Many young boys would not have graduated from McDonogh if it were not for the motherly Josepha Young. Widowed at a young age, Mrs. Young came to McDonogh just nine days before the first 21 boys walked up Foxleigh’s Hill to open the school, and she quickly became a nurse, “foster mother,” cook, disciplinarian, and housekeeper for McDonogh’s first cadets. She is memorialized across campus with a commemorative window in the Tagart Memorial Chapel, a plaque dedicating an oak tree to her near Bowman House, a portrait of her by Carey E. Kenney, and this piece of artwork by Getz.
Portrait of Josepha Seldon Young (School Matron) – 1873
