History of Westchester county : New York, including Morrisania, Kings Bridge, and West Farms, which have been annexed to New York City, Vol. II, Part 28

Author: Scharf, J. Thomas (John Thomas), 1843-1898,
Publication date: 1886
Publisher: Philadelphia : L.E. Preston & Co.
Number of Pages: 1286

USA > New York > Westchester County > History of Westchester county : New York, including Morrisania, Kings Bridge, and West Farms, which have been annexed to New York City, Vol. II > Part 28

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THE NURSERY AND HOME .- This institution is an adjunct of St. Paul's Protestant Episcopal Church. A lady of the church in 1880 " suggested to the rector the opening of a day Nursery, promising to be re- sponsible for the rent of rooms for the purpose." The object was "to provide a place where children too young to go to school might be safely left and cared ii .- 11

for while the mothers were away from home at their days' work. In this way mothers could be given the opportunity of supporting their children at home without placing them in some charitable institution, and mothers who had never contributed to the sup- port of their children might be encouraged to make the effort." The Institution went into operation on St. Paul's day, in 1880, as a Nursery under the care of ladies of the church.

Almost immediately after the opening, however, new interests pressed upon the lady organizers of this work. Some children without mothers were brought to them, and they extended their plan so as to receive these children by the month, and eveu by the year. And then necessity pressed upon them to make arrangements for the care of aged women. Within four months from the inception of their work the house in Carlisle Place, in which they had begun their movement, proved inadequate, and on the 1st of May, 1881, a large, finely located, and excellently adapted building on Palisade Avenue was opened, and work upon a widened plan was begun. By com- mon consent, the institution, with this new depart- ure, took the name of The Nursery and Home. The house is 176 Palisade Avenue.

The officers of the society (1885) are Mrs. O. E. Hosmer, president ; Miss L. R. Brereton, secre- tary; Mrs. H. G. McDonald, treasurer; and the managers are Mrs. A. M. Brereton, Mrs. J. H. Clark, Mrs. W. H. Mills, Mrs. C. H. Whittemore, Miss F. M. Middleton, Mrs. A. McNulty, Mrs. J. H. Satterlee, Mrs. Dr. Reinfelder. The physicians are Drs. Sam- uel Swift and A. C. Benedict. The house-mother is Mrs. J. H. Denniston. The committee on admis- sions are Mrs. A. M. Brereton and Miss F. M. Mid- dleton. The house committee are Mrs. O. E. Hos- mer, Mrs. A. M. Brereton, Mrs. J. H. Clark and Mrs. W. H. Mills, and the clothing committee are Mrs. C. H. Whittemore and Mrs. J. H. Clark. The visitor is the Rev. William H. Mills, D. D., rector of St Paul's Episcopal Church.

The treasurer's report to January 1, 1884, showed the receipts of the previous year to have been $3095.15 and the expenditures $3089.84.

The regular meetings of the managers are held on the first Tuesdays of the month, and the anniver- sary is held on St. Paul's day, when a public recep- tion is given and the annual report is read. The number of children received in the first year had been forty-four, of whom twenty-two had been re- moved and three, in less than one month, had died. There were four aged women in the Homc.

The rate per day for one child from a family is ten cents, and for more than one, five cents each. The board is payable by the week. When mothers are able, they are expected to clothe their children, and when the children are very sick, they are expected to be with and take care of them.

Seventy-five dollars per annum secures a free cot

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for a child, and one hundred and fifty dollars per an- num a free bed for an aged woman in the Nursery and Home.

SOCIETY OF ST. VINCENT DE PAUL .- This benevo- lent society was organized February 18, 1877, as an adjunct of St. Joseph's Roman Catholic Church. The officers at the last report we have seen were Rev. A. A. Lings, Spiritual director ; Thomas B. Caulfield, president ; Oliver P. Buel, vice-president ; Valen- tine Browne, M.D., treasurer ; and Michael Walsh, secretary.

