History of Essex County, Massachusetts : with biographical sketches of many of its pioneers and prominent men, Vol. II, Part 204

Author: Hurd, D. Hamilton (Duane Hamilton) ed
Publication date: 1888
Publisher: Philadelphia, J. W. Lewis & Co.
Number of Pages: 1672


USA > Massachusetts > Essex County > History of Essex County, Massachusetts : with biographical sketches of many of its pioneers and prominent men, Vol. II > Part 204


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1824


HISTORY OF ESSEX COUNTY, MASSACHUSETTS.


4th. No interruption in the speedy despatch of the ships.


It appears strange that there should have been any hesitancy about the first three, when the prospect was regarded as so utterly chimerical. To those of us who are acquainted by experience with the vexations which attend the loading and discharging of ships in South American countries, owing to absurd custom-house regulations, lazy and insolent officials, frequent church holidays and interminable red tape, the opposition to the fourth concession does not excite surprise. In return, Mr. Wheelwright promised to repay them in a hundred-fold more benefit to them than he could possibly count upon for himself. And yet it took three whole years to conclude this simple bar- gain ! It was accomplished as far as South America was concerned, and now it remained to organize a company and to build the steamships, either in the United States or in England. On the former coun- try, the land of his birth, Mr. Wheelwright placed little reliance, but he gave his countrymen the first opportunity. The answer he received was virtually this: "We are a great people among ourselves ; we do not understand commerce to mean the exchange of commodities with foreigners. We propose to pro- duce everything ; at least a few of us will produce everything at the cost of the others. Consequently, as they will pay more than foreigners will pay for our productions, we care not to sell anything, and we pre- fer not to buy anything if it can be avoided. Besides, we have no colonies to be indirectly benefited by such a scheme as yours, and we have very few com- mercial houses iu South America. Good-bye ; you had better go to England."


He did not waste time in trying to upset our pro- tective policy. It was something that he scorned. He had seen enough of the custom-house cut-throat system in South America to make him an earnest ad- vocate of universal free trade. It was a part of his religion, too, bound up in his heart and soul. So he went to England, the country from which our fathers emancipated themselves, because she forced them to pay a duty on tea to the King, leaving it to their de- scendants to levy a duty on two thousand articles for the benefit of a few kings of their own.


Mr. Wheelwright arrived in England in 1838. During his sojourn in South America the problem of Atlantic steam navigation had been solved. That bugbear, at the portal of his hopes, had been removed, and the question to which he now addressed himself was not of the possibility of his enterprise, but of its success as a profitable investment. He forthwith en- listed the press in his behalf. The London Times and the Morning Post joined with some scientific journals of wide influence in its advocacy. His repu- tation for acquaintance with South American naviga- tion and trade had preceded him, and the honesty of his purpose was made convincing by his agreeable manners and his persuasive eloquence. The Morning


Post corroborated his argument that "thus would be opened, not only a more expeditious route to the West Indies and the Pacific, but that there would be assured a more rapid communication with the East Indies, China and Australia."


He had not now to deal with capricious aud short- sighted South American Spaniards, but with a people whose interest it was to extend their vast commercial empire. Mr. Wheelwright heartily seconded the prop- osition to establish direct steam communication between England and the Isthmus of Panama, know- ing that the benefits would be extended to his own line. Thus both objects were accomplished nearly at the same time, and the result has been the maintenance of British steamship supremacy all over the globe. His steamships, the "Chili " and the " Peru," were built at Limehouse. Ridiculously small they would be considered at this day, for they were only seven hun- dred tons burden, and one hundred and fifty horse- power. Mr. Wheelwright accompanied them on their voyage, and they were the first steamships that passed through the Straits of Magellan. The enthusiasm with which they were received at Valparaiso was un- bounded. The Mercurio astonished its readers with a description of the "ponderous ships which moved without sail or oar," as they were viewed by the in- habitants of the city, who had turned out en masse to witness what many of them supposed to be a miracle. For days the cabins and decks were crowded. There was a constant ringing of bells and firing of guns. Speeches laudatory of Mr. Wheelwright were made, and he was, as he deserved to be, the hero of the day. When the first steamer arrived at Callao the same scene was repeated. Nor were the people far wrong in calling it a miracle. It raised them from the dead slumbers of ages, infused into them a new life, brought them into line with the world's civilization, and started them on their march of progress.


