History of the city of Columbus, capital of Ohio, Volume II, Part 99

Author: Lee, Alfred Emory, 1838-; W. W. Munsell & Co
Publication date: 1892
Publisher: New York and Chicago : Munsell & Co.
Number of Pages: 1196

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qualities, as well as for her works of humanity, quitted Columbus for Mexico and the home which she had founded was transferred to the Sisters of Charity.

In November, 1860, the clergymen of the city were requested to appeal, from their pulpits, for contributions in aid of sufferers by the famine then pre- vailing in Kansas, and the following committee to solicit donations from citizens generally was appointed : P. B. Wilcox, W. B. Thrall, William Armstrong, A. P. Stone and I. L. Riee.

The claims made upon the benevolence of the people of Columbus in bebalf of the soldiers during the Civil War, and the manner in which those claims were met, have already been described. In April, 1861, it was announced that 10,000 flannel shirts, made by the ladies of the city, were ready for distribution to the volunteers. Messrs. Smith, Buttles, Blair, Eberly and Stauring were appointed as a committee of the council to distribute $20,000 appropriated by that body for relief of the families of soldiers. The associate members of the United States Sanitary Commission met at the Starling Medical College on December 7. 1861, and elected : President, Joseph Sullivant ; vice president, Rev. E. M. Fitzgerald ; secretary, John W. Andrews; treasurer, T. G. Wormley. The members of the commission in the city at that time were Governor William Dennison, Reverends Fitzgerald, Hemsteger, Trimble and Mees, Doctors Carter, Smith, Awl, J. B. Thompson, Loving and Wormley, and Messrs. J. Sullivant, F. C. Sessions, P. Ambos, J. H. Riley, R. Neil, F. Collins and John W. Andrews. The organiza- tion and operations of the Ladies' Soldiers' Aid Society have been described in appropriate chapters. The constitution of that society declared its purpose to be " to furnish relief to the sick and wounded soldiers and sailors of our army and navy, under the direction of and auxiliary to the United States National Sanitary Commission at Washington." The society met daily, from ten to twelve A. M., for the purpose of making up such articles as were needed by the sick and wounded in the hospitals.

On October 23, 1862, a public meeting was held at Naughton Hall to raise means for the relief of destitute families driven from their homes by the Indian raid in Minnesota. In June of the same year the sum of $550 50 was collected in the city and remitted for the relief of suffering poor in Ireland. The sum of $5,000 from a contribution of $380,000 from the State of California, was placed at the disposal of the Columbus branch of the Sanitary Commission. The use of a lot for the Commission's hospital was granted by the Columbus & Xenia rail- way. It was situated near the Union Station. A public meeting to provide relief for soldiers' families was held at the Town Street Methodist Church December 8, 1863. Ex-Governor Dennison presided ; over $1,000 was subscribed. Finance and executive committees were appointed ; also committees for the dif- ferent townships of the county. In December, 1863, the Soldiers' Aid Society held a bazar from which the sum of 87,028 was realized. Donations of fuel and provisions raised the total value of the receipts to $9,000. "Sawbuck companies" were organized in December, 1863, to saw and split wood donated by the farmers for the families of absent soldiers. The companies were composed chiefly of boys, but some aged men also took part in them. The boys called themselves "Sawbuck Rangers." On December 22, 1863, the directors of the Bee Line Railway appropriated $10,000 for the relief of soldiers' families The City Coun- cil voted $600 to the publie charities and $300 to the St. Francis Hospital December 21. An exhibition of tableaux given at the Opera House for the bene- fit of the Soldiers' Aid Society in October, 1864, realized the sum of $1,000. At a meeting held in the Second Presbyterian Church November 13 the Christian Commission received donations to the amount of $540. On November 14, 1864, Governor Brough issued a proclamation designating Saturday, November 26, as a day of feasting and jubilee for soldiers' families. In this document the military

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committees throughout the State were admonished by the Governor to call upon the farmers to " come in with their wagons loaded with wood," and io " make it beaping measure." In response to these suggestions " wood processions " were formed by the farmers, and in nearly every considerable town in the State one of these novel spectacles was witnessed. One which took place in Columbus in December, 1863, was thus described :1

Last Saturday was the prondest day for the true lover of the families of our brave vol- unteers who are now in the field doing battle for the country, that the oldest inhabitant of the city ever saw. About ten o'clock A. M. the sidewalks all along High Street were crowded with admiring citizens of all ages and sex to witness the procession, and it was the most glorious sight we ever saw for the object in view - the relief of the suffering families of sol- diers. It is estimated that about six hundred wagons, filled with excellent wood, were con- gregated in the different streets abutting the roads from the country, and the marshals endeavored at one time to form them into a grand procession along High Street, to move up to Long, thence to Fourth, but it was found impossible. [The wood was unloaded on the sidewalks around the Capitol Square, completely filling then]. . . . After the farmers had deposited their different donations, they repaired to the Atheneum where they had been invited by the Ladies' Bazar and partook of a free dinner.

