Famous Givers and Their Gifts

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.

DANIEL P. STONE AND VALERIA G. STONE

When Mr. Stone, who was a dry-goods merchant of Boston, died in Malden, Mass., in 1878, it was agreed between him and his wife, Mrs. Valeria G. Stone, that the property earned and saved by them should be given to charity.

While Mrs. Stone lived she gave generously; and at her death, Jan. 15, 1884, over eighty years old, she gave away more than $2,000,000. To Andover Theological Seminary, to the American Missionary Association for schools among the colored people, $150,000 each, and much to aid struggling students and churches, and to save mortgaged homes. To Wellesley College to build Stone Hall, $110,000; to Bowdoin College, Amherst, Dartmouth, Drury, Carleton, Chicago Seminary, Hamilton, Iowa, Oberlin, Hampton Institute, Woman's Board for Armenia College, Turkey, Olivet College, Ripon, Illinois, Marietta, Beloit, Robert College, Constantinople, Berea, Doane, Colorado, Washburne, Howard University, each from five to seventy-five thousand dollars. She gave also to hospitals, city mission work, rescue homes, and Christian associations. For evangelical work in France she gave $15,000.

SAMUEL WILLISTON,

The giver of over one million and a half dollars was born at Easthampton, Mass., July 17, 1795.

He was the son of the Rev. Payson Williston, first pastor of the First Church in Easthampton in 1789, and the grandson of the Rev. Noah Williston of West Haven, Conn., on his father's side, and of the Rev. Nathan Birdseye of Stratford, Conn., on his mother's.

As the salary of the father probably never exceeded $350 yearly, the family were brought up in the strictest economy. At ten years of age the boy Samuel worked on a farm, earning for the next six years about seven dollars a month, and saving all that was possible. In the winters he attended the district school, and studied Latin with his father, as he hoped to fit himself for the ministry.

He began his preparation at Phillips Academy, Andover, carrying thither his worldly possessions in a bag under his arm. "We were both of us about as poor in money as we could be," said his roommate years afterward, the Rev. Enoch Sanford, D.D., "but our capital in hope and fervor was boundless." Samuel's eyes soon failed him, and he was obliged to give up the project of ever becoming a minister. He entered the store of Arthur Tappan, in New York, as clerk; but ill health compelled him to return to the farm with its out-door life.

When he was twenty-seven he married Emily Graves of Williamsburg, Mass. She brought to the marriage partnership a noble heart, and every willingness to help. The story is told that she cut off a button from the coat of a visitor, with his consent, learned how it was covered, and soon furnished work for her neighbors as well as herself.

After some years Mr. Williston began in a small way to manufacture buttons, and the business grew under his capable management till a thousand families found employment. He formed a partnership with Joel and Josiah Hayden at Haydenville, for the manufacture of machine-made buttons in 1835, then first introduced into this country from England. Four years later the business was transferred to Easthampton.

Mr. Williston did not wait till he was very rich before he began to give. In 1837 he helped largely towards the erection of the First Church in Easthampton. In 1841 he established Williston Seminary, which became a most excellent fitting-school for college. During his lifetime he gave to this school about $270,000, and left it at his death an endowment of $600,000.

He was also deeply interested in Amherst College, establishing the Williston professorship of rhetoric and oratory, the Graves, now Williston, professorship of Greek, and some others. "He began giving to Amherst College," writes Professor Joseph H. Sawyer, "when the institution was in the depths of poverty and well-nigh given over as a failure. He saved the college to mankind, and by example and personal solicitation stimulated others to give." He built and equipped Williston Hall, and assisted in the erection of other buildings.

He aided Mary Lyon, in establishing Mount Holyoke Seminary, gave to Iowa College, the Protestant College in Beirut, Syria, and to churches, libraries, and various other institutions.

He was active in all business enterprises, as well as works of benevolence. He was president of the Williston Cotton Mills, the First National Bank, Gas Company, and Nashawannuck (suspender) Company, all at Easthampton. He was the first president of the Hampshire and Hampden Railway, president of the First National Bank of Northampton, also of the Greenville Manufacturing Company (cotton cloths), member of both branches of the Legislature until he declined a re-election, one of the trustees of Amherst College, of the Westborough, Mass., Reform School, on the board of an asylum for idiots in Boston, a corporate member of the American Board, a trustee of Mount Holyoke Seminary, etc.

Mr. Williston overcame the obstacles of poor eyesight, ill health, and poverty, and became a blessing to tens of thousands. His wife was equally a giver with him. The Rev. William Seymour Tyler, D.D., of Amherst College, said at the semi-centennial celebration of Williston Seminary, June 14-17, 1891, "I knew its founders. I say 'founders,' for Mrs. Williston had scarcely less to do than Mr. Williston in planning and founding the building and endowing the seminary, as in all the successful measures and achievements of his remarkable and useful life; and the few enterprises in which he did not succeed were those in which he did not follow her advice. I knew the founders from the time when, at the beginning of their prosperity, their home and their factory were both in a modest wing of Father Williston's parsonage, until they had created Williston Seminary, made Easthampton, following out their great and good work, and entered into their rest."

Five children were born to Mr. and Mrs. Williston, but all died in childhood. They adopted five children, two boys and three girls, reared them, and educated them for honored positions in life.

Mr. Williston died at Easthampton, July 17, 1874; and his wife, two years younger than he, died April 12, 1885. Both are buried in the cemetery at Easthampton, to which burying-ground Mr. Williston gave, at his death, $10,000. He lived simply, and saved that he might give it in charities.

JOHN F. SLATER AND DANIEL HAND,

AND THEIR GIFTS TO THE COLORED PEOPLE