Connection to Knottsville, Ky

Ursuline Sisters and Sisters of Charity stand in front of their convent at St. William School in 1962. Front row, left to right: Sister Isadore Brown, Sister Jamesina Spain, Sister Bernard Anita Flaugher, Sister of Charity Theresa Jane Cecil, Sister Emma Cecilia Busam, Sister Mary Evelyn Duvall and Sister Pierre Brady; Second row, from left: Sister Mary Oderic Settles, Sister James Marie Pfeffer, Sister of Charity Ann Marie Carrico, (an unidentified Sister of Charity), Sister Ann Vincentia Abell and Sister Mary Brigid Fulkerson; Top row, from left: Sister James Alma Bickett, By Dan Heckel, Mount Saint Joseph Staff Sister Christina Eckmans, Sister When Sister Margaret Ann Aull told her parents during her senior year Rosina Hinton, Sister Charles Borromeo Calhoun, Sister Charles Joseph Eberhard, Sister of high school that she wanted to Nazaria Mattingly and Sister Jane enter the Ursuline community, she Frances Donahue. received only support.

“I grew up in a family where the Catholic faith was very important. Going to church was a big part of our lives,” Sister Margaret Ann said. “When I told them that I was thinking of becoming a Sister, they told me they would be very proud to have a daughter who was a Mount Saint Joseph Ursuline.” Sister Margaret Ann (pictured at left) went to St. Lawrence Grade School and St. William High School in nearby Knottsville, two small, but highly Catholic areas on the east side of Daviess County, more than a half hour from Maple Mount. Her teachers at both schools were Ursulines – one of the reasons that 47 women from those two communities eventually became Ursuline Sisters. Today, Sister Margaret Ann is one of six remaining Ursulines from those east county towns, joined by Sisters Marie Joseph Coomes, Rose Karen Johnson, Mary Gerald Payne, Naomi Aull and Marie Montgomery, the community’s oldest member. “The pastor, Father Robert Whelan, talked a lot about religious life to us,” Sister Margaret Ann said. “From a young child, I knew I wanted to be a teacher. Back then, it was only the Sisters who taught in Catholic schools. I knew I wanted to be a Sister.” The Sisters who were most influential to her were Sister Agnes Jean Greenwell, who taught her in the 7th and 8th grades at St. Lawrence School, and Sister Paul Joseph Mattingly, who taught her at St. William High School. The two later ministered together at St. Pius X School in Owensboro. “They always seemed happy and

Ursuline Sisters still benefiting from KnottsvilleSt. Lawrence, Ky., connection prayerful,” Sister Margaret Ann said. “They were good teachers.” When Catholics who had migrated to central Kentucky from Baltimore decided to move farther west, the early ones settled in St. Lawrence, where the first church in Daviess County was built in 1831 by the legendary Father Elisha Durbin. The first St. Lawrence School opened in 1879, led by Franciscan Sisters. In 1889, the growth in the parish resulted in the congregation being split between St. Lawrence and the new St. William Church in Knottsville. That same year, lay public school teachers began at St. Lawrence. In 1912, Father Louis Hilary Spalding, the pastor of St. William, asked the Ursuline Sisters to lead

the new school he was opening, just as the Sisters were about to become an independent community. Sister Aquina Losson led the staff of four Ursulines at St. William. In 1920, the Ursulines took over St. Lawrence as well, and in 1937 the Sisters began a high school at St. William.

Sister Marie Joseph went to St. Lawrence Elementary and St. William High School. She recalls the impact Sister Mary Evelyn Duvall had on her in the third and fourth grades.

“My mother was sick a lot, Sister Mary Evelyn knew that,” Sister Marie Joseph said. “I credit her with teaching me to read. She would get out and play with the students.”

Sister Mary Gerald joined the community the same year as Sister Margaret Ann and recalled how crowded St. William was all the way through high school. Her influential teachers were Sister Leo Johnson, Sister Merici Mattingly and Sister Mary David Thomas.

“They taught us well. Sister Leo always rang the bell for us to come in from playing,” Sister Mary Gerald said. She is the 10th Payne from the Knottsville-St. Lawrence area to become an Ursuline Sister.

All of the east county Sisters said the Ursuline spirit remains in the area, mostly because Ursuline Sister Mary Celine Weidenbenner continues to serve in Knottsville. She teaches social studies and religion to the upper grades at Mary Carrico Memorial School. The school replaced the old St. William Elementary in the 1960s and was named for the mother of a generous benefactor.

“I intend for the Ursuline influence to be present. I think the people still seem to appreciate it,” Sister Mary Celine said. She has taught at the small school since 2007 and said the people sacrifice to keep the school going because it’s important for their children to have a Catholic education.

Ursuline Sisters, Sisters of Charity, students and parishioners file out of St. William School in Knottsville during the 50th anniversary celebration of the school on May 20, 1962. Sister Leo Johnson and Father Joseph Egan with the 36 first-grade students at St. William Catholic School around 1940. Sister Leo was from St. Lawrence.

Ursuline Sister Mary Celine Weidenbenner is pictured teaching at Mary Carrico Memorial School in Knottsville in 2016.

“It’s an area of very deep faith and deep support of the Church,” she said. “Everybody is taking care of everybody else.”n