WILLIAM PRYOR LETCHWORTH
THE LIFE AND WORK
OF
5^illtam ^rpor iletc|)toorti)
STUDENT AND MINISTER OF
PUBLIC BENEVOLENCE
BY
J. N. LARNED
Author of '■'■A Study of Greatness in Men " ,• " Books, Culture^
and Character " ,• " Se-venty Centuries of the Life
of Mankind.'' Editor of " History
for Ready Reference, etc.''
BOSTON AND NEW YORK
HOUGHTON MIFFLIN COMPANY
^6e lUiber^ibe J^xt^^ €axnbi\iiQt
1912
COPYRIGHT, I912, BY HENRY R. ROWLAND, ADMINISTRATOR
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
Published April iqi2
ad
CONTENTS
I. Ancestry. — Early Years. — Business
Life i
c II. Glen Iris 42
n III. Preserving the Memorials of Genesee
Valley History 72
IV. Child-saving Work: Prevenient . . 106
g V. Studies of Public Philanthropy in
Europe 164
LlJ
VI. Child-saving Work: Reformative . 210
VII. Work for the Insane 263
VIII. Work for the Epileptic 327
>• IX. The Gift of Letchw^orth Park to
jjj the State of New York .... 364
^ X. Letchw^orth Village. — Last Years 405
e
c XI. The Man 425
Appendix: List of Writings . . . 447
Index 461
l<^^J^\J^2.'kJ
ILLUSTRATIONS
William Pryor Letchworth at the age of
SEVENTY. Photogravure Frontispiece
JosiAH Letchworth, Sr., Father of William
Pryor Letchworth 6
The parental home at Sherwood, N. Y. . i8
William Pryor Letchworth as a young man 26
Glen Iris: View from "Inspiration Point" 42
The Home at Glen Iris 58
The Old Caneadea Council House ... 76
Statue of Mary Jemison 98
William Pryor Letchworth while Presi-
dent of the New York State Board of
Charities 130
The Middle Fall, Glen Iris 164
The Lawn, Glen Iris 210
" Rock-Bound Battlements" 264
Deh-ga-ya-sah 328
viii ILLUSTRATIONS
View from Prospect Farm, Letchworth
Park 368
Map of' Letchworth Park 390
The Lower Fall of the Genesee, Letch-
worth Park 406
WILLIAM PRYOR LETCHWORTH
THE LIFE AND WORK OF
William Pryor Letchworth
CHAPTER I
ANCESTRY EARLY YEARS BUSINESS LIFE
The life to be set forth in this book was one
of singular beauty in its personal exhibition, of
noble motive and purpose in all its activities,
of golden success in its whole achievement. It
was the life of a man who spent a moderate part
of it in pursuits of personal business, until they
had given him the freedom and the means
for effective service to his fellow men, rendered
through a long remainder of laborious years,
and who exercised in that service a rare capacity
for what may be described as the statesmanship
of philanthropy, which labors for the reform-
ation of evil-working conditions in the world.
The instructiveness of his labors and the inspir-
ation of his example seem equally to have given
an importance to his life which death did not
end, and which claims an effort of biography to
2 WILLIAM PRYOR LETCHWORTH
keep its influence from being lost. If the story
is not found to have an interest of no common
degree it will be because it is not rightly told.
In devoting the greater part of his mature
life to benevolent work (performed as an un-
paid official of the State of New York, and
wholly at his own cost), Mr. Letchworth was
obedient, it is plain, to hereditary promptings,
from an ancestry which had been spiritually cul-
tured for two centuries by the humane Christ-
ianity of the Society of Friends. The family was
of ancient English stock, — so ancient that its
origin, if the tracing were possible, would most
likely be found in Saxon times. The name,
Letchworth, is that of a parish and village in
the hundred of Broadwater, county of Hertford,
England, two miles from the town of Hitchin
and northwestward from London about thirty-
three miles. It seems obviously a Saxon name,
and whether the parish received it from the
family or the family from the parish is an unde-
termined question which calls for no discussion
here.
Our present interest in this genealogy ' goes
* A compilation in manuscript of the family history, by Mr.
Henry R. Hovvland, is the main source of the information
given here.
ANCESTRY 3
back to about the middle of the seventeenth cen-
tury, soon after George Fox began the preach-
ing in England which inspired the English
formation of the Society of Friends. Quaker
At that time one Robert Letch- ^^^^^ ^^
worth, living in the village of Chesterton, near
Cambridge, and about twenty-five miles from
Letchworth village, is found to have joined the
religious followers of George Fox, and to have
borne his share of the penalties of imprisonment
and fine which the Friends or Quakers of that
generation had to suffer, for refusing to pay
tithes to the established church, or to attend its
services, or to make oath in courts of law. This
Robert Letchworth is believed to have been the
grandfather of another Robert, born late in the
seventeenth century, from whom the descent of
all who bear the name in America is authentic-
ally traced.
The last-named Robert Letchworth, a busi-
ness man of London, served also in the minis-
try of the Friends for many years, and his third
son, Thomas, became a very notable preacher
of the sect. " Twelve Discourses," by Thomas
Letchworth, " delivered chiefiy at the meeting-
house of the people called Quakers, in the Park,
Southwark," were published in London in 1787,
4 WILLIAM PRYOR LETCHWORTH
and republished at Salem, New Jersey, in 1794.
Evidence that the preacher was a man of fine
mind and culture is abundant in these discourses ;
and the same testimony is borne in an admirably
written "Life and Character of Thomas Letch-
worth," by William Matthews, which was pub-
lished at Bath and London in 1786. The re-
putation of Thomas Letchworth in America, as
well as in England, was such as to induce Ben-
jamin Franklin to republish, at Philadelphia, a
small volume of blank verse from his pen, con-
taining two pieces, entitled, respectively, " A
Morning's Meditation, or a Descant on the
Times," and " Miscellaneous Reflections, or an
Evening's Meditation, addressed to the Youth."
From this Thomas Letchworth the families who
bear the name in England derive their descent.
On our western continent the family name
was planted by John Letchworth, the second
American son of Robert, who emigrated to
ancestry America in 1766. Leaving his wife
and four children in England, he came alone, to
test the conditions of life at Philadelphia before
venturing to bring his family thither. In 1768
he had established himself in business as a
builder so satisfactorily that wife and children
were called to join him in the new home. The
ANCESTRY 5
reunion was unhappily brief; for the father, be-
ing summoned back to England on some errand
of business, in 1772, fell sick while there and
■died. His widow, thus sorely bereft, remained
at Philadelphia and reared her children, two
sons and two daughters, under circumstances
of much hardship, in the troubled years before
and during the Revolutionary War. The elder
son, John, grew to be a man of high standing
and influence, prominent in all benevolent and
religious work, signalized especially in heroic
labors at Philadelphia during the awful visit-
ation of yellow fever in 1793, for which, like
Stephen Girard, he received a formal testimonial
from the Governor of the State. As a preacher,
among the Friends, he travelled far westward,
into Kentucky and Tennessee, when travel in
those regions was full of hardship and peril.
Naturally, he was one of the Quakers who or-
ganized the first antislavery society in the United
States.
The younger son of this transplanted family,
"William Letchworth, married and spent his life
in Philadelphia, rearing a family of r^gj^
eight children, the eldest of whom, Letchworth,
named Josiah, born in 1791, be- ^^'
came the father of the subject of this biogra-
6 WILLIAM PRYOR LETCHWORTH
phy. Josiah Letchworth, married in 1815 to
Miss Ann Hance, began his wedded life at Bur-
lington, New Jersey, but removed his young
family thence, in 18 19, to Brownville, on Black
River, near Watertown, in northern New York.
A second change of residence took them to Mo-
ravia, in Cayuga County, and a third to Sher-
wood, within thirteen miles of Auburn, where
they dwelt most happily for twenty years. Most
of the sons and daughters had then been called
away from the parental home, and the father
and mother were drawn by many attractions to
Auburn, in 1852, for the spending of their last
years.
The residence of Josiah Letchworth in Au-
burn was no longer than five years ; but it suf-
ficed to make him a citizen of note. He had not
come to the city as a stranger, his life at Sher-
wood having brought him into much intercourse
with the city ; but nothing in that intercourse
could account for the quickness with which he
became affectionately known and esteemed by
the public at large. He entered actively into
social service work, along many lines; interested
himself greatly in the schools; spoke much and
earnestly for temperance and against slavery, and
appears to have caused the fine spirit of benevo-
JOSIAH LETCHWORTH, SR.,
Father of William Pryor Letchworth
ANCESTRY 7
lence and justice in true Quakerism to be felt in
the city as a potent force. When he died, in the
spring of 1857, there was a profound sense of
public loss in Auburn, which Senator Seward
gave voice to some months later, on returning
from Washington to his home. In opening an
address to his fellow townsmen he referred to
some words of impatience and rebuke that he
had used on a former occasion, and said : —
When I descended from the platform a fellow citi-
zen, venerable in years and beloved by us all, gently
asked me whether I was not becoming senator
disheartened and despondent. He added Seward's
that there was no reason for dejection, and tribute
what I had seen was but the caprice of the day. " Go
on and do your duty, and we, your neighbors, will come
around you again right soon and sustain you through-
out." Do you ask who it was that administered that
just though mild rebuke ? Who else could it be but
Josiah Letchworth, a man whose patience was equal
to his enthusiastic zeal in every good cause, and to
his benevolence in every good work ? His prediction
is fulfilled, and I am here to speak with more boldness
and confidence than ever before. But my faithful mon-
itor no longer has a place in our assemblies. Josiah
Letchworth, the founder of our charities, the defender
of truth and justice, is no more. You deplore his loss
as I do ; for he was not more my friend than a public
8 WILLIAM PRYOR LETCHWORTH
benefactor. I do injustice, however, equally to my
own faith and to that which was the inspiration of his
life, when I say that I miss his benevolent smile and
the cordial pressure of his hand to-night. No, — he yet
lives, and his shade is not far from us whenever we
assemble in places where he was once familiar, to carry
on a good work in which he was accustomed to labor.
A more significant tribute to the memory of
Josiah Letchworth was paid by children of the
schools, who raised a fund with which to procure
the engraving of his portrait on steel by Mr.
Buttre, a noted artist of the day. Prints from this
excellent engraving went into many Auburn
homes, and the portrait shown here is from one
such print.
It goes without saying that the father who
won the hearts of a community was loved and
revered in his own household; and this was
equally true of the mother, — a strong and ad-
mirable character, who ruled her children with
a firmness that was ever kind and wise. Between
the brothers and sisters, too, the ties of affection
were more than common in strength and warmth.
From an abundance of family correspondence,
confided to the writer of this memoir, he receives
no other impression so clear as that of the at-
mosphere of love, of piety in the large sense.
ANCESTRY 9
of all simple Tightness of feeling, in which the
young were reared, and the influence of which
they carried with them from the parental home.
Inasmuch as the brothers and sisters of Will-
iam Pryor Letchworth held close relations to
him always and came into his life in Brothers
many ways, it is needful to intro- and sisters
duce themat the beginning. He was one of eight
children, — four daughters and four sons. The
eldest was a daughter, Mary Ann, who became
Mrs. Crozer, and who, when widowed, joined
her life with that of her bachelor brother, Will-
iam, presiding over his household and giving
him, by her companionship, some of the hap-
piest of his years. Another daughter, Eliza
(Mrs. Hoxie), came second in the family. Then
followed three sons, Edward Hance, William
Pryor, and George Jediah, in that order of suc-
cession ; after whom two daughters were born,
namely, Hannah, who became the wife of Will-
iam Howland, and Charlotte, who married
Byron C. Smith. The youngest of the family
received his father's name, Josiah.
William, as will be seen, was the fourth child
and the second son. He was born Earliest re-
on the 26th of May, 1823, while the collections
family was still at Brownville ; and probably it
lo WILLIAM PRYOR LETCHWORTH
was the home in that town which left a curiously-
fanciful remembrance in his mind, so amusing to
him that he gave on one occasion this account of
it: " The earliest recollections of my childhood
are of a low stone house standing back from
the street, with a green lawn in front of it, on
which were a few trees with broad-spreading
branches. Acros the gable end of the house
which stood toward the street was a raised
balcony with a balustrade intertwined with
rosebushes. From my sleeping-room I could
step out on this balcony. I love even now to
recall what I saw in those early days, in the sun-
lit branches of the great trees opposite my win-
dow. One morning in particular I beheld an
innumerable throng of little fairies, — knights
and ladies in flowing scarfs and plumes and gay-
colored dresses, — flitting to and fro in the
golden beams of the early morning. I presume
the picture was reflected on my imagination by
stories that had been told me or pictures I had
seen of fairy land. At all events, it was an im-
pression as pleasing as it has been lasting."
Other references which he sometimes made,
in talk or writing, to his earlier recollections,
disclose a similar dreamy working of imagin-
ation ; and this, no doubt, which created realms
EARLY YEARS ii
of fancy for the child, found its later chosen
use in illuminating and warming the sympathies
of the mature man, keeping him from the stiff-
ened lines of a selfish life. Along with the dreamy
fancifulness of his childish mind there seems to
have gone naturally a degree of innocence and
simplicity which childhood can rarely keep long
enough to remember the loss. The present
writer once heard Mr. Letchworth tell of the
surprise with which he first learned that there
were such things as untruth and deceit. The
first conception of them that dawned on him
came from the prank of a boy who ran into
the yard in which he was playing to tell him that
a big black bull was on the other side of the
next building and that he had better run to the
house. He doubted the ability of the bull to
reach him, but did not for a moment suspect
that there was no bull ; and the discovery of
that fact was a cruel revelation to him of the
nature and the possibility of a lie. A still more
cruel and perplexing revelation to him was made,
he said, at about the same period, when a boy
who was playing with him became angry and
threw at him an open penknife, which struck
him just over the eye, coming near to the de-
struction of his sight. As he remembered the
12 WILLIAM PRYOR LETCHWORTH
feeling excited in him by this assault, there was
no anger in it, but sheer bewilderment and sur-
prise. Why should the boy want to hurt him ?
He could not in the least understand the motive
in such an act. These little incidents are inter-
estingly suggestive of the purity and whole-
someness of the family life in which William
Letchworth was reared and of the training he
received.
Very little of autobiographical material is to
be found in anything left by Mr. Letchworth,
Parental o^ letters 6r other writings. In the
training bits of reminiscence that he did now
and then commit to paper he was always carried
back to his childhood. One such tells of a
project he formed, apparently in his twelfth or
thirteenth year, of running away from home.
By reading the h'ves of some noted men, and various
stories of marvellous adventure [he wrote], I was im-
pressed with the idea that, to be successful and achieve
great things, it was necessary that one should run away
from home while a boy. This conclusion, and the se-
cret resolution I had formed to act on it, I confided
to an employe of my father of whom I was very fond.
He basely betrayed me, and my father soon found the
opportunity for a private conversation with me. To
my dismay, he said : " William, it is understood that
EARLY YEARS 13
thee intends to leave us, I am sorry to learn this, as
we all think a great deal of thee. Through thy early
childhood and down to the present time thee has been
a great care to mother and myself, to say nothing of
considerable expense, and we had been looking forward
to the time when thee would have the good will and
strength to make us some return for what we have
tried to do for thee. But, since thee has decided to
leave us, we will conform ourselves to thy wishes. In
the carrying-out of thy plan there is one thing, how-
ever, that troubles me, and that is thy leaving in the
night, and without the opportunity of our bidding thee
good-bye. Mother has a pair of new stockings she has
knit for thee, and thy brothers and sisters would like
to make thee some little presents," This brought me
to my senses, I felt shame and disgust with myself,
and nothing more was said of the running-away plot.
Nothing could be told of the father of Will-
iam Pryor Letchworth that would illustrate
more significantly the wisdom with which the
youth of the latter was trained, and the fine in-
heritance of mind and temper on which it was
his good fortune to draw. He himself, in one
of his reminiscent notes, has given us just a
glimpse of the family government and of the
home in which it was exercised.
I imagine [he says] that the ways adopted by my
parents for bringing up their children did not differ
14 WILLIAM PRYOR LETCHWORTH
materially from those of other people ; although I be-
lieve they had stricter rules regarding their boys run-
ning in the street, and were more diligent than most
parents in providing means of recreation and useful
employment at home. My mother w^as quite practical
in her views, and I am much indebted to the inculca-
tion of her economic principles. She made much of
the adage that "procrastination is the thief of time " ;
to which she would add : " Never put off till to-
morrow, William, that which should be done to-day."
Time, she said, was the most valuable thing in the
world, as nothing could be done without it, and its
loss was irreparable.
On winter evenings, during the season in which we
attended the public school, we would gather round the
large table in the cheerful dining-room, with our books,
slates, and writing-lessons, and prepare ourselves for
the next day's recitations at school. Spelling was diffi-
cult to me, but I was so desirous of perfecting myself
in it that, in addition to the evening study, I would
have my father call me at four o'clock on winter morn-
ings and then pursue my studies alone. . . . My ambi-
tion to perfect myself in spelling was stimulated by the
fact that there was a young miss whom I felt deter-
mined to excel. In those days we had what were called
" spelling-matches," in which the pupils of different
country schools came together on a winter evening,
under a challenge, to determine which was the best
speller by the process of " spelling down."
EARLY YEARS 15
He proceeds to give an account of a spelling-
match which finally was narrowed to a contest
between the young miss above referred to and
himself Interest in the struggle had been height-
ened by people in the audience, who built up
a small heap of silver coins on the teacher's
desk, which should go as a prize to the winner
of the match. William stood his ground till
Cobb's spelling-book had been exhausted ; but
the resort then to Webster's, which he had never
studied, accomplished his defeat. He felt cha-
grined, at first, but was reconciled to his dis-
comfiture by the thought that his opponent
would have felt worse if she had lost.
One of the few gleanings of autobiographical
material from Mr. Letchworth's papers is a note,
as follows, of the circumstances of his Leaving
going from the family home into the l^ome
outside world, to begin the career of business
which he followed from about his fifteenth to
his fiftieth year : —
p'ather was doubtless convinced that, with my am-
bitious views, I would never be content at home, and,
not long after the running-away plot had been dis-
closed, he made application to the head of an import-
ing and manufacturing house [at Auburn] for a place
for me. He soon received a reply, asking him to bring
i6 WILLIAM PRYOR LETCHWORTH
me to the city. A conversation followed between the
head of the firm and my father, at the close of which
my father said: "Well, William" (addressing the
merchant by his given name), " I have endeavored
thus far to make a man of my son, and will ask thee
to finish the task." Before leaving, my father gave
me a dollar, with the remark that I might need a little
pocket-money. This was all that my father ever gave
me, and with this I began life. A few years after I had
become of age I was disposed to envy one of my former
chums whose father gave him five thousand dollars to
start business with ; but his experience made me finally
thankful that my father never was able to give me any-
thing beyond the one dollar.
My salary with the firm [Hayden & Holmes, manu-
facturers and dealers in saddlery hardware] which en-
gaged me was fixed at forty dollars a year, and living,
and out of this I was to clothe myself and meet all my
personal expenses. I set out with the determination
that this sum, small as it was, should suffice for all my
requirements. The result was that I saved during the
year between two and three dollars, and placed the
same on interest, with about one hundred dollars that
my father had presented to me for accumulation while
a boy at home.' The realization that I could practice
' This may seem contradictory to the statement above, that
the dollar which his father gave him when he began work at
Auburn was all that he ever received ; but evidently his mean-
ing in that statement was, that he had no help in money from
the time that his own earnings began.
EARLY YEARS 17
sufficient self-denial to live within my means gave me
greater confidence in myself and strengthened my char-
acter. Living within one's means is as necessary to
success as it is essential to one's peace of mind and
happiness.
In later years Mr. Letchworth had great en-
joyment in telling of his first home-going for
an over-Sunday visit, after beginning his life at
Auburn, and of the disappointing reception he
had. Homesickness had made the first week
seem almost unendurable, and he had counted
surely on being liberated from the end of the
week until Monday; but no suggestion to that
effect came, and he mustered fortitude to go
through seven days more. Saturday came again,
with no hint of a thought in the mind of his
employer that he could wish to visit his home;
and he bore his unhappiness for another week.
Then, in desperation, he found courage to ask
for the coveted leave, and it was granted with
readiness ; but a hope which he had fondly cher-
ished, that offers of the use of a horse for the
journey to Sherwood would go with the per-
mission, had no realization. There were thirteen
miles to be walked, if he would have the joy of
a day in the home circle, and he walked them,
arriving at some time in the evening, super-
i8 WILLIAM PRYOR LETCHWORTH
charged with his own excitement of delight, and
expecting to see an equal excitement when he
showed his face. His feeling would have carried
him into the beloved house with a rush ; but he
held himself back and knocked formally, like a
neighbor making an evening call. His mother
opened the door, recognized him with perfect
serenity, and said: " Why, William, what has
brought thee home so soon ? " It was like a
dash of cold water in the face, — the revelation
that his family had not been longing as impa-
tiently for him as he for them.
But time wrought a change, as between mother
and son, in feeling on the subject of his visits to
the parental roof; for we find his father, writ-
ing to him in April, 1841, quoting his mother
as asking : " Why don't that boy come home?"
and then saying: " I answer that, glad as I should
be to see thee oftener, thou hast a duty to per-
form, and the performance of duties frequently
requires the sacrifice of personal enjoyment and
comfort. I am much more gratified to find thee
faithful to thy trust than I should be to find
thee more frequently at home, much as such
visit would gratify me."
Thus William had his graduation from home
and common schools, in or about his fifteenth
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EARLY YEARS 19
year, and was matriculated in the university of
practical affairs, to learn the ways of men and be
trained for entrance into the activities clerkship
of the world. Ambition had an early ^* Auburn
growth in him, as he more than once confessed.
Apparently it was an ambition quite undefined
in those early years. Nothing indicates that his
aspirations were directed toward any particular
goal, of political or literary or scientific renown,
or of wealth. What he felt as ambition may have
been just an upward-impelling eager spirit which
would have the same potency in all situations,
to make the most of them, get the best out of
them, rise to the highest of their offered possi-
bilities. All that is told of his youthful clerk-
ship in the service of Hayden & Holmes goes
to show that this spirit was as manifest in it as
in the higher, final work of his life. He studied
the making, buying, and selling of saddlery hard-
ware as carefully, thoroughly, zealously as, forty
years later, he studied the saving of homeless
children, the care of epileptics, and the treatment
of the insane. As a boy he accepted the assign-
ment to him of a field of work in which his
means of living were to be earned, and labored
in it without stint; as a man, when his inde-
pendence had been won, he chose for himself a
20 WILLIAM PRYOR LETCHWORTH
mission of social service, and gave himself un-
sparingly to that. The fidelity to his undertak-
ing was in each case the same.
It was in this period that he either formu-
lated or borrowed and adopted the following
*' rules of conduct," a copy of which, dated 1 842,
has been preserved: —
Rise at 6 o'clock. Breakfast at 6.30. Dinner or
lunch, 12.30. Supper at 6.30. Retire at 9.30. Attend
divine service once every Sunday. Tell the truth under
all circumstances, when necessary to speak. Never
wound the feelings of others if it can be avoided.
Strive to be always cheerful. Review the actions of
the day every night, and apply to them the test of my
conscience. In business affairs keep in mind that " pro-
crastination is the thief of time," and that " time is
money." Be temperate in all things. Strive to speak
kindly, without giving offence, always with coolness
and deliberation, having due regard for the views of
others. Aim at a high standard of character. Attempt
great things and expect great things. Aim to do all
possible good in the world, and so live as to live here-
after and have a name without reproach.
Those who knew Mr. Letchworth in his ma-
turity will believe that it was easy for him to be
obedient to these rules, most of which must have
found dictates in his nature and needed no judi-
cial mandate of will.
BUSINESS LIFE 2i
In the service of Hayden & Holmes, at their
establishment in Auburn, the youth grew to
young manhood, remaining six or seven years,
living in the family of Mr. Holmes, as a friend,
and becoming more and more invaluable to the
firm. Their business was an extensive one for
that period, employing a large part of the con-
victs in the prison workshops at Auburn, under
contract with the State. Mr. Hayden, the senior
partner in the firm, was the head of several
other establishments in the same line of busi-
ness, at different points in the country, includ-
ing one at New York. That gentleman had
kept an eye on young Letchworth, noting his
intelligence, his fidelity, the complete under-
standing he had acquired of every detail of the
business, and the good judgment with which
his duties were performed, with the result that
the Auburn clerk was called to a post of more
importance at New York.
This advance to a higher school of business
and to the opening of a larger experience of life
came to Mr. Letchworth in the sum- service in
mer or fall of 1 845, — the year after New York
his crossing the threshold into manhood's es-
tate. Of the three years of his life and work in
New York not much can be told. He wrote fre-
22 WILLIAM PRYOR LETCHWORTH
quently to his parents and sisters, and his letters
were carefully kept, as all similar family records
were preserved; but they contain almost nothing
that touches the work he was doing or the cir-
cumstances of his life outside of his work. One
letter which would seem to have been excep-
tional in this respect, is not found in the mass
of correspondence that came into the present
writer's hands ; but its purport is intimated in
his father's reply to it, January i8, 1847, when
the latter wrote: "Thy letter, after giving a sat-
isfactory statement of thy affairs, propounds in
some measure this query: 'Have I come up to
your expectations?' To this I can answer affirm-
atively, and it affiDrds me heartfelt satisfaction,
not only to behold the fruits of those principles
and sentiments which it was my desire to culti-
vate, being assured they were most conducive
to happiness, but to find my endeavors so well
seconded; to see my children themselves cher-
ishing those principles which, if they do not
lead to wealth, secure enjoyment and tranquillity
under the various changes of life."
In a letter which he wrote to his younger sis-
ters, in May, 1848, there is a passage which
indicates that, in New York as in Auburn, he
had immersed himself so entirely in business as
BUSINESS LIFE 23
to have little time or mind for any other inter-
est in life. " For years," he said, " I have de-
voted my whole thought, strength and energy to
one thing, business^ and have made myself mas-
ter of that which I undertook to perform ; but
this has drawn all my attention from literature,
knowledge and art. I hope that ere long it will be
otherwise. ... I mean now to cultivate most as-
siduously the social ties which I have neglected
so long, fearing they may become so weakened
as to have no influence on my soul." His elder
sister, Mrs. Crozer, who then lived at Morris-
ville, Pennsylvania, had been noting with anxi-
ety, for some time past, the intensity of his
absorption in business, and had remonstrated
with him on the subject, remarking, in a letter
of two years earlier writing: "I am afraid thee
will get to be an old man before thee has been
a young one half long enough."
This good sister, who was his elder by several
years, wrote often to him, with warmly affec-
tionate interest in his welfare, giving him coun-
sel that seems to have been always wisely timed
and directed, and not over-much. Soon after
his going to New York she said to him: "I
hope thee will form some agreeable acquaint-
ances; but mind and form the right kind. And
24 WILLIAM PRYOR LETCH WORTH
do not have too many of them ; for too much
company is of no advantage to a young man.
Thee is placed in a situation where thee will
meet with many temptations, and thee cannot
be too much on thy guard. Form good resolu-
tions, and then be sure not to break them. Per-
haps these few words of advice are unnecessary,
but they are from thy loving sister, who feels
thy interest as near to her as her own."
In a letter of June ii, 1848, to his sisters in
the old home he reported his removal to a
boarding-house in Brooklyn, and described an
interesting sight which he had witnessed in cross-
ing the river. The incident, which appears al-
most alone in his letter-writing from New
York, has a quite historical interest of its own :
Yesterday [June 10, 1848, he wrote] I saw a beau-
tiful sight, — one which I wish you could have parti-
cipated in seeing. I got aboard of one of the ferry
boats crossing the East River last evening at precisely
live o'clock, which was the hour for the sailing of the
American steam packet United States. As the City
Hall bell struck five she was loosed from her moorings,
and her ponderous wheels, once set in motion, soon
swung her into the river. From her deck a cannon
bellowed forth a farewell to New York; the star-span-
gled banner mounted her mast and unfolded itself to
BUSINESS LIFE 25
the breeze, while simultaneously, from every packet-
ship and steamboat in the harbor, flags mounted aloft,
displaying the emblems of many nations beside our
own. From the wharves and shipping each side of the
river, which were black with people, there arose a pro-
longed and deafening shout, with the waving of hats
and handkerchiefs. She seemed proudly conscious of
the attention shown her, and, turning her head south-
ward when in the middle of the stream, she departed
like a huge thing of life. You may think it singular
that so much anxiety should be felt at the departure
of a steamer from this port, when it is such a common
occurrence; but this is the first American steamer that
has as yet met with even tolerable success. It has
made but one trip, and has done well.
He was now near the ending of his residence
in New York. Before the year closed he had
entered into new arrangements of in business
business which carried him to Buf- at Buffalo
falo, and into a partnership with the Messrs.
Pratt & Co., leading hardware merchants of
that city. They had known him, at Auburn
and at New York, through their dealings with
the firm of Flayden & Holmes, and evidently
they had formed a high opinion of his worth.
Accordingly, having planned to increase the
importance of the saddlery hardware depart-
ment of their business, they made overtures to
26 WILLIAM PRYOR LETCHWORTH
Mr. Letchworth which became definite in Oc-
tober, 1848, and which resulted quickly in the
organization of a new firm, under the name of
Pratt & Letchworth, distinct in business from
that of Pratt & Co., but in which Mr. Letch-
worth was associated with the three members
of the latter firm, namely, Samuel F. Pratt,
Pascal P. Pratt, and Edward P. Beals. In a
"Sketch of the Life of Samuel F. Pratt," writ-
ten and privately printed by Mr. Letchworth
after his elder partner's death, he states that the
negotiations which brought him into this con-
nection were conducted by Mr. Pascal P. Pratt,
with his brother's concurrence, and he adds :
" I think few partnerships ever existed with so
uniformly pleasant relations. In reviewing the
long intercourse between Samuel F. Pratt and
myself, I cannot recall, in all the discussions
growing out of the perplexities of business, one
unkind word or even harsh tone."
In their letter-headings the purposes of the
new firm were made known by this announce-
ment : " Pratt & Letchworth, having purchased
of Messrs. Pratt & Co. their entire stock of
saddlery and carriage hardware, will now devote
their whole attention to this branch of business.
Having made extensive arrangements for manu-
WILLIAM PRYOR LETCHWORTH AS A YOUNG MAN
BUSINESS LIFE 27
facturing japanned goods, hames, etc., and em-
ployed skilful and experienced workmen for the
purpose of carrying on the silver- and brass-
plating business in all its various branches,
they are now prepared to make goods of a su-
perior quality." The firm were further described
as " importers and manufacturers of every va-
riety of saddlery and carriage hardware and
trunk trimmings."
Here, then, William Pryor Letchworth, at
the age of twenty-five, had come to the open-
ing of a quite perfect opportunity for making,
to his own advantage as well as to the advan-
tage of others, a full use of the business know-
ledge and experience he had been storing care-
fully for ten years. He had come to it from
bright prospects in New York. In a letter writ-
ten to him that year by Peter Hayden, the head
of the firm he had served, it was remarked that
" he had been treated more like a partner than
a clerk." His position had been one which, in
his father's judgment, " thousands might envy,
and so much better than thousands could attain
to," that "no trifling inducements should have
led to a change." So the father wrote, not in
criticism of the change, but in expressing his
belief that it was wisely made. Ample proof of
28 WILLIAM PRYOR LETCHWORTH
its wisdom soon appeared in the growing busi-
ness of Pratt & Letchworth, as developed by
its young manager in the course of the next
few years. In its first year it encountered the
general depression of all activities by the cholera
visitation of 1849 ; yet William could write in
November to a friend that " business has been
very good, notwithstanding the cholera."
That year he was visited by his father and
mother, and had the pleasure of showing them
Niagara Falls, which neither had seen before.
In that year, too, he was joined by his elder
brother, Edward, who without becoming a
member of the firm, was connected importantly
thereafter with the business of Pratt & Letch-
worth throughout his life. His younger bro-
ther, George, who had followed him into the
service of his former employers, at Auburn,
now acquired an interest in their business, and
presently became the junior member of that
firm.
The first exhibit of itself that Buffalo made
to its new citizen was in its winter and spring
aspect, which, most certainly, is not the best
it can show. In March, 1849, he wrote laugh-
ingly about the Buffalo breezes to his sister
Charlotte : " I suppose thee has become entirely
BUSINESS LIFE 29
out of patience in looking for a letter from that
truant brother of thine at *the West.' Perhaps
thee imagines that I have got so far west as to
have gone beyond the influence of good society,
and lost sight of the good custom of correspond-
ence among friends. ... I have made as yet
but few acquaintances here in Buffalo, save in
the way of business. . . . I have enjoyed excel-
lent health since I came here, and I like the
place very well, notwithstanding it is quite windy
sometimes. Not long since I saw a man on a
load of lumber passing our store. His load was
of pine boards, an inch thick. A gust of wind
happening just then scattered the boards all over
the street and tumbled off the man. Ladies who
walk out in windy weather run from one awn-
ing post to another in the intervals between
gusts, and get along in this way very well when
the wind is in their favor. A few days ago I saw
a lady, on arriving at the corner of a street,
thrown off her feet, and the wind carried her
completely round the corner."
In June he was feeling differently, and wrote
to a friend : "The longer I stay in Buffalo the
better I like it. When I came here it was win-
ter, and everything looked cold and bleak; but
it is a pleasant spot in the summer time. The
30 WILLIAM PRYOR LETCHWORTH
breeze from the lake keeps it cool and the at-
mosphere pure."
In another letter he speaks of attending the
Friends' Meeting, at East Hamburg (about
ten miles from Buffalo), there being none in the
city, and says that he should have done so more
frequently if it had not been a cholera year, and
he wished to keep as quiet as possible.
For some years after he assumed the respon-
sibilities that attended the establishing and up-
Strenuous building of such a business as that of
years of Pratt & Letchworth became, the bur-
business jgj^ ^^ j^jj^ must have been heavy to
bear. Even more than in his 'prentice years with
Hayden & Holmes, his life appears to have
been immersed in the affairs of the factory and
the counting-room. Outside of what relates to
these there is little record of what he thought or
felt or said or did, for four or five years. Prob-
ably it was still the fact, as he wrote in March,
1849, that he had made few acquaintances in
Buffalo " save in the way of business." For so-
cial relaxations he cannot have had much time.
In a letter to his brother George, written on
Christmas Day, 1852, there is a cry that seems
wrung from him by the consciousness that he is
overtasking his strength. He can never have
BUSINESS LIFE 31
been robust in physique, and, though no illness
or disability is spoken of, he had been brought
somewhat sharply, perhaps, to a realization that
his health was insecure. " Oh, that I had an iron
constitution, as some have," he exclaimed. " Of
all things earthly that God could bestow upon me
I could pray for nothing more fervently than for
strong, rugged, robust health. If I was a parent
or a husband I should be careful of my health ;
as it is I am reckless."
There is an unwonted exaggeration in this
language ; for it was not in Mr. Letchworth's
nature to be reckless of anything that had claims
on him as serious as the claims of health. In the
course of the following year he must have been
so shaping matters in his business as to relax its
demands on him ; for in the next December he
announced to the family at Auburn his intention
to spend some months of the winter in Florida,
and he addressed a pleading invitation to his
sister Charlotte to be his companion in the trip.
Disappointing circumstances refused him that
companionship, by detaining his sister at home,
and he went southward alone, in February, 1 854,
remaining in warmer regions until late in the
ensuing spring. Apparently the rest and the
change of climate and of scenes were of good
32 WILLIAM PRYOR LETCHWORTH
effect, and he came back to about two years
more of unbroken business cares. Then, in 1856,
his brother Josiah came into the business, and
was prepared to undertake its general manage-
ment while William, sailing from New York on
the loth of December, indulged himself in a
year of travel abroad. In the midst of his tour
he was stricken with grief by news of the death
of his father, which occurred at Auburn, on the
14th of April, 1857. He returned home in the
fall of that year, much enriched in knowledge
and ideas, and bettered no doubt in body as well
as in mind, though his respite from business had
not been rest. In his sight-seeing he had been
as industriously thorough as in everything else
that he did ; but an intelligent interest in that
sort of educational experience can make it as
curative as rest. In letters to the home circle
he wrote an elaborate narrative of his travels, all
of which has been perfectly preserved. It offers
nothing, however, that would have significance
in this story of his life.
From his vacation year Mr. Letchworth came
-, . back to resume the headship of the
Business ^ ^
labors business of Pratt & Letchworth, but
lightened under circumstances which undoubt-
edly eased his labors and cares. In his brothers
BUSINESS LIFE 33
he now had a staff of the greatest possible help-
fulness to him, and throughout the establish-
ment there was an organized efficiency of work.
Somewhat later, when the firm bought property
at Black Rock for the location of their manu-
facturing plant, a great development of that side
of their business was begun. The manufacture
of malleable iron was undertaken soon after, and
that became one of the leading industrial enter-
prises of the city, in the establishment of which
Mr. William P. Letchworth and his brother
Josiah were actively and closely cooperative.
But, generally speaking, from the time of the
former's return, in the fall of 1857, there appear
signs that he had more leisure to give to inter-
ests outside of the making and marketing of
goods, and was enjoying a widened intercourse
with people in Buffalo on other than business
lines. Many of the important friendships of his
after life seem traceable to this period, and there
is really no doubt that the trend of his life un-
derwent a notable turn within a few years that
followed the vacation of 1857.
It was soon after his return that he began to
entertain the thought of acquiring a pleasant
country place, for summer rest and for the en-
tertainment of friends. In the first instance that
34 WILLIAM PRYOR LETCHWORTH
thought was directed toward certain attractive
spots on the Niagara and on the shores of Lake
Erie ; but before his quest had gone far in those
regions a friend drew his attention to the upper
falls of the Genesee and the beautiful valley in
which they are set. This suggestion induced him
to choose the Erie Railway for the return trip
of a visit which he made soon afterward to New
York, and to make a stop at Portage, where
that road crosses the Genesee. One look then
taken from the high railway bridge into the glen
below sealed his mind against a willing accept-
ance of any other spot for the country home he
desired. He did not easily or quickly win pos-
session of the coveted ground, but it was yielded
to him at last, as will be told. "Glen Iris," res-
cued from vandalism, restored to all its natural
beauty and animated with a life as ideally Arca-
dian as itself, claims a chapter apart.
Among the people with whom Mr. Letch-
worth had formed recent intimacies were two
Social and ^^dies of literary note, Mrs. H. E.
literary re- G. Arey and Mrs. C. H. Gilder-
lationships sleeve, who were close friends. Mrs.
Arey had been the editor of a local magazine,
"The Home"; but some differences arose be-
tween the publisher and herself which caused
BUSINESS LIFE 35
her to withdraw from that connection, in 1857,
and the two friends planned the founding of a
new magazine. Mr. Letchworth interested him-
self in their project very warmly, to the extent,
at least, of subscribing for a considerable num-
ber of copies, which he caused to be distributed
far and near. Possibly he gave financial assist-
ance more directly; but, however that may be,
he was importantly a patron of the new period-
ical. Its first number was issued in January,
1859, bearing the title of "The Home Monthly."
It had a good reception, and achieved as much
success for several years as a literary periodical
provincially located could expect. In its second
year of publication Mr. Letchworth contributed
to the magazine two serial tales entitled "As-
ton Hall" and "The Burial of a Broken
Heart," veiling the authorship with the pseudo-
nym of Saxa Hilda, — a nom de plume which he
signed to occasional letters in the daily newspa-
pers of the city during several years. His author-
ship of these writings was effectually concealed
for a time; but the secret leaked gradually, with
a resulting disappearance of Saxa Hilda from
the world of print. Apparently Mr. Letchworth
made no further essays in fiction, — though
these were not discouraging, in the least. He
36 WILLIAM PRYOR LETCHWORTH
was destined to do much and greatly valuable
work with his pen; to win a wide reputation by
his writings, extending to many lands; but the
subjects of his writing would be sought in the
most serious realities of life.
At some time in 1859 Mr. Letchworth was
invited to membership in a club, called "The
Nameless," which a few young men of congenial
tastes had formed in Buffalo within the previous
year. In most circumstances this would not have
been an occurrence that called for biographical
mention; but it proved to be of no small influ-
ence on the life recorded here, because of the
important friendships to which it led. A few of
those who formed the club had been brought
together in the first instance by their common
discovery, in 1857, that the pleasant library
room of the Young Men's Christian Union (as
the Y. M. C. A. was then named) in what was
known as the Kremlin Hall Block, had been
made a most attractive place of resort by the
presence in it of a charming librarian, David
Gray. Half a dozen of these discoverers ac-
quired quickly the habit of spending all possible
evenings in the company of Mr. Gray, clustered
for talk in a corner of what might be called his
salon. Out of those gatherings came the club
BUSINESS LIFE 37
which Mr. Letchworth joined in its second
year. There he met at least two men to whom
his heart went out with a warmth of affection
that he gave, probably, to no others, apart from
his own nearest kin. One was David Gray,
whom he loved as the first of Davids was loved;
the other was James Nicoll Johnston, to whom,
after half a century of the closest friendship and
constant association, he referred in his last will as
"my warm friend and wise counsellor through
many years." With William C. Bryant, George
H. Selkirk, Jerome B. Stillson, and others of the
Nameless circle, he grew into relations that dif-
fered from mere friendly acquaintanceship in
a marked degree. The writer of this memoir
was of that circle when Mr. Letchworth came
into it, and knew him with intimacy until his
death.
The little circle was soon undergoing painful
breakages by the going of one and another, at
the call of the country, to do battle in defence
of its national union; and, if Mr. Letchworth
could have been blessed with the "strong, rug-
ged, robust health " for which he had prayed so
earnestly a few years before, he would have
been one to answer the call. He knew that his
body would not endure the hardships of the
38 WILLIAM PRYOR LETCHWORTH
soldier's duty, but he wished to join the army-
hospital service and find there a field of useful-
ness to the cause. His physician and the army
surgeon agreed, however, in deciding that even
that undertaking of war-service was beyond his
strength.
Glen Iris, which he had secured, was now
affording him frequent escapes from the city,
and the great enjoyment of planning and work-
ing for the restoration of its whole perfect na-
tural beauty and charm. His business had as-
sumed an organization and an order which
lessened its demands on his personal action in
it more and more. In 1863 his staff was greatly
strengthened by the enlistment of a new aide,
in the person of his friend, James N. Johnston,
whose subsequent years of confidential employ-
ment in the house of Pratt & Letchworth gave
the friendship its superlative seal. He gained
another close friend and strong helper in the
business when Mr. Henry R. Howland came
into it, in 1869. Marriage recently had brought
Mr. Howland into a nearness of relationship
with Mr. Letchworth which his personal quali-
ties drew closer, with consequent intimacies of
association that were important to both.
While his own business was relaxing its hold
BUSINESS LIFE 39
on him, other interests in Buffalo were having
opportunity to recognize the capacity of Mr.
Letchworth for important service
.... . . . President of
to them, and his mborn disposition the Fine
towards usefulness to his fellows in Arts Aca-
1 • /• T ... demv
lire. Important institutions were so-
liciting him to accept places of trust and lead-
ership in the management of their affairs. By
consecutive annual elections he was made and
continued president of the Buffalo Fine Arts
Academy from 1871 to 1874. The Academy was
then entering the tenth year of its hard struggle
for existence, throughout which he had been one
of its staunch supports. Its situation was set forth
at the annual meeting, March 9, 1871, when
Mr. Letchworth took the chair as president, in
an address by Mr. Joseph Warren, who said: —
The Academy was formally instituted on the nth
of November, 1862. Among those most earnest in
the enterprise were ex-President Fillmore, Oliver G.
Steele, Henry W. Rogers, Sherman S. Jewett, Bron-
son C. Rumsey, A. P. Nichols, Rev. Dr. Chester,
George S. Hazard, E. P. Dorr, William P. Letch-
worth, Henry A. Richmond, John Allen, William
Dorsheimer, and L. G. Sellstedt. These gentlemen,
reinforced from time to time by others, have held the
laboring oar in this enterprise for the past nine years.
40 WILLIAM PRYOR LETCHWORTH
They have not met with the support and encourage-
ment which the citizens of Buffalo owe to those who
toil for the public good. . . . The financial situa-
tion is this: If the managers can secure about $2000
with which to pay outstanding debts, and a fund of
;^ 1 0,000 to be permanently invested, so that the in-
terest may be applied to the payment of any deficit
that may occur, or, if there be no deficit, to the pur-
chase of paintings, the Academy can be maintained;
otherwise the cloud of doubt will continue to darken
its future. A book has been opened and ^4500 have
been subscribed, upon the condition that the ^12,000
needed shall be raised.
It was at the crisis of its history, therefore,
that Mr. Letchworth took the presidency of the
Fine Arts Academy. One year later, at the next
annual opening, on the 24th of February, 1872,
he was able to announce that the $4500 of sub-
scriptions to the permanent fund which Mr.
Warren had reported twelve months before had
been raised to $20,350, including $10,000 from
Mr. Sherman S. Jewett, alone. Thus " the cloud
of doubt" on the future existence ofthe Academy
had been lifted ; its dissolution was no longer in
question, though the upbuilding ofthe institu-
tion as an agency of culture in the city would
still be difficult and slow work.
BUSINESS LIFE 41
To that work Mr. Letchworth gave the best
of his energies and the best of his thought. In
the four years of his administration as president,
and subsequently as one of the trustees of its
permanent fund, he has always been credited
with an influence in the systematizing of the
finances of the Academy that was lasting and
wise. His influence was directed with equal wis-
dom toward the broadening of the educational
mission of the Academy, — as when, in his ad-
dress at the annual opening of 1872, he urged
the great need in the city of a school of design,
" where may be taught," he said, " not only paint-
ing and sculpture, but also a variety of lesser
but kindred arts, which have their part of use
as well as of beauty in our daily lives. Such a
feature engrafted on this institution would fill
in part a hiatus now existing between the point
where our present educational system leaves off^
and that at which practical labor begins." Going
further than the suggestion, he initiated the rais-
ing of a fund for beginning such instruction.
The Art School, however, as a child of the Acad-
emy, did not come until a score and a half of
years had run past; but Mr. Letchworth has no
share of responsibility for that delay.
CHAPTER II
GLEN IRIS
It was not long after Mr. Letchworth's return,
in the fall of 1857, from his European tour, that
he stopped at Portage Bridge, on the Erie Rail-
way, to see the glen in which the Genesee River
makes its upper and middle fall. Probably it
was in the spring of 1858. From the bridge he
saw how nature had produced here a perfect mas-
terpiece of scenic composition, blending beauty
with grandeur in transcendent accord, and how
man had done what he could with his tools of
destruction to wreck the noble piece of work.
But he saw, too, that the vandalism of men had
no power to do more than mar the surfaces of
such a picture, and that nature would very lov-
ingly renew them if she could be given the
chance.
Climbing down from the bridge to the stretch
of narrow " flat " which borders the river on its
Wreckers of ^^^^ bank between the upper and the
the forest middle fall, he strolled along the
stream to a sawmill, which was finishing, in a
O
a,
o
<
o
>
S
»
o
GLEN IRIS 43
feeble way, the havoc of the ancient forests that
had clothed the hillsides of the glen. It was
evident that few trees which would " pay " for
the cutting remained, and Mr. Letchworth, on
entering into conversation with the proprietor
of the mill, soon found that its resources of busi-
ness were nearly spent. Afterwards, from the
recollection of old inhabitants, he learned that
the "mill-power" at the middle fall had been
bought as early as 1821, and that a sawmill was
put in operation there at some time between
that date and 1824. The first attempt to de-
velop power was by excavating a raceway from
the brink of the middle fall to a point some dis-
tance upstream, and the breaking-up of the rock
was undertaken by dropping a ninety-six-pound
iron ball from some considerable height. This
crude attempt failing, the river was finally
dammed, a little above the fall. Later a wooden
bridge was thrown across. Both the dam and
the bridge were in existence for some time after
Mr. Letchworth became lord of the domain.
The original sawmill was carried away by a flood,
and was succeeded by a more ambitious lumber-
ing plant. This included a set of gangsaws, a
planing-mill and a sash and blind factory, all of
which had been pursuing their attack on the
44 WILLIAM PRYOR LETCHWORTH
neighborhoodforestsuntiljust before Mr. Letch-
worth came on the scene. As he first saw the
glen there was no planing-mill and no accom-
panying factory to aggravate the sawmill's offens-
iveness. They had been burned on the 23d of
January, 1858.
From this first reconnoissance of the ground
Mr. Letchworth returned to Buffalo with frag-
Purchase of ments of information concerning the
the glen mill property and adjacent pieces
which led him to conclude that it would not be
impossible for him to buy what he desired at
no extravagant cost. Negotiations to that end
were opened presently, but did not run with
smoothness to an early consummation. The
land necessary for taking in to one estate, on
the west side of the river, the view that embraces
the upper and middle falls, the plateau above
the latter and the hillsides behind the plateau,
was in a number of hands. Mr. Letchworth
would purchase none of this if he could not pur-
chase all. Some of the first offers proposed to
him were rejected emphatically, and the nego-
tiations appear to have been at a standstill for
several months. Then he submitted to the sev-
eral owners a proposal which he assured them
was an absolutely final one, beyond which he
GLEN IRIS 45
would not go. They understood, evidently, that
he meant what he said, and early in February,
1859, the conveyance he desired had been made
to him.
In happy possession now of the long abused
glen, with the right and the power to offer na-
ture a free hand in it again, his first tasks were
to make himself a habitation and to clear the
wreckage and the rubbish of the lumbermen's
work from the face of the scene. On the plateau
which overlooks the middle fall, at precisely the
place he would have chosen for his home, his
earliest predecessor on the ground had built, in
the first instance a small log house, and then a
larger framed structure, of two stories, which he
opened as a temperance tavern for the entertain-
ment of picnic parties and other summer vis-
itors, who came in considerable numbers from
neighboring towns to see the falls. To increase
the attractions of the place he built a large boat
and launched it on the long pond which the
mill-dam had created between the two falls.
These popular attractions were of the past; the
house was no longer a tavern when it came to
Mr. Letchworth, and he set about converting
it to his own use. He had no ambition to build
a mansion in its place. His taste was superior
46 WILLIAM PRYOR LETCHWORTH
to the bringing of obtrusive architecture into
the noble landscape of his estate. With no defin-
ite planning for the future, perhaps, he began
with some simple remodellings and new con-
structions in and about the building, which
converted it presently into a pleasant and com-
fortable abode, contenting himself and delight-
ing his guests. He may sometimes in the after
years have had thoughts of building differently,
but if so he never went beyond the thought.
From time to time there were changes made,
additions built, conveniences improved in the
modest house, and thus it satisfied him to the
end of his life.
His correspondence in 1859 shows that he
spent a good deal of time that year on his new
"Work of re- estate, supervising the work in pro-
storation gress there ; and it indicates that he
was in residence before many months, with a
household sufficiently organized for some enter-
tainment of guests. His mother had visited him,
and he could write to her of what he was doing
in a manner which implies her personal acquaint-
ance with the place. Until November in this
year his letters to his mother were dated simply
from Portage ; one written on the 2d of October
is captioned so. But the next letter, of Novem-
GLEN IRIS 47
ber 6, is under the new heading, " Glen Iris,
Portage," and may be taken to mark, approxi-
mately, the time when the Glen received its
name. Seemingly it had had none in the past.
Only the river and its falls were named ; and
they were but part of what that cup of the hills
contained. The glen in its wholeness required
a geographical designation, and the suggestions
for it were plentiful, no doubt ; but the aptest
of them all was recommended to the eye, on
every sunlit day, by the rainbow-painted mists
which rose out of the gorge of the falls to per-
fect the whole verdure and glory of the scene.
Glen Iris is the name for which the place would
seem to have been made.
Development of the beauty of the Glen was
an undertaking of careful workmanship in Mr.
Letchworth's hands. He was hasty in nothing;
he would not be meddlesome with nature ; there
was study in all that he did, and patience to
wait on slow processes of vegetable growth for
effects which surpass the artifices of man. Yet
the change he wrought upon the scene came
amazingly fast. His earliest visitors appear to
have felt the enchantments of the place as pro-
foundly as any can feel them now, despite the
scars and the relics of rude usage which long
48 WILLIAM PRYOR LETCHWORTH
time and much labor were needed to remove.
The writer of this is able to compare impres-
sions of Glen Iris that are fifty years apart; and
it is only by a reckoning of perfections added
and flaws subtracted that he can realize in his
thought of it a greater beauty than when he saw
it first.
From what fashioning, some reader may ask,
does this bit of the earth derive so rare a beauty
», ,. and charm? — and the question is
lopograpnic ^
features of not answered easily. The best at-
Glen Iris tempt can be made, perhaps, by of-
fering to imagination, first, the bare outlines of
a topographical sketch of this part of the valley
of the Genesee, and overlaying on that a picture
of the same as nature had vestured it and as a
poet described it some thirty and more years ago.
The topographic features can easily be set
forth. Their axis is the Genesee River, which
traverses the western part of the State of New
York from south to north, emptying its waters
into Lake Ontario, near the city of Rochester,
through which it flows. There is beauty and
great fertility in the Genesee Valley through-
out ; but its picturesqueness is developed most
remarkably within one short section, hardly
three miles in length, where the river is dropped
GLEN IRIS 49
nearly three hundred feet, in three falls, with
intervening rapids and pretty cascades. The
first or Upper Fall is near a village which re-
ceived the name of Portageville in early days,
when there was some carrying trade on the
river and some necessary land portage of goods
between the navigable waters above and below
the three falls. The drop of the river in this Up-
per Fall is seventy-one feet. Almost overhang-
ing it, at a height of two hundred and thirty-
four feet above the level from which it drops,
the Erie Railway is carried over the Genesee by
a great bridge, eight hundred feet long. This
affords a measure of the chasm through which
the river is brought to its first fall.
Below this fall the river is still confined
narrowly between perpendicular walls, but no
longer to the same height. The crest of wall is
lowered by more than the lowering of the river
bed after its fall, and the higher tiers of the previ-
ous rock-enclosure to the stream are pushed back
for some distance and transformed into sloping
hills, especially on the western side. Thus that
which is a gorge above this fall is rimmed below
it into the grace and beauty of a glen — Glen
Iris ; and on a broad plateau that overlooks
the river, from a height which is but pleasing
50 WILLIAM PRYOR LETCHWORTH
and not terrifying, and which has wooded hills
behind, stands the modest manor-house of the
Glen. It overlooks the river just far enough
below the second or Middle Fall to secure the
most perfect view of that fine cataract, which
makes a plunge of one hundred and seven feet.
A few hundred feet below the Middle Fall [borrow-
ing further details of the topography from an accurate
description in one of the reports of the American
Scenic and Historic Preservation Society] the walls
of the canyon are sheer precipices three hundred and
fifty feet high — twenty feet higher than the palisades
of the Hudson River opposite New York City — and
on top of the rock walls the land on the right and
left banks rises still higher, seventy-five and one hun-
dred and fifty feet respectively. About seventy-nine
hundred feet from the Middle Fall are the Lower
Falls, an irregular set of cascades, unevenly worn back,
and seventy feet high. The three Portage Falls with
their intermediate cascades represent a total descent
of about two hundred and ninety feet. Thence the
river makes a great semicircle to the left, sweeping
by the High Banks and continuing through the chasm
for about fourteen miles to Mount Morris, where
it emerges into a broad alluvial valley, from one to
two miles wide.
Into this framework of fact the reader may be
able to set a word-picture of Glen Iris sketched
GLEN IRIS 51
by the late David Gray, in an article written for
Scribner s Monthly Magazine^ July, 1877, when
he was editor of the Buffalo Courier, a poet's
He was writing of what was to him, description
undoubtedly, the dearest spot on earth. He
pictures it as seen first by a traveller on the Erie
Railway, at the crossing of the high bridge,
"when the summer morning has come over the
hills and filled the valley."
Innumerable lights and shades of the varied verdure,
the warm tints of the rocks and the flashing of the
fallen waters enliven a picture to which its sunken re-
moteness superadds an almost visionary charm. The
two or three cottage roofs that peer from thick nests
of foliage far down beside the river suggest a life bliss-
fully held apart from the world and its ways. Over all
an atmosphere of thinnest mist, smitten to whiteness
by the sunlight, wavers and shines like a translucent
sea. The valley, indeed, is a region of lapsing streams
and delicate rising mists, and never a gleam of sun-
shine visits it but it deserves its name of Glen Iris.
From the west end of the bridge the descent into
the Glen is made by the aid of flights of rustic steps
and a steep path through thick woods of beech, maple,
and hemlock, leading to the margin of the stream.
Halfway down, and crossed by a footbridge, a little
brook, christened by the valley folk De-ge-wa-nus, —
an Indian name of note along the Genesee, — dashes
52 WILLIAM PRYOR LETCHWORTH
headlong from the mysterious green darkness of the
upper forest, and commits suicide at the clifF of the
river's bank. On the way, too, fine views are afforded
of the Upper Fall of the Genesee, which has hewn its
way backward through the rock almost to the founda-
tions of the great bridge. As we emerge from the wood
the river grows quiet again among its stones, and the
valley widens into tranquil pasture lands. . . .
Ascending the slope toward the farther end of the
valley, we come in sight of the second or Middle Fall,
a full, rounded shoulder and flounced skirt of rock,
over which the water is flung in a single broad shawl
of snow-white lace, more exquisite of pattern than
ever artist of Brussels or Valenciennes dared to dream.
On a green tableland almost directly above this fall is
the dwelling of the valley's good genius — a rustic
paradise embowered in foliage of tree and vine, and
islanded in wavy spaces of softest lawn. Here art has
aided nature to plant a true "garden of tranquil de-
lights." Each group of trees becomes the cunning
frame of an enchanting picture or beautiful vignette.
The hills, sentinelled at their summits by lofty pines,
are walls which shut the world out, while across the
upper and sole visible approach to the Glen, the bridge
stretches like a vast portal reared by Titans. It is the
Happy Valley of fable realized, and the lulling sound
of the near cataract gives fitting voice to its perfect
seclusion and repose. . . .
GLEN IRIS 53
This carries Mr. Gray's description to the
foot of Glen Iris, as the name is correctly used.
Going on, with the river, down the deep and
winding canyon into which it rushes, below Glen
Iris and the Middle Fall, he wrote further : —
Following its onward course, the tourist makes his
way cautiously along the dizzy brink of the westerly
wall of the gulf. Higher and higher, as he progresses,
towers the perpendicular rampart on which he treads,
until soon it is from a sheer height of about four hun-
dred feet that he leans, shuddering, to descry the river
in its rocky inferno, and hearken to its voice softened
by distance to a rustling whisper. About a mile from
the Middle Fall the gulf partially relaxes its hold on
the brawling prisoner, and the visitor may make his
way down a steep and thickly wooded bank to what
are called the Lower Falls of the Genesee. Here, in
the midst of a wilderness still virgin and primeval, the
waters shoot furiously down a narrow rock-hewn flume,
their descent being nearly a hundred feet, and the width
of the torrent at some points scarcely more than the
compass of a good running jump. From the sombre
chasm in which the cataract terminates, the canyon
once more draws the river and repeats on a still more
magnificent scale the scenery at which I have hinted
above. A walk of four or five miles down the river
from the Lower Fall, and along the westerly battle-
ment of the canyon, brings us to a sudden opening
54 WILLIAM PRYOR LETCHWORTH
and retrocession of the rocky walls, and here, a fertile
expanse of bottom land extending from the river to the
hills, are the Gardow Flats, the ancient home of "the
White Woman," — of whom much will be told here-
after.
Something of a defined idea of Glen Iris may
be taken from these descriptions, and something
further from the accompanying photographic
illustrations, to carry in the mind while reading
of the life and work that were centred princi-
pally in this scene. The supremely beautiful
view which takes in the Middle and Upper Falls,
looking up stream from a point some distance
below the Glen Iris residence, was made the
subject of a painting, seventy years ago, by
Thomas Cole, one of the most admired of
American landscape painters. The painting was
purchased for presentation to William H. Sew-
ard, then (1841) Governor of the State of New
York, and now hangs in the home of his son,
at Auburn, New York.
All that he had expected from his purchase
of the Glen was assuredly realized to Mr.
Letchworth, and very soon, in his happy home-
making for himself and his generous opening of
its delightful hospitalities to his friends. Singly
and in companies he called them often and in
GLEN IRIS 55
numbers to share with him the fine refresh-
ments of mind and body that were in its gift.
For several years, beginning in i860, his asso-
ciates of "The Nameless Club" were sum-
moned to celebrate the Fourth of July at the
Glen; and out of those congenial gatherings
came some of the earliest and most perfect
of the many poems which Glen Iris, poetical
first and last, has inspired. Possibly "Voices of
it would be an extravagance of eulogy *^® ^^®^ "
to say that no other spot in America has been
celebrated equally to it in the fervor and the
quality of the verse it has called out; yet search-
ing criticism might uphold that suggestion, on
the evidence of a collected volume of Glen Iris
verse which was printed under the title of
"Voices of the Glen," in 1876, and of which a
new edition, with added poems, has been issued
since Mr. Letchworth's death by the adminis-
trator of his estate, but under the auspices of
the American Scenic and Historic Preservation
Society. The preparation of this new edition
was one of Mr. Letchworth's last tasks, and the
order to the Knickerbocker Press for the print-
ing of it was given only five days before he
died.
Inasmuch as nothing said in cool prose can
56 WILLIAM PRYOR LETCHWORTH
communicate nearly so much of the spirit and
influence of the place as is wrought into some
of these lyric strains, it will be fitting to cite a
few of them here. In the original concert of the
"Voices" the keynote of their choral singing
was given by James Nicoll Johnston, and he
shall lead them here, in —
A MEMORY
Bright summer dream of white cascade.
Of lake, and wood, and river!
The vision from the eye may fade, —
The heart keeps it forever.
There beauty dwells
In rarest dells, —
There every leaf rejoices;
By cliff and steep.
By crag and deep.
You hear their pleasant voices.
From forest flower and meadow bloom.
The soft wind, passing over.
Brings the wild roses' fresh perfume.
The sweet breath of the clover;
And odors rare
Pulse through the air.
In waves of pleasure flowing, —
We dream away
The passing day.
Regardless of its going.
GLEN IRIS 57
On leafy boughs the sunlight glows.
The skies are blue above us.
The happy laugh that comes and goes
Is from the friends that love us.
O ! bliss combined
Of sense and mind.
Rare boon to mortals given!
Before our eyes
Is Paradise,
Above the blue is heaven.
Take, Memory, to thy choicest shrine,
And guard as sacred treasure.
The hours of ecstasy divine.
The days of untold pleasure.
Though many a scene
May come between
In way of future duty.
We still shall deem
Our summer dream
As peerless in its beauty.
This from David Gray : —
TO GLEN IRIS
\_Impromptu\
To thee, sweetest valley! Glen Iris, to thee!
More fair than the vision of poet may be.
And beyond what the artist may dream, when his eyes
Are dim with the hues of the loveliest skies;
58 WILLIAM PRYOR LETCHWORTH
To thee and thy forest, whose foliage forever
Is fresh with the mists of thy light-flashing river;
Thy flowers that are swayed in the softest of airs;
Thy birds in the greenest and deepest of lairs;
Thy lights and thy shadows, thy sweet river's fall
That sings into slumber or reverie, all;
To thee, though our lips cannot utter a word.
Our spirits are singing in rapture unheard;
For 'tis part of thy magic — thy beauty- wrought spell —
What thou whisperest to us we never can tell.
Sweet Glen of the Rainbow, to thee there are given.
As fresh as the day when they sprang into birth.
All the joys and the graces we love most of earth.
And the sunlight flings o'er thee the glories of heaven.
So the Nameless now drink from thy pleasure-brimmed chalice.
And pledge thee the rainbow-ideal of valleys —
A Beulah, where thrice happy mortals that see thee
Forget all their care, for thy waters are Lethe,
And we shout and rejoice that thou art what thou art —
The beautiful home of a beautiful heart.
This from Henry R. Howland: —
We sat on the lawn, 'neath the shade of the trees.
And read of Ulysses, far-sailing;
Of the rare lotus lands, mid those isles of the seas.
Whose slumberous joys were ne'er failing;
Yet surely the odors that breathed o'er them there.