After this dinner the donors were addressed by Governor Tod. The contri- butions comprised large quantities of provisions, as well as fuel. Some of the townships made their donations in money. In February, 1865, the Ladies' Aid Society received from the business men of the city a cash donation of $2,000.

On May 6, 1867, a meeting in behalf of destitute persons in Southern Georgia was held at the First Congregational Church. Governor Cox presided and explained the purposes of the charity sought. The meeting was further addressed by Hon. William Dennison. Several hundred dollars were contributed, and a committee was appointed to canvass the city for further donations. In December, 1868, the City Council ordered a distribution of 3,000 bushels of coal and twentyfive cords of wood to the poor of the city. In November, 1869, a donation of 5,000 bushels of coal to the poor of Columbus was made by W. B. Brooks and Peter Hayden.

In October, 1871, a strong appeal was made to the general benevolence of the city by the loss and suffering caused by the great fire in Chicago. The whole city was stirred by this calamity, and a systematic relief work was organized. William G. Deshler was made treasurer of the fund and on October 9 reported cash contributions to the total amount of $13,966.90 ; also several railwaytrain loads of all kinds of supplies, including several carloads of bread baked at the Ohio Penitentiary. In November, 1872, the City Council ordered a distribution to the poor of 5,500 bushels of coal. In October, 1873, the charity of the city was appealed to in behalf of sufferers by a terrible yellow fever scourge in Memphis. On October 30, contributions to the amount of $807.07 were reported.

The industrial distress caused by the financial panic of 1873 rendered syste- matie measures for relief of the unemployed and destitute necessary. The city was divided into districts, relief committees were appointed for each, and a stone- yard at which vagrant mendicants, commonly called tramps, could find honest work if they wanted it, in breaking stone, was arranged under the superinten- dence of Mr. William G. Deshler. The rough material was delivered at .the yard at a cost of $1.50 per perch, and 22 cents per cubic foot was paid for breaking it. The stone broken was sold and used as a foundation for the Nicholson pavement then being laid on High Street, and from the proceeds of the sale ninety per cent. of the donations for the stoneyard were repaid to the donors. At first the aver- age number of men employed at the yard was about fifty. A great many vagrants who were offered work refused it; many others, after working a short time quit in disgust. Other expedients under the name of Bethel Home and Relief Union were tried in 1876. A home for soldiers' widows was opened on North Front Street by ladies, in 1877. In December of that year a council donation of 1,000

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bushels of coal was made to St. Francis Hospital. Relief for yellow fever suffer- ers at Memphis and other cities of the South was again called for in August, 1878. On September 3, the contributions for this purpose reached $1,700, but donations continued to be solicted and received for some weeks afterwards." On January 20, 1879, the council authorized a distribution of 10,000 bushels of coal by the Poor Committee.

Considerable contributions were made in August, 1881, for the relief of suf- ferers by forest fires in Michigan. An association for alleviating the distress of Hebrew refugees from Russia was organized in July, 1882. In January, 1883 a sum of about $3,000 was contributed by German-American citizens for the relief of sufferers by extraordinary floods in the river Rhine, in Germany. Great distress caused by floods in the Ohio River appealed to the charity of the city in Febru- ary, 1883, and in response to this appeal donations to the amount of $16,000 were made by citizens of Columbus. Large quantities of clothing and other sup- lies were forwarded to the different centers of distress along the river, and were accompanied by messengers to attend to their distribution.3 On March 11, 1885, a Columbus branch of the Woman's National Indian Association was organized. A terrible cyclone in Fayette County, on September 8, 1885, elicited a proclamation from Governor Hloadly, appealing, in behalf of the sufferers, to the charity of the entire State. The contributions made by the people of Columbus amounted to about $3,000.

