The memorial history of Boston : including Suffolk County, Massachusetts. 1630-1880, Vol. IV, Part 83

Author: Winsor, Justin, 1831-1897, ed; Jewett, C. F. (Clarence F.), publisher
Publication date: 1881
Publisher: Boston : Osgood
Number of Pages: 760

USA > Massachusetts > Suffolk County > Boston > The memorial history of Boston : including Suffolk County, Massachusetts. 1630-1880, Vol. IV > Part 83

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In 1674 the Charlestown Poor's Fund was founded, which now amounts to about $25,000, and is administered by the two senior deacons of each regularly organized church in Charlestown and the Charlestown members of the Boston City Council. In 1701 the Stoughton Poor Fund was estab- lished for the Dorchester poor; and in 1759 a Poor Widows' Fund, now administered by the Board of Aldermen, was given by Joanna Brooker and others to the town of Boston. Donations for the poor in Boston became so

lic uses, and in 1641 * enacted "that all gifts and and for a short period corporations and trustees under acts of incorporation, holding funds in trust for such purposes, were required by a law of the Commonwealth * to report to the Secre- tary of State. These acts, however, were re- pealed in 1866,t and there is now no public source of information or control as to funds held by individuals or private corporations, except through the action of a Court in special cases.

legacies given and bequeathed to the College, Schools of learning, or any publick use, shall be truly and faithfully disposed of according to the true and declared intent of the donors. And all and every person or persons betrusted to receive or improve any such gifts or legacies shall be liable from time to time to give account of their disposal and management thereof to the County Court of that Shire where they dwell, and where such estate shall lie, who are hereby empowered to require the same where need shall be, and to appoint feoffees of trust to settle and manage the same according to the will of the donors."

Protection and investigation are still secured for funds bequeathed to a city or town for char- itable, religious, and educational purposes ; t

· Ancient Charters, p. 52. t Gen. Sts, c. 30.

1 He was the fourth son of Governor Win- throp; recorder of the town of Boston, and, after his return to England, colonel of a reg- iment under Cromwell, and a member of one of his parliaments. "So much trusted by Crom- well that he designed, it is said, to appoint him successor to Major-General Harrison." - Sav- age's Geneal. Dict., iv. 613.

· Sts., 1860, c. 239; 1865, C. 271. 1 St , 1866, c. 75.

657

THE CHARITIES OF BOSTON, ETC.

numerous that less than forty years after the act of 1735, by an act passed in 1772, reciting that many charitably disposed person's had made or were inclined to make donations for the poor, but that the overseers of the poor not being incorporated these good intentions were frustrated, the overseers were made a body politic with the power to hold and apply these and other gifts " for the benefit, advantage, and use of" the poor, limiting their right to hold property at that time to the amount of £60,000.1

Since that time numerous gifts for different purposes have been added from time to time, until the total amount held by the overseers on April 30, 1881, amounted to $525,827.91, including $8,087.91 in cash, the remainder in investments reckoned at their par value. Among these the generous gifts of John Boylston for aged persons, orphans, and deserted children, called the Boylston Relief and Education funds, amounting to $134,983.49; and of David Sears, for various charitable purposes, amounting to $257,502.81, -deserve particular mention.

Other charitable gifts have been intrusted to public authorities for man- agement and control, - such as the bequest of Benjamin Franklin (1791), for loans to young married artificers, now amounting to about $250,000, in charge chiefly of the Board of Aldermen. The Boston City Hospital, mainly supported by the city, and the Chardon Street Charity Bureau, were also aided by private donations; and the Public Library is largely indebted to the generosity of Joshua Bates and others.2

III. PRIVATE CHARITABLE INSTITUTIONS. - In the recent Directory of the Charitable and Beneficent Organizations of Boston, issued by one of the societies called the Associated Charities, the different organizations are divided into twelve classes: 1. Industrial; 2. Government aid ; 3. Relief ir- respective of class; 4. Relief for special classes; 5. Aid for foreigners ; 6. Sick and defective; 7. Fruit and flower missions; 8. Homes; 9. Reform ;. IO. Humane; 11. Mutual benefit; 12. Educational and religious, including churches, - comprising a total number of 487. It appears that there are 187 different charitable agencies recorded, besides 46 mutual-benefit societies, 219 churches and chapels, and 35 colleges, schools, libraries, museums,

1 The earliest of these gifts to the over- seers, mentioned on their records, has a certain romantic interest, and offers a striking illustra- tion of the uncertainties of life. In 1760 a per- son, whose name remains to this day unknown, placed in the hands of the overseers a sum of money to be held by them, and "only the in- terest arising thereon to be by them given to such Person or Persons of good character who, by the Providence of God, have been reduced from affluence or good circumstances to Penury and Want." Twenty-five years after, the donor, in his own words, was "by the providence of . God called to solicit that charity which he once little expected to want."

