Address by
Henry Schoolcraft Hulbert
From the services of the dedication of
THE TRACY W. MCGREGOR ROOM
In the ALDERMAN LIBRARY of the University of Virginia Charlottesville, Virginia
On the 6th day of May, 1936, there passed from this life Mr. Tracy W McGregor, who it is safe to say, left as deep an imprint on the humanitarian life of Detroit, as any man who ever lived there. Though a citizen of Detroit, in the state of Michigan, Mr. McGregor was born in Berlin Heights,in the state of Ohio, on the 14th day of April 1869.
By the terms of his last will and testament, he left the following bequest:
“I give and bequeath all of my books
not given and bequeathed to my wife in the
preceding paragraph, to McGregor Fund to
give the same so far as they may be accept-
able to such college or university, singular
or plural , as said McGregor Fund may in its
discretion select. Any books not appropri-
ate for such a gift to be disposed of by
McGregor Fund as it may determine. The
Fund is hereby authorized to impose such
Conditions upon any gift as it may in
its discretion determine, and may if it so
desires provide a modest but suitable endowment for the care of such books and
for reasonable additions to any library so
founded or added to, making such provision
out of the principal or income of residue
of my estate. I would be particularly
pleased to assist in the founding of a
library of American history in a small
institution of higher learning, having fine
ideals of education and reasonable means
and likelihood of achieving those ideals.”
The Trustees of McGregor Fund, in attempting to carry out his wishes as expressed in the preceding paragraph of his will, came to the unalterable conclusion that Mr. McGregor, had his life been spared, would eventually have established that library of American history of the University of Virginia; not alone because of its age, traditions, and the contribution it has made to education, but rather because of the intellectual leadership it has given to the South, which has contributed so much to the early history of our Country, though it is true that none of the great libraries of American history are located in the South. So it was not merely environment, but rather the qualities I have mentioned that appealed to that great freedom of spirit which was one of the outstanding qualities of Mr. McGregor. Therefore, in 1938 the Trustees of the Fund author ized the officers of the University to announce thisgift.
Charlottesville is a long, long way from Detroit,
and probably few people in the State of Virginia
have any real knowledge of Tracy W. McGregor,
his life, his civic strength, and the work which he
accomplished; and since we hope his memory is to
be kept alive through the medium of this gift to the
University, it seems fitting that some understanding
of the man himself, his character, and his interests
should be made available to you.
Mr. McGregor was a grandson of the Reverend John McGregor, a well known Scotch Presbyterian minister, who came to the United States early in the nineteenth century to be the pastor of a settlement of Scottish immigrants who had settled in northern New York. His father, Thomas was the youngest son. (There were six children) Shortly after their marriage in 1864, Thomas and his wife turned their faces to the West and settled on a farm at Berlin Heights, Ohio, where Mr. Tracy W. McGregor was born. Some years later, we find the family in Toledo, where Thomas McGregor had founded a music business. (Mr. Tracy McGregor himself was a great lover of music and played delightfully.) After some years, the father abandoned the music enterprise to found a small mission for destitute and homeless men, and the venture proved so successful that he planned a chain of missions. In furtherance of this plan, he moved his family to Detroit, where in 1890 he opened his second mission at 69 Larned Street. In 1891 he died, and Tracy, then in his second year at Oberlin College, came home to find a family to care for and a mission that needed a head. It was a difficult job for a young man scarcely 22 years of age; but clothed with a deep loyalty to his father’s convictions, plus his own studious method of attacking a problem, he succeeded so well in his task that before the end of the century, McGregor Mission and become McGregor Institute, housed in its own building especially constructed for the purpose, with a reputation throughout the Middle West for the character of its work. It finally became one of the largest and most intelligently managed instituitions for transient and homeless men in the country. Shortly before it was closed because the Federal Government had undertaken the responsebility for such work, a man who had a flair for determining results made an examination of its records and found that something more then seven hundred thousand different men had fallen directly or indirectly under the McGregor influence.
