History of Indianapolis and Marion County, Indiana, Part 68

Author: Sulgrove, Berry R. (Berry Robinson), 1828-1890
Publication date: 1884
Publisher: Philadelphia : L.H. Everts & Co.
Number of Pages: 942

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Charity Organization Society .- Central Council : S. T. Bowen, W. E. Krag, George W. Sloan, H. Bamberger, J. H. Holliday, E. B. Martindale, A. L. Wright, C. C. Foster, M. W. Reed, George B. Wright, Aug. Bessonies, T. P. Haughey, V. K. Hendricks, T. A. Hendricks, Peter Lieber, J. W. Murphy, E. C. Atkins, N. Morris, C. M. Martindale, O. C. Mc- Culloel.

Indianapolis Benevolent Society .- President, Oscar C. McCulloch ; Vice-Presidents, Myron W. Reed, Chapin C. Foster, Mrs. L. W. Moses, Mrs. Paulina Merritt; Treasurer, Ingram Fletcher ; Secretary, Henry D. Stevens ; Executive Committee, George Merritt, Franklin Taylor, Mrs. Julia H. Goodhart, Mrs. Emma L. Elam ; Finance Committee, Cyrus C. Hines, Thomas H. Sharpe.

Flower Mission .- President, Mrs. Hannah G. Chapman ; Vice-Presidents, Mrs. G. T. Evans, Mrs. H. McCoy; Secretaries, Mrs. V. K. Hendricks, Mrs. Helen B. Mckinney ; Treasurers, Mrs. Helen Wright, Mrs. W. J. McKee.

Flower Mission Training-School .- Committee on Organization, Mrs. Hannah G. Chapman, chairman ; Mrs. John M. Judah, Mrs. John A. Holman, Mrs. Julia H. Goodhart, Mrs. George T. Evans, Mrs. A. D. Lynch, Mrs. R. R. Parker, Mrs. Theodore P. Haughey, Mrs. John H. Stewart, Miss Mary C. !

Rariden, Mrs. B. D. Walcott, and Miss Sue Martin- dale.

The Organization in its last publication makes a more specific statement of duties and labors in the following summary :

INDIANAPOLIS BENEVOLENT SOCIETY .- Founded 1876. Gives relief; operates the Friendly Inn, for transients ; the Friendly Inn Wood-Yard, for giving work to all out of work ; the Employment Agency, for finding work for women aod girls; the Industrial Committee, for giviog work in sewing ta women; the Friendly Visitors, for bringing the poor under the personal care of some friend. The society expects also to open a school for teaching girls that which they shall practice when they become women, -- sewing, housekeeping, cooking, etc.

CHARITY ORGANIZATION SOCIETY .- Organized December, 1879. This society does not give relief. It is, as its name signifies, a society for organizing charity. It proposes to meet a scientific panperism with a scientifie charity. It co-ordinates the charitable forces. It brings all interested in the work of help- ing the poor together. It exchanges information. It registers all information concerning dependent and neglected classes. It investigates all cases applying for aid. It publishes the best methods of caring for the needy. It covers the field with watchful visitors, who see that Do suffering is unrelieved. It distributes among societies ready to help, those who are needy and worthy. It watches the administration of public funds as regards the poor and criminal. It wants to know the reason why certain abuses and wrongs exist, which may be remedied. It organizes the charitable and moral forces of the community, in order to counteract the evils incident to city life. It is a bureau of information, a clearing-house of charities, a commercial agency of records of the poor.

THE FLOWER MISSION .- Founded in 1876. The work of this society lies among the sick. It dis- tributes flowers in the hospital ; looks after the sick poor, seeing that they have proper food ; provides nurses, bedding ; provides original appliances for crip- pled children. It is woman caring for women and children, nourishing and visiting.

THE TRAINING-SCHOOL FOR NURSES .- This, an

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outgrowth of the Flower Mission work, was begun in September, 1883. Its design is to train a body of skilled nurses to nurse among the siek poor and in the homes of the city. The school is now in opera- tion at the City Hospital; has a superintendent and two trained nurses from Bellevue Hospital, and six pupil nurses. It gives a two years' course of instruc- tion to women, thus opening up a new profession and aiding the physician by an intelligent helper.