The Board aided him from the funds in their VOL. IV. - 83.

hands, and, respecting his reluctance to per- mit the disclosure of his name, recorded their gifts as made to "A. B., known by the Board to be the person who, under that signature, gave £66 13s. 4d. into the hands of the overseers, . . . he being now reduced, and is a real object of the charity which his benevolence first insti- tuted." This donation now forms part of what is called in the overseers' accounts the " Pem- berton or General Fund," and may be consid- ered its foundation, although the gift of Benja- min Pemberton, an overseer in 1708, from whom this title is taken, was much larger. 'See his autograph on p. 647.

2 [See chapter on "Libraries," in the present volume. - ED.]

658

THE MEMORIAL HISTORY OF BOSTON.

missionary and tract societies, etc., assigned to the class designated as " educational and religious." Multiplied by their different objects, - that is, counting each institution in all the classes to which it belongs, - these agencies are increased to 695.

Omitting the churches, the mutual-benefit societies, and the State and national charities, but counting some charities entered in the Directory as sub-headings, we find that the Charities of Boston include 177 voluntary organizations for numerous and varied purposes, in addition to 13 estab- lished funds or charities intrusted to the public authorities for administra- tion, and 30 public institutions supported by taxes, while the churches and religious associations are also large almoners of charity. It is not easy to classify these institutions with exactness. Some which it has not been thought proper to include in this enumeration, -such as libraries and purely educational institutions, - are founded and supported largely by voluntary gifts, in part appropriated to the assistance of pupils; and are therefore fairly included in a catalogue of the good works and alms-giving of Boston.1

These institutions have rapidly increased with the population and wealth of the city, and the last decade, 1870-80, has given birth to sixty-seven of the one hundred and seventy-seven referred to. Dividing the two hundred and fifty years, which our Memorial volumes cover, into successive periods,2 we find that these were established or founded as follows: -

PERIOD.

Years.

Government charities supported by taxes.

Funds or gifts intrusted to the public authorities by individuals.

Private char- itable institutions.

Total.

1630-1700

1700- 17 50

. . .

1750-1775

. . .

1775-1800

. . .

1800-1810

. .

1810-1820

. . .

1820-1830

. .

1830-1840

1 5

1840-1850

1850-1860

1860-1870

1870-1880

9 *

. . .

1880-1881

. . .

Total

251

177

220

* Including Truant School department. NOTE. - The date of the removal or division of an almshouse is counted as a new institution.

1 [See Mr. Dillaway's chapter on "Educa- tion, Past and Present," and the instances of organized charities .under woman's control in

Mrs. Cheney's chapter on "The Women of Bos- . ton."- ED.]

2 Adding the current year.

659

THE CHARITIES OF BOSTON, ETC.

This catalogue of names, which fills over one hundred pages of the Directory, shows, like Homer's catalogue of the Grecian ships gathered for another warfare, how heartily and readily the men and women of Boston have joined with each other in the great siege, which has been bequeathed from sire to son, of the fortresses of poverty, ignorance, and crime. It is obviously impossible to give the briefest history of all these institutions. A few representatives only can be selected.

Af a moating the 6 of January 1 6 54.

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First among them in date is the " Scots' Charitable Society," which has the proud pre-eminence of a history almost coeval with the city, and pre- ceding by sixty-three years its nearest successor. "In 1652 . . . the ship ' John and Sara ' arrived, bringing two hundred and seventy-two Scotchmen who had been taken prisoners at the disastrous battle of Dunbar, where four thousand fell and ten thousand became prisoners of war to Cromwell. As the shortest way of disposing of these they were shipped off to the colonies, there to be sold for service for a longer or shorter period as the case might be.1 Five years after, in 1657,-for its history in brief to this

