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 4
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During the existence of the Eastern Dispensary (1834-82) it has
* The trustees of the institution in 1882-83 were : Franklin Edson, mayor : Frederick Smyth, recorder ; the Rev. Morgan Dix, D.D., rector of Trinity Church ; John J. Cisco and Gouverneur M. Ogden, wardens of Trinity Church ; the Rev. Thomas E. Vermilve, senior minister of the Collegiate Dutch Reformed Church ; the Rev. William MI. Paxton, D:D., minister of the First Presbyterian Church. The officers were : the Rev. Morgan Dix, president ; John M. Knox, treasurer ; John M. Knox, Jr., clerk ; Richard MI. Hay- den, superintendent.
+ Samuel Akerly, M.D., was born in 1785, and died on Staten Island in July, 1845. He studied medicine with his brother-in-law, Dr. Samuel L. Mitchill. Dr. Akerly was a nost benevolent man, and was a founder and liberal supporter of the Asylum for the Deaf and Dumb and the Blind in the city of New York. He was a constant contributor to the dieal and scientific journals, and was the author of an " Essay on the Geology of (: Hudson River" (1821) and " Observations on Deafness" (1821).
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furnished medical and surgical treatment to 1,054,699 patients, vac- cinated 168,457 persons, dispensed 1,654,697 prescriptions, and ex- pended $170,770, on an average of about sixteen cents to each patient. The dispensary is in the Essex Market building, on the north-east corner of Grand and Essex streets .*
The NEW YORK INSTITUTION FOR THE BLIND OWES its existence chiefly to Dr. Samuel Akerly and Samuel Wood. Through the influence of these gentlemen a society was organized in 1831 for the purpose of founding an institution for the instruction of the blind-not a " home," nor an asylum, nor a hospital, but a school, in which those unfortunates might receive the advantages of education enjoyed by those who have clear vision, and with a special regard to their future usefulness in life, and consequently of their welfare.
This was the second institution for the blind established in the United States, yet it was the first that went into operation. It was opened for the reception of pupils on March 15, 1832. It was incorpo- rated by the Legislature of New York April 21, 1831. The first board of managers consisted of Gideon Lee, William B. Crosby, Hiram Ketcham, John P. Stagg, Henry Thomas, George Spring, John R. Stuyvesant, Morris Ketcham, Mathew C. Patterson, Thomas W. Jenkins, John W. Walker, Jonathan D. Steel, Silas Brown, Thompson Price, Curtis Bolton, Samuel Wood, Theodore Dwight, Franklin Miller, and John D. Russ.
The instruction given in this institution is threefold-namely, intel- lectual, musical, and industrial. In the first department the pupils are taught reading (by means of raised letters), writing, spelling, grammar, arithmetic, geography, algebra, geometry, history, and the mental and physical sciences. The course of instruction is graded and regular.
In the musical department instruction is given, to those who have a taste for it and qualified to study it, in the rudiments, chorus-singing, vocal, piano, organ, and harmony.
In the mechanical department three branches of handicraft are taught-namely, mat, broom, cane-seat and mattress making ; also knitting and sewing.
The fruit of this noble institution may be seen in many persons occu- pying useful positions in society-merchants, manufacturers, insurance agents, piano-tuners, organists, teachers, clergymen, lawyers, and phy-
* The officers of the dispensary for 1882 were : John H. Waydell, president ; Edward C. Sampson, vice-president ; A. W. Weismann, secretary ; Robert H. Crosby, treasurer ; Dr. S. S. Bogert, house physician.
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sicians. This and kindred institutions have relieved hundreds from the terrible condition feelingly described by Milton :
" Exposed To daily fraud, contempt, abuse, and wrong, Scarce half I seem to live ; dead more than half. O, dark ! dark ! dark ! amid the blaze of noon, Irrevocably dark ; total eclipse, Without all hope of day "'
The promise of Scripture borne on the title-page of the reports of the institution indicates the scope of its work : " And I will bring the blind by a way that they know not ; I will lead them in paths that they have not known ; I will make darkness light before them." *
The NEW YORK INSTITUTION FOR THE INSTRUCTION OF THE BLIND is situated upon high ground and healthful position in Ninth Avenue, between Thirty-third and Thirty-fourth streets. t
THE NEW YORK PROTESTANT EPISCOPAL CITY MISSION SOCIETY Was organized in September, 1831, for the purpose of supplying, as far as possible, the spiritual wants of the poorer classes in the city. Its charter, granted in April, 1833, gave it the right to establish free churches in the city of New York. The society at once organized two of these churches-namely, the Holy Evangelist and the Church of the Epiphany. The former was put under the charge of the Rev. Mr. Cutler, and the latter under the Rev. Lot Jones, D. D. Mr. Cutler, the first missionary employed by the society, was called to the rector- ship of St. Ann's Church, Brooklyn, in 1833.