The society was chartered in 1882. The work ac- complished during the year ending January 1, 1884, was stated as follows :

Families on list, twenty-three, number of persons in these families, sixty-six, and money expended, three hundred dollars. The members are divided into visiting committees. There are six visiting dis- tricts, and each district has two members to supervise it. The society is managed wholly by men. About fifty dollars had been given, in the year mentioned, to purchase clothing for the poor. All the needs were met by the members themselves.

YONKERS SOCIETY FOR THE PREVENTION OF CRU- ELTY TO CHILDREN .- This society was organized in 1881. The date of its incorporation was December 14th. Its object is defined in its title. It was stated in its second annual report that the first society of the kind was formed in New York City in 1875, and that in 1883 there were about fifty in the United States and many in Europe and South America. During the year pre- ceding December 12, 1883, fifty-two complaints had been made to the society, involving the welfare of ninety-three children. Twenty-five of these had been sent to institutions or provided with comfortable homes elsewhere, and the influence of the society had been exerted in many cases to relieve the children without removing them from their families. Several cases are detailed in the report with much fulness, and present thrilling illustrations of the great need for this society. The pamphlet containing this report gives all the reports of the president, coun- sel and secretary, the lists of members and contribut- ors and a catalogue of the kindred societies through- ont the world. It is thus replete with valuable and interesting information. We may further state that at a monthly meeting of the society, held September 11, 1885, reports showed that during the summer just closed complaints had been received and action taken involving the welfare of twenty-five children. Fourteen of these had been placed in institutions, having been found either forsaken, or amid such vicious and wretched surroundings that there was no hope of improving their condition except by removal. In one case four young children were abandoned by both parents, although the father was able to support them, and measures were being taken to compel him to do so, Two adults, convicted of cruelty to chil- dren, had been punished by fine or imprisonment.

These statements are sufficient to show the need for such a soeiety, and also its great value. The office of the secretary is in Flagg's building, corner of Palisade Avenue and New Main Street. The officers are Galusha B. Balch, M.D., president ; John O. Campbell, vice-president ; Stephen H. Thayer, Jr., counsel ; Cyrus Cleveland, Johu W. Skinner and Henry Rankin Freeland, executive committee; and Richard W. Bogart, Thomas B. Caulfield, R. T. Pet- tingill, Hiram K. Miller, Henry Kroenke, Cyrus Cleveland, John W. Skiuner, Henry Raukin Free- land and C. H. Leffingwell, directors. .

The society, during the year ending 1883, had eighty members and contributors, and had expended about one hundred and fifty dollars. It is wholly dependent on popular charity, and that it is entitled to all that considerate friends will give it for the work has been abundantly shown by the statements we have made.

ST. JOHN'S RIVERSIDE HOSPITAL .-- This institution was founded in 1869 and chartered in 1870. Rev. Thomas A. Jaggar, D.D., now bishop of the Protestant Episcopal Church for the Southern District of Ohio, was at this period rector of St. John's Episcopal Church on Broadway for about one year. Finding need of provision for the sick poor of his parish, he brought the attention of his people to the subject, and the result was the opening, about November 1, 1869, of "St. John's Invalid Home." The Home was opened in a small house at the southwest coruer of Warburton and Ashburton Avenues. This house soon proved to be too small eveu for the need originally coutemplated. But other needs revealed themselves, and were pressing. Accidents were frequently occurring in the city, and especially on the railroad, and there was demand for an adequate hospital to meet them. Edmund S. F. Arnold, M.D., for many years oue of Yonkers' practicing physicians, aud a man of distin- guished ability in his profession, had, in 1862, pre- pared and delivered, first before the New York State Medical Society and again before the Surgical Sec- tion of the New York Academy of Medicine, an ad- dress on "Medical Provision for Railroads as a Humanitarian Measure." The recall now of Dr. Arnold's plea, illustrated as to its points in the actual demands upon "The Invalid Home " during its few months of experience, led to an expansion of ideas. About May 1, 1870, the founders of the Home rented a large building, known as the Grove House, on the east side of Woodworth Avenue, a little north of Locust Street. The next step was the securing of a charter for the institution, under the uew name of "St. John's Riverside Hospital." 1 The date of the charter was May 27, 1870, and the trustees were

1 In a " History of the Westminster Presbyterian Church," published in pamplilet form lu 1850, we find this statement, -"The originator of the iden of the Riverside Hospital, as well na Its originator and main helper up to the time of his withdrawal from Youkers, was Dr. J. Il. Pooley, now professor in Starling Medical College, Columbus, Ohlo."

