S.F.X.A History Lesson

In this picture, the Cobb House still has its third story, which was later removed.  The 1860 neighborhood was prominent - the Crumps next door (where auditorium is), the Balfours and the Willises (Newitt Vick's niece, Martha Patience Vick Willis) across the street.  If you notice, there are no front steps to the Cobb House. That is because the neighbors did not want to see the poor children the nuns were teaching, so the steps were removed and tall hedges planted across the front. The children entered from the back.  The Cobb House was built in the early 1830's, the Gothic Convent was built in 1868, and the Italianate auditorium was build in 1885.  As most of you know, the last scenes of "Oh Brother Where Art Thou" with George Clooney were filmed in the auditorium.

Mississippi

In 1860, the Sisters founded the
very first school in Vicksburg,
St. Francis Xavier Academy.

In late 1860, six Sisters of Mercy, led by Sister Mary DeSales Browne, traveled half-way across the country from Baltimore to a tiny river city called Vicksburg, located near the border of Mississippi and Louisiana. Father F. X. Leray had called on them to educate the children of the city, who had no access to education – not even a public school. The Sisters opened the town’s first school less than a week after arriving.

Nearly two years later, the school was shuttered as Sisters and families fled into the hills to avoid the cannon fire of the Civil War. After about a month, the Sisters returned to find their former school filled with sick and injured soldiers. They immediately began providing nursing care. During the heaviest battles, the injured were removed to areas of safety and the Sisters accompanied them to continue their care.

In 1864, Mother Mary DeSales Browne returned to Vicksburg and reopened the school with 200 students and only four Sisters.

In 1878, when a particularly harsh epidemic of yellow fever broke out in Vicksburg, Mother Mary DeSales Browne took over City Hospital, where the Sisters nursed as many as 300 patients a day.

In 1943, the Sisters assumed operations of a hospital, which they renamed Mercy Hospital. During their 48 years of service, it was designated a Regional Pediatric Polio Center and treated victims of numerous natural disasters. The Sisters served there until 1991, when Mercy sold the hospital to Quorum Health Care.

Today Mercy ministers in Mississippi through the Mississippi Health Advocacy Program (MHAP) in Jackson, Mississippi. MHAP was started in 1992, at the urging of Sister Cyrena Harkins, RSM, to be a collaborative effort aimed at improving health policies, practices and funding in Mississippi, especially for the poor and needy.