opposed to slavery, and realizing the helplessness and ignorance of the
slaves, Mr. Hand decided to give to the American Missionary Association
$1,000,894.25, the income to be used "for the purpose of educating needy
and indigent colored people of African descent, residing, or who may
hereafter reside, in the recent slave States of the United States of
America.... I would limit," he said, "the sum of $100 as the largest sum
to be expended for any one person in any one year from this fund." The
fund, transferred Oct. 22, 1888, was to be known as the "Daniel Hand
Educational Fund for Colored People."
Upon Mr. Hand's death, at Guilford, Conn., Dec. 17, 1891, in the family
of one of his nieces, it was found that he had made the American
Missionary Association his residuary legatee. About $500,000 passed into
the possession of the Association, to be used for the same purpose as
the million dollars; and about $200,000, it is believed, will eventually
go to the organization after life-use by others.
The American Missionary Association is a noble society, organized in
1846 and chartered in 1862, for helping the poor and neglected races at
our own doors, by establishing churches and schools in the South among
both negroes and whites, in the West among the Indians, and in the
Pacific States among the Chinese.
The Rev. Dr. A. D. Mayo says, in his book on the Southern women in the
recent educational movement in the South, "Perhaps the most notable
success in the secondary, normal, and higher training of colored youth
has been achieved by the American Missionary Association.... At present
its labors in the South are largely directed to training superior
colored youth of both sexes for the work of teaching in the new public
schools. It now supports six institutions called colleges and
universities, in which not only the ordinary English branches are
taught, but opportunity is offered for the few who desire a moderate
college course." Fisk University of Nashville, which has sent out over
12,000 students, is one of the most interesting.
The American Missionary Association assists 74 schools for colored
people with 12,000 pupils, 198 churches for the same with over 10,000
members and a much larger number in the Sunday-schools; 14 churches
among the Indians with over 900 members; 20 schools among the Chinese at
the West with over 1,000 pupils and over 300 Christian Chinese.
Mr. Hand's noble gift aids about fifty schools in the various Southern
States from its income of over $50,000 yearly.
Mr. Hand was a man of fine personal presence, of extensive reading, and
wide observation. He gave, says his relative, Mr. George A. Wilcox, "for
the well-being of many, both within and without the family connection,
who have come within the province of deserved assistance; befriending
those who try to help themselves, whether successfully or not, but
unalterably stern in his disfavor when idleness or dissipation lead to
want." He gave the academy bearing his name to his native town of
Madison, Conn. He joined the First Presbyterian Church in Augusta, Ga.,
when he was twenty-eight years of age, and was for thirty years its
efficient Sunday-school superintendent. He organized a teachers'
meeting, held every Saturday evening, which proved of great benefit.
He always loved the Scriptures. He said one day to a friend, as he laid
his hand on his well-worn Bible, "I always read from that book every
morning, and have done so from my boyhood, except in a comparatively few
cases of unusual interruption or special hindrance."
He was often heard to say, "I have now a very short time for this world,
but I take no concern about that; no matter where or when I die, I hope
I am ready to go when called."
The temperance work needs another Daniel Hand to furnish a million
dollars for its labors among the colored men of the South, where, says
the thirtieth annual report of the National Temperance Society, "the
saloon is everywhere working their ruin. It destroys their manhood,
despoils their homes, impoverishes their families, defrauds their wives
and children, and debauches the whole community."
The National Temperance Society, whose efficient and lamented Secretary,
John N. Stearns, died April 21, 1895, was organized in 1865. It has
printed and scattered over 900,000,000 pages of total-abstinence
literature. With its board of thirty managers representing nearly all
denominations and temperance organizations, ever on the alert to assist
in making and enforcing helpful laws and to lessen the power of the
liquor traffic, it is doing its work all over the nation. Says one who
has long been identified with this organization, "I believe there is no
Missionary Society, either Home or Foreign, that is doing more for the
cause of Christ than this society, especially in saving the boys and
girls; and yet, so far as I know, it receives less donations than any
other society, and very rarely a legacy." Mr. William E. Dodge, the
well-known merchant of New York, left the Society, by will, $5,000. Mr.
