BARON MAURICE DE HIRSCH
"The death of Baron Hirsch," says the New York Tribune, April 22, 1896, "is a loss to the whole human race. To one of the most ancient and illustrious branches of that race it will seem a catastrophe. No man of this century has done so much for the Jews as he… In his twelfth century castle of Eichorn in Moravia he conceived vast schemes of beneficence. On his more than princely estate of St. Johann in Hungary he elaborated the details. In his London and Paris mansions he put them into execution. He rose early and worked late, and kept busy a staff of secretaries and agents in all parts of the world. He not only relieved the immediate distress of the people, he founded schools to train them to useful work. He transported them by thousands from lands of bondage to lands of freedom, and planted them there in happy colonies. In countless other directions he gave his wealth freely for the benefit of mankind without regard to race or creed."
Baron Hirsch died at Presburg, Hungary, April 20, 1896, of apoplexy. He was the son of a Bavarian merchant, and was born in 1833. At eighteen he became a clerk in the banking-firm of Bischoffsheim & Goldschmidt, and married the daughter of the former. He was the successful promoter of the great railway system from Budapest to Varna on the Black Sea. He made vast sums out of Turkish railway bonds, and is said to have been as rich as the Rothschilds.
He gave away in his lifetime an enormous amount, stated in the press to have been $15,000,000 yearly, for the five years before his death.
The New York Tribune says he gave much more than $20,000,000 for the help of the Jews. He gave to institutions in Egypt, Turkey, and Asia Minor, which bear his name. He offered the Russian Government $10,000,000 for public education if it would make no discrimination as to race or religion; but it declined the offer, and banished the Jews.
To the Hirsch fund in this country for the help of the Jews the baron sent more than $2,500,000. The managers of the fund spent no money in bringing the Jews to this country, but when here, opened schools for the children to prepare them to enter the public schools, evening schools for adults, training-schools to teach them carpentry, plumbing, and the like; provided public baths for them; bought farm-lands for them in New Jersey and Connecticut, and assisted them to buy small farms; provided factories for young men and women, as at Woodbine, N.J., where 5,100 acres have been purchased for the Hirsch Colony, and a brickyard and kindling-wood factory established. The baron is said to have received 400 begging letters daily, some of them from crowned heads, to whom he loaned large amounts. The favorite home of the baron was in Paris, where he lost his only and idolized son Lucien, in 1888, at the age of twenty. Much of the fortune that was to be the son's the father devoted to charity, especially to the alleviation of the condition of the European Jews, in whom the son was deeply interested. Many millions were left to Lucienne, the extremely pretty natural daughter of his son Lucien.
ISAAC RICH
AND BOSTON UNIVERSITY
Isaac Rich left to Boston University, chartered in 1869, more than a million and a half dollars. He was born in Wellfleet, Mass., in 1801, of humble parentage. At the age of fourteen he was assisting his father in a fish-stall in Boston, and afterwards kept an oyster-stall in Faneuil Hall. He became a very successful fish-merchant, and gave his wealth for noble purposes.
Unfortunately, immediately after his death, Jan. 13, 1872, the great fire of 1872 consumed the best investments of the estate, and the panic of 1873 and other great losses followed; so that for rebuilding the stores and banks in which the estate had been largely invested money had to be borrowed, and at the close of ten years the estate actually transferred to the University was a little less than $700,000.
This sum would have been much larger had not the statutes of New York State made it illegal to convey to a corporation outside the State, like Boston University, the real estate owned by Mr. Rich in Brooklyn, which reverted to the legal heirs. It is claimed that Mr. Rich was "the first Bostonian who ever donated so large a sum to the cause of collegiate education."
The Hon. Jacob Sleeper, one of the three original incorporators of the University, gave to it over a quarter of a million dollars. The College of Liberal Arts is named in his honor.
Boston University owes much of its wide reputation to its president, the Rev. Dr. William F. Warren, a successful author as well as able executive. From the first he has favored co-education and equal opportunities for men and women. Dr. Warren said in 1890, "In my opinion the co-education of the sexes in high and grammar schools, as also in colleges and universities, is absolutely essential to the best results in the education of youth.
