This article appeared in the Dayton Journal on August 22, 1938
Mrs. Gorman, Barney Center Founder, Dies
Philanthropies Included Aid to Crippled Children
Mrs. G. Harries Gorman, 75, widely-known as the founder of Barney Community center and a civic and business leader in this community for many years, died Sunday at 5:15 p. m. at her home, 210 West First street.
Present at her bedside were her son, E. J. Barney Gorman, and Rosa Lachstampfer, her maid for 43 years.
Ill since last December, though able to be about the house during the winter months, Mrs. Gorman suffered a stroke of paralysis.
She founded Barney Community center and was president ever since its inception. This, her greatest achievement, followed valuable service in the World war.
Anxious to do her bit in that conflict, Mrs. Gorman applied to governmental authorities at Washington for an assignment. She was sent to Walter Reed hospital and there the sight of the wounded soldiers gripped her with a determination to do something to alleviate their suffering and solitude.
Permitted to Test Plan
Determined to make an attempt to give the men something to do and take their minds off their afflictions, Mrs. Gorman received permission to try out her plan in one ward of some 50 to 60 men.
This was the beginning of occupational therapy. With two young women as assistants, Mrs. Gorman taught legless veterans to weave and perform other tasks with which they had been unfamiliar.
In less than three months Mrs. Gorman had given a real demonstration of what could be done and the work was being extended throughout the hospital. It was all volunteer, Mrs. Gorman furnishing the necessary supplies.
Four or five months later the war ended and Mrs. Gorman returned to Dayton, but only because she was told she was beyond the age limit for the work.
Back in Dayton, it was not long until she had opened a place where Barney Community center now stands as a “reconstruction school” as she called it. She prevailed upon federal authorities to send a teacher here and regular instruction was given in the work she had instituted in Walter Reed hospital. As a result, five young women went forth from Dayton thoroughly trained to pursue this service in various cantonments.
Crippled Children Aided Next
When it came to providing something to do for those physically handicapped, it was just another step for Mrs. Gorman to see right at home a vast field among crippled children.
Weaving and dyeing were provided hands that longed to be busy. Gradually the place grew until, established as a memorial to her grandfather and her father, it became known far and wide and enlisted the attention of many organizations, chief among them Rotary and Kiwanis clubs, the former erected the first house at the center and the latter the brace shop.
Gorman school, erected in North Dayton by the board of education, takes crippled children from Whitmore hospital at the Miami Valley hospital and from Barney community center and teaches them between the ages of 6 and 18. It is the first such school in Ohio and began operations in 1926.
Center Was Pet Project
With the establishment of Barney community center, women of North Dayton soon expressed a desire to meet in community assembly, so Mrs. Gorman contributed the ground for a community house which the women paid for through quilt sales.
Barney community center was Mrs. Gorman’s pet project and she gave it her personal attention, going to the place week in and week out to give such help as might be possible. Hundreds of children who have received the benefits of the place knew her by sight and loved to hear her gentle voice when she came to visit them.
Another major charitable project was the Visiting Nurses association, an outgrowth of the Fruit and Flower mission, which was started with Mrs. Gorman as vice president in 1898 when eight Protestant churches agreed to take turns in visiting those in Miami Valley and St. Elizabeth hospitals every week to present flowers and fruits.
Soon the society provided carriages to take convalescents for a little outing and after that, seeing that all the needy ill could not be reached by physicians and hospitals, the mission began the task in 1900 of keeping a professional nurse busy.
Needlework Guild started
About two years later a needlework guild was started, mainly to make baby clothes for maternity cases. In 1903, district nursing was undertaken in an organized way; one trained nurse was engaged and the next year two more, and a diet kitchen was established. This was the beginning of the Visiting Nurses association, so named in 1913. Mrs. Gorman held her office of vice president until 1906.