Their dream-laden pleasures bestowing.
Scarce could bring to the heart such a surcease of care
As our Glen, with enchantment o'erflowing;
CO
w
o
H
<
o
s
X
H
GLEN IRIS 59
For soft-murmuring waters, and odors of balm.
Delights of the eye without ceasing.
Lull our senses to rest with their magical calm.
Their pure, gentle spell ne'er releasing;
And sweeter than songs sung by sirens of old.
Or sea-fairies' music delighting.
Are the voices that reach us from river and wold
To new blissful pleasures inviting ;
Yet we listen and hear in their quiet refrain
The song of the sea-fairies sung o'er again —
** Who can light on so happy a shore
All the world o'er, all the world o'er ? "
This from Miss Annie R. Annan (Mrs. Will-
iam H. Glenny) : —
O, WHERE DO YOU COME FROM, SUNSHINE
SWEET ?
O, where do you come from, sunshine sweet ?
For dark is the street, —
Blessing my eyes with a swift rare gleam.
Whose light and shadow all mingled seem
Of the green woods and the white of spray, —
Yet the day is gray !
And whence do you come, O haunting rhyme ?
Unmeet for the time ;
With your '* Sweetest eyes" and '* The Old Canoe,"
Till the good old faith again seems true —
Life is not prose, though to duties wed;
Nor the poets dead.
6o WILLIAM PRYOR LETCHWORTH
I am the ghost of the sunshine born
At the Glen one morn ;
And I, the echo of song and rhyme
That, dying not with the dying time.
Gives life the rhythm and color of May —
Makes the day less gray.
And these stanzas, culled from a "* Name-
less' Anniversary Poem," by Miss Amanda T.
Jones: —
For when the days were in their rosiest bloom
We shook away the dust of city marts ;
And with a happy sense of lightened hearts.
Let fall awhile our heavy weights of gloom.
Right princely was our welcome to the wood.
The green-roofed paths, the valley and the flood.
And to the generous board and tasteful room !
We trod the dim cool windings of the trail
That through the forest led to sacred nooks.
Where lightly laughed the ever-raptured brooks.
And the mitchella repens blossomed, pale
From love of shade and rich excess of dew ;
Where pulsed the bubbling spring, and downward threw.
From tiny heights, its moss-entangled veil.
O home of peace ! O cedar-bowered land —
Glistening Glen Iris, beautiful as heaven!
O cloven hills, by flood or earthquake riven!
O riotous stream, impetuous and grand!
GLEN IRIS 6i
There while we dwelt, gay laugh and mimic feud
Our youth revived, our childhood half renewed.
And knit, forever one, our songful band.
Mr. Gray, in his description of the Glen, speaks
of the railway bridge as stretching "like a vast
portal " across " the upper and sole The railway
visible approach " to it. This has bridge
reference to the original timber-built bridge,
which was a wonderfully effective adjunct of the
scenery, filling, as it did, the whole opening be-
tween the walls of the river by the lattice-like
structure of its timber trestles, and seeming to
be just a great gate, hung with no other design
than to shut out the external world. The pre-
sent light structure of steel has nothing of that
effect.
The old bridge, a famous piece of engineer-
ing work in its day, and said to have contained
the entire product of two hundred and forty-six
acres of pine timber, was opened to use, with a
good deal of ceremony, in August, 1852. It was
destroyed by fire in the first week of May, 1875.
As can easily be imagined, the burning of this
mighty mass of pine wood, in such a setting,
offered a spectacle that may never have had its
like, and which few were privileged to see. For-
tunately, Mr. Letchworth was one of the few,
62 WILLIAM PRYOR LETCH WORTH
and he wrote an account of it for the Buffalo
Courier. The fire was discovered by a watchman
at the bridge, about one o'clock in the morn-
ing. It was not until three hours later that Mr.
Letchworth became aware of it ; but it had then
just seized the whole great frame.
I was aroused from sleep [he wrote] at ten minutes
to four o'clock, and in a iew minutes was standing on
the lawn at Glen Iris, from which point every portion
of the bridge was visible, as well as the Upper Falls,
the river, and the Middle Falls. The spectacle at pre-
cisely four o'clock was fearfully grand ; every timber
in the bridge seemed then to be ignited, and an open
network of fire was stretched across the upper end of
the valley. Above the bridge and touching its upper
line a black curtain hung down from the sky, its lower
edge belted with a murky fringe of fire. The hoarse
growl of the flames and the crackling of the timbers
sounded like a hurricane approaching through the for-
est. At this time the Upper Falls seemed dancing in a
silver light. The water in the river was glistening with
the bright glare thrown on it, and the whole valley of
Glen Iris was illuminated with tragic splendor. . . .
At fifteen minutes past four the superstructure of the
west end of the bridge sank downward, and the de-
pression rolled throughout its length to the east end
like the sinking of an ocean wave. The whole upper
structure, including the heavy T-rails, went down with
GLEN IRIS 63
a crashing sound. . . . Lighter portions of the frame-
work still remained. . . . Blazing timber still continued
to fall uninterruptedly, and the rocks, becoming heated,
exploded in loud and almost continuous bursts of sound.
. . . Burning fragments of the bridge fell all about the
upper end of the valley, covering the hill-sides. . . .
Probably the pine groves and every building in the
Glen Iris Valley would have been destroyed had the
leaves of the woods and the shingles of the buildings
been dry, — but they had been dampened by a recent
rain.
The beauties of Glen Iris were not the only
gifts that nature had endowed it with, and which
the timely interposition of Mr. Letch- g.^.^^ ^^^^j
worth saved from pillage and waste, wild plants
Naturalists, whose eyes went search- °^ ^® ^^^^
ing through the country for the good earth-
mother's caches of treasure, found many things
to reward them in this glen, even while it was
suffering the abuse of the axemen and the saw-
yers of the devouring mill. After it came under
careful protection it was a place which they loved
to explore. Judge Clinton, devotee of botany,
came often from Buffalo, to prowl through its
woods and fields and fill his " drum " with rare
or choice specimens of the native flora of New
York. Principal E. E. Fish,of the Bufl?"alo Pub-
64 WILLIAM PRYOR LETCHWORTH
lie School No. lo, lover and student of birds
and plants, was similarly attracted to the Glen.
In 1887 the latter contributed to one of the
daily newspapers of Buffalo a series of admir-
able papers on "Birds and Flowers," one of
which told of a visit to Portage that spring and
of what was found there. " By selecting Port-
age as the field to be explored," he said, " one
was sure to renew the acquaintance of many of
the rarer and more interesting birds." The re-
cital of his findings, especially in "the upper
Letchworth woods," fills the greater part of two
columns of interesting chat, in the course of
which he remarks : "Those acquainted with this
region know how rich and varied are the flora
and fauna. Later will come azaleas, pyrolas,
sweet-scented crab, several species of winter-
green, including the beautiful flowering one
with purple fringe, Mitchella, Clintonias, or-
chids, lady's slipper, fringed gentian, and many
others. The rare and interesting birds are
equally numerous. Within the radius of a hun-
dred yards I have found the nests of six of the
different species of thrushes."
Recently (in 1907), since the gift of the Glen
Iris property to the State of New York, the
head gardener of the New York Botanical Gar-
GLEN IRIS 65
den, Mr. George V. Nash, was delegated to visit
the ground and designate a number of the most
interesting species of trees for label-
. . Native trees
ling with their botanical and pop-
ular names. In his report, as quoted by the
American Scenic and Historic Preservation
Society in its thirteenth annual report, he
says : —
The object of my visit to this park was to name
and have properly labelled the trees in the vicinity of
the roads and paths which Mr. Letchworth has con-
structed and is constructing through this tract, that
the public may have easy access to all of its beauties.
One is at once struck here by the purity of the vege-
tation. By this I mean the almost entire absence of
plants not native to the tract. Even in the immediate
neighborhood of the house, where the open lawns
would permit of such treatment, but few extraneous
species are to be found. ... It is plain on all sides
that every attempt has been made to keep things as
nature made them. The arboreal vegetation is well
represented, and in one region, down near the lower
fall, inaccessible to the lumberman, on account of the
precipitous drop on one side and the raging waters
of the river on the other, are some large trees, perhaps
representing the original growth. I had a most enjoy-
able time for two days going over this tract. Of course
in that limited period it was not possible to make an
66 WILLIAM PRYOR LETCHWORTH
exhaustive study of the trees, my operations being
confined to the vicinity of paths. But here a large
proportion of the species must be represented. . . .
It would be an interesting work to prepare a list of
all the plants growing wild within the confines of this
park.
In the forestry of his Glen Iris estate, during
the half-century and more of his personal care
of it, Mr Letchworth, according to his own es-
timate, planted more than ten thousand trees.
To the scientific interest attaching to the
trees in the Glen, Mr. Letchworth added a per-
Memorial sonal interest, by introducing, in dif-
trees ferent parts of the grounds, many
"memorial trees," planted by relatives, friends
and visitors whose names he wished to associate
with the place. Among these are a Kentucky-
coffee tree, planted by Judge George W. Clin-
ton, son of Governor De Witt Clinton, — one
of the warmest of the friends of Mr. Letchworth
and of the lovers of the Glen ; a white oak
planted by the late President Martin B. Ander-
son, of Rochester University, — a specially in-
timate associate of Mr. Letchworth on the State
Board of Charities; an elm by his honored
friend James O. Putnam, of Buffalo; a tulip
tree by F. B. Sanborn, the eminent social
GLEN IRIS 67
worker of Massachusetts ; a sweet gum tree by
Mr. S. C. Locke, of the Charity Organization
Society of London, England ; pine trees planted
by Sir William George Johnson and Captain
Charles Johnson, two grandsons of Sir Will-
iam Johnson, the Loyalist leader in New York
State preceding the War of the Revolution.
One group of trees growing near the old In-
dian Council House is connected in interest
with the holding of the Last Indian Council
on the Genesee, of which some account will be
given in the next chapter. They were planted
on the day of that ceremony, and spring from
roots that were brought from the graveyard
where Red Jacket and Mary Jemison, the cap-
tive white woman of the Senecas, were buried.
The planting of one of these was performed
by Mrs. Kate Osborn, a descendant of Captain
Brant, assisted by Millard Fillmore, ex-Presi-
dent of the United States ; another was placed
in the earth by John Jacket, a grandson of Red
Jacket; a third by Thomas Jemison, grandson
of Mary Jemison. Other trees memorialize
brothers, sisters, and other relatives of Mr.
Letchworth, or close friends, such as James N.
Johnston, David Gray, Henry R. Howland,
and others ; while some are in memory of his
68 WILLIAM PRYOR LETCHWORTH
colleagues of the State Board of Charities. A
differently interesting tree on the estate is of
a new variety of hawthorn, to which Professor
Charles S. Sargent gave the name Crataegus
Letchworthiana^ in honor of the master of Glen
Iris.
Practically, Mr. Letchworth continued to be
a Buffalonian to the end of his life, maintaining
unimpaired relations with the city and all of its
best interests; but he identified himself, never-
theless, very fully and closely with the com-
munities of the neighborhood in which he had
now planted his home. He took pains to make
acquaintance with his new neighbors ; he estab-
lished understandings with the local authorities
of county and town, and became cooperative
with them, in highway and other improvements,
securing an influence that was soon working
good effects in the country round.
One of the first of the neighborhood interests
that drew his attention was that of the schools.
Mr. Letch- ^^ early as the nth of February,
worth and i860, we find him in correspondence
the schools ^jj.j^ ^he principal of the Portageville
and Castile Union School, arranging for a pro-
vision of prizes, in books and silver medals, to
GLEN IRIS 69
be awarded to the pupils most proficient in
penmanship, arithmetic, spelling, composition,
reading, declamation, grammar, geography, his-
tory, philosophy, chemistry and algebra. Sub-
sequently he established money prizes of twenty
and fifteen dollars in the Genesee Wesleyan
Seminary, to be awarded yearly for "general
scholarship." In 1861, on the 2d of June, he
entertained the school-children of Portageville
and Pike at a flag-raising on his lawn. He vis-
ited the schools at intervals, as his father had
done, and sought in many ways to be helpful in
stimulating their work. Miss Caroline Bishop,
who became, for many years, his secretary and
executive assistant at Glen Iris, was a school-
girl at this time, attending at a district school-
house which "stood on a small plateau on the
bank of the river" at some distance northward
from the Glen Iris residence. In a paper writ-
ten for the Wyoming Historical Pioneer Asso-
ciation, Miss Bishop has told of Mr, Letch-
worth's "frequent visits " to that school, and of
the many useful lessons he taught.
Among others [she says] I distinctly recall a lesson
on the use of the word " awful," suggested by hearing
from the lips of one of the pupils the expression "aw-
ful cold"; and a lesson which he gave us in geogra-
70 WILLIAM PRYOR LETCHWORTH
phy, by drawing on the blackboard a map of Wyoming
County with its sixteen townships represented and the
Genesee River forming a portion of the boundary on
the eastern side. With the questions and explanations
that followed we soon began to realize that Wyoming
County was one of the geographical divisions of the
earth, and that our playground and our fathers' farms
formed a part of the subject which before had seemed
far off and difficult to understand. He provided for
our enjoyment and instruction books of melodies de-
signed especially for children, and placed in the school
room for our benefit a new cabinet organ of Prince &
Co.'s manufacture. When the old school house be-
came too dilapidated for use in winter he prepared for
us a comfortable and attractive room in a building
which stood near the entrance to the Glen Iris grounds.
He invited us to his home and prepared entertainments
for us, and stimulated our ambition, as well as that of the
pupils of the Castile and Portageville schools, by prizes
which he repeatedly offered for good conduct, proficiency
in spelling and reading, and the greatest progress made
during a specified time in penmanship and mathematics.
Miss Bishop adds: —
His interest in the welfare of young persons was not
confined to children in the schools. In one of the
bank pass books is a considerable list of items — each
five dollars — paid to newsboys and boys in orphan
asylums who had started a bank account.
GLEN IRIS 71
As he showed in the devotion of his later life
to work for them, children were, to him, the
most precious possessions of the world, and the
objects of the most sacred responsibility. From
his first acquisition of Glen Iris, as will be shown
later, he was planning to make it a gift to child-
ren in the future, — a bit of Paradise in which
large companies of them, for many generations,
might have a rearing, a health and a happiness
of life which their parental homes could not
afford to them. It was not with self-indulgent
designs that Glen Iris was so eagerly sought, so
perseveringly acquired, so laboriously made what
it came to be in his hands.
CHAPTER III
PRESERVING THE MEMORIALS OF GENESEE
VALLEY HISTORY
The valley of the Genesee, especially in the
middle region which embraces Glen Iris, has a
remarkably interesting early history, from the
time of the white man's first acquaintance with
it until he took it from the red man and made
it his own. It was the seat of the Seneca Nation,
the westernmost of the tribes of the Iroquois
Confederacy ; and the Senecas were active allies
of the British and the Tories in the Revolu-
tionary War. Events connected with that war,
especially with Sullivan's expedition against the
Senecas, in 1779, and subsequently with the buy-
ing of the Seneca lands and the removal of the
tribe from the region, put the stamp of historic
interest on many places in the neighborhood of
Mr. Letchworth's home. They engaged his at-
tention, and led him to an interest in Indian
history which he does not seem to have felt
before. He was troubled on finding that relics
and mementos of the aboriginal possessors of
GENESEE VALLEY HISTORY 73
the valley, still existing, were treated with neg-
lect and were fast disappearing. As soon as he
became free, in some degree, from immediately
pressing demands on him, he made it part of
his public duty to repair this neglect, to the ex-
tent that he could do so, by action of his own
and by cooperation with others of like mind. In
these undertakings he had much encouragement
and stimulation from some of his closer friends,
especially William C. Bryant, Henry R. How-
land and O. H. Marshall, who shared his inter-
est in Indian history.
The most interesting historical relic in the
Genesee Valley was the ancient Council House
of the Seneca Nation, which stood
1 -1 -I r ^1 T • "T^® ancient
about eighteen miles from Lrlen Ins, seneca
in the village of Caneadea. For many Council
years after the Senecas left the Gene-
see Country this building, of hewn logs, which
had been their parliament house, — their capi-
tol, — supplied a habitation to the white farmer
who tilled the surrounding land. It had long
been out of use, however, and was falling into
decay, when Mr. Letchworth, in the fall of 1 871,
acquired title to it and had it removed, for pre-
servation, to his own grounds. It was an antiq-
uity when the first white settlers came into the
74 WILLIAM PRYOR LETCH WORTH
valley, and tradition had preserved little more
of its history than the fact that it had long been
the rendezvous of the nation, for councils, for
the planning and preparation of warlike expe-
ditions and for festive celebrations of victory.
According to some opinions it saw the starting
and the return of the Seneca war-party which
had to do with what is known as the massacre
of Wyoming. From a little volume published
many years ago in western New York, recount-
ing the life and adventures of Major Moses Van
Campen, who won renown in the Revolutionary
War, the following incident connected with this
council house was derived by Mr. Gray, in the
article already referred to : —
In the spring of 1782, Van Campen, then a young
officer in the Continental army, was captured on the
upper waters of the Susquehanna by a party of Iro-
quois in command of a British lieutenant. Narrowly
escaping the usual death of prisoners by torture, he
and several of his soldiers were led by forced marches
through the forest to Caneadea. Their arrival was the
occasion of a savage jubilee, and the amiable villagers
straightway demanded for themselves the customary
privilege of causing the captives, in Iroquois fashion,
to run the gauntlet. The course selected was about
forty rods in length, and the council house, as was
GENESEE VALLEY HISTORY 75
usual on such occasions, was designated as the goal
and place of refuge of the runners. Close behind them
and on each side of their path crowded the population
of the village, young and old, and of both sexes, armed
with cudgels and long whips, the warriors alone re-
maining dignified spectators of the scene. The signal
was given, and the indomitable Van Campen darted
ofF first, as nimble as a deer. The armed mob closed
quickly upon him, and his case would have been de-
sperate but for a bold coup to which he had resort.
Directly in his track stood two stout young squaws,
waiting their chance to strike the captive. Squarely at
them, as if shot from a catapult, he threw himself, and
with such effect that both were pitched headlong, and
described several somersaults on their way to the ground.
The absurd spectacle was too much, alike for Indian
dignity and ferocity, and, amidst yells of uncontrol-
lable laughter on the part of the crowd, the captives
made their way easily to the council house.
Another mention in the scant chronicles of the fron-
tier contributes still further to render Caneadea classic.
It was the place where Mary Jemison, "the White
Woman of the Genesee," a name famous in the early
annals of western New York, halted for a day to rest
in her weary pilgrimage to the Genesee Country.
Something of the Interesting story of this
woman will appear later in the present chapter.
In Mr. Letchworth's rescue of the ancient
76 WILLIAM PRYOR LETCHWORTH
Council House of the Senecas from destruction,
by removing it from Caneadea to Glen Iris, it
hardly needs to be said that the removal was
effected with "almost religious care," — using
the words of Mr. Gray. At Glen Iris "the tim-
bers, duly marked, were reerected in precisely
their ancient order, and the edifice, carefully
and exactly restored to its original condition,
may easily survive another century." It is of
the customary form of the " long house " of the
Iroquois — about fifty feet in length by twenty
in width. "The walls of the Glen Iris edifice,
formed of pine logs, smoothly hewn and neatly
dove-tailed at the corners, are carried up to the
height of twelve or thirteen feet, without win-
dows, the only openings in the original building
having been two doors, opening to west and
east respectively, and two smoke vents near the
centre of the roof. The roof-covering is of split
'shakes' [large split shingles] secured by trans-
verse poles, which, again, are fastened at each
end by twisted withes."
Having restored to its historic dignity this
primitive parliament-house of an extinct nation.
The last In- M^- Letchworth was fortunately able
dian council to attach a new distinction to it and
a final memory, by bringing about, on the ist
'Ji
ID
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a
J
o
a
S
H
GENESEE VALLEY HISTORY 77
of October, 1872, a remarkable assembly of
representative Senecas and Mohawks, descend-
ants from famous chiefs and notable personages
in Indian history, to light once more the coun-
cil fire in the ancient hall, and sit round it in
grave exchange of speech, as in the ancient
days. These two nations of the Iroquois Con-
federacy had been estranged from one another
since the War of 1812, when the Mohawks,
settled in Canada, were in arms for the British,
and were met in battle by the Senecas, who
fought on the American side. The enmity then
kindled had never quite been extinguished,
and it was not without some difficulty that their
leading people were now brought together, to
give a reconciliatory significance to this " Last
Indian Council on the Genesee."
The Indians who came were nineteen in num-
ber, of men, and they were accompanied by sev-
eral women, who took no part, of course, in the
proceedings of the day. The Mohawk Nation
sent a single male representative. Colonel Sim-
coe Kerr; but he, grandson of the famous
Joseph Brant, and great-grandson of Sir William
Johnson, was not only the highest of Mohawk
chiefs, but looked up to by all of Indian blood
in Canada as their foremost man. His sister,
78 WILLIAM PRYOR LETCHWORTH
Mrs. Osborn, came with Colonel Kerr. Among
the Senecas present were grandsons of Red
Jacket and Cornplanter, — the two chiefs of
greatest renown in such part of Seneca history
as connects with that of the whites, — and two
grandsons of "the white woman," Mary Jemi-
son. One of these latter, Thomas Jemison,
bore her name, while the other, James Shongo,
had that of "Colonel Shongo," who is thought
to have been a leading actor in the tragedy of
Wyoming. Other notables of the assembled
Council were Nicholas H. Parker, a grand-
nephew of Red Jacket and brother of General
Ely S. Parker, who served on the staff of Gen-
eral Grant in the Civil War; William Black-
snake, whose grandfather, known as " Governor
Blacksnake," lived on the Alleghany Reserv-
ation to be considerably more than a century
old, and William and Jesse Tallchief, whose
grandfather, Tallchief, had his home at Murray
Hill, near Mount Morris, and was highly es-
teemed.
The account which follows, of incidents and
speeches at the Council, is quoted from an inter-
esting paper contributed to the publications of
the Buffalo Historical Society (volume vi) by
Mr. Henry R. Howland, who was present, as
GENESEE VALLEY HISTORY 79
one of the guests of Mr. Letchworth, and who
wrote from notes made at the time: —
Some of the invited guests had come on the pre-
vious day, and when the morning train arrived from
Buffalo the old King George cannon on the upper
plateau thundered its welcome, as once it was wont
to wake the echoes from the fortress of Quebec, and
all climbed the hill to the spot where the ancient
Council House stood with open doors to receive
them. They were the lookers on who found their
places at one end of the council hall, where rustic seats
awaited them, save that in a suitable and more digni-
fied chair was seated the former President of the Re-
public, Hon. Millard Fillmore, whose gracious and
kindly presence — that of a snowy-haired gentleman
of the old school — honored the occasion.
The holders of the council were "robed and ready."
Upon the clay floor in the centre of the building
burned the bright council fire, and as the blue smoke
curled upward it found its way through the opening in
the roof to mingle with the haze of the October day.
Upon low benches around the fire sat the red-skinned
children of the Ho-de-no-sau-nee [People of the
Long House] who had gathered from the Cattaraugus
and the Allegheny and from the Grand River in
Canada as well ; for on that day, for the first time in more
than seventy years, the Mohawks sat in council with the
Senecas. They were for the most part clad in such
8o WILLIAM PRYOR LETCHWORTH
costumes as their fathers wore in the olden days, and
many of the buckskin garments, bright sashes and
great necklaces of silver or bone and beads, were
heirlooms of the past, as were the ancient tomahawk
pipes which were gravely smoked, while their owners
sat in rapt and decorous attention as one after another
their orators addressed them. No sight could be more
picturesque. . . . Colonel Kerr . . . wore the
chieftain's dress in which he had been presented to
Queen Victoria: a suit of soft, dark, smoke-tanned
buckskin with deep fringes, a rich sash, and a cap of
doeskin with long, straight plumes from an eagle's
wing. He carried Brant's tomahawk in his belt. . . .
For a short time these children of time-honored
sachems and chiefs sat and smoked in dignified silence,
as became so grave an occasion, and when the proper
moment had arrived, as prescribed by the decorum of
Indian observance, one of their number arose and, fol-
lowing the ceremonial method of the ancient custom,
announced in formal words and in the Seneca tongue
that the council fire had been lighted, and that the
ears of those who were convened in council were now
opened to listen to what might be said to them. Re-
suming his seat, there was a moment of quiet waiting,
as if in expectation, and then the opening speech was
made by Nicholson H. Parker, Ga-yeh-twa-geh. . . .
Mr. Parker was a tall, well-built man, with a fine clear
face not unlike that of his distinguished brother. Around
his sleeves above the elbows and at the wrists were
GENESEE VALLEY HISTORY 8i
wide bands of beaded embroidery, and, besides a long-
fringed woven belt of bright colors, he wore an ample
shoulder scarf that was also richly embroidered. His
tomahawk pipe was one that had belonged to Red
Jacket. Mr. Parker was a well educated man, had
served as United States interpreter with his people,
and was a recognized leader among them.
All of the speeches made in the council that day,
until it approached its close, were in the Seneca lan-
guage, which is without labials, very guttural, and yet
with a music of its own, capable of much inflection
and by no means monotonous. Its sentences seemed
short and their utterance slow and measured, with many
evidences of the earnest feeling aroused by the un-
wonted occasion and its associations with the past,
and, as each speaker in turn touched some responsive
chord in the breasts of his hearers, they responded with
that deep guttural ejaculation of approval which can-
not be written in any syllable of English phrasing.
Many of the orators spoke at great length, and it is
unfortunate that the full texts could not be preserved.
Such portions as we have of three or four of the prin-
cipal speeches were taken down after the council from
the lips of the speakers themselves ; they are, however,
but brief epitomes of their full orations.
The reported part of Nicholson Parker's
speech shows it to have been full of dignity
and eloquent feeling, most appropriate to the
82 WILLIAM PRYOR LETCHWORTH
occasion and the place. He ended it by say-
ing : —
Brothers, we are holding council, perhaps for the
last time, in Jenisheu [the native form of the name
Genesee, signifying "The Beautiful Valley"]. This
beautiful territory was once our own. The bones of
our fathers are strewn thickly under its sod. But all
this land has gone from their grasp forever. The fate
and the sorrows of my people should force a sigh from
the stoutest heart.
Brothers, we came here to perform a ceremony, but
I cannot make it such. My heart says that this is not
a play or a pageant. It is a solemn reality to me, and
not a mockery of days that are past and can never re-
turn. Neh-hoh — this is all.
Thomas Jemison, or Sho-son-do-want, spoke
with the same gravity, but in a somewhat less
saddened tone.
I am an old man [he said], and well remember when
our people lived in this valley. I was born in a wig-
wam on the banks of this river. I well remember my
grandmother, " The White Woman," of whom you
have all heard. I remember when our people were
rich in lands and respected by the whites. Our fathers
knew not the value of these lands, and parted with
them for a trifle. The craft of the white man prevailed
over their ignorance and simplicity. We have lost a
GENESEE VALLEY HISTORY 83
rich inheritance ; but it is vain to regret the past. Let
us make the most of what little is left to us.
Nevertheless his thoughts went back to the
days of Iroquois power, and carried him into
some briefly retrospective remarks, which he
closed by saying: —
Brothers, these are painful thoughts. It is painful
to think that in the course of two generations there
will not be an Iroquois of unmixed blood within the
bounds of our State ; that our race is doomed, and that
our language and history will soon perish from the
thoughts of men. But it is the will of the Great Spirit,
and doubtless it is well.
Most picturesque of all who lingered around that
dying council fire [says Mr. Howland] was the figure
of old Solomon O'Bail, " Ho-way-no-ah," the grand-
son of that wisest of Seneca chiefs, John O'Bail," Ga-
yant-hwah-geh," better known as Cornplanter. His
strong, rugged face, deeply seamed with the furrows
of advancing age, was typical of his race and of his
ancestry, and was expressive of a remarkable charac-
ter. His dress was of smoke-tanned buckskin with
side fringes, and all a-down his leggings were fastened
little hawk-bells, which tinkled as he walked. Shoulder-
sash and belt were embroidered with oldtime beadwork,
and around his arm above the elbows were broad bands
or armlets of silver. From his ears hung large silver
pendants and, strangest of all his decorations, deftly
84 WILLIAM PRYOR LETCHWORTH
wrought long ago by some aboriginal silversmith, was
a large silver nose-piece that almost hid his upper lip.
His headdress was an heirloom made of wild-turkey
feathers fastened to the cap with such cunning skill
that they turned and twinkled with every movement of
his body.
He had been an attentive listener to all who had
spoken, and as the memories of the past were awak-
ened, the significance of the occasion filled his heart
and the expression of his honest face showed that he
was deeply moved. Especially significant to him was
the presence at this council fire of the Mohawk chief,
Colonel Kerr, and the burden of his soul was that the
broken friendship of the League should be once more
restored. His speech was the most dramatic incident
of the day. It ended with these words : —
" In the last war with England the Mohawks met
us as foes on the warpath. For seventy-five years their
place has been vacant at our council fires. They left
us when we were strong, a nation of warriors, and they
left us in anger. Brothers, we are now poor and weak.
There are none who fear us or court our influence.
We are reduced to a handful, and have scarce a place
to spread our blankets in the vast territory owned by
our fathers. But in our poverty and desolation our
long-estranged brothers, the Mohawks, have come back
to us. The vacant seats are filled again, although
the council fire of our nation is little more than a
heap of ashes. Let us stir its dying embers, that by
GENESEE VALLEY HISTORY 85
their light we may see the faces of our brothers once
more.
" Brothers, my heart is gladdened by seeing a grand-
son of that great chief Thay-en-dan-ega-ga-onh [Cap-
tain Brant] at our council fire. His grandfather often
met our fathers in council when the Six Nations were
one people and were happy and strong. In grateful
remembrance of that nation and that great warrior,
and in token of buried enmity, I will extend my hand
to our Mohawk brother. May he feel that he is our
brother and that we are brethren."
The Indian character is reticent and hides the out-
ward evidence of deep feeling as unmanly ; but as the
aged man spoke the tears rolled down his furrowed
cheeks, and as he turned and held out his beseeching,
friendly hand to the haughty Mohawk, strong ejacul-
ations of approval broke from the lips of all his dusky
brethren. With visible emotion Colonel Kerr arose
and warmly grasped the outstretched palm. " My
brother," said he, " I am glad to take your hand, once
more held out, in the clasp of friendship ; the Senecas
and the Mohawks now are both my people." " My
brother," said O'Bail, " may the remembrance of this
day never fade from our minds or from the hearts of
our descendants."
As speaker after speaker had addressed the council,
the hours slipped swiftly by, and only the embers of
the fire still glowed, when, at a pause towards the
close, there came a surprise for all who were present,
86 WILLIAM PRYOR LETCHWORTH
as one of the palefaced guests quietly arose and, step-
ping to the circle of redskinned orators, spoke to them
in their own tongue. It was the tall figure of Orlando
Allen of Buffalo, then in his seventieth year, who ad-
dressed the Council. Mr. Allen, who came to Buffalo
when a boy, had had much to do with the Senecas of
the neighboring reservation in his early years, and ac-
quired then a command of their language which he
had not wholly lost. Using it now in a few words of
greeting and introduction he turned to English speech,
and gave interesting reminiscences of the Senecas of
the last generation whom he had known.
When Mr. Allen had ended his interesting address,
President Fillmore, with a few kindly words, presented,
on behalf of Mr. Letchworth, a specially prepared sil-
ver medal to each of those who had taken part in the
council. . . . This ceremony ended, Nicholson Parker,
who made the opening speech, arose, and in a few
words, gravely and softly spoken in his native tongue,
formally closed the council. Then turning to the white
guests, whom he addressed as his younger brothers, he
spoke the farewell words — ending thus ; " The H6-
de-no-sau-nee, the People of the Long House, are scat-
tered hither and yon ; their league no longer exists,
and you who are sitting here to-day have seen the last
of the confederated Iroquois. We have raked the ashes
over our fire and have closed the last council of our
people in the valley of our fathers." As he ended, his
voice faltered with an emotion which was shared by all
GENESEE VALLEY HISTORY 87
present. He had spoken the last words for his people,
fraught with a tender pathos that touched the hearts
of those who heard him with a feeling of that human
brotherhood in which, " whatever may be our color or
our gifts," we are all alike kin.
For a few moments there was a becoming silence,
and then David Gray — name beloved of all who
knew him — the poet-editor of the " Buffalo Courier,"
rose and read
THE LAST INDIAN COUNCIL ON THE
GENESEE
The fire sinks low; the drifting smoke
Dies softly in the autumn haze.
And silent are the tongues that spoke
The speech of other days.
Gone, too, the dusky ghosts whose feet
But now yon listening thicket stirred;
Unscared within its covert meet
The squirrel and the bird.
The story of the past is told;
But thou, O Valley, sweet and lone, —
Glen of the rainbow, — thou shalt hold
Its romance as thine own!
Thoughts of thine ancient forest prime
Shall sometimes tinge thy summer dreams.
And shape to low poetic rhyme
The music of thy streams.
88 WILLIAM PRYOR LETCHWORTH
When Indian Summer flings her cloak
Of brooding azure on the woods.
The pathos of a vanished folk
Shall haunt thy solitudes.
The blue smoke of their fires, once more.
Far o'er the hills shall seem to rise.
And sunset's golden clouds restore
The red man's paradise.
Strange sounds of a forgotten tongue
Shall cling to many a crag and cave.
In wash of fallen waters sung.
Or murmur of the wave.
And, oft, in midmost hush of night.
Still o'er the deep-mouthed cataract's roar.
Shall ring the war-cry, from the height.
That woke the wilds of yore.
Sweet Vale, more peaceful bend thy skies.
Thy airs be fraught with rarer balm!
A people's busy tumult lies
Hushed in thy sylvan calm.
Deep be thy peace! while fancy frames
Soft idyls of thy dwellers fled; —
They loved thee, called thee gentle names.
In the long summers dead.
Quenched is the fire; the drifting smoke
Has vanished in the autumn haze.
Gone, too, O Vale, the simple folk
Who loved thee in old days.
GENESEE VALLEY HISTORY 89
But, for their sakes, — their lives serene.
Their loves, perchance as sweet as ours, —
Oh, be thy woods for aye more green.
And fairer bloom thy flowers.
It was the fitting close to a memorable day.
To these concluding words of Mr. Rowland,
is it going beyond the truth to add that Mr.
Gray had sung the requiem of the Senecas in
the most exquisite verse that the fate of the red
men has ever called forth?
Some hours after the closing of the cere-
monies of the council, Mr. Letchworth, yield-
ing to an earnest request of his Indian guests,
was formally adopted and initiated by them into
the Seneca Nation, and given the name "Hai-
wa-ye-is-tah," which was interpreted as signify-
ing "The Man who always does Right" — or
"the Right Thing."
As will have been noted in the preceding
account, the descendants of Mary Jemison,
"the white woman," had their place ^^^ ^^_
of distinction among the chiefs; and son, "the
she was, indeed, a notable character White Wo-
in the history of the Seneca Nation.
The story of her life with the Indians, first as a
90 WILLIAM PRYOR LETCHWORTH
captive, from childhood, and then as a freely
willing member of their community, interested
Mr. Letchworth greatly. He conceived a high
estimate of her character, and had pleasure in giv-
ing permanence to memorials of her remarkable
association with the Seneca dwellers on the
Genesee. She was a daughter of immigrants,
probably from Ireland, though her knowledge
of their nativity was uncertain, and was born at
sea during their voyage, in 1742 or 1743. Her
father took a farm on the western border of Penn-
sylvania, and, according to her remembrance of
the parental home, the family prospered and
were happy for several years. Then came sudden
destruction to this hopeful household, almost
at the first stroke of the cruel French and Indian
War, in 1755. A band of six Indians and four
Frenchmen came upon the family on a pleasant
day of that spring, and seized all but the two
older sons, who escaped. For two days the cap-
tives were together, dragged in a hurried march
through the wilderness; but on the second
night, when they camped, Mary and a little boy
from another family were taken apart from the
rest, and she never saw any of her kin again.
She learned afterwards that her father, mother,
a sister, and two brothers were killed that night.
GENESEE VALLEY HISTORY 91
Mary was taken to the French Fort Du
Quesne, where Pittsburg was founded a little
later, and there her captors, who were Indians
of the Shawnee tribe, gave her to two squaws
of the Seneca Nation, who lived in a Seneca
village farther down the Ohio River. These
women were mourning the death of a brother,
lately slain, and they solaced their grief for him
by adopting this child, to be their sister. They
treated her with fond kindness, and made her
life as happy as they could. So, too, as her own
account represents, did the husband, a Dela-
ware Indian, to whom they gave her some years
later and with whom she lived until she had
borne two children, to one of whom she gave
her father's name, Thomas Jemison, and his
descendants are still carrying down that name.
She described her first Indian husband as hav-
ing been a noble man, who won her love. She
parted from him presently, however, to visit
her Indian sisters, who had gone northward
from the Ohio two years before, to join their
mother and other relatives at the main settle-
ment of the Seneca people, at Gen-nis-he-yo,
"the beautiful valley" of the river which we,
keeping the Indian name imperfectly, call the
Genesee. With two Indian brothers she made the
92 WILLIAM PRYOR LETCHWORTH
longjourney of some hundreds of miles on foot,
carrying her youngest child on her back, in the
Indian way; and she arrived at Gen-nis-he-yo
in good health. Her husband was to have fol-
lowed her in the next spring after their parting;
but he did not come, and after some months
she learned that he had died. Two or three
years later she married again. Her second hus-
band, named Hiokatoo, must have been more
than twice her age, but she lived with him until
1811, when he died at the reputed age of 103.
He was said to be a merciless savage warrior,
whose cruelties shocked her; but he treated her
with kindness and she spoke well of him to
her friends.
Excepting at the time of General Sullivan's
expedition against the Senecas, in 1779, when
the Genesee Valley was devastated by his army,
Mary Jemison appears to have lived in what
had become a state of comfort to her, and was
so fairly contented that she refused opportuni-
ties, when they came, to exchange it for a life
with people of her own race. The red men were
now her people; she identified herself with them,
and they held her in profound respect. At their
great " Big Tree Council," in 1797, they granted
to her by deed a magnificent tract of the choic-
GENESEE VALLEY HISTORY 93
est land in the Genesee Valley, containing
nearly eighteen thousand acres, measuring, east
and west, more than six miles in length, with a
width of more than four and three fourths miles,
having the Genesee River running through it.
It was a tract of her own choosing, and included
the ground on which she had lived since the
Sullivan invasion of the valley. It was known
in her day and is still known as the Gardeau
Tract or Reservation. In 1823 she was induced
to sell most of this superb estate to white pur-
chasers, who guaranteed to her and her succes-
sors forever a yearly payment of three hundred
dollars. A little later, when most of the Sene-
cas had sold their lands in the valley and left
it, to settle on other reservations, — Buffalo
Creek, Tonawanda or Cattaraugus, — Mary
Jemison grew lonely in the midst of white
neighbors, and she not only sold her remaining
lands, but gave up her annuity for some moder-
ate payment of money in hand. With the pro-
ceeds she came to Buffalo and established a
home for herself and for a married daughter,
with the latter's husband, George Shongo, and
five grandchildren. In some transaction with a
white man whom she trusted, her little capital
was soon lost, and she was dependent thereafter
94 WILLIAM PRYOR LETCHWORTH
on her son-in-law and daughter for support.
She died in September, 1833, aged ninety or
ninety-one years.
The facts of Mary Jemison's extraordinary
life were obtained from her and first published
in 1824, by James E. Seaver, of Batavia, New
York. In an introduction to the narrative, Mr.
Seaver remarked that her first association "with
moral, social, civilized man, from the time of
her childhood," may be dated at 1797, when
the Indian lands on the Genesee were sold and
white settlers began to come into them. "Still,"
he adds, "she had retained her native language
with great purity, and had treasured up and
constantly kept in her own breast all those mo-
ral and social virtues by the precepts of which
civilized society professes to be guided. . . .
In all her actions [she] discovered so much
natural goodness of heart that her admirers in-
creased in proportion to the extension of her
acquaintance." Mrs. Asher Wright, whose long
missionary labors, with her husband, among
the Indians of western New York are well
known, saw Mary Jemison in the last year of
the latter's life, and gathered much information
about her, from which she drew this conclusion:
"From all that I have learned of her, from
GENESEE VALLEY HISTORY 95
those who were, for years, contemporary with
her, she possessed great fortitude and self-con-
trol; was cautious and prudent in all her con-
duct; had a kind and tender heart; was hospi-
table and generous and faithful in all her duties
as a wife and mother."
The original edition of Mary Jemison's
autobiography, as put into writing by Mr.
Seaver, is now one of the rarest of American
books. A number of reprints and abridgments
were published, in this country and in England,
prior to 1877, when Mr. Letchworth acquired
ownership of the plates of one of these, which
had been edited, in 1856, by the eminent stu-
dent of Indian History, Mr. Lewis H. Mor-
gan, of Rochester. Mr. Letchworth then pub-
lished an edition, with appendices of important
new matter, contributed by William C. Bryant
and Mrs. Asher Wright, and he republished
the same in 1898, and again in 1910.
The removal of the ancient Seneca Council
House from the farm at Caneadea, where it was
exposed to destruction, to a promi-
nent site m (jlen Ins, was but the son memo-
beginning of proceedings by Mr. rials at Glen
Letchworth to save and to bring to- *^
gether, in that same place, what could be saved
96 WILLIAM PRYOR LETCHWORTH
of the fast disappearing relics of the Senecas, in
the time of their lordship on and around the
Genesee. Presently, a log house or cabin that
had been built by Mary Jemison while she lived
on the Gardeau Tract, for one of her married
daughters, was brought over and placed near
the Council House, at the entrance of an en-
closure which holds both. Then, on the yth of
March, 1874, the remains of Mary Jemison
were disinterred from the Indian Mission burial
ground at Buffalo and deposited in a new grave,
between the two buildings just named. Some
displacement of these remains from their orig-
inal grave was impending, as a consequence of
the opening of a street through the burial ground
at Buffalo, and the most fitting of places to re-
ceive them was that which Mr. Letch worth gave.'
At the head of the grave he erected a tasteful
monument, having on one side the inscription
which the original gravestone had borne, and
on the other side a second one reciting the facts
' Recently the remainder of the old Indian burial ground,
not taken for a street, has been purchased by Mr. and Mrs.
John D. Larkin, and given to the city for the purposes of a small
public park. A brief record of its history, inscribed on a bronze
tablet, is about to be fixed durably to a boulder placed on the
ground.
GENESEE VALLEY HISTORY 97
of the removal. The original gravestone, much
mutilated, is preserved in the adjacent cabin.
But Mr. Letchworth was contemplating a still
higher honor to pay to the memory of Mary
Jemison. As early as September, 1876, he wrote
to a Dr. Munson, of Independence, Ohio, say-
ing : " I am contemplating causing to be made a
statue in bronze of ' The White Woman,' Mary
Jemison. ... I address you, having been in-
formed that you have a retentive memory of
her," and he asked Dr. Munson to give inform-
ation as to her figure, features, dress, etc., for
the guidance of the sculptor who might under-
take the work. A third of a century passed,
however, before this intention was fulfilled. But
Mr. Letchworth rarely failed, to do what his
mind had once decreed, and there was no fail-
ure in this. In the last year of his life, on the
19th of September, 1910, ten weeks before his
death, the long contemplated bronze statue of
Mary Jemison, erected on a pedestal near her
grave, was dedicated with appropriate ceremony,
under the auspices of the American Scenic and
Historic Preservation Society. It is a much ad-
mired, beautiful work of art, by the sculptor
Henry K. Bush-Brown, representing its subject
as a young woman, in her Indian garb, as she
98 WILLIAM PRYOR LETCHWORTH
must have appeared when she arrived at Gen-
nis-he-yo, carrying her infant child, in the Indian
mode, on her back.
The unveiHng of the statue was attended by
many of the officers of the American Scenic and
Historic Preservation Society, including its pre-
sident, Mr. George Frederick Kunz, of New
York; its secretary, Mr. Edward Hagaman
Hall, of New York; the chairman of its Letch-
worth Park Committee, the Honorable Charles
M. Dow, of Jamestown, New York, and two of
its trustees. Professor Liberty H. Bailey and
Mr. Charles Delameter Vail. Addresses were
made by each of these. Professor Arthur C.
Parker, of the New York State Museum, who
is a descendant of General Ely S. Parker, con-
ducted the unveiling of the statue. The Ameri-
can flag which draped it was withdrawn by Miss
Carlenia Bennett, assisted by Mrs. Thomas
Kennedy, both of these ladies tracing descent
from Mary Jemison.
On the morning following the unveiling an
Indian dedicatory ceremony took place, which
Professor Parker described in a subsequent let-
ter to Mr. Letchworth, as follows : —
The ancient rule is that only the closest of friends
and nearest of kin shall be at the graveside. Repre-
STATUE OF MARY JEMISON
GENESEE VALLEY HISTORY 99
senting you and your family were Miss Howland and
Miss Bishop ; representing the people of Mary Jemi-
son's natal soil [Ireland] and her parents was Mr. J.
N. Johnston ; and representing the Indian family and
her adopted nation were Mrs. Thomas Kennedy (nee
Sarah Jemison), called in Seneca Ga-wen-no-is, or
Outpouring Voice, Miss Carlenia Bennett, Ga-o-yo-
was, Sweeper of the Sky, and Arthur C. Parker, Ga-
wa-so-wa-neh, a descendant of Handsome Lake and
General Ely S. Parker.
The maiden was handed two ears of squaw corn by
Mrs. Kennedy and bidden to cast four handfuls of the
grain on the grave, from the foot to the head. Mrs.
Kennedy then made a short address in which she said:
*' This is the corn which so often you cultivated. Many
times you husked it in harvest and on the following
spring sowed it again, and it grew. It is a symbol that
as it dies only to spring up anew, likewise we shall live
again. The birds eat it from the ground where we
place it and fly again to the skies. This is like the
body that tarries on the earth to eat of its fruits, but
flies upward when the Great Wisdom knows it is
time."
At Mrs. Kennedy's request Mr. Parker laid the
grave fire, and, lighting it from four points, threw upon
it the incense ordained for such purposes, the tobacco
herb, which the Senecas know as O-yen-kwa-o-weh.
The leaf from which it was cast was thrown to the
flames, and an evergreen bough placed over the flames
100 WILLIAM PRYOR LETCHWORTH
of the grave fire. The ears of corn were then handed
by Mrs. Kennedy to Miss Bishop, with the instruc-
tion that they .should be preserved as a memorial of
the event. To the Indian all these things are symbolic
and things to be obeyed.
As the party left the graveside, Indian file, each
one gave one glance over his shoulder, to see that the
thin blue stream of smoke still lifted to the skies, and
with this last glance went away.
The securing of the Seneca Council House
was substantially the beginning of an extensive
Th G ne- collection of objects connected with
see Valley Indian history and archeology. With
Museum effective assistance from Mr. Henry
R. Hovvland, Mrs. Asher Wright, and other
friends, Mr. Letchworth acquired, during the
next thirty or more years, a very large and scien-
tifically valuable store of archaeological relics,
illustrating the primitive arts of the North
American Indians, together with objects inter-
esting as memorials of the aboriginal history of
the Genesee Valley and Western New York. For
the housing of most of these a practically fire-
proof building, sheathed with iron and roofed
with slate, was erected in 1898, within the Coun-
cil House grounds. In this they were scientifi-
cally arranged, with much care, by Mr. Howland,
GENESEE VALLEY HISTORY loi
and the collection received the appropriate name
of the Genesee Valley Museum. A "Guide"
to the Museum, prepared by Mr. Howland and
printed in 1907, states that it "contains about
five thousand exhibits of stone implements,
weapons, articles of dress, ornaments, ancient
articles of copper, brass and iron, found upon
the sites of old Indian villages, and other inter-
esting specimens related to Indian life and cus-
toms, many of which have been deposited here
for safe-keeping."
A prominent exhibit in the Museum, of more
antiquity than the most prehistoric of the Indian
relics, is furnished by the remains of a masto-
don, unearthed in the summer of 1876 by men
who were ditching a farm near Pike, not far
from Glen Iris. These were bought by Mr.
Letchworth, who had them mounted, at Roches-
ter, by Professor Ward.
Among historical memorials in the Museum,
the most interesting, perhaps, are a portrait of
Major Moses Van Campen (painted during his
life) and a tomahawk with which the Major,
having fallen into the hands of a war-party of
ten savages, in 1780, slew five of them in their
sleep and made his escape. Captured a second
time, he ran the gauntlet, at the Caneadea Coun-
102 WILLIAM PRYOR LETCHWORTH
cil House, with success, as related already in
this chapter, and again escaped death.
Another similar incident of the Revolution-
ary War, on the Seneca border, and having the
same Council House scene, is commemorated,
outside of the Museum, by a tree planted on
its hundredth anniversary, August, 1879. The
planting was by a son of Captain Horatio Jones,
who, being no more than a boy, in a company
of rangers, and taken prisoner by the Indians,
was compelled to run the gauntlet at Caneadea,
coming through it without hurt; whereupon he
was adopted into Chief Cornplanter's tribe.
The famous "Big Tree" of the Genesee —
the great oak which gave its name to the " Big
Tree Treaty" of 1797, whereby the Senecas
ceded to Robert Morris most of their lands
west of the Genesee — is represented here by a
liberal section of its huge trunk. This was given
to Mr. Letchworth by the heirs of General
James S. Wadsworth, of Geneseo, on whose
estate it stood, near the river's edge, until a
spring freshet in 1857 undermined it and caused
its fall.
As one of the founders and supporters of the
Buffalo Historical Society, organized in 1862,
Mr. Letchworth was always identified actively
GENESEE VALLEY HISTORY 103
and earnestly with the society's work. He was
its president in 1878-79, and his address on re-
tiring from the office was devoted in the main
to a report of what had been and was being
done by WilHam C. Bryant, O. H. Marshall,
himself, and others, to bring about a removal
of the remains of Red Jacket, and other chiefs
of the Senecas, to the Forest Lawn Cemetery
of Buffalo, from the burial ground of the Cat-
taraugus Reservation, where the identification
of them seemed likely to be lost. The council-
lors of the nation had assented to this removal,
and it was accomplished not long afterward, un-
der the auspices of the Historical Society. Ulti-
mately a fine statue of Red Jacket was erected
on the plot of ground which holds these re-
mains.
Apart from their history, Mr. Letchworth
showed always a warm interest in the Indian
peoples themselves, and made careful use of
his opportunities to promote their welfare. In
that part of his career which has not yet been
touched in this biography, when he came offi-
cially into the service of the public, as a commis-
sioner of the New York State Board of Char-
ities, he gave close attention to the Thomas
Orphan Asylum, on the Cattaraugus Reserva-
104 WILLIAM PRYOR LETCHWORTH
tion, and was in constant correspondence with
Mrs. Asher Wright, who continued the mis-
sionary work of her deceased husband on the
reservation. Mrs. Wright's letters to him show
how much she depended on his advice, his in-
fluence, and his contributions of money, to sus-
tain the efforts she made to reheve distress and
to introduce employments among the women
and the young.
In the last year of his life Mr. Letchworth
received (February, 1910) a gratifying recogni-
tion of the importance of what he had done for
the promotion and illustration of Iroquois his-
tory. This came in the award to him of what
bears the name of the " Cornplanter Medal,"
founded by Professor Frederick Starr, of Chi-
cago University, in 1904. Funds for instituting
the medal were obtained by the sale of pen-and-
ink drawings of Indian games and dances,
made by Jesse Cornplanter, a twelve-year-old
Seneca lad of pure blood. The award, for Iro-
quois research, was confided to the Cayuga
County Historical Society, of Auburn, New
York. The medal is of silver, struck from dies
cut by Tiffany & Co., of New York. The
awards are made every two years. That to Mr.
Letchworth was the fourth.
GENESEE VALLEY HISTORY 105
The historical associations of what is now
Letchworth Park are not wholly confined to
these memorials of the distant past ^ memorial
and of a disappearing race; for it of the War
holds within its area a bit of ground ^^ Rebellion
that became sacred in the memory of many
who fought for the Union half a century ago,
and is cherished no less in the remembrance of
their neighbors and friends. It was the site of
the rendezvous camp of a notable regiment in
the Union Army, formed originally as the 130th
New York Volunteer Infantry, but mounted
when it went to the front, in 1862, and known
thereafter as the First New York Dragoons.
This regiment, made up of volunteers from
Wyoming, Livingston, and Allegany count-
ies, went through hard experiences in the field.
The camp in which it was assembled and or-
ganized for service was pitched on the eastern
side of the river, not far from opposite to Mr.
Letchworth's house, and within the bounds of
his final estate. The survivors of the regiment,
since their return, have been holding annual
reunions on this ground, and have erected up-
on it a monument to commemorate the use it
had in 1862. It is, assuredly, not the least in
interest among the features of the park.
CHAPTER IV
CHILD-SAVING WORK : PREVENIENT
Early in 1873 Mr. Letchworth withdrew from
all connection with the firm of Pratt & Letch-
worth, having deliberately resolved to devote
his remaining years to philanthropic work. He
was in his prime, at fifty years of age ; the bus-
iness which he dropped was highly prosperous
and profitable ; he had accumulated no great
fortune in it, but there were safe promises of
large wealth in what he gave up. To secure
needed rest, or a pleasure-seeking freedom of
life, many men in like circumstances may do
as he did ; but to quit the labors of the count-
ing-room in mid-life, and at the crest of pro-
sperity, renouncing their substantial rewards in
order to take up an increased burden of labor,
for no other reward than the satisfaction of do-
ing good to one's fellow men, is surely a rare
act.
It does not appear that any definite place or
plan of labor in the field he wished to enter
was in Mr. Letchworth's mind when he retired
CHILD-SAVING: PREVENIENT 107
from the business that had occupied him for
twenty-five years ; but the place which seemed
made for him was awaiting his ac- Entering
ceptance of it, and he was called to service in
it almost at once. In April, 1871 the New
, . r 1 • , York State
on the suggestion or his name by Board of
the Honorable James O. Putnam Charities
to Governor Dix, he was asked to become one
of the commissioners of the New York State
Board of Charities, filling a vacancy in the repre-
sentation of the Eighth Judicial District (west-
ern New York), and he readily accepted the
post. At about the same time he was offered
the Republican nomination for Congress in the
district of his country residence, where the
nomination ensured election ; but that prof-
fer he declined. Neither tastes nor ambitions
drew him toward public service in the political
field.
The Board of State Commissioners of Pub-
lic Charities — commonly referred to as the
State Board of Charities — was in its seventh
year of existence when Mr. Letchworth became
a member. Prior to its creation, in 1867, there
had been no state supervision over public char-
ities in New York, though the need of some
exercise of supervisory authority had been made
io8 WILLIAM PRYOR LETCHWORTH
apparent frequently, by the disclosure of uncor-
rected wrongs and evil conditions in charitable
institutions of every kind. The Honorable
John V. L. Pruyn, of Albany, had been for
some years a leader in efforts to secure the
needed legislation, and when, at last, authority
was obtained for the constitution of the Board,
he accepted the presidency of it, which he held
until his death, in November, 1877. The other
members of the Board in 1873, when Mr.
Letchworth entered it, were Nathan Bishop,
Howard Potter, Benjamin B. Sherman, of New
York City (representing the three judicial dis-
tricts of that city) ; James A. Degrauw, of
Brooklyn ; Harvey G. Eastman, of Pough-
keepsie; Edward W. Foster, of Potsdam;
Samuel F. Miller, of Franklin ; John C. Dev-
ereux, of Utica ; Martin B. Anderson, of
Rochester ; to whom were added, ex officio, five
state officers, namely, the Lieutenant-Governor,
the Secretary of State, the Comptroller, the
Attorney-General, and the State Commissioner
of Lui^acy. The secretary of the Board was
Dr. Charles S. Hoyt, who had been, as a mem-
ber of the legislature, its earnest advocate,
taking a leading part in the passage of the cre-
ative act.
CHILD-SAVING: PREVENIENT 109
Legislation in 1873, on the eve of the en-
trance of Commissioner Letchworth into his
duties, had enlarged the jurisdiction Enlarged
and the powers of the Board in pre- jurisdiction
cisely the direction that he would o^t^^e Board
prefer to have given to his work, so far as he
would specialize it at all. The Board was now
authorized to extend its inquiries concerning
dependent children to private as well as to
public institutions. The organic act of 1867
authorized the commissioners, or any of them, to
visit and inspect annually, or as much oftener
as they might deem proper, all charitable and
correctional institutions receiving state aid. It
gave authority to the commissioners to inquire
and examine into the condition of all such insti-
tutions, as to their management, care of inmates,
and other matters bearing on their usefulness
and right influence; with power to administer
oaths and to summon witnesses by compulsory
process if necessary.
Of dependent children, the jurisdiction of
the State Board of Charities, in 1873, extended
over nearly 16,000, shown in the next annual
report of the Board as follows: —
no WILLIAM PRYOR LETCHWORTH
In county poorhouses,' 644
In city almshouses, 371
In orphan asylums and homes for the friendless, 7,739
In hospitals, 15034
In reformatory institutions, 3i55i
In institutions for foundlings and homeless
infants, 15824
In institutions for the blind, 9
In institutions for the deaf and dumb, 407
In institutions for idiots, 89
15,668
Males, 9059.
Females, 6609.
The rearing of children in county poorhouses
and city almshouses was the most serious of
Children in the evil Conditions that had been
poorhouses engaging the attention of the Board
since its work began. Public interest in the
matter had been undergoing a slow awakening
for several years, and a gradual movement of
reformation was in progress; but it needed a
push of individual energy, with a resolute will
behind it, to break the impediments down.
' For some reason, probably to be found in the statutes under
which they were established originally, the county institutions
of this character in New York are designated as *' poorhouses,"
while those maintained by cities are called ** almshouses."
CHILD-SAVING: PREVENIENT iii
Mr. Letchworth supplied that need. He seems
to have resolved at once to make this, in a
special way, his first field of work. No doubt
he gave his colleagues to understand his readi-
ness for what was certain to be an arduous task,
and they took responsive action, as stated in
the report of the Board for 1874 : —
At the meeting held in June last Commissioner
Letchworth [elected Vice President of the Board at
that meeting] was requested to give the subject [of
the removal of children from poorhouses and alms-
houses] special attention, and was authorized to con-
fer, personally and by letter, with superintendents of
the poor and other officers, and also to institute such
inquiries and examinations into the matter as he might
deem desirable and proper.
As set forth in a later report of the Board,
the conditions it had found at the outset of its
undertakings in this direction were as fol-
lows : —
In the first examination of the poorhouses of the
state, by the Board, in 1868, there were found in
these institutions, not including New York and King's
counties, 1222 children under sixteen years of age,
or 17.41 percent of all the inmates. The almshouses
of New York City contained at the same time 630
children, and that of King's County 379, making a
112 WILLIAM PRYOR LETCH WORTH
total of 1009, or 15.48 per cent of the inmates of
these institutions. These last-mentioned almshouses
had separate buildings for the children, but, as they
were brought into constant association with adult
pauper inmates, their situation was little or no better
than that of the children in the county poorhouses.
It thus appears that the number of pauper children in
the state at that time was 2231, equivalent to 16.49
per cent of all the paupers. The examination and sub-
sequent inquiries by the Board fully demonstrated that
poorhouses were not fit places in which to rear chil-
dren, and that all attempts for their improvement
under such circumstances would be almost vain.
Commissioner Letchworth had not waited
for the formal commission that was given to him
by his Board in June, 1874, before taking up
•», T . ,- the special child-saving task which
Mr. Letch- * . °
worth's first he chose to make his own. He saw
child-saving \j^ j^jg q^^ county a state of things
which summoned him to the work
as soon as official authority had come into his
hands. A brief account of this beginning of
his official service was written once by himself.
The first work on which I entered after my appoint-
ment as a commissioner [he said], was that of correct-
ing abuses in the Erie County Poorhouse, as affecting
the care of the dependent children and the insane, and
reforming the county system in reference to these two
CHILD-SAVING: PREVENIENT 113
classes. There were at that time seventy-two children
in the poorhouse from two years of age upwards.
These were of all grades of mental, physical, and
moral condition. Their associations and the influences
surrounding them were degrading, and there was an
entire absence of systematic moral and religious in-
struction. A school, or the semblance of one, under
the charge of a daughter of one of the supervisors,
was maintained ; but the freedom of the place, the ab-
sence of necessary rules, and the listlessness of the
pupils, made the attempt to benefit them by this means
abortive. I saw no other way to effect a complete re-
form than by the removal of the children.
Through the influence of the press, so far as it was
favorable to my views, I endeavored to create an in-
telligent public opinion on the subject. Personal ap-
peals were made to members of the Board of Super-
visors and to influential persons interested in charitable
work. Conferences between managers and officers of
the orphan asylums and the Superintendent of the Poor
and myself were held, at which I had the opportunity
to set forth my views. The public conscience was at
length awakened, and I was formally invited to come
before the Board of Supervisors and address them on
the subject, which I did in an earnest appeal. With
the Superintendent of the Poor, who had become in-
terested, I examined all of the institutions in the county
where children were cared for, in order that we might
bear testimony as to the kind of care the children in
114 WILLIAM PRYOR LETCH WORTH
them were receiving ; also to ascertain whether they
would receive what might be regarded as their quotas,
in case all children were removed from the poorhouse.
A director of one institution said she would send out
her matron and direct her to select six children whom
they would receive. She was told that that would not
answer ; that this movement meant the removal of all.
The kettle must be cleaned and scraped to the bot-
tom.
At my request Dr. H. P. Wilber, the humane and
intelligent Superintendent of the Asylum for Feeble-
minded Children, at Syracuse, came to Buffalo twice
to examine children with reference to receiving them
there. He concluded to take seven, who were not in-
tellectually suited to orphan-asylum care. Among them
was a crippled boy, so deformed that he could not
walk. His legs were curled under his body, and he
was obliged to sit through the day on the floor. His
only mode of locomotion was by placing his hands on
the floor at right angles with his wrists and arms and
lifting himself along. He was not a bright boy, but
fairly intelligent. His case was a sad one, as his future
seemed pointed to a life in the poorhouse. Some two
years later, when I was visiting the institution at Syr-
acuse, as I stood in one of the classrooms, a lad about
twelve years old, with a bright, smiling face, came to
me from across the room, saying, " How do you do,
Mr. Letchworth," and advanced to shake hands with
me. Dr. Wilber said: "You do not remember this
CHILD-SAVING: PREVENIENT 115
boy. This is , the crippled lad from the Erie
County Poorhouse, who used to walk with his hands."
I learned that the efforts of Dr. Wilber, assisted by
physicians in Syracuse, had enabled the boy to walk
erect. In exercises at the blackboard which I saw him
take part in he did not differ materially in appearance
from the boys around him. As I looked on his bright,
happy face and watched his natural movements I could
not but breathe a silent blessing on good Dr. Wilber.
All the other boys taken from the poorhouse with the
cripple were promising pupils, considering their men-
tal condition.
With the approval of the county supervisors and
the cooperation of the boards of managers of the vari-
ous orphan asylums, all the children were finally re-
moved from the poorhouse and the system of rearing
children there was effectually broken up.
In a paper on the "Placing-Out System in
Dealing with Dependent Children," written
some years ago by Mrs. Robert McPherson
(matron of the Buffalo Orphan Asylum at the
time of this rescue of children from the poor-
house, and, later, the invaluable agent of the
Board of Supervisors for placing homeless chil-
dren in families), the great deliverance in Erie
County is spoken of as having been accom-
plished, in the main, if not entirely, on one de-
finitely named day. Said Mrs. McPherson: —
ii6 WILLIAM PRYOR LETCHWORTH
One of the most gratifying and pleasing sights I
have ever witnessed was the exit of the dependent
children of Erie County, on that memorable morning
in February, 1874, when they were removed from
theirpauper home to happier surroundings. As I looked
on those interesting children, seated in the carriages
that had been provided for their transfer to the various
asylums in the city of Buffalo, a prayer trembled on
my lips that their future might be one of industry,
honesty, and independence. In my general child-sav-
ing labor I have been privileged to follow the history
of many of those children, and as I see them now, —
self-reliant, self-sustaining men and women, — I real-
ize how much they owe to that friend of children,
the Honorable William P. Letchworth, by whose un-
wearied efforts and personal solicitations for their
admission to institutions they were released from the
bondage of chronic pauperism long before the manda-
tory law, compelling the removal of children from
the poorhouses of New York State, was passed.
