8:11 p.m. - 2005-11-28
Parker (Franklin & Betty) Retrospective, 1946-56, 8 page version
Christmas 2005 Greetings, by Franklin and Betty J. Parker, 63 Heritage Loop, Crossville, TN 38571-8270.
Phone: 931-277-3268. E-mail: [email protected]
Turning Points. This Christmas we decided to describe turning points in our lives together, but covered only the first 10 years, 1946-56. Next Christmas we hope to come up to date. Read on. Stay tuned.
We met Sept. 1946 as students entering Berea College near Lexington, Ky. BJP first saw FP in Berea's food line with students chatting while FP was reading a book. FP recalls BJP in that same food line in blue jeans as "round all over" (age 17 baby fat).
With the same last name and being seated alphabetically in several classes, we got to know each other. Yet when her roommate described meeting "that nice boy" (FP), BJP exclaimed: "That old man!" (FP served in WW II, Sept. '42-Feb. '46).
Our friendship took hold, followed by hand-holding walks--until BJP told FP bluntly: if keeping company is not going to lead anywhere�goodbye. Taken aback, FP made himself scarce, but soon returned. After mutual family visits he bought an engagement ring, popped the question, later bought a wedding band at a fire sale, and pondered how to finish college, support a wife, and have a career.
BJP's part-time work at Berea (a unique tuition-free work/study college) was in the Labor Office. FP's several Berea jobs included as live-in janitor, college library building, book-shelver, mail-getter, general factotum. Engaged to BJP in May 1949, thinking ahead about future work, not trained to teach, but liking books and research, FP looked into graduate library science as a career.
BJP went home summers to Decatur, Ala. FP took Berea summer classes and held campus jobs, thus graduating in three years. By taking transferable summer 1949 library science courses at nearby Univ. of Ky., Lexington, he earned a Berea College B.A. degree in English, Aug. 1949. In Sept. 1949 he entered the Univ. of Illinois's (Urbana) graduate M.S. in L.S. program and was part-time assistant in the U of Ill.'s undergraduate library.
Spending the 1949-50 school year apart, FP made three Berea visits to see fianc�e BJP. She graduated in June 1950. We were married June 12, 1950, in Decatur, Ala., and went together to the Univ. of Ill. where FP finished his M.S. degree, Aug. 1950.
Our first jobs (1950-52) came through Berea's Alumni Office, which had a request for two Bereans as teachers at Ferrum Jr. College, Va., near Roanoke, a rural Methodist junior college with a Berea-like work-study program. BJP taught high school history and English, FP was librarian and taught speech. Part of our modest pay was a free apt. above the Library. We lived in cheek-by-jowl intimacy with other faculty. Car-less, we had to hitch rides for shopping and appointments.
In April 1951, pondering plans for a second year, BJP said: Ferrum is fine as a beginning place But there's no excitement in my life. We're crimped, cramped, and need wheels. FP dutifully hitchhiked to a Roanoke car dealer, made a down payment, and drove back a Chevy.
To improve our teaching abilities (Ferrum had no summer school) we took summer '51 graduate courses at George Peabody College for Teachers (hereafter PeaClg), Nashville, TN, adjacent to Vanderbilt Univ. and Scarritt College, the 3 forming a university center. BJP's missionary Aunt Annie, who had studied at Scarritt and PeaClg, found for us a low-cost garage apt.
In our second year at Ferrum we knew by spring '52 we had to pursue graduate study in Nashville's academic atmosphere. We looked for scholarships and part-time jobs for BJP to earn an M.A. and FP to attempt doctoral study (Robert Browning [modified]: one's reach should oe'erleap one's grasp, else what's a heaven for?).
BJP contacted Nashville's Andrew Jackson Bsns. Univ. Pres. David E. Short, Jr. (1891-1957), explained our intentions, and asked for a job. He hired her to teach English in the school's secretarial program. FP got a small PeaClg Jesse Jones scholarship and a part-time PeaClg Library School job. BJP's pay was a free apt. in the business college building facing antebellum Acklen Hall on the grounds of old Ward-Belmont Girls' School, whose site had just been bought by TN Baptists for their since thriving Belmont Univ. We settled into our apt., started our part-time jobs, and took graduate courses.
During our 4 years of graduate study in Nashville (Su '51, Su '52-thru Aug. '56) PeaClg, the South's best known private teachers college, with antecedent school roots before TN statehood, was at its post-WWII best: high regional status, national reputation, great faculty, and quality programs. Its green and tree-lined campus (built on Thomas Jefferson's Univ. of Va. plan) swarmed with summer students. This bustling teachers college, preparing public school teachers and administrators, bordered liberal arts Vanderbilt Univ. and religiously oriented Scarritt College (now a conference center), the 3 institutions exchanging students, courses, and credits, and using a joint univ. library system.
BJP observed that leading PeaClg profs had national reputations, wrote widely used textbooks on various school subjects at all school levels, held high offices in state and national societies, and were sought after conference speakers.
FP liked his early graduate course under Harold R.W. Benjamin (1893-1969) which compared major national school systems. Benjamin, under the name of J. Abner Pettiwell, had written the then popular satirical Saber-Tooth Curriculum (in print since 1939), and was editor of the prestigious McGraw Hill Education book series. But it was Prof. Benjamin's Foundations of Education colleague, Prof. Clifton L. Hall (1898-1987), under whom FP wanted to major, taking all his courses, wanting to become his doctoral student.
Canadian-born Clifton Hall was a graduate of Bishop Univ. (Quebec) and McGill Univ. (Montreal), bi-lingual in English and French, had taught math and Latin, been a school principal, served as a WWII personnel officer, and had earned a Univ. of N.C. at Chapel Hill Ph.D. degree under well known educational historian Edgar W. Knight (1885-1953). Knight and Hall coedited a scholarly textbook: Readings in American Educational History.
