Frances Wisebart Jacobs
Encyclopedia
Frances Wisebart Jacobs (1843-1892) was born in Harrodsburg, Kentucky
, to Bavaria
n immigrants and raised in Cincinnati, Ohio
. She married her brother Jacob Wisebart's partner, Abraham Jacobs, and came west with him to Colorado where Wisebart and Jacob's had established businesses in Denver and Central City
. In Denver Frances Jacobs became a driving force for the city's charitable organizations and activities, with national exposure. Among the philanthropical
organizations she founded, she is best remembered as a founder of the United Way and the Denver's Jewish Hospital Association.
to Leon Wisebart, a tailor, and his wife. In addition to Frances, they had a son, Jacob (also called Benjamin), and five more girls, all of whom attended public school. Frances was a school teacher in Cincinnati, Ohio
before she married Abraham Jacobs on February 18, 1863. After their marriage, the newlywed couple traveled by wagon to Colorado where Abraham Jacobs and Frances' brother, Jacob Wisebart had established stores in Denver and Central City
. Frances and Abraham had two sons, one named Benjamin, and a daughter, named Evelyn.
The Jacobs were beset a number of difficulties during their marriage: major fires to two stores, the OK Clothing Store in Denver went out of business in 1885 and the early death of one of their sons. The April 19, 1863 "great fire" of Denver was one of the fires. Frances' brother, Jacob was the fifth mayor of Central City. The store he ran with his brother-in-law Abraham Jacobs, called the Wisebart store, succumbed to fire after the Denver 1863 fire, with $50,000 in damages. In 1866 Frances' sister, Mollie, married Philip Trounstine in Cincinatti, Ohio. They moved to Denver where Trounstine became a volunteer firefighter in March 1866, the first leader of Denver's firefighters and managed Abraham Jacob's Denver clothing store.
Following the Central City fire Frances and Abraham moved to Denver for a fresh start. Abraham Jacobs established and ran the OK Clothing Store, served on the Denver city council, helped draft the Denver "people's constitution", was involved in the important merger of Denver and Auraria, and established and ran a stage coach line until 1869, when it became unprofitable.
Frances Wisebart Jacobs, involved in Denver charitable activities shortly after settling in Denver, was described as a "frail woman with an unfailing sense of humor." She became a forceful, persuasive speaker engaging and inspiring support for Denver's charitable organizations. Jacob's niece said of her, "Aunt Frank was that rare combination of dreamer and doer. She not only dreamed of free kindergartens and orphanages, a home for the aged and a hospital, but with good businesses sense brought them to reality."
Frances Wisebart Jacobs was quoted in the Rocky Mountain News, August 27, 1888 as having said: "I know that whenever women lead in good work, men will follow."
or valleys.
People also came to Colorado was the restorative benefits of its "clean air and sunshine." Starting in the 1860s, when tuberculosis
(TB) was a world-wide problem, physicians in the eastern United States recommended that their patients go to Colorado. As a result, the number of people with tuberculosis, called "lungers", in the state grew alarmingly and without the services or facilities to support their needs. Not knowing how to manage a population of homeless, ill people, many were taken to jail. Because of the number of people with TB flocking to Denver, by the 1880s it was nicknamed the "World's Sanitarium". Cynthia Stout, a history scholar, asserted that by 1900 "one-third of Colorado's population were residents of the state because of tuberculosis."
, Lithuania
, Belorussia
, the Ukraine
and Russian Poland
. They came to Colorado to cure their tuberculosis
or to pursue opportunities and freedom previously been denied to them.
Jacobs was troubled by the number of critically ill people with tuberculosis she saw on the streets and who lived like refugees in tents and shacks. As a member and early president of the Hebrew Ladies' Benevolent Society, Jacobs cared for critically ill Jewish people living in squalor along the Platte River banks and West Colfax by bringing soup, coal, clothing, soap and physicians. She also aided those who, due to hemorrhaging, fell ill on the street. West Colfax, comparable to New York City's Lower East Side, was a community primarily of Eastern European Jews.
