Bernard J. Newman 1877 to 1941

By Katherine K. Newman and James B. Newman

Biography, correspondence and summaries of professional materials of Bernard Joseph Newman. Raised in Hoosick Falls NY, Newman learned the machinist trade. He graduated from Meadville Theological School in 1901 and served briefly as Unitarian minister. He became head of the Willow Place Chapel, a settlement program in Brooklyn, before becoming executive of the Philadelphia Housing Commission in 1911. From 1918-1920 he served as "sanitary expert" for the U.S. government in the area of war production factory safety. He returned to the Philadelphia Housing Association for the rest of his career, working indefatigably on improving housing standards.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Lulu.com
• Release date: Dec 3, 2021
• ISBN: 9781794749863

Book preview

Preface

Bernard J. Newman, our paternal grandfather, left many professional papers from his career in urban housing; some were donated to Temple University after his death. Others were donated by our father, William K. Newman, to Temple University in 1981. After the death of our father in 1998 we found many more boxes of Bernard's professional materials and a treasure trove of his personal letters. Bernard's correspondence sparkles with intelligence, strength of character, wit, warmth, and humor. The purpose of this book is to record brief descriptions of Bernard's professional papers and hand down his remaining letters.

Photographs

Most of our photos of Bernard were taken professionally. He and his family did take snapshots, but most of these are of poor quality for publication. In addition to photos, we have included images of several certificates, diplomas, etc. indicating academic work completed and recognition earned.

Notes about the Transcriptions

Most errors in punctuation and spelling have been corrected. However, we let some errors remain so as to convey the degree of informality and the style of the writer. Despite our best efforts, errors still exist, some obvious, others not. Unfortunately, the source of the error will never be clear. The proofreader's lapse? The transcriber's? The original writer or record keeper's? We have used these editor’s marks when needed:

[-] is used to indicates an undecipherable word.

[—] indicates multiple undecipherable words.

[?] means we are not certain about the previous word.

Bracketed material in italics are editors' notes that either 1) summarize material that was not typed, or 2) provide explanations.

Certain terminology and observations in Bernard's letters may be, in our times, offensive to some readers. We have not omitted this material, but have left it in to portray accurately the attitudes of the times.

Katherine K. Newman

James B. Newman

2021

Overview of Bernard’s Life

1877: Born, Hoosick Falls, NY

1901: Graduated from Meadville Theological School, Meadville, PA

1901-1902: Minister of the Unitarian Church in Rochester, NH

1902-1910: Headworker and Minister, Willow Place Chapel. Willow Place Chapel was the site of settlement programs organized, funded and operated by Brooklyn's First Unitarian Society (Church of the Saviour).

1905: Married Kate Janet Kincaid

1907: Trip to British Isles to investigate factory welfare work and industrial housing (Appendix B)

1910: Birth of son, William Kincaid Newman

1911-1916: Secretary, then Executive Secretary, Philadelphia Housing Commission (name changed to Philadelphia Housing Association in 1916)

1916-1918: Dean and later executive director of the Pennsylvania School for Social Service

1918 to 1920: Government service

August 1 to October, 1918: Expert in Sanitation for Ordnance Department, U.S. Army

November 1, 1918, to December 1920: Office of Industrial Hygiene & Sanitation, U.S. Public Health Service

1921-1940: Managing Director of the Philadelphia Housing Association

1925, 1928, and 1937: purchased successive farms in Chester County for the family's rest and recreation.

1941: Died, Philadelphia

Persons Mentioned in BJN’s Letters

Agnes, Aunt Agnes: Agnes Newman, sister of BJN

Betty: Elizabeth Newman, daughter of Richard Newman

Bill Richardson: college roommate of William K. Newman

Bishops: Margaret Kincaid and Homer Bishop and their children, Elizabeth and Donald

Dick, Uncle Dick: Richard Newman, brother of BJN

Ethel, Aunt Ethel: Ethel Newman, widow of Kate Newman's brother

Father: Richard Newman, father of BJN

Grays: George and Katherine Newman Gray and their children John and Katherine.