Dr. Hall taught large introductory history and philosophy of education classes plus advanced seminars for master's and Ph. D. aspirants. He tested candidates in French for both Vandy and PeaClg doctoral language requirement, reviewed Nashville music programs for the Nashville newspaper, played the bagpipes, and financially helped an underprivileged Navajo boy become an engineer. FP, who studied hard in Prof. Hall's courses, only later in small seminars requiring weekly papers earned A's and gradually won Hall's approval.
FP audited Vanderbilt German language courses and on Hall's advise took a year of Vanderbilt graduate philosophy courses. Surviving the winnowing out process�foreign language exam followed by written and oral doctoral exams--FP searched the literature for a dissertation topic in the history of TN higher education, one that would make an original contribution to knowledge. FP found such a topic and in mid-1953 discussed it with PeaClg Dean of Instruction Felix C. Robb (1914-97) who would confirm FP's doctoral dissertation faculty committee.
Dean Robb listened, then surprisingly told FP of his earlier experience at Harvard Graduate School of Education in a course taught by historian Arthur Schlesinger, Sr. (1888-1965). Schlesinger, knowing that then doctoral candidate Robb was a PeaClg administrator, told how influential George Peabody's (1795-1869, hereafter GP) educational philanthropy had been, especially his Peabody Education Fund (1867-1914, hereafter PEF) in promoting public education in the defeated southern states. Schlesinger said that the PEF influenced all subsequent U.S. funds and foundations, that GP as the founder of modern educational philanthropy needed to be fully explored in a documented dissertation.
Determined on an education administrative career, Robb chose instead to write his dissertation in that field. Robb, later PeaClg president, still later was Director, Southern Assn. of Colleges and Schools.
We still wonder why Robb urged FP to explore GP�s educational philanthropy. Perhaps he regretted a good topic not pursued; or spoke to FP out of respect for Dr. Hall; or thought a GP dissertation ought to be done at PeaClg by one of Dr. Hall's student. Whatever the reason, that auspicious meeting was a turning point in our lives. Reading everything locally available about GP, convinced of his importance, we located GP-related papers in U.S. and British library depositories, pondering how to finance trips to read them.
GP background: he was born Feb. 18, 1795, into a poor branch of the Peabodys, 3rd of 8 children, in Danvers, Mass., 19 miles from Boston (Danvers was renamed South Danvers, 1855 when Danvers was divided into North and South Danvers,; and renamed Peabody, Mass., in his honor, April 13, 1868, 19 months before his death).
He had 4 years of schooling, was apprenticed in a general store 4 years, and worked for a year in his oldest brother's dry goods store in Newburyport, Mass. His father died, May 13, 1811, leaving the family in debt, the mortgaged Danvers home lost. GP's mother and 5 younger children moved in with nearby relatives. 18 days later, May 31, 1811, the Great Fire of Newburyport ruined all business prospects.
Paternal uncle John Peabody (1768-1827), whose Newburyport store and stock were also ruined, urged 17-year-old GP to go south with him to Georgetown, D.C. The uncle could not obtain credit. GP got a Newburyport merchant to stand surety for him for goods on credit from a Boston merchant. Uncle and nephew sailed (May 5, 1812) to Georgetown, D.C., where they opened a dry goods store, May 15, 1812.
Uncle John left for other enterprises. GP tended the store and was a pack peddler selling goods to nearby homes and stores. With Washington, D.C., under threat of British attack, he served in the War of 1812, where he met and impressed 35-year-old fellow soldier and experienced Md. merchant Elisha Riggs, Sr. (1779-1853). Riggs took 19-year-old GP as junior partner in Riggs, Peabody & Co. (1814-29). The firm, which imported European clothing and goods for sale to U.S. wholesalers, moved to Baltimore in 1815 and by 1822 had Phila. and NYC warehouses.
Becoming the family breadwinner, by 1816 at age 21 GP paid the family debts and restored his mother and siblings to their home. He paid for the education at Bradford Academy, Bradford, Mass., of 5 younger relatives and bought a house in West Bradford, Mass., where they and his mother lived for a time. He paid for one nephew's education through a German university Ph.D. (O.C. Marsh [1831-99], the first U.S. paleontologist), educated another nephew who became a Harvard-trained lawyer, and sent at least one niece to finishing school.
When Elisha Riggs, Sr., withdrew to become a NYC banker, the firm became Peabody, Riggs & Co. (1829-48), with GP as senior partner and Riggs's nephew, Samuel Riggs (d.1853), as junior partner. Traveling widely on business in the U.S., GP also made 5 European buying trips during 1827-37.
In 1836, Md. and other states, needing foreign funds for roads, canals, and railroads, voted to finance the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal and the B&O RR with $8 million interest-bearing state bonds sold abroad. GP was one of 3 agents appointed to sell Md.'s bonds abroad. He left for London Feb. 1837, just before the Panic of 1837. The other two agents returned to the U.S. without success. GP remained in London the rest of his life (1837-69), 32 years, except for 3 relatively short U.S. visits.
A depression after 1837 led 9 states, including Md., to stop interest payments on their bonds sold abroad, thus angering foreign investors. In letters to newspapers GP assured investors that repudiation was temporary and urged Md. and other defaulting state officials to retroactively resume interest payments.
GP finally sold his part of the Md. bonds to London's Baring Brothers. In 1847-48 Md. officials acknowledged publicly that GP had upheld Md.'s credit abroad; that, rather than burden Md. further,
had declined the $60,000 commission due him. Transmitting Md. legislature's praise to GP, Gov. Philip Francis Thomas (1810-90) wrote, "To you, sir...the thanks of the State were eminently due." GP's reputation rose in Md. and elsewhere in banking circles.