In some respects Commodore Vanderbilt and Mr. Wheelwright were alike. Each commenced his ocean career at the lowest step of the ladder. Alike they saw in the future the certain success of steamship enterprise. One was its pioneer on the northern, and the other its pioneer on the southern continent. When they had both successfully accomplished their missions on the sea they left them in other hands and turned their attention to the land. The educa- . tion and habits of neither of them tended in that direction. They had never studied civil engineering or surveying, but with the wonderful versatility that genius often develops, they adapted themselves in- stantly to their new calling, and went to their work backed by that great quality they so eminently pos- sessed-determination-a determination which, in- cubating in brains like theirs, is sure to hatch out success. They both became "railroad kings." Van- derbilt was the king of the north, Wheelwright was the king of the south. They both conferred great good upon the people. This was incidental to the suc-


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NEWBURYPORT.


1S25


cess of the one, while it was the main object for which the other strove to succeed.


The steamship line was now fully established, al- though its continuance had been seriously threatened by the difficulty of obtaining a regular supply of coal, for which it depended upon England. To overcome it, Mr. Wheelwright had instituted searches for this indis- pensable article, and had found indications of its presence in Southern Chili. These " prospects " were developed into abundantly producing mines, and thus was procured the fuel so much needed by the miracu- lous steamships and by the future locomotives, of which the popular imagination had not as yet begun to dream.


The products of the copper mines of the interior had hitherto been brought down to the coast with infinite labor and great expense, on mule-back and in native carts. So long as the ocean earriage was done in sailing vessels, the land carriage by mules appeared to be its proper commencement. But the new motive power on the water called for an equal improvement on the land. This Ied Mr. Wheel- wright to the conception of the first South American railroad. He now found no difficulty in obtaining influence and capital for any undertaking.


Accordingly, the eight hundred thousand dollars needed was immediately subscribed by himself and his friends. It was a short road, extending only " The route to be adopted will be from Cordova to Chañar ; from Chañar to Horqueta, a central point in Catamarca ; from thence to Rioja and Copacabana, at the foot of the Andes, a distance of seven hun- dred miles ; from whence it will commence the ascent, climbing up the side of the castern slope of the Cor- dilleras to the pass of San Francisco, at an elevation twenty-four miles ; but it became at once very profit- able, and, as we shall see, was regarded by Mr. Wheelwright as the first link in the iron chain that is to bind the Pacific to the Atlantic. Ile next pro- posed to build a railroad from Santiago to Valparaiso of ninety miles, over a range of mountains. The Chilian government, however, regarded this as an | of 16,023 feet above the level of the sea, where it absolute impossibility, and refused to grant him a culminates and then descends the western slope to the valley of Copiapo and Caldera, by a route already defined and declared practicable." concession, although he showed them his plans and assured them that it could be accomplished. "You will be convinced of it by-and-bye," he said; "I will leave my plans for some one else to build it, for I cannot wait. I will go to the other side, and from thence yon shall see a railroad coming across the Andes to your doors."


Precisely on the plans proposed, the railroad from Santiago to Valparaiso was afterwards built.


On his arrival in the valley of the Plata, in · 1860, Mr. Wheelwright had fewer obstacles to en- counter then he had surmounted in Chili and Peru. Years had elapsed ; the day star had not appeared in the east, but unlike other stars, it had arisen in the west, throwing its light over the Andes. Mr. Wheel- wright's name was familiar in the councils and in the newspapers of all the Spanish republics. On his part, his more intimate knowledge of the language and habits of the people, gained by long experience, served greatly to lighten his labors. Still, he had to contend with the same factious opposition and jealousies of States and individuals as before. These he was never able entirely to overcome. His plan


was first to build a railroad from Rosario, at the head waters of river navigation, to Cordova, with the ultimate expectation of pushing it over the Andes, and connecting it with the road he had just completed. For the present the line from Rosario to Cordovaoftwo hundred and forty-seven miles would accomplish the important result of developing the Argentine Repub- lic, increasing its domestic trade and its European commerce. Mr. Wheelwright was fortunate in en- joying the personal friendship and in enlisting the efficient aid of General Mitre, the president of the republic, at the outset of this great undertaking. With his own hands, at Rosario, General Mitre turned the first spadeful of earth, adding his enthusiasm to that of the delighted crowd by energetically con- tinuing the exercise. "Every one must rejoice," lie said, " on the opening of this great road, for it will tend to people solitudes, to give riches where there is poverty, and to institute order where anarchy reigns. It will pass over the wide prairies until at length it will scale the mountain summits of the Andes, and thus become the great railway of South America."


