Construction began on a convent – a square, one-story frame building 16 feet high with an enclosed 20-by-20-yard courtyard with a well in the center. Separate housing for the Brothers would also be built. Meanwhile, they lived in a log house, 16 feet long and 10 feet wide with an altar, kitchen, and fireplace. The Brothers and Sisters lived in boarding huts nearby. Bishop Henni asked the Sisters to help at St. Francis Seminary in Milwaukee, built for German-speaking aspirants to the priesthood. In 1871 the Motherhouse of the Sisters of the Third Order Regular of St. Francis was established in La Crosse, Wisconsin.