As the work of the society expanded, free mission chapels connected with larger Episcopal churches in the city were established. For sev. eral years this society was associated in Christian work with another institution of the Church-the Mission to Public Institutions. Finally. through the efforts of the Rev. Dr. Peters, rector of St. Michael's Church, who had long been the mainstay of the latter mission, aided by clerical and lay members of it, the functions of the Mission to Public Institutions were transferred to the City Mission Society, and its mis- sionaries became the missionaries appointed and supported by the Board of City Missions.
And now began a new era in the history of the society. In 1865 it
* Isaiah xiii. 16.
t The officers of the institution for the year ending September 30, 1882, were : Angus- tus Schell, president ; Robert S. Hone, vice-president ; T. Bailey Myers, recording secre- tary ; W. C. Schermerhorn, corresponding secretary ; William Whitewright, treasurer ; William B. Wait, superintendent ; William A. Hume, M.D., attending physician.
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founded the St. Barnabas Home and Chapel, as a temporary dwelling for women and children. The house No. 304 Mulberry Street, for- merly occupied by a most benevolent lady, Mrs. William Richmond, for a similar purpose, was hired. Mrs. Richmond, during many years of self-sacrificing labor in behalf of wandering and homeless ones, had there established such a home, and at the time the building was hired, over its entrance was the sign, " TEMPORARY HOME FOR WOMEN AND CHILDREN." The City Mission Society was simply the follower of Mrs. Richmond. This Christian lady, had established the House of Mercy on Eighty-sixth Street and a House of Reception in Broome Street, which she afterward transferred to No. 304 Mulberry Street. She had just entered upon a new field of duty in connection with the Home for Foundlings, when her strength gave way and she went to her reward.
The St. Barnabas Home and Chapel was formally opened on the evening of St. Barnabas day (June 11), 1865, with the Rev. S. H. Hilliard as chaplain of the institution, which was intended as a tem- porary home for wanderers and a free place for public worship. The sisterhood of St. Mary, laboring in the House of Mercy in Eighty-sixth Street and the Sheltering Arms on Broadway, offered their assistance in the newly undertaken work, for the support of which the help of the benevolent was needed. Nor was it withheld. The noble enter- prise was cherished from the beginning. From June 25, 1865, until December 31st following, 396 women and children were received into the Home, and 10,664 meals and lodgings were afforded, at a cost of $1132. The Home was open for all-Protestants, Romanists, and Jews. During the year 1866 there were admitted 844 Protestants, 482 Romanists, and 2 Jews. Of these, 463 were sent to situations, 350 to other institutions, 299 to friends, 146 left of their own accord, and 52 were dismissed. There were given during that year 51,515 meals, at an average cost of 7 cents. Such was the benevolent work of the first full year of this institution.
In connection with St. Barnabas Home an industrial school was established, and a free reading-room for young men was opened by the St. Barnabas Free Reading-Room Association, at a house hired as a residence for the clergy of the missions.
The year 1882 found the New York Protestant Episcopal City Mis- sion Society engaged in faithfully carrying out the principles of action laid down at the beginning, in 1531, "to take up work before un- thought-of or neglected, and outside of all churches and chapels and other Christian influences, and carry it on till some church or special
FIRST DECADE, 1830-1840.
organization assumed the responsibility thereof." Its work to-day is the same as it began to do fifty years ago. Its field of operations has wonderfully expanded, and its power for usefulness has proportionably increased. The result is that the Episcopal Church in the city of New York, through this society, is the only Christian body, as such (except- ing the Roman Catholic Church, which professedly cares only for its own people), that is responsible for the maintenance of regular and systematic religious services and bedside ministrations for " all sorts and conditions of men" in the public institutions of every kind in the city and on the adjacent islands.