About thirty years ago, Mr. McGregor wrote a
little booklet which he called “Twenty Thousand
Men” in which he made this observation, which
somewhat shows his creed:
“One should remember that the mystery of human failure will be more clearly disclosed by first-hand knowledge of one individual than by a casual acquaintance with many. By sympathetic searching into the history of the man who does odd jobs for you, or whose instability as a worker in your office frets you, such original and independent insight may be had. Truth, thus directly conveyed by living personality, will impressively influence one’s whole attitude toward mankind. It will enrich the soul; it will relieve class isolation, and beget patience, kindliness, humility, and breadth.”
I cannot close this part of my subject without quoting a paragraph from a memorial resolution written by on of the “Mission men” who had been raised from the depths that human individuals will sometimes sink to, by Mr. McGregor’s friendship and influence:
“ Mr. Tracy McGregor had the heart of a woman, but the sound judgment of a well seasoned man of affairs. He might be termed a practical idealist, to the tens of thousands of destitute and discouraged men came under the influence of his inspiring personality, and many of them now in Detroit or scattered throughout the United States and Canada owe their rehabilitation, present position, and prosperity to his kindly efforts.”
At the tme he wrote this, he had for many years held a high position in the Government of Detroit and had been elected term and term because of the belief of the people in his character and honesty. Mr. McGregor, who had real Scotch humor, liked to tell some of his amusing experiences. I remember one that concerned his early efforts to build his Board of Trustees for the Institute. He had gone to the office of a very prosperous Detroit merchant to try to interest him, and told the story of the missions work. The merchant’s morning had been somewhat disturbed, and turning angrily to Tracy, he said:
“Damn you, McGregor, and your whole Mission. I wish you were both at the bottom of the river,”
Mr. McGregor said, “You know, I was so afraid he might do something he would afterward be sorry for, that I stayed with him for an hour or so, and when I rose to go, he handed a check for a hundred dollars and said, “I’ll send one of those the first of each month’, and then after a moment’s hesitation, ‘If you insist, I suppose I’ll have to go on your Board.”
This man became one of Detroit’s outstanding philanthropists and a civic leader who gave unstintingly of his time and resources.
In 1901, Mr. McGregor married Katherine Whitney, youngest daughter of the late David C.Whitney, a man of large business and financial interests, and during the next several years we find Mr. and Mrs. McGregor busily engaged in an endless number of private charities which they jointly sponsored. Amongst these might be mentioned the care and education of underprivileged children, From this group, more then fifty of these children, long since grown to manhood and womanhood, attended Mr. McGregor’s funeral. Bay Court, on the shores of Lake St. Claire, some 30 miles from Detroit, a rest haven for underprivileged and over worked mothers and their children, which is still doing a splendid work, is another.
About this time, Mr. McGregor had become much interested in finding a way to combat the usurious rates of interest that were being charged by chattel mortgage and small loan companies to needy people. His answer to that problem was typical of his methods. In 1906, in company with a number of his friends, he organized the Provident Loan Society for this purpose. It was not a charity, but a business enterprise, that through thrift and good management cut its costs to where small loans could be made for a reasonable rate of interest. Its competition forced the other companies to meet its rate. The Provident Loan is still doing a thriving business, and in Michigan it controls the interest rates in its field.
Mr. McGregor’s interest and work in charitable
and civic fields had finally brought him to certain
conclusions concerning things that he felt should be
accomplished for the good of the community. So
with this thought in mind, in the summer of 1910, he wrote a letter to a few of his friends, proposing a meeting. The purport of this letter is interesting. I quote a paragraph:
“Why not let one’s friendships and close associations develop around a purpose to do good? To this end, let us get together a group of congenial men with serious aims, and without expecting over much at first, or perhaps at any time, let us going for a long pull together. We will put our hearts and brains into it, and when needed, our money, and will work together for any good thing that seems possible and advisable to do.”
As a result of this letter, there gathered about
him some twenty Detroit men, who wanted to hear
him discuss some of these “good things” and the
possibility of solving them. This group was com-
posed of lawyers, businessmen, engineers, doctors,
public officials, and men interested in civic affairs.
