HOME FOR FRIENDLESS-1901

STOUT, VAN DUZEE, JOYCE, GRAFFORT, CUMINGS, RUETE, HODGSON, AMDSEN, RICHARDS, FRY, BAKER

Posted By: Cheryl Locher Moonen (email)
Date: 2/8/2017 at 12:21:39

Dubuque Telegraph - Herald, October 27, 1901
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HOME FOR FRIENDLESS
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ANNUAL MEETING OF WELL KNOWN
INSTITUTION HELD YESTERDAY
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IS DOING GREAT AND GOOD WORK
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Secretary’s Report Shows That
Thirty-Five Persons Have Been
Cared for in Past Year
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The annual meeting for the Home for the Friendless was held yesterday when officers for the ensuing year elected and the reports for the outgoing year were read. The Home for the Friendless is one of Dubuque’s best charitable institutions and it is doing a world of good for the poor and the orphans of the city. The affairs of the institution are in the best of condition, showing that care and attention are given to every department. No other institution in the city is more worthy of support than the Home for the Friendless and it confidently expected that the people of Dubuque will be as generous in the future as they have been in the past when called upon to assist in furthering its laudable objects.

The following is the annual report of the secretary:
The close of our first year’s work in the new century rounds of the twenty-seventh year of existence as a Home for the Friendless. Our family has averaged thirty-five during the year: Four adults and thirty-five children have been admitted. Thirty children have left the home; many have been admitted for temporary shelter, which has lengthened into several months.

One inmate, Mrs. Isabelle Joyce, has passed beyond. She was with us thirteen years and her long residence and willing hands made her loss felt in the home circle. One bitter day in winter, she was found in the top story of the Graffort House, sick in bed, with no wood or food-literally without family or friends. The home was ready to receive her and give her every comfort during her decline years. An extreme case-but who can measure the possibilities of our work?

Death has claimed two former members of our board, Mrs. Lucy A. Cumings and Mrs. T. W. Ruete. The generous bequests of H. L. Stout and Mrs. Amelia Hodgson have been added to our fund for permanent improvements.

Our thanks are due to many individual and societies for donations of various kinds. Through the Needle Work Guild we received one-hundred and fifty five garments.

We ask for a liberal patronage from our charity ball, our main source of revenue. The increasing costs of fuel and provisions made the problem for providing for such a large family a difficult one.

It is a blessed work-that of caring for the unfortunate of this world and it mattered not whether the gift was in the form of money for service, it brought to the giver its own reward and was highly appreciated by the board.

Respectfully Submitted,
FRANK H. AMDSEN
Secretary

The following Officer were elected:
President-Mrs. A. J. Van Duzee
Vice President-Mrs. B. B. Richards
Treasurer-Mrs. George H. Fry
Secretary-Mrs. M. R. Amdsen
Corresponding Secretary-Mrs. H. B. Baker