1 Address of its president at the bi-centen- p. 146. "In the 'Jno. & Sara,' of London, John nial celebration in 1857, in the Constitution and Greene, m' for New England, Robert Rich, By-laws of the Scots' Charitable Society, 1878, mrt Iron-worke, & household Stuffe, & other

660

THE MEMORIAL HISTORY OF BOSTON.

date can best be given in the quaint words of its records, -" Some Gen- tlemen Merchants and others of the Scots' Nation residing in Boston, New England, from a compassionate concern & affection to their indigent Countrymen in these parts, voluntarily formed themselves into a charitable Society, Anno Domini 1657. which did subsist some years. ... This char- itable design was again revived Anno Domini 1684; their Number and Abilities being considerably increased;" and "This Society has ever since without interruption been continued & promoted to the Compassionate and Seasonable Relief of many."1 And now besides its annual subscription it has a permanent fund, a temporary home for its beneficiaries, and a rest- ing-place for them after death in the cemetery at Mt. Auburn. And while . its members are proud of its association with their mother-country, “it would," in the words of Edward Everett, " be doing injustice to a society of this description, though it may bear a foreign name, to regard it as an institution of foreigners; " injustice, we may obert porteous 2 add, to the city which recognizes it as its earliest organized charity, and first among the twelve associations designed especially for the relief of persons of other nations, - British, Irish, German, French, Belgian, Italian, Portuguese, Hebrew, Scandinavian, and Swiss.

The next-born manifestation of permanent and organized private charity in Boston was the " Quarterly Charity Lecture," so called, founded by a few persons who held quarterly meetings on Sunday evenings for benevolent purposes, at which some member was invited to preach. The record of these meetings begins in 1720, when it was determined to invite the min- isters of the town to take their turns in this service. On March 6, 1720,

The Rev 2: Cotton mather Began March 6th 1/9/20. Preachil from XIII Hebrew 16 verf But to do good & to Communicate forget not top 0 with Such Sacrifices God is roel Bleafed There was frithered.

30: 10 - Distributed to 65 Perfora

Cotton Mather commenced the long succession which continued until 1860, when the quarterly lecture became annual; but the charity, its fund, and its lecture still exist, and its record bears many honored names. Eight Congregational churches, with their ministers and deacons, are associated

provisions for Planters and Scotch prisoners, free by ordinance of Parliament, dat 20th Octo- ber, 1651."-Suffolk Deeds, lib. I, fol. 6.

1 Constitution, etc., p. 47.

2 Autograph of Robert Porteous, the first ".boxmaister " or treasurer, elected Jan. 6, 1657.

661

THE CHARITIES OF BOSTON, ETC.

for its maintenance, and hold and distribute its charity. There are two funds for the benefit of the poor of Boston, yielding from $1,500 to $1,800 yearly, and it is required that these should be distributed at the lecture, and a collection taken up at least annually. The Charity Lecture is the earliest of nineteen private charitable institutions or funds designed for the poor in general, irrespective of class.

The Massachusetts General Hospital is the earliest establishment of that description, and the largest charity of its class in the State. It was incor- porated in 1811, and up to 1881 had received at its asylum for the insane in Somerville, opened in 1818, 6,556 patients; at its hospital in Boston, opened in 1821, 64,420; and had administered relief at the latter to 235,818 out-patients. It has received donations amounting to $2,586,924, besides a subscription of nearly $100,000 for a Convalescent Hospital. Twenty-seven private and three public or government hospitals and dispensaries carry on this benevolent work for the sick and defective classes within the limits of Boston or in its vicinity. These institutions, especially the first, have not only administered relief to the sick, suffering, and poor, but have largely aided scientific discovery and professional education.1

Successive years record the birth, among the more important of these institutions, of the Eye and Ear Infirmary, in 1824; of the Institution for the Blind, in 1829; the Lying-in Hospital, in 1832; the House of the Good Samaritan, in 1860; the New England Hospital for Women and Children, in 1863 ; the various institutions of the "work of faith" begun by Dr. Cullis in 1864; and the Adams Nervine Asylum, in 1877.

The Perkins Institution and Massachusetts School for the Blind deserves especial mention. It preserves the name of a citizen of Boston who was Jamey Hour. one of the first to set the example of the generous gifts which we are proud to recall,2 and it must be forever associated with the untiring devotion of Samuel G. Howe, whose studies and labors have made philanthropy

" On darkling man in pure effulgence shine,

And cheer the clouded mind with light divine."