The nonprofit, nonsectarian organization is known today as Jewish Family Service of Colorado, serves 21,500 people per year.
at the Stanley Public School established by the Free Kindergarten Association that Jacobs founded in 1885. It was Frances's belief that "God never made a pauper in the world, children come into the world and conditions and surroundings make them either princes or paupers."
, coordinating fundraising and other efforts and sharing the proceeds with a federation of twenty three charities. Jacobs served as secretary for the remainder of her life.
The Charity Organization Society, the first of its kind in the nation, evolved in 1922 to the national Community Chest and ultimately to the United Way.
Due to the advocacy by Rabbi
William S. Friedman of Denver's Temple Emanuel, Denver's Jewish Hospital Association was organized in November 1889,, incorporated in April 1890 and a hospital cornerstone
was laid in October of that year.
The Denver's Jewish Hospital Association trustees voted to name the hospital for Jacobs the year after her death; Construction was completed in 1893, but the unfurnished Frances Jacobs Hospital stood empty for six years due to lack of funds as the result of an economic downturn. B’nai B’rith, a Jewish charitable organization, accepted the hospital as one of its endeavors and the hospital opened its doors as National Jewish Hospital
on December 10, 1899. The hospital was the first in the world to accept only destitute TB patients, from anywhere in the country, under the condition that upon leaving the hospital "they did not become a charge upon the Denver community."
Due in part to the research of the National Jewish Hospital, tuberculosis is no longer an epidemic.
Over 4,000 people attended her funeral at the Temple Emanuel which was open to people of all faiths, classes, and races. A week later, a memorial service was held at the First Congregational Church. Speakers included prominent Denver people, such as the city's mayor
, and the governor
of Colorado. J.S. Appel, her coworker said "For long years she gave her time and her services to the practical work of charity, and looked more poor and wretched people in the face than any other person in Denver. The keynote of her character was… her great fund of humor that made her see the bright side of everything, that enabled her to devote her life to the work of saving and uplifting humanity… This love of humor was the safety valve that kept her heart from bursting at the sorrows and miseries she beheld."
Jacobs is memorialized as one of 16 Colorado pioneers, and the only woman, in a stained glass
window at the Colorado state capitol Rotunda
. In 1994, Frances was inducted into the National Women's Hall of Fame
, and in 2000 Jacobs and the National Jewish Medical and Research Center
were awarded the Denver Mayor's Millennium Award.
A bronze statue sits in the lobby of the National Jewish Medical and Research Center
, a memorial to Jacobs, with her holding a bag of medicines and soaps.
Harrodsburg, Kentucky
Harrodsburg is a city in and the county seat of Mercer County, Kentucky, United States. The population was 8,014 at the 2000 census. It is the oldest city in Kentucky.-History:...
, to Bavaria
Bavaria
Bavaria, formally the Free State of Bavaria is a state of Germany, located in the southeast of Germany. With an area of , it is the largest state by area, forming almost 20% of the total land area of Germany...
n immigrants and raised in Cincinnati, Ohio
Cincinnati, Ohio
Cincinnati is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio. Cincinnati is the county seat of Hamilton County. Settled in 1788, the city is located to north of the Ohio River at the Ohio-Kentucky border, near Indiana. The population within city limits is 296,943 according to the 2010 census, making it Ohio's...
. She married her brother Jacob Wisebart's partner, Abraham Jacobs, and came west with him to Colorado where Wisebart and Jacob's had established businesses in Denver and Central City
Central City, Colorado
Central City is a home rule municipality in Clear Creek and Gilpin counties in the U.S. state of Colorado, and the county seat of Gilpin County. The city population was 515 in the 2000 United States Census...
. In Denver Frances Jacobs became a driving force for the city's charitable organizations and activities, with national exposure. Among the philanthropical
Philanthropy
Philanthropy etymologically means "the love of humanity"—love in the sense of caring for, nourishing, developing, or enhancing; humanity in the sense of "what it is to be human," or "human potential." In modern practical terms, it is "private initiatives for public good, focusing on quality of...
organizations she founded, she is best remembered as a founder of the United Way and the Denver's Jewish Hospital Association.