The society has three missionaries on Blackwell's Island, where they labor respectively in the Charity Hospital, with its thousand sick and suffering inmates ; the Penitentiary and Workhouse, and the Alms- house and Lunatic Asylum. On Ward's Island are four missionaries of the society ministering to the foreign inmates of the Homoeopathic and Emigrant hospitals. and one labors at Bellevue Hospital. The City Prison and other institutions also receive the regular ministrations of servants of the City Mission. To one minister is assigned ten insti- tutions, and he does what he can under the circumstances.
At the St. Barnabas Home and Chapel, at the Midnight Mission in Greene Street, and the New York Infant Asylum in Sixty-first Street, the missionary work of the society goes steadily forward. The custody of the free reading-room has been transferred to the society, and the Industrial School of the City Mission is flourishing. The assets of the society amount to about $68,000, besides the Mary Rosalie Ruggles Fund of $1000, and the Henry Keep Flower Fund of $5000, the income of which is applied to the support of St. Barnabas Home.
The following items of the good work done by the City Mission Society during the year ending September 1. 1882, will give an idea of the value of its labors : At St. Barnabas Home there were 16,892 lodg- ings and 94,599 meals furnished, 2412 destitute and homeless women and children temporarily cared for, and 114 children admitted into the day nursery. The whole number of persons who found shelter and comfort there during the year was 2542. During the year, 1506 fami- lies in want and distress were visited. and 51.931 individuals were visited for relief and religious conversation. Besides the Industrial School for Girls, the society has a day nursery for children, and an employment society for women .*
* The officers of the society in 1882 were : Rt. Rev. Horatio Potter, D.D., L.L. D., D.C.L., president er-officio ; Rev. Thomas M. Peters, D.D., Rev. William F. Morgan
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HISTORY OF NEW YORK CITY.
THE BAPTIST HOME MISSION SOCIETY was organized in the city of New York on April 27, 1832. In response to an invitation given to members of the Baptist communion throughout the country, a convention was assembled on the day above named, in the Mulberry Street Meeting-House, New York. The convention by unanimous vote resolved that it was "expedient to form an American Baptist Home Mission Society." A constitution was adopted, and the society was organized by the choice of the Hon. Heman Lincoln, of Massachu- setts, president of the society, and the appointment of twenty-seven vice-presidents living in various States, and a large board of directors. At an adjourned meeting on May 1st, William Colgate was elected treasurer, Garret N. Bleecker auditor, the Rev. Jonathan Going cor- responding secretary, and the Rev. William R. Williams recording secretary.
At the first formal meeting of the society, at the Oliver Street Church in New York, where the General Baptist Convention for For- eign Missions was holding its sessions, the machinery of the society was finally completed by appointing the following-named persons an execu- tive committee : The Revs. Archibald Maclay, Spencer H. Cone, Duncan Dunbar, Charles G. Sommers, and C. P. C. Crosby ; and Messrs. Charles L. Roberts, George W. Houghton, Timothy R. Greene, Nathan Caswell, and William Winterten. The previous choice of officers of the society was ratified, and the headquarters of the associa- tion were fixed at New York City.
This movement was the result of long and prayerful deliberation by many thoughtful minds for years, and gave great joy to many hearts. The real founder of the society was the Rev. Jonathan Going, of Mas- sachusetts, whom Dr. Hayne characterized as a " Scotch Yankee-a combination which makes the prince of strategists."
Dr. Going opened the campaign of the society with tremendous energy. Ile set about its establishment on a sure foundation. With his usual zeal, he sought men and money for the work. During the sunumer of 1832 he travelled a thousand miles in pursuing this labor of love. He gained control of the Baptist Repository, and made it an efficient organ of the society for about five years, when, seeing the enterprise firmly established in the affections of his denomination, and having full faith in its being liberally supported, he accepted the presi-
D.D., Frederick S. Winston, Thomas Egleston, vice-presidents ; R. B. Tunstall, secre- tary ; John H. Boynton, treasurer ; Rev. C. T. Woodruff, superintendent, and Rev. N. F. Ludlum, financial agent. There is an executive committee of twenty-five, of which the bishop of the diocese is chairman.
Martin
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FIRST DECADE, 1830-1840.
deney of the Granville Literary and Theological Institution, in Ohio, in 1-37, and retired from the executive committee.
At first an impression went abroad that the Foreign and Home Mis- sion societies were rivals. At a meeting of the latter in 1836 it was formally resolved that they were " twin sisters, and auxiliary to each other."
The first missionary appointed who went to the field was the Rev. Thomas W. Merrill, who was sent to Michigan Territory and did brave and efficient service there. Other appointments speedily followed, and in the second year of the life of the society there were eighty missionaries engaged in the service.
