The Sisters of St. Joseph of Tipton were founded in 1888 by Gertrude Moffitt at St. John the Baptist Parish in Tipton, Indiana. The sisters worked as teachers in a number of parish schools; opened and staffed St. Joseph Academy from 1892 until its closure in 1972; sponsored Good Samaritan Hospital and St. Joseph Hospital in Kokomo, Indiana (previously Howard County Hospital, now St. Vincent Kokomo Hospital), and started the Hospice St. Joseph mission in Port-au-Prince, Haiti (now administered by the Diocese of Norwich, CT.)