USA > Connecticut > Hartford County > The memorial history of Hartford County, Connecticut, 1633-1884, Vol. I > Part 65
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After nearly twenty-five years of unremitting labors in his chosen field (three of these years were spent in Utica, New York, whence he was recalled to Hartford), he died in the harness, well-nigh a martyr to his work, Jan. 31, 1876. He was succeeded in his office by Mrs. Vir- ginia T. Smith, who has continued to the present time, doing much to enlarge the scope and perfect the methods of the work, and introducing valuable industrial and educational features. The City Missionary So- ciety has been influential in numerous works which the State has since taken up. Its "temporary homes " led to the State law withdrawing children from almshouses and establishing temporary homes for depen- dent and neglected children in each county ; and its free kindergarten, established in 1881, led to the law of 1886, practically making them a part of the public-school system. In 1879 its "fresh air fund " was established, for sending poor children into the country. It has now a special building for them in West Hartford, built in 1884. In Hartford it has an industrial building, established in 1881, in which are now a laundry, cooking-school, sewing-school, day-nursery, etc. The Sister Dora Society, under the auspices of this Society, provides a place of meeting and social recreation for working-girls. The City Missionary Society has received among other gifts $2,000 from E. H. Fenn, $5,000 from Leonard Church, and $16,000 from Charles Wright.
By mutual agreement, the mission Sunday schools started by the City Missionary Society were, a few years later, taken under the care of the several churches, and the Society has retained direction of but one, the Morgan Street school, whose building, erected at the expense of the late Hon. Charles F. Pond, is the property of the Society.
In 1872 the Union for Home Work was organized by women of Hartford, irrespective of religious denomination, for the purpose of
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OTHER BENEFICENT INSTITUTIONS.
improving the condition and, in particular, the home life of the poorer women and children of the city. A coffee-house, similar to those which at that time were springing up in all our cities, and which have done so much to revolutionize the dining-saloon business in the interest of neatness, health, and cheapness, had just been opened in Market Street. This became the centre of the Union's work, and many other features were rapidly added, - as reading-rooms for boys and girls, a day-nursery, sewing and cooking schools, a clothing-club, lending-library, etc. In re- cent years the coffee-house has been given up, and special attention has been paid to a promising effort to provide good and cheap tenements under thorough supervision. The Friendly Visiting Club is a most ad- mirable feature of the work of the Union, tending to establish friendly and not merely perfunctory relations between the almoners and the recipients of charity. Mrs. Sidney J. Cowen was president of the Union from the beginning until 1883. Since then Mrs. Samuel Colt has held the office. The work of the Union has been administered and superin- tended by Mrs. E. L. Sluyter. In 1881 the Union bought a lot on Mar- ket Street, and in 1883 began a building for its own use, which was opened for occupancy in 1884. It cost $22,000, and was built by sub- scriptions. The Union has had no bequest except one of real estate in Cleveland from Mr. James Root, which yields but a small income. The distinctive feature of the Union is its systematic character as opposed to occasional relief.
A Young Men's Christian Association was organized in Hartford in 1866, but had an existence of only four years. During a portion of this time the Rev. M. Porter Snell was employed by it as a city mission- arv, and did much good work. This Association succumbed to financial difficulties : but a new one was organized, on a more substantial basis, in 1877, following the Moody and Sankey revival meetings, and has since that time maintained a house in Prospect Street as a place of resort and recreation for young men; and has also done much in the way of religious services, both in its own rooms and in outside localities.
The Women's Christian Association was organized in 1867 and incorporated in 1869. In 1871 it opened, on Church Street, a " Board- ing Home" for women, which has since that time been in successful operation. The land and building cost about thirty thousand dollars, which was raised by subscription. The Home accommodates about fifty boarders, is always full, and is entirely self-supporting. It furnishes all the advantages of a Christian home, at a low price for board, to a class greatly in need of them. Through an employment commit- tee, a Visitation committee, a free circulating library for women, an industrial department, and other like agencies, the Association has done much good work outside of its chief feature described above.
The Widows' Society, organized in 1825 and incorporated in 1847, distributes to the necessities of widows and their families through a board of almoners.
