God’s Geese
Amid the settling of Virginia City in 1864 (then part of the Archdiocese of San Francisco), the Daughters of Charity of St. Vincent de Paul opened a vein of social services as rich as the Comstock Lode. Traveling from San Francisco by steamer, train and stagecoach, three Sisters began a school, orphanage and hospital, all of which prospered among the dust and sagebrush. Ties forged during those boomtown days link the Daughters to an unparalleled time in San Francisco history.
“The Daughters were summoned during the mining bonanza,” says Sister Margaret Ann Gainey, archivist at Seton Provincialate in Los Altos Hills. “Sister Frederica McGrath left her position as principal of St. Vincent’s School to serve as leader.”
As Virginia City celebrates its 150th anniversary, the works of the Daughters of Charity shine. Letters written to their Superiors in Emmitsburg, Maryland survived. Correspondence spanning 1864 to1897 binds them to San Francisco icons such as John W. Mackay, James Graham Fair, James D. Phelan and Archbishop Joseph S. Alemany.
Father Patrick Manogue and Bishop Eugene O’Connell drove the notion to bring the Sisters to the thriving frontier. Years earlier, Irish-born Manogue labored as a gold miner in California. According to Jesuit Father William Breault, author of “The Miner Was a Bishop: The Pioneer Years of Patrick Manogue 1854-1895,” Joseph S. Alemany encouraged him to study for the priesthood at Saint Sulpice in Paris.
The Daughters of Charity also trained at Saint Sulpice. Possibly the young priest knew of their dedication to serving the poor. Years later, as pastor of St. Mary’s in the Mountains Catholic Church, he turned to the Daughters to open a school and orphanage.
The Sisters’ arrival in Nevada created a stir. “We were the center of attraction on the route at the different places we stopped,” wrote Sister Elizabeth Russell of their trek to Virginia City. Their dark blue habits and billowing starched white cornettes led the native Paiute Indians to call them “God’s Geese.”
With help from generous parishioners, the Sisters moved St. Mary’s School and Asylum from a single room to a newly-constructed three story brick building quickly. Within two years, several hundred children depended on their care.
“God’s Geese” took on difficult tasks that others ignored. An unsigned memoir revealed: “The first winter we passed here was a dreary one. Wood was scarce, funds low and to cap the climax there were no inside stairs. So from the dormitory to the floors below still unfinished and to the yard, we got up and down as well as we could on twenty-three steps covered with snow and ice.”
Influential pioneers such as John W. Mackay proved to be ardent benefactors. As profits from the richest silver deposit in North America poured into San Francisco, Mackay founded the Bank of Nevada along with partners James Fair and James L. Flood (builder of the Flood Building). Fair served as a U.S. Senator. His daughters Tessie and Virginia built the Fairmont Hotel on Nob Hill, a monument to their father who died in 1894.
As a founding member of the St. Vincent de Paul Society, Mackay replaced the wooden St. Mary’s in the Mountains Church with a commanding brick structure. Mrs. Mackay donated several acres to the Sisters for a hospital named St. Marie Louise Hospital in her honor. Mackay subsidized Lake Tahoe drinking water for use in the hospital and school. Theresa Fair donated a large iron stove for the hospital kitchen.
In 1881, Mrs. Mackay gave Father Manogue his chalice and vestments for his consecration as Bishop of Sacramento. The Mass took place in Old Saint Mary’s at California and DuPont (now Grant Avenue) with Archbishop Alemany presiding.
James D. Phelan, whose cousin Sister Rose Genevieve was a Daughter of Charity, also appears on a list of benefactors. Phelan, a graduate of St. Ignatius College (now the University of San Francisco), was mayor of San Francisco from 1897-1902 and a U.S. Senator from 1915-1921. The Phelan Building, Phelan Avenue and Phelan Hall on the USF campus all bear his name. Villa Montalvo, his Saratoga summer home, is now a center for the arts and listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
“It’s truly remarkable how the Daughters connected with generous benefactors,” reports Dr. Jeffrey Burns, archivist for the Archdiocese of San Francisco. “Those relationships allowed replication of their good works in Virginia City that they sponsored following their arrival in San Francisco in 1852.”
By the mid-1890’s mining activity ceased and population dwindled. An anonymous Sister recorded their final days: “Sister Baptista, the Sister Servant, was called home [Emmitsburg, Maryland] for a consultation in December 1896. She gave no hope of a revival in the fortunes of Virginia City and it was decided to withdraw the Sisters from both Institutions. The Bishop was notified…And the Sisters came away. The Pastor protested and also some of the citizens.”
More than 450 citizens sent a petition to Emmitsburg to prevent “God’s Geese” from migrating. Their plea failed, but the Daughters returned to Nevada in the 1950’s to sponsor St. Teresa’s School in Carson City.
Throughout 33 years of service, more than 50 Daughters of Charity ministered to the mining community. Today, only one remains. Sister Mary Angelica Olivas died while on mission and rests peacefully in the Catholic Cemetery in the desert hills of Virginia City.
By Patricia Smith
From November 6, 2009 issue of Catholic San Francisco.
