USA > New York > New York City > History of New York City : embracing an outline sketch of events from 1609 to 1830, and a full account of its development from 1830 to 1884, Volume I > Part 13
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The districts of the dispensary extend on the north to Fourteenth Street, on the north-west to Spring Street and Broadway, on the north- east to First Avenue, Allen and Pike streets. and on the east, south. and west the district is bordered by the East and Hudson rivers .*
pupil, Dr. J. W. Francis, conducted the American Medical and Philosophical Register about four years-1810-11. He remained a member of the faculty of the College of Physicians and Surgeons until 1826, when with Drs. Maeneven, Mott, Godman, Francis, and Griscom, he assisted in the establishment of Rutgers Medical College in New York, and retained his connection with it until its demise, in 1830. He filled various medical offices in liospitals, asylums, and public institutions in the city of New York and for the city in general, and was actively engaged in literary and philosophical institutions. He was one of the originators and for twelve years president of the New York Historical Society, and was a fellow of the Royal Society of Great Britain. Dr. Hosack died in December, 1>35. He was the author of several scientifie works and a life of De Witt Clinton.
" The presidents of the New York Dispensary from its organization to the year 1882
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HISTORY OF NEW YORK CITY.
THE NEW YORK ASYLUM FOR (destitute) LYING-IN WOMEN Was founded in 1798, after the city had been scourged by the yellow fever. In October of that vear Dr. David Hosack, already a successful young physician, and noted for his benevolent impulses, started a subscription for the purpose, and soon raised the sum of 85000. An appropriate building was procured in Cedar Street, and there, in the winter of 1798-99, this noble charity was inaugurated. A committee of manage- ment was appointed, consisting of Thomas Pearsall, Robert Lenox, Dr. HIosack, and other good citizens. It was agreed that every person who should subscribe 820 should have the privilege of recommending a patient for the institution, if approved by the visiting committee.
The asylum was incorporated in 1799. It soon became evident that the interest of the society's fund was inadequate to meet the expenses of the establishment, and an arrangement was made with the New York Hospital to receive that interest, on condition that the governors should provide a lying-in ward. By this means the noble charity was perpetuated until, by appropriations, subscriptions, and bequests, the institution was enabled to reorganize, and work independent of the New York Hospital. That point was reached in 1827, when it secured a charter as an independent institution. It is now in the eighty-first year of its age, though it is only fifty-six years since it became an independent association.
This institution has done a vast amount of substantial good work. and is now (1883) as active and benevolent as ever. It has added to its regular benefactions instructions in practical lying-in nursing, so essen- tial for every midwife. The beneficiaries are of various nationalities. Of those cared for in 1883, 29 were from Ireland, 12 from England. and 20 were American mothers .*
THE NEW YORK INSTITUTION FOR THE INSTRUCTION OF THE DEAF AND DUMB dates its origin from the later months of the year 1816, when a few benevolent and professional citizens matured a plan of such an institution and proceeded to put it into practical operation. The most
have been : Isaac Roosevelt, 1791 ; Rev. John Rodgers, D.D., 1794 ; General Matthew Clarkson, 1810 ; John Watts, 1821 ; General Edward Laight, 1836 ; George T. Trimble. 1852 ; James T. De Peyster, 1861 ; Adam Norrie, 1874 ; William M. Halsted, 1882. The officers in 1882 were : Adam Norrie, president ; Benjamin H. Field, vice-president ; D. Colden Murray, treasurer, and Robert B. Campbell, secretary.
The officers of the institution for 1883 are : Mrs. Thomas Addis Emmet (the first). Mrs: Charles A. Morford, Mrs. Stephen Tyng, Mrs. Beverly Robinson, Mrs. Frederick Jones, Mrs. John H. Mortimer, directresses ; Mrs. J. R. Nevins, treasurer : Mrs. Henr: HI. Anderson, secretary : Mrs. Hope, matron : Stanton Allen, M.D., resident physician. There is a board of managers, consisting of nineteen ladies.
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FIRST DECADE, 1830-1840.
prominent men in the movement were Dr. Samuel L. Mitchill," Rev. John Stanford, and Dr. Samuel Akerly. To the latter gentleman has been awarded the credit of having been instrumental in the first estab- lishment of two of the noble charities of New York, the institutes for the benefit of the deaf and dumb and blind.
