This situation continued until they were able to occupy their own house the following March. They then opened St. Joseph Hospital on the grounds, the first such public facility in what is now Cleveland. Within six months, though, the two canonesses sought the permission of the bishop to return to France. Perhaps this was due to the hardships of life on the frontier, dealing with an unfamiliar language and a historically severe winter Cleveland had experienced during their first winter there. These challenges, as well as their own failing health led them to this decision. The two young members of the group, already professed as Religious Sisters chose, however, to remain. A new congregation Upon the departure of the two canonesses, Bishop Rappe turned to Sister Angela Bissonnette, an Ursuline novice, to help him guarantee the continuation of his project. He knew and trusted Sister Angela due to her service to the local community in the years before she had entered the convent. She had been active in the catechetical instruction of the local Catholic children, and in a cholera outbreak of 1849, she had gathered and nursed widows and children suffering from the disease in an abandoned house until the plague had passed. Sister Angela agreed to transfer to the new community and took vows as a Sister of Charity on October 21, 1851, in the chapel of the Ursuline convent. She was named the first Superior General of the new congregation, which had received two new candidates from the local population. The community continued the operation of the hospital, and added an orphanage to care for the children left behind by those who died in the hospital. To support themselves, the boys were taught tailoring and carpentry, making cassocks for the local clergy and furniture to be sold to the public. By 1856, the needs of the orphanage were so great that they Sisters closed the hospital to use it for their charges. Within three years, they had completed the building of St. Vincent Orphanage. This institution once again needed to expand to meet its mission. The Sisters then built St. Louis Orphanage, housing 100 boys and several Sisters. Most of the boys stayed until the age of fourteen, when they found jobs in the city. In order to meet the needs of returning Civil War soldiers who were requiring immediate medical attention and nursing care, Bishop Rappr