.. .......

RESIDENCE OF THE LATE JOSEPH AGATE,

PEGGIST.DEL.

@ $200

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YONKERS.

twenty-four ia number, the names of eiglit of whom were placed in the act of incorporation, viz .: Rev. Thomas A. Jaggar, Frederick C. Oakley, Thomas O. Farrington, S. Emmet Getty, John T. Waring, Henry Bowers, Charles L. Cozzens and William H. Beers. The first officers were Frederick C. Oakley, presi- dent ; Edward C. Moore, vice-president ; Thomas O. Farrington, treasurer; and S. Emmet Getty, secretary. The medical staff consisted of Drs. Edmund S. F. Arnold, J. Foster Jenkins, James H. Pooley, George B. Upham and E. H. Ludlow. The plan of internal management was committed to ladies. Mrs. James B. Silkman was appointed first directress, Mrs. J. Agate, second directress, and Mrs. William F. Cocli- ran, secretary.

The Grove House and grounds, at first rented, were afterwards purchased, and have since been the perma- nent hospital property. The building remains sub- stantially as it was when bought, the only change being the erection of a small addition upon the north side.

At or not long after the incorporation of the hospital it absorbed the interest and property of an earlier as- sociation by steps of which an account must be given.

In 1865 the Supervisor and Justices of the peace of the town of Yonkers, constituting the Town Board of Health, took steps (and subsequently by act of the Legislature, passed March 15, 1866, they obtained authority) to raise money by tax upon the town for the purchase of property for a hospital or pest-house. The money was raised, and part of the Alexander B. Mott property on the Mile Square road, a little south of Palmer Avenue, was bought. Soon after this move- ment a voluntary society was formed, chartered and formally organized under the name of the " Yonkers Hospital Association." Then the Town Board went further and secured another act from the Legislature, under date of May 30, 1868, directing them to convey the Mott property mentioned to this new association, which they at once did. And finally, after the spring- ing up of "St. John's Riverside Hospital," the "Yonkers Hospital Association " having sold the Mott property and received part of the proceeds in cash and part in a mortgage, paid over the cash and transferred the mortgage to St. John's Riverside Hos- pital. The cash went towards paying for the Grove House, which was bought for twelve thousand five hundred dollars, and the mortgage on the Mott prop- erty is still held by the managers of the Riverside Hospital. A condition made by the Yonkers Hospi- tal Association in transferring this property to the new Hospital was that it should perpetually endow two beds in the latter for the use of the association making the transfer, or such person or persons as it might thereafter elect. The right to these beds the Yonkers Hospital Association afterwards transferred to the city of Yonkers.

The hospital building (formerly the Grove House) is of brick, is three stories in height, and has a base-

ment. The first floor is devoted to the surgical ward, the operating-room, the dispensary, the dining-room and the kitchen; the second story to the medical ward and the accommodation for the hospital em- ployees, and the third story to the wards for women and children, and the room for severe cases of sick- ness. There are thirty-two beds in the building. The immediate charge of the hospital is committed to a matron and a corps of nurses. Mrs. Saralı Rickey has been matron for many years. The resident phy- sicians have been numerous. Dr. F. H. Strong is tlie resident physician now.

The number of patients admitted between April, 1871 and October 1, 1885, was 2,614. The number annually admitted constantly increases. In the year ending April 1, 1872 it was 110, while in that ending April 1, 1885 it was 256. The dispensary was started in 1872, and down to October 1, 1885 had treated 19,310 patients.