Harry, Uncle Harry: Harry Newman, brother of BJN

Kate: usually refers to Kate Kincaid Newman, wife of BJN; also a nickname for his sister Katherine

Katherine, Aunt Katherine: Katherine Newman Gray, sister of BJN

Kit: Katherine Newman Gray, sister of BJN

Margaret: Margaret Kincaid Bishop, niece of Kate Newman; daughter of Ethel Newman

Mathilda, Aunt Till: Mathilda Vogel, friend of Katherine Newman and wife of Richard Newman

Mother: Elizabeth McCloskey Newman, mother of BJN

Moul, Harry A.: Engineer in Charge of Housing, Philadelphia Housing Association

Mummie: Martha Kincaid, mother-in-law of BJN

Peggy: horse at first two Chester County farms

Stella, Stell: Stella Kincaid, first cousin of Kate Kincaid Newman

Tom, Uncle Tom: Thomas Newman, brother of BJN

Will, Uncle Will: William Newman, brother of BJN

Wilson, Lewis G: minister of the Unitarian Church in Hopedale, MA, mentor and friend of BJN

Chapter 1. My Father, Bernard Joseph Newman

This chapter consists of a biographical sketch written by William Kincaid Newman, son of Bernard. It appears in William Kincaid Newman: Autobiography, edited by James B. Newman and Katherine K. Newman, self-published through Lulu.com, copyright 2005.

Bernard J. Newman was born in Hoosick Falls, NY, on March 15, 1877. He graduated from the Hoosick Falls High School in 1894, remaining to 1895 for a year of teacher training. He worked as assistant to the chief inventor of the Walter A. Wood Company. Walter A. Wood was a man who had contributed a greatly to the national agricultural community by designing improvements in harvesting equipment. Bernard found this a fascinating experience and found the various inventions very exciting.

Bernard Joseph Newman

Bernard's father had quit school in the third grade, probably to work in the mill. He was a very able employee at Wood, and his sons worked at the company. Bernard had probably worked there before graduating from high school.

Bernard’s Family, about 1911

Back Row – Lena and William, Kate and Bernard, Thomas and Mary,

Richard and Till.

Middle Row – Katherine, his father Richard holding Bernard’s son William,

his mother Elizabeth, Miss Chase (a friend of Harry).

Front Row – Agnes and Harry

Following his work with the inventor and in accordance with the family plan that each boy should learn a trade, he worked in various factories in New England and qualified himself as a tool and diemaker.

After the family moved to Hopedale, MA, Bernard secured a position in the Draper Company, makers of textile machinery, where he did so well that he was offered a job as foreman while still a teenager. His first choice as a career, made when he was 12 years old, was the ministry. His family had been fairly recent converts to the Unitarian church, and were active. In Irish families, it was the custom for the oldest son to go into the priesthood. When his older brother John drowned, this responsibility appears to have passed to him. We do not know whether the choice was his, or whether there was family pressure to choose this. The Unitarian minister in Hopedale, the Rev. Lewis G. Wilson, was greatly impressed with his abilities, and feared that if he were made a foreman he would remain in the mills for the rest of his life. He urged Bernard to give up his position and go back to school.

His first choice was the Harvard Divinity School, but he was ineligible because he had not studied Latin. He then applied to Meadville Theological Seminary, then located in Meadville, PA. Harvard and Meadville were the chief sources of training for Unitarian ministers at that time. Since he had not been to college, he elected to take a four-year course at the seminary, rather than a three-year course. The seminary appears to have been a leader in including sociology and similar studies as part of a minister's education.

He graduated in 1901, and was called to the pastorate of the First Unitarian Church of Rochester, NH, where he was ordained November 6, 1901. Mr. Wilson preached the sermons and wrote a hymn in honor of the occasion. In 1902 the First Unitarian Church in Brooklyn, NY, had a very advanced program for that day, working with the people who lived in the slums adjoining Brooklyn Heights. The program was known as the Willow Place Chapel. They called him to be the Assistant Pastor of the church.

Bernard’s Diploma from Meadville Seminary

Bernard met his future wife, Kate Janet Kincaid, there, when she was teaching the kindergarten. They were married Oct. 5, 1905, at the Kincaid home in Brooklyn. The marriage was performed by Rev. John Kincaid, Kate’s uncle, and Mr. Wilson of Hopedale. The church gave them a set of table silver and candlesticks as a wedding present. A silver christening cup was given to them when Bill was born.

At the time of the marriage of Bernard Newman and Kate Janet Kincaid in 1905, William Kincaid (Kate's father) had died and Kate was living with her mother, Martha Jane Chapman Kincaid, in the brownstone house at 483 Greene Ave. which her father had purchased when he moved to Brooklyn in 1885. Rather than leave her mother alone in the house, they lived with her until they moved to Philadelphia. Their son, William Kincaid Newman, was born in the Greene Ave. house on August 26, 1910.

