Mt. St. Scholastica is practically as old as Atchison itself, the first sisters having come here in 1863. Few who gaze upon the massive and commodious array of buildings, surrounded as they now are by well-kept lawns, spacious meadow and woodland, stop to think of its humble beginning and the many trials which beset the early foundation. But the first sisters were in time to feel the effects of the Civil war and the hardships attendant upon the same. At the request of Rev. Augustine Wirth, O. S. B., then prior of St. Benedict’s College, and the first pastor of the church in Atchison, Rev. Mother Evangelista and six companions were sent from the Benedictine convent in St. Cloud, Minn., to establish a school in Atchison. Two more sisters were sent the following April. As these latter were on their way, they were detained at Hannibal for two days. The funeral cortege of President Lincoln having reached that city at the same time as the sisters, one of their sad privileges was that of attending the obsequies of the martyred President before continuing their journey Kansasward. The little convent, situated at the corner of Second and Division streets, near St. Benedict’s church, was the cradle of the present institution. Second street at that time was not a street at all, but rather a passageway cut through the hazel brush, then so abundant in Atchison. The academy organized its classes December 1, 1863. It was incorporated in 1873. Its roster bears the names of many of Atchison’s best families of both town and county. In the summer of 1877 the Price villa was purchased. A new building was added in 1889. The third building was commenced in 1900. The buildings are surrounded by thirty-eight acres of woodland and meadow. Besides the academy in Atchison, the sisters supply teachers for a large number of missions or parochial schools in Kansas, Nebraska, Missouri, and Iowa, also one large school in Walsenburg, Colo. The institution in Atchison is the center or mother house of all these branch houses, and in vacation all the sisters from the missions assemble here for the annual retreat, and for the summer normal. [Illustration: Mt. St. Scholastica’s Academy, Atchison, Kan. ] The venerable Mother Evangelista, the first mother and foundress, was succeeded in office by Sister Theresa, who governed the community as Reverend mother for the next twelve years. Since that time Mother Aloysia has ably carried on the work of her predecessors.