Mother Joseph of the Sacred Heart, born Esther Pariseau in 1823 in Quebec, entered the convent of the newly founded Sisters of Charity in Montreal at age twenty. In 1856, she led a group of members from her congregation to the Pacific Northwest to establish schools and healthcare to the settlers flocking to that new and remote part of the country. During the 46 years from the time she arrived in Vancouver, Washington, until she passed away in 1901 she had been instrumental in establishing 29 health care institutions, schools and orphanages in the Pacific Northwest. Though most of the original structures no longer exist, most of the institutions which she founded are still in existence, continuing the work that she envisioned more than a century ago. 

Her influence and her presence was noted in 16 places in Washington, four places in Montana, two places in Oregon, one place in Idaho and two buildings in British Columbia. She was known as a stickler for detail. For example, during the construction of Scared Heart Hospital in Spokane, Mother Joseph, then 63 years old, lived with another sister “in a rough shack next to the construction site so she could oversee the work,” even climbing ladders to inspect rafters and bouncing on planks to test their support. 

She was known for successfully raising $2000 to $5000 when she went fund-raising to the mining camps whereas in the ordinary small town she could collect perhaps $18 to $20. She surely was a mover and a shaker. 

Did you know there is a statue of Mother Joseph in the Washington, D.C. capitol?

Have you ever been to Danville? There are 24 places in America with the name of Danville, but our Danville is in Ferry County, Washington, just a few miles south of the border with Canada. 

Originally named Nelson from merchants Peter and his uncle Ole Nelson. An early reference to this settlement is dated 1896. The town was renamed in 1899 to prevent confusion with Nelson, British Columbia just across the border.  By 1897 the town boasted a jewelry and watch repair section of a general store, a post office, a newspaper (lasted only a year) and a sawmill. By 1913, the mill which produced 50,000 feet of lumber daily, was one of the three larger producers in the area.The 1920s brought increasing prosperity to Danville when it became a rendezvous for whiskey smugglers, who employed local guides familiar with the old trails to avoid detection by border authorities as they smuggled booze from Canada down into the “dry” U.S. 

The top image is of the U.S.-Canada border crossing station. The lower photo is the Nelson’s general store in the 1890s. 

 From the website MyNorthwest:  Danville is in the part of Washington that was once the Colville Indian Reservation. However, when valuable minerals were discovered there, the land was taken away from Indigenous people by the federal government and opened to settlement and mineral claims by white homesteaders and miners. This little-remembered episode surely ranks as one of the great injustices in the state’s history.