The Indianapolis times. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1922-1965, 1934-04-14
200 YEARS OF CATHOLICISM
An Authentic History of the Church i'm Indiana

system in Indiana. He is called "the
father of free schools" in this state.
From France he had brought with
him a library of 5000 volumes
Father John Rivet, pastor of st.
Francis Xavier church at Vim
cennes, opened the first school
about 1875 and Father Gibault was
the first teacher. Father Rivet had
been a professor in France. He
knew the value of education and
knew how to teach. 1t is recorded
that George Washington paid him
an annual stipend of $500. Gov
ernor William Henry Harrison, later
ninth President of the United
States, knowing Father Riyet's
scholarly attainments, intrusted
him with the education of his chill
dren as a mark of his appreciation
of the priests teaching ability. In
dams as well as whites were his
pupils.
In 1924, the next important step
was the coming of four Sisters of
Charity from Nazareth, KY. They
came to Vincennes and established
an academy and day school. In
1880 these nuns opened an academy
and day school in Daviess county
at Black Oak Ridge, but continued
privations forced them to return
to Nazareth in 1884.
Under Bishop Brute, two free
schools were opened, one for boys
and one for girls. All were well
coined, regardless of creed. This
epochal event took place almost
twenty years before Indiana, as a
state, organized her free school sys-
tenn, Bishop Brute founded at Vim
cennes an ecclesiastical seminary, a
college for secular students; an
academy for young ladies and an
orphan asylum.
This gave the diocese a complete
system of education. elementary,
secondary and collegiate courses for
young men and young women. The
sisters from Nazareth had charge
Of the academy, elementary schools
and the orphan asylum until 1888
These were then taken over by the
Sisters of Charity from Emmitsburg,
Md. Daviess and Dearborn counties
already had schools at the time
and st. Charles. at Peru, had a
school as early as 1887. Father Di-
dier conducted a school in Evans
vile in 1889.
We have referred to the origin
of st. Mary Of the-Woods academy
and college in Vigo county, near
Terre Haute. In 1910, under Bishop
Hailandiere, Mother Theodore Cue
rim, the sanity foundress, whose
life is now in process of canoniza-
ton, and five other sisters from
France laid the groundwork of an
institution for the education of
young women which is second to
none in America.
THE founding of Notre Dame was
Il in 1841. Father Edward Sorin
and six Holy Cross brothers arrived
from France in September of that
year Coming to Vincennes, they
settled temporarily at st. Peters,
tWenty-seven miles east. Father
Stephen Badin, the first priest or
dained in the United States, had
purchased a section of land near
South Bend on the st. Joseph river,
as site for future college.
In 1886 he gave it to the bishop of
Vincennes for that purpose. Later,
Bishop Hailandiere offered the
ground to the Holy Cross congre-
cation, which they accepted. They
established the site in 1912 and laid
the corner stone of the first college
building in August, 1643. Since then
Notre Dame has become one of the
most famous institutions of learn
ing in the western hemisphere.
About this time (1843) another
teaching order of nuns, the sisters
of Holy Cross, came into the diocese,
but not being able to establish their
Mother House at VincenneS, they
were directed to establish them
selves at Notre Dame and in 1874
they located at Bertrand, Mich,
across from the Indiana boundary
line, eight miles from Notre Dame
Soon afterward, they taught
schools in various parts of northern
Indiana and southern Michigan
Later they established themselves
also III Canada and in New Orleans.
Further progress of education will
be told in later chapters.
Copyright 1884. by The Times and
Humbert p Pagani)