On December 14, 1885, the charities of the city were united under one organ- ization. On May 6, 1886, the operations of this general organization were suy- pended. A Friendly Inn, which it had established, was discontinued on December 8, 1887. In January, 1888, Mr. B. S. Brown, of Columbus, gave $25,000 to eudow a professorship in the university at Wooster, Ohio.

The devastation of the city of Johnstown, Pennsylvania, by the bursting of a dam in the Conemaugh Creek on May 31, 1889, was a disaster of such an exten- sive and distressing character as to appeal profoundly to the sympathy of the people of Ohio. On June 1 Governor Foraker issned a proclamation calling for general contributions for relief of the sufferers, and on the following day the Board of Trade appointed a committee to receive and forward donations. Mr. W. G. Deshler was appointed by the Governor as treasurer of the funds contributed from the State, and remitted, in all, fiftyseven thousand dollars. The total amount of cash donations from Columbus, reported by the Board of Trade committee June 8, was about $7,000. Besides the money contributions immense quantities of supplies were forwarded by E. A. Fitch, who had charge of that department.

COLUMBUS FEMALE BENEVOLENT SOCIETY.

The original organization of this society took place on January 5, 1835, at the Methodist Episcopal Church on Town Street.+ A constitution prepared by Mrs. John Patterson was at that time adopted, and the following officers were chosen : President, Mrs. James Hoge ; vice president, Mrs. E. W. Schon ; treasurer, Mrs. Noah H. Swayne ; secretary, Miss M. Kelley, afterwards Mrs. James L. Bates ; board of managers, Mesdames William M. Awl, Demas Adams, Ralph Osborn, Moses Jewett, Samuel Crosby, John Bailbache, Benjamin Blake, Joseph Ridgway, Junior, D. Woodbury and A. Van Horn.5 The society held its first business meeting at the house of Mrs. Demas Adams and appointed a visiting committee

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for each of the three wards of the eity as follows: North Ward, Mesdames J. B. Harvey, Robert Riordan, Joseph Ridgway. Junior, Charles Sterritt, J. B. Crist and Sarah Gill ; Middle Ward, Mesdames Demas Adams, William T. Martin, Benjamin Blake, J. M. Espy, Moses Jewett and L. Reynolds; South Ward, Mes- dames James Cherry, John Mellvaine, John Patterson, A. Van Horn, McCarty and T. Woodbury. Mrs. John Patterson and Mrs. Noah H. Swayne were appointed to purchase materials for the poor of the city, many of whom were said to be in great need.6

In April, 1836, an organization subordinate to the society was formed for the education of destitute children. On a lot donated by Hon. Alfred Kelley in April, 1837, a small schoolhouse was erected and a free school was opened which continued until the publie school system of the State was inaugurated. Messrs. D. T. Woodbury, Joseph Ridgway, Junior, and P. B. Wilcox were about the time of the opening of this school appointed as members of an Advisory Board. These were the only men who ever held any direct connection with the societies down to 1888.

On March 5, 1838, the General Assembly passed an act, the first section of which provided

That Mary T. Cressy, Maria M. Espy, Sarah Asbury, Maria S. Preston, Mary S. Kelley, Caroline Dryer, Keziah B. Stone and their associates, being females who now are, or who may hereafter, agreeably to the constitution and bylaws of the " Columbus Female Benevo- lent Society," to become members thereof are declared a body corporate, with perpetual succession, for the purposes of administering to the wants and alleviating the distress of the pour and afflicted of their own sex, and of affording moral, physical and intellectual instrue- tion and improvement to orphans and other poor children.

Thus the society began its corporate existence. A clause in its legislative charter forbade it to hold property to the value of more than $50,000, but this restriction was afterwards repealed. The second article of the constitution of the society reads :

The purpose of this society is to seek the poor and afflicted females in the city of Columbus, and provide them relief, aid, instruction or employment, as may be deemed best, and to afford moral, physical and intellectual instruction and improvement to orphans and other poor children, and also to aid and eare for wortby women in the perils of childbirth, and for infants

Regular, life and honorary members are provided for. Proposals for mem- bership are submitted to a vote by ballot, and any such proposal against which ten negative votes are cast is considered rejected. Life membership is contingent, for members, upon the payment of $25; honorary membership upon long and faithful service in the work of the society. The annual meeting of members for hearing reports and electing officers takes place on the first Wednesday in January. Twenty members constitute a quorum. Regular meetings of the directors are held on the first Wednesday of each month. The society is for- bidden to incur any indebtedness. All income from life membership, and all bequests and donations received, are placed in a permanent fund, which must be invested in bonds of the United States, the State of Ohio, Franklin County, or the City of Columbus. By payment of $25 to the memorial fund any person may commemorate a deceased friend. The city is districted for the purpose of charitable visitation, and two visitors are assigned to cach district. Supplies are distributed to the poor preferably to money. Members pay one dollar each within the month of their initiation, and thereafter each one pays one dollar annually. The officers are president, vice president, secretary and treasurer.