Biography
Frances Wisebart was born March 29, 1843 in Harrodsburg, KentuckyHarrodsburg, Kentucky
Harrodsburg is a city in and the county seat of Mercer County, Kentucky, United States. The population was 8,014 at the 2000 census. It is the oldest city in Kentucky.-History:...
to Leon Wisebart, a tailor, and his wife. In addition to Frances, they had a son, Jacob (also called Benjamin), and five more girls, all of whom attended public school. Frances was a school teacher in Cincinnati, Ohio
Cincinnati, Ohio
Cincinnati is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio. Cincinnati is the county seat of Hamilton County. Settled in 1788, the city is located to north of the Ohio River at the Ohio-Kentucky border, near Indiana. The population within city limits is 296,943 according to the 2010 census, making it Ohio's...
before she married Abraham Jacobs on February 18, 1863. After their marriage, the newlywed couple traveled by wagon to Colorado where Abraham Jacobs and Frances' brother, Jacob Wisebart had established stores in Denver and Central City
Central City, Colorado
Central City is a home rule municipality in Clear Creek and Gilpin counties in the U.S. state of Colorado, and the county seat of Gilpin County. The city population was 515 in the 2000 United States Census...
. Frances and Abraham had two sons, one named Benjamin, and a daughter, named Evelyn.
The Jacobs were beset a number of difficulties during their marriage: major fires to two stores, the OK Clothing Store in Denver went out of business in 1885 and the early death of one of their sons. The April 19, 1863 "great fire" of Denver was one of the fires. Frances' brother, Jacob was the fifth mayor of Central City. The store he ran with his brother-in-law Abraham Jacobs, called the Wisebart store, succumbed to fire after the Denver 1863 fire, with $50,000 in damages. In 1866 Frances' sister, Mollie, married Philip Trounstine in Cincinatti, Ohio. They moved to Denver where Trounstine became a volunteer firefighter in March 1866, the first leader of Denver's firefighters and managed Abraham Jacob's Denver clothing store.
Frances Wisebart Jacobs, involved in Denver charitable activities shortly after settling in Denver, was described as a "frail woman with an unfailing sense of humor." She became a forceful, persuasive speaker engaging and inspiring support for Denver's charitable organizations. Jacob's niece said of her, "Aunt Frank was that rare combination of dreamer and doer. She not only dreamed of free kindergartens and orphanages, a home for the aged and a hospital, but with good businesses sense brought them to reality."
Frances Wisebart Jacobs was quoted in the Rocky Mountain News, August 27, 1888 as having said: "I know that whenever women lead in good work, men will follow."
Background
In 1858 settlers arrived to frontier land: "The early pioneer came to a silent wilderness. He took hold of the territory 'in the raw.' He had nothing by his hands, his energy and his courage to start a new civilization in the wilderness." In 1859 and 1860 people began arriving in the thousands to settle in the mountains, mining campsGold mining in Colorado
On 1859-05-06, John H. Gregory found a gold-bearing vein in Gregory Gulch between Black Hawk and Central City. Within two months many other veins were discovered, including the Bates, Gunnell, Kansas, and Burroughs...
or valleys.
People also came to Colorado was the restorative benefits of its "clean air and sunshine." Starting in the 1860s, when tuberculosis
Tuberculosis
Tuberculosis, MTB, or TB is a common, and in many cases lethal, infectious disease caused by various strains of mycobacteria, usually Mycobacterium tuberculosis. Tuberculosis usually attacks the lungs but can also affect other parts of the body...
(TB) was a world-wide problem, physicians in the eastern United States recommended that their patients go to Colorado. As a result, the number of people with tuberculosis, called "lungers", in the state grew alarmingly and without the services or facilities to support their needs. Not knowing how to manage a population of homeless, ill people, many were taken to jail. Because of the number of people with TB flocking to Denver, by the 1880s it was nicknamed the "World's Sanitarium". Cynthia Stout, a history scholar, asserted that by 1900 "one-third of Colorado's population were residents of the state because of tuberculosis."