Mr. Wheelwright himself, appearing to look upon the line over the plains as an accomplished fact. went on to amaze his semi-barbarous hearers with estimates that would have astonished an American audience in 1863 :


Since that time we have seen such engineering in Colorado and Utah, where the height of more than twelve thousand feet has been sealed. With us, it is a reality. There it was a dream-a dream that would have come to pass already had its projector's life and strength been spared for its accomplishment.


Mr. Wheelwright, in connection with the well- known and wealthy contractor, Thomas Brassey, had no difficulty in obtaining capital for the Grand Cen- tral Argentine in England. It was immediately commenced, and the first ten miles were finished early in 1864, but as the Paraguayan war supervened, interrupting operations, the whole line was not com- pleted until May 17, 1870. Its inauguration was celebrated with an enthusiasm equal to that exhib- ited at its commencement. The President of the republic, Sarmiento, who had succeeded Mitre, Derqui and Urquiza, was not present, and although other spectators were loud in their praises of Mr. Wheel- wright, the Minister of the Interior studiously re- frained from the mentioning the name of the man to


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1826


HISTORY OF ESSEX COUNTY, MASSACHUSETTS


whom this great work was due. The motive of this insulting neglect is readily explained. It was the desire of the government to use Mr. Wheelwright as an instrument for negotiating a loan in England, nominally for the purpose of continuing the railway across the Andes, while its intention was to devote the money to the construction of ironelads for a con- templated war with Chili, the nation with which it pretended a wish to unite itself in the bonds of a peaceful commerce. Mr. Wheelwright indignantly refused to aid in this perfidy. He declared his wil- lingness to raise the loan, but on the sole condition of receiving a pledge that the avails should be in- vested in the work ostensibly but ambiguously set forth as its object. The refusal to embody this prom- ise aroused his suspicion, which was justified by the fact that the enormous amount of thirty million dollars was asked for immediate use, when but a com- paratively small sum was needed for present and progressing expenses. Thereupon the government rescinded the concession it had formerly solemnly pledged to Wheelwright and Brassey for the exten- sion of the road, and postponed for years the com- pletion of an enterprise that in their hands would have been carried to a triumphant conclusion.


One more small but important undertaking com- pleted Mr. Wheelwright's railroad operations in South America. Buenos Ayres, on the bank of a great river, had always been the most unapproacha- ble port in the world. The water is so shallow near the shore that vessels were obliged to anchor at the distance of several miles. Their cargoes were taken in lighters to be discharged in their turn into bulloek earts, and thus dragged up on to the beach.


Thirty miles towards the sea is the snug little har- bor of Ensenada, not capacious, but affording abun- dance of water for vessels of the heaviest draft, which may there discharge and load their cargoes at the wharf.


When Mr. Wheelwright proposed to make it the receiving port of the city of Buenos Ayres, it will scarcely be believed that he met with the violent op- position of the people who were to derive such an im- mense advantage from the facilities it would afford. Every possible obstacle was thrown in his way. It is needless to enumerate all the difficulties he encoun- tered in the nine long years occupied in building this short but important road, which is now recognized by the city of Buenos Ayres as the most valuable aid to its commerce.


It was opened on April 18, 1872. There, at the scene of his last triumph, Mr. Wheelwright made his last speech. Before the audience at Quilmes the Governor of Buenos Ayres said that "of the many lines of railway which had been laid in that prov- ince, this was the first constructed without subsidy or any kind of aid from the Government. Whenever the company required land, it purchased or obtained it without calling upon the State, a fact which mani- barked for England in May, 1873.


fested the spirit of progress that was daily being de- veloped, and which had its greatest representative in the person of his friend Wheelwright."


