Founded 1833 as the

On Friday, May 17, in the third month of Andrew Jackson's second term as President of  the United States, a group of concerned women and their "gentlemen" advisers, all prominent residents of the Village of Brooklyn in the Town Of Brooklyn, (1) met at St. Ann's Episcopal Church on the Heights where they adopted a 12-article constitution for a new charitable enterprise that they called, temporarily, "The Brooklyn Orphan Asylum Society." 

Eleven months later, on April 18, 1834, they must have been delighted to rename it the "Orphan Asylum Society in the City of Brooklyn" when their fast-growing community of 20,000 people with its excellent harbor and the two ferry lines that linked it to nearby Manhattan became a municipality in its own right, having finally -and in spite of opposition from the "big city" across the river -obtained a charter from the New York State Legislature. (2)

Curiously, the day of the month of that first public meeting at St. Ann's is not recorded in the one surviving printed copy of its first annual report (for the fiscal year ended May 24,1834). The accepted May 17 date seems to have been supplied years later by people who were present that day.

Nor is there any record of exactly how many citizens attended, although it's reasonable to suppose that most, if not all, of the 39 women who would serve on the first Board of Managers were on hand, as were the seven men, including two judges and two lawyers, who would make up the first Board of Advisors and who, together with the Rev. Dr. Cutler of St. Ann's, had  helped draft the constitution and would later help write the by-laws and the asylum rules. (3)  

In his comprehensive "History of the City of Brooklyn," published in 1870 when many of the principals were still living, Henry M. Stiles attributes the "idea of forming an association" to Mrs. Elizabeth R. Davison, who was deeply worried about children left parentless "by the ravages of the cholera in 1832." Contemporary accounts, however, suggest that Mrs. Joshua Sands, (4) who was certainly among the Society's leading proponents, along with other activist colleagues, was equally instrumental in its establishment.  

Whoever the innovators may have been, though, it's clear that the project had an astonishing amount of community support from the Outset. (5) The first report lists 188 "annual subscribers," or members, the managers among them, who made gifts of $1.00 to $10.00, five "life members" who gave $25.00 each and 40 other supporters whose donations included "a widow's mite" of 13 cents, 25 cents from "a poor French woman" and a munificent $50.00 from George Hall who had become the city's first Mayor in May, 1834. 

The late Francis E Walton, Honorary Historian, examines sketch of First Brooklyn Orphan Asylum with fellow Society members, Mrs. R. Whitney Gosnell, left, former President; Mrs. John Jay Wittmer former Recording Secretary and Bruce H. Wittmer current President. Mr. Walton, who was 100 years old on May 17, 1983, had been associated with the Society for 56 years as a member of the Advisory Board and Treasurer. He died in June, 1983

Looking back with the corrected vision of hindsight, the public support that seemed so astonishing to a later generation was a logical enough development, considering the era and the prevailing social and political conditions.

In the 1830's, America and, particularly, the cities in the Northeast were just beginning to feel the impact of the Industrial Revolution with all of its attendant blessings and evils. The opening of the Erie Canal in 1825, giving ready access to raw materials from the West and thereby greatly accelerating trade and manufacturing, made New York the biggest city in the country. Neighboring Brooklyn, profiting from the business overflow, expanded at an even swifter rate.

At the same time, the new factories and related industries, hungry for cheap labor, had a devastating effect on underprivileged adults and children, native-born and immigrant alike, forcing them to work brutally long hours under dreadful conditions at wages barely sufficient for their meager sustenance and the rental of squalid hovels. It's no historical accident that the first half of the century witnessed the birth of many of the great reform movements and the first hesitant steps towards the sharing of social responsibility.

                   Mrs. Ann Sands, a founder Portrait was painted when she was ninety.

In any event, following the May 17 meeting, Ann Sands prevailed on two sisters named Jackson to lend the Society a house they owned on Brooklyn Heights. Situated on Love Lane near the intersection of Willow and Pierrepont Streets, it was an old, two-story, low-pitched, Dutch-style "mansion" about 60 feet long, and was thought to have been used briefly as a wartime headquarters by General Washington. It was constructed of rough-hewn stone with a roof of scalloped wooden shingles. Its front faced the river and there was a vegetable garden in the back. Not much is known now about the interior arrangements except that the fireplaces were made of blue and white tiles, and there was ample room for the 14 boys and 12 girls who became its first residents, as well as for a matron and two or more servants. Before the youngsters could be admitted, however, the place had to be made habitable.  

