Jacobs, Frances Wisebart (1843–1892)

American welfare worker . Born in Harrodsburg, Kentucky, on March 29, 1843; died in Denver, Colorado, on November 3, 1892; first daughter and second of seven children of Leon Henry Wisebart (a tailor) and Rosetta (Marx) Wisebart; attended schools in Cincinnati, Ohio; married Abraham Jacobs (a merchant), on February 18, 1863; children: a daughter and two sons, one of whom died in childhood.

Known as Colorado's "Mother of the Charities," Frances Jacobs was born in 1843 in Harrodsburg, Kentucky, and as a child moved with her family to Cincinnati, Ohio. She was educated in that city and taught school before her marriage in 1863 to Abraham Jacobs, who took his young wife to the booming mining town of Central City, Colorado. Abraham ran a store with his brother until 1874, when a fire destroyed Central City. The family went to live in Denver.

Jacobs quickly became active in Denver's burgeoning charitable community, beginning with the Hebrew Benevolent Ladies Aid Society, of which she was elected president. In 1874, she was a founding officer of the non-sectarian Ladies' Relief Society and, in 1877, became a leading force in establishing the Charity Organization Society, a federation of Denver's charitable groups which coordinated fund-raising efforts and allocated proceeds among affiliates. Jacobs served as secretary of the federation until her death.

Jacobs approached her charitable work with hands-on dedication, risking both her health and her reputation in order to call on families in need. Making up to 15 visits a day, she generally arrived with a bar of soap, convinced that any home that needed food probably needed soap as well. Jacobs also took an interest in the kindergarten movement and organized a kindergarten association in Denver shortly before her death in 1892, at age 49. Eulogized by leading citizens, including the governor of Colorado, Jacobs was also the only woman among 16 Colorado pioneers memorialized in a stained-glass portrait in the state capitol dome.

sources:

James, Edward T., ed. Notable American Women 1607–1950. Cambridge, MA: The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 1971.

McHenry, Robert, ed. Famous American Women. NY: Dover, 1983.

Barbara Morgan , Melrose, Massachusetts