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 II > Part 30
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The great number of sick children brought to the nursery showed the need of a hospital, where the sick might be cared for separate from the healthy. The authorities of the New York Hospital generously gave to the managers of the nursery a wooden cottage which had been temporarily erected. It was removed to and reconstructed on vacant lots on Sixth Avenue, near Fourteenth Street, in 1856. 1 new charter gave to the institution its present title of The Nursery and Child's Hospital.
A building for a permanent home for the institution was completed in May, 1858. Soon afterward it was proposed to establish a foundling hospital in connection with the nursery, and on lots adjoining it. A
tion is under the charge of Sister Mary of Archangel. It is supported by subscriptions. and donations.
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building for the purpose was erected, largely through the untiring ex- ertions of Mrs. Dubois, assisted by the common council, just as the Civil War broke out.
This institution met a most pressing social want-the protection of illegitimate children and their erring mothers. Infanticide and the suicide of unfortunate mothers was becoming fearfully prevalent. It was for the salvation of these that this institution, called the Infants' Home, was established.
Again these good women applied for a charter giving them power to open a lying-in hospital. It was granted, and in December, 1865, this additional refuge was opened. After much tribulation the man- agers secured from the city authorities a perpetual lease of the build- ings and lots which the institution now occupies.
The mortality among children in the city during the summer months, chiefly from cholera infantum, caused the opening of the Country Branch of the Nursery and Child's Hospital, on Staten Island, on July 4, 1870. Thirteen cottages were built for the purpose. This was accomplished by legislative aid. The result has been most satisfactory. During the year ending in March, 1882, the institution cared for 2322 persons-in the City Nursery 1138, and in the Country Branch 1184. There were 772 women and 1552 children."
An efficient institution designed for social reform is THE NEW YORK INFIRMARY FOR WOMEN AND CHILDREN, established early in this decade. It was incorporated in December, 1853, for the following purposes : 1. To afford poor women the opportunity of consulting physicians of their own sex ; 2. To assist educated women in the practical study of medicine, and 3. To form a school for instruction in nursing and the laws of health.
Dr. Elizabeth Blackwell and her sister, Dr. Emily Blackwell, assist- ed by a few generous friends, founded this institution. They had re- ceived so many applications for advice from poor women that they per- ceived that only by the establishment of a charitable medical institution could such advice be effectively given. They determined to found one upon a base so broad that it could be a school for the mutual instruc-
* The officers of this institution in 1882 were : Mrs. Cornelius Dubois, first direc- tress ; Mrs. A. S. Sullivan, second directress ; Mrs. J. W. Ellis, third directress ; Mrs. J. Howard Wright, treasurer ; Miss M. R. Smith, assistant treasurer ; Mrs. R. H. L. Town- send, secretary, and Miss M. D. Van Winkle, assistant secretary. There was a board of thirty-two lady managers. Mrs. MeEvoy was the matron. Of the country branch, Mrs. Theodore F. Eadie was treasurer, and Miss Webster secretary. Some of the best medical men of the city are attending or consulting physicians.
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ton of women and give an opportunity for students of their own sex to and take part in actual practice.
Other considerations also led to giving to the new institution the form of a hospital rather than that of a college. It was necessary to prove that ordinary medical practice could be successfully conducted by women, and this could most effectually be done by public practice among the poor. An infirmary was established, and begun as a dis- pensary, in a single room near Tompkins Square, with a capital of $50, attended three times a week by a single physician."
When, three years afterward (1856), the medical staff of the institu- tion was increased by the return of Dr. Emily Blackwell from Europe and the arrival in New York of Dr. Marie E. La Krzewska, a house was taken and the hospital department was added. This step was undertaken in the face of solemn warnings and the most discouraging prophecies, for prejudices against " female doctors," not only in the public mind but in the profession, were then very powerful. The pro- jectors were told that no one would let a house for the purpose ; that " female doctors" would be looked on with so much suspicion that the police would interefere ; that if deaths occurred their death certificates would not be recognized ; that they would be resorted to by classes and persons whom it would be an insult to be called upon to deal with ; that without men as resident physicians they would not be able to control the patients ; that if any accident occurred, not the medical profession alone would blame the trustees for supporting such an undertaking ; and, finally, that they would never be able to collect money for such an unpopular enterprise.
