USA > New York > Erie County > Buffalo > A history of Buffalo : delineating the evolution of the city > Part 7
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When the selection of a successor at Buffalo was to be made, "the candidates decided upon by the majority of the electors," says Dr. Donohue, "were not acceptable to the bishops of the province, and, at the meeting of the latter, a new list was substituted, with the Rev. Charles H. Colton, of New York, as dignissimus. Father Colton was long and favorably known as Chancellor of the archdiocese and rector of St. Stephen's parish, and he was appointed by the Pope to succeed Dr. Quigley."
Bishop Colton was consecrated on the 24th of August, 1903. St. Gerard's Church, in the northeastern quarter of the city, and St. John Kanty's in the Polish district, have been established since his episcopate began. At the time of this writing, in 1908, preparations are being made for the organization of a new parish in the Central Park district, north of Delaware Park.
In the spring of 1908 the Rev. Dr. Julius Rodziewicz, an accomplished Polish divine from Europe, came to Buffalo,
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at the request of Bishop Colton, and addressed several meetings of the Polish seceders from the Roman Church, with results that were said to be promising of an end to the schism.
CHAPTER III
INSTITUTIONS OF GENERAL BENEVOLENCE
P UBLIC relief of poverty and infirmity began with the founding of the County Poor House in 1829. It was a small stone building, pleasantly and healthily located on what is now Porter Avenue, near the site of the present Holy Angels' Church. A small insane department was added after a few years; but the ground occupied was insufficient for much development of the institution, and a tract of 154 acres on Main Street, near the present City Line, was bought in 1847. Buildings erected there were first occupied in 1850, and additions, for hospital, insane depart- ment, etc., have been added from time to time. Recently, the County has sold one hundred acres of the ground to the University of Buffalo, and a second removal of the alms- house, to some distance from the city, is in contemplation.
The long, hard experience of England in dealing with pauperism, and the keen thought given to its problems by English philanthropists and statesmen, evolved the system of the London Charity Organization, brought into operation in 1869. Eight years later Buffalo led all American cities in borrowing and adapting the system.
Here, as well as elsewhere, there had been endeavors long before to organize charitable work by some general associa- tion of those engaged in the relieving of distressful want; but such attempts had never had success. They ran counter to the invincible disposition of people to nucleate undertakings of this character around their divided churches or around secular centers of some social kind. A "Buffalo Association for the Relief of the Poor," formed in 1850 and incorporated in 1852, was intended "to detect fraud and relieve the needy," and especially "to remedy and remove public and
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professional begging;" but it must have shared the common fate of these "associated charities," for it left little record of effective work.
The conception of Charity Organization which the London Society embodied was one that avoided intrusion into any existing field of benevolent activity, aiming, on the contrary, to stimulate all relief work, but enlighten it, from a common center of investigation and information, and gradually conform it to a systematic co-operative plan. As stated by the leader of the movement in Buffalo, it was the purpose of a Charity Organization Society to be "a center of intercommunication between the various charities and charitable agencies of a given city; an intermediary, acting in behalf of each and for the welfare of each, and, from its neutral character with regard to religion, politics and nationality, making possible such a degree of co-operation as would be impossible otherwise."
This conception of Charity Organization was brought to our city by a young English clergyman, Rev. S. Humphreys Gurteen, who came to serve as Associate Rector of St. Paul's P. E. Church. Before leaving England Mr. Gurteen had taken part in the London mission work of the "University Slummers," as the Cambridge and Oxford workers in that field were known, and had personal knowledge of the results that were being accomplished by the new charity reform. He found here the same evils that London was dealing with, and became eagerly desirous of having them dealt with in the same practical way. After revisiting London, in the summer of 1877, and spending two months in a renewed investigation of the system and methods of the Charity Organization Society, he came back prepared to labor in Buffalo for an organization on similar lines. By a course of Sunday evening lectures on the subject, at St. Paul's ; by dis- cussion of it in newspapers and a vigorous pamphlet, and by
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an untiring propagandism more privately pursued, he woke interest in the proposition and won supporters so quickly that the organization he desired was accomplished before the close of the year. It was the first of its kind in the United States.
Even in the first year of its work the Society won the co- operation of the Poor Department and the Police, and "nearly all the charitable agencies in the city had signified, in one way or another, their willingness to co-operate." It was beginning already to break down "sectarian exclusive- ness, the prejudice of race and the ties of party" in humani- tarian work; and now, after more than thirty years of its wisely directed influence those obstacles to systematic co- operation have practically disappeared. One hundred and twenty churches of all denominations have divided the city between them, in definite districts, each agreeing "to provide for every dependent family in its district a responsible vol- unteer visitor and such money as it can afford, whenever asked to do so by the Society."
