USA > Massachusetts > Worcester County > Worcester > Town annual reports of the several departments for the fiscal year ending December 31, 1862-1866 > Part 38
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The total receipts of this department have
been, -
The total expenses, - - -
$10,411 30 10,077 04
Leaving a balance of,
$334 04
There is now due from the Commonwealth for burial of State Paupers, - 277 50
And from cities and towns for aid supplied to their poor, -
167 97
In this connection I would venture to suggest, that no able-bodied man shall receive aid from. the city until he has earned the amount of his demand. With the Commissioner of Highways I think some plan may be adopted whereby a certain character of work can be given to these applicants. By so doing, the man, by being paid his just dues is elevated as a laborer, and not subjected to the depressing influences of becoming a recipient of the pauper's allotment.
AMENDMENTS OF CITY CHARTER.
By the provisions the City Charter it is prescribed that the Mayor, 8 Aldermen and 24 Councilmen shall be elected, whose term of service shall be one year. To my mind, this constant rotation of public servants is not only impolitic but manifestly detrimental to the best interests of the City ; it is evidently foreign to the welfare of any
25
private interest, and cannot therefore be wisely admitted in public affairs. The merchant, manufacturer or arti- zan, would consider it disastrous to his business, if in the midst of his engagements, he were obliged on the 1st of January in each year, to change his entire working corps and to introduce new men into every department of his service ; so it seems to me it is with our municipal af- fairs, although perhaps not precisely analagous, still in the main similar in effect. If we look through the past records of our municipal history it will be found, I think, that there is scarcely a moral advancement, a social re- form or a material enterprise, that is conceived and carried out by the same City Government; and this must necessarily be the case ; for in any public enterprise of highways, of schools, or the introduction of water, con- struction of sewers, and more particularly in social and moral politics, much time is absorbed in discussion and deliberation and in the arrangements necessary before definite action can be begun ; when once commenced and before completion, the projectors find their time of service expired; a new government is organized, who may or may not carry out the policy of their predeces- sors, and interests of the City are imperilled perhaps, or a laudable enterprise checked or thwarted, by a want of time on the part of the government to consummate their designs. It seems to me that a change in the tenure of city officers is desirable ; and I would call your attention to the propriety of taking the proper measures to amend the City Charter, that the Mayor shall be elected for 2 years, and one half the members of the respective Boards of Aldermen and Common Council shall be elected each year to serve for 2 years. This policy has been already
26
established in the School Board with the most salutary effects. By the adoption of this system, a continuity of administration will be effected, a more personal responsi- bility enjoined upon the members of the government, and a more permanent and effective policy fixed, which must tend to the welfare of the city.
I would also recommend that proper measures be taken whereby definite and absolute powers shall be given to some branch of the government, to regulate and restrict the erection of wooden buildings and the introduction of business of a hazardous nature, within certain prescribed limits of the city. As a matter of common protection, and as a precaution against extensive conflagrations, this subject seems to be of great importance.
Gentlemen of the City Councils :- I have thus endeav- ored to give you an epitome of the different branches of the city's business, together with such suggestions as the occasion has seemed to demand. We are now officially to assume the labors and responsibilities of the year ; our constituents expect that the issues of this administration shall be crowned with success. If this desirable result is to be attained, it must be achieved through unremitting labor and continued application to the affairs of our municipality. The honors which attend our official posi- tions, should not be freely accepted, but must be fairly earned by faithful work. Let us therefore enter upon these new relations with the determination to elevate the positions we have been called upon to fill, and not deceive ourselves with the false idea that the offices will elevate us.
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May the Ruler of the Universe give to us the full knowledge of the right, and the strength necessary to consummate whatever measure shall prove to be for the permanent welfare of our city and its citizens.
REPORT OF THE DIRECTORS
OF THE PUBLIC LIBRARY.
To Hon. James B. Blake, Mayor,
and the City Council of the City of Worcester :
The Directors of the Free Public Library respectfully present their sixth annual report.