The isolation of these few " woman doctors" is illustrated by the following circumstance : When, for the first time, an operation was to be performed on a patient at the infirmary, one of the consulting phy- sicians was asked to be present. The little group of woman physicians waited more than an hour for his appearance. The delay was caused by his deeming it necessary to consult an eminent medical gentleman as to the propriety and wisdom of sanctioning such a proceeding by his
* This institution was organized with the following-named persons as its managers : Trustees, Stacy B. Collins, Charles Butler, Robert Haydock, Theodore Sedgwick, Cyrus W. Field, Simeon Draper, Horace Greeley, Dennis Harris, Charles W. Foster, Henry J. Raymond, Charles A. Dana, Richard H. Manning, Richard H. Bowne, Robert White, Edward C. West, Benjamin Flanders, Marens Spring, Elizabeth Blackwell ; attending physician. Dr. Elizabeth Blackwell : consulting physicians, Dr. Willard Parker. R. S. KA.Ka ... Isaac E. Taylor, and George P. Cammann ; consulting surgeons, Dr. Valentine More .ad Dr. John Watson.
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presence. He attended, however, and was astonished at the skill displayed.
Viewed in the light of happy experience to-day, after a lapse of thirty years, how strangely those prophecies of evil and the hesitation of the profession to believe women were competent to become skilful healers, meet the eye, on paper ! The institution was victorious over prejudice from the beginning. It won the kind wishes and substantial respect of enlightened citizens, and the aid and countenance of the most eminent physicians of the city. Its work, always performed by women, has been eminently successful, and it is pointed to by reformers of every kind as a brave and successful champion against bigotry, prejudice, and ignorance. Among the first nurses who went to the hospitals at Washington at the beginning of the Civil War were some of the pupils of this institution.
According to the report of the New York Infirmary for Women and Children for the year ending November 1, 1882, there had been 6133 patients treated in the infirmary, dispensary, and out of doors within the twelve months : number of prescriptions paid for, 17, S78 ; number given free, 6703 ; consultations-at dispensary, 16,254 ; in out practice, 3264. The institution occupies a pleasant building, No. 5 Livingston Place, Stuyvesant Square, where there are eleven female physicians in attendance .*
* The officers of the institution for 1883 were : Samuel Willets, president ; Robert Olyphant, vice-president ; John T. Willets, treasurer, and Robert Haydock, secretary. These officers were assisted by an executive committee of twenty-two ladies. It has an efficient corps of eminent physicians, resident, visiting, and consulting, of both sexes. The dispensary physicians are all women.
President Sama I Willets died on February 6, 1853. He was born at Westbury, Long Island, in June, 1795, and was one of the oldest and most respected of the merchants of New York. His parents were members of the Society of Friends, and all through life he was a beloved member of that exemplary body of Christians, adhering to their simplicity of living. When he was a youth he went to New York, and at the age of twenty-one married Sarah Hicks, a near neighbor, entered into the hardware business with his brothers, and greatly prospered, amassing a large fortune. They were commission mer- chants a long time, and many years ago were largely engaged in the whaling business, owning quite a fleet of vessels. Mr. Willets retired from business several years ago (1867). Ile never held any political office, but was active as an official in the business of banking, insurance, and railroading ; also in various benevolent institutions. At the time of his death he was president of the Infirmary for Women and Children, of the Society for the Relief of the Ruptured and Crippled, and vice-president of the New York Hospital Society. He was also president of the Workingwoman's Protective Union, and active in other charitable enterprises. Mr. Willets was an active frien 1 of the slave, and was one of the most efficient members of the early Manvanission Society. Mrs. Willets die in 1881, their wedded life having continued more than sixty-four years.
Drawers of Legal
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In 1865 a charter was obtained for a WOMAN'S MEDICAL COLLEGE. in connection with the Infirmary for Women and Children. It was opened with a full and efficient faculty. A chair of hygiene was founded, the first of the kind in a medical college in the United States. A board of examiners was established, independent of the faculty. The first class graduated in 1870. Candidates for graduation, after having passed the faculty of the college, go before the board of exam- iners, composed of professors in the several medical colleges in the city.
The students of this college have the best clinical advantages, as the infirmary places before them annually several thousand patients, and all the dispensaries of the city are open to them."
In 1852 the NEW YORK OPHTHALMIC HOSPITAL was founded, and began operations under the general incorporation act. Its prime object was to afford gratuitous treatment for diseases of the eye to needy persons. and the instruction of medical students in a knowledge of these diseases. In 1869 the directors obtained permission from the State to treat diseases of the car as well as of the eve. It was at this juncture that a board of directors were elected, who made it a homeopathic institu- tion, and took measures for obtaining funds for the erection of & permanent building for the hospital. After collecting about $70,000. they purchased a lot on the corner of Third Avenue and Twenty-third Street. There they had laid the corner-stone and began work in a moderate way, when Mrs. Emma A. Keep (now widow of the late Judge Schley) presented the directors with the munificent sum of $100,000. Their fine building, five stories in height, was completed and occupied in 1872.