When the Society was organized the population of Buffalo was about 140,000. The city was then giving public aid to 3,778 families, was expending $112,053 within the year for outdoor relief, and pauperism was having an always accelerated growth. In 1907, with a population not less than 400,000, the families in receipt of public aid numbered only 775, and the city expenditure in outdoor relief had dropped to $31,418. In 1881, four years after the begin- ning of its work, the Charity Organization Society had 2,327 families under its care, as the general guardian and reporter of their needs. In 1906 the number was but 1,714, including all that receive city aid. When submitting these facts in its annual report for 1907 the Society was justified in saying: "These figures prove that the Society is winning its fight against poverty in Buffalo. * * Poverty is a curable disease, and it is being cured in this city."
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THE FITCH INSTITUTE AND CRÈCHE
Very promptly, after organizing its investigation of the needs and its plans for the relief of the existing dependent poverty, the Society turned attention to measures for dimin- ishing the causes, in thriftlessness, ignorance, broken spirit, evil habit, demoralizing conditions of life, from which so much of it sprang. In this direction it received early en- couragement from a splendid gift of real property made by Mr. Benjamin Fitch, formerly a merchant in Buffalo, but latterly resident in New York. By his gift, Mr. Fitch pro- vided immediately for the establishment, in 1880, of the Fitch Crèche, or day nursery for the young children of working women, and for the erection of the Fitch Institute building, to accommodate various provident and benevolent undertakings that were in the Society's plan; and he endowed it, at the same time, with a permanent estate from which it drew a net income of $7,796 in 1907.
The Fitch Crèche became a model institution of its kind, for the most serviceable help to self-support that can be given to a large class of working women, and it has been studied and copied in all parts of the country. Speaking of it in 1894, at the New England Conference of Charities, Mr. Gurteen remarked : "This sketch of the early history of the Crèche would be incomplete without especial reference being made to Miss Maria M. Love, who, from the very start, has been the life and soul of the movement, and to whose rare executive ability the Crèche chiefly owes its present enviable reputation." It is still as true as when this was said, that Miss Love is the life and soul of the adminis- tration of the Crèche.
In 1881 the Society established a provident woodyard, maintained for the next twelve years; and in the next year a coal saving fund, to enable the buying of fuel in small quantities at a low price. In 1882 it began an investigation of the housing of the poor, and an agitation for more effec-
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tive supervision of crowded tenements, which has been pur- sued with increasing energy, until a thorough renovation of the lower class of tenements has been brought about in recent years. In 1883 it opened the Fitch Provident Dispensary, and in 1886 the Fitch Accident Hospital, both of which have been discontinued lately, because the need had been met otherwise sufficiently. In 1885 it opened Labor Bureaus, which, in 1907, provided 6,130 days' work for men and women out of regular employ. In 1890 it established a training school for nursemaids; in 1892 a Penny Savings Fund; in 1895 a Provident Loan Company (substituted for the pawnbroker's business) with procurement of a chattel- mortgage law for Buffalo that prohibits usurious rates. In 1895 it brought about the establishment of the first Munici- pal Bath House. In 1900 and the year following it led measures which systematized the "probation" system of judicial dealing with young delinquents, and which created a Juvenile Court. In 1901-2-3 it secured the establishment of six Municipal Playgrounds. Between 1902 and 1905 it brought about a vigorous treatment of wife and family desertion, under legislation which makes it a felony and extraditable. In 1904 it organized a campaign against tuberculosis which has been pursued with earnestness since, by investigation, inspection and exhibitions, and by the opening of a Fitch Tuberculosis Dispensary. Finally, in these last years, it has instituted medical examinations of defective children in the schools, affording evidence of the need of medical school inspection systematically and officially performed; it has commissioned an agent of its own to enforce the child labor laws; and it has provided for legal aid to the poor. This is a record which speaks abundantly for itself.
The first president of the Society was Mr. Pascal P. Pratt, who served it for two years. He was succeeded by Mr.
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LTURAL EVOLUTION
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YOUNG MEN'S CHRISTIAN ASSOCIATION
Edwin T. Evans, who devoted time and means to its ad- ministration for nine years. Then Mr. T. Guilford Smith, a leader in the councils and labors of the Society from the beginning, was called to the presiding chair, and occupied it until 1907, when the honorary presidency was conferred upon him, and Mr. Ansley Wilcox accepted the adminis- trative labors of the seat.
In its early years the society was served by volunteer sec- retaries, and Mr. Josiah G. Munro gave hard work in that office for a quite long term. The first regularly engaged secretary was Mr. Nathaniel S. Rosenau, from 1883 to 1893. Then came the enlistment of Mr. Frederic Almy, from volunteer and occasional into regular and entire service in social-betterment work, and his entrance upon a career in which he has won an eminent place. In 1908 Mr. Porter R. Lee (called since to a similar field in Philadelphia) was made joint secretary with Mr. Almy, and Mr. Roy Smith Wallace, as field secretary, was added to the administrative staff.
