LADIES' AID SOCIETY OF PHILA

DELPHIA.

NE of the first societies formed by ladies to aid and care

for the sick and wounded soldiers, was the one whose name we have placed at the head of this sketch.

The

Aid Society of Cleveland, and we believe one in Boston claim a date five or six days earlier, but no others. The ladies who composed it met on the 26th of April, 1861, and organized themselves as a society to labor for the welfare of the soldiers whether in sickness or health. They continued their labors with unabated zeal until the close of the war rendered them unnecessary. The officers of the society were Mrs. Joel Jones, President; Mrs. John Harris, Secretary; and Mrs. Stephen Colwell, Treasurer. Mrs. Jones is the widow of the late Hon. Joel Jones, a distinguished jurist of Philadelphia, and subsequently for several years President of Girard College. A quiet, self-possessed and dignified lady, she yet possessed an earnestly patriotic spirit, and decided business abilities. Of Mrs. Harris, one of the most faithful and persevering laborers for the soldiers in the field, throughout the war, we have spoken at length elsewhere in this volume. Mrs. Colwell, the wife of Hon. Stephen Colwell, a man of rare philosophic mind and comprehensive views, who had acquired a reputation alike by his writings, and his earnest practical benevolence, was a woman every way worthy of her husband.

It was early determined to allow Mrs. Harris to follow the

promptings of her benevolent heart and go to the field, while her colleagues should attend to the work of raising supplies and money at home, and furnishing her with the stores she required for her own distribution and that of the zealous workers who were associated with her. The members of the society were connected with twenty different churches of several denominations, and while all had reference to the spiritual as well as physical welfare of the soldier, yet there was nothing sectarian or denominational in its work. From the fact that its meetings were held and its goods packed in the basement and vestry of Dr. Boardman's Church, it was sometimes called the Presbyterian Ladies' Aid Society, but the name, if intended to imply that its character was denominational, was unjust. As early as October, 1861, the pastors of twelve churches in Philadelphia united in an appeal to all into whose hands the circular might fall, to contribute to this society and to form auxiliaries to it, on the ground of its efficiency, its economical management, and its unsectarian character.

The society, with but moderate receipts as compared with those of the great organizations, accomplished a great amount of good. Not a few of the most earnest and noble workers in the field were at one time or another the distributors of its supplies, and thus in some sense, its agents. Among these we may name besides Mrs. Harris, Mrs. M. M. Husband, Mrs. Mary W. Lee, Miss M. M. C. Hall, Miss Cornelia Hancock, Miss Anna M. Ross, Miss Nellie Chase, of Nashville, Miss Hetty K. Painter, Mrs. Z. Denham, Miss Pinkham, Miss Biddle, Mrs. Sampson, Mrs. Waterman, and others. The work intended by the society, and which its agents attempted to perform was a religious as well as a physical one; hospital supplies were to be dispensed, and the sick and dying soldier carefully nursed; but it was also a part of its duty to point the sinner to Christ, to warn and reprove the erring, and to bring religious consolation and support to the sick and dying; the Bible, the Testament, and the tract were as truly a part of its supplies as the clothing it distributed so liberally, or

the delicacies it provided to tempt the appetite of the sick. Mrs. Harris established prayer-meetings wherever it was possible in the camps or at the field hospitals, and several of the other ladies followed her example.

In her first report, Mrs. Harris said: "In addition to the dispensing of hospital supplies, the sick of two hundred and three regiments have been personally visited. Hundreds of letters, bearing last messages of love to dear ones at home, have been written for sick and dying soldiers. We have thrown something of home light and love around the rude couches of at least five hundred of our noble citizen soldiers, who sleep their last sleep along the Potomac.