In transition from U.S. merchant to London-based investment banker, GP withdrew from Peabody, Riggs & Co.; founded George Peabody & Co., London (Dec. 1, 1838-Oct. 1, 1864); traded in U.S. state and federal bonds sold abroad as capital for internal U.S. improvements; helped finance the U.S. government's 2nd Mexican War loan; bought, sold, and shipped European iron and later steel rails for U.S. western railroads; and was a director and financier of the Atlantic Telegraph & Cable Co.
In the 1850s GP was the best known U.S. banker in London, a promoter of Anglo-American friendship, and in the 1860s the best known philanthropist of his time. He told an interviewer, Aug. 22, 1869: "I made pretty much of [my money] in 20 years from 1844 to 1864�. I bought largely of U.S. state securities when their value was low and they advanced greatly."
Often ill, GP took as partner (Oct. 1, 1854) Boston merchant Junius Spencer Morgan (1813-90), whose son, John Pierpont Morgan (1837-1913), at age 19, began his banking career as NYC agent for George Peabody & Co. Retiring on Oct. 1, 1864, unmarried, without a son, without future control, GP asked that his name be withdrawn. George Peabody & Co. (Dec. 1838-Oct. 1, 1864) continued in London as J.S. Morgan & Co. (Oct. 1, 1864-Dec. 31, 1909), Morgan Grenfell & Co. (Jan. 1, 1910-Nov. 1918), Morgan Grenfell & Co., Ltd. (Nov. 1918-90), and Deutsche Morgan Grenfell since June 29, 1990. GP as the root of the JP Morgan banking empire was overshadowed by JP Morgan's later and larger fame.
GP spent the last 5 years of his life (1864-69) looking after his philanthropies, begun with his first library and lecture hall (1852) in his hometown with his motto: "Education, a debt due from present to future generations." He early told intimates privately and said publicly in 1850 that he would found an educational or other useful institution in every town and city where he had lived and worked. Before his death (Nov. 4, 1869), he gave half his estimated $20 million fortune to philanthropy and half to his relatives ($20 million in 1869 was worth $268.3 million in 2003 using the Consumer Price Index).
He gave $10 million largely while alive to 27 philanthropic institutes (numbered below): to 4of his 7 Peabody Institute libraries in Mass.: (1)-Peabody, (2)-Danvers, (3)-Newburyport, and (4)-Georgetown. He gave $1.4 million to the 4-part (5)-Peabody Institute of Baltimore (PIB): reference library, art gallery, lecture hall and lecture fund, and conservatory of music, the whole a model for such later cultural centers as NYC's Lincoln Center and Washington, D.C.'s Kennedy Center. (The reference library and the conservatory of music became part of the Johns Hopkins Univ., 1982). Other Peabody libraries are in (6)-Thetford, Vt. and in (7)-Georgetown, D.C. (now the Peabody Room of the Washington, D.C., public library).
Through nephew O.C. Marsh's scientific interests, GP founded (8)-the Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology at Harvard Univ. (anthropology); (9)-the Peabody Museum of Natural History at Yale Univ. (paleontology), $150,000 each; and what is now the (10)-Peabody Essex Museum, Salem, Mass. (maritime history plus Essex County historical documents), $140,000.
GP gave the (11)-Md. Institute for the Promotion of Mechanic Arts $1,000 for a chemistry laboratory and school, Oct. 31, 1851; (12)-Phillips Academy, Andover, Mass., $25,000 for a professorship of mathematics, Oct. 30, 1866; (13)-Kenyon College, Gambier, Ohio, $25,000 for a professorship of mathematics and civil engineering, Nov. 6, 1866; and to Robert E. Lee's (1807-70) (14)-Washington College (renamed Washington and Lee Univ., 1871), Lexington, Va., $60,000 for a professorship of mathematics, Sept. 1869.
He gave $20,000 publication funds each to the (15)-Md. Historical Society, Baltimore, Nov. 5, 1866; and the (16)-Mass. Historical Society, Boston, Jan. 1, 1867. He gave the (17)-U.S. Sanitary Commission to aid Civil War orphans, widows, and disabled veterans $10,000, 1864; and the (18)-Vatican charitable San Spirito Hospital, Rome, Italy, $19,300, April 5, 1867.
He built a (19)-Memorial Congregational Church in his mother's memory in her hometown, Georgetown, Mass., $70,000, 1866. For patriotic causes he gave to the (20)-Lexington Monument, in what is now Peabody, Mass., $300, 1835; the (21)-Bunker Hill Memorial, Boston, Mass., $500, June 3, 1845; and the (22)-Washington Monument, Washington, D.C., $1,000, July 4, 1854.
He gave $2.5 million for model low rent apartments for London's working poor (from March 12, 1862). In 2002 the (23)-Peabody Trust Group, London, owned or managed over 19,000 affordable properties in 30 London boroughs housing nearly 50,000 low income Londoners. The Peabody Homes of London inspired imitators elsewhere and brought GP many honors in England.
GP's most influential U.S. gift was the $2 million (24)-Peabody Education Fund (PEF, 1867-1914) to promote public education for both races in the 11 devastated former Confederate states with W.Va., added because of its poverty. He actually gave the PEF $3,484,000, but $1.1 million in Miss. state bonds and $384,000 in Fla. bonds were never honored by those states. For 47 years the PEF was without precedent, the first multimillion dollar educational foundation in the U.S., cited by historians as the model forerunner of all subsequent significant U.S. educational funds and foundations.
The 50+ distinguished PEF trustees (1867-1914) included: 3 U.S. presidents (U.S. Grant, Rutherford B. Hayes, and Grover Cleveland; or 8 U.S. presidents if trustees of Peabody Normal College and its predecessor institutions are included); 6 U.S. state governors, 13 state legislators, 2 U.S. Supreme Court Chief Justices, 6 U.S. ambassadors, 8 U.S. Senators, 7 in the U.S. House of Representatives, 2 Civil War generals, one U.S. naval admiral, one U.S. Army Surgeon-Gen., 3 Confederate generals, 3 who served in the Confederate Congress, 2 bishops, 6 U.S. cabinet officers and 3 financiers (J.P. Morgan; Anthony Joseph Drexel (1826-93), and Paul Tulane (1801-87).
