For Remembrance (ed. Repplier, 1901)/Eden Hall

Convent of the Sacred Heart, Eden Hall, Torresdale, Pa, November, 1900.

Eden Hall.

N the year 1826 the Princess Elizabeth de Galitzen, a Russian convert, entered the Society of the Sacred Heart in Paris. Appointed in 1840 to visit the American convents in the name of Mother Barat, she made a brief stay in Louisiana and Missouri, and then, in compliance with Bishop Hughes's request, came northward to found a school in New York. Having opened that establishment, and placed it in the hands of Mother Aloysia Hardey, Madame de Galitzen herself founded the first Pennsylvania convent at McSherrystown, and became its superioress. Thither she transferred the American novitiate, previously located in Florissant, Missouri. The affairs of the order called her to France, and on her return she died of yellow fever in Louisiana. The school of McSherrystown languished, and Reverend Mother Hardey, to whose care had been committed the government of the northeastern province, removed the novitiate to New York and the school to Philadelphia. In 1847 she bought of Mrs. Rebecca Cowperthwaite a beautiful estate, bounded on its forest edge by the old Bristol pike, and on its frontage—giving in those days, an unobstructed view of the Delaware, now partly screened off—by the growing suburb of Torresdale.

Surveyors' deeds drawn up in 1679 by Richard Noble for Laers Laerson and Olaf Coeckel give the property the name of "Pleasant Hill," for it would seem that agreeable associations have always connected themselves with the spot. Before reaching its present destination the place knew many owners, having been successively possessed by the Accords, Whites, Vanboskercks, Thomases, Pattersons, Luffs, Barrys and Cowperthwaites. When purchased by Mothers Hardey and Boilevin it bore the name of Eaton Hill.

At the head of the new convent was placed Mother Elizabeth Tucker, an English lady whose family had never wavered in their allegiance to the ancient faith. It was Mother Tucker who changed the name of Eaton Hill to that of Eden Hall, and the altered title was but a symbol of the transformation accomplished by her generous heart and cultivated mind. The young superioress, ardent in her zeal and courageous through her trust in God, became the soul of a rapidly developing institution which was soon a little world in itself. The force of her character and the strength of her convictions left, on convent and pupils, an impress which time has not effaced.

Summoned away at various periods to govern other houses of her order, Mother Tucker always returned to the place with which her life was identified. She died in Philadelphia, 1881. Under a plain cross of gray stone, erected by a faithful friend as a token of enduring gratitude, rests, on the fairest hillside of Eden, all that could die of that noble and gracious personality. Beside her tomb her old pupils and her religious sisters pray and remember. They are certain that she intercedes and does not forget.

Though hers is the name most closely linked to the old convent, its former children keep grateful memories of Mothers McNally, Hamilton, Boudreau and Dunne.

Three pretty chapels at various points bear witness to Mother Tucker's tender piety, always seconded by the generosity of her friends. The "Seven Dolors," the "Lily of Judah," the shrine of St. Joseph, the Pietà of the little cemetery, and even the rustic niche of "Our Lady of the Fields" give token of the faith which renders good thoughts visible on every roadside.

Among other valuable donations to Eden may be signalized a fine and very complete collection of minerals, accurately classified, the gift of Miss Jenny Abell, of Baltimore. In earlier years a series of Swiss specimens in stones and pressed Alpine plants bore the name of Mr. Charles Repplier.

On the occasion of the Jubilee, Colonel Charles Howell, of Torresdale, bestowed on the convent a magnificent oil painting, the portrait of Pius IX, originally executed for Cardinal Antonelli, and afterward sold to an American gentleman from whose family, Colonel Howell had purchased it.

The centenary of the society had certain special claims of a two-fold nature at Eden Hall, as it was understood to include the fiftieth anniversary of the foundation of the convent. Its golden jubilee coinciding with that of Manhattan, the local date was passed into combination with the centenary of the order. The former pupils of this beloved old home have, therefore, profited by the double commemoration to mark those sentiments of "loyalty and fidelity" of which this little book is a slight token "for remembrance."