The century from 1860 to 1960 saw much change in the Village of Bourbonnais.
In 1860, it had 2,205 residents, almost all of whom spoke the French-Canadian dialect; in 1960, the village population had grown to 3,336, but the predominant language was English.
In that century, the dirt roads that formed a distinctive “Y” in the heart of the village became the paved highways U.S. 45 and Illinois 102; traffic changed from horse-drawn wagons and buggies to gasoline-powered cars and trucks.
Some vital aspects of the community, however, remained the same: the distinctive stone Church of the Maternity of the Blessed Virgin Mary (built by its parishioners in 1858), and the Notre Dame Convent, a school for girls opened by French-Canadian nuns in 1860.
Three nuns, members of the Montreal-based Congregation of Notre Dame, arrived at the Kankakee depot of the Illinois Central Railroad on Sept. 20, 1860, accompanied by the Rev. Alexis Mailloux, pastor of Maternity B.V.M. church. The nuns — Sister St. Alexis de St. Joseph, Sister St. Alphonse de Liguori, and Sister Ste. Marie de la Victoire — had come to Bourbonnais at the priest’s request to open a school for the community’s girls.
A century after the three nuns arrived in Bourbonnais, the Kankakee Daily Journal reported on plans to celebrate the centennial of Notre Dame Convent’s founding. “Approximately 500 persons will congregate upon the grounds of the Notre Dame Convent in Bourbonnais Saturday and Sunday to pay tribute to the founding of the institution 100 years ago,” noted the newspaper on Friday, June 24, 1960.
The weekend-long celebration began at 11 a.m. Saturday with a solemn high Mass at Maternity B.V.M. for deceased religious, students and benefactors of the convent. That afternoon, an informal tea was scheduled to be held at the convent, with members of the Centennial Committee attired in period costume.
On Sunday, the Most Rev. Martin D. McNamara, bishop of the Joliet Diocese, was the principal celebrant of a solemn high Mass at Maternity B.V.M., beginning at 11:30 a.m. Immediately prior to the Mass, Knights of Columbus formed an honor guard for a procession by some 70 CND nuns from the convent to the church. Among the sisters in the procession was the Rev. Mother St. Marie Consolatrice, superior general of the Congregation of Notre Dame from Montreal.
The final centennial event was an “informal banquet” held at St. Patrick Central (now Bishop McNamara) High School. “The banquet,” reported the Daily Journal, “will conclude the scheduled program activities for the centennial, although the visiting and reunions are expected to continue through much of the afternoon.”
Notre Dame Academy (as the convent school was formally named) opened with an enrollment of 140 students, housed in a wood-framed building northeast of the Maternity B.V.M. Church. Two years later, the first 10 boarding students took up residence at the school.
In succeeding years, Notre Dame and five other Catholic schools in Kankakee and Iroquois counties would educate hundreds of “boarders” annually. (In the earliest days of their existence, the schools accepted boarding students from both elementary school and high school classes, but eventually the boarders were exclusively high school girls.) In most cases, the number of boarding students equaled or surpassed the local (day) enrollment. For example, in 1911, Notre Dame served 103 local children, and 105 boarders.
The large number of boarding students at Notre Dame in 1911 was made possible by the opening in 1910 of a new four-story brick school building. After World War II, declining enrollments caused the school to cease accepting boarding students in 1949; the nuns continued to operate an elementary school in the convent building.
In 1956, the school was renamed Maternity of the Blessed Virgin Mary Elementary School. After classes moved to a new building in 1961, the convent functioned as a residence for the CND nuns until it was closed in 1968.
Notre Dame was not the only school operated in Kankakee County by the Notre Dame nuns. In 1865, only five years after establishing Notre Dame Academy, they opened St. Joseph Seminary on Station Street in Kankakee, moving in 1867 to a new and larger building on Merchant Street, adjacent to St. Rose Church. St. Joseph Seminary graduated its last class in 1964, merging its student body with St. Patrick Central High School the following school year.
In 1873, two CND nuns began teaching classes in the basement of St. Anne Church. By 1884, a four-story building was erected in, and served as St. Anne Academy until it closed in 1978.
https://daily-journal.com/news/local/a-century-in-bourbonnais/article_22423f04-cf6a-11ef-8ee0-e7cbc1b47551.html