PEF administrator Barnas Sears (1802-80), wanted a model teachers college for the South in Nashville. After the TN legislature failed to fund legislation for a state normal school, Sears created the PEF-supported (25)-Peabody Normal College (1875-1911) on the Univ. of Nashville campus in place of its moribund Literary Dept. In its 36 years the Peabody Normal College achieved regional and national leadership.
Disbanded in 1914 the PEF trustees thus distributed their assets ($2,324,000): $474,000 to 14 southern university education depts., $350,000 to the John F. Slater Fund for Negro Education (later given to the Southern Education Fund, Atlanta, where it still serves African-American education), $1.5 million plus required matching funds, to endow (26)-GPCFT (PeaClg, 1914-79), with a new campus built next to Vanderbilt U. After 65 years, independent PeaClg, on July 1, 1979, became (27)-Peabody College of Vanderbilt Univ. (PCofVU, continuing, indeed enhancing its leadership role in teacher education.
GP's philanthropic example through the PIB and the PEF directly and personally influenced Enoch Pratt (1808-96) to found Baltimore's Enoch Pratt Free Library; influenced Johns Hopkins (1795-1873) to found Baltimore's Johns Hopkins Univ., hospital, and medical school; influenced PEF trustee Anthony Joseph Drexel (1826-93) to found Philadelphia's Drexel Univ.; influenced PEF trustee Paul Tulane (1801-87) to found Tulane Univ., New Orleans; and influenced other philanthropists.
From May to Sept. 1954, we gave up part-time jobs at Nashville's Belmont College (FP was Belmont's 1st librarian; BJP was Pres. R. Kelley White's [1893-1979] secty) and went by car to read GP-related papers in these U.S. libraries:
Library of Congress, D.C.: 1-William Wilson Corcoran (1798-1888; he endowed the Corcoran Art Gallery), business associate with whom GP helped finance the 2nd Mexican War loan. 2-Hamilton Fish (1809-93), PEF trustee, N.Y. governor, and U.S. Secty. of State involved in GP's funeral. 3-John Work Garrett (1820-84), B&O RR president who brought GP and Johns Hopkins together in his Baltimore home leading to the founding of Johns Hopkins Univ., Hospital, and Medical School.
Lib. of Cong., cont'd. 4-U.S. Pres. Andrew Johnson (1808-75) who thanked GP personally in D.C.'s Willard's Hotel, Feb. 9, 1867, for the PEF as a national gift. 5-Benjamin Moran (1820-86), Secty, U.S. Legation in London, often critical of GP in his private journal. 6-Riggs family, including Elisha Riggs, Sr., GP's first partner; Samuel Riggs (Elisha Riggs, Sr.'s, nephew), GP's 2nd partner; and George Washington Riggs (1813-81, Elisha Riggs, Sr.'s son) who started Washington, D.C.'s Riggs National Bank.
National Archives, D.C.: 1-GP's "Veterans Records of the War of 1812." 2-Admirals and Commodores' Letters," 3-Dispatches from United States Ministers, Great Britain," and 4-"Log of USS Plymouth"--on GP's 96-day transatlantic funeral, from Nov. 4, 1869, death in London to burial in Harmony Grove Cemetery, Salem, Mass., Feb. 8, 1870.
NYC's Pierpont Morgan Library: papers of J.S. Morgan, his son J.P. Morgan, Sr., and grandson J.P. Morgan, Jr. (1867-1943).
Mass., Salem, Peabody Essex Museum has most of GP's papers and business records. We read other GP papers in Peabody, Danvers, and Boston, Mass.; at Harvard�s Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology; and in Yale�s Peabody Museum of Natural History (which has nephew Othniel Charles Marsh�s papers).
Baltimore: At the PIB we read GP's papers and those of PIB trustee John Pendleton Kennedy (1795-1870) who, at GP's urging, planned the PIB as a cultural center. We read relevant papers at Johns Hopkins Univ. Library and Enoch Pratt Free Library, whose founders GP directly influenced.
England (Sept.-Dec.'54): Berea friend and part-time travel agent Ben Welsh got us a low cost round trip berth on a ship going to Southampton, then by train to London . Registering as Univ. of London student researchers, we rented an inexpensive "bed-sitter," did library research after a simple breakfast (the outside window ledge was our "fridge"), lunched at pubs, continuing research until library closing time, and survived London's winter huddling near a space heater, kept going with shilling coins.
At British Library Manuscript Division we read PM William E. Gladstone's (1809-98) cabinet minutes, Nov. 10, 1869, showing the decision, first suggested by Queen Victoria, to use Britain's newest and largest warship, HMS Monarch, to return GP's remains from England for burial in the U.S.
Background: GP died in London Nov. 4, 1869, amid U.S.-British angers over Civil War incidents, including the Trent Affair, when 4 Confederates agents seeking arms and aid in England and France were illegally removed from the British mail ship Trent by a Union ship captain and jailed (Sept. 1861). British troops were poised in Canada should the incident lead to a U.S.-British war. With the U.S. in the wrong, Pres. Lincoln released the Confederates. Tension eased but angers remained.
A greater irritant, the Alabama Claims arose when Confederate agents secretly bought British-built ships and outfitted them as Confederate raiders. Renamed Alabama, Florida, others, they cost Union lives and treasure. Britain, publicly neutral in the U.S. Civil War, was in the wrong. The U.S. sought indemnity in a Geneva court which in 1872 made Britain pay the U.S. $15.5 million. But the unsettled issue at GP's death (1869) evoked angers on both sides.
