St. Joseph Indian Normal School

Not to be confused with the similarly-named boarding school in South Dakota, St. Joseph's Indian School.

St. Joseph Indian Normal School
U.S. National Register of Historic Places
Show map of Indiana Show map of the United States
Location	St. Joseph's College Campus off U.S. Route 231, Rensselaer, Indiana
Coordinates	40°55′17″N87°9′4″W / 40.92139°N 87.15111°W / 40.92139; -87.15111
Area	less than one acre
Built	1888
NRHP reference No.	73000018 [1]
Added to NRHP	June 19, 1973

St. Joseph's Indian Normal School is a former school for American Indians in Rensselaer, Indiana. The school building is now known as Drexel Hall and part of the Saint Joseph's College campus. Boarding schools were believed to be the best way to assimilate them into the white culture. ^[2] The school lasted from 1888 to 1896 and was funded by the U.S. government and Catholic missionaries. It was believed that this was the best way to "civilize" Native Americans and the western territories. ^[2] Established by the Catholic Indian Missions with funding from St. Katharine Drexel, the school taught 60 Indian children. The Society of Precious Blood operated the school during its years of operation. The students were all boys. ^[3] When the Indian School was closed, the building was named Drexel Hall. It is one of the first structures of Saint Joseph's College. ^[2]

The Indian school was essentially a red brick structure with the ground floor surrounded with a sandstone wall. It was built in a square, 80 feet (24 m) on each side. The square courtyard in the center, it being around 30 feet (9.1 m) on each side. Each wing had four floors with the east wing only three floors high. The roof was red tiles. The main entrance was on the west. It was owned by the Bureau of Catholic Indian Missions in Washington, D.C. ^[4]

It was a boarding school for Indian boys with space for 70 boys, their classrooms, playroom, dormitory, kitchen, a small chapel, rooms for the superintendent and a teacher or two and for around six Sisters (nuns) who ran the kitchen. ^[4] An inspector's report said there were 29 rooms in all. Although the building served as an Indian school for only eight years (1888–1896), it was not changed or altered until 1937 when it was remodeled to serve as a residence hall for Saint Joseph's College. Only the bell tower was removed along with the shutters from the windows. On the inside, it was altered. ^[4] The courtyard was made smaller to allow an extra row of rooms. ^[4] Drexel Hall later housed some offices of Saint Joseph's College, before and after the college announced a suspension of operations in 2017.

History

Father Joseph Stephan, the Director of the Bureau of Catholic Indian Missions, wrote to Katharine Drexel on December 8, 1887 to suggest opening a mission school in Indiana. Later letters exchanged in March 1888 show the two discussing building plans and government contracts to support the school. ^[5] Katharine Drexel would provide approximately $50,000 towards the purchase of land and construction of Saint Joseph's. ^[6] The land for the school was previously part of the land that made up the former orphanage operated by the Diocese of Fort Wayne known as Spitler Farm. ^[7] Stephan's motives for the school were strongly religious, seeking to establish a network of Catholic schools to compete with the growing influence of Protestant Indian mission schools at the time. Mission schools were used as a tool to gain more converts, as they provided not only practical skills but religious education in their respective faiths as well. ^[8] Pupils were also educated in the hopes that they would return home and convert other members of their tribe. ^[9]

The first group of students came in 1888. ^[10] The school opened in September, initially headed by Father George Willard, then vice-director of the Bureau of Catholic Indian Missions, until the Society of the Precious Blood based in Carthagena, Ohio took over the management, an arrangement which would continue until its closure. ^{[11] [12] [7]}

Waning government support for contract schools negatively affected St. Joseph. In September 1895, the school was forced to collect 40 students without any government funding, relying on donations from Drexel to support filling its quota. ^[13] Federal funding was withdrawn in 1895 over St. Joseph's expensive travel costs. The high costs were due to the school's considerable distance from the Indian reservations where its pool of students were pulled from. ^[14]

After closure its in 1896, the building for a while became home to a printing press and was known as the Collegeville Printing Plant. It was also sometimes known as the Messenger Printing Plant, due to the Catholic monthly school paper the Messenger of the Spiritual Benevolent Fraternity (parallel German editions were printed under the name der Botschafter des Deutschen Wohltaetigkeits Vereins) being printed there until 1922. ^[15] Other papers printed, edited, and published there were the Young Crusader and the St. Joseph’s Collegian. ^[7]

See also

• Carlisle Indian Industrial School

References

1. "National Register Information System". National Register of Historic Places . National Park Service. March 13, 2009.
2. "St. Joseph Indian Normal School". faithfabric.com. September 18, 2008. Archived from the original on March 8, 2019. Retrieved September 24, 2025.
3. IHB (December 16, 2020). "St Joseph's Indian Normal School 1888-1896". IHB. Retrieved September 24, 2025.
4. "Indiana State Historic Architectural and Archaeological Research Database (SHAARD)" (Searchable database). Department of Natural Resources, Division of Historic Preservation and Archaeology. Retrieved April 1, 2016.Note: This includes Dominic B. Gerlach (n.d.). "National Register of Historic Places Inventory Nomination Form: St. Joseph Indian Normal School" (PDF). Retrieved April 1, 2016. and Accompanying photographs.
5. Zemanek 2017, p. 58.
6. Gerlach, Dominic (June 1, 1971). "75 Years Ago, The St. Joseph's 'Indian School' Closed". Rensselaer Republican. pp. 6–7.
7. Willging 1962, p. 6.
8. Zemanek 2017, p. 59.
9. Gerlach 1973, p. 42.
10. Gerlach, Dominic (May 18, 1971). "Miss Drexel's $50,000 Gift Established School". Rensselaer Republican. p. 8.
11. Zemanek 2017, p. 60.
12. Gerlach, Dominic (May 5, 1971). "Spirit of Dedication Aided SJC Indian School Leaders". The Rensselaer Republican. p. 8.
13. Gerlach, Dominic (June 1, 1971). "Publicity At World's Fair Helped, Hurt Indian School". Rensselaer Republican. p. 4.
14. Stacey, Madison (April 4, 2022). "Uncovering the brutal history of Native boarding schools in Indiana". WTHR. Retrieved September 30, 2025.
15. Willging 1962, p. 8.

Bibliography

• Gerlach, Dominic (March 1, 1973). "Saint Joseph's College, Rensselaer, Indiana". Indiana Magazine of History. 69 (1): 1–43. Retrieved August 6, 2025.
• Willging, Eugene P. (January 1, 1962). Catholic serials of the nineteenth century in the United States: Indiana: a descriptive bibliography and union list. Second series, part four. Washington, D.C., U.S.A.: Catholic University of America Press. pp. 6–10.
• Zemanek, Alysha (June 2017). Indiana School Days: Native American Education at St. Joseph's Indian Normal School and White's Manual Labor Institute (Master's thesis). Indiana University. Retrieved August 6, 2025.

External links

Media related to St. Joseph's Indian Normal School at Wikimedia Commons