Holding on to History: Coeur d’Alene, Idaho, 1903

On July 3, 1903, two IHM Sisters, stepped out of a surrey in Coeur d’Alene, Idaho, which had brought them 30 miles from Spokane, Washington. Previously Sister M. Clement Kearns and Sister Zita McGlynn had come from Tillamook, Oregon, where the IHMs had opened a school in 1897. Rev. Thomas J. Purcell, a pioneer priest at Coeur d’Alene had invited the Sisters to come in hopes that they would also open a school in Coeur d’Alene. The visit by the “Blue Sisters,” as they were known in Tillamook, resulted in a promise from the Mother Superior, Mother M. Cyril Conway in Scranton, that four nuns would be sent to Coeur d’Alene to open the school, even though it meant closing their six-year-old school in Tillamook. Sister Clement, superior at Tillamook, arrived in early September 1903 along with Sisters M. Dositheus Cawley, M. Justine Duffy, and M. Maria Laughlin. Sister Maria was soon called east because of her mother’s illness. Sisters M. Dolorita Maloney and M. Norbert Bergen arrived later in the fall of 1903.

Coeur d’Alene’s first Catholic school, named St. Cyril’s, opened its doors on September 16, 1903, with 64 students. When the property of Fort Sherman was offered for sale at an auction, James W. Graham represented the Sisters and bought the military hospital. The three-story building was moved from the fort grounds to a nearby location where it served as school, convent, residence hall and music department. In 1905, the opera house of Fort Sherman was also moved to the same site and the Academy of the Immaculate Heart of Mary was added as a secondary school. The name St. Cyril’s Elementary School was changed to St. Thomas School, the same name as the parish, and became part of the IHM complex.

In 1965, the IHM General Council agreed to open St. Pius X Elementary School, also in Coeur d’Alene. Due to financial concerns involving the schools, a decision was made by the IHM General Council in 1970 to withdraw the Sisters from these western missions. Hungering for Catholic education for their children, a group of parishioners and priests along with Father George Rassley, CSsR, brother of our Sister Mary Rassley, opened Holy Family Elementary School in Coeur d’Alene in 1996 and it continues to flourish today.