Frances Wisebart Jacobs
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Frances Wisebart Jacobs (1843-1892) was born in Harrodsburg, Kentucky to Bavarian immigrants and raised in Cincinnati, Ohio, she is best known as a philanthropist and co-founder of the United Way.
Jacobs moved to Colorado with her husband in 1863; and they settled in Denver in 1870. Known as the “Mother of Denver Charities,” Jacobs quickly became involved in Denver’s Jewish and non-Jewish communities. By 1872, Jacobs had helped to organize, and was president of, the Hebrew Ladies’ Benevolent Society, known today as Jewish Family Service of Colorado. In 1874, she helped found the non-sectarian Denver Ladies’ Relief Society. Jacobs also founded Denver's first free kindergarten to help poor children. It was Frances's belief that "God never made a pauper in the world, children come into the world and conditions and surroundings make them either princes or paupers."
In 1887, she joined with the city’s Congregational minister and the Catholic archdiocese to create the Charity Organization Society, coordinating fundraising and other efforts while sharing the proceeds, with a federation of charities. The Charity Organization Society was the model that led to the creation of today's United Way, which recognizes Frances as its founder.
Besides her charitable contributions, Jacobs left her most enduring mark in the area of tuberculosis relief, and was one of the first people to conceive of a free hospital for medically indigent TB victims. During the early 1880’s hundreds of TB victims made their way to Denver in search of a cure only to find that no facilities existed to give them treatment or even shelter. Even worse, according to Jacobs, "Most of the Denver community ignored those who roamed the city coughing or hemorrhaging." But not Jacobs. Unafraid to touch the ill, Frances would help them when they fell on the street, get them to a physician and pay for treatment. However, as there was no place for tubercular (the term for persons afflicted with tuberculosis) individuals to stay during treatment, many were transported to the local jail. The city was attracting needy tuberculosis victims and Jacobs insisted that the Denver community face the reality that these people needed respectful treatment and facilities. According to one Denver journalist, "Everyone put down his pencil to hear her tell of the crucial need for a hospital”.
Jacobs found an ally in the newly appointed rabbi of Denver’s Temple Emanuel, William S. Friedman. Friedman argued from his pulpit in favor of Jacobs’s plan to build a Jewish-sponsored tuberculosis hospital. In April of 1890, Denver’s Jewish Hospital Association was incorporated and, in October, a hospital cornerstone was laid. Although her vision was well on its way to becoming a reality, Frances did not live to see the hospital built. Instead of following her physician’s advice to stay home and recuperate, Frances kept to her calling and continued to provide assistance for the medically indigent of Denver, she became ill with pneumonia. Frances died in the spring of 1892, at the age of 49. She was widely mourned, and over 4,000 people attended her funeral.
The memorial service, which was open to all faiths, was presided over by Rabbi Friedman and three leading Christian clergymen. Guest speakers also included the governor of Colorado, the mayor of Denver, and other prominent Denverites. That same year, the Denver’s Jewish Hospital Association trustees voted to name the hospital for Jacobs, and construction was completed in 1893. However, a drop in silver prices caused an economic depression in the western mining states, and lacking operating funds, the Frances Jacobs Hospital stood empty for six years.
In 1895, B’nai B’rith, a Jewish charitable organization, adopted the Denver tuberculosis hospital as a national project. On December 10, 1899, six years after Frances Jacobs’ death, the hospital opened its doors as National Jewish Hospital for the treatment of consumptives.
Jacobs is memorialized as one of 16 Colorado pioneers—and the only woman—in a stained glass window in the Colorado state capitol Rotunda. In 1994, Frances was inducted into the National Women's Hall of Fame, and in 2000, Jacobs (in with conjunction National Jewish Hospital) was awarded the Denver Mayor’s Millennium Award.
