Henry Bergh
Encyclopedia
Henry Bergh founded the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals
American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals
The American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals is a non-profit organization dedicated to preventing cruelty towards animals...

 (ASPCA) in April, 1866, three days after the first effective legislation against animal cruelty in the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

 was passed into law by the New York State Legislature. Bergh also prompted the formation, in 1874, of the Massachusetts Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children
Massachusetts Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children
Massachusetts Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children is a non-governmental charitable organization with offices in Boston and throughout Massachusetts which seeks to strengthen families and prevent child abuse through essential child welfare and mental health treatment and effective...

 (MSPCC).

Biography

Bergh studied at Columbia College
Columbia University
Columbia University in the City of New York is a private, Ivy League university in Manhattan, New York City. Columbia is the oldest institution of higher learning in the state of New York, the fifth oldest in the United States, and one of the country's nine Colonial Colleges founded before the...

 in New York, New York, after which he worked in his father's shipyard
Shipyard
Shipyards and dockyards are places which repair and build ships. These can be yachts, military vessels, cruise liners or other cargo or passenger ships. Dockyards are sometimes more associated with maintenance and basing activities than shipyards, which are sometimes associated more with initial...

. After the shipyard was sold, Bergh received a share of the inheritance and set forth on a lengthy journey throughout Western Europe
Europe
Europe is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally 'divided' from Asia to its east by the watershed divides of the Ural and Caucasus Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian and Black Seas, and the waterways connecting...

 with his young bride, Catherine Matilda Taylor.

Bergh was appointed to the American Legation in Russia
Russia
Russia or , officially known as both Russia and the Russian Federation , is a country in northern Eurasia. It is a federal semi-presidential republic, comprising 83 federal subjects...

 by then President Abraham Lincoln
Abraham Lincoln
Abraham Lincoln was the 16th President of the United States, serving from March 1861 until his assassination in April 1865. He successfully led his country through a great constitutional, military and moral crisis – the American Civil War – preserving the Union, while ending slavery, and...

.

In 1874, Bergh was approached by a Methodist missionary named Etta Wheeler, who sought help rescuing a child named Mary Ellen Wilson
Mary Ellen Wilson
Mary Ellen Wilson or sometimes Mary Ellen McCormack was an American whose case of child abuse led to the creation of the New York Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children. As an eight-year old, she was severely abused by her stepparents, Francis and Mary Connolly.-Biography:Mary Ellen...

 from her cruel abuser, Mary Connolly. After Mary Ellen's story was heard, and she was subsequently rescued through Bergh's efforts, other complaints came in to Bergh. In response, Bergh himself, along with Elbridge T. Gerry and John D. Wright, formed the New York Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children (NYSPCC) in 1875. Over the coming years, other SPCC organizations were formed, such as the Massachusetts organization in 1888, the Massachusetts Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children
Massachusetts Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children
Massachusetts Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children is a non-governmental charitable organization with offices in Boston and throughout Massachusetts which seeks to strengthen families and prevent child abuse through essential child welfare and mental health treatment and effective...

 (MSPCC
Massachusetts Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children
Massachusetts Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children is a non-governmental charitable organization with offices in Boston and throughout Massachusetts which seeks to strengthen families and prevent child abuse through essential child welfare and mental health treatment and effective...

).

He died on March 12, 1888.

Legacy

In the spring of 2006 at Green-Wood Cemetery
Green-Wood Cemetery
Green-Wood Cemetery was founded in 1838 as a rural cemetery in Brooklyn, Kings County , New York. It was granted National Historic Landmark status in 2006 by the U.S. Department of the Interior.-History:...

, while making preparations to honor Bergh, the ASPCA discovered that his wife was also in that mausoleum. On May 6, substantive ceremonies were held before a large audience which was allowed to bring their pets into the cemetery - including dogs, for the first time in over a century. The NYPD Emerald Society bagpipers and ASPCA HLE Agents were there also. After a walk to Bergh's tomb, the bas-relief statue was revealed that now rests in front. At the same time as these ceremonies, in the cemetery's large chapel building an exhibit was opened celebrating the history of the ASPCA and Henry Bergh.

Further reading

  • Friend of Animals: The Story of Henry Bergh, Mildred Mastin Pace, New York: Charles Scribner's Sons (1942)
  • "The Child-Saving Movement", J. Riis, (1982), Childhood in America, P. Fass and M.A. Mason (eds.). New York: New York University Press, p 539-542 (2000).
  • Out of the Darkness: The Story of Mary Ellen Wilson, Eric A. Shelman & Stephen Lazoritz, M.D., Lake Forest, CA, Dolphin Moon Publishing (1999) ISBN 0966940008
  • The Mary Ellen Wilson Child Abuse Case and the Beginning of Children's Rights in 19th Century America, Eric A. Shelman & Stephen Lazoritz, M.D., New York, McFarland & Company Publishers, 2005. ISBN 0786420391
  • Angel in Top Hat, Zulma Steele, (1942). New York: Harper & Brothers Publishers.

External links

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