The labors of the society were extended as exigencies arose. The great emigration from Europe during its existence greatly and rapidly enlarged the demands upon it. The settlement in the Western States and Territories of an industrious and intelligent population from North- ern Europe presented a fruitful field for missionary labor, and it has been untiringly cultivated by this Home Missionary Society. During and after the great Civil War, missionary work among the freedmen was demanded and largely given by the society in the way of spiritual instruction and secular education. This work began as early as 1863. From that time until 1883 the society expended, in promoting mission- ary work among the freedmen, more than $1,000,000.
The avowed chief object of the society at the beginning was to pro- mote the preaching of the gospel. Its laborers preach wherever they can, organize churches, visit homes and individuals, establish prayer- meetings, organize Sunday - schools, distribute religious literature, build meeting-houses, and thus in every form "preach the gospel." The chief field of its labor is in the newer settlements in the West and among the Indians. In Kansas, Nebraska, Dakota, Minnesota, Iowa, and Wisconsin there is a large foreign population, and among them the great bulk of its mission stations are selected. These, in its whole field of operations in 1882, numbered over four hundred stations, including twenty general stations and fourteen freedmen's schools.
, Since its work began, in 1832, the Baptist Home Mission Society had spent 5530 years of labor, organized 2765 churches, preached 745,- 436 sermons, held 399,728 prayer-meetings, made 1,735,550 religious visits, baptized 85,381 persons, and in 1882 had 29,000 children in its Sabbath-schools. The work is now prosecuted in forty-three States and Territories.
Such have been the ceaseless, untiring, and useful labors of a society formed in the city of New York about fifty years ago, and still having
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HISTORY OF NEW YORK CITY.
the distributing centre of its energies in the great commercial metrop- olis of our Republic .*
* The officers of the society for 1882-83 were : James L. Howard, president ; J. H. Walker and John D. Rockefeller, vice-presidents ; Joseph B. Hoyt, treasurer ; William Phelps and Joseph Brokaw, auditors ; the Rev. Henry L. Morehouse, D.D., correspond- ing secretary, and the Rev. D. B. Jutten, recording secretary. The chairman of the executive board is S. S. Constant.
The materials for the above brief sketch of the origin and growth of the society were drawn from an historical account by the corresponding secretary, the Rev. H. L. More- house, contained in a " Jubilee Volume" of over six hundred pages, prepared by him and published by the society in 1883.
CHAPTER XXVI.
FTHE AMERICAN FEMALE GUARDIAN SOCIETY AND HOME FOR THE FRIENDLESS had its origin in the city of New York in the spring of 1834. At that time there appeared an abundance of zeal in benevo- lent work. The public mind and conscience had been powerfully stirred by revelations of great need in such work. There had been created a strong conviction that social evils were rapidly corrupting public morals and endangering the purity of society, and also a wise conviction that an " an ounce of prevention is better than a pound of cure."
Earnest Christian women, like those engaged in the Magdalen Society, perceiving the danger, resolved to extend arms of protection to the tempted and unfortunate, while their sisters placed their arms under- neath the fallen and wretched to lift them up. The ultimate object was the same-salvation. The association was called The American Female Moral Reform and Guardian Society.
The Female Guardian Society, as soon as formed, began the publica- tion of a newspaper (continued until now) called the Advocate and Family Guardian, which has ever been the organ and helper of the association. It was the successor in scope and influence of MeDowell's Journal, which had done so much to bring into the sunlight the hidden iniquities of the city of New York.
The prime object of the Guardian Society was to promote the cause of virtue and humanity by protecting the young, the destitute, and the friendless of the gentler sex from the exposure to vice and suffering in - cident to their condition : also to secure for homeless children. as far as practicable, the training of the Christian fanuly. In this work the labors of the society partook more of the character of private effort. and was necessarily quite circumscribed.
After the Guardian Society had labored earnestly and efficiently about a dozen years in its chosen field, it undertook a wider range of duties and usefulness. It took measures to establish a House of Indus- try and Home for the Friendless on a broad scale. Leading clergymen and Jaymen in the city were invited to act as an advisory committee,
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HISTORY OF NEW YORK CITY.
and they warmly espoused the cause." This committee met in Jan- uary, 1847, Dr. S. H. Tyng in the chair, and arranged a plan of a home. A house was hired on Second Street and First Avenue, and there the new enterprise was inaugurated. That was in July, 1847. Young girls of good moral character, destitute of money, friends, and horse, were received, and girls under the age of fourteen and over three years, and boys under ten and over three years of age, either orphans or abandoned by their parents, were (and are) received and provided for until permanent homes in Christian families could be secured for them by adoption or otherwise.
