Up to June 30, 1916, Mr. Rosenwald has given $44,718 toward promoting rural schoolhouse building. To meet Mr. Rosenwald’s contributions the Negroes in the communities where these schoolhouses were erected have contributed $61,951; from the public funds of the States, $21,525 has been appropriated; and white citizens have given $8,820. Through Mr. Rosenwald’s benefactions 142 rural schoolhouses for Negroes have been erected, as follows: In Alabama, 107; North Carolina, 11; Georgia, 8; Arkansas, 6; South Carolina, 1; Tennessee, 5; Mississippi, 2, and Virginia, 2.
Daniel Hand Fund.—This Fund is administered by the American Missionary Association 287 Fourth Avenue, New York City. Daniel Hand was born in Madison, Conn., July 16, 1801. When 16 years of age he went to Augusta, Ga., under the direction of his second brother residing there, whom he succeeded in business. Mr. Hand remained in some part of the Southern Confederacy during the entire war. His partner, Mr. Geo. W. Williams, who was conducting a branch of the business at Charleston, S. C., protected the capital of Mr. Hand, from the confiscation seriously threatened, in view of his being a northern man of undisguised anti-slavery sentiments. After the war, when Mr. Hand came north, Mr. Williams adjusted the business, made up the account, and paid over to Mr. Hand his portion of the long-invested capital and its accumulations. Bereaved of wife and children for many years, his benevolent impulses led Mr. Hand to form plans to use his large wealth for the benefit of his fellowmen.
The total amount of the endowment of the Daniel Hand Fund is approximately $1,500,000, and the income in 1915 was $69,000. This income is spent under the direction of the officers of the American Missionary Association for the maintenance of educational work in the schools of that association.
In 1888 Daniel Hand, of Guilford, Conn., gave $1,000,000 as a permanent fund, “the income of which shall be used for the purpose of educating needy and indigent people of African decent, residing, or who may hereafter reside, in the recent slave States of the United States, sometimes called the Southern States.” When Mr. Hand died, in 1891, he left the residue of his fortune, amounting to $500,000, to be added to his original gift.
Stewart Missionary Foundation for Africa.—The total endowment of the Stewart Missionary Foundation is $110,000. The income is used to provide classroom instruction on missions at Gammon Theological Seminary; to issue a monthly journal, “The Foundation,” devoted to the awakening of an interest in missions; and to maintain a lecturer who travels among Negro schools lecturing on missions.
This Fund was given in 1894 by the Rev. W. F. Stewart and his wife, to establish missionary training in Gammon Theological Seminary. Mr. Stewart had been a missionary in the Methodist Episcopal Church, and he was eager to arouse a strong interest in missions among Negro youth.
Miner Fund.—The Miner Fund has property valued at $40,000, and the annual income is about $2,100. This income is used for the aid of the Manassas Industrial Institute for Colored Youth of Virginia, and for the Colored Social Settlement of Washington, D. C.
The fund is named after Miss Myrtilla Miner, of Brooklyn, N. Y., who in 1851 established a normal school for colored girls of Washington. In 1862, she incorporated the school as “Institution for the Education of Colored Youth.” The first property purchased by the institution was in the square now occupied by the British embassy. Later this lot was sold and another purchased, on which a new normal school was erected. In 1879 the District of Columbia leased this property from the trustees of the fund, and maintained the institution as a part of the public school system. About 1900 the trustees purchased another building in which they maintained a day nursery and a kindergarten. This work was later taken over by the public authorities. The combined annual income from both properties amounted at one time to $4,000.
In 1915, the city school board purchased a site and erected a magnificent new building to house the normal school. This building was named “The Myrtilla Miner Normal School.” After the removal of the public school from the building owned by the Miner Fund, it was necessary to sell the building and invest the money in other forms of real estate at a reduced income.
Cushing Fund.—The total amount of the Cushing Fund is $33,500 and the income varies from $1,200 to $1,500 annually. This income is distributed by the executive officer among 28 schools for colored people.