The tiny community of San Juan Bautista was a stopover station on the route between San Francisco and Los Angeles. As the community grew, Father Anthony Ubach, pastor at the Old Mission, realized a need for a school and orphanage. Pleading to Emmitsburg for assistance, the Daughters of Charity leadership sent three Sisters to minister to the children and their community. Sisters Phileta McCarthy, Xavier Schauer and Clara Cisneros settled into the cloister of the historic mission. Classes at St. John’s Institution were held in a room behind the sacristy. By 1870, due to the lack of students and financial support, exacerbated by an ongoing drought, the Daughters left San Juan Bautista and were missioned elsewhere.