In 1879 the directors procured from the State Legislature power to confer on qualified students the degree of Surgeon of the Eve and Ear. a distinction enjoyed by no other similar institution in the world. For
* The president of the Woman's Medical College for 1882 was Samuel Willets, and the secretary Robert Haydock. The board of examiners consisted of Drs. Willard Parker, B. W. MeCready, Stephen Smith, A. L. Loomis, William M. Polk. E. G. Janeway, and William H. Welch. At the head of the faculty was Miss Elizabeth Blackwell, M.D. emeritus professor of principles and practice of medicine.
Miss Blackwell is a native of Bristol, England, where she was born in 1821. She came to New York with her father in 1831, went to Cincinnati in 1537, where she taught school several years ; studied medicine in Charleston, S. C., while teaching innsie, and finally took the degree of M.D. at the medical college, Geneva, N. Y., in 1849. She is the first woman upon whom that degree was conferred. She pursued clinical studies in Phila- delphia and midwifery in Paris, after which she was allowed to " walk the hospital " or St. Bartholomew, in London. She began the practice of her profession in New York City, and there, with her sister Emily, opened the New York Infirmary for Women and Children in 1854.
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three years the institution exercised this power in graduating students, and in 1552 the directors proceeded to organize the college by the appointment of a faculty of instruction and the adoption of a compre- hensive course of study, under which physicians are made accomplished experts in diseases of the eye and ear. By this organization the highest conception of a hospital was obtained, an idea carried out at an earlier day by the New York Infirmary for Women and Children and the Woman's Hospital -- namely, a hospital affording relief to human suffering and a college in connection for the advancement of medical and surgical science. The hospital and the college are successful co-workers .*
Nearly every public charity in New York City is the product of some tiny seed planted in good soil. An excellent institution which had its origin in the heart of the rector of St. Luke's Church (the Rev. Isaac Tuttle) is a case in point. One day an aged woman, gentle in her bearing and evidently well bred, who had seen better days, called on the rector and inquired whether there was an asylum or a home of the Episcopal Church where a woman fourscore years of age might find a retreat for the remainder of her life.
" Madam," said the rector, "I am sorry to say our Church has none; but by the grace of God it shall have."
The rector soon preached a discourse on the necessity of such a home. Hle invited some of his congregation to a conference, and the result was the organization, in 1831, of ST. LUKE's HOME FOR INDIGENT CHRISTIAN FEMALES. Furnished rooms were hired, and these only, with fuel, were given to the first inmates, they generally being able to earn their food. It was simply a shelter. The more feeble were aided by individuals or by St. Luke's Parish. The institution was under the care of efficient ladies of the congregation. For several years it remained a parochial charge, but its blessed work becoming more widely known, there was a generally expressed desire to make it a Church affair, and to extend its benefits. Leading clergymen recom- mended it to the consideration of their parishioners.
In 1856, through the earnest efforts of benevolent women from several parishes, the institution was changed from a parochial to a
* The officers of the institution in 1882 were : Thomas C. Smith, president ; George W. Clarke, vice-president ; Elias C. Benedict, treasurer ; R. C. Root, secretary; John Mackay, assistant secretary .. There is a board of fifteen directors. Its successive presidents since 1853 have been the Hon. Caleb S. Woodhull, the Rev. Isaac Ferris, D.D., Peter Cooper, Solomon Jenner, John M. Seaman, and Thomas C. Smith. 'The latter has been president since 1571,
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general one, and incorporated. Funds were soon furnished to purchase a commodious house next to St. Luke's Church, then in Hudson Street. An associate board of woman managers was appointed to take charge of its internal affairs, while men managed the property of the institu- tion.
This Home now occupies a commodious building of its own on the corner of Madison Avenue and Eighty-ninth Street, while St. Luke's Church remains at its old location and is in charge of the same rector, in whose heart the seed of the Home was planted."
