CHAPTER III.

THE COLUMBIA INSTITUTION FOR THE DEAF AND DUMB.

EARL

ARLY in the year 1856 a man whose name wisely has been allowed to be forgotten came to Washington with five deaf and dumb children whom he had taken from the streets and almshouses of New York, and who were bound to him legally as apprentices. Claiming to be conversant with the methods of instructing deaf-mutes, he started a private school in which he gathered a dozen or more of the deaf and dumb or blind children of the District of Columbia besides the children he had brought with him. Having announced his intention to start an institution for the education of the deaf and blind, he appealed to the benevolent to aid him and with distinct success. Among those who joined in the enterprise was the Hon. Amos Kendall, whose interest in the work was so great that, even before there was any proper organization, he placed a house and lot at the disposal of the school.

It has already been related that a bill making a grant of Government lands for the benefit of the insane and the deaf and dumb and the blind had passed Congress and been vetoed. The Government Asylum for the Insane, however, had been founded on a liberal basis, and Mr. Kendall argued that the deaf and blind of the District had as wellfounded claims on the bounty of the general Government as had the insane. He therefore framed a bill and secured the passage of an act incorporating the proposed institution and making some provision for the support and instruction of the indigent blind and deaf children of the District of Columbia.1

Within a short time after the passage of the act suspicions were aroused as to the fitness of the proposed head of the institution. On investigation, these suspicions were found to be only too correct, and the case being brought before the orphans court of the District of Columbia, the indentured children were removed from the control of their inhuman master, and Mr. Kendall was made their legal guardian. He accepted the trust, and with all the energy of his energetic nature

1 Eulogy by President Gallaudet delivered at a meeting of the board of directors of the Columbia Institution for the Deaf and Dumb, January, 1870.

he set about completing the organization of which Congress had made him president.'

Hon. Amos Kendall was born in Dunstable, Mass., August 16, 1789, and died at Washington, November 12, 1869. About the year 1844, when the

At a special meeting of the board of directors of the Columbia Institution, on Tuesday, November 16, 1869, called to take action on the death of Mr. Kendall, at which there were present President Gallaudet, Rev. Dr. Sunderland, George W. Riggs, Hon. B. B. French, Henry D. Cooke, James C. McGuire, and David A. Hall, Mr. McGuire related the incident of the cruelty to the children and the origin of the institution, as follows:

"It happened that circumstances associated me with him in connection with an incident that first excited his sympathy in behalf of that disabled class for which this institution was established. A despicable wretch, in wandering over the earth, had fortunately, as it turned out, made Washington his home, where he got possession of a building in the First Ward, and fenced it in like a sort of prison, with a high board fence. He then hunted up all the deaf and dumb children in the community, got them in his possession, and took them to his building, pretending to call it a school for them. He would then take them about the city and exhibit them for money. A washerwoman from Georgetown, engaged in my household, informed some of my family that her son was a pupil of this man, and that in visiting him she said that the children in this so-called school were treated with cruelty, almost starved to death at all times, and thrown aside with negleet and brutal inhumanity when they were sick.

"Happening to meet Mr. Kendall a day or two after hearing of the account given of this establishment, I stated to him what I had learned, and he at once, with his prompt and characteristic decision of purpose, said: 'Let us go and see how this is.' On this suggestion, we went at once, and finding the gate at the entrance locked and barred we broke it open and entered the building. The miserable sight can not be described; it was heart-sickening. Two of the unfortunate children lay sick on a pallet, moaning most piteously. Unable to help themselves, it was evident from their horried condition that their wants had not been attended to, probably, for days. Mr. Kendall's generous nature was deeply moved. He called the man to account for the condition of the children and the treatment they received at his hands. He promised reform. There seemed no remedy for the evil except through the man himself. But this remedy was not given, and his promise of reformation was not observed. But a philanthropist, who was in earnest to do good, had witnessed himself the suffering that cried for aid, and did not rest contented with an unperformed promise of amendment. Mr. Kendall went to work, and by the aid of the law and the courts of the District, obtained possession of the children and took them to Kendall Green, and there himself became their guardian and their teacher, and that was the commencement and the foundationof this institution for the deaf and dumb.

