Chronicles of Notre Dame du Lac
Edward Sorin, CSC -- Translated by John M. Toohey, CSC, 1895

---

1855

pg 236            The statistics of those different foundations are briefly 
             summed up as follows:
                  1.  That of New Orleans, properly speaking, dates from the 
             passage of the Visitor from Sainte Croix in the United States in 
             1848.  As he was proceeding from Notre Dame to Guadalupe, where he 
             was to arrive towards the end of autumn, F. Drouelle was requested 
             by F. Sorin to stop in New Orleans and try to obtain a footing 
             there for the Society of the Brothers by introducing them into an 
             orphan asylum for the teaching of arts and trades.
                  He succeeded in this, and put in writing the conditions that 
             he thought would be acceptable to Notre Dame du Lac, which he 
             first laid before Archbishop Blanc and the twelve lay members 
             forming the council of administration of the asylum.  They were 
             accepted without difficulty, and were forwarded to the Chapter of 
             the Lake, which had the right to accept or reject them.  The 
             Society agreed to furnish four Brothers at the start and to 
             increase the numbers as it should be judged necessary by the 
             administration, on the payment of $125 for each member, and $150 
             for the director.  There were at the time only seventy-five 
             orphans in the house, which until this time had been in charge of 
             a Catholic family.