USA > Wisconsin > Centennial records of the women of Wisconsin > Part 4
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We have a just pride in a tribute of praise to this lady, who when applied to for a report of her work returns as answer: "I am not conscious of a single deed performed that would add glory to your record - little by little in connection with others, have I striven to lift these children and youth out of darkness into liglit." . In speaking of Miss ADAMS, who for seven years presided over the domestic department of the Wisconsin Insti- tute for the Blind, and had charge of the girls out of school hours, Miss EDDY says: " She did much to mould their char- acter and make them useful and efficient women, but you could as easily bring to light the action of the dew as describe her work." We are quite content that the quiet and genial opera- tions of Nature, with their refreshing and vivifying influences, should typify woman's accomplishments. A. B. B.
MADISON, WIS., March 6, 1876. 4
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CENTENNIAL RECORDS.
ALL SAINTS CATHEDRAL AID SOCIETY OF MIL- WAUKEE.
THE OBJECTS of this society are, to assist the poor, to aid worthy churchwomen in obtaining employment, to sew for mis- sionaries when so requested by the bishop or pastor in charge of the congregation, and to help by its labors to raise money for church purposes. It was organized November, 1872, by women of the congregation of All Saints' Cathedral, but not confined as to membership to that congregation. During the last three years many poor families have been relieved, missionaries as- sisted, and money raised by its labors for church purposes. A communion service was purchased for the cathedral, and the society assisted in furnishing the cathedral schools. A sewing school has been one of the outgrowths of this society, a school now numbering nearly a hundred scholars. During the session of the diocesan council, the society provides a dinner for its members.
Officers :
Miss S. PRENTISS, President.
Mrs. HINSDALE, Directress.
Mrs. W. S. JOHNSON, Vice-President.
Mrs. FELTHAUSEN, Directress.
Mrs. GALBRAITH MILLER, Secretary. Mrs. HAYS, Directress.
Mrs. GREEN, Treasurer.
Mrs. E. M. HUNTER, Directress.
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THE CATHIEDRAL SEWING SCHOOL.
THIS Is for poor girls irrespective of creed, and was taken in charge by the present organization in April, 1875, the attendance then not exceeding fourteen; but it has gradually increased to (at this writing) one hundred and twenty-one. Sewing and sing- ing have hitherto been taught with great success, and knitting and other useful branches of work will be introduced gradually, so as to fit the children for domestics, seamstresses, etc. The children are mostly clothed by the efforts of the ladies in charge of them, and through the medium of the school a large number of poor families are reached who would be otherwise neglected, and marked improvement has been seen in the homes of many of those who have been attending the school, whilst several of the girls have been placed in good situations. Eleven ladies are now busily engaged in the work, either in teaching or soliciting clothing, sewing materials, etc.
Mrs. CATHARINE BROWN most ably takes charge of this school. MILWAUKEE, WIS., February 5, 1876.
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CENTENNIAL RECORDS.
WOMAN'S CHRISTIAN TEMPERANCE UNION OF BELOIT.
THE WOMAN'S CHRISTIAN TEMPERANCE UNION Was formed in Beloit, April, 1874. Monthly meetings were held, and a chil- dren's temperance society organized which still has a prosperous existence. Mass meetings held during the year, lectures on tem- perance given, and much good accomplished generally.
In March, 1875, two ladies, Mrs. MARSHALL and Miss PEET, rented a hall and fitted it up tastefully as a reading room. With the assistance of Mrs. WILLIAMS and the officers, gospel temper- ance services have been conducted there each Sabbath of the year with most happy results.
The rooms are open during the evenings of the week. as a safe and attractive place of resort for young persons. The library consists of books of general literature, which, together with cur- rent papers and magazines, are constantly supplied by the kind- ness of friends of the enterprise.
ANNA KEEP, Recording Secretary.
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THE MILWAUKEE MISSION BAND.