The hospital is supported almost wholly by volun- tary contributions and by the proceeds of various forms of social effort. It has an endowment fund of $10,964.34, of which one thousand dollars was received by bequest from Mrs. Alexander Smith, and the rest was obtained from the sources we have described.

A stated meeting of the managers is held on the third Monday of each month. The present officers and managers are as follows: William F. Cochran, president ; -, vice-president ; Charles L. Cozzens, secretary ; Lyman Cobb, Jr., treasurer ; S. Emmet Getty, Henry Bowers, James Stewart, Richard W. Bogart, James Lawson, Edward A. Nichols, Alonzo H. Johnson, William P. Ketcham, Horace H. Thayer, Ethelbert Belknap, George R. Smith, G. Hilton Scribner, Edward M. Le Moyne, William F. Nisbet, John O. Campbell, Edward Underhill, J. H. Hubbell, Alexander Forbes, Philip Verplanck, George E. Ketcham and Norton P. Otis.

The chaplain is Rev. Lyinan Cobb, Jr. Religious services are held daily, and on the afternoon of each Sabbath a sermon is read or there is formal preaching. The religious services have been conducted after the Episcopal order. This seems to have been due to the start the hospital originally received from St. John's Church, rather than to any definite intention. It is certain that its managers desire it to be unscetarian. The preachers at the Sabbathi afternoon services have frequently been from pulpits not Episcopalian, and great effort has been made by the managers them- selves to bring about such a composition of the board as will, as nearly as possible, represent equally all the denominations of the city. All the churches are now asked to unite in adopting a hospital Sabbath, on which contributions may be taken in them all at once for this institution. The advantages of the hospital are frec to all, and it is intended to be an object of interest and sympathy to and with all people alike, without regard to any distinction of church or sect.

The late Fayette Putnam Brown took a very active

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part iu the charitable and benevolent institutions of Yonkers. lle was several years a trustec of the First Presbyterian Church, and also served for some time as a trustee of the St. John's Riverside Hospital.

Hle was born in Pittsford,. Vt., February 15, 1829. His ancestors were among the earliest of the Puritan settlers in the country. They located at Salisbury, Conn., at least as early as 1635. From Salisbury a portion of the family removed to Ver- mont. In that State, Mr. Brown's father, Elijah Brown, third of the name, married Mary, daughter of Judge Samuel Williams. The mother of this lady, whose name was Polly, was a daughter of Tarrant Putnam, and a niece of Israel Putnam, the patriot and soldier of Revolutionary fame.

Fayette passed the early portion of his life at Pitts- ford, but removed to Providence, R. I., while young. In the latter city, he was for several years cashier of the State Bank.

On the breaking out of the late war, he was among the first who answered to the country's call for men. He enlisted in and was sergeant of Company I, Elev- enth Rhode Island Regiment, in which he served one year, the regiment being assigned to the defense of Washington. At the expiration of this time, having rcecived an appointment as General Agent of the Mutual Life Insurance Company of New York for tlie State of Vermont, he took up his residence in Rutland, where he remained till 1870, attending to the business of his office. In that year, the southern portion of the State of New York being added to the territory under his agency, he removed to Yonkers, where he passed the remainder of his life. In Youk- ers, he soon became identified with the activities of the place.

Politically Mr. Brown was a Republican. For a number of years he was a member of the Republican Central Committee of the City. At one time he was an active and useful member of one of the Yonkers Boards of Education. And later still, he was widely known as the first President of the Yonkers Publish- ing Company.

During his later years he suffered much from ill health, aud prosecuted his business with difficulty in consequence of it. Yet in despite of great physical suffering, no one remembers hearing hin complain or sceing him despond. To the last day of his life, his cheerfulness of temperament threw sunshine all around. It was so exceptionally uniform under the circumstances as to be marvellous. It will be the first thing in the thought of all who knew him upon every recall of the man.