"I believe it to be best for boys, best for girls, best for teachers, best for tax-payers, best for the community, best for morals and manners and religion."
More than sixty years ago, in 1833, at its beginning, Oberlin College gave the first example of co-education in this country. In 1880 a little more than half the colleges in the United States, 51.3 per cent, had adopted the policy; in 1890 the proportion had increased to 65.5 per cent. Probably a majority of persons will agree with Dr. James MacAlister of Philadelphia, that "co-education is becoming universal throughout this country."
Concerning Boston University, the report prepared for the admirable education series edited by Professor Herbert B. Adams of Johns Hopkins University, says, "This University was the first to afford the young women of Massachusetts the advantages of the higher education. Its College of Liberal Arts antedated Wellesley and Smith and the Harvard Annex. Its doors, furthermore, were not reluctantly opened in consequence of the pressure of an outside public opinion too great to be resisted. On the contrary, it was in advance of public sentiment on this line, and directed it. Its school of theology was the earliest anywhere to present to women all the privileges provided for men. In fact, this University was the first in history to present to women students unrestricted opportunities to fit themselves for each of the learned professions. It was the first ever organized from foundation to capstone without discrimination on the ground of sex. Its publications bearing upon the joint education of the sexes have been sought in all countries where the question of opening the older universities to women has been under discussion."
Boston University, 1896, has at present 1,270 students, – women 377, men 893, – and requires high grade of scholarship. It is stated that "the first four years' course of graded medical instruction ever offered in this country was instituted by this school in the spring of 1878."
DANIEL B. FAYERWEATHER
AND OTHERS
Mr. Fayerweather was born in Stepney, Conn., in 1821; he was apprenticed to a farmer, learned the shoemaker's trade in Bridgeport, and worked at the trade until he became ill. Then he bought a tin-peddler's outfit, and went to Virginia. When he could not sell for cash he took hides in payment.
Afterwards he returned to his trade at Bridgeport, where he remained till 1854, when he was thirty-three years old. He then removed to New York City, and entered the employ of Hoyt Brothers, dealers in leather. Years later, on the withdrawal of Mr. Hoyt, the firm name became Fayerweather & Ladew. Mr. Fayerweather was a retiring, economical man, honest and respected. At his death in 1890, he gave to the Presbyterian Hospital, St. Luke's Hospital, and Manhattan Eye and Ear Infirmary, $25,000 each; to the Woman's Hospital and Mount Sinai Hospital, $10,000 each; to Yale College, Columbia College, Cornell University, $200,000 each; to Bowdoin College, Amherst, Williams, Dartmouth, Wesleyan, Hamilton, Maryville, Yale Scientific School, University of Virginia, Rochester, Lincoln, and Hampton Universities, $100,000 each; to Union Theological Seminary, Lafayette, Marietta, Adelbert, Wabash, and Park Colleges, $50,000 each. The residue of the estate, over $3,000,000, was divided among various colleges and hospitals.
GEORGE I. SENEY,
Who died April 7, 1893, in New York City, gave away, between 1879 and 1884, to Seney Hospital in Brooklyn, $500,000, and a like amount each to the Wesleyan University, and to the Methodist Orphan Asylum, Brooklyn. To Emory College and Wesleyan Female College, Macon, Ga., he gave $250,000; to the Long Island Historical Society, $100,000; to the Brooklyn Library, $60,000; to Drew Theological Seminary, Madison, N.J., a large amount; to the Industrial School for Homeless Children, Brooklyn, $25,000, and a like amount to the Eye and Ear Infirmary of that city. He also gave twenty valuable paintings to the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York.
The givers to colleges have been too numerous to mention. The College of New Jersey, at Princeton, has received not less than one and a half million or two million dollars from the John C. Greene estate.
Johns Hopkins left seven millions to found a university and hospital in Baltimore.