ON Saturday, the 12th of November, 1870, as related in the first secretary's first report, twenty young ladies assembled in the parlors of Plymouth Church, at the invitation of Miss FANNY NORCROSS, the pastor's niece, to form themselves without refer- ence to religious creeds or preferences into a branch of the " Women's Union Missionary Society." This association had been formed some eight years previously by a number of noble Christian women who desired to extend to their degraded sisters in India the privileges of religion and education they themselves enjoyed. To this end the cooperation of all earnest women throughout the United States was cordially invited, and the for- mation of local mission bands advised. These bands were to pledge themselves to support one or more pupils at the numer- ous female seminaries which have been established in India, and from which, by that slow but unfailing process of infiltration familiar to the students of progress, Christian civilization is finally to crumble into ruins the hideous temple of heathenism, with all its grinning gods. The suggestion was at once eagerly received, officers were elected, weekly meetings appointed, the usual business preliminaries complied with, and thus, in a spirit of enthusiasm and generous emulation, these twenty young girls called from the ranks of society which the flippant writers of pseudo society novels are pleased to denominate fashionable,
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meaning frivolous, empty headed, heartless, and anything else unlovely and unwomanly, prepared to assume some of the weightier duties of life. But, as is usual with embryonic benev- olent societies, their means at first were as limited as their aims were large. An initiation fee of one dollar, trifling fines for ab- sence and tardiness, honorary membership at 50 cents per capita, occasional donations from friends, these with a score or so of wil- ling helpful hands, constituted the sole working capital of the Mission Band during the first years of its existence.
Nevertheless, it did not hesitate to assume the maintenance of a little Hindoo girl, who was baptised FAITH NORCROSS in honor of its first president, and whose welfare, during the next two years, was the object of its constant solicitude. It is needless to recount the various devices made use of to procure the fifty- eight dollars per annum pledged to the Hindoo girl's support. They are familiar to all acquainted with the modus operandi of similar organizations. Fancy work was made at the weekly meetings and sold at the usual exorbitant rates, orders for plain sewing were obtained from sympathizing housekeepers, private theatricals were given with more or less pecuniary and artistic success. When the two years allotted to FAITH NORCROSS' educa. tion had expired, and she became competent to support herself, her benefactresses found they had earned a place for themselves in the estimation of the community, and a beneficiary power which they were unwilling to relinquish. They determined, however, to devote themselves in future to objects nearer home.
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These were by no means difficult to find. We do not need scriptural authority to know that "the poor we have always with us," and from this time may be dated the Mission Band's best usefulness. From every ward of the city, every nationality and every creed, these young girls selected the recipients of their bounty. All were visited at their homes and their wants personally inquired into. Some received food and fuel, others homely articles of furniture. Women struggling for bread were helped to purchase a sewing machine or a laundress' outfit. Arrears of rent and small debts at the butchers and grocers were discharged. Nurses were engaged for helpless invalids, and responsible women to take care of broods of motherless children. Besides the innumerable cast off articles donated by the friends of the society, hundreds of warm new garments and comfort- ables were made at the weekly meetings and distributed by careful hands. During the winter of 1874-5, unparalleled for its rigor and wide spread suffering, the exertions of the Mission Band redonbled. From the Sth of October to the 28th of April, inclu . sive, twenty-eight meetings were held, with an average attend- ance of thirty members. The membership list increased from sixteen to ninety-four. A theatrical entertainment and a charity ball were given, netting a thousand dollars. Eight hundred and sixty-eight yards of material were made into garments and bed clothing, $225 were expended in food and fuel, 120 familes were preserved from actual want.
During this year, also, the society first assumed a permanent
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form by the adoption of a constitution and by-laws suited to its special objects, and thereby entitled itself to a position among the organized charities of Milwaukee. That this position is neither unimportant nor carelessly maintained, the daily appeals that are made to the good offices of the Mission Band, the enthusiastic activity of its members and its wide spread and increasing influence, sufficiently attest. As an evidence of what can be accomplished by earnest, united effort in a field that is open to all, it is certainly a success, and to the young daughters of wealth and fashion throughout this broad land of ours, whose hearts are pitiful, though they beat under velvet or seal-skin, and whose hands lying folded in their silken laps, are ready for the gentle offices of sisterly love, an earnest invitation is extended to follow its example, and earn for themselves the reward which the fifth Beatitude promises, when it says, " Blessed are the mer- ciful, for they shall obtain mercy."
LUCY M. SCHLEY, Secretary.
WISCONSIN STATE HOSPITAL FOR THE INSANE.
THIS most important, perhaps of all Wisconsin's public hos- pitals, is one of the leading objects of interest in her beautiful capital.
Its success and prosperity has been greatly owing to the effi- ciency and fidelity of its matron.
MILAAUKEE .. TH &ENG
WISCONSIN STATE HOSPITAL FOR INSANE> NEAR MADISON.
THE NEW YORK PUBLIC LIBRARY
Astor, Lenox and' Tuden Foundations.
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CENTENNIAL RECORDS.