They met with Mr. McGregor each week on Thurs-
Day noon in the old Pontchartain Hotel which was successor to Detroit’s historic “Russell House”, and
began a study of his various projects. Rarely was
there an absentee, for to them the Thursday meeting
was a first order of business. I want to mention
some of the major projects he suggested for con-
sideration:
What, he asked, should be done to provide a
constructive program for the care of persons affected
with epilepsy, who crowd the County jails, the alms-
houses, and worst of all, intermingle with the feeble-minded children in the State school at Lapeer?
What can be done to better conditions in the
Detroit House of Correction, an institution for mis-
demeanants, with its high brick walls and armed
guards, located in the central part of out city, which
is about to be supplanted by a new, larger, but
still old-fashioned prison, for which the plans have
been completed and paid for?
What improvement is possible in the adminis-
tration of poor relief, in the establishment of better
case-work and more prompt investigations and
greater economy of administration?
How is justice in the police courts of Detroit
being administered? Is any attention paid to first
offenders as distinguished from the habitual criminal?
Is the past life of each of these men, his family
history, his mentality, and his work record being
considered before sentence?
Is it possible to interest men of character and
ability to accept public office and aid in increased
efficiency in local and state government, especially
in such positions as the State Legislature, the City
Council, the Judiciary, and our School Board of
forty-two members?
Why has Michigan never provided any system
of probation for adult offenders? Are there consti-
tutional of other reasons why this should not be
done?
Why has the city never replaced the burned
bridge from Detroit to Belle Isle, which is the city’s
largest playground, so that the poor and their
children can have ready access to it?
What ought to be done about the nine teachers
who have been given Sabbatical year and sent abroad to study, at half pay, and who are stranded
because the City Controller refuses to acknowledge
the action of the Board and pay their expenses of
fifty dollars per month?
Can we forestall the trouble that New York and
other large Eastern cities are having with their
tenements and housing problems by acting now,
before tenements and bad housing begin to appear?
These were some of the major questions that
he asked. One by one the answer to each was
found, a decision made, and quietly, and with-
out publicity, the remedy was provided.
An enabling act was drawn and passed by the
legislature and given immediate effect on May 2,
1913, providing for a farm colony for the care,
education, and treatment of persons afflicted with
epilepsy. A commission appointed by the governor
acquired a site of 1500 acres in Tuscola County,
and by 1915 the first building was opened. By
1917, the Michigan Farm Colony at Wahjamega had
provision for the care of a thousand persons, under
excellent conditions; and the Michigan Home for the Feeble-minded, the county infirmaries and jails
no longer housed the difficult cases.
Mr. McGregor himself conducted a survey of
the Detroit House of Correction, to determine the
character of its inmates, the work that was being
done with them, the type of management, and
what was needed for a more constructive program.
As a result, the new plans which the City had
adopted were destroyed, a farm was bought some twenty-two miles from Detroit, simple buildings
were erected, and the old prison abandoned. It may
be interesting to state that although the only walls
at this institution were ordinary farm fences, the
number of escapes in the first year was less then from
the old penal institution in the same length of time.
A man skilled in the practical workings of poor
relief was brought to Detroit a the expense of the
group, and a careful study made of the system of
administration of relief then in vogue in Detroit.
As a result, a complete reorganization of this depart-
ment was had.
A study made of the operations of the police
courts resulted in these courts being abolished and the jurisdiction of misdemeanant cases transferred
to the Recorders Court, under much improved condi-
tions. Provision was made for a psychiatric clinic,
and a statute providing for the establishment of a
probation system was drawn by Mr. Frank D.
Eaman, an eminent lawyer member of the group,
presented to the Legislature, passed, and a system
established in the Recorders Court. It is perhaps
worth a mention that Mr. Edwin Denby, also
a member of the group, who afterward became
Secretary of the Navy, volunteered and accepted the
position of chief probation officer to get this pro-
gressive step under way. A great deal of work was done and something
accomplished in interesting a more competent type
of man to accept public office. The unwieldy forty-
two man school board was reduced to seven, a
citizens’ committee was formed with Mr. McGregor
as chairman, and a campaign started which resulted
in the election of an excellent group of business and
professional men to make up the first small board.
This reform became permanent, and today the members of this board are men of the highest character.