The Hon. Washington C. De Pauw left at his death forty per cent of his estate, estimated at from two to five million dollars, to De Pauw University, Greencastle, Ind. Though some of the real estate decreased in value, the university has received already $300,000, and will probably receive not less than $600,000, or possibly much more, in the future.
Mr. Jonas G. Clark gave to found Clark University, Worcester, Mass., about a million dollars to be devoted to post-graduates, or a school for specialists. Mr. Clark spent about eight years in Europe studying the highest institutions of learning. Matthew Vassar gave a million dollars to Vassar College for women at Poughkeepsie, N.Y. Ezra B. Cornell gave a million to Cornell University at Ithaca, N.Y. Mr. Henry W. Sage has also been a most munificent giver to the same institution. Dr. Joseph W. Taylor of Burlington, N.J., a physician and merchant, and member of the Society of Friends, founded Bryn Mawr College for Women, at Bryn Mawr, Penn. His gift consisted of property and academic buildings worth half a million, and one million dollars in invested funds as endowment.
Mr. Paul Tulane gave over a million to Tulane University, New Orleans. George Peabody gave away nine millions in charities, – three millions to educational institutions, three millions to education at the South to both whites and negroes, and three millions to build tenement houses for the poor of London, England.
HORACE KELLEY,
Of Cleveland, Ohio, left a half-million dollars for the foundation of an art gallery and school. His family were among the pioneer settlers, and their purchases of land in what became the heart of the city made their children wealthy. He was born in Cleveland, July 8, 1819, and died in the same city, Dec. 5, 1890.
He married Miss Fanny Miles, of Elyria, Ohio, and spent much of his life in foreign travel and in California, where they had a home at Pasadena. His fortune was the result of saving as well as the increase in real-estate values.
Mr. John Huntington made a somewhat larger gift for the same purpose. Mr. H. B. Hurlbut gave his elegant home, his collection of pictures, etc., valued at half a million, and Mr. J. H. Wade and others have contributed land, which make nearly two million dollars for the Cleveland Art Gallery and School. Mr. W. J. Gordon, of Cleveland, Ohio, gave land for Gordon's Park, bordering on Lake Erie, valued at a million dollars. It was beautifully laid out by him with drives, lakes, and flower-beds, and was his home for many years.
MR. HART A. MASSEY,
Formerly a resident of Cleveland, but in later years a manufacturer at Toronto, Canada, at his death, in the spring of 1896, left a million dollars in charities. To Victoria College, Toronto, $200,000, all but $50,000 as an endowment fund. This $50,000 is to be used for building a home for the women students. To each of two other colleges, $100,000, and to each of two more, $50,000, one of the latter being the new American University at Washington, D.C. To the Salvation Army, Toronto, $5,000. To the Fred Victor Mission, to provide missionary nurses to go from house to house in Toronto, and care for the sick and the needy, $10,000. Many thousands were given to churches and various homes, and $10,000 to ministers worn out in service. To Mr. D. L. Moody's schools at Northfield, Mass., $10,000. Many have given to this noble institution established by the great evangelist, and it needs and deserves large endowments. The Frederick Marquand Memorial Hall, brick with gray stone trimmings, was built as a dormitory for one hundred girls, in 1884, at a cost of $67,000. Recitation Hall, of colored granite, was built in 1885, at a cost of $40,000, and, as well as some other buildings, was paid for out of the proceeds of the Moody and Sankey hymn-books. Weston Hall, costing $25,000, is the gift of Mr. David Weston of Boston. Talcott Library, a beautiful structure costing $20,000, with a capacity for forty thousand volumes, is the gift of Mr. James Talcott of New York, who, among many other benefactions, has erected Talcott Hall at Oberlin College, a large and handsome boarding-hall for the young women.
CATHARINE LORILLARD WOLFE
In the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City, one sees an interesting picture of this noted giver, painted by Alexander Cabanel, commander of the Legion of Honor, and professor in the École des Beaux Arts of Paris.
