Title: Sisterhood of the Holy Nativity Records
Inclusive Dates: 1882-1976

Creator:

• Sisterhood of the Holy Nativity (Fond du Lac, Wis.)

Call Number: Micro 753; Oshkosh Micro 14; Green Bay Micro 23

Quantity: 11 reels of microfilm (35 mm)

Repository:

Housed at the Wisconsin Historical Society, Division of Library, Archives, and Museum Collections, the Archives & Area Research Center, Polk Library, University of Wisconsin Oshkosh, and the University of Wisconsin-Green Bay Archives and Area Research Center; owned by the Wisconsin Historical Society, Division of Library, Archives, and Museum Collections.

Archival Locations:

Wisconsin Historical Society (Map)

UW-Oshkosh Polk Library / Oshkosh Area Research Ctr. (Map)

UW-Green Bay Cofrin Library / Green Bay Area Research Ctr. (Map)

COLLECTION MAY BE STORED OFF-SITE: see catalog entry to request materials and for additional information.

Abstract:

Records of the Sisterhood of the Holy Nativity (SHN), an Episcopal women's order based in Boston, Massachusetts; Providence, Rhode Island; and after 1905 in Fond du Lac, Wisconsin, working primarily with parish education, including Sunday school and parochial school, as well as with emergency and routine relief work. The records include general correspondence from the first forty years of the order's existence, pertaining to the founding of the order, relations with other church bodies, activities of scattered missions, and rules and regulations. The bulk of the collection is made up of diaries with entries pertaining to the members' activities such as attending mass, travel, routine chores, acceptance of new postulants, matters of concern to friends and acquaintances of the sisters, and retreats. A portion of the diaries contains similar information pertaining to activities at the Mission House on the Oneida Indian Reservation in Brown and Outagamie counties, Wisconsin, 1926-1935, 1943-1944.

Note:

This collection is available only on microfilm. The originals are located at the Convent of the Sisterhood of the Holy Nativity, Fond du Lac, Wisconsin.

A copy of this microfilm is at the Oshkosh Area Research Center.

Copies of Reels 1-4 only are at the Green Bay Area Research Center.

Language: English

URL to cite for this finding aid: http://digital.library.wisc.edu/1711.dl/wiarchives.uw-whs-micr0753

 ↑ Bookmark this ↑

 ↑ Bookmark this ↑

The Sisterhood of the Holy Nativity is a religious order of the Episcopal Church, founded in 1882 by the Reverend Charles C. Grafton. The order was established in Boston, Massachusetts, where Grafton was rector of the Church of the Advent and chaplain of the Society of St. Margaret. Grafton, ordained in the United States in 1858, went to England in about 1866 where he founded the Society of St. John the Evangelist, commonly known as the Cowley Fathers. He had a long-standing interest in developing women's missionary societies. While in England, Grafton became spiritual leader of several large women's societies, including the Society of St. Margaret, which he brought to the United States in 1873 in order to promote the development of such organizations in this country.

In 1882 Grafton severed his connections with the Cowley Fathers over questions of the English bishops' jurisdiction over the Cowley Fathers and the direction of mission work in the United States. When Grafton left the Cowley Fathers, members of the Society of St. Margaret requested him to resign from his post as their chaplain. Three dissenting sisters and six novices left the Society and joined Grafton to establish the Sisterhood of the Holy Nativity. Sister Ruth Margaret Vose was elected first mother superior.

In 1888 Grafton resigned as rector of the Church of the Advent and the mother house of the Sisterhood of the Holy Nativity was moved to Providence, Rhode Island. The order was incorporated in Rhode Island in 1890. Grafton was elected Bishop of Fond du Lac in November 1888 and consecrated bishop on April 25, 1889. Shortly after Grafton's elevation to bishop, a Mission House of Visitation was established in Fond du Lac and a few sisters began mission work there. After temporary residence at 67 East Division Street in Fond du Lac, a permanent home for the sisters at 101 East Division Street was acquired in 1985. A large brick building, to be used as a convent, was added to the residence in 1905 and the mother house was moved from Providence to Fond du Lac. Although ten sisters and the mother superior moved to Fond du Lac, some members of the order remained in Providence to continue mission work there. The order was incorporated in Wisconsin on May 29, 1921.

