Julius Friedlander
March 17, 2007 is the 168th anniversary of the death of Julius Friedlander, the founding Principal of Overbrook School for the Blind. In November 1838 because of Friedlander’s failing health, the Board of Managers sent him to St. Augustine Florida in hope that he would benefit from being in a warmer climate.
Michael Snider, the school printer and diarist, wrote of his last sad trip back to Philadelphia. ” It was on the 8th of March, a cold bleak wind blowing from the northeast in the afternoon, when Mr. Friedlander was led up the steps into the Institution, wasted and feeble in body, but with a mind calm and unruffled, that shrunk not from its noble bearing and contemplation of his high resolves. He was awfully thin and weak, but he was happy that he had returned to the bosom of his adopted and cherished family at the Institution.”
“But the decree of Providence could not be averted. On Sunday, March 17, he died at the Institution-the monument of his successful labors-surrounded by the grateful hearts of those in whose welfare all his feelings had been so deeply interested,-and with all the attentions and comforts, that devoted and sympathizing friends were able to bestow.”
Friedlander was not quite 36 years old when he died.
The following is a quote from the eulogy given by student, Jewett H. Gray, age 16, at the funeral held March 20,1839 at the school. “He is gone -our Friend is gone;and gone forever.Though his corpse lies low with the dead-a tenant of the silent tomb-his pure soul has winged its way to that bright land of bliss, the hallowed home of God!”
The “Lot of the Blind” at Laurel Hill Cemetary, Philadelphia. In the ship- shaped burial place, William Young Birch, a former sea merchant, is buried in the prow, Julius Friedlander at the spot of the main mast, surrounded by pupils and teachers, Among them Michael Snider, the printerand diarist.
for more information, please feel free to contact the OSB archivist, Edith Willoughby Edith@obs.org