USA > Ohio > Cuyahoga County > Cleveland > A history of Cleveland, Ohio, Volume I > Part 50
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The few pioneers of 1837, 1838 and 1839, in the course of seventy years, have multiplied to about 50,000. The feeble congregations struggling for life for several decades, have developed into influential organizations, ranking with the best and strongest in the land. The very modest houses of worship have been transformed into large synagogues and magnificent temples. The com- munity has grown steadily in population, prosperity and power. The last quar- ter of a century has witnessed the rise and development of institutions and organizations which distinguish Cleveland as one of the most important centers of Jewish life in the United States.
CHAPTER XLII.
THE PRIVATE CHARITIES OF CLEVELAND. By J. W. Walton, Treasurer of the Associated Charities.
The early settlers were of New England stock, one mark of which is thrift. Measured by twentieth century standards no one was rich, yet the primitive manners forbade grinding poverty.
A rough and ready neighborhood charity prevailed, bare larders, if not filled by the rifle, were replenished from a neighbor's barrel until the recipient could repay in kind. To watch with the sick, to bury the dead, were not as yet rele- gated to hired hands. Farming communities in northern Ohio still practice this simple and wholesome method.
Cleveland's growth, however, was the result, not of the cultivation of her sandy soil, but of canal and lake commerce. Closed for months of each year by frost, these waterways offered but intermittent employment. Not all boat- men and sailors are blessed with means and foresight. Wrecks sometimes de- stroy the bread-winner. Thus the first charities naturally ministered to the necessities of these men and of their families.
Apart from the churches of Cleveland, which here, as everywhere, abounded in works of benevolence, the first organization of which record remains, was the Western Seamen's Friend society, founded in 1830. The work was dis- tinctly religious in its character, including preaching and a Sunday school, in
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which the Protestant churches took the laboring oar. The same laborers sought the destitute and supplied their wants through the collection and distribution of clothing, food and money. Its headquarters, originally located on Water street overlooking the lake, were called the Bethel. From the loins of this institu- tion sprang, in later years, the Cleveland Bethel Union.
The early private charities of the city must have been carried on in ac- cordance with the teaching of the Sermon on the Mount, at least in respect to their avoidance of publicity, for almost no record has come down to us cov- ering Cleveland's first fifty years. A few scattered accounts there are of so- cieties for fraternal help, but these made no broad or lasting mark. Churches and lodges did their own work, each in its own way.
In the year 1852, when the era of railroad construction was well under way, yet before the junction of Ohio City with its four thousand to Cleveland with its seventeen thousand inhabitants, the attention of the public seems to have become aroused to the lack of organized aid for the helpless of all ages.
Good Bishop Amadeus Rappe, the pioneer shepherd of the Roman Catholic flock, was a leader in the founding of orphanages and within a year had planted St. Mary's, afterward known as St. Joseph's, for girls, and St. Vincent's for boys. The public 'of all faiths contributed to the building funds of these houses and shared in their benefits. In the year 1852 was likewise inaugurated the Protestant orphan asylum. The founders were its president, John M. Wool- sey, together with Mesdames S. J. Andrews, Philo Scovill, J. K. Miller, Henry W. Clark, Stillman Witt, C. D. Williams, Elisha Taylor, George A. Benedict, J. A. Harris, Buckley Stedman, Mary H. Severance and A. H. Barney. Mr. Benjamin Rouse was an early and active trustee. Hon. Sherlock J. Andrews was its second president and remained such for a long term of years.
Through the bequest of Captain Levi Sartwell, a handsome endowment was inaugurated to which were subsequently added generous gifts from Jephtha H. Wade, Joseph Perkins, Dr. Allyne Maynard and others so that the institu- tion was placed upon a firm financial basis. Mr. and Mrs. A. H. Shunk were for more than a score of years the efficient superintendent and matron.
In 1853-54, a mission school was located near the foot of Champlain street, under the direction of the Rev. Dillon Prosser, Mr. and Mrs. Jacob Low- man, Mr. and Mrs. George W. Whitney, Lucius F. Mellen and others, for the care of ragged and destitute children. This subsequently came to be known as the Industrial school, and in 1858 an organization grew out of it called the Children's Aid Society. The first officers of this society were: president, Hon. Truman P. Handy ; vice president, Hon. George Mygatt ; superintendent, Robert Waterton. Its efficiency in corralling and taming neglected children of both sexes was so apparent that the city council of the period granted "Father" Waterton the free use of a vacant school building on the site of the present police head- quarters, adding, for a time, the paid services of the day school teachers employed there.