"We have been permitted to take the place of mothers and sisters, wiping the chill dew of death from the noble brow, and breathing words of Jesus into the ear upon which all other sounds fell unheeded. The gentle pressure of the hand has carried the dying one to the old homestead, and, as it often happened, by a merciful illusion, the dying soldier has thought the face upon which his last look rested, was that of a precious mother, sister, or other cherished one. One, a German, in broken accents, whispered: 'How good you have come, Eliza; Jesus is always near me;' then, wrestling with that mysterious power, death, slept in Jesus. Again, a gentle lad of seventeen summers, wistfully then joyfully exclaimed: 'I knew she would come to her boy,' went down comforted into the dark valley. Others, many others still, have thrown a lifetime of trustful love into the last look, sighing out life with 'Mother, dear mother!'

"It has been our highest aim, whilst ministering to the temporal well-being of our loved and valued soldiers, to turn their thoughts and affections heavenward. We are permitted to hope that not a few have, through the blessed influence of religious tracts, soldiers' pocket books, soldiers' Bibles, and, above all, the Holy Scriptures distributed by us, been led 'to cast anchor upon

that which is within the veil, whither the forerunner is for us entered, even Jesus.""

The society did not attempt, and wisely, to compete with the great commissions in their work. It could not supply an entire army or throw upon the shoulders of its hard-working voluntary agents the care of the sick and wounded of a great battle. Its field of operations was rather here and there a field hospital, the care of the sick and wounded of a single division, or at most of a small army corps, when not engaged in any great battles; the providing for some hundreds of refugees, the care of some of the freedmen, and the assistance of the families of the soldiers. Whatever it undertook to do it did well. Its semi-annual reports consisted largely of letters from its absent secretary, letters full of pathos and simple eloquence, and these widely circulated, produced a deep impression, and stirred the sympathies of those who read, to more abundant contributions.

As an instance of the spirit which actuated the members of this society we state the following incident of which we were personally cognizant; one of the officers of the society soon after the commencement of the war had contributed so largely to its funds that she felt that only by some self-denial could she give more. Considering for a time where the retrenchment should begin, she said to the members of her family; "these soldiers who have gone to fight our battles have been willing to hazard their lives for us, and we certainly cannot do too much for them. Now, I propose, if you all consent, to devote a daily sum to the relief of the army while the war lasts, and that we all go without some accustomed luxury to procure that sum. Suppose we dispense with our dessert during the war?" Her family consented, and the cost of the dessert was duly paid over to the society as an additional donation throughout the war.

The society received and expended during the four years ending April 30, 1865, twenty-four thousand dollars in money, beside five hundred and fifty dollars for soldiers' families, and

seven hundred dollars with accumulated interest for aiding disabled soldiers to reach their homes. The supplies distributed were worth not far from one hundred and twenty-five thousand dollars, aside from those sent directly to Mrs. Harris from individuals and societies, which were estimated at fully two hundred thousand dollars.

In this connection it may be well to say something of two other associations of ladies in Philadelphia for aiding the soldiers, which remained independent of the Sanitary or Christian Commissions through the war, and which accomplished much good.

THE PENN RELIEF ASSOCIATION was organized early in 1862, first by the Hicksite Friends, to demonstrate the falsity of the commonly received report that the "Friends," being opposed to war, would not do anything for the sick and wounded. Many of the "Orthodox Friends" afterwards joined it, as well as considerable numbers from other denominations, and it proved itself a very efficient body. Mrs. Rachel S. Evans was its President, and Miss Anna P. Little and Miss Elizabeth Newport its active and hard-working Secretaries, and Miss Little doubtless expressed the feeling which actuated all its members in a letter in which she said that "while loyal men were suffering, loyal women must work to alleviate their sufferings." The "Penn Relief" collected supplies to an amount exceeding fifty thousand dollars, which were almost wholly sent to the "front," and distributed by such judicious and skilful hands as Mrs. Husband, Mrs. Hetty K. Painter, Mrs. Mary W. Lee, and Miss Anna Carver.

"THE SOLDIERS' AID ASSOCIATION," was organized on the 28th of July, 1862, mainly through the efforts of Mrs. Mary A. Brady, a lady of West Philadelphia, herself a native of Ireland, but the wife of an English lawyer, who had made his home in Philadelphia, in 1849. Mrs. Brady was elected President of the Association, and the first labors of herself and her associates were expended on the Satterlee Hospital, one of those vast institutions