W. B. Spooner of Boston, and Mr. James H. Kellogg of Rochester, N.Y.,
each left $5,000.
It is a hopeful sign of the times when laws are passed in thirty-nine
States and all the Territories requiring the teaching of the nature and
effects of alcoholic drinks upon the human system. It is encouraging
when a million members of Christian Endeavor societies pledge themselves
"to seek the overthrow of this evil at all times in every lawful way."
Our country has given grandly for education; it will in the future give
more generously to reforms which help to do away with poverty and crime.
GEORGE T. ANGELL.
George T. Angell, the president and founder of "The American Humane
Education Society," and president and one of the founders of "The
Massachusetts Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals,"
deserves, with the late lamented Henry Bergh of New York, the thanks of
the nation for their noble work in teaching kindness to dumb creatures,
and preventing cruelty. No charity can lie nearer to my own heart than
the societies for the prevention of cruelty to animals.
Mr. Angell, now seventy-three years of age,--he was born at Southbridge,
Mass., June 5, 1823,--the son of a minister, a graduate of Dartmouth
College, a successful lawyer, gave up his practice of seventeen years,
in 1868, to devote himself and his means, without pay, to humane work
all over the world. He has enlisted the highest and the lowest in behalf
of dumb animals. He has spoken before schools and conventions, before
legislatures and churches, before kings and in prisons, in behalf of
those who must patiently submit to wrong, and have no voice to plead for
themselves.
Mr. Angell helped to establish the first "American Band of Mercy;" and
now there are nearly 25,000 bands, with a membership of between one and
two million persons, all pledged "to try to be kind to all living
creatures, and try to protect them from cruel usage."
He has helped to scatter more than two million copies, in nearly all
European and some Asiatic languages, of Anna Sewell's charming
autobiography of an English horse, "Black Beauty," telling both of kind
and cruel masters. Ten thousand copies have recently been printed for
circulation in the schools of Italy.
A thousand cruel fashions, such as that of docking horses, or killing
for mere sport, will be done away when men and women have given these
subjects more careful thought.
"Evil is wrought by want of thought
As well as want of heart,"
wrote Thomas Hood in "The Lady's Dream."
"Our Dumb Animals," published in Boston, of which Mr. Angell is the
editor, and which should be in every home and school in the land, has a
circulation of about 50,000 to 60,000 a month, and is sent to the
editors of 20,000 American publications. Over one hundred and seventeen
million pages of humane literature are printed in a single year by the
American Humane Education Society and the Massachusetts S. P. C. A.; the
latter society has convicted about 5,000 persons in the last few years
of overloading horses, beating dogs or inciting them to fight, starving
animals, or other forms of cruelty.
In most large cities drinking fountains have been provided for man and
beast; transportation and slaughter of animals have been rendered more
humane; children have been taught kindness to the weakest and smallest
of God's creatures; to feel with Cowper,--
"I would not enter on my list of friends
(Though graced with polished manners and fine sense,
Yet wanting sensibility) the man
Who needlessly sets foot upon a worm."
Some persons are following the example of Baroness Burdett-Coutts in
London, who has provided a home for lost dogs, where they are kept till
their owners call for them, or are given away to those who know that to
have a pet in the home is a sure way to make people more tender and more
noble in character. Such a place is found on Lake Street, Brighton,
Mass., in the Ellen M. Gifford Sheltering Home for Animals, where each
year several hundred dogs and cats are received, and homes found for
them. There is a large playground for the dogs, and greater space for
the cats. It is stated in the Report that the Boston police "have always
generously and humanely aided the work of the Shelter." The objects of
the "Sheltering Home" are:--
"First, to aid and succor the waifs and strays of the city.
"Second, to alleviate the sufferings of sick, abused, and homeless
animals.
"Third, to find good homes for all those who come to the Shelter, as far
as possible.
"Fourth, to spread the gospel of humanity towards dumb creatures by
practical example."
It would be difficult to find in history a truly great person, like
Wellington, Abraham Lincoln, Dr. Samuel Johnson, or Sir Walter Scott,
who has not been a lover of dogs or birds or cats. Frederick the Great
when dying asked an attendant to cover one of his dogs which seemed to
be shivering with the cold.
