Rensselaer Semi-Weekly Republican, Volume 41, Number 134, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 31 December 1909 — FOR SPINSTERS AND WIDOWS [ARTICLE]

FOR SPINSTERS AND WIDOWS

Fund* for Their Benefit Established Many Years Afloi, A veritable “old maids’ paradise” is located in Scituate. That ancient South Shore town bears the distinction, says the Boston Globe, of possessing a fund of which.the proceeds are devoted to the of dependent maiden women. So far as the Scituate selectmen know there is not a life fund under the supervision of a town anywhere in the state. More than a quarter of a century ago Miss Eliza Jenkins decided that women approaching the sere and yellow leaf of life, who had, like herself, remained singly from choice or otherwise, should be provided for when they became dependent wholly upon themselves. The idea of an old folks’ home in Scituate was at that time entirely out of the question. Miss Jenkins straightway did the next best thing and left a fund of $3,000, the interest of which is yearly distributed among the worthy maidens of the town. The Jenkins fund has always been In charge of the selectmen. In the last few years they have placed about S2O each in the hands of half a dozen persons. This odd fund has benefited persons in Scituate for .so many years that the townspeople have come to regard it as a very common institution; it is available only for native born women, and this Is about the only restriction Its donor made. Many a person has been helped in the last 25 years to pay off a mortgage, buy fuel for the winter months or purchase seeds for the spring planting through this fund. The selectmen know pretty near every one in the town, and it is comparatively easy for them to discriminate between the worthy and unworthy. Soon after Miss Jenkins thoughtfully provided for the “old maids”, another maiden woman, Miss Lucy Thomas, originated the idea of a similar fund for widows. She left SIOOO, also under the care of selectmen, for native born women.