In 1907 the association felt it should provide outings to needy and ailing children of the city. A farmhouse south of Dayton was secured and was known as the Fresh Air farm. Groups of boys and girls spent their time there during the summer months. In 1917 the farm of 60 acres near Bellbrook, with a commodious farmhouse, was given to the association by Mrs. Gorman and used for outings for underprivileged children until the depression several years ago.
Though her younger life encompassed that span of years in which women had little active part in business or club life, following her marriage to George Harries Gorman February 9, 1888, she took an active part in the rise of the women’s club movement and the expansion of woman’s opportunities to do good in organized and public associations.
Helped Create Woman’s Club
She was one of the group that created the Dayton Woman’s club and was a member of the Dayton Garden club, the Dayton Country club and the Daughters of the American Revolution. She held a life membership in the Dayton Art institute and was a member of Christ Episcopal church.
Mrs. Gorman was born December 18, 1862, on what is now Huffman hill, in the East End, in the building that later was used by Central Theological seminary. This was the Barney home for many years. Her father was Eugene Judson Barney, head of the Barney and Smith Car company, and her mother was Martha Belle Huffman. It was her grandparents on her mother’s side for whom Huffman Hill was named.
The Barney home at First and Perry streets was built shortly before the flood and she and Mr. Gorman lived there until his death February 5, 1931. Since then, Mrs. Gorman had continued to reside there.
Ancestor Came from Ireland
The founder of the Gorman family in this country was George Gorman, grandfather of Mrs. Gorman’s husband, who came from Ireland, settled in Cincinnati, became interested in the steamboat business in the Ohio and Mississippi rivers, then came to Dayton and was engaged in the merchandising business here.
He had one son, Jonathan H. Gorman, who became engaged in the banking business here with Reuben Harshman, married Rosetta Harries and had three children, one of whom was Mrs. Gorman’s husband.
Mr. Gorman became associated with the Davis Sewing Machine company as purchasing agent, later became vice president and remained with it until it went out of existence. In 1917 he purchased the Zwick and Greenwald Wheel company, with himself as president, later became chairman of the board and remained in this position until the concern was liquidated in 1930, when he retired.
Proved Business Ability
Mrs. Gorman gave proof of her capacity for business and leadership when in 1917, following the death of her father, she became president of the Dayton Arcade company, covering one-fourth of a square in the heart of the city, fronting Third, Fourth and Ludlow streets. She also was president of the Dayton Clark Land company, which controls ranch lands in North Dakota.
Before marriage Mrs. Gorman was Anne Belle Barney. She attended school in the old Cooper seminary and at Ogontz college for girls in Ogontz, Pa., just outside Philadelphia.
She is survived by one son, E. J. Barney Gorman, president of Gorman and Peters, Inc., and his three children, Armenal, E. J. Barney, Jr., and Charles Wood Gorman.
Twin daughters, Eugenie Barney and Kathleene Harries Gorman, in whose memory Mrs. Gorman established Twin Star ward in Miami Valley hospital, died in infancy. A sister, Mrs. H. N. Reynolds, also has passed away.
Plans for Pageant Remain Unchanged
The elaborate pageant scheduled Wednesday at Barney center to celebrate is twentieth anniversary will be unchanged by Mrs. Gorman’s death, Mrs. Aurelia K. Porter, executive secretary, said Sunday night after conferring with the Gorman family and board members.
“Mrs. Gorman would have wanted the program to go ahead,” Mrs. Porter explained. “She was well pleased with the plans.”
800 Children in Pageant
Open house in the brace shop, library, studio and the welfare house will be held Wednesday from 2 to 4 p. m. Exhibits also will be shown during those hours and from 6:30 to 7:30 p. m. a concert by Don Basset and his Dayton Civic band will open the night program at 7 p. m. Leslie Diehl will lead a short community sing. More than 800 children from all city playgrounds will take part in an historical pageant at 8 p.m. under direction of City Recreation Director Robert K. Murray.