Some excellent men were placed in other key posi-
tions, but it must be acknowledged that this proved
to be the most difficult problem placed before the
group, and is yet to be solved, although the Detroit
Citizens League, which Mr. McGregor was in-
strumental in founding, has accomplished much in
providing accurate information for the use of voters.
The problem of a new bridge to Belle Isle was
turned over to the engineers in the group. Detroit
was in the midst of one of its depressions, but
under the leadership of Mr. Francis C. McMath, the
builder of the great Quebec Bridge over the St.
Lawrence River, and with the aid of other members
of the group, whom he interested in this venture, a
bridge was constructed which lasted through many
years, until a more prosperous city was able to
replace it with the present structure. the manner
in which this was accomplished is a most interesting
story by itself.
The pressure from the peoples demand for an
inexpensive method of taking their families to Belle Isle had become so great that the City Council
decided to see what could be done. Accordingly,
the Council appropriated one hundred thousand
dollars for the purpose. Plans and specifications for
a simple but useful temporary bridge were prepared
ad bids asked for. To the great disappointment of
everyone, the bids ran well over one hundred and
fifity thousand dollars. As I have said, the City’s
financial situation was grave, and the proposition
seemed hopeless, when Mr. McGregor brought the
matter before the Thursday group. A long dis-
cussion was had, and Mr. McMath volunteered to
head a committee to study the plans and decide what
could be done.
As a result, the plans were modified without
impairing the safety or usefulness of the bridge, and
new bids asked for. This time the lowest bid was
approximately one hundred and fourteen thousand
dollars.
At this point, Mr. McGregor and his group
again came into the picture, swore the contractor to
secrecy, and offered to hold him harmless. He accordingly put in a new bid of $99,990.00. The
bridge was built and many years afterward, when
an old member of the Council by accident learned
of the story, he introduced a resolution in the Council
and the money was refunded.
The teachers’ problem was solved by the group
advancing the money to the Board of Education,
and the teachers sent notes for these advancements.
Some time afterward these notes were redeemed.
The housing problem was solved by Mr.
McGregor organizing the Detroit Housing Associa-
tion, which began work to improve the building
code. The Thursday Group entered this field by
engaging Mr. Lawrence Veiller, a nationally known
expert in housing problems. He came to Detroit
for a week out of each month for a period of ten
months, and worked with the City Engineers and
others in the revision and enlargement of a com-
prehensive building code which was adopted by
the City.
All this was accomplished over a series of years,
and present with us today are a number of the men who took part in this work with Mr. McGregor. I
cannot help but believe their blood tingles a
bit as memories of those days are reawakened.
Towards the close of 1916 a study was begun of
the efficiency of various private charities of the City.
some seventy of which were then in existence, to
determine how much overlapping of effort there was,
how wasteful was the method universally in use to
raise the money necessary to carry on their work ,
whether some of these organizations could be con-
solidated in the interest of economy and good work-
manship, and whether there were some that perhaps
should be eliminated. But in the midst of this
planning the County was plunged into the World
War, and the Thursday Group, as it had come to be
known, went on its way, each individual doing his
humble part in the service of his Country.
In 1919, one by one they began to reappear,
tired, older but with the same spirit, to find that
their last problem had been made easy for them.
Throughout the period of the War Mr. McGregor
had been the head of the Patriotic Fund in Detroit and through his leadership, the need for sacrifice and
generous giving had been taught to the people as
one of the lessons of the War. As a result, the
Detroit Community Fund was organized as a central
body, to raise each year the money needed for the
operations of all of the charities of the City, and to
act as a controller of their budgets, Mr. McGregor
was for many years its president and coincident
with this he formed the “Community Union” the
purpose of which was to bring all of the charities
of the city into a closely knitted group which would
come to a common understanding of each other’s
problems, join in the elimination of overlapping
effort, have a more economical program of work,
and plan for the common good.
Late in 1925, Mr. and Mrs. McGregor created
McGregor Fund, which was to serve as the admin-
istrator of their charitable and educational giving.