Seemingly Erie County was the first in the
state to purge its poorhouse of the pauperizing
and corrupting mixture of children with adults.
Elsewhere the reformation movement was slow
in response to the strenuous pressure upon it
which the new State Commissioner of Charities
was bringing to bear. Eight months after the
Erie County deliverance he wrote to Secretary
CHILD-SAVING: PREVENIENT 117
Hoyt (October 5, 1874) that he had received
reports of action on the removal of children by-
boards of supervisors in only three other coun-
ties, namely, Jefferson, Madison, and Yates.
Throughout that year he had been laboring as
no other official in the state is likely to have
been laboring at the time. His correspondence
discloses the intensity and ardor of feeling that
went into his work ; his special report to the
Board, at the end of the year, shows how big a
task of inquiry and investigation he had per-
formed, and what a mass of information he had
gathered up. He was executing a mission that
engaged his whole heart. He strove to torment
all consciences with his own burning sense of
the deadly wrong done to homeless children
by housing and classing them with pauperized
adults. He could not bear the thought of allow-
ing a single child to be so ruined when it might
be saved.
Writing to Dr. Hoyt, the secretary of the
Board, in August, he said : "I am working in-
cessantly ; almost, I might say, night and day,
on the children question. ... I hope you will
plead earnestly wherever you go for the removal
of the children from the poorhouses. If by your
intercession a single child is saved from perdi-
ii8 WILLIAM PRYOR LETCH WORTH
tion, how vast are the results and how remuner-
ating the labor. I rely greatly on you in carry-
ing on this work, knowing your influence with
county officials."
In June he had secured the privilege of
addressing a state convention of the superintend-
ents of the poor, at Rochester, and drew it into
an earnest discussion of the subject, resulting in
the adoption of a resolution that " the superin-
tendents of the poor of the State of New York
carry out as far as practicable the recommend-
ations of Commissioner Letchworth." News-
paper discussion was thus started, and presently
Mr. Letchworth was enabled to gather up an
impressive body of opinion from leading jour-
nals, together with resolutions from boards of
supervisors in different counties, and with ex-
pressions from some former governors, and
others, condemning the retention of children in
poorhouses ; and this he published in an effect-
ive pamphlet, to which a wide distribution was
given — all at his personal expense.
Instances of personal expenditure in promo-
tion of public causes, like this of the pamphlet
printing, were incessant throughout Mr. Letch-
worth's official career. For example, in Decem-
ber of the year we are now reverting to, we find
CHILD-SAVING: PREVENIENT 119
him asking and receiving permission to print at
his own expense a paper by his colleague, Presi-
dent Anderson, of Rochester University, on
"Alien Paupers," which should have, as he
thought, a public circulation.
The special report submitted by Commissioner
Letchworth at the close of the year 1 874 showed
the number of children remaining in
^ First official
the poorhouses of the state at the investiga-
several dates of inquiry, in that year, tioi and
to be 615, of whom 2^'^ were boys
and 253 were girls. The infants under two years
of age numbered 143. Of the remainder, 348
were between two and ten years of age ; 1 24 were
from ten to fifteen in years. The fathers of 329
and the mothers of 115 were known to be in-
temperate; 32 were known to be descendants
of pauper grandfathers ; 47 of pauper grand-
mothers ; 105 of pauper fathers ; 441 of pauper
mothers; 249 had brothers and 223 had sisters
who were or had been paupers; 204 were of ille-
gitimate birth; 190 were born in the poorhouse.
Thoughtfully discussing the exhibit of dread-
ful facts, Mr. Letchworth laid an impressive
stress on the deadliness of the effect on charac-
ter in childhood which must be produced by
such pauperizing examples and influences as a
120 WILLIAM PRYOR LETCH WORTH
poorhouse surrounds them with. " A study into
the history of pauperism," he wrote, " shows that
this condition is rarely reached except through
a gradual * letting-down ' process, sometimes
descending through two or more generations
before culminating." Hence the vital import-
ance of breaking up that degenerative process
at the point of its passage from one generation
to another, by removing children "from poor-
house life and its stigma," " to place them, im-
mediately upon their sinking to the line of pub-
lic dependence and before being stigmatized as
paupers, among such surroundings and under
such remedial influences as shall be likely to re-
claim them."
Of the labor which his report represented and
the difficulties encountered in it he gave some
indication, saying that it had occupied his entire
time, with that of an assistant, — employed by
himself, which fact he did not state. He adds:
" A widely extended field has been travelled
over. I have found the records relating to this
and kindred subjects very incomplete, and some-
times difficult to reach. . . . Previous to the
convening of the boards of supervisors, the re-
cords of the proceedings of the boards of such
counties as had taken action in reference to the
CHILD-SAVING: PREVENIENT 121
care and maintenance of their pauper children
elsewhere than in the poorhouse were carefully
examined, so far as they were accessible, for a
period extending back from fifteen to twenty
years. The difficulty of reaching the reports of
the several boards made the work of compiling
this material protracted and laborious. Printed
proceedings of the boards of supervisors were
in many cases not found on file in the county
clerk's offices of the several counties, and, when
found, were seldom properly indexed."
Thus far in the undertaking to bring about a
removal of dependent children from association
with adult paupers there had been g
nothing but persuasion and some mandatory
pressure of public opinion to bring legislation
to bear on the local authorities concerned. Now
Commissioner Letchworth invoked the aid of
mandatory law. Calling attention to the fact
that, by statute, it had already been made "ob-
ligatory upon county officials to transfer every
deaf-mute child of a certain age, becoming a de-
pendent, to asylums for instruction," and that
virtually the same had been done in the case
of other defectives, he asked " whether a statute
extending the benefits of this principle to other
dependent children would not be desirable, —
122 WILLIAM PRYOR LETCHWORTH
requiring county officials to place in families or
fitting asylums all children over two years of
age, excepting unteachable idiots and others un-
fitted for family care, who become dependent,
and prohibiting their being hereafter committed
to poorhouses."
On this suggestion the State Board of Chari-
ties, at the meeting to which the report con-
taining it was submitted, acted promptly, and
recommended in its general report to the legis-
lature that " the commitment of children of
intelligence over two years of age to county
poorhouses be hereafter prohibited by statute,
and that the proper authorities be required to
remove all such children now in those institu-
tions and provide for them otherwise, within a
reasonable, specified time." The legislature re-
sponded with equal promptitude, passing a
mandatory act which declared that on and after
January i, 1876, no child over three and under
sixteen years of age, of proper intelligence and
suited for family care should be committed or
sent to any county poorhouse of the state, and
that all children of this class then in the county
poorhouses should, within the time named, be
removed from such poorhouses and provided
for in families, asylums, or other appropriate
CHILD-SAVING: PREVENIENT 123
institutions. The law enjoined the boards of
supervisors of the several counties to take such
action in the matter as might be necessary to
carry out its provisions.
With this backing of positive law and the
hearty cooperation of his colleagues in the State
Board of Charities, Commissioner jj^^^gg ^q.
Letchworth, in his special mission homeless
of child-saving from pauperism, had <^hildren
only to contend thereafter with difficulties in
some counties that arose from a present defi-
ciency of institutions to which the pauper child-
ren could be removed. He had satisfied himself
that, generally throughout the state, the required
transfers could be made without overtaxing the
capacity of existing asylums, etc., provided that
proper exertions were made systematically at
the asylums to place their children in families —
which ought to be the constant aim. This now
gave him a new special duty — to inspire earn-
estness and energy in the work of securing good
family homes for the homeless children of the
state, to the end that no public asylum for such
children, of good promise in body and mind,
should be conducted otherwise than as an agency
for their early introduction to family life in re-
putable private homes.
124 WILLIAM PRYOR LETCHWORTH
In a paper read by Mr. Letchworth before
the State Charities Aid Association, after the
passage of the Act of 1875, called "the Child-
ren's Act," he said : —
It was thought at the time of the passage of the Act
of 1875 (chapter 173), for the better care of pauper
and destitute children, which required that they should
be removed from poorhouses prior to the ist of Jan-
uary, 1876, that accommodation existed in the state
for all children of this class in families and orphan-
ages. This proved to be the case. The children were
either placed in families by the officials, or orphanages
were availed of for their disposal. In many of the
latter a more vigorous placing-out policy was adopted,
and thus the emergency of providing for the great
number of liberated children was promptly met. . . .
I look upon the orphan asylum — call it by what
name you please, orphanage, home of the friendless,
or aught else, so that it be conducted on the principle
of a temporary home — as being the most expeditious
and efficacious means of restoring the child to family
life. . . . The children once within the institution,
it would appear then to be in keeping with sound
policy to encourage the placing of them in families
as quickly as they are prepared to enter. The case
of every child upon entering an orphanage should be
carefully considered with reference to its fitness for
the family, and all habits and practices that might in
CHILD-SAVING: PREVENIENT 125
any way lead to dissatisfaction and perhaps subsequent
expulsion from a good family should be well under-
stood and eradicated, if possible, by special training,
before attempting to place it out.
Longer experience convinced him that a state
supervision of the " placing-out" of orphaned
children in private homes was neces- Yinal opin-
sary to prevent serious results from ions
carelessness in that important undertaking. In
a paper on " Dependent Children and Family
Homes," read at the National Conference of
Charities and Corrections, in Toronto, 1897, ^^
said : —
In my observations, extending through twenty-three
years of official inspection as a State Commissioner of
Charities in New York, I found the wrongs which
dependent children suffered from being placed in un-
suitable homes, through indifference before placing
them and inattention and neglect afterwards, to be very
great. Legislators and philanthropists, however, are
devoting their attention to correcting this evil. In the
last session of the New York Legislature a bill was
introduced under the auspices of the State Board of
Charities providing that the work of placing out de-
pendent children and of supervising them afterwards
should be governed by rules established by the State
Board of Charities. The legislature added a clause to
126 WILLIAM PRYOR LETCHWORTH
the effect that all dependent children should be placed
with foster parents of the same religious faith as the
child.
As this could not always be practicable it was
opposed, and the Governor disapproved the bill.
In further remarks on the subject, Mr. Letch-
worth summarized the provisions of law in sev-
eral states, and urged that, in every state, " a
system should be provided regulating the man-
ner in which homeless children shall be placed
in families, and providing a method of super-
vision over them afterwards which is not obtru-
sive or offensive to foster parents."
One of the last official writings of Commis-
sioner Letchworth, before his resignation from
the State Board of Charities, gives some inter-
esting details of the experience which had led
him to the conclusions set forth above. It is a
report to the Board "On the Erie County Sys-
tem of Placing Dependent Children in Fami-
lies," dated November 14, 1896. It explains
that "the plan of placing dependent children in
family homes by a county agent was put in
operation in Erie County in 1878 "; that a sal-
aried county agent was appointed, "authorized
to remove children that were county charges
from the asylums and to place them in families,
CHILD-SAVING: PREVENIENT 127
either by adoption, by indenture through papers
executed by the superintendent of the poor, or
by verbal agreement." " Mrs. Robert McPher-
son was the first agent appointed. She had had
large previous experience in placing out child-
ren, and she did her work carefully and consci-
entiously. In 1 88 1 It became evident that It
was Impracticable for one person to do all the
work, and provision was made for the appoint-
ment of an additional agent to place out Roman
Catholic children." In the next year Mrs. Mc-
Pherson retired from the work.
In the early part of 1896 certain cases were
brought to the attention of Mr. Letchworth
which led him to Institute an investigation of
the workings of this county agency, and his
report recites with considerable detail the re-
sulting disclosures, on which he remarks: —
It is impossible to suppress the conviction that great
mistakes, if not wrongs, have been committed, when
it is seen that careful search for some of the addresses
given failed to reveal the homes where children were
reported to have been placed; that information was
obtained to the effect that a house in which a child had
been placed by one of the agents had been raided by
the police ; that Mrs. , who took a child, kept
a house of assignation ; that a foster father was an ex-
128 WILLIAM PRYOR LETCHWORTH
pugilist and a foster mother "slung beer"; and that
certain families who took children were receiving pub-
lic relief. . . . From the examination I have made of
the Erie County methods of placing out children, and
from instances of grave abuse that have come to my
knowledge affecting dependent children placed out by
various public officers, agents and agencies in other
counties, I have come to the conclusion that the sys-
tem of placing out children in this state should be rad-
ically reformed ; and I respectfully recommend that
this important subject receive the deliberate consider-
ation of the State Board of Charities and of the legis-
lature, in order that a proper system may be adopted
throughout the state, which shall secure good homes
to the dependent children placed out, and embrace of-
ficial supervision and ample protection over them, after
they have left the guardianship of asylums and officers
of the poor.
Mr. Letchworth's long experience brought
him finally to the further conviction that insti-
tutions provided for the care of homeless child-
ren should be brought into closer relations to
the state and more closely supervised. This is
indicated in an undated memorandum, found
among his papers after his death. " I regard
the child-saving work," he says in this, " as
the most effectual means of upbuilding society,
of reducing the volume of pauperism and crime,
CHILD-SAVING: PREVENIENT 129
and of lessening the burdens of taxation"; and
he argues that this work should be partly at
public and partly at private cost, proceeding to
say : " I am therefore led to believe, after a
study of the different systems of caring for
homeless children in different countries, that
the institutions we call orphan asylums, child-
ren's homes, and juvenile reformatories, should
receive a per capita allowance for each child
under their care ; that this allowance should be
determined by the legislature, but should not
be so large as fully to support the child, or to
carry on the work of the institution, but leave
a reasonable margin to be supplied from pri-
vate means, in order to maintain an active and
benevolent interest in the work conducted by
these private corporations. These institutions
I would have placed under the supervision of
the Department of State, — a purely disinter-
ested body, free from political or religious bias,
— and organized after the manner of some of
our state boards of charities."
The memorandum goes on to suggest that
the institutions thus privately created and con-
ducted, but partly supported by the state, should
be licensed by a State Board, and be subject to
yearly examination, on which the yearly renewal
130 WILLIAM PRYOR LETCHWORTH
of their licenses should be made to depend. " In
licensing the institution the question of religious
instruction, whether Roman Catholic, Protestant,
or Hebrew, should be left to the choice and dis-
cretion of the board of management. It should
be provided, however, that the secular education
of the inmates should be in accordance with the
rules and regulations of the State Department
of Public Instruction."
The remarkable effectiveness of Mr. Letch-
worth's work as a commissioner of the State
The valuing Board of Charities was now recog-
of his work nized by all who gave attention to
the governmental dealing with want and mis-
doing. They saw that a new force had come
into that field of official service, and they wel-
comed it with acclaim. For example, the very
eminent sociologist. Dr. Elisha Harris, then
Corresponding Secretary of the Prison Associa-
tion of New York, afterward Secretary of the
State Board of Health, wrote to Mr. Letch-
worth in March, 1875: "Your study of the
rights of children and of our duty to them and
the state is worth a lifetime of toil. You have
thrown such a true light on the almshouse child-
ren that the doors of good homes and the
WILLIAM PRYOR LETCHWORTH WHILE PRESIDENT OF
THE NEW YORK STATE BOARD OF CHARITIES
CHILD-SAVING: PREVENIENT 131
hearts of thoughtful citizens and good women
will open and bless them." Six months later we
find Dr. Harris writing again : "It is by such
persistenteffort as yours for the friendless child-
ren that causes of crime and vice are to be re-
pressed. It is not in the power of language
to convey my thanks for your service in this
matter."
With still more warmth did Miss Louise Lee
Schuyler, President of the State Charities Aid
Society, express her feeling in a letter to Mr.
Letchworth written on the last day of that im-
portant year 1875. "I cannot," she said, " let
this day go by without telling you how deeply
I sympathize in your happiness at the thought
of the hundreds of little ones whom you have,
with the help of God, been instrumental in res-
cuing from lives of suffering and crime. All day
I have thought of the little children I have seen
— oh! so uncared for in those horrible poor-
houses ; and to know that to-day they are away
and happy (the last Randall's Island children
left to-day) makes me very happy. T^hey must
never go back. And if those of us who are grate-
ful for having been allowed to help you in the
smallest way in your great work feel this, how
grateful you must be that God has allowed you
132 WILLIAM PRYOR LETCHWORTH
to do such blessed work. I know how devoted
you have been to it, how self-sacrificing and
faithful. Surely you have the reward of those
who ' go about doing good,* — the deep joy and
peace of those who are doing their Master's
bidding. Your New Year will indeed be a happy
one.
The year 1875 ^^^ °^^ ^^ ^^^ busiest for
Commissioner Letchworth In his special en-
Employment deavor to arrest the pauperizing of
for paupers children ; but that undertaking did
not absorb his whole thought. In his visitation
of the county poorhouses he saw an amount of
able-bodied and idle pauperism in them that
was profoundly offensive to his sense of reason
and right. He brought the subject before the
annual state convention of superintendents of
the poor, in June of that year. " My idea of a
poorhouse," he said to them, " and when I say
poorhouse I use the term as synonymous with
almshouse, is that it should be a retreat for in-
valids, or those incapacitated to earn a liveli-
hood. In other words, that a poorhouse should
be a hospital, and that there should be barely
enough healthy inmates, or of those in partial
health, to care for the invalids. . . . Beyond this,
I hold that able-bodied paupers have no place
CHILD-SAVING: PREVENIENT 133
in a poorhouse. Strictly speaking, the term
* able-bodied pauper ' is contradictory. The stat-
ute, as you are aware, as found in Wade's Code
relating to the poor, section 20, page 10, does
not accord to healthy, able-bodied persons this
kind of public charity. The precise language
used is, — ' that every poor person who is blind,
lame, old, sick, impotent, or decrepit, or in any
other way disabled or enfeebled so as to be un-
able by his work to maintain himself, shall be
maintained by the county or town in which he
may be.' If, notwithstanding, such as are able-
bodied must be sent to poorhouses, I think
they should be committed for a stated period,
in order that, when put to work by the keeper,
he may know how long he can rely upon their
labor, and how much time he can profitably ex-
pend in giving instruction." He then proceeded
to discuss in a very practical way the kinds of
employment that could be given to such able-
bodied inmates of the poorhouses. Firstly,
needed labor for a considerable number could
be applied to the " bringing of the poorhouse
farm into the highest condition of productive-
ness, and its outbuildings into the best of order."
Secondly, they could be employed on the roads
of the poorhouse neighborhood, spending this
134 WILLIAM PRYOR LETCHWORTH
pauper labor on them until they are made " as
substantial as the old Roman roads." Thirdly,
basket-making and the culture of the willow
for its material offer an easily opened field for the
employment of this kind of labor. And there
are other openings to be found, if they are
sought. His propositions were approved and
endorsed by the convention, and nobody having
anything to do with poorhouse management
could by any possibility gainsay them ; but it is
probable that "able-bodied paupers" can still
be found in our poorhouses, while the roads of
their neighborhood are not yet "as substantial
as the old Roman roads."
The main task of Mr. Letchworth in 1875
was to learn for himself and to report to his
board and to the public the existing resources
of the state orphan asylums and other institu-
tions provided for the care of dependent children,
and the conditions in each under which such care
was being given. So thoroughly was this exten-
sive survey carried out that the special report
of it, presented by Commissioner Letchworth
at the end of the year, fills 510 pages of the
general report of the State Board of Charities
for 1875.
Along with the preparation of that report there
CHILD-SAVING: PREVENIENT 135
went, moreover, an important continuation of
the poorhouse investigation of 1874; and this,
too, was reported within the year. It investigat-
related to the children's department *°s child-
r 1 1 1 11-1 r pauperism
or the almshouse establishments or jq New York
New York City, of which Mr. Letch- City
worth's investigation had not been finished in
time for inclusion in the report of the previous
year. It does not seem to have been intended
by the legislature that the Act of 1875, requir-
ing the removal of children from poorhouses,
should apply to the almshouses of New York
City, which are under the control of a board of
commissioners ; but the courts gave a construc-
tion to the law which extended it to those insti-
tutions. " Then was presented," as Mr. Letch-
worth said afterwards, in writing of events at
this time, " the curious spectacle]of a change in
the opinions of the metropolitan press; for while
it had fully realized and condemned the system
of poorhouse care for children in the rural dis-
tricts, its continuance was thought necessary in
the large city almshouses. Accordingly an appeal
was made to the legislature to exempt New York
City from the operation of the law." Probably
nothing but Commissioner Letchworth's inves-
tigation could have prevented such legislative
136 WILLIAM PRYOR LETCHWORTH
action. It gave the authority of knowledge to
his remonstrances, even before the publication
of his official report of facts disclosed.
The establishments maintained by the county
and city of New York for the care of pauper
The Ran- children, located on Randall's Island,
dall's Island comprised an infant or foundling hos-
Nursery" pjj-^i^ ^j^ idiot asylum, a nursery hos-
pital, and " The Nursery." The report of Com-
missioner Letchworth related mainly to the two
institutions last named, in which were 545 boys
and 224 girls. " During the past year," hewTOte,
" I have made several visitations to these estab-
lishments, accompanied on one occasion by Com-
missioner Roosevelt. These visits were made
with a competent stenographer. The buildings
and inmates were carefully inspected and a mi-
nute inquiry made into the methods of admin-
istration."
In this part of hisinvestigations he was assisted
by his close friend, Mr. James N. Johnston,
whose " rare tact, discrimination, and persever-
ance" he spoke of some years later, when re-
ferring to the work of this period, as having
been invaluable to him. Mr. Johnston, he said,
had undertaken what he did "for the love of
the work, and for the good expected to result
CHILD-SAVING: PREVENIENT 137
from it, rather than for any pecuniary considera-
tion." How difficult and trying the task was on
which Mr. Johnston spent a month of keen in-
quisition at Randall's Island is revealed in his
letters to Mr. Letchworth written during that
month of December, 1 874. " There is no super-
intendent, keeper, or matron," he wrote in one,
"who knows the history of any of the children
or cares a fig about it. The sources of informa-
tion, then, are the children themselves and the
books. The facts elicited from the class of child-
ren, at their tender ages, are very unreliable. . . .
The books give only the so-called age, the date
of admission and discharge, and who brought
the child to the Almshouse Nursery." Of the
training received by these children he wrote :
" Generally, the children in the school are not
very far behind in their studies, for the class
they represent ; but they are far behind in the
training that children should have to make them
citizens of the Republic. The school, as you
know, is under the Board of Education, and
quite a corps of teachers is employed. . . . The
women and employees about the place (I do
not refer to the teachers) are, to say the least,
hardly of the class to train young minds to noble
thoughts."
138 WILLIAM PRYOR LETCHWORTH
Among the facts set forth by Commissioner
Letchworth in his report were the following :
" In the dense buildings of the Nursery and
Nursery Hospitals, grouped quite closely to-
gether, there were at the time of the examina-
tion of this Board 773 girls and boys under
sixteen years of age. Brought into more or less
intimate association with these tender natures,
were 23 females who had, either through mis-
fortune or some controlling weakness of charac-
ter, sunk into the rank of the dependent class.
There were also 51 females who had drifted
downward and had sunk into the rank of the
criminal class, many of them, as has been shown,
having been committed again and again for
drunkenness and disorderly conduct, for street
brawls and other offences which had rendered
them amenable to penal servitude. There were
also, going and coming on various duties, 40
male adults belonging to the pauper and crim-
inal classes, making, in all, 114 persons who
were at the time either actually paupers or crim-
inals, or had been committed at some time as
such, . . . brought more or less into contact with
the children. Even with the strictest rules for-
bidding it, the association of the children with
these persons must, from the nature of the case.
CHILD-SAVING: PREVENIENT 139
be inevitable ; but, so far as our observations
went, the rules did not even appear to forbid it."
In this connection Mr. Letchworth quoted from
a paper read at a recent congress of state boards
of charities, written by the well-known English
leader in charity work. Miss Mary Carpenter,
who had visited the Randall's Island " Nur-
sery," while in this country, and who wrote of
it : " Seldom have I witnessed a more soul-sick-
ening spectacle than the degraded women and
incapable men having the charge of these child-
ren.
The most damning fact disclosed in Mr.
Letchworth's report was that stated in the fol-
lowing paragraph : " Over this large community
[of the Randall's Island institutions — pauper
and criminal — as a whole], with a considerable
extent of harbor shore, one nightwatch holds
guard. The abuses which may result during the
night hours to the helpless and unprotected
may easily be imagined. On being questioned
the watchman said : 'I walk around the hospi-
tal and go through every building except the
girls' department. The workhouse women are
not locked up at night. They go up at seven
o'clock in the evening. There is nothing to
prevent their going out and getting around the
140 WILLIAM PRYOR LETCHWORTH
grounds, unless I am around. When I came
here first I was disturbed by the boats coming
to assist the women away.' It will be borne in
mind that here is an island with miles of shore,
abundance of ambush, subject to abuse within
and without, and one night watchman over the
nursery."
The report submitted abundant reasons for
the conclusion to which it led, "that the whole
Randall's Island Nursery system should be set
aside agreeably to the statute, and that the child-
ren should be placed in asylums suited to their
various needs, under the charge of those de-
voted to the interests of the young, or into good
families where they may be trained and edu-
cated to useful and respectable citizenship."
" The King's County nursery system was bad
enough," continued the report, "but this is in-
finitely worse. That was not abolished by force
of legal enactment alone, but by the exercise of
an enlightened public sentiment."
Enlightened public sentiment, however, could
not move Tammany to give up so important a
part of the profitable machinery of its politics,
nor would it surrender to a legal enactment
without contesting it to the last. It was a weak-
ened "Ring" at this time, not yet recovered
CHILD-SAVING: PREVENIENT 141
from the great overthrow of 187 1 ; but it was
busily and hopefully laboring to reconstruct the
vicious fabric of its power, into which went just
such material as the Randall's Island institu-
tions supplied. Naturally, therefore, the sym-
pathetic politicians of the legislature were being
besought again to release New York County
from the operation of the law, and Mr. Letch-
worth had grave fears that the Tammany de-
mand would prevail. Writing to Mr. Johnston
on the 8th of December, 1875, ^^ ^^^^ : " I do
not feel safe from some reactionary steps by
the legislature in the Randall's Island matter.
There is certainly reason for grave apprehen-
sion ; but I shall do all that I think it is becom-
ing for me to do, in view of the position I hold,
and trust to God's providence for results. . . .
As to the treatment of the subject, I see but
one way to handle it. If taken hold of at all it
must be done fearlessly. * God's truth ' must be
told."
In this spirit he gave battle to the politicians,
leading and inspiring all the forces that could
be rallied against them, for the rescuing of the
pauperized children of Randall's Island from
the evil influences they wished to maintain. In
private letters he did not hesitate to say that the
142 WILLIAM PRYOR LETCHWORTH
conditions at Randall's Island were the worst in
the state and the most needing to be reformed
under the new law. To the conductors of the
New York World and the New York Sun^
which had joined the cry for an exemption of
New York County from the requirements of
the law, he appealed for a suspension of judg-
ment on the question until the report of his
investigations could be laid before them. For
some weeks he spared no effort to arouse in-
fluences that would overcome those working at
Albany from the political rings of New York;
and his efforts were not in vain. He succeeded,
as he succeeded almost always, in defeating op-
position from ignorant sources or sinister mo-
tives to measures and undertakings which he
believed, on well-studied grounds, to be for the
public good.
This was the second demonstration that
Commissioner Letchworth, in his official serv-
An exhibit ^'^^> ^^^ g^^^" °^ ^^^ ^^'■y potent
of strong and peculiar executive force he pos-
qualities sessed. One of the mildest, most
gently mannered of men, — Quaker-bred, and
realizing in his whole character the ideals of
that culture of the quiet spirit, — he was capable,
nevertheless, at need, of an iron determination
CHILD-SAVING: PREVENIENT 143
in what he undertook to do, and a persistence
which never tired, never yielded to discourage-
ment, and rarely suffered defeat. His first ex-
hibit of those qualities was called out soon after
he took his seat in the State Board of Chari-
ties. The Board was then becoming an object
of attacks, inspired evidently by the manipula-
tors of party politics, who had discovered that
it might be made a useful instrument in their
hands. The enlarged powers conferred on it in
1873 appear to have equipped it to their liking,
as a piece of machinery for political work, and
they lost no time in starting measures for
bringing it under their control. An account of
what occurred was written subsequently by Mr.
Letchworth, as follows : —
As I was coming down Main Street, in Buffalo,
one morning in the early part of 1874, I met Mr.
Joseph Warren, editor of the Buffalo •■' Courier,"
who had just left the train after a night's ride from
Albany. He informed me that action had been taken
in the Senate the day before to abolish the State
Board of Charities. I asked him upon what grounds.
He could not tell me, but supposed it was in conse-
quence of some irregularities. I told him that this
was not possible, in view of the personnel of the
Board and lack of opportunity on the part of the com-
144 WILLIAM PRYOR LETCHWORTH
missioners for deriving any personal advantage from
their office. He had given little attention to the mat-
ter, but, as he then recalled what he had heard, there
was some whispered scandal connected with the
movement.
I went immediately to Albany and, seeking the presi-
dent of the Board [Mr. John V. L. Pruyn] , asked him
the meaning of the attack. He could only divine that
it was a political movement to bring the Board event-
ually under partisan control, as were the state prisons,
over which there was but one superintendent. The
movement had such backing that Mr. Pruyn thought
nothing could be done. He had heard from several
members of the Board, who expressed themselves as
excessively chagrined and mortified, and declared their
intention to resign. I told the president that I had not
sought this office ; that I had endeavored to discharge
my duties faithfully during the short time I had held it ;
that I regarded this action as a reflection on my integ-
rity, and that I should not rest quietly under it, but
should demand an official investigation. He sympa-
thized with the members of the Board in their chagrin,
but did not feel like entering into an angry controversy
over the action taken. He said, however, that he would
sanction every effort I might make to protect the
Board. With this assurance from the president I
entered upon the campaign.
Senator Ganson, of Buffalo, a man of high charac-
ter and a leader of one of the political parties, and
CHILD-SAVING: PREVENIENT 145
Senator King, leader of the opposite political party and
chairman of the Senate finance committee, — a man
of benevolent impulses, — espoused the cause of the
Board on the floor of the Senate and were supported
by others. The Board was finally vindicated and the
charges were withdrawn, leaving it stronger than when
the attack was made.
This issue having been set aside, I asked the chair-
man of the finance committee to insert in the appro-
priation bill an item of ^3000 for the use of the Board
in making an inquiry into the causes of pauperism and
crime, — something it had been authorized to do by
the previous legislature, but for which no appropriation
had been made, and nothing had been done. The
chairman of the committee, who was a friend of the
Board, advised me not to ask for this grant, in view
of the recent attack on the Board, and, though con-
senting to do this if I insisted, wished me to under-
stand that he would not be responsible for the con-
sequences. The appropriation was inserted, however,
at my request, in the supply bill, and was approved
by the committee.
As soon as the safety of the appropriation was well
assured I took a train for New York and consulted
with Dr. Elisha Harris, secretary of the Prison Asso-
ciation of New York (who had given much attention
to the causes of degeneracy), with reference to the
formulation of a schedule to be used in the examina-
tions of inmates of the poorhouses and almshouses of
146 WILLIAM PRYOR LETCHWORTH
the state. Having had some experience as a merchant
in former years, it seemed to me desirable at this junc-
ture — using the mercantile phrase — to take an ac-
count of stock, and that the Board could render a great
public service by making such an inquiry. Dr. Harris
very kindly prepared a schedule which, as subsequently
modified by Dr. Hoyt, secretary of the State Board of
Charities, to make it more conveniently applicable to
the examination of the inmates of the poorhouses and
almshouses of the state, was finally approved by the
Board and used by Dr. Hoyt in the inquiry authorized
by the legislature.
Thus the Quaker member of the Board, no
more than fairly seated in it, was the one to
spring to its defence and find cudgels for beat-
ing off the attack. Not only that, but the en-
counter roused him to push forward and snatch
a positive trophy of victory from the discom-
fited assailants of the Board, in the form of an
increased appropriation for its work. It was a
striking revelation that he gave then of the re-
inforcement of energy, courage, earnestness, and
sound practical judgment which his appointment
had brought into the important body that su-
pervises the public charities of the state. With-
out self-assertion or assumption on his part,
there was a natural and necessary leadership in
CHILD-SAVING: PREVENIENT 147
what he did, which had recognition very soon
in his election (June, 1874) to the vice-presi-
dency of the Board, and to the presidency in
1877.
To return now to Commissioner Letch-
worth's investigation, in 1875, ^^ ^^^ "orphan
asylums, reformatories, and other in- „
/ . . Survey of
stitutions of the state having the care orphanages
and custody of children," it appears, ^^'^ reform-
r. !• r J 1 • atories
rrom a list round among his papers,
that he visited that year one hundred and fifty-
four institutions of that nature, great and small,
in the State of New York, and that eight, only,
existed which he had not been able to visit. It
is certain that his official inspections were never
perfunctorily performed, and it fairly fatigues
one to think of the travel and labor which this
investigation required, crowded as It was with
other work Into a single year. When preparing
the elaborate report of it, in November, 1875,
he wrote to the Secretary of the Board : " I am
working very hard on my report, ... to the
extent of my strength, and if it is not completed
in time it will be through no lack of effort on
my part. I have set aside everything else, and
am working on it not only every hour, but
every minute except what I take for sleep. I
148 WILLIAM PRYOR LETCHWORTH
have also got Randall's Island nearly done. I
have come out pretty strongly on this abomina-
tion, and Mr. Pruyn and yourself may think I
need toning down ; but I am inclined to think
the people will sustain us in an outspoken
position."
As set forth in the report, his chief aim in
the inspection of orphan asylums, reformatories,
etc., was "to obtain and present the views of as
large a number as possible of those whose long
experience in the care and reformation of child-
ren renders their opinions on the subject valu-
able ; also, in the notes taken, to incorporate
largely the language of those identified with
asylums and reformatories, in order to illustrate
better their workings. . . . The attempt has
been made to outline with some care the system
of at least one of each of the different classes
of institutions, in the hope that the report, taken
as a whole, might give a tolerably correct idea
of the manner in which this great work of
benevolence is carried on throughout the state.
. . . In almost every instance minute inquiries
have been made, the premises carefully inspected,
and, with the assistance of a competent steno-
grapher, full notes taken upon every depart-
ment." The Commissioner's visits, he states,
CHILD-SAVING: PREVENIENT 149
in every case excepting one, were made unex-
pectedly to asylum officials.
The notes on institutions visited are pre-
ceded by an interesting presentation of opinions
and suggestions, derived from the observations
he had made, touching almost everything that
has an important bearing on the location, con-
struction, equipment, sanitation, economic man-
agement, and educational aims of these paternal
establishments of the state. The report closes
with the remark that " a general survey of the
benevolent work carried on throughout the state,
in asylums, reformatories, aid societies, indus-
trial schools and other institutions for the care
of children, gives one a higher conception of our
humanity and its unselfish capabilities."
A certain number of copies of the three re-
ports made by Mr. Letchworth of his investi-
gations in 1874 and 1875 ^^^^ subsequently
bound together in a volume entitled " Homes
of Homeless Children." In this volume the
report on orphan asylums, reformatories, and
other institutions for the care of dependent
children in the State of New York, was fol-
lowed by the general report on children in
poorhouses and almshouses in the state, and
the supplementary report on the pauper chil-
150 WILLIAM PRYOR LETCHWORTH
dren of Randall's Island. In an introductory
note it was stated that 1730 children had been
Summary of ^^"^oved from the almshouses of
child-saving New York and King's counties
results alone, and that " the degrading sys-
tem was forever set aside."
The removals, however, of healthy and in-
telligent children from association with adult
paupers was not yet completely carried out.
The mandatory law of 1875 ^^^ required such
removal of all above three years of age. An
act of 1878 went farther, requiring all children
over two years of age to be removed from poor-
houses, "without regard to their mental and
physical condition " ; on which the State Board
of Charities, in its report for that year, re-
marked : " This law has not, as yet, been gen-
erally put in force, except in the case of the
healthy and intelligent children. The poor-
houses contain considerable numbers of un-
teachable, idiotic, epileptic, and [otherwise]
diseased children, for many of whom no ade-
quate public provision exists. In order fully to
carry out the wise and humane intentions of the
Act of 1878, some additional provision by the
state for these classes will need to be made."
Three years later, in its report for 1881, the
CHILD-SAVING: PREVENIENT 151
Board made the following statement of facts :
" During the past year the Board, by its mem-
bers and officers, made an examination and in-
quiry into the condition of the children be-
tween two and sixteen years old, in the various
county poorhouses of the state. . . . The ex-
aminations show that there were seventy-one
such children in the county poorhouses, forty-
seven of whom were males and twenty-four fe-
males. Of these, thirty were idiots, mostly un-
teachable, nine epileptics, one paralytic, three
crippled, ten otherwise diseased, and eighteen
healthy and intelligent." These, of the last-
named class, were said to be " mostly depraved
and vicious children, some of whom had been
in orphan asylums and returned as incorrigible."
They were found in ten counties. In twenty-
eight counties no children older than two years
were found.
The reform for which Mr. Letchworth had
labored so strenuously had been carried then,
we may conclude, as nearly to completeness as
the public provision for a better treatment of
defective children than the poorhouses could
give them would permit. Twelve years later
(1893), ^" ^ "History of Child-Saving Work
in the State of New York," prepared, upon re-
152 WILLIAM PRYOR LETCHWORTH
quest, for the Twentieth National Conference
of Charities and Correction, held at Chicago
during the Columbian Exposition, he could
speak of it as a completed reform. " The re-
form," he said, " has been complete and effect-
ual, and there are now virtually no healthy, in-
telligent children over two years of age subject
to the soul-destroying influences of the county
poorhouses or city almshouses of the state."
Substantially, so far as concerned his own
state, the child-saving labors of Mr. Letch-
worth in this particular field were finished by
the year 1876. The finest tribute paid to the
great importance and efi^ectiveness of the social
service rendered in those labors came many
years afterwards from an intelligent
Official trib- Ljr.r J ?,
ute from head or the nnance department or the
New York City of New York, where they had
^ ^ been most obstinately and violently
opposed. Comptroller Edward M. Grout, in an
official report on " Private Charitable Institu-
tions in the City of New York," made in 1904,
referred to this part of Mr. Letchworth's work
as follows : —
In the early seventies charity workers, impressed
with the iniquity of the almshouse system, determined
to effect a change. A crusade against almshouses —
CHILD-SAVING: PREVENIENT 153
for it may properly be called that — found its leader
in the Honorable William P. Letchworth, of Port-
age, New York, one of the indefatigable workers in
the State Board of Charities. It is fair to call him the
father of the movement to take children out of the
degrading conventions in poorhouses and almshouses.
In 1874 he began a systematic visitation of all charit-
able institutions, both public and private. He visited
the orphan asylums, reformatories and institutions of
all sorts and conditions. His investigation was broad
and complete, for he went throughout the state with
his stenographer and witnesses, noting facts and tak-
ing testimony. His energy and patience were exhaust-
less. He made elaborate reports, plans, diagrams and
charts. These he presented to the State Board, and
then to the legislature. Gathered together, these dif-
ferent reports made a volume of over six hundred
closely printed pages. The result of it all was such
an indictment of almshouses and of public institutions
for children that the conclusions were irresistible.
After extended quotations from Mr. Letch-
worth's reports the comptroller goes on to
say : —
The result of Mr. Letchworth's work was tremen-
dous and overwhelming. The legislature asked, —
" What can be done with these children, and where
can they be placed ? " Fresh from his examination of
every institution in the State, Mr. Letchworth replied
154 WILLIAM PRYOR LETCHWORTH
that the private institutions were the natural and logical
way out. ... As the year went by the opinions of Mr.
Letchworth, urged also by the State Board and others,
prevailed, and it was determined to follow the plan
suggested. There appeared to be no other satisfactory
solution to the problem. The city determined, defin-
itely, either to turn all its dependent children over to
the charitable institutions or return them to their par-
ents and guardians, allowing them to make such choice
among the institutions as their religious inclinations
might dictate. . . . The last of the children were trans-
ferred from Randall's Island December 31, 1875; and
in the report of the Commissioners for that year, pre-
sented to the mayor early in 1876, the whole matter
was summed up in these words : " The Nursery on
Randall's Island, by act of the legislature, was abol-
ished with the close of the year, and it is prohibited
by law to receive children over three years of age.
The children have been removed and were distrib-
uted, some to the Protectory and others to different
institutions of this city." Five and a half printed lines,
the result of over six hundred printed pages of effort!
And such effort !
This, then, is how and why and when the city of
New York began to do so large a part of its charitable
work through private institutions. It was a matter of
investigation, resulting in a state law, and was a de-
liberate choice. It is true that many children were
supported in private institutions, through various acts
CHILD-SAVING: PREVENIENT 155
of the legislature, prior to this date ; but those cases
were exceptional and individual. It was this law and
these resulting acts which constituted what can be
called a " system," and is often referred to as " the
New York System," as against systems of charitable
endeavor bearing the names of other states. New York
City chose to care for its children in private institu-
tions because it had tried public institutions for three
quarters of a century, and was worse off at the end
than in the beginning. Because the difference between
the two systems was the difference between sight and
blindness, disease and health, crime and morality, life
and death. . . .
The conditions of child life in private institutions
after they were taken from the almshouses and county
houses, through the law of 1875, were revolutionized.
It would be folly to say that the highest ideals were
immediately realized ; that would be expecting too
much of human nature. Institutions increased in num-
ber. Their work was partly specialized or classified.
Reformatories were few. Dependent children's insti-
tutions many. Everything, however, was greatly im-
proved.
This emphatic official testimony from the
metropolitan city affords conclusive evidence
that the fight to rescue children from pauper-
keeping establishments in the State of New
York was fought and won by Commissioner
156 WILLIAM PRYOR LETCHWORTH
Letchworth, as the general commanding the re-
formatory forces in the state ; and that it was
won practically within the first three years of
his service in the field.
But, while this finished his exertions on that
particular child-saving line in New York, it car-
Missionary "^^ ^^"^ °" ^^^ same line into other
work in fields of Struggle, to the same end.
other states p^^ ^^^ called to become a mission-
ary in other states of the appeal against child-
pauperism, and performed heavy labors in that
mission for a number of years. In March, 1875,
he addressed an argument on the subject to a
convention of superintendents of the poor in
Michigan. In September of the same year, at
the Second National Conference of Charities
and Corrections, held at Detroit, he read a paper
received from the noted English philanthropist,
Miss Mary Carpenter, entitled : " What shall
be done for the Neglected and Criminal Chil-
dren of the United States?" Miss Carpenter
had recently visited America, and she keenly
criticized conditions that she observed in some
of the poorhouses and other institutions having
the custody of children. Mr. Letchworth led
the discussion of her paper, and made use of
the opportunity to relate what New York had
CHILD-SAVING: PREVENIENT 157
been doing towards a reformation of the condi-
tions in question. He also introduced resolu-
tions recommending that the state boards of
charities in various states use their influence to
bring about legislation requiring the removal
of children from poorhouses, reformatories, and
all association with adult paupers and criminals,
and that they be placed in families and appro-
priate institutions ; recommending further that
a systematic visitation of such children when
placed in families be provided for, and that pe-
riodical reports of their condition, physically,
morally and intellectually, be made to some
supervising official. The resolutions, after dis-
cussion, were adopted unanimously.
In June, 1876, finding himself unable to at-
tend the meeting of the International Prison
Association, he wrote to the president of the
association. Dr. E. C. Wines, expressing his re-
gret, and saying : —
The branch of prison reform in which I feel the
deepest interest is that of the prevention system. My
own study of the subject has fastened the conviction
in my mind that we must " dry up the fountain," and
that the labor of philanthropy must be zealously di-
rected to this purpose. . . . While the custom of rear-
ing children under the evil influences of poorhouse
158 WILLIAM PRYOR LETCHWORTH
life has received the condemnation of the legislature
of this state, it is still prevalent in some others, and
under more aggravated conditions than existed here.
. . . Should you deem it proper so to do, I wish you
would ask the consideration of the Congress to the
following resolution : —
" Resolved, That this Congress recommends that
the various organizations having for their object the
reformation of prisoners use their eflForts to bring about,
wherever practicable, such legislation as shall cause
dependent children to be removed from county poor-
houses, city almshouses, common jails, and from all
association with adult paupers and with criminals, and
placed in families, asylums, or other appropriate insti-
tutions."
An earnest "Appeal on behalf of the pauper
children in the poorhouses of Michigan" was
addressed by Mr. Letchworth, in March, 1876,
to the secretary of the Michigan Board of State
Charities, for reading at the annual convention
of superintendents of the poor, before which he
had been invited to speak.
In 1877 he was called to discuss the subject
of " Dependent Children" before a convention
of the Directors of the Poor and Board of Pub-
lic Charities of the State of Pennsylvania, held
at Lock Haven. He had learned that condi-
CHILD-SAVING: PREVENIENT 159
tlons in the Pennsylvania poorhouses were very
much as they had been in New York before the
rescue of children from them, and he spoke on
the subject very plainly, relating the experience
and action in his own state, showing how easily
the important change could be made. He be-
sought his hearers, collectively and individually,
to exert every possible influence on public opin-
ion in favor of a removal of the young from
poorhouse stigmas and contaminations. The re-
sult of his appeal was the adoption of a reso-
lution by the convention recommending that
dependent children "be provided for in orphan
homes or asylums, now in operation, or in others
which may be established, to be supported by
private contributions, and by aid, encourage-
ment, and cooperation from the state and from
the counties, boroughs, and cities in which they
are located, and to be subject to the supervision
of the Department of Public Instruction and
the Board of Public Charities."
Two years later, in September, 1879, he was
asked to come again to the help of the support-
ers of this reform in Pennsylvania. The invi-
tation came from the Organized Charity Society
of Philadelphia, and, being unable to attend
their meeting in person, he wrote a letter, which
i6o WILLIAM PRYOR LETCHWORTH
was published in pamphlet form. The argument
and appeal in this for separating dependent
children entirely from pauper and criminal asso-
ciations was presented with great earnestness
and force. "I feel," he said, in closing his let-
ter, "that I can speak advisedly of the alms-
house system as it affects children, for I have
taken pains to visit, aside from great numbers
in my own state, some of those in Massachu-
setts, Kansas, Nebraska, Minnesota, Rhode
Island, Connecticut, Maine, New Hampshire,
Vermont, Ohio, Indiana, and Missouri, and I
find that an almshouse, poorhouse, or infirmary,
as they are indifferently called, whether in the
prairies of the West, on the hills of New Eng-
land, or in the valleys of New York, is filled
with baneful influences that depress and debase
childhood." Here we have an intimation of
the range of country over which he had now
pursued his studies of the subject and the
propagandist work he had undertaken. By cor-
respondence, by addresses, by personal visits to
institutions, he had contributed more or less to
the arousing of public attention in all parts of
the country to one of the most serious evils of
the day.
In the next year, being invited to a state
I
CHILD-SAVING: PREVENIENT i6i
convention of county poor officers in Ohio, and
unable to attend, he wrote an extended "Ap-
peal" to the convention on behalf of the pau-
per children of that state.
Even from Massachusetts, and as late as
1897, ^ c^l^ came to him for the help of his
influence in securing the passage of an act to
accomplish the separation of dependent child-
ren, adult paupers, lunatics, and criminals in
the charitable and correctional institutions of
that state, and he responded to it in a letter to
the Honorable Samuel J. Barrows, which was
made public, with commendatory comments by
the Boston Press.
From July, 1880, until the following Janu-
ary, Mr. Letchworth was in Europe, not for
rest or for pleasure, but on a mis- ,,. . ,
*; ' Mission of
sion of inquiry and observation, the observation
most strenuous that his enlistment ^^^^^^
in social service had yet moved him to under-
take. His special purpose was to see how
other countries dealt with delinquent children
and how they treated their insane, and thus to
learn what they might have to teach with help-
fulness to the solving of the two problems in
public benevolence which now claimed the most
of his thought.
i62 WILLIAM PRYOR LETCHWORTH
Two years before this undertaking of studies
abroad, he had written to a brother, who asked
his advice on some matter concerning a hospi-
tal: "This subject of charity is a very broad
one, — too broad, I imagine, for any one mind
to cover it completely. Since taking up its
study I have confined myself, firstly, to depend-
ent and delinquent children, and secondly, to
the care of the chronic insane. I cannot boast
of having gone much further." Consequently
he did not give the advice asked for. It is evi-
dent that he had made this choice, of subjects
and objects on which he would concentrate his
study and his work, soon after he entered the
field of philanthropic public service; and he
was strict in adhering to that concentration. As
we have seen, he had trained himself from boy-
hood to define his undertakings and hold him-
self to them with resolution. This was the
secret of his success.
Having substantially accomplished what he
could for the dependent children of his state,
the energies of his mind were directed now to
the remaining two of his three chosen aims.
There was far more of problem in these than
in the subjects of his previous work, and he
sought light on them from all that experience.
CHILD-SAVING: PREVENIENT 163
practice, or theory, in Europe as well as in
America, could afford. Hence his mission of
inquiry abroad. What he learned in his tour
and what use he made of the knowledge he ac-
quired will be the subject of future chapters.
CHAPTER V
STUDIES OF PUBLIC PHILANTHROPY IN EUROPE
Landing at Queenstown on the 8th of July,
1880, Mr. Letchworth spent two weeks in
Ireland, visiting lunatic asylums, poorhouses,
juvenile reformatories and orphanages, at Cork,
Belfast, Letterkenny, and Dublin. He received
a favorable impression as to the humanity and
intelligence of the treatment of the insane at
each of the four institutions for that purpose
which he went through, and their construction,
equipment, and methods are carefully described
in the book which he published subsequently,
on "The Insane in Foreign Countries." The
Irish insane Richmond District Lunatic Asylum,
asylums ^^ Dublin, commanded his attention
especially, and he characterized it, after having
extended his survey to the whole United King-
dom, as ranking, in its management, "among
the foremost institutions of its kind in either
Ireland or Great Britain." Its superintendent,
Dr. Joseph Lalor, was called "the father of
the school system as applied to asylums." Dr.
2
o
«
STUDIES IN EUROPE 165
Lalor's treatment of mental disorder was founded
on the "efficacy of employment and train-
ing." "The main objects kept in view here,"
wrote Mr. Letchworth, " are to provide varied
occupations for as many as are able to work; to
apply a system of education that will divert
and strengthen the mind; and to promote by
every conceivable means the happiness and
welfare of the inmates."
While in Dublin he visited a number of re-
formatory institutions, both Catholic and Pro-
testant, and found much in them to , . ,
' Insh re-
interest him. St. Kevin's Reforma- fonnatory
tory, two miles from the city, con- institutions
ducted by the Oblate Fathers of Mary Imma-
culate, who gave training to two hundred and
eighty boys, he found occupying, as its original
building, one of the barracks erected by the
military in 1798. Most of the additional build-
ings, including a chapel, had been constructed
by the boys, who were instructed in many trades,
and cultivated a farm, with a large garden, the
latter, especially, showing excellent work. On
entering the institution every boy was given a
certain standing of honor, which he lost if he
did anything wrong, and the restoration of which
he must earn.
1 66 WILLIAM PRYOR LETCHWORTH
The Rehoboth Place Reformatory (Protest-
ant), a small institution, attempted no confine-
ment of its thirty-seven boys. They were sur-
rounded by no walls. If they chose to run away
they could do so; but then they were almost
surely caught and sent to the City Male Prison,
which was a much less attractive place. No
whipping was done in the Reformatory; no boy
had been struck a blow within the past three
years. Sometimes, when punishment became
necessary, they were confined in a cell, with a
half allowance of bread and water. Another Pro-
testant Reformatory and Institute, for girls
(Cork Street), did resort to corporal punish-
ment at times, though lightly, and to cellular
confinement; but "the most effectual effort is
to keep the girls employed " was Mr. Letch-
worth's note. They were all knitting when he
visited the place.
After leaving the island Mr. Letchworth
wrote home : " I had a very interesting experi-
o i.^- u ence in Ireland and learned much;
Scottish '
treatment some things that will be of advantage
oftheinsane ^^ q^j. sj-^te pecuniarily, if adopted,
and others that will relieve suffering humanity."
Passing from Ireland into Scotland, he became
at once interested in some peculiar features of
STUDIES IN EUROPE 167
the Scottish system of dealing with insanity, —
especially the "boarding-out" of pauper patients
in the families of small farmers, which is claimed
to be for their good as well as economical in
cost. About one fifth of the Scottish insane were
found to be provided for in this way. For the
large remainder a good provision of asylums
was made, under district boards and a General
Board of Commissioners of Lunacy which super-
vised the whole. Mr. Letchworth sought out a
considerable number of the country cottages in
which these mentally disordered boarders were
being entertained, and what he saw of their sit-
uation is described in his work on " The Insane
in Foreign Countries " ; but he intimates neither
approval nor disapproval of the system in this
account of it. Subsequently he studied the work-
ings of the samepractice in Norway and Belgium,
and it receives a cautious discussion in the ad-
mirable summary of conclusions which appears
in the final chapter of his book.
At Glasgow, Edinburgh, Dundee, and else-
where in Scotland, he visited a considerable
number of asylums for the insane; and also a
number of institutions in which children are the
subjects of public care. Three only of the Scot-
tish asylums, namely, Woodilee, Mid-Lothian
i68 WILLIAM PRYOR LETCHWORTH
and Peebles District, and Morningside, are re-
ported on in his published work. The Woodilee
Asylum, at Lenzie, near Glasgow, was ex-
amined by him "with peculiar interest, for the
reason that it has the reputation, beyond any
other of its kind in Great Britain, of making
practical application of the most advanced the-
ories respecting non-restraint and personal free-
dom." " It was stated," he writes, "that there
were no strait-jackets nor restraining dresses —
nothing involving mechanical restraint — within
the institution. If violent, a patient is walked
about until he calms down ; and if very violent
he is placed in charge of two or more special
attendants. . . . Without attempting to decide
to what extent the radical principles put in prac-
tice here are worthy of general adoption, it was
evident that there was a remarkable degree of
contentment and cheerful activity." The Morn-
ingside or Royal Edinburgh Asylum interested
him greatly, and became the subject of a quite
extended description. " In few other asylums
visited," he wrote, "did the inmates approach
so near the appearance of sane people in home
life. . . . Walled enclosures or airing-courts have
been abolished. . . . Looking over the spacious
and highly improved grounds, the eye failed to
STUDIES IN EUROPE 169
detect any sign of irksome restriction in the form
of interior walls or other barriers. . . . One of
the first things Dr. Clouston did after his ap-
pointment in 1873 was to remove the iron grat-
ings from the windows. . . . The training of the
attendants is manifestly of a high order, devel-
oping patience and even tenderness."
Among the Scottish reformatory institutions
that were visited by Mr. Letchworth, one at
Glasgow — the Duke Street Reform- „
^ Scottish
atory for boys — was delightfully reforma-
startling in its contrast to the prison- to^^s for
like "houses of refuge" of the State
of New York. A fine open yard in front and an
equally open playground at the back prepared the
visitor to be told: "We have got along thus far
without walls. There is something stronger than
walls." But it was added : " We want to get
into the country ; for here we have not only to
keep the boys in, but to keep pernicious in-
fluences out." Lately a field in the country had
been engaged for football, and the boys were
to be taken to it on Saturdays. The number
of these boys was one hundred and sixty-five,
and only seventeen of them had been sent to
the reformatory for slight offences. They were
released as soon as they were thought to be
170 WILLIAM PRYOR LETCHWORTH
ready for self-control ; places of employment
were always sought for them, and, said the
governor of the institution, "As long as they
need our guidance, it is our duty and our pleas-
ure to give it to them."
From Scotland Mr. Letchworth crossed to
Sweden and Norway, finding much to interest
Scandina- ^^"^ ^" some of their reformative in-
vian institu- stitutions, but less that was instruct-
ions j^g Qj. suggestive in the care of the
insane. At Gothenburg he inspected an institu-
tion for the reformation of young men who had
fallen into evil courses, and who were committed
to it for definite periods. They numbered at the
time of his visit two hundred and sixty-one, and
six were then being held in solitary confinement.
The whole treatment appears to have been con-
siderably prison-like, and the prisoners were
known by number instead of by name. They
were employed, however, at various common
trades.
Another institution in the same place is de-
scribed briefly in his notebook as follows: "At
Gothenburg is a large and long two-story build-
ing, with wings, well furnished, and with a de-
lightful garden in the rear, provided for respect-
able aged persons and supported by tax upon
STUDIES IN EUROPE 171
the city. The worthless and disreputable are
provided for elsewhere."
At Christiania our inquirer found a reform-
atory for boys which commended itself in many
features to his judgment of what such an insti-
tution should be. It was seated on a large tract
of land, stocked with sixty-five cows, eighteen
pairs of oxen, ten horses, the use and care
of which gave healthy employment to a quite
large part of its hundred and thirteen boys.
Besides this farm work there was brickmaking,
blacksmithing, wagon-making, and tailoring to
keep them busy and to prepare them for earn-
ing their living. For all overwork they were
allowed wages, and these earnings were depos-
ited in a savings bank to their credit. They
were hemmed in by no walls, and corporal
punishment was rarely inflicted upon them.
From Stockholm the traveller wrote to
friends at home : " My stay was a profitable
and pleasant experience." In this city he vis-
ited a female prison, whose three hundred and
fifty convicts included one hundred and fifty
under sentence for infanticide; a school of do-
mestic arts, which gave a three years' course of
instruction in all branches of housework to girls
of sixteen, and then sent them to places in fam-
172 WILLIAM PRYOR LETCHWORTH
Hies; an immense poorhouse, having twelve
hundred tenants, including ninety insane, and
employing them generally at all kinds of work;
a home for idiots, a hospital, an asylum for
the insane (the Conradsberg) on the outskirts
of the city ; but this latter, which exhibited cer-
tain " hard and forbidding aspects," contributed
little to his discussion of" The Insane in Foreign
Countries."
Going next to Copenhagen, he visited a boys*
reformatory which pleased him much in many
features. A private institution, receiving some
public aid, it gave its care to only sixty-six, and
employed them wholly in farm work. In winter
they got their schooling, and were not exercised
in any mechanic trades. In the farming season
their studies were dropped, except on stormy
days. Some were hired to neighboring farmers,
and the institution took their wages. The place
had neither window gratings nor walls. The boys
seemed to feel towards it, quite generally, as
towards a home, and many, after leaving, came
back to visit it. No less than twenty-eight had
done so on the previous Christmas.
Also, while at Copenhagen, he went through
the St. Hans Hospital for the Insane, which
is situated not far from the city, and it is favor-
STUDIES IN EUROPE 173
ably described in his book on the European
treatment of the insane. The St. Hans Hos-
pital had one special advantage, in the oppor-
tunity for beach-bathing, which the patients
enjoy, and which seemed to be of excellent ef-
fect. " There have been abundant occasions,"
said the superintendent. Dr. Steenberg, " when
I could date the beginning of convalescence, or
at least of essential improvement both in mind
and body, from the day when the patient began
strand-bathing."
From Denmark Mr. Letchworth entered Ger-
many, and paused first at Hamburg, to give
close attention to the celebrated re- , ^
_ . . . ■"! Germany
formative industrial school named — Rauhe
the Rauhe Haus, founded by Im-^^^"^
manuel Wichern in 1833. Its first house had
been formerly an inn, and Immanuel, with his
mother, began there his work. Then a garden
cottage was occupied ; and so the extension ap-
pears to have gone on, not by enlargement of
buildings, but by a multiplication of them,
adding cottage to cottage, until about two hun-
dred boys and forty " brothers," who are their
guardians and teachers, were housed at the time
of Mr. Letchworth's visit. Thus the " cottage
system," which is being accepted as the best
174 WILLIAM PRYOR LETCH WORTH
habitation arrangement for nearly all institu-
tional collections of people, grew up in a nat-
ural way, and if the Rauhe Haus did not afford
the first object-teaching of this fact, the illustra-
tive lesson it gave was early and impressive. It
was a lesson which Mr. Letchworth, if he had
not conclusively learned it already, appears to
have been fully prepared to accept, with convic-
tion, from that time.
Each cottage of the institution was the home
of a " family," consisting, usually, of twelve
boys and two or three "brothers," the former
occupying the lower floor, the latter the upper
floor, each having its sitting-room. Kitchen and
flower-gardens were attached to each cottage.
The cooking for all was done at one place.
Work in several trades was being carried on,
as well as the care of cows, horses, and poultry.
The institution was intended, in the main, to
provide for the reclamation of neglected child-
ren, but it had taken in about twenty of the
criminal class, and did not set them apart. It
did make a class, however, of children whose
parents could pay for better furnishings and
food than the others received. In all cases par-
ents paid if they could, and what they could ;
otherwise the institution was supported by vol-
STUDIES IN EUROPE 175
untary contributions. From its beginning it
had dealt with about fifteen hundred boys.
In a neighboring village a school for girls was
conducted on the same system, but on a small
scale, its inmates numbering only twenty-five.
This was under the care of a married "brother"
and his wife.
Another institution at Hamburg to which
Mr. Letchworth gave careful attention was the
Friedrichsberg Asylum for the Insane. Two
features of the Friedrichsberg Asylum im-
pressed him unfavorably. One was the attempted
" classification of the patients into social grades,"
in combination with a more rational classifica-
tion of them according to their mental and
physical state. " The aim," as he explained,
" is not only to observe with care the social
distinctions and requirements, but also to pro-
vide each of the several classes and their num-
erous divisions with separate accommodations
and conveniences — down even to a separate
tea-kitchen. But so complex is this method of
classification that it is admittedly a source of
much embarrassment to the administration."
The other questionable characteristic of the in-
stitution is suggested in the remark that "the
buildings are in the midst of beautiful grounds;
176 WILLIAM PRYOR LETCH WORTH
but the spectacle of patients restricted to small
yards produces an unfavorable impression on
the mind of the visitor. As one walks about
the grounds and sees the patients through iron
screenwork or wooden palings, the idea of a
park menagerie is disagreeably suggested. It
was asserted by the management that there was
no ' forcing,' and that no mechanical restraint
whatever was resorted to."
In Germany Mr. Letch worth gave careful in-
spection to numerous institutions in the sev-
eral departments of public philan-
German ^ ^ t^
treatment thropy which claimed his special
of the study, but only one of the German
insane • ^-^ ^- r ^ • • ,
mstitutions tor the msane impressed
him sufficiently to be the subject of much descrip-
tion or comment in his subsequent book. That
one, however, the provincial Insane Asylum of
Alt-Scherbitz, in the Prussian Province of Sax-
ony, near Leipzig, appears to have come nearer
to the realizing of his final ideals of what the
treatment of demented humanity should be than
any other that he ever saw, abroad or at home.
He found the provision of care for the insane to
be regulated by no general laws in the German
Empire, but varying in the different states. He
found, too, that only about one third of the in-
STUDIES IN EUROPE 177
sane in Germany were given asylum treatment,
the remainder being considered suitable for
family care ; and that the asylums were small
compared with those of England, the United
States, and some other countries. Even that of
Alt-Scherbitz, which impressed him so much,
had no impressive magnitude, providing only
for six hundred patients; but it was one of two
institutions to which he gave distinct chapters
in his account of the care of the insane in
foreign countries; the other being the Belgian
"Colony of Gheel."
The Alt-Scherbitz Asylum, when visited by
Mr. Letchworth in 1880, had been in exist-
ence but four years. At its opening, Alt-Scher-
in 1876, when it was founded by bitz Asylum
Professor John Maurice Koeppe, it received
forty patients in the old farmhouse of the Alt-
Scherbitz manor, and further buildings for it
were then begun. These buildings included one
for administrative purposes, two reception sta-
tions, two observation stations, two detention
houses, and a hospital for the bodily sick, all
"unpretentious brick structures, with outer
porches," entirely separated from one another,
and surrounded by seven hundred acres of the
asylum estate. Lying within that estate is the
178 WILLIAM PRYOR LETCHWORTH
small hamlet of Alt-Scherbitz, and within the
hamlet were ten cottages or villas belonging to
the asylum and occupied by some of its quiet
patients.
