year, he also recruited the future saint Rose Philippine Duchesne and her religious order from France, the Society of the Sacred Heart, to open schools for girls on the frontier. They founded the Academy of the Sacred Heart in St. Charles as the first free school west of the Mississippi River. They opened another soon thereafter in Florissant. DuBourg also invited the Sisters of Loretto to establish a school for girls. In 1818, at DuBourg's instruction, the Saint Louis Academy was founded. Operating out of several rented rooms, its purpose was to educate local laymen. Several years later, he requested that the Maryland Jesuits send several of their members to Missouri to staff the diocese's missions to the American Indians. The Jesuits sent several Belgian members, who arrived in 1823, and established a house in Florissant and began ministering to the Indians. DuBourg visited Washington, D.C. in 1823, where he met the U.S. Secretary of War, John C. Clahoun, who encouraged the Jesuit missions and obtained federal funding for the establishment of Indian schools. On 7 January 1824, DuBourg offered the Jesuits to assume control of the academy, which became known as Saint Louis College in 1820. The Jesuits accepted this offer in 1827, and Peter Verhaegen became the first Jesuit president of the college, which was chartered as Saint Louis University several years later. The school's first Jesuit treasurer was Pierre-Jean De Smet, who became a famous missionary to the Indians. The lower division of the academy became St. Louis University High School. In 1823, DuBourg's time in St. Louis came to an end. While he had visited New Orleans every year while his seat was in St. Louis, he decided it proper to return the diocesan seat to New Orleans and requested the appointment of Joseph Rosati as his coadjutor bishop. He consecrated Rosati on 25 March 1824, and left him to oversee the church in St. Louis. DuBourg remained in New Orleans for three years, and once again met local opposition. On 28 August 1825, he became the Vicar Apostolic of Mississippi, in addition to his episcopal duties. He found a shortage of priests in Louisiana but faced resistance when trying to establish a seminary in New Orleans or transfer priests from other parts of the diocese. By this time, he was also weary of traveling throughout the expansive diocese. Therefore, DuBourg sailed to Rome, and on