Famous Givers and Their GiftsBolton, Sarah Knowles
History
Famous Givers and Their Gifts
Bolton, Sarah Knowles
Philanthropists
Her husband, Mr. Oswald Ottendorfer, has given most generously to his
native place Zwittau,--an orphan asylum and home for the poor, a
hospital, and a fine library with a beautiful monumental fountain before
it, crowned by a statue representing mother-love; a woman carrying a
child in her arms and leading another. His statue was erected in the
city in 1886, and the town was illuminated in his honor at the
dedication of the library.
DANIEL P. STONE AND VALERIA G. STONE.
When Mr. Stone, who was a dry-goods merchant of Boston, died in Malden,
Mass., in 1878, it was agreed between him and his wife, Mrs. Valeria G.
Stone, that the property earned and saved by them should be given to
charity.
While Mrs. Stone lived she gave generously; and at her death, Jan. 15,
1884, over eighty years old, she gave away more than $2,000,000. To
Andover Theological Seminary, to the American Missionary Association for
schools among the colored people, $150,000 each, and much to aid
struggling students and churches, and to save mortgaged homes. To
Wellesley College to build Stone Hall, $110,000; to Bowdoin College,
Amherst, Dartmouth, Drury, Carleton, Chicago Seminary, Hamilton, Iowa,
Oberlin, Hampton Institute, Woman's Board for Armenia College, Turkey,
Olivet College, Ripon, Illinois, Marietta, Beloit, Robert College,
Constantinople, Berea, Doane, Colorado, Washburne, Howard University,
each from five to seventy-five thousand dollars. She gave also to
hospitals, city mission work, rescue homes, and Christian associations.
For evangelical work in France she gave $15,000.
SAMUEL WILLISTON,
The giver of over one million and a half dollars was born at
Easthampton, Mass., July 17, 1795.
He was the son of the Rev. Payson Williston, first pastor of the First
Church in Easthampton in 1789, and the grandson of the Rev. Noah
Williston of West Haven, Conn., on his father's side, and of the Rev.
Nathan Birdseye of Stratford, Conn., on his mother's.
As the salary of the father probably never exceeded $350 yearly, the
family were brought up in the strictest economy. At ten years of age the
boy Samuel worked on a farm, earning for the next six years about seven
dollars a month, and saving all that was possible. In the winters he
attended the district school, and studied Latin with his father, as he
hoped to fit himself for the ministry.
He began his preparation at Phillips Academy, Andover, carrying thither
his worldly possessions in a bag under his arm. "We were both of us
about as poor in money as we could be," said his roommate years
afterward, the Rev. Enoch Sanford, D.D., "but our capital in hope and
fervor was boundless." Samuel's eyes soon failed him, and he was obliged
to give up the project of ever becoming a minister. He entered the store
of Arthur Tappan, in New York, as clerk; but ill health compelled him to
return to the farm with its out-door life.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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