Nuns’ Departure Ends Era for Gold Rush Town

Sister Mary Geneva Paluka climbs the worn wooden steps of the old orphanage and knows she is at the end of an era.

Sisters of Mercy nuns have climbed the steps for nearly 140 years. The order’s efforts to civilize the once rough-and-tumble Gold Rush town began when miners began to find more ore than gold.

In late March, Sister Paluka, 66, and Sister Rita Jane McCarron, 77, will say goodbye to the building, St. Patrick’s Church across the street and the nearby cemetery where their sisters are buried.

With the two nuns goes their order, which sent some of the first women to venture into the Sierra foothills when violence and greed were the popular religion.

There simply aren’t enough nuns to go around these days.

The number of nuns in the Omaha, Neb., region, which oversees the Grass Valley Sisters of Mercy, has plummeted from more than 650 in the 1960s to about 235 today. The median age is 74.

In the last three decades, many orders have abandoned well-established ministries and relied on laypeople to take over parish duties. Since reaching a peak of 180,000 about 30 years ago, the number of nuns nationally has dwindled to about 80,000, said Mary Gautier, a researcher at the Center for Applied Research in the Apostolate at Georgetown University.

Sister Paluka was only offered a part-time contract for 2001. The cash-poor order, which is struggling to pay for its aging sisters, rejected the pay cut. Sister McCarron didn’t want to live by herself.

“The Holy Spirit was pushing me and nagging for a while, and I had been ignoring it saying it was time to move on,” Sister Paluka said.

The city’s museum docents and parishioners of St. Patrick’s Church say the sisters’ departure ends an important part of the area’s history only accessible to future residents who venture into the orphanage, now the town museum.

“It is so sad. They have been part of our lives, part of our town. They’ve been here so long that I think everyone will really notice a difference when they are gone,” said Joanne Utley, 66, a member of the sisters’ weekly prayer group.

The order resisted the Civil War, industrialization and two world wars.

Industrial mining kept Grass Valley’s economy strong while other Gold Rush towns fizzled: The town’s foundation had gold veins.

Miners extracted the gold in cave operations similar to coal mining. It was dangerous, and many of the untrained miners died, said historian James Holliday.

The mining operations buoyed the economy and created a growing orphan population. The abandoned children lured the sisters to Grass Valley, and the decent economy kept them there.

The orphanage was the only one in Northern California until around the 20th century, said Sisters of Mercy archivist Sister Rita Connell.

“They were wild, those gals, and amazing in terms of the courage they had to venture out into nothing,” said Sister Connell.

The order had come to America from Ireland only 11 years before heading to the West, and the nuns’ rough edges may have helped them in the Gold Country, said Kevin Starr, California’s state librarian.

“They absolutely helped found the West. Philanthropy, education, libraries, orphanages--the public interest sector--was significantly driven by [these] women. They brought balance to the scene,” Starr said.

The sisters took over the small school, started the orphanage and scrimped to find enough money to pay for it all. To raise funds the sisters sold health insurance: Miners could pay $1 and receive care if they fell ill.

The nuns calmed the city and attracted families, according to several books by sisters who have researched the town.

A charm school for young women supplemented the convent’s income. The orphanage and charm school eventually dissolved, but the school, Mount St. Mary’s Academy, is still running. Laypeople run the school and teach the students.

The last nun to take her vows in Grass Valley died in early January.

Sister McCarron wipes tears away when she talks about leaving the city and Sister Paluka. Both women taught first grade, and they lived together for seven years. Sister McCarron plans to retire in Omaha.

“I suppose I won’t be able to find all these wonderful fruits for my jams there. Maybe I’ll be able to teach a little guitar,” she said.

Sister Paluka will drive her roommate to Nebraska before taking sabbatical and then moving to Oregon to care for elderly sisters.

“It may sound sad, but that’s just when you look at it from your point of view,” she said. “God has a bigger plan and needs us somewhere else now.”