The reception stations (one for men and one
for women), as described by Mr. Letchworth,
"are clinical passagev/ays for all newly received
patients, who are detained here as long as they
need continual care and treatment." The obser-
vation stations, one for each sex, " are for patients
who, though not of the acute class, need special
observation because they are not sufficiently
capable of self-control nor reliable enough for
reception in the colonial stations." The two de-
tention houses " are for such male and female
patients as it is necessary to restrict because of
their being restless or dangerous, or from the
suspicion of their having a desire to escape."
The villas or cottages are of three classes, differ-
ently furnished according to the rate of pay-
ment made for the patients who occupy them.
Of these Mr. Letchworth wrote : " It was a
pleasant summer day when I was there, and the
patients were passing in and out without inter-
ference, all, however, being under watchful su-
pervision." Of "the institution cottages in the
adjacent hamlet of Alt-Scherbitz," which appear
STUDIES IN EUROPE 179
to have had single occupants, he says: " At one
of these the patient had gone out and locked
his door, and the physician would not enter the
dwelling without his permission."
Relative to the freedom given to patients gen-
erally in the institution, he quoted the superin-
tendent, Dr/Paetz, as saying: "Every sort of
restraint by force is strictly interdicted, as being
against the fundamental principles of the asy-
lum. The patients enjoy the largest imaginable
freedom, the asylum representing the non-re-
straint system in the widest sense. Restraint is
easy to dispense with if one earnestly wishes to
dispense with it." Mr. Letchworth adds to this
the remark that "the number of nurses or at-
tendants averages about one to ten patients.
They live with the patients and lodge in the
same dormitories." Agricultural work and va-
rious trades for the men, with household occu-
pations for the women, keep most of them well
employed. In closing his account of the place,
which pleased him greatly, he says : " The whole
system of care and treatment seems adapted to
insure highly satisfactory results ; and yet a
stranger passing along the highway and catch-
ing glimpses of the asylum buildings through
the trees and shrubbery would hardly suspect.
i8o WILLIAM PRYOR LETCHWORTH
from their unpretentious character and their
arrangement upon the estate, that the place was
a pubHc hospital and asylum for insane people."
An older institution for the insane, at Halle,
Prussia, engaged Mr. Letchworth's attention
but slightly. He was busy, however, for some
days at Berlin, Duisburg, Kaiserwirth, Diis-
seldorf, and Boppard, visiting other institu-
tions, mostly of the reformative class. Several
, of these latter he found to be copies,
ReproQuc- _ ^
tions of more or less faithful, of the Rauhe
Rauhe Kaus Haus, at Hamburg. The Evangel-
ical Foundation of St. John, at Berlin, had
been founded, in fact, by Dr. Wichern, of the
Rauhe Haus, in 1858, and patterned very
closely after the Hamburg original. The sub-
jects of its care were the wayward youth, of
both sexes, who had not become amenable to
law, but were dangerously on the way to crime
and vice. These, its pupils, were under the
oversight of "brothers," w^ho were trained for
the function, in a Briiderhaus (brethren's house,
or missionary house) within the premises, pur-
suing a course which occupied from three to
five years. Pupils and "brothers" lived to-
gether, as at the Rauhe Haus, in families, oc-
cupying family houses, and the general eco-
STUDIES IN EUROPE i8i
nomy, discipline, and employment was about
the same.
Diisselthal Reformatory, near Diisseldorf-
on-the-Rhine, an older and much larger insti-
tution, exhibited the "family" organization of
its pupils, but differently carried out. Some but
not all of the families were housed separately,
and the "brothers" were wanting. The head
of the institution and his wife were known as
the "house-father" and the "house-mother,"
and between them and the pupils there appears
to have been no intermediate authority. Diis-
selthal, having one hundred boys and seventy
girls under its care, was one of three branches
of a foundation which extended the same or-
ganization to a second at Overdieck, where
forty boys were under training, and a third at
Toppenbroeck, which received forty boys and
twenty girls.
At a remarkable institution in Kaiserwirth,
the Deaconesses' Institute, which included a
kindergarten, an orphan house, a training-school
for teachers, a Feierabendhaus (which means a
house of rest, in the closing years of life, for
those who have labored hard), and an insane
asylum, Mr. Letchworth was surprised to find
a new building for the insane being equipped
i82 WILLIAM PRYOR LETCHWORTH
with all the old-time constructions for shutting
them behind grated windows and surrounding
walls. He remarks in the notebook of his visit
to the place that the reverend head of the in-
stitution " apparently had never heard of the
no-restraint system," and "showed all these
arrangements, for keeping the poor patients
like wild beasts in cells and apartments of strict
security, with perfect self-satisfaction."
The Prussian Government supports two re-
formatories for boys — Protestant and Catholic,
respectively — for the Rhenish Province and
the Province of Hesse-Nassau. One of these,
at Boppard-on-the-Rhine, Mr. Letchworth vis-
ited, expecting, it seems, to find it organized,
as it was said to be, on the family plan. But he
failed to recognize in it the essential character-
istics of that system. The eighty-four boys of
the institution were grouped ostensibly in four
families and the twenty girls in one ; but the
boys slept in the same dormitory, and were all
together at play, in work, and at school. Their
family life was only in the four rooms where
they ate their meals together and sat when not
otherwise engaged. Flogging and confinement
in dark rooms were among the punishments
permitted.
STUDIES IN EUROPE 183
Proceeding from Germany into Switzerland,
Mr. Letchworth's first visit there was to an
admirably conducted City Orphan
House, at Bale, from which he ^ Switzer-
brought many notes. At Burgholzli,
near Zurich, he examined the workings of an ex-
tensive asylum for the insane, and could not ap-
prove some of its methods, or feel persuaded
that the influences acting on the patients were
what they ought to be. He questioned espe-
cially a device of treatment for refractory pa-
tients, by keeping them immersed, sometimes
for hours, in hot-water baths, under locked
covers to the tubs, their heads protruding
through holes in these covers.
He learned at Zurich that, generally, in the
Swiss cantons, juvenile lawbreakers above twelve
years of age were sent with other criminals to
the common prison of the canton ; but that
houses of correction for such young delinquents
were in contemplation. Meantime private be-
nevolence had founded a considerable number of
what were called " savings institutions," for the
guarding of neglected children and the reclama-
tion of the wayward. Kasper Appenzeller, a
Zurich merchant, gave examples of this which
caused his name to be connected with them,
1 84 WILLIAM PRYOR LETCH WORTH
and they are known as " Appenzeller Institu-
tions." The children taken were bound to re-
main four years, during which time they were
industrially trained, and on leaving they received
three hundred francs each.
Juvenile refuges or reformatories of this na-
ture were visited by Mr. Letchworth in or near
Zurich, Lucerne, and Berne ; but at Berne he
found also reformatories for boys and for girls
established and supported by the cantonal gov-
ernment, and he visited both. Boys older than
twelve years were committed to the place by a
judge ; younger ones were sent by the poor-
board. For girls there were two institutions,
one receiving the actually depraved, the other
taking those who were innocent, but morally
imperilled. The boys were employed only at
farming. At about fifteen years of age they went
out of the reformatory, to be apprenticed by
the director, who still controlled them, and in
case of need helped them, until they were able
to support themselves. During this brief stay
in Switzerland Mr. Letchworth visited many
other institutions — prisons, orphanages, schools
for the deaf, dumb, blind, and idiotic, and schools
for the poor.
Coming now into France, the most interest-
STUDIES IN EUROPE 185
ing subjects of study that he found were the
Mettray Reformatory, near Tours, dealing, as
he remarked, with the " same class
of boys as are in the New York
House of Refuge," and the insane asylum at
Clermont-en-Oise. Of course he visited, at
Paris, La Salpetriere and Bicetre, where the
paupers of the French capital are collected,
females in the one, men in the other, young
and old, sane, insane, and idiotic together. La
Salpetriere, in its population of more than six
thousand, included nearly six hundred of un-
sound mind; but it had "little to engage the
attention of the inquirer after modern meth-
ods." Nor, on going through the Asylum of
Sainte-Anne, near Paris, was Mr. Letchworth
able quite to agree in opinion with many French
specialists in the treatment of mental diseases,
who, he says, considered it to be a model insti-
tution. He was better pleased with the asylum
at Charenton, in the suburbs of Paris; but
the most that he learned in France concerning
treatment of insanity was found evidently at
Clermont-en-OIse.
This institution, he remarks. In describing It,
" has long attracted attention by reason of Its
successful plan of colonizing the insane"; the
i86 WILLIAM PRYOR LETCHWORTH
central asylum, where about one thousand pa-
tients were accommodated, sending out certain
Clermont selections from them to two aux-
colonies of iliary establishments in its neigh-
the insane borhood, called the colony of Fitz-
James and the colony of Villers, where more
freedom in their treatment could be afforded.
These colonies were placed on more than a
thousand acres of farming lands, which lands
were cultivated by the patients, under a system
very carefully organized. " If [he explained] a
working patient betrays symptoms of violence,
or becomes from any cause unmanageable, he
is immediately transferred to the central asylum ;
and, on the other hand, whenever a patient in
the central asylum becomes quiet and tractable
he is removed to the colony and its industrial
system. There is thus a steady and highly
beneficial intercourse between the two divi-
sions. . . . The examination of the Clermont
colonies afforded me much satisfaction." But,
says the writer, in conclusion, " the satisfaction
derived from the inspection of the colonies of
Fitz-James and Villers did not extend to the
central institution with its one thousand in-
mates. Possibly owing to the large numbers
brought under one management and the bur-
STUDIES IN EUROPE 187
dens incident to the conducting of its extended
business affairs, the central asylum at Clermont
did not, as it appeared to the writer, reach a
proper standard for a hospital for the treatment
of the acute insane."
In the " Agricultural Colony for the Re-
formation of Boys " at Mettray, near Tours,
Mr. Letchworth could study an-
.... , . , , Mettray
other mstitution which represented colony for
the working-out of ideas taken, as Reformation
its director acknowledged, from the °^^
Rauhe Haus, at Hamburg. There were dif-
ferences in the development of those ideas, and
they were applied on a much larger scale ; but
this produced a more instructive illustration of
them. The Mettray colony, when Mr. Letch-
worth saw it, could undertake the care of about
eight hundred boys, on a domain which em-
braced fourteen hundred and eighty English
acres of ground, in a region of country which
his notes of the visit described as " charming."
" The entrance to the institution," he noted,
"looks more like that to a private villa. Vines
and creepers seem to adorn every building.
Gravel walks and roads are in every part of the
grounds."
The boys under correction at Mettray are
i88 WILLIAM PRYOR LETCHWORTH
sent to it as culprits by a magistrate, or com-
mitted for discipline and training by the " Ad-
ministration of Public Assistance," or received
as ungovernable youths on the application of
parents or guardians. Those in the first two
classes are not received at ages above sixteen
years. At the time of Mr. Letchworth's visit
to the colony it had under treatment between
forty and fifty of the boys of the third class,
and they were kept in a " family " by them-
selves. Otherwise its inmates were all classified
into " families " " according to age — not by
moral or other standards." " The so-called fam-
ilies," he noted, " consist of forty to fifty boys
who sleep and dine in the same houses, but
work and go to school by other divisions, —
i.e., according to age and capacity. . . . The
management of the establishment is of a military
order. The boys wear a uniform of white trou-
sers, blue blouses, and wooden shoes " ; and
their assemblages and marchings to and from
work, school, etc., are directed by bugle calls.
Each family had its " house-father," who slept
in the dormitory of his boys, but, as Mr. Letch-
worth noted, did not dine with them. Attempts
at running away from the colony were said to
be rare, and almost never successful. Of punish-
STUDIES IN EUROPE 189
ments permitted Mr. Letchworth does not seem
to have obtained much information, but a gen-
eral claim of kind treatment was made.
Leaving France early in October and pass-
ing into Belgium, our studious tourist found a
number of institutions at Brussels,
/^i J A 1 • I 1 1 In Belgium
Lrhent and Antwerp which had sug-
gestions of importance to repay his painstaking
investigation of them. Moreover, the National
Exposition then in progress at Brussels in-
cluded a section devoted to exhibits, from sev-
eral hospitals for the insane, of work done by
their patients, and of the latest improvements
of device and construction for use in connection
with the treatment of the insane. These latter
were shown in effective contrast with the bru-
talities of caging and shackling which had pre-
ceded them, not many decades before.
An orphanage for girls, at Brussels, presented
so many features of excellence in its construc-
tion, arrangement, and management, — in the
amplitude of its rooms and corridors, the salu-
brity of its air and the general wholesomeness
prevailing in it, — that extensive notes of the in-
stitution were brought away. At Ghent or Gand,
too, Mr. Letchworth found a large orphanage
for boys, of corresponding roominess and liber-
190 WILLIAM PRYOR LETCHWORTH
ality of wholesome arrangement, together with
a military discipline and order that seemed to
be of good effect. But of Belgian institutions,
the famous Colony of Gheel, not far from Ant-
werp, was the one which excited his deepest in-
terest. To that and the insane asylum of Alt-
Scherbitz, in Saxony, he gave the most extended
description and discussion in his work, on "The
Insane in Foreign Countries."
A legend of the seventh century, narrating
the persecution and martyrdom of an Irish
Colony of Christian princess, Dymphna, by
Gheel for her own father, who pursued her
the insane when she fled from him and slew
her at Gheel, gave rise to the belief that her
grave was a place of miraculous healing, espe-
cially for disorders of the mind. It was said that
St. Dymphna (for she was canonized) thought
her father to have been insane, and became for
that reason a special intercessor for all who
were crazed. Hence, from an early time, de-
mented persons were brought to Gheel, for
prayers in their behalf at St. Dymphna's shrine,
and increasing numbers of these were taken
into the houses of the neighborhood for lodge-
ment and care. Until about the beginning of
the last century there was no supervision of the
STUDIES IN EUROPE 191
treatment of these unfortunates, and it was
reputed to be heartless and ignorant in the last
degree. Something of correction was then at-
tempted by the communes which sent patients
to Gheel, through inspectors of their own ap-
pointment, and it was not until 1850 that the
Belgian Government took control of the colony.
Even then it was not until 1862 that a central
place of treatment was established, to fulfil " the
functions of a central asylum, or observation
station, through which all cases received into
the colony must pass, and to which are returned
such as are unsuited to family life."
At the time of Mr. Letchworth's visit to
Gheel this central institution held but forty-six
patients. The remainder of the six- opinion of
teen hundred and thirty insane mem- the Gheel
bers of the colony were distributed ^y^*^°^
in the dwellings of the commune, either as
private boarders, whose friends paid for their
keeping, or as paupers (who numbered fourteen
hundred), the scant public allowance for whose
maintenance ranged from two hundred and
nineteen to three hundred and thirteen francs
per year. As stated in his book, the primary
aim of Mr. Letchworth in visiting Gheel was
to make an examination of the condition of the
192 WILLIAM PRYOR LETCHWORTH
insane in these homes, and his three days at
the colony were spent mostly in "going from
house to house and from cottage to cottage,
first through the town and afterward into the
surrounding country." In his published account
of Gheel he has described minutely the con-
ditions that he found in many houses that he
visited, and they tell their own story. Very sel-
dom do they seem to satisfy the requirements of
health and comfort even moderately well ; and
most commonly it is impossible to bring into
association with them any thought of comfort
or health.
In his summary of conclusions Mr. Letch-
worth finds some advantages in the home life,
the occupations, the general freedom from re-
straint at Gheel ; but against these stand results
that come inevitably from (i) the fact that " the
care of the insane is relied upon by the people
of the place as their main business or means of
money-making," and is therefore commercial-
ized in spirit; (2) "the straining after economy,
which regulates the rate of maintenance [for
the pauper insane], affects the quality of the
food, and also influences, prejudicially, the na-
ture of the medical and other supervision."
Lack of bathing facilities, ventilation and pure
STUDIES IN EUROPE 193
water, prevalence of damp floors, " too frequent
proximity of stables and manure heaps to the
farm cottages," and other marks of "a lament-
able indifference to sanitary considerations,"
are among the results in question. A reader of
Mr. Letchworth's chapter on the Colony of
Gheel is prepared fully for his final remark
that " the Gheel system is of little practical
value to America, except as demonstrating that
a great amount of freedom is possible in the
care of certain classes of the insane."
In Holland Mr. Letchworth appears to have
given attention only to the reformatory for
boys, near Zutphen, which bears the
name of the Netherland Mettray,
and which thereby acknowledges the modelling
of its organization and system on those of the
French institution at Mettray, near Tours.
Inasmuch as the latter had been formed upon
principles that were worked out originally by
Immanuel Wichern, at the Rauhe Haus, of
Hamburg, this gave our American investigator
one more exhibit of the working of the family
scheme of life, in groups of cottage buildings,
for young people under correctional training.
The Netherland Mettray was founded in 1854
by a private individual, W. H. Suringar, and
194 WILLIAM PRYOR LETCHWORTH
received no public support. The boys dealt
with were sent by charitable societies or brought
by parents, who paid fixed sums per year. None
had developed criminality, but were inclined to
evil ways. The only punishment ever given to
them was confinement in a solitary chamber.
The discipline, it was affirmed, " rests on love " ;
" a perverse boy is taken aside and spoken to
kindly." The dormitories were not locked;
there were no enclosing walls ; the runaways
were few. Each cottage had its " house-father,"
whose room adjoined the sitting-room of the
boys. Mr. Letchworth was much pleased with
the institution and wrote in his notes : "There
is the look of a natural family life all about the
place, very different from the stiff, military, cold
appearance of everything about the Tours Met-
tray. The boys look healthy, contented, cheerful,
animated in manner, and respectful. Seeing one
of them, about thirteen years old, with a pipe
in his mouth, I asked if the boys were allowed
to smoke, and was answered, * Yes, a little.*
Far from recommending the same license to be
given at other institutions, I would call atten-
tion to the fact that this permission shows how
far the tone and feeling of familiarity between
teachers and pupils is carried here." The final
STUDIES IN EUROPE 195
jotting in his notebook was this : " The boys
are remarkably clean ; had scarcely any odor
about them."
Proceeding, about the middle of October, to
England, where he ended his European tour,
Mr. Letchworth remained in that
., t • r . . In England
country until early m January, visit-
ing many insane asylums, juvenile reformato-
ries, workhouses (corresponding nearly to our
poorhouses), orphanages, etc., but also enjoying
somewhat of English hospitality and indulging
himself in a well-earned measure of recreation
and rest. Of institutions for the insane that he
inspected we have extended descriptions in his
subsequent work on the subject ; but his notes
on other establishments seem never to have
been rewritten, as most of those taken on the
Continent were, and, being hasty jottings of
the moment, pencilled with notebook in hand,
they are sometimes quite illegible now, and yield
scanty gleanings of information as to what he
saw and with what effect on his views.
Generally, in the English asylums for the in-
sane he found a spirit of humanity, an Engjjgjj ^sy-
enlightenment of methods, a degree lumsforthe
of freedom given to the patients, an *°sane
absence of mechanical restraints, a cleanliness
196 WILLIAM PRYOR LETCHWORTH
and an order which impressed him most favor-
ably ; but he could not approve the magnitude
of most of them, — the swarming population
they hived together, — the scantiness of their
grounds, in most cases, and the limited num-
ber of attendants employed. Hanwell Asylum,
seven miles from London, interested him as
having been the place in which, under public
auspices. Dr. Conolly, nearly half a century be-
fore, demonstrated the practicability of the non-
restraint principle in treating the insane; and
it pleased him to learn that the superintendent
whom he met. Dr. Rayner, "had never resorted
to mechanical restraints except by the use of
gloves, ... in exceptional cases, such as pre-
venting a patient from tearing open a wound."
But his observation of the workings of the in-
stitution led him to conclude that, "from over-
fulness, restricted airing-courts and grounds, and
the presence of numbers too great for close in-
dividual inspection, the asylum could not reach
those curative results which the enlightened
principles governing it would seem to warrant."
He found occasion to apply somewhat the same
criticism to several others of the English asy-
lums, but not to all. The Brookwood Asylum,
one of three provided for the County of Surrey,
STUDIES IN EUROPE 197
and situated twenty-eight miles from London,
drew from him nothing but praise. " Without
architectural display," he wrote, "or other ex-
travagance, comfortable and proper provision
for the insane seemed to be here attained ; and
appropriate as were the fittings and furnishings
of this institution, that which impressed me
most favorably was the humane spirit pervad-
ing its entire administration,"
In Mr.Letchworth's book on "The Insane in
Foreign Countries " there are, in all, fourteen
of the English institutions quite fully «,j,j^
described. It is probable that the one Friends'
to which he was carried by the strong- ^^tr^at "
est attraction and with the warmest feeling of
interest was " The Friends' Retreat," near the
City of York. "This," he said in a private let-
ter written at the time of his visit, "was the first
asylum in England, if not in the world, that dis-
pensed with using means of restraint when pa-
tients are violent." In his book he vv^rote of it:
"Projected in the spring of 1792 and opened
in 1796, the York Retreat is memorable as the
place where the non-restraint principle was first
adopted in Great Britain — where William Tuke,
on behalf of the Society of Friends, courage-
ously renounced, as did Pinel at Paris, the use
198 WILLIAM PRYOR LETCHWORTH
of chains and manacles in the treatment of the
insane. . . . The Retreat, a private institution,
or * registered hospital/ is still directed by those
who are, for the most part, members of the So-
ciety of Friends. It has a yearly income of about
$75,000. The buildings are old-fashioned, but
wear an aspect of unpretentious comfort. In the
oldest part some of the arrangements scarcely
meet all modern requirements. ... At the time
of my visit the records showed one hundred and
fifty-three patients — sixty-four men and eighty-
nine women. ... A full inspection of the Re-
treat, with its detached cottages, its artfully
screened walls, its beautiful recreation grounds,
and its wealth of flowers within and without,
suffices to convince the visitor that this small
and select institution, which well-nigh a hun-
dred years ago proved such a powerful factor in
educating and elevating public opinion in Eng-
land, retains to this day much of that progressive
spirit and humanity of purpose upon which its
world-wide reputation rests."
Of English institutions for a reformative train-
ing of ill-doing children Mr. Letchworth visited
a large number, in and around London, Bristol,
Liverpool, Manchester, Wakefield, Sheffield,
York, Birmingham, and other centres of popu-
STUDIES IN EUROPE 199
lation. Writing from London, of the week be-
tween October 18 and 24, he said that it had
been devoted entirely to institution-visiting, and
added: " I have collected a vast fund of inform-
ation which I hope may be of use to the cause
of humanity in some way at some future time."
We may be sure that this fund of information
went into the guidance and stimulation of his
subsequent labors ; but its sources, for the most
part, are left undisclosed, so far as concerns
other subjects than the treatment of the in-
sane.
To Bristol Mr. Letchworth was drawn espe-
cially by his admiration of the work of the late
Miss Mary Carpenter, who had been,
. , Miss Mary
for many years, with tongue and pen carpenter's
and personal influence, the leader of reformatory
h- 1 J • ^ ^ t • schools
ild-savmg movements, not only m
England, but widely elsewhere in the world.
His estimate of the great importance of Miss
Carpenter's labors was set forth in a sketch of
her life and its results which he wrote in 1889.
He has left in this an account of two of the re-
formatory schools which she established in Bris-
tol, and to which he gave close attention while
there. They were planned for the reclaiming of
the more hardened class of juvenile offenders.
200 WILLIAM PRYOR LETCHWORTH
Miss Carpenter's first undertaking to that end
was in the establishment of the Kingswood Re-
formatory, which was opened in 1852, on pro-
perty purchased and placed at her disposal by
Mr. Russell Scott. This was intended originally
for both boys and girls, but experience dis-
approved of the combination, as it has done
generally throughout Europe, and a separate
institution, the Red Lodge Reformatory, for
girls, was established in another part of the
town. The grounds and the building — an an-
cient Elizabethan mansion — for this latter in-
stitution were purchased and given to it by
Lady Noel Byron, wife of the poet.
At the time of Mr. Letchworth's visit to it
the Kingswood Reformatory held about one
hundred and fifty boys, mostly engaged in
the making of pressed brick. Some, however,
were employed in farm work, some in a shop,
mending farm tools, some in tailoring, some in
shoemaking, some in household tasks. "The
doors," he wrote, "were open throughout the
building, and the place was not enclosed, nor
were there any guards. Only two boys were
found in confinement." In the Red Lodge Re-
formatory, at the same time, there were fifty-
two girls, " all sentenced for grave offences,
STUDIES IN EUROPE 201
too serious for committal to the industrial
school." They "were generally placed out after
remaining in the institution two years, but could
be recalled, upon any act of misconduct, to
complete their sentence. Beyond this they were
supervised for three years after their time had
expired. . . . After three months' probation
the girls received a portion of their earnings,
according to their conduct and work. . . . Re-
ligious teaching and moral training were features
in the institution; the rudiments of a common-
school education were also taught." In the room
which Miss Carpenter had occupied when per-
sonally superintending the institution hangs a
framed government document which certifies
that it was the first reformatory school for girls
established in England.
Another of his inspections which he made with
peculiar feelings of interest was at a reformatory
for boys, near Gloucester, to which ^^^^ . .
he alluded soon after, in his paper Court Re-
on "Classification and Training of fo^matory
Children, Innocent and Incorrigible," read at
the National Conference of Charities and Cor-
rection, at Louisville, In 1883, — as follows:
"When in England, not long since, I had the
pleasure of meeting a remarkable person, a pub-
202 WILLIAM PRYOR LETCHWORTH
He-spirited magistrate, whose position on the
bench gave him unusual opportunity for study-
ing the question of juvenile delinquency. He
was a gentleman of culture and refinement, as
well as a philanthropist, and is now regarded
as an authority on all matters relating to crime
and correctional methods. Impressed with the
importance of purifying the sources of evil
with which he had officially to deal, he, of his
own means and on his own estate, established
a reformatory for boys, upon a basis which he
had long deemed a right one, and placed it
under the guidance of a young clergyman, who
gave his life to the work without other emolu-
ment than the satisfaction derived from doing
good. This institution has become a model of
its kind, and it afforded me many avenues for
study while there. I refer to the Hardwicke
Court Reformatory, near Gloucester." As the
guest of the gentleman thus mentioned, T. Bar-
wick Lloyd Baker Esq., of Hardwicke Court,
Mr. Letchworth spent two delightful October
days, enjoying the opportunity, as he wrote to
his sister, " of an interior view of the social life
and habits of a genuine country squire, the
owner of a Hall surrounded by thousands of
acres "; and opening then a warm friendship
STUDIES IN EUROPE 203
which expressed itself in intimate correspond-
ence until Mr, Baker's death.
Among the papers that have come into the
hands of the writer of this biography is one en-
titled " Child-saving Work Abroad," on which
Mr. Letchworth had endorsed the following
note: "I cannot now (1907) recall upon what
occasion the paper entitled 'Child-saving Work
Abroad ' was used." Probably it was written
not long after his return from the investigations
of 1880. It relates to what he saw and learned
then, but mostly to the charitable rather than
the reformative institutions for children, and
almost wholly to his observations in the British
Isles. His first remarks in it indicate the deep
impression that was made on his mind by the
stress which he had found to be laid on the
importance of a careful classification of the child-
ren who came under treatment in public institu-
tions, to discriminate between three characters
in which they come, namely, (i) the homeless
and destitute, who need maintenance , (2) those
who are making wrong beginnings in life,
through ill-training or endangering associations,
from which they need rescue; and (3) those
who have entered the criminal class or belong
to it by birth. He had felt the importance of
204 WILLIAM PRYOR LETCHWORTH
this before ; but it seems manifest that he came
home with a deepened conviction that such an
assorting of the subjects of child-saving work
in pubhc institutions had a rational precedence
of everything else.
He found in Great Britain a lamentable de-
parture from this principle in one serious par-
ticular, although, otherwise, the principle had
careful recognition. " The larger proportion of
the children," he wrote, "belong to establish-
ments in connection with the workhouse, or, as
we would term it, the poorhouse or almshouse.
In some cases the pauper establishments [for
children] are on the poorhouse grounds ; in
others they are separately located. These re-
marks apply equally to England, Scotland, and
Ireland." Then he describes one which he vis-
islted, at Sutton, fourteen miles out of London,
where fifteen hundred and seventy-four child-
ren were housed,, They were in two depart-
ments, for boys and for girls, occupying "a
large tastefully built structure," on a good site,
with well-kept grounds; but the place seemed
to him "cold, dreary and formal," bearing, "in-
ternally and externally," " certain well-marked
features of a pauper establishment." He pro-
ceeds next to describe two other more recently
STUDIES IN EUROPE ' 205
created institutions for pauper children in Eng-
land which gave a better impression. One of
these, at Banstead, fifteen miles from London,
he found to be arranged " on the cottage plan,
which is growing in favor with large numbers
of the intelligent and benevolent, who dislike
the so-called pauper school." Here were eight
two-story cottage buildings for boys, having
twenty-six in each, and twelve for girls, each ac-
commodating twenty-four. Other buildingscom-
prised infirmaries, schools, workshops, chapel,
superintendent's residence, and office. The
other of these institutions which he visited, at
Marston Green, near Birmingham, showed him
fourteen cottages, arranged as on a village street,
seven being for boys, seven for girls, thirty
in each. "The boys," he tells us, "are under
the charge of a 'father and mother'; the girls
receive the attention of a mother. The male
head of each household is a tradesman or me-
chanic, who imparts to the boys a knowledge of
his craft. Work and schooling are taken alter-
nately." Here, evidently, are ideas taken from
Immanuel Wichern and Rauhe Haus.
On the practice in England and Scotland
of boarding-out large numbers of orphaned
and otherwise homeless children in the fami-
2o6 WILLIAM PRYOR LETCHWORTH
lies of cottagers, which is strongly supported by
many such philanthropists as the Misses Hill,
of Birmingham, he savs: "I was
The"board- ° . . •',
ing-out " of lorced to the conviction that this sys-
homeless tem was an improvement upon insti-
tutional life as it exists in England."
He found many of these boarded-out children
" placed with people of good character, under
good influences, well cared for, and fairly intro-
duced into what may be termed family life.
Nevertheless the fact of their being paid for
by the authorities and consequently dependent
seemed to prejudice their social position." In
America the placing-out of such children in
families which find their reward later, when their
little guests have grown to an age of usefulness
in the family work, has, in his view, a very dif-
ferent character, "almost unique."
The account in this paper of reformatories
and industrial schools in Great Britain is en-
tirely a general one and quite brief. " Any
number of individuals may organize what are
termed industrial schools," which are located
generally in the suburbs of large towns, " Re-
formatories are situated in the country, are gen-
erally small, built on the open or cottage plan,
and must be inspected or certified by a gov-
STUDIES IN EUROPE 207
ernment officer." In England, Scotland, and
Wales, when Mr. Letchworth wrote of them,
there were about two hundred of the reforma-
tories and schools, training upwards of twenty
thousand children ; besides eight government
training-ships, to which boys are sent from the
reformatories to be trained for the British mer-
chant service. " Some of the reformatory schools,"
he thought, "might be regarded as models.
They are generally devoid of high walls, insti-
tution aspect, or prison-like characteristics. The
boys occupy cottages, under a male attendant
or married couple. In fine weather they have
outdoor work on the farm ; in winter they work
indoors at a trade."
In closing his summary review of " Child-
Saving Work Abroad," as he had surveyed it,
Mr. Letchworth touched a question so inter-
esting that all readers must regret the teserved-
ness of his reply to it.
During my tour of inspection [he said] the question
was often asked me, " How do American institutions
compare with those of Britain ? " It is a question
somewhat difficult to answer. On a broad examina-
tion I am constrained to think that both have some-
thing to learn, the one from the other, and in my
opinion an international conference or interchange of
2o8 WILLIAM PRYOR LETCHWORTH
ideas could not fail to be of great mutual benefit. I
have mentioned that the reformatory system abroad
exhibits many features of interest to us ; I am also
bound to say that there is one part of that system as
administered in England which will not commend it-
self to philanthropic people on this side of the Atlan-
tic. I refer to the rule of law requiring the reforma-
tory child to have been in prison at least ten days, be-
fore being admitted to a reformatory, — a system, be
it observed, which closes the door of the industrial
school to the juvenile offender. The spectacle — al-
beit it maybe rare — of so-called "hardened crim-
inals," only eight years old, on their way to a prison
or reformatory, is very saddening, and I am glad to be
able to state that in several places reformatory author-
ities have stood out against receiving boys under
twelve years on a first conviction.
What he had learned In his tour of foreign
investigation was not all that Commissioner
Letchworth brought home when he returned
from It, early in January, 1881. He was the
medium of a highly important gift from the
English Local Government Board to the New
Gift of Ene- York State Board of Charities. In
lish building- recent years that Board had acquired
^^^^^ authority to control the planning of
all buildings provided for paupers, and the ex-
perts it employed had been making great im-
STUDIES IN EUROPE 209
provements in such plans. Commissioner Letch-
worth was permitted to examine these, and they
interested him so much that Sir John Lam-
bert, the head of the Board, caused copies of the
most approved to be made and officially trans-
mitted to the New York State Board, along
with many important documents. A formal
presentation of these to the latter Board was
made by Mr. Letchworth at its meeting in
March, 1881.
CHAPTER VI
CHILD-SAVING WORK: REFORMATIVE
From his observations abroad it is certain that
Mr. Letchworth brought much that cleared his
understanding, instructed his judgment, broad-
ened and deepened his thought concerning the
grave and difficult matter of so dealing with
errant youth as to train it into better courses ;
but the cardinal convictions of his mind on this
subject were those which the Rauhe Haus of
Immanuel Wichern,at Hamburg, and its varied
copies elsewhere had impressed upon him. For a
time it became his chief mission to plead for the
transformation of juvenile "houses of refuge"
and similar so-called reformatories from grim
prisons into systematized industrial schools ;
for the tearing away of their stone walls ; for the
transplanting of them into open country sur-
roundings ; for the grouping and cottage-hous-
ing of their pupil inmates, under some sem-
blance of the associations of a common family
life; and (before all else) for a careful classifica-
n
7,
5
y.
CHILD-SAVING: REFORMATIVE 211
tion of juvenile delinquents, to part the uncor-
rupted from the corrupt.
It will be necessary, however, before taking
up the record of his work for the betterment of
juvenile reformatories at the pointwhere it came
to be influenced by his investigations abroad, to
go back a little in time and make note of what
he had been doing previously on approximate
lines. Incidentally, while busied with his earlier
tasks, he had been seeing and learning much of
the workings of the penal and correctional insti-
tutions of the country and of their dealing with
young offenders against the law. He had come
into intimate relations with people who were
leading the undertakings of social reform in that
most important direction. He was ^. j^ ,
already in cooperation with Dr. E. the prison
C. V^ines, the distinguished secre- associations
tary of the National Prison Association, and with
Dr. Elisha Harris, corresponding secretary of
the Prison Association of New York, exchang-
ing suggestion and counsel with both. The per-
nicious unwisdom and carelessness of prevail-
ing modes of dealing with vagrancies and the
minor breaches of social order were then greatly
exercising the minds of these earnest philan-
thropists and the associations with which they
212 WILLIAM PRYOR LETCHWORTH
labored, and juvenile delinquency was involved
gravely in the depraving influences found here.
In September, 1874, the second year of Mr.
Letchworth's official service, Dr. Harris had
submitted to the State Board of Charities a pro-
posal of joint effort to secure in the State of New
York a "suitable and effectual system of local
workhouses, which shall be truly institutions or
places of correctional treatment for the classes
which now infest society by tramping, begging,
hanging upon almshouses, as well as by prac-
tising various crimes and offensive courses of
life." The objects sought were to suppress
vagrancy; to save "the young, the innocent,
and reformable classes" of persons who might
be drifting into vagrancy from being brought
"into the community and conversation" of the
radically debased class; and, finally, to cure
"the great evils that exist in the county jails,
by affording means of immediate and effectual
removal and suitable discipline for persons con-
victed of misdemeanors, and who under existing
laws and usages remain in the jails, to expiate
their offences by a moral and physical kind of
slow death." The State Board of Charities was
asked to appoint a committee for a conference
with a committee of the Prison Association,
CHILD-SAVING: REFORMATIVE 213
looking toward a united undertaking to obtain
proper legislation on these lines. The Board of
Charities responded to the request, and Mr.
Letchworth was a member of the committee
named. His correspondence with Dr. Harris,
intimate and extensive from that time, shows
that discussion of the project of legislation went
through a long period, to no conclusive action;
and shows, too, that its inconclusiveness was be-
cause the time for so broad a reform was not yet
ripe.
Mr. Letchworth's interest in the matter was
fully aroused, especially in its bearing on the
exposure of the young to corrupting ^^„^
r . r o Children in
associations, and his own observa- jaiis and
tions soon confirmed all that was said penitenti- '
0.1*16 S
of the seriousness of the evil by Dr.
Harris and other investigators of our jails and
other penal institutions. In December, 1875, ^^
asked the secretary of his Board to bring the
matter to the attention of Governor Tilden,
and to request him, in his forthcoming annual
message, to recommend legislation for securing
the removal of children, not only from poor-
houses, as had been done, but from common
jails and from all association with adult paupers
and criminals.
214 WILLIAM PRYOR LETCHWORTH
The law of the last legislature [he wrote] requires
this to be effected now in poorhouses and almshouses,
and previously enacted laws require it to be enforced
in penitentiaries; but for some reason, perhaps of de-
fect in the law, it is practically disregarded. In nearly
all of the penitentiaries in the state, as well as the
state's prisons, considerable numbers are to be found
under sixteen years of age. In the penitentiaries some
are mere children. It seems to me that the law should
be made, not only more restrictive, but to apply also
to jails and lockups, and that the principle of dis-
sociating children from adult paupers and criminals
should be held as fundamental. When at Hart's
Island, in October, I saw eleven children intermingled
with a gang of sixty criminals emerge from the hold
of the steamer belonging to the Department of Public
Charities in New York.
Some slight and partial allusion to the sub-
ject was made by the governor In his subse-
quent message, but nothing that was likely to
produce legislative results. Two years after this
appeal to a right-minded governor for help in
obtaining remedies of law for a most dangerous
social infection there is evidence that no pro-
gress toward such remedies had been made.
Mrs. Lowell, of the State Board of Charities,
was heart and soul with Mr. Letchworth in
this line of work. Two letters written by Dr.
CHILD-SAVING: REFORMATIVE 215
Harris, of the Prison Association, on the same
day, January 23, 1877, ^^^ addressed to Mrs.
Lowell and the other to Mr. Letchworth, tell
us what was the state of things at that time.
To Mrs. Lowell he wrote : —
Most people do not see our magistrates and police
justices as I see them, — utterly indifferent to the
questions, Is this offender a child ? and Is the child
under sixteen years old ? From our city recorders and
the supreme court I have seen boys under sixteen
years old marched into Sing Sing. At Syracuse I found
a child under eleven years old in the penitentiary, as a
vagrant, sentenced for sixty days. There is no law to
forbid such sentences, and even when a child is found
in state prison the governor must act — if he can be
induced to act — to order the child's transfer to the
House of Refuge. ... I have found children under
sentence and serving out their term of punishment in
nearly every jail in the state^ in every penitentiary^ and
in every prison. Yet I might reiterate the facts for ten
years, vainly hoping to induce action ; but if a revision
of all the statutes in a brief act is attempted I believe
we could obtain the law now needed. The existing
statutes readily permit the imprisonment of children,
first, by not directly prohibiting the sentence of a
child to any one of the three classes of prisons j second,
by accepting the judge's decision as to the age of a
juvenile offender; but, from 1826, 1830, 1846, 1850,
2i6 WILLIAM PRYOR LETCHWORTH
and 1852, every allusion to juvenile offenders con-
structively implies that they are not to be sentenced
to jail, penitentiary, or state prison.
In his simultaneous letter to Mr. Letchworth
Dr. Harris wrote : —
I am soon to visit all the jails and penitentiaries
and I shall closely record the cases I meet with ; but
no office, no officer, no records existing now can give
us the facts you seek. A child eleven years old told
your Buffalo police magistrate, " I don't know my
age." I saw him in the penitentiary and talked with
him. Captain Felton knew his age. He was only a
homeless child, wandering all the way from London,
England, to London in Canada, and to Buffalo. In
Albany I saw a case fifteen years old; in Syracuse
one nine or ten; in Rochester five cases under fifteen,
all in for one year. ... In fifty jails I have seen
child convicts, and in the state prisons I have seen
case after case.
According to what was told of conditions pre-
vailing generally in thejailsof the United States,
within the period in which these statements
were made, the placing of children in them was
iniquitous beyond measure. Said Dr. Wines, in
the report of the National Prison Association,
adopted at its congress of 1874: "If by some
supernatural process our two thousand jails
CHILD-SAVING: REFORMATIVE 217
could be unroofed, and the things they conceal
be thus instantly exposed to our view, a shriek
would go up from this congress and country
which would not only reach every corner of the
land, but be heard, in Scripture phrase, 'to the
very ends of the earth.'" In 1877 a conference
of prison keepers and observers, held at New-
port, Rhode Island, adopted a report which said,
among other things, this: "The system of county
jails in the United States is a disgrace to our
civilization. It is hopelessly bad, and must re-
main so as long as it exists under its present
form. De Tocqueville, half a century ago, pro-
nounced our county jails 'the worst prisons he
had ever seen,' and there has been little marked
improvement since."
Officially, Mr. Letchworth had no authority
or any other standing than as a citizen for ac-
tion against these abominations of the _ .
prison system. By jommg hands with the Prison
the Prison Association of New York Association
L i_ ,L- • ^ ^ • ^u of New York
he became a participant, not in the
exercise of any actual power of reformation, but
in the use of a right of inspection and criticism
which had no small importance. In January,
1876, he was elected a member of the Executive
Committee of the Prison Association, and thus
21 8 WILLIAM PRYOR LETCHWORTH
came into close relations with its work. Later he
was one of its vice-presidents. Little record of his
personal action in those relations can be found ;
but we may be sure that it was no perfunctory
performance, and that he bore as active a part as
his official labors would permit in the counsels
and the undertakings of the Association during
some subsequent years. It worked against great
obstacles, and the progress of prison reform was
slow. It was not until 1895 ^^^^ the administra-
tion of prisons in the State of New York was
importantly changed, by the creation of the State
Commission of Prisons; and that commission,
in its third annual report, was even then com-
pelled to give a bad account of the majority of
the county jails in the state. It said of them that
they "are relics of another generation, when the
sole object was confinement, and no considera-
tion was given to the health or reformation of
the inmates."
Over juvenile reformatory institutions the
State Board of Charities exercised a jurisdiction
which included something of authority and
much more of influence to correct mismanage-
ment in them. Here, therefore, was his main
field of child-saving work, when the rescue of
the homeless from pauperism had been achieved.
CHILD-SAVING: REFORMATIVE 219
and his thought and labor could be turned to
the ill-doing boys and girls, out of whom it is
the need and the duty of society to make well-
doing men and women if it can. This side of
the child-saving appeal had been urgent to him
from his first barkening to that call ; and his
earliest scrutiny of the facts to be dealt with
showed him exactly what needed most to be
done. We learn this from an undated memoran-
dum, found among his papers, which probably
was written in his later years. In this he says : —
In the eady days of my examination of institutions
and the means established for the reformation of ju-
venile delinquents, I was strongly impressed with the
disregard of proper classification and the indifference
shown to this subject. This was particularly the case
in New York State, Massachusetts had largely broken
away from the old system, by the establishment of a
state agency, with a probation system, Ohio had es-
tablished its reform school for boys on the cottage plan,
at Lancaster, and for girls, on the same plan, at Dela-
ware. Under the direction of Governor Bagley, Michi-
gan changed its State Reform School, at Lansing, from
the congregate plan to the cottage plan ; afterwards
founding the Lancaster School for girls, on the cot-
tage plan at Adrian. Advances in other states might
be mentioned, but, until a recent date. New York State
has been signally apathetic on this subject.
220 WILLIAM PRYOR LETCHWORTH
When my attention was first directed to the matter
I found that the innocent and the incorrigible were
Sh mpf 1 indiscriminately commingled in institu-
conditions tional life. Once, on entering the House
in New York of Refuge at Randall's Island, I found a
group of boys who had just entered and were being
registered, preparatory to being taken to their wards
and cells, which were on the same plan as those in
state prisons. ... I asked one little boy, who was sit-
ting with others on a wooden bench and swinging his
legs in a " happy go lucky " way, what he had been
sent there for ? " Oh," he replied, with much gusto,
" for stealing a horse." I found afterwards that he and
some other boys, in a frolicsome spirit, had got into
a grocer's wagon and driven off. He was arrested on a
charge of felony and sentenced to imprisonment dur-
ing the long years of his minority, his name forever
branded with infamy — a brand which, by judgment
record, time could never efface. . . .
Once, on visiting a reform school, my attention
was directed to a nice-looking lad, who was standing
in the corner of the yard with his face against the
angle of the brick wall, sobbing bitterly. The super-
intendent said he had been in the institution three days,
during all which time he had been crying and had kept
aloof from the other boys. This boy was in a mood
to be reformed, and it saddened me to think that he
could not be properly dealt with, in his repentant mood,
instead of being subjected to close companionship with
CHILD-SAVING: REFORMATIVE 221
evil associates. . . . This lad was but a type of great
numbers I have seen, who should never have been
committed to such institutions. Many thousands of
children in the State of New York who were simply
wayward — whose parents, perhaps, were more at fault
than the children — who were what they were because
of evil environments, and who needed only mild cor-
rectional treatment — have been subjected to the great
wrong of commitment to institutions which brought
them into intimate association with the hardened, the
incorrigible. In such establishments I have known of
secret organizations of bad boys who taught the inno-
cent newcomers all manner of criminal practices, in-
cluding pocket-picking, house-breaking, and how
effectually to commit rape.
Apparently, Mr. Letchworth's first public
utterance of opinion on modes of dealing with
juvenile delinquency was in 1877, at First ex-
the National Conference of Charities f.'^^j^'^" °°_
and Correction at Saratoga. He was tion"
one of a committee which had been appointed
to report on " Dependent and Delinquent Chil-
dren " ; but the committee had not been able
to confer, and in a personal report that he sub-
mitted he limited himself mostly to a sketch of
the history of the development, in the State of
New York, of both charitable and reformatory
institutions for children. To this historical re-
222 WILLIAM PRYOR LETCHWORTH
view he added a brief discussion of unsatisfied
needs as he saw them. On the reformatory side
he went no further than to endorse a resolution
adopted at the last preceding State Convention
of Superintendents of the Poor, in New York,
which urged that " institutions of a correctional
character, and intermediate between the orphan
asylum and the house of refuge, are needed, and
that those institutions will attain the best results
the more nearly they conform to the family
system." On this he said: —
In our orphan asylums it has been found that a class
of children float into them who need a restraint and
discipline that cannot be enforced in such institutions.
The presence in orphan asylums of children who are
uncontrollable under ordinary rules exercises an injur-
ious effect upon the other children. . . . The Interest,
both of an ungovernable child and of the institution
itself, requires its removal. To place such a child in
a house of refuge, among incorrigible and hardened
offenders, many of them mature in years and crime,
is evidently unwise, and must result in an influence
being exerted on him proportionately as injurious as his
influence was injurious upon the children in the insti-
tution from which he was removed. There are also,
in every county throughout the State, considerable
numbers of children who have broken loose from
parental control, who need some kind of reformatory
CHILD-SAVING: REFORMATIVE 223
training, and whom to send to houses of refuge would
be impolitic and unjust. In these institutions, as at
present constituted, proper classification is not practi-
cable.
This seems to have been his first protest
against the indiscriminate penalizing of all de-
grees of juvenile delinquency, — his first plea
for a rational classification of offences and of-
fenders amongst the young. It was a plea which
became more and more urgent from him in
subsequent years. From the months he spent
abroad, in 1880, visiting institutions and study-
ing methods of public benevolence, he came
back with convictions and feelings on this point
confirmed and intensified. He had gathered in-
struction on many lines from his questioning of
foreign experience and practice, but none more
decisive than this, of the importance of a system-
atic classification in the treatment of children
with whom the law has to deal. He had found
that, generally, this was recognized and acted
upon more fully in other countries than in ours,
and that thereby they were advanced a step be-
yond us. It now became one of his most earn-
est endeavors to create a right view and a right
feeling on the subject in the American mind.
A flagrant illustration of the need of that en-
224 WILLIAM PRYOR LETCHWORTH
lightenment was afforded in the spring of 1882,
when he discovered a bill making progress
^ through the legislature of New York,
The case of , . ,
the Western which purported to have no other ob-
House of ject than the changing of the name
of the Western House of Refuge, at
Rochester, but which actually was intended to
increase in that prisonlike institution an already
abominable disregard of grades and qualities in
juvenile transgressions. Making haste to Albany,
he secured a hearing before the committee which
had the bill in charge, and made, in a brief but
effectual address, such an exposure of its naked
purpose that it seems to have died then and
there. " Should this bill become a law," he said
to the committee, " the anomalous spectacle
would be presented of a heterogeneous collection
in one institution of the following classes of
children, embracing both sexes: first, the felon;
second, the thief; third, the child arrested for
assault and battery ; fourth, the disorderly; fifth,
the malicious ; sixth, the truant from school ;
seventh, the child arrested for begging from
door to door; eighth, the abandoned child;
ninth, the neglected child ; tenth, the street
prostitute."
The Western House of Refuge did obtain
CHILD-SAVING: REFORMATIVE 225
the better name desired for it, and it was saved
from an atrocious misuse, to become one of the
truest reformative institutions in the United
States.
At the Tenth National Conference of Chari-
ties and Correction, held at Louisville, in Sep-
tember, 1883, in a paper entitled j^e inno-
" Classification and Training of Chil- cent and the
dren, Innocent and Incorrigible," he incorrigible
discussed the subject broadly and at length. In
this paper he quoted from correspondence he
had had with the notable English magistrate,
T. B. LI. Baker, Esq., of Hardwicke Court, who
had founded a reformatory for boys on his own
estate, and whom he had visited while in England
three years before. Among the observations of
Mr. Baker was this : "The notion of putting a
large number of boys together, of all sorts, seems
very wild. Of course I cannot say that such a
system may not answer with you ; though if any
man were to propose a similar plan here we
should consider it equivalent to a certificate of
lunacy."
For the basis of a proper classification of the
children coming under public care, for either
support or correction, Mr. Letchworth proposed
the following fourfold division : —
226 WILLIAM PRYOR LETCHWORTH
(i) The homeless and destitute through
death or poverty of parents.
(2) Truants from school.
(3) Children rebellious of parental control;
those guilty of petty offences and unsuited to
orphanages, including vagrants and those in
danger of falling.
(4) Boys and girls of hardened nature or
hereditary vicious propensities, who are guilty
of felonious offences.
Orphanages for the first class, schools for
truants for the second, industrial schools for
the third, reform schools for the fourth, were
the several agencies of care and discipline recom-
mended. That reformatories for boys and girls
should be, in all cases, distinct institutions was
urged strongly as a conclusion to which all
experience led. In the same paper Mr. Letch-
worth drew attention to legislation in Massa-
chusetts which provides "for the appointment
of a state agent, who, in a certain sense, acts as
counsel for juvenile offenders." This officer
must be notified of complaints in court pending
against any boy or girl under seventeen years
of age, and have opportunity to investigate
the case as well as to attend the trial. On his
request the court was authorized to refer the
CHILD-SAVING: REFORMATIVE 227
disposition of the child to the State Board of
Health, Lunacy and Charity. Having given
considerable time to a personal investigation, in
Massachusetts, of the working of this system,
Mr. Letchworth had secured the attendance of
the Massachusetts State Agent, Mr. Gardner
Tufts, at the meeting of the National Confer-
ence of Charities and Correction in 1880, with
a paper on the working of the Massachusetts
system, which awakened much interest, here
and abroad.
As president of the Eleventh National Con-
ference, at St. Louis, in 1884, Mr. Letchworth,
in his opening address, put the em- ^^^^ Massa-
phasis of his thought on preventive chusetts
aims in charitable and reformative ^y^*®™
work, as the primary rule. "Try to lessen the
number of inmates in institutions of all kinds,
rather than increase them, especially in institu-
tions for children," he said. "The institution is
something to be used only as a last resort.
The Massachusetts plan of dealing with juve-
nile offenders appears to me worthy of general
adoption." Briefly explaining the suspension
of judicial sentence which this permitted, while
the young delinquent was kept under surveil-
lance by the state agent, he went on to say:
228 WILLIAM PRYOR LETCHWORTH
"Meanwhile the agent influences the boy and
his parents or guardians for his reformation,
and reports to the court. If the dehnquent im-
proves, the sentence is still further suspended.
... If it becomes necessary, however, to com-
mit the offender to an institution, the agent is
consulted as to what institution he shall be sent
to; but the paternal care of the state does not
cease here. It follows the delinquent to the
institution, where, if it be found that his inter-
est or that of the institution will be promoted
by a change, he is transferred elsewhere, on the
recommendation of the state agent."
Massachusetts, it will be seen, had conceived
and acted on the idea of "probation" more
than thirty years ago, and Mr. Letchworth was
one of the first of the missionaries of its propa-
gation. The Massachusetts State Agency, in
fact, had been doing its work of assistance to
the courts in dealing with juvenile transgressors
of law since 1869, and other states had given
little heed to the example. But that example
was held persistently by Commissioner Letch-
worth before the National Conference of Char-
ities and Correction, in addresses and papers
which returned to it again and again.
At the meeting of 1886, in St. Paul, he
CHILD-SAVING: REFORMATIVE 229
presented one of the ablest of his essays on
social questions touching the young, entitling
it "The Children of the State." In jyjj.^ Letch-
this he ventured " to hazard," as worth's plan
he expressed his undertaking, "the °l^^^^^f
presentation of a plan [of dealing nile delin-
with juvenile delinquents] which is," q^ency
he said, "the outgrowth of close study of the
views of specialists in reformatory work in
different countries, and of extended personal
observation." His plan started, of course, with
classification for its fundamental requirement,
to discriminate with care between the truant,
the homeless child, the wayward, the vagrant,
the disorderly, the thief, and the felon. It
demanded, too, the reformative training of boys
and girls in entirely separate institutions. It
condemned institutions of so great a size and
congregating such large numbers that individu-
ality is lost and children have to be known by
number instead of by name. Beyond these
radical principles he framed his plan essen-
tially on the lines of the Massachusetts State
Agency system, and a kindred system of county
visitors in Michigan, which he had studied
and referred to with approbation more than
once.
230 WILLIAM PRYOR LETCHWORTH
A central unpaid supervising board, independent of
political influence [he advised] , should direct the work,
with power to appoint a paid state agent, and an un-
salaried agent in every county, who shall be one of a
committee of visitors, likewise appointed by such
board. It should have jurisdiction over all classes of
children brought before the courts with a view to re-
straint or correction. The local committee should
consist of persons residing in different parts of the
county, who would look after the delinquent children
that had been brought under state supervision, and re-
port respecting them, from time to time, to the county
agent, who should likewise report to the state board
through the state agent.
The function and authority of the state agent,
as contemplated in Mr. Letchworth's plan,
would be substantially those of the Massachu-
setts state agent, already outlined, and he would
have the proposed state and county boards and
the county agents to assist and support him in
his work.
For the disciplining of juvenile delinquency,
in its minor exhibitions, when punitive disci-
pline is found necessary, Mr. Letchworth fa-
vored a method that he found practised by the
School Board of Liverpool, England, in the
treatment of obstinate cases of truancy from
CHILD-SAVING: REFORMATIVE 231
school. Boys who will not attend school are
sent to a house of detention a few miles outside
of the city. For terms of from five to not more
than thirty days they are kept there, —
under a solitary system, and subjected to the severest
training compatible with their years and the preserva-
tion of their health. Food is taken to their rooms.
They are marched in single file to the shops, where
they work in small squads. No recreation except out-
side calisthenics is permitted. The rules forbid con-
versation or any kind of intercourse between the boys.
This punishment having been administered once, it is
rarely found necessary to inflict it again. ... In this
brief but sharp and severe punishment there is no last-
ing stigma upon the character nor injury to the per-
son, nor is there danger of moral contamination from
evil associates. Similar houses for the correction of ju-
venile delinquency might be established near our large
cities, and prove useful in materially lessening commit-
ments to our houses of refuge and reform schools,
thus relieving them of much of their expensively con-
ducted work. . . . In case the conduct of a boy could
not be corrected by the influence of the county agent,
or by holding him under suspended sentence, or in
family care, he might be committed for a short term to
a house of detention. If one or two repetitions of this
kind of punishment should not prove effectual, a longer
discipline in the reform school should be tried. . . .
232 WILLIAM PRYOR LETCHWORTH
The adoption of the preventive measures as sug-
gested would make it necessary to commit but few to
the reform school ; and in the plan proposed this in-
stitution should be located on a farm removed some
distance from the city, and organized and controlled,
when practicable, by private benevolence. It should
receive aid from the state, city, or county, but not
sufficient to maintain it, so that public sympathy
would be kept alive in the reformatory work. Parents,
too, should be required to contribute, in accordance
with their means, towards the support of their child-
ren in these institutions, in order that they may feel
a due share of responsibility.
These schools should be small, such having proved
the most successful. They should be examined by a
central supervising board, and certified to as suitable
for the care and training of delinquents, before being
permitted to receive inmates, and this examination
should be repeated and the certificate renewed each
year as a condition to continuance. Should peculiar
circumstances make it desirable that the institution
receive more than one hundred inmates, the cottage
plan should be adopted. The internal system of a re-
formatory school should be as nearly as practicable
that of the family, with its refining and elevating in-
fluences ; while the awakening of the conscience and
the inculcation of religious principles should be primary
aims. . . .
Every boy should be instructed in some useful trade
CHILD-SAVING: REFORMATIVE 233
or occupation, and his wishes consulted in selecting
it. Trades should be taught under the Russian sys-
tem of technologic training, whereby a boy, as
Mr. Auchmuty in his trade school in New York has
demonstrated, may be taught plumbing, carpentry,
stone- and brick-laying, plastering, and other useful
handicrafts, in from three to four months; and when
so taught, although not having the expertness that
comes with practice, is a better mechanic than if he
had spent five years in acquiring a trade in the old
way, because he has learned the principles of me-
chanics and chemistry that are applicable to his trade.
Such as prefer farming and gardening, so far as season
and weather permit, should be employed and instructed
in those pursuits.
' It is now a quarter of a century since this
systematic plan of reformative treatment, to be
applied to those differing disposi- present ac-
tions or ill-trainings of the young ceptance of
which tend toward an inveterate per- ^^^^ ^^^^^
versity, was worked out by the most careful
student of the subject in that day. As a sys-
tematic plan, so far as the present writer has
knowledge, it has never been instituted and put
in practice anywhere, and perhaps it will never
be, though every feature of the organization
recommended in it appears to be soundly and
234 WILLIAM PRYOR LETCHWORTH
practically designed ; but the ideas, the experi-
ments, and the experiences that were gathered
together and constructively combined in it have
substantially all been brought widely into recog-
nition and acceptance within these twenty-five
years. The careful classification of juvenile mis-
doings, the suspension of judicial sentences, the
probationing of young transgressors, the farm-
planting of reform schools, the cottage colony,
the systematic industrial training, — these have
all come now to be requirements which an en-
lightened community is expected to meet in the
designing and conducting of its reformative in-
stitutions. The last decade, especially, has pro-
duced an extraordinary ripening in the public
mind of the scientific and rational as well as
philanthropic ideas which they represent. When
Mr. Letchworth assembled them in his plan it
is not to be supposed for a moment that he drew
any of those ideas from his own originating
mind. It was never his way to rest a recommend-
ation that he offered to the public on a merely
theoretical idea. All the problems in public
philanthropy that he dealt with were studied in
the light of such experiments and experiences
as applied a sure test to the theory from which
they sprang.
CHILD-SAVING: REFORMATIVE 235
His investigations to that end were the most
remarkable part of his work. No time, no labor,
no travel, no sacrifice of his personal ggectual
comfort was too much for him to study of
give to the searching out and inspect- P^'o^^^'^s
ing of institutions and of laws which had object
lessons of method to offer, with conclusive prov-
ings of result. He was unmatched among social
workers in that effectual study, and therefore
unmatched as a public teacher on the vital sub-
jects which he prepared himself to speak upon
with high authority. The authority of his
opinion on these matters was recognized, be-
cause the carefulness of the quest which went
before the opinion was always plain. Hence, it
can safely be said that the influence of Mr.
Letchworth, beyond any other personal influ-
ence in the last generation, has entered into the
producing of a wholly different public opinion
at the present day, touching the public treat-
ment of dependent and delinquent children,
compared with that of the time when he began
his work as a commissioner in the Board of
Charities of the State of New York.
Three years prior to his presentation of the
above elaborated plan of dealing with juvenile
delinquents, in a paper prepared, on the invita-
236 WILLIAM PRYOR LETCHWORTH
tion of the Societe Generale de Protection pour
TEnfance abandonnee ou coupable, forthe Con-
Seventeen gres International de la Protection
child-sav- ^^ I'Enfance, held at Paris in June,
ing proposi- ' J J
tions 1883, he had submitted "Seven-
teen Propositions relating to Child-saving
Work " which embodied the same principles,
substantially, in an excellently condensed form.
Later, in 1888, these "Seventeen Propositions"
were laid before the National Conference of
Charities and Correction, at its session in Buf-
falo, and discussed with much approval, in de-
bate on the report of the committee on the care
and disposal of dependent children. They are
as follows: —
First. There should be a proper classification, prim-
arily into the following divisions : (a) Children thrown
upon the public for support by misfortune or poverty
of parents, {b) Truants from school subject to the
compulsory education laws, (r) Children homeless,
or with bad associations, who are in danger of falling,
and who need homelike care and training rather than
reformatory treatment, (d) Incorrigibles, felons, those
experienced in crime, and the fallen needing reform-
ation.
Second. Provision should be made for girls, except
the younger class, in institutions separate from boys.
CHILD-SAVING: REFORMATIVE 237
Third. The institution should be homelike in char-
acter, and its administration as nearly as possible that
of family life.
Fourth. Small institutions on the open or cottage
plan should be provided for boys, upon farms in the
country, where agriculture and gardening may be com-
bined with a thorough indoor and common-school
system.
Fifth. The labor of children should, under no cir-
cumstances, be hired to contractors.
Sixth. Government supervision should be exercised
over all institutions for children, and frequent exam-
inations made as to sanitary and other conditions, an-
nual approval by the Government being requisite to
the continuance of the work.
Seventh. Power should be lodged in a central au-
thority to transfer inmates from one institution to
another, in order to perfect and maintain classifica-
tions; also to remove juvenile offenders from institu-
tions and place them in family care during good con-
duct ; also to remove from institutional care and to
place permanently in homes all children suited to
family life.
Eighth. There should be provided a governmental
agency to act in the interest of juvenile offenders when
on trial. The agency should be vested with power,
with the approval of the judge, to take the delinquent
into custody under suspended sentence and place him
on probation in a family.
238 WILLIAM PRYOR LETCHWORTH
Ninth. Disinterested benevolence should control
and direct work as far as practicable, the state or local
Government contributing, if need be, but not to an
extent sufficient to meet the whole expense.
Tenth. The cooperation of women of elevated
character should be considered essential to the attain-
ment of the highest success.
Eleventh. Parents able to do so should be made to
contribute to the support of their children while under
reformatory treatment.
Twelfth. When debased parents have demonstrated
their inability or unwillingness to support their child-
ren, and the latter in consequence have become a
charge upon the public, the interest of the child should
be regarded as paramount, and the rights of the parent
should cease, the state assuming control.
Thirteenth. Children who in their home life had
been environed by vicious associations and adverse
influences, should, on their release from institutional
custody, be transplanted to new and, perhaps, distant
homes with good surroundings.
Fourteenth, A study of the child's character and a
knowledge of its antecedents should be considered es-
sential to successful work.
Fifteenth. The delinquent child should be regarded
as morally diseased, and a correct diagnosis of its
moral condition should be made and carefully con-
sidered in applying remedies for the cure. This hav-
ing been done the strengthening of character by awak-
CHILD-SAVING: REFORMATIVE 239
cning hope, building up self-respect, and inculcating
moral and religious principles will be more easily ef-
fected.
