LEIPSIC—The three Sisters of Notre Dame who arrived Sept. 2, 1909, at Leipsic St. Mary probably never dreamed the presence of their congregation would continue at St. Mary for the next century.

The parish community celebrated the 100th anniversary of the sisters’ arrival with a Mass and dinner May 31.

Several Sisters of Notre Dame participated in the Mass. The celebration that followed at the Leipsic Fogle Center included a “100 Year Memory Walk.”

The first Sisters of Notre Dame to serve at St. Mary were Sister Mary Magna, Sister Mary Solana and Sister Mary Secunda. When they arrived, a carriage was waiting at the station to take them to their new home. “Reverend Father (pastor) Weber, two councilmen and a number of ladies of the parish were at the door to welcome us,” the sister reported in the SND annals from 1909.

“There are two stoves for cooking, a coal and gasoline stove, also a nice sink with rain and drinking water. We have electric light all over the house ... Soon after the opening of our schools, we found that we could not handle all the children in two classrooms, so the pastor applied for another sister. Sr. Mary Eveline arrived at the end of September,” the annals continue.

“I attended St. Mary’s School in the ’60s and I remember that Sr. Mary Edward always knew what was happening anywhere in the classroom,” said Lou Ann Nonne, parish secretary and bookkeeper at St. Mary for the past 15 years.

“I also remember what an inspiration Sr. Mary Jamesetta Krafty and Sr. Mary Vivette Baker were to me as they left St. Mary’s to be missionaries in Papua New Guinea,” she added.