Go west, Daughters!

A story about a truly heroic journey, that of the seven Daughters of Charity who traveled from Emmitsburg to San Francisco in the summer of 1852 to begin the Community’s ministry in California.

The Daughters of Charity Provincial Archive  features a guest post by Sister Margaret Ann Gainey, archivist for the Daughters of Charity Province of the West in Los Altos Hills, CA.

From New York, the Sisters took a steamer to Panama where they then had to cross the Isthmus of Panama. The Panama Canal was decades in the future; the Sisters crossed the Isthmus by a combination of rail, boat, and mule. Two Sisters died of cholera while on the Isthmus.

Learn more on their blog, at

http://dcarchives.wordpress.com/2013/11/13/journey-to-california/