Sixteenth. In the process of restoration, homes in
good families should be made available to the utmost
extent possible.
Seventeenth. Technological training should be given
in juvenile reformatories where practicable.
The founding of an institution which ac-
corded with Mr. Letchworth's ideas and enlisted
his hearty interest was undertaken Burnham
in 1885 by a gentleman, Mr. Fred- Industrial
erick J. Burnham, who resided in
New Jersey, but who planted his benevolent
enterprise in the State of New York. A valu-
able estate of about six hundred acres, situated
near Canaan Four Corners, Columbia County,
New York, was devoted by Mr. Burnham to
the establishment thereon of an industrial farm
for unruly and delinquent boys. He had not the
wealth necessary for endowing the institution,
further than with the all-important estate of
land, and he struggled for years with difficulties
in securing sufficient help from others to put it
on its feet. In those years it is evident that he
was greatly upheld by Mr. Letchworth's influ-
ence, encouragement, and aid. " Mrs. Burn-
240 WILLIAM PRYOR LETCHWORTH
ham and I look upon you as the inspiration
and the guide of this work," are Mr. Burn-
ham's words in a letter of 1887, — the year
after the Burnham Industrial Farm had been
incorporated by legislative act. " For your con-
stant and generous sympathy and kindness I
can scarcely find words to express our gratitude"
is the expression in another, two years later.
How victorious the heroic struggle came to be
in the end is reported by the same hand in a
letter to Mr. Letchworth written November
14, 1904. "The work," wrote Mr. Burnham,
"is now prospering. Eighty boys have been
receiving care and instruction there during the
past year, and the results are most encouraging.
The news from the boys who have gone from
our institution to find work and a place in the
world are very gratifying. Most of them are
doing well, and their letters show a manly spirit
of self-reliance. Not one has asked for any help,
and all express their affection for the Farm."
Such fruit-reports from fields in which he helped
the seed- sowing were among the rewards of
which Mr. Letchworth had many.
That a juvenile reformatory should be, sys-
tematically, an industrial training-school, had be-
come a clear conviction in Mr. Letchworth's
CHILD-SAVING: REFORMATIVE 241
mind when, at the National Conference in
Louisville, in 1883, he discussed the subject of
" Classification and Training," and much of his
paper was devoted to that view. By personal
visitation of reformatories and by correspond-
ence with the people in charge of them he
had acquainted himself with facts which deter-
mined his mind absolutely on one primary point,
namely, in condemnation of the con- contract la-
tract system of employment for the bor in re-
inmates of such reformatories. He °^™^ °"®^
had found that New York was in company
with only three other states in maintaining the
contract system ; while fifteen of her associates
in the Union had discarded it. He had found
that under the contract system seven industries
only were carried on, while twenty-two were
proved to be practicable in the institutions
which did not hire their boys and girls to con-
tractors. He had found that "under the free
labor system a full trade is frequently if not
generally taught, and the boys become expert
workmen in their particular line, while under
the contract system no such opportunity is af-
forded, and but one operation or process is in-
culcated." He had found that " the contract
system is peculiar to America"; he could not
242 WILLIAM PRYOR LETCHWORTH
find it existing in Europe, — "in any juvenile
reformatory either on the Continent or in the
United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ire-
land."
When abroad, "on the Continent," he wrote,
" I was particularly struck with the thorough-
ness of the instruction and the skill attained by
the pupils in every department. In summer
the principal occupations are farming and gar-
dening, and such other work as keeps the chil-
dren out of doors and tends to make them
strong and robust; while the inclement weather
and winter months are selected for such indus-
trial and intellectual education as may be af-
forded indoors. ... At the Rauhe Haus, near
Hamburg, established by Immanuel Wichern
of revered memory, the following trades were
being carried on : blacksmithing, carpentering,
tailoring, shoemaking, printing, wagonmaking,
gardening, etc." At the Netherlands Mettray
and the French Mettray, near Tours, the in-
dustries taught and conducted were much the
same.
The conclusive objections to the contract
labor system in reformatory institutions were
summed up by Mr. Letchworth in a few words,
as follows : —
CHILD-SAVING: REFORMATIVE 243
It subordinates the reformation and improvement
of the child to the interest of the contractor; intro-
duces a foreign element into the institution, in the
person of the contractors' employes, who have no
sympathy with the cause of reform, but, on the con-
trary, exercise a vicious influence.
It also interferes with opportunities for intellectual
instruction and recreation ; imposes long hours of
work, and makes the boy believe that he is part of a
scheme for making money for the institution. He
works grudgingly, and is encouraged to steal and mis-
represent his labor in order to satisfy demands upon
him.
The system is at fault as an industrial education,
inasmuch as by its plan of teaching but one process
in the operation, the boy does not learn a complete
trade.
Already, in the previous year, with the coop-
eration of Senator Titus, representing the Buf-
falo district in the State Senate, Mr. a winning
Letchworth had opened attack on the figlit
contract system of labor in reformatory or cor-
rectional institutions. Senator Titus had intro-
duced and given earnest support to a bill which
would make it unlawful " to contract, hire, or
let by the day, week, or month, or any longer
period, the services or labor of any child or
children under sixteen years of age " ; and Mr.
244 WILLIAM PRYOR LETCHWORTH
Letchworth, in March, 1882, addressed an argu-
ment to the senate committee having charge of
the bill, bringing a great array of testimony from
officials in other states which trained their delin-
quent children to useful work, and did not put
them to labor for hire. " I had no idea that such
a thing was done anywhere," wrote one secre-
tary of a Western state board of charities and
reform. But the New York Legislature was not
easily to be moved by mere argument and testi-
mony on a question of reform, and the bill died
in its hands.
Mr. Letchworth had become accustomed to
pleading again and again in vain, at Albany, for
such betterments of method in public benev-
olence, and accustomed likewise to winning his
plea in the end. Next year, with Senator Titus,
he returned to the attack; and this time he
brought communications from "all the res-
ident officers in charge of juvenile reformatory
institutions throughout the United States,"
representing thirty-five institutions, in twenty-
seven of which the labor was conducted on free
lines. Still the influences in opposition were
strong enough to smother the proposed reform.
But in the third year of the campaign against
contract labor, which Commissioner Letchworth
CHILD-SAVING: REFORMATIVE 245
reopened with unshaken faith, pubhc opinion
appears to have voiced itself, in a tone which
Albany hears and obeys, and the desired law
was enacted on the fourth of June, 1884.
Having secured the expulsion of contract la-
bor from juvenile reformative institutions, Mr.
Letchworth turned his exertions at industrial
once towards giving the best attain- training
able quality to the industrial training under-
taken in its place. He had already been ques-
tioning experience in the matter, wherever it
seemed instructive, and had learned that there
came to the Centennial Exposition at Philadel-
phia, in 1876, an exhibit from Russia of methods
in teaching mechanic arts which alert minds in
Massachusetts and elsewhere had caught sug-
gestions from and made practical trials of,
with remarkable satisfaction. President John
D. Runkle, of the Massachusetts Institute of
Technology, had brought it into operation in
the Mechanic Art School connected with that
technical university. There our State Com-
missioner went, to make a thorough study of
the system, procuring photographs, models used
in giving lessons, and descriptions of whole
courses of the lessons given, in their serial order,
disclosing the end of an intelligent workman-
246 WILLIAM PRYOR LETCHWORTH
ship to which they were pursued. At the same
time he studied the somewhat similar methods,
having similar aims, which Mr. Auchmuty, a
wealthy architect of New York City, had intro-
duced in a school which he founded for the
education of artisans in the principles that under-
lie their several trades.
From other sources of practical experience
he gathered further illustrations, of the great
and important educational results that are ob-
tainable from an industrial training conducted
on such lines as seemed to be worked out most
perfectly in the system known as the Russian
technologic. " Under this system," as he con-
vinced himself, " not only does the boy learn
a trade, but he learns it quickly ; at the same
time he is taught, by successive and natural
stages, scientific principles underlying all trades,
so that when he leaves school, whether he fol-
lows a trade in which he has been instructed or
not, he can adapt himself to other pursuits, in
which the knowledge he has acquired may be
utilized."
Thus prepared for well-informed and clear
discussion of the subject, he obtained a hearing
on it before the board of managers of the West-
ern House of Refuge, at Rochester, on the
CHILD-SAVING: REFORMATIVE 247
26th of February, 1884. The facts and the
exhibits he submitted were convincing, and
in the following month the board
° Transform-
adopted the report or a special com- ing the
mittee to whom the question had been Western
r 1 J I 11 House of
referred and who recommended a j^ ,
memorial to the legislature, asking
for an appropriation of fifteen thousand dollars,
to cover the cost of tools, fixtures, and instruc-
tors for one hundred boys. The legislature
proved gracious, and made the appropriation,
but the Governor found reasons for disapprov-
ing it and striking it out. This, however, meant
no more than delay; it was not defeat. The
needed appropriation was obtained a little later,
and Commissioner Letchworth had the satisfac-
tion of seeing the Western House of Refuge
changed in name to the State Industrial School,
in 1886, and changed in character, correspond-
ingly, in the next year, by the installation of a
fully worthy and scientific system of industrial
education. The shops then established were
for carpentry, lathe and pattern work, forging
and foundry work.
In February of this important year the build-
ing occupied by girls was burned, and Mr,
Letchworth became the leader of strenuous ef-
248 WILLIAM PRYOR LETCHWORTH
forts to improve the opportunity thus afforded
for establishing the girls in a different institu-
tion, entirely apart. In a long letter addressed
to the speaker of the assembly he pleaded, not
merely for a separation of sexes in the measure,
but for the creation of a reformatory which
should not be a prison, — for a reformatory on
the farm and cottage or cottage and family plan,
which trial had approved in Massachusetts,
Michigan, Connecticut and Ohio. He accom-
panied his argument, as usual, with abundant
supporting testimony, and illuminated it with
plans and illustrations of the buildings and
grounds of the Michigan State Industrial Home
for Girls. The argument was unanswerable,
but it was addressed to deaf ears. Sixteen years
later Mr. Letchworth republished it, with the
remark that "the reasons given herewith for es-
tablishing a separate girls' reformatory . . . are
as pertinent to-day as when they were presented
to the speaker of the assembly in 1887." The
question had then arisen again, and half a gen-
eration of change in the public and the public
mind of New York had brought so much en-
lightenment that legislative consent to the sep-
arate girls' reformatory was obtained. In the
summer of 1904 it was established at Albion,
CHILD-SAVING: REFORMATIVE 249
under the name of the W^estern House of
Refuge for Women. Three more years carried
nearly to a full realization the ideals of a re-
formative institution for young delinquents
which Mr. Letchworth had been pressing upon
the attention of his state so long. In 1907 the
boys of the grim old Western House of Refuge,
at Rochester, were taken out of their walled
prison and transferred to cottages, on a large
country farm, a few miles beyond the city, in a
place to which the fitting name of Industry has
been given.
Under its new conditions the State Industrial
School exercises its proteges and pupils in gar-
dening, farming, and dairy-work, extensively,
as well as in the shop trades of blacksmithing,
carpentry, tailoring, printing, laundrying, bak-
ing, painting, masonry, etc. At last accounts
its inmates occupied thirty-one cottages, each
having accommodations for twenty-five boys.
It gladdens one to know that Mr. Letch-
worth lived long enough to see such perfected
fruit as the present State Industrial School in
one of the fields of his most earnest An impress-
and ardent labor. It is to be hoped, i^® incident
too, that such an incident as the following, re-
lated in the Rochester Post-Express of April
250 WILLIAM PRYOR LETCHWORTH
13, 191 1, came to his knowledge in his last
years: —
A few years before the school was closed [in its
old place, at Rochester, but after the introduction of
the better industrial training which Mr. Letchworth
had fairly forced upon it] , there walked into the office
a silk-hatted, frock-coated man, who asked to be
shown through the building. He seemed to be familiar
with the halls, and finally stopped before a row of
doors opening into the little rooms in the boys' build-
ing. His guide watched him closely and then asked,
" Which room was it ? " The man looked startled,
and then slowly replied, " It was that little room,
right there." The inspection continued until they
came to the blacksmith rooms, when the man walked
to a certain anvil and, kneeling beside it, prayed : " I
thank Thee, O God, for giving to William Pryor
Letchworth the vision of Thine understanding and of
the need of Thine erring children." The man had
been sent to the school as a boy, and had worked for
hours over the anvil at which he had stopped. Leav-
ing the school with an apprenticeship served, he
readily secured employment, and, through the habits
of study acquired at the school, soon mastered some
of the technical details of ironworking. Eventually he
became a large contractor, and is to-day a wealthy
man. That was just one of the instances which came
to the notice of the officers of the institution, of the
tremendous factor for good that this work became.
CHILD-SAVING: REFORMATIVE 251
In tracing the child-saving lines to which
Mr. Letchworth devoted his work especially,
during half or more of the years of Successive
his official service, we have passed objects of
L L I I 1- J 1 1 J^r- Letch-
by much that he did to other ends, north's
In 1873-75 ^^ ^^^ engrossed, as work
we have seen, quite entirely in his undertakings
(i) to rescue homeless children from poorhouses
and the like ; (2) to ascertain the sufficiency of
hospitality for them in existing orphanages;
(3) to stimulate the passing on of such unfor-
tunates from orphanages to family homes. In
the next few years his chief interest and labor
were given to that vitally important condition
of a successful reformative treatment of juvenile
wrongdoers which demands discrimination be-
tween the wayward and the depraved, and for-
bids their being mixed, as he found them mixed
in the so-called reformatories and houses of
refuge of the State of New York. When signs
of a hopeful planting of this fundamental sug-
gestion in the better minds of the state began to
appear, he opened his campaign for the aboli-
tion of contract labor in reformative institutions ;
for the conversion of them into industrial schools,
imparting to their inmates the most perfect
knowledge of industrial arts by the most scien-
252 WILLIAM PRYOR LETCHWORTH
tific and effective methods that have been de-
vised ; and, finally, for the demolishing of their
prison walls, transferring them to cottages in
country fields. But, meantime, he had turned
frequently to other tasks, and these, with some
attending incidents of his life, must now be re-
viewed.
In 1876 he accepted the presidency of an
association organized in Wyoming County,
New York, to undertake the build-
Neighbor- . TXT 1 r
hood tasks ing> at Warsaw, the countyseat, of a
and home monument. to the soldiers and sailors
* ® of the war for the Union. There is
evidence in his letter books that he pulled the
stroke oar, so to speak, in this undertaking, and
gave to it, for many months, a large measure of
his thought and his time. It is almost needless
to say that the project was carried to success.
In October of that year he was borne down
for a time by a shock of sorrow, which came,
unlocked for, in a telegram announcing his
mother's death. He was absent from home at
the time, in New York, as he had been absent,
in Europe, when his father died. His affection
for his parents had been very warm, and it added
to his grief that he could not have been with
either father or mother in the last hours.
CHILD-SAVING: REFORMATIVE 253
The spring of the next year brought a glad
change into the circumstances of his Hfe at Glen
Iris, by giving him the companionship there
of his widowed eldest sister, Mrs. Crozer.
Thenceforward until her death Mrs. Crozer was
the presiding genius of his home, and his hap-
piness in it was made more complete.
When this occurred he had just accepted
(April, 1877), from Governor Lucius Robinson,
a reappointment on the State Board Rgappoint-
of Charities for the term of eight ment on
years. Amongthenew commissioners State Boar
who now came into the Board was Mrs.
Josephine Shaw Lowell, of New York City, —
the first woman to be chosen for this important
service of the state. Mrs. Lowell had been active
in the State Charities Aid Association, and was
distinguished throughout her life for zeal and
efficiency in social service. She brought a notable
reinforcement of energy and sound judgment
to the Board, and Mr. Letchworth, who became
its president that year, on the death of Mr.
Pruyn, had no counsellor and supporter more
valued than she. His official cares and labor
would, in any event, have been much increased
by his advancement to the presidency ; but such
a consequence was doubled for him by the dis-
254 WILLIAM PRYOR LETCHWORTH
position to indefatigable thoroughness of per-
formance and to unbelief in failure or defeat
which he had carefully trained in himself
In the course of this year, 1877, he made a
thorough general inspection of all the charities
Official "^ ^^^ Eighth Judicial District of the
tasks of State, — the district which he spe-
1877-79 cially represented in the State Board.
This covered eight counties at the western ex-
tremity of New York. The institutions inspected
and reported on to the Board were thirty-five
in number, including poorhouses, hospitals, re-
formatories, asylums, and " homes."
In May, 1877, on the request of the state
comptroller, the executive committee of the
Board undertook an investigation of the manage-
ment and affairs of the New York State Institu-
tion for the Blind, at Batavia, and the chief
burden of labor connected therewith was ac-
cepted by Commissioner Letchworth. After
twelve days with his associates of the Committee
at Batavia, given to inspections and the examin-
ation of witnesses, he went personally to Boston,
Philadelphia, Columbus, and Indianapolis, to
visit other institutions for the instruction of the
blind, in pursuit of information which the com-
mittee desired. The result was a highly impor-
CHILD-SAVING: REFORMATIVE 255
rant report of comparative facts, touching the
managementof four of the most highly esteemed
schools for the blind. The findings of the in-
vestigation were not favorable to the adminis-
tration of the institution at Batavia.
The most arduous of Mr. Letchworth's la-
bors in 1878 was the preparation of a report
on " Plans for Poorhouses," made in response
to a request from the Board. He found, he
said, in submitting his report, that " the absence
in architectural literature of plans and descrip-
tions of buildings adapted to a population so
mixed and characteristic as that of county poor-
houses " had rendered the task assigned him
" more difficult and its necessity more obvious."
From an inspection of poorhouses in all of the
New England States and in a number of West-
ern States, as well as in New York; from a
careful examination of official plans that had
originated in boards of state charities and boards
of health, and from the opinions of a large num-
ber of experts, he brought an extensive mass of
descriptive suggestions as well as illustrative
designs. His own conclusions touching location,
drainage, sewerage, building material, founda-
tions, walls of superstructure, wainscoting, floors,
flues, stairs, roofs, heating, ventilation, bath-
256 WILLIAM PRYOR LETCHWORTH
rooms, sun-exposure, etc., were clearly set forth,
and with them he presented a sketch plan of the
arrangement of poorhouse structures which his
own judgment approved.
Another of his tasks of this year was an in-
vestigation of the Steuben County Poorhouse,
consequent on the occurrence of a fire which
destroyed sixteen lives. Twice before there had
been fatal fires at the same institution, the first
in 1 839, when an insane pauper was burned, the
second in 1859, when six lives were lost. De-
plorable conditions of long standing were dis-
closed by the inquiry, and responsibility for
them was traced quite plainly to the general
public of the county, which had given no heed
to facts often set before it.
Within this year the tireless Commissioner
of the Eighth Judicial District repeated his vis-
itation of all but one of the charitable insti-
tutions in that district, for the reason that
"numerous improvements and extensions" had
been made since his round of twelve months
before, and he wished to see the changed con-
ditions and report them.
On the dedication of the Soldiers' and Sail-
ors* Home, at Bath, New York, January 23,
1879, Mr. Letchworth was invited to make the
CHILD-SAVING: REFORMATIVE 257
principal address. The president of the board
of trustees of the Home, General Henry W.
Slocum, introduced him with the following re-
marks : " While we do not admit that this Home
is, in a strict sense of the word, a charitable in-
stitution, we realize the fact that it is hereafter
to be supported by the state, and for this reason
we have requested the State Board of Charities
to visit us, to examine our work and our ex-
penditures. This Board is one which, without
compensation, is doing great good in our state.
All of its members will at all times be welcome
visitors to this Home. We want their advice
and assistance. I take great pleasure in intro-
ducing to you Mr. Letchworth, the president
of the State Board of Charities."
In Mr. Letchworth's address there was no
taint of patriotic bombast. It was full of prac-
tical purpose throughout, especially describing
the extent to which infirm and disabled veterans
of the War for the Union were to be found in
the poorhouses of the state, and appealing for
exertions to remove them from that tainted
association into the comradeship of the Sol-
diers' Home. At the same time he improved
the opportunity for pleading the cause of the
chronic insane in our poorhouses, — a barbar-
258 WILLIAiM PRYOR LETCHWORTH
ously wronged and suffering class, whose case
was now beginning to appeal to him as strongly
as that of the misused " children of the state "
had done.
In this year, 1879, Commissioner Letchworth
took part in two investigations, one concern-
ing the insane asylum of the Onondaga County
Poorhouse, in which the committee of the State
Board acted with a committee of the County
Board of Supervisors. The revelations in this,
though less sickening than many which came
to light later, were well calculated to deepen
the feelings that were spurring our reformer to
make the bettering of treatment for the insane
the supreme object of endeavor for the remain-
der of his life.
The second investigation of the year, brought
about by complaints and charges against the
Society for the Reformation of Juvenile Delin-
quents, Randall's Island, New York, was con-
ducted daily, at Randall's Island, on every
secular day, from October 16 until and includ-
ing December 11. The investigating committee
was composed of Mr. Letchworth, as president,
and Commissioners Donnelly and Van Ant-
werp, — the latter from Albany and the former
from New York. The inquiry was searching;
CHILD-SAVING: REFORMATIVE 259
the findings were unequivocal. Some of the
managers could be lauded for devotion to their
duty; but not more than half of the board of
thirty were active in the work, and less than
half attended the meetings of the board. The
superintendent had the confidence of the man-
agers ; but testimony taken went to show that
many things occurred in the House of which no
record or report was ever made. The investigat-
ors made numerous recommendations, the most
important being these : That the charter of the
Society "be so amended as to confine its juris-
diction exclusively to the class of criminal com-
mitments for the higher grade of crimes and to
children over twelve and under sixteen years of
age ; that the work of reforming delinquent
girls be carried on separately and in a distant
locality. That such an arrangement of buildings
and grounds be effected as will insure as thor-
ough a classification of the inmates as is possi-
ble, according to their moral condition."
In November, 1879, Commissioner Letch-
worth, as president of the State Board _ „ ,
/ New York
of Charities, headed the representa- at issue
tion of that Board and of other New withMassa-
cllUS6ttS
York state and city officials, in a con-
ference of grave importance with corresponding
26o WILLIAM PRYOR LETCHWORTH
officials of Massachusetts, on the subject of the
transfer of paupers from the latter to the former
state. A cause of grievance in this arose from the
fact that immigrants landed at New York City,
but passing on into Massachusetts, and there
becoming subjects of charity, were dealt with as
belonging to New York, and sent back accord-
ingly. Moreover, as the New York State Board
complianed, " while in New York State paupers
are removed only with their consent, and then
to their places of destination, in Massachusetts
no option is extended to them, but they are
imperatively thrust out of her borders to burden
this or other states." Controversy over these
practices had been going on for two years, when
the Massachusetts Commissioners of Health,
Lunacy, and Charity accepted an invitation from
the New York State Board of Charities to meet
the latter in New York City for a thorough dis-
cussion of the questions involved. No definite
agreements were reached at the conference; but
the Massachusetts representatives, at the end
of a spirited interchange of views, expressed the
wish for another meeting in their own state, and
their hope that it would lead ultimately to an
amicable adjustment of differences.
Later national legislation, which began in
CHILD-SAVING: REFORMATIVE 261
1882, aiming to bar paupers and defective per-
sons from admission to the country, has gone
far, no doubt, towards extinguishing the ques-
tion over which New York and Massachusetts
were in dispute thirty years ago. The matter
was one which had been exercising the mind of
Mr. Letchworth ever since he began to acquaint
himself with the conditions under which pauper-
ism exists in the United States. At the National
Conference of Charities and Correction, held in
1 875, at Detroit, he took part in the discussion of
a paper on " I mmigration," read by M r. Hamilton
Andrews Hill, of Boston, and argued strongly
against an indiscriminate hospitality to every
kind of stranger from other countries who might
seek or be sent to the open gates of our land.
"Without care," he said, "we might be led to
overlook the need of enforcing certain necessary
measures of state policy"; his personal observ-
ation in various poorhouses having convinced
him that "an organized system exists in other
countries for shipping hopelessly dependent per-
sons to this country." "Instead of relaxation
in law, more stringent protective laws are de-
manded." In 1879 he proposed resolutions
which were adopted by the State Board of
Charities, asking Congress for legislation to
262 WILLIAM PRYOR LETCHWORTH
this end ; and he suggested similar action to
the International Prison Congress that year.
The New York-Massachusetts Conference,
in which Dr. Martin B. Anderson, President
of Rochester University, bore a prominent part,
was the last important occasion on which Mr.
Letchworth was associated officially with that
greatly esteemed colleague, between whom and
himself the sympathies exercised in their com-
mon work were especially close. In April, 1 880,
Dr. Anderson was compelled, by the weight of
his duties at the university, to resign from the
State Board. In doing so he wrote to Commis-
sioner Letchworth : " I should have resigned
three years ago, had it not been for your earnest
desire that I should remain longer on the Board.
. . . You are kind enough to speak of assist-
ance that I may have rendered you in the dis-
charge of your duties as president of the Board.
Permit me to say that whenever I can aid you
in any way in your work in the future you may
command me to the extent of my strength and
ability. My associations with you have been
among the pleasantest of my life, and I beg you
always to consider me as a near personal friend."
CHAPTER VII
WORK. FOR THE INSANE
A HORRIBLE condition of the chronic insane in
the poorhouses of the State of New York was
reported to the legislature in 1844, by Miss
Dorothea L. Dix ; then again in 1858 by a
committee of the Senate ; and still again, in
1865, by Dr. Willard, Secretary of the State
Medical Society, after a personal investigation
by him ; and it was not until this last-mentioned
revelation that anything was done to reform the
shocking barbarity. The legislature was moved
then to action which resulted in the establish-
ment of the Willard Asylum, at Ovid, for the
reception of the pauper chronic insane, pre-
viously caged in the poorhouses like wild beasts.
The Willard Asylum was not ready, however,
until 1869, and the State Board of Charities,
created in 1867, and making its first examin-
ation of the poorhouses in 1868, found the
chronic insane "in the same wretched and de-
plorable condition as had been described in the
several reports before." According to the report
264 WILLIAM PRYOR LETCHWORTH
of the Board, "the number of such insane then
in these institutions was 1528. Of these, 213
were found chained or confined in cells. It was
learned that nearly all of these had been for
long periods thus chained or confined. A large
proportion were violent and destructive, untidy
and filthy in their habits and persons, and sev-
eral were observed entirely nude."
It became apparent very early that the accom-
modations of the Willard Asylum would not
suffice for the numbers required by the law to
be removed, and in 1871 the legislature passed
an act authorizing the State Board of Charities
to grant exemptions from the law to counties
whose buildings, etc., were found fit and ade-
quate for the retention of their chronic insane.
This became a source of much troublesome
hindrance to the undertaking of reform.
Such were the conditions at which the State
of New York had arrived in the care of its
chronic insane when Mr. Letchworth became a
member of its Board of Charities. He made
acquaintance with them almost as early as with
those conditions in the poorhouses which were
educating children to pauperism and vagrancy
and criminality, and they summoned him to
strive against them by as urgent a call ; but his
to
u
^^
w
<-]
H
<
o
o
r
U
o
WORK FOR THE INSANE 265
enlistment in the cause of the children had come
first, and it engrossed his time and effort during
the early years of his service on the State Board.
Even from the first of those years, however,
he began the championship of the insane in
the part of his special district of the state
which came most immediately under Beginning
his eye. In October, 1873, he re- investiga-
ported to the State Board the results *'°°^
of an investigation that he had made of the in-
sane department of the Erie County Almshouse,
showing its inmates to be kept in an intolerable
state. They numbered one hundred and sixty-
eight, and so crowded the quarters provided for
them that " two patients in most instances, and
sometimes three," were "compelled to occupy a
small cell measuring but five feet four inches
by seven feet two inches." Thus " the unfortu-
nates were literally packed into the asylum.
The cells were, of course, originally constructed
for one inmate, though even then they fell far
short of sanitary requirements. They had each
but one bedstead, and the additional occupants
had to be provided for by spreads on the floor,
which filled up almost all the remaining space
in the cell." There was no provision for hos-
pital wards. The water supply was inadequate.
266 WILLIAM PRYOR LETCHWORTH
the main supply being brought in tubs from
wells in the pauper department. There were no
bathing facilities.
By presenting the facts to the County Board
of Supervisors (who had been grossly neglectful
of duty if they had not known them before, and
heartless if they had known them), Commis-
sioner Letchworth obtained action from that
body which provided means for some remedial
measures; but the committee charged with the
undertaking soon found that expenditure on the
existing buildings would be wasted, and the sit-
uation remained unchanged for another year.
Meantime the state commissioner was con-
sulted in the preparation of plans for a new build-
ing, which relieved and improved the situation
considerably, but not to the extent that right
feelings of humanity required. Official action in
the county halted again until it was pushed, in
1876, to the erection of a wing, which the origi-
nal building had contemplated, and to the pro-
mise of a second wing, for which there was still
an urgent need. The promise was tardily ful-
filled, after more official expostulation, in 1879.
Two years later, in September, 1881, when
Commissioner Letchworth made another in-
spection of the poorhouse, and especially its
WORK FOR THE INSANE 267
insane department, he found generally good
conditions, but a serious inadequacy in the water
supply, with defects in the sewerage, and was
compelled to say : " It is a matter for regret
that expenditures have been made in connection
with this asylum not in accordance with the
original plan, approved by the State Board of
Charities, nor in keeping with true economy.
. . . The consequence is that the plan of the
asylum is incomplete and one of its primary
aims [the effective separation of the sexes] de-
feated."
Knowing that conditions even worse than
those he dealt with in Erie County were exist-
ing in other parts of the state, he was manifestly
distressed by his inability during this period to
expose them in a more general way. In January,
1876, he addressed an earnest letter to Miss
Dix, imploring her to come again, if it might
be possible, into the field of her noble exertions
more than thirty years before, and strive to
rouse the conscience of the country on the sub-
ject of the still barbarous treatment of the in-
sane.
In 1878 he accepted the chairmanship of a
committee appointed by the State Board of
Charities to investigate, conjointly with a com-
268 WILLIAM PRYOR LETCHWORTH
mittee appointed by the Onondaga County
Board of Supervisors, the condition and man-
agement of the county insane asylum in that
county, concerning which serious complaints
had been made. The investigation, in December,
1878, produced a report in which both com-
mittees agreed, condemning the asylum build-
ings entirely ; finding the heating inadequate,
the lighting imperfect, the sewerage defective,
the water supply insufficient, the bedding and
the clothing of the inmates insufficient for win-
ter, the use of dungeons unjustifiable, the num-
ber of attendants too small, and, finally, "that
the opinion entertained and practised by the
chief attendant and others, that it was proper to
inflict punishment upon the insane by striking
them with a strap, showering them, — that is,
dashing water in their faces while they are held
on the floor, — depriving them of food for a
time, and confining them in dungeons, was
founded in the grossest ignorance and was in-
human in the extreme." Before this report
reached the State Board of Charities, in the
following March, the Onondaga County au-
thorities had introduced steam-heating through-
out its poorhouse and insane asylum, demol-
ished the dungeons in the latter, put in new
WORK FOR THE INSANE 269
water-closets, as well as bathing conveniences,
appointed a resident physician, and discharged
all of the old force of attendants.
What has now been related shows substan-
tially all that Mr. Letchworth, before his in-
vestigating tour of European countries in 1880,
had been able to make of effort toward sup-
pressing the heartlessness and instructing the
ignorance which went, still, into so much of the
treatment of the insane in our country, especially
in the county institutions provided for them.
The investigations of that tour, as we have seen,
added largely to his preparation for labors in
this line, as they did likewise to his preparation
for endeavors to improve the aims and the work-
ing of our institutions for child reform. He came
back from his travels, we may assume, with a
well-determined intention to divide himself be-
tween these two missions, so far as official duty
permitted him to specialize his work. The ideals
of reformative training for the young which he
strove to introduce have been indicated in the
previous chapter. The ideals of treatment due
to demented human beings, which actuated his
work in the interest of those most pitiable of
the afflicted, were elaborately set forth in the
final chapter of his subsequently published work
270 WILLIAM PRYOR LETCHWORTH
on "The Insane in Foreign Countries." Pend-
ing the publication of that work, he indicated
them briefly in his address as president of the
National Conference of Charities and Correction,
at the meeting in St. Louis, October, 1884.
Alluding then to his "recent personal ex-
amination of a large number of European hos-
Statement pi^^^s for the insane," and stating his
of aims conclusion " that there were many
and ideals features in transatlantic systems
superior to ours," which it gladdened him to see
that "we are rapidly adopting," — expressing
at the same time his belief that "the way is
open for European alienists to learn something
from us," — he touched on what had been done
in late years to better the treatment of insanity,
and proceeded to say : —
I think we are now entering upon an era of still
broader beneficence, and that the improvement to
come will embrace the highest aims of philanthropy
and the soundest principles of science, — a time when
our laws respecting committal and discharge will be
so perfected that violations of personal liberty will not
occur; when the persons and property of the men-
tally diseased shall be fully protected; when the doors
of an asylum shall open outward as freely as inward ;
when there will be no more reluctance to place those
WORK FOR THE INSANE 271
suffering from mental ailments in a hospital for the
insane than in any other; when popular views respect-
ing these institutions will not stand in the way of
early treatment and consequently more hopeful cure ;
when the gloomy walls, the iron gratings, and prison-
like appearance now characteristic of many of these
institutions will disappear, and simpler, homelike struc-
tures, with a more natural life and greater freedom
for the patient, with healthful outdoor employment
and recreation diversified with indoor occupation and
simple entertainment, will take their place; when the
truth that "the laborer is worthy of his hire" will be
recognized, and patients performing labor shall feel
that they have some recompense, however trifling, for
their services ; when in every hospital shall be trained
nurses and women physicians for female patients ;
when the moral element shall be coequal with the
medical element in treatment; when gentleness shall
take the place of force, and the principle set forth by
the founders of the Pennsylvania Hospital, that the
insane "should be regarded as men and brethren,"
shall become universal; and, finally, a still more
blessed time, when there shall prevail throughout so-
ciety an intelligent idea as to the causes which pro-
duce insanity, and prevention shall largely obviate the
necessity of cure.
To contribute what he could to the stirring
of a desire in the public mind for these reforms,
272 WILLIAM PRYOR LETCHWORTH
by revelations of the stress of need for them
and by demonstrations of their practicabiHty,
was now the main business of his life for some-
thing more than ten years. On the educational
side of these endeavors his most important and
, effective undertaking was the prepar-
European ation of his notable work on "The
institutions Insane in Foreign Countries," which
he began soon after his return from abroad ; but
a number of years passed before it went to print.
Investigations to expose the existing sufferings
of the insane had more immediate urgency, and
required much time. Labors for the promotion
of wiser systems of reformative training for de-
linquent children consumed more ; and when
the general duties of his laborious office and
his extensive correspondence had had their due
of attention, not much of time or strength re-
mained for such painstaking literary work as
Mr. Letchworth's had to be.
He lost no time in setting on foot the in-
vestigations that would point and give motive
to everything else that could be done-
tion of poor- Three months after his arrival home
house care he had obtained from the State Board
of the insane ^^ Charities (at its meeting in May,
i88i)theappointmentofhimself, with two other
WORK FOR THE INSANE 273
commissioners of the Board, Mr. Devereaux and
Miss Carpenter, as a committee to visit and
report on the condition of the insane depart-
ment of poorhouses in counties exempted by
the Board, under the Act of 1871, from the
statute requiring the chronic insane to be trans-
ferred to the Willard Asylum. Commissioner
Devereaux was unable to serve, and the invest-
igation was made by Commissioners Letchworth
and Carpenter. The institutions visited were in
sixteen counties, and the conditions found in
them were fully detailed. Nothing like the bar-
barities so common before 1869 were found;
but the provision of apparatus for applying
physical restraint to the patients (such as shack-
les, handcuffs, restraining chairs, "muffs" and
" camisoles") was regarded by the committee as
suspiciously large. " While it appears from the
examination," said their report, "that few of
the insane were under restraint, the presence of
so large a number of restraining appliances
within the institution, in the absence of strict
rules and regulations on the subject, may lead
to great abuses. Attendants find it much easier
to manage and control excited and violent pa-
tients, for the time being, by placing them in
restraint, rather than by seeking to overcome
274 WILLIAM PRYOR LETCHWORTH
their violence and excitement by personal atten-
tion in the wards. This mode of dealing with
them is quite likely to be resorted to during
the night, to secure the ease and comfort of the
attendant."
In the final summing of their conclusions
the committee say: *'A retrospective glance
Report of over the whole of the examination
committee shows that, with few exceptions, the
care of the chronic insane in the counties does
not attain to a just and proper standard. In
some of the counties the deficiency is lamenta-
ble." This would have been a too gentle con-
demnation of the conditions described in the
committee's report if they could fairly have
taken for their "just and proper standard " of
comparison the best of the institutions that
Mr. Letchworth had but recently seen. They
had found, for example, the county insane es-
tablishments provided generally with but small
yards for the airing and exercise of the patients,
and these shut in, in all but two instances, by
close board fences, from ten to fourteen feet
high. Only four counties afforded any kind
of outdoor recreation to the inmates, two of
these furnishing swings, one allowing quoits to
be pitched, and two permitting games of ball.
WORK FOR THE INSANE 275
Defective sewerage, inadequate water supply,
and offensive closets were facts often noted.
Proper warmth during the winter season in
many badly constructed buildings was thought
questionable by the committee; but they had
no thermometrical record to judge from. Few
counties had provided a hospital ward in the in-
sane department. In but one was an open fire
found in any room. "In some instances, cases of
acute insanity had been retained in the county es-
tablishments contrary to law," and both county
physicians and superintendents of the poor were
ignorant of the fact. "It frequently happens,"
said the report, " that the certificates of insanity
are meagre and vague, and the officers to whose
custody the patient is committed are unable to
determine the duration of insanity, or to obtain
other knowledge necessary to a proper disposal
or treatment of the case." In two of the coun-
ties visited by the committee they found the
insane departments locked, all of those sup-
posed to be "in charge" absent — the keys
with them — and the insane inmates left en-
tirely to themselves.
Somewhat in extenuation of these conditions
and to show the difficulties of prompt correction
for them, the committee in their conclusions
276 WILLIAM PRYOR LETCHWORTH
observed : " It must be kept in mind that many
of the counties applied to the Board for exemp-
tion from the operation of the Willard Asylum
Act as a temporary measure, intending to pro-
vide for their chronic insane at the poorhouse
until such time only as the state should receive
them under its care. It would therefore, per-
haps, be unjust to exact as large an expenditure
on buildings, under such circumstances, as would
have been proper had permanent provision been
contemplated. It must also be remembered
that, at no time since the Board was empowered
to grant these exemptions, has the state been
able to accommodate the insane of the exempted
counties in its institutions."
Recommendations urged by the committee
were : —
(i) That "the enlargement of state provision,
by means of plain, inexpensive buildings, with
good sanitary surroundings and located upon
tracts of good arable land, should be sufficient
for the accommodation of all counties desiring
to place their chronic insane under state care."
(2) That the chronic insane should not be
retained by counties in groups numbering less
than two hundred and fifty.
(3) That counties having smaller numbers
WORK FOR THE INSANE 277
should be permitted to unite and establish dis-
trict asylums.
(4) That the control and management of all
county and district asylums should be placed un-
der a small board of uncompensated managers.
(5) That in all cases the chronic insane should
be placed under the immediate charge of a res-
ident medical superintendent.
(6) That " violent and disturbed cases should
be provided for in appropriate state asylums."
(7) That all county asylums should be sep-
arated in management and in finances from the
poorhouse establishments, and that no asylum
building hereafter should be located on the
poorhouse farm.
This important report was transmitted to the
legislature in January, 1882, but was kept in
the hands of the official printer, and Care of the
not, therefore, made public, until insane as-
-. . . J sumed
February, 1883. It received good whoUy by
attention from the press when pub- the state
lished, and the facts set forth in it appear to
have excited a degree of public feeling which
went beyond the proposals of the committee in
its demand for reform. An agitation was started
which grew and gathered force until it had
compelled the state to take on itself, wholly
278 WILLIAM PRYOR LETCHWORTH
and exclusively, the care of the insane within
its borders, and to equip itself adequately with
institutions to that end. This was stoutly re-
sisted by partisan political interests and influ-
ences in the counties, such as operate with
vicious activity on the treatment of all public
questions. To the managers of party, who ex-
ercise a power that controls official bodies too
often, the creating and maintaining of a public
institution means nothing else so important as
the making and keeping of an instrument for
the supplying of salaries and jobs to the hench-
men of their party. In this view they fought
the^endeavor to perfect a system of treatment
for insanity, by unifying it under the manage-
ment of the state.
Meantime, while this conflict between public
and party interests — between altruism and self-
ishness — between knowledge and ignorance —
was going on, Mr. Letchworth found opportu-
nities for efibrt to improve the working of the
system as it was. In 1882 he was in coopera-
tion with two of his colleagues of the State
Board of Charities, Mr. William Rhinelander
Stewart and Mrs. Josephine Shaw Lowell,
leading a movement which had success in estab-
lishing a farm colony for the insane of New
WORK FOR THE INSANE 279
York City, to relieve the overcrowding of the
Ward's Island Hospital, on plans similar to
those of the colony at Alt-Scherbitz, in the
Prussian Province of Saxony. As was said by
one who wrote to Mr. Letchworth about that
achievement, some years later, they " initiated
the Central Islip project and practically forced
the city government to carry it through," —
establishing the insane on a farm of one thou-
sand acres at Central Islip, Suffolk County,
Long Island.
In the same year, " having become fully con-
vinced," as he said subsequently, "that the
interests of the state would be ad- ^^omen on
vanced and the welfare of the inmates boards of
of our charitable and correctional ^^^nagers
institutions promoted by a representation of
women on each of the boards of managers," he
set about securing legislation to make that rep-
resentation a requirement of law. He began by
setting forth in a printed circular, from the office
of the State Board of Charities at Albany, a
brief summary of reasons for the measure pro-
posed. In this circular he cited the success of
the administration of many public charities by
men and women associated in their boards; de-
clared that the state suffered a pecuniary loss
28o WILLIAM PRYOR LETCHWORTH
by not availing itself of woman's superior know-
ledge of domestic economy ; asserted that " fe-
male delicacy on the part of teachers, nurses,
attendants, and servants in public charitable in-
stitutions, prevents them from communicating
to men . . . information necessary to the pro-
tection of the inmates," and that to deprive
women, suffering from mental or bodily disease
in public institutions, of the benefit to them of
a representation of their sex in the management,
is an "arrogant assumption of power, often
eventuating in unintentional cruelty."
Early in his campaign for this measure Mr.
Letchworth counselled with Mrs. Abby Hopper
Gibbons, of New York, an energetic woman,
closely identified with charitable reform work
and of large experience in reform movements,
and received potent assistance from her, as well
as excellent advice. Mrs. Gibbons's influence
appears to have enlisted a number of men of
weight in both branches of the legislature, in-
cluding Senator Brooks, of Long Island, who
introduced the desired bill. In an account which
Mr. Letchworth, some years afterwards, gave
of Mrs. Gibbons's exertions in behalf of the
bill, he credited the measure to her entirely and
related the outcome as follows: —
WORK FOR THE INSANE 281
It is hardly worth while to follow the course of this
sad experience, sometimes hopeful, sometimes disap-
pointing, except to record, for the example to others,
the disappointment which noble reformers like Abby
Hopper Gibbons must encounter, [in efforts] to protect
and better the condition of the unfortunate. Mrs.
Gibbons did not succeed in securing the desired legis-
lation during the session in which she introduced the
bill ; but in the following session, nothing daunted,
she introduced it again. In her old age and in an en-
feebled condition she appeared before the legislative
committee at Albany, and so clearly and forcibly did
she present her arguments and make her appeal that
the bill was accepted and passed by the legislature.
Shameful to relate, however, a single word in the bill
had been so changed as to absolutely nullify its intent.
This was the word may^ which was substituted for the
word shall^ leaving it optional with the governor, in-
stead of obligatory, to make a representative appoint-
ment of women on the boards, thus leaving the statute
the same as before. But the beneficial effects of the
discussion were not lost, and the principle has come
to be accepted in the administration of our state chari-
table institutions.
Mr. Letchworth's agency In bringing about
the acceptance of this principle was not confined
to the movement in which he worked with Mrs.
Gibbons. He advocated it strenuously before
282 WILLIAM PRYOR LETCHWORTH
the National Conference of Charities and Cor-
rection, in his presidential address, in 1884. In
1887 he entered earnestly into a movement
initiated by the Women's Educational and In-
dustrial Union of Buffalo, for the appointment
of two women on the board of managers of the
State Hospital for the Insane, at Buffalo. In
an earnest letter to Governor Hill he bore tes-
timony, from his long experience in the super-
vision of charitable institutions, to the great
value of the participation of women in their
management, and his entire conviction that the
state should give them representation in all
boards of its own creation for humane purposes,
and especially in the case of asylums for the in-
sane, where the reasons for doing so became
peculiarly strong.
In 1886 the state hospitals for the insane
were seven in number, namely : at Utica, existing
since 184'^; at Ovid (the Willard),
Locating , • ^ V, •
an asylum opened m 1 869; at Poughkeepsie
in Northern (the Hudson River State Hospital),
opened in 187 1 ; at Middletown (the
HomcEopathic), opened in 1874; at Bing-
hamton (converted from a former inebriate
asylum) in 1881 ; and a state asylum for insane
criminals at Auburn. They provided, under
WORK FOR THE INSANE 283
overcrowded conditions, for scarcely more than
four thousand of the thirteen thousand five
hundred insane reported that year to be under
institutional care in the state. Excepting a small
number in private asylums the remainder were
under county care. The pressure of the demand
for less dependence on the counties for this care,
and a larger provision of it by the state, had now
become weighty enough to impel legislation
which authorized the governor "to appoint five
commissioners to select a suitable site in north-
ern New York on which to erect an asylum
for the insane." Happily for the result, Mr.
Letchworth was one of the five named by Gov-
ernor Hill, and was chosen to be the chairman
of the commission. During the next six months
he gave much time to this duty, making long
trips through the northern counties of the state.
Among his colleagues on the commission was
Dr. P. M. Wise, superintendent of the Willard
Asylum, and Dr. Wise and himself arrived at the
same conclusion of choice between the various
sites proposed, preferring one at Airy Point,
Ogdensburg, before every other. Without
much doubt they were the members of the
commission who were best prepared to exercise
an intelligent judgment in the matter; and it is
284 WILLIAM PRYOR LETCHWORTH
possible that they were the most single-minded
in considering what would be best for the pro-
posed institution. However that may be, their
three associates arrived at a different choice, and
agreed in recommending a site at Plattsburg,
which Mr. Letchworth and Dr. Wise regarded
as utterly unfit, in itself and in its geographical
location, for the purpose in view. A majority
and a minority recommendation were accord-
ingly reported to the legislature, early in Janu-
ary, 1887, and a hard-fought battle over them
was waged until the following May. Powerful
political interests appeared to be back of the
majority recommendation; but the arguments
and the exhibit of facts submitted by Mr.
Letchworth and Dr. Wise proved more power-
ful, rallying to the support of the minority
view a movement of opinion from the press,
from medical bodies, and from the public at
large, which carried the day.
An act authorizing and making appropria-
tions for the purchase of the Ogdensburg site
and for beginning the construction of buildings
was passed before the close of the legislative
session. Unfortunately, the expert knowledge
and single-minded motives which had success-
fully controlled the location of the new hospi-
WORK FOR THE INSANE 285
tal for the insane seem not to have won equal
control of the constructive planning. The coun-
sels of science and experience in the matter
were not listened to ; the most approved models
were disregarded; and when the resulting build-
ings were approaching readiness for use, and a
medical superintendent was sought, to prepare
for opening it, one prominent alienist who re-
fused an offer of the position is reported to have
said to the managers who came to him : "You
could have had an asylum that the world would
have admired, at half the cost of the common-
place institution you will now have, and that
will scarcely be known."
It had now become necessary for Commis-
sioner Letchworth to call on the authorities of
Erie County for a new and greater . ,
•' & An embar-
undertaking than hitherto to provide rassment in
for the proper care of its insane. In ^"® County
conjunction with the Secretary of the State
Board of Charities, Dr. Hoyt, he addressed a
letter, in February, 1887, to the proper com-
mittee of the County Board of Supervisors,
directing attention to the overcrowded condi-
tions that had arisen again in the insane depart-
ment of the county poorhouse, and showing
that it would be impossible, on the limited farm
286 WILLIAM PRYOR LETCHWORTH
occupied by the poorhouse, to give such treat-
ment as was needed to the large and increasing
numbers of the Erie County insane. That "em-
ployment is of vital importance to the chronic
insane," especially outdoor employment, and
that a low rate of maintenance is best secured
"by the possession of a liberal acreage of good
arable land," were two facts specially empha-
sized in the communication. As examples of
the recognition of these facts, it pointed to the
recent purchase by the County of New York
of a thousand acres for the farm settlement of
its insane at Central Islip, Long Island, and
the similar action of King's County in establish-
ing its county farm at St. Johnsland. Hence
the opinion was submitted to the Erie County
Supervisors that "it is not wise to enlarge the
buildings at the almshouse, or to erect more
cottages on the almshouse grounds; but that it
will be better for the county to purchase a farm
of not less than five hundred acres of arable
land, adapted to purposes of market gardening
and easily tillable with hoe or spade."
The communication was referred to a special
committee, between whom and Mr. Letchworth
there were conferences and correspondence for
some time. The latter's argument for the pur-
WORK FOR THE INSANE 287
chase of a tract of land contemplated no radical
sudden changes at the poorhouse, nor expen-
sive new building on the farm for the insane,
but proposed " to utilize any comfortable build-
ings on the acquired property for the care of
the excess of insane men over present accom-
modations, and as the numbers increased, or as
further building space is required for sane pau-
pers at the poorhouse, to erect plain, inexpen-
sive buildings on the new farm." At the same
time he admitted that " if it were possible for
the county to send the excess of its chronic in-
sane to the Willard Asylum it would certainly
be advisable to do so"; for he believed " there
is no question that state care is better than
county care," and cheaper, for the reason "that
it is administered by uncompensated non-parti-
san boards, whose members are appointed for
long terms," and who acquire an experience
which cannot be obtained by the county boards.
The outcome of long discussion and inquiry by
the supervisors' committee was a report from
it, on the T3th of December, 1887, unani-
mously recommending the purchase of a tract
of farm land, not less than five hundred acres
in extent, for the colonizing of the county in-
sane. The report was adopted by the board of
288 WILLIAM PRYOR LETCHWORTH
supervisors ; a specially appointed committee
made choice, in due time, the next year, of the
desired land, and it was bought.
In the circumstances, this was unquestion-
ably a wise measure. The local need of enlarged
accommodations and of conditions for a better
treatment of the insane was urgent and fast in-
creasing ; there seemed in sight no prospect of
adequate preparation by the state to relieve the
situation ; duty to the insane was clearly calling
for county action to give them all possible alle-
viation of their affliction and all possible chances
of cure. But now, at this juncture, an unex-
pected, quick change of circumstances occurred.
The State Charities Aid Association, by pro-
posing to the legislature a bill to provide for
the transfer of both acute and chronic cases of
insanity from county almshouses to the care of
the state, freshened and stimulated the move-
ment in favor of that important change of pol-
icy, and, with effective support from the medical
profession, intelligent journalists, and intelligent
people in general, the desired enactment was se-
cured during the legislative session of 1890.
This " State Care Act," as it was known, abol-
ished all those exemptions from the Act of 1 865
which the State Board of Charities had been
WORK FOR THE INSANE 289
authorized to grant to numerous counties, and
restored full force to the earlier measure, with
three exceptions: New York, Kings, and Mon-
roe counties were now exempted from the re-
quirement to transfer their insane to state care,
because, as explained by the recently created
State Commission in Lunacy, each of these
counties " had provided separate institutions for
its insane, apart from its poorhouse. Their
asylums were fully organized and equipped in-
stitutions, and were managed in all substantial
particulars like the state asylums."
Erie County was preparing to do the same,
and, probably, under Mr. Letchworth's influ-
ence, in a more perfect way. He had a reason-
able hope of securing the construction of this
county hospital on the cottage plan, modelled
on that at Alt-Scherbitz, in Prussian Saxony,
which he had found to be so admirable in its
working, and of which he had obtained com-
plete building plans. Much as he approved of
the adoption by the state of the entire care of
the insane, it was a sore disappointment to him
to miss the opportunity for exhibiting an ex-
ample of the superiority of the cottage system,
in economy and efficiency alike, as compared
with any big construction of the hotel or palace
290 WILLIAM PRYOR LETCHWORTH
type. In view of the completed purchase of an
ample and excellent country site for its intended
new hospital, he could not oppose the de-
sire of Erie County to be included with New
York, Kings, and Monroe in exemption from
the State Care Act ; and there were carping
critics who found an inconsistency in this atti-
tude, as well as other critics who, when the ex-
emption was refused, held him blamable for
leading the county into a purchase of lands
which it could not use. His own consciousness
of a consistent view and a justified motive with-
held him from any reply to such criticisms, and
public confidence in his wise guidance of pub-
lic charity was not weakened in the least. Had
his plans for Erie County been carried out, a
model institution would have been created,
which the state, in a few years, would have
adopted as its own ; for that is what occurred
in the case of the institutions exempted in the
counties of Monroe, New York, and Kings.
Between 1891 and 1908 these were all brought
under the immediate control of the state. As to
the Erie County purchase of land, that came in
the end to the use for which it was bought. The
state took it and established on it the Gowanda
State Homoeopathic Hospital, opened in 1898.
WORK FOR THE INSANE 291
The recommendations and the action of Mr.
Letchworth in the matter of county institutions
for the insane, as in the exercise of his official
duties touching every other subject, were ad-
justed reasonably to circumstances in each case.
Thus, while urging the supervisors of Erie
County to plan largely for a farm colony of the
county insane, he went at the same time, in
February, 1888, to a meeting of the super-
visors of Allegany County to oppose the build-
ing of a new county asylum for the chronic in-
sane. The circumstances were entirely different,
and the consistency of his course was in his
recognition of the difference.
In that year, i888, he was urging a very im-
portant Improvement of building arrangements
at the Buffalo State Hospital for the Hospitals
Insane, by the erection of cottages, for acute
• 1 c \ 1 insanity:
to provide tor the most approved matured
system of treatment. His recom- views
mendations, addressed to the board of man-
agers of that Institution at a hearing given him,
and made public soon after, represent his
matured views so succinctly and clearly that they
seem to claim full quotation here : —
After making extended examinations of hospitals
and asylums for the insane, I have become convinced
292 WILLIAM PRYOR LETCHWORTH
that small reception cottages, to which insane patients
may be first taken upon admission and where they
may remain for a short time under observation, before
being assigned a more permanent place, are highly
desirable in connection with all hospitals for the in-
sane. The shock to many sensitive patients on being
ushered, without preliminary explanation, into the
formal-looking ward of a strange edifice, having more
or less prison-like characteristics, is fearful. On the
contrary, if the patient is first received in an ordinary
dwelling, where a friendly interview is had with the
physician and possible apprehensions allayed, and
where the case can be more closely studied because
of the home-like surroundings of the patient, great
mental disturbance is frequently avoided, and the way
is opened for more effective treatment.
I believe it is now universally conceded that, in
the treatment of acute insanity, it is found desirable
to transfer the patient from one ward to another, the
change having a salutary effect. Some alienists go far-
ther than this, having found it of greater advantage to
remove the patient, when convalescing, from the
painful associations attending the first stages of his
disease and from what Miss Dix has termed " the
terrible monotony of the wards," to a pleasant resi-
dence entirely removed from the asylum, where the
work of restoration is rapidly accelerated. I think the
most successful of these experiments is seen at Dr.
Clouston's asylum at Morningside in Scotland, where,
WORK FOR THE INSANE 293
in the Craig House, situated at least a quarter of a
mile away and embowered amid grand old trees, we
behold highly satisfactory results from this course of
treatment.
In pursuance of the same idea and in the line of
moral treatment, is the providing of seaside summer
cottages for the convalescing insane, now a feature of
numerous foreign asylums, and also of the McLean
Asylum in Massachusetts and the Friends' Retreat in
Pennsylvania. While we have near Buffalo no seaside
resorts, we have healthful change of air and scene with
delightful surroundings on the near shores of our mag-
nificent lakes and rivers.
This homelike provision and means of recreation
to which I have briefly referred having proved of great
advantage elsewhere, I earnestly ask your careful con-
sideration of the question, whether it is not desirable
to ask the legislature for the following appropria-
tion : —
First. To erect and furnish two cottages, one for
men and one for women, on opposite sides of the asylum
grounds, but entirely apart from the asylum, of suffi-
cient size to accommodate, say ten or twelve patients
each, the structures to have the semblance of ordinary
dwellings, and to be used as reception and observation
cottages.
Second. To erect and furnish two cottages, one on
each side of the asylum grounds, one for men and one
for women, each to accommodate, say from twenty
294 WILLIAM PRYOR LETCHWORTH
to thirty convalescing patients, the building to have
the semblance of ordinary residences and to be like-
wise entirely apart from the asylum.
Third. To provide for the payment of the services
of an assistant male physician to reside in one of the
two houses for men, and for the payment of the ser-
vices of an assistant female physician who shall reside
in one of the two houses for women.
Fourth. For means to control by rental during the
summer months, for a term of, say three experimental
years, a small tract of land at some retired point upon
Chautauqua Lake, or other desirable locality near
Buffalo, to and from which certain quiet and convales-
cing patients may be taken at proper seasons and shel-
tered in hospital tents or temporary structures, possibly
such as are known as the Ducker portable barrack
and field hospital.
The ofHcial relations of Mr, Letchworth, as
a commissioner and president of the State Board
of Charities, to the institutions for
Change in . • i •
official rela- ^he msane m his state, were now to
tions to the undergo much change. By an act
which passed the legislature in May,
1889, a large part of the duties, powers, and
responsibilities concerning the care of the insane
which had been vested in the State Board of
Charities was transferred to a State Commis-
WORK FOR THE INSANE 295
sion in Lunacy. " There is very little left for
the Board to do regarding the insane," said Mr.
Letchworth in a letter written to a friend at the
time. It was a measure, however, which he fully
approved. This approval is expressed in a his-
torical account of "The Care of the Insane in
New York State, compiled from Notes made
by William Pryor Letchworth," which was one
of the works of his last years, and left in manu-
script, though it ought to be in published print.
There had been since 1 873 a state commissioner
in lunacy whose duty was to examine and re-
port to the State Board of Charities the condi-
tion of the insane and idiotic in the institutions
receiving them. " It had become evident," said
Mr. Letchworth, in the manuscript just referred
to, " that a more comprehensive system of lu-
nacy supervision, not only for the welfare of
the insane, but for the interest of the state, was
requisite. The framing of a law for this purpose
was delegated to Dr. Stephen Smith." Dr. Smith
had been the state commissioner in lunacy from
1882 to 1888, and had been, also, for many
years, a commissioner of the State Board of
Charities. He was, as Mr. Letchworth, his close
friend, remarked, " eminently qualified for this
task, through his experience as an author, a
296 WILLIAM PRYOR LETCHWORTH
medical practitioner, and a psychologist, and by
knowledge acquired through long experience in
the inspection of state hospitals for the insane."
The bill he prepared created a State Commis-
sion in Lunacy, composed of three members, —
one to be a reputable physician, " who has had
experience in the care and treatment of the in-
sane and in the management of institutions for
the insane"; another to be a reputable mem-
ber of the bar, and the third a " reputable citi-
zen.
As Mr. Letchworth had said of this act, it
left little for the State Board of Charities to do,
touching the insane; and that little appears to
have been so undefined as to become a cause
of some questions, between the Commission in
Lunacy and the State Board of Charities, as to
their respective duties and powers. Mr. Letch-
worth, however, was able still to find openings
of service to the cause which appealed to him
so pitifully.
He had now finished his elaborate and im-
Publication portant report on the care and treat-
of The In- ment of the insane in European in-
sane in For- . . . . , , , . .
eign Coun- stitutions, as mvestigated by him m
tries" 1 880, and it was beautifully published
in 1889, by the Messrs. Putnam's Sons, New
WORK FOR THE INSANE 297
York, forming a large royal octavo volume of
374 pages, illustrated by Mr. Elias J. Whitney,
of New York, with historical pictures as well as
with views and plans of buildings and grounds.
"The Insane in Foreign Countries" was the
title given to the work. During the period of
its preparation there had been many trying
hindrances, wearisome interruptions, and actual
disasters, which stretched the labor over about
seven years. He had been called to long halts
in it by other tasks, and he had never been able
to give himself to it undividedly. At one time
a large part of it was in print and destroyed
by a fire at the printing establishment which
had it in hand. Then, finally, time was taken
to procure statistical and other facts dealt with
down to the latest attainable date. But if the
literary performance was slow, it was painstak-
ing and exact; in securing which quality the
author had effective assistance from his sec-
retary. Miss Caroline Bishop, and from his
always helpful friend, Mr. James N. Johnston.
To the latter he owed many translations from
German and French books, documents, and
letters, as well as the suggestion and advice
which he sought in most matters and trusted
greatly from this source, characterizing it as " the
298 WILLIAM PRYOR LETCHWORTH
wise counsel and unerring judgment of the
* lang heid.' "
Almost simultaneously with the completed
printing of the book an act consolidating the
English lunacy laws and making important
changes in them was passed by parliament. This
called for a revision of the treatment of English
legislation on the subject and the early issuing
of a new edition of the work.
The subjects of the descriptive part of this
work have been indicated quite fully in what
has been told of Mr. Letchworth's European
tour and the inspections then made. His pur-
pose was to present a clear showing of the best
of the institutions that he found in other coun-
tries, setting them in comparison with each
other and with those in the United States, and
exhibiting all their features, of construction, ar-
rangement, surroundings, management, meth-
ods, and governing ideas of treatment for the
insane, which offered anything of suggestion or
instruction. This is done with careful exacti-
tude, and with enough of detail for its purpose.
It is a part of the work which had more educa-
tional value at the time of its publication than
now ; but there remains to it an interest of his-
tory that cannot be lost. The lasting and great
WORK FOR THE INSANE 299
worth of the book Is in the "Resume" of itsfinal
chapter, where the author has exhibited, so to
speak, the harvest of his own mind from the
studies he had made, setting forth the conclusions
he had drawn, not alone from these wide special
examinations abroad, but from all his many-
years of official observation of methods and
conditions attending the treatment of the in-
sane.
Of buildings and their location, furnishings
and decoration, grounds, sewage and water
supply, the discussion is full and very inform-
ing. Equally so is that which follows, bearing
on the freedom that can be given to the de-
mented with happy effects; the possible disuse
of mechanical restraints ; the importance of
thoroughly trained attendants; the curative in-
fluence of appropriate amusements and employ-
ments, with small payments for work performed
— and many other topics which must necessarily
enter into any organization of care for insane
patients that is heedful at all of the most ad-
vanced knowledge and practice of the present
day.
The admirable quality of the treatise, the
supreme Importance of the matters with which
It dealt and the high value of the enlighten-
300 WILLIAM PRYOR LETCHWORTH
ment it threw upon them, were recognized at
once by those qualified for the recognition.
Welcome Leading alienists at home and abroad
to the book gave it a specially cordial reception,
byaliemsts Letters of commendation came to
its author from Dr. Albrecht Paetz, director
of the Prussian-Saxon Provincial Asylum of
Alt-Scherbitz ; Dr. John Sibbald, of the Gen-
eral Board of Lunacy, Edinburgh ; Dr. Samuel
Wesley Smith, New York State Commissioner
in Lunacy; Dr. Stephen Smith, formerly in the
same office; Dr. Clark Bell, president of the
Medico-Legal Society; Dr. P. M. Wise, medi-
cal superintendent of the Willard Asylum, and
other speciaHsts in the medical profession. The
book was reviewed at length by Dr. W. W. Ire-
land in the London Medical Recorder ; by Dr.