"Our Dumb Animals" for May, 1896, gives the names of more than a hundred
persons who have left legacies in the last few years to the
Massachusetts Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals. Every
State and city needs more of these generous givers. A letter lies before
me from Mr. E. C. Parmelee, the general agent of the society in
Cleveland, Ohio, which says, "I regret to say that we have no dog
shelter.... We should very much like to have one, and a hospital for
broken-down and neglected horses.... We have very much hoped that we
should have a bequest at no very distant day sufficiently large to build
such a block as we need, with dormitories for children who are picked up
in the night, and with an apartment for keeping our horse-ambulance,
with a pair of horses and driver always at command, to remove such
horses as are disabled, and fall in the streets from various causes."
Every society needs more agents to watch carefully the dumb creatures
who carry heavy loads, or are neglected or ill treated; and the gospel
of kindness to animals needs to be carried to every part of the earth.
WILLIAM W. CORCORAN
AND HIS ART GALLERY.
William Wilson Corcoran was born Dec. 27, 1798, at Georgetown, D.C. He
was the son of Thomas Corcoran, who settled in Georgetown when a youth,
and became one of its leading citizens. He was mayor, postmaster, and
one of the founders of the Columbian College, of which institution he
was an active trustee while he lived. He was also one of the principal
founders of two Episcopal churches in Georgetown, St. John's and
Christ's Church, and was always a vestryman in one or the other.
His son William, after a good preparatory education, spent a year at the
Georgetown College, and a year at the school of the Rev. Addison Belt, a
graduate of Princeton. His father desired that he should complete his
college course; but William was eager to enter upon a business life, and
when he was seventeen went into the dry-goods store of his brothers,
James and Thomas Corcoran. Two years later they established him in
business under the firm name of W. W. Corcoran & Co. The firm prospered
so well that the wholesale auction and commission business was begun in
1819.
For four years the firm made money; but in the spring of 1823, they,
with many other merchants in Georgetown and Baltimore, failed, and were
obliged to settle with their creditors for fifty cents on the dollar.
Young Corcoran, then twenty-five years of age, devoted himself to caring
for the property of his father, who was growing old. The father died
Jan. 27, 1830. Five years later, in 1835, Mr. Corcoran married Louise A.
Morris, who lived but five years after their marriage, dying Nov. 21,
1840, leaving a son and daughter. The son died soon after the death of
his mother; the daughter grew to womanhood, and became a great joy to
her father. She married the Hon. George Eustis, a member of Congress
from Louisiana, and died in early life at Cannes, France, 1867, leaving
three small children.
Mr. Corcoran long before this had become a very successful banker. Two
years after his marriage, in 1837, he moved his family to Washington,
and began the brokerage business in a small store, ten by sixteen feet,
on Pennsylvania Avenue near Fifteenth Street. After three years he took
into partnership Mr. George W. Riggs, the son of a wealthy man from
Maryland, under the firm name of Corcoran & Riggs.
In 1845 they purchased the old United States Bank building, corner of
Fifteenth Street and New York Avenue; and two years later Mr. Corcoran
settled with his creditors of 1823, paying principal and interest, about
$46,000. During the Mexican war the firm made extensive loans to the
government, which conservative bankers regarded as a hazardous
investment. Mr. Riggs retired from the firm July 1, 1848; and his
younger brother, Elisha, was made a junior partner.
"In August, 1848, having about twelve millions of the six-per-cent loan
of 1848 on hand, and the demand for it falling off in this country, and
the stock being one per cent below the price at which Corcoran & Riggs
took it, Mr. Corcoran determined to try the European markets; and, after
one day's reflection, embarked for London, where, on arrival, he was
told by Mr. Bates, of the house of Baring Bros. & Co., and Mr. George
Peabody, that no sale could be made of the stock, and no money could be
raised by hypothecation thereof, and they regretted that he had not
written to them to inquire before coming over. He replied that he was
perfectly satisfied that such would be their views, and therefore came,
confident that he could convince them of the expediency of taking an
interest in the securities; and that the very fact that London bankers
had taken them would make it successful.