One of the leading lay members of First Church was Alfred T. White, a manufacturer and civic leader who was especially concerned about the underprivileged members of the community and particularly about housing problems. He had made a personal trip to England to study what forward-looking companies there were doing to house their employees, and at his own expense, erected a number of apartment complexes in the area adjoining Brooklyn Heights, in which he made an emphasis on sanitation, proper plumbing, adequate light and ventilation, and safety against fires. Some of these have been modernized and are still in use with better than average accommodations now, over a hundred years after their erection.

Bernard had great admiration for White and, in addition to his intensive work in helping the people who lived in the slums, became increasingly interested in the problem of housing, making a special trip to England in 1907 to study conditions in a number of communities where progressive action had been taken.

In the early 1900's there was a vigorous reform movement in the city of Philadelphia. In the area of housing, this was led by persons who for several years had been active in the Octavia Hill Association, a stock corporation still active in the 1990's whose members' basic interest was in purchasing or erecting small homes to be made available to poor people at a modest rental. They saw the need of a civic organization to put the whole issue before the public. In 1911, they incorporated the Philadelphia Housing Commission, later renamed the Philadelphia Housing Association, presently known as the Housing Association of Delaware Valley. After consultation with Alfred T. White, they invited Bernard Newman to be their first executive. In the archives of the Housing Association, now in the custody of Temple University, in a special collection, is a letter from Mr. White commenting on Bernard Newman's capacities for the job.

So far as we know, this was the first organization of its kind in the US and possibly in the world. The first task was to organize the Commission into a viable organization and to enlist sufficient financial support to keep it operating. Originally this had to be done with an annual solicitation of funds from the members and friends of the Association. Later, the Association cooperated with the welfare agencies in its citywide appeal, and the Welfare Federation became a part of the United Way movement.

The Commission entered upon a continued study of housing conditions in Philadelphia, including a great deal of personal visitation of the slum area by Bernard Newman and his staff. Eventually an Inspection Department was established, with three or more people who inspected improper conditions and caused the correction through pressure on owners and the city government of as many as 7000 illegal conditions each year. The Commission drew attention to problems associated with housing by publicizing written material, by lectures and exhibit of slides, and by arranging tours of slum neighborhoods for people from other areas. Some 1700 slides on glass depicting slum conditions are among the materials turned over to Temple University.

Around 1913 Bernard was guiding a tour of people through the slums. The open-sided bus stopped at an alley and the tour prepared to get off, when a group of people came out of the alley armed with guns and other weapons. Apparently hired by the landlord, they were determined to prevent the tour from visiting their tenements. The reporter from the [Philadelphia] Evening Bulletin wanted to get a picture, but was reluctant to step down and take the time to set up and focus his camera. Bernard stood on the step of the bus and talked to the armed group until the reporter was set up and focused. On signal, Bernard started to walk toward the group. The photographer snapped the picture, which was on the front cover of the next day's Bulletin. Major efforts were made in the field of legislation (city and state) resulting in the enactment of Philadelphia's first housing code, of zoning enabling legislation, of Philadelphia's first zoning law, and of state legislation enabling the creation of limited-dividend housing corporations and a Philadelphia Housing Authority. In later years, especially during the New Deal period of the 1930's the Association worked closely with the federal government in its housing programs.

Today, it is possible to study housing as a topic in colleges and universities. For Bernard Newman, it was necessary to create a plan of education and to reeducate himself while he was doing the work. Beginning with the sociological studies at Meadville, and with his personal experience in the slums of Brooklyn, he went on to take courses in Hygiene at the New York School of Philanthropy (now a part of Columbia University), Sanitary Engineering at Harvard and others at the University of Pennsylvania. He also took courses in real estate problems.

Through the Association, he developed projects of research in building costs and the economics of housing management, which were of value not only to students of the area, but to those in the building industry.

After my father accepted the position with the housing association in Philadelphia, it became clear to him that his voice would carry more weight in the community, and with people of varying religious background if he were not considered as a minister, and he dropped his use of the title reverend, and resigned his ministerial standing. In the first few years, he did a certain amount of preaching, however, in various churches in the Philadelphia area, and the high workload which he was carrying prevented him from attending church himself every Sunday. My mother and I did go with him occasionally to the Unitarian church. My father brought a good deal of work home from the office and worked hard often at night and over the weekend on his office work. Sunday mornings, he either got some rest, which he desperately needed, or he worked at his desk.

