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 14
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There were several minor charitable, benevolent, and friendly associ- ations in the city of New York during the half decade before the year 1830. The principal of these were the following :
THE HUMANE SOCIETY, founded by a few benevolent persons near the close of the last century. Its primary object was to afford relief to distressed debtors in prison. The scope of its efforts was enlarged in 1806 so as to include resuscitation of persons apparently dead from drowning. The society was incorporated in 1814. It afforded support and clothing to poor debtors in prison, secured the liberation of prison- ers who were entitled to a discharge, distributed soup to the poor in general, and resuscitated persons who were apparently drowned. They also took measures to suppress street-begging. The society established a soup-house at the eastern entrance to the City Hall Park. It was supported by occasional donations and annual subscriptions.
THE AGED INDIGENT FEMALE SOCIETY was composed entirely of women associated for the purpose of affording relief to respectable indi- gent and aged women. It was instituted at the beginning of the year . 1814, and on March 10, 1815, the Legislature of New York passed an
* See address of Mr. Myer Stern (then president of the society), on the fiftieth anni- versary celebration, in 1872.
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act incorporating it, to continue fifteen years. It was allowed to hold an estate to the value of $100.000.
THE FEMALE ASSOCIATION was a society composed entirely of young women who belonged to the sect of Friends, commonly called Quakers. The object of the society was the visiting of the sick poor, and obtain- ing instruction for the children of such persons as were not provided for, or who did not belong to any religious society. It was chartered March 26, 1813, to continue twenty years, and it was allowed to hold property to the amount of $40,000. Membership was obtained by the payment of 85. By a special clause in the act of incorporation the society was entitled to a share of the State school fund.
THE SOCIETY FOR THE RELIEF OF POOR WIDOWS WITH SMALL CHILDREN was founded in 1797 by Isabella Graham and a few other benevolent women, for the laudable purpose of affording aid and comfort to such worthy and respectable widows, with little children, as could not pro- vide the means of obtaining even the necessaries of life. It was incor- porated in 1802, and by its charter it was allowed to hold property to the amount of $50,000. Material aid, timely words of encouragement. judicious counsel, assistance to get employment, the education of the children, and every other good the managers can bestow were included in the list of their benefactions. Money is seldom bestowed in the way of relief, but such necessaries of food and clothing as the object stands most in need of. The chief efforts of this society are directed to find- ing employment for those who are able and willing to labor.
The operations of this society have been carried on in the most economical manner. There are no salaried agents to consume the funds contributed. The city is divided into districts, and a manager appointed for each. The condition of becoming a beneficiary of the society is to be " a widow with two small children under ten years of age, who is willing to exert herself for her own support, and is not receiving aid from any almshouse." The funds of the society are derived chiefly from donations and subscriptions. In 1863 Mr. Chaun- cey Rose gave the society $10,000, with a request that it should not form a part of any invested fund, but be used as the wants of the society required.
THE FEMALE ASSISTANCE SOCIETY was an association formed by some benevolent women for the relief of sick poor women and children. It was incorporated in April, 1817, to continue until November, 1830. Its funds were limited to $3000.
THE Winows' FrND SociEry was incorporated on March 10, 1815. and allowed to hold funds to the amount of $2500 a year. Its object
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was the relief of the widows and children of deceased clergymen of the Reformed Protestant Dutch Church in the United States.
THE ASSISTANCE SOCIETY was first organized in 1808 for relieving and advising sick and poor persons in the city. It was chartered in Febru- ary, 1810, by which permission was given it to hold real and personal property to the amount of $25,000. Its charter expired in December, 1825.
THE PROVIDENT SOCIETY was established for the purpose of provid- ing a fund to support infirm members, and their widows and children on their decease. Their capital was limited to $10,000. By the same act three other charitable institutions were incorporated for a similar purpose, and with the like limited capital. These were THE MUTUAL BENEFIT SOCIETY, THE BENEVOLENT SOCIETY, and THE ALBION BENEVO- LENT SOCIETY.
These several societies have nearly all disappeared, as distinct organ- izations. They had their origin in the noblest emotions of the human soul-desire to conform to the golden rule of life. They were the comparatively feeble efforts of large-hearted, broad-minded men and women-the foreshadowings of the magnificent institutions established and carried on vigorously in the city of New York in our day for the same holy purpose-the purpose that animated Ben Adhem and caused his name to lead all the rest on the list of the recording angel, because he "loved his fellow-men."
