The Home for the Friendless: A ministry by Christian Women in Williamsport, Pennsylvania, 1872-1939

              The Home for the Friendless
A Ministry by Christian Women in Williamsport, Pennsylvania, 1872-1939
by Dr. John F. Piper, Jr.
Initial Decisions
The Home for the Friendless was a ministry founded by a
group of Christian women in Williamsport, Pennsylvania in
1872. The original name of the ministry was the Woman's
Christian Association, not related in any way to the Young
Women's Christian Association. The women changed the
name of their Association to the Home for the Friendless
in 1876. Over the years there were occasional objections to
the name on the grounds that it sounded unfriendly, if not
heartless. Efforts to change it were not successful until 1939
when the Managers of the Home for the Friendless finally
petitioned the Lycoming County Court to change the name to
The Williamsport Home. The leaders of that home, which is
currently located on Ravine Road in Loyalsock Township on
the northern boundary of Williamsport, modified the mission,
currently better defined as a program, but retained a significant
part of the vision of the founders.
The primary inspiration for the Woman's Christian
Association came from women who were active in several
Protestant churches in Williamsport. The city was in the midst
of a lumber boom, one of the greatest in the history of the
nation, and was growing rapidly. A group of Christian women
had been considering "for some time" the possibility of helping
meet the physical and spiritual needs of young women who
were moving to town from nearby rural communities in search
of work.1 They had not yet decided on a way to accomplish
this when some of them attended a meeting at Pine Street
Methodist Church on November 18, 1872, at the invitation of
H. Howard Otto, one of the leaders of the recently organized
Young Men's Christian Association. He had arranged for John
Wanamaker, founder of John Wanamaker and Sons department
store in Philadelphia, who was in town for a meeting of the
YMCA, to speak to them. One of the women remembered that
Wanamaker had made a "most touching appeal."2
The women's readiness to act combined with Wanamaker's
appeal stimulated them to create the Association. They set
about writing a Constitution, which was necessary to obtain
a Charter of Incorporation from the County, and By-Laws.
The legal process took about a year and was completed on
November 26, 1873, with the able assistance of "the legal
gentleman who has served us so many times without charge."3
He was most certainly attorney James M. Wood who signed his
name to the legal document as the Solicitor for the Petitioner.
His wife Lou was a charter member of the Association, and
he was a prominent member of the Williamsport community
having served as its first mayor in 1866.
The text of Wanamaker's speech has not been found but
the substance of it can be inferred from the mission the
women adopted for their Association. Its "Object" as defined
in its Constitution, was to provide ways "of rendering aid,
temporary, moral and religious, especially to young women,
who are dependent on their own exertions for support."4
Specifically, the members of the Board of Managers, "assisted
by the members of the Association," were:
to seek out women, taking up their residence in
Williamsport, and endeavor to bring them under
moral and religious influence - by aiding them
in the selection of suitable boarding houses
and employment, by introducing them to the
members and privileges of this Association.
Encouraging their attendance at some place of
worship and by every means in their power,
surrounding them with Christian associates.5
The Association retained throughout its history its primary
motivation, the gender of its leaders, and its organizational
structure. The motivation was the Christian faith's imperative
to help those in need. In their First Annual Report, published
in 1874, the key leaders of the group identified the exact
nature of their Christian inspiration.
We remember, with gratitude to Him whose
love has dwelt in our hearts, the delightful
fact that harmony and peace have been our
The JOURNAL I Home for the Friendless     1