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Volume 049-3 - July 1995 (8 pages)
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Page: of 8
On reading the report of the Ladies Relief Society .
saw with regret they are much in need of assistance. .
cannot aid them as I should like to do, but (like many
other people) I am willing to give them the benefit of
someone else’s ideas.
About a year ago I read of a children’s party, which
was successfully given in aid of a charitable organization
in one of our eastern cities, and which I think we might
get up in aid of our own society.
The plan is this: on a day to be named by our City
School Superintendent all of the public school teachers
would be required to ask the children in their charge to
bring to the schoolhouse, each one, one potato and one
stick of stove wood. The potatoes to be put in a sack by
the janitor. The wood to be piled in the yard. The donations to be brought into all the schools on the same day of
the week. On the next day they would be removed by the
Ladies Relief Society to any place they might judge to be
in need. The donation from each child is so small, there is
hardly a family who could not afford to give it, but as
there are several hundred schoolchildren attending our
schools the aggregate might be of some value.
C.M.H.
Such a simple idea had immediate appeal to the people of
the community. Thus in 1883 the local custom was started
that has come to be known as Donation Day. For the first few
years the gifts were taken to the schools and distributed by
the women as needed. The idea of a parade through the
streets was suggested by a butcher shop owner in 1889, and
em as the children passed through town many of the merchants
fell into line, carrying sacks of flour, hams, bacon slabs, and
other merchandise. Everything was taken to the third grade
room of Lincoln School to be sorted by the women and
equitably doled out to those in need. In 1889, school principal Marion Stone reported that ten cords of wood, eight
hams, and many sacks of potatoes were received. John Kidder, president of the Nevada County Narrow Gauge Railroad,
supplied two carloads of firewood.
Many families were supplied with food and fuel who
might have been cold and hungry without this assistance. The
ladies, however, were active all through the year, helping
those who suffered misfortune due to accidents, fires, illness,
or old age. A short history written in 1915 listed some of the
things done by the Ladies Relief Society since 1900:
The average expense had been $800.00 per year. Since
the institution of hospitals in our city, six patients have
been cared for. Nurses have been kept in attendance upon
old women from one to six weeks and occasionally longer; in one instance a man and his family was taken care of
at a cost of $42.50 a week for nurse hire. Funeral expenses have been paid for five old women who during
their later years were cared for by the Society. In once
instance the same services were rendered for a tiny babe
of six weeks.
Two of the old ladies willed to the Society all of their
earthly goods, of which the Society realized about $50.00.
Bequests have been made as follows: The late Wm. Watt,
$1000.00; the late Wm. Campbell, $1000; the late Mrs.
Wm. Watt, $250.00; the late Miss Theresa Noonan,
$50.00; a gift from Mrs. Donald Campbell, $275.00. Also
an annuity for 25 years left by the late Edward Coleman.
The largest amount of cash received on any Donation
Day was between $500.00 and $600.00 At the present
time (1915) we are caring for ten old ladies and assisting
three families. Cash on hand $2100.00. Present membership, forty-five. Amount of dues $3.00 per year. Present
This is the house Edward
Coleman built at Neal and
School streets after he
married Louisa Dunn Norton in 1865. Coleman and
his brother sold their North
Star Mine to out-of-town inyestors who reduced wages
and downsized the workforce; the Empire Mine did
the same, and the strike that
ensued in 1869 caused severe
hardships for miners and
local merchants. Mr. and
Mrs. Coleman then initiated
a plan for members of the
Grass Valley Congregational
Church to provide relief to
needy miners. (Illustration ©
Dave Comstock.)
19