Recruits to the new community came gradually and steadily during the first years. They were largely of Irish descent. Honoria Conway, now Mother Mary Vincent, had the pivotal and dual challenge of evolving mechanisms by which a religious could develop according to the rules while meeting the immediate need of running an orphanage and setting up schools. The rudiments of an orphanage were already in place when the sisters assumed responsibility for its operation. The establishing of the schools, however, followed the pattern the core personnel had observed in New York. Thus, in 1854 the sisters opened the first free school in Saint John for the daughters of poor Irish immigrants, and in 1858 an institute requiring fees, St Vincent’s Select School for Girls, was founded. It was hoped that the tuition-based institution would finance the free one. By 1859 there were 27 sisters operating five schools – two in Saint John, one in nearby Portland, one in Fredericton, and one in the Acadian parish of Saint-Basile-de-Madawaska, which enjoyed success even though it was conducted in English.