Angela Sansbury:
Founder of Dominican Sisters
in the United States

Our Founders

In 1822 nine young women, answering the call of the provincial Samuel Thomas Wilson, OP, became the first American Dominican Sisters. Angela Sansbury was the first to make her religious profession, and was elected to lead the community as prioress.The founding members began their common life in a crowded log cabin near Cartwright Creek, Kentucky.

Nine years later, in 1830, Mother Angela sent four members of her congregation to Ohio at the request of Bishop Fenwick to begin St. Mary's. On February 5, 1830, Sisters Benvin Sansbury, Catherine Mudd, Agnes Harbin, and Emily Elder arrived in Somerset, Ohio. They set the foundation for our Congregation and we celebrate their faith and courage.

Benvin Sansbury, O.P.

Sister Benvin was born in St. George County, Maryland. She was professed on August 3, 1823, entering St. Magdalen's several months after her sister, Mother Angela Sansbury, founder of that community. In 1831, she was elected superior of the new foundation in Somerset and retained this office until 1834, when she was succeeded by Mother Angela.

Except on the occasions on which she was assigned to the charge of the Orphan Asylum in Memphis, and later in Nashville, Sister Benvin seems never to have left St. Mary's community. She was one of the Sisters who came to Columbus with the community in 1868. Here she died in 1873, the only one of the original four who is buried in our cemetery.

The above photograph of Sister Benvin is part of the Ohio Memory Project, an online scrapbook of Ohio history. Her "brown paper annals," in which she recorded notes on the early history of St. Mary's, are also included in this project. Sister Benvin was selected as one of Ohio’s outstanding women of the 19th century by the Ohio Bicentennial Commission.

Catherine Mudd, O.P.

An old profession book of St. Catharine's has this account: "On January 4, 1829 Miss Julia Mudd, daughter of Richard Mudd and Mary Berry, in the seventeenth year of her age, made application to the Sisters of St. Magdalen Convent. She took for her religious name Sister Catherine and commenced her noviceship on Sunday evening at 4 o'clock on January 4, 1829. Sister Catherine was professed on January 1, 1830. She was 19 years old when she came to St. Mary's. She died at St. Catharine's on June 20, 1861."

Agnes Harbin, O.P.

Sister Agnes, daughter of Allen Harbin and Althea Carrico, was born in Prince George County, Maryland. She applied for admission into Saint Magdalen's when she was 33 years old. Our record tells us that she was made sub-prioress at St. Mary's in 1849. She died at St. Catharine's on February 12, 1872.

Emily Elder, O.P.

Sister Emily was the daughter of a planter family who enjoyed the best the frontier offered. At the age of 29 she made the strenuous three-week trip to Somerset. Sister Emily, elected superior of the tiny community, faced the direst, bleakest poverty she had ever seen. At once she was seized with an overpowering fear of the future.

Mother Angela Sansbury relieved Sister Emily of her position as prioress, and Emily returned to Kentucky. Encouraged by her brother, she joined the Sisters of Charity in Nazareth, Kentucky. As a music teacher there, she lived a quiet life until her death in 1886.