Mrs. MARY C. HALLIDAY, for sixteen years, which covers its entire existence, has devoted herself to the supervision of the varied departments which constitute the life of a hospital, containing at this time three hundred and forty-seven patients. Mrs. HALLIDAY has seen, during her residence at the hospital, six changes in the superintendeney of the institution, but through them all, she has stood faithfully discharging her arduous duties, and giving entire satisfaction to all associated with her, as well as to the trustees and officers of the board.
The sphere of a matron of an insane hospital is very wide, and often embraces enough to crush a woman of common cali- ber. To plan and provide for the best good of all, with a judicions economy, and to dispense each day to the wants and caprices of suffering humanity - to sympathize with the siek, and cheer the despondent has been the mission of this devoted woman. With unflagging interest to this day, the improvement of the hospital, and the comfort of its strieken inmates, is the dearest object of her heart.
Kindred in a distant state repeatedly urge upon Mrs. HALLI- DAY, the duty of retiring from her labors, after the many years of ardnous toil, but to these syren voices she has ever turned a deaf ear.
That the Wisconsin Hospital may be long favored by her ministrations, all who are cognizant of the "good works and alms deeds " administered there by Mrs. MARY C. HALLIDAY, most earnestly desire. A. B. B.
MADISON, WIS., March 17, 1876.
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CENTENNIAL RECORDS.
THE CATHOLIC INSTITUTIONS OF MILWAUKEE.
Ix an age which is agitated by the discussion of economic questions, which has employed great intellects in debating the rights and the mission of woman, it is, in some sort, an act of temerity to say that the Catholic Church has discussed, and in many of its aspects, decided this momentous question.
Our sex is specially fitted for the instruction of the young, for the care of the aged, the infirm and the sick. While the world is full of theories concerning the rights of woman, there is but one opinion regarding her capability as a nurse and instructor of early youth. Under the discipline of the Catholic Church, this specialty of labor has been for ages under organization and direction, and in the great strifes of humanity, there can scarcely be found in modern times the name of a great battle field where the influence of this great mission has not been felt, and defaced and suffering humanity soothed by the tender care of those whom the church had sent to this work with her protec- tion and blessing.
The sketch of the labor of Catholic women in Milwaukee must therefore be a small group taken from the larger canvass, protraying the work of the whole organization, of which each branch is a part.
The order of Sisters of Notre Dame, first founded at Lorraine in 1597, and modified in 1832, under the name of the School
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Sisters of Notre Dame, is dedicated to the gratuitous Christian education of young girls. The mother house and novitiate of the United States were removed to Milwaukee on the 15th of December, 1850. From this city are sent religious to nearly all the states of the Union, and to the Dominion of Canada.
The number of religious now engaged in this work, excluding novices, is about eight hundred. The number of pupils now attending parochial schools under their charge is thirty-three thousand. Those attending institutes and high schools number eight hundred, in addition to which they have the charge of two thousand orphans. No comment is attempted on this statement.
Saint Rosa's Orphan Society, for the support and education of orphan girls in this city, was incorporated under a general law of the state, on the 6th of December, 1850, and went into opera- tion on the 13th of February, 1851.
As in the case of the School Sisters of Notre Dame, I shall present without comment such statistics as could be procured in limited time.
A part of the children are at St. Joseph's Asylum on North Point, but both houses are governed by the same society, and their inmates in the statement following are regarded as belong- ing to the same household.
The asylum since its organization has received seven hundred children, among whom twenty deaths have occurred. In De- cember last, the number of inmates was one hundred and forty- five. The average number remaining in the institution at the
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end of each of the past three years was one hundred and thirty- nine. The average cost of maintenance, including all expenses for the past three years, was each year twelve thousand dol- lars, thus showing an average yearly cost for each inmate dur- ing the time mentioned, of somewhat over eighty-six dollars.
The English speaking Catholic congregations of this city assume the support of this asylum, but during the past ten years the state has contributed eight thousand dollars. It should also be gratefully mentioned that our citizens generally have con- tributed generously to its support. Its care and management are in charge of eight Sisters of Charity who, of course, work with- out pay. In addition to the ordinary household duties, such as cooking, washing, making and mending, and all the long list so well known to every housekeeper, the Sisters give to these orphans a good English education, and fit them to occupy respectable positions in society. It should not be omitted that they are also taught plain and fancy needlework.
The Sisters also give instruction in the St. Æmilianus Orphan Asylum for boys, supported by the German congrega- tions of the city.
