kindly nature and the many benefited by his
generosity.
Born in Hainstadt, grand duchy of Baden, March 15, 1834, Jacob H. Hecht was one of the eight children of Mr. and Mrs. Elias Hecht, who came to this country with their parents in 1848, and settled in Baltimore, Md. As noted above, the greater part of his business life was spent in Boston. He held various official positions, and was a contributing member of nearly all the charitable institutions of the city. He was president of the United Hebrew Benevolent Association of Boston, a director of the German Aid Society, the first president of the Elysium Club, and a member of the Bostonian Society and of the Boston Art Club.
In his will, dated January 30, 1903, Mr. Hecht made many public becjuests. To show the breadth of his sympathies and the varied nature of his charities, also his confidence in his wife's judgment and in her fidelity to trusts, a few of its provisions may here be mentioned. A considerable sum, not to exceed one hundred thousand dollars, from the estate she was per- mitted to apply at her discretion, within a year from his death, for the benefit of worthy per- sons who were in need. Mrs. Hecht is also given the right to devote, if she sees fit, the income of fifty thousand dollars annually to the Hebrew Industrial School. Harvard Col- lege is to receive eventually the sum of ten thousand^ dollars as a scholarship fund, prefer- ably for students of Hebrew parentage, and a fund of five thousand dollars to be known as the Hecht fund, the income to be applied to the Schiff Semitic Museum. Among other be- (juests may be named five thousand dollars each to the Massachusetts General Hospital and Associated Charities of Boston; five hundred dollars each to the Benoth Israel Sheltering Home, the Boston Provident Association, the National Farm School, Philadelphia, and the Industrial School for Deformed and Crippled Children; three hundred dollars each to the Hebrew Ladies^ Helping Hand Association, the Newsboys' Reading Room, the Charitable Burial Association, the Boston Y. M. C. A., and the Y. M. C. U. ; one thousand dollars to the Boston Young Men's Hebrew Association; and two hundred dollars to the Salvation Army. Mrs. Hecht is the honorary vice-president of the Jewish Publication Society of Phila- delphia and a vice-president of the Civil Service Reform Association. She was vice- president of the National Council of Jewish Women, and is now the vice-president of the New England section of that organization. She has served for many years as a member of the board of the Women's Educational and Industrial Union, a position in which her services have been greatly appreciated. Both the Hebrew Federated Charities and the As- sociated Charities of Boston are benefited by her active participation in their affairs. She hiis serv^ed on the board of the Public Bath Department of the city.
Aside from personal donations, Mrs. Hecht has been zealous in raising money for worthy causes, and the fairs and entertainments that she has organized have, through her own un- tiring efforts and the enthusiasm she has aroused in others, brought in phenomenal sums. Unselfishness is Mrs. Hecht's most marked characteristic, and her whole life has been filled with thought and service for others. Although she forgets herself, her gracious image is enshrined in many hearts. Her friends enjoy her sympathetic temperament and graceful presence, and the poor, who are also her friends, praise her kind heart and generosity. As the Hebrew matron of old, so "she spread- eth out wide her open palm to the poor. She openeth her mouth with wisdom, and the law of kindness is on her tongue.
"Strength and dignity are her clothing; and she smileth at the coming of the last day. Let her own works praise her in the gates.*'
JOSEPHINE ST. PIERRE RUFFIN, the founder and first president of the Woman's
Era Club, of Boston, was born in this city. The daughter of John and Eliza Matilda (Menhenick) St. Pierre, on the paternal side she is of mingled French, African, and aboriginal American blood, and on the maternal side is of English, or possibly Welsh, stock, her mother having been a native of Bodmin, Cornwall, England. Eliza Matilda Menhenick and John St. Pierre were married in Boston in 1836
