On Day 2 of their long-ago journey from San Diego to Tucson, Sister Monica Corrigan and her six fellow travelers — all nuns wearing full, flowing habits and proper black shoes — were approached by a group of friendly ranch hands who … well, let her tell it.
“Some of them proposed marriage to us, saying we would do better by accepting the offer than by going on to Tucson, for we would all be massacred by the Indians.â€
St. Mary's Chaplain Julie Espinoza shows a painting that depicts the seven sisters on their way to Tucson. In it, they are marking their trail with a small cross. The painting can be found in the hospital chapel.
On Day 3, they were forced to negotiate the Jacumba Mountains on foot. “The sides of the road were covered with horses, oxen and cattle that had dropped dead trying to ascend,†Sister Corrigan reported. “When Mother beheld so many dead animals, she wept, fearing we might share the same fate.â€
Luckily for Tucson, they didn’t.
Tucson author and historian Leo Banks, with Sister Monica Corrigan's book in hand, poses in front of a new photo montage at Carondelet St. Mary's Hospital. It shows the seven sisters who arrived in Tucson on May 26, 1870 — 155 years ago on Monday.Â
Luckily for us, Sister Corrigan would chronicle their 19-day, 400-mile crossing with a prim but delightful little journal called “.â€Â
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Just 42 pages long, Sister Corrigan’s diary may have been the first book written from Tucson.
It is especially noteworthy this week because the final chapter was dated May 26, 1870, the day they arrived — 155 years ago on Monday.
History would record how much these seven Sisters of St. Joseph of Carondelet meant to Southern Arizona — in their first 10 years alone, they built five schools and opened St. Mary’s Hospital — but only Sister Corrigan would record the sisters’ journey to Tucson.
“When you read her diary, you can’t help but wonder why they kept going,†said Tucson author and Arizona historian Leo Banks. “Nineteen days in the desert in a small covered wagon? Having to walk when the grade was too much for the horses? Indians? Snakes? Heat? We all know how much they did after they arrived, but their biggest accomplishment may have been just getting here in the first place.â€
It was Father Jean Baptiste Salpointe, the apostolic vicar of the Arizona Territory, who asked the Sisters of St. Joseph to open a school in the small, dusty town that was Tucson.
Sister Corrigan chronicled the 400-mile crossing in 1870 from San Diego to Tucson in this journal.
The seven sisters who were selected for the assignment set out from San Diego on May 7, 1870, following an old stagecoach trail east along the Mexican border. Twice in the days that followed they ventured south into Mexico to avoid mountains and sand dunes.
By May 13, they were in Yuma, and nine days later — near Picacho Peak — they were met by a detail of soldiers from Fort Lowell to escort them the rest of the way.
St. Mary's Chaplain Julie Espinoza showing a bronze sculpture that depicts the sisters and the covered wagon they rode/followed on the journey.
“At about three miles from the town, we were met by a procession which was headed by four priests on horseback,†Sister Corrigan wrote. “As we came in sight, they dismounted and ran rather than walked to meet us. Before we reached the city, the number had increased to 3,000; some discharging firearms, others bearing lighted torches.â€
Interestingly, amidst the popping of fireworks and ringing of bells, she noticed that “the ladies and the children had stationed themselves on the housetops, being too modest to mix with the men.â€
This was Tucson on May 26, 1870.
“There’s a lot in that little diary,†said Banks, whose story about the sisters’ journey appeared in Arizona Highways two years ago. “Sister Monica wrote beautifully, and she had a lot of great details. You can see the desert and hear the coyotes. Once they’re in Tucson, you get a feel for what the town was like, too.â€
Eleven days after their arrival, the sisters opened St. Joseph’s Academy downtown, but Banks said the sisters brought more than the 3 R’s.
“They brought caring and kindness to a place that was sorely lacking in both of those things back then,†he said. “Tucson was a place greatly more suited to men than women. No matter who you were, you needed to be tough, and the sisters were definitely that. Just by surviving their trip here we know how tough they were.â€
The trek itself has become something of a pilgrimage for Southwest history buffs and descendants of the 700 Sisters of St. Joseph who would eventually serve in Tucson.
The 12-bed St. Mary's Hospital, Tucson, in 1880, the year of its dedication. It was established by the Seven Sisters of St. Joseph of Carondelet, who came to Tucson in an arduous trek from Missouri.
Among the recent pilgrims were students from Our Lady of Peace Academy in San Diego, an all-girls high school founded by the Sisters of St. Joseph in 1882.
“We don’t have any nuns on campus anymore, but they’re so much a part of our history we look for opportunities to learn more about them,†said Ryan Martin-Spencer, the school’s Coordinator of Missions. “Especially since there’s such a remarkable connection to San Diego, we thought that following the ‘Trek of the Seven’ would be a perfect way to learn about the sisters and see how much they meant to our part of the country.â€
The students’ four-day, three-night trek included a number of stops cited in in Sister Corrigan’s book.
“I think all of us remember the vast ruggedness of the desert on the way to Tucson,†Martin-Spencer said. “In the book, one of the sisters called it the ‘Abomination of Desolation,’ and it’s easy to see why. It is hard to believe the sisters made their way through that terrain, in full habits, a lot of it on foot.â€
The group’s final stop was at Carondelet St. Mary’s Hospital, which opened in 1880 — 10 days after the first trains began making stops in Tucson — and now is the oldest medical center in Arizona.
“The hospital does a beautiful job of paying homage to the mission and charisma of the sisters, and how selflessly they gave themselves to the people,†said Martin-Spencer. “The Sisters of St. Joseph were teachers, not nurses, but when they saw the need for a hospital they were there.â€
Earlier this month, St. Mary’s marked its 145th anniversary with ceremonies dedicating a large photo montage and a newly renovated chapel.
“I know I have big shoes to fill,†hospital chaplain Julie Espinoza said. “The sisters who started St. Mary’s were Western Florence Nightingales. They left an amazing legacy, and I think all of us try to live up to it every day.â€
Footnotes
— “Trek of the Seven Sisters” is a rare find in bookstores and libraries, but copies can be purchased from the Sisters of St. Joseph provincial office in Los Angeles. For details, message Juana Torres at jtorres@csjla.org or phone (562) 417-6751.
— The first 10 pages of Sister Corrigan’s diary recount the group’s journey from St. Louis to San Francisco — by train — and then San Francisco to San Diego by steamship.
— Five of those seven original sisters spent the rest of their lives in Tucson and are buried at Holy Hope Cemetery on North Oracle Road.
— Until the mid-1970s, dozens of CSJ sisters lived and worked in Tucson, but now there are none. The order’s only Arizona nun lives in Phoenix.
