St. Vincent's Industrial School and Orphan Asylum

[dgriffin]

This clip from O'Grady's work, already posted above, is quite interesting:

"In 1868, when enthusiasm
for the development of Catholic industrial schools had reached
a high point all over the country, a writer in the Catholic
World ventured to point out some of the limitations of the
program: "We are told that our city (New York) contains no fewer than
40,000 vagrant and destitute children. . . . What are we doing
for them?"

Put them to work, of course. Otherwise they would starve on the streets, or find worse to do, as in the 2002 film set in 1846, "Gangs of New York." In fact, one reason why there were mobs of children roaming the streets of large cities was because their parents didn't have the money to care for them. Child labor filled the bill.

I point out in the story of my grandmother, "Blanche,"
( www.windsweptpress.com/blanche.pdf )
that passage of the Child Labor Laws in the 1890's split up her entire family when the children were no longer allowed to work and add and their income to the family pot. The law destroyed her family. They lit out on their own to each find their fate. At that time, Blanche was about 12 years old.

[dgriffin]

It's an eye strain, even after you double click. But give it a go.


www.windsweptpress.com/images/real home env 2.jpg[/img]

[dgriffin]

[dgriffin]

[dgriffin]

Continuing from John O'Grady's "Catholic Charities of America."


St. Mary's Industria1 School, Baltimore

In May, 1866, Archbishop Spalding called a meeting of
prominent Catholics of Baltimore at which be outlined his
plans for an industrial school to be known as St. Mary’s
Industrial School for Boys. The archbishop stated that four
Xaverian Brothers would arrive from Belgium about Au-
gust 1 to take charge of the school. Articles of incorpora-
tion had already been secured. A tract of land, consisting
of 100 acres on the Frederick Road within a short distance
of Baltimore. had been donated to the archbishop by Mrs.
Emily McTavish, a granddaughter of Charles Carroll, as a
site for the new institution and temporary buildings were in
process of construction. It was estimated that a permanent
building capable of meeting the needs of the school would cost
in the neighborhood of $50,000. At the close of the meeting
subscriptions amounted to $18,000.
St. Mary’s Industrial School opened its doors and received
its first boy October 3, ?. In a few months the number
of boys increased to forty nine, the utmost capacity of the
temporary structure. The new building was begun in April,
1867, and completed in a little more than a year."
In 1868 the Maryland legislature recommended the appro-
priation of $25,000 for St. Mary `s Industrial School for the
two years 1868—1869.*" In 1869 the institution received an
appropriation of $,?000 from the city council of Baltimore.
In its appeal, both for public funds and private donations,
the board of trustees of St. Mary ’s expressed the hope that
in a short time the institution would become self-supporting.
They had under way plans for the development of various
industries from which they expected to secure considerable
profit. Large investments were made in machinery and equip-
ment of various kinds. Before long the board learned that
an industrial school can not compete successfully with out-
side plants. In this connection St. Mary 's Industrial School
went through the bitter experiences of many schools of its
type. It was not the first or last school that made an effort
to combine productive efficiency with vocational training.
Its large investment in machinery meant a serious setback
for St. Mary’s Industrial School. The institution suffered
a still more serious blow in the death of Archbishop Spalding
in 1872. After due consideration the board of trustees de-
cided that there was only one way in which St. Mary ’s could
be saved and that was by making it a semi-public institution.
In 1872 the board applied for s change in the charter so as
to enable them to receive delinquent boys from the city and
state. It was felt that so long as the institution was discharging
a public function it could rightfully appeal for
public appropriations. The move was successful, so far as St.
Mary’s was concerned, and everything went smoothly until
1876. In that year a number of citizens applied for an order
restraining the city from granting public funds to St. Mary’s
on the ground that it was a sectarian institution. While the
court upheld the basic argument of the objectors in regard
to lump sum appropriations, it contended that there was
nothing in the constitution to prevent the city from making
per capita payments to St. Mary 's for its public wards.
For St. Mary’s Industrial School, as for other schools of
its type, the after-care and placement of the boys was an
important consideration. In the beginning the brothers ap-
prenticed a large number of the boys to farms, but soon
learned that this did not work successfully. They therefore
adopted the policy of retaining boys until they reached a
xxx-supporting age. It acquired a building downtown to be
known as St. James' Home, where boys who had been dis-
charged from the institution might board until such time as
they could find work and adjust themselves.”