In the construction of this admirable organization, as well as in the prosecution of its multifarious labors, Rev. Oscar C. MeCulloch, of Plymouth Church, has borne his share and rather more, and very fairly stands at the head of it. Whether without him would any part of it have been made that is made, is a question. What these affiliated bodies have done, each in its own province, is stated in the following summary :

Number of applications for aid, 1391 ; number of persons in these families, 4752.

Class I .- Cases worthy of relief : Orphans, 9 ; aged, 69; ineurable, 13; temporary illness or accident, 534 ; total, 625.

Class II .- Cases needing work rather than relief, but relieved : Out of work, able and willing, 85; io- sufficient work, able and willing to do more, 170; unfitted by infirmity or family cares for all but special kinds, 56; shiftless, imprudence or intemperance, 76; others, 30; total, 387.

Class III .- Cases not requiring, unworthy, or not entitled to relief, relief denied : Not requiring, 79; owning property, having relatives able to support, hopelessly shiftless or improvident, 149 ; preferring to live on alms, 111; others, 40; total, 379.

Aided from the various societies, 1012.

Refused, 370.

INDIANAPOLIS BENEVOLENT SOCIETY .- Amount expended in direct relief, $2286.24. Friendly Inn- Lodgings furnished, 4188; meals furnished, 8203; strangers cared for, 382 ; number employed in yard, 2725. Employment Agency-Employers' appliea- tions, 305 ; employés' applications, 267 ; number of girls registered, 2136. Industrial Committee- Women given work, 20. Friendly Visitors-No ac- count is kept of visits.

FLOWER MISSION .- During the year the Flower Mission has eared for two hundred and one different cases. The number under eare each month is as fol- lows :

1882. November .... 62

1883. May .. .... 61

December ... 81

June

1883. January 79

July. 44

February 72

August ... 40

March

September. 40

April

October. 30

690

In addition, the Flower Mission united with the ladies of the Benevolent Society, Children's Aid, Woman's Christian Temperanee Union, and interested individuals in giving a pienie to the poor children of the city. Ahout eight hundred went to Salem. The success of it may be inferred from the remark of a boy that " The grub is better even than a fellow gets in jail."

The following list embraces every charitable organ- ization and agency in the eity, with its location and time of meeting, where meeting is necessary to action. Of most of these no further account is necessary than is furnished by its name and object. Of a few, however, the history extends over a considerable period, and requires a more extended notice, which will follow this :

Charity Organization Society .- Central office, Plymouth Building; Distriet office, Nos. 1 and 2 Plymouth Building. Committee meets on Tuesdays at 3.30 P.M.

Indianapolis Benevolent Society. - Plymouth Building, south parlor.

Employment Agency .- For girls and women, at same place ; for men and boys, at Friendly Inn.

Friendly Inn and Wood- Yard .- No. 290 West Market Street.

Industrial Committee .- Meets during the winter on Wednesdays, at Benevolent Society room, at two o'eloek.

Friendly Visitors .- Meet on Wednesdays, at half- past three o'clock, at the Central office.

Flower Mission .- Mrs. Hannah L. Chapman, president, No. 617 North Meridian Street. Weekly meetings on Thursdays, at Plymouth Building.

Flower Mission Training-School for Nurses .-

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HISTORY OF INDIANAPOLIS AND MARION COUNTY.

At the City Hospital ; Home, No. 274 West Vermont Street.

Indianapolis Orphan Asylum .- Corner of College and Home Avenues, Mrs. Hannah Hadley, president.

Home for Friendless Women .- Corner Eighth and Tennessee Streets, Mrs. Mary R. Bullitt, matron.

Colored Orphan Asylum .- Corner Twelfth and Mississippi Streets.

German Orphan Asylum .- West side of Reed Street, north of Cyprus.

St. Vincent's Hospital .- Vermont Street, corner of Liberty.

