Rt. Rev. Wm. Quarter 67 



In order then to supply this want — to procure a 

 community of female religious, who would instruct 

 and educate the female children, Bishop Quarter 

 applied to Bishop O'Connor of Pittsburg, from 

 whom he received a branch of the order of the 

 Sisters of Mercy, established in that city. On the 

 23d of September, five members of the order of 

 Mercy, accompanied by their superioress. Sister 

 Mary, Francis Ward and Very Rev. Walter Quarter, 

 who had been commissioned by the Bishop to 

 conduct them, reached Chicago. — They were Sisters 

 Mary Agatha O'Brien, the superioress of the New 

 Foundation, Mary Vincent McGirr, Mary Gertrude 

 McGuire, Mary Eliza Corbitt, and Mary Eva 

 Smidt. This small community entered at once 

 upon their mission of Mercy, dispensing the rich 

 stores of earthly acquirements they had gained in 

 the world, and of unearthly riches they had amassed 

 while clothed with the habiliments of their new 

 vocation. 



As an instance of the regard for the happiness of 

 all around him, and the total absence of all considera- 

 tions for self, it will not be out of place to here 

 observe, that on the day on which the Sisters 

 arrived, the Bishop conducted them around the 

 church, and the building that was to be their convent. 

 This was a low one-story house, neither very con- 

 venient nor of very captivating appearance, but it 

 was the best he had to offer them. It had been his 

 own residence, and poor as it was, it was a palace 

 compared with the one to which he himself removed. 