A site for a building for the use of the society was purchased on East Thirteenth Street, between Fourth and Madison Avenues, and there, on May 5, 1848, the corner-stone of the building the association now occu. pies was laid. The building was completed, and in December following was occupied.
In the spring of 1849 the Legislature granted the association a charter. Its name was changed from American Female Moral Reform Society to American Female Guardian Society, and the privilege of establishing a Home for the Friendless was extended to it. The op- erations of the society were greatly extended, and in 1857 a Home Chapel was erected on Twenty-ninth Street. The building comprises a chapel, office of publication of the Advocate, school-room, Dorcas- room, and work-room. It was dedicated on June 3, 1857. Auxiliary societies, great and small, were formed all over the country from Maine to California, and from every point came donations of clothing, pro- visions, and other necessary articles as offerings of benevolent persons to this great charity. These amount, on an average, to over seven hundred packages a year. The society has established schools. In 1582, in addition to its home school, it had eleven industrial schools in various parts of the city, all well equipped with teachers and implements.
A " shelter" for unfortunate and destitute women is provided, and also nurseries for children. There is a branch home at Oceanport, New Jersey, known as the Wright Memorial, and also a chapel for the children, called the Roswell Inness Chapel, built largely by Roswell Smith, Esq., in memory of his only grandson.
* The following-named persons composed the advisory committee : the Rev. Drs. Stephen H. Tyng, Nathan Bangs, G. T. Bedell, John Dowling, William Patten, George Potts, George B. Cheever, W. W. Everts, J. M. Krebs, and Thomas H. Skinner : Dr. John H. Griscom, and Messrs. Moses .G. Leonard, James Harper, E. W. Chester, Lewis Tappan, S. W. Benedict, Joseph B. Collins, Lewis Hallock, J. B. Graham, Francis B. Sholes, J. S. Taylor, E. E. Miles, and E. Ludlum.
*
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FIRST DECADE, 1830-1840.
According to the annual report of the society for the year ending May 1, 1882, there had been admitted into the institution as tem- porary residents there, 346 women, of whom 299 were dismissed to situations ; and the number of children cared for during the year in various ways was 553. The whole number of children cared for since the opening of the institution was about 28,000. Much aid is given to out-door poor. The average attendance at the schools was over 2000 .*
The Female Guardian Society and Home for the Friendless is one of the most important and useful of the magnificent charities of the city of New York. It owes much to its late corresponding secretary, Mrs. S. R. I. Bennett, for its existence, prosperity, and abounding useful- ness. She was truly the " home mother," living and laboring for it continually. She died in 1881. in the very room where she had done so much of her noble work.t The Advocate, issued semi-monthly at 81 a year, is edited by Mrs. Helen E. Brown. 1755408
Fifty years ago the colored population of the city of New York were quite numerous, the remnant of the slave system. Though nominally free, they were more degraded and oppressed than when they were in bondage. They were herded together in the lowest localities, and be- cause they were of an enslaved race they seemed to be almost beyond human sympathy. They were mostly excluded from benevolent insti- tutions and the public schools, and were overlooked by philanthropists. And when at length benevolent persons, chiefly among the Society of Friends or Quakers, touched by the miseries of the colored population of the city, listened to their cries and proposed to do something for their elevation and comfort, there were few who would join them, so unpopular was the idea.
There were two brave young women, daughters of Quaker parents, who courageously defied popular prejudice, and proceeded to the good work of establishing a Home for Orphan Colored Children. It was a wise measure to extend charity and benevolence first to the children. These two young women were Miss Anna Shotwell and Miss Mary
* The officers of the society for 1882-83 were : Mrs. Charles C. North, president ; six- teen vice-presidents, residing in New York and other States ; Mrs. H. M. Harris, corre- sponding secretary ; Mrs. Harris Wilson, recording secretary ; Mrs. A. H. Ambler, visit- ing secretary ; Mrs. G. A. Stone, treasurer, and Miss Sarah C. Wilcox, matron of the Home. There are also auditors, a board of counsellors, an executive committee, and a board of managers consisting of forty-five ladies.
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