Among the benevolent institutions which existed in the city of New York before 1830, THE SAILORS' SNUG HARBOR holds a most conspicuous place. Before its establishment there was a MARINE SOCIETY, having in view similar objects. This society was founded in 1770, the funds of which were limited to $15,000 a year. Its immediate objects were the improvement of maritune knowledge and the relief of indigent masters of vessels, their widows and children. The funds of the society were limited to $15,000 a year. Its affairs were managed by a committee composed of merchants, magistrates, and managers, and it was sup- ported by an annual subscription from each member of 82.
In the summer of 1801 Captain Robert Richard Randall. a son of Captain Thomas Randall, one of the founders of the Marine Society of New York, and himself a merchant and shipmaster, by his will, bearing date June 1, after making some specific bequests, devised the residue of his estate in trust to the chancellor of the State of New York," the
* A new Constitution of the State of New York, adopted in 1516, abolished the office of chancellor after July, 1847. Since that time the board has consisted of seven members.
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mayor and recorder of the city of New York, the president and vice. president of the Marine Society of the city, the senior minister of the Episcopal Church in the city, and the senior minister of the Presby. terian Church in the same city, for the time being, and to their succes. sors in office respectively, to "receive the rents, issues, and profits thereof," and to apply the same " to the erection, in some eligible part of the land whereon the testator then lived, of a building for an asylum or marine hospital, to be called ' The Sailors' Snug Harbor.'" The object was to provide for the maintenance of aged, decrepit, and worn- out sailors.
These trustees applied to the State Legislature for a charter of incor- poration. It was granted, and the charter bears date February 6, 1806. In 1814, doubts having been expressed as to who, in the con- templation of the testator, were to be considered the " senior ministers" of the Episcopal and Presbyterian churches in the city of New York. the Legislature, by act passed March 25, 1814, declared that the rector of Trinity Church in New York and the minister of the Presbyterian Church in Wall Street should be considered trustees of the corporation.
The property devised by Captain Randall for the Sailors' Snug Har- bor consisted of land lying in the Fifteenth Ward (between Broadway and the Bowery and Seventh and Tenth streets), comprising little more than twenty-one acres, four lots in the Fourth Ward, three and six per cent stocks to the amount of little over $7000, and fifty shares of the stock of the Manhattan Bank.
The rapid growth of the city and advance in the value of property within its limits caused the trustees to ask the Legislature to authorize them to erect the proposed building elsewhere, and regulate and improve the land in the Fifteenth Ward, and lease it. This authority was granted in 1828, and in 1831 the trustees purchased a farm of one hundred and thirty acres on the north shore of Staten Island, to which twenty acres were afterward added.
For many years persons claiming to be heirs of Captain Randall con- tested his will. The question was settled in favor of the trustees. by the Supreme Court in 1830, when the land was divided into lots con- formable to the plan of the city streets, and leased for the term of twenty-one years. The corner-stone of the Sailors' Snug Harbor was laid on October 31, 1831, and on the first of August, 1833, the chief building was completed, and the institution was formally opened with religious and other ceremonies. The remains of the founder were soon afterward deposited beneath a white marble monument in front of the building, bearing the following inscriptions :
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North Side.
" The Trustees of the Sailors' Snug Harbor erected this Monument To the Memory of ROBERT RICHARD RANDALL, By whose munificence this Institution was Founded."
East Side.
" The Humane Institution of the Sailors' Snug Harbor. Conceived in a Spirit of Enlarged Benevolence,
With an endowment which time has proved fully adequate to the objects of the Donor ; And organized in a manner which shows Wisdom and Foresight. The founder of this noble Charity Will ever be held in grateful Remembrance By the partakers of his Bounty."
South Side. " Charity never Faileth, Its Memorial is Immortal."
West Side. " The Trustees of the Sailors' Snug Harbor caused the Remains of ROBERT RICHARD RANDALL To be removed from the original place of Interment And deposited beneath this Monument, On the 21st of August, 1834."