The parent of all Young Men's Christian Associations was formed in London, England, by George Williams, after- wards Sir George Williams, in 1844. The first in America, modelled on that of London, was organized in Montreal, December 9, 1851; the second arose in Boston, just twenty days later than the Montreal association; the third appeared in Buffalo, on the 26th of April, 1852. The prime mover in the Buffalo organization was George W. Perkins, and his first associates were Isaac C. Tryon, Jabez Loton, Cyrus K. Remington, P. J. Ferris and Jesse Clement. At its first public meeting, on the 9th of May, it enrolled forty-five members, and elected Norton A. Halbert as its president. To avoid confusion with the Young Men's Association then existing, it took the name of the Young Men's Christian
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Union, and was so known until 1870, when its title was con- formed to that borne by all other institutions of its kind.
The first habitation of the Union was in rooms then lately vacated by the Young Men's Association, on South Division Street, between Washington and Main. It had 127 members when it opened its rooms. By the following spring the number had increased to 381, and larger apart- ments were sought. They were found in the "Odeon Hall Block," at the northwest corner of Mohawk and Main streets, and there the Union remained until 1855. Its mem- bership had then grown to 777, and it was encouraged to venture upon a still more convenient establishment of itself. It rented Kremlin Hall, on the fourth floor of the building which stands yet at the southeastern corner of Eagle and Pearl streets, and, with the hall, most of the rooms on the third floor, for library and offices. These rooms and the hall were well-furnished, pleasantly situated, and offered an exceedingly attractive place of resort to young men.
When, in the autumn of 1856, the attractiveness of the place was enhanced by the presence in it of a personality so attractive as that of David Gray, who then became librarian, the Union could have no wish to offer more. Born in Edin- burgh, but brought to America and to the life of a western farm in early boyhood, Mr. Gray had come lately to Buffalo, and was drawn by friendly fortune into a service which in- troduced him to the best of the city and made his delightful endowments quickly known. After he came it was not long before the Y. M. C. U. Library had become a gathering place of kindred spirits, young and old, for stimulating and inspiring talk. Those summer afternoons and winter even- ings in the circle around David Gray have been memorable in a good many lives, and lasting associations of friendship growing out of them have had influences that are not yet spent.
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YOUNG MEN'S CHRISTIAN ASSOCIATION
The library of the Union, at this time, contained about 1,200 volumes of very good literature, and it was well used. For lectures given in Kremlin Hall, such notable speakers as Henry Ward Beecher, Bishop Simpson, Professor Dwight, Dr. Bethune, Dr. Storrs, President Anderson, of Rochester, were engaged. Until 1857 the institution had strong sup- port and did excellent work. Then came the financial crisis of that year, and the succeeding period of industrial and commercial depression, followed by the years of the Civil War; and the support on which the Union depended for its undertakings fell away. In 1859 it was forced to withdraw from Kremlin Hall and its pleasant rooms underneath, and to accept narrow quarters in the Brisbane "Arcade" build- ing, which stood where the Mooney building stands now. In 1865 it became one of the upper-floor tenants of the build- ing which the Young Men's Association had then acquired, by purchase and reconstruction of the old St. James Hotel. Four years later it obtained somewhat roomier quarters over No. 302 Main Street. In 1871 it removed again, to 319 Main street, with some improvement of accommodations ; and still again, in 1875, with further improvement, to the corner of North Division and Main streets, where it re- mained for three years. Its last change in rented quarters was made in 1878, when it took the abandoned Court House building, on Clinton and Ellicott streets, and had space in it for more of the kind of work it wished to do than it had ever possessed before.
The Association (now so named) was coming into better days; but it had passed through a long period of serious decline in effective force. It had had almost a struggle for life; and, in the judgment of its historian, Mr. Frank E. Sickels,-whose interesting "Fifty Years of the Young Men's Christian Association of Buffalo" furnishes most of the material used in this sketch,-its difficulties had been
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due, in the main, to a mistaken direction in its work. It had held together a faithful band of Christian workers who had labored heroically always, but not specifically enough in their own distinct field. "What the times demanded," writes Mr. Sickels, "was a work for young men, especially those strangers who were flocking to the great cities."
Mr. Sickels dates from about 1869 the wakening of the Association to a truer conception of its mission, and its gradual entrance upon a new and great career. In the next year it began to have thoughts of a gymnasium, which it could not realize, however, till eight years afterwards, when the old Court House supplied the needed room. In 1871 it amended its constitution, "to permit two classes of members, active and associate, the latter class including any young man of good moral character. The creation of this class ren- dered possible the growth of a large privilege-using mem- bership, and has had a great and very beneficent effect upon the life of the Association." At the same time, by another amendment, its constitution was made to read: "The object of this Association shall be the improvement of the spiritual, mental, social, and physical condition of young men." In the winter, 1873, when all industries were again cast down, the Association opened a "Holly Tree Soup and Coffee Room," on Pearl Street and maintained it till April, 1874. A little later that year it established the "Friendly Inn," at No. 3 Pearl Street, where "a good meal, a clean bed, a bath room, a free reading room, a place to write letters, a chance to get employment," and temperance drinks, were offered at low rates of charge. This was kept open till 1878.