Consequently, over the summer and early fall of 1833, the managers, taking turns, worked hard to renovate, furnish and supply it. A recently-discovered ledger of receipts and disbursements between 1833 and 1854 shows initial outlays, commencing on July 16, 1833, for the book itself (88 cents) and for cleaning, wood, tin and furniture. The earliest indication of children in residence is an entry of $32.99 for groceries on October 17, Later in the year, there are entries for such homey things as soap, dry goods, crockery, shoes and hay to feed a cow donated just before Christmas.

About the first children, only fragmentary information exists. (6) They were, apparently, between three and eight, and we know their names, but not always or in each case, their exact dates of birth, dates of admission and discharge and what eventually became of them. Eight, it seems, were orphans. The rest were children of "destitute widows who are enabled by their daily labor, to pay the small sum of 50 cents a week for their support."

A certain Mr. Howe donated a cow just before Christmas 

One of the boys admitted in 1833 was Dominick McLaughlin, a motherless, badly crippled four year old, who spent 13 years in the asylum and thereafter earned his living selling newspapers and confections at the ferry terminal. He died in 1863, bequeathing his life savings of $572.93 to the Society and his crutches to the first returned Union Army soldier that might need them. Dominick had two slightly older sisters, also asylum residents. Mary Ann left in May, 1838, presumably taken in by a relative. Bridget had left earlier, in 1837, but in 1841 was "placed with" a John S. Doughty of Brooklyn. Two others in the initial group were eventually placed with families, quite likely "bound out" or indentured as servants or apprentices, inasmuch, as no adoptions, as such, were recorded before the 1840's. Another child, five-year-old Isabella Houston, died in April, 1834, when the late prevailing epidemic reached the Asylum and laid one of its happy little inmates in the grave."

Dinner, served at half past twelve, consisted of "soup or baked beans, beef, mutton or veal, partly at the discretion of the matron, only stipulating that it shall be healthy and frugal:' Lessons were resumed at two o'clock and concluded at an unspecified hour with the singing of a hymn "when practicable." The evening meal was "much like breakfast The children went to bed at seven after hearing a final prayer offered by the Matron. Every week, after Sunday school, the older boys and girls were taken to services at one of several nearby churches. As the asylum became better known, the children were frequently invited to picnics, holiday dinners and other entertainments by church groups and local organizations.  

Unfortunately, there are few records left of the asylum's early activities. If annual reports, then called "manuals," containing narrative material and financial statements were published between 1835 and 1844, as many surely were, they are now irretrievably lost, as are a smaller number printed between 1846 and 1862. From 1863 on, though, reports and many other important documents were preserved. Most of what's known about the Society during its first two decades or so comes from specific references in these later reports, especially those issued in major anniversary years.

 Nevertheless, a fascinating, albeit incomplete, picture can be pieced together from the several sources available. In 1835, for example, we learn from an 1883 historical sketch, "the state of the treasury" didn't allow for the printing of a report, while the ledger shows that a recently-engaged cook named Margaret Martin was paid $7.00, seemingly for six weeks of work.

There's also an item of "5.00" for an ad in Spooner's paper," but its purpose isn't stated. (7) Expenditures for the year came to $1,029.41, an increase of $191.72 over the first year's total of $837.69.

In 1836, expenditures went up to $1,802.74, and a third anniversary observance was held in the Common Council Hall where "the children recited passages of Scripture, hymns and the multiplication table." By the beginning of the following year, with admission applications on the rise, the house on Love Lane was no longer considered adequate, and the managers decided they had to have their own home-even  though free use of the Jackson place had been graciously continued after the property was sold a year or two earlier to Jonathan Trotter, an attorney and a subsequent mayor of Brooklyn.

    A plentiful use of cold water to be practised.