Charitable activities
Jacobs was known across the nation as the "Mother of Charities" for her ground-breaking philanthropic service in Denver, Colorado.Hebrew Ladies' Benevolent Society
To meet the needs of Jewish pioneers living in Denver, in 1872 Jacobs organized, and was president of, the Hebrew Ladies' Benevolent Society. At that time, there were 300 Jewish pioneers in Denver, from GermanyGermany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
, Lithuania
Lithuania
Lithuania , officially the Republic of Lithuania is a country in Northern Europe, the biggest of the three Baltic states. It is situated along the southeastern shore of the Baltic Sea, whereby to the west lie Sweden and Denmark...
, Belorussia
Belarus
Belarus , officially the Republic of Belarus, is a landlocked country in Eastern Europe, bordered clockwise by Russia to the northeast, Ukraine to the south, Poland to the west, and Lithuania and Latvia to the northwest. Its capital is Minsk; other major cities include Brest, Grodno , Gomel ,...
, the Ukraine
Ukraine
Ukraine is a country in Eastern Europe. It has an area of 603,628 km², making it the second largest contiguous country on the European continent, after Russia...
and Russian Poland
Congress Poland
The Kingdom of Poland , informally known as Congress Poland , created in 1815 by the Congress of Vienna, was a personal union of the Russian parcel of Poland with the Russian Empire...
. They came to Colorado to cure their tuberculosis
Tuberculosis
Tuberculosis, MTB, or TB is a common, and in many cases lethal, infectious disease caused by various strains of mycobacteria, usually Mycobacterium tuberculosis. Tuberculosis usually attacks the lungs but can also affect other parts of the body...
or to pursue opportunities and freedom previously been denied to them.
Jacobs was troubled by the number of critically ill people with tuberculosis she saw on the streets and who lived like refugees in tents and shacks. As a member and early president of the Hebrew Ladies' Benevolent Society, Jacobs cared for critically ill Jewish people living in squalor along the Platte River banks and West Colfax by bringing soup, coal, clothing, soap and physicians. She also aided those who, due to hemorrhaging, fell ill on the street. West Colfax, comparable to New York City's Lower East Side, was a community primarily of Eastern European Jews.
The nonprofit, nonsectarian organization is known today as Jewish Family Service of Colorado, serves 21,500 people per year.
Denver Ladies' Relief Society
To help serve the entire Denver community, she helped found the non-sectarian Denver Ladies' Relief Society in 1874 and served as president. A capable and compelling speaker, Jacobs increased public awareness of unfair workplace conditions for women, the need for separate quarters for women in prisons, staffed by women, and the adversity of homeless women.Free kindergarten
Jacobs visited the free Golden Gate kindergarten when she attended and spoke at the San Francisco National Conference of Charities and Correction. Golden Gate became a model for Denver's first free kindergartenKindergarten
A kindergarten is a preschool educational institution for children. The term was created by Friedrich Fröbel for the play and activity institute that he created in 1837 in Bad Blankenburg as a social experience for children for their transition from home to school...
at the Stanley Public School established by the Free Kindergarten Association that Jacobs founded in 1885. It was Frances's belief that "God never made a pauper in the world, children come into the world and conditions and surroundings make them either princes or paupers."
Charitable Organization Society, later the United Way
In 1887, she joined Father William O'Brien, Reverend Myron Reed, Dean H. Martin Hart and another Catholic priest to create the Charity Organization SocietyCharity Organization Society
The Charity Organization Societies also called the Associated Charities was a private charity that existed in the late 19th and early 20th centuries as a clearing house for information on the poor. The society was mainly concerned with distinction between the deserving poor and undeserving poor...
, coordinating fundraising and other efforts and sharing the proceeds with a federation of twenty three charities. Jacobs served as secretary for the remainder of her life.
The Charity Organization Society, the first of its kind in the nation, evolved in 1922 to the national Community Chest and ultimately to the United Way.
Denver's Jewish Hospital Association
Jacobs wrote of the Denver residents reaction to people with tuberculosis, "Most of the community ignores those who roam the city coughing or hemorrhaging." In 1883 she organized a hospital benefit and over several years insisted that the Denver community face the reality of the lack of respectful treatment services and facilities. According to one Denver journalist, "Everyone put down his pencil to hear her tell of the crucial need for a hospital".Rabbi
In Judaism, a rabbi is a teacher of Torah. This title derives from the Hebrew word רבי , meaning "My Master" , which is the way a student would address a master of Torah...
