle Falls, Washington, undated 11 My Parents Estate Bed and Breakfast, Ward, Washington, 1998 12 Pratt House, Ward, Washington, 1983
Sacred Heart School, Ward, Washington 10 APPENDIX Superiors, Sacred Heart School, Ward, Washington Years Superior 1873-1876 Sister John of the Cross (64) 1876-1881 Sister Olivier (109) 1881-1884 Sister Bernardine of Sienna (195) 1886-1894 Sister Francis Regis (245) 1894-1895 Sister Victor (413) 1895-1902 Sister Adrien (568) 1903-1909 Sister Mary Magdalen (934) 1909-1915 Sister Ida (875) 1915-1917 Sister Ethelreda (1308) 1917-1918 Sister Vianney (1470) 1919-1921 Sister Mary Loyola (1749) Agents, Colville Indian Agency 1873-1921 Year First Recorded Agent 1873 John A. Simms 1883 Sidney D. Waters 1885 Benjamin P. Moore 1887 Rickard D. Gwydir 1889 Hal J. Cole 1893 Captain John W. Bubb (Acting Agent) 1896 George H. Newman 1897 Albert M. Anderson 1904 Charles S. McNichols 1904 S.L. Taggart (Special Agent) 1904 John McAdam Webster 1912 John M. Johnson 1917 Fred C. Moran 1920 O.C. Upchurch