[6] He traveled to Baltimore in March 1848, seeking a religious order to administer the new hospital, and decided on the Sisters of Charity, based in Emmitsburg, Maryland, because they were founded by St. Elizabeth Ann Seton, the first American saint, and because they had much prior experience working with Protestants.

[6] The Sisters moved into an unused brick schoolhouse and adjoining cottage that had been donated by Bishop Timon,[8] which they outfitted with 100 beds and living quarters for themselves.

Sister Ursula’s willingness to take a chance on new therapies resulted in an astounding recovery of 80 of the 134 cholera patients admitted to the small center.

Religious orders of women, who lived and worked in a peculiar all female community, created and maintained schools, orphanages and hospitals.

American sisters had to cope with gender, religious and ethnic bigotry while working in a patriarchal society that limited any power they might have.

[6]Buffalo's Protestant elite began speaking out against the Sisters Hospital and its state funding, criticizing its all-female leadership, lack of physicians' influence in decision making, and small staff.

In early February 1850, Protestant doctors Josiah Trowbridge, Austin Flint, and James White privately complained to influential local Presbyterian minister, Reverend John C. Lord, DD, a firm nativist and anti-Catholic, about the administration of the hospital, arguing that three Sisters alone was not proper for the management of an entire hospital.

In reality, Bishop Timon, carefully recognizing the risk of proselytizing in such a hostile area, specifically forbad the Sisters of Charity from ever mentioning religion to Protestants unless one initiated the topic independently.

He reported that Reverend Lord offered him clothes and enough money to travel to Canada, where he was relocating, if he would tell the "emigrant agent office" that he was treated poorly by the Sisters of Charity.

[6] In 1854, using the state funding, the Daughters of Charity began expanding in Buffalo, founding St. Mary's Infant Asylum and Maternity Hospital at Elmwood and Edward Streets.