Mr. Lawson C. Ives, who died in 1867, gave two dwellings on North Main Street to the pastors and prudential committees of the Park and Pearl Street Congregational societies respectively, to be administered by them as Widows' Homes, and made provision for their partial sup- port, for twenty years, from his estate.
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MEMORIAL HISTORY OF HARTFORD COUNTY.
Growing out of the interest in the unfortunate classes of society, aroused at the time of the great revival of 1877, the Woman's Aid Society was organized for the reformation of fallen women. In 1878 a Home for the reception of such persons was opened on Pavilion Street, and has so far succeeded that the erection of a permanent building for the purpose is now in contemplation by the Society.
In 1863 Charles Larrabee bequeathed his estate to the city, to be held in trust for the relief of lame, maimed, or deformed females. The legacy amounted to about $6,000; which amount was subsequently increased by a gift of $1,000 each from the estates of James B. Shultas and George Affleck. Its proceeds are distributed through the Larrabee Fund Association, - an organization of ladies.
The Hon. John M. Niles, who died in 1856, left to the city $20,000 as a charity fund, the income (one half of it, however, to be added to the principal until that reached the sum of $40,000) to be applied to the paying of rent and supply of fuel for needy families, espe- cially those without a male head. Within a few years it has reached the prescribed limit. The income has been divided equally between two of the societies already mentioned, - the Hartford Charitable So- ciety and the Widows' Society, - and expended by them as almoners. By the terms of the bequest, the city council is to select the societies which shall act in this capacity.
The Connecticut Humane Society was organized in November, 1880, and the following April a charter was received from the General As- sembly. Though not a purely local charity, its incorporators were resi- dents of Hartford, and the city has been its home from the start. It early took upon itself the care of neglected and abused human beings, as well as the work left it by the former "Society for Prevention of Cruelty to Animals," and it has given a large share of its efforts to the protection of children. While dependent on annual contributions for support, legacies of $1,000 each have been received from Mrs. C. A. Pettingill, of Bridgeport, and Mrs. Mary Webster, of Hartford. The eighth part of a fund that now amounts to $100,000 left by Julius D. Bristol will eventually come to it. Mr. Rodney Dennis, of Hartford, has been the president from its incorporation.
To this account of the public charities of Hartford should be added mention of the various societies for mutual aid and relief which have been organized by the firemen, the military companies, the veteran organizations, the members of certain trades and professions, and the people of certain nationalities, as well as the Masonic and other frater- nities, the temperance societies, and other special and more private associations. But the limits of this chapter forbid more than this brief allusion to other than the public charities. /Enough has been said to show that the wants of the poor and needy have been by no means unheeded; but that while we have always the poor with us, much is done to alleviate their condition, and exemplify in their behalf the Christian virtues which have characterized the settlers of Hartford and their children.
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LIBRARIES.
SECTION IX.
LIBRARIES.
BY WILLIAM I. FLETCHER.
WADSWORTH ATHENEUM. - THE CONNECTICUT HISTORICAL SOCIETY. - HARTFORD LI- BRARY ASSOCIATION. - WATKINSON LIBRARY OF REFERENCE. - OTHER LIBRARIES.
IN the year 1841 Daniel Wadsworth, having conceived the idea of founding a gallery of the fine arts in Hartford, took steps for carrying it into effect by placing in the hands of trustees his valuable lot of land on Main Street for that purpose. His gift was conditioned upon the formation of an association and the erection by it of a suitable building to contain the proposed art-gallery, and at the same time to furnish rooms for the uses of the Connecticut Historical Society and the Hartford Young Men's Institute. In accordance with these terms a subscription was at once set on foot to raise the required money, and over $30,000 was soon subscribed, Mr. Wadsworth himself being the first and largest subscriber in the sum of $4,000, which he subsequently increased to $6,500. The subscribers obtained an act of incorporation (approved June 1, 1842), and organized as a stock concern, under the name of Wadsworth Atheneum, with two classes of shares, those of $100, which were transferable, and those of $25, conferring a life interest simply. Following the plan marked out by Mr. Wadsworth in his original proposition, a building was erected in three principal divisions, the cen- tral one for the proposed art-gallery, and the north and south wings for the Young Men's Institute and the Connecticut Historical Society respectively. The latter Society was also to provide a room in its por- tion of the building for the Natural History Society of Hartford, then in a flourishing condition, so that under the same roof art, literature, and science should be cultivated. The building was begun in April, 1842, and completed in the most thorough manner in July, 1844. It was designed by Ithiel Town, of New Haven, in the castellated Gothic style. The material employed is a cream-colored granite, obtained from Glastonbury. The central section is eighty feet in depth, the wings seventy, and the whole frontage is one hundred feet. The cost was nearly $35,000.