In 1916 there was an interruption in his work with the Housing Association, when he became the Dean of the Pennsylvania School for Social Work. He had been making less than $2000 per year, and needed more income. The school is now a part of the University of Pennsylvania. Then and in later years, he was part of the adjunct faculty of the University of Pennsylvania, lecturing in a number of departments.

With the entry of the US into World War I, he was very anxious to be of maximum help to the country, and went to Washington DC in the Office of Industrial Hygiene in the Public Health Service, an office of which he became the acting executive. Initially he was on loan to the Bureau of Ordnance of the Army Department, where his efforts were to promote the health and safety of persons working in the production of munitions.

After the war, he continued in that office through December 1920, pioneering in the study and elimination of health and safety hazards in industry. During this period, he wrote a portion of a book entitled, Lead Poisoning in the Pottery Trades, in which he correlated his work and that of a number of others in that field. (US Public Health Service Public Health Bulletin No. 116, May, 1921.)

One may wonder why a person who had trained to be a minister would be publishing as an authority on lead poisoning. Bernard Newman was a man of great self-confidence. Possibly because of his work with the inventor in Hoosick Falls, he believed that a solution could be found to every problem. When he found himself in a profession that had not existed as such before he began working in it, he did not hesitate to design a curriculum to broaden his knowledge. During his work with the Public Health Service, he would often work until midnight in the Congressional Library on such materials as were available, and then go out to a manufacturing establishment to help its managers adapt to the problems they were facing.

He traveled extensively during his time with the Public Health Service. One time, he was called in to help investigate a serious explosion in a munitions factory that the management was trying to blame on German spies. He found that the workers were wearing hobnailed boots, which struck sparks against the concrete floor, on which gunpowder was constantly spilled.

He was especially interested in what could be done in health problems through vaccination and inoculation for occupational diseases, working with the physicians to achieve some very good results.

In 1920 Bernard received a call to return to Philadelphia as Managing Director of the Philadelphia Housing Association, a position which he was to hold for the remainder of his working life. The Association continued along the course which he had charted beginning in 1911, and also became involved in a variety of additional subjects, such as city and regional planning, government housing, and slum clearance. During this period, he helped in the organization of the Regional Planning Federation, of which he was a vice president. He and the Association participated in many national housing and town planning activities. He was also a member of the Greater Pennsylvania Council during the administration of Governor Gifford Pinchot, and was one of the founders of the Pennsylvania Housing and Town Planning Association. In 1928, he was a delegate to the International Association of Housing and Town Planning meeting in Paris, where he presented a paper. He also took advantage of the occasion to visit housing projects and persons concerned in the area in London, Paris, and Rome. When President Herbert Hoover called a White House conference on housing problems, Bernard served on the planning committee and was chairman of the section on legislation.

During the Depression years, he constantly advised the Works Progress Administration and the Public Works Administration on housing problems. He received unexpected publicity when the WPA theater section developed a play [later a movie] entitled One Third of a Nation based upon President Roosevelt's speech in which he said that one third of the nation was ill-housed. The actors in Philadelphia portrayed Bernard as one of the characters in the play in his early efforts to combat unsanitary conditions in Philadelphia, such as the accumulation of manure piles in the central city and surface drainage, in which sewage flowed down the center of some of Philadelphia's alleys. One of the scenes in the play was a courtroom scene in which he described to the court the spread of typhoid fever in the city as a result of flies living in the manure piles, and the attorney for the owners of the manure piles remarked in court, What harm is a little black fly?

During the time he was working in Philadelphia, the city was run by the Republican organization which was dominated by the Vare family. They had the contract for garbage disposal, collecting it in open wagons and hauling it to South Philadelphia where it was fed to pigs. Bernard led the fight that resulted in banning the keeping of pigs within the city limits, as well as the fight against privies and surface drainage of sewage.

When William Penn designed the city of Philadelphia, it was to be a greene country town. In addition to planning for parks at regular intervals and a number of wide principal streets, most of the present center city was occupied by houses, some of them for the very well-to-do fronting on Walnut and Chestnut and other streets. These houses had fine gardens behind them. As the city grew in population, the garden areas were filled with additional dwellings, often called bandbox houses, each with three small rooms one above the other, facing an alley leading out to the street on which the older dwelling faced. There might be a well, or later a hydrant in the middle of this alleyway to provide water for the houses facing it, plus a privy. Waste water drained down the middle of the alley into the main thoroughfare. The open sewers and their proximity to the water supply created terrible health problems.

