HISTORY OF MANITOWOC COUNTY


being graduated therefrom in i898, with the degree of Doctor of Dental Surgery.
Dr. Kapitan has always been enterprising and industrious, and he worked his
own way through college. Since his graduation he has been practicing in Mani-
towoc, where he is well known and highly esteemed both in his profession
and by
the community. He keeps abreast of the times by subscription to various dental
periodicals and membership in the different societies of his profession,
and his
offices are fitted with the latest and most highly improved instruments and
ap-
pliances known to dentistry. He is now serving as secretary of the Manitowoc
Dental Society, and is fraternally connected with the Masons, the Knights
of
Pvthias and the Royal League,
On May 30, i899, Dr. Kapitan was united in marriage with Miss Bessie
Wiesner, of St. Louis, and to this union there has been born a daughter,
Florence.
The Doctor and his wife are consistent members of the Presbyterian church.
HOLY FAMILY CONVENT.
The community of Franciscans at Alverno dates back to the year i866. Its
first would-be members, five in number, having resolved to devote their lives
to
the cause of Catholic education, placed themselves under the direction of
Rev.
Joseph Fessler, then pastor of the little congregation at Clarks Mills, Wisconsin.
A small frame building still standing in this village was the cradle, so
to speak,
of the present large and flourishing community.
In i867 Father Fessler was called to labor in a wider sphere-the pastorate
of St. Boniface at Manitowoc, Wisconsin, and thither his spiritual daughters
re-
solved to follow. Accordingly they removed to Manitowoc, where a small dwell-
ing was rented. Three of their number however, wishing to prepare themselves
more thoroughly for their future duties as teachers, went to Notre Dame Coil-
vrent at Milwaukee, to complete their course of study, and at the same time
to
acquire the fundamental training in religious life. They were accordingly
placed
by good Mother Caroline among the postulants. Here they remained about a
year, after which they were honorably dismissed, and joyfully hastened to
their
humble little home to begin the work which they felt that Divine Providence
had
assigned to them. Meanwhile their companions had taken charge of the little
school in St. Ann's congregation near Clarks Mills.
On November 9, i869, all five received the habit of the third order of St.
Francis at the hands of Father Fessler, who had previously obtained for the
new foundation the expressed approbation of the Most Rev. Archbishop of
Milwaukee, John M. Henni, D. D., as also that of the Capuchin Provincial,
Very
Rev. Francis Haas. The names of the newly received were: Rosa Vahl, Sister
M. Odelia; Josepha Thoening, Sister M. Colletta; Mary Graft, Sister M. Hya-
cinth; Sophie Fessler, (Father Fessler's sister), Sister M. Seraphica; and
Theresa
Graemlich, Sister M. Gabriel. Sister Odelia was almost immediately chosen
to
direct the little community.
They received their first postulant the next year, in the person of MVlary
Doyle, afterward Sister M. Patricia, and on the 9th of November four of their


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