Sister Julia Chatfield
Brown County (1808 – 1878)
2007 Women's Hall of Fame Inductee -- Education

Ohio's "pioneer nun" and namesake of Chatfield College, Sister Julia's hard work and dedication established education in St. Martin and Cincinnati, Ohio.

Nominated by Sister Patricia Homan
Congregational Minister
Ursulines of Brown County

Sister Julia Chatfield became Ohio’s “pioneer nun” whose determination to establish education in the wilderness endures after 162 years.

In 1845, Sister Julia Chatfield, leading ten other Ursuline sisters, answered a call to come to Ohio from France to bring education into the growing diocese of Cincinnati’s Bishop, John B. Purcell, and found the Ursulines of Brown County. In St. Martin, 50 miles east of Cincinnati, Sister Julia and the other nuns took up residence in the red brick seminary that had proven to be too desolate and too far away for the former 15 occupants. At once, Sister Julia became property administrator, maintenance supervisor, provider of daily essentials, overseer of unpacking, and in charge of transforming the seminary and the equally shabby adjacent dwellings into a residence and school, of which she was head mistress and teacher.

By October of 1845, three months after arriving, the sisters welcomed their first seventeen students. The following year, the fledgling school was incorporated under the title St. Ursula Literary Institute. Sister Julia designed the first program of study for the school which included studies beyond what was traditionally offered to young women at the time including: Astronomy, Mathematics and Physics.

Sister Julia’s challenges stretched far beyond that of her wilderness location; threats of Civil War were overshadowing the nation. Under her leadership, the school operated smoothly despite the turmoil even though the school’s boarders included daughters of generals from both the North and the South.

Though Sister Julia died in 1878, 33 years after coming to St. Martin, her determination to promote education inspired her successors. In 1896 the Ursuline Academy of Cincinnati, a college preparatory school for young women was established in Cincinnati, as a “day school in the city”. In 1971, Chatfield College was founded with campuses in both St. Martin and Cincinnati. Thanks to her initial leadership and perseverance, education has deep roots planted in the Village of St. Martin.