TABLE OF CONTENTS. A History of the Columbia Institution for the Deaf and Dumb. By Edward M. Gallaudet..... The Development of the Catholic Church in the District PAGE The Earliest Copper Engraving Executed in the Ameri- can Colonies. By Charles Harper Walsh. XI. Chas. Simms, 6th President Potomack Company XII. Gen. John Mason, 8th and last President of Potomack Co. 208 XIII. Little Falls-Entrance to Canal at Extreme Right ........ 214 XIV. The Old Stone at Entrance to Canal Around Little Falls.. 218 XV. Harper's Ferry, W. Va., Showing Original Arsenal Buildings 223 A HISTORY OF THE COLUMBIA INSTITUTION FOR THE DEAF AND DUMB. BY EDWARD M. GALLAUDET. (Read before the Society, January 17, 1911.) Early in the year 1856 a man came to Washington from New York with the purpose of establishing a school for the deaf and the blind children of the District of Columbia. He brought with him four boys and a girl, all deafmutes, who were legally indentured to him. He hired a house on G Street, beyond the War Department, secured the attendance of a few deaf and blind children belonging to the District, and began soliciting aid from benevolent people in the city, one of whom was the Hon. Amos Kendall. Mr. Kendall became much interested in the enterprise, and offered, early in the year 1857, to give a house and two acres of ground, near his residence at Kendall Green, for the occupancy of the school. He secured the passage of an Act of Congress, approved February 16, 1857, incorporating the Columbia institution for the instruction of the Deaf and Dumb and the Blind, and granting an allowance of one hundred and fifty dollars a year for the maintenance and tuition of each child received in the institution from the District. This act named as corporators Byron Sunderland, James C. McGuire, David A. Hall, George W. Riggs, William H. Edes, Judson Mitchell, Amos Kendall and William Stickney, all well known citizens of the District. Mr. Kendall was preparing to install the new school |