Bernard continued to work until he had a stroke in 1939. He was given a leave of absence until he formally retired in 1941, just before his death. His successor was Edmund Bacon, who later became head of the City Planning Department of the City of Philadelphia and was responsible for redeveloping the waterfront area.

Chapter 2. 1877-1902

March 15, 1877. Bernard Joseph Newman born at Hoosick Falls, New York, to Richard Newman and Elizabeth Campbell McCloskey Newman. The family pronounced his name Ber´-nard. An account of Bernard’s parents, siblings, and forebears is contained in One Newman, King, and McCloskey Family, by James B. Newman, Katherine K. Newman, and David A. Newman (Lulu.com, 2021).

´Bernard and his brother John, about 1878

Bernard and John, about 1881

Bernard’s Family, 1891

Back – brother William, Bernard, brother Thomas

Center – mother Elizabeth, brother Richard, father Richard

Front – sister Agnes, sister Katherine, brother Harry

The empty chair is for brother John, who drowned earlier in the year.

1891-1894. Cards indicating the passing of Regents Examinations at Hoosick Falls Union School.

Je '92: Spelling; Geography

M '92: Arithmetic; Eng. Hist.

Sep '92: Writing; English elem.

M '93: Chemistry

Jl '93: Algebra; Civics

N '93: Plane Geom.

M '94: English comp.; Botany; B'k keeping

Jl '94: Rhetoric; Phys. Geog.; Zoology; Economics; Ethics.

Ja '94: Physics; Drawing

January 23-27, 1893. University of the State of New York, Preliminary or Preacademic Certificate No. 135193. BJN attained 75% in reading, writing, spelling, elementary English, arithmetic, geography and is now certified as an Academic Student.

1893-1900. Machinist and Tool Maker

According to BJN's October 1, 1920, statement: Machinist and Tool Maker. During summer vacations and prior to college work was apprenticed as machinist and tool maker in manufactories of the following types: mowing and reaping machinery, bicycle manufacturing, steam pumps, looms, etc. Did work also in the experimental shop.

According to an undated form (between October 20, 1918, and June 30, 1919) Addenda to Civil Service Paper - Form 375: "Began summer 1893, 1894, 1894-1897, summers 1898, 1899, 1900. Was gang foreman at end, also worked in experimental shop on loom inventions. Hoosick Falls Mowing & Reaping Co; Hartford Ct. Bicycle Works and also Patent Fire Arms Co; Cambridgeport, Mass Steam Pump Works; Hopedale, Mass. Screw Machine and Loom Mfg. Works. Apprenticeship and journeyman and later gang foreman.

Worked in the following places: Walter A. Wood Mowing Mach. Co.; Pope Mfg. Co. Hartford, Ct.; Colt's Patent Fire Arms, Hartford; Hopedale, Mass. Machine Screw Co; Blake & Knowles Steam Pump Co., Cambridge, Mass; Draper Loom Co., Hopedale, Mass.

In a job application of April 23, 1919, BJN wrote: Prior to entering School after High School went into my Father's employ and became skilled as machinist and tool maker; worked during summer vacations. At 19 was gang foreman and worked in experimental shop.

January 22-26, 1894. University of the State of New York, 30 Count Certificate No. 10953. BJN attained 75% in Reading; Writing; Spelling; English, elementary; Arithmetic; Algebra; Plane geometry; Physics; Chemistry; Geography; English history; Civics; Drawing.

May 2, 1894. Program, Concert under the auspices of Class '94 Hoosick Falls High School, by members of the Boston Symphony Orchestra. Tickets 25 cts. Reserved Seats at Stone's Drug Store.

June 11-15, 1894. University of the State of New York, 40 Count Certificate No. 9071. BJN completed the examinations required for a 40 count certificate; attained 75% in the following subjects, aggregating 46 counts: Reading; Writing; Spelling; English, elementary; English composition; Rhetoric; Arithmetic; Algebra; Plane geometry; Physics; Chemistry; Physical geography; Botany; Zoology; Geography; English history; Civics; Economics; Ethics; Bookkeeping; Drawing.

June 22, 1894. BJN graduated from Hoosick Falls High School. BJN saved the invitation/program. BJN was the class treasurer. BJN saved the namecards of most of the class members.

