USA > Massachusetts > Suffolk County > Boston > The memorial history of Boston : including Suffolk County, Massachusetts. 1630-1880, Vol. IV > Part 84
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1 These figures include gifts to organized societies.
2 While we write these lines a subscription
for sufferers by recent forest fires in Michigan, not included in the above, has already reached a sum of over $58,000.
665
THE CHARITIES OF BOSTON, ETC.
fire of 1871 in Chicago, and over three hundred and forty thousand dollars for the great fire of 1872 in Boston.
-In 1871 the terrible calamity which left a large portion of the city of Chicago in ashes, and caused a loss estimated at $200,000,000, awakened the prompt sympathy of Boston. The amount given reached a total of $452,241.51,1 - a contribution larger than that of any other city except New York. In 1872 Boston was visited with a like misfortune. The rep- resentatives of Chicago generously offered to assist the sufferers by like gifts, as well as to return a large sum which remained unexpended of this amount, and received with no little surprise the courteous refusal of the Boston committee to accept this return. The latter felt that they were only trustees of the funds they had received, and were not at liberty to divert the contributions of their fellow-citizens from their destined purpose, even to those among the latter who had suffered from a similar cause. The contributions of the citizens of Boston for the losses of its own sufferers by the great fire of 1872 amounted to $343,302.24.2
The contributions of Boston to the distressed of other parts have never
1 Including interest received on collections.
2 The great fire of 1872 was an event of suf- ficient importance for special notice in these volumes; and it seems proper to preserve in this place, as an illustration of the charities of Boston, the first report of the relief committee intrusted with these gifts :-
" After the immediate wants of the firemen and volun- teers who were injured had been attended to, the committee made permanent provision for the families of those who had been killed or injured, by placing in the hands of Martin Brimmer, Samuel D. Warren, Avery Plumer, William Endicott, Jr., and George Higginson $81,870.90 in trust ; and those gentlemen have and will continue to make liberal allowances to the families of all the members or volunteers of the fire department who suffered personal injury while on duty at the fire.
" The committee for the employment of women, located at Park Street, composed mostly of ladies, expended in aid of working women and girls, - furnishing them with clothing, food, rent, sewing-machines, and transportation, -$68,395.19.
" The committee for employment of men, located on Washington Street, expended for clothing, food, rent, and tools $19,051.33.
"The general committee (Chardon Street) furnished to families burned out, and to other sufferers, coal, wood, stoves, furniture, clothing, and other necessaries, expending therefor $74,616.35.
"The special committee of relief made loans, without interest or security, to small traders and mechanics who were burned out and desired to start again, in sums varying from $200 to $500; and in addition have loaned in several cases, upon policies of insurance, to enable the sufferers to immediately avail themselves of their insurance money. Gifts have been made to the aged and infirm who have been reduced to penury by their losses in consequence of the fire ; also a donation of $2,000 in money, and clothing to the amount of $1,600, to the Boston Provident Association, and $1,000 to the Industrial Aid Society, - both of these associations affording us valuable aid in our distribution.
" As it was soon apparent that the amount of subscrip- tion from our own people would amply suffice for all rea- VOL. IV. - 84.
sonable wants, the committee returned to the Relief Com- mittee of Detroit the ten thousand dollars ($10,000) sent us from the money remaining in their hands after the fire in that city in 1871; as also the sum of nine thousand dollars ($9,000) sent us by the Relief Committee of Milwaukee from similar funds. Letters were sent to Chicago, New York, Philadelphia, New Bedford, and Worcester, thanking the gentlemen and committees who had promptly visited us and proffered their sympathy and assistance. While from the liberality of the home subscriptions we were not obliged to receive from them pecuniary aid, we expressed our grati- fication at the promptness and heartfelt sympathy with . which it was tendered and pressed upon us.
" Applications are received from day to day from persons who have struggled on until now. Where there is sickness or infirmity, the committee repeat these gifts. It is not improbable that a very considerable portion of our present means will be needed the coming winter.
"The following is a statement of the Treasurer's ac- count to this date, Nov. 9, 1873 : -
Total amount of contributions, including . $825.57 for interest on deposit in New England Trust Company $343,302.24
Expended -
Immediate aid to families of Firemen . . $ 1,850.00 Paid trustees of Firemen's fund, William Endicott, Jr., Treasurer . . . 81,870.90
Paid Treasurer Fire Department relief fund
200.00
By Women's Committee, Park Street 68,595. 19
, Men's Committee, Washington Street 19,051.33
„ General Committee, Chardon Street 74,616.35
„ Special Committee 37,245.00
Repaid to Fire Committee Detroit . 10,000.00
" Milwaukee.