For some time past the desire of the Association for a building that should be its own property and planned for its work had been stiffening into a resolve. This was stimu- lated immensely in 1874 by a remarkable entertainment, styled "The Authors' Carnival," which everybody took part
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YOUNG MEN'S CHRISTIAN ASSOCIATION
in and which is a memorable event to this day. The Car- nival realized no less than $5,871 for the Y. M. C. A. build- ing fund. Patiently, steadily, from that time, the fund was built up, during ten following years, and in the tenth year it had finished a building which cost $96,545, and paid all but $2,100 of that cost. The building, on Mohawk, Pearl and Genesee streets, which replaced what had once been a market and later a police station, was dedicated on the 28th of January, 1884. Mr. Eric L. Hedstrom, from 1871 to 1879, and Mr. Robert B. Adam from 1880 to the end, were the chairmen of the building committee which achieved this grand success, and a dozen or more of the strong business men of the city were their associates in the task.
"From this time," says Mr. Sickels, "the work [of the Association] has advanced steadily in all departments. In the physical department the advance has been most marked ; not only has the number using the privileges been many times multiplied, but the character and scope of the work have been constantly bettered and placed upon a more thor- oughly scientific basis." In 1890 provision for out-of-door athletic exercise was made by the renting and equipping of an Outing Park. Educational classes, started in 1880, have been multiplied and developed to such an extent that they were giving instruction on many subjects, by trained teachers, to 650 students, in 1907.
Educational lectures of many kinds, university extension courses, debating clubs, clubs for study of social economics and other special topics, the Equality Club, for dining and listening to noted speakers from abroad, these, with many forms of religious work, are among the varied activities de- veloped in this later epoch of the history of the Association. Along with the work has gone much of entertainment, planned happily for keeping the social spirit of the institu- tion alive. A Junior Department or Division for boys,
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established in 1886, "is largely," says Mr. Sickels, a "repro- duction of the senior work."
The fine building dedicated in 1884, which had seemed then to provide amply for the need of many years to come, had been outgrown before the century closed; and the spring of 1900 found the heads of the institution boldly facing a necessity for raising not less than $175,000, with which to build anew and without stint of room or facilities for the great work in their hands. Again Mr. Robert B. Adam headed a building committee, with P. P. Pratt, J. J. Mc- Williams, William A. Rogers, S. M. Clement, W. H. Walker, R. R. Hefford, J. W. Robinson, F. E. Sickels, F. A. Board, William A. Joyce, S. N. McWilliams and A. H. Whitford for his colleagues, and the round sum specified was pledged by the end of the year. In the next year the fund grew to $250,000, and a spacious and admirable build- ing which cost over $300,000, on ground at the junction of Pearl, Genesee and Franklin streets, costing $ 100,000 more, was dedicated on the Ist of October, 1903.
This splendid development of the central organism of the Association is far, however, from representing its whole remarkable growth and the magnitude of its noble work in the city. From seed of its planting there have grown already seven subsidiary or affiliated associations, special- ized for a membership of Germans, railroad men and stu- dents of the University of Buffalo. The Union Terminal Railroad Department of the Y. M. C. A., formed in 1878, has attractive rooms in the Fitch Institute Building. The East Buffalo Railroad Department, organized ten years later, occupies a fine building erected at the expense of the New York Central and West Shore Railroad companies and the Wagner Palace Car Company. The Depew Railroad Department was established in 1895, in a house provided by the Depew Improvement Company. The latest of the rail-
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Y. M. C. A. DEPARTMENTS AND AUXILIARIES
road departments, that of the Buffalo, Rochester & Pittsburg road, was established, in 1901, on the invitation of the com- pany, which contributed $2,500 to the cost of a building and gives $600 yearly to the maintenance fund.
For the German Department of the Association, organ- ized in 1888, "a very complete building" at the corner of Genesee and Davis streets was erected in 1895 at a cost (including ground) of $54,000.
The Student Department was formed in 1901. An excel- lent building for a West Side Department erected at the corner of West Ferry Street and Grant, was dedicated in 1909.
As reported for the year ending May 1, 1907, the Asso- ciation had a membership in its Central Department of 3,161 ; in its Boys' Department of 1,100; in its railroad, its German and its student departments of 2,521. Counting together its members and the contributors to its maintenance who are not members, it reckons a total constituency of about 10,000.
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