Waterbury evening Democrat., 1903-09-26
THE SLAYER SISTERS.
Five of Them Were Among the Early
 Educators dn WaAerhuET.

N t3 Five of Them Were Among the Darly
 Educabors in Waterbury.
 i. The death of Miss KEtfe Slater which eeeured during the past couple I~ef weeks removed aEIbtst oaae--ef five ba alented young women who came to Waterbury over forty years ago, and engaged in the profession of teach
 ing in the East Main street scheol, which has since been relegated to the
 grave of oblivion to make room for a more conBmodius structure known as
 St. Patrick's block. In those days there were no Cathoiic teachers in
 Waterbury, and not very large num- Der of any other class, for the place
 was small and the demand for teach
 CTS here was far from what 1t is to-
 day Father Hendricken was pastor l of the Immaculate Conception parish , in Waterbury at the time, and with i view to facilitating educational mat i ters he opened school in the old
 building across the way from the church and called it the Catholic acad-
 emy The next move was to adver- tise for two experienced teachers, and
 an advertisement in the Pilot brought
 applications from bhe Misses Annie F. and Susie Slater then teaching at New f Jersey This was in the fall Of 1853. I The girls entered upon their duties and soon attracted such attention to the
 school that Father Hendrtcken found 1t
 necessary to look up additional tutors,
 and in the spring of 1860 two more of
 the Slater girls, Eliza beth and Hattie
 O., arrived here and commenced teach ing down stadrs in the same building. The next year the school passed from
 the management of the parish to that
 of the Center district. and from that time on the teachers were paid by the
 city instead of by the parish. In 1864
 Katie Slater accepted an appointment in the building, making five sisters or the same family teaching in the same
 building, so that it was no wonder that
 it used to be referred to as the Sis ters' school" Tn addition to teaching,
 Hattie Q. played the organ in the Imr
 maculate Conception church and the . sisters sang in the choir They also
 took charge of the altar, taught i'll the
 Sunday school, prepared the children for first communion and confirms ation, were prominent at church fairs and
 festivals and in fact were leaders in, every mov ement gotten up for the benefit of the parish Nothing per- taining to church matters was consld- cred properly organized unless the Sla- ter girls were identified with 1t. In 1866 two of the girls. Susie and Eliza- beth, resigned to enter the married state, the former becoming the wife of William Hendricken, brother of. Father Hendricken, and the latter marrying Patrick Brett. then superin- tendent of the Waterbury Buckle Co.
 Mrs. Hendricken died in 1873, leaving one son. Thomas Hendricken of De troit. She is buried in Providence, ] R. I. Mir Brett died in 1871, but his widow lived until 1895, She is buried in St Joseph's cemetery. She was the mother of Attorney F. P. Brett, the present town clerk of Waterbury.
 In 1871, Hattie o. married Daniel F. Minllhan of Ohio, prominent con- tractor, who built the railroad between
 here and Watertown. She died in
 New York in 1875 and was buried ill
 the family plot at Amherst, Mass. She
 is survived by one daughter, Mss
 Mary Mfnihan of this city Katie was ! employed in the public schools until 1 1891 and after t1lat she kept night school She died September 14, 1903. at the summer residence of the family at Walnut Beach She is buried In
 St Joseph's cemetery. -ASsn1ss zlEsasis Still with us. She was regular teacher from 1859 until 1895 and is still a substitute. They had one i brother, William Slater, who died here
 about thirteen years ago and was bur- l led in Amherst. Tie older members
 of the family were born in Vermont,
 but all of them were educated in tue 1 public schools and the academy at Am
 herst, where their father was a pros l erous farmer. Hattie took course l at tine convent of Notre Dame in Mon- tTeal and Katie attended the Sacred l Heart academy at Manhattanville. so fhat all Of them were fully equipped for tl1e profession of teaching and had
 a remarkably happy faculty of impart- ing what they knew to others. Tn
 other walks of life they were tireless
 workers on behalf of every project that had for it's aim the weIl-befrlg of
 society. Their pupils number some of
 ther brightest men in Waterbury to-
 day, and many of the leading H9flts of
 the priesthood in different parts of the
 country came under their tender care.
 either at the building on East Main
 street or on Porter street, where Katie
 held the position of principal for many l years. Altogether they were rather
 remarkable family and future histor- ians in speaking of Waterbury edu- cators must necessarily accord them
 an honored place.
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