Moses Sheppard
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Moses Sheppard (1771 - 1857) was a Baltimore businessman, a Friend (Quaker), a philanthropist, and founder of the now Sheppard and Enoch Pratt Hospital.
Born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania in 1771, Sheppards family, loyal to England, lost a great majority of its property during the Revolutionary War, because of this he had to fend for himself at a young age. Sheppard began working as an errand boy and clerk for a merchant, John Mitchell. Within a few years he became a partner with Mitchell, eventually taking over the business upon Mitchell’s death, a business he retired from in 1832.
Like many Quakers of the time, he was active in the abolition movement and an active supporter of the Protective Society of Maryland to Protect Free Negroes, the American Antislavery Society, and the Society of Friends Indian Affairs Committee. He also helped in the payment for the education of several colored men that became important in founding of Liberia, among these Dr Samuel McGill. Also Sheppard lobbied the Maryland General Assembly, stopping legislation that would have banished free African-Americans from the state.
In Baltimore, as well as being a prominent merchant, Sheppard was also commissioner of the prison. Through this activity Sheppard became aware of the inhumane treatment accorded persons with mental illnesses, or "lunatics" as they were then called. Appalled by this treatment, and in accordance with the ideas of the Society of Friends, Sheppard sought to improve conditions for those suffering from mental illness. In 1851, he was visited by prominent social reformer Dorothea Lynde Dix, who enlisted Sheppard in her effort to establish a state institution for the humane care of the insane. Sheppard approached and obtained a charter from the Maryland General Assembly for the construction of an asylum to be located on 340 acre (1.4 km²) farm in Towson, Maryland, just north of Baltimore. This facility though would be a private facility and not a state run institution.
Sheppard stipulated that following: “Courteous treatment and comfort of all patients; that no patient was to be confined below ground; all were to have privacy, sunlight and fresh air; the asylum's purpose was to be curative, combining science and experience for the best possible results; and that only income, not principal would be used to build and operate the asylum.” Because of the financial restrictions that Sheppard put in place the asylum would not open 1891, almost 34 years after Sheppards death in 1857.
When opened then asylum was know as The Sheppard Asylum, though that name would change 1896 to The Sheppard and Enoch Pratt hospital, after fellow Baltimore merchant Enoch Pratt bequested a substantial portion of his fortune to the project.
