History of Essex County, Massachusetts : with biographical sketches of many of its pioneers and prominent men, Vol. II, Part 22

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 22

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his faithfulness with a dollar, which he said gave him more pleasure than any transaction in all the great and snecessful financial operations of his later days.

After remaining with his first employer about three years, he went to Thetford, Vt., where he lived for a year with his maternal grandfather, Jeremiah Dodge, a farmer. In 1811 he became a clerk in the store of his brother David, in Newburyport. It is recalled that his superior penmanship, a characteristic which he pre- served throughout his life, caused him to be selected, while in Newburyport, to write ballots for the Federal party, for which he received payment outside of his seanty wages as clerk.

llc had not been long in Newburyport, when a disastrous fire, which he himself is said to have been the first to discover, eaused great injury to that town, and so affected his brother's business that he was again thrown upon his own resources.

Although but sixteen years of age, he was gifted with a manly and vigorous frame, a handsome face and figure, and a prepossessing manner and address, which with his previous experience, enabled him successfully to venture in business by himself. He obtained from Mr. Prescott Spanlding, of Newbury- port, letters which enabled him to purchase on credit from James Reed, of Boston, two thousand dollars worth of goods, which he disposed of to advantage. He always spoke with gratitude of Mr. Spaulding and Mr. Reed, and ascribed to their kindly assistance his first success in commercial life.

In 1812 he accompanied his uncle, Gen. John Pea- body, to Georgetown, D. C., where the two engaged in business together for two years. After his establish- ment in business here, the first consignment made to him was by Francis Todd, of Newburyport. He en- tertained a warm regard for that town, though he had lived there so short a time; and in after years he made a donation to the public library of the town.

Ile manifested unusual ability as commercial as- sistant in his uncle's business. His unfailing courte- sy and affability won him many friends. It was said of him in after life that he would be " a popular man if he was not worth a dollar ;" and that quality was no small factor in his success. Even in the height of his commercial importance he was remarkably unas- suming in dress and deportment ; he was scrupu'ous- ly exact and punctnal in the discharge of his obliga- tions, whether business or personal; and his success was no more than the natural result of a life singn- larly well-planned to effect financial success.

Ile was a good writer and speaker, and some of his speeches and letters are remarkable for a simple and natural eloquence of style and expression. His eon- versational powers were of a high order.

lle never married, and when living in London he never had a honse of his own, but lived in lodgings; and his personal expenses were never, even in his

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latter days, large, for he cared little for luxuries, and his tastes were simple. At the sumptuous dinners which he often gave, he was wont to fare simply from some common dish, though he was particular about the appointments of his table, and prided hinself on its excellence. Fruit was almost his only table lux- ury. Until his failing strength made it a necessity, he kept no valet.

He had a very retentive memory, particularly in regard to names and places, and would give the most minute particulars of events that had occurred many years before.

He was very fond of singing, Scottish songs being his favorites.

In 1814, when only nineteen years of age, lie en- tered into partnership, in the wholesale dry goods business, with Mr. Elisha Riggs, in Georgetown ; Mr. Riggs furnishing the capital, and Mr. Peabody con- ducting the business as active partner.

During the War. of 1812, although under age, he joined a volunteer company of artillery, and did mil. itary duty at Fort Warburton, which commanded the river approach to Washington. For this service, to- gether with a previous short service at Newburyport, he long afterward received one of the grants of land bestowed by Congress upon the soldiers of that time.

The war over, he entered heartily into the develop- ment of his business, and frequently took long jour- neys alone on horseback to extend the sales of the house. In 1815 the house removed to Baltimore, and in 1822 branch houses were established in New York and Philadelphia.

The business proved very successful, owing chiefly to the talent and industry of Mr. Peabody ; and when by the retirement of Mr. Elisha Riggs, in 1830, Mr. Peabody became the senior partner of the firm, the house of Peabody, Riggs & Company, took rank with the leading concerns of the country. In the course of his business he made several visits to Europe, going to London first in 1827.

In 1837, having withdrawn from the firm of Pea- body, Riggs & Company, he began business with oth- ers as a merchant and money broker, by the style of "George Peabody & Co., of Warnford Court, City." The firm held deposits for customers, discounted bills, negotiated loans and bought or sold stocks. He was remarkably successful in his operations, and soon be- gan to accumulate the foundation of the large fortune which he eventually attained.

