 In 1863, he established an orphanage for girls in Rochester, Pennsylvania, in addition to the one in Zelienople, which he had established in 1854 both with a small inheritance after his sister Victoria's death and to honor their still-living mother (with whom Passavant remained close until she died in 1870).The deaconesses also taught, and worked with female prisoners in Allegheny County.Passavant founded many missions, as well as hospitals in Pittsburgh, Milwaukee and Chicago, homes for epileptics at Jacksonville, Illinois and Rochester, Pennsylvania, and an orphanage as well as an old peoples' home in Mt.