Little Sisters of the Poor .- Vermont Street, corner of Liberty.

Township Trustee .- Ernest Kitz, office No. 10} East Washington Street.

City Dispensary .- No. 34 East Ohio Street.

City Hospital. - Corner Locke and Margaret Streets.

Children's Aid Society .- Having care of neglected and dependent children.

Charity Kindergartens .- Corner West and Mc- Carty Strects ; No. 280 West Market Street.

Maternity Society .- Plymouth Building.

The Orphans' Home .- This, the oldest of the local asylums of the eity, was prejected by the old Benevolent Society in 1849, and an organization formed in November of that year. In January, 1850, it was chartered by the Legislature, and the first officers were .Mrs. A. W. Morris, president ; Mrs. Alfred Harrison, Mrs. William Sheets, Mrs. Judge Morrison, vice-presidents ; Mrs. Isaac Phipps, treasurer ; Mrs. Hollingshead, secretary ; Mrs. Wil- kins, depository; Mrs. Calvin Fletcher, Mrs. Gray- don, Mrs. Maguire, Mrs. I. P. Williams, Mrs. Cressy, Mrs. Williams, Mrs. Willard, Mrs. Underhill, Mrs. Irvin, Mrs. Dr. Dunlap, Mrs. I. Hall, Mrs. Bradley, managers ; Mrs. Duncan, Mrs. Ferry, Mrs. Paxton, Mrs. Dunn, Mrs. Campbell, Mrs. A. F. Morrison, Mrs. McCarty, Mrs. Myers, Mrs. Brouse, Mrs. Wise- man, visiting committee; Messrs. N. McCarty, Alfred Harrison, Judge Morrison, William Sheets, Judson R. Osgood, Ovid Butler, A. G. Willard, Henry Ohr, John Wilkins, advisory committee. The Home has been uniformly well managed. Though largely de-

pendent on the contributions of the charitable, the indefatigable zeal of its managers has succeeded in keeping it always in effective condition. The County Board pays twenty-five eents a day for the board of each inmate, but that is all the public support it gets. The city government gives nothing. During the year ending May, 1883, two hundred and fifty-two children were taken care of at the Home, thirty- three placed in permanent situations, and one hun- dred and three returned to their relatives or friends. Since last May the demand upon the asylum has been larger than ever, and in January, 1884, there were one hundred and twenty-four children in it at one time, and but three of these over twelve years old.

The average number of the family was one hun- dred ; sixty were attending the public school in the building, under charge of a competent teacher fur- nished by the school board ; forty under six years of age have been taught by the kindergarten system, also conducted in the building. There is a good Sunday-school also maintained in the institution. Of the property of the institution, the president, Mrs. Hadley, says,-

"In 1854 two city lots were purchased for the location of the asylum, and a third one donated by James P. Drake. In 1855 the first building was erected, costing twelve hundred dollars. In 1869 the building was enlarged at a cost of three thou- sand dollars, and at that time could accommodate thirty-five children. The increasing demand for charity towards this class in the growth of our city has been such that the managers have had to secure a larger building to supply better accommodations, and have leased the Christian College building, on College Avenue, for a time, which lease has nearly expired. The managers hope to be able to raise a sufficient sum to build a good substantial house on the old ground belonging to them on North Tennessee Street, one which will answer the future demand for many years to come."

The German Protestant Orphan Asylum was organized on the 11th of August, 1867, with Mr. Frederick Thoms as president. In 1869-70 a lot of six and three-quarter acres was purchased on the

383

ORDERS, SOCIETIES, AND CHARITABLE INSTITUTIONS.

south bank of Pleasant Run, on Pleasant Avenue, and a handsome building erected, which constitutes the chief ornament of that recent suburb of the city. The grounds around it are well laid out and finely improved with trees and shrubbery and flowers. The following extract from the report of President Russe shows the condition of the institution :

In 1883 the number of inmates was twenty-eight boys and twenty-six girls. The expense per head per year is eighty-nine dollars, besides donations. After a child is fourteen years of age we bind it out to a responsible party to learn a trade or business.

