American philanthropist, born in New York City on the 3rd of August 1802, and in 1821 married Thomas C. Doremus, a merchant, who put his wealth at her disposal in her charitable designs. With eight ladies she organized the Greek relief mission in 1828, and in 1836 she aided Madame Henriette in the latter’s work in the Grande Ligne mission of Canada, becoming president of the organization in 1860. In 1840 she was successful in establishing Sunday services in the New York City prisons, and in 1842 was instrumental in founding the home for women discharged from prison. This home is known as the Isaac T. Hopper Home, and Mrs. Doremus was made its president in 1867. In the same year she became president of the House and School of Industry for Poor Women, which she had founded in 1850. In 1854 she became vice-president of the Nursery and Child’s Hospital, and in 1855 assisted in founding the New York Women’s Hospital, of which she also became president. During the Civil War she devoted herself to ministering to the sick and wounded soldiers of the North and the South. In 1860 she founded the Women’s Union Missionary Society, and took an active part in organizing, in 1866, the Presbyterian Home for Aged Women. During the famine in Ireland in 1869, she collected relief supplies, and was a manager of the City Mission and Tract Society and of the Female Bible Society. During all these charitable activities Mrs. Doremus reared a family of nine children of her own, besides others she had adopted. She died in New York City on the 29th of January 1877.
