HomeMy WebLinkAbout2238 Circular letter, Nantucket Selectmen to "Friends," January 22, 1847FRIENDS: -- The undersigned, Selectmen of the town of Nantucket, having finished their labors in the distribution of the bounty entrusted
to them from abroad, for the relief of the sufferers by the calamitous fire of the 13th and 14th of July last, feel called upon to
give an account of their stewardship.
Our first care was to send our appeals and circulars abroad, asking aid for the distressed part of our community; and from more than
one hundred cities and towns we have received substantial evidence of their good feeling toward them. Your bounty has been large
and well-timed; -- about sixty-four hundred Dollars worth of Provisions, Clothing, Furniture and Dry Goods, have been received, and
fifty-six thousand four hundred ninety eight 53-100 Dollars in money.
In distributing what has been intrusted to our care, we have kept constantly in view the wish of the donors -- "RELIEF TO THE
DISTRESSED."
We have not been able to adopt any fixed rate of percentage, but have varied it with circumstances, as but few cases were alike, and
our aim was rather to relieve the distressed, than to give to those who had much left, however severe their loss might have been.
To the aged and infirm, to widows and other destitute females, and to orphans, we have handed out freely of your gifts, and in some
few extreme cases, have nearly or quite made good their loss, when it has not exceeded five hundred dollars; than which a greater
amount has in no individual case been awarded.
The recipients are more than four hundred and sixty persons, of whom three hundred and fifty are heads of families; so that the
whole number actually assisted is upward of thirteen hundred and fifty persons. Of the first number, three hundred and fifty-six were
very destitute, and a large proportion of them entirely so; these received in money, forty-nine thousand, eight hundred and thirty-four
dollars. Those to whom the remainder was given, had little or no available means. Among the first named class, were eighty-six persons
over sixty years old, and one hundred and fifty-six females, a large proportion of whom are widows.
The recipients have generally been well satisfied, and very grateful for your bounty bestowed upon them. Some few of the recipients,
as we have since found, were not entitled to assistance; but while they have received it through false statements, thay have also received
our just rebuke.
In the distribution of your munificence, we have acted independently of a few in our community who attempted to control us. All
has been done under our direction. If we have not done right, we alone are to blame. All is accounted for, and we believe we have
dispensed it faithfully, and according to the best of our ability, judiciously; and so conscious are we of integrity of purpose, that it will
give us pleasure, at any time, to open our books to any of the donors, or to give them any other information they may desire.
Friends, -- your generosity and sympathy for the distressed, entitle you to our sincere thanks, and we here, for the inhabitants of
Nantucket, for the recipients of your bounty, and for ourselves personally, publicly and heartily tender you the same. When hundreds
of famlilies were without a roof to cover them or a bed to lie upon, a very many of them without a change of raiment, -- when widows
and old men had been stripped of their all, and had no hopes for the future, except such as were founded on the humanity of others, -- it
was then you so liberally and so promptly responded to the call of the distressed, bound up their broken hearts, and sent them on their
way rejoicing; -- and surely Heaven's choicest blessings will be your reward.
For our services we have charged nothing -- we have received nothing; but having the approval of our own consciences, and believing
the course which we have pursued in dispensing what you have so liberally furnished, will not fail to secure your approval, and that of the recipients
generally, and having been the instruments in your hands, of making many destitute and desponding families comfortable and
happy, by whom many a tear of gratitude has been shed, and from whom many a prayer of thankfulness has gone up to high Heaven; --
these more than compensate for all the care which has devolved upon us, in being the almoners of your bounty.
The whole number of buildings burned is upward of three hundred and twenty thousand dollars, and there has been received from abroad about
seventy thousand dollars, -- leaving an actual loss of about six hundred thousand dollars.
Nantucket, January 22, 1847
JOB COLEMAN,
NATHANIEL RAND,
OBED SWAIN,
EBEN W. ALLEN,
WILLIAM BARNEY,
CHARLES G. COFFIN,
ALFRED FOLGER,
Notice from the Selectmen of Nantucket
1847
[Postal cancellation stamp]
NANTUCKET
JAN
26
MS.
PAID
2
Citizens of Lexington
2238