July, 1894. Issue of The High School Kodak, Published Monthly, in the interest of the Hoosick Falls High School.

Includes an account of the 1994 commencement. BJN was one of 25 graduates (pages 2-3)

As a result of the June Examinations, Scientific Academic Diplomas will be claimed for ...Bernard J. Newman....Forty count certificates are due...B.J. Newman.... [continues with recipients of lower level certificates] (page 7)

The Money Question (concluded), an essay by Bernard J. Newman (pages 7-9). Advocates paper money.

1894-1895. BJN took the Hoosick Falls Teachers Training Class. According to an undated form (between October 20, 1918, and June 30, 1919) Addenda to Civil Service Paper - Form 375: One year's extra work in chemistry, quantitative and qualitative analysis, advanced physics, advanced mathematics, architectural drawing.

January 1896 or January 1897. Family moved to Hopedale, Massachusetts.

December 15, 1897. Card indicating that BJN was matriculated and admitted to full membership as a student in the Meadville Theological School, Meadville, PA.

Bernard’s High School Diploma

1897. Meadville Theological School Annual Record for 1896-97. Founded as unsectarian: doctrinal test for admission was prohibited. Admission depends on good moral character, ability, sufficient intellectual training, and an earnest purpose to prepare for the work of the ministry. Open to any denomination but chiefly are Unitarians. Men and women are received on equal terms. Tuition free. Estimated yearly expenses $150.

1897-1901. According to his October 14, 1920 statement, BJN attended the Meadville Theological School. Majored in economics and sociology. Thesis: Factory Welfare Work.

Card describing the school's system of credits. 15/year; 75 required for graduation; a credit represents one hour of work per week for an entire school year.

1897-1898: Vocal Culture, 75 (C+); Hermeneutics, 85 (B+); Religion of Israel, 75 (C+); N.T. Introduction, 75 (C+); N.T. Greek, 75 (C+); Psychology, 85 (B+); Ethics, 80 (B).

September 19, 1898. BJN has completed 30 credits..

1898-1899: Homiletics, A-; Church History, A; Economics, B+; English, A; German, C; Music, A-. Mr. Newman was awarded a scholarship at the last Faculty meeting. Entitled to 15 credits for work in Homiletics, Church History I, Economics, English, German, Music, Elocution.

1899-1900: Synoptic Gospels, A; N.T. Theology, B; O.T. Introduction, A; Comparative Religion, A; Theology, A-; Senior Homiletics, A-; Sociology, A; Amer. Church History, Elocution. September 17, 1900: Entitled to 15-2/3 credits for work in those subjects.

Undated, 1897-1901, from BJN to Elizabeth Newman (mother). [Letterhead: Meadville Theological School, Meadville, Pennsylvania]

My Dear Mother: Before it gets too late and I get sleepy perhaps I had better write. There is a little question before me which is rather puzzling. We have a student here who is exceptionally bright yet is unfortunately afflicted with a disease which causes trouble when it attacks him. It is a sort of hysterical fit induced by worrying. On Thursday night the attack came on. We did not know what was the matter till Friday at eleven when he began to have convulsions. He was strong. Three of the boys had to hold him down. The doctor injected morphine and that quieted him somewhat. [paper torn; words missing] Three of us took turns in watching. I stayed from 1.48 P.M. till 3.30 and from 4 till 4.45 and then from 6:45 till 1:15 am with him. At ten minutes to seven he began to awake and would get out of bed. So for a half hour we walked the floor together I holding him up. But no harm resulted. In fact good came for the rough carpet itched his feet and set his nerves agoing so that when he went to bed again he was fairly awake. After rubbing his head off and on for another half hour he was able to eat. Then a little more rubbing and he was sent to sleep with three of us in watches to look out for his comfort. One curious thing happened while I was with him. He sat up in bed with his eyes shut and pointed directly to his Bible on his bureau. It was heavy so we hesitated in giving it to him handing instead a smaller book. He got mad and demanded Give me that book. Three times this recurred when finally the Bible was given him. He took off the band, opened it to a marked passage that is marked by a bookmark and with his eyes partly opened he followed the lines turning over the page. Several times he turned to different passages. Finally giving it up and saying It's no use. I can't find it. Then he laid the book down, rested his head against the wall. After a few minutes he tried to find the passage again but could not. So he put the Bible aside and laid down again. All the time he was unconscious of my presence for I was the only one with him in the room at the time. He would talk at other times with his old schoolmates, I answering as if I were the person talked to. We both had a laugh over a proposed trip which we were going to take which was forbidden by the Master of the school. He thinking he was back in the Preparatory school and I his roommate Jack. Then again he was in the factory. I was his foreman and giving orders. Here I told him there was no hurry he need not rush his work. Very few real foremen ever gave such an order. We covered a good many subjects when suddenly he sat up, recognized me, wanted to know what I was after, laughed at my answer, and then fell back unconscious again. Of course similar experiences took place when the other watchers were with him. He is now up around but suffering from the effects. I fear for his welfare as he is still worrying and to think the cause of it all is a girl. He is madly in love although he conceals it. The girl is in his home town and for six weeks has been ill at times at death's door. The fear of losing her frets him, and he being susceptible to such attacks become unconscious as he slept. I wish I knew some way to help him for I fear he may grow more morose and seek his own life, for he says he is tired of life so I have been told. Here is one case when I am at a disadvantage. I suppose I could help him out if I had only been susceptible enough to the charms of some lady and so know what that sort of love is. Unfortunate (?) me. They say it's all in a lifetime so there's plenty of time yet.