With the exception of the abortive attempt of one of the Braidwood family, of England, who a few years before had opened a school for the instruction of the deaf and dumb in New York, this movement in 1×16 was the first effort of the kind in that city, and it was successful. There was not at that time a single school for the deaf and dumb in America.
So little was the importance and necessity of an institution for the instruction of the deaf and dumb appreciated or understood in the city of New York, that it was supposed the school which was about to be opened in Hartford by Messrs. Gallaudet and Clerc, who had lately . returned from France, would be large enough to accommodate all the deaf-mute pupils in America. This fallacy was soon exposed by care- ful inquiry. It was ascertained that at that very time there were more
* Samuel Latham Mitchill, M.D., LL.D., was a very prominent citizen of New York during the first quarter of the present century. as a scientist and an active participant in every good work. He was born at North Hempstead, Long Island, in August, 1761. He was a student with Dr. John Bard. He also studied law. In 1788 he was a commis- sioner to treat with the Indians of New York State for the purchase of their lands. He was a member of the State Legislature in 1790, and in 1792 became professor of chem- istry, natural history, and philosophy in Columbia College. With Chancellor Livingston and others Mitchill founded in New York the Society for the Promotion of Agriculture, Manufactures, and the Useful Arts. His published account of a tour along the Hudson established his fame abroad as a scientific and very entertaining writer. In 1797 he with others established the Medical Repository (quarterly), which he edited sixteen years. He was again a member of the New York Assembly, and in 1801-01 and 1810-13 he was a member of Congress. Meanwhile (1804-09) he was United States Senator. From 1808 to 1820 he was professor of natural history in the College of Physicians and Surgeons, of botany and materia medica 1820-26, and in 1826-30 was vice-president of the Rutgers Medical College in New York. Dr. Mitchill, with Drs. Hosack and Hugh Williams, founded the New York Literary and Philosophical Society in 1815, of which De Witt Clinton was the first president.
Dr. Mitchill had a very retentive memory, which was stored with a vast amount of learning. He extended the bounds of science, was an efficient friend and helper of Fnl- ton , and Livingston in carrying forward to success their plans of steam navigation, was among the passengers on the Clermont on her first trip from New York to Albany, and was a member of many literary and scientific societies in Europe and his native country. He was also a prolific writer on scientific subjects. He published anony- mously a little work entitled " A Picture of New York," which, it is said, suggested to Washington Irving his " Knickerbocker's History of New York." Dr. Mitchill died in September, 1831.
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HISTORY OF NEW YORK CITY.
than sixty deaf and dumb persons living in the city of New York, il. population of which was less than 120,000. And it was found that most of these were children of poor parents, who could not afford i. send them to Hartford to be educated. The necessity for such an institution in the city was consequently apparent. A society was formed, and was incorporated by the Legislature in April, 1817, with De Witt Clinton as president, and a school with five pupils was opened in May, under the charge of the Rev. A. O. Stansbury. Ignorant of the fact that gesture is the natural language of deaf mutes, Mr. Stans- bury labored to teach them articulation, and failed. After a year or two the effort was abandoned .*
In 1831 the late Dr. Harvey P. Peet, who had acquired much repu- tation as a teacher and a man of executive ability, was called to this head of the institution. He swayed its destinies for more than thirty- six years, and built up a grand model institution.
During the first eleven years the Asylum for the Deaf and Dumb was accommodated in one of the public buildings. In 1829 it wa- established in the buildings on Fifteenth Street, afterward occupied by Columbia College. In December, 1856, it took up its abode in a beautiful house at Fanwood, on Washington Heights, about nine miles from the City Hall, where, surrounded by about thirty-seven acres of land, it pursues with great success its benevolent work, under the guidance of Lewis P. Peet, LL. D .. son of Dr. Harvey P. Peet. The principal buildings are of brick, four stories in height, and planned to accommodate more than four hundred pupils of both sexes, with teachers and employés. When Dr. Peet took charge, in 1831, there were eighty-five pupils ; when he relinquished it, in 1867, there were over four hundred pupils. + During the year 1882 there were five hundred pupils under instruction.
This institution was at first supported by private benevolence, but it was soon taken under the patronage of the State. It derives it- income, excepting from occasional donations and legacies, from four sources : First, from direct appropriations for the support of State
* The first officers of this institution were : De Witt Clinton, president ; Richard Varick and John Ferguson, vice-presidents ; John Slidell, secretary ; and John B. Scott, treas- urer. There was a board of directors, consisting of twenty prominent citizens.