[dgriffin]

Did St. Mary's steeple really look like that? Or was it artistic license.

[fiona]

dave: just aside point, but I think John Roberts built and owned the house i am living in now. I won't have time to research it until after September, but I think this is the case. it is my beliefe that Jacob Agne's daughter ( he was a prominent Utica architect: remember him from the "Genesee Flats")married John Roberts and that Jacob Agne built and lived in the house 2 doors away from me going south. That would be 1519 Genesee.

[fiona]

Correct me if I am wrong, but didn't Agne design and build St. Vincent's?

[fiona]

I wonder how many other boys ran away from St. Vincents in the dead of winter with only the clothes on their backs and nothing else to speak of

[fiona]

I wonder how many other boys ran away from St. Vincents in the dead of winter with only the clothes on their backs? Certintaly their decison to leave was more than just a lark. The building looks forboding and I daresay life there may have been less than pleasent. I am sure that being under the watchful eye of the Christain Brothers was no picnic in the park. Those priests meant business. I wonder how many blood stained paddles for the backsides of "poor miscreant Irish boys" were kept in the drawers of their desks, or better yet, hung on the wall of the head masters office in full view, so that it might be viewed as a lesson in moral objectivity? I went to Catholic School, the mantra was " we must suffer as Christ suffered, so that we shall be cleansed of all sin and made pure as driven snow" In other words, we evil children were born that way and it was sister '' Immaculatas" goal in life to show us the error of our birth. The end (our salvation) always justified the means. So it must have been for these boys, only even more strident, given the social mores of the day, that the children of the well to do were part of the glorious manifest destiny of the country, but the children of the poor, particularaly the urban Irish, were like vermin.

[dgriffin]

It is truth that girls in Catholic schools were treated far worse than boys. My wife tells a few horrific (in a relative sense) stories about her youth spent in a convent school. She as well as most of the students were not boarders and were allowed to go home at night. But discipline was tough. She was summarily kicked out of Sodality for dating a boy from the nearby public school. I remember my 12 years of Catholic schooling more fondly than does Mrs. Dave, but then my memory is going. Here would be a good opportunity to shamelessly plug a few stories about my Catholic high school days:

"Irish Catholic Sex" at:
www.windsweptpress.com/cathsex.pdf
and
"Dragon Breath"
www.windsweptpress.com/dragon.pdf
and my favorite,
"Saltpeter" at
www.windsweptpress.com/saltpeter.pdf

Oh, and "I Love A Parade" (remember the May Day parades up Genesee St. to the Parkway?)
www.windsweptpress.com/ilaparade.pdf

All my stories and essays are indexed on this page:

www.windsweptpress.com/essays.htm

[dgriffin]

[dgriffin]

Aug 22, 2009 20:35:19 GMT -5 fiona said:

Correct me if I am wrong, but didn't Agne design and build St. Vincent's?

I just dug out Agne's obit, and it looks like St. Vincent's was one of the few buildings in Utica that he didn't design. I'll post the obit and a list of his Utica architecture tomorrow when I have time.

[fiona]

I would love to have a list of Agne's archtecture posted. I know for a fact that the Teamsters building in Rutger Park, Number 4, was one of his. it is a brick and gothic Queen Anne, and it is a beautiful building, both in and out, rock solid, ponderous, a Victorian home in every sense of the word. It is next to the Miller-Conkling house and is for sale.

[dgriffin]

Full obit of Jacob Agne coming next, but here's the paragraphs from it pertaining to his architectural work. Click on the jpg once and then a second time, depending upon the browser you're using. You should be able to read it with only minimum eye strain.
(I don't have the energy to OCR this stuff and then twiddle it. These old newspapers take a lot of twiddling of the OCR output.)