Choosing HMS Monarch England greatest naval ship of the time, to return GP's remains to the U.S. was a political choice to soften near-war British-U.S. angers, to honor GP's 1862 $2.5 million gift to house London's poor, and to show appreciation for his Anglo-American friendship dinners. Politically astute PM Gladstone at the Nov. 9, 1869, Lord Mayor's Day banquet, 5 days after GP's death, said publicly: "With the country of Mr. Peabody we [will] not quarrel."
In London's Guildhall Record Office we read: 1-"Journals of the Court of Common Council" recording the Freedom of the City of London honor given to GP, July 10, 1862; and 2-"Minutes of the Committee for Erecting a Statue to Mr. George Peabody, 1866-1870," listing contributors to GP's seated statue, Threadneedle St., near London's Royal Exchange, created by U.S sculptor William Wetmore Story (1815-95), unveiled July 23, 1869, by the Prince of Wales (later Edward VII, 1841-1910).
GP's 1869 London statue was the first of 4 statues of Americans in London; other London statues are of Abraham Lincoln, 1920; George Washington, 1921; and Franklin Delano Roosevelt, 1948. A copy of GP's London statues was placed in front of the PIB, April 7, 1890, by Baltimorean Robert Garrett (1847-96).
Public Record Office papers we read 1-"Alien Entry Lists" recording every time GP entered a British port, 2-"Foreign Affairs Papers," and 3-"Admiralty Papers," the last two documenting Britain's part in GP's funeral.
Westminster Abbey papers we read: 1-"Recollections by Dean [Arthur P.] Stanley [1815-81] of Funerals in Westminster Abbey 1865-1881." In Naples, Italy, when he read of GP's death and recalling GP's March 12, 1862, housing gift for London's working poor, Dean Stanley telegraphed associates to offer a Westminster Abbey funeral service. 2-"Funeral Fee Book 1811-1899," which listed GP's Abbey funeral costs. 3-We stood at GP marker on the Abbey's stone floor near Britain's unknown soldier where GP's remains rested for 30 days, Nov. 12-Dec. 11, 1869.
Windsor Castle Royal Archives papers we read were Queen Victoria letters to and from her advisors about how to honor GP. He declined an offered knighthood because he would have to become a British subject. Unwilling to give up his U.S. citizenship, he accepted instead her letters of thanks and an enameled miniature portrait she ordered made especially for him. That portrait, letters between the Queen and GP, with other honors, are displayed at the Peabody Institute Library, Peabody, Mass.
Other London research places: 1-British Library Colindale newspaper collection contained many contemporary GP articles. 2-British newspapers to whose editors we wrote asking for GP memorabilia brought us "George Peabody" embossed souvenir glassware made by a Sunderland, England, manufacturer following GP's much publicized death and funeral. We donated the glassware to U.S. Peabody institutions. 3-When 9 U.S. states stopped interest payments on their bonds abroad (1840s) and Americans were in ill-repute, GP had been blackballed when nominated for membership in London clubs. We read documents about his election (Feb. 3, 1863) to The Athenaeum, London's most prestigious men's club.
The Athenaeum's librarian Eileen Stiff (d. 1985) helped us visit a Peabody apartment complex where low income Londoners live.. Eileen Stiff's housemate, writer Margaret Leland Goldsmith (1895-1970) later gave us invaluable editorial help in writing FP's book, George Peabody, a Biography (Nashville: Vanderbilt U. Press, 1971, 1995 rev. ed.).
Back in the U.S., we retrieved our car, loaded it with notes and microfilm, and headed for Nashville. To our surprise Nashville business school Pres. David E. Short let us live in our former apt., paying whatever rent we could afford. FP found a new part-time job as PeaClg circulation librarian (1955-56). Evenings, weekends, holidays, and any spare moments were spent organizing the GP material.
This task was hastened when Pres. Henry H. Hill (1894-1987) invited FP to give the PeaClg Founders' Day Address, Feb. 18, 1955, the first such address by a student. How this invitation came about we did not know, perhaps resulting from the research findings we regularly shared with FP's committee members An overflow audience of faculty, students, and guests heard the speech in the Greek columned, dome topped Social-Religious Bldg. auditorium (later renamed Joe B. Wyatt Bldg.).
Quickly sketching GP's deprived early life, years as a merchant in the South, U.S. securities broker-banker in London, and his philanthropies--FP focused on lesser known incidents and quotations, some of which follow.
1-GP's role as family provider. By 1816 at age 21 GP had paid the family debts and restored his mother and siblings to their home. Helpful Newburyport lawyer Ebon Mosely wrote to GP, Dec. 16, 1816: "I cannot but be pleased with the filial affection which seems to evince you to preserve the estate for a Parent."
2-GP's paying for the schooling of siblings, nieces and nephews was done partly out of family obligation, partly to compensate for his own lack of formal education. To a nephew who wrote asking his financial help to attend Yale College, GP replied: "Deprived, as I was, of the opportunity of obtaining anything more than the most common education, I am well qualified to estimate its value by the disadvantages I labour under in the society [in] which my business and situation in life frequently throws me, and willingly would I now give twenty times the expense attending a good education could I now possess it, but it is now too late for me to learn and I can only do to those who come under my care, as I could have wished circumstances had permitted others to have done by me."
3-The Great Exhibition of 1851, London (the first world's fair), led to GP's social emergence. Other participating countries paid for lavish display of their industrial crafts and arts. U.S. exhibitors found themselves without funds to adorn their large space in London's Crystal Palace. "It is a national disgrace that American wares, which are good, are so barely displayed, so vulgarly and ambitiously spread out over so large a space," wrote the London correspondent of the N.Y Evening Post. The U.S. was ridiculed in London's satirical Punch and elsewhere.
In a polite note to U.S. Minister Abbott Lawrence (1792-1855), GP offered a loan to the U.S. exhibitors. This $15,000 loan enabled over 6 million visitors to see to best advantage U.S. industry and art, including Cyrus McCormick's reapers, Richard Hoe's printing press, Samuel Colt's revolvers, and Hiram Powers' statue, The Greek Slave. U.S. exhibits won 159 awards, more than British awards.