+ Harvey Prindle Peet. LL.D., was born at Bethlehem, Conn., in 1794, and was gral- uated at Yale College in 1822. He was associated with the late Thomas H. Gallaudet, LL. D., as instructor in the Hartford Asylum for the Deaf and Dumb from 1822 to 1831. when he was called to the principalship of the New York Institute for the Deaf 813 Dumb, in which position he spent thirty-seven of the remaining years of his life. Th .. value of Dr. Peet's services to the community cannot be estimated. Dr. Peet died in 1>73.
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FIRST DECADE, 1830-1840.
beneficiaries : second, from payments from the counties for deaf mute children too young to be placed on the State list ; third, payments from the State of New Jersey for a certain number of pupils who are beneficiaries from that State ; and fourth, payments on account of pupils who belong to families in casy circumstances.
The regular term of instruction is eight years. All the ordinary English branches of learning are taught. They are all accustomed to labor : the girls in plain sewing and lighter household duties, and the boys are instructed in gardening, cabinet-making, shoemaking, tailor- ing, and printing. Hundreds of former pupils support themselves, and in many cases dependent families by their own labor.
Isaac Lewis Peet, I.T. D., is president of the educational department, assisted by twenty professors and teachers, one half of whom are women ; matrons for the several departments, and a foreman for each of the seven industries carried on in the institution .*
THE NEW YORK EYE AND EAR INFIRMARY Was founded in 1820. Four years previously, two young medical students who had graduated at the College of Physicians and Surgeons of New York City, and who had spent the previous year together in the New York Hospital, one as house physician and the other as house surgeon. sailed for Europe together, for the purpose of increasing their knowledge of the profes- sion. Having been diligent attendants on all the lectures in the city, they believed themselves as well equipped as any of their fellow- students for the duties of the profession. They had been taught, with other branches of surgery, something of the treatment of diseases of the eye, and had seen them treated in private practice by their pre- ceptors. They felt competent to treat these diseases themselves, and with this self-satisfaction they arrived in London, there to pursue their studies.
Among other medical charities in the great city was an eye infirm. ary, recently established. They entered the institution as pupils, and soon made the important discovery that they were profoundly ignorant of the surgery of the eye, and that what they had been taught on that subject was almost of no value. They drew the logical inference that ophthalmic surgery was almost unknown in America. With the ardor of youth they devoted themselves to this new branch of knowledge. On their return home, in 1818, they resolved to establish in New York
The officers of the institution for the year 1883 were : Hon. Erastus Brooks, presi- dent : Hon. Enoch L. Pancher, LL. D., first vice-president ; Rev. Charles A. Stoddard, D.D., second vice-president : George A. Robbins, treasurer ; Thatcher M. Adams, sec- retary, and James C. Carson, M. D., superintendent.
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HISTORY OF NEW YORK CITY.
an infirmary for curing diseases of the eye. These two young men were Drs. Edward Delafield and J. Kearney Rodgers.
Young, with small pecuniary means, and without reputation, but assisted by the sanction of those with whom they had been educated, and the influence of their names, they hired two rooms in the second story of a building in Chatham Street, and with a few necessary imple- ments they founded the institution now grown to be the famous New York Eye and Ear Infirmary. Some students of medicine volunteered to perform the duties of apothecary, in rotation, and the man from whom they hired the rooms acted as superintendent. They made it publicly known that any one applying at No. 45 Chatham Street at certain hours on certain days, having diseases of the eyes, would be treated gratuitously. In a single week it was evident that the enter- prise would be successful. That was in August, 1820. In a period of less than seven months from that time no less that four hundred and thirty-six patients had been treated at the infirmary. It proved a great public boon. Persons totally blind received their sight, and those who were languishing in hopelessness were encouraged, and found themselves on the way to perfect cure. Drs. Wright Post and Samuel Bowne, two of the most eminent physicians and surgeons in the city, gave the young men their names as consulting surgeons.