Miss Wolfe, who was born in New York, March 8, 1828, and died in New York, April 4, 1887, at the age of fifty-nine, was descended from an old Lutheran family, her great-grandfather, John David Wolfe, coming to this country from Saxony in 1729. Two of his four children, David and Christopher, served with credit in the War of the Revolution. After the war, David and a younger brother were partners in the hardware business, and their sons succeeded them.
John David Wolfe, the son of David, born July 24, 1792, retired from business in the prime of his life, and devoted himself to benevolent work. He was a vestryman of Trinity Parish, and later senior warden of Grace Church, New York. He gave to schools and churches all over the country, to St. Johnland on Long Island, to the Sheltering Arms in New York, the High School at Denver, Col., the Diocesan School at Topeka, Kan., etc. He was a helper in the New York Historical Society, and one of the founders of the American Museum of Natural History in New York. He was its first president when he died, May 17, 1872, in his eightieth year, leaving only one child, Catharine, to inherit his large property.
A portion of Miss Wolfe's seven millions came from her mother, Dorothea Lorillard, and the rest from her father. She was an educated woman, who had read much and travelled extensively, and, like her father, used her money in doing good while she lived. Her private benefactions were constant, and she went much among the poor and suffering.
She built in East Broadway a Newsboy's Lodging House for not less than $50,000; the Italian Mission Church in Mulberry Street, $50,000, with tenement house in the same street, $20,000; the house for the clergy of the diocese of New York, 29 Lafayette Place, $170,000; St. Luke's Hospital, $30,000; Home for Incurables at Fordham, $30,000; Union College, Schenectady, N.Y., $100,000; Schools in the Western States, $50,000; Home and Foreign Missions, $100,000; American Church in Rome, $40,000; American School of Classical Studies at Athens, $20,000; Virginia Seminary, $25,000; Grace House, containing reading and lecture rooms for the poor, and Grace Church, $200,000 or more. She paid the expense of the exploring expedition to Babylonia under the leadership of the distinguished Oriental scholar, Dr. William Hayes Ward, editor of the Independent. A friend tells of her sending him to New York, from her boat on the Nile, a check for $25,000 to be distributed in charities. She educated young girls; she helped those who are unable to make their way in the world.
Having given all her life, she gave away over a million at her death in money and objects of art. To the Metropolitan Museum of Art she gave the Catharine Lorillard Wolfe collection, with pictures by Rosa Bonheur, Meissonnier, Gérôme, Verboeckhoven, Hans Makart, Sir Frederick Leighton, Couture, Bouguéreau, and many others. She added an endowment of $200,000 for the preservation and increase of the collection.
One of the most interesting to me of all the pictures in the Wolfe collection is the sheep in a storm, No. 118, "Lost," souvenir of Auvergne, by Auguste Frederic Albrecht Schenck, a member of the Legion of Honor, born in the Duchy of Holstein, 1828. Those who love animals can scarcely stand before it without tears.
Others besides Miss Wolfe have made notable gifts to the Museum of Art. Mr. Cornelius Vanderbilt gave, in 1887, Rosa Bonheur's world-renowned "Horse Fair," for which he paid $53,500. It was purchased at the auction sale of Mr. A. T. Stewart's collection, March 25, 1887.
Meissonnier's "Friedland, 1807" was purchased at the Stewart sale by Mr. Henry Hilton for $66,000, and presented to the museum. Mr. Stephen Whitney Phoenix, who gave so generously to Columbia College, was also, like Mr. George I. Seney, a great giver to the museum.
MISS MARY ELIZABETH GARRETT
Of Baltimore gave to the Medical School of Johns Hopkins University over $400,000, that women might have equal medical opportunities with men.
President Daniel C. Gilman, in an article on Johns Hopkins University, says, "Much attention had been directed to the importance of medical education for women; and efforts had been made by committees of ladies in Baltimore and other cities to secure for this purpose an adequate endowment, to be connected with the foundations of Johns Hopkins. As a result of this movement, the trustees accepted a gift from the committee of ladies, a sum which, with its accrued interest, amounted to $119,000, toward the endowment of a medical school to which 'women should be admitted upon the same terms which may be prescribed for men.'
