Louisa Maculloch

Louisa Maculloch (1785-1863) was the first director of the Morristown Female Charitable Society which was founded in 1830 to serve the poor.

She held the position for 33 years and oversaw the society’s efforts to take care of the aged, lame, sickly, widows with children and those unable to work by offering them food, fuel, household items, and clothing. The society raised individual donations, held charity sermons, collections at church services, and put on benefit theater performances at the local Morristown Academy. The organization still operates as the Family Service of Morris County.

In addition, Maculloch served as the director of the little-known Fragment Society whose members produced, from fragments of leftover cloth, a number of articles to be sold at an annual fair. All proceeds went toward the construction of Presbyterian churches in nearby towns as well as projects connected to the Morristown church and other civic causes.