Shortly after this, Mr. McGregor turned his
attention to a problem which had been on his mind
for a long time --- the possibility of a more construc-
tive type of education for the higher grade feeble-minded children. He believed that many of
those with intellectual quotients of fifty-five and
better, if subjected to a different type of educational
process, might be returned to society as useful
citizens. To bring this about, he began in company
with some members of the group a series of meetings
with supervisors and members of the Board of
County Auditors to explain to the them the value of
taking this type of child out of what was, in the
main, merely custodial care. His rare ability as a
teacher caused an early adoption of the plan.
Mr. McGregor himself headed as educational
committee which held meetings in various parts of
the city, and members of the City Council, Super-
visors and County Auditors became members of the
speakers committee. They addressed church and
club meetings and Parent-Teacher Associations.
A bond issue was passed by an overwhelming
majority, and in the brief period of three years the
Wayne County Training School was a reality, with
Mr. McGregor president of its board of control.
The success of this enterprise is best gathered from
its reports on research and education
Almost before the completion of the Wayne
County Training School, Mr. McGregor had inter-
ested some of his friends in a study of the conditions
in the State hospitals for the insane, especially as it
related to the number of available beds and the
crowding of inmates, which at that time was so
serious a problem. This survey was completed and
published in late 1928. It was disclosed that despite a
rapidly increasing population, little or nothing had
been done since the War to increase bed capacity,
with a natural result of the rooms and dormitories
being greatly overcrowded and a long waiting list
confronting each of the hospitals. Accordingly, im-
mediatley after the fall elections of 1928, Mr.
McGregor attacked this problem by calling meetings
of the newly elected Wayne County Delegation to
the State Legislature. These meetings continued
from week to week until just prior to the opening
of the legislative session on January 1, 1929 . Dur-
ing this period, he had quite thoroughly demon-
strated to the legislators the very great need for
increasing the capacity of the State hospitals. This
educational process was very well done, and the delegation had been made to realize that the prob-
lem was too big to be completely solved in any one
biennium. A great deal of work had also been done
on this same problem through articles in State
papers of an educational nature.
When the legislature opened, the Wayne County
delegation proposed a ten year plan to build up the
hospital capacity to a point where it meets the needs
of the state. They found support from many other
counties of the State. This resulted in the intro-
duction of a bill to provide approximately twenty-
five millions of dollars over a period of six years,
with the realization of course that the appropriation
had to be reconfirmed in each succeeding legislature
during that period. The bill as finally passed carried
appropriations of five million, seven hundred
thousand dollars in each of the years 1930 and 1931;
five million, nine hundred thousand in 1932; and
six million dollars in 1933. The struggle had been
a long one and presented many difficulties, but the
bill was finally passed by both houses , and upon the
occasion of its approval by the Governor, he endorsed the following comment in his report to the legis-
lature:
“This bill is the result of a session-long
struggle. I must accept it or neglect the
protection of society in this State. I re-
peat. I have accepted in this bill items that
do not entirely meet my approval, in order
that we may get a start on one of the
greatest pieces of humanitarian work upon
which Michigan has ever embarked.”
As a result of this Act, the new State Hospital
for the Insane, at Ypsilanti, was constructed in the
first biennium, and some relief was given to the
School at Lapeer and the Farm Colony at
Wahjamega, in 1932
The sudden collapse of business in 1933 caused
the then Governor to return all of the balance of
the appropriation into the general fund, so that the
plan was never completely carried out. However,
the educational work done has been of great value
in the years that have elapsed since we came out of
what we were pleased to call the Great Depression.
Now we come to another phase of Mr.
McGregor’s life. His physicians had for some time
warned him of the danger to his health arising from
the tremendous activity and nervous strain to which
he had been subjecting himself. In this opinion
Mrs. McGregor joined, and realizing that he could
not protect himself if he remained in an environ-
ment in which he found so much to do that was
worth while, Mr. and Mrs. McGregor took up a
temporary residence in Washington, leaving to the
Trustees of McGregor fund the task of carrying on
as much as possible of his charitable and educational
giving.