 According to the report for 1851, that year was one of "unvarying prosperity," and the treasury was "no longer exhausted." A "donation visit" to the asylum was arranged that autumn and "kind persons attended and poured in with liberal hand money, clothing, provisions, stationery and other gifts good and seasonable. "Thanksgiving and Christmas dinners were donated by the Sabbath schools of different churches. The managers of Greenwood Cemetery, through the good offices of Henry E. Pierpont, presented the Society with a plot of ground "where they may lay those of their youthful charges whom death may call away." Through John Jay, Esq., the asylum received a gift of $250.00 which represented a portion of the proceeds of a New York concert by Swedish singing star Jenny Lind, then starting out on her celebrated American tour.

The asylum's population at the end of the year was 143, and the house would have been overcrowded except for the new wing completed in May at a cost of $3,987.17. It, together with new play-house, was built on four lots contributed by John B. Graham, Esq., a friend, and John J. Halsey, Esq., a member of the Advisory  Board.

The Society thrived during the 1850's, but by 1858, the year of its 25th anniversary, the physical plant needed "certain indispensable improvements." A laundry and boiler room were added, along with a larger kitchen oven. The dormitories were re-arranged and better ventilated, and gas for lighting was brought in, all at a cost of $1,000.00. The managers, anxious to make the house more comfortable "with some mode of generally warming it," wanted to put in a furnace, too, but funds for repairs were exhausted and the furnace was deferred until 1860 when a hot water system serving the entire household was installed.

The 1860 report shows that the institution was continuing to get an impressive amount of public recognition and support. That year, some 800 members and contributors gave over $2,500,

         Dominick McLaughlin left his life savings to the asylum.

They needn't have worried because, two years later at the height of the war, regular subscriptions and contributions stayed constant at the 1861 level and, in fact, a $5,000 legacy from the estate of John S. Wiley and a $200 contribution from "a group of gentlemen" for the  erection of an asylum monument in Greenwood Cemetery made 1863 a very good year financially. In addition, "large donations of Provisions and Fancy Articles" were too numerous to mention individually, and the managers tendered "warmest thanks" by way of a note in the annual report. (8)

In 1864, after "persistent appeals" by the Children's Aid Society of New York, seven asylum boys were sent out to homes in the "Great West" where they were "cordially received and well treated. In some instances, they replaced sons of farm families who had been killed in battle. These Brooklyn orphans, tough street kids, mostly, were surprisingly happy in their bucolic environment, and many were adopted or simply stayed on informally when their periods of indenture expired. The practice of sending boys to the west continued for some 20-odd years and, ultimately, a total of about 150 went, although the numbers varied widely from year to year.

By the next year, the managers, perhaps ahead of their time once again, were urging upon our friends the necessity of sustaining liberally the great work of rescuing and training those who will, if neglected, fill our towns and cities with vagrants more numerous than now infest them: for early neglect is the school which fosters vicious habits, leading to ignoble lives-perhaps ignoble deaths." 

They were troubled, too, about the problems of adolescent boys (but not, apparently, of girls) and they approached the subject with a certain Victorian delicacy. Mrs. Weld, still Corresponding Secretary, noting the "frequent and favorable accounts of indentured children:' concluded that they were "well started in the life of labor and self-reliance which is to be theirs." She added, "It is thought desirable to have the boys indentured or removed when they reach the age of twelve. They grow restless and mischievous and do not have bodily fatigue or exercise sufficient to balance the natural craving for excitement which belongs to their recission from childhood." 

In the housekeeping department that year, "an additional bathroom was found necessary, and it was supplied." This is the first reference to such a facility, and a latter-day reader can only speculate on how many there were originally and how they were equipped. At that point, the population was 130, and the house was crowded, "too much so for the general health, and we daily feel the need for a larger building and more extensive grounds."

At the end of the following fiscal year, 1867, the house was still crowded with 138 youngsters in residence. Nevertheless, Mrs. Weld could report that the "yearly health has been excellent as the general appearance of the children testifies: adding that "two only have died." One was a girl of 12, "a sweet child," who had suffered from an unspecified but chronic disease. The other, a little girl of four, fell victim to the measles.

