News

Notre Dame Academy - The Pearl of Dakota

By Scott Wagar

06/26/2012

In 1906, two nuns from the Sisters of Mary of Presentation in Broons, France, boarded a ship in France and sailed to America. Once state side, the two nuns would travel from New York City to the small, rural village of Willow City with the goal of educating the young people in the local area.

The two nuns, Sister Gustave and Sister Cecile’s, journeyed to Willow City to prepare a boarding school being constructed by the Catholic faith to educate the minds of the children in and around Willow City.

The school was called Norte Dame Academy and it was originated in 1905 by Father Campeau, who was the town’s local priest in 1905.

“For one year now, Father Campeau, pastor of Our Lady of Victor Parish in Willow City, has been casting an envious eye on the two French schools that had been started in Wild Rice and Oakwood,” stated the book Notre Dame of the Sacred Heart, Willow City, North Dakota, 1906-1968. “He has made necessary inquiries and been granted Sisters for the fall. The school property had been donated by the parish and $3,500 was raised by it and the surrounding parishes.”

As Sister Gustave and Sister Cecile traveled across the Atlantic in 1906, construction workers in Willow City were busy building the four-story boarding school which was constructed of brick.
In September, the two nuns stepped off the train of the Great Northern Railroad and on to the platform of Willow City’s train depot. Like all great adventures, trouble found its way to the two nuns almost immediately. First, they discovered the school and convent was not completed, and they would have to live in the rectory for an additional 15 days until the school was finished.

Second, Sister Gustave fell ill due to the strenuous trip across the Atlantic Ocean and halfway across the continent of the United States. She was treated by the local physician, Dr. Laberge, but her illness was so severe she was bedridden for almost a month.

On Oct. 10, Mother Hilarion, Sister Marie Agnes and Sister Cecelia of the Cross came to assist with Notre Dame Academy. After a short stay at the rectory and the home of Marie Lizotte, the sisters moved to their Convent with the exception of Sister Gustave who was still too ill at that time to be moved.

A week after moving in and the academy being completed, the nuns had a visit by the head of the Fargo Diocese, Bishop Shanley, who conducted confirmation with a group of children at the local Catholic Church Sunday, toured the boarding school on Monday and gave the Blessing of the Convent on Tuesday. During his tour of the school, the Bishop called Notre Academy, “The Pearl of Dakota”.

The following morning, the Sisters of the Presentation opened the doors of the boarding school to begin the registration process, which didn’t turn out so well.

The origin of Notre Dame started with over cast skies, both in the academy and outside. On registration day, it rained so hard in the area it made travel very difficult. By the end of the day, only 10 students had registered for school.

However, by January of 1907, the school had 51 students register, which was made up of town kids and other students who boarded in the academy because it was too far for them to travel back and forth to school each day.

Students came to Notre Dame Academy from around Bottineau County, other counties in the state, and a few other students from states in the nation.   

The school’s beginnings were also saturated with troubles in heating the school, finding a good water supply and sickness. “Bless the Lord was often prayed,” stated the Notre Dame of the Sacred Heart, Willow City, North Dakota, 1906-1968 about Notre Academy’s first year, which actually had a small pox epidemic which sent the entire school into quarantine for a short time and the inoculation of every student and staff member in the school.

Soon after the school started, it was discovered that five nuns were not enough to operate Notre Dame. The five nuns were responsible for not only the education of the students, but cooking for them, caring for them when they were sick, and maintaining the buildings. They were responsible for the entire school and its administration. To fix the issue, the Sisters of the Presentation sent an additional four nuns to assist in the operations of the school.

One of these nuns was Sister St. Jude, who turned out to be a true blessing for the school. She came to Willow City from Portland, Ore., and spoke fluent English, unlike the majority of the other Sisters who primarily only spoke the French language, and assisted the school by answering the telephone, welcoming visitors, and providing translation for the English speaking businessmen who came to Notre Dame to visit with the French speaking staff of the school.

The school was still struggling financially in its early days. To resolve the problem, Bishop Shanley sent the nuns out in to the communities of the surrounding counties in attempts to acquire money door to door. On their first trip to Velva, a couple of incident occurred which the Sisters would never forget on a very hot North Dakota day.

“The heat was oppressive and we entered anywhere to take shelter from the heat. Politely, the lady of the house gave us seats and then answered our questions. All she could say of the Catholics was that she didn’t know any. In her parlor hung a large picture of Luther (Martin Luther, a Lutheran and founder of the Protestant Church),” stated one of the nuns in her personal writings which is published Notre Dame of the Sacred Heart, Willow City, North Dakota, 1906-1968.

However, on that warm summer day, the Protestant lady did something remarkable for the nuns, something that was never heard of during this time period of religious discrimination between the Lutherans and Catholics. The woman searched every inch of her home and scraped up every penny she had, a total of thirty-three cents, which she kindly gave to the nuns.

After leaving the protestant’s house, the nuns made their way back to the train depot in Velva to go back home because the temperature was too warm to go from door to door asking for donations. The train was delayed till that evening, so the depot agent asked the ladies to come home with him for dinner, because his wife was Catholic, she had heard the nuns were in town, and she wanted to meet them.

As the couple ate with the nuns, they heard the Sisters story about the Protestant lady who gave them thirty-three cents. The agent’s wife told the nuns that they should have supper in the evening with the train workers, who she felt would be giving of their money to the Sisters. The suggestion turned out to be a good idea because the rough and tough rail workers, who were more known for holding a bottle in one hand and sledge hammer in the other as they worked on heavy steel rails across the nation, showed great dignity to the Sisters.

“After the meal, one of the men took off his cap and circulated it around to the men who emptied their contents,” stated Notre Dame of the Sacred Heart, Willow City, North Dakota, 1906-1968. “The total was $50 and it would help to begin paying the debt they had incurred on the building.”

Although Bishop Shanley’s plan was a brilliant idea, trouble followed again when crops in Bottineau County and the surrounding areas struggled with drought. With the poor crops came a saying at the academy by the nuns. “As the crops go, so does the enrollment,” the nuns would say because when crops declined so did the number of students, and when crop production was good, student enrollment went up at Notre Dame.

At the pinnacle of Notre Dame’s enrollment, there were just over 250 students. The school lowest enrollment numbers came during the Great Depression.

“In 1930, only 37 pupils registered and by Christmas only 33 remained. Of these, six paid only half of their board. Fifteen borders were found at the school the following year. These were all girls. It was the lowest enrollment yet. For several years these numbers remained, and only with much sacrifice and labor did the sisters continue in the education of their students,” Notre Dame of the Sacred Heart, Willow City, North Dakota, 1906-1968. “Land had been purchased a few years previous and a miniature farm had been started. A large garden was seeded and was watered each summer. This provided much of the winter vegetables. Cattle and chickens gave milk, eggs, butter and meat. Meat and other foods were often brought by boarders in payment for board.”
Although enrollment was a continued struggle at Notre Dame, the school saw good enough numbers to build an infirmary, and addition to the academy and a new school gymnasium which was constructed in 1951 for sport of basketball, the only sport every offered at Notre Dame. (The gym today is the Red Wing Hall.)

By 1968, due to declining enrollment at Notre Dame, the city’s population declining and the number of women who did not want to become nuns, the Catholic boarding school failed to open that fall.

In 1971, the building was auctioned off and by 1979 had six different owners in that eight year time span. In 1979, the academy was razed.
For 62 years, Notre Dame Academy stood on the prairie of North Dakota providing students with a great education, which the students in turn took with them into the working world and provided productivity within society. That tradition today still continues with those graduates who were students of the school that was the Pearl of Dakota.