Madame Baptiste writes to Bishop Patrick Lynch about the difficulties encountered on the last leg of her journey to Tuscaloosa via stage coach and the condition of the building secured for their new convent and academy there. 8p.
Madame Baptiste writes to Bishop Patrick Lynch about finances and the start of the school year at the Ursuline Convent and Academy in Valle Crucis and of her upcoming trip to Tuscaloosa, Alabama. To get to Tuscaloosa, she informs the Bishop, she will have to travel "via Montgomery per R.R., Selma per steamer, to Marion per R.R. and to Tuscaloosa per stage coach for 60 miles." 12p.
Madame Baptiste writes to Bishop Patrick Lynch about the Ursuline sisters' annual retreat, the start of the school year and plans to set up an academy in Alabama. 7p.
Madame Baptiste writes to Bishop Patrick Lynch about recent inquiries concerning the burning of Columbia and their convent during the war and asks the Bishop for permission to publish their account of the events. 4p.
Madame Baptiste writes to Bishop Patrick Lynch about recent gifts received by the Ursulines and the purchase of several lots in Columbia for a future convent. 4p.
Madame Baptiste writes to Bishop Patrick Lynch about the potential for growing crops at Valle Crucis and tells the Bishop of her disappointment concerning the exchange rate on 5000 Francs given to her by the Bishop on his return from Europe. 3p.
Madame Baptiste writes to Bishop Patrick Lynch in Rome from Valle Crucis, the Bishop's property outside of Columbia, having moved the convent and academy from temporary housing at Methodist college and Gen. Preston's mansion. Since Valle Crucis is too remote for day schoolers and too small for large numbers of boarders, she writes of setting up a satellite institute in Macon, Ga., until their convent can be rebuilt in Columbia. She mentions the pardon granted the Bishop and hopes that he will soon return to America. 2p.
Madame Baptiste writes to Bishop Patrick Lynch in Rome about the ongoing recovery effort after the war and the destruction of the Ursuline Convent. She is soliciting funds to rebuild and has written Washington with their case demanding reparations. The Ursulines have accepted the offer of General Preston to reside in his house while he is abroad and are using the Methodist College for additional space. 4p.
Madame Baptiste writes to Bishop Patrick Lynch about their anniversaries as Bishop and Mother Superior and wonders if the Bishop is "as tired of superiority as I am!" She also writes of a local murder in Columbia and a visit to the convent by the wife of "pirate Semmes." 8p.
Madame Baptiste writes to Bishop Patrick Lynch about paying taxes and the need for more teachers, and revisits the idea of purchasing the Barhamville school as a future site for the Convent and Academy. 4p.
Madame Baptiste writes to Bishop Patrick Lynch with news from the Ursuline Convent and Academy. She informs the Bishop she is sending a Miss Preston, fiancee to General Hood, to Richmond to see the Bishop while he is visiting there. 4p.
Madame Baptiste writes to Bishop Patrick Lynch about the mental state of one of the sisters and of general news at the Ursuline Convent and Academy. 4p.
Madame Baptiste writes to Bishop Patrick Lynch about several recent visitors to the convent, including one woman, a mother of a boarder at the academy, who has come to retrieve her daughter. The mother, Madame Baptiste writes, has been "implicated for running off negroes to the yankees" and Madame Baptiste fears that both "may be hanged." 3p.