Mr. Wheelwright replied " that grateful as he felt for the compliment of Governor Castro, he had no other ambition than that of honest industry." Ile recalled the faet " that he had arrived at that place shipwrecked, almost without shoes to his feet, that the inhabitants had received him cordially, and he was proud to be able to present that road, partially inaugurated that day, as a return for their never-to- be-forgotten hospitality."


On what spot could he have more gracefully taken his pathetic adieu of his "secoud country " ? lle had finished the work that God had given him to do, and no missionary of the church ean claim a brighter crown than this missionary of civilization and hu- manity.


Besides introducing steamships, building one rail- road on the west coast and two on the east, the dis- covery of coal and the development of the mines, without which the former enterprises would searcely have been profitable, Mr. Wheelwright contributed important benefits to some of the cities, notably to Valparaiso in the introduction of water and gas.


It was there, at the headquarters of his first great undertaking, that he was most honored and loved. His portrait graces the hall of the Exchange, and a statue of heroic size in bronze represents him in the publie square.


As he was about to say farewell forever to the con- tinent of the South, what more fitting tribute could have been offered him than the request that he should send from the East to the West the first congratula- tory telegraphie message? The responses he received were the last benedictions of a grateful people. The projector of the telegraph replied :


" VALPARAISO, July 26, 1872.


" William Wheelwright. Buenos Ayres :- I feel proud in receiving your warm congratulations, which 1 beg you to share with me for the happy success obtained this day. This country, Mr. Wheelwright, is indebted tu you for the elements of progress introduced here since 1840. Not ouly steam nagivation, railways, gas and water-works, coal mines and a number of other works introduced by you have flourished in Chili, but the first electric telegraph erected in South America by you in Chili twenty-two years ago, is to-day extended to Buenos Ayres, thus enabling the West Coast to salute gratefully the illustrious promoter of progress on both sides of the Andes.


" Accept, therefore, my dear sir, my congratulations. " JOHN R. CLARKE." From Señor de Sarratea,- " CITY OF VALPARAISO. " Your name and progress are indelibly fixed in the minds of our citi- zens, and while we celebrate the great event of the day we do not forget how much we owe to your foresight and untiring constancy. I saluta you in the name of all friends in Valparaiso."


From the President of the Republic of Chili : " SANTIAGO, July 30, 1872. " A thousand thanks for your enthusiastic congratulations. I return my cordial salutations to the man who has so many titles to the love aud gratitude of my country.


" F. ECHAZURRIA." Mr. Wheelwright, with his wife and daughter, em-


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Jevac LE Uthceluinight


1827


NEWBURYPORT.


He well knew that he would never see South America again, and it was even doubtful if his strength would endure until the arrival of the steam- ship at Southampton.


It was imprudeut for him to have continued the cares of business in his condition of health at such an advanced period of life, but his indomitable will sustained him to the last.


He landed in England to die in the house that was his home in that country, on the 26th of September, 1873. His body was taken to the home of his nativ- ity, where he sleeps his long sleep, after a life so fully completed, in the burial-ground which is overlooked from the house in which he was born.


During his life-time Mr. Wheelwright was his own executor. Although he left a large fortune, the for- tune that he bestowed upon others before his death exceeded it. When he could give no more, lie re- signed it into the hands of others to give. Among his bequests to different charities there was a foun- dation for the "Wheelwright Scientific School in Newburyport." But education does not bestow brains. It may cultivate and sometimes its hot-house training may run them to seed without making their fruit of any value. If Mr. Wheelwright himself had received a "liberal education," and had "taken the first honors of his class," he might doubtless have graced either of the three learned professions, but he never could have acquired at schools, colleges or universities the knowledge of the world and of man- kind that he gained from practical experience and from a reliance upon God and upon himself.


ISAAC WATTS WHEELWRIGHT.