In 1858 an organization designed for the temporal, moral, and spirit- ual welfare of young women who are dependent on their own labor for support, was effected by a few benevolent women. It was called the Ladies' Christian Union of the City of New York. In this work Mrs. Marshall O. Roberts was conspicuous. The ladies established the Young Women's Home, also the Young Ladies' Branch of the Christian Union. The latter separated from the parent society in 1873, and it was organ- ized under the title of the YOUNG WOMEN'S CHRISTIAN ASSOCIATION. It has a free circulating library, and educational classes in phonography, type-writing, and retouching photo-negatives. These classes and the library are open to young women from eighteen to thirty-five years of age who desire to study to prepare for self-support. It has also an Employment Bureau, an Industrial Department, and a Fresh Air Fund.+
The Methodists of the city of New York also established a home for aged and indigent members of their society early in this decade. The idea originated with the members of the Greene Street Church, who had unsuccessfully endeavored to provide a home for the aged destitute of their congregation. A plan was conceived in 1850 for establishing such a general home for the old and needy in the several churches in the city. Meetings were held at private houses. Finally, in 1851, at a public meeting in the Mulberry Street Church, a Ladies' Union Aid Society was formed, and was incorporated in June of that year. Mrs. Mary Mason was the first president of it, and was re-elected seven
* The officers of the Home in 1883 were : The Rt. Rev. Horatio Potter, bishop of the diocese, president ; the Rev. Isaac Tuttle, D.D., vice-president ; Francis Pott, secretary ; John H. Caswell, treasurer. There is a board of managers, composed of clergymen and laymen, nineteen in number, and numerous assistant managers, composed of ladies from the various Episcopal churches of the city.
t The officers for 1883 were : Mrs. Clarence E. Beebe; president ; Mrs. Mary J. MeCready, and Mrs. W. W. Hoppin, Jr., vice-presidents : Mrs. R. A. Bush, treasurer ; Miss Emily B. Fabian, corresponding secretary ; and Miss MI. L. Perlee, recording seere- tary.
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successive years. A house was hired in Horatio Street, which would! accommodate thirty persons. Under the original charter the associa- tion worked until 1578, when it was amended and the name changed to METHODIST EPISCOPAL CHURCH HOME FOR AGED AND INFIRM MEMBERS.
Very soon there was a pressing demand for an enlargement of the Home. Four lots were given to the society by William Seaman, in West Forty-second Street, on which they built their present structure, 62 by 82 feet in size on the ground and four stories in height. It is capable of accommodating seventy-five inmates. It was dedicated in April, 1857, by Bishop Janes.
Persons of all conditions belonging to the Methodist Church may there find a comfortable and agreeable resting-place in old age. No entrance fee is required. The more needy and lonely their condition, the more readily do they find admission to the Home. When " life's fitful fever is over" their remains are buried in Greenwood Cemetery, in a lot appropriated for the purpose, unless their friends provide a place of sepulture for them."
The Baptists also have an institution to provide the aged, infirm, or destitute members of the Baptist churches of New York City with a comfortable residence ; with board, clothing, skilful medical attend- ance ; with their accustomed religious services, and at their death with respectful burial. This institution was incorporated in March, 1869, under the title of THE BAPTIST HOME FOR AGED AND INFIRM PERSONS. The names of the trustees which appear in the charter are : Amanda F. Hays, Apauline II. Ambler, Ann Letitia Murphy, Isabella R. Bruce, Frances M. Newton, Maria Miner, Anna M. Hohne, Susan F. Colgate, Mary A. Pettus. Sarah J. Spaulding, and Eliza J. Merwin.
The society was organized in February, 1869, and in June, 1870, a temporary home was opened in Grove Street. In May, 1874, the in- mates were removed to the handsome structure, five stories in height above a high basement, which stands on Sixty-eighth Street, near Lex- ington Avenue. Many social gatherings have been heldl at the Home. and the life of the inmates there is made as happy as kindness, re- ligious ministrations, and general contentment can afford .;
* The officers of the Home for 1883 were : Mrs. Bishop Harris, president ; Mrs. Lemuel Bangs, vice-president ; Mrs. Richard Kelly, treasurer ; Mrs. Lafayette Olney, recording secretary ; Mrs. George H. Morrison, corresponding secretary.
+ The officers of the institution for 1882 were : Mrs. D. C. Hays, first directress ; Mrs. S. M. Ambler, second directress . Mrs. William D. Murphy, third directress ; Mrs. J. M. Bruce, treasurer ; Mrs. T. R. Butler, corresponding secretary, and Mrs. William J. Todd, recording secretary.
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There was incorporated, in 1852. in the city of New York a Roman Catholic orphan asylum. It was an institution formed by the union of an orphan asylum and half-orphan asylum previously existing. The orphan asylum had been founded in 1817 under the auspices of Bishop Connelly. Its location was in Prince Street. The inmates were in charge of the Sisters of Charity. This and the Half-Orphan Asyhun were consolidated in 1852 into one corporation, under the name of THE ROMAN CATHOLIC ORPHAN ASYLUM FOR THE CITY OF NEW YORK, the corporate power to be held by a board of managers, twenty-five in number .*
The building in Prince Street was erected in 1825. It occupies nearly half a block, and is four stories above the basement. It was originally occupied exclusively by girls. Subsequently spacious build- ings of brick were erected in the upper part of the city for both sexes. The building for boys occupies a large portion of a block of ground on Fifth Avenue, between Fifty-first and Fifty-second streets. The building for girls occupies a portion of a block bounded by Madison and Fourth avenues and Fifty-first and Fifty-second streets. The institution can now accommodate fully two thousand children of both sexes. From the commencement. in 1817, the Roman Catholic Orphan Asylun has been supported by voluntary gifts in various forms. +
At the beginning of this decade a very important institution for the diffusion of knowledge was founded in the city of New York. It is a library of reference, arranged on a scale of munificence in expenditure for making it equal to any institution of the kind in the world.