I don't suppose you are interested in what I have written. But I do wish I knew some way of getting him out of his worry. I have said so much that space is almost gone--Well I did receive one letter from Mr. Wilson and what you said he wrote me he did write. I have told him I was agreeable. But I have had no reply. So it stands no doubt I shall hear this week. Well if Rich maneuvered a young People's reunion through all the difficulties of such gathering he did well. What is he doing now? Working at his trade? Or is he a foreman? I wish he had to write the sermon which is now before me. No easy swap I can tell you. I pity the people that have to listen to it. Maybe after it has been retouched like a picture it can look better.

Yes I shall count on your telling me something about your success with the guild. I suppose the old ladies of the Bible class will have my attention again this summer as much as any one class can have it. Well I shall have my books with me and so be better prepared to do justice to my subjects. There are two books I must buy before I get away from here. Both are on the New Testament. I should like very much to make a special study of Ecclesiastes with them. It is full of sermonetts, but not of sermons. A little work draws me before I go to bed so I shall have to call my pen to a halt [--]. Love to all, Your son B.J.N.

May 23, 1898. Handwritten invitation (humorous) to be initiated into Hesh Aleph Rish.

September 30, 1898. BJN completed the Form of Application to the Beneficiary Committee of the Meadville Theological School and was granted $100.

Bernard in seminary

1899-1900 Catalogue of the Meadville Theological School saved by BJN. Bernard Joseph Newman of Hopedale, Massachusetts, is listed as Middle Class Senior Division. BJN was listed as entering in 1897. It appears that about 8-15 students had entered per year since 1845 with a third to a half graduating.

March 8, 1900 to June 29, 1913. BJN wrote, delivered, and saved several sermons:

March 8, 1900. Difficulties and Personalities and How to Meet Them.

December 7, 1902. True Greatness. Preached in Willow Place Chapel, Brooklyn.

January 25, 1903. Untitled

September 27, 1908, at the Church of the Savior, Brooklyn. Also preached at Willow Place Chapel the same day. Also preached at Girard Ave. Church, Nov. 21, 1915, and at Germantown Unit. Church on February 6, 1916, and at Vineland, N.J. on January 14, 1917. Title: In Character Building, What More than Individualism?

June 29, 1913. What is Right? Preached in Germantown, PA

March 8, 1900. Sermon preached in class. Difficulties and Personalities and how to meet them. Text: Gal 6:2. Penciled on outside: To be rewritten. Excerpts:

"'Every man bear his own burden' Gal 6/2. [Citation should read Gal. 6:5.] Among the many experiences of our daily living there are some few that leave an indelible impression on our minds. They come to us in moments when least expected. They suggest methods by which we may guide our actions....then again we have experiences which are not so momentous...From the small as well as from the great events of life we thus gain help to daily living to the cultivation of nobler characters to the preparation for those emergencies which so often appear in the course of one's existence....[Consider a battleship.] Each man has his burden of responsibilities for the faithful performance of which he alone is held accountable....So it is in life. Each man is a combatant on board a great battle ship....He has noble opportunities before him---victories to be gained if his duty is well done. To him will be given the blest wings of progress as the years advance, the accumulated blessings will add strength to his spirit, which in turn will make further progress even less difficult....[Man becomes used to self-indulgence.] The tasks are hard, yet the recompense in moral and spiritual well being is sufficient to offer inducement to all except the faint-hearted, the moral cowards, to strive for....[There are fundamentals that guide and determine every known action. Man learns by experience.] For in nature as in life, no great height is ever attained except by slow toilsome marches, along paths obstructed by underbrush, fallen trees, huge boulders. or turbulent streams....But must we follow the dictates of the weaker self? No, thanks be to God who has endowed our natures with higher and more courageous spirits! In the frequent failures, the self-reproach and remorse, we see the only salvation of man. Perfection is not a state to be attained in an instant of time, but it is of slow growth and often of severe trial. As the iron is taken from the earth filled with impurities, yes impurities so interwoven that no ordinary method will remove them, and only the purifying process of fire will prove equal to the task, so too is it with our lives. We need the redeeming force of failures, of dissatisfaction and remorse to purify us and make us wholly acceptable in the sight of our fellow-men and our God. Recall the most saintly characters that in all your experience you have known. Go to them if you can, talk with them, and you will find that their way has been marked by many failures. It is so everywhere. The same fundamental principles that guide and control the individual, guide and control the race. The suffering and agony of Gethsemane ladened with its sense of defeat, was a means of opening to Jesus a newer heaven where body takes on a new transfiguration, and where life become at peace with the world. Where warring elements have been lulled to sleep through the instrumentality of the Divine Spirit and Divine courage. Oftentimes we thus receive our richest gifts in the midst of our greatest afflictions....It is not the outward forces that baffle us--it is the inner ones....Each man in bearing his own burdens need not make himself a slave to them--he need not allow them to force him to the ground...[quotes Lowell, "Build me more stately mansions, O my soul...]

February 9, 1901, from Lewis G. Wilson, Hopedale, MA, to BJN, Meadville. Wilson was minister of the Unitarian church in Hopedale. Summary and excerpts:

[Feels humbled that BJN seeks his advice. Offers BJN the pulpit anytime in the summer at $20/ per Sunday. Advice on Salt Lake City is not to go unless BJN intends to stay at least 10 years to establish a strong church. Regrets he can't go himself.] There will be the life and exhilaration attending such a work which makes existence a perpetual luxury.

Thirdly! Your letter refers to the eternal restlessness of the social world and the everlasting need of closing up the yawning abyss between those who have much and those who have little or nothing. As I read your enthusiastic words about such matters I had to think how the same social phenomena wrung the heart of the man who wrote the book of Job. The fact of it is as long as human nature is what it is. The greatest and holiest work any man can do is spiritual in its nature. My observation (and it is not by any means confined to Hopedale) teaches me that for real misery--hope deferred, bitterness of soul, and all the wretchedness which comes from the most degrading materialism--you must apply, in the greatest proportion of cases, to the houses of rich men. Manual labor is oftener a blessing than otherwise. Poor wages are not a blessing if they only afford a degraded existence. But it is O, so hard to tell which causes the most wretchedness--too much, or too little! And you will find, when you come to check off the other causes for unhappiness and want--intemperance, vice, calamity by sickness and death, avarice, greed etc--that the man who can expand human sympathy and elevate souls is, after all, making more headway towards the amelioration of social evil than he who, in some particular locality, organizes an crusade against either capital or labor. Do not misunderstand me. I have no objection to any kind of reform. All I mean is that when a young man starts out with a theory of life--if he wishes the highest it must be of a spiritual nature; and in these days there are none too many of them. You are perfectly right in believing that too many of our men are looking rather for a large salary than the good they can do. That has always been the case and it is true in every church which is operated by human beings. Large salaries are excellent things. If I could have my way every one of our Unitarian ministers should receive at least $20,000 a year. I know so many of them and they are, in the great majority of cases, such judicious and large hearted fellows that I know they would make a better use of the money than the same number of merchants, mechanics, or doctors. The trouble is not in large salaries--we need never fear any very great corruption to our men on that account. What we want is men who will get and spend all they can--the more the better. And then what they do themselves will not be an iota to what they may get their rich parishioners to do. For my part this whole matter of economics is simply a ceaseless gathering together and distribution. Concentration and explosion! If we can get men to do it wisely we are doing a great work. So few out of all the multitudes know how to spend (even small wages) wisely. And as for happiness--ah! that creature is as often found over in Albeeville in