He never forgot his American citizenship, but was known throughout his life as the upholder of the credit of American securities; his assistance availed to carry the finances of his adopted State, Maryland, safely over a critical period, and at a time when faith in American securities was depressed in London, his far-sighted and patriotic action helped greatly to re- establish confidence and credit. Speaking at Balti- more, in November, 1866, he said, " Fellow-citizens, the Union of the States of America was one of the

earliest objects of my childhood's reverence. For the independence of our country, my father bore arms in some of the darkest days of the Revolution; and from him and from his example, I learned to love and honor that Union. Later in life, I learned more fully its inestimable worth ; perhaps more fully than most have done, for, born and educated at the North, tlien living nearly twenty years at the South, and thus learning, in the best school, the character and life of her people ; finally, in the course of a long residence abroad, being thrown in intimate contact with in- dividuals of every section of our glorious land, I came, as do most Americans who live long in foreign lands, to love our country as a whole; to know and take pride in all her sons, as equally countrymen; to know no North, no South, no East, no West. And so I wish publicly to avow, that, during the terrible con- test through which the nation has passed, my sympa- thies were still and always will be with the Union ; that my uniform course tended to assist, but never to injure, the credit of the government of the Union ; and, at the close of the war, three-fourths of all the property I possessed had been invested in United States Government and State securities, and remains so at this time." During the war he gave liberally to various sanitary fairs.

At the time of the Great Exhibition of 1851, in the absence of appropriations by Congress, the American exhibitors at the Crystal Palace found themselves iu serious difficulty for lack of funds to fit up the American department, and for a time the exhibitors were disheartened. At this critical moment, Mr. Peabody did what Congress should have done, and by the advance of a large sumn enabled his countrymen to take their proper place in the Exhibition. It was an act which earned the gratitude of all Americans. In the same year he gave his first great Fourth of July feast, at Willis's Rooms, to American citizens and the best society of London, headed by the Duke of Wellington. Mr. Peabody, after this, extended his hospitality to a larger extent than ever before ; he invited to dinner every person who brought a letter of credit on his house; and celebrated every Fourth of July by a dinner to the Americans in London, inviting some distinguished English friends to meet them.

Mr. Peabody had now accomplished the object of his life, so far as concerned the acquisition of a large fortune. He had always been liberal in giving to worthy objects; in 1836, when the Lexington Monu- ment in Danvers was erected, he contributed the balance of several hundred dollars necessary to com- plete the work. When the South Church in Danvers was destroyed by fire, he made a liberal contribution toward rebuilding it; and the spirit which he after- ward showed had already been manifest in smaller things.

But about this time he seems to have conceived the idea of giving his great wealth in such a way that he

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HISTORY OF ESSEX COUNTY, MASSACHUSETTS.

might direet the application of it while he yet lived. In 1852, he made the gift to the town of Danvers, of which an account has been given elsewhere, of $20,000, which was increased before his death to $200,000.

The same year, he provided the means of fitting out the "Advance," Dr. Kane's ship, for the Arctic voyage in search of Sir John Franklin.

In 1857, he made his first donation to the Peabody Institute in Baltimore, to which he gave in all up- wards of $1,000,000.

In 1856, Mr. Peabody visited this country. He was tendered a public reception by a committee of dis- tinguished Americans but declined all publie recep- tions except in his native town.

On the 9th of October, 1856, a reception and dinner was given to Mr. Peabody by the people of Danvers. The children of the schools made up a procession brilliant with emblematie costumes and banners ; elaborate decorations were placed upon publie and private buildings, and across the streets arches of wel- come were placed. A distinguished gathering of in- vited guests met in the Peabody Institute, and among the speakers were Gov. Gardner, Edward Everett, President Walker, Prof. C. C. Felton and other emi- nent men. A full account of this reception, inelud- ing a sketch of the Peabody Institute to that time, was published by the town.

Mr. Peabody did not long remain in this country at this visit.