A fourth orphan asylum, known as St. Mary's, was founded in 1854. A Young Men's Christian Association was organized in that same year, its first officers being : president, Dr. John S. Newberry; recording secretary, Samuel B. Shaw; corresponding secretary, Loren Prentiss; treasurer, A. W. Brock-
MRS. SAMUEL MATHER
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way. Committees were formed for various charitable purposes such as the relief of the sick and the securing of employment for young men.
The financial panic of 1857 affected the city of Cleveland in common with her older and larger sisters. For a time the few charitable societies struggled for a bare existence and could not grow, yet most of them seem to have sur- vived. Four years later, when the financial skies grew brighter, came the Civil war with its unspeakable horrors. During this life and death struggle all en- ergies were strained to save the Union and its brave defenders. The story of what was done by the women of Cleveland in this emergency, so simply set down in the volume entitled "Our Acre and its Harvest," quickens the reader's pulse and kindles his enthusiasm.
A notable event took place in the early part of 1863, during some of the darkest days of the War of the Rebellion. This was the successful accom- plishment of the Northern Ohio sanitary fair in aid of sick and wounded sol- diers and sailors. The authorities permitted a temporary structure covering sixty-four thousand square feet to be erected on the public square. The coun- ties supplementary to Cleveland participated in this imposing bazaar, which was opened on Washington's birthday and lasted sixteen days amid great enthu- siasm. The roster of the executive committee is of interest, embracing, as it does, the elite of Cleveland's leaders in charity. These were: T. P. Handy, H. M. Chapin, Dr. J. S. Newberry, Amasa Stone, Jr., Stillman Witt, William B. Castle, Samuel L. Mather, Joseph Perkins, George B. Senter, Peter Thatcher, Jr., Mrs. Benjamin Rouse, Mrs. William Melhinck, Mrs. L. Burton, Miss Mary Clark Brayton, Miss Ellen F. Terry, Mrs. John Shelley, Mrs. J. A. Harris, Mrs. Charles A. Terry, Mrs. Samuel Williamson, Mrs. George A. Benedict, Mrs. L. M. Hubby and Mrs. William B. Castle.
Other well known and public spirited workers were Messrs. Moses C. Young- love, William J. Boardman, John F. Warner, J. V. N. Yates, George Willey, Dan P. Eells, A. W. Fairbanks, Colonel W. H. Hayward and Captain John N. Frazee. The total cash receipts were one hundred thousand, one hundred and ninety-one dollars and six cents, of which about thirty-five thousand dollars were profit and were expended for the cause. Much was additionally given in kind.
Aside from the Marine hospital, owned and conducted by the general gov- ernment and which still overlooks Lake Erie, Cleveland was lacking in accom- modations for the care of her sick. Charity hospital, founded in 1852, was small and inadequate. Before the smoke of war had cleared away, a successful movement was set on foot by Bishop Rappe to furnish a plant worthy of the growing city, which should succeed the feeble one just mentioned. The result was the noble St. Vincent's hospital, built in 1865, still called by the name of Charity. While under the mangement of the church, the faculty, as well as the constituency of donors and patients was as broad as the term implies.
During the Civil war a number of citizens met in the parlors of the Old Stone church to form an organization known as the Home for the Friendless, renting a building on the south side of Lake street near Erie. This institution was formed particularly for the benefit of refugees from the south. In 1866 this body was incorporated and took the name of the Cleveland City hospital.
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Joseph Perkins was elected president and Edmund C. Rouse, F. B. Scott, George A. Stanley, Henry Chisholm, William B. Castle, W. J. Boardman, H. C. Blos- som and G. W. Whitney, were trustees.
It was not until 1868, however, that hospital work was taken up, and that was on a union plan participated in by both the leading schools of medicine. A dwelling house on Clinton park was rented and the Wilson Street hospital opened its doors. H. B. Hurlbut was its president.
At the close of the first year, it was deemed unwise to continue the dual practice and the Homeopathic brethren accordingly withdrew, setting up for themselves in a building on the south side, formerly known as the Humiston Institute. Mr. Hurlbut bought the Wilson Street hospital plant and presented it to the Allopathic division. In 1873 the foundations of the present Huron Street hospital were laid, but the structure was not occupied until five years later.
Meanwhile, the first building having proved inadequate, the Wilson Street hospital was transferred to the United States Marine hospital, additions to which were made under an arrangement with the general government. Mr. Hurlbut was president until the close of his life in 1883, giving much time, coun- sel and pecuniary aid. He was succeeded by George H. Ely, and he by Lean- der McBride.