Frederick Peterson in the Medical Analectic ;
and without signature by writers of evident
authority in all the leading medical journals
of the United States. In the daily newspaper
press of the country it received more interested
attention than is given commonly to works of
its kind.
But the best proof that the work had secured
a high place in the literature of its subject ap-
peared in 1905, when Dr. Kalman Pandy, prin-
WORK FOR THE INSANE 301
cipal physician of the State Insane Asylum at
Budapest, published in the Magyar language a
work on the "Insane in Europe," which (with
careful credit) drew extensively from Mr. Letch-
worth's pages and gave a flattering considera-
tion to his views. Two years later a German
translation of Dr. Pandy's book was published,
the translation having been revised by Dr. H.
Engelken, of the Alt-Scherbitz staff, and it was
dedicated to Dr. Paetz, the head of the famous
Alt-Scherbitz Institution, which all the world
was coming to regard, as the model to be copied
in caring for the Insane. The standing of Dr.
Pandy's book was thus guaranteed by the im-
primatur of Alt-Scherbitz, and there was weight,
therefore, in the remark with which he opened
his preface to it : " Since the appearance of the
standard work of Tucker (' Lunacy In Many
Lands,' Sydney, 1 887), and the excellent studies
of Letchworth ('The Insane in Foreign Coun-
tries,' second ed.. New York and London,
1889), no book to my knowledge has appeared
that has treated these highly important matters
relating to humanity and the social life with a
larger grasp." In a review of Dr. Pandy's book
the 'Journal of Insanity remarked : " It Is very in-
teresting to observe how closely his conclusions
302 WILLIAM PRYOR LETCHWORTH
confirm the painstaking accounts given by our
own countryman, William Pryor Letchworth,
who did so much by his admirable work to bring
the methods of foreign hospitals for the insane
to the knowledge of alienists in this and other
English-speaking countries. It can but be most
gratifying to him, in reviewing the incidents of
a life devoted to the betterment of the care of
all sorts and conditions of men, to feel that his
self-denying labors in behalf of the insane are
so widely known and appreciated both at home
and abroad."
Late in 1890 it would seem that Mr. Letch-
worth had not yet been released by the legisla-
T.. , tion of the previous year from the in-
rinal serv- r -^
ices to the spection of institutions for the insane,
insane f^j. j^^ wrote in a letter of October
14: " Last night I returned home, having just
completed a visitation of all the state institu-
tions for the insane, as also those vast county re-
ceptacles for this class in New York and Kings."
No published report of this visitation has been
found. Probably it was his last survey of state
asylums and hospitals. His periodic inspection
of other public charities in his judicial district,
which he performed with fidelity to the end of
his official service, brought him for some years
WORK FOR THE INSANE 303
yet, at the poorhouses, into county insane asy-
lums which lingered in existence, waiting for
the state to be prepared to take their inmates
away. It was not until 1894, for example, that
the insane of the Erie County Poorhouse were
removed to the Willard Asylum.
What appears to have been the last recorded
service of Mr. Letchworth as an official guardian
and advocate of the interests of the insane was
rendered in February, 1892, when he addressed a
memorial to the legislature "embodying reasons
why the asylum for insane criminals at Auburn
should not be made a receptacle for the non-
criminal insane." The insane criminals at Au-
burn were soon to be removed to the new in-
stitution for that class of the demented which
the state was then establishing at Matteawan,
and serious consideration was being given in
the legislature to a bill which provided for util-
izing the buildings vacated at Auburn Prison
by their conversion to the purposes of a state
hospital for the non-criminal insane. This, too,
in the face of the fact that, both in their own
structural unfitness and in their situation as part
of the prison establishment, they had been con-
demned by the commission on whose recom-
mendation the Matteawan Hospital was being
304 WILLIAM PRYOR LETCHWORTH
established. The flagrancy of the project was
exposed by Mr. Letchworth with a force which
must have been most influential In bringing it
to an end. The next legislature (1893) repealed
the original act which established the State
Asylum for Insane Criminals at Auburn.
Throughout the years (say in the decade
1880—90) in which the greater energies of his
G ne loffi- ^^^^ were expended by Mr. Letch-
cial labors of worth on two endeavors, — to better
1880-90 |.j^g dealing with errant children and
to better the care and treatment of the insane,
— these specialties of his labor were far from
absorbing his time or his thought. He spent
much of both in the service of other causes, and
very little in indulgences of any sort to himself.
Social as he was in his nature, and keenly as he
enjoyed gatherings of his friends at Glen Iris,
he had become too busy a man to maintain the
large, open hospitality of former years. Not
that he became recluse in the least, and not that
Glen Iris lost anything of its hospitable atmo-
sphere ; but invitations and visitings were neces-
sarily cut down by the frequent and often long
absences of the master and by the work that
tasked him when at home.
WORK FOR THE INSANE 305
In 1882, along with his arduous inspection
of and report on the insane departments of
poorhouses in the state, he was giving laborious
help to a movement in Buffalo for the rehabili-
tation of a Children's Aid Society that had not
realized the intentions with which it was formed.
He had been one of the prime movers in the
organization of the society ten years before,
when the impulse to it was given by a public
Thanksgiving Day dinner to the newsboys and
bootblacks of the city, at which he was the prin-
cipal speaker to the boys. Now the officers of
the society were endeavoring to revive activity
in its undertakings, and applied to him for
advice and instruction as to the methods of
work they should take in hand. He might easily
have thought it sufficient to refer them to some
of his published writings on the subject of "pre-
ventive work among children," but that could
not satisfy his wish to serve them to the utmost
of his power. He made the reference, to be sure,
but he added, in writing to them from Albany:
"With the view of putting you in possession
of the most recent experience, I have visited,
since receiving your letter, several institutions
illustrative of the points in reference to which
your interrogatories are propounded. The fol-
3o6 WILLIAM PRYOR LETCHWORTH
lowing sketches are submitted in the hope that
they may offer useful suggestions." This intro-
duced an extended description of the various
undertakings, "for newsboys, street children,
and needy and ignorant girls," conducted by
the Brooklyn Children's Aid Society, at its
Newsboys' Home and Evening School, its In-
dustrial School, its Sewing-Machine School, its
Special Relief Department, its Day Nursery,
and its Seaside Home, at Brighton Beach. Then
followed accounts of the Home for Street Boys
carried on by the Brooklyn Society of St. Vin-
cent de Paul; the broad work of the New
York Children's Aid Society, which maintained
twenty-one industrial schools and twelve even-
ing schools, besides its home for boys ; and the
homes, shelters, and nurseries of the American
Female Guardian Society. Finally, the writer nar-
rated some interesting and instructive incidents
of his visit to the headquarters of the New York
Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Chil-
dren, and the first of the recommendations which
closed his letter was " the establishinor on a sound
basis of the work for the prevention of cruelty to
children." All this represented the labor of many
days, performed at a very busy time in Mr. Letch-
worth's official service, and quite outside of that.
WORK FOR THE INSANE 307
Three years afterwards, on the iid of May,
1885, he was present and spoke at the opening
of a new Home which the Children's Aid
Society of Buffalo had bought and fitted and
furnished for its newsboy and bootblack guests.
In his address he congratulated the society on
the success it had thus far achieved, and ex-
tended his especial congratulations to "the
first mover in the attempt to elevate the news-
boys and bootblacks of this city, in the per-
son," he said, "of our modest friend, Mr.
David E. Brown." In closing, he remarked:
"In this city we have real noblemen, — men
blessed with generous natures and honestly
acquired fortunes. It would not be strange if
from some of these should at no distant day
come the gift of a stately edifice for the carry-
ing on of the beneficent work for poor chil-
dren." Before he died he saw the faith that
was expressed in these words justified by the
opening, in 1908, of a new, larger, and better
Home for newsboys, bootblacks, and their
class, representing a bequest to the society, not
by a man of the city, but by a generous woman,
Mrs. Helen Thornton Campbell.
Of other doings and writings of Mr. Letch-
worth in these years, 1882-85, apart from what
3o8 WILLIAM PRYOR LETCHWORTH
has already been told of his labors in the inter-
est of delinquent children and the insane, some
cursory mention will suffice. They include a
report in 1882 of two inspections of the Tho-
mas Orphan Asylum on the Cattaraugus In-
dian Reservation; a paper on the "Dependent
and Delinquent Children of the State of New
York," prepared in 1883, in response to a re-
quest, for the Congres International de la Pro-
tection de I'Enfance, held at Paris in June ;
an address introducing Bishop Ireland, at a
great meeting in Buffalo for temperance, in
1884; an address on "Poorhouse Administra-
tion," at a state convention of county superin-
tendents of the poor, in 1885.
In that year he received, from Governor
Hill, his second reappointment on the State
Board of Charities, as Commissioner
pointment ^^^^ the Eighth Judicial District,
on the State But the Governor, in his next annual
°" message to the legislature, recom-
mended the abolition of the Board, and the
substitution of a single "official to be known
as the Commissioner of Charities, who shall be
vested," said the Governor, "with substantially
all the duties now exercised by such Board, as
well as those performed by the Commissioner
WORK FOR THE INSANE 309
in Lunacy." The argument supporting the
recommendation was this: "A board consisting
of eleven persons (aside from its ex-officio
members), scattered in various parts of the
state, and which only occasionally meets, is a
cumbersome and unwieldy body. It cannot per-
form its duties as efficiently or satisfactorily as
a single responsible head. Its functions cannot
be discharged as economically or expeditiously
as when in the hands of one controlling execu-
tive officer."
In attempting to uphold the governor's ar-
gument, his party organ at Albany,
the Argus ^ made statements so political at-
grossly incorrect that they drew a tacks on the
letter of expostulation from Mr.
Letchworth.
From the official figures [said the Jrgus'\ it is
shown that the daily personal expense of each com-
missioner averages twenty-nine dollars, and that for
three days' services the sum reached nearly ninety dol-
lars for each commissioner. With eleven members on
the Board the citizen and taxpayer, who desire to see
the affairs of state government economically adminis-
tered, can readily see that ;$ 3 1 9 per day for the per-
sonal expenses of the Board is a sum far in excess of
what it should be, and agree with Governor Hill that
3IO WILLIAM PRYOR LETCHWORTH
a single commissioner, at a stated salary, will not only
insure a saving of public moneys to the state, but that
the work will be performed fully as well. It is to be
admitted that the state is rich, but many will object to
eleven commissioners in session, say in New York,
stopping at hotels where the daily rate for each com-
missioner is five or six dollars.
To this Mr. Letchworth made answer : —
It has been customary, in consideration of the
large charitable interests centring in New York and
Brooklyn, and for the greater convenience of those hav-
ing business to transact with the Board, to hold one of
its stated meetings during the year in New York City.
The last one held there was on the 15th, i6th, and
17th days of December, 1885, which was attended
by eight members, together with the secretary and
assistant secretary. According to your estimate, the
expenses of this session of three days for ten persons
at thirty dollars per day would have aggregated $ 900.
The actual expenses, however, including the travelling
expenses of the commissioners and secretaries in
going and coming, according to official figures, was
;^ 1 36.38, making a discrepancy in your statement of
^763.62. . . . The expenses of the Board from its
organization in 1867 to October i, 1885, for the
travelling expenses and hotel bills of its commission-
ers, committees, and officers, in the inspection of in-
stitutions and in attendance upon its meetings, for
WORK FOR THE INSANE 311
clerk hire, printing, office expenses, and contingencies,
have never exceeded the legislative appropriation,
which in no instance has been more than $5000 per
annum. Considering the time spent by the commis-
sioners in the performance of their duties, and the
saving results to the state, many will doubtless admit
that it has not paid dearly for the unsalaried service
of the comissioners.
Of course Mr. Letchworth made no men-
tion of the important fact that, personally, he
had never drawn payment from the His person-
state treasury for even the travelling ^^ sift of
r , ■ • • both service
expenses or his service as commis- ^^^ ^^_
sioner, much travel as it involved, penses
It was a fact known to few; and he was still to
continue the fact; for he and his associates of
the State Board of Charities were not deprived
of the privilegeof giving unpaid labor and time
to the discharge of the very gravest of the ob-
ligations of the state. Public opinion proved
unfriendly to the recommendations of the Gov-
ernor, and the State Board was not set aside.
The incessancy of the strain of work on him
in this period may be inferred from _,
^ ^ ■' The severe
a remark in one of his letters to strain of
a friend, dated in October, 1886: ^^^"^
" I am now," he said, " for the first time in
312 WILLIAM PRYOR LETCHWORTH
years, at the bottom of my correspondence, both
home and foreign; have my public work well
in hand, and D.V., shall take hold again of my
foreign notes [on ' The Insane in Foreign
Countries '] and with hammer and tongs go at
them with a right good will." Two months
later he was indulging himself in a rare respite
from official duties, going with one of his neigh-
bors of Livingston County to the Blue Grass
region of Kentucky, and spending two or three
weeks in visiting its famous herds of shorthorn
cattle, selecting purchases for his farm, as he
wrote home, " from some of the very best fam-
ilies of cattle in Kentucky." " We have paid
some high prices," he added, " and must take
our chances upon getting our money back. If
we do not we shall have the satisfaction of feel-
ing that we have done something that may im-
prove the herds of western New York."
Sorrow came to him in May of the next
spring, when his brother George died. There
had been hopes of recovery from a stroke of
paralysis, suffered a year before, and the invalid
had been taken to England under the care of
his wife and daughter, but only to end life in a
strange land. Within less than a year there
was grief brought again to Mr. Letchworth by
WORK FOR THE INSANE 313
the untimely death, in February, 1888, of
David Gray, to whom he was most warmly and
tenderly attached.
In these two years (1887-88) he was put-
ting aside more resolutely the exterior calls and
lesser tasks which had burdened him so much,
and applying himself as closely as possible to
the completion of his book on the insane in
foreign countries. No doubt he had been influ-
enced by the wise advice of his friend Johnston,
who wrote to him in May of the former year :
"I wish you could lighten your work a little.
Other men ultimately must take your burden ;
why not begin now to let them do so ? Your
supervision, suggestions, assistance would be
better than taking so much detail work on your-
self Reserve your strength for the larger work,
occasional and national, where a wider influence
is exerted and less routine labor would be re-
quired from you." Evidently this was what he
was now beginning to attempt, and with some
degree of success, though not complete.
In October, 1887, he felt it necessary to de-
cline a request from his English friends to con-
tribute a paper to the General Conference of
the National Association of Certified Reform-
atory and Industrial Schools, in England, which
314 WILLIAM PRYOR LETCHWORTH
would be held at London in the following
March.
On the loth of April, 1888, he addressed to
the State Board of Charities his resignation of
the office of president of the Board,
Resignation . .
of the presi- i^ which he had been kept by re-
dency of the peated elections for eleven years. At
the meeting of the Board which re-
ceived it he was not present, and the resigna-
tion was not accepted, but he was reelected with
unanimity for another term. He wrote at once:
"I shall decline again at next meeting," and he
did. The Board then respected the earnestness
of his wish to be released from the responsi-
bilities and labors of the office, and Mr. Oscar
Craig, of Rochester, was chosen in his place. It
was a post of dignity and honor, which some
men might be able to enjoy without feeling
that it laid much else upon them ; but Mr.
Letchworth had certainly found in it a heavy
addition of duty and weight of care. To be-
come again just Commissioner for the Eighth
Judicial District of New York on the State
Board of Chanties was an undoubted relief.
In the next half-dozen years, which brought
his official service to its conclusion, Mr. Letch-
worth's writings, in reports, addresses, and
WORK FOR THE INSANE 315
other published papers, included reports on
the poorhouses of the Eighth Judicial District
in 1891, 1893, and 1896; reports q^^.^j ^g_
on the New York State Institu- ports of
tion for the Blind in 1892, 1894, 1890-96
and 1895; a general report on the institutions
conducting charitable and reform work in the
Eighth Judicial District, in 1893 ; a report (in
conjunction with Dr. Stephen Smith, one of his
colleagues in the State Board of Charities) on
plans for the then projected Eastern New York
Reformatory, in his studies for which he visited
prisons in four states during the summer of
1894; reports of investigations made of institu-
tions at Lockport and Jamestown, in 1894; re-
ports of inspections of the Thomas Orphan
Asylum, on the Cattaraugus Reservation, in
1894, 1895, a"d 1896; a carefully studied
paper on " Poorhouse Construction," read at a
New York State Convention of Superintend-
ents of the Poor, in 1890; a paper in 1892 for
the annual National Conference of Charities
and Correction, on " State Boards of Charity,'*
one of the most valuable of his essays, critically
discussing the organization, duties, and powers
of such boards and tracing their development
historically; a " History of Child-saving Work
3i6 WILLIAM PRYOR LETCHWORTH
in the State of New York," prepared on
request for the Conference of Charities and
Correction at Chicago, in connection with the
Columbian Exposition of 1893, and praised
enthusiastically in letters to Mr. Letchworth
by Miss Clara Barton.
The Columbian Exposition at Chicago opened
what seemed to Mr. Letchworth to be an op-
portunity for setting on foot a governmental
undertaking in the interest of public charities
which had long been in his thought. Acting as
a member of a committee appointed at a con-
ference of state boards of charities, in 1874, to
formulate a plan of cooperation in the collection
of statistics, he became persuaded that a bureau
of the general governmentwas the agency needed
for this statistical work. As he remarked in writ-
ing of the matter subsequently, "such a bureau
might include information on all subjects affect-
ing the dependent and criminal classes, in other
countries as well as our own, and include plans
and models of buildings, descriptive of differ-
ent systems for the care and treatment of these
classes, and all valuable literature relating to
these subjects." He found no favorable oppor-
tunity for urging this important project until
the closing of the Columbian Exposition at
WORK FOR THE INSANE 317
Chicago, in 1893. ^^ then made an effort to
bring about a transfer of the extensive exhibit
of charts, plans, models, etc., there collected, to
Washington, to become the foundation of a
permanent governmental undertaking. Unfor-
tunately this proved to be one of the few im-
portant endeavors of Mr. Letchworth which
did not attain success.
In 1892 President Craig and Commissioners
Letchworth and Walrath formed a committee
of the State Board of Charities, appointed under
an act of the legislature, to select a site " on
which to establish an institution, on the colony
plan, for the medical treatment, care, education,
and employment of epileptics." This was a sub-
ject which had now become deeply interesting
to Mr. Letchworth, and it gave direction to the
most important of his subsequent work. What he
did in behalf of the epileptic, as formerly in behalf
of the insane, will be told in the next chapter.
The term of Commissioner Letchworth's re-
appointment in 1885 having expired pou^th ap-
in 1893, he received on the i6th of pointment
January in that year his fourth con- ontheBoard
secutive appointment to the State Board of
Charities, from Governor Flower.
3i8 WILLIAM PRYOR LETCHWORTH
A little later, on the 9th of February, a mark
of distinction so high that few have ever re-
Degree of ceived it came to him from the Uni-
LL.D. from versity of the State of New York,
sity of^the^' ^^ ^°^^ °^ ^^^ Regents of the Uni-
state of versity, conferring on him the de-
New York gj.^^ ^f LL.D., " in recognition of
his distinguished services to the State of New
York, as a member and president of the State
Board of Charities and as an author of most
valuable literature pertaining to the dependent
classes." In the one hundred and ten years of
its existence at that date the Board of Regents
had conferred this honorary degree only twenty
times, and always after long preliminary notice
of intention and on the unanimously favorable
report of an inquiring committee. Not many
titular honors have been guarded so jealously, —
dispensed so sparingly; but all voices acclaimed
the justice and applauded the propriety of
this award of it.
In the honors of the year, however, there
was no medicine for the sore affliction that be-
fel him on the 23d of November, when Mrs.
Edward H. Crozer, his eldest sister, died. She
had been his companion at Glen Iris, — the
presiding genius of his home, — for many years,
and her death was not only the wounding of
WORK FOR THE INSANE 319
tender affections, but a grave dislocation of his
life. A tablet to Mrs. Crozer's memory was
placed by Mr. Letchworth in the vestibule of
the new building then being erected for the
Women's Educational and Industrial Union,
at Buffalo, and unveiled on the day of the
opening of the building, October 29, 1894.
Mrs. Crozer had been a member of the Union
and much interested in its work.
The presidency of the State Board of Charities
became vacant in 1894, on the death of Com-
missioner Oscar Craig, and was filled by the
election of Mr. William Rhinelander Stewart, of
the City of New York, who had been a mem-
ber of the Board since 1883. Mr. Letchworth
was engaged that year, with Dr. Stephen Smith,
in the examination of plans and estimates for
the development of the institution which the
state had undertaken to establish for the treat-
ment of epileptics, and to which the name of
Craig Colony had been given. Ill health in the
early months of 1895 not only interrupted the
preparation of a paper that he had promised
for the next National Conference of Charities
and Correction, but detained him from the meet-
ing, in May. He had missed very few of these
important meetings since he entered the New
York State Board of Charities.
320 WILLIAM PRYOR LETCHWORTH
In these final years of his official service Mr.
Letchworth became deeply interested in the in-
troduction of the rain-bath, or shower-bath,
into various public institutions, most especially
into poorhouses, to replace the uncleanly and
unsanitary tub-bathing practised commonly in
such places, so far as bathing might be practised
systematically at all. He gave the subject much
investigation, and gathered a quantity of prac-
tical information as to the best modes of con-
struction and arrangement for it, which he put
in form for communication to the officials whose
interest in an improvement of such great impor-
tance might be enlisted. None of this seems to
have gone into print, but it was used, no doubt,
in personal ways, of correspondence and other-
wise, and remains in manuscript form.
The year 1896 was his last in the service of
the state, though his enlistment in the service
T . of suffering humanity did not end till
Last year o •'
of official his death. Age and unsparing labors
service were beginning to wear down the
energy of spirit which had replaced in him so
much of the lack of a vigorous constitution.
He was forced, no doubt, to feel that he must
lighten his cares and his tasks. He declined the
invitation to prepare a paper for presentation to
WORK FOR THE INSANE 321
an International Congress for Children which
met in 1896 ; but he wrote for the State Board
of Charities an extended report on the " Erie
County System of Placing Dependent Children
in Families," which has been quoted from in a
previous chapter ; he made and reported his
final inspection of poorhouses in his district;
and he took part in the preparation of a report by
the standing committee of the Board on Craig
Colony for Epileptics. To this latter report
was appended the following note, signed by the
two colleagues of Mr. Letchworth on the com-
mittee, Dr. Enoch V. Stoddard and Peter Wal-
rath: "Immediately subsequent to the comple-
tion of this report. Commissioner Letchworth,
feeling compelled to lay down the work which
he had followed during so many years and with
such distinction, tendered his resignation to the
governor and severed his relations with colleagues
who part with him with the deepest regret."
His resignation had been tendered to the
Governor on the 14th of November.
T-u • r 1 o TT. , Resignation
1 he next meetmg or the State Board from the
of Charities was held on the 8th of State Board
December following, and it then re-
ceived from him a letter announcing it and
making known in these words his reasons for
322 WILLIAM PRYOR LETCHWORTH
withdrawing from the service he had performed
so long : —
While grateful for a degree of health and strength
that would permit me to continue in the discharge of
my duties, and duly regretting the severance of my
official relations with the Board, I nevertheless feel
that my private affairs, which have long suffered for
lack of my personal supervision, now demand more
attention than the proper discharge of the duties de-
volving upon me as a commissioner will permit. I was
first appointed a commissioner by Governor Dix, in
April, 1873, and was reappointed successively by
Governors Robinson, Hill, and Flower, the last ap-
pointment expiring in March, 1901.
He then reverted briefly to the great improve-
ments made within the past quarter of a century
in the public care and treatment of the depend-
ent and offending classes, and congratulated
the State Board of Charities on its agency in
the promotion of these advances. Also on the
wider field now opened to it under the powers
granted to it by the new constitution. In con-
clusion he expressed his grateful sense of the
uniformly harmonious relations that had existed
between himself and his colleagues and the
unnumbered kindnesses and courtesies he had
received at their hands.
WORK FOR THE INSANE 323
The feeling of the Board, as expressed in its
published records, went beyond a mere utterance
of regret, to pay this tribute : —
Entering into this office well equipped by nature and
research for the efficient discharge of his duties, Mr.
Letchworth has, without remuneration, devoted the
maturer years of his life to the amelioration of the
condition of the suffering, unfortunate, and dependent
classes in the State of New York. Every branch of the
work devolving upon the State Board of Charities has
felt the uplifting impulse of his wise and persistent
efforts. The insane, the poor in county houses, the
blind, the orphan and destitute children, the juvenile
delinquents are all now more intelligently and hu-
manely cared for in consequence of his initiation and
unfailing and practical support of measures instituted
for their relief.
By his conservative and painstaking discharge of
official duties and intelligent application thereto of his
wide sociological knowledge, Mr. Letchworth early
won and has steadily retained the confidence and re-
spect of the people of the state. These qualifications
also led to his successive annual elections to the presi-
dency of the Board for the period of ten years from
1878 to 1887. During this whole period his disregard
of all selfish ambition and his many lovely qualities of
heart and mind have gained for him the affection and
esteem of his colleagues and hosts of friends.
324 WILLIAM PRYOR LETCHWORTH
By his resignation the people of the State of New
York have lost the services of a tried and useful official,
and the State Board of Charities the assistance and
advice of one of its most valued members. Into the
retirement which he has sought our earnest wishes for
his future happiness accompany him.
More significant than this formulated ex-
pression of feeling by the Board on parting com-
pany with its senior member were the remarks
made on the occasion by some of its members.
These, for example, by Commissioner Dr.
Stephen Smith: —
Mr. President: My acquaintance with Mr. Letch-
worth extends over a period of fifteen years, or from
the date of my first entrance into this Board, in 1881.
I recall gratefully the kind and sympathetic words
with which he, as president, welcomed me to a mem-
bership with this body. I early recognized his large
and comprehensive knowledge of every phase of pub-
lic charities and his eminently judicious and conserv-
ative views of their administration. From him, there-
fore, I was accustomed to seek that information
necessary to the proper performance of my duties,
and I take great pleasure in acknowledging my obli-
gations to him for whatever useful work I have
accomplished among the charities of the state. His
fraternal counsels were always inspirations to greater
efforts to do better and still better service, and to fre-
WORK FOR THE INSANE 325
quent aspirations to attain to that high plane of con-
secration to the relief of human infirmities which he
had reached. . . . The vast reforms in our public
charities during the last thirty years have been effected
with his cooperation and often with his initiation.
The annual reports of the Board abound with most
valuable contributions by him to nearly every branch
of private and public charity. In the wider field of
philanthropy represented by the National Conference
of Charities, Mr. Letchworth has won a national repu-
tation, as one of the foremost reformers of the methods
of dealing with the dependent, defective, and criminal
classes. But it is probable that in the distant future
his great work on Hospitals will prove to be the most
enduring monument of his self-sacrificing service in
the cause of humanity. In the retirement of Mr.
Letchworth from this Board we have lost a congenial
companion and a wise counsellor, and the state an
honest and most efficient public official.
In anticipation, perhaps, of his retirement,
which may have been intimated at the beginning
of the year, a letter requesting his portrait had
been signed in the previous February by all the
members of the Board.
Not only in the State of New York, but
widely through the country, the retirement of
Mr. Letchworth from his long official labors
for the bettering of the institutions of public
326 WILLIAM PRYOR LETCHWORTH
philanthropy was recognized as an event of pub-
lic importance. " He is, perhaps," said the New
York Tribune^ " more widely known in this
country and Europe in connection with his spe-
cial work than any other living American, and
might be fairly called the Lord Shaftesbury
of the United States." The same journal re-
marked: " It is intimated that, in consideration
of his long and useful public service, Governor
Morton allowed Mr. Letchworth to suggest
the name of his successor." The successor ap-
pointed was Mr. Harvey W. Putnam, a young
lawyer of Buffalo.
CHAPTER VIII
WORK FOR THE EPILEPTIC
After Mr. Letchworth's withdrawal from the
service of the state there were years of work
in his life, performed in the same field. He had
surrendered official authority, but needed none
to maintain the power of influence with which
he could still labor for the unfortunates of man-
kind who need public care. He was released
from tasks of supervision and inspection which
had occupied great parts of his time, and could
devote himself more to studies and discussions
of the large problems of public philanthropy,
where his long experience, his wide knowledge,
his well-trained good judgment, could be exer-
cised more usefully than on the mere scrutiny
and criticism of particular institutions. He was
now in the position which his friend Johnston
had long urged him to assume. Several years
before this time, Mr. Johnston, in a letter, had
said to him with eloquent earnestness: "You
have accomplished nearly all you can accomplish
in New York State. Your ideas have been be-
328 WILLIAM PRYOR LETCHWORTH
fore the people nearly a score of years. A good
deal has been done, and what has been done is
an incentive and teaching to others, and the
work will go on. But there is a continent —
yes, a hemisphere — in which you can work (I
might have said a world) and where germs of
reform planted would in time give seed enough
for great harvests. These continents are the
fields into which you should carry your work.
It matters something if five hundred paupers
are more healthily, comfortably, economically
housed ; but it matters much more if some new
state officials are taught how to save the young
or to care for the insane. How I do wish that
you would give the balance of your life to in-
troducing your ideas more widely into places
where they would be helpful."
He recognized the wisdom of this counsel ;
but the ties of his long connection with the
state service were undoubtedly hard to break, and
difficulties were in the breaking which others
could not know. The severance, however, had
now been accomplished, and William Pryor
Letchworth, Doctor of Laws by the pronounce-
ment of the highest organ of the academic
authority of the state, was free from the routine
of official duty which may, perhaps, have en-
DEH-GA-YA-SAH
WORK FOR THE EPILEPTIC 329
grossed too much of the time of Commissioner
Letchworth of the State Board. Now that he
had been divested of his official title it would
be strictly proper, no doubt, to affix the honor-
ary title to his name, and to speak of him as
Dr. Letchworth throughout the remainder of
this book. To do so, however, would seem like
the introduction of a stranger into the narrative,
and the writer feels that it is best to speak of
Mr. Letchworth still, in the old familiar way.
The most important labors of the later years
of Mr. Letchworth were in behalf of the vic-
tims of epilepsy, — a large class of pjtiable
pitiful sufferers who had experienced, state of the
in our country especially, more and ^P^^^P^ic
longer neglect than any other whose affliction
appealed as painfully to the sympathies of their
fellow men. In one of his writings on the sub-
ject he has depicted most graphically the situa-
tion which makes this appeal : —
The epileptic [he wrote] holds an anomalous posi-
tion in society. As a child he is an object of solicitude
to his parents or guardians. The street to him is full
of danger, and if sent to school he is liable to seizures
on the way or in the classroom. At school his attacks
shock his classmates and create confusion. He cannot
attend church or public entertainments, nor participate
330 WILLIAM PRYOR LETCHWORTH
in social gatherings with those of his own age and sta-
tion. In consequence of his infirmity, the epileptic
grows up in idleness and ignorance, bereft of com-
panionship outside of the family, and, friendless, he
silently broods over his isolated and helpless condi-
tion. If the epileptic succeeds in learning a trade,
business men are reluctant to employ him, and arti-
sans will not work with him, especially if sharp-edged
tools are used. ... In such cases there is but one
result, — the breaking down of all hope and energy.
The epileptic workman having a trade, but unable to
find employment, gradually sinks into a condition of
public dependence. Frequently he is sent to the poor-
house . . . where there is no special provision for
his care or proper medical treatment. Here he is re-
garded with aversion and distrust, and is a cause of
unhappiness and sometimes of danger to others. Not
infrequently the wrong is committed of sending him
to an insane asylum.
With this description of the wretched situa-
tion of the sufferers from epilepsy went an esti-
,T 1 X • mateoftheir numbers, which assigned
Neglect in _ » &
the United considerably more than 100,000 to
States |.}^g United States, for only a small
fraction of whom had any provision been made,
when this was written, of such care as they need.
England and the United States had both been
slow in recognizing their claim to special insti-
WORK FOR THE EPILEPTIC 331
tutlons for treatment and maintenance, while
some countries of Continental Europe had seen
and accepted the duty long ago. Apparently It
was not until 1868 that official attention was
given to the subject in any American state. In
that year the Ohio State Board of Charities re-
commended to the legislature of that state some
better provision for the epileptics in the poor-
houses ; and in the next year it repeated the
recommendation more urgently and with a defi-
nite plan, proposing a distinct asylum, with an
ample farm, on which the inmates could be
employed. The legislature was deaf to this
counsel, renewed again and again, until 1877,
when it made a beginning of action which,
finally, in 1893, brought into existence the
Ohio Hospital for Epileptics, at Gallipolis, —
the first to be opened in the United States.
The next state to acknowledge its duty to
the epileptics was New York. In the first re-
port (1874) of its first Commissioner in Lunacy,
Dr. John Ordronaux, he called attention to the
fact that four hundred and thirty-six epileptics
were being improperly kept in the lunatic asy-
lums and poorhouses of the state, and declared
to the legislature that " a state hospital for epi-
leptics is an imperative necessity." In eight
332 WILLIAM PRYOR LETCHWORTH
succeeding annual reports he continued the ad-
monition without effect; and the appeal was
taken up by the State Board of Charities with
no better result. According to Mr. Letchworth,
who became the historian of the reform, "in
seeking for the germs of the movement for col-
onizing epileptics in this country we must look
in another direction. Dr. Frederick Peterson,
while assistant physician of the Hudson River
State Hospital for the Insane, had a consider-
able number of epileptics under his charge, and
became specially interested in the treatment of
this class. In 1886, in pursuance of their inter-
ests, he visited the colony for epileptics at Biele-
feld, in Westphalia, of which little, if anything,
was known in this country. After his return
home he wrote a full description of this peculiar
and highly successful work, which was published
in the ^^^nXox^l Medical Record in April, 1887.
The article attracted much attention and was
republished in England. Dr. Peterson, in his
zeal, continued to write upon the subject for
medical and other journals, and his whole-souled
devotion to the cause he had espoused laid broad
and deep in the public mind the conviction that
a state colony for epileptics was an immediate
and pressing necessity. He presented the sub-
WORK FOR THE EPILEPTIC 333
ject in charity conference meetings, at state con-
ventions of superintendents of the poor, and
elsewhere. He also urged the matter upon the
attention of the State Charities Aid Association."
An attempt in 1890 to obtain legislation in
New York, providing for the selection of a
site for the desired colony, came to p.^.^^ j^^^g.
naught; but in 1892 it had success, ment in
A bill prepared by the State Chari- New York
ties Aid Association and introduced on its re-
quest, directing the commissioners of the State
Board of Charities to select a suitable site for
the purpose stated, became law. As mentioned
in the preceding chapter, the State Board dele-
gated the duty of making this important selec-
tion to a committee composed of its president,
Mr. Craig, and commissioners Letchworth and
Walrath. The committee was not only to in-
spect sites, but to examine plans and ascertain
facts " relative and important to the object of
the statute, namely, the establishment in a proper
situation, with a proper organization, of a colony
for epileptics." Many sites were proposed, and
the members of the committee, either collect-
ively or separately, spent a large part of the
summer of 1892. in examining tracts of land
and collecting desired information. But singu-
334 WILLIAM PRYOR LETCHWORTH
larly favoring circumstances offered one piece
of property to them which had so incomparable
a superiority to every other, in advantages of
every kind, that the selection was easily made
and put quite beyond reasonable dispute.
It was in the beautiful Genesee Valley, near
Mount Morris, — the seat of a settlement of
The Shaker ^^^ religious people known corn-
settlement monly as Shakers, but named by
of Sonyea themselves the United Society of
Christian Believers. They occupied a large
tract (eighteen hundred acres) of very valuable
land, on the site of an old Indian village which
bore the name of Sonyea, the name signifying
a "sunny or warm place." They had erected
many buildings that would be more or less
readily convertible to immediate use for the
contemplated epileptic colony. " One of the
original purposes of the society was to receive
and maintain orphan children, some of whom
would take the place of deceased members; but
the multiplication of institutions for homeless
children in Western New York stood in the way
of thus increasing their numbers, which their
practice of celibacy also restricted. The mem-
bers were mostly advanced in years, and, as their
numbers were gradually but surely diminishing,
WORK FOR THE EPILEPTIC 335
they decided to sell their home at Sonyea and
unite their fortunes with a similar society at
Watervliet, New York." They could have sold
the splendid property in parcels very readily
and with much pecuniary gain ; but they wished
it to go as a whole to a charitable use, and
offered it at a moderate price. The State Board
of Charities adopted the report of its committee
recommending the purchase of the Sonyea do-
main ; a bill which authorized and made the
needed provision for carrying out the recom-
mendation passed the legislature of 1893 5 ^^^>
to the consternation and disheartenment of a
multitude of citizens, it was vetoed by Gov-
ernor Flower, on the ground that the state
could not afford the expenditure, and that some
particulars of the plan of government of the
intended colony did not meet his approval.
Fortunately the rare opportunity which the
Shakers of Sonyea had offered was not thrown
away by this, as it might easily have been.
They gave a new option, and a modified en-
actment, pressed by a strong public sentiment
on the legislature and the Governor in 1894,
was secured in April of that year. The general
design of the institution authorized was set
forth in the following language of the act : —
336 WILLIAM PRYOR LETCHWORTH
The objects of such colony shall be to secure the
humane, curative, scientific, and economical treat-
ment and care of epileptics, exclusive of insane epi-
leptics, to fulfil which design there shall be provided,
among other things, a tract of fertile and productive
land, in a healthful situation, and an abundant supply
of wholesome water, sufficient means for drainage and
disposal of sewage, and sanitary conditions ; and there
shall be furnished, among other necessary structures,
cottages for dormitory and domiciliary uses, buildings
for an infirmary, a schoolhouse and a chapel, work-
shops for the proper teaching and productive prosecu-
tion of trades and industries ; all of which structures
shall be substantial and attractive, but plain and mod-
erate in cost, and arranged on the colony or village
plan.
To an extraordinary extent this design was
fulfilled at once by the mere purchase of the
Craig Col- Sonyea domain. Fertility of soil,
ony estab- healthfulness of situation, abundance
hshed ^j^j purity of water, easy drainage
and sewerage, all went with the land ; and there
went also thirty buildings of various kinds,
which were estimated in value by Commissioner
Letchworth and an architect, before the pur-
chase was made, at ^75,000. The state appro-
priation for the purchase of the whole property
was $ 1 1 5,000. The largest of the buildings then
WORK FOR THE EPILEPTIC 337
on the ground — a massive brick structure —
underwent ready conversion into a dormitory
which accommodates one hundred and thirty
female patients, and is named Letchworth
House. There was much at the place, it can
be seen, to facilitate the preparation of it for its
humane use, and the preparation went rapidly
on. Dr. William P. Spratling, previously first
assistant physician at the Morristown, New
Jersey, State Hospital for the Insane, was chosen
for superintendent of the colony, by competitive
examination, under the civil service system of
New York. He received his appointment in
November, 1894, beginning duty in the follow-
ing May, having visited, meantime, the famous
Bethel Colony for Epileptics, at Bielefeld, Ger-
many, to study methods and arrangements
there. Dr. Spratling had already made special
studies of epilepsy, and he received the highest
marking in the examination. The colony was
in readiness to begin receiving patients and was
formally opened on the 20th of January, 1896.
It had been named Craig Colony, in memory
of the late president of the State Board of
Charities, who died on the 2d of January, 1894.
A documentary history of the whole course
of proceedings connected with the founding of
338 WILLIAM PRYOR LETCHWORTH
this first colony for epileptics in the State of New
York was compiled by Mr. Letchworth in his
„ , , ^ last years. The record shows him
Mr. Letch- . . .
worth's in- quite distmctly to have been the
terest in persisting spirit in the movement,
the colony , , ....
throughout; prickmg it to action
when it lagged, and rousing it to fresh aggres-
siveness when it had been stricken with discour-
agement by the Governor's veto in 1892. Until
some months after its opening he was in official
relations to the colony, first as chairman of the
Standing Committee of the State Board of Chari-
ties on the Construction of Buildings for Chari-
table and Correctional Institutions, and finally as
a member of the special new Committee of the
Board on Craig Colony. The duties of the first-
named committee brought him into cooperation
with Dr. Frederick Peterson, who had been made
president of the board of managers of the col-
ony, and Mrs. Charles F. Wadsworth, chair-
man of the executive committee of that board,
in studying and determining plans for utilizing
the buildings already in place on the estate, and
for the new buildings which would need to be
provided at once. The report of this work, by
himself and Dr. Stephen Smith, was made to
the Board in January, 1895. '^^^ report of the
WORK FOR THE EPILEPTIC 339
later committee, made on the 13th of Novem-
ber, 1896, was Commissioner Letchworth's last
official act. It recorded the experience of the
institution in the first ten months of its opera-
tion. The comparatively small number of pa-
tients thus far admitted had been selected from
the various institutions of the state by Superin-
tendent Dr. Spratling, assisted by Dr. Hoyt,
secretary of the State Board. The report, in its
conclusion, expressed congratulations to the
managers of the colony "upon the very satis-
factory results accomplished in the face of so
many difficulties."
As Mr. Letchworth's interest in Craig Col-
ony was not of the mere functional kind it did
not expire when his official commis- continued
sion was resigned ; nor was he allowed work for the
to drop out of its affairs. His private ®P' ®P ^^
correspondence shows how much he continued
to be counselled with by those in charge of its
work; how often his visits to it were solicited
and how welcome they were. But his sense of
duty to the victims of epilepsy was far from
satisfied by what had been done in the estab-
lishment of this one institution bv his own state.
It was the second of its kind in the whole
country. Massachusetts had been giving good
340 WILLIAM PRYOR LETCHWORTH
treatment and care to a number of epileptic
children, in a group of cottage hospitals at Bald-
winsville, established by private benevolence in
1882, but maintained latterly by the state; and
the state had taken action in 1895 ^7 conse-
quence of which a general hospital for epileptics
was in process of creation. In a few other states
there were movements on foot which promised
some adequate provision for this afflicted class ;
and in a somewhat larger number there was
more or less of imperfect provision for it in
private institutions or in improper connection
with asylums for the feeble-minded. But in-
quiries pursued by Mr. Letchworth in all parts
of the country found practically nothing done
for epileptics in a large majority of the states,
or nothing that was fitting to their case. He
recognized, therefore, an extremely urgent need
of information to the public of the nation, as to
the dreadful extent of this neglect, and what it
meant of suffering to thousands of individuals
and of grave consequences to society at large.
The situation was one of which few people,
even in the medical profession, appear to have
had clear knowledge. The facts of it had never
been gathered up and put forth collectively, in
a form to be impressive in effect. He deter-
WORK FOR THE EPILEPTIC 341
mined now to take on himself the task of as-
sembhng this needed information from its many
sources, printed and unprinted, and making it
available for use in stirring public feeling on
the subject. He had done something in that
direction already, as set forth in two papers pre-
pared for the National Conference of Charities
and Correction, — on "Provision for Epilep-
tics," read at Nashville in 1894, and on "Care
of Epileptics," read at Grand Rapids in 1896.
He now undertook a work of thoroughness on
the lines that were sketched in those essays.
He entered deeply into this new task soon
after his release from the State Board of Chari-
ties, and, while turning frequently to
, * . f . ^ . ^ Facts and
other matters, it was his main occu- studies em-
pation until its completion, late in bodied in a
1899. By laborious correspondence
he drew from officials and professional men,
from governments and from institutions, in re-
ports and other documents or in personal let-
ters, the information and the expert opinion
that went into his book. He was attempting no
original treatise, but simply producing as au-
thentic and complete a compilation as could be
made of the knowledge and experience of that
time in the matter of the care and treatment of
342 WILLIAM PRYOR LETCHWORTH
epileptics. He was preparing a book which Mr.
O'Conor, of the Rochester Post-Express^ char-
acterized subsequently, at the close of three
columns of review, as "a complete history of
the care and treatment of epileptics — a hand-
book of all that had been done in their behalf,"
and he "spared no pains in collecting inform-
ation or in putting it into convenient shape for
instruction or for reference." His inquiries ex-
tended to many foreign countries, as well as to
all the states of the American Union, The re-
sult was a mass of information which men of
scientific light and leading in the medical pro-
fession hailed with grateful satisfaction. In this
work, as in the preparation of the volume on
"The Insane in Foreign Countries," he had
much and very valuable assistance from his
friend, James Nicol Johnston, as well as from
Miss Bishop, his secretary.
The book, entitled " Care and Treatment of
Epileptics," was published in the same admir-
able style as that of "The Insane in Foreign
Countries," with appropriate and interesting il-
lustrations, by the Messrs. G. P. Putnam's Sons,
New York and London, early in 1900. Re-
views of it in the medical journals at home and
abroad were universally commendatory. In
WORK FOR THE EPILEPTIC 343
Brain, the organ of the Neurological Society of
London, Dr. William Aldren Turner gave an
extended account of its contents and a discus-
sion of the colony system of epileptic treatment
as presented in them. The work, it said, "gives
a complete account of the epileptic colonies in
Europe and America, and a valuable chapter
upon the general principles which should guide
those more immediately concerned in the de-
velopment and management of such institu-
tions. The work has required an immense
amount of investigation and care in its con-
struction."
In the Bulletin of the Medical Society oj Bel-
gium the book was even more fully described
and discussed. "All who desire to study seri-
ously the hospitalization of epileptics," said the
writer, "will find in this large volume, contain-
ing a mass of beautiful views and phototyped
plans, much information that one would vainly
seek elsewhere. It is on this account that we
have endeavored to make known the fine work
of the great philanthropist, Mr. Letchworth."
One of the first books of the year [said the Medical
Record, of New York] will doubtless be one of the
most useful and practical in the coming century, for
the reason that it is the summing-up of methods and
344- WILLIAM PRYOR LETCHWORTH
theories, with a practical solution of a medico-social
problem. ... It is not the extolling of a philanthro-
pic scheme [Craig Colony] that makes this book val-
uable ; it is the practical discussion of site, labor,
buildings, restrictions, diet, training, supervision, eco-
nomics, nursing, and treatment of epileptics that il-
lustrates what has been done in this beautiful Gene-
see village, with its farm-lands and orchards, to make
the epileptic a useful, happy member, in spite of his
fits. . . . The chief value of Mr. Letchworth's his-
torical sketches and descriptions of methods of work
is that it is now possible for every state in the Union
to establish just such a colony, without the labor of
breaking the ground of new ideas and untried phil-
anthropy.
To the same effect the Medical News of
Philadelphia spoke of Mr. Letchworth and his
book : —
As one of the foremost students of philanthropy
and sociology in the state, his voice upon the subject
combines the tone of authority and experience. His
book is not the plea of a dreamer of social reforms ;
it is a keen, practical, detailed account of how to
bring about and accomplish what most people only
talk about. To care for the dependent classes with-
out pauperizing them, and without overtaxing the
community, and to care for the hitherto almost un-
curable epileptic in such a way that he may be bene-
WORK FOR THE EPILEPTIC 345
filed without sedative drugs, but by the skilful appre-
ciation of the laws of nature, is the problem which
Mr. Letchworth has solved in his work ; and every
state in the Union, and every private sanatorium for
epileptics in the country, could not do better than
study the question from his standpoint.
The foremost of European authorities on
epilepsy, Dr. Wildermuth, of Stuttgart, wrote
of the work to Mr. Letchworth: —
Rarely has a book given me as much pleasure as
your fine and complete work, which, indeed, is the
only one of its kind in literature. When I began to
interest myself actively in the care of epileptics, over
twenty years ago, there was very little interest taken
in the question by physicians, even by nervous spe-
cialists. The great progress made since those days is
well shown in your book. Any one who has done
work of a similar nature will be able to appreciate the
amount of patient labor that your book has cost you.
The rich material you have collected is presented in
a very clear and finished manner. . . . The chapter on
general principles is of special interest to me and has
given me much pleasure, as here, too, you have
treated the subject exhaustively, clearly bringing out
all essential points.
Early in the undertaking of this literary task
on behalf of the epileptic, if not somewhat
346 WILLIAM PRYOR LETCHWORTH
prior to it, Mr. Letchworth, in conjunction with
Dr. Peterson, Dr. Spratling, General Brinker-
National ^off} of Ohio, and other leaders in
Association the movement of feeling on behalf
organized ^f i-^Qse neglected sufferers, took
steps toward bringing about the organization
of a national association for the study of epi-
lepsy and the care and treatment of its vic-
tims. At a meeting brought together in the
City of New York, on the 24th of May, 1898,
such a national association was organized, with
William Pryor Letchworth, LL.D., for its
president; Frederick Peterson, M.D. (New
York City), first vice-president ; Professor Will-
iam Osier, M.D. (Baltimore), second vice-
president; William P. Spratling, M.D. (Craig
Colony), secretary ; H. C. Rutter, M.D. (Gal-
lipolis, Ohio), treasurer, and an executive com-
mittee of five, Dr. Peterson, chairman.
The first annual meeting of the Association
was not held until three years later, when a
First meet- ^^§^^7 satisfactory body of members
ing of the was assembled at Washington, on
Association ^j^^ j^^j^ and 15th of May, 1901.
In the interval there had been much well-
directed exertion by the officers of the Assoc-
iation and their helpers to extend its membership
WORK FOR THE EPILEPTIC 347
and to secure contributions to the reports and
discussions that would make the meeting pro-
fitable and interesting. It goes without saying
that the president of the Association took his
full share of this arduous work. He is quite
likely to have done more than his share. Gen-
eral BrinkerhofF, at least, thought that he did;
for writing to him afterwards, with reference to
the published proceedings of the meeting, he
said: "I wish now to congratulate you on the
results of that conference, which owed its ex-
istence to your tireless industry in getting it to-
gether and securing so many valuable papers
which are given to the world in this report."
How wide a ground was covered by the pa-
pers presented to the meeting is indicated in
the following passage from a brief address by
President Letchworth at the opening of its pro-
ceedings : —
Through the kind courtesy of Secretary Hay, valu-
able service has been rendered the Association. By
his assistance and the benevolent cooperation of our
foreign ministers and ambassadors we have inform-
ation relating to this strange disease from different
countries of Europe, including Sweden in the north
and Italy in the south. We have valuable papers and
communications from Mexico, South America, India,
348 WILLIAM PRYOR LETCHWORTH
and Japan, also hints of progressive work in Austra-
lia, From other reliable sources we have a review of
the work for epileptics in Great Britain, including an
interesting account of the development of the useful
and beneficent work of the National Society for Em-
ployment of Epileptics, at Chalfont, St. Peter, Eng-
land. We have late information concerning the pro-
gress of the great work at the Bethel Colony, near
Bielefeld [in the Prussian Province of Westphalia],
and much that is suggestive from Belgium and Swit-
zerland. We wait expectantly, hoping for more light
from the wide expanse of Russia, including the wine-
growing region of the Caucasus. From all these va-
rious sources we have matter for study and reflection.
The history of the special work for epileptics will be
brought down to the present date in Ohio, New York,
Massachusetts, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Texas,
and elsewhere in the United States.
The " Transactions " of this first annual meet-
ing of the National Association for the Study
of Epilepsy and the Care and Treatment of
Epileptics were edited for publication by Presi-
dent Letchworth, and produced from the press
before the close of the year. At the next annual
meeting of the Association, held at New York
in October, 1902, the following resolution was
adopted : " That this Association has great
pleasure in extending to the Honorable Will-
WORK FOR THE EPILEPTIC 349
iam Pryor Letchworth, LL.D., its most cordial
thanks for his valuable, painstaking, and labori-
ous work in preparing for publication the trans-
actions of the Association's first annual meet-
ing, held in Washington, D.C., in May, 1901,
and for his generous gift of a sum of money
sufficient to pay the cost of printing and bind-
ing one thousand copies of the same." The
volume, beyond question, was a most valuable
supplement to that which Mr. Letchworth had
published, two years before, as his personal
compilation on the subject of the " Care and
Treatment of Epileptics." Dr. Wildermuth was
one of many who gave it a very earnest wel-
come.
The Association had now a list of two hun-
dred and sixty-eight regular and eighteen hon-
orary members, the latter being scientists of
distinction in other countries. It represented a
widely wakened interest in the study and the
social duty which it had been organized to pro-
mote. Those who labored to arouse that inter-
est could now take rest in some degree ; and
for him whose work is the subject of record
here the rest was a clear necessity. He would
still be a laborer in the vineyard that had tasked
him so long, but with a slower hand ; and the
350 WILLIAM PRYOR LETCHWORTH
finishing touches were being given to his handi-
work in its various directions, here and there.
Practically he had done what he could for the
epileptics, and would attempt no more, except
in the way of suggested action, at times, by the
Association in its annual meetings. Beyond the
first one, he was unable to attend these meet-
ings, but his interest in them, and in Craig
Colony, and in all the work for epileptics, was
never lost.
In other arenas of public benevolence he had
been continuingly active since his retirement
Incidental from official service, and would con-
labors tinue so for a brief term still. In
June, 1897, he had, for the last time, addressed
the Superintendents of the Poor of New York
State, sketching the history of their conven-
tions, showing the good that had come from
them, and pointing out the lines on which more
could be achieved. In July of the same year, at
the National Conference of Charities and Cor-
rection, held at Toronto, Canada, he read the
paper on " Dependent Children and Family
Homes" which has been spoken of in a former
chapter.
That year he found bits of leisure and op-
WORK FOR THE EPILEPTIC 351
portunity for renewing attention to those claims
of historical duty which he had always felt to
be urgent on the people of the Genesee Valley.
Among the incidents of General Sullivan's ex-
pedition to the Valley, in 1779, was one which
touched his feeling peculiarly, and it had long
been his wish to have the scene of it marked
memorially. A detachment of Sullivan's troops
had been ambushed by the Indians and slaugh-
tered, the two officers of the company. Lieu-
tenant Thomas Boyd and Sergeant Michael
Parker, being cruelly tortured to death. In a
letter addressed to the President of the Living-
ston County Historical Society, Mr. W. Austin
Wadsworth, March 19, 1897, ^^ suggested the
propriety of action by the Society to secure pos-
session of the two spots hallowed by these
tragedies of patriotism, and to mark them in
some enduring way. During the following sum-
mer, in company with Mr. Andrew Langdon,
president of the Buffalo Historical Society, he
visited and studied the ground, to assure him-
self of the accuracy with which the points In
question could be identified. From the data in
hand that assurance was made clear to them,
beyond question. The place of ambush was
found in the town of Groveland and the place
352 WILLlAAl PRYOR LETCHWORTH
of torture near Cuylerville, both spots being in
Livingston County. By subsequent action the
Livingston County Historical Society acquired
title to the Groveland site and erected on it a
plain monument, appropriately inscribed. Un-
fortunately, the other site could not be secured.
Early in the next year a project of sordid
menace to Glen Iris came to light, and the peace
Menace to o^ ^^e Glen's good master and de-
Glen Iris voted lover was tormented by it
thenceforward until his death. Avaricious capi-
tal had planned to exploit the falls of the Gene-
see for electric power, and the legislature, in
the spring of 1898, had before it a bill which
granted the needed authority. Later on there
will be a story to tell of painful experience from
this cause ; for the present we will pass it by.
In the midst of the anxieties which now be-
came ever present in his mind, Mr. Letchworth
could still give thought to the old subjects of
his care, and in the spring of 1898 we find him
contributing his influence to a movement in
Erie County for separating the poorhouse from
the county hospital, and establishing the latter
on a large country farm. In December of that
year he was grieved by the death of Dr. Hoyt,
who had been secretary of the State Board of
WORK FOR THE EPILEPTIC 353
Charities from its organization in 1868, and
with whom he had worked throughout his whole
service in the Board. Soon after this he suffered
an illness which caused some anxiety, but it did
not disable him for the hard work of 1899 on
the " Care and Treatment of Epileptics." How
onerous and trying that work had been may be
inferred from what he wrote to a friend in May,
1 900 : —
My desk is a mass of papers in unutterable con-
fusion. I think I must have at this moment fifty or
more unanswered letters on it, among them several
from Professor Barnard, formerly Commissioner of the
United States Bureau of Education, asking a list of
questions that will take me a week to answer. He
and his daughter press me for replies. . . . What am
I to do ? And how can I go to Topeka [to the National
Conference of Charities and Correction] ? The con-
ference convenes on the 18th inst. and lasts until the
24th. Then there is the convention of medical super-
intendents of institutions for the feeble-minded, to be
held the last of the month at Polk, in western Penn-
sylvania, to which I am urgently invited and which I
would like to attend.
He attended the meeting at Polk, and on
the loth of June, after his return, was able to
write : " Am getting my papers pretty well in
354 WlLLIAiM PRYOR LETCHWORTH
hand." But on the 21st he must be at an im-
portant meeting of the Epileptic Association,
in New York, for which he had preparations to
make.
Later that year, in November, Mr. Letch-
worth was called to Albany, to attend the First
State Conference of Charities and Correction,
as its president, and to make an opening ad-
dress. For the main theme of his address he
reverted to his old urgency of the fundamental
need of a carefully discriminating classification
in all treatment of the dependent and offending
classes, and most carefully in the treatment of
the young. Much had been done in that direc-
tion, as he showed, but the principle must be
carried further, and for reasons economic as well
as humane. He looked to the future with a
robust faith and hope. The address was one of
the wisest counsels he has left. Excepting the
brief address which he made on opening the
First Annual Meeting of the National Asso-
ciation for the Study of Epilepsy, held at
Washington in the next May, it was his last de-
liberate and formal utterance on the subjects
which had occupied his mind during half of his
life.
He attended the second of the State Confer-
WORK FOR THE EPILEPTIC 355
ences, in November, 1 901, and took a little part
in one of the discussions on that occasion, speak-
ing with unwonted bitterness, in de- Bitter de-
nunciation of the county- iail system, nunciation
, • . J.I- of the
as admmistered m his own county county-jail
for the personal profit of the sheriff system
of the county. His remarks were called out by
one of the committee reports presented to the
conference, in the course of the discussion of
which he said : —
Since the building of the old jail in that county
[Wyoming] — I do not know just how many years
ago — fifty, sixty, or seventy years ago — we have
suffered under a grave abuse there. Young men and
lads committed to this jail have been brought, under
the system there, into intimate association with the
most hardened offenders, — those who have been dis-
charged convicts from state prisons, — and these have
the opportunity of teaching them all the vices and the
crimes and the very worst features of criminal life.
Thus, in that county, through these years, we have
been educating lads and young men for the penitenti-
ary, where they have to be supported at the expense
of the state. But a plan for a new jail comes up, and
I was among those interested in getting the jail con-
structed on the principle that is now adopted in Ohio
and Minnesota, whereby there is a complete separ-
ation of the prisoners. A prisoner might come in and
356 WILLIAM PRYOR LETCHWORTH
remain until his term expired and not see another.
Now it would seem as if that was very desirable. It
was practicable. It was shown beyond any question
that the jail part of the prison could be built that way
without any additional expense. And why could not
that be carried ? It was because the sheriff said : '■'■ I
object to that. It affects my income. I can't afford
it. It reduces my income." That was the objection,
stated boldly. And he carried his point.
Now, I felt deeply interested in this. ... I went
before the board of supervisors, myself, and I pleaded.
I asked that I might be humored in the matter, in con-
sideration of my long service to the state. I asked for
that favor to those young men. I tell you, friends, it
was denied me, and it was denied to those young men.
And what was the objection ? No objection but the
influence of that sheriff whose pocket was affected.
There would be a less number of prisoners in the jail
under this system, and so he could not make as much
out of it. This is a great wrong. How are we going
to remedy it ? I would say further, and I say it with
great respect, that an appeal was made to the Prison
Commission of the State ; but the Ohio plan and the
Minnesota plan were set aside, and the jail was so
built that we shall go on for sixty or seventy years
more under a system that ruins young men. It is a
pity.
Excuse me for speaking with so much emphasis ;
but this is something that I know of my own know-
WORK FOR THE EPILEPTIC 357
ledge, and it goes to my heart. How are we going to
save these young men ? How are we going to set aside
this abominable system ? It is feasible, if we choose
to do it, in the smaller counties. I do not speak of the
large jails, such as those of New York and Brooklyn.
I speak of the small jails throughout the country.
Death came once more into Mr. Letch-
worth's family in the summer of 1902, when
his sister Hannah — Mrs. William Howland,
of Sherwood, New York — died. Six months
later, on the 14th of February, 1903, a stealthy
forerunner of the dread angel crept stricken
into the home at Glen Iris and with partial
touched its master with a paralyzing Paralysis
finger, leaving him maimed and weakened for
the remaining seven years of his life. That night
Miss Bishop made this record in her diary of
what had happened : —
After supper this evening Miss McCloud [a cousin
of Mr. Letchworth, who had lived with him and con-
ducted his household since Mrs. Crozer's death], sis-
ter Ellen, and I went to the library, and soon after
Mr. Letchworth came in and asked for a volume of
Tennyson. He wished to look for a quotation in
which occurred the expression " an ancient tale of
wrong." He opened the volume to " Lord Burleigh,"
which I read aloud at his request ; and then Mr.
358 WILLIAM PRYOR LETCHWORTH
Letchworth took the book and began to read "Lady
Clare." He had read but a few words when his speech
grew inarticulate ; a strange expression came over his
face, his head bowed, and his book dropped to the
floor. But while Miss McCloud and I went to sum-
mon assistance, Mr. Letchworth looked up and spoke
naturally to Ellen. This was about 7.15 o'clock. We
assisted him to the couch, when he said something
indistinctly about paralysis, and requested us to look
in a medical book and find out what to do.
Dr. Miller, of Castile, was called at once, and
later in the evening a message was sent to Dr.
Roswell Park, of Buffalo, who arrived Sunday
evening, bringing a nurse.
After three weeks had passed, Miss Bishop,
in a letter to Dr. Stephen Smith, the long-time
colleague of Mr. Letchworth in the State Board
of Charities, gave the following account of the
stricken man's state : —
From the first, Mr. Letchworth's mind has been
active. He is still confined to his bed, except for
brief periods two or three times each day, when he
sits in his easy chair to rest. The entire left side is
somewhat disabled and he has as yet but little use of
his left arm ; but his face is natural. It has been very
difficult to keep him as quiet as the doctors desired,
and, until some of the work which was on hand when
WORK FOR THE EPILEPTIC 359
he was taken ill was cleared away, he could not rest.
Only three days after the stroke he said : " The doctors
say I must not think about my work, but I can no
more help it than I can stop the flow of the Genesee
River. If you will bring a pencil and some paper and
take down a brief dictation my mind will be relieved
and I can rest." The distressed look on his face com-
pelled me to yield to his request. He dictated two
brief letters and soon after fell asleep. Dr. Park says
that it is better sometimes to give him an opportunity
to relieve his overburdened mind than for him to be
so disturbed because his work is not done.
Not long after this was written the invalid
was made happy by an expression to him of the
affection with which he was regarded by the
whole community of Craig Colony, j^^^-^^g,^^^
It came in the form of a beautiful from Craig
loving-cup, to the purchase of which ^°^°^y
nearly a thousand of the patients, attendants,
and officials had contributed, none of the former
being allowed to give more than five cents, while
some had pleasure in giving one. On one of its
faces the cup bore the following inscription : —
Presented to the Honorable William P. Letchworth,
LL.D., by the officers, assistants, employes, and pa-
tients of the Craig Colony for Epileptics, at Sonyea,
Livingston County, New York, in recognition of his
36o WILLIAM PRYOR LETCHWORTH
noble and unselfish devotion to the public charities of
the state, and especially in appreciation of his untiring
zeal in helping to found the Craig Colony, and for his
faithful and continued interest in its welfare. March
10, 1903.
It had been intended to make the presenta-
tion of the cup an occasion of some ceremony
at the colony ; but the givers were profoundly
grateful for so much improvement in Mr. Letch-
worth's condition as permitted it to be done
quietly by Dr. Spratling at Glen Iris.
Late in April Mr. Letchworth was able to
receive a visit from his friend Johnston, who
wrote to him on returning home : " I am en-
Slow and couraged by my visit My hope
imperfect is that you will soon feel much more
recovery comfortable and better. One serious
word in conclusion : God needs no man's work;
yet He has been so good as to allow you these
long years of work for Him and His poor help-
less children. Nor did He prevent you until
your work was well rounded up, and its effect
being felt all over the world. So, sit and think
with joy of the good He has permitted you to
do, and how you have been favored and beloved
by Him and by your fellow men." A little later
the same good counsellor wrote : "What is un-
WORK FOR THE EPILEPTIC 361
done is so little ; what has been done is so much
and so satisfactory ; it would be wrong to worry
over the completed." In such words Mr. John-
ston expressed the general feeling of Mr. Letch-
worth's friends, — that he had nothing of an
incomplete lifework to give him grief.