On the 9th of March, 1821, a large meeting of citizens was held at the City Hall for the purpose of " adopting the means for perpetuating the infirmary for curing diseases of the eye." A committee was appointed to solicit subscriptions for the infirmary. Succeeding in securing sufficient means, a society of the subscribers was formed, with over two hundred members. They convened on the first. of April. and organized by the election of William Few as president, and other usual officers. It was thus established by leading citizens of New York, but its means being small, it continued to occupy its original rooms, at an annual rent of $150. The society was incorporated on March 29, 1822, and the next year the Legislature granted the institu- tion $1000 for two years .*
In 1864 the charter was amended, and the institution received the title of .. The New York Eve and Ear Infirmary." with authority to " treat and care for indigent persons affected with deafness and other diseases of the ear." According to the sixty-second annual report. October 1, 1882, there had been treated in the institution during the year 14,221 patients, of whom more than 10,000 were treated for dis-
* See address of Dr. Edward Delafield. April 25, 1856.
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FIRST DECADE, 1830-1840.
cases of the eye. Of the whole number, nearly 8000 were natives of the United States. The total number treated since the foundation of the Infirmary was 274,802 .*
This institution now occupies a spacious building on the corner of Thirteenth Street and Second Avenue, which was completed in the autumn of 1855. The infirmary has an efficient surgical staff in each department-ophthalmic, aural, and throat.
* The officers of the institution in 1882 were : Royal Phelps, president ; Benjamin H. Field, first vice-president ; Abraham Du Bois, M.D., second vice-president ; John L. Riker, treasurer, and Richard H. Derby, MI.D., secretary.
CHAPTER V.
O NE of the still thriving, active, and useful charitable institutions in the city of New York, having its origin in the closing period of Knickerbocker social rule, is the HEBREW BENEVOLENT AND ORPHAN ASYLUM SOCIETY, founded in 1822. It held its semi-centennial celebra- tion in 1872, at which time Chief-Justice Daly, one of the speakers on the occasion, gave a most interesting account of the first appearance of Jews in the city of New York (then New Amsterdam), where now (1883) they constitute nearly one fourteenth of its population, and nearly one fourth of the Hebrew population in the United States.
Judge Daly said, in substance, that after the successful revolt of the Netherlands, and William of Holland had proclaimed freedom of con- science in his dominions, expatriated Jews from Spain settled in the free cities, especially at Amsterdam. By their industry, integrity, and thrift they became within fifty years the most influential citizens of Amsterdam, and there they erected the first synagogue.
These people became large stockholders in the commercial operations by which New York was founded. Curacoa, which then, as now, belonged to the Dutch, had many Hebrew merchants. Jewish emi- grants from both that country and Holland came to New Amsterdam (now New York) and craved citizenship, but the sturdy old churchman Governor Stuyvesant looked upon their advent with great disfavor. Among these immigrants were Abram Costa, Jacob Hendricks, Isaac Meza, Melhado, Abram Lucas, and Asher Levey. All but the last- named were of Spanish or Portuguese origin. These were the first Jews seen on Manhattan Island.
Governor Stuyvesant wished to exclude these Hebrews, and wrote to Holland requesting that'sthey be not allowed to enter and dwell in the province. The home authorities answered that his request was inconsistent with freedom and justice.
Stuyvesant refused these immigrants permission to have a place of their own wherein to bury their dead. They were heavily taxed. and when two of them remonstrated with the governor, he said, " If you are not satisfied, go elsewhere."
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FIRST DECADE, 1830-1840.
Stuyvesant's harsh treatment of these JJews in every possible way, when reported to the home authorities, brought another letter, which commanded him to allow the Hebrews the privilege of quiet habitation, subject to no condition save to take care of their poor, which they have always done.
Melhado now purchased some land, but the governor would not allow him to have a deed of it. A petition of the Jews for equality in taxation and the rights of trade with other dwellers in New Amster- dam was answered only by permission to have a burial-ground. An- other and a sharper letter came to Stuyvesant from Holland, which resulted in placing the Jews on an equality with others as to civil and religious rights, and these they enjoyed so long as the Dutch bore rule on Manhattan Island.
In 1696 there were twenty Jewish families in New York. That year they built their first synagogue, in which a merchant named Samuel Brown officiated as rabbi. This synagogue was removed in 1728 to Mill Street, a narrow, irregular lane that extended from Stone Street to Broad Street.
Peter Kalm, a Swedish naturalist who visited New York twenty years later, wrote : "The Jews are many ; they have large stores and country-seats, and enjoy equal privileges with their fellow-citizens." The last remark could not then have applied to any other country in the world.