GP asked Minister Lawrence about his (GP's) hosting a 4th of July, 1851, Anglo-American friendship dinner. Sounding out his English contacts, Minister Lawrence found them hesitant to attend a dinner marking U.S. independence from Britain. But GP, through intermediaries, invited the Duke of Wellington (1769-1852). When the man who beat Napoleon at Waterloo accepted, over 1,000 London English and American elites attended that July 4, 1851, dinner, musical event, speeches, and toasts.
Overwhelmed, Minister Lawrence wrote GP: "�My�heartfelt thanks for� for the mo
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7:40 p.m. - 2005-11-28
Parker (Franklin & Betty) Retrospective, 1946-56, 4 page version
Christmas 2005 Retrospective: Franklin and Betty J. Parker (new address; haven't moved; just changed to home
delivery): 63 Heritage Loop, Crossville, TN 38571-8270. Phone: 931-277-3268. E-mail: [email protected]
This holiday season we thought to share below highlights of our first 10 years together. Read on.
We met Sept. 1946 at Berea College (a unique tuition-free work/study college) near Lexington, Ky. With the same last name, we soon walked hand in hand. After a time, BJP said bluntly: if keeping company is not going to lead anywhere�goodbye. Making himself scarce, FP soon returned, bought an engagement ring, and pondered how to finish college, support a wife, and have a career.
BJP's part-time Berea job was in the Labor Office. One of FP's jobs was in the college library building as janitor, book-shelver, & other duties. Engaged to BJP in May 1949, concerned about making a living, and liking books and research, FP looked into library science as a career.
He took transferable Univ. of Ky., Lexington, summer '49 library science courses, earned a Berea College B.A. degree in English, Aug. '49. In Sept. '49 he entered the Univ. of Illinois's (Urbana) graduate M.S. in L. S. program while working part time in the U of Ill.'s undergraduate library.
BJP graduated June 5, 1950. We were married June 12, '50, in Decatur, Ala., and went together to the Univ. of Ill. where FP finished his M.S. degree, Aug. '50.
Our first jobs (1950-52) were at rural Ferrum Jr. College, Va., near Roanoke, which had a Berea-like work-study program. BJP taught high school history and English; FP was librarian and taught speech.
We took summer 1951 and 52 graduate courses at George Peabody College for Teachers (hereafter PeaClg), Nashville, TN, adjacent to Vanderbilt Univ. (VU) and Scarritt College, remaining until Aug. '56 graduation. BJP taught English at Andrew Jackson Bsns. Univ., her pay a free apt. facing former Ward-Belmont Girls' School, just bought by TN Baptists and named Belmont Clg. FP received a small PeaClg scholarship and was Belmont College's first part-time librarian.
Our 4 years of graduate study at PeaClg.--the South's highly regarded private teachers college--was a turning point. Wanting to be accepted as a doctoral candidate by greatly respected History and Philosophy of Education Prof. Clifton L. Hall, FP took all his courses. Not until he took advanced seminars requiring weekly papers did he win Dr. Hall's approval.
Surviving the winnowing out process, FP went to PeaClg Dean of Instruction Felix C. Robb with a defensible dissertation topic. Robb's suggestion however, one made earlier to him (Robb) at Harvard Univ. Graduate School of Education, led FP to write about philanthropist George Peabody (hereafter GP), especially his Peabody Education Fund (1867-1914, hereafter PEF) which aided public education in the 11 former Confederate states plus W. Va. The dissertation would document GP's life, philanthropies, and the PEF's influence.
We gave up our part-time jobs at Belmont College (FP was Belmont's 1st librarian; BJP was Pres. R. Kelley White's secty.) and went by car to read GP-related papers in these U.S. libraries (May-Sep. 1954):
Lib. of Cong., D.C.: 1-Wm. W. Corcoran with whom GP financed the 2nd Mexican War loan. 2-Hamilton Fish (1809-93), PEF trustee and U.S. Secty. of State involved in GP's transatlantic funeral. 3-J. W. Garrett, B&O RR Pres., at whose home GP influenced Johns Hopkins to found Johns Hopkins Univ., Hospital, and Medical School. 4-U.S. Pres. Andrew Johnson who thanked GP personally in D.C.'s Willard's Hotel, Feb. 9, 1867, for the PEF as a national gift. 5-Benjamin Moran, U.S. Legation in London Secty., critical of GP in his private journal. 6-Riggs family papers.
National Archives, D.C.: 1-GP's "Veterans Records of the War of 1812." 2-Admirals and Commodores' Letters," 3-Dispatches from U.S. Ministers, Great Britain," and 4-"Log of USS Plymouth"�the last 3 about GP's 96-day transatlantic funeral, from Nov. 4, 1869, death in London to burial in Harmony Grove Cemetery, Salem, Mass., Feb. 8, 1870.
NYC's Pierpont Morgan Library: papers of J.S. Morgan, son J.P. Morgan, Sr., and grandson J.P. Morgan, Jr.
Mass., Salem, Peabody Essex Museum has most of GP's papers and business records. We read other GP papers in Peabody, Danvers, and Boston, Mass.; at Harvard�s Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology; and in Yale�s Peabody Museum of Natural History.
Baltimore's PIB: Papers of GP and PIB trustee John Pendleton Kennedy who, at GP's urging, planned the PIB as a cultural center. We read relevant papers at Johns Hopkins Univ. Library and Enoch Pratt Free Library, whose founders GP directly influenced.
In England (Sept.-Dec.'54): A Berea friend and part-time travel agent got us a low cost round trip ship's berth to Southampton, then by train to London. Registering as Univ. of London student researchers, we rented an inexpensive "bed-sitter," did library research after a simple breakfast (the outside window ledge was our "fridge"), lunched at pubs, continued research until library closing time, and survived London's winter huddling near a space heater, kept going with shilling coins.
