THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, September 15, 1996 TAG: 9609120522
SECTION: COMMENTARY PAGE: J3 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: GEORGE TUCKER
LENGTH: 64 lines
A little-known chapter of Norfolk Catholic history preceded the founding of the Hospital of St. Vincent de Paul in 1856. Sold recently by the Daughters of Charity to the Sisters of Bon Secours, the origin of the present medical facility resulted from a deathbed wish made in 1855 by Miss Ann Plume Behan Herron. But the wealth that permitted Miss Herron's heir to make this possible had its roots in the late 18th century when Norfolk's merchant fleets traded extensively with Europe and the West Indies.
Shortly after the American Revolution an enterprising Irishman named William Moran emigrated to Virginia. For some reason he changed his surname to Plume, after which he established a highly successful cordage manufactory of rope walk in Norfolk.
Plume, who is still remembered by Plume Street in downtown Norfolk, amassed a considerable fortune. This fortune ultimately passed to Ann Plume Behan Herron, a young Irishwoman adopted by Plume's son-in-law, Walter Herron, a wealthy merchant in his own right.
A benevolent young woman, Miss Herron used her considerable wealth, the result of both Plume's and Herron's labors, from then on to alleviate the sufferings of Norfolk's poor.
When the Sisters of Charity, as they were then called, were brought here in 1836 to take charge of St. Mary's Orphan Asylum, their outlandish blue woolen habits, starched bonnets and dangling rosaries were unfavorably received by the fiercer element of Norfolk's Protestant population. Even so, Miss Herron used her wealth and social position to gain the good sisters acceptance and their unselfish devotion to duty eventually merited them respect throughout the community.
In 1842, five years after the death of her adoptive father made her a rich woman, Miss Herron donated a large sum toward the erection of St. Patrick's Catholic Church on Holt Street. Not content with contributing to the building fund, Miss Herron also presented the new church with a magnificent copy of Guido Reni's ``Crucifixion'' to hang over its high altar. Unfortunately the painting was destroyed when Norfolk members of the Know Nothing Party, a bigoted anti-Catholic group, burned the church in 1856, one year after Miss Herron's death.
An unostentatious women, Miss Herron was long remembered for wearing her oldest clothes when she visited the poor in order not to embarrass them.
In 1855, Miss Herron was living with her brother, James Behan, who had come to Norfolk from Ireland, in the handsome red brick house at Church and Wood streets that had been built in 1828 by Herron after the original ``Plumesville'' at the same location had burned one year earlier. When Norfolk's worst yellow fever epidemic prostrated the city in the summer of 1855, James Behan tried to persuade his sister to escape the pestilence by sailing to Europe with him. But Miss Herron insisted that she was needed in Norfolk and turned down his offer.
Shortly after her brother's departure, Miss Herron opened her spacious mansion as a temporary hospital under the supervision of the Sisters of Charity. Unfortunately, after nursing many patients back to health, Miss Herron succumbed to the dread fever, but not before expressing a fervent wish that her brother use her money and property to establish a permanent hospital. It was thus that the Hospital of St. Vincent de Paul had its beginning and was incorporated by an Act of the Virginia Legislature on March 3, 1856.
In honoring Miss Herron's memory, ``A Century of Service to the Sick: the 100th Year History of the Hospital of St. Vincent de Paul'' said: ``Thus passed to her eternal reward on September 27, 1855, this great Irish lady in Virginia - Miss Ann Plume Behan Herron - who in the words of Holy Scripture: `opened her hand to the needy, and stretched out her hand to the poor.' '' by CNB