Cedar Grove Academy - Yearbook (Cincinnati, OH)

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on Seton Avenue. Before this Professors from Mount St. Mary Seminary had attended to the spiritual needs of Cedar Grove. The Community now owned the spacious grounds from Glenway to St. Lawrence Avenue and from Gilsey to the Plymouth Church. where stood originally the gates of Cedar Grove. Among its household now are two venerated memhers who entered the novitiate here in the early '60's and have enalaled the present writers to visualize the Cedar Grove of those far-off days. A That section of Price Hill now Beech and St. Lawrence. was then a picturesque pond. girdled hy masses of wild roses. This the Sisters widened into St. Mary's Lake. enclosing Regina lslandu. and placed near hy shrines in Willow Glen and The Muses' Retreatu. Between Seton Cottage and this enchanting spot was the deer park. the gentle occupants of which were petted alike hy Sisters and girls. The eighty odd hoarding pupils spent many a pleasant evening strolling to Nst. Josephls Well.. whose crystal water huhhled up beneath the somber. towering cedars where Iliff and Glenway now meet. Still more attractive was the broad lane. now Academy Avenue. that led beneath the outspread branches of thick growing ever-greens. to the tiny. beautiful graveyard. at the corner of Academy and St. Lawrence. In October of 1858. Bishop Bayley. of Newark. NJ.. sent five young women to Cedar Grove to he trained in the religious life lay Mother Margaret. Their novitiate over. they returned to New Jersey. the nucleus of the Mother Seton Sisters of Charity in that state. After the election in July. 1859. Mother Margaret having been transferred to the charge of the Orphanage at Cumminsville. Sister Regina Mattingly was appointed directress at Cedar Grove Academy. On the first day of June. 1861. Cedar Grove sent forth the first hand of her angels of the lzaattle-fieldu. They were Sisters Anthony. Sophia. Bernadine. Alphonsa. Lawrence and Magdalen. As the pitiahle need increased others followed. until over twenty had left their posts in school. orphanage and hospital for na military career . as one of their numher facetiously expressed it. Owing to the reduction in its faculty no closing exercises were held at the Grove. The year the war closed. came another call to Cedar Grove for help on a mission at that time no less difficult and hazardous. Bishop Lamy. of Santa Fe. asked for Sisters to open a hospital. asylum and school in his episcopal city. In compliance with this request. four Sisters left Cedar Grove in August. 1865. and reached their destination without serious mishap. Not without hardship. however. as from Omaha on. a distance of a thousand miles and more. the journey was made hy stage. But the two Sisters who followed in 1867 encountered hoth Indians and cholera on the way. News of their capture lay the Red Man reached the Grove and loving hearts were wrung with anguish at the thought of their Sisters' fate. The sun shone again when word was received that the travelers had reached Santa Fe. wayworn hut otherwise unharmed. on August 15th. They had left Cedar Grove on May 10th. some years later. tithe Western Sistersn sent a unique gift to the Grove. lt was heralded as na Rocky Mountain canary . and great was the disgust of the Grove's handy man. Mr. Moore. on finding it to he na common. ordinary donkey... Page Thirty-one