"The provisions of the act referred to were found to be inadequate to the accomplishment of the object; and in the emergency forced upon him by the action of the orphans' court, Mr. Kendall did not hesitate to assume very heavy responsibilities, that the institution might go into operation without waiting for further action of Congress. The buildings and grounds previously offered to the school were now donated to the institution. Mr. Kendall became security for purchases of furniture and supplies, and guaranteed the payment of the salaries of the officers of the institution.

“During the second year, the time being unfavorable for securing an appropriation from Congress for buildings, and enlarged accommodations being required by the institution, Mr. Kendall added to his benefactions of the first year. These having amounted to more than $5,000 in value, he still did not hesitate to incur an expense of $8,000 for the erection of a substantial brick structure, which now forms a part of the building of the primary department."

OPENING OF THE INSTITUTION.

23

electric telegraph was in its beginnings, Mr. Kendall, Mr. B. B. French, and a few others had an active part in making it a commercial success, being directors in the first company ever formed in the world, organized to build the line between Washington and Philadelphia. Mr. Kendall's connection with this enterprise was the basis of his fortune. Physically he was spare and slight of figure, with a kindly face, and courteous, gentle manners; and was in all respects unlike the person his political enemies described him to be. He was a noted politician, and from 1835 to 1840 was a member of Van Buren's cabinet as Postmaster-General. It is related that when he retired from office he was so poor that he was obliged to sell the horses and carriage he had used while in official life, and was even under the necessity of borrowing the means to supply the daily needs of his household.

II.

By the act of February 16, 1857, the Columbia Institution for the Instruction of the Deaf and Dumb and the Blind was incorporated, and on June 13 of that year the institution was opened in two houses on Kendall Green. One of these houses, together with 2 acres of ground, was given by Mr. Kendall, who acted as president from 1857 to 1864. The superintendent was Edward Miner Gallaudet,' and soon after he was assisted by his mother, Mrs. Thomas Hopkins Gallaudet, as matron, and by James Denison as instructor of the deaf, and Mrs. Maria M. Eddy as teacher of the blind. The 5 deaf-mutes from New York comprised the first scholars, and during the year 7 other deafmutes and 6 blind children were admitted.

It was provided in the charter that the institution should receive $150 a year for each indigent pupil from the District of Columbia, the amount to be paid from the Treasury of the United States whenever the Secretary of the Interior should be satisfied by evidence submitted by the president of the institution that any deaf, dumb, or blind person of teachable age properly belonging to the District of Columbia could not command the means to secure an education. The amount thus paid during the first year was $1,600.75; the second year it was $2,380.40, and the third year $2,671.56. By the act of May 29, 1858,

1 Dr. Edward Miner Gallaudet was born in Hartford, Conn., February 5, 1837. His father, Rev. Thomas Hopkins Gallaudet (born at Philadelphia, December 10, 1787; died at Hartford, Conn., September 10, 1851) founded at Hartford the first deafmute institution in America; he resigned the principalship of the institution in 1830, and from 1838 until his death was chaplain of the Connecticut Retreat for the Insane, at Hartford, Conn. Rev. Thomas Gallaudet, a brother of E. M. Gallaudet, was an instructor in the New York Institution for the Instruction of the Deaf and Dumb, from 1843 to 1858; he founded St. Ann's Church for Deaf-Mutes in 1852 and became manager of the Church Mission to Deaf-Mutes in 1872. Dr. E. M. Gallaudet is a graduate of Trinity College (class of 1856), Hartford, Conn. He was an instructor at the Hartford institution at the time when, at the age of 20 years, he was called to Washington by Mr. Kendall, in 1857. From his college days he had planned a college on the lines of the Columbia Institution.-The Century Dictionary of Names.