In the hall of the centre building may be seen a marble bust of Cap- tain Randall. The buildings consist of a centre edifice, with two wings, a dining-hall building, a hospital, and chapel.
So enormously has the value of the real estate in the city increased, that the income from it provides ample support for the institution. The annual income in 1806 was $4243 ; now (1883) it is about 8250,000. The delay of almost thirty years in putting the institution into operation was occasioned by the very limited income of the estate, and subsequently by the unsettled state of the trust ; by the great expenses incurred in defending suits brought against the trustees, and by heavy assessments for regulating the lots. But for fifty years this great charity, so appropriate for a great commercial city, has been dis- pensing blessings to a class of useful men who have been too much neglected by society at large.
The Snug Harbor has an average of fully five hundred old or dis- abled seamen under its charge, who are comfortably fed, clothed, and
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lodged, have all necessary wants supplied, and religious instruction attended to, while perfect liberty of conscience is granted.
The government of the institution is under a governor, a chaplain. .. physician, an agent, and a steward. None but those who have served " before the mast," and free from contagious disease, have not ade. quate means for self-support, and who have sailed for five years under the United States flag in the naval or merchant service, ar admitted.
Before the trustees of the Sailors' Snug Harbor had made their final arrangements for building on their land on Staten Island, a successful effort had been made (1830-31) for establishing a Scamen's Retreat and Hospital.
In 1754 the municipal authorities of New York (then containing a population of about 8000) adopted quarantine measures for the protec- tion of the health of the city. They imposed a tax upon all persons entering the port of New York, both seamen and passengers, and with the fund thus procured they established hospital accommodations, first on Governor's Island, and then on Bedloe's Island. After the Revolu- tion laws were enacted by the State Legislature for regulating a proper quarantine, and in 1796 a quarantine hospital was established on Staten Island. The taxes collected from seamen and passengers was paid into a joint fund, which was under the control of the " commissioners of health" of the city of New York, and was called the Mariners' Fund.
This fund was appropriated to defraying the expense of buildings at Quarantine, to the aid of the " House of Refuge for Juvenile Delin- quents," the endowment of dispensaries from year to year, and other things, and the remainder, if any, was paid into the State treasury. A very small amount of the money collected by these taxes was used for intended purposes, for only hospital accommodations were provided alike for passengers and seamen, and were afforded but for four months of the year, at the Marine Hospital.
This manifest injustice to seafaring men aroused the attention of commercial men in 1530, and at the session of the State Legislature in 1831 a law was passed which repealed all former laws relating to the collection of the quarantine tax from masters, mates, and seamen, and created a board of trustees, who were charged with the collection and use of the funds so procured. It was ascertained that up to that time. after deducting all that had been expended for board, nursing, and medical attendance for seamen, there remained in their favor, apart from what had been paid by passengers and expended for them, the sum of $341,000.
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FIRST DECADE, 1830-1840.
The board of trustees named in the act of April 22, 1831, were .ithorized to receive from the comptroller of the State the unexpended lance of the joint fund in his hands, which then amounted to $12, 197, .and were also authorized to establish with this fund a hospital for the "xelusive use of seamen, the quarantine tax on scafaring men to be appropriated for its support. On the 9th of May, 1831, the first meet- ing of the board was held at the office of the mayor. The board consisted of Walter Bowne, mavor and president : Captain John Whetton, president of the Marine Society ; Captain Alexander Thomp- son, president of the Nautical Society ; Najah Taylor, president of the Scamen's Savings Bank, and Dr. John S. Westervelt, health officer and acting secretary. At that meeting Captains James Morgan, James Webb, J. R. Skiddy, Henry Russell, and Reuben Brumley were elected associate trustees. Dr. Peter S. Townsend, of New York, was subsequently elected resident physician to the institution, which was denominated THE SEAMEN'S RETREAT HOSPITAL. At a subsequent meeting Samuel Swartwout, collector of the port, was chosen presi- dent, and Captain Morgan appointed secretary.
The trustees bought forty acres of land on the north side of Staten Island, on the road between Clifton and Stapleton, on which was a farmhouse, for $10,000. In that farmhouse the first patients were cared for, but it very soon was entirely inadequate, for all seamen then in the Marine Hospital at Staten Island and in the City Hospital in New York, at the charge of the health commissioners, were to be sent to the retreat. A building was speedily erected, and yet there were inadequate accommodations for the continually increasing applicants, and the corner-stone of a new building was laid on July 4, 1834. In 1842 the erection of another building was begun, and the imposing structures now seen there were soon completed.