While the building was in process of erection, steps had already been taken for the collection of pictures for the art-gallery. By private subscription a fund was raised for the purpose, Mr. Alfred Smith and Mr. James B. Hosmer, with Mr. Wadsworth, being the largest subscrib- ers and chief movers in the matter ; and a number of valuable paintings were bought as the property of the subscribers jointly, to be placed in the gallery as a loan exhibition. The majority of these pictures were purchased of the representatives of the American Academy of Fine Arts, in New York, which had ceased to exist, and included a portrait of
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MEMORIAL HISTORY OF HARTFORD COUNTY.
Benjamin West by Sir Thomas Lawrence, a head by Raeburn, and other fine original works. Five historical paintings by Colonel Trumbull were purchased of the heirs of his estate through Professor Benjamin Silliman, and have always formed the cen- tral feature of interest in the gal- lery. Thomas Cole's fine painting of "Mount Etna seen from Taor- mina" was bought from the painter. These, with other pictures loaned by friends of the movement, fur- nished an exhibition of great merit, which was opened to the public soon after the completion of the building. The pictures remained the property of the persons who had clubbed together to buy them, until 1855, when they were purchased for the Atheneum by subscription, the own- ers for the most part subscribing WADSWORTH ATHENEUM. enough themselves to cover their individual interests. An exhibi- tion of statuary was also opened in connection with that of paintings, and was greatly enriched in 1858 by the purchase of the models left by the distinguished sculptor, E. S. Bartholomew, at his death, and a copy in marble of his masterpiece, "Repentant Eve." A subscrip- tion of $5,000 was raised for this purpose,1 and Mr. James G. Batterson went as agent for the subscribers to Rome, where Mr. Bartholomew had resided at the time of his death. Thus an art collection was made, which, open to the public at a moderate fee for admission, offered a valuable means of culture to the people of Hartford and to many visit- ors from without the city. Very recently the gallery has been taken by the Hartford Art Society, and is opened free for two days in each week. The presidents of Wadsworth Atheneum have been as follows: Thomas Day, from 1842 to 1855; John M. Niles, 1855; Alfred Smith, from 1855 to 1862; Calvin Day, from 1862 to 1884; and William R. Cone, from 1884 to the present time.
The Connecticut Historical Society, to provide rooms for which was one object of Mr. Wadsworth's foundation, was organized in the year 1825. An act of incorporation was granted by the legislature in that year "upon the petition," as set forth in the preamble, " of John Trum- bull 2 and others ... for the purpose of discovering, procuring, and preserving whatever may relate to the civil, ecclesiastical, and natural history of the United States, and especially of the State of Connecti- cut." Judge Trumbull was the first president of the society (chosen May 30, 1825), and the other officers included Bishop Thomas C. Brown- ell, Thomas Day, Walter Mitchell, and the Rev. Thomas Robbins. After a few meetings of the Society had been held, and a number of
1 The statue of Eve, however, was not included in this amount, but was bought by the trustees of the Watkinson Library, by virtue of a clause in Mr. Watkinson's will authorizing his trustees, at their option, to expend $500 annually in works of art for the Atheneum.
2 The poet, author of "McFingal," etc., ex-Judge of the Superior Court of Connecticut.
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LIBRARIES.
books and articles of historical interest had been collected, a singular dispersal of the officers through removals from town resulted in the lapse of the Society into a comatose condition, which continued till the year 1839. Legislative provision having been secured for a resumption of its functions, it was then reorganized, and has since been in active operation. At the reorganization Thomas Day became president, and was annually re-elected until his death, in 1855. His successors have been : Henry Barnard, from 1855 to 1860 ; James B. Hosmer, from 1860 to 1863 ; and the present incumbent, J. Hammond Trumbull, since 1863.
