Middletown Township.

The next to move in this work was Pennsylvania. Dr. A. L. Elwyn, afterwards the honored president of the institution, attending at Cambridge a meeting of the Association for the Advancement of Science, in 1849, turned aside to bear a letter from Rachel Laird, a blind girl of Philadelphia, to Laura Bridgman, the famous blind deaf mute of the South Boston Institution for the Blind, and while there he casually, at the invitation of a teacher, visited a room to see the experiment Massachusetts was making in behalf of the children of feeble minds. He was so impressed with what he saw, and with the feasibility of instituting a similar school, that immediately after returning to Philadelphia he held a conference with a number of his friends upon the subject. During the same year James B. Richards, of Boston, who had been associated with Dr. Howe, came to Philadelphia bearing a letter of introduction to Dr. Elwyn. A meeting, presided over by Bishop Potter and held in the office of James J. Barclay, was addressed so earnestly by Dr. Elwyn that the gentlemen present immediately promised aid to Mr. Richards for the establishment of an experimental school at Germantown.

On Feb. 10, 1853, the preliminary steps were taken to found the school which has since developed into a great State institution, and on the 7th of April of the same year the Legislature incorporated "The Pennsylvania Training-School for Feeble-Minded Children," and took it under fostering care, by which, with the liberality of citizens, it was built up to a condition by 1869 unequaled by any in the country.

The organization was effected by the usual methods of all charitable corporations in the State. In the enactment appeared the honored names of Alonzo Potter, John K. Kane, J. B. Richards, Matthias W. Baldwin, Jacob G. Morris, Isaac Collins, Alfred L. Elwyn, James Martin, Alexander Fullerton, and Franklin Taylor, who were, with their associates and successors, constituted a body politic and corporate in law. Membership in this corporation was secured by the payment to the treasurer of thirty dollars, or by the annual payment of five dollars. These moneys were invested in the "Free Fund" of the institution.

The school was soon opened at Germantown under the direction of James B. Richards, and by the year 1858 had acquired a property valued at nineteen thousand dollars. The period of its active development began in 1856, when Dr. Joseph Parrish was called to its superintendence, and "the school became an institution with considerable of an advancement towards departmental purposes and classification."

In looking about for a location in which the training-school could better be conducted (then in Germantown) the site of the present buildings, a farm of sixty acres in the vicinity of Media, was selected as presenting all of the most desirable features. This was bought from William L. Lewis for ten thousand dollars, which sum was contributed by the many friends who came to the aid of the institution, and who further donated eighty-three thousand nine hundred and eighteen dollars towards the erection of tie first buildings. The citizens of Media contributed one thousand dollars towards the purchase. The formal opening of the school occurred on Wednesday, Nov. 2, 1859. The dedication ceremonies were witnessed by an immense throng of people, mainly the citizens of the county. John P. Crozer gave the opening address. He was followed by Dr. Joseph Parrish, the superintendent at that time, and by several others. The Legislature, prior to 1869, had appropriated a total sum of ninety-seven thousand five hundred dollars, which completed the central, north, and south wings of the main building, and the Legislature of 1875-76 listening to an appeal for increased building accommodations, the sum of twenty thousand dollars was placed in the substantial structure known as the North House.

In 1877 began the effort to meet what was believed to be an imperative need, - "the creation of a strictly asylum branch, so situated at separate buildings that the educational department would be unembarrassed by it, while the inmates would get some share in the benefits and supervision of a general institution." It was not until the session of 1880-81 that the Legislature was so impressed as to vote assistance, but that body then made an appropriation of sixty thousand dollars, which was used to construct two excellent buildings on an adjoining farm, which in the mean time had been bought. A commodious school-house, forty by one hundred and eight feet, was also erected at a cost of ten thousand dollars, and a laundry-building, in which employment is given to about twenty inmates, at a cost of five thousand dollars. The original sixty acres has been added to until at present the asylum grounds include one hundred and forty acres. The total value of the real estate is probably not far from three hundred thousand dollars.

The State of Pennsylvania has increased her quota, and now provides for two hundred and fifty children of the commonwealth. The State of New Jersey liberally supports sixty of her feeble ones, and the city of Philadelphia sends eighteen. The "free fund" amounts to over seventy-five thousand dollars, and it is hoped that it may be raised to two hundred thousand dollars in the not far distant future.

There are at present six lists on which children are admitted, viz., under the State fund of Pennsylvania, appropriated for the support of two hundred children of .the commonwealth, for a period of not more than seven years, apportioned as nearly as possible among the Senatorial districts, according to representation. It is wished to take on this fund improvable cases only, or those who may return to the community, at least self-helpful if not self-supporting; under the State fund of New Jersey, appropriated for the support of poor children of that State, or for partial aid of such persons of only moderate circumstances, as are unable to pay full cost of maintenance; under