In the hope of recuperating his strength, Mr. Brown spent the winter of 1884-85 in Florida. This step, however, was without avail. Shortly after his return, he died very suddenly on the 21st of May, 1885. His death was very especially startling, as he had been at his work and in the street the day before.

Mr. Brown married Abby W., daughter of Dr.

George W. Tyler, of Providence, R. I., and six chil- dren were the result of this union. Three of the chil- dren died in infancy. Mrs. Brown and the remaining children, Fayette W., George T., and Elizabeth T. continue to reside in Yonkers.

The deceased husband and father was regarded as a valuable, public-spirited citizen. He was a man of large heart and fine sensibilitics, and will not soon be forgotten by a people among whom his social na- ture and good qualities were widely known and recog- nized.

SECTION XVII.

Christian Associations and Unions.

Under this heading we speak, in the order of their dates of organization, of the Yonkers Branch Bible Association (1857), the Young Men's Catholic Asso- ciation of St. Joseph's Roman Catholic Church (1871), the Woman's Christian Temperance Union with its Young Woman's Department (1874-78), aud the Young Men's Christiau Association (1880).

THE YONKERS BRANCH BIBLE ASSOCIATION .- This association is an auxiliary to the Westchester County Bible Society. It was formed iu November, 1857, at a meeting held in the Reformed Church. Jonathan Odell was president of that meeting and William Montgomery was secretary. An address was delivered by Rev. Wilson Phraner, at the time sceretary of the County Society. Those present formed themselves into the "Bible Association of Yonkers, auxiliary to the Westchester County Bible Society," adopted a constitution and elceted William N. Scymour president, J. Henry Williams vice-presi- dent, William Steedman sceretary, and William G. Ackerman treasurer. Ethan Flagg and William Montgomery of the First Presbyterian Church, Wil- liam Bidders and James Youmans of the Mouut Oli- vet Baptist Church, Henry Austin and Thomas O. Farrington of St. John's, Gustavus A. Rollins and Anson B. Hoyt of the Reformed Church, and Joseph Pollock of the Methodist Church, were chosen the exceutive committec. How vigorously the associa- tion began its work is not known, but after a few years it fell into decay. Subsequently, however, at a meeting held at the First Presbyterian Church August 27, 1866, it was revived. Mr. Richard Wyn- koop was made secretary. Mr. Wynkoop was earnest in the cause. Through his efforts the association was for a long period from this date well sustained. At a meeting held at St. Paul's Episcopal Church, Au- gust 21, 1867, the name was changed to its present form standing at the head of this article, and a Depo- sitary was added to its officers. The constitution was revised in 1869, and further amended in 1870. The officers clected in the latter year were Henry Bowers, president ; John W. Oliver, vice president ; Richard Wynkoop, secretary; samuel D. Rockwell, treasurer; and Gabriel P. Reevs, Depositary. The executive committee were Thomas H. Cuthell,

Hayette P. Moren

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YONKERS.

George W. Farnum, Cyrus Cleveland, Matthew H. Ellis, Benjamin Mason, Wilbur F. Washburn, Wal- ter Underhill, George Stewart, James H. Pooley, M.D., Hyatt L. Garrison, John Mott, George H. Petrie, Frederick C. Oakley, Charles L. Cozzens, Charles W. Seymour, William C. Wariug, John Jor- dan, George W. Sweney and Stephen Barker. The presidents since that year have been Henry Bowers, 1871; John W. Oliver, 1872-83; John H. Brown, 1884-86. The vice-presidents have been John W. Oliver, 1871; John H. Brown, 1872-83; William R. Mott, 1884-86. The secretaries have been Richard Wynkoop, 1871-75; John W. Skinner, 1880-82; Wal- ter Thomas, 1884-86. The only Treasurer has beeu Samuel D. Rockwell, and the only Depositary Gabriel Reevs, M.D. Contributions to the County Society were made in different years as follows: In 1871, $675; in 1872, $685; in 1873, $589; iu 1874, $420; in 1875, $122.13; in 1876, $245.70; in 1877, $71.71 ; in 1878, $37.76; in 1880, $265 ; in 1881, $202.60; in 1882, $118.75; in 1883, $72.18; in 1884, $7.44; and iu 1885, $193.53. The smallness of the amounts reported as paid to the County Society in some of these years (notably in 1884) was due to the fact that the branch association used its money in supplying Yonkers with Bibles, instead of paying it over. Still, it is true that this Yonkers Branch Association has in some years been quite apathetic in regard to the great interest it was organized to cherish.

