Felician Sisters of the Southwest
Women Owning Radical Dreams
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HISTORY: Roots of the Province
Presently, the Western most province of the Felician Sisters in the United States, known as the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary, has its headquarters in Rio Rancho, New Mexico. It has not always rested on the sands of a mesa overlooking Albuquerque. It started on the plains of a Midwestern state, Oklahoma as a offshoot of the Chicago, Illinois Province, Our Lady of Good Counsel. The location was Ponca City and the residence was once the home of a former governor of Oklahoma, Ernest Whitworth Marland. The residence also served as a Generalate of the Felician Congregation from 1950-53. On July 14, 1953, the province was born and begin to be referred to as the Southwestern Province.
In the history written by Sister Mary Theophane Kalinowski, entitled FELICIAN SISTERS IN THE WEST, she tells an impelling story of this province. So begins the saga...
The headquarters of the Assumption of the BVM Province of Ponca City, Oklahoma was a spectacular setting with a many-faceted history. It represented both the spiritual administrations of the Sisters of St. Felix throughout the western states, and the spirit of Western America which has characterized the province. A celebrated landmark of the past, it became a significant Catholic center...
Little changed from the past in the gently-sloping hill, shaded by elms and majestic cedars, and the driveway curving up to a large terraced stone building overlooking a lake at the base of a rolling hillock.The residence of Oklahoma's tenth governor, oil man Ernest Whitworth Marland, a stone structure, was his fulfillment of a dream of a "castle of stone battlement and a moat; his vision of a stronghold to command the countryside."
Marland Mansion in Ponca City, Oklahoma. The initials above the gate were EWM, Ernest Whitworth Marland. The bridge just beyond the front gate ran over one of five lakes that once graced the property.
Back view of the Mansion.
Yet in the setting of a baronial lord, Marland was respected as a humanitarian. He assumed that the great wealth accumulated by the Marland Oil Company (Conoco) was the property, not only of the executives and stockholders, but also of the employees whose intelligence, experience and honesty have made large earnings possible. He was determined, therefore, "to pay dividends in happiness to the community." His philanthropy built the Catholic hospital on the hill and a home for orphans. His charity knew no sectarian barriers. Nor did the Marland estate turn away the public.
Marland brought fabulous wealth, culture and beauty to Ponca City, He purchased more than 2500 acres and converted part of this area into a botanical park and game preserve. He told a reporter that he had planted here "more different kinds of trees than can be found in any other spot on the earth.s
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