San Antonio light. [volume] (San Antonio, Tex.) 1911-1993, 1925-11-20
ACADEMY Sees
. SAN ANTONIO
RISE FROM
PRAIRIE
Ursuline Students Prepare
to Celebrate Diamond
Jubilee.
By BESS CARROLL

San Antonio's oldest school is near
ing its diamond jubilee.
While moss and mould grow on the
old, deserted missions of the friars,
Ursuline Academy is preparing to cele-
brate its 18th year of usefulness.
+ Almost unchanged by the years that
have built a city around its chapel,
walls. the Convent of st. Ursula still
stands inside of rock walls by the
river--its school rooms filled, its
adobe buildings quaint and gray.
Ursuline Academy was founded in
1S51-just fifteen years after the
Alamo fell-and it was the first school
for girls in San Antonio, the second
girls school in the state. In the same
old buildings where the daughters Of
Canary Island settlers Of San German
do square went to school, the sub-sub
debts of San Antonio's first families
say their lessons now.
SIUh1 ONEhl>UOhED.
When we think of early days in
Texas we usually remember the pill
grimage of Franciscan monks, carry
ing TO the wilds the torch of learn
ing and the cross of faith. But as
the 10th anniversary of Ursuline ap'
proaches, the story Of the Ursulinc
nuns brave tale. forgotten atid'
Observation-Disclosures a new and untold
chapter in the history of Texas AMI
of San Antonio. A chapter dedicated
to the courage of women. T.
For the Ursulines were the next 10
follow Franciscans into Texas. They
came before the school-building BROTH
ers came to found schools for boys,
and the Ursulines are still here, still
busy. planning a future longer than
their past.
SPURNS MANSION. q.
Seventy-five years ago mansion
stood beside the river. in the village OF
Bexar-and the prairies came up to
its back steps and spread out TO the
Gulf on one side, TO the border on
the other. A Frenchman had built
this house. 1t was two stories-an
unheard-of thing in those days in
Texas. But he wanted a great house,
for he was bringing his bride to San
Antonio.
The bride came. She looked at the
prairies that were her back yard, and
thought Of the Indians they held. She
said, "We leave, or / leave They
left.
His Folly" became the name Of the
great house. 1t stood empty for long
time, until finally it was sold to a re-
ligious order.
MANY HARDSHIPS.
Today the Ursuline sisters of San
Antonio venerate His Folly" as the
home that their founders took posses
sion Of in 1851. The adobe house,
braced with iron, is well preserved
and is used now as n combination
school building and storehouse.
Four sisters from New Orleans and
three from Galveston founded Ursu-
line Convent while San Fernando
Cathedral was still the only church in
the city. 1t took them many days to
make the long journey from Galveston
by stagecoach. When they arrived
they found His Folly" full of spiders
and scorpions. Their only altar for
months was a plank in a window.
They used brooms made of weeds.
During their first few months in San
Antonio the seven sisters almost
times they had no food
and were without even the bare neces-
sites Of life.
In spite Of their hardships the
school grcw--it was the only school
that girls could attend, in San An
(Continuad nm Doga Al port ol