In 1859 he set about carrying out a long cherished purpose of establishing homes for the deserving poor of London ; for this purpose, he gave in all, ineluding a bequest in his will, £500,000. This great charity has been admirably managed by the trustees, and the value of the property nearly or quite doubled, by the investment of income. Over twenty thousand persons are accommodated in the tenements comprised in this charity, the average rent of each of the five thousand separate dwellings being 4s. 91d. per week. The tenants are not paupers, but artisans and laboring men and women of a great variety of occupations. There are eighteen different locations where blocks of buildings have been erected under the trust.

In 1866 Mr. l'eabody again returned to this coun- try, and set about the arrangement of a series of gifts to charities and institutions of learning which was without a parallel, and which doubtless formed the inspiration for later gifts by wealthy men during their lifetime.

lle first turned his attention to his native town of South Danvers, and by a gift of one hundred thous- and dollars, placed the institute there on n substan- tial foundation. He gave fifty thousand dollars to the Peabody Institute in Danvers in September, 1866. About the same time, he established libraries on a smaller scale at Thetford, Vermont, and at George- town, Mass., the residence of his mother.

In October, 1866, he made a donation of one hundred

and fifty thousand dollars to Yale College to found a museum of natural history ; and the same month he gave one hundred and fifty thousand dollars to found a museum of American archeology and ethnology in connection with Harvard University.

In January, 1867, he gave twenty thousand dollars to the Massachusetts Historical Society ; and during the next month he gave one hundred and forty thousand dollars to found the Peabody Academy of Science in connection with the Essex Institute in Salem. At about the same time he gave twenty-five thousand dollars to Kenyon College, of which his friend, Bishop Mellvaine, was then president. In 1867, too, he gave fifteen thousand dollars to New- buryport, for the public library. He gave to Phillips Academy, at Andover, Mass., the sum of twenty-five thousand dollars.

During this visit he began the erection of a memorial church in the name of his sister, Mrs. J. P. Russell, and himself, to the memory of his mother, in George. town, at a cost of one hundred thousand dollars. It was dedicated in 1868, and John G. Whittier wrote a poem for the occasion.

The greatest of his American charities, the South- ern Education Fund, was begun by him during this visit to America ; by the gift to a board of trustees of one million dollars in available funds, and one mil- lion dollars in bonds of the State of Mississippi, which it was hoped the nature of the gift might im- pel that State to redeem, as it had been decided she was legally bound to do. But this hope has never yet been realized ; and on his last visit, in 1869, Mr. Peabody added one million to the eash capital of the fund, making the whole gift three million dollars.

His health had already begun to fail before his last visit, in 1869. He was very desirous to meet once more the various boards which had in charge his princely charities, and particularly the trustees of the Southern Education Fund ; and he accomplished that objeet.

The last visit of a public nature which Mr. Peabody made to his native town was in the summer of 1869, when he invited a number of personal friends, and several of the trustees of his various charities, to meet him at the Peabody Institute. Among the guests were t'harles Sumner, Robert C. Winthrop, Ex-gov- ernor Clifford, and Oliver Wendell Holmes. Brief remarks were made by several of the guests, and Mr. Ilolines read a short poem.

A remark of Mr. Peabody's, spoken at the reunion, is characteristic of his life and its objects. " It is sometimes hard for one who has devoted the best part of his life to the accumulation of money, to spend it for others ; but praetise it, and keep on praetising it, and I assure you it comes to be a pleasure."

His last appearance in public was during the great Peace Jubilee, 1869, when he made a speech. He sought rest and renewed health at White Sulphur Springs, in Virginia, but without success, and re-

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turned to London in the hope that the change of air to his accustomed haunts might be of benefit to him. But he did not rally as he hoped, and, growing rapidly worse, he died November 4, 1869.

The highest honors were paid him, both in Eng- land and in his native country. A funeral service was performed over his coffin in Westminster Abbey, and the Bishop of London preached a funeral ser- mon in the Abbey on the Sunday following. The British war-ship "Monarch," one of the finest iron- clads in the British navy, was ordered by her Majes- ty's government to convey the remains of the philan- thropist to his native land, and it was convoyed by an American warship, and also a French vessel detailed by the Emperor for that service. One of the royal princes, Prince Arthur, accompanied the expedition, and attended the funeral exercises in this country as the representative of his mother, the Queen.