The first president of the Huron Street hospital was Alton Pope, whose successors were Hon. T. P. Handy, Hon. Marcus A. Hanna, and Jephtha H. Wade, Jr, Prominent upon the faculty were Drs. David H. Beckwith, H. F. Biggar and H. H. Baxter. The original building was greatly enlarged in 1894-95.
About this same time the lease of the Marine hospital having expired, a new and indeed wonderfully complete plant was erected immediately northeast of the same, the name of Lakeside hospital having been adopted in 1889. Among the heavier contributors we find the names of Charles W. Harkness, Eliza A. Clark, Mrs. Amasa Stone, Mrs. James F. Clark, Mr. and Mrs. W. S. Tyler, Ralph W. Hickox, J. L. Woods, Mr. and Mrs. Samuel Mather, Mrs. Anna Y. Root, Louis H. Severance, Mrs. Mary H. Severance, H. M. Hanna and J. H. Wade.
The Young Men's Christian association which during the war had fallen into decay, was revived in 1867 largely through the determined efforts of Charles E. Bolton. It has ever since enjoyed a continuous growth until it has come to be recognized as one of the most effective organizations of its kind in the world. Dr. H. J. Herrick was the first president under the reorganization and he was suc- ceeded by Henry S. Davis, to whose indefatigable efforts the association owes its financial existence during those struggling years. In the fall of 1868 the need of a similar organization for young women was felt, and a meeting looking toward this end was held in the rooms of the Young Men's Christian association in the third story of the building on the northwest corner of Superior and Seneca streets. Attempts have been made to show that this was the first of a chain of similar so- cieties throughout the United States and the world. This claim is disputed by Montreal and perhaps another city. It is probable that three sporadic movements sprang up at about the same time. The first officers were: President, Miss Sarah
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E. Fitch ; vice presidents, Mesdames O. E. Huntington, George E. Whitney, Ira Clark, S. F. Smith, C. W. Lepper and John Coon; corresponding secretary, Mrs. A. W. Fairbanks ; recording secretary, Mrs. Charles E. Bolton; treasurer, Miss Ann White; the directors being Mesdames Linus Austin, James Barnett, L. F. Mellen, Dan P. Eells, A. T. Osborn, W. H. Keith, W. P. Cooke, W. Mittelberger, O. B. Skinner, George Presley, George L. Chapman, S. H. Sheldon, P. B. Clapp and James W. Clarke, together with Miss Mary E. Baldwin and Mrs. Dr. Houtz.
A boarding home for young women was at once inaugurated on Lake street, which in 1869 was transferred to more commodious quarters on Walnut street and named for its promoter the Stillman Witt home. In the fall of that same year a Retreat for unfortunate women was opened on Perry street which outgrew its quarters so that in August 1872 a building was commenced on land donated by Leonard Case and situated on St. Clair avenue adjoining the Protestant Orphan asylum. This fine building was dedicated in 1873, much of the cost having been defrayed by Joseph Perkins. In 1876 Amasa Stone built a three story brick home for aged women, on Kennard street. This was subsequently turned over to the Young Women's Christian Association. Thus the association's modest beginnings grew and spread, becoming the prolific parent of a great range of charities.
Among the latter was the Women's Christian Temperance union, which was nested under the wings of the parent organization until it was fully fledged by incorporation in 1880. A system of free kindergartens was another, though secondary offshoot and one of the most important. In it Cleveland blazed the way as a leader for other cities to follow. A chief promoter and for twenty-five years the president of this movement was Mrs. M. E. Rawson. Through the efforts of this society nearly a score of kindergartens and day nurseries have been planted in various parts of the city, providing places for the daily care and training of the young children of working women who would otherwise be obliged to leave them neglected while their mothers were at their daily tasks. The influence of this noble and far-seeing charity can scarcely be overstated.
Later on, in 1894, a training school for kindergartners was located in the Lend-a-Hand house, with Mrs. Worcester R. Warner as president and Miss Netta Faris, principal. The home for incurables, with its seven and a half acres on De- troit avenue, was the gift in 1887 of Mrs. Eliza Jennings. One is reminded of a clear mountain brook flowing on and growing into a fertilizing stream, blessing great plains in its progress toward the sea.
In 1870 Christian work among railroad men was inaugurated by Henry W. Stager at the Union station. This movement, begun in a feeble way in Cleveland, has been encouraged by far-seeing railroad companies until it has come to encircle the globe. Care of the sick and disabled is a feature of all association work and this fact properly brings it within the scope of our story of charities.