Since its foundation at least twenty-nine similar institutions, established in as many different States, have given the light of instruction to some eight thousand pupils.

1 It should never be forgotten that in the Massachusetts General Hospital the success of the great discovery of the anasthetic properties of ether was first established and publicly and experimentally demonstrated to the world. [See the chapter on "Medicine in Boston" in this volume .- ED.]

specimens of humanity to which our city has ever given birth, leading the way for half a cen- tury in every generous enterprise, and setting one of the earliest examples of those munificent charities which have given our city a name and a praise throughout the earth." - Memoir of Thomas Handasyd Perkins, by Thomas G. Cary :

2 Of Mr. Perkins, Robert C. Winthrop said, Boston, 1856, p. 258. [His portrait is given on after his decease : " He was one of the noblest .P. 118 .- ED.]

662

THE MEMORIAL HISTORY OF BOSTON.

Another class is that of the Homes for the aged, for orphans, and the infirm, which take the place in private charity that the almshouse holds in public institutions. Of these the Boston Female Asylum, established in 1800, was the first; and now some thirty-three establishments of this class open their doors for those in need, from helpless infancy to homeless age. In addition to three organizations or foundations for improved dwellings for the poor, the Industrial Aid Society, 1835, and the Needlewoman's Friend Society. 1847, are the leaders of thirteen different organizations designed to assist in providing employment. There are twenty-one establishments to promote reform, like the Penitent Female's Refuge, 1818, and the Society for Aiding Discharged Convicts, 1846; and five institutions to save life or pre- vent suffering, like the Humane Society of Massachusetts,1 and that for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, 1868. To these may be added those de- signed for mutual benefit, - the oldest of which is the Masonic Fraternity, - and those for educational and religious purposes.

At an early period the exertions of the charitable citizens of Boston were devoted to the object which modern charity considers the wisest mode of giving aid, - helping the poor to help themselves, by providing employ- ment for them and making them independent of alms-giving. A society was established in 1749 for encouraging industry and employing the poor. At first it seemed to meet with no little success. It produced what was called the Spinning Craze, described elsewhere in this work,2 and caused the erection of a building, long famous in the town; but the institution con- tinued but a few years, and the building was finally disposed of for other purposes.

In 1827 the Young Men's Benevolent Society was established under the restriction that no relief should be given without an actual visit in the first instance by some member of its standing committee. The labors of Joseph Tuckerman for the elevation of

Jooph Zuckerman. august 15. the poor, in the "Ministry at 1810. large," and for the promotion, not merely of religious offices and instruction for the poor, but in great measure for their more judicious treatment, and the history of such establishments as the Benevolent Frater- nity of churches, city missions, and free chapels deserve all the space al- lotted to our subject and more commendation than can be compressed into these lines.

In 1851 the Boston Provident Association was formed, designed to em- brace a larger field of operation and based upon the principle of careful investigation by friendly visitation and inquiry. The city was divided into districts, to each of which a visitor was assigned, by whom a limited amount

1 Incorporated in 1791, "for the recovery of persons who meet with such accidents as pro- duce in them the appearance of death, and for promoting the cause of humanity by pursuing such means from time to time as shall have for

their object the preservation of human life and the alleviation of its miseries," and well known for its rewards and provisions, especially on the sea-coast, for saving life.

2 [See Vol. II. pp. 72, 461, 462, 511. - ED.]

663

THE CHARITIES OF BOSTON, ETC.

of aid was given and reports made as a guide for further action. The excel- lent principles upon which this organization was founded, and the character of the men engaged in its administration at once secured the favor and lib- eral support of the community. Its managers perceived the great impor- tance of the harmonious and concurrent action of the various charitable agencies of the city upon some system by which the knowledge and inves- tigation of each might be made available for all; and Robert C. Winthrop, then president, early recommended that a central building should be pro- vided for the overseers of the poor, and voluntary charitable organizations, where they might easily communicate with each other and act in concert,1 - and ultimately such a building, finished in 1868, now designated as the "Charity Building," was erected on Chardon Street, partly by voluntary subscriptions, but mainly at the cost of the city, where the overseers of the poor, the city physician, and a number2 of private charitable organizations or agencies have offices and easy opportunities for immediate conference. A further advance was made in 1879 by the establishment of the " Associated Charities of Boston," designed to bring all the charitable agencies of the city into closer co-operation, and especially to aid the citizens of Boston to make use of these agencies readily and understandingly. This society has already done admirable service. Its object is to help the poor to help themselves ; to guide them to relief, if possible by their own exertions, but if it is neces- sary, and only while it is necessary, to the sources of relief which already exist in abundance, and to detect imposture and prevent pauperism.