"Ten days after his first interview with them, Mr. Thomas Baring
returned from the Continent, and with him he was more successful. A sale
of five millions at about cost (one hundred and one here) was made to
six of the most eminent and wealthy houses in London, viz., Baring Bros.
& Co., George Peabody, Overend, Gurney & Co., Dennison & Co., Samuel
Jones Lloyd, and James Morrison.
"This was the first sale of American securities made in Europe since
1837; and on his return to New York he was greeted by every one with
marked expressions of satisfaction, his success being a great relief to
the money market by securing that amount of exchange in favor of the
United States. On his success being announced, the stock gradually
advanced until it reached one hundred and nineteen and one-half, thus
securing by his prompt and successful action a handsome profit which
would otherwise have resulted in a serious loss."
On April 1, 1854, Mr. Corcoran withdrew from the banking-firm, and
devoted himself to the management of his property and to his benevolent
projects.
In 1859 he began, at the northeast corner of Pennsylvania Avenue and
Seventeenth Street, a building for the encouragement of the Fine Arts.
The structure was used during the Civil War for military purposes. In
1869 Mr. Corcoran deeded this property to trustees. "I shall ask you to
receive," he wrote the trustees, "as a nucleus, my own gallery of art,
which has been collected at no inconsiderable pains; and I have
assurances from friends in other cities, whose tastes and liberality
have taken this direction, that they will contribute fine works of art
from their respective collections.... I venture to hope that with your
kind co-operation and judicious management we shall have provided, at no
distant day, not only a pure and refined pleasure for residents and
visitors of the national metropolis, but have accomplished something
useful in the development of American genius."
In 1869 Mr. Corcoran also deeded to trustees the Louise Home, erected in
memory of his wife and daughter, as a home for refined and educated
gentlewomen who had "become reduced by misfortune."
The deed specified that "there shall be no discrimination or distinction
on account of religious creed or sectarian opinions, in respect to the
trustees, directresses, officers, or inmates of the said establishment;
but all proper facilities that may be possible in the judgment of the
trustees shall be allowed and furnished to the inmates for the worship
of Almighty God, according to each one's conscientious belief."
The building and grounds of the Louise Home in 1869 were estimated at
$200,000, and are now worth probably over $500,000. The endowment
consisted of an invested fund of $325,000.
Mr. Corcoran gave generously as long as he lived, having decided early
in life that "at least one-half of his moneyed accumulations should be
held for the welfare of men."
In Oak Hill Cemetery he erected a beautiful monument to the memory of
John Howard Payne, author of "Home, Sweet Home." It is a shaft of
Carrara marble, surmounted by a bust one and one-half times the size of
the average man.
In his old age he purchased the Patapsco Institute at Ellicott's Mills,
and gave the title-deeds to the two grand-nieces of John Randolph of
Roanoke, who were in reduced circumstances, that they might open a
school.
He gave to Columbian University, it is stated, houses and lands and
money, amounting to a quarter of a million dollars. The University of
Virginia, the Ascension Church, and other colleges and churches, were
enriched through his generosity.
Mr. Corcoran died in Washington, Feb. 24, 1888, at the age of ninety
years. He had given away over five million dollars.
"The treasures of the Corcoran Art Gallery," said its president in
laying the corner-stone of a new building two years ago, "represent a
money cost of $346,938 (exclusive of donations), a cost value which, of
course, is greatly below the real value which these treasures represent
to-day. The total value of the gallery, in its treasures, its
endowments, and its buildings, is estimated to-day at $1,926,938. The
total number of visitors who have inspected the paintings and sculpture
exhibited in the gallery from the date of its opening down to the
beginning of this month [May, 1896] was 1,696,489."
JOHN D. ROCKEFELLER
AND CHICAGO UNIVERSITY.
From our windows we look out upon a forest of beautiful beech-trees,
great oaks, and maples. There are well-kept drives, cool ravines with
tasteful walks, a pretty lake and boat-house, and great stretches of
lawn, in the four hundred or more acres, such as one sees in England.
