Emlen Institution for the Benefit of Children of African and Indian Descent records

The Emlen Institution for the Benefit of Children of African and Indian descent was the result of a bequest from Samuel Emlen, Jr., a Burlington, N.J. Friend who died in 1837. Emlen left money ($20,000) for the "education, maintenance and instruction in school learning and in agriculture and mechanical trades or arts, of free male orphan children of African or Indian descent..." Augustus Wattles and his wife, Susan Perley Wattles operated a manual labor school in Carthagena, Ohio for African Americans. They sold their property to Emlen's trustees in 1841 and continued as superintendents of the school. In 1857 the trustees sold the property in Ohio and chose another site which was closer (Solebury Twp., Bucks Co., Pa.). The soil proving poor, in 1873 the school was moved again, this time to Warminster Twp., Bucks Co.

Trustees of the Institute named at the first meeting in 1838 were Philip Physick, William Smith, Dr. H.L. Hodge, Daniel B. Smith, William White, Nathaniel Chauncey, Dr. Casper Morris and Dr. William Shippen.

[Note: The Emlen Institution was merged into the Fiduciary Corporation of Philadelphia Yearly Meeting of Friends, 12/31/1977 ­ actual effective date of merger 1/3/1978, according to a letter from Alan Reeve Hunt to Dorothy Hallowell in the papers of the Female Association of Philadelphia, Swarthmore College, Friends Historical Library .]