At the British Library Manuscript Division we read PM William E. Gladstone's cabinet minutes, Nov. 10, 1869, showing the decision, first suggested by Queen Victoria, to use Britain's newest, largest warship, HMS Monarch, to return GP's remains from England for burial in the U.S.
Guildhall Record Office (London) we read: 1-"Journals of the Court of Common Council" recording the Freedom of the City of London honor given to GP, July 10, 1862; and 2-"Minutes of the Committee for Erecting a Statue to Mr. George Peabody, 1866-1870," on Threadneedle St., near London's Royal Exchange, by U.S sculptor W.W. Story, unveiled July 23, 1869, by the Prince of Wales (later Edward VII, 1841-1910). GP's was the first of 4 statues of Americans in London: Lincoln, Washington, FDR.
Public Record Office papers we read 1-"Alien Entry Lists" recording every time GP entered a British port, 2-"Foreign Affairs Papers," and 3-"Admiralty Papers," the last two documenting Britain's part in GP's transatlantic funeral.
Westminster Abbey papers read: 1-"Recollections by Dean [Arthur P.] Stanley [1815-81] of Funerals in Westminster Abbey 1865-1881." While visiting Naples, Italy, Dean Stanley read news of GP's death, recalled GP's March 12, 1862, $2.5 million housing gift for London's working poor, and telegraphed associates to offer a Westminster Abbey funeral service. 2-"Funeral Fee Book 1811-1899," which listed Abbey costs for GP's funeral. 3-We stood at GP marker on the Abbey's stone floor near Britain's unknown soldier where GP's remains rested for 30 days, Nov. 12-Dec. 11, 1869.
Windsor Castle Royal Archives papers read: Queen Victoria's exchange of letters with advisors about how to honor GP. Declining a knighthood (he would have to become a British subject), he accepted her letters of thanks and an enameled miniature portrait made especially for him. This portrait, Victoria-GP letters, & other GP honors, are at the Peabody Institute Library, Peabody, Mass.
Other London research: 1-British Library Colindale newspaper collection had many contemporary GP articles. 2-Our letters to English newspaper editors asking for GP memorabilia brought "George Peabody" embossed souvenir glassware sold after GP's much publicized death and funeral. 3-We read of his election, Feb. 3, 1863, to The Athenaeum, London's most prestigious men's club, after his housing gift for London's poor. Earlier, when Americans were in ill repute, he was blackballed from London clubs. We also visited a Peabody apartment complex for low income Londoners.
Back in the U.S., loaded with notes and microfilm, we headed for Nashville. Wondrously, Andrew Jackson Bsns. Univ. Pres. D.E. Short let us live in our former apt., paying whatever rent we could afford. FP's new part-time job was as PeaClg circulation librarian; BJP taught freshman English at Belmont (1955-56).
Every spare moment went into organizing the GP material and drafting a dissertation manuscript. This task was hastened when Pres. H. H. Hill invited FP to give the PeaClg Founders' Day Address, Feb. 18, 1955, the first such address by a student. How this invitation came about we never knew.
Armed with facts and insights, after writing draft after draft of his speech, FP faced an overflow audience of faculty, students, and guests in the Greek columned, domed Social-Religious Bldg. auditorium (later, Joe B. Wyatt Bldg.).
FP quickly sketched GP's early life: born poor (Feb. 18, 1795) 19 miles from Boston, 3rd of 8 children, little schooled (4 years), and apprenticed in a general store (4 years). His father died May 13, 1811 in debt. The home was lost. While assisting in his older brother's store in Newburyport, a fire May 31, 1811, led him at age 17 to go south with an uncle to open a store in Georgetown, D.C., May 1812.
In the War of 1812 in Washington, D.C., he met older fellow soldier & Md. merchant Elisha Riggs, Sr., who took GP at age 19 as junior partner in Riggs & Peabody (1814-29), importing European goods for U.S. wholesalers. The firm moved to Baltimore in 1815 and by 1822 had Phila. and NYC warehouses.
By 1816 at age 21 GP paid the family debts, restored his mother and siblings to their home, and soon paid for the education at Bradford Academy, Bradford, Mass., and elsewhere of younger relatives. He paid for one nephew's education through a German univ. Ph.D. (O.C. Marsh, first U.S. paleontologist) and educated another nephew as a Harvard-trained lawyer.
The firm became Peabody, Riggs & Co. (1829-48), with GP as senior partner (Riggs's nephew, Samuel Riggs, as junior partner). GP traveled widely on business in the U.S., made 5 European buying trips from 1827; the last in 1837 marked his transition from dry good importer to London-based banker.
This transition occurred when Md., needing foreign funds for roads, canals, and railroads, voted to finance the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal and the B&O RR with $8 million state bonds sold abroad. GP was one of 3 agents appointed to sell Md.'s bonds. He left for London Feb. 1837, just before the Panic of 1837. The other two agents returned to the U.S. without success. GP remained in London the rest of his life (1837-69), 32 years, except for 3 U.S. visits.
A depression after 1837 caused 9 states, including Md., to stop interest payments on their bonds, thus angering investors. In letters to newspapers GP assured investors that repudiation was temporary and urged Md. and other defaulting state officials retroactively to resume interest payments.
GP finally sold his part of the Md. bonds to London's Baring Brothers. In 1847-48 Md. officials publicly praised GP for upholding Md.'s credit abroad and for declining the $60,000 commission due him during Md.'s insolvency. Transmitting Md. legislature's praise to GP, Gov. Philip Francis Thomas (1810-90) wrote, "To you, sir...the thanks of the State were eminently due." GP's reputation rose in Md. and in banking circles.
