Update on St. Vincent Academy Old Records

Thanks to Edward Wilson,  Director of Archives for the Diocese of Owensboro, word comes that the Archives has several attendance books as well as the registration books for St. Vincent Academy of Union County, Kentucky.  Several people have inquired on this blog about records of St. Vincent.  The website for the Diocese Archives is Here

Published 20 Dec 2019, Western Kentucky Genealogy Blog,  http://wkygenealogy.blogspot.com/

St. Vincent Academy 1820 - 1967

The records of Sacred Heart parish at St. Vincent, Union County  show that the Rev. Stephen Baden was the first priest to visit the Catholic population in southwestern Kentucky.  The first sermon was preached at the courthouse in Morganfield and the church was permanently established in 1819. In 1820 the Sisters of Charity established a school that became St. Vincent Academy.[1]

Many students who lived at a distance as well as many who lived in the surrounding area attended St. Vincent Academy. In 1891 the school celebrated the 71st annual commencement. Special trains were run to bring the large crowd to the exercises at St. Vincent.

Instead of the usual essays and programs, the operetta, "Author With the Poets" was the main event of entertainment. Taking part in the operetta were the following students: Mary B. Pike, Julia and Mary Wheatly, Ruth Shoemaker, Alma Mott, Lucy Mattingly, Mary and Christine Clements, Lena Wathen, Alice Kelley, Etta Davis, Katherine Elam, Florence Walker, Ida Willett, Hettie Dyer, Ruby Byrd, Mary Leonard, Anna Cambron, Lue Wilson and Addie Hayden.[2]

Diplomas that year were granted to Mary Pike, of Uniontown; Alma Mott, of Princeton; Ruth Shoemaker, of Morganfield; Julia Wheatley and Lucy Mattingly, of Waverly.[3]

A newspaper advertisement from 1913 shows that the school had "modern equipment, music, drawing and painting; shorthand and typewriting taught to the best improved methods."[4]

In 1920, St. Vincent Academy celebrated its centennial for three days in June.  Several women were to attend and celebrate their 50th anniversary of their graduation, including   Mrs. M.R. Waller and Mrs. J.G. Taylor. Another graduate who was to attend was Mrs. B.M. Mart, of Morganfield.[5]

St. Vincent Academy operated a boarding school until about 1964.   By March 1967, the faculty of St. Vincent's was planning the final days of the school.  There were no longer enough teachers to continue operating the high school and it was decided to close the school, leaving St. Vincent Academy parish  (grade)  school open. At that time, there were 265 students (63 students in the senior class) at St. Vincent High School and 85 parish school students. [6] 

On the 5th of December 1867, the buildings and land were auctioned off, bringing a total of $170,000. The administration building and other structures on a 10-acre plat were purchased for $17,500 by three men from Henderson, Kentucky. The land was sold to others, probably for farming.[7]

Paducah Sun-Democrat

30 July 1913, p. 7

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[1] "Few Pastors at Union Parish," Owensboro Messenger-Inquirer, Mon., 7 Mar 1938, p. 6.

[2] "St. Vincent's Academy, The Seventy-First Commencement Celebrated with Appropriate Exercises," Louisville Courier-Journal, Thurs., 18 Jun 1891, p. 2.

[3] Ibid.

[4] "St. Vincent's Academy, Union County, Ky," Paducah Sun-Democrat, Wed., 30 Jul 1913, p. 7.

[5] "Observe Centennial of St. Vincent Academy, Owensboro Messenger, Sun., 23 May 1920, p . 1.

[6] "High School of Academy Founded in 1820 Is In Its Last Days," Paducah Sun, Fri., 3 Mar 1967, p. 21.

[7] "St. Vincent Academy Sold For $170,000 At Auction," Evansville Courier, 6 Dec 1967, p. 12.

Published 17 Jan 2019, Western Kentucky Genealogy Blog, http://wkygenealogy.blogspot.com/

St. Vincent's Academy and Sacred Heart Cemetery

St. Vincent's Academy 

Union County, Kentucky

Sacred Heart Cemetery
Union County, Kentucky

Sisters of Charity of Nazareth
Sacred Heart Cemetery

Union County, Kentucky

Published  4 May 2015, Western Kentucky Genealogy Blog, http://wkygenealogy.blogspot.com/

St. Vincent's Academy

St. Vincent's Academy was founded in 1820 and was in operation until 1967. Many young ladies of western Kentucky and elsewhere attended this fine boarding school.

The above advertisement appeared in the Henderson Daily Journal, Monday, 3 August 1914.

Published 2 May 2013, Western Kentucky Genealogy Blog,  http://wkygenealogy.blogspot.com/

Historic St. Vincent's Academy

The following information has been abstracted from an article, "St. Vincent Academy is Historic Kentucky School," published in the Evansville (Indiana) Press, Sunday, 9 February 1936.

Five miles north of Morganfield in Union County, hidden from the highway by towering trees and shrubs, stands the oldest secondary educational institution in western Kentucky. It is St. Vincent Academy, founded in 1820 by the Sisters of Charity of Nazareth.

Prior to 1881, Sisters of the Academy sponsored a small school for boys across the road from the academy. In 1881, the boys' school was closed because of small attendance. It was reopened in 1914 and is September 1923, for the first time in the history of St. Vincent's, 22 boys were enrolled in the academy proper. Francis Murphy was the first graduate of this group.

In 1820, Sisters Angela Spinks, Frances Gardiner and Cecily O'Brien were sent by their superiors to organize a school in Union County on a farm set aside for use of the Sacred Heart Church. They made the journey of some 150 miles on horseback through what was then a wilderness. Their equipment consisted only of what they could tied in three aprons and carry in their arms.

Hardships of that journey were many and the three pioneers met discouragement when they arrived at the log cabin farm house only to find it occupied by a family that refused to move. The three educators spent their first night on what was later to become the academy farm in a poultry house.

Once established in the primitive log cabin, it fell to the lot of Cecily O'Brien and Frances Gardiner to teach the "large" class of five students. The following year the sisters were joined by three more instructors. A log cabin lean-to was added to the cabin. The school started to grow.

By 1842, there were 35 students. To keep pace with the growing enrollment, cabin after cabin was built. In 1852 or 1853, the academy's land totaled some 400 acres, including the property on which the old Sacred Heart Church stood. Construction was started in that year on a new brick academy building. For years the old Sacred Heart Church was used as a recreational hall. A second floor was added to the building and it was to this portion of the school that students were "sentenced" for misdemeanors. Punishment usually consisted of mending clothes or memorizing columns of words from a dictionary.

Perhaps one the best word pictures of the school in the 1850s was left by the wife of General John A. Logan of Civil War fame, in her book, "Reminiscences of a Soldier's Wife." She tells how students were coached in manners, or how to enter a parlor and meet guests without being awkward; of sewing all her own clothes, and of the Sister Superior's journeys to Louisville by boat to buy material for graduation costumes and of graduation exercises under the trees on the lawn.

The school was now housed completely in brick buildings. It had its own light plant, its own power plant, orchard, truck garden, dairy and bakery. The enrollment in 1936 was around 135 pupils.

St. Vincent's Academy was in operation until 1967.