By the middle of May he was beginning to
be wheeled about the grounds of Glen Iris, and
to be driven out to some of his fields ; but he
was not able, on the 4th of July, to attend the
dedication of the Wyoming County Soldiers'
and Sailors' Monument, at Warsaw, in bringing
about the erection of which he had taken an
actively leading part. A few days later he re-
joiced in the ability to write a short letter with
his own hand. But when November brought to
Buffalo the Fourth State Conference of Chari-
ties and Correction he could not attend it. That
he was in the thought of those present was as-
sured to him by the following expression from
the conference, communicated to him by its
secretary : " That the conference greatly regrets
the absence of the Honorable William Pryor
Letchworth, of Portage, and the fact that his .
absence is caused by illness. Dr. Letchworth
was the first president of the conference, and
his long and distinguished services for the poor
362 WILLIAM PRYOR LETCHWORTH
have won the respect of and greatly endeared
him to the members of this conference, who
desire to place upon its records this testimonial
of their esteem."
During the next two years he was making
slow gains of strength and recovering a limited
use of his limbs; the capabilities of his mind
never having been much impaired. Gradually
he became busied again, not with any new un-
dertakings in the former lines of his public
work, but in some endeavors to enlarge the
fruitfulness of what he had done, as well as in
renewed attention to his private affairs, and in
attempts to reduce his enormous accumulation
of letters and papers to an orderly state. In
September, 1904, he was bereft again in his
home by the death of Miss McCloud, and
thereafter had none of kinship to him in his
household, but was affectionately and thought-
fully cared for, especially by Miss Bishop, who
had been his secretary and confidential assistant
for nearly twenty-two years. He was surrounded,
moreover, as he had been throughout his life,
by the devotion of all who came into his ser-
vice.
In the spring of 1906 the danger to Glen
Iris, — to its safety and its beauty alike, — which
WORK FOR THE EPILEPTIC 363
had been threatening it for several years and
afflicting Mr. Letchworth with grievous anx-
iety, became acute. Its causes and the immedi-
ate results to which it led are now to be told.
CHAPTER IX
THE GIFT OF LETCHWORTH PARK TO THE
STATE OF NEW YORK
It may be that when Mr. Letchworth made his
first purchases at Glen Iris there were undefined
thoughts in his mind of some ultimate dedi-
cation of the beautiful place to a public use.
There is no warrant for such a conjecture, but
the suggestion of it comes reasonably enough
from a general observation of the motives that
ruled his life, and the forethoughtfulness that
went into everything of importance that he did.
All, however, that we can know of the en-
trance of that thought into his intentions is,
that it had grown to a certain matur-
The Wyo- °
ming Bene- ity of purpose within the first ten
volent In- years of his possession of the Glen ;
^'"® for he made it manifest in 1870, by
procuring from the legislature (chapter 479,
Laws of 1870) the passage of an act of incorpo-
ration which provided as follows : —
Section i. John B. Skinner, Edward H. Letch-
worth, Henry R. Howland, George J. Letchworth,
GIFT OF LETCHWORTH PARK 365
and Josiah Letchworth, and their successors, to be
duly appointed as hereinafter specified, are hereby con-
stituted and appointed a body corporate for the pur-
pose of establishing and maintaining in the County of
Wyoming an institution for the support and educa-
tion of indigent young persons.
Section 2. Said corporation shall be called the
Wyoming Benevolent Institute, and under that name
shall have perpetual succession and be capable of
taking and holding, by purchase, gift, grant, devise,
or bequest, any real or personal estate for the purpose
aforesaid.
That the Wyoming Benevolent Institute was
organized with an intention to identify it with
the future of the Glen Iris estate, or with some
important part of that property, is left in no
doubt by the few incidents of its later history.
Nothing that even attempted the fulfilment of
its declared purpose ever came from it; but the
purpose itself, " of establishing and maintaining
in the County of Wyoming an institution for the
support and education of indigent young per-
sons," does not appear to have undergone any
change for many years. Its full realization cannot
have been expected or intended to occur until
after Mr. Letchworth's death, when bequests,
sometimes mentioned in his letters to the trustees.
366 WILLIAM PRYOR LETCHWORTH
would make a provision for the institution which
he could not make during his life. It is doubt-
ful if he ever thought of being able, with his
own means solely, to establish and maintain,
even by bequest, an institution that would be
worthy of the setting which Glen Iris would
give it. Aside from what went into that noble
estate, in purchase money and improvements,
his fortune was certainly not large, and the
drafts on his income during all the years of
his service, officially and personally, to afflicted
humanity, grew heavier as time went on. He
counted on the enlistment of others with him
in a due endowment of the homes and schools
for homeless girls and boys which he would plant
in his lovely valley.
The Wyoming Benevolent Institute is, there-
fore, to be regarded as an instrument of organi-
zation made ready, with wise precaution, in ad-
vance, for employment whenever there should
come to it the legacies provided for its ultimate
work. It may be that Mr. Letchworth contem-
plated originally some small beginnings, under
his own eye, of the "support and education of
indigent young persons," and hoped to see the
institution thus planted and in growth while he
lived; but if we remember that when he organ-
GIFT OF LETCHWORTH PARK 367
ized the Institute he had nothing of the know-
ledge of such undertakings which he began to
acquire soon afterwards, we may easily believe
that the more he learned of the problems in-
volved the more he felt cautioned against haste
in his designs.
Correct or incorrect as our explanations of
the fact may be, there appears to have been no-
thing done by the Wyoming Bene- original
volent Institute between 1870 and plansforthe
1883, when, on the 15th of Octo- Institute
ber, Mr. Letchworth addressed to the trustees
a letter, relating at the outset to some contem-
plated buildings and other improvements, on
property which he had conveyed to the Insti-
tute, and then proceeding as follows : —
In the mean time I desire that a limited work on
behalf of unfortunate children be carried on. There
are so many ways in which this can be done that I do
not wish to bind the trustees to an exact method
which subsequently, under changmg conditions, might
be found inconvenient to carry out. My private idea is,
however, in the main to take healthy and intelligent
children, suitable to family care, who are thrown on
the public for support, either through loss of parents,
destitution, homelessness, or other cause, and to pro-
vide for such a temporary home, preparatory to placing
368 WILLIAM PRYOR LETCHWORTH
them as soon as may be in family homes, in the usual
course. A cherished thought with me is that of giving
temporary support to poor girls while giving them a
thorough training in domestic housekeeping, gradu-
ating them with certificates of competency; also of
giving a like opportunity to poor boys, while making
good gardeners and florists of them. The work for
boys and girls should be separately carried on, — the
one at Glen Iris homestead, perhaps, for girls, and the
other at Prospect Home Farm for boys.
Nothing of an extended character can, of course,
be carried on until there has been an aggregation of
funds affording a yearly handsome income. I have
strong hopes, however, that liberal donations will be
made by the benevolent to carry on the work, as soon
as they see it fairly inaugurated, and that the institu-
tion will soon be placed on an independent footing,
and enabled to carry on its work on a reasonably large
and generous scale. I have given all I have to accom-
plish this. I can do no more.
These hopes were not realized. The Insti-
tute was still, for a long time, to be scarcely
Later sug- niore than a name. Evidently Mr.
gestions Letchworth had not enlisted the co-
operation of others in his undertaking, and his
view of the practicabilities in it had undergone
some modification at last. On the 14th of Sep-
tember, 1900, he wrote again to the trustees.
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GIFT OF LETCHWORTH PARK 369
revoking his letter of October 15, 1883, and
asking that his present writing be substituted
therefor, as an expression of his desires con-
cerning the future use of the bequest he had
made to the Institute. In this letter he said: —
Considering the rare advantages the property pos-
sesses, for affording the opportunity of quick recuper-
ation to delicate children who may be brought here
from crowded cities in the summer, especially during
the heated term, — children who may be benefited by
country air, a change of diet, happy surroundings, — it
has seemed to me that for the present, and perhaps
for some years to come, the greatest good can be dis-
pensed, with the means at hand, by bringing needy
children to Glen Iris from the cities and caring for
them during the summer months. Eventually it may
be found practicable to extend to boys some kind of
industrial training, to include gardening, agriculture,
and instruction in different branches of mechanic arts;
and to girls domestic science and floral culture.
Attempts, inspired by selfish motives, have already
been made, as y nu are aware, to gain control of the
waters of the Genesee River in this locality and, by
placing a dam across the river, to utilize it for the ad-
vancement of mercenary schemes. Should such a pro-
ject or projects ever succeed, the consequences would
be deplorable. A philanthropic enterprise that I have
been laboring for over forty years to place on an en-
370 WILLIAM PRYOR LETCHWORTH
during foundation would be jeopardized if not over-
thrown, and one of the most beautiful and health-
giving resorts in the state would be deprived of its
attractiveness and means of affording happiness. I
entreat you to use every honorable means to defeat
such attempts.
In this letter Mr. Letchworth expressed again
his " hope that liberal gifts will eventually be
made by the benevolent to aid in carrying on
the work of the corporation on a reasonably
large and generous scale," and added : " Should
no outside aid be received, however, I believe
by prudent management the invested fund of
the corporation may be increased from year to
year, and at the same time the charitable work
may be so conducted on a prudent scale that great
good may be dispensed through its instrumen-
tality."
The threatening scheme referred to in this
letter was one which planned the construction
of a dam above the upper fall of the Genesee,
to control the waters for a development of elec-
tric power, and it gave, ere long, an entirely
changed destiny to Glen Iris, setting aside all
prior intentions concerning its future use. For
a few years, however, these last suggestions of
Mr. Letchworth to the trustees of the Institute
GIFT OF LETCHWORTH PARK 371
were carried out. He deeded to them the piece
of property known as " Prospect Home," con-
taining fifty-nine acres of ground, with a com-
fortable house, possession to be given on the
1st of April, 1902. After that time children
from the orphan asylums of Buffalo were in-
vited each summer, in parties of ten at a time,
for a three days' visit to Prospect Home, and
to be entertained on one of those days at the
Glen Iris home. These were outings that gave
great happiness to little people who have scant
shares of real happiness in their early lives.
At about the same time a small, carefully
chosen library of books and current periodicals
was opened, under the auspices of the Wyom-
ing Benevolent Institute, for circulation in the
neighborhood.
These kindly attempts to make some be-
ginning of the benevolent uses of Glen Iris,
which the Institute had been organized to con-
duct, were soon brought to an end, by the
menace which electric science had inspired
in the last decade of last century against all
cascades and cataracts, as exhibitions of an idly
wasted force. For some years prior to the point-
ing of that menace directly at the section of
the Genesee River which traversed Mr. Letch-
372 WILLIAM PRYOR LETCHWORTH
worth's domain, there had been projects of a
storage reservoir on the river for purposes con-
Menacing nected with the Erie Canal. It was
project of suggested in the annual report for
water stor- or. r i • j
age on the 1 089 ot the state engineer and sur-
Genesee veyor on canals that a supply of water
from the Genesee River, imm.ediately available,
by means of such storage, would be of great
value in case of any serious accident to the canal
west of Rochester. On this suggestion the leg-
islature directed the state engineer to investigate
the matter and report. He did so, and his report
for 1890 recommended the construction of a
storage dam at a point a short distance above
Mount Morris. This placed it near the lower
end of the continuous gorge through which the
Genesee runs from the Lower Falls of the Port-
age section to Mount Morris, thus establishing
the storage reservoir within that gorge, entirely
below Glen Iris. In recommending this the
state engineer declared the location to be "pe-
culiarly adapted to the construction of a stable
and safe dam."
In 1892 the legislature, by concurrent reso-
lution, created a commission of three persons
to consider the project and report on it. This
commission reported favorably, approving the
GIFT OF LETCHWORTH PARK 373
Mount Morris site. In his report of the next
year the state engineer renewed his recommend-
ation ; and in 1894 his report was accompanied
by a special report on the subject, by George
W. Rafter, engineer in charge of the water-
storage investigation. This, too, was urgent in
support of the undertaking to establish a storage
of water in the gorge below the Glen Iris falls,
by a dam near Mount Morris. Four possible
locations of the dam had been investigated, all
in the vicinity of Mount Morris, at distances
ranging from one to eight miles ; but one or
the other of the lower two was preferred. Thus
far no other sites had been considered; and the
project was still regarded as a public enterprise
for the state to take in hand, primarily for the
benefit of the Erie Canal, with incidental bene-
fits to the city of Rochester.
In this view the legislature of 1895 passed an
act declared to be " for the construction of a
dam on the Genesee River for the purposes of
the Erie Canal, and for restoring to the owners
of water power on the Genesee River the water
diverted by the state for canal purposes." This
enactment was vetoed by Governor Morton.
In his veto the governor recited the fact that
the bill required the dam to be constructed at
374 WILLIAM PRYOR LETCHWORTH
one of three sites, " all in a gorge in the Gene-
see River near Mount Morris," and admitted
that "if a dam is to be constructed upon the
Genesee River for the purpose of water storage,
this gorge is the most available place." " Civil
engineers and others," he added, "agree that
the opportunities for storing a large quantity of
water at this point are unsurpassed if not un-
equalled." His objections to the measure were
on the ground that the existing condition of
canal business did not justify the heavy expend-
iture involved, and that no provision was made
for any contribution towards that expenditure
by the localities interested. In his view the pro-
ject should wait until the people had voted on
the then pending proposition to deepen the
Erie Canal to nine feet.
But speculative capital was now beginning to
be excited by demonstrations of practical suc-
cess in the conversion of water power into elec-
tric power, and in the transmission of it over
considerable distances for profitable use. The
g. . tapping of the Falls of Niagara for
change in this purpose was in progress, and its
the project grand success was realized in 1896.
This may have brought a change of motive into
the project of water storage in the Genesee,
GIFT OF LETCHWORTH PARK 375
and an access of new ideas into the minds of
the officials who planned for it. They discov-
ered themselves to have been in error when
they recommended the location of the dam at
Mount Morris. They now saw that it should
be placed at Portage, above the Upper Fall.
" Of the several available sites for storage reser-
voirs on the Genesee River," said the state engi-
neer in his report for 1896, "completer surveys
show that the Portage site is preferable to all
others, because of affording the greatest possi-
ble storage at the smallest cost per unit vol-
ume." He omitted to mention the further fact
that the water to be stored would be five hun-
dred feet higher at Portage than at Mount
Morris, and afford a development of much
more power. That was left for casual mention
in the accompanying report of Mr. George W.
Rafter, the engineer in charge of this part of
the state engineer's work.
From Mr. Rafter's report we learn that the
surveys and investigations at Portage were made
without legal authority, and expended an appro-
priation which the legislature had specifically
provided for further surveys at Mount Morris.
"The provision in question," said Mr. Rafter,
"apparently limited the additional investiga-
376 WILLIAM PRYOR LETCHWORTH
tion to the site formerly considered at Mount
Morris. On second thought, however, it ap-
peared clear that this was a technical error
which had no significance." And so, on this
" second thought," the other " second thought,"
of a dam at Portage, was brought forward with
the needed preliminaries of survey and investi-
gation.
The situation was now well prepared for
making the storage of water and water power on
The Gene- ^^^ Genesee River an undertaking
see River of private enterprise, relieving the
Company state of cost and responsibility and
securing an opportunity of profit to the pro-
moters of the enterprise. More than a year
passed, however, before the formal assent of the
state to that treatment of the project was se-
cured. Then, by an act which became law April
29, 1898, a " Genesee River Company " of five
persons, Mr. George W. Rafter being one, was
incorporated, and authorized to build a main
dam or reservoir on the Genesee River near
Portageville. The ostensible purpose, as set
forth in the preamble of the act, was that "of
improving the sanitary condition of the Genesee
Valley, of checking floods in the Genesee River
by producing as far as possible an equable flow
GIFT OF LETCHWORTH PARK 377
therein, of supplying necessary water to the en-
larged Erie Canal, and of furnishing pure and
wholesome water for municipal purposes." No
hint in this of a development of electric power
for industrial employment, as being among the
purposes of the dam. That was secured by sub-
sequent provisions of the act, but as though it
were no more than an incident or accident that
would attend the carrying-out of a public-
spirited undertaking on the part of the people
incorporated for it. The right to accept and
make use of this trifling by-product of its benefi-
cent enterprise was conferred on the Genesee
River Company in these words : —
Said corporation shall have the right to utilize all
the water power incidentally created by the construc-
tion of said main dam or reservoir, and, for the purpose
of such utilization, said corporation may construct,
maintain, and operate in and upon the Genesee River
and its tributaries within one mile of the mouth of
each of such tributaries and along the line thereof, at
any and all points below the location of the aforesaid
main dam or reservoir, all necessary power dams,
subsidiary reservoirs, sluices, gates, trunks, irrigation
canals and distributaries, hydraulic pov/er raceways,
and all other necessary appliances for the purpose of
utilizing the water and water power of said river for
378 WILLIAM PRYOR LETCHWORTH
the development of hydraulic and electrical power,
and for the purpose of making and transmitting com-
pressed air, and for other purposes.
By the terms of the act they were required to
begin, "actually and in good faith," "the work
of constructing the said main dam
Expiration . i /^ t~. •
and re- °^ reservoir on the Genesee River
vival of near Portage," " within five years
charter ^^^^^ ^^^ passage of this Act," and to
expend on such work at least ten per centum of
the minimum ($3,000,000) of capital stock au-
thorized by the act ; in default of w-hich work and
expenditure within that period "the said cor-
poration," it was declared, "shall be dissolved."
The legislature, in its grant of rights and powers
to these incorporators, had spared nothing that
could help to make their franchise highly valu-
able and attractive to enterprising capitalists.
They could take property, even of cemeteries,
by condemnation. They could acquire property
belonging to the state or other authorities ; they
could use public streets and highways ; they
could fix their own charges for power, light, etc.,
and, as shown above, there was seemingly no-
thing that they could not do in and along the
shores of the Genesee River. And yet, with
such a franchise, they were not able to raise
GIFT OF LETCHWORTH PARK 379
^300,000 for expenditure on their project within
five years. That period expired on the 29th of
April, 1 903, and with it the charter of the Gene-
see River Company expired.
For some time after this occurrence Mr.
Letchworth, and all lovers of that paradise of
the Genesee over which he held wardenship,
had relief from immediate anxieties. But in the
winter of 1906 the supposedly dead Genesee
River Company reappeared before the legisla-
ture, asserting itself to be still in life, inasmuch
as the provisional mandate of dissolution in the
Act of 1898 had never been enforced against it
by any official authority, and asking for legis-
lation to so amend the Act of 1898 as should
extend to five years from July i, 1906, the time
allowed for beginning the construction of the
Portage dam or reservoir. Despite strong oppo-
sition the legislature listened favorably to this
remarkable proposition, and passed the desired
amendatory act, reviving the dangerous fran-
chise of the Genesee River Company, unless
the courts should declare that the legislature
had no power to breathe life into a corpora-
tion which it had commanded to die on a given
day.
Mr. Letchworth now despaired of saving his
380 WILLIAM PRYOR LETCHWORTH
wonderful part of the river and its enclosing
valley from vandal seizure for industrial ex-
Glen Iris to Floatation, by any other means than
be given to that of making it the property of the
the state state. Having long been ready —
perhaps ready from the beginning of his owner-
ship — to give it to a public use, he was quite
prepared, in existing circumstances, to make the
gift direct to the State of New York. Besides
the hope of thus securing the beauty of his
place from spoliation, there were other incidents
of the situation which moved him to the same
resolve. He indicated them to his nephew, Mr.
Ogden P. Letchworth, president of the board
of trustees of the Wyoming Benevolent Insti-
tute, in a letter bearing date September 20,
1906, when he wrote : —
It has doubtless become patent to you, as it has to
me, that the carrying-out of the original purposes of
the Wyoming Benevolent Institute is now utterly im-
practicable. Not only has the capital that I intended
for this work become so lessened as to greatly reduce
my income, but the expenses of carrying on the work
here are greatly increased, through the necessity of
paying larger wages and the employing of a larger num-
ber of men to do the same amount of work. It is a
large property, and the repairs on everything perish-
GIFT OF LETCH WORTH PARK 381
able are constant and very great. ... As I cannot
carry out my first intention, it now appears to me that
greater good will come to mankind from the devoting
of my property here to a public park, embracing some
educational features, than from any other disposition
of it.
Before deciding finally to make the proffer
of his superb domain to the state he studied
how best to secure for it a faithful caretaking in
future years. In doing this he became attentive
to the mission and work of the Amer-
ican Scenic and Historic Preserva- tion with
tion Society, founded by Andrew H. American
Green, the father of New York City's HiXrk"
Central Park, and incorporated in Preserva-
1895. What the society had done in *^°° ^°"^*y
defending Niagara Falls and in saving the Pali-
sades of the Hudson, Watkins Glen, etc., gave
him confidence in the efficient public spirit and
influence embodied in it, and in 1906 besought
the advice of its trustees. The results of the
consultation are told in the Twelfth Annual Re-
port of the Society, as follows: —
Upon his invitation the trustees appointed from
among their number the following committee to con-
fer with him and cooperate in carrying out his benevo-
lent purposes : George Frederick Kunz, Ph.D., of
382 WILLIAM PRYOR LETCHWORTH
New York, the mineralogist and gem expert, and
president of the society ; Professor L. H. Bailey, of
Ithaca, head of the College of Agriculture of Cornell
University ; the Honorable Charles M. Dow, of
Jamestown, New York, President of the Commis-
sioners of the State Reservation at Niagara ; Mr.
Francis Whiting Halsey, of New York, the well-
known writer on Indian subjects and literary adviser
to Funk & Wagnalls, publishers ; the Honorable
Thomas P. Kingsford, of Oswego, a commissioner of
the state reservation at Niagara; Henry M. Leip-
ziger, Ph.D., educator and supervisor of lectures of
the Board of Education of the City of New York ;
the Honorable N. Taylor Phillips, deputy comptroller
of the City of New York, and trustee of many phil-
anthropic organizations ; Colonel Henry W. Sackett,
of New York, a trustee of Cornell University and
counsellor to many public bodies ; and the writer of
this paper [Edward Hagaman Hall, Secretary of the
society] .
After several conferences with these gentlemen,
Mr. Letchworth concluded to give the title to his
property to the State of New York, with the proviso
that he should retain a life use and tenancy, with the
right further to improve the property, and that upon
his death the American Scenic and Historic Preserva-
tion Society should have the control and management.
Having resolved upon this course, he asked the com-
mittee to communicate his purpose to the Honorable
GIFT OF LETCHWORTH PARK 383
Charles E, Hughes, governor-elect, and to ask him,
if he approved, to transmit the offer formally to the
legislature.
On December 14, 1906, the committee called
upon the governor-elect. After listening to their
mission, Mr. Hughes expressed his high appreciation
of the generosity and public spirit of Mr. Letchworth
and said : " In the midst of so many calls from people
who are asking for something from the state, it is a
novel and delightful sensation to have some one offer
to give something to the state. This is certainly a
most generous benefaction." Governor Hughes com-
municated the tender to the legislature in his inaugural
message to that body, January 2, 1907, in the follow-
ing words : " It is my privilege to lay before you the
public-spirited proposal of the Honorable William
Pryor Letchworth to convey to the people of the State
of New York one thousand acres of land, approxi-
mately, situated in the town of Genesee Falls, Wyo-
ming County, and the town of Portage, Livingston
County, upon which Mr. Letchworth now resides.
He desires to dedicate the land to the purposes of a
public park or reservation, subject to his life use and
tenancy and his right to make changes and improve-
ments thereon. If it is your pleasure to provide for
the acceptance of the gift, the state will thus obtain
title to a tract of rare beauty, the preservation of which
for the purposes of a public park cannot fail to con-
tribute to the advantage and enjoyment of the people."
384 WILLIAM PRYOR LETCHWORTH
Within little more than a fortnight after
the reception of this message the assembly had
passed a bill to accept title to the lands
Acceptance ^ , '^
of the gift proposed to be given, on the terms
by the state ^^^ conditions stated in the deed,
" namely, that the land therein conveyed shall
be forever dedicated to the purpose of a public
park or reservation, subject only to the life use
and tenancy of said William Pryor Letchworth,
who shall have the right to make changes and
improvements thereon." The bill provided
further : " All lands described in and covered
by said deed of William Pryor Letchworth
shall be deemed to be in the actual possession
of the comptroller of this state, subject to such
life use and tenancy of said grantor. After the
death of the grantor the American Scenic and
Historic Preservation Society shall have con-
trol and jurisdiction thereof for the purposes
stated, unless the supreme court shall deter-
mine otherwise for good cause shown upon ap-
plication of the comptroller, or some other duly
authorized official of the state."
In the senate some opposition to the accept-
ance of the gift was developed, and it prevailed
on the senate finance committee to report an
amended bill, omitting the clause giving cus-
GIFT OF LETCHWORTH PARK 385
tody and control of the property, after Mr.
Letchworth's death, to the American Scenic and
Historic Preservation Society. In the course
of the debate which ensued the following tele-
gram from Mr. Letchworth to the chairman of
the finance committee was read : —
Mr. Letchworth respectfully requests your honor-
able committee to report its approval of the bill as
passed by the assembly to accept his deed now in the
hands of Governor Hughes, and to withdraw the
amended bill now before the senate striking out the
Scenic Society, because, to expend a large amount in
changes and improvements contemplated by him re-
quires that his plans be known, and he has made them
known to the Scenic Society, who approve and will be
in a position to carry them out with funds provided by
him if the state shall not disapprove and the bill
passed by the assembly shall become a law.
With all due respect, Mr. Letchworth cannot ac-
cept your amended bill, but must regard a vote for it
as a vote not to accept his gift, which he thinks should
be accepted upon the reasonable conditions he states,
if the gift is otherwise acceptable, his main reason
being that if the state could afford to buy and pay for
Watkins Glen last year and make the Scenic Society
the permanent custodian thereof, it can afford to ac-
cept Mr. Letchworth's gift now of much more valu-
able scenic and historic value, and make the Scenic
386 WILLIAM PRYOR LETCHWORTH
Society the temporary custodian thereof, to complete
Mr. Letchworth's work with his funds, the state ob-
taining absolute title to the property and the right to
permanently occupy and control it.
On this the opposition gave way, and the
bill as passed by the assembly, reported now
favorably by the finance committee, was passed
by the senate, — forty ayes to four nays. It was
the first act signed by Governor Hughes, and
on signing it, January 24, 1907, he filed with
it the following memorandum: —
This bill provides for the acceptance of a deed of
gift made by William Pryor Letchworth to the people
of the State of New York, conveying lands of about
one thousand acres in extent, situate in the town of
Genesee Falls, Wyoming County, and the town of
Portage, Livingston County. The deed is made upon
the condition that the lands shall be forever dedicated
to the purpose of a public park or reservation, subject
only to the life use and tenancy of Mr. Letchworth,
who shall have the right to make changes and improve-
ments thereon.
This gift to the people is an act of generosity which
fitly crowns a life of conspicuous public usefulness,
and entitles the donor to the lasting regard of his
fellow citizens. The people of the state cannot fail to
realize the advantages which will accrue from their
acquisition of this beautiful tract and by means of its
GIFT OF LETCHWORTH PARK 387
perpetual dedication to the purpose of a public park or
reservation. Charles E. Hughes.
A few days later, January 28, the Governor
sent a copy of the act to Mr. Letchworth, with
the following note: —
It gives me pleasure to state that an act has been
passed, of which I enclose a copy, providing for the
acceptance of the deed of gift executed by you under
date of the 31st of December, 1906, to the people of
the State of New York, conveying to them certain
lands, approximately one thousand acres in extent, in
the town of Genesee Falls, Wyoming County, and the
town of Portage, Livingston County, upon condition
that they shall be forever dedicated to the purpose of
a public park or reservation, subject only to your life
use and tenancy and your right to make changes and
improvements thereon. I also enclose a copy of the
memorandum filed by me upon the approval of the bill.
In accordance with your request I have delivered to
the comptroller of the state the deed executed by you,
together with the affidavit and other documents, which
you placed in my hands.
Permit me again to express my appreciation of
your generous and public-spirited gift and of the last-
ing benefits which will thereby accrue to the people of
the state. I remain, with respect.
Very truly yours,
(Signed) Charles E. Hughes.
388 WILLIAM PRYOR LETCHWORTH
On the day on which the bill became a law
Mr. Letchworth made this public acknowledg-
ment : —
To my friends, especially those of the press, who
have sympathized in the measure to secure to the
people for all time a public park at Portage, I desire to
convey my cordial thanks for their warm interest and
potent influence. In the development of a higher civil-
ization, let us continue our efforts to preserve for the
enjoyment and elevation of mankind those places in
our land possessing rare natural beauty, the charms
of which, once destroyed, can never be restored.
Very respectfully,
William Pryor Letchworth.
By concurrent resolution of the senate, Feb-
ruary 4, and of the assembly, February 5, it
was declared that the lands conveyed to the
Ti, ^T., state bv Mr. Letchworth, for use
state reser- as a park or reservation, should here-
vation ^^j.gj. ^^ known as "Letchworth
named , ,
"Letchworth Park, "to commemorate the hu-
Park" mane and noble work in private and
public charities to which his life has been de-
voted, and in recognition of his eminent serv-
ices to the people of this state." On receiving a
certified copy of this resolution, Mr. Letch-
worth expressed to the presiding officers of the
GIFT OF LETCHWORTH PARK 389
two chambers of the legislature his "grateful
appreciation of the distinguished honor."
At an early stage of the proceedings which
thus transferred the entire Glen Iris property to
the possession of the state, for perpetual use as
a public park (named Letchworth Park by
legislative resolution), but under the control
and jurisdiction of the American Scenic and
Historic Preservation Society, Mr. Letchworth
had addressed a communication (December 15,
1906) to the trustees of the Wyoming Benevo-
lent Institute, announcing the conclusion to
which he had come, and submitting to them a
request for the conveyance to him of "the real
estate belonging to the Wyoming Benevolent
Institute which is surrounded by and was for-
merly a portion of the Glen Iris estate, and
thereby make possible the transfer of the entire
property to the state intact." He added as fur-
ther suggestions that the treasurer of the Insti-
tute be authorized to pay over to him certain
funds in the treasury, to be applied by him to
the perfecting and carrying-out of improvements
and developments of the property, and that the
small library of the Institute be transferred to
the Cordelia A. Greene Memorial Library, at
Castile, New York.
390 WILLIAM PRYOR LETCHWORTH
Action in accordance with these requests and
suggestions was taken by the trustees at their an-
nual meeting, December i8, 1906.
General recognition of the importance, the
value, the generosity of the gift of Letchworth
Importance Park to the public was manifested,
of the gift not only throughout the State of
New York, but widely in the country at large, by
the comments of the press, and by letters to
Mr. Letchworth from others than personal
friends. Of its kind it is doubtless the most
notable gift that a citizen of this country has
ever made to the public of his state. Its value
and importance are not measured by the area
of the estate conveyed, but by the fact that one
of the most remarkable exhibits of rare scenery
in America was contained wholly in that area.
The American people hold many such beauty-
spots of the continent in public possession ; but
what other, of equal distinction, has become
public property by a gratuitous surrender of
private rights ?
The distinction, moreover, of this tract of
valley and river is not alone in its varied pic-
turesqueness, but also in its geological signifi-
cance. As long ago as 1 837 it gave its name to the
group of rocks which have a singularly instruct-
Map of
LETCHWORTH PARK
GIVEN TO THE PEOPLE OF THE
STATE OF NEW YORK
- BY-
WILLIAM PRYOR LETCHWORTH
DECEMBER, 1906
GIFT OF LETCHWORTH PARK 391
ive exposure in the gorge of the Portage Falls.
In geological nomenclature this series of rocks,
traceable from Cayuga Lake westward into
Ohio, bears the name of the Portage Group,
given to it by Professor James Hall. The ex-
ceptional character of the rock exposure in
Letchworth Park is described as follows, in the
inscription prepared in 1908 for a tablet to be
erected in the park by a number of geologists to
the memory of Professor Hall : —
This gorge, embracing the three Portage Falls, ex-
hibits the typical expression of Hall's Portage Group,
whose rocks carry an assemblage of organic remains
more widely diffused throughout the world than that
of any other geological formation.
The whole geological history of this section
of the Genesee Valley has been found to be un-
commonly interesting, and has been studied
with care by Dr. John M. Clarke, state geolo-
gist of New York, Dr. A. W. Grabau, Professor
of Palaeontology at Columbia University, and
others. Professor Grabau discussed it in an ad-
dress descriptive of the interesting features of
Letchworth Park, at a meeting of the section
of Geology and Mineralogy of the New York
Academy of Sciences, March 4, 1907. It has
392 WILLIAM PRYOR LETCHWORTH
been treated more fully by Professor H. L. Fair-
child, of Rochester University, in a paper on
" Glacial Genesee Lakes," published in volume
VII of the Bulletin of the Geological Society of
America. A synopsis of this geological history,
prepared by Mr. Edward Hagaman Hall, secre-
tary of the American Scenic and Historic Pre-
servation Society, is presented in the Twelfth
Annual Report of that Society, as the third
chapter of Appendix B. It is touched upon,
also, in Appendix C of the same report, wherein
the general " Educational Possibilities of Letch-
worth Park," as bearing on art, geology, botany,
bird life, Indian history and archaeology, and
model farming, are discussed by Dr. George
Frederick Kunz, president of the American
Scenic and Historic Preservation Society.
This, the scientific view of Mr. Letchworth's
gift to the state, led the New York Academy
of Sciences, at a meeting on the 4th of Febru-
ary, 1907, to express its estimate of the im-
portance of the gift in the following preamble
and resolutions : —
Whereas, The New York Academy of Sciences
has learned of the generous gift to the State of New
York of a public park known as Glen Iris, at Portage,
by Mr. William Pryor Letchworth, and its accept-
GIFT OF LETCHWORTH PARK 393
ance by the state legislature, under the condition
prescribed by Mr. Letchworth, that this beautiful re-
servation be placed in charge of the American Scenic
and Historic Preservation Society :
Resolved^ That the Academy of Sciences expresses
its recognition of the value to science of this reserva-
tion, which, in addition to its exceptional interest from
the point of view of scenery, botany, and glacial geol-
ogy, contains an important part of the standard section
of the Upper Devonic formations of North America ;
Resolved^ That the Academy hereby expresses its
sincere appreciation of this gift, which will give pleas-
ure and be of important educational value for all time
to the people of the State of New York and to visitors
from other states and countries ; and
R.esolved^ That the thanks of the New York Acad-
emy of Sciences be and hereby are tendered to the
distinguished and public-spirited donor.
By passing into the possession of the state,
Letchworth Park had not escaped from the be-
sieging commercialism which covets the "power
going to waste " in mere production of the
beauty of a waterfall. Practically it seems to
have been made safe as against the Genesee
River Company, since the doubtfully revivified
charter of that company was allowed again to
expire, on the ist of July, 191 1, with no attempt
to test its validity. But the authority of the New
394 WILLIAM PRYOR LETCHWORTH
York State Water Supply Commission was now
invoked, in an effort to have the storage of water
in the Genesee above Letchworth
of water Park undertaken by the state itself,
storage In 1908 the legislature directed
projec ^j^^ State Water Supply Commission
to make the necessary surveys and maps and
" to determine whether the flow of the river
should be regulated under the river improve-
ment act," which had been passed in 1904.
Then, in September, 1908, the Board of Su-
pervisors of the County of Monroe filed with
the commission a petition for such a regulation
of the flow of the Genesee.
In anticipation of this new attack the Scenic
and Historic Preservation Societv, which the
state, by contract with Mr. Letchworth, had
invested with the custody and care of Letch-
, worth Park, had already made haste
Defence of .
the park by to its defence. In January, 1908, it
its custo- had addressed to the Water Supply
dians r^ • • 11 j
Commission an ably prepared memo-
rial, asking it to " disapprove of any plan for
constructing a dam and storage reservoir on the
Genesee River near Portage," setting forth the
considerations that bear heavily against such
plans, — such, in the main, as these: That any
GIFT OF LETCHWORTH PARK 395
impairment of the beauty of Letchworth Park,
reclaimed, as it liad been by Mr. Letchworth,
from disfigurement and restored to its natural
charm, during forty-eight years of labor and
care and at a cost of about half a million dol-
lars, would be a violation of the trust which the
state has accepted ; that the diversion of water
from the Portage Falls would be no less a breach
of faith ; that the regulation of the stream for
all purposes of public health and safety can be
fully accomplished by the location of a dam as
originally recommended, near Mount Morris ;
that Lord Kelvin, the highest authority on the
subject, after examining the conditions on the
Genesee, in 1902, with reference to the devel-
opment of electric power, had condemned the
plan of a dam at Portage, as dangerous and
unnecessary, and declared the proper method
to be by means of small dams at successive
points ; that geological investigation has shown
the menace of a storage dam to be especially
great at Portage, because of the existence of
dangerous deposits of quicksand, underlying
the site of the proposed dam ; that Mr. Letch-
worth's experience with landslides in that vicin-
ity gives warnings which it would be madness
to disregard ; that the large lake to be thus
396 WILLIAM PRYOR LETCHWORTH ^
formed could not be of uniform level, but would
be so drawn down in the summer season as to
lay bare a number of square miles of the slime
and drainage deposits which collect at the bot-
tom of such bodies of still water, creating a
culture-bed of noxious germs.
On the Monroe County petition there were
hearings before the State Water Supply Com-
mission, in Rochester, on the 2d, 3d, 15th and
1 6th of February and the 2d and 3d of March,
191 1, at which many interested parties were
present, personally or by representatives, and
the questions involved were very fully discussed.
Mr. Adelbert Moot, of Buffalo, appeared as
counsel for the American Scenic and Historic
Preservation Society, and for a number of per-
sons joined with it in opposition to the grant-
ing of the petition. The argument submitted
by Mr. Moot was principally a legal one, based
on the contention that the state is placed under
the obligations of a contract by its acceptance
of Mr. Letchworth's gift of his estate, subject
to the condition that the land thus conveyed '
" shall be forever dedicated to the purpose of a
public park or reservation " ; that the use of any
part of it for another purpose, or a use which
impairs its value as a public park, would be in
GIFT OF LETCH WORTH PARK 397
violation of that clause of the Constitution of
the United States which forbids to the states
the enactment of laws impairing the obligations
of contracts ; that a dam for the storage of water
above the Portage Falls can be built nowhere
outside of lands covered, on both sides of the
Genesee River, by Mr. Letchworth's deed of
conveyance to the state ; that the attempt to
construct such a dam may be arrested by the
injunction of a federal court, or, if permitted,
may deprive the state of its title to Letchworth
Park, and pass it to Mr. Letchworth's natural
heirs. Mr. Moot, furthermore, drew attention
to evidence of an existing monopoly in the con-
trol of electric power at Rochester, alike from
sources on the Genesee and at Niagara Falls,
so dominating the situation that further devel-
opments of power must inevitably pass under
its control. He traced, in fact, the whole pro-
ject of water storage on the Genesee to that
origin of motive and aim.
The decision of the State Water Supply Com-
mission was rendered on the i6th of June, 191 1,
by three of its members, against two. Success of
denying the application of the Board the defence
of Supervisors of Monroe County. In an ex-
tended review of the evidence and arguments
398 WILLIAM PRYOR LETCHWORTH
submitted, the commissioners recognized the
importance of the legal questions raised, but
did not attempt to pass judgment on them, rest-
ing their decision on grounds more practical and
more within their purview. This appears in the
closing paragraph of their decision, which reads
as follows : " On account of the impracticability
of regulating the flow of the Genesee River and
making the assessments for the cost thereof
under the river improvement act, and the wider
objection that an attempt to conserve the water
powers of the state under such narrow limits
will impede the greater movement in behalf of
a general systematic development of such power
for the genera] welfare, this application is de-
nied.
So far as concerned any supposable survival
of rights in the Genesee River Company which
could still be a menace to Letchworth Park,
they were extinguished five months later, on
the nth of November, 191 1, when, on appli-
cation of the attorney-general of the state. Jus-
tice Chester, of the supreme court, decreed the
forfeiture and annulment of that company's
charter.
Two years before his death, on the loth of
November, 1908, Mr. Letchworth addressed a
GIFT OF LETCHWORTH PARK 399
letter to the American Scenic and Historic Pre-
servation Society, setting forth the plans he
had formed for the further improvement of the
Letchworth Park estate, and which the Society
had expressed a wish to follow. Since his death
much has been done, generally on the lines in-
dicated in his plans, to open the park in a
larger way to public use by walks and drives,
and in preparation, also, for more extensive
plans. The chairman of the Letchworth Park
Committee of the Board of Trustees of the
American Scenic and Historic Preservation
Society, the Honorable Charles M. Dow, of
Jamestown, New York, who is also, by ap-
pointment of the society, the director of Letch-
worth Park, has organized and conducted this
work, and gives much time and thought to the
special duties accepted by him. Miss Caroline
Bishop, formerly Mr. Letchworth's secretary,
is the resident superintendent of the park.
Convenience in visiting the park has been
improved greatly by a recent arrangement with
the Erie Railway Company, which is to estab-
lish a station at the west end of the bridge
where all trains will stop when flagged, and
where suitable platforms and shelter will be
provided.
400 WILLIAM PRYOR LETCHWORTH
A superb design for the future enrichment
in interest and value of this rare tract of land
The pro- devotes it mainly to the creation of
jected arbo- a great arboretum, which will hardly
return ^^ surpassed in the world. The pro-
ject, fully adopted by the trustees of the custo-
dial society and already entered upon, has been
set forth interestingly by Mr. Dow, in an ar-
ticle contributed to the American Review of Re-
views and published in its February issue, 1912.
The following is quoted from the article by
permission of Mr. Dow: —
The American Scenic and Historic Preservation
Society has now under way and will soon establish a
great forest arboretum at Letchworth Park. It will
be a collection of the valuable timber trees of the
world and will be the first of its kind, and its contri-
bution to the cause of forest conservation in the
United States will be of great economic and scientific
value. Those who visit Letchworth Park after its ar-
boretum has been established will see, planted singly
and in groups, specimens of every important tree spe-
cies with which experiment under local conditions of
soil and climate is justified by a reasonable promise
of success. Visitors thus will have ample opportun-
ity to study the value of trees of many kinds for or-
namental planting and for landscape purposes. But
the object lesson of enormous economic significance.
GIFT OF LETCHWORTH PARK 401
which will lie spread before their eyes, will be blocks
of planted forest, in each of which will be set out one
or more important commercial kinds of trees. In each
of these blocks, irregular in form, each an acre or
more in area, and set out with due regard for land-
scape and color effects, planting will be so close as
rapidly to establish forest conditions, so that Letch-
worth Park will contain in miniature a forest of a
richness and variety which can be witnessed nowhere
else on the globe. When this experiment is com-
pleted the visitor can pass over winding forest paths,
through forest growths in which will mingle the val-
uable commercial trees of the South, of the far West,
of Europe, and from little known quarters of the
world, which find at Letchworth Park the climate and
soil suited to their needs. . . .
The principle upon which the Letchworth Arbore-
tum is established is that it shall consist of a perma-
nent collection of the various species of the world's
timber trees likely to thrive in this northern climate,
planted scientifically, to test their value and illustrate
the processes of development, so supplying not only
knowledge for knowledge's sake, but also knowledge
for practical use.
It is intended that the value to the state and the
nation of the arboretum will not consist merely in a
demonstration, clear to every eye, of the results which
may be expected from forest plantations of many dif-
ferent kinds of trees. The possibilities of the arbore-
402 WILLIAM PRYOR LETCHWORTH
turn for extending exact knowledge of tree growth
will also be fully developed. In each of these minia-
ture forests systematic and skilled observations and
records will be made. The growth of the trees will
be measured periodically, their liability to disease will
be noted, and their capacity for seed-bearing ; their
behavior in pure stands and in mixture, their influence
upon the forest floor, and other practical considera-
tions bearing upon their value for commercial tree-
planting, will be carefully observed and recorded. By
this means the Letchworth Park Arboretum will aid
materially in laying an exact scientific basis for the
successful extension of practical forestry in the United
States. Every practical step will be taken, not only
to insure results of the highest scientific value from
forest work at Letchworth Park, but also to develop
its usefulness as an object lesson to all park visitors.
Circulars describing in plain and definite language the
experiments in forestry being carried on will be made
available for distribution, while labels and placards
will facilitate the identification of trees in the arbore-
tum.
The function of the arboretum, therefore, is obvi-
ous. In one sense it is a living museum; in another
it is a laboratory ; but it is both, out of doors, on a
large scale, and the discovery or demonstration of a
fact there, within a small area, is a benefit to the
whole of mankind.
The part of the park which will be devoted to the
GIFT OF LETCHWORTH PARK 403
arboretum consists of about five hundred acres, for-
merly used for agricultural purposes, being well-
drained, cultivated, open meadows and fields on vari-
ous levels, bordered by either planted or natural
regenerated forests. In the already existing forests
demonstrations of economic planting in open spaces
will be made, and varieties of wild flowers will be
sown.
In addition to the topographical conditions, the at-
mospheric conditions at Letchworth Park are unusu-
ally favorable for an arboretum, and it is more favor-
ably located in this respect than the gardens near
large cities, which are affected by the city smoke and
vapors. . . . The nearest large cities to Letchworth
Park are Buffalo and Rochester, each about sixty
miles away, and Hornell, twenty miles to the south,
and the atmospheric conditions are ideal. The eleva-
tion above the sea level is about thirteen hundred feet.
Incident to the arboretum will be constructed a
fireproof museum, library, and educational building,
equipped with a practical working forest library and
planned for a later and larger development. . . .
The Society has been fortunate in attracting the
interest of Overton W. Price, of Washington, D.C.,
vice-president of the National Conservation Associa-
tion, who has been entrusted with the establishment
of the arboretum. Mr. Price is one of the best-known
living foresters. He is a graduate of the Forest School
at Munich, Bavaria, and his training in forestry was
404 WILLIAM PRYOR LETCHWORTH
acquired both by study in this country and by nearly
three years' work abroad, under the direction of the
late Sir Dietrich Brandis, former Inspector-General
of the Forests of India. Mr. Price was for ten years
Associate Forester of the United States, and has been
a great factor in the conservation movement. Mr.
GifFord Pinchot, former Chief Forester, has expressed
his deep interest in the Letchworth Park Arboretum
and his willingness to aid in developing its fullest ca-
pacity for public usefulness.
The Committee of the American Scenic and
Historic Preservation Society which has charge
of the property and of the operations of the
Society in connection with it, is composed of
eleven gentlemen from various parts of the
state, under the chairmanship of Honorable
Charles M. Dow. It includes Professor L. H.
Bailey, Dean of the Agricultural College of
Cornell University. The president of the So-
ciety is George F. Kunz, Ph.D., Sc.D., New
York City.
CHAPTER X
LETCHWORTH VILLAGE LAST YEARS
In his weakened state Mr. Letchworth was
much disturbed and distressed throughout the
year 1906, by the menace to Glen Iris of the
Portage Dam project and his anxious study of
means for its protection and preservation. In
March his secretary, Miss Bishop, wrote to
Mr. Johnston : " Mr. Letchworth certainly has
not gained in strength this winter, and in some
ways he seems to me more feeble. He has not
taken his rides as regularly this winter as last,
and often it is an effort for him to rise from his
chair or the couch without assistance. Still, he
is as ambitious as ever." A little later she re-
ported : " He seems to be improving some. He
does good work yet, but it takes a long time
to accomplish it. His correspondence has been
large of late, and sometimes he says that the
friends will have to excuse him from writ-
ing.
On the nth of May, after the passage of
the Genesee River Company Bill, he, himself.
406 WILLIAM PRYOR LETCHWORTH
wrote to the same correspondent: "The scheme
for destroying the beautiful scenery here was
passed through the legislature with only three
dissenting votes. It was done by what must be
regarded as very dishonorable means. I am
sure the members of the legislature did not
know what they were doing. . . . How it was
done matters not now. The deed is done and
only awaits the governor's approval to become
the law of the land. ... If he signs the bill it
will be my death-warrant, and I shall May me
down and die.' Glen Iris will only remain a
• Bright summer dream of white cascade.
Of lake and wood and river.' "
After his conferences with the American Sce-
nic and Historic Preservation Society, and the
determination of his purpose to offer the Glen
Iris property to the state for use as a public
park, subject to the condition that it should be
under the control and jurisdiction of that so-
ciety, his mind was greatly eased. The last
weeks of the year were spent by him in Buffalo,
for convenience in transacting the business in-
cident to his conveyance of the property, and
the deed of conveyance was signed on the last
day of the year.
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LAST YEARS 407
The ensuing two years appear to have been
quite uneventful at the Glen, except in the pro-
gress of the active work of improve- j^,., Letch-
ment in the park which Mr. Letch- worth's
worth had permission to continue ?°° *°"®
r _ improve-
to the end of his Hfe. Some of this ment of the
work, done in 1907, is thus described ^"^
in the report of the American Scenic and His-
toric Preservation Society for that year: —
The generous motives which inspired this gift to
the people of the state have found continued expres-
sion during the past year in the making of the follow-
ing improvements : The roads, woodland drives, paths,
and stairways have been put in order. . . . Luncheon
tables and benches have been provided in pleasant
nooks for basket picnic parties. A stairway with fre-
quent landings has been constructed on the left bank
of the river by the Upper Fall. A bridge with masonry
abutments has been built near the Cascade. A sub-
stantial gallery has been constructed along the face of
the cliff opposite the Upper Fall. ... A broad walk
has been made along the high bank of the gorge be-
tween the Middle and the Lower Falls. . . . The pic-
nic grounds at the Lower Falls have been improved
by the erection of a substantial shelter or pavilion for
refuge in case of storm. . . . The grove, picnic ground
and playgrounds on the bluff overlooking the Glen
Iris residence grounds have been developed, etc.
4o8 WILLIAM PRYOR LETCHWORTH
Mr. Letchworth was able to give more or less
of personal supervision to this work, and he as-
sisted the secretary of the American Scenic and
Historic Preservation Society in preparing a new
map of the park, laying out on it the lines of pro-
jected new drives and of certain areas designed
for reforestation. He was still tasked much too
heavily by an extensive correspondence and by
the urgency of his desire to reduce an accumu-
lated mass of letters and other papers to order.
We may say, indeed, that he escaped from
servitude to these tasks only by his death.
The last occasion on which a public audience
had the privilege of listening to any words from
him was that of the dedication of the new
Home of the Children's Aid Society of Buf-
falo, February lo, 1908. He had been one of
the founders of the society and one of the chief
pillars of its support. It grieved him that he
could not be present at the dedication, and he
wrote to express his feeling.
In the work of that year on the park grounds
a serious landslide had to be dealt with, on the
left bank of the river west of the Upper Fall.
"At this point," says the report of the Ameri-
can Scenic and Historic Preservation Society,
" at right angles to the present course of the
LAST YEARS 409
Genesee River, geologists recognize a pregla-
cial drift-filled gorge. Out of the soft and
unstable material which fills this gorge the
Degewanus Brook has excavated a ravine. . . .
After a heavy rainfall the high sloping banks
of this ravine began to settle. On one side the
mass movement was so great as to destroy
trees." And the movement of unstable soil
went on through the year and into the next
spring. As remarked in the Society's report,
"This landslide has an important bearing on
the safety of the proposed dam and storage res-
ervoir at Portage, as the unstable soil involved
in this slide is of the same character as the drift
deposits on the right bank of the river, upon
which the projectors of the Portage dam rely
to hold back the waters of an enormous artifi-
cial lake."
A visit of Governor Hughes to the park in
September was one of the incidents of 1 908 which
gave Mr. Letchworth much pleasure. A matter
which gave him agreeable occupation of mind
that year, and after, was the planning and pre-
paration, with Mr. Johnston and Miss Bishop,
of a new and enlarged edition of the collection
of poems entitled "Voices of the Glen." This,
as before stated, though made ready by Mr.
410 WILLIAM PRYOR LETCHWORTH
Letchworth in his lifetime, was not published un-
til after his death. It seems an unjust omission
in that little book that it does not contain the
following lines which Mr. Letchworth received
from Mr. Johnston on his eighty-sixth birth-
day, May 26, 1909 : —
**The higher thought his daily food ;
The evening sun still shining bright ;
The ancient promise still holds good, —
'At eventide it will be light.' "
At the time of his passing this eighty-sixth
anniversary of his birth, the legislature of his
"Letch- state was preparing for him a very
worth Vil- distinguished honor, connected with
^^® the founding of a great institution
in the eastern part of the state. This institution
was " for the custodial care of epileptics of un-
sound mind, exclusive of insane epileptics, and
for the custodial care of other feeble-minded
persons, including such as are in state charita-
ble institutions or are supported at public ex-
pense and require custodial care." Two years
previously, the establishment of such an institu-
tion had been decided to be necessary, and an act
of the legislature created a commission to select
a site. The commission, having the president
of the State Board of Charities, the Honorable
LAST YEARS 411
William Rhinelander Stewart, at its head, found
a noble tract of land in Rockland County,
embracing "some 1354 acres of good farming
and woodland for the main site and a mountain
tract of 640 acres for the protection of the
water supply." A further purchase in 19 10
added several hundred acres to the tract. Every
height on the ground chosen is said to com-
mand views of the Hudson, from High Tor to
Stony Point. This property was acquired by
the state for what was known in the first in-
stance as " The Eastern New York State Cus-
todial Asylum"; but when. May, 1909 (the
constructive work on the ground being then
well advanced), the legislature passed an act to
provide for the management of the asylum, the
first section of the act read as follows: —
The Eastern New York State Custodial Asylum,
established by chapter three hundred and thirty-one
of the laws of nineteen hundred and seven, as amended
by chapter two hundred and ninety-two of the laws
of nineteen hundred and eight, is hereby continued by
the name and title of " Letchworth Village," in honor
of William Pryor Letchworth of Portage, New York,
whose efficient public services in behalf of the feeble-
minded, epileptic, and other dependent unfortunates
the state desires to commemorate.
412 WILLIAM PRYOR LETCHWORTH
On signing the bill which gave the name of
Letchworth Village to so notable an institution
of public beneficence. Governor Hughes wrote
personally to Mr. Letchworth the following
letter: —
I am very glad indeed that your name has been as-
sociated with the new State Custodial Asylum, and
it gave me much pleasure to sign the Bill establishing
"Letchworth Village." This will serve to aid in per-
petuating the memory of your important relation to
the charities of the state, and constitute a recognition,
though only to a slight extent, of the obligation of
our people for the services you have rendered. It must
afford you the greatest gratification in these later years
to realize the progress that has been made in the care
of dependents, and to be assured of the high esteem
in which your own share in the work of development
is held by all those who are devoting themselves to
our rapidly extending philanthropies.
A few days previously Mr. Stewart, chairman
of the commission which chose the location of
the village, had written to Mr. Letchworth : —
Would it not be possible for you to visit the site
this month or in June ? The trip will not be a very
difficult one, and the commission could have no greater
satisfaction and compensation — now that its work is
practically completed — than the pleasure of showing
LAST YEARS 413
it to the man whose name the new institution will
always bear. . . . On Friday of last week Mr. Kirk-
bride [of the commission and afterwards secretary of
the board of managers of Letchworth Village] and I,
with some friends, visited the site and revelled in its
natural beauties.
Such a visit would have given pleasure be-
yond expression to the invalid at Glen Iris ; but
the journey was more than he could think of
undertaking.
In an address before the National Associ-
ation for the Study of Epilepsy and the Care
and Treatment of Epileptics, at its meeting in
Baltimore, May, 1910, Mr. Franklin B. Kirk-
bride, secretary of the Board of Managers of
Letchworth Village, gave a comprehensive state-
ment of the whole purpose and design of the
institution, from which the following quotation
will not be out of place in this connection: —
Notwithstanding the fact that there are already in
New York four state institutions caring for the epi-
leptic and feeble-minded, they are as yet inadequately
provided for, and the village, first of all, will relieve
the congestion of these institutions, which to-day are
overcrowded and unable to meet the demands made
upon them. Letchworth Village will admit both sexes
of all ages, excluding the insane only. The ultimate
414 WILLIAM PRYOR LETCHWORTH
capacity will be twenty-five hundred inmates. From
Craig Colony will come patients who do not belong
there, but who could be received nowhere else ; from
almshouses will come others; and from the long wait-
ing-lists will come many more. . . . Letchworth
Village, however, will be more than a custodial re-
treat. It will be a laboratory where the causes of ab-
normal and arrested development will be studied, with
the advantage of abundant clinical material ; and it
will afFord a unique opportunity for research and in-
vestigation in cooperation with the schools and col-
leges of New York City. In the schools at the village,
the training of teachers for the backward and abnormal
will go hand in hand with the instruction of the in-
mates. The village . . . is to be a community where,
through segregation and classification, little groups of
people will live separated from each other, but units
in the larger settlement. . . . The groups to be es-
tablished this autumn [1910] will closely resemble
those at Templeton, Massachusetts, and the first pa-
tients will be feeble-minded cases fitted for farm life.
Letchworth Village received its first inmates
— thirty-two in number — on the nth of July,
191 1. Two farm groups of buildings had then
been constructed, with a dormitory capacity of
one hundred beds. At the time of this writing
(November, 191 1), the inmate population is
fifty-nine, as stated in a note from the secretary
LAST YEARS 415
of the board of managers, Mr. Kirkbride, who
adds the remark: "We expect [the beds] will
all be filled within a very few weeks." This will
fulfil the plans announced in the second annual
report of the managers, made in January, 191 1,
which stated : " Provision will be made for one
hundred |feeble-minded men during 191 1. No
further admissions will be made until the build-
ings necessary for the administration of the vil-
lage and the care of employes and patients are
completed and equipped."
Speaking in this report of the death of Mr.
Letchworth, the managers say : —
Mr. Letchworth took a keen interest in the village
from its inception, and was kept constantly in touch
with its progress by correspondence and visits to Glen
Iris. His suggestions were invariably helpful and in-
spiring, and his love of beauty, his gentleness, and his
delightful sense of humor, coupled with his indomit-
able faith in mankind, always sent one away from Glen
Iris with renewed courage and an increased realiza-
tion of the possibilities of achievement.
The same report makes the following an-
nouncement of the selection and appointment
of the superintendent of the village : —
Dr. Charles S. Little, formerly superintendent of
the New Hampshire School for Feeble-minded Child-
4i6 WILLIAM PRYOR LETCHWORTH
ren,was elected superintendent of Letchworth Village
and entered upon the discharge of his new duties on
July I, 19 10. He was selected, after a competitive
examination, from the list of successful candidates
submitted by the State Civil Service Commission. Dr.
Little's name headed the list. The high standing of
the New Hampshire school, of which he was the first
and only superintendent, is sufficient demonstration
of his fitness for the even more responsible post to
which he has been called.
Though confined to his home, with inability
for much unassisted movement even there, Mr.
The last Letchworth, in 1 909, was still a busily
two years occupied man, and continued to be
of hfe gQ ^Qj. another year. And he was kept
in fresh remembrance by his younger and still
active fellow workers in the fields of public
charity and social reform. When the State Con-
ference of Charities and Correction was assem-
bled at Albany, November 18-20, 1909, it sent
him this message: —
That the officers and members of the Tenth New
York State Conference of Charities and Correction,
assembled in the Senate Chamber in the Capitol at
Albany, on Thursday, November 18, 1909, send affec-
tionate greetings to Dr. William Pryor Letchworth,
of Portage, the first president of the Conference.
LAST YEARS 417
They are not unmindful of the inspiration they early
derived from the lifelong services to humanity ren-
dered by Dr. Letchworth. In his venerable retirement
he is not forgotten, and our earnest wishes for his
future health and happiness we now convey to him.
A few days after receiving this affectionate
and grateful message Mr. Letchworth suffered
an accident which might easily have ended his
life. He was being taken on his customary after-
noon drive in the park, when something caused
the horse to begin suddenly backing and turn-
ing. What happened then was described by Miss
Bishop, in a letter written next day : " There is
a steep but short bank on one side of the road,
down which the carriage went, and Mr. Letch-
worth and Mrs. R were tipped out. Mr.
Letchworth wore his thick, loose fur coat, and
fell in the leaves ; otherwise the result might
have been very serious. . . . Mr. L.'s face was
scratched a little by the bushes, but he seems
to be suffering most from the jarring of his left
shoulder." There must have been a quite dan-
gerous shock sustained, which commonly would
shorten life in a man of Mr, Letchworth's age
and physical frailty ; but it may not have done
so in his case. He lived almost exactly a year
after this occurred.
4i8 WILLIAM PRYOR LETCHWORTH
The present writer visited him in the follow-
ing spring and found him feeble but comfort-
able, and manifesting quite perfect clearness of
mind. His memory seemed little impaired, if
at all, so far as concerned the distant past. In-
formation that has been useful in this biography,
on many matters, was obtained in conversations
at that time.
It was never out of his thought, however,
that the days left to him could not be many.
In a letter written May 17, 1 9 10, he said : " I am
expecting my brother Josiah and his wife here
on Saturday next to spend a day or two. It is
a long time since I have seen them, and this
may be the last time that we shall meet."
On the 19th of September the ceremony of
the unveiling of the bronze statue of Mary
Jemison, near her grave and monument, in the
Old Indian Council House ground, was per-
formed, as related in a previous chapter, and
Mr. Letchworth was fortunately able to be
present.
The state election of November 8, this year,
was made especially interesting to him by the
submission to the people of a constitutional
amendment relating to the acceptance of Mrs.
Harriman's proposed gift of lands in connec-
LAST YEARS 419
tion with a purchase of other lands for a public
park on the Hudson River. "Although very
lame," he wrote two days afterwards to Mr.
Johnston, "I managed to go to the polls on
Tuesday to cast my vote for the constitutional
amendment anent the proposed Harriman Park.
I trust that the Palisades are now safe and that
the Harriman gift will go to the people."
His last letter to Mr. Johnston, dictated to
his stenographer, but signed by him with a firm
hand, was written on the 28th of ^. ,.
November, showing perfect clearness stroke of
of mind and the command of all its *^®^*^
faculties. Three days later, at seven o'clock in
the evening of Thursday, December i, 1910,
the call of death came to him and he passed
through the curtained gate which opens and
closes at that call.
On the morning of that day, as was told by
Miss Bishop at a memorial meeting held soon
after, at Castile, "he had pencilled on a slip of
paper a few lines suggestive of a plan which he
thought might be of assistance to boys and girls
seeking employment. A matter had recently
been brought to his attention showing the dan-
gers to which young persons are sometimes ex-
posed when they go out from their homes to
420 WILLIAM PRYOR LETCHWORTH
make their way among strangers." Thus the
child-saving thought — the anxious care for the
young — was in his mind to the very last.
That night he partook of his usual light sup-
per, and said, presently, that he would take a
rest. His nurse assisted him to his bed in an
adjoining room, and had left him but a few
moments when she heard some sound which
caused her to return. She found that in those
moments his life had come to its end. He had
left it as quietly as if passing into sleep.
Funeral services at Glen Iris were held on
the following Sunday. The remains were then
taken to the residence of his brother Josiah, in
Buffalo, for burial in the Forest Lawn Ceme-
tery, preceding which there were impressive
services on Tuesday in the chapel of the First
Presbyterian Church, conducted by the pastor,
the Reverend Dr. Andrew V. V. Raymond, as-
sisted by the Reverend Dr. S. S. Mitchell, former
pastor of the church, and by the Reverend Rich-
ard W. Boynton, pastor of the First Unitarian
Church.
In a letter to his brother Josiah, written on
the 1st of July, 1910, Mr. Letchworth had ex-
pressed his wishes with regard to the disposition
of his remains. " I would like my remains," he
LAST YEARS 421
wrote, "to be placed in a rough-hewn stone sar-
cophagus, after the general design of that illus-
trated in the sixth edition of the life of Mary
Jemison, page 274. The sarcophagus I desire
to have taken from the Blue Stone Quarry on
the Genesee River, a few miles above Portage-
ville. I desire that on the ground above it there
be laid a perfectly plain slab, after the style of
that shown in the enclosed illustration taken
from the April number of Country Life in Amer-
ica^ page 73 I, upon which slab shall be inscribed
my name and the date of my birth and decease,
only. If practicable, I desire that the slab be
taken from the hard rock of the upper strata of
Table Rock at the Lower Falls, which, if I re-
member rightly, is from twelve to sixteen inches
thick. I think this slab had best be placed di-
rectly upon the surface of the ground, without
any masonry underneath it, the inclination to
be the same as the ground surrounding it."