GP withdrew from Peabody, Riggs & Co.; founded George Peabody & Co., London (Dec. 1, 1838-Oct. 1, 1864); traded in U.S. state and federal bonds sold to raise capital for internal U.S. improvements; helped finance the U.S. government's 2nd Mexican War loan; bought, sold, and shipped European iron and later steel rails for U.S. western railroads; and was a director and financier of the Atlantic Telegraph & Cable Co.
FP quoted GP's pride in his firm in a speech GP gave in his hometown on a U.S. visit (Oct. 9, 1856): "Heaven has been pleased to reward my efforts with success, and has permitted me to establish a house in the great metropolis of England. I have endeavored to make it an American house, to give it an American atmosphere, to furnish it with American journals; to make it a center for American news, and an agreeable place for my friends visiting London."
Often ill, GP took as partner (Oct. 1, 1854) Boston merchant Junius Spencer Morgan, whose son, John Pierpont Morgan, at age 19, began his banking career as NYC agent for George Peabody & Co. Retiring on Oct. 1, 1864, unmarried, without a son, GP asked that his name be withdrawn. The firm became in turn: J.S. Morgan & Co., Morgan Grenfell & Co., & Deutsche Morgan Grenfell. GP as the root of the JP Morgan banking empire was overshadowed by JP Morgan's later and larger fame.
GP spent the last 5 years of his life (1864-69) looking after his philanthropies, begun with his first library and lecture hall (1852) in his hometown with his motto: "Education, a debt due from present to future generations." Before his death (Nov. 4, 1869), he gave half his estimated $20 million fortune to philanthropy and half to his relatives ($20 million in 1869 was worth $268.3 million in 2003 using the Consumer Price Index).
The most important of the 27 educational institutions GP founded (7 libraries, 3 museums of science at Harvard, Yale, & in Salem) or aided (2 historical societies, others) included the 1-Peabody Institute of Baltimore (PIB): reference library, art gallery, lecture hall, lecture fund, & conservatory of music--a cultural center such as NYC's Lincoln Center and Washington, D.C.'s Kennedy Center. (The Peabody Ref. Library and the Peabody Conservatory of Music still thrive as part of the Johns Hopkins Univ. since 1982).
2-The Peabody Homes for London's working poor, his largest gift, $2.5 million (from March 12, 1862), brought GP many honors in England and inspired imitators elsewhere. In 2002 the Peabody Trust Group, London, owned or managed over 19,000 affordable properties in 30 London boroughs housing nearly 50,000 low income Londoners.
3-The Peabody Education Fund (PEF, 1867-1914), $2 million, his most influential U.S. gift, aided public education for both races in South 47 years. PEF trustees created and supported Peabody Normal College (1875-1911) on the Univ. of Nashville campus as a model for the South. In disbanding (1914) they gave $1.5 million plus required matching funds to endow PeaClg. (1914-79) on a new campus next to VU. After 65 years of independence, PeaClg, on July 1, 1979, became PeaClg of VU.
GP's philanthropic example through the PIB and the PEF directly and personally influenced Enoch Pratt (1808-96) to found Baltimore's Enoch Pratt Free Library; Johns Hopkins (1795-1873) to found Baltimore's Johns Hopkins Univ., hospital, & medical school; PEF trustee Anthony Joseph Drexel (1826-93) to found Philadelphia's Drexel Univ.; PEF trustee Paul Tulane (1801-87) to found Tulane Univ., New Orleans; and influenced other philanthropists.
FP quoted historians on the PEF: 1-Jesse Brundage Sears: [the PEF was] the first successful precedent-setting educational foundation. 2-Charles William Dabney: [The Aug. 1869 GP-R.E. Lee meeting] inspired the Four Conferences on Education in the South from which emerged the Southern Education Board and [John D. Rockefeller's] General Education Board. 3-Abraham Flexner: There was the closest cooperation among, and interlocking officers and trustees of, the PEF, the Southern Education Board, the General Education Board, the Samuel F. Slater Fund, the Anna T. Jeanes Foundation, and the Rosenwald Fund. 4-Daniel Coit Gilman: all subsequent foundations adopted the principles Peabody formulated.
On why he gave, FP quoted GP's reply to a nephew asking his financial help to attend Yale College. GP wrote: "Deprived, as I was, of the opportunity of obtaining anything more than the most common education, I am well qualified to estimate its value by the disadvantages I labour under in the society [in] which my business and situation in life frequently throws me, and willingly would I now give twenty times the expense attending a good education could I now possess it, but it is now too late for me to learn and I can only do to those who come under my care, as I could have wished circumstances had permitted others to have done by me."
This and more FP said in his Founders' Day speech. Well received, it was soon published in an illustrated pamphlet. The GP dissertation was finished, accepted, and Aug. '56 graduation followed: FP receiving an Ed.D. in Education Foundations; BJP, an M.A. in English.
Aug. 1956 was also a time to choose between two jobs: 1-Pres. M.M. Chambers, Central State Univ., Edmund, Okla., was building a new library, wanted FP as head librarian, and gave us a week to accept. 2-Education dean, State Univ. of N.Y., New Paltz, was interested in FP as Edn. Foundations prof. but had not said yes or no. BJP told FP: call the dean; if he wants to interview you, jump on a plane. FP did so, marking a career change and 38 years of university teaching, research, writing, and publishing including FP, George Peabody, a Biography (Nashville: VU Press, 1971, revised 1995).
More next time.
For our blogs on GP (should be read chronologically 1 through 138) go to:
1-http://www.technorati.com/search/GP+Handbook+A-Z
For our other GP blogs, access:
2-http://www.mrsapo.com/find.php?u=top.php&d=http://www.google.com/search?q=George
%20Peabody%20(1795-1869)%20Handbook%20A-Z&q=George%20Peabody%20(1795-1869)%20Handbook%20A-Z
For our other books access: 3-http://www.library.vanderbilt.edu/peabody/about/alum6.html#P
Stay tuned. More detailed 8 page version of this paper is available.
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