Ursulines re-create 1874 journey down Ohio River to found school

Published: 2004-08-30

LOUISVILLE, Ky. (CNS) -- Just as their founders did 130 years ago, five Ursuline Sisters of Mount St. Joseph boarded a powerless, wooden flatboat Aug. 11 for a trip down the Ohio River to western Kentucky. The sisters left from New Albany, Ind., and five days later landed at Owensboro, Ky. -- re-creating the 150-mile journey in 1874 that led, eventually, to the creation of the sisters' autonomous congregation in 1912. The original trip -- made nine years after the end of the Civil War -- was part of a mission to establish a Catholic school for girls in western Daviess County. The school came to be called Mount St. Joseph Academy, and was founded at what is now Maple Mount, Ky. It closed in 1983, but the buildings are now known as the Mount St. Joseph Conference and Retreat Center. Sister Amelia Stenger, who along with Sisters Elaine Burke, Pam Mueller, Larraine Lauter and Betsy Moyer, was aboard for first leg of the trip, said the idea for the voyage began to take shape a year and a half ago. "We were trying to find ways of letting people know that the Ursuline Sisters have a very long history," she explained.

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