9,098.00
Expenses, including clerk hire, etc.
1,576.44
Balance on hand deposited in New Eng- land Trust Company
39,099 03
Total $343,302.24
BOSTON, Nov. 9, 1873.
OTIS NORCROSS, Treasurer."
666
THE MEMORIAL HISTORY OF BOSTON.
been ascertained and recorded. Now and then some single enterprise of philanthropy has been deemed worthy of a separate record; but this especially has been the charity. that "vaunteth not itself." Each in his generation recalls the liberal gifts which the news of some sudden or linger- ing calamity in a distant city or even in another hemisphere at once sud- denly elicits, the prompt organizations which frequent experience of such demands has made familiar, the voluntary committees of citizens and offi- cials, the quick announcement to the distant sufferers of the aid already on its way, the self-devoted laborers, and the numerous forms in which ready benevolence, not ending at home, has constantly manifested itself.
Good Mr. Peters's charity in buying provisions and distributing them to all the towns; the contributions for the ransom of the captives in Canada, -of which Judge Sewall writes in his Diary under date of Oct. 25, 1688 : " Presented my final account to his Excellency respecting the French con- tribution as he landed at Mrs. Gillam's Stairs, from seeing the sloops set sail with souldiers and provisions for the eastward,"-are early traces of this form of charity; and Drake records : " April 12 [1636] The ship 'Charity' of Dartmouth came near being cast away as she sailed into the harbor with a heavy northwest wind. She was of one hundred and twenty tons burden, and brought a timely supply of provisions which were at this time much needed. To prevent speculators oppressing the poor by buying up the provisions and holding them at extravagant prices, Mr. Peters bought up the whole cargo, by which operation 'he saved the country two hundred pds.' It was then distributed 'to all the towns as each town needed.' He had been laboring for some time to induce the people to establish a sort of magazine by buying up necessary articles when they were cheap, which should be well husbanded, and dealt out when they were scarce, at reason- able rates." 1
In 1677 certain captives had been taken by the Indians at Hatfield, and agents were appointed by the General Court to go to Canada to ransom them. The governor and magistrates reported their arrival at Albany, but " that great charges would arise for their redemption," and they therefore commended their case to the people of all the towns and invited them to contribute for their relief. Trustees were appointed to receive the con- tributions ; and three hundred and forty-five pounds one shilling and four- pence were raised, of which Boston contributed more than one hundred and nine pounds.2
The Greek Revolution of 1824 called forth the active sympathies of the modern Athens, and contributions large for the time, amounting to nearly sixteen thousand dollars, are recorded in its newspapers. There is no space to "enter into a detail of the proceedings by which the agents of the com- mittees succeeded in alleviating the miseries of thousands and tens of thousands of half-starving Greeks." In these proceedings Boston, repre- sented by Dr. Samuel G. Howe, had a large share.3
1 Drake's History of Boston, p. 190.
2 Ibid., p. 430.
3 Ilowe's Historical Sketch of the Greek Revo- lution, p. 447.
.
667
THE CHARITIES OF BOSTON, ETC.
Boston shared largely in the contributions from America for the relief of the sufferers by the famine of 1847 in Ireland and Scotland, - the most re- markable and interesting " contribution to the distressed of other parts " in its history. The New England committee received contributions to the value of $151,007.05 from ten different States, of which Massachusetts gave $116,641.96, and Boston $52,162.94. Seven vessels, - among them two United States war-vessels, the frigate "Macedonian," and the sloop-of-war " Jamestown," granted by Congress for that purpose, - bore these gifts to their destination; the "Jamestown" being under the command of Robert B. Forbes, of Boston. They were received with the warmest gratitude, and the givers recalled the generosity with which "divers Christians in Ireland " in 1676 had contributed " for the releiffe of such as are Impoverished, De- stressed, and in Nessessitie by the late Indian Warr," and sent this "releiffe" " to the distressed persons in New England by the Good ship call'd the Katherine, of Dublin." 1
In June, 1877, St. John, New Brunswick, was visited by a most disas- trous conflagration, which consumed property estimated at $28,000,000, left the most valuable portion of the city, - two fifths in area, - in ashes, and fifteen thousand persons homeless. The first expression of sympathy came from Boston, and its contributions of supplies were twice borne to the suffer- ers by a United States vessel, as thirty years before its gifts to the sufferers in Ireland had been committed to the "Jamestown " and "Macedonian." The total amount contributed by this city in money and supplies was over forty-four thousand dollars, - nearly twenty-seven thousand in money, and more in all than those received from any other city or town.
