Evening Republican, Volume 14, Number 97, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 23 April 1910 — FOR WOMAN’S HOSPITAL IN 1985. [ARTICLE]

FOR WOMAN’S HOSPITAL IN 1985.

Remarkable Will of Aged Phllsathr op tat Contains AU Details. The beautiful mansion on Main street, between tha Old South and Piedmont Congregational churches, for half a century the home of the famous inventor and philanthropist, Thomas H. Dodge, is to be a part of the “Eliza D. and Cora J. D. Dodge hospital" in 1986. This is made obligatory, the Worcester correspondent of the Boston Herald says, under the will of the aged philanthropist, made when he was .84 years old, and which has Just been filed for probate. Mr. Dbdge, who died at the age of 86, had always taken a great interest In movements for the betterment of the social conditions of women. His idea for many years was to found a woman’s hospital to perpetuate his name. He had plans made and his will even goes to the length of directing the kind of building material to be used, the, dimensions of the various air spaces in the building, the ornamentation, the style of the building and its exact location, his mansion house to be a part of the general scheme. A trust fund for the maintenance of the hospital, which is to be for women and children and not for contagious or incurable diseases, amounting to about 160,000, is to be set aside, to be placed on interest, and it is figured that at the expiration it will amount to 11,600,000, invested at 4 per cent, which would double itself every fifteen years. A provision of the will and the bequest is that there shall stand in the corridor of the new building, to be seen plainly .from the entrance, three life-sized standing Jtiortraits pf himself, flanked on either side by pictures of his two wives, Eliza Daniels and Cora Dodge, the maiden names of the inventor's wives. The will specifies the exact style of frame in which the paintings are to be placed, even to the style of gilt to be used, the width and depth. In this remarkable will Mr. Dodge went into the most minute detail, even to providing for the extension of the plank walk on the north side of the present mansion house and the rail of the steps leading to the back door of the mansion being extended to the entrance to the proposed hospital.Mrs. Cora Dodge, the widow of the philanthropist, is pleased with the will. She entirely approves of the hospital idea, although the will was not made subject to her approval, and regrets that she will not see the carrying out of the plan of her husband. She will remain in the mansion, living with her -sister, who Is a teacher In the classical high school, and has confided to friends that she will never marry again. She is but a little more than 40 years old, and her life work has been devoted to the Y. M. C. A. in connection with which work she met Mr. and' Mrs. Dodge nearly twenty-five years ago. During the latter years of Mr. Dodge’s life she acted as his confidential clerk.