The large Hospital on North Point is also in charge of Sisters of Charity.
Within the present year six members of the Little Sisters of the Poor have established a house in this city. They have but just commenced their labor here, and now have fifteen inmates under their charge. Beginning in 1840, when its first bene-
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ficiary, a blind old woman, was borne in the arms of its found- ers to its first home of St. Servan of Brittany, this society already sends its members throughout the civilized world. Gathering the aged and decrepit poor about them, its members give their lives wholly to their support and comfort. All their maintenance is gathered in alms, which the Little Sisters solicit for their charge. Surely in this case, God's blessing enables the poor to give a home to the poor.
There remain many other associations deserving of notice, composed principally of the women of the various congregations associated for the benefit of the poor, or for mental instruction.
Among Catholics, most of the great works of charity under- taken by our sex have been under the charge of women leading a religious life, and with the approbation of the church, partak- ing of its wonderful organization. The religious, for charity, gives up the sweet delights of home and kindred, and seeks her consolation in the care of the afflicted and the poor. To the orphan she is a mother, to the sick and wounded a sister. Lead- ing a life whose reward is in the great hereafter, she is to all the representative of that charity which "suffereth long and endureth much."
MRS. S. A. NASH,
MRS. H. M. SCHLEY.
MILWAUKEE, WIS., March 20, 1876.
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LAKE GENEVA SEMINARY. Genera, Walworth Co., Wis.
THIS INSTITUTION, combining a boarding and day school for young ladies, is a private enterprise. The course of study is collegiate, supplemented by special advantages for music and art. The family is the embodiment of a cultivated and refined Christian home. The experiment of limiting the number of pupils in the family to thirty, for the purposes of individual at- tention and a higher type of development, has proven satisfac- tory to patrons and teachers, and the school deserves attention as one of the most decided elements of eastern æsthetic culture in our state. The buildings are located upon an elevation descend- ing to the east shore of the lake, with ample grounds, and ready access to the water for boating, bathing, etc. The residence building, in all its appointments, is one of the finest to be found in any state. It is of brick, fire-proof. warmed by steam, lighted with gas; each floor supplied with hot and cold water, with but one flight of stairs for pupils to ascend, and, withal, commands a view of the lake, the town, and their encircling range of hills.
Mrs. JULIA A. (LAKE) WARNER, the founder and present prin- cipal of this school, was born in Mount Morris, Livingston county, N. Y., in 1819; received an education in common schools and taught in the same; entered what is now Ingham University, at Le Roy, N. Y., in 1837; was a graduate from that
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institution, and was connected with it as pupil, teacher and resi- dent ten years. She was married, in 1843, to EVANDER S. WAR- NER. Twelve years of her married life were spent in Chicago, Ill., where she was one of the founders of the "Home for the Friendless," and for several years one of its managers; one of the managers of the "Industrial School Association," and an active member of the First Congregational Church in its early history.
The crowning life work of this Christian teacher, wife and mother was, with her husband and family, to bring to our state hier ripe experience, and establish in our midst a school which has attained, in six years, an enviable reputation, and is an im- portant factor in our educational element.
Mrs. FRANK BUCKBEE.
ST. JOHN'S HOME.
THIS INSTITUTION takes its name from the sentence chosen as its motto:
"From that hour, that disciple took her into his own home."
The undertaking being that of a body of brethren in Christ desirous of making their corporate union effective for Christian work, our beloved and lamented Bishop W.M. E. ARMITAGE se- lected this name as a constant reminder and incentive.
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The abiding together of the Blessed Mother and St. John, after the Saviour's charge from His cross; their holiness, their mutual tenderness of affection, their unceasing remem- brance of Him who made them mother and son, all com- bine, in imagination, to make their home the very ideal of a Christian home. We set before ourselves the purpose, we pray the Master to help us to reach it, to make this Home, in tone and spirit, in influence and effect, more and more worthy of its name. It is in happy accord with the name, that the inmates have been chiefly aged and solitary women. Those who have cared for them have been abundantly repaid in their peaceful lives, and in the happy deaths of those who have been called away. We have at the present time only eleven inmates who, including the matron and servant, are all we can accommodate. We have been enabled, since the opening of the "Home," to provide shelter and food for about seventy persons, including a few children, many, of course, being only in need of temporary aid.
The charity known as "St. John's Home" has nearly com- pleted its eighth year, and is designed to furnish homes for des- titute and friendless women of the Protestant Episcopal Church in this diocese, so far as our means will permit.