The Society has always included among its members and officers the leading men of the city and State. Among the original incorporators in 1825 were William W. Ellsworth, Isaac Toucey, Roger M. Sherman, Thomas S. Williams, Thomas H. Gallaudet, Samuel H. Huntington, and Benjamin Trumbull, the historian of Connecticut. The latest sur- vivor among these was Judge Huntington, who died Feb. 4, 1880, at the age of eighty-six, still holding the office of vice-president of the Society and retaining an active interest in its work. In addition to the above, the enabling act of 1839 named as incorporators, among others, Charles Hosmer, Erastus Smith, Noah Porter, Jr. (now president of Yale College), Leonard Bacon, Nathaniel Goodwin (author of “ Gen- ealogical Notes"), R. R. Hinman (author of the " Catalogue of Puritan Settlers of Connecticut "), and Henry Barnard, 2d (the well-known edu- cator). Of these, President Porter and Dr. Barnard survive. Charles Hosmer, who was secretary from 1839 to 1868, and his brother, James B. Hosmer, who was treasurer from 1840 to 1874, and also president from 1860 to 1863, were remarkable for life-long devotion to the inter- ests of the Society. On the death of the latter, in 1878, at the remark- able age of ninety-seven, he bequeathed to the Society the historical portion of his library and $2,000 in money.
On the 21st of April, 1840, the Society observed the bi-centenary of the organization of the colonial government in 1639,1 by public exercises in the Centre Church, with an address by Noah Webster, followed by a dinner, at which the Society entertained delegates from similar societies in Rhode Island, New York, and Georgia.
In 1843 the work of the Society was greatly advanced, and its future assured, by its entering upon possession of the rooms provided for its use in Wadsworth Atheneum. The Atheneum building was not fully completed before July, 1844, as has already been stated. But the south- ern section, being the portion assigned to the Historical Society, was in readiness sooner, and was formally occupied Dec. 26, 1843, when suitable public exercises were held, and Thomas Day, President of the Society, delivered an historical address, specially devoted to a history of the Wadsworth family and of the property given to the Atheneum.
In 1844 an arrangement was made by which the Society received the library of the Rev. Thomas Robbins, D.D.,2 and secured his services
1 This observance should properly have been in 1839, when, however, the Society was not in active existence.
2 The Rev. Thomas Robbins, D.D. (H. U., 1838), was born at Norfolk, Aug. 11, 1777 ; graduated at Yale College in 1796 ; preached at East Windsor, 1809-1827 ; at Stamford, in 1830 ; Rochester, Mass., 1832-1842. His century sermon, preached at Danbury in 1801, went through several editions. He was also the author of the "First Planters of New Eng- land " and a " View of All Religions," and editor of Tytler's " Elements of General History." His manuscript private diary is in the Connecticut Historical Society's library.
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MEMORIAL HISTORY OF HARTFORD COUNTY.
as librarian. By his will, made in conformity with this agreement, the library became the property of the Society on his decease, in 1856. The books thus obtained were a remarkable collection, both intrinsically and in view of the circumstances under which they were gathered. In a commemorative address on Dr. Robbins, delivered before the Society Sept. 16, 1856, by the Hon. Henry Barnard, then its president, he spoke of the library as follows : -
" Dr. Robbins has always been a home missionary, or the pastor of a coun- try parish. He commenced his collection while in college by preserving his text-books; and in 1809 made a formal beginning of a permanent library by making a catalogue of his entire stock, consisting of one hundred and thirty volumes, with a determination that he would add at least one hundred volumes a year as long as he should live. ... From this small ... beginning in 1809, by denying himself all superfluities, out of a modest income, Dr. Robbins per- severed, adding year after year at least one hundred volumes to his collection, till, instead of a few shelves in a single case, we now see this spacious hall filled with many thousands of choice and valuable books."
As might be supposed, Dr. Robbins's books were largely of a theo- logical nature ; but at the same time his taste for wide and general reading led him to the purchase of many works in all departments of litera- ture, while his love of historical knowledge made him a diligent col- lector of works in that field, and he was one of the earliest to gather from book-stalls and garrets the books and especially the pamphlets relating to early American history, which are now so eagerly sought. His collection in this field, largely supplemented by donations from other members and friends of the Society, places its library in the front rank for value, and use to the student of New England history. The estimated number of volumes in the library is twenty thousand.