A solemn event, deeply affecting the condition and prospects of this institution, claims a prominent place in the review of the last year. On the 17th day of October last, Dr. JOHN GREEN, the respected Founder of this Library and the most frequent and most liberal contri- butor to its collections, and a life member of this Board, died at his residence in this City after many weeks of conscious decay, at the age of 81 years, 5 months and 28 days.
It is the duty and the privilege of the Directors to of- fer at this time, a public testimonial of their estimation of the character and the services of their associate and. Friend, with that regard to brevity which the publicity of the facts and the proper limits of this report will re- quire.
Dr. Green graduated at Brown University in 1804, and had a large proportion of class mates, whose talents made them conspicuous in mature life, and they were also re- markable for longevity. Of the 22 who graduated, 11
5
30
were living at the end of sixty years after 1804, and their average age was more than 83 years.
In his profession, Dr. Green had the encouragement and advantage of being the successor, by hereditary descent, of three physicians, who were extensively known and eminent in their day.
The history and the peculiar traits of this family, are pleasantly presented in the following brief sketch by the pen of an intimate friend, Hon. Oliver Fiske, M. D., of Worcester, in Thatcher's American Medical Biography, published in 1828 ! "Thomas Green, the medical ancestor of the family, was born in Malden, and was one of the first settlers of Leicester, in the County of Worcester. He received his first medical impressions and impulse from a book given him by a surgeon of a British ship, who resided a few months at his father's and took an in- terest in his vigorous and opening intellect. His outfit for the wilderness consisted of his gun, his axe, his book, his sack and his cow. His first habitation was built by nature, its roof composed of a shelving rock. Here he passed the night in sound repose, after the labors of the day in felling and clearing the forest.
" Soon after he began his settlement he was attacked by a fever. Foreseeing the difficulties which must attend his situation without a friendly hand to administer even the scanty necessaries of life, he had the precaution to tie a young calf to his cabin, found under the rock. By this stratagem he was enabled to obtain sustenance from the cow as often as she returned to give nourishment to her young. In this manner he derived his support for some weeks. By the aid of his book and the knowledge of simples, a proficiency in which he early acquired by an
31
intercourse with the Indians, he was soon enabled to pre- scribe successfully for the simple maladies of his fellow settlers. By practice, from the necessity of the case. as well as from choice, he acquired theory and skill. and soon rose to a great reputation.
" His son, the first Dr. John Green, was born at Leices- ter, in the year 1736. By the aid of his father he early became a physician and settled at Worcester. He mar- ried a daughter of Brigadier Ruggles of Hardwick, and became the father of a large family. Not satisfied, as too many are with the limited means of knowledge which necessarily fell to his lot, he afforded to his children the best education in his power. He was extensively em- ployed, and distinguished himself for his tenderness and fidelity. He inherited a taste and skill in botany with his profession, from his father. In his garden were to be found the useful plant, the healing herb, and the grateful fruit; which either his humanity bestowed on the sick, or his hospitality on his friends. He died November 29th, 1799, aged sixty-three years.
" Dr. John Green, the son of the preceding, was born A. D. 1763. Descended from ancestors who made the art of healing their study, Dr. Green was easily initiated in the school of physic ; and from his childhood the nat- ural bias of his mind led him to that profession, which through his life was the sole object of his ardent pursuit. To be distinguished as a physician was not his· chief in- centive. To assuage the sufferings of humanity by his skill, was a higher motive of his benevolent mind. Every duty was performed with delicacy and tenderness. With these propensities, aided by a strong, inquisitive and dis- criminating mind, he attained to a preeminent rank among
32
the physicians and surgeons of our country. To this sentiment of his worth correctly derived from witnessing his practice on others, a more feeling tribute is added by those who have experienced his skill; for so mild was his deportment, so soothing were his manners and so in- defatigable was his attention that he gained the unbounded confidence of his patients, and the cure was in a good measure performed before the medicine was ad- ministered. To those who were acquainted with Dr. Green, the idea that " some men are born physicians," was not absurd, for he not only possessed an innate mental fitness for the profession, but was constitutionally formed to bear its fatigues and privations. Few men of his age have had such extensive practice or endured a greater variety of fatigue or been so often deprived of stated rest and refreshment. It is worthy of remark that in all the variety of duty incident to his calling he was never known to yield to the well intended proffer of that kind of momentary refreshment so ready at command, and so often successfully pressed upon the weary, exhausted and incautious physician.