RECEIPTS FOR 1883.

Ducs from members $656.00

From excursions and festivals

1991.00

From the county.

4553.00

$7200.00

EXPENSES FOR 1883.

Salaries

To matron, hired man, five hired girls, and one servant .. $1000.18

For household expenses. 1952.00

Forfurniture, wagon, feed, books, etc. 750.00

For repairs, etc ...

500 00

$3702.18

Value of property, forty-one thousand dollars ; money on interest, twenty-six hundred dollars ; money on hand, two thousand dollars. Directors, A. Henry Russe, president; Chris. Off, viec-presi- dent ; Henry Rosebrock, recording secretary ; H. W. Hartman, financial secretary ; Henry Roscner, treas- urer. Trustees, C. Russe, Fred. Thoms, H. H. Koch, Henry Mankedick, H. Hartman, William Tecken- brock, William Wieland, Ewald Over, Harvey Pauli, Gus. Sommer, Chris. Wiese. Matron, Libby Weis- gerber.

Colored Orphan Asylum .- On the south west cor- ner of Twelfth and Mississippi Streets. The associa- tion that founded this beneficent charity was com- pleted on the 26th of February, 1870. The building was erected and occupied in 1871. It is a large, sub- stantial brick, with ample grounds about it, and under good direction. A well-ventilated nursery and dormi- tory have been added to the original building, and Mrs. Trueblood, president, says that a considerable enlargement will be made this (1884) spring, the means having been provided by contributions of gen-

erous friends of the orphans. It was opened for the reception of pupils in June, 1871. There are sixty- two children in it at present, and between six and seven hundred have found a home there since it was opened. The county board pays twenty-five cents a day for the board of each child, " which provides for the wants of the family, including the matron," Mrs. Anna E. Stratton, nurse, seamstress, cook, and laundry help. There has always been a school and a teacher in the institution, where the children who are old enough are given a fair education. Mrs. True- blood says, " Many are quick to learn, and they are also taught, out of school hours, to assist in any work that they are able to do. They are also taught in Sunday-school, in which their singing and memorizing of texts are very interesting."

Home for Friendless Women .- This institution is an outgrowth of the war. The soldiers, and float- ing population living by plunder and chance upon the soldiers, brought a plague of harlots here, and in May, 1862, Mayor Caven called the attention of the Council to the evil, and its effect in filling the jail with such inmates. He recommended the erection of a house of refuge for them, but nothing was done. In July of the year following the late Stoughton A. Fletcher made a proposition to the Council to give seven acres of ground just south of the city, be- tween the Bluff and Three Notch roads, for a Re- formatory, if the city would put a suitable house upon it. The donation was accepted, and five thousand dollars appropriated to the house. Plans were adopted, a board of trustees created, and contracts let. Then prices advanced so greatly under the in- fluence of the war that the work was stopped in 1864, after eight thousand dollars had been expended and a fine stone basement built, and never resumed till recently, when it was taken in hand by one of the Catholic Sisterhoods, as related in the account of the Catholic Church and its charities here. Meanwhile, in 1866, a society for the aid and improvement of abandoned women was formed, with boards of trus- tees and directors, and with the aid liberally extended, and with the co-operation of the Young Men's Chris- tian Association, a house of nine rooms was obtained on North Pennsylvania Street, for the service mainly

384

HISTORY OF INDIANAPOLIS AND MARION COUNTY.

of female prisoners in the jail. Obvious good was the result, but the location was too public, and steps were taken to obtain a better situation. For this purpose the eity and county each gave seven thou- sand five hundred dollars. A site on North Tennes- see Street was found, and with the publie appropria- tions and donations of city lots by James M. Ray, Wm. S. Hubbard, and Calvin Fletcher, and Stillman Witt, of Cleveland, a suitable building was erected by May, 1870. It was dedicated May 21st, the services being conducted by Rev. Drs. Scott, Holliday, and Day. It was fifty-seven by seventy-five feet, three stories, with forty-nine comfortable rooms, and capable of housing healthfully one hundred inmates. On the 23d of September, four months after its dedication, it was nearly destroyed by fire, the loss exceeding the amount of insurance by several thousand dollars. The Home was temporarily removed to 476 North Illinois Street, and the burned building reconstructed in the same style and as substantially as before. The following statement has been kindly furnished for this work by Mrs. Todd, the treasurer :

