Sister Boniface was a long-time administrator of Saint Alexius from 1892 until 1937 – the same year of her death. She is credited with progressing Saint Alexius from a frontier hospital into one of the nation’s most respected healthcare facilities.
Boniface was born on September 7, 1854 in Benton, Wisconsin to Mr. and Mrs. John Timmins. Most sources say her birth name was Agnes Timmins, however one source says it was Mary Ann. After her father died, she relocated with her mother to Saint Paul.
She joined the Benedictine Sisters of Saint Gertrude in Shakopee, Minnesota in February 1872 at age 17. It there that she adopted the name Boniface, a German patron saint despite that she herself was of Irish decent. She soon relocated with her covenant to Saint Joseph, Minnesota.
The Benedictine Sisters first influenced Bismarck in 1878 when five Sisters arrived to establish St. Mary’s Academy and Boarding School. The school housed 21 boarders and 80 students in three classrooms.
7 years later, in 1885, they established the first hospital in Dakota Territory, originally known as the Lamborn Hospital – housed inside the never-opened Lamborn Hotel, which was built by Alexander McKenzie and Richard Mellon. The hospital soon became Saint Alexius.
They treated 65 patients during the hospital’s first year, despite no formal medical training, at a standard fee of $1 per day. Chief Sitting Bull, future President Theodore Roosevelt, and Medora de Mores were noted patients of the frontier hospital.
Sister Boniface arrived in 1892 to take up administration of the hospital. She was instrumental in evolving it from a primitive, barely equipped frontier hospital into a well-funded modern healthcare facility. Not at all an easy feat when a nationwide depression swept the following year. Funding mostly came from loans given by local businessmen.
She replaced coal stoves with steam heat, installed telephones, and replaced hand bells with electronic call bells. They installed 6 telephones at Saint Alexius originally, and Sister Boniface convinced local physicians and druggists to have them installed.
By 1914, Saint Alexius was granted with a Class A rating by the American College of Surgeons. One year later, the first section of today’s Saint Alexius facility opened.
Sister Boniface continued administering Saint Alexius until 1937 when symptoms of heart disease prevented her from continuing that capacity. In July of that year, she was put to bed after suffering a chill and slipped into a coma. She eventually came out from the coma and was described as possessing strong “mental clarity” until her last breath in October 1937.
In her death announcement, The Bismarck Tribune described her as “Witty, Kindly, and Strong.”