" The firmness and magnanimity of his mind, which were conspicuous in all the exigences of life, forsook him not in death. With christian resignation he set his house in order, knowing he must die and not live. In perfect possession of his intellectual faculties, with a mind calm and collected, he spent the last moments of life in performing its last duties, with the sublime feelings of a philosopher and a christian. And when, by an ex- amination of his pulse he found the cold hand of death pressing hard upon him, he bade a calm adieu to his at- tending physicians, who he wished should be the sole
33
witnesses of nature's last conflict. Placing himself in the most favorable posture for an easy exit, he expressed a hope that his fortitude would save his afflicted family and friends from the distress of hearing a dying groan. His hope was accomplished. He died Aug. 11th, 1808, aged forty five years."
This extract of biography will not be deemed an un- welcome digression by many citizens, who will be in- terested to observe that it foreshadows the life of their beloved physician whose loss they now deplore, the son of the second Dr. John Green, who resembled his fathers in the peculiarities of his temperament, his taste and his talents, and also in the happiness of his life and in the conscious calmness of his death.
As the number of medical men in this part of the country was small, in his younger days Dr. Green was required to attend all the varieties of medical and surgi- cal cases, and he continued this varied practice through his life, with some advantage and great enjoyment from- the wideness of the field. Dr. Joseph Sargent, President of the Worcester District Medical Society, in his an- nouncement of the death of Dr. Green to that society, thus spoke of the peculiar professional character of his venerable friend. "With a modesty which is worthy of imitation and which was always characteristic, he was in the habit of speaking of himself as having cultivated the Art of medicine, while some of his colleagues more favorably situated for study, had cultivated its Science. But all of us recognize that his large experience, his judicious observation and his ready generalization made his own practice a science by itself." His genial and unceremonious manners, and his prompt kindness were
34
a power as well as a happiness to himself, and they greatly aided his professional success. When his profes- sional duties were most laborious, he was relied on as one who was always ready to promote social enjoyment.
He exercised a full share of the professional generos- ity, which is a noble trait of the ablest physicians, indu- cing them to devote their best skill, and to sacrifice their strength and their opportunities of lucrative practice, for the service of those who are not able to give com- pensation, and he was wont to repress the expressions of obligation and the offer to make payment, by a good humored, willful impatience, that put to silence the af- fectionate gratitude, which it did not extinguish or abate.
In the expressions of mourning, which consecrated his burial, there was a sweet requiem in "the blessings of those who were ready to perish," and their grateful friends.
In the ordinary duties of a good citizen, Dr. Green was ready for those services, that were assigned to his position and his talents, though he was reluctant to be personally prominent.
In 1823, he was happily married to Miss Dolly Curtiss, a daughter of Mr. David Curtiss, of Worcester, and a lady of very interesting character, who died 18 years ago, and had no children. When he perceived the ap- proach of the infirmities of age, he withdrew from medi- cal practice as rapidly as the partial preference of his patients would permit, and gave his thoughts to the preparation of a suitable library for this city.
In 1859, the City Government accepted the Library offered by Dr. Green, and assumed the wise conditions proposed by him in regard to a suitable building, and
35
the maintenance of a Free Public Library. He then presented 7000 appropriate and very valuable books, which were to be kept within the building for reading and consultation, and to this Department the name of the Green Library was afterward. appropriately given. · At the same time a well selected library of 4500 volumes was given to the city as the foundation of a Circulating Department by the Worcester Lyceum and Library Association. The Books purchased by the annual city appropriations have been added to the circulating de- partment, and the Green Library has been increased from time to time by donations specially directed to it by Dr. Green and other citizens.