"This gift was made in October, 1891; but as it was inadequate for the purposes proposed, Miss Mary E. Garrett, in addition to her previous subscriptions, offered to the trustees the sum of $306,977, which, with other available resources, made up the amount of $500,000, which had been agreed upon as the minimum endowment of the Johns Hopkins Medical School. These contributions enabled the trustees to proceed to the organization of a school of medicine which was opened to candidates for the degree of doctor of medicine in October, 1893."
Several women have aided Johns Hopkins, as indeed they have most institutions of learning in America. Mrs. Caroline Donovan gave to the university $100,000 for the foundation of a chair of English literature. In 1887 Mrs. Adam T. Bruce of New York gave the sum of $10,000 to found the Bruce fellowship in memory of her son, the late Adam T. Bruce, who had been a fellow and an instructor at the university. Mrs. William E. Woodyear gave the sum of $10,000 to found five scholarships as a memorial of her deceased husband. Mr. and Mrs. Lawrence Turnbull endowed the Percy Turnbull memorial lectureship of poetry with an income of $1,000 per annum.
MRS. ANNA OTTENDORFER
"Whenever our people gratefully point out their benefactors, whenever the Germans in America speak of those who are objects of their veneration and their pride, the name of Anna Ottendorfer will assuredly be among the first. For all time to come her memory and her work will be blessed." Thus spoke the Hon. Carl Schurz at the bier of Mrs. Ottendorfer in the spring of 1884.
Anna Behr was born in Würzburg, Bavaria, in a simple home, Feb. 13, 1815. In 1837, when twenty-two years old, she came to America, remained a year with her brother in Niagara County, N.Y., and then married Jacob Uhl, a printer.
In 1844 Mr. Uhl started a job-office in Frankfort Street, New York, and bought a small weekly paper called the New-Yorker Staats-Zeitung. His young wife helped him constantly, and finally the weekly paper became a daily.
Her husband died in 1852, leaving her with six children and a daily paper on her hands. She was equal to the task. She declined to sell the paper, and managed it well for seven years. Then she married Mr. Oswald Ottendorfer, who was on the staff of the paper.
Both worked indefatigably, and made the paper more successful than ever. She was always at her desk. "Her callers," says Harper's Bazar, May 3, 1884, "had been many. Her visitors represented all classes of society, – the opulent and the poor, the high and the lowly. There was advice for the one, assistance for the other; an open heart and an open purse for the deserving; a large charity wisely used."
In 1875 Mrs. Ottendorfer built the Isabella Home for Aged Women in Astoria, Long Island, giving to it $150,000. It was erected in memory of her deceased daughter, Isabella.
In 1881 she contributed about $40,000 to a memorial fund in support of several educational institutions, and the next year built and furnished the Woman's Pavilion of the German Hospital of New York City, giving $75,000. For the German Dispensary in Second Avenue she gave $100,000, also a library.
At her death she provided liberally for many institutions, and left $25,000 to be divided among the employees of the Staats-Zeitung. In 1879 the property of the paper was turned into a stock-company; and, at the suggestion of Mrs. Ottendorfer, the employees were provided for by a ten-per-cent dividend on their annual salary. Later this was raised to fifteen per cent, which greatly pleased the men.
The New York Sun, in regard to her care for her employees, especially in her will, says, "She had always the reputation of a very clever, business-like, and charitable lady. Her will shows, however, that she was much more than that – she must have been a wonderful woman." A year before her death the Empress Augusta of Germany sent her a medal in recognition of her many charities.
Mrs. Ottendorfer died April 1, 1884, and was buried in Greenwood. Her estate was estimated at $3,000,000, made by her own skill and energy. Having made it, she enjoyed giving it to others.
Her husband, Mr. Oswald Ottendorfer, has given most generously to his native place Zwittau, – an orphan asylum and home for the poor, a hospital, and a fine library with a beautiful monumental fountain before it, crowned by a statue representing mother-love; a woman carrying a child in her arms and leading another. His statue was erected in the city in 1886, and the town was illuminated in his honor at the dedication of the library.