The Sisterhood of the Holy Nativity is not a cloistered order and the Rule allows mission work only under the direction of the clergy. Therefore, the order does not organize or administer its own mission institutions. Its primary work is of a parochial nature and includes teaching Sunday School, preparing theology candidates for the sacraments, and teaching in parochial schools. The records also indicate that the sisters were involved in relief work such as emergency aid following natural disasters and distributing food and clothing to indigents.

All sisters in a given location are members of the Chapter, the legislative body of the order. Chapters may have a Council of at least four members, which assists the mother superior as an advisory body. The order has been incorporated in states where incorporation is necessary to transfer personal and real property. In such cases, all sisters are members of the corporation and the mother superior serves as its president. The order has chapters or does mission work on the eastern seaboard, as well as in Las Vegas, Nevada; Portland, Oregon; several cities in California; and several other locations in the Midwest. Mission work in Wisconsin has been centered at the cathedrals in Fond du Lac, North Fond du Lac and Milwaukee, and at Grafton Hall, an Episcopal girls' school in Fond du Lac. From 1890 until the 1940s, two or three sisters lived at the Oneida Mission on the Oneida Indian Reservation in Outagamie and Brown counties. For a time, work on the reservation was discontinued because the sisters were needed elsewhere, but some mission activity resumed there in 1967. Activities at the convent in Fond du Lac include training novices, making altar breads, artistic devotional cards and embroidered altar cloths for distribution throughout the United States and abroad, and a rigorous schedule of study, devotion, and recreation.

This is a distinctive collection, which documents an unusual aspect of women's lives. It is very rare for a religious order to permit its internal records to be read or copied for outside research. The collection includes CORRESPONDENCE, CORPORATE RECORDS, YEARBOOKS, DIARIES, and a few OTHER RECORDS. Most of the records pertain to activities of the order in Fond du Lac and Providence, but occasional reports of mission work in other locations are included.

Most of the General Correspondence originated during the first forty years of the order's existence and covers such topics as founding the order, relations with other bodies of the church, activities of scattered missions, details of the rules, and religious communications from the bishops and mothers superior. The correspondence contains many handwritten copies and has many gaps. The Special Correspondence consists of handwritten and typescript copies of a series of letters between the Sisterhood and the Society of St. Margaret concerning reconciliation for the sisters who left the Society in 1882, congratulatory letters to Bishop Grafton upon publication of his Catholic Atlas in 1908, and several printed communications including two letters to the Society of St. John the Evangelist from Bishop Grafton concerning his relations with that order.

In the CORPORATE RECORDS, the Acts of the Corporation contain minutes of annual meetings where business consisted of electing officers, purchasing and transferring property, and a few financial matters. The Acts of the Chapter and Acts of the Council discuss similar topics including the election of officers, admission of new novices, promotions within the order, changes of the rules, and some financial matters. An interesting discussion of the question of allowing Negro women to join the Sisterhood appears in the July 17, 1948, entry in the Acts of the Chapter.

The YEARBOOKS provide annual income and expenditure statement as well as annual reports of the activities of many chapters and mission houses on the east and west coasts as well as in Wisconsin.

Some of the DIARIES were kept by the sisters living at the Oneida Indian Mission. They contain daily reports of activities such as attending mass, relief work, routine tasks, visitors, and meetings. The diary excerpts consist of typescript copies of entries describing some of the major changes in the order, formal events and some special activities. Additional diaries copied by the archives later in 1978 consist of thirty-two bound volumes from the order's mother house in Boston, 1882-1887, Providence, 1887-1905, and Fond du Lac, 1905-1971; and of the Mission House of Visitation in Fond du Lac, 1890-1905. The diaries from the mother house contain daily entries which report on the routine activities of the sisters, the celebration of masses and the minister in charge, visitors, travels by the sisters, the acceptance of postulants, matters of concern to friends and acquaintances of the order, and retreats. In addition, the diaries from the mission house report on trips to the Oneida reservation. The diaries are complete, except for the period from April 1889 to November 1890 when no journal was kept at the mission house. The records indicate that a journal covering this period was pieced together from journals and notes kept by the sisters, but it is not included in the collection. When the order moved to Fond du Lac on June 7, 1905, the diary of the mission house was merged with that of the mother house.

The OTHER RECORDS include one volume of annual reports from the Sisterhood in Providence detailing their activities; memorabilia, such as printed programs from building dedications, funerals, and other formal events; a few newspaper clippings; and miscellaneous historical materials outlining major developments in the order.