The Indianapolis Home for Friendless Women was incorporated March 11, 1867. Inmates (adults and children) have averaged from five hundred to six hundred annually. Yearly expenditures from two thousand five hundred to three thousand dollars. Has received no funds from the city for several years. Mr. E. J. Peck left to it five thousand dollars. The income from this is its only permanent source of sup- port. The county commissioners gave last year (1883) three hundred dollars. Its work-fund and the voluntary gifts of its friends supply the remainder. The trustees and managers are members of the various Protestant churches in the city. It is not controlled by any denomination.

Its board of managers are the following ladies : Mrs. Judge Newman, president ; Mrs. J. L. Ketcham, vice-president ; Mrs. N. A. Hyde, secretary ; Mrs. C. N. Todd, treasurer; Mrs. J. M. Ray, Mrs. T. H. Sharpe, Mrs. J. H. Vajen, Mrs. Conrad Baker, Mrs. A. L. Rouche, Mrs. E. Eckert, Mrs. M. Byrkit, Mrs. Dr. Newcomer, Mrs. H. Adams, Mrs. J. H. Ohr, Mrs. Jane Trueblood, Mrs. H. Hadley, Mrs. C. W. Moores, Mrs. T. P. Haughey, Mrs. Dr. Carey, Mrs. G. D.

Emery, Mrs. Judge Gresham, Mrs. E. C. Atkins, Mrs. Dr. Burgess, Mrs. Abram W. Hendricks, Mrs. H. B. Sherman, Mrs. Gen. Coburn, Mrs. M. W. Burford, Mrs. Franklin Landers, Mrs. John T. Morrison.

Y. M. C. A .- Tlie associations of a religious char- aeter which apply themselves to charitable purposes as a part of their scheme of duty, are affiliated with the Young Men's Christian Association, of the origin and early history of which a brief sketeh is given in the general history, and in the reference to the courses of lectures maintained in the city. In the other aspect of its services it deserves mention here, for its charitable ministrations have been unintermitting and invaluable. It has given much time and work to the establishment of mission Sunday-schools, and to the maintenance of religious services in waste places of the city where such a visitation was very improbable without such an agency. In 1871 it purchased the Exchange Block, on the east side of North Illinois Street, about half-way to Market from Washington, where had for several years been maintained the most fashionable saloon and gambling hell of the city. It bad also been used as a variety theatre. The price was twenty-four thousand dollars. It was mostly paid or secured, the building reconstructed, reading- rooms and comfortable meetings provided, and later bath-rooms and gymnastie apparatus were added, and have made it as favorite a resort for healthful aud moral purposes now as it used to be for purposes less commendable. Its resources are voluntary contribu- tions wholly.

The Women's Christian Association is an auxil- iary of this society, and a German branch co-operates with it, or used to. Prayer-meetings are held every day at 8 A.M., and the reading-rooms are open free every day from 8 A.M. to 10 P.M. A fee of six dollars obtains the use of all the bathing eonve- niences and others of the gymnasium for a year. The officers of the association are Samuel Merrill, presi- dent; Thomas C. Day, vice-president ; T. H. K. Enos, treasurer ; John Kidd, recording secretary ; Rev. John B. Brandt, general secretary. Mr. Brandt, however, resigned in 1884.

Besides the distinetively charitable associations, secret and public, thus far noticed, and the religious

385

ORDERS, SOCIETIES, AND CHARITABLE INSTITUTIONS.

associations that use their means and opportunities for benevolent work without organizing primarily for that purpose, there are a great many societies of workmen and persons connected by interests of one kind or another, like " trades unions," which give help to the needy of their members, but these are too numerous and, in the main, too evanescent to require notice here ; little more could be said of them than the mention of their names and locations, and that is the work of a directory rather than a history.