Though not forsaking his interest in the field of
philanthropy, he turned this newly acquired leisure
time to his old love – books. He had long been
greatly interested in Early American history, and
believed that through a wider knowledge of this
subject much could be accomplished in reawakening
a national pride in American institutions, and of
combating much of the false philosophy that has
been so prevalent in recent years. Thus he began the accumulation of the library
which is the subject of the recent gift to the Univer-
city of Virginia. With what energy and rare judg-
ment and discrimination he applied himself to this
new and interesting task is best disclosed by an
intimate knowledge of the library itself.
As one of the means of trying a practical applica-
tion of his ideas, in January of 1933 he wrote to
Mr. Charles A. Beard then president of the American
Historical Association, a letter which contained the
following clause:
“Through a friend of history, the Com
mittee of American Historical Association has
funds available to assist from ten to twenty
institutions in purchasing rare source books
in American History, commonly called
Americana. The Committee has decided
to offer $500 per years for this purpose to
each of certain colleges, providing the
college will itself appropriate an equal
amount, thus making $1000 per year for each institution. The plan should be en-
tered into with the expectation of contnu-
ing for a period of ten years or longer.
The Committee understands of course,
that unforeseen stress may occur to pre-
vent a collage from going through with such
a long period; so it will merely expect each
college joining in the arrangement to do so
in good faith and with the full intention to
carry on through a period of several years.”
This idea has since become known as the
“McGregor Plan,” and at the time of his death,
eleven collages were participating in his plan. It
has now been extended to some fifteen colleges.
The development of this plan, however, did not
deter him from continuing the accumulation of his
own library, and he continued his work with feverish
energy up to the moment on the morning of May 6
when his tired and over-worked heart could go no
further.
I have tried to paint something of a picture of
a man most of you never were privileged to know, but whose name has become a tradition in that
Detroit in which he lived and worked; a quiet un-
assuming Christian gentleman, with high spiritual
attributes, a tower of civic strength, and one who
felt deeply his responsibilities to the community in
which he lived. He gave little thought to self, and
his modesty was one of his most lovable qualities.
Just after a grateful university had bestowed upon
him an honorary doctorate, I remember his saying:
“It would have been such a satisfaction if I
could have completed my college work and earned
my degree.”
He was too modest to realize that he earned
higher degrees then any university could ever bestow
upon him. A scholar who had searched for knowl-
edge in the writings of men and tempered it with a
deep understanding of life, a philosopher who had
found for himself happiness and understanding
amidst all of the perplexities of modern life and who
knew how to help other find it, a friend who
deeply loved his fellowmen and did not hesitate to
make any personal sacrifice to help them, however lowly their station in life might be, it has been given
to few men to attain a place so close to the hearts
of the people of a great industrial community as
had Tracy McGregor.
A few sentences which he had committed to
memory from the language of a Hebrew writer
discloses something of his philosophy:
“Wisdom is the principle thing. There-
fore, get ye wisdom, and with all thy get-
ting, get thee understanding. exalt her
and she shall bring thee to honor; she
shall bring thy head an ornament of
grace; a crown of glory shall she deliver
unto thee. Happy is the man that findeth
wisdom, and the man the getteth under-
standing.”
Somewhere here in the library there is a print-
ing of a brief paper which he read before one of the
meetings of the National Conference of Social Work,
which reveals more of the character of Mr. McGregor
than I can possibly put in words. It bears this
modest title: “Toward a Philosophy of the Inner
Life. “ I commend it to your study.
And so the trustees of McGregor Fund, who
in carrying out what they believe to be his wishes,
gave to the University of Virginia in 1938 Mr.
McGregor’s library of Early-American history and
contemporary English literature, have sought to
provide for it a home with the quiet atmosphere of
a gentleman’s library within which it shall forever
repose, and are, therefore, on this, the 70th anniver-
sary of his birth, dedicating to the use of the Univer-
sity of Virginia, its scholars, and those who may
hereafter seek for knowledge amidst its walls –
“THE TRACY W McGREGOR ROOM OF THE ALDERMAN LIBRARY”
To you, President Newcomb, and to the Rector and Visitors of the University, and to your successors n office, we pass this trust in the hope and confidence that you will accept and preserve it with the same sacred care that you have preserved the traditions of the University of Virginia.
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