There was in the retreat a circulating library of many hundred vol- mes, and the American Bible Society furnished Bibles and Testaments in almost every written language. There thousands of seamen, disabled by age or disease, found a home. If any preferred it, he was trans- ferred to the Sailors' Snug Harbor, or sent, at the expense of the trustees, to his home and friends, however distant. At the western end of the grounds was a cemetery, where the wearied bodies were laid at rest forever.
The Hon. Clarkson Crolius, Jr., was, for nearly thirty years, an active trustee of the Seamen's Retreat, and was its last president. The retreat was closed, by order of the Legislature, on July 31, 18-2. because the hospital was not self-supporting. On the grounds is the
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Mariners' Family Asylum, which is continued. The hospital property is valued at $200,000. The proceeds of its sale are to be equally divided between the Family Asylum, the Marine Society of New York. and the Seamen's Orphan Society of New York. " Sammy," the old gatekeeper, who had been at his post for forty-three years, was sent to the Sailors' Snug Harbor, and the patients to other hospitals.
In 1828 an important movement was made in New York, in the interest of commerce, morals, and humanity. So much does the safety of property committed to the care of seamen depend upon their moral character, that the merchants and others perceived, with ever-increas- ing anxiety, the low state of morals among that class of men, then so numerous in connection with the mercantile marine of New York. Society was to blame for their degradation, for society almost entirely neglected them. In 1828 a SEAMEN'S FRIEND SOCIETY was organized in New York, the avowed object of which was "to improve the social and moral condition of seamen by uniting the efforts of the wise and good in their behalf ; by promoting in every port boarding-houses of good character, savings banks, register-offices, libraries, museums. reading-rooms, and schools, and also the ministration of the gospel and other religious blessings." "
Early in 1825 the Rev. John Truax began the publication of the Mariner's Magazine in New York. He advocated the formation of a national society for the benefit of seamen. This led to the assembling at the City Hotel (October 25, 1825) of clergymen of the various churches in New York, and a large number of other citizens-mer-
* So early as the year 1812 a Society-probably the first in the world-was formed in Boston, called " The Boston Society for the Religious and Moral Improvement of Sea- men." In 1816 meetings to consider and provide for the spiritual wants of seamen were begun in New York, in the Brick (Presbyterian) Church, then occupying the point of land at the junction of Nassau Street and Park Row, and subsequently in other churches. In 1817 a " Marine Bible Society," designed to furnish sailors with the Scriptures, was formed, and the next year the " Society for Promoting the Gospel among Seamen in the Port of New York, " more familiarly known as " The Port Society, " was formed.
Under the auspices of the last-named society was erected the first Mariners' Church ever built, it is supposed. It was in Roosevelt Street, near the East River, and was dedi- cated in June, 1520. . Rev. Ward Stafford. its projector, was its pastor. In 1821 " The New York Bethel Union," with the good Divie Bethune as its president, was organized.
Almost simultaneously with these movements in New York for ministering to the spiritual and intellectual wants of seamen, similar organizations were effected at Phila- delphia (1819), at Savannah (1821), Portland and New Orleans (1823), New Bedford and Norfolk (1825), and at other places. So early as 1825 there existed in the United States seventy Bethel Unions, thirty-three Marine Bible Societies, and fifteen churches and floating chapels for the benefit of seamen. The Bethel flag had circumnavigated the globe.
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chants and others. Other meetings were held, and the subject contin- ued to be discussed, when, on May 5, 1828, THE AMERICAN SEAMEN'S FHEND SOCIETY was organized, with the Hon. Smith Thompson, ex-Secretary of the Navy, as president ; Rev. Charles P. Mellvaine (afterward bishop of the Diocese of Ohio), corresponding secretary ; Philip Flagler, recording secretary ; Silas Holmes, treasurer, and Rev. Joshua Leavitt, general agent.