For related materials in the holdings of the State Historical Society of Wisconsin see the Episcopal Diocese of Fond du Lac Papers; Christ Episcopal Church, Green Bay, Records; and Aloza P. Curtis, History of the Diocese of Fond du Lac, Fond du Lac: P.B. Haber, 1925.

Acquisition Information

Loaned for microfilming by the Sisterhood of the Holy Nativity, Fond du Lac, Wisconsin, via Mother Boniface, 1978. Accession Number: M78-344, M78-546

Processing Information

Processed by Margaret Hedstrom, 1978 and 1979.

Micro 753/Oshkosh Micro 14/Green Bay Micro 23	Series: Correspondence
Reel   1 Frame   000	General Correspondence, 1881-1976, undated (primarily 1881-1925)
	Special Correspondence
Reel   1 Frame   262	Correspondence concerning reconciliation with the Society of St. Margaret, 1888, 1927, undated
Reel   1 Frame   383	Correspondence concerning Bishop Grafton's Catholic Atlas, 1908
Reel   1 Frame   454	Printed communications, 1883, 1886, 1870, 1891, 1922, undated
	Series: Corporate Records	⇧
Reel   1 Frame   495	Constitutions and Rules, 1889, 1890, 1977
Reel   2 Frame   000	Notes concerning changes of the Rule, 1908, 1935, undated
Reel   2 Frame   029	Miscellaneous rules, 1890, 1932, undated
Reel   2 Frame   176	Acts of the Corporation, 1890-1919
Reel   2 Frame   214	Acts of the Council, 1908-1957
Reel   2 Frame   320	Acts of the Chapter, 1882-1951
Reel   2 Frame   471	Series: Yearbooks, 1894-1939	⇧
	Series: Diaries	⇧
Reel   3 Frame   488	Oneida Diaries, 1926-1935, 1943-1944
Reel   4 Frame   424	Excerpts, 1882-1909
Micro 753/Oshkosh Micro 14	Mother House, Boston, Massachusetts Diaries
Reel   5	1882 November 6-1883 December 31
Reel   5	1884 January 1-1887 June 22
	Mother House, Providence, Rhode Island
Reel   5	1887 June 23-1889 October 31
Reel   5	1889 November 1-1892 August 29
Reel   5	1892 August 30-1895 October 12
Reel   6	1895 October 13-1897 December 31
Reel   6	1898 January 1-1900 October 31
Reel   6	1900 November 1-1902 December 31
Reel   6	1903 January 1-1904 December 31
	Mother House, Fond du Lac, Wisconsin
Reel   7	1905 January 1-1906 August 31
Reel   7	1906 September 1-1908 December 31
Reel   7	1909 January 1-1910 May 31
Reel   7	1910 June 1-1911December 31
Reel   7	1912 January 1-1913 June 30
Reel   7	1913 July 1-1915 June 18
Reel   8	1915 June 19-1917 April 30
Reel   8	1917 May 1-1919 July 31
Reel   8	1919 August 1-1921 July 21
Reel   8	1921 July 22-1922 December 31
Reel   8	1923 January 1-1924 October 31
Reel   9	1924 November 1-1929 December 31
Reel   9	1930 January 1-1935 March 9
Reel   9	1935 March 10-1941 July 9
Reel   10	1941 July 10-1946 December 31
Reel   10	1947 January 1-1957 July 20
Reel   10	1957 July 21-1971 October 6
	Mission House, Fond du Lac, Wisconsin
Reel   11	1890 November 25-1892 July 31
Reel   11	1892 August 1-1895 July 26
Reel   11	1895 July 27-1897 March 31
Reel   11	1897 April 1-1899 October 31
Reel   11	1899 November 1-1902 December 31
Reel   11	1903 January 1-1905 June 7
Micro 753/Oshkosh Micro 14/Green Bay Micro 23	Series: Other Records	⇧
Reel   4 Frame   439	Annual Reports, SHN, Providence, Rhode Island, 1908-1934
Reel   4 Frame   538	Memorabilia, 1893-1954
Reel   4 Frame   619	Clippings, 1888, 1891, 1910, 1937, 1942, 1947, undated
Reel   4 Frame   636	Miscellaneous records, 1888, 1908, 1911, undated