THE YOUNG MEN'S CATHOLIC ASSOCIATION OF ST. JOSEPH'S ROMAN CATHOLIC CHURCH .- This associa- tion was formed in September, 1871, about the same time that the church was organized. Its first officers were Rufus C. Duff, president; Michael F. Murray, vice- president ; T. J. O'Sullivan, secretary ; Henry Towle, treasurer ; and Cyril Williams, librarian. Its objects were, first, to gather the young men of the church into a body, in order to bring them more carefully and closely under the guidance of the church and their pastor, and withdraw them from the influence of evil associations ; secondly, to give them an oppor- tunity of improving their minds and disseminating useful information through the library and reading- room, and to afford them the opportunity for social enjoyment ; and thirdly, to assist the pastor in the religious discipline and instruction of the male chil- dren of the parish.

The first care of the society was to provide itself with a library, and, by various means, partly by gifts and partly by purchase, a cousiderable number of books were soon collected. Almost all the money re- ceived from initiation fees, from monthly dues and from other sources was devoted to this purpose. During its first year the association gathered over forty members. It first occupied a room in Public School No. 6, in which, at the time, St. Joseph's Church was holding its services. When, in the lat- ter part of 1871, the church moved into its new build- ing on Oak Hill (now St. Joseph) Avenue, the asso-

ciation removed with it into one of the upper rooms. Five or six years later a room was fitted up for it in the basenient, and this room it still occupies. The cost of the fitting-up was about six hundred dollars, which has been mainly defrayed from the proceeds of amateur dramatic performances giveu by the associ- ation in Radford Hall. These performances, which are still a feature ,of the association, were usually comedies and were always well attended.

The society has now about sixty active members and twenty-five honorary members. It has con- nected with it a reading-room and a circulating library of four hundred volumes. It has also a fully equipped brass band of seventeen pieces. The so- ciety's officers for 1884 were Thomas McGrath, presi- dent ; John Garvin, vice-president ; Thomas Booth, recording secretary ; David Lynch, corresponding secretary ; Maurice Downing, librarian ; and James Couners, assistant librarian. The rooms are open every evening till ten o'clock.

THE WOMEN'S CHRISTIAN TEMPERANCE UNION. -During the time of the Women's Crusade in 1874, the ladies of Yonkers organized themselves and held daily prayer-meetings throughout the summer. A " Band of Hope " meeting was held once a week. The visiting of saloons, so vigorously carried out in many other parts of the country for reform purposes, was not much adopted here. Temperance tracts were dis- tributed and a petition was circulated, asking the Board of Excise to refuse or restrict the granting of licenses. Que of the principal movers in the work was Mrs. Judge Chauncey Shaffer, who was chosen presi- dent of the organization then formed. Miss Hclen A. Rollins was muadc vice-president, Miss Helen Mac- Farlan secretary, aud Mrs. Galusha B. Balch treas- urer.

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History of Westchester county : New York, including Morrisania, Kings Bridge, and West Farms, which have been annexed to New York City, Vol. II, Part 28

Author: Scharf, J. Thomas (John Thomas), 1843-1898, Publication date: 1886 Publisher: Philadelphia : L.E. Preston & Co. Number of Pages: 1286

Author: Scharf, J. Thomas (John Thomas), 1843-1898,
Publication date: 1886
Publisher: Philadelphia : L.E. Preston & Co.
Number of Pages: 1286