As Dr. Green was not willing to neglect an object which he had established with much care and liberal expenditure, he asked and obtained a place for life on this Board of Directors, and his faithfulness, wisdom and ' courtesy in his duties, are lessons which his associates could not disregard or forget. The example of Dr. Green in his frequent and valuable donations of books has been a fountain of supply for both departments of the library, in its influence on other lovers of learning, who were happy to be reminded of their duty. Since his first donation of 7000 volumes, the aggregate of his occasional gifts of desirable and rare books amounts to 4968 volumes. During his last sickness he was aware of the probable result, and he was careful to make known that 541 volumes of very valuable books which he had recently obtained, belonged to this Library.
On the day after the death of Dr. Green, a meeting of these Directors was held, to take notice of the loss of the Founder and most liberal friend of this Library,
36
and the most distinguished member of this Board, and his character and public services, and his strong and engaging traits, which won the gratitude and affection of his associates and of the wide circle in which he was known, were described with much feeling by the Presi- dent and by Hon. Messrs Davis, Hoar and Lincoln, and other members of the Board, and the following resolu- tions were adopted.
Resolved, That the Directors of the Free Public Li- brary, consider with solemn and affectionate emotions, the death of our venerable associate, Dr. JOHN GREEN, the wise founder and the most bountiful enlarger of this Library, to which he has, in repeated gifts, presented 11,968 excellent and appropriate volumes.
Resolved, That we deeply feel the public loss of the instructive and cheerful presence of a patriarch of our City, who, in the days of his strength, ministered with success to the physical health of this community, and oc- cupied the retirement of old age in planting and rearing a tree of life for the healing and strength of future gen- erations.
Resolved, That with the sense of sad privation which this event must excite, it is a duty, a benefit, and a con- solation to remember the amiable traits, the virtues and the services of our venerable friend, and especially to meditate on the excellent example of his liberality to this institution, on his courtesy and faithfulness in lis attention to the duties of this Board, and on our happi- ness in being personally associated with him.
Resolved, That we will express our respect and affec- tionate regard for our distinguished associate by attend- ing his funeral.
.
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Resolved, That the President of this Board is re- quested to assure the family of Dr. Green, of our sym- pathy, and to present them a copy of these resolutions.
The grave itself, the apparent goal of human activity, did not terminate the beneficence of Dr. Green for the important institution, which he had founded and fostered. It gave occasion for larger and more enduring bounty, as the River Guadiana, after fertilizing the fair fields of La Mancha, disappears under the earth to rise again with a broader stream to spread its wealth over two King- doms. The probate of the last Will and Testament of Dr. Green, has made known his bequest to this City of Thirty thousand dollars, to be paid within one year after his decease, to the officer of the City authorized to re- ceive it, and to be held with its future accumulations as a separate fund, designated in the Books of this City as the " Green Library Fund ;" and the Testator states that he " aims not to gratify any personal feeling of his own, but to set apart and designate the Fund in a manner which shall forever keep it distinct from all others," "and which shall enable the people of Worcester at all times clearly to perceive its amount and condition." He re- quires that the fund shall be kept, and that the income shall be collected by the authorized officer of the city; and he provides that the investment and management of said Fund shall be under the direction of a Financial Committee of three directors of this Library, annually to be chosen by ballo,t and that said Committee shall annually report to the Board of Directors, and their re- port shall make a part of the annual Report of this Board to the City Council. It is required that three 6
38
fourths of the investments shall be made in " Real Estate mortgage securities " and one fourth in Bank stock ; and in taking landed securities, it is " the desire and request" of the Testator, " that in every instance first mortgages shall be taken for no larger loan than one third of the value " of the security; and as to the use and expenditure of the income of said fund, it is directed that one fourth part of said income shall be added annually to said fund, and that the remaining three fourths of said income, after repairing any accidental loss that may happen to the principal, shall be expended by said Directors in the purchase of books, to be added to that department of said Free Public Library which was instituted by the Testator, and in repairing and rebinding the books of that department. Provided that when the invested fund shall reach the sum of One Hundred Thousand Dollars, one fourth part of the income thereof, shall continue to be forever annually added to the principal, and three fourths of the income of $100,000, after replacing any losses of the principal, and neither more nor less, shall be applied to the increase and support of the Depart- ment of said Library instituted by the Testator; and the remaining part of the income of said fund, shall be ap- plied and expended by said Directors for the benefit of the whole of said Free Public Library, as well for that part which is kept for circulating or lending, as for that part which was instituted by the testator.
