Combined Families — Fresh Air Fund and Boy Scouts

This is the latest in an occasional series of posts about the daughters of Samuel Pruyn and their families that lived in the three houses that now are the campus of The Hyde Collection art museum in Glens Falls.

Maurice and Mary Hoopes contributed $100 — the equivalent of $1,458 in 2020 dollars — to The Post-Star Fresh Air Fund on July 10, 1921, putting the campaign over the half-way mark in its goal of raising $1,000 to bring 80 New York City tenement children for a vacation in Warren County.

“Eighty of these lovable little youngsters are coming to Glens Falls during the latter part of the month for a two weeks’ sojourn,” The Post-Star reported. “At the end of that period they will return to the tenement districts, but by virtue of their vacation they will be the better enabled to withstand the handicaps under which they must labor.”

Later Polly Hoopes, teenage daughter of Maurice and Mary, contributed $10.

The Post-Star exceeded its goal and more than 90 Fresh Air children arrived at 4:30 p.m. July 21 to stay at Warren County farms or at residences in Glens Falls and Lake George.

“The youngsters arrived at the local station in a happy state of mind, confident that their two weeks of fresh air was going to work wonders for them and that they were going to enjoy immensely their sojourn in these mountain regions.”

Louis Hyde, meanwhile, was taking an interest in Boy Scouts.

“Louis Hyde visited Boy Scout Camp Wakpominee and expressed interest in helping the camp to continue,” The Post-Star reported on July 12, 1921.

Seven months previous Hyde was a member of the Boy Scout Court of Honor that administered examination for First Class and Second Class scout ranks.

In other historic Combined Families news:

Louis and Charlotte Hyde and Maurice and Mary Hoopes contributed to the 1920 annual Glens Falls Hospital Guild Christmas campaign.

In Janury 1921 Maurice Hoopes was re-elected President and Louis Hyde Vice President of Finch, Pruyn & Co., and Maurice Hoopes was re-elected to the Board of Directors of Adirondack Power and Light Co.

In April 1921 Maurice Hoopes wrote a letter to the editor of The Post-Star urging Glens Falls residents to support the annual Glens Falls Hospital Guild rummage sale.

Sources: The Post-Star Dec. 9, 15, 16, 20, 1920; Jan. 11, 31; April 9,; July 11, 12, 21, 1921.

Click here to read the most recent previous post in the series.