William S. Friedman of Denver's Temple Emanuel, Denver's Jewish Hospital Association was organized in November 1889,, incorporated in April 1890 and a hospital cornerstone
Cornerstone
The cornerstone concept is derived from the first stone set in the construction of a masonry foundation, important since all other stones will be set in reference to this stone, thus determining the position of the entire structure.Over time a cornerstone became a ceremonial masonry stone, or...
was laid in October of that year.
The Denver's Jewish Hospital Association trustees voted to name the hospital for Jacobs the year after her death; Construction was completed in 1893, but the unfurnished Frances Jacobs Hospital stood empty for six years due to lack of funds as the result of an economic downturn. B’nai B’rith, a Jewish charitable organization, accepted the hospital as one of its endeavors and the hospital opened its doors as National Jewish Hospital
National Jewish Medical and Research Center
National Jewish Health is a research institute located in Denver, Colorado specializing in respiratory, immune and allergic research and treatment. It was founded in 1899 to treat tuberculosis, and is today considered one of the world's best medical research and treatment centers...
on December 10, 1899. The hospital was the first in the world to accept only destitute TB patients, from anywhere in the country, under the condition that upon leaving the hospital "they did not become a charge upon the Denver community."
Due in part to the research of the National Jewish Hospital, tuberculosis is no longer an epidemic.
Death and memorial
Jacobs, ill herself, delivered medicine to a sick child on a rainy night in 1892. She contracted pneumonia and was hospitalized at Marquette Sanitorium in Denver and died on November 3, 1892, following the illness that lasted for three months.Over 4,000 people attended her funeral at the Temple Emanuel which was open to people of all faiths, classes, and races. A week later, a memorial service was held at the First Congregational Church. Speakers included prominent Denver people, such as the city's mayor
Mayor
In many countries, a Mayor is the highest ranking officer in the municipal government of a town or a large urban city....
, and the governor
Governor
A governor is a governing official, usually the executive of a non-sovereign level of government, ranking under the head of state...
of Colorado. J.S. Appel, her coworker said "For long years she gave her time and her services to the practical work of charity, and looked more poor and wretched people in the face than any other person in Denver. The keynote of her character was… her great fund of humor that made her see the bright side of everything, that enabled her to devote her life to the work of saving and uplifting humanity… This love of humor was the safety valve that kept her heart from bursting at the sorrows and miseries she beheld."
Jacobs is memorialized as one of 16 Colorado pioneers, and the only woman, in a stained glass
Stained glass
The term stained glass can refer to coloured glass as a material or to works produced from it. Throughout its thousand-year history, the term has been applied almost exclusively to the windows of churches and other significant buildings...
window at the Colorado state capitol Rotunda
Rotunda (architecture)
A rotunda is any building with a circular ground plan, sometimes covered by a dome. It can also refer to a round room within a building . The Pantheon in Rome is a famous rotunda. A Band Rotunda is a circular bandstand, usually with a dome...
. In 1994, Frances was inducted into the National Women's Hall of Fame
National Women's Hall of Fame
The National Women's Hall of Fame is an American institution. It was created in 1969 by a group of people in Seneca Falls, New York, the location of the 1848 Women's Rights Convention...
, and in 2000 Jacobs and the National Jewish Medical and Research Center
National Jewish Medical and Research Center
National Jewish Health is a research institute located in Denver, Colorado specializing in respiratory, immune and allergic research and treatment. It was founded in 1899 to treat tuberculosis, and is today considered one of the world's best medical research and treatment centers...
were awarded the Denver Mayor's Millennium Award.
A bronze statue sits in the lobby of the National Jewish Medical and Research Center
National Jewish Medical and Research Center
National Jewish Health is a research institute located in Denver, Colorado specializing in respiratory, immune and allergic research and treatment. It was founded in 1899 to treat tuberculosis, and is today considered one of the world's best medical research and treatment centers...
, a memorial to Jacobs, with her holding a bag of medicines and soaps.