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At the baclc of the house were the out-buildings: on the left stood a rather picturesque building called the wood-house. and upon the gable end of which was perched the little bird-house where the blue-birds came regularly every spring. Farther baclc was the farm-yard. and on a fine slope to the south. was the vineyard. The orchard lay side by side with the vineyard ............ NA gentle ascent from the vineyard was occupied by pasture land called the Far Meadows. which were bounded by a wood belonging to another proprietor ............ It was an unbroken portion ofthe primeval forest. and had been left uncleared purposely for a supply of fire-wood. and from this cause its beautiful timber was fast vanishing away ........... -. Its surface was brolcen into little dingles which. in spring-time were filled with flowers. There the children found. the blood-root. Solomonis seal of various kinds. phlox. or sweet- williams. the lovely lilac. and white collinsea. anemones: violets. white. blue. and yellow: the beautiful scarlet catch-fly. noli-me-tangere. and many other lovely flowers. There grew hiclioryl. maple. beech and walnut trees: the splendid American linden. the red-bud. or Judas tree. by the budding of which. in old time. the Indian regulated the sowing of his corn. The wild clematis. sweet-briar. and the American hawthorn. were amongst its abundant undergrowth: and here also were thiclcets of blaclcberries. In the autumn. hickory nuts. beech nuts. white walnuts. or butter-nuts. attracted our cousins to its pre- cincts. where. nestling among fallen leaves. they collected woodland treasures. or came home laden with perfect sheaves of golden-rod and various kinds of Michaelmas daisy. The northern boundary was lilcewise a wood. a beautiful upland covered with trees. In March. 1857. Mother Margaret. first Superior of the Sisters of Charity of Cincinnati. bought this beautiful estate and on October 25th. Archbishop Purcell laid the corner stone ofthe new Mother House and Academy. to be lcnown as Mount St. Vincent. Cedar Grove. the latter having been the name of the Maryland home of Sister Sophia Gillmeyer. one of the first companions of Mother Margaret. His Grace celebrated the first High Mass in the present chapel on November 14th. At this time was erected only the main four story brick. The central portion. containing the auditorium and the Grade class rooms. was built in the early 70's owing to the need of a larger chapel and 'additional music rooms. The chapel was restored to its original location on the first floor of the main building in 1906. The two storied porch., of the original Cedars was replaced by a frame addition. con- siderably increasing the capacity of the Alderson Mansion . which was used as a Commun- ity House. The broad piazzau still stands. and in the early days it was for the Sisters. as it had been for the Alderson family. a favorite rendezvous during their brief periods of recreation. Many ofthe historic cedars have disappeared. but some remain and new ones are soon to be planted to justify the Academy's right to its beautiful name. The navenue of locust treesu is now a vista of over-arching maples. A part of the Npicturesque wood house . fstill standing too., the Sisters converted into a balcery. Just beyond this to the west. at the edge of the vineyard. the laundry was built in 1866. The second-story porch which appears on only one side of the structure now. originally ran around the four sides. and. with its wide sloping roof. must have given the building the appearance of a pagoda. The men's house.. had been built before this. In 1866. an adjoining farm of ten acres. lying to the east of the Academy grounds. was bought from a Mr. Hotchkiss and his house was fitted up as a home for the first resident chaplain. the Reverend H. Richter. D.D. The house. somewhat enlarged. still stands Page Thirly

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In 1862. Mother Margaret. shortly after the celebration of her Golden Jubilee fcharm- ingly described by Sister Mary Agnes in 'lMother Seton's Daughtersub. had returned to the Grove. an invalid. She was' not idle. however: her brilliant. cultivated mind was undimmed and Sister Antoinette tells with what youthful enthusiasm she taught the novices French. What is now the breakfast room was assigned to her use and many and varied were the visitors who wore its threshold. Thither would the Sisters come. as evening fell. to receive on their lcnees. the blessing of their venerated Mother. She lingered until November 11. 1868. Her death tool: place on Thursday evening. On Saturday morning. priests and students from the Seminary assembled in the Cedar Grove chapel to chant the Office for the Dead. Dr. Richter offered the Requiem Mass. and the Reverend Richard Gilmour. a friend of many years. delivered the sermon. The mourning nuns themselves. carried the body on a bier to the graveyard. Following the Sisters were the girls in black dresses and white veils. when the Sisters came to Cedar Grove. the community numbered about fifty. It had now grown to almost two hundred. and the novitiate was yearly increasing. Moreover. the number of pupils seelcing admission into the Academy could not be accommodated. The need of more commodious quarters was imperative. There was tall: of building at the Grove. but meanwhile the city was expanding and the fifty-six acres surrounding the Academy was coveted. Regretfully the Sisters parted with some of their cherished property and bought a tract of land in Delhi. There the new Mother House. Mount St. Joseph. was begun and thither the novitiate was removed September 29. 1869. . The proximity of Cedar Grove to Mount St. Mary Seminary had enabled the Sisters to study under the direction of its Professors. particularly Bishop Richter and Bishop Byrne. and when the novitiate was removed to Mount St. Joseph. the latter. defying inconvenience and real hardship. continued his lectures at this place. During the next three decades. the increasing population of the hill had created a demand for a day school which could not be ignored. and in 1906. the resident pupils were transferred to the newly-opened Academy of Mount St. Joseph-on-the-Ohio. and Cedar Grove became a day Academy exclusively. It is also the Community House for the Sisters teaching in the neighboring Parochial Schools. 1n the heart of Price Hill. A. still stands. the pride of her children. a possession dear to the Daughters of Mother Seton. Twenty-three Graduates will leave its historic roof this June and in the heart of every one is a twinge of regret and a yearning to return. In all sincerity the Class of '24 can say to its Alma Mater: Nsemper honos nomenque tuum laudesque manebunt. - .. quae me cumque vocant terrae .................... ROSEMARY OLBERDING. '24. CATHERINE FOKEN. '24, Page Thirly-Iwo