The institution of foreign agencies was almost immediately begun, and now they exist in almost every important seaport in the world. The first agent sent to China was the Rev. David Abeel, and at about the same time agents were sent to the Sandwich Islands, France, and elsewhere. The Sailors' Magazine (yet published) was started the same year. In 1829 a seamen's savings bank was started, and the same year a home for colored seamen was established. The society was incorporated in 1833.
In 1842 a home was opened for white sailors, at No. 190 Cherry Street, and there many thousand seamen have found the comforts which its name implies. It has a good reading-room and museum. bathing facilities, and excellent sleeping-rooms. There is a clothing store in the basement, and a seamen's exchange near by. This home and the legal restrictions which now hedge the sailor boarding-houses have transformed these traditional dens of moral pollution and financial swindling into comparatively decent houses of entertainment. During the year ending May, 1882, it had accommodated one thousand nine hundred and fifty-eight boarders. From the date of its opening there had boarded and lodged there one hundred thousand seven hundred and ten seamen, and the amount saved by it to seamen and their rela- tives whose funds had been cared for was, during the thirty-nine years, more than $1,500,000. There shipwrecked sailors are cheerfully pro- vided for.
The fifty-fourth annual report of the society (May, 1852) exhibited the institution in a healthful state, and vigorously engaged in its noble work, with an efficient corps of officers, composed of the Secretary of the Navy, admirals, commanders, and captains of the United States Navy, clergymen, and others."
The society has now active agents in the Bermudas : at Bangkok, Siam ; Bon Esperance, on the coast of Labrador ; Honolulu ; ports in Sweden, Norway, and Denmark ; Hamburg, Antwerp, Marseilles.
* The officers for 1992-53 are : Richard Buck, president ; Horace Gray, Henry A. Hurlbert, and twenty-four others, vice-presidents : Rev. Samuel H. Hall, D. D., secre- tary ; William C. Sturges, treasurer, and L. P. Hubbard, financial agent.
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Geneva, Naples ; Yokohama, Japan ; Valparaiso, Chili ; and at tia principal Atlantic and Pacific seaports of the United States.
For a quarter of a century the society has furnished private and national vessels with loan libraries for the use of seamen. These con- tain about thirty-six volumes each, a few of them in the Danish. French, Spanish, and Italian languages. During the year ending May, 1882, there had been sent to sea from the rooms of the society in New York and Boston eight hundred and twelve libraries, containing an aggregate of sixteen thousand five hundred and twelve volumes.
These brief notices of institutions which have originated and are carried on in the city of New York in behalf of seafaring men reveal the vast benevolent operations of the noble work that is done in the commercial metropolis of the Republic for the class of men upon whose good services so much of its material prosperity depends.
THE ORPHAN ASYLUM SOCIETY IN THE CITY OF NEW YORK is the oldest of its class in the United States, having been organized in the spring of 1806. It was founded by a few benevolent persons, chiefly women. among whom Isabella Graham, a widow, and one of the most saintly benefactors ever known, was conspicuous. Out of her own earnings as a school-teacher she had laid the foundation in the city of Edinburgh of the Society for the Relief of the Destitute Sick, and, with others. the Society for the Relief of Poor Widows with Children. She came to America in 1785, on the invitation of President Witherspoon of Princeton College, and opened a small school in the city of New York. where her second daughter married Divie Bethune, a prosperous young merchant, father of the late Rev. Dr. Bethune .*
The Orphan Society was organized at the City Hotel in April, 1807. and the continuance and support of the Society for the Relief of Poor Widows with Children was a chief element in insuring it success.
At first a temporary home for the wards of the society was procured in Greenwich Village, and a pious man and his wife were engaged to take charge of and instruct the orphan children. In the spring of 17 the society obtained a charter from the Legislature, bearing date April
* Isabella Graham was born in Lanarkshire, Scotland, in 1742. Her maiden name was Marshall. She married Dr. John Graham, an army surgeon, and accompanied him t Canada in 1765. She resided there several years, and accompanied her husband to the island of Antigna, where he died. She returned to Scotland with three infant daughters and a son, where she supported her family by teaching school until she came to America. At her house in New York, in 1796, was formed the " Society for the Relief of Poor Widows with Children." She was one of the chief founders of the " Orphan Asylan" and " The Magdalen Society." Her ministrations to the poor continued until her death. in 1814.
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