In 1830 Josiah Quincy endeavored to ascertain the " amounts received from the liberality of the citizens of Boston towards objects of a public nature, of a moral, religious, or literary character, chiefly within the last thirty years; "2 and estimated them at about $1,801,273, more than one half of which, he thought, had been given within the previous ten years. Samuel A. Eliot made a like attempt in regard to the period from 1830 to 1845;3 and including many donations for religious and educational purposes, but without taking into account collections in churches and gifts of private in- dividuals for special objects, such as Mr. Quincy had included, he obtained a total amount, given chiefly within the previous fifteen years, of $2,938,020. F. B. Sanborn, secretary of the Massachusetts Board of State Charities, 1865, collected further information, and estimated the total sum annually expended in private charity in Boston alone, including contributions in churches and public meetings, at not less than $500,000. He was of opinion that of Mr. Quincy's estimate at least two thirds, or about $100,000 per annum for fifteen years of the period he had taken, were given for the relief of pauperism alone. In 1877 the commission for the treatment of the poor in Boston made a similar attempt for the period of
1 N. E. Hist. and Geneal. Reg., ii. 245.
2 Centennial Address (1830), p. 65.
8 North American Review, July, 1845, vol. 61, p. 135.
668
THE MEMORIAL HISTORY OF BOSTON.
ten years from 1867 to 1876; and- with imperfect information from the churches applied to, and none as to gifts of individuals or public meetings for special objects at home or abroad, not represented by societies or indi- viduals from which recorded statistics could be obtained-reported a total sum for 1867 of $264,000, for 1876 of $531,300, and for the ten years of $3,838,700, expended in private relief alone. To this must be added the unrecorded gifts of which no satisfactory estimate can be made. The aggregate municipal expenditures for charitable purposes by the city of Boston for the same ten years are stated by the commissioners at $2,987,- 916.28; 1 so that it is still clearly true, as stated by Mr. Eliot in reference to the period of which he speaks, " that a much larger amount has been distributed by the individual inhabitants of Boston than by the city gov- ernment in the same term of time for the same or similar purposes."
An estimate from the best authority has been furnished of the amounts contributed in Boston to the American Board of Commissioners for For- eign Missions since its organization in 1810. "Its receipts from the city of Boston for twenty-five years (1856-1880) were $968,451. The gifts from Brighton, Charlestown, Dorchester, and Roxbury, during the same period prior to annexation, would amount to more than $31,549; and it is therefore an under-estimate to say that Boston has given to this object $1,000,000 during the last quarter of a century. Prior to that period the receipts from Boston cannot be given separately from others without a tedious canvassing of the original acknowledgments; but if we assume that they would bear the same proportion to the total receipts before 1856 as since that time, we reach an approximate result which cannot be regarded as too favorable to Boston. On this basis the entire receipts by the Board from the city in the seventy years of its history may be estimated at $1,700,000. In fact, if the full statement could be drawn out, there is little doubt that we should have to add $100,000, and perhaps as much more, to this sum; " and it is thought that it would not "be an over-estimate to say that probably not far from $2,000,000 have been thus contributed " from this source alone for these objects, while it must be re- membered that "this represents only the gifts to foreign missions from the churches and individuals connected with the Congregational churches, and that the large contributions for like purposes from other religious bodies are not included. Part of this sum is included in the contributions for religious purposes collected from the files of a Boston newspaper; but as the total of these contributions for use in and out of the city thus collected is about $1,200,000, it may be conjectured how far short the gifts so recorded are of the full measure of the charity and beneficence of Boston.
The largest missionary association of the Unitarian churches is the American Unitarian Association, founded in the year 1825. The Uni- tarians also support the Evangelical Missionary Society, the Society for Diffusing Christian Knowledge, and the Society for Promoting Theologi-
1 In addition to its proportion (amounting to $1,951,122.22) of State pauper expenses.
669
THE CHARITIES OF BOSTON, ETC.
cal Education. The accounts of the treasurers of these societies show that, in the last fifty-six years, they have contributed about $1,500,000 for missionary purposes. Of this sum rather more than $500,000 has been contributed in Boston.
The missionary contributions from Boston of other religious denomi- nations have not been ascertained.
Three citizens of Boston have recently made bequests valued now at nearly $3,000,000 for charitable and educational establishments not yet fully in operation.
