When her last two surviving sibling died, Anna Thomas Jeanes was left a wealthy heiress at age 72. Drawing on her Quaker faith, familial influences, and the times in which she lived, Anna determined to distribute her inherited fortune before her death. This is the story of Anna’s compassionate philanthropy to better those less fortunate.
Family
In 1822, “Annie” was the last child born into the wealthy Jeanes family, members of the Philadelphia Quaker merchant class. Left motherless at four, Anna was raised by her close-knit family. Her father and two brothers were merchants, another an entrepreneur, another a medical doctor and homeopathic physician. Anna’s sister became her de facto mother.
During her life, Anna and family lived through tumultuous race riots in a place known as The City ofBrotherly Love, a schism between the Orthodox and Hicksite Religious Society of Friends, a Civil War with mass migration of poor Blacks from the south and starving immigrants moving from Europe. Anna and family knew members of the Temperance and Suffragette Movements, witnessed the blessings and horrors of the Industrial Revolution, lived with horrific diseases, and observed the living conditions those less fortunate.
Despite the horrors and difficulties of everyday life, efforts were underway to provide benevolent assistance to aid vulnerable and displaced people, the aged, uneducated, as well as the sick and dying. Steeped in their Quaker faith and a belief in “That of God within us,” Anna and her family were actively involved in working quietly to address much needed support for social reform through their philanthropic activities.
Faith
The family were Hicksite Quakers. While she was mostly influenced by her Quaker Faith, non-Quakers too influenced her need to serve those who were suffering. They were called to act outside their comfort zone and, more importantly, to challenge others’consciences. Anna engaged in lively discussions and debates with family and friends. She read English, French, and understood a smattering of German and Latin. Books and pamphlets across diverse genre could be found in the family library.
Early in life, Anna read a poem titled “Abou ben Adhem” written by English poet Leigh Hunt. She painted “An Allegory of Abou ben Adhem” which she gifted to her father. The painting illustrated Anna’s spiritual understanding of an Arab Muslim Shiekh, saint and Sufi mystic who believed God was love; God’s love blessed all humankind and therefore all humankind should love God and each other.
Later in life, Anna published a book titled The Sacrificer and the Non-Sacrificer. It explored sacrifice as a concept and part of life among many world religions. She also published a short book of religious poetry titled Fancy’s Flight. In relationship with God, aligned with love and compassion for those less fortunate, Anna’s faith guided her focus on philanthropic activities in aging, education, healthcare and vulnerable and disenfranchised populations.
Fortune
Anna’s siblings all died before her, the last two dying only one day apart. She found herself the inheritor of the entire family fortune of $5 million (today worth $187 million.). Seeking anonymity and without ostentation she determined to give away her entire fortune.
She financed the building of Quaker boarding homes for the aged and infirm. Anna built, paid for and maintained Stapeley Friends Boarding Home at Washington and Greene Streets in the Germantown area of Philadelphia where she spent the last three years of her life. Still in existence today, the facility is now owned and operated by a different corporation.
She provided scholarships, tuitions, loans, funded primary, secondary and trade schools, and built dormitories and buildings for colleges and universities throughout the United States. In the name of her siblings, Anna established an endowed chair in obstetrics and built a clinical laboratory facility at Women’s Medical College and Hospital and funded initiatives at Hahnemann Hospital to advance the study of homeopathic medicine.
Anna funded an orphanage started by her sister Mary. Her generosity included funds for soup kitchens, nurseries,disabled firemen and their families, the tubercular sanitarium for children, the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, maintenance for Historic Fair Hill Cemetery and other worthy causes.
Months before her death from cancer, Anna provided Booker T. Washington and Hollis Frissel a check for one million dollars to fund primary school teacher education in the south. The bequest was found to have increased the southern states literacy rate by 5%.
Money and property to establish a Quaker hospital for cancerous, nervous and disabling ailments were bequests after her death. The hospital was ultimately built on the old Jeanes family farm although multiple legal challenges delayed the hospital opening until 1928. Today, Jeanes Hospital is part of an academic medical center and known as the Temple University-Jeanes Campus (TUJC). The mission of TUJC is supported by the Anna T. Jeanes Foundation. Anna’s generosity always focused on her motto “the next needed thing.”
Summary
Anna Thomas Jeanes died September 7, 1907 at Stapeley Friends Boarding Home. Over the last thirteen years of her life, she generously and with intention gave away the family fortune. With a peacefulness born of her deep Quaker faith and grounded in her families’ values, Anna helped lift the burden of those less fortunate with a philanthropic focus on aging, education, healthcare and those who were vulnerable and disenfranchised. A devotee of cremation, Anna is buried at Historic Fair Hill Cemetery located on Germantown Ave. Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.