The funeral fleet brought the body to Portland, Me., where it lay in state; thence it was brought to his native town, then called by his own name, where, after lying in state in the building which he had given, it was buried in the family lot which he had selected in Harmony Grove Cemetery. The funeral exercises were held in the Old South Church, on the site where in a former edifice he had attended divine service as a boy. The whole town was in mourning ; great crowds of strangers filled the streets; the funeral oration was eloquently and fittingly pro- nounced by Robert C. Winthrop; and amid a wild snow-storm, which sprang up during the ceremonies, the solemn procession wound its slow way to the burial-place.

The following is a list, not wholly complete, but giving most of his larger contributions to charity, ed- ucation and progress :

To the State of Maryland, money due him for nego- tinting State loan of #8,000,0 0 ... $60,000

Tu the Peabody Institute, Baltimore, including ac- crued interest.

1,500,000

To the Southern Education Fund

3,000,000

To Yale College. 150,000

To Harvard College .. 150,000

To the Peabody Academy of Science, Salem. 140,000

To Phillips Academy, Andover 25,000

Tu the Peabody lustitute, Peabody 200,000

To the Peabody High School, Peabody. 2,000

To the Peabody Institute, Danvers. 50,000

Tothe Massachusetts Historical Society 20,000

To Kenyon College, Ohio, 25,000

To Newburyport for the Public Library.

15,000

To the Memorial Church in Georgetown, Mass, 100,000

To the library in Georgetown 5,000

To the library in Thetford, Vermont 5,500

To Kane's Arctic expedition. 10,000

To different sanitary fairs 10,000

To unpaid moneys advanced to uphold the credit of States.

40,000

To homes for the poor in London. 2,500,000

Total $8,007,500

Besides these, Mr. Peabody made a large number of donations for various public purposes in sums ranging up to one thousand dollars, and extending back as far as I835.

His great charitable gifts brought world-wide recognition during his life-time. The Queen, on his refusal of a baronetcy, sent him an autograph letter, which he had indicated as a gift which would be specially vahed by him, and accompanied it by a miniature portrait of herself in enamel on gold, by Tilb, which is deposited at the Peabody Institute, Peabody, as a recognition of his munificent gift to the poor of London. In 1866 Congress ordered that a gold medal valued at five thousand dollars be given him for his great gift to the South. The city of London presented him with the freedom of the city in a gold box, and the Fishmongers' Company and Merchant Tailors' Fraternity, of the ancient London Guilds, honored him with membership in their bodies, the Fishmongers presenting their memorial in a gold box. These valued gifts were presented by Mr. Peabody, with other valuable papers and memor- ials, to the Peabody Institute in Peabody, where they are treasured in la-ting remembrance of his bene- factions.

FITCH POOLE, the son of Deacon Fitch Poole, was born June 13, 1803, in the house in Poole's Hollow in the South Parish of Danvers, built by his great- grandfather, John Poole, about 1757. He was edu- cated in the common schools of the town, and having learned the trade of sheepskin and morocco manu- facturer, he engaged in that business in a store close by his birth-place, and during many years was inter- ested either by himself or in company with others in that branch of industry. He very early developed a decided taste for literary pursuits, and became a correspondent of the newspapers of the vicinity, sometimes treating of political matters and sometimes of the early history and traditions of the locality, in which he was deeply versed, and which he made a life-long study, becoming a recognized authority on antiquarian matters, and displaying a never-failing enthusiasm in research and in the discussion of all that pertained to town and early colonial history.

His reading was varied and extensive, and his writing was marked by a natural and expressive style, which showed the originality of his thought, and was constantly flavored with a piquancy of idea and expression springing from his keen and delicate sense of humor, a quality which entered largely into his genial and winning personality, and which made him through life a delightful companion whose every- day greeting had a cheerful and sunny influence, and who brought smiles into every company.

The artistic temperament was clearly shown in him, not only in his literary work, but in various other directions, particularly in a cleverness for cari- cature and humorous sketches with the pencil, and an aptitude for modelling in plaster, which was remark- able considering his lack of elementary training for such work. Some portrait busts, and also some original conceptions in plaster, particularly a series of representations of humorous characters in Irving's

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HISTORY OF ESSEX COUNTY, MASSACHUSETTS.

