The Fourth Annual Report of the Associate Committee of Women

THE FOURTH ANNUAL REPORT OF THE ASSOCIATE COMMITTEE OF WOMEN. BEAD AT THE ANNUAL MEETING, MARCH 3D, 1924. To the Board of Directors and Members of The Genealogical Society of Pennsylvania , Ladies and Gentlemen : During the past year the monthly meetings of your Associate Committee have been well attended, and attention to the Society 's growth and welfare maintained. New members have been added and new avenues of constructive work sought for. With much regret and deep sorrow the Committee has to record the lose, by resignation and death, of two valued members, who will be greatly missed : Mies Mary Couper Williams by resignation, in May last j and Miss Anna T. Magee, by death, on December 12th. Miss Magee had been an interested, faithful and generous member of the Committee since its organisation. By her unfailing courtesy and gentleness she won the regard of her associates and will be long held in affectionate remembrance by them. In October last she made a gift of twenty-five hundred dollars to this Society 's permanent fund, and a similar gift to the Historical Society. In this connection it may be fitting to note that, three of the Committee ’s members have, from 1921 to 1924, contributed over ten thousand dollars to the permanent fund of this Society and more than twice as much to the Historical Society, during the same period. The Committee ’s afternoon meeting and tea- party, held Thursday, April the twelfth, 1923, in the Caspar Wistar House, at Fourth and Locust Streets, by the courtesy of the Society of the Colonial Dames of America, Chapter II, Philadelphia, Miss Gilpin, sub-chairman, was a charming occasion, i i The Wistar House and its Neighbors was the subject of a graceful address by the President of the hostess society, Mrs. James Large. In response to the many requests for its publication the Committee begs to offer to 'the Society such publication of the address, as an instructive remembrance of an afternoon spent among the memories of the past in that historic home. After the address a silver cup was presented, by the joint action of the Committee and Board of Directors, to Mr. C. Howard Colket , a valued life member and retiring officer of the Board. With the flower-filled cup went the sincere appreciation of the two bodies. On Saturday, November the seventeenth, 1923, the Committee 'e second afternoon meeting and tea-party took place, Mrs. Alvin A. Parker subchairman. This was held at the delightful new home of the Pennsylvania Society of the Colonial Dames of America, 1630 Latimer Street, and the President of that organization, Mrs. James Starr, read some interesting reminiscences of Sarah Logan Fisher, a one-time chatelaine of Stenton Mansion . It is hoped that Mrs. Starr will permit the Committee to print this valuable paper “ lest we forget. ” Following Mrs. Starr, the Committee ’s Secretary gave a brief rfemmfi of the relation of The Genealogical Society to its parent, The Historical Society. The Com mittee is to be congratulated on its friends, the Society on its parent. ( 105 ) . ‘ 1924 Copyright The Genealogical Society of Pennsylvania PGM Vol IX 106 Fourth Annual Report of Associate Women. At the Committee 's January meeting an appeal was made for support in an effort, albeit late, to save St John ’s Evangelical Lutheran Church, Race Street near Fifth, then under condemnation by the Delaware Bridge Commission In turn, the Committee made an immediate appeal to the Board of Directors for action in the premises The President ’s letter to Mayor Kendrick, Chairman of the Executive Committee of the Bridge Commission, was the result So appreciative was the Committee of the President ’s letter that, at the February meeting, upon motion of Mrs Benson, seconded by Mrs, Gummere, it was resolved to ask for an endorsement of this letter, by the annual meeting, with the purpose of its publication in the daily press that fresh interest might be stimulated The letter follows: LETTER PREPARED BY RESOLUTION OF THE GENEALOGICAL SOCIETY OF PENNSYLVANIA IN REGARD TO ST. JOHN S EVANGELICAL LUTHERAN CHURCH* AND GRAVEYARD. PHILADELPHIA, JANUARY 18, 1924. Hon, W, Freeland Kendrick, Mayor of -the City of Philadelphia, and Chairman of the Executive Committee of the Delaware River Bridge Commission Dear Sir : I am directed by the Board of Directors of The Genealogical Society of Pennsylvania, to convey to you the expostulation of the Society against the demolition of St John ’s Lutheran Church, on Race Street, near Fifth, and the obliteration of its graveyard adjoining. Not only is the building one of the few remaining specimens of the ecclesiastical architecture of Pennsylvania of the early period ; not only does -the ground hold the mortal remains of distinguished persons which include two captains jof the Revolutionary War, a soldier of the. War of 1812, a general of the Civil War, and the ancestors of many notable Philadelphians ; but the Church itself has a peculiar interest from the fact that it was the first great factor in the Americanization of foreign speaking people, the Church having been built for the purpose of holding worship in the English language instead of the German language. The Genealogical Society asks that such a monument be preserved at the present site, or at some place on the bridge approach, a3 the building is well worth a rearrangement of the plan of approaches to the bridge even at some expense Failing this, the Society would ask that the Church building itself be removed as an entirety to a spot in the same neighborhood and made to face or back upon the approaches of the walls enclosing the bridge While it might be too late, or too much to ask that ground be allowed adjoining for reinterment eo that there should be read, cut in the tombstones, the names of those connected with the congregation, who were laid away within the enclosure belonging thereto, the members of the Genealogical Society feel that the vestiges of Philadelphia as it appeared when it was the metropolis of the nation, should remain as object lessons to visitors entering the older precincts of the City Very respectfully yours, (Signed ) CHARLES P. KEITH , President of The Genealogical Society. The Committee ’s Annual Meeting was held after the stated meeting on February 11, last past. The former officers were elected for the ensuing year, Miss Lea, Chairman, and the former sub committees re . . . . . . . - . . . - . appointed - Respectfully submitted, NINA LEA, Chairman MAY ATHERTON LEACH , Recording Secretary . 1924 Copyright The Genealogical Society of Pennsylvania . PGM Vol IX