In the spring, the constitution and the by laws were amended, just as they had been from time to time since 1833. Most of the changes were in the areas of administration and operating procedure. One, though, the revision of Article XII is important because it provided for the creation of a 12-member executive committee to "make inquiry into the circumstances of  children offered for admission and also inquire as to their condition after having been bound out."

  Alexander H. Dana was a member of the Advisory Board and chief legal counsel for 50 years.

This was a significant departure from established policy. For thirty years, a seven-member committee had passed on admissions and "the propriety of binding out," but had no mandate to do any sort of follow-up once children left the shelter of the asylum. Now committee members would be empowered to take a close look at their "relationships and prospects (so) that they may have any advantages due them and in seeing also that those indentured by the Society meet with the protection and justice promised them."

The managers, admittedly, had become aware of abuses in the indenture system and moved to correct them, especially those that affected older boys who, they decided, should be allowed "to work for themselves" before reaching legal age. "Some boys at eighteen," they said, "are almost if not quite men-and subordination to the will of another, not a parent, is slavery-crushing the spirit, abating self-respect  and deadening the energy which one who owns himself and is self-dependent develops before the age of twenty-one, if he develops it at all."

  The concern for the welfare of the older boys particularly indigent orphan boys that few people cared much about is a clear indication

of progressive thinking, although the managers' good intentions were undoubtedly reinforced by the prevailing public mood. The ending of the war, the imminent reunification of the country and the ratification, in December, 1865, of the Thirteenth Amendment abolishing slavery nationally were causes for rejoicing in a Brooklyn whose populace had been fervidly anti-secession and anti-slavery. Then, too, the Rev. Henry Ward Beecher, the North's most celebrated preacher against the "peculiar institution," was an old friend and his Plymouth Church congregation contributed generously to the Society's work every year. At this juncture, then, anything smacking of involuntary servitude would have been anathema to the Society, as well as to the constituency it relied on for support.  

The revised Article XII was something of a milestone in another way. Its last sentence, but one, which sounds almost as though it had been added as an afterthought, reads: "They (the members of the executive committee) shall also have general supervision and control of the Asylum under such directions as the Board of Managers shall prescribe and shall report at each monthly meeting of such Board." In effect, the new committee was the forerunner of the agency's present-day Board of Directors and it, together with standing committees created over the succeeding decades for specific purposes, gradually supplanted an increasingly unwieldy rotational system that required each manager, in turn, to visit the asylum weekly "to supervise the general household management, the health of the children and the course of instruction." The organization was still growing and now, in 1867, there were 61 managers, apart from the five officers, an 11-member Board of Advisors, 62 "honorary" members, 130 "life" members and 1,200 other contributors.

                         The cadets stay in formation.                                                                                The band. The way it was in 1929.

During the period, while there was still great emphasis on religious observance and ways to keep youngsters busy during non-school hours, the atmosphere seems to have become a little more relaxed, and the children were getting out more, going places and doing things that were entertaining as well as educational. Horse-car service, inaugurated back in 1854, had been swiftly extended to all parts of the growing city. Two steam railroads, one to Canarsie, the other to Coney Island, had been built in the sixties and seventies. Soon after, six others, including the "Brooklyn and Jamaica" (later the "Long Island") reached outlying resort areas. These, along with the opening of the Brooklyn Bridge, in 1883, and the development of a network of elevated railway lines to move large numbers of people between Manhattan and the suburbs, made inexpensive-and rapid transportation accessible to everyone, including the Asylum youngsters.

Around that time, there were frequent references to outings and picnics in recently opened Prospect Park. There were longer trips to Coney Island, Rockaway Beach, far-off Speonk, and visits to private homes in Woodside, all courtesy of the railroad companies.  

Although the children were undoubtedly  having more fun, they were also getting more instruction in the practical things that would  help them earn a living and, in the meantime, serve as a way of "banishing idleness and misdirected energy." A workshop was built on the  grounds and a part-time instructor hired at  $20 a month-to teach boys the use of simple carpenter's tools. For girls, a dolls' dressmaking department was created, together with a  somewhat euphemistically-named "Kitchen Garden" to teach the "right way" to do housework. They wore aprons and little white caps. 

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