And there is a second bequest of $3000 in Bank stock, to a Trustee in trust to pay the income thereof to three certain persons during their lives, and upon the decease of all of said three persons, said thirty shares of Bank Stock are bequeathed to the City of Worcester,
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forever to be known and designated on the Books of the City as the " Librarian Fund," and to be kept invested and managed in the manner before required for the " Green Library Fund," and no part of the income shall be used until the investment shall amount to Twenty Thousand Dollars, and when it shall have reached the sum of Twenty Thousand Dollars, it is directed that the income shall be used and applied as follows: First, one fourth of said income is to be added to the principal, and the remaining three fourths of said income, after re- pairing any accidental loss of the principal, is to be ex- pended by the Directors for paying the salary of the Librarian, and any other expenses of the Library at the discretion of the Directors. By a codicil to his will dated October 1st, 1865, the Testator bequeaths Twenty Shares of Bank Stock, of the par value of $100 per share, in trust for the payment of the income thereof to three certain persons during their lives, and after the decease of those three persons, said shares are bequeathed to the City of Worcester to be added to the "Green Library Fund." It is proper to state that on the 5th of October last, Dr. Green conveyed by deed to his brothers, Messrs. Meltiah B. and James Green, certain Notes and a Mortgage on an estate in Orford, N. H., estimated to be worth $650, in trust to pay over said Notes and Mort: gage after the death of a person entitled to receive inter- est on said Notes during life, to the City of Worcester to be added to the " Green Library Fund."
Such is a brief outline of the liberal, far reaching and cautious provisions, by which Dr. Green sought to ac- complish the object, which is well described in these words, which he has added to one of the clauses in his
40
will : "at some future time to relieve the city altogether of the expenses of an institution which, I trust, will be an ornament and a blessing to the community for whose welfare it has been established."
The ordinary operations of the Library in the past year, have been in a high degree satisfactory. The skilful and laborious services of the Rev. Z. Baker, the Librarian, and of Miss Callina Barnes and Mrs. Z. Baker, his assistants, have been continued with the approbation of the Directors, and the acceptable accommodation of the numerous visitors. Mrs. Baker has completed the card catalogue and a catalogue handsomely inscribed in two bound volumes ; both catalogues exhibiting the con- tents of the Green Library. The visitors of the Library will be gratified to see another well written and well bound Folio Volume, containing an abridged catalogue of the books given by Dr. Green, which is the work of , his own hand in the last year of his life, and the fatiguing task was performed with injury to his health, which he perceived and spoke of to the Librarian. The Librarian's report states that in the past year there have been 1681 new names of borrowers from the Circulating Library, and the number of volumes delivered was 8000 greater than in the preceding year.
The whole number delivered in the year was 67,500, and the daily average delivery was 253 for the time in which the Library was kept open.
The additions to the Circulating Library were by pur- chase 356 volumes, and by gift 63 volumes. The ad- ditions to Green Library were 554 volumes and 56 pam- phlets and were obtained by gift.
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The donations to the different departments were as follows :
Green Lib. Cir. Lib. Pampl's.
Dr. John Green,
489
52
7
Hon. Geo. F. Hoar,
5
Hon. Chas. Sumner,
4
7
Department of the Interior,
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D. A. Goddard, Esq., - -
6
10
Hon. J. D. Baldwin,
9
Mrs. C. R. Williams, Providence,
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