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Part of the American
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Hannah Kent Schoff 1853 ~ 1940
Mrs. Frederic Schoff, president of the
National Congress of Mothers, is the daughter of Thomas Kent of
England and Fanny Leonard Schoff of Bridgewater, Massachusetts.
Mrs. Schoff is the mother of seven children, and until they were
past babyhood she was in no way interested in outside work. She
has been president of the National Congress of Mothers almost
since its organization, being elected to succeed Mrs. Theodore
W. Birney who, together with Mrs. Phoebe A. Hearst, was the
founder of the organization. She is also a member of the Society
of Mayflower Descendants, Daughters of the American Revolution,
New Century Club, Philadelphia, National Education Association,
Religious Education Association and the Pennsylvania Juvenile
Court and Probation Association.
Mrs. Schiff's interest was aroused in behalf of children from
reading of a young child eight years of age being sentenced at
the criminal court for burning tip the house in which she lived,
because she wanted to see the flames, and the engines run. It
seemed so dreadful to Mrs. Schoff that she determined to see if
there was not something that could be done for these baby
criminals, or what was better, do something for the mothers of
these babies to aid them in learning their responsibilities as
mothers. The first juvenile court in Pennsylvania was held in
Philadelphia, June 14, 1901. Mrs. Schoff attended this court.
Having previously been appointed probation officer she had
investigated the condition of juvenile criminals in
Pennsylvania. She found that the state had two reformatories,
one in the western and one in the eastern part of the state.
There was also a reformatory for boys over sixteen years of age,
at Huntington, Pennsylvania.
She found, in the two reformatories, sixteen hundred children
comprising waifs, homeless little ones and children accused of
the most serious crimes. Men and women contracting second
marriages made use of this opportunity to get rid of their
existing families and the children, innocent and helpless, were
sent to associate with boys and girls of sixteen and eighteen
years. Little children were tried in the criminal courts, kept
waiting in the cages for criminals, which also housed men and
women steeped in crime. There are five hundred children ranging
in age from six to sixteen years of age in the Philadelphia
County prison, and the same thing existed in every county in the
state. There were from two to three hundred children passing
through the station houses every month and these were at the
mercy of the presiding judge.
Mrs. Schoff appealed to the New Century Club of Philadelphia,
presenting the facts she had gathered, which naturally shocked
every member of the club. They made haste to organize committees
and to urge further investigation as to the conditions affecting
children in Philadelphia. Patterning after other states, they
succeeded in securing a juvenile court with its merciful
provisions and its just judge. While absorbed in this work, Mrs.
Schoff became enthusiastic in her work for the betterment of all
minors, whether they belonged to the criminal or other classes
who were likely to be subjected to demoralizing influences. It
would make a volume to describe the work of Mrs. Schoff and her
associates. They applied to the National Congress for material
and information and made such a thorough investigation of
existing laws and the policy of the government and the practice
of the courts that the president of the United States heartily
approved of the work that had been done. Following this action
Mrs. Schoff applied to the National Congress of Mothers to take
up this as a special work, believing that the active interest of
every auxiliary of the National Congress of Mothers in every
community would accomplish more by educating the parents and
looking after the children than could be done in any other way.
Women of
America
Source: The Part Taken by Women in
American History, By Mrs. John A. Logan, Published by The Perry-Nalle
Publishing Company, Wilmington, Delaware, 1912.
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