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A Noble Woman's Work - A Life
Devoted To Charity And Caring
For Suffering Humanity - Founder
Of The Pauper Children's Home.
In Kennett, Chester county, Pa., four miles from historic Chad's Ford of Brandywine, was born April 7, 1832. The parents of Susan Fussell were Dr. Bartholomew Fussell and Lydia Morris, a descendant of an old Quaker family, who came over with William Penn. It was through the influence of Dr. Fussell and his wife that the first young woman took out a degree from an American medical college.
At a early period in her life, the death of her mother made sad changes in the household, hitherto, so united in affection and in purpose; and it was at this time in her life that thoughtlessness or indifference inflicted on the spirit of the sensitive child such pain as the lapse of years could never efface from memory. The effect of her own bitter childish experience on the mind of Susan Fussell was to arouse for the remainder of her life a tender compassion for children, that manifested itself in quick and delicate intuition in regard to their feelings and preferences, and a just respect for the difference to them, while a wise, firm, kind discipline was maintained steadily.
Three days before Susan Fussel was fifteen, she began to teach in a public school and from that time on she supported and educated herself. With the exception of two years, her life as a teacher continued until she was twenty-nine. In 1861, her eldest brother entered the army as a volunteer, and immediately Susan Fussell offered her companionship to the desolate home, so long as her brother should be absent. Thus she was introduced into Western life.
Coming West, she resumed her avocation as teacher which she continued until 1863. By this time the war had grown to vast proportions and the sick and wounded were being numbered by the tens of thousands. A call came for more nurses for the army hospitals in the South. Susan Fussell now profitably engaged in teaching at once volunteered. She accepted and started South April 23, 1863. She was now thirty years of age. She went South under the auspices of the Indiana Sanitary committee to their station at Memphis. Night would find her so weary that she could only throw herself down to sleep as it were on arms ready, at a moments call. At Memphis eight hospitals had been fitted up preparatory to the siege of Vicksburg, and here Susan Fussell remained until the close of operations at that place, a period of eight months. A five weeks vacation followed, when carrying with her a certificate of good service, bearing date February 16, 1864, she was sent to Louisville as matron, but preferring the duties of an active nurse, she made some changes in location but remained in service until May 25, 1865.
Through the hospital at Louisville large numbers of men from the South were being transferred to the North, the condition of many were wretched in the extreme and required the most prompt attention. The hospital in Louisville was very large, covering an entire square. The building was two stories high and at times contained four hundred sick. Over this entire building, Miss Fussell had gone twenty-two times in one day. It was upon leaving Louisville that Miss Susan Fussell received a little unexpected recognition of services. With this was a letter from Dr. A. B. Prescott, surgeon in charge of the hospital:
Miss Susan Fussell,
Permit me on the cessation of your duties in the U.S.A. General Hospital, to congratulate you upon your success in doing good to sick and wounded soldiers, and to thank you for the valuable and varied and womanly duties you have volunteered in the U.S. service. Your services could scarcely have been performed by another.
Yours, respectfully, your servant, A. B. Prescott.
The war had closed, but not the services of Miss Fussell for the soldiers. She had resolved to work in an soldiers' orphans' home should such be established. Mr. Geo. Merritt, of Indianapolis, hoped that the state would adopt the family plan if it saw the experiment, he resolved to establish such a home at his own expense and he requested Miss Susan Fussell to take charge of it. The home was first opened in Indianapolis with seven children but the number eventually increased to eleven, six boys and five girls. In the spring of 1866, the Soldiers' Home Association purchased the Knightstown home. The Government, while not adopting Mr. Merritt's plan, now assumed the support of the children, but Mr. Merritt continued to employ Miss Fussell. In 1877, to secure additional school advantages, Miss Fussell removed her family to Spiceland. With this change, the Government support ceased, but the children's pensions, hitherto saved were now drawn upon for their education.
On leaving Knightstown, Miss Fussell took into her home and heart the dear little sufferer, Maggie Newell, who survives her benefactress. Miss Fussell, determined to secure, if possible, the establishment of a school in which feeble-minded children might be taught self-helpfulness. Susan Fussell promised to secure all the statistics necessary, if the representative of our State Legislature, would present the bill. The passage of the bill under the care of Charles Hubbard, then our representative, was secured and the Knightstown home, for feeble-minded children, is the monument of her work. After two years, our county commissioners, agreed to let Miss Fussell take all the pauper children out of the poor house, and clothe, educate, and nurse the children. With no thought but for others had her life been so far occupied. She who, bowed and white haired as at seventy, has now laid down to her first and last rest at fifty-seven.
The traits of character in Susan Fussell were: A faith that hoped all things; a kindness of heart that saw the best of all things; a sympathy that responded to the thoughts and feelings of the humblest, most respected child; unselfishness almost to a fault; good business ability; and a calm self-reliance that sustained her in the most difficult enterprises. In her last illness, her sufferings were lost sight of in her kind thought for others, manifested in little remembrances of fruit and flowers.
Her brothers' and sister's loving tributes to her memory in the first moments of their desolation voices the feeling of all who knew her. Said the one, "My first recollection of my sister is of her unselfishness." Said the other, "The world is better for my sister having lived."
