Background
Henry Bergh was born on August 29, 1811, in New York. His father, Christian Bergh, was a prominent New York shipbuilder. His mother, Elizabeth Ivers, was of old Connecticut stock, with Knickerbocker affiliations.
(This book, ""Married off" A Newport sketch", by Henry Ber...)
This book, ""Married off" A Newport sketch", by Henry Bergh, is a replication of a book originally published before 1862. It has been restored by human beings, page by page, so that you may enjoy it in a form as close to the original as possible.
https://www.amazon.com/Married-off-Newport-sketch/dp/5519232636?SubscriptionId=AKIAJRRWTH346WSPOAFQ&tag=prabook-20&linkCode=sp1&camp=2025&creative=165953&creativeASIN=5519232636
Diplomat philanthropist public official
Henry Bergh was born on August 29, 1811, in New York. His father, Christian Bergh, was a prominent New York shipbuilder. His mother, Elizabeth Ivers, was of old Connecticut stock, with Knickerbocker affiliations.
Henry received his formal education in New York City, studying at Columbia College, from which, however, he did not graduate.
In 1837, Henry and his brother Edwin undertook the management of their father's shipyard, which they continued until after the death of Christian Bergh in 1843. Having received a comfortable fortune under his father's will, Bergh and his wife spent the next years traveling in Europe and the East. While in Europe in 1863 he was appointed secretary of legation at St. Petersburg, an office he was obliged to resign in 1864 owing to Mrs. Bergh's inability to endure the severe winter climate of Russia. While in St. Petersburg he became interested in the prevention of cruelty to animals, which was strikingly prevalent. On occasion he intervened in behalf of suffering horses in ways which would have been violently resented but for his official connection. His interest in anti-cruelty work was stimulated through acquaintance with the Earl of Harrowby, president of the Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals.
He returned to New York following the Civil War, and after a brief rest began to mature plans for an American organization modeled upon the English one. At the start he met with sneers and rebuffs. He persisted, however, and from time to time interested prominent citizens in his efforts. He lost no opportunity to make a popular appeal, often calling for help from bystanders in cases of cruel treatment of horses on the streets of the city. Many a street sermon was thus preached, and in this way his presence and mission became familiar to a widening circle.
On the night of February 8, 1866, Bergh delivered a lecture in Clinton Hall on statistics relating to the cruelties practised on animals, with a view toward founding a society for their prevention. Offers of assistance were freely made to him after the lecture. As a result of ensuing efforts the state legislature, on April 10, 1866, granted a charter of incorporation to the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals. This act legalized a body, independent of existing constituted authorities, to enforce local laws for animal protection. Bergh was elected its president, and during the next two decades he gave his energies to the building up of the society and to the extending of statutory provision against a long array of animal abuses.
In 1875 he was instrumental with Elbridge T. Gerry and others in forming a Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children, thus inaugurating a movement which in its growth has far outstripped its parent. The latter, however, always commanded Bergh's main interest, and when he died in 1888 he left the animal protective movement a matured and vigorous one. Countless cruelties had been suppressed or minimized, the idea had spread to other cities, states, and countries, and hundreds of auxiliaries had sprung up in all parts of the world.
(This book, ""Married off" A Newport sketch", by Henry Ber...)
Henry Bergh was a member of the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals and the Massachusetts Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children.
Bergh's appearance was striking, lending itself easily to caricature. He was tall and spare, but of vigorous muscular development. His face was long and thin, resembling pictures of Don Quixote, with sunken eyes and prominent cheek bones. His attire was always faultlessly neat.
Bergh found time to indulge literary and artistic inclinations aside from his activities as an anti-cruelty propagandist. He wrote several plays, as well as a volume of tales and sketches entitled The Streets of New York. In middle life he wrote some verses designed to show the folly of scheming mothers with marriageable daughters, "Married Off. " As literary achievements none of these efforts deserve particular notice.
In his twenty-fifth year Henry Bergh was married to Catherine Matilda Taylor, daughter of a wealthy English architect and builder residing in New York.