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 
 
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 H 
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 o 
 
 s 
 
 X 
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 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
 
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 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
 
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 H 
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 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.
 
 < 
 
 a, 
 
 K 
 H 
 Pi 
 O 
 
 u 
 
 H 
 
 W 
 
 Pi 
 
 ■< 
 
 H 
 U 
 M 
 Pi 
 
 O 
 
 Pi 
 Ph 
 
 o 
 
 Pi
 
 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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