The destruction and chaos caused by the 1900 Galveston hurricane was catastrophic. Yet, as the world seemed to crumble around them, the nuns at the Ursuline Academy in Galveston, Texas, led by Mother Mary Joseph Dallmer, did everything they could to help amid the disaster.
A Day Unlike Any Other
Dallmer was born March 19, 1852 in Oberhausen, Baden, Germany, the youngest child of Gregory and Mary Anne Dallmer. Sometime around 1858, Mary Anne’s two other children invited Mary Anne and her daughter Mary Joseph to immigrate to Galveston, Texas.The youngest Dallmer attended Ursuline Academy, a Catholic boarding school for girls. She graduated in 1869, then joined the Ursuline Sisters, a religious order. She moved up the chain of command very quickly and was elected superior in 1891. She was then tasked with overseeing the construction of the new Ursuline Academy. Dallmer was the head of the Catholic girls’ academy in early September 1900.
