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Publishers Note
Although in most cases we have retained the Authors original spelling and grammar to authentically reproduce the work of the Author and the original intent of such material, some additional notes and clarifications have been added for the modern readers benefit.
We have also made every effort to include all maps and illustrations of the original edition the limitations of formatting do not allow of including larger maps, we will upload as many of these maps as possible.
AT THE END OF THE SANTA FE TRAIL
SISTER BLANDINA SEGALE
At the End of the Santa Fe Trail was originally published in 1932 by Columbian Press and reprinted in 1948 by Bruce Publishing Company, Milwaukee.
A number of spelling errors in the original book have been corrected in this edition.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Contents
TABLE OF CONTENTS
REQUEST FROM THE PUBLISHER
Original Authors Note
Into the keeping of this Journal of my life in the Southwest, there never entered the thought of its publication. The reward for the work involved was to come if Sister Justina and myself would meet and read it together.
A short time ago, the editor of The Santa Maria Magazine prevailed upon me to allow its publication in that periodical After the appearance of a few installments, requests for the Journal in book form began to come from many places in the United States, especially from New Mexico, whose Governor and Secretary of State, with the Archbishop of Santa Fe, found historic value in its record of events made by an eyewitness.
But the crowded hours that allowed no time for the leisurely writing of my Journal still prevail for me; and I realized if the urgent requests for the book were to be met, my wish to rewrite it must be set aside. For the shortcomings consequently to be found in At the End of the Santa Fe Trail, let the busy life of a Sister of Charity offer excuse.
SISTER BLANDINA
Original Foreword
This simple story of the missionary work of a Sister of Charity in the Southwest of territorial days rivals in many of its pages the most thrilling romances written of that period. It is not given to many womenand especially to a religiousto take part in the up-building of a new country and to became familiar with the various phases of pioneer life which Sister Blandina so vividly records and which she evidently considered merely a part of her days work.
At the End of the Santa Fe Trail is an inspiring record of educational and charitable work carried on for many years in Colorado and New Mexico for Indian -and Mexican, Catholic and non-Catholic, rich and poor, the criminal and the law-abiding. Page after page bears witness to the initiative, the faith and the intrepid courage of this true daughter of Mother Seton. No work was foreign to her, provided it was Cods work. One knows not which to admire the more, her instant grasp of a difficult situation or the coolness and resourcefulness with which she met it
Humanly speaking, Sister Blandina was not fitted by birth, environment or education to meet the conditions that confronted her in the Trinidad, Santa Fe and Albuquerque of frontier times. Carefully shielded in the home of her Italian parents until she entered the novitiate of the Sisters of Charity, she was assigned after her profession to teach in the parochial schools. It was while pursuing this peaceful routine at Steubenville, Ohio, that she was informed by her Superior that she was to proceed without delay to Trinidad, Coloradoand that she was to travel alone!
Life as she had known it ceased for Sister Blandina when she arrived at the terminus of the railway at Kit Carson. Stepping into a stage-coach, with a cowboy for a fellow passenger, she entered a world immeasurably removed from the one in which she had been living. Her impressions of this new Western world, how she solved its problems, bow she adjusted herself to its primitive conditions, how she met the extraordinary demands made upon her, she recorded tersely in a diary intended only for the eyes of her sister, also a religious of the Sisters of Charity of Cincinnati.
It is a story that appeals irresistibly to the imagination. The picture she sketches of life in the West in those pioneer days is one of rude and sharp contrasts, inseparable from the period of construction and conditions of the frontier.
We see her throwing the weight of her influence against lynching, which was at that time the unwritten law of the West. Never before nor since was a stranger sight witnessed in the streets of Trinidad than that of the young Sister of Charity, accompanied by the Sheriff, walking with a doomed man to the bedside of his victim to beg for forgiveness. Lynch law received its death blow that day in Trinidad.
Again she is seen fearlessly confronting the notorious outlaw, Billy the Kid, demanding safety for the physicians of Trinidad, whose lives he had threatened, and not only winning his confidence but inspiring him with respect for every member of the religious garb. Who shall say what effect her ministrations to a neglected member of his band of outlaws may have had on the soul of this misguided youth?
On another occasion she fearlessly offers her services to quiet the Apaches who, angered by the ruthless murder of one of their tribe, are about to start on the war-path. Where in the pages of romance shall we find anything more thrilling than the graphic picture drawn of the young Sister, crucifix in hand, walking out unaccompanied to parley with the scouts and prevent the threatened uprising?
These are some of the highlights of At the End of the Santa Fe Trail. There are many others of equal interest. Indeed, the book throughout is a revelation of the beauty of the life of prayer, labor and sacrifice. Only a religious woman, prompted by supernatural clarity, could have found such joy and contentment in the service of Gods erring or neglected children under the trying conditions she was called upon daily to meet. The book should make a wide appeal.
JOHN T. McNICHOLAS
Archbishop of Cincinnati
Life Sketch of Sister Blandina Segale 1850-1941
Gesu was the first word the little Italian child, Rosa Maria Segale, learned to write at her home in the hilly village of Cicagna, Italy. Lingering over the sweetness of its sound, she smiled at her accomplishment and then laboriously added, Madre.
Nearly a century later when she lay dying in the infirmary at the motherhouse of the Sisters of Charity near Cincinnati, Ohio, Rosa Maria Segale, now known as Sister Blandina, serenely whispered, Gesu, Madre, smiled, turned her head, and died.
Rosa Maria Segale was born on January 23, 1850, in the northern Italian village of Cicagna which lies about fifteen miles above Genoa in the thickly populated section of the Ligurian hills. Her mother, Giovanna Malatesta, was noble and good. To her the elder Genoese women came for wise counsel in Italy and later in America. Sister Blandina wrote of her mother, My father kept secret my mothers illustrious family name, for those were days of revolution in Italy. In the Middle Ages my mothers family had absolute control or they would know why.