The Jewish Orphan asylum, a national institution, was inaugurated in Cleve- land in 1868, by members of the Independent order of B'nai B'rith. Its superin- tendent, Dr. S. Wolfenstein, has under his wise tutelage some five hundred chil- dren who, together with thousands whom he has graduated during his long and useful career, look up to him with reverence and affection.
In 1869 the House of the Good Shepherd was founded, situated on the corner of Sterling avenue and Sibley street, now known as Thirtieth street and Carnegie
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avenue. Its purpose is the reformation of women and girls and the protection and education of orphaned or destitute girls, preferably over five years of age. The sisters in charge have wrought a great work in this field.
In 1870 the Home for the Aged was started under the auspices of the Little Sisters of the Poor, its building located on Perry, now Twenty-second street. The year 1873 saw the modest beginning of St. Ann's Infant asylum and Ma- ternity hospital, which in 1901 took possession of the Severance homestead on Woodland avenue.
The disastrous fire which swept Chicago in 1871, called for large help from this city and the response was generous.
Another period of financial depression suspended the launching of new enter- prises, and it is only in the '8os that these were resumed on a large scale.
Meanwhile in 1877 a home for aged Israelites was founded on Woodland avenue and a unique mission for mariners, denominated the Floating Bethel, was in a literal sense launched by Chaplain John D. Jones, a well known and success- ful worker.
The year 1884 was prolific. In it were founded by the Council of Jewish Women the Martha house for working girls with its annex, Camp Wise, a sum- mer vacation home. Mr. Harry R. Hatch built the Lida Baldwin Infants' rest, conducted by the Humane society, for abandoned babies.
The Humane society was founded in 1873 and has been entrusted by the state with increasing powers in dealing with certain classes of parents and children, as well as in the protection from abuse of domestic animals. While thus clothed with an official character its funds are contributed by the charitable public.
In 1884 was also founded the Rebecca Aid society for helping the worthy poor, and in 1885 the Dorcas society also, by a number of charitable ladies, to wit : the wives of J. A. Harris, H. H. Little, C. Lester, James Warwick, A. McIntosh, William Hancock, J. M. Richards, H. M. Chittenden, Horace Fuller, J. O. Mason, William T. Smith, William Richardson, Charles Wheeler and H. A. Lathrop. This society conducts a home for aged invalid white women, with a capacity for seventy-five. Its work had its roots in the stirring temperance movement of 1874 in which many women of the city were actively engaged. Among them Mrs. M. C. Worthington, widow of a leading hardware merchant, purchased the old War- ing Methodist Episcopal church building and opened it as a shelter home.
Other outgrowths which have successively sprung from this same popular movement, inaugurated, as already described, by the Young Women's Christian association, are the Central Friendly inn, near the old Haymarket, the Girls' Training home on Franklin avenue, the Eleanor B. Rainey Memorial institute and the Rest cottage.
The year 1884 witnessed devastating floods along the Ohio river causing a great amount of suffering and loss. Cleveland came nobly to the rescue and more than twenty-five thousand dollars worth of money and goods were contributed. The same generous response occurred in the time of the Michigan fires of 1881, of the Russian famine, of the Johnstown flood of 1889, when fifty-one thousand dollars were raised in Cleveland, followed, in 1892, by generous aid to sufferers through flood and fire in western Pennsylvania, to starving miners and their fam- ilies in Ohio in the winter of 1894-5, to the ruined city of Galveston, Texas, in
DETHEL BUILDINGS
BETHEL HOME
From an old cut THE ORIGINAL BETHEL HOME Corner Superior and Union Streets Opened 1869
BENJAMIN ROUSE
REBECCA E. ROUSE
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1900, by seventy-five thousand dollars given to San Francisco, 1906, and large gifts to sufferers by the Italian earthquakes in 1908.
We have hurriedly traced the progress of Cleveland's private charities from their obscure and humble beginnings for more than three quarters of a century. The marvelous growth of the city after the close of the Civil war, due largely to its commerce and manufactures as well as to its schools and its attractive sit- uation, caused a new departure in the field of its philanthropy. In the early days its citizens knew each other, there was a common impulse, carried out by those who were all on a friendly footing. Did an emergency arrive, the people fell into line, keeping step with one another, following their natural leaders.
A tremendous influx of foreign immigration changed all this. New centers of population arose. People were grouped by languages-a score of them. Clubs sprang up with their social cleavage, the population grew less homogeneous; in short, the drawbacks, as well as the advantages, of a growing metropolis were increasingly in evidence. Compassion was not lacking for the sick and the poor, for helpless children and for the wreckage of humanity; yet in place of the old neighborly, concentrated, charitable efforts such as we have been considering, the energies of the charitably disposed were diverted, while new societies sprang up like mushrooms, each with its own circle of devoted enthusiasts.