During the first years of its existence the society held its meetings at the resi- dences of its members, the most frequent places of assembly being the dwellings

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a of Mrs. Maria M. Espy, Mrs. Joel Buttles, Mrs. Ashel Chittenden and, at a later period, of Mrs. John W. Andrews. The society's records from 1835 to 1869 are imperfect. On August 22, 1848, Mrs. I. G. Dryer, then president, acknowledged receipt of the proceeds of a concert donated by the Columbus band. The total receipts of the society in 1848 were $111.85, its total expenditures $110.35. The applications for relief during that year numbered 52. In February, 1849, six young misses formed a sewing circle and donated to the society its proceeds, amounting to $40.50. The total receipts in 1849 were $150.623, the expenditures 8147.123, the applications for relief 74. In 1850 the receipts were $257.40, the expenditures 8236.50. In January, 1851, the society received a donation of $70 from the Fame Engine and Hornet Hose companies. Relief was granted in 1851 to 160 applicants. A fair for the benefit of the poor, given in January of that year, realized a net sum of $841.25. The society's receipts in 1853 were $900.85, expenditures $646.35. The report for 1854 stated that about $500 per year had been disbursed during several years preceding.

During the spring of 1858 the Industrial School Association was organized with the following officers : President, Mrs. Hannah Neil ; secretary, Miss Matilda Gwynne ; teacher, Miss Ann Robinson. By this association a school was opened in the City Hall with eight pupils, which number was increased by the end of the year to fifty. In 1860 the average attendance at the school numbered sixty and its expenditures amounted to $190. The school held its sittings on Sat- urday afternoon of each weck, from two o'clock until five. This time was devoted to the instruction of destitute children of the female sex. They were taught plain sewing and were trained and instructed morally. Mrs. Martha B. Taylor and Miss Lucy M. Peters were notable workers in this school. " Mothers' meetings " were held in connection with it, and in cases of special need or deserving, useful articles, including those made in the school, were donated to the children. As another branch of this work a mission Sundayschool was organized in 1862 and met in the City Hall.

On June 30, 1866, the association was incorporated under the name of Indus- tral Mission School Association with Messrs. George Gere, I. C. Aston, E. L. Tay- lor, F. C. Sessions and J. J. Ferson as trustees. Of this board F. C. Sessions was chosen president and E. L. Taylor secretary. The association devoted its work at this time especially to the indigent children of soldiers. Mr. William A. Neil gave it a lot and the Columbus Branch of the United States Sanitary Commission donated for its use, with furniture and fixtures, the Soldiers' Home building sit- uated near the railway station. The wish was publicly expressed that in con - nection with its school the association would establish a home for friendless women and children. This was accordingly done, and in November, 1868, a judicial decrce was obtained conferring upon the joint institution the name of Hannah Neil Mission and Home of the Friendless. Under this name the dual charity, on April 1, 1868, began its work in the Soldiers' Home buildings already mentioned. Thence it was removed, on December 15, 1869, to the building which had been used for the Asylum for the Feebleminded on East Main Street." These premises, owned by the mission, comprise three and onequarter acres. In Novem- ber, 1870, the Industrial School was transferred by the managers of the mission to the Female Benevolent Society, under the care of which it has since been con- ducted. The following statements concerning the school are taken, by permission, from an interesting paper written in the spring of 1889 by Mrs. W. A. Mahony :

The work of the Industrial school consists in collecting poor children and giving them instructions, Saturday mornings, in plain sewing, manners and morals. According to the original plan the two hours of the school session were spent mostly in sewing and the gar- ments made were given to the children. Five years ago Mrs. Alice C. Brown, then superinten- dent of the school, suggested the advisability of making it more distinctly a training school

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in Bible truths, in morals and in manners, and laid before the Benevolent Society a plan in which practical lessons in housewifery and useful instructions tending to the moral elevation of girls might be added to the lessons in sewing. That needed habits of selfdenial and economy might be instilled it was thought hest to charge a small sum for the garments, which, in the previous years had been gratuitously distributed. After five years the plan has proven successful, and as one of the good results the school has become nearly selfsup- porting. Not having a suitable and permanent place for holding its sessions it has always been subject to annoyances and many discouragements.