The gravelled roadways are appropriately named. "Blithedale" leads into
a charming valley, through which a brook winds in and out, under a dozen
bridges. The "Maze" leads through clusters of beeches and other
undergrowth, and opens upon a magnificent view of blue Lake Erie at the
right and the busy city at the left. In the distance, on a hilltop,
stands a large white frame house, with red roof. Vines clamber over the
broad double porches, red trumpet-creepers twine and blossom about some
of the big oaks, beds of roses send out their fragrance, and the place
looks most attractive and restful.
It is "Forest Hill," at Cleveland, Ohio, the summer home of Mr. John D.
Rockefeller, probably the greatest giver in America. Our largest giver
heretofore, so far as known, was George Peabody, who gave at his death
$9,000,000. Mr. Rockefeller has given about $7,500,000 to one
institution, besides several hundred thousand dollars each year for the
past twenty-five years to various charities.
Mr. Rockefeller comes from very honorable ancestry. The Rockefellers
were an old French family in Normandy, who moved to Holland, and came to
America about 1650, settling in New Jersey. Nearly a century ago, in
1803, Mr. Rockefeller's grandfather, Godfrey, married Lucy, one of the
Averys of Groton, Conn., a family distinguished in the Revolutionary
War, and which has since furnished to our country many able men and
women.
The picturesque home of the Averys, built in 1656, in the town of New
London (now Groton), by Captain James Avery, was occupied by his
descendants until it was destroyed by fire in 1894. A monument has been
erected upon the site, with a bronze tablet containing a _fac-simile_ of
the old home.
The youngest son of Captain James Avery was Samuel, whose fine face
looks out from the pages of the interesting Avery Genealogy, which Homer
D. L. Sweet, of Syracuse, spent thirty years in writing. Samuel, an able
and public-spirited man, married, in 1686, in Swanzey, Mass., Susannah
Palmes, a direct descendant, through thirty-four generations, of Egbert,
the first king of England. The name has always been retained in the
family, Lucy Avery Rockefeller naming her youngest son Egbert. Her
eldest son, William Avery, married Eliza Davison; and of their six
children, John Davison Rockefeller is the second child and eldest son.
[Illustration: JOHN D. ROCKEFELLER.]
He was born in Richford, Tioga County, N.Y., July 8, 1839. His father,
William Avery, was a physician and business man as well. With great
energy he cleared the forest, built a sawmill, loaned his money, and,
like his noted son, knew how to overcome obstacles.
The mother, Eliza Davison, was a woman of rare common sense and
executive ability. Self-poised in manner, charitable, persevering in
whatever she attempted, she gave careful attention to the needs of her
family, but did not forget that she had Christian duties outside her
home. The devotion of Mr. Rockefeller to his mother as long as she lived
was marked, and worthy of example.
The Rockefeller home in Richford was one of mutual work and helpfulness.
The eldest child, Lucy, now dead, was less than two years older than
John; the third child, William, about two years younger; Mary, Franklin
and Frances, twins, each about two years younger than the others; the
last named died early. All were taught the value of labor and of
economy.
The eldest son, John, early took responsibility upon himself. Willing
and glad to work, he cared for the garden, milked the cows, and acquired
the valuable habit of never wasting his time. When about nine years old
he raised and sold turkeys, and instead of spending the money, probably
his first earnings, saved it, and loaned it at seven per cent. It would
be interesting to know if the lad ever dreamed then of being perhaps the
richest man in America?
In 1853 the Rockefeller family moved to Cleveland, Ohio; and John, then
fourteen years of age, entered the high school. He was a studious boy,
especially fond of mathematics and of music, and learned to play on the
piano; he was retiring in manner, and exemplary in conduct. When
between fourteen and fifteen years of age, he joined the Erie Street
Baptist Church of Cleveland, Ohio, now known as the Euclid Avenue
Baptist Church, where he has been from that time an earnest and most
helpful worker in it. The boy of fifteen did not confine his work in the
church to prayer-meetings and Sunday-school. There was a church debt,
and it had to be paid. He began to solicit money, standing in the
church-door as the people went out, ready to receive what each was
willing to contribute. He gave also of his own as much as was possible;
thus learning early in life, not only to be generous, but to incite
others to generosity.