FRANCE Early Houses, 1828 -- on.
"It was about this time that the Misses Adam, our benefactoresses, died, and that Father Founder took over the Bouchetiere farm, the extensive working of which our subjects suffered for this time was needed for their education; and which truly became a cross for us all. In the year 1828-9 we had 47 to 49 houses and about onehundred members. Up to 1835 we followed the rule of the Brothers of Bretagne (Brittany) (Brothers of Christian Instruction of Ploermel). Father Founder established no Rule for the government of the Institution up to this time -- a particularly unsatisfactory condition for the Brothers, who would have liked to see fixed fundamentals. It must not be forgotten, either, that the change of government in 1830 made us lose one third of our members and of our houses and the pecuniary aid that the Minister of Instruction and the King granted us every year" LETTER FROM BROTHER ANDRE, House of St. John of God, near Lyons, May 18, 1840, apparently written while he was enroute to Algieres