Sister Ursuline Von Bank

VON BANK

Posted By: Connie Swearingen (email)
Date: 10/15/2010 at 23:34:33

History of Woodbury County, Iowa 1984

Sister Ursuline Von Bank
By Gloria Ellwanger

Sister Mary Ursuline, born Catherine Von Bank, was a member of the Order of St Francis of the Holy Family of Dubuque, Iowa. Forty-two of her sixty-six years in religious life were spent at St Anthony’s Orphanage in Sioux City, Iowa.

Catherine Von Bank was born 8 September 1876 near Livermore, Iowa, in Kossuth County. She was the second of eleven children born to John and Veronica (Heiderscheidt) Von Bank of St Joseph, Iowa. Both of her parents were of Luxemburg heritage, her father being born at Baschleiden, Luxemburg on 18 October 1845, and her mother being born 16 June 1855 at Luxemburg, Iowa. Her parents married 14 September 1873 near St Joseph, Iowa. This tiny unincorporated village lies on Hwy 169 in Kossuth County, and has had a parish since 1876. Catherine was the first recorded baptism by a permanent resident pastor at St Joseph. According to her very short autobiography, Sister Ursuline said she attended rural school, except for two years at the Catholic School in St Joseph.

Catherine came from a large family of brothers and sisters, all of whom are now deceased. They were: Mike, Margaret ‘Mrs George Yaackley’, Joseph, Mary ‘Mrs John Origer’, John, Elizabeth ‘Mrs Joseph Schaller’, Rosa ‘Mrs Joseph Stattelman’, Nick, Peter, and Annie who died as a baby.

Being the oldest girl in a family of ten brothers and sisters, she undoubtedly learned early to take responsibility for housework, garden, and child care. For a relatively brief period of her life (thirteen years) she would not be directly involved with children. But after that time children would fill her life, until old age. She would touch the lives of hundreds of children in her forty-two yeas of work at St Anthony’s Orphanage.

Catherine was born in a devout Catholic family. One month before her seventeenth birthday, on August 9, 1893, she entered the Franciscan convent at Dubuque, Iowa. On August 1, 1896, after three years of preparation, she professed her vows to be a religious sister. She took her final vows on July 14, 1905. Her years of service to others were as follows: 1894 as a novice at Lyons, Iowa; 1894-1896 at the motherhouse in Dubuque; 1896-1905 at Ashton, Iowa; 1905-1906 at Pocahontas, Iowa; 1906-1908 at St Mary’s in Dubuque; 1908-1910 at St Mary’s Orphanage in Dubuque; 1910-1952 at St Anthony’s Home in Sioux City; 1952-1953 at Temple Hill, Iowa; and 1953 until her death in 1959 in retirement at Mount St Francis in Dubuque.

Sister Ursuline was to spend more of her life in Sioux City than any other place. She spent forty-two years at St Anthony’s Home, located in the northwest part of Sioux City. She, along with four other Sisters, started St Anthony’s Orphan Home in 1910 with sixty children, some of whom were transferred from St Mary’s Orphan Home in Dubuque, since these children were from the Sioux City Diocese. The other four were Sisters Edith Schroeder, Stanislaus Butler, Longina Richtsmeier, and Florentine Friedmann.

Sister’s years of sister involved what she knew best: hard work and children. While at St Anthony’s one of her main responsibilities was the huge garden needed to feed the children. She also milked cows, and fed the pigs and chickens. She also helped care for the children when they were sick or had illnesses. In a letter to her sister Elizabeth Schaller, written about 1913-1916, Sister Ursuline wrote a full page on her procedure for helping a child through scarlet fever. An especially poignant remembrance is recalled by one of her fellow sisters. Whenever any of the children got a scratch or a bruise, they would run to ‘Grandma Sister’, as they called her, knowing she had the special touch and words to make them feel better.

Another letter written by Sister in January of 1919 has been preserved. In it she praises the generosity of the people of Sioux City to the children of the orphanage, and shares news of the flu which is hitting the city.

‘Hope you all had as happy a Christmas as we. The people were so good in giving towards the children. We had a lovely Christmas tree for them, presents on for all. The Cadets were up from the City the Sunday preceding Christmas and played Santa Claus bringing them each a stocking of eatables and balls and bats for general use. . . We have all been fortunate enough to avoid the flu in our institution although there is a great deal of it in the City. We allow no visitors inside nor haven’t for the past few months.’

Sister Ursuline visited her family every five years after 1909. After her parents’ deaths, she would stay with her sister, Elizabeth Schaller, who had a small house crowded with her own family of eleven children. Obviously she felt at home here. She was eagerly welcomed by her nieces and nephews because she brought small religious articles. She was well-known for the rosaries she made and gave away.

Sister’s desire in life was to serve God by serving His people. She did this in a most humble and unpretentious manner that reflected her simple life from childhood to old age. She left a large, loving family to become part of the larger family of fellow religious described her as kind, warm, generous, always smiling, hard-working and very prayerful. She was truly a servant of God and a good example of Christian simplicity to her fellow religious, the children of St Anthony’s, and her family.

Sister Mary Ursuline died at the Motherhouse, Mount St Francis, in Dubuque on 15 May 1959 at the age of 82 years. She is buried with other Franciscan Sisters in Mount Calvary cemetery in Dubuque, Iowa.