" Ilistory of New York," show traces of distinct power and originality.

Ilis fondness for the humorous, and his quickness of wit, made him, particularly in his younger days, the centre of a little band of choice spirits, whose amusing exploits are still remembered by many of the people of South Danvers.

The familiarity of intercourse in those carly times, and the comparatively slight differences of social rank in the community, encouraged a sort of practical joking, which was as harmless as practical joking ever is, and more than usually original and witty in its methods. Many were the individuals who un- wittingly made sport for these practical jokers, but it was rarely that any ill will grew out of their doings. The exhibition to friends for their criticism (some- times adverse), of a portrait of Mr. Poole really made up by the subject's inserting his living head into a place cut in the canvas; orders given to new recruits in the militia to parade at novel seasons, and with surprising equipments; half the town induced to visit the scene of a remarkable chasm formed in the Square on April-fools' day-such were some of the odd fancies which furnished amusement for the town's people. One of the most characteristic and successful of these practical jokes was carried out by Mr. Poole in later life. In the carly days of the Pea- body Institute lectures, Professor Hitchcock, the eminent geologist, delivered a course of lectures on geology, and while in town he was entertained by Mr. Poole, and a large number of the people of the town were invited to meet him. When the time for refreshments arrived, the company was ushered into a well supplied supper room, and just at that mo- ment the host was called away for a moment, and cx- cused himself with a cordial invitation to his guests to help themselves to the good things before them. After the first descent upon the table a strange em- barrassment stole over those who endeavored to dis- pense the refreshments. One would take off the cov- er from a dish, and hastily replace it; another found the oysters of surprising weight and texture; the cake coukl scarcely be lifted; the ice creams and cus- tards could be carried about bodily by the spoons in- serted in them; each new dish was more puzzling than the last. At length it dawned upon the bright- er spirit«, that here was truly a geological feast, and the laugh began. The oysters were pudding-stone; the cake was brick, frosted with plaster of Paris; custards and creams were of plaster colored, and moulded ; sugar, cream, every detail of the banquet was of mineral origin, of plaster, or stone, or clay. When the fun began to subside, another door was thrown open, and a more edible repast was spread before the guests.

His intimate knowledge of the carly history of his native place, and his facility in imitating the ancient style of writing, enabled him to reproduce more vividly than any other writer of his class the peculiar

life and color of those carly times, with all its quaint- ness of diction and spelling, and its apparently un- conscious humor of expression. Several of his poems and sketches, relating to the witchcraft times, are of unusual merit, particularly a ballad, widely circu- lated, entitled "Giles Corey and Goodwyfe Corey," which is an admirable reproduction of the old ballad style. Another well-known poem is that which was written for the centennial celebration at Danvers, " Giles Corey's Dream," which attained a wide celeb- rity, both for its poetical merits and the keen and thoughtful humor which pervades it. Mr. Poole's enjoyment of an innocent hoax induced him occa- sionally to introduce his old time sketches under the guise of veritable antiquities. One of the most re- markable of his efforts in this direction was brought out at the time of taking down the old South Meet- ing-house, in 1836, when a communication was re- ceived by a Salem paper, purporting to contain a copy of an old letter written by one Lawrence Conant, which described the ordination of the Rev. Mr. Pres- cott at the new meeting-house in the middle precinct of Salem in 1713, as seen by the writer. So perfect was the reproduction of the quaint language and spelling of the time, and so admirable the color of the composition and the apparent truthfulness of the details, describing personages prominent in the prov- ince, that it at first passed everywhere as genuine, and it was not till some acute antiquary detected a discrepaney of dates in the document that the de- ception was detected ; and even long afterward the letter of Lawrence Conant was occasionally referred to as genuine. The paper is full of delightful touches of humor, and was only intended as a facetious jeu d'esprit, and was promptly and publicly acknowledged as such by Mr. Poole ; but no amount of explanation has ever been able to destroy the authenticity of the document. About the same time he wrote a poem in the Scotch dialect called " Lament of the Bats inhab- iting the old South Church," which has been greatly admired.

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History of Essex County, Massachusetts : with biographical sketches of many of its pioneers and prominent men, Vol. II, Part 22

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

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