Excepting in the matter of taking a slab of
stone from Table Rock, at the Lower Falls,
which Mr. Letchworth had desired "it practi-
cable," these wishes were carried precisely into
effect during the summer which followed his
death. The removal of such a mass of stone
from the position of Table Rock in the gorge
422 WILLIAM PRYOR LETCHWORTH
at the Lower Falls was decided to be impracti-
cable, while a slab of equal quality was found in
the bed of the river, a little above the Middle
Falls, and more closely associated, therefore,
with the life it would commemorate. The in-
scription on it is as follows : —
WILLIAM PRYOR LETCHWORTH
Born, Fifth Month, 26, 1823
Died, Twelfth Month, i, 1910
The importance that had been given to the
life now ended, by the large fruitfulness of its
labors in social good, was recognized widely by
the newspaper press of the country, in its an-
nouncements of the death, and even more widely
in affectionate and reverent expressions which
came in great numbers of letters and official
communications from societies, to Glen Iris and
to Mr. Josiah Letchworth, in Buffalo. "The
dear, dear man is gone ! my heart aches to think
of it," said one. " I have never known such
another man," exclaimed a second. "His death
brings to me almost as much sorrow as the
death of a parent," wrote a prominent journal-
ist, who added: "He seemed to be a sort of
patriarch among the people of Western New
LAST YEARS 423
York." In a private letter, the secretary of the
Board of Managers of Letchworth Village
wrote: " I feel that in our work at this end of
the state the mere fact that Mr. Letch worth's
name is associated with the Village will be a
tremendous help in keeping us up to the stand-
ards and ideals for which Mr. Letchworth has
stood during all his life."
The New York State Board of Charities, at its
next stated meeting (January 11, 191 1) after Mr.
Letchworth's death, expressed its estimate of
his long service as a Commissioner of the Board
for nearly twenty-four years, and as its presi-
dent for ten years, in an extended inscription
on its minutes, partly in these words: —
He entered the Board early in its history, and dur-
ing his long term of service exerted a controlling in-
fluence in the development of its policies and methods
of procedure in the supervision of the charitable in-
stitutions of the State. As he was of a cautious and
deliberative temperament he impressed upon the prac-
tical operations of the Board a conservative and pa-
ternal attitude towards the public charities, which had
its expression in friendly and advisory conference with
the officers and managers of these institutions.
His personal devotion to the service of the Board
was of the most exemplary character. He gave his
424 WILLIAM PRYOR LETCHWORTH
time, his thought and his means cheerfully, and at all
times, often at great personal sacrifice, to the duties
then imposed upon the individual commissioners.
Many of these duties, such as close inspection of
almshouses of that time, were extremely unpleasant;
but he never shrank from the most exhaustive inspec-
tions of these and many similar public charities, and
drev/ from them valuable lessons which resulted in
the adoption of important remedial measures. In his
zeal to improve the condition of dependent children
he visited not only almshouses, but also all of the
orphan asylums and children's homes in the State.
This appreciative tribute from the official
body which had the fullest knowledge of his
work goes on to review its " notable features,"
in the removal of children from poorhouses,
and in labors for the better care and treatment
of the insane, of epileptics, of the idiotic and
the feeble-minded, — all of which has been set
forth in this book.
CHAPTER XI
THE MAN
The Story of Mr. Letchworth's life, as told in the
preceding pages, is almost wholly a story of noble
labors ; and inasmuch as he spent it ^ ^fg ^f
in labor, it could not be other than labor
that. Many lives are so spent ; but his differed
from most of them in the motives and objects
of his life-absorbing work. He toiled for the
bettering of conditions among the unfortunates
of his part of the world, as others toil for the
rewards that come back to the laborer's self, in
luxuries and gratifications that go with wealth,
or in the honors of public life. To the extent
that he had what might be called wealth, in a
comparative sense, it can almost be said that he
took to himself no luxuries from it and little
of the gratifications that depend on wealth. He
gave himself the great indulgence of one great
Glen Iris; but he held that only as indulgence
a life tenant, preparing it always for public pos-
session and use. Meantime its atmosphere of
beauty and peace and happiness, and the simple
426 WILLIAM PRYOR LETCHWORTH
hospitalities it enriched, and the days of joy it
brought into his friendships, — these seemed
to fill the whole measure of self-seeking in his
desires.
It is because he made so little of the per-
sonal side of his life, and took into it so much
from the other life around him, that the account
of it is meagre in biographical incident. What
he did has no dramatic quality for a reader's
entertainment; but its high purpose and its
measureless worth offer much more than enter-
tainment to a thoughtful mind. If these give an
undertone of seriousness to the biography, they
_. carry through it overtones of happi-
tones of ness, none the less. Mr. Letch-
happiness worth was one of the happiest of
men; in his benevolent serenity of temper; in
the warmth of fellow-feeling which made man-
kind interesting to him ; in his many friend-
ships ; in the assurance he could feel of holding
a high place in public esteem ; and, above all, in
the satisfying fruits of his work. In much of the
work itself we cannot suppose that he found
enjoyment, full as it was of distressing scenes,
painful experiences, revolting matters of inves-
tigation; but certainly there was joy to him
of high quality in the great results of good
THE MAN 427
that he could see to be coming from what he
did.
No man enjoyed friendships more than he,
and he accumulated them richly as his life went
on, especially after he came into ex- ^ccumu-
tensive relations with the charity lated
workers of his own state and of the friendships
country at large. To find a spirit kindred to
his own in earnestness and sincerity was to find
a new friend ; and he found so many! His cor-
respondence with the colleagues and associates
who came into really close and sympathetic
participation with any part of his work gives
many charming evidences of the warm feeling
that grew between them. Especially in the later
years, when the elder co-workers with him were
being succeeded by a younger corps, — in state
charity boards, in national and state conferences,
in the heads of institutions and societies, — the
affectionate deference and reverence with which
these junior friends wrote to him is beautifully
significant of the feeling he inspired.
One who looks through his correspondence
can see the sources of the great influence he came
to exercise in the philanthropic field. While he
specialized his own main undertakings in that
field, he never specialized his interest in its sub-
428 WILLIAM PRYOR LETCHWORTH
jects and objects. He could always enter with
warm sympathy and understanding into the
Sources of feelings of those who shared his
great influ- benevolent spirit, but were moved
e°ce ^y j|. Qj^ other special lines than
his ; and he was never so busy in his own burden-
some tasks that he could not give attention to
these collateral tasks, to acquaint himself with
them and render help in them when it was
sought. It was sought more and more, as the
all-roundness of his study of the problems of
philanthropy and the large helpfulness of his
disposition became known. The people who
struggled with difficulties and discouragements
In various undertakings of good work, and who
came to him for counsel or assistance, were very
many ; and very many were the grateful ac-
knowledgments of wise advice and effectual help
that he had in return. Quite often, too, there
had been a purse as well as a pen in the helping
hand.
Those, too, who worked for him, as well as
those who worked with him, were invited, as we
Affection of ^^Y say, always, to give friendship a
employes place in the relations between em-
ployer and employed, and lasting ties were
formed by whatever in their natures could re-
THE MAN 429
spond to his. The writer of this has come upon
many disclosures of feeling between him and
his employes, either in business at Buffalo or in
home and farm service at Glen Iris, and they
testify alike to his interest in them and to their
filial attitude of affection toward him. A very
few weeks before he died he received a letter,
which must have given him much happiness,
from one who had served for many years, long
before, in the establishment of Pratt & Letch-
worth; who had afterwards established himself
prosperously in business, and who had been a
useful, excellent citizen in all the relations of life.
Among other things the writer said to him this:
You will never know the debt of gratitude I owe to
you, and to our Heavenly Father for bringing me into
touch with you many years ago. . . . My life has
been different ever since I met you and came under
your helpful influence. The fact that I have been able
to pass the good things I received from you on to
others, and they, in turn, to others, tends to make one
feel that his life has not been lived in vain. Your in-
fluence over my life has been great, and I feel that
I am a truer, better man, husband and father, for having
been under your inspiration.
Since Mr. Letchworth's death, the writer of
this high tribute to his influence has related
430 WILLIAM PRYOR LETCHWORTH
a most interesting bit of antecedent story, in
a letter addressed to Mr. Rowland, the ad-
An incident i^i^^istrator of Mr. Letchworth's
that reveals estate. Writing to express thanks
the man f^^ ^ copy of the new edition of
" Voices of the Glen," and for the return to
him from Glen Iris of a package of his let-
ters, he adds : —
I do not know that you know the fact, but in the
latter part of April, 1866, while I was a newsboy on
the Erie Railroad, Mr. Letchworth was a passenger
on the morning train, on his way to Glen Iris, and
he happened to observe that I was courteous to some
passengers on the opposite side of the car. When I
came to him he bought some oranges from me ; then
made inquiry as to my school advantages, and took my
father's name and inquired the nature of his business.
I thought at first that he was a professor in some
large school and interested to find out if my father
was in a position to give me additional education.
Then he inquired what I was to do in life ; and the
result was that I returned to Buffalo the following
Monday morning, and, as you know, was with him
for over thirteen years. For a number of years he
kindly asked me to share a room with him in the
Bank Building, and his helpful, watchful care of me,
and the most excellent advice given at that time, were
a great help to me in my early days. I cannot tell
THE MAN 431
you how much I have thought, in the years which
have passed, of this very pleasant association. He
was indeed a "father unto me," and I am indebted to
him for the start which I got in life.
We may be sure that the " helpful influence "
and the " inspiration" which the writer quoted
above was so conscious of having received from
Mr. Letchworth came in the largest measure
from the example of his employer's character
and life. The sense of responsibility for that
influence of example was singularly keen and
held rare authority in Mr. Letchworth's mind,
ruhng his conduct with scrupulous care. This
was finely illustrated in the circumstances un-
der which he banished wine from his
., T-» • u- 1 • T- Why wine
table. During his travels in iLurope, ^as ban-
in 1858, he had su fleered much from ished from
J . , . J 1 . . his table
drinking deleterious waters in many
places, and was finally persuaded to resort to
wine. Until that time he had followed the
teaching and example of his father in total ab-
stinence from alcoholic drinks of everv nature
whatsoever ; but he found a comfort and benefit
from the wines, in this experience of them,
which led him to modify his views and the
previous habits of his life. He brought home
some varieties of choice quality and introduced
432 WILLIAM PRYOR LETCHWORTH
their use at his table for a time. But presently
there came to his knowledge what seemed to
be a resulting influence which troubled his
mind. Among the tenants of his land was a
young mechanic who had been enslaved by the
appetite for intoxicants, and who gave himself
up to days of drunkenness from time to time.
Mr. Letchworth had tried often to rouse resist-
ing energies in him, but with no lasting effect ;
and now there came a report of his saying, in
one of his outbreaks : " Mr. Letchworth talks
to me about my drinking; but he drinks wine
with his friends, and I do only about the same.
I think as much of my friends as Mr. Letch-
worth does of his." After the latter had been
told of this remark there was no more wine on
his table or wine-drinking in his house. He
went to the young man, told him that no-
thing intoxicating should be used by himself or
offered to his guests thereafter, and asked him
to follow that example, — far better, as it was,
than the one he had accepted before. The im-
pression made on the man was profound. He
gave the promise that he would do as Mr.
Letchworth had done, and the promise was
kept. He married, reared a well-educated fam-
ily, accumulated property and earned universal
THE MAN 433
respect. In the old age of Mr. Letchworth there
can hardly have been another reminiscence that
brought him more happiness than this.
To illustrate another side of his careful
thoughtfulness for those who formed his staff
at Glen Iris, the following letter has . .,
interest. It was written by him, in characteris-
October, 1876, to a father, in Ger- tic incident
many, whose son, a young man, had been em-
ployed at the Glen for some years. It caught
the attention of the biographer as he ran through
a letter book of that period, and seemed to
represent an impulse of kindliness which would
not have moved many busy men.
Your son, who has been in my employ for the past
seven years, excepting a short period of two months,
and who has been during a large portion of the time
a member of my household, having signified to me his
intention of visiting his parents, brothers, sisters, and
friends in the Fatherland, it has seemed to me that it
would afford you satisfaction if I should inform you
of the good character he has established while living
in this country. I do this unsolicited by him and with
great pleasure, in view of his worth, the attachment
to him I have formed, and the esteem in which he is
held by all my friends who know him. I do it with
greater cheerfulness, also, because I feel assured that
434 WILLIAM PRYOR LETCHWORTH
I am addressing a person of good sense and of prin-
ciple ; for none other could have instilled into the
mind of youth the substantial elements of character
which Martin possesses. . . . You may be assured
that when you welcome him after this long absence
you take to your embrace a son worthy of your love
and of whom you may be proud, possessing as he does
the attributes of true respectability and manhood.
As a response to the claims of human fellow- |
ship, the mere generosity of money-giving is
Careful lib- ^° easy, compared with Mr. Letch-
erality in worth's giving of himself, in his
giving abiding altruism of action, interest,
thought, sympathy, that it seems hardly worth
while to speak of his liberalities from the purse.
What has been shown of him otherwise could
leave no doubt of his disposition on that side.
There was no prodigality in his use of money,
gift-wise or otherwise. He had acquired early
a practical appreciation of its important function
in life, and it ruled his personal economy. As
a philanthropist he did not cease to be a busi-
ness man, and the coalescence of the two char-
acters had much to do with his success in the
former. He spent money on benevolent objects
as carefully, as judiciously, and as freely as on
commercial objects, but no differently, as to the
exercise of discriminating care.
THE MAN 435
His position and reputation drew upon him
many solicitations, for help to public undertak-
ings of charity and social reform and for relief
to private distress. He contributed constantly
to the support of great numbers of the former,
and his annual subscriptions and dues of mem-
bership to institutions and societies, at home
and abroad (for he was a patron or member of
some in Great Britain and France), must have
drawn heavily from his income each year. As
for private appeals, he was no more likely to be
victimized by the leeches who prey on careless
benevolence than the most penurious of men
would be. A need, self-proclaimed and self-
pleaded for, would be suspicious to him, and
he would give it rigid scrutiny; but his eyes
and ears were always open and alert to make
discovery of needs that were silently endured.
From the grateful acknowledgments to be found
among the letters he received (of Delicacy in
which he seems never to have de- giving
stroyed any) it is evident that such discoveries
were frequent, and that he could act on them
with so much delicacy and kindliness that no
feeling of intrusion or wounded pride would be
occasioned by what he did.
The larger of Mr. Letchworth's givings,
436 WILLIAAl PRYOR LETCHWORTH
however, were made to the public directly, not
only in the final gift of his whole superb landed
Magnitude estate, but in the expense as well as
of gifts to the labor of his twenty-three years
the public Qf ofl^cial service to the state. Dur-
ing the time of his service as State Commis-
sioner of Charities no pay was attached to the
office; but he was entitled by law to a reim-
bursement of all travelling and other expenses
incurred in the performance of its duties. He
drew nothing from the state treasurer, however,
under that provision of the law, though practi-
cally devoting his whole time to an activity of
inspection, investigation, study of institutions
and their methods, in his own state and out of
it, which called for more constant and extensive
travel than falls to the lot of most business
men. To the expenses of travel, moreover, he
added an almost constant employment of cleri-
cal assistance in his official work, and the ac-
companiment of a stenographer in most of his
journeys of inquiry outside of the state. It has
been said by some who had means of knowing,
that the cost to him of his public service was
some thousands of dollars per year.
In 1896, the year of his resignation from the
State Board of Charities, an amendment of the
THE MAN 437
law relating to it provided that each commis-
sioner should not only receive the reimburse-
ment of his expenses, but should be paid a
compensation of ten dollars " for each day's at-
tendance at meetings of the Board, or of any
of its committees, not exceeding in any one
year five hundred dollars." Mr. Letchworth
protested against this, and his reasons gjg reasons
for doing so are set forth in a state- for assum-
ment to which he never gave publi- »°g this cost
cation. It explains at the same time the motive
which actuated him in declining even a reim-
bursement of the expenses of his public ser-
vice. In this statement, after citing the fact
that the enactment of 1867 which created the
Board provided no compensation for their time
or services, he remarks: —
It is therefore evident that it was the original in-
tention of the legislature to place the Board on a
purely disinterested and philanthropic basis, and above
all political and partisan influence.
Then, quoting the terms of the amendment
of 1896, he says: —
Against this amendment I protested, believing that
it set aside the benevolent principle in the original
act, depriving the Board of its unselfish character, and
endangering its usefulness. As far back as 1873 the
438 WILLIAM PRYOR LETCHWORTH
appropriation made by the state for the office ex-
penses, clerk hire, etc., exclusive of the salary of the
secretary, was only about ;^3000, Some thought that
even this small sum was greater than it should be, and
that the Board was an unnecessary appendage to the
state government. It was partly to meet this criticism,
and to popularize the Board, that 1 exercised the self-
denial I did. ... I believed that more efficient and
capable persons could be found to fill an uncompen-
sated Board than a paid one, and that in this way the
temptation to make the office serve political ends
would not exist. It has seemed to me, moreover, that,
as the work of the Board was mainly in the supervi-
sion of charities, in which large numbers of individ-
uals were engaged who sacrificed, in many instances,
not only all their time but much of their means in
conducting the work, there should be found people to
act as state supervisors of such work who would set
a worthy example, by receiving no compensation for
their time, and that such self-denial would encourage
and stimulate all benevolent work.
All that has been noted thus far, in this
summary of the character which expressed it-
self in the life and work of William
Gentle ap- .
pearance r ryor Letchworth, IS consonant with
and de- what would be the most natural ex-
meanor ^ • r i ^ v,' ^
pectation or one who met him at
any period of his matured life. It goes natur-
THE MAN 439
ally with the modest and gentle air, the quiet
speech and manner, — the whole aspect of coun-
tenance and bearing, which betokened tranquil-
lity of spirit, mild evenness of temper, geniality
and kindliness of heart. No one can ever have
heard his voice raised in anger, or seen the flush
of passion in his eyes, or the hard lines of stern-
ness in his face. In appearance and demeanor he
realized always the ideal of a true representative
of the Society of Friends, moulded outwardly
by the inward moulding of Christian teaching
as construed by George Fox. And this could
raise no expectation of the resolution, the will,
the energy which went with his benevolent
quietude of spirit into all that he undertook to
do.
Nothing that he undertook had been taken
hastily in hand. He set his foot in no path un-
til he knew fully the ground to be traversed in
it, as well as the end to which it led, and saw
clearly the right and the need or the good rea-
son for going forward therein. Pending these
determinations of his mind he showed often
much hesitancy and seeming indecisiveness of
will; but when the light he sought had been
obtained, and the practicable way to a desirable
and right object of endeavor could be seen dis-
440 WILLIAM PRYOR LETCHWORTH
tinctly, he became, in his quiet way, one of the
most inflexibly determined of men, — undis-
couraged by obstacles, undaunted by
Inflexible . . ^ . . ■
determina- opposition. Some instances of the
tion under- positively militant fbrce he could
bring into action, out of the quietude
which masked it, when hostilities were encoun-
tered in his work, have been noticed heretofore.
These surprises (if we may call them so) of
force in Mr. Letchworth were described happily
by Dr. Stephen Smith, his colleague of many
years in the New York State Board of Chari-
ties and his warm friend, in an affectionate and
admiring "appreciation" prepared for the meet-
ing of the New York State Conference of Chari-
ties and Correction, at Watertown, in Octo-
ber, 191 1.
The personality of Mr. Letchworth [said Dr.
Smith] was a self-revelation. He was of medium
height and size, very unassuming in all his acts, dif-
fident and hesitating in his speech, very deferential,
especially to an opponent, face always expressive of
kindliness and benevolence, even when most excited ;
but these conspicuous personal appearances of inde-
cision did not conceal from his business associates an
expression of his features indicative of a fixed deter-
mination to exercise his own judgment when called
i
THE MAN 441
upon to act. He had an indomitable will ; but in ex-
ercising it he was extremely careful not to do injustice
to one of opposing views, or even to " wound his feel-
ings." I have known him, after an exciting discussion
in the State Board of Charities, in which he took a
prominent part, to hasten to the railroad station and
find the member or members whom he had opposed
and beg their pardon if he had said anything offensive
to them.
This peculiarity, so unusual in men of strong con-
victions and aggressive methods of enforcing them,
might be attributed to a want of mental capacity to
form positive opinions ; but such a conclusion would
be altogether unjust. On the contrary, it only empha-
sizes the suggestion as to his inherent nervous sensi-
bility. His conclusions were never formed on any
subject without the most painstaking inquiry, and he
always maintained an open mind while discussion was
in progress ; but when the testimony was all in, his
judgment was as unerring as human capacity would
permit. His extreme sensitiveness lest he should give
pain, or do an injustice to another, dominated his pri-
vate and public acts, and forms an exquisite setting of
a true portraiture of his entire life.
While the more pronounced traits of character were
so visibly stamped upon Mr. Letchworth's personality
that an ordinary observer who met him socially would
recognize his large intelligence, refined manners, and
benevolent disposition, it was only to his more inti-
442 WILLIAM PRYOR LETCHWORTH
mate friends that he revealed his keen sense of humor,
his acute observation of nature, his appreciation of the
due proportion and arrangement of living things, and,
withal, a poetic or imaginative temperament.
Another of the long-time associates of Mr.
Letchworth in the New York State Board of
Charities, the president of the Board during
many recent years, Mr. William Rhinelander
Stewart, has described his character similarly, in
a memorial presented to the National Confer-
ence of Charities and Correction, at Boston, in
June, 191 1. " Modesty, purity, patience, thor-
oughness, and gentleness," he wrote, " were
among Mr. Letchworth's most noticeable char-
acteristics. He disliked and avoided strife, and
chose rather to yield than to take precedence ;
but his opinions, carefully formed, were tena-
ciously held. Happily endowed with a lively
sense of humor, his laughter was hearty and
contagious, and to his intimate friends he was
a genial companion. He carried to his grave
the heart of a child. The honorable positions
he filled with so much dignity came unsought,
and while valued as proofs of esteem, were
most prized for the increased opportunities of
useful service which they afforded. Throughout
his life he was sustained by profound religious
THE MAN 443
convictions, and no one who knew him well
could doubt that, had he lived in mediaeval
times, he would, if called upon, have gone to
the stake unflinchingly for his creed."
Mr. Adelbert Moot, of Buffalo, who was
Mr. Letchworth's legal adviser in the later
years, and who, as he says in a note to the
writer of this biography, " had numerous con-
sultations with him that revealed his thoughts
and feelings as only such consultations do re-
veal the very soul of a man to his lawyer,"
received the same impression of a force un-
looked for in so sweetly tempered a man. " I
had a chance," writes Mr. Moot, " to see how
free he was from the ordinary small failings of
mankind, and how broadly courageous he was
in any fight involving the best interests of man-
kind." " His portrait is that of a typical phi-
lanthropist, and his character was absolutely in
keeping with his portrait."
Only those who came into both working and
social intimacy with Mr. Letchworth could
learn how distinctly his nature united ^^^ ^^^
two temperaments which are very tempera-
seldom balanced so evenly in the ™^°*s
same individual. To know him in the relations
that exhibited but one of these was to think of
444 WlLLIAiM PRYOR LETCHWORTH
him, most probably, as a sentimentalist, — a
man of too much emotionality for successful
dealing with the hardness and aggressiveness of
the ruder conditions of life. This, it could
easily be thought, would not only explain his
philanthropy, but throw doubt on the judg-
ment and efficiency with which its promptings
would be directed. And he did have an emo-
tional susceptibility and a delicacy of mind
which in most makings of character would war-
rant that conclusion. His enjoyments were of
the sweeter and gentler sort. The lovelier sides
of nature, the finer things of art, the generous
exhibitions of humanity, appealed to him most.
He was exceptionally fond of poetry, and with
a catholic taste ; delighted in reading it and hav-
ing it read to him, and carried in memory a
large store of it, which he had begun to accum-
ulate in his youth.
To know him in this character, and to have
acquaintance, at the same time, with the stren-
uous business man that he was for thirty years
and the strong state official that he was for
twenty-three more, — vigilant, decisive, reso-
lute, practically sagacious, successful beyond the
common, in both exhibitions, — was to have a
revelation of character that is exceedingly rare
THE MAN 445
in its combination of qualities, and exceedingly
fine. This book is an attempt to carry the in-
teresting revelation, in some imperfect measure,
beyond the circle which was privileged to receive
it from the nobly charming man himself.
THE END
APPENDIX
CHRONOLOGICAL LIST OF THE WRITINGS AND PUBLI-
CATIONS OF WILLIAM PRYOR LETCHWORTH, LL.D.
1874. (i) Sketch of the Life of Samuel F. Pratt;
with some Account of the Early History
of the Pratt Family. A Paper read be-
fore the Buffalo Historical Society, March
10, 1873. By William P. Letchworth.
Buffalo: Press of Warren, Johnson & Co.
1874. 211 pp.
1875. (2) Report relating to Pauper and Destitute
Children.
(In Report of New York State Board
of Charities, 1875.)
1875. (3) Supplementary Report, relating to Pauper
Children in New York County [Randall's
Island].
(In Report of State Board of Charities
for 1875; also in pamphlet.)
1876. (4) Pauper Children in Michigan. (An appeal
on behalf of pauper children in the poor-
houses of Michigan, in a letter addressed
to the Secretary of the Michigan State
Board of Charities, Charles M. Croswell.)
(In manuscript.)
1875. (5) Argument relating to Pauper Labor, made
before the State Convention of Superin-
tendents of the Poor, 1875.
(In pamphlet.)
448 APPENDIX
1877. (^) Report on Dependent and Delinquent
Children.
(In Proceedings of National Conference
of Charities and Correction, 1877;
also in pamphlet.)
1877. (7) Report of an Examination of Institutions
for the Education of the Blind in Massa-
chusetts, Pennsylvania, Ohio, and Indiana,
Appended to a Committee Report on the
Management of Affairs of the New York
State Institution for the Blind at Batavia.
(In Report of N. Y. State Board of
Charities for 1877; ^^^° '" pamphlet.)
Also later committee reports on the same
institution.
1877-78. (8) Reports on the Charities of the Eighth
Judicial District of the State of New York.
(In Reports of the N. Y. State Board
of Charities for the years stated; also
in pamphlet.)
1878. (9) Report on Disasters by Fire in the Steu-
ben County [New York] Poorhouse.
(In report of State Board of Charities
for 1878; also in pamphlet.)
1878. (10) An Account of the Cottage Plan of Caring
for the Harmless Insane, about to be
tried in Cattaraugus County.
(Given in the course of a Debate on
Insanity at the National Conference
of Charities and Correction, 1878, and
published in its Report.)
1878. (11) Plans for Poorhouses.
(In Report of New York State Board
of Charities for 1878; also in pamphlet.)
APPENDIX 449
1879. (12) Report on the Management and Affairs
of the Insane Asylum of the Onondaga
County Poorhouse, by Joint Committees
of the State Board of Charities and of the
Board of Supervisors (Commissioner
Letchworth, Chairman).
(In 'Report of the State Board, 1879;
also in pamphlet.)
1879. (13) Address in response to Major-General
Henry W. Slocum, President of the Board
of Trustees of the Soldiers' and Sailors'
Home at Bath, New York, on the occa-
sion of the Dedication of the Home,
January 23, 1879.
(In pamphlet.)
1880. (14) Report to New York State Board of
Charities of the Committee (Commissioner
Letchworth, Chairman) appointed to In-
vestigate Charges against the Society for
the Reformation of Juvenile Delinquents,
Randall's Island, New York.
(In Report of State Board for 1880 ;
also in pamphlet.)
1880. (15) The Pauper Children of Ohio. (An ap-
peal to county poor officials.)
(In manuscript.)
1 88 1. (16) Report by Commissioners Letchworth
and Carpenter on the Chronic Insane
in certain Counties [of New York] ex-
empted by the State Board of Charities
from the operation of the Willard Asylum
Act.
(In report of the State Board, 1881;
also in pamphlet.)
450 APPENDIX
1882. (17) Labor of Children in Reform Schools.
Argument before Senate Committee on
Miscellaneous Corporations, March 22,
1882, on the Bill introduced by Senator
Titus, entitled An Act relating to the
employment of Children by Contract in
Houses of Refuge, Reformatories, Cor-
rectional, and other Institutions.
(In pamphlet.)
1882. (18) Classification of Children needing Care,
Training, or Reformation. Argument be-
fore the Committee on State Charitable
Institutions, made April 12, 1882, against
Assembly Bill No. 390, in relation to the
Western House of Refuge.
(In pamphlet.)
1882, '94, '95, '96. (19) Reportson Thomas Asylum
for Orphan and Destitute Indian Children.
(In Reports of New York State Board
of Charities ; for the years stated ; also
in pamphlet.)
1883. (20) A Paper on Classification and Training
of Children, Innocent and Incorrigible.
(In Proceedings of the National Con-
ference of Charities and Correction,
1883 ; also in pamphlet.)
1883. (21) A Paper on Dependent and Delinquent
Children of the State of New York. Pre-
pared upon the invitation of the Societe
Generale de Protection pour I'Enfance
Abandonnee ou Coupable, for the Con-
gres International de la Protection de I'En-
fance, held at Paris, June, 1883.
(In pamphlet.)
APPENDIX 451
1883. (22) Report on the Orphan Asylums and
Homes for Destitute Children in the
Sixth Judicial District of New York.
(In Report of the New York State
Board of Charities for 1883; also in
pamphlet.)
1883. (23) Expression of Views on the Industrial
Training of Children in Houses of Refuge
and other Reformatory Schools ; addressed
to the Hon. Robert C. Titus, State Sena-
tor.
(In pamphlet.)
1883. (24) Letter to the Chairman of the Judiciary
Committee of the Assembly, on Public
Official Care of Orphan and Destitute
Children versus Private Benevolence.
[The same printed under the title of
. " Reasons against the passage of the Bill
entitled An Act to Incorporate the Home
for Destitute Children of Suffolk County."]
(In pamphlet.)
1884. (25) Address as President at the opening of
the National Conference of Charities and
Correction, at St. Louis, October 13, 1884.
(In Proceedings of the Conference;
also in pamphlet, under the title of " Re-
lief and Reform.")
1884. (26) Technologic Training in Reform Schools.
An Address before the Board of Man-
agers of the Western House of Refuge,
at Rochester, N. Y.
(In pamphlet.)
1884. (27) On Legislation forbidding Employment of
Children under the Contract System; be-
452 APPENDIX
ing an Answer to Objections urged by the
Managers of the New York House of
Refuge.
(In pamphlet.)
1885. (28) Report of Committee on Preventive Work
among Children.
(In Proceedings of the National Con-
ference of Charities and Correction,
1885.)
1885. (29) Address on Poorhouse Administration, at
the New York State Convention of Su-
perintendents of the Poor.
(In Report of the New York State
Board of Charities for 1885; also in
pamphlet.)
1886. (30) Address on Children of the State.
(In Proceedings of the National Con-
ference of Charities and Correction,
1886; also in pamphlet.)
1886. (31) Report of Commissioners [William P.
Letchworth, Chairman] appointed to Lo-
cate an Asylum for the Insane in North-
ern New York. *
(As Assembly Document ii, Session
of 1886 ; also separately, in pamphlet.)
1887. (32) A Tribute to the Memory of Miss Doro-
thea Dix.
(In Proceedings of the National Con-
ference of Charities and Correction,
1887.)
1887. (33) Reasons for establishing a Separate Girls'
Reformatory, instead of Rebuilding on the
old site the Edifice recently Destroyed by
Fire, at the State Industrial School, for-
APPENDIX 453
merly the Western House of Refuge,
Rochester, N. Y. ; embodied in a Letter
addressed to the Hon. James W. Husted,
Speaker of the Assembly.
(In pamphlet.)
1887. (34) Communication of Commissioner Letch-
worth and Secretary Hoyt, of the New
York State Board of Charities, to the
Chairman of the Committee on Poor-
house and Insane of the Erie County
Board of Supervisors, regarding the pur-
chase of additional lands in the country
for the Insane of the County.
(In Report of the State Board for
1887.)
1888. (35) Memorial Resolutions and Personal Trib-
ute to the late T. Barwick Lloyd Baker,
Esq., of Hardwick Court, Gloucester,
England.
(In Proceedings of the National Con-
ference of Charities and Correction,
1888.)
1889. (36) The Insane in Foreign Countries. Illus-
trated. New York and London ; G. P.
Putnam's Sons, 1889, 374 pp.
(Large page octavo volume.)
1889. (37) Miss Mary Carpenter. (A biographical
tribute.)
(In manuscript.)
1890. (38) A Paper on Poorhouse Construction, read
at the New York State Convention of Su-
perintendents of the Poor.
(In Report of the State Board of Char-
ities for 1890; also in pamphlet.)
45+ APPENDIX
1890. (39) Reports on the Mikanari Home, of James-
town.
(In Report of the New York State
Board of Charities, 1891 ; also in pam-
phlet.)
1 89 1. (40) Report on the Poorhouses of the Eighth
Judicial District of New York.
(In Report of the New York State Board
of Charities for 1891 ; also separately,
in pamphlet.)
1892. (41) A Paper on the Origin, Powers and Duties
of State Boards of Charities.
(In Proceedings of National Conference
of Charities and Correction for 1892;
also in Report of New York State
Board; also in pamphlet.)
1892. (42) Memorial embodying Reasons why the
Asylum for Insane Criminals at Auburn
should not be made a receptacle for the
Non-Criminal Insane.
(In pamphlet.)
1892. (43) Report on the New York State Institution
for the Blind [at Batavia] .
(In Report of the New York State
Board of Charities for 1892.)
1893. (44) History of Child-saving Work in the State
of New York, embodied in the Report of
the Committee of the National Confer-
ence of Charities and Correction on the
History of Child-saving Work, 1893.
(In Proceedings of the Conference ; also
in pamphlet.)
1893. (45) Report on Institutions Conducting Char-
itable and Reform Work in the Eighth
APPENDIX 455
Judicial District of the State of New
York. Also, Report on the Poorhouses in
the Eighth Judicial District.
(In Report of the New York State
Board of Charities, 1893 > ^^^" '" pam-
phlet.)
1894. (46) A Paper on Provision for Epileptics.
(In Proceedings of National Conference
of Charities and Correction, 1894 ; also
in Report of New York State Board of
Charities, 1894, and in pamphlet.)
1894. (47) A Paper on the Removal of Children from
Almshouses in the State of New York.
(In Proceedings of National Conference
of Charities and Correction, 1894.)
1894. (48) Report of Committee (Commissioners
Letchworth and Smith) on the Construc-
tion of Buildings for Charitable and Cor-
rectional Institutions, on the Plans and
Estimates for Improvements at the Craig
Colony for Epileptics.
(In Report of the New York State
Board of Charities, 1894 ; also in pam-
phlet.)
1894. (49) Report of Committee (Commissioners
Letchworth and Smith) on the Construc-
tion of Charitable and Correctional Insti-
tutions, on the Plans of the Eastern New
York Reformatory.
(In the Report of the New York State
Board of Charities for 1894; also in
pamphlet.)
1894. (50) Report on Thomas Asylum for Orphan
and Destitute Indian Children.
456 APPENDIX
(In Report of the New York State
Board of Charities for 1894; also in
pamphlet.)
1894. (51) Remarks in opening Discussion on the
Care of the Insane.
(In Proceedings of the National Con-
ference of Charities and Correction,
1894.)
1895. (52) Report on the Thomas Asylum for Orphan
and Destitute Indian Children.
(In pamphlet.)
1896. (53) A Paper on the Care of Epileptics.
(In Proceedings of the National Con-
ference of Charities and Correction,
1896.)
1896. (54) Report on the Erie County System of
Placing Dependent Children in Families.
(In Report of New York State Board
of Chanties for 1896; also in pam-
phlet.)
1896. (55) Report on the Poorhouses of the Eighth
Judicial District of New York.
(In Report of the New York State
Board of Charities for 1896; also sep-
arately in pamphlet.)
1896. (56) Report on Observance of the Rules of the
State Board of Charities in the Eighth
Judicial District.
(In Report of the State Board for 1896.)
1897. (57) -^ Paper on Dependent Children and
Family Homes.
(In Proceedings of National Conference
of Charities and Correction, 1897; also
in pamphlet.)
APPENDIX 457
1897. (58) Historical Address at the New York State
Convention of Superintendents of the Poor.
(In pamphlet.)
1899. (59) Care and Treatment of Epileptics. Illus-
trated. New York and London : G. P.
Putnam's Sons, 246 pp.
(Large page octavo volume.)
1900. (60) Address, as President, at the opening or
the First New York State Conference
of Charities and Correction, 1900.
(In Proceedings of the Conference ;
also in pamphlet.)
1901. (61) Transactions of the National Association
for the Study of Epilepsy and the Care
and Treatment of Epileptics, at the First
Annual Meeting, held in Washington,
D. C, May 14-15, 1901. Edited by
William Pryor Letchworth, LL.D. Buf-
falo: C. E. Brinkworth, 1901, 221 pp.
(Cost of publication paid by Mr. L.)
1903. (62) Homes for Homeless Children: a Re-
port on Orphan Asylums and other In-
stitutions for the Care of Children. [To
which is appended a Report on Pauper
and Destitute Children, and a Report on
Pauper Children in New York County,
the three brought together in one vol-
ume, and all appearing likewise as sepa-
rate publications in the list above.]
1905. (63) Notes and Correspondence relating to
the Founding of the First State Colony
for Epileptics [Craig Colony] in the
State of New York. Compiled by Will-
iam Pryor Letchworth.
(In manuscript, 70 pp., unpublished.)
458 APPENDIX
19 10. (64) Care of the Insane in New York State.
Compiled from Notes made by William
Pryor Letchworth.
(In manuscript, 94 pp., unpublished.
Brought down, under Mr. Letch-
worth's direction, to 1910.)
19 10. (65) A Narrative of the Life of Mary Jemi-
son, De-he-wa-mis, the White Woman
of the Genesee. By James E. Seaver.
Seventh Edition, with Geographical and
Explanatory Notes. This edition also
includes numerous illustrations, further
particulars of the history of De-he-wa-
mis, and other interesting matter col-
lected and arranged by Wm. Pryor
Letchworth. New York and London :
G. P. Putnam's Sons, 305 pp.
(Mr. Letchworth had edited and pub-
lished two previous editions of this
book, in 1877 and 1898.)
COLLECTIONS OF PAMPHLETS IN BOUND VOLUMES
In 1908 Mr. Letchworth made up four collections of his pamphlet pub-
lications, bound together in that number of volumes, with title-pages and
tables of contents. Three of the volumes were in one series, as shown be-
low. The contents are indicated in this place by numbers which refer to
the numbered titles in the list above : —
Miscellaneous Papers relating to Charity and Cor-
rection. By William Pryor Letchworth, LL.D., 3
volumes.
Vol. I. Containing 25, 26, 33, 29, 30 and 21, of
the papers numbered above, in the order shown here.
Vol. 2. Containing 6, 14, 18, 17, 23, 27, 20, 22,
44, 57, 13, 41, 49, 60.
APPENDIX 459
Vol. 3. Containing 11, 38, 9, 12, 16, 31, 34,42,
46, 48, 58.
Charities in Western New York, Eighth Judicial
District. A Record of Examinations and Official In-
spections of Charitable Institutions in the Counties
of Allegany, Cattaraugus, Chautauqua, Erie, Gene-
see, Niagara, Orleans, and Wyoming, in the State of
New York.
Containing 7, 8, 19, 39, 40, 45, 55, 54 o<" the pa-
pers numbered in the above list, in the order of the num-
bering here.
MINOR MANUSCRIPTS
The following writings, preserved in manuscript at the Glen Iris home-
stead, include some finished papers that have not gone into print, but are,
for the most part, the first drafts of addresses and essays, or notes and mem-
oranda on subjects discussed finally in the printed writings of the list above.
The Saving of Homeless and Destitute Children.
Care and Reformation of Homeless and Depend-
ent Children.
Removal of Homeless Children from the Erie
County Poorhouse.
Removal of Children from Almshouses. (Several
papers and letters, some of which are in print else-
where.)
Origin of the New York State Board of Charities.
The State Board of Charities. (Historical memo-
randa.)
Notes and References relating to Reformatory
Work, including Notes while visiting Reformatory
Institutions for the Young in Europe.
Child-saving Work Abroad. (Memoranda of ob-
servations in 1880.)
The Buffalo Children's* Aid Society. (A sketch of
the circumstances in which it originated.)
460
APPENDIX
Women Managers on Boards of State Charitable
Institutions.
Rain Baths. A paper on the sanitary importance
of the shower or rain bath, as a substitute in poor-
houses and similar institutions for the bathtub, accom-
panied by eight descriptions of the arrangement and
construction of these baths and of the mode of using
them in several institutions.
Some Reminiscences of Childhood.
A Spelling-Match. [Describing the old-time coun-
try school spelling contests as he knew them in his
boyhood.]
Example Stronger than Precept.
A Description of Mount Vernon as it appeared
in 1 86 1. Read at the Anniversary of Washington's
Birthday, 1862, at the Baptist Church in Castile.
Notes relating to Colonel Williams [who was one
of his early neighbors at Glen Iris, and an interesting
character] .
The Hospice of Saint Bernard.
INDEX
INDEX
Allen, Orlando, 86.
Almshouses, children in, no,
i6i, 204-05.
Almshouses. See, also, Poor-
houses.
Alt-Scherbitz Insane Asylum,
176-80, 190, 279, 289, 300,
301.
American Scenic and Historic
Preservation Society, 50, 55,
65, 97-98, 381, 389, 392, 394,
404, 407-09.
Anderson, President Martin B.,
66, 108, 119, 262.
Annan, Annie R., 59-60.
Appenzcller institutions, 183-
84.
Arboretum, Letchworth Park,
400-04.
Arey, Mrs. H. E.G., 34-35-
Auburn, asylum for insane
criminals, 303-04.
Auburn, N. Y., 6-8, 15-21.
Auchmuty, Mr., 233, 246.
Bailey, Prof. L. H., 98, 382,
404.
Baker, T. Barwick Lloyd, 202,
225.
Bale, Institutions at, 183.
Barrows, Samuel J., 161.
Barton, Clara, 316.
Batavia, N. Y., State Institu-
tion for the Blind at, 254-55,
Sis-
Bath, Soldiers' and Sailors'
Home at, 256-58.
Belgian benevolent institutions,
189-93.
Bell, Dr. Clark, 300.
Bennett, Carlenia, 98-99.
Berlin, Institutions in, 180.
Berne, Institutions in, 184.
Bethel Colony for epileptics,
337-
Bicetre, 185.
Big Tree Council and Treaty,
92, 102.
Bishop, Miss Caroline, 69-70,
99-100, 297, 342, 357, 363,
405, 409, 417, 419-20.
Blacksnake, William and Jesse,
78.
Blind, N. Y. State Institution
forthe, 254-55, 315.
Boyd, Lieutenant Thomas, 352.
Brandt, Captain, 67, 77.
Bridge, Portage, 49, 61-63.
Bristol, Miss Carpenter's re-
formatory schools at, 199-
201.
Brown, David E., 307.
Bryant, William C, 37, 73, 95,
103.
Buffalo, N. Y., Mr. Letch-
worth's life in, 25-41, 68.
Buffalo Creek Reservation,
93-
Buffalo Fine Arts Academy, 39-
41.
464
INDEX
BufFalo Historical Society, 78,
102-03.
Buffalo State Hospital for In-
sane, 282, 291-94.
Burnham, Frederick J., Burn-
ham Industrial Farm, 239-
40.
Bush-Brown, Henry K., 97.
Byron, Lady Noel, 200.
Campbell, Mrs. Helen Thorn-
ton, 307.
Caneadea Council House, d"},
73-89, 95-ioo> 418.
Care of the Insane in N. Y.
State; historical account, 295.
Carpenter, Miss Mary, 139,
156, 199-201.
Carpenter, Miss Sarah M.,
Commissioner, 273.
Central Islip Farm for the In-
sane, 279.
Children, homes for the home-
less, 123-30, 147-49, 205-06.
Children, innocent and incorri-
gible, classification for, 201,
222-26.
Children in jails and peniten-
tiaries, 212-16.
Children in poorhouses, 1 10-61,
204-05.
Children, Mr. L.'s interest in,
68-71.
"Children of the State," 229-33.
Children's Act, The (New York),
122-24, 150, ISS-
Children's Aid Society, Buffalo,
305-07-
Child-saving propositions, sev-
enteen, 236-39.
Child-saving work abroad, 164-
208. I
Child-saving work in New York,-
history of, 315.
Child-saving work: prevenient,
106-63.
Child-saving work : reformative,
210-50.
Christiania, institutions In, 171.
Clarke, Dr. John M., 391.
Classification of children in in-
stitutions, 201, 222-26, 236.
Clermont-en-Oise, colonies of
the insane, 185-87.
Clinton, Judge George W., 63,
66.
Cole, Thomas, painting of the
Genesee Falls, 54.
Conference of Charities and
Correction. See National
Conference, and State Con-
ference.
Congres International de la
Protection de I'Enfance,
Paris, 236, 308.
Conolly, Dr., 196.
Contract labor in reformatories,
241-45-
Copenhagen, institutions in,
172-73.
Cornplanter (John O. Bail), 78,
83-
Cornplanter Medal, The, 104.
Cottage system for residential
institutions, 173, 178-79,
193-95, 205.
Council House,',the Old Indian,
67,73-89,95-100,418.
Craig, Oscar, 314, 317, 319, 333.
Craig Colony, 317, 319, 321,
333-39, 359-
Crozer, Mrs. Mary A., 9, 23-24,-
253,318-19.
INDEX
46s
De-ge-wa-nus, 51, 409.
Denmark, Mr. L.'s inspections
in, 172-73.
Dix, Miss Dorothea L., 263,
267, 292.
Dow, Hon. Charles M., 98, 382,
399, 400, 404- _
Dublin, institutions at, 165.
Dymphna, St., 190.
Edinburgh, institutions at, 168-
69.
Eighth Judicial District, N. Y.,
107, 254, 256, 315.
Engelken, Dr. H., 301.
England, benevolent institu-
tions of, 195-208.
England: Local-government
Board, gift from, 208-09.
Epileptics, care and treatment
of, 319, 321, 327-50. 354, 410-
16.
Eric County insane asylum, 265-
67,285-91,303.
Erie County "placing out" sys-
tem, for children, 126-28,
321.
Erie County poorhouse, chil-
dren in, 1 12-16.
Fairchild, Prof. H. L., 392.
Falls of the Genesee, 34, 42, 48-
50, 52-53-
Fillmore, Millard, 67, 79, 86.
First N. Y. Dragoons, rendez-
vous camp, 105.
Fish, E. E., 64-65.
Fitz-James Colony of Insane,
186.
"Friends Retreat," The, 197-
98.
Friends, Society of, 2, 3-4, 5, 30.
Ganson, Senator John, 144.
Gardeau or Gardow Tract, 54,
93, 96.
Genesee Falls, The, 34, 42, 48-
50, 52-53, 372-80, 393-98.
Genesee River Company, 376-
79, 393-98-
Genesee Valley: its beauty, 34,
48; memorials of its history,
72-104, 351-52, 418.
Genesee Valley Museum, ICX)-
02.
Germany, Mr. L.'s inspections
in, 173-82.
Gheel Colony of Insane, 190-
93-
Gibbons, Mrs. Abby Hopper,
280-81.
Gildersleeve, Mrs. C. H., 34-35.
Glasgow, Institutions at, 168-
70.
Glen Iris: First seen by Mr. L.,
34; acquisition and develop-
ment, 42-68; topographic fea-
tures, 48-50; described by
David Gray, 51-54; repre-
sented in poetry — the
"Voices of the Glen," 55-61;
the railway, bridge, 61-63;
flora and| fauna, 63-66; memo-
rial trees, 66-67; local histori-
cal memorials,72-i05 ;Portage
Dam project, a menace to the
falls and the glen, 352, 362-
63, 370-80, 393-98; Mr. L.'s
early plans for the future of the
glen: the Wyoming Benevo-
lent Institute, 364-70, 380-
81, 389; gift of the estate to
the state, which names it
Letchworth Park, 380-404;
continued improvements by
466
INDEX
Mr. L., 407; plans of the
Scenic and Historic Preserv-
ation Society, for the devel-
opment of the park, 400-04.
Glenny, Mrs. William H., 59-
60.
Gothenburg, institutions in,
170-71.
Gowanda State Homoeopathic
Hospital for Insane, 290.
Grabau, Dr. A. W., 391.
Gray, David, 36-37, 51-54,57"
58,67,87-89,313.
Greene (Cordelia A.) Memorial
Library, 389.
Grout, Comptroller Edward M.,
152-55-
Hai-wa-ye-is-tah, 89.
Hall, Edward Hagaman, 98, 382,
392-
Hall, Prof. James A., 391.
Halsey, Francis Whiting, 382.
Hamburg, the Rauhe Haus at,
173-75-
Hance, Ann. See Letchworth,
Mrs. Ann Hance.
Hanwell Asylum, 196.
Hardwicke Court Reforma-
tory, 202.
Harris, Dr. Elisha, 130, 131,145,
146, 211-16.
Hayden and Holmes, 15-21.
Hill, Governor David B., 308-
09- _
Historical memorials, Genesee
Valley, 72-104, 351-52, 418-
Ho-de-no-sau-nee, The, 80,
86.
Holland, benevolent institu-
tions of, 193-95.
Home Monthly, The, 35.
Homes for homeless children,
123-30, 147-49, 205-06.
Howland, Henry R., 2, 38, 58-
59, 67, 73, 78-89, 100-02, 364,
430.
Howland, Mrs. William, 9, 357.
Hoxie, Mrs. Eliza, 9.
Hoyt, Dr. Charles S., 108, 117,
146,285,339,352-53.
Hughes, Gov. Charles E., 383,
386, 387, 409, 412.
Immigration, pauper, 259-62.
Indian Council, the last, 67,
76-89.
Indian Council House, 67, 73-
89,95-100,418.
Indian Mission burial ground,
Buffalo, 96.
Industrial training in reforma-
tories, 245-50.
Insane, the: Mr. L.'s Interest
in their treatment, 162; his
study of institutions in Eu-
rope, 164-98; his work at
home, 263-304; his book on
" The Insane in Foreign
Countries," 164, 167, 172,
177, 190, 197, 296-302, 312.
Insane in New York State, the,
263-94.
International Prison Associa-
tion, 157.
Ireland, Dr. W. W., 300.
Ireland, Mr. L.'s inspections in,
164-66.
Iroquois history, 72-104.
Jacket, John, 67.
Jails, county, 212-16, 355-57-
Jemison, Mary, 67, 75, 78, 89-
100, 418.
I
INDEX
467
Jemlson, Thomas, 67, 78, 82.
Jenisheu, 82.
Johnston, James NicoU, 37> 38,
56-S7> 67, 136-38, 141, 297,
313,327-28,342,360-61,405,
409, 410, 419.
Jones, Amanda T., 60-61.
Jones, Capt. Horatio, 102.
Kennedy, Mrs. Thomas, 98-
100.
Kerr, Col. Simcoe, 77, 80, 85.
King George canon, 79.
King's County almshouses,
children in, III-12, 140, 150,
152-55-
Kingsford, Hon. Thos. F., 382.
Kingswood Reformatory, 200.
Kirkbride, Franklin B., 413.
Koeppe, John Maurice, 177.
Kunz, George Frederick, 98,
381, 392, 404.
Lalor, Dr. Joseph, 164-65.
Larkin, Mr. and Mrs. John D.,
96.
"Last Indian Council on the
Genesee," 87-89.
Leipzlger, Dr. Henry M., 382.
Letchworth, Ann Hance (mo-
ther of W. P. L.), 6, 14, 18,
28, 46, 252.
Letchworth, Charlotte (Mrs.
Byron C. Smith), 9, 28,29,31.
Letchworth, Edward Hance, 9,
28, 364.
Letchworth, Eliza (Mrs. Hoxie),
9-
Letchworth, George Jediah, 9,
28, 312, 364.
Letchworth, Hannah (Mrs. Wil-
liam Howland), 9, 357.
Letchworth, John, Jr., 5.
Letchworth, John, Sr., 4-5.
Letchworth, Josiah, Jr., 9, 32,
33,365,418,420,422.
Letchworth, Josiah, Sr., 5-8,
12-17,22,27,28,32.
Letchworth, Mary Ann (Mrs.
Crozer), 9, 23-24, 253, 318-
19-
Letchworth, Ogden P., 380.
Letchworth, Robert, 3-4.
Letchworth, Thomas, 3-4.
Letchworth, William, 5.
Letchworth, William Pryor:
Characteristics of his life, i;
English Quaker ancestry, 2-
5; parentage, 5-8; brothers
and sisters, 9; boyhood, 10-
15; leaving home, 15-18;
clerkship at Auburn, 18-21;
at New York, 21-25; in busi-
ness at Buffalo, 25-27; the
Pratt & Letchworth estab-
lishment, 26-30; life in Buf-
falo, 28-31; vacation in the
South, 31-32; a year in Eu-
rope, 32; establishment of
malleable iron manufacture,
33; widening social relations,
33-38; first seeing of Glen
Iris, 34; writing for The Home
Monthly, 34-35; entering The
Nameless Club, 36-37; Presi-
dent of The Buffalo Fine Arts
Academy, 39-41; acquisition
and development of Glen Iris,
42-68; hospitality at Glen
Iris, 54-55; description of
burning of railway bridge, 61-
62; planting memorial trees,
66-68; interest in schools, and
the young, 68-70; preserving
468
INDEX
memorials of Genesee Valley
history, 72-104; honors to
memory of Mary Jemison,
89-100; adopted into the
Seneca Nation and named,
89; president of the Buffalo
Historical Society, 102-03; re-
cipient of Cornplanter Medal,
104; retirement from busi-
ness, 106; appointed (1873)
Commissioner on N. Y. State
Board of Charities, 107;
child-savingwork: prevenient,
109-61; removal of children
from poorhouses, 110-52;
vice-president of the State
Board (1874), in, 147; spe-
cial report on children in
poorhouses (1874), I 19-21;
securing mandatory legisla-
tion, 1 21-23 ; on family homes
for homeless children, 123-
29; Randall's Island inves-
tigation, 136-42; successes
against Tammany and Al-
bany politicians, 140-46; Mr.
L.'s strength of will, 142-47;
investigation of orphan asy-
lums, etc., 147-49; official
praise of work from New
York City, 152-55; mission-
ary work in other states, 156-
61; tour of investigation in
Europe (1880), 161, 164-209;
his book on "The Insane in
Foreign Countries," 164, 167,
172, 177, 190, 197, 272, 296-
302; on classification of child-
ren in institutions, 201, 222-
36; child-saving work: re-
formative, 210-50; connection
with Prison Association, 217-
18; plan for dealing with juve-
nile delinquency, 229, 234; his
effectual study of problems,
234-35; his seventeen child-
saving propositions, 236-39;
campaign against contract
labor in reformatories, 241-
45; work for improved indus-
trial training in reformatories,
245-50; impressive incident
at Rochester, 249-50; reap-
pointment (1877) on State
Board, 253; president of the
Board, 253; labors for the in-
sane, 263-304; advocacy of
women on boards of mana-
gers, 279-82; on commission
to locate state hospital for in-
sane in northern N. Y., 282-
85; second reappointment on
State Board, 308-11; resigna-
tion of the presidency of the
Board, 314; establishment of
Craig Colony, 317, 319, 333-
39; fourth consecutive ap-
pointment on the State Board,
317; received honorary de-
gree of LL. D., 317-18; resig-
nation from State Board,
321-26; work for the Epilep-
tic, 327-50; president of na-
tional association concerning
epilepsy, 346; the menace of
the Portage Dam project,
352, 362-63, 370-80, 393-98;
president of first State Con-
ference of C. and C, 354;
stricken with partial paraly-
sis, 357-58; early plans for
the future of the glen: the
Wyoming Benevolent Insti-
tute, 364-70, 380-81, 389; gift
INDEX
469
of Letchworth Park to the
State, 380-404; continued
improvements by Mr. L.,
407; Letchworth Village
named in his honor, 410-16;
his last year, death and buri-
al, 417-24; characteristics of
the man, 425-45.
Chronological list of Mr.
L.'s writings and publica-
tions, 447-60.
Letchworth parish and village,
Eng., 2, 3.
Letchworth Park, 364-404.
Letchworth Village, N. Y., 410-
16.
Little, Dr. Charles S., 415-16.
Livingston County Historical
Society, 351.
Lowell, Mrs. Josephine Shaw,
214-16, 253, 278.
Lunacy, State Commission in,
289, 294-96.
McCloud, Miss, 357, 362.
McPherson, Mrs. Robert, 115-
16, 127.
Marshall, Orsamus H., 73, 103.
Massachusetts, Conference
about immigrant paupers
with, 260-61.
Massachusetts juvenile reform-
ative system, 219, 226-30.
Mettray, Netherland, 193-95,
242.
Mettray reformatory colony
(French), 185, 187-89, 242.
Michigan State Industrial
Home for Girls, 248.
Mohawk Nation, the, 77, 79, 85.
Moot, Adelbert, 396-97, 443.
Morgan, Lewis H,, 95.
Mount Morris, 50, 334, 372-74.
Nameless Club, The, 36-37, 55.
Nash, George V., 65-66.
National Conference of Chari-
ties and Correction, 125, 156,
201, 221, 225, 227, 228, 236,
241, 261, 270, 282, 319, 341,
350,442-
National Prison Association,
211, 216.
Netherlands Mettray, 193-9S,
242.
New York City almshouses,
children in, 111-12, 131, 135-
42, 150, 152-55, 220, 258-59.
New York State Board of Char-
ities, Mr. L.'s service in, 107-
63, 210-326, 423.
New York State Conference of
C. and C, 354-57, 361, 416,
440.
New York State Water Supply
Commission, 394-98.
Norway, Mr. L.'s inspections
in, 171.
O'Bail, John (Cornplanter),
78, 83.
O'Bail, Solomon, 83-85.
Ogdensburg State Hospital for
Insane, location of, 282-85.
Ohio Hospital for Epileptics,
331-
Onondaga County institutions,
268-69."
Ordronaux, Dr. John, 331-32.
Orphan Asylums, 115, 121-30,
134, 147-49-
Osborn, Mrs. Kate, dj, 78.
Osier, Prof. William, 346.
470
INDEX
Paetz, Dr. Albrecht, 179, 300-
01.
Pandy, Dr. Kalman, 300-01.
Paris, benevolent institutions
of, 185.
Parker, Prof. Arthur C, 98-
100.
Parker, Sergeant Michael, 351.
Parker, Nicholas H., 78, 80-82.
Pauper immigration, 259-62.
Paupers, employment for, 132-
34-
Peterson, Dr. Frederick, 300,
332-33, 338, 346.
Phillips, Hon. N. Taylor, 382.
Poorhouse, Erie Co., 1 12-16,
265-67.
Poorhouse asylum, Onondaga
Co., 258, 268-69.
Poorhouses, children in, IIO-61,
204-05.
Poorhouses, plans for, 255.
Poorhouses. See, also. Alms-
houses.
Portage. — Portage Bridge, 34,
41, 46, 49, 61-63.
Portage Dam water-storage
project, 372-80, 393-98.
Pratt, Pascal P., 26.
Pratt, Samuel F., 26.
Pratt & Letchworth, 26-33,
106.
Price, Overton W., 403.
Prison Association of N. Y., 130,
211-18.
Prison Commission, N. Y.
State, 218.
Prospect Home, 371.
Prussian reformatories for boys,
182.
Pruyn, John V. L., 108, 144,
253.
Putnam, Harvey W., 326.
Putnam, James O., 66, 107.
Quaker ancestry, 2-5.
Rafter, George W., 375-76.
Rain baths in poorhouses, etc.,
320.
Randall's Island institutions,
131, 135-42, 150, 154, 220,
258-59-
RauheHaus, Hamburg, 173-75,
180, 187, 193, 205, 210, 242.
Rayner, Dr., 196.
Red Jacket, 67, 78, 103.
Red Lodge Reformatory, 200-
01.
Reformative child-saving work,
210-50.
Reformatories, juvenile, 147-
49, 164-208, 241-45, 245-50.
Reformatory institutions
abroad, Mr. L.'s studies of,
165-208.
Runkle, John D., 245.
Rutter, Dr. H. C, 346.
Sackett, Colonel Henry W.,
382.
St. Hans Hospital for Insane,
172-73.
St. John, Evangelical Founda-
tion of, 180.
Salpetriere, La, 185.
Sanborn, F. B., 66.
Sargent, Prof. Charles S., 68.
"Saxa Hilda," 35.
Schools, Mr. L.'s interest in, 68-
70.
Schuyler, Miss Louise Lee, 131.
Scotland, Mr. L.'s inspections
in, 166-70.
INDEX
471
Seaver, James E., 94-95.
Selkirk, George H., 37.
Seneca Nation, the, 72-104.
Seventeen child-saving proposi-
tions, 236-39.
Seward, William H., 7-8, 54.
Shaker Settlement of Sonyea,
334-36.
Sherwood, N. Y., Mr. Letch-
worth's boyhood in, 6, ia-i8.
Shongo, George, 93.
Shongo, James, 78.
Shower baths in poorhouses,
etc., 320.
Sibbald, Dr. John, 300.
Skinner, John B., 364.
Smith, Mrs. Byron C, 9, 28-
29, 31-
Smith, Dr. Samuel Wesley, 300.
Smith, Dr. Stephen, 295-96,
300, 31S, 319, 324-25, 338,
358, 440.
Society for Reformation of Ju-
venile Delinquents, 258-59.
Sonyea, 334-36.
Spratling, Dr. William P., 337,
339, 346, 360.
State Board of Charities. See
New York State Board.
State care (N. Y.) for all in-
sane, 288-91.
State Charities Aid Association,
124,131,253,288,333.
State hospitals (N. Y.) for the
insane, 282-85.
State Industrial School (N. Y.),
247-50.
Stewart, William Rhinelander,
278,319,411-12,442.
Stillson, Jerome B., 37.
Stockholm, institutions in, 171-
72.
Superintendents of the Poor,
state conventions of, 118, 222,
315,350-
Sweden, Mr. L.'s inspections in,
170-71.
Switzerland, Mr. L.'s inspec-
tions in, 183-84.
Thay-en-dan-ega-ga-onh, 85.
Thomas Orphan Asylum, 103-
04, 308, 315.
Titus, Senator Robert C, 244-
45-
Truancy, treatment of, 230-
31-
Tuke, William, 197.
Turner, Dr. Wm. Aldren, 343.
University of the State of New
York, 318.
Vail, Charles Delamater, 98.
Van Campen, Major Moses, 74-
75, loi.
Villers Colony of Insane, 186.
"Voices of the Glen," 55-61,
409-10.
Warren, Joseph, 39, 143.
Warsaw, N. Y.: soldiers' and
sailors' monument, 252, 361.
Western House of Refuge, 224-
25, 246-50.
"White Woman of the Gene-
see." See Jemison, Mary.
Whitney, Elias J., 297.
Wichern, Immanuel, 173-75,
180, 193, 205, 210, 242.
Wilber,Dr.H.P., 114-15.
Wildermuth, Dr., 345, 349.
Willard Asylum for the Insane,
263, 264, 276, 282, 287, 303.
472
INDEX
Wine banished from Mr. L.'s
table, 431-33.
Wines, Dr. E. C, 157, 211, 216-
17-
Wise, Dr. F. N., 283-8;, 300.
Women on boards of managers,
279-82.
Women's Educational and In-
dustrial Union, Buffalo, 282,
319-
Wright, Mrs. Asher, 94, 95, 100,
104.
Wyoming Benevolent Institute,
364-70, 380-81, 389.
Zurich, institutions at, 183.
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