Jenkin
Lloyd Jones was born in 1843. The uncle of the architect, Frank
Lloyd Wright, Jones became a Unitarian
minister in Chicago. Jones became Missionary
Secretary of the Western Unitarian Conference and editor of the liberal
religious weekly, Unity.
In 1889 Jones became a strong supporter of the Hull
House Settlement that had been established by Jane
Addams and Ellen Starr in the run-down
Nineteenth Ward of Chicago.
Jones, an opponent of child labour and
supporter of the early trade union movement,
gave lectures at Hull House to recently arrived immigrants from Europe.
Jenkin Lloyd Jones died in 1918
(1)
Nora Marks, Chicago Tribune (19th May, 1890)
Miss Jane Addams and Miss Ellen
Starr got tired of keeping their culture, and wealth, and social capacity
to themselves. These young women believe that all luxury is right
that can be shared. They have taken their books, pictures, learning,
gentle manner, esthetic taste, to South Halsted Street.
From 9 to 12 a kindergarten under the direction of Miss Dow is held
in the long drawing-room. In the afternoon the kindergarten furniture
is removed and the hall is devoted to the use of various clubs and
classes. With its beautiful walls and pictures it is easily turned
into a drawing-room with the addition of a rug and chairs.
Monday afternoon the drawing-room is filled with Italian girls who
sew, play games, and dance, and the little ones cut out pictures and
paste them in scrapbooks. Sometimes they take a bath when they can
be convinced of the beauty of the porcelain tubs.
Monday afternoon a club of young women meets and read Romola,
aided by pictures of Florence, contemporary art, and lectures by Miss
Starr on Florentine artists.
Monday evening belongs to the French, who are reviewing the old salons
of Paris. Music, conversations, and coffee form the excuse for a brilliant
evening, with an occasional lecture on Marie Antoinette and kindred
subjects.
Tuesday afternoon the Schoolboys' Club meets, gets books from the
circulating library, and has reading aloud. At the same time a girls'
cooking class is at work in the kitchen. In the evening the boys come
back and have a lecture on what to do in emergencies, or simple chemical
experiments. One class is reading Shakespeare and others not so advanced
are studying the three R's.
Wednesday evening the Workingmen's Discussion Club has the floor.
The membership is already twenty-five, and many others who are interested
attend. The Rev. Jenkin Lloyd Jones, Henry Demarest Lloyd, or some
other well-known man delivers a short address, which is followed by
the freest discussion on strikes, labour unions, the eight-hour question,
child labour, etc.
Thursday afternoon Dr. Lelia Bedell talks to the women on physiology
and hygiene and how to raise healthy children, even near the Chicago
River. A cooking class is also being instructed. Thursday evening
the German population turns out en masse for a social evening of reading,
music, and "cakes and ale".
Friday afternoon the Schoolgirls' Club comes in to sew, embroider,
and cook, each taking home a book from the library. Friday evening
the working girls come in to enjoy a lecture or concert, and Saturday
evening there is a typical Italian entertainment. These entertainments
are crowded.
(2)
Francis Hackett worked as a journalist
with the Chicago Evening Post when he became a resident at
Hull House in 1906. He wrote about his experiences in an article that
was published in The Survey (June, 1925)
When
I went to live in Hull House in 1906, I did not really know it, and
I was totally ignorant of settlement work as I was devoid of missionary
spirit. I was torn at that time between the two impulses of wanting
to know Chicago and wanting to escape from it, and I went to Hull
House both for escape and for reconcilement.
I went there as one always goes into a new experience, on the terms
and in the light of the inappropriate things I already knew. Only
very slowly did I frame for myself the kind of experience I was having.
As I trusted myself to it gradually and suspiciously, and felt it
gave back more than it was receiving from me, I began to realize the
peculiar quality of this strange American creation, its quality of
goodness, of intelligence, of decent conscience, which filled Hull
House almost to overflowing, and which renewed itself constantly from
Miss Addams as a fountain is renewed. Hull House not only recruited
strong characters, it was excited about them.
We
had a baptism once at hull House, a kind of vegetarian baptism. Jenkin
Lloyd Jones officiated, looking like a behign old Druid, and the baby
was the progeny of James Webber Linns. I do not know whether they
handed that well-behaved baby a white flower, but I have a vague recollection
of the kindly patriarch's tickling the soles of the baby's feet and
adjuring her to walk in the paths of seemliness and righteousness.
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