Beyond Health Care

Sheltering the poor and nursing the ill were paramount to the Grey Nuns, as witnessed by the dynamic expansion of their health care facilities. However, like the Catholic hierarchy, they realized that the survival of a non-English speaking immigrant community was as dependent upon their comprehension of the English language as their health. French Canadians were no exception. A bilingual school had to be established in Lewiston. As discussed, the Grey Nuns willingly accepted the alteration to their nursing ministry to include educational endeavors. This was necessary if they were to aggressively alter the plight of the poor, French Canadian wage-laborers, and children. Lewiston’s political elite openly recognized their failure to provide primary education for the children of their city’s working poor. As early as 1871, Lewiston’s mayor addressed this failure in a desperate call for a solution in the City’s Eighth Annual Report. In his address this official claimed that: “There were no less than 1741 scholars in this city whose names have not been registered in any grade of our schools, and a very considerable proportion of whom undoubtedly are destitute of even the simplest rudiments of education. Of the whole number of scholars in the city, 4316, the average attendance was only 1497.” ¹