H. E. DAVIS
info from 47320339
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A Noble Woman's Work - A Life
Devoted To Charity And Caring
For Suffering Humanity - Founder
Of The Pauper Children's Home.
In Kennett, Chester county, Pa., four miles from historic Chad's Ford of Brandywine, was born April 7, 1832. The parents of Susan Fussell were Dr. Bartholomew Fussell and Lydia Morris, a descendant of an old Quaker family, who came over with William Penn. It was through the influence of Dr. Fussell and his wife that the first young woman took out a degree from an American medical college.
At a early period in her life, the death of her mother made sad changes in the household, hitherto, so united in affection and in purpose; and it was at this time in her life that thoughtlessness or indifference inflicted on the spirit of the sensitive child such pain as the lapse of years could never efface from memory. The effect of her own bitter childish experience on the mind of Susan Fussell was to arouse for the remainder of her life a tender compassion for children, that manifested itself in quick and delicate intuition in regard to their feelings and preferences, and a just respect for the difference to them, while a wise, firm, kind discipline was maintained steadily.
Three days before Susan Fussel was fifteen, she began to teach in a public school and from that time on she supported and educated herself. With the exception of two years, her life as a teacher continued until she was twenty-nine. In 1861, her eldest brother entered the army as a volunteer, and immediately Susan Fussell offered her companionship to the desolate home, so long as her brother should be absent. Thus she was introduced into Western life.
Coming West, she resumed her avocation as teacher which she continued until 1863. By this time the war had grown to vast proportions and the sick and wounded were being numbered by the tens of thousands. A call came for more nurses for the army hospitals in the South. Susan Fussell now profitably engaged in teaching at once volunteered. She accepted and started South April 23, 1863. She was now thirty years of age. She went South under the auspices of the Indiana Sanitary committee to their station at Memphis. Night would find her so weary that she could only throw herself down to sleep as it were on arms ready, at a moments call. At Memphis eight hospitals had been fitted up preparatory to the siege of Vicksburg, and here Susan Fussell remained until the close of operations at that place, a period of eight months. A five weeks vacation followed, when carrying with her a certificate of good service, bearing date February 16, 1864, she was sent to Louisville as matron, but preferring the duties of an active nurse, she made some changes in location but remained in service until May 25, 1865.
Through the hospital at Louisville large numbers of men from the South were being transferred to the North, the condition of many were wretched in the extreme and required the most prompt attention. The hospital in Louisville was very large, covering an entire square. The building was two stories high and at times contained four hundred sick. Over this entire building, Miss Fussell had gone twenty-two times in one day. It was upon leaving Louisville that Miss Susan Fussell received a little unexpected recognition of services. With this was a letter from Dr. A. B. Prescott, surgeon in charge of the hospital:
Miss Susan Fussell,
Permit me on the cessation of your duties in the U.S.A. General Hospital, to congratulate you upon your success in doing good to sick and wounded soldiers, and to thank you for the valuable and varied and womanly duties you have volunteered in the U.S. service. Your services could scarcely have been performed by another.
Yours, respectfully, your servant, A. B. Prescott.
The war had closed, but not the services of Miss Fussell for the soldiers. She had resolved to work in an soldiers' orphans' home should such be established. Mr. Geo. Merritt, of Indianapolis, hoped that the state would adopt the family plan if it saw the experiment, he resolved to establish such a home at his own expense and he requested Miss Susan Fussell to take charge of it. The home was first opened in Indianapolis with seven children but the number eventually increased to eleven, six boys and five girls. In the spring of 1866, the Soldiers' Home Association purchased the Knightstown home. The Government, while not adopting Mr. Merritt's plan, now assumed the support of the children, but Mr. Merritt continued to employ Miss Fussell. In 1877, to secure additional school advantages, Miss Fussell removed her family to Spiceland. With this change, the Government support ceased, but the children's pensions, hitherto saved were now drawn upon for their education.
On leaving Knightstown, Miss Fussell took into her home and heart the dear little sufferer, Maggie Newell, who survives her benefactress. Miss Fussell, determined to secure, if possible, the establishment of a school in which feeble-minded children might be taught self-helpfulness. Susan Fussell promised to secure all the statistics necessary, if the representative of our State Legislature, would present the bill. The passage of the bill under the care of Charles Hubbard, then our representative, was secured and the Knightstown home, for feeble-minded children, is the monument of her work. After two years, our county commissioners, agreed to let Miss Fussell take all the pauper children out of the poor house, and clothe, educate, and nurse the children. With no thought but for others had her life been so far occupied. She who, bowed and white haired as at seventy, has now laid down to her first and last rest at fifty-seven.
The traits of character in Susan Fussell were: A faith that hoped all things; a kindness of heart that saw the best of all things; a sympathy that responded to the thoughts and feelings of the humblest, most respected child; unselfishness almost to a fault; good business ability; and a calm self-reliance that sustained her in the most difficult enterprises. In her last illness, her sufferings were lost sight of in her kind thought for others, manifested in little remembrances of fruit and flowers.
Her brothers' and sister's loving tributes to her memory in the first moments of their desolation voices the feeling of all who knew her. Said the one, "My first recollection of my sister is of her unselfishness." Said the other, "The world is better for my sister having lived."
H. E. DAVIS
info from 47320339
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