IV. GENERAL UNORGANIZED CHARITIES AND CONTRIBUTIONS TO THE DISTRESSED OF OTHER PARTS. - An examination of the files of a Boston newspaper for the last sixty-nine years (1813-1880) displays the varied forms in which the charity of its citizens has constantly manifested itself, and illustrates its growth in the wealth which supplies the means for gifts to re- lieve the misfortunes and sufferings which, like this charity, know no limit in time or place.

" By fire, flood, famine, by intemperance more in meats and drinks, . . . . . All maladies

Of ghastly spasm or racking torture,

Demoniac frensy, moping melancholy, And moon-struck madness, pining atrophy, and wide wasting pestilence."

The voluntary gifts, in addition to the public expenditures, for education exceed those for any other special purpose. "War and soldiers " hold the next rank. Hospitals and gifts for the afflicted, - for religion, seamen, fires,

1 In his words : "An edifice dedicated and ("Memorial of the officers of the Boston Provi- consecrated to the care of the destitute, . . . dent Association.") - See Annual Report, 1875. whose object and occupation . . . give it a beauty above any architectural embellishment."

2 Eleven, at present, are represented in the building.

664

THE MEMORIAL HISTORY OF BOSTON.

famines, floods and pestilence, - are all conspicuous. The blind, the aged, the orphan, the dumb and the deaf are remembered, and no part of the world is neglected. A famine in Ireland, the Azores, or Syria; a revolu- tion in Greece; the yellow-fever in Memphis; a rebellion in Crete; suffer- ings by war in France; conflagrations in the United States and elsewhere ; an earthquake in Chios; a captured fugitive slave; a destitute laborer suffering from an accident; a poor woman who has lost her purse, - every form of suffering, deprivation, loss, or destitution promptly call forth the gifts of those who do not yet stay their constant contributions for sci- ence, education, or religion, or the numerous objects which demand for their support the steady flow of voluntary beneficence. To send the missionary and the schoolmaster abroad, Boston is always ready. In this mode alone there appear to be recorded -

Gifts for purposes within the city of Boston . $14,995,200

Gifts for purposes without the city of Boston 3,767,756

Total

$18,762,9561

Divided as follows: -

For general and miscellaneous purposes .

$9,592,334

For educational purposes .

5,979,036

For war and soldiers

1,863,446

For religious purposes .

1,212,755

For individuals

115.384

For sufferers by fires (included in the above)

1, 187,937

It gives no sufficient idea of these gifts to record these figures and the names of the givers or sufferers. The friendly rivalry, the public opinion which encourages the willing and stimulates the reluctant, the silent sympathy and the unvalued time, labor, and actual expenditure of money in obtaining and transmitting such contributions cannot be recorded ; and these figures are not offered as an exhibition or even as an approxi- mate statement of the voluntary contributions actually made, but only as a collection of those which have been, more fully of late years, thus pre- served. Nor can the subdivisions thus obtained be accepted as precise, but only as approximate, and as they appear from the files to an examiner. A comparison with the table hereafter given of the amount now held for charitable purposes, and with any estimate of the addition due to a just con- sideration of annual expenditures and of gifts unknown and unrecorded, will illustrate these statements and assist the reader to a conclusion; but it is impossible to give a satisfactory history of such contributions in detail, and some illustrations and examples only can be given. From 1813 to 1881 contributions are recorded for thirty-one fires, - eleven in Boston and twenty in other places, four within and sixteen without the State of Massa- chusetts,2-including over four hundred and fifty thousand dollars for the

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The memorial history of Boston : including Suffolk County, Massachusetts. 1630-1880, Vol. IV, Part 83

Author: Winsor, Justin, 1831-1897, ed; Jewett, C. F. (Clarence F.), publisher Publication date: 1881 Publisher: Boston : Osgood Number of Pages: 760

Author: Winsor, Justin, 1831-1897, ed; Jewett, C. F. (Clarence F.), publisher
Publication date: 1881
Publisher: Boston : Osgood
Number of Pages: 760