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Natural disasters
have a way of unpredictably altering the course of history and
of charting a new course of events. Such was probably the case
when the "great tornado" struck La Plata, Maryland,
on November 9, 1926. Devastation was widespread over much of
the southeastern United States. One specific disaster, however,
affected the coming of the Sisters of IHM to La Plata in 1927,
namely, the total demolition of a public school by the tornado
while classes were in session, causing the death of twenty-two
children, most of whom were Catholic.
Mother Casimir's affirmative response to the request of the
pastor, Reverend Brent Matthews, SJ, of Sacred Heart Parish
in Charles County, La Plata, Maryland, resulted in the opening
of the second school staffed by IHM Sisters in the then Archdiocese
of Baltimore. Bishop Michael J. Curley's purchase of the property
of the McDonough Institute for a consolidated parochial school
to serve four area Jesuit parishes brought the sisters to a
very historic setting.
Maurice J. McDonough, for whom the Institute was named, had
been a peddler who died in April 1804, leaving his money for
the education of children in the locale in which he had worked.
The trustees of the McDonough Charity School Fund, incorporated
in 1804, founded the McDonough Institute, an endowed school
for both sexes in the fall of 1903, one half mile west of La
Plata. The Institute being the only secondary school in the
county, equipped with boarding accommodations for girls as early
as 1904, and for boys by 1905, was very attractive, especially
to students living at a distance. There were three buildings
on about thirty-five acres of land. McDonough Institute flourished
until 1927 when state aid was withdrawn. (25)
It was in this setting that Sacred Heart School, La Plata, was
opened on September 8, 1927, with twenty pupils in seven grades.
(By the close of the year there were fifty pupils.) The school
had six classrooms and a library completely furnished. The Girls'
Hall, erected in 1904, became the sisters' convent. This was
a three-story building with an assembly hall, office, reception
room, dining room, and rooms to accommodate about forty boarding
students. Into this large dwelling came the initial four sisters:
Sister Benedicta O'Brien, superior, Sister Seraphia Gallagher,
Sister Leo Lehman, and Sister Norberta Streilly. Sisters Maria
Immaculate Yahner and Catherine Ruane came later that year.
This structure served as the convent until March 2, 1935, when
it was destroyed by fire caused by an explosion of the oil furnace.
A new convent was built and the sisters were once again settled
by August 1935.
Sacred Heart School was to grow rapidly: by September 1943,
there were 207 pupils from seven area parishes. Catechetical
instruction was conducted by the sisters at Pomfert, Bel Alton,
Issue, Rocky Point and Indian Head, Maryland. Since so many
of the children in attendance at Sacred Heart School were from
other parishes, it was decided in 1948 that these parishes should
share the financial support of the school. The school was renamed
Sacred Heart Consolidated School. Continued enrollment increases,
together with the poor physical condition of the original school,
resulted in the decision in 1952 to build a new school, a combination
grade and high school, to be named "The Archbishop Neale
School" in memory of Archbishop Leonard Neale, second Archbishop
of Baltimore and a native son of Port Tobacco, Charles County.
Sister M. Edwin Ott became the flrst principal of Archbishop
Neale School, a combined grade and high school.
In the educational climate of later years, it is difficult to
imagine that a high school would be opened in La Plata on September
8, 1929, with only a freshman class, and that class numbering
only seventeen pupils. It is needful to think of the thirty
mile distance to Washington, DC, and the lack of public transportation
as a major obstacle to attendance elsewhere; it is needful to
remember that the stock market crash of 1929 catapulted the
world into the most severe economic depression ever known; it
is needful to remember, as Hennessey states, that "American
Catholics did not easily shake off the alienation and discouragement
fostered by the message they seemed to be receiving in 1928."
(26) By this comment, he referred, of course, to the bigotry
that had beset Catholic candidate, Alfred E. Smith, in his campaign
for the Democratic nomination for President of the United States
in that year which caused Smith’s defeat, and the rude
awakening of Catholics to the fact that they were an object
of mistrust and suspicion for their faith and their membership
in the "Roman" Church. It was still demanded of the
nation's Catholic citizens "that they establish the compatibility
of their religion with American democratic ideals, laws, and
practices.” (27)
The action of the Catholic families of La Plata in providing
for a secondary level to their parish educational offerings
is very much in line with the clarion call issued by Paulist
Father James Gillis, editor of the Catholic World in the December
1928 issue where he proclaimed "We Catholics shall not
wither up and blow away.”(28) It was a time both to "dig
in" and to "reach out"; it was a time both to
claim strengths and strengthen shortcomings; it was a time to
gain both moral and intellectual ground. Catholic education
was seen as the chief key to these goals.
These were certainly some of the reasons for the opening of
Sacred Heart High School in 1929. The Department of Public Instruction
of Maryland accredited this school in the following year, 1930.
Each year a class was to be added to the secondary school, but
not without obvious difficulties. Mother Casimir had died soon
after her letter of January 23, 1929 assuring the pastor, Reverend
Charles Hennessey, SJ, that she would provide for the high school:
"I think for at least a year one extra Sister ought to
make it very easy to begin a high school . . . " (29) Carrying
out this promise fell to Mother Mary William who was pressured
by Father Hennessey's strong letters to send a sister in time
for the opening of school on September 8, 1929, in spite of
her statement in a letter of September 1, 1929, that ''I cannot
possibly send you this Sister until after the Profession at
Christmas . . . ”(30)
It is apparent from a subsequent letter that Mother Mary William
wished to keep the promise made by Mother Casimir, so Sister
Stella Devers was appointed. (31) Although Sister Stella was
of frail health she had been carrying a heavy teaching load
at Marywood College in Scranton, Pennsylvania, so Mother Mary
William felt this change to a small class of fifteen pupils
in La Plata would not overtax her. Some time in the spring,
possibly in March, however, Sister Stella became ill and could
not continue in school at La Plata. There was no sister available
to replace her, so it is likely that through the collaborative
efforts of the priests and the grade school sisters the first
year was completed. Reverend William B. Hannas, SJ, pastor of
St. Joseph's Church, Pomfret, Maryland, aided the fledgling
high school by teaching dramatics and encouraging athletics
among the students, although the school had no gymnasium. There
were many strengths considering the small setting: both academic
and commercial subjects were offered; there was a fully equipped
science laboratory for teaching of chemistry, biology, and general
science; a separate building, Brent Hall, was built in 1935
as an auditorium. Above all, there was a strong religious emphasis
and many religious and academic activities.
References:
25. Sister M. Immaculate Gillespie, Collected Notes on Sacred
Heart, LaPlata, MD. Archives, IHM Generalate.
26. Hennessey, op. cit., p. 254.
27. Ibid., p. 253.
28. Reverend James T. Gillis, Catholic World 128 (1928), p.
357.
29. Letter from Mother Casimir to Reverend Charles Hennessey,
SM, cited in his letter to Mother Mary William, dated August
31, 1929. Archives, IHM Generalate.
30. Letter from Mother Mary William to Rev. Charles Hennessey,
SJ. September 1, 1929. Archives, IHM Generalate.
31. Letter from Mother Mary William to Rev. Charles Hennessey,
SJ. Undated, probably Spring 1930. Archives, IHM Generalate.
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