From the year 1885 until the close of the century there were brought into being the King's daughters, the mercy and help department of the Epworth league, the Deaconess' home, the Hebrew Relief association, the Home for aged Colored people, the Jones school and home for friendless children, the Children's fresh air camp, largely through the personal influence of "Father" H. M. Addison, the Home of the Holy Family, the Jewish Infant Orphan's home, the Altenheim, the Eliza Jennings home, the St. Clair hospital, Maternity home, St. John's hospital, German hospital, Women and Children's free dispensary, Cleveland General hospital, Evangelical Lutheran hospital, Sir Moses Montefiore home, City hos- pital, Training home for friendless girls, Council of Jewish Women, Home Gar- dening association, Lend a Hand home in the Mary Whittlesey memorial, and doubtless many others, including such momentous ventures as the Alta house and the Goodrich Social settlement, Hiram house and the Council Educational alli- ance, all on the most approved plans, and each a center of social and civic betterment.
During this same period was organized the Cleveland work of the Salvation army, with its Industrial home for inebriates, Rescue home and Day nursery, also that of the Volunteers of America, with its Working Girls' Christian home and other activities.
No thoughtful person could fail to see that the growth of societies calling for labor and money was more than keeping pace with the ability of the workers and givers. To use a commercial phrase, the market was overstocked. Each group carried on a campaign for the securing of helpers and contributors, applying here and there, but never overlooking the best known philanthropists. Solicitors com- monly volunteered their services, but the custom grew of hiring successful agents for this purpose, giving them, in some instances, exorbitant commissions. The situation was fast becoming intolerable.
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There is an ancient Hebrew proverb which runs: "When the tale of bricks is doubled, then comes Moses." Thus at this crisis compensating influences began to make their appearance.
In 1881, a distinct organization had been effected known as the Society for Organized Charities, the headquarters of which were in the Crocker building on Superior street. This was based upon principles less distinctly sectarian than those, however admirable, which distinguished the Western Seaman's Friend so- ciety and of its offspring the Cleveland Bethel union.
Following the improved ideas of modern philanthropy, namely, first to alleviate but ultimately to prevent misery, its constitution embraced a system of registra- tion to prevent overlapping of agencies, as well as of kindly investigation to fore- stall indiscriminate giving and to make sure that none who needed help should be overlooked. It became more and more apparent that if the best work was to be accomplished there must be mutual understanding among societies.
The society for Organized charities and the Cleveland Bethel union were in 1884 amalgamated under the title of the Bethel Associated Charities. Its charter provided for the nomination of fifteen of its twenty-five trustees by those of the Cleveland Bethel union, which also furnished the new society a commodious home on Spring street, embracing a Wayfarer's lodge and wood yard, the latter a test of willingness to earn meals and lodging. A member of the executive com- mittee, William J. Akers, who had been especially active in various emergencies, was appointed in 1896 to be director of charities and corrections for the city of Cleveland. Resigning for the time his connection with the private charity, he wisely used his position to forward the system of general registration of the re- cipients of relief, generously contributing a large part of the cost. Thus a long forward step was taken, which was never to be retraced.
The superintendents of the Bethel Associated Charities were Henry N. Ray- mond, 1884-1898 and William R. Seager, 1898, until May, 1900, when the so- ciety was incorporated under the title of the Cleveland Associated Charities, purchasing the charities building from the Bethel union. In this movement the president, General James Barnett, was foremost. Indeed the respect and affection with which he was universally regarded by his fellow citizens gave the greatest weight to his recommendations. The first board of trustees of the As- sociated Charities was constituted as follows : W. J. Akers, General James Bar- nett, president, Starr Cadwallader, George E. Collings, Joseph Colwell, Dan P. Eells, Thomas A. Graham, Rabbi Moses J. Gries, Harry R. Groff, Peter M. Hitchcock, Frederick C. Howe, Joseph Ingersoll, Thomas L. Johnson, Oliver G. Kent, Mrs. Daniel E. Lester, Mrs. J. M. Lewis, Hon. C. B. Lockwood, vice president, L. F. Mellen, Mrs. Anna M. North, Benjamin L. Pennington, audi- tor, E. C. Pope, George C. Ross, Stiles C. Smith, vice president, Mrs. F. A. Sterling and J. W. Walton, secretary and treasurer.
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