The report of the school for 1890, by Mrs. George J. Akinson, its secretary and treasurer, made the following showing : Average attendance in January, 105 scholars, 14 teachers, 4 officers ; February, 110 scholars, 12 teachers, 4 officers ; March, 117 scholars, 12 teachers, 3 officers ; November, 100 scholars, 14 teachers, 4 officers ; December, 125 scholars, 17 teachers, 4 officers.

Concerning the other branch of the dual charity we have, in the paper by Mrs. W. A. Mahony, already quoted, the following interesting account :

In 1868 was opened a home or asylum for destitute women and children in a building used as a Soldiers' Home during the Civil War. Twentyone years ago it was removed to its present location on East Main Street. It is known as the Hannah Neil Mission and Home of the Friendless. Its purpose is to provide care and shelter, free or for compensation, to females of all ages, and to males under fifteen years of age, until such time as suitable pro- vision can otherwise be made for them. There are twentysix managers, who, with the offi- cers, constitute the managing board, all ladies, Mrs. E. A. Fitch the president. There is a board of trustees consisting of five prominent business men, of whom Mr. F. C. Sessions is president. The Hannah Neil Mission and Home of the Friendless is regarded in the relation of a sister to the Benevolent Society. Many of the visitors of the latter are officers or man- agers in the former, and the two societies have always worked together harmoniously. The efficient president of this society for many years was Mrs. R. D. Harrison, who ceased from her labors in this life and entered higher services in the fall of 1887. In a few short months she was joined by Mrs. Ide, who for twenty years had been friend, advisor and comforter in the Home. Mrs. Ide's sister, Mrs. Haver, was the first vice president. At the Home in Janu- ary of this year died the first vice president of the Hannah Neil Mission in 1866. She was known throughout the city as " Auntie [Mrs. M. B.] Taylor " She lived to reach her nine- tieth year

A vote of the managers, in 1873, excluding a colored child, caused consider- able feeling. A large proportion of the children at the Home of the Friendless was transferred to the Franklin County Children's Home in March, 1880. A similar transfer was made of the children in the County Infirmary. The cash receipts of the mission, from all sources, in 1890, amounted to $1,282. The aver- age number of persons cared for each month during that year was twentyseven.

The first permanent fund of the Female Benevolent Society was realized from the sale of the lot donated on April 25, 1838, by Mr. and Mrs. Alfred Kelley. This lot, situated on the east side of Fourth Street, between Oak and State, is believed to be that on which stands the building now used by the Woman's Educational and Industrial Union. The original school building erected on the lot, as heretofore stated, still stands on the rear part of it, and is used as a stable. The sum realized by the society from the sale of this ground was $500.

The surplus remaining from the receipts of the State Capitol festival of January 6, 1857, was donated to the society, as has been stated in the history of the Capitol. From this donation a permanent fund of two hundred dollars has been established.

A surplus of $200 from money raised in the Second Ward to aid in seenring sufficient enlistments to exempt that ward from the draft during the Civil War, was also donated to the society, and is still preserved as a permanent investment.

The will of Doctor Lincoln Goodale, probated May 29, 1868, contained the fol- lowing bequest : " And I do hereby give and bequeath said onefourth of one of said fifteen shares [into which his estate was divided] to the Ladies' Benevolent Society of the city of Columbus, called the Female Benevolent Society." This

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also constitutes a permanent fund. Its amount, as stated in the treasurer's report, is $16,885.67.

In March, 1876, Mrs. Elizabeth E. Noble donated to the society as a memorial of her mother, Mrs. Matilda A. Edmiston, a railway bond of the denomination of $1,000, to be held and seenrely invested as a source of permanent income to this charity.

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History of the city of Columbus, capital of Ohio, Volume II, Part 99

Author: Lee, Alfred Emory, 1838-; W. W. Munsell & Co Publication date: 1892 Publisher: New York and Chicago : Munsell & Co. Number of Pages: 1196

Author: Lee, Alfred Emory, 1838-; W. W. Munsell & Co
Publication date: 1892
Publisher: New York and Chicago : Munsell & Co.
Number of Pages: 1196