Yuba County
Biographies
COLLEGE OF NOTRE DAME
The Convent of Notre Dame, Marysville, was founded by Father Maganotti, Passionist missionary, in 1856. The first building erected that year under his auspices was a solid brick structure of three stories, 51 by 35 feet, which stands at the southeast corner of Eighth and C Streets, containing two good-sized school rooms, parlor, temporary chapel and community apartments. The Sisters of Notre Dame entered into possession of their new establishment on October 26 of the same year, and on the 10th of the following November opened a day school. Three sisters and a young lady assistant constituted the teaching staff for the first year, but for the ensuing session the number of the community was increased to six.
In 1857 an addition was made to the original structure, providing dormitories, refectory and kitchen for the boarding school, which was opened during September of that year. In 1858 a day school for girls was opened, and subsequently a school for boys under the age of twelve years. The increasing number of pupils demanded an enlargement of the premises, and the frequency of fires from the small wooden tenements then in the immediate vicinity of the convent rendered their removal extremely desirable. The neighboring lots were therefore successively purchased, some of them at very high rates, until in 1869 the entire block, bounded by B, C, Seventh and Eighth Streets, 380 by 360 feet, was acquired, the city authorities having given permission to close that portion of Virgin Alley running northward through the block, which was subsequently ratified by act of the State legislature. In 1861 the building fronting on C Street was added, affording class rooms, dormitory, and a spacious and comfortable attic. The building was scarcely finished when it became a shelter for several families flooded out of their own domiciles in the great overflow of 1861-1862. The next projection, forming a south wing, 117 by 35 feet, was added in 1866, comprising a permanent chapel, refectory, and study and recitation hall. In 1869 an addition was made to the latter building, with a tower 118 feet high, surmounted by a gilded cross. In 1874 was erected a substantial and commodious brick building, 30 by 80 feet, at the southern end of the grounds, to provide class rooms for day scholars, both boys and girls, the unpretentious frame structures previously used for that purpose having long since ceased to fulfil their mission in the march of progress. The institution, under the title College of Notre Dame, was chartered by the State legislature in 1869, and the first superior was Sister Mary Bernard, who passed away in 1886. Sister Berchmans Joseph then became superior. She was a native daughter of California, born in Amador County. She was afterwards Provincial of the California Province, from 1921 until she passed away, in December, 1922.
The College of Notre Dame at Marysville is one of the finest educational institutions of the kind in the Sacramento Valley. It provides academic, high-school, and commercial instruction, the first comprising primary, intermediate and grammar classes; the second, the full four-year high-school course; and the last, complete business and commercial courses. There is also provided a splendid musical course leading to a certificate of graduation. While the Catholic religion is professed by the ladies of the institution, pupils professing different creeds are welcome, providing they comply with the regulations of the school. Particular attention is paid to sanitation and to the health of the pupils, and a good system of sewerage prevails throughout the buildings and grounds. A wholesome and bountiful table is provided, and this, in connection with plenty of outdoor exercise, athletics and physical-culture exercises, and the supervision of a practicing physician, ensures an evenly gratifying state of health. Besides the tennis and basket-ball courts, the playground apparatus consists of slide, bars, climbing tree, and flying swing. It is the aim of the sisters, who are devoted the world over to the work of education, to provide the solid and substantial acquirements without which mental attainments count for little or nothing. Attention is paid to science, art, and plan and fancy sewing; and opportunities are provided for advancement along the lines of music, both instrumental and vocal; china painting and general painting; bookkeeping, shorthand and typewriting; and French, German, Spanish and Latin. The regulations are similar to those observed in other institutions of the kind in America and Europe, and are comprehensive in caring for every side of the feminine nature, and in developing those social, useful and intellectual traits supposed to accompany the true gentlewoman on her pilgrimage through the world.
History of Yuba and Sutter Counties, Historic Record Company, Los Angeles, 1924
p 891