Mother Theresa Maxis Duchemin was the first American-born African American Catholic nun in the nation and a charter member of the Oblate Sisters of Providence, the first congregation of religious women of color in the world. In 1845 she helped found the Sisters, Servants of the Immaculate Heart of Mary in Michigan. At the request of Bishop John Neumann of Philadelphia, she established an IHM community in Susquehanna County and Laurel Hill Academy, which operated here until 1923.