Lucy Webb Hayes National Training School

In 1894, the school was chartered by act of Congress in conjunction with the Deaconess Home and Sibley Memorial Hospital, and formed with them one corporation.

Lucy Webb Hayes National Training School had its origin in a thought which was expressed at Spiegel Grove when the thousands were gathered there for the funeral services of Mrs. Hayes, who, as the wife of a president of the United States, and as the president of the Woman's Home Missionary Society of the Methodist Episcopal Church, had endeared herself to US women.

The remembrance of the deep interest which Mrs. Hayes had manifested in the training of women as missionaries suggested the founding of a school to carry out this purpose as a suitable monument to her memory.

[1] At the meeting of the board of managers, the following was introduced by Elizabeth Lownes Rust, the corresponding secretary, and adopted: "Resolved further, That we invite the auxiliaries, circles, bands, and friends of the society to contribute offerings as precious memorials, to be forwarded to the general executive board of managers to meet in Indianapolis the last of October, to be consecrated to the erection of a building which shall hear her name, and serve as a reminder of her deep interest in behalf of missions in our land.

"[1] At the annual meeting of the general executive board in Indianapolis, the establishment of an institution for the training of young women for Christian work, to be a memorial of Mrs. Hayes, was determined upon, and in answer to circulars sent out, the sum of US$4,000 was gathered.

In the winter of 1889-90, Jane Bancroft Robinson, the author of Deaconesses in Europe and America, and the secretary of the bureau for deaconess work, visited Washington, and by her presentation of the subject in the leading churches, and at the residences of Bishop Hurst, Postmaster-General Wanamaker, Senator Blair, and Mrs. E. J. Somers, so aroused public interest that the rental of a house was offered by Susan J. Wheeler for the beginning of the work in Washington.

More candidates were applying for admission than could be received, and meanwhile the demand for deaconess workers all over the Church was constantly increasing as their value and usefulness became better understood.

At the annual meeting of the society at Syracuse, New York, in October, 1890, the following action was taken: "Resolved, That the training school for missionaries and the Deaconess Home be united in one institution, and named in memory of Lucy Webb Hayes, and located at Washington, D. C."[1] In 1890, Ephraim Nash, was so moved with interest in the deaconess work that he determined to give his own residence at 1140 North Capitol street, to the Woman's Home Missionary Society as a National Training School.

This common life in the home was not only an important part of the training and discipline of the school, but furnished to the workers, whose sympathies were heavily drawn upon by actual contact with the poor, the suffering, and the distressed, a place of rest and relief.

[1] The lecturers in the medical department were selected from the staff of Sibley Hospital, and included some of the most eminent and skillful physicians and surgeons of Washington.

The instruction included biblical and ecclesiastical training, such knowledge of medicine as was preparatory to nursing, and practical teaching in all that was necessary to fit pupils as superintendents of deaconess homes, orphanages, hospitals, and for kindred employment.

The entire cost, including board, room, tuition, and lectures, would be from $3 to $5 a week, varying with the share of household work assumed by the student.