In 1849, on a mission to establish a presence for the Society of Mary in America, the Rev. Leo Meyer, S.M., journeyed from Alsace in France to Cincinnati. But with a cholera epidemic raging to the north, Bishop John Baptist Purcell of the Cincinnati diocese, sent Father Meyer to Emmanuel parish in Dayton to tend to the sick. In Dayton, Father Meyer met local farmer John Stuart, who had lost his infant daughter Mary Louisa to cholera the year before. Heartbroken, Stuart and his wife wanted to sell their Dewberry Farm property and return to Europe.