October 25, 2002
In 1852, just 16 years after the Battle of the Alamo, four French
missionaries embarked on a dusty stagecoach ride from the Texas Coast to
San Antonio to establish a new school. These members of the Society of
Mary founded St. Mary’s Institute — the forerunner of St. Mary’s
University and Central Catholic High School — and established one of
the earliest legacies in Texas.
In celebration of the Sesquicentennial annivesaries of St. Mary’s and
Central Catholic, four Marianists dressed in period costumes, St. Mary’s
President Charles L. Cotrell, Ph.D., and Central Catholic President the
Rev. Joseph Tarrillion, S.M., rode the Wells Fargo Stagecoach through
downtown San Antonio on Oct. 23, 2002, to La Mansion del Rio Hotel, the
site of St. Mary’s early history, where a Sesquicentennial plaque was
unveiled.