This library was founded by John Jacob Astor, then the most opulent citizen of the metropolis, if not of the Republic. On January 18, 1849, it was incorporated under the title of THE TRUSTEES OF THE ASTOR LIBRARY. The gentlemen named in the charter were : Washington Irving, William B. Astor, Daniel Lord, James G. King. Joseph G. Cogswell, Fitz-Greene Halleck, Samuel B. Ruggles, Samuel Ward, and Charles Astor Bristed. These trustees are all deceased.
For the establishment of this library Mr. Astor, who died in 1548.+
* * The first officers elected under the new charter were : Archbishop John Hughes, president ; the Rev. John Loughlin and Hugh Sweeny, vice-presidents ; D. Carolin, treasurer ; M. J. O'Donnell, secretary, and Louis B. Binsse, assistant secretary.
+ The officers of the asylum in 1882 were : the Rev. William Quinn, president ; John C. McCarthy, treasurer, and Francis Twomey, secretary.
# John Jacob Astor was born in the village of Waldorf, not far from Heidelberg, Ger- many, in midsummer, 1763. His parents occupied a humble sphere in life. At an early age he manifested ambition for travel and trathe. While yet a more stripling he left home and travelled to London, starting for a seaport on foot with all his worldly goods
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bequeathed $400.000. The original building was completed at the close of 1:53, and was opened on February 1, 1854, with 50,000 volumes, selected chiefly by Dr. J. G. Cogswell, the first appointed librarian. William B. Astor, son of the founder, afterward erected an adjoining building of the same dimensions as the first. The enlarged
in a bundle hanging over his shoulder. Resting in the shadow of a linden tree, he thought of his future, and resolved to be honest and industrious, and to avoid gambling. Upon this moral basis he built the superstructure of his fame and fortune.
Young Astor left London for America in November, 1783, bringing with him some merchandise for traffic. He was then twenty years of age. An claer brother, who had been in America several years, had written to him on the advantages offered young men of enterprise in this country. Obtaining from a countryman in New York engaged in the furrier business all necessary information concerning that pursuit, he invested the proceeds of the sale of his merchandise in furs, and was successful from the beginning. His enterprise, guided by great sagacity, always kept ahead of his capital, and year after year his business expanded. He made regular visits to Montreal, where he bought furs of the Hudson Bay Company and shipped them to London. So soon as commercial treaties permitted, he sent furs to all parts of the United States, and for many years he carried on a very lucrative trade with Canton, China. After spending many years as a second-hand operator, and having accumulated a large fortune, he resolved to do business on his own account. He traded directly with the Indians, who were supplying the North-Western Fur Company with the choicest furs. He soon became the rival of this company. In 1909 the Legislature of New York incorporated the American Fur Com- pany, with a capital of 81,000,000, with the privilege of extending it to $2,000,000. Mr. Astor was the president and director-in a word, he was the company : the capital and . management were his own. In 1811 he bought out the North-Western Company. With some associates he formed the South-Western Fur Company, and they controlled the vast fur trade in the middle regions of America. Mr. Astor conceived a still greater enter- prise. He saw the great possibilities of the Pacific coast in connection with the trade of the East Indies, and he contemplated the control of that trade. He resolved to control at least the fur trade with China. His plan was to have a line of trading-posts across the continent to the mouth of the Colraabia River, lately discovered, and ship furs from that point to Asia. He established a fortified post at the mouth of the Columbia, which was called Astoria. It was the geri of the State of Oregon. Then began a series of opera- tions on a scale altogether greater than any hitherto attempted by individual enterprise. The history of it is full of wildest romance ; it has been toll by Irving in two volumes. The grand scheme soon failed. There was war with England. A British armed schooner captured Astoria, and British fur-traders entered upon the rich field. The United States Government declined to assist Mr. Astor in recovering his possessions. His associates disappointed him, and his dream of an empire beyond the mountains, " peopled by free and independent Americans, and linked to us by ties of blood and interest," vanished like the morning dew. It has since become a reality.
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