True to its original mission as expressed in the preamble of its act of incorporation, the Society has also made large collections of histori- cal relics, portraits, etc., and its cabinets are rich in objects of interest for their connection with American history and prehistoric archaeology. It has also been made the depository for many valuable manuscripts, conspicuous among which are the collections of papers left by Colonel Jeremiah Wadsworth, and particularly the Wolcott manuscripts, in- cluding a vast mass of letters and papers connected with the adminis- tration of Oliver Wolcott, Jr., as Secretary of the Treasury of the United States under Washington and Adams.
The rooms of the Society have always been opened freely to the public, and its books and manuscripts placed at the disposal of students, under necessary restrictions in the case of those of special value. It has also rendered efficient service to the study of history by the pub- lication of two volumes (others will soon follow) of Collections, con- taining valuable papers heretofore inaccessible to the ordinary student. Its publication fund was established in 1855, by appropriating to that use a legacy left by the former president, Thomas Day, and has been increased by other similar gifts, - notably by a legacy of one thousand dollars by Daniel Goodwin.
The Hartford Library Association, formerly the Young Men's Insti- tute, which has already been referred to as the occupant, by Mr. Wads- worth's intention, of one section of the Atheneum building, was
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LIBRARIES.
organized in 1838, but was the successor of a much older institution of a similar character. Following the lead of other prominent towns in the colonies, among which Philadelphia, with its Library Company or- ganized by Benjamin Franklin in 1738, has the place of honor, a movement was set on foot in Hartford in 1774 (or late in 1773) for the establishment of a public library. In the "Connecticut Courant " of Feb. 22, 1774, appeared a notice, warning "the subscribers for a public library " to " meet at the Grammar School-House " for the pur- pose of making an organization. The following week the "Courant" contained an address to the public in behalf of the movement, calling attention to "the Utility of Public Libraries consisting of well-chosen Books under proper Regulations, and their smiling Aspect on the Inter- ests of Society, Virtue, and Religion."
The society thus organized was at first known, as appears from occasional notices of its meetings occurring in the "Courant," as the Librarian Company, but subsequently as the Hartford Library Com- pany. Few facts as to its history are now obtainable. From the notices alluded to, and from other meagre sources of information at hand, it appears that the library soon grew to fair proportions, and con- tained the standard books of that day in the various departments of literature. A list of books is extant among the papers of Colonel Jeremiah Wadsworth, which were imported by him for the library. Some of these earliest purchases are still to be found on the shelves of the Hartford Library, bearing book-plates of the old company ; and as they are not of the class of books now most read, they are likely to endure many years yet.
In 1838, as a result of the movement, at that time so wide-spread and energetic, for "lyceums" and "institutes" for literary culture, and through the efforts of Henry Barnard and other young men sharing his spirit, the Hartford Young Men's Institute came into existence, and in 1839 the old Library Company conveyed to it its library of three thousand volumes, and thus put a period to its own honorable existence of sixty-five years. The shareholders in the old company were allowed life-rights in the new Institute, and two of these life-rights survive, one being held by Thomas M. Day, of Hartford, and the other by W. D. Ely and R. S. Ely, non-resident. At first, lectures and debating classes held a prominent place among the objects of the Institute, and throughout the period of popularity of lyceum lectures, courses of lectures were an- nually provided, although they were for many years a source of expense to the institution rather than of income, it being considered a legitimate way of expending a portion of its funds ; and the lectures for the most part were of a high order of merit, and were instructive rather than merely entertaining. From 1839 to 1862 the lectures cost $9,644.66, and returned only $8,637.61, showing a net expense of $1,007.05. After 1862, under different management, tickets no longer being given free to the members of the Institute, and entertainments, literary and musical, of the highest order being furnished, they became the source of considerable profit ; so that in the eleven years from 1862 to 1873 the Institute made a gain from this source of $14,362.13; but so sudden was the collapse of the lecture system, that since 1874 no lectures or other entertainments have been given by the Institute. In view of this change, and of its gradually losing those other features which at
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