Until Adam Michna, who graduated from North Marion in 1980 after attending Monongah High for 3 years, posted the grave markers for the Sisters Auxiliaries of the Apostolate on Facebook, I never realized that so many of the nuns were Polish.

Duh!

The guiding force behind the beginning of the order in Canada was Father Frances Olszewski, a Polish immigrant, who passed away in 1955.

Sisters Auxiliaries of the Apostolate, eventually motherhoused in Monongah, was founded in Alberta, Canada in 1903 by Father Francis Olszewski.

When the motherhouse was destroyed by fire in 1910, the Sisters moved to Fargo, North Dakota in 1911.

In 1937 the order moved again, to New Cumberland, West Virginia.

Then the Motherhouse found its final resting place, at 142 Maple Avenue in Monongah (although you entered the driveway and playground from Church Street, which also went by St. Stanislaus and Our Lady of Pompeii churches) with missions in Scarbro and New Cumberland in West Virginia and Kilgore in Texas.

The order died out in 2006 but Sister Stephen didn’t pass away until 2012. 

When the order was chartered in West Virginia in 1937 as a type C non-profit, Sisters Mary Teresa Czapiewski and Cecilie Mary Klawitter were the official incorporators.

Monongah was chartered in 1891. The nuns came along 46 years later. The primary objective was to teach the children of the workers, such as the coal miners in Monongah and surrounding towns.

Adam Michna’s ad hoc honor roll of nuns included:

Mother Mary Ursula Langowski, 1900-1989, who could have played linebacker for the Pittsburgh Steelers the way she whacked me with that 2-hole paddle for more serious violations. That wood sure whistled as it approached my butt in a millisecond. The 1-hole paddle was for lesser offenses. Believe me, you felt the difference between the two paddles. Less wind resistance, more impact.

Sister Mary Clara Bednarski, 1891-1975.

Sister Mary Teresa Czapnewska.

Sister Mary Blaszkorasioa.

Mother Mary Arsenia Dziewenka, 1879-1966.

Sister Mary Cecilie Klawitter, 1890-1977.

My favorite teacher of them all, Mother Mary Agnes Lancki, who passed away in 1984. I’ll never forget her speeding on Church Street in her brother’s Jeep. Even the police who pulled her over were afraid to give her a ticket. Or the way she instilled a love for reading, grammar and writing in me that led to my 43-year newspaper career as a sportswriter, reporter and editor. Which led to, so far, a fantastic 21-year retirement with travels to 55 countries, 44 states, 20 years of Mountaineer Field football attendance and alternating between our Tallmadge, Ohio home (in kinder weather) and Paula’s home in The Villages, Florida (when Ohio is too damn cold and snowy).

Another from my stay at SP&P, Sister Mary Joseph Jankowski, 1907-1995.

Mother Mary Dolores Michna, 1912-1989.

Sister Mary Rose Michna, 1916-2006. I guess that makes Sister Dolores and Sister Rose double sisters, huh? They are Adam Michna’s relatives, of course.

Sister Mary Geraldine Wodzinski, 1907-2000.

Ah, there are always exceptions, which came later in the history of the order:

Sister Mary Francis Dunigan, an Irish lass who passed away in 1981. She was quite upset the day she found out I urinated on the steps leading to the restroom you approached from outside the building because the restroom was locked and my bladder couldn’t wait on a cold, cold day to go retrieve the key.

Sister Mary Anne Hatty, another nun you didn’t mess with, 1910-2004.

Sister Mary Stephen Reynolds, who made sure the old Sts. Peter and Paul School photos were distributed to now-adult alumni as the convent was being closed and razed, 1935-2012.

Sister Phyllis Marie Smith, who passed away in 1988.

Sister Mary James Watts, 1913-1994.

Sister Mary Madelene Colusso, 1914-2007.

Thanks, Adam for this great find of the nuns who are owed a great debt by the children of Monongah’s coal miners over the decades.

I, for one, will never be able to fully repay what I owe the Monongah nuns. This tribute is a small thank-you from the grateful son of a Polish coal miner and an Italian immigrant mother.

Those in photo are identified in this article

Saintly blast from the past

Since Mary Chris Fazio Ramsey, Class of 1969,
 is in this Sts. Peter and Paul School photo, this has to be the 1964 graduates.

