Famous Givers and Their GiftsBolton, Sarah Knowles
History
Famous Givers and Their Gifts
Bolton, Sarah Knowles
Philanthropists
Reporting at Richmond, Mr. Hand was allowed to go where he chose, if
within the limits of the Confederacy, and chose Asheville, N.C., for his
home until the war ended, spending his time in reading, of which he was
very fond, and then came North.
The Confederate Courts at Charleston tried to confiscate his property,
but this was prevented largely through the influence of Mr. Williams.
Some years later, when the latter became involved, and creditors were
pressing for payment, Mr. Hand, the largest creditor, refused to secure
his claim, saying, "If Mr. Williams lives, he will pay his debts. I am
not at all concerned about it." The money was paid by Mr. Williams at
his own convenience after several years.
Mr. Hand had married early in life his cousin, Elizabeth Ward, daughter
of Dr. Levi Ward of Rochester, N.Y., who died early, as well as their
young children. Mr. Hand remained a widower for more than fifty years.
Bereft of wife and children, fond of the Southern people, yet heartily
opposed to slavery, and realizing the helplessness and ignorance of the
slaves, Mr. Hand decided to give to the American Missionary Association
$1,000,894.25, the income to be used "for the purpose of educating needy
and indigent colored people of African descent, residing, or who may
hereafter reside, in the recent slave States of the United States of
America.... I would limit," he said, "the sum of $100 as the largest sum
to be expended for any one person in any one year from this fund." The
fund, transferred Oct. 22, 1888, was to be known as the "Daniel Hand
Educational Fund for Colored People."
Upon Mr. Hand's death, at Guilford, Conn., Dec. 17, 1891, in the family
of one of his nieces, it was found that he had made the American
Missionary Association his residuary legatee. About $500,000 passed into
the possession of the Association, to be used for the same purpose as
the million dollars; and about $200,000, it is believed, will eventually
go to the organization after life-use by others.
The American Missionary Association is a noble society, organized in
1846 and chartered in 1862, for helping the poor and neglected races at
our own doors, by establishing churches and schools in the South among
both negroes and whites, in the West among the Indians, and in the
Pacific States among the Chinese.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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