Cemeteries .- THE CITY CEMETERY. In the general history is given an account, upon the author- ity of Mr. Nowland's memoirs, of the selection of the first cemetery in Indianapolis, called the " old grave- yard" for one generation or more. It consisted of four acres on the east bank of the river, directly east of Governor's Island. The whole of the latter and a good deal of the other have been washed away. In 1834 the " new graveyard," as it was universally called,-it being a sort of fashion of those primitive times not to eall things by their right names, thus making " Main" Street of Washington, " diagonal" of avenue, " new graveyard" of Union Cemetery,-was laid out east of the old one selected in 1821, extend- ing from the border of that to Kentneky Avenue. The old one in time was taken altogether by the colored residents. The new one was very carefully platted and amply provided with carriage-ways to every little square. About. 1850, William Quarles built a private vault there, near the Kentucky Avenne side, and was laid there two years later. Evergreens were profusely planted by lot-owners, and a number of the original forest-trees retained, so that in a few years the cemetery was made a very attractive spot, and the only place approaching a park about the town The owners of the tract-Mr. MeCarty, Dr. Coe, Mr. Blake, Mr. Ray, and John G. Brown-made an agreement that all lots remaining unsold after fifty years, and all to which no heirs or assigns of the original purehasers appeared, should become the property of the survivor, who proved to be James M. Ray, who assigned his rights to the First Presbyterian Church. The new or Union Cemetery contained five aeres.

In 1852, Mr. Edwin J. Peek, president of the Van- dalia Railroad, laid off seven and a half aeres north

of both the old cemeteries into an addition. Messrs. Blake and Ray were associated in this cemetery too. It extended to the Vandalia tracks on the north and to West Street on the east, leaving an open tract of forest, beautifully undulating, between it and the river. This then belonged to a Philadelphia mer- chant firm, Siter, Price & Co., and was laid off in 1860 into a cemetery called Greenlawn, better planned and more expensively improved in graveled walks and sightly plats than either of its predecessors. It was never used. The southern portion, adjoining the old cemeteries, however, was largely used, or at least that part of it north of the " new graveyard." In 1862 the national government bought a narrow traet along the Vandalia railway for a graveyard for rebel prisoners who died here. Two or three hundred were buried here, but subsequently removed to Crown Hill, and the site is now used by the railroad com- pany for its round-house, wood-house, water-tanks, and blacksmith-shops. These were begun in 1870. There has been much discussion of projects for pro- euring a cemetery site out of the city instead of these combined old cemeteries now called the City Cemetery, but nothing has come of it yet.

THE HEBREW CEMETERY was established in 1856 on three acres of ground directly south of the Catho- lic Female Reformatory, between the Bluff and Three Notch roads. The larger part of the space is still unfilled, the Jews being rather a healthy people for cemetery service.

THE LUTHERAN CEMETERY consists of ten aeres purchased by the trustees of St. Paul's German Evangelieal Lutheran Church a little south of Pleas- ant Run, ou the east side of the Three Notch road. Its plats are large, its drive-ways well graveled and graded, and it contains some handsome monu- ments.

THE CATHOLIC CEMETERY contains eighteen acres, on the plateau of the north bluff of. Pleasant Run. It has been very handsomely but not uni- formly improved. The north half is used mainly by the Irish, the south by the German Catholics. The most striking monument in it, or, indeed, in any cemetery about the city, is the little chapel erected to the memory of the old pastor of St. Mary's (German)

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HISTORY OF INDIANAPOLIS AND MARION COUNTY.

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History of Indianapolis and Marion County, Indiana, Part 68

Author: Sulgrove, Berry R. (Berry Robinson), 1828-1890 Publication date: 1884 Publisher: Philadelphia : L.H. Everts & Co. Number of Pages: 942

Author: Sulgrove, Berry R. (Berry Robinson), 1828-1890
Publication date: 1884
Publisher: Philadelphia : L.H. Everts & Co.
Number of Pages: 942