John Simmons in 1870 left a sum, amounting now to about $1,400,000, to found the Simmons Female College, for the teaching of medicine, music, drawing, designing, telegraphy, and other branches of art, science, and in- dustry, best calculated to enable its pupils to acquire an independent liveli- hood.
Thomas Liversidge in 1876 bequeathed a fund, now amounting to $300,- 000, to found the Liversidge Institution of Industry, designed for education in Industrial Arts.
Peter B. Brigham in 1877 gave by his will $30,000 to the town of Bakers- field in Vermont, to constitute the Brigham School fund for educational purposes ; and the residue of his estate, after the payment of certain lega- cies, at the end of twenty-five years, with its accumulations, to found the Brigham Hospital for sick persons in indigent circumstances residing in Boston. This residue is now estimated at about $1,000,000.
A renewed effort 1 has been made to ascertain the total amount of prop- erty now held in Boston, or in its vicinity, under such circumstances that it may be reckoned as the result of the voluntary liberality of its citizens, for charitable purposes. No little difficulty has been found in obtaining this information. For that purpose two hundred and seventy-seven circulars were sent to different private institutions or societies, including fifty-eight
1 An earlier attempt is recorded in the following, taken from the Report of the Commission on the Treatment of the Poor, City Doc. 36, of 1878, appendix xxii. :-
Public Institu'ns
Private Societies.
Churches.
Total.
Circulars sent (excluding about eighty sent to Mutual and other
societies)
6
104
165
275
Answers reporting figures .
6
80
53
139
Answers without figures
12
32
44
No answers
12
80
92
Societies, etc., reporting figures --
Out-door
2
43
..
45
In-door .
4
37
41
Churches
53
53
Total
......
139
.
Average number reporting in any one year : private, 83 ; public, 6,-total, 89.
.
670
THE MEMORIAL HISTORY OF BOSTON.
SUMMARY.
INVESTED FUNDS. (Including real estate held for income.)
REAL ESTATE USED.
In detail.
Totals.
In detail.
Totals.
I. INDUSTRIAL:
a. Free employment bureaus . .
$39,000.00 32,392.35
$71,392.35
$500.00
$500.00
II. GOVERNMENT AID - omitted.
III. RELIEF IRRESPECTIVE OF CLASS . .
879,004.16
35,000.00
IV. RELIEF FOR SPECIAL CLASSES . .
1,150, 133.32
58,000.00
V. AID FOR FOREIGNERS
45.279.75
10,000.00
VI. SICK AND DEFECTIVE PERSONS:
a. General
6. Free nurses
1,998.00
1,021,926.58
d. Special hospitals
1, 161,512.80
448, 197.95
e. General dispensaries
188,470.50
26,200.00
f. Special dispensaries
100,458-75.
100,000.00
g. Blind
211,446.10
236,100.00
k. Deaf and dumb
k. Idiotic and feeble-minded
17,929.43
4,154, 113.07
39,000.00
1,871,424-53
VII. FLOWER AND FRUIT MISSIONS
VIII. HOMES:
a. Almshouses - omitted.
b. Homes for adults .
749,863.64
441,400.00
c. Homes for children
664:494-33
715,013.22
d. Improved dwellings
17,396.63
1,431,754.60
431,959-45
1,588,372.67
IX. REFORM :
a. Adult convicts
35,598.45
18,000.00
6. Fallen women
30,735.00
138,100,00
c. Children .
33,278.50
14,000.00
d. Temperance
11,451.75
110,000.00
e. Literature
590.31
111,654.01
280,100.00
X. HUMANE
5,000.00
XI. MUTUAL BENEFIT :
a. For all classes
29,605.03
304,867 96
36,000.00
36,000.00
XII. EDUCATIONAL AND RELIGIOUS :
a. Schools, etc. (Lowell Institute only) .
745,660.78
6. Missionaries, etc.
158,882.50
c. Free chapels (included in churches below).
d. For special classes
364,600.00
e. Churches .
1,809,213.10 234,286.40
2,948,042.78
12,346,900.00 *
12,711,500.00
Total .
$11,232,042.00
$16,595,897.20
Total Real Estate used
$16,595,897.20
Total Invested Funds (including real estate held for income)
11,232,042.00
Grand Total
$27,827,939-20 t
* From Tax Commissioners' Report.
t Not including the Brigham bequest, p. 669.
