Osage Mission History
To advance Indian assimilation, religious denominations established more than 100 missions in Kansas, Missouri, Oklahoma, and Wyoming. Osage Mission was founded in 1847 in present St. Paul when Jesuit Fathers John Schoenmakers (known as the "Father of Civilization in Southeast Kansas") and John Bax, joined by the Sisters of Loretto, organized schools to educate the Osage boys and girls. When the Osages left Kansas in 1870, the schools became boarding institutions for white students until it closed in 1905. A historical marker on K-47 provides an overview of the mission.