When the women of our parish were organized into a Church Aid Society, a committee consisting of three ladies - Mrs. LOUISA DELAFIELD, Mrs. ANNA MCCARTER and Mrs. H. O. GREEN-was chosen to find a house suitable for a "Church
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Home," but it was not until June, 1868, that they made an ac- tual beginning. On the 17th of the same month, our beloved and sainted Bishop, the Rt. Rev. JACKSON KEMPER, opened the "Home " with appropriate services. The building (326 Syca- more street) was fitted up and occupied as a "Home" until April, 1869, when, through the exertions of the executive com- mittee, the house No. 682 Van Buren street was purchased, and, in May, the "Home " was removed to its present quarters.
The names of the first executive committee deserve to be here recorded.
Mrs. ELISHA ELDRED, President. Mrs. WM. H. WRIGHT, Treasurer. Mrs. Dr. DOUSMAN, Secretary.
St. Paul's Church-Mrs. JONES, Miss S. ELDRED. St. John's Church -Mrs. GREEN, LARKIN and HARDISON. St. James' Church -Mrs. CASWELL, FEATHERSTONHAUGH and Miss ROUSSEAU. All Saints' Church -Mrs. BIRCHARD and HEARDING. Christ's Church- Mrs. ALCOTT and YOUNG.
The committee procured from the legislature of 1868, the charter for the "Home," and on Easter Tuesday, March 30th. the first board of directors was elected, consisting of the follow- ing named gentlemen: Messrs. JAMES KNEELAND, ED. RODDIS, ROBT. YOUNG, WINFIELD SMITH, J. F. BIRCHARD, ROBT. H. STRONG, H. T. SELBY, E. H. G. MEACHAM, GEORGE HARDISON, J. A. HELFENSTEIN, WM. P. MERRILL, O. B. BUTTLES.
Under the charter, the Women's Executive Committee above named were appointed by the directors and entrusted with the 5
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internal management of the Home. The executive committee now consists of thirty ladies, six from each parish in the city ..
St. Paul's Church.
Mrs. W. F. WHITNEY,
Mrs. E. W. BARNES,
Mrs. A. MCCARTER, Mrs. WINIELD SMITH,
Mrs. THEO. F. TERHUNE, Miss. S. E. ELDRED.
Mrs. WMr. KENDRICK, Mrs. H. P. REYNOLDS,
Mrs. Dr. MEACHAM,
Mrs. W. S. JOHNSON,
Mrs. W. H. WOLF, Mrs. EDDY.
St. James' Church.
Mrs. L. F. HODGES,
Mrs. Jos. PAIGE,
Mrs. C. A. BUTTLES.
Mrs. HUTCHINSON,
Mrs. ED. BRADLEY,
Mrs. FEATHERSTONHAUGH.
All Saints' Cathedral.
Mrs. W. L. HINSDALE, Mrs. JAMES HICKOX,
Mrs. WM. H. WRIGHT, Mrs. Dr. ORTON, Mrs. WM. H. HEARDING, Mrs. B. W. FELTHOUSEN.
Christ's Church.
Mrs. R. C. JOHNSON,
Mrs. J. H. WALRATH, Mrs. J. B. OLIVER,
Mrs. FIXTER, Mrs. E. MARINER, Mrs. H. O. GREEN.
Officers of the Executive Committee.
Mrs. W.I. H. WRIGHT, President. Mrs. A. MCCARTER, Treas. (pro tem).
Mrs. WMr. H. HEARDING, Vice Prest. Mrs. THEODORE F. TERHUNE, Secretary.
Our Home building is a large four story modern built house, altogether too small to accomodate our applications for admis- sion.
Mrs. THEO. F. TERHUNE, Secretary.
St. John's Church.
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THE MILWAUKEE ORPHAN ASSOCIATION.
IN the end of the year 1849, the ladies of the Milwaukee Benevolent Society became convinced that some steps must be taken to provide a home for the many orphan children that they met in their visits to the poor, and a committee of four were appointed to draw up a constitution which they presented to a meeting of the society on January 4, 1850.
The constitution was adopted, and the association organized, electing the following officers and managers for the coming year:
Officers.
Mrs. LOUISA HALL, 1st Directress. Mrs. W. L. PARSONS, Secretary.
Mrs. G. P. HEWITT, 2d Directress. Mrs. A. MITCHELL, Treasurer.
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