NOTE. - There are some differences between the figures in this table and the public returns. Some of the property is not within the city limits, and both items and valuations as given by the societies and public authorities vary. The Annual Report of the Auditor of the city for the financial year 1880-81 states that, "Churches, charitable, scientific, and literary corporations hold property, exempt by law from assessment, as follows: value of land, $10,422,400.00 ; value of building», $10,352,500.00 ; total real estate, $20, 774,900.00 Personal estate, $3,408,500.00.'' - p. 314.
135,800.00
6. For special classes and foreigners
275,262.93
c. General hospitals
2,472,297.49
6. Industrial training and charity work
671
THE CHARITIES OF BOSTON, ETC.
churches supposed to hold funds for such purposes. One hundred and seventy-five answers only were received, and attempts have been made in some cases to estimate the amounts which should be added to supply these omissions ; but the result of this effort and of that made by the commission- ers of 1877 indicate the propriety of some compulsory system of public returns. The State is entitled to know the amount and nature of the prop- erty which it exempts from taxation, and to supervise its administration. Concealment, or even the absence of publicity, favored from good motives by the best men, is calculated to promote abuses by the worst.
The Summary on the preceding page exhibits the returns and estimates of the amounts of property held in 1880-81 for charitable and religious purposes, mostly in the city of Boston; not including the property owned by the city, or the real or personal estate of colleges, museums, etc.
If to this total sum of $27,827,939 we add real estate owned by the city, used for charitable purposes, $1,045,300; for public baths $20,000; for educational purposes $8,480,200; for the Public Library $561,000, - in all $10,106,500; and also the property of certain educational institutions in Boston and vicinity, such as the Institute of Technology, the Boston Natu- ral History Society, the Art Museum, the Boston University, Tufts College, Wellesley College, Harvard College,1 and the Episcopal Theological School at Cambridge (which are fairly to be included in Boston charities) ; and other real estate used for educational, literary, and scientific purposes in Boston, not included in the foregoing, - we have a total amount of prob- ably $50,000,000 or more (on a valuation in 1880 of $639,462,495) devo- ted to all these objects.
It is impossible, however, to state the total amount given or now set apart for charitable objects, even of a public nature; and the gifts of one generation are not recorded for their successors. It is safe to increase by large additions, in any estimate, the amounts which we are able to gather from any accessible sources; but "far short as this sum falls of the real amount obtained from the liberality of our fellow-citizens, it is yet enough to make it evident that the best spirit of the institutions of our ances- tors' survives in the hearts and is exhibited in the lives of the citizens of Boston." 2
The space allowed for the " Charities of Boston" in this Memorial is more than filled with a sketch which cannot but seem, to those most familiar with the subject, inadequate and incomplete. Every one who has shared in them, and watched their history and development with personal interest and activity, will recall some society or institution, some fact or occurrence, some noble act or generous gift, some liberal giver of his life,
1 The personal property of Harvard College erty of the other institutions has not been ascer- is about $4,000,000, and its real estate is estimated tained. as worth from $2,000,000 to $3,000,000, not includ-
2 Centennial Address (1830), by Josiah Quincy, ing its scientific collections and library. The prop- p. 65.
672
THE MEMORIAL HISTORY OF BOSTON.
labor, or wealth, some feature or illustration which he feels - and it is diffi- cult to say unjustly feels - should have been included or set forth or more fully described and recorded. Imperfect and unsatisfactory as the writer finds the result of his labors, he reviews with a keen sense of pride the evidences which they present of the "good works and alms-giving" of his fellow-citizens, here set down in no boastful spirit, and solicits charity from them for the poverty of his narration.
Geo: S. Hale.
NOTE. - The following is a list of the 177 voluntary organizations and 13 charities mentioned on page 658, whose funds, so far as known, are included with those of other institutions in the Summary on page 670. The date prefixed to each indicates the year of its establishment. The Directory referred to on page 657 contains a more full and detailed account of these and other charitable agencies and of their objects.
1630 to 1700.
1638. Harvard College.
1657. Scots' Charitable Society.
*1674. Charlestown Poor's Fund.
1700 to 1750.
*1701. Stoughton Poor Fund.
1720. Quarterly Charity Lecture.
1737. Charitable Irish Society.
1750 to 1775.
*1759. Poor Widow's Fund.
*1760. Pemberton Fund.
1775 to 1800.
1786. Massachusetts Congregational Charita- ble Society.
*1786. Jeffries Fund.
1786. Massachusetts Humane Society.
*1791. Franklin Fund
1794. Roxbury Charitable Society.
1794. Massachusetts Charitable Fire Society.
*1795. Boylston Funds (2).
1796. Boston Dispensary.
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