Isaac Watts, a younger brother of William Wheel- wright, was born at Newburyport, September 17, 1801. Sharing the same Puritan aucestry and nur- tured in the same traditions, he was endowed with a temperament wholly different from that of his bro- ther, and although they carried on their work to a certain extent in the same country, their spheres of labor were entirely distinct. A shy, retiring boy, he did not mingle in the lively sports of his elder bro- thers, finding a greater pleasure in books and study. At the age of twelve he was sent to Phillips Acad- emy, Andover, and after four years spent there he entered Bowdoin College, where he was domiciled in the house of president Appleton, and according to a singular custom more or less in vogue in New Eng- land at that time, an exchange of children was effected, whereby the president's daughter Jane became an inmate of young Wheelwright's home at Newbury- port. This arrangement proved mutually satisfactory, and Miss Appleton endeared herself very much to the family of which she became a member, and which she left to become the wife of Mr. Franklin Pierce, afterwards President of the United States. Meanwhile the young collegian pursued his studies


and graduated in 1821, the very year when those dis- tinguished sons of Bowdoin, Ilawthorne and Long- fellow, entered college. It had always been a fore- gone conclusion in the family that this younger son, who had grown up a serious-minded youth, was to be a minister, and it was doubtless with this idea in her mind that his devout mother gave him the name of her favorite hymnologist, Doctor Watts. But, although he had tacitly consented to this decision, he bad never felt that he was adapted to the profession, and his subsequent experience convinced him, as well as others, that his true vocation was that of a teacher. On leaving college, therefore, he was very glad to have the final decision deferred for one year and to accept a tutorship at Phillips Academy. At the expiration of that time he decided to enter the Theological Seminary. These were the years in the political history of New England when Webster exerted such a potent influence, and it was not un- natural that the fascination of his brilliant intellec- tual gifts should have been keenly felt by the rising generation. Our young theologian shared the en- thusiasm for the great statesman, and it was with the desire to hear him speak that he and his friend and classmate, Leonard Woods, afterwards president of Bowdoin College, found their way to Bunker 1Till on the occasion of the laying of the corner-stone of the monument. It was on a cloudless day of June, 1825, that the two young men pressed through the surging crowds until they found them- selves in close proximity to Lafayette, and where they could look into the face of the great orator, whose burning words of eloquence could never be forgotten. " Let it rise till it meet the sun in its coming, let the earliest light of the morning gild it, and the parting day linger and play on its sum- mit ! "


On finishing his theological course, in 1826, Mr. Wheelwright returned to his favorite occupation of teaching, going to Dummer Academy as assistant to one of its most distinguished principals, the Hon. Nehemiah Cleaveland. After two years he left Dum- mer to become the principal of the Newburyport Academy. In 1833 he was appointed agent for South America of the American Bible Society and he sailed in that year for Valparaiso, where his brother William was then living. As he familiarized himself with the language and the manners and customs of the people, he became more and more convinced of the utter hopelessness of sowing Bibles broadcast in a ground so totally unprepared. Education was the first requi- site in a country where ignorance was exalted into a virtue, and when he was ready to proceed to Guaya- quil, his original destination, he had fully resolved to begin operations there by establishing a school. The wisdom of this decision was attested by the fact of his discovering in the Custom-House of Guayaquil, on his arrival there, several large cases of Bibles, which had been sent out months before by the Brit-


1828


HISTORY OF ESSEX COUNTY, MASSACHUSETTS.


ish and Foreign Bible Society. Mr. Wheelwright's school soon found favor in the town, and it was not long before he was invited to go to Quito to establish a similar one there, which he subsequently consented to do, having found some one to take his place at Guayaquil.


Quito is picturesquely situated at an altitude of ten thousand feet above the level of the sea, and is over- shadowed by the snow-covered peak of Pichincha, five thousand feet above the level of the town. Here Mr. Wheelwright spent the greater part of the five years-the term of his appointment by the Bible So- ciety-and established higher as well as primary schools, which soon became as popular as the one he had founded at Guayaquil. His first object in both places had been to secure from the government its authority for reading the Bible in these schools, which was finally accomplished, in spite of the opposition of the priests. The President of the Republic of Ecuador at that time was a most enlightened man, ai.d he so appreciated the civilizing influence of Mr. Wheelwright's labors that he made him one of the directors of education. The support of the civil Government, however, did not protect him from the attacks of the ecclesiastical authorities, who finally removed the Bibles and Testaments from the schools. Mr. Wheelwright published a protest and defense of his course, which was followed by a circular letter from the ladies of Quito, endorsing his action and de- fending him from the charge of proselytism. But it was all of no avail, for neither the civil government nor public opinion had the power to influence the decisions of the Church.




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