That’s 14 years after P&P’s most famous pupil graduated.

You guessed it: Robert  “Satch” Kasper, who helped Ford Motor negotiate international contracts with the United Auto Workers Union before retiring to South Lyon and Grand Lake (Presque Isle) in Michigan.

Fooled you, huh?

OK, Bob is best friends with other famous grad, John Olesky, also Class of 1950, since they met in 1^st grade at Sts. P&P. Bob walked 2 miles to school every day; I skipped 4 doors down to get to my seat and await my paddlings from Sister Ursula and Sister Agnes.

 Mary Chris' mother, Frances Olesky Fazio, was a younger sister to my father, John W. Olesky, Sr., and Helen Olesky Kerekes, the world’s greatest cookies baker.

 

Mary Chris' father, Renzy Fazio, was the best golfer I ever played with, at White Day. Maybe it helped that I've never played with Arnold Palmer or Tiger Woods. But a 30 at White Day is outstanding, nevertheless.

Father Briggs survived Japanese internment in Japan during World War II and became a historian about the 1907 Monongah mines explosion that killed 362 (still America’s worst mine tragedy), led the push for the Monongah heroines’ tribute to miners’ wives and families that stands near the Town Hall and founded Saint Barbara’s medical facility just beyond Monongah’s southern boundary not far from where Bob and sister Evelyn Kasper Boggess and retired St. Petersburg Times advertising vice president Leo Kubiet of Largo, Florida grew up.

Thanks to Pamm Yanero Bragg, here are the identifications for the historic photo:

Front row...Cathy Mikulski Rogers, Donna DeCarlo, Jo Ann Bonasso, Rosemary Baransky, Sarah Bright Yanero, Pamela Yanero Bragg..2 girls behind....Mary Kay Matro, Mary Chris Fazio Ramsey..Boys...Joe DeFazio, Edward Salabor, Ron Manzo..Back...Steve Batiste, Joe Jacobin, Joe Martin, Jim Pulice....Sister Stephen...Father Briggs...

BACK ROW: Mother Arsenia,  Sister Victoria
FRONT ROW: Sister Cecelia, Sister Veronica

The nuns of Monongah

It began in Edmonton, Canada with Mother Arsenia and Sisters Cecilia, Veronica and Victoria.


From Edmonton, the sisters moved to North Dakota.
Later, with approval of the Bishop in Wheeling, these Sisters of the Auxiliaries of the Apostolate came to Scarboro and Monongah, West Virginia to educate the children of coal miners.

 

Sister Cecilia, by the way, was a whiz-bang sculptor who provided statues for St. Stanislaus and Our Lady of Pompeii churches in Monongah and other churches in the area. Most of her sculptures were much taller than her.

In 1924 St. Stanislaus Church priest Father Lawrence Michalski asked Mother Mary Ursula, Mother Mary Arsenia and Sister Mary Clara to begin St. Stanislaus School. It later was renamed Sts. Peter and Paul School.

Ava Curry Cogar, later married to Fred Cogar and living on Cottage Avenue, was the lay assistant.

In 1938, I began first grade at what became Sts. Peter and Paul. There was no kindergarten when I attended the Catholic school, but it was added later.

From East Monongah, Brookdale, Traction Park, West Monongah Thoburn and Tower Hill the children flocked to these angels in black and white habits.

Those who switched from public school to the nuns’ school found that they were up to two years behind what those of the same age had learned from the nuns.

They also wielded a mean one-hole (venial sins) and two-hole (mortal sins) paddles for those of us who crossed the behavior line. I speak from personal experience, mostly from whackings by Sister Ursula and Sister Agnes, the best grammar teacher I ever had who got me started toward a 43-year newspaper career.

The first time I complained to my mother about the paddling, my mom, Lena Futten Olesky, gave me another spanking. I got the message and never tattled again and tried not to piss off the nuns.

Former Monongah resident John Brzuzy, who later starred in football and basketball for Fairmont West, was a legend among the students. He took a wooden paddle from the nun whacking him and ran away.

Sister Agnes would read Nancy Drew Mystery books till she got us hooked, and then put it away on the shelf, forcing us to read it to find out what happened. I was the class’ designated reader, and reported to my classmates how Nancy solved another mystery.