When the Jews built their first synagogue in New York and num- bered about one hundred souls, the city contained a population of eight thousand ; now (1883), when that population is probably one million four hundred thousand, the Jews number fully ninety-five thousand, and have twenty-six synagogues. Of these the finest is Temple Emanu-el, on Fifth Avenue. And it must be conceded by all observing men that the Jews in the city of New York, as a class, rank among the best citizens in all the qualities which pertain to good citizenship. They are honest, industrious, and thrifty. They are lovers of peace and their families. They support their own poor. They are obedient to the laws, and they are proverbially temperate in all things. They contribute absolutely nothing, as it were. to the burdens of pauperism and crime which bear so heavily upon the city. Indeed, so far as the Jews are concerned, there seems to be no use for ahnshouses and jails. As a rule, they seem to obey the voice of Hillel : " What is noxious unto thee, do not unto thy neighbor."
The origin of the Hebrew Benevolent and Orphan Asylum Society of the City of New York was in this wise :
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HISTORY OF NEW YORK CITY.
In the spring of the year 1820 a Jew who had been a soldier in the American war for independence was brought in a critical state to the City Hospital. He had no friends nor money, but expressed a wish that, being a Jew, some of his co-religionists might be sent for. John J. Hart, Joseph Davies, and others visited the sufferer, and collected money for his support. He died soon afterward. About $300 of the money collected was left. The question arose in the minds of the custodian whether it would not be advisable to form a benevolent society by which relief might be given to Jews in time of need, as well as to others. It was done. On April 8, 1822, the following named gentlemen formally associated themselves under the title of the Hebrew Benevolent Society of the City of New York : Daniel Jackson, Joseph Jackson, Joseph Davies, John J. Hart. Abraham Collins, Rowland Davies, Simon Myers, Abraham Mitchell. Charles J. Hart, and Joseph Samuel-all members of the Jewish Church. Daniel Jackson was chosen president, and Charles J. Hart secretary.
The first anniversary of the society was held at Burnett's Hotel, on the Bloomingdale Road. The supper was cooked by the members themselves, and the sum of $49 was collected. Another banquet was given at the Botanic Garden in 1826. The society worked on, with ever-increasing membership and funds, until 1832, when the Legislature of New York gave it a charter of incorporation. Bequests and gifts followed. Finally, in February, 1859, the Hebrew Benevolent Society and the German Hebrew Benevolent Society were united for the pur- pose of establishing an orphan asylum and home for aged and indigent Jews. In April the consolidation was effected. Their united funds amounted to about 825,000.
This union was hailed with pleasure by the Jewish community. 1 new charter, with enlarged powers, was obtained, and the city authori- ties were authorized to appropriate land for the building of an asylum. Meanwhile a house was rented in West Thirty-ninth Street, and thirty- orphan children were placed in it. That was in 1860. Demands upon it increased, and the trustees, having procured the donation of a lot on the corner of Third Avenue and Seventy-seventh Street, and an additional grant of $30,000, proceeded to the erection of a substan- tial building. The corner-stone was laid in September, 1863, and the building was completed and dedicated in November. 1863. Among other measures for increasing the funds of the institution. the great Hebrew Charity Fair, held in 1870, in connection with its twin sister in charity, Mount Sinai Hospital, was very successful. The
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FIRST DECADE, 1830-1840.
share of the proceeds which fell to the asylum amounted to nearly $39,000 .*
The society has in operation an excellent system of education for orphans. There is a home school, in which the Hebrew language. religion, and history are taught. There is also an incidental school, in which trades are taught to the boys and sewing and domestic service to the girls. This department is self-supporting. The girls readily find places in the best of families or in commercial houses when they leave the asylum. There is a steam printing establishment at the industrial school, which does all kinds of work in the printing line. A large portion of the orphans attend the public schools.
In 1882 there were three hundred and thirty-seven inmates of the asylum. Provision has been made for the erection of a new orphan asylum, land having been purchased between One Hundred and Thirty- sixth Street and One Hundred and Thirty-eighth streets and Tenth Avenue, on the Bloomingdale Road.
The officers of the society in 1882 were: Jesse Seligman, president ; Henry Rice, vice-president ; M. Rindskopf, treasurer, and Myer Stern, secretary. The Ilebrews of the city of New York have several other charitable and benevolent institutions which have been established since the one above considered.
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