THE LAST DAUGHTER OF CHARITY IN NEVADA
(The one they left behind…)
Who hurts more—the one leaving or the one left behind? Or, better said—which is sadder, to leave or to be left?
I don’t even pretend to know the answer to either of the above questions. But I do know one fact: there is a Daughter of Charity, young and deceased, and buried in the Catholic Cemetery of Virginia City in Nevada. She died in 1893. She’s in plot A-061. She is the last Daughter of Charity in Nevada.
She has been in Virginia City for over 140 years now, maybe it’s 150 years. I am not sure. She has been watching over this once most famous city in Nevada for that long a time. Two other Sisters died in V.C. but their bodies were shipped back to the Motherhouse. 1-- Sr Rosanne Logan (stayed one year) then died of blindness, deafness, and total nerve damage. 2-- Sr Gertrude Dooling had died at St. Mary’s Hospital) --*source Territorial Enterprise. There is no record of Sister Rosanne or Sister Gertrude being buried in Virginia City.
Only Sister Angelica.
First 3 Sisters who arrived by Pioneer Stage on October 8, 1864:
1 Sr Fredericka McGrath
2 Sr Elizabeth Russell
3 Sr Xavier Schrer
They arrived by Pioneer stagecoach with some 31 other people. Now there’s a picture to image—how do that many people fit on one stage coach? I found pictures of the possibilities.
No, these are NOT pictures of the stagecoach that held the Sisters; but these are pictures of how crowded a stagecoach could get.
It was October 8, 1964 when the stagecoach arrived.
On October 15, the Sisters began the school in the basement of St. Mary of the Mountains with 50 young girls. Over time, the school would branch out into an Orphanage as miners died in the Silver Mines. Then, in 1875, a hospital would be built and named ‘St. Mary Louise’ after John Mackay’s wife.
Then, in 1897, the Sisters left Virginia City. V.C. had gone from a population of over 30,000 to one of 600. The mines had closed. Earthquakes were shaking the city in November of 1895. There were few people there to teach or to care for.
One Sister stayed, and she is buried in the Catholic Cemetary. She was named, first, Sister Romona, then, Sister Angelica. Olivas was her last name. She had died in 1893. She will stay with Virginia City, forever. She is the last Daughter of Charity there.
Beneath, first is a painted Sister Fredericka McGrath on the walls in the basement museum of St. Mary of the Mountains Church in Virginia City, NV.—the first Daughter of Charity.
Second, is the gravestone of the last Daughter of Charity, still in Nevada.
474 words Written by Georgia Hedrick
4 | Page
4 | Page