Sister Agnes also whizzed by the Olesky house on Church Street in her brother’s Jeep. Saint Christopher was kept pretty busy keeping the leadfooted Sister Agnes from a major collision.

Sister Ursula, built like a Pittsburgh Steelers linebacker, was a tough cookie. No nonsense around her.

Sister Dolores was one of two Michna daughters who became nuns.

Monongah’s sisters were in a long line of nuns in current-day America, starting with 14 French Ursuline nuns who arrived in New Orleans in 1727 and opened Ursuline Academy, which today is the oldest continuously-operating school for girls in the United States.

Nuns worldwide went from 900 in 1840 to a peak of 200,000 in 1965, falling to 56,000 by 2010.

In Canada, the Sisters of Saint Anne were founded in 1850 in Vaudreuil, Quebec, Canada, by the Blessed Marie Anne Blondin. The Annes expanded into the United States in 1867 at the request of the Bishop of Buffalo, opening with a school in Oswego, New York.

The Daughters of Charity of St. Vincent de Paul were founded as the Sisters of Charity of St. Joseph in 1809 in Emmitsburg, Maryland by Mother Elizabeth Ann Seton.

The Sisters Auxiliaries of the Apostolate terminated in 2013. With only three nuns still alive and very old, the school and surrounding buildings at 689 Maple Terrace were demolished in 2011.

Their phone number, for trivia buffs, was (304) 534-3081.

These are women who educated the coal miners’ children for decades, for only the roof over their heads and food in the kitchen and a love of God and children.

The nuns and Father Everett Briggs in 1961 founded St. Barbara Nursing Home, taking care of the parents of the children they had educated.

Every Catholic child who grew up in Monongah owes the nuns a mountain-sized debt of gratitude and appreciation for teaching us extremely well, and trying to keep us on the straight and narrow.

Thanks, Sisters!

COMMENTS

Thanks, John.  I can't tell you how much I enjoyed your blog on the Monongah nuns.  Although I never had Mother Arsenia and Sister Cecilia as teachers, I remember them around the convent when I went to school there in the 50's.  I had never seen the picture of the four nuns and enjoyed the article on Sr. Cecilia and the background info on the nuns.  Sister Clara was my first grade teacher and perfect for first grade.  Thanks for the memories. 

-     - - Patty Sawyer Skeen '65

You didn’t have to tell Sister Agnes to “step on it”

Patty Sawyer Skeen, Class of 1965, has memories of the Sts. Peter and Paul School nuns and a great about Mother Agnes, aka Sister Leadfoot.

Let Patty tell it:

“John, I had Sister Joseph for fifth grade (1957-8) and remember her as being older and walking with a limp.  Very kind and I loved her as a teacher. Two other sisters were Sister Dominic and Sister Thomas.  Both were younger and there in Monongah around 1955-7.

 

“A memory of Mother Agnes--Had her for sixth, seventh and eighth grades.  There were just seven students in our eighth grade class, and she decided to take us on an eighth grade graduation trip to see the mound in Moundsville.  The seven of us, Mother Agnes and a younger nun set out in a station wagon over Route 7 early one morning in May.  (That was in the days before seat belts.)

 

“Mother Agnes's leadfoot took over and we were soon speeding along over the hills on Route 7 toward New Martinsville.  Beside a country church at the top of one of the hills sat a State Police trooper.  (What he was doing there at that time of the morning in that deserted area I have no idea.)  As Mother Agnes sped by, he pulled out with his lights on.  We pulled to the side of the road, and he approached the car. 

 

“Seeing two women in black habits and a car loaded with kids, he was stumped for a moment or two.  He had no idea how to address her.  Finally after stammering a bit he started with,  ‘Ma..Ma'am, you were exceeding the speed limit.’

 

Mother Agnes replied:
   

 

"Oh, Officer.  I didn't know I was speeding.  Did it seem like I was speeding to you, children?"

 

Patty again:

 

“What is a kid to say?  We replied in unison, ‘No, Sister.’

 

“He let her off with a warning, and we were soon on our merry way--within the speed limit (at least for a while).

 

“While at the mound, she met the warden's wife who got us into the prison for a brief tour.  I remember standing on a porch overlooking a courtyard where a large group of prisoners were standing or sitting  in the sunshine after  lunch.  Some of them probably had never seen a nun in their lives.  I can only imagine what ran through their minds seeing two women in black habits and several children standing above them with the warden and a couple of guards.”

 

And the legend of Mother Agnes, who would have been a strong competitor in the Indy 500 in her day, continues. She kept Saint Christopher working overtime when she drove.

 

Patty, who lives in New Martinsville, is a Fairmont State and WVU graduate with an education degree who taught for 37 years in Tyler County.

 

Her grandmother was Mary Domalik, who with Patty’s parents lived on the hill between Pete Shenasky and Claude Domico.

 

Patty also was kind enough to stop by my table at the 2015 Monongah High Alumni Reunion and tell me how much she enjoyed reading this MHS Alumni blog.

 

Patty’s sister, Linda Sawyer Duckworth, Class of 1966, lives in Meredianville, Alabama. Linda once was a pharmacist for Giant Eagle in New Martinsville. Linda’s husband, Steven Duckworth, Class of 1966, was in the Wetzel County school system.

 

Linda married into a lot of Monongah High Duckworths on her husband’s side. There’s Donald Duckworth, Class of 1975, son of the late Betty Zane Duckworth of Idamay.

 

 

Judy Duckworth Campbell, Class of 1972, is Betty’s daughter and Donald’s sister.

Betty Duckworth Sutphin, Class of 1964.

 

Elton Duckworth, Class of 1966.

 

Meredith Duckworth, Class of 1964.

 

Roger Duckworth, Class of 1965.

 

Sharon Menear Duckworth, Class of 1965.

Sts. Peter and Paul Hall of Fame

My thanks to Adam Michna for providing his mother’s handwritten notes about the birth and death dates of Monongah’s nuns at Sts. Peter and Paul School.

These are the women who educated the coal miners’ children for decades, for only the roof over their heads and food in the kitchen and a love of God and children.

They also wielded a mean one-hole (venial sins) and two-hole (mortal sins) paddles for those of us who crossed the behavior line. I speak from personal experience, mostly from whackings by Sister Ursula and Sister Agnes, the best grammar teacher I ever had who got me started toward a 43-year newspaper career.

The first time I complained to my mother about the paddling, my mom, Lena Futten Olesky, gave me another spanking. I got the message and never tattled again and tried not to piss off the nuns.

Among other names on this list:

Sister Francis, whose disapproving look I still see in my nightmares when she discovered that I urinated outside the bathroom door because I couldn’t get the door open. You had to go outdoors to get to the bathroom, so it wasn’t like I messed up flooring or anything. But her look was withering, and deserved. But, hey, when you’re a little guy and gotta go, and you don’t have a golf course tree handy, you make-do.

Sister Agnes, besides reading Nancy Drew Mystery books till they got good and then putting it away on the shelf, forcing someone to read it to find out what happened, also whizzed by the Olesky house on Church Street in her brother’s Jeep. Pretty fast. Saint Christopher was kept pretty busy keeping Sister Agnes from a major collision.

Sister Ursula, built like a Pittsburgh Steelers linebacker, was a tough cookie. No nonsense around her.

Sister Dolores was one of two Michna daughters who became nuns.

Sister Joseph is kind of vague in my memory box, like a lot of things nowadays.

Maybe you remember some of the others. If so, email John Olesky at jo4wvu@neo.rr.com and I’ll add them to this article.

Every Catholic child who grew up in Monongah owes the nuns a humongus debt of gratitude and appreciation for teaching us extremely well, and trying to keep us on the straight and narrow.

Thanks, Sisters!

Father Francis Olszewski (8 Dec 1869 - 24 Feb 1955), a Polish immigrant, formed the Sisters Auxiliaries of the Apostolate in St. Albert Canada in August 1903 under the leadership of Bishop Emile Legal from France. 

In 1917, Rev. Lawrence Michalski established a parochial school at St. Stanislaus with an enrollment of 55 children. In 1918, he left the area to become a chaplain with the Polish Army in France. He later returned to the area after the war.

The Sisters of the Auxiliaries of the Apostilate moved to New Cumberland, West Virginia in 1923, the year that the Jay Lee Jones Hotel in Monongah was purchased by the Diocese of Wheeling.

·        In 1924 St. Stanislaus Church priest Father Lawrence Michalski asked Mother Mary Ursula, Mother Mary Arsenia and Sister Mary Clara to begin St. Stanislaus School. Ava Currey, who later married Fred Cogar & lived on Cottage Avenue in Monongah, was their lay assistant. The school had grades kindergarten through eight.

Later, as the bishop tried to quell the Polish/Italian divide in Monongah, the name was changed to Sts. Peter and Paul School and the bishop sent an Irish priest, Father John McNulty, to serve both the Polish St. Stanislaus and the Italian Our Lady of Pompeii churches, instead of having a Polish priest for St. Stanislaus and an Italian priest for Our Lady of Pompeii, as had been done for decades.

The Polish/Italian split was so entrenched that women who married someone from the other camp switched attendance to their husbands’ church and ladies aide society the next Sunday.

Nineteen of the Sts. Peter and Paul nuns are buried in Monongah’s Mount Calvary Cemetery on Park Avenue. Father Olszewski is buried in Wheeling, home of the Diocese.

·        Most Rev. Emile Joseph Legal, OMI, D.D. Born in Saint-Jean de Boiseau, France in 1849. Served as Coadjutor Bishop of St. Albert, Canada from 1897 - 1902, then as Bishop of St. Albert from 1902 to 1912. He later served as Archbishop of Edmonton from Nov 30, 1912 until his death on March 10, 1920.

·         

·        It was under his term that the Sisters Auxiliaries of the Apostolate was established in Edmonton, Canada in 1902 by Father Olszewski, who was incardinated into the Diocese of Wheeling in 1921. Shortly thereafter, he welcomed the sisters to his parish in New Cumberland, West Virginia.

I’ve often credited Sister/Mother Mary Agnes, who drove her brother’s Jeep wildly on Church Street at times, with my successful career. She taught me grammar and a love for reading. And she wielded a wicked paddle, 1-holer for venial sins (in her opinion) and 2-holer for mortal sins. 

It worked for me.

Blast from the past

Saints Peter & Paul School students Tina Hall, Tina Henderson, Stephany Shelosky, Cheri Mikulski, Julie DeMary and Romy Hawkins.

I got an excellent education from the Sisters of the Auxiliaries of the Apostolates there. 

And calluses on my behind from Sister Ursala, who could have played linebacker for the Pittsburgh Steelers, and Sister Agnes, who flew by our Church Street home in her brother’s jeep but gave me a foundation in English and grammar that led to a 42-year newspaper career.

If you have memories of the nuns, who taught most of the coal miners’ children in Monongah, email John Olesky at jo4wvu@neo.rr.com and I’ll add them in this Monongah High Alumni blog.

Saints P&P preserve us; it’s flashback time!

Leatrice Yokay Greaser, Class of 1950, who lives in Fairmont, loaned me this 1998 Fairmont Times tribute to Sts. Peter and Paul School, which had just closed.

It brings back many warm memories.

In the grades 1-3 photo is Rosemary Raymond Pagliaro, Carmen’s wife, who lives in Fairmont. 

Her brother is the late Bob Raymond, also of Fairmont, and a former Monongah High football player who is in the grades 6-8 photo.

Bobby and I were great friends who lived across from each other on Church and Thomas streets before either one of us showed up at Sts. Peter and Paul. In fact, because I attended a year before Bobby, he ran away from home and slinked into my classroom during one of my first days in first grade. The nuns chuckled and returned Bobby to his mother, Mary Dudiak Raymond, who was married to Angelo Raymond.

When Consolidation Coal Company sold the houses they were renting to the miners because they knew they were going to shut down the mine in a few years, my parents, Lena Futten Olesky and John W. Olesky, bought the Church Street home that the Raymonds were renting because it had indoor plumbing and our Thomas Street house did not. The Raymonds moved to Frogtown, buying a house and running a tavern below their home.

In the same row in the photo are Carol and Rosemary Lushinsky Tetrick, who lived two doors away from the Olesky family on Church Street.

Then there’s David Carlot, who played football at Monongah High and operated a store where his parents, Julie and Gene Carlot, once had the world’s greatest hot dogs, or so I thought till I damn near choked to death on one (my fault; you can’t bite half a weiner in one gulp when you’re about 7 years old because the throat can’t let it slide down, but wedges it).

Dave’s sister, Joyce Carlot Lellilo, passed away and is in the 6-8 photo.

And Henry “Dinkle” Martin, who kicked the game-winning extra point that gave Monongah the 1955 state football title.

And Lorraine Koloskie, daughter of a Marion County deputy sheriff, Frank Koloskie, who tried his best to keep the facietously named Gang That Terrorized Marion County from doing permanent damage to itself. Frank showed up at our house with the shoes I left behind when the cops caught us swimming in the Fairmont Field Club swimming pool at 3 a.m. When I saw my Dad standing next to me in my upstairs bedroom when I woke up the next morning, I knew I hadn't gotten away with my exploits by walking home barefoot for three miles on blacktop road.

Lorraine and my sister, Jackie Olesky Straight, who lives in Rivesville, were best friends at Sts. Peter and Paul and Monongah High. Lorraine passed away tragically in the south at a young age and left behind too many daughters.

In the grades 6-8 photo there is Eugene “Hammer” Tartell, center on Monongah High’s football team, who lives in Dayton, Ohio.

And Ernie “Frog” Manzo, who lived in Stony Lonesome and caddied with me at Fairmont Field Club. He got the “Frog” appellation because he could make a noise like one. Sadly, Ernie has passed away.

And Billy Maskers, also known as Billy Cominski, brother of Melvin Kominski, both Monongah High athletes who lived on Camden Avenue. Their grandparents, who reared them, were close friends with my grandparents, Mary Peremba Olesky and Martin Olesky, of Mogilno, Poland, who lived on Walnut Street (later, across the street on Pike Avenue) with their daughter and son-in-law, Helen Olesky Kerekes and Steve Kerekes.

And Barbara Skarzinski, who lived with her sister Yanit so far out Camden Avenue that you were going down the hill and out of town after you passed their house on U.S. 19.

And Jackie Olesky Straight, my sister.

And Evelyn Kasper Boggess, who lives in the home she grew up in with her parents in the Frogtown section of Monongah off U.S. 19 after you drive south past the Union Hall and Pepsi Meffe’s service station. 

Her brother is Bob Kasper, who lives in South Lyon and Presque Isle, Michigan (summer home on Grand Lake), my best friend since first grade at Sts. Peter and Paul.

And the late Josephine Catania, who lived two doors away from the Olesky family on Thomas Street before she moved to Covina, California with her siblings Angelo, Alex and Mary Catania Heywood (sister Pauline Catania Allard lives in San Antonio, Texas with husband Omer Allard).

And Father John McNulty, the bishop’s solution to Monongah Italians demanding an Italian priest for Our Lady of Pompeii and Monongah Poles demanding a Polish priest for St. Stanislaus. 

The bishop sent an Irish priest to say Mass at both churches, at a time when my Aunt Frances Olesky Fazio, because she married Renzy Fazio, went from belonging to the St. Stanislaus Ladies Society and always going to church there one Sunday to, as Mrs. Renzy Fazio, belonging to the Our Lady of Pompeii Ladies Society and going only to Pompeii Church the next Sunday.

It was as if Polish and Italian Catholics belonged to different religions till the bishop had had enough and thought it was time to bring everyone under the same umbrella.

And, most of all, there is Sister Agnes, who gave me such a solid foundation in grammar that I made a 43-year newspaper career out of it. I've told the tale often, but Sister Agnes would read Nancy Drew Mysteries to us in grades 6-8 but, when it got to the good part, put the book on the shelf, forcing us to read it to find out how it turned out. I was the designated reader of my classmates.

Thanks, Leatrice, for bringing back a lot of good memories from way, way back. As valedictorian of the 1946 Sts. Peter and Paul class (I only had to beat out 8 people and was fortunate that Jeanie Nagel Viglianco, a widow living in Fairmont, got double-promoted out of my class because she was pretty terrific academic competition for me), I am grateful.

If you have memories of any one in the Sts. Peter and Paul photos, email John Olesky at jo4wvu@neo.rr.com and I’ll add them to this Monongah High Alumni